FBI

Bonus: Did the Saudi Intelligence Chief and Other High-Ranking Officials Trade on Inside Information Regarding 9/11?

Doug Casey first met Ron Paul 30 years ago. In this wide-ranging interview, Casey discusses how the "born libertarian's" ideas have changed in that time...

Debunking Government’s Justification for Mass Surveillance

What politicians want from their regulatory efforts is a world of pure beta and zero alpha. This is the ultimate “level playing field”, where no one knows anything that everyone else doesn’t also know. The presumption within regulatory bodies today is that you must be cheating if you are generating alpha. How’s that? Alpha generation requires private information. Private information, however acquired, is defined as insider information. Insider information is cheating. Thus, alpha generation is cheating. QED. Why would politicians want an alpha-free market? Because a “fair” market with a “level playing field” is an enormously popular Narrative for every US Attorney who wants to be Attorney General, every Attorney General who wants to be Governor, and every Governor who wants to be President … which is to say all US Attorneys and all Attorneys General and all Governors. Because criminalizing private information in public markets ensures a steady stream of rich criminals for show trials in the future. Because the political stability of the American regime depends on a widely dispersed, non-zero-sum price appreciation of all financial assets – beta – not the concentrated, zero-sum price appreciation of idiosyncratic securities. Because public confidence in the government’s control of public institutions like the market must be restored at all costs, even if that confidence is misplaced and even if the side-effects of that restoration are immense.

With the FBI shutdown of the underground online drug marketplace Silk Road this week, IBTimes Lisa Mahapatra points out that its customers will have to shop elsewhere for their fix. However, unfortunately for some, this will mean paying up for their favorite brand of pharmaceutical. As the following infographic shows, the prices of marijuana and cocaine vary significantly across regions with the former more expensive on Silk Road and the latter cheaper.

In a follow-up to the recent discussions surrounding the Silk Road website bust, we thought it interesting that the FBI finds itself unable to confiscate the Dread Pirate's stash of bitcoins. In other words, one of bitcoin's main attraction – that it is untraceable like cash and cannot be 'stolen' in the conventional sense by outsiders – remains in perfectly fine fettle. The FBI's inability to seize the Dread Pirate's bitcoin stash is a great PR victory for bitcoin.

Seasoned CBS News Anchor: “Whenever I’m Asked What Is The Most Manipulative And Secretive Administration I’ve Covered, I Always Say It’s The One In Office Now”

The US government's foreign policy appears to be most effective when it is shut down. First, we learned that the CIA has accelerated its training and weapons supply of Syria's Al-Qaeda insurgents only after the funding for the non-critical government functions was halted. Then, overnight, John Kerry showed that while he gives to Al-Qaeda with one hand he takes from it with two following two U.S. raids in Libya and Somalia that captured an Islamist wanted for bombing its Nairobi embassy 15 years ago. These actions "show Washington's determination to hunt down al Qaeda leaders around the globe" Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday. So in 15 years the then secretary of state will be proud to announce that Al-Qaeda leaders operating in and around Syria, armed with US weapons, have also been captured. And so the wheel will keep on turning.

“Spies … Can Now, For The First Time, Monitor Everything About Us, And They Can Do So With A Few Clicks Of A Mouse And – To Placate The Lawyers – A Drop-Down Menu Of Justifications”

• Troops Forage for Food While Golfers Play On in Shutdown (BBG)
• Police suspect dental hygienist Miriam Carey was behind the wheel of Capitol chase (WaPo)
• Italian Senate committee starts Berlusconi expulsion process (Reuters)
• Swiss Regulator Probing Banks Over Foreign-Exchange Manipulation (WSJ)
• GOP Begins Search for Broad Deal on Budget (WSJ)
• No Jobs Report Means Economists Chew on Football Instead of Data (BBG)
• U.S. default seems unthinkable but investors have options (Reuters)
• Citigroup fined $30 million after analyst sent report to SAC, others (Reuters)
• FBI Snags Silk Road Boss With Own Methods (BBG)
• Recession Warnings Found in Asset Price Falls (BBG)
• Bank of Japan warns of severe global impact from U.S. fiscal standoff (Reuters)

Earlier today, one of the most popular websites that use and promote the use of BitCoin, Silk Road, was shut down by the US government. As Reuters reports, U.S. law enforcement authorities raided an Internet site that served as a marketplace for illegal drugs, including heroin and cocaine, and arrested its owner, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said on Wednesday. The FBI arrested Ross William Ulbricht, known as "Dread Pirate Roberts," in San Francisco on Tuesday, according to court filings. Federal prosecutors charged Ulbricht with one count each of narcotics trafficking conspiracy, computer hacking conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy, according to a court filing. Anyone visiting the site would be greeted with the following "game over" screen.

DHS Pretends It Still Has Privacy Officers ... When They've All Quit In Disgust

So about that whole drone debate in the USA... It seems the feds decided to simply skip over such a quaint notion and deploy them without telling anyone. Back in December of last year, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) detailed current drone flights in the U.S. That story was big news at the time, and it was particularly disturbing in light of the fact that Congress has cleared the way for the Federal Aviation Administration to allow 30,000 drones in the nation’s skies by 2020. Well it appears that the whole drone debate was over before it even began, with the FBI having used drones domestically for at least seven years.

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia spoke yesterday at the Northern Virginia Technology Council’s (NVTC) Titans breakfast gathering in McLean, Virginia. He discussed the fact that prior to a Supreme Court decision in 1967, there were no constitutional prohibitions on wiretaps because conversations were not explicitly granted privacy protection under the Fourth Amendment. He goes on to imply that he thinks it was better before such privacy rights existed... describing privacy protections as (among other things) "...blah, blah, blah, garbage..." With Justices like this...

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