Oil – Jupiter Broadcasting

A Poorly Regulated Militia | Unfilter 172

chris — Wed, 13 Jan 2016 22:32:26 +0000

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

We discuss a few problems with the Oregon Militia standoff, the huge drop in oil prices, the rather boisterous moments of Obama’s final State of the Union & what was going on with those 10 military members held by Iran.

Plus the State Department goes to battle with the straw man in an Unfilter exclusive, we end on a high note & more!

Direct Download:

Video | MP3 Audio | OGG Audio | Torrent | YouTube

RSS Feeds:

Become an Unfilter supporter on Patreon:

Show Notes:

— Episode Links —

The post A Poorly Regulated Militia | Unfilter 172 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Chasing Down Terror | Unfilter 169

chris — Wed, 09 Dec 2015 22:14:13 +0000

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

In a very special edition of your Unfilter show, we cover the San Bernardino Shooting in that special way that only the Unfilter show can & the big developments in the war against encryption. Then Iraq & Russia call out Turkey for financing ISIS.

Plus we end on a high note you green thumbs will just love, the weeks big news & more!

Direct Download:

Video | MP3 Audio | OGG Audio | Torrent | YouTube

RSS Feeds:

Become an Unfilter supporter on Patreon:

Unfilter SWAG for the Holidays

Show Notes:

— Episode Links —

The post Chasing Down Terror | Unfilter 169 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Guarding Turkey’s Oil | Unfilter 168

chris — Wed, 02 Dec 2015 20:50:07 +0000

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

It’s been a busy week, and there’s a lot of important news that’s been buried under a lot of junk news. Your Unfilter show is a healthy serving of news that really matters, like the real reason Turkey shot down a Russian Jet & why the Obama administration had their intelligence reports altered. It’s not what you’re being told.

Plus the latest crazy reasons to ban encryption, some breaking news & more!

Direct Download:

Video | MP3 Audio | OGG Audio | Torrent | YouTube

RSS Feeds:

Become an Unfilter supporter on Patreon:

Show Notes:

— Episode Links —

The post Guarding Turkey's Oil | Unfilter 168 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

War: As Seen On TV | Unfilter 167

chris — Mon, 23 Nov 2015 20:54:58 +0000

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

Following the attacks in Paris we analyze the new momentum for a global state of war & debunk the continued scapegoating of encryption. Snowden comes under attack & some stark long term options in Syria and Iraq.

Plus full coverage on the week’s “cyber warfare” and privacy stories & the great turkey shortage!

Direct Download:

Video | MP3 Audio | OGG Audio | Torrent | YouTube

RSS Feeds:

Become an Unfilter supporter on Patreon:

Show Notes:

— Episode Links —

The post War: As Seen On TV | Unfilter 167 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Propaganda of Patriotism | Unfilter 143

chris — Sat, 16 May 2015 00:53:46 +0000

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

Seymour M. Hersh is out with his version of how Osama bin Laden was killed, which refutes many aspects of the official story. We’ll poke at the aspects of his reports that might be true & those that might be false.

Plus a look at the NSA’s loudest defenders, a new Cyber threat & the real problem ABC has with covering the Clintons.

Direct Download:

Video | MP3 Audio | OGG Audio | Torrent | YouTube

RSS Feeds:

Become an Unfilter supporter on Patreon:

Show Notes:

News:

Many of the NSA’s Loudest Defenders Have Financial Ties to NSA Contractors – The Intercept

The debate over the NSA’s bulk collection of phone records has reached a critical point after a federal appeals court last week ruled the practice illegal, dramatically raising the stakes for pending Congressional legislation that would fully or partially reinstate the program. An army of pundits promptly took to television screens, with many of them brushing off concerns about the surveillance.

The talking heads have been backstopping the NSA’s mass surveillance more or less continuously since it was revealed. They spoke out to support the agency when NSA contractor Edward Snowden released details of its programs in 2013, and they’ve kept up their advocacy ever since — on television news shows, newspaper op-ed pages, online and at Congressional hearings. But it’s often unclear just how financially cozy these pundits are with the surveillance state they defend, since they’re typically identified with titles that give no clues about their conflicts of interest. Such conflicts have become particularly important, and worth pointing out, now that the debate about NSA surveillance has shifted from simple outrage to politically prominent legislative debates.

As one example of the opaque link between NSA money and punditry, take the words of Stewart Baker, who was general counsel to the NSA from 1992 through 1994. During a Senate committee hearing last summer on one of the reform bills now before Congress, the USA FREEDOM Act, which would partially limit mass surveillance of telephone metadata, Baker essentially said the bill would aid terrorists.

Previously, in December 2013, Baker wrote in The New York Times that “Snowden has already lost the broader debate he claims to want, and the leaks are slowly losing their international impact as well.” He made similar comments in multiple news outlets, and testified before Congress to defend virtually every program revealed by the Snowden documents. Baker at one point told intelligence committee lawmakers that The Intercept’s Glenn Greenwald was simply on a campaign to “cause the greatest possible diplomatic damage to the United States and its intelligence capabilities.”

Isil leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi issues call to arms in ‘audio message’ – Telegraph

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil), appeared to issue a defiant call to arms on Thursday in what would be the jihadist leader’s first audio recording in six months.

Seymour M. Hersh · The Killing of Osama bin Laden

It’s been four years since a group of US Navy Seals assassinated Osama bin Laden in a night raid on a high-walled compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The killing was the high point of Obama’s first term, and a major factor in his re-election. The White House still maintains that the mission was an all-American affair, and that the senior generals of Pakistan’s army and Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) were not told of the raid in advance. This is false, as are many other elements of the Obama administration’s account. The White House’s story might have been written by Lewis Carroll: would bin Laden, target of a massive international manhunt, really decide that a resort town forty miles from Islamabad would be the safest place to live and command al-Qaida’s operations? He was hiding in the open. So America said.

Seymour Hersh – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Seymour Myron “Sy” Hersh (born April 8, 1937) is an American investigative journalist and author based in Washington, D.C. He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker magazine on military and security matters. He has also won two National Magazine Awards and is a five-time Polk winner and recipient of the 2004 George Orwell Award.[5]

He first gained worldwide recognition in 1969 for exposing the My Lai Massacre and its cover-up during the Vietnam War, for which he received the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. His 2004 reports on the US military‘s mistreatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison gained much attention.

Gareth Porter – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gareth Porter (born June 18, 1942) is an American historian, investigative journalist, author and policy analyst specializing in U.S. national security policy. He was active as a Vietnam specialist and anti-war activist during the Vietnam War, serving as Saigon Bureau Chief for Dispatch News Service International from 1970-1971, and later, as co-director of the Indochina Resource Center. He has written several books about the potential for peaceful conflict resolution in Southeast Asia and the Middle East,[1] including his 2005 book Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam, an analysis of how and why the United States went to war in Vietnam.[2] Porter’s analysis and reporting has appeared in academic journals, news publications and periodicals for four decades, and in 2012 he was the winner of the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism, which is awarded annually by the Frontline Club in London to acknowledge reporting that exposes propaganda.

Seymour Hersh Succumbs To Disinformation — Paul Craig Roberts – PaulCraigRoberts.org

I do not believe Hersh’s story for three reasons. One reason is that bin Laden was suffering from disease that no one can survive for a decade. His death was widely reported in 2001. One reason is that even Hersh’s “true” account of “what really happened” is contradicted by eye witnesses and the initial Pakistani TV interviews of eye witnesses. One reason is that Hersh’s story is too convoluted for an assassination raid, a routine event. He exposes lies within lies, indecision within decision, payoffs within payoffs, and reports such a huge number of people with advance knowledge of the raid that it cannot possibly have been kept a secret.

Sy Hersh’s bin Laden Story First Reported in 2011 — With Seemingly Different Sources – The Intercept

R.J. Hillhouse, a former professor, Fulbright fellow and novelist whose writing on intelligence and military outsourcing has appeared in the Washington Post and New York Times, made the same main assertions in 2011 about the death of Osama bin Laden as Seymour Hersh’s new story in the London Review of Books — apparently based on different sources than those used by Hersh.

George Stephanopoulos Apologizes On-Air: I Made a ‘Mistake’

The former Bill Clinton operative spun the donations, saying, “Even though I made them strictly to support work done to stop the spread of AIDS, help children and protect the environment in poor countries, I should have gone the extra mile to avoid even the appearance of a conflict.” He added, “**I apologize to all of you for failing to do that.” **

Politico Gives CIA’s Worst WMD Liar a Platform to Slam Seymour Hersh – The Intercept

What’s neither appropriate nor useful is to give former government officials the chance to attack Hersh’s story without giving readers the context of their track record of veracity. But that’s exactly what Politico did in this piece, “U.S. officials fuming over Hersh account of Osama bin Laden raid”:

“If you were to believe Sy, you would have to believe this massive conspiracy that President Obama, Robert Gates, Leon Panetta and Mike Morell were all lying to you,” said Bill Harlow, the [CIA]’s former top spokesman, referring to two recent secretaries of defense and a former acting CIA director. “It makes absolutely no sense.”

The next paragraph would have been the right place for Politico to say this:

*In 2003, Harlow himself participated in a massive conspiracy to lie to you about Iraq’s purported WMD. Indeed, he personally engaged in some of most egregious government dishonesty on the issue when he blatantly lied about a _Newsweek_ story published just before the war that strongly suggested Iraq had no remaining banned weapons. Since leaving the CIA, Harlow has co-written three books with former top CIA officials, all of which defend the agency’s use of torture, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein recently accused Harlow of making “false charges” about the Senate’s torture investigation.
*
That would have provided a real service: readers would have heard what Harlow had to say about a specific news article, but also learned that Harlow has a history of dishonesty when he wants to discredit accurate reporting.

The post Propaganda of Patriotism | Unfilter 143 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Putin on Ice | Unfilter 137

chris — Wed, 18 Mar 2015 23:44:52 +0000

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

Where in the world has Vlad been? After more than a week of silence, Russia’s president has broken his silence in a big way that could shape the future of the Arctic forever.

Plus a quick ISIS update, how Oil explains it all, some feedback & a lot more!

Direct Download:

Video | MP3 Audio | OGG Audio | Torrent | YouTube

RSS Feeds:

Become an Unfilter supporter on Patreon:

Show Notes:

Wikipedia Sues NSA Over Dragnet Internet Surveillance – The Intercept

The lawsuit argues that this broad surveillance, revealed in documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, violates the First Amendment by chilling speech and the open exchange of information, and that it also runs up against Fourth Amendment privacy protections.

Edward Snowden is right—NSA surveillance won’t stop terrorism

The controversial whistleblower made a surprise appearance via Google Hangout at SXSW this week, where his remarks proved captivating as always. Essentially a less flashy sequel to his ACLU speech from 2014, Snowden only spoke to a few people this time around, engaging in a conversation with a select group of leaders from America’s tech sector. In particular, he urged tech companies to become “champions of privacy,” suggesting that they use their power to help shield Americans from an increasingly watchful government.

Even with hiring up, Fed want further gains before rate hike – Houston Chronicle

The Fed signaled Wednesday that it needs the job market to improve further and inflation to rise above low levels before it begins nudging borrowing rates up. Even then, it suggested it will do so only very gradually.

The statement the Fed issued after its latest policy meeting seemed to catch investors by surprise in suggesting that a rate increase might be further off than many had assumed. Stock prices jumped, and bond yields fell.

The Dow Jones industrial average, which had been down nearly 100 points before the statement was issued, closed up 227 points, or 1.3 percent. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which influences long-term mortgage rates, tumbled from 2.04 percent just before the Fed’s announcement to 1.92 percent.

The US Assuming Chairmanship of Artic Council

Admiral Robert Papp, U.S. special representative to the Arctic, delivered a keynote address on U.S. policy in Arctic. He stressed the importance of U.S. leadership in the Arctic, and the need to educate younger generations on climate change and the Arctic at an early age. His comments preceded U.S. assumption of the Arctic Council chairmanship for a two year term.

“U.S. Leadership in the Arctic” was held at the Brookings Institution.

In April US assumes the chairmanship of the Arctic council for two years

The Arctic Council is a high-level intergovernmental forum that addresses primarily environmental protection and sustainable development issues in the Arctic region. The eight founding nations (Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States) of the 1991 Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy comprise the Member States of the Arctic Council. Six Arctic indigenous groups hold Permanent Participant status, and a number of other countries and organizations are accredited observers. The Council meets every two years at the Ministerial level to coordinate Council activities and oversee the work of the six working groups. Senior Arctic Officials from each member state meet more frequently to oversee Council operations between Ministerial meetings. The Arctic Council website includes general information about the Council and its activities, projects, and upcoming events, as well as archives of Council documents and links to the working group websites.

The United States participates in the Arctic Council under the leadership of the Department of State. Many other agencies, including the Departments of Interior, Energy, Commerce (NOAA), Transportation (FAA), and Homeland Security (Coast Guard), the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Science Foundation, the Arctic Research Commission, and the State of Alaska support or actively participate in the Arctic Council’s work.

The United States actively seeks to promote the viability and socioeconomic well being of Arctic communities and supports scientific research and international cooperation in achieving these goals. The United States is committed to working with its partners in the Arctic Council to advance shared objectives and looks forward to its 2015-17 Chairmanship.

Russia’s Arctic pivot is a massive military undertaking – Business Insider

Russia’s biggest new military development in the Arctic is the creation of the Russian Joint Strategic Command North (JSCN), which is built out of the former Northern Fleet. The command, according to Defense News, has a surface fleet and a submarine fleet of about 40 vessels each, although between 40% and 70% of those ships are currently unusable.

According to the Polish Institute of International Affairs, the JSCN won’t be an ordinary naval fleet. The command will ultimately feature an air defense division, two Arctic mechanized brigades, a naval infantry brigade, a coastal defense missile system, and the placement of missile regiments in outlying archipelagos in the Arctic Ocean.

Russia’s Arctic Militarization ‘Disturbing,’ US Lawmakers Say | Defense Tech

“When you look at what the Russians are doing in the Arctic, it is actually quite impressive –impressive, but disturbing,” Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska., told military leaders at a recent Senate Armed Services Committee Navy budget hearing.

“The Russians are looking at adding four new combat brigades in the Arctic as our U.S. Army is thinking at pulling them out of there,” he said. “I think that would give Vladimir Putin a lot of joy. They are building 13 new airfields and conducting long-range air patrols off the coast of Alaska.”

Petroleum exploration in the Arctic – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A 2008 United States Geological Survey estimates that areas north of the Arctic Circle have 90 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil (and 44 billion barrels of natural gas liquids ) in 25 geologically defined areas thought to have potential for petroleum. This represents 13% of the undiscovered oil in the world.

Arctic drilling is inevitable: if we don’t find oil in the ice, then Russia will – Telegraph

Forget the North Sea and the Middle East, it is the frozen oceans of the Arctic which are the next great frontier that big oil companies plan to exploit over the coming 15 years.

“There aren’t that many places left on the planet that are on the kind of scale as the Arctic in terms of possible resources for the oil companies to go at,” Andrew Latham, vice-president of exploration services at Wood Mackenzie told The Daily Telegraph.

Jason and The Argonauts

I’ve written into the show once before, but I still hear my name called from time to time. So I decided to do some digging…

Looking at the Unfilter Patreon page[1] I noticed that the amount of patrons named Jason is way above average. According to NameStatistics.com[2] about 0.66% of males in the USA are named Jason. Of the Unfilter patrons, 2.1% are named Jason. That’s over three times the average.

So way to go all the other Jasons out there!

Non-Lethal Aid: US Spends $15 Million on Journalists for Anti-Assad Reports — News from Antiwar.com

$15 million of the funding is going to go to journalists and opposition figures “to support documentation of war crimes, human rights violations, and other Syrian government abuses.”

Reports link Islamic State recruiter to Canadian Embassy in Jordan

Canada’s embassy in Jordan, which is run by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s hand picked ambassador and former top bodyguard, is being linked in news reports to an unfolding international terrorism and spy scandal.

The federal government refused to comment Friday on multiple Turkish media reports that a foreign spy allegedly working for Canadian intelligence — and arrested in Turkey for helping three young British girls travel to Syria to join Islamic State militants — was working for the Canadian embassy in Amman, Jordan.

High-Note:

Top Pot Researcher Weighs in on Long-Term Effects of Marijuana Use | High Times

Allegations from anti-pot proponents that cannabis use by adults causes serious harms are unwarranted and unproven. So says one of the nation’s leading marijuana researchers.

Speaking recently to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Dr. Igor Grant acknowledged, “There is no evidence for long-term damaging effects in adults.”

The post Putin on Ice | Unfilter 137 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Oil Rigged | Unfilter 132

chris — Wed, 04 Feb 2015 21:35:30 +0000

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

After sliding for weeks, the price of oil has started to rise again. We’ll look at the real market force that’s setting the price, how long it will stay down & chat about some of the more interesting theories. It’s a fascinating behind the scenes look at something that impacts your everyday life.

Plus we discuss the big boost Net Neutrality got this week, and the pending debate, why the ISIS fear is at new levels & much more.

Direct Download:

Video | MP3 Audio | OGG Audio | Torrent | YouTube

RSS Feeds:

Become an Unfilter supporter on Patreon:

Show Notes:

News

Saudi Oil Is Seen as Lever to Pry Russian Support From Syria’s Assad – NYTimes.com

Saudi Arabia_has been trying to pressure President Vladimir V. Putin_of _Russia_to abandon his support for President _Bashar al-Assad_of _Syria, using its dominance of the global oil markets at a time when the Russian government is reeling from the effects of plummeting oil prices._

Saudi Arabia and Russia have had numerous discussions over the past several months that have yet to produce a significant breakthrough, according to American and Saudi officials. It is unclear how explicitly Saudi officials have linked oil to the issue of Syria during the talks, but Saudi officials say — and they have told the United States — that they think they have some leverage over Mr. Putin because of their ability to reduce the supply of oil and possibly drive up prices.

Syria was a major topic for a Saudi delegation that went to Moscow in November, according to an Obama administration official, who said that there had been a steady dialogue between the two countries over the past several months. It is unclear what effect the Jan. 23 death of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia might have on these discussions, which the Saudis have conducted in secret.

The monarchy has about $733 billion in savings invested in low-risk assets abroad, and it can afford to dip into that for a few years without much pain. Russia and Iran have no such luxury, and neither do shale-fracking oil producers in North America.

The Saudis have offered economic enticements to Russian leaders in return for concessions on regional issues like Syria before, but never with oil prices so low. It is unclear what effect, if any, the discussions are having. While the United States would support initiatives to end Russian backing for Mr. Assad, any success by the Saudis to cut production and raise global oil prices could hurt many parts of the American economy.

FCC Chief Unveils Sweeping Net Neutrality Rules

The Federal Communications Commission plans to enact President Obama’s proposal for net neutrality regulations that would claim expansive new powers over Internet providers.

In an op-ed in the technology magazine Wired Wednesday, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said his rules will assure “the rights of internet users to go where they want, when they want, and the rights of innovators to introduce new products without asking anyone’s permission.”

He plans to fully apply “bright-line rules” to both Internet connections at home and on mobile devices.

The move is a devastating blow to Internet providers like Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T, who warn that treating the Internet like a utility will strangle investment, leading to worse service for everyone. They have all vowed to fight the rules in court.

But it’s a stunning victory for net neutrality advocates, who organized a massive public campaign over the past year to pressure the FCC to enact strong regulations. More than 4 million people filed comments with the FCC, the most for any proceeding ever. In November, President Obama sided with the activists and urged the FCC, an independent agency, to enact the “strongest possible” rules.

FCC strikes in Net neutrality war: Run Internet like a utility – CNET

Wheeler confirmed Wednesday that he intends to regulate wired and wireless broadband services under the Title II of the Communications Act of 1934, subjecting them to the same utility-style rules that oversee telephone service. He said Title II would ensure that the Internet remains open to everyone, a concept known as Net neutrality.

How Netflix helped change the FCC’s definition of net neutrality | The Verge

Today, the FCC did just that. “For the first time the commission would have authority to hear complaints and take appropriate enforcement action if necessary, if it determines the interconnection activities of ISPs are not just and reasonable, thus allowing it to address issues that may arise in the exchange of traffic between mass-market broadband providers and edge providers.”

ISIS

Fight against ISIS needs troops to be effective, Michael Morell says

“Unless the coalition is willing to put more ground troops into Iraq and possibly into Syria, there is very little we can do to respond,” said CBS News senior security contributor Michael Morell, the former No. 2 at the CIA.

Morell made the comments following ISIS’ release of a video Tuesday purportedly showing captive Jordanian pilot Lt. Muath Al-Kaseasbeh being burned to death. The killing led Jordanian officials to execute two Iraqi al Qaeda-linked prisoners.

Morell said the will to commit such a large number of troops “simply does not exist” in the U.S. or in Western Europe.

Burning Victims to Death: Still a Common Practice – The Intercept

The most immediate consequence of drone strikes is, of course, death and injury to those targeted or near a strike. The missiles fired from drones kill or injure in several ways, including through incineration[3], shrapnel, and the release of powerful blast waves capable of crushing internal organs. Those who do survive drone strikes often suffer disfiguring burns and shrapnel wounds, limb amputations, as well as vision and hearing loss. . . .

In addition, because the Hellfire missiles fired from drones often incinerate the victims’ bodies, and leave them in pieces and unidentifiable, traditional burial processes are rendered impossible.

As Firoz Ali Khan, a shopkeeper whose father-in-law’s home was struck, graphically described, “These missiles are very powerful. They destroy human beings . . .There is nobody left and small pieces left behind. Pieces. Whatever is left is just little pieces of bodies and cloth.” **A doctor who has treated drone victims described how “[s]kin is burned so that you can’t tell cattle from human.” When another interviewee came upon the site of the strike that killed his father, “[t]he entire place looked as if it was burned completely, so much so that even [the victims’] own clothes had burnt.

All the stones in the vicinity had become black.”** Ahmed Jan, who lost his foot in the March 17 jirga strike, discussed the challenges rescuers face in identifying bodies: “People were trying to find the body parts. We find the body parts of some people, but sometimes we do not find anything.”

UN claim: ISIS selling, crucifying, burying children alive in Iraq | News24

Islamic State militants are selling abducted Iraqi children at markets as sex slaves, and killing other youth, including by crucifixion or burying them alive, a United Nations watchdog said on Wednesday.

Iraqi boys aged under 18 are increasingly being used by the militant group as suicide bombers, bomb makers, informants or human shields to protect facilities against US-led air strikes, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child said.

High Note:

Silk Road Mastermind Ross Ulbricht Convicted of All 7 Charges | WIRED

A jury has spoken, and the mask is off: Ross Ulbricht has been convicted of being the Dread Pirate Roberts, secret mastermind of the Silk Road online narcotics empire.

On Wednesday, less than a month after his trial began in a downtown Manhattan courtroom, 30-year-old Ulbricht was convicted of all seven crimes he was charged with, including narcotics and money laundering conspiracies and a “kingpin” charge usually reserved for mafia dons and drug cartel leaders. It took the jury only 3.5 hours to return a verdict. Ulbricht faces a minimum of 30 years in prison; the maximum is life. But Ulbricht’s legal team has said it will appeal the decision, and cited its frequent calls for a mistrial and protests against the judge’s decisions throughout the case.

As the verdict was read, Ulbricht stared straight ahead. His mother Lyn Ulbricht slowly shook her head, and his father Kirk put a hand to his temple. After the verdict, Ulbricht turned around to give his family a stoic smile.

U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy Says Marijuana ‘Can Be Helpful’ For Some Medical Conditions

While Murthy didn’t take the opportunity to endorse legalization of marijuana for medical or recreational purposes, he did add that he believes U.S. marijuana policy should be driven by science and what it reveals about the efficacy of using the plant for medical purposes.

“I think we’re going to get a lot more data about that,” Murthy said. “I’m very interested to see where that takes us.”

State looks to share marijuana taxes with cities

Washington state legalized marijuana more than two years ago, but in much of the state, there’s still no place to get the sanctioned stuff: More than 100 cities and counties have banned pot businesses, making it tough to undermine the black market.

Lawmakers think they have at least a partial solution: paying the locals to let licensed weed come to town.

Under bills introduced in both houses in Olympia, the state would share a chunk of its marijuana tax revenue with cities and counties – but only if they allow approved marijuana businesses in their jurisdictions. It’s an approach that has worked to some degree in Colorado, said Kevin Bommer, deputy director of the Colorado Municipal League.

“It definitely made a difference,” he said Monday. “Without it, you would not have as many municipalities in Colorado approving retail marijuana sales.”

White House Sneaks D.C. Marijuana Legalization Into Budget | The Daily Caller

President Barack Obama’s massive budget unveiled on Monday makes a foray into Washington, D.C. politics by removing the restriction Congress placed on the city’s budget to prohibit the use of public funds for regulating and taxing the sale of marijuana.

If Congress doesn’t fight back against Obama’s budget request, marijuana may achieve legal status as early as March, Marijuana.com reports. A regulatory system implemented by the city would then follow likely by the end of 2015, and with a framework in place to satisfy local politicians, marijuana dispensaries would crop up soon after. However, the budget first needs to pass through a watchful, Republican-dominated Congress, although since the Republicans took over, there has been little pushback against legal marijuana in the states.

Seattle just got an awesome, high-tech pot vending machine

It's Seattle's first pot vending machine. Show your I.D., slide in your money, push button & out pops pot. #ZaZZZ pic.twitter.com/l7T0OkWao1

— diane lewis (@dianelewis48) February 3, 2015

Sometimes you just want to pick up your pot without talking to a human. Well here’s some good news for people in Seattle, Wash.: You can now grab your medical marijuana from a vending machine.

The post Oil Rigged | Unfilter 132 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

State of the Obvious 2015 | Unfilter 130

chris — Tue, 20 Jan 2015 23:35:15 +0000

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

Obama gives his sixth state of the Union, we fact check in real time & listen for key issues like Cyber security.

It’s a once a year special edition of the Unfilter show, we throw out the playbook!

Direct Download:

Video | MP3 Audio | OGG Audio | Torrent | YouTube

RSS Feeds:

Become an Unfilter supporter on Patreon:

Show Notes:

News

Obama stresses middle class in State of the Union

The nation is ready to “turn the page” from years of financial hardship, President Obama said Tuesday, as he used his State of the Union speech to promote an ambitious program of “middle class economics” in the face of new Republican majorities in Congress.

State of the Union 2015: Obama Declares ‘Shadow of Crisis Has Passed’ – ABC News

In his sixth State of the Union address — the second to last of his presidency — President Obama declared an economic resurgence, doubling down on improving wages for the middle class.

“The verdict is clear,” the president said. “Middle class economics works. Expanding opportunity works. And these policies will continue to work, as long as politics don’t get in the way.”

Obama says US vulnerable to cyberthreats without new steps – Beaumont Enterprise

Obama says his administration is working to use intelligence to combat cyberthreats the way it has with terrorism. He says Congress should pass legislation protecting childrens’ information, fighting identity theft and addressing evolving cyberthreats. He says that would help protect technologies that have created opportunity worldwide.

Obama wants legislation enabling information sharing between the private sector and U.S. agencies and offering companies limited protection from liability.

Full Text of President Obama’s 2015 State of the Union Address

The post State of the Obvious 2015 | Unfilter 130 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Legal Cannabis Fallout | Unfilter 128

chris — Wed, 07 Jan 2015 22:44:24 +0000

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

A major downside to the legalization of Marijuana is being missed by mainstream commentators & it’s an issue of critical importance. We explain our position from ground zero.

Plus the tragic shooting in France, another look at the falling price of oil, the Sony hack & of course much, much more!

Direct Download:

Video | MP3 Audio | OGG Audio | Torrent | YouTube

RSS Feeds:

Become an Unfilter supporter on Patreon:

Show Notes:

Speaking of receiving… Unfilter SWAG level patrons are starting to get these! #bacon

A photo posted by Jupiter Broadcasting (@jupiterbroadcasting) on Jan 1, 2015 at 8:18pm PST

News

Police hunt three Frenchmen after 12 killed in Paris attack | Reuters

Police are hunting three French nationals, including two brothers from the Paris region, after suspected Islamist gunmen killed 12 people at a satirical magazine on Wednesday, a police official and government source said.

The hooded attackers stormed the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, a weekly known for lampooning Islam and other religions, in the most deadly militant attack on French soil in decades.

French police staged a huge manhunt for the attackers who escaped after shooting dead some of France’s top cartoonists as well as two police officers. About 800 soldiers were brought in to shore up security across the capital.

The three men being sought include two brothers aged 32 and 34 as well as a man aged 18 from the area of the northeastern city of Reims, the government source told Reuters.

Sharpening Contradictions: Why al-Qaeda attacked Satirists in Paris | Informed Comment

The horrific murder of the editor, cartoonists and other staff of the irreverent satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, along with two policemen, by terrorists in Paris was in my view a strategic strike, aiming at polarizing the French and European public.

The Gasoline Price Crash Continues

CRUDE INVENTORIES:

Crude oil inventories decreased by 3.1 million barrels to a total of 382.4 million barrels. At 382.4 million barrels, inventories are 24.5 million barrels above last year (6.8%) and are well above the upper limit of the average range for this time of year.

**GASOLINE INVENTORIES: **

Gasoline inventories increased by 8.1 million barrels to 237.2 million barrels. At 237.2 million barrels, inventories are up 10.2 million barrels, or 4.5% higher than one year ago.

Former US cybersecurity official gets 25 years for child porn charges

On Monday, a federal judge in Nebraska sentenced the former acting director of cybersecurity for the US Department of Health and Human Services to 25 years in prison on child porn charges.

Timothy DeFoggi, who was convicted back in August 2014, is the sixth person to be convicted in relations to a Nebraska-based child porn Tor-enable website known as PedoBook. That site’s administrator, Aaron McGrath, was sentenced to 20 years last year by the same judge. McGrath famously did not have an administrator password, a mistake that federal investigators were easily able to make use of.

US Airstrikes against ISIS Destroy 184 Humvees and 58 Tanks

At least 184 Humvees, 58 tanks and nearly 700 other vehicles have been destroyed or damaged in the more than 1,600 airstrike missions that have hit more than 3,200 ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria since bombing began last Aug. 8, the U.S. Central Command said Wednesday.

In addition, a total of 26 MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicles and armored personnel carriers, 79 artillery and mortar positions, and 673 infantry fighting positions were destroyed, CentCom officials said.

On Tuesday, Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, said that the cumulative effects of the airstrikes had put ISIS on the defensive and severely restricted the terror group’s ability to communicate and maneuver. The airstrikes have averaged about 11 daily since President Obama authorized them to begin on Aug. 8.

FBI reveals ‘sloppy’ mistakes that connect North Korea to Sony hack

Comey added that the hackers behind the attack, who referred to themselves the Guardians of Peace, made a key “mistake” multiple times when sending emails to Sony employees and publishing leaked data from Sony online.

“Several times they got sloppy,” Comey said at a cybersecurity conference in New York City. “Either because they forgot or they had a technical problem, they connected directly and we could see them. And we could see that the IP addresses that were being used to post and to send the emails were coming from IPs that were exclusively used by the North Koreans.”

“They shut it off very quickly once they saw the mistake,” he added. “But not before we saw where it was coming from.”

FBI explains how it linked North Korea to the Sony Pictures hack

FBi director: "Some serious folks suggested we have it wrong" on #SonyHack "They don't have the facts that I have hey don't see what I see"

— Kaja Whitehouse (@kajawhitehouse) January 7, 2015

Comey isn’t willing to spill the beans on everything since it might show how the US collects intelligence, but he’s quick to chide critics who suggest the hack came from somewhere else (such as an inside job) based solely on the publicly available details. “They don’t see what I see,”

Schneier on Security: Did North Korea Really Attack Sony?

I am deeply skeptical of the FBI’s announcement on Friday that North Korea was behind last month’s Sony hack. The agency’s evidence is tenuous, and I have a hard time believing it. But I also have trouble believing that the US government would make the accusation this formally if officials didn’t believe it.

Clues in the hackers’ attack code seem to point in all directions at once. The FBI points to reused code from previous attacks associated with North Korea, as well as similarities in the networks used to launch the attacks. Korean language in the code also suggests a Korean origin, though not necessarily a North Korean one, since North Koreans use a unique dialect. However you read it, this sort of evidence is circumstantial at best. It’s easy to fake, and it’s even easier to interpret it incorrectly. In general, it’s a situation that rapidly devolves into storytelling, where analysts pick bits and pieces of the “evidence” to suit the narrative they already have worked out in their heads.

No, North Korea Didn’t Hack Sony – The Daily Beast

The FBI and the President may claim that the Hermit Kingdom is to blame for the most high-profile network breach in forever. But almost all signs point in another direction.

Taking a look at these addresses we find that all but one of them are public proxies. Furthermore, checking online IP reputation services reveals that they have been used by malware operators in the past. This isn’t in the least bit surprising: in order to avoid attribution cybercriminals routinely use things like proxies to conceal their connections. No sign of any North Koreans, just lots of common, or garden, internet cybercriminals.

It is this piece of evidence—freely available to anyone with an enquiring mind and a modicum of cyber security experience—which I believe that the FBI is so cryptically referring to when they talk about “additional evidence” they can’t reveal without compromising “national security”.

Essentially, we are being left in a position where we are expected to just take agency promises at face value. In the current climate, that is a big ask.

If we turn the debate around, and look at some evidence that the North Koreans might NOT be behind the Sony hack, the picture looks significantly clearer.

First of all, there is the fact that the attackers only brought up the anti-North Korean bias of “The Interview” after the media did—the film was never mentioned by the hackers right at the start of their campaign. In fact, it was only after a few people started speculating in the media that this and the communication from North Korea “might be linked” that suddenly it did get linked. My view is that the attackers saw this as an opportunity for “lulz”, and a way to misdirect everyone. (And wouldn’t you know it? The hackers are now saying it’s okay for Sony to release the movie, after all.) If everyone believes it’s a nation state, then the criminal investigation will likely die. It’s the perfect smokescreen.

The hackers dumped the data. Would a state with a keen understanding of the power of propaganda be so willing to just throw away such a trove of information? The mass dump suggests that whoever did this, their primary motivation was to embarrass Sony Pictures. They wanted to humiliate the company, pure and simple.

High Note

Mother: Medical marijuana is a ‘miracle drug’ for my son

At least three bills are expected to be before lawmakers in Olympia during the upcoming legislative session that could provide clarity to the legal gray area surrounding medical marijuana.

Right now, medical marijuana is largely unregulated in Washington state. Recreational stores complain that medical retail shops aren’t required to pay taxes or jump through the same administrative hoops. Without legal clarity, medical marijuana stores face the threat of being shut down.

Medical Marijuana a Challenge for Legal Pot States – NYTimes.com

A year into the nation’s experiment with legal, taxed marijuana sales, Washington and Colorado find themselves wrestling not with the federal interference many feared, but with competition from _medical marijuana_or even outright black market sales.

In Washington, the black market has exploded since voters legalized marijuana in 2012, with scores of legally dubious medical dispensaries opening and some pot delivery services brazenly advertising that they sell outside the legal system.

And the number of patients on Colorado’s medical marijuana registry went up, not down, since 2012, meaning more marijuana users there can avoid paying the higher taxes that recreational pot carries.

They’re looking at reining in their medical systems and fixing the big tax differential between medical and recreational weed without harming patients.

“How can you have two parallel systems, one that’s regulated, paying taxes, playing by the rules, and the other that’s not doing any of those things?” said Rick Garza of the Washington Liquor Control Board, which oversees recreational pot.

The difficulty of reconciling medical marijuana with taxed recreational pot offers a cautionary tale for states that might join Washington and Colorado in regulating the adult use of the drug.

Seattle officials have signaled that they intend to start busting delivery services that flout the law and recently sent letters to 330 marijuana businesses warning them that they’ll eventually need to obtain state licenses or be shut down.

Tacoma has also announced plans to close dozens of unregulated pot shops.

Key lawmaker’s proposal: medical pot shops without dried pot

A bill being filed this week by Sen. Ann Rivers would create licenses for medical marijuana dispensaries and require product testing that’s at least as strict as what the state requires in its recreational marijuana stores. But the medical stores could only sell edibles and marijuana concentrates, such as oil — no dried bud. The products would be sales-tax-free.

The bill makes a wide array of changes. Among them: creating a registry of medical marijuana patients and providers, and tightening restrictions on health professionals who authorize medical use. It would have the state Health Department determine what levels of THC, marijuana’s main psychoactive compound, and what ratio of THC to other compounds would be OK for products sold in medical outlets.

It would also strictly limit cooperative gardens. Under current law, such gardens can have up to 10 patients or 45 plants, but there’s no limit on how many cooperative grows are allowed on one property. That loophole has been cited as a reason for the proliferation of medical grows serving hundreds or thousands of patients.
Under Rivers’ bill, cooperative gardens would be limited to four people, one garden per tax parcel

Feedback

Thanks for the holiday show : unfilter

The post Legal Cannabis Fallout | Unfilter 128 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Tortured Logic | Unfilter 127

chris — Thu, 18 Dec 2014 00:08:05 +0000

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

Apologist for the CIA were out in full force since our last episode. We’ve clipped their labored justifications & break them down point by point. Plus the critical president Obama is silently setting for future administrations.

It’s been a bad week for Russia & our local correspondent discusses the tragic events in Sydney Australia, then we wrap the show with a little good news.

Direct Download:

Video | MP3 Audio | OGG Audio | Torrent | YouTube

RSS Feeds:

Become an Unfilter supporter on Patreon:

— Show Notes —

CIA Torture Report

‘Rectal Hydration’: Inside the CIA’s Interrogation of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

Along with the waterboarding, Mohammed was subjected to days of standing sleep deprivation, slapping and “stress positions,” the report says. And it says that several times he underwent an emergency medical procedure known as “rectal rehydration,” or proctolysis

The report matter-of-factly notes that such** treatment was “medically unnecessary” for Mohammed**, whom it describes as having been doused with, submerged in or force-fed water hundreds of times. After one session, the medical officer present reported that Mohammed’s gastric contents were “so diluted by water” that Mohammed was in danger of water intoxication. The medical officer later wrote that “in the new technique we are basically doing a series of near drownings.”

Is rectal feeding an actual modern medical practice?

**”It’s almost never done,” **he wrote to the NewsHour in an email. “There are so many easier and more effective ways to hydrate or feed a patient.”

Thomas Burke, an emergency doctor at Massachusetts General Hospital who teaches at Harvard Medical School echoed that in an interview with the Washington Post.

“For all practical purposes, it’s never used,” Burke said. “No one in the United States is hydrating anybody through their rectum. Nobody is feeding anybody through their rectum. … That’s not a normal practice.”

Fact Check: CIA’s Use of Rectal Rehydration, Feeding Not Medical Procedures – Press Releases – News Room – United States Senator Dianne Feinstein

Contrary to some claims, this is not a medical procedure, nor was it ever approved by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel as an authorized interrogation technique. On December 10, 2014, the New York-based Physicians for Human Rights stated that “Contrary to the CIA’s assertions, there is no clinical indication to use rectal rehydration and feeding over oral or intravenous administration of fluids and nutrients.”

Dick Cheney’s Tortured Appearance On ‘Meet The Press’ Should Be His Public Swan Song

Torture is “an American citizen on his cellphone making a last call to his four young daughters shortly before he burns to death in the upper levels of the Trade Center in New York on 9/11.”

Cheney would be right were he to pose this as an example rather than the defining metric when seeking to determine an act of torture. The horrendous, unthinkable experience referred to by Cheney is, unquestionably, one example of inflicting torture—and a pretty good example of horrific torture at that—but hardly the sole method that Cheney insisted on pretending to be the case.

Yet, each time Cheney was asked for a more realistic and more encompassing definition of torture that would rationally go beyond any one particular example, he continuously returned to the experiences of our lost countrymen on 9-11. This seemed, in the mind of Dick Cheney, to be the only standard to be applied when determining if our interrogation methods may have exceeded the legal bounds imposed by the Geneva Convention for the treatment of detainees.

At a point, it became more than clear that Cheney had pre-planned this “non-answer” for his appearance, thinking it to be very clever.

By pretending that only a horrible infliction of agony similar to what was heaped on the victims of 9-11 would rise to a level that could be termed torture, the Vice-President was simply sending a coded message to his supporters to remind them that, given what the bad guys did to us, there was nothing too horrible that we could do to them—Geneva Convention be damned.

The 11 Most Psychotic Things Dick Cheney Said About Torture on Meet the Press | The Daily Banter

U.S. Sen. Rockefeller helps release CIA report; torture practice

On Dec. 8, the outgoing senator spoke on the floor after the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released the Executive Summary of its Study on the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation Program. The redacted summary was released after the Intelligence Committee voted in April 2014 to declassify the summary and after negotiations among the Committee, the White House, and the CIA.

News

Sony Just Canceled The Pre mire Of ‘The Interview’

Sony Pictures has decided to cancel the Dec. 25 release of “The Interview” after major theaters said they wouldn’t screen the movie.

“We have decided not to move forward with the planned December 25 theatrical release of ‘The Interview,'” the company said in a statement.

Sony dropped its plan to release the film after the four largest theater chains in the United States — Regal Entertainment, AMC Theaters, Cinemark and Carmike Cinemas — and several smaller chains said they would not show the film. The cancellations virtually killed “The Interview” as a theatrical enterprise, at least in the near term, one of the first known instances of a threat from another nation pre-empting the release of a movie.

Seth Rogen and James Franco Cancel All Media Appearances for ‘The Interview’

The duo has withdrawn from previously scheduled press appearances, including Rogen’s Thursday appearance on “Late Night with Seth Meyers” and an interview with both of them on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” on Wednesday, leading up to “The Interview’s” Christmas Day release. They were also booked for an appearance on Buzzfeed Brews in New York on Tuesday.

U.S. Links North Korea to Sony Hacking

American intelligence officials have concluded that the North Korean government was “centrally involved” in the recent attacks on Sony Pictures’s computers, a determination reached just as Sony on Wednesday canceled its release of the comedy, which is based on a plot to assassinate Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader.

Senior administration officials, who would not speak on the record about the intelligence findings, said the White House was still debating whether to publicly accuse North Korea of what amounts to a cyberterrorism campaign.

Kerry speaks of lifting Russia sanctions if Putin makes the right decisions

Russia has made constructive moves in recent days towards reducing tensions in Ukraine, US Secretary of State John Kerry said yesterday (16 December), and he raised the possibility that Washington could lift sanctions if Moscow keeps taking positive steps.

Speaking in London, Kerry said the United States and Europe could lift sanctions within days or weeks if President Vladimir Putin keeps taking steps to ease tensions and lives up to commitments under ceasefire accords to end the Ukraine conflict.

—

“These sanctions could be lifted in a matter of weeks or days, depending on the choices that President Putin takes,” Kerry told reporters.

“Their sole purpose here is to restore the international norm with respect to behavior between nations,” to ensure respect for borders, sovereignty and rights, he said.

Russia imposes steep interest rate hike as ruble plummets

The fear was sparked by the plummeting ruble, which has dropped 17 percent against the dollar in two days despite a dead-of-night decision Tuesday by the Russian central bank to impose a steep interest-rate hike to stem the currency losses.

GOP rep attempted late bid to kill spy bill | TheHill

One of the biggest thorns in the side of the country’s intelligence agencies attempted to mount an eleventh hour bid to kill the spy agencies’ funding bill on Wednesday.

Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) wrote on Facebook that the intelligence authorization bill that easily passed through the House contained “one of the most egregious sections of law I’ve encountered during my time as a representative.”

“It grants the executive branch virtually unlimited access to the communications of every American,” explained Amash, who has a record of skepticism toward the National Security Agency and other agencies. Last year, he nearly succeeded in an attempt to end the NSA’s controversial phone records program.

That type of collection is currently allowed under an executive order that dates back to former President Reagan, but the new stamp of approval from Congress was troubling, Amash said. Limits on the government’s ability to retain information in the provision did not satisfy the Michigan Republican.

Despite Amash’s late attempt,** the bill easily passed, 325-100**.

The bill passed the Senate earlier this week and is now on its way to President Obama.

Bush, Cheney, Hayden, Rodriguez & Yoo on Sunday talk shows. It's not where they should be appearing. #TortureReport pic.twitter.com/mG7Ze4XbwJ

— Col. Morris Davis (@ColMorrisDavis) December 14, 2014

Russia invites North Korea leader for May visit: paper | Reuters

Russia has invited North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to attend a May ceremony marking the end of World War Two, in what would be Kim’s first foreign visit since taking the helm of the reclusive state in 2011, Japan’s Asahi Shimbun daily said on Wednesday.

First ground clash between ISIS and US forces in Iraq

An American force has fought its actual first battle against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria “ISIS” organization during a counter-attack that was carried out by tribal forces

and other force of the Iraqi army near Ein al-Asad base, west of Anbar, in an attempt to remove them from the base of which includes about 100 US adviser in it.

A field commander of the Iraqi Army in Anbar province, said that “the US force equipped with light and medium weapons, supported by fighter force model” F-18 “, was able to inflict casualties against fighters of ISIS organization, and forced them to retreat from the al-Dolab area, which lies 10 kilometers from Ain al-Assad base .

US troops have entered with its Iraqi partner, according to Colonel , Salam Nazim in line against ISIS elements and clashed with them for more than two hours, to succeed in removing them from al-Dolab area, and causing losses in their ranks, at a time American fighter jets directed several strikes focused on ISIS gatherings that silenced their heavy sources of fire. “He points out that the clashes took place between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. on Sunday night.

ISIS using bombs containing live SCORPIONS in effort to spread panic

Canisters packed with poisonous varieties of scorpion are being blasted into towns and villages, which explode on impact – scattering the scorpions and causing panic among the innocent local population.

High Note

Tacoma to close medical marijuana collectives

All medical marijuana collectives in Tacoma could soon have to shut down.

City leaders addressed plans last week to send out letters to cease operations as early as January, as they are not licensed under Initiative 502. Both business owners and patients are now expressing concerns.

Medical marijuana wins but marijuana legalization loses in congressional spending deal

The spending bill passed by Congress on December 14 includes a provision that prevents the Department of Justice, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, from interfering with states’ medical marijuana laws.
The provision applies to 32 states and Washington, DC, which allow the use of marijuana or a marijuana-based compound, such as the non-psychoactive CBD, for medical purposes.

Teen marijuana use falls as more states legalize – The Washington Post

Teen alcohol and drug use — including marijuana use — was down across the board in 2014.

That’s the big take-home from the 2014 Monitoring the Future study by the University of Michigan and the National Institutes on Drug Abuse, which was released Tuesday morning. The MTF is an annual survey of 40,000 8th-graders, 10th-graders and 12th-graders. It’s notable both for its size and for the fact that it was conducted this past spring, in the midst of a nationwide conversation about drug reform in the run-up to the midterm elections

The post Tortured Logic | Unfilter 127 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Putin’s Pipe Dream | Unfilter 125

chris — Wed, 03 Dec 2014 22:24:20 +0000

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

The price of oil has been dropping & consumers are enjoying some extra cash, but the pressure being put on governments around the world may be unbearable. We’ll deep dive into how lower oil prices are dramatically impacting Russia & the surprise big move made by Putin this week.

Plus the over hyped cyber attacks of the week, the sales from Green Friday & much more!

Direct Download:

Video | MP3 Audio | OGG Audio | Torrent | YouTube

RSS Feeds:

Become an Unfilter supporter on Patreon:

— Show Notes —

News

Sony to Officially Name North Korea as Source of Hack Attack | Re/code

Sony Pictures will officially name North Korea as the source of a hacking attack that has exposed sensitive files and brought down its corporate network last week, two sources close to the investigation tell Re/code. An announcement could come as soon as today.

Sony Pictures and F.B.I. Investigating Attack by Hackers – NYTimes.com

Sony Pictures Entertainment and the F.B.I. on Wednesday were hunting for information into a destructive attack on Sony’s computer systems, including whether North Korea, or perhaps a former employee, was responsible. But the studio said that, contrary to an online report, it was not ready to identify a likely culprit.

Sony’s New Movies Leak Online Following Hack Attack | Variety

At least five new movies from Sony Pictures are being devoured on copyright-infringing file-sharing hubs online in the wake of the hack attack that hobbled the studio earlier in the week.

Copies of DVD screeners of four unreleased Sony movies including the upcoming “Annie” are getting some unwelcome early exposure, but nothing compared with the frenzy enveloping “Fury,” the war pic still in theaters that bowed last month.

“Fury” has been downloaded by over 888,000 unique IP addresses since showing up on peer-to-peer networks on Nov. 27, according to piracy-tracking firm Excipio. That’s high enough to be the second most-downloaded movie currently being pirated, and it’s not out of movie theaters yet.

Another big Sony movie, “Annie,” is also being pirated, this one three weeks ahead of its own wide release. Other Sony movies being downloaded include “Mr. Turner,” “Still Alice” and “To Write Love on Her Arms.”

“The theft of Sony Pictures Entertainment content is a criminal matter, and we are working closely with law enforcement to address it,” a Sony spokeswoman said in a statement to Variety.

Putin says Russia will scrap South Stream pipeline

He said Russia can’t implement the South Stream project because of the European Union’s opposition to it. The project would have involved running a pipeline under the Black Sea to Bulgaria and farther on to Southern Europe.

However, Moscow will boost gas supplies to Turkey and may cooperate with it in creating a hub for natural gas supplies on the border with Greece, he said.

Putin’s Surprise Call to Scrap South Stream Gas Pipeline Leaves Europe Reeling – NYTimes.com

LONDON — Energy executives across Europe were scrambling on Tuesday to understand the implications of President Vladimir V. Putin‘s surprise announcement that Russia would scrap the long-planned South Stream project that was to pipe natural gas to Europe.

The pipeline, which had a projected $22 billion cost and was a geopolitical sore point in recent months, had never been a certainty. But Western partners on the project, including the Italian energy giant Eni, appear to have been surprised by Mr. Putin. They said they learned of his decision, announced late Monday during a visit to Ankara, Turkey, only through the news media.

Despite Mr. Putin’s announcement, officials from the European Union, which had lobbied against the project as part of Western sanctions against Russia over Ukraine tensions, said a previously planned meeting between the main European Union countries involved in the project and the bloc’s energy commissioner would still take place next week.

Vladimir Putin’s worst nightmare may be happening right now

Russian officials on Tuesday warned the country faces a recession in 2015 that could see the economy shrink for the first time in five years.

They believe it will contract by 0.8 percent next year, down from a previous estimate of 1.2 percent growth.

Ordinary Russians have watched as their currency lost nearly 40 percent of its value since the beginning of the year. They can also expect double-digit inflation by early next year, officials predict.

Russian Central Bank Defends Record Low 55 Level, Bonds Tumble

Since the top in oil in June, crude has dropped around 37%… and so has the Russian Ruble. **Monday saw the Russian Central Bank (rumored) to intervene to protect the 54 Ruble to the USDollar level. Yesterday saw weakness resume as oil prices slipped and today it appears 55 is the new line in the sand as the USDRUB was smashed 2 handles lower earlier today (only to begin selling off once again since). **Russian 10Y bond yields are leaking higher however, +20bps to break the 11% line in the sand.

Crude Slides After Saudis Suggest Oil Stabilizes Around $60

Oil may stabilize around $60/barrel, WSJ reports, citing unidentified people familiar.

US Army Sends 100 Tanks To Eastern Europe To “Deter Russian Aggression” | Zero Hedge

U.S. Army Europe, said the Army was looking to add about 100 Abrams tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles to the forces in Eastern Europe.

These U.S. Army M1A2 Abrams tanks are part of the European Activity Set,
a combined-arms battalion-sized set of vehicles and equipment pre-positioned
at Germany’s Grafenwoehr Training Area. Markus Ruachenberger/U.S. Army**
**

“We are looking at courses of action for how we could pre-position equipment that we would definitely want to put inside a facility where it would be **better maintained, **that rotational units could then come and draw on it and use it to train, **or for contingency purposes,” **Hodges said in a briefing from Vilnius, Lithuania.

So “better maintained… or for contingency purposes.” Got it. That probably also explains why as NATO is seeking to deliver 100 tanks to Eastern Europe, it has already added several squadrons of fighter jets just minutes away from Russia’s border. For “contingency purposes.”

Before:

After:

As before, we wonder how the US would react if Russia were to place a few extra fighter jets in Cuba or a few hundred tanks in Mexico. Aside from historical fact of course.

But back to NATO’s tanks whose only mission is “contingency”, and certainly not to intimidate Putin that the NATO ring around the nation is closing.

High Note

City Attorney Sues To Shut Down Pot Delivery Smartphone App

More than 400 medical marijuana dispensaries in the city have been closed, and Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer says he is now taking aim against the creator of a pot delivery app.

Officials say the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office has filed more than 200 criminal cases against 743 defendants, including both dispensary operators and property owners, effectively closing 402 medical marijuana dispensaries in the 17 months since Feuer took office.

“My office has moved aggressively to shut down unlawful medical marijuana businesses, already closing half the dispensaries operating in Los Angeles,” Feuer said in a statement. “And today we’re taking action on a new front, tackling medical marijuana delivery.”

Nestdrop is not acting as a “dispensary, collective, grower or even a delivery service,” but is the “technology platform that connects law-abiding
medical marijuana patients with local dispensaries to receive the medication that they need in a safe and secure manner,” Pycher said.

“Our goal is make access to this legal medicine convenient for patients who truly need it — especially as many of these suffering patients may have
limited mobility and may be unable to visit a dispensary unassisted,” and he said he does not “understand why the city is trying to restrict their access
to the important medicine.”

The case is being spearheaded by Assistant City Attorney Asha Greenberg.

What researchers are working on to keep pot smokers off the road?

Researchers at Washington State University are working on a handheld breathalyzer that could detect if a driver tests positive for marijuana use.

WSU chemistry professor Herbert Hill and doctoral student Jessica Tufariello are developing a tool that would give police an immediate way to detect whether THC is present in the driver’s blood stream (but won’t yet tell exactly how much), The News Tribune first reported.

The name and release date of Washington State University’s breathalyzer are currently unknown.

Lessons From ‘Green Friday’: Tips for Successful Holiday Sales & Promotions

“We had our biggest day yet” on Black Friday, said Cristy Aranguiz, the lead budtender at Cannabis and Glass in Spokane, Washington, which offered a free pipe similar to the one the character Gandalf smoked in the “Lord of the Rings” movies. “We had a ton of new customers come in.”

In Washington State, for example, cannabis businesses aren’t allowed to advertise within 1,000 feet of anywhere children tend to congregate including schools, daycare center, parks or arcades.

Instead of traditional advertising — like newspapers, billboards and TV ads — many business owners are finding ways to promote their sales using social media and email blasts.

The Happy Crop Shoppe in East Wenatchee, Washington, took 25% off some glassware and up to 30% off so-called Christmas packs that contained various items, promoting its sales on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram starting about a week in advance.

Roughly half the people who came to the store were new customers, owner Mark McCants said. Overall, the number of customers was up by about 30% from a normal day, he said.

Legal Pot In The U.S. May Be Undercutting Mexican Marijuana

“Two or three years ago, a kilogram [2.2 pounds] of marijuana was worth $60 to $90,” says Nabor, a 24-year-old pot grower in the northwestern Mexican state of Sinaloa. “But now they’re paying us $30 to $40 a kilo. It’s a big difference. If the U.S. continues to legalize pot, they’ll run us into the ground.”

Multi-State MMJ Operators Embroiled in Lawsuits, Legal Disputes

Entrepreneurs seeking cannabis licenses in multiple states have a new concern: legal issues from one market affecting applications in others.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports that Nicholas Vita and Michael Abbott, partners whose companies have been awarded MMJ business licenses in Nevada, Massachusetts, Arizona and Washington DC, have been embroiled in at least three separate legal cases.

Those legal problems have given at least one Chicago alderman pause as he tries to evaluate whether or not to support any MMJ dispensaries opening in his neighborhood, including Vita’s and Abbott’s application to open a dispensary on the northwest side of the Windy City.

The post Putin's Pipe Dream | Unfilter 125 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Volcanoes of Jihad | Unfilter 123

chris — Wed, 19 Nov 2014 22:28:53 +0000

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

After weeks of speculation we have new audio from ISIS’ leader Al Baghdadi calling for attacks in Saudi Arabia & we make the case that it’s still all about the oil. Plus the latest in the Net Neutrality debate, and our follow up thoughts.

Then we take a critical look at the attempts to scare kids in schools & the twists and turns for legal cannabis.

Direct Download:

Video | MP3 Audio | OGG Audio | Torrent | YouTube

RSS Feeds:

Become an Unfilter supporter on Patreon:

— Show Notes —

News

Cops Decide Running Surprise School Shooter Drill During Class At A Middle School Is A Great Idea | Techdirt

We’re going to have to go over this again: if your drills to prevent school tragedy actually leave school children traumatized, then don’t do those damned drills. What began with terrorism drills on school buses and then devolved into unannounced school-shooting drills is getting to be so full-on crazy that I sort of can’t believe that _anyone _thinks any of this is a good idea. The latest story involves police running an unannounced “active shooter drill” at a local middle school while classes were in session. As a part of this insane exercise, police officers went around bursting into classrooms filled with terrified students, weapons out, as they acted out their fun little thespian experience of horror. And, to add insult to injury, school officials notified parents of the drill long after unknowing students were informing their parents that an actual shooting was taking place at the school.

According to Fox affiliate WTVT, officials at Jewett Middle Academy e-mailed parents to inform them of the drill, after it took place. By that point, WTVT reports, cellphones were already filling up with texts from frightened students, who thought there was a real shooter in the school.

US Senate falls two votes short of shutting down NSA phone spying | Ars Technica

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) in 2013. Rubio was first to speak against the USA Freedom Act in today’s debate, saying it could slow the government from disrupting an ISIL cell.

The US Senate voted against reining in the NSA’s spying powers tonight, shooting down a proposal that was supported not just by intelligence reform groups, but by the director of the NSA himself.

The USA Freedom Act needed 60 Senate votes to pass its key procedural vote, and it failed to get them. The bill got 58 yes votes and 42 no votes.

The bill would have stopped the government from engaging in bulk phone surveillance. Instead, Americans’ phone information would have remained with the phone companies and could only be searched by request, with specific selection terms.

It would have also provided for a privacy advocate at the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which approves such surveillance. Reformers hoped that would provide for a less one-sided debate at that court.

Congress Is Irrelevant on Mass Surveillance. Here’s What Matters Instead. – The Intercept

The “debate” among the Senators that preceded the vote was darkly funny and deeply boring, in equal measure. The black humor was due to the way one GOP senator after the next—led by ranking intelligence committee member Saxby Chambliss of Georgia (pictured above)—stood up and literally screeched about 9/11 and ISIS over and over and over, and then sat down as though they had made a point. Their scary script had been unveiled earlier that morning by a _Wall Street Journal _op-ed by former Bush Attorney General Mike Mukasey and former CIA and NSA Director Mike Hayden warning that NSA reform would make the terrorists kill you; it appeared under this Onion-like headline:

There is a real question about whether the defeat of this bill is good, bad, or irrelevant. To begin with, it sought to change only one small sliver of NSA mass surveillance (domestic bulk collection of phone records under section 215 of the Patriot Act) while leaving completely unchanged the primary means of NSA mass surveillance, which takes place under section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act, based on the lovely and quintessentially American theory that all that matters are the privacy rights of Americans (and not the 95 percent of the planet called “non-Americans”).

There were some mildly positive provisions in the USA Freedom Act: the placement of “public advocates” at the FISA court to contest the claims of the government; the prohibition on the NSA holding Americans’ phone records, requiring instead that they obtain FISA court approval before seeking specific records from the telecoms (which already hold those records for at least 18 months); and reducing the agency’s “contact chaining” analysis from three hops to two.

Net Neutrality

David Cameron Says People Aren’t Radicalized By Poverty Or Foreign Policy, But By Free Speech Online, So ISPs Agree To Censor Button | Techdirt

A few years ago, we mocked then Senator Joe Lieberman’s request that internet companies put “report this content as terrorist content” buttons on various types of online content. The plan went nowhere, because it’s a really bad idea, prone to massive abuse. Yet, over in the UK, some apparently think it’s such a grand idea that they’re actually moving forward with it. This isn’t a huge surprise — the current UK government has been going on for quite some time about banning “extremist” content, and just recently ramped up such efforts.

And now it appears that a bunch of big UK broadband access providers have agreed to play along:

The UK’s major Internet service providers — BT, Virgin, Sky and Talk Talk — have this week committed to host a public reporting button for terrorist material online, similar to the reporting button which allows the public to report child sexual exploitation.

They have also agreed to ensure that terrorist and extremist material is captured by their filters to prevent children and young people coming across radicalising material.

ISIS / ISIL / IS / CIA

ISIS: Baghdadi Is Alive and Saudi Arabia Is Our Next Target

After roughly a week of speculation over the fate of its leader, the Islamic State (ISIS) released what it says is a speech from Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi today in which the head of the makeshift caliphate calls for attacks against Saudi Arabia, among other things.

“There will be no security, no rest for Al-Salul,” the ISIS leader purportedly says, referring to the ruling family of Saudi Arabia. “Draw your swords.”

In the 16-minute speech, which ISIS also translated into English and made available online, Baghdadi allegedly calls on his followers to first attack Shiites, then proceed to combat Saudi Arabia and the U.S., which has military bases on the Arabian Peninsula.

Can Saudi Arabia keep ISIS out? – CBS News

The U.S. military said Monday coalition forces conducted more than 30 airstrikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) since Friday. That coalition includes Saudi Arabia.

The Saudis are desperate to keep what’s happening in Iraq from happening in their country. CBS News was given an extraordinary look at what they’re doing.

We flew over the Arabian Desert to see the new, 600-mile long border fence that’s protecting Saudi Arabia from ISIS. On the other side is the chaos of Iraq, where ISIS is waging a brutal war.

The Saudis are using radar and infrared cameras to make sure it doesn’t spill across the frontier.

Saudi Funding of ISIS – The Washington Institute for Near East Policy

Today, Saudi citizens continue to represent a significant funding source for Sunni groups operating in Syria. Arab Gulf donors as a whole — of which Saudis are believed to be the most charitable — have funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to Syria in recent years, including to ISIS and other groups. There is support for ISIS in Saudi Arabia, and the group directly targets Saudis with fundraising campaigns

Video: Who is Jihadi John? – in 60 seconds – Telegraph

“Jihadi John”, the masked Isil executioner and alleged British national,
known for his role in the beheadings of hostages by the Islamic State has
become one of the world’s most wanted men

Jihadi John – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Second French suspect in Isis beheading video – The Local

A second Frenchman who appeared among Islamic State jihadists in a grisly execution video has been identified as a 22-year-old man from an eastern suburb of Paris, a source close to the case said Wednesday.

President Francois Hollande earlier confirmed a second Frenchman was spotted in the video showing the beheading of Syrian prisoners, who the source said went by the name Abu Othman.

The two Frenchmen are seen in the brutal clip released by the IS group on Sunday which features the killing of 18 Syrian prisoners and a US aid worker.

High Note

First pot auction held in Washington state

History was made Saturday on a tiny farm outside Prosser. For the first time, marijuana was sold at an auction.

Those in the retail pot business say it’s a sign supply is slowly starting to meet demand.

Most of the U.S. could never do what Randy Williams and his Fireweed Farms pulled off – 500 pounds of pot were on sale.

Why Congress Probably Won’t Block Marijuana Legalization In Washington, D.C.

Initiative 71 cannot take effect until after D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson submits it to Congress for review, which he is expected to do when the new Congress is seated in January. “I will treat Initiative 71 in the same manner as I would any measure passed by the Council and transmit it to Congress without delay,” he said last week. Although Mayor-elect Bowser indicated that she would like to wait until the D.C. Council has approved legislation authorizing the licensing of commercial growers and retailers, the timing is up to Mendelson.

Once Mendelson submits the initiative, Congress has 30 legislative days to pass a resolution overriding it. If a resolution is not enacted by the end of that period, the initiative automatically becomes law. Getting a bill through both chambers in that amount of time will be a challenge, even with Republicans taking control of the Senate and expanding their majority in the House. And that’s assuming Republicans—who, as Rohrabacher noted, often talk about the virtues of federalism and local control—think nullifying a policy endorsed by 69 percent of D.C. voters should be one of their first acts in the new Congress.

“I think a resolution of disapproval is unlikely,” says Bill Piper, director of national affairs at the Drug Policy Alliance. “Overturning a ballot measure passed by 70 percent of the voters doesn’t really look good for the incoming Republican Congress. If the council transmits [the initiative] in January, I think that pretty much reduces or eliminates the chance that Congress will overturn it outright. It just doesn’t fit with what they’re talking about doing, which is rebranding themselves as not being obstructionists.”

The post Volcanoes of Jihad | Unfilter 123 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Shooting Close to Home | Unfilter 120

chris — Wed, 29 Oct 2014 19:29:36 +0000

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

We share our personal experiences from the school shooting that happened just a few doors down from our homes.

Then the FBI gets busted for impersonating the Seattle Times, and IT repair personnel to trap suspects, we have a new theory on how ISIS gets it’s ongoing funding, and the big lone wolf mess. Plus the tough talk from Putin that western media is totally ignoring.

Direct Download:

Video | MP3 Audio | OGG Audio | Torrent | YouTube

RSS Feeds:

Become an Unfilter supporter on Patreon:

— Show Notes —

News

FBI created fake Seattle Times Web page to nab bomb-threat suspect

The FBI in Seattle created a fake news story on a bogus Seattle Times web page to plant software in the computer of a suspect in a series of bomb threats to Lacey’s Timberline High School in 2007, according to documents obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) in San Francisco.

The deception was publicized Monday when Christopher Soghoian, the principal technologist for the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington, D.C., revealed it on Twitter.

The EFF documents reveal that the FBI dummied up a story with an Associated Press byline about the Thurston County bomb threats with an email link “in the style of The Seattle Times,” including details about subscriber and advertiser information.

The link was sent to the suspect’s MySpace account. When the suspect clicked on the link, the hidden FBI software sent his location and Internet Protocol information to the agents. A juvenile suspect was identified and arrested June 14.

The FBI Was So Hapless Hunting a Teen Kid, It Had To Pretend To Be from a Newspaper – The Intercept

Court filing: FBI impersonated repairmen in ruse

Submitted by: veritanuda

Federal agents turned off Internet access to three luxury villas at a Las Vegas hotel then impersonated repair technicians to surreptitiously get inside and collect evidence in an investigation of online sports betting, according to defense lawyers challenging the practice.

Feds identify suspected ‘second leaker’ for Snowden reporters

Headlined “Barack Obama’s Secret Terrorist-Tracking System, by the Numbers,” the story cited a classified government document showing that nearly half the people on the U.S. government’s master terrorist screening database had “no recognized terrorist affiliation.”

The story, co-authored by Jeremy Scahill and Ryan Devereaux, was accompanied by a document “obtained from a source in the intelligence community” providing details about the watch-listing system that were dated as late as August 2013, months after Snowden fled to Hong Kong and revealed himself as the leaker of thousands of top secret documents from the NSA.

This prompted immediate speculation that there was a “second leaker” inside the U.S. intelligence community providing material to Greenwald and his associates.

Marysville school shooter remembered along with victims

Among the balloons and flowers tied to the chain-link fence outside Marysville-Pilchuck High School are these: a white wrestling shoe; a youth football team photo, with one player encased in a red-marker heart; and a candle covered with a plastic cup bearing the name “Jaylen.”

They are all tributes to Jaylen Fryberg, the popular 15-year-old freshman who texted five friends to invite them to lunch Friday and then gunned them down at a table in the school’s cafeteria.

Two girls died in the attack, and three other students – including two of Fryberg’s cousins – were gravely wounded. Fryberg died after shooting himself.

US ends ban on ‘domestic propaganda’ — RT USA

The Smith-Mundt Act has ensured for decades that government-made media intended for foreign audiences doesn’t end up on radio networks broadcast within the US. An amendment tagged onto the National Defense Authorization Act removed that prohibition this year

The longstanding federal law made it illegal for the US Department of State to share domestically the internally-authored news stories sent to American-operated
outlets broadcasting around the globe. All of that changed effective July 2, when the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) was given permission to let US households tune-in to hear the
type of programming that has previously only been allowed in outside nations.

ISIS / ISIL

John Cantlie appears in another ISIS propaganda video | Daily Mail Online

A fifth video depicting British photojournalist John Cantlie has emerged

The 43-year-old was taken hostage in Syria while working last year

He claims prisoner life ‘was not bad’ and that captives ‘played games’

Captives were water-boarded ‘if they did something they shouldn’t have’

Series of videos titled ‘Messages from the British detainee’ released by ISIS

How Afghan poppies become heroin

But most opium appears to be purchased directly from the farmers by buyers and dealers. In a range of complex credit agreements based on advance-sale of opium harvests, many farmers are already committed to particular dealers and merchants by the time they accumulate their yield.

Then the opium enters the black market. A merchant or broker buys the packages for transport to a morphine ‘refinery’. According to author Alfred W. McCoy in ‘The Politics of Heroin’, most traffickers do their morphine refining close to the poppy fields, since compact morphine bricks are much easier to smuggle than bundles of pungent, jelly-like opium. At the refinery, which may be little more than a small house or shack equipped with oil drums, the opium is mixed with lime in boiling water. A white band of morphine forms on the surface, while a precipitate of organic waste sinks to the bottom. The morphine is drawn off, reheated with ammonia, filtered and boiled again until it is reduced to a brown paste. Poured into moulds and dried in the sun, it is now morphine base. Morphine base can be smoked in a pipe or is ready for further processing into heroin.

Allegations of CIA drug trafficking – CIA and Kuomintang opium smuggling operations

CIA and Kuomintang opium smuggling operations[edit]

In order to provide covert funds for the Kuomintang (KMT) forces loyal to General Chiang Kai-shek, who were fighting the Chinese communists under Mao Zedong, the CIA helped the KMT smuggle opium from China and Burma to Bangkok, Thailand, by providing airplanes owned by one of their front businesses, Air America.

KMT general Sun Li Ren took charge of these forces, which controlled a region in between Burma and Thailand, but were eventually forced out of the area. The CIA later pressured Sun Li Ren to undertake a coup d’état in Taiwan against Chiang Kai-shek, but was discovered and placed under house arrest by Chiang’s son, Chiang Ching-kuo

Central Intelligence Agency Drug Trafficking

Research by Dr. Alfred W. McCoy, Gary Webb, and others has pointed to CIA involvement in narcotics trafficking across the globe, although the CIA officially denies such allegations.[172][173] During the Cold War, when numerous soldiers participated in transport of Southeast Asian heroin to the United States by the airline Air America[_citation needed_], the CIA’s role in such traffic was reportedly rationalized as “recapture” of related profits to prevent possible enemy control of such assets.

CIA Jet Crashed With 4 Tons Of Cocaine On Board

A Gulfstream II jet, aircraft # N987SA, allegedly used to transport Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) rendition prisoners from Europe and America to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba crash-landed Sept. 24, 2007 in Mexico carrying a cargo of over four tons of cocaine. It is suspected the Gulfstream jet ran out of fuel as it traveled from Colombia to the United States.

The Consequences Of America’s Invasion Of Afghanistan: NYC Heroin Deaths Highest In A Decade | Zero Hedge

While back in May Obama promised America’s mission in Afghanistan was over, and all US troops would leave the country by the end of 2016, the “unintended” consequences of the US presence in this favored by al-Qaeda country will haunt America for a long time. And especially New York, where according to a new report by the Department of Mental Hygiene, the number of people who died from unintentional heroin overdoses in New York City last year was the highest in over a decade.

COLD WAR

Putin accuses U.S. of damaging world order | Video | Reuters.com

Russian President Vladimir Putin accuses the U.S. of making the world a more dangerous place by imposing a ”unilateral diktat” in international diplomacy.

High Note

2014 “Marijuana Midterms” to Establish 2016 as Most Crucial Year for Cannabis in America

Voters in Oregon, Alaska, and the District of Columbia will weigh in on whether their states should become second wave legalizers, with each confronting slightly different choices.

So, what can we expect at the ballot boxes next week? Polling suggests a real chance that all three proposals may pass, with Oregon and D.C. quite likely. Such moves come in the midst of political elites and the public at large slowly changing their orientation on the issue.

In both states and the District, legalizers are better funded than opponents. That monetary advantage and a sense of momentum created by Colorado and Washington’s experiences favors legalization. But the nature of midterm electorates, which tend to be older, more Republican, and more traditionally conservative, makes legalization a heavier political lift than in a Presidential election year. Looking at it a different way, as Hudak did in August, causation might also run in the opposite direction: marijuana legalization may help Democratic candidates in an otherwise poor year, with potentially enormous results through the Alaska Senate race.

In the end, regardless of what voters in Oregon, Alaska, and the District of Columbia decide on November 4th, we can expect the legalization movement to expand and for 2016 to be the most crucial year for cannabis in the United States.

The post Shooting Close to Home | Unfilter 120 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Weapons of Mass Encryption | Unfilter 119

chris — Wed, 22 Oct 2014 19:18:05 +0000

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

We open the show with the breaking news of gunfire in Ottawa. Then discuss the role of falling oil prices in the new cold war, where ISIS gets their trucks from, teen girls on the run to join ISIS.

Plus some words of sanity about Ebola from Fox new, the local scare thats too ridiculous to believe & more!

Direct Download:

Video | MP3 Audio | OGG Audio | Torrent | YouTube

RSS Feeds:

Become an Unfilter supporter on Patreon:

— Show Notes —

News

Gunman opens fire at Canadian Parliament – Salon.com

Submitted by: beyere5398

A gunman shot a Canadian soldier standing guard at the National War Memorial in Ottawa on Wednesday, then entered Parliament and shots rang out, police and witnesses said.

People fled Parliament by scrambling down scaffolding erected for renovations, witnesses told the Canadian Press news agency. Others were in lockdown.

Video shot by a reporter for the Globe and Mail showed police officers walking slowly through Parliament toward the entrance with weapons drawn. The sound of a gunshot ran out, followed by the sounds of multiple shots.

Canada, At War For 13 Years, Shocked That ‘A Terrorist’ Attacked Its Soldiers – The Intercept

The right-wing Canadian government wasted no time in seizing on the incident to promote its fear-mongering agenda over terrorism, which includes pending legislation to vest its intelligence agency, CSIS, with more spying and secrecy powers in the name of fighting ISIS. A government spokesperson asserted “clear indications” that the driver “had become radicalized.”

Ottawa Shooter Idenfified

Errata Security: FBI’s crypto doublethink

Submitted by: jah_314159

Recently, FBI Director James Comey gave a speech at the Brookings Institute decrying crypto. It was transparently Orwellian, arguing for a police-state. In this post, I’ll demonstrate why, quoting bits of the speech.

James Comey, F.B.I. Director, Hints at Action as Cellphone Data Is Locked – NYTimes.com

Mr. Comey did not specify what kind of technological fix he wanted, other than to say that if the companies built one into their software, it would be far easier to assure that it was not exploited by others. But he also said that “we may get to a place where the U.S. Congress forces this” on American manufacturers.

Parallel Construction: How the NSA and Police Have Rigged the Legal System

Submitted by: veritanuda

When information is obtained by the NSA in a manner that would not be legally admissible in a criminal case, the DOJ or DEA comes up with a story as to how the information was obtained that omits the fact that it came from the NSA domestic spying program.

Government attorneys understand that if evidence is obtained in an unconstitutional manner the evidence will be inadmissible in court and useless to the prosecution. In legal speak this is called “fruit from the poisonous tree.” Evidence presented in a prosecution must be obtained through constitutional means, if not then law enforcement would be able to simply beat a confession out of a suspect and use it against them or search a home without any warrant because they suspect you of doing something illegal.

So to maintain the facade of legality, uphold the appearance of not using domestic spying for criminal cases and to keep non-FISA judges in the dark as to how evidence has been obtained unconstitutionally, the feds began to use parallel construction.

This entails creating a false beginning to where evidence came from. The act of doing so is completely illegal, as it creates a situation where the person being prosecuted is not given a full discovery of evidence to be used against him, but rather is given only what the government would like the court to know. It puts anyone being prosecuted at a disadvantage to challenge the evidence being presented against them.

US ends ban on ‘domestic propaganda’ — RT USA

The Smith-Mundt Act has ensured for decades that government-made media intended for foreign audiences doesn’t end up on radio networks broadcast within the US. An amendment tagged onto the National Defense Authorization Act removed that prohibition this year

The longstanding federal law made it illegal for the US Department of State to share domestically the internally-authored news stories sent to American-operated
outlets broadcasting around the globe. All of that changed effective July 2, when the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) was given permission to let US households tune-in to hear the
type of programming that has previously only been allowed in outside nations.

OIL

Russia’s Economy Stalls Amid Western Sanctions, Oil Price Drop – WSJ – WSJ

Russia’s economy—battered by Western sanctions and falling prices for oil, its main export—stalled in September even as inflation hit the highest levels in months, data showed Wednesday.

The outlook appears dim, because officials said the surge in inflation is likely to force the central bank to further increase interest rates in the coming months. The inflation was fueled in part by Moscow’s move in August to ban food imports from Western countries that had imposed sanctions on Russia.

The ruble, meanwhile, has slipped to record lows against the dollar and euro in recent weeks amid concerns about geopolitical tensions and falling oil prices.

Oil Prices Are Hurting Russia’s Economy – Businessweek

Oil prices, not Western sanctions, are what’s driving the currency’s sharp decline, analysts say. “The value of the ruble stayed relatively calm through the summer, even as sanctions were being ratcheted up,” Chris Weafer of Moscow consultancy Macro Advisory wrote in the Moscow Times. “Since early August, the ruble has fallen 9 percent against the dollar-euro basket, almost exactly mirroring the 8 percent decline in the price of crude oil over the same period.” The ruble, he said, “is behaving as a petro-currency.”

Ebola

U.S. to Monitor Travelers From Ebola-Hit Nations for 21 Days – NYTimes.com

Beginning next Monday, under new rules issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, all travelers who have visited Guinea, Sierra Leone or Liberia — and, presumably, any other country in which outbreaks might occur — will be required to provide home and email addresses, telephone numbers and other contact details for themselves and for at least one friend or relative.

Once a day for the next 21 days, they will have to check in with their state or local health department and report their morning and evening temperatures and list any other symptoms, such as nausea or diarrhea.

State and local health departments will be required to have plans for finding and potentially detaining anyone who fails to check in.

What the world thinks of the American Ebola panic – The Washington Post

The American panic about Ebola hasn’t made headlines just in the United States. It’s also gotten attention abroad — and many foreign broadcasters and newspapers have criticized the American reaction in harsh terms.

ISIS / ISIL

Group claims ISIS flying fighter jets over Aleppo in Syria – CBS News

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a U.K.-based organization which relies on an extensive network of sources and activists inside Syria, claims defected Iraqi military officers are teaching members of the terror group how to fly three commandeered fighter jets.

warplanes under the hands of the islamic state | Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

Turkish jets bombard Kurdish positions | World news | The Guardian

Turkish fighter jets have bombarded Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) positions in south-eastern Turkey for the first time since the start of the peace process between the outlawed group and the Turkish government in 2012.

The attacks on the PKK came in the wake of violent clashes last week between Kurdish factions and security forces in several Turkish cities, as anger grows over perceived government inaction against the Islamic State (Isis) attack on the Kurdish town of Kobani in Syria.

ISIS Siege Ain Asad Air Base In Anbar – Business Insider

Should ISIS manage to take the Ain Asad Air base, the group would likely seize a trove of weaponry and munitions. In August, ISIS took control of Syria’s Taqba Air Base, and looted SA-16 man-portable air defense systems, Sidewinder missiles, and even MiG-21B fighter jets, which former Iraqi pilots are now reportedly training the jihadists to fly.

3 girls skipped school to sneak off and join ISIS – CNN.com

German authorities intercepted the trio, ages 15, 16 and 17, at Frankfurt airport and put them on a plane back to the United States, where they were greeted by FBI agents.

The three girls were questioned and released. Two U.S. officials say they had planned to join militants with ISIS, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

And this week, a video turned up of a 17-year-old Australian boy standing with ISIS fighters and threatening to behead Western leaders, including President Obama, then fly the ISIS flag over the White House.

ISIS has, for an anti-Western organization, been surprisingly attractive to young recruits from the West, as well as to some young women.

More than 100 of the foreign fighters have come from the United States, according to intelligence estimates; hundreds more from Europe, which is geographically closer to the fight.

Every week, five more people from the UK alone join ISIS, a British police commissioner said Tuesday. And that’s a conservative estimate.

“We know that over 500 British nationals traveled to join the conflict,” said Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe from the Metropolitan Police.

“Five a week doesn’t sound much, but when you realize there are 50 weeks in a year, 250 more would be 50% more than we think have gone already,” he said.

This one Toyota pickup truck is at the top of the shopping list for the Free Syrian Army — and the Taliban

Recently, when the US State Department resumed sending non-lethal aid to Syrian rebels, the delivery list included 43 Toyota trucks.

High Note

War on marijuana unconstitutional, doctors testify in federal court Monday

Doctors Carl Hart, Associate Professor of Psychology at Columbia University, retired physician Phillip Denny, and Greg Carter, Medical Director of St. Luke’s Rehabilitation Institute in Spokane, Washington will testify Monday that marijuana — real name, “cannabis” — is not the demon drug the federal government makes it out to be. Accepted science does not justify the listing of cannabis as a dangerous “Schedule I” substance, many say.

This is an unprecedented hearing, writes cannabis law reform advocate Paul Armentano, deputy director of NORML.

“This is the first time in recent memory that a federal judge has granted an evidentiary hearing on a motion challenging the statute which classifies cannabis to be one of the most dangerous illicit substances in the nation.”

Beware of ‘Halloweed’ on Halloween | Local & Regional | Seattle News, Weather, Sports, Breaking News | KOMO News

Colorful cannabis-laced candies now come in a Halloween assortment. There are bags of sugary spiders, and edible orange pumpkins. Corn syrup isn’t the ingredient that has parents on the lookout — it’s the 250 mg of THC.

John Davis is the CEO of Northwest Patient Resource Center in West Seattle where there’s a wide assortment of gummy edibles infused with cannabis for adult medicinal use.

“I think that the concern some people have is will these type products end up in a child’s Halloween bag,” said Davis.

A doctor’s recommendation is required to swallow the sweets but the legalization of marijuana prompted Denver Police to post a Facebook warning about “Halloweed.”

Davis echoed the warnings to make sure candy comes in sealed packages. He urges parents to read all the labels for THC content.

“If your child brings home something that says keep away from children, do that,” said Davis.

Seattle police advise screening treats and tossing unwrapped candies but say they are more worried about cars than candy on Halloween.

The post Weapons of Mass Encryption | Unfilter 119 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Watchlist of Terror | Unfilter 109

chris — Wed, 06 Aug 2014 19:57:05 +0000

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

The Intercept has published Obama’s secret terrorist tracking system, by the numbers. We dig in. The CIA and the Senate are still fighting over the torture report.

Then we’ll examine the new groundwork for the new Cold War, and the ridiculous reactions Colorado’s neighbor states are having to Cannabis legalization.

Direct Download:

Video | MP3 Audio | OGG Audio | Torrent | YouTube

RSS Feeds:

Become an Unfilter supporter on Patreon:

— Show Notes —

— The Slow Death of Privacy —

Barack Obama’s Secret Terrorist-Tracking System, by the Numbers

Of the 680,000 people caught up in the government’s Terrorist Screening Database—a watchlist of “known or suspected terrorists” that is shared with local law enforcement agencies, private contractors, and foreign governments—more than 40 percent are described by the government as having “no recognized terrorist group affiliation.” That category—280,000 people—dwarfs the number of watchlisted people suspected of ties to al Qaeda, Hamas, and Hezbollah combined.

The documents, obtained from a source in the intelligence community, also reveal that the Obama Administration has presided over an unprecedented expansion of the terrorist screening system. Since taking office, Obama has boosted the number of people on the no fly list more than ten-fold, to an all-time high of 47,000—surpassing the number of people barred from flying under George W. Bush.

“If everything is terrorism, then nothing is terrorism,” says David Gomez, a former senior FBI special agent. The watchlisting system, he adds, is “revving out of control.”

• The second-highest concentration of people designated as “known or suspected terrorists” by the government is in Dearborn, Mich.—a city of 96,000 that has the largest percentage of Arab-American residents in the country.

• The government adds names to its databases, or adds information on existing subjects, at a rate of 900 records each day.

• The CIA uses a previously unknown program, code-named Hydra, to secretly access databases maintained by foreign countries and extract data to add to the watchlists.

State Dept. ‘Torture Talking Points’ Reveal White House PR Machine Ahead of Senate Report

A State Department document obtained by the Associated Press reveals part of the Obama administration’s attempt to ready its public relations response to an upcoming Senate report on the CIA’s torture program.

The document details some of the administration’s prepared talking points to be used once a White House-approved version of the report is released.

Reportedly sent by accident via email to the AP, the State Department memo describes the report as a demonstration of American democracy, rather than as an indictment of the CIA’s torture practices. The document states that “no American is proud” of the CIA’s tactics, but that “the story” of illegal, indefinite torture and imprisonment is part of a larger message, one in which “America’s democratic system worked just as it was designed to work in bringing an end to actions inconsistent with our democratic values.” That story, the document proclaims, is one in which Americans can take pride.

The document contains a few subtle errors in its dates and phrasing. At one point, it claims that the “interrogation methods were debated in our free media, challenged in our independent courts, and, just two years after their introduction, restricted by an act of our Congress sponsored by Senator John McCain and overwhelmingly backed by members of both of our political parties.”

As investigative journalist Marcy Wheeler notes, that “act of Congress” likely refers to the Detainee Treatment Act — but that legislation was passed in 2005, almost four years after the launch of the CIA’s Retention, Detention, and Interrogation (RDI) program, not two. In addition, the RDI program has rarely been “challenged in independent courts,” as both President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama regularly prevented the details of the program from coming to light by invoking the “state secrets privilege,” a rule which allows governments to hold back evidence in a legal case by claiming that disclosing the information might endanger national security.

Report: Israel tapped John Kerry’s phone when he was brokering peace talks

Israeli intelligence intercepted phone calls of US Secretary of State John Kerry while he was trying to broker a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinian Authority earlier this year, German news magazine _Der Spiegel _reported on Sunday.

The report was confirmed by several sources in the intelligence community, according to Der Spiegel.

Both Israel and Russia Shared Kerry’s Intercepted Phone Calls Tikun-Olam Tikun Olam-תיקון עולם

Yesterday’s report, originating in Der Spiegel that Israel intercepted the telecommunications of Secretary of State John Kerry when he was in flight to the Middle East has just become a much bigger story. The reporter noted that there were two countries who eavesdropped on Kerry. But he didn’t say which country it was.

My highly-placed Israeli source tells me that the identity of that country is Russia.

While Kerry’s position on the Israel-Palestine peace talks was Israel’s number one priority, Russia’s number one priority was to learn the U.S. plans and position regarding the Ukrainian separatist movement and Russia’s involvement with it. My source had this to say:

…It’s a “fruitful ongoing joint venture” initiated by Lieberman thanks to his Moscow connections. Israel provides Russia with recordings of intercepted calls Kerry makes flying over the Middle East, and Russia provides Israel with recordings of calls he makes flying over Central Asia, the Far East & the Pacific Ocean.

The source notes this “joint venture” became extremely important for Moscow since last February — because of the Ukrainian crisis.

In this way, the spying collaboration has been fruitful for both sides.

New leaker disclosing US secrets, government concludes

Proof of the newest leak comes from national security documents that formed the basis of a news story published Tuesday by the Intercept, the news site launched by Glenn Greenwald, who also published Snowden’s leaks.

— Thanks for Supporting Unfilter —

Become an Unfilter supporter on Patreon

Thanks to our 314 patrons
3 Slots at the SWAG pledge level have opened.
Supporter perk: Downloadable Pre and Post show. Extra clips, music, hijinks, and off the cuff comments. The ultimate Unfiltered experience. ‘
Supporter perk: Exclusive BitTorrent Sync share of our production and non-production clips, notes, and more since the NSA scandal broke in episode 54. The ultimate Unfiltered experience, just got more ultimate.
Supporter Perk: Past 5 supporters shows, in a dedicated bittorrent sync folder.

— Cold War 2.0 —

Putin Urges Economic Retaliation for Sanctions Over Ukraine Conflict – NYTimes.com

Mr. Putin said that Russia should signal that it finds the economic sanctions offensive, but that it should do so without harming Russian consumers.

“The political tools of economic pressure are unacceptable and run counter to all norms and rules,” he was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.

Unintended consequences: Sanctions on Russia hurt US dollar dominance — RT USA

The US dollar, the dominant global currency since 1944, may lose some of its luster due to the American-led sanctions against Russia over the turmoil in Ukraine. The greenback has been fading in favor since the global financial crisis in 2008.

The US-led sanctions against Russia may have backfired on the US
because it threatens to “hasten a move away from the dollar
that’s been stirring since the global financial crisis [in
2008],” Rachel Evans at Bloomberg wrote. In an unexpected turn of events, Hong Kong’s
central bank has bought more than $9.5 billion since the start of
July “to prevent its currency from rallying as the sanctions
stoked speculation of an influx of Russian cash,” she noted.

Germany Blocks the Delivery of Military Parts to Russia – NYTimes.com

A spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Berlin would be open to expanding the existing European Union sanctions to include already signed deals. “The European Council decided what it decided,” the spokesman, Georg Streiter, told reporters on Monday.

The decision to halt the deal, estimated by the Economics Ministry to be worth 123 million euros, or about $165 million, will also put the German government under increased pressure from the country’s powerful industrial sector, which has warned that economic sanctions against Russia will hamper growth and increase unemployment.

Vladimir Putin signs historic $20bn oil deal with Iran to bypass Western sanctions

Vladimir Putin has agreed a $20bn (£11.8bn) trade deal with Iran that will see
Russia sidestep Western sanctions on its energy sector.

Under the terms of a five-year accord, Russia will help Iran organise oil
sales as well as “cooperate in the oil-gas industry, construction of power
plants, grids, supply of machinery, consumer goods and agriculture
products”, according to a statement by the Energy Ministry in Moscow.

The move is a win-win for both nations after they were hit with Western sanctions aimed at limiting their energy sectors.

Russia, India to ink $40 bn gas deal

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are expected to announce a massive natural gas deal during their summit later this year, Indian media reports said Monday.

Russian and Indian officials are negotiating a $40 billion gas pipeline project from Russia to India, oil ministry officials told Indian daily Hindustan Times.

Russia will also supply 46 million tonnes of oil to China each year in the next 25 years, according to recent deals signed by President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

Even as the US and EU try to isolate Russia on the Ukraine issue, Beijing and other BRICS capitals have been cementing their business ties with Moscow.

— Weed Wackers —

Since marijuana legalization, highway fatalities in Colorado are at near-historic lows – The Washington Post

Since the new Colorado law took effect in January, the “drugged driver” panic has only intensified.I’ve already written about one dubious example, in which the Colorado Highway Patrol and some local and national media perpetuated a story that a driver was high on pot when he slammed into a couple of police cars parked on an interstate exit ramp. While the driver did have some pot in his system, his blood-alcohol level was off the charts and was far more likely the cause of the accident.

As you can see, roadway fatalities this year are down from last year, and down from the 13-year average. Of the seven months so far this year, five months saw a lower fatality figure this year than last.

What’s notable here is that the totals so far in 2014 are closer to the safest composite year since 2002 than to the average year since 2002. I should also add here that these are total fatalities.

Secure Ways to Contact the Show:

Chris Fisher (chrislas) | Keybase
Chase Nunes (chase) | Keybase
Secure Rig Public Key
Bitmessage: BM-2cWRitZG3LdjgV4AjZL4Lk6aiA97VonpAu

Follow the Us:

Call us: 1.425.312.1756

If you’re a Supporter check Patreon for this episodes supporter exclusives!

The post Watchlist of Terror | Unfilter 109 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

The Truth of MH17 | Unfilter 107

chris — Fri, 25 Jul 2014 21:04:09 +0000

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

We cover the facts and events around the downed MH17 flight as we now know them. Then we’ll dig into some of the credible and troubling indications and motivations possibly behind the tragedy.

Plus the secret government rule book for deciding who goes on the terrorist list, and why Washington is bringing in the Feds to crack down on the new “Cannabis meth”.

Direct Download:

Video | MP3 Audio | OGG Audio | Torrent | YouTube

RSS Feeds:

Become an Unfilter supporter on Patreon:

— Show Notes —

The Slow Death of Privacy

Blacklisted: The Secret Government Rulebook For Labeling You a TerroristThe Intercept

The Obama administration has quietly approved a substantial expansion of the terrorist watchlist system, authorizing a secret process that requires neither “concrete facts” nor “irrefutable evidence” to designate an American or foreigner as a terrorist, according to a key government document obtained by The Intercept.

“Instead of a watchlist limited to actual, known terrorists, the government has built a vast system based on the unproven and flawed premise that it can predict if a person will commit a terrorist act in the future,” says Hina Shamsi, the head of the ACLU’s National Security Project. “On that dangerous theory, the government is secretly blacklisting people as suspected terrorists and giving them the impossible task of proving themselves innocent of a threat they haven’t carried out.” Shamsi, who reviewed the document, added, “These criteria should never have been kept secret.”

— MH17 The Crash —

MH17 disaster: few hard facts so far

As mourning continues for the 298 people killed in the Malaysia Airlines crash in Ukraine, few hard facts about the disaster’s causes are available. DW reviews the past week’s mix of sketchy details and speculation.

Recently published photographs show a piece of fuselage from the Malaysia Airlines plane peppered with “a fairly dense but also widespread shrapnel pattern” typical for a blast from an SA-11 surface-to-air missile, said defense analyst Justin Bronk, a military science analyst at the Royal United Services Institute in London.
“The shrapnel damage on the airframe parts that’s been seen so far is consistent with what you would expect to see from an SA-11 warhead exploding in close proximity,” Bronk told AFP. “But to get a conclusive answer, you would have to take the aircraft away and completely reconstruct it as best as you could.”

The boxes – which are actually orange – were handed over by the OVV to the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) in Farnborough, UK, for examination. **On Wednesday, AAIB experts downloaded “valid data” from the first black box, the cockpit voice recorder, which is expected to give them hours of the pilots’ conversations. **Investigators have now started examining the second black box, the flight data recorder.

Satellites Track Malaysian Airlines MH17 Crash Site from Space (Images)

The images show a charred wheat field close to the village of Grabovo where the bulk of the plane went down. But the wreckage of the crash, which killed all 298 people on board, was strewn across about 13 square miles (33 square kilometers) of farmland. The Earth-observing satellites could not capture the images until Sunday (July 20) since smoke from the wreckage and cloud cover initially blocked the view.

The bird’s-eye view of the site was imaged by DigitalGlobe, a company based in Colorado that programmed three of its five satellites to track the area after reports of the plane crash came flooding in. [See the top images from the DigitalGlobe contest in 2013]

Video: MH17: SA-11 Buk missile system facts

What you need to know about the surface-to-air missile system known as the
SA-11 or Buk, which is believed to have shot down the MH17 flight.

“We know that very shortly (after the crash), separatists were bragging in the social media about having shot down a transport plane”| PolitiFact

The Internet Archives website shows that a post appeared on Strelkov’s social media profile bragging about shooting down a transport plane close to the MH 17 crash site. In a subsequent post, Strelkov said the information passed along came not from him directly, but from militia members on the scene. He said the information was unofficial and incorrect.

— Thanks for Supporting Unfilter —

Become an Unfilter supporter on Patreon

Thanks to our 294 patrons
5 Slots at the SWAG pledge level have opened.
Supporter perk: Downloadable Pre and Post show. Extra clips, music, hijinks, and off the cuff comments. The ultimate Unfiltered experience. ‘
Supporter perk: Exclusive BitTorrent Sync share of our production and non-production clips, notes, and more since the NSA scandal broke in episode 54. The ultimate Unfiltered experience, just got more ultimate.
Supporter Perk: Past 5 supporters shows, in a dedicated bittorrent sync folder.

— MH17 The Bacon —

South Stream

Route

South Stream’s offshore section with the total length of 930 kilometers will run under the Black Sea through the exclusive economic zones of Russia, Bulgaria and Turkey. The maximum depth will be more than two kilometers and the design capacity will amount to 63 billion cubic meters.

The onshore section will cross Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary and Slovenia. The gas pipeline will end at the Tarvisio gas metering station in Italy. Gas branches from the main pipeline route will be built to Croatia and to Republika Srpska (the state formation within Bosnia and Herzegovina).

In order to feed the required amount of gas into the South Stream gas pipeline, Russia’s gas transmission system will be expanded by means of constructing the additional 2,506.2 kilometers of linepipe and 10 compressor stations with the total capacity of 1,516 MW. This project has been named Southern Corridor and will be implemented in two phases before 2018.

Russia sues EU over its ‘Third Energy Package’

Russia has sued the EU to the World Trade Organization (WTO) over the EU’s so-called “Third Energy Package”, a source said to RIA Novosti. The Third Energy Package stipulates that pipe lines on the territory of the EU can’t belong to that companies that extract the natural gas. These companies should either sell their shares in the EU or pass the management of the pipe lines to independent companies.

The Netherlands was a mailbox paradise for Russia

The Netherlands is a true paradise for mailboxes Russia at the Amsterdam Zuidas are many Russian billions parked. Not only for tax reasons, but also the legal climate in the Netherlands protects – often obscure – Russian companies against the wrath of Putin.

It is perhaps not obvious, but the Netherlands is the second largest investor in Russia. Netherlands in 2012 accounted for over 12 percent of all investments and 15.9 percent of all investments from Russia. Only the smaller Cyprus scored higher. In third place graced the smaller British Virgin Islands.

Lukoil, the second largest Russian company, for example, has been sitting 59 subsidiaries in the Netherlands. A Dutch holding company owns all of its European operations. End of 2013 the company had 15.9 billion in assets.

Sanctions Victim Novatek, Russia’s second largest gas producer, has 800 million euros in a Dutch company called Arctic Russia BV sit. And that’s not all.

Perhaps the most notable name on the U.S. sanctions list was Genaddy Timchenko, founder of one of the world’s largest commodity traders Gunvor.

Since 2010 the company has, in contradiction with the law, all financial statements filed no more. In that year, the company had $ 59 billion in revenues and paraded there are 7 billion of assets on its balance sheet.
In short, Russia, the Netherlands is a true paradise mailboxes.

Pushing Ukraine to the Brink » CounterPunch

BY MIKE WHITNEY on July 9th 2014

In Ukraine, the US is using a divide and conquer strategy to pit the EU against trading partner Moscow. The State Department and CIA helped to topple Ukraine’s elected President Viktor Yanukovych and install a US stooge in Kiev who was ordered to cut off the flow of Russian gas to the EU and lure Putin into a protracted guerilla war in Ukraine. The bigwigs in Washington figured that, with some provocation, Putin would react the same way he did when Georgia invaded South Ossetia in 2006. But, so far, Putin has resisted the temptation.

But here’s the odd part: Washington doesn’t have a back-up plan. It’s obvious by the way Poroshenko keeps doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. That demonstrates that there’s no Plan B. Either Poroshenko lures Putin across the border and into the conflict, or the neocon plan falls apart, which it will if they can’t demonize Putin as a “dangerous aggressor” who can’t be trusted as a business partner.

So all Putin has to do is sit-tight and he wins, mainly because the EU needs Moscow’s gas. If energy supplies are terminated or drastically reduced, prices will rise, the EU will slide back into recession, and Washington will take the blame. So Washington has a very small window to draw Putin into the fray, which is why we should expect another false flag incident on a much larger scale than the fire in Odessa. Washington is going to have to do something really big and make it look like it was Moscow’s doing. Otherwise, their pivot plan is going to hit a brick wall.**

“Ukraine’s Parliament adopted .. a bill under which up to 49% of the country’s gas pipeline network could be sold to foreign investors. This could pave the way for US or EU companies, which have eyed Ukrainian gas transportation system over the last months.

US corporations will be able to buy up nearly half of a pipeline that moves 60 percent of the gas that flows from Russia to Europe. That’s what you call a tollbooth, my friend; and US companies will be in just the right spot to gouge Moscow for every drop of natural gas that transits those pipelines. And gouge they will too, you can bet on it.

This also explains why the Obama crowd is trying to torpedo Russia’s other big pipeline project called Southstream. Southstream is a good deal for Europe and Russia. On the one hand, it would greatly enhance the EU’s energy security, and on the other, it will provide needed revenues for Russia so they can continue to modernize, upgrade their dilapidated infrastructure, and improve standards of living. But “the proposed pipeline (which) would snake about 2,400 kilometers, or roughly 1,500 miles, from southern Russia via the Black Sea to Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary and ultimately Austria. (and) could handle about 60 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year, enough to allow Russian exports to Europe to largely bypass Ukraine” (New York Times) The proposed pipeline further undermines Washington’s pivot strategy, so Obama, the State Department and powerful US senators (Ron Johnson, John McCain, and Chris Murphy) are doing everything in their power to torpedo the project.

“What gives Vladimir Putin his power and control is his oil and gas reserves and West and Eastern Europe’s dependence on them,” Senator Johnson said in an interview. “We need to break up his stranglehold on energy supplies. We need to bust up that monopoly.” (New York Times)

Russia only provides 30 percent of the gas the EU uses every year.

[The US] believe that if they sabotage South stream and nail down 49 percent ownership of Ukraine’s pipeline infrastructure, then the vast majority of Russian gas will have to flow through Ukrainian pipelines. They think that this will give them greater control over Moscow.

Europe and Russia are a perfect fit. Europe needs gas to heat its homes and run its machinery. Russia has gas to sell and needs the money to strengthen its economy. It’s a win-win situation. What Europe and Russia don’t need is the United States. In fact, the US is the problem.

Waging war against Russia, one pipeline at a time

As many commentators have noted, Russia provides upwards of one
third of Europe’s gas imports, with 60-80 percent of that supply
traveling through pipelines on the territory of Ukraine.

Ukrainian Su-25 fighter detected in close approach to MH17 before crash

The Russian military detected a Ukrainian SU-25 fighter jet gaining height towards the MH17 Boeing on the day of the catastrophe.

“A Ukraine Air Force military jet was detected gaining
height, it’s distance from the Malaysian Boeing was 3 to
5km,” said the head of the Main Operations Directorate of
the HQ of Russia’s military forces, Lieutenant-General Andrey
Kartopolov speaking at a media conference in Moscow on Monday.

“[We] would like to get an explanation as to why the military
jet was flying along a civil aviation corridor at almost the same
time and at the same level as a passenger plane,” he stated.

Ukraine fighter jet flew close to Malaysian plane before crash, says Russian Defense Ministry #MH17 pic.twitter.com/g7ktU7ZGJ3

— Paul Gypteau (@paulgypteau) July 21, 2014

2 Ukrainian fighters seen following Malaysian jet minutes before crash

According to the Spanish air traffic controller, two Ukrainian fighters had been seen near the Malaysian jet three minutes before it disappeared from radars.

This information is confirmed by eyewitnesses in the Donetsk region who saw Ukrainian warplanes near the passenger jet. They say they heard sounds of powerful blasts and saw a Ukraine warplane shortly before the crash.

Air Traffic Control: Radar interference by NATO maneuvers – SPIEGEL ONLINE

Twice disappeared in June several machines from the radar of air traffic control in Germany and neighboring countries. Now came out: Military maneuvers of NATO were apparently the cause.

So far puzzled experts about the quite dangerous disruption in air traffic control. So lost ground controllers of air traffic on 5 June from 13.55 bis 16 clock five on 10 June from 13.22 bis 14.40 clock, the so-called secondary signal from a total of 54 transport planes in southern Germany.

The air traffic controllers on the ground immediately hit the alarm about the disorder. Immediately the number of aircraft, As a security, the density of air traffic, so in the airspace, reduced to prevent possible collisions. Due to the security measure created with the airlines delays of around 40 hours.

‘Every single day we’re lying’: Russia Today reporter resigns over coverage of Malaysia Airlines MH17 crash

Sara Firth, who has worked for the state-backed TV network since 2009, said station management suggested Ukraine was at fault for the deadly Thursday crash. ‘I didn’t want to watch a story like that, where people have lost loved ones and we’re handling it like that,’ she said

EU discuss punishing Putin following MH17 crash

The EU’s foreign ministers have met to discuss new sanctions on Russia following the destruction of the MH17 passenger plane. Only the Netherlands – of all nations – has been delaying proceedings.

Air India flight was 90 seconds away when missile struck Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17

An Air India Dreamliner flight going from Delhi to Birmingham was in fact less than 25km away from the Malaysian aircraft, a distance covered by a Dreamliner or Boeing 777 in about 90 seconds, when the latter was hit. Because of this closeness, the Dnipropetrovsk (local Ukrainian) air traffic controller asked the AI pilots to try and establish contact with pilots of the Malaysian aircraft who had stopped responding to its calls.

Minutes before the crash caused by a missile strike, the AI pilots had also heard the controller give the Malaysian aircraft MH17 what is called “a direct routing”. This permits an aircraft to fly straight, instead of tracking the regular route which is generally a zig-zag track that goes from one ground-based navigation aid or way point to another. “Direct routing saves fuel and time and is preferred by pilots. In this case, it proved fatal,” said an airline source.

“The AI Dreamliner was less than 25km away from the Malaysian aircraft when the latter was hit by a missile. When the pilots learnt the cause of the crash later, they were stunned. It’s like the person standing next to you has been hit by a sniper bullet,” said the source.

Soon after the tragedy, the media picked up data from flightradar24, a live flight tracker website which showed the AI aircraft in the vicinity. But the next day, on Friday, the civil aviation ministry issued a statement that “there was no Air India flight near the ill-fated Malaysian plane at the time of the incident”.

Brics countries create $100bn bank to ease western grip on global finances | Global development | theguardian.com

Brics leaders, from left: Russia’s president Vladimir Putin, India’s prime minister Narendra Modi, Brazil’s president Dilma Rousseff, Chinese president Xi Jinping and South Africa’s president Jacob Zuma. Photograph: Mikhail Klimentyev / Ria Novosti / Kremlin Pool/EPA

The Brics group comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The bank, aimed at funding infrastructure projects in developing nations, will be based in Shanghai, and India will preside over its operations for the first five years, followed by Brazil and then Russia

The bank will begin with a subscribed capital of $50bn divided equally between its five founders, with an initial total of $10bn in cash put in over seven years and $40bn in guarantees. It is scheduled to start lending in 2016 and be open to membership by other countries, but the capital share of the Brics cannot drop below 55%.

Weed Wackers:

Federal charges filed in hash oil apartment explosion on Kirkland, Kenmore boundary – Kirkland Reporter

A Kirkland man is among seven people charged in connection with explosions tied to the practice of extracting has oil from marijuana.

Kirkland resident Robby Wayne Meiser, 46, is charged with the Jan. 1 explosion and fire at the Inglenook Apartments on the Kirkland and Kenmore boundary.

“Manufacturing hash oil is illegal and poses a significant risk to families, neighbors and the general public,” U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan said. “An explosion and fire caused by hash oil production at a Bellevue apartment complex caused significant injuries to people trying to escape the flames. We will not stand by and allow this dangerous conduct to endanger the public.”

Blasts blamed on hash oil lead to federal charges | Latest News | The Seattle Times

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, endangering human life while manufacturing controlled substances is punishable by up to 10 years in prison; maintaining drug-involved premises can bring up to 20 years; and manufacturing hash oil can result in up to five years.

Dog nearly dies after eating apple marijuana pipe

Misty is a 6-month old lab whose favorite treat just so happens to be a bite of apple here and there. So it was no surprise to see her grab a free one sitting along the beach at the Edmonds dog park.

“I look over and she’s got an apple in her mouth and she’s happily chewing away on it,” said Misty’s owner, Chaya Anderson.

Feedback:

Nobel Economist Joseph Stiglitz Hails New BRICS Bank Challenging U.S.-Dominated World Bank & IMF – on Democracy Now!
- DRIP – Why Emgency Law was “needed” in the UK to Ratain user data

Secure Ways to Contact the Show:

Chris Fisher (chrislas) | Keybase
Chase Nunes (chase) | Keybase
Secure Rig Public Key
Bitmessage: BM-2cWRitZG3LdjgV4AjZL4Lk6aiA97VonpAu

Follow the Us:

Call us: 1.425.312.1756

If you’re a Supporter check Patreon for this epsiodes supporter exclusives!

The post The Truth of MH17 | Unfilter 107 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Back in Iraq II | Unfilter 103

chris — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 19:32:57 +0000

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

Part two of Unfilter’s coverage of the return to Iraq, in this episode we examine how sending arms to the Syrian rebels empowered ISIS and their recent overtaking of a major Iraq oil facility.

Plus the Obama administration releases their memo authorizing them to assassinate American citizens with drones, but it’s what’s been redacted that counts, Greenwald hints new NSA revelations and much more!

Direct Download:

Video | MP3 Audio | OGG Audio | Torrent | YouTube

RSS Feeds:

Become an Unfilter supporter on Patreon:

— Show Notes —

The Slow Death of Privacy

Microsoft’s Top Lawyer Calls On Congress To End The NSA’s “Unfettered Bulk Collection Of Data”

Smith called on Congress to “close the door on unfettered bulk collection of data” and argued for reform of the “role and nature and proceedings” of the FISA court and for the geographic limiting of warrants issued by the U.S.

Glenn Greenwald: ‘What I Tell People Who Say They Don’t Care About Their Privacy

Glenn Greenwald said people have told him over and over that government surveillance does not concern them.

“Those people don’t believe what they’re saying,” he told a sold-out audience last week at the Nourse Theater in San Francisco.

To illustrate this, every time someone would come up to Greenwald and say they didn’t mind people knowing what they were doing because they had nothing to hide, he would proceed with the same two steps: first, by giving them his email address and then by asking them to send him all their email and social media passwords — just so he could have a look.

Glenn Greenwald: ‘What I Tell People Who Say They Don’t Care About Their Privacy’ | Alternet

U.S. Court Releases Obama Administration’s ‘Drone Memo’ : The Two-Way

The judge admitted that al-Awlaki had a “plausible” case over violations of his due process but as part of the judiciary she could not step into decisions about warmaking, national security and foreign relations.

Can the President Strike an American Anywhere in the World?: Drone Memo Raises Troubling Questions

On September 30, cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan were killed in a drone strike in Yemen. Two weeks later, another U.S. drone killed Anwar’s 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman, in Yemen. A month later, a U.S. citizen named Jude Kenan Mohammad was killed in Pakistan. For the past two-and-a-half years, the Obama administration has refused to release its legal rationale for killing American citizens overseas. That changed on Monday when a federal court released a heavily redacted 41-page memo. It concludes the 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force gave the U.S. government the authority to target Anwar al-Awlaki, who the Obama administration claims had joined al-Qaeda.

cryptome.org counting total Snowden doc releases: 42 Years for Snowden Docs Release, Free All Now

— Thanks for Supporting Unfilter —

Become an Unfilter supporter on Patreon

Unfilter Episode 100 Shirt! | Teespring
Thanks to our 281 patrons
Supporter perk: Downloadable Pre and Post show. Extra clips, music, hijinks, and off the cuff comments. The ultimate Unfiltered experience. ‘
Supporter perk: Exclusive BitTorrent Sync share of our production and non-production clips, notes, and more since the NSA scandal broke in episode 54. The ultimate Unfiltered experience, just got more ultimate.
Supporter Perk: Past 5 supporters shows, in a dedicated bittorrent sync folder.

Back in Iraq

To contain ISIS, think Iraq — but also think Syria

The conflict in Iraq will not be settled any time soon. Although the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, and its Sunni allies may not be about to march on Baghdad, they are continuing to expand their control over much of northern and western Iraq. The military and diplomatic steps that President Obama has ordered reflect the U.S. need to prevent ISIS from embedding itself in more of Iraq. Whether they will work, however, is another matter.

Not Worth It: Huge Majority Regret Iraq War, Exclusive Poll Shows

Just 22 percent now believe the 2003 war effort was worthwhile.

Weed Wackers:

The Pueblo Chieftain | Washington prepares for marijuana retail sales

During Tuesday’s news conference, officials with the state Liquor Control Board, which has been overseeing the implementation of the state’s recreational marijuana law, said that they are poised to adopt emergency rules Wednesday to do three things concerning edible marijuana: require all marijuana-infused products to be labeled clearly as containing marijuana; require all products to be scored in such a way that a serving size is easily identified by the consumer; and requiring marijuana-infused products to be approved by the board before sale.

FDA To Evaluate Marijuana For Potential Reclassification As Less Dangerous Drug

“FDA conducts for Health and Human Services a scientific and medical analysis of the drug under consideration, which is currently ongoing,” Ventura said. “HHS then recommends to DEA that the drug be placed in a given schedule. DEA considers HHS’ analysis, conducts its own assessment, and makes a final scheduling proposal in the form of a proposed rule.”

If you’re a Supporter check your inbox!

Call us: 1.425.312.1756

Follow the Us:

The post Back in Iraq II | Unfilter 103 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Linux at CES 2014 | LAS s30e05

chris — Sun, 12 Jan 2014 14:32:28 +0000

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

The best stuff at CES this year ran Linux, and that’s no joke! From International CES 2014, we’ve pushed through the noise and feature nothing but the best and most innovative Linux powered devices.

Plus: CentOS and Red Hat officially join forces, Epic OpenShot 2.0 Update…

AND SO MUCH MORE!

All this week on, The Linux Action Show!

Thanks to:

Download:

RSS Feeds:

Support the Show:

Purchase anything at Amazon.com
Purchase anything at Think Geek using this link
Purchase anything at Newegg using this link
Contribute directly on our donation page or check out our advertising options and reach millions of amazing people!
Grab our Chrome Extension and auto-tag your shopping session for us!

— Show Notes: —

Linux at International CES 2014:

Brought to you by: System76

– Picks –

Runs Linux:

Belkin shows Linux powered smart slow cooker at CES 2014
Friday Funnies | Linux.com
Direct Link to Image )

Desktop App Pick
Springseed

Other Apps by Caffeinated Code:

Weekly Spotlight:

JB 2014 “State of the Onion” Address:

JB’s BIG 2014 Plans | FauxShow 159

— NEWS —

– Feedback: –

— Chris’ Stash —

Hang in our chat room:

irc.geekshed.net #jupiterbroadcasting

— What’s Matt Doin? —

Check out LINUX Unplugged

— Find us on Google+ —

— Find us on Twitter —

— Follow the network on Facebook: —

Jupiter Broadcasting on Facebook

— Catch the show LIVE Sunday 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern / 6pm UTC: —

The post Linux at CES 2014 | LAS s30e05 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Pipeline Problems | Unfilter 45

chris — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 07:21:39 +0000

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

22 homes were evacuated in the state of Arkansas after a portion of an oil pipeline burst leaving tar sand crude oil oozing through the streets. This comes at a critical time for the decision to move ahead with the Keystone XL pipeline.

Then it was once steaming ahead by capitalizing on shocking tragedies, but now the gun debate has faltered in America. We’ll dig into the state of gun control.

Plus a look at the Great British class calculator, Pot bar crackdowns, your feedback, and much much more.

On this week’s episode of, Unfilter.

Direct Download:

RSS Feeds:

Become an Unfilter Supporter:

Pay With Bitcoin

-- Show Notes --

Report to Class

People in the UK now fit into seven social classes, a major survey conducted by the BBC suggests.

It says the traditional categories of working, middle and upper class are outdated, fitting 39% of people.

It found a new model of seven social classes ranging from the elite at the top to a \”precariat\” – the poor, precarious proletariat – at the bottom.

More than 161,000 people took part in the Great British Class Survey, the largest study of class in the UK.

Thanks for Supporting Unfilter:

Media Reacts: The Easter Bunny\’s Springless Steps – CONAN on TBS – YouTube

Local news anchors can\’t help wonder if economic indicators are to blame for that poor rabbit\’s lackluster step.

This Week’s New Supporters:

DreamsVoid

Thanks to our 61 Unfilter supporters!
Supporter perk: Downloadable Pre and Post show. Extra clips, music, hijinks, and off the cuff comments. The ultimate Unfiltered experience.

Arkansas Oil Spill

Exxon pipeline erupts and floods Arkansas town – YouTube

On Friday, 22 homes were evacuated in a community in the state of Arkansas after a portion of an ExxonMobil pipeline burst leaving nearly 10,000 barrels of tar sand crude oil oozing through the streets. Critics of the Keystone XL pipeline say that cases like this will only multiply once the controversial channel is built.

Arkansas oil spill revives Keystone XL pipeline debate

Residents of Mayflower, Arkansas found pools of crude filling their lawns this weekend

People living in a small community near Little Rock, Ark., are being forced from their home and may not come back for weeks after an oil pipeline ruptured. Manuel Bojorquez reports.

Arkansas Oil Spill Raises Scrutiny of Pipeline Network

Environmental groups said the rupture of the Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) pipe on March 29 in Mayflower, Arkansas, shows why Obama should reject Keystone, which would be a major new conduit between the U.S. and Canada for a type of fuel critics say is more corrosive than more conventional forms of oil.

Pipelines Explained: How Safe are America’s 2.5 Million Miles of Pipelines? – ProPublica
> The 2.5 million miles of America\’s pipelines suffer hundreds of leaks and ruptures every year, costing lives and money. As existing lines grow older, critics warn that the risk of accidents on those lines will only increase.

While states with the most pipeline mileage — like Texas,California, and Louisiana — also have the most incidents, breaks occur throughout the far-flung network of pipelines. Winding under city streets and countryside, these lines stay invisible most of the time. Until they fail.

Since 1986, pipeline accidents have killed more than 500 people, injured over 4,000, and cost nearly seven billion dollars in property damages. Using government data, ProPublica has mapped thousands of these
incidents in a new interactive news application [9], which provides
detailed information about the cause and costs of reported incidents going back
nearly three decades.

At Oil Spill Cleanup in Arkansas, Exxon Running the Show, Not Federal Agencies

Tightly controlled by ExxonMobil, which was responsible for the spill, access to even the parking lot is not permitted. A security guard now stops anyone without a red lanyard and ID badge from passing into the gated compound.

A 1980 law ensures that diluted bitumen is not classified as oil, and companies transporting it in pipelines do not have to pay into the federal Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund. Other conventional crude producers pay 8 cents a barrel to ensure the fund has resources to help clean up some of the 54,000 barrels of pipeline oil that spilled 364 times last year.

Arkansas oil spill: Exxon reacts to tax \’loophole,\’ pledges ‘to cover all costs’ — RT USA

Answering RT\’s detailed questions, ExxonMobil stated they are
paying for all costs related to the spill. However, the company
didn\’t reveal how much it contributes to the OSLTF, or the value of
the company\’s crude which is not taxed by the law.

Exxon Mobil promises to cover oil spill cleanup costs in Arkansas – CNN.com

Exxon Mobil will pay all of the costs related to last week\’s oil spill in an Arkansas neighborhood, a company spokesman said Wednesday.

Between 3,500 and 5,000 barrels of heavy crude leaked from a ruptured pipeline — not 12,000 barrels, as previously reported, according to Exxon Mobil spokesman Alan Jeffers.

Gun Debate DOA?

Colorado prosecutors seek death penalty for accused cinema gunman | Reuters

Colorado prosecutors will seek the death penalty for the man charged with killing 12 moviegoers during a showing of the Batman film \”The Dark Knight Rises\” last year.

The 225-page National School Shield report isn\’t offering specific recommendations for how many armed staff each school should have or the types of guns those people should carry — though Hutchinson said the firearms could range from \”sidearms, to shotguns, to AR-15s.\”

NRA\’s National School Shield Program: Gun lobby set to unveil findings from post-Newtown initiative.

The timing of the release is no coincidence. It comes as the gun control/safety debate continues to heat up in the Senate, where lawmakers are at work on a deal that would expand background checks. While the NRA plan is likely to garner a lot of attention given the lobby\’s position in the national gun conversation

NRA: Education And Training Emergency Response Program

Border Drones

Drone Privacy Concerns Have Some Associations on Defensive: Associations Now

EPIC recently launched a petition asking the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection to limit the use of unmanned aircraft for purposes of patrolling the border. Other groups speaking out against the use of drones include the American Civil Liberties Union [PDF] and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

San Diego’s “Anti-Drone Days of Action” Kick Off Nation-Wide Protests April 4 – 7

\”National Anti-Drone Days of Action\” from April 4 through 7 in San Diego start a month of protests across the United States against the policy and practice of drone warfare and secret surveillance.

WA Pot Bars Cross the Line

Washington will make rules to ban pot at bars, officials say | OregonLive.com

Washington officials say it\’s not OK for bars to allow marijuana use, and they\’ll take quick steps to address that.

The announcement from the state Liquor Control Board on Wednesday followed a recent Associated Press report about establishments in Olympia and Tacoma that allow people to consume marijuana on-site.

If you’re a Supporter check your inbox!

Call us: 1.425.312.1756

Follow the Us:

The post Pipeline Problems | Unfilter 45 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Obscurity is not Security | TechSNAP 55

chris — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 18:59:25 +0000

Cryptic Studios suffered a database breach, but we’ve got more questions than answers, more vulnerabilities have been found in critical infrastructure hardware, and a WiFi hack you can so easy its fun!

Plus why you might have had trouble downloading Jupiter Broadcasting shows, and so much more!

All that and more on this week’s TechSNAP!

Thanks to:

GoDaddy.com Use our codes TechSNAP10 to save 10% at checkout, or TechSNAP20 to save 20% on hosting!

Limited time offer: $5.99 .coms, up to 5 domains! just use our code 599com7

Want to save money on your entire order? Use our code spring7 and save 15%!

Direct Download:

RSS Feeds:

Support the Show:

Purchase anything at Amazon.com
Purchase anything at Think Geek using this link
Purchase anything at Newegg using this link
Contribute directly on our donation page or check out our advertising options and reach millions of amazing people!
Grab our Chrome Extension and auto-tag your shopping session for us!

Show Notes:

Rugged OS contains backdoor maintenance account with insufficent security

Rugged OS makes devices for controlling SCADA systems, including enabling management of non-networked SCADA devices via an IP-to-Serial interface
Rugged OS devices are used to manage traffic control systems, railroad communications systems, power plants, electrical substations, and even US military sites
The issue is that all Rugged OS devices contain an account with the username ‘factory’, that cannot be disabled
This account is obviously meant to allow the manufacturer to service the device, however it is insufficiently secured
Instead of using strong cryptography or SSL/SSH keys or something like that, the Factory Account uses a password derived from the MAC address of the device (so, the password is unique per device)
However, this password is simple the MAC address run through a short perl script that reverses the octets and takes the modulus of a static constant
This means that all of the factory user passwords are at most 9 digits in length and always contain only numeric values
The RuggedCom devices appear to use plain Telnet, rather than SSH, so all communications to and from the device are in the clear, meaning the password to the device could be sniffed by another with access to the network segment
The MAC address of the device is presented automatically as part of the login banner, making the compromise of these devices extremely trivial
Researchers notified the manufacturer more than a year ago, but rarely got a response
The researchers forced the issue via US-CERT in February of this year, and in the beginning of April CERT set a disclosure date due to a lack of response
This vulnerability was discovered by analyzing the firmware of a used Rugged OS device bought on eBay by the researchers
RuggedCom was acquired by the Canadian subsidiary of Siemens last month
Full Disclosure Mailing List Post

Cryptic Studios Customer Database Stolen, in Dec 2010

The database that was compromised contained user login names, game handles, and ‘encrypted’ passwords
The official notice is sparse on details and does not explain what type of ‘encryption’ was used for the passwords
“Even though the passwords were encrypted, it is apparent that the intruder has been able to crack some portion of the passwords in this database”
Given the fact that it has been more than a year since the database was compromised before a string of accounts started being compromised suggests that the passwords may have been properly hashed
The delay suggests that the attackers had to brute force the password database, and that this took significant time, however the time factor is relative, if the attacker only used a single machine to crack the passwords, or was unaware of Rainbow Tables, plain MD5 sums could easily take this long
Cryptographically hashed MD5 (meaning, with a salt) or better yet SHA256 would take significantly longer to crack and would be immune to rainbow tables
Salted passwords mean that even if two users have the same password, you have to brute force each hash separately (if you use plain MD5 sums, then all users with the same password can be cracked in one attempt)
It is also very likely that the attacker saved up the passwords they were able to crack in order to compromise all of the accounts at once, to avoid Cryptic taking the step they have taken now, and forcing a password reset on all affected accounts
The risk in waiting is that users will change their passwords over time, and the cracked passwords will then be rendered useless
Even cryptographic hashes can be cracked eventually, that is why it is important to change your passwords periodically

Arcadyan Wifi Routers have accidental backdoor in WPS

The flaw, which was likely originally in place as a debugging tool, allows any user to authenticate to your network using the WPS pin 12345670
This attack is worse than the previous WPS attach that reduced the keyspace, because it does not require someone to press the WPS button on the device
Worse, this override pin still works even if the WPS feature is disabled in the settings on the router
Arcadyan makes routers specifically for ISPs, and there are more than 100,000 of these $275 routers deployed in Germany alone, all of which are vulnerable
Both the stock shipped 1.08 and the latest downloadable version 1.16 of the firmware are vulnerable
The only available workaround is to disable wireless entirely
Since the routers are often white labeled to the name of your ISP, Arcadyan devices will have MAC addresses that start with one of the following:
00–12-BF
00–1A–2A
00–1D–19
00–23–08
00–26–4D
1C-C6–3C
74–31–70
7C–4F-B5
88–25–2C

Feedback:

Q: The entire Internet writes….

Why can’t I download JB shows? My world is ending!

A: Blip.tv (our video CDN) has made changes, that are stupid. We are moving off blip.tv and will keep you updated. If you want to grab something that is still hosted on blip.tv and are having issues downloading the files, here are some example work arounds:

Round-Up:

The post Obscurity is not Security | TechSNAP 55 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.