Monthly Archives: April 2015

Police Investigating Incident at NSA – Video

Posted: April 14, 2015 at 9:50 pm


Police Investigating Incident at NSA
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Edward Snowden: The NSA Is Looking at Your Nude Pics – Video

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Edward Snowden: The NSA Is Looking at Your Nude Pics
Edward Snowden: The NSA Is Looking at Your Nude Pics Snowden warned that while some NSA programs were helpful to the country #39;s intelligence officials, spying had started coming against ...

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NSA has been spying on Americans for decades – Video

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NSA has been spying on Americans for decades
FAIR USE NOTICE: This video may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes only. This constitutes a #39;fair use #39; of any such copyrighted material as...

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Groups push to end NSA spying before June

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WASHINGTON The National Security Agencys authority to collect the phone records of millions of people is scheduled to end on June 1, and a bipartisan privacy coalition of 39 organizations wants to make sure it stays that way.

The new coalition, Fight215.org, is asking Congress to end Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which requires phone carriers to hand over the call records of American citizens to the NSA.

While NSA surveillance has been in the news for nearly two years following the first disclosures from former NSA contractor Edward Snowdens document leak, a number of Congressional attempts to reform the agency have failed.

For example, Sen. Rand Paul, R-KY, who promised during his announcement to run for the GOP presidential nomination to end the bulk collection program, voted no against the USA FREEDOM Act in Nov. 2014 because it would have extended the Section 215 program for another two years.

The coalition includes a range of organizations including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union, Free Press Action Fund, DownsizeDC, TechFreedom, Fight for the Future, R Street Institute, and Human Rights Watch and the Sunlight Foundation.

Berin Szoka, president of TechFreedom, said in a statement calling upon Congress to act, of course the NSA plays a valuable role in protecting Americans, but it must and can do that consistent with the Fourth Amendment, which bars indiscriminate surveillance of innocent Americans with no connection to national security threats.

Click here for more from Watchdog.org.

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The NSA wants front door access to your encrypted data

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Last December, I had the opportunity to travel to the Netherlands to meet with multiple European tech companies, web hosts, and other infrastructure providers. The topic of intelligence agency backdoors and US corporate involvement with such policies came up more than once, often in not-entirely-friendly ways. Its therefore refreshing to see the head of the NSA, Admiral Michael S. Rogers, state up front that the NSA isnt interested in a backdoor solution to digital surveillance. Instead, he wants a so-called front-door solution which could be even worse.

Instead of handing the NSA a unilateral window into encrypted communications taking place at Google or Apple, Rogers suggested a future in which the encryption keys to access such information would be divided between at least two groups possibly more. In the simplest example, Google would retain half the key, while the NSA held the other half. Thus, the agency wouldnt be able to unilaterally snoop inside anyones files it would need Googles support.

I dont want a back door, Rogers, the director of the nations top electronic spy agency, said during a speech at Princeton University, according to the Washington Post. I want a front door. And I want the front door to have multiple locks. Big locks.

The first problem with Rogers proposed front-door solution is that its a meaningless feel-good measure given the current regulatory structure of our national security system. Before the Snowden leaks, Google, Microsoft, and other digital providers were forbidden from disclosing that theyd received national security letters, even in aggregate. Thanks to Snowden, we now know that Yahoo went to bat for users, challenging the legality and authority of the NSA and lost, every time.

Giving half a key to Google or Yahoo would be meaningless unless the company possesses the authority to refuse to use it. In theory, the court system offers robust oversight of how such capabilities are used. In practice, the FISA court has operated more like a rubber stamp body than an organization devoted to judicial oversight. The government, as a whole, doesnt currently have a great track record of respecting suspects rights the FBI is on record as ordering local police departments to drop cases rather than disclose how secret stingray hardware may have been used in ways that fundamentally violate those suspects Fourth Amendment rights.

The other systemic problem with Rogers suggestion is that it assumes a degree of trust between corporations and government at a time when such good feelings are at an all-time low. The NSA has demonstrated no practical ability to differentiate between friend and foe. Its decision to hoover up data running across Googles transatlantic cables may have been legal, but it illustrated a total lack of respect for Google and a willingness to resort to extrajudicial methods when it was convenient.

The NSA could avoid this problem by sharing the key with government-appointed escrows rather than corporations, but this simply hides the process from public view. Thats already extremely problematic.

The technological problems with the NSAs front-door policy are formidable. The divide the key among trusted parties, approach isnt new the NSA proposed exactly this method of securing its ill-fated Clipper Chip in the early 1990s. At the time, the newly-formed EFF and other consumer advocacy agencies battled the NSAs proposed system, noting that it exposed citizens to increased surveillance while providing no assurance that the cryptographic standard, dubbed Skipjack, was actually secure.

Many of these questions would remain in any escrow system the government dreamed up today. The basic question is, is it possible to design a completely secure system to hold a master key available to the U.S. government but not adversaries, said Donna Dodson, chief cybersecurity adviser at the Commerce Departments National Institute of Standards and Technologies. Theres no way to do this where you dont have unintentional vulnerabilities.

Hackers, generally speaking, dont go after the code itself or attempt to brute-force it instead, they work to compromise the organizations that hold the keys, or find other avenues of attack. Splitting the key into parts is only an advantage if the parts cant be combined or analyzed for clues to the final key structure. In order to function properly, every escrow needs to be secure, and every one-time access key needs to be destroyed.

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CPD officers plead the fifth

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CLEVELAND - Five Cleveland police supervisors pleaded the Fifth during CPD patrol officer Michael Brelo's trial Monday.

The supervisors each face two counts of dereliction of duty related to the Nov. 29, 2012 Cleveland police chase and shooting.

Attorneys for Sgt. Michael Donegan, Lt. Paul Wilson, Sgt. Randolph Daley, Sgt. Jason Edens and Sgt. Patricia Coleman appeared with their clients in court.

A sixth Cleveland police officer invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination after taking the stand at the trial last Wednesday.

Officer Michael Demchake immediately stated he was told not to answer questions based on advice from his attorneys.

His refusal to answer questions sparked an angry outburst by Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty.

"We need his testimony in this trial. We're asking for his testimony. We're asking for the truth. That is his duty as a police officer," said McGinty.

McGinty said Brelo's colleagues knew he was "in trouble" for jumping on the hood of Timothy Russell's Chevy Malibu and firing at least 15 shots through the windshield at the conclusion of the November 2012 CPD chase and shooting.

View a PHOTO GALLERY of some of the crime scene photos here

During opening statements last Monday , prosecutors said Brelo committed a crime when he jumped onto the hood of Russell's car and fired 15 to 18 shots through the front windshield.

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Phillips declines to face his accuser

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By Ryan Mavity | Apr 13, 2015

Dover A Delaware Superior Court judge is expected to rule within 90 days on a motion for summary judgment in a civil sexual-assault case against former Sussex County Councilman Vance Phillips.

Phillips did not appear at the April 13 hearing in Dover. In previous depositions Phillips has consistently invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself.

Brian Brittingham, attorney for Phillips accuser, Katelynn Dunlap, said Phillips silence is telling, as he has not refuted accusations that Phillips sexually assaulted Dunlap 10 times in different locations starting May 9, 2011, and continuing through July.

According to Dunlaps lawsuit, the relationship between the now 21-year-old Lincoln woman and the then-Sussex councilman began in 2010 when Dunlap was 16. When Dunlap turned 18 in April 2011, Phillips was 48; the lawsuit says at that point, the relationship took a sexual turn. On May 9, the lawsuit said, Dunlap met Phillips in the parking lot of a Georgetown dental office, where Dunlap alleges Phillips tried to have sex with her and then threatened her if she told anyone.

Despite ample opportunity, the defendant wholly failed to address the claims at issue, Brittingham said. He said Phillips has consistently invoked the Fifth Amendment to avoid addressing Dunlaps allegations. He also invoked the Fifth Amendment to avoid answering questions not related to the allegations, such as when Phillips and his wife divorced.

Defense attorney Kurt Heyman said the court could not infer guilt from Phillips decision to invoke his Fifth Amendment rights. He said Dunlap has made inconsistent statements and has changed her story numerous times.Heyman said at one point, Dunlap said some of the encounters with Phillips were consensual, but she later changed her story to say she was sexually assaulted.

Brittingham said Dunlaps inconsistencies are explained by the fact that she was fearful, confused, shamed and intimidated by Phillips. He said Dunlap was scared of retaliation by Phillips and had an emotional breakdown.

While Heyman said the case hinges on Dunlaps credibility, Brittingham said third parties, including family and Delaware State Police officers, support Dunlaps credibility. Brittingham said a reasonable jury would find Dunlaps claims to be true and award her damages.

The April 13 arguments were a subdued affair, with only Dunlaps family attending the proceedings. Dunlap is seeking punitive damages and legal fees. Judge William Witham offered no timetable for when he would rule on the motion, but Heyman said he would have 90 days to make a ruling. If Witham does not grant the motion, the case would head to trial.

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Five police supervisors plead the Fifth in the trial of Cleveland police officer Michael Brelo

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CLEVELAND, Ohio - Five more police supervisors invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination Monday in the trial of Cleveland police officer Michael Brelo.

The five supervisors have been charged with dereliction of duty in connection with the same Nov. 29, 2012 police chase and fatal shootings that resulted in Brelo being charged with voluntary manslaughter.

Michael Donegan, Patricia Coleman, Randolph Dailey, Jason Edens and Paul Wilson have all pleaded not guilty to the charges, and a date for their trial has not been set yet.

Brelo, 31, is charged with two counts of voluntary manslaughter in thedeaths of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams. Russell drove the Chevy Malibu that led police on the chase. Williams was a passenger in the car.

The supervisors appeared in court on Monday, but none took the witness stand. Instead, they pleaded the Fifth as a group, with their lawyers present. There was no discussion of their right to plead the Fifth, as there was last week, when Officer Michael Demchak invoked his Fifth Amendment right.

The rest of the morningfocused on a Bratenahl police officer and a Cleveland police officer, both of whom were involved in the chase but not the shooting.

Here are highlights from the morning's testimony.

1. A Bratenahl police officer suspected crossfire.

Bratenahl Sgt. Michael Flanagan, a K-9 officer, testified to joining the chase and stopping at Lee Boulevard, perpendicular to the driveway that Russell's 1979 Malibu was stopped in.

Flanagan said he got out of his car, heard shots fired, and ran to take cover behind a nearby gray Ford.

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Judge Weighs Sex Allegations Against Former Sussex Official

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DOVER, Del. (AP) - Attorneys for a young woman who claims in a lawsuit that she was sexually abused by former Republican Sussex County Councilman Vance Phillips asked a Superior Court judge on Monday to find Phillips liable because he has not explicitly denied the allegations.

Citing his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, Phillips has refused to address the allegations by the 21-year-old woman, who was once his political protegee, even though he has previously said that he looked forward to telling his side of the story to a jury.

The Associated Press does not normally identify possible victims of sexual assault.

The woman's lawyers argued that the judge should grant partial summary judgment in her favor regarding liability because Phillips has not disputed the allegations.

"The defendant wholly failed to address the claims at issue," attorney Brian Brittingham told Judge William Witham Jr.

Brittingham said Phillips' decision to invoke the Fifth Amendment does not amount to a denial or a defense, but was simply "the avoidance of an answer."

After a brief hearing, Witham gave no indication on when he would rule.

Delaware State Police investigated Phillips in 2012 after members of the General Assembly received an anonymous letter claiming he was involved in a relationship with an underage girl. No criminal charges were ever filed, but Phillips invoked his rights against self-incrimination in the civil action after the lawsuit was filed in May 2013.

Kurt Heyman, a lawyer for Phillips, told Witham the court cannot infer his liability based on the assertion of his Fifth Amendment rights, especially on a motion for summary judgment. He also said inconsistent and contradictory statements the woman has made about her relationship with Phillips and the allegations of abuse preclude summary judgment in her favor, and that a jury must determine whether she is believable.

"It's for the jury to decide which version of her story to credit," he said.

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Iowa Senate OKs bill addressing funeral protests

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DES MOINES Iowa senators sent Gov. Terry Branstad a bill Tuesday designed to balance Iowans constitutional rights at funerals or memorial services.

House File 558 expands the level of privacy granted under the Fourth Amendment to grieve for loved ones, soldiers or civilians, backers say.

The bill, which won Iowa Senate support by a 50-0 vote, would establish a 1,000-foot buffer between funerals and protesters for one hour before and after the funeral while balancing free speech rights of participants and onlookers.

The bill is a response to demonstrations by members of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan. Church members have shown up at military funerals say that God will turn his back on a nation that sanctions abortion, same-sex marriage and other abominations. The death of soldiers, according to Westboro, is Gods punishment for America abandoning him.

Families and friends who are grieving the loss of a loved one should not have to be subject to a barrage of hateful yelling and signs while theyre honoring and remembering the person they have lost, said Sen. Kevin Kinney, D-Oxford, the bills floor manager.

The bill is based on legislation that has been upheld by courts in Nebraska, Missouri and Minnesota, supporters say.

Actions such as shouting homophobic slurs and desecrating the U.S. flag at military funerals are reprehensible, said Sen. Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames, noting that he personally finds individuals who engage in such actions to be despicable. But he told his Senate colleagues its exactly for those reasons that their First Amendment rights of expression need to be zealously defended. The First Amendment isnt about protecting popular speech.

At the same time, he said, it is not just one group whose constitutional rights are at issue, noting that people who participate in a funeral or a memorial service are exercising their freedom of expression and in many cases their religious freedom while celebrating a life or mourning a loss.

When those rights collide, Quirmbach said, some distance, some separation is appropriate. The right to free speech does not include the right to shout down someone elses speech. I think that this bill provides appropriate separation so that each may be able to express their views under our Constitution.

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