Can’t call this “fake news”…

I’mma just leave this here for a spell….

Private Eyes….They’re watching you

No, this is not a tribute to that Hall and Oates goodie-oldie… (if that’s what you came for then here)

---

This is more about the continued and expanding governmental invasion of your privacy. You see, for all of us that originally cheered Ed Snowden and others like him for their courage and sacrifices, we’ve collectively dropped the ball and not kept the pressure up. Our attention has shifted (or been shifted) to the next “hot topic” yet the problems remain and in many ways are worsening but that’s “old news”.

The media now is more interested in Assange’s loss of internet or the antics of Election 2016 than they are in your ongoing loss of privacy. Other, newer and fresher stories appear daily to captivate you. It’s infotainment at it’s best. When the audience has a short attention span then make a big story, beat it to death and then move on. Snowden’s revelations were ground shaking in their magnitude and scope. The public was shocked and the CNN effect took over. Months of reporting, analysis, movies, books and public debates followed but we’ve all since lost interest.

The real end result has been that Government agencies (and some private ones too…) have simply gone deeper underground, laws have been amended and new ones enacted that now make those crimes in essence legal.

For example, recently here in Canada we discovered not only that these privacy abuses were ongoing but also that the media and public are apathetic to the issue.

Canada’s CSIS (Canadian Security and Intelligence Service) was caught collecting, storing, aggregating and analyzing metadata on non-targets (not the bad guys) and they’ve been doing this for a decade, in-spite of clear laws and supposedly rigid oversight. That’s right, Canada’s own government has been caught merrily spying on it’s own citizens for over a decade; right through the Snowden scandal; and doing it without adhering to it’s own laws.

Apparently, back in 2006, CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service) wanted to expand their collection efforts so they informed/consulted with the Department of Justice, informed the Minister for Public Safety, the CSIS Internal Auditor, the independent SIRC (Security Intelligence Review Committee) and even The Privacy Commissioner who all gave their approval. With the Department of Justice concurrence and authorized by a Federal Court issued warrant, CSIS was now able to begin it’s newest program.

“CSIS crunched the data beginning in 2006 using a powerful program known as the Operational Data Analysis Centre to produce intelligence that can reveal specific, intimate details about people the spy service monitors….

The problem is that this information was collected not just on targeted individuals but also on relatives, friends, co-workers, employers etc. Simply put, if the actual target of their original surveillance was once your former co-worker from five years ago who had called you to ask for a job reference, YOU would now be included in the dragnet, forever even though you weren’t the target.

From then on the CSIS program would collect all of your metadata (not content) which could include all the phone numbers you’ve called, their durations, your GPS locations at the time of and for the duration of these calls, all websites you’ve visited (yes, even those ones…), who you’ve texted and how frequently along with anything else they could collect, catalogue, index, cross reference, analyze, store indefinitely and possibly share with their partners.

Now the fact that the Federal Courts and the Privacy Comissioner thought this was a reasonable request is troubling enough but then CSIS, for the next 10 years, would periodically update all the required parties as to the status of the program except the very courts who granted the permission and could revoke it, even though they were required to by law !!

It finally came out less than a month ago that this had been going on since 2006 when Federal Court Judge Noel, issued a sharply worded, heavily redacted statement which revealed the existence of the program (here) and commented,

Canadian Security Intelligence Service had illegally retained an unknown amount of data on “third party” and “non-threat” individuals since 2006.

CSIS fed that data into a powerful database that allowed the agency to draw out “specific, intimate insights into the lifestyle and personal choices of individuals,”

“The evolution of technology is no excuse to flout or stretch legal parameters. When the information collected does not fall within the legal parameters delimiting the agency’s functions and actions, it cannot legally be retained.”

“(Judges) serve as the gatekeepers of intrusive powers, ensuring a balance between private interest and the state’s need to intrude upon that privacy for the collective good,” Noël wrote.

“If the CSIS unduly limits the flow of information the court needs to make proper determinations, then the CSIS can be seen as manipulating the judicial decision-making process.”

What should have been seen as a political firestorm erupting instead resulted in tepid media coverage. Director of CSIS Michel Coulombe, at a hastily called news conference stated,

“I’ll be honest, we went through our records and we really can’t find a good explanation of why the court was not informed,” AND when asked if the program was useful and effective he replied he would like to keep it in operation, adding “That is something I will discuss with officials, (Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale) and it is a public policy decision that the government and parliamentarians will have to make,”

The head of one of Canada’s leading intelligence agencies, responsible for the collection and analysis of information vital to protecting all Canadians admits that in effect “Ok, that’s our bad. We don’t know what happened but we’re on the case now….”. AND HE GOT AWAY WITH IT !! (sort of)

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale (Coulombe’s boss) then stated in his own hastily called press conference that CSIS should have known these actions were “un-Canadian”. But he’s now on the job and looking into it. But he also suggested that these types of issues could be discussed during the current the Federal Security Review, a governmental body which,  meeting behind closed doors and consulting “professionals” could help update the laws? Seriously ?

Minister of Public Safety Ralph Goodale

Simply put folks, the media didn’t make anywhere near a big enough issue out of this and we as the public didn’t respond in any way that suggests we care anymore.

Seriously ?!?!? The head of the CSIS itself claims “My bad…whoops…” and The Minister responsible for Public Safety assures us all that everything’s under control, nothing to see here, to keep calm and to move along and we bought into all that ??

If you’re ok with that then here’s one final quote from Glenn Greenwald (the guy who broke the Snowden story we were all up in arms about) speaking at TED in October 2014 on Why Privacy Matters:

“Over the last 16 months, as I’ve debated this issue around the world, every single time somebody has said to me, “I don’t really worry about invasions of privacy because I don’t have anything to hide.” I always say the same thing to them. I get out a pen, I write down my email address. I say, “Here’s my email address. What I want you to do when you get home is email me the passwords to all of your email accounts, not just the nice, respectable work one in your name, but all of them, because I want to be able to just troll through what it is you’re doing online, read what I want to read and publish whatever I find interesting. After all, if you’re not a bad person, if you’re doing nothing wrong, you should have nothing to hide.”

 

 Links for further reading:

des-warrant-nov-3-2016-public-judgment-final-pdf

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2016/11/03/csis-illegally-kept-sensitive-data-about-people-for-a-decade-federal-court.html

http://www.mykawartha.com/news-story/6946125-csis-slapped-for-keeping-sensitive-data/

http://www.thestarphoenix.com/news/national/watchdog+that+triggered+scathing+rebuke+illegal+csis/12352942/story.html

http://www.theweeklynews.ca/news-story/6947283-security-review-to-weigh-csis-powers-goodale/

“Legendary”

I won’t comment other than to say this was taken in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on July 9th, 2016 during a Black Lives Matter demonstration outside the Police Headquarters.

(Original Link – Photo by Jonathan Backman – Reuters)

 

This is how it begins…Falujah comes to Mainstreet USA

Well, it didn’t take long for the most persecuted of America’s citizenry to decide enough is enough. Two fatal shootings of civilians by police officers in less than a week with scores of others in recent history. What did the cops think? That by coming down hard on brown & black skinned people they could intimidate them into submission?

We’re seeing now in the USA that communities aren’t going to take things lying down anymore, especially when everyone is armed (legally or illegally). Countless Politicians have made lofty speeches, the Justice Department has conducted dozens of investigations, community leaders have demanded reforms in their cities and too many grieving families have sought only justice but still nothing has changed.

So now the communities are rising up. Some hold peaceful, sorowful vigils demanding rights, respect and equal treatement while  others take a more violent approach. It’s been done before but people seem to have forgotten just how bad it can get.

Well, this is how bad it can get.There was the murder of two cops in their car a while back in NYC and today, a shooting of Police Officer(s) by protesters in Dallas. I think this is the first of many such incidents to come. If things keep headed on this trajectory then there will be even more racial & civil unrest in size and in numbers that the police will be overwhelmed. They will respond with even more shows of force using Federal forces which wil only further entrench the protesters and then it’s anybody’s guess.

(From gawker.com July 7, 2016 – All rights to them)
Reports: Multiple Shots Fired at Police Protest in Dallas
Hudson Hongo
26 minutes agoFiled to: DALLAS

 

#breaking Crowd on the run downtown Dallas. Reports of an officer shot at the protest march. pic.twitter.com/zstZnDIRlm

— Doug Dunbar (@cbs11doug) July 8, 2016

Do you remember the Rodney King Riots in L.A? Literally thousands of people erupted in anger at the acquital of Police Officers who beat an unarmed black man nearly to death. The riots were the worst seen in the US since the Vietnam war !! The city literally erupted in flames, firemen & ambulances didn’t dare respond to calls and the Police were left scrambling and ineffective.

Well, thirty years or so later and America still hasn’s learned it’s lesson. Things have actually gotten worse and the country is in moral, ethical, religious, racial and economic freefall. Hell, even the President of the United States, Obama, wasn’t looking to pleased when he delivered a speech today from Warsaw.

(Picture and text below from gawker.com on July 7, 2016 – All rights to them)

“All of us as Americans should be troubled by the shootings,” said Obama, according to The Hill. “These are not isolated incidents. They’re symptomatic of a broader set of racial disparities that exist in our criminal justice system.”

Obama then offered a series of statistics illustrating how people of color are disproportionately pulled over, searched and killed by police before making the case that reform is in the best interest of law enforcement and citizens alike.

“If communities are mistrustful of the police, that makes those law enforcement officers who are doing a great job, and are doing the right thing, it makes their lives harder,” said Obama. “So, when people say ‘black lives matter,’ it doesn’t mean ‘blue lives’ don’t matter, it just means all lives matter. But right now, the big concern is the fact that data shows black folks are more vulnerable to these kinds of incidents.”

Obama also called upon those who dismissed protests and outrage over the killings as “political correctness” to ask themselves, “What if this happened to someone in your family? How would you feel?”

“To be concerned about these issues is not political correctness, it’s just being American and wanting to live up to our best and highest ideals,” he concluded. “We’ve gotta tackle those things. We can do better. And I believe we will do

Islamic Terrorism isn’t Islam’s problem?

Recently, as Muslims the world over prepared to celebrate Eid, ISIS/ISIL decided to wage a Jihad on their very own people. Sure they targeted the usual Shia worshipers but they also attacked Sunnis and even more shockingly, they attacked Medina, the second holiest site in all of Islam. Hundreds were killed and even more were wounded during this most holy time for the world’s 1 Billion+ Muslims.

Mourners walk at the site of a suicide bombing that ripped through Baghdad’s busy shopping district of Karrada on July 3, during the funeral of an Iraqi man who was killed in the attack, on July 6, 2016.
The Baghdad bombing claimed by the Islamic State group killed at least 250 people, officials said on July 6, raising the toll of what was already one of the deadliest attacks in Iraq. / AFP PHOTO / Ahmad al-RubayeAHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images

ISIS Attacks Should Be Wake-Up Call for Middle Eastern Leaders – Time.com

Yet somehow ISIS claim divine Islamic inspiration and claim Shari’a as their guiding principle.

Now with these attacks in primarily Muslim lands (Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Yemen), Muslim leaders, both political and religious, are going to have to come to terms with the spread of radicalism into their own lands. It was easy for them to brush the concerns aside when Muslim deaths were minimal and usually contained to one or two incidents but no longer. The radicals have now declared war on their primary recruiting grounds. ISIS has defiled the very religion they claim as their own and done so as an open challenge to not only the west but to the complacent Islamic leaders as well.

For these “secular” and religious leaders it was easy when it was only westerners who were being slaughtered. They didn’t have to confront the problems in their own borders that have given rise to the ongoing radicalization of their own young who became just more cannon fodder. They didn’t have to confront the increasingly powerful influence of the hard line, radical and fundamentalist clerics who corrupted their religion and their youth.

This last month has seen a seismic shift that these leaders have been hoping to avoid but can’t any longer.

It will no longer be enough to simply pay lip service to the “fight against terror” because the terror has come home now. No longer will these leaders be able to hide behind the primarily western focus of terrorist rage. They are now being held to task in terms of rooting out terror within their own borders. Their own populations are now in play, the very religion has been assaulted both figuratively and literally in the holiest month of the Islamic year.

Blaming Iran’s growing influence, blaming past problems with the Kurds, blaming western interventions or western values or blaming a faltering global economy will no longer suffice. It’s time to get off their collective asses and accept the fact that they are the breeding grounds of these terrorists. Their populations & governments have been unwilling AND willing financiers and facilitators. Fifteen years of conventional, unconventional, rural and urban warfare have put these radicals, these fanatics through a Masters Class in waging terror.

Maybe now we can work globally, as a unified community towards cutting their funding, their recruiting, their travel and to refute their propaganda. It’s been a long haul and it’ll be a welcome change when we have true allies in the Islamic world who are working equally hard to defeat this common goal.