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"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.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/09/edward-snowden-nsa-whistleblower-surveillance

he 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."

Some of the world's largest internet brands are claimed to be part of the information-sharing program since its introduction in 2007. Microsoft -– which is currently running an advertising campaign with the slogan "Your privacy is our priority" -– was the first, with collection beginning in December 2007.

It was followed by Yahoo in 2008; Google, Facebook and PalTalk in 2009; YouTube in 2010; Skype and AOL in 2011; and finally Apple, which joined the program in 2012. The program is continuing to expand, with other providers due to come online.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/06/nsa-prism-data-mining_n_3399310.html

The National Security Agency and the FBI are tapping directly into the central servers of nine leading U.S. Internet companies, extracting audio, video, photographs, e-mails, documents and connection logs that enable analysts to track a person’s movements and contacts over time.

The highly classified program, code-named PRISM, has not been disclosed publicly before. Its establishment in 2007 and six years of exponential growth took place beneath the surface of a roiling debate over the boundaries of surveillance and privacy. Even late last year, when critics of the foreign intelligence statute argued for changes, the only members of Congress who know about PRISM were bound by oaths of office to hold their tongues.

LI: With the Verizon leak this week, do you think that’s an isolated event, or indicative of a whole lot more?

WB: That court order was 13-80. The 80th order of just this year. It’s been going on a long time.

LI: The second leak this week was about PRISM, where the NSA appears to tap directly into Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, and other companies’ servers to access whatever data they want without a warrant. What is your knowledge of, or thoughts regarding, this program?

WB: I just saw the report, and I wasn’t aware of that program. But I figured it was going on, because they were just another source of input of information. The telecoms were giving NSA access to their communication lines. The Narus devices that the NSA put in different rooms around the AT&T fiber-optic network, or Verizon’s network, couldn’t collect everything. They could get most of it, but they couldn’t get it all. So in order to get all the data, they had to go to the service providers to fill in the blanks. That’s what the PRISM program is for—to fill in the blanks. It also gives the FBI basis for introducing evidence into court.

LI: A couple of these companies have come out and said that they don’t provide this data to the NSA. Do you suspect that they are lying?

WB: Oh, yeah. Obviously. Absolutely.

LI: How much data do you estimate will be able to be stored at the NSA facility in Utah?

WB: I simply took what was commercially available off of cleversafe.com, which is 10 exabytes in 200 square feet. Then I divided 200 square feet into the 100,000 square feet of storage that will be at the facility. Then you get 5,000 exabytes stored in that area. That’s five zetabytes. What that means is around 500 years of the world’s communications, if they used all the space for that purpose. I figure they wouldn’t have to do more than 100 years, and the rest of it they can use with parallel processors to try to break codes.

LI: Speaking of the average American citizen, how much data would you estimate the government has collected on them, and what type of information?

WB: It’s everything—phones, emails, twitter, any kind of digital communications that they’ve had. I think it’s into banking as well, but I don’t know that for sure. I do believe they’re doing it

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/06/nsa-phone-records-verizon-court-order

The National Security Agency is currently collecting the telephone records of millions of US customers of Verizon, one of America's largest telecoms providers, under a top secret court order issued in April.

The order, a copy of which has been obtained by the Guardian, requires Verizon on an "ongoing, daily basis" to give the NSA information on all telephone calls in its systems, both within the US and between the US and other countries.

The document shows for the first time that under the Obama administration the communication records of millions of US citizens are being collected indiscriminately and in bulk – regardless of whether they are suspected of any wrongdoing.

The secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (Fisa) granted the order to the FBI on April 25, giving the government unlimited authority to obtain the data for a specified three-month period ending on July 19.

Under the terms of the blanket order, the numbers of both parties on a call are handed over, as is location data, call duration, unique identifiers, and the time and duration of all calls. The contents of the conversation itself are not covered

Every single time any major media outlet reports on something that the government is hiding, that political officials don't want people to know, such as the fact that they are collecting the phone records of all Americans, regardless of any suspicion of wrongdoing, the people in power do exactly the same thing.

They attack the media as the messenger and they are trying to discredit the story. This has been going back decades, ever since the Pentagon papers were released by the New York Times, and political officials said you are endangering national security.

The only thing we've endangered is the reputation of the people in power who are building this massive spying apparatus about any accountability who are trying to hide from the American people what it is that they are doing.

http://ian56..co.uk/2013/06/verizon-revelations-tom-clements.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/09/glenn-greenwald-this-week-should-expect-more-revelations_n_3411834.html

The Guardian's Glenn Greenwald appeared on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday and told host George Stephanopoulos that the public should expect more revelations from him.

Last week, Greenwald broke the bombshell story about the NSA collecting phone data from millions of Verizon customers. Additional stories on major government surveillance programs followed, including news about the NSA program called Prism that allows officials to collect material from some of the country's largest Internet companies (including AOL, HuffPost's parent company).

On Sunday, Greenwald published another story about an NSA datamining tool used for global surveillance called Boundless Informant.

"Should we be expecting more revelations from you?" Stephanopoulos asked Greenwald.

"You should," he said.

During the segment, Greenwald responded to criticisms from the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, who called The Guardian's reports "reprehensible."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/08/nsa-prism-server-collection-facebook-google

@scottinbloxwich - better move to a cave. I don't know whether the ramifications of all this have really been thought through, but if the NSA can gain direct access to the servers of Microsoft, Apple, Google, etc, what will stop them from gaining direct access to, say, the servers of firewall makers?

When they do it really shouldn't be too hard to obtain direct access to everyone's computers... and not only copy the contents of their hard drives, but also to switch on the video cameras and mics on people's laptops and monitor everyone in real time in their homes, 1984-style.

Almost all Android apps already demand the most bizarre permissions, and offer the possibility to spy on us wherever we are, 24/7, with real time video and audio recordings, and I suspect it's the same for other mobile phone operating systems.

With data storage being very cheap and getting cheaper, the NSA, if it isn't stopped, will soon be able to log everything we do and say, 24/7, forever. It will mean the end, not only of privacy (a human right by article 12 of the Declaration of Human Rights, btw) but also of whatever is left of freedom and democracy--there's no way any people's movement that would really challenge the status quo, or perhaps even just challenge the current government, would be allowed to gain any traction.

The Huffington Post photoshop pic, blending the faces of GWB and Obama was brilliant. I've also seen blends of the faces of Obama and Big Brothers... very apt, and what a comedown from Obama's high promises.

For those who know ak47 can fire in all situations. This was found in a bunker in his bedroom so it was there with intent. Lebanon is half Sunni and half Shia, so it is possible but this guy is not with Boko Haram. Boko Haram is a Sunni insurgency in congruence with al Qaeda. They represent the Hizbollah, Alawite Syria, Iraq and Iraninan bloc who have not carried any activity yet in Nigeria.

These weapons are kept as a deterrent to counter strike the West in an upcoming invasion of Iran. If you remember the arms found in Lagos port was destined for Gambia. Iran is creating sleeper cells around the West Coast of Africa but thanks to Mossad they will all be exposed in Jesus Name, Amen.

Blogger Comment:
Funny.. life is stranger than fiction....didn't all the crazy fundamentalist Christians use to say that one day the antichrist was going to brand us with mark of the beast?

Do these tattoos have 666 anywhere their programming?

Looks like the mark of the beast is going to be when we eventually enter a cashless society. Those who are registered within the system will become wage slaves. Those outside will starve because they are not allowed o buy anything. So this is democracy?......

Even nowadays you can't buy some stuff if you don't have a credit card.

Here we come 1984!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The phone, which is to largely be manufactured in America, will also use advanced sensors to anticipate user behaviour, Woodside said.

Dugan added “Authentication is irritating. In fact its so irritating only about half the people do it, despite the fact there is a lot of information about you on your smartphone, which makes you far more prone to identity theft.”

She said authentication takes 2.3 seconds each time for existing users, some of whom log in to their phones a 100 times a day and added Motorola would not be put off by those who felt that the new technologies were “creepy”.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/mobile-phones/10090863/Google-Motorolas-tattoos-could-replace-passwords.html

The technology, which aims to remove the need to enter passwords and replace them simply with a phone being close to a user’s body, was one of the suggestions Dennis Woodside, Motorola’s chief executive, California's D11 conference yesterday.

The tattoos have been developed by Massachusetts-based engineering firm MC10, and contain flexible electronic circuits that are attached to the wearer's skin using a rubber stamp.

Nokia has previously experimented with integrating tattoos into mobile phones, and Motorola's senior vice president of advance research, Regina Dugan, a former head of the US Pentagon's Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, demonstrated the silicon-based technology that uses bendable electronic circuits. Initially designed for medical purposes, Motorola hopes the ‘Biostamps’ could now be used for consumer authentication purposes.

Motorola is also investigating the Proteus Digital Health pill, which has already been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration and was given European regulatory approval in 2010. Its computer chip is powered by a battery using the acid in a user’s stomach.
The pill creates a unique signal like an ECG trace that can be picked up by devices outside the body and which could be used to verify a user’s identity. It can be taken daily for up to a month, it has been claimed.

How do Lebanese plot against us like these, what did we do wrong? Are they fronting for others intent on dealing with us

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HATaeJ3OCk

Security officials said an underground bunker in the master bedroom of a Lebanese national residing in Kano at No 3 Gaya Road off Bompai Road, Kano one Abdul Hassan Taher Fadlalla, who is currently out of the country, contained a large quantity of assorted weapons of different types and caliber.

The DSS Director in Kano State, Mr. Bassey Etang and the Brigade Commander of the 3 Brigade of the Nigerian Army, Brigadier General Ilyasu Abbah displayed the weapons to reporters on Thursday, insisting that the bunker, where they were found, was specially constructed for this purpose.

“All those arrested have confessed to have undergone Hezbollah Terrorist Training and further implicated one Fauzi Fawad, also a co-owner of Amigo Supermarket and Wonderland Amusement Park.”

When one of our correspondents contacted the Director of Defence Information, Brig. Gen. Chris Olukolade, he described the discovery of the arms and the arrest of the Lebanese importers as “a major breakthrough.”

The action of the JTF operatives, he said demonstrated the commitment of security agencies to riding the country of illegal arms.

Iweha, who said the construction of the bunker was special, listed anti-tank weapons, rocket propelled guns and anti-tank/personnel mines as some of the dangerous weapons found in the premises.

He added that the weapons and ammunition were concealed in coolers, drums and bags.

According to him, the latest recovery followed an ongoing robust counter-terrorism investigation by the SSS.

Confirming the existence of a Hezbollah cell in the country, Iweha noted that the SSS had arrested one Mustapha Fawaz, co-owner of Amigo Supermarket and the Wonderland Amusement Park, in Abuja.

The arrest of Fawaz, Iweha said, led to the arrest of another Lebanese terror suspect, Abdullah Tahini, at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport with over$60,000

http://www.punchng.com/news/jtf-uncovers-lebanese-terror-cell-in-kano/

Iran is desperately hoping to start a War in Nigeria to target Crude oil shipments and destabilize Western Countries who depend on our Energy supply. Check out the weapons- May God help us in these trying times.

http://tribune.com.ng/news2013/en/component/k2/item/13221-hezbollah’s-armoury-uncovered-in-kano-•suspects-claim-weapons-were-meant-to-fight-israeli,-western-interests-in-nigeria.html


NIGERIA’S security services, on Thursday, said they had discovered a home in Kano, where Lebanese nationals had stored weapons intended to attack Israeli and Western targets in Nigeria.

The Kano State Director of State Security Service (SSS), Bassey Etang and a separate military statement described the compound as hosting a “terrorist cell” tied to the Lebanese Shiite movement, Hezbollah.

No evidence was provided linking the home to the Lebanese group.

Journalists were brought to the compound in the upmarket Bompai neighbourhood of Kano and taken to a bunker dug beneath a bedroom where weapons had allegedly been stored.

“The weapons include anti-tank weapons, rocket propelled guns, anti-tank (and) antipersonnel mines, among other dangerous weapons,” the military statement said.
It said three Lebanese nationals had been arrested in connection with the illegal arms cache, while a fourth suspect was at large.
“This is the handiwork of Hezbollah. What has just been discovered is the cell of Hezbollah and what you have seen here is a Hezbollah armoury,” Etang said.

“These weapons are meant to be used to target Israeli and Western interests in Nigeria,” he added.

According to the SSS chief, “investigations are still ongoing to determine if the Lebanese nationals are really connected to Boko Haram.”
The military statement said one suspect, Mustafa Fawaz, was arrested on May 16 and his “confession unveiled other members of the foreign terrorists network.”
A second suspect, Abdullah Tahini, was arrested several days later while trying to board a flight to Beirut from the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, according to the military.

The third detained Lebanese national, Talal Roda, was arrested at the Kano home on May 26, while Fauzi Fawad was identified as the suspect at large.

Fawaz reportedly owns a leading supermarket as well as an amusement park in Abuja.

An employee, who answered a call to a number listed for the amusement park, told AFP that Fawaz had not been in the office this week.
The arrests and arms recovery followed a “robust counter terrorism investigation in the past several months,” the military said.

It will be recalled that in February, the SSS said it had discovered a militant cell receiving instructions from Iranian agents that had sought to attack Israeli and Western targets in Nigeria.
It national spokesman, Marilyn Ogar, said at the time that the group also planned to assassinate Nigeria’s former military ruler, General Ibrahim Babangida.

[b]Syria and Hizballah, flushed with the success of breaking the rebel hold on the strategic town of al Qusayr, Sunday, May 19, are making no secret of their plans for the “great confrontation,” i.e. military confrontaiton with Israel after they win the Syrian civil war. I[/b]srael’s military leaders are taking with the utmost seriousness the words of Ibrahim al-Amin, editor of the Hizballah organ Al Akhbar, and a close buddy of Syrian president Bashar Assad, who wrote Monday:

“The rope is taut. It is taut to the limit. Anyone at either end [Israel at one end, Syrian and Hizballah, at the other] need only flex a finger and it will break, and the great confrontation will take place.

This is neither a threat, nor an exaggeration or interpretation. This is the situation on the enemy’s northern front. Now means today; it means this hour,” al-Amin wrote.

Israeli intelligence experts have no doubt that the writer penned those words at the behest of his master, Hizballah’s Hassan Nasrallah, and Bashar Assad.

Israeli spokesmen and media tried hard Monday to play down the scale of the joint force’s success in capturing al-Qusayr, which sits on Syria’s main road to Lebanon and the Damascus high road to the Mediterranean, by harping on the heavy battle losses sustained by Hizballah – 50 dead and many more gravely injured.

But these losses do not detract from the Iranian Lebanese proxy’s pivotal role in the Syrian rebels’ resounding defeat and the Syrian army’s decisive victory.

It cannot be denied that the fateful setback suffered by the Syrian rebels resulted from their being abandoned to their fate at the most critical moment of their uprising by their backers, the US, Turkey, Jordan and the Arab Gulf emirates.

The total break down of law and order and daily carnage made the governor of Borno, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, put the blame squarely on the doorsteps of his fellow politicians and the Nigerian government as the primary cause of the country's state of insecurity.

According to the governor, "Underneath the mayhem of Boko Haram lies the underlying cause which is extreme poverty and destitution ... until we address some of these issues the future is very bleak for all of us as the current crisis is just an appetizer of things to come. Very soon the youth of this country will be chasing us away."



The governor also gave his view of the current mindset of Nigeria's political ruling class: "The most important thing in Nigeria is about the last election and the next election, the only thing that is agitating our minds is how we can perpetuate ourselves in power. How much we can steal, how many mansions we can buy in Florida, Dubai and London, this is what agitates the minds of the elites of this country."

To hear this kind of finger-pointing and chilling words from one of those the rest of the country expects to resolve the conflict and bloodletting is quite enervating.

Mr. Yadlin said that, aside from Mr. Assad, Russia could be another intended recipient for the Israeli official’s message. Two of the weapons systems that Israel has identified as game-changing “red line weapons” — SA-17 antiaircraft weapons and Yakhont shore-to-sea missiles — were supplied by the Russians, he added. The convoy that Israeli warplanes struck in January was carrying SA-17 antiaircraft weapons.

A Western diplomatic official who works in the region said that after the recent airstrikes, Israel had sent a similar message to Mr. Assad through back channels — probably Russia — saying it was not attacking his government but would do so if he retaliated. Perhaps, this official said, Jerusalem now wanted to broadcast the message publicly because the real audience is Iran and Hezbollah, whose leaders have been among the loudest threatening responses.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/16/world/middleeast/israeli-official-signals-possibility-of-more-syria-strikes.html?hp&_r=0

Nearly two weeks ago, Israeli warplanes carried out two strikes in Syria, the first hitting bases of Syria’s elite Republican Guard and storehouses of long-range missiles, in addition to a military research center that American officials have called the country’s main chemical weapons site.

A more limited strike on May 3 at Damascus International Airport was also meant to destroy weapons being sent from Iran to Hezbollah. The Israeli government did not confirm either of the attacks, which followed another earlier this year.

The Syrian government publicly condemned Israel for the assaults, saying it “opened the door to all possibilities.” The Syrian deputy foreign minister, Faisal Mekdad, declared, “We will respond immediately and harshly to any additional attack by Israel.”

Mr. Assad and Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, have each said in recent days that the Israeli-Syrian border, which has been relatively quiet despite the more than two years of civil war inside Syria, could become a “resistance front,” in response to Israeli attacks.

On Wednesday, mortar shells, fired from across the Syrian border, landed in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The shells landed on Mount Hermon, a popular tourist site, and were the latest in a series of what Israel has generally considered errant fire from internal Syrian fighting.

This is proof of the massive decay and rot in the Nigerian system and proves that this country is a FAILED STATE!!!

It was learnt that the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, had summoned the officer in charge of the base to the Force Headquarters.

The Police High Command was also said to have begun an investigation into allegation that the Nasarawa State Government paid a huge amount of money to the state Police Command to influence the massive deployment of its officers for the ill-fated operation against the militia group.

Findings indicated that the 2015 race for governorship position in the state informed the operation against the militia group.

Meanwhile, a new Commissioner of Police, Umar Shehu, has taken over from Abayomi Akeremale, who is retiring from the force.

Starting from this summer you can download BB Messenger on all smart phone networks.