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We look at the Israel and Gaza conflict, and how this current event fits in a historical context. The new NSA reforms that could truly make a difference, and the recent developments at the crash site of MH17.
Plus the New York Times endorses Cannabis legalization, Washington is still blowing, and more!
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— Show Notes —
— The Slow Death of Privacy —
U.S. Senate bill proposes sweeping curbs on NSA surveillance – Yahoo News
Senator Patrick Leahy introduced legislation on Tuesday to ban the U.S. government’s bulk collection of Americans’ telephone records and Internet data and narrow how much information it can seek in any particular search.
The bill, which has White House backing, goes further than a version passed in May by the U.S. House of Representatives in reducing bulk collection and immediately drew warmer response from privacy advocates and technology companies.
Judiciary Committee Chair Patrick Leahy (D-VT) introduces a bill that would end the NSA’s bulk data collection and storage of metadata, require court orders to search private phone company databases and put limitations on broad searches by the NSA.
Tech Companies Reel as NSA’s Spying Tarnishes Reputations – Bloomberg
Citing concerns from top executives of Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) and other companies, the report made a case that NSA spying could damage the $150 billion industry for cloud computing services. Those services are expanding rapidly as businesses move software and data to remote servers.
“The immediate pain point is lost sales and business challenges,” said Chris Hopfensperger, policy director for BSA/The Software Alliance, a Washington-based trade association that represents companies including Apple Inc. and Oracle Corp.
U.S. technology companies may lose as much as $35 billion in the next three years from foreign customers choosing not to buy their products over concern they cooperate with spy programs, according to an earlier study by the Washington-based Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.
Lawfare › Senator Leahy’s NSA Reform Bill: A Quick and Dirty Summary
But the administration also makes significant gains here. Most importantly, it codifies an authority that is now highly contested, and it pushes back a scheduled sunset of that authority that is approaching rather quickly.
In short, the trade throughout this bill seems to be institutionalization of governmental authority in exchange for regulation the government will regard as burdensome and a great deal of transparency. Whether this works ultimately in favor of the government or the civil libertarians probably depends on whether industry ends up maintaining call records—in which case the institutionalization of governmental access to them will probably prove more important than the added hurdles attached to that access. If, on the other hand, industry stops maintaining these records, government will have won the authority to access records that no longer exist.
Former NSA chief to profit from patented hacker detection tech, charging clients $1M a month – Boing Boing
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Keith Alexander, the former director of the National Security Administration, is filing for tech security patents related to his work running the NSA.
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He’s hawking a hacker/intrusion-detection service to banks and big corporations for a reported fee of one million dollars a month.
Shane Harris for Foreign Policy, on what could possibly justify that $1 million/month fee:
The answer, Alexander said in an interview Monday, is a new technology, based on a patented and “unique” approach to detecting malicious hackers and cyber-intruders that the retired Army general said he has invented, along with his business partners at IronNet Cybersecurity Inc., the company he co-founded after leaving the government and retiring from military service in March. But the technology is also directly informed by the years of experience Alexander has had tracking hackers, and the insights he gained from classified operations as the director of the NSA, which give him a rare competitive advantage over the many firms competing for a share of the cybersecurity market.
The fact that Alexander is building what he believes is a new kind of technology for countering hackers hasn’t been previously reported. And it helps to explain why he feels confident in charging banks, trade associations, and large corporations millions of dollars a year to keep their networks safe. Alexander said he’ll file at least nine patents, and possibly more, for a system to detect so-called advanced persistent threats.
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— The 47-Year-War —
Six-Day War
The Six-Day War was fought between June 5 and 10, 1967, by Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt (known at the time as the United Arab Republic), Jordan, and Syria. The war began on June 5 with Israel launching surprise strikes against Egyptian air-fields after the mobilisation of Egyptian forces on the Israeli border.
A period of high tension had preceded the war. In response to PLO sabotage acts against Israeli targets,[16][17][18] Israel raided into the Jordanian-controlled West Bank[19][20] and initiated flights over Syria, which ended with aerial clashes over Syrian territory.[21] Syrian artillery attacks against Israeli civilian settlements in the vicinity of the border followed by Israeli responses against Syrian positions in the Golan Heights and encroachments of increasing intensity and frequency into the demilitarized zones along the Syrian border,[22] and culminating in Egypt blocking the Straits of Tiran,[23] deploying its troops near Israel’s border, and ordering the evacuation of the U.N. buffer force from the Sinai Peninsula.[24][25] Within six days, Israel had won a decisive land war. Israeli forces had taken control of the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria.
By June 10, Israel had completed its final offensive in the Golan Heights, and a ceasefire was signed the day after. Israel had seized the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula, the West Bank of the Jordan River (including East Jerusalem), and the Golan Heights. Overall, Israel’s territory grew by a factor of three, including about one million Arabs placed under Israel’s direct control in the newly captured territories. Israel’s strategic depth grew to at least 300 kilometers in the south, 60 kilometers in the east, and 20 kilometers of extremely rugged terrain in the north, a security asset that would prove useful in the Yom Kippur War six years later.
Gaza Strip
Gaza has an annual population growth rate of 2.91% (2014 est.), the 13th highest in the world, and is overcrowded.
There is a limited capability to construct new homes and facilities for this growth. The territory is 25 miles long, and from 3.7 to 7.5 miles wide.
With a total area of 141 sq miles.
As of 2014, Palestinians of the Gaza Strip numbered around 1.82 million people. The large Palestinian refugee population makes it among the most densely populated parts of the world
Following the victory of Hamas in the 2006 Palestinian legislative election, Hamas and Fatah formed the Palestinian authority national unity government headed by Ismail Haniya. Shortly after, Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in the course of the Battle of Gaza,[43] seizing government institutions and replacing Fatah and other government officials with its own.[44] By 14 June, Hamas fully controlled the Gaza Strip. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas responded by declaring a state of emergency, dissolving the unity government and forming a new government without Hamas participation
Not snow – evacuation notices dropped on #Gaza. The question that remains is, "to where?" #Egypt #Israel pic.twitter.com/d7GvOpx5Tj
— Noor (@kelo3adi) July 30, 2014
Israeli Shells Said to Hit School in Gaza, Killing at Least 20 – NYTimes.com
The strikes came in rapid succession. At around 5 a.m. Wednesday at a United Nations school at the Jabaliya refugee camp, where 3,300 Palestinians had taken refuge from the fierce fighting in their Gaza neighborhoods, what appeared to be four Israeli artillery shells hit the compound.
Carnage at U.N. school as Israel pounds Gaza Strip
Israeli shelling killed at least 15 Palestinians sheltering in a U.N.-run school and another 17 near a street market on Wednesday, Gaza’s Health Ministry said, with no ceasefire in sight after more than three weeks of fighting.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, 1,323 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed since Israel began its offensive on July 8 with the declared aim of halting cross-border rocket fire. Ninety-six Palestinians were killed on Wednesday alone.
On the Israeli side, 56 soldiers and three civilians have been killed. Public support remains strong for continuing the military operation
Tomorrow there’s no school in Gaza, they don’t have any children left.'”
This video shows an Israeli mob actually singing in celebration of children’s deaths in the style of a soccer fans’ song: “In Gaza there’s no studying, No children are left there, Olé, olé, olé-olé-olé.”
Israel is finding it harder to deny targeting Gaza infrastructure | World news | The Guardian
With blackouts, food shortages and sewage in the streets, observers say the IDF either targets civilians or has terrible aim
List of countries by Global Militarization Index
The Global Militarization Index (GMI) depicts the relative weight and importance of the military apparatus of one state in relation to its society as a whole. For this, the GMI home a number of indicators to represent the degree of militarization of a country:[1]
- comparison of military expenditure with its gross domestic product (GDP);
- comparison of military expenditure with its health expenditure;
- contrast between the total number of (para)military forces with the number of physicians, and the overall population;
- ratio of the number of heavy weapons available and the overall population.
In 2012, Israel spent $15.2 billion on its armed forces, one of the highest ratios of defense spending to GDP among developed countries ($1,900 per person). However, Israel’s spending per capita is below that of the USA
— MH17 Update —
Ukrainian forces take over Debaltseve, Shakhtarsk, Torez, Lutuhyne, fighting for Pervomaisk and Snizhne underway
The anti-terrorist operation (ATO) forces have taken control of the town of Debaltseve in Donetsk region and the Savur-Mohyla heights, from which illegal armed groups constantly shelled the positions of Ukrainian law enforcers, the ATO press center reported on Monday, July 28.
U.S. Releases Satellite Images To Back Up Claims Russia Fired Rockets Into Ukraine
Stepping up pressure on Moscow, the U.S. on Sunday released satellite images it says show that rockets have been fired from Russia into neighboring eastern Ukraine and that heavy artillery for separatists has crossed the border.
The images, which came from the U.S. Director of National Intelligence and could not be independently verified by The Associated Press, show blast marks where rockets were launched and craters where they landed. Officials said the images show heavy weapons fired between July 21 and July 26 — after the July 17 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.
US says satellite images show Russia has fired rockets into Ukraine | Fox News
The U.S. images claim to show multiple rocket launchers fired at Ukrainian forces from within Ukraine and from Russian soil. One image shows dozens of craters around a Ukrainian military unit and rockets that can travel more than seven miles.
U.S. Says Russia Tested Cruise Missile, Violating Treaty – NYTimes.com
Russia first began testing the cruise missiles as early as 2008, according to American officials, and the Obama administration concluded by the end of 2011 that they were a compliance concern. In May 2013, Rose Gottemoeller, the State Department’s senior arms control official, first raised the possibility of a violation with Russian officials.
At the heart of the issue is the 1987 treaty that bans American and Russian ground-launched ballistic or cruise missiles capable of flying 300 to 3,400 miles. That accord, which was signed by President Ronald Reagan and Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the Soviet leader, helped seal the end of the Cold War and has been regarded as a cornerstone of American-Russian arms control efforts.
— Weed Wackers —
The federal government should repeal the ban on marijuana.
Marijuana farm photos show inner-workings of massive Texas pot plantation – Houston Chronicle
A deer hunter in Polk County, Texas stumbled across a massive marijuana growing operation Saturday, July 26, 2014. Investigators found more than 44,000 plants spread across more than 12 fields
— Feedback —
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