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Yahoo, Verizon: Our Spy Capabilities Would ‘Shock’, ‘Confuse’ Consumers
By Kim Zetter December 1, 2009 | 3:30 pm | Categories: Cover-Ups, Surveillance, privacy
Want to know how much phone companies and internet service providers charge to funnel your private communications or records to U.S. law enforcement and spy agencies?
That’s the question muckraker and Indiana University graduate student Christopher Soghoian asked all agencies within the Department of Justice, under a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed a few months ago. But before the agencies could provide the data, Verizon and Yahoo intervened and filed an objection on grounds that, among other things, they would be ridiculed and publicly shamed were their surveillance price sheets made public.
Yahoo writes in its 12-page objection letter (.pdf), that if its pricing information were disclosed to Soghoian, he would use it “to ’shame’ Yahoo! and other companies — and to ’shock’ their customers.”
“Therefore, release of Yahoo!’s information is reasonably likely to lead to impairment of its reputation for protection of user privacy and security, which is a competitive disadvantage for technology companies,” the company writes.
Verizon took a different stance. It objected to the release (.pdf) of its Law Enforcement Legal Compliance Guide because it might “confuse” customers and lead them to think that records and surveillance capabilities available only to law enforcement would be available to them as well — resulting in a flood of customer calls to the company asking for trap and trace orders.
“Customers may see a listing of records, information or assistance that is available only to law enforcement,” Verizon writes in its letter, “but call in to Verizon and seek those same services. Such calls would stretch limited resources, especially those that are reserved only for law enforcement emergencies.”
Other customers, upon seeing the types of surveillance law enforcement can do, might “become unnecessarily afraid that their lines have been tapped or call Verizon to ask if their lines are tapped (a question we cannot answer).”
Verizon does disclose a little tidbit in its letter, saying that the company receives “tens of thousands” of requests annually for customer records and information from law enforcement agencies.
Soghoian filed his records request to discover how much law enforcement agencies — and thus U.S. taxpayers — are paying for spy documents and surveillance services with the aim of trying to deduce from this how often such requests are being made. Soghoian explained his theory on his blog, Slight Paranoia:
In the summer of 2009, I decided to try and follow the money trail in order to determine how often Internet firms were disclosing their customers’ private information to the government. I theorized that if I could obtain the price lists of each ISP, detailing the price for each kind of service, and invoices paid by the various parts of the Federal government, then I might be able to reverse engineer some approximate statistics. In order to obtain these documents, I filed Freedom of Information Act requests with every part of the Department of Justice that I could think of.
The first DoJ agency to respond to his request was the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), which indicated that it had price lists available for Cox Communications, Comcast, Yahoo and Verizon. But because the companies voluntarily provided the price lists to the government, the FOIA allows the companies an opportunity to object to the disclosure of their data under various exemptions. Comcast and Cox were fine with the disclosure, Soghoian reported.
He found that Cox Communications charges $2,500 to fulfill a pen register/trap-and-trace order for 60 days, and $2,000 for each additional 60-day-interval. It charges $3,500 for the first 30 days of a wiretap, and $2,500 for each additional 30 days. Thirty days worth of a customer’s call detail records costs $40.
Comcast’s pricing list, which was already leaked to the internet in 2007, indicated that it charges at least $1,000 for the first month of a wiretap, and $750 per month thereafter.
But Verizon and Yahoo took offense at the request.
Yahoo objected on grounds that its pricing constituted “confidential commercial information” and cited Exemption 4 of the Freedom of Information Act and the Trade Secrets Act.
Exemption 4 of the FOIA refers to the disclosure of commercial or financial information that could result in a competitive disadvantage to the company if it were publicly disclosed. The company claims its pricing is derived from labor rates for employees and overhead and, therefore, disclosing the information would provide clues to its operating costs — regardless of whether these same clues are already available in public records, such as those the company files with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company also claims that since Soghoian is trying to determine the actual amounts the Marshals Service paid Yahoo for responding to requests, the price lists are irrelevant, since “there are no standard prices for these transactions.”
But equally important to Yahoo’s objections was the potential for “criticism” and ridicule. Yahoo quoted Soghoian on his blog writing that his aim was to “use this blog to shame the corporations that continue to do harm to user online privacy.”
Yahoo also objected to the disclosure of its letter objecting to the disclosure of pricing information saying that “release of this letter would likely cause substantial competitive harm” to the company. The company added, in a veiled threat, that if the Marshals Service were to show anyone its letter objecting to the disclosure of pricing information, it could “impair the government’s ability to obtain information necessary for making appropriate decisions with regard to future FOIA requests.”
If anyone out there has a copy of Verizon or Yahoo’s law enforcement pricing list and wants to share it, feel free to use our anonymous tip address.
CAUTION! THEY ARE EVERYWHERE!
Dedicated to all the security cameras, telephone wiretaps, the scans online, those who want to control not only in real life but in the virtual, those who want to know what we eat, how we dress and what our customs.
For all I want to say... Curiosity killed the cat.
Housed in the permanent exhibition in the foot of the pedestal upon which Lady Liberty stands is this replica of the lady's torch, by which "Liberty Illuminates the World" - Guantanamo Bay, warantless wiretaps and prison ships notwithstanding.
"Barrabackslarrabang
This wall text is written in backlang, a form of slang spoken in many cities to camouflage speech, protecting the speaker from being overheard, especially from the ears of the law. Backslang is sewn with rogues sounds to confuse the ear and slips easily into a linguistic play of skill and wit. Liverpool Backslang involves replacing the first or all vowels in key words of a phrase with 'ab', 'ag' or 'arrab', while Birmingham Backslang works with variations of of 'iligili'.
Liverpool backslang has absorbed elements from the any streams of global trade passing through the docks, such as Spanish, Dutch, Yiddish, Chines and African languages. In the 1930s backslang migrated upwards via the sax trade into upper class circles and mixed with the gay. slang Polari, another linguistic disguise. In Toxteth in the 1980s the emerging soft drugs trade made conections between neighbourhoods previously divided along racial or territorial lines, and backslang developed. In the late 1990s backslang hit the national headlines through Curtis Warren; boen in Toxteth and later on one of the riches drug barons ion Europe, he confounded the wiretappers for many years by using backslang in all phone conversations.
Like all languages backslang is a social space of belonging and community, - perhaps even of resistance, in conditions of physical and economic pressure - and is spoken with pride. "We had absolutely nothing, but at least we had our language."
The words on the wall are taken from the transcript of the film "Barrabackslarrabang" (Imogen Stidworthy 2009/10). You hear a version of the film soundtrack on the loudspeakers.
Te above text was written at the exhibition in sa_bold_monoface, a typeface designed with inbuilt irregularities based on the reading behaviours of people with dyslexia, by designer Salome Schmuki.
I was already making more macros of printed circuit boards. This has in the past always worked quite well, but as close as here I am never approached due to the then low depth of field, it lacked the viewer just a lot of information about the board.
In these images, I've done two things differently:
Setup as shown us by Tilo Gockel (Thanks Tilo, cool idea!) Supplemented with slight brightening by a flash with blue gel. So I wanted to make the PCB a bit upbeat.
Then 15-20 photos made with migratory sharpness, which were afterwards rendered with a Stacking software into a single image.
So beautiful can electronic waste be
I find especially the blurry photos quite aesthetically.
Here's some examples (with making-of).
If you want to take a look to my spin doctor, voila: www.flickr.com/photos/galllo/14347373239
*The Generative Adversarial Network* is a series of products that pay homage to the gadgets that we all buy, own and love: the latest smartphone, wearable, IoT enabled home-automating wiretap.
Credit: tom mesic
The scandal brought by the wiretapped conversations between Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and an election official has placed the country in bad shape.
Joker = Osama bin Laden
Harvey Dent = Barack Obama
Batman = George W. Bush
Who said batman was a hero?
Its explicitly stated that he's a vigilante in that film and by the director, Christopher Nolan.
The series is revised as realistic, a vigilante fighting injustice, despite how he's perceived by the public.
In The Dark Knight
Batman does the following:
-illegal extradition of a suspect in a foreign land, Hong Kong. (extraordinary rendition)
-illegal cellphone wiretapping to find the joker (homeland security violating civil rights)
-torturing suspects for information
-(lots of property damage)
-not well liked by the public
Batman breaks the law, to fight injustice.
Good or bad way, there's a strong comparison between W and Batman.
It does not matter how I view GW, what I'm arguing there's an blatant allegory in the film.
The only sad part with this allegory is the assumption of Obama as White Knight/Harvey Dent will fall from grace.
Discuss...
Victory for Justice for Colombia!
GEORGETOWN STUDENTS SERVE URIBE SUBPOENA TO SPEAK UNDER OATH ABOUT PARAMILITARY TIES
Last week, students at Georgetown University in Washington, DC succeeded in serving Colombia's ex-president Álvaro Uribe with a subpoena to testify about paramilitary ties in Colombia. The Adios Uribe Coalition has campaigned since September to get Georgetown to drop Uribe as a 'Distinguished Scholar'. Following a rally at Georgetown's Red Square of over 100 students, teacher and activists, former SOA Watch Prisoner of Conscience (serving 6 months in a federal prison in 2003) and current Georgetown law student Charity Ryerson served Álvaro Uribe with a subpoena, directing him to testify under oath in a case against Drummond Mining Company.
The importance of this action cannot be overstated. Uribe will have to talk about his knowledge of paramilitary collusion with the transnational Drummond and with the Colombian Armed Forces. Drummond is being sued by close to 500 families of victims of paramilitary terror, who claim that the coal company worked with the Colombian paramilitaries to murder, torture and disappear their loved ones. Augusto Jiménez, the president of Drummond in Colombia, is a distant relative of Álvaro Uribe.
Under the regime of Álvaro Uribe, close to 35,000 Colombians were killed, with thousands being presented as guerrilla fighters killed in combat. He has been accused of wiretapping his political opponents, attacking social movements and many in his party have been tied to the paramilitary infrastructure. While the Jesuits have been outspoken defenders of the poor and the marginalized in Latin America, Georgetown University continues to try to clean the image of Uribe by employing him as an academic. SOA Watch remembers the thousands of disappeared, displaced and massacred in Colombia and across the Américas, and calls on Georgetown to drop Uribe.
Colombia, ¡PRESENTE!
Adios Uribe Coalition webpage: uribe-georgetown.org
Drummonds Dark Ties to Uribe:
www.soaw.org/category-table/3549-drummonds-dark-ties-to-u...
Stand up for justice: SOAW.org/take-action/november-vigil
*The Generative Adversarial Network* is a series of products that pay homage to the gadgets that we all buy, own and love: the latest smartphone, wearable, IoT enabled home-automating wiretap.
Credit: tom mesic
Haunted House
The haunted trailer.
Maybe an evil truckload of Peeps? A vampire delivery service?
2007
I was already making more macros of printed circuit boards. This has in the past always worked quite well, but as close as here I am never approached due to the then low depth of field, it lacked the viewer just a lot of information about the board.
In these images, I've done two things differently:
Setup as shown us by Tilo Gockel (Thanks Tilo, cool idea!) Supplemented with slight brightening by a flash with blue gel. So I wanted to make the PCB a bit upbeat.
Then 15-20 photos made with migratory sharpness, which were afterwards rendered with a Stacking software into a single image.
So beautiful can electronic waste be
I find especially the blurry photos quite aesthetically.
Here's some examples (with making-of).
If you want to take a look to my spin doctor, voila: www.flickr.com/photos/galllo/14347373239
Residential building on Kudrinskaya square (Building on Uprising square) - a high-rise building in Moscow, one of the «Stalin's skyscrapers» («Seven Sisters»)
Built in 1948-1954 years. designed by architects MV Posokhin, AA Mndoyants and designer MN Vohomskogo.
The building consists of a central (24 floors, the height of the tower and spire - 156 meters) and side buildings (18 residential floors) constituting a single structural array, based on the total ground floor.
On the first and ground floors of the building were originally shops and a cinema "Flame" (currently not working), in the basement - underground garages.
Skyscraper popularly called the «House of aviators», because the apartment was given to the workers the aviation industry (in particular, employees of the Tupolev design Bureau) and the test pilot, but, of course, among the tenants there were many party activists.
Said that, when opened near the US Embassy, the top two floors were settled. There KGB installed equipment for wiretapping, and from there to "watch" for Americans.
Sculptures on the facade of the building symbolize creativity, defense, and labor of the Soviet citizens.
Victory for Justice for Colombia!
GEORGETOWN STUDENTS SERVE URIBE SUBPOENA TO SPEAK UNDER OATH ABOUT PARAMILITARY TIES
Last week, students at Georgetown University in Washington, DC succeeded in serving Colombia's ex-president Álvaro Uribe with a subpoena to testify about paramilitary ties in Colombia. The Adios Uribe Coalition has campaigned since September to get Georgetown to drop Uribe as a 'Distinguished Scholar'. Following a rally at Georgetown's Red Square of over 100 students, teacher and activists, former SOA Watch Prisoner of Conscience (serving 6 months in a federal prison in 2003) and current Georgetown law student Charity Ryerson served Álvaro Uribe with a subpoena, directing him to testify under oath in a case against Drummond Mining Company.
The importance of this action cannot be overstated. Uribe will have to talk about his knowledge of paramilitary collusion with the transnational Drummond and with the Colombian Armed Forces. Drummond is being sued by close to 500 families of victims of paramilitary terror, who claim that the coal company worked with the Colombian paramilitaries to murder, torture and disappear their loved ones. Augusto Jiménez, the president of Drummond in Colombia, is a distant relative of Álvaro Uribe.
Under the regime of Álvaro Uribe, close to 35,000 Colombians were killed, with thousands being presented as guerrilla fighters killed in combat. He has been accused of wiretapping his political opponents, attacking social movements and many in his party have been tied to the paramilitary infrastructure. While the Jesuits have been outspoken defenders of the poor and the marginalized in Latin America, Georgetown University continues to try to clean the image of Uribe by employing him as an academic. SOA Watch remembers the thousands of disappeared, displaced and massacred in Colombia and across the Américas, and calls on Georgetown to drop Uribe.
Colombia, ¡PRESENTE!
Adios Uribe Coalition webpage: uribe-georgetown.org
Drummonds Dark Ties to Uribe:
www.soaw.org/category-table/3549-drummonds-dark-ties-to-u...
Stand up for justice: SOAW.org/take-action/november-vigil
Victory for Justice for Colombia!
GEORGETOWN STUDENTS SERVE URIBE SUBPOENA TO SPEAK UNDER OATH ABOUT PARAMILITARY TIES
Last week, students at Georgetown University in Washington, DC succeeded in serving Colombia's ex-president Álvaro Uribe with a subpoena to testify about paramilitary ties in Colombia. The Adios Uribe Coalition has campaigned since September to get Georgetown to drop Uribe as a 'Distinguished Scholar'. Following a rally at Georgetown's Red Square of over 100 students, teacher and activists, former SOA Watch Prisoner of Conscience (serving 6 months in a federal prison in 2003) and current Georgetown law student Charity Ryerson served Álvaro Uribe with a subpoena, directing him to testify under oath in a case against Drummond Mining Company.
The importance of this action cannot be overstated. Uribe will have to talk about his knowledge of paramilitary collusion with the transnational Drummond and with the Colombian Armed Forces. Drummond is being sued by close to 500 families of victims of paramilitary terror, who claim that the coal company worked with the Colombian paramilitaries to murder, torture and disappear their loved ones. Augusto Jiménez, the president of Drummond in Colombia, is a distant relative of Álvaro Uribe.
Under the regime of Álvaro Uribe, close to 35,000 Colombians were killed, with thousands being presented as guerrilla fighters killed in combat. He has been accused of wiretapping his political opponents, attacking social movements and many in his party have been tied to the paramilitary infrastructure. While the Jesuits have been outspoken defenders of the poor and the marginalized in Latin America, Georgetown University continues to try to clean the image of Uribe by employing him as an academic. SOA Watch remembers the thousands of disappeared, displaced and massacred in Colombia and across the Américas, and calls on Georgetown to drop Uribe.
Colombia, ¡PRESENTE!
Adios Uribe Coalition webpage: uribe-georgetown.org
Drummonds Dark Ties to Uribe:
www.soaw.org/category-table/3549-drummonds-dark-ties-to-u...
Stand up for justice: SOAW.org/take-action/november-vigil
One of my favorite radio programs/podcasts is WireTap. Jonathan Goldstein is a creative and immensely enjoyable writer, and I had a great evening seeing him live. I am not sure why someone would leave Canada for Phoenix in July, but we were happy to have him here!
Victory for Justice for Colombia!
GEORGETOWN STUDENTS SERVE URIBE SUBPOENA TO SPEAK UNDER OATH ABOUT PARAMILITARY TIES
Last week, students at Georgetown University in Washington, DC succeeded in serving Colombia's ex-president Álvaro Uribe with a subpoena to testify about paramilitary ties in Colombia. The Adios Uribe Coalition has campaigned since September to get Georgetown to drop Uribe as a 'Distinguished Scholar'. Following a rally at Georgetown's Red Square of over 100 students, teacher and activists, former SOA Watch Prisoner of Conscience (serving 6 months in a federal prison in 2003) and current Georgetown law student Charity Ryerson served Álvaro Uribe with a subpoena, directing him to testify under oath in a case against Drummond Mining Company.
The importance of this action cannot be overstated. Uribe will have to talk about his knowledge of paramilitary collusion with the transnational Drummond and with the Colombian Armed Forces. Drummond is being sued by close to 500 families of victims of paramilitary terror, who claim that the coal company worked with the Colombian paramilitaries to murder, torture and disappear their loved ones. Augusto Jiménez, the president of Drummond in Colombia, is a distant relative of Álvaro Uribe.
Under the regime of Álvaro Uribe, close to 35,000 Colombians were killed, with thousands being presented as guerrilla fighters killed in combat. He has been accused of wiretapping his political opponents, attacking social movements and many in his party have been tied to the paramilitary infrastructure. While the Jesuits have been outspoken defenders of the poor and the marginalized in Latin America, Georgetown University continues to try to clean the image of Uribe by employing him as an academic. SOA Watch remembers the thousands of disappeared, displaced and massacred in Colombia and across the Américas, and calls on Georgetown to drop Uribe.
Colombia, ¡PRESENTE!
Adios Uribe Coalition webpage: uribe-georgetown.org
Drummonds Dark Ties to Uribe:
www.soaw.org/category-table/3549-drummonds-dark-ties-to-u...
Stand up for justice: SOAW.org/take-action/november-vigil
The Daily Create today:
"As @jimgroom prepares for his next run of DS106. Make an appropriate poster from this image"
I am not sure of Jim's skills at wiretapping, but as far as GIFs? He's gold. But listen to the wisdom of Lester Freamon-- "All the creative pieces matter"
Two bits of Wire wisdom, the quote from Freamon, which became the name of the soundtrack album
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_All_the_Pieces_Matter
Plus the opening episode where Rawls let's McNulty what are his
The Generative Adversarial Network is a series of products that pay homage to the gadgets that we all buy, own and love: the latest smartphone, wearable, IoT enabled home-automating wiretap. Democratization of technology and information has not been the means of liberation and empowerment as it could have been. As described and discussed by the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory, these developments have been co-opted to become mostly a means of commercial exploitation. These manipulation processes have moved from mass media to the internet and to the smart devices that are pervasive in our lives. Even when we don’t want them, it is impractical to function in society without owning and operating them. Adding insult to injury, not only are we exchanging our privacy, freedom and the health of our planet to devices that bring us convenience and comfort, but also doing it to have access to useless features, many of which create new problems for us—
so that we will need or want the next “innovation.”
Credit: Wesley Lee
In 2006, MSNBC reported that Grant Goodman, "an 81-year-old retired University of Kansas history professor, received a letter from his friend in the Philippines that had been opened and resealed with a strip of dark green tape bearing the words “by Border Protection” and carrying the official Homeland Security seal." The letter was sent by a devout Catholic Filipino woman with no history of supporting Islamic terrorism. A spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection "acknowledged that the agency can, will and does open mail coming to U.S. citizens that originates from a foreign country whenever it's deemed necessary":
“All mail originating outside the United States Customs territory that is to be delivered inside the U.S. Customs territory is subject to Customs examination,” says the CBP Web site. That includes personal correspondence. “All mail means ‘all mail,’” said John Mohan, a CBP spokesman, emphasizing the point.
The Department declined to outline what criteria are used to determine when a piece of personal correspondence should be opened or to say how often or in what volume Customs might be opening mail.
Goodman's story provoked outrage in the blogosphere, as well as in the more established media. Reacting to the incident, Mother Jones remarked that "unlike other prying government agencies, Homeland Security wants you to know it is watching you". CNN observed that "on the heels of the NSA wiretapping controversy, Goodman's letter raises more concern over the balance between privacy and security".
John Burke with Tim Woodbridge and Pete Peterson.
Scan of a print from about 1968.
[ Lawyer Woodbridge's Constitutional Wiretappers at Uconn 1968 ]
The Watergate complex is a group of five buildings next to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, D.C. in the United States. The 10-acre (40,000 m2) site contains an office building, three apartment buildings, and a hotel-office building. Construction was delayed for several months while the developer, government officials, and others debated the appropriateness of the complex's architectural style and height. Construction began in August 1963, and, after additional controversy over the height and siting of the fifth building, was completed in January 1971.[2] Considered one of Washington's most desirable living spaces, the Watergate has been popular with members of Congress and political appointees in the executive branch since it opened.[3][4] The complex has been sold several times since the 1980s; in the 1990s it was split up and buildings and parts of buildings were sold to various owners.[5][6]
In 1972, the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee, then located on the sixth floor of the Watergate Hotel and Office Building, were burglarized, documents were photographed, and telephones were wiretapped.[7] The investigation into the burglary revealed that high officials in the Nixon administration had ordered the break-in and then tried to cover up their involvement. Additional crimes were also uncovered. The ensuing Watergate Scandal, named for the complex, led to the resignation of Nixon on August 9, 1974.[8][9] The name "Watergate" and the suffix "-gate" have since become synonymous with political scandals in the United States[10] and in other English-speaking nations.
(Wikipedia)
Victory for Justice for Colombia!
GEORGETOWN STUDENTS SERVE URIBE SUBPOENA TO SPEAK UNDER OATH ABOUT PARAMILITARY TIES
Last week, students at Georgetown University in Washington, DC succeeded in serving Colombia's ex-president Álvaro Uribe with a subpoena to testify about paramilitary ties in Colombia. The Adios Uribe Coalition has campaigned since September to get Georgetown to drop Uribe as a 'Distinguished Scholar'. Following a rally at Georgetown's Red Square of over 100 students, teacher and activists, former SOA Watch Prisoner of Conscience (serving 6 months in a federal prison in 2003) and current Georgetown law student Charity Ryerson served Álvaro Uribe with a subpoena, directing him to testify under oath in a case against Drummond Mining Company.
The importance of this action cannot be overstated. Uribe will have to talk about his knowledge of paramilitary collusion with the transnational Drummond and with the Colombian Armed Forces. Drummond is being sued by close to 500 families of victims of paramilitary terror, who claim that the coal company worked with the Colombian paramilitaries to murder, torture and disappear their loved ones. Augusto Jiménez, the president of Drummond in Colombia, is a distant relative of Álvaro Uribe.
Under the regime of Álvaro Uribe, close to 35,000 Colombians were killed, with thousands being presented as guerrilla fighters killed in combat. He has been accused of wiretapping his political opponents, attacking social movements and many in his party have been tied to the paramilitary infrastructure. While the Jesuits have been outspoken defenders of the poor and the marginalized in Latin America, Georgetown University continues to try to clean the image of Uribe by employing him as an academic. SOA Watch remembers the thousands of disappeared, displaced and massacred in Colombia and across the Américas, and calls on Georgetown to drop Uribe.
Colombia, ¡PRESENTE!
Adios Uribe Coalition webpage: uribe-georgetown.org
Drummonds Dark Ties to Uribe:
www.soaw.org/category-table/3549-drummonds-dark-ties-to-u...
Stand up for justice: SOAW.org/take-action/november-vigil
Victory for Justice for Colombia!
GEORGETOWN STUDENTS SERVE URIBE SUBPOENA TO SPEAK UNDER OATH ABOUT PARAMILITARY TIES
Last week, students at Georgetown University in Washington, DC succeeded in serving Colombia's ex-president Álvaro Uribe with a subpoena to testify about paramilitary ties in Colombia. The Adios Uribe Coalition has campaigned since September to get Georgetown to drop Uribe as a 'Distinguished Scholar'. Following a rally at Georgetown's Red Square of over 100 students, teacher and activists, former SOA Watch Prisoner of Conscience (serving 6 months in a federal prison in 2003) and current Georgetown law student Charity Ryerson served Álvaro Uribe with a subpoena, directing him to testify under oath in a case against Drummond Mining Company.
The importance of this action cannot be overstated. Uribe will have to talk about his knowledge of paramilitary collusion with the transnational Drummond and with the Colombian Armed Forces. Drummond is being sued by close to 500 families of victims of paramilitary terror, who claim that the coal company worked with the Colombian paramilitaries to murder, torture and disappear their loved ones. Augusto Jiménez, the president of Drummond in Colombia, is a distant relative of Álvaro Uribe.
Under the regime of Álvaro Uribe, close to 35,000 Colombians were killed, with thousands being presented as guerrilla fighters killed in combat. He has been accused of wiretapping his political opponents, attacking social movements and many in his party have been tied to the paramilitary infrastructure. While the Jesuits have been outspoken defenders of the poor and the marginalized in Latin America, Georgetown University continues to try to clean the image of Uribe by employing him as an academic. SOA Watch remembers the thousands of disappeared, displaced and massacred in Colombia and across the Américas, and calls on Georgetown to drop Uribe.
Colombia, ¡PRESENTE!
Adios Uribe Coalition webpage: uribe-georgetown.org
Drummonds Dark Ties to Uribe:
www.soaw.org/category-table/3549-drummonds-dark-ties-to-u...
Stand up for justice: SOAW.org/take-action/november-vigil
I was already making more macros of printed circuit boards. This has in the past always worked quite well, but as close as here I am never approached due to the then low depth of field, it lacked the viewer just a lot of information about the board.
In these images, I've done two things differently:
Setup as shown us by Tilo Gockel (Thanks Tilo, cool idea!) Supplemented with slight brightening by a flash with blue gel. So I wanted to make the PCB a bit upbeat.
Then 15-20 photos made with migratory sharpness, which were afterwards rendered with a Stacking software into a single image.
So beautiful can electronic waste be
I find especially the blurry photos quite aesthetically.
Here's some examples (with making-of).
If you want to take a look to my spin doctor, voila: www.flickr.com/photos/galllo/14347373239
Wiretaps are obviously sinister devices, but I can't look at these without thinking that any FabLab in the world could probably make hundreds of these gizmos for a few bucks each and that nobody would remotely care.
Here's the text:
From: Robert F. W. Whitlock
[redacted address]
Olympia, WA
To: Senator Patty Murray
February 10, 2008
Dear Senator Murray,
I have been lobbying for two sister bills in the Washington State Legislature that would, if passed, call on the US Congress to begin investigations into impeachable offenses [that have allegedly been committed] by members of the Bush Administration.
There is sol[i]d and substantial, specific and credible evidence to allege that members of the Bush Administration have committed grave acts of malfeasance:
• Leading the nation to war based on knowingly false pretenses,
• Illegal search and seizure (wiretapping in violation of FISA),
• Condoning torture,
• among other violations.
During my rounds at the Washington State Capitol Campus I was informed by more than one legislative officer that you were specifically advocating against the passage of the two State Impeachment Memorials (SJM 8016 and HJM 4027).
Do you oppose investigating members of the Bush Administration for impeachable offenses?
Sincerely,
Robert Whitlock
[redacted telephone number]
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
[2/24/08: Here's a great article on impeachment to point you toward, "The Case for Impeachment" by Scott Horton: harpers.org/archive/2008/02/hbc-90002302; Mr. Horton makes a great case for impeachment.]
[June 11, 2008: As to date I have received no response to this letter from Senator Murray.]
[July 7th, 2008: still no response from Senator Murray or her Office.]
[July 27th, 2008: still no response from the office of Senator Murray.]
[August 13th, 2008: still no word.]
[December 15th, 2009: still no word.]
Victory for Justice for Colombia!
GEORGETOWN STUDENTS SERVE URIBE SUBPOENA TO SPEAK UNDER OATH ABOUT PARAMILITARY TIES
Last week, students at Georgetown University in Washington, DC succeeded in serving Colombia's ex-president Álvaro Uribe with a subpoena to testify about paramilitary ties in Colombia. The Adios Uribe Coalition has campaigned since September to get Georgetown to drop Uribe as a 'Distinguished Scholar'. Following a rally at Georgetown's Red Square of over 100 students, teacher and activists, former SOA Watch Prisoner of Conscience (serving 6 months in a federal prison in 2003) and current Georgetown law student Charity Ryerson served Álvaro Uribe with a subpoena, directing him to testify under oath in a case against Drummond Mining Company.
The importance of this action cannot be overstated. Uribe will have to talk about his knowledge of paramilitary collusion with the transnational Drummond and with the Colombian Armed Forces. Drummond is being sued by close to 500 families of victims of paramilitary terror, who claim that the coal company worked with the Colombian paramilitaries to murder, torture and disappear their loved ones. Augusto Jiménez, the president of Drummond in Colombia, is a distant relative of Álvaro Uribe.
Under the regime of Álvaro Uribe, close to 35,000 Colombians were killed, with thousands being presented as guerrilla fighters killed in combat. He has been accused of wiretapping his political opponents, attacking social movements and many in his party have been tied to the paramilitary infrastructure. While the Jesuits have been outspoken defenders of the poor and the marginalized in Latin America, Georgetown University continues to try to clean the image of Uribe by employing him as an academic. SOA Watch remembers the thousands of disappeared, displaced and massacred in Colombia and across the Américas, and calls on Georgetown to drop Uribe.
Colombia, ¡PRESENTE!
Adios Uribe Coalition webpage: uribe-georgetown.org
Drummonds Dark Ties to Uribe:
www.soaw.org/category-table/3549-drummonds-dark-ties-to-u...
Stand up for justice: SOAW.org/take-action/november-vigil
White House Office Building Catches Fire
Blaze May Have Started in Utility Closet
By Allison Klein, Debbi Wilgoren and Michael Schmuhl
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, December 19, 2007; 3:11 PM
The historic Eisenhower Executive Office Building next door to the White House caught fire this morning, and D.C. firefighters broke windows and doused the second and third floors with water to extinguish the two-alarm blaze.
At an afternoon news conference, D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and Fire Chief Dennis L. Rubin said security concerns prevented them from saying exactly where or how the fire started.
But a source with knowledge of the fire said the flames began in a utility closet off Vice President Cheney's ceremonial office on the second floor. The flames were confined to the closet, but a significant amount of smoke raced through the building, the source said.
Rubin said there was a "significant amount of damage" to a ceremonial office on the second floor.
Rubin and Fenty (D) said the building, which was evacuated about 9:40 a.m., may be reoccupied this afternoon. They called the firefighting a success because the flames were brought under control quickly and just one person was slightly injured.
Rubin said about 100 firefighters responded to the scene with about 60 pieces of equipment.
"In the District of Columbia, there are a lot of important buildings to protect and a lot of important people to protect," Fenty said. "The White House buildings are not immune from fire."
Fenty said he spoke to President Bush, who commended the fire department. "The president said firefighters did a great job," the mayor said.
Rubin said the building presented "additional challenges" when firefighters arrived because of its size, age and security concerns. He also said the fire alarm worked efficiently and alerted employees to the danger.
Rubin added that federal authorities will be taking over the fire investigation, which will be coordinated through the Secret Service.
The extent of water, fire and smoke damage to the ornate, late-19th-century building just west of the White House was not clear. Rubin said damage to archival material and other important documents or works is "being evaluated."
Fire department spokesman Alan Etter said there was "significant smoke, quite a bit," when the fire was reported.
The smoke rose from the second floor to fill the building, billowing so heavily at one point that gray gusts could be seen coming from both the east and west sides of the structure.
The Eisenhower Building, formerly known as the Old Executive Office Building, was built between 1871 and 1888 in the French Second Empire style. It is one of the best examples of that architectural style in the United States, according to the White House Web site. Supervising Architect of the Treasury Alfred Mullett designed the five-story structure, which has an exterior of granite, slate and cast iron.
The building originally included the State, War and Navy departments. Today it houses the majority of the White House staff, including aides to the vice president, the Office of Management and Budget and the National Security Council.
The building was evacuated when the blaze was reported. A White House spokesman said the White House itself was not evacuated, and business there continued as usual.
Police closed several blocks of 17th Street NW on the west side of the complex to accommodate fire trucks, ambulances and other emergency vehicles. Scores of administration employees who had rushed from the building -- some without stopping to grab their coats --huddled on street corners to watch the action.
Katie Jackson, 26, said she was walking on the second floor of the building when she saw a slight haze of smoke, which quickly thickened. Jackson said the smoke appeared to be concentrated in or near Cheney's ceremonial office.
An evacuation notice came over the loudspeaker, employees said, and the Secret Service used its e-mail alert system to tell people to get out as well.
Firefighters quickly brought the blaze under control, Etter said. Crews could then be seen carrying construction-like equipment into the Eisenhower Building -- apparently to check walls, ceilings and floors for hot spots or remnants of the blaze.
The building is awash in history, according to the White House Web site. The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and George Washington's sword used to be on public display there, and it was the site of the first televised press conference. President Richard M. Nixon used part of the building for his day-to-day working office.
Staff writer John Solomon and washingtonpost.com politics producer Ed O'Keefe contributed to this report.
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THE FOLLOWING ENTRY IS A JOKE, BUT A FUNNY ONE WHICH QUICKLY MADE ITS WAY AROUND THE INTERNET WITH REGARD TO THE TRAGIC FIRE AT THE EISENHOWER OEB, FEBRUARY 19, 2008
Attempting to Destroy CIA Tapes, Cheney Burns Down White House
Veep Apologizes for Accidental Inferno
The White House, one of the most historic structures in the nation’s capital, burnt to the ground today after Vice President Dick Cheney attempted to incinerate a cache of CIA interrogation tapes in his office.
According to White House aides, the blaze started shortly after twelve noon, minutes after Mr. Cheney slipped out of a cabinet meeting, saying that he had to “hit the head.”
But rather than using the bathroom as he had stated, the vice president instead went to his office and put a blowtorch to a pile of CIA interrogation tapes which the White House had feared might be subpoenaed in the near future.
“I started burning those things and boom, they went up like a rocket,” an apologetic Mr. Cheney later told reporters.
The accidental blaze quickly spread from the videotapes to a nearby stack of transcripts of phone conversations involving Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and singer Barbra Streisand that Mr. Cheney had obtained via a warantless wiretap.
“Once those transcripts caught on fire, I knew the building was a goner,” Mr. Cheney said. “There were literally thousands and thousands of pages of that stuff.”
Speaking in front of the charred remains of the historic building, administration spokesperson Dana Perino said that the White House might have been saved had it not been for an unfortunate bureaucratic mix-up: “Instead of calling the fire department, President Bush called FEMA.”