News Updates from
CLG20 Mar 2014
http://www.legitgov.org/
All links are here:http://www.legitgov.org/#breaking_news
All links are here:http://www.legitgov.org/#breaking_news
Previous edition: Missing plane: plea to US to release Pine Gap data (which
Google relegated to the sp*m bin, of course. Google subscribers: Google
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Newsletter.)
Breaking:
Objects may be from missing Malaysia Airlines jet: Tony
Abbott 20 Mar 2014 Two
objects possibly related to the search for a missing Malaysia Airlines plane
have been spotted in the southern Indian Ocean, Tony Abbott says. "The
task of locating these objects will be extremely difficult...and it may be they
do not relate to the aircraft," the Prime Minister told parliament. Malaysian
Airlines flight MH370 vanished on March 8 after takeoff from Kuala Lumpur
carrying 239 passengers and crew, including six Australians. Australian aircraft
have been scouring the Indian Ocean for signs of wreckage.
TEPCO says 13,000 tons of radioactive water may need to be
cleaned again 19 Mar 2014 The
operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant said Wednesday
that it may have to clean some 13,000 tons of radioactive water all over again,
as it has found its water treatment system was not working properly. The
Advanced Liquid Processing System, or ALPS, has been developed to drastically
reduce the radiation level of highly contaminated water that is accumulating at
the plant. But it has been plagued with trouble and its test-run period has been
prolonged.
ALPS decontamination system malfunctions again at Fukushima
plant 19 Mar 2014 Key
decontamination equipment at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant has malfunctioned
again, resulting in radioactive water being stored in tanks meant for treated
water, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said March 18. The utility said the problem
occurred in the B unit of the multi-nuclide removal equipment called ALPS
(advanced liquid processing system). TEPCO said there were no irregularities on
March 14. But on March 17, the utility found that water supposedly treated at
the B unit contained about 10 million becquerels of radioactive substances per
liter.
More Radiation Escapes from New Mexico Nuclear Waste
Facility 19 Mar 2014 Sensors at a
U.S. atomic-waste repository in New Mexico have detected a second release of
radiation in less than a month, the Associated Press reports. A brief
spike in radioactivity readings occurred on March 11 at the Waste Isolation
Pilot Plant, the Energy Department said on Tuesday. The incident followed a Feb.
14 leak that exposed 17 personnel to contaminants radiation and rendered
underground portions of the site inaccessible to workers.
Greenpeace Storms EDF Nuclear Plant at Fessenheim in East
France 18 Mar 2014 Police arrested
dozens of anti-nuclear campaigners after they entered France's oldest atomic
plant, operator Electricite de France SA (EDF) said. More than 60 Greenpeace
protesters stormed the site at Fessenheim near the German border before dawn and
unfurled a large banner
that read "Stop Risking Europe."
World's most pristine waters are polluted by US Navy
waste 15 Mar 2014 The American
military has poured hundreds of tonnes of human sewage and waste water into a
protected coral lagoon on the British-owned base of Diego Garcia over three
decades in breach of environmental rules, The Independent can reveal.
The Indian Ocean base on the Chagos Islands has been one of the world’s most
isolated and controversial military installations since Britain forcibly removed
hundreds of islanders in the early 1970s, abandoning them to destitution, to
make way for US forces including nuclear submarines and bombers. It has emerged
that US Navy vessels have been discharging waste water, including treated
sewage, into the clear lagoon ever since a naval support station was established
on Diego Garcia in the early 1980s.
Sunoco oil pipeline leaks in Ohio nature
preserve 18 Mar 2014 After a major
oil pipeline owned by [eco-terrorists] Sunoco Logistics Partners LP leaked
hundreds of barrels of crude oil into a nature preserve next to the Great Miami
River in southwest Ohio, clean-up operations began on Tuesday. Crews vacuumed
oil that had leaked from the Mid-Valley pipeline into a wetland area of the Oak
Glen Nature Preserve, 20 miles (32 km) north of Cincinnati, according to local
officials. The 240-barrel (10,000-gallons/38,000-liter) spill has been
contained, Sunoco said in a statement.
Israeli minister hints at action against
Iran 18 Mar 2014 Israel's defense
minister says his country cannot depend on the United States to lead an action
against Iran's nuclear program and that Israel can only rely on
itself. [Really? What about the *billions* in US tax
d-llars?] Moshe Yaalon says Israel believed "the one who should lead
the campaign against Iran is the U.S." but instead, Washington began talks with
Tehran. He says Iran has the upper hand in the talks and that "we (Israelis)
have to look out for ourselves."
Ukraine quits CIS, sets visa regime with Russia, wants Crimea
as 'demilitarized zone' 19 Mar 2014
The interim government in Kiev says Ukraine will leave the commonwealth of
post-Soviet states and force Russians to apply for entry visas, and plans to ask
the United Nations to make Crimea a demilitarized zone. The raft of measures - a
response to Russia's incorporation of Crimea into its territory following
Sunday's referendum - was announced by National Security and Defense Council
chief Andrey Parubiy during a press briefing in Kiev. The Commonwealth of
Independent States (CIS) was founded to maintain economic and security links
between former Soviet republics when they became independent states in
1991.
Pro-Russian forces enter Ukraine navy's Black Sea
HQ 19 Mar 2014 Pro-Russian
self-defence forces have entered the Ukrainian navy's Black Sea headquarters in
Sevastopol and raised the Russian flag above the building less that 24 hours
after Vladimir Putin announced the annexation reunification of Crimea
in a searing speech to political elites in Moscow. In an hour-long speech in the
Kremlin on Wednesday -- likely to go down as one of the defining moments of his
long rule governing over
Russia -- Putin said western politicians "call something white today and black
tomorrow" and aired a long list of foreign policy grievances going back to 2000,
saying "we were cheated again and again, with decisions being taken behind our
back".
Two dead in news helicopter crash near Seattle Space
Needle 18 Mar 2014 A news helicopter
crashed near the Seattle Space Needle on Tuesday morning. The Seattle Fire
Department reported two deaths and at least one critical injury. KOMO-TV
reported that two cars were struck in the crash and firefighters were
able to extinguish the blaze within a half-hour. The copter had reportedly been
trying to take off from the roof of Fisher Plaza, across the street from the
Space Needle, according to the KOMO.
Leaked File Details U.S. Phone Monitoring
Abroad 19 Mar 2014 The National
Security Agency is recording all telephone calls and their routing data in one
foreign country and retaining that information for a month so that it can be
analyzed later, according to a report based on a top secret intelligence
document. Similar but less comprehensive efforts exist in at least four other
foreign countries, according to a classified 2013 document provided by Edward J.
Snowden, the former agency contractor. The collection effort was first disclosed on Tuesday by The Washington Post, which cited a classified
summary of the program, code-named Mystic. The Post account said that the
summary, also leaked by Mr. Snowden, noted that "every single" phone call in one
foreign country was saved for 30 days before being purged.
NSA surveillance program reaches 'into the past' to retrieve,
replay phone calls 18 Mar 2014 The
National Security Agency has built a surveillance system capable of recording
"100 percent" of a foreign country's telephone calls, enabling the agency to
rewind and review conversations as long as a month after they take place,
according to people with direct knowledge of the effort and documents supplied
by former contractor Edward Snowden. A senior manager for the program compares
it to a time machine -- one that can replay the voices from any call without
requiring that a person be identified in advance for surveillance. The voice
interception program, called MYSTIC, began in 2009. Its RETRO tool, short for
"retrospective retrieval," and related projects reached full capacity against
the first target nation in 2011. Planning documents two years later anticipated
similar operations elsewhere.
Australia wants to hold web records longer because of
Snowden --Agencies
want two year data storage 18 Mar 2014 Australian law
enforcement is using Edward Snowden's surveillance revelations as an
excuse to store web data for at least two years. The Australian Security
Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) made its plans
known in a note to the Australian Parliament,
with the support of the Northern Territory Police, Victoria Police, Australian
Federal Police, Australian Crime Commission and Australian Commission for Law
Enforcement Integrity, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. The Australian
equivalent of the British Government Communications Head Quarters (GCHQ) or US
National Security Agency (NSA) made its request in a submission about changes to the
Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 (TIA Act).
Mandatory data retention back
on the radar 18 Mar 2014 The issue
of forcing internet service providers to hold on to user data for at least two
years is back on the agenda, with the Attorney-General's department siding with
the law enforcement agencies on the issue of mandatory data retention.
Australian state and federal police forces, along with the Australian Crime
Commission and intelligence agency ASIO have all urged the Senate committee
reviewing the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 to legislate
mandatory data retention. According to their submissions, data retention serves a critical function in the criminal
investigations pursued by the enforcement agencies and the current voluntary
code implemented by the ISPs did not provide adequate consistency needed to
prosecute serious crimes.
Flashback to South Africa's banning orders and
the US PATRIOT Act: Ottawa imposes life-long gag order on bureaucrats,
lawyers --Under the
Security of Information Act, those sworn to permanent secrecy are
prohibited from disclosing a wide range of information they were made privy to
in the course of their duties. 13 Mar 2014 Ottawa has slapped a
life-long gag order on bureaucrats and lawyers working in a number of government
agencies dealing with sensitive national security information. The changes
enacted Wednesday, and published in the Canada Gazette, reveal employees in 12 government
divisions -- five of which have been disbanded -- are now subject to provisions
under the Security of Information Act that permanently binds them to secrecy.
Those employees, mostly Department of Justice lawyers and senior bureaucrats at
the Privy Council Office, could face as much as 14 years in prison for
disclosing "special operational information" without authorization.
ACLU urges N.J. State Police to 'come clean' after Christie
town hall 19 Mar 2014 The New Jersey
ACLU called on State Police today to explain why they took pictures of
protesters at Gov. Chris Christie’s town hall meeting on Tuesday. "It raises
serious First Amendment concerns that the State Police may be photographing
protesters at Gov. Christie's town hall meetings," Udi Ofer, executive director
of the ACLU of New Jersey, said in a statement. "The State Police must come
clean and explain to New Jerseyans whether it has a practice or policy of
photographing people engaged in First Amendment protected speech," he
added.
NJ Motor Vehicle
Commission passes 'anti-Tesla' rule 12 Mar 2014 If electric car Tesla is your choice,
you might have a hard time finding one after the state Motor Vehicle Commission
today unanimously passed new rules that will limit Tesla's direct s-les business
model. The new rules made more stringent the need for a franchised dealer, a
model that the electric carmaker says is "anti-Tesla" as the carmaker operates
through storefronts that allow for buyers to purchase directly from the
manufacturer. "The Administration has decided to go outside the legislative
process by expediting a rule proposal that would completely change the law in
New Jersey," the company said in a statement posted on its corporate website.
"This new rule, if adopted, would curtail Tesla's s-les operations and
jeopardize our existing retail licenses in the state."
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