EdwardSnowden_CIA-Prism



Edward Snowden's girlfriend Lindsay Mills: At the moment I feel alone

Mills's blog – in which she described life with her boyfriend on Hawaii – taken down after Snowden identified as source of leaks


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/11/edward-snowden-lindsay-mills-guardian


  • The Guardian,
  • guardian.co.uk,
  • http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/11/edward-snowden-russia-asylum-request

  • The Guardian,
  • Russia has offered to consider an asylum request from the US whistleblower Edward Snowden, in the Kremlin's latest move to woo critics of the west.

    Snowden fled the United States before leaking the details of a top-secret US surveillance programme to the Guardian this month. He is currently believed to be in Hong Kong, but has reportedly changed hotels to keep his location secret.

    Fearing US retaliation, Snowden said at the weekend that "my predisposition is to seek asylum in a country with shared values", citing Iceland as an example. He defended his decision to flee to Hong Kong by citing its relative freedom compared with mainland China.

    Snowden is not known to have made any asylum requests, including to Russia. Yet speaking to the Russian newspaper Kommersant, Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin's spokesman, said: "If such an appeal is given, it will be considered. We'll act according to facts."

    Peskov's comments were widely carried by the Russian media, which have largely ignored Snowden's revelations that the National Security Agency (NSA) was secretly empowered with wide-reaching authority to collect information from the US mobile provider Verizon and to snoop on emails and internet communications via a data-mining programme called Prism. Russia's feared security services are widely believed to maintain similar powers.

    Peskov's comments on potential asylum opened the floodgates on support for Snowden. Robert Shlegel, an influential MP with the ruling United Russia party, said: "That would be a good idea."

    Alexey Pushkov, head of the Duma's international affairs committee and a vocal US critic, said on Twitter: "By promising asylum to Snowden, Moscow has taken upon itself the protection of those persecuted for political reasons. There will be hysterics in the US. They only recognise this right for themselves."

    He continued: "Listening to telephones and tracking the internet, the US special services broke the laws of their country. In this case, Snowden, like Assange, is a human rights activist."

    Russia has a roundly poor reputation for human rights and freedom of speech, with people regularly persecuted for their political beliefs. Dozens have been arrested for protesting against Putin, and the president's top critics continue to face the decision of whether to flee the country or end up in jail.

    The country's own whistleblowers suffer harrowing fates. Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer who revealed a multimillion-dollar corruption scheme involving officials from the interior ministry and tax police, was arrested and later died in jail after being refused medical attention. His body also showed signs of torture. Alexey Navalny, a prominent anti-corruption activist, is currently on trial on charges widely believed to be politically motivated.

    Yet Russia is often among the first countries to offer support for whistleblowers who expose wrongdoing in the west. Julian Assange, the head of WikiLeaks, found many a champion among Russian officials and was given a programme on Russia Today, the Kremlin's English-language propaganda television channel.

    Putin has made a concerted effort to woo those who forsake the west. This year, he loudly welcomed Gérard Depardieu after the French actor declared his desire to renounce his citizenship in protest at France's high tax rate. Putin granted the actor Russian citizenship and other Russian officials have given him flats around the country, including in Grozny, the postwar capital of Chechnya.


     
    MI6 are the War Lords of the Drug Trade
    by James Casbolt
    from JamesCasbolt Website
    MI6 are the War Lords of the Drug Trade
    http://www.bliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/sociopol_drugs01.htm

               There Is Still Hope Amongst The Sadness   

     

    Email from June Saunders in London -INLNews.com Reader that needs to be read:

     

    There is hope amongst the sadness..

    ..Things are happening--please watch Russia (RT) on TV.. There is an Oxford Professor who says that most world leaders of countries and psychos, according to a test that can be applied...even people like Winston Churchill, David Cameron, Tony Blair. George Bush, Barrack Obama etc...they are unfeeling people and unfeeling for the people....but he says that is OK..  that is because me need these psychos to make uncomfortable decisions...I say this is bollocks....what we need if love and caring for others..How have these psycho leaders helped humanity ..... with half of the world starving...They don't get it...If people were educated and fed properly…. they would use birth control to  regulate their lives..and they would have knowledge to have a happier balanced informed community....these ignorant evil people have destroyed our planet with their hatred and  greed... Edward Snowden blowing the whistle on the CIA... its all coming out now... There is hope amongst the sadness..

     


     
    It may be a revelation to many people that the global drug trade is controlled and run by the intelligence agencies. In this global drug trade British intelligence reigns supreme.
     
    As intelligence insiders know MI-5 and MI-6 control many of the other intelligence agencies in the world (CIA, MOSSAD etc) in a vast web of intrigue and corruption that has its global power base in the city of London, the square mile. My name is James Casbolt, and I worked for MI-6 in 'black ops' cocaine trafficking with the IRA and MOSSAD in London and Brighton between 1995 and 1999.
     
    My father Peter Casbolt was also MI-6 and worked with the CIA and mafia in Rome, trafficking cocaine into Britain. My experience was that the distinctions of all these groups became blurred until in the end we were all one international group working together for the same goals. We were puppets who had our strings pulled by global puppet masters based in the city of London. Most levels of the intelligence agencies are not loyal to the people of the country they are based in and see themselves as 'super national'.

    It had been proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the CIA has been bringing in most of the drugs into America for the last fifty years (see ex LAPD officer Michael Rupert's 'From the wilderness' website for proof).
     
    The CIA operates under orders from British intelligence and was created by British intelligence in 1947.
     
    The CIA today is still loyal to the international bankers based in the city of London and the global elite aristocratic families like the Rothschild's and the Windsor's. Since it was first started, MI-6 has always brought drugs into Britain. They do not bring 'some' of the drugs into Britain but I would estimate MI-6 bring in around ninety percent of the drugs in.
     
    They do this by pulling the strings of many organized crime and terrorist groups and these groups like the IRA are full of MI-6 agents.

    MI-6 bring in heroin from the middle east, cocaine from south America and cannabis from morocco as well as other places. British intelligence also designed and created the drug LSD in the 1950's through places like the Tavistock Institute in London. By the 1960's MI-5, MI-6 and the CIA were using LSD as a weapon against the angry protestors of the sixties and turned them into 'flower children' who were too tripped out to organize a revolution.

    Dr Timothy Leary the LSD guru of the sixties was a CIA puppet. Funds and drugs for Leary's research came from the CIA and Leary says that Cord Meyer, the CIA agent in charge of funding the sixties LSD counter culture has "helped me to understand my political cultural role more clearly".
     
    In 1998, I was sent 3000 LSD doses on blotting paper by MI-5 with pictures of the European union flag on them. The MI-5 man who sent them told my father this was a government 'signature' and this LSD was called 'Europa'.

    This global drugs trade controlled by British intelligence is worth at least 500 billion a year. This is more than the global oil trade and the economy in Britain and America is totally dependent on this drug money. Mafia crime boss John Gotti exposed the situation when asked in court if he was involved in drug trafficking.
     
    He replied "No we can't compete with the government".
     
    I believe this was only a half truth because the mafia and the CIA are the same group at the upper levels. In Britain, the MI-6 drug money is laundered through the Bank of England, Barclays Bank and other household name companies. The drug money is passed from account to account until its origins are lost in a huge web of transactions.
     
    The drug money comes out 'cleaner' but not totally clean. Diamonds are then bought with this money from the corrupt diamond business families like the Oppenheimers.
     
    These diamonds are then sold and the drug money is clean. MI-6 and the CIA are also responsible for the crack cocaine epidemic in Britain and America. In 1978, MI-6 and the CIA were in south America researching the effects of the natives smoking 'basuco' cocaine paste. This has the same effect as crack cocaine. They saw that the strength and addiction potential was far greater than ordinary cocaine and created crack cocaine from the basuco formula.
     
    MI-6 and the CIA then flooded Britain and America with crack.
     
    Two years later, in 1980, Britain and America were starting to see the first signs of the crack cocaine epidemic on the streets. On august 23, 1987, in a rural community south of Little Rock in America, two teenage boys named Kevin Ives and Don Henry were murdered and dismembered after witnessing a CIA cocaine drop that was part of a CIA drug trafficking operation based at a small airport in Mena, Arkansas.
     
    Bill Clinton was the governor of Arkansas at the time. Bill Clinton was involved with the CIA at this time and $100 million worth of cocaine was coming through the Mena, Arkansas airport each month.
     
    For proof see the books 'Compromise' and 'Dope Inc'.

    On my father's international MI-6 drug runs, whatever fell off the back of the lorry so to speak he would keep and we would sell it in Britain. As long as my father was meeting the speedboats from Morocco in the Costa del Sol and then moving the lorry loads of cannabis through their MI-6, IRA lorry business into Britain every month, British intelligence were happy.
     
    As long as my father was moving shipments of cocaine out of Rome every month, MI5 and MI6 were happy. If my father kept a bit to sell himself no one cared because there was enough drugs and money to go round in this £500 billion a year global drugs trade. The ones who were really paying were the people addicted. Who were paying with suffering.
     
    But karma always catches up and both myself and my father became addicted to heroin in later years and my father died addicted, and poor in prison under very strange circumstances. Today, I am clean and drug-free and wish to help stop the untold suffering this global drugs trade causes.
     
    The intelligence agencies have always used addictive drugs as a weapon against the masses to bring in their long term plan for a one world government, a one world police force designed to be NATO and a micro chipped population known as the New World Order. As the population is in a drug or alcohol-induced trance watching 'Coronation Street', the new world order is being crept in behind them.

    To properly expose this global intelligence run drugs trade we need to expose the key players in this area:
    1. Tibor Rosenbaum, a MOSSAD agent and head of the Geneva based Banque du Credit international. This bank was the forerunner to the notorious Bank of Credit and Commerce international (BCCI) which is a major intelligence drug money laundering bank. 'Life' magazine exposed Rosenbaum's bank as a money launderer for the Meyer Lanksky American organized crime family and Tibor Rosenbaum funded and supported 'Permindex' the MI6 assassination unit which was at the heart of the John F. Kennedy assassination.
       
    2. Robert Vesco, sponsored by the Swiss branch of the Rothchilds and part of the American connection to the Medellin drug cartel in Colombia.
       
    3. Sir Francis de Guingand, former head of British intelligence, now living in south Africa (and every head of MI5 and MI6 has been involved in the drug world before and after him).
       
    4. Henry Keswick, chairman of Jardine Matheson which is one of the biggest drug trafficking operations in the world. His brother John Keswick is chairman of the bank of England.
       
    5. Sir Martin Wakefield Jacomb, Bank of England director from 1987 to 1995, Barclays Bank Deputy Chairman in 1985, Telegraph newspapers director in 1986 (This is the reason why this can of worms doesn't get out in the mainstream media. The people who are perpetrating these crimes control most of the mainstream media. In America former director of the CIA William Casey was, before his death in 1987, head of the council of the media network ABC. Many insiders refer to ABC as 'The CIA network.)
       
    6. George Bush, Snr, former President and former head of the CIA and America's leading drug baron who has fronted more wars on drugs than any other president. Which in reality is just a method to eliminate competition. A whole book could be written on George Bush's involvement in the global drug trade but it is well-covered in the book 'Dark Alliance' by investigative journalist Gary Webb.
    Gary Webb was found dead with two gunshot wounds to the back of his head with a revolver. The case was declared a 'suicide'. You figure that out. Gary Webb as well as myself and other investigators, found that much of this 'black ops' drug money is being used to fund projects classified above top secret.
     
    These projects include the building and maintaining of deep level underground bases in,
    • Dulce in New Mexico
    • Pine Gap in Australia
    • Snowy mountains in Australia
    • The Nyala range in Africa
    • west of Kindu in Africa
    • next to the Libyan border in Egypt
    • Mount Blanc in Switzerland
    • Narvik in Scandinavia
    • Gottland island in Sweden,
    ...and many other places around the world (more about these underground bases in my next issue).
     
    The information on this global drugs trade run by the intelligence agencies desperately needs to get out on a large scale.
     
    Any information, comments or feedback to help me with my work would be greatly welcomed.
     
     

               There Is Still Hope Amongst The Sadness   

     

    Email from June Saunders in London -INLNews.com Reader that needs to be read:

     

    There is hope amongst the sadness..

    ..Things are happening--please watch Russia (RT) on TV.. There is an Oxford Professor who says that most world leaders of countries and psychos, according to a test that can be applied...even people like Winston Churchill, David Cameron, Tony Blair. George Bush, Barrack Obama etc...they are unfeeling people and unfeeling for the people....but he says that is OK..  that is because me need these psychos to make uncomfortable decisions...I say this is bollocks....what we need if love and caring for others..How have these psycho leaders helped humanity ..... with half of the world starving...They don't get it...If people were educated and fed properly…. they would use birth control to  regulate their lives..and they would have knowledge to have a happier balanced informed community....these ignorant evil people have destroyed our planet with their hatred and  greed... Edward Snowden blowing the whistle on the CIA... its all coming out now... There is hope amongst the sadness..

     



    Famous Oxonians

    Throughout its history, Oxford has produced gifted men and women in every sphere of human endeavour who have studied or taught at the University.

    Among these are 26 British Prime Ministers, including the current one, the Rt Hon David Cameron MP; at least 30 international leaders; 50 Nobel Prize winners; 7 current holders of the Order of Merit; at least 12 saints and 20 Archbishops of Canterbury; and some 120 Olympic medal winners.

    At least 117 Oxonians were elected to Parliament in the UK's General Election in 2010, and more than 140 sit in the House of Lords. The offices of Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary, Home Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer are all currently held by Oxford graduates, as are those of Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Secretary of State for Education, Secretary of State for Defence, Secretary of State for Health, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and the Chief Secretary to the Treasury. In addition, at least five members of the US House of Representatives, one members of the US Senate and one US State Governor were educated at Oxford.

    Please take the time to read the full list of Famous Oxonians forther below on this INL News Page...

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2013/jun/20/theguardian-edward-snowden

    Edward Snowden spoke, so why did the British press turn a deaf ear?

    Edward Snowden: largely ignored by the UK press
    ....

    Why did the majority of the British press ignore a story regarded as hugely important by newspapers in the United States and Europe and, for the matter, the rest of the world?

    On Monday, Edward Snowden - the National Security Agency whistleblower regarded as the most wanted man in the world - did an online question-and-answer session arranged through The Guardian.

    The American media were across it: the Washington Post of course (see commentary here), and the New York Times here, and the Los Angeles Times here plus the Wall Street Journal here. And most of the main metro papers across the US weighed in too.

    Well, you might say, it's a big story in the USA, what with Snowden being an American who leaked American secrets.

    But it was taken to be a big story across Europe too, in Le Monde and in Germany's Die Zeit and in Sweden's Expressen. And outside Europe too - here in the Times of India, and here in South Africa's Star. And plenty more.

    This was only the mainstream media. The Q&A was widely discussed and dissected across the net. See Salon.com and Buzzfeed and Gigaom, plus scores more. Many thousands of tweets were devoted to it too.

    Yet, with the exception of The Independent (here), no UK national paper thought it worthy of coverage.

    Why? Are British newspapers' news values different from those elsewhere? Does the story itself run counter to their political agendas? Is it due to hostility towards The Guardian?

    Is it a collective belief among a largely right-of-centre press that The Guardian is beyond the pale? This view emerged in a Daily Mail piece by Stephen Glover in which he spoke of the paper being so "driven by its own obsessions" as to "carelessly reveal the important secrets of the British government."

    The Mail holds aloft the banner of press freedom when citing the public's right to know about Hugh Grant's private life, but it appears to find it unacceptable for a paper to inform the people that their privacy has been compromised by their own government.

    Even Snowden's revelations in The Guardian that British intelligence had spied on delegates at two G20 summits passed under most editors' radars, though The Times did cover the story. Most papers, however, turned a blind eye.

    As I say, I'm genuinely uncertain why newspapers that make so much of their independence from the state have failed so badly in this instance. Just why did they turn a deaf ear?


    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/edward-snowden

    Edward Snowden

    Latest on the computer analyst whistleblower who provided the Guardian with top-secret NSA documents leading to revelations about US surveillance on phone and internet communications


    Keith Alexander NSA

    NSA chief claims 'focused' surveillance disrupted more than 50 terror plots

    19 Jun 2013:

    Keith Alexander testifies to Congress that programs revealed by Edward Snowden have stopped 'more than 50' attacks

    19 Jun 2013: Simon Jenkins: Snowden's revelations are causing outrage in the US. In the UK, Hague deploys a police-state defence and the media is silenced

    18 Jun 2013:

    Journalist says he was asked by unnamed intermediary to notify Icelandic government that Snowden may want to seek asylum

    18 Jun 2013: Key points from the whistleblower's responses to questions about the NSA leak

    China is building up a cyber warfare capability by recruiting hackers, the US fears. 18 Jun 2013:

    John Bolton: Whatever his grandiose claims, the NSA leaker has betrayed his country by gifting China moral equivalence for its cyber warfare

    18 Jun 2013:

    Lonnie Snowden asks his son to 'measure what you're going to do' but says he disagrees with the US surveillance

    Where is the outrage over Prism in Australia?

    Global surveillance is a threat to our personal freedom. And yet, the NSA revelations have barely caused a ripple on this side of the world

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/18/australia-prism-surveillance#start-of-comments

     


  • Protesters hold placards as they march to the US consulate in support of Edward Snowden.
    Protesters hold placards as they march to the US consulate in Hong Kong, in support of Edward Snowden. Photograph: Philippe Lopez/AFP/Getty

    Politicians and journalists ignore public opinion at their peril. Less than two weeks after the explosive revelations by former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden on the creation of a privatised, American surveillance apparatus, a TIME poll finds a majority of Americans support the leak, and Snowden receives a higher approval rating than US citizens view Congress. History has also been kind to one of the great leakers in history, the Pentagon Paper’s Daniel Ellsberg (who backs Snowden, too). Never under-estimate the public’s desire to discover what the state is doing in its name.

    In Australia, however, the story has barely caused a ripple. Attorney general Mark Dreyfus refuses to acknowledge that Canberra receives information from the Prism system, instead saying that Australians should rest easy and feel protected by the warm glow of intelligence sharing with Washington. In reality, evidence has emerged that the Labor government is building a massive data storage facility to manage massive amounts of information from the US. Unsurprisingly, the US claims its monitoring is proportionate and legal, despite some members of Congress having no idea of the scope of the secret programs.

    This is spying by any other name – and Snowden makes clear that everybody is doing it, despite protestations from Australia and America that only China is unleashing constant cyber attacks (Foreign Policy recently revealed that the NSA hacks into Chinese systems).

    Dreyfus tried to appease whatever public anger exists – and thus far it’s been muted – by calling an inquiry into protection of information in the digital age. The Federal Greens rightly want far greater transparency on government surveillance, knowing that both Labor and the likely incoming Liberal government have spent decades colluding on ever-expanding powers of security services to monitor and track citizens with little accountability. Don’t expect support from the privacy commissioner, either, who shrugged his shoulders and implied in a statement that national security should trump privacy. Nothing to see here, move along now.

    It’s shocking that so few Australians even know about the existence of the intimate intelligence sharing known as “five eyes” between Britain, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Trust the system, we’re told by The Australian’s editorial last week; it isn't just “extreme libertarians” who question the prevalence of the surveillance state. Australia's role as a US ally should never be to blindly accept dictates from Washington though if history is any guide Canberra sits too comfortably under America’s hypnotic war machine.

    If this current assault on our communications isn’t bad enough, the growth of internet censorship and the private companies that back it is a growing issue across the world, including Australia and Asia-Pacific. Although Labor’s plans for web filtering were squashed, it’s inevitable that such calls will grow in the coming years, as is already happening across the globe. Besides, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore are just some of our neighbours that proudly restrict access for their citizens.

    Democracies are increasingly being pushed into a pincer move of censorship and surveillance that would be impossible without the co-operation of private firms making billions in profits. The US hires corporations to monitor social media; Israeli-linked companies have been essential in assisting the NSA spying program as well as, in one case, selling Big Brother monitors to Egypt’s Mubarak and Libya’s Qaddafi.

    Snowden’s NSA revelations only touched the surface of the deep collaboration between government and outsourcers. US journalist Tim Shorrock estimates that about 70% of America’s intelligence budget is spent on private industry since 9/11. The extent of the NSA’s cyber army is enough, according to a feature in Wired, to “launch devastating cyber attacks”.

    Whistle-blowers are an essential part of any democracy, despite the bleating of officials in Canberra, London and Washington. Governments are only outraged when embarassing leaks are finally unveiled; they continually give details to the press that makes them look strong. 

    The largely supine response of the Australian parliament to the Prism revelations – with opposition spokesman Malcolm Turnbull being a notable exception – proves how far this country is from proudly displaying an independent streak. Global surveillance, along with internet censorship, is a threat to both our personal freedom and ability to communicate openly.

    The post 9/11 world has taught us that states exaggerate threats to scare citizens into acquiescence. Multinationals have picked a side and it’s the bottom line. Shining a light on the NSA and its global couriers is a public service that is only opposed by those with a vested interest in keeping the public in the dark.



     
    Officials: Edward Snowden took NSA secrets on thumb drive
     
    Edward Snowden
    Edward Snowden, who worked as a contract employee at the National Security Agency. (The Guardian / Associated Press / June 9, 2013)
     
    WASHINGTON -- Former National Security Agency contract employee Edward Snowden used a computer thumb drive to smuggle highly classified documents out of an NSA facility in Hawaii, using a portable digital device supposedly barred inside the cyber spying agency, U.S. officials said.
    Investigators “know how many documents he downloaded and what server he took them from,” said one official who would not be named while speaking about the ongoing investigation.
    Snowden worked as a system administrator, a technical job that gave him wide access to NSA computer networks and presumably a keen understanding of how those networks are monitored for unauthorized downloads.
    “Of course, there are always exceptions” to the thumb drive ban, a former NSA official said, particularly for network administrators. “There are people who need to use a thumb drive and they have special permission. But when you use one, people always look at you funny.”
    FBI Director Robert Mueller III said Thursday that he expects Snowden to be arrested and prosecuted in this country.
    “He is the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation,” Mueller told a House hearing. “We are taking all necessary steps to hold this person responsible for these disclosures.”
    Confirmation of a thumb drive solved one of the central mysteries in the case: how Snowden, who worked for contracting giant Booz Allen Hamilton, physically removed classified material from an spy agency famous for strict security and ultra-secrecy.
    He acknowledged on Sunday that he gave two news organizations details of secret NSA surveillance programs on telephones and the Internet, but did not say how he had transferred the data. He is believed to be hiding in Hong Kong.
    Officials said they still don’t know how Snowden got access to an order marked “Top Secret” from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, or a highly-classified directive from President Obama authorizing a military target list for cyber attacks. Neither document would be widely shared, or normally available to a low-level NSA employee.
    A larger number of NSA employees and contractors might have access to a PowerPoint slide show on PRISM, which uses online data from nine U.S. Internet and technology companies. Snowden said he provided the slides to the Washington Post and The Guardian.
    “There is a certain level of information that is not specific to a mission, but helps people who work there understand how the place functions,” the former NSA operator said.
    The Pentagon, which includes the NSA, banned connecting thumb drives and other portable storage devices to classified computers after malicious software was discovered on the military’s classified network in October 2008.
    The chief suspect was Russian intelligence, and investigators determined that the malware was introduced through a corrupted thumb drive. The years-long effort to clean up the system was code-named Operation Buckshot Yankee. Many of the external drives on Defense Department computers were disabled.
    Two years later, Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, an intelligence analyst in Iraq, downloaded hundreds of thousands of classified documents onto thumb drives and computer discs, and transferred the data to the anti-secrecy website Wikileaks.
    After that, “there was a lot of focus on this type of insider threat,” the former operator said. “If it is still easy to use a thumb drive, that is a major problem.”
    Manning is on trial at Fort Meade, Md., on charges of aiding America’s enemies. If convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison. He already has pleaded guilty to 10 lesser counts.
    In testimony Wednesday, NSA director Gen. Keith Alexander acknowledged “grave concerns” about Snowden’s access to so many secret programs and documents.
    “In this case, this individual was a system administrator with access to key parts of the network,” he said. “That is of serious concern to us and something that we have to fix.”
     
     

    Photos

    A supporter holds a picture of Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee who leaked top-secret information about U.S. surveillance programs, outside the U.S. Consulate General in Hong Kong Thursday, June 13, 2013. The news of Snowden's whereabouts, revealed by an editor of a local newspaper that interviewed him Wednesday, is the first since he went to ground Monday after checking out of his hotel in this autonomous Chinese territory. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

    By KELVIN CHAN
    Posted Jun 13, 2013
    For months, China has tried to turn the tables on the U.S. to counter accusations that it hacks America's computers and networks. Now, former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden may have handed Beijing a weapon in its cyber war of words with Washington.
    In an interview with the South China Morning Post newspaper, Snowden claims the U.S. has long been attacking a Hong Kong university that routes all Internet traffic in and out of the semiautonomous Chinese region.
    Snowden said the National Security Agency's 61,000 hacking targets around the world include hundreds in Hong Kong and mainland China, the paper reported late Wednesday. The Post, Hong Kong's main English-language newspaper, said Snowden had presented documents to support those claims, but it did not describe the documents and said it could not verify them.
    Snowden's comments were his first since the 29-year-old American revealed himself as the source of a major leak of top-secret information on U.S. surveillance programs. He flew to Hong Kong from Hawaii before revealing himself, and the Post said he is staying out of sight amid speculation the U.S. may seek his extradition.
    Snowden, who worked for the CIA and later as a contractor for the NSA, has revealed details about U.S. spy programs that sweep up millions of Americans' telephone records, emails and Internet data in the hunt for terrorists. American law enforcement officials are building a case against him but have yet to bring charges.
    U.S. officials have disputed some of his claims, particularly his assertion to the Guardian newspaper of Britain that he "had the authority to wiretap anyone." He also said he made $200,000 a year, although contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, where he worked before being fired this week, said his salary was $122,000.
    Snowden's allegations about U.S. hacking add a new twist to the long-running battle between Washington and Beijing over cybersecurity.
    The U.S. been delivering a steady flow of reports accusing China's government and military of computer-based attacks against America. U.S. officials have said recently that the Chinese seem more open to trying to work with the U.S. to address the problems.
    Snowden's allegations follow comments last week from China's Internet security chief, who told state media that Beijing has amassed huge amounts of data on U.S.-based hacking. The official held off on blaming the U.S. government, saying it would be irresponsible and that the better approach is to seek to cooperate in the fight against cyberattacks




    Read more: http://www.pjstar.com/free/x1615045415/Leaker-Edward-Snowden-alleges-NSA-hacking-on-China-world#ixzz2WaQLh6w5
    http://www.pjstar.com/free/x1615045415/Leaker-Edward-Snowden-alleges-NSA-hacking-on-China-world

     
    NSA leaker Snowden not welcome in UK
     
     

    Britain tells airlines NSA leaker Snowden should not be allowed on flights to UK





    obama charlie rose 17 Jun 2013:

    Addressing leaked NSA files, president says Department of Justice is investigating 'possible extradition' of Edward Snowden


    17 Jun 2013:

    The whistleblower behind the biggest intelligence leak in NSA history answered your questions about the NSA surveillance revelations


    17 Jun 2013:

    Jeff Jarvis: Snowden's NSA leak revelations are changing people's assumptions about online privacy, killing trust in web freedom

    Gene Hackman in The Conversation in 1974, 
    17 Jun 2013: Vague, far-reaching laws mixed with phenomenal technology mean agencies bug, listen and surveil just because they can

    17 Jun 2013: NSA whistleblower tells Guardian readers he would be enjoying a life of luxury in Beijing if he was an intelligence mercenary

    17 Jun 2013: Helen Gao: China's social media features praise for the NSA revelations as state media decries US double standards – while glossing over surveillance issues, and the Hong Kong connection

    edward Snowden 
    17 Jun 2013: Remarks follow accusation from Dick Cheney that whistleblower was a 'traitor' who may have had connection with China

    Edward Snowden 'not a Chinese spy' - Beijing

    edward Snowden 
    17 Jun 2013: Remarks follow accusation from Dick Cheney that whistleblower was a 'traitor' who may have had connection with China

    17 Jun 2013:

    In a live chat with Guardian readers, NSA whistleblower says US leaders cannot 'cover this up by jailing or murdering me'


    Edward Snowden Supporters Gather In Hong Kong 16 Jun 2013:

    Gary Younge: The violation of civil liberties in the name of security has had a profound impact on those who came of age after 9/11


    16 Jun 2013:

    Former vice-president tells Fox he is 'suspicious because he went to China' as senior figures discuss surveillance leaks

    16 Jun 2013: John Patterson: From Enemy of the State to Eagle Eye to Minority Report, US films have accustomed us to the idea that we are constantly being watched

    New Prism slide 16 Jun 2013:

    Revelations about the National Security Agency's online surveillance raise important questions about privacy in a digital age. Explore the issues in class with these resources

    15 Jun 2013:

    Observer/Opinium poll also found 45% saying Edward Snowden should be reprimanded, but only 30% believing he had committed a crime

    A protester with a photograph of Edward Snowden at the protest in Hong Kong Gallery (10 pictures), 15 Jun 2013:

    Protesters march to US consulate and urge Hong Kong's government not to extradite whistleblower

    Protesters blow whistles during a protest in support of Edward Snowden in Hong Kong 15 Jun 2013:

    Demonstrators call on government to protect NSA whistleblower and attack US over internet spying programmes

    15 Jun 2013:

    Open thread: NSA leaker Snowden has sought refuge in Hong Kong. What would you do next in his shoes?

    14 Jun 2013: Glenn Greenwald: The NSA whistleblower's only concern was that his disclosures would be met with apathy. Instead, they're leading to real reform

    14 Jun 2013: British government issues travel alert to airlines around the world saying Snowden likely to be refused entry to UK

    14 Jun 2013:

    Film about NSA whistleblower already being planned, along with separate feature about Barack Obama's drones programme

    Edward Snowden. 14 Jun 2013:

    Pratap Chatterjee: The firm that formerly employed both the director of national intelligence and the NSA whistleblower merits closer scrutiny





    How MI6, CIA spend tax money on propping up drug production

    Annie Machon is a former intel­li­gence officer for the UK's MI5, who resigned in 1996 to blow the whistle. She is now a writer, public speaker and a Director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
    Published time: May 07, 2013 10:48
    An Afghan farmer collects raw opium as he works in a poppy field in Khogyani District of Nangarhar province on April 29, 2013. (AFP Photo)
    An Afghan farmer collects raw opium as he works in a poppy field in Khogyani District
     
    With both the CIA and MI6 secretly providing 'ghost money' bribes to the Afghan political establishment, it’s likely that Afghans will increasingly support a resurgent Taliban and the drug trade will be further propped up.
    Afghan President Hamid Karzai, has recently been criticized for taking 'ghost money' from the CIA and MI6. The sums are unknown – for the usual reasons of 'national security' – but are estimated to have been in the tens of millions of dollars. While this is nowhere near the eye-bleeding $12 billion shipped over to Iraq on pallets in the wake of the invasion a decade ago, it is still a significant amount.

    And how has this money been spent?  Certainly not on social projects or rebuilding initiatives.  Rather, the reporting indicates, the money has been funneled to Karzai's cronies as bribes in a corrupt attempt to buy influence in the country.

    None of this surprises me. MI6 has a long and ignoble history of trying to buy influence in countries of interest.  In 1995/96 it funded a 'ragtag group of Islamic extremists,' headed up by a Libyan military intelligence officer, in an illegal attempt to try to assassinate Colonel Gaddafi.  The attack went wrong and innocent people were killed. When this scandal was exposed, it caused an outcry.

    Yet a mere 15 years later, MI6 and the CIA were back in Libya, providing support to the same 'rebels,' who this time succeeded in capturing, torturing and killing Gaddafi, while plunging Libya into apparently endless internecine war. This time around there was little international outcry, as the world's media portrayed this aggressive interference in a sovereign state as 'humanitarian relief.'

    And we also see the same in Syria now, as the CIA and MI6 are already providing training and communication support to the rebels – many of whom, particularly the Al Nusra faction in control of the oil-rich north-east of Syria are in fact allied with Al-Qaeda in Iraq.  So in some countries the UK and USA use drones to target and murder "militants" (plus villagers, wedding parties and other assorted innocents), while in others they back ideologically similar groups.
    fghan policemen destroys a poppy field in the Nad-e Ali district of Helmand province on March 20, 2013. (AFP Photo)
    fghan policemen destroys a poppy field in the Nad-e Ali district of Helmand province on March 20, 2013. (AFP Photo)
    Recently, we have also seen the Western media making unverified claims that the Syrian regime is using chemical weapons against its own people, and our politicians leaping on these assertions as justification for openly providing weapons to the insurgents.
    Other reports are now emerging that indicate it was the rebels themselves who have been using sarin gas against the people. This may halt the rush to war, but not doubt other support will continue to be offered by the West to these war criminals.
    So, how is MI6 secretly spending UK taxpayers' money in Afghanistan? According to Western media reporting, it is being used to prop up warlords and corrupt officials. This is deeply unpopular amongst the Afghan people, leading to the danger of increasing support for a resurgent Taliban.
    There is also a significant overlap between the corrupt political establishment and the illegal drug trade, up to and including the president's late brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai. So, another unintentional consequence may be that some of this unaccountable ghost money is propping up the drug trade.
    Afghanistan is the world's leading producer of heroin, and the UN reports that poppy growth has increased dramatically. Indeed, the UN estimates that acreage under poppy growth in Afghanistan has tripled over the last 7 years.  The value of the drug trade to the Afghan warlords is now estimated to be in the region of $700 million per year.  You can buy a lot of Kalashnikovs with that.
    On the one hand, we have Western governments bankrupting themselves to fight the 'war on terror,' breaking international laws and murdering millions of innocent people across North Africa, the Middle East and central Asia, while at the same time shredding what remains of our hard-won civil liberties at home.
    On the other hand, we apparently have MI6 and the CIA secretly bankrolling the very people in Afghanistan who produce 90 percent of the world's heroin. And then, of course, more scarce resources can be spent on fighting the failed 'war on drugs,' and yet another pretext is used to shred our civil liberties.
    This is a lucrative economic model for the burgeoning military-security complex. However, it is a lose-lose scenario for the rest of us.
    The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
     
     

    Ghost money from MI6 and CIA may fuel Afghan corruption, say diplomats

    Failure of peace initiatives raises questions over whether British eagerness for political settlement may have been exploited
     
  • The Guardian, Tuesday 30 April 2013
  • Hamid Karzai in Helsinki
    Hamid Karzai with the Finnish prime minister, Jyrki Katainen, in Helsinki. Photograph: Lehtikuva/Reuters
     
    The CIA and MI6 have regularly given large cash payments to Hamid Karzai's office with the aim of maintaining access to the Afghan leader and his top allies and officials, but the attempt to buy influence has largely failed and may have backfired, former diplomats and policy analysts say.
    The Guardian understands that the payments by British intelligence were on a smaller scale than the CIA's handouts, reported in the New York Times to have been in the tens of millions, and much of the British money has gone towards attempts to finance peace initiatives, which have so far proved abortive.
    That failure has raised questions among some British officials over whether eagerness to promote a political settlement may have been exploited by Afghan officials and self-styled intermediaries for the Taliban.
    Responding to the allegations while on a visit to Helsinki on Monday, Karzai said his national security council (NSC) had received support from the US government for the past 10 years, and the amounts involved were "not big" and were used for a variety of purposes including helping those wounded in the conflict. "It's multi-purpose assistance," he said, without commenting on the allegations that the money was fuelling corruption.
    Yama Torabi, the director of Integrity Watch Afghanistan said that the presidency's low-key response to the reports had "outraged people".
    "As a result, we don't know what was the amount of money that was given, what it was used for and if there was any corruption involved. Money when it is unchecked can be abused and this looks like one. In addition, it can be potentially used to corrupt politicians and political circles, but there is no way to know this unless there is a serious investigation into it," Torabi told The Guardian.
    Kabul sources told the Guardian that the key official involved in distributing the payments within the NSC was Ibrahim Spinzada, a close confidant of the president known as Engineer Ibrahim. There is, however, no evidence that Spinzada personally gained from the cash payments or that in distributing them among the president's allies and sometimes his foes he was breaking Afghan law.
    Officials say the payments, referred to in a New York Times report as "ghost money", helped prop up warlords and corrupt officials, deepening Afghan popular mistrust of the Kabul government and its foreign backers, and thereby helped drive the insurgency.
    The CIA money has sometimes caused divisions between the various branches of US government represented in Kabul, according to diplomats stationed in Kabul, particularly when it helped give the CIA chief of station in Kabul direct access to Karzai without the US ambassador's knowledge or approval.
    One former Afghan budgetary official told the Guardian: "On paper there was very little money that went to the National Directorate of Security [NDS, the Afghan intelligence service], but we knew they were taken care of separately by the CIA.
    "The thing about US money is a lot of it goes outside the budget, directly through individuals and companies, and that opens the way for corruption."
    Khalil Roman, who served as Karzai's deputy chief of staff from 2002 until 2005, told the New York Times: "We called it 'ghost money'. It came in secret, and it left in secret."
    One American official told the newspaper: "The biggest source of corruption in Afghanistan was the United States."
    Sources said the MI6 aid was on a smaller scale, and much of it was focused on trying to promote meetings between Karzai's government and Taliban intermediaries, as was embarrassingly the case in 2010 when MI6 discovered a would-be Taliban leader in talks with Karzai was an impostor from the Pakistani city of Quetta.
    The British payments have also been designed to bolster UK influence in Kabul, in what a source described as "an auction with each country trying to outbid the other" in the course of an often fraught relationship with the Karzai government.
    Vali Nasr, a former US government adviser on Afghanistan, said: "Karzai has been lashing out against American officials and generals, so if indeed there has been funding by the CIA, you have to ask to what effect has that money been paid. It hasn't clearly brought the sort of influence it was meant to."
    Nasr, now dean of the Johns Hopkins school of advanced international studies and author of a new book criticising US policy in Afghanistan, The Dispensable Nation, said: "If the terms of such payments are not clear, the question is how well do they tag with US policy … The CIA has a narrow, counter-terrorism purview that involved working with warlords, but that is quite a different agenda, on how we conduct the war or how we build a government."
    The CIA has also been heavily criticised for conducting drone attacks against suspected militants over the border in Pakistan and for calling in air strikes inside Afghanistan while on joint operations with NDS units, leading to civilian casualties. A report on Monday by the Afghanistan Analysts Network, a thinktank in Kabul, said the latest such NDS-CIA operation, in Kunar province on 13 April, killed 17 civilians.
    Kate Clark, one of the network's analysts, said: "It is one thing to conduct covert operations in a hostile country. I'm flabbergasted that the CIA is running these kind of covert operations in a friendly country. It runs counter to accountability, democracy and the rule of law, and is damaging what the US is trying to do.
    "The CIA puts certain things as a priority – whether someone is against al-Qaida, for example – and damn the rest."
     
     
    Our Man in Iran: How the CIA and MI6 Installed the Shah

    By Leon Hadar

    February 25, 2013 "Information Clearing House" - (Reason) -  Both the critics and the admirers of the Central Intelligence Agency have tended to portray it as an all-knowing, all-powerful, invulnerable entity and to exaggerate the ability of America's spies to determine the outcome of developments around the world. An American reporter interviewing an ordinary citizen—or an official—in Cairo, Buenos Aires, or Seoul may hear that “everyone knows” that the CIA was behind the latest rise in the price of vegetables or the recent outbreak of flu among high-school kids. It’s like you Americans aren't aware of what's obvious (wink, wink).
    New histories of the agency, drawing on recently released classified information and memoirs by retired spies, provide a more complex picture of the CIA, its effectiveness, and its overall power, suggesting that at times Langley was manned not by James Bond clones but by a bunch of keystone cops. My favorite clandestine CIA operation, recounted in Tim Weiner's Legacy of Ashes, involves its 1994 surveillance of the newly appointed American ambassador to Guatemala, Marilyn McAfee. When the agency bugged her bedroom, it picked up sounds that led agents to conclude that the ambassador was having a lesbian love affair with her secretary. Actually, she was petting her two-year-old black standard poodle.
    But the CIA's history does include efforts to oust unfriendly regimes, to assassinate foreign leaders who didn't believe that what was good for Washington and Wall Street was good for their people, and to sponsor coups and revolutions. Sometimes the agency succeeded.
    Topping the list of those successes—if success is the right word for an operation whose long-term effects were so disastrous—was the August 1953 overthrow of Iran's elected leader and the installment of the unpopular and authoritarian Shah in his place. Operation Ajax, as it was known, deserves that
    by a Hollywood scriptwriter peddling anti-American conspiracies.
    Ervand Abrahamian isn't a Hollywood scriptwriter but a renowned Iranian-American scholar who teaches history at the City University of New York. With The Coup, he has authored a concise yet detailed and somewhat provocative history of the 1953 regime change, which the CIA conducted with the British MI6. If you don't know anything about the story, The Coup is a good place to start. If you've already read a lot about Ajax and the events that led to it, the book still offers new insights into this history-shattering event.
    Abrahamian constructed his narrative by analyzing documents in the archives of British Petroleum, the British Foreign Office, and the State Department as well as the memoirs of the main characters in the drama. These characters—British spies and business executives, American diplomats and journalists, Soviet agents, Communist activists, Nazi propagandists, Shiite mullahs, Iranian crime bosses—have double or even triple agendas to advance as they jump from one political bed to another and back, lying, cheating, stealing, and killing. It all makes the CIA-led extraction of the American hostages in Iran, depicted in the film Argo, look kind of, well, boring.
    On one side there was Muhammad Mossadeq, the democratically elected prime minister of Iran from 1951 to 1953, a secular, liberal, and nationalist leader who wanted to join the “neutralist” camp that disavowed commitment to either of the superpowers during the Cold War. An aristocratic and eccentric figure who welcomed foreign officials into his house wearing pajamas, Mossadeq introduced many progressive social and economic reforms into the traditionally Shiite society, and sent shock waves across the world when he moved to nationalize Iran's oil industry, which had been under British control since 1913 through the Anglo-Persian Oil Company.
    On the other side there was Kermit “Kim” Roosevelt, Jr., Teddy's grandson, a legendary spymaster, a self-promoter who dined with major world leaders and business executives but also befriended power-hungry Iranian military generals, corrupt politicians, merchants in the bazzar, and quite a few thugs, who helped him achieve what became Washington's goal: to remove Mossadeq and his political allies, which included liberals, social democrats, and Communists, from power; to return the oil industry into British hands (with more American presence in Iran’s oil business); and to place reliable pro-western politicians in power.
    It seemed to work beautifully. The United States gained a key strategic ally in the Middle East. American companies received a considerable share of Iran’s enormous oil wealth. Other oil-producing Middle Eastern nations got a lesson in what might happen if they nationalized. At a time when the Americans were facing challenges from nationalists such as Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser and were trying to contain the so-called Soviet threat in the Middle East, Our Man in Tehran welcomed American soldiers and investors (and purchased a lot of American weapons). It all looked good until it didn’t.
    While the coup did set back the nationalization of the oil resources in the Middle East, the delay ended in the 1970s. In that decade, Abrahamian writes, one country after another—not just radical states such as Libya, Iraq, and Algeria, but conservative monarchies such as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia—“took over their oil resources, and, having learned from the past, took precautions to make sure that their oil companies would not return victorious.”
    At the same time, the coup decimated the secular opposition, leaving Shiite clerics as the most viable political force when the Iranian Revolution deposed the Shah in 1979. The pro-American puppet gave way to a radical and anti-American Islamic Republic where the secular and liberal opposition remains weak and leaderless. That, as they say in Langley, is blowback.
    The coup also intensified what Abrahamian calls the “intense paranoid style prevalent throughout Iranian politics.” While the Iranian clerics worry that Washington wants to do a rerun of the 1953 regime change, many members of the opposition are counting on that to happen. In Tehran, they still think the CIA makes the world turn around.
    The Coup: 1953, the CIA, and the Roots of Modern U.S.-Iranian Relations, by Ervand Abrahamian, The New Press, 277 pages, $26.95.
     
     
     
     
    What's the difference between MI5 and MI6? What happened to MI1 - MI4 and are there agencies with higher numbers (MI7, MI8, etc.)?
    Matt Denham, Dorchester UK
    • I believe the difference is like the FBI and CIA in the USA - one is for domestic intelligence and one is for international intelligence. But I'm not sure which one is which. I also think that some of the other numbers may have been active in intelligence and of the like during the world wars.
    Benjy Arnold, London UK
    • MI (Military Intelligence) had agencies numbered up to 19, but not all at the same time. Most were folded into MI5, MI6 or GCHQ after the war. I've found the following after a few web searches: MI1 (Codebreaking), MI2 (Russia and Scandinavia), MI3 (Eastern Europe), MI4 (Aerial Reconnaisance), MI8 (Military Communication Interception), MI9 (Undercover operations), MI10 (Weapons analysis) MI14 and MI15 (German specialists), MI19 (PoW debriefing), MI17 (Military Intelligence "Head Office"). Conspiracy theorists will have you believe that there is still a clandestine MI7 dealing with matters extraterrestrial.
    Allan, Wimbledon UK
    • MI5 deals with threats inside the UK, and MI6 combats overseas threats, as anyone who has seen a recent James Bond film knows from the shots of MI6 headquarters at Vauxhall in London.
    James, London UK
    • MI5 - Domestic intelligence, MI6 - foreign intelligence. Interestingly, that makes James Bond a member of MI6.
    J R Scott, Aberdeen
    • MI5 is formally known as the Secret Service, and deals with matters internal, and MI6 should be known as the Secret Intelligence Sevice and deals with extrenal affairs.
    JB, London
    • MI5 is the British security service while MI6 is the British foreign intelligence service. Crudely, MI6 are "our" spies while MI5 is there to catch "their" spies. It gets a little more complicated in that MI6 has its own "counter-intelligence" section. "MI5/MI6" were the original designations when both organisations came under the War Office, now the MOD - "MI" stands for military intelligence. Their official names (acquired in the 30s) are the Security Service (MI5) and SIS, the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). The former is responsible to the Home Office and the latter to the Foreign Office.
    John Burnes, Manchester Lancashire
    • MI5 investigates matters of national security in the UK (investigates terrorists, counterinsurgency, etc). Equivalent to the US National Security Agency (NSA). MI6 (now SIS) gathers intelligence pertenant to the UK's international affairs - spying on Iraq for example. Equivalent to the US's CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) NCIS (national criminal investigation squad) are top ranking police officers dealing with high profile crimes, and have little to do with intelligence, though often co-operate with intelligence agencies for practical reasons. Equivalent to FBI.
    Anonymous,
    • Anonymous' contention that NCIS stands for National Criminal Investigation Squad is a load of old tosh. NCIS is the National Criminal Intelligence Service, and far from being merely "top ranking police officers dealing with high profile crimes" it busies itself with identifying new criminal trends, acting as a clearing house for information from police forces around the UK, and liaising with Interpol, Europol, and various intelligence service around the world.
    Paul Bartholomew, Harrogate England
    • Also contrary to Anonymous' reply, MI5 is more equivalent to the US FBI. The UK equivalent of the NSA (National Security Agency) would be GCHQ.
    David, Madrid Spain
    • According to an American PBS documentary on the Allied Prisoners of War held in Colditz Castle during the Second World War, MI9 existed primarily to aid the escape of British soldiers held captive. One of the principal techniques MI9 used was to mail contraband to prisoners hidden in Red Cross care parcels. German money was hidden inside a Monopoly board, and decks of playing cards were sent containing military-grade maps of Germany.
    Christopher, Boston, Massachusetts USA
    • MI-8 was a cover name for S.O.E.--Special Operations Executive, the ad hoc covert ops and dirty tricks organization during WW2. See M.R.D. Foot's SOE, The Special Operations Executive 1940 - 1946. As mentioned above, MI-9 was the escape and evasion apparat. (Mr. Foot has apparently also written a book on that entity.)
    John C.Watson, Amherst, MA U.S.A.
    • They're all coming to get me...
    Bob, Exeter, UK
    • MI5 and MI6 were originally part of the Military Operations and numbered MO5 and MO6, lower numbers dealing with various administrative matters. They kept the same numbers when Military Intelligence was formed. I think that MI7 dealt with censorship.
    Jim Gilbert, Santa Ynez California
    • Well here is the list I've managed to come up with from searching on the net, no clues for what MI12 or MI18 were/are though. MI1 Codebreaking, MI2 Russia and Scandinavia, MI3 Eastern Europe, Germany? MI4 Aerial Reconnaisance MI5 domestic intelligence MI6 foreign intelligence MI7 Propaganda MI8 Military Communication Interception, MI9 Undercover operations, /POW escape MI10 Weapons analysis MI11 Field security police MI12 ??? MI13 Reconnaissance MI14 and MI15 German specialists, Mi16 royal secret service MI17 Military Intelligence "Head Office". MI18 ??? MI19 PoW debriefing,
    T Swindells, Hampshire
    • A full list of Miliary Intelligence (MI) Departments during world war 2 can be found on pages 147 and 148 of "Codebreaker in the Far East" by Alan Stripp, published in 1989 by Oxford University Press. This goes numerically up to MI19 plus MIL, MIR and MIX. The author says that the whole series has now been replaced anyway.
    Alastair Thomson, Northampton, UK
    • MI1-director of military intelligence; also cryptography MI2-responsible for Russia and Scandinavia MI3-responsible for Germany and eastern Europe MI4-Aerial reconnaissance during world war two MI5-domestic intelligence and security MI6-foreign intelligence and security MI8-interception & interpretation of communications MI9-clandestine operations (escape and evasion) MI10-weapons and technical analysis MI11-field security police MI14-German specialists MI17-secretariat body for MI departments MI19-POW debriefing unit
    Matt, Bracknell, Berkshire
    • Contrary to the above answers likening MI5 to the FBI, that's rubbish too. The FBI is not an intelligence service AT ALL. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the US Intelligence services and is simply the "Federal Bureau of Investigation". The FBI is a national and federally empowered police force - to investigate crime. They do NOT collect clandestine intelligence or have anything to do with the military. The NSA is the nearest equivalent to MI5 but GCHQ's role may well overlap in terms of jurisdiction. GCHQ collaborates with all the British intelligence services on a daily basis, both cross-checking information or providing useful intelligence for the MI community. GCHQ regularly recruit analysts, and have large teams who can understand and verify whether information is up to date, or translate documents and coded messages. GCHQ are experts on things like terrorist groups, and can almost immediately decide whether a groups' claim to an attack is genuine.
    John, London
    • At which time we the british empire have been called upon to defend itself, its allies and dependancies it became nessacery to form a number of departments and agencies. Over the years these dapartments have served a number of different roles and purposes. in answer to the above question: MI1 Code breaking, MI2 Russia and Scandinavia, MI3 Easton Europe, MI4 Aerial Reconnaissance, MI5 Domestic Intelligence, now The Security Service, MI6 Foreign Intelligence, now the Secret Intelligence service, MI7 Propoganda and censorship, MI8 Signals Intelligence, MI9 Undercover operations supporting POW, MI10 Weapons and technical Analysis, MI11 Field Intelligence, MI12 Military Censorship, MI13 Remains Classified, MI14 German Intelligence, MI15 Aerial Photography, MI16 Scientific Intelligence, MI17 Secretarial section, MI18 Remains Classifed, MI19 Extraction of information from foreign POWs MI20 - MI25 remain Classified. It is important to also remember that most of these where small departments and at the end of world war 2 they were mostly all merged into MI5, MI6, GCHQ and other agencies. most british intelligence agencies still remain classified to the general public x the only reason this information has been released is that these agencies have all now terminated activity and new agencies have replaced them. Captain S.S DG of MI section 25
    Captain S, England
    • I love these responses. I am watching a movie call MI-5. Excellent intelligence movie of our brothers over the Atlantic.
    Jay Casiano, Albany, NY, USA
    • By-the-way: NCIS stands for National Criminal Investigative Service. NCIS is a team of federal law enforcement professionals dedicated to protecting the people, family, and assets of the US Navy and the Marine Corps worldwide.
    Jay Casiano, Albany, NY, USA
    • The FBI does have a counter intelligence section and they work very closely with the CIA and other intelligence agencies in the US like the NIA (Naval Intelligence Agency) and DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency).
    John Smith, Chicago, United States
    • Minus one.
    Francisco Scaramanga, Secret Island, Carribean
    • To John C.Watson. Thanks for the info. Having lived and studied in Amherst, I'm wondering how you can possess such a deep and correct knowledge of matters military while in 'the valley', an area not exactly conducive, but rather hostile, to that region of scholarship. Hats off to you.
    Tom Roberts, Tokyo, Japan
    • In the United States, NCIS is the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. We do not have an agency called the National Criminal Investigative Service, because we have many federal agencies that investigate crimes nationally. Some of these are the FBI, DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency, ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms), U. S. Postal Inspectors, and U. S. Marshal's Service. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has the Criminal Investigation Division to investigate tax fraud. Now included in the Department of Homeland Security (which was created in 2003) are these federal investigative agencies: CBP (U. S. Customs and Border Protection), ICE (U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement), U. S. Coast Guard, and U. S. Secret Service. The Transportation Security Administration also is within DHS. Finally, all federal agencies have Offices of Inspectors General (OIG) who have special agents with law enforcement responsibility and authority to investigate fraud, waste, and abuse within and against each agency. Law enforcement in the United States is very fragmented. There are many federal law enforcement agencies, each state has various investigative agencies (the number depends on the individual states), and of course every town and city has local police agencies. Every county in the U. S. has a sheriff's department to investigate crimes in the counties that are outside the jurisdiction of local police departments. Even many public school districts now have their own independent police departments and most colleges and universities of any size now have their own police departments. Altogether there are approximately 850,000 full-time law enforcement officers in the United States.
    J. R. Price, Arlington, Texas
    • No wonder conspiracy theories etc abound - I simply went to the source www.mi5.gov.uk and there all is explained. I never really understood the expression 'get a life' but now browsing the responces to this query, it has relevance.
    James, Newcastle upon Tyne UK
    • The binary distinction between MI5 and MI6 presented in some of the answers above is incorrect. As displayed on the MI6>FAQs and on the MI5 website>about us>myths sections, "SIS (MI6) collects secret intelligence overseas on behalf of the British Government. MI5, the Security Service, is the UK's security intelligence agency responsible for protecting the UK, its interests and citizens against major threats to national security." However, these 2 distinct roles entail actual operational overlap and thus "the scope of national security extends beyond the British Isles and may involve the protection of British interests worldwide, e.g. diplomatic premises and staff, British companies and investments and British citizens living or travelling abroad. Security threats to British interests anywhere in the world fall within the scope of our functions as set out in the Security Service Act 1989. In dealing with security threats overseas we co-operate closely with the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) and Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), who are responsible for gathering intelligence overseas, and with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office." Simples.
    Vinesh Patel, London, England
    • For John in London: The FBI is in fact partly an inteligence service. FBI has jurisdiction within the continental US while CIA has responsibilities over seas, NSA has ability now to monitor communications both domestically and over seas. Like our UK Counter Parts they are unsung heroes, who allow us to keep our freedom!!
    Jack Zalenski, Beverly, New Jersey, USA
    • Thanks for the info, guys.
    Manaal Basit, Budgam, India
    • dosent matter casue the usa is the best! go seal teams
    RYAN, rakin cille USA
    • "Question" I need to ask is: does anyone know if MI9 existing after WW2 in to the 50s & possibly 60s?My Canadian father was in R.C.A.F. Intelligence Services back then,served and married my mother in England in fifties,also served in France in fifties, I was told even though he was Canadian, he also worked for the British, is it possible that he could have worked for M19 after the War 2, I am trying to validate information I have been learning on him.Some older close associates have mentioned to me M19..He was recently killed while in Turks & Caicos Islands shot in isolated location, no weapon found or bullet or casing etc. Because of his past with the military, I am trying to connect some dots prior to and around the time of his death, local police kind, and still investigating, but not all are well educated,the Islands were bankrupt and political corruption caused The Queen to provide a temporary Governor till next elections: recently Britain has supplied T&C with additional police experts, investigations etc. I also read recently that there is an Interpol office located on the Islands as well. I am no expert in any of these matters..Just curious to see if there is any possible chance my father could have ever been linked with Britain's MI9, since his death people I'm connecting with are telling me he previously served with MI9: he was very brilliant and a serious intellectual.Advice would be appreciated.Thanking you for your assistance.
    ann, toronto canada
    • Mmm some interesting answers!! You are right that MI originally stood for Military Intelligence (followed by Department 1, 2, 3 etc). The current Security Service and Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) are still sometimes referred to as MI5 and MI6 respectively, though technically they are no longer 'military' being staffed by civil servants. You can find out more about the MI5/MI6 designations on their websites www.MI5.gov.uk etc - it is not a secret!
    GJB, Bishops Stortford UK
    • Mi5 is about affairs that happen on British soil. Mi5 is often referred to as security service or ss. On the other hand Mi6 deals with current affairs overseas and are often referred to as secret intelligence service or sis kind of like the FBI but the sis does not shed names or appearance of their agents.
    Euan McMurtrie, Glasgow Scotland
    • Having spent 21 years finding out about Lockerbie, I have some familiarity with various US, UK and Iranian and other agencies. The CIA and MI5 cooperate closely, though MI5 tries to prevent some of the FBI's more absurd plot ideas, like attributing the destruction of Pan Am 103 to the Irish. MI6 looks down on the CIA as the johnny-come-lately with too much firepower, the child of SOE and OSS. The Agency will do wet jobs - it helped blow up Pan Am 103 - while the SIS does not kill people, and there is a rule to that effect. The CIA London officer attends the first half of the JSC meeting every week in London, and the feeling that the UK should always take its lead from the US often grates to the British horribly. GCHQ is the child of BP is still respected by the NSA. The NSC is despised by all, as simply being the porthole by which the White House tells the world how it wishes to see things. Everyone detests the DIA, and BAFTA are regarded as fools and buffoons. The US security estate is far bigger than the UK one, but slow, bureaucratic and always fighting the last war but one. No-one liked the French, DST and DGSE, the Russians are still feared and the Germans uncooperative.
    Charles Norrie, London, UK
    • There are some very good answers here. However, I do believe that the most important department in British security has been overlooked. Not surprisingly it is only natural that, as all CI5 operations are very secretive and carried out by professionals, they are kept extremely quiet. George Cowley - Head of CI5
    George Cowley, London, UK
    • During WWII MI-9 was the organisation responsible for establishing networks behind enemy lines that assisted POW's and downed airmen in escaping or evading capture.
    Stuart Kohn, Maplewood, NJ US
    • Originally all MI, Military Intelligence was in one building. Each department had it's own 'Room'. The numbers following the letters MI refereed to room or door number.
    Paladin, Moncton Canada
    • There seems to be so many acronyms for NCIS so I googled it NCIS Naval Criminal Investigative Service NCIS National Coroners Information System (Australia) NCIS Nebraska Career Information System NCIS National Crime Intelligence Service NCIS National Coalition of Independent Scholars NCIS National Crop Insurance Service (gathers crop-hail statistics) NCIS Nuclear Criticality Information System NCIS NATO Common Interoperability Standards NCIS Navy Cost Information System NCIS New Century Infusion Solutions (Brea, CA) NCIS Naval Criminal Intelligence Command NCIS NATO Common Interface Standard NCIS No Change in Status NCIS National Coordinated Industry Survey (Australia) NCIS National Crime Investigation Squad
    jamo, Castletown Isle of Man
    • I think there all different
    Tee, Nashville TN USA
    • Adding to Stu Kohan's answer, MI9 was also called "Escape and Evade," and the American MIS-X was modeled after the British MI9.
    Bill Streifer, Inwood, NY USA
    • MI5 specializes in identifying and neutralizing domestic threats or security threats emanating from within UK while MI6 is tasked with combing and neutralizing external threats.
    Wycliffe, Eldoret Kenya
    • MI1: Codes and cyphers. Later merged with other code-breaking agencies and became Government Code and Cypher School (now known as Government Communications Headquarters). MI2: Information on Middle and Far East, Scandinavia, USA, USSR, Central and South America. MI3: Information on Eastern Europe and the Baltic Provinces (plus USSR, Eastern Europe and Scandinavia after Summer 1941). MI4: Geographical section — maps (transferred to Military Operations in April 1940). MI5: Liaison with Security Service, following the transfer of Security Service to the Home Office in the 1920s. MI6: Liaison with Secret Intelligence Service and Foreign Office. MI7: Press and propaganda (transferred to Ministry of Information in May 1940). MI8: Signals interception and communications security. MI9: Escaped British PoW debriefing, escape and evasion (also: enemy PoW interrogation until 1941). MI10: Technical Intelligence worldwide. MI11: Military Security. MI12: Liaison with censorship organisations in Ministry of Information, military censorship. MI13: Not used (except in fiction). MI14: Germany and German-occupied territories (aerial photography until Spring 1943). MI15: Aerial photography. In the Spring of 1943, aerial photography moved to the Air Ministry and MI15 became air defence intelligence. MI16: Scientific Intelligence (formed 1945). MI17: Secretariat for Director of Military Intelligence from April 1943. MI18: Used only in fiction. MI19: Enemy PoW interrogation (formed from MI9 in December 1941).
    Chris Meadow, Middleton, US
    • M15 is a secret Intelligent unit primarily deals with internal affairs but terrorists unusually and The Great MI6 deals with foreign affairs which has to do with the UK or not. M07 become MI7 in 1916 after the War.Which is responsible for information and press or propaganda. MI8 is the Radio Security Service (RSS).MI4 now the JARIC agency. In short you can be made to believe that MI1-M14 still exist after the second world war.
    Kwame Akonnor, Sakyikrom-Nsawam, Ghana
    • NCIS stands for NAVAL Criminal Intelligence Service. The word is not "national."
    Carole Parkinson, Portland United States
    • Firstly, NCIS does not refer to US Naval version it's referred to the UK National Criminal Investigative Service now known as SOCA (Serious Organized Crime Agency) this agency took over most of the MI5 responsibilities leaving matter of counter-intelligence and foreign diplomatic services up to MI6 which really no longer exist as an agency only unto itself. It may have a website etc, but any MI (Military Intelligence) office is overseen by the Foreign Secretary. Years ago the "operatives" used in Clandestine Services were reassigned and renamed under Her Majesty's Customs and Excise via Home Office. MI5 Secret Service is domestic only. Handles British territories with some travel. Most of the foreign embassies in the world have Diplomatic Protection Officers in them. Ian Flemming's Bond is loosely based on the association of these two agencies but they are not related and quite honestly MI5 is nothing more than an Interpol type office conducting mostly anti-terrorism operations where as SOCA is chiefly responsible for national investigations and policing. It can be argued because there is not substantial information available to the general public as to what or how each foreign service office or officer are assigned or their duties. As to what has happened to the other MI's they have been re-titled UKSF and INTCORP or ICA Intelligence Corp Association.
    P. M. Skellen, Herefordshire United Kingdom
    • All I can say is Thank God for the United Kingdom, the english language the principals of law and the rich heritage we have recieved from them. God bless all of our english speaking cousins around the world. Thank you.
    Robin L. Garces, Newberg Oregon, USA
    • Pretty much MI5 and MI6 have absolved all the other sections MI's activities. MI5 works closely with the Police as well in the UK. Now my next question is... What does MI6 do in this peace time activities. I have heard what the CIA is doing? MI6 is very secretive and am pretty sure that their actions are passive rather than active. Is there a secret hatchet unit that's unsanctioned by the British Government known as Section 20? Basically under the CIA, this is called Blake Ops. If there is one, then Sec 20 is the creme de la creme of international law enforcement.
    Dominic W S Chan, Shah Alam Malaysia
    • I believe that the closest to MI5 is the US Department of Homeland Security
    Harold Basa,
    • Contrary to John London's post, the FBI, like the CIA, is a member of the US Intelligence Community.
    Carson, Virginia US
    • My dad worked for MI8 at one point just after the war. It involved sitting in the back of a army waggon listening to Russian morse and transcribing it. He had no Russian language translation skills, that duty belonged to someone else. Not the most glamorous of jobs, but at least it sounded good....
    Nik, Leigh UK
    • In response to what the American NCIS stands for, it's not NATIONAL, but Naval Criminal Investigative Service. I believe the UK one is National. And I'm also watching MI-5, know in the UK as Spooks. I wanted to get a handle on the different intelligence agencies. To my understanding, MI-5 deals with domestic intelligence, but not equivalent to our FBI because of their clandestine nature (I would say equivalent to the NSA). And MI-6 is international intelligence, like the CIA. So can anyone elaborate more on GCHQ? Or what their American equivalent would be if there is one?
    Ike, San Diego, California USA
    • A big thank you for your post. Want more.
    forum profiles, NY USA

    Britain's MI6 operates a bit differently than CIA

     
    By Walter Pincus
    Tuesday, November 2, 2010
     
    "The most draining aspect of my job is reading, every day, intelligence reports describing the plotting of terrorists who are bent on maiming and murdering people in this country."
    Those words, spoken last week, come from the first public speech given by a director of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, MI6. Instead of Dame Judi Dench, who plays the role in James Bond films, Sir John Sawers, the real director of the legendary 101-year-old spy service, appeared before the Society of Editors in London. Early in his career, Sawers was an MI6 operative in the Middle East.
    It's worth looking at his precise presentation for its similarities and differences with what CIA Director Leon Panetta might say in a similar circumstance.
    While the U.S. intelligence community is made up of 16 agencies, including CIA and those in the Pentagon, "three specialised services form the [United Kingdom] intelligence community," said Sawers, 55, a Foreign Service diplomat. He listed MI5, which is a domestic service somewhat like the FBI; and GCHQ, the government's electronic eavesdropping agency, which is much like the Pentagon-based National Security Agency. Each also has the lead in the cyber world. Sawers' own service, like the CIA, operates outside the British homeland, gathering information primarily from human sources.
    British Defense Intelligence remains inside its Defense Ministry and under the chief of defense intelligence, normally a three-star general. He coordinates intelligence gathering and analysis for all the military services. Sawers made clear, however, that in Afghanistan his operatives "provide tactical intelligence that guides military operations and saves our soldiers' lives."
    Most different from the United States is management of Britain's MI6. Where the CIA "reports" to the director of national intelligence, the agency takes direction from the White House through the National Security Council, although the president, himself, must authorize its covert operations.
    MI6 "does not choose what it does," Sawers said. Under a 1994 law, cabinet ministers who make up the British National Security Council "tell us what they want to know, what they want us to achieve ... [and] we take our direction from the National Security Council," which is chaired by the prime minister. Other permanent members are the deputy prime minister, the chancellor of the exchequer, the secretary of state for foreign and commonwealth affairs, the home secretary, the secretary of state for defence, the secretary of state for international development and the security minister.
    Individually, Sawers said, "I answer directly to the foreign secretary," unlike the CIA's Panetta. MI6 submits plans for operations to the foreign secretary and "he approves most, but not all, and those operations he does not approve do not happen."
    "When our operations require legal authorization or entail political risk, I seek the foreign secretary's approval in advance. If a case is particularly complex, he can consult the attorney general," Sawers said.
    The three British intelligence agencies in the next five years "will see us intensifying our collaboration to improve our operational impact and to save money," Sawers said. "Yes, even the intelligence services have to make savings," he added, reflecting another issue in common with the Americans.
    Oversight of the U.S. intelligence community is done within both the executive and legislative branches. There is the President's Intelligence Advisory Board, a group of up to 16 members appointed from outside the federal government, who are given assignments by the White House, and there are also inspectors general within the intelligence agencies.
    On Capitol Hill, the House and Senate intelligence committees provide oversight but other panels can investigate when intelligence operations fall under their jurisdiction.
    In Britain oversight is performed both by members of Parliament and by judges. There is the single Intelligence and Security Committee, now chaired by Conservative Party member Sir Malcolm Rifkind, who was appointed by Prime Minister David Cameron. The committee traditionally includes other senior politicians, many of them former ministers. "They hold us to account and can investigate areas of our activity," Sawers said.
    In addition, two former judges have full access to MI6 files, as intelligence commissioner and interception commissioner. "They make sure our procedures are proper and lawful," Sawers said.
    As with U.S. intelligence, terrorism is central for the British services. "Over one-third of SIS resources are directed against international terrorism," Sawers said, making it "the largest single area of SIS's work." MI6 tries to penetrate terrorist groups.
    There are other ways in which the countries' two agencies differ. Like the CIA, MI6 has a website, but while the U.S. agency site is only in English, MI6's is also in Arabic, Russian, French, Spanish and Chinese. Another sign of British sophistication: while the CIA site has games and quizzes for kids, the MI6 site gives short tests to allow potential recruits to assess their analytical and administrative skills.
    Sawers spoke of matters that I doubt Panetta would include. Based on his experience in the Islamic world, he spoke out on ways to combat terrorism that fell into the policy field. For example, he talked about countries in the Middle East "moving to a more open system of government ... one more responsive to people's grievences" as one way to curtail the growth of terrorists. He then added this bit of advice to policymakers: "But if we demand an abrupt move to the pluralism that we in the West enjoy, we may undermine the controls that are now in place, and terrorists would end up with new opportunities."
    His look into the future was more characteristic of intelligence chiefs. "Whatever the cause or causes of so-called Islamic terrorism, there is little prospect of it fading away soon," he said.

    Most of us are coherent in our partisanship. Not Peter King

    I'll say this for the Republican congressman from Long Island: his political positions are so inconsistent, they're beyond bias

    guardian.co.uk,

    Republican Peter King has called for Edward Snowden's extradition. Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA

     

    As you may have noticed, New York Republican Congressman Peter King has been doing what he does best: calling for journalists to be prosecuted. The latest recipient of this badge of honour is the Guardian's Glenn Greenwald, whose behaviour King characterises as treasonous, thanks to his reporting on Edward Snowden's NSA leaks, and specifically for "threatening to disclose" the names of CIA agents.

    This last charge is pure fantasy, emerging from the mind of Peter King: Greenwald has threatened nothing of the sort.

    But that's nothing new: trying to understand King's positions on the basis of principle or connection to reality is an exercise in futility. He's a passionate defender of American freedom, except for the freedom of the press; he's one of Washington's most full-throated opponents of terrorism, except for his long history of support for the IRA; he claims to think that most US Muslims "are as loyal and patriotic as any Americans", but also that there are "too many mosques" in the country. It's appropriately decorous that the Guardian, in its official response to King, describes itself as "surprised". But speaking in a personal capacity, I'm not.

    It's interesting to consider King's outburst – and, indeed, the whole cacophony of opinionated responses to the Guardian's NSA revelations – in the context of a fascinating study highlighted on the Washington Post's WonkBlog the other day. It's a truism of America's partisan politics that people on different sides of an issue can't even agree on basic facts. Supporters and opponents of the Iraq war will express radically different views of the casualty rates there; Republicans are more likely to tell you that unemployment fell during the Bush years, while Democrats will claim (correctly, in this case) that it rose. But a new paper from researchers at Yale and the University of California at San Diego reveals something intriguing: offer people a material reward for answering such questions correctly – in this case, an Amazon gift card – and the gaps between partisans' answers shrinks by 55%.

    In other words: when there's money on the line, people get less partisan. Why? A reasonable conclusion is that, when money isn't on the line, their judgments aren't solely based on an honest appraisal of the facts – and that, consciously or unconsciously, they're heavily influenced by the desire to signal their affiliations with certain positions, parties or groups. On issues that divide Republicans from Democrats, each wants to demonstrate, whether to others or themselves, that Republicans or Democrats is what they are. On issues such as the NSA revelations, which divide us along different lines, all those columnists arguing in favour of trusting American power and of not rocking the boat want to show that's where they stand. And of course, we anti-surveillance, pro-Snowden types don't escape the charge, either. I have to accept that my position isn't just an unprejudiced assessment of the facts.

    In a sense, this simply underscores the most obvious truth imaginable about political opinions: that our backgrounds and loyalties shape the views we hold, while cynics like Peter King will spout any old nonsense to pander to their constituencies. Still, it's striking to see how far this affects even our understanding of basic, measurable facts, such as casualty rates or unemployment figures. When it comes to topics such as the likely impact of the Snowden leaks, the influence of affiliation-signalling is presumably vastly worse, since there's so much we still don't know and perhaps never could.

    This is all especially relevant in the rancorous world of op-ed columns and online commentary, which is systematically biased against expression of the kind of ambivalent stances that Ian Leslie writes about in Slate today. (Ambivalence is to be distinguished here from centrist "moderation", which gets a huge amount of column inches.)

    Yes, I'm inclined to believe that the world will be a significantly better place for Snowden's revelations. But it's worth never forgetting that my views on the matter – along with everyone else's – aren't simple and straightforward responses to the available facts. Even if they are rather more grounded in reality than the anti-journalistic witterings of Peter King.

    http://news.yahoo.com/apnewsbreak-nsa-leaker-snowden-not-130119736.html;_ylt=A2KJ2Uawur1RyD8AUbXQtDMD

     

    NSA leaker Snowden not welcome in UK

    Britain tells airlines NSA leaker Snowden should not be allowed on flights to UK

    LONDON (AP) -- The British government has warned airlines around the world not to allow Edward Snowden, who leaked information on top-secret U.S. government surveillance programs, to fly to the United Kingdom.

    A travel alert, dated Monday on a Home Office letterhead, said carriers should deny Snowden boarding because "the individual is highly likely to be refused entry to the U.K."

    The Associated Press saw a photograph of the document taken Friday at a Thai airport. A British diplomat confirmed that the document was genuine and was sent out to airlines around the world. Airlines in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore also confirmed the alert had been issued.

    In London, Home Office officials refused Friday to discuss the travel alert.

    The diplomat said such alerts are issued to carriers that fly into the U.K., and if any airline brings Snowden into the country, it will be liable to be fined 2,000 British pounds ($3,100). He said Snowden would likely have been deemed by the Home Office to be detrimental to the "public good."

    The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss the matter publicly. The U.K. Border Agency, which operates under the Home Office, has wide leeway to deny entry to people trying to enter the United Kingdom. It has been used to keep radical preachers and extreme right-wing politicians out of Britain.

    Snowden, 29, revealed himself Sunday as the source of top-secret documents about U.S. National Security Agency surveillance programs that were reported earlier by the Guardian and Washington Post newspapers. He is believed to be in Hong Kong. Snowden, an American citizen, has yet to be publicly charged with any crime and no known warrants have been issued for his arrest.

    U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told reporters in Dublin on Friday that the case was still being investigated, but said he is "confident that the person who is responsible will be held accountable."

    Experts believe Snowden's travel options are narrow because of the intense publicity generated by the case and the wide circulation of his photo, which is also contained on the carrier alert.

    "He's cornered," said Magnus Ranstorp, a research director at the Swedish National Defense College. "Even without the U.K. alert, his name is now part of the intelligence matrix and his name would be flagged if he tried to travel anywhere in the world. He can't get into mainland China, they have a very sophisticated database and sneaking in is not easy, and if he tries to fly he won't even get out of Hong Kong airport."

    He said Snowden might try to use a false passport for travel, and also try to alter his facial appearance by shaving his head and his beard and wearing contact lenses, but would likely be caught. The best option, Ranstorp said, may be for Snowden to follow WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's example and seek refuge in the consulate of a sympathetic country with a diplomatic presence in Hong Kong.

    Assange, who has spent almost a year inside the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, said he thought Britain had issued the alert on Snowden because "it doesn't want to end up with another Julian Assange."

    Assange sought shelter in the embassy after Britain agreed to send him to Sweden for questioning about alleged sexual assaults. Assange argues that could lead to extradition to the U.S., where he and WikiLeaks are being investigated.

    "The United Kingdom doesn't want to say no to the United States under any circumstances," Assange said. "Not in my case and not in the case of Mr. Snowden." He said Britain should be offering Snowden asylum, not excluding him.

    It isn't clear if other Western European countries have also alerted airlines not to bring Snowden into their countries. Officials in France, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands said they have not issued any warnings about possible travel by Snowden. In Amsterdam, foreign ministry spokesman Weibe Alkema said the government would execute an arrest warrant for Snowden if one had been issued.

    At one point, Snowden expressed an interest in seeking refuge in Iceland, but the government there said no contact had been made.

    In London, some human rights activists expressed disappointment with the British government's stance. Martyn Day, from the law firm Leigh Day, said it was "depressing" that Britain's approach is so tied to the U.S.

    "Mr. Snowden has been entirely open about being the whistle-blower on what is alleged to be one of the most outrageous invasions of privacy the world has ever seen," Day said. "If he wants to come to the U.K., he should be allowed to do so."

    Even without criminal charges, Snowden's world is now shrinking. If other countries follow Britain's example and bar his entry, Snowden would have few options if he weren't allowed to stay in his preferred sanctuary of Hong Kong, a semiautonomous Chinese territory.

    China has not made any public comment on what it plans to do with Snowden or how long he would be welcome to stay in Hong Kong. A popular Communist Party-backed newspaper, however, has urged China's leadership to milk Snowden for information rather than expel him, saying his revelations concern China's national interest.

    If the U.S. eventually calls for his return, Snowden does have the option of applying for asylum or refugee status in Hong Kong, which maintains a Western-style legal system. If Snowden chose to fight it, his extradition to the U.S. could take years to make its way through Hong Kong's courts.

    The alert was issued Monday by the Risk and Liaison Overseas Network, part of the U.K. Border Agency that has staff in several countries identified as major transit points for inadequately documented passengers.

    The document titled "RALON Carrier Alert 15/13" has a photograph of Snowden and gave his date of birth and U.S. passport number. It said: "If this individual attempts to travel to the U.K.: Carriers should deny boarding." It warned that carriers may "be liable to costs relating to the individual's detention and removal" should they allow him to travel.

    "Carrier alerts" are issued when the U.K. government wants to deny entry to people who don't normally need visas to enter the country, as is the case with most U.S. citizens, or already have visas but something has happened since they were issued, the diplomat said.

    Sometimes convicted sex offenders are denied entry into the U.K. in this way.

    People who are turned away are told in writing why they have been rejected, and some — but not all — have the right to appeal the ruling.

    A Bangkok Airways officer said the airline was notified on Thursday about the alert by the Airports of Thailand PCL, which operates national airports throughout the country. She said the notice wasn't intended to be seen by the public.

    The officer spoke on the condition of anonymity because she wasn't authorized to give the information to the media.

    National carrier Malaysia Airlines said in an emailed statement to the AP that it had also received the British advisory and issued notices to all its operating locations in the country. Singapore Airlines also received the alert.

    ___

    Doksone reported from Bangkok. Sylvia Hui and Jill Lawless in London and Shawn Pogatchnik in Dublin contributed to this report.


    13 Jun 2013:

    Lindsey Bever: Some call Snowden a hero; others label him a traitor. Here's our compilation of the best of the debate in the US media

    Protesters shout slogans in support of Edward Snowden in Hong Kong 13 Jun 2013:

    Politicians on all sides say the US needs to answer allegations it hacked targets including territory's businesses and universities

    13 Jun 2013:

    State-run China Daily points to countries' 'soured relationship' on cybersecurity and suggests huge surveillance net is unjustified

    13 Jun 2013:

    Poll finds two-thirds of Americans want NSA's role reviewed, and 56% find current congressional oversight insufficient

    South China Morning Post 13 Jun 2013: Chinese media awash with news of scandal as the internet surveillance whistleblower says he plans to remain in territory, despite Washington 'trying to bully' Hong Kong

    12 Jun 2013:

    NSA whistleblower says he is not in Hong Kong to 'hide from justice' and alleges US hacked hundreds of targets in China

    12 Jun 2013:

    NSA whistleblower speaks to South China Morning Post as agency's director prepares to testify before Congress


    E~dward Snowden 12 Jun 2013:

    Eleven organisations plan to stage march to oppose extradition to the US of former CIA employee behind NSA spying claims

    12 Jun 2013:

    Obama administration says NSA data helped make arrests in two important cases – but critics say that simply isn't true

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/edward-snowden?page=3

    12 Jun 2013:

    Whistleblower could make case for rejecting US application for his return on grounds that alleged offence was political

    Thomas Drake, NSA whistleblower 12 Jun 2013:

    Thomas Drake: So we refused to be part of the NSA's dark blanket. That is why whistleblowers pay the price for being the backstop of democracy

    12 Jun 2013: Lindsay Mills's father Jonathan says whistleblower always had strong convictions and he wishes him luck

    12 Jun 2013:

    The full story behind the scoop and why the whistleblower approached the Guardian

    Xavier Becerra 12 Jun 2013:

    After a closed-door briefing of the House of Representatives, lawmakers call for a review of the Patriot Act

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/edward-snowden?page=4

    Google asks government to reveal data on national security requests – as it happened

    A woman uses her smartphone at the waterfront in Hong Kong, where whistleblower Edward Snowden is currently located. 11 Jun 2013:

    • Kremlin spokesman says request would be considered
    • Obama welcomes debate over Patriot Act
    • International backlash against Prism programme
    • Live coverage of all today's developments

    11 Jun 2013:

    Civil liberties group accuses US government of running a program 'akin to snatching every American's address book'


    11 Jun 2013: Seumas Milne: Western spying agencies are instruments of control and their record is disastrous. They have to be held to account


    11 Jun 2013:

    Julian Borger: The language of the 1917 Espionage Act may be old-fashioned, but it offers little protection for the whistleblower's modern 'crime'

    11 Jun 2013: David Omand: As former GCHQ chief I believe we should set down some principles that would help guide the public debate on privacy

    US defense secretary Chuck Hagel 11 Jun 2013:

    Senator Ron Wyden suggests US intelligence chief James Clapper may have misled him as international pressure builds

    11 Jun 2013:

    Mills's blog – in which she described life with her boyfriend on Hawaii – taken down after Snowden identified as source of leaks

    11 Jun 2013:

    Bill would compel government to disclose opinions of secret Fisa court whose judgments underpin US surveillance programs

    NSA whistleblower 11 Jun 2013:

    The 29-year-old source behind the biggest intelligence leak in the NSA's history explains his motives, his uncertain future and why he never intended on hiding in the shadows


    11 Jun 2013: Hong Kong authorities have co-operated with the CIA in the past to remove enemies of US, says Human Rights Watch director

    11 Jun 2013:

    Clay Shirky: Beyond the leaks themselves, Snowden has exposed how the US government enforces secrecy in the very act of spying on us

    Edward Snowden 11 Jun 2013:

    Vladimir Putin's spokesman says any appeal for asylum from whistleblower who fled US will be looked at 'according to facts'

    Jesselyn Radack Video (2min 17sec), 11 Jun 2013:

    Jesseyln Radack, from the Government Accountability Project, which represents whistleblowers, says ordinary US citizens are right to feel violated by what Edward Snowden has revealed about the NSA's secret surveillance

    Jay Carney Video (1min 42sec), 11 Jun 2013:

    At a press briefing on Monday, White House spokesman Jay Carney says the balance between national security and privacy is appropriate

    Edward Snowden 11 Jun 2013:

    Edward Snowden's leaks about the NSA's electronic surveillance make him one of the most damaging whistleblowers in history. But what drives loyal employees to reveal the truth? And how do they live with the backlash?







    Secret to Prism success: Even bigger data seizure

    What makes Prism shine? National Security Agency's megadata collection from Internet pipeline



    FILE - In this Jan. 31, 2008, file photo President Bush waves after signing a 15-day extension of the Protect America Act after a speech in Las Vegas. Sternly prodding Congress, Bush told lawmakers they were jeopardizing the nation's safety by failing to lock in the government eavesdropping law. When the Protect America Act made warrantless wiretapping legal, lawyers and executives at major technology companies knew what was about to happen. They didn't know that its passage gave birth to a top-secret NSA program, officially labeled US-98XN. It was known as Prism. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)" alt="
    FILE - In this Jan. 31, 2008, file photo President Bush waves after signing a 15-day extension of the Protect America Act after a speech in Las Vegas. Sternly prodding Congress, Bush told lawmakers they were jeopardizing the nation's safety by failing to lock in the government eavesdropping law. When the Protect America Act made warrantless wiretapping legal, lawyers and executives at major technology companies knew what was about to happen. They didn't know that its passage gave birth to a top-secret NSA program, officially labeled US-98XN. It was known as Prism. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)" src="http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/qoiw6NYvNvd.hOcyTj6XDQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Y2g9MjQ2Mjtjcj0xO2N3PTM2MDA7ZHg9MDtkeT0wO2ZpPXVsY3JvcDtoPTQzMTtxPTg1O3c9NjMw/http://globalfinance.zenfs.com/images/US_AHTTP_AP_HEADLINES_BUSINESS/d2a9eaf40bfdd414340f6a706700bd69_original.jpg" width="630" height="431"
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    FILE - In this Jan. 31, 2008, file photo President Bush waves after signing a 15-day extension of the Protect America Act after a speech in Las Vegas. Sternly prodding Congress, Bush told lawmakers they were jeopardizing the nation's safety by failing to lock in the government eavesdropping law. When the Protect America Act made warrantless wiretapping legal, lawyers and executives at major technology companies knew what was about to happen. They didn't know that its passage gave birth to a top-secret NSA program, officially labeled US-98XN. It was known as Prism. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

    WASHINGTON (AP) -- In the months and early years after 9/11, FBI agents began showing up at Microsoft Corp. more frequently than before, armed with court orders demanding information on customers.
    Around the world, government spies and eavesdroppers were tracking the email and Internet addresses used by suspected terrorists. Often, those trails led to the world's largest software company and, at the time, largest email provider.
    The agents wanted email archives, account information, practically everything, and quickly. Engineers compiled the data, sometimes by hand, and delivered it to the government.
    Often there was no easy way to tell if the information belonged to foreigners or Americans. So much data was changing hands that one former Microsoft employee recalls that the engineers were anxious about whether the company should cooperate.
    Inside Microsoft, some called it "Hoovering" — not after the vacuum cleaner, but after J. Edgar Hoover, the first FBI director, who gathered dirt on countless Americans.
    This frenetic, manual process was the forerunner to Prism, the recently revealed highly classified National Security Agency program that seizes records from Internet companies. As laws changed and technology improved, the government and industry moved toward a streamlined, electronic process, which required less time from the companies and provided the government data in a more standard format.
    The revelation of Prism this month by the Washington Post and Guardian newspapers has touched off the latest round in a decade-long debate over what limits to impose on government eavesdropping, which the Obama administration says is essential to keep the nation safe.
    But interviews with more than a dozen current and former government and technology officials and outside experts show that, while Prism has attracted the recent attention, the program actually is a relatively small part of a much more expansive and intrusive eavesdropping effort.
    Americans who disapprove of the government reading their emails have more to worry about from a different and larger NSA effort that snatches data as it passes through the fiber optic cables that make up the Internet's backbone. That program, which has been known for years, copies Internet traffic as it enters and leaves the United States, then routes it to the NSA for analysis.
    Whether by clever choice or coincidence, Prism appears to do what its name suggests. Like a triangular piece of glass, Prism takes large beams of data and helps the government find discrete, manageable strands of information.
    The fact that it is productive is not surprising; documents show it is one of the major sources for what ends up in the president's daily briefing. Prism makes sense of the cacophony of the Internet's raw feed. It provides the government with names, addresses, conversation histories and entire archives of email inboxes.
    Many of the people interviewed for this report insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss a classified, continuing effort. But those interviews, along with public statements and the few public documents available, show there are two vital components to Prism's success.
    The first is how the government works closely with the companies that keep people perpetually connected to each other and the world. That story line has attracted the most attention so far.
    The second and far murkier one is how Prism fits into a larger U.S. wiretapping program in place for years.
    ___
    Deep in the oceans, hundreds of cables carry much of the world's phone and Internet traffic. Since at least the early 1970s, the NSA has been tapping foreign cables. It doesn't need permission. That's its job.
    But Internet data doesn't care about borders. Send an email from Pakistan to Afghanistan and it might pass through a mail server in the United States, the same computer that handles messages to and from Americans. The NSA is prohibited from spying on Americans or anyone inside the United States. That's the FBI's job and it requires a warrant.
    Despite that prohibition, shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, President George W. Bush secretly authorized the NSA to plug into the fiber optic cables that enter and leave the United States, knowing it would give the government unprecedented, warrantless access to Americans' private conversations.
    Tapping into those cables allows the NSA access to monitor emails, telephone calls, video chats, websites, bank transactions and more. It takes powerful computers to decrypt, store and analyze all this information, but the information is all there, zipping by at the speed of light.
    "You have to assume everything is being collected," said Bruce Schneier, who has been studying and writing about cryptography and computer security for two decades.
    The New York Times disclosed the existence of this effort in 2005. In 2006, former AT&T technician Mark Klein revealed that the company had allowed the NSA to install a computer at its San Francisco switching center, a spot where fiber optic cables enter the U.S.
    What followed was the most significant debate over domestic surveillance since the 1975 Church Committee, a special Senate committee led by Sen. Frank Church, D-Idaho, reined in the CIA and FBI for spying on Americans.
    Unlike the recent debate over Prism, however, there were no visual aids, no easy-to-follow charts explaining that the government was sweeping up millions of emails and listening to phone calls of people accused of no wrongdoing.
    The Bush administration called it the "Terrorist Surveillance Program" and said it was keeping the United States safe.
    "This program has produced intelligence for us that has been very valuable in the global war on terror, both in terms of saving lives and breaking up plots directed at the United States," Vice President Dick Cheney said at the time.
    The government has said it minimizes all conversations and emails involving Americans. Exactly what that means remains classified. But former U.S. officials familiar with the process say it allows the government to keep the information as long as it is labeled as belonging to an American and stored in a special, restricted part of a computer.
    That means Americans' personal emails can live in government computers, but analysts can't access, read or listen to them unless the emails become relevant to a national security investigation.
    The government doesn't automatically delete the data, officials said, because an email or phone conversation that seems innocuous today might be significant a year from now.
    What's unclear to the public is how long the government keeps the data. That is significant because the U.S. someday will have a new enemy. Two decades from now, the government could have a trove of American emails and phone records it can tap to investigative whatever Congress declares a threat to national security.
    The Bush administration shut down its warrantless wiretapping program in 2007 but endorsed a new law, the Protect America Act, which allowed the wiretapping to continue with changes: The NSAgenerally would have to explain its techniques and targets to a secret court in Washington, but individual warrants would not be required.
    Congress approved it, with Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., in the midst of a campaign for president, voting against it.
    "This administration also puts forward a false choice between the liberties we cherish and the security we provide," Obama said in a speech two days before that vote. "I will provide our intelligence and law enforcement agencies with the tools they need to track and take out the terrorists without undermining our Constitution and our freedom."
    ___
    When the Protect America Act made warrantless wiretapping legal, lawyers and executives at major technology companies knew what was about to happen.
    One expert in national security law, who is directly familiar with how Internet companies dealt with the government during that period, recalls conversations in which technology officials worried aloud that the government would trample on Americans' constitutional right against unlawful searches, and that the companies would be called on to help.
    The logistics were about to get daunting, too.
    For years, the companies had been handling requests from the FBI. Now Congress had given the NSA the authority to take information without warrants. Though the companies didn't know it, the passage of the Protect America Act gave birth to a top-secret NSA program, officially called US-98XN.
    It was known as Prism. Though many details are still unknown, it worked like this:
    Every year, the attorney general and the director of national intelligence spell out in a classified document how the government plans to gather intelligence on foreigners overseas.
    By law, the certification can be broad. The government isn't required to identify specific targets or places.
    A federal judge, in a secret order, approves the plan.
    With that, the government can issue "directives" to Internet companies to turn over information.
    While the court provides the government with broad authority to seize records, the directives themselves typically are specific, said one former associate general counsel at a major Internet company. They identify a specific target or groups of targets. Other company officials recall similar experiences.
    All adamantly denied turning over the kind of broad swaths of data that many people believed when the Prism documents were first released.
    "We only ever comply with orders for requests about specific accounts or identifiers," Microsoft said in a statement.
    Facebook said it received between 9,000 and 10,000 demands requests for data from all government agencies in the second half of last year. The social media company said fewer than 19,000 users were targeted.
    How many of those were related to national security is unclear, and likely classified. The numbers suggest each request typically related to one or two people, not a vast range of users.
    Tech company officials were unaware there was a program named Prism. Even former law enforcement and counterterrorism officials who were on the job when the program went live and were aware of its capabilities said this past week that they didn't know what it was called.
    What the NSA called Prism, the companies knew as a streamlined system that automated and simplified the "Hoovering" from years earlier, the former assistant general counsel said. The companies, he said, wanted to reduce their workload. The government wanted the data in a structured, consistent format that was easy to search.
    Any company in the communications business can expect a visit, said Mike Janke, CEO of Silent Circle, a company that advertises software for secure, encrypted conversations. The government is eager to find easy ways around security.
    "They do this every two to three years," said Janke, who said government agents have approached his company but left empty-handed because his computer servers store little information. "They ask for the moon."
    That often creates tension between the government and a technology industry with a reputation for having a civil libertarian bent. Companies occasionally argue to limit what the government takes. Yahoo even went to court and lost in a classified ruling in 2008, The New York Times reported Friday.
    "The notion that Yahoo gives any federal agency vast or unfettered access to our users' records is categorically false," Ron Bell, the company's general counsel, said recently.
    Under Prism, the delivery process varied by company.
    Google, for instance, says it makes secure file transfers. Others use contractors or have set up stand-alone systems. Some have set up user interfaces making it easier for the government, according to a security expert familiar with the process.
    Every company involved denied the most sensational assertion in the Prism documents: that the NSA pulled data "directly from the servers" of Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, AOL and more.
    Technology experts and a former government official say that phrasing, taken from a PowerPoint slide describing the program, was likely meant to differentiate Prism's neatly organized, company-provided data from the unstructured information snatched out of the Internet's major pipelines.
    In slide made public by the newspapers, NSA analysts were encouraged to use data coming from both Prism and from the fiber-optic cables.
    Prism, as its name suggests, helps narrow and focus the stream. If eavesdroppers spot a suspicious email among the torrent of data pouring into the United States, analysts can use information from Internet companies to pinpoint the user.
    With Prism, the government gets a user's entire email inbox. Every email, including contacts with American citizens, becomes government property.
    Once the NSA has an inbox, it can search its huge archives for information about everyone with whom the target communicated. All those people can be investigated, too.
    That's one example of how emails belonging to Americans can become swept up in the hunt.
    In that way, Prism helps justify specific, potentially personal searches. But it's the broader operation on the Internet fiber optics cables that actually captures the data, experts agree.
    "I'm much more frightened and concerned about real-time monitoring on the Internet backbone," said Wolf Ruzicka, CEO of EastBanc Technologies, a Washington software company. "I cannot think of anything, outside of a face-to-face conversation, that they could not have access to."
    One unanswered question, according to a former technology executive at one of the companies involved, is whether the government can use the data from Prism to work backward.
    For example, not every company archives instant message conversations, chat room exchanges or videoconferences. But if Prism provided general details, known as metadata, about when a user began chatting, could the government "rewind" its copy of the global Internet stream, find the conversation and replay it in full?
    That would take enormous computing, storage and code-breaking power. It's possible the NSA could use supercomputers to decrypt some transmissions, but it's unlikely it would have the ability to do that in volume. In other words, it would help to know what messages to zero in on.
    Whether the government has that power and whether it uses Prism this way remains a closely guarded secret.
    ___
    A few months after Obama took office in 2009, the surveillance debate reignited in Congress because the NSA had crossed the line. Eavesdroppers, it turned out, had been using their warrantless wiretap authority to intercept far more emails and phone calls of Americans than they were supposed to.
    Obama, no longer opposed to the wiretapping, made unspecified changes to the process. The government said the problems were fixed.
    "I came in with a healthy skepticism about these programs," Obama explained recently. "My team evaluated them. We scrubbed them thoroughly. We actually expanded some of the oversight, increased some of the safeguards."
    Years after decrying Bush for it, Obama said Americans did have to make tough choices in the name of safety.
    "You can't have 100 percent security and also then have 100 percent privacy and zero inconvenience," the president said.
    Obama's administration, echoing his predecessor's, credited the surveillance with disrupting several terrorist attacks. Leading figures from the Bush administration who endured criticism during Obama's candidacy have applauded the president for keeping the surveillance intact.
    Jason Weinstein, who recently left the Justice Department as head of its cybercrime and intellectual property section, said it's no surprise Obama continued the eavesdropping.
    "You can't expect a president to not use a legal tool that Congress has given him to protect the country," he said. "So, Congress has given him the tool. The president's using it. And the courts are saying 'The way you're using it is OK.' That's checks and balances at work."
    Schneier, the author and security expert, said it doesn't really matter how Prism works, technically. Just assume the government collects everything, he said.
    He said it doesn't matter what the government and the companies say, either. It's spycraft, after all.
    "Everyone is playing word games," he said. "No one is telling the truth."
    Associated Press writers Eileen Sullivan, Peter Svensonn, Adam Goldman, Michael Liedtke and Monika Mathur contributed to this report.
    ___
    Contact the AP's Washington investigative team at DCinvestigations@ap.org

    Edward Snowden Is Completely Wrong

     National Journal 
    Is he a hero—the most important whistle-blower in U.S. history, as Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg called him? Or is Edward Snowden a flat-out traitor and a very deluded young man? The 29-year-old contractor at the center of the biggest national security scandal in years is eloquent and impressively intelligent, having risen from high school dropout and security guard at the National Security Agency to uber systems administrator at the CIA. Snowdenalso appears to have acted genuinely out of conscience, because it’s clear he could have sold what he knows for quite a lot of money, taken down “the surveillance structure in an afternoon” (as he declared in an interview), or revealed undercover assets that might “have cost lives. Instead, Snowden, a product of the federal government ecosystem who grew up in the D.C. suburbs, says he has sacrificed his own “very comfortable” life to expose what he calls Washington’s “architecture of oppression.”
    What’s not clear is why Snowden thought that revealing the NSA’s surveillance methods would change very much in our government or society, except to make it much harder for the NSA, the CIA, and defense and intelligence contractors to hire anyone like him in the future.
    That process, if little else, must now change. Snowden will likely be charged with espionage, or worse. Washington will massively revamp its vetting procedures, especially for giant contractors such as Booz Allen Hamilton, which has grown fat on a diet of government work and appeared to hire Snowden in Hawaii at a generous salary of $120,000 almost as an afterthought. Contracts like the one he worked on—to help the government analyze an overwhelming stream of data—represented 99 percent of its revenue, most of them related to the NSA.
    Other than tightened security clearances, though, the startling revelations of the past several days will probably alter very little in the lives of Americans or the way the government works in a data-driven world. That’s not just because, apart from a few outraged senators—Democrats Ron Wyden of Oregon and Mark Udall of Colorado and libertarian Republican Rand Paul of Kentucky—almost the entire U.S. government, from the White House to Congress to the judiciary, has come out in support of the NSA program of collecting troves of telephone data and personal Internet information, using the servers and telecommunications systems of America’s biggest companies. If the mandarins of official Washington don’t amend their conduct, it’s because Americans aren’t asking them to.

    A NEW CONCEPT OF PRIVACY

    The reason may not be entirely obvious at first. In the past decade, our very concept of privacy has changed to the point that we’re less likely to see information-sharing as a violation of our personal liberty. In an era when our daily lives are already networked, we have E-ZPasses that give us access to the fast lane in exchange for keeping the government informed about where we drive. We shop online despite knowing that the commercial world will track our buying preferences. We share our personal reflections and habits not only with Facebook and Google but also (albeit sometimes inadvertently) with thousands of online marketers who want our information. All of this means Americans are less likely to erupt in outrage today over one more eye on their behavior. “One thing I find amusing is the absolute terror of Big Brother, when we’ve all already gone and said, ‘Cuff me,’ to Little Brother,” jokes John Arquilla, an intelligence expert at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif.
    The latest Allstate/National Journal Heartland Monitor Poll bears this out. Americans are vaguely aware of these slowly eroding walls of privacy, and 55 percent say they are worried about the overall accumulation of personal information about them “by businesses, law enforcement, government, individuals, and other groups.” The survey also found that an overwhelming majority of Americans believe that business, government, social-media sites, and other groups are accessing their most personal information without their consent. Even so, for the most part, they accept it as an unavoidable modern phenomenon. Most younger and college-educated people—in contrast to Snowden—take a benign view of these changes.
    Despite the press treatment of the NSA story, which judging from editorial opinion has come out largely on Snowden’s side, most Americans appear relatively unperturbed. A Pew Research Center/Washington Post poll conducted last weekend found that 56 percent of Americans believe NSA access to the call records of millions of Americans is an “acceptable” way for the federal government to investigate terrorism. An even bigger majority, 62 percent, said it was more important for the government to investigate terrorist threats than it was to safeguard personal privacy. That explains why soft queasiness has not congealed into hard political outrage.
    Another problem for the alarmists: No evidence suggests that the worst fears of people like Snowden have ever been realized. In his interview with The Guardian, which broke the story along with The Washington Post, Snowden warned that the NSA’s accumulation of personal data “increases every year consistently by orders of magnitude to where it’s getting to the point where you don’t have to have done anything wrong. You simply have to eventually fall under suspicion from somebody.”
    In a state with no checks and balances, that is a possibility. But even the American Civil Liberties Union, which has called NSA surveillance “a stone’s throw away from an Orwellian state,” admits it knows of no cases where anything even remotely Orwellian has happened. Nor can any opponent of NSA surveillance point to a Kafkaesque Joseph K. who has appeared in an American courtroom on mysterious charges trumped up from government surveillance. Several civil-liberties advocates, asked to cite a single case of abuse of information, all paused for long seconds and could not cite any.
    There is also great misunderstanding about how the NSA system works and whether such abuse could even happen in the future. It’s unclear if the government will be capable of accessing and misusing the vast array of personal data it is accumulating, as Snowden predicts. The NSA appears primarily to use computer algorithms to sift through its database for patterns that may be possible clues to terrorist plots. The government says it is not eavesdropping on our phone calls or voyeuristically reading our e-mails. Instead, it tracks the “metadata” of phone calls—whom we call and when, the duration of those conversations—and uses computer algorithms to trawl its databases for phone patterns or e-mail and search keywords that may be clues to terrorist plots. It can also map networks by linking known operatives with potential new suspects. If something stands out as suspicious, agents are still required by law to obtain a court order to look into the data they have in their storehouses. Officials must show “probable cause” and adhere to the principle of “minimization,” by which the government commits to reducing as much as possible the inadvertent vacuuming up of information on citizens instead of foreigners—the real target of the NSA’s PRISM program. The program, according to Director ofNational Intelligence James Clapper, has had success. He told NBC that tracking a suspicious communication from Pakistan to a person in Colorado allowed officials to identify a terrorist cell in New York City that wanted to bomb its subway system in the fall of 2009.
    Indeed, the scandal is perhaps narrower in scope than it’s made out to be. “The only novel legal development that I see in that area is the government says, ‘We know there’s relevant information in there—if we don’t get it now it will be gone; we won’t be able to find it when we need it. So we’ll gather it now and then we’ll search it only when we have a good basis for the search to be done,’ ” says Stewart Baker, who was the first assistant secretary for policy at the Homeland Security Department and is a former NSA general counsel. “The courts are still involved. They say, ‘You put it in a safe place, lock it up, come to me when you want to search it.’ If you’re serious about ways to make [counterterrorism] work and still protect privacy, it seems like a pretty good compromise.”
    Baker says the government built in as many controls and oversights as it could think of. “Two different presidents from two different parties with very different perspectives. Two different Intelligence committees led by two different parties. A dozen judges chosen from among the life-appointed judiciary. None of them thought this was legally problematic,” Baker says. “And one guy says, ‘Yeah, I disagree, so I’m going to blow it up.’ If the insistence is, ‘It only satisfies me if it’s out in public,’ then we’re not talking about intelligence-gathering. We’re not even talking about law enforcement. We’re talking about research. And I’m not sure you can run a large country in a dangerous world just by doing open-source research.”
    Other advocates of the NSA operation say the sheer vastness of the program is what helps shield citizens. “Individuals are protected by the anonymity granted by the quantity of information,” says Eric Posner, a University of Chicago law professor. “It’s just too difficult to spy on such a vast number of people in a way that’s meaningful.”

    THE CULTURE OF INTRUSION

    Behavioral research shows that, like the proverbial frog in the pot of water who doesn’t notice the rising temperature, Americans have grown inured to the “culture of intrusion” in today’s world of continuous data exchange. “There are undeniable changes in behavior we have been observing in the past 10 years or so, with the birth and rise of social media,” says Alessandro Acquisti, an economist at Carnegie Mellon University who has studied the effects. “There is evidence that people will give away personal data for very small rewards, such as the psychological benefit of sharing with others, or even for a discount coupon,” he says. “For instance, on social media, people quite openly talk, without containing their audience only to their Facebook friends, about dating, eating, going out, success, and failures—something that 10 years ago you would have disclosed only to your direct friends.”
    The Michigan-based Ponemon Institute, which conducts independent research on privacy and data collection, has found that a relatively small number of Americans, only about 14 percent, care enough about their privacy on a consistent basis to change their behavior to preserve it. These are the people who will not buy a book on Amazon because they would have to surrender information about themselves, or don’t go to certain websites if they fear they’re going to be behaviorally profiled, or won’t contribute to political campaigns for the same reason. By contrast, a substantial majority of Americans, about 63 percent, say they care about their privacy, but “there’s no evidence to suggest they’re going to do anything different to preserve it,” says Larry Ponemon, who runs the institute. (Some 23 percent care so little about the issue they are known as “privacy complacent,” Ponemon says.)
    People are blithe even as they discover how much their online behavior can hurt them personally, on everything from job and college applications to terrorist investigations. “People are losing jobs because of things they posted on their Facebook page,” says Loren Thompson, chief operating officer of the Lexington Institute, who refuses to use Facebook or Twitter or even conduct potentially controversial searches on Google. “I just had a feeling all along that by the time people realized how vulnerable they were, it would be too late. There would be too much information about them online.”
    There is a difference, to be sure, between government and private-sector abuses of privacy. “Even I recognize that it’s one thing for Google to know too much, because they aren’t putting me in jail. It’s another thing for government, because they can coerce me,” says Michael Hayden, who as director of the NSA from 1999 to 2006 was a primary mover behind the agency’s transformation from Cold War dinosaur to a post-9/11 terror-detection leviathan with sometimes frightening technical and legal powers. “But if we weren’t doing this, there would be holy hell to raise.”
    That is likely true, too. Defenders of the program say, as Hayden does, that the government had no choice. “This is about taping foreign telecommunications transmissions that just happen to pass through the United States because of the way the Internet architecture is designed,” Thompson says. “It really doesn’t have anything to do with spying on Americans; it’s about spying on foreigners the easy way.” At first this meant finding the right communications hardware. The USS Jimmy Carter, a Seawolf-class submarine, was modified to tap into the trunk lines, but there are really only a handful of major Internet conduits to the Middle East, Thompson says. Eventually, someone probably said, “Jeepers, most of this traffic passes through the U.S. anyway. Why don’t we just talk to Verizon?”
    Hayden admitted this, surprisingly, in an open session of the House Intelligence Committee way back in 2000, telling the members that this monitoring was needed to enable the NSA to get in front of the data. No one listened right way, but after 9/11 and the passage of the USA Patriot Act, the mood shifted dramatically in favor of more aggressive surveillance. “This agency grew up in the Cold War. We came from the world of Enigma [the Nazi encryption device whose code was broken by the Allies], for God’s sake. There were no privacy concerns in intercepting German communications to their submarines, or Russian microwave transmissions to missile bases,” Hayden says today. Now, “all the data you want to go for is coexisting with your stuff. And the trick then, the only way the NSA succeeds, is to get enough power to be able to reach that new data but with enough trust to know enough not to grab your stuff even though it’s whizzing right by.” The demonization of the NSA now is ironic, he says, considering that in late 2002 the Senate Intelligence Committee (which included Wyden), in its joint 9/11 report with the House, criticized the agency for its “failure to address modern communications technology aggressively” and its “cautious approach to any collection of intelligence relating to activities in the United States.”
    Most Americans, based on the polls, seem willing to make the trade-off between what President Obama called “modest encroachments on privacy” and safety from terrorists. “There is a lot of authoritarian overreach in American society, both from the drug war and the war on terror,” David Simon, the writer and producer of the hit HBO shows The Wire and Treme, wrote in his blog this week, in a scathing blast at Snowden and the pundits who have lionized him. “But those planes really did hit those buildings. And that bomb did indeed blow up at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. And we really are in a continuing, low-intensity, high-risk conflict with a diffuse, committed, and ideologically motivated enemy. And for a moment, just imagine how much bloviating would be wafting across our political spectrum if, in the wake of an incident of domestic terrorism, an American president and his administration had failed to take full advantage of the existing telephonic data to do what is possible to find those needles in the haystacks.”

    HOW WE SURRENDER PRIVACY

    Every time you go online, you’re a target. Advertisers are searching for you—maybe not by name, but through your interests and your assessed income and even your health symptoms, all based on your search-engine terms and the cookies deposited on your computer to watch you surf the Internet and report back on your habits. Sites may have an agreement with advertisers, which can target their messages to you. And they likely sell this information to third-party brokers who can do what they want with it.
    A sweeping Wall Street Journal investigation in 2010 found that the biggest U.S. websites have technologies tracking people who visit their pages, sometimes upwards of 100 tools per site. One intrusive string of code even recorded users’ keystrokes and transmitted them to a data-gathering firm for analysis. “A digital dossier over time is built up about you by that site or third-party service or data brokers,” says Adam Thierer, senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center’s Technology Policy Program at George Mason University. “They collect these data profiles and utilize them to sell you or market you better services or goods.” This is what powers the free Internet we know and love; users pay nothing or next to nothing for services—and give up pieces of personal information for advertisers in exchange. If you search for a Mini Cooper on one website, you’re likely to see ads elsewhere for lightweight, fuel-efficient cars. Companies robotically categorize users with descriptions such as “urban upscale” to “rural NASCAR” to tailor the advertising experience, says Jim Harper of the libertarian Cato Institute. “They’ll use ZIP codes and census data to figure out what their lifestyle profile is.”
    As a result of these changes, the government’s very concept of privacy has grown ever narrower and more technical. “Too often, privacy has been equated with anonymity; and it’s an idea that is deeply rooted in American culture,” Donald Kerr, the principal deputy director of national intelligence, said in 2007 as Congress was busy debating new rules for government eavesdropping. That’s quickly fading into history, Kerr said. The new version of privacy is defined by enough rules affecting the use of data that Americans’ constitutionally enumerated rights (privacy not among them) will be safe. “Protecting anonymity isn’t a fight that can be won. Anyone that’s typed in their name on Google understands that.” We’ve already given up so much privacy to the government, Kerr said back then, that it can be protected only by “inspectors general, oversight committees, and privacy boards” that have become staples of the intelligence community.
    Clapper seems to be relying on a similar concept. The United States, he said in an interview with NBC, can put all the communications traffic that passes through the country in a massive metaphorical library. Presumably, the “shelves” contain the phone numbers of Americans, the duration of their calls, and their e-mail correspondence. “To me, collection of U.S. persons’ data would mean taking the book off the shelf, opening it up, and reading it,” Clapper said. Instead, the government is “very precise” about which “books” it borrows from the library. “If it is one that belongs or was put in there by an American citizen or a U.S. person, we are under strict court supervision, and have to get permission to actually look at that. So the notion that we’re trolling through everyone’s e-mails and voyeuristically reading them, or listening to everyone’s phone calls, is on its face absurd. We couldn’t do it even if we wanted to, and I assure you, we don’t want to.”
    Critics say the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment, designed to guard against unreasonable searches and seizures, should impede the government’s access to personal data—even if that information is available in the commercial sphere. “If Google has it, that says nothing about whether the government should have it,” says Cato’s Harper. “It’s not reasonable to collect information without probable cause or reasonable suspicion.”
    For most Americans, the reassurance that the government won’t gratuitously pursue them may well be enough. For Snowden and his defenders, it clearly is not. In explaining his daring act, he said he hoped to provoke a national debate about surveillance and secrecy, and added: “The greatest fear that I have regarding the outcome for America of these disclosures is that nothing will change.”
    That fear is likely to be realized. Snowden offered a valuable window into a top-secret world The Washington Post wrote about in great detail three years ago, when it published a series on a clandestine intelligence-industrial complex that “has become so large, so unwieldy, and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it, or exactly how many agencies do the same work.” Perhaps the country should thank Snowden for reopening that issue, even as it prosecutes him for what is plainly a violation of his oath of secrecy. But after the thanks are offered, we will probably just get back to business.
    1. Whether Edward Snowden is a “traitor,” as House Speaker John Boehner called him, or a whistle-blower trying to prevent his country’s descent into “turnkey tyranny,” as he claimed in an interview, is simultaneously a legal and a moral question – and the answers may not overlap in this case, legal experts say.
      Christian Science Monitor via Yahoo! News - Jun 14 08:08am
    2. By Matt Miller Edward Snowden was appalled. “They quite literally can watch your ideas form as you type,” the then-anonymous Snowden told reporters as his leaks first emerged. ...
      The Mckeesport Daily News - 11 hours ago


    1. National Journal via Yahoo! News   Jun 15 01:32am
      Is he a hero—the most important whistle-blower in U.S. history, as Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg called him? Or is Edward Snowden a flat-out traitor and a very deluded young man? The 29-year-old contractor at the center of the biggest national security scandal in years is eloquent and impressively intelligent, having risen from high school dropout and security guard at the National ...
    2. Christian Science Monitor via Yahoo! News   Jun 14 08:08am
      Whether Edward Snowden is a “traitor,” as House Speaker John Boehner called him, or a whistle-blower trying to prevent his country’s descent into “turnkey tyranny,” as he claimed in an interview, is simultaneously a legal and a moral question – and the answers may not overlap in this case, legal experts say.
    3. Los Angeles Times   Jun 15 06:49pm
      The self-declared NSA leaker says he has faith in Hong Kong justice at a time when some in the territory say freedoms are being 'stifled.' HONG KONG — It's probably for the best that Edward Snowden didn't turn up at a weekend rally in support of him here in this former British colony. Having declared that he has faith in Hong Kong's rule of law, and that he believes the courts and people of the ...
    4. Tracking Snowden’s reversals of fortune

      Seattle Times   Jun 15 06:07pm
      How Edward Snowden made the leap from underemployed security guard to well-paying CIA employee remains a mystery.
    5. Business Insider via Yahoo! Finance   Jun 15 07:51am
      The American public has known that the NSA has extensive Internet-spying programs since 2000.
    6. Sky News via Yahoo! UK & Ireland News   Jun 15 09:56pm
      A demonstration has taken place outside the US consulate in Hong Kong in support of American whistleblower Edward Snowden who is still believed to be in the region.
    7. The Atlantic Wire via Yahoo! News   Jun 14 08:08am
      Edward Snowden, the NSA leaker who has turned the United States intelligence apparatus upside-down, said that he won't be extradited back home without a fight. That fight won't take him to Britain in the meantime, but it does apparently involve letting the Chinese government know that he has information on the United States "using technical exploits to gain unauthorised access to civilian ...
    8. WKBT La Crosse   Jun 15 01:20pm
      When U.S. citizen Edward Snowden decided to flee to Hong Kong because of its "spirited commitment to free speech and the right of political dissent," he may not have anticipated that some in the city would launch a protest backing him.
    9. Toronto Star   Jun 14 02:49pm
      I don’t like reading about whistleblower Edward Snowden, for the simple reason that information about this young man distracts me from the overwhelming scale of the government surveillance he has described. He did indeed unfold a tale whose lightest word would harrow up the soul, and so on. Finally I understand what Hamlet’s dad was going on about on the ramparts — isn’t it weird that a 16th ...
    10. The Week via Yahoo! News   Jun 14 12:25am
      The NSA leaker reportedly just walked out of work with some of America's big secrets on a thumb drive in his pocket

      1. Who is Edward Snowden?

        Brisbane Times   Jun 14 05:13pm
        Edward Snowden was once a 'cheeky' teenager into video games, anime and girls, who went by the nicknames "The True HOOHA" and "Phish".        
      2. CNN   Jun 15 05:44am
        What do you think of Edward Snowden? By leaking classified documents to the media and revealing that the National Security Agency has been monitoring our phone and Internet usage, is he a traitor or a hero? Could he simply be a narcissist looking to get famous? Or do you not care about either him or the NSA surveillance programs?
      3. CBS News   Jun 15 06:06pm
        Hundreds turned out to rally in support of Edward Snowden in Hong Kong, the city he claims was a target of NSA spying. In a local newspaper, Snowden has alleged that hundreds of NSA hacking operations focused on Hong Kong and mainland China, while a group of Chinese lawmakers demand to know how the U.S. hacked into Chinese computers. Seth Doane reports.
      4. Hong Kong Civic Groups Plan March in Support of Snowden

        Bloomberg   Jun 14 08:37pm
        Hong Kong civic groups will today march in support of Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who is at risk of extradition from the city after he revealed a secret U.S. surveillance program.
      5. Why Edward Snowden, NSA whistleblower, is more hero than traitor: Burman

        Toronto Star   Jun 15 06:52am
        Daniel Ellsberg, take your leaked Pentagon Papers and step aside. There’s a new gunslinger in town: Edward J. Snowden — former CIA employee, 29 years of age and now whistleblower on the run. Whether Snowden ends up jailed in the U.S., dead in some dumpster overlooking Hong Kong’s harbour, or — even worse — if he winds up as a regular contributor to CNN or Fox News, we will be hearing about him ...
      6. Column: Edward Snowden and the selective targeting of leaks

        Reuters via Yahoo! News   Jun 12 08:30am
        By Jack Shafer (Reuters) - Edward Snowden's expansive disclosures to the Guardian and the Washington Post about various National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance programs have only two corollaries in contemporary history; the classified cache Bradley Manning allegedly released to WikiLeaks a few years ago and Daniel Ellsberg's dissemination of the voluminous Pentagon Papers to the New York ...
      7. CBS News   Jun 14 08:00am
        CBS News' John Miller explains why the U.S. may be facing a long fight to extradite NSA leaker Edward Snowden from Hong Kong, where he is believed to be living
      8. Chicago Tribune   Jun 15 09:19am
        HONG KONG (Reuters) - A few hundred rights advocates and political activists marched through Hong Kong on Saturday to demand protection for Edward Snowden, who leaked revelations of U.S. electronic surveillance and is now believed to be holed up in the former British colony.        
      9. The Washington Times   Jun 14 10:13am
        Edward Snowden did not have enough high-level access at the National Security Agency to obtain the kind of information that would compromise America's place among other nations, House Intelligence Committee members said Thursday. "He was lying," said Chairman Mike Rogers, Breitbart reported. "He clearly has over-inflated his position, he has ...
      10. Reuters via Yahoo! News   Jun 15 10:28am
        By Grace Li and Venus Wu HONG KONG (Reuters) - A few hundred rights advocates and political activists marched through Hong Kong on Saturday to demand protection forEdward Snowden, who leaked revelations of U.S. electronic surveillance and is now believed to be holed up in the former British colony. Marchers gathered outside the U.S. consulate shouting slogans denouncing alleged spying ...

        1. Edward Snowden: Whistle-blowing protections most likely won't help

          The Christian Science Monitor   Jun 14 10:03am
          While Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor, and others portray him as a heroic whistle-blower, his decision to make top secret documents public severely limits his legal protections, analysts say.
        2. ABC News   Jun 12 12:38pm
          Alleged NSA leaker Edward Snowden claimed today to have evidence that the U.S. government has been hacking into Chinese computer networks since at least 2009 – an effort he said is part of the tens of thousands of hacking operations American cyber spies have launched around the world, according to a Hong Kong newspaper.        
        3. Who is Edward Snowden? Many questions remain.

          The Christian Science Monitor   Jun 12 09:26pm
          In interviews Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who revealed details of the government's collection of data, has also revealed details about himself. Some question his descriptions and the facts that are known paint an unclear picture of the leaker, currently hiding in Hong Kong. 
        4. Los Angeles Times   Jun 14 06:02pm
          Each carries risk, and analysts say Beijing is playing it savvy by doing nothing right now regarding the man who disclosed the NSA cyber surveillance program. BEIJING — WithEdward Snowden in Hong Kong dribbling out morsels on U.S. cyber surveillance activities to the press, Chinese authorities have several choices for dealing with him.        
        5. Washington Examiner   Jun 15 09:32am
          Hundreds of people marched to the U.S. consulate in Hong Kong on Saturday in support ofEdward Snowden, an American citizen who leaked top-secret information about U.S. surveillance programs.
        6. Guardian Unlimited   Jun 15 06:47am
          Demonstrators call on government to protect NSA whistleblower and attack US over internet spying programmes Hundreds of demonstrators have taken to the streets of Hong Kong despite heavy rain to support the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and press the US to change its surveillance policies. The gathering on Saturday came hours before Hong Kong's chief executive, CY Leung, broke days of silence ...
        7. ABC News   Jun 14 09:57am
          NSA leaker Edward Snowden has reached hero status for many Chinese internet users. His Chinese fans on Sina Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, have posted Snowden’s old modelling photos and “Snowden Handsome” is the first result to come back when his last name is entered...        
        8. CNN   Jun 14 06:51am
          China remains tight lipped about NSA leaker Edward Snowden, holed up in Hong Kong, who claims U.S. intel agents have hacked global networks for years.
        9. Agence-France Presse via Yahoo! New Zealand Sport   Jun 15 10:56am
          Hundreds of protesters staged a rally in rain-hit Hong Kong Saturday to urge the city's government not to extradite former spy Edward Snowden, and slam the United States for its surveillance programmes.
        10. Peoria Journal Star   Jun 13 10:05am
          A supporter holds a picture of Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee who leaked top-secret information about U.S. surveillance programs, outside the U.S. Consulate General in Hong Kong Thursday, June 13, 2013. The news of Snowden's whereabouts, revealed by an editor of a local newspaper that interviewed him Wednesday, is the first since he went to ground Monday after checking out of his hotel in ...

          1. Associated Press via Yahoo! News   Jun 14 09:23am
            The British government has warned airlines around the world not to allow EdwardSnowden, who leaked information on top-secret U.S. government surveillance programs, to fly to the United Kingdom. A travel ...
          2. ABC News via Yahoo! News   Jun 14 10:21am
            NSA leaker Edward Snowden has reached hero status for many Chinese internet users. His Chinese fans on Sina Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, have posted Snowden’s old modelling photos and “Snowden Handsome” is the first result to come back when his last name is entered...
          3. Los Angeles Times   Jun 13 10:52am
            WASHINGTON -- Former National Security Agency contract employee Edward Snowdenused a computer thumb drive to smuggle highly classified documents out of an NSA facility in Hawaii, using a portable digital device supposedly barred inside the cyber spying agency, U.S. officials said.        
          4. Denver Post   Jun 14 01:21am
            LONDON—The British government has warned airlines around the world not to allowEdward Snowden, who leaked information on top-secret U.
          5. ABC News via Yahoo! News   Jun 15 01:25pm
            Demonstrators Blew Their Whistles Saying They 'Were All Whistle-Blowers Today'
          6. ABC News   Jun 13 09:56am
            U.S. intelligence officials on the trail of rogue contractor Edward Snowden are now treating the National Security Agency leak case as a possible foreign espionage matter, raising fears that the 29-year-old computer whiz may be attempting to defect to China with a trove of America's most sensitive secrets, according to two U.S. officials.        
          7. The Huffington Post   Jun 14 07:46am
            BANGKOK — The British government has warned airlines around the world not to allowEdward Snowden, who leaked information on top-secret U.S. government surveillance programs, to fly to the United Kingdom.
          8. ABC News   Jun 13 10:07am
            The possibility that NSA leaker Edward Snowden could defect to China – or cooperate in any way with Chinese authorities – is a top concern for U.S. intelligence officials. For the ABC/Yahoo Power Players interview series, I did a “Politics Confidential” interview this morning with a...        
          9. ABC News   Jun 13 01:38pm
            Since he revealed himself as the source of the National Security Agency leaks, little by little, the details of Edward Snowden's life have emerged, providing a picture of a smart kid who dropped out of high school only to embark on his own patchwork college education on his way to working for one of the most shadowy espionage agencies in the world. Here's what we know so far:        
          10. The Washington Times   Jun 13 06:14am
            Edward Snowden, who fled the United States on the heels of releasing sensitive information about National Security Agency surveillance, may now try to present himself as a serious protector of American rights. But go back a few years, and he was — as he touted in a 2002 biographical profile ...

            1. New York Times   Jun 15 08:23am
              Protesters in Hong Kong urged that Edward J. Snowden be allowed to stay in the city without being turned over to the United States.
            2. Daily Telegraph   Jun 12 12:33pm
              Edward Snowden, the whistleblowing former CIA employee, on Wednesday night vowed to fight any attempt to extradite him from Hong Kong and said he would use the city as a base to reveal more "criminality".        
            3. Edward Snowden: Don't fly NSA whistleblower to UK, airlines told

              Guardian Unlimited   Jun 14 10:52am
              British government issues travel alert to airlines around the world saying Snowden likely to be refused entry to UK The British government is reported to have warned airlines around the world not to allow the National Security Agency whistleblower EdwardSnowden to fly to the UK. A travel alert, dated Monday 10 June on a Home Office letterhead, said carriers should not allow Snowden to board ...
            4. Portland Press Herald   Jun 14 05:15am
              Edward Snowden, an American citizen, has yet to be charged with any crime and no warrants have been issued for his arrest.
            5. The Atlantic via Yahoo! Finance   Jun 10 05:08pm
              Photos of Edward Snowden printed on the front page of Hong Kong newspapers. ( Reuters ) No matter how you feel about Edward Snowden's decision to dish on the government's spying habits, there's at least ...
            6. Peoria Journal Star   Jun 14 11:35am
              The British government has warned airlines around the world not to allow EdwardSnowden, who leaked information on top-secret U.S. government surveillance programs, to fly to the United Kingdom.
            7. Associated Press via Yahoo! News   Jun 14 09:23am
              LONDON (AP) — The British government has warned airlines around the world not to allowEdward Snowden, who leaked information on top-secret U.S. government surveillance programs, to fly to the United Kingdom.
            8. VOA News   1 hour, 2 minutes ago
              Hundreds of people rallied in Hong Kong Saturday in support of former U.S. government contractor Edward Snowden, who fled to the semi-autonomous Chinese city last month after confessing to leaking documents on two top secret U.S. surveillance programs. To many, the case raises questions about Snowden’s choice of Hong Kong as a haven as he fights an expected legal battle against extradition, and ...
            9. The Lookout via Yahoo! News   Jun 11 12:04pm
              Edward Snowden, the former defense contractor who blew the whistle on the National Security Agency's massive domestic surveillance program, is being hailed as a hero by many for exposing the government's controversial spy operations. "Edward Snowden is a national hero and should be immediately issued a full, free, and absolute pardon for any crimes he [...]
            10. Toronto Star   Jun 14 07:01am
              BANGKOK—The British government has warned airlines around the world not to allowEdward Snowden, who leaked information on top-secret U.S. government surveillance programs, to fly to the United Kingdom. A travel alert, dated Monday on a Home Office letterhead, said carriers should deny Snowden boarding because “the individual is highly likely to be refused entry to the UK.” The Associated Press ...

              1. Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune   Jun 15 08:25am
                FORT MEADE, Md. — In the suburbs edged by woods midway between Baltimore and the nation's capital, residents long joked that the government spy shop next door was so ultra-secretive its initials stood for "No Such Agency."
              2. Los Angeles Times   Jun 15 11:15pm
                Previous employees have said that the cyber-spying agency is tracking Americans' communications. Intelligence officials maintain that is not the case. WASHINGTON — Mathematician William Binney worked for the National Security Agency for four decades, and in the late 1990s he helped design a system to sort through the digital data the agency was sucking up in the exploding universe of bits and ...
              3. Daily Telegraph   Jun 13 10:58am
                Edward Snowden, the former CIA analyst who admitted exposing secret US surveillance programmes, harmed national security, the FBI director has said, adding that the US government are taking "all necessary steps" to prosecute him.        
              4. The Atlantic Wire via Yahoo! News   Jun 13 11:58am
                Investigators have figured out that Edward Snowden took classified documents from the National Security Agency with a thumb drive — which means they "know how many documents he downloaded and what server he took them from," an official told the Los Angeles Times' Ken Dilanian. But they still don't know how Snowden got the secret court order compelling Verizon to give three months of metadata on ...
              5. Associated Press via Yahoo!7 News   Jun 15 03:05pm
                In the suburbs edged by woods midway between Baltimore and the nation's capital, residents long joked that the government spy shop next door was so ultra-secretive its initials stood for "No Such Agency." But when Edward Snowden grew up here, the National Security Agency's looming presence was both a very visible and accepted part of everyday life.
              6. Denver Post   Jun 15 12:35am
                The British government has warned airlines around the world not to allow EdwardSnowden, who leaked information on top-secret U.S. government surveillance programs, to fly to the United Kingdom.
              7. Independent   Jun 14 04:29am
                The ex-CIA employee and whistleblower Edward Snowden posted hundreds of messages on a public internet forum railing against citizen surveillance and corporate greed, it was revealed today. Related Stories Syria civil war: US will arm moderate rebels, says Barack Obama, confirming use of chemical weapons by President Bashar al-Assad's regime Rupert Murdoch's media empire thrown into doubt as he ...
              8. Toronto Star   Jun 11 05:43am
                HONG KONG—Edward Snowden, the former CIA employee who leaked top-secret documents about U.S. surveillance programs, has been fired from his job. Booz Allen Hamilton said Tuesday that Snowden “was terminated for violations of the firm’s code of ethics.” Snowden had worked for Booz Allen for less than three months and earned $122,000 a year, the company said. It posted his job, that of a systems ...
              9. Snowden may be working with China, lawmakers say

                UPI   Jun 14 01:18am
                WASHINGTON, June 14 (UPI) -- Rogue ex-contractor Edward Snowden may be cooperating with the Chinese government, U.S. lawmakers briefed on National Security Agency surveillance programs say.
              10. The New Zealand Herald   Jun 13 10:50am
                Edward Snowden, the whistleblowing former CIA and NSA employee, says that the United States has mounted massive hacking operations against hundreds of Chinese targets in the past four years.Snowden vowed to fight any attempt to...

                1. CNBC   Jun 16 01:31am
                  Rights advocates and political activists marched through Hong Kong on Saturday to demand protection for Edward Snowden.
                2. CBC.ca   Jun 13 05:57am
                  Edward Snowden tells the South China Morning Post that the U.S. has long been attacking a Hong Kong university that routes all Internet traffic in and out of the semiautonomous Chinese region.
                3. The Atlantic Wire via Yahoo! News   Jun 11 09:10am
                  There is a lot of fan fiction swirling around right now about Edward Snowden, the man who leaked the NSA's programs to collect all phone calls and all email. The NSA's surveillance programs, even if you wholeheartedly support them, are the more important story since it reveals that the government has computing power so awesome that it borders on sci-fi. But pundits prefer the personal and since ...
                4. Edward Snowden: Who is he, and what kind of life is he leaving behind?

                  Christian Science Monitor via Yahoo! News   Jun 11 02:58pm
                  In the interest of revealing what he saw as the privacy violations of millions of Americans by their own government, Edward Snowden, 29, has likely forfeited his future at an age when most young adults are still shaping the arc of their lives.
                5. The Atlantic Wire via Yahoo! News   Jun 10 09:55am
                  Edward Snowden is the most sought-after leaker of national security secrets in the world right now — maybe ever — except that, well, it appears that nobody has any idea where on earth he actually is. The 29-year-old former Booz Allen defense contractor working with the National Security Agency, reportedly in Hong Kong and trying to get out, has gone AWOL, and the chase is on, for sleuths both ...
                6. CNN   Jun 10 05:27pm
                  Edward Snowden, the former technical assistant for the CIA who has leaked details of a top-secret American program, has checked out of a Hong Kong hotel where he was holed up for three weeks.
                7. Boston Globe   Jun 15 08:15am
                  FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) — In the suburbs edged by woods midway between Baltimore and the nation's capital, residents long joked that the government spy shop next door was so ultra-secretive its initials stood for "No Such Agency." But when Edward Snowden grew up here, the National Security Agency's looming presence was both a very visible and accepted part of everyday life.        
                8. Quartz via Yahoo! Finance   Jun 10 04:00pm
                  For anyone wondering how a disgruntled and relatively junior official like Edward Snowdencould gain access to some of the US government’s most treasured secrets and leak them, the answer comes down to ...
                9. consortiumnews.com   Jun 13 06:58am
                  The mainstream media’s assault on Edward Snowden’s character has begun, with columns in outlets like the Washington Post and The New Yorker calling him “narcissistic” and reckless.
                10. Los Angeles Times   Jun 12 08:48pm
                  The former U.S. government contractor who says he leaked NSA secrets is planning 'to ask the courts and people of Hong Kong to decide' his fate. BEIJING — Edward Snowden, the former U.S. government contractor who says he leaked National Security Agency secrets, told Hong Kong media Wednesday that he intended to remain in the self-ruled Chinese territory and fight extradition to the United States.

                  1. Edward Snowden, NSA leaker, says he’ll fight extradition to the U.S.

                    TheCelebrityCafe.com   Jun 12 12:49pm
                    Edward Snowden, the man who leaked the information on the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs, is still holed up in Hong Kong and he plans to fight extradition to the U.S. in court. read more
                  2. Hong Kong Groups Plan Protest to Support Edward Snowden

                    Bloomberg   Jun 12 09:30pm
                    Hong Kong civic groups will march in support of Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who disclosed a U.S. surveillance program and said he will fight any attempt to extradite him.
                  3. CBS News   Jun 14 02:05am
                    AP: London warns carriers in travel alert to bar NSA leaker from boarding because he's highly likely to be kept out of Britain
                  4. Business Insider   Jun 14 03:22am
                    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - While working for U.S. intelligence agencies, Edward Snowdenhad another secret identity: an online commentator who anonymously railed against citizen surveillance and corporate greed.
                  5. Quartz via Yahoo! Finance   Jun 13 11:57am
                    Chinese officials haven’t officially commented on the Edward Snowden case and the US’s PRISM spying program, but inside China, state media are making the most of it. China’s foreign ministry has been careful ...
                  6. Independent   Jun 14 07:36am
                    The ex-CIA employee and whistleblower Edward Snowden posted hundreds of messages on a public internet forum railing against citizen surveillance and corporate greed, it was revealed today. Related Stories Edward Snowden posted comments attacking citizen surveillance while working for CIA Syria civil war: US will arm moderate rebels, says Barack Obama, confirming use of chemical weapons by ...
                  7. Daily Telegraph   Jun 12 07:34am
                    Edward Snowden, the whistleblowing former CIA employee, has spoken out for the first time since vanishing from his Hong Kong hideout on Monday, vowing to fight extradition to the US and to continue his battle to expose "criminality".        
                  8. Washington Post   Jun 15 03:24pm
                    “I wouldn’t want God himself to know where I’ve been,” the former NSA contractor wrote online in 2003.
                  9. Takepart.com via Yahoo! News   Jun 11 04:37pm
                    Edward Snowden was employed by an intelligence firm working for the National Security Agency (NSA) and disclosed documents about a secret program that he reasonably believed violated the law. His revelations are performing a vital public service. As a nation, we are now entering into a more informed national debate about what sacrifices Americans are willing to make to enhance their actual ...
                  10. National Journal via Yahoo! News   Jun 12 08:32am
                    National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden is contributing to Chinese complaints that the United States is engaged in acts of cyberespionage against Beijing.

                    1. Deseret News   Jun 13 05:49am
                      NSA leaker Edward Snowden says the NSA's 61,000 hacking targets include Hong Kong and mainland China
                    2. Los Angeles Times   Jun 13 04:59am
                      BEIJING -- Officially, the Chinese government has nothing at all to say about EdwardSnowden.        
                    3. The Malaysian Insider   Jun 14 06:54am
                      SAN FRANCISCO, June 13 – Long before Edward Snowden became known worldwide as the National Security Agency contractor who exposed top-secret US government surveillance programs, he worked for a Japanese anime company run by friends and went by the nicknames “The True HOOHA” and “Phish”. In 2002, he was 18 years old, a high school dropout, and his ...        
                    4. Guardian Unlimited   Jun 12 10:49am
                      NSA whistleblower says he is not in Hong Kong to 'hide from justice' and alleges US hacked hundreds of targets in China The NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden vowed on Wednesday to fight any move by the US to have him extradited from Hong Kong, saying he was not there to "hide from justice" and would put his trust in its legal system. In his first comments since revealing his identity in the ...
                    5. The Hindu   Jun 15 03:11am
                      Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who disclosed America’s secret surveillance programme, may have been working with the Chinese Government to reveal intelligence secrets, a US lawmaker has alleged...
                    6. Christian Science Monitor via Yahoo! News   Jun 10 11:47am
                      The person who leaked classified US documents on sweeping surveillance programs to the press has now leaked his own identity. Edward Snowden, a young computer system professional for a National Security Agency contractor, revealed on Sunday that he provided information on two NSA programs to The Guardian and Washington Post newspapers. He said his motive was to expose the extent of US electronic ...
                    7. Bloomberg   Jun 15 11:05pm
                      Hong Kong residents would oppose any demand for extradition of Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who fled to the city after exposing a U.S. surveillance program, according to a poll published today.
                    8. International Herald Tribune   Jun 15 05:27am
                      People called on the American government to allow Edward J. Snowden, who is accused of leaking documents about surveillance programs, remain in Hong Kong.
                    9. Edward Snowden currently in hiding in Hong Kong

                      WJXT Jacksonville   Jun 12 12:09pm
                      U.S. intelligence agents have been hacking computer networks around the world for years, apparently targeting fat data pipes that push immense amounts of data around the Internet, NSA leaker Edward Snowden claimed Wednesday to the South China Morning Post newspaper.
                    10. The Saratogian   Jun 13 11:21am
                      Edward Snowden soon will be prosecuted by federal authorities for disclosing top secret Government surveillance programs. While he styles himself a whistleblower, he is really something far more radical: He represents a new — and in my view, welcome — version of civil disobedience. He’s the calm before the storm.

                      1. Los Angeles Times   Jun 13 09:58pm
                        He used a simple thumb drive to transfer information from the National Security Agency. In 1945, a tissue box was used to sneak files to the Soviets. WHITMORE VILLAGE, Hawaii — Sure, Edward Snowden just used a simple thumb drive to smuggle classified information out of the National Security Agency.        
                      2. New York Post   Jun 15 09:59pm
                        The feds are investigating a report that former National Security Agency employee EdwardSnowden is turning over classified data to the Chinese, according to The Sunday Times of London. Snowden, 29, is in Hong Kong and has said he would not jeopardize US interests. But the South China Morning Post...
                      3. Baltimore Sun   Jun 15 06:11am
                        HONG KONG (Reuters) - A few hundred rights advocates and political activists marched through Hong Kong on Saturday to demand protection for Edward Snowden, who leaked revelations of U.S. electronic surveillance and is now believed to be holed up in the former British colony.
                      4. The Christian Science Monitor   Jun 10 04:10pm
                        Edward Snowden and his decision to speak out as the leaker of classified national security documents have deflected attention from President Obama. The political odd couples defending and opposing the programs also insulate the president.
                      5. Christian Science Monitor via Yahoo! News   Jun 10 05:48am
                        Edward Snowden, the man who leaked NSA secrets to The Guardian newspaper, has chosen either luckily or on extremely good advice by seeking refuge in Hong Kong from possible prosecution.
                      6. Stuff   Jun 15 10:18pm
                        A few hundred rights advocates and political activists marched through Hong Kong to demand protection for Edward Snowden, who leaked revelations of US electronic surveillance and is now believed to be holed up in the former British colony.
                      7. National Post   Jun 12 07:31am
                        Edward Snowden was nowhere to be found Wednesday, despite being the central figure in the biggest news story in the world
                      8. CNN   Jun 15 06:46am
                        Unable to contact friends or risk being recognized, few can know the fear NSA leakerEdward Snowden has. But Christopher Boyce can.
                      9. Reuters via Yahoo! News   Jun 13 06:56pm
                        By John Shiffman, Mark Hosenball and Kristina Cooke WASHINGTON (Reuters) - While working for U.S. intelligence agencies, Edward Snowden had another secret identity: an online commentator who anonymously railed against citizen surveillance and corporate greed. Throughout the eight years that Snowden worked for the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency contractors, he posted ...
                      10. BusinessWeek   Jun 10 10:23am
                        Where in Hong Kong is Edward Snowden? We know from the Guardian that the 29-year-old former CIA employee is somewhere in the former British colony. From what he said in the interview , Snowden seems to be staying in a nice hotel on the Hong Kong side of Victoria Harbor.

                        1. BusinessWeek   Jun 10 10:23am
                          Where in Hong Kong is Edward Snowden? We know from the Guardian that the 29-year-old former CIA employee is somewhere in the former British colony. From what he said in the interview , Snowden seems to be staying in a nice hotel on the Hong Kong side of Victoria Harbor.
                        2. The Huffington Post   Jun 12 08:32pm
                          By Mark Hosenball WASHINGTON, June 12 (Reuters) - U.S. government investigators began an urgent search for Edward Snowden several days before the first media reports were published on the government's secret surveillance programs, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.
                        3. Adelaide Now   Jun 14 11:50am
                          THE British government has warned airlines around the world not to allow NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden to fly to the United Kingdom.
                        4. Opposing Views   Jun 12 03:55pm
                          Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who previously exposed the National Security Agency's (NSA) spying on U.S. citizens via phones and the web, dropped another bombshell today. Now, Snowden claims that the U.S. government has been hacking into computers in Hong Kong and China since 2009. Snowden gave an interview to the South China Morning Post in a secret location that was not disclosed ...
                        5. Daily Telegraph   Jun 15 07:12am
                          Hero or traitor? That's the debate raging across America over Ed Snowden, the 29-year old NSA consultant-turned-leaker now holed up somewhere in Hong Kong, writes John Avlon.        
                        6. Q13 FOX Seattle   Jun 13 12:42pm
                          By Ken Dilanian, Los Angeles Times WASHINGTON — Former National Security Agency contract employee Edward Snowden used a computer thumb drive to smuggle highly classified documents out of an NSA facility in Hawaii, using a portable digital device supposedly barred …
                        7. The Christian Science Monitor   Jun 10 02:10pm
                          Edward Snowden and his decision to speak out as the leaker of classified national security documents have deflected attention from President Obama. The political odd couples defending and opposing the programs also insulate the president.
                        8. Los Angeles Times   Jun 11 10:03am
                          WASHINGTON – Consulting giant Booz Allen Hamilton said Tuesday that it had firedEdward Snowden “for violations of the firm’s code of ethics and firm policy” after the 29-year-old admitted he leaked secrets of the U.S. government’s surveillance programs to the news media.        
                        9. Forbes   Jun 10 09:22am
                          Edward Snowden yesterday revealed himself as the whistleblower behind the now infamous NSA leaks. Snowden, a former worker at the CIA and most recently an employee of private contractor Booz Allen, has worked on NSA related projects for the past four years. Amongst the statements made by Snowden, and at least partially supported by the leaked documents, is the claim the US government has ...




    Subject: Drugs for Guns Connection- Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton, President George Bushanbd CIA Involvement
     
     
    The Rothschilds
     
     
     
     
       
     
     -  Consolidating The Empire - from 'The World Order - A Study in The Hegemony of Parasitism' by Eustace Mullins
       
       
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     -  Mayer Rothschild and The Five Arrows - from 'The World Order - A Study in The Hegemony of Parasitism' by Eustace Mullins
     
     
     
       
       
       
     
     -  The House of Rothschild - from 'Secrets Of The Federal Reserve' by Eustace Mullins
     
       
       
       
       
       
     
     -  The Rothschild Formula - from "The Creature of Jekyll Island"
     
     
     
     
     
       
       
       
       
       

     
     
       
       
     
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     -  El Imperio Jázaro y Los “Judíos” Sumerios - Otra Cruel Mentira de La Historia Oficial
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     -  Jázaros - La Treceava Tribu - Main File
     
     
     
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     -  Rothschild's Black Gold Empire - BP Oil Disaster Brings Fabulous Riches to Rothschild, Israel, and China
     
     
       
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     -  The Kingdom of Zion - Exposing The Worldwide Conspiracy of Evil
     
       
     
     
     
     
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     -  Farsas Sistémicas - ¿La “Voz” de Quién? - O Por Qué Me Di de Baja en Avaaz
     
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     -  George Soros’ Eight Bold Predictions - From The 'Tiger Den'
     
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     -  Obama's Oil Man - George Soros
     
     
     
     
     
     
     -  The Hidden Soros Agenda - Drugs, Money, The Media, and Political Power
     
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     -  Red Symphony - by Dr. J. Landowsky
     
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     -  The Biggest Secret - by David Icke
     
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     -  The Rise of The House of Rothschild  - by Count Egon Caesar Corti
     
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     -  Tragedy And Hope  - by Carroll Quigley
     

       
     
     -  David de Rothschild y El Fraude del Calentamiento Global - Debunking David De Rothschild and The Global Warming Hoax
     
     
     
     -  Revelations of A Mother Goddess - David Icke 2006
     
     -  Ring of Power - The Empire of "The City" - World Superstate
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

     
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    The image on The right, reproduces The outline of The eagle from The red shield, The coat of arms of The city of Frankfurt, Germany, adapted by Mayer Amschel Bauer (1744-1812) who changed his name from Bauer to Rothschild ("Red Shield").
     
    Rothschild added five golden arrows held in The eagle’s talons, signifying his five sons who operated The five banking houses of The international House of Rothschild:
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    • London
    • Paris
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    The New World Order
     
     
     
     
     
     
       
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     -  Conspiracy Theories - White Paper by Cass R. Sunstein
     
       
     
     -  Creating the "Domestic Surveillance State" - How America's Wars Are Systematically Destroying Our Liberties
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     -  Dioses de Un Nuevo Orden Mundial - de 'Los Dioses del Nuevo Milenio'
     
       
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     -  El Colapso de La Economía Estadounidense - Apocalípticas Predicciones Para USA
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     -  El Fin Del Capitalismo - Según Wallerstein
     
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     -  El Jaque Mate - Informaciones Para Materializar Un Mundo Nuevo
     
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     -  El Proyecto Matriz - Presentacion Multimedia
     
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     -  El Sistema Se Autodestruye - Señales del Apocalipsis
     
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     -  El Sol Satánico - Lucifer 2000
     
     
     -  EndGame - JuegoFinal - Main File
     
     
     -  EndGame of The New World Order - The Revealing
     
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     -  Engañando al Mundo Con Fotografías - Los Muertos en Georgia y Osetia
     
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     -  EUROPOL
     
     
     
       
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     -  Global Gridlock - How the US Military-Industrial Complex Seeks to Contain and Control the Earth and Its Eco-System
     
     -  Gods of A New World Order - from 'Gods of The New Millennium'
     
     
     
       
     
     
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     -  Guerra Climática - Las Armas del Gobierno Mundial
     
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     -  Guerra Fría Psicológica - Las Ciencias de La Dominación Mundial
     
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     -  Guerra y Mentira - El Control Político y Militar De Nuestras Sociedades
     
     
     -  How To Run The World - Mega-Diplomacy - The New World Order
     
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     -  In Effect, There Is Virtually No Candidate - The 2008 U.S. Elections
     
     
     -  Influenza - Virus H1N1 - Unintentional Contamination or Bioterrorism? - Main File
     
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     -  Ingenieros del Shock - Investigación y Desarrollo
     
     
     -  Initiation Into The Incunabula - The Occult Technology of Power
     
     
     
     -  Interview With Putin... Banned - Read It Here!
     
       
       
     
     -  Is The World Too Big to Fail? - The Contours of Global Order
     
     
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     -  La City de Londres y la Sociedad Fabiana - Historia y Planes Actuales
     
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     -  Law Suit Against 4 US Presidents and 4 UK Prime Ministers - For War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity and Genocide...
     
     -  Leaked North Korean Documentary ‘Exposes Western Propaganda - And It’s Scary How True It Is
     
     
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     -  Lucis (Lucifer) Trust - Main File
     
       
     
     -  Manipulating Matter - The Scientific Dictatorship as A Project in The Reconfiguration of Reality
     
     -  May 1995 Lecture given by Phil Schneider - about secret underground bases, the Greys, the New World...
       
     
       
     
     -  NASCO - Ron Paul Is "Confused" About NAFTA Superhighway - Road giants Use Semantics to Whitewash Lynchpin of...
     
       
     
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     -  NWO Global Economic Dictatorship Exposed - The Trillion-Dollar Lawsuit That Could End Financial Tyranny - Ben. Fulford Interview
       
     
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     -  Supplanting The United States Constitution - War, National Emergency and "Continuity of Government"
     
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     -  The Master File - "Rebellion in Heaven" unto Present and Future Time - Revelation of Awareness - P.Shockley as Interpreter
       
     
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     -  An Imperial Strategy For a New World Order - The Origins of World War III
     
     
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     -  If The U.S. Loses Syria, The US Loses Its Empire - U.S. Threatens Russia, China for Not Supporting Campaign of Terror in Syria
    Italiano
     -  Il Vento dell'Est Temuto dagli USA - L'Arte Della Guerra
     
       
     
       
       
       
     
       
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     -  Washington Teme al Viento del Oriente - El Arte de La Guerra
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Multimedia:
     
     
     -  Invisible Empire - A New World Order Defined
     
     
     

       
     
     -  Global Warfare USA - The World is The Pentagon's Oyster - US Military Operations in All Major Regions of The World
     
     
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     -  Rebuilding America's Defenses - Strategy, Forces and Resources For a New Century
       
     
     -  The Enemy-Industrial Complex - How to Turn a World Lacking in Enemies into The Most Threatening Place in The Universe
     
     
     
     
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     -  El Nuevo Siglo Americano - Un Film de Massimo Mazzucco
     
    Italiano
     -  Il Nuovo Secolo Americano - Un Film di Massimo Mazzucco
     
     

       
     
     
     
     
     
     -  New World Order Blueprint Leaked - The Trans-Pacific Partnership
     
     
     -  Obama Administration Pushing a Secretive Trade Agreement - Leaked Trade Doc Shows Obama Wants to Help Corporations...
     
     -  Secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership  Talks Re-Commence in Lima, Peru - They Can Shut Us Out, But They Can’t Shut Us Up
     
     
     
     
     
     
     -  The Trans-Pacific Partnership’s “Global Economic Coup- Secret Negotiations Behind Closed Doors
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

       
     -  1984 - by George Orwell (Eric Blair)
     
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     -  1984 - Español - por George Orwell
     
     
     
     -  America's Secret Establishment - by Antony Sutton
     
     
     -  America's Subversion - The Enemy Within - New World Order, Illuminati's One World Government - by Sonny René Stermole
     
     -  America's "War on Terrorism" - by Michel Chossudovsky
     
     -  Animal Farm - by George Orwell
     
     -  Behold a Pale Horse - by Milton William Cooper
     
     -  Brave New World - by Aldous Huxley
     
     -  Brave New World Revisited - by Aldous Huxley
     
     -  Changing Images 2000 - Integral Approaches to Re-Imagining and Re-Making Ourselves and the World - by Thomas J. Hurley
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     -  Los Dossier del Gobierno Mundial - La Trama Oculta para Dominar a la Humanidad - por Anne Givaudan
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     -  El Nuevo Orden Mundial - Génesis y Desarrollo del Capitalismo Moderno - por Martín Lozano
       
     
     -  Global Tyranny... Step by Step - The United Nations and the Emerging New World Order - by William F. Jasper
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     -  Hitler Ganó La Guerra - por Walter Graziano
     
    Italiano
     -  Hitler Ha Vinto La Guerra - De Globalizzazione e Bugie - da Walter Graziano
     
     
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     -  La Exteriorización De La Jerarquía - por Djwhal Khul a traves de Alice A. Bailey
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     -  La Granja de Los Animales - por George Orwell
     
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     -  Los Dossier del Gobierno Mundial - La Trama Oculta para Dominar a la Humanidad - por Anne Givaudan
     
     -  Matrix of Power - How The World Has Been Controlled By Powerful People Without Your Knowledge - by Jordan Maxwell
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     -  Nadie Se Atreve A Llamarle Conspiración - por Gary Allen y Larry Abraham
     
     -  None Dare Call It Conspiracy - by Gary Allen and Larry Abraham
     
     
     -  Order Out of Chaos - Elite Sponsored Terrorism and the New World Order - by Paul Joseph Watson
     
     -  Politics and The English Language - by George Orwell (Eric Blair)
     
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     -  Razones de Estado - por Chester Swann
     
     
     -  Rule by Secrecy - by Jim Marrs
     
     
     -  The Anglo-American Establishment - by Carroll Quigley
     
       
     
     -  The Externalization of The Hierarchy - by Djwhal Khul through Alice A. Bailey
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     -  The New World Order - by H.G. Wells
     
     -  The Open Conspiracy - by H.G. Wells
     
     
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     -  Adiós a Las Libertades - Taking Liberties (Since 1997)
     
     -  Agenda "Esoterica" - Esoteric Agenda
     
     -  A Jewish Defector Warns America - Benjamin Freedman Speech 1961 - An Alternate Look at WW-1 and WW-2
     
     
     
     -  A Political Road Movie - 'South of The Border'
     
     -  Aquarius - La Era del Mal - ¿Un Análisis Religioso o Propaganda Religiosa?
     
     -  Aquarius - The Age of Evil - A Religious Analysis or Religious Propaganda?
     
     
     
     -  Cimática - La Continuation de Agenda Esotérica
     
     
     
     -  Destrozando La Democracia - Hacking Democracy
     
     
     
     -  El Fin de Los Estados Unidos - Naomi Wolf
     
     -  El Llamado - The Calling
     
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     -  Eustace Mullins Tells It Like It Is - About The New World Order
     
     -  Fall of The Republic - The Presidency of Barack H. Obama
     
     
     -  Freedom of Speech - Stories From The Edge of Free Speech
     
     
     
     
     
     -  Guerra Climática - Programa "ESO ES IMPOSIBLE" del Canal History
     
     
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    MI6 are the War Lords of the Drug Trade
    by James Casbolt
    from JamesCasbolt Website
    MI6 are the War Lords of the Drug Trade
     
    It may be a revelation to many people that the global drug trade is controlled and run by the intelligence agencies. In this global drug trade British intelligence reigns supreme.
     
    As intelligence insiders know MI-5 and MI-6 control many of the other intelligence agencies in the world (CIA, MOSSAD etc) in a vast web of intrigue and corruption that has its global power base in the city of London, the square mile. My name is James Casbolt, and I worked for MI-6 in 'black ops' cocaine trafficking with the IRA and MOSSAD in London and Brighton between 1995 and 1999.
     
    My father Peter Casbolt was also MI-6 and worked with the CIA and mafia in Rome, trafficking cocaine into Britain. My experience was that the distinctions of all these groups became blurred until in the end we were all one international group working together for the same goals. We were puppets who had our strings pulled by global puppet masters based in the city of London. Most levels of the intelligence agencies are not loyal to the people of the country they are based in and see themselves as 'super national'.

    The CIA operates under orders from British intelligence and was created by British intelligence in 1947.
     
    "...The CIA today is still loyal to the international bankers based in the city of London and the global elite aristocratic families like the Rothschild's and the Windsor's. Since it was first started, MI-6 has always brought drugs into Britain. They do not bring 'some' of the drugs into Britain but I would estimate MI-6 bring in around ninety percent of the drugs in.  They do this by pulling the strings of many organized crime and terrorist groups and these groups like the IRA are full of MI-6 agents....."
     
    Contents
     
     
       
       
     
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    http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/sociopol_drugs02.htm#Mena Connection - Compromised: Clinton, Bush and the CIA, Drug Smuggling
    Drugs for Guns Connection
    Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton, President George Bushanbd CIA Involvement
     
    by Paul DeRienzo
    from NCOIC Website
     
     
    An independent group of researchers in Arkansas are charging that Governor Bill Clinton is covering up an airport used by the CIA and major cocaine smugglers in a remote corner of the Ozark mountains.
     
    According to Deborah Robinson of In These Times, the Inter mountain Regional Airport in Mena, Arkansas continues to be the hub of operations for people like assassinated cocaine kingpin Barry Seal as well as government intelligence operations linked to arms and drug smuggling.

    In the 1980's, the Mena airport became one of the world's largest aircraft refurbishing centers, providing services to planes from many countries. Researchers claim that the largest consumers of aircraft refurbishing services are drug smugglers and intelligence agencies involved in covert activities. In fact, residents of Mena, Arkansas, have told reporters that former marine Lt. Colonel Oliver North was a frequent visitor during the 1980's.
     
    Eugene Hasenfus, a pilot who was shot down in a Contra supply plane over Nicaragua in 1986, was also seen in town renting cargo vehicles.

    A federal Grand Jury looking into activities at the Mena airport refused to hand down any indictments after drug running charges were made public. Deborah Robinson says that Clinton had "ignored the situation" until he began his presidential campaign." Clinton then said he would provide money for a state run investigation of the Mena airport.
     
    But according to Robinson, the promise of an investigation was never followed up by Clinton's staff. In fact, a local Arkansas state prosecutor blasted Clinton's promise of an investigation, comparing it to "spitting on a forest fire."

    Clinton's involvement in the drug and arms running goes even further than a mere cover-up of the deplorable activities that went on, and are still going on, at the airport in Mena. A federal mail fraud case against an Arkansas pilot-trainer who participated in illegal arms exports to Central America relied on a key Clinton staffer as a chief witness. The case was dismissed for lack of evidence when the CIA refused to allow the discussion of top secret information about the arms transfers.

    Terry Reed, a former employee of the CIA's Air America operation in Laos during the Indochina war, claims to have been recruited as a pilot trainer into the Iran operation by Oliver North. In an article written by David Gallis and published last year by Covert Action Information Bulletin, Reed said that in 1983 he had agreed to supply North's operatives with "certain items."

    In pursuit of the Reagan administration's Contra war against the Sandinistas, the CIA had planted mines in Nicaragua's harbors. In 1984, Congress passed the Boland Amendment, which cut off US aid to the Contras. According to Reed, it was during this period that North aided him to become involved in a covert operation called "Project Donation". Reed was told he would be reimbursed for supplying the Contras by insurance companies that were linked to North's operation.,

    Shortly afterwards, Reed reported the "theft" of Piper turbo-prop aircraft and he filed a $33,000 claim on which he eventually collected almost $7,000.

    In late 1985, Reed received a phone call from an Air America buddy, William Cooper, a pilot working with Southern Air Transport, another CIA front company. Cooper also was working with soon to be murdered drug kingpin Barry Seal at the same time he was flying re-supply missions for the Contras. In 1986, he was shot down and killed over Nicaragua along with co-pilot Wallace Sawyer. The plane's cargo-kicker, Eugene Hasenfus, parachuted into the arms of waiting Sandinista soldiers.
     
    Video images of his capture spanned the world and forced an airing of a tiny part of US covert operations.

    Sandinistas who recovered the downed cargo plane searched Cooper's pockets and found phone numbers linking the re-supply operation with Felix Rodriguez, an associate of George Bush, best known for murdering Che Guevara after his capture in Bolivia. To this day, Rodriguez, who works for the CIA, wears Che's watch as a trophy.

    Reed says that Cooper told him that the stolen Piper would soon be returned and that he should store it in a hanger at Mena until the Hasenfus mess blew over.
    "There was a lot of Contra stuff going on in Arkansas." said Reed, "it was the hub."
    Meanwhile, Reed went into business in Mexico with the blessing of Rodriguez, who was overseeing the Contra air re-supply operation in El Salvador. Reed's company used Mexico to export arms to the Contras, in violation of the Boland Amendment. Reed went down to Mexico and his operation continued for a year after the Iran-Contra story broke.

    According to Arkansas Committee researcher Mark Swaney, in the summer of 1987, even as the Contra-Gate hearings were going on in Congress, Terry Reed began to suspect they were using his front company for something other than smuggling weapons. One day, he was looking for a lathe in one of his warehouses near the airport in Guadalajara and he opened up one of the very large air freight shipping containers (they are about 28' long, about 7' high and about 8' wide), and he found it packed full of cocaine.

    Swaney reports that Reed realized he was in a very precarious situation because he was the only person on paper who had anything to do with the company set up to run guns to the Contras in Nicaragua out of Mexico and there was nobody to say that he did not know anything about what was going on. Reed decided he wasn't going to play the part of a patsy.

    Swaney says that Reed's contact man for the CIA in Mexico was Felix Rodriguez, whom Reed confronted. Reed said that he hadn't bargained for getting into narcotics smuggling and that he was dropping out all together. Soon afterward, his legal problems began.

    In a series of mysterious events, Reed was charged with mail fraud for claiming insurance for an aircraft that was used by North's network under Operation Donation. Reed, who was eventually acquitted of the charges, was picked up by the FBI after the missing plane was discovered in the Mena hanger where Reed had put the plane at Cooper's suggestion. The discovery was made by Clinton's security chief Buddy Young.
     
    Young testified that his discovery of the stolen plane was coincidental, an assertion federal Judge Frank Thiel said was unsupported by the facts.

    Reed was charged with mail fraud for collecting insurance on the plane, but the CIA prevented prosecutors from releasing information they called "top, top secret," about the Rodriguez-North, Southern Air Transport connection. In November 1990, the prosecution admitted they couldn't prosecute Reed without the secret documents and Judge Thiel ordered Reed acquitted on all of the charges.

    Allegations of Governor Bill Clinton's extra-marital sexual exploits originated with a 1990 lawsuit by Larry Nichols, a former Arkansas state employee. Nichols was fired by Clinton in 1988 after reporters discovered Nichols had been lobbying on behalf of the Contras from his office as head of the Arkansas Development Finance Authority.

    The suit claimed that Clinton had lied when he said Nichols was fired because he was phoning the Contras directly from his state office. Nichols claimed he only called Washington to lobby on behalf of the Contras. In the suit, Nichols also revealed the affair between Clinton and office secretary Gennifer Flowers.

    The suit was dropped by Nichols on January 25, 1992, after Gennifer Flowers went public with her story of the affair. Nichols told reporters that he decided to drop the suit after meeting with Clinton security chief Buddy Young - the same man who found Terry Reed's missing Piper aircraft at the Mena airport.

    According to Arkansas Committee researcher Mark Swaney, Nichols said that Young had told him he was a "dead man," prompting Nichols to drop the suit. In public, Nichols says he dropped the suit because "the media have made a circus out of this thing and it's gone way too far."

    In court documents recently released by Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, it has been revealed that Jackson Stephens, a billionaire banker in Little Rock, Arkansas, and one of presidential candidate Bill Clinton's main supporters, may have played a key role in setting up the illegal purchase by the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) of two American banks.

    Both First American National Bank, the largest bank in Washington DC, and Georgia National Bank, were purchased by BCCI front man and Stephens business associate Gaith Pharon. Stephens' family bank, the Worthern National Bank, recently extended a two million dollar loan to the Clinton campaign.

    Stephens, who is an avid golfer and chairman of the prestigious Masters Tournament Committee, is named in the court records as having brought Pharon together with Stephens' close friend Bert Lance. Lance was a former cabinet official under President Jimmy Carter who was forced to resign due to a banking scandal.

    According to newspaper reports, BCCI founder Agha Hasan Abedi was introduced to Lance by Stephens. Stephens, Lance, and First American Bank director and longtime Democratic party power broker Clark Clifford all maintain that they did not know the group of Pakistani and Saudi investors headed by Pharon, which they were dealing with, were actually fronting for BCCI. Clinton's staff has refused to comment.

    Bill Clinton's environmental record has been as dismal as his record in the Iran-Contra scandal.
     
    He has supported the incineration of extremely toxic chemicals at a site in the city of Jacksonville, 20 miles from Little Rock, that is reputed to be the most polluted spot in the United States. Jacksonville was the site of Hercules Inc., a company that produced the two components of Agent Orange, 2,4 D, which is still used in agriculture and 2,4,5,T, which was banned by the federal government in 1983 as a carcinogen.
     
    Agent Orange was used to defoliate Vietnamese forests during the Indochina war and its production yields the by-product dioxin, the most toxic chemical known on earth.

    Hercules sold the operation in 1976 to Vertac Inc., which closed the plant in 1987, leaving behind 20,000 barrels of the chemicals. Gov. Bill Clinton supports a plan to incinerate the waste, a plan that is being vigorously opposed by the residents of Jacksonville.

    In These Times reporter Deborah Robinson says that Clinton has allowed Arkansas to become a dumping ground.
    "Arkansas" she says, "is still kind of a backwoods state and there's a lot of room for someone to set up whatever they want to set up and Arkansas has been exploited by people who have things they want to do that they might no get away with somewhere else."
    Robinson adds,
    "there are a lot of questions about what Somebody like Clinton would do for a country when he couldn't do anything for his own state."
     

     
     
     
     
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    BNDD agents Don Strange (right) and Howard Safir (left) arrest Leary in 1972
     
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    Timothy Leary
    Timothy-Leary-Los-Angeles-1989.jpg
    1989 photo
    Born Timothy Francis Leary
    (1920-10-22)October 22, 1920
    Springfield, Massachusetts, United States
    Died May 31, 1996(1996-05-31) (aged 75)
    Los Angeles, California, United States
    Nationality American
    Alma mater University of Alabama (B.A., 1945)
    Washington State University (M.S., 1946)
    University of California, Berkeley (Ph.D., 1950)
    Occupation Psychologist
    Writer
    Employer University of California, Berkeley
    Kaiser Family Foundation
    Harvard University
    Known for Psychedelic therapy
    Spouse(s) Marianne Busch (m. 1945–1955)
    Mary Della Cioppa (m. 1956–1957)
    Nena von Schlebrügge (m. 1964–1965)
    Rosemary Woodruff (m. 1967–1976)

    redecorated by the staff, who had more or less moved in, with an array of surreal ornamentation. In his final months, thousands of visitors, well-wishers and old friends visited him in his California home. Until his last weeks, he gave many interviews discussing his new philosophy of embracing death.
    Movie poster for Timothy Leary's Dead
    For a number of years
    Leary, John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and others recording "Give Peace A Chance".

    etoy agents with mortal remains of Timothy Leary 2007

    Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary and John C. Lilly in 1991

    BNDD agents Don Strange (right) and Howard Safir (left) arrest Leary in 1972


    Timothy Francis Leary (October 22, 1920 – May 31, 1996) was an American psychologist and writer, known for his advocacy of psychedelic drugs. During a time when drugs such as LSD and psilocybin were legal, Leary conducted experiments at Harvard University under the Harvard Psilocybin Project, resulting in the Concord Prison Experiment and the Marsh Chapel Experiment. Both studies produced useful data, but Leary and his associate Richard Alpert were fired from the university nonetheless because of the public controversy surrounding their research.

    Leary believed LSD showed therapeutic potential for use in psychiatry. He popularized catchphrases that promoted his philosophy such as "turn on, tune in, drop out" (a phrase given to Leary by Marshall McLuhan); "set and setting"; and "think for yourself and question authority". He also wrote and spoke frequently about transhumanist concepts involving space migration, intelligence increase and life extension (SMI²LE), and developed the eight-circuit model of consciousness in his book Exo-Psychology (1977).

    During the 1960s and 1970s, he was arrested often enough to see the inside of 29 different prisons worldwide. President Richard Nixon once described Leary as "the most dangerous man in America".[1]

    Early life and education

    Leary was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, the only child[1] of an Irish-American dentist who abandoned his wife Abigail Ferris when Leary was 13.[citation needed] He graduated from Classical High School in that western Massachusetts city.

    He attended the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts from September 1938 to June 1940. Under pressure from his father, he then accepted an appointment as a cadet in the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. In the first months as a "plebe", he was given numerous demerits for rule infractions and then got into serious trouble for failing to report infractions by other cadets when on supervisory duty. He was alleged to have gone on a drinking binge and then failing to "come clean" about it. For violating the Academy's honor code, he was asked by the Honor Committee to resign. When he refused, he was "silenced"; that is, shunned and ignored by his fellow cadets as a tactic to pressure him to resign. Even though he was acquitted by a court-martial, the silencing measures continued in full force, as well as the onslaught of demerits for minuscule rule infractions. When the treatment continued in his sophomore year, his mother appealed to a family friend, United States Senator David I. Walsh, head of the Senate Naval Affairs Committee, who conducted a personal investigation. Behind the scenes, the Honor Committee revised its position and announced that it would abide by the court-martial verdict. Leary then resigned and was honorably discharged by the Army.[2] Almost 50 years later, he said it was "the only fair trial I've had in a court of law".[3]

    To the chagrin of his family, Leary elected to transfer to the University of Alabama in the fall of 1941 because of the institution's expeditious response to his application. Although he enrolled in the university's ROTC program, maintained top grades, and began to cultivate academic interests in psychology and biology, he was expelled a year later for spending a night in the female dormitory. Having lost his student deferment in the midst of World War II, Leary was drafted into the United States Army and reported for basic training at Fort Eustis in January 1943. In lieu of further officer training, Leary remained in the non-commissioned track and enrolled in an extended academic program for psychology majors that included external studies at Georgetown University and Ohio State University; following retroactive suspension and eventual reinstatement at the University of Alabama, he completed his degree via correspondence courses and graduated in August 1945. Shortly after his promotion to corporal in 1944, Leary was assigned to Deshon General Hospital in Butler, Pennsylvania as a staff psychometrician largely due to the magnanimity of erstwhile professor Donald Ramsdell. He primarily worked with deaf patients at the hospital and served there for the remainder of the war. While stationed in Butler, Leary began to court Marianne Busch; they would marry in April 1945. Formally discharged at the rank of sergeant in January 1946, Leary earned the Good Conduct Medal, the American Defense Service Medal, the American Campaign Medal, and the World War II Victory Medal during his Army stint.[4]

    Following the resolution of the war, Leary decided to pursue an academic career. He received an M.S. degree in psychology at Washington State University in 1946 and his Ph.D. degree in clinical psychology at the University of California, Berkeley in 1950.[5] His Ph.D. dissertation was entitled "The Social Dimensions of Personality: Group Structure and Process." In 1947, Marianne gave birth to their first child, Susan, while he was working on his doctorate. A son, Jack, was born two years later. In 1952 the Leary family spent a year in Spain, subsisting on a research grant. A Berkeley colleague, Marv Freedman, later recalled, "Something had been stirred in him in terms of breaking out of being another cog in society...".[6]

    The new Ph.D. stayed on at Berkeley as an assistant professor from 1950 to 1955. Despite his nascent professional success, his marriage was strained by multiple infidelities and mutual alcohol abuse. Marianne would eventually commit suicide in 1955, leaving him to raise their son and daughter alone.[1] He described himself during this period as "an anonymous institutional employee who drove to work each morning in a long line of commuter cars and drove home each night and drank martinis ... like several million middle-class, liberal, intellectual robots."[7][8]

    From 1955 to 1958, Leary was director of psychiatric research at the Kaiser Family Foundation. Subsiding on small research grants and insurance policies, Leary—determined to write the great American novel—and his children relocated to Europe in 1958. Overcome by indigence during an unproductive stay in Florence, Leary soon returned to academia in the fall of 1959 as a lecturer in clinical psychology at Harvard University at the behest of Berkeley colleague Frank Barron and David McClelland. He would reside with his children in nearby Newton, Massachusetts. In addition to his teaching duties, Leary was affiliated with the Harvard Center for Research in Personality under McClelland and oversaw the Harvard Psilocybin Project & concomitant experiments in conjunction with assistant professor Richard Alpert. In 1963, Leary was terminated for failing to give his scheduled class lectures[9] against his position that he had fulfilled his teaching obligations in full. The decision to dismiss him may have been influenced by his role in the popularity of then-legal psychedelic substances among Harvard students and faculty members.[10]

    His early work in psychology expanded on the research of Harry Stack Sullivan and Karen Horney regarding the importance of interpersonal forces in mental health, focusing on how understanding interpersonal processes might facilitate diagnosing disorders and identifying human personality patterns. He developed a complex and respected interpersonal circumplex model, published in The Interpersonal Diagnosis of Personality,[11] demonstrating how psychologists could methodically use Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) scores to predict respondents' interpersonal response characteristics, or ways they might respond to various interpersonal situations.

    Psychedelic experiments and experiences

    On May 13, 1957, Life magazine published an article by R. Gordon Wasson that documented the use of psilocybin mushrooms in religious rites of the indigenous Mazatec people of Mexico.[12] Anthony Russo, a colleague of Leary's, experimented with his own use of psychedelic (or entheogenic) psilocybe mexicana mushrooms on a trip to Mexico and told Leary about it. In August 1960,[13] Leary traveled to Cuernavaca, Mexico with Russo and consumed psilocybin mushrooms for the first time, an experience that drastically altered the course of his life.[14] In 1965, Leary commented that he had "learned more about ... (his) brain and its possibilities ... [and] more about psychology in the five hours after taking these mushrooms than ... in the preceding 15 years of studying and doing research in psychology."[14]

    Returning from Mexico to Harvard in 1960, Leary and his associates, notably Richard Alpert (later known as Ram Dass), began a research program known as the Harvard Psilocybin Project. The goal was to analyze the effects of psilocybin on human subjects (first prisoners, and later Andover Newton Theological Seminary students) from a synthesized version of the then-legal drug — one of two active compounds found in a wide variety of hallucinogenic mushrooms, including psilocybe mexicana. The compound in question was produced by a process developed by Albert Hofmann of Sandoz Pharmaceuticals, who was famous for synthesizing LSD.

    Beat poet Allen Ginsberg, after hearing about the Harvard research project, asked to join the experiments. Leary was inspired by Ginsberg's enthusiasm, and the two shared an optimism in the benefit of psychedelic substances to help people "turn on" (i.e., discover a higher level of consciousness). Together they began a campaign of introducing other intellectuals and artists to psychedelics.[15]

    Leary argued that psychedelic substances, in proper doses and in a stable setting, could, under the guidance of psychologists, alter behavior in beneficial ways not easily attainable through regular therapy. His research focused on treating alcoholism and reforming criminals. Many of his research subjects told of profound mystical and spiritual experiences which they said permanently, and very positively, altered their lives. According to Leary's autobiography Flashbacks, after 300 professors, graduate students, writers and philosophers had taken LSD, 75% reported the experience as one of the most educational and revealing ones of their lives.

    The Concord Prison Experiment was designed to evaluate the effects of psilocybin combined with psychotherapy on rehabilitation of released prisoners. After being guided through the psychedelic experience, or "trips," by Leary and his associates, 36 prisoners were reported to have repented and sworn to give up future criminal activity. Compared to the average recidivism rate of 60 percent for American prisoners in general, the recidivism rate for those involved in Leary's project dropped to 20 percent. The experimenters concluded that long-term reduction in overall criminal recidivism rates could be effected with a combination of psilocybin-assisted group psychotherapy (inside the prison) along with a comprehensive post-release follow-up support program modeled on Alcoholics Anonymous. These conclusions were later contested in a follow-up study on the basis of time differences monitoring the study group vs. the control group and differences between subjects re-incarcerated for parole violations and those imprisoned for new crimes. The researchers concluded that statistically only a slight improvement could be attributed to psilocybin in contrast to the significant improvement reported by Leary and his colleagues.[16]

    Leary and Alpert founded the International Foundation for Internal Freedom in 1962 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This was run by Lisa Bieberman (now known as Licia Kuenning),[17] a disciple of Leary[18] and one of his many lovers.[19][20] Their research attracted so much public attention that many who wanted to participate in the experiments had to be turned away due to the high demand. To satisfy the curiosity of those who were turned away, a black market for psychedelics sprang up near the Harvard campus.[21]

    According to Andrew Weil, Leary was fired for not giving his required lectures while Alpert was fired for allegedly giving psilocybin to an undergraduate in an off-campus apartment.[21][22] This version is supported by the words of Harvard University president Nathan Marsh Pusey, who released the following statement on May 27, 1963:

    On May 6, 1963, the Harvard Corporation voted, because Timothy F. Leary, lecturer on clinical psychology, has failed to keep his classroom appointments and has absented himself from Cambridge without permission, to relieve him from further teaching duty and to terminate his salary as of April 30, 1963.[9]

    In 1967, Leary engaged in a televised debate with Jerry Lettvin of MIT.[23]

    Leary's activities interested siblings Peggy, Billy and Tommy Hitchcock, heirs to the Mellon fortune, who in 1963 helped Leary and his associates acquire a rambling mansion on an estate in Millbrook (near the city of Poughkeepsie) (the site of Vassar College), where they continued their experiments. Leary later wrote:

    We saw ourselves as anthropologists from the 21st century inhabiting a time module set somewhere in the dark ages of the 1960s. On this space colony we were attempting to create a new paganism and a new dedication to life as art.[24]

    The Millbrook estate was later described by Luc Sante of The New York Times as:

    the headquarters of Leary and gang for the better part of five years, a period filled with endless parties, epiphanies and breakdowns, emotional dramas of all sizes, and numerous raids and arrests, many of them on flimsy charges concocted by the local assistant district attorney, G. Gordon Liddy.[25]

    Others contest this characterization of the Millbrook estate; for instance, in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Tom Wolfe portrays Leary as interested only in research and not in using psychedelics merely for recreational purposes. According to "The Crypt Trip" chapter of Wolfe's book, when Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters visited the residence the Pranksters did not even see Leary, who was away on a three-day trip. According to Wolfe, Leary's group even refused to give the Pranksters LSD.

    In 1964, Leary coauthored a book with Alpert and Ralph Metzner called The Psychedelic Experience based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead. In it, they wrote:

    A psychedelic experience is a journey to new realms of consciousness. The scope and content of the experience is limitless, but its characteristic features are the transcendence of verbal concepts, of spacetime dimensions, and of the ego or identity. Such experiences of enlarged consciousness can occur in a variety of ways: sensory deprivation, yoga exercises, disciplined meditation, religious or aesthetic ecstasies, or spontaneously. Most recently they have become available to anyone through the ingestion of psychedelic drugs such as LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, DMT, etc. Of course, the drug does not produce the transcendent experience. It merely acts as a chemical key — it opens the mind, frees the nervous system of its ordinary patterns and structures.[citation needed]

    Repeated FBI raids ended the Millbrook era. Regarding a 1966 raid by Liddy, Leary told author and Prankster Paul Krassner, "He was a government agent entering our bedroom at midnight. We had every right to shoot him. But I've never owned a weapon in my life. I have never had and never will have a gun around."

    On September 19, 1966, Leary founded the League for Spiritual Discovery, a religion declaring LSD as its holy sacrament, in part as an unsuccessful attempt to maintain legal status for the use of LSD and other psychedelics for the religion's adherents based on a "freedom of religion" argument. (Although The Brotherhood of Eternal Love would subsequently consider Leary their spiritual leader, The Brotherhood did not evolve out of IFIF International Foundation for Internal Freedom.) On October 6, 1966, LSD was made illegal in the United States and controlled so strictly that not only were possession and recreational use criminalized, but all legal scientific research programs on the drug in the US were shut down as well.

    In 1966, Folkways Records recorded Leary reading from his book The Psychedelic Experience, and released the album The Psychedelic Experience: Readings from the Book "The Psychedelic Experience. A Manual Based on the Tibetan...".[26]

    During late 1966 and early 1967, Leary toured college campuses presenting a multimedia performance "The Death of the Mind" attempting an artistic replication of the LSD experience. He said the League for Spiritual Discovery was limited to 360 members and was already at its membership limit, but encouraged others to form their own psychedelic religions. He published a pamphlet in 1967 called Start Your Own Religion to encourage just that (see below under "writings").

    Leary was invited to attend the January 14, 1967 Human Be-In by Michael Bowen, the primary organizer of the event,[27] a gathering of 30,000 hippies in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park In speaking to the group, he coined the famous phrase "Turn on, tune in, drop out". In a 1988 interview with Neil Strauss, he said that this slogan was "given to him" by Marshall McLuhan when the two had lunch in New York City, adding, "Marshall was very much interested in ideas and marketing, and he started singing something like, 'Psychedelics hit the spot / Five hundred micrograms, that's a lot,' to the tune of [the well-known Pepsi 1950s singing commercial]. Then he started going, 'Tune in, turn on, and drop out.'"[28]

    At some point in the late 1960s, Leary moved to California and made many new friends in Hollywood. "When he married his third wife, Rosemary Woodruff, in 1967, the event was directed by Ted Markland of Bonanza. All the guests were on acid."[1]

    In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Leary, in collaboration with the writer Brian Barritt, formulated his eight-circuit model of consciousness, in which he wrote that the human mind / nervous system consisted of seven circuits which, when activated, produce seven levels of consciousness. This model was first published in his short essay "The Seven Tongues of God". The system soon expanded to include an eighth circuit in a revised version first unveiled to the world in the rare 1973 pamphlet "Neurologic" — written with Joanna Leary while he was in prison — but was not exhaustively formulated until the publication of Exo-Psychology (by Leary) and in Robert Anton Wilson's Cosmic Trigger in 1977. Wilson contributed to the model after befriending Leary in the early 1970s, and used it as a framework for further exposition in his book Prometheus Rising, among other works.

    Leary believed that the first four of these circuits ("the Larval Circuits" or "Terrestrial Circuits") are naturally accessed by most people in their lifetimes, triggered at natural transition points in life such as puberty. The second four circuits ("the Stellar Circuits" or "Extra-Terrestrial Circuits"), Leary wrote, were evolutionary offshoots of the first four that would be triggered at transition points we will acquire when we evolve further, and would equip us to encompass life in space, as well as the expansion of consciousness that would be necessary to make further scientific and social progress. Leary suggested that some people may "shift to the latter four gears", i.e., trigger these circuits artificially via consciousness-altering techniques such as meditation and spiritual endeavors such as yoga, or by taking psychedelic drugs specific to each circuit. An example of the information Leary cited as evidence for the purpose of the "higher" four circuits was the feeling of floating and uninhibited motion experienced by users of marijuana. In the eight-circuit model of consciousness, a primary theoretical function of the fifth circuit (the first of the four developed for life in outer space) is to allow humans to become accustomed to life in a zero- or low-gravity environment.

    Legal troubles

    Leary's first run-in with the law came on December 20, 1965. Leary decided to take his two children, Jack and Susan, and his girlfriend Rosemary Woodruff, to Mexico for an extended stay to write a book. On their return from Mexico to the United States, a U.S. Customs Service official found marijuana in Susan's underwear. They had crossed into Nuevo Laredo, Mexico in the late afternoon and discovered they would have to wait until morning for the appropriate visa for an extended stay. They decided to cross back into Texas to spend the night, and were on the U.S.-Mexico bridge, when Rosemary remembered she had a very small amount of marijuana in her possession. It was impossible to throw it out on the bridge, so Susan put it in her underwear.[29] After taking responsibility for the controlled substance, Leary was convicted of possession under the Marihuana Tax Act on March 11, 1966, sentenced to 30 years in prison, fined $30,000 and ordered to undergo psychiatric treatment. Soon after, however, he appealed the case on the basis that the Marihuana Tax Act was, in fact, unconstitutional, as it required a degree of self-incrimination in blatant violation of the Fifth Amendment.

    On December 26, 1968, Leary was arrested again, in Laguna Beach, California, this time for the possession of two marijuana "roaches". Leary alleged they were planted by the arresting officer, but was convicted anyway. On May 19, 1969, The Supreme Court concurred with Leary in Leary v. United States, declared the Marihuana Tax Act unconstitutional and overturned his 1965 conviction.

    On that same day Leary announced his candidacy for Governor of California against the Republican incumbent, Ronald Reagan. His campaign slogan was "Come together, join the party." On June 1, 1969, Leary joined John Lennon and Yoko Ono at their Montreal Bed-In, and Lennon subsequently wrote Leary a campaign song called "Come Together".[30]

    On January 21, 1970, Leary received a 10-year sentence for his 1968 offense, with a further 10 added later while in custody for a prior arrest in 1965, for a total of 20 years to be served consecutively. On his arrival in prison, he was given psychological tests used to assign inmates to appropriate work details. Having designed some of these tests himself (including the "Leary Interpersonal Behavior Test"), Leary answered them in such a way that he seemed to be a very conforming, conventional person with a great interest in forestry and gardening.[31] As a result, he was assigned to work as a gardener in a lower-security prison from which he escaped in September 1970, saying that his non-violent escape was a humorous prank and leaving a challenging note for the authorities to find after he was gone.

    For a fee of $25,000, paid by The Brotherhood of Eternal Love, the Weathermen smuggled Leary and Rosemary out of the U.S. (and eventually into Algeria) in a pickup truck driven by Clayton Van Lydegraf.[32][33] He sought the patronage of Eldridge Cleaver and the remnants of the Black Panther Party's "government in exile" in Algeria, but after a short stay with them said that Cleaver had attempted to hold him and his wife hostage.

    In 1971 the couple fled to Switzerland, where they were sheltered and effectively imprisoned by a high-living arms dealer, Michel Hauchard, who claimed he had an "obligation as a gentleman to protect philosophers"; however, Hauchard actually intended to broker a surreptitious film deal.[25] In 1972 President Richard Nixon's attorney general, John Mitchell, persuaded the Swiss government to imprison Leary, which it did for a month but refused to extradite him back to the U.S. Leary and Rosemary separated later that year. Shortly thereafter, he became involved with Swiss-born British socialite Joanna Harcourt-Smith, a stepdaughter of financier Árpád Plesch. The couple "married" in a hotel two weeks after they were first introduced, and Harcourt-Smith would use his surname until their breakup in early 1977. They traveled to Vienna, then Beirut, and finally ended up in Kabul, Afghanistan in 1972. "Afghanistan had no extradition treaty with the United States, but this stricture did not apply to American airliners", Luc Sante wrote in a review of a biography of Leary.[25] That interpretation of the law was used by U.S. authorities to capture the fugitive. "Before Leary could deplane, he was arrested by an agent of the federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs."[25] Leary asserted a different story on appeal before the California Court of Appeal for the Second District, namely:[34]

    He testified further that he had a valid passport in Kabul and that it was confiscated while he was in a line at the American Embassy in Kabul a few days prior to the day when he boarded the airplane; after his passport was confiscated, he was taken to "Central Police Headquarters"; he did not attempt to contact the American Embassy; the Kabul police held him in custody and took him to a "police hotel"; the cousin of the King of Afghanistan came to see him and told him that it was a national holiday, that the King and the officials were out of Kabul, and that he (cousin) would get a lawyer and see that Leary "had a hearing"; on the morning the airplane left Kabul, officials of Afghanistan told him he was to leave Afghanistan; he told them he would not leave without a hearing and until he got his passport back; they said that the Americans had his passport; and he was taken to the airplane.

    At a stopover in the U.K., as Leary was being flown back to the U.S. in custody, he requested political asylum from Her Majesty's government to no avail. Back in America, he was held on five million dollars bail ($21.5 mil. in 2006) since Nixon had earlier labeled him as "the most dangerous man in America."[1] The judge at his remand hearing stated, "If he is allowed to travel freely, he will speak publicly and spread his ideas,"[35] Facing a total of 95 years in prison, Leary hired criminal defense attorney Bruce Margolin. He was sent to Folsom Prison in California, and put in solitary confinement.[36]

    Leary feigned cooperation with the FBI's investigation of the Weathermen and its radical attorneys by giving them information they already had and/or of little consequence; in response, the FBI gave him the code name "Charlie Thrush".[37] Leary would later claim, and members of the Weathermen would later support his claim, that no one was ever prosecuted based on any information he gave to the FBI.

    The Weather Underground, the radical left organization responsible for his escape, was not impacted by his testimony. Histories written about the Weather Underground usually mention the Leary chapter in terms of the escape for which they proudly took credit. Leary sent information to the Weather Underground through a sympathetic prisoner that he was considering making a deal with the FBI and waited for their approval. The return message was, "We understand."[38]

    Leary remained a productive writer in prison, sowing the seeds for his incarnation as a futurist lecturer with the StarSeed Series. In Starseed (1973), neurologic (1973) and Terra II: A Way Out (1974), Leary transitioned from Eastern philosophy and Aleister Crowley to a belief that outer space was a medium for spiritual transcendence as his principal frame of reference. Neurologic also added the idea of "time dilation/contraction" available to the activated brain through the cellular, DNA, or atomic level of reality. Terra II is his first detailed proposal for space colonization. Leary's muse peaked with Exo-Psychology, Neuropolitics, and Intelligence Agents.

    Last two decades

    Leary was released from prison on April 21, 1976 by Governor Jerry Brown. After briefly relocating to San Diego, he took up residence in Laurel Canyon and continued to write books and appear as a lecturer and (by his own terminology) "stand-up philosopher." In 1978 he married filmmaker Barbara Blum, also known as Barbara Chase, sister of actress Tanya Roberts. Leary adopted Blum's son Zachary and raised him as his own. During this period, Leary took on several godchildren, including actress Winona Ryder (the daughter of his archivist, Michael Horowitz) and current MIT Media Lab director Joi Ito.

    Leary began to foster an improbable friendship with former foe G. Gordon Liddy, the Watergate burglar and conservative radio talk-show host. They toured the lecture circuit in 1982 as ex-cons (Liddy having been imprisoned after high-level involvement in the Watergate scandal) debating different social and fiscal issues from gay rights and abortion to welfare and the environment, with Leary generally espousing left-wing views and Liddy continuing to conform to a right-wing stance. The tour generated massive publicity and considerable funds for both. The personal appearances, a successful documentary called Return Engagement chronicling the tour, and the concurrent release of the autobiography Flashbacks helped to return Leary to the spotlight. In 1988, Leary held a fundraiser for Libertarian presidential candidate Ron Paul.[39][40]

    While his stated ambition was to cross over to the mainstream as a Hollywood personality through proposed adaptations of Flashbacks and other projects, reluctant studios and sponsors ensured that it would never occur. Nonetheless, his extensive touring on the lecture circuit ensured him a very comfortable lifestyle by the mid-1980s, while his colorful past made him a desirable guest at A-list parties throughout the decade. He also attracted a more intellectual crowd including old confederate Robert Anton Wilson, science fiction writers William Gibson & Norman Spinrad, and rock musicians David Byrne & John Frusciante. In addition, he appeared in Johnny Depp and Gibby Haynes' 1994 film Stuff, which showed Frusciante's squalid living conditions at that time.

    While he continued his frequent drug use privately rather than evangelizing and proselytizing the use of psychedelics as he had in the 1960s, the latter-day Leary emphasized the importance of space colonization and an ensuing extension of the human lifespan while also providing a detailed explanation of the eight-circuit model of consciousness in books such as Info-Psychology, among several others. He adopted the acronym "SMI²LE" as a succinct summary of his pre-transhumanist agenda: SM (Space Migration) + (intelligence increase) + LE (Life extension), and credited L5 co-founder Keith Henson with helping develop his interest in space migration.

    Leary's colonization plan varied greatly through the years. According to his initial plan to leave the planet, 5,000 of Earth's most virile and intelligent individuals would be launched on a vessel (Starseed 1) equipped with luxurious amenities. This idea was inspired by the plotline of Paul Kantner's concept album Blows Against The Empire, which in turn was derived from Robert A. Heinlein's Lazarus Long series. In the 1980s, he came to embrace NASA scientist Gerard O'Neill's more realistic and egalitarian plans to construct giant Eden-like High Orbital Mini-Earths (documented in the Robert Anton Wilson lecture H.O.M.E.s on LaGrange) using existing technology and raw materials from the Moon, orbital rock and obsolete satellites.

    In the 1980s, Leary became fascinated by computers, the Internet, and virtual reality. Leary proclaimed that "the PC is the LSD of the 1990s" and admonished bohemians to "turn on, boot up, jack in".[41][42] He became a promoter of virtual reality systems,[43] and sometimes demonstrated a prototype of the Mattel Power Glove as part of his lectures (as in From Psychedelics to Cybernetics). Around this time he befriended a number of notable people in the field including Brenda Laurel, a pioneering researcher in virtual environments and human–computer interaction. With the rise of cyberdelic counter-culture, he served as consultant to Billy Idol in the production of the latter's 1993 album Cyberpunk.[44]

    In 1990, his daughter Susan committed suicide after years of mental instability. After his separation and subsequent divorce from Barbara in 1992, he ran with a new entourage of Baby-Boomer and Generation X artists and cultural figures including people as diverse as actors Johnny Depp, Susan Sarandon and Dan Aykroyd; Zach Leary; his grandson Ashley Martino and his granddaughters Dieadra Martino and Sara Brown; author Douglas Rushkoff; publisher Bob Guccione, Jr.; and goddaughters Ryder & artist/music–photographer Hilary Hulteen. Despite declining health, he maintained a regular schedule of public appearances through 1994.

    From 1989 on, Leary had begun to re-establish his connection to unconventional religious movements with an interest in altered states of consciousness. In 1989, he appeared with friend and book collaborator Robert Anton Wilson in a dialog entitled The Inner Frontier for the Association for Consciousness Exploration, a Cleveland-based group that had been responsible for his first Cleveland, Ohio appearance in 1979. After that, he appeared at the Starwood Festival, a major Neo-Pagan event run by ACE, in 1992 and 1993[45] (although his planned 1994 WinterStar Symposium appearance was cancelled due to his declining health). In front of hundreds of Neo-Pagans in 1992 he declared, "I have always considered myself, when I learned what the word meant, I've always considered myself a Pagan."[46] He also collaborated with Eric Gullichsen on Load and Run High-tech Paganism: Digital Polytheism.[47] Shortly before his death on May 31, 1996, he recorded the "Right to Fly" album with Simon Stokes which was released in July 1996.

    Death

    In early 1995, Leary was diagnosed with inoperable prostate cancer. He did not reveal the condition to the press at that time, but did so after the death of Jerry Garcia in August.

    Leary authored an outline for a book called Design for Dying which tried to give a new perspective on death and dying. His entourage (as mentioned above) updated his website on a daily basis as a sort of proto-blog, noting his daily intake of various illicit and legal chemical substances with a predilection for nitrous oxide, LSD and other psychedelic drugs. He was also noted for his strong views against the use of drugs which "dull the mind" such as heroin, morphine and (aside from the occasional) alcohol. Noted for his trademark "Leary Biscuits" (a snack cracker with cheese and a small marijuana bud, briefly microwaved). His sterile house was completely redecorated by the staff, who had more or less moved in, with an array of surreal ornamentation. In his final months, thousands of visitors, well-wishers and old friends visited him in his California home. Until his last weeks, he gave many interviews discussing his new philosophy of embracing death.

    For a number of years, he was reportedly excited by the possibility of freezing his body in cryonic suspension, and he publicly announced in September 1988 that he had signed up with Alcor for such treatment[48] after having appeared at Alcor's grand opening the year before.[48] He did not believe he would be resurrected in the future, but did believe that cryonics had important possibilities even though he thought it had only "one chance in a thousand".[48] He called it his "duty as a futurist", and helped publicize the process and hoped it would work for his children and grandchildren if not for him, although he said he was "lighthearted" about it.[48] He was connected with two cryonic organizations, first Alcor and then CryoCare, one of which delivered a cryonic tank to his house in the months before his death, but subsequently requested that his body be cremated, which it was, and distributed among his friends and family.

    He died at 75 on May 31, 1996. His death was videotaped for posterity at his request, capturing his final words. During his final moments, he said, "Why not?" to his son Zachary. He uttered the phrase repeatedly, in different intonations, and died soon after. His last word, according to Zach, was "beautiful."

    The film Timothy Leary's Dead (1996) contains a simulated sequence in which he allows his bodily functions to be suspended for the purposes of cryonic preservation. His head is removed, and placed on ice. The film ends with a sequence showing the creation of the artificial head used in the film.

    Seven grams of Leary's ashes were arranged by his friend at Celestis to be buried in space aboard a rocket carrying the remains of 24 others including Gene Roddenberry (creator of Star Trek), Gerard O'Neill (space physicist), and Krafft Ehricke (rocket scientist). A Pegasus rocket containing their remains was launched on April 21, 1997, and remained in orbit for six years until it burned up in the atmosphere.

    Influence

    Many consider Leary one of the most prominent figures during the counterculture of the 1960s, and since those times has remained influential on pop culture, literature, television, film and, especially, music.

    Leary coined the influential term Reality Tunnel, by which he means a kind of representative realism. The theory states that, with a subconscious set of mental filters formed from their beliefs and experiences, every individual interprets the same world differently, hence "Truth is in the eye of the beholder".

    His ideas influenced the work of his friend Robert Anton Wilson. This influence went both ways, and Leary admittedly took just as much from Wilson. Wilson's book Prometheus Rising was an in-depth, highly detailed and inclusive work documenting Leary's eight-circuit model of consciousness. Although the theory originated in discussions between Leary and a Hindu holy man at Millbrook, Wilson was one of the most ardent proponents of it and introduced the theory to a mainstream audience in 1977's bestselling Cosmic Trigger. In 1989, they appeared together on stage in a dialog entitled The Inner Frontier[49] hosted the Association for Consciousness Exploration,[50] (the same group that had hosted Leary's first Cleveland appearance in 1979[51][52]).

    World religion scholar Huston Smith was "turned on" by Leary after being introduced to him by Aldous Huxley the early 1960s. The experience was interpreted as a deeply religious one by Smith, and is described in detailed religious terms in Smith's later work Cleansing of the Doors of Perception. Smith asked Leary, to paraphrase, whether he knew the power and danger of what he was conducting research with. In Mother Jones Magazine, 1997, Smith commented:

    First, I have to say that during the three years I was involved with that Harvard study, LSD was not only legal but respectable. Before Tim went on his unfortunate careening course, it was a legitimate research project. Though I did find evidence that, when recounted, the experiences of the Harvard group and those of mystics were impossible to tell apart — descriptively indistinguishable — that's not the last word. There is still a question about the truth of the disclosure

    The Psychedelic Experience was the inspiration for John Lennon's song "Tomorrow Never Knows" in The Beatles' album Revolver.[25] Leary once recruited Lennon to write a theme-song for his California gubernatorial campaign against Ronald Reagan (which was interrupted by his prison sentence due to cannabis possession), inspiring Lennon to come up with "Come Together", based on Leary's theme and catchphrase for the campaign.[54][55] Leary was also present when Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, recorded "Give Peace a Chance" during one of their bed-ins in Montreal, and is mentioned in the lyrics of the song.[56] The Moody Blues also recorded a track about Leary, "Legend of a Mind", on their 1968 album In Search of the Lost Chord in which the refrain is "Timothy Leary's dead. No, no, no, no, he's outside looking in".[55]

    He is also referred to in the song "Let The Sunshine In" from the musical Hair. Also the single released by The Who, "The Seeker".

    While in exile in Switzerland, Leary and British writer Brian Barrett collaborated with the German band Ash Ra Tempel, and recorded the album Seven Up. He is credited as a songwriter, and his lyrics and vocals can be heard throughout the album.[57]

    The movie Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which portrays heavy psychedelic drug use, after a novel of Hunter S. Thompson, mentions Leary when the protagonist ponders over the meaning of the acid wave of the sixties:[58]

    ″We are all wired into a survival trip now. No more of the speed that fueled that 60's. That was the fatal flaw in Tim Leary's trip. He crashed around America selling "consciousness expansion" without ever giving a thought to the grim meat-hook realities that were lying in wait for all the people who took him seriously... All those pathetically eager acid freaks who thought they could buy Peace and Understanding for three bucks a hit. But their loss and failure is ours too. What Leary took down with him was the central illusion of a whole life-style that he helped create... a generation of permanent cripples, failed seekers, who never understood the essential old-mystic fallacy of the Acid Culture: the desperate assumption that somebody... or at least some force - is tending the light at the end of the tunnel.″

    Works

    Leary authored and co-authored over 20 books, and was featured on more than a dozen audio recordings. His acting career included over a dozen appearances in movies and television shows, over 30 appearances as himself in others, and produced and/or collaborated in both multimedia presentations and computer games.

    In June 2011, The New York Times reported that the New York Public Library had acquired Leary's personal archives, including papers, videotapes, photographs and other archival material from the Leary estate, including correspondence and documents relating to Allen Ginsberg, Aldous Huxley, William Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Ken Kesey, Arthur Koestler, G. Gordon Liddy and other prominent cultural figures. The collection will take approximately 18 months to process, and should be open to researchers by July 2013.[59]


    See also

    References

    1. ^ a b c d e Mansnerus, Laura (1996-06-01). "Timothy Leary, Pied Piper of Psychedelic 60s, Dies at 75". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-07-11. 
    2. ^ Peter O. Whitmer, Aquarius Revisited: Seven Who Created the Sixties Counterculture That Changed America (NY: Citadel Press, 1991), 21-5
    3. ^ Greenfield, Robert, Timothy Leary: A Biography (Harcourt Books, 2006), 28–55
    4. ^ http://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/bios/Leary__Timothy.html
    5. ^ John Cashman, The LSD Story, Fawcett Publications, 1966, p. ?
    6. ^ Greenfield, Robert 2006. Timothy Leary:A Biography. Harcourt Books, 68–77.
    7. ^ Torgoff, Martin (2004). Can't Find My Way Home: America in the Great Stoned Age. Simon and Schuster. p. 72. ISBN 0-7432-3010-8. 
    8. ^ Leary, Timothy; Allen Ginsberg (1995). High Priest. Ronin Publishing. p. 4. ISBN 0-914171-80-1. 
    9. ^ a b New York Times, 03/12/1966, p. 25
    10. ^ Jay Stevens, "Storming Heaven", Grove Press, 1987
    11. ^ Leary, Timothy (1957). Interpersonal diagnosis of personality: a functional theory and methodology. 
    12. ^ LIFE on LSD
    13. ^ Cashman, John. "The LSD Story". Fawcett Publications, 1966
    14. ^ a b Ram Dass Fierce Grace, 2001, Zeitgeist Video
    15. ^ Goffman, K. and Joy, D. 2004. Counterculture Through the Ages: From Abraham to Acid House. New York: Villard, 250–252
    16. ^ Dr. Leary's Concord Prison Experiment: A 34 Year Follow-Up Study
    17. ^ http://www.lycaeum.org/drugs.old/hyperreal/millbrook/ch-04.html
    18. ^ http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=134589
    19. ^ Timothy Leary's Biography
    20. ^ Timothy Leary's Biography
    21. ^ a b Weil, Andrew T. (1963-11-05). "The Strange Case of the Harvard Drug Scandal". Look. 
    22. ^ The Crimson Takes Leary, Alpert to Task by Joseph M. Russin and Andrew T. Weil, January 24, 1973 The Harvard Crimson
    23. ^ LSD: Lettvin vs Leary, 30 November 1967, retrieved 21 December 2011 
    24. ^ Jay Stevens Storming Heaven: LSD and the American Dream, 1998, p. 208
    25. ^ a b c d e Sante, Luc (2006-06-26). "The Nutty Professor". The New York Times Book Review. Retrieved 2008-07-12. 
    26. ^ The Psychedelic Experience: Readings from the Book "The Psychedelic Experience. A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead" Album Details at Smithsonian Folkways
    27. ^ http://books.google.com/books? id=eFaq_I24teQC&pg=PA641&dq=timothy+leary+%22michael+bowen%22&lr=&as_brr=0&client=firefox-a#PPA299,M1
    28. ^ Strauss, Neil. Everyone Loves You When You're Dead: Journeys into Fame and Madness. New York: HarperCollins, 2011, 337-38
    29. ^ FLASHBACKS an autobiography by Timothy Leary Chapter 28 page 236
    30. ^ http://oldies.about.com/od/thebeatlessongs/a/cometogether.htm
    31. ^ RE/Search Publications – Pranks! – Timothy Leary
    32. ^ Rudd, Mark (2009). Underground: My Life with SDS and the Weathermen. New York City: William Morrow and Company. pp. 225–7. ISBN 978-0-06-147275-6. 
    33. ^ Brian Flanagan (2002). The Weather Underground (mp4). The Free History Project. Event occurs at 0:59:00. Retrieved March 2, 2012. 
    34. ^ People v. Leary, 40 Cal.App.3d 527 (1974)
    35. ^ and also reportedly declared, "He has preached the length and breadth of the land, and I am inclined to the view that he would pose a danger to the community if released." Jesse Walker (2006) "The Acid Guru's Long, Strange Trip" The American Conservative, November 6, 2006.
    36. ^ Nick Gillespie, "Psychedelic, Man," Washington Post, June 15, 2006
    37. ^ Martin A. Lee and Bruce Shlain (1985). Acid dreams: the complete social history of LSD: the CIA, the sixties and beyond. Grove Press. ISBN 0-8021-3062-3. 
    38. ^ "Open Letter from the Friends of Timothy Leary". Retrieved 2009-07-04. 
    39. ^ Caldwell, Christopher (2007-07-22) The Antiwar, Pro-Abortion, Anti-Drug-Enforcement-Administration, Anti-Medicare Candidacy of Dr. Ron Paul, New York Times
    40. ^ Gillespie, Nick (2011-12-09) Five myths about Ron Paul, Washington Post
    41. ^ Leary, Timothy; Horowitz, Michael; Marshall, Vicky (1994). Chaos and Cyber Culture. Ronin Publishing. ISBN 0-914171-77-1. 
    42. ^ Ruthofer, Arno (1997). Think for Yourself; Question Authority. Archived from the original on 2007-11-12. Retrieved 2007-02-02. 
    43. ^ [www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,971015-2,00.html]
    44. ^ Saunders, Michael (1993-05-19). "Billy Idol turns `Cyberpunk' on new CD". The Boston Globe (135 Morrissey Boulevard. Boston, Massachusetts, United States: P. Steven Ainsley). Retrieved 2008-08-12. [dead link]
    45. ^ The Cleveland Free Times :: Archives :: Circle Of Ash
    46. ^ Quote from CD: Timothy Leary Live at Starwood
    47. ^ http://deoxy.org/l_digpol.htm
    48. ^ a b c d Darwin, Mike (September 1988). "Dr. Leary Joins Up...". Alcor Life Extension Foundation. Retrieved 2009-08-24. 
    49. ^ Lesie, Michele (1989) High Priest of LSD To Drop In. [[The [Cleveland] Plain Dealer]]
    50. ^ Local Group Hosts Dr. Timothy Leary by Will Allison (The Observer Fri. September 29th, 1989)
    51. ^ Two 60s Cult Heroes, on the Eve of the 80s by James Neff (Cleveland Plain Dealer Oct. 30th, 1979)
    52. ^ Timothy Leary: An LSD Cowboy Turns Cosmic Comic by Frank Kuznik (Cleveland magazine, November 1979
    53. ^ http://www.motherjones.com/news/qa/1997/11/snell.html
    54. ^ http://www.beatlesbible.com/songs/come-together/
    55. ^ a b Lattin, Don (2011). The Harvard Psychedelic Club: How Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Huston Smith, and Andrew Weil Killed the Fifties and Ushered in a New Age for America. HarperCollins. p. 13. ISBN 978-0-06-165594-4. 
    56. ^ Perlstein, Rick (2008). Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America. Simon and Schuster. p. 386. ISBN 978-0-7432-4302-5. 
    57. ^ Article, "It's Frothy Man", Mojo, issue #113, April 2003
    58. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120669/trivia?tab=qt&item=qt0471605
    59. ^ Cohen, Patricia (15 June 2011). "New York Public Library Buys Timothy Leary's Papers". The New York Times. Retrieved 06-05-2011.


    Investigation Team

    by Konstandinos Kalimtgis, David Goldman, Jeffrey Steinberg
    from Archive Website
     
     
    Contents
    Part I: History
    Part II: How the Drug Empire Works
    Part III: Organized Crime




    Famous Oxonians

    Throughout its history, Oxford has produced gifted men and women in every sphere of human endeavour who have studied or taught at the University.



    http://www.ox.ac.uk/about_the_university/oxford_people/famous_oxonians/

    Famous Oxonians

    Throughout its history, Oxford has produced gifted men and women in every sphere of human endeavour who have studied or taught at the University.

    Among these are 26 British Prime Ministers, including the current one, the Rt Hon David Cameron MP; at least 30 international leaders; 50 Nobel Prize winners; 7 current holders of the Order of Merit; at least 12 saints and 20 Archbishops of Canterbury; and some 120 Olympic medal winners.

    At least 117 Oxonians were elected to Parliament in the UK's General Election in 2010, and more than 140 sit in the House of Lords. The offices of Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary, Home Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer are all currently held by Oxford graduates, as are those of Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Secretary of State for Education, Secretary of State for Defence, Secretary of State for Health, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and the Chief Secretary to the Treasury. In addition, at least five members of the US House of Representatives, one members of the US Senate and one US State Governor were educated at Oxford.

    20th & 21st Centuries

    • HM King Abdullah II of Jordan
    • Sir Grantley Adams, Premier of Barbados, 1954-1958; Prime Minister of the West Indies, 1958-1962
    • J M G (Tom) Adams, Prime Minister of Barbados 1976-85
    • Diran Adebayo, author
    • Samira Ahmed, journalist and presenter
    • Monica Ali, author
    • Tariq Ali, writer
    • Rowan Atkinson, comedian
    • Sir Kingsley Amis, author
    • Lindsay Anderson, film-maker
    • W H Auden, poet
    • Clement Attlee, UK Prime Minister, 1945-1951
    • Zeinab Badawi, journalist and broadcaster
    • Solomon Bandaranaike, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, 1956-1959
    • Sir Roger Bannister, neurologist and athlete
    • Dame Josephine Barnes, first female President of the British Medical Association
    • Marian Bell, economist
    • Tony Benn, politician
    • Alan Bennett, playwright
    • Sir Lennox Berkeley, composer
    • Sir Isaiah Berlin, philosopher
    • Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web
    • Sir John Betjeman, poet
    • Benazir Bhutto, former Prime Minister of Pakistan (1988-90 & 1993-96)
    • Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, former President (1970-73) and Prime Minister (1972-77) of Pakistan
    • Tony Blair, former UK Prime Minister (1997-2007)
    • Baruch S Blumberg, Nobel Prize-winning scientist
    • Henry Bonsu, journalist and broadcaster
    • Dr Ian Bostridge, opera singer
    • Sir Adrian Boult, conductor
    • William Boyd, author
    • Lord (Melvyn) Bragg, broadcaster
    • Justice Stephen Breyer, Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the United States, 1994-
    • Vera Brittain, writer
    • Peter Brook, theatre director
    • Fiona Bruce, broadcaster
    • Dr Kofi Abrefa Busia, Prime Minister of Ghana 1969-72
    • Robert Byron, travel writer
    • Rt Hon David Cameron MP, UK Prime Minister 2010-
    • Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of Canada; Governor-Elect of the Bank of England
    • Baroness (Barbara) Castle, politician
    • General Wesley Clark, NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe, 1997-2000
    • Bill Clinton, President of the United States, 1993-2001
    • Wendy Cope, poet
    • Richard Curtis, screenwriter
    • Cecil Day Lewis, poet
    • Edward de Bono, philosopher
    • David Dimbleby, journalist and broadcaster
    • Sir John Eccles, scientist, winner of the Nobel Prize for Physiology 1963
    • John Edmonds, trade unionist
    • T S Eliot, poet
    • Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, chef and broadcaster
    • Helen Fielding, author
    • Dr Amelia Fletcher, Chief Economist, Office of Fair Trading
    • Lord Florey, Nobel Prize-winning pathologist
    • Michèle Flournoy, former US Under Secretary of Defense
    • Emilia Fox, actor
    • Lady Antonia Fraser, novelist and historian
    • Malcolm Fraser, Prime Minister of Australia, 1975-83
    • William Fulbright, politician, founder of the Fulbright Scholarships
    • Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India, 1966-77 & 1980-84
    • Dr Frene Ginwala, former Speaker of the South African National Assembly
    • William Golding, Nobel Prize-winning novelist
    • Hugh Grant, actor                   
    • Robert Graves, poet
    • Graham Greene, author
    • Sir John Grey Gorton, Prime Minister of Australia, 1968-1971
    • Sir John Gurdon, Nobel Prize-winning scientist
    • Mark Haddon, author
    • J B S Haldane, geneticist
    • Professor Stuart Hall, sociologist
    • Tony Hall (Lord Hall of Birkenhead), Chief Executive of the Royal Opera House; Director General of the BBC from March 2013
    • Harald V, King of Norway since 1991
    • Bob Hawke, Prime Minister of Australia, 1983-91
    • Professor Stephen Hawking, physicist
    • Sir Edward Heath, UK Prime Minister, 1970-74
    • Joseph Heller, author
    • Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, Oscar-winning film-maker
    • Sir Cyril Hinshelwood, Nobel Prize-winning chemist
    • Sir Tony Hoare, computer scientist 
    • Dorothy Hodgkin, Nobel Prize-winning chemist
    • Edwin Hubble, astronomer
    • Cardinal Basil Hume, Archbishop of Westminster, 1976-99
    • Aldous Huxley, author
    • Armando Iannucci, writer and comedian
    • Lord (Roy) Jenkins, former Home Secretary and Chancellor of the University
    • Bobby Jindal, Governor of Louisiana, former US Congressman
    • Luke Johnson, businessman
    • Lakshman Kadirgamar, former Sri Lankan Foreign Minister
    • Imran Khan, Pakistani politician and former international cricketer
    • Liaquat Ali Khan, first Prime Minister of Pakistan
    • Soweto Kinch, jazz musician, saxophonist
    • Dame Emma Kirkby, soprano
    • John Kufuor, President of Ghana 2001-2009
    • Hari Kunzru, author
    • Haruhiko Kuroda, President of the Asian Development Bank
    • Martha Lane Fox, businesswoman
    • Philip Larkin, poet
    • T E Lawrence, Lawrence of Arabia
    • Nigella Lawson, chef and broadcaster
    • John Le Carre, author
    • C S Lewis, writer and scholar
    • Ken Loach, film-maker
    • Alain Locke, philosopher and architect of the Harlem Renaissance
    • Val McDermid, crime writer
    • Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum
    • Harold Macmillan, UK Prime Minister, 1957-63
    • Norman Manley, Leader of Jamaica, 1955-62
    • Chief Justice Mrs Sujata Vasant Manohar, Judge of the Supreme Court of India 1994-99
    • Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, first Prime Minister (and later President) of Fiji
    • Sir Peter Medawar, scientist, winner of the Nobel Prize for Physiology 1960
    • Ved Mehta, author
    • Roland Michener, Governor-General of Canada 1967-74
    • Dame Barbara Mills, first female Director of Public Prosecutions
    • Dom Mintoff, Prime Minister of Malta, 1955-1958 & 1971-1984
    • Dudley Moore, actor, comedian, musician
    • Dom Moraes, poet
    • Kate Mosse, novelist
    • Dame Iris Murdoch, philosopher and author
    • Rupert Murdoch, Director, News International plc
    • Arthur Mutambara, Deputy Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, 2009-
    • V S Naipaul, Nobel Prize-winning author
    • Crown Prince Naruhito of Japan
    • Rageh Omaar, journalist
    • Viktor Orbán, Prime Minister of Hungary (2010- and 1998-2002) and leader of the Fidesz political party
    • Michael Palin, actor and writer
    • Lester B Pearson, Prime Minister of Canada, 1963-1968, and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize
    • Robert Penn Warren, American poet laureate
    • Robert Peston, journalist
    • Sally Phillips, actor and comedian
    • Rosamund Pike, actor
    • Sir Matthew Pinsent, four times Olympic Gold Medal-winning rower
    • Dennis Potter, playwright
    • Philip Pullman, author
    • Barbara Pym, author
    • Hugh Quarshie, actor
    • Dr Olli Rehn, EU Commissioner
    • Dr Susan Rice, US Ambassador to the United Nations
    • Rachel Riley, co-host on Channel 4's Countdown
    • Nick Robinson, journalist
    • Hon Raymond Robinson, President of Trinidad and Tobago, 1997-2003
    • General Sir Michael Rose, former UN Commander in Bosnia
    • Michael Rosen, children's novelist and poet
    • Sir Martin Ryle, Nobel Prize-winning physicist
    • Lord (Jonathan) Sacks, Chief Rabbi
    • Dame Cicely Saunders, founder of the modern hospice movement
    • Roz Savage, rower and adventurer
    • Dorothy L Sayers, author
    • Ernst Schumacher, economist
    • Pixley Seme, founder of the African National Congress
    • Vikram Seth, author
    • Dr Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India, 2004-
    • Professor Oliver Smithies, winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize for Medicine
    • Laura Solon, comedian
    • Cornelia Sorabji, India’s first female lawyer
    • Rick Stein, chef and broadcaster
    • Aung San Suu Kyi, leader, Burmese National League for Democracy and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize
    • A J P Taylor, historian
    • Baroness (Margaret) Thatcher, UK Prime Minister, 1979-90
    • Sir Wilfred Thesiger, explorer and anthropologist
    • Mark Thompson, CEO of the New York Times Company and former Director-General of the BBC
    • Lester Thurow, economist
    • J R R Tolkien, author and academic
    • Margaret Turner-Warwick, first woman President of the Royal College of Physicians
    • Dame Janet Vaughan, haematologist and radiobiologist
    • Revd Chad Varah, founder of the Samaritans
    • David Vitter, United States Congressman
    • Baroness (Mary) Warnock, philosopher
    • Evelyn Waugh, author
    • Sir Andrew Wiles, mathematician
    • Dr Eric Williams, historian and politician, Chief Minister of Trinidad and Tobago 1956-1959, Premier 1959-1962, Prime Minister 1962-1981
    • Ivy Williams, first female barrister in the UK
    • Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury 2002-2013
    • Baroness Shirley Williams, politician
    • Michael Winterbottom, film-maker
    • Jeanette Winterson, author
    • Qian Zhongshu, Chinese academic and writer

    19th Century

    • Matthew Arnold, poet
    • H H Asquith, British Prime Minister
    • Sir Thomas Beecham, conductor and composer
    • Sir Max Beerbohm, author and cartoonist
    • Gertrude Bell, explorer and archaeologist
    • Hilaire Belloc, author
    • William Beveridge, social reformer and economist
    • John Buchan, author
    • Sir Richard Burton, explorer
    • Edward Burne-Jones, artist
    • Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson), author and academic
    • Thomas de Quincey, author
    • C B Fry, cricketer
    • William Ewart Gladstone, British Prime Minister
    • Eglantyne Jebb, founder of the Save the Children Fund
    • John Keble, theologian
    • Gerard Manley Hopkins, poet
    • William Morris, artist
    • Cardinal John Henry Newman, theologian
    • Sir Robert Peel, British Prime Minister
    • Edward Pusey, theologian
    • Eleanor Rathbone, politician and social reformer
    • Cecil Rhodes, colonial pioneer, founder of the Rhodes Scholarships
    • John Ruskin, author, artist and social reformer
    • Percy Bysshe Shelley, poet
    • Frederick Soddy, Nobel Prize-winning chemist
    • Arnold Toynbee, social philosopher and economist
    • Oscar Wilde, playwright, poet and author
    • Emily Wilding Davison, suffragist

    17th & 18th Centuries

    • William Henry Drayton, American revolutionary
    • John Ford, playwright
    • Edward Gibbon, historian
    • Edmund Halley, astronomer
    • William Harvey, scientist who discovered the circulation of the blood
    • Thomas Hobbes, philosopher
    • Robert Hooke, scientist
    • Dr Samuel Johnson, lexicographer
    • John Locke, philosopher
    • Sir Richard Lovelace, poet
    • James Oglethorpe, founder of Georgia
    • William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania
    • Adam Smith, political economist
    • James Smithson, scientist, founder of the Smithsonian Institution
    • Robert Southey, poet   
    • Jonathan Swift, author and satirist
    • Jethro Tull, agriculturalist and inventor
    • John Wesley, founder of Methodism
    • John Wilmot, second Earl of Rochester, poet and courtier
    • Sir Christopher Wren, architect

    15th & 16th Centuries

    • Cardinal William Allen
    • John Donne, poet
    • Erasmus, scholar
    • Jerome of Prague, Czech religious reformer
    • Sir Thomas More, Lord Chancellor and martyr
    • Sir Walter Raleigh, explorer
    • Sir Philip Sidney, poet
    • William Tyndale, translator of the Bible
    • Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Lord Chancellor and churchman, founder of Christ Church

    13th & 14th Centuries

    • Roger Bacon, scholar
    • Thomas Bradwardine, Archbishop of Canterbury
    • Simon Bredon, mathematician
    • William of Ockham, philosopher and theologian
    • Duns Scotus, philosopher and theologian
    • John Wyclif (Wycliffe), religious reformer



    How the US sent $12bn in cash to Iraq. And watched it vanish

    Special flights brought in tonnes of banknotes which disappeared into the war zone

     
  • The Guardian, Thursday 8 February 2007
  • An armed guard poses beside pallets of $100 bills in Baghdad
    An armed guard poses beside pallets of $100 bills in Baghdad. Almost $12bn in cash was spent by the US-led authority
     
    The US flew nearly $12bn in shrink-wrapped $100 bills into Iraq, then distributed the cash with no proper control over who was receiving it and how it was being spent.
    The staggering scale of the biggest transfer of cash in the history of the Federal Reserve has been graphically laid bare by a US congressional committee.
    In the year after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 nearly 281 million notes, weighing 363 tonnes, were sent from New York to Baghdad for disbursement to Iraqi ministries and US contractors. Using C-130 planes, the deliveries took place once or twice a month with the biggest of $2,401,600,000 on June 22 2004, six days before the handover.
    Details of the shipments have emerged in a memorandum prepared for the meeting of the House committee on oversight and government reform which is examining Iraqi reconstruction. Its chairman, Henry Waxman, a fierce critic of the war, said the way the cash had been handled was mind-boggling. "The numbers are so large that it doesn't seem possible that they're true. Who in their right mind would send 363 tonnes of cash into a war zone?"
    The memorandum details the casual manner in which the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority disbursed the money, which came from Iraqi oil sales, surplus funds from the UN oil-for-food programme and seized Iraqi assets.
    "One CPA official described an environment awash in $100 bills," the memorandum says. "One contractor received a $2m payment in a duffel bag stuffed with shrink-wrapped bundles of currency. Auditors discovered that the key to a vault was kept in an unsecured backpack.
    "They also found that $774,300 in cash had been stolen from one division's vault. Cash payments were made from the back of a pickup truck, and cash was stored in unguarded sacks in Iraqi ministry offices. One official was given $6.75m in cash, and was ordered to spend it in one week before the interim Iraqi government took control of Iraqi funds."
    The minutes from a May 2004 CPA meeting reveal "a single disbursement of $500m in security funding labelled merely 'TBD', meaning 'to be determined'."
    The memorandum concludes: "Many of the funds appear to have been lost to corruption and waste ... thousands of 'ghost employees' were receiving pay cheques from Iraqi ministries under the CPA's control. Some of the funds could have enriched both criminals and insurgents fighting the United States."
    According to Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, the $8.8bn funds to Iraqi ministries were disbursed "without assurance the monies were properly used or accounted for". But, according to the memorandum, "he now believes that the lack of accountability and transparency extended to the entire $20bn expended by the CPA".
    To oversee the expenditure the CPA was supposed to appoint an independent certified public accounting firm. "Instead the CPA hired an obscure consulting firm called North Star Consultants Inc. The firm was so small that it reportedly operates out of a private home in San Diego." Mr Bowen found that the company "did not perform a review of internal controls as required by the contract".
    However, evidence before the committee suggests that senior American officials were unconcerned about the situation because the billions were not US taxpayers' money. Paul Bremer, the head of the CPA, reminded the committee that "the subject of today's hearing is the CPA's use and accounting for funds belonging to the Iraqi people held in the so-called Development Fund for Iraq. These are not appropriated American funds. They are Iraqi funds. I believe the CPA discharged its responsibilities to manage these Iraqi funds on behalf of the Iraqi people."
    Bremer's financial adviser, retired Admiral David Oliver, is even more direct. The memorandum quotes an interview with the BBC World Service. Asked what had happened to the $8.8bn he replied: "I have no idea. I can't tell you whether or not the money went to the right things or didn't - nor do I actually think it's important."
    Q: "But the fact is billions of dollars have disappeared without trace."
    Oliver: "Of their money. Billions of dollars of their money, yeah I understand. I'm saying what difference does it make?"
    Mr Bremer, whose disbanding of the Iraqi armed forces and de-Ba'athification programme have been blamed as contributing to the present chaos, told the committee: "I acknowledge that I made mistakes and that with the benefit of hindsight, I would have made some decisions differently. Our top priority was to get the economy moving again. The first step was to get money into the hands of the Iraqi people as quickly as possible."
    Millions of civil service families had not received salaries or pensions for months and there was no effective banking system. "It was not a perfect solution," he said. "Delay might well have exacerbated the nascent insurgency and thereby increased the danger to Americans."
     

    Why Germany is now 'Europe's
    biggest brothel'

    Legalised prostitution, cut-price offers and a boom in sex tourism mean Germany's red light districts are thriving. But not everyone is happy with the country's liberal legislation
     
    A prostitute in Berlin
    A Ukrainian prostitute in a brothel in Berlin: two-thirds of Germay's sex workers are thought to come from overseas. Photograph: Axel Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images
     
    With skin-tight clothes and bum bags strapped around their waists, sex workers wait by the roadside close to Hackescher Markt, one of Berlin's busiest shopping and entertainment districts. This is a familiar sight just before dark in the capital of a country that has been dubbed "Europe's biggest brothel".
    The sex trade in Germany has increased dramatically since prostitution was liberalised in 2002, with more than one million men paying for sex every day here, according to a documentary, Sex – Made in Germany, aired this week on Germany's public broadcaster, ARD.
    Based on two years of research using hidden cameras, the film by Sonia Kennebeck and Tina Soliman exposes the "flat-rate" brothels where men pay €49 (£42) for as much sex as they want, as well as a rise in sex tourism, with men from Asia, the Middle East and North America coming to Germany for sex.
    Germany's law governing the sex trade is considered one of the most liberal in the world. It was passed by the former coalition government, made up of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Greens, in a bid to strengthen the rights of sex workers and give them access to health insurance and benefits.
    Since then, red light districts have become even more prominent in many major German cities including Berlin, Frankfurt and Hamburg, where the Reeperbahn is, notoriously, the focus for the sex trade. During the 2006 World Cup in Germany, brothels appeared close to football stadiums across the country to cater for fans before and after games.
    But more than 10 years after the law was passed, critics are becoming increasingly vocal. They argue that although it may benefit those sex workers who choose to work in the trade, it also makes it easier for women from eastern Europe and countries outside the EU to be forced into prostitution by traffickers. Two-thirds of Germany's estimated 400,000 sex workers come from overseas.
    "Migrant women who don't know the language are highly dependent on people to bring them here and to show them around," says Roshan Heiler, head of counselling at the Aachen branch of Solwodi, a women's rights organisation that helps women forced into prostitution.
    She is not surprised at the number of men now paying for sex in Germany. "I think it's just a result of the legalisation," she says. "The men are not prosecuted and prices are low."
    Meanwhile, Monika Lazar, spokeswoman on women's issues for the Alliance 90/Greens party, has defended the law, saying that making prostitution illegal again is not the way to improve working conditions. "Prostitution is still socially stigmatised, and that has not changed in the few years in which the law has been in effect," she says. "But the law is helping to strengthen the position of prostitutes and ensuring women, and men, are much better protected."
     
     

    Threat of sectarian war grows in Syria as jihadists get anti-aircraft missiles

    US warns of conflict spreading beyond national borders after Sunni group boasts of new firepower online
     
    The anti-aircraft missiles now allegedly at the disposal of jihadists in the north of Syria
    The anti-aircraft missiles now allegedly at the disposal of jihadists in the north of Syria. Photograph: YouTube
     
    Sunni jihadist groups in northern Syria have secured a large supply of the type of anti-aircraft missiles that the Obama administration has urgently tried to keep away from rebel groups fighting the civil war, video footage shows.
    The missiles, believed to be shoulder- launched SA-16s, are displayed in a video allegedly made by a Chechen-dominated jihadist group of foreign fighters. They are known to pose a potent risk to most types of aircraft and have been urgently sought by all rebel groups as a means of breaking the dominance over Syrian skies enjoyed by President Bashar al-Assad's air force.
    The English speaker on the jihadist video, who calls himself Abu Musab, does not specify where the missiles came from, but it is believed they may have been seized during a raid on the Brigade 80 military base, on the outskirts of Aleppo airport, in February.
    Separate reports suggest some opposition groups may have found an alternative supply line from outside Syria. However, while some light weapons are allowed into Syria, the CIA has led intensive efforts to ensure anti-aircraft missiles, such as the SA-16s, are not allowed across the Turkish or Jordanian borders.
    The video emerged as Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi announced he had cut all diplomatic ties with Damascus. He also said he would back a no-fly zone over Syria, an intervention western diplomats say is being considered by Washington.
    The video underscores the increasing organisation of foreign jihadists in the north of the country and the prominent role they are playing in some areas of the conflict almost one year after they first arrived. The Chechen-dominated group is comprised solely of foreigners who see the civil war in Syria as an important theatre for global jihad — not a battle fought to change the leadership of a nation state.
    Their presence, along with homegrown Syrian jihadists, has been a key reason for the reluctance of US and other western states to support the military opposition in Syria, which remains outgunned by the regime and is struggling to hold on to parts of the country it seized during fighting over the past 12 months.
    Peter Bouckaert, the emergencies director for Human Rights Watch, said the foreign groups have become more organised in recent months. "There is increasing evidence that foreign fighters are gathering under a more unified umbrella in Syria, and that the umbrella organisation may have a strong Chechen leadership," he added.
    The foreign jihadists have a broadly similar worldview to the al-Qaida-aligned Jabhat al-Nusra, but operate largely independently from the group. All groups, along with the more mainstream nationalistic organisations, contest fiercely for power in northern Syrian society.
    As community structures have steadily decayed over the past year, battlefield results have become an important benchmark for those seeking influence. Both the foreigners and al-Qaida groups make no secret of their determination to install an Islamic state in Syria.
    The White House's decision to send military support to vetted areas of the opposition comes at the same time as extremist groups on both sides of the conflict – al-Qaida and foreign Sunni jihadists on one side, Hezbollah and Shia militants from outside Syria on the other – are playing a sharply increasing role in the conflict.
    Western officials in Beirut said the decision to arm some rebels, after two years of refusal to do so, is designed largely to drive a wedge between both sides and stymie a slide into outright sectarian war that would spread beyond Syria's now fragile borders.
    "The US does not want Chechens or anyone else getting their hands on these missiles, or Hezbollah getting its hands on important parts of the country," one official said.
     

    The Coup: 1953, The CIA, and The Roots of Modern U.S.-Iranian Relations [Hardcover]

    Ervand Abrahamian
     

    Ghost money from MI6 and CIA may fuel Afghan corruption, say diplomats

    Failure of peace initiatives raises questions over whether British eagerness for political settlement may have been exploited
  • The Guardian, Tuesday 30 April 2013
     
    Hamid Karzai in Helsinki
    Hamid Karzai with the Finnish prime minister, Jyrki Katainen, in Helsinki. Photograph: Lehtikuva/Reuters
    The CIA and MI6 have regularly given large cash payments to Hamid Karzai's office with the aim of maintaining access to the Afghan leader and his top allies and officials, but the attempt to buy influence has largely failed and may have backfired, former diplomats and policy analysts say.
    The Guardian understands that the payments by British intelligence were on a smaller scale than the CIA's handouts, reported in the New York Times to have been in the tens of millions, and much of the British money has gone towards attempts to finance peace initiatives, which have so far proved abortive.
    That failure has raised questions among some British officials over whether eagerness to promote a political settlement may have been exploited by Afghan officials and self-styled intermediaries for the Taliban.
    Responding to the allegations while on a visit to Helsinki on Monday, Karzai said his national security council (NSC) had received support from the US government for the past 10 years, and the amounts involved were "not big" and were used for a variety of purposes including helping those wounded in the conflict. "It's multi-purpose assistance," he said, without commenting on the allegations that the money was fuelling corruption.
    Yama Torabi, the director of Integrity Watch Afghanistan said that the presidency's low-key response to the reports had "outraged people".
    "As a result, we don't know what was the amount of money that was given, what it was used for and if there was any corruption involved. Money when it is unchecked can be abused and this looks like one. In addition, it can be potentially used to corrupt politicians and political circles, but there is no way to know this unless there is a serious investigation into it," Torabi told The Guardian.
    Kabul sources told the Guardian that the key official involved in distributing the payments within the NSC was Ibrahim Spinzada, a close confidant of the president known as Engineer Ibrahim. There is, however, no evidence that Spinzada personally gained from the cash payments or that in distributing them among the president's allies and sometimes his foes he was breaking Afghan law.
    Officials say the payments, referred to in a New York Times report as "ghost money", helped prop up warlords and corrupt officials, deepening Afghan popular mistrust of the Kabul government and its foreign backers, and thereby helped drive the insurgency.
    The CIA money has sometimes caused divisions between the various branches of US government represented in Kabul, according to diplomats stationed in Kabul, particularly when it helped give the CIA chief of station in Kabul direct access to Karzai without the US ambassador's knowledge or approval.
    One former Afghan budgetary official told the Guardian: "On paper there was very little money that went to the National Directorate of Security [NDS, the Afghan intelligence service], but we knew they were taken care of separately by the CIA.
    "The thing about US money is a lot of it goes outside the budget, directly through individuals and companies, and that opens the way for corruption."
    Khalil Roman, who served as Karzai's deputy chief of staff from 2002 until 2005, told the New York Times: "We called it 'ghost money'. It came in secret, and it left in secret."
    One American official told the newspaper: "The biggest source of corruption in Afghanistan was the United States."
    Sources said the MI6 aid was on a smaller scale, and much of it was focused on trying to promote meetings between Karzai's government and Taliban intermediaries, as was embarrassingly the case in 2010 when MI6 discovered a would-be Taliban leader in talks with Karzai was an impostor from the Pakistani city of Quetta.
    The British payments have also been designed to bolster UK influence in Kabul, in what a source described as "an auction with each country trying to outbid the other" in the course of an often fraught relationship with the Karzai government.
    Vali Nasr, a former US government adviser on Afghanistan, said: "Karzai has been lashing out against American officials and generals, so if indeed there has been funding by the CIA, you have to ask to what effect has that money been paid. It hasn't clearly brought the sort of influence it was meant to."
    Nasr, now dean of the Johns Hopkins school of advanced international studies and author of a new book criticising US policy in Afghanistan, The Dispensable Nation, said: "If the terms of such payments are not clear, the question is how well do they tag with US policy … The CIA has a narrow, counter-terrorism purview that involved working with warlords, but that is quite a different agenda, on how we conduct the war or how we build a government."
    The CIA has also been heavily criticised for conducting drone attacks against suspected militants over the border in Pakistan and for calling in air strikes inside Afghanistan while on joint operations with NDS units, leading to civilian casualties. A report on Monday by the Afghanistan Analysts Network, a thinktank in Kabul, said the latest such NDS-CIA operation, in Kunar province on 13 April, killed 17 civilians.
    Kate Clark, one of the network's analysts, said: "It is one thing to conduct covert operations in a hostile country. I'm flabbergasted that the CIA is running these kind of covert operations in a friendly country. It runs counter to accountability, democracy and the rule of law, and is damaging what the US is trying to do.
    "The CIA puts certain things as a priority – whether someone is against al-Qaida, for example – and damn the rest."
     
    With Bags of Cash, C.I.A. Seeks Influence in Afghanistan
     
    Anja Niedringhaus/Associated Press
    Off-the-books cash delivered directly to President Karzai’s office shows payments on a vast scale.
  •  
    KABUL, Afghanistan — For more than a decade, wads of American dollars packed into suitcases, backpacks and, on occasion, plastic shopping bags have been dropped off every month or so at the offices of Afghanistan’s president — courtesy of the Central Intelligence Agency.
     
    All told, tens of millions of dollars have flowed from the C.I.A. to the office of President Hamid Karzai, according to current and former advisers to the Afghan leader.
    “We called it ‘ghost money,’ ” said Khalil Roman, who served as Mr. Karzai’s deputy chief of staff from 2002 until 2005. “It came in secret, and it left in secret.”
    The C.I.A., which declined to comment for this article, has long been known to support some relatives and close aides of Mr. Karzai. But the new accounts of off-the-books cash delivered directly to his office show payments on a vaster scale, and with a far greater impact on everyday governing.
    Moreover, there is little evidence that the payments bought the influence the C.I.A. sought. Instead, some American officials said, the cash has fueled corruption and empowered warlords, undermining Washington’s exit strategy from Afghanistan.
    “The biggest source of corruption in Afghanistan,” one American official said, “was the United States.”
    The United States was not alone in delivering cash to the president. Mr. Karzai acknowledged a few years ago that Iran regularly gave bags of cash to one of his top aides.
    At the time, in 2010, American officials jumped on the payments as evidence of an aggressive Iranian campaign to buy influence and poison Afghanistan’s relations with the United States. What they did not say was that the C.I.A. was also plying the presidential palace with cash — and unlike the Iranians, it still is.
    American and Afghan officials familiar with the payments said the agency’s main goal in providing the cash has been to maintain access to Mr. Karzai and his inner circle and to guarantee the agency’s influence at the presidential palace, which wields tremendous power in Afghanistan’s highly centralized government. The officials spoke about the money only on the condition of anonymity.
    It is not clear that the United States is getting what it pays for. Mr. Karzai’s willingness to defy the United States — and the Iranians, for that matter — on an array of issues seems to have only grown as the cash has piled up. Instead of securing his good graces, the payments may well illustrate the opposite: Mr. Karzai is seemingly unable to be bought.
    Over Iran’s objections, he signed a strategic partnership deal with the United States last year, directly leading the Iranians to halt their payments, two senior Afghan officials said. Now, Mr. Karzai is seeking control over the Afghan militias raised by the C.I.A. to target operatives of Al Qaeda and insurgent commanders, potentially upending a critical part of the Obama administration’s plans for fighting militants as conventional military forces pull back this year.
    But the C.I.A. has continued to pay, believing it needs Mr. Karzai’s ear to run its clandestine war against Al Qaeda and its allies, according to American and Afghan officials.
    Like the Iranian cash, much of the C.I.A.’s money goes to paying off warlords and politicians, many of whom have ties to the drug trade and, in some cases, the Taliban. The result, American and Afghan officials said, is that the agency has greased the wheels of the same patronage networks that American diplomats and law enforcement agents have struggled unsuccessfully to dismantle, leaving the government in the grips of what are basically organized crime syndicates.
    The cash does not appear to be subject to the oversight and restrictions placed on official American aid to the country or even the C.I.A.’s formal assistance programs, like financing Afghan intelligence agencies. And while there is no evidence that Mr. Karzai has personally taken any of the money — Afghan officials say the cash is handled by his National Security Council — the payments do in some cases work directly at odds with the aims of other parts of the American government in Afghanistan, even if they do not appear to violate American law.
    Handing out cash has been standard procedure for the C.I.A. in Afghanistan since the start of the war. During the 2001 invasion, agency cash bought the services of numerous warlords, including Muhammad Qasim Fahim, the current first vice president.
    “We paid them to overthrow the Taliban,” the American official said.
    The C.I.A. then kept paying the Afghans to keep fighting. For instance, Mr. Karzai’s half brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, was paid by the C.I.A. to run the Kandahar Strike Force, a militia used by the agency to combat militants, until his assassination in 2011.
    A number of senior officials on the Afghan National Security Council are also individually on the agency’s payroll, Afghan officials said.
    While intelligence agencies often pay foreign officials to provide information, dropping off bags of cash at a foreign leader’s office to curry favor is a more unusual arrangement.
     
    Afghan officials said the practice grew out of the unique circumstances in Afghanistan, where the United States built the government that Mr. Karzai runs. To accomplish that task, it had to bring to heel many of the warlords the C.I.A. had paid during and after the 2001 invasion.
    By late 2002, Mr. Karzai and his aides were pressing for the payments to be routed through the president’s office, allowing him to buy the warlords’ loyalty, a former adviser to Mr. Karzai said.
    Then, in December 2002, Iranians showed up at the palace in a sport utility vehicle packed with cash, the former adviser said.
    The C.I.A. began dropping off cash at the palace the following month, and the sums grew from there, Afghan officials said.
    Payments ordinarily range from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars, the officials said, though none could provide exact figures. The money is used to cover a slew of off-the-books expenses, like paying off lawmakers or underwriting delicate diplomatic trips or informal negotiations.
    Much of it also still goes to keeping old warlords in line. One is Abdul Rashid Dostum, an ethnic Uzbek whose militia served as a C.I.A. proxy force in 2001. He receives nearly $100,000 a month from the palace, two Afghan officials said. Other officials said the amount was significantly lower.
    Mr. Dostum, who declined requests for comment, had previously said he was given $80,000 a month to serve as Mr. Karzai’s emissary in northern Afghanistan. “I asked for a year up front in cash so that I could build my dream house,” he was quoted as saying in a 2009 interview with Time magazine.
    Some of the cash also probably ends up in the pockets of the Karzai aides who handle it, Afghan and Western officials said, though they would not identify any by name.
    That is not a significant concern for the C.I.A., said American officials familiar with the agency’s operations. “They’ll work with criminals if they think they have to,” one American former official said.
    Interestingly, the cash from Tehran appears to have been handled with greater transparency than the dollars from the C.I.A., Afghan officials said. The Iranian payments were routed through Mr. Karzai’s chief of staff. Some of the money was deposited in an account in the president’s name at a state-run bank, and some was kept at the palace. The sum delivered would then be announced at the next cabinet meeting. The Iranians gave $3 million to well over $10 million a year, Afghan officials said.
    When word of the Iranian cash leaked out in October 2010, Mr. Karzai told reporters that he was grateful for it. He then added: “The United States is doing the same thing. They are providing cash to some of our offices.”
    At the time, Mr. Karzai’s aides said he was referring to the billions in formal aid the United States gives. But the former adviser said in a recent interview that the president was in fact referring to the C.I.A.’s bags of cash.
    No one mentions the agency’s money at cabinet meetings. It is handled by a small clique at the National Security Council, including its administrative chief, Mohammed Zia Salehi, Afghan officials said.
    Mr. Salehi, though, is better known for being arrested in 2010 in connection with a sprawling, American-led investigation that tied together Afghan cash smuggling, Taliban finances and the opium trade. Mr. Karzai had him released within hours, and the C.I.A. then helped persuade the Obama administration to back off its anticorruption push, American officials said.
    After his release, Mr. Salehi jokingly came up with a motto that succinctly summed up America’s conflicting priorities. He was, he began telling colleagues, “an enemy of the F.B.I., and a hero to the C.I.A.”
     
      • advocate
      • Atlanta, Georgia
      NYT Pick
      Maybe we should learn that when loyalty is for sale, the price always goes up.
        • Raindog63
        • Greenville, SC
        NYT Pick
        Our tax dollars at work. This is why I always find it laughable when politicians tell the American public that it's time for some belt-tightening, while they continue to live like Roman Senators of old, and throw millions and billions of dollars at dictators and nations in their endless, undeclared wars. Meanwhile, poor retirees have to choose between food and home-heating oil. What a sham. What a shame.
          • DFS
          • Northern Wisconsin
          NYT Pick
          When corruption is a way of life of the powerful in Afghanistan it gets down to choosing the less corrupt of the possible head of state. We pretty much knew from the get-go that Karzai was a crook. We crossed our fingers, held our nose and 'hoped' that Karzai and his relatives on the take and his cronies would be at least somewhat supportive of our efforts to rid the country of the Taliban. Obviously the pay off didn't work. The sad thing is that because of corruption the Taliban will eventually once again control Afghanistan and it will be as though we never were there.
            • Narayan Gopinathan
            • San Diego, CA
            NYT Pick
            The CIA has far too much influence in the White House- this is not a Democratic or Republican problem but an American problem. The CIA should stop doing this, as it feeds corruption and runs against principles of democracy.

            The CIA has a long and terrible history of supporting brutal dictators (such as Mobutu), opposing democratically elected ones (such as Mossadegh and Allende). It is rarely successful in what should be a core aim of providing intelligence to keep America safe. The key exhibits are the failure to predict or prevent 9/11 and the nonexistent WMDs in Iraq. Perhaps the CIA has changed for the better, but they should not have as much influence as they do today. They should not be allowed to pay off Karzai for anything.

            However, this does not mean that the entire war in Afghanistan should be ended immediately. The fundamental aim of the operation in Afghanistan is still valid - we want Afghanistan to be peaceful and stable, and free from the Taliban. Karzai is going to leave office in 2014, and elections will be held to elect a new, hopefully less corrupt and more legitimate leader.
              • MacGreen
              • DC
              NYT Pick
              Is this the old Washington at work, or the new?
                • LW
                • Mountain View, CA
                NYT Pick
                The CIA works for the president. If he disagrees with what they're doing, he has the freedom to demand the resignation of its director, for instance. This isn't a system of government where the intelligence establishment is largely independent of oversight from the rest of the executive branch. So yes, the president needs to take at least some responsibility.
                  • LW
                  • Mountain View, CA
                  NYT Pick
                  Remember that the CIA is not an independent organization; its leader is nominated by the president himself, and the president decides how to use the CIA. That the CIA has often been led poorly and/or been used poorly reflects on the presidents who choose its leadership and how they use it. For instance, presidents have frequently seen the CIA's theoretical capacity for covert action as simply more convenient -- if it remains secret, there's less selling required to either the public at large or to the Congress. Funding a coup d'etat or manipulating an election was seen as simpler and less expensive than staging an outright military invasion and occupation. And so forth.

                  Off-hand, I can think of only one major incident where the CIA consciously manipulated the White house into actions it might otherwise not have supported, rather than the other way around -- Operation Ajax. The two Dulles brothers wished to US to take a more activist role opposing international Communism, so while they had different motives than PM Churchill (who wished to retain as much of the British Empire as possible, and to continue to exploit Iranian oil reserves through Anglo-Iranian), they independently and covertly encouraged some unrest in Iran and then pointed to that unrest as a sign that the Mossadegh government was unstable and that a Soviet-assisted takeover by Tudeh was a real threat, and that therefore Pres. Eisenhower should yield to PM Churchill's demands.
                    • BKW2
                    • Clear Lake City
                    NYT Pick
                    This CIA activity sounds uncomfortably Mob-like. It's common sense that unprincipled below the radar financial arrangements, with an unstable foreign government no less, eventually backfire. Don't they know that? And to top it all, it's an apparent wasteful part of the deficit untouched by the almighty sequestration.
                      • Katy
                      • New York, NY
                      NYT Pick
                      Do we never ever learn? One cannot buy Afghanistan - we tried that decades ago and it came back to haunt us. We've given them weapons which they immediately trade to someone/anyone else for whatever it is they want or need.

                      This is utter lunacy - it's not just a matter of throwing away billions of dollars we cannot afford to throw away, but it is about a seriously flawed and already proven failed initiative.

                      Someone needs to tell the CIA to STOP -- NOW -- enough already - it hasn't worked, and it won't work. And where one earth is Congress oversight committee? Daft and useless as usual.
                        • the doctor
                        • allentown, pa
                        NYT Pick
                        I didn't realize to what extent the Sopranos dictate Afghan policy.... What next? Dennis Rodman running hard cash into North Korea?
                          • Neal Kluge
                          • Washington DC
                          NYT Pick
                          When in Rome, (you have to) do as Romans do! If your standards and values do not allow you to act like Romans, do not go to Rome!
                            • Citizen
                            • RI
                            • Verified
                            NYT Pick
                            "It is not clear that the United States is getting what it pays for."

                            Really? What a surprise.

                            What does one expect when one clandestinely hands over vast sums of cash to people of Karzai's character and then has no method for enforcing any agreements?

                            That is just another lesson I thought we would have learned from our experience in Iraq.
                              • Mark Santa Romana
                              • Los Angeles, CA
                              NYT Pick
                              Aren't there laws against bribing a foreign official?
                                • Cecil Renfield
                                • Australia
                                NYT Pick
                                As I asked earlier, in regard to the largesse regularly paid out to President Karzai of Afghanistan, does "C.I.A." stand for Cash In Advance ?
                                  • Jennifer Stewart
                                  • Cape Town
                                  NYT Pick
                                  People who can be bought aren't reliable. Hasn't the CIA learned that yet? it's scary to think of the real intelligence level (as in being able to think for yourself) in the individuals who run it.

                                  This organisation is an insult to humanity and an international public menace with its covert operations all over the world. It 'somehow' didn't manage to stop 9/11 and look at the lovely war that ensued, on 100% false premises. It's the working tool of the military industrial complex and it always has been.
                                    • William O. Beeman
                                    • Minneapolis, MN
                                    NYT Pick
                                    This is a case of you broke it, you own it. The United States under George W. Bush cleaned out the Taliban and then ignored Afghanistan, while the old Mujaheddin who ousted the Russians moved to Pakistan and established Al-Qaeda. The rest is history.

                                    Then we installed Hamid Karzai as our plumber in Kabul, and the result is stacks and stacks of money, more than 500 military casualties and more than 1500 injured seriously. All of this to fix the original Bush administration mistakes--and it is still not fixed. Karzai is still the mayor of Kabul with no effective control over the rest of the country.

                                    Afghanistan was always a loose confederation of national groups under local control. The deposed monarch, Zahir Shah new better than to try to control anything locally. The U.S. fantasy of a Western style democracy in Afghanistan is a virtual impossibility.

                                    However, if the U.S. would ever reach rapprochement with Iran, we could make common cause. The Iranians, right on the Afghan border, hate the Taliban and are committed to drug interdiction. Wouldn't cooperation with Iran on Afghanistan make sense? Oh yes, I forgot, Iran was ready to do this in 2003 and the Bush administration blew them off.

                                    If Americans aren't sick enough of the waste, corruption and death in this quagmire, they can contemplate the many missed opportunities to stabilize Afghanistan in the past. Sadly, even with mountains of cash the future doesn't look much better.
                                      • James Bailey
                                      • Ridgecrest, CA
                                      NYT Pick
                                      Considering the miserable treatment and loss of life America has caused that nation, perhaps the so-called "Bags of Money" is just a down payment of the war reparations they are rightfully entitled to.
                                        • Rick B
                                        • Seattle WA
                                        NYT Pick
                                        Did that money come from the overcrowded kindergarten my child attends?
                                          • Inge
                                          • Oregon
                                          NYT Pick
                                          Corruption was not traditionally a way of life in Afghanistan. I have spent almost five years in Afghanistan and always heard from dismayed Afghan friends that the governmental corruption was all new. This was corroborated by a British officer I knew in Helmand who grew up in Kabul when his father was a diplomat at the British Consulate in the 1970's. I asked the officer to ask his father--who had served in Baghdad and Beirut as well as Kabul and other posts--about Afghan corruption. The answer emailed back: in the diplomat's experience, the two least corrupt countries were Iraq and Afghanistan--Iraq, because they didn't dare, and Afghanistan because they just didn't do that sort of thing. We have a lot to answer for . . . .
                                            • patty
                                            • sammamish,wa
                                            NYT Pick
                                            Million dollar villas were bought in Dubai by corrupt Afghani officials with our American taxpayer money, but we can't get money to rebuild the Jersey Shore after hurricane Sandy. Everybody is sequestered except our politicians, their pay and perks are untouchable.
                                              • Ian
                                              • Brooklyn
                                              NYT Pick
                                              This is not surprising. Also, I wonder why so many commentors are outraged. This is how foreign policy works: carrot and stick. We're using both in Afghanistan, and pretty much everywhere else we want to influence.

                                              I'd rather see sacks of cash go to Karzai instead of sending more teenagers to Afghanistan to play cowboys and indians with the Taliban. Either way it's about exerting influence to secure our goals (questioning those goals is a separate issue). As a military and diplomatic tactic, cash rewards are tried and true.
                                                • NotNeil
                                                • Boston, MA
                                                NYT Pick
                                                The most disturbing part of this to me is the obvious subtext of racism by the individuals in the CIA toward the Afghans.

                                                I really believe that most people when they join the CIA are very intelligent and idealistic young Americans, and either their morals & ethics get completely corrupted, which I'm sure is the case with some, or they believe that their ethical code need not apply to the Afghans. Why? There's this incredible juxtaposition occurring of on the surface trying to build a new Afghanistan in our image, and then beneath the surface implicitly deciding that the Afghans can't be like us, and then taking self-fulling actions that ensure that that is the case.
                                                  • Technic Ally
                                                  • Toronto
                                                  NYT Pick
                                                  At least the US is no longer wasting money on the pallets: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/feb/08/usa.iraq1
                                                    • Cristino Xirau
                                                    • West Palm Beach, Fl.
                                                    NYT Pick
                                                    I was amused some years ago when Geraldine Ferrera's husband, a man in the real estate business, was accused of having connections with the Mafia. Everyone in NYC knows that if you don't have connections with the Mafia you can no longer continue in the real estate buisness.

                                                    I daresay that dealing with nations such as Afghanistan goes nowhere without payoffs to this one and that one. It is simply something (however disgusting) that must be done. The most we can do is make sure we get out money's worth one way or another.
                                                      • Sue
                                                      • Vancouver, BC
                                                      NYT Pick
                                                      "Mr. Karzai is seemingly unable to be bought."

                                                      What an interesting way to put it.
                                                     
                                                    Mark Mazzetti contributed reporting from Washington.
                                                    This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
                                                    Correction: April 29, 2013
                                                    An earlier version of this article misstated the job title that Khalil Roman held in Afghanistan from 2002 until 2005. He was President Hamid Karzai’s deputy chief of staff, not his chief of staff.
                                                     

                                                    Syrian government using chemical weapons against its own people crosses a red line for Britain to do more, David Cameron warns

                                                    • No 10 said Britain had obtained 'limited but persuasive information'
                                                    • U.S. Intelligence concludes use of gas 'with varying degrees of confidence'
                                                    • Calls for the Assad regime to co-operate with international inspectors
                                                    • President Obama has said use of such weapons would be a 'game-changer'
                                                    • Follows four reports of chemical weapons being used in recent months
                                                    • Britain obtained soil samples from inside Syria which have been tested
                                                     


                                                    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2315102/Syrian-government-using-chemical-weapons-people-crosses-red-line-Britain-David-Cameron-warns.html#ixzz2WapZYH5X
                                                    Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
                                                     
                                                     
                                                    How MI6, CIA spend tax money on propping up drug production
                                                     
                                                    Annie Machon is a former intel­li­gence officer for the UK's MI5, who resigned in 1996 to blow the whistle. She is now a writer, public speaker and a Director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.
                                                     
                                                     
                                                    Published time: May 07, 2013 10:48
                                                    An Afghan farmer collects raw opium as he works in a poppy field in Khogyani District of Nangarhar province on April 29, 2013. (AFP Photo)
                                                    An Afghan farmer collects raw opium as he works in a poppy field in Khogyani District of Nangarhar province on April 29, 2013. (AFP Photo)
                                                     
                                                    With both the CIA and MI6 secretly providing 'ghost money' bribes to the Afghan political establishment, it’s likely that Afghans will increasingly support a resurgent Taliban and the drug trade will be further propped up.
                                                    Afghan President Hamid Karzai, has recently been criticized for taking 'ghost money' from the CIA and MI6. The sums are unknown – for the usual reasons of 'national security' – but are estimated to have been in the tens of millions of dollars. While this is nowhere near the eye-bleeding $12 billion shipped over to Iraq on pallets in the wake of the invasion a decade ago, it is still a significant amount.

                                                    And how has this money been spent?  Certainly not on social projects or rebuilding initiatives.  Rather, the reporting indicates, the money has been funneled to Karzai's cronies as bribes in a corrupt attempt to buy influence in the country.

                                                    None of this surprises me. MI6 has a long and ignoble history of trying to buy influence in countries of interest.  In 1995/96 it funded a 'ragtag group of Islamic extremists,' headed up by a Libyan military intelligence officer, in an illegal attempt to try to assassinate Colonel Gaddafi.  The attack went wrong and innocent people were killed. When this scandal was exposed, it caused an outcry.

                                                    Yet a mere 15 years later, MI6 and the CIA were back in Libya, providing support to the same 'rebels,' who this time succeeded in capturing, torturing and killing Gaddafi, while plunging Libya into apparently endless internecine war. This time around there was little international outcry, as the world's media portrayed this aggressive interference in a sovereign state as 'humanitarian relief.'

                                                    And we also see the same in Syria now, as the CIA and MI6 are already providing training and communication support to the rebels – many of whom, particularly the Al Nusra faction in control of the oil-rich north-east of Syria are in fact allied with Al-Qaeda in Iraq.  So in some countries the UK and USA use drones to target and murder "militants" (plus villagers, wedding parties and other assorted innocents), while in others they back ideologically similar groups.
                                                    fghan policemen destroys a poppy field in the Nad-e Ali district of Helmand province on March 20, 2013. (AFP Photo)
                                                    fghan policemen destroys a poppy field in the Nad-e Ali district of Helmand province on March 20, 2013. (AFP Photo)
                                                    Recently, we have also seen the Western media making unverified claims that the Syrian regime is using chemical weapons against its own people, and our politicians leaping on these assertions as justification for openly providing weapons to the insurgents.
                                                    Other reports are now emerging that indicate it was the rebels themselves who have been using sarin gas against the people. This may halt the rush to war, but not doubt other support will continue to be offered by the West to these war criminals.
                                                    So, how is MI6 secretly spending UK taxpayers' money in Afghanistan? According to Western media reporting, it is being used to prop up warlords and corrupt officials. This is deeply unpopular amongst the Afghan people, leading to the danger of increasing support for a resurgent Taliban.
                                                    There is also a significant overlap between the corrupt political establishment and the illegal drug trade, up to and including the president's late brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai. So, another unintentional consequence may be that some of this unaccountable ghost money is propping up the drug trade.
                                                    Afghanistan is the world's leading producer of heroin, and the UN reports that poppy growth has increased dramatically. Indeed, the UN estimates that acreage under poppy growth in Afghanistan has tripled over the last 7 years.  The value of the drug trade to the Afghan warlords is now estimated to be in the region of $700 million per year.  You can buy a lot of Kalashnikovs with that.
                                                    On the one hand, we have Western governments bankrupting themselves to fight the 'war on terror,' breaking international laws and murdering millions of innocent people across North Africa, the Middle East and central Asia, while at the same time shredding what remains of our hard-won civil liberties at home.
                                                    On the other hand, we apparently have MI6 and the CIA secretly bankrolling the very people in Afghanistan who produce 90 percent of the world's heroin. And then, of course, more scarce resources can be spent on fighting the failed 'war on drugs,' and yet another pretext is used to shred our civil liberties.
                                                    This is a lucrative economic model for the burgeoning military-security complex. However, it is a lose-lose scenario for the rest of us.
                                                    The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
                                                     
                                                    Inside Corrupt-istan, a Loss of Faith in Leaders
                                                    Illustration by Nola Lopez, Photographs by David Bathgate/Corbis and Shah Marai, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
                                                     
                                                    KABUL, Afghanistan
                                                    Emilio Morenatti/Associated Press
                                                    DISILLUSIONMENT President Hamid Karzai is a focus of anger at corruption in his government.
                                                     
                                                    THE government of President Hamid Karzai may be awash in corruption, venality and graft, but if you walk the tattered halls of the ministries here, it is remarkably easy to find an honest man.
                                                    One of them is Fazel Ahmad Faqiryar, who last month took the politically risky course of trying to prosecute senior members of Mr. Karzai’s government. Two weeks ago, Mr. Faqiryar was fired from his job as deputy attorney general — on the order, it appears, of Mr. Karzai himself.
                                                    “The law in this country is only for the poor,” Mr. Faqiryar said afterward.
                                                    The ouster of Mr. Faqiryar illustrated not just the lawlessness that permeates Mr. Karzai’s government and the rest of the Afghan state. It also raised a fundamental question for the American and European leaders who have bankrolled Mr. Karzai’s government since he took office in 2001:
                                                    What if government corruption is more dangerous than the Taliban?
                                                    Since 2001, one of the unquestioned premises of American and NATO policy has been that ordinary Afghans don’t view public corruption in quite the same way that Americans and others do in the West. Diplomats, military officers and senior officials flying in from Washington often say privately that while public graft is pernicious, there is no point in trying to abolish it — and that trying to do so could destroy the very government the West has helped to build.
                                                    The Central Intelligence Agency has carried that line of argument even further, putting on its payroll some of the most disputable members of Mr. Karzai’s government. The explanation, offered by agency officials, is that Mother Theresa can’t be found in Afghanistan.
                                                    “What is acceptable to the Afghans is different than what is acceptable to you or me or our people,” a Western official here said recently, discounting fears of fraud in the coming parliamentary elections. He spoke, as many prominent Western officials here do so often, on the condition of anonymity. “They have their own expectations, and they are slightly different than the ones we try to impose on them.”
                                                    Perhaps. But the official’s premise — that the Afghans are more tolerant of corruption than people in the West — has fulfilled itself. Afghanistan is now widely recognized as one of the world’s premier gangster-states. Out of 180 countries, Transparency International ranks it, in terms of corruption, 179th, better only than Somalia.
                                                    The examples are too legion to list. Take a drive down the splendorous avenues of Palm Jumeira in the United Arab Emirates, where many Afghan leaders park their money, and you can pick out the waterfront villas where they live. Or look at the travails of Kabul Bank, whose losses threaten the Afghan financial system; officials say the bank’s directors spent lavishly on Mr. Karzai’s re-election campaign and lent tens of millions to Mr. Karzai’s cronies.
                                                    Worse, the rationalization offered by the Western official — that Afghans are happy to tolerate a certain level of bribery and theft — seems to have turned out terribly wrong. It now seems clear that public corruption is roundly despised by ordinary Afghans, and that it may constitute the single largest factor driving them into the arms of the Taliban.
                                                    You don’t have to look very hard to find an Afghan, whether in the government or out, who is repelled by the illegal doings of his leaders. Ahmed Shah Hakimi, who runs a currency exchange in Kabul, had just finished explaining some of the shadowy dealings of the business and political elite when he stopped in disgust.
                                                    “There are 50 of them,” Mr. Hakimi said. “The corrupt ones. All the Afghans know who they are.”
                                                    “Why do the Americans support them?” he asked.
                                                    Mr. Hakimi, a shrewd businessman, seemed genuinely perplexed.
                                                    “What the Americans need to do is take these Afghans and put them on a plane and fly them to America — and then crash the plane into a mountain,” Mr. Hakimi said. “Kill them all.”
                                                    You hear that a lot here — that the kleptocrats are few in number; that most Afghans know who they are; and that the country would be better off if this greedy cabal met a violent end. Why not get rid of them?
                                                    Sometimes, it seems, American and Afghan leaders exhibit a kind of willful blindness. In June, President Karzai flew to Kandahar to speak to a gathering of about 400 local tribal elders about a pending military operation. He was accompanied by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, then the commander of American and NATO forces.
                                                    Mr. Karzai may have been in Afghanistan, but his appearance seemed to have been scripted by the same people who run political campaigns in the United States. The Afghan tribal elders assembled in a large room, most of them sitting on the floor, and Mr. Karzai, after much delay, strode in, gave a quick and rousing speech, and promptly left the room. Neither Mr. Karzai nor any of his aides — nor any of the Americans — seemed especially interested in what these tribal leaders had to say.
                                                     
                                                    Reports Link Karzai’s Brother to Afghanistan Heroin Trade
                                                    Ruth Fremson/The New York Times
                                                    Ahmed Wali Karzai, President Hamid Karzai’s brother, in 2001. Both say accusations of drug trafficking are politically motivated.
                                                    Published: October 4, 2008
                                                     
                                                    WASHINGTON — When Afghan security forces found an enormous cache of heroin hidden beneath concrete blocks in a tractor-trailer outside Kandahar in 2004, the local Afghan commander quickly impounded the truck and notified his boss.
                                                    Before long, the commander, Habibullah Jan, received a telephone call from Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of President Hamid Karzai, asking him to release the vehicle and the drugs, Mr. Jan later told American investigators, according to notes from the debriefing obtained by The New York Times. He said he complied after getting a phone call from an aide to President Karzai directing him to release the truck.
                                                    Two years later, American and Afghan counternarcotics forces stopped another truck, this time near Kabul, finding more than 110 pounds of heroin. Soon after the seizure, United States investigators told other American officials that they had discovered links between the drug shipment and a bodyguard believed to be an intermediary for Ahmed Wali Karzai, according to a participant in the briefing.
                                                    The assertions about the involvement of the president’s brother in the incidents were never investigated, according to American and Afghan officials, even though allegations that he has benefited from narcotics trafficking have circulated widely in Afghanistan.
                                                    Both President Karzai and Ahmed Wali Karzai, now the chief of the Kandahar Provincial Council, the governing body for the region that includes Afghanistan’s second largest city, dismiss the allegations as politically motivated attacks by longtime foes.
                                                    “I am not a drug dealer, I never was and I never will be,” the president’s brother said in a recent phone interview. “I am a victim of vicious politics.”
                                                    But the assertions about him have deeply worried top American officials in Kabul and in Washington. The United States officials fear that perceptions that the Afghan president might be protecting his brother are damaging his credibility and undermining efforts by the United States to buttress his government, which has been under siege from rivals and a Taliban insurgency fueled by drug money, several senior Bush administration officials said. Their concerns have intensified as American troops have been deployed to the country in growing numbers.
                                                    “What appears to be a fairly common Afghan public perception of corruption inside their government is a tremendously corrosive element working against establishing long-term confidence in that government — a very serious matter,” said Lt. Gen. David W. Barno, who was commander of coalition military forces in Afghanistan from 2003 to 2005 and is now retired. “That could be problematic strategically for the United States.”
                                                    The White House says it believes that Ahmed Wali Karzai is involved in drug trafficking, and American officials have repeatedly warned President Karzai that his brother is a political liability, two senior Bush administration officials said in interviews last week.
                                                    Numerous reports link Ahmed Wali Karzai to the drug trade, according to current and former officials from the White House, the State Department and the United States Embassy in Afghanistan, who would speak only on the condition of anonymity. In meetings with President Karzai, including a 2006 session with the United States ambassador, the Central Intelligence Agency’s station chief and their British counterparts, American officials have talked about the allegations in hopes that the president might move his brother out of the country, said several people who took part in or were briefed on the talks.
                                                    “We thought the concern expressed to Karzai might be enough to get him out of there,” one official said. But President Karzai has resisted, demanding clear-cut evidence of wrongdoing, several officials said. “We don’t have the kind of hard, direct evidence that you could take to get a criminal indictment,” a White House official said. “That allows Karzai to say, ‘where’s your proof?’ ”
                                                    Neither the Drug Enforcement Administration, which conducts counternarcotics efforts in Afghanistan, nor the fledgling Afghan anti-drug agency has pursued investigations into the accusations against the president’s brother.
                                                    Several American investigators said senior officials at the D.E.A. and the office of the Director of National Intelligence complained to them that the White House favored a hands-off approach toward Ahmed Wali Karzai because of the political delicacy of the matter. But White House officials dispute that, instead citing limited D.E.A. resources in Kandahar and southern Afghanistan and the absence of political will in the Afghan government to go after major drug suspects as the reasons for the lack of an inquiry.
                                                    “We invested considerable resources into building Afghan capability to conduct such investigations and consistently encouraged Karzai to take on the big fish and address widespread Afghan suspicions about the link between his brother and narcotics,” said Meghan O’Sullivan, who was the coordinator for Afghanistan and Iraq at the National Security Council until last year.
                                                    It was not clear whether President Bush had been briefed on the matter.Humayun Hamidzada, press secretary for President Karzai, denied that the president’s brother was involved in drug trafficking or that the president had intervened to help him. “People have made allegations without proof,” Mr. Hamidzada said.
                                                    Spokesmen for the Drug Enforcement Administration, the State Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment.
                                                    An Informant’s Tip
                                                    The concerns about Ahmed Wali Karzai have surfaced recently because of the imprisonment of an informant who tipped off American and Afghan investigators to the drug-filled truck outside Kabul in 2006.
                                                    The informant, Hajji Aman Kheri, was arrested a year later on charges of plotting to kill an Afghan vice president in 2002. The Afghan Supreme Court recently ordered him freed for lack of evidence, but he has not been released. Nearly 100 political leaders in his home region protested his continued incarceration last month.
                                                    Mr. Kheri, in a phone interview from jail in Kabul, said he had been an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration and United States intelligence agencies, an assertion confirmed by American counternarcotics and intelligence officials. Several of those officials, frustrated that the Bush administration was not pressing for Mr. Kheri’s release, came forward to disclose his role in the drug seizure.
                                                    Ever since the American-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, critics have charged that the Bush administration has failed to take aggressive action against the Afghan narcotics trade, because of both opposition from the Karzai government and reluctance by the United States military to get bogged down by eradication and interdiction efforts that would antagonize local warlords and Afghan poppy farmers. Now, Afghanistan provides about 95 percent of the world’s supply of heroin.
                                                    Just as the Taliban have benefited from money produced by the drug trade, so have many officials in the Karzai government, according to American and Afghan officials. Thomas Schweich, a former senior State Department counternarcotics official, wrote in The New York Times Magazine in July that drug traffickers were buying off hundreds of police chiefs, judges and other officials. “Narco-corruption went to the top of the Afghan government,” he said.
                                                    Suspicions of Corruption
                                                    Of the suspicions about Ahmed Wali Karzai, Representative Mark Steven Kirk, an Illinois Republican who has focused on the Afghan drug problem in Congress, said, “I would ask people in the Bush administration and the D.E.A. about him, and they would say, ‘We think he’s dirty.’ ”
                                                    In the two drug seizures in 2004 and 2006, millions of dollars’ worth of heroin was found. In April 2006, Mr. Jan, by then a member of the Afghan Parliament, met with American investigators at a D.E.A. safe house in Kabul and was asked to describe the events surrounding the 2004 drug discovery, according to notes from the debriefing session. He told the Americans that after impounding the truck, he received calls from Ahmed Wali Karzai and Shaida Mohammad, an aide to President Karzai, according to the notes.
                                                    Mr. Jan later became a political opponent of President Karzai, and in a 2007 speech in Parliament he accused Ahmed Wali Karzai of involvement in the drug trade. Mr. Jan was shot to death in July as he drove from a guesthouse to his main residence in Kandahar Province. The Taliban were suspected in the assassination.
                                                    Mr. Mohammad, in a recent interview in Washington, dismissed Mr. Jan’s account, saying that Mr. Jan had fabricated the story about being pressured to release the drug shipment in order to damage President Karzai.
                                                    But Khan Mohammad, the former Afghan commander in Kandahar who was Mr. Jan’s superior in 2004, said in a recent interview that Mr. Jan reported at the time that he had received a call from the Karzai aide ordering him to release the drug cache. Khan Mohammad recalled that Mr. Jan believed that the call had been instigated by Ahmed Wali Karzai, not the president.
                                                    “This was a very heavy issue,” Mr. Mohammad said.
                                                    He provided the same account in an October 2004 interview with The Christian Science Monitor. Mr. Mohammad said that after a subordinate captured a large shipment of heroin about two months earlier, the official received repeated telephone calls from Ahmed Wali Karzai. “He was saying, ‘This heroin belongs to me, you should release it,’ ” the newspaper quoted Mr. Mohammad as saying.
                                                    Languishing in Detention
                                                    In 2006, Mr. Kheri, the Afghan informant, tipped off American counternarcotics agents to another drug shipment. Mr. Kheri, who had proved so valuable to the United States that his family had been resettled in Virginia in 2004, briefly returned to Afghanistan in 2006.
                                                    The heroin in the truck that was seized was to be delivered to Ahmed Wali Karzai’s bodyguard in the village of Maidan Shahr, and then transported to Kandahar, one of the Afghans involved in the deal later told American investigators, according to notes of his debriefing. Several Afghans — the drivers and the truck’s owner — were arrested by Afghan authorities, but no action was taken against Mr. Karzai or his bodyguard, who investigators believe serves as a middleman, the American officials said.
                                                    In 2007, Mr. Kheri visited Afghanistan again, once again serving as an American informant, the officials said. This time, however, he was arrested by the Karzai government and charged in the 2002 assassination of Hajji Abdul Qadir, an Afghan vice president, who had been a political rival of Mr. Kheri’s brother, Hajji Zaman, a former militia commander and a powerful figure in eastern Afghanistan.
                                                    Mr. Kheri, in the phone interview from Kabul, denied any involvement in the killing and said his arrest was politically motivated. He maintained that the president’s brother was involved in the heroin trade.
                                                    “It’s no secret about Wali Karzai and drugs,” said Mr. Kheri, who speaks English. “A lot of people in the Afghan government are involved in drug trafficking.”
                                                    Mr. Kheri’s continued detention, despite the Afghan court’s order to release him, has frustrated some of the American investigators who worked with him.
                                                    In recent months, they have met with officials at the State Department and the office of the Director of National Intelligence seeking to persuade the Bush administration to intervene with the Karzai government to release Mr. Kheri.
                                                    “We have just left a really valuable informant sitting in jail to rot,” one investigator said.
                                                     
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                                                    The New York Times
                                                    Heroin caches were found near Kandahar and Kabul.




                                                    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/edward-snowden?page=5

                                                    NSA snooping: Obama under pressure as senator denounces 'act of treason'

                                                    Barack Obama nsa 11 Jun 2013:

                                                    Information chiefs worldwide sound alarm while US senator Dianne Feinstein orders NSA to review monitoring program

                                                    11 Jun 2013:

                                                    His parents are divorced, he donated to Ron Paul, and his girlfriend has recently been contacted by NSA investigators

                                                    Edward Snowden. 10 Jun 2013:

                                                    Live coverage of the continued fallout from Edward Snowden's revelations in the Guardian that the US National Security Agency's Prism programme has direct access to the systems of Google, Facebook, Apple and other internet giants

                                                    10 Jun 2013:

                                                    White House insists it welcomes 'appropriate debate' after Republican leadership questions implementation of security act

                                                    10 Jun 2013:

                                                    Polly Toynbee: The real threat to our privacy and economy isn't Big Brother but a weak state at the mercy of global business

                                                    Booz Allen Hamilton headquarters in McLean, Virginia 10 Jun 2013:

                                                    Whistleblower's work for Booz Allen and others shows perils of private-sector boom in sensitive areas of government

                                                    10 Jun 2013: Key players and programmes in the National Security Agency's secret operation mining phone and internet data

                                                    10 Jun 2013:

                                                    White House refers Snowden's case to Justice Department while Republicans in Congress call for whistleblower's extradition

                                                    Edward Snowden supporters attend a rally at Union Square in New York 10 Jun 2013:

                                                    James Ball: The NSA claims its data collection is innocuous, but even the most basic detail can reveal a person's most sensitive secrets

                                                    10 Jun 2013: Whistleblower will go down in history for exposing 'formulation of a mass surveillance state', says WikiLeaks founder

                                                    10 Jun 2013: Claim for resettlement to third country unlikely to succeed, say experts, but court ruling on screening of cases has yet to be implemented


                                                    Edward Snowden 10 Jun 2013: Choice of Hong Kong as refuge is admired, but speculation remains that he could seek sanctuary in Iceland

                                                    10 Jun 2013:

                                                    Source for the Guardian's NSA files on why he carried out the biggest intelligence leak in a generation – and what happens next

                                                    10 Jun 2013: Vice-president Vivian Reding's spokesman says personal data protection is a right and she will raise concerns at summit

                                                    NSA headquarters in Fort Meade 10 Jun 2013: The NSA whistleblower is the latest in a long line to resist the paranoid fears that are a recurring feature of US politics

                                                    Julian Assange praises Edward Snowden as a hero

                                                    Whistleblower will go down in history for exposing 'formulation of a mass surveillance state', says WikiLeaks founder

                                                    http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/jun/10/julian-assange-praises-edward-snowden

                                                  1. guardian.co.uk,
                                                  2. Julian Assange on balcony of Ecuador Embassy

                                                    Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, currently confined to the Ecuadorian embassy in London, warns that Edward Snowden is 'in a very, very serious position'. Photograph: Kerim Okten/EPA

                                                    Edward Snowden is a "hero" who has exposed "one of the most serious events of the decade – the creeping formulation of a mass surveillance state", Julian Assange said on Monday.

                                                    The WikiLeaks founder said the question of surveillance abuses by states and tech companies was "something that I and many other journalists and civil libertarians have been campaigning about for a long time. It is very pleasing to see such clear and concrete proof presented to the public."

                                                    Assange told Sky News that Snowden was "in a very, very serious position, because we can see the kind of rhetoric that occurred against me and Bradley Manning back in 2010, 2011, applied to Snowden".

                                                    Following the Cablegate exposures in 2010 there were calls from some US politicians for Assange to be tried for treason and even assassinated. Manning, who has admitted leaking classified US military secrets to WikiLeaks, is on trial facing 21 charges, including "aiding the enemy".

                                                    Assange has been confined for almost a year to the Ecuadorian embassy in London, having been granted asylum by the Latin American country in a bid to avoid extradition to Sweden to face sex assault and rape accusations, which he denies. The Australian fears answering the allegations in Sweden would make him vulnerable to onward extradition to the US to face potential charges relating to the WikiLeaks releases.

                                                    Assange had earlier told an Australian interviewer for ABC News that he had been in "indirect communication with [Snowden's] people", but declined to elaborate further.

                                                    He described Manning and Snowden as "very serious, earnest young men who really believe in something, and have shown great courage, and there is no doubt actually that history will look on them extremely favourably and perhaps, in a few years, will liberate them from their predicament."

                                                    Assange called on supportive countries to "line up" and offer support to Snowden. "It will be really telling to see which countries really protect human rights, the privacy of the public, asylum rights, or which countries are scared of the United States or are in bed with this surveillance complex."

                                                    Beyond Hong Kong: Edward Snowden's best options for asylum

                                                    Choice of Hong Kong as refuge is admired, but speculation remains that he could seek sanctuary in Iceland

                                                    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/10/hong-kong-edward-snowden-asylum

                                                  3. The Guardian,

                                                  4. Edward Snowden

                                                    Edward Snowden explained that he had chosen Hong Kong because it 'has a strong tradition of free speech'. Photograph: The Guardian/AFP/Getty Images



                                                    tradition of free speech'. Photograph: The Guardian/AFP/Getty Images

                                                    Edward Snowden's choice of Hong Kong as a refuge from US retribution has been admired by some international lawyers – but it has not quelled speculation that he may seek asylum in another state, and activists in Iceland are making preparations should the whistleblower try to head there.

                                                    Birgitta Jónsdóttir, the Icelandic MP and open information campaigner who was centrally involved in the WikiLeaks disclosures, said she was lobbying Iceland's immigration services and interior ministry about possible asylum for Snowden. But she added the process would only seriously get under way once the NSA whistleblower made clear his intentions.

                                                    "This can't be processed until we hear from Snowden himself. We need to know exactly what he wants to do."

                                                    Speaking to the Guardian from San Francisco, Jónsdóttir said other members of her Pirate party would be raising the asylum issue in speeches to the newly formed Icelandic parliament. "I'm encouraging politicians not just in my own party to come forward and support Edward Snowden because he has done humanity a great service," Jónsdóttir said.

                                                    "It's high time the US government recognised that this culture of information gathering and surveillance cannot be sustained - the people won't accept it."

                                                    Iceland has a new conservative government, which took office last month. While the new prime minister, Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson, has put his name to the International Modern Media Institute (IMMI) in Iceland, which is designed to strengthen freedom of expression in the country, crucial clauses within it that would extend a safe haven to whistleblowers have not yet been passed and are still being debated within a steering committee. That means there is currently no automatic right to a safe haven for the former CIA employee.

                                                    Iceland's interior ministry – which would have the final say on whether Snowden received asylum – said on Monday that it had not yet received an application from the whistleblower.

                                                    "We have heard about this, but we cannot speculate," said Johannes Tomasson, spokesman for the ministry. "At the moment we have received no inquiry or application from Mr Snowden, and we cannot therefore speculate on whether any such application would be granted."

                                                    But there was a groundswell of support for Snowden, according to information activist Smári McCarthy, executive director of the IMMI, which has started making inquiries about how Snowden might be given refuge.

                                                    "Of course we have been following the story with morbid fascination and as soon as [he] mentioned Iceland, that was our cue to take action," said McCarthy. "We are working on the basis that if he were to arrive in Iceland we would have a plan in place and ready to go."

                                                    McCarthy's organisation is in discussions with lawyers about the possibility of Snowden gaining protection in Iceland.

                                                    "It is not sure whether Iceland would be up for the fight as the US is a major trading partner," he said. "However, it would be rather embarrassing for the United States if it cut ties with this small nation because it had complied with its human rights duties."

                                                    Snowden would have to arrive on Icelandic soil or at one of its embassies to claim asylum, but would have popular support in Iceland, said McCarthy. "Everywhere in the Icelandic media today we are seeing that support, with people thinking that Snowden is deserving of Iceland's protection."

                                                    Iceland has a history of providing asylum, famously giving world chess champion Bobby Fischer Icelandic citizenship after a vote in the country's parliament, and is considered a world leader in human rights. The US government is unlikely to deprive Snowden of his nationality as a punishment since that could undermine any attempt to extradite him back to the US to face charges.

                                                    Other states where Snowden might consider seeking sanctuary include Ecuador – whose embassy in London is currently home to the fugitive WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange – and Venezuela.

                                                    Rendering anyone stateless against their will is formally forbidden by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations in 1948, which declares under article 15 that: "(1) Everyone has the right to a nationality; (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality."

                                                    Individuals, however, can voluntarily renounce their US citizenship. In order to do so they must, according to the US state department, "appear in person before a US consular or diplomatic officer, in a foreign country (normally at a US embassy or consulate); and sign an oath of renunciation".The regulations add: "Persons intending to renounce US citizenship should be aware that, unless they already possess a foreign nationality, they may be rendered stateless and, thus, lack the protection of any government. They may also have difficulty travelling as they may not be entitled to a passport from any country."


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