One presentation outlines how the NSA performs “industrial-scale exploitation” of computer networks across the world.

By Ryan Gallagher  and Glenn Greenwald

Top-secret documents reveal that the National Security Agency is dramatically expanding its ability to covertly hack into computers on a mass scale by using automated systems that reduce the level of human oversight in the process.

The classified files – provided previously by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden – contain new details about groundbreaking surveillance technology the agency has developed to infect potentially millions of computers worldwide with malware “implants.” The clandestine initiative enables the NSA to break into targeted computers and to siphon out data from foreign Internet and phone networks.

The covert infrastructure that supports the hacking efforts operates from the agency’s headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland, and from eavesdropping bases in the United Kingdom and Japan. GCHQ, the British intelligence agency, appears to have played an integral role in helping to develop the implants tactic.

In some cases the NSA has masqueraded as a fake Facebook server, using the social media site as a launching pad to infect a target’s computer and exfiltrate files from a hard drive. In others, it has sent out spam emails laced with the malware, which can be tailored to covertly record audio from a computer’s microphone and take snapshots with its webcam. The hacking systems have also enabled the NSA to launch cyberattacks by corrupting and disrupting file downloads or denying access to websites.

The implants being deployed were once reserved for a few hundred hard-to-reach targets, whose communications could not be monitored through traditional wiretaps. But the documents analyzed by The Intercept show how the NSA has aggressively accelerated its hacking initiatives in the past decade by computerizing some processes previously handled by humans. The automated system – codenamed TURBINE – is designed to “allow the current implant network to scale to large size (millions of implants) by creating a system that does automated control implants by groups instead of individually.”

In a top-secret presentation, dated August 2009, the NSA describes a pre-programmed part of the covert infrastructure called the “Expert System,” which is designed to operate “like the brain.” The system manages the applications and functions of the implants and “decides” what tools they need to best extract data from infected machines.

Mikko Hypponen, an expert in malware who serves as chief research officer at the Finnish security firm F-Secure, calls the revelations “disturbing.” The NSA’s surveillance techniques, he warns, could inadvertently be undermining the security of the Internet.

“When they deploy malware on systems,” Hypponen says, “they potentially create new vulnerabilities in these systems, making them more vulnerable for attacks by third parties.”

Hypponen believes that governments could arguably justify using malware in a small number of targeted cases against adversaries. But millions of malware implants being deployed by the NSA as part of an automated process, he says, would be “out of control.”

“That would definitely not be proportionate,” Hypponen says. “It couldn’t possibly be targeted and named. It sounds like wholesale infection and wholesale surveillance.”

The NSA declined to answer questions about its deployment of implants, pointing to a new presidential policy directive announced by President Obama. “As the president made clear on 17 January,” the agency said in a statement, “signals intelligence shall be collected exclusively where there is a foreign intelligence or counterintelligence purpose to support national and departmental missions, and not for any other purposes.”

“Owning the Net”

The NSA began rapidly escalating its hacking efforts a decade ago. In 2004, according to secret internal records, the agency was managing a small network of only 100 to 150 implants. But over the next six to eight years, as an elite unit called Tailored Access Operations (TAO) recruited new hackers and developed new malware tools, the number of implants soared to tens of thousands.

To penetrate foreign computer networks and monitor communications that it did not have access to through other means, the NSA wanted to go beyond the limits of traditional signals intelligence, or SIGINT, the agency’s term for the interception of electronic communications. Instead, it sought to broaden “active” surveillance methods – tactics designed to directly infiltrate a target’s computers or network devices.

In the documents, the agency describes such techniques as “a more aggressive approach to SIGINT” and says that the TAO unit’s mission is to “aggressively scale” these operations.

But the NSA recognized that managing a massive network of implants is too big a job for humans alone.

“One of the greatest challenges for active SIGINT/attack is scale,” explains the top-secret presentation from 2009. “Human ‘drivers’ limit ability for large-scale exploitation (humans tend to operate within their own environment, not taking into account the bigger picture).”

The agency’s solution was TURBINE. Developed as part of TAO unit, it is described in the leaked documents as an “intelligent command and control capability” that enables “industrial-scale exploitation.”

 

TURBINE was designed to make deploying malware much easier for the NSA’s hackers by reducing their role in overseeing its functions. The system would “relieve the user from needing to know/care about the details,” the NSA’s Technology Directorate notes in one secret document from 2009. “For example, a user should be able to ask for ‘all details about application X’ and not need to know how and where the application keeps files, registry entries, user application data, etc.”

In practice, this meant that TURBINE would automate crucial processes that previously had to be performed manually – including the configuration of the implants as well as surveillance collection, or “tasking,” of data from infected systems. But automating these processes was about much more than a simple technicality. The move represented a major tactical shift within the NSA that was expected to have a profound impact – allowing the agency to push forward into a new frontier of surveillance operations.

The ramifications are starkly illustrated in one undated top-secret NSA document, which describes how the agency planned for TURBINE to “increase the current capability to deploy and manage hundreds of Computer Network Exploitation (CNE) and Computer Network Attack (CNA) implants to potentially millions of implants.” (CNE mines intelligence from computers and networks; CNA seeks to disrupt, damage or destroy them.)

 

Eventually, the secret files indicate, the NSA’s plans for TURBINE came to fruition. The system has been operational in some capacity since at least July 2010, and its role has become increasingly central to NSA hacking operations.

Earlier reports based on the Snowden files indicate that the NSA has already deployed between 85,000 and 100,000 of its implants against computers and networks across the world, with plans to keep on scaling up those numbers.

The intelligence community’s top-secret “Black Budget” for 2013, obtained by Snowden, lists TURBINE as part of a broader NSA surveillance initiative named “Owning the Net.”

The agency sought $67.6 million in taxpayer funding for its Owning the Net program last year. Some of the money was earmarked for TURBINE, expanding the system to encompass “a wider variety” of networks and “enabling greater automation of computer network exploitation.”

Circumventing Encryption

The NSA has a diverse arsenal of malware tools, each highly sophisticated and customizable for different purposes.

One implant, codenamed UNITEDRAKE, can be used with a variety of “plug-ins” that enable the agency to gain total control of an infected computer.

An implant plug-in named CAPTIVATEDAUDIENCE, for example, is used to take over a targeted computer’s microphone and record conversations taking place near the device. Another, GUMFISH, can covertly take over a computer’s webcam and snap photographs. FOGGYBOTTOM records logs of Internet browsing histories and collects login details and passwords used to access websites and email accounts. GROK is used to log keystrokes. And SALVAGERABBIT exfiltrates data from removable flash drives that connect to an infected computer.

The implants can enable the NSA to circumvent privacy-enhancing encryption tools that are used to browse the Internet anonymously or scramble the contents of emails as they are being sent across networks. That’s because the NSA’s malware gives the agency unfettered access to a target’s computer before the user protects their communications with encryption.

It is unclear how many of the implants are being deployed on an annual basis or which variants of them are currently active in computer systems across the world.

Previous reports have alleged that the NSA worked with Israel to develop the Stuxnet malware, which was used to sabotage Iranian nuclear facilities. The agency also reportedly worked with Israel to deploy malware called Flame to infiltrate computers and spy on communications in countries across the Middle East.

According to the Snowden files, the technology has been used to seek out terror suspects as well as individuals regarded by the NSA as “extremist.” But the mandate of the NSA’s hackers is not limited to invading the systems of those who pose a threat to national security.

In one secret post on an internal message board, an operative from the NSA’s Signals Intelligence Directorate describes using malware attacks against systems administrators who work at foreign phone and Internet service providers. By hacking an administrator’s computer, the agency can gain covert access to communications that are processed by his company. “Sys admins are a means to an end,” the NSA operative writes.

The internal post – titled “I hunt sys admins” – makes clear that terrorists aren’t the only targets of such NSA attacks. Compromising a systems administrator, the operative notes, makes it easier to get to other targets of interest, including any “government official that happens to be using the network some admin takes care of.”

Similar tactics have been adopted by Government Communications Headquarters, the NSA’s British counterpart. As the German newspaper Der Spiegel reported in September, GCHQ hacked computers belonging to network engineers at Belgacom, the Belgian telecommunications provider.

The mission, codenamed “Operation Socialist,” was designed to enable GCHQ to monitor mobile phones connected to Belgacom’s network. The secret files deem the mission a “success,” and indicate that the agency had the ability to covertly access Belgacom’s systems since at least 2010.

Infiltrating cellphone networks, however, is not all that the malware can be used to accomplish. The NSA has specifically tailored some of its implants to infect large-scale network routers used by Internet service providers in foreign countries. By compromising routers – the devices that connect computer networks and transport data packets across the Internet – the agency can gain covert access to monitor Internet traffic, record the browsing sessions of users, and intercept communications.

Two implants the NSA injects into network routers, HAMMERCHANT and HAMMERSTEIN, help the agency to intercept and perform “exploitation attacks” against data that is sent through a Virtual Private Network, a tool that uses encrypted “tunnels” to enhance the security and privacy of an Internet session.

 

The implants also track phone calls sent across the network via Skype and other Voice Over IP software, revealing the username of the person making the call. If the audio of the VOIP conversation is sent over the Internet using unencrypted “Real-time Transport Protocol” packets, the implants can covertly record the audio data and then return it to the NSA for analysis.

 

But not all of the NSA’s implants are used to gather intelligence, the secret files show. Sometimes, the agency’s aim is disruption rather than surveillance. QUANTUMSKY, a piece of NSA malware developed in 2004, is used to block targets from accessing certain websites. QUANTUMCOPPER, first tested in 2008, corrupts a target’s file downloads. These two “attack” techniques are revealed on a classified list that features nine NSA hacking tools, six of which are used for intelligence gathering. Just one is used for “defensive” purposes – to protect U.S. government networks against intrusions.

“Mass exploitation potential”

Before it can extract data from an implant or use it to attack a system, the NSA must first install the malware on a targeted computer or network.

According to one top-secret document from 2012, the agency can deploy malware by sending out spam emails that trick targets into clicking a malicious link. Once activated, a “back-door implant” infects their computers within eight seconds.

There’s only one problem with this tactic, codenamed WILLOWVIXEN: According to the documents, the spam method has become less successful in recent years, as Internet users have become wary of unsolicited emails and less likely to click on anything that looks suspicious.

Consequently, the NSA has turned to new and more advanced hacking techniques. These include performing so-called “man-in-the-middle” and “man-on-the-side” attacks, which covertly force a user’s internet browser to route to NSA computer servers that try to infect them with an implant.

To perform a man-on-the-side attack, the NSA observes a target’s Internet traffic using its global network of covert “accesses” to data as it flows over fiber optic cables or satellites. When the target visits a website that the NSA is able to exploit, the agency’s surveillance sensors alert the TURBINE system, which then “shoots” data packets at the targeted computer’s IP address within a fraction of a second.

In one man-on-the-side technique, codenamed QUANTUMHAND, the agency disguises itself as a fake Facebook server. When a target attempts to log in to the social media site, the NSA transmits malicious data packets that trick the target’s computer into thinking they are being sent from the real Facebook. By concealing its malware within what looks like an ordinary Facebook page, the NSA is able to hack into the targeted computer and covertly siphon out data from its hard drive. A top-secret animation demonstrates the tactic in action.

The documents show that QUANTUMHAND became operational in October 2010, after being successfully tested by the NSA against about a dozen targets.

According to Matt Blaze, a surveillance and cryptography expert at the University of Pennsylvania, it appears that the QUANTUMHAND technique is aimed at targeting specific individuals. But he expresses concerns about how it has been covertly integrated within Internet networks as part of the NSA’s automated TURBINE system.

“As soon as you put this capability in the backbone infrastructure, the software and security engineer in me says that’s terrifying,” Blaze says.

“Forget about how the NSA is intending to use it. How do we know it is working correctly and only targeting who the NSA wants? And even if it does work correctly, which is itself a really dubious assumption, how is it controlled?”

In an email statement to The Intercept, Facebook spokesman Jay Nancarrow said the company had “no evidence of this alleged activity.” He added that Facebook implemented HTTPS encryption for users last year, making browsing sessions less vulnerable to malware attacks.

Nancarrow also pointed out that other services besides Facebook could have been compromised by the NSA. “If government agencies indeed have privileged access to network service providers,” he said, “any site running only [unencrypted] HTTP could conceivably have its traffic misdirected.”

A man-in-the-middle attack is a similar but slightly more aggressive method that can be used by the NSA to deploy its malware. It refers to a hacking technique in which the agency covertly places itself between computers as they are communicating with each other.

This allows the NSA not only to observe and redirect browsing sessions, but to modify the content of data packets that are passing between computers.

The man-in-the-middle tactic can be used, for instance, to covertly change the content of a message as it is being sent between two people, without either knowing that any change has been made by a third party. The same technique is sometimes used by criminal hackers to defraud people.

A top-secret NSA presentation from 2012 reveals that the agency developed a man-in-the-middle capability called SECONDDATE to “influence real-time communications between client and server” and to “quietly redirect web-browsers” to NSA malware servers called FOXACID. In October, details about the FOXACID system were reported by the Guardian, which revealed its links to attacks against users of the Internet anonymity service Tor.

But SECONDDATE is tailored not only for “surgical” surveillance attacks on individual suspects. It can also be used to launch bulk malware attacks against computers.

According to the 2012 presentation, the tactic has “mass exploitation potential for clients passing through network choke points.”

 

Blaze, the University of Pennsylvania surveillance expert, says the potential use of man-in-the-middle attacks on such a scale “seems very disturbing.” Such an approach would involve indiscriminately monitoring entire networks as opposed to targeting individual suspects.

“The thing that raises a red flag for me is the reference to ‘network choke points,’” he says. “That’s the last place that we should be allowing intelligence agencies to compromise the infrastructure – because that is by definition a mass surveillance technique.”

To deploy some of its malware implants, the NSA exploits security vulnerabilities in commonly used Internet browsers such as Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer.

The agency’s hackers also exploit security weaknesses in network routers and in popular software plugins such as Flash and Java to deliver malicious code onto targeted machines.

The implants can circumvent anti-virus programs, and the NSA has gone to extreme lengths to ensure that its clandestine technology is extremely difficult to detect. An implant named VALIDATOR, used by the NSA to upload and download data to and from an infected machine, can be set to self-destruct – deleting itself from an infected computer after a set time expires.

In many cases, firewalls and other security measures do not appear to pose much of an obstacle to the NSA. Indeed, the agency’s hackers appear confident in their ability to circumvent any security mechanism that stands between them and compromising a computer or network. “If we can get the target to visit us in some sort of web browser, we can probably own them,” an agency hacker boasts in one secret document. “The only limitation is the ‘how.’”

Covert Infrastructure

The TURBINE implants system does not operate in isolation.

It is linked to, and relies upon, a large network of clandestine surveillance “sensors” that the agency has installed at locations across the world.

 

The NSA’s headquarters in Maryland are part of this network, as are eavesdropping bases used by the agency in Misawa, Japan and Menwith Hill, England.

The sensors, codenamed TURMOIL, operate as a sort of high-tech surveillance dragnet, monitoring packets of data as they are sent across the Internet.

When TURBINE implants exfiltrate data from infected computer systems, the TURMOIL sensors automatically identify the data and return it to the NSA for analysis. And when targets are communicating, the TURMOIL system can be used to send alerts or “tips” to TURBINE, enabling the initiation of a malware attack.

The NSA identifies surveillance targets based on a series of data “selectors” as they flow across Internet cables. These selectors, according to internal documents, can include email addresses, IP addresses, or the unique “cookies” containing a username or other identifying information that are sent to a user’s computer by websites such as Google, Facebook, Hotmail, Yahoo, and Twitter.

Other selectors the NSA uses can be gleaned from unique Google advertising cookies that track browsing habits, unique encryption key fingerprints that can be traced to a specific user, and computer IDs that are sent across the Internet when a Windows computer crashes or updates.

 

What’s more, the TURBINE system operates with the knowledge and support of other governments, some of which have participated in the malware attacks.

Classification markings on the Snowden documents indicate that NSA has shared many of its files on the use of implants with its counterparts in the so-called Five Eyes surveillance alliance – the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia.

GCHQ, the British agency, has taken on a particularly important role in helping to develop the malware tactics. The Menwith Hill satellite eavesdropping base that is part of the TURMOIL network, located in a rural part of Northern England, is operated by the NSA in close cooperation with GCHQ.

Top-secret documents show that the British base – referred to by the NSA as “MHS” for Menwith Hill Station – is an integral component of the TURBINE malware infrastructure and has been used to experiment with implant “exploitation” attacks against users of Yahoo and Hotmail.

In one document dated 2010, at least five variants of the QUANTUM hacking method were listed as being “operational” at Menwith Hill. The same document also reveals that GCHQ helped integrate three of the QUANTUM malware capabilities – and test two others – as part of a surveillance system it operates codenamed INSENSER.

GCHQ cooperated with the hacking attacks despite having reservations about their legality. One of the Snowden files, previously disclosed by Swedish broadcaster SVT, revealed that as recently as April 2013, GCHQ was apparently reluctant to get involved in deploying the QUANTUM malware due to “legal/policy restrictions.” A representative from a unit of the British surveillance agency, meeting with an obscure telecommunications standards committee in 2010, separately voiced concerns that performing “active” hacking attacks for surveillance “may be illegal” under British law.

In response to questions from The Intercept, GCHQ refused to comment on its involvement in the covert hacking operations. Citing its boilerplate response to inquiries, the agency said in a statement that “all of GCHQ’s work is carried out in accordance with a strict legal and policy framework which ensures that our activities are authorized, necessary and proportionate, and that there is rigorous oversight.”

Whatever the legalities of the United Kingdom and United States infiltrating computer networks, the Snowden files bring into sharp focus the broader implications. Under cover of secrecy and without public debate, there has been an unprecedented proliferation of aggressive surveillance techniques. One of the NSA’s primary concerns, in fact, appears to be that its clandestine tactics are now being adopted by foreign rivals, too.

“Hacking routers has been good business for us and our 5-eyes partners for some time,” notes one NSA analyst in a top-secret document dated December 2012. “But it is becoming more apparent that other nation states are honing their skillz [sic] and joining the scene.”

———

Documents published with this article:

• Menwith Hill Station Leverages XKeyscore for Quantum Against Yahoo and Hotmail
• Five Eyes Hacking Large Routers
• NSA Technology Directorate Analysis of Converged Data
• Selector Types
• There Is More Than One Way to Quantum
• NSA Phishing Tactics and Man in the Middle Attacks
• Quantum Insert Diagrams
• The NSA and GCHQ’s QUANTUMTHEORY Hacking Tactics
• TURBINE and TURMOIL
• VPN and VOIP Exploitation With HAMMERCHANT and HAMMERSTEIN
• Industrial-Scale Exploitation
• Thousands of Implants

TLB Highly recommends you visit THE//INTERCEPT for more great/pertinent articles and information.

See featured article and read comments here: https://firstlook.org/theintercept/article/2014/03/12/nsa-plans-infect-millions-computers-malware/

This recorded show provided by TLB Contributor: Dave Hodges & The common Sense Show

The entire interview with Roger Landry was informative and the kind of stuff that keeps one on the edge of their seat! However, the last 30 minutes of the interview was the most frightening segment I have ever experienced as a talk show host.

This interview was about the convergence and interaction effects of Vaccines, GMO’s and Geo-Engineering and their big impact on our health and cognitive abilities. All being done simultaneously, all being done legally and all sponsored or mandated in some fashion by this government !! The implications for the American public are staggering.

(the interview begins 6 minutes into each hour)

Listen to Hour 2

Listen to Hour 3

The Common Sense show is a valued partner of The Liberty Beacon Project

TLB Highly recommends you visit Dave at The Common Sense Show for more great/pertinent commentary, articles, radio shows and information.

See original here: http://thecommonsenseshow.com/2014/04/19/one-of-the-most-chilling-interviews-in-common-sense-show-history-with-roger-landry/

THE COMMON SENSE SHOW

“FREEING AMERICA, ONE ENSLAVED MIND AT A TIME”

 AIRING EVERY SUNDAY FROM 9PM-MIDNIGHT (CST) On Republic Broadcasting Network 

By TLB Contributor: Sheila Zilinsky, Weekend Vigilante

People all week asking why I care about “some Nevada rancher who’s not paying grazing fees.” It pains me how dumb people are. I will tell you officially on record why Cliven Bundy and his beef producing family is important to me for the record.

Reid & his cronies are going after the Bundy land for a massive 5 billion dollar mega solar project with the Chinese group ENN energy. -Cliven Bundy to me represents the “last rancher standing” …They’ve ran off 53 other families out of that area…Bundy reminds me of that spirit of the Texas Rangers; ‘keep on a comin’, ‘ He’s quintessential Americana; showing a ‘won’t back down spirit’. Its raw backbone vs oppressive tyranny; because let’s face it when you have sniper nests pointing at you and paramilitary thugs announcing they will use lethal force? That’s treason, thuggery & martial law rolled into one-yet the talking heads like CNN (clown news network) & others calling these peaceful cowboys & militia -rogue terrorists?

Oh and Harry with his smug comments “this is not over.” You’ve got all these alphabet soup dictatorial agencies; a full on draconian militarized police-Preparing police & military for war against the citizenry -this system is telling us what to do, how to do it, how high to jump. we’ve got China and other foreign nations completely buying out America. This is an all out battle for America on all fronts.

It’s the ubiquitous pillaging and plundering of all our rights, resources, our technology, our heritage … I think of The Lexington Minuteman representing Captain John Parker. I think of “retreating not being an option” for the colonists, and I think of men like my grandfather and the tens of thousands of G.I.s over the years who’ve watched their Comrads bleed and die.

If one thing boils my blood it’s the vilification of our incredibly brave veterans. Freedom isn’t free..Are we just going to keep giving up everything without a fight; continuing to bow down to tyranny like a bunch of cowards on our knees ???

Cliven Bundy may have his cattle back, but his supporters say they are still preparing for an imminent threat. The point is, is that these are Flashpoints of tyranny threatening to push us into open revolt. This is being perpetrated by an ever expanding federal government and is the perfect storm illustration of an arbitrary and incompetent federal government running roughshod over its citizens.

The fact is the Cliven Bundy fiasco is yet another case of David vs. Goliath in what has become an all-to-familiar arbitrary and incompetent federal government running roughshod over its citizens.

The standoff between the Bundy ranch and the BLM feds is a visceral example of growing discontent over an expanding federal government and a perfect storm illustration of Centralization of power and a steady erosion of personal wealth and liberty and other abuses with a focused intent.

As I have stated these are Flashpoints of tyranny threatening to push us into open revolt. The Bundy Affair and the subsequent standoff against the BLM and their heavy handed draconian thuggery is just the beginning of a bigger war to come on the citizenry…

This week’s “Weekend Vigilante”  we will examine how money, power & control is all tied together in a new litmus test of things to come…and how the looming world war, the economic meltdown and the war on the citizens all plays into a much bigger picture.” “Never have so many been fouled by so few”-Greg Evensen,

“Understand this: There are those within their ranks who would turn on their oaths and forcibly seize the very rights our Founders fought so hard to preserve without giving it a second thought.” They don’t want your guns, they want you”.

See original video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXmolGj37Eo

These abuses have occurred over many decades, with a focused intent. Centralization of power and a steady erosion of personal wealth and liberty have been the result. As these abuses and usurpation’s continue, Americans face a choice between submitting or standing firm like the Bundy family did; like my grandfather did on those beaches of Normandy, like the colonists did. Never back down people !!!

And my parting shot, Please ask yourself … What will you do when …War Comes to Your Door ???

Tune in to the Weekend Vigilante Live every Thursday @ 3-6pm Pacific ~ 6-9pm Eastern  and Listen live at www.weekendvigilante.com

By: Melissa Melton

According to a program launched yesterday by CTIA-The Wireless Association®, an international nonprofit that has represented the wireless communication industry since 1984, all phones manufactured in the U.S. after July 2015 will be required to contain a “kill switch” system that can remotely disable and wipe any cell phone’s data.

Although the “Smartphone Anti-Theft Voluntary Commitment”  is a voluntary program, apparently all the major players have already happily jumped on board: “Apple, Google, Samsung and Microsoft, along with the five biggest cellular carriers in the United States, are among those that have signed on to a voluntary program announced Tuesday by the industry’s largest trade group,” reported CNN.

And the supposed reasoning — anti-theft — sounds super phony, but just like everything else, it’s all for you and your safety of course:

Advocates say the feature would deter thieves from taking mobile devices by rendering phones useless while allowing people to protect personal information if their phone is lost or stolen. Its proponents include law enforcement officials concerned about the rising problem of smartphone theft. (source)

Yeah, because law enforcement really cares about whether or not your smartphone is stolen…unless it’s law enforcement stealing your phone from you in the first place because you’ve used the camera on it to protect yourself from police state activity by taking incriminating photos and videos of said law enforcement.

Well, now they won’t even have to physically take your phone from you, because apparently with just the push of a button, the phone can be remotely wiped clean of all data.

(On an aside, someone tried to break into my house and it took a whole day for the cops to even bother to show up…like they really give half a crap about whether or not your phone is stolen.)

As with every other trendy new technology advertised as making consumer’s lives just Jetsons-level awesome, there’s an obvious flipside that can be used (abused) for quite the opposite.

By the way, the 2014 CTIA Board of Directors and Officers include the higher ups (Presidents, CEOs and VPs, etc.) from many major communications companies including Ericsson, Verizon Wireless, Blackberry, AT&T, Sprint, Qualcomm, LG Electronics, Samsung, T-Mobile, Motorola, U.S. Cellular, Nokia and Apple.

So it should be no surprise whatsoever that Nokia, Motorola, AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint and U.S. Cellular have all signed on to the kill switch program.

And remember, many of these companies are the same ones that voluntarily joined the NSA Prism program, allowing the government to track all your online communications and populate the government’s databases with your skimmed data.

In this day and age of dwindling privacy ala 1984, you would think there would be a major market for a privacy-respecting telecom, but it takes a lot of money to set up the infrastructure for that kind of thing, and it’s no secret that the U.S. intelligence community via sources like In-Q-Tel (the CIA.’s official venture capital firm) are the real backers incubating all the new technology these days:

Founded in 1999 as a way for the U.S. to keep up with the rapid innovation in science and technology, In-Q-Tel has been an early backer of start-ups later acquired by Google, Oracle, IBM and Lockheed Martin.

“If you want to keep up with Silicon Valley, you need to become part of Silicon Valley. The best way to do that is have a budget because when you have a checkbook, everyone comes to you,” said Jim Rickards, an adviser to the U.S. intelligence community who is familiar with the activities of Arlington, Va.-based IQT.

Given the increasing importance of cyber security and big data, it is a safe bet that the U.S. intelligence community will continue to lean on private-sector development in its behind-the-scenes fight against terrorism and other geopolitical threats. (source)

But as we all know, it was the U.S. military that invented the Internet in the first place, after all.

TLB Highly recommends you visit The Daily Sheeple for more great/pertinent articles and information.

See more and read comments here: http://www.thedailysheeple.com/kill-switch-included-on-all-cell-phones-made-in-u-s-by-2015_042014

 

Susanne Posel ,Chief Editor Occupy Corporatism | The US Independent January 20, 2014

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that bloggers have the same 1st Amendment rights as established journalists when involved in a defamation of character suit; as long as the issue is of public concern.

The outcome of this case establishes the fact that protections afforded the news media are not exclusive to their realm, but are also extended to citizen journalists and bloggers.

The decision was entered because of a defamation lawsuit brought in Oregon concerning a blogger who had written online that this person had “criminally mis-handled a bankruptcy case”.

In this instance, the trustee was not a public figure; however it was ruled that this case is of public concern and the negligence standard was applied.

Two years ago, Crystal Cox, an “investigative blogger” was sued by Kevin Padrick for writing online that Padrick was guilty of “fraud, corruption, money-laundering and other illegal activities.”

US District Court Judge Marco Hernandez originally denied Cox the right of journalistic protection.

A new trial will ensue as the appellate court dismissed the ruling of Judge Hernandez and paved the way for a new trial for Cox.

This 3 member judiciary panel, headed by Judge Andrew Hurwitz, wrote: “Cox apparently has a history of making similar accusations and seeking payoffs in exchange for retraction.”

Hurwitz continued: “Because Cox’s blog post addressed a matter of public concern, even assuming that Gertz is limited to such speech, the district court should have instructed the jury that it could not find Cox liable for defamation unless it found that she acted negligently. We hold that liability for a defamatory blog post involving a matter of public concern cannot be imposed without proof of fault and actual damages.”

Most importantly, the judges found that “under the 1st Amendment, it doesn’t matter whether the person accused of defamation is a professional journalist, an amateur whistle-blower or a crank with a Web page.”

This case highlights the findings in 1974 wherein the US Supreme Court wrote that freedom of the press applies to everyone – not only journalists.

Eugene Volokh, professor of law at the University of California at Los Angeles, commented on the Cox case: “It makes clear that bloggers have the same First Amendment rights as professional journalists. There had been similar precedents before concerning advocacy groups, other writers and book authors. This follows a fairly well established chain of precedents. I believe it is the first federal appeals court level ruling that applies to bloggers.”

This case is important to the future of citizen journalism because of the crusade against freedom of speech being perpetrated by members of Congress.

Senator Dianne Feinstein commented last year that the new Federal Media Shield would guarantee 1st Amendment protection to federally recognized journalists who are “real reporters” – not those “blogger” journalists in alternative media.

Feinstein claimed that the 1st Amendment is a privilege, not an inalienable right as defined by our US Constitution.

 

The Federal Media Shield (FMS), a.k.a. the Free Flow of Information Act (FFIA) states: “Conditions for Compelled Disclosure- In any proceeding or in connection with any issue arising under Federal law, a Federal entity may not compel a covered person to comply with a subpoena, court order, or other compulsory legal process seeking to compel the disclosure of protected information, unless a Federal court in the jurisdiction where the subpoena, court order, or other compulsory legal process has been or would be issued determines, after providing notice and an opportunity to be heard to such covered person.”

There is a stipulation that the governmental “party seeking to compel disclosure of the protected information [must have] exhausted all reasonable alternative sources (other than a covered person) of the protected information.”

The definition of what a journalist is is included in the text: “[The committee defined] a “covered journalist” as an employee, independent contractor or agent of an entity that disseminates news or information. The individual would have been employed for one year within the last 20 or three months within the last five years. It would apply to student journalists or someone with a considerable amount of freelance work in the last five years. A federal judge also would have the discretion to declare an individual a ‘covered journalist,’ who would be granted the privileges of the law.”

The definition does not “include any person or entity whose principal function, as demonstrated by the totality of such person or entity’s work, is to publish primary source documents that have been disclosed to such person or entity without authorization”; meaning that journalists within the alternative and independent media are now not considered “covered journalists” or even journalists at all.

- See more at: http://www.occupycorporatism.com/home/us-district-court-citizen-journalists-rights-news-media/#sthash.BRNyfLFC.dpuf

TLB highly recommends you read more great/pertinent articles here: www.occupycorporatism.com

By: VisionLiberty (Video Included)

Michael Chapman explains the Connections between Common Core, UNESCO, and Agenda 21.

The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has a program called “Education for All” that includes the same people and same ideas as Common Core. The Global Fund for Education was formulated by the UN, “agreed to” by Barack Obama, funded by Bill Gates, and Common Core was imposed on the American people through Department of Education (DOE) funding schemes.

…
Before explaining Common Core, you must first understand that it is a part of the Agenda 21 program. In the Agenda 21 document chapter 36 is titled “Promoting education, public awareness and training”. This chapter goes on to explain how promoting education, public awareness and training, with focus on environmental education, is a critical theme both relevant to the implementation of the whole of Agenda 21 and indispensable for achieving sustainable development.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has a program called “Education for All” that includes the same people and same ideas as Common Core. The UNESCO goals and objectives for education are very similar to the Agenda 21 and Common Core goals and objectives.

During the 2008 Presidential campaign Barack Obama committed to making sure that every child has the chance to learn by creating a Global Fund for Education. This would require a new architecture of global cooperation that requires institutions to “combine the efficiency and capacity for action with inclusiveness.”

UNESCO’s educational goals and Common Core are both heavily funded by activist and philanthropist Bill Gates. So the Global Fund for Education was formulated by the UN, “agreed to” by Barack Obama, funded by Bill Gates, and Common Core was imposed on the American people through Department of Education (DOE) funding schemes that included “strings.”  I say “agreed to” because the taxpayers never had a say, or vote, and neither did the 45 States who were essentially coerced into adopting by the president’s Race to the Top program, before Common Core was even defined, because they desperately wanted the federal funds that came with it. The “strings” were that it was a take it or leave it now proposition from the DOE — there was no time for analysis or evaluations. Just sign on now and accept your federal funds. 45 states did sign on, while Texas, Alaska, Virginia, and Nebraska declined. Minnesota did adopt the English standards but not the math standards.

Common Core promotes the “three E’s” of Agenda 21 — equity, economy and environment. These three E’s are integrated throughout the standards and intended to be taught in every class, including math. To be clear the real meaning of these three E’s is as follows:     Equity means social equity or social justice, it does not equal justice.  It means the “Common Good” — not individual rights.     Economy means redistribution of wealth, global trade, and Public/Private Partnerships (PPPs).     Environment means animals have equal rights or even more rights than humans. Nature or the environment is the central organizing principle for our economy and society.

We have established that the Common Core standards are derived from UNESCO and Agenda 21 goals and objectives, and that it has been accepted by 45 states. But does that mean Common Core is so entrenched in the US that it’s here to stay? Maybe not. Opposition to Common Core is growing daily.

TLB Highly recommends you visit VisionLiberty for more great/pertinent videos and information

See original video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNeimlu9jxk&feature=share

By Devon DB

 

Are you tired of looking everywhere, searching the internet for liberty based news, the facts the MSM wont tell you or worse sorely misrepresent. How would you like to have this right at the tip of your fingers, at the touch of a button, on your mobile device. Staying in touch with the true movement of liberty has just gotten a whole lot easier with … APP REVERE …

Please listen to this 20 minute discussion as TLB chats with Ben Swann about the benefits of App Revere to the Liberty movement:

BEN SWANN ON APP REVERE

App Revere is your one-stop mobile app for limited government activism, outreach, networking and news. Here, everything is in the palm of your hand: Breaking updates, national and local Liberty events, news feeds from leading alternative media sites, video content from Liberty celebrities, updates from Liberty candidates and much more. Upload your events here, exceed expectations, network with local activists and harness the power. The future of the movement is now in your hands. You are the 21st century Paul Revere.

Click on the image above or use the image link on many of The Liberty Beacon project websites. It is 100% free, fast and a mechanism for unity of purpose. Lets all be on the same page through App Revere because one voice may speak, BUT many unified voices can Roar … It’s time for We the People to ROAR !!!

The Liberty Beacon project is a proud sponsor of APP REVERE …

Click on the above image  or use this link for a free App Download:

 APP REVERE

Vaccines, Chemotherapy, Radiation all VOODOO medicine and we are forcibly STUCK with it! So lets talk about this …

The following link is a TLB Special recording we had the privilege to make with Dr. Patrick Vickers founder of the Northern Baja Wellness Center and Gerson Health Advocates Society. He is a long time advocate of the Gerson therapies and practices in Mexico because to do so in the USA would find him in prison faster than your head could spin. It would seem by all indications that the profits of big pharmaceutical companies far outweighs the saving of millions of lives … how do you define tyranny?

We all know someone (a loved one, friend, co-worker) who is suffering what will most likely be a terminal cancer or degenerative disease,  and being treated by prohibitively expensive and toxic drugs or radiation. It does not need to be this way … but in a vast majority of cases there is no other choice offered. When in the (supposedly) freest and most technologically advanced country on this planet, one must leave the country to have any real chance of beating a debilitating disease and living … again how do you define tyranny?

Please listen to this recorded discussion and read the accompanying article. What you are about to hear and read should piss you off to no ends

TLB’s Discussion with Dr. Patrick Vickers: Click HERE to listen.

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“I see in Dr. Max Gerson one of the most eminent geniuses in the history of medicine” Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Dr. Albert Schweitzer

 

History of the Therapy

What follows is an introduction to Dr. Gerson, his life and his path to real medical awareness. You will find Tyranny and promise in what you read … but read it we beg of you, for your sake and the sake of your loved ones …

Born in Wongwritz, Germany in 1881, Max Gerson studied medicine at the University of Freiburg from 1899-1906. While a student, Max Gerson suffered from severe, debilitating migraine headaches that left him unable to function for days. With his professors of medicine unable to help him, Max Gerson set out to cure himself of his condition by making dramatic changes to his diet and adding specific natural supplements. He eliminated the heavily salted, processed, fatty foods and meat that were a major component of the standard German diet and replaced them with raw and cooked, unsalted, organic fruits and vegetables. Within a matter of weeks the migraines disappeared.

Now graduated, and practicing in Bielefeld, Germany, Dr. Gerson was successfully applying his “migraine” diet to his patients when one returned to him completely cured of his skin tuberculosis. This success caught the attention of world renowned thoracic surgeon, Ferdinand Sauerbruch and, together Gerson and Sauerbruch commenced a study of the diet on 460 terminal tuberculosis patients. Of the 460 patients treated on the Gerson therapy, 456 were completely cured making Gerson a household name throughout all of Europe.

With Hitlers rise to power, Dr. Gerson (a German Jew) fled Germany while narrowly escaping his own death in the Holocaust. After briefly fleeing to France, Dr, Gerson eventually made his way to the United States where he set up practice on Park Avenue in Manhattan. Dr. Gerson lost all of his seven siblings in the Holocaust.

While practicing in Manhattan, Dr. Gerson was approached by a woman dying of stomach and gall bladder cancer. Having heard of his famous tuberculosis treatment, she implored him to apply it in her case but Dr. Gerson refused due to the enormous political pressure he knew he would eventually face from his colleagues….after continual pleas from the woman Dr. Gerson finally agreed to treat her in secret….and she, too, was cured. From that moment on Dr. Gerson admitted that he could no longer turn his face away from this deadly scourge of cancer and began to treat people given up to die by their medical doctors… many of which he also cured.

Rapidly, Gersons name began to spread and as a consequence, on July1-3 1946, he was called to testify before the United States Senate at a hearing for the Pepper- Neely Anticancer Bill which was designed to appropriate 100 million dollars in funding for anyone who could show promise in the realm of cancer treatment. Gerson presented five of his formerly “terminal” patients before the committee and the complete records of five more. So shocked were those in the room that renowned ABC news broadcaster, Raymond Gram Swing, present at the testimony, went on his national radio broadcast that night and announced to the entire nation that a cure for cancer had been discovered. Unfortunately the dark forces of medicine were also listening and from that point on Dr. Gerson became a marked and censured man and the Pepper-Neely Anticancer Bill (document # 8947 of the United States archives) was defeated by four senators who were medical doctors.

Over the next 13 years, Dr. Gerson would lose his membership privileges to the New York State Medical Society, be prohibited from publishing his work in peer-reviewed medical journals and, ultimately, murdered by a likely medical and pharmaceutical industry more interested in preserving vast pharmaceutical profits then curing a dying and suffering humanity.

Successfully Treated Diseases

Throughout its history, the Gerson Therapy has become synonymous with the successful treatment of advanced and non-advanced cancer. While it is true that the Gerson Therapy has a long, proven history of curing most cancers, what many do not realize is that the Gerson Therapy also has a long, proven history of successfully reversing a vast majority of other degenerative diseases. The following is a complete list of conditions that we have successfully treated using the Gerson Therapy:

1) Acne

2) Addictions

3) AIDS

4) Allergies

5) Anemias

6) Ankylosing Spondylitis

7) Arthritis

8) Asthma

9) Cancer

10) Candidiasis

11) Chemical sensitivities

12) Chronic Fatigue

13) Constipation

14) Crohns disease

15) Cushings Syndrome

16) Depression/Panic attacks

17) Diabetes

18) Emphysema

19) Endometriosis

20) Epilepsy

21) Fibromyalgia

22) Fibroids

23) Genital Herpes

24) Gout

25) Heart and Artery diseases

26) Hemorrhoids

27) Hepatitis

28) High Blood Pressure

29) Hyperactivity

30) Hypoglycemia/Hyperglycemia

31) Infertility

32) Intestinal Parasites

33) Kidney Disease

34) Liver Cirrhosis

35) Lyme Disease

36) Lupus Erythematosus

37) Migraines

38) Macular Degeneration

39) Mononucleosis

40) Multiple Sclerosis

41) Obesity

42) Ocular Histoplasmosis

43) Osteomyelitis

44) Osteoporosis

45) Phlebitis(Varicose Veins)

46) Psoriasis

47) Premenstrual Syndrome

48) Shingles

49) Stroke

50) Tuberculosis

51) Ulcerative Colitis

Are you angry yet?

There is SO MUCH more information available for your research and curiosity. TLB highly recommends you vist  http://gersontreatment.com/  This is information you will never see or hear from our government or the hypocritical American Medical Association (AMA) … WHY ???