UK child sex trafficking soars, says National Crime Agency

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UK child sex trafficking soars, says National Crime Agency

Flood agency job cuts "on hold"

14 February 2014
Last updated at 10:31 ET

Job cuts at the Environment Agency have been put on hold while it deals with the floods crisis in England.

The quango said it still intended to press ahead with long-term plans to cut its workforce by about 1,550.

But it said discussions with staff who might be affected would be delayed until “current flooding has subsided”.

Labour has claimed the jobs of 550 flooding specialists are at risk from the shake-up but the Agency said this was not currently being considered.

The Agency has been criticised for its performance in recent weeks and for its past policy on river dredging in Somerset, one of the worst-affected areas.

But its chairman Lord Smith, whose own position has come under pressure, has praised the dedication and professionalism of its frontline staff, many of whom have been working non-stop since the start of December.

The Agency, which has an annual budget of £1.2bn, announced plans last year to reduce staff numbers from 11,250 to about 9,700 in response to a cut in the amount of money it gets from central government.

‘Change programme’

It has never specified which departments would be affected and it has now confirmed that it has postponed a consultation on potential redundancies until the current crisis is over.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

We will not be entering a formal consultation with staff until the current flooding has subsided”

End Quote
Toby Willison
Environment Agency

“We are prioritising incident response above all other work,” said its programme director Toby Willison.

“With this in mind, we are reviewing the timetable for the Environment Agency’s change programme and will not be entering a formal consultation with staff until the current flooding has subsided.

“Once we move out of incident response mode, we will refocus our efforts to continue to bring Environment Agency costs in line with our budget from government for 2014-15.”

Labour leader Ed Miliband highlighted job cuts at the Agency during Wednesday’s Prime Minister’s Questions, urging the government to reconsider what he said was the threat to 550 flood specialists’ jobs.

The BBC’s political correspondent Alex Forsyth said the 550 figure may have come from an internal exercise into future changes but it had never been confirmed and the organisation said it was not being considered.

The Agency insisted that any future reductions in staff would not affect “its ability to respond to flooding incidents”, adding that it would minimise the impact on other frontline services as well.

‘Stay of execution’

Speaking before the Agency’s announcement, David Cameron said the reported job cuts had never been confirmed.

“Those aren’t plans that are going to be put in place,” he said. “Of course every organisation has to make sure it is efficient – but nothing will be done at the Environment Agency that will hamper our flood relief effort.”

Labour welcomed what it said was Mr Cameron’s “changed position” on frontline flood staff, opposition leader Ed Miliband tweeting: “We’ll make sure he keeps his promise not to sack them.”

But unions and environment campaigners warned that this could not just be a “stay of execution”.

“While the Environment Agency has put consultation on redundancies on hold this statement makes clear that they will press on with redundancies after the floods have receded,” the GMB’s Justin Bowden said.

“This is ludicrous. Has government learned nothing from the current floods?

“At the root of the current flooding crisis are successive years of central government cuts that have trimmed maintenance budgets to unsustainable levels.”

The Environment Agency has admitted it did not have enough specialist staff to deal with the flooding caused by the unprecedented rainfall since December and it has had to take staff off other duties to reinforce relief efforts.

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Flood agency job cuts "on hold"

Semi-official Iranian news agency posts insane article claiming ‘US-Alien-Hitler’ link

By End the Lie

(Image credit: screenshot of Fars News Agency report)

The semi-official Fars News Agency (FNA) has posted an absolutely insane article that reads like something published by The Onion, claiming some kind of clearly imaginary “US-Alien-Hitler” link. Seriously.

Read our latest posts: “New drone transforms from a helicopter into a truck to evacuate troops” and “Russia says they will continue to back Assad; hundreds killed in rebel infighting”

If you believe any of this, I’m sure someone has some wonderful oceanfront property in Oklahoma to sell you.

In what appears to be an attempt to shatter what little credibility FNA had, the news outlet published details (reported mirrored via screenshots here) on what they call a “stunning [Russian] Federal Security Services (FSB) report” detailing a supposed “alien/extraterrestrial intelligence agenda.”

The FNA report cites the equally insane website WhatDoesItMean.com, a site promoting wild alien-focused conspiracy theories and a host of nonsense based on never-to-be-seen reports with headlines that almost always include words like “stuns” and “shocks.”

FNA apparently was happy to pick up the “stunning” report, which doesn’t actually exist of course, on “incontrovertible proof” of an “alien/extraterrestrial intelligence agenda” driving U.S. domestic and international policy since at least 1945.

FNA reports that one of the “many explosive revelations in this FSB report,” a report that, again, doesn’t actually exist outside of the minds of FNA and “Sorcha Faal” of WhatDoesItMean.com, is the confirmation of some kind of imaginary alien race behind the “stunning rise of Nazi Germany during the 1930’s.”

This imaginary alien race, called “Tall Whites,” is somehow responsible for the rise of Nazi Germany, though this is, of course, never explained.

FNA cites supposed documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden that state these “Tall Whites” met with President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1954. If it isn’t abundantly clear at this point, it should be repeated that there is absolutely no evidence to back up any of these claims whatsoever. This is purely the product of severe delusion.

These “Tall Whites” also have some kind of top-secret plan for world domination, according to FNA. The report also claims there is some “cataclysmic power struggle is currently underway against this ‘secret regime’ now headed by Obama by ‘forces unknown.’” The report also claims there are other “alien-extraterrestrial power[s]” at work in this giant imaginary scheme.

How any of this is supposed to make any sense whatsoever is unclear. It seems that FNA will publish absolutely anything in an attempt to make the U.S. look bad, even if it does not even begin to make the slightest bit of sense.

FNA also cites former Canadian Defense Minister Paul Hellyer, a man who makes similarly baseless claims about aliens and unidentified flying objects. Hellyer claimed last year that “at least two” live aliens “are working with the United States government,” according to The Huffington Post.

In a Jan. 5 interview, Hellyer claimed that aliens live on one of Saturn’s moons, on Venus and Mars, among a wide range of other places. Hellyer even claims that there is some kind of “Federation” of aliens and that Kevlar vests come from alien technology.

Why anyone would take Hellyer’s claims seriously or broadcast them on television is beyond me. Then again, the video of Hellyer’s interview has received over 260,000 views in just eight days, so I guess if you’re just looking to get viewers then broadcasting claims with absolutely no evidence whatsoever is fine. Thankfully, the interview wasn’t totally credulous at all times (although she was still far too credulous) and you at least have to give her credit for somehow keeping a straight face.

[H/T: Mediaite]

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End the Lie – Independent News

Semi-official Iranian news agency posts insane article claiming ‘US-Alien-Hitler’ link

Uruguay Marijuana Ruling "Illegal"? UN Agency Says Decision Violates International Law

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Uruguay Marijuana Ruling "Illegal"? UN Agency Says Decision Violates International Law

Obama’s IRS Nominee Promises to Restore Faith in Taxation Enforcement Agency

Obama and Senate work together to save government’s confiscatory agency

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
December 10, 2013

Obama has selected John Koskinen to head up the scandal-ridden Internal Revenue Service. Koskinen, who warms a seat on the board of American Capital and has experience running a government soccer foundation, told the Senate Finance Committee today he will restore faith in the IRS.

“In every area of the IRS, taxpayers need to be confident that they will be treated fairly no matter what their backgrounds or their affiliations,” Koskinen said. “Public trust is the IRS’ most important and valuable asset.”

Acting IRS boss Danny Werfel gets grilled: Government desperate to get its major confiscatory agency out of the crosshairs.

Trust is not an asset for the IRS. Fear is. Most Americans dutifully submit bureaucratic paperwork on April 15 out of fear, not a sense of obligation or duty to government.

Since Obama was chosen to read a teleprompter and robosign legislation for the global elite, the IRS has been increasingly put to the test as a political weapon. It was used in the past by other presidents to persecute political opponents, but the agency was switched into overdrive after the appointment of Barry Obama, the CIA groomed front man for the ruling elite.

Due to partisan politics and revelations of over-the-top targeting of tea party organizations by the agency, acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller was forced to step down in May after the Treasury Inspector General for tax administration released an audit accusing the agency of illegally targeting political groups opposed to Obama. Obama’s handpicked temp, Danny Werfel, will step aside if Mr. Koskinen gets the nod.

It looks like Koskinen is a shoo-in. The chairman of the Finance Committee, Montana Senator Max Baucus, and Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, who is top dog on the committee, said they back the bankster minion Koskinen. It looks like he will be ushered in with no serious opposition and will rule the IRS for the next five years.

Koskinen said he will work with the committee to resolve any issues regarding the targeting of tea party and conservative groups, according to the Washington Times. Since Koskinen is an Obama political pick, however, it is not clear what sort of reform will occur at the agency.

This article was posted: Tuesday, December 10, 2013 at 12:24 pm

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Infowars

Obama’s IRS Nominee Promises to Restore Faith in Taxation Enforcement Agency

Dutch intelligence agency AIVD hacks internet forums

Dutch intelligence agency AIVD hacks internet forums
http://pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-89EKCgBk8MZdE.gif

posted on Nov, 30 2013 @ 12:30 PM

The Dutch intelligence service – AIVD – hacks internet web forums to collect the data of all users. The majority of these people are unknown to the intelligence services and are not specified as targets when the hacking and data-collection process starts. A secret document of former NSA-contractor Edward Snowden shows that the AIVD use a technology called Computer Network Exploitation – CNE – to hack the web forums and collect the data.

Dutch intelligence agency AIVD hacks internet forums

We’re doomed. There’ll be no escape…

edit on 30-11-2013 by teachtaire because:

AboveTopSecret.com New Topics In Breaking Alternative News

Read more about Dutch intelligence agency AIVD hacks internet forums and other interesting subjects concerning Top Stories at TheDailyNewsReport.com

Iran, UN agency nuclear probe talks positive

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani addresses a high-level meeting on Nuclear Disarmament during the 68th United Nations General Assembly on Thursday Sept. 26, 2013 at U.N. headquarters. (AP Photo/Mike Segar,Pool)

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani addresses a high-level meeting on Nuclear Disarmament during the 68th United Nations General Assembly on Thursday Sept. 26, 2013 at U.N. headquarters. (AP Photo/Mike Segar,Pool)

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VIENNA (AP) — Iranian and U.N. officials held a “constructive” meeting on resuming a probe of allegations that Tehran has worked on atomic arms, officials said Friday, in talks seen as a test of pledges by Iran’s new president to reduce nuclear tensions.

The upbeat assessment and an agreement to meet again Oct. 28 was a departure from the deadlock left by previous meetings over nearly two years.

At issue are suspicions outlined in reports from the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency that Iran worked secretly on trying to develop nuclear weapons — something Tehran denies. As part of its probe, the agency is trying to gain access to a sector at Parchin, a sprawling military establishment southeast of Tehran.

Iran says it isn’t interested in atomic arms, but the agency suspects the site may have been used to test conventional explosive triggers meant to set off a nuclear blast. Under former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran blamed the IAEA for the standoff, saying it is caused by the agency’s refusal to agree on strict parameters that would govern its probe.

The agency in turn said such an agreement would tie its hands by putting limits on what it could look for and whom it could question. It bases its suspicions of nuclear-weapons research and development by Iran on its own research and intelligence from the U.S., Israel and other Iran critics.

Neither side on Friday went into detail on what went into their positive assessment of the meeting. But senior IAEA official Herman Nackaerts said it was “very constructive,” while Iranian envoy Reza Najafi spoke of a “constructive discussion.” Nackaerts said the next round Oct. 28 would be “substantive.”

The meeting was closely watched by the U.S. and its allies as a test of whether Hassan Rouhani, Ahmadinejad’s successor, was ready to deliver on promises that he sought to end Iran’s nuclear standoff with the international community.

Its positive outcome was the latest in a series of encouraging developments along that line.

On Thursday, the U.S. and its five negotiating partners emerged from a separate meeting with Iran declaring that a “window of opportunity has opened” to peacefully settle their nuclear standoff.

Both sides agreed to a new round of talks Oct. 15-16 in Geneva, where Tehran will seek relief from crippling sanctions and the six nations will press Iran to scale back an atomic program that could be re-engineered from peaceful purposes to producing weapons.

In contrast to Ahmadinejad, Rouhani has come across as a more moderate face of the hard-line clerical regime in Tehran and his pronouncements at this week’s U.N. General Assembly have raised guarded hopes that progress might be possible. But they have also served as a reminder that the path to that progress won’t be quick or easy.

He has steadfastly maintained that any nuclear agreement must recognize Iran’s right under international treaties to continue enriching uranium. Iran now is enriching below the level used as the core of nuclear missiles, but its critics fear it is at the threshold where it would be able to quickly revamp its program to produce weapons-grade uranium.

The IAEA-Iran talks held Friday are separate from negotiations between Tehran and the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany. But with both sides at the Vienna talks speaking of progress, expectations appeared to be building for headway at a Nov. 15-16 meeting between Iran and the six world powers in Geneva.

The deadlock over Parchin and related issues remained despite 10 rounds previous to Friday’s meeting. IAEA chief Yukiya Amano told reporters earlier this year he was concerned about satellite images showing asphalt work, soil removal, and “possible dismantling of infrastructures” at the site.

Iran says such activities are part of regular construction that has nothing to do with alleged attempts to cleanse the area of evidence. But Amano said that because of such activities, “it may no longer be possible to find anything even if we have access to the site.”

Associated Press

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Top Headlines

Iran, UN agency nuclear probe talks positive

Russia’s Kremlin Security Agency Buys Typewriters In Response To NSA News

By JacobSloan on July 13, 2013 in News

Time for a return to analog? Via the BBC:

Russia’s agency responsible for the Kremlin security is buying typewriters – a move reportedly prompted by recent leaks by WikiLeaks and Edward Snowden. A 486,540-rouble order for electric typewriters has been placed by the FSO agency on the state procurement website.

The FSO has not commented on why it needs the old-fashioned devices. But an agency source told Russia’s Izvestiya newspaper the aim was to prevent leaks from computer hardware.

“After scandals with the distribution of secret documents by WikiLeaks, the exposes by Edward Snowden, reports about Dmitry Medvedev being bugged during his visit to the G20 London summit (in 2009), it has been decided to expand the practice of creating paper documents,” the source said.

The source added that typewriters were already being used at Russia’s defence and emergencies ministries for drafts and secret notes, and some reports had been prepared for President Vladimir Putin by typewriter.

disinformation

Russia’s Kremlin Security Agency Buys Typewriters In Response To NSA News

UK Spy Agency Allegedly Taps Into Transatlantic Cables To Collect Data, Pays Companies For Cost Of Cooperation

According to the latest set of documents from Edward Snowden that were released by the Guardian today, the Britsh spy agency GCHQ has been tapping into 46 transatlantic fiber-optic cables that carry data between Europe and North America to collect and store email messages, Facebook posts and other information for at least the last 18 months, though the program, code-named “Tempora,” has supposedly been built up over the last five years.

Given what we’ve heard about the NSA and its close relationship to Britain’s GCHQ, this may not come as a total surprise and as the Guardian reports, GCHQ is sharing its information with the NSA.

“It’s not just a U.S. problem. The U.K. has a huge dog in this fight,” Snowden told the Guardian. “They [GCHQ] are worse than the U.S.”

According to this report, about 300 GCHQ and 250 NSA analysts were working on analyzing this data by last May and an unnamed U.K. official argues that they get to work with even more information than the NSA because the program actually “produces larger amounts of metadata than NSA.” By last year, the program was handling 600 million “telephone events” each day and was processing data from 46 of the 200 fibre-optic cables it tapped into.

As with all of these program, the legality of the operation is in doubt, though the 2000 Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa), the report says, requires the GCHQ to obtain a warrant for the tapping of “defined targets.”

The report also alleges that a number of companies have been “paid for the cost of their co-operation,” but unlike the NSA PRISM leaks, the names of these companies remain under wraps and the companies themselves are forbidden to reveal the existence of this program. They were, however, “obliged” to participate in the program, though it’s obviously not clear if they put up a fight or not.

Sadly, the Guardian did not post the actual documents, so for the time being, we have to take the reporter’s word as to the extend of the program.

TechCrunch

UK Spy Agency Allegedly Taps Into Transatlantic Cables To Collect Data, Pays Companies For Cost Of Cooperation

Former senior NSA official: Maybe only 30 or 40 agency officials had access to that FISA order that leaked

posted at 2:01 pm on June 11, 2013 by Allahpundit

Normally, this is where I’d say there are only two obvious possibilities: Either I’m right that he conspired with someone higher up the chain who fed him these highly sensitive documents or the guy’s some sort of master hacker who managed to slip past NSA’s internal security to lift top-secret stuff off their servers. But I can’t say that in this case because none of us really has any idea how NSA operates. Could the IT guy have had routine access to bombshell surveillance program data? I … don’t think so, but I … guess, maybe?

Even the intel guys can’t figure it out:

Among the questions is how a contract employee at a distant NSA satellite office was able to obtain a copy of an order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, a highly classified document that would presumably be sealed from most employees and of little use to someone in his position.

A former senior NSA official said that the number of agency officials with access to such court orders is “maybe 30 or maybe 40. Not large numbers.”…

Officials questioned some of Snowden’s assertions in his interview with the Guardian, saying that several of his claims seemed exaggerated. Among them were assertions that he could order wiretaps on anyone from “a federal judge to even the president.”

“When he said he had access to every CIA station around the world, he’s lying,” said a former senior agency official, who added that information is so closely compartmented that only a handful of top-ranking executives at the agency could access it.

“Investigators also need to determine whether anyone else was involved in disclosing the information to reporters,” per WaPo’s sources. That’s one possibility — Snowden in cahoots with a more senior person who wants the information out but doesn’t want his fingerprints on it. In theory, though, security at NSA is so tight that there’s no way to access, let alone remove, information without leaving a cyber-fingerprint of some kind. That’s the whole point of PRISM, right? Finding even the faintest cyber-prints? An agency that can track people’s physical movements based on their use of electronic devices should, one would think, be able to track their own contracted employees’ virtual movements on their premises. And yet here we are, with Snowden safely decamped with the goods to Hong Kong and Glenn Greenwald promising even more revelations.

Theory two, then: Snowden’s a hacking genius who somehow beat NSA’s internal security. Marc Ambinder assesses the degree of difficulty:

According to several current and former officials who’ve worked on NSANet, every keystroke is logged and subject to random audits. “Screengrabs” are prohibited. Documents can be printed with special facilities but that, too, leaves a record. As a mission support specialist, Snowden would have had access as part of his jobs to the physical servers and hard drives that contain material.

If he did not want to leave an audit trail, he might have disconnected a hard drive containing temporarily cached documents, brought them into an area that included desktops and hardware not cleared for such access, connected them, and then printed documents out. It is also possible that he disabled, under the guise of fixing something, access privileges for auditors. He could have temporarily escalated his own access privileges, although this would have raised flags among his superiors.

In theory, this would have alerted NISIRT, the NSA’s Information Systems Incident Response Team, which maintains a 24/7 watch over the backend of NSANet. Operational branches, including Special Source Operations (domestic and compartmented collection programs), Global Access Operations (satellites and other international SIGINT platforms), and Tailored Access Operations (cyber) have their own NISIRT team.

The agency also has a counterspy team that looks at NSA employees — and contractors? — in hopes of anticipating who might be ready to leak. Evidently they missed the Ron-Paul-donating loner who’d apparently been in contact with Glenn Greenwald for months before he skipped town. And if Ambinder’s scenario is correct, they also missed one of their hard drives going offline. Would a powerpoint on PRISM and a FISA order authorizing phone-record harvesting even be on the same hard drive? I.e. did Snowden collect this stuff steadily over time, by accessing different NSA “compartments,” rather than in one grand heist? Because if so, that’s an even more catastrophic internal security breakdown. Could NSA counterspies have missed repeated breaches?

Hopefully we’ll be able to game all of this out as part of the great national debate on NSA spying that Obama supposedly welcomes but won’t lift a finger to actually make possible. (“If President Obama really welcomed a debate, there are all kinds of things he could do in terms of declassification and disclosure to foster it.”) Exit question: Why did Snowden claim he was making $ 200,000 a year if he was only making $ 122,000? Is he including benefits in measuring his compensation? Any lie he tells, however small, will raise doubts about his motives. Seems weird that he’d open himself up to a challenge on something as minor as that.

Tags: data mining, fisa, intelligence, national security, nsa, prism, snowden

Related Posts:

Hot Air

Former senior NSA official: Maybe only 30 or 40 agency officials had access to that FISA order that leaked

Former senior NSA official: Maybe only 30 or 40 agency officials had access to that FISA order that leaked

posted at 2:01 pm on June 11, 2013 by Allahpundit

Normally, this is where I’d say there are only two obvious possibilities: Either I’m right that he conspired with someone higher up the chain who fed him these highly sensitive documents or the guy’s some sort of master hacker who managed to slip past NSA’s internal security to lift top-secret stuff off their servers. But I can’t say that in this case because none of us really has any idea how NSA operates. Could the IT guy have had routine access to bombshell surveillance program data? I … don’t think so, but I … guess, maybe?

Even the intel guys can’t figure it out:

Among the questions is how a contract employee at a distant NSA satellite office was able to obtain a copy of an order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, a highly classified document that would presumably be sealed from most employees and of little use to someone in his position.

A former senior NSA official said that the number of agency officials with access to such court orders is “maybe 30 or maybe 40. Not large numbers.”…

Officials questioned some of Snowden’s assertions in his interview with the Guardian, saying that several of his claims seemed exaggerated. Among them were assertions that he could order wiretaps on anyone from “a federal judge to even the president.”

“When he said he had access to every CIA station around the world, he’s lying,” said a former senior agency official, who added that information is so closely compartmented that only a handful of top-ranking executives at the agency could access it.

“Investigators also need to determine whether anyone else was involved in disclosing the information to reporters,” per WaPo’s sources. That’s one possibility — Snowden in cahoots with a more senior person who wants the information out but doesn’t want his fingerprints on it. In theory, though, security at NSA is so tight that there’s no way to access, let alone remove, information without leaving a cyber-fingerprint of some kind. That’s the whole point of PRISM, right? Finding even the faintest cyber-prints? An agency that can track people’s physical movements based on their use of electronic devices should, one would think, be able to track their own contracted employees’ virtual movements on their premises. And yet here we are, with Snowden safely decamped with the goods to Hong Kong and Glenn Greenwald promising even more revelations.

Theory two, then: Snowden’s a hacking genius who somehow beat NSA’s internal security. Marc Ambinder assesses the degree of difficulty:

According to several current and former officials who’ve worked on NSANet, every keystroke is logged and subject to random audits. “Screengrabs” are prohibited. Documents can be printed with special facilities but that, too, leaves a record. As a mission support specialist, Snowden would have had access as part of his jobs to the physical servers and hard drives that contain material.

If he did not want to leave an audit trail, he might have disconnected a hard drive containing temporarily cached documents, brought them into an area that included desktops and hardware not cleared for such access, connected them, and then printed documents out. It is also possible that he disabled, under the guise of fixing something, access privileges for auditors. He could have temporarily escalated his own access privileges, although this would have raised flags among his superiors.

In theory, this would have alerted NISIRT, the NSA’s Information Systems Incident Response Team, which maintains a 24/7 watch over the backend of NSANet. Operational branches, including Special Source Operations (domestic and compartmented collection programs), Global Access Operations (satellites and other international SIGINT platforms), and Tailored Access Operations (cyber) have their own NISIRT team.

The agency also has a counterspy team that looks at NSA employees — and contractors? — in hopes of anticipating who might be ready to leak. Evidently they missed the Ron-Paul-donating loner who’d apparently been in contact with Glenn Greenwald for months before he skipped town. And if Ambinder’s scenario is correct, they also missed one of their hard drives going offline. Would a powerpoint on PRISM and a FISA order authorizing phone-record harvesting even be on the same hard drive? I.e. did Snowden collect this stuff steadily over time, by accessing different NSA “compartments,” rather than in one grand heist? Because if so, that’s an even more catastrophic internal security breakdown. Could NSA counterspies have missed repeated breaches?

Hopefully we’ll be able to game all of this out as part of the great national debate on NSA spying that Obama supposedly welcomes but won’t lift a finger to actually make possible. (“If President Obama really welcomed a debate, there are all kinds of things he could do in terms of declassification and disclosure to foster it.”) Exit question: Why did Snowden claim he was making $ 200,000 a year if he was only making $ 122,000? Is he including benefits in measuring his compensation? Any lie he tells, however small, will raise doubts about his motives. Seems weird that he’d open himself up to a challenge on something as minor as that.

Tags: data mining, fisa, intelligence, national security, nsa, prism, snowden

Related Posts:

Hot Air

Former senior NSA official: Maybe only 30 or 40 agency officials had access to that FISA order that leaked

Former NSA director defends agency

Former National Security Agency Director Michael Hayden on Sunday defended the agency’s monitoring, calling it “very effective” and respectful of “civil liberties.”

The NSA can only comb through its intelligence database “with probable cause,” he said, adding the NSA cannot listen to phone calls without “ask[ing] the database a question” that proves a link to terrorism or terrorist networks.

President Barack Obama has added “incredible oversight mechanisms” to the agency, Hayden said, but said that both former President George W. Bush and Obama have been responsible towards respecting the rights of ordinary Americans. Responding to Sen. Rand Paul and other critics of the Obama administration, Hayden said it was not true that the government is “trolling through billions of records” without respect for due process.

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Former NSA director defends agency

Japan must continue efforts to deactivate Fukushima nuclear plant – UN agency

UN.org
May 27, 2013

Although Japan has made progress towards stabilizing the damaged reactors of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant crippled by a devastating earthquake two years ago, there are still issues to be resolved before it can begin its deactivation, the United Nations atomic agency said in a report released today.

The report was released after an expert team from the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) completed an initial review of Japan’s efforts to implement a Mid-and-Long-Term Roadmap to decommission the Fukushima Daiichi power plant. The visit was the first of what is planned to be a two-mission review, at the request of the Japanese Government.

“Our final report reflects that the Roadmap was developed early after the accident and that Japanese workers have achieved reasonable stable cooling of the damaged reactor cores and spent fuel pools,” said the Director of the IAEA’s Division of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology, Juan Carlos Lentijo.

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This article was posted: Monday, May 27, 2013 at 12:46 pm

Tags: radiation

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Japan must continue efforts to deactivate Fukushima nuclear plant – UN agency