Google Confirms: ‘Government Surveillance Is On The Rise’

*Source: RT

Google report reveals a sharp increase in government requests for private data

The email accounts of Generals David Petraeus and John Allen aren’t the only ones being targeted by the feds. Google has released its bi-annual transparency report and says that the government's demands for personal data is at an all-time high.

Internet giant Google published statistics from their latest analysis of requests from governments around the globe this week, and the findings show that it is hardly just the inboxes of the Pentagon’s top-brass that are being put under the microscope. Details pertaining to nearly 8,000 Google and Gmail accounts have been ordered by Uncle Sam during just the first six months of the year, and figures from the periods before suggest that things aren’t about to get any better for those wishing to protect their privacy.

“This is the sixth time we’ve released this data, and one trend has become clear: Government surveillance is on the rise,” Google acknowledges in a blog post published Tuesday, November 13.
From January through June, the US government filed more than 16,000 requests for user data from Google on as many as 7,969 individual accounts, the report shows.

The Silicon Valley company notes that “The number of requests we receive for user account information as part of criminal investigations has increased year after year,” but says that it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the government that’s ramping up the acceleration into a full-blown surveillance state. According to Google’s take, “The increase isn’t surprising, since each year we offer more products and services, and we have a larger number of users.”

For all of those requests in the US, Google says they complied with the government’s demands 90 percent of the time; but while it seems like a high number, that figure actually constitutes the smallest success rate the feds have had since Google began tracking these numbers in 2010. In a separate report published earlier this year by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the San Francisco-based advocacy group awarded Google high praise for doing more than other industry titans in terms of letting feds force them into handing over information without good reason, citing specifically their efforts — albeit unsuccessfully — in handing over user info to the Justice Department during the start of its ongoing investigation into WikiLeaks.

Of the 20,938 user data request sent from governments around the globe, the United States came in first with the number of demands at 7,969, with India at a distant second with 2,319 requests. The US government’s success rate in terms of getting that information trumps most every other country, however, with full or partial compliance on the part of Google rarely exceeding 70 percent.

Elsewhere in the report, Google says it’s more than just surveillance of individual users that is on the rise. The US has also been adamant with censoring the Web, writing Google five times between January and June to take down YouTube videos critical of government, law enforcement or public officials. In regards to the five pleas to delete seven offending videos, Google says, “We did not remove content in response to these requests.”

The company was more willing to side with authorities in other cases, though, admitting to taking down 1,664 posts from a Google Groups community after a court order asked for the removal of 1,754 on the basis of “a case of continuous defamation against a man and his family.” Google also followed through with around one-third of the requests to remove search results that linked to websites that allegedly defamed organizations and individuals (223 of the 641 pleas) and say “the number of content removal requests we received increased by 46% compared to the previous reporting period.”

According to the report, Google only received one request from the US government to remove a video from YouTube on the grounds of ensuring “national security” but does not disclose the results of that plea. No further information is available in the report as to what the government demanded removed, but in the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi originally blamed by many on an anti-Islamic video clip linked to a California man, Google rejected demands from the US to delete the ‘Innocence of Muslims’ from YouTube.

That isn’t to say that Washington is responsible for the bulk of the demands that end up on the desks of Google’s administrators. The report notes Google has received requests to remove search results that link to sites that host alleged copyright-infringing content more than 8 million times in just the last month, with more than 32,000 websites being singled out by the materials’ respective owners. Taking into account the last year and a half, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) — the largest trade-group representing the US music industry — asked Google to stop linking to roughly 4.5 million URLs that they say hosted illegal content.

Last month, the Supreme Court heard arguments to decide whether or not a case can go forth that will challenge the FISA Amendment Act of 2008, an update to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that allows the government to eavesdrop on emails sent as long as one of the persons involved is suspected of being out of the country. When asked earlier in the year to give an estimate of how many Americans have their electronic communications wiretapped by the National Security Administration, the inspector general of the NSA declined to issue a response, even to members of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

According to statements made by NSA whistleblower Bill Binney at the Hackers On Planet Earth (HOPE) conference in New York this year, the US government is “pulling together all the data about virtually every US citizen in the country and assembling that information, building communities that you have relationships with, and knowledge about you; what your activities are; what you're doing."

Pentagon To Soon Deploy Pint-Sized But Lethal Switchblade Drones.

*Source: LA Times

The drones, which U.S. officials hope will help reduce civilian casualties in war zones, pack tiny explosive warheads that can destroy targets with pinpoint accuracy.

The Switchblade drone is designed to fit into a soldier's rucksack. It weighs less than 6 pounds and can take out a sniper on a rooftop, without blasting the building to bits. The drone also enables soldiers in the field to identify and destroy targets much more quickly by eliminating the need to call in a strike from large drones that may be hundreds of miles away. (AeroVironment / January 20, 2009)

Seeking to reduce civilian casualties and collateral damage, the Pentagon will soon deploy a new generation of drones the size of model planes, packing tiny explosive warheads that can be delivered with pinpoint accuracy.

Errant drone strikes have been blamed for killing and injuring scores of civilians throughout Pakistan and Afghanistan, giving the U.S. government a black eye as it targets elusive terrorist groups. The Predator and Reaper drones deployed in these regions typically carry 100-pound laser-guided Hellfire missiles or 500-pound GPS-guided smart bombs that can reduce buildings to smoldering rubble.

The new Switchblade drone, by comparison, weighs less than 6 pounds and can take out a sniper on a rooftop without blasting the building to bits. It also enables soldiers in the field to identify and destroy targets much more quickly by eliminating the need to call in a strike from large drones that may be hundreds of miles away.

"This is a precision strike weapon that causes as minimal collateral damage as possible," said William I. Nichols, who led the Army's testing effort of the Switchblades at Redstone Arsenal near Huntsville, Ala.

The 2-foot-long Switchblade is so named because its wings fold into the fuselage for transport and spring out after launch. It is designed to fit into a soldier's rucksack and is fired from a mortar-like tube. Once airborne, it begins sending back live video and GPS coordinates to a hand-held control set clutched by the soldier who launched it.

When soldiers identify and lock on a target, they send a command for the drone to nose-dive into it and detonate on impact. Because of the way it operates, the Switchblade has been dubbed the "kamikaze drone."

The Obama administration, notably the CIA, has long been lambasted by critics for its use of combat drones and carelessly killing civilians in targeted strikes in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen and Somalia. In 2010, a United Nations official said the CIA in Pakistan had made the United States "the most prolific user of targeted killings" in the world.

In recent weeks, White House spokesman Jay Carney was asked about the issue at a recent news briefing, and he said the Obama administration is committed to reducing civilian casualties.

Although Carney did not mention the Switchblade specifically, he said "we have at our disposal tools that make avoidance of civilian casualties much easier, and tools that make precision targeting possible in ways that have never existed in the past."

The Switchblade drone appears to be an improvement as an alternative to traditional drone strikes, in terms of minimizing civilian harm, but it also raises new concerns, said Naureen Shah, associate director of the Counterterrorism and Human Rights Project at Columbia Law School.

She pointed out that when a drone strike is being considered there are teams of lawyers, analysts and military personnel looking at the data to determine whether lethal force is necessary. But the Switchblade could shorten that "kill chain."

"It delegates full responsibility to a lower-level soldier on the ground," she said. "That delegation is worrisome. It's a situation that could end up in more mistakes being made."

Arms-control advocates also have concerns. As these small robotic weapons proliferate, they worry about what could happen if the drones end up in the hands of terrorists or other hostile forces.

The Switchblade "is symptomatic of a larger problem thatU.S. militaryand aerospace companies are generating, which is producing various more exotic designs," said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Assn. "This technology is not always going to be in the sole possession of the U.S. and its allies. We need to think about the rules of the road for when and how these should be used so we can mitigate against unintended consequences."

The Switchblade is assembled in Simi Valley by AeroVironment Inc., the Pentagon's top supplier of small drones, which include the Raven, Wasp and Puma. More than 50 Switchblades will be sent to the war zone in Afghanistan this summer under a $10.1-million contract, which also includes the cost of repairs, spare parts, training and other expenses. Officials would not provide details about where the weapons would be used, how many were ordered and precisely when they would be deployed.

AeroVironment, based in Monrovia, developed the weapon on its own, thinking the military could use a lethal drone that could be made cheaply and deployed quickly by soldiers in the field, said company spokesman Steven Gitlin.

"It's not inexpensive to task an Apache helicopter or F-16 fighter jet from a base to take out an [improvised explosive device] team when you consider fuel, people, logistics support, etc.," he said.

About a dozen Switchblades were tested last year by special operations units in Afghanistan, according to Army officials, who said the drone proved effective.

The Army is considering buying $100 million worth of the drones in a few years under a program called the Lethal Miniature Aerial Munition System, Nichols said. The Air Force and the Marine Corps have also expressed interest in the technology.

AeroVironment is not the only company pursuing small, lethal drones. Textron Defense Systems is also working on a small kamikaze-style drone. Named the BattleHawk Squad-Level Loitering Munition, the drone is being tested at an Army facility in New Mexico.

Peter W. Singer, a fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of "Wired for War," a book about robotic warfare, said the Switchblade's entry into the war zone is typical of today's weapons procurement path. Defense contractors, he said, are on their own developing smaller and cheaper but powerful high-tech weapons vital to waging guerrilla-type warfare in the 21st century, and they are finding success.

"This weapon system is the first of its kind," he said. "If it works, there's little doubt others will follow."

Pentagon Says It Has No Records Of Bin Laden's Death; CIA Hasn't Answered Open Records Request.

*Source: Star Tribune

WASHINGTON - The hunt for Osama bin Laden took nearly a decade. It could take even longer to uncover U.S. government emails, planning reports, photographs and more that would shed light on how an elite team of Navy SEALs killed the world's most wanted terrorist.

Ten months after that electrifying covert mission, an administration that has pledged to be the most transparent in American history is refusing to release documents about it under the Freedom of Information Act. The records could provide insights into how bin Laden died, how the U.S. verified his identity and how it decided to bury him at sea, as well as photographs taken during and after the May 2011 raid on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

Government officials have openly discussed details of the mission in speeches, interviews and television appearances, but the administration won't disclose records that would confirm their narrative of that fateful night. The Obama administration has not said even where in Washington's bureaucracy all the documents might be stored.

Requests for bin Laden materials were among the most significant of any filed last year under the open records law, which compels the government to turn over copies of federal records for free or at little cost. Anyone who seeks information under the law is generally supposed to get it unless disclosure would hurt national security, violate personal privacy or expose business secrets or confidential decision-making. The law has been the focus of extra attention since Sunday, the start of Sunshine Week, when news organizations promote open government and freedom of information.

Citing the law, The Associated Press asked for files about the raid in more than 20 separate requests, mostly submitted the day after bin Laden's death. The Pentagon told the AP this month it could not locate any photographs or video taken during the raid or showing bin Laden's body. It also said it could not find any images of bin Laden's body on the Navy aircraft carrier where the al-Qaida leader's body was taken.

The Pentagon said it could not find any death certificate, autopsy report or results of DNA identification tests for bin Laden, or any pre-raid materials discussing how the government planned to dispose of bin Laden's body if he were killed. It said it searched files at the Pentagon, U.S. Special Operations Command in Tampa, Fla., and the Navy command in San Diego that controls the USS Carl Vinson, the aircraft carrier used in the mission.

The Defense Department told the AP in late February it could not find any emails about the bin Laden mission or his "Geronimo" code name that were sent or received in the year before the raid by William McRaven, the three-star admiral at the Joint Special Operations Command who organized and oversaw the mission. It also could not find any emails from other senior officers who would have been involved in the mission's planning. It found only three such emails written by or sent to then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and these consisted of 12 pages sent to Gates summarizing news reports after the raid.

Under the FOIA, even if a document contains secrets about national security, the government can censor those passages but must release anything else in the document that is "reasonably segregable."

The information blackout means that the only public accounts of the mission come from U.S. officials who have described details of that night. In the hours and days after bin Laden's death, the White House provided conflicting versions of events, falsely saying that bin Laden was armed and even firing at the SEALs, misidentifying which of bin Laden's sons was killed, and incorrectly saying bin Laden's wife died in the shootout. President Barack Obama's press secretary attributed the errors to the "fog of combat."

Since then, no authoritative or contemporaneous records have been made available. For the Obama administration, the book on bin Laden appears to be closed.

The Pentagon is refusing even to confirm or deny the existence of helicopter maintenance logs and reports about the performance of military gear used in the raid. One of the stealth helicopters that carried the SEALs to Abbottabad crashed during the mission and its wreckage was left behind. People who lived near bin Laden's compound took photos of the disabled chopper as it straddled one of the high walls surrounding the building. The photos showed a unique tail rotor that aviation experts said was designed to avoid radar detection.

On the AP's request for the helicopter records and equipment reports, the Defense Department invoked what is known as a "Glomar response." The reference dates to the 1970s when the CIA refused to confirm or deny the existence of the Glomar Explorer, a ship the agency used in the attempted salvage of a sunken Soviet submarine.

The AP is appealing the Defense Department's decision. The CIA, which ran the bin Laden raid and has special legal authority to keep information from ever being made public, still has not responded to AP's request for records about the mission.

The CIA has photographs of video recordings of bin Laden taken during the operation. In the days after the raid, select U.S. lawmakers were invited to visit a secure room at CIA headquarters to view more than a dozen of the images, including pictures of bin Laden's body. They were not allowed to take copies of the photos back to Capitol Hill.

Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he viewed one photo that showed brain matter coming out of bin Laden's eye socket. Inhofe said others were taken as the body was being prepared for burial at sea and were less jarring. He said Thursday that he favors making at least a few of the less graphic photos public to dispel any doubts that bin Laden is dead.

"There are probably still people out there who don't think he was killed," Inhofe said.

Federal courts consistently have upheld the government's use of the Glomar response, which is different from refusing to disclose materials. Citing Glomar often happens in national security cases or is used to protect an individual's privacy. It's a tough legal claim to beat in court.

The former director of the Justice Department's Office of Information and Privacy, Dan Metcalfe, said the Pentagon overplayed its position. Citing Glomar in AP's case means the fact that the military performs maintenance on helicopters or that it prepares reports about weapons performance is itself classified, he said. The Pentagon's claim is so broad that it "collapses of its own weight," Metcalfe said.

Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group, has sued the administration in federal court to force the release of photos and video of bin Laden. The AP has not sued to force the government to turn over the broader range of materials it has requested.

In the Judicial Watch lawsuit, federal officials acknowledged that the CIA has more than 50 photographs and video recordings of bin Laden's body taken after the raid and during his burial at sea. The director of the CIA's National Clandestine Service, John Bennett, said in a court declaration last year that many of the photographs and video recordings are "quite graphic, as they depict the fatal bullet wound to (bin Laden) and other similarly gruesome images of his corpse."

Judicial Watch has disputed the Obama administration's argument that American personnel and secrets will be at risk if the images are released. It called the concern over violence against Americans stationed overseas "hypothetical speculation" and said it is hard to understand how a photo of bin Laden being buried at sea would expose sensitive equipment or personnel.

The U.S. Special Operations Command, which oversees the Navy SEALs and other commando units, keeps tight rein on information about their equipment, training and missions. In August 2007, it denied a request by the AP for an internal report on the Battle of Mogadishu, a military operation in Somalia in October 1993 that cost 18 American troops their lives.

The command told AP that the report was still classified, even though the battle, better known as "Black Hawk Down," was the subject of books, a movie and countless military studies. Under AP's appeal, the command eventually released a copy with all but nine of the 73 pages completely blacked out. Most of the information remains secret, the command said, to protect military plans, weapon systems and the privacy of individuals involved.

In other cases, the government has revealed more. Just four months after Operation Eagle Claw, the failed attempt in 1980 to rescue 53 U.S. hostages in Iran, the Pentagon released an unclassified version of an investigation about what went wrong. The forward to the 87-page report noted the importance of providing as much detail as possible to the American public.

More recently, the National Security Archive, a private research institute at George Washington University, waited three years for the government to hand over records describing the military's initial plans for invading Iraq. A series of slides, prepared under the codename Polo Step, showed that war planners believed in August 2002 that the U.S. would have only 5,000 troops left in Iraq by December 2006.

Marine Charged For Criticizing Obama

*Source: RT

On Wednesday Marine Sgt. Gary Stein was notified by the Marine Corps that he was in violation of the Pentagon’s policy for blatantly condemning President Obama and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

Stein’s actions could now lead to his dismissal and a possible downgrade in ranking.

The Marine who is based in Camp Pendleton, California, created a Facebook page called “Armed Forces Tea Party,” which currently has approximately 19,000 likes and has photos showcasing slogans such as “NObama” and “One Nation, under Obama, with poverty and unemployment for all,” has been under the microscope since 2010.

Stein was first warned by his superiors two years ago after he launched the social media page on Facebook critiquing Obama care. Stein offered to remove the page while he revised the rules at the bidding of his superiors.

According to Stein, after the revision of the rules he determined he was not in violation.

Earlier this month the Marine Corps released a statement alleging Stein's commanding officer ordered a preliminary inquiry of the social media page after hearing allegations that Stein posted controversial political statements about the Commander in Chief on Facebook.

The remarks made by the sergeant were in reference to an online debate regarding NATO permitting US troops to be put on trial for burning copies of the Quran in Afghanistan.

The statement that got the Marine into this predicament was he claimed he would not follow orders from the president if the orders meant he had to detain US citizens, disarming them or doing anything that would violate their constitutional rights.

"After reviewing the findings of the preliminary inquiry, the commander decided to address the allegations through administrative action," the Corps said.

According to the Associated Press, Stein created the page in hopes of encouraging fellow servicemen and women to exercise their right to free speech. He also added that he would not follow the “unlawful” orders of the president.

But on the page it clearly states the page is “to offer a forum that will allow the voices of the US Armed Forces to stand with the Tea Party movement, and be heard.”

The Marine added, "I've done nothing wrong. I've only stated what our oath states that I will defend the constitution and that I will not follow unlawful orders. If that's a crime, what is America coming to?"

Stein is now fighting the charges and claiming his innocence for violating the Pentagon’s policies and submitted the paperwork to extend his service with the Marine Corp which is due to expire in a few months, reported the AP.

If his actions lead to a violation of the Pentagon’s policy he will be discharge and have his rank lowered to lance corporal.

According to Pentagon policy, military persons in uniform cannot support or sponsor a political club or party. Also participating in any kind of mass media interview or discussion regarding political parties or a specific candidate are strictly prohibited. Commissioned officers are banned from using disdainful remarks against senior officials, including the defense secretary or the president.

Victims Of 9/11 Plane Crashes Dumped In Landfill.

*Source: Russia Today

A report released by the Pentagon on Tuesday reveals that the remains of some victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks were incinerated and dumped in a suburban Virginia landfill.

This latest news comes as the findings of a Defense Department-led investigation into the alleged mismanagement at the military mortuary at the Dover Air Force base in Delaware are revealed to the press.

Last year, the DoD acknowledged that the remains of at least 274 fallen troops were sent to the King George County landfill outside of Washington, DC. At the time, the military estimated that more than 2,700 fragments of body parts were entered into eternal rest at the garbage dump around 70 miles due-south from the Pentagon. Now, say officials, victims of 9/11 were also disposed of at the site.

The report, released Tuesday, says that the remains of the passengers killed in two separate tragedies on 9/11 were sent to the landfill. Victims of both the plane that was downed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania and those aboard the jet that struck the Pentagon in Northern Virginia are some of those that were sent to Dover, then the landfill. Between the incidents involving both aircraft, a total of 223 people perished on September 11, 2001.

The Defense Department review reveals that “several portions of remains” made it to the Virginia landfill, but does not specifically account for a number. The body parts in question, says the Pentagon, “could not be tested or identified” due to charring and other damages that resulted from the tragedy.

The report adds that mortuary officials first believed that, “after final incineration, nothing remained” of the victims. Reviewing the report, the Washington Post reveals that residual material from 9/11 victims did exist, however, which were handed to a “biomedical waste disposal contractor” hired by the Pentagon that then approved for the remains to go to the landfill.

The mortuary at Dover is typically the site of examination for fallen soldiers killed in battle during America’s foreign wars. Following the September 11 attacks, however, experts at site undertook the examination of several victims. Previously the mortuary also analyzed the remains of the Americans killed during the mass-suicide at the Jonestown camp in 1978.

The Washington Post reveals on Tuesday that, earlier this month, Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.), wrote Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta to ask whether the Defense Department could confirm that “no 9/11 victims’ remains were incinerated, mixed with medical waste and sent to a landfill?” Staffers for the congressman confirm to the Post that they did not receive a response to their inquiry.

As an investigation into mortuary practices at Mortuary revealed gross mismanagement, one unnamed employee told investigators that “it was kind of hard to keep track of everything,” and noted that medical examiners were regularly “messing” with the Ziploc bags that contained various body parts.

It was also revealed earlier this month that some top-brass within the Air Force attempted to discipline the whistleblowers from the mortuary that came clean with the allegations of mismanagement.

Pentagon to Monitor Soldiers' Dreams.

Source: RussiaToday

The Pentagon will be taking a page from the liner notes of classic rockers Cheap Trick as the DoD hopes to become the military’s official dream police with some spooky new sci-tech spectacles that they hope will curb PTSD-nightmares.

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The US army is trying to perfect technology that will help soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress order have more soothing dreams as troops are constantly be subjected to flashbacks and nightmares resulting from their time serving with the military. The US Army is trying to get a project called “Power Dreaming” off the ground, and through it they hope to combat the fears of war that are dominating the dreams of servicemen, even years after they come home.

Though the project is still in experimental stages, the Army hopes to create pleasant, computer-generated imagery to be fed into a virtual world projected onto 3-d glasses worn by soldiers during sleep. These digital dreams will in turn try to tackle the problem of PTSD among current and veteran servicemen.

The program, says the Army, will “augment the current Cognitive Behavioral Treatment approaches for warrior trainees and other patients suffering with nightmares related to post traumatic stress disorder/traumatic brain injury with technological advances in biofeedback and Virtual Reality.” According to the official Army documents, the Power Dreaming project hopes to have soliders custom-create their own happy environment, “to develop physio-emotional states to counteract the reactive stress response inherent in trauma memories.”

To get the project off the ground, the US Army recently awarded $493,183 to a navy hospital in Washington State to begin testing.

During a recent poll from the Pew Research Center, 44 percent of soldiers surveyed that participated in the war in Afghanistan said that they have had difficulties readjusting to civilian life after completing their service. In that study, more than a third of those polled said that post-traumatic stress disorder has been a consequence of their time overseas; the National Vietnam Veterans’ Readjustment Study, however, suggests that the figure of combat vets that suffer from PTSD is closer to 52 percent.