Surveillance // Current TV

STORY TIME with Uncle Walt

Uncle Walt tells another of his crazy stories.

Progresshiv
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Agenter kan ha skygget journalist til Norge | ABC Nyheter - Something is rotten in the State of Iceland

SOMETHING IS ROTTEN IN THE STATE OF ICELAND

Over the last few years, WikiLeaks has been subject to a number of actionsaround the world by public and private security organizations. They rangefrom the appalling assassination of two related human rights lawyers in Nairobilast March and an armed attack on my compound in 2007, to, in the West,an ambush by an apparent British intelligence agent in a Luxembourg carpark, which merely ended with "we think it would be in your interest to.."

Developing world violence aside, we've become used to the level ofsecurity service interest in us and have established procedures to dealwith that interest.

But the escalation of surveillance activities over the last month,most of which appears to be the result of U.S. "interests", althoughsome may be unrelated, deserves comment. These actions include manyattempts at covert following, hidden photography and the detention & questioning of a WikiLeaks' volunteer in Iceland on Monday night.

WikiLeaks' staff have been in Iceland to advise Icelandic parliamentarianson the a package of laws, the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative, designedto protect investigative journalists and internet services from spyingand censorship.

Possible triggers for the surveillance actions are (1) our release of aclassified US intelligence report on how to fatally marginalize WikiLeaks(expose our sources, destroy our reputation for integrity, hack us),(2) our release of a classified cable from the U.S. embassy in Reykjavikreporting on contact between the U.S. and the U.K. over billions of eurosin claimed loan guarantees and, most significantly, (3) our ongoing workon a classified film revealing civilian casualties occurring under thecommand of the U.S, general, David Petraeus. U.S. sources told Icelandicstate media's deputy head of news, that the U.S. State Department wasaggressively investigating the leak from the U.S. Embassy in Reykjavik. Iwas seen at a private U.S Embassy party at the Ambassador's house,late last year.

Then on Thursday March 18, 2010, I was followed on the 2.15 PMflight out of Reykjavik to Copenhagen--on the way to speak at theSKUP investigative journalism conference in Norway. According toairline records, two individuals, brandishing diplomatic credentialsand registered under the name of "US State Department", collectedboarding passes for the same flight within three minutes of eachother. They are not recorded as having checked in any luggage

Iceland doesn't have a separate security service. It folds itsintelligence function into its police forces, leading to an uneasyoverlap of policing and intelligence functions and values.

On Monday 22, March, at approximately 8.30pm, a WikiLeaks volunteerwas detained by Icelandic police for approximately 21 hours after policeattended the volunteer's fathers place of work on an unrelated matter. Thevolunteer was inexplicably detained over night. The next day, duringthe course of interrogation, the volunteer was shown covert photosof WikiLeaks' editor Julian Assange outside a Reykjavik restaurant,the back room of was used last week to hold a production meeting on aclassified U.S. military video exposing civilian kills by U.S. pilots.Specific references were made to the subject of video and "important"Icelandic figures. No charges were filed. The names of well knownjournalists involved in the production were referred to in the policequestions.

Who are the Icelandic security services loyal to? The new governmentof April 2009, or the old pro-Iraq war government of the Independenceparty, or perhaps their connections with another country entirely?Often when a bold new government arises, bureaucratic institutionsremain loyal to the old regime and it can take time to change theguard. Former regime loyalists must be discovered, dissuaded andremoved. But for security services, the first step, discovery, isawry. Congenitally scared of the light, such services hide theiractivities; if it is not known what they are doing, then it issurely impossible to know who they are doing it for.

We have written to both U.S. and Icelandic authorities to demandan explanation.SOMETHING IS ROTTEN IN THE STATE OF ICELAND Over the last few years, WikiLeaks has... more

Monkey_Films
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From The Morgue : Wikileaks: Something is up - Govt. Rounding Up Staff - Top Secret Video At Issue - Disturbing

Sounds like the people behind Wikileaks are under some pressure. Since this is unlikely to turn up in your newspapers, I post it here to spread awareness.

Wikileaks has a mission of bringing hidden information to light, when it’s in the public interest. Wikipedia outlines their greatest hits, including Gauntanamo Bay procedure documents, scientology secrets, and net censorship lists. They come under fire sometimes for hosting material that probably isn’t much in the public interest, but overall they have contributed some compelling information to some fractious global arguments.

In the last 24 hours, their Twitter feed has contained some worrying content.

* WikiLeaks to reveal Pentagon murder-coverup at US National Press Club, Apr 5, 9am; contact press-club@sunshinepress.org
* WikiLeaks is currently under an aggressive US and Icelandic surveillance operation. Following/photographing/filming/detaining
* If anything happens to us, you know why: it is our Apr 5 film. And you know who is responsible.
* Two under State Dep diplomatic cover followed our editor from Iceland to http://skup.no on Thursday.
* One related person was detained for 22 hours. Computer’s seized.That’s http://www.skup.no
* We know our possession of the decrypted airstrike video is now being discussed at the highest levels of US command.
* We have been shown secret photos of our production meetings and been asked specific questions during detention related to the airstrike.
* We have airline records of the State Dep/CIA tails. Don’t think you can get away with it. You cannot. This is WikiLeaks.

All those came out in a rush, then silence for hours. Might just be a timezone thing, with people sleeping, or maybe there’s been no news, or maybe everyone with access to the Twitter feed has been detained. I await more information.

UPDATE: “To those worrying about us–we’re fine, and will issue a suitable riposte shortly.” 8.22am NZ time.

UPDATE: Just noticed that the first tweet quoted, “WikiLeaks to reveal Pentagon murder-coverup” is gone from the feed. Now I wish I’d linked to all of them individually. Anyway, it was definitely there, and I think Linda is right that it is this previously-referred-to video

UPDATE: commenter eru found the missing tweet. It isn’t visible in the ordinary feed for some reason.Sounds like the people behind Wikileaks are under some pressure. Since this is... more

Monkey_Films
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Perversion is Fine, So Long as You're in A Position of Authority

Yet another story about a school installing surveillance cameras in bathrooms reminds us that, while parents are treated as pedophiles for taking photographs of their own children, any perversion whatsoever is acceptable as long as it is conducted by those deemed to be in a position of authority.

“Outraged parents have hit out at a school in Birmingham after pupils discovered CCTV cameras in the school’s toilets,” reports Sky News.

“Youngsters at Grace Academy in Chelmsley Wood claim they returned from half-term to find staff had installed the cameras without notifying them or their parents.”
The report points to another recent case in Britain, where a school in Salford filmed children in various stages of undress changing into their gym kit.

Parents slammed the move as a “total invasion of privacy” and many students refused to use the bathroom, but the school claimed that installing cameras to watch children in the most intimate setting possible was perfectly normal because “children want to feel secure”.
So as long as it’s done in the name of safety and security, watching children in bathrooms is acceptable. Perhaps child molesters who are caught with kiddie porn should use the defense that they are merely watching videos of children to make them “feel secure”. But we’re forgetting the golden rule – you’re only allowed to engage in such behavior if you happen to be ascribed some position of authority.

We have reported on numerous cases of school officials installing cameras in school bathrooms which allow perverts to spy on children in various stages of undress.

And it’s not just school corridors and bathrooms where kids are being spied on. Perhaps the most shocking aspect of the recent case in Philadelphia, where a school district issued laptop computers to 1,800 students across two high schools and then used concealed cameras within the machines to spy on students and their parents without their knowledge or consent, is the fact that school officials did not attempt to hide the scandal, they bragged about it.

In a PBS news clip, the assistant principle in a seperate case shows a reporter how, much to his own amusement, he spies on kids via their laptops and even takes pictures of them.

“I always like to mess with them and take a picture,” chuckles the man as the reporter whitewashes the alarming spectacle.

Watch the clip. More at link...

The UN runs international child and sex slavery rings through its web of "humanitarian" organizations and charities.Yet another story about a school installing surveillance cameras in bathrooms reminds... more

rodstradamus
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Ferguson tackles the bug issue

Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson has made his opinions known on the issue of... more

Felleybeat
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Question Dine

As the elections loom, should we vote? Who should we vote for? What about those of us... more

worldwrite
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School Used Webcams to Spy on Students

PHILADELPHIA – A suburban Philadelphia school district used the webcams in school-issued laptops to spy on students at home, potentially catching them and their families in compromising situations, a family claims in a federal lawsuit.

Lower Merion School District officials said the laptops "contain a security feature intended to track lost, stolen and missing laptops," and that the feature was deactivated Thursday. Angry students had already responded by putting tape on their laptop cameras and microphones.

Sophomore Tom Halpern described students as "pretty disgusted," and noted that his class recently read "1984," the George Orwell classic that coined the term "Big Brother."

"This is just bogus," said Halpern, 15, of Wynnewood, as he left Harriton High School on Thursday with his taped-up computer. "I just think it's really despicable that they have the ability to just watch me all the time."

The school district can activate the webcams without students' knowledge or permission, the suit said. Plaintiffs Michael and Holly Robbins suspect the cameras captured students and family members as they undressed and in other embarrassing situations, according to the suit.

A school district statement released late Thursday said the tracking feature would not be reactivated "without express written notification to all students and families."

"This isn't just them spying on the kids, this is them intruding on the parents' home. Who knows what they are seeing?" Walczak said. "The courts for 80 years have said there's no greater sanctuary than a person's own home."

The lawsuit's allegations raise new concerns about school-issued laptops, said an Electronic Freedom Foundation lawyer.

"I've never heard of anything this egregious," said Kevin Bankston, a senior staff attorney at the San Francisco-based group. "Nobody would have imagined that schools would peer into students private homes and even bedrooms without any kind of justification.

Students like Halpern say they mostly keep their computers in their bedrooms — and rarely turn them off.

"School ends at the end of the school property, so they shouldn't really be in our business at home," Halpern said.

more at link...

Don't think for 1 second that Microsoft, Apple and Google aren't front companies for the Pentagon, DARPA, NSA and CIA. Social networking is online profiling made easy; put your whole life online and let Big Brother watch. The Death Star surveillance grid is near completion. A scientific dictatorship is taking over just as Zbigniew Brzezinski's book, 'Between Two Ages; America's Role in the Technetronic Era' lays out in detail. Good luck trying to find a copy.PHILADELPHIA – A suburban Philadelphia school district used the webcams in... more

rodstradamus
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Pa. School Gave Kids Laptops, Spied on Them Via Webcam

LAWSUIT SLAMS HS FOR WATCHING KIDS AT HOME A well-heeled Philadelphia school... more

unimatrix0
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Surveillance Drones to Zap Protesters into Submisson

"Illustrating once again that the prison planet being built around us far outstrips anything Aldous Huxley or George Orwell ever imagined, a Wired News report details how police forces worldwide are preparing to unveil drone aircraft that can not only conduct surveillance of protesters, but also zap them into submission with non-lethal weapons.

As part of their ongoing mission to “protect and serve” the new world order, cops across the world are getting access to military drones which allow them to “carry out surveillance on everyone from protesters and antisocial motorists to fly-tippers,” reports Wired News.

The report details how the future of policing will resemble something approaching a combination of They Live and The Running Man, with unmanned drones replacing police helicopters whizzing around everywhere torturing and knocking out anyone who misbehaves.

According to the report, this is a natural progression from CCTV cameras that shout at passers-by, currently deployed in several UK cities, only now drones will be fitted with LRAD acoustic devices, torture sound weapons that were indiscriminately used and abused during the G20 summit in Pittsburgh on innocent members of the public who were just walking down the street and had not even dared to engage in the criminal activity of expressing their First Amendment right to assemble.

“The LRAD has been tested on the Austrian S-100 unmanned helicopter, and the technology is ready if there is a police requirement,” states the article.

Also available to police will be a drone that can fire tear gas as well as rubber pellets to disperse anyone still living under the delusion that they were born in a democratic country."

more at link.

Another example of how the "war on terror" is a war on YOU! Wake up to 9/11 and Al-CIA-da. Its all staged opposition, so they can build the scientific, technological police state, and install their 1 World, Global Government, New World Order.

But before they do that, they have to destroy the American middle class, bankrupt the country through wars and financial terror, install a carbon tax to control the resources, declare martial law, pump you up with a vaccine and Red Dawn this country from inside and out.

WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH"Illustrating once again that the prison planet being built around us far... more

rodstradamus
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TrackStick Mini: Using Tiny GPS to Record Location - ABC News

You're probably familiar with portable navigation devices like those sold by... more

Monkey_Films
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Japan's New 'Facial' Security

Jan. 22: A Japanese firm releases new face recognition software that eliminates the... more

rodstradamus
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UK Police to Use Military Drones

Drones could be used for civilian surveillance in the UK as early as 2012. Source: BAE... more

rodstradamus
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YouTube - Micro Air Vehicles for your protection...or not.

No privacy One should be aware of their environment at all times and carry... more

WeAreChangeKy
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Conspiracy Theory w/Jesse Ventura (Big Brother 1/5)

Jesse looks at a frightening world of government surveillance on U.S. citizens. He... more

rodstradamus
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How a Few Private Health Insurers Are on the Way to Controlling Health Care | | AlterNet

People, it's time to clean house in Washington. Everything must go, buildings... more

Monkey_Films
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Sprint handed customer GPS data to law enforcement over 8 million times last year

Privacy advocates and career criminals alike are in a lather over reports that between... more

lordsbassman
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Obama Quietly Backs Renewing Patriot Act Surveillance Provisions | Rights and Liberties | AlterNet

People you're in trouble when your government wants to spy on dissenters.

Monkey_Films
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resist 2010

Resist 2010: 8 Reasons to Oppose the 2010 Winter Olympics, is a short, fast-paced... more

donkeyfly69
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CIA WANTS TO READ YOUR BLOG

U.S. Spies Buy Stake in Firm That Monitors Blogs, Tweets... more

WhiteNoise
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SEE

SEE is a short documentary that presents the growing phenomenon of surveillance... more

ApostolosGaitanis
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2 years ago
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