It’s not the very first time Google has done business with America’s spy agencies. Long before it reportedly enlisted the help of the National Security Agency to secure its networks, Google sold equipment to the secret signals-intelligence group. In-Q-Tel backed the mapping firm Keyhole, which was bought by Google in 2004 — and then became the backbone for Google Earth.
This appears to be the first time, however, that the intelligence community and Google have funded the same startup, at the same time. No one is accusing Google of directly collaborating with the CIA. But the investments are bound to be fodder for critics of Google, who already see the search giant as overly cozy with the U.S. government, and worry that the company is starting to forget its “don’t be evil” mantra.
الجمعة، 30 يوليو 2010
Exclusive: Google, CIA Invest in ‘Future’ of Web Monitoring
U.S. Spies Buy Stake in Firm That Monitors Blogs, Tweets
America’s spy agencies want to read your blog posts, keep track of your Twitter updates — even check out your book reviews on Amazon.
In-Q-Tel, the investment arm of the CIA and the wider intelligence community, is putting cash into Visible Technologies, a software firm that specializes in monitoring social media. It’s part of a larger movement within the spy services to get better at using ”open source intelligence” — information that’s publicly available, but often hidden in the flood of TV shows, newspaper articles, blog posts, online videos and radio reports generated every day.
الخميس، 29 يوليو 2010
WikiLeaks Iraq Cache More Than Three Times As Big
Three sources familiar with the Iraq material in WikiLeaks hands, requesting anonymity to discuss what they described as highly sensitive information, say it’s similar to this week’s Afghanistan material, consisting largely of field reports from U.S. military personnel and classified no higher than the "secret" level. According to one of the sources, the Iraq material portrays U.S. forces being involved in a "bloodbath," but some of the most disturbing material relates to the abusive treatment of detainees not by Americans but by Iraqi security forces, the source says.
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U.S. pays Afghan media to run friendly stories
Several reports from Army psychological operations units and provincial reconstruction teams (also known as PRTs, civilian-military hybrids tasked with rebuilding Afghanistan) show that local Afghan radio stations were under contract to air content produced by the United States. Other reports show U.S. military personnel apparently referring to Afghan reporters as "our journalists" and directing them in how to do their jobs.
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Afghan War Diary
The Afghan War Diary an extraordinary secret compendium of over 91,000 reports covering the war in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2010. The reports describe the majority of lethal military actions involving the United States military. They include the number of persons internally stated to be killed, wounded, or detained during each action, together with the precise geographical location of each event, and the military units involved and major weapon systems used
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الاثنين، 26 يوليو 2010
LEAKED FILES OFFER GRIM VIEW OF AFGHAN WAR
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اعتصام سلمي من اجل فيروز
ينظم عشاق المطربة اللبنانية فيروز في بيروت وعدة مدن أخرى في الشرق الاوسط اليوم الاثنين اعتصاما سلميا للتضامن معها واحتجاجا على منعها من قبل ورثة منصور الرحباني من إعادة تقديم أغاني ومسرحيات الاخوين رحباني. وأوضح مازن عواد وهو ناشط بيئي وأحد المنظمين أن الاعتصام سينظم بالتعاون مع مجموعة من محبي فيروز امام متحف بيروت بعد ظهر الاثنين ويتوقع ان يشارك فيه اكثر من 2000 شخص من بينهم فنانون واعلاميون ومثقفون ومحبو فيروز.
أضاف عواد أن الاعتصام هو عبارة عن تجمع صامت على وقع صوت أغاني فيروز وبالتزامن مع تجمعات أخرى في القاهرة وحيفا وغيرهما من المدن.
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الأحد، 25 يوليو 2010
The Great Myth: Counterinsurgency
Then “hearts and minds” turns nasty
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Project FICKLE
Each sub-group has found a comfortable niche. Some have found several. But the Washington Post study concluded that it is much less clear whether all the expensive busywork is actually making the American people safer.
Contractors commonly are big on acronym labels. For this particular self-licking ice cream cone, FICKLE could be the generic acronym
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السبت، 24 يوليو 2010
Cancer Rate In Fallujah Worse Than Hiroshima
The Iraqi city of Fallujah continues to suffer the ghastly consequences of a US military onslaught late in 2004.
According to the authors of a new study, “Cancer, Infant Mortality and Birth Sex-Ratio in Fallujah, Iraq 2005–2009,” the people of Fallujah are experiencing higher rates of cancer, leukemia, infant mortality, and sexual mutations than those recorded among survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the years after those Japanese cities were incinerated by US atomic bomb strikes in 1945.
Mental Illness Increases For U.S. Troops
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are taking a toll on minds as well as bodies, statistics released by the U.S. Army indicate
Downflall of the Dollar: China may switch to currency basket
In comments posted to the People's Bank of China Web site, the central bank's Deputy Gov. Hu Xiaolian said using a basket of currencies from the nation's top trading partners would allow the Chinese yuan to better reflect trading fundamentals.
"Compared with pegging to a single currency, the exchange-rate regime with reference to a basket of currencies will help adjust exports and imports, current account, and balance of payment in a more effective manner," she said.
American Marines Jews prefer to die for Israel
Until a year ago, Schlakman's future seemed quite clear. He worked out five times a week in order to get accepted into the Marines. However, he ultimately landed two months ago at Ben Gurion Airport with the first group of soldiers organized by Aish Machal.
"Nathaniel told me that if he's going to take a bullet, he'd rather take one in Israel, for the country," said Aharon-Yosef Katsof, who found Schlakman in the religious school in which he studied.
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Oil, Blood Money, and Blair's Last Scandal
There is no question there was a plot. The question is whether the plot worked,or whether it got what it wanted by a remarkable coincidence
By Johann Hari
Is your life worth more to your government than a few pence added to BP's share price? At first, this will sound like a strange question. But sometimes there is a news story that lays out the priorities that drive our governments once the doors are closed and the cameras are switched off. The story of the attempt to trade the Lockerbie bomber for oil is one of those moments.
Let's start in the deserts of Iraq – because the Lockerbie deal might just reveal what really happened there.