War on Terror, CIA Torture Report, Drones, Cuban Twitter; NSA Spying, Surveillance and Privacy; Tech Cases, Censorship, Press; CNN and MH370

War on Terror

• Blast from the Past: US dirty tricks to win vote on Iraq war—"Secret document details American plan to bug phones and emails of key Security Council members." And Britain too.
• Rand Paul Says Dick Cheney Pushed for the Iraq War So Halliburton Would Profit
• Judge blasts FBI over Saudi family investigation
• Anti-terror surveillance law used in Iowa grain spy probe—"Investigators used a law designed to eavesdrop on foreign spies and terrorists when they probed Chinese seed company officials suspected of stealing trademark hybrid corn from Iowa."
• Government breaches at all-time high, press blunder under-reports by millions—"This is one of those articles that spoils your faith in mankind. Not only are government security incidents fully into holy-cow territory, the press is reporting numbers three magnitudes too low because someone misread a chart and everyone else copied that report."

CIA Torture Report

• Senate votes to release parts, not whole, of torture report—"Select aspects of the lengthy Senate report on CIA torture will be made public. The whole thing should be released." Salon
• Declassify: The Importance of Releasing the CIA Torture Report—"Unless a Senate committee votes to release the 6,300-page document, the Bush Administration's illegal, ineffective interrogation policies are bound to return."
• Leak the CIA report: it's the only way to know the whole truth about torture—"Unless, of course, you think spies redacting 6,300 pages of their own sins is transparency. Look how much leaks told us this week."
• State Department Official Freaks Out That Declassifying CIA Torture Report Might Make The World Angry
• Michael Hayden Says Dianne Feinstein Too 'Emotional' To Be Objective On Intelligence Report
• U.S. senator gets so angry at Cheney's torture defense that he offers to waterboard him
• Pelosi: Former VP Dick Cheney 'set the tone' for the CIA's use of torture
• Liz Cheney, Juan Williams Clash Over CIA Torture Report
• Tony Blair 'knew all about CIA secret kidnap programme'—"Former British PM was 'fully briefed' on CIA's interrogation programme after Sept 11 attacks."
• Jon Stewart Rips Cheney, Rumsfeld For Taking America 'Back To The Torture'
• It's Time the CIA Gets Some Serious Oversight
• Using the 'Top Secret' Stamp to Hide Lies and War Crimes—"By letting the CIA vet the torture report, the White House and Congress are giving Americans a new reason to have contempt for an illegitimate classification system."

Drones

• Suit challenging drone strikes that killed Americans, 16-year-old boy is tossed—"Judge says drone killings are US military and president's prerogative."
• Artists install massive poster of child's face in Pakistan field to shame drone operators
• Triathlete injured by "hacked" camera drone—"Operator claims someone 'channel hopped'control away." Who can say with 100% certainty armed military drones can't be hacked as well?

Cuban Twitter

• US Secretly Created 'Cuban Twitter' to Stir Unrest
• #CancelCastro: Why Is U.S. Policy Toward Cuba So Absurd?
• The Fall of Internet Freedom: Meet the Company That Secretly Built 'Cuban Twitter'
• Secret 'Cuban Twitter' program poses challenge for bloggers and exiles—"Finding that program funded by USAid could be damaging to groups working to increase access to technology, say analysts."
• The "Cuban Twitter" Scam Is a Drop in the Internet Propaganda Bucket

NSA Spying

• Snowden Speaks: A Vanity Fair Exclusive—"The most significant leaker in recent history spoke with Vanity Fair for an exclusive, comprehensive story about his life."
• Edward Snowden: US government spied on human rights workers—'Whistleblower tells Council of Europe NSA deliberately snooped on groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International."
• Edward Snowden and Glenn Greenwald address US campaigners via video—"Whistleblower and journalist warn human rights activists of dangers of NSA collection of metadata." Such as there being "no legal means currently exist to challenge such activities or to see penalties for such abuses."
• Snowden to Receive Truth-Telling Prize—"Edward J. Snowden and the journalist Laura Poitras, who helped him disclose the documents on government surveillance, will receive a Ridenhour prize." NYT
• DOJ Apologizes For Misleading FISC Concerning Evidence; Hints Strongly That It Used Opportunity To Destroy Evidence
• If President Obama wanted the NSA to quit storing phone metadata, he'd act now—"Obama's pen, not Congress, could stop NSA bulk telephone metadata collection immediately."
• Supreme Court passes on NSA bulk phone surveillance case—"Case will head to appeals court first, but will likely end up with the Supremes."
• NSA logs reveal flood of post-Snowden FOIA requests | Al Jazeera America
• Merkel ally says U.S. assurances on NSA spying 'insufficient'
• How Much Is NSA Spying Costing In Lost Productivity?

Surveillance and Privacy

• Assange: US Annexed Whole World Through Surveillance
• As gov't discusses expanding digital searches, ACLU sounds caution—"Proposed changes not 'minor'—'it is a major reorganization of judicial power.'"
• Big Brother's Facebook: UK, US intelligence 'infiltrating' social media
• Mohamed Mohamud deserves new trial due to 'unconstitutional' surveillance, lawyers argue
• EU court rules against requirement to keep data of telecom users
• Yahoo fixes Flickr invitation bug that leaked real names and email addresses—"Privacy flaw on photo sharing website initially dismissed as ‘working as designed’ and not making sensitive data available."
• FireChat's anonymous, off-grid messaging app arrives on Android
• Google Chrome bug: To Listen Without Consent – Abusing the HTML5 Speech
• Critical crypto bug in OpenSSL opens two-thirds of the Web to eavesdropping—"Exploits allow attackers to obtain private keys used to decrypt sensitive data."
• Big Data Is A Civil Rights Issue

Tech Cases

• The inside story of MIT and Aaron Swartz—"More than a year after Swartz killed himself rather than face prosecution, questions about MIT's handling of the hacking case persist." Despite all their claims of neutrality, "e-mails illustrate how MIT energetically assisted authorities in capturing him and gathering evidence — even prodding JSTOR to get answers for prosecutors more quickly — before a subpoena had been issued." In related news, one artist is printing 250,000 pages of pirated JSTOR documents, in Tribute to Aaron Swartz
• Former Yahoo employee alleges he was harassed, threatened and lost job because of online interactions—"Ross Dmochowski, a 42-year-old tech professional, was unprepared when his online chats resulted in a bomb threat under his name that brought FBI agents to his Livermore home -- and contributed to his getting fired in September from his $120,000-a-year job at Yahoo."
• Barrett Brown Signs Plea Deal in Case Involving Stratfor Hack—"Barrett Brown, whose case became a cause célèbre after he was charged with crimes related to the Stratfor hack, has agreed to a plea deal with prosecutors, according to court filings." Complete with a gag-order... sigh.

Censorship

• Australia: Border Protection forces Facebook content removal through Twitter
• Google Appeals Turkey YouTube Blackout WSJ
• Philippines: Inching Toward Censorship
• Net Censors Arrested In China For Taking Bribes To Delete Unflattering Posts As Well As The 'Harmful' Ones
• US plan to end ICANN oversight could lead to 'Net censorship, lawmakers say

Press

• NSA Uses Corporate News to Spread Propaganda and Silence Dissent
• The Blade, pair of journalists who were held file FBI complaints
• Legal Schnauzer blogger freed from jail after 5 months; had been held on contempt charge

CNN and MH370

• CNN's Missing Plane Coverage Turns Up Garbage—In more ways than one.
• CNN, what do you even do anymore?—"Jon Stewart mocks CNN for its continued non-news coverage of Flight MH370." Salon
• Larry King Calls CNN's MH370 Coverage "Abysmal" While Ripping Networks' Use Of "Breaking News"—Bread and circuses.
• CNN 'Breaking News' 31 Days After MH370 Vanished: 'Families Frustrated by Media Coverage'
• Fox News Host Defends CNN's Plane Coverage: It's Not Just For The Ratings

Surveillance and Privacy, War on Terror, Wikileaks, Police State; Innocence vs. Injustice, Recording, Bitches Behaving Badly; Fake Rapes, False Assaults; Hoaxes, Scams, Dupes

Surveillance and Privacy

• Lavabit, email service Snowden reportedly used, abruptly shuts down—"I wish that I could legally share with you the events that led to my decision. I cannot. I feel you deserve to know what's going on--the first amendment is supposed to guarantee me the freedom to speak out in situations like this. Unfortunately, Congress has passed laws that say otherwise. As things currently stand, I cannot share my experiences over the last six weeks, even though I have twice made the appropriate requests." He was "forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people or walk away...."
• Silent Circle Preemptively Shuts Down Encrypted Email Service To Prevent NSA Spying
• Email service used by Snowden shuts itself down, warns against using US-based companies—Edward Snowden: 'Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo, Apple, and the rest of our internet titans must ask themselves why they aren't fighting for our interests the same way.'
• Obama, tech executives met to discuss surveillance: report—"President Barack Obama quietly met with the CEOs of Apple Inc, AT&T Inc as well as other technology and privacy representatives on Thursday to discuss government surveillance, according to a media report."
• What It Means to Be An NSA "Target": New Information Shows Why We Need Immediate FISA Amendments Act Reform
• NSA to cut system administrators by 90 percent to limit data access
• MAD's "War on Privacy" Cover—Yes, me worry.

War on Terror

• Ted Koppel: America's Chronic Overreaction to Terrorism—"The country's capacity for self-inflicted damage must have astounded even Osama bin Laden." WSJ
• Caustic Light on White House's Reaction to a Terrorist Threat—"The decision to shut some American diplomatic posts in the Middle East has prompted gloating among jihadists and criticism by some officials who say the Obama administration overreacted." NYT
• Unhappy With U.S. Foreign Policy? Pentagon Says You Might Be A 'High Threat'
• DHS Eliminates 197 Million People’s 4th Amendment Rights In "Constitution Free Zones"
• Justice Department Files First Criminal Charges In Benghazi Attack

Wikileaks

• Manning sentencing: judge rejects claim leaks had 'chilling effect'—"Judge rules that State Department testimony is admissible only if the effect came directly after leaks were published."
• Department Of Justice Confirms Wikileaks Investigation
• We need crack investigative journalists in the Senate: Julian Assange—"WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has vowed to continue his work on the whistleblowing website if he is elected to the Senate."

Police State

• N.H. City Wants a "Tank" to Use Against Occupiers and Libertarians—"Concord police listed the nonviolent groups as domestic terror threats in a federal grant application."
• SWAT-Team Nation: The Militarization of the U.S. Police—"It's remarkable that using military weapons and tactics on domestic soil has become a routine means of pursuing nonviolent suspects and low-level investigations, particularly in the war on drugs."
• T.S.A. Now Has Power to Patrol Music Festivals?—More mission creep.

Innocence vs. Injustice

• FBI Found Scientific Errors in 27 Death Penalty Convictions
• Mo. judge fires 34-year court employee for providing document that helped free innocent man
• Finally, Thousands of Old Rape-Evidence Kits Are to Be Tested in Texas

Recording

• Texas state troopers caught on camera probing women's privates aren't isolated incidents: lawyers—"Multiple highway patrol officers in Texas have been captured by dash cams doing 'unconstitutional' cavity searches on women's genitals during traffic stops. Lawyers and civil rights advocates say the 'mind-boggling' searches are all too common."
• Indianapolis "Officer of the Year" Caught on Camera Lying About Arrest
• Police restrain and hit woman—"Surveillance video has surfaced showing police hitting a woman in Davenport, Iowa. CNN affiliate WQAD reports."
• Tourists Beware: Walker's Cops May Come After You—"[P]eople videotaping and photographing the arrests – some of them credentialed journalists - were told that the very act of recording those events made them participants and therefore subject to arrest themselves."
• Witnesses say driver appeared to aim for beachgoers—"Witnesses described a scene of terror and mayhem and said the driver appeared to be aiming for people when a car plowed into a weekend crowd of pedestrians on the boardwalk at Venice Beach in Los Angeles."
• Prosecutors drop felony assault charge against Bison linebacker—Witnesses' stories debunked by video.
• Sex video clears men accused of rape—It showed "her laughing and carrying on with the two alleged rapists – hence, the lack of charges against them and the lodging of the misdemeanor false-report accusation."

Bitches Behaving Badly

• Meet The Horrible Florida Woman Who Filmed Herself Berating Dunkin' Donuts Workers—Follow up: Taylor Chapman is Not Employed Here Anymore
• 'Do you know who my dad is? He's rich': What drunk BMW crash girl said after wrecking three homes in her convertible
• Unruly woman kicked, scratched deputies on CLT-bound plane
• Bystanders cheer as women attack, beat DC drag performer
• Sheriff's investigators believe Julia Merfeld wanted to kill her husband—Hitman to be hired turned out to be an undercover cop.
• Street performer assaulted outside Summerfest—"'I was playing Minnie the Moocher, classic Blues Brothers song. A lady with a child in her hand came up to me, smacked me in my face and said 'don’t play that.' Struve says three African American women confronted her and shouted that a white girl could not play the song."
• South Korean 'Honeypot Gang' Targets Married Men—"Police in Chungcheong Province have discovered a criminal gang running a 'honeypot' operation, enticing married men to have sex with a member of the gang and then blackmailing them."

Fake Rapes

• Twenty-five years after accusing an innocent man of rape, Tawana Brawley is finally paying for her lies.—Guess, the party's over.
• Soldier tells how false rape claims ruined his life
• Mentally Ill Woman Gets Jail Time, Probation For Filing A False Rape Report At UC Santa Cruz
• Michigan Woman Faked Rape And Cancer
• Woman behind bars for false rape claim
• Woman allegedly lies about kidnapping, rape
• Maine: Jury convicts Rockland woman of making false rape repor
• Woman is finally jailed after FIVE false rape allegations against her ex-boyfriends in eight years

False Assaults

• Celebrated Cardinals cheerleader arrested after alleged assault caught on video
• Va woman pleads guilty to false sex assault report
• Kayla Brooke Earl Faked Own Attack To Get Ex-Boyfriend's Attention: Cops
• Woman in UK jailed for lying to police that taxi driver had sexually assaulted her in his cab
• Leeds woman jailed for false sex attack claim which cost £57,900

Hoaxes

• Protesters out undercover officer, accuses her of infiltrating group
• What Katie didn't do—"Over a period of two and a half years, she was the subject of intense 'interest' which she alleges was harassment by a group of rogue officers based in the High Wycombe area – where her police officer ex-boyfriend, Alex Ash, who was disciplined for making inappropriate contact with her, just happened to be based."
• Cops Plead Guilty to Helping Plant Drugs on Woman Sexually Harassed by Judge
• DUI case dropped against lawyer who claimed he was set up, mid-trial, by opposing counsel
• Maine man tried to stage kidnapping and rescue of teenage girl, according to affidavit

Scams

• How 12 Men Morphed Identities and Still Voted, Bought Guns, and Got Married
• Fake cop arrested after pulling over real cops in unmarked car for speeding
• Woman denies marathon fund larceny—"A New York woman accused of scamming almost half a million dollars from the Boston Marathon bombing victims fund has pleaded not guilty to larceny."
• Mommy Blogger Lied About Pink Headband Bullying, 'Baker Acted'
• Lee Tyers put pubic hair in Middlesbrough restaurant curry

Dupes

• Video: Sensing Bullshit
• 'Psychic' who reported mass grave north of Houston must pay $7 million
• After Spending $11,000, Woman Sues Psychic For Not Lifting Curse On Her Love Life

CISPA, Surveillance, Your Rights Online, Privacy, Tech Tracking; Wikileaks; Copyfight; Down Under, Overpriced

CISPA

• It's Official: CISPA is back.
• CISPA Claws Back to Life
• CISPA is Back: Dangerous Cybersecurity Legislation Threatens Online Privacy

Surveillance

• Meet the American Company Helping Governments Spy on "Billions" of Communications
• Software that tracks people on social media created by defence firm—"Raytheon's Riot program mines social network data like a 'Google for spies', drawing ire from civil rights groups."
• US Authorities Can Access iCloud Data Stored by Non-American Citizens Without a Warrant
• FBI Files Unlock History Behind Clandestine Cellphone Tracking Tool
• Canada: Conservatives killing off controversial Internet surveillance bill

Your Rights Online

• European Court Of Human Rights: No, Copyright Does Not Automatically Trump Freedom Of Expression
• EU data law draft uses language—word-for-word—from US, EU corporations
• Arizona Politician Parodied By Fake Twitter Accounts Pushes Bill To Make Online Impersonation A Felony
• Politician moves to make vulgar Photoshopping illegal—"A state lawmaker in Georgia is so perturbed that someone used Photoshop to put his head on a porn star's body that he now wants any kind of lewd Photoshopping to be banned. "No one has a right to make fun of anyone," he says." Butthurt.
• Russia Uses New Internet Censorship Bill To Silence Prominent Reporters Who Criticized The Government
• Internet 'Under Assault' by Censoring UN, Regulator Says
• White House Owes Response To Petition To Fire Prosecutor Of Aaron Swartz And Other Hackers

Privacy

• Why I'm unfriending you on Facebook—"My specific concern with Facebook is what NYU Professor Helen Nissenbaum calls a lack of 'contextual integrity,' – which is a fancy way of saying that when I share information with a certain group or friend on Facebook, I am often surprised by where the data ends up."
• Government watchdog: warrantless laptop searches at border are A-OK
• Homeland Security: Not Searching Your Laptop Doesn't Benefit Your Civil Liberties, So We Can Do It
• OkCupid's New Venture, Combosaurus, Worries Privacy Advocates
• Maryland landlord used tiny cameras to sexually spy on tenants

Tech Tracking

• Path Reaches Settlement with FTC Over Address Book Privacy Concerns
• Google Play privacy slip-up sends app buyers' personal details to developers
• Facebook: We do track logged-out users, but trust us

Wikileaks

• Julian Assange files formal application to run for Australian Senate—Says it's his ticket to freedom.
• Jemima Khan: Julian Assange risks becoming 'Australian L Ron Hubbard'—"Former close supporter of WikiLeaks founder accuses him of obfuscation, misinformation and demanding blinkered devotion."
• Icelandic MP who released WikiLeaks video plans US visit despite legal threat—"Birgitta Jónsdóttir says she has held back from visiting long enough and plans tour to express support for Bradley Manning."

Copyfight

• Keep Megaupload out of our server seizure case, US lawyers say—"They don't want Megaupload to "pre-litigate" its criminal case via Kyle Goodwin."
• Copyright Lobby Groups Want Canada Back on Piracy Watch List
• IP Address Snapshots Not Sufficient Evidence To File Infringement Suit; Prenda Lawyer Faces Sanctions
• Sony Rootkit Redux: Canadian Business Groups Lobby For Right To Install Spyware on Your Computer
• Fall of SOPA explained in 3 minute video
• Site plagiarizes blog posts, then files DMCA takedown on originals—Wow.
• North Korea propaganda taken off YouTube after Activision complaint
• Don't Copyright Me launches to protect US schoolkids' homework
• GameStop: 60% of customers won't buy console that doesn't play used games
• Games Workshop trademark bullying goes thermonuclear: now they say you can't use "space marine" in science fiction

Down Under; Overpriced

• 2011: Online retailing: The Great Australian Gouge
• 2012: Aussies gouged on tech prices, inquiry hears
• 2013: Apple, Microsoft, Adobe Called By Lawmakers To Defend Higher Prices In Australia—A reporter says that "if you chose to fly to the United States to purchase CS6 Master Collection you would save AU$228 over buying a digital copy locally, and it's a whole AU$684 cheaper than buying a boxed copy."

Gun Control, Educamation; War on Terror, Civil Liberties, Wikileaks, TSA: Theater Security of America; School-to-Prison, Prison Privatization, Jail Tales

Gun Control

• Obama Supports New Bid To Ban Assault Weapons, Close Gun Show 'Loophole'
• Case studies for Sandy Hook? Australia, Scotland and Finland changed gun laws after mass shootings
• Michigan's Snyder Vetoes Bill Allowing Concealed Guns In Schools
• All 31 Pro-Gun Senators Refused Invitations To Appear On 'Meet The Press'
• Gun Control Momentum Is Real, Just Don’t Ask The House
• Report: Fox News producers told not to address gun control
• NRA's Facebook page shuttered, Twitter activity halted--But they haven't gone completely dark.

Educamation

• Sixth Grader Brings Gun to School for Protection, Does Not Act Totally Responsibly
• Oklahoma Will Consider Law Allowing Teachers To Bring Guns To School
• Umbrella mistaken for gun at Upper Dublin High School

War on Terror

• Zakaria: End the war on terror and save billions
• US Muslims to GOP: If You're Trying to Lose Our Votes, You're Doing a Good Job
• Military Judge Orders Guantánamo Prisoners not to Talk in Court about being Tortured
• U.S.: dismiss lawsuit over Americans killed by drones--" The administration also threatened to invoke the State Secrets..."
• Rendition, Zero Dark Thirty and the brutal reality of Britain's secret services--"Kathryn Bigelow's film about the killing of Osama bin Laden does not touch the reality of what occurred in the 'war on terror'"

Civil Liberties

• CIA 'tortured and sodomised' terror suspect, human rights court rules--"Landmark European court of human rights judgment says CIA tortured wrongly detained German citizen."
• State Secrets Defense Corners Judge in 'Catch-22' Predicament
• Judge OKs Warrantless Cell-Site Data in Landmark Privacy Case

Wikileaks

• Pirate Party Presses Charges Against Banks For WikiLeaks Blockade
• Julian Assange to run for Australian Senate under WikiLeaks party
• Bradley Manning's long quest for justice--"History will judge harshly the US military's mistreatment of the alleged WikiLeaks whistleblower...."

TSA: Theater Security of America

• TSA Detains "Explosive Laced" Girl In Wheelchair--And they come out with a so-called apology.
• TSA to Commission Independent Study of X-Ray Body Scanners
• TSA revising security screening at some airports

School-to-Prison

• Private Prison Company Used in Drug Raids at Public High School
• The Shocking Details of a Mississippi School-to-Prison Pipeline
• Groundbreaking Senate Hearing Shines a Light on the School-to-Prison Pipeline

Prison Privatization

• One way to trim the budget: Prison reform.
• Prison Price Gouging Costs Us All In The End
• Stupid and Unjust: The Highway Robbery of Prison Phone Rates
• Private Prison Company Exec Thomas Weirdsma: Lying To Federal Agencies 'Happens All The Time'
• Prison labor booms in US as low-cost inmates bring billions

Jail Tales

• For Lesser Crimes, Rethinking Life Behind Bars--"Many scholars say mandatory sentencing policies lock up nonviolent, low-level offenders for too long and are no longer a cost-effective way to reduce crime in the United States." NYT
• 31 percent of correctional officers have PTSD Salon
• Jailers worry about inmates using dental floss as a weapon

International Anticorruption Day, Transparency, Bradley Manning; China, Canada, UK, Greece, Eurozone Crisis; World News; Racism

International Anticorruption Day

• Corruption Perceptions Index 2012
• How Corruption Is Strangling U.S. Innovation
• Newly Released Index Finds Perceived Corruption Increased After 'Arab Spring'
• Why Do People Defend Unjust, Inept, and Corrupt Systems?
• Corruption: It's Easier Than You Think

Transparency

• President signs whistle-blower bill for US workers--The bill "affords greater protection to federal employees who expose fraud, waste and abuse in government operations."
• Julian Assange: the fugitive--"Julian Assange has been holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy for six months. In a rare interview, we ask the WikiLeaks founder about reports of illness, paranoia – and if he'll ever come out."
• U.N. Development Agency Launches Open Data Site To Track All $5.8B In Projects

Bradley Manning

• Bradley Manning: a tale of liberty lost in America
• WikiLeaks Suspect Bradley Manning: 'I Thought I Was Going To Die In That Cage'
• Bradley Manning 'wants to go into politics'

China

• China's challenge with corruption--"China's leaders have been decrying corruption - and doing very little about it - for decades. But some corruption experts say there may be reason for a little more hope this time around (NYT)."
• China surpasses U.S. as top global trader
• Mr. China Comes to America--"For decades, every trend in manufacturing favored the developing world and worked against the United States. But new tools that greatly speed up development from idea to finished product encourage start-up companies to locate here, not in Asia. Could global trade winds finally be blowing toward America again?"
• US software firm hacked for years after suing China
• Why one of China's richest men is squaring off against Obama in court--"Wu Jialiang, CEO of Ralls Corp. is challenging Obama's refusal on national security grounds to let him build a wind farm in America, marking the first such high level case in the US from a Chinese firm."
• When in China, don't leave your laptop alone--"If you travel to China or Russia, assume government or industry spooks will steal your data and install spyware. Here's how to thwart them."
• Top Ten Myths About China in 2012

Canada

• Toronto's combative mayor ordered to leave office
• Police looking for more suspects in Salvation Army theft
• Canada among least corrupt countries, report says

UK

• How the Ministry of Defence tried to prevent publication of Danny Nightingale's story--"The Ministry of Defence tried to prevent The Sunday Telegraph from publishing SAS hero Danny Nightingale's story, explains Sean Rayment."
• UK Independence Party couple have foster children removed from care
• Russian mafia whistleblower, 44, found dead in UK

Greece

• Greece 'most corrupt' EU country, new survey reveals
• For Greece, Oligarchs Are Obstacle to Recovery NYT
• Greece can root out corruption – just like Hong Kong did
• Greeks Protest Racist Attacks on Immigrants
• Greeks turn to the forests for fuel as winter nears--"As austerity tightens its grip, many of the middle class find themselves in a desperate struggle to make ends meet."

Eurozone Crisis

• It's Official: Austerity Economics Doesn't Work
• Spain's unemployment heads to 5 million
• Mario Monti to quit as Italian PM amid waning support for austerity policies--"Prime minister announces decision hours after former leader Silvio Berlusconi confirms he will seek office again."

World News

• Spain regions: Catalonia nationalists win election
• Scottish independence: Cameron and Salmond strike referendum deal
• IOC suspends India from Olympics after row over upcoming elections
• Serbia's NATO ambassador suddenly leaps 10 metres to his death at Brussels Airport
• Enslaved Children Freed After Being Forced to Make Christmas decorations

Racism

• Ireland: Man knifed in neck for challenging racist jibes, court hears
• Australia: 'Speak English Or Die'' Viral Video Update: Schmucks Identified
• Anger as Hungary far-right leader demands lists of Jews--"A Hungarian far-right politician urged the government to draw up lists of Jews who pose a 'national security risk', stirring outrage among Jewish leaders who saw echoes of fascist policies that led to the Holocaust."

Dear Leaders, Wikileaks, War on Terror, Adnan Latif, Iran, Surveillance, TSA

Dear Leaders

• Savvy authoritarians: Meet the modern strongmen
• Brazilian police arrest Google exec over online videos
• Man sentenced to one year in prison for insulting Turkish president on Facebook

Wikileaks

• Assange speaks from via satellite from London, calls for end to 'persecution'--Mocks Obama's calls for freedom of speech while attacking Wikileaks.
• US labels Assange 'enemy of state'
• Putin: Assange case a definite example of double standards, trial politically motivated

War on Terror

• Appeals Court Blocks Indefinite-Detention Ruling
• Americans have a right to see Senate report on 'enhanced interrogation'
• Italy Court Upholds American Convictions--" Italy's highest criminal court on Wednesday upheld the convictions of 23 Americans in the abduction of an Egyptian terror suspect from a Milan street as part of the CIA's extraordinary rendition program, paving the way to possible extradition requests by Italian authorities." NYT
• Taliban-linked Afghan recounts prison abuse--"Mohammad Nasim tells CNN's Anna Coren his torturous story after being accused by the U.S. of involvement with the Taliban."
• No fix for 'Jesus rifles' deploying to Afghanistan
• Troops dying to defend US prestige: Tanner--"Australian troops are dying in Afghanistan to "defend American prestige" and it is difficult to justify continued involvement in the war, former finance minister Lindsay Tanner says."
• Afghanistan bans Pakistan newspapers over Taliban support

Adnan Latif

• Dead Gitmo detainee was cleared for release in 2009 --"The Guantanamo detainee found dead in his prison cell last weekend had been cleared for release three years ago by an Obama administration task force that concluded that his detention was no longer necessary...."
• Guantanamo prisoner's tragic letter Salon.
• Chronicle of a death foretold--"Latif had placed his faith in the fairness and impartiality of the US legal system and it failed him utterly, inventing new grounds to keep him incarcerated and in the words of the dissenting judge, 'moving the goalposts' in order to ensure that no matter what evidence existed regarding his innocence he would remain behind bars."

Iran

• Simulated War Between U.S.-Iran Has Grisly End
• Iran Moves to Isolate Its Citizens Online
• Iran's Ali Akbar Javanfekr, Ahmadinejad adviser, jailed
• Iran unveils long-range drone - state TV
• Iran Test-Fires Missiles At Target Near US Naval Drills
• Ahmadinejad tells U.N. that Iran is threatened--And that Israel trying to spook the U.S.
• Vitol trades Iranian fuel oil, skirting sanctions
• Israelis shrug at Netanyahu's urgent warnings on Iran--Bibi has denied accusations that he's trying to influence the US presidential elections.
• Canada's last Iran ambassador: Cutting off Tehran looks like a mistake
• WINEP's Director of Research: U.S. Needs A False Flag to Start A War With Iran

Surveillance

• Be careful, she might hear you--"Attorney-General Nicola Roxon wants unprecedented access to the private lives of Australians, writes Philip Dorling."
• CCTV cameras being used in more than 200 schools changing rooms and toilets across Britain
• ACLU sues to get U.S. agencies' license plate tracking records

TSA

• Smoke Screening--"Heaps of federal money, endless bureaucracy, and constant travel delays are the most visible by-products of the Transportation Security Administration. Too bad 'increased safety' doesn't fit on that list."
• Appeals Court Caves to TSA Over Nude Body Scanners
• GOP to TSA: Eleven years after 9/11 attacks, it's time to change

Corruption, Pussy Riot, Russia, Marikana Massacre, Palestine, Right-Wing, Fukushima, 'Let Them Eat Cake', Brazil, Wikileaks

Corruption

• Poor In India Starve As Politicians Steal $14.5 Billion Of Food
• Chinese Blame Failing Bridges On Corruption
• The high price of writing about the Japanese mafia

Pussy Riot

• Two members of punk rock band flee Russia
• Crosses chopped down: 'Anti-church hysteria' spreads across Russia
• Russian police detain man over 'Pussy Riot' murder case--Man tried to distract the authorities by writing 'Free Pussy Riot' at the murder scene.

Russia

• Opposition says Putin's lifestyle costs billions--"Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister, estimated that the maintenance of Putin's residences, jets and cars alone costs $2.5 billion a year." But wait, there's more (NYT).
• No criminal charges for owners of Russian 'slave' factory --"Police investigating claims by Vietnamese textile workers that they were being kept in slave-like conditions at a factory near Moscow have decided not to bring criminal charges against the owners of the factory."
• For Russians, Corruption Is Just a Way of Life‎ NYT

Marikana Massacre

• South African Marikana miners charged with murder--"Workers arrested at South Africa's Marikana mine have been charged in court with the murder of 34 of their colleagues shot by police." Not long after the justice minister was asking why this apartheid-era doctrine was invoked, the charges were dropped.
• Avoidable, unconstitutional… and entirely predictable
• No common purpose to commit suicide--"News that the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has decided to charge 259 arrested Marikana miners with the murder of their 34 colleagues who were shot dead by the police, is bizarre and shocking and represents a flagrant abuse of the criminal justice system in an effort to protect the police and/or politicians like Jacob Zuma and Nathi Mthethwa."

Palestine

• Former Israeli soldiers disclose routine mistreatment of Palestinian children--"Booklet of testimonies of former Israeli soldiers describes beatings, intimidation and humiliation of children."
• Israeli youths arrested over assault on Palestinians--"Seven Israeli youths have been arrested on suspicion of assaulting a group of Palestinians in Jerusalem...."
• Israel arrests three children over taxi attack--"Three Israeli children have been arrested on suspicion of fire-bombing a Palestinian taxi."
• After Attacks, Israeli Schools Confront Hate NYT
• Bus company backs driver who refused Palestinian passengers on board--"An Israeli bus driver refused to take Palestinian passengers on board, was ordered to do so by police, and took his revenge by forcing them off the bus at the entrance to a settlement. The bus company: 'The driver acted exactly as expected of him.'"
• France opens murder inquiry into Yasser Arafat death
• S Africa approves 'Made in Palestine' labels--"The move, to place new tags on imported goods from Jewish settlements, provokes an angry response from the Israelis."

Right-Wing

• Twenty Years of Failure: Why Germany Isn't Rooting Out its Neo-Nazis
• Opinion: It's not rhetoric to draw parallels with Nazism--"Actual fascists in actual black shirts are waving swastikas and murdering ethnic minorities in Athens."
• Europe Flirts With Breivik's Anti-Immigrant Message

Fukushima

• Must See: Tepco releases badly altered image of Fukushima Unit 4
• Record radiation found in fish near Fukushima plant--"Radioactive cesium measuring 258 times the amount that Japan's government deems safe for consumption has been found in fish near the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant...."
• Mutant butterflies a result of Fukushima nuclear disaster, researchers say

'Let Them Eat Cake'

• 'Drink Less, Work More', Aussie Billionaire Tells Non-Rich--And that those "working for $2 a day should be an inspiration."
• Impunity for the rich and famous leaves Thais outraged
• Splendor Amid Poverty: Gallery Nights With Cuba's Gilded Elite

Brazil

• Good Governance Series: How Brazil Became a Model Nation--Ongoing four-parter.
• Brazil ex-senator to repay $234 mn in stolen funds
• Former Speaker of the House Found Guilty in Brazil's Mensalão Scandal

Wikileaks

• UK tells Ecuador Assange can't be extradited if he faces death penalty
• Julian Assange's lawyer 'prevented from boarding flight at Heathrow'
• Supporters of WikiLeaks' Assange lose $320K in bail money--"Assange's backers... had to forfeit their money because Assange skipped bail...."

RIP Neil Armstrong; Catholic, Politics and Religion, Religiose, Atheism, Bible Studies, Unintelligent Design; Wikileaks

Neil Armstrong, first man to walk on moon, dead at 82--Read Buzz Aldrin's parting words for his friend.

Catholic

• Pope's butler leaked papers to shock 'corrupt' Church, prosecutor says
• Vatican win: Judge says priests aren't employees--"The Vatican won a major victory... in an Oregon federal courtroom, where a judge ruled that the Holy See is not the employer of molester priests."
• Pussy Riot copycats could see church charges--"The Catholic Church has pressed charges against a trio of Pussy Riot copycats who disrupted a service in Cologne Cathedral on Sunday – if charged and convicted they could be jailed for longer than their heroines."
• Bishop's Extravagant Behavior Triggers Uproar--"He extols the virtues of poverty and humility, but the German bishop of Limburg enjoys first-class flights and a luxurious new living complex. As the truth comes out about their secretive shepherd, local Catholics are threatening to abandon the fold en masse."
• Earthly concerns--"The Catholic church is as big as any company in America. Bankruptcy cases have shed some light on its finances and their mismanagement."

Politics and Religion

• Five people who fought the Christian takeover of America Salon
• Bishops: God votes Republican--"Cardinal Dolan's benediction at the GOP Convention makes clear the Catholic bishops have taken sides." Salon
• Religious Laws Long Recognized By U.S. Courts
• Amanpour: God's Warriors--"Christiane Amanpour travels to six countries on four continents to examine the intersection between religion and politics."
• Genuine Christian Scholars Smack Down an Unruly Colleague--Revisionist historian David Barton gets his book pulled by the publisher after they "received a number of complaints that the book is inaccurate."
• Criminal charges filed against German rabbi for performing circumcision
• Germany seeks to clarify euthanasia laws

Religiose

• Islamist Mind Games: How Young German Men Are Lured into Jihad
• Christian boy tortured and killed in Pakistan--"The tortured body of an 11 year old Christian boy has been found in a town in Punjab, Pakistan, days after a young Christian girl was arrested on blasphemy charges."
• Egypt arrests man after nail bomb attack on German embassy--"The man acted out of anger after reading an Egyptian newspaper report on Friday which described a protest by German right-wing activists who had paraded caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad in front of a German mosque, they said."
• Offensive Cartoon Has German Christians Fuming
• Mexico cult eyes 'evil' secular schools--"Authorities are negotiating with a religious cult in southwestern Mexico, trying to persuade leaders to allow public schools to operate in the isolated community...."
• Jesus Wept--"A skeptic faces possible charges for debunking Mumbai’s miracle statue."
• Google vs. God--"What's causing all these Hasidic Jews to flee their community? Smartphones."

Atheism

• From Bible-Belt Pastor to Atheist Leader--"The new heroes within the secular movement are coming from unlikely places — like the pulpit." NYT
• Republic of Ireland abandoning religion faster than almost every other country
• Survey finds 19% without religious affiliation
• FFRF awards 12-year-old freethinker for student activism
• High School Teacher Brags About How His School Stopped an Atheist Group from Forming, but He's in for a Surprise

Bible Studies

• People Who Have Actually Read the Entire Bible
• The Bible's book of Revelation explained
• Hebrew Bible: Plagiarized Mythology and Defaced Monotheism

Unintelligent Design

• God won't rescue world from 'stupidity,' says top Anglican
• Balloon priest wins Darwin Award for stupidity
• Striking proof that lightning conductors work--In 1769, "church authorities had turned down the chance of fitting the newly invented lightning conductor on the ground that it was heretical to interfere with divine will." Then God decided to smite 230 people in one day.

Wikileaks

• Britain withdraws threat to raid Ecuador’s embassy
• Why WikiLeaks is worth defending, despite all of its flaws
• Is this the photo that could clear Assange? Grinning for the camera, WikiLeaks boss and woman who says he sexually assaulted her 48 hours earlier

Food Insecurity, Battle for the Ages, Wall Street Waffling, Banks, Knight Capital, Class War, Global Economy, Wikileaks

Food Insecurity

• How Goldman Sachs Created the Food Crisis--"Don't blame American appetites, rising oil prices, or genetically modified crops for rising food prices. Wall Street's at fault for the spiraling cost of food."
• We'll make a killing out of food crisis, Glencore trading boss Chris Mahoney boasts--"Drought is good for business, says world's largest commodities trading company."
• Warming-Driven Drought Pushes Crop Prices To Record Levels, As We Burn 40% Of Corn Crop In Our Engines

Battle for the Ages

• Generational Warfare: Old-age entitlements vs. the safety net
• Opinion: Greedy geezers? That's a myth
• Bye-Bye, Boomers: This Is the Age of the Baby Busters
• How those spoiled millennials will make the workplace better for everyone
• The Cheapest Generation--"Why Millennials aren’t buying cars or houses, and what that means for the economy."

Wall Street Waffling

• Crazy: Stealing Pizza Is Worse Than Stealing $1B Dollars--Cenk Ugyur discusses the DOJ's decision not to prosecute the big banks.
• Goldman Non-Prosecution: AG Eric Holder Has No Balls
• Are some banks too big to prosecute?

Banks

• Former Barclays CEO 'held back evidence'--"Parliamentary committee claims Bob Diamond held back evidence during hearings on the Libor rate-rigging scandal."
• Opinion: Iceland Was Right, We Were Wrong: The IMF
• Bank Of America Fails To Hold Up Its End Of Foreclosure Fraud Settlement
• Britain's richest 5% gained most from quantitative easing – Bank of England--"The richest 10% of households in Britain have seen the value of their assets increase by up to £322,000 as a result of the Bank of England's attempts to use electronic money creation to lift the economy out of its deepest post-war slump."
• Adam Davidson on setting up an offshore bank account

Knight Capital

• Company's software trading glitch cost it $10 million per minute
• Knight Upgrade Triggered Old Trading System, Big Losses
• Errant Code? It’s Not Just a Bug --"As a former software engineer, I laughed when I read what the Securities and Exchange Commission might be considering in response to the debacle of Knight Capital’s runaway computerized stock trades: forcing companies to fully test their computer systems before deploying coding changes." NYT

Class War

• How Americans view wealth and inequality
• In China, less than 1% of households control more than 70% of private financial wealth WSJ
• Wrong number call rings social boycott of 50 dalit families--Despite being illegal, the caste system remains in place in India.

Global Economy

• Odds of Global Recession Are 100%: Marc Faber
• German economy: Europe's tired engine--"As the euro zone goes into another recession, Germany is slowing down." But the government somehow managed to get a surplus in tax revenues for the first half of 2012.
• Russia completes a long, strange trip to the World Trade Organization
• Why People Are Going Nuts Over The New George Soros Speech On Europe
• China Confronts Mounting Piles of Unsold Goods NYT
• How to beat Africa’s water crisis--"Recent discoveries of water reserves under some of Africa’s mightiest deserts raise hopes for quenching African thirst. But the reality is much more grim."
• The World is losing faith in hard work--"Add faith in the work ethic and in capitalism to the lengthening list of casualties from the Great Recession. Four years after the Lehman Brothers’ fiasco and the ensuing global economic downturn, the idea that effort in a competitive economy can lead to success is seriously questioned in a number of major economies, including Japan, Russia and Greece, especially among those who have suffered the most."

Wikileaks

• Julian Assange: Secret Police Documents Reveal WikiLeaks Founder To Be Arrested In Any Attempt To Leave
• Latin America, Caribbean unite to support Ecuador over Assange--"All the members of the Organization of American States, except for the US and Canada, have stated their solidarity and support of Ecuador’s decision to grant asylum to Julian Assange at a meeting of 35-member bloc in Washington."
• Sex, lies and Wikileaks--"As once friendly news outlets report the Julian Assange story more critically, we ask if the media has lost the plot."
• Greenwald: The New Statesman must correct its error over Assange and extradition--"The claim that Swedish courts, not government, have final say on extradition is a crucial mistake that distorts the Assange case."
• Oliver Stone and Michael Moore Support Julian Assange in Op-Ed--"Filmmakers say extraditing WikiLeaks founder to U.S. could have global repercussions."

Wikileaks; 420, War on Drugs, War on War on Drugs, Mexico

Wikileaks

• Assange Urges US To End Wikileaks 'Witch Hunt'--The war on whistleblowers must end.
• John-Michael Howson taunts Julian Assange's Mum with Nazi slogan--She tells the media, "You journalists should do your jobs."
• Timeline: sexual allegations against Assange in Sweden

420

• Video: "Let's talk about a new approach."
• In 'Marijuana Legalization,' Hard Truths For All Sides of the Debate
• Medical Marijuana Crackdown: Rep. Barbara Lee Tells Feds to Back Off
• L.A. City Council votes 14-0 to ban medical marijuana shops
• Penny Arcade: Green Business

War on Drugs

• Issa Sues Holder Over Fast And Furious Documents
• I Was A Teenage Narc
• Drug Enforcement Administration only has 40 TB of electronic storage worldwide--"You may have seen the headlines going around: 'Drug charges dropped because of too much evidence' or 'Charges dropped against fugitive doctor, because evidence is using too much space on federal servers.' It may sound incredible, but it's—at least partially—true. "

War on the War on Drugs

• Brazil drug dealers: 'Stop buying crack'--"Traffickers say they have stopped selling crack cocaine in two slums, citing destructive behaviour of users."
• Judge Rules That Advocating Jury Nullification Is Not a Crime
• Jurors voice thoughts on Texas drug law in court--"They said they weren't going to make somebody a felon and ruin their lives over less than a gram of cocaine...."

Mexico

• Mexican official: CIA 'manages' drug trade--"It's like pest control companies, they only control. If you finish off the pests, you are out of a job. If they finish the drug business, they finish their jobs."
• Mexico charges generals over suspected drug gang ties
• Mexican mayor-elect shot dead

Wikileaks, Food Security, China, Eurozone, Race and Racism, Protests, Murdoch Mysteries

Wikileaks

• Brilliant read! Statement of the Government of the Republic of Ecuador on the asylum request of Julian Assange
• In UK threat to Ecuador, experts see mistake--"It was a warning meant to remind Ecuador that Britain's patience has limits. But as the stalemate over Julian Assange settled, it appeared London's veiled threat that it could storm Ecuador's embassy and drag Assange out has backfired — drawing supporters to the mission where the WikiLeaks founder is holed up and prompting angry denunciations from Ecuador and elsewhere."
• US intends to chase Assange, cables show

Food Security

• Global Food Reserves Falling As Drought Wilts Crops
• Potential grows for food crisis as prices surge-UN
• Attempts to avoid food crisis may worsen problem
• Millions more will go hungry as world struggles to respond to unprecedented food crises and sharply rising prices
• Commerzbank stops speculating on basic food prices--"Germany's second-biggest lender, Commerzbank, says it will no longer participate in market speculation on basic food prices. The bank says it has removed all agricultural products from its funds for moral reasons."

China

• For the first time since 1998 more money leaves China than enters it
• Even China Is Running Out of Money Now
• China's ghost towns and phantom malls
• Superpower Denied? Why China's 'Rise' May Have Already Peaked
• You'll Never Be Chinese: Why I’m leaving the country I loved

Eurozone

• IMF Says Bailouts Iceland-Style Hold Lessons in Crisis Times--"Iceland’s commitment to... a decision to push losses on to bondholders instead of taxpayers and the safeguarding of a welfare system that shielded the unemployed from penury helped propel the nation from collapse toward recovery,"
• How Finland keeps its head above eurozone crisis
• Canada: Harper rejects calls to bail out eurozone
• Germany and IMF to Refuse Greece Further Financial Aid, Reports Say--Greece has avoided a default... for now.
• German opposition leader talks tough on tax evasion
• More Abandoned Children as Europe Austerity Wears On
• Desperation in Spain: One Mayor's Hunger Strike against Austerity

Race and Racism

• Eddie Izzard: 'Mo Farah is proof of great multicultural Britain'
• EU should 'undermine national homogeneity' says UN migration chief
• Europe Needs a Multiethnic Miracle--"Why Jewish Poles, black Germans, and headscarf-wearing Italians are the continent's best hope."
• MEP of antisemitic Hungarian party discovers he is Jewish
• Neo-Nazi flash mobs strike German cities, aim to become 'immortal' on YouTube

Protests

• Chess master Garry Kasparov arrested outside Pussy Riot trial
• South Africa shocked by police shootings at mine--What's behind the Marikana Massacre?
• 'We Are Prepared to Die': Workers in Colombia at General Motors Plant Sew Their Mouths Shut to Protest Backbreaking Labor Conditions

Murdoch Mysteries

• News Corp registers $1.6bn fourth-quarter loss
• Phone hacking scandal cost News Corp. $224 million
• News Corp Announces Anti-Corruption Review