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Government wiretaps increase by 34 percent in 2010
The number of wiretaps conducted by federal and state law enforcement in 2010 jumped 34 percent from the prior year, according to a new federal report.
The 2010 Wiretap Report said federal and state courts approved 3,194 orders for intercepting wire, oral or electronic communications. That was up from the 2,376 intercepts approved in 2009.
Here’s some more fun facts from the report:
- Of all the applications for wiretap intercepts, 84 percent (2,675) cited illegal drugs as the most serious offense under investigation. The top three state wiretaps resulting in the most arrests were all narcotics related.
- The average cost of a wiretap was $50,085, down 4 percent from 2009.
- The average number of persons whose communications were intercepted rose from 113 per wiretap order in 2009 to 118 per wiretap order in 2010.
- Only 26 percent of intercepted communications in 2010 were incriminating. Only one request for authorization was denied.
- The top three states with approved wiretap applications were California, New York and New Jersey.
The report did not include wiretaps regulated by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) or those approved by the president outside the authority of the federal wiretap law and the FISA.
“Let’s Arm The Mexican Drug Cartels With Thousands Of Guns And Continue To Leave The Border Completely Wide Open”
How in the world are Americans living in the southwest United States supposed to sleep peacefully at night when the U.S. government has given thousands of guns to Mexican drug cartels and continues to leave the border completely wide open? The brutality and viciousness of Mexican drug cartels is almost beyond description, and yet the U.S. government has armed them to the teeth and does next to nothing to stop their incursions into U.S. territory. “Project Gunrunner” was supposed to be a U.S. government initiative to fight the flow of guns into Mexico. Instead, it has now come out that ATF agents were ordered to facilitate the acquisition of thousands of U.S. guns by Mexican drug cartels and then halt surveillance on where those guns where going. One of these operations was known as “Fast and Furious” and the revelations that are now coming out have Congress in an uproar. If the full truth about what has been going on is revealed to Read more…
US punishes Pakistan Army in major shift
WASHINGTON: The US confirmed on Sunday that direct and indirect aid worth $800 million to the Pakistan Army had been withheld while Pakistani diplomats disclosed that a 10-point list had been given to the GHQ, compliance of which would determine how much and when the flow of money would restart.
The official confirmation came from the White House chief of staff who told a TV channel on Sunday that Washington was holding back the money after a major New York Times story revealed the military aid had been suspended.
The 10-point list was given some time back and diplomats said Pakistan had Read more…
World Population to Hit Seven Billion by October
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 7, 2011 (IPS) – The United Nations commemorates World Population Day next week against the backdrop of an upcoming landmark event: global population hitting the seven billion mark by late October this year.
According to current projections, and with some of the world’s poorest nations doubling their populations in the next decade, the second milestone will be in 2025: an eight billion population over the next 14 years.
Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, executive director of the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA), told IPS seven billion represents a challenge, an opportunity and a call to action.
On World Population Day Jul. 11, he will be Read more…
Brzezinski: Middle Class Unrest To Hit U.S.
Zbigniew Brzezinski, who forty years ago wrote of a highly controlled future society where the population would be subjugated by a technocratic elite, appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe yesterday to predict that middle class unrest caused by economic disenfranchisement would soon hit America.
“I don’t want to be a prophet of doom — and I don’t think we are approaching doom — but I think we’re going to slide into intensified social conflicts, social Read more…
TSA could begin searching for explosives hidden inside you
Government intelligence officials are now warning airlines that terrorists could be using surgically implanted explosives to bypass security measures; there is no information regarding a specific plot or threat, but airlines could begin to implement additional screening procedures as the current body scanners cannot effectively detect bombs hidden inside an individual; last year, al Qaeda operatives in Iraq implanted two dogs with explosives, but the dogs died before they could loaded onto a U.S.-bound plane
Swabbing hands for explosive residue // Source: consumertraveler.com
Government intelligence officials are now warning airlines that terrorists could be using surgically implanted explosives to bypass security measures.
There is no information regarding a specific plot or threat, but airlines could begin to implement additional screening procedures as the current body scanners cannot effectively detect bombs hidden inside an individual.
According to the Los Angeles Times, U.S. officials have received new information that suggest terrorists may be seriously considering surgically implanting explosive devices to circumvent existing screening procedures.
In response, Nicholas Kimball, a spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), said Read more…
Drone strikes are police work, not an act of war?
Launching an air strike in another nation would normally be considered an act of aggression. But advocates of America’s rapidly expanding unmanned drone programme don’t see it that way.
They are arguing, as Tom Ricks writes on his blog The Best Defense over at Foreign Policy, that the campaign to kill militants with missile strikes from these unmanned aircraft, is more like police action in a tough neighborhood than a military conflict.
These raids conducted by sinister-looking Predator or Reaper aircraft in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen – and since last month in Somalia – should not be seen as a challenge to states and their authority. Instead they are meant to supplement the power of governments that are Read more…
Report: Ground Invasion of Libya Within Two Weeks
A hawkish Jerusalem-based news outlet with reported links to Israeli intelligence that has proven accurate in its forecast of future geopolitical events claims that the war in Libya is approaching a “coup de grace” and that French, British and American troops will land on Libyan soil within the next two weeks to spearhead a full ground invasion.In a piece entitled, US and NATO prepare final assault on Qaddafi, DebkaFile cites military sources for its contention that NATO powers are finalizing plans for a “large-scale, all-out military bid to kill or oust” Colonel Gaddafi.
“The coming coup de grace, expected in the next couple of weeks, is the hottest topic of discussion in the corridors of power and high-level military and intelligence get-togethers in London, Paris, Brussels, Moscow, Oslo, The Hague and Rome. It is expected to start in a couple of weeks with French and British troop landings on Libyan soil, to be followed in its last stages of by Read more…
EU cloud data can be secretly accessed by US authorities
US-owned companies bound by Patriot Act, says Microsoft
Personal information belonging to EU users of US-owned cloud-based services could be shared with US law enforcers without the user being informed, Microsoft has said.
The software giant said it could not guarantee that it would not have to hand over EU customers’ data on a new cloud service it has developed whilst keeping details of the data transfer secret.
Cloud services allow internet users to store data online instead of locally.
EU data protection laws state that organizations must tell people when they are asked to disclose their personal information.
These EU provisions might conflict with obligations US-based firms, such as Microsoft, face under US law.
The USA Patriot Act gives law enforcement authorities the right to access Read more…
US to upgrade F-16s, KMT lawmaker says
The US is expected to announce soon that it will help Taiwan upgrade its current F-16 aircraft rather than sell it more advanced aircraft, a senior legislator said yesterday.
The move to upgrade the F-16A/B combat aircraft rather than sell Taiwan the more advanced F-16C/Ds it wants will generate less pressure from Beijing, which strongly opposes any arms sales to Taiwan, analysts say.
“This will be a compromise deal,” said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方), who chairs the legislature’s Foreign and National Defense Committee.
Taiwan has repeatedly pressed the US to sell it F-16C/Ds, as China embarks on a rapid drive to build up its offensive military capability.
However, it is feared that such a sale would “anger” Beijing, which reacted furiously in January last year when US President Barack Obama announced a US$6.4 billion arms package for Taiwan.
That package included Patriot missiles, Black Hawk helicopters and equipment for Read more…
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