Monday, July 1, 2013

Was The Fiery Death Of Journalist Michael Hastings Connected To Atlanta Security Firm Called Endgame?



At the time of his death in a fiery car crash on June 18, journalist Michael Hastings was working on a story about alleged Anonymous leader Barrett Brown. Currently under federal indictment on charges related to computer hacking, Brown is the journalist who first reported on a shadowy private security firm in Atlanta called Endgame

The Web site freebarrettbrown.org reports that Hastings was planning to interview Brown in late June and had announced to his followers, "Get ready for your mind to be blown."


A Hastings/Brown interview almost certainly would have included questions about Brown's research on "black hat" private security firms that work with the official U.S. intelligence community. Some of these outfits also have powerful ties to corporate America via the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Primary among such firms is Endgame, which is based on the seventh floor of the former Biltmore Hotel building in Atlanta.


Before the interview could take place, Hastings was killed when his car exploded, with the engine blown some sixty feet from the wreckage on a Los Angeles street. Were individuals connected to Endgame and the U.S.Chamber--fearing possible exposure in government-sponsored wrongdoing--involved in Michael Hastings' death?


We don't have a solid answer to that question? But a report last week from Alabama attorney Jill Simpson and election-integrity specialist Jim March presents perhaps the most disturbing revelations yet about Endgame and similar private security firms. The report, dated June 24, 2013, is titled "Black Hat Versus White Hat: The Other Side of the Snowden/Hastings/Barrett Brown Cases."


Here is how March summarizes the report in a piece at OpEd News:



This is a look into the world of the private contractors that work in alliance with the official US intelligence community and appear to be state-sanctioned to commit crimes. We focus on one of these shady contractors, Endgame--an Atlanta GA corporation that both Barrett Brown and Michael Hastings were looking at. We show who they are, what they do, what their founders did before, who funds them and who they are connected to. We even filmed and photographed their building and lobby.

Simpson is best known as a former Republican operative who became a whistleblower in the political prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman. March is on the board of directors of blackboxvoting.org and is a former board member for the Southern Arizona chapter of the ACLU.

They note the ominous meanings behind the term "Endgame" and provide background on the firm's early days. Information about the people behind Endgame can be found here, at the company's Web site:



The final moves in a chess game are called the “endgame.” It has come to the attention of American whistleblowers and election integrity specialists that the CIA, NSA and White House have designed the ultimate final “endgame” for the free world as we know it--with a group of computer “security specialists.” 
One key component of this is a corporate office called Endgame, based in Atlanta, Georgia, (at the old Biltmore Hotel building, 817 W. Peachtree NW suite 770). This company is a spin-off from the major intelligence source X-Force that was founded originally by Chris Klaus whose career dates to at least 1994 when he founded Internet Security Systems, a private “white hat” counter-hacker group. 
The X-Force was a team of elite cyber-security specialists who operated within ISS in an Atlanta office and made daily reports to the intelligence community and White House about Internet security and malicious software threats. They were allegedly defensive in nature, at least when they started out, and protective of US security. One of their members was Christopher Rouland who was a famous hacker who got caught attacking the Pentagon’s systems by US Airforce cyber-cop Jim Christy who gave him a “break” so long as he would work from then forward as a “white hat” cybersleuth for the US government.

What about the terms "white hat" and "black hat"? Simpson and March explain:



“White hat” in this context means defensive Internet security--fighting the “black hat” attackers. We write this in part to show that Rouland and his company Endgame have in fact gone back to “black hat” with the approval of the Federal government, doing (and facilitating for others) the sorts of attacks that the Pentagon, the NSA and the like don’t want their fingers found in.

Firms who engage in such activities apparently are not anxious to receive publicity. March went undercover to provide insight into the environment surrounding Endgame, and his work can be viewed in a video at the end of this post. 



The Atlanta Biltmore
No one has done more to shine unwanted attention on Endgame than Barrett Brown. His role in the story began with the February 2011 hack of the private intelligence company HBGary. From a report at The Nation, titled "The Strange Case of Barrett Brown," by reporter Peter Ludlow:


The HBGary hack may have been designed to humiliate the company, but it had the collateral effect of dropping a gold mine of information into Brown’s lap. . . . 
The data dump from the HBGary hack was so vast that no one person could sort through it alone. So Brown decided to crowdsource the effort. He created a wiki page, called it ProjectPM, and invited other investigative journalists to join in. Under Brown’s leadership, the initiative began to slowly untangle a web of connections between the US government, corporations, lobbyists and a shadowy group of private military and information security consultants. 
One connection was between Bank of America and the Chamber of Commerce. WikiLeaks had claimed to possess a large cache of documents belonging to Bank of America. Concerned about this, Bank of America approached the United States Department of Justice. The DOJ directed it to the law and lobbying firm Hunton and Williams, which does legal work for Wells Fargo and General Dynamics and also lobbies for Koch Industries, Americans for Affordable Climate Policy, Gas Processors Association, Entergy among many other firms. . . . 
In November 2010, Hunton and Williams organized a number of private intelligence, technology development and security contractors—HBGary, plus Palantir Technologies, Berico Technologies and, according to Brown, a secretive corporation with the ominous name Endgame Systems—to form “Team Themis”—‘themis’ being a Greek word meaning “divine law.” Its main objective was to discredit critics of the Chamber of Commerce, like Chamber Watch, using such tactics as creating a “false document, perhaps highlighting periodical financial information,” giving it to a progressive group opposing the Chamber, and then subsequently exposing the document as a fake to “prove that US Chamber Watch cannot be trusted with information and/or tell the truth.”

The  bottom line? Barrett Brown helped expose Endgame's role in a disinformation campaign that was designed to protect the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Michael Hastings was set to interview Brown, and that almost certainly would have yielded damaging information about both Endgame and the U.S. Chamber.

Before that interview took place, Michael Hastings' car exploded.

Does Endgame welcome scrutiny about its activities? The following video helps answer that question:




37 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mega props to Simpson and March for bringing this to light. Some real investigative legwork went into this.

Anonymous said...

Michael Hastings was assassinated, there is no doubt about that. The only doubt involves, "Who did it?" Simpson and March have provided important pieces of the puzzle.

Anonymous said...

This is some scary s**t

TLR said...

The information about Endgame is interesting. But I'm more intrigued by Endgame's ties to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Anonymous said...

Especially enjoyed the video. Jim March has a pair!

Anonymous said...

One of Endgame's directors used to be with Carlyle Venture Partners, which has close ties to the Bush family.

legalschnauzer said...

Anon at 8:40--

Thanks for pointing that out. The director is Arun Gupta, who now is with Columbia Capital, one of Endgame's financial backers. Here is URL to info about people and entities behind Endgame:


http://www.endgamesystems.com/about-us/#team

Anonymous said...

Looks like U.S. Chamber is tied to Endgame at the behest of Bank of America, which reportedly was target of a major Anonymous hack. This all tells me that the feds and corporate America are terrified of Anonymous and its affiliates.

Anonymous said...

Widow says Michael Hastings was not working on story about Paula Kelley:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/26/michael-hastings-jill-kelley-reporting_n_3502003.html?utm_hp_ref=media

Anonymous said...

I didn't read much about Hasting's untimely death other than he died in a traffic accident. A car blowing up is hardly a traffic accident. Thanks for providing this post.

Anonymous said...

Ever noticed how often GOP dirt is based in the South?

* Smartech is based in Chattanooga;

* Bush-Gore election was stolen in Florida;

* Siegelman prosecution was in Alabama;

* Minor prosecution was in Mississippi;

* Karl Rove has bases in Texas and Alabama, and a house in Florida:

* Endgame is based in Atlanta;

Sure I am forgetting other examples.

legalschnauzer said...

Anon at 9:23--

Excellent points. I'm sure your list could go on and on. BTW, you sound a little like Andy Rooney in your intro.

Anonymous said...

Big question: Does the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, under Tom Donohue, have people killed?

Anonymous said...

The Nation article on Barrett Brown is a must read. More key information from the piece:


"Brown began looking into Endgame Systems, an information security firm that seemed particularly concerned about staying in the shadows. “Please let HBGary know we don’t ever want to see our name in a press release,” one leaked e-mail read. One of its products, available for a $2.5 million annual subscription, gave customers access to “zero-day exploits”—security vulnerabilities unknown to software companies—for computer systems all over the world. Business Week published a story on Endgame in 2011, reporting that “Endgame executives will bring up maps of airports, parliament buildings, and corporate offices. The executives then create a list of the computers running inside the facilities, including what software the computers run, and a menu of attacks that could work against those particular systems.” For Brown, this raised the question of whether Endgame was selling these exploits to foreign actors and whether they would be used against computer systems in the United States. Shortly thereafter, the hammer came down."

Anonymous said...

WORLD TRADE CENTERS were imploded, with the detonations and software the key how DONE.

SECURITY IN THE WTC TWIN TOWERS WAS OWNED AND MANAGED VIA SOFTWARE CORP, BUSHES.

KATRINA happened Babs Bush big mouth said: HER SONS AND THEIR FAMILIES SOFTWARE would go into all the schools for the children [to teach the future Bushwacked!?].

BANK OF AMERICA is not American but the largest 'fraud' of the House of Rothschild et al.

SOFTWARE ALGORITHMS are the trade and exchange secret of the DRONES as well as the DERIVATIVES.

Drones can hook into, SKYNET, yes it's real, and then the SOFTWARE programs interconnect, everywhere.

Satellites are controlled via software. The Browns and Hastings are our PAUL REVERE waking us up in time?

KARL ROVE STEALS ELECTIONS VIA BLACK BOX SOFTWARE.

JILL SIMPSON IS WITH LS, ONE OF OUR GREAT AMERICAN GENIUSES TOO.

Must check out the U.S. Chamber of Commerce links to hell.

LS, WOW, they now really hate you for your higher intellect that dances in the genius of WOW.

Anonymous said...

Trying to keep the lid on things

Two years on from Clinton voicing her concerns about the US struggle to win the info wars, Edward Snowden has revealed what many of us had already strongly suspected – that people and foreign governments, including allies and the EU (3), are being heavily monitored by the US government. Before Snowden became public enemy number one, the US had set out to curtail WikiLeaks’ voice by shutting down its access to finance, notably by initially applying pressure on PayPal and MasterCard.

The US state-corporate machine did almost everything in its power to curtail WikeLeaks’ influence. Most debilitating of all was the shutting down of WikiLeaks’ access to finance, notably via PayPal, MasterCard, the Swiss bank PostFinance, Moneybookers, Bank of America and Visa Inc.

Bank of America was accused as being especially strident in attempting to discredit and shut down WikiLeaks with various dirty tricks, including backing a smear campaign that involved the use of false documents, disinformation, and sabotage (4).

http://www.globalresearch.ca/info-wars-paranoia-surveillance-and-an-empire-in-decline/5341176

Anonymous said...

>>http://themoderatevoice.com/28815/book-review-hitlers-empire-he-was-good-at-war-but-lousy-at-governing/

While thousands of books have been written about virtually every aspect of the Third Reich from anshluss to zionism, comparatively little ink has been spilled on how Adolph Hitler governed his empire of conquered European states. And so it comes as something of a revelation, as Mark Mazower concludes in his recently published Hitler’s Empire: How the Nazis Ruled Europe, that those detail-obsessed Nazis gave little thought to governance, let alone a long-term vision for their immense empire.

... In fact, the disciplined cohesion that Hilter liked to project was a mirage.

Anonymous said...

These companies employ x-military, sharp shooters, retired intelligence etc amongst the hackers. They like them young though. Gov contracts with these companies when they want to avoid liability and scrutiny. Yes, they kill. Not sure about Endgame killing but others do. When people finally understand this, events such as 9/11 and Boston bombing should become obvious. The group that actually bombed Boston was very lax. Probably because it's apparent that we the people will believe anything msm tells us. Glad it's finally being talked about.

Anonymous said...

These companies contract through Senate and House sub-committees also. Meaning do the work directly instead of beurocratic red tape getting in the way. Many historical events were accomplished in this way. You will find essentially all events were accomplished this way! Noriega takedown was one!

Anonymous said...

In all the news articles I have not read that his car exploded, only that it hit a tree going at a very high rate of speed...

Robby Scott Hill said...

Look at the Naval Officers on both sides of this. Charles Swift, the hero of Guantanamo, defending Barrett Brown v. US Marine Infantry/Intelligence Officer Nathaniel Fick. This continues the civil cold war raging inside the Office of Naval Intelligence where future President of the United States, George P. Bush is an up and coming Naval Officer. There is a big war for business intelligence, Internet profits & free speech going on. These guys are smack in the middle of it & who wins will determine whether young George P. Bush or his father Jeb will have enough money to make a run for the White House. If the Bush interests don't get their way, they don't go back in the White House. Michael Hastings & Barrett Brown were standing in their way & so are you Legal Schnauzer. Watch your back.

Robby Scott Hill said...

And is there any legal environment better than the State of Georgia for Nathaniel Fick to use as his "firebase?" He can go to Justice Jason Deal to obtain a statewide wiretap anytime & Judge Deal's daddy, the Governor of Georgia, Nathan Deal can provide political cover for any warrants that are challenged. Covert meetings & trainings can be facilitated on large farms like those owned by the Rollins in Cartersville, all within the legal protections of the State of Georgia where they can eavesdrop on anyone who challenges them. I envy the power these people have. We've got to start ramping up our efforts to build our own base of political and economic power.

Unknown said...

http://coat.ncf.ca/P4C/66/spy.pdf

RSH is absolutely clear and indeed the delivery can't be misunderstood.

LS RSH is absolutely correct, watch your back.

Interesting comments here today, at long last the whole sordid unbelievably dirty 'games'

see pdf for real wake-up and smell the past bad that is now so foul, our GREAT JOURNALISTS are going the way that happened already in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, et al.

LS, know how the targets are indeed 'marked'.

Be like the unseen warrior at all times paying attention, body-mind-spirit

nasty karl rove and nasty rollins and very very nasty powerful occupiers of america

Anonymous said...

Deep Horizon oil spill was another of these ops meant to destroy Gulf Coast region's economy! These bastards love to blow things up!!!!!!

Robby Scott Hill said...

The Deep Horizon incident on 4-20-10 where a massive explosion took place was not the first spill from that rig. It was the first one that corporate media was unable to keep quiet. You can't bullshit folks about tar & oil soaked animal carcasses washing up on the beach. Had state & federal regulators dropped the hammer on BP when the spills before 4-20-10 took place, the big one would never have happened. Drilling below approved depths has been going on for two decades. I witnessed it when I worked for the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, State Lands Division. As long as the revenue wires were coming in, the regulators never said shit, at least until 4-20-13.

Bev said...

Just wanted you to know that I tried posting your article on different sites:

Mark Crispin Miller
Naked Capitalism
WashingtonsBlog
Max Keiser

and none "took"
ask Google?
or whom?

Bev said...

Update. I just posted your article at Truthdig, after a few minutes it is still there:

http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/greenwald_promises_another_bombshell_nsa_revelation_20130702/

Greenwald Promises Another Bombshell NSA Revelation

Glenn Greenwald told Fox News during an interview Tuesday that “the world will be shocked” by his next big story about the National Security Agency.

“You’re going to have to wait along with everybody else,” the Guardian columnist coyly responded to Eric Bolling when pressed about the information he was planning to detail. “I will say that there are vast programs, both domestic and international spying, that the world will be shocked to learn about, that the NSA is engaged in with no democratic accountability and that’s what driving our reporting.”

Greenwald also ripped President Obama for the U.S.’ pursuit of NSA leaker Edward Snowden, claiming the administration was trying to “intimidate future whistle-blowers from coming forward.”

“I think what the Obama administration wants and has been trying to establish for almost five years now with the unprecedented war on whistle-blowers that it is waging is to make it so that everybody is petrified of coming forward with information about what our political officials are doing in the dark that is deceitful, illegal or corrupt,” he said. “They don’t care about Edward Snowden at this point. He can no longer do anything that he hasn’t already done.”

This is my post at Truthdig with some editing:

comment:

Different sites have speculated whether all this spying among other things was for profit to frontrun the stock market. And the following Legal Schnauzer article makes me think that elections too are being frontrun ( the e-voting, scanning, tabulating computers which strip out evidence, look to be built for such a purpose). A commenter suggests the company has connections with the Bushs. How would it benefit the Bushs' for Obama not Romney to be in office? Does this help who will run next?

http://legalschnauzer.blogspot.com/2013/07/was-fiery-death-of-journalist-michael.html

Was The Fiery Death Of Journalist Michael Hastings Connected To Atlanta Security Firm Called Endgame?

snip

But a report last week from Alabama attorney Jill Simpson and election-integrity specialist Jim March presents perhaps the most disturbing revelations yet about Endgame and similar private security firms. The report, dated June 24, 2013, is titled "Black Hat Versus White Hat: The Other Side of the Snowden/Hastings/Barrett Brown Cases."

Here is how March summarizes the report in a piece at OpEd News:

This is a look into the world of the private contractors that work in alliance with the official US intelligence community and appear to be state-sanctioned to commit crimes. We focus on one of these shady contractors, Endgame--an Atlanta GA corporation that both Barrett Brown and Michael Hastings were looking at.

snip

Simpson is best known as a former Republican operative who became a
whistleblower in the political prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman. March is on the board of directors of blackboxvoting.org and is a former board member for the Southern Arizona chapter of the ACLU.

..............

That is the end of the post in which I quoted even more of your material than shows above.

If computer difficulties persist, then, just in case Jim March is onto something also very big:

Keep in touch with Jim March and Bev Harris at blackboxvoting.org
Also, Mark Crispin Miller at http://markcrispinmiller.com/ and the election integrity groups he is aligned with:
http://electiondefensealliance.org/
Victoria Colliers
http://markcrispinmiller.com/2012/10/how-to-rig-an-election-victoria-colliers-breakthrough-article-in-harpers-2/
“How to Rig an Election” — Victoria Collier’s BREAKTHROUGH article in Harper’s!
http://richardcharnin.com/
and Bradblog:
http://bradblog.com/ who is aligned with http://www.velvetrevolution.us/newVR/

.........

Thanks for all you do.

legalschnauzer said...

Thanks for sharing, Bev, and for spreading the word.

Robby Scott Hill said...

The big money at newspapers & online media is no longer how much you get paid to advertise, it's how much you get paid to suppress the real news. Doesn't matter if your news service of choice leans to the left or to the right. The kill fees line the pockets of the operators just the same.

Anonymous said...

Robby,
What you said re Deep Water Horizon is every bit more so a reason the "big one" happened and why they weren't called out on any previous spills for wrong doing. The previous problems made it look less obvious and BP perfect fall guys. This is the question we all wanted answered as we were drowning in crude, why did it take 6 months to plug the hole? WHY???? Because they didn't want to plug the fucking hole! They could have and knew how to, just weren't ready yet! Then Obama makes an appearance to check the damage. He got out fast!

Anonymous said...

I also want to hear from Jeff! Hope he is well!

Anonymous said...

Yep and now Big Luther is trying to help BP out of this one! Why? Because that was the deal that was made for the greater good of NWO! You (BP) take the fall, and we will cover your asses later! Whytf was an unschooled douche such as Luther sent to represent? Because he SUCKS at it. A good one couldn't fake his way through this mess! What does Luther care? Didn't effect him! He's in good ole Birmingham snuggled up next to JMG! These Riley f's have a long history of selling is out to big oil! This isn't a first!

SophiaB said...

Look at the first responder video and an analysis shortly after. The location of the main fire is in the REAR. The paint on the driver's side door is untouched/unmarred.

Also the frequently reposted daylight photo of a burned out car sitting NEAR a tree surrounded by police is a fake. The car would have been towed by that time.

Other interesting factoids:

*Hastings' body has not yet been identified bc it was too badly burned
*the story was spread that the street he was on was narrow & winding-not so
*his wife was a former speech writer for CONDOLEEZA RICE(?!DA FUCK?!?)
*And so on and so on.

Youtube is your friend. You have to look at LOTS of different posts and read many sources. But after a while the playbook gets so obvious that as soon as a headline appears you can tell it's either a psyop, a rubout, or a distraction.

Bev said...

Spread this from a full spectrum:

http://firedoglake.com/2013/07/06/come-saturday-morning-reclaiming-our-libert-e/

Come Saturday Morning: Reclaiming Our LIBERT-E

By: Phoenix Woman Saturday July 6, 2013

Democratic United States Representative John Conyers and his Republican colleague Justin Amash don’t agree on a lot of things. But they are, like most of us, united in being aghast at all the government snooping being done to us, for us, against us, and on everyone else in the world. Unlike most of us, they’re in a position to do something about it — or at the very least shame those Beltway officials who would perpetuate this snooping.

To that end, they’ve introduced H.R. 2399, the “Limiting Internet and Blanket Electronic Review of Telecommunications and Email Act,” or the LIBERT-E Act for short.

Here’s how it would work:

The first reform, in Section 2 of the LIBERT-E Act, modifies access to certain records for foreign intelligence and terrorism investigations. Specifically, Section 2 would amend Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act to prevent the mass collection of records that are not explicitly relevant to an authorized foreign intelligence investigation, terrorism investigation, or covert intelligence activities.

Presently, to obtain a court order under Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act, the government only needs to show that the records are “relevant” to an investigation. News reports suggest, however, that the government’s view of what is “relevant” includes the records of every telephone call. Section 2 of the LIBERT-E Act would raise the relevancy standard for the government to one requiring “specific and articulable” facts on a given investigation. In addition, Section 2 mandates that for any records to be collected they must be material to the investigation and pertain only to the individual under investigation.

Simply put, the government should be required to show that the records it seeks are in fact material to a particular concern.

The second set of reforms that the LIBERT-E Act puts into place deals with transparency. For too long, a secretive FISA court has essentially rubber-stamped all of the NSA’s surveillance requests. Section 3 of the LIBERT-E Act requires the Attorney General to make available to the public unclassified summaries of significant decisions by the FISA court, within 180 days of Congress receiving them. At the Congressional level, Section 3 also mandates that the Attorney General makes all information provided to the House and Senate Intelligence and Judiciary Committees available to every Member of Congress. Both of these measures will take the entirety of the decision-making process out of the backroom and provide needed public, as well as Congressional, oversight.

Sounds good to me. Of course, that’s probably why you’re only hearing about this now, from this blog post — because it’s such a good idea that no TV news program would touch it.

Let’s see if we can spread the word and do an end run around the censorship.

Bev said...

All this spying for power, money, and elections (via blackmail?), may include even more.

Hackers could access cameras and audio built into this particular TV. But, other equipment now have or are considering similar capacities for spying.

Some articles suggest that it was not just hackers accessing this equipment, but (if verified) apps were available for any 3rd party.

The important Legal Schnauzer reports on the Rollins student housing should warrant a review of the electronics of this housing.

As an overview see:

https://securityledger.com/2012/12/security-hole-in-samsung-smart-tvs-could-allow-remote-spying/

Security Hole in Samsung Smart TVs Could Allow Remote Spying
posted by paul

snip
And, in a Orwellian twist, the hole could be used to access cameras and microphones attached to the Smart TVs, giving remote attacker the ability to spy on those viewing a compromised set.

...

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/06/is-the-government-spying-on-you-through-your-own-webcam-or-microphone.html

Is the Government Spying On You Through Your Own Computer’s Webcam Or Microphone?

WashingtonsBlog

Government – Or Private Individuals – May Be Watching and Listening

...

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080320/171005601.shtml

Comcast Tests DVR That Watches You... Literally
from the some-things-don't-need-cameras dept

................

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/06/nsa-whistleblower-nsa-spying-on-and-blackmailing-high-level-government-officials-and-military-officers.html

NSA Whistleblower: NSA Spying On – and Blackmailing – Top Government Officials and Military Officers
WashingtonsBlog

Whistleblower Says Spy Agency Targeting Top American Leaders

NSA whistleblower Russel Tice – a key source in the 2005 New York Times report that blew the lid off the Bush administration’s use of warrantless wiretapping – told Peter B. Collins on Boiling Frogs Post (the website of FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds):

Tice: Okay. They went after–and I know this because I had my hands literally on the paperwork for these sort of things–they went after high-ranking military officers; they went after members of Congress, both Senate and the House, especially on the intelligence committees and on the armed services committees and some of the–and judicial. But they went after other ones, too. They went after lawyers and law firms. All kinds of–heaps of lawyers and law firms. They went after judges. One of the judges is now sitting on the Supreme Court that I had his wiretap information in my hand. Two are former FISA court judges. They went after State Department officials. They went after people in the executive service that were part of the White House–their own people. They went after antiwar groups. They went after U.S. international–U.S. companies that that do international business, you know, business around the world. They went after U.S. banking firms and financial firms that do international business. They went after NGOs that–like the Red Cross, people like that that go overseas and do humanitarian work. They went after a few antiwar civil rights groups. So, you know, don’t tell me that there’s no abuse, because I’ve had this stuff in my hand and looked at it. And in some cases, I literally was involved in the technology that was going after this stuff.

...............

So, I think the entire political, economic spectrum can get behind the following bill:

http://firedoglake.com/2013/07/06/come-saturday-morning-reclaiming-our-libert-e/

Come Saturday Morning: Reclaiming Our LIBERT-E

Matt Janovic said...

I'm glad people are digging into this story, however, having had some indirect contact with Jill Simpson (by way of Andrew Kreig, by way of Wayne Madsen), I would question her integrity.

That said, Endgame and its connections to the intelligence world and even the Chamber of Commerce deserves a deeper look, just not by somebody like a Wayne Madsen or a Jill Simpson. Whether Hastings was assassinated is pure conjecture at this point. Could he have been? It's not out of the question, but there's yet to be any solid evidence.

Bev said...

Demand an Up-or-Down Vote on the LIBERT-E ACT by Democratic Rep. Conyers and Republican Rep. Amash.

Because we may be able to improve our current world and our future world.

......

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=hacking-internet-of-everything

Hacking the Internet of Everything

Soon, nearly every device will be online. That is both a beautiful and a dangerous thing

By Peter Haynes and Thomas A. Campbell

SA Forum is an invited essay from experts on topical issues in science and technology.

“We live in a connected world” is a well-worn axiom. Even so, few people realize the true extent of that interconnectivity. Networking giant Cisco Systems estimates that by 2015 as many as 15 billion devices will be connected to the Internet—more than double the world’s population. One forecast suggests that the number of such devices will reach 50 billion by 2050, and that is almost certainly an underestimate. Many of those machines will interact with each other without our intervention, and often without our knowledge. When that happens, the Internet of Everything will have truly arrived.

But the Internet of Everything faces significant security challenges. It will consist of billions of devices programmed to handle multiple functions autonomously and asynchronously. Any node could be an attack vector for the entire system. Locating and containing a breach in such a dynamic, distributed system may be close to impossible. This matters because an attack on the Internet of Everything won’t simply destroy data—it will disrupt the physical world.

The Internet of Everything has been described as a transition from “Machina habilis” to “Machina sapiens”....