PSY OP – Al Qaeda video calling for cyberattacks on Western targets raises alarm in Congress

 

FOX

A newly revealed Al Qaeda video calls on followers to launch cyberattacks on Western targets, a message called “alarming” by U.S. lawmakers in light of the increase in such attacks last year.

Sens. Susan Collins and Joe Lieberman, who top the Senate Homeland Security Committee, say they first learned of the Al Qaeda video a week ago in a meeting with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

“This tape is really alarming,” Collins, R-Maine, told Fox News. “It’s essentially instructing anybody who’s sympathetic with Al Qaeda’s ideology to engage in cyberattacks, and the tape is telling them how easy it is to do so.”

The six-minute video instructs Al Qaeda followers that the U.S. is vulnerable to cyberattacks in the same way airline security was vulnerable in 2001 before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. The video calls on Muslims “with expertise in this domain to target the websites and information systems of big companies and government agencies.”

Lieberman, I-Conn., said it’s hardly surprising that Al Qaeda would turn to such attacks.

“Al Qaeda and Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula are focused on cyber warfare because it can be carried out, if you have somebody smart enough, at very little expense,” Lieberman said.

The senators said the Homeland Security Department responded to 100,000 cyber incidents in 2011, and there was a five-fold increase in the number of attacks aimed at industrial control systems. They are the central nervous system of critical infrastructure, including power plants and dams.

“There has been a huge increase in the number of cyberattacks against our country in the last two years,” Collins said. “It would be naive for us to think that Al Qaeda is not responsible for at least some of those attacks.”

Without getting into classified information, Lieberman confirmed that there has been a spike in cyber intrusions — believed to originate with Iran.

“There is real evidence that the Al Qaeda groups want to pursue and are beginning to pursue the capacity to launch a cyberattack against America,” he emphasized. “I mean, that is the real and present danger and that Iran will share that cyberattack capacity with terrorist groups.”

Fox News has learned this so-called electronic jihad was part of a two-hour Al Qaeda online video that was the basis for the FBI and Homeland Security intelligence bulletin last summer about possible lone wolf attacks. Asked why it took so long to flag the specific threat to the Senate committee, neither federal agency gave an immediate response.

The Senate is scheduled to take up its version of legislation tackling cyber security next month.

Inventor Of Wireless TV Remote Eugene Polley Dies At 96

Pakistan bans Twitter, citing blasphemous content

Pakistan’s government on Sunday morning blocked the social media website Twitter, saying the micro-blogging platform refused to remove blasphemous content against Islam.

The offending tweets, according to Pakistani officials, involved a contest to draw cartoons of the prophet Muhammad. Many Muslims consider any depiction of the prophet to be blasphemy.

Pakistan’s newly-appointed Minister for Information Technology, Raja Pervez Ashraf, issued a blanket ban on the site inside the country, upping the pressure on Twitter as negotiations continue.

Censorship is nothing new in Pakistan, but often it surrounds matters tied to the country’s powerful security establishment. In this case, activists suspect the democratically-elected civilian government is using the sensitive topic of blasphemy as cover for constricting the space for political debate ahead of national elections.

Full Article

AT&T named vendor for Homeland Security

BOYCOTT CORPORATE CONTROL!

OAKTON, Va. — AT&T Inc. said Tuesday that it was named a prime vendor for a $3 billion contract with the Department of Homeland Security, giving AT&T the ability to compete for work under the contract.

The so-called Tactical Communications Equipment and Services contract is a base contact for two years and three one-year extension options. Homeland Security uses the contract to buy communications devices, infrastructure and services used by first responders.

As a prime vendor, AT&T will compete against other companies for individual awards under the program.

AT&T will compete for DHS business through its Government Solutions unit, which is housed in AT&T’s affiliate AT&T Corp.

Shares of AT&T fell 4 cents to $33.49 by early afternoon.

The Department of Homeland Security is, and Plans to Continue to Collect Your Child’s DNA

By Alex Thomas
theintelhub.com
May 15, 2012

A series of documents released through a Freedom of Information Act submitted by the Electronic Freedom Foundation shows that homeland security plans to collect data from children, possibly younger than 14.

The documents appear to show the DHS planning to line up with existing regulations put out by the DOJ which already call for the collection of all arrested citizens over age 14.

An article published by the EFF after they received the documents, details the plans and the slippery slope we now find ourselves in.

The proposal appears to be working its way through DHS in the wake of regulations from the Department of Justice that require all federal agencies—including DHS and its components such as ICE—to collect DNA from individuals arrested for federal crimes as well as “from non-United States persons who are detained under the authority of the United States,” whether or not they have been involved in criminal activity.

While the law specifically exempts a few classes of “aliens,” the documents we received show DHS may start DNA collection from anyone it fingerprints.  Currently, that’s any child over 14 who’s detained, but we also found records that show ICE could lower that age even more.

DHS estimates that as many as 1 million people who are subject to administrative detention or arrest annually could now be subject to DNA collection.  But it’s important to note that many of these people are not involved in criminal activity.

Collecting DNA from anyone detained by the government for any number of non-criminal reasons—especially juveniles—seems to be yet another step on the slippery slope to collecting DNA from everyone in the United States, no matter their status.

Shifting through the documents, it soon became clear that homeland security may actually already be carrying out DNA collection of American children under a pilot program that was scheduled to start in 2010.

When the DOJ expanded its DNA collection regulations in 2009, it specifically required agencies to collect DNA from all populations they fingerprint.

DHS regulations allow the agency to collect biometrics from aliens coming into the US who are 14 and older, so DHS can currently collect DNA from kids this age as well. However, the agency may also be considering collecting biometrics from kids younger than 14.

A slide presentation from March 2011, titled “Working Group on Expanding the Biometric Age Range” notes that some DHS programs are already collecting biometrics from kids younger than 14 and proposes expanding the age range for more DHS entities (including ICE).

Because of the DOJ regulations, this would mean that DHS could collect DNA even from very young kids.

These collection practices seem to be another form of the police state takeover currently headed up by DHS, with plans to fully takeover and control the American people in the very near future.

As the EFF noted in their article, DHS is far from the only agency collecting DNA, essentially the entire U.S. government is collecting our DNA at startling levels that in the past would be considered a conspiracy theory.

Read MORE

Brave New World: Devil’s Breath Drug (Via Columbia) Erases memory and Free Will

 

The most dangerous drug in the world: ‘Devil’s Breath’ chemical from Colombia can block free will, wipe memory and even kill

• Scopolamine often blown into faces of victims or added to drinks
• Within minutes, victims are like ‘zombies’ – coherent, but with no free will
• Some victims report emptying bank accounts to robbers or helping them pillage own house
• Drug is made from borrachero tree, which is common in Colombia

 

Daily Mail

 

A hazardous drug that eliminates free will and can wipe the memory of its victims is currently being dealt on the streets of Colombia.

The drug is called scopolamine, but is colloquially known as ‘The Devil’s Breath,’ and is derived from a particular type of tree common to South America.

Stories surrounding the drug are the stuff of urban legends, with some telling horror stories of how people were raped, forced to empty their bank accounts, and even coerced into giving up an organ.

Scroll down for video

VICE’s Ryan Duffy travelled to the country to find out more about the powerful drug. In two segments, he revealed the shocking culture of another Colombian drug world, interviewing those who deal the drug and those who have fallen victim to it.

Demencia Black, a drug dealer in the capital of Bogota, said the drug is frightening for the simplicity in which it can be administered.

‘You can guide them wherever you want,’ he explained. ‘It’s like they’re a child.’

Black said that one gram of Scopolamine is similar to a gram of cocaine, but later called it ‘worse than anthrax.’

In high doses, it is lethal.

The drug, he said, turns people into complete zombies and blocks memories from forming. So even after the drug wears off, victims have no recollection as to what happened.

One victim told Vice that a man approached her on the street asking her for directions. Since it was close by, she helped take the man to his destination, and they drank juice together.

She took the man to her house and helped him gather all of her belongings, including her boyfriend’s cameras and savings.

‘It is painful to have lost money,’ the woman said,’ but I was actually quite lucky.’

According to the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, the drug – also known as hyoscine – causes the same level of memory loss as diazepam.

In ancient times, the drug was given to the mistresses of dead Colombian leaders – they were told to enter their master’s grave, where they were buried alive.

In modern times, the CIA used the drug as part of Cold War interrogations, with the hope of using it like a truth serum.

However, because of the drug’s chemical makeup, it also induces powerful hallucinations.

The tree common around Colombia, and is called the ‘borrachero’ tree – loosely translated as the ‘get-you-drunk’ tree.

It is said that Colombian mothers warn their children not to fall asleep under the tree, though the leafy green canopies and large yellow and white flowers seem appealing.

Experts are baffled as to why Colombia is riddled with scopolamine-related crimes, but wager much of it has to do with the country’s torn drug-culture past, and on-going civil war.

Watch video here: WARNING: CONTENT MAY BE UNSUITABLE FOR SOME READERS

 

The Mayans reveal their darkest mysteries: New excavation reveals secrets of their calendar – including black-clad figures and symbols never seen before

A vast city built by the ancient Mayan civilisation and discovered nearly a century ago in modern day Guatemala is finally starting to yield its secrets – including a hint that apocalyptic predictions around the ‘end’ of the Mayan Calendar may be wrong.

Excavating for the first time in the sprawling complex of Xultzn in Guatemala’s Peten region, archaeologists have uncovered a structure that contains what appears to be a work space for the town’s scribe.

Its walls are adorned with unique paintings – one depicting a line-up of men in black uniforms, and  hundreds of scrawled numbers – many calculations relating to the Mayan calendar, and stretching up to 7,000 years into the future.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2142491/The-Mayans-reveal-darkest-mysteries-New-excavation-reveals-secrets-Mayan-calendar–including-black-clad-figures-symbols-seen-before.html#ixzz1uYayu1vF

DNA-Destroying Chip – Embedded Into Mobile Phones?

 

Reddit Founder, Not buying Facebook, or CISPA

In an interview with CNN, Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian said he would refuse to buy Facebook stock because of the company’s appalling attitude to privacy and its support for the CISPA bill.

Reddit joins Mozilla as the only other major tech company to decry CISPA, with firms like Facebook, Microsoft, IBM, Intel, Oracle, Symantec, AT&T and Verizon all backing the bill. Last week, Mozilla released a statement calling the legislation an “alarming” threat to privacy, adding, “The bill infringes on our privacy, includes vague definitions of cybersecurity, and grants immunities to companies and government that are too broad around information misuse.”

U.S. military “developing” spychips for soldiers

How will the Robo cop / soldiers know you are a friendly? Yep. You have the chip.

Government wants ‘health’ benefits from nanosensors

WND

 

 

The U.S. military wants to plant nanosensors in soldiers to monitor health on future battlefields and immediately respond to needs, but a privacy expert warns the step is just one more down the road to computer chips for all.

“It’s never going to happen that the government at gunpoint says, ‘You’re going to have a tracking chip,’” said Katherine Albrecht, who with Liz McIntyre authored “Spychips,” a book that warns of the threat to privacy posed by Radio Frequency Identification.

“It’s always in incremental steps. If you can put a microchip in someone that doesn’t track them … everybody looks and says, ‘Come on,’” she said. “It’ll be interesting seeing where we go.”

According to a report at Mobiledia, the U.S. military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has confirmed plans to create nanosensors to monitor the health of soldiers on battlefields.

The devices also would report data to doctors. But privacy analysts have expressed concern that the implants could be used not just to monitor health but to keep track of and possibly control people.

DARPA describes the technology on which it is working as “a truly disruptive innovation,” which would diagnose, monitor vital states and “even deliver medicine into the bloodstream.”

According to LiveScience.com, “Solving the problem of sickness could have a huge impact on the number of soldiers ready to fight, because far more have historically died due to illness rather than combat.”

The report suggested that for special forces, “the practical realization of implantable nanosensors capable of monitoring multiple indicators of physiological state could be a truly disruptive innovation.”

Already being researched is the concept of nanosensors diagnosing disease.

DARPA expects to launch a second effort focused on treatment later this year.

Albrecht said the move is another step in the trip down the road of having every person implanted with a chip that might very well monitor health but also other areas of life.

Microchipping, she said, already is “par for the course” for pets in many parts of the nation, and that acceptance will make it easier to require it for people.

 

She said it was expected that captive audiences, such as prisoners and troops, would be the first subjected to the requirement, which would make it easier for the general populace to accept it as well.

“It’s interesting,” she said. “I’m stunned how this younger generation is OK. They don’t see the problem. … ‘Why wouldn’t everyone want to be tracked?’”

But she said Americans will have to decide to say no to incremental advances, or by the time officials finally roll out the idea of chips for all, whether they want them or not, it will be too late to decide.

“The analogy that I draw is [that of a train], and if I’m in California and I do not want to wind up in New City, every stop brings me closer,” she said. “At some point I have to get off the train.”

Albrecht also has helped develop and launch a new project called StartPage, which now is handling some 2 million search requests per day.

The benefit of the page is its privacy. The site explains that every time a person uses a typical search program such as Google, “your search data is recorded.”

“Then they store that information in a giant database,” she explains.

As a result, corporate America and the government have access to “a shocking amount of personal information about you, such as your interests, family circumstances, political leanings, medical conditions and more

Read the whole story: Get “Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government plan to Track your every Move”

WND reported previously that owners of pets have reported cancer in their animals after microchipping. The report documented how a dog developed a highly aggressive cancer right at the point where a chip was embedded.

Albrecht told the story of another dog, a 5-year-old Yorkshire terrier named Scotty that was diagnosed with cancer in Memphis, Tenn. Scotty developed a tumor between his shoulder blades, in the same location where the microchip had been implanted. The tumor the size of a small balloon – described as malignant lymphoma – was removed. Scotty’s microchip was embedded inside the tumor.

Verichip, a major manufacturer of the microchip implants, touts the technology’s capability to identify a lost pet and enable its return home, while dismissing potential health risks.

“Over the last 15 years,” stated the VeriChip website, “millions of dogs and cats have safely received an implantable microchip with limited or no reports of adverse health reactions from this life-saving product, which was recently endorsed by the USDA. These chips are a well-accepted and well-respected means of global identification for pets in the veterinary community.”

WND also reported there were warnings about a radio chip plan that would allow identification of individuals by government agents simply by walking through an assembly.

The proposal, which was supported by Janet Napolitano, the chief of the Department of Homeland Security, would embed radio chips in driver’s licenses, or “enhanced driver’s licenses.”

“Enhanced driver’s licenses give confidence that the person holding the card is the person who is supposed to be holding the card, and it’s less elaborate than REAL ID,” Napolitano said in a Washington Times report.

REAL ID was a plan for a federal identification system standardized across the nation that so alarmed governors many states have adopted formal plans to oppose it. However, a privacy advocate today told WND that the EDLs are many times worse.

WND also previously has reported on such chips when hospitals used them to identify newborns, a company desired to embed immigrants with the electronic devices, a government health event showcased them and when Wal-Mart used microchips to track customers.

Next Page »