BP is embroiled in a new controversy after accusations that the British corporation hired a public relations firm to harass and intimidate Facebook users who condemned the company for its handling of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The largest environmental disaster in US history began on April 20, 2010 with an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig located near the Mississippi River Delta.
Author: mediahitman
By Douglas Ernst Drivers in North Fort Worth, Texas, are being pulled over at a police roadblock and asked for saliva, blood and breath samples. They are offered $10 for a cheek-swab DNA sample, $50 for a blood sample, and nothing for a breath sample — since passive alcohol sensors gather that information the moment the driver is pulled over.
The New Jersey attorney general’s office announced Tuesday a $1 million settlement with an online video gaming company that used malicious software to monitor subscribers’ computer activity and illegally mine bitcoins when users were absent. The settlement with E-Sports Entertainment, LLC, of Commack, New York stems from the creation and deployment of a bitcoin trojan as well as software designed to gain full administrative access to subscribers’ computers.
A congressional investigation has been launched into allegations that the United States Census Bureau falsified employment numbers, including in the months just before the last presidential election. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee sent a letter today to the director the Census Bureau, citing a New York Post story claiming that employment data was fabricated.
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has suggested Iran’s nuclear issue should be resolved with the same approach as Russia offered for Syria, saying it will be peaceful for Tehran just like it was for the war-torn Arab state. “This will be a peaceful, diplomatic solution of Iran’s nuclear issue just the way it [solution] has been achieved in Syria regarding its chemical weapons,” the Israeli Prime Minister said at a press-conference with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.
France, Germany and other European countries on Tuesday announced the creation of a “drone users club” to go head-to-head against US- and Israeli-made pilotless aerial vehicles that now dominate the skies. At a time when aerial-vehicles are radically altering the modern battlefield, Europe finds itself playing catch up in the race to develop what it calls Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) pilotless aircraft.
Yahoo will add encryption to all its services in an effort to shield customers from ongoing monitoring and data collection by the National Security Agency, company president and CEO Marissa Mayer announced in a blog post. Mayer published the news in an announcement to customers on Yahoo’s Tumblr page. She acknowledged that the changes are in response to the NSA leaks that began in June, which have outraged the public and challenged internet leaders to come up with an answer.
WikiLeaks began publishing The Global Intelligence Files, over five million e-mails from the Texas headquartered “global intelligence” company Stratfor. The e-mails date between July 2004 and late December 2011. They reveal the inner workings of a company that fronts as an intelligence publisher, but provides confidential intelligence services to large corporations, such as Bhopal’s Dow Chemical Co., Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and government agencies, including the US Department of Homeland Security, the US Marines and the US Defence Intelligence Agency. The emails show Stratfor’s web of informers, pay-off structure, payment laundering techniques and psychological methods.
(Radley Balko) An update on the creeping surveillance state: An alarming report out of Puerto Rico finds that an ankle bracelet given to suspects out on bail or parole may have the ability to listen to and record conversations.
Internet activist Jeremy Hammond who pleaded guilty to hacking servers of the private intelligence company Statfor and leaking its information to anti-secrecy site, WikiLeaks, was sentenced to ten years in jail on Friday, November 15. The release of internal emails belonging to Strategic Forecasting Inc. or Stratfor, has become one of the most successful operations ever conducted by the hacktivist group, Anonymous, which Hammond admitted to being part of.
The Central Intelligence Agency is collecting bulk records of international money transfers, including the financial and personal data of millions of Americans. Citing “officials familiar with the programs,” the Wall Street Journal reported that the CIA and FBI collect financial information when international transactions are filed through numerous money-transfer companies, including MoneyGram and Western Union.
Google has applied for a patent for a temporary neck tattoo that would emit an electronic signal capable of connecting to a mobile device and working as a lie detector. Motorola Mobility, which is owned by Google, has submitted an application for what is effectively an adhesive device “that compromises an electronic skin tattoo capable of being applied to a throat region of the body.”
This chart shows that most products we buy are controlled by just a few companies. It’s called “The Illusion of Choice.” Despite a wide array of brands to choose from, it all comes back to the big guys.
Officials in Germany have cautioned authorities to prepare for possible attacks against United States facilities overseas as revelations continue to emerge about America’s secretive National Security Agency. As leaked classified documents continue to disclose the covert operations of the NSA, a domestic intelligence warning obtained by Germany’s Der Spiegel suggests the revelations made possible by former contractor Edward Snowden’s leaked files are inspiring potentially violent protests.
A former Federal Reserve employee responsible for managing the agency’s quantitative easing program has written an op-ed apologizing for what he called “the greatest backdoor Wall Street bailout of all time.” Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Andrew Huszar detailed his concerns about the Fed’s massive bond-buying measures. He argued that while the Reserve initially claimed the program would lower borrowing rates for average citizens, the trillion-dollar initiative primarily ended up lining the pockets of Wall Street executives.
The CEO of one of the world’s foremost computer security firms says the Stuxnet worm that targeted Iranian nuclear facilities may have also infiltrated similar critical systems in Russia. If accurate, allegations that Stuxnet snuck its way into Russia could implicate the United States and Israel in an even broader act of cyberwar than previously reported.
Hactivist group Anonymous has launched a campaign to shut down a Utah boarding school where it claims students have been beaten, tortured, kept in solitary confinement, and sexually abused. “The only way to stop these atrocities from hiding in the dark is to shine a massive spotlight on them. Nobody can fight for what they aren’t aware of,” Anonymous said in press release.
Two U.S. Border Patrol agents who forced four suspected drug traffickers to eat marijuana and run aimlessly into the Arizona desert have each been sentenced to two years in federal prison. Back in April, both Dario Castillo, 25, and Ramon Zuniga, 31, were convicted for violating the civil rights of the four Mexican men, who had entered the United States illegally.