GCHQ Amnesty International Spying Outrage As British Investigatory Powers Tribunal Court Admits Prior GCHQ Spooks "No Spying" Determination A Lie

     Friday, 3 July 2015, LONDON - Amnesty International the globally recognized human rights organization has called for an independent inquiry after the "outrageous" revelation on Thursday that Amnesty International was lied to by the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) monkey court in a ruling last month that the already wildly out-of-control British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) mass surveillance conducted (lin conjunction with and/or sharing data with the N.S.A.) seemingly no longer with any apparent relationship to any legitimate national security concerns whatsoever but without any meaningful consideration invading the most intimate privacy without limitation of any foreign or domestic friend or foe maybe even itself and having extended GCHQ spying in addition to other lesser known human rights groups also now admitted further to include spying on Amnesty International despite previous denials including an impossibly improbable claimed "determination error" even by those ostensibly "overseeing" the GCHQ  spy agency.
     The GCHQ was described by whistleblower Edward Snowden in the movie "CitizenFour" as even more invasive than the N.S.A. which presumably would be out of all proportion to its unbridled violation of civil rights which it only could marginalize by capitalizing on people's fear of terrorism disrupting the measured governance of a free society. (Incidentally the exact aim of "terrorists".) IPT President Sir Michael Burton said the IPT "wished to apolgise for and correct an error in its Determination of 22 June 2015" in which the GCHQ oversight Monkey Court incredibly after 18 months of litigation apparently was unable to determine that the GCHQ was spying on Amnesty International although the IPT did figure out (wrongly) that the GCHQ was not following proper internal procedures in spying on another human rights Egyptian organization which the GCHQ in fact never had been spying on at all.
     To add insult to injury the Amnesty International secretary general Shalil Shetty in a statement of outrage which interested readers can read in some length by going to the first BBC link below emphasized that, "If they hadn't stored our communications for longer than they were allowed to, we would never even have known. What's worse, this would have been considered perfectly lawful."
     Mr. Shetty's outrage further was ignited by the fact that the UK (and likely partner N.S.A.) government mass surveillance jeopardized the very work of Amnesty International and other human rights groups by compromising their "confidential communications" with "human rights defenders and victims of abuse" which they now could "credibly believe" after these revelations of GCHQ spying "was likely to end up in the hands of governments" presumbly interfering with and/or negating critical humanitarian efforts of Amnesty International. Mr. Shetty's full reported statement of outrage linked to below as mentioned above concluded that "[t]he revelation that the UK government has been spying on Amnesty International highlights the gross inadequacies of the UK's surveillance legislation."
     It would seem so given that extraordinarily invasive powers apparently bestowed by the UK government on the outrageous spying activities of the GCHQ likely conspiring with its twin partner in crime the unconstitutional illegally operating N.S,A, for purposes intended to be focused on fighting terrorism instead being diverted instead or also to human rights organizations unbelievably including Amnesty International long recognized as one of the if not the most important and effective private organization working to protect human rights worldwide.
     As if to highlight the ignorance of the UK government regarding the misdirected uncontrolled mass surveillance predator it is allowing the GCHQ to become and the UK government's apparent ignorance of the either total intentional ineptitude and/or criminally willful ignorance of the IPT Monkey Court which apparently serves some essentially non-existent oversight role serving only to prolong the gross abuses of the GCHQ the UK government at the time of the original untruthful "Determination" of the IPT Monkey Court exalted it as the "IPTs confirmation that the interception by GCHQ in these cases was undertaken lawfully and proportionately."
     The horrendous cost in resources that are desperately needed for actual national security and the protection of human rights of this eighteen month matter are astounding considering that it would seem apparent to any rational person that the action originally brought in this matter by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of Amnesty International if truthfully addressed with integrity could have been avoided altogether or resolved with the pertinent simple questions swiftly answered with a few communications among the responsible parties. However readers apparently must keep in mind the necessity of absolute secrecy in the "decision-making" of the IPT Monkey Court which apparently can span lengthy periods of time gathering the "facts" especially when for example as in this case there were two. In fact the IPT seems much like it may be the impaired cousin of the "FISA" Monkey Courts in the U.S. which is saying very little indeed.
     Those readers interested in an earlier most significant IPT Monkey Court decision predicate to the present one originally made in error can go to the second BBC link below to the "Determination" reported 5 December 2014 that the GCHQ's "Tempora" huge mass surveillance program unsurprisingly did not violate human rights reportedly encouraging the GCHQ as a glorious "emphatic victory". Alas with no degree of contortion can the present "Determination" be characterized no matter how small the Amnesty International victory may be for the moment although urged by its resounding cries of outrage clearly much needed revisions to surveillance litigation by the UK government and serious enforceable overhaul to the GCHQ's oversight are put in place to reign in an agency and program apparently badly off course.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-33370406

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-30345801

Copyright 2015 Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved

Edward J. Snowden Villified UK Coordinated Plan By PM David "Wanker" Cameron Security Officials Blatant Manipulative Government Chorus Planted Press "Leak" To Panic British Of "New" Russian And Chinese Non-Existent Cyberthreats Hysteria Adoption Of Yet More Civil Rights Violations By GCHQ Mass Domestic Home Spying Agenda And Government-Wide Home Privacy Invasions Of British People Already Far More Invasive Than N.S.A. In U.S.

     Tuesday, 15 June 2015, LONDON - A coordinated ridiculously obvious effort of various British "security services" and the Home Office in a transparent attempt to terrorize the British people into giving up even more of their civil rights anytime now by means of a coordinated attack of vague completely unsubstantiated doomsday innuendo based on neither any current nor proven incident at all casting the handily "notorious" (to all except most normal persons on the street worldwide) N.S.A. mass surveillance whistle-blower Edward J. Snowden as fall guy followed a blatantly manipulative press "leak" dutifully regurgitated by the Sunday Times. Its hyperbolic blather reproduced here below until cut off alas for our not having a subscription to that newspaper but not before the article belied its own total lack of any factual foundation bereft of evidence of official substantiated reason for concern for any harm to anyone at all.
     The handy but nevertheless true genius of the narrative device of the further vilification of Snowden served well for Cameron officials to express their outrage at little personal risk and as well as provide an enjoyable laughable complement to the opening of this past Sunday's "exclusively" leaked front page article to cast Snowden as some kind of beastly monster who seemingly long has been on intimate terms (and actually in the Sunday Times appears in effectively superimposed photos coyly to be avoiding a kiss on the lips or peck on the cheek from "call me Vlad" Putin) with his globetrotting now dearest of exile hosts Russian President Vladimir Putin no doubt met long ago and known by Snowden and his dog on the streets of Fort Meade, Maryland as Putin of course is known worldwide to be permitted freely to roam the United States shirtless and bareback on his horse befriending Americans young and old alike except in communities where horses are prohibited on public byways or shirts are required in public.
     Following the ghastly news in the "leak" was an ardently repetitive seemingly specific but at the same time factually void mostly identical pair of reasons fed to the selected press with great drama in which government officials to differing degrees intimated or outright lied that the Russian and Chinese were known (not true) to have decrytped documents they had obtained (well, were suspected of obtaining) but known definitively not to contain either names nor identifying information of British spies which documents only had been released to a very select few members of the most highly regarded conscientious members of the U.S. and British press by the "villain" Snowden who had "blood on his hands" and further was called by one official a "traitor" (although apparently not to Great Britain which is not known to have granted him citizenship) and so on which indeterminate event had within the past two years or whenever caused such a serious British security breach that some secret agents had actually been "moved" as in from one place to another.
     This apparently was such a traumatic experience and unfamiliar experience to them that being in a new place without the same contacts and personal support groups and so on that they were intimated to have been at a complete loss as to what to do to make new "friends" so might as well have been or right now might actually be on the dole (not the regular but the special one for government officials between jobs in public service and/or new areas such as "consulting" and "think tanking" for their old chums). It was conceded that wherever they might be none actually were ever at risk for harm except perhaps for theoretical harm had they been which they were not and so on.
     The effort to manufacture danger or damage fed to the press on its face is exposed most succintly as complete garbage by a single short statement from Downing Street (which the article had alleged shared the hysteria of the "security services" and the Home Office) completely negating all of the extreme and violent imagery of impending doom of which security types are are so fond with the simple statement in the concluding paragraph of the section of the "leaked" article below actually truthfully admitting in a simple statement that there was "no evidence of anyone being harmed" thus discrediting the entire idiotic endeavor of all others official and otherwise in the piece to create public hysteria (poor coordination perhaps not so momentous but nearly as unprofessional as for example when JFK's assassination was reported in some detail at Christchurch, New Zealand newsstands before it actually unfolded in Dallas, Texas according to several sources including Oliver Stones' film JFK just provided here as a rambling aside).
     In addition to that limited section of the Sunday Times "exclusive" which the Ninth Amendment was able to peruse before it made the not difficult decision not to purchase a subscription nor find a way around the "paywall" of that newspaper to read the entire article readers further interested below can themselves find the second link below goes directly to the article should they wish to take that route for whatever reason as well as for other interested readers who also or instead may go the first link below to a BBC News UK article reporting on the "exclusive" article offering a somewhat more reasoned analysis including from a security analyst who does in his observations in the article seem not unduly alarmed by the "news".

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-33125068

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/

• 

British spies betrayed to Russians and Chinese

Tom Harper, Richard Kerbaj and Tim Shipman Published: 14 June 2015

• Comment (111) 
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Edward Snowden, inset right, has been in Moscow under Vladimir Putin’s protection since 2013 (Walter Bibikow).

RUSSIA and China have cracked the top-secret cache of files stolen by the fugitive US whistleblower Edward Snowden, forcing MI6 to pull agents out of live operations in hostile countries, according to senior officials in Downing Street, the Home Office and the security services.

Western intelligence agencies say they have been forced into the rescue operations after Moscow gained access to more than 1m classified files held by the former American security contractor, who fled to seek protection from Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, after mounting one of the largest leaks in US history.

Senior government sources confirmed that China had also cracked the encrypted documents, which contain details of secret intelligence techniques and information that could allow British and American spies to be identified.

One senior Home Office official accused Snowden of having “blood on his hands”, although Downing Street said there was “no evidence of anyone being harmed”.

Copyright 2015 Martin P. Alll World Rights Expressly Reserved

UPDATED: Obama Betrays U.S. Constitution And Electoral Base Presses Congress Keep Illegal Mass Surveillance Metadata Collection After Lying To People "50 Terror Plots" Thwarted When In Fact "Zero" Have Been Per CNN

     Wednesday, 27 May 2015, WASHINGTON, D.C. - President Obama this week continues to betray the United States Constitution and his electoral base with the increasingly falsely transparent Obama urging the U.S. Senate and all Congress to continue unconstitutional adjudicated illegal federal government mass surveillance of all Americans essentially continuing the most repugnant illegal provisions of the so-called "Patriot Act" then later passing off metadata collection to private telecommunications firms which will doubtless "securely" store all Americans' private communications for later use by the State under the so-called "USA Freedom Act".
     Obama national security agency mostly criminal directors and officials unsurprisingly faithfully have voiced a weak chorus of urging for the endorsement by those in Congress of their continuation of unconstitutional illegal practices which to date have accomplished nothing at all in protecting Americans from any terrorists whatsoever [UPDATE] even while President Obama outright has lied to the American people that "50 Terror Plots" have been thwarted when in fact CNN on air confirmed Friday, 29 May 2015 that President Obama now has been forced to admit the that the true number of terror plots thwarted in fact is "zero" even as the president still attempts to fan false terror throughout the nation without regard for the great cost to core essential American constitutional liberties. Meanwhile crybaby FBI Director James B. Comey badgers on for the endorsement of illegal unconstitutional "roving" wiretap activities of his agency plus a couple of others including strangely unused but nevertheless claimed essential authorities under the non-existent what the Obama administration calls "noncontroversial" provisions of the legally discredited so-called "Patriot Act".
     Not to be outdone in showing further her rote loyalties right out of the gate to her new boss Obama the presumably spoon-fed rantings of new Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch continued her threats that without the use of unconstitutional illegal authorities a "serious lapse in our ability to protect the American people" would result even as a senior Obama administration official unbelievably went so ridiculously far as to accuse the recessed Congress of "playing national security Russian roulette."
     One wonders to what hysterical heights White House terrorspeak rhetorical garbage might ascend were the country actually facing some real acute danger as the Obama administration appears prepared to wager a great many unfounded scare tactics on getting its way in just this week alone. Perhaps President Obama might be better advised to review the record of his claimed hero President Franklin D. Roosevelt before allowing his administration to continue to spout such obvious nonsense accomplishing little but discrediting the Obama administration now and in the future especially in a time of real crisis.
     The so-called "Patriot Act" must be allowed to expire 1 June 2015 and Congress reject any new unconstitutional criminal legislation such as the so-called "USA Freedom Act" which hardly has been debated in any meaningful way for such momentous legislation so seriously impacting core constitutional rights. False flag cries of desperation or Armageddon if no replacements are put in place of such illegal trash legislation as the "Patriot Act" by week's end are rightly disregarded as the Republican controlled Congress continues to demonstrate it has apparently neither the aptitude nor desire to engage in meaningful debate which cannot be replaced by last-minute horsetrading and dealmaking robbing the American people of the deeply thoughtful and comprehensive debate which Congress must have and the American people deserve and demand before the State take any action impacting these hugely significant areas to the future of our nation and the principles upon which it was founded.
     President Obama now repeatedly has done little but continue Bush administration illegal "national security" and law enforcement priorities despite pledging to do otherwise while at the same time allowing key Bush-Cheney administration torturers and other criminals to go completely unpunished and/or even giving them continued federal employment still engaging in existing and expanded illegal unconstitutional federal government encroachments on the People. The Obama legacy domestically in critical areas of promised change appears more and more to be little but an extension of the criminal Bush-Cheney administration policies with few lessons learned by key figures in a State run amok. The federal government intrudes further and further with dangerous challenges of the People's rights with the State's unconstitutional illegal actions anathema to the United States Constitution which the State continues to betray at its peril.
     Readers interested in more information on the above can go to the first two links below. Those readers interested in more background with extensive source links can go to the earlier Ninth Amendment 26 June UPDATED "Patriot Act Illegal Section 215" post where it first was published below on 9 May 2015. Readers further interested also can go to the last link below a very large collection of sources covering different aspects of NSA surveillance programs.    

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/27/us/politics/obama-urges-senate-to-renew-phone-record-collection-program.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/congress-playing-national-security-russian-roulette-in-patriot-act-debate/2015/05/27/61262566-04c0-11e5-8bda-c7b4e9a8f7ac_story.html?tid=hpModule_f8335a3c-868c-11e2-9d71-f0feafdd1394&hpid=z9

https://www.tumblr.com/search/nsa%20surveillance%20program

Copyright 2015 Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved

UPDATED: Terrorists Prevail As French Parliament Overwhelmingly Dumps Major Civil Liberties Adopts Unlimited Mass Surveillance In Fear From Attacks

     Wednesday, 6 October 2015, PARIS - Seemingly oblivious to the debate raging in the United States over post-9/11 attacks U.S government Bush Administration, N.S.A., C.I.A., F.B.I. defense intelligence and other agencies' continuing widespread profound civil liberties' abuses in the wake of the United States hysterical reaction to those attacks which government abuses still haunt Americans seriously threatening foundational principles of the U.S. Constitution to this day nevertheless the so-called "socialist" French Government today in a shameful Parliamentary vote in which ruling socialists joined with French right-wingers but for the Front National (apparently leaving that far right group as the last elected bastion of French civil liberties) overwhelmingly voted to give French intelligence agencies mass surveillance powers giving the French Government the "right to gather potentially unlimited Internet data from Internet communications, and to tap cellphones and capture text messages" of anyone at all.
     France's capitulation to terrorist fears in sacrificing French fundamental foundational liberties existing since the French Revolution long a singularly vital inspiration to the free world which liberties largely define French society to this day not even sacrificed in the face of two world wars is a profound tragedy perhaps especially sadly ironic given that in the wake of the horrific Charlie Hebdo attack the former French Prime Minister Dominque de Villepin emphatically implored on or about 17 January 2015 in Le Monde that the French not adopt comparable "exceptional" measures such as the so-called disastrous "Patriot Act" which legislation Mr. Villepin in condemning further asserted specifically started a "downward spiral" in the United States leading directly to a result which "has caused that country today to lose of its moral compass".
     The editorial board of the Ninth Amendment observes that the French unhappily now may assess the consequences on the "moral compass" of France itself of legislation which according to the description of at least one civil liberties group there sounds as bad or worse even than United States post-9/11 legislation and its aftermath. Considering the acknowledged failure of the United States secretive adoption of huge mass surveillance and myriad other unconstitutional practices acknowledged to have yielded virtually no valuable information preventing significant homeland terrorist threats should France find it has with virtually no debate sweepingly sacrificed such fundamental liberties itself to purchase but "a little temporary safety" and God forbid still face some worse attack, how much liberty will France have left to sacrifice? The action of the French is a dangerous harbinger for Europe arguably as bad or if possible worse even than Great Britain's vast GCHQ surveillance described by Edward J. Snowden as "worse than the N.S.A." with the French further setting an example that should neither be followed elsewhere in Europe nor anywhere else in the free world lest the free world as known cease to exist.
     Readers interested in more information about the above can go to either or both of the first two links below. [UPDATE] Those readers interested in further details about the new French mass surveillance law as well on the response of other European countries to terrorism fears can go to the third link below.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/06/world/europe/french-legislators-approve-sweeping-intelligence-bill.html?gwh=AB55DCBC38750DA2545732F9F6FEB3E6&gwt=pay&assetType=nyt_now

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32587377

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/07/world/europe/france-expanded-surveillance-charlie-hebdo.html?_r=0

Copyright 2015 Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved

N.Y. Times Disgust Abounds In "More Excuses On The Patriot Act" Entire Editorial Board Extraordinarily Dismal Admonition That The American People "Get Used To The Protections Of Your Civil Liberties Being Minimally Viable"

     Monday, 4 May 2015, NEW YORK, NY - The New York Times entire editorial board seemingly despairingly calls the proposed "Freedom Act" or other revisions currently under consideration to the so-called "Patriot Act" (which the Times recounts as "shoved through Congress") as "minimal viable product" unacceptable under the United States Constitution even as a virtual slew of (at least three) recent articles in the Times appear to cast at least on their surface some hope in present measures under consideration as being an unprecedented collaboration across the political spectrum from the Senate Judiciary Committee to members of House Committees and those in both parties in Congress (with the notable exception of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, and a handful of Republican hawks) as well as diverse presidential candidates which in whatever case clearly reflects the huge impact and invaluable significance of the Edward J. Snowden National Security Agency revelations of mass surveillance and data collection on informing national debate and consideration of the coming future of United States technology, national security and civil liberties issues.

     Beyond reports on the widespread agreement of government officials one article cites even an apparent lack of opposition from the National Security Agency to the proposed changes which on its face seems hopeful except when upon further examination the article cites "one recently departed senior intelligence official" who reportedly last Friday confided "[t]his is hardly major change". Meanwhile reportedly Human Rights Watch supports such proposals under consideration as an incremental "critical first step" while the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Information Technology Industry Council (not however to be confused with other organizations in this sentence dedicated to the protection of civil liberties) also support proposed changes and finally the American Civil Liberties Union takes no position other than to express its preference simply that the much despised Section 215 of the so-called "Patriot Act" be permitted to expire under its own sunset provision on 1 June 2015 without any other new related legislation at this time.

     The entire editorial board of the Ninth Amendment must stand with the entire editorial board of the New York Times in solid agreement here that such unacceptable erosions of civil liberties as have been perpetrated by the State particularly since 9/11 including the subsequent "false flag" audacities and criminal atrocities of the Bush Administration and its executive agencies including without limitation the N.S.A., C.I.A. and F.B.I. exploiting that horrific event in relentlessly unprecedented attacks against the United States Constitution most especially the Bill of Rights that the People do not stand for such "incremental" remedies as that compact does not tolerate any incremental erosion nor any incremental remedy such as now may be proposed by the State which today due to such serious transgressions stands on very tenuous ground from which it must retreat to the solid ground of Constitutional legitimacy with all haste. 

     However the Ninth Amendment must part from the New York Times on the final issue of tolerance of the State's entirely unacceptable transgressions as it is the duty of the Ninth Amendment as a right and concomitant responsibility of the press especially as set forth in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution to call not upon the People to "get used" to such outrages against the protections of their civil liberties perpetrated by the State vastly overreaching its Constitutionally granted powers but on the contrary that the State "get used" to following the rule of that supreme law of the land not "incrementally" but immediately or else it must cease to exist as it operates not under not any legitimacy granted it by the People but due to the action of its own transgressions operates as a rogue State unsupported and never created under any legitimate grant of power by the People wherein all power ultimately resides.

     Readers interested in the New York Times editorial can go to the first link below which is followed by links to related articles focusing on the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Congress and others in and out of power and finally a link to the related article on the apparent position of the N.S.A. on pending proposals.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/02/opinion/more-excuses-on-the-patriot-act.html?_r=0

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/02/us/politics/usa-freedom-act-surveillance-limits.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/01/us/politics/patriot-act-faces-revisions-backed-by-both-parties.html?_r=1

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/02/us/politics/giving-in-a-little-on-national-security-agency-data-collection.html

   

Copyright 2015 Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved

N.S.A. Spy Chief No "Back Door" Man Proposes Split "Front Door Key" So No Single Spy Nor Agency Could Decrypt Smartphone Nor Other Devices Data

     Saturday, 11 April 2015, WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Director of the National Security Agency (N.S.A.) Admiral "Back Door" Michael "Mike" Rogers (pictured in a recent Ninth Amendment post in a "cordial" disagreement with a reporter) has in the Washington Post article linked to below in its accompanying photo taken on a much friendlier even intellectual look with reading glasses no less a la Indicted Idiot Texas Ex-Governor Rick "Payback" Perry while reportedly one-upping the Lone Star state's brain dead still standing 2012 Presidential hopeful who just keeps coming back for more like an irrepressible zombie as N.S.A. Director Rogers used the longtime Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A.) spy leadership factory (particularly at its Woodrow Wilson School) Princeton University as the location for Rogers' recent announcement of his revolutionary new pitch that he in fact is not a "back door" man but instead just wants a piece of a "front door key" to decrypt data on consumer such as Apple smartphones and other devices which will be "split" so no one agency (say for example the rogue N.S.A.) nor snoop (say for example some rogue N.S.A. director, employee and/or contractor) would be able to use just their part of the key alone for decryption purposes but first would have to gather the other key piece(s).
     Given the rank and foul extensively documented many unconstitutional abuses of the N.S.A. largely initially revealed in part by Edward J. Snowden as well as given that the N.S.A. still conducts essentially unchecked criminal domestic and worldwide mass surveillance not to mention as well admitting that "[w]e kill people based on metadata" according to former N.S.A. Director Michael Hayden (per a previous Ninth Amendment post) including without limitation U.S. citizens the Ninth Amendment editorial board beyond wondering why the maniacal Kafkaesque N.S.A. invader of citizens' most sacrosanct areas and Orwellian record-keeper violating all realms of Americans' privacy (with allegedly virtually nothing to show for all its enormously expensive in every sense of the word abuses but the arrest of a California cab driver who allegedly wished to or maybe did donate $8,500 to a terrorist organization) in violation of all principles of fundamental rights not to mention common human decency should even be allowed to continue to exist much less have even part of a "front door" key to any citizen's encrypted data or home or business for that matter the Ninth Amendment does feel compelled to add it would not even feel comfortable trusting the N.S.A. nor its Director Admiral Michael "Mike" Rogers with even half a key to a public restroom.
     Reportedly as to encryption keys the jury is still out at the Obama White House still searching for a less invasive national security solution and The Ninth Amendment without editorial comment refers interested readers to the below link for considerably more information about the N.S.A. decryption proposal to come just a "piece" of the way into the "front door" as well as the history of the U.S. government versus industry debate on the subject including the strengths and vulnerabilities of current smartphone and other device encryption as well as several links therein to related articles on this and other national security trending topics.
       
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/as-encryption-spreads-us-worries-about-access-to-data-for-investigations/2015/04/10/7c1c7518-d401-11e4-a62f-ee745911a4ff_story.html?hpid=z1

Copyright 2015 Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved

Facebook European Class Action Privacy Lawsuit Due In Vienna Court Today Even As Facebook And Google Capitulate To Turkey Censorship Pressure

     Thursday, 9 April 2015, ISTANBUL, TURKEY and VIENNA, AUSTRIA - In what appears to be shaping up as a challenging week overseas for social media behemoths of United States origin first Facebook and then Google both reportedly unlike Twitter (at least early on) caved to Turkish recurring censorship pressure in order to avoid Internet bans and removed links and images and photographs as well as other visual and audio content related to leftist hostage takers last week at an Istanbul courthouse putting a gun to the head of Prosecutor Memhet Siram Kuraz whom they later killed.
     Twitter in any case is easily accessed even when "banned" by Turkish authorities by social media users using services which do not reveal their actual Internet access points and reportedly was restored to service Monday night without mention of whether it acceded to reportedly frequent Turkish censorship practices. YouTube later also was restored although Burcak Unsal, described as "an expert in digital law", in the New York Times distinguished Google from "hosting providers like Twitter or YouTube". To the extent YouTube "held out" it in any case now is owned by Google which early on caved to censorship pressure.
     Readers interested in more information on the above as well as Turkey's apparently growing Internet censorship practices extending to news organizations in that country can go to the first link provided below to the New York Times article filed from Istanbul, Turkey.
     Meanwhile BBC Technology news today reports that Facebook European Headquarters in Dublin, Ireland which registers all users outside of the United States and Canada faces in Vienna, Austria a 25,000 user class action filed lawsuit including 900 United Kingdom site users which alleges violations of European privacy laws. The claim led by Austrian "data protection campaigner" Max Schrems reportedly focuses on the way Facebook collects and forwards data as well as alleging Facebook further violates European privacy laws by its monitoring the use of the site's "Like" button.
     The suit is intended to stop "mass surveillance" by Facebook and further claims moreover that the social media giant has co-operated with the unconstitutional "PRISM" National Security Agency (NSA) mass domestic and foreign spying bulk data collection operation launched in 2007 under the claimed authority of the equally unconstitutional and reprehensible midnight garbage legislation the so-called  "Patriot Act" which even its its alleged author has said under no reading can support such activities by the NSA nor any other United States government entity. Facebook is expected to argue the Vienna court lacks jurisdiction to hear the suit.
     Key provisions of the disingenuously titled Patriot Act hatched from the rank exploitation of fears following the "9/11" disaster by the disgraced Bush-Cheney administration including the widely condemned Section 215 (including by both the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Rifle Association) are set to expire under "sunset" provisions unless they are again extended by 1 June 2015. Despite sham lawsuits by social media giants against the NSA these technology behemoths' complicity in NSA mass surveillance is well documented including without limitation all of the above-mentioned social media monsters as well as Yahoo! and several others. This was perhaps most recently confirmed by exiled American NSA contractor Edward J. Snowden from his first-hand knowledge in a recent Moscow interview with John Oliver host of "Last Week Tonight" shown on Home Box Office (HBO) and available, of course, on YouTube. Mr. Snowden incidentally in this year's Academy Award winning documentary "CitizenFour" names the NSA British partner in crime GCHQ as even more prone to privacy and other abuse if imaginable than the NSA.
     Readers interested in more information regarding the European class action lawsuit being brought in Vienna against Facebook European Dublin headquarters can go to the second link below.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/08/world/europe/google-turkey-kiraz-prosecutor.html?ref=todayspaper

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-32229285

Copyright 2015 Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved