Wednesday 26 February 2014

USAHitman | Conspiracy News

How Covert Agents Infiltrate the Internet to Manipulate, Deceive, and Destroy Reputations

Posted: 24 Feb 2014 09:51 PM PST

By Glenn Greenwald

A page from a GCHQ top secret document prepared by its secretive JTRIG unit
One of the many pressing stories that remains to be told from the Snowden archive is how western intelligence agencies are attempting to manipulate and control online discourse with extreme tactics of deception and reputation-destruction. It’s time to tell a chunk of that story, complete with the relevant documents.
Over the last several weeks, I worked with NBC News to publish a series of articles about “dirty trick” tactics used by GCHQ’s previously secret unit, JTRIG (Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group). These were based on four classified GCHQ documents presented to the NSA and the other three partners in the English-speaking “Five Eyes” alliance. Today, we at the Intercept are publishing another new JTRIG document, in full, entitled “The Art of Deception: Training for Online Covert Operations”.
By publishing these stories one by one, our NBC reporting highlighted some of the key, discrete revelations: the monitoring of YouTube and Blogger, the targeting of Anonymous with the very same DDoS attacks they accuse “hacktivists” of using, the use of “honey traps” (luring people into compromising situations using sex) and destructive viruses. But, here, I want to focus and elaborate on the overarching point revealed by all of these documents: namely, that these agencies are attempting to control, infiltrate, manipulate, and warp online discourse, and in doing so, are compromising the integrity of the internet itself.
Among the core self-identified purposes of JTRIG are two tactics: (1) to inject all sorts of false material onto the internet in order to destroy the reputation of its targets; and (2) to use social sciences and other techniques to manipulate online discourse and activism to generate outcomes it considers desirable. To see how extremist these programs are, just consider the tactics they boast of using to achieve those ends: “false flag operations” (posting material to the internet and falsely attributing it to someone else), fake victim blog posts (pretending to be a victim of the individual whose reputation they want to destroy), and posting “negative information” on various forums. Here is one illustrative list of tactics from the latest GCHQ document we’re publishing today:

Critically, the “targets” for this deceit and reputation-destruction extend far beyond the customary roster of normal spycraft: hostile nations and their leaders, military agencies, and intelligence services. In fact, the discussion of many of these techniques occurs in the context of using them in lieu of “traditional law enforcement” against people suspected (but not charged or convicted) of ordinary crimes or, more broadly still, “hacktivism”, meaning those who use online protest activity for political ends.
Under the title “Online Covert Action”, the document details a variety of means to engage in “influence and info ops” as well as “disruption and computer net attack”, while dissecting how human beings can be manipulated using “leaders”, “trust, “obedience” and “compliance”:

The documents lay out theories of how humans interact with one another, particularly online, and then attempt to identify ways to influence the outcomes – or “game” it:

We submitted numerous questions to GCHQ, including: (1) Does GCHQ in fact engage in “false flag operations” where material is posted to the Internet and falsely attributed to someone else?; (2) Does GCHQ engage in efforts to influence or manipulate political discourse online?; and (3) Does GCHQ’s mandate include targeting common criminals (such as boiler room operators), or only foreign threats?
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CNN cancels Piers Morgan Live over gun control position?

Posted: 24 Feb 2014 04:02 PM PST

CNN is pulling the plug on its weeknight talk-show Piers Morgan Live, and the British journalist says his staunch anti-gun stance may be what’s getting him sacked.

Insider sources at the news network told reporters at POLITICO over the weekend that CNN President Jeff Zucker signed-off on the decision to take ‘Live’ off the air after three years. The network’s head of communications confirmed the news on Sunday, but said it hasn’t been decided when the prime-time program will run its last show, or if Morgan — the 48-year-old former editor of the Daily Mirror — will stay at CNN to begin work on another project.
Speaking of the network’s decision to New York Times media reporter David Carr, Morgan suggested his outspoken anti-gun stance and the subsequent criticism he attracted from Second Amendment proponents gave CNN executives a reason to want him gone.
“Look, I am a British guy debating American cultural issues, including guns, which has been very polarizing, and there is no doubt that there are many in the audience who are tired of me banging on about it,” Morgan said.
Indeed, the Times’ Carr continued in his article that he considered Morgan’s take on gun control as being “more akin to King George III, peering down his nose at the unruly colonies and wondering how to bring the savages to heel.” Morgan regularly discussed his opinion on gun control during his show’s broadcast, and famously squared off with radio host Alex Jones during a firearms debate last year that drew a whole new audience to ‘Live,’ including even those who didn’t agree with the host’s opinion on gun control.
“I’m in danger of being the guy down at the end of the bar who is always going on about the same thing,” Morgan agreed, adding he has assumed he has made critics out of viewers by coming off as “this British guy telling them how to lead their lives and what they should do with their guns.”
When a gunman committed a mass shooting spree at a Connecticut elementary school in late 2012, Morgan’s anti-firearm response was so outspoken that more than 56,000 people signed a petition in a single day asking that he be deported due to his alleged targeting of the Second Amendment. And just last week, Morgan took to Twitter to call an RT.com article about a surge in American gun production “HORRIFYING.”
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New Avenger jet-powered drone will offer unprecedented capabilities

Posted: 24 Feb 2014 04:00 PM PST

A jet-powered drone with a range of 1,800 miles from the nearest base is now operational, according to its maker, weapons contractor General Atomics. The Avenger has the ability to fly up to 500 miles per hour at as much as 50,000 feet for up to 18 hours.
The long-range, high-speed drone – based on General Atomics’ MQ-9 Reaper drone – will offer unprecedented endurance to surveillance or lethal strike missions.
A prototype for Avenger, formerly known as the Predator C, first flew in 2009. The drone is operationally ready, General Atomics says, based on the latest round of tests that were completed in January, according to Wired.com.
“Avenger provides the right capabilities for the right cost at the right time and is operationally ready today,” Frank Pace, president of General Atomics’ Aircraft Systems Group, said in a statement. “This aircraft offers unique advantages in terms of performance, cost, timescale, and adaptability that are unmatched by any other UAS in its class.”
Compared to its earlier version, the drone’s fuselage has been extended by four feet in order to carry larger loads and to accommodate an increased fuel capacity. The Avenger can carry as much as 3,500 pounds internally; its 66-foot (20.12 meters) wingspan can carry weapons as large as 2,000 pounds, such as Joint Direct Attack Munition. JDAM is a “guidance kit” attached to drones “that converts existing unguided free-fall bombs into accurately guided ‘smart’ weapons,” according to weapons maker Boeing.
The long-range drone’s arrival on the scene comes at an opportune time for the US, as negotiations with the Afghan government over an American presence in Afghanistan beyond 2014 have stalled and frustrated American officials. The US is expected to withdraw all or most ground forces currently stationed in Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
The jet-powered drone will help the US continue to launch covert CIA drone strikes in Pakistan’s tribal areas – activities currently based in Afghanistan – and similar operations from a distance heretofore impossible with propeller-reliant drones.
With the future of the CIA’s abilities in Pakistan in question, the Los Angeles Times reported that the US is considering moving its drones to air bases from Afghanistan to elsewhere in Central Asia.
The CIA needs the Pentagon to stay close to Pakistan because, according to a recent Times report, “the CIA cannot fly drones from its Afghan drone bases without US military protection.” Once that protection is impossible, “[t]he CIA’s targeted killing program thus may prove a casualty of the bitter standoff with Afghan President Hamid Karzai over whether any US troops can remain in Afghanistan after 2014.”
US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel confirmed in early February that US officials are seeking options for drone bases in the region beyond 2014.
“I don’t get into the specifics of what our plans are on intelligence and drone strikes,” Hagel said on Feb. 7. “You’re constantly updating and changing and looking at possibilities, strategic interests, where you posture those assets, where the threats are most significant, where do you have allies that are willing to work with you.”
In addition to its endurance capabilities, Avenger has been previously advertised to come with HELLADS, an ultra-light laser capable of repeatedly destroying objects at the speed of light.
In a digital video showcasing the Avenger drone, General Atomics showed a formation of drones annihilating a shower of ground-launched interceptor missiles in a split second, before making them an offensive weapon and targeting objects on the ground.
Yet despite the Avenger’s operational status, there has been no verification of whether HELLADS is part of current iteration of the General Atomics drone.
Source

4.4 bn year old zircon reveals life on Earth appeared earlier than believed

Posted: 24 Feb 2014 04:00 PM PST

Ancient zircon crystals, discovered in Australia in 2001, have now been proved to be our planet’s oldest known substance. The 4.4 billion-year-old gem offers clues that Earth could have become habitable much earlier than previously believed.
Aside from being just a cool fact to know, this recent discovery (available in the journal, Nature Geoscience) gives scientists at the University of Wisconsin a new insight into our planet’s infancy.
There are now grounds to suggest that Earth cooled down much sooner, and that life appeared way before many scientists had thought.
“We have no evidence that life existed then. We have no evidence that it didn’t,” Wisconsin geoscience professor and report lead, Professor John Valley, told Reuters. “But there is no reason why life could not have existed on Earth 4.3 billion years ago,” he added.
The oldest fossil records of life are stromatolites produced by an archaic form of bacteria from about 3.4 billion years ago.
Scientists believe that thanks to low enough temperatures, Earth had a hydrosphere and possibly early life even before 4.3 billion years ago. In fact, there is even a theory of a “cool early Earth.”
Professor Valley says their discovery really strengthens this notion.
“The study reinforces our conclusion that Earth had a hydrosphere before 4.3 billion years ago, and possibly life not long after,” John Valley is quoted as saying in the press-release.
Our planet formed as a ball of molten rock 4.54 billion years old. The first 500 million years of Earth have been dubbed Hadean, after the ancient Greek god of the underworld, or hell-like, because scientists believed that it was covered with lava and subsurface magma, making it an absolutely inhospitable place.
Valley’s discovery undermines this idea.
This 4.4 billion-year-old zircon crystal proves that the Earth cooled from a ball of magma and formed continents much earlier.
He and his team confirmed that our planet first developed a crust just 160 million years after the formation of our solar system.
“Our samples formed after the magma oceans cooled and prove that these events were very early,” he wrote.
But his team still has no answer to the main question: “One of the things that we’re really interested in is: when did the Earth first become habitable for life? When did it cool off enough that life might have emerged?” Professor Valley said.
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