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Drone Crimes | Unfilter 72

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Two major reports landed this Tuesday that outline the evidence of war crimes committed by the United States, using Drones. Both reports involved a staggering amount of on the ground data collection, and the timing of the release is no coincidence, we’ll dig in.

Then: Leaks from Edward Snowden has revealed the NSA’s massive surveillance of the French public, hacking the email of the Mexican president, and that’s just the start. We’ll share the details.

Plus our GMO watch, your feedback, and much much more.

On this week’s Unfilter.

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— Show Notes —

NSA is CRAZY

The French government summoned the US ambassador in Paris on Monday to demand an urgent explanation over claims that the National Security Agency had engaged in widespread phone and internet surveillance of French citizens.

More than 70m French phone calls had been recorded in one 30-day period late last year. Techniques included the automatic recording of conversations from certain numbers, and sweeping up text messages based on keywords. The paper warned that the interceptions were likely to have targeted not just those with suspected terrorist links but also people in business, politics and the French administration.

Also when it comes to spying on citizens, French or foreign, they are no different from the NSA. Le Monde itself detailed the activity of French external intelligence agency DGSE only three months ago. According to the report, the DGSE collects phone calls and emails in France and other countries, breaking French law with the authorization of previous presidents and the current Francois Hollande.

In reporting the story, the Post disclosed that it withheld “many details” about NSA activities that help the CIA. This was done, they said, “at the request of U.S. intelligence officials who cited potential damage to ongoing operations and national security.”

When asked about its CIA collaboration, an NSA spokesman said in a statement that the agency is “focused on discovering and developing intelligence about valid foreign intelligence targets,” adding that its operations “protect the nation and its interests from threats such as terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.”

The German government’s spokesman said it believes Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone may have been monitored by the National Security Agency, Der Spiegel reports.
Merkel has complained to Obama directly.

Dianne Feinstein, the chair of the US Senate committee charged with holding the intelligence establishment to account, declared on Monday that the National Security Agency’s mass collection of phone records is “not surveillance” and should be maintained as an essential tool to combat terrorism.

Feinstein made the case for retaining the program, which routinely collects and stores the phone records millions of Americans, in an op-ed for USA Today, in which she wrote that the NSA’s work had been “effective in helping to prevent terrorist plots against the US and our allies”.

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This Week’s New Supporters:

Drone Crimes

New evidence indicates that the USA has carried out unlawful killings in Pakistan through drone attacks, some of which could even amount to war crimes, Amnesty International said in a major new report released today.

Amnesty International reviewed all 45 known drone strikes that took place in North Waziristan in northwestern Pakistan between January 2012 and August 2013. The region that has seen more strikes than any other part of the country.

The organization conducted detailed field research into nine of these strikes, with the report documenting killings, which raise serious questions about violations of international law that could amount to war crimes or extrajudicial executions.

The report is issued in conjunction with an investigation by Human Rights Watch detailing missile attacks in Yemen which the group believes could contravene the laws of armed conflict, international human rights law and Barack Obama’s own guidelines on drones.

The reports are being published while Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan’s prime minister, is in Washington. Sharif has promised to tell Obama that the drone strikes – which have caused outrage in Pakistan – must end.

This report is not a comprehensive survey of US drone strikes in Pakistan; it is a qualitative assessment based on detailed field research into nine of the 45 reported strikes that occurred in Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal agency between January 2012 and August 2013 (see Appendix) and a survey of publicly available information on all reported drone strikes in Pakistan over the same period.

An area bordering Afghanistan, North Waziristan is one of the seven tribal agencies that make up the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Tribal Areas), a loosely-governed territory in northwest Pakistan that has been the focus of all US drone strikes in the country.

Download the Report

Since 2002, armed drones have become an increasingly important element of U.S. national security policy. This project – which will be updated regularly – documents drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.

Oh no… GMO?

The I–522 proposal isn’t much better. Some foods that are produced with genetically engineered ingredients or processing aids such as cheese, yogurt, and bakery products, all of which may use enzymes in production, would be exempt from the labeling requirements, as would all restaurants and alcoholic beverages.

As critics also claim, there is a labeling program of sorts consumers can already use if they’re looking for GMO-free foods. Both the Non-GMO Project and Genetic ID offer consumers a verified label option, albeit it requires they seek out food manufacturers that themselves have sought the designation

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