Headlines and NSA Fallout
DayPage for November 20th, 2013 – Rex Latchford, with another DayPage…
A U.S. drone strike in Yemen killed three people. The victims were described as alleged al-Qaeda fighters hit as they traveled in a vehicle. A delegation of Yemenis appeared before a congressional panel to testify on the impact of drone strikes. One of the speakers, Faisal bin Ali Jaber, lost his brother-in-law and nephew in a U.S. attack last year. According to the LA Times, CIA officials recently confirmed a U.S. drone strike in Yemen killed a young boy in June. The victim was the younger brother of a militant also killed in the attack.
At least 28 people have been killed in a spate of bombings today across the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. Dozens more were injured.
Not surprisingly, a newly disclosed report shows the Obama administration was warned about problems with the federal healthcare website as early as last spring. The consulting firm McKinsey & Company detailed a number of problems with the site, including a “significant dependency on external parties/contractors.” Well, duh. And as anyone with any experience in business knows, Politics and IT Management are an all-to-common toxic cocktail.
New disclosures show repeated violations by the National Security Agency in its collection of Americans’ private information. One declassified ruling from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court says the NSA improperly shared personal email addresses and other information with other government agencies. In an opinion addressing the NSA’s unlawful intelligence sharing, FISA court judge John Bates wrote: “NSA’s record of compliance with these rules has been poor … Most notably, [the] NSA generally disregarded the special rules for disseminating United States person information outside of NSA until it was ordered to” by the FISA court. Despite these violations, FISA court judges allowed the NSA’s data collection to continue.
Indonesia has recalled its ambassador to Australia in the latest diplomatic fallout to result from the Snowden-released NSA documents. They show the NSA used Australia as part of its global spying operations. Australian intelligence agencies reportedly tried to tap the phone of Indonesia’s president and other top officials. Australian embassies across Asia were involved in a surveillance ring led by the United States.
And finally… A U.S. government official has claimed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is NOT currently under sealed indictment. Assange has reportedly been the target of a three-year grand jury investigation in Virginia. Speaking to The Washington Post, an anonymous law enforcement official said: “Nothing has occurred so far. But it’s subject to change … The investigation is ongoing.” This is likely to be of small comfort to Assange, who has been trapped in the Ecuadorian consulate in London for over a year by the US’s proxy, the UK.
That’s it, that’s all, for DayPage, a production of Radio InfoWeb, it’s heard on the Liberty Network, and can be downloaded, feed burnt, and podcasted at DayPage.net. Join me next time for yet another… DayPage.
Written and produced by Mincka Bito