Glenn Greenwald: The NSA Can “Literally Watch Every Keystroke You Make”The German publication Der Spiegel has revealed new details about a secretive hacking unit inside the National Security Agency called the Office of Tailored Access Operations, or TAO. The unit was created in 1997 to hack into global communications traffic.
100 Years Later, The Federal Reserve Has Failed At Everything It’s TriedOn Dec. 23, 1913, President Woodrow Wilson signed the Owen Glass Act, creating the Federal Reserve. As we note its centennial, what has the Fed accomplished during the last 100 years? The stated original purposes were to protect the soundness of the dollar and banks and also to lessen the jarring ups and downs of the business cycle.
Greenwald: US, British media are servants of security apparatusJournalist Glenn Greenwald condemned the mainstream media during an address at a German computer conference on Friday and accused his colleagues of failing to challenge erroneous remarks routinely made by government officials around the globe.
Top 25 Censored Stories from 2012-2013The presentation of this year’s Top 25 stories extends the tradition originated by Professor Carl Jensen and his Sonoma State students in 1976, while reflecting how the expansion of the Project to include affiliate faculty and students from campuses across the country and around the world-initiated several years ago as outgoing director Peter Phillips passed the reins to current director Mickey Huff-has made the Project even more diverse and robust.
FED up? Hundred years of manipulating the US dollarThe mainstream media are keeping remarkably quiet about this key milestone. No doubt, they know only too well that growing millions of workers inside and outside the US are realizing that a century of central banking monopoly in the hands of a private clique of usurer banksters is enough.
US Empire successful in stopping the betterment of the world’s people – Dr. Michael ParentiIn destroying country after country, the US Empire is doing well. One devastated country after the other has made it clear that any country which pursues independent sovereign policies and attempts to better its own position and the state of its people becomes a target for the US Empire.
Californians outraged after police acquire military armored vehicle to patrol cityKevork Djansezian / Getty Images / AFP Police in Salinas, California are under fire after the department acquired a heavily armored military vehicle for SWAT team operations. The $650,000 vehicle was gifted to the Salinas Police Department from the government through the 1033 program, which redistributes used equipment to other agencies.
Inside the Saudi 9/11 coverupAfter the 9/11 attacks, the public was told al Qaeda acted alone, with no state sponsors. But the White House never let it see an entire section of Congress’ investigative report on 9/11 dealing with “specific sources of foreign support” for the 19 hijackers, 15 of whom were Saudi nationals.
CIA probe into Bay of Pigs should be kept secret – Obama adminOver 50 years after the Bay of Pigs invasion went awry, the US federal government is still attempting to keep secrets about the failed overthrow of the Cuban government, with an Obama administration lawyer arguing this week to keep a document classified.
Hersh revelations and mainstream mediaWhenever a big, media-hyped attack or atrocity happens, the mainstream media always says the same thing: “The bad guys did it.” And who are these “bad guys”? The enemy-du-jour of the powers-that-be. The authorities blamed 9/11 on “radical Muslims.” They blamed the Boston Marathon, Sandy Hook and Aurora, Colorado massacres on “gun nuts” and “extremists.”
Michael Hudson: Oligarchs Will Never Cancel Debts We Owe ThemMichael Hudson sent this short video which explains the history of debt jubilees and the role of private debt in the rise of oligarchies. This is a useful piece in and of itself and as a tool for persuading friends and colleagues who may be ambivalent about debt restructurings.
US media failed to cite pundits’ ties to defense industry in Syria strike debateAFP Photo / Kevin C. Cox Nearly two dozen of the commentators who appeared on major media outlets to discuss a possible US military strike on Syria had relationships with contractors and other organizations with a vested interest in the conflict, according to a new report.
9-11 was carried out by US/Saudi/Israeli intelligence – Len BrackenThe events of 9-11-2001 continue to be the subject of intense debate and speculation due to the US Governments failure to provide the people of the world with a plausible or believable explanation namely: why two steel framed skyscrapers collapsed and were pulverized into dust as they imploded into their own footprints at free-fall speed from a lateral impact that they were designed to withstand, why building 7 also collapsed due to “office fires” and how a 767 disappeared into a two meter in diameter hole in the Pentagon without damaging the lawn or even second floor windows.
Detroit Bankruptcy: Wall Street, Lost Revenues Forced Decline, But City Pensioners to Pay the CostsA federal judge has approved Detroit’s bid to qualify for bankruptcy, putting the city on a path to financial recovery – but threatening the livelihoods of thousands of city workers. In a landmark decision that could harm retiree benefits nationwide, Federal Judge Steven Rhodes ruled that federal bankruptcy law can override state laws that protect public pensions.
Creator of ‘The Wire’ says ‘There are now two Americas. My country is a horror show.’ | The Raw StoryAmerica is a country that is now utterly divided when it comes to its society, its economy, its politics. There are definitely two Americas. I live in one, on one block in Baltimore that is part of the viable America, the America that is connected to its own economy, where there is a plausible future for the people born into it.