Articles and More!: Post's

Showing posts with label Post's. Show all posts

Sunday, August 18, 2013

WikiLeaks posts 400 gigabytes of encrypted ‘insurance’ data online

Published time: August 18, 2013 10:11

WikiLeaks has released a trove of encrypted “insurance” data on Twitter and Facebook. The data can’t be read without an encryption key, but the movement’s supporters say that could be published later in case anything happens to leading WikiLeaks figures.

The whistleblowing organization published links for a massive 400 gigabytes worth of encrypted data it described as “insurance documents” on its Twitter and Facebook accounts. It is possible to download the files but advanced encoding prevents them from being opened.

The group described encryption as a necessary measure in light of previous attempts to block its leaking of classified information.

The practice of encoding data and then later releasing the key is not uncommon for WikiLeaks, but the sheer size of the files has attracted considerable attention. WikiLeaks followers on Facebook and Twitter speculated on what the documents might contain, and also that the key would be released if anything should happen to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange or NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

“They’re files that will not have the passwords released unless something happens to specific individuals associated with WikiLeaks. Like the insurance file for Assange, which is more from the cables and info Manning leaked out,” Facebook user Tom-Eric Halvorsen wrote on WikiLeaks’ profile page.

The organization aided Snowden in his negotiations on temporary asylum in Russia following the leaking of classified US government data that revealed the NSA’s global surveillance programs. WikiLeaks has indicated that the data disclosed so far is only the tip of the iceberg, and that more revelations will follow.

However, there could be problems ahead for Snowden if more leaks are released, as the Russian government says that as a part of the temporary asylum agreement, Snowden should refrain from releasing data that “damages” the US. The whistleblower applied for asylum in Russia after the US voided his passport, leaving him stranded in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport for over a month.

Washington has branded the former NSA contractor a fugitive and issued an extradition order against him on charges of espionage.

In the wake of the revelations about the US government’s global spying programs, the Obama administration has sought to justify mass surveillance as a necessary evil to protect national security. Even so, President Barack Obama has announced a number of reforms to the NSA to increase its transparency and regulate the information collected by the government.

RT – News

WikiLeaks posts 400 gigabytes of encrypted ‘insurance’ data online

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Study uses "martyr" posts to break down "foreign fighters" aiding Syrian rebels

Flashpoint Global Partners

Muhammad Yassin Jarrad, who was killed on Jan. 16 near Al-Suwayda, Syria, was the brother-in-law of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the late leader of al Qaeda in Iraq. His father, Yassin, also was a 2003 attack that killed Muhammad Bakr al-Hakim, one of
Iraq’s most prominent Shia Muslim leaders.

By Mike Brunker
Investigations Editor, NBC News

Foreign fighters who have flocked to Syria to join the fight to topple the regime of Bashar al-Assad are a “motley crew” whose motivations range from “pro-democratic revolutionary fervor to the most extreme sectarian and hardline Islamist viewpoints imaginable,” according to a report released Monday.

The first-of-its-kind analysis, by the security firm Flashpoint Partners and the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, broke down 280 “martyr” postings on jihadist websites, Facebook and Twittter marking the deaths of the foreign recruits.

The report notes that social media have “provided a critical online bedrock for foreign fighters in Syria. … Each day on Facebook, new names of deceased foreign fighters are posted by rebel supporters who hope that their willingness to sacrifice will inspire others to follow in their footsteps.”

While Western governments have expressed concern that the foreign fighters are Sunni militants and terrorists bent on toppling Assad’s regime, controlled by members of his Shiite Alawite faction, the report paints a more nuanced picture of the foreign contingent, which it estimates likely make up 10 percent of less of the rebel military force.

“The dominant nationalities among the Sunni fighters in our data sample are Libyans, Saudis, and Tunisians,” said Evan Kohlmann, a senior Flashpoint partner and NBC News terrorism consultant, who co-wrote the report. “While Libyans and Saudis played an outsized role in Iraq as well, the newfound flood of Tunisians to Syria may be an unintended negative consequence of the Arab Spring.”

Aaron Y. Zelin / Flashpoint Global Partners

Chart shows countries of origins for the 280 foreign fighters whose deaths were marked by online ‘martyr’ posts.

The numbers from the admittedly small sample of foreign fighters show that even within the radical elements, there is a broad range of participants.

“A wide variety of international terrorist organizations have become deeply involved in Syria,” Kohlmann said. “In fact, based on our data, Sunni foreign fighters in Syria include former Hamas militants from Gaza, relatives of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (the late leader of al Qaeda in Iraq) and leaders of Fatah al-Islam (a Lebanon-based radical Sunni group).

“What should be particularly worrying for Western governments is the fact that at least a third of the fighters in our sample were affiliated with the most extreme rebel faction, al Qaeda’s Jabhat al-Nusra — and that at least seven of the 280 dead fighters we analyzed were from Western countries, including France, Denmark, Australia, the U.K., and the United States.”

Just last week, a Michigan woman was reported killed while fighting with the rebels. The report also cites the case of Eric Harroun, a former U.S. soldier indicted in the U.S. in March after allegedly fighting in Syria with the al-Nusrah Front, an alias of al Qaeda in Iraq.

But the report, titled “Convoy of Martyrs in the Levant,” — a geographical term referring to the area bounded by the Mediterranean Sea and the Arabian Peninsula, encompassing Cyprus, the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon and Syria – also found more moderate Muslim groups and pro-democracy factions in the rag-tag rebel army.

A look back at the conflict that has overtaken the country.

“Some of the foreign fighters have … been attached to different Free Syrian Army units or more mainstream Islamist factions like Liwa’ al-Ummah,” it said. “There has been a long list of cases of individuals who were involved in pro-democracy uprisings in Tunisia or Egypt, who then went to Libya to help in the fight against the Gadhhafi regime, and finally headed to Syria to finish off the Assad regime.”

The report, co-written by Aaron Zelin of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and Laith al-Khouri of Flashpoint Partners, also noted that the Assad regime has relied on foreign fighters in the escalating conflict, “including fighters from recognized terrorist groups like Hezbollah and the PFLP (the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine).”

“It is perhaps even arguable that, at present, there are actually more foreign nationals fighting on the side of the Assad regime than with the rebels,” it said.

The U.N. estimates that at least 70,000 people have been killed since the conflict broke out in April 2011.

More from Open Channel: