State-Sponsored Commercial Espionage: The Global Theft of Ideas — Larry Romanoff

After digesting its massive theft of ideas, things and people from Operation Paperclip following the end of World War Two, the US wasted no time in designing and implementing the world’s largest network of commercial espionage that has ever existed, and one which still exists in vastly expanded form today – as we saw from the revelations by Edward Snowden....

Today, Echelon attempts to intercept and monitor every communications transaction transmitted by satellite, undersea cables, fiber optic, telephone lines, microwave and more, spying on every nation and, if possible, on every person, on earth. Moreover, it sorts and stores all this information in perpetuity, in the world’s largest database located in the American desert, in Bluffdale, Utah. This is state-sponsored commercial espionage on a global scale, intended primarily to benefit US multinational corporations in their quest for global dominance....

But look over there — China, Huawei. (snark)

Actually, "everyone" (that can) does it."

The US is not the only nation engaging in this activity. According to Robert Gates, a former CIA Director, there are about 20 countries that engage in state-sponsored economic espionage in the US. The worst offender is Israel, followed by France, Russia, and Britain. China is not high on this list....

Bill Totten's Weblog
State-Sponsored Commercial Espionage: The Global Theft of Ideas

Larry Romanoff

Publius Tacitus — Pieces of the Coup Puzzle Fall Into Place

Most people, including many of you, have the memory of an Alzheimer's patient when it comes to putting events into their proper historical context. So let me help....

Sic Semper Tyrannis
Pieces of the Coup Puzzle Fall Into Place

Publius Tacitus

Soon the investigative crosshairs will settle on Brennan. He’d better have the right answers.

The Unz Review
Is John Brennan the Mastermind Behind Russiagate?

Mike Whitney

Related

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly blocked Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., from briefing President Donald Trump about a meeting he had in London in August with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, Rohrabacher told The Intercept.

Rohrabacher claimed Assange had shown him and his traveling companion, Charles Johnson, definitive proof that Russia was not the source of the Democratic Party communications that WikiLeaks published during the 2016 campaign. Assange was willing to share that information with American officials, Rohrabacher said, but he was never able to present the offer to the president....

The Intercept

Congressman Says He Tried to Brief Trump on WikiLeaks and Russia After Meeting With Julian Assange, But John Kelly Blocked Him

Ryan Grim

Ray McGovern — Foxes in Charge of Intelligence Hen House

We learned in recent days that the FBI and the National Security Agency “inadvertently” deleted electronic messages relating to reported felonies, but one noxious reality persists: No one in the FBI or NSA is likely to be held to account for these “mistakes.”

It is a 70 year-old tradition. Today’s lack of accountability is enabled by (1) corruption at the top of intelligence agencies; (2) the convenient secrecy behind which their leaders hide; (3) bureaucratic indignities and structural flaws in the system; (4) the indulgence/complicity of most of the “mainstream media;” and (5) the eunuchs leading the Congressional “oversight” committees, who — history shows — can be bullied by threats, including blackmail, a la former longtime FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover....

No accountability = license to abuse power.

Consortium News
Foxes in Charge of Intelligence Hen House
Ray McGovern

also

Disobedient Media
Documents Reveal The NSA Is An Agency Gone Rogue As FISA 702 Is Reauthorized
Elizabeth Vos

Neema Singh Guliani — New Surveillance Bill Would Dramatically Expand NSA Powers

The USA Patriot Act, passed hurriedly after 9/11, taught us that rushing a surveillance bill through Congress is a bad idea, producing complicated statutes ripe for abuse. Yet the leadership of the House Intelligence Committee is taking a page out of President George W. Bush’s playbook and trying to do just that.

Tomorrow, the committee will debate a bill that dramatically expands NSA surveillance authorities, including one that is scheduled to expire at the end of the year. The bill was publicly released just last night, giving members of the committee and other legislators less than 48 hours to try to understand the complex proposal.

Perhaps hoping no one has time to closely read the “FISA Amendments Reauthorization Act of 2017,” sponsors have pitched the measure as one that makes key changes to intelligence authorities to “protect Americans’ privacy rights.” The truth, however, is that it does the exact opposite.

This is why the ACLU, joined by over 30 organizations from across the political spectrum, is urging members of Congress to oppose the bill. Here are some of the reasons we’re fighting this legislation....

Blog of Rights: Official Blog of the American Civil Liberties Union
New Surveillance Bill Would Dramatically Expand NSA Powers
Neema Singh Guliani, ACLU Legislative Counsel

Sputnik — Pot Meet Kettle: Why Hayden's Attack on Trump Sounds Hypocritical

Former G.W. Bush-era NSA and CIA head Michael Hayden has joined the ranks of Trump's social media critics, tweeting that the president's "outrageous assault" on press freedom makes him feel like he's "wasted 40 years of [his] life." However, Hayden's record doesn't exactly inspire confidence in his newfound role as defender of the Constitution.…

The outpouring of support for George W. Bush's CIA & NSA chief — who oversaw torture, rendition, illegal domestic spying and an array of other evils — is so moving: "No, General Hayden, your career was not wasted!" https://t.co/Q1A2S7TT68— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) November 27, 2017

Sputnik International
Pot Meet Kettle: Why Hayden's Attack on Trump Sounds Hypocritical

Washington's Blog — How to Instantly Prove (Or Disprove) Russian Hacking of U.S. Election

The nitty-gritty behind William Binney's claims.

Washington's Blog
How to Instantly Prove (Or Disprove) Russian Hacking of U.S. Election

Sputnik — Secret Surveillance Gives CIA Power to Subvert US Domestic Political Process

Many Americans still believed that the CIA was prohibited by law from operating within its own country, but that had not been the case in at least 36 years since President Ronald Reagan signed Executive Order 12333 in December 1981, Blunden recalled.

"It's a common misconception that the CIA is prohibited from launching domestic campaigns within the United States. One look at the General Provisions detailed in Executive Order 12333 demonstrates that this is not the case," he said.

 Potential for abuse?

Obama had reiterated his full personal confidence in Brennan even after it was discovered that the CIA had spied on the US Senate Intelligence Committee, Blunden commented.

Not to mention NSA chief James Clapper lying to Congress and getting caught.

Sputnik International
Secret Surveillance Gives CIA Power to Subvert US Domestic Political Process

Sean Gallagher — Bad Rabbit used NSA “EternalRomance” exploit to spread, researchers say

Despite early reports that there was no use of National Security Agency-developed exploits in this week's crypto-ransomware outbreak, research released by Cisco Talos suggests that the ransomware worm known as "Bad Rabbit" did in fact use a stolen Equation Group exploit revealed by Shadowbrokers to spread across victims' networks. The attackers used EternalRomance, an exploit that bypasses security over Server Message Block (SMB) file-sharing connections, enabling remote execution of instructions on Windows clients and servers. The code closely follows an open source Python implementation of a Windows exploit that used EternalRomance (and another Equation Group tool, EternalSynergy), leveraging the same methods revealed in the Shadowbrokers code release. NotPetya also leveraged this exploit....

Ars Technica 

Bad Rabbit used NSA “EternalRomance” exploit to spread, researchers say
Sean Gallagher, IT Editor

Constantin Gurdgiev — Swift & Digital Money: Cybersecurity Questions

Shadow Brokers.

true economics
15/4/17: Swift & Digital Money: Cybersecurity Questions
Constantin Gurdgiev | chairman of the Ireland-Russia Business Association, contributor and former editor of Business & Finance Magazine, and lecturer in Finance with Trinity College, Dublin

Dan Goodin — NSA-leaking Shadow Brokers just dumped its most damaging release yet

The Shadow Brokers—the mysterious person or group that over the past eight months has leaked a gigabyte worth of the National Security Agency's weaponized software exploits—just published its most significant release yet. Friday's dump contains potent exploits and hacking tools that target most versions of Microsoft Windows and evidence of sophisticated hacks on the SWIFT banking system of several banks across the world....

Ars Technica
NSA-leaking Shadow Brokers just dumped its most damaging release yet

Dan Goodin | Security Editor at Ars Technic

Zero Hedge — Hacker Group Releases Password To NSA's "Top Secret Arsenal" In Protest Of Trump Betrayal

Gutsy.

Zero Hedge
Hacker Group Releases Password To NSA's "Top Secret Arsenal" In Protest Of Trump Betrayal
Tyler Durden

Johnson's Russia List — “How did the intelligence community know that the Russians hacked the Democratic National Committee? CrowdStrike told them so. From the March 20 House Intelligence Committee hearing …”

The FBI and NSA admit that they never actually investigated the DNC hack. Excerpt from the hearing transcript.

Johnson's Russia List
“How did the intelligence community know that the Russians hacked the Democratic National Committee? CrowdStrike told them so. From the March 20 House Intelligence Committee hearing …”

See also

NEWSLINK: “Notes From the House Select Intelligence Hearing on Russia; In one of the most anticipated congressional hearings in years, James Comey and Mike Rogers took turns saying nothing” – Rolling Stone/Matt Taibbi

NEWSLINK: “Key Democratic Officials Now Warning Base Not to Expect Evidence of Trump/Russia Collusion” – The Intercept/Glenn Greenwald

NEWSLINK: “The paranoid attempts to tie Trump to Russia are distracting US liberals from their real problems” – Quartz: James Carden

NSA Whistleblower Wm. Binney — Agency ‘Absolutely’ Tapping Trump’s Calls

William Binney, a former highly placed NSA official turned whistleblower, contended in an exclusive interview today that the National Security Agency (NSA) is “absolutely” monitoring the phone calls of President Donald Trump.

Binney was an architect of the NSA’s surveillance program. He became a famed whistleblower when he resigned on October 31, 2001 after spending more than 30 years with the agency....

Welcome to the surveillance state, where even the president is surveilled.

"Hey, if you don't have anything to hide, what are you worried about?"

Breitbart News
EXCLUSIVE – NSA Whistleblower: Agency ‘Absolutely’ Tapping Trump’s Calls

Aaron Klein | Breitbart News Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter, and host of “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio.”

George Eliason — Why Crowdstrike’s Russian Hacking Story Fell Apart 2 — The DNI Report Faked Sources

The only thread that holds the DNI report together at first glance is the false testimony and fake evidence Crowdstrike and Dmitri Alperovitch provided to the FBI and other agencies involved. When you look at the evidence presented and the sources it becomes evident that the Russian hack story doesn’t stand up against Crowdstrike’s own facts.

By examining facts, timelines, and sources needed for the DNI report, the only conclusion is the DNI report is strictly political. Because of this Craig Murray- Julian Assange’s story showing the emails were leaked is the only version of the story that stands. The facts on hand show criminality and negligence on the part of Crowdstrike, the FBI, and the DNI.…

More on US intelligence relying on Crowdstrike, Dimitri Alperovitch, and the Ukrainian connection through the Chalupa family, linked to Hillary Clinton.

Washington's Blog
Why Crowdstrike’s Russian Hacking Story Fell Apart 2 — The DNI Report Faked Sources

George Eliason

(George Eliason lives in Ukraine.)

Why Crowdstrike’s Russian Hacking Story Fell Apart — Say Hello to Fancy Bear (Jan 3) was part 1

Russia Hacking the Election the Inside Story ( Dec 21) was the intro.

emptywheel — The Declassified Russian Hack Report

Marcy Wheeler assesses the unclassified report in some detail and finds it wanting.

A key piece, however, is the finding that

Disclosures through WikiLeaks did not contain any evident forgeries.

Significantly, this is contrary to the claims of the Clinton campaign and principal spokespeople.

emptywheel
The Declassified Russian Hack Report
emptywheel (Marcy Wheeler)

Zero Hedge is harsher.

The farce is complete.

Zero Hedge
Here Is The US Intel Report Accusing Putin Of Helping Trump Win The Election By "Discrediting" Hillary Clinton

Tyler Durden

Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity — Allegations of Hacking Election Are Baseless

The go-to agency is NSA not the CIA. These former senior intelligence people explain the difference between a leak and a hack, and why this incident was not a hack.

This is in line with the report of Ambassador Craig Murray in The CIA’s Absence of Conviction that it was an inside job, a leak rather than a hack.

Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
MEMORANDUM
Allegations of Hacking Election Are Baseless

Pat Lang — "Zero Days"

"Zero Days covers the phenomenon surrounding the Stuxnet computer virus and the development of the malware software known as "Olympic Games."" wiki on the film
------------
I watched this yesterday and I urge you all to watch it. The level of detail concerning the roles of NSA, Cyber Command, the CIA and Israeli Mossad Section 8200 is surprising....

This was an act of war.

Sic Semper Tyrannis
"Zero Days"
Col. W. Patrick Lang, US Army (ret.), former military intelligence officer at the US Defense Intelligence Agency

Sputnik — Trump’s Doubt of US Intel's Groundless Claims of Russian Hack ‘Defies Logic’

These security officials must not know that people are aware of the Snowden leaks and that James Clapper lied to Congress. Not mention all the formerly classified information that has been unclassified that shows the scope of deniable covert operations, like the overthrow of Mosaddegh to cite but one of many. 

Now they are wondering why many Americans don't trust them anymore, especially when they don't present any evidence that can be corroborated, for "national security reasons."

To just accept what is said based on authority after that record would be illogical.

Sputnik International
Trump’s Doubt of US Intel's Groundless Claims of Russian Hack ‘Defies Logic’

Yekaterina Sinelschikova — Russian server head: Hacks on U.S. weren’t even worthy of Bond movie

The hackers who broke into U.S. Democratic Party files wrote in broken English and were extremely amateurish, the owner of the Russian company King Servers, from whose servers the attacks originated, told RBTH, whilst denying any involvement in the scandal.

The investigation of the controversial hacking into state voting systems in two U.S. states have led American experts to Biysk, a small industrial town in the south of Siberia (2,300 miles east of Moscow). This is where 26-year-old Vladimir Fomenko, whose company King Servers rents out server space in the United States, the Netherlands and Russia, lives and works.

In June this year, according to the FBI, Russian hackers staged "significant" cyber-attacks from servers rented from King Servers, penetrating the voter registration systems in Arizona and Illinois.

They had earlier broken into the computers of the Democratic National Committee, exposing emails and correspondence whose publication seriously compromised the position of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, as well as Democratic research on Republican candidate Donald Trump.

After the FBI revealed that Russians were highly likely to be behind the attacks, the U.S. media was quick to report the “Russian trace.” And while the Kremlin denied any involvement in the incident, the company from Biysk wondered why no one had contacted it, since everything written in the Western press was connected with it.

The American cybersecurity company ThreatConnect even described Fomenko as the manager of an "information nexus" used by hackers who targeted Germany, Turkey and Ukraine, among other countries, according to an article by The New York Times.

"I really did not cooperate and am not cooperating with Russian or any other special services," Fomenko said in an interview with RBTH. "We were not contacted even by the FBI to obtain data that would allow the criminals to be caught."…

"If we consider the situation from the other side, it is unclear why the FBI and related experts are talking only about our company," said Fomenko.

"After all, the U.S. intelligence report says that the hacking was staged from eight IP addresses, six of them belonging to our company (the criminals used our equipment), and two other companies being not connected with us in any way. One of them is located in the Netherlands, I don’t know about the other. But it's all just about us. What is this? Prejudice?"…

As for the "Russian trace," it turns out to be have been all too obvious, said Fomenko. The hackers left several messages for King Servers' support service written in broken English, though he claimed this “would be very strange for the Russian special services, when applying for assistance to a Russian company.”

Additionally, the e-mail addresses used for registration contain the following name, literally – "Robin Good" (with G, rather than H – typical of Russian transliteration). 

"I don’t think that the security services work so unprofessionally," said Fomenko. "Of course, I can only judge from movies, but even the James Bond movies show Russians as more inventive."

Russia Beyond the Headlines
Russian server head: Hacks on U.S. weren’t even worthy of Bond movie
Yekaterina Sinelschikova

Reuters — Yahoo secretly scanned customer emails for US intelligence

Yahoo last year secretly built a custom software program to scan all of its users emails for specific information at the behest of US intelligence officials, according to a report by Reuters.

The company complied with a classified US government directive, scanning hundreds of millions of Yahoo Mail accounts at the behest of the National Security Agency or FBI, said two former employees and a third person apprised of the events.

Some surveillance experts said this represents the first case to surface of a US Internet company agreeing to a spy agency's demand by searching all arriving messages, as opposed to examining stored messages or scanning a small number of accounts in real time.

Hey, if you weren't doing anything suspicious, no matter. Right?

The Telegraph
Yahoo secretly scanned customer emails for US intelligence
Reuters