Obama Demands Access to Internet Records, in Secret, and Without Court Review

By Tom Burghardt
Antifascist Calling

The Obama administration is seeking authority from Congress that would compel internet service providers (ISPs) to turn over records of an individual’s internet activity for use in secretive FBI probes. In another instance where Americans are urged to trust their political minders, The Washington Post reported last month that “the administration wants to add just four words–‘electronic communication transactional records’–to a list of items that the law says the FBI may demand without a judge’s approval.”

Top Secret America: A hidden world, growing beyond control

National Counterterrorism Center, McLean, Virginia

BUZZ THIS

By Dana Priest and William M. Arkin
Washington Post

The top-secret world the government created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work.

These are some of the findings of a two-year investigation by The Washington Post that discovered what amounts to an alternative geography of the United States, a Top Secret America hidden from public view and lacking in thorough oversight. After nine years of unprecedented spending and growth, the result is that the system put in place to keep the United States safe is so massive that its effectiveness is impossible to determine.

Sunstein’s Crackpot Theories

By Michael Collins

I’ve been trying to understand Cass Sunstein’s 2008 paper called, Conspiracy Theories. It’s the foundation for his proposed domestic spying program.  Obama appointed Sunstein administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, a part of the Office of Management and Budget. (Image) He wants to wage a “cognitive” war on conspiracy theories that clutter up the public thought space.  

Wikipedia provides a decent summary of Sunstein’s legal philosophy and reveals that Sunstein’s legal theories are somewhere on the border between crackpot and conspiracy theories:

Big Brother “Fusion Centers” Part of US Domestic Intelligence and Surveillance Apparatus

 

London00420 photobucket

By Tom Burghardt

 

Mammoth Budget: $75 Billion, 200,000 Operatives

Fusion Centers Will Have Access to Classified Military Intelligence

Speaking at San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club September 15, Director of National Intelligence Admiral Dennis C. Blair, disclosed that the current annual budget for the 16 agency U.S. “Intelligence Community” (IC) clocks-in at $75 billion and employs some 200,000 operatives world-wide, including private contractors.

In unveiling an unclassified version of the National Intelligence Strategy (NIS), Blair asserts he is seeking to break down “this old distinction between military and nonmilitary intelligence,” stating that the “traditional fault line” separating secretive military programs from overall intelligence activities “is no longer relevant.”

Preview Upcoming TAC Cover Story on Edmonds: ‘Outs’ Videotaped, ‘Blackmailed’ Dem Congresswoman; Alleges State Dept. Mole at NYTimes; MUCH MORE…

By Brad Friedman

American Conservative mag’s description of interview with previously-gagged FBI whistleblower as ‘explosive’ may prove to be a gross understatement

Blackmail, bribery, infiltration, theft and sale of nuke secrets by Turkey, Israel explained in clearer detail than ever before…

Over the weekend, we received an embargoed look at American Conservative magazine’s final version of their cover story interview with formerly-gagged FBI translator turned whistleblower Sibel Edmonds.

Fort Detrick, Quantico, DHS and Halliburton –What do they all have in common?

By Lori Price

They’re all monitoring the CLG.  I took a walk through the CLG visitor logs over the past thirty hours and saw numerous .gov, .mil and state visitors in the logs. I compiled some of them. Note: This is only a snapshot! *Many* were missed as I could not possibly take the time to check all them.

Well, I sure hope they enjoyed our Flu ‘Oddities’ page!

Eva Golinger: U.S. Privatizes Colombian War by using Transnational Mercenaries

by cursedthing at flickr

By Zachary Lown

For the year 2009 the State Department of the United States will invest approximately $520 million in Plan Colombia. More than half of this money went to private North American contractors charged with developing, promoting and furthering irregular warfare in Colombian territory and in Latin America; this was revealed to the Bolivarian News Agency by the lawyer and researcher Eva Golinger.