Random News Stories

[Cain]

Heh.

The FBI has valiantly foiled another terrorist plot it is responsible for - namely the dangerous 18 year old radical Abdalla Ahmad Tounisi, who wanted to go jihadi in Syria.

Yes, that's the same Syria whose leader the US is trying to force into exile by providing arms to the Syrian rebels.

But wait!  It gets even better.  His FBI handler discussed the possibility of attacking US targets with him, and was convinced that he was not keen on targeting American civilians, didn't believe it was useful or moral, and was in part inspired to go to Syria because of US support for the rebels.

[Junkenstein]

The FBI never seem to learn. It's almost like they're doing this shit on purpose.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22414334

Deputy House of Commons Speaker Nigel Evans has been arrested on suspicion of rape and sexual assault, Press Association sources say.

The 55-year-old Conservative MP is being questioned about alleged attacks on two men in their 20s, the sources said.

Police said a 55-year-old man was being interviewed by officers.

The alleged offences took place between July 2009 and March 2013 in Pendleton, Lancashire, police added.

It is understood that Prime Minister David Cameron has been made aware of the arrest.

More conservative party usual antics.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

The fucking FBI.

[Junkenstein]

More Syria:

Israeli rockets have hit a research centre near Damascus, Syria says.

Witnesses heard huge explosions near the Jamraya facility, which Western officials have suggested is involved in chemical weapons research.

Residents told the BBC that nearby military positions were also hit.

Israel has not confirmed the strike, but sources say it targeted weapons bound for Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. It is the second suspected Israeli strike in two days.

On Friday Israeli aircraft hit a shipment of missiles in Syria, according to unnamed US and Israeli officials.

Israel has repeatedly said it would act if it felt advanced weapons were being transferred to militant groups in the region, especially Hezbollah.

The BBC's Jim Muir in Beirut says Israel's intervention is a very dangerous development.

He says Israel will not want to be seen as being involved in the conflict, but Syria's state media is hammering the message that the rebels are working hand in glove with Israel.

A state TV bulletin said: "The new Israeli attack is an attempt to raise the morale of the terrorist groups, which have been reeling from strikes by our noble army."

Israeli radio quoted a senior security official confirming an attack against targets in Syria, but the official gave no further detail.

Yeah, this is going to get messy.

[Telarus]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/may/04/security-alert-war-in-cyberspace

Weev's sentencing. Actually quite a well written article. End with...

Back in the court in Walnut Street, just after the judge passes sentence, Andrew is led away in shackles. Before he vanishes, he shoots a grin to his friends and calls out: "All hail Discordia!"

[Junkenstein]

A variety of developments.

First, German Neo-Nazi murder trials:

An alleged member of a German neo-Nazi cell has gone on trial in Munich in connection with a series of racially motivated murders.

Beate Zschaepe, 38, is accused of being part of the National Socialist Underground (NSU), which killed 10 people, most of them of Turkish origin.

She denies the murder charges. Critics say the police made serious errors.

The judge later adjourned the trial for a week after the defence team accused the judge of bias.

After entering court, Ms Zschaepe stood with folded arms and turned her back on the camera.

Her lawyers lodged a legal complaint with the judge, accusing him of bias. They complained about being searched for possible weapons or other objects on arrival, while prosecutors and police were not. The judge ordered an adjournment until 14 May to consider the complaint.

The NSU case sparked controversy as police wrongly blamed the Turkish mafia before discovering the far-right cell.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22423785

Cain, anything interesting going on here?

And also, the first 3d printed gun
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22421185

he world's first gun made with 3D printer technology has been successfully fired in the US.

The controversial group which created the firearm, Defense Distributed, plans to make the blueprints available online.

The group has spent a year trying to create the firearm, which was successfully tested on Saturday at a firing range south of Austin, Texas.

Anti-gun campaigners have criticised the project.

Europe's law enforcement agency said it was monitoring developments.

Victoria Baines, from Europol's cybercrime centre, said that at present criminals were more likely to pursue traditional routes to obtain firearms.

+/- 5 years to get closer to an easy adoption stance is my guess. Line that made me laugh the most?

Mr Wilson, who describes himself as a crypto-anarchist, said his plans to make the design available were "about liberty".

Mr Wilson: is pretentious.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Mr Wilson: is pretentious.

Welcome to America, circa the 21st century.

I HAVE A CAUSE AND I CARE ABOUT IT.  SHARE THIS AND LIKE IF YOU AGREE THAT I CARE ABOUT IT.

[Junkenstein]

BUT WHAT WILL YOU DO ABOUT IT?

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

More Syria:

Israeli rockets have hit a research centre near Damascus, Syria says.

Witnesses heard huge explosions near the Jamraya facility, which Western officials have suggested is involved in chemical weapons research.

Residents told the BBC that nearby military positions were also hit.

Israel has not confirmed the strike, but sources say it targeted weapons bound for Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. It is the second suspected Israeli strike in two days.

On Friday Israeli aircraft hit a shipment of missiles in Syria, according to unnamed US and Israeli officials.

Israel has repeatedly said it would act if it felt advanced weapons were being transferred to militant groups in the region, especially Hezbollah.

The BBC's Jim Muir in Beirut says Israel's intervention is a very dangerous development.

He says Israel will not want to be seen as being involved in the conflict, but Syria's state media is hammering the message that the rebels are working hand in glove with Israel.

A state TV bulletin said: "The new Israeli attack is an attempt to raise the morale of the terrorist groups, which have been reeling from strikes by our noble army."

Israeli radio quoted a senior security official confirming an attack against targets in Syria, but the official gave no further detail.

Yeah, this is going to get messy.

Somebody was posting liveleaks pics of that the other night and saying it was a mushroom cloud.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

BUT WHAT WILL YOU DO ABOUT IT?

I ALREADY DID, WISEGUY.  I SIGNED AN ONLINE PETITION.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

BUT WHAT WILL YOU DO ABOUT IT?

I ALREADY DID, WISEGUY.  I SIGNED AN ONLINE PETITION.

BUT DID YOU 'LIKE' AND 'SHARE'?

[Junkenstein]

BUT WHAT WILL YOU DO ABOUT IT?

I ALREADY DID, WISEGUY.  I SIGNED AN ONLINE PETITION.

BUT DID YOU 'LIKE' AND 'SHARE'?

NOT ENOUGH. MAKE 10 HEARTFELT POSTERS AND DIRECTLY EMAIL 4 FRIENDS ASKING THEM TO JUST EMAIL 4 FRIENDS ABOUT SERIOUS ISSUE. THEN YOU HAVE DONE ENOUGH.

FOR SUPER ACTIVISM POINTS DISTRIBUTE 5 FLYERS.

[Cain]

Cain, anything interesting going on here?

Well, at least three people related to the NSU are police informants.  And at the time, the German internal intelligence services were far more focused on the ominious threat of Die Linke, the newly formed German Left Party.

The Left Party and some of its caucuses remain under observation by the BfV, listed in the annual Verfassungsschutzbericht under the heading "left-extremist tendencies and suspected cases". The 2007 report cites as evidence of the party's "extremism" Lothar Bisky's June 2007 statement that democratic socialism remains the party's goal: "We also still discuss the change of property and power relations.... We ask the 'system question'." However, the report notes that in practice the parliamentary party appears as to act as a "reform-oriented" left force.

[...]

The Left is also under observation by four western CDU/CSU-governed states, where party in its entirety is considered to be extremist (Lower Saxony, Hesse, Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria).[31] Saarland ceased observation of The Left in January 2008.[30] By contrast, in the five eastern states The Left is not under surveillance, with the local LfVs seeing no indication of anti-constitutional behaviour of the party as a whole. However the small "Communist Platform" — a hardline communist minority faction within the party — is under observation in three eastern states.[32]

In January 2012, it became known that more than one third of the party's MPs are observed by the federal Verfassungsschutz due to suspected extremist views.

So, German intelligence can spare the time to watch over 1/3rd of the MPs for the country's 4th largest political party, but are so out of touch with the extremist right in the country that, when a number of immigrants are killed, all by the same weapon, they instead decide to blame the murders on the Turkish mafia (because all Turks are linked to organized crime, you see) and then fail to pursue the case any further.

Or, something else was going on.  I'm going with "something else", since, according to eyewitnesses, a Hessian Verfassungsschutzbericht agent was present during the murder of Halit Yozgat.

Too many informants are linked to this case to suggest no-one knew about the NSU.  Either they have sympathizers within the various Verfassungsschutzberichts, or else, elements of German intelligence are playing their old games with right wing extremists again.

[Junkenstein]

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/05/spy-court-stats/

Shocking news ahead!

A secretive federal court last year approved all of the 1,856 requests to search or electronically surveil people within the United States "for foreign intelligence purposes," the Justice Department reported this week.

The report (.pdf), released Tuesday to Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader from Nevada, provides a brief glimpse into the caseload of what is known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. None of its decisions are public.

The 2012 figures represent a 5 percent bump from the prior year, when no requests were denied either.

The secret court, which came to life in the wake of the Watergate scandal under the President Richard M. Nixon administration, now gets the bulk of its authority under the FISA Amendments Act, which Congress reauthorized for another five years days before it would have expired last year.

Don't you feel safer now?

[Cain]

The secret court has, to my knowledge, never turned down a FISA request.

Which is part of why the government drive to all information, all the time, must break the laws, must retroactively give immunity to the telecoms etc etc is so ridiculous.

Then again, I suppose if they started routing every actual electronic surveillance request, then there would need to be a significant expansion in the court's staff, just to keep up.