A 16-year-old high school student’s video report for his American Government class earned him an A+ from his teacher. It also yielded a visit from the FBI.
Justin Hallman says that a project he put together for school that included information on the National Defense Authorization Act, Rep. Ron Paul, Anonymous and the Occupy Wall Street movement was well received in the classroom, but wasn’t exactly praised by others. After agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation saw a copy of Hallman’s finished work on YouTube, they paid a visit to his own home.
The boy’s mother says the FBI showed up at their home one month after the class project was first turned in and told her, “We need to talk to your son.” Once inside, Justin Hallman says he was drilled about his thoughts on an array of issues included in his project.
“They also asked me why I had talked to my teacher about the Illuminati,” he writes in an email obtained by Infowars. “I told them it was just harmless talk about the 1776 Illuminati that formed from the enlightenment era. I said my teacher said they are/were terrorists and not to talk about them (this caused the FBI agents to look puzzled and they changed the subject very fast to Anonymous). In the end they finally left for an ‘important meeting.’”
Hallman says the meeting wasn’t an informal chat, either, but even involved a proposition. According to the high-schooler, the FBIs attempted to recruit Hallman as an undercover source to scoop up more information on Anonymous and Occupy Wall Street.
“They wanted me to be an informant, to possibly put my life in danger, to help them arrest and gain intel on occupy protesters and hackers,” Hallman says in the email.
In the video he produced for class, Hallman includes text that warns, “Our future relies on the choices we make next” and “There is still hope!” For Mr. Sparks, his American Government teacher that “liked it so much that he gave it a score of 45/35 points,” the future might seem hopeful. For the FBI, however, that outlook appears to be eyebrow-raising and worthy of a surprise stop-by.
On his YouTube channel, Hallman says he’s decided to make a second video to cover recent developments “involving the NDAA, TrapWire, the increasing police state, and the possibility of a war with Iran.” His first clip has so far earned him over 100,000 views online.
For the second time this year, self-proclaimed Anonymous spokesman Barrett Brown was raided by the FBI.
The latest dramatic incident occurred late Wednesday evening while Brown and another woman identified by some as his girlfriend were participating in an online chat on TinyChat with other individuals.
Two minutes into the recorded chat session, loud voices could be heard in the background of Brown’s residence in Texas while the woman in the room with him was in front of the computer screen. She quickly closed the computer screen, but the audio continued to capture events in the room as the FBI appeared to strong-arm Brown to put handcuffs on him. Brown could be heard yelling in the background.
A spokeswoman in the Dallas County sherriff’s office confirmed to Wired that Brown was raided last night and was booked into the county jail around 11 p.m. She said the FBI removed him from the jail this morning to take him to a different facility, but she did not know where he was headed.
California attorney Jay Leiderman, a member of Brown’s legal team, told Wired that Brown was scheduled to be arraigned today in Texas on making threats to a federal agent.
Asked if the FBI agents were aware that Brown was online at the time of their raid, Leiderman said, “They problaby would have preferred to raid him when he was not online.” He noted that the audio from the raid was “certainly less than flattering when they’re marching through these doors dropping F-bombs…. I imagine they would not want to have that captured if they could help it.”
A transcript of the TinyChat session has been posted online. Just moments before the arrest, there were jokes about whether one of the chat participants was real or just an animated GIF. Moments later, the chat participants faced a different conundrum: trying to figure out whether they’d just witnessed an FBI raid.
A voice that appeared to come from one of the arresting agents was heard saying something to the effect: “You’re going down! Get your hands down!”
Right as the noise began, another participant in the chat room showed up in a video window with a white handkerchief covering his lower face. “Is Barrett Browm getting fuckin’ raided by the FBI?” he appeared to say. “Holy shit!”
Brown’s latest raid came after he posted a long and rambling YouTube video in which he talked about taking drugs (though not today, he noted) and about retaliating against an FBI Agent named Robert Smith after he learned that his mother might be hit with obstruction of justice charges. The threat of charges was apparently related to a laptop of Brown’s that he apparently hid.
“So that’s why Robert Smith’s life is over,” Brown said in the video (beginning around minute 9:40). “When I say his life is over, I’m not saying I’m going to kill him, but I am going to ruin his life and look into his fucking kids. Because Aaron Barr did the same thing and he didn’t get raided for it. How do you like them apples?” he said, smiling.
The video, titled “Why I’m Going to Destroy FBI Agent Robert Smith Part Three: Revenge of the Lithe” was accompanied by a note apparently posted by Brown that reads: “Send all info on Agent Robert Smith to barriticus@gmail.com so FBI can watch me look up his kids. It’s all legal, folks, Palantir chief counsel Matt Long already signed off on it when Themis planned worse.”
Brown also talked about being a target of the Zeta drug cartel and mentioned that he was heavily armed and was concerned that the cartel would come after him posed as federal officers.
“Any armed official of the U.S. government, particularly the FBI, will be regarded as potential Zeta assassin squads,” he said in the video. “As FBI knows … they know that I’m armed and I come from a military family and I was taught to shoot by a Vietnam veteran … and I will shoot all of them and kill them if they come and do anything…. I have reason to fear for my life.”
He signed off the video saying: “Frankly, it was pretty obvious I was going to be dead before I was 40 or so, so I wouldn’t mind going out with two FBI sidearms like a fucking Egyptian pharaoh. Adios.”
Asked about Brown’s comments, Leiderman said that he hadn’t seen the full video and wasn’t aware of everything Brown had said, but he noted that his client had a reputation for hyperbole and joking around, and that things he said might appear to be a threat when they weren’t really intended to be that way.
“It’s hard to understand the context [of what he said], Leiderman said. “But this is speech, so ordinarily we go to a First Amendment defense, but obviously there are lines that can be crossed where you can lose your First Amendment protection.”
An FBI spokeswoman had no comment to make on Brown’s arrest.
For those who do not believe the story we are being told by the government and media. The James Holmes Conspiracy. Several witness testimonies, news reports, theories and ideas behind the motives of the crime. Topics discussed include the second suspect, weapons, police audio analysis, James Holmes education and bio, LIBOR scandal, MK Ultra, Project Gunrunner, and several other important elements. Several new pieces of evidence and testimonies all in one video.
Documentary made by Mark Howitt www.youtube.com/lorddefiler
Video published on August 14th 2012
This video has been blocked in these locations:
Guernsey, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Jersey, United Kingdom
Greetings World — On September 3, 2012 our comrades in AntiSec released a Press Release here –> http://pastebin.com/nfVT7b0Z
In this release they disclosed the fact that they had hacked the laptop of an FBI agent in the Cyber-Crime division and among the booty taken was a file containing 12 million UDIDs from various Apple products owned by people in the USA. They released evidence of this in the form of 1 million partially redacted entries from the file. The media did their usual idiot dance, latched onto the story and ran without thinking. Then mid-week it was pointed out by their critics that Anonymous could have got that file from many sources. Of course the FBI denied they were hacked, did you honestly think that the FBI Cyber-Crime guys would be like yeah Anonymous hacked us and we are butthurt? Please. Then no sooner does the media turn to this idea that hey, Anonymous could have got this info from some app developer lo and behold an app developer mysteriously discovers that they have been hacked and the data belongs to them. Yeah right. And now the media has come full circle like baying dogs and is reporting this shit as the newest version of reality. Fucking jokers. We have strong reason to believe this company Blue Toad are liars. But even if their data matches the data set obtained from the FBI by AntiSec, this simply points to one possible source where the FBI might have obtained the data. As AntiSec themselves pointed out in their response to the FBI’s lies, no one ever said the FBI got this data from Apple.
Now that the main stream media is finally catching on that this so-called “Blue Toad” revelation proves nothing, everyone seems completely perplexed. Some tech journalists are demanding hard “proof”. Don’t be fools, that would land a bunch of us in prison and it ain’t going to happen. What AntiSec and Anonymous HAVE provided you is evidence that only has meaning to the FBI Cyber-Crime guys.
These partial IPs for instance:
206.112.75.XX
153.31.184.XX
Has any reporter asked the FBI Cyber-Crime division if these IPs have any meaning to them. No, of course not. They would only deny it or just not answer the question saying it was a “security issue”, right ? But it IS your job as a reporter to at least ask. In the initial Press Release, AntiSec provided the name of the Cyber Agent and the make and model of his laptop. “During the second week of March 2012, a Dell Vostro notebook, used by Supervisor Special Agent Christopher K. Stangl from FBI Regional Cyber Action Team and New York FBI Office Evidence Response Team was breached.” Has even ONE reporter contacted Agent Stangl and asked him what make and model laptop he uses for work? Uhmmm, no of course not. You are all so quick to believe some strange company who conveniently pops up out of the mists (and who we have never even heard of ourselves until today). But what is REALLY incredible is that you would believe a group who is historically PROVEN to be pathological liars and criminals, namely the FBI. AntiSec also provided the method used, and most security “experts” (i.e. White Hat Scum) have grudgingly admitted the hack would be possible using the technique described. AntiSec has even provided the MAC addresses of all the hardware used in the new York office of the Cyber-Crime Division:
Has anyone asked the FBI if these MACS are real? And before you reply “they would just deny it or say no comment” – it is STILL your job as reporters to at least ASK and report their answer to your audience. You have asked for chat logs from the hack. AntiSec has indicated they may provide them after they have thoroughly scrutinized them and redacted shit that can get them V&ed, which will most likely include the forensic “proof” some of you crazy journos are clamoring for. But the bottom line is this. Anonymous and AntiSec have provided FAR more evidence for their side of the story than the FBI has with their two lousy tweets and then a steady stream of “no comments”. The FBI has not provided one shred of evidence for their lying denials. Anonymous and AntiSec have provided what they can, and may provide more in the future.
AntiSec hacked the FBI and found 12 million UDIDs from Apple products on the laptop of a special cyber agent of the FBI. Whether the FBI had these for some tracking scenario as AntiSec opines, or whether they had them to use to crack open Apple stuff they seize when the “suspect” won’t give them the passwords – or whether they had them for some completely un-known nefarious reason, they had them and Anonymous took them. We know this is true, and more importantly the FBI knows this is true. It is not our job to convince either the media or the masses. But the truth is there, if the journalists want to actually WORK for a living and dig for it. Also, that file wasn’t all that AntiSec obtained from Agent Stangl’s laptop. The FBI and all you media journos should….
EXPECT US.
SINCERELY
— Anonymous Anonymous Global — www.AnonymousGlobal.tk
For Messages From AntiSec Follow @AnonymousIRC on Twitter
9/11 Events Decrypted: How is it possible that a rag-tag band of half-baked ‘terrorists’ penetrated the most sophisticated military airspace defense system in the WORLD, four times in a single morning? Take a closer look at the actual conspiracy-theory (ie, the ‘Official Version’ as which can not be proven), versus actual reported events which include: multiple explosions, Military planes, strange Orbs, Manipulated news footage, precision targeted airliners with impossible trajectories, suspicious stock trades, emptied Gold Vaults, billion dollar insurance policies and crime scene evidence destroyed immediately with NO investigation. The list goes on — tune in for the full story and little known facts, uncovered.
Osama Bin Laden Background & History: CIA Puppet Code Named Tim Osmond, OBL Death in late 2001 – As Reported in Multiple Foreign/Arabic Newspapers, Known Kidney Issues, Mysterious Tapes Showing Bin Laden Growing YOUNGER, His Personal Statements on 9/11 events, Photoshopped Images & Video, Impossible Night Raid In Abbottabad, How the SEAL-raid book & leak issue is a Controversy-by-Design Simply to Help Lament a False Version of History, and Forever Solidify Osama Bin Boogeyman… Hide and Seek World Champion 2001-2011!
JOINT MEDIA RELEASE:
Indigenous Social Justice Association &
Support Assange & WikiLeaks Coalition
September 9, 2012
ISJA: It is with a sense of pride and complete social justice that this Association has worked with the Sydney Support Assange and WikiLeaks Coalition to have the privilege of successfully arranging for Julian Assange to be able to be issued with an Aboriginal Nations Passport that his father, John Shipton, will accept on his behalf at the Welcome to Aboriginal Land Passport Ceremony to be held at The Settlement, 17 Edward Street, Darlington from 11am to 4pm on Saturday 15 September, 2012.
We strongly endorse the words of Ms Linda Pearson of the Support Assange and WikiLeaks Coalition, see below, on the total lack of support by our Federal Government to assist Julian against being press-ganged to America to face corrupt charges against him for informing the world’s people of the absolute lies that all Governments continue to tell their people. Whilst it is true that all Governments lie, it is well known that America leads the pack in their eternal quest for American hegemony of the world’s resources. It is well known that all Australian Governments since the dismissal of the Whitlam Government in 1975, that was assisted and orchestrated by America’s CIA, have meekly put our country at the policies of the American Foreign Policy interests. Julian is but another example.
The Ceremony is being held at the behest of many migrant, refugee and non-Aboriginal Australians who wish to fully recognise the Traditional Owners of the many Aboriginal Nations that still exist to this very day. They wish to show their full respect to the true history of this land and that is that we Aborigines still have full Sovereignty over our Lands.
Always was…always will be… Aboriginal Land.
The crimes of the 1788 Invasion and the subsequent Colonisation still need to be addressed and accounted for but we believe that the Passport Ceremony is the first of many steps that are required by those who wish to participate in a multicultural and pluralistic Reconciliation. Not the assimilationist Reconciliation wanted by Australian Governments and other racists but the real and honourable Reconciliation of removing the-white-blindfold of our joint history and allowing a mutual respect to be created.
By agreement we will be issuing both Julian Assange, via his father, and Mamdoub Habib, who will be present, an Aboriginal Nations Passport that will allow both to respectfully travel through the Aboriginal Nations. Mamdoub now and Julian on his return to Aboriginal Australia. Both these men were denied any assistance, firstly by the Howard Government and then by the Gillard Government respectively. These nefarious actions were taken by these two Governments to appease their American masters. We will attempt to right that wrong.
All those who wish to be issued with a Passport may obtain one by, firstly, signing the Pledge, giving some personal details to be added to the Passport, supplying a passport sized photo and a charge of $10 to help in affraying costs: aboriginalpassportceremony.org/how-to-get-an-aboriginal-passport/. The Passports are for use by Non-Aboriginal people only and can only be used to travel through the Aboriginal Nations. This does not apply to Aborigines as we have our own cultural methods of travelling through Country.
The Ceremony at The Settlement will include music, dancers, food and a wonderful sense of Welcome and Solidarity to all those attending. This will be an alcohol and drug free event.
We give the final word to Linda Pearson of the Support Assange and WikiLeaks Coalition:
“We are extremely grateful to the Indigenous Social Justice Association for highlighting the injustice faced by Julian Assange, and for this opportunity to show our solidarity with the Aboriginal owners of this land.
Australia is built on the injustices of invasion and colonisation. We condemn racist government polices like the Northern Territory Intervention which continue to inflict untold harm on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. We benefit from the occupation of stolen land, while Aboriginal people are incarcerated at five times the rate of black South Africans under apartheid.
The ISJA’s decision to issue Julian Assange an Aboriginal Passport comes as he remains confined in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. Despite international obligations to respect Assange’s status as a political refugee, the UK government has made clear its intention to arrest him if he tries to leave the Embassy.
The Australian government should be negotiating with the UK to ensure Assange’s safe passage to Ecuador. However, our politicians have consistently put their alliance with the United States before Assange’s human rights, even when his life has been threatened.
The issuing of an Aboriginal Passport to Julian Assange brings further shame on the Australian government. It recognises that Assange’s Australian passport has been completely worthless to him.”
For further information please contact Ray Jackson 0450 651 063, Ms. Rihab Charida, Ms. Linda Pearson 0401 511 588 or Ms Anne Picot 0404 090 710.
Indigenous Social Justice Association
1303/200 Pitt Street
Waterloo NSW 2017
Phone: (02) 9318 0947
Mobile: 0450 651 063
The Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency (DARPA) Autonomous Robotic Manipulation (ARM) program seeks to find ways to utilize different remote robotic manipulation systems that are controlled by humans. This program is divided into 3 aspects:
• Hardware: to design dexterous multi-fingered robotic hands
• Software: develop complex algorithms for grasping, manipulation and sensory perception
• Outreach: beta-testing robotics in public forums to further study robotic autonomy
In 2010, DARPA revealed a robot at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International Conference in Denver that was interactive in a public forum. Participants would write software and have the robot preform specified tasks. The goal of this event was to show that robots were being developed by the US government to preform “dangerous tasks” such as disarming an explosive device thereby reducing “significant human interaction”.
Universities and other government-controlled agencies such as Carnegie Mellon University, HRL Laboratories, iRobot, NASA-Jet Propulsion Laboratory, SRI, and the University of Southern California, provided teams of researchers to write software for DARPA.
Boston Dynamics, Inc., has been awarded a $10.9 million contract to manufacture humanoid robots that are bi-pedal, built like humans and have a sensor head with on-board computing capabilities.
These robots are being created to assist in excavation and rescue missions, according to DARPA. They could also be employed to evacuation operations during either man-made or natural disasters.
This week, the Project Offices for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), Apache Attack Helicopter and Armed Scout Helicopter revealed the Manned Unmanned System Integration Capability (MUSIC) at Michael Army Airfield, Dugway Proving Ground, Utah. During the exercise, MUSIC showed that the US Army could use drones armed with lethal weapons that were wired for precise communication with their operator.
The RQ-7 Shadow is another enhanced drone with weapons capabilities. As the US Army endeavors to combine ground forces with drone technology, their tactical operation’s success is multiplied.
The use of government-sponsored universities such as Cornell, MIT and Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands has created prototypes for bi-pedal robots that will someday be the synthetic army or police force.
Stanford University’s Aerospace Robotics Laboratory (ARL) wants to introduce autonomous robots into law enforcement situations; such as response in lieu of police SWAT teams.
Drones for law enforcement are being developed with the creation of the Talon SWAT/MP that can be configured with a multitude of weaponry. Some include a multi-shot TASER, LRAD, 40mm grenade launcher, and a 12-gage shotgun.
An earlier version of Talon, developed for the Israeli Defense Forces and the Israeli Ministry of Defense’s Directorate of Defense, was of the VIPeR series that were equipped with a 9 mm mini-Uzi with scope and pointer, or grenade launcher.
In 2006, Los Angeles began using aerial drones to spy over citizens under the guise of tracking suspects. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) subsequently ended that program. The police force retaliated citing that “there is an immediate need by state and local public safety personnel for unmanned aerial systems.”
The Naval Research Laboratory has developed SAFFiR, the Shipboard Autonomous Firefighting Robot. SAFFiR is an autonomous bipedal humanoid robot, based on the CHARLI-L1 robot created at Virginia Tech. This robot can interact with humans with a comprehensive response system that utilizes language – including slang to make it more familiar. A robot that can hold a conversation and fight fires is quite impressive.
In 2009, with funding from the Pentagon, DARPA created the Multifunction Utility/Logistics and Equipment (MULE) which was a size of a Humvee. This robot car used sensors to drive autonomously and calculate its target, await remote instructions or decide to fire.
MULE’s potential has been in the works for the last 3 years. Its advancement and use as a battlefield vehicle is being tested and readied for deployment. The remote controls mirror those of a gaming console which gives the operator the ease of playing a “video game” while at the same time instructing a deadly piece of equipment on targeted missions.
Unmanned ground vehicles have been in use since Iraq and Afghanistan. They are armed for combat with the same capabilities as ground troops. MULE’s development as an autonomous weapon for the purpose of allowing a robot to decide on whether or not to carry out a mission is advantageous to the US military.
A force of robotic “peacekeepers” that are programed to become violent without remorse – will enable the government to organize and act where human law enforcement and/or trained soldiers may hesitate.
Susanne Posel is the Chief Editor of Occupy Corporatism. Our alternative news site is dedicated to reporting the news as it actually happens; not as it is spun by the corporately funded mainstream media. You can find us on our Facebook page.
It has been said that knowledge is power, and that applies to any area in life. Of course, it is important to arm and prepare, but it is even more important to constantly learn new aspects of survival. Some of these arts and sciences have been lost in the last century, as modern life has caused humanity to know more how to use a smartphone rather than how to build a fire. It is easy to gloss over these skills like an old memory, when you can simply pop at TV dinner in the microwave when you are hungry.
The histories of empires have told us that they are finite, and that includes that of the U.S. In this case, it is important to gain knowledge and learn about old methods that have been long forgotten by many. This knowledge may not always be accessible as it is one of the first resources that will become scarce in the event of a nation threatening disaster. Other items may be procured with relative ease, but it may be next to impossible to find gems of wisdom.
One of the best places to find knowledge about survival methods for now is on the Internet. The Internet has an incredibly high concentration and abundance of information that dwarfs libraries and can be accessed in the comfort of your home. A quick search engine inquiry will reveal answers that took hours of research in the past. This is a great place to start. Whatever useful information you find, print out, and put in a ring binder.
Community
We were not meant to survive in isolation. There are many skills we can learn from one another. Find a mentor or group that does survival activities on a regular basis. Learning from one person to another is the best way to make it a part of you. For instance, learning martial arts of some kind will be indispensable in a crisis. These arts train you to keep calm, respond properly, avoid fights, and win them with the time come.
Nothing will help people survive more than a tight knit community that cares for its members. In this community, you will find different skills, access to different resources, and a psychological morale improvement. Finding others with the same mindset will help you survive long-term, and make the situation far more bearable than braving the dark times alone.
Basic Tools
Knives are considered one of the most basic tools in any society. It has been seen as the very beginning of technology after the discovery of fire. Using the proper knife for a survival scenario is arguably the most crucial part of survival. Your world will revolve around your knife, so it is important to have one appropriately selected.
You do not want to survive on a kitchen knife, as these are only tailored for light duty. Survival knives can come in several forms but they have to perform these basic tasks:
Chopping or Cutting Wood
Carving Wood
Stripping Bark for Lashing
Hunting
Cleaning Game
Cutting Cords
Fishing
Climbing
Fashioning Other Weapons
Striking Fire Steel
Shaving and Scoring Wood
Defense
It is for this reason that your knife must be durable, and have the right shape to perform daily tasks. As opposed to many popular designs, you do not want your knife to be longer than 5”. If it is 6” and above, it will be difficult to handle and could possibly be dangerous. Also, avoid serrated edges on your knife. The most powerful cutting and carving edge is at the base near the handle, and if that area is serrated, it will be difficult to use it to chop and carve.
Also, you may need to defend yourself with your knife. This may be more preferable than using bullets, as you may not want to draw attention to the location of the shot. This means that the knife must come to a sharp point at the tip. This may also allow you to lash the knife to a long stick, creating a spear for hunting. Another possible function of your knife may allow you to throw it at a target. This is another great hunting application, but it is less for defense, in the event that your target runs away with your precious knife.
There are many designs to a good survival knife; you just need to figure out what your preferred style may be. For this reason, you also may want to consider making one of your own. Creating your own knife design and manufacturing it yourself will allow you to know how to make more in the event that you lose or break your original. For less than $100, you can procure the resources necessary to shape and heat-treat your knife from bar stock.
The reason why the topic of knives is located in the “knowledge” category is because of how crucial it is to know how to use them and even perhaps know how to make them. Getting to know your knife is has to do with more than just surviving; some survivalists even say that it connects you closer to nature. The ability to survive from this most basic tool is known as more of an art form than a method.
Stealth
While the survivalist mindset might seem to stem from weathering bad times, it is actually based in a basic enjoyment of nature. Nature is a gift, and the ability to live comfortably from its provisions is one of the most life-changing experiences a person can ever have. The art of survival seems to have been lost over the years, but before the technology boom in the last century, it was commonplace to know and understand survivalist principles.
One of the most basic skills when in the wild is a combination of two methods. These methods are called the “Fox Walk” and “Wide-Angle Vision.” These were the basic “bread and butter” of how tribal populations would hunt and stalk without leaving any trace. Learning lessons from these peoples, it has enlightened us on how to live from the land.
The Fox Walk is a method on how tribal populations were able to move in the forest completely undetected by even the wildlife. These methods were also used in war as the first skirmishes took place between the Native Americans and the residents of Jamestown. Knowing how effective the Fox Walk concealed movements, the Navy Seals adopted this tactic to conceal their numbers behind enemy lines. The Fox Walk basically consists of:
First, it is most effective to do this without footwear or wearing moccasins. This allows you to feel the ground, and helps you avoid stepping on sticks that can crack and make noise.
Land your foot with your heal first. This requires balance; as your foot comes into contact with the ground, you may have to move to a different location to avoid a sharp rock, a stick, or leaves that may make noise.
Then allow the outside of your foot to roll to the ground, and then the balls of your feet. This will allow you to mask your presence by lessening your footprint and noise.
If you are traveling in a group, the battle-tested way to conceal your numbers is to Fox Walk, and with each person placing his or her foot in the print of the one ahead of them.
Rushing about is a quick way to be found and wastes crucial energy, so the Fox Walk is a method, crafted for slow, steady movements.
These are the basics of Wide-Angle Vision:
Wide-Angle Vision allows you to see movement and inconsistencies rather than the details that are directly in front of you.
This type of focus allows you to spot resources more easily and sense movement, which is crucial for hunting.
Wide-Angle Vision utilizes your peripheral vision, allowing for a much wider view and scope of sound stimulation. This causes you to be far more aware of your surroundings.
In order to practice Wide-Angle Vision, move your hands out directly in front of you. Then, separate them slowly until your arms are stretched out all the way.
Then, wiggle your fingers. If your peripheral vision can pick up both hands, then you have entered into Wide-Angle vision.
The best part about utilizing the Fox Walk and Wide-Angle Vision is the fact that you can move around less, maximizing the resources in your vicinity. You will use much less energy, and it will keep you calm. Some have said that it is almost like tuning in to a sixth sense, as you can extend your perception farther that you would normally be able to.
Experiencing and enjoying nature is one of the most basic principles of the art of survival, and using ancient methods is one of the best ways to do just that.
A clip from the documentary “Occupation 101“, a film which details the Israeli invasion and occupation of the Palestinian lands. If this story of Rachel Corrie, and activist killed while trying to prevent Palestinian homes from being demolished by Israelis, doesn’t touch your heart, you’re just not human.
It looks like somebody is going to have to update the Waco Siege page on Wikipedia. Apparently the whitewashed history that former President Bill Clinton would like us to believe regarding the 1993 federal assault on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, is missing important details regarding his own personal involvement.
In response to Bill Clinton’s highly publicized linking of the Tea Party movement to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing in an op-ed piece for the New York Times, former Clinton adviser Dick Morris disclosed on Monday that it was Clinton himself, and not Attorney General Janet Reno, as Americans have been led to believe for the past 17 years, who called the shots during the 1993 botched invasion that led to the death of seventy-six people.
Speaking on the Hannity program on the Fox News Network, Morris criticized Clinton for his Oklahoma City comments: “Let’s understand what was Timothy McVeigh’s motivation …he himself had said that it was the reaction to the Waco takeover. Bill Clinton orchestrated that takeover.”
Morris went on to say, “Clinton in fact was so ashamed about what he did in Waco that he was not going to appoint Janet Reno to a second four-year term. She told him in a meeting right before the inauguration day … ‘If you don’t appoint me I’m going to tell the truth about Waco.’ And that forced Clinton’s hand … It’s never been said (publicly) before.”
For years, Clinton has been criticized for his leadership of the federal government during the Waco crisis, but he has managed to escape personal responsibility for the tragedy. With Morris’s statements, it appears this may no longer be possible. It would seem that Clinton was far more intimately involved with the government response at Waco than previously reported.
While there may be a link between Clinton and the Oklahoma City bombing, I would hardly blame the actions of a psychopath on any one individual or political party.
However, for Clinton to associate such a horrible act of violence with freedom loving Americans, especially given the fact that he must be fully aware that it was his decisions that led to the Waco catastrophe which in turn inspired Timothy McVeigh, is remarkably shameless.
Fred Dardick is the owner and operator of a medical staffing company based in Chicago. Prior to the business world, he worked as a biological researcher at Northwestern University and The University of Chicago. He has BS and MS degrees in biology and maintains a blog at conservativespotlight.com.
It is a spiritual law that the desire to do necessarily implies the ability to do.
You have all read of “Aladdin’s Lamp,” which accomplished such wonderful things. This, of course, is only a fairy story, but it illustrates the fact that man has within him the power, if he is able to use it, to gratify his every wish.
If you are unable to satisfy your deepest longings it is time you learned how to use your God-given powers. You will soon be conscious that you have latent powers within capable when once developed of revealing to you priceless knowledge and unlimited possibilities of success.
Man should have plenty of everything and not merely substance to live on as so many have. All natural desires can be realized. It would be wrong for the Infinite to create wants that could not be supplied. Man’s very soul is in his power to think, and it, therefore, is the essence of all created things. Every instinct of man leads to thought, and in every thought there is great possibility because true thought development, when allied to those mysterious powers which perhaps transcend it, has been the cause of all the world’s true progress.
In the silence we become conscious of “that something” which transcends thought and which uses thought as a medium for expression. Many have glimpses of “that something,” but few ever reach the state where the mind is steady enough to fathom these depths. Silent, concentrated thought is more potent than spoken words, for speech distracts from the focusing power of the mind by drawing more and more attention to the without.
Man must learn more and more to depend on himself; to seek more for the Infinite within. It is from this source alone that he ever gains the power to solve his practical difficulties. No one should give up when there is always the resources of Infinity. The cause of failure is that men search in the wrong direction for success, because they are not conscious of their real powers that when used are capable of guiding them.
The Infinite within is foreign to those persons who go through life without developing their spiritual powers. But the Infinite helps only he who helps himself. There is no such thing as a Special “Providence.” Man will not receive help from the Infinite except to the extent that he believes and hopes and prays for help from this great source.
Concentrate on What You Want and Get It. The weakling is controlled by conditions. The strong man controls conditions. You can be either the conqueror or the conquered. By the law of concentration you can achieve your heart’s desire. This law is so powerful that that which at first seems impossible becomes attainable.
By this law what you at first see as a dream becomes a reality.
Remember that the first step in concentration is to form a Mental Image of what you wish to accomplish. This image becomes a thought-seed that attracts thoughts of a similar nature. Around this thought, when it is once planted in the imagination or creative region of the mind, you group or build associated thoughts which continue to grow as long as your desire is keen enough to compel close concentration.
Form the habit of thinking of something you wish to accomplish for five minutes each day. Shut every other thought out of consciousness. Be confident that you will succeed; make up your mind that all obstacles that are in your way will be overcome and you can rise above any environment.
You do this by utilizing the natural laws of the thought world which are all powerful.
A great aid in the development of concentration is to write out your thoughts on that which lies nearest your heart and to continue, little by little, to add to it until you have as nearly as possible exhausted the subject.
You will find that each day as you focus your forces on this thought at the center of the stream of consciousness, new plans, ideas and methods will flash into your mind. There is a law of attraction that will help you accomplish your purpose. An advertiser, for instance, gets to thinking along a certain line. He has formed his own ideas, but he wants to know what others think. He starts out to seek ideas and he soon finds plenty of books, plans, designs, etc., on the subject, although when he started he was not aware of their existence.
The same thing is true in all lines. We can attract those things that will help us. Very often we seem to receive help in a miraculous way. It may be slow in coming, but once the silent unseen forces are put into operation, they will bring results so long as we do our part. They are ever present and ready to aid those who care to use them. By forming a strong mental image of your desire, you plant the thought-seed which begins working in your interest and, in time, that desire, if in harmony with your higher nature, will materialize.
It may seem that it would be unnecessary to caution you to concentrate only upon achievement that will be good for you and work no harm to another, but there are many who forget others and their rights, in their anxiety to achieve success. All good things are possible for you to have, but only as you bring your forces into harmony with that law that requires that we mete out justice to fellow travelers as we journey along life’s road. So first think over the thing wanted and if it would be good for you to have; say, “I want to do this; I am going to work to secure it. The way will be open for me.”
If you fully grasp mentally the thought of success and hold it in mind each day, you gradually make a pattern or mold which in time will materialize. But by all means keep free from doubt and fear, the destructive forces. Never allow these to become associated with your thoughts.
At last you will create the desired conditions and receive help in many unlooked-for ways that will lift you out of the undesired environment. Life will then seem very different to you, for you will have found happiness through awakening within yourself the power to become the master of circumstances instead of their slave.
To the beginner in this line of thought some of the things stated in this book may sound strange, even absurd, but, instead of condemning them, give them a trial. You will find they will work out.
The inventor has to work out his idea mentally before he produces it materially. The architect first sees the mental picture of the house he is to plan and from this works out the one we see. Every object, every enterprise, must first be mentally created.
I know a man that started in business with thirteen cents and not a dollar’s worth of credit. In ten years he has built up a large and profitable business. He attributes his success to two things—belief that he would succeed and hard work. There were times when it did not look like he could weather the storm. He was being pressed by his creditors who considered him bankrupt. They would have taken fifty cents on the dollar for his notes and considered themselves lucky. But by keeping up a bold front he got an extension of time when needed. When absolutely necessary for him to raise a certain sum at a certain time he always did it. When he had heavy bills to meet he would make up his mind that certain people that owed him would pay by a certain date and they always did. Sometimes he would not receive their check until the last mail of the day of the extension, and I have known him to send out a check with the prospect of receiving a check from one of his customers the following day. He would have no reason other than his belief in the power of affecting the mind of another by concentration of thought for expecting that check, but rarely has he been disappointed.
Just put forth the necessary concentrated effort and you will be wonderfully helped from sources unknown to you.
OBAMNEY 2012: Avoid the Puppet Show & Use Critical Thinking to Expose Two Identical Candidates. Barack Obama vs. Mitt Romney Mud-slinging, Their Mossad & CIA Connections, Both Support Drone Killings, NDAA, The Patriot Act, Unconstitutional Surveillance, Wiretapping, Banking Bailouts, Israel’s Oppression of Palestine, War by Design Against Iran, Torture in Guantanamo and that’s just the beginning!
The Next Generation Identification programme will include a nationwide database of criminal faces and other biometrics
“FACE recognition is ‘now’,” declared Alessandro Acquisti of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh in a testimony before the US Senate in July.
It certainly seems that way. As part of an update to the national fingerprint database, the FBI has begun rolling out facial recognition to identify criminals.
It will form part of the bureau’s long-awaited, $1 billion Next Generation Identification (NGI) programme, which will also add biometrics such as iris scans, DNA analysis and voice identification to the toolkit. A handful of states began uploading their photos as part of a pilot programme this February and it is expected to be rolled out nationwide by 2014. In addition to scanning mugshots for a match, FBI officials have indicated that they are keen to track a suspect by picking out their face in a crowd.
Another application would be the reverse: images of a person of interest from security cameras or public photos uploaded onto the internet could be compared against a national repository of images held by the FBI. An algorithm would perform an automatic search and return a list of potential hits for an officer to sort through and use as possible leads for an investigation.
Ideally, such technological advancements will allow law enforcement to identify criminals more accurately and lead to quicker arrests. But privacy advocates are worried by the broad scope of the FBI’s plans. They are concerned that people with no criminal record who are caught on camera alongside a person of interest could end up in a federal database, or be subject to unwarranted surveillance.
The FBI’s Jerome Pender told the Senate in July that the searchable photo database used in the pilot studies only includes mugshots of known criminals. But it’s unclear from the NGI’s privacy statement whether that will remain the case once the entire system is up and running or if civilian photos might be added, says attorney Jennifer Lynch of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The FBI was unable to answer New Scientist‘s questions before the magazine went to press.
The FBI hasn’t shared details of the algorithms it is using, but its technology could be very accurate if applied to photographs taken in controlled situations such as passport photos or police shots.
Tests in 2010 showed that the best algorithms can pick someone out in a pool of 1.6 million mugshots 92 per cent of the time. It’s possible to match a mugshot to a photo of a person who isn’t looking at the camera too. Algorithms such as one developed by Marios Savvides’s lab at Carnegie Mellon can analyse features of a front and side view set of mugshots, create a 3D model of the face, rotate it as much as 70 degrees to match the angle of the face in the photo, and then match the new 2D image with a fairly high degree of accuracy. The most difficult faces to match are those in low light. Merging photos from visible and infrared spectra can sharpen these images, but infrared cameras are still very expensive.
Of course, it is easier to match up posed images and the FBI has already partnered with issuers of state drivers’ licences for photo comparison. Jay Stanley of the American Civil Liberties Union urges caution: “Once you start plugging this into the FBI database, it becomes tantamount to a national photographic database.”
Prison Industrial Complex Explained: Learn how Corporations are outsourcing & privatizing labor costs to the Prison Industry and how there are massive profits exploding from within this corrupted Incarceration System. Slave Labor Camps, Return of the Debtor Prisons, Products most often created by Prisoners, Recent Wallstreet investments & the Goldman Sachs connection. SERCO, UNICOR, Federal Prison Industries, Inc. and the astronomical nationwide per-capita figures that will make your head spin.
The following is extremely significant for many reasons. Humanity’s earliest belief systems held utmost respect and worship to the ‘Feminine’. These honest and grounded belief systems knew the importance of the woman/womb and that only through this can all human life be possible. Only later in earth’s timeline, would the New World Order promoted ‘religions’ instead focus on Male dominance, and direct oppression / restriction/ separation of the Feminine in effort to establish a basis of control, out of fear [that woman could become more powerful, perceived or otherwise]. -DCMX Editor
We come forward now at the brink of a “quantum shift”, but what is it? What is this evolutionary shift we are all on the brink of? It is about women regaining their power and channeling it into the right places. We have just forgotten where to channel it.
The deepest, most ancient secrets of life lie within the womb of every woman. The womb is the holiest temple in your body, the most energy filled place in your body, the place of your most clarity, intuition, creative expression and power. It is your primordial voice, and connector into the web of all life, the web of interdependence that connects all living beings to each other.
We are all birthed from the womb, yet it is one of the least known parts of ourselves. This is not surprising, for it holds the greatest power that a woman possesses; the power to nurture, grow, and create new life. This power of creation is what each woman holds within them, usually only exercising it in the process of giving physical birth.
The womb is not just a place to give birth to a baby; it is a place and state of being that births US, that births new realities, that holds a power for deep transformation for ourselves, and for others we come into contact with. The Womb is a womans feminine core, the generator of tremendous creative potential, vitality, boundless well being, sensual power, and manifestation. It not only births children, but projects, careers, spiritual potential, personal healing and the depths of relating we all yearn for. It births the divine masculine and feminine, bringing balance and loving power to our deepest relationships.
Imagine it; there is a place within us that holds the power of life and death, yet we only use it one or two times in our life. The rest of the time it lies neglected, its power and ability to love and create hidden, misunderstood, and forgotten about.
Yet this has not always been so. In the past, and in present day indigenous traditions, women have known the way of the womb, the knowledge, practices, and power of the womb, and how to use it to create on a profound level. Some of these great women from both East and West include Mary Magdalene, Mother Mary, the female Buddha Yeshe Tsogyal, the Priestesses of Isis, the Daoist and African sisterhoods, and the druid shamanesses of Ireland and England.
As women, we have become so divorced from the womb, our primal centre of gravity, joy, creativity and soul connection, that we have forgotten who we are, and how we could be. Instead we try to compete on masculine terms and conditions to get by in the world of today. The flowering of the feminine rose has become dwarfed by the pillar of the masculine, instead of both sitting side by side in harmony, and relative equality.
This imbalance is caused by us forgetting about the womb, and its true purpose and power. In this forgetting, men too have forgotten how to relate fully to the feminine, and how to be truly human, building walls of intellectual justification and anger around the wounds and holes that have been created by this separation. Many religions and ways of behaviour have been influenced by this separation, creating a grossly distorted view of spirituality and social behaviour that has formed the current infrastructures of society, and how we are living life today. These structures have been created by a handful of men without women, creating an innately flawed and imbalanced worldview and society.
The effects on human society of this imbalance are many and manifold, impacting every area of human life, from the environment, to nuclear arms, educational and cultural values, spiritual traditions and commandments, the loss of family values, and the failure of many intimate relationships and marriages between man and woman. In short, the loss of womb wisdom and power has created a huge imbalance on planet earth that impacts all of us, creating an unstable foundation for our cultures and our lives that is threatening to topple over at any moment, so lopsided has it become.
The increase of intellectualization allied with a lack of actual womb experience means that women are increasingly finding their centre of gravity in their heads, rather than in their wombs. This arises partly as a reaction to the male dominated ideas and concepts that form the foundation of most religions and societies today.
A womans centre is in her womb-heart, not her head. She lives on earth, connected through relationship, not in an abstract concept or code of what life is. As soon as a womans centre of gravity shifts to the womb, she becomes centred, empowered, present, and grounded. When a womans centre is in her head, she suffers badly, and becomes more disempowered, trying to compete with men who are mind centred, thereby losing connection with her feminine essence.
Women are sad that they are centred in their heads, as they innately know that it is not true for them. When they start doing womb work, their sadness and rage well up within them as they realize this, and they start to shift their centres of gravity and resonance back to their primal centre, the source of their joy and womanhood. This then allows the heart to flower, deeply, and organically, flowing in spontaneity, emanating from the web of life, from what is uniquely individual to you at any moment in time, from all that nurtures and supports life, from empathy, and from compassion.
For thousands of years women have been without a role model, not knowing where to turn, or whom to look to to inspire and nurture them. Women have not known where to belong, and the changing roles imposed upon them by a reason driven society have further pushed the essence of the feminine nature into seclusion, and into a pastiche of true femininity as witnessed in modern day consumer society where this pastiche is used to sell products, seduce and manipulate.
Deep within, you know that you must go beyond what is considered normal, and acceptable, in order to stand in your own authority. Woman becomes able to accomplish her own birthing when she leaves behind her attachment to the collective consciousness, the traditional beliefs, institutions, and what is considered in the collective to be culturally acceptable womanly roles and virtues. Separate yourself from those fear driven voices and approaches of both women and men who attempt to belittle the power and full significance of birth and transformation. For the Womb creates new life, letting go of the past.
In this separation, you become able to truly trust yourself, and what is uniquely individual to you. This process of transformation depends upon your ability to feel and fully experience essential feminine values birthed from the womb. Merely having knowledge of, or understanding it rationally is not enough. You have to experience the feminine, making it your own, and living her fully in this initiation, holding your deep felt belly wisdom and gut knowing, your gut instincts to preserve and keep life going.
All life benefits when women come to love their bodies, and live from their truth. For the womb is the generator and keeper of Life, source of full feminine expression. The womb and ovaries are the light generators of the feminine, and the creator of joy. When they are cleared and healed of the many veils of disempowerment, mis-education and repression, you connect fully with your own feminine core in clarity, joy and the full, free expression of life-force, the orgasmic energy of bliss.
Activating the womb is a powerful act that heals many deep seated age-old wounds in both the female, and male, consciousness. Healing the womb helps activate and illuminate the collective psyche, and also powerfully heals on the personal level. For when the womb is cleared, healed, and restored, women come into their full power. By doing so, the men too become balanced, whole, and healed.
The womb provides the basis for a revolution in society. An awakened, socially conscious, and egalitarian society is built on the foundation of the womb that honours life in all its forms as the basis of society, not as an “add on” or a pleasing secondary thought. This divine design is activated and manifested through the organic flowering of the womb and application of its laws and rhythms. This divine design descends soul energy into manifestation; at present, human civilization descends mental energy into manifestation, and ascends root chakra or survival/power/sexual issues into manifestation.
The single most important issue facing humanity is not war, the environment, or poverty; it is the opening of the womb, and the standing up and liberation of women. All else has been done, all teachings on Oneness, liberation, manifestation …and still the world is the same. Women hold the key for the world to become a peaceful, just and balanced place. In their standing up, men too will become liberated, and lay down their arms, their pollution creating devices, and share their riches with others.
With enough open and healed wombs, no war would ever dare be fought by men who listen to the voice of the womb, to the empowered, life affirming woman in their life who shares the sustaining, nurturing power of life. Poverty would be wiped out as female leaders share, distribute, and create structures for people to become self empowered and living in real relating. The environment will heal itself with the presence of a more fertile consciousness, nourishing life from its source. With this nourishing love or manna, nature regenerates itself at its core level, and grows the dying planet back to Life. This is already happening in conscious, manna filled communities worldwide, and is part of the template for the remembrance of our natural divinity as individuals, and as a collective.
The strength and depths of the womb provide the security and foundation deep within to rise up and express freely through the heart. Head and heart work within grounded foundations sunk deep within the womb. The head by itself cannot come into the heart. The womb is required to bring down the mind into our true centre, that can then rise up and express through the heart, from solid foundations.
The womb feels autonomous, a voice of its own, and can respond depending on what is required in each moment. The wombs voice is wise, ancient, powerful, and connected to the primordial. It is sunk deep, whereas the heart gives rise to passion, inspiration, and expression of love. Womb holds, heart gives. Hearts desire is to unify and bring things together – to end division. The womb holds the space for that to happen, for that to birth into manifestation.
Heart manifests womb, and womb holds heart in a secure space, allowing the heart to go deeper into its layers, rather than just being on the surface or merely sentimental aspect of the heart. The womb holds the steadiness, the unwavering centre and ground of creation, steady, still, reliable, the well of creation. With this foundation, the heart then feels safe and secure, feeling its innate and natural ground to rest on, lean and rely upon, a place to arise from.
One can say that the Womb is the banks of the river, and the heart is the river. The womb is the container for the alchemy of love to occur and rise into manifestation and being. Mind is the servant of womb heart, designed to carry out its orders. The heart is incomplete without the maturity of the womb. The womb establishes deep within the character, the clarity, the commitment and stamina, housing the ground upon which you may come to take solace and guidance throughout your greatest tests in life.
You have within you this reliable source of stillness. Do you have the heart to discover it?
So men .. stand up and support the women in your life. Do not be scared that you will lose your power, for you will in fact gain the greatest power of all: love borne through humility, that which makes a real man, a perfect man, a king and leader to suit your queen and guide. Have faith, and listen to the womb; it will serve you to enter your truth, your power, and your true maleness. It will serve you to enter the greatest bliss, the greatest softness, and the deepest power, the wisdom of which will make you stand out as a real man.
Women: delve deep into your primal power, beyond the appearances, customs, and religions of this day. Delve into the Knowing you have always had, and always will, a Knowing that no religion can ever encompass, and that no culture can ever define. Delve deep into your belly and the brain that lies there: the primal brain, your original voice, the voice that will never betray you and will always lead you to the truth of love in action, the being of joy, and the peace that passes all understanding.
This is your time. Seize it, open the wounds, leave the justifications and layers of fear, dust, and excuses that you use to cover the layers of yourself that you KNOW lie hidden, and that you have bartered away for a false peace to placate the masculine in, and around you. By doing this, you will be serving and loving the masculine in your life, truly loving them in the deepest way possible.
Womb work is designed for you to grow and bloom this holy place within, into full manifestation. With the resurrection of the womb comes the resurrection of man. Man will find a new identity that is his timeless, primordial identity, his true identity, when he comes into harmony with the clear and activated womb.
The Womb is the gateway from where we all come, and where we return to. To realize this takes the deepest surrender, to that which lies beyond the mind and reason. In the womb, you cannot KNOW what is happening as it is happening; you simply have to allow, embrace, and trust its feminine voice.
Remember the love as and when you can through the journey. It is only one, small shift of the mind away.
The only remedy for the abuse of Bradley Manning and the government’s violation of the law is dismissal of all charges.
Every time I attend a Bradley Manning hearing the prosecutors show their outrageous disrespect for the law, demonstrate they cannot be trusted and that this prosecution should not proceed.
Beginning on November 27, the defense will argue a long-delayed motion to dismiss for unlawful pretrial punishment. In a moment of high drama, Bradley is likely to testify about his nine months in solitary confinement during the argument of this motion.
Prosecutors Are Caught Hiding More than One Thousand Emails about Manning’s Confinement
The most recent reason for the delay in the hearing was the government was caught hiding 1,374 emails relevant to the confinement of Bradley Manning. Attorney David Coombs had requested all documents relevant to Manning’s confinement at Quantico but did not receive any of the emails. Hours before the deadline for filing the motion to dismiss the Government sent him 84 emails from Quantico that it said were “obviously material to the defense.” They did not mention the existence of 1,290 other emails relating to Manning’s confinement.
Coombs, based on prior experience with the prosecution team, was suspicious. The language “obviously material to the defense” was tortured. Were there other documents that were material to the defense? The law requires the government to provide all material information. Two government prosecutors responded that the 84 emails were all there was. Coombs was still suspicious and decided to file a motion with the court on the matter. At that point the prosecution admitted there were a total of 1,374 emails, but claimed only 84 were discoverable.
Coombs kept pushing and on the first day of the hearing last week the government provided him with a disc containing approximately 600 emails. The prosecutors gave no explanation as to how they jumped from 84 to 600 discoverable emails, even though Coombs asked how that occurred. Now there are 700 emails in dispute, and Judge Denise Lind granted Coombs’ motion to have her review those to determine if they’re discoverable.
What did the emails contain? Well, we don’t know yet what surprises are in the 600 given to Coombs during the hearing, but the 84 contained a blockbuster. They revealed that the decision to hold Manning in tortuous solitary confinement conditions was not made because of Manning’s behavior at Quantico, not made because of the recommendations of the prison psychologists or psychiatrists, not made by the brig commander, not even made by the Commander at Quantico – but made by a three-star general in the Pentagon.
Who was the general in charge of Manning’s confinement?
Lieutenant General George Flynn, who was serving as the Commanding General of the Marine Corps Combat Development Command at the time, ordered Manning’s solitary confinement.
Flynn is a career officer who has been climbing the ladder in the military since 1975. There are only 60 three-star generals in the entire U.S. Marine Corps. Flynn is in the top echelon of Marine officers. Flynn was nominated for appointment by the President under the advice of the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as well as confirmed via majority vote by the Senate. Thus, this position, in addition to being an important military position, is one that requires political skill as well.
Among the positions he has recently held are Chief of Staff and Director, Command Support Center, United States Special Operations Command (2004-2006). Commanding General, Training and Education Command (2006-2007). Deputy Commanding General Multi-National Corps-Iraq (2008), Director for Joint Force Development, The Joint Staff J-7 (2011-). This includes positions he served in during the time documented by Manning’s alleged release.
During Flynn’s time at the U.S. Special Ops command, growing pains were reported as they were developing plans to have an expanded and more complex role against terrorism, working more closely with the CIA. In 2005’s Operation Red Wing, under his command, four Navy SEALs were pinned down in a firefight and radioed for help. A Chinook helicopter, carrying 16 service members, responded but was shot down. All members of the rescue team and three of four SEALs on the ground died. It was the worst loss of life in Afghanistan since the invasion in 2001.
The fact that an officer who was working so closely with the CIA was making the decisions about Manning’s incarceration raises questions about the purpose of Manning’s abusive confinement. Even before knowing Lt. Gen. Flynn was in charge, many commentators believed Manning was tortured in an effort to break him so he would plead guilty and testify against Julian Assange. Now that we know a three-star general at the Pentagon was making the decisions, these suspicions have much greater credibility.
Who knows what will be uncovered in the 600 emails that have been provided and the remaining 700 in dispute? It already sounds like Manning’s defense needs to broaden its request to all communications involving Lt. Gen. Flynn about Manning, including with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Secretary of Defense and the White House. We know that the White House in the Bush Administration was approving every step of the torture-interrogation of high profile suspects, so it seems likely that aggressive punishment of a U.S. soldier would need White House approval. The Manning case is high profile, and it is hard to believe Lt. Gen. Flynn would risk his career by torturing a soldier without approval from political leaders at the Pentagon and White House.
And Manning was kept in torturous conditions. Not only was he held in solitary for nine months, but he was also mistreated throughout that time. Manning’s confinement is detailed in the 109 page motion to dismiss filed by David Coombs. Manning was held in a windowless 6-by-8 cell in which he was not allowed to have any personal items. He was awakened at 5:00 AM and required to stay awake until 10 PM. Among the conditions of his confinement were as follows:
– He was not allowed to exercise in the cell.
– He was not permitted to lie down on his rack during the duty day.
– He was not permitted to lean his back against the cell wall; he had to sit upright on his rack without any back support.
– Manning was subjected to constant monitoring; the Brig guards were required to check on him every five minutes by asking him some variation of, “are you okay?” Manning was required to verbally respond in some affirmative manner. Guards were required to make notations every five minutes in a logbook.
– Some lights would remain on all night. At night, if the guards could not see him clearly, because he had a blanket over his head or he was curled up towards the wall, they would wake Manning in order to ensure that he was okay.
– Manning was only given a mattress and when he tried to fold the mattress to make a pillow Brig officials took it away and gave him a suicide mattress with a built-in pillow, only a couple of inches high, not really any better than sleeping on a flat mattress. Manning was not permitted regular sheets or blankets. Instead he was provided with a tear-proof security blanket. This blanket was extremely coarse and irritated Manning’s skin causing rashes and carpet burns. The blanket did not keep Manning warm due to its stiffness, did not contour to his body or retain heat.
– Manning was required to receive each of his meals alone in his cell. He was only permitted to eat with a spoon.
– Whenever Manning was moved outside his cell, he was shackled with metal hand and leg restraints and accompanied by at least two guards; the entire facility was locked down.
– He was not allowed to speak to other inmates and if he attempted to do so was stopped.
– Manning was permitted only 20 minutes of “sunshine call.” Aside from a 3-5 minute shower, this would be the only time he would regularly spend outside his cell. During this sunshine call, he would be brought to a small concrete yard and permitted to walk around the yard in hand and leg shackles, while being accompanied by a Brig guard at his immediate side (the guard would have his hand on Manning’s back). Two to three other guards would also be present observing Manning while he walked in figure-eights. He was not permitted to sit down or stay stationary.
After a protest in support of Manning outside of Quantico his conditons got worse. Guards harassed him to the point of bringing on a panic attack. He was placed on suicide watch and had his clothes taken away from him at night, from March 3, 2011, through March 7, 2011, he was forced to stand outside his cell naked during morning inspection.
How involved was Lt. Gen. Flynn in determining these unjustifiable conditions of confinement? During the last hearing, Coombs disclosed that Flynn was given detailed reports of minor details – he was even notified when Coombs visited his client. Further, the commander at Quantico said in one email that all decisions to relax confinement needed to be approved by Flynn. This was known up and down the chain of command at Quantico.
The Quantico command had been told what they needed to do, as the Coombs motion states: “keep PFC Manning subjected to the most rigorous conditions possible. So no matter what the psychiatrists recommended, week-after-week, month-after-month, nothing ever changed because everyone at the Brig had their marching orders from [redacted] who in turn had his marching orders from someone higher up in the chain of command.”
The psychiatrist, who was originally a Brig psychiatrist and later appointed to the Defense team, expressed extreme frustration about the “bizarre” circumstances at Quantico saying: “treating this is so … it’s just bizarre all the way around. I’m just surprised that they would become so intrusive because I’d be concerned about what that looks like later on. And they’ve not seemed to have any qualms at all about reaching down so heavy handed. And when I’ve asked … and again, there’s no documentation . . . It’s not an interrogation, I don’t think. He’s not been adjudicated, so there’s a lot of risk to putting too many services out there when somebody is in this pretrial situation. . . . They’re supposed to be assumed innocent. What you’re supposed to be doing is protecting where they’re not incriminating themselves. So, I don’t know. It’s been a bizarre thing … I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Are these conditions acceptable under military law?
In United States v. Fricke, 53 M.J. 149, 155 (C.A.A.F. 2000) the accused alleged that he was placed in solitary confinement for an extended period of time because prison officials were attempting to “break him.” The court indicated that “coercing a confession is not a legitimate governmental objective.”
Indeed the only legitimate purposes are to ensure the accused’s presence at trial and the security of the facility. In 2006’s United States v. Crawford, the Court of Appeals for the Armed Services found a constitutional violation is established where “conditions [are] unreasonable or arbitrary in relation to both purposes” of “ensuring … presence for trial and the security needs of the confinement facility.” Manning was an exemplary inmate who never gave Brig officials reason to believe he was a flight risk, making these harsh conditions, controlled from the Pentagon, impossible to defend.
As the Court of Appeal for the Armed Forces wrote in United States v. Combs, “the courts will not tolerate egregious, intentional misconduct by command where there is no evidence of a legitimate, non-punitive objective for the conduct complained of . . ..” What was the “legitimate, non-punitive objective” of Manning not being able to lean against the wall while seated in his cell, lying down in his cell between 5 AM and 10 PM, exercising in his cell, being forced to stand naked to get his clothes back or being verbally checked every five minutes and waking him from his sleep to see if he was alright? The only purpose of these limitations was to punish, humiliate or break Manning. No doubt Lt. Gen. Flynn is well aware of how these stress techniques can break a person.
Any claim that these abusive conditions were to protect Manning is undermined by the well-known negative impact of solitary confinement. Numerous federal courts having taken note of the serious negative consequences of such confinement. The fact is the confinement facility officials were actually causing Manning psychological harm, not protecting him from harm. Finally, the fact that as soon as he was sent to Ft. Leavenworth his conditions changed virtually overnight, demonstrate the conditons at Quantico were unnecessary.
In multiple cases, military courts have found that dismissal of all charges is an appropriate remedy for pre-trial punishment. Not only was Manning’s pre-trial confinement punishment in violation of military law, in addition after a 14-month investigation, the U. N. Special Rapporteur on torture Juan Méndez formally accused the U.S. government of “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment” in violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The motion to dismiss, and the hidden emails, highlights the prosecution’s continuous withholding of material information from the defense in violation of law. The prosecutors’ obfuscation is resulting in a delay of the court martial so that Manning’s trial will occur nearly 1,000 days after his confinement in violation of speedy trial requirements. It is getting harder and harder to see how any remedy other than dismissal of the charges for outrageous government conduct would serve justice.
Written by Giordano Nanni & Hugo Farrant
Welcome back, netizens, to this newest edition in
Juice media’s series of Rap News journalism with me, Robert Foster:
this evening we’re actively delving in depth
to facts which affect all of us who dwell on this internet and we’ve got to
give a special welcome to all the ladies and a-gents,
from the NSA, ASIO, MI5: glad you’re listening in;
Because today’s show is
all about surveillance and how it’s spreading from the streets into our modems
As we speak, laws are being tacitly written in
to implement ways of controlling the expanse of this internet,
to keep us safe, we’re told; but from whom?
And will this place ever be the same if these plans go through?
To find out, we connect with our first guest to comment on the matter
we’re live at the Pentopticon with General Baxter,
General – Son! – Good to have you back again with us
explain why the State is spying on us? – My Fellow Oceanians,
As you know, we’ve always been at war with Eurasia…
or is it Eastasia? Either way, it’s war ‘n we need division to wage it!
but now the proles are connecting online bypassing these
illusory divisions of race, religion and nationality…
– Sounds grand to me… – It’s a catastrophe!
Centuries of hard work are being undone, profits are vanishing
And it’s due to the internet, it’s empowering humanity
we need to get this SNAFU under control; rapidly.
– How? – Behold the latest weapon in the War of Terror
our greatest invention since nine eleven
guaranteed to keep us free and safe forever
i give you The Surveillance State, ladies and generals.
Our secret wires log your key style
monitor every single number on your speed dial
rewind straight to your position with facial recognition,
and pinpoint you within point oh-three of a mile!
we’ve put eyes everywhere without consulting you,
keeping you safe, whether or not you want us to.
Soon there’ll be no freedoms left for threatening.
Then we’ll have won the war! Take that Terrorism!
– Brilliant, thank you General, we now interview
Our resident guru, Terence Moonseed, for a different view
– Greetings. – How does this situation look?
– I have one word for you, Robert: doubleplusungood!
The world populace of seven point four billion are all heading in
the direction of Orwellian totalitarian oblivion
My voice is hoarse yelling about Stellar Winds cold chilling em
And TrapWire weaving through the world wide web we all dwelling in
Face it: the all-seeing eye’s in all of our Facebooks like a virus
and in these Eye-phones, with Siri, or should I say “Iris”.
And next in line is RFID devices and mind chips
triggered by Chemtrails the planes spray the sky with.
This time it’s too far: check out the base they’re building in Utah
where they’ll be storing all ya data for over a century; it’s Fubar!
And under the outback is an entire tunnel of wires,
an ECHELON base called Pine Gap, to hijack our Mother Gaia.
– Hey, maybe your mother’s gayer! – Boo hoo!
Why don’t you just kill yourself like most of your troops do!
– That’s it, now you’re on the Cast Iron list
– Hang on, General, why weren’t we informed about this?
– Sorry we didn’t tell you about our grand plan before,
it was meant to be a surprise, under wraps and in store.
But some spoilsports had to go and ruin it for all
by blowin’ whistles, in spite of the damn law.
– Bill Binney and Thomas Drake are Trailblazers for leaking these tactics…
– Hey, civil-liberty fagtivists… err, activists:
this is all legal: anything we do now actually is!
– How did… – You can’t question my authorit-ah, thanks to this.
– And that shit’s global, people! in Australia it’s now legal
for the government to store all SMS’s, searches and emails…
Australians, it’s taking place under your nose
unless you wake up, all your data are belong to ASIO.
– Come on! everyone knows: you can trust the government now
If you’ve got nothing to hide, you got nothing to worry about
– That might be the case with things that are happening now,
because most people agree with most of the laws that are being handed down.
But once the Illuminati reveal their agenda for you
this surveillance will enforce laws you no longer consent to,
but by then it’ll be too late to protest too
and anything you’ve ever said, typed or browsed can and will be used against you.
– I’m confused, so what should we do then?
– What should we do? Nothing! this is all an illusion,
It’s just a ride, a delusion, the matrix, the Maya deceiving us.
– Ah, you hippies really make our job so much easier…
– Sorry to interrupt but we’re picking up
a signal from beyond the space-time continuum
Quick, switch on the Juice Channelling Portal…..
…………….Wait……. is that…… George Orwell?!
– Good day to you – Wow …what do we owe this honour to?
– I tried to warn you noobs, but I see you are actually fools
or else you thought this was an instruction manual.
– Yes, ahem… so can you advise us? What would you have us do?
– An open and universal internet is the most effective tool you have
to address the issues that afflict the world at hand
therefore, protecting it is the most essential task that stands
before your generation – I think I understand… – hush, man
You must not lose the internet. Heed this mantra:
‘who controls the Internet, controls the data
and who controls the data, controls the future’
– We’re losing you – I leave you with a tool to use…
– An onion? – Don’t be simple, Robert, this is but a simile
It stands for ‘Tor’ – Tor? – Google it! It’s for anonimity:
this onion router open network helps considerably against tyrranny
But its abilities only work if all you f***kers use it consistently
and even if you don’t use it, run it so its force swells.
– Thanks, Mr. Orwell – From now on call me: George Torwell
if we’d had such tools when I wrote this, well
It would’ve been so much simpler to tell Big Brother to go f**k himself,
the motherf***king, c***-sucking piece of sh[…]
– Thanks, George Torwell, for manifesting direct from this
memory hole of history, to impress on us these messages.
We’re told we need safety; which is precious, yes,
but can a society that can enforce all its laws ever progress?
Hindsight shows that many figures guilty of “thought-crime”
turned out to be luminaries and heroes, before their time.
But if a surveillance state had reigned then in this form and design
Just think of all the progress we may’ve all been denied:
Could lobbies for women’s or gay rights have appeared and thrived
Would revolutionary ideals have materialised
Would science have pioneered or even survived,
If every word had been monitored by thought police and spies?
Big Brother brings chilling effects, freezing our collective hopes
he doesn’t protect our safety, but protects the status quo,
and threatens this internet, the one channel yet uncontrolled
whose openness we are now called upon to effect and uphold.
Juice Rap News: Episode 15 – Big Brother is WWWatching You. September 2012 rocks around with some crucial developments in the ongoing struggle over the future of the internet. Will it remain the one open frequency where humanity can bypass filters and barriers; or become the greatest spying machine ever imagined? The future is being decided as we type. Across Oceania, States have been erecting and installing measures to legalise the watching, tracking and storage of data of party-members and proles alike. If they proceed, will this place ever be the same? Join our plucky host Robert Foster as he conducts an incisive analysis of the situation at hand. Joining him are newly appointed Thought Police General at the Pentopticon, Darth O’Brien Baxter, and a surprisingly lucid Terence Winston Moonseed. Once again, in the midst of this Grand Human Experiment, we are forced to ask tough questions about our future. Will it involve a free internet which will continue to revolutionise the way the world communicates with itself? Or is our picture of the future a Boot stamping on this Human InterFace forever?
Written & created by Giordano Nanni & Hugo Farrant – on Wurundjeri Land in Melbourne, Australia.
– SUPPORT the creation of new episodes of Juice Rap News,
a show which relies on private donations: http://thejuicemedia.com/donate
– CREDITS:
* MAIN BEAT Produced by the Goat Beats http://www.thegoatbeats.com
* ORCHESTRATION & George-Orwell theme by Adrian Sergovich
* ARTWORK by Zoe Tame of http://visualtonic.com.au for images and website wizardry!
* EFFECTS & ANIMATIONS by Jonas Schweizer (See his work: http://www.indiegogo.com/CaribbeanNewcomer)
* PROPS: Thanks to Zoe Umlaut of Umlautronics for constructing the Juice Channeling Portal, worryingly close to spec. And to Gilles Gundermann for sourcing awesome Orwellian props.
* CAPTIONS: Merci to Koolfy from la Quadrature du Net, for creating English Captions.
* Thanks to Dave Abbott for technical advice; and deep gratitude to Lucy & Caitlin for all the ongoing support (and patience).
– TRANSLATIONS: If you would like to translate this episode into your language, please contact us via our website http://thejuicemedia.com/contact/ to obtain the SRT file.
* INTERNET ACTIVISM: We highly recommend checking out this great video-interview with Julian Assange (WikiLeaks), Jacob Appelbaum (Tor Project), Jeremie Zimmerman (La Quadrature du Net) and Andy Muller-Maguhn (Chaos Computer Club): assange.rt.com/cypherpunks-episode-eight-full-version-pt1
The New York City Police Department (NYPD) really has gone rogue; at least that’s what a high-level FBI official believes.
Among the 5 million emails the group Anonymous hacked from the servers of private intelligence firm Stratfor in February, one seems to not only confirm the controversial NYPD surveillance activities uncovered by the Associated Press, but hints at even worse civil liberties violations not yet disclosed. Anonymous later turned the emails over to WikiLeaks, with which Truthout has entered into an investigative partnership.
I keep telling you, you and I are going to laugh and raise a beer one day, when everything Intel (NYPD’s Intelligence Division) has been involved in during the last 10 years comes out – it always eventually comes out. They are going to make [former FBI Director J. Edgar] Hoover, COINTEL, Red Squads, etc look like rank amatures [sic] compared to some of the damn right felonious activity, and violations of US citizen’s rights they have been engaged in.
The description of alleged NYPD excesses was leveled by an unnamed FBI “senior official” in late November 2011, in an email sent to Fred Burton, vice president for intelligence at the Austin, Texas-based Stratfor and former deputy chief of the counterterrorism division at the State Department. Burton then sent the official’s email to what appears to be a listserv known as the “Alpha List.”
Burton did not identify the senior FBI official in the email he sent to the listserv. He describes him as a “close personal friend,” and claims he “taught him everything that he knows.” He also instructs members of the listserv not to publish the contents of the email and to use it only for background.
Stratfor, in a statement released after some of the emails were made public, said some of the emails “may be forged or altered to include inaccuracies; some may be authentic” but “having had our property stolen, we will not be victimized twice by submitting to questioning about them.”
What’s particularly stunning about the FBI senior official’s description of NYPD Intelligence Division activities, is how he connects them to previous instances when his own agency bent and broke the law in pursuit of intelligence on perceived enemies of the state throughout the 20th century – and concludes the NYPD Intelligence Division’s violations are worse. As Pulitzer Prize-winning author and former New York Times reporter Tim Weiner writes in his new book, “Enemies: A History of the FBI,” the Bureau has been “America’s closest counterpart” to a secret police.
In the email, Burton queried the FBI official to gain a better understanding of why the FBI declined to get involved with a case involving an alleged “lone wolf” terrorist and al-Qaeda sympathizer named Jose Pimentel, a 27-year-old American of Dominican descent, accused of trying to build three pipe bombs to detonate in New York City.
The FBI official responded by describing some turf and relationship issues between NYPD intelligence officials and NYPD and FBI investigators on New York City’s Joint Terrorism Task Force. It appears the FBI senior official was responding to a news story about Pimentel’s arrest published by the far-right leaning Newsmax, headlined “FBI- NYPD Tensions Highlighted in Terror Case,” which was attached to an email Stratfor analysts had sent around the office.
There are two issues with this case (off the record of course).
One is the source (confidential informant) was a nightmare and was completely driving the investigation. The only money, planning, materials etc the bad guy got was from … the source. The source was such a maron [sic], he smoked dope with the bad guy while wearing an NYPD body recorder – I heard in open source [sic] yesterday btw [by the way], he is going to be charged with drug possession based on the tape. Ought to go over very nicely when he testifies against the bad guy, don’t you think?
Issue two is that the real rub is between NYPD Intel, [Intelligence Division] and NYPD – JTTF [Joint Terrorism Task Force], not the FBI per se. The NYPD JTTF guys are in total sync with the Bureau and the rest of the partners who make up the JTTF – I understand there are something like 100 NYPD dics [detectives] assigned to the JTTF. NYPD Intel (Cohen, et al) on the other hand, are completely running their own pass patterns. They hate their brother NYPD dics on the JTTF and are trying to undermine them at every turn. They are also listening to [former CIA official David] Cohen [the head of NYPD’s Intelligence Division] who, near as anybody can tell, never had to make a criminal case or testify in court.
Joint Terrorism Task Forces are FBI-led counterterrorism investigative units that combine federal, state and local law enforcement in an effort to detect and investigate terrorist activity and prevent attacks before they occur. Originally created in the 1980s, the creation of JTTFs nationwide was accelerated after 9-11. Currently, 104 JTTFs operate nationwide and are considered one of the most important assets in the federal government’s muscular counterterrorism architecture.
After reviewing the Stratfor email thread for Truthout, Michael German, senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union’s Washington Legislative Office and a former FBI agent who infiltrated white supremacist terrorist organizations, described the FBI official’s criticism of the NYPD’s intelligence as “doubly ironic.”
“The FBI has engaged in widespread spying on the Muslim American community as well, including counting mosques and mapping Muslim neighborhoods, infiltrating mosques with informants, and using the guise of community outreach to spy on Muslim religious and advocacy organizations,” German told Truthout. “But more critically, because the FBI is charged with enforcing the civil rights laws in this country, including violations under color of law.
“This agent suggests the FBI knew the NYPD Intelligence agents were involved in widespread ‘felonious’ activity in violation of Americans’ civil rights, yet the FBI does not appear to have opened a civil rights investigation or done anything to stop this illegal activity. Our laws are designed to apply equally to protect all of us, including to protect us from illegal police activity. When the FBI abdicates this responsibility, all Americans suffer.”
Responding to the background information from the FBI senior official, Sean Noonan, a “tactical analyst” with Stratfor, wrote in an email sent to the “Alpha List,” “The point that the divide is within NYPD is contradictory to how they would like present it. [sic]. The way the pro-NYPD stories cover it is that NYPD CT/Intel [counterterrorism/intelligence] has successfully gained influence within the JTTF, almost to the point of having infiltrated it.”
German, however, tells Truthout that the rift between the NYPD’s intelligence analysts and NYPD investigators assigned to the FBI’s JTTF, as revealed by the senior FBI official’s email, is consistent with his experience.
“Criminal investigators, like those assigned to the JTTFs, typically find information produced by these intelligence analysts to be useless, whether they’re NYPD intelligence or FBI intelligence,” he said.
And no matter how bad the mutual acrimony between NYPD intelligence analysts and New York City’s JTTF has gotten, German isn’t surprised that the FBI has declined to investigate allegations of the NYPD Intelligence Division breaking the law.
“The FBI didn’t open investigations when it discovered other government agencies engaging in torture and illegal wiretapping either,” he said.
But eventually, the senior FBI official predicts in his email to Burton, the extent of NYPD’s alleged crimes will be revealed.
“As Rush Limbaugh likes to say, ‘don’t doubt me on this,'” he wrote at the end of his correspondence.
Matthew Harwood is a journalist in Washington, DC, and a frequent contributor to the Guardian’s Comment is Free. His writing has appeared in The Washington Monthly, Progress Magazine (U.K.) as well as online at Columbia Journalism Review, CommonDreams, and Alternet. He is currently working on a book about evangelical Christian rhetoric and aggressive US foreign policy. You can follow Matt on Twitter @mharwood31.
Jason Leopold is lead investigative reporter of Truthout. He is the author of the Los Angeles Times bestseller, News Junkie, a memoir. Visit jasonleopold.com for a preview. His most recent investigative report, “From Hopeful Immigrant to FBI Informant: The Inside Story of the Other Abu Zubaidah,” is now available as an ebook. Follow Jason on Twitter: @JasonLeopold.
Chemtrails vs. Contrails: Tune in to Separate the Fact from Fiction with the Chemtrail Situation. What is being sprayed? What is the Purpose? How is this Affecting the Weather and Earth’s Atmosphere? How is this Being Hidden from Public Knowledge. Which Companies are outsourcing this? And What does the Air Force know!?
Security professionals, geeks and hackers around the world are hosting a series of cryptography training sessions for the general public.
The ‘crytoparty’ sessions were born in Australia and kicked off last week in Sydney and Canberra along with two in the US and Germany.
Information security experts and privacy advocates of all political stripes have organised the causal gatherings to teach users how to use cryptography and anonymity tools including Tor, PGP and Cryptocat.
Multiple sessions were proposed in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Canberra, Perth and two in Queensland. A further 10 were organised across Europe, Asia, Hawaii and North America, while dozens of requests were placed for sessions in other states and countries.
The cryptoparties were born from a Twitter discussion late last month between security researchers and Sydney mum and privacy and online activist known by her handle Asher Wolf.
For Wolf, the sessions were a way to reignite technical discussions on cryptography.
“A lot of us missed out on Cypherpunk (an electronic technical mailing list) in the nineties, and we hope to create a new entry pathway into cryptography,” Wolf said.
“The Berlin party was taught by hardcore hackers while Sydney had a diverse range of people attending. The idea is to teach people who don’t crypto how to use it.”
The concept resonated with the online security and privacy community.
It took only hours for about a dozen sessions to spring up around the world on a dedicated wiki page following what was only a casual Twitter exchange between Wolf and others — now cryptoparty organisers.
“When I woke up in the morning, they were all there,” Wolf said.
There was no formal uniformity between each crytoparty. Some were hands-on, with users practising on laptops and tablets, while others were more theory-based with some organisers.
Each session runs for around five hours.
The free classes could accommodate a maximum of about 30 to 40 attendees. One of the first parties in the Southeastern US state of Tennessee had more than 100 people turn up to its afterparty, an event complete with music, beer and fire-twirling.
Anonymous has a way of releasing massive collections of information that raise many more questions than they answer.
Case in point: On Monday night, the segment of the hacker group that calls itself Antisec announced that it had dumped 1,000,001 unique device identifier numbers or UDIDs for Apple devices–the fingerprints that Apple, apps and ad networks use to identify the iPhone and iPads of individual users–that it claims to have stolen from the FBI. In a long statement posted with links to the data on the upload site Pastebin, the hackers said they had taken the Apple data from a much larger database of more than 12 million users’ personal information stored on an FBI computer.
While there’s no easy way to confirm the authenticity or the source of the released data, I downloaded the encrypted file and decrypted it, and it does seem to be an enormous list of 40-character strings made up of numbers and the letters A through F, just like Apple UDIDs. Each string is accompanied by a longer collection of characters that Anonymous says is an Apple Push Notification token and what appears to be a username and an indication as to whether the UDID is attached to an iPad, iPhone or iPod touch.
In their message, posted initially in the Anonymous twitter feed AnonymousIRC, the hackers say they used a vulnerability in Java to access the data on an FBI Dell laptop in March of this year. They say the database included not only the UDIDs, but also “user names, name of device, type of device, Apple Push Notification Service tokens, zipcodes, cellphone numbers, addresses, etc.” Anonymous claims that the amount of data about each users was highly variable, and that it only released enough data to the public “to help a significant amount of users to look if their device are listed there or not.”
The Antisec statement also took the opportunity to mock the recent appearance of NSA Director and General Keith Alexander at the hacker conference Defcon, where he made a recruiting pitch to attendees. “It was an amusing hypocritical attempt made by the system to flatter hackers into becoming tools for the state,” Anonymous’ statement reads. “We decided we’d help out Internet security by auditing FBI first.”
If the UDIDs are determined to be real, just what that means about law enforcement and Apple users’ privacy isn’t entirely clear. Much more than passwords or even email addresses, UDIDs are already spread around the Internet by app developers and advertisers–a study by one privacy researcher in 2011 found that 74% of the apps he tested sent a user’s UDID to a remote server. But the same researcher also found that five out of seven social gaming networks he tested allowed users to log in with only their UDID, making a stolen UDID equivalent to a stolen password.
“We never liked the concept of UDIDs since the beginning indeed,” reads the Anonymous statement. “Really bad decision from Apple. Fishy thingie.”
Regardless, if the FBI has in fact collected 12 million Apple UDIDs–or even just one million–it will have some explaining to do to privacy advocates. In its release, Anonymous argues that the massive dump of users’ personal information, which it says has been stripped of many of the most identifying details, is designed raise awareness of the FBI’s alleged gadget-tracking shenanigans. “…We will probably see their damage control teams going hard lobbying media with bullshits to discredit this,” the statement reads at one point. “But well, whatever, at least we tried and eventually, looking at the massive number of devices concerned, someone should care about it.”
For now, Anonymous refuses to answer more questions about its release–at least from the press. Before granting any interviews, it’s demanding that Gawker writer Adrian Chen, who has been especially critical of Anonymous, appears on Gawker’s home page in a “huge picture of him dressing a ballet tutu and shoe on the head.”
A 16-year-old high school student’s video report for his American Government class earned him an A+ from his teacher. It also yielded a visit from the FBI.
