CLG: Snowden Documents Reveal Covert Surveillance and Pressure Tactics Aimed at WikiLeaks, Supporters

All links are here:http://www.legitgov.org/#breaking_news

Previous edition: Excessive radiation levels detected at New Mexico waste site

Breaking: Judge strikes down Nebraska law that allowed Keystone pipeline to proceed through state 19 Feb 2014 A Nebraska judge on Wednesday struck down a law that allowed the Keystone XL oil pipeline to proceed through the state, a victory for opponents who have tried to block the project. Lancaster County Judge Stephanie Stacy issued a ruling that invalidated Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman's approval of the route. Stacy agreed with opponents' arguments that law passed in 2011 improperly delegated the decision-making power to Heineman to give the company eminent domain powers within the state.

Snowden Documents Reveal Covert Surveillance and Pressure Tactics Aimed at WikiLeaks, Supporters 18 Feb 2014 Top-secret documents from the National Security Agency and its British counterpart reveal for the first time how the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom targeted WikiLeaks and other activist groups with tactics ranging from covert surveillance to prosecution. The efforts - detailed in documents provided previously by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden - included a broad campaign of international pressure aimed not only at WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, but at what the U.S. government calls "the human network that supports WikiLeaks." The documents also contain internal discussions about targeting the file-sharing site Pirate Bay and hacktivist collectives such as Anonymous. One classified document from Government Communications Headquarters, Britain's top spy agency, shows that GCHQ used its surveillance system to secretly monitor visitors to a WikiLeaks site.

NSA and GCHQ spying on WikiLeaks 18 Feb 2014 Julian Assange calls for the appointment of a Special Prosecutor to investigate the NSA, after documents show US spying on WikiLeaks and its supporters. Today, documents were published from the national security whistleblower Edward Snowden, detailing US and UK spying efforts against the publishing organization WikiLeaks. One document shows that as far back as 2010 the US National Security Agency added WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange to a "MANHUNTING" target list, together with suspected members of al-Qaeda [al-CIAduh]. Another shows that the NSA wanted to designate WikiLeaks as a "malicious foreign actor" in order to expand the NSA's ability to target WikiLeaks staff, associates and supporters. And a third document, from 2012, demonstrates that the NSA's UK partner GCHQ also spied on WikiLeaks and its readers.

Discovery SIGINT Targeting Scenarios and Compliance 18 Feb 2014 (Document)

Bomb attacks kill at least 24 in Iraq capital 17 Feb 2014 At least 24 people were killed in bomb explosions in the Iraqi capital late on Monday, including blasts near two Shi'ite Muslim mosques and at a busy bus station, police and medics said. In Monday's deadliest attack, a minibus packed with explosives blew up at a bus station in the mainly Shi'ite district of Ur in northern Baghdad, killing at least 11 people, police and medical sources said.

US diplomats given 48 hours to leave Venezuela 18 Feb 2014 Venezuela has given three American 'diplomats' from the US Embassy in Caracas 48 hours to exit the country after President Nicolas Maduro leveled accusations of conspiracy and meeting with students to incite anti-government sentiment. Following days of [CIA-backed] opposition protests, three unnamed diplomats were declared persona non grata by Maduro during a televised address on Sunday night. On Monday, Venezuela's Minister of Foreign Affairs Elias Jaua announced that the US diplomats in question were vice consuls Breann Marie McCusker and Jeffrey Elsen, and Kristofer Lee Clark, who holds the rank of second secretary at the US consulate.

Tepco took months to release record strontium readings at Fukushima 13 Feb 2014 The operator of Japan's wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant knew about record high measurements of a dangerous isotope in groundwater at the plant for five months before telling the country's nuclear watchdog, a regulatory official told Reuters. Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) said late on Wednesday it detected 5 million becquerels per liter of radioactive strontium-90 in a sample from a groundwater well about 25 meters from the ocean last September. That reading was more than five times the broader all-beta radiation reading taken at the same well two months earlier.

Radiation alarm at New Mexico nuclear disposal plant spurs air shutoff 17 Feb 2014 An alarm late Friday night indicating higher than usual levels of airborne radiation led to a first-of-its-kind response at a nuclear disposal facility outside of Carlsbad, New Mexico, an Energy Department spokesman told CNN. An air monitor at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant detected the spike in an isolated area half a mile below the ground. The incident prompted an immediate shutoff of filtered air from the facility into the environment around it. "This is the first time we had to close off air filtered by the facility to the outside," Energy Department spokesman Gregory Sahd told CNN.

NORAD: 'Several' aircraft violate restricted airspace during Obama visit 16 Feb 2014 Fighter jets intercepted several airplanes that entered a restricted flight zone above Rancho Mirage Saturday during President Barack Obama's visit. None of the airplanes had proper clearances or communications Saturday afternoon, according to the North American Aerospace Defense Command. Each plane was intercepted and escorted out of the area by an F-16 fighter jet, according to NORAD.

'Why were 26 small Christmas Trees behind Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire Department on 14 Dec. 2012?' --Sandy Hook: Free Homes and 'Big Bucks' Incentives for Leaders and Players By James H. Fetzer, Ph.D. 17 Feb 2014 Wolfgang Halbig –- a former Florida State Trooper, former school principal and nationally recognized expert on school safety -- has brought a new level of expertise [regarding] Sandy Hook. Halbig asks: "Why were NO trauma Helicopters requested that morning when lives could have been saved? Why no paramedics or EMTs were allowed into the school building instead they were told to set up triage? Who declared all 24 school children and school staff legally dead within the first 11 minutes since only a doctor can do that -- not a police officer -- per CT state laws? Two children supposedly died at the hospital which it took over an hour to transport. Why?" ...The fascinating questions that Wolfgang has raised include, "Why were 26 small Christmas Trees behind the Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire Department on 14 December 2012 and decorated on 15 December 2012?" They do not have, say, 60 or 100 trees because, if they did, it would be obvious that they would be having a Christmas tree sale. But instead we see that they have just 26 small trees all by themselves. That would seem to suggest there was a plan to have 26 "victims" whose deaths were to be observed, but before the event to be commemorated had taken place.

Bridge scandal: Fort Lee mayor won't cooperate with Chris Christie lawyers 17 Feb 2014 The mayor of Fort Lee said today he will not cooperate with lawyers hired by Gov. Chris Christie's office to [pretend to] investigate the George Washington Bridge scandal as the legal seesawing over the controversial lane closures continues. In a letter sent today to Randy Mastro, a former federal prosecutor leading the governor's legal team, an attorney for Mayor Mark Sokolich declines to have his client sit for a private interview, or to voluntarily hand over documents related to the closures. Mastro had requested both in a letter sent more than a week ago.

Racist photo prompts Phillipsburg High School investigation of students 17 Feb 2014 A photo of seven boys believed to be Phillipsburg High School students is under investigation by the school administration, Superintendent George Chando confirmed today. The boys in the photo, wearing Phillipsburg school colors and possible wrestling practice gear, smile and pose with a black wrestling dummy hung by its neck from the ceiling with athletic climbing rope... The photo appears to be to have been taken on school property, but Chando did not confirm that.

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