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The US government has paid at least £100m to the UK spy agency GCHQ over the last three years to secure access to and influence over Britain's intelligence gathering programmes. The top secret payments are set out in documents which make clear that the Americans expect a return on the investment, and that GCHQ has to work hard to meet their demands. "GCHQ must pull its weight and be seen to pull its weight," a GCHQ strategy briefing said. The funding underlines the closeness of the relationship between GCHQ and its US equivalent, the National Security Agency. But it will...

Gov. Mark Dayton on Tuesday was steadfast in his insistence that he did the right thing by keeping the target of his economic development trip last week a mystery. "I went because I am trying to get jobs for Minnesota and part of that is meeting with businesses who don’t share my willingness to be put in the public limelight," he told reporters on Tuesday, the first day he met with the media since his mystery mission. "If I am going to have to disclose where I went in that kind of situation, it is going to cost me the...

“Logic may indeed be unshakeable, but it cannot withstand a man who is determined to live. Where was the judge he had never seen? Where was the High Court he had never reached? He raised his hands and spread out all his fingers. But the hands of one of the men closed round his throat, just as the other drove the knife deep into his heart and turned it twice.” – Franz Kafka, The Trial In a bizarre and ludicrous attempt at “transparency,” the Obama administration has announced that it asked a secret court to approve a secret order to...

Tax reform is apparently so treacherous for senators these days that they require the utmost protection from the public -- half a century's worth. The leaders of the Senate Finance Committee last month asked senators to submit written proposals detailing tax breaks they'd like to see preserved once the tax code is reformed and explain why. The point was to help inform committee leaders in their efforts to craft a tax reform bill. The request apparently wasn't embraced, and the committee has now promised skittish senators that their proposals will be kept secret for 50 years. A memo sent out...

From a U.S. DoD command to its employees, who have clearances to look at classified material: All Hands, WARNING: CLASSIFIED INFO ON PUBLIC WEB SITE - DO NOT OPEN!! There is a posting on "The Washington Post" home page titled "The NSA slide you have never seen" and another on the Drudge Report titled "Upstream: US Taps Undersea Cables." DO NOT click on either of these links, 'cut and paste' the website address into another browser, or view by any other means, as this will cause a classified spillage or an incident, based on from where you accessed the information....

After you read this- you will wonder what country we are in. Tom Francois is an outspoken critic of Barack Hussein Obama- and has a robust Twitter presence. He also likes to dabble with his "paint" program to create funny cartoons. He has never threatened the President in any way, manner or form. On April 11, 2013, he heard relentless pounding on his door shouts of "Police!" The officers introduced themselves as members of The Secret Service and asked if they could "take a look around." Since Tom had nothing to hide (and he didn't want any return visits) -...

WASHINGTON — Former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.'s bid to seal parts of soon-to-be-filed court papers containing sensitive details about his medical condition was denied Tuesday, though the judge said the ex-lawmaker may ask again when the papers actually are filed. **SNIP** But Judge Jackson, citing local court rules governing criminal cases, denied the motion without prejudice, meaning he may make his request again. She said that without the actual memorandum she could not "make a reasoned judgment about the necessity for the order." She said Jackson could file the sentencing memorandum with an accompanying motion to seal and that it...

Following an Associated Press report that Obama administration appointees have "secret government email accounts," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney argued Tuesday that the accounts aren´t secret and, in fact, prior administrations have followed the practice of appointees having second government accounts. "Having alternate email addresses for cabinet secretaries and other high-profile officials makes eminent sense. If they are inundated in one account with either public emails, or spam or the like, then they can continue to use their

The Justice Department’s secret subpoena for AP phone records included the seizure of records for five reporters' cellphones and three home phones as well as two fax lines, a lawyer for the news organization tells NBC News. David Schulz, the chief lawyer for the AP, said the subpoenas also covered the records for 21 phone lines in five AP office lines -- including one for a dead phone line at office in Washington that had been shut down six years ago. The phone lines at four other offices – where 100 reporters worked — were also covered by the subpoenas,...

CLEMENTE: “No, there is a way. We certainly have ways in national security investigations to find out exactly what was said in that conversation. It’s not necessarily something that the FBI is going to want to present in court, but it may help lead the investigation and/or lead to questioning of her. We certainly can find that out. BURNETT: “So they can actually get that? People are saying, look, that is incredible. CLEMENTE: “No, welcome to America. All of that stuff is being captured as we speak whether we know it or like it or not.” >Snip< “All of that...

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Secret Service says it has intercepted a letter addressed to President Barack Obama that contained a "suspicious substance." Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan says the letter was intercepted at a facility away from the White House. He says the letter was received Tuesday. The letter comes a day after lawmakers said a letter was mailed to Sen. Roger Wicker that tested positive for poisonous ricin. Tensions have been high in Washington and across the country since the deadly bombings on Monday at the Boston Marathon that killed three people and injured more than 170. Police have...

GOLDEN, Colo. — Inside a futuristic, white concrete campus here that looks like some top secret military organization, the world’s scientists gather to reduce mankind’s carbon footprint and ensure a bright, green future for all. Renewable Energy Lab says is going on. But lately the Department of Energy outpost has become infamous for top salaries of more than $500,000 a year and a staffer who went bonkers on social media late last year, threatening to get a gun and go on a “murderous rampage” against the staff of Watchdog.org. Even industry insiders aren’t sure what goes on at the NREL...

First the US fanfared the placement of two F-22 Raptors in the Osan airbase of South Korea. Then it demonstratively launched a B-2 stealth bomber on a training mission over a South Korean gunnery range. Then it deployed an anti-ballistic missile defense system to Guam and positioned two guided-missile destroyers in the waters near Korea. And now, courtesy of the Aviationist, we learn that the Pentagon has escalated once more in an ongoing cat and mouse game with North Korea, of who blinks first, and dispatched several B-1 ("Bone") Lancer strategic long-range bombers to Andersen Air Force Base in Guam....

What if the contest over the future of the GOP is not between Tea Party ideologues and moderate establishment-types? What if the real contest is between Republicans who care about winning elections and profiteers who care about making consulting fees off the political process?

There's A Secret Internet For Drug Dealers, Assassins, And Pedophiles Dylan LoveMarch 6, 2013, 7:00 AMThe average person is only aware of a fraction of the Internet. There is more content out there than any conventional browser can access. These sites are termed "Deep Web" or "Undernet." They exist outside the scope of Google, Facebook, and your RSS reader. It's the digital equivalent of a thriving city that's been domed over and cordoned off. These sites are locked down so tightly that you need a special browser to access them. It's called the Tor browser, and it offers you an...

The inquiry into the former head of the Catholic Church in Scotland is not likely to begin until after a new Pope is chosen - a process starting later. On Sunday, the cardinal apologised to the Church and the people of Scotland. He resigned after three priests and a former priest had alleged improper behaviour dating back to the 1980s. Cardinal O'Brien was Britain's most senior Roman Catholic cleric until he stood down as the Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh last month. BBC religious affairs correspondent Robert Pigott says the cardinal has not been accused of anything illegal, so...

On Thursday, Senate sources told Breitbart News exclusively that they have been informed that one of the reasons that President Barack Obama’s nominee for Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, has not turned over requested documents on his sources of foreign funding is that one of the names listed is a group purportedly called “Friends of Hamas.” Yesterday, 25 senators sent a letter to Hagel demanding information on his foreign funding. Hagel has refused all such requests, prompting the senators to state, “in the judgment of the undersigned, a Committee vote on your nomination should not occur unless and until you...

How To Fly A U-2 Spy Plane Got your eye on a sweet used '59 U-2 spy plane you saw on Craigslist? Would you go ahead and take the plunge if you just, you know, knew how to fly it? Then boy, are you in luck. That's because a couple days ago an entire flight manual for the U-2 from 1959 was declassified and released by the CIA. You can tell it's declassified because on each page where the word "secret" appears, someone has carefully drawn a line through it. We've got a copy here for you. The U-2 is,...

**SNIP** A real scandal broke out when it became known that the family of a GRS agent who was killed during the attack on the embassy in Benghazi, Glen Doherty, hasn’t yet received any compensation from the CIS. The CIS officials say that Doherty was not employed permanently, and, according to the CIS’s regulations, pensions and compensations are provided only to the agency’s permanent employees and their families. Now, because Doherty’s family has received no compensation, it has to pay large debts. This story may undermine not only the CIA’s prestige, but also that of the US government. After all,...

COMPLETE TITLE: Government Scientist Threatens “Murderous Rampage” After Watchdog.org Exposes Massive Spending at Secret Junk Science Lab ~ ~ ~ ~ Nutty Professor Kerrilee Ann Crosby threatened a “murderous rampage” after a conservative group exposed massive spending at a secret green junk science lab.Watchdog.org reported: A woman angered by a Watchdog investigation into the government lab where she works retaliated by threatening mass murder against this news organization in several Twitter posts. “Have you ever felt like going on a murderous rampage? Start at @WatchdogCO ‘s offices. They perpetuate lies like this,” Kerrilee Ann Crosby tweeted last month while working...