Geopolitical – Week of 12.15.13

Iran Nuclear Sanctions Bill Draws White House Veto Threat
Bloomberg | 19 December 2013
President Barack Obama would veto Iran sanctions legislation introduced in the Senate yesterday…

The 6,000-Page Report on CIA Torture Has Now Been Suppressed for 1 Year
The Atlantic | 13 December 2013
It cost $40 million to produce, documents serious wrongdoing, and doesn’t threaten national security. Team Obama won’t release it…

Japan Set to Buy $240B Worth of Hi-Tech Weapons
Strat Risks | 17 December 2013
Japan announced on Tuesday that it would buy stealth fighters, drones and submarines as part of a splurge on military hardware that would beef up defense…

NSA’s Goal is Elimination of Individual Privacy Worldwide – Greenwald to EU
RT | 18 December 2013
The NSA’s ultimate goal is to destroy individual privacy worldwide…

TPP Talks End With No Deal, Meeting to Resume in Jan
Today Online | 18 December 2013
Trade ministers, chief negotiators have identified potential landing zones and made substantial progress…

Saudi Arabia Warns it Will Act Against West’s Policy in Middle East
The Telegraph | 18 December 2013
Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to London has claimed the country is determined to independently arm Syria rebels after rejecting the diplomatic tactics of its Western allies…

U.S. District Judge Certifies CalPERS Appeal of San Bernardino Bankruptcy
The Sun | 13 December 2013
U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee agreed Friday to let San Bernardino’s largest creditor appeal directly to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals…

Small Businesses Claim US Government Stealing Their Ideas
Fox News | 17 December 2013
“They stole all my stuff and used taxpayer money to do it,”…

Tor User Identified by FBI
Schneier on Security | 18 December 2013
Eldo Kim sent an e-mail bomb threat to Harvard so he could skip a final exam…

China confirms near miss with U.S. ship in South China Sea
Reuters | 18 December 2013
China on Wednesday confirmed an incident between a Chinese naval vessel and a U.S. warship in the South China Sea…

White House Task Force Report on NSA Spying Recommends Sweeping Reforms
Daily News | 18 December 2013
The report, released just days after a federal judge in Washington slammed the NSA’s collection of telephone metadata as likely unconstitutional…

World’s biggest technology companies call on President Obama to Reform NSA’s Surveillance Operations
The Independent | 18 December 2013
CEOs express concern that wide-ranging activities have undermined the trust of their users…

Congress’s Big, Stingy Christmas Mistake
Bloomberg | 12 December 2013
For the past few years, Congress has functioned as a millstone weighing down the country’s recovery…

Europe Officially Loses Fight For Ukraine, Russia Wins
Zero Hedge | 17 December 2013
Over the past month, an interesting conflict emerged between Putin’s Russia and, well, some unelected person’s Europe…

U.S. NSA debates amnesty for Edward Snowden
PC World | 16 December 2013
The person running a U.S. National Security Agency task force to assess the damage of the leaks…

NSA and the One Trillion Dollar Scam
http://youtu.be/iBQ0DR28Tgk
YouTube | 06 July 2013
What is the real purpose of the the secret government called the National Security Agency… ?

Harvard University Evacuates Campus Buildings Over Explosives Alert
The Telegraph | 16 December 2013
Harvard University ordered the evacuation of four buildings, after false warnings of explosives on campus…

Russia Has Stationed Iskander Missiles in Western Region: Reports
Reuters | 16 December 2013
Russia has deployed Iskander missiles with a range of hundreds of kilometers in its Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad…

South Sudan President Says Coup Has Been Repulsed
The Washington Post | 16 December 2013
CIA World Factbook entry on Sudan

The NSA: An Inside View
Loren’s Blog | 10 December 2013
In which I relate my experience as an NSA employee and impart my thoughts on the policies in place, my former coworkers, and the current cyber war…

Omidyar’s PayPal Corporation Said To Be Implicated in Withheld NSA Documents
Information Clearing House | 12 December 2013
The 50,000-pages of documents obtained by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden contain extensive documentation of PayPal Corporation’s partnership…

WWII Story Shows How Badly NSA May Have Hurt US Tech Brands
Business Insider | 13 December 2013
Since June, fugitive NSA analyst Edward Snowden has been leaking Top Secret documents…

Chinese Naval Vessel Tries to Force U.S. Warship to Stop in International Waters
The Washington Free Beacon | 13 December 2013
A Chinese naval vessel tried to force a U.S. guided missile warship to stop in international waters recently…