FBI

A judicial advisory panel Monday quietly approved a rule change that will broaden the FBI’s hacking authority despite fears raised by Google that the amended language represents a “monumental” constitutional concern. The Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Criminal Rules voted 11-1 to modify an arcane federal rule to allow judges more flexibility in how they approve search warrants for electronic data, according to a Justice Department spokesman. The FBI wants the expanded authority, which would allow it to more easily infiltrate computer networks to install malicious tracking software. This way, investigators can better monitor suspected criminals who use technology to conceal their identity....  Google weighed in last month with public comments that warned that the tweak “raises a number of monumental and highly complex constitutional, legal and geopolitical concerns that should be left to Congress to decide.”

A wicked web of deceit, with just a good measure of theft and forgery thrown in for old time’s sake!

As the Dept. Of Justice reports, a joint effort by the FBI and several New Jersey police departments has culminated in the indictment of US Air Force veteran Tairod Nathan Webster Pugh who “allegedly” pulled the terrorist trifecta by first accessing the internet and then traveling from Egypt to Turkey with an iPod and a picture of a machine gun.

Another Conspiracy "Theory" Admitted as Fact

“The game is rigged, the network is bugged, the government talks double-speak, the courts are complicit and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

"On a military base in Quantico, Virginia, the FBI keeps a collection of over 7,000 guns, including weapons used by John Dillinger and other famous American gangsters," BBC reports.

When lying is no longer enough to gain compliance, then the organs of security are unleashed on dissent and resistance.

The beginning of the end of high frequency trading has arrived, and it has done so in a most unexpected fashion: with an HFT turning on other HFTs and revealing on the record, for the entire world to see, just how truly parasitic, manipulative and "market-rigging" the algorithms truly are.

• Again as first reported here: Record U.S. Oil Glut May Fill Storage, Cut Prices (BBG)
• IEA sees renewed pressure on oil prices as glut worsens (Reuters)
• No EU unanimity on renewing Russia economic sanctions (Reuters)
• Tsipras says Greece doing its part in euro zone deal (Reuters)
• ECB Set to Buy Fewer Bonds as Price Gains Ease Crunch (BBG)
• These Americans Are Getting Rich Trading Derivatives Banned in the U.S. (BBG)
• U.S. 2015 profits forecast to grow 1.7 percent; oil, dollar are concerns (Reuters) - in a month this will say "decline"
• Manhunt for shooting suspects grinds on in Ferguson, Missouri (Reuters)

Herbalife stock is up over 5% after hours after WSJ reports Bill Ackman (among others) made false statement about Herbalife's business models to regulators - in order to spur investigations into the company and lower its stock price. This comes just months after Ackman kinda-sorta-didn't-really insider-trade in the Allergan 'scam' that we detailed here. We suspect Whitney Tilson (and his Lumber Liquidators positions) is getting a little nervous now... and Carl Icahn is quietly laughing to himself.

Must Have Been Wearing Tinfoil Hats ... And Living In Their Mom's Basement

Collapsing crude prices have left America's oil boom towns cash-strapped in the face of double-digit population growth and increased levels of drug trafficking and violent crime. As local governments struggle to cope, a prolonged slump for oil could imperil the stability of many once quiet communities. 

Every dystopian sci-fi film we’ve ever seen is suddenly converging into this present moment in a dangerous trifecta between science, technology and a government that wants to be all-seeing, all-knowing and all-powerful. Having already used surveillance technology to render the entire American populace potential suspects, DNA technology in the hands of government will complete our transition to a suspect society in which we are all merely waiting to be matched up with a crime. No longer can we consider ourselves innocent until proven guilty.

ISIS launches its own version of FaceBook just as a new report profiles the typical terrorist tweeter. 

It’s a remarkable irony, notes Sharyl Attkinson, that the same U.S. president whose administration has gone to great lengths to monitor journalists, whistleblowers and the public, claims to be oddly in the dark regarding basic information on some of his biggest controversies. Here are eight instances in which President Obama said he heard it on the news - or way after-the-fact - just like ordinary Americans.