US plan calls for more scanning of private Web traffic, email
[Reuters.com]
Joseph Menn and Deborah Charles
Posted: March 21, 2013
The U.S. government is expanding a cybersecurity program that scans Internet traffic headed into and out of defense contractors to include far more of the country’s private, civilian-run infrastructure.
As a result, more private sector employees than ever before, including those at big banks, utilities and key transportation companies, will have their emails and Web surfing scanned as a precaution against cyber attacks.
Under last month’s White House executive order on cybersecurity, the scans will be driven by classified information provided by U.S. intelligence agencies — including data from the National Security Agency (NSA) — on new or especially serious espionage threats and other hacking attempts. U.S. spy chiefs said on March 12 that cyber attacks have supplanted terrorism as the top threat to the country.
The Department of Homeland Security will gather the secret data and pass it to a small group of telecommunication companies and cyber security providers that have employees holding security clearances, government and industry officials said. Those companies will then offer to process email and other Internet transmissions for critical infrastructure customers that choose to participate in the program.
DHS as the middleman
By using DHS as the middleman, the Obama administration hopes to bring the formidable overseas intelligence-gathering of the NSA closer to ordinary U.S. residents without triggering an outcry from privacy advocates who have long been leery of the spy agency’s eavesdropping.
The telecom companies will not report back to the government on what they see, except in aggregate statistics, a senior DHS official said in an interview granted on condition he not be identified.
“That allows us to provide more sensitive information,” the official said. “We will provide the information to the security service providers that they need to perform this function.” Procedures are to be established within six months of the order.
The administration is separately seeking legislation that would give incentives to private companies, including communications carriers, to disclose more to the government. NSA Director General Keith Alexander said last week that NSA did not want personal data but Internet service providers could inform the government about malicious software they find and the Internet Protocol addresses they were sent to and from.
“There is a way to do this that ensures civil liberties and privacy and does ensure the protection of the country,” Alexander told a congressional hearing.
Fears grow of destructive attack
In the past, Internet traffic-scanning efforts were mainly limited to government networks and Defense Department contractors, which have long been targets of foreign espionage.
But as fears grow of a destructive cyber attack on core, non-military assets, and more sweeping security legislation remained stalled, the Obama administration opted to widen the program.
Last month’s presidential order calls for commercial providers of “enhanced cybersecurity services” to extend their offerings to critical infrastructure companies. What constitutes critical infrastructure is still being refined, but it would include utilities, banks and transportation such as trains and highways.
Under the program, critical infrastructure companies will pay the providers, which will use the classified information to block attacks before they reach the customers. The classified information involves suspect Web addresses, strings of characters, email sender names and the like.
Not all the cybersecurity providers will be telecom companies, though AT&T is one. Raytheon said this month it had agreed with DHS to become a provider, and a spokesman said that customers could route their traffic to Raytheon after receiving it from their communications company.
As the new set-up takes shape, DHS officials and industry executives said some security equipment makers were working on hardware that could take classified rules about blocking traffic and act on them without the operator being able to reverse-engineer the codes. That way, people wouldn’t need a security clearance to use the equipment.
Civil liberties implications
The issue of scanning everything headed to a utility or a bank still has civil liberties implications, even if each company is a voluntary participant.
Lee Tien, a senior staff attorney with the nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation, said that the executive order did not weaken existing privacy laws, but any time a machine acting on classified information is processing private communications, it raises questions about the possibility of secret extra functions that are unlikely to be answered definitively.
“You have to wonder what else that box does,” Tien said.
One technique for examining email and other electronic packets en route, called deep packet inspection, has stirred controversy for years, and some cybersecurity providers said they would not be using that. In deep packet inspection, communication companies or others with network access can examine all the elements of a transmission, including the content of emails.
“The signatures provided by DHS do not require deep packet inspection,” said Steve Hawkins, vice president at Raytheon’s Intelligence and Information Systems division, referring further questions to DHS.
The DHS official said the government is still in conversations with the telecom operators on the issue.
The official said the government had no plans to roll out any such form of government-guided close examination of Internet traffic into the communications companies serving the general public.
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters.
Obama, Why Don’t You Just Resign?
Center for Western Journalism
[WesternJournalism.com]
Barack Hussein Obama has decided that in order to punish Arizona for having dared enforce American immigration laws, he has ordered his federal agencies to basically stop working with Arizona’s law enforcement agencies concerning illegal immigrants. Attorney General Eric Holder Jr has also made it known as the nations chief law enforcement officer that he too is only going to selectively enforce immigration laws that he personally likes. More to the point, Holder will only enforce what is beneficial to his boss’s re-election campaign. If I’m not mistaken, this attitude by both men is blatantly UNCONSTITUTIONAL and falls under the heading of “high crimes and misdemeanors’, an IMPEACHABLE offense!
Mr. Obama, how in the world can you look at the people of Arizona and tell them that YOU are not willing to give them EQUAL PROTECTION under the laws of the United States? Brian Terry, an American Border Patrol Agent, was shot in the back 18 miles INSIDE the border of the United States! Jaime Zapata, an ICE agent, was also killed because of an illegally run and botched program known as Fast & Furious. Being an accomplice to murder, Mr. Obama, is a crime punishable by prison time. Maybe you and Mr Holder could share a cell? Anyway, I digress…..again!
My feelings are, Mr. Obama, that you should be impeached before any more American and Mexican bodies pile up because of your insanity. Mr. Holder should be found guilty of contempt of Congress and charged with negligent homicide in the cases of the two dead federal agents. You and Holder should also have to face justice in the death of the Arizona rancher and others who were killed by your illegal compadres coming across our borders and onto American’s rightfully-owned land. I have an idea for a reverse gun walking program that I would like to run called “Slow & Deliberate”! It’s a program whereby I legally get to use federal funds to LEGALLY buy guns from LEGAL gun shop owners and arm American citizens to help guard the American border from the intrusion of illegals from everywhere. No problems, no paperwork, no questions! All neat, tidy, and LEGAL!
Holder Appoints Obama Donor To Investigate White House Leaks [Objectivity? No!]
[FoxNews.com]
June 13, 2012 – FoxNation
Ronald C. MachenAttorney General Eric Holder has appointed two U.S. attorneys to lead investigations into the possible leaking of state secrets. One of those attorneys, Ronald C. Machen, owes his current job to the fact that Obama appointed him to it. He has also donated $4,350 to Obama’s campaigns over the years.
Feds Clearing Way for Drones over Your House
[WND.com]
“YOUR GOVERNMENT AT WORK” [Right to Privacy?]
Krauthammer predicts ‘rifles aimed at the sky all across America’
Posted: May 16, 2012
Bob Unruh joined WND in 2006 after spending nearly three decades writing on a wide range of issues for several Upper Midwest newspapers and the Associated Press. Sports, tornadoes, homicidal survivalists, and legislative battles all fell within his bailiwick. His scenic photography has been used commercially, and he sometimes plays in a church worship band. More ↓
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The federal government is moving quickly to open the skies over America to drones – both for commercial and government purposes – and respected Washington Post and Fox News commentator Charles Krauthammer is forecasting “rifles aimed at the sky all across America.”
The comments from Krauthammer, who won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1987 after serving as a speechwriter for Vice President Walter Mondale and then beginning his journalism career at The New Republic, were on “Special Report” with Bret Baier.
“I would predict, I’m not encouraging, but I predict the first guy who uses a Second Amendment weapon to bring a drone down that’s been hovering over his house is going to be a folk hero in this country,” Krauthammer said.The conversation arose as the federal government announced it is beginning to allow public safety agencies to fly unmanned aircraft – drones – with fewer and fewer restrictions.
According to yesterday’s report from Bloomberg, police, fire and other government agencies now are being allowed to fly drones weighing as much as 25 pounds without special approvals previously needed.
Three More Secret Service Agents to be Fired, sources say
[FoxNews-AP]
April 20, 2012
At least three more Secret Service agents are expected be fired in the wake of the prostitution scandal, Fox News learned Friday afternoon.
The firings would bring to six the number of people forced out after the incident last weekend in Cartagena, Columbia, where at least one agent allegedly hired a prostitute and brought her back to his hotel.
The agents were there in advance of President Obama’s arrival for an international trade summit.
Eleven agents have been implicated in the incident. Of the six ousted, one was allowed to retire in the wake of the scandal. The rest are on paid administrative leave while the incident is being investigated.
Separately, the lawyer for two Secret Service supervisors said the president’s safety was never at risk and criticized leaks of internal government investigations in the case, signaling a possible strategy for an upcoming legal defense.
The Secret Service also briefed congressional officials behind closed doors about details in the incident.
Hotel dispute started confrontation that sent home Secret Service agents for misconduct involving prostitution
[FoxNews.com]
April 14, 2012
By Kimberly Schwandt
Contribution: Chad Pergram and Ed Henry
Cartagena, COLOMBIA – A dispute in a hotel about paying for an extra “guest,” possibly a prostitute, started a confrontation that ultimately led to sending home at least a dozen Secret Service agents covering detail of President Obama’s trip in Colombia, a senior law enforcement official tells Fox News’ Ed Henry.
New details are emerging about the incident at the Hotel Caribe, where the Secret Service advance team was staying ahead of Obama’s three-day visit to the country.
A senior law enforcement official said the dispute started when hotel employees witnessed inappropriate behavior.
An employee approached at least one Secret Service agent and demanding that he pay extra money for having an additional overnight guest in his room.
The agent balked, which eventually resulted in a confrontation and forced diplomatic intervention.
Robert Maginnis White House huddles with Muslim Brotherhood
[HumanEvents.com]
The White House spokesman said “we have broadened our engagement” by hosting the Islamist group that seeded al Qaeda and Hamas, praises Iran’s Hezbollah, and will transform Egypt into a Shari’a compliant state that seeks Israel’s destruction and creates a new terrorist sanctuary.
Jay Carney, the White House spokesman, said representatives from the world’s largest Islamic supremist movement, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, met with National Security Council staff last week because the group plays a “prominent role” in Cairo. Further, NSC spokesman Tommy Vietor explained “It is in the interest of the United States to engage with parties that are committed to democratic principles, especially nonviolence.”
Documents reveal bin Laden directive to kill Obama, Petraeus
[FoxNews.com]
Published March 16, 2012
AP – Usama bin Laden is seen in a 1998 file photo.
U.S. officials are reviewing documents that suggest Usama bin Laden before his death urged his Al Qaeda network to attack the aircraft of President Obama and Gen. David Petraeus, Fox News has confirmed.
The directive was first disclosed in a report last summer, after a CIA-led Navy SEALs team took down bin Laden at his Pakistan compound. The Washington Post, though, reported new details of that alleged plan Friday after viewing the documents.
According to the report, bin Laden wanted Obama killed so that an “unprepared” Vice President Biden would take over.
Sheriff Joe: ‘Probable cause’ Obama certificate a FRAUD
[WorldNetDaily.com]
March 1, 2012
Team wants investigation elevated to criminal-forgery probe – person of interest ID’d
NOTE: In case you missed the news conference of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s “Cold Case Posse,” WND plans to have the entire event available in 15-minute increments beginning Friday morning at this online location.
PHOENIX – An investigative “Cold Case Posse” launched six months ago by “America’s toughest sheriff” – Joe Arpaio of Arizona’s Maricopa County – has concluded there is probable cause that the document released by the White House last year as President Obama’s birth certificate is a computer-generated forgery.
The investigative team has asked Arpaio, who is at a news conference in Phoenix live-streamed by WND TV that began at 3 p.m. Eastern time, to elevate the investigation to a criminal probe that will make available the resources of his Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.
The posse says it has identified at least one person of interest in the alleged forgery of Obama’s birth certificate.
Arapaio, known for his strict enforcement of immigration laws, commissioned the investigative team after local citizens presented him with a petition expressing concern that Obama might not be eligible for Arizona’s presidential ballot. In addition to the live-streaming, WND is making available to the public a report distributed to media today by Arpaio’s investigators.
GET A FREE COPY OF THE ARPAIO REPORT THAT WAS DISTRIBUTED TO PRESS TODAY
Weighed Down By Healthcare Law, Obama Trails Challengers in Swing States
[Townhall.com]
Guy Benson
Political Editor, Townhall.com
February 27, 2012 12:26 PM EST
Two weeks ago, Fox News reported that President Obama held statistically significant leads over his possible Republican opponents in a series of swing state polls. Today, hope and change:
In the poll, Obama lags the two leading Republican rivals in the 12 states likely to determine the outcome of a close race in November:
•Former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum tops Obama 50%-45% in the swing states. Nationwide, Santorum’s lead narrows to 49%-46%.
•Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney edges Obama 48%-46% in the swing states. Nationwide, they are tied at 47% each.
The battleground states surveyed include Michigan — where Tuesday’s primary has become a critical showdown between Romney and Santorum — as well as Ohio and Virginia, which vote next week on Super Tuesday. The other swing states are Colorado, Iowa, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Israeli Facilities in U.S., Worldwide on High Alert Against Iran
[Newsmax.com]
Friday, 03 Feb 2012 04:10 PM
By Newsmax Wires
Israeli facilities worldwide are on high alert against an attack from Iran, according to an internal security document obtained by ABC News.
“We predict that the threat on our sites around the world will increase … on both our guarded sites and ‘soft’ sites,” read a letter by the head of security for the Consul General for the Mid-Atlantic States, ABC News reported. Guarded sites are government facilities like embassies and consulates; “soft sites” are Jewish synagogues, schools and community centers.
Police and intelligence officials in U.S. and Canadian cities — including New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Toronto — have increased patrols at Israeli government locations and Jewish institutions, ABC News reported.
The United States and Israel, meanwhile, are publicly disagreeing over timing for a potential attack on Iran to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons, Bloomberg News reported.
“There’s a growing concern — more than a concern — that the Israelis, in order to protect themselves, might launch a strike without approval, warning or even foreknowledge,” Aaron David Miller, a former Mideast peace negotiator in the Clinton administration, said Friday.
FINALLY, AN ACTUAL COURT HEARING ON OBAMA’S ELIGIBILITY TO BE PRESIDENT: It didn’t go well for Barack
[LibertyNewsOnline.com]
Posted: January 30, 2012
By Joseph Farah – WorldNetDaily.com
For four long years, compelling evidence has been available that challenges the constitutional eligibility of Barack Obama to occupy the White House.
In fact, I would say the evidence that he does not meet the simple requirements of the law is overwhelming. But it was not until Thursday that the evidence – any of it – was heard in a single courtroom in America.
Not until very recently has any of it been examined by any official public proceeding or reviewed by any agency of government.
They say the wheels of justice grind slowly, but this is ridiculous.
The good news for the rule of law is what happened in a Georgia courtroom this week and what is happening in the office of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department in Arizona. Justice may yet prevail.
Secret Service says bullet hit White House
[Yahoo! News]
November 16, 2011
FILE – The White House in Washington, in this Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2008 file photo.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Secret Service says a bullet hit an exterior window of the White House and was stopped by ballistic glass.
An additional round of ammunition was found on the White House exterior. The bullets were found Tuesday morning. A spokesman for the Secret Service, Edwin Donovan, declined to answer additional questions about the incident including the caliber bullets recovered or what room of the White House was behind the window that was hit, citing an ongoing criminal investigation.
The discovery follows reports of gunfire near the White House on Friday. Witnesses heard shots and saw two speeding vehicles in the area. An assault rifle was also recovered.
‘Irrefutable’ proof of Obama forgery
CERTIFIGATE
Document details show typewriter had variable type way back in 1961?
Posted: July 17, 2011
5:20 pm Eastern
By Jerome R. Corsi – © 2011 WND
NEW YORK – Unless the typewriter used to type Barack Obama’s purported Hawaiian “Certificate of Live Birth” in 1961 was magically capable of producing different size and shaped images with the exact same key, the document released by the White House April 27 is a forgery, says a professional typographer with 50 years experience.
“Steel-stamped letters do not expand to larger sizes and morph into different styles of type,” retired New York City typographer Paul Irey told WND.
As WND previously reported, it would be impossible for the different letters that appear in the Obama birth certificate to have been typed by one typewriter, according to Irey.
“These are irrefutable proofs of forgery,” he said.
His newest analysis suggests the document was assembled from images of letters or words taken from other documents.
“The forger who produced the Obama Hawaii long-form birth certificate may have thought that all typewriter typeface styles were alike,” he said.
“To get his letters, the forger must have understood that he needed to copy the old typewriter styles,” he continued. “So the forger probably scanned a bunch of old birth certificates, without realizing that the letters in the old files were from different typewriter styles. That’s why the letters in the forged document do not match each other.”
Irey used as a source document the Xerox copy of the Obama birth certificate the White House press staff handed to the press assembled in the White House pressroom on April 27, as seen in Exhibit 1:
 |
Pentagon No. 2 William Lynn to Resign
FoxNews.com
Associated Press
Published July 07, 2011
AP – In this May 31, 2010 file photo, Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va. In a further shake-up of U.S. defense leaders, the Lynn, Pentagon’s second-ranking official said Thursday he intends to resign but has agreed to stay on the job until Defense Secretary Leon Panetta chooses a successor.
WASHINGTON — In a further shake-up of U.S. defense leaders, the Pentagon’s second-ranking official said Thursday he intends to resign but has agreed to stay on the job until Defense Secretary Leon Panetta chooses a successor.
All the Presidents’ Secrets: For the First Time, Secret Service Agents Tell What They Really Know
Newsmax.com
June 13, 2011
LBJ frolicked with pretty secretaries on Air Force One — while his wife was onboard . . . Secret Service agents sneaked President Obama to a meeting with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright . . . Jackie Kennedy nearly caught JFK with women in the White House pool.
Those are just a few of the disclosures in Newsmax magazine’s blockbuster report, “All the Presidents’ Secrets.”
New York Times best-selling author and Newsmax Chief Washington Correspondent Ronald Kessler is the first journalist to penetrate the wall of secrecy that surrounds the U.S. Secret Service.
Kessler interviewed more than 100 current and former agents and reveals startling stories about presidents from Kennedy to Obama in his 18th book, In the President’s Secret Service: Behind the Scenes with Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect.
As one former Secret Service agent told Kessler, if Americans knew the truth about their leaders, “they would scream.”
Newsmax magazine’s exclusive excerpt from the book offers a never-before-seen look at the men and women who are pledged to protect the president at all costs — and the difficult challenges they face.
When Toasts to the Queen Go Bad
MichelleMalkin.com
It’s been an interesting UK day for President Obama. Earlier he thought it was 2008, and now this.
Jake Tapper has the detailed description of what you have to see and hear to experience the full awkwardness of the moment, but here’s the short version: President Obama was delivering a toast to the Queen and the band misunderstood a pause for the president being finished speaking. The band began playing God Save the Queen — you know, England’s National Anthem — and Obama kept toasting during the song. I’m not completely up to speed on protocol, but judging from the Queen’s behavior I think that’s a total no-no. The order in which things were supposed to happen remains a mystery.
The Trump Rebellion
Townhall.com
For this weekend I was originally going to write on five reasons why Obama will be reelected in 2012. Why the gloomy prediction? Well, for me at least, it’s primarily because this current crop of GOP hopefuls gets me about as excited as watching Joy Behar doing an interpretive dance in Borat’s thong to The Doors’ classic hit “Riders on the Storm” (the extended version) while smoking a cigar with spinach in her teeth.
Now, that doesn’t mean that I don’t like certain—or many—aspects of the various conservative contenders who are starting to jockey for position; it simply means that I think Obama the Swiffer would dust them with his billion dollar Chi-town based voter fraud fueled spin machine. That’s all.
DON’T LET THE DEMS HOLD OUR TROOPS HOSTAGE
DickMorris.com
If the government shuts down will our troops be paid? The House Republicans are voting to pay them regardless but the Senate and Obama are refusing. They want to use our soldiers’ paychecks as leverage to stop Republican budget cuts.
The Democrats are holding our troops hostage!
Cantor Supports King’s Radical Islam Hearing
FoxNews.com
by Chad Pergram | March 08, 2011
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) is defending a House Homeland Security hearing on Thursday studying the radicalization of American Muslims.Committee Chairman Pete King (R-NY) scheduled the hearing. The Long Island Republican is drawing fire from members of both parties and civil liberties groups who suggest King is being unfair to Muslims. Some have accused King of “McCarthyism.”
But Cantor believes King is on solid ground in calling the hearing.
“It’s obvious where there have been problems with terrorist activity,” said Cantor. “We in this country are threatened by the spread of radical Islam.”
Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), one of two Muslims in the House, is one of several witnesses scheduled to testify.
Undercover sting catches NPR talking about Obama birth story
WorldNetDaily Exclusive
BORN IN THE USA?
‘To run for president you have to be born in the U.S.’
Posted: March 08, 2011
7:23 pm Eastern
© 2011 WorldNetDaily
A top officer for National Public Radio has confirmed that many Americans still question whether Barack Obama is eligible to be president, but that the tax-supported organization just isn’t reporting on it.
It was Betsy Liley, NPR’s senior director of institutional giving, who was meeting with another NPR executive, senior Vice President Ron Schiller, when an undercover recorder was running.
In the recording, the two executives discuss how a donor wanted to contribute to coverage of climate change, but only if just one side of the story – the side promoting man-made climate change as fact – is reported.
Liley calls it “complicated.”
How Al-Jazeera Kills Americans
BigJournalism.com
From Accuracy in Media’s Cliff Kincaid:
The U.S. media propaganda campaign in favor of Al-Jazeera getting on more American television networks, stations and cable systems has reached Time Magazine and The Washington Post. But the shocking truth about this Arab government-funded “news” network may still get out through congressional hearings arranged by Rep. Peter King, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security.
Time has a story, “Why the U.S. Needs Al Jazeera,” by Ishaan Tharoor, who claims, that “… millions across the world, including many first-time viewers in the U.S., have marveled in recent weeks at Al Jazeera English’s impressive coverage from the front lines of the protests currently shaking the Middle East.”
The Ground Zero Mosque Event at CPAC
AtlasShrugs.com
Pamela Geller; Posted:Saturday, February 12, 2011
Yesterday patriots and proud Americans joined Robert and me at CPAC to attend the AFDI/SIOA Ground Zero mosque conference. It was the most difficult and heartwrenching event I have put together in all my years in this fight.
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