EMPIRE OF SECRETS - As Revelations of Systemic Snooping Continue to Hit the Headlines, Who is Watching the Watchers?

As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama promised transparency and open government yet his administration is one of the most closed governments in US history, described as being worse than even the Nixon administration.

The technology and information revolution allows the government to cast its net wider than ever before; collecting data, watching, spying and analysing. As revelations of systemic snooping continue to hit the headlines, Empire asks: who is watching the watchers?

Just when more people open up about their private lives through social media, the government becomes ever more intrusive.

With more than 1,300 government surveillance and monitoring facilities in the United States, Empire looks to understand why so many government programmes are top secret. Why is secrecy and surveillance becoming such big business? And, is a national security state anything new?

We discuss whether state secrets really work, the rationale behind them, and examine what the world might be like without secrets.

As Empire explores the ultimate secret of secrets, the implicit conclusion that emerges is that secrecy in government is counterproductive. It is not only terribly damaging to the democratic process, but also, in the long-run, to the very objective of national security.

Joining us as we unpack some of the known unknowns are Oscar-winning film director Oliver Stone, and war reporters Jeremy Scahill and Richard Rowley.

We unravel the psychology of secrets with psychiatrist Justin Frank, the author of Obama on the Couch and Bush on the Couch. We look at the impact of state secrets brought to light with Dana Priest, a leading Washington Post investigative reporter on national security and author of two books, including her most recent Top Secret America: The Rise of the New American Security State.

Click Here for more Empire

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Obama's ARREST and G.W. Bush Trial, Possibly Right Around the Corner

They may be arrested, or Obama may be impeached, but at this point, I don't think it will matter much.  

Their arrests, or at the very least, Obama's Impeachment may also just be a ploy to keep the sheople following the big government; while the Shadow Government of the 1% Elites continue their agenda.   

Right now, there are more and more people that are opening their eyes to what is going on, and unrest is beginning to form.  If the Shadow Government allows these arrests, or trials, or impeachment to occur, that will just be another way to calm the uprising that is beginning to boil in the people's blood.  They will attain control, calm the crowds, rock many citizens back to sleep with their mainstream news propaganda, and continue with their agenda.  

Obama is just a figurehead puppet for them, as many other governmental leaders of countries around the globe are, and until we realize this, their agenda will continue to move forward, no matter who is in the Presidential seat.  

It no longer matters who is in the Presidential seat...  All a President, or Prime Minister, or any other country leader is, is a puppet for the Real Government; the Shadow Government.  The Upper 1%...  The Elites...  These are the sociopaths that are really in control.  They are forming their New World Order, and sadly, most of us don't fit into their 'order.'

Pointing fingers at our leaders is just what they want; that keeps our focus away from them: the Shadow Government that is REALLY in control.  As long as they humor us, with possibly allowing us to take down Bush and Obama, they can continue to commit their heinous crimes against us, in secret, continuing to use us as their serfs, until our usefulness is no longer needed.

This link: http://thehonestintelligence.blogspot.com/2012/10/list-of-elite-that-run-federal-reserve.html will show you some of the sociopaths in charge of the Shadow Government. These are the ones we need to take out; not the figurehead puppets.

Edward Snowden Has Been Formally Charged With Espionage By The U.S. Government... ARE THEY KIDDING?

This face has become a hero's face for American's rights of privacy

Edward Snowden, former intelligence analyst for the National Security Agency, has been charged with espionage, by the U.S. Government.  

So...  ...they are charging him with doing his job well?  

After all, he worked as an intelligence analyst for the world's biggest spying agency that is spying on not only everyone in the USA, but inadvertently the whole world.

espionage
es·pi·o·nage [es-pee-uh-nahzh] noun
...the act or practice of spying.

Example sentences: 
1. Cobb runs a dream team of mindbending espionage agents, true inside operators.
2. It is difficult to provide evidence of espionage, given its secretive manner.
3. The disclosure comes amid heightened fears of state-sponsored espionage.

Origin:
late 18th century: from French espionnage, from espionner 'to spy', from espion 'a spy'

Espionage, or in layman's terms: spying was his job!

An N.S.A. spokesperson astonished his audience when announcing the espionage (spying) charges against Snowden; completely unaware of the absurdity of the charge, and he announced the charge holding a perfectly straight face.

Photo rights: Fawlty Towers

He said, “These charges send a clear message [that] in the United States, you can’t spy on people.”

He went on to speak of the other charge of theft of Government Documents, saying, “The American people have the right to assume that their private documents will remain private and won’t be collected by someone in the government for his own purposes.”

“Only by bringing Mr. Snowden to justice can we safeguard the most precious of American rights: privacy…”

 
WHAT???

Photo rights: Fawlty Towers

Was this sarcasm, or a complete mockery of the Government he works for?  

Seriously, couldn't they have cooked up something better to charge him with?  Maybe Treason?  Oh... Wait!  That would be what our government is committing on us... when they break our Constitutional laws, by using the N.S.A.'s espionage intelligence analysts in their spying of every move, email, text, phone call, and literally everything that we do in privacy.

National Security State up Against a Whistleblower Revolution

There are nearly 5 million people in the United States with security clearance, and any one of them could be the next Edward Snowden or Bradley Manning. 

So what -- if anything - are intelligence agencies doing to better keep their secrets. And, might more whistleblowing be just thing to convince more Americans that massive domestic surveillance isn't the best way to keep us safe. 

Political Commentator Sam Sacks speaks with former NSA and CIA Chief Michael Hayden and whistleblower Jesselyn Radack. 

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AGENDA: Grinding America Down

 "AGENDA" Trailer - Please Watch...  See below to order FULL MOVIE

This is NOT just another conspiracy theory

"'AGENDA' is the most powerful exposé of the communist, socialist, progressive attempt to take over America produced so far"...Ted Baehr, Moviguide

To order the full movie, go to: AgendaDocumentary.com (quantity discounts available) 

note:  thehonestintelligence is not an affiliate of, and has nothing to do with the site listed above; to purchase the full movie.  We are sharing this information with you for your own information and growth.

A film that finally puts the pieces of the puzzle together. If you've wondered why America has been falling apart from within, you will love AGENDA.  Please share with everyone you can and order a few copies to give to pastors, representatives, and conservative leaders. 

 America needs to see this film!

Must Read! “A Helpless Military: Just What Obama Ordered”

Submitted by Trevor on June 19, 2013

Of all of Barack Obama‘s crimes against the American people this is the worst.

What Obama is doing to the U.S. military puts hundreds of millions of lives and the survival of the entire West at stake.

 by Maj. Gen. Patrick Brady

As incompetence, deception, duplicity and dishonesty become the hall marks of the Obama administration, it is important that we not lose sight of the greatest danger posed beyond these serial scandals: the feminization, emasculation and dismantling of our military. The two most important elements of national survival are the media and the military; one keeps us free and the other keeps us secure. We know the media are failing – God help us if the military does also. We may be able to fix the government in 2014. Fixing the military is more problematic.

Let’s begin with Benghazi. It is incomprehensible that any commander, let alone the commander in chief, would go AWOL during a crisis such as Benghazi, but he was. In the midst of the massacre of our ambassador and three heroic Americans, President Obama was nowhere to be found. He did manage to surface, too late for the massacre, to meet a campaign commitment the next day. But, before retiring, we are told he turned the crisis over to his underlings, including the military. What we learned about our military leadership during that crisis should alarm all Americans.

The demise of our military of course begins with the commander in chief, but he can’t do it alone. He has to have willing sycophants and he has had them in the civilian and military leadership at the Department of Defense. The indifference of the people and military inexperience in Congress are contributing factors. The military disasters are a form of gradualism. Look at the changes under Mr. Obama. We cannot focus on these changes enough.

Our military is suffering unprecedented rates of suicide and PTSD. Obama’s sequestration will cut benefits to veterans as well as damage readiness. (There has been a 2000 percent increase in backlog for veteran assistance in four years!) We now have a quad-sexual military with all the health, readiness and moral issues that come with exalting sodomy. Sexual assault is at an all-time high. Women will be tasked to lead bayonet charges. As a result of the sex scandals, Congress is now looking to curtail the military’s ability to discipline, another tribute to the lack of leadership in the military and lack of military understanding in Congress.

Billions of defense dollars are unaccounted for. Christianity is under military attack, and Bibles have been burned to appease Muslims. (References to God and Jesus are forbidden at Arlington, chaplains will be forced to perform homosexual “marriages,” and Bibles and religious item are forbidden to the wounded at Walter Reed, etc.)

We have a new doctrine for crisis: “Don’t deploy forces into harm’s way without knowing what’s going on.” Therefore, no Normandy or Inchon. In other words, don’t go until the crisis/massacre is over. Their default position is don’t go, period. The military leadership, after the terrorist massacre at Fort Hood, outrageously lamented the effect it would have on diversity – and equally outrageously labeled it workplace violence denying the victims and their families the benefits they deserve.

There have been unprecedented security leaks, and China is electronically in bed with us. They even lost the graves of our warriors at Arlington. I could go on, but it should be clear that all of the above is the result of a leader who knows not the difference between a corps and a corpse and is both indifferent to and unknowledgeable of military readiness. And as bad, the military leadership is complicit in these disasters. (As a further tribute to their ineptitude, they have actually considered combat-level medals for warriors not shooting and desk-bound computer operators, medals that were the laughingstock of veterans.)

But given that the president tasked the military to act in the Benghazi crisis, what did they do? Indefensibly, they did nothing, they did not even try! No obstacle, no doctrine, nothing can defend not trying, never mind the risk, to save fellow Americans. Were they under orders to sit on their a– and let their fellow Americans die? In my 34 years of military service involving many crises, I never knew of one without an after action report (AAR), in which each and every action was put under a microscope to identify those responsible for the results be they good or bad. Congress, the media, someone should demand the AAR on Benghazi. It must exist. Who ordered the stand down? Who said sit on your a–? Why no hearing on this?

Just as the way forward for America is a return to the morality and values of the past, so too must the military return to the readiness standards and common sense of the past. We can survive in a relatively valueless society – but only with a strong and ready military. Sadly the military is mirroring society – the goal of Mr. Obama and progressives – and will soon be impotent. Once the progressives have a helpless military they no longer need to explain why they didn’t go; they can say we are unable to go. Progress is not the path we are on; true progress is the path to our past. The other scandals may be more glamorous and outrageous (such as lying about Benghazi before the coffins of those massacred by terrorists, enemies’ lists and assaults on the First Amendment) but what Mr. Obama is doing to our military is more grave.

Maj. Gen. Patrick Brady, retired from the U.S. Army, is a recipient of the United States military’s highest decoration, the Medal of Honor. He is the author of “Dead Men Flying: Victory in Viet Nam The Legend of Dust Off: America’s Battlefield Angels.”

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ICIJ Releases Offshore Leaks Database Revealing Names Behind Secret Companies, Trusts

Photo: Shutterstock

Readers can search information about the ownership of more than 100,000 offshore entities in tax havens and discover the networks around them.

Secrecy is no longer acceptable

When Bernard Madoff built his $65 billion house of cards; when food distributors passed off horsemeat as beef lasagna in Europe; and when Apple, Google and other American companies set up structures to channel their profits through Ireland — they all used tax havens.

They bought secrecy, minimal or zero taxes and legal insulation, the distinctive products that tax havens market and that allow companies to operate in a fiscal and regulatory vacuum. Using the offshore economy is akin to acquiring your own island where the rules that most citizens follow don’t apply.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists publishes today a database that, for the first time in history, will help begin to strip away this secrecy across 10 offshore jurisdictions.

The Offshore Leaks Database allows users to search through more than 100,000 secret companies, trusts and funds created in offshore locales such as the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cook Islands and Singapore. The Offshore Leaks web app, developed by La Nación newspaper in Costa Rica for ICIJ, displays graphic visualizations of offshore entities and the networks around them, including, when possible, the company’s true owners.
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• Read the Offshore Leaks Database FAQs
• How we built the Offshore Leaks Database
• Video: See the Offshore Leaks Database in action
• Search the Offshore Leaks Database
• Get in touch with ICIJ

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Attacking Apathy

The data are part of a cache of 2.5 million leaked offshore files ICIJ analyzed with 112 journalists in 58 countries. Since April, stories based on the data — the largest stockpile of inside information about the offshore system ever obtained by a media organization — have been published by more than 40 media organizations worldwide, including The Guardian in the U.K., Le Monde in France, Süddeutsche Zeitung and Norddeutscher Rundfunk in Germany, The Washington Post and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).

ICIJ’s investigation — called Offshore Leaks by the Twittersphere and the public —has shaken the political and economic establishments from South Korea to Canada, sparking investigations, resignations and a renewed sense of urgency among world leaders that this is the time to rein in offshore abuses .

EU Commissioner Algirdas Semeta said the ICIJ’s investigation has transformed tax politics and amplified political will to tackle the problem of tax evasion – knocking down what the EUobserver called “a wall of apathy” in Europe that had thwarted previous attempts to attack offshore secrecy.

“I personally think Offshore Leaks could be identified as the most significant trigger behind these developments  ...  It has created visibility of the issue and it has triggered political recognition of the amplitude of the problem,” he told EU Observer. 

Semeta said the need for tax transparency overrides the principle of data privacy.

During a visit to the White House in May, British Prime Minister David Cameron made a strong pitch for tackling what he called “the scourge of tax evasion,” one of the central themes of next week’s “G8” meeting, in Northern Ireland, of leaders of eight of the world’s wealthiest countries. “We need to know who really owns a company, who profits from it, whether taxes are paid,” said Cameron, who is under pressure from the international community to address the role of Britain’s crown dependencies and territories in the offshore economy.

Anti-corruption advocates are pushing Cameron to persuade the other G8 leaders to support proposals that would require owners of shell companies to register their holdings in public registries.

ICIJ’s Offshore Leaks Database reveals the names behind more than 100,000 secret companies and trusts created by two offshore services firms: Singapore-based Portcullis TrustNet and BVI-based Commonwealth Trust Limited (CTL). TrustNet and CTL’s clients are spread over more than 170 countries and territories.

The Offshore Leaks web app allows readers to explore the relationships between clients, offshore entities and the lawyers, accountants, banks and other intermediaries who help keep these arrangements secret.

While the database opens up a world that has never been revealed on such a massive scale, the ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database is not a “data dump” – it is a careful release of basic corporate information. ICIJ won’t release personal data en masse; the Offshore Leaks Database doesn’t include records of bank accounts and financial transactions, emails and other correspondence, passports and telephone numbers. The selected and limited information is being published in the public interest.

Pressure for Change

ICIJ’s reporting to date has revealed the offshore dealings of politicians, oligarchs, rogue nations and even religious leaders. While many of the arrangements are perfectly legal, extensive reporting by ICIJ and others show that the anonymity granted by the offshore economy facilitates money laundering, tax evasion, fraud and other crimes.

Even when it’s legal, transparency advocates argue that the use of an alternative, parallel economy undermines democracy because it benefits a few at the expense of the majority.

After 17 months of reporting, ICIJ reporters and partners are still digging into this massive trove of financial information. The Offshore Leaks Database gives ICIJ an opportunity to reach journalists and regular citizens in every corner of the world, particularly in countries most affected by corruption and backroom deals. ICIJ believes many of the best stories may come from its readers when they explore the database.

As it fields tips from the public, ICIJ will continue to work on in-depth, cross-border investigations with its network of reporters and media partners. At the same time, ICIJ will continue to reject demands from governments that it turn over all of the files in its offshore trove. ICIJ is an independent network of investigative reporters — not an arm of government.

Some of the same governments that at one time requested ICIJ and its partners to hand over the full cache of files later announced that they have been working on a gigantic leak of offshore documents similar to those obtained by ICIJ. U.S., U.K. and Australian tax authorities said they will share the data with other governments.

The release of the Offshore Leaks Database happens at a time of economic turmoil. Many countries are still fighting the effects of the 2008 financial crisis, putting leaders around the world under unprecedented domestic and international pressure to make sure tax revenue is not lost to offshore havens.

Within days of ICIJ’s April release of dozens of stories based on the secret offshore files, French president Francois Hollande called for the “eradication” of tax havens. Europe’s largest economic powers – the U.K., France, Spain, Italy and Germany – announced that they will start exchanging bank information.

The surprise was even bigger when tiny Luxembourg, long known as one of the world’s most secretive tax havens, said it will share information with tax authorities about European and U.S. citizens with bank accounts in the country.  Another “onshore” European tax haven, Austria, saw the country’s most powerful banker, Herbert Stepic, resign in May in the wake of an Offshore Leaks story that revealed he used companies in Hong Kong and the British Virgin Islands to conduct property deals he did not report to his employer, Raiffeisen Bank International AG.

Meanwhile, U.K. Prime Minister Cameron is trying to clean up his own backyard: the 10 crown dependencies and overseas territories that serve as tax havens. He has summoned their top ministers to London this weekend to try to convince them to share tax information widely with governments around the world. In a letter to the territories, Cameron told them that the time has come to “knock down the walls of company secrecy."

Semeta, the EU tax commissioner, said the change in EU politics – after years of stalling – is due to “a perfect storm” of events, including ICIJ’s Offshore Leaks.

“Secrecy is no longer acceptable. We need to get rid of it,” Pascal Saint-Amans, tax policy director for the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, told The Toronto Star. “If the rules make it possible, then we'll change the rules.”

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FBI DIRECTOR Does NOT KNOW WHO IS IN CHARGE of IRS CASE, 6 WKS INTO THEIR INVESTIGATION - CAN EVERYBODY SAY, "PUPPET!"

FBI Director Robert Mueller Couldn't Answer Any of Ohio Representative Jim Jordan's Questions!
Mr. Jordan asked Mueller who the lead investigator in the IRS case is, and Mueller admitted that he did NOT KNOW. 

The justice department is investigating the misconduct of the IRS, where IRS agents targeted conservative groups seeking nonprofit status, to cause them extra pain and scrutiny.

Mueller doesn't know who the lead investigator is, how many agents are involved in the case, or even who has been investigated up to this point; 6 weeks into their "supposed" investigation. 

For Jordan, this is an outrage. He says the IRS scandal is the most important issue facing the country. "This has been the biggest story in the country," he says, "and you can't even tell me how many agents are assigned?!"

source: CSPAN

BREAKING NEWS - Julian Assange says he has had 'Indirect Contact' with Edward Snowden

WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange says he has had indirect communication with Edward Snowden - the former CIA contractor who has divulged details of the scope and breadth of U.S. cyber spying operations.

Full Story:

Fugitive WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange on Monday (June 10) spoke to Australian television from London and said he had been in indirect contact with former CIA contractor Edward Snowden.

Snowden, an outside contractor for the NSA, announced in a video on Sunday (June 9) from Hong Kong that he was the source of leaks about the ultra-secret agency's surveillance programs.

By Monday, he had dropped out of sight and was expected to be at the centre of an extradition battle to face U.S. legal charges.

[Julian Assange, Wikileaks Founder]
"We have had indirect communication with his people.I don't think it's appropriate at this time that I go into further details."

Later, speaking to CNN, Assange said he believed Snowden should take refuge in Latin America, rather than look to Iceland, which has earned a reputation as a safe haven and acts as the home base for the fundraising efforts of Assange's anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks.

The 41-year-old backed demands by Green lawmakers in Australia that the government there reveal whether its own electronic intelligence agencies had aided the clandestine U.S. data mining programme known as PRISM, revealed by Snowden.

[Julian Assange, Wikileaks Founder]
"We must ask the question and the Australian government must answer the question how many Australians have been intercepted? In the relationship between the Defense Signals Directorate and ASIO (Australian Security and Intelligence Organization) and U.S. intelligence has the Australian government been puling that information about Australians, has it been pulling that information about Americans?," he said.

Assange has formed a political party in Australia, the WikiLeaks Party, and is personally running for a seat in the Senate in September elections.

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Julian Assange: "Edward Snowden, Prism Leaker Is A Hero"

Home Depot Co-Founder: We Should Throw Edward Snowden a Party - We Ought to Be Grateful...

This Company DOESN'T Share Your Online Info

'World's most private search engine' won't betray you to Obama

The federal government may be secretly accessing Americans’ online videos, emails, photos and search histories – with the help of Apple, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook, YouTube, PalTalk, AOL and Skype – but “the world’s most private search engine” is staunchly defending its users’ privacy and civil liberties.

StartPage.com and its sister search engine, Ixquick.com, were launched in 2006 to provide a private way for Americans to conduct Internet searches. StartPage provides a private portal to Google results, and Ixquick allows users to retrieve private results from other search engines.

WND reported in 2010 when Katherine Albrecht, a Harvard-trained privacy expert who helped develop StartPage, warned, “It would blow people’s minds if they knew how much information the big search engines have on the American public. In fact, their dossiers are so detailed they would probably be the envy of the KGB.”

It happens every day, Albrecht explained. When an unfamiliar topic crosses people’s minds, they often go straight to Google, Yahoo or Bing and enter key terms into those search engines. Every day, more than a billion searches for information are performed on Google alone.

“If you get a rash between your toes, you go into Google,” she said. “If you have a miscarriage, you go into Google. If you are having marital difficulties, you look for a counselor on Google. If you lose your job, you look for unemployment benefit information on Google.”

Albrecht said Americans unwittingly share their most private thoughts with search engines, serving up snippets of deeply personal information about their lives, habits, troubles, health concerns, preferences and political leanings.

“We’re essentially telling them our entire life stories – stuff you wouldn’t even tell your mother – because you are in a private room with a computer,” she said. “We tend to think of that as a completely private circumstance. But the reality is that they make a record of every single search you do.”

The search engines have sophisticated algorithms to mine data from searches and create very detailed profiles about Americans. She said those profiles are stored on servers and may fall into the wrong hands – for example, the federal government’s detailed files on unwitting U.S. citizens.

Just recently, the Washington Post reported it obtained a top-secret document on a government program in which the NSA and FBI are “tapping directly into the central servers of nine leading U.S. Internet companies, extracting audio and video chats, photographs, e-mails, documents, and connection logs that enable analysts to track foreign targets.”

The program, code-named PRISM, was utilized to obtain information that has become a critical part of President Obama’s daily briefing, according to the Post, which added, “NSA reporting increasingly relies on PRISM as its leading source of raw material, accounting for nearly 1 in 7 intelligence reports.”

And McClatchy recently reported, “Privacy policies for Google, Yahoo! and other Internet service providers explicitly state that the companies collect users’ data, such as names, email addresses, telephone numbers, credit cards, IP addresses, search queries, purchases, time and date of calls, duration of calls and physical locations.

“The policies say that companies may use that information to send you targeted advertising or, if necessary, to comply with requests from government authorities.”

In a December 2009 interview with CNBC, Google CEO Eric Schmidt divulged that search engines may turn over citizens’ private information to the government.

“If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place,” Schmidt said. “But if you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is that search engines, including Google, do retain this information for some time. And it’s important, for example, that we are all subject to the United States Patriot Act. It is possible that information could be made available to the authorities.”
However, StartPage and Ixquick say they have neither participated in PRISM nor shared Americans’ data with the federal government.

“The privacy of our users rests on three important foundations,” explained StartPage and Ixquick CEO Robert Beens. “We are based in the Netherlands, we use encrypted connections, and – most importantly – we don’t store or share any of our users’ personal search data.”

A statement from StartPage and Ixquick explained:

• No user data stored: StartPage and Ixquick never store user data, including IP addresses and search queries, so government agencies have no incentive to ask for these. This privacy is so complete; the company doesn’t even know who its customers are, so it can’t share anything with Big Brother.

• Encrypted (HTTPS) connections: StartPage and Ixquick were the first search engines to use automatic encryption on all connections to prevent snooping. When searches are encrypted, third parties like ISPs and the NSA can’t eavesdrop on Internet connections to see what people are searching for.

• Not under U.S. jurisdiction: StartPage and Ixquick are based in the Netherlands, so they are not directly subject to U.S. regulations, warrants, or court orders. They can’t be forced to participate in spying programs like PRISM. The company has never turned over a single bit of user data to any government entity in the 14 years it has been in business, which is not surprising since there is no data in the first place.

“Unfortunately, it takes a scandal like PRISM to wake people up to the erosion of privacy, ” Albrecht said. “As people get fed up with being spied on, they look for alternatives. We already serve nearly 3 million private searches each day, and we expect that number to grow as people seek shelter from search engines that store and share their private information.”

This summer, the company plans to launch a new email service called StartMail, which will provide a paid and heavily encrypted private email application. Anyone interested in being a StartMail beta tester can now sign up.

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Jon Stewart Tears Apart Obama, DOJ For Prosecuting Whistleblowers And Potheads... But Not Bankers

NSA Whistleblower Edward Snowden - A HERO, says, "I don't want to live in a society that does these sort of things"

Copyright © 2013 Praxis Films / Laura Poitras
FAIR USE NOTICE: This video contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in an effort to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material in this video is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind the NSA surveillance revelations

The 29-year-old source behind the biggest intelligence leak in the NSA's history explains his motives, his uncertain future and why he never intended on hiding in the shadows.

The individual responsible for one of the most significant leaks in US political history is Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA and current employee of the defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. Snowden has been working at the National Security Agency for the last four years as an employee of various outside contractors, including Booz Allen and Dell.

The Guardian, after several days of interviews, is revealing his identity at his request. From the moment he decided to disclose numerous top-secret documents to the public, he was determined not to opt for the protection of anonymity. "I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong," he said.

Snowden will go down in history as one of America's most consequential whistleblowers, alongside Daniel Ellsberg and Bradley Manning. He is responsible for handing over material from one of the world's most secretive organisations – the NSA.

In a note accompanying the first set of documents he provided, he wrote: "I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions," but "I will be satisfied if the federation of secret law, unequal pardon and irresistible executive powers that rule the world that I love are revealed even for an instant."

Despite his determination to be publicly unveiled, he repeatedly insisted that he wants to avoid the media spotlight. "I don't want public attention because I don't want the story to be about me. I want it to be about what the US government is doing."

He does not fear the consequences of going public, he said, only that doing so will distract attention from the issues raised by his disclosures. "I know the media likes to personalise political debates, and I know the government will demonise me."

Despite these fears, he remained hopeful his outing will not divert attention from the substance of his disclosures. "I really want the focus to be on these documents and the debate which I hope this will trigger among citizens around the globe about what kind of world we want to live in." He added: "My sole motive is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them."

He has had "a very comfortable life" that included a salary of roughly $200,000, a girlfriend with whom he shared a home in Hawaii, a stable career, and a family he loves. "I'm willing to sacrifice all of that because I can't in good conscience allow the US government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they're secretly building."

'I am not afraid, because this is the choice I've made'

Three weeks ago, Snowden made final preparations that resulted in last week's series of blockbuster news stories. At the NSA office in Hawaii where he was working, he copied the last set of documents he intended to disclose.

He then advised his NSA supervisor that he needed to be away from work for "a couple of weeks" in order to receive treatment for epilepsy, a condition he learned he suffers from after a series of seizures last year.
As he packed his bags, he told his girlfriend that he had to be away for a few weeks, though he said he was vague about the reason. "That is not an uncommon occurrence for someone who has spent the last decade working in the intelligence world."

On May 20, he boarded a flight to Hong Kong, where he has remained ever since. He chose the city because "they have a spirited commitment to free speech and the right of political dissent", and because he believed that it was one of the few places in the world that both could and would resist the dictates of the US government.

In the three weeks since he arrived, he has been ensconced in a hotel room. "I've left the room maybe a total of three times during my entire stay," he said. It is a plush hotel and, what with eating meals in his room too, he has run up big bills.

He is deeply worried about being spied on. He lines the door of his hotel room with pillows to prevent eavesdropping. He puts a large red hood over his head and laptop when entering his passwords to prevent any hidden cameras from detecting them.

Though that may sound like paranoia to some, Snowden has good reason for such fears. He worked in the US intelligence world for almost a decade. He knows that the biggest and most secretive surveillance organisation in America, the NSA, along with the most powerful government on the planet, is looking for him.

Since the disclosures began to emerge, he has watched television and monitored the internet, hearing all the threats and vows of prosecution emanating from Washington.

And he knows only too well the sophisticated technology available to them and how easy it will be for them to find him. The NSA police and other law enforcement officers have twice visited his home in Hawaii and already contacted his girlfriend, though he believes that may have been prompted by his absence from work, and not because of suspicions of any connection to the leaks.

"All my options are bad," he said. The US could begin extradition proceedings against him, a potentially problematic, lengthy and unpredictable course for Washington. Or the Chinese government might whisk him away for questioning, viewing him as a useful source of information. Or he might end up being grabbed and bundled into a plane bound for US territory.

"Yes, I could be rendered by the CIA. I could have people come after me. Or any of the third-party partners. They work closely with a number of other nations. Or they could pay off the Triads. Any of their agents or assets," he said.

"We have got a CIA station just up the road – the consulate here in Hong Kong – and I am sure they are going to be busy for the next week. And that is a concern I will live with for the rest of my life, however long that happens to be."

Having watched the Obama administration prosecute whistleblowers at a historically unprecedented rate, he fully expects the US government to attempt to use all its weight to punish him. "I am not afraid," he said calmly, "because this is the choice I've made."

He predicts the government will launch an investigation and "say I have broken the Espionage Act and helped our enemies, but that can be used against anyone who points out how massive and invasive the system has become".

The only time he became emotional during the many hours of interviews was when he pondered the impact his choices would have on his family, many of whom work for the US government. "The only thing I fear is the harmful effects on my family, who I won't be able to help any more. That's what keeps me up at night," he said, his eyes welling up with tears.

'You can't wait around for someone else to act'

Snowden did not always believe the US government posed a threat to his political values. He was brought up originally in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. His family moved later to Maryland, near the NSA headquarters in Fort Meade.

By his own admission, he was not a stellar student. In order to get the credits necessary to obtain a high school diploma, he attended a community college in Maryland, studying computing, but never completed the coursework. (He later obtained his GED.)

In 2003, he enlisted in the US army and began a training program to join the Special Forces. Invoking the same principles that he now cites to justify his leaks, he said: "I wanted to fight in the Iraq war because I felt like I had an obligation as a human being to help free people from oppression".

He recounted how his beliefs about the war's purpose were quickly dispelled. "Most of the people training us seemed pumped up about killing Arabs, not helping anyone," he said. After he broke both his legs in a training accident, he was discharged.

After that, he got his first job in an NSA facility, working as a security guard for one of the agency's covert facilities at the University of Maryland. From there, he went to the CIA, where he worked on IT security. His understanding of the internet and his talent for computer programming enabled him to rise fairly quickly for someone who lacked even a high school diploma.

By 2007, the CIA stationed him with diplomatic cover in Geneva, Switzerland. His responsibility for maintaining computer network security meant he had clearance to access a wide array of classified documents.

That access, along with the almost three years he spent around CIA officers, led him to begin seriously questioning the rightness of what he saw.

He described as formative an incident in which he claimed CIA operatives were attempting to recruit a Swiss banker to obtain secret banking information. Snowden said they achieved this by purposely getting the banker drunk and encouraging him to drive home in his car. When the banker was arrested for drunk driving, the undercover agent seeking to befriend him offered to help, and a bond was formed that led to successful recruitment.

"Much of what I saw in Geneva really disillusioned me about how my government functions and what its impact is in the world," he says. "I realised that I was part of something that was doing far more harm than good."

He said it was during his CIA stint in Geneva that he thought for the first time about exposing government secrets. But, at the time, he chose not to for two reasons.

First, he said: "Most of the secrets the CIA has are about people, not machines and systems, so I didn't feel comfortable with disclosures that I thought could endanger anyone". Secondly, the election of Barack Obama in 2008 gave him hope that there would be real reforms, rendering disclosures unnecessary.

He left the CIA in 2009 in order to take his first job working for a private contractor that assigned him to a functioning NSA facility, stationed on a military base in Japan. It was then, he said, that he "watched as Obama advanced the very policies that I thought would be reined in", and as a result, "I got hardened."

The primary lesson from this experience was that "you can't wait around for someone else to act. I had been looking for leaders, but I realised that leadership is about being the first to act."

Over the next three years, he learned just how all-consuming the NSA's surveillance activities were, claiming "they are intent on making every conversation and every form of behaviour in the world known to them".

He described how he once viewed the internet as "the most important invention in all of human history". As an adolescent, he spent days at a time "speaking to people with all sorts of views that I would never have encountered on my own".

But he believed that the value of the internet, along with basic privacy, is being rapidly destroyed by ubiquitous surveillance. "I don't see myself as a hero," he said, "because what I'm doing is self-interested: I don't want to live in a world where there's no privacy and therefore no room for intellectual exploration and creativity."

Once he reached the conclusion that the NSA's surveillance net would soon be irrevocable, he said it was just a matter of time before he chose to act. "What they're doing" poses "an existential threat to democracy", he said.

A matter of principle

As strong as those beliefs are, there still remains the question: why did he do it? Giving up his freedom and a privileged lifestyle? "There are more important things than money. If I were motivated by money, I could have sold these documents to any number of countries and gotten very rich."

For him, it is a matter of principle. "The government has granted itself power it is not entitled to. There is no public oversight. The result is people like myself have the latitude to go further than they are allowed to," he said.

His allegiance to internet freedom is reflected in the stickers on his laptop: "I support Online Rights: Electronic Frontier Foundation," reads one. Another hails the online organisation offering anonymity, the Tor Project.

Asked by reporters to establish his authenticity to ensure he is not some fantasist, he laid bare, without hesitation, his personal details, from his social security number to his CIA ID and his expired diplomatic passport. There is no shiftiness. Ask him about anything in his personal life and he will answer.

He is quiet, smart, easy-going and self-effacing. A master on computers, he seemed happiest when talking about the technical side of surveillance, at a level of detail comprehensible probably only to fellow communication specialists. But he showed intense passion when talking about the value of privacy and how he felt it was being steadily eroded by the behaviour of the intelligence services.

His manner was calm and relaxed but he has been understandably twitchy since he went into hiding, waiting for the knock on the hotel door. A fire alarm goes off. "That has not happened before," he said, betraying anxiety wondering if was real, a test or a CIA ploy to get him out onto the street.

Strewn about the side of his bed are his suitcase, a plate with the remains of room-service breakfast, and a copy of Angler, the biography of former vice-president Dick Cheney.

Ever since last week's news stories began to appear in the Guardian, Snowden has vigilantly watched TV and read the internet to see the effects of his choices. He seemed satisfied that the debate he longed to provoke was finally taking place.

He lay, propped up against pillows, watching CNN's Wolf Blitzer ask a discussion panel about government intrusion if they had any idea who the leaker was. From 8,000 miles away, the leaker looked on impassively, not even indulging in a wry smile.

Snowden said that he admires both Ellsberg and Manning, but argues that there is one important distinction between himself and the army private, whose trial coincidentally began the week Snowden's leaks began to make news.

"I carefully evaluated every single document I disclosed to ensure that each was legitimately in the public interest," he said. "There are all sorts of documents that would have made a big impact that I didn't turn over, because harming people isn't my goal. Transparency is."

He purposely chose, he said, to give the documents to journalists whose judgment he trusted about what should be public and what should remain concealed.

As for his future, he is vague. He hoped the publicity the leaks have generated will offer him some protection, making it "harder for them to get dirty".

He views his best hope as the possibility of asylum, with Iceland – with its reputation of a champion of internet freedom – at the top of his list. He knows that may prove a wish unfulfilled.

But after the intense political controversy he has already created with just the first week's haul of stories, "I feel satisfied that this was all worth it. I have no regrets."

source: Guardian News UK

How the United States Gets Away with Doing What They Do to You!

Here’s Why the United States Can Commit Crimes!

The list of things the United States can do to you is growing daily, and one has to wonder how they can get away with what they are doing.

Labeling reporters criminals and taking their phone records is against the 1st amendment and the 4th amendment to the Bill of Rights.

Harvesting phone data, likewise, is against the 1st and 4th amendments.

Requiring registration of guns, and being able to confiscate them is against the 2nd amendment.

Add to that things like Benghazi, IRS, abuses of individuals and organizations who hold opinions contrary to the party policy, and so on, and so on…but how does the government get away with it?

Well, first, is the fact that the people are letting it happen.  Let’s face it, the people have been dumbed down (government education) to the point where they think their TV shows are more important than their personal rights.   Heck, they aren’t just sheople…they are blind sheople!

But, sheople aside, let’s consider what the government is: a corporation.

And we, the people, are not involved in a fight for self rule, we are in a dire struggle with a corporation.  A corporation with rules and by-laws; one of which is the constitution.  That’s right, the bill of rights is merely a grant of the corporation, not a guarantee, and it has been this way since the United States was incorporated.

Want proof?  Simply do a little research.  Google and wiki a bit, and you’ll figure it out.  Just type in 'united states corporation,' or 'the law of 1871,' and you’ll have your first crumb.

But what we are concerned with here is not that bit of debris, we are concerned with man’s inhumanity to man; how a government staffed by actual, living people gets away with their crimes against humanity, let alone the bill of rights.  And the answer is in the fact of what a corporation is.

A corporation is a body.

I believe the first corporations were started back in England a few hundred years ago.  People with money wanted to invest in shipping, but they didn’t want the risk.  So they established a corporation; an entity that was real in name, but invisible in all other aspects, and the point of this was when a ship sank at sea, the owners of the cargo couldn’t sue the the corporation because it was, well…not really an individual.  No person.  Just a made up thing.

Now, this wasn’t all bad.  It encouraged investments in shipping, made an empire, and all that sort of thing.

Fast forward to the United States. When the USA of A incorporated back in 1871, they created a separate form of government. This was actually inspired by foreign interests (a banking cabal which is still in existence to this day, and is usually referred to as ‘Banksters’) who wanted to plunder the wealth of America.

The Constitution ‘for’ the United States was changed to the constitution ‘of’ the United States, and thus was committed treason.  The government became a false entity behind which could hide all manner of criminals.  Criminals with the power to drone strike, waterboard, create benghazi, AP, kill people, seize records, invade privacy, take guns, and so on, and so on, and…and so it goes.

And now we have criminals of high caliber looting the country to the tune of trillions; passing laws to suppress the citizen who is no longer sovereign, and so on...

But, as long as you have the latest ipad, what do you care?

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Bilderberg: Powerful People Plotting in Secret is the Definition of 'Conspiracy'

As over 140 of the richest and most powerful people on the planet meet this weekend at the Bilderberg meeting in Hertfordshire, England, the mainstream press still refers to the protesters in attendance as "conspiracy theorists."

This overused tactic to discredit opposition to any actual conspiracies is beginning to fall on deaf ears and is exposing the media as lapdogs for the powers that be.

Until the last decade, Bilderberg meetings enjoyed relative anonymity save for a few "theorists" who attempted to expose them.  But now alternative researchers have thrust the Bilderbergers into the spotlight without the help of the establishment press.

So much so that the press is now forced to cover the annual event. Yet, they still use their ink to attack protesters more than the cabal inside the heavily guarded gates.

 What's odd is that the Bilderberg meeting is the dictionary definition of a "conspiracy":

con·spir·a·cy
1. A secret plan by a group to do something unlawful or harmful.
2. The action of plotting or conspiring.

Surely, many would question whether the secret plan (plotting and conspiring) by the 60-year-old Bilderberg group results in something "unlawful or harmful".  However, we only need to look at the way society has been transformed in the last few decades to know that the majority of humanity has been harmed, while the elite attendees enjoy unprecedented wealth and power.

Do you think preemptive wars of aggression based on lies are not plotted in secret? Do you think economic collapse where the perpetrators are bailed out by the public is an accident? Do you think the loss of human liberty around the globe is by accident?

NO.  It is a conspiracy (plan) that drives these events for the benefit of the conspirators. This is now common sense to people who are not paid by the cabal to protect them.

The alternative media does not have corporate advertisers, think tank foundation funding, or government subsidies like the majority of the presstitutes who demonize those who seek the truth.

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Obama Personally Called to Assure the Incarceration (Silencing) of Yemen Reporter that Reported on a US Missile Strike that Killed 14 Women and 21 Children. THIS IS A WAR CRIME COVER-UP

BREAKING: In Evening Session, Congress Votes To Block DHS From Buying Ammo

The House late Wednesday voted to stop the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from entering into new contracts to buy millions of rounds of ammunition until DHS reports to Congress on the need for the ammo, and its cost.

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) proposed an amendment to the DHS spending bill for 2014 that would require the report to Congress before it can pursue plans to buy 1.1 billion rounds of ammunition. Meadows said the speed bump is a necessary reaction to news of the huge purchase, which alarmed many Americans and prompted conservative groups to suspect that the government was stocking up on the rounds to fight citizens.

"Given this large purchase, the American people and members of Congress rightfully had concerns and questions," Meadows said. "This is a responsible amendment which ensures that Congress and the American people are aware of the necessity and the cost of ammunition prior to entering into new contracts for procurement."

Rep. John Carter (R-Texas) said the amendment was unnecessary, based on his talks with DHS officials. Carter said DHS has since admitted that its ammunition needs are not as great as first reported, and said the department is pursuing a bulk purchase to keep the costs down.

Carter also rejected speculation by some that there are ammunition shortages around the country because DHS is buying it all, and said the Meadows language would interrupt the regular procurement process at DHS. But Meadows pointed out that his amendment would not interrupt current DHS contracts to buy ammunition.

The Meadows language passed late Wednesday night in a 234-192 vote.

The House considered dozens of amendments to the 2014 spending bill for DHS, H.R. 2217. Two others considered Wednesday night would delay the implementation of last year's law that would phase out federal flood insurance subsidies, and put the flood insurance program on a path toward market-based rates.

Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) proposed language prohibiting the spending of any funds on this law in 2014. Several members said the language was an attempt to reverse a bipartisan deal on flood insurance passed last year, but many other members in flood-prone states supported it, and the House approved it in a 281-146 vote.

Rep. Jon Runyan (R-N.J.) proposed similar language that would delay increases in flood insurance premiums in New Jersey and New York. But the House turned away that proposal in a 148-278 vote.

Several other amendments were considered Wednesday night, from:

— Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.), canceling the National Bio- and Agro-defense Facility in Kansas and moving $404 million to the spending reduction account. Failed 80-345.

— Jim Moran (D-Va.), prohibiting the use of funds for the transfer or release of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed or other Guantanamo Bay detainees housed there after December 31, 2005, not those held on or after June 24, 2009. The date change is an attempt to clarify that detainees held before late 2005 may be released, not the 9/11 suspects that were shipped there starting in 2006. Failed 165-261.

— Scott Garrett (R-N.J.), prohibiting the use of funds for random TSA inspections conducted outside airports. Failed 180-247.

— Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), prohibiting the use of funds to pay DHS salaries of officials who approve immigration decisions for relatives of Brazil. This was an attempt to partially reverse an earlier decision by the House to strike language blocking immigration from Brazil due to Brazil's failure to extradite a woman who killed her husband, who was an Air Force Major. Failed 50-373.

— Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) en bloc amendments: prohibiting spending to enter into contracts with companies convicted of crimes or charged in a civil case, or has a delinquent tax bill of more than $3,000; prohibiting spending that violates the First, Second or Fourth Amendments to the Constitution; prohibiting spending to buy armed unmanned aerial vehicles. Passed in voice vote.

— Patrick Murphy (D-Fla.), prohibiting the use of funds for the Agricultural Quarantine Inspection Program. Rejected in voice vote.

— Doug Collins (R-Ga.), prohibits the use of funds to process the release of detainees who committed a crime. Passed in voice vote.

— Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), prohibiting the use of funds for TSA's behavioral detection program. Failed 147-279.

— Matt Salmon (R-Ariz.), prohibiting the use of funds in cities that are sanctuary cities for illegal immigrants. Passed in voice vote.

— Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), reaffirming that DHS has discretion to use federal air marshals on high-risk flights. Passed in voice vote.

— Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.), prohibiting spending to weaken the 287(g) program allowing state and local officials to enforce aspects of immigration law. Passed in voice vote.

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