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90,000 secret military files released by WikiLeaks
AFP,
The leak of 90,000 secret military files triggered an outcry Monday from nations fighting in Afghanistan as the Pentagon scrambled to determine the source of the huge security breach and whether it would endanger lives.
US experts were working to see if the huge cache “could jeopardize force protection or operational security, or even worse still, the national security of this country,” Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell told Fox News.
“Our big fear of course is that there is information in here which could potentially put the lives of our troops in Afghanistan or elsewhere at risk.”
Liberal journalists suggest government shut down Fox News
“I am genuinely scared” of Fox, wrote Guardian columnist Daniel Davies, because it “shows you that a genuinely shameless and unethical media organisation *cannot* be controlled by any form of peer pressure or self-regulation, and nor can it be successfully cold-shouldered or ostracised. In order to have even a semblance of control, you need a tough legal framework.” Davies, a Brit, frequently argued the United States needed stricter libel laws.
“I agree,” said Michael Scherer of Time Magazine. Roger “Ailes understands that his job is to build a tribal identity, not a news organization. You can’t hurt Fox by saying it gets it wrong, if Ailes just uses the criticism to deepen the tribal identity.”
Jonathan Zasloff, a law professor at UCLA, suggested that the federal government simply yank Fox off the air. “I hate to open this can of worms,” he wrote, “but is there any reason why the FCC couldn’t simply pull their broadcasting permit once it expires?”
Two Venezuelans face prison for Twitter messages
Hugo Chavez seems to like Twitter as a mouthpiece for power. Since joining the service last April, he’s sent 522 messages, sometimes dozens a day, all apparently from his BlackBerry.
But he’s not such a fan of uncensored microblogging from the masses. Last week two Venezuelans, a 35-year old woman and a 41-year old man, were charged with making statements on Twitter critical of Venezuela’s banking system and face up to 11 years in prison, according to Reporters Without Borders. Fifteen more Internet users may face similar charges in the coming days.
The two defendants are accused of violating a 2001 law prohibiting spreading false rumors about or attempting to destabilize the nation’s banks, a loaded topic in the midst of wider financial troubles in the country. “Ladies and Gentlemen, don’t say you weren’t warned… Pull out today… I’m telling you, there are just a few days left,” Luis Acosta Oxford wrote late last month, for instance.
But the threat of a decade of imprisonment for 140 characters of investment advice goes beyond any financial fears, says Lucie Morillon, head of the Internet desk at Reporters Without Borders (RSF). “We see this arrest and the fact that these individuals face 11 years in jail as not just an unfortunate incident, but a way to intimidate other users who would use Twitter as a platform to criticize the government and its decisions”
Gov’t launching expansive “Perfect Citizen” program
The federal government is launching an expansive program dubbed “Perfect Citizen” to detect cyber assaults on private companies and government agencies running such critical infrastructure as the electricity grid and nuclear-power plants, according to people familiar with the program.
The surveillance by the National Security Agency, the government’s chief eavesdropping agency, would rely on a set of sensors deployed in computer networks for critical infrastructure that would be triggered by unusual activity suggesting an impending cyber attack, though it wouldn’t persistently monitor the whole system, these people said.
Defense contractor Raytheon Corp. recently won a classified contract for the initial phase of the surveillance effort valued at up to $100 million, said a person familiar with the project.
Obama Internet kill switch plan approved by US Senate committee
A US Senate committee has approved a wide-ranging cybersecurity bill that some critics have suggested would give the US president the authority to shut down parts of the Internet during a cyberattack.
Senator Joe Lieberman and other bill sponsors have refuted the charges that the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act gives the president an Internet “kill switch.” Instead, the bill puts limits on the powers the president already has to cause “the closing of any facility or stations for wire communication” in a time of war, as described in the Communications Act of 1934, they said in a breakdown of the bill published on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee website.
AWOL Afghans Found … on Facebook
At least 11 of the 17 members of the Afghan military who went AWOL from an Air Force base in Texas and are considered deserters by their nation have turned up in the exact place you’d expect to find them in the year 2010.
They’re on Facebook.
And, by the look of things, they’re not unlike millions of other young men on the social networking site. One proclaims to be a fan of Paris Hilton and is a member of a group named “FREE Webcam Sex with ME!” Another is a fan of hip hop music, Michael Jackson, the tearjerker movie The Notebook, Family Guy and Sports Center. Another is a fan of soccer and the Godfather.
FCC takes another step toward regulating internet
The Daily Caller, “FCC votes to reconsider regulating Internet providers”
by Chris Moody
The Federal Communications Commission voted Thursday to take another step toward reclassifying the way it regulates Internet service providers, releasing a plan for public comment that would give the federal agency vast new powers over companies that distribute Web access.
“The FCC has an obligation to move forward with an open, constructive public comment process to ask hard questions, build a record, find a solution and resolve the uncertainty that has been created,” said FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski.
The 3-2 vote comes on the heels of a unanimous April ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia that said the FCC had overstepped its authority when the federal agency sanctioned Comcast for slowing some Internet traffic within its networks. The FCC has since made efforts to find new ways to regulate the industry that fall within the confines of the law.
The Daily Caller article continues here.
Wikileaks founder wanted by Pentagon
The Daily Beast, “Pentagon Manhunt”
by Philip Shenon
Pentagon investigators are trying to determine the whereabouts of the Australian-born founder of the secretive website Wikileaks for fear that he may be about to publish a huge cache of classified State Department cables that, if made public, could do serious damage to national security, government officials tell The Daily Beast.
The officials acknowledge that even if they found the website founder, Julian Assange, it is not clear what they could do to block publication of the cables on Wikileaks, which is nominally based on a server in Sweden and bills itself as a champion of whistleblowers.
American officials said Pentagon investigators are convinced that Assange is in possession of at least some classified State Department cables leaked by a 22-year-old Army intelligence specialist, Bradley Manning of Potomac, Maryland, who is now in custody in Kuwait.
The Daily Beast article continues here.
Soldier busted for leaking to WikiLeaks
Fox News, “Soldier Busted for Leaking to WikiLeaks”
by Justin Fishel
Army officials apprehended an intelligence analyst accused of releasing classified military information to the self-proclaimed “whistle-blowing” website, WikiLeaks.
Specialist Bradley Manning, 22, of Potomac, Md., is being held in pre-trial confinement in Kuwait, the U.S. military said Monday. Manning is deployed with 2nd Brigade 10th Mountain Division in Baghdad.
“The Department of Defense takes the management of classified information very seriously because it affects our national security, the lives of our Soldiers, and our operations abroad,” a statement from U.S Forces-Iraq reads.
In April WikiLeaks made headlines when it released classified military footage it titled “Collateral Murder,” which showed Army forces shooting Iraqis from helicopters and killing two Reuters cameramen, among others. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said the video amounted to the “indiscriminate slaying” of Iraqis and “another day at the office” for the U.S. Army.
Fox News article continues here.
US appoints first cyber warfare general
The Observer, “US appoints first cyber warfare general”
by Peter Beaumont
The US military has appointed its first senior general to direct cyber warfare – despite fears that the move marks another stage in the militarisation of cyberspace.
The newly promoted four-star general, Keith Alexander, takes charge of the Pentagon’s ambitious and controversial new Cyber Command, designed to conduct virtual combat across the world’s computer networks. He was appointed on Friday afternoon in a low-key ceremony at Fort Meade, in Maryland.
The creation of America’s most senior cyber warrior comes just days after the US air force disclosed that some 30,000 of its troops had been re-assigned from technical support “to the frontlines of cyber warfare”.
The Observer article continues here.