Daily Archives: June 29, 2017

On religion: Being aware of our connectivity to God and each other – The Intelligencer

Posted: June 29, 2017 at 11:59 pm

This is my last column describing the meaning and history of Progressive Christianity. Finishing our historical journey, let me mention a few more people who have contributed to Progressive Christian thought.

Martin Buber (1878-1965) was an Austrian-born Israeli Jewish philosopher best known for his book "I and Thou," which focused on the way humans relate to their world.

According to Buber, we frequently view both objects and people by their functions. Doing this is sometimes good: when doctors examine us for specific maladies, it's best if they view us as organisms, not as individuals.

Scientists can learn a great deal about our world by observing, measuring and examining. For Buber, all such processes are I-It relationships.

Unfortunately, we frequently view people in the same way. Rather than truly making ourselves completely available to them, understanding them, sharing totally with them, really talking with them, we observe them or keep part of ourselves outside the moment of relationship.

Buber calls such an interaction I-It. It is possible, notes Buber, to place ourselves completely into a relationship, to truly understand and "be there" with another person, without masks, pretenses, even without words. Such a moment of relating is called "I-Thou."

The bond thus created enlarges each person, and each person responds by trying to enhance the other person. The result is true dialogue, true sharing. Buber then moves from this existential description of personal relating to the religious experience. For Buber, God is the Eternal Thou. Yet another concept of God to consider.

Charles Hartshorne (1897-2000) was an American philosopher who concentrated primarily on the philosophy of religion and metaphysics. He developed the neoclassical idea of God and produced a modal proof of the existence of God that was a development of St. Anselm's Ontological Argument.

Hartshorne is also noted for developing Alfred North Whitehead's process philosophy into process theology, a component of Progressive Christianity. One of the technical terms Hartshorne used is pan-en-theism. Panentheism (all is in God) must be differentiated from classical pantheism (all is God).

In Hartshorne's theology, God is not identical with the world, but God is also not completely independent from the world. God has his self-identity that transcends the Earth, but the world is also contained within God. A rough analogy is the relationship between a mother and a fetus. The mother has her own identity and is different from the unborn, yet is intimately connected to the unborn. The unborn is within the womb and attached to the mother via the umbilical cord.

Next, Rudolf Bultmann (1884-1976) was a German Lutheran theologian and professor of New Testament at the University of Marburg. He was one of the major figures of early 20th century biblical studies and a prominent voice in liberal Christianity.

Bultmann is known for his belief that the historical analysis of the New Testament is both futile and unnecessary, given that the earliest Christian literature showed little interest in specific locations. Bultmann argued that all that matters is the "thatness," not the "whatness" of Jesus; i.e. only that Jesus existed, preached and died by Crucifixion matters, not what happened throughout his life. Bultmann contended that only faith in the kerygma, or proclamation, of the New Testament was necessary for Christian faith, not any particular facts regarding the historical Jesus.

Finally, Marcus Borg (1942-2015) was an American New Testament scholar, theologian and author. He was among the most widely known and influential voices in progressive Christianity. As a fellow of the Jesus Seminar, Borg was a major figure in historical Jesus scholarship. The Jesus Seminar was a group of about 150 critical Biblical scholars and laymen founded in 1985. Members of the Seminar used votes with colored beads to decide their collective view of the historicity of the deeds and sayings of Jesus of Nazareth. They published their results in three reports: The Five Gospels (1993), The Acts of Jesus (1998), and The Gospel of Jesus (1999).

As Friedrich Schleiermacher argued that while we cannot know God in a scientific way, humans have a sense and taste for the infinite, no one can know Progressive Christianity from these four short articles. However, I hope you now have a sense and taste for what we are about. If you would like to learn more, join us at United Christian Church, Levittown.

Sources: Wikipedia and Jewish Virtual Librar

Keith A. Pacheco, Langhorne, is an aspiring peacemaker and a student of nonviolent communication.

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The Universe Is the Mind of God – The Costa Rican Times

Posted: at 11:59 pm

Stephen Hawking, arguably the most famous living scientist in the world, now says that the intervention of a divine being in the creation of the universe is not necessary.

Never mind that the title of his last book, The Grand Design, seems to contradict this assertion. What we have here is the failure to philosophize.

In his 1988 book, A Brief History of Time, Hawking was widely seen to accept the role of God in the creation of the universe. In that book he wrote, If we discover a complete theory, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason for then we should know the mind of God.

He now intones, It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going.

But it was never necessary for a thinking and feeling person to invoke a Creator to explain creation. So the question is, what does Stephen mean by God, and what do we?

This is the ultimate example of how the word is not the thing. The word God can stand for anything, with perhaps as many definitions as there are humans on earth. But is there an actuality, which the completely silent mind can directly commune?

Obviously I feel there is, since its one of the main themes of this column. But Im not trying to convince anyone of it, simply saying: question, experiment and find out for yourself.

Refuting theism does not mean invoking concepts like pantheism and panentheism. Doing so prevents the experiencing of immanence. Conceptualizing has to completely cease for experiencing that which is called God.

Unwittingly, Hawking is making a case for how scientific discoveries and knowledge are compatible with a mystical understanding of God.

Science has been steadily undercutting the human projection of an all-knowing separate Creator, while making the miracle of intrinsic, ongoing creation more and more evident. Theres no need for a Creator standing apart and setting the whole shebang in motion (and occasionally intervening.)

On the other hand, Hawkings view of the universe and human beings has unexamined philosophical assumptions woven into it. These can be seen when we unpack statements like:

The fact that we human beings who are ourselves mere collections of fundamental particles of nature have been able to come this close to an understanding of the laws governing us and our universe is a great triumph.

As many contributions as Stephen Hawking has made to science, the idea that human beings (and more to the point, the human brain) are mere collections of fundamental particles is, to my mind, a deeply mistaken view of the universe and the human beings place in it.

It is mere reductionism, which is necessary for doing science, but represents the rejection of the human capacity for holistic perception, which is essential to being fully human.

It is also deeply anthropocentric, putting the human mind, with respect to reason and its capability for scientific knowledge, at the center of creation.

Im not arguing for keeping some projection of God at the center of creation; Im saying there is no center of creation.

There is ongoing creation however, and it is a mystery that science will never be able to encompass with knowledge, no matter how far science extends knowledge. Experiencing the numinous only takes place when the movement of knowledge and the known has ceased.

Hawking sets up a classic straw man when he says that the discovery, in 1992, of a planet orbiting a distant star was the first blow to Newtons belief that the universe could not have arisen from chaos.

That makes the coincidences of our planetary conditions the single sun, the lucky combination of Earth-sun distance and solar mass far less remarkable, and far less compelling as evidence that the Earth was carefully designed just to please us human beings, he writes.

Hes not arguing against an immanent God in this revealing bit of diversion, but against the insight that there is no disorder or chaos in nature, because there is an underling order in the universe since the beginning of time.

Hawking is proffering the dogmatic atheists view that everything is randomness, and that chance can account for everything we see, everything we are, and everything we are capable of being.

That is simply false. Its actually order all the way down, not chaos evolving into order, culminating in the human mind. Thats as anthropocentric in its own way as the Christian belief that the earth was made for man.

The universe wasnt created out of chaos; indeed, it wasnt created at all. There is no such thing as chaos, or disorder for that matter, except with man and creatures like him, wherever they may exist at our stage in the cosmos.

God is synonymous with the universe, as well as non-separatively beyond it. Evil has no supernatural aspect either (though, unlike the universe/God, is man-made).

This means God is a completely different actuality than Stephen Hawking or anyone can conceive or imagine.

Martin LeFevre

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‘What is the price of not fighting this war?’: Mattis makes his pitch to get more NATO troops in Afghanistan – Washington Post

Posted: at 11:57 pm

BRUSSELS Nearly three years after the North Atlantic Treaty Organization ended combat operations in Afghanistan, the 29-nation alliance willsend troops once more into the country withhopes that the renewed surge will help the Afghan military beat back a resurgent Taliban.

Speaking ahead of a defense ministerial meeting here Thursday, NATO Secretary GeneralJens Stoltenberg saidthousands of troops have been requested, but he did not say how many would deploy.

With the Taliban in control of broad swaths of the country and the Afghan military locked in a primarily defensive war, it is unclear how a new infusion of NATO or U.S. forces could radically turn the tide of the conflict.

Fifteen nations have already pledged additional contributions to Resolute Support Mission. And I look forward to further announcements from other nations, Stoltenberg said, using the name of the NATO mission to Afghanistan.

[Trump gives Pentagon authority to set troop levels in Afghanistan]

Stoltenberg stressed that NATOs renewed presence did not mean the beginning of another combat mission; instead, he said, the alliancewill focus on building the Afghan special operation forces, air force and othermilitary training institutions.

We dont think this operation in Afghanistan is going to be easy and we dont think its going to be peaceful this year or next year or in the near future, he said during a newsconference Thursday afternoon. As long as the Taliban believe they can win the war they will not negotiate. We need to break the stalemate and to enable the Afghans to made advances.

Stoltenbergs remarks come as the United States weighs its own commitment in what has become its longest-running war. In recent weeks, President Trump delegated authorities to the Pentagon to set troop levels in the Afghanistan, and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has pledged to present a strategy to Congress by mid-July. Earlier this month, the retired four-star Marine general told lawmakers that the United States was not winning, and battlefield commanders, including the head of U.S. forcesin Afghanistan, Gen. John Nicholson, have requested a few thousand more troops.

Mattis said Thursday during a news conference that he had received 70 percent of the commitments from NATO countries for his upcoming strategy and was confident that he would be able to secure the rest in the coming weeks. Mattis gave no timeline for Americas renewed commitment to Afghanistan and suggestedthat NATO had drawn down too early in 2014.

Its not like you can declare a war over, Mattis said. What is the price of not fighting this war? And in thatcase were not willing to pay that price.

[Mattis: We are not winning in Afghanistan]

With a Taliban insurgency that has proven resilient despite heavy battlefield losses, lawmakers in Washington and some NATO allies remain waryof any new military solution in Afghanistan.

In an interview, Canadian Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan said his country has received the request for more troops but has not yetdecided to pledge any additional forces.

Canadian soldierswithdrew from Afghanistan completely in 2014, after participating in several bloody campaigns around Kandahar in 2006 and a limited training mission after 2011. Between 2001 and 2014, more than 150 Canadian troops died in Afghanistan.

With no physical presence in the country, Canada has instead continuedto provide financial support to the Afghan security forces.

Afghanistan is obviously very important to us, and were going to monitor the situation, Sajjan said. The military is not going to give you that complete victory. It takes an entire whole of government approach for it; the real solution will come from the political side.

[Whats your end game? Trump delegating Afghan war decisions to the Pentagon faces scrutiny]

BritishDefense Secretary Michael Fallon told a group of reporters during the ministerial meeting Thursday that Britain was in Afghanistan for the long haul and would sendjust under 100 additional troops to help prop up Afghan forcesaround Kabul, bringing the total number of British soldiers in the country to around 600. In the last year, the Afghan capital has been rocked by a spate of terrorist attacks that have killed hundreds.

Mattis said he would take what he learned from his NATO counterparts atthe defense ministerial back to Washington and deliverhis formal strategy to Trump in the coming weeks.

Currently there are roughly 13,500 NATO and U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The Americans number around 8,500 and are split between counterterrorism operations and supporting the NATO-led training mission. At the wars height in 2010 and 2011 there were more than 100,000 U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

More than 2,000 U.S. troops have died in Afghanistan since 2001, and Afghan security forces continue to take an almost unsustainableamount of casualties despite U.S. air support. Civilians, however, have borne the brunt of the violence, with 2016 marking the deadliest year for the Afghan population since the United Nations mission to the country began monitoringthe statistics in 2009.

Michael Birnbaum contributed to this report. This story was originally published at 9:17 a.m. and updated to include remarks from Defense Secretary Mattis and other officials in Brussels.

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Band-Aid on a bullet wound: What Americas new war looks like in Afghanistans most violent province

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Trump nominates Kay Bailey Hutchison as next NATO ambassador – Politico

Posted: at 11:57 pm

Former Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas is President Donald Trump's pick to be NATO ambassador. | Alex Wong/Getty Images

By Negassi Tesfamichael

06/29/2017 05:54 PM EDT

Updated 06/29/2017 06:21 PM EDT

President Donald Trump has chosen former Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas to be the next NATO ambassador, the White House announced on Thursday.

Hutchison, 73, served in the Senate for 20 years until she decided not to run in 2012.

Story Continued Below

Hutchison's nomination to be the U.S. representative to the military alliance comes amid scrutiny of the organization from Trump. The president demanded in May that NATO member nations meet commitments to spend at least 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense, saying that failure to do so is unfair to U.S. taxpayers.

Trump had also been slow to announce support for Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which guarantees that all member nations will come to the aid of any member that has been attacked. The president publicly voiced his support weeks after his speech to NATO members in May.

Richard Grenell, a prominent Trump supporter and former United Nations official, was previously reported to be the front-runner for the NATO ambassador job. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, however, was said to prefer Hutchison for the role.

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NATO battalions ready to deter Russia – News24

Posted: at 11:57 pm

Brussels - Four international battalions stationed in eastern Europe are now ready to respond to any Russian "aggression", the defence ministers from eight NATO countries said on Thursday.

Germany, Britain, the United States and Canada currently lead four multi-national "battlegroups" in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, as tripwires against possible Russian adventurism.

"Today, we declare that (these battalions) are ready and able to deter and, if necessary, immediately respond to any aggression in concert with national forces underpinned by a viable reinforcement strategy," the defence ministers said in a joint statement at a Brussels summit.

Under a programme called the Enhanced Forward Presence (EFP), NATO deployed the battalions in Poland and the Baltic states, a region formerly under Moscow's control, following alarm over Russian actions in Ukraine and Syria.

Adding to tensions, Russia is preparing massive military exercises in its west in September, and has deployed a missile system in the neighbouring enclave of Kaliningrad.

NATO agreed at a 2016 summit in Warsaw to boost NATO's military presence along the alliance's eastern flank.

The four battalions, which deploy on a rotational basis, total about 4 500 troops from 15 member nations and train constantly to improve co-ordination and conduct joint exercises.

The EFP "is a direct response to Russia's aggressive actions, including provocative military activities in the periphery of NATO territory, which have reduced stability and security, increased unpredictability, and changed the security environment," the joint declaration said.

United NATO

"We welcome the fact that we are making progress both when it comes to our enhanced forward presence in the Baltic States and Poland," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday.

"And we continue to strengthen our presence in the Black Sea region."

US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis last month visited the German-led battlegroup in Lithuania, where he saw troops from Belgium, Norway, America and other nations show off tanks and other gear.

"This is a profound example of a united NATO," Mattis said at a meeting with his German counterpart Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday, when he announced ongoing US support for the initiative through 2020.

"Our alliance has long been a stabilising force in Europe. It helps preserve the rules-based international order."

Separately, the United States, Britain and Norway signed a joint statement of intent to lay out "guiding principles" for a trilateral partnership with their P-8A Poseidon submarine hunters "to address the changing security environment in the North Atlantic".

24.com encourages commentary submitted via MyNews24. Contributions of 200 words or more will be considered for publication.

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NATO says cyber attacks a call to arms – Yahoo News

Posted: at 11:57 pm

Computer users around the world were scrambling to reboot systems after a tidal wave of ransomware cyberattacks spread from Ukraine and Russia across Europe to the United States and then on to Asia. (AFP Photo/DAMIEN MEYER)

Brussels (AFP) - NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg warned the alliance must step up its defence against cyberattacks, saying they could potentially trigger their Article 5 mutual defence commitment.

Computer users around the world were scrambling Wednesday to reboot systems after a tidal wave of ransomware cyberattacks spread from Ukraine and Russia across Europe to the United States and then on to Asia.

It seemed to be very similar to the WannaCry ransomware which hit more than 200,000 users in more than 150 countries last month.

Stoltenberg said the "attack in May and this week just underlines the importance of strengthening our cyber defences and that is what we are doing."

For more news videos visit Yahoo View, available on iOS and Android.

"We exercise more, we share best practices and technology and we also work more and more closely with all allies," he told reporters ahead of a NATO defence ministers meeting in Brussels on Thursday at which cyber-security will be a key talking point.

Stoltenberg recalled that NATO leaders had agreed last year that a cyber attack could be considered a threat sufficiently serious to warrant invoking the alliance's 'all for one, one for all' security guarantee.

They also made cyber a NATO domain -- on a par with the traditional air, sea and land arms to become part of overall alliance planning and resource allocation.

NATO was also helping Ukraine, the country first hit by Tuesday's cyberattack, with its online defences, Stoltenberg said.

In the NATO context, the greatest fear is that another state would attack an ally's networks to undermine key industrial and civil society infrastructure without firing a shot.

In the event, however, it seems non-state actors may be able to cause just as much mayhem.

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The NSA Confronts a Problem of Its Own Making – The Atlantic

Posted: at 11:56 pm

It is hard to imagine more fitting names for code-gone-bad than WannaCry and Eternal Blue. Those are just some of the computer coding vulnerabilities pilfered from the National Security Agencys super-secret stockpile that have been used in two separate global cyber attacks in recent weeks. An attack on Tuesday featuring Eternal Blue was the second of these to use stolen NSA cyber toolsdisrupting everything from radiation monitoring at Chernobyl to shipping operations in India. Fort Meades trove of coding weaknesses is designed to give the NSA an edge. Instead, its giving the NSA heartburn. And its not going away any time soon.

As with most intelligence headlines, the story is complicated, filled with good intentions and unintended consequences. Home to the nations codebreakers and cyber spies, the NSA is paid to intercept communications of foreign adversaries. One way is by hunting for hidden vulnerabilities in the computer code powering Microsoft Windows and and all sorts of other products and services that connect us to the digital world. Its a rich hunting ground. The rule of thumb is that one vulnerability can be found in about every 2,500 lines of code. Given that an Android phone uses 12 million lines of code, were talking a lot of vulnerabilities. Some are easy to find. Others are really hard. Companies are so worried about vulnerabilities that manyincluding Facebook and Microsoftpay bug bounties to anyone who finds one and tells the company about it before alerting the world. Bug bounties can stretch into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Writing the Rules of Cyberwar

The NSA, which employs more mathematicians than any organization on Earth, has been collecting these vulnerabilities. The agency often shares the weaknesses they find with American manufacturers so they can be patched. But not always. As NSA Director Mike Rogers told a Stanford audience in 2014,the default setting is if we become aware of a vulnerability, we share it, but then added, There are some instances where we are not going to do that. Critics contend thats tantamount to saying, In most cases we administer our special snake bite anti-venom that saves the patient. But not always.

In this case, a shadowy group called the Shadow Brokers (really, you cant make these names up) posted part of the NSAs collection online, and now its O.K. Corral time in cyberspace. Tuesdays attacks are just the beginning. Once bad code is in the wild, it never really goes away. Generally speaking, the best approach is patching. But most of us are terrible about clicking on those updates, which means there are always victimslots of themfor cyber bad guys to shoot at.

WannaCry and Eternal Blue must be how folks inside the NSA are feeling these days. Americas secret-keepers are struggling to keep their secrets. For the National Security Agency, this new reality must hit especially hard. For years, the agency was so cloaked in secrecy, officials refused to acknowledge its existence. People inside the Beltway joked that NSA stood for No Such Agency. When I visited NSA headquarters shortly after the Snowden revelations, one public-affairs officer said the job used to entail watching the phones ring and not commenting to reporters.

Now, the NSA finds itself confronting two wicked problemsone technical, the other human. The technical problem boils down to this: Is it ever possible to design technologies to be secure against everyone who wants to breach them except the good guys? Many government officials say yes, or at least no, but In this view, weakening security just a smidge to give law-enforcement and intelligence officials an edge is worth it. Thats the basic idea behind the NSAs vulnerability collection: If we found a vulnerability, and we alone can use it, we get the advantage. Sounds good, except for the part about we alone can use it, which turns out to be, well, dead wrong.

Thats essentially what the FBI argued when it tried to force Apple to design a new way to breach its own products so that special agents could access the iPhone of Syed Rizwan Farook, the terrorist who, along with his wife, killed 14 people in San Bernardino. Law-enforcement and intelligence agencies always want an edge, and there is a public interest in letting them have it.

As former FBI Director James Comey put it, There will come a dayand it comes every day in this businesswhere it will matter a great deal to innocent people that we in law enforcement cant access certain types of data or information, even with legal authorization.

Many leading cryptographers (the geniuses who design secure communications systems) and some senior intelligence officials say that a technical backdoor for one is a backdoor for all. If theres a weakness in the security of a device or system, anyone can eventually exploit it. It may be hard, it may take time, it may take a team of crack hackers, but the math doesnt lie. Its nice to imagine that the FBI and NSA are the only ones who can exploit coding vulnerabilities for the good of the nation. Its also nice to imagine that Im the only person my teenage kids listen to. Nice isnt the same thing as true. Former NSA Director Mike Hayden publicly broke with many of his former colleagues last year. I disagree with Jim Comey, Hayden said. I know encryption represents a particular challenge for the FBI. ... But on balance, I actually think it creates greater security for the American nation than the alternative: a backdoor.

Hayden and others argue that digital security is good for everyone. If people dont trust their devices and systems, they just wont use them. And for all the talk that security improvements will lock out U.S. intelligence agencies, that hasnt happened in the 40 years of this raging debate. Thats right. 40 years. Back in 1976, during the first crypto war, one of my Stanford colleagues, Martin Hellman, nearly went to jail over this dispute. His crime: publishing his academic research that became the foundational technology used to protect electronic communications. Back then, some NSA officials feared that securing communications would make it harder for them to penetrate adversaries systems. They were right, of courseit did get harder. But instead of going dark, U.S. intelligence officials have been going smart, finding new ways to gather information about the capabilities and intentions of bad guys through electronic means.

The NSAs second wicked problem is humans. All the best security clearance procedures in the world cannot eliminate the risk of an insider threat. The digital era has supersized the damage that one person can inflict. Pre-internet, traitors had to sneak into files, snap pictures with hidden mini-cameras, and smuggle documents out of secure buildings in their pant legs or a tissue box. Edward Snowden could download millions of pages onto a thumb drive with some clicks and clever social engineering, all from the comfort of his own desktop.

There are no easy solutions to either the technical or human challenge the NSA now faces. Tuesdays global cyber attack is a sneak preview of the movie known as our lives forever after.

Talk about WannaCry.

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Utah judge orders NSA to provide documents and data on 2002 Olympic spying allegations – Salt Lake Tribune

Posted: at 11:56 pm

In January, Shelby rejected an attempt by the Department of Justice to dismiss the case.

In late May, a declaration by former NSA official Thomas A. Drake, affirming the allegations, was forwarded by Anderson to Justice Department attorneys.

Drake's statement contradicted assertions by Michael Hayden, the former director of the NSA, that said neither the President's Surveillance Program (PSP) nor any other NSA intelligence-gathering activity was involved in indiscriminate and wholesale surveillance in Salt Lake City or other Olympic venues during the 2002 Winter Games.

"I have reviewed the declaration of Michael V. Hayden dated March 8, 2017," Drake's statement said. "As a result of personal knowledge I gained as a long-time contractor and then senior executive (1989-2008) of the NSA, I know the statements made by Hayden in that declaration are false or, if not literally false, substantially misleading."

The NSA has the capability to seize and store electronic communications passing through U.S. intercept centers, according to the statement from Drake.

After Sept. 11, 2001, "the NSA's new approach was that the president had the authority to override the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and the Bill of Rights, and the NSA worked under the authority of the president," Drake said. "The new mantra to intercepting intelligence was 'just get it' regardless of the law."

Additional information on the NSA's intelligence-gathering came to light in 2013 when Edward Snowden, a contractor working for the agency, revealed to the Guardian newspaper the scope of U.S. and British global surveillance programs.

csmart@sltrib.com

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Purdue, sheriffs association launch next phase of naloxone initiative – The Advocate

Posted: at 11:56 pm

Photo: Michael Cummo / Hearst Connecticut Media

Purdue Pharma is headquartered at 201 Tresser Blvd., in downtown Stamford, Conn.

Purdue Pharma is headquartered at 201 Tresser Blvd., in downtown Stamford, Conn.

Purdue, sheriffs association launch next phase of naloxone initiative

STAMFORD Purdue Pharma and the National Sheriffs Association announced this week the second round of a partnership that gives officers across the country overdose kits and training for the naloxone drug, which can reverse opioid overdoses.

NSA officials credit the Purdue-funded initiative with helping to save some 120 lives since its late 2015 pilot-phase launch. In the first stage, NSA officers distributed 500 naloxone kits to 12 local law enforcement agencies in several states.

The program has also allowed NSA to reach more than 600 deputies and officers through on-site training at nine law enforcement agencies across the country.

Purdue remains committed to combating opioid abuse and equipping our communities with the tools and resources they need to do so, Gail Cawkwell, Purdues chief medical officer, said in a statement. We are motivated by the results weve seen since the launch of the pilot program and are proud to continue our partnership with NSA.

Purdue, whose drugs include the opioid OxyContin, has contributed $850,000 so far to the initiative and $500,000 will support the next phase. The NSA plans to provide during the next year the Narcan nasal spray brand of naloxone and training to at least 50 law enforcement agencies across the country.

Law enforcement officers know firsthand the impact that the right tools can have in saving lives within our communities, Sheriff Keith Cain, NSA board member and chairman of the NSAs Drug Enforcement Committee, said in a statement. NSA has identified naloxone as one of the most effective weapons in our arsenal for combatting opioid overdose, and we are continuing our work to train law enforcement and implement effective solutions on a national scale.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has also endorsed naloxone.

Since 1999, the national rate of overdose deaths involving opioids including prescription drugs and heroin nearly quadrupled, and more than 165,000 people have died from prescription opioid overdoses, according to an HHS factsheet.

In a May report on the initiative, the NSA pointed to the need for a comprehensive strategy for tackling the opioid epidemic that includes raising awareness about its impact and solutions that help those affected by the crisis.

We need to have a pointed discussion that regularly and openly identifies what works, what doesn't, and where communities can go for solutions, NSA officials wrote in the report. Right now, we need to come together as a country to figure out what is already working and what we can do to implement these solutions on a national scale.

While NSA praised Purdue for its support of the naloxone program, the Stamford-based pharmaceutical company also faces a wave of litigation alleging it made false claims about OxyContin that fueled the opioid crisis. During the past month, Ohios attorney general and a group of district attorneys general in Tennessee have filed such complaints. Purdue has denied those lawsuits allegations.

pschott@scni.com; 203-964-2236; twitter: @paulschott

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Federal judge rules two deputies used excessive force – The Spokesman-Review

Posted: at 11:56 pm

Thu., June 29, 2017, 7:29 p.m.

A man pulled from his home and arrested at gunpoint after two Spokane County Sheriffs Deputies went to the wrong address achieved a partial victory this week when a federal judge ruled that the deputies violated his Fourth Amendment seizure rights and used excessive force.

Conner Griffith-Guerrero filed a federal civil lawsuit against Deputy Robert Brooke, Deputy Evan Logan and Spokane County in 2015, two years after the incident at his home on North Five Mile Road. Both sides filed summary judgment requests and this week U.S. District Court Judge Thomas O. Rice ruled that a portion of each request would be granted.

On Dec. 13, 2013, a resident on North Five Mile Road called 911 to report that there was a suspicious car parked at his neighbors house and his neighbor was in Arizona for the winter. He provided the address to the house, but deputies couldnt find the house and instead went to another home. They drew their guns and walked around the house, testing doors and shining their flashlights in windows, according to court documents.

Griffith-Guerrero was in the basement watching television when he saw the flashlights shining in. He said was afraid he was about to be burglarized so he went upstairs and hit the front door to let whoever was outside know that someone was home, the lawsuit said. He went outside to look and saw someone with a gun. He screamed and ran into the house.

Brooke then identified himself and Griffith-Guerrero opened the door and was ordered outside the home and told to kneel in the front yard while he was handcuffed. He said that one of the deputies was pointing a gun at him the whole time, but the deputy testified in a deposition that he was merely holding his gun in the low ready position.

After it was determined that Griffith-Guerrero lived there, Brooke reportedly told him Youre lucky I didnt (expletive) shoot you, the lawsuit said.

According to court documents, Brooke received a shift counseling, described as the lowest level of discipline, for going to the wrong address.

Heather Yakely, the attorney representing Spokane County and the deputies, argued that the deputies had reasonable suspicion to approach the house and detain Griffith-Guerrero. The deputies were checking for signs of a burglary and Yakely argued there was no violation of the Fourth Amendment because deputies never crossed the threshold into the house.

Rice said the deputies did have the right to check the home for signs of a break in, but ruled the deputies committed a warrantless seizure and used excessive force. Searches and seizures inside a home without a warrant are presumptively unreasonable, he wrote. It does not matter that the officers did not actually enter the house to make the arrest.

Ordering plaintiff out of his home is a categorical violation of his Fourth Amendment rights whether it is called a temporary detention or an arrest, it was a seizure.

Rice wrote that he found the defenses arguments that the deputies did not use excessive force unconvincing.

Pointing guns at plaintiff, ordering him out of his home at night and onto his knees in his own front yard to handcuff him was objectively unreasonable under the circumstances, Rice wrote.

Rice did agree with Yakely on another issue. He ordered Spokane County dismissed from the lawsuit because Griffith-Guerrero didnt show that there was a pattern or practice of officers conducting illegal warrantless searches.

Rice ruled that Griffith-Guerreros claims of assault and battery, false arrest and imprisonment and negligence in the lawsuit can be pursued.

Read more from the original source:
Federal judge rules two deputies used excessive force - The Spokesman-Review

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