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Breaking News and Commentary from Citizens for Legitimate Government

09 Jun 2013
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Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind the NSA surveillance revelations --Snowden is responsible for handing over material from one of the world's most secretive organisations – the NSA. 09 Jun 2013 The individual responsible for one of the most significant leaks in US political history is Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA and current employee of the defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. Snowden has been working at the National Security Agency for the last four years as an employee of various outside contractors, including Booz Allen and Dell. The Guardian, after several days of interviews, is revealing his identity at his request. From the moment he decided to disclose numerous top-secret documents to the public, he was determined not to opt for the protection of anonymity. "I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong," he said.

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden: 'I do not expect to see home again' --Source for the Guardian's NSA files on why he carried out the biggest intelligence leak in a generation – and what comes next 09 Jun 2013 Edward Snowden was interviewed over several days in Hong Kong by Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill. Q: Why did you decide to become a whistleblower? A: "The NSA has built an infrastructure that allows it to intercept almost everything. With this capability, the vast majority of human communications are automatically ingested without targeting. If I wanted to see your emails or your wife's phone, all I have to do is use intercepts. I can get your emails, passwords, phone records, credit cards. "I don't want to live in a society that does these sort of things... I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded. That is not something I am willing to support or live under." ...Q: When did you decide to leak the documents? A: "You see things that may be disturbing. When you see everything you realise that some of these things are abusive.... A lot of people in 2008 voted for Obama. I did not vote for him. I voted for a third party. But I believed in Obama's promises. I was going to disclose it [but waited because of his election]. He continued with the policies of his predecessor."

Edward Snowden was NSA Prism leak source - Guardian 09 Jun 2013 A former CIA technical worker has been identified by the UK's Guardian newspaper as the source of leaks about US surveillance programmes. Edward Snowden, 29, is described by the paper as an ex-CIA technical assistant, currently employed by defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. The Guardian said his identity was being revealed at his own request. The recent revelations are that US agencies gathered millions of phone records and monitored internet data.

Verizon Top Secret FISC Order 08 Jun 2013 Verizon Top Secret FISC Order (.pdf) TOP SECRET//SI//NOFORN Derived from: Pleadings in the above-captioned docket Declassify on: 12 April 2038 This Court having found that the Application of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for an Order requiring the production of tangible things from Verizon Business Network Services, Inc. on behalf of MCI Communication Services Inc., d/b/a Verizon Business Services (individually and collectively "Verizon") satisfies the requirements of 50 U.S.C. § 1861, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that, the Custodian of Records shall produce to the National Security Agency (NSA) upon service of this Order, and continue production on an ongoing daily basis thereafter for the duration of this Order, unless otherwise ordered by the Court, an electronic copy of the following tangible things: all call detail records or "telephony metadata" created by Verizon for communications (i) between the United States and abroad; or (ii) wholly within the United States, including local telephone calls.


New NSA tool to quantify, track intelligence collection revealed – live 08 Jun 2013 Over the last week, three main prongs of top secret government intelligence activity have come to light. These are the dragnet collection and storage of Americans' phone records; the exploitation of data from the world's largest Internet companies with their apparent co-operation; and the casing of potential targets overseas for pre-emptive cyber-attacks.

UK gathering secret intelligence via covert NSA operation --UK security agency GCHQ gaining information from world's biggest internet firms through US-run Prism programme 07 Jun 2013 The UK's electronic eavesdropping and security agency, GCHQ, has been secretly gathering intelligence from the world's biggest internet companies through a covertly run operation set up by America's top spy agency, documents obtained by the Guardian reveal. The documents show that GCHQ, based in Cheltenham, has had access to the system since at least June 2010, and generated 197 intelligence reports from it last year. The US-run programme, called Prism, would appear to allow GCHQ to circumvent the formal legal process required to seek personal material such as emails, photos and videos from an internet company based outside the UK.


U.S. spy agency seeks criminal probe into leaks 08 Jun 2013 A U.S. intelligence agency requested a criminal probe on Saturday into the leak of highly classified information about secret surveillance programs run by the National Security Agency, a spokesman for the intelligence chief's office said. Confirmation that the NSA filed a "crimes report" came a few hours after the nation's spy chief, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, launched an aggressive defense of a secret government data collection program. Clapper blasted what he called "reckless disclosures" of a highly classified spy agency project code-named PRISM.


Sources: NSA sucks in data from 50 companies 06 Jun 2013 Analysts at the National Security Agency can now secretly access real-time user data provided by as many as 50 American companies, ranging from credit rating agencies to internet service providers, two government officials familiar with the arrangements said. Several of the companies have provided records continuously since 2006, while others have given the agency sporadic access, these officials said. These officials disclosed the number of participating companies in order to provide context for a series of disclosures about the NSA's domestic collection policies.


Karzai demands handover of UK secret prison in Afghanistan 08 Jun 2013 Afghan President Hamid Karzai has set a deadline for the British armed forces to hand over all Afghans in Camp Bastion to the government within two weeks. The announcement by Karzai's spokesperson on Saturday came after last week's revelations that the UK forces in Afghanistan are holding over 90 Afghan nationals without trial. The presidential spokesperson says no foreign country has the right to run detention centers inside Afghanistan and that the detaining of Afghan citizens by foreign troops is against the country's sovereignty.


Pentagon Has No Idea What 108,000 Contractors in Afghanistan Are Doing 03 Jun 2013 The number of contractors working in Afghanistan now vastly outnumbers American troops stationed there, according to a Congressional Research Service report. CRS, along with the Government Accountability Office, also determined that the Pentagon is unable to properly document the work these contractors are doing. And the information DOD is receiving is often unreliable and inaccurate. According to CRS, there are now 108,000 private workers in Afghanistan, a workforce that dwarfs the 65,700 American troops still stationed there. That means there are 1.6 contractors for every American soldier in Afghanistan. This is an increase from last month, when The Fiscal Times reported that there were 1.4 contractors per American soldier.


US tax dollars at work: Insider attack kills 3 US troops in Afghanistan 08 Jun 2013 A man in an Afghan army uniform turned his weapon on the American troops working with him in the country's east on Saturday, killing three of them, while an attacker with a grenade killed an Italian soldier in the west, officials said. The shooting in Paktika province was the latest in a string of so-called "insider attacks" in which Afghan forces open fire on their own comrades or international troops... So far this year, there have been five insider attacks on foreign forces, with a total of eight troops and one U.S. contractor mercenary killed.

Afghan soldier opens fire on US troops, kills 3 08 Jun 2013 An Afghan soldier has killed three American soldiers serving with the US-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in the southeastern Paktika Province, Press TV reports. Local authorities said the killings occurred in the Khair Kot District of the province on Saturday, when a man in Afghan army uniform opened fire on US forces. They added that at least two other soldiers were injured in the incident, which happened on the same day that an Italian soldier was killed, and three others wounded after their armored vehicle was attacked by a group of militants in western Afghanistan.


Iraq warns Israel against using its airspace in attempt to strike Iran 08 Jun 2013 Baghdad has warned Israel that it would respond to any attempts by Tel Aviv to use Iraqi airspace for a strike against Iran's nuclear facilities, a top Iraqi minister said. The remarks from Hussein al-Shahristani, deputy prime minister responsible for energy affairs, mark the first time a senior Iraqi official has publicly warned Israel against entering its airspace -- the most direct route -- to hit targets in Iran. Shahristani also said that Iraq had received assurances from Washington that the United States would not use its airspace to attack Iran, which Western powers claim is trying to develop a nuclear weapon. Tehran has repeatedly denied the claim.


France to ban far-right group after death of left-wing student 08 Jun 2013 French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault on Saturday ordered the "dissolution" of a far-right group allegedly linked to the death of a left-wing student in a Paris street brawl. He asked his interior minister to take steps "immediately" to ban the Revolutionary Nationalist Youth (JNR), his office said in a statement. The JNR is the militant wing of a far-right group called the Third Way. Its leader Serge Ayoub, who has been questioned by police but is not a suspect, on Saturday again denied the group had anything to do with the death of 18-year-old Clement Meric.


Santa Monica shooting eyewitness: Gunman 'looked like a member of a SWAT team' --Gunman dressed all in black, wearing what appeared to be bullet vest --A second 'person of interest' was arrested, but later released as police said the gunman acted alone. 08 Jun 2013 (CA) A gunman has been killed by police after a shooting spree that ended with four victims dead in Santa Monica... Santa Monica police chief Jacqueline Seabrooks said the shooting continued as the gunman, dressed all in black and wearing what appeared to be a bullet vest, stole a vehicle and travelled west from that scene toward Santa Monica College, randomly shooting and killing several people on the way. The gunman sprayed a city bus with bullets... and shot at several other cars as he made his way onto the community college campus. The man shot at a police car and at officers before being chased into the school's library, where the suspect was killed after a shoot-out. Chief Seabrooks said the unidentified gunman, described as a white male between the ages of 25 and 35, was armed with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle. One eyewitness said he "looked like a member of a SWAT team".


Terrorism drill shuts down downtown Los Angeles --Red dye explodes at scene [as it did during the Boston bombings drill] 06 Jun 2013 Red dye explodes as a pretend suspect is shot by the Los Angeles Police Department SWAT team during a drill involving a response to threats of a weapon of mass destruction on June 6, 2013 in downtown Los Angeles, California. The realistic counterterrorism drill began with an explosion with law enforcement officers firing blank ammunition at pretend suspects as police helicopters with sharp shooters were flying low among downtown office towers. (Photo)

In San Antonio, an escort is killed after a date gone bad, but the shooter goes free 08 Jun 2013 It was Christmas Eve. So a 27-year-old San Antonio man called over a Craigslist escort. Twenty uneventful minutes and $150 later, he shot at her with an AK-47. She later died. Yet, he walks free. In another of those embarrassing Texas news stories, a Bexar County jury last week acquitted Zeke Gilbert because Texas law allows using deadly force to stop a "thief" after dark. It's a classic example of blaming the victim.

Elephant kills poacher who tried to shoot it 13 May 2013 The bloody remains of a poacher, killed by an elephant, were recently found in a Zimbabwean national park. In the fight against poaching, some animals are striking back. According to The Zimbabwe Sunday Mail, a man was recently trampled to death by an elephant in Zimbabwe as he attempted to kill it in a national park. Police found Solomon Manjoro's bloody remains inside the protected Charara National Park. According to the Mail, he and his hunting accomplice, Noluck Tafuruka, approached the animal in late April and attempted to gun it down when the animal charged them and killed Manjoro. Tafuruka was arrested inside the park and charged with carrying an unlicensed weapon, The Telegraph reported.

Full payout to Lehman customers begins Friday: trustee 07 Jun 2013 The trustee liquidating Lehman Brothers' collapsed br*kerage will begin a round of distributions on Friday that should result in institutional customers getting all their m*ney back, trustee James Giddens said. A settlement announced earlier this year between the br*kerage, Lehman's defunct parent company and its European affiliate will provide for full p*yments for hedge funds, corporate affiliates, counterparties and other c*stomers, Giddens said in a statement on Friday.

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