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China slams US report warning of spying by Beijing Mon Nov 23, 3:58 am ET BEIJING – Beijing on Monday criticized a U.S. government report that said Chinese spies are aggressively stealing American secrets, saying the report was "full of prejudice" and warning that it could damage US-China relations.The annual report by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission to lawmakers said last week that American officials believe Chinese spying is "growing in scale, intensity and sophistication" and urges Congress to review the U.S. ability to meet the "rising challenge" of Beijing's espionage. The report "ignores the facts and is full of prejudice and...

After seven years of forced silence, a government whistleblower is opening up on what she learned while working as a Turkish translator for the FBI in the wake of 9/11. In sworn testimony to attorneys on Aug. 8, Sibel Edmonds described a Pentagon where key personnel helped pass defense secrets to foreign agents or provided them names of knowledgeable officials who were vulnerable to blackmail or co-option. And firmly rooted in this espionage program in the 1990s, according to Edmonds’ deposition, were two men who, with the election of George W. Bush as president in 2000, found themselves in the...

Motorists should be forced to pay to drive on the busiest roads to slash greenhouse gas emissions, the Government's climate change watchdog says today. The Climate Change Committee, led by former CBI chief Lord Turner, wants ministers to introduce compulsory road pricing to prevent global warming. Under the controversial scheme, cars would be fitted with electronic tags and tracked either by satellite or roadside beacon. Charges would rise at times of peak congestion to around £1.50 a mile. In a report to MPs, the advisers called for a carbon revolution - with thousands of wind turbines, nuclear power stations...

Note: The following text is a quote: Jury Convicts Defense Department Official of Unlawful Communication of Classified Information and Making False Statements James Wilbur Fondren Jr., was convicted by a federal jury today on charges involving providing classified information to a man working with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and lying to the FBI about it. Fondren was convicted of one count of unlawfully communicating classified information to an agent of a foreign government and two counts of making false statements to the FBI. He was acquitted of two unlawful communication of classified information, one count of conspiracy to...

The Obama administration has for the first time set out its views on the controversial USA Patriot Act, telling lawmakers this week that legal approval of government surveillance methods scheduled to expire in December should be renewed, but leaving room to tweak the law to protect Americans' privacy. In a letter from Justice Department officials to key members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the administration recommended that Congress move swiftly with legislation that would protect the government's ability to collect a variety of business and credit card records and to monitor terrorism suspects with roving wiretaps. But Assistant Attorney General...

Obama White House Has Secret Plan To Harvest Personal Data From Social Networking Websites Submitted by Ken Boehm on Mon, 08/31/2009 - 19:07 Email to friendPrinter-friendlyNLPC has uncovered a plan by the White House New Media operation to hire a technology vendor to conduct a massive, secret effort to harvest personal information on millions of Americans from social networking websites. The information to be captured includes comments, tag lines, emails, audio, and video. The targeted sites include Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr and others – any space where the White House “maintains a presence.” In the course of investigating procurement...

Chuck Baldwin: There's no doubt that you shaped the culture.In the book, I notice a picture of you with Ron Radosh and his daughter at Karl Marx's tomb, High Gate Cemetery, London 1966. I take it that when that picture was taken you had quite an infatuation for Karl Marx.David Horowitz: Oh yea, I was a Marxist. And I describe in the book how when I was in London I was approached by the KGB. This agent took me to lunch and eventually asked me to spy for the Soviet Union. He put money in my pocket and so...

Savor the silence of America's self-serving champions of privacy. For once, the American Civil Liberties Union has nothing bad to say about the latest case of secret domestic surveillance -- because it was the ACLU that did the spying. Last week, The Washington Post reported on a new Justice Department inquiry into photographs of undercover CIA officials and other intelligence personnel taken by ACLU-sponsored researchers assisting the defense team of Guantanamo Bay detainees. According to the report, the pictures of covert American CIA officers -- "in some cases surreptitiously taken outside their homes" -- were shown to jihadi suspects tied...

Public Debate: Democrats, bloodied over their attempt to force health care "reform" on Americans, are looking more unreasonable and hysterical by the day. This isn't healthy for the republic. Their increasing anxiety and fear of failure are typified in the words of the leader of their party, who wants Republicans to keep their mouths shut while he "fixes" health care. "I don't want the folks who created the mess to do a lot of talking," the president said Thursday at a political rally in Virginia. "I want them to get out of the way so we can clean up the...

The White House strategy of turning supporters into snitches when they see "fishy" information about the health care debate may run afoul of the law, legal experts say. "The White House is in bit of a conundrum because of this privacy statute that prohibits the White House from collecting data and storing it on people who disagree with it," Judge Andrew Napolitano, a FOX News analyst, said Friday. "There's also a statute that requires the White House to retain all communications that it receives. It can't try to rewrite history by pretending it didn't receive anything," he said. "If the...

President Obama may have taken his efforts to discredit citizens protesting against ObamaCare a little too far. It is beginning to be reminiscent of the Richard Nixon administration's attempt to stifle dissent by spying on American citizens. Thirty-five years ago, President Richard Nixon claimed constitutional authority to wiretap Americans' phone calls.

The White House wants us to inform on those who are disseminating (what they consider as) misinformation about Obamacare. Let's accommodate them. Many of us have, no doubt, spoken with friends and neighbors about it the healthcare bill pending in the House. Invariably, some of those conversations have assumed a negative tone concerning the proposal to nationalize healthcare. So, in the spirit of civic responsibility and patriotism, let's inform on ourselves. We'll feel better if we do - I know I did. All one need do is send an email to flag@whitehouse.gov (I don't know what flag that refers to...

A Republican senator is calling for the White House to suspend a new project that asks members of the public to flag “fishy” claims about President Obama’s health care plans, arguing that it raises privacy concerns and will serve to chill free speech. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, is sending a letter to the White House today asking the president to “cease this program immediately” -- or to explain how Americans’ privacy will be protected if e-mails are forwarded to the White House as requested. “I am not aware of any precedent for a President asking American citizens to report their...

In 1930's Germany, the new socialist government of Adolf Hitler (NAZI National Socialist Workers' Party) began indoctrinating children in the quasi-military organization, the Hitler Youth, to inform on their parents should they overhear discussions subversive to the policies of the Leader. As the noose was tightened, local community organizers were appointed to watch their neighbors and were told to report subversive comments to the bureaucrats above them. Neighbors informed on neighbors, some for reasons of patriotism or loyalty, some from fear. A modern inquisition ensued; a terror to free thought and expression. Increasingly harsh penalties were meted out to those...

"When logged on to the CARS system, your computer is considered a Federal computer system and is the property of the U.S. Government. Any or all uses of this system and all files on this system may be intercepted, monitored, recorded, copied, audited, inspected and disclosed to authorized CARS, [Department of Transportation] and law enforcement personnel, as well as authorized officials of other agencies, both domestic and foreign."

CIA Director Leon Panetta has terminated a "very serious" covert program the spy agency kept secret from Congress for eight years, Rep. Jan Schakowsky, a House Intelligence subcommittee chairwoman, said Friday. Schakowsky is pressing for an immediate committee investigation of the classified program, which has not been described publicly. Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-TX), the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, has said he is considering an investigation. "The program is a very, very serious program and certainly deserved a serious debate at the time and through the years," Schakowsky said in an interview with The Associated Press. "But now it's...

The character Goldfinger may have been based on a German spymaster who plotted to blow up gold reserves at the Bank of England THE inspiration for Goldfinger, the arch villain created by Ian Fleming to rival James Bond, could have been a German spymaster who plotted to blow up gold reserves at the Bank of England. Andrew Cook, a historian who specialises in intelligence affairs, has found new evidence that suggests Auric Goldfinger’s fictional plans to destroy all the gold in Fort Knox may have been based on a conspiracy to bankrupt Britain on the eve of the first world...

The National Security Agency is facing renewed scrutiny over the extent of its domestic surveillance program, with critics in Congress saying its recent intercepts of the private telephone calls and e-mail messages of Americans are broader than previously acknowledged, current and former officials said. Brendan Smialowski for The New York Times Representative Rush Holt Readers' Comments Readers shared their thoughts on this article. Read All Comments (170) » The agency’s monitoring of domestic e-mail messages, in particular, has posed longstanding legal and logistical difficulties, the officials said. Since April, when it was disclosed that the intercepts of some private communications...

In spite of vilifying the Bush Administration during the '08 Presidential campaign for 'domestic spying' in response to 9/11, none other than the New York Times is reporting that Obama has continued these practices. Of course, the Times blames Bush. But the fact remains that a Democratic Congress is taking a look at email surveillance conducted by the NSA under Barack Obama.

Looks like the anti-Bushies lost another one this week when lawsuits against telecommunications companies claiming that they assisted the Bush administration in "illegally spying on Americans" were dismissed in San Francisco. Federal district judge Vaughn Walker ruled that Congress didn't violate the Constitution by allowing the U.S. attorney-general to "certify privately to the court that the companies had been asked to co-operate in an antiterrorism programme authorised by the president." Vaughn cited a law that retroactively gave the telecoms immunity. Read the rest at Publiusforum.com...

Children as young as seven are being recruited by councils to act as 'citizen snoopers', the Daily Mail can reveal. The 'environment volunteers' will report on litter louts, noisy neighbours - and even families putting their rubbish out on the wrong day. There are currently almost 9,000 people signed up to the schemes. More are likely to be recruited in the coming months. Controversially, some councils are running 'junior' schemes which are recruiting children. After basic training, volunteers are expected to be the 'eyes and the ears' of the town hall. They are given information packs about how to collect...

A Defense Department official was charged Wednesday with feeding classified information to an agent for the Chinese government.

A PENTAGON official formerly of the US Air Force has been charged with conspiracy to pass classified information to an agent of China, the US Justice Department said. A criminal complaint said today that retired Lieutenant Colonel James Wilbur Fondren, a deputy director of the US Pacific Command's Washington Liaison Office, "unlawfully and knowingly conspired" to communicate secrets.

The U.S. government may abandon espionage-law charges against two former lobbyists for a pro-Israel advocacy group, officials said yesterday, as a prominent House lawmaker denied new allegations that she offered to use her influence on their behalf. SNIP With the trial set to begin June 2, the Justice Department is reviewing whether to proceed as planned or withdraw the indictments after a series of adverse court rulings, according to law enforcement sources and lawyers close to the case. Defense attorneys recently subpoenaed a number of senior Bush administration officials, including former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, former national security adviser...

Fresh from a trip to Havana to meet Raul and Fidel Castro, Rep. Barbara Lee, California Democrat, has criticized U.S. Cuba policy as “based on antiquated Cold War-era thinking.” If anyone's thinking toward the communist state is stuck in the Cold War past, it is Ms. Lee's...Declassified documents from the National Archives...reveal that Ms. Lee has been promoting the cause of Caribbean communism since the early 1980s...Ms. Lee “provided counterintelligence support to the regime in Grenada in 1980, tipping off the Cuban-backed government to a possible anti-communist spy in the office of Marxist-Leninist Premier Maurice Bishop.” A memo, captured in...

Iran charges US journalist with spyingApril 9, 2009, 9:42 am An American journalist jailed for more than two months in Iran has been charged with spying for the US, a judge said on Wednesday, dashing hopes of a quick release days after her parents arrived in the country seeking her freedom. The espionage charge is far more serious than earlier statements by Iranian officials that the woman had been arrested for working in the Islamic Republic without press credentials and her own assertion in a phone call to her father that she was arrested after buying a bottle of wine....

Turley on MSNBC says Obama is trampling on US Civil Liberties by going further than Bush on wiretapping.

April 7th, 2009 In Warrantless Wiretapping Case, Obama DOJ's New Arguments Are Worse Than Bush's Commentary by Tim Jones We had hoped this would go differently. Friday evening, in a motion to dismiss Jewel v. NSA, EFF's litigation against the National Security Agency for the warrantless wiretapping of countless Americans, the Obama Administration's made two deeply troubling arguments. First, they argued, exactly as the Bush Administration did on countless occasions, that the state secrets privilege requires the court to dismiss the issue out of hand. They argue that simply allowing the case to continue "would cause exceptionally grave harm to...

A new series of ads is recruiting suburban mums for the battle against terrorism. Is this really what we need? New anti-terror adverts are urging Londoners to look in their neighbours' dustbins to help the overstretched police unmask the enemy within. Either this is a viable way of catching terrorists or the police and security services are getting desperate.One advert (pdf) shows a mother with a pushchair in an ordinary-looking suburban street – but look closer. The wheelie bin in front of a house is overflowing with discarded containers of bomb-making equipment. With its catchphrase "Don't rely on others. If...

EOUL, South Korea – North Korean military intelligence officers in Pyongyang are questioning two American journalists for alleged espionage after they illegally crossed into the country from China, a South Korean newspaper reported Tuesday. Laura Ling and Euna Lee, journalists working for the San Francisco-based media outlet Current TV, were undergoing "intense interrogation," with investigators poring through their notebooks, videotapes and camera for signs they were spying on the North's military facilities, the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper said, citing an unnamed South Korean intelligence official. The two were being held at private quarters run by North Korean military intelligence agency on...

State officials say Minnesota is working on a pilot program to test the idea of charging drivers for each mile they drive. Other states around the country are considering a vehicle mileage tax, as revenues from the gas tax are expected to decline.

A simple tool lets you opt out of advertising programs that track your Web clicks. Hundreds of thousands of Web sites show ads provided by Google, such as those little text ads that offer you everything from diets to dog training. Now Google has announced plans to track your clicks across all these sites, and then serve up ads personalized to your tastes... As Big Brother as it sounds, this is actually something that many advertising companies already do. But don't worry: There's a way to stop Google--and all the others--from prying. Although it isn't well-publicized, many other Internet advertisers...

"...March 8, 2009: Two Chinese women are being prosecuted for stealing American technology for China. A Maryland resident, Yaming Nina Qi Hanson, was caught exporting miniaturized autopilots for UAVs. An Illinois resident, Hanjuan Jin, was caught trying to get electronics design data (from her former employer, Motorola) to China..."

Panetta Earned $700,000 in Speaking and Consulting Fees, Forms Show By GLENN R. SIMPSON WASHINGTON -- The White House's nominee for Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Leon Panetta, has earned more than $700,000 in speaking and consulting fees since the beginning of 2008, with some of the payments coming from troubled banks and an investment firm that owns companies that do business with federal national security agencies. [Leon Panetta] Leon Panetta Mr. Panetta received $56,000 from Merrill Lynch & Co. for two speeches and $28,000 for an Oct. 30, 2008 speech for Wachovia Corp. Both firms suffered big losses...

“Over the last two weeks I have encountered just such an apocalyptic situation, where I and the Department of Justice have been asked to be part of something that is fundamentally wrong.” (Excerpt from Deputy Attorney General James Comey’s draft letter of resignation to President Bush, dated March 16, 2004, which Comey did not in the end send.) "Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimetres inside your skull" (George Orwell: 1984) I: Main Core and PROMIS Suppose that the United States Government, or more likely an unaccountable privatized intelligence colossus empowered by the reaction to the 9/11 attacks...

Town halls are photographing houses in the middle of the night to see whether they are wasting energy. The thermal images, which show heat escaping though windows, doors and roofs, will be sent to homeowners to encourage them to insulate. Tens of thousands of properties have been photographed over the past few months and there are plans to extend the scheme to every house in the country. The images show warmer temperatures as whites, reds, yellows and oranges, and cooler temperatures as greens and blues. So in the pictures above, the house with the mainly green walls is well insulated,...

To prevent "Orwellian political lists" of law-abiding activists, Maryland lawmakers outlined plans Thursday to prevent the kind of surveillance the Maryland State Police used on dozens who were wrongly described as terrorists in a police database. Plans for the legislation, which will be introduced next week, were discussed even as further details were made public about the extent of the surveillance. Equality Maryland, a group that advocates for domestic partner laws, was included on a list of groups described as a threat to public safety by state police, the group's former executive director, Dan Furmansky, said. Opponents of capital punishment...

Anthony Pellicano found guiltyConvicted of racketeering, conspiracyBy Leslie SimmonsMay 15, 2008, Hollywood ReporterAnthony Pellicano, the former celebrity private eye who set up shop on the Sunset Strip and boasted clients who were some of Hollywood's rich and powerful, was found guilty Thursday of racketeering, wiretapping and running a criminal enterprise. [Below Reprinted From Newsmax - 2003]From the NewsMax.com StaffWednesday, Nov.12, 2003 10:58 a.m. ESTPellicano Tapes Could Spell Trouble for Bill and Hillary Hollywood is buzzing over "investigator to the stars" private eye Anthony Pellicano, who copped a plea earlier this year after the FBI caught him with a drawer full...

New Documents Reveal Md. Program's Reach The Maryland State Police surveillance of advocacy groups was far more extensive than previously acknowledged, with records showing that troopers monitored -- and labeled as terrorists -- activists devoted to such wide-ranging causes as promoting human rights and establishing bike lanes. Intelligence officers created a voluminous file on Norfolk-based People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, calling the group a "security threat" because of concerns that members would disrupt the circus. Angry consumers fighting a 72 percent electricity rate increase in 2006 were targeted. The DC Anti-War Network, which opposes the Iraq war, was...

House Panel to Ask for NSA Spying Probe A congressional panel will ask the National Security Agency's internal watchdog to investigate whether the super-secret spy agency eavesdropped without warrants on a Muslim scholar and later hid that evidence in a 2005 terror prosecution that got him a life sentence.The House Select Intelligence Oversight Panel and the judge overseeing the case want the NSA's inspector general to find out if the government failed to disclose evidence that might have cleared the name of a Northern Virginia spiritual leader Ali al-Timimi, Rep. Rush Holt (D- New Jersey) told the New York Times.That...

An undercover Maryland State Police trooper infiltrated nonviolent groups and labeled dozens of people as terrorists. Reporting from Takoma Park, Md. -- To friends in the protest movement, Lucy was an eager 20-something who attended their events and sent encouraging e-mails to support their causes. Only one thing seemed strange. "At one demonstration, I remember her showing up with a laptop computer and typing away," said Mike Stark, who helped lead the anti-death-penalty march in Baltimore that day. "We all thought that was odd." Not really. The woman was an undercover Maryland State Police trooper who between 2005 and 2007...

More than half of councils are using anti-terror laws to spy on families suspected of "bin crimes", it has emerged. Their surveillance tactics include hiding secret cameras on streets and even in neighbouring homes to catch householders putting their rubbish out on the wrong day. Seventy-seven of the 151 councils who responded to a Freedom of Information request admitted using the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa) to crack down on "domestic waste, littering or fly-tipping offences" in the last three years. Last month The Sunday Telegraph disclosed that three-quarters of local authorities had used the act – which was...

Britain to Spy On Every Call, Email and Text Monday, October 6, 2008 5:10 PM A top secret program being developed by British spymasters soon may allow them to snoop on every computer, text message and phone call in the United Kingdom, according to plans revealed this week. The program — called the Interception Modernization Program — is part of a $20 billion effort being pushed by GCHQ, the government’s secret eavesdropping agency, according to the Times of London. It would easily be the largest surveillance system ever created in Britain, and quite possibly any Western democracy. The British already...

This is the first of two stories adapted from "Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency," to be published Tuesday by Penguin Press. EXCERPT: "The United States was at war with al-Qaeda, intelligence-gathering is inherent in war, and the Constitution appoints the president commander in chief. But they had not been asked to give their own written assessments of the legality of domestic espionage. They based their answer in part on the attorney general's certification of the "form and legality" of the president's orders. Yet neither man had been allowed to see the program's codeword-classified legal analyses [5], which were prepared by...

Whether it’s due to government restrictions, personal-privacy lawsuits or mistakes, Google Maps has slapped a "Prohibited" sign on the following 51 places. 1. The White House: Google Maps' images of the White House show a digitally erased version of the roof in order to obscure the air-defense and security assets that are in place. 5. PAVE PAWS in Cape Cod, Mass.: PAVE PAWS is the U.S. Air Force Space Command’s radar system for missile warning and space surveillance. There are two other installations besides the one in Cape Cod. 19. Bahrain: In August 2006, Bahrain's Ministry of Information instructed the...

BAGHDAD — The Iraqi government reacted sharply Friday to published allegations that the U.S. spied on Iraq's prime minister, warning that future ties with the United States could be in jeopardy if the report were true. The allegations appear in a new book, The War Within: A Secret White House History, 2006-2008, by journalist Bob Woodward, who writes that the United States spied extensively on Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, his staff and other government officials. The report emerged as the two governments are in delicate negotiations over the future of American troops in Iraq. Those talks have already extended past...

"THIS data allows investigators to identify suspects, examine their contacts, establish relationships between conspirators and place them in a specific location at a certain time." So said the UK Home Office last week as it announced plans to give law-enforcement agencies, local councils and other public bodies access to the details of people's text messages, emails and internet activity. The move followed its announcement in May that it was considering creating a massive central database to store all this data, as a tool to help the security services tackle crime and terrorism. Meanwhile in the US the FISA Amendments Act,...

CCTV monitors classrooms at one in 14 schools, according to a survey. The poll of teachers also found that almost a quarter feared there might be more cameras hidden around the campus that they did not know about. Most said their schools were fitted with surveillance cameras. Almost 80 per cent said there were cameras at the entrance and more than 7 per cent said there were some in classrooms. Nearly 10 per cent of teachers polled by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers said there were cameras in the lavatories.  Big brother is watching you: One in 14 schools...

Beijing Olympics: the spying games There’s more to the imminent Olympic Games in Beijing than meets the eye. So what’s hidden behind the slogan of One World, One Dream? Isabel Oakeshott, Michael Sheridan and Flora Bagenal in Beijing Two weeks ago, the Whitehall mandarins, ministerial aides and officials who will be in Beijing when the Olympic Games open on Friday were summoned for what they thought would be a series of pro-forma chats with MI5. What they heard was hair-raising. “It was all very James Bond,” according to one of the 100 or more who were called in by the...

A bizarre series of incidents during last year's Women's World Cup in China is raising questions about the security of visiting delegations in China at the upcoming Olympics. In the days before their World Cup opener against host China last September, members of the Danish women's soccer team say they faced ongoing harassment that culminated in the discovery of two men attempting to secretly videotape a team meeting at their hotel through a two-way mirror. Breaking an 11-month silence about the incidents, Danish coach Kenneth Heiner-Möller told SI.com that he discovered the two intruders behind the mirror as he prepared...