Month: March 2016

Suggesting that hawk politicians are out of touch with the American people, a new non-partisan poll conducted by the University of Maryland showed that Americans would on average like to see the military budget decrease by $12 billion. Democrats and independents wanted even deeper cuts, but not even Republican voters wanted to see more money spent on the military. Could this by why the neocon-favored uberhawk Marco Rubio is going down in flames in the presidential primary? What is the lesson for other politicians? Finally a good news story today in the Liberty Report:

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.

Hear that hissing sound? That is the last gasps for air from the Bill of Rights. The Bill is one breath away from hell.

The FBI has quietly revised its rules for searching data involving Americans’ communications collected by the National Security Agency.

The classified revisions were accepted by the secret U.S. FISA court that governs surveillance, under a set of powers colloquially known as Section 702. That is the portion of law that authorizes the NSA’s sweeping PRISM program, among other atrocities.

Continue reading “FBI and Access to NSA Data on Americans”

The ongoing US assassination program just completed one of its most deadly strikes on record in the country of Somalia, killing an estimated 150 people. Rest assured though, the US government said that all the victims were “militants”. The US government also stated that the airstrikes were in self-defense, so you know, no big deal.

Of course, the US isn’t actually at war in Somalia. No evidence has been provided as to the identity of any of the dead. And no details have been provided as to precisely who these 150 people were allegedly threatening that necessitated their execution. The Pentagon press release merely indicated that the attack was on an al Shabaab training camp.

Yet in spite of the clear lack of information, the killing of 150 people in a neutral country does not entail a scandal or even warrant comments from the President of the United States. It’s just a normal event. The Pentagon’s version of events was reported uncritically throughout most of the US media. Not enough details were offered to really corroborate the story, and no major US outlet bothered to try. Somalia is pretty far away, after all.

Continue reading “US Kills 150 People in Somalia; Media Offers Collective Shrug”

Yep, you should care. Very much. Hang up the phone and listen.

What This is All About

The FBI wants Apple to help unlock an iPhone used by one of the attackers who killed 14 people in the December San Bernardino shooting. Specifically, the Bureau wants Apple to create new software that would override a security system on the phone designed to erase its contents after ten unsuccessful password tries. The new software would also eliminate the built-in pause required between tries.

The software on the San Bernardino shooter’s phone, after ten tries, will automatically destroy any data on it as a security measure. The FBI needs that ten try limit, plus the required pauses between tries, taken away so that they can run a “brute force” attack against the password. A brute force attack runs an unlimited number of passwords (a1, a2, a3… aa1, aa2, aa3…) at high speed against the system until one works.

Continue reading “You Should Care About Apple, Your iPhone, and the FBI”

Neocons like Robert Kagan are having panic attacks over the possibility that their preferred presidential candidate may not end up the nominee. They are writing strong letters and threatening to take their toys and leave the Republican Party if Trump, who they don’t trust, is selected by the American voters. Who are the neocons and why do they continue to have a stranglehold on US foreign policy? Today’s Liberty Report is joined by Philip Giraldi to deconstruct the neocon crack-up:

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.

Think what it must be like to be one of America’s allies.

You enjoy some trade, groove on uber-Americanos like Beyonce and Brad Pitt, and visit Disneyland. But then there’s America again at your cubicle, asking again that you join some coalition, get some troops into another wacky American overseas intervention for freedom, or regime change, or to stop another impending genocide only American can stop. What can you do? It’s hard to say no, but given how poorly the last one worked out, and the one before that, and the one before that, nobody at home is in favor of another round. Still, you’re stuck giving something…

And so it is with Canada, that big snowy place near the U.S. that is not Mexico (why doesn’t Mexico have to join these coalitions anyway?)

New Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau fulfilled one of his most contentious election campaign promises, as Canadian military airstrikes on Islamic State in Iraq and Syria ceased in mid-February. Canada is still indirectly involved in the aerial campaign, and in training Iraqi security forces.

Continue reading “Canada’s Changing Mission in Iraq”