Year: 2016

CBS News

In a September 2015 interview with the FBI, a former agent who worked on the security details of both former secretaries of state Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton complained of a “stark difference” between Rice and Clinton in terms of their adherence to security and diplomatic protocols.

According to newly released documents by the FBI related to its investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary, the former agent said that while Rice “observed strict adherence to State Department security and diplomatic protocols,” Clinton “frequently and ‘blatantly’ disregarded them.”    Continue reading “FBI documents: Former agent complained Hillary Clinton flouted protocol while secretary”

EFF – by Dave Maas

If we don’t speak up now, the days when we can walk around with our heads held high without fear of surveillance are numbered. Federal and local law enforcement across the country are adopting sophisticated facial recognition technologies to identify us on the streets and in social media by matching our faces to massive databases.

We knew the threat was looming. But a brand new report from the Georgetown Law Center for Privacy and Technology indicates the problem is far worse than we could’ve imagined.  The researchers compare the use of facial recognition to a perpetual line-up, where everyday, law-abiding citizens are pulled into law enforcement investigations without their consent and, in many cases, without their knowledge.   Continue reading “Memo to the DOJ: Facial Recognition’s Threat to Privacy is Worse Than Anyone Thought”

Press TV

Israel tortures and humiliates an “overwhelming majority” of the Palestinian children it holds in its jails, says the Palestinian Committee of Prisoners’ Affairs.

Following a visit to the Ofer prison, a lawyer for the committee, Luay Ukka, said that most of the juvenile prisoners held at the prison have been “tortured, beaten, and humiliated” during interrogations or during the raids in which they were detained.   Continue reading “Majority of Palestinian kids tortured in Israeli detention: Prisoner affairs group”

Free Thought Project – by Claire Bernish

Julian Assange abruptly had his tether to the outside world purposely cut off Monday, when — as Wikileaks announced on Twitter — his “internet connection was intentionally severed by a state party.”

Several hours later, Wikileaks added:

“We can confirm Ecuador cut off Assange’s internet access Saturday, 5pm GMT, shortly after publication of Clinton’s Goldman Sachs speeches.”   Continue reading “Ecuador Admits They Silenced Assange Because Clinton Leaks Were ‘Interfering’ With US Election”

Reuters

Police and school officials said four people were wounded, one critically, in a shooting that erupted at a San Francisco high school parking lot after school had been let out for the day.

One victim, a teenage girl, was critically wounded after the shooting near the June Jordan School for Equity around 3:20 p.m. local time, while two teenage boys suffered non-life-threatening injuries, police said.   Continue reading “Four wounded in shooting outside San Francisco school”

Reuters

A New York City police sergeant fatally shot a 66-year-old woman who charged him with a baseball bat at her apartment on Tuesday, prompting an investigation that will look into why he did not use a Taser instead, an assistant police chief said.

The Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr called the shooting an “outrage.”   Continue reading “New York officer shoots woman who charged him with baseball bat: police”

Business Insider – by Christopher Woody

Vicente Antonio Bermudez Zacarias, a Mexican federal judge who handled cases related to organized crime, was gunned down by an unknown assailant in Mexico state on Monday morning, dying on the way to the hospital.

Bermudez, 37, was shot in the head at point-blank range while jogging near his home in the town of Metepec.   Continue reading “A judge who handled ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán’s extradition was killed in Mexico”

Yahoo News

Guadalajara (Mexico) (AFP) – Five men and a woman have been found alive on a road in western Mexico with their hands amputated and their foreheads marked with the word “I’m a thief.”

The victims were mutilated by a criminal group linked to drug trafficking, which also left a dead man on the road and two bags with the severed hands in Tlaquepaque, near Guadalajara, Mexico’s second biggest city, police said.   Continue reading “Six people found alive with severed hands in Mexico”

The Daily Star

ADEN: A drone strike killed eight suspected members of Al-Qaeda in south Yemen late Tuesday, security sources said.

The strike hit two vehicles carrying the suspected militants in Shabwa province, killing six instantly while two died later of their wounds, the sources said.   Continue reading “Drone strike kills 8 Al-Qaeda suspects in Yemen”

Washington Examiner – by Paul Bedard

First lady Michelle Obama’s star status on the 2016 campaign trail is prompting top Democrats back home in Illinois to ready an effort to recruit her to run for the Senate or mayor of Chicago.

Should she run and win, Obama would join only Hillary Clinton in the rare class of former first ladies to swap out the “volunteer” public service job for an elected position.   Continue reading “Michelle Obama recruited to run for Senate, Chicago mayor”

Dallas Morning News – by Diane Solis

The tide of migrant families with minors and children traveling alone to the U.S., mostly from Central America, has equaled the surge of 2014 that nearly overwhelmed Border Patrol resources, federal immigration officials said Monday.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials said they detained 137,366 migrants in those two categories in the fiscal year that just ended. Slightly fewer, 136,983 migrants, were detained in fiscal 2014.   Continue reading “Immigrant flow at border matches crisis of a few years ago and may be significantly worse”

Zero Hedge – by Tyler Durden

The following tweets posted by WikiLeaks yesterday set off a massive bout of speculation over the fate of Julian Assange who has been holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for nearly 4 years.  There has been much speculation that the sudden change in support for Assange from the Ecuadorian government was prompted by political leverage being asserted by the Obama administration to thwart the release of emails that are proving to be very damaging to the Hillary presidential campaign.   Continue reading “Mystery Deepens Around Fate Of Julian Assange”