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 13 November 19 It's Live on the HomePage Now: Reader Supported News Sure, I'll make a donation!
Whistleblower: Google's Secret Cache of Medical Data Includes Names and Full Details of 50 Million
 Ed Pilkington, Guardian UK Pilkington writes: "A whistleblower who works in Project Nightingale, the secret transfer of the personal medical data of up to 50 million Americans from one of the largest healthcare providers in the US to Google, has expressed anger to the Guardian that patients are being kept in the dark about the massive deal."
The anonymous whistleblower has posted a video [VIDEO REMOVED] on the social media platform Daily Motion that contains a document dump of hundreds of images of confidential files relating to Project Nightingale. The secret scheme, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, involves the transfer to Google of healthcare data held by Ascension, the second-largest healthcare provider in the US. The data is being transferred with full personal details including name and medical history and can be accessed by Google staff. Unlike other similar efforts it has not been made anonymous though a process of removing personal information known as de-identification.
The whistleblower introduces the video with the words: “I must speak out about the things that are going on behind the scenes.”
The disclosed documents include highly confidential outlines of Project Nightingale, laying out the four stages or “pillars” of the secret project. By the time the transfer is completed next March, it will have passed the personal data of 50 million or more patients in 21 states to Google, with 10 million or so files already having moved across – with no warning having been given to patients or doctors.
Among the documents are the notes of a private meeting held by Ascension operatives involved in Project Nightingale. In it, they raise serious concerns about the way patients’ personal health information will be used by Google to build new artificial intelligence and other tools.
The notes say that one employee “expressed concerns of individuals downloading patient data – need to make sure everyone is trained to not be able to do that”.
According to the whistleblower, the security fears raised at that meeting, including concerns that the transfer may be in breach of federal HIPAA rules on data privacy, have so far gone unanswered by Google.
Project Nightingale is understood to be by far the largest data transfer of its kind so far in the healthcare field. It will cover the entire spread of Ascension, a Catholic network of 2,600 hospitals, clinics and other medical outlets.
Google has entered into similar partnerships on a much smaller scale with clients such as the Colorado Center for Personalized Medicine. But in that case all the data handed over to the search giant was encrypted, with keys being held only on the medical side.
The deal between Google and Ascension to go ahead with the data transfer was formally signed on Monday, hours after the Wall Street Journal broke the story.
The Guardian does not know the identity of the whistleblower. They are one of about 300 employees working on Project Nightingale, approximately half on the Google side and half with Ascension.
In an interview with the Guardian, they explained the decision to go public. They cited widespread anxiety among Project Nightingale employees about the secrecy of the transfer, and about how Google was being given access to personal information of millions of patients.
They had family members, they said, who have been through the health system and who were worried about even their body weight being shared with doctors. They would be alarmed to learn that their names, addresses, date of birth, medical conditions, lab records, hospitalization history and more might be included in the Project Nightingale data given to Google.
“Most Americans would feel uncomfortable if they knew their data was being haphazardly transferred to Google without proper safeguards and security in place. This is a totally new way of doing things. Do you want your most personal information transferred to Google? I think a lot of people would say no.”
The whistleblower also expressed concern that so much sensitive and potentially valuable data was being amassed by one big tech company. Google could go on to use its AI analytics to predict outcomes for individual patients, they posited.
“In the future, such risks are only likely to grow. This is the last frontier of extremely sensitive data that needs to be protected,” they said.
This is not the first time Google has ended up in hot water over its efforts to become the dominant player in healthcare data and analytics. In 2017, the transfer of 1.6m patient records at the Royal Free hospital in London to the company’s artificial intelligence arm DeepMind Health was found to have an “inappropriate legal basis” by the UK’s watchdog on data.
The ambition of Google’s parent company Alphabet is to develop new AI tools that can help predict health patterns and improve treatment. Google recently announced plans to buy Fitbit for $2.1bn, aiming to enter the wearables market and invest in digital health.
Google and Ascension have released statements in the wake of the disclosure of Project Nightingale, insisting it conforms with HIPAA and all federal health laws. They said that patient data was protected.
Google Cloud told the Wall Street Journal that the aim was “ultimately improving outcomes, reducing costs, and saving lives”.
In a statement, Ascension said: “All work related to Ascension’s engagement with Google is HIPAA compliant and underpinned by a robust data security and protection effort and adherence to Ascension’s strict requirements for data handling.”
In the video, the whistleblower begs to disagree. In annotations that run over the leaked documents, they suggest that in future Google might be able to sell or share the data with third parties, or create patient profiles against which they can advertise healthcare products.
“Patients haven’t been told how Ascension is using their data and have not consented to their data being transferred to the cloud or being used by Google. At the very least patients should be told and be able to opt in or opt out,” the whistleblower writes.
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Top US diplomat in Ukraine William B. Taylor Jr. (left) waits to testify before the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill on November 13, 2019. (photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty)
Bill Taylor Drops Bombshell of Additional Phone Call in Hearing Opening Statement
Andrew Prokop, Vox
Prokop writes: "Toward the end of his opening statement in the first public impeachment hearing Wednesday, diplomat Bill Taylor dropped a bombshell."
EXCERPTS:
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New York Police Department. (photo: AM New York)
Andrew Prokop, Vox
Prokop writes: "Toward the end of his opening statement in the first public impeachment hearing Wednesday, diplomat Bill Taylor dropped a bombshell."
EXCERPTS:
It’s yet another damning revelation in the scandal, one that further debunks the president’s defenders’ argument that there was nothing to see here. And it’s momentous because it suggests that Trump was very personally involved in what Sondland was telling the Ukrainians.
TAYLOR: "Sondland also told me that he now recognized that 'I had made a mistake' by earlier telling Ukrainian officials that only a WH meeting with Zelensky was dependent on a public announcement of the investigations. In fact... everything was dependent on such an announcement"
NEW: Taylor discloses that his staff overheard phone call in which Trump asked Sondland about investigations into the Bidens in July
Taylor's staff member says Sondland told them that "Trump cares more about the investigations into the Bidens" than anything else re: Ukraine
168 people are talking about this
There are many witnesses and documents attesting that, over a period of several months, Sondland repeatedly told the Ukrainians and his American colleagues that Ukraine needed to commit to investigations Trump wanted — first in exchange for a White House meeting, and later to get military aid Trump was holding up.
These witnesses said Sondland frequently claimed to be carrying out Trump’s wishes — but the extent to which he was simply interpreting his boss’s desires versus personally consulting with Trump hasn’t been clear.
It also further calls into question Sondland’s own testimony — which he has already had to revise once. Sondland claimed he was completely unaware of the Bidens’ connection to Burisma until quite late, and he claimed not to be able to recall many conversations with Trump about it. According to this staff member’s account, neither is true.
Taylor said he was unaware of this information until the staff member came forward last week. Democrats are clearly eager for more information on this topic. Here is what Taylor said, exactly, about this in his opening statement:
Last Friday, a member of my staff told me of events that occurred on July 26. While Ambassador Volker and I visited the front, this member of my staff accompanied Ambassador Sondland. Ambassador Sondland met with Mr. Yermak.
Following that meeting, in the presence of my staff at a restaurant, Ambassador Sondland called President Trump and told him of his meetings in Kyiv. The member of my staff could hear President Trump on the phone, asking Ambassador Sondland about “the investigations.” Ambassador Sondland told President Trump that the Ukrainians were ready to move forward.
Following the call with President Trump, the member of my staff asked Ambassador Sondland what President Trump thought about Ukraine. Ambassador Sondland responded that President Trump cares more about the investigations of Biden, which Giuliani was pressing for. At the time I gave my deposition on October 22, I was not aware of this information. I am including it here for completeness. As the Committee knows, I reported this information through counsel to the State Department’s Legal Adviser, as well as to counsel for both the Majority and the Minority on the Committee. It is my understanding that the Committee is following up on this matter.
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New York Police Department. (photo: AM New York)
The NYPD Kept an Illegal Database of Juvenile Fingerprints for Years
Alice Speri, The Intercept
Speri writes: "For years, the New York Police Department illegally maintained a database containing the fingerprints of thousands of children charged as juvenile delinquents - in direct violation of state law mandating that police destroy these records after turning them over to the state's Division of Criminal Justice Services."
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Maya Rockeymoore Cummings speaks during funeral services for the late U.S. rep. Elijah Cummings last month in Baltimore. (photo: Julio Cortez/AP)
Alice Speri, The Intercept
Speri writes: "For years, the New York Police Department illegally maintained a database containing the fingerprints of thousands of children charged as juvenile delinquents - in direct violation of state law mandating that police destroy these records after turning them over to the state's Division of Criminal Justice Services."
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Maya Rockeymoore Cummings speaks during funeral services for the late U.S. rep. Elijah Cummings last month in Baltimore. (photo: Julio Cortez/AP)
Elijah Cummings' Widow Announces She's Running For His US House Seat
Brakkton Booker, NPR
Booker writes: "Rep. Elijah Cummings' widow is resigning her post as chair of Maryland's Democratic Party to run for her late husband's congressional seat."
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Police officers take part in a ceremony on Wednesday in La Paz, Bolivia. (photo: Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters)
Brakkton Booker, NPR
Booker writes: "Rep. Elijah Cummings' widow is resigning her post as chair of Maryland's Democratic Party to run for her late husband's congressional seat."
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Police officers take part in a ceremony on Wednesday in La Paz, Bolivia. (photo: Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters)
Why Does the United States Still Believe the Myth of the 'Good Coup'?
Erica De Bruin, The Washington Post
De Bruin writes: "U.S. officials have developed a bad habit of endorsing military meddling in global politics - ironically, in the name of democracy."
EXCERPT:
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Prison cell door. (photo: EPA)
Erica De Bruin, The Washington Post
De Bruin writes: "U.S. officials have developed a bad habit of endorsing military meddling in global politics - ironically, in the name of democracy."
EXCERPT:
This is hardly the first time U.S. officials have implied that military intervention in politics might help countries usher in more democratic rule. Last April, when Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó called upon soldiers to join him in ousting President Nicolás Maduro from power, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo suggested Guaidó’s proposed coup would result in “a peaceful democratic transition.”
Similarly, in 2013, when Egypt’s military leaders ousted Mohamed Morsi, the country’s first democratically elected ruler, from power, Obama administration officials portrayed it as an expression of the popular will, rather than a coup attempt. Secretary of State John F. Kerry claimed that in ousting Morsi, the military was “restoring democracy” rather than seizing power.
The temptation to endorse the domestic political maneuverings of military leaders against unfriendly regimes is clearly strong for U.S. policymakers. In recent years, moreover, a number of observers have suggested that coups might be the only way to remove entrenched dictators from power. Coups sometimes succeed in replacing repressive rulers with more democratic ones, and since the end of the Cold War, these so-called “good coups” — those that are quickly followed by competitive elections — have risen in number. Examples include the coups in Niger in 1991 and Guinea-Bissau in 2003, both of which preceded free and fair elections.
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Prison cell door. (photo: EPA)
Saudi Arabia Authorities Kidnapped Lawyer, Activist in Switzerland
The Middle East Monitor
Excerpt: "Saudi authorities kidnapped a Saudi lawyer and an activist from their residence in the Switzerland city of Geneva, the rights group Prisoners of Conscience has revealed."
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The Middle East Monitor
Excerpt: "Saudi authorities kidnapped a Saudi lawyer and an activist from their residence in the Switzerland city of Geneva, the rights group Prisoners of Conscience has revealed."
Saudi lawyer Hassan Al-Omari was abducted by authorities in October 2017 and Hassan Al-Kanani in March this year with Amnesty International accusing Saudi of being behind the Al-Omari’s disappearance.
The rights group said a prince had also disappeared from Geneva prior to Al-Omari with authorities in Switzerland having no information about his whereabouts.
On 15 October 2018, Saudi Prince Khalid Bin Farhan Al-Saud, who was based in Germany at the time, accused his country of trying to kidnap him. His revelation came just two weeks after Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi went missing after entering the Saudi consulate in the Turkish city of Istanbul.
Over the past two years, hundreds of activists and human rights advocators have been arrested in Saudi Arabia.
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Marshall Islands. (photo: DOE)
Climate Change Is Breaking Open America's Nuclear Tomb
Matthew Gault, VICE
Gault writes: "During the Cold War, the United States nuked the Marshall Islands 67 times. After it finished nuking the islands, the Pentagon dropped biological weapons on the islands."
Matthew Gault, VICE
Gault writes: "During the Cold War, the United States nuked the Marshall Islands 67 times. After it finished nuking the islands, the Pentagon dropped biological weapons on the islands."
Once the U.S. was finished, it scooped the irradiated and ruined soil from the islands, poured it into a crater left behind from a nuclear detonation, mixed it all with concrete, and covered the whole thing in a concrete dome. They called it “The Tomb.” According to a report from The Los Angeles Times, climate change is breaking that dome open. Rising sea levels and temperatures are cracking open The Tomb, threatening to spill nuclear waste into the Pacific Ocean.
The Marshall Islands is a collection of 29 atolls across 1,156 islands. More than 50,000 people live on the islands. From 1946 to 1958, it was a proving ground for America’s nuclear arsenal. On March 1, 1954, the Pentagon conducted Castle Bravo and detonated a 15 megaton thermonuclear warhead over the Bikini Atoll. It was the largest nuclear weapon the U.S. ever detonated.
The fallout from the explosion rained down on the people of the Marshall Islands.
“It was only a matter of two or three years before women on the island started to give birth to things less than human,” a Marshall Islands woman told diplomats on a fact finding mission decades later. Birth defects are so common on the islands that the people have a number of words to describe them, among them marlins, devils, jellyfish children, and grape babies.
The U.S. has largely dismissed its responsibility to the Marshall Islands. It relocated many of its people and claims the cost of relocation and installation of The Tomb at the Enewetak Atoll covers its liability. As sea levels and temperatures rise, however, the Tomb is cracking. As it cracks, water rushes over it, leaching out plutonium and dumping it into the sea.
The U.S. has said The Tomb is now the Marshall Islands’ responsibility.
“I’m like, how can it [the dome] be ours?” Hilda Heine, the president of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, told The Los Angeles Times. “We don’t want it. We didn’t build it. The garbage inside is not ours. It’s theirs.”
"It's hard to imagine that the U.S. would consider its actions sufficient if the roles were reversed,” Alex Wellerstein, a nuclear historian at Stevens Institute of Technology, told Motherboard in a Twitter DM. “That somehow the world's richest nation can't seem to find the political will to make things right with a small, poor nation that sacrificed much in the name of American national security is a travesty. U.S. officials in the Cold War were quick to talk about how important the testing was to American survival, but somehow that importance never translated into a sincere gratitude to the suffering Marshallese."
The Tomb contains not just the irradiated soil and metal scrap from the Pacific proving grounds, but also 130 tons of soil shipped in from Nevada. The Pentagon buried not only the nuclear waste and byproduct of the Marshall Islands, but shipped in extra from out of town. A study by Columbia University researchers in July showed that regions of the Marshall Islands are more radioactive than Chernobyl.
The Nuclear Claims Tribunal, an independent ruling body with the authority to arbitrate legal relations between the United States and the Marshall Islands, awarded the Marshall Islands $2 billion in damages in 2001. Washington has paid only $4 million. At the time of its construction, a Lt. General for the U.S. Air Force said that, should the dome ever fail, it would be America’s responsibility to fix. Terry Hamilton, a researcher at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the Department of Energy’s Marshall Islands expert told The Los Angeles Times that “Under existing living conditions, there is no radiological basis why I or anyone else should be concerned about living on Enewetak.”
“The experts who assert that any given place is safe-enough to live never seem to live in such places themselves,” Wellerstein said. “I think it's easy to be confident about your data and look over the possible uncertainties when you don't personally suffer the consequences if you're wrong.”
Sea levels in the Pacific have risen 0.3 inches every year in the Marshall Islands since 1993. That’s faster than the global average of 0.11 to 0.14 inches. By the end of the century, experts believe the sea levels could rise by four or five feet, submerging the Marshall Islands and The Tomb. Under that kind of pressure, the concrete dome will crack, spilling America’s Cold War waste into the Pacific.
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