For years, the Department of Homeland Security has run a virtually unknown program gathering domestic intelligence, one of many revelations in a wide-ranging tranche of internal documents reviewed by POLITICO.
DHS has a program gathering domestic intelligence — and virtually no one knows about it
Tag: ACLU
[2019] US military begins testing flying surveillance balloons across the country to TRACK people’s movements
The tests were carried out by U.S. Southern Command, or Southcom, which is part of the Department of Defense and is responsible for intelligence operations, security cooperation and disaster response in Central and South America. It’s a joint effort by the U.S. Air Force, Navy, Army and other forces whose main task is finding and intercepting drug shipments that are destined for the U.S. According to the Guardian, as many as 25 unmanned solar powered balloons were launched from rural South Dakota and made their way 250 miles across the neighboring states in tests.
Related:
Stratollites can maintain position over specific areas of interest for days, weeks, and eventually months on end. This allows for more sustained measurements and monitoring capabilities over a targeted area. Stratollites can carry a wide variety of commercial payloads (sensors, telescopes, communications arrays, etc.), launch rapidly on demand, and safely return payloads back to earth after mission completion.
Some interesting ‘coincidences’:
Read More »More Mass Surveillance: FOIA Docs Reveal Illegal Snooping On US Residents’ Financial Transactions
If it can conceivably be considered a “third party record,” the government is going to seek warrantless access to it. The Third Party Doctrine — ushered into existence by the Supreme Court in 1979 — says there’s no expectation of privacy in information shared with third parties. That case dealt with phone records. People may prefer the government stay out of their personal conversations, but the Smith v. Maryland ruling said that if people shared this info with phone companies (an involuntary “sharing” since this information was needed to connect calls and bill phone users), the government could obtain this information without a warrant.
More Mass Surveillance: FOIA Docs Reveal Illegal Snooping On US Residents’ Financial Transactions
Report Reveals US Lied About Afghan Civilians Killed in 2021 Drone Strike
U.S. military officials knew that an August 2021 drone strike in Kabul likely killed Afghan civilians including children but lied about it, a report published Friday revealed.
Report Reveals US Lied About Afghan Civilians Killed in 2021 Drone Strike
Related:
Military Investigation Reveals How the U.S. Botched a Drone Strike in Kabul
Netanyahu Says US Must ‘Reaffirm’ Alliance With Saudi Arabia + More [Abraham Accords]
Netanyahu Says US Must ‘Reaffirm’ Alliance With Saudi Arabia
The incoming prime minister said that he wants to build on the Abraham Accords, which his former government signed in 2020 to establish diplomatic ties with Bahrain and the UAE. Netanyahu said it’s “up to the leadership of Saudi Arabia if they want to partake in this effort.”
Saudi officials recently reaffirmed that they seek a Palestinian state as a precondition for normalizing with Israel. But in order to form a coalition government, Netanyahu gave Religious Zionism party leader Bezalel Smotrich, an ultranationalist settler, sweeping powers over the West Bank.
Related:
Read More »[09-2009] George Soros’ “Parallel Anti-War Media/Movement”
Disinformation, Absolutely + Sharp wind from the Bundestag
By Patrick Lawrence / Original to ScheerPost
1. Everything you will read in this commentary is disinformation.
2. To say that this commentary contains disinformation is disinformation.
3. To say statements calling this commentary disinformation are disinformation is disinformation.
Disinformation, Absolutely
Related:
People who try to report on the war in Ukraine from the Russian side or who try to provide humanitarian aid to those in need in the new Russian territories are excluded from public discourse. Freedom of speech and freedom of the press are becoming hollow concepts. In the future, anyone who says something that looks like a “playing down of Russian war crimes” can be punished for “incitement of the people” according to a legislative amendment passed by the Bundestag in summary proceedings on Thursday. By Ulrich Heyden.
American Gulag
Western journalists are providing breathless depictions of the harsh conditions facing U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner in Russia. Have none of them been inside a U.S. prison?
American Gulag
The Onion Files Hilarious Amicus Brief In An Important Case, And Actually Makes A Key Point In The Best Way Possible
from the put-the-onion’s-editorial-board-on-the-supreme-court dept
Tue, Oct 4th 2022 10:45am – Mike Masnick
In most cases, it does not do you any good to try to be funny in legal filings. In most cases, judges will not be that amused (even if those same judges sometimes try to make jokey rulings). In the world of the courts, the judges can be funny, but no one else should try. But every so often it works. The ACLU’s Eat Shit, Bob filing, for example, was pretty good.
The Onion Files Hilarious Amicus Brief In An Important Case, And Actually Makes A Key Point In The Best Way Possible
H/T: Steve Lehto
Related:
The man who wrote the Onion’s Supreme Court brief takes parody very seriously
Ohio Man Arrested and Prosecuted for Facebook Joke Appeals to Supreme Court
How Wall Street Is Funding The Culture War
The leading right-wing pugilist against “critical race theory” is backed by Wall Street execs whose financial crisis crushed communities of color.
How Wall Street Is Funding The Culture War
If you’re kid is learning critical race theory, congratulations on them getting into law school! 🤡
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
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