Madison Ruppert
End the Lie

Recently, I reported on the choice made by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to clear Google of wrongdoing in connection to their interception of the private data belonging to Americans over unencrypted Wi-Fi networks, and the measly $25,000 fine given to them.

This is just one of the many ways Big Brother Google has invaded our privacy and continues to do so on a daily basis. If you’d like to know how to take steps to block these methods read this guide and this guide as well.

Keep in mind, their egregious privacy breaches are only going to get worse as their new technology is implemented and they bring on the head of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and thus further emphasize their connections to government and the intelligence community.

The $25,000 fine was only because “For many months, Google deliberately impeded and delayed the [FCC’s Enforcement] Bureau investigation by failing to respond to requests for material information and to provide certifications and verifications of its responses.”

Now it has emerged (see the document embedded below) that the FCC knew that Google was actually well aware of what their Street View cars were doing.

The unnamed engineer behind the collection of information from wireless networks told no a senior manager and at least one other colleague about the plans before it was released.

The Google engineer told two colleagues that his Street View software could actually collect “entire emails and URLs … as well as passwords.”

Furthermore, Google “provided evidence to the Federal Communications Commission (Commission) showing that the data collected resulted from a deliberate software-design decision by one of the Google employees working on the Street View project.”

So much for the “fragmented data” they claimed they collected and their original statement, “Quite simply, it was a mistake.” In fact, the newly released document indicates that their early claim was the exact opposite of the truth.

Indeed the FCC report indicates that five engineers were involved in implementing the code, but they were allegedly unaware of the fact that it could capture private data.

However, I consider this case quite dubious as the engineer explicitly told this to two colleagues in 2007 and in 2008.

Even more ludicrous is the fact that the anonymous engineer, referred to as “Engineer Doe,” recommended that Google’s privacy lawyers review the program in October of 2006; a recommendation which they ignored.

“For more than two years, Google’s Street View cars collected names, addresses, telephone numbers, URLs, passwords, email, text messages, medical records, video and audio files, and other information from internet users in the United States,” said the report.

Are we really to believe that somehow all of the statements from the engineer to his colleagues and all of the data being collected were somehow completely overlooked for over two years?

Personally, I find such an assertion outright absurd. Yet, the document says that “The record also shows that Google’s supervision of the Wi-Fi data collection project was minimal … indeed, it appears that no one at the company carefully reviewed the substance of Engineer Doe’s software code or the design document.”

The problem here is that they say “appears,” something which cannot be proven or substantiated in the slightest. How would no one review the design after he specifically told people what it was capable of?

One would assume that they would address such problems, that is if they cared about privacy at all. There is the possibility that they indeed were well aware of the capabilities and let it proceed anyway.

In the end, the FCC somehow determined that Google did not break any laws in stealing private information from Americans, a decision which is hardly surprising given the connections that Google enjoys.

This is where the lie ends. The American people are waking up to the fact that the mainstream media is controlled by a very small group of elite billionaires who decide exactly what stories to cover. We at End the Lie force politicians to address the real issues, force government to be accountable and transparent, and force real change to occur in our country. Every American needs to get informed and stand up for the principles upon which our wonderful country was founded. Do it now with End the Lie.

I’d love to hear your opinion, take a look at your story tips, and even your original writing if you would like to get it published. Please email me at Admin@EndtheLie.com

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Kurt Nimmo
GCN Live.com
April 30, 2012

As part of an ongoing effort to create a Stasi-like surveillance grid in America, the Bureau of Justice Assistance, in association with the International Association of Chiefs of Police, has produced a video to assist in the training of officers as they go about detecting what the federal government considers to be suspicious activity. It is part of the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative (NSI).

The video instructs officers to consider photographers as possible terrorists who should be singled out for additional interrogation.

According to the video, street photography and photography of public buildings provides “justification for further analysis,” although the video emphasizes that photography “and other similar activities are protected activities unless connected to other suspicious activities that would indicate potential terrorism. This may cause the officer to conduct additional observation or gather additional information – again taking into account the totality of circumstances.”

“Photography, observation, or surveillance of facilities, buildings, or critical infrastructure and key resources beyond casual, tourism, or artistic interest, to include facility access points, staff or occupants, or security measures,” the video instructs.

The “acquisition or storage of unusual quantities of materials,” including cell phones and pagers, is considered to be a suspicious behavior.

While the NSI attempts to be politically correct – stating it does not profile individuals on the basis of race or religion – and also pays lip-service to privacy, it is the largest and most technologically sophisticated surveillance program in the nation’s history (a fact noted by none other than the Washington Post). It “collects, stores and analyzes information about thousands of U.S. citizens and residents, many of whom have not been accused of any wrongdoing,” the Post notes.

“The unprecedented network involves local police, state and military authorities feeding a growing database on thousands of US citizens and residents, even though many have never been charged with breaking the law,” AFP reported in 2010. “The apparatus breaks new ground in the United States — where domestic security measures traditionally have faced legal limits — and raises questions about safeguards for privacy and civil liberties.”

In fact, this is a fallacy – the government has surveilled and collected data on millions of Americans for decades.

Beginning with Operation Shamrock, the NSA has spied on Americans since the end of the Second World War. Operation Shamrock violated the Communications Act and the Fourth Amendment. In 2005, it was revealed that the NSA has continued to illegally monitor Americans by working with transnational telecoms to copy all email and web browsing in the United States and internationally.

The NSA is not alone. The FBI (most notoriously under COINTELPRO) and the CIA (Operation CHAOS) have long track records in not only surveilling Americans, but also disrupting – the FBI called it neutralizing – the legal political activities of countless Americans.

The NSI is part of a long and disreputable tradition in violation of the Constitution. Street photographers can expect to be singled out and considered members of al-Qaeda and other largely mythical terrorist fabrications.

The drift is unmistakeable. East Germany’s Stasi began by creating dossiers on its citizens and ended by imprisoning people for trying to leave the country, or telling political jokes. Secret executions and the deliberate irradiation of political prisoners with x-ray machines in an attempt to give them cancer was routine.

Related

CBS Runs Defense For ‘Everyone’s a Terrorist’ FBI Flyers

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Barb Adams
GCN Live.com

Science fiction has broadened and inspired the imaginations of millions worldwide, and while providing a glimpse into our possible future, at times it has also served as the basis for the progress of technology beyond many of our wildest dreams.

Imagine a future where astronaut-miners or “droids” travel to nearby asteroids in search of water and precious minerals and metals. Sounds a lot like James Cameron’s film, Avatar, doesn’t it? In the film, humans mine a fictional moon named Pandora for a precious metal called unobtainium. Whereas Avatar was science fiction, a group of wealthy entrepreneurs announced plans this week that they hope to begin mining asteroids in the near future.

On Tuesday, Planetary Resources announced that it hopes to begin mining near-Earth asteroids for everything from water to precious metals and minerals. Although it sounds like science fiction, Planetary Resources co-founders Eric Anderson and Peter Diamandis hope to launch the first stages of their ambitious project in as little as 18 months to two years, and they’ve attracted some very high-profile advisers and investors including James Cameron, NASA astronaut Tom Jones, Google Execs Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, Ross Perot, Jr., and Charles Simonyi.

While asteroid mining may seem far-fetched, some aspects appear to make sense. Many of these near-Earth objects are easily accessible from Earth. Asteroids are known to contain water and are also believed to contain untold riches in precious metals and minerals. Besides the obvious potential to make gazillions of dollars, asteroid mining may help open up space for further exploration (and exploitation). According to Anderson, “If you believe it’s important to have continued prosperity for future generations, we need resources from somewhere. Near-Earth asteroids are way, way more appealing than just about any other place we might look.”

But if asteroid mining still seems too “out there,” a sampling of other technologies that sound like science fiction but are already in use today just might convince you that “truth is stranger than fiction.” According to the website “Things Nerds Like,” the alien “heat rays” in H. G. Wells’ classic, “The War of the Worlds,” may have been the inspiration for the U.S. military’s ‘Active Denial System,’ which uses a focused beam of directed wave energy to “heat up” the outer layers of human skin, causing intolerable pain. The device is used for crowd control.

Another unusual device used to control people is the Mosquito. Billed as “teenager repellent,” the Mosquito emits a high-pitched whine that irritates young people and is used to deter loitering and other “anti-social” behaviors.

Designer children anyone? Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” examined controlled reproduction and genetic manipulation’s consequences on society. Although we’re not yet creating humans from designer blueprints, we’re not far from it. In vitro fertilization, somatic and germline gene therapies, cloning, and the use of donor eggs to create children with three genetic parents are just the beginning. But if designer humans aren’t enough, there are always human-animal hybrids.

What do you get when you cross “mad scientists” with the 2008 Human Fertilization Embryology Act? A really bad horror movie or, as of 2011, more than 150 human-animal hybrid embryos created secretly in labs at Warwick University in the U.K. Scientists say the techniques used to develop these embryos can also be used to treat a wide range of currently incurable illnesses as well as provide a “unique” way to help feed the world. Feed the world? According to an article in Science Daily, scientists are developing a new approach for producing large quantities of “human-derived gelatin” which could be substituted for animal-based gelatin in desserts like marshmallows, candy, and numerous other products. Did someone say “Soylent Green?”

Then there’s the matter of anti-matter. Shea Laverty of Oilprice.com says that “Antimatter already sees use in medical imaging technologies such as positron emission tomography or PET scans. The energy released during a matter-antimatter interaction is beyond incredible, with a single kilogram each of matter and antimatter capable of producing the same amount of energy as 43 megatons of TNT. Such energy generation only falls slightly below the yield of the Tsar Bomb, the largest and most powerful thermonuclear weapon ever detonated. While antimatter faces issues of scarcity and controlling the reaction to produce stable energy instead of a flaming nuclear hell-storm, the potential is there to create an incredibly potent energy source.”

Throughout history, science fiction has made the improbable possible. Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Gene Roddenberry, George Lucas, Star Trek, Star Wars, Blade Runner, 2001: A Space Odyssey, to name just a few—all have had profound influences on society and scientific technology. Jules Verne wrote about nuclear-powered submarines and rockets to the moon long before any of those technologies existed. Remember those hand-held flip-style communicators in the original Star Trek television series? While today’s touch-pad screen devices make those devices seem almost archaic, it is interesting to note that flip-style cell phones looked a lot like those devices. And the list goes on.

Although we’re not yet zipping around outer space in starships fueled by more efficient sources of energy, if the writers of science fiction have their way, the groundwork has been laid. Perhaps in the not too distant future, when asteroid mining is a reality and free energy is available for all, our descendents truly will be able “to boldly go where no one has gone before.”

Barb Adams is the host of Amerika Now talk radio show, which airs on GCN Saturdays 10:00p-1:00am Central Time. Listen to the show On Demand.

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Madison Ruppert
End the Lie

While some researchers continue to focus on creating new technologies with some disturbing applications like mobile phone microchips capable of seeing through walls and militarized hallucinations courtesy of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), thankfully not all scientists are devoting their time and intellectual prowess to less-than-admirable projects.

Indeed, recently a paralyzed individual at a hospital in Sion, Switzerland tested out a groundbreaking new device which allows paraplegic persons to control robots from a remote location using only their mind.

The man sent a mental command to a computer in front of him using a tight-fitting cap outfitted with electrodes known as a g.GAMMAcap which was then transmitted to another computer which controlled a small robot some 37 miles away in the town of Lausanne.

Jose Millan, a professor at the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne specializing in non-invasive interfaces between machines and the human brain, developed the system, which could have many more promising applications.

The Telegraph reports that Millan has stated the same exact technology can also be used to control a wheelchair.

“Once the movement has begun, the brain can relax, otherwise the person would soon be exhausted,” Millan said.

However, he did admit that the technology is limited at this point. Currently, the brain signals can be scrambled en route if too many individuals are standing around the mind-controlled wheelchair.

The promise and potential applications of this type of technology, known as neuroprosthetics or neural prosthetics, does not end with mind-controlled robots and wheelchairs, which is already quite a feat indeed.

Researchers have said that neuroprosthetics could actually be used to assist patients recover their lost senses.

One professor Stephanie Lacour and her research team are currently developing what they’re calling an “electric skin” for amputees.

Composed of a glove outfitted with small sensors, the device would send information and feedback directly to the user’s nervous system in an attempt to replicate the feedback of actual flesh.

Lacour says that researchers hope to eventually be able to create completely mechanized prosthetic devices which would be as mobile and sensitive as a natural human hand for amputees and other disabled patients.

Even more amazing, other researchers working at Lausanne are currently developing technologies which could actually help paraplegics be able to walk once again thanks to electrodes implanted in their spine.

“The goal is that after a year of training with a robotic aide, the patient will be able to walk without a robot. The electrodes would stay implanted for life,” Professor Gregoire Courtine of the Experimental Neurorehabilitation Laboratory at the Rehabilitation Institute and Technology Center Zurich explained.

Courtine said that they are currently in the process of establishing clinical trials. He added that they aim to begin tests at the Zurich University hospital within a year.

These developments and similar technologies are truly inspiring. Personally, I find it somewhat disturbing that our government (and the private sector as well) is pouring unimaginable sums of money into wartime technologies which don’t even end up being used like the airborne laser program not to mention sectors like the behemoth surveillance industry and other Big Brother technologies when we could be alleviating suffering instead of causing it.

I guess it just goes to show what the priorities of the U.S. government and major corporations really are: profit and control above all.

This is where the lie ends. The American people are waking up to the fact that the mainstream media is controlled by a very small group of elite billionaires who decide exactly what stories to cover. We at End the Lie force politicians to address the real issues, force government to be accountable and transparent, and force real change to occur in our country. Every American needs to get informed and stand up for the principles upon which our wonderful country was founded. Do it now with End the Lie.

I’d love to hear your opinion, take a look at your story tips, and even your original writing if you would like to get it published. Please email me at Admin@EndtheLie.com

Like GCN Live on Facebook and follow on Twitter for more great news, opinions, and announcements from GCN Live’s hosts and staff.