Jeremy Scahill and Glenn Greenwald Discuss “Death by Metadata” on Democracy Now!

Posted on February 18, 2014 by Elaine Magliaro

BY ELAINE MAGLIARO

On February 10th, Jeremy Scahill and Glenn Greenwald published an article for The Intercept, their new digital news magazine, titled The NSA’s Role in the U.S. Assassination Program. In their article, they explained how the NSA is using “complex analysis of electronic surveillance” instead of human intelligence as its “primary method to locate targets for lethal drone strikes”—which the authors of the article claim is “an unreliable tactic that results in the deaths of innocent or unidentified people.”

A former drone operator who was a member of Joint Special Operations Command’s High Value Targeting task force agreed to discuss “the top-secret programs” with them “on the condition of anonymity.” The former drone operator revealed that the NSA “often identifies targets based on controversial metadata analysis and cell-phone tracking technologies. Rather than confirming a target’s identity with operatives or informants on the ground, the CIA or the U.S. military then orders a strike based on the activity and location of the mobile phone a person is believed to be using.”

Scahill and Greenwald appeared on Democracy Now! on the same day their article was published to discuss their story with Amy Goodman. Here’s the first part of the discussion:

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Posted in Civil Liberties | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Cancer and the Beauty of Discovery

Posted on February 17, 2014 by Gene Howington
No. Not that kind of cancer . . . © Hans Hillewaert / CC-BY-SA-3.0

No. Not that kind of cancer . . .
© Hans Hillewaert / CC-BY-SA-3.0

By GENE HOWINGTON

Technology is oft compared to a two-edged blade.  Usually just before some horrific cautionary tale about “science run amok”. No new technology in recent memory has sparked quite as much speculative fear as nanotechnology.  From real science fact of hypothetical “gray goo” – a term created to his own regret by nanotechnology pioneer Eric Drexler in his book “Engines of Creation” to describe self-replicating von Neumann machines – to the Mycora, a swarm of science fiction nanites that consumes and “rewrites” the entire inner solar system, forcing a struggling remnant of humanity to live underground on the cold moons of Jupiter in Wil McCarthy’s excellent novel “Bloom“, there are plenty of rational reasons to fear nanotechnology. The ability to craft at the molecular level is as close to directly programming the nature of reality as we as a species can imagine without using some pretty intense physics. It is a technology with a dark side that could potentially, unlike even the horrors of nuclear and chemical weapons, destroy the Earth in toto leaving not a stone behind as evidence of our Big Blue Marble.

But what of side of light?  What beauty can be worth such risk? How about a possible way to live with if not cure cancer? A way to make it easier to treat if nothing else?

To quote that (in)famous animated scientist Professor Hubert Farnsworth, “Good news, everybody!”

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Posted in Biology, Chemistry, Nanotechnology, Science | 14 Comments

Glenn Greenwald Wins Polk Award for Journalism

Posted on February 17, 2014 by Elaine Magliaro

glenn_greenwald_portraitBY ELAINE MAGLIARO

Glenn Greenwald and three other journalists who reported last year on “the extent of the National Security Agency’s secret surveillance based on documents leaked by Edward Snowden” have won the 65th annual George Polk Awards in Journalism. Along with Greenwald, Ewen MacAskill and Laura Poitras of The Guardian and Barton Gellman of The Washington Post will receive the award for national security reporting for the stories they wrote “based on secret documents leaked by Snowden, a former intelligence analyst.”

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Posted in Media | Tagged , | 53 Comments

Is PBS Becoming the Plutocratic Broadcasting Service?

Posted on February 16, 2014 by Elaine Magliaro

PBSBY ELAINE MAGLIARO

On February 12th, David Sirota broke an exclusive story on PandoDaily titled The Wolf of Sesame Street: Revealing the secret corruption inside PBS’s news division. Sirota reported that PBS’s flagship station WNET had issued a press release announcing the launch of a new two-year news series entitled The Pension Peril last December. According to Sirota, the series, which promotes cuts to public employee pensions, “is airing on hundreds of PBS outlets all over the nation.” He said the series was being presented “as objective news on major PBS programs including the PBS News Hour.” He added, however, that both the WNET press release and the broadcasted segments neglected to “explicitly” disclose who was financing the series. Pando found out who was actually funding “The Pension Peril” series—John Arnold, a billionaire political power-broker and former Enron trader.

Sirota reported how Arnold had—in recent years—been using huge contributions “to politicians, Super PACs, ballot initiative efforts, think tanks and local front groups to finance a nationwide political campaign aimed at slashing public employees’ retirement benefits.” According to Sirota, the Arnold foundation “employs top Republican political operatives, including the former chief of staff to GOP House Majority Leader Dick Armey (TX) to help with his “pension” campaign. According to its own promotional materials, the Arnold Foundation is pushing lawmakers in states across the country “to stop promising a (retirement) benefit” to public employees.”

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Posted in Hypocrisy, Media | Tagged , | 13 Comments

Just for Fun on Friday: A Mark Fiore Video about Global Warming

Posted on February 14, 2014 by Elaine Magliaro

BY ELAINE MAGLIARO

Global Warming Skeptics Meet “The Climateers!”

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Posted in Science | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Texas TV Sports Anchor Dale Hansen on Michael Sam and Openly Gay Players in the NFL

Posted on February 13, 2014 by Elaine Magliaro

BY ELAINE MAGLIARO

On Monday night, Dale Hansen of WFAA, a local affiliate of ABC, delivered an address on television titled “Hansen Unplugged: Celebrating Our Differences.” Here it is:

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Posted in Equal Rights, Homosexual Rights, Media, Sports | 21 Comments

Oh, cruel is the snow that sweeps Glencoe, and covers the grave o’ Donald

Posted on February 12, 2014 by Chuck Stanley

This is a reprise of a story I wrote two years ago on Daily Kos. It is updated with a few edits, but is a timeless story of politics, of deceit, of a fearful leader, murder, honor by soldiers in the middle of a massacre, dishonor by their commanding officer, and of a coverup. Sound familiar? This is the story of a mass murder that took place on this night 322 years ago.

It was in the wee hours of the morning on February 13, 1692. The men with evil intent arose on a signal and the carnage began.

The story has been the subject of both truth and myth. And a song.

Oh cruel is the snow that sweeps Glencoe
And covers the grave o’ Donald
And cruel was the foe that raped Glencoe
And murdered the house o’ MacDonald

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Posted in Society | Tagged , , , , , , | 23 Comments

The Intercept: Glenn Greenwald’s New Digital Publication Launched

Posted on February 11, 2014 by Elaine Magliaro

glenn_greenwald_portraitBY ELAINE MAGLIARO

Yesterday, First Look Media (FLM) launched The Intercept, a digital publication created by Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill, and Laura Poitras. According to the three creators/editors, The Intercept is the first “of what will be numerous digital magazines published by FLM.”

From The Intercept’s website:

The Intercept has a two-fold mission: one short-term, the other long-term.

Our short-term mission is limited but critically important: to provide a platform and an editorial structure in which to aggressively report on the disclosures provided to us by our source, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. We decided to launch now because we believe we have a vital and urgent obligation to this story, to these documents, and to the public.

Over the past seven months the journalists who have reported on these documents from the National Security Agency have been repeatedly threatened by a wide range of government officials. Sometimes, the intimidation campaign has gone beyond mere threats. These attempted intimidation tactics have intensified in recent weeks and have become clearly more concerted and coordinated…

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Posted in Media | Tagged , | 13 Comments

Smile, You are on Candid Camera!

Posted on February 8, 2014 by Chuck Stanley

by Charlton “Chuck” Stanley

Predator UAV

Predator UAV

We have all heard about the so-called “drones” and what they can see. What the general public has not seen is their true capability. Of course, we have all seen the black and white YouTube and LiveLeak videos taken from attack aircraft in Iraq and Afghanistan, but those are imaging systems for targeting, not general surveillance. The correct name for drones is Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV).  The Predator has gotten a lot of publicity. This airplane is about the same size as a family Cessna or Piper airplane at your local airport. It does surveillance, of course, but is also an attack aircraft. It has a limited range of 675 miles. The somewhat larger Reaper is similar, but can carry a bigger payload farther and higher.  It has twice the range of the Predator, and can fly up to 50,000 feet. Both these UAVs are designed for relatively short missions and can carry weapons.

However, there are other UAVs designed specifically for silent “eye in the sky” surveillance over a wide area, and can stay aloft for days at at time.

At 17,000 feet, you cannot see an aircraft the size of a Predator or Reaper. They are so far away as to be invisible. However, they can see you. DARPA funded research has created cameras capable of incredible resolution. A high end Canon or Nikon camera costing a  four figure price tag may have 21 to 25 megapixel resolution. A megapixel is one million pixels. How about a camera with billions of pixels?

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Posted in Big Brother, Civil Liberties, Hypocrisy, Justice, Law Enforcement, Local Government, United States | Tagged , , , | 12 Comments

Private High School That Had Planned to Celebrate Black History Month with a Special Lunch Menu Sparks a Controversy

Posted on February 8, 2014 by Elaine Magliaro

BY ELAINE MAGLIARO

Administrators at a private Catholic girl’s school in Northern California found themselves embroiled in a food controversy recently. According to NBC News, students at the Carondelet High School for Girls “wanted to come up with ways to celebrate Black History Month in a lunchtime celebration. But when the Christian school announced a lunch of fried chicken, cornbread and watermelon, students and parents were outraged and offended.”

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Posted in American History, Equal Rights, Racism, United States | 55 Comments