War in Context

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• Obama’s Orwellian America
• From Tom Paine to Glenn Greenwald, we need partisan journalism
• How the NSA threatens America’s universities
• How the CIA breaks into the computers the NSA cannot reach
• Former FISA judge spells out why court cannot perform judicial role
• Unitarian Church, gun groups Join EFF to sue NSA over illegal surveillance
• CIA warned Hezbollah about threat of al Qaeda attack
• Egyptian protesters seek ‘new revolution’
• Morsi in extended-stay hotel?
• Syria crisis worst since Rwanda, U.N. says
• Homs: Ruins in a center of Syria’s uprising
• The vexing question of how to sign off from an email
• Music: Bossacucanova with Adriana Calcanhotto — ‘Previsão’

Obama’s Orwellian America Posted: 17 Jul 2013 08:15 AM PDT The Washington Post reports: The Department of Homeland Security has warned its employees that the government may penalize them for opening a Washington Post article containing a classified slide that shows how the National Security Agency eavesdrops on international communications. An internal memo from DHS headquarters told workers on Friday that viewing the document from [...]

From Tom Paine to Glenn Greenwald, we need partisan journalism Posted: 17 Jul 2013 08:10 AM PDT Jack Shafer writes: I would sooner engage you in a week-long debate over which taxonomical subdivision the duck-billed platypus belongs to then spend a moment arguing whether Glenn Greenwald is a journalist or not, or whether an activist can be a journalist, or whether a journalist can be an activist, or how suspicious we should [...]

How the NSA threatens America’s universities Posted: 17 Jul 2013 08:05 AM PDT The sooner that flaws in computer code can be found, the sooner they can be fixed — these are the fixes required to reduce the vulnerability that all networks face from cyberattacks. The problem is that government agencies such as the NSA are now outbidding software manufacturers when such vulnerabilities get discovered, meaning that the [...]

How the CIA breaks into the computers the NSA cannot reach Posted: 17 Jul 2013 08:00 AM PDT Matthew Aid writes: During a coffee break at an intelligence conference held in The Netherlands a few years back, a senior Scandinavian counterterrorism official regaled me with a story. One of his service’s surveillance teams was conducting routine monitoring of a senior militant leader when they suddenly noticed through their high-powered surveillance cameras two men [...]

Former FISA judge spells out why court cannot perform judicial role Posted: 17 Jul 2013 07:55 AM PDT James Robertson, a former federal district judge who served on the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, addressing the new Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, on July 9, explained why FISA cannot perform the function which is assigned to judges: that they choose between adversaries. Dan Froomkin quotes Robertson from the transcript: I read the [...]

Unitarian Church, gun groups Join EFF to sue NSA over illegal surveillance Posted: 17 Jul 2013 07:50 AM PDT Electronic Frontier Foundation: Nineteen organizations including Unitarian church groups, gun ownership advocates, and a broad coalition of membership and political advocacy organizations filed suit against the National Security Agency (NSA) today for violating their First Amendment right of association by illegally collecting their call records. The coalition is represented by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), [...]

CIA warned Hezbollah about threat of al Qaeda attack Posted: 17 Jul 2013 07:45 AM PDT McClatchy reports: The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency warned Lebanese officials last week that al Qaida-linked groups are planning a campaign of bombings that will target Beirut’s Hezbollah-dominated southern suburbs as well as other political targets associated with the group or its allies in Syria, Lebanese officials said Monday. The unusual warning – U.S. government officials [...]

Egyptian protesters seek ‘new revolution’ Posted: 17 Jul 2013 07:40 AM PDT The Washington Post reports: The men and women who have taken up residence at the Muslim Brotherhood protest camp on the outskirts of Cairo emerged from their tents into the scorching July sunshine on Tuesday with new determination, their defiance reinforced by a night of demonstrations that culminated in deadly clashes with police in the [...]

Morsi in extended-stay hotel? Posted: 17 Jul 2013 07:35 AM PDT Al-Masry Al-Youm reports: Ousted President Mohamed Morsy is not being detained by the army and is being well looked after, according to Colonel Ahmed Mohamed Ali, the official spokesperson for the Armed Forces. The army has prioritized protecting the ex-president due to the instability witnessed on the Egyptian street, Ali said. The military spokesperson denied [...]

Syria crisis worst since Rwanda, U.N. says Posted: 17 Jul 2013 07:30 AM PDT Al Jazeera reports: Six thousand people are fleeing Syria every day as the conflict intensifies and merges with violence in neighbouring Iraq, United Nations officials have said. The warnings were given on Tuesday at a rare public briefing of the UN’s Security Council in New York The High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, told the [...]

Homs: Ruins in a center of Syria’s uprising Posted: 17 Jul 2013 07:27 AM PDT The New York Times reports: Little by little, the central Syrian city of Homs is losing its infrastructure and its landmarks. The national hospital lies in ruins. Rebel-held neighborhoods stretch for blocks without an intact building. Many government offices are closed. The silver-domed mosque of Khalid bin al-Waleed — named for an early Islamic warrior [...]

The vexing question of how to sign off from an email Posted: 17 Jul 2013 07:25 AM PDT Ben Pobjie writes: The world of modern technology is filled with potential pitfalls to snare the unwary: how to keep sexting discreet; how to commit libel on Twitter without adverse consequence; how to stop playing the game Candy Crush. But there are few elements of modernity as vexing as the question of how to sign [...]

Music: Bossacucanova with Adriana Calcanhotto — ‘Previsão’ Posted: 17 Jul 2013 07:24 AM PDT