Tag Archives: spying

REF – “First they came for the journalist . . . .”

15 Friday Nov 2013

Posted by in Fast News Share, Free Speech, Journalism, Political Spychology, Referral

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What is in my head is my intellectual property. There will be no flash drive, no research notes, nothing to find that is digital. I am done with digital archives. As an ethical journalist I must retain source confidentiality. But more importantly, I must quarantine information that is incomplete, of a sensitive nature, or simply not ready for redistribution to the general public. They are coming for the journalist…

First they came for the journalist… | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) – Tammy Swofford – 11/8/2013.

Web-based “open source” political analysis from the “second row seat to history” (mine) need not be either so paranoid or secretive: our sources are indeed out in the open.

For the journalist — the real journalist — on the street, however, and chasing diplomacy and war stories, or just the inside track on, say, the Muslim Brotherhood, the worry with what to do with the HUMINT equivalent of a powder keg of new information would seem worth consideration in association with all channels digital and vulnerable to prying robots.

The right-side of the American political psyche, that which has made a fetish of the demonizing of President Barrack Hussein Obama (oh my), has been scratching its collective head — at least the part of it that is not a part of Booz Allen and other Beltway Incognitos feeding at the annual $52 billion Black Budget trough — over the American capacity for snooping through the e-mail and such.

Reminder: Edward Snowden is now working for Vladimir Putin in a post-revolutionary Russia being driven back toward the familiars of authoritarian oligarchy and nascent Big Brother Government.

Putin’s Snowden strategy: three views | World | DW.DE | 12.11.2013

Never mind Uncle Sam.

Uncle Mao and Uncle Vlad and a lot of other uncles — even if fictitious like Uncle Bond — have their own share of questions, relevant technology, and college and graduate students (!) through which to answer them.

Foreign Spies Target U.S. Universities as FBI Seeks Campus Help: Surveillance – Bloomberg – 4/5/2012

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“Political Spychology” has become a rich field for mining from outside the fringe of the secret clearance-holding community.

I mentioned “college and graduate students” tongue-and-cheek before having a look-see on the web.  In fiction, of course, and common academic history, there’s often the beatnik handing out the socialist newspaper on the corner, and there’s no end to student agitprop for this cause and that.  Le Carré employs them regularly (in real space, I’m on the final wandering pages of A Perfect Spy).  Today’s student spies would seem beyond political agitation: in fact, it’s better not to agitate at all while quietly picking up the secrets of the technology universe and sending some home, perhaps, before their time.

From the above cited Bloomberg link:

Foreigners on temporary visas make up more than 40 percent of graduate students in science and engineering at leading universities such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology. China sent 76,830 graduate students to U.S. universities in 2010-11, more than any other country and up almost 16 percent from the prior year. While the vast majority of international students, researchers and professors come to the U.S. for legitimate reasons, a small number — voluntarily or under pressure — may be supplying information to intelligence services. In addition, more Americans are heading overseas for schooling, becoming potential targets for recruitment by foreign governments.

The Jihad obsessives stir the mud in the water some as they make their way upstream into the inner circles of Arab-Muslim and Islamofascist worldviews and for that may well have cause for worry as regards state tapping.  Be that as it may be, government at every level would seem out ahead of them, and that as perhaps it should be.

The Associated Press has revealed the New York City Police Department monitored Muslim college students at schools throughout the Northeast, including Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania. In one case, the NYPD sent an undercover agent on a whitewater rafting trip in upstate New York, where he recorded students’ names and noted in police intelligence files how many times they prayed.

Spying on Campus: New York Police Caught Monitoring Muslim Student Groups Throughout Northeast | Democracy Now! – 2/21/2012

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When on October 1, 2013, Samantha Bowden crept unannounced into the classroom of University of Central Florida communications professor Jonathan Matusitz, she wasn’t hoping to advance her education on the sly. Rather, Bowden, the communication and outreach director for the Florida branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-FL), was doing something of which Campus Watch has been frequently accused, but has never done: spying on a professor in an effort to embarrass him and, with luck, even harm his career.

Spies in the Classroom: CAIR vs. Campus Watch | FrontPage Magazine – 10/28/2013.

Related Reference

The Department of Homeland Security Helped Itself to a Journalist’s Documents | VICE United States – 10/28/2013.

NZ Disputes Report That it Spied on Journalist | InHomelandSecurity.com – News & Analysis of Critical Issues in Terrorism & Homeland Defense – 7/29/2013: WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — “New Zealand on Monday disputed a newspaper report saying its military conspired with U.S. spy agencies to monitor a freelance journalist in Afghanistan, a report that has provoked concerns over how surveillance programs revealed by National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden might be used to spy on reporters.”

Department Of Homeland Security Schemed To Spy On Political Opponents – 2/18/2012.

Is Homeland Security Spying on You? | The Investigative Fund – 6/6/2013: “ITRR turned its attention to law-abiding activist groups including Tea Party protesters, pro-life activists, and anti-fracking environmental organizations. The bulletins included information about when and where local environmental groups would be meeting, upcoming protests, and anti-fracking activists’ internal strategy.”

Homeland Security Given Green Light to Monitor American Journalists | TheBlaze.com – 1/9/2012:

Under the National Operations Center (NOC)’s Media Monitoring Initiative that emerged from the Department of Homeland Security in November, Washington has writtenpermission to collect and retain personal information from journalists, news anchors, reporters or anyone who uses “traditional and/or social media in real time to keep their audience situationally aware and informed.”

According to DHS, the definition of personal identifiable information can consist of any intellect “that permits the identity of an individual to be directly or indirectly inferred, including any information which is linked or linkable to that individual.”

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U.S. spy agencies mounted 231 offensive cyber-operations in 2011, documents show – Washington Post – 8/30/2013

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Information Warfare: The New Russian Cyber War Force – 9/8/2013: “Noting what’s going on in China and the United States, the Russians have decided to catch up.”

US, Russia to install “cyber-hotline” to prevent accidental cyberwar | Ars Technica – 6/18/2013.

Category:Russian intelligence agencies – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Category:Foreign Intelligence Service (Russia) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Russian influence operations in the United States – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sergei Tretyakov (intelligence officer) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Cyberwarfare/Cyberintelligence thread – Military Current Events – tank-net.com – 3/28/2009

Chinese intelligence activity abroad – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: “The United States believes the Chinese military has been developing network technology in recent years in order to perform espionage on other nations. Several cases of computer intrusions suspected of Chinese involvement have been found in various countries including Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, India and the United States.”

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Spies for Hire: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing: Tim Shorrock, Dick Hill: 9781400157723: Amazon.com: Books

Warily, Schools Watch Students on the Internet – NYTimes.com – 10/28/2013.

[VIDEO] College students ask President Obama to spy on FOX NEWS employees – 6/17/2013.

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Another Note on Intelligence as a Language Issue

06 Wednesday Nov 2013

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Philology, Philosophy, Political Spychology, Politics, Psychology, Religion

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The urgent post-9/11 intelligence directive became: “Do more, do better, do it differently, and do it now.” In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing—a scant two months before Snowden’s first leaks—the FBI was accused of not doing enough to track suspected terrorist sympathizers (even though those suspicions had come from the Russian intelligence service formerly known as the KGB). Two events, two contradictory reactions by the American public: one demanding that the government take action to identify and defeat terrorist threats, the other wary and untrusting of that same government.

What It Takes: In Defense of the NSA | World Affairs Journal – November/December 2013.

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Burning Man 2013 : Truth is Beauty – YouTube – Posted 9/2/2013.

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When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say’st,
‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.’

625. Ode on a Grecian Urn. John Keats. The Oxford Book of English Verse

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Truth IS beautiful.

Deception is what is ugly.

Those who promote fear and do so with deceit also on occasion promote the “black swan” theory, the idea that nature produces an improbable event — like life on earth, for example, or two schnooks setting off compression cooker bombs cruelly designed to cut the legs from beneath marathon runners.

The grim review of improvised explosive devices deployed to encourage the adoption of “Islamic values” — or to discourage and subjugate others in the name of Islam — suggests such events are less “black swans”, or “bolts out of the blue” — another trite analog that works — than whole flocks of malevolent black crows.

Sorry crows.

We know when Hitchcock isn’t maligning you, you’re actually playful creatures.

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In online chatyping, the subject of secrecy in Jihad / anti-Jihad activities and other spheres has come up, and I’ve playfully suggested the obvious: change computers and location, persona and voice.

Simple.

The day of the jackals has arrived.

Revert thoughts and data to paper — then burn the paper and rely on memory.

Some professions, say the performing arts, place premiums on memorization as the fundamental part of the craft.

Notably, in English literary arts, a part of the graduate examinations involve questions about who you know and what you know about them, but “who” and “them” may number among the thousands of characters of historic fictions.

In Arabic literature, I am guessing, the “who” and “them” may be the souls legend from earlier generations.

Indeed, my favorite correspondent on many subtopics Islamic suggests that operational code will only drill more deeply into remote corners of Islamic scripture, commentary, and law.  The scholars of interest (believing themselves ” . . . more powerful against the devil than one thousand worshipers”) would seem suspected of having their own communications, command, and control language subculture, and that in Arabic, within the depths of Arabic, and tucked away and harbored like precious and useful intellectual metal.

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Beginning with George Washington’s first State of the Union Address, in which he requested a secret fund for clandestine activities, intelligence has been an instrument to achieve the broad goals of the American people and the policies advanced by their duly elected representatives.

What It Takes: In Defense of the NSA | World Affairs Journal (as cited above)

Deception is easy.

Put on a mask and other elements of costume; alter the walk and the talk; step out of primary character and into some other creature; and work it for a while.

Truth is hard.

One has to live with it and in the company of others who challenge and entertain about the same observations and perceptions.  If, whatever it may be, proves relentlessly reliable and obstreperously valid — true! and whether we like it or not — it acquires a stability all its own and needs no help by way of arms, punishments, and threats.

The truth is not belief but a stubborn “is” and unmindful and uncaring of whatever human investment may be in it or not.

In the quotation section to the left of where you’re reading, you will find this from Maimonides:

“Truth does not become more true if the whole world were to accept it; nor does it become less true if the whole world were to reject it.”

And I thought I was being original.

Be that as it may, the deceitful, I believe, persist in bending truth to will, the better to beatify and glorify themselves, to make themselves legend, eternally regarded — and that if not in greater social realities than their own heads and small and deeply isolated circles.

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In recent months also, I have read of lineage traced back to King David, an argument for the divine allocation of the right to rule over others.

No cyber or real space visit to a sanitarium was involved.

As a Jew, I have been gently but firmly reminded of God’s demands for animal sacrifice and the restoration of Judaism to literal Levitican standards.

Again, no cyber or real space visit to a sanitarium was involved.

If such beliefs, levers, and sentiments have been suspended by mind in the language cherished by some minds, in just how many heads do the same arrangements persist?

What was read?

What was heard?

What was consequently formulated (about royal bloodlines, say, or irrational obligations and rituals)?

While I believe the human capacity for language invention and the invention of language-congruent cultural behavior bounded only by the necessities of place and responses to them plus desire and its many facets, I believe also that symbolic arrangements in language may be mapped, comprehended, and remapped.  When that remapping has taken place in the natural development of a culture, and, say, “twerking” makes its way from youth novelty to something boring old grandmother used to do, we note the remarkable ability and flexibility English has for adaptive evolution; when force comes to erase or overlay a culture and its language, we think of that as cultural warfare and the prize is what is prised from the possession of the minds targeted.

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In Tim Shorrock’s Spies for Hire, the annual  budget cited for secret U.S. intelligence operations in their totality was $52 billion.

I hope there is some money in that green ocean for poets.

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Alfred Hitchcock’s”The Birds” in 1 minute, and 40 seconds. – YouTube – Posted 12/4/2006.

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Syrian Air Base Whodunit — Bouncing Off the Surface of Today’s Big Blast

31 Thursday Oct 2013

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Israel, Journalism, Middle East, Politics, Regions, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey

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Channel 2 News reported that the attack’s target was a S-125 surface-to-air missiles battery.

Satellite images of the area obtained by Channel 2 show the Russian-made Neva missiles, as well as a SA-3 missile battery, that also includes a command center with a radar to track the missiles’ targets and broadcasting anthenas to track the missiles as they are launched. The missiles have a range of 35km. and a 70k. warhead.

Reports: Syrian air base destroyed in missile attack from sea | JPost | Israel News – 10/31/2013.

The casual reader Syrian war news may be subject to many impressions from the media but can no longer “see” or sort the chaos involved in Syria’s agony.

RT and the alternative press of which it has become a part will probably get in its digs as it did back in July by accusing Turkey of enabling an Israeli-borne attack on a shipment of Russian Yakhont anti-ship missiles.

Reference: INTERNATIONAL – Turkish FM denies Israel used Turkish base in Syria attack – 7/15/2013

Syrian President Bashar al Assad has made no secret of his contempt for Israel or his intentions to target the Jewish state with the intent of deflecting attention from his own failings.  A little more than a month again in the latest of rants, he had said, “We have weapons that could blindside Israel.”  Indeed, it’s possible, but it’s possible too that he will find himself with fewer of them this afternoon, which is not to say Israel is the only party that could have or would have done it.

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In the murky period associated with Assad’s chemical weapons deployment, the British seem to have alternately prepared for a strike on Syria and reversed tracks on the same.

Reference: SAS hunting Syrian missiles as Allies prepare for bombing blitz – Mirror Online – 8/28/2013; Cameron forced to rule out British attack on Syria after MPs reject motion | World news | The Guardian – 8/29/2013.

How far did that reversal go?

Did intelligence stand down?  Were agents retrieved?

Back in July, MI6 seems to have been worried about Assad’s chemical weapons stocks finding their way to the Al Qaeda affiliates operating in Syria and with Chinese and Russian meddling on the high tech side of the stew.

Reference: MI6 boss – ‘UK could face Syrian rebel gas attack’ – The Scotsman – 7/11/2013.

I would think it doubtful that British military and security operations have backed off the theater at all but rather gone about their missions more quietly than during the potential run-up to a punitive strike in relation to the chemical weapons imbroglio.

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Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan faces a dilemma. He is invested in a peace process at home with the Kurdish Workers’ Party, or PKK, and its imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan. And Turkey has a flourishing relationship with Iraqi Kurdistan, whose oil and natural gas it needs desperately. Yet the permissive attitude of the Turkish state toward the jihadists battling the Syrian Kurds has been a source of trouble for Erdogan. He has gone a long way toward keeping the jihadists at arm’s length.

The Kurds Get a Second Chance in Syria – Bloomberg – 10/30/2013.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has had to navigate the slim channel between NATO’s interests and those of the Muslim Brotherhood, on whose behalf he appears to be struggling in the Egyptian quarter of the middle east mess, and outright affiliation with the Al Qaeda affiliates that have apparently slipped across his borders to badger Christians and Kurds in Syria’s northern regions.

Who is cooperating with whom in Syria?

Whatever the true state of affairs may be as regards each aspect of the fighting in Syria, one probably will not find it on the front pages of newspapers.

The desk analysts consigned to perusing clippings may have cause to believe they’ve been left with looking over the shell of a very rotten egg.

Reference: The Spies Inside Damascus – By Ronen Bergman | Foreign Policy – 9/19/2013.

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I’d rather turn “data” into “information” than turn out lists, but data for lists comes fast and quick and paints its own picture.  This insert, another brief melange, might suggest how hot the spy games are getting around the mixed motivation fighting inside Syria.

German citizen charged with spying for Syria – 10/29/2013.

Top Syrian intelligence officer killed by rebels – Alarabiya.net English | Front Page – 10/17/2013.

Spies Against Armageddon by Dan Raviv and Yossi Melman – 10/16/2013; Jihadists flooding into northern Syria put Turkey on edge | Fox News – 10/15/2013.

German spies say Syria jets in Iran | Sky News Australia – 10/6/2013.

Australian spies confirmed chemical use on civilians by Syrian regime | News.com.au – 10/5/2013.

Networks of Spies Aid Syria Gas-Attack Probe – WSJ.com – 8/23/2013.

Sir John Sawers: Poor pay and conditions making Britain’s spies ‘unwilling to go the extra mile’ | Mail Online – 7/22/2013.

Nest of Spies: Syria detects ‘spy rocks’ lodged by Israel – Alarabiya.net English | Front Page – 4/1/2013.

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For more than four decades, Syria’s ruling family — President Bashar Assad and his late father, Hafez — has depended on informants — or the fear of them — to help keep the population in line.

“It was a regime of informants,” Aqidi said.

In Syria, fear of spies pervades rebel and government ranks alike – latimes.com – 10/24/2013.

In America’s entertainment culture, the statement “Trust no one” has developed a life all its own, but also one largely in jest; of course, with the post-9/11 domestic black operations elephant of a budget, that good humored acceptance of some potential invasive probing may change; however, for war torn Syria, there’s no humor or good natured winks to be found: the spies would seem to have swarmed one another’s offices and outposts.

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Mr. Obama delivered what U.S. officials describe as an unusually blunt message: The U.S. believed Turkey was letting arms and fighters flow into Syria indiscriminately and sometimes to the wrong rebels, including anti-Western jihadists.

Seated at Mr. Erdogan’s side was the man at the center of what caused the U.S.’s unease, Hakan Fidan, Turkey’s powerful spymaster and a driving force behind its efforts to supply the rebels and topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Turkey’s Spymaster Plots Own Course on Syria – WSJ.com – 10/10/2013.

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In unusually blunt public remarks, Prince Turki al-Faisal called Obama’s policies in Syria “lamentable” and ridiculed a U.S.-Russian deal to eliminate Assad’s chemical weapons. He suggested it was a ruse to let Obama avoid military action in Syria.

“The current charade of international control over Bashar’s chemical arsenal would be funny if it were not so blatantly perfidious. And designed not only to give Mr. Obama an opportunity to back down (from military strikes), but also to help Assad to butcher his people,” said Prince Turki, a member of the Saudi royal family and former director of Saudi intelligence.

Saudi Arabia warns of shift away from U.S. over Syria, Iran | Reuters – 10/22/2013.

Stop with the posturing, please.

Let the truth out.

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Today’s alternative and blithely anti-Semitic Far Gone and Leftward Press seems to be conflating today’s explosion 30 minutes south of Latakia with Israel and the old “Davy Crocket” tactical nuclear weapon.

I’m not waiting on the radiation reports.

The one thing certain about today’s blast is the real journalists are absent, the politically venal are present and active, and whatever pictures and news reports make into the still news vetting mainstream media tell very little about what has happened or what is happening in combat inside Syria.

Additional and Cited Reference In Loosely Reversed Chronological Order

Reports huge blast ‘destroys Syrian air defence base’ at Latakia; Israel blamed | Herald Sun – 10/31/2013.

“A Syrian Missile Base was Attacked” – 10/31/2013.

Massive Explosion at Syrian Base, Israel Blamed – Middle East – News – Israel National News – 10/31/2013.

Articles: British Progressives Join the Sunni-Shia War in Syria – 10/31/2013.

The Kurds Get a Second Chance in Syria – Bloomberg – 10/30/2013.

Kuwaiti paper: Israel bombed Syrian missile shipment to Hizballah – 10/23/2013.

Assad: We have weapons that could blindside Israel | The Times of Israel – 9/26/2013.

SAS hunting Syrian missiles as Allies prepare for bombing blitz – Mirror Online – 8/28/2013

US officials claim Israeli strike in Latakia missed some Yakhont missiles – Threat Matrix – 7/31/2013.

INTERNATIONAL – Turkish FM denies Israel used Turkish base in Syria attack – 7/15/2013: ““Turkey will neither be a part nor a partner of such ‘attacks.’ The ones who claim this want to damage Turkey’s power and reputation,” he said. “It is out of the question that Turkey and Israel are part of a joint military operation.”

MI6 boss – ‘UK could face Syrian rebel gas attack’ – The Scotsman – 7/11/2013.

Israel Air Force Targets SA-17 SAM sent to Hezbollah – Defense Update – Military Technology & Defense News – 1/31/2013.

A Note on the U.S. Domestic Submerged Black Intelligence Behemoth

29 Tuesday Oct 2013

Posted by in Political Spychology

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What is in my head is my intellectual property. There will be no flash drive, no research notes, nothing to find that is digital. I am done with digital archives.

Correspondence with Tammy Swofford, former LCDR USN, a nurse at Baylor Hospital and in her “spare time” a columnist for the Daily Times Pakistan and Economic Affairs Pakistan.

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The top-secret world the government created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work.

A hidden world, growing beyond control | washingtonpost.com – Updated to September 2010.

Top Secret America | washingtonpost.com — video: first narration: “You think you know America, but you don’t know top secret America.”

Monitoring America | washingtonpost.com

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From inducing paranoia in the bloggorati to upsetting the presidents of foreign states, the world would seem to have a yet emerging issue in the proliferation of every form of intrusive information extraction (or shall we just call it “spying”).

May no signal, whether contained or transmitted by gadget, tablet, computer, or phone, go unrecorded, even if unremarked.

As suggested by Ms. Swofford, the countermeasure to all of this may be to abandon electronic repositories and minimize note keeping.

Create no trails.

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Even on the cusp of dissection, which complete dissection The Washington Post has done quite well, one notices the menage made between elements of the national defense, intelligence, and law enforcement communities.  In essence, and as regards terrorism, the ultimate behavior of interest — whether it has to do with, say, breaking into parked vehicles at a mall during the holiday shopping season or blowing up the same mall — is criminal behavior.

Even so —

Maryland State Police and federal agents used a search warrant in an unrelated criminal investigation to seize the private reporting files of an award-winning former investigative journalist for The Washington Times who had exposed problems in the Homeland Security Department’s Federal Air Marshals Service.

Armed agents seize records of reporter, Washington Times prepares legal action – Washington Times – 10/25/2013.

On the U.S. domestic frontier of this new Black Intelligence Behemoth, opportunities for mischievous, suspicious, and vindictive behavior would seem rife.  Appearing in the news earlier this year:

NSA broke privacy rules thousands of times per year, audit finds – The Washington Post – 8/15/2013.

Feinstein: NSA hasn’t ‘intentionally abused its authority’ – 8/16/2013.

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The practice isn’t frequent — one official estimated a handful of cases in the last decade — but it’s common enough to garner its own spycraft label: LOVEINT.

NSA Officers Spy on Love Interests – Washington Wire – WSJ – 8/23/2013.

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The power garnered by NSA may make one wonder about the clout of the annual $52-billion intelligence industry overall.

From The Washington Post:

Generally, the NSA reveals nothing in public about its errors and infractions. The unclassified versions of the administration’s semiannual reports to Congress feature blacked-out pages under the headline “Statistical Data Relating to Compliance Incidents.”

Members of Congress may read the unredacted documents, but only in a special secure room, and they are not allowed to take notes. Fewer than 10 percent of lawmakers employ a staff member who has the security clearance to read the reports and provide advice about their meaning and significance.

NSA broke privacy rules thousands of times per year, audit finds – The Washington Post – 8/15/2013.

It appears here that a substantial part of government of, for, and by the people has been supplanted by what will probably remain unknown persons but much like ourselves . . . but how much, we don’t know and won’t.

The leader of the secret court that is supposed to provide critical oversight of the government’s vast spying programs said that its ability to do so is limited and that it must trust the government to report when it improperly spies on Americans.

Court: Ability to police U.S. spying program limited – The Washington Post – 8/15/2013.

Related: What to say, and not to say, to ‘our overseers’ – The Washington Post – 8/15/2013.

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I know this post will look haphazard and slap-dashed, but it’s just a glance at a profound shift in boundaries enabled by reliance on electronic communications and data processing.  In turn, and goosed by 9/11, the same appears to have given birth to a black intelligence campus of monstrous scale.

Odds ‘N’ Ends In No Particular Order

Armed agents seize records of reporter, Washington Times prepares legal action – Washington Times – 10/25/2013.

Top senator: Obama didn’t know of U.S. spying on Germany’s leader – CNN.com – 10/29/2013.

White House sees need for ‘constraints’ on NSA spying | Reuters – 10/28/2013.

NSA spied on 60 million phone calls in Spain: report  – NY Daily News – 10/28/2013.

Spies for Hire: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing: Tim Shorrock, Dick Hill: 9781400157723: Amazon.com: Books

NSA monitored calls of 35 world leaders after US official handed over contacts | World news | The Guardian – 10/24/2013.

Merkel spying claim: with allies like these, who needs enemies? | World news | theguardian.com – 10/23/2013.

The Intelligence National Security Alliance – Building a Stronger Intelligence Community / Homeland Security Intelligence Council / Council on Technology and Innovation / Intelligence Champions Council / Security Policy Reform Council (the goals of reform have nothing to do with reduction in research breadth, intensity, or reach) / SMART Change Task Force / Marketing and Communications Committee (“The committee’s guidance and experience helps strengthen INSA’s marketing and communications strategy, build brand awareness and tell INSA’s story while building relationships and generating membership “buzz.” — is it government, business, or Disneyland in there)?

Spy Agencies Under Heaviest Scrutiny Since Abuse Scandal of the ’70s – NYTimes.com – 7/25/2013.

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State and Major Urban Area Fusion Centers | Homeland Security

More About Fusion Centers | American Civil Liberties Union

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HSPI | Homeland Security Policy Institute (The George Washington University)

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An Offered Coin – “Political Spychology”

11 Wednesday Sep 2013

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Philology

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Permanent (if the money holds out) residence:

https://conflict-backchannels.com/coins-and-other-terms/political-spychology/

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Coined!

I believe the general public — and not merely the generally paranoid — have for a long time had a good sense about the world’s secret worlds, and that whether involving business (intelligence) or government (intelligence).  With an American cuckoo and two peacocks in, out, or avoiding dock, as it were, and publications like Spies for Hire, the dawning realization that our “military-industrial complex” includes a $52 billion annual spook bill may take some time developing weight.

Talk about “cloud computing”!

Involved are competitive urges — to “get the goods” on an adversary, alley, customer, or supplier (perhaps) — within an era of decaying or reorganizing cultural, political, and social boundaries.  The Ayatollah’s nuclear program, for example, may present an “existential threat” to mine, grant me that, in Israel, but the problem is with the Ayatollah’s power and ambitions bound up with nuclear weapons technology and not my hip Iranian friends on Facebook — or, for that matter, perhaps, here and reading, thinking, reconsidering, formulating, imagining, defining, bonding, separating, all in new ways.

New poetry.

Updated poetics.

The questions outside the box may not be too far from where they are inside the box: who’s looking at what with what expectations?

One of my correspondents wrote to me this morning, “I contend that with the NSA capabilities the Believers will drill more deeply into the bedrock of their faith for unbreakable codes.”

So they may.

Not too long ago, the same person had me scouring the Internet for radioactive clay disks (a Believer would understand).

Whaddayaknow . . . .

I see the link has gone private.  But that was then: I had to add “rock” to “radioactive” find the above memory serving analog.

Today’s environment has been affected by Fukushima Daiichi and, indeed, clay-related solutions may be involved in solving that disaster and show up tops today on similar searches — and then trust the National Security Agency (or Booz Allen and Hamilton — who knows?) to do similar things a billion times faster.

String theory.

And there are so many “strings” extant!

And some, I hope,  get the alphasoup metonymic overlay and tonal jumble just about right.

“Political Spychology” — has a nice ring to it.

Put it to use.

Your way.

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China’s had a bad case of patent contempt goin’ on, but I think it has so far avoided Enormous Public Presence as regards its spy programs, but both the U.S. and Russia have had their curious and free enough among journalists (not to mention again the three little birds that have so recently flown off their own electromagnetic disks) — and more to come, Polonium notwithstanding, I’m sure.  For those interested in the shadows built and cast by Big Governments, I recommend reading both Spies for Hire and The New Nobility.

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Snowden – Living At An Airport

26 Wednesday Jun 2013

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Russian President Vladimir Putin revealed Tuesday that the NSA whistleblower is in the“transit” zone of a Moscow airport. This is a security-controlled area where passengers gather to wait on their flights. Passengers cannot leave the area and enter Russia without proper documentation.

Underwood, Madison.  “Edward Snowden is trapped in a 2-star Russian airport with no bar; here are the reviews.” All Alabama, June 25, 2013.

Existential Reference

Snopes.  “Stranded at the Airport”: “Between 1988 and 2006, a man lived at a Paris airport.”  Here is his story on Wikipedia: “Mehren Karimi Nasseri“.

“As ABC Newsman Michael Finney explains it, Weissinger checked one bag too many and incurred a $60 fee that she couldn’t pay on the spot. She hadn’t expected the fees because her itinerary failed to mention them. For security/terrorist-related reasons her airline, U.S. Airways, wouldn’t let her abandon one of her bags at the airport, and they also wouldn’t let her pay the fees once she got to Idaho. So she missed her flight, which resulted in another fee. Then U.S. Airways told her she had to buy a brand-new ticket, which cost $1,000. And this is how she became trapped in the airport.”

Gawker.  “Broke 99 Percenter Trapped in Airport for Eight Terminal-Like Days.”  Around November 1, 2011.  Source: Finney, Michael.  “Woman gets stuck at SFO for 8 days over baggage fees.”  ABC Local, November 1, 2011.

I’ll give the next to last word here to the New York Daily News:

“It’s obvious to all that the FSB, the KGB’s successor agency, could easily transfer Snowden into U.S. custody if it wanted to, but it simply doesn’t want to because there is greater reward in seeing the world’s only superpower thunder and grumble like a mark who’s just lost his fortune in an elaborate con.”

My guess is Snowden’s story will morph from a tale about spying and totalitarianism into one about mental illness with an emphasis on narcissism or another axis involving grandiose and messianic delusions.

Evidently, China has turned out not much interested in Snowden after all, and while stuck in Moscow, he’s become something of a political hockey puck between Obama and Putin.

“Snowden is a free person,” Putin proclaimed during a news conference in Turku, Finland, where he feigned annoyance at getting dragged into the closely watched incident.

“I’d prefer not to deal with this issue at all,” he said. “It’s like shearing a piglet — too much squealing, too little wool.

Miller, S.A., “That swine!  Putin wants O to squeal like a pig over spy, calls NSA leaker ‘a free person’.”  New York Post, June 26, 2013.

Those Who Know very well know what they have been doing in the field of Global Signal Intelligence.

From the “Iran Curtain” (Iranian internal control of constituent communications) to Chinese patent theft to American domestic collection and foreign hacking, there are no secrets that remain undetected forever.  Instead, perhaps, there are only agreements, disagreements, and arrangements involving the uses of massively compiled data.

Trailer to the movie, Terminal:

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FNS: Whatchyadoin’, Bunky? Snoops Everywhere!

13 Thursday Jun 2013

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“This piece of information is significant for a number of reasons,” wrote Gallagher, but the most crucial perhaps is how it compares to Microsoft’s remarks last year. As RT wrote in 2012, Microsoft was awarded a patent that summer that provides for “legal intercept” technology that allows for agents to “silently copy communication transmitted via the communication session” without asking for user authorization.

Al-Rasub.  “NSA leaks hint Microsoft may have lied about Skype security.”  June 13, 2013.  Original: RT.

The rogues are going to need their own satellites.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called the massive U.S. surveillance programs, revealed last week by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, “generally practicable” and “the way a civilized society should go about fighting terrorism.”

Fisher, Max.  “Vladimir Putin defends the U.S. on spying programs, drones and Occupy Wall Street.”  The Washington Post, June 13, 2013.

For Russophiles, RT’s YouTube channel has a longer episode clip.

Other Reference

Both the wicked and the wise know that a thing can be hidden if it is not spoken about, or if it is spoken about, channeled selectively, or, effectively, not heard.

“SIGINT” is, for all intents, an international field probably skewed by growing electronic prowess.

Have my advertisers — that’s “MARKINT” for “Market Intelligence” I guess — gone too far tracking my shopping-related browsing and slipping into my online browsing experience repeated — and nuisance — reinforcing advertising?

After I’ve bought whatever it was I was looking at, I wish they would quit.

It must noted that 9/11 and the Boston Marathon attacks took place beneath extraordinary effort and traffic in security-minded organizations.  One may ask how either was possible if these systems were so powerful?  In at least two other instances, the shooting in Little Rock and the Fort Hood Massacre, it would seem “HUMINT” (yes, “Human Intelligence”) was just not sexy enough to promote the detention of either perpetrator before the fact.

Clayton, Mark.  “Obama pressured to confront China’s Xi Jinping on cyber spying (+video).  The Christian Science Monitor, June 7, 2013.

India.com.  “India fifth-largest target on US electronic spying list.”  June 10, 2013.

Global Research.  “NSA Leaks Help — Rather than Hurt — the United States.”  June 13, 2013.

Murphy, Dan.  “News flash: the NSA is spying on China.”  The Christian Science Monitor, June 13, 2013.

Wikipedia.  “Signals Intelligence”.