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There is a short video on the Guardian site (I didn't see a way to embed it) advertising their upcoming documentary.
NSA Files: Decoded – coming soon to the Guardian
'Emails, web browsing activity, telephone calls, satellite phone calls: any kind of communication, the NSA wants it.' But what does this mean for you? Our upcoming NSA feature explains all
Emptywheel.
CIA and the President: The Warm Embrace of Mutual Incrimination
Andrew Sullivan is newly convinced — but surprised and confused — that President Obama is permitting John Brennan to hold up the release of the Senate Torture Report.
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Indeed, I wonder whether the evidence in the Senate report showing CIA lied to the White House is not, in fact, cover for things some in the White House ordered CIA to do.
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Again, I think this is the way Presidential Findings are supposed to work: to implicate the President deeply enough to ensure he’ll protect the CIA for the crimes he asks it to commit.
But it’s not the way a democracy is supposed to work.
Obama: Ignore Bloggers, Activists Looking To "Profit From Conflict" - Just Trust ME!
Yet, the drone business is booming here in the US and all over the world. Everybody wants drones. And John Brennan said, in his confirmation hearing, that the number of civilians killed by drones was in the single digits, and the Senate committee accepted that. Dianne Feinstein, resign.
UN Drone Strike Inquiry: Summary of the New Interim Report
Today, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and countering terrorism, Ben Emmerson QC, issued an interim report on his international investigation into drone strikes and targeted killings. The report, together with a report by the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, Christof Heyns, will be debated at the UN General Assembly on October 25, 2013.
"There's a lot of noise out there and pressure from the extremes..."
Obama to Congress: Time to Ignore 'Activists,' 'Bloggers,' and 'Talking Heads on Radio'
The Solicitor General Should Correct the Record in Clapper
In yesterday’s New York Times, Charlie Savage confirmed something we’ve suspected for sometime—that until very recently the Justice Department was failing to provide statutorily required notice to defendants prosecuted with evidence acquired under the FISA Amendments Act. Apparently the DOJ has now corrected its policy, but its past failure to provide notice to defendants who were entitled to it is likely to generate a slew of habeas and suppression motions in closed and ongoing cases. It also raises questions about representations the government made in Clapper v. Amnesty, a case that the Supreme Court decided earlier this year. Confronted with a similar situation recently in Nken v. Holder, the Solicitor General’s Office submitted a letter to the Supreme Court acknowledging and explaining representations that turned out to be inaccurate. The Solicitor General’s Office should do likewise in Clapper.
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Savage’s article makes clear that the Justice Department in fact had a very different policy. Rather than provide defendants with notice, the Justice Department’s National Security Division (NSD) was routinely concealing the role of the FAA, denying defendants the opportunity to move to suppress FAA-derived evidence, and preventing trial courts from adjudicating the FAA’s constitutionality.
The Solicitor General did not know any of this at the time. He apparently learned of it only after the Supreme Court decided Clapper, when some criminal defendants filed motions seeking the notice that had not been provided to them and the New York Times published articles raising the question whether the government’s representations to the Court in Clapper had been accurate. When it became clear to the Solicitor General that the National Security Division’s notice policy was quite different from the one he had described to the Court, he prevailed on the Division to change its policy. Ultimately, lawyers from multiple agencies sided with the Solicitor General in this dispute, concurring in his conclusion “that withholding disclosure from defendants could not be justified legally.”
At least one contractor was electrocuted.
NSA's Utah Data Center Suffers New Round Of Electrical Problems
The data center was shut down through Tuesday. The source says there aren’t “arcs and fires anymore” but that the experts on the site still haven’t figured out what’s causing the problems. They have figured out how to prevent flashes of lightning, though.
“They’re seeing a pattern of where it gets to the meltdown point and they stop it before it blows again,” says the source. The source says that contractors have been injured and taken to the hospital due to electrocution, but not in the most recent shutdown.
Their first clean up date is October 26th, in coordination with a the nationwide rally against surveillance and the big rally in Washington, DC.
Fourth Amendment activists adopt a highway next to NSA surveillance center in Utah
Getting to Know NSA Whistleblower Edward Snowden | Think Tank
Abby Martin speaks with whistleblowers Coleen Rowley and Jesselyn Radack their visit with NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden in Russia, where they awarded him the Sam Adams Associates Award for Integrity and Intelligence.
Another tragic accident with a train carrying oil in Canada.
Canadian hamlet evacuated after oil train crash causes huge blaze
Emergency crews battle fire after tanker cars carrying crude oil and petroleum gas leak following derailment in Alberta
Emergency crews battled a massive fire on Saturday after a Canadian National tanker train carrying oil and gas derailed west of Edmonton, Alberta, overnight. No injuries have been reported so far.
A Canadian National spokesman, Louis-Antoine Paquin, said 13 cars four carrying petroleum crude oil and nine loaded with liquified petroleum gas came off the tracks around 1am local time in the hamlet of Gainford, about 50 miles from Edmonton. The entire community of roughly 100 people was evacuated.
Paquin said three cars containing gas were leaking and on fire. Local officials feared there could be an explosion and declared a state of emergency.
Action
October 26th, 2013 in Washington, D.C.
A Rally Against Mass Surveillance
Right now the NSA is spying on everyone's personal communications, and they’re operating without any meaningful oversight. Since the Snowden leaks started, more than 571,000 people from all walks of life have signed the StopWatching.us petition telling the U.S. Congress that we want them to rein in the NSA.
On October 26th, the 12th anniversary of the signing of the US Patriot Act, we're taking the next step and holding the largest rally yet against NSA surveillance. We’ll be handing the half-million petitions to Congress to remind them that they work for us -- and we won’t tolerate mass surveillance any longer.
12pm Eastern, Saturday October 26th
Gather at Columbus Circle in front of Union Station, then march to the Capitol Reflecting Pool
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John Lennon - "Beautiful Boy"