The NSA Leak Is Real, Snowden Documents Confirm

This is what Jon thought would be a dangerous event, now criminals have devastating tools to crack Banks

On Monday, a hacking group calling itself the “ShadowBrokers” announced an auction for what it claimed were “cyber weapons” made by the NSA. Based on never-before-published documents provided by the whistleblower Edward Snowden, The Intercept can confirm that the arsenal contains authentic NSA software, part of a powerful constellation of tools used to covertly infect computers worldwide.

The provenance of the code has been a matter of heated debate this week among cybersecurity experts, and while it remains unclear how the software leaked, one thing is now beyond speculation: The malware is covered with the NSA’s virtual fingerprints and clearly originates from the agency. 

The evidence that ties the ShadowBrokers dump to the NSA comes in an agency manual for implanting malware, classified top secret, provided by Snowden, and not previously available to the public. The draft manual instructs NSA operators to track their use of one malware program using a specific 16-character string, “ace02468bdf13579.” That exact same string appears throughout the ShadowBrokers leak in code associated with the same program, SECONDDATE.

 By Sam Biddle, The Intercept  21 August 16


http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/38675-the-nsa-leak-is-real-snowden-documents-confirm

More Trump demonization connecting to fear of Russians for votes

Did Trump Campaign Manager Reap Millions in Stolen Ukrainian Wealth?  This is the title of this NYT piece, but the author and indeed the paper is drowning in its own narrative build on NeoConservitive lies.

Did Trump Campaign Manager Reap Millions in Stolen Ukrainian Wealth? | Alternet: "Andrew E. Kramer"

So in a nutshell, if it is NYT and about Ukraine it is the opposite.  See Consortium News for perspective and just ignore campaign garbage until after November, https://consortiumnews.com/2015/01/24/nyt-is-lost-in-its-ukraine-propaganda/
Also see more on the use of the slur "Thug" by american media, http://smashingcapitalism.blogspot.com/2016/08/putin-is-dream-villain-for-us.html

Hacker Releases More Democratic Party Documents - The New York Times

Blaming Russia:  It is not true but is dangerous.

Whenever the NYT publishes as story like this by Neo Con hacks, it is safe to assume the opposite is true...  This is a clear deflection and a dangerous one.  Only in America is it more important to place blame on a whistleblower for a leak than to address the clearly illegal activity that the leak demonstrates.  Hacker Releases More Democratic Party Documents - The New York Times:

The NYPD Is Already a Small Army

Now It Is Hyping Terror Threats to Militarize Even More

"You name it, we are buying it," says NYPD Chief Bill Bratton as city purchases $7.5 million in military-style gear."




And you thought after Giuliani and Bloomberg, Bill de Blasio was a populist or progressive?

By Sarah Lazare / AlterNet

July 26, 2016

The NYPD is already the largest and most well-resourced police force in the United States, with more than 34,000 officers on its payroll and a budget that hovers over $5 billion annually.

But now, the New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton and Mayor Bill de Blasio are invoking the specter of ISIS-style terror and the supposed “war on cops” to spend at least another $7.5 million on military-style gear.

Their effort is part of a nationwide push by police departments to exploit the massacre at Orlando’s Pulse LGBTQ nightclub and the killing of five Dallas police officers to ramp up the militarization and funding of their forces. They do so as growing numbers take to the streets across the United States to charge that it is police who pose a threat to public safety, following the deadly cop shootings of black men Alton Sterling and Philando Castile.

In a press statement released Monday, the NYPD directly referenced “instances of localized terror attacks, active shooter incidents, and even direct ambushes of police officers” in justifying the massive purchase.

“Twenty thousand ballistic helmets will be distributed to all uniformed members of the service assigned to patrol functions,” the statement continued. “Additionally, six thousand heavy ballistic vests, which contain a front and rear level three panel, will be furnished in 3,000 vehicles assigned to patrol duties (two per vehicle).”

The purchases come on top of the more than $320 million that “has been secured to fund a broad spectrum of equipment and training since 2014, including: ballistic vests; helmets and vehicles; tactical escape hoods and belt-worn trauma kits; M4 rifles, OC spray and Tasers; smartphones and tablets; along with a host of training initiatives,” according to NYPD News. The police-affiliated site states, “Much of this funding has been provided by City Hall, the City Council, the New York County District Attorney, among others.”

International Business Times reporter Cristina Silva wrote Monday, “Some special units will also receive automatic long guns, more powerful pepper spray and Tasers.” And indeed, guns are included among images of new equipment to be disbursed to the NYPD, in addition to the vests and helmets.

However, the NYPD refused to directly answer repeated requests from AlterNet for clarification on which pool of money will be used to purchase the guns, Tasers and chemical weapons.

The expenditures come on top of the at least $1.9 billion funneled into training and new equipment over the last three years, according to Bratton. Remarkably, the city is moving to purchase 6,000 ballistic vests after it already bough bullet-proof vests last year.

Meanwhile, the NYPD receives a windfall from the federal program known as Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI)—a “war on terror” creation that operates as a slush fund for the militarization of police forces nationwide.

“As the NYPD spends millions on military gear this week, it is key to remember that they’re also the number one recipient of UASI funds, securing $178 million just last year," Skanda Kadirgamar, organizer for the War Resisters League, told AlterNet. "UASI funds police militarization trainings--convincing cops there’s a war against them, and compelling them to wage war on us. The NYPD and its team of NYC politicians are right on cue, as electoral candidates continue fueling fear and hate, and twisting tragic loss of life to their ends.”

As for Bratton, he told reporters at a press conference on Monday, "You name it, we are buying it... There’s not a police department in America that’s spending as much money, as much thought and interest on this issue of officer safety."

Lumumba Bandele, a member of the New York organization Communities United for Police Reform, told AlterNet that such proclamations are alarming. “What do they think this is, shoe shopping?” Bandele asked. “The NYPD force is like a child who gets a new toy. Whenever they get new equipment, they can’t wait to get out in the streets and test it. This makes it more likely that they will engage in high-risk activities, leading to greater loss of life, particularly for our community members."

“At this point," Bandele added "we’ve gone decades attempting to demilitarize the NYPD."

Mayor Bill de Blasio rallied behind Bratton. "Obviously all over the country people have been deeply trouble by the attack on our officers," he said. "We made this decision quickly in light of the challenges we face."

The massive purchase comes amid growing outcry at the department’s aggressive and racially discriminatory policing, including Stop-and-frisk policies that overwhelmingly target black and Latino people, as well as law enforcement repression of Black Lives Matter protests, in which the movement is treated like a terrorist threat.

Bratton, one of the most powerful police figures in the country, has used the specter of terrorism to press for expanded police powers, including access to phone data and ongoing, massive law enforcement deployments throughout New York.

His administration has recently fallen under criticism for aggressive raids targeting public housing communities across the city, during which one man to plunge to his death in April.

“People are screaming at the top of their lungs that police are part of the problem,” Josmar Trujillo, a writer and grassroots organizer with New Yorkers Against Bratton, told AlterNet. “We literally have to get arrested and throw our bodies into the street to even be noticed.”

The NYPD announcement immediately followed a nationwide surge of protests, organized by the Movement for Black Lives, under the banner of “Freedom Now.” Police killings of black people in 2015 outnumbered lynchings of African Americans during the worst year of Jim Crow. At least 1,146 people total were killed by police that year, according to the Guardian, in what is likely a conservative estimate due to the underreporting of law enforcement killings.

“Regular people can’t get resources, can’t get money for communities and schools,” Trujillo said. “Police can stomp their feet and get what they want. Police get everything they want, even though they are part of the problem.”

Sarah Lazare is a staff writer for AlterNet. A former staff writer for Common Dreams, she coedited the book About Face: Military Resisters Turn Against War. Follow her on Twitter at @sarahlazare.

Putin Is a Dream Villain for the US

FOCUS: The Russian 'Thug' Is a Dream Villain for the US:

"The American military and industrial complex needs a new enemy to justify its massive budget and Vladimir Putin is the right person at the right time, argues Peter Van Buren."

Privately I have been predicting that Hillary will have us in a shooting or bombing war within 90 days.  This would have the benefit for the administration that they would no longer need to listen to the Bernie supporters or make good on any of the promises that were made to secure the nomination.  The progressive DNC platform would be subverted by more "important" things -- war and patriotism.  We have been here before.  Thinking that a president would do such a thing is very cynical you may say but we have been headed strongly in the direction of a surveillance/security state for many years and war may be the only way to maintain that direction which is clearly Hillary's mission.  Adding to that that Hillary's hatred and aggressive rhetoric toward Putin is without peer strenghens Van Buren's argument.

By Peter Van Buren, Irish Examiner

04 August 16

There is a near-certainty in American political speech, going back to the 1980s: When a senior US official labels you a thug, trouble follows. ‘Thug’ is the safest go-to word in the lexicon of American Exceptionalism.

So, it is with concern that folks are lining up at the mic to call Russian president Vladimir Putin just that. Current president Barack Obama called him a “thug,” as did failed Republican nomination candidate Marco Rubio, who added “gangster” for good measure. Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan’s spokesperson found fault with Mr Putin and his whole nation, even adding an adjective: “Russia is a global menace led by a devious thug.” One rarely hears ‘ruffian’, ‘hooligan,’ ‘vandal’, ‘hoodlum’ or ‘villain’, but watch out for ‘thug’.

While throwing the term at Mr Putin is tied to the weak public evidence supposedly linking Russian state hacker to the Democratic National Committee computer breach, there may be larger issues in the background.

It seems the word ‘thug’ is a sort of whistle that when blown signals Americans and their media to psyche up for a new fight. For example, Secretary of State John Kerry on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad: “A thug and murderer.” Kerry also said, “Daesh [Islamic State] is in fact nothing more than a mixture of killers, of kidnappers, of criminals, of thugs ...” Then-president George W Bush on al Qaeda: “If we let down our guard against this group of thugs, they will hurt us again.” Bush also thought Saddam Hussein was a thug.

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders on Muammar Gaddafi: “Look, everybody understands Gaddafi is a thug and murderer.”

Madeleine Albright found thugs in Somalia and the Balkans for the wars of her era as secretary of state.

But why Mr Putin, and why now? Perhaps what we’re seeing is preparation for the next iteration of America’s perpetual state of war.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the conclusion of the Cold War (“the end of history,” as Francis Fukuyama called it), there was no global enemy for America to face down. No big nasty to spur weapons procurement, to justify a huge standing military with hundreds of bases around the world, or to pick fights with to allow a president down in the polls to morph into a superhero.

A lot of people had a lot of power and money in play that demanded some real bad guys. An attempt was made in the 1980s to make drug lords the new major threat, but they were too few in number to sustain the media campaign.

Following 9/11, the bad guys were “the terrorists”. The George W Bush administration riffed off that theme in appointing Saddam Hussein as a weapons-of-mass-destruction threat and in tagging Iran and North Korea as members of an “axis of evil”. Saddam Hussein turned out to be a bust, and the war in Iraq was very unpopular. Osama bin Laden never launched a second attack on the US, and the Taliban was dragged down by a war that seemed to lose its focus after 15 years. Iran and North Korea make a lot of noise but never seemed able to do real harm to America. The US made a good-faith effort trying to label all sorts of others — Gaddafi, Assad, Islamic State — as global enemies worthy of perpetual war, but the Middle East in general has turned into a quagmire. America likes a winner, or at least the appearance of winning.

Ahead of the next administration, Washington really needs an arch enemy, a poster-child kind of guy who looks like a James Bond villain. And preferably one with nuclear weapons he’ll brandish but never use.

Enter Putin the Thug.

Americans are already well-prepared by the old Cold War to see Russia again as an evil empire, and Mr Putin looks the part. The Russians are involved in Syria’s civil war, so there is some sense of continuity. A new Cold War with Russia would require America to buy more expensive military hardware, and find new areas of Europe, such as the Baltic states, to garrison. It might even breathe new life into a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation that is confused about its role vis-a-vis terrorism.

For politicians, ceaselessly shouting about the Muslim threat has proved to have downsides: It has inflamed many Muslims, perhaps pushing them toward radicalisation. In addition, it turns out there are Muslim voters in the US, and people who respect Muslims. The Kahn family’s speech to the Democratic National Convention about the death of their soldier son was proof of that.

On the other hand, Mr Putin doesn’t vote, only a handful of far leftists think he’s a good guy, and he can be slapped around in soundbites without risk that he will actually launch a war against the US.

Why, he can even be accused, without penalty, of meddling in our democratic processes.

Putin the Thug is a political-military-industrial-complex dream candidate. Expect him to feature heavily in the next administration’s foreign policy.

There's No Business Like the Arms Business: " William D. Hartung, TomDispatch"

Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson has stated that "volatility" in both the Middle East and Asia would make them "growth areas" for arms exports for the foreseeable future. (Photo: US-Japan Council)

Since reading Noam Chomsky in the early '90s I have held that US foreign policy's intentional and principle outcome is chaos and civil war around the world. One could reasonably conclude that this would surely be considered failure and therefore could not continue to be our policy over so many  years, but here lies trillions of dollars of "benefit" in so called failed interventions that nobody wants to talk about.