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New cyber-intelligence leaks reveal US government targeting journalists

Wikileaks has published thousands of leaked emails from a US cyber-security contractor. Whistle-blowing journalist Barrett Brown was released from federal prison as a result, but the emails discussed targeted journalists and governments. In February of 2011, emails belonging to HBGary Federal were obtained by hacking collective Anonymous. Wikileaks has now published those emails in a searchable database containing over 60,000 emails.

The newly released emails were a dedication to Brown, who spent almost two years behind bars for reporting on the HBGary leaks and the 2012 hack of the private intelligence company Stratfor. Wikileaks published some 5.5 million emails from that hack between 2013 and 2014. Brown was sentenced to 63 months in federal prison for obstruction of justice, threatening a federal officer and being an after the fact accessory. Included in the HBGary Federal emails was a company proposal to spy on Russia with mobile devices and wireless sniffers. This hinted at the NSA’s capabilities prior to Edward Snowden’s 2013 disclosure.

Emails showed that HBGary executive Greg Hoglund proposed sniffing operations in Russia by targeting cell phone carriers Mobile TeleSystems and Vimpelcom. “NSA has all the collection resources you could imagine; CIA likewise has operatives coming out the wazooo. What they don’t have is an ability to manage complex campaigns,” Hoglund wrote.

HBGary’s CEO Aaron Barr added to the proposal by mentioning a plan to infiltrate groups and governments with fake personas on social media. “I will create a few personas for the executive members of the company so there can be some email traffic. You will at some point be able to use this guy’s accounts as compromised,” Barr wrote. “If this looks too big we could probably pitch this as a whitepaper to either a large defense contractor like ManTech,” he added. Barr had to resign from HBGary after scandal followed the 2011 hack. The HBGary Federal subsidiary was shut down and Virginia-based ManTech ended up purchasing HBGary.

Plantir Technologies at one point teamed up with HBGary to target Wikileaks and its volunteers. The project was pitched to Bank of America prior to Wikileaks releasing some of the bank’s documents. Plantir is a big data analysis company that serves the US military and intelligence communities. It’s founder Peter Thiel is a major backer of Trump and now a member of his transition team.

Strategies to go after journalists who supported Wikileaks showed up in a 2010 email from Barr to Plantir engineer Matthew Steckman. Among the proposed strategies was disinformation, a strategy that creates messages with the intent of sabotaging or discrediting the opposing organization. The presentation proposed submitting fake documents and then calling out the error. The tactic was used against Wikileaks when it started publish emails from John Podesta.

Sources:

TheDailySheeple.com

TheHill.com

Edward Snowden

Berlin asked Snowden to testify on NSA surveillance, but can’t promise him protection

Depending on who you ask, Edward Snowden is either a patriot or a traitor, and how someone answers that question can immediately show you whether they hold freedom or ignorance in higher regard. The man who blew the whistle on the NSA’s unconstitutional surveillance of law-abiding citizens has been a controversial figure in the past few years, and hasn’t been able to stay out of the news, despite currently living a low-profile life while seeking asylum in Russia.

Now, Snowden is once again in the spotlight, after German officials asked him to testify before a parliamentary committee amidst an investigation of NSA surveillance. One of the major conditions of Snowden doing this is receiving a considerable amount of guaranteed protection, which Germany cannot provide. When you consider all of the people who want Snowden dead, there are a number of reasons why he should be concerned.

RT reports, “The Federal Court of Justice has ruled that the government needs, among other formalities, to provide ‘effective protection’ for the witness and ‘immediately establish the preconditions for interrogation of the witness in Germany.’ The government must inform the parliamentary committee ‘at what time it can establish the abovementioned conditions.'”

While it definitely isn’t worth risking his life to do so, we should all be hoping and praying that Snowden finds a way to testify under oath. If people around the world begin to discover just how twisted and unconstitutional the NSA is, then pressure will be put on the federal government to change its practices. It won’t happen overnight, but if the agency begins to feel the heat, the American people will benefit greatly.

Snowden stood up for freedom – actual freedom – and is now paying the price. What the federal government has done to him is truly disgusting, and history will not be kind to them in the end. We should all be doing our part to spread the truth about the NSA so that more people who aren’t politically inclined will begin to see exactly what is happening with our private information and pieces of technology. It is like something out of a dystopian novel, and it should never be downplayed as anything less.

Now, many people will argue that what Snowden did was dangerous, but as Thomas Jefferson once brilliantly stated, it is better to have dangerous freedom than peaceful slavery. The NSA is slavery, and it is time for it to be completely abolished.

Sources:

TheDailySheeple.com

RT.com

TheLocal.de

julian-assange1-19-1466307461

Assange may face extradition as Ecuador considers revoking asylum

Hillary Clinton and the Democrats are working behind the scenes to have WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange not only censored but possibly ejected from the Ecuadoran embassy in London.

Ecuador granted Assange asylum in 2012, and British officials have said that they will arrest him if he leaves the embassy.

Earlier this year, an arrest warrant for Assange by a Stockholm district court was upheld. Sweden wants to question him in regard to a sex allegation. He has not been charged with a crime and does not face trial. In January, the United Nations ordered Sweden and the UK to immediately release him and compensate Assange for violating his rights.

On Monday, WikiLeaks posted the following tweet:

The DNC leak put a serious kink in Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, and resulted in the replacement of Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the DNC boss.

The government of Ecuador fears a move by Britain to limit its relationship with the country in response to the DNC leak will result in a similar move by the United States and negatively impact commercial ties with the Latin American country.

The largest daily newspaper in Ecuador, El Comercio, reported on Wednesday:

It happens that the author of the mess is none other than the person to whom Ecuador has granted asylum and protection for more than four years. I was the first to say that Assange has, like all human beings, inalienable rights that must be respected. However, an asylee also has obligations can not ignore. should not “perform acts that disturb the public peace or tend to participate or influence political activities” and also must respect and not harm their acts to the country that decided asilarlo.

Unfortunately, Ecuador has not set any limit to the conduct of Assange and allowed to violate his refugee status and who seek asylum taunt. His latest interference in US policy could have consequences worldwide, of which Ecuador, Assange protector, will not leave unscathed. If London has refused to closer ties with Ecuador, because of Assange, Washington is expected to react in the same way. And the United States is our best commercial customer! I said that, once granted asylum, Ecuador is bound to keep. However, given the gruesome performances Assange undoubtedly violate his refugee status should be considered whether its conduct, taken to the extreme, it is a good reason for Ecuador to end such asylum.

In 2010, the Ecuadorian foreign ministry invited Assange to travel to Quito to discuss leaked diplomatic cables relating to Ecuador and other Latin American countries.

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa subsequently said his country had not invited Assange for a visit.

A number of US legislators called for Assange to be prosecuted after WikiLeaks published more than 250,000 diplomatic cables from US embassies around the world, described as the largest disclosure of confidential information to date.

US Rep. Peter King, a New York Republican, characterized Assange as an enemy combatant who should be apprehended and charged with espionage. He urged the government to classify WikiLeaks as a terrorist organization and freeze its assets.

The FBI is actively pursuing Assange. On 15 March, the Department of Justice filed a court document stating there is a pending national security prosecution against him and WikiLeaks. A federal warrant issued in 2012 charged Assange with “Espionage, Conspiracy to commit Espionage, Theft of Government Property, Electronic Espionage,” classified as terrorism under the Patriot Act.

Sources:

ElComercio.com