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Hope for Rojava
by Zenaan Harkness 25 Feb '16

25 Feb '16

USA and the world's coalition of the dodgy opportunists, capitulate in 20 weeks in Syria. If it happens, a Kurdish "Rojava" mini state would be the best thing to happen for a real exploration or experiment in political 'anarchy'. My fingers and toes are all crossed in hope. --- http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/week-20-russias-syria-campaign-ceasef… Week 20 of Russia's Syria Campaign: The Ceasefire Deal Is a Huge Victory for Russia With it Russia has forced every single rebel faction to make a stark decision on whether it wants Al Nusra ties or not The Saker (The Unz Review) Diplomatic victory brought on by military victories Originally appeared at The Unz Review The recent agreement between the USA and Russia really solves nothing, it does not even end the war, and both sides are expressing a great deal of caution about its future implementation. And yet, this is a huge victory for Russia. While it is too early to say that “the Russians won in Syria”, I think that it is now fair to say that the Russian position on Syria has won. Here is why: First: nobody is suggesting anymore that Assad will be ousted or Damascus taken. That, in turn, means that everybody has now recognized that Syrian Arab Republic, backed by Russia, has successfully repelled the aggression of the huge coalition the AngloZionists built to overthrow Assad. Second: Russia has forced the UNSC and the USA to admit that the vast majority of those who fight Assad today are terrorists. Of course, this is not how this was declared, but if you look at the organizations which the UNSC has already declared as ‘terrorists’ then you already have an absolute majority of the anti-Assad forces. This means that the moral and legal legitimacy of the anti-Assad forces lies in tatters. Third: regardless of what Erdogan does actually try to do next, there are now clear signs that neither NATO, nor the EU nor even the Turkish high military command want a war with Russia. And that means that Erdogan’s gamble has not paid off and that his entire Syria policy is now comprehensively dead. Keep in mind that following the treacherous attack on the Russian Su-24 the Kremlin made it a policy goal to “Saakashvilize” Erdogan. This goal is now almost reached and Erdogan’s future looks very, very bleak: everybody ( except maybe the Saudis) is sick and tired of this maniac. The best thing which could happen to Turkey now would for the military to get rid of Erdogan and to replace him with somebody willing to repair all the damage he did. Fourth: all the threats to impose a no-fly zone or to occupy Syria have now been invalidated by an agreement which basically declares that anybody not respecting the cease-fire is a legitimate target for engagement and destruction. Fifth: the USA had to accept the humiliation of having to agree to all of the Russian terms for the current ceasefire. Yes, of course, the USA can, and probably will, try renege on part, or all, of this agreement, but the precedent has been set and it will be very hard, if not impossible, for the USA to openly return to the pre-2016 policies. Sixth: does anybody still remember the rhetoric of Hillary Clinton about Syria and Russia? Her position was crystal clear: Assad must go and those who support him “punished”. Even after the Russian military offensive began, the US refused to tell the Russians where the “good terrorists” were and where the “bad terrorists” were. No exchange of information with Russians was acceptable. Now the Americans had to agree to work with the Russians on a map of Syria designating where the participants of the ceasefire and where those who were not included in the ceasefire were deployed. In other words,the US will now have to share with Russia all the info it previously refused to share and work with the Russians on a daily basis. Seventh: Russia has basically co-opted the so-called “Free Syrian Army”. How? By basically forcing every single faction in Syria to chose between one of two possible statuses: being a ‘terrorist’ (and a fair target for destruction) or being a participant in a political process entirely designed by Russia. The Russians are now even opening a “Truce Center” at the Khmeimin airbase ( https://www.rt.com/news/333381-syria-reconciliation-russia-hotline/ ) near Latakia which will now “render assistance” to all the parties to the ceasefire. This, for the time being, is mainly a diplomatic victory, of course, but a Russian diplomatic victory made possible by a Russian military victory. A tiny Russian military contingent has basically completely neutralized the plans of an entire worldwide Empire. That, in itself, is an amazing achievement. The other big winner here are, in my opinion, the Kurds who, according to British officials ( http://www.rbc.ru/politics/23/02/2016/56cc4b5f9a7947b06c6fff7b ), appear to be coordinating their military operations with the Syrian army and the Russian Aerospace Forces and who now might well even achieve their dreams of joining the Iraqi and Syria regions of Kurdistan. Which is just about the worst nightmare for the Turks come true, hence the still remaining risk of a Turkish military operation ostensibly to create a ‘buffer zone’ but really to save face. That kind of intervention will remain a possibility for as long as the Turks can continue to hope to commit aggression against their neighbors under the protection of NATO and the USA. And that ain’t gonna change anytime in the future. And then there are the Saudis. They are very, very angry. They are angry to the point of making not so subtle threats about using nuclear weapons to deal with their adversaries. See for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXuJkVPRjNI Actually, since Pakistan got The Bomb, I would not dismiss any Saudi claims of having a number of nuclear devices. But what does that really mean? Absolutely nothing. It is quite possible that the Saudis have the know how for a nuclear device. And it is quite possible that they even got their hands on enough nuclear materials for a few bombs. They might even have succeeded in purchasing a few nuclear devices from the Pakistanis or Israelis. But even if that is true, the reality is that the Saudis don’t even have the military capability to deal with the poorest Arab country on the planet (Yemen) and that they most definitely don’t have the military capability to engage their nuclear devices in a way which would allow them to achieve any kind of military advantage. After all, what are we talking about here? Using nuclear weapons against the Syrian military? Against Iran? Against Russia? This is absolutely ridiculous. The reality is that whatever nuclear capabilities the Saudis might or might not have, the fact that they would make nuclear threats is just a sign of weakness and fear, not a sign of strength. This is why nobody is impressed by these statements, least of all the intended targets of such threats. While it is quite true that the latest agreement between the USA and Russia does not mark the end of the war in Syria, it is a turning point, a kind of a Minsk-2 Agreement which nobody really wants to comply with, but which seals the defeat of the AngloZionist plans in Syria as much as Minsk-2 meant the defeat of the Ukronazi dream. Time is now on the Russian/Syrian side. With each passing day the Russian task force in Syria will become more powerful, as will the Syrian Armed Forces. That, by itself, will not be enough to defeat Daesh, and we can expect a stiff resistance from the Takfiri crazies, but the writing is on the wall for all to see: the more the Russians and the Americans become directly and jointly involved, the less Turkey and Saudi Arabia will be able to determine the outcome of the war. In other words, while this is far from being the end of Daesh, it is the beginning of the end for Daesh in Syria. Yet again the nay-sayers and Putin-haters have been proven wrong. To be honest, so have I: I would never have guessed that the Russians could have achieved so much with so little and yet they did pull off this extremely dangerous gamble and they won. Only an extremely skillful combination of military, economic, diplomatic and political means could have yielded such a remarkable result but Putin, apparently, found this perfect mix. The path ahead remains extremely dangerous, for sure, but the outcome of the 20 week long Russian military intervention in Syria is nothing short of remarkable.

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Impressive US shamelessness
by Zenaan Harkness 24 Feb '16

24 Feb '16

No it's -not- a bash America list, it's a name the fucking shovel list. Since Syria is no longer "just a little CIA regime change op", the 'big guns' find it difficult to hide their true intentions (which, as we see from the very end of this article, are often times precise embedded as their accusations of others :) What a world we live in... --- http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/kerry-says-if-ceasefire-fails-he-may-… Kerry Says If Ceasefire Fails He May Partition Syria Because, you know, God made him the owner of Syria Mark Nicholas That's Western 'nation-building' and international law for you John Kerry is an incredible motivator! He has just told ( http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/23/john-kerry-partition-syria-pea… ) Syrian jihadi-controlled ( https://consortiumnews.com/2016/02/16/obamas-moderate-syrian-deception/ ) rebellion that all it has to do is sabotage the upcoming ceasefire he has agreed to with Moscow and he will reward them with a mini-state carved out from Syria. What better incentive to abide by the deal and cease hostilities could he possibly give them? John Kerry, the US secretary of state, has said he will move towards a plan B that could involve a partition of Syria if a planned ceasefire due to start in the next few days does not materialize, or if a genuine shift to a transitional government does not take place in the coming months. Oh yes, you may have thought that "partition" is a bad word, but that's only true when the Russians do it ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_of_Poland_(1939%E2%80%9345) ). When Americans partition a foreign country (Korea, Vietnam, Yugoslavia, Serbia, Sudan) that is actually a good thing. Which presents us with a problem since Kerry is apparently willing to invite Putin to help with the partition: Kerry suggested partition could form part of an eventual solution, saying “this can get a lot uglier and Russia has to be sitting there evaluating that too. It may be too late to keep it as a whole Syria if it is much longer”. It is the first time Kerry has spoken of partition, although some believe Putin would be content to see this happen. This creates a moral problem for us because while a unilateral partition of Syria by the virtuous US would be a good thing, a joint US-Russian partition would be tainted by the virtue of having evil Russian paws over it. Hopefully the Russian nation-breaking dictator will decline the offer of the nation-building Obama Administration official and avert the possibility of American-Russian collusion in breaking up a sovereign third country. PS. Wasn't it just a short few weeks ago that the West was accusing Moscow of plotting partition of Syria ( http://russia-insider.com/en/military/london-goes-full-retard-russia-syria-… ) ? How times change. kerry.jpg with quote

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Questions for Matt DeHart case?
by Douglas Lucas 24 Feb '16

24 Feb '16

I will be covering Courage beneficiary Matt DeHart's sentencing Monday in Nashville for https://revolution-news.com/ (@NewsRevo on Twitter). Can anyone suggest questions for his defense team, for his parents (assuming they're not too distraught), for the prosecutors (who will say no comment)? I would be asking these immediately after the sentencing. Here's info on his case: http://news.nationalpost.com/matt-dehart-claims-hes-wanted-for-working-with… http://www.buzzfeed.com/davidkushner/matt-dehart#.econ0L3bE https://mattdehart.com/matts-story/

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SHIT LIST
by coderman 24 Feb '16

24 Feb '16

Stewart Baker - Former 1st Assistant Secretary of DHS General Counsel of the NSA Tim Belcher - Former CTO, RSA Jim Bidzos - Chairman and CEO, Verisign Art Coviello - Former Executive Chairman, RSA Dr. Ann Cavoukian, Ph.D. - Executive Director of the Privacy and Big Data Institute at Ryerson University Larry Clinton - President and CEO, Internet Security Alliance Michael Chertoff - Executive Chairman of The Chertoff Group U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security (’05-’09) Richard Clarke - Former White House Advisor Chairman and CEO, Good Harbor Security Risk Management Edward Davis - Former Boston Police Commissioner Brian Fitzgerald - Chief Marketing Officer, Veracode Kasha Gauthier - Program Committee Co-Chair, NICE Special Advisor, Boston College Cybersecurity Masters Program J. Trevor Hughes - President and CEO, International Association of Privacy Professionals Michael McConnell - Former Director of the NSA and Director of National Intelligence Nuala O’Connor - President and CEO, Center for Democracy and Technology JR Williamson - Corporate Chief Information Officer, Northrop Grumman fuck all these clowns!

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EFF to Support Apple in Encryption Battle [ or, WTF EFF!? ]
by Steve Kinney 24 Feb '16

24 Feb '16

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 The bizarre propaganda narrative about a locked iPhone that belonged to a dead criminal suspect just keeps growing. Now the Electronic Frontiers Foundation has boarded the disinformation train, via its latest EFFEctor newsletter and an amicus brief. EFF to Support Apple in Encryption Battle https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/02/eff-support-apple-encryption-b attle I can maybe forgive EFF's casual assertion that Syed Rizwan Farook was "one of the perpetrators of December’s San Bernardino shootings" - since they used three names he /must/ be an assassin; the FBI says he is, what more proof could one ask? But in the same press release, EFF endorses absurd non sequiturs that demonstrate painful ignorance of the subject matter at hand. The EFF endorses the assertations that the only way to obtain access to encrypted data stored on an iPhone is to manually key in a password on the device itself, that removing a software function that deletes a stored key hash after n. failed decryption attempts voids the security of the encrypted data stored on that device, and that doing this to one iPhone would affect the security of all iPhone users. Either people without the slightest understanding of how cryptography works /or/ how computer forensics works are calling the shots at EFF, or someone there has deliberately stood up strawmen for the FBI'a attorneys to knock down, or... damn if I know . -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.22 (GNU/Linux) iQIcBAEBAgAGBQJWzaUtAAoJEDZ0Gg87KR0L+50P/06rr0wSkPFDvtAwYscCO4Kr zRMg0f1mDoc8zB4TeOyKSsA47J5uJigd1i1EhQtk3HjQCCFQNAtWjMjcvQ7Kpw1f 27vTlbBkAi20civwsQ6KBvVtzgSsD3sgJeUddjV9O66Km3KEGnzx/ImwnALuTx9D oRG1QFg+i4/6eWiL9e4k+b7KGcZ+WyxHjyLbYP5sR6NQOb3si8iPS2ySwcvQbiFE qlR1dDGimaLf36MJKukhzrHSJuaIVbK3TgILGgDFw9QED9b/w4Ly0OMh69Tf23Fl MJPn2pCcuAqip4n1ABnIbJuhZvO84yUZnB32tPzhPvC0Qso3Nf11qDjgo6/mjmA5 uTHtRPD5pCD6phoepi1tsAnlW0gqh0gENCuFvzg/vStLxg6xmqFy6V1t2Tj2w9Tk 3oJW7TOYcpXutWFma/nQ34axpqqk1yzKIGVZ5mrVe+2LTiA/qEnWD/ZBOmbM57pT fRLfSpxefUFH5oog9UhEnkLpFmdGHyVZKjMV5UYcke361aWn2XcZsWSkU8cqfFY+ dKX5yukRXklJKW5W5XwQsg5erS4wkKAOMuDqiw+XGyDasOAiBVcXo3dxs9+e6qhu ATK2tz3t3u7kB95MFEQCpPj00NgmO8KzB0yppUFNZYprWuYA8wueANndR7YwVlWP OlWswTw7xNjgPkOaHOWh =Exoy -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Social media surveillance commercial
by Michael Best 24 Feb '16

24 Feb '16

Their private/unlisted commercial: https://archive.org/details/MediaSonar -- Veritas aequitas liberabit vos Veri universum vici That 1 Archive <http://that1archive.neocities.org/> @NatSecGeek <https://twitter.com/NatSecGeek> -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: SKS 1.1.5 Comment: Hostname: pgp.mit.edu mQINBChG9zoBEADKzALG4UHCjY6L9OFUxWRVGGCW7LY71K2EAK/0jkRh1wPkJ4chPaVJ3vVD nJ0d8HxsyR5R3+y7GH6GCc/tK0IDPJah+xpQnraS1nWUvAlSaaxsBK4hJfuVGyfBg/joQVKU OhpqJLQhRIkUWk30QC94IbOKiCTb6V4pStLYyrLieewjT481vvRIYp/48IS5eiveZW0/IpcA HBON7xJw6P1murC8PNOJSWRCp9FJhcs3wIPG3cFTfsxSZnGcoivMgFLtGAfLbztpZkcHEMOR 4qamVvirzYGHma0UlOzyNr7xpxyLXFsU5kKzQ8Az2nP1GG7vuqXSjPNLIvvHFL+g+gKuCe9W xTa9Ac038RRSiBGdDrvTFpQ/h9h5GWIHP7nsA4TCeZSpL81aqp7Cb0MK3KPQmteTPIujVCnx jXXHrOe9Tj6iYUU8edApISyBEVFZMd+EtfDEDf/ZwDjzSGE85vv1dZ/ck7iJvS8FwM8hsRBG U9huCKiItGs26teUJ2Sum49YaEiDL4QLQhJ+FbsAusxJg+V3GE/4w75K/6/czT0p10Mf66Uo fRFTvYRE7S6CNDxzTI4q7+pnRlxMBduGC33KY4eq4Py/O3LWHBDxZ+LffIa/tWcB/7oZ6yDo bdWleNk5wnJdPGr6lUTHTM4tpDIEcXYpvjzyLcMtg4tFm/Dc0QARAQABtGVNaWNoYWVsIEJl c3QgKFByaXZhdGUsIG5vdCBzZWN1cmUuIEZvciBzZWN1cmUgZW1haWwsIHJlcXVlc3QgYSBv bmUtdGltZSBrZXkuKSA8dGhlbWlrZWJlc3RAZ21haWwuY29tPokCPQQTAQoAJwUCKEb3OgIb AwUJNXc1AAULCQgHAwUVCgkICwUWAgMBAAIeAQIXgAAKCRCiYH9hY4dAS3e+D/sFwyJER4/4 ZnHYC/1EzCpHeDikSmULEgsvNgzo73thOV9/Q2I8mCJTlQjsK4rZ2YiDzi4b0CN8kzjpxtVz BsBsxfyPLrdH4VoqeqeBVzbwHxSk7bYUI3vFt+e3gBgpAxbVfPXCnYUnWPRlr9dc/JZoPJH4 p8yRIqktehbAE3Fa3gkfrXJ5e6+/nKlQhikyvo9VuErrLpPMXBzOq4/2LVfurkcOzlp1RBjs hWr6B98EiOXs44ZGLEkINxJiW8koFhw/WDuON8LKi/DtLiqqtBVTjrkqKCuKzSAVncGGcEVO 3Om3aOIOvG0do/wQKYXnpbeGsHwx2PGrJ7H+lb2bIb5KhbZkbG4rMTjsVnuGN+IF4BxBhmGz MYoooWy4VCLL0o8keomU8JPXt+fZDqJ9sNjY/asTsjOa6aE3bIa6w3mWUeefGwA25oXur3Rr L3wmu1pPzCejumfA1X93dS9UZS3xni+7W34g6YbsREuaZ+YBxFLN227JXAx2pEdjLsuVOaqM 9CO7ARHsxDZoE9U7n0s3txnSw/2YYwjEK1wDhdLnHBL3ZzaAcaHnpzsTYQAVW7uXKKHhzeSK GP3O4ByCisM/7WLFvIIpaNNs85jI1PvKH0GutSTl9xXDfWuYMl9rwwbteBB/oGSxlIFe0pqq IDNfAJdR/HjTLqrTES2wdXJS1bkCDQQoRvc6ARAAmltXrhVfpePdIFrfEHCet4nkQvmRI+AX rUgiNlxQDW8M5FzlUfT2xpMXHMWuKehTYpFq7bNbFi+fwBhMajgvgDsTuLInftKSFp+sisbR n8psv7CpGB4jp0Xd4y1Wm/HejV/kga0kcUVVetaqyzgZedn1UnccQRzDBVWW2j2ed+hi/8g0 /d7mbVG81yzJo8tLidM90xFF7JGlijm0dBAqmhD4UgkxSnJQ3PK5onqdjdbx7HkP68RrkeTQ vhWK1978qzdSl9ljJ0jLnoAaDNPs5Dj/TyYCtqoKHUqMbTwU5nIQnJG7geMeSw/7OVnKlypF Rs/JesZzMBooZTRxZJuIB/q0wOfE/MYTwGSwLs2brUwJFJ6bSYmerZ+81S8W/Y4mehJ3o6Vl SabrrVN+LlBfUuRqd5U909WECzk6HVnwnRfL07zD+1y5cLU+e4MQs2227kLriTIxtDZ/umeG hKQgNgFGTAPHJxA96xGvQ8Ovv+XEivlO0jxBNMIiopNSlMDE+k3nigWHuavt9LUUCOd45aw7 0pgKstQQgpFfVAwV98LPpUKxa61q6wQiQHAcP7YxuQG0dsr4nUq2xids5l1IpOLzZJ3nRThM k7alkljBbqphbocV3FsSXOkpcSWns94k1QGmrPzEPLF0FHFBG6whWoaoEySMkdsN1zVu4GMU o2EAEQEAAYkCJQQYAQoADwUCKEb3OgIbDAUJNXc1AAAKCRCiYH9hY4dASzTaEACKXVgc8KmZ xWyYTUQgIwrj3J/re68uIilq0iBBDocgEZZpxyf6lD1V3IKBjAPpWyYHMrrrLY64rFDR+8DE Xyhm1Wv2S6YJuWJtyAlS4bciXjJE6evirIH5GoFq++vzsufRaudAoQ56hJ0+Z3dNMMWZ6YuP zWNNL2tvpdo3Nvd8bqiADWSffFdIPv5Yj/mZsXmaDN+7iWYlAdCrubGyGzFHlCh26Ghu6SS0 /u8x1/Oi7ma7fUMFnEsFiYjwBkD3pQKK1dm7j2f1OMxi8uky8vgBgx40aeJkoUgEvIHWsCIi CWVTyfiGeWIcKbK7tYP5jsjV5fUv+TaQ1pApt++Pyop1aogfQ8icNBQQkdX6E4gNhnPOPTM8 FTl69Tq5Ori5+TM8VM0iPGiydlcAXIAD3OyR4tZM12Ga1AtppKjx31EyDB4SPzUmDWRy5WgG NRH3+RgiK/iXVcvLdFIKj3/AvctSLdbayyaFD8zrE/wcMzLfie+iE231+rG/7gmcR3H1rcYE vxvmWAPikLQKiMUpPBNSvfLPUTrwNSGiZ5ieAAPgOooc3u5nohwZmEW1pg6HirZgIAgAYuyL aLgnikwH70guiQ4Ufsih3gy0ddsUwliUTtbYQyX0OBQoTUyaiXPy0Wu2FJfsxiW8X9Lu9pIH KOwU9K76VKot+UikGqeFQsS/Ig== =M+du -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

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CMU Tor attack, subpoena, privacy expectation
by Michael Best 24 Feb '16

24 Feb '16

https://motherboard.vice.com/read/carnegie-mellon-university-attacked-tor-w… "Also, the reason for not providing any more info on the attack? Tor users can't expect privacy, apparently" picture quote: https://twitter.com/josephfcox/status/702500537204256769 -- Veritas aequitas liberabit vos Veri universum vici That 1 Archive <http://that1archive.neocities.org/> @NatSecGeek <https://twitter.com/NatSecGeek> -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: SKS 1.1.5 Comment: Hostname: pgp.mit.edu mQINBChG9zoBEADKzALG4UHCjY6L9OFUxWRVGGCW7LY71K2EAK/0jkRh1wPkJ4chPaVJ3vVD nJ0d8HxsyR5R3+y7GH6GCc/tK0IDPJah+xpQnraS1nWUvAlSaaxsBK4hJfuVGyfBg/joQVKU OhpqJLQhRIkUWk30QC94IbOKiCTb6V4pStLYyrLieewjT481vvRIYp/48IS5eiveZW0/IpcA HBON7xJw6P1murC8PNOJSWRCp9FJhcs3wIPG3cFTfsxSZnGcoivMgFLtGAfLbztpZkcHEMOR 4qamVvirzYGHma0UlOzyNr7xpxyLXFsU5kKzQ8Az2nP1GG7vuqXSjPNLIvvHFL+g+gKuCe9W xTa9Ac038RRSiBGdDrvTFpQ/h9h5GWIHP7nsA4TCeZSpL81aqp7Cb0MK3KPQmteTPIujVCnx jXXHrOe9Tj6iYUU8edApISyBEVFZMd+EtfDEDf/ZwDjzSGE85vv1dZ/ck7iJvS8FwM8hsRBG U9huCKiItGs26teUJ2Sum49YaEiDL4QLQhJ+FbsAusxJg+V3GE/4w75K/6/czT0p10Mf66Uo fRFTvYRE7S6CNDxzTI4q7+pnRlxMBduGC33KY4eq4Py/O3LWHBDxZ+LffIa/tWcB/7oZ6yDo bdWleNk5wnJdPGr6lUTHTM4tpDIEcXYpvjzyLcMtg4tFm/Dc0QARAQABtGVNaWNoYWVsIEJl c3QgKFByaXZhdGUsIG5vdCBzZWN1cmUuIEZvciBzZWN1cmUgZW1haWwsIHJlcXVlc3QgYSBv bmUtdGltZSBrZXkuKSA8dGhlbWlrZWJlc3RAZ21haWwuY29tPokCPQQTAQoAJwUCKEb3OgIb AwUJNXc1AAULCQgHAwUVCgkICwUWAgMBAAIeAQIXgAAKCRCiYH9hY4dAS3e+D/sFwyJER4/4 ZnHYC/1EzCpHeDikSmULEgsvNgzo73thOV9/Q2I8mCJTlQjsK4rZ2YiDzi4b0CN8kzjpxtVz BsBsxfyPLrdH4VoqeqeBVzbwHxSk7bYUI3vFt+e3gBgpAxbVfPXCnYUnWPRlr9dc/JZoPJH4 p8yRIqktehbAE3Fa3gkfrXJ5e6+/nKlQhikyvo9VuErrLpPMXBzOq4/2LVfurkcOzlp1RBjs hWr6B98EiOXs44ZGLEkINxJiW8koFhw/WDuON8LKi/DtLiqqtBVTjrkqKCuKzSAVncGGcEVO 3Om3aOIOvG0do/wQKYXnpbeGsHwx2PGrJ7H+lb2bIb5KhbZkbG4rMTjsVnuGN+IF4BxBhmGz MYoooWy4VCLL0o8keomU8JPXt+fZDqJ9sNjY/asTsjOa6aE3bIa6w3mWUeefGwA25oXur3Rr L3wmu1pPzCejumfA1X93dS9UZS3xni+7W34g6YbsREuaZ+YBxFLN227JXAx2pEdjLsuVOaqM 9CO7ARHsxDZoE9U7n0s3txnSw/2YYwjEK1wDhdLnHBL3ZzaAcaHnpzsTYQAVW7uXKKHhzeSK GP3O4ByCisM/7WLFvIIpaNNs85jI1PvKH0GutSTl9xXDfWuYMl9rwwbteBB/oGSxlIFe0pqq IDNfAJdR/HjTLqrTES2wdXJS1bkCDQQoRvc6ARAAmltXrhVfpePdIFrfEHCet4nkQvmRI+AX rUgiNlxQDW8M5FzlUfT2xpMXHMWuKehTYpFq7bNbFi+fwBhMajgvgDsTuLInftKSFp+sisbR n8psv7CpGB4jp0Xd4y1Wm/HejV/kga0kcUVVetaqyzgZedn1UnccQRzDBVWW2j2ed+hi/8g0 /d7mbVG81yzJo8tLidM90xFF7JGlijm0dBAqmhD4UgkxSnJQ3PK5onqdjdbx7HkP68RrkeTQ vhWK1978qzdSl9ljJ0jLnoAaDNPs5Dj/TyYCtqoKHUqMbTwU5nIQnJG7geMeSw/7OVnKlypF Rs/JesZzMBooZTRxZJuIB/q0wOfE/MYTwGSwLs2brUwJFJ6bSYmerZ+81S8W/Y4mehJ3o6Vl SabrrVN+LlBfUuRqd5U909WECzk6HVnwnRfL07zD+1y5cLU+e4MQs2227kLriTIxtDZ/umeG hKQgNgFGTAPHJxA96xGvQ8Ovv+XEivlO0jxBNMIiopNSlMDE+k3nigWHuavt9LUUCOd45aw7 0pgKstQQgpFfVAwV98LPpUKxa61q6wQiQHAcP7YxuQG0dsr4nUq2xids5l1IpOLzZJ3nRThM k7alkljBbqphbocV3FsSXOkpcSWns94k1QGmrPzEPLF0FHFBG6whWoaoEySMkdsN1zVu4GMU o2EAEQEAAYkCJQQYAQoADwUCKEb3OgIbDAUJNXc1AAAKCRCiYH9hY4dASzTaEACKXVgc8KmZ xWyYTUQgIwrj3J/re68uIilq0iBBDocgEZZpxyf6lD1V3IKBjAPpWyYHMrrrLY64rFDR+8DE Xyhm1Wv2S6YJuWJtyAlS4bciXjJE6evirIH5GoFq++vzsufRaudAoQ56hJ0+Z3dNMMWZ6YuP zWNNL2tvpdo3Nvd8bqiADWSffFdIPv5Yj/mZsXmaDN+7iWYlAdCrubGyGzFHlCh26Ghu6SS0 /u8x1/Oi7ma7fUMFnEsFiYjwBkD3pQKK1dm7j2f1OMxi8uky8vgBgx40aeJkoUgEvIHWsCIi CWVTyfiGeWIcKbK7tYP5jsjV5fUv+TaQ1pApt++Pyop1aogfQ8icNBQQkdX6E4gNhnPOPTM8 FTl69Tq5Ori5+TM8VM0iPGiydlcAXIAD3OyR4tZM12Ga1AtppKjx31EyDB4SPzUmDWRy5WgG NRH3+RgiK/iXVcvLdFIKj3/AvctSLdbayyaFD8zrE/wcMzLfie+iE231+rG/7gmcR3H1rcYE vxvmWAPikLQKiMUpPBNSvfLPUTrwNSGiZ5ieAAPgOooc3u5nohwZmEW1pg6HirZgIAgAYuyL aLgnikwH70guiQ4Ufsih3gy0ddsUwliUTtbYQyX0OBQoTUyaiXPy0Wu2FJfsxiW8X9Lu9pIH KOwU9K76VKot+UikGqeFQsS/Ig== =M+du -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

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"Because really, this is a film about America, and how the foreign policies of the Western world reflect a notion that we're above the law."
by coderman 24 Feb '16

24 Feb '16

http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/mexican-cartels-and-wet-willies-the… Mexican Cartels and Wet Willies: The Story Behind 'Sicario' Benicio Del Toro and Emily Blunt on their War-on-Drugs thriller: "This is not a Mexico problem, it's an 'everybody' problem" By David Fear September 28, 2015 If you want to get Benicio Del Toro riled up, bring up the subject of revenge. It's not like you won't get a passionate reaction out of the sleepy-eyed actor over a variety of different topics — say, representations of Mexico in Hollywood moviemaking, or why a minimalistic approach to acting is often more effective, or his skill in giving "Wet Willies" (more on that in a bit). But when the subject of vengeance comes up in regards to his new movie, the drug-cartel thriller Sicario (playing in select theaters now and opening nationwide on October 2nd), Del Toro suddenly sits up very straight on the couch in his Toronto hotel room. He stops staring at the ceiling, locks in and becomes completely engaged, intensely so. "What's that old saying about taking the eye-for-an-eye thing to its logical extreme," the actor asks rhetorically. "Everybody goes blind. There are folks who'll watch this movie and go" — he adopts a John Wayne voice — "'This is how you do it.' That's what the film is asking here: What side are you on? Do you follow the rules of engagement, or do you embrace vigilantism, because you think that's the only way to get things done?" Del Toro jerks a thumb at his costar Emily Blunt, who's lounging on the sofa next to him, nodding. "Me, I belong to her character's side of the equation. There has to be law and order. Or else you're fucked, man." That metaphorical dish best served cold is embedded into Sicario's genetic make-up from the very first set piece, in which Blunt's F.B.I. agent watches her kidnap-response team get taken out by a booby-trapped house. The promise of revenge is how she's recruited to join a special-ops task force run by a fratboy intelligence spook, played by Josh Brolin as a human shit-eating-grin — and why she finds herself paired with Del Toro's mystery man, who's also motivated by the promise of payback. (The actor has said in previous interviews that after playing everything from a cop to Pablo Escobar in drug-war flicks, the chance to explore "the angle of revenge" was partially what attracted him to the role.) And the concept of revenge has long been a recurring motif in filmmaker Denis Villenueve's work, from his breakout work Incendies (2010) to his all-star meditation on retribution, Prisoners (2013). In the French-Canadian director's eyes, however, vengeance was just one of the things about actor-turned screenwriter Taylor Sheridan's script that made him sign on immediately. "The movie addresses what's happening in Mexico right now, sure," he says, sitting down next to his stars. "But it could have been set in the Middle East or Africa. Because really, this is a film about America, and how the foreign policies of the Western world reflect a notion that we're above the law. We act like the rest of the world belong to us." He pauses before adding, "I’m including my home country in this group as well; you're not off the hook, Canada. We in the West have a tendency to create chaos. And that chaos does not improve things." That chaos — or as Brolin's character refers to it in the movie, the need for America's national security agencies to "shake the tree" — is exemplified in the movie by highly questionable activities like torturing mid-level cartel lieutenants and dispatching in-house sicarios (an ancient Roman term that essentially translates as "enforcer" or "hit man") to do off-the-books dirty work. Meanwhile, drug lords are hanging mutilated bodies in the streets as warnings. "Welcome to Juarez," Blunt's character is told; forced to navigate these poles, she becomes, in the actress's words, "a moral person caught in an amoral world, where having a sense of right and wrong is considered weak instead of good." As for her tour guide, Del Toro's Colombian tough guy with a longstanding grudge and a license to kill, he's played as more of a cypher — someone who's clearly in his element when literally calling the shots during a tense firefight yet offers occasional glimpses of being more than just another cold-blooded predator. The fact that he's near-impossible to read was something Villeneuve and the actor admitted was purposeful; the latter even went so far to make him extremely lone-wolf cryptic that he kept jettisoning pages of his dialogue. "There was this big monologue that my guy had about his past ..." Del Toro says. "It was this whole speech he tells my character after he saves her life, right?" Blunt interjects. "Exactly, yeah, and it's only after he's known her for, like two days," he continues. "So I told Denis, look: In my experience, nobody opens up like that about their darkness to somebody after they've just met ... much less some guy who's a professional killer. So he let me get rid of a huge chunk of dialogue. You know how some actors count their lines?" Del Toro adopts a tone that can only be described as petulant-young-movie-star. "'He got 48 lines and I got 22 lines? Who the fuck does he think he is?' I'm the opposite of that. Give me less things to say. Let the silences say more." "Then he made me give all those lines to Josh," Villeneuve says. "'Hey, Denis, I don't want this dialogue — just, like, make Brolin do it!'" Blunt adds. "Every morning, I'd knock on Josh's trailer door, and I'd hear, 'What the fuck does Benicio not want to say today?'" the director chimes in. "He still fucking blames me!" Del Toro cries. "Clearly, there's a reason Josh isn't in this interview right now," Blunt jokes. "You'd just be moderating a fight." But the director says he tends to agree with his star on the silence-is-golden point: Filmmaking is an art form that relies more on presence than prose, he claims. And if someone can speak volumes in a glance or a gesture without saying a word — or if cinematographer Roger Deakins can suggest menace and moral ambiguity by letting the camera slowly creep-glide into a performer's personal space (what Villeneuve calls the visual equivalent of "putting pressure on your characters") — he'd much rather do that. Besides, he adds, Sicario may be a thriller, but it's also a film that deals with an ongoing issue that can't be summed up in a few climactic soliloquies. The only worry was that the lack of speechifying might lead some to think they were enforcing south-of-the-border stereotypes that have burrowed their way into pop culture. "Yeah, see, now you're talking about the tricky subject of representation — or rather, misrepresentation," Del Toro says, leaning in. "That was the last thing any of us wanted. We showed this movie to an audience the other day, and someone said during the Q&A, 'Well, now I never want to go to Mexico.'" He shakes his head. "Not every taxi driver is Travis Bickle. Not everybody in Queens acts like they're in Goodfellas, you know? Denis is right when he says the film is about America, but it does take place in country that has been portrayed recently in a very negative way. Then you've got Donald Trump saying all this stuff about our borders …" "You don't want to suggest that Mexico is one huge violent wasteland," Blunt adds, "any more than you'd want people to think Donald Trump speaks for all Americans." "But there's hope, right?" Del Toro asks. "It's gotten really bad in a place like Juarez, but if you look at what happened in Bogata, Colombia … that place has turned. It had a huge problem and it's gotten a little bit better. I'm not a scholar on the situation, by any means — but from what I understand, people just had enough. They came out and demanded that somebody do something about it. The musician Rubén Blades wrote this letter after what happened in Iguala, Guerrero, when 43 students disappeared. Apparently, there was a connection between the government, the police department and the drug cartels that caused this to happen. And he said something along the lines of: This is not a "Mexico" problem. It’s an "everybody" problem. This isn't a political movie. But we have to make this problem stop." Villeneuve and his stars are about to leave to introduce the film's North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival when the subject of Del Toro's impromptu interrogation techniques comes up — specifically, whether a scene involving his character wetting his index finger than sticking it deep into a criminal's ear — was improvised. "Was the 'Wet Willie' bit improvised," Del Toro says scratching his chin. "What's a Wet Willie?" Villenueve asks. "Oh, he just went around the set giving those to everyone," Blunt says. "That's how Emily and I got to be such close friends," Del Toro jokes, before he and Blunt start giving each other ice-cold stares. "I'll get you for saying that," she adds, before the three them break and start cracking up.

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Hacking Team child porn code
by Douglas Lucas 24 Feb '16

24 Feb '16

@OpDeathEatersUS on Twitter says - https://twitter.com/OpDeathEatersUS/status/619267423749828608 - that Hacking Team sells child porn evidence fabrication tools, and cites this code - https://github.com/hackedteam/rcs-common/blob/master/lib/rcs-common/evidenc… - in support of the claim. Can someone more programming-proficient than I look at the code and tell me 1) what it does overall, and 2) what the highlighted line - which mentions "childporn.avi" and "pedoporno.mpg" - does in particular? Here's some background: http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/07/massive-leak-reveals-hacking-teams-… http://www.wired.com/2015/07/fbi-spent-775k-hacking-teams-spy-tools-since-2… >From the Ars Technica article: === According to one spreadsheet first reported by Wired, the FBI paid Hacking Team more than $773,226.64 since 2011 for services related to the Hacking Team product known as "Remote Control Service," which is also marketed under the name "Galileo." One spreadsheet column listed simply as "Exploit" is marked "yes" for a sale in 2012, an indication Hacking Group may have bundled some sort of attack code that remotely hijacked targets' computers or phones. Previously, the FBI has been known to have wielded a Firefox exploit to decloak child pornography suspects using Tor. Security researchers have also scoured leaked Hacking Team source code for suspicious behavior. Among the findings, the embedding of references to child porn in code related to the Galileo. === Thanks, Douglas

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Goodternets, Badternets, Mediocrinets... [was Re: [Fwd: Multiple Internets]]]
by coderman 24 Feb '16

24 Feb '16

On 2/9/16, Ted Smith <tedks(a)riseup.net> wrote: > In an effort to re-seed discussion about cypherpunk topics I'll be > reposting old threads from the cypherpunks list in a rough "this day in > cpunks" effort. > > In this mail, John Young analyzes the subclasses of "the internet" as a > user might see. while i applaud your efforts, i disagree with your presumption to be able to surmize from the rants of John Young, what John Young was intending to say to an audience, rather than what he was evoking as reaction to the content of the message so presented to same audience. nevertheless, > -------- Forwarded Message -------- >> From: John Young <jya(a)pipeline.com> >> ... >> I agree, but I think it's highlighting an underlying issue that we've >> been letting the wrong sort of people on the internet for a long time. here is the crux of the issue! and i agree whole heartedly. the problem with the internets, is the earth humans let upon it. and in the best of the best of exclusive internets, it is the choice earth humans who make it all worthwhile. best regards, to all earth humans - poor, mediocre, and excellent alike!

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