December 30, 2005

Latest Salvoes in the Media War Against Western Intelligence Agencies

In news on the media war against Western intelligence-gathering activities, MSNBC reports that the Justice Department is going to investigate the leaking of a classified NSA foreign cellphone call and email intercept program (the MSM prefer to use the disparaging term "eavesdropping"):

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Justice Department has launched an investigation to see who disclosed details about a secret domestic eavesdropping operation, department officials said Friday.

“We are opening an investigation into the unauthorized disclosure of classified materials related to the NSA,” one official said, referring to the National Security Agency.

And terrorist-friendly Brit fish-and-chip-wrapper the Guardian has the breaking news about a sinister NSA plot involving the "bugging" of millions of computers:
The intelligence service at the centre of the row over eavesdropping tracked visitors to its website, despite US government regulations. Monitoring files, known as "cookies", were discovered by a privacy activist at a time when the White House is on the defensive about its use of the National Security Agency to monitor the communications of US citizens.
That's right, cookies. Those things you collect from every commercial website you visit. And the Guardian's so-called "privacy expert" is Daniel Brandt, who apparently believes that Google has deliberately written their search algorithms to exclude one of his websites, and is thus on a Quixote-like quest to humble the search engine giant.

Also posted at The Dread Pundit Bluto.

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December 26, 2005

Group Cites Progress in Middle East: WaPo Writer Flies Into Snit

The "non-profit, nonpartisan organization" Freedom House notes improvement in the state of democracy in the Middle East in a December 19 press release:

The people of the Arab Middle East experienced a modest but potentially significant increase in political rights and civil liberties in 2005, Freedom House announced in a major survey of global freedom released today.
The press release goes on to mention Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as Lebanon, as hopeful "potentially significant" signs of progress in the region. Only effects are cited, not causes. Thus, there is no mention of the United States' role in Afghanistan's elevation from "Not Free" to "Partly Free" status. Likewise, those in Lebanon who cited the American intervention in Iraq as the spark that led to Syria's expulsion aren't quoted.

Unfortunately, even this implied faint praise for President Bush's Middle East foreign policy is a threat to Fred Hiatt at the Washington Post:

But even those bright spots had shadows. The gainers in Arab elections were Islamist parties that may or may not be committed to the democratic process. The elected government in Ukraine faced internal and external pressures. Liberia's president will need help from wealthier countries that she may not receive.
In Fred Hiatt's world the sky is always overcast during Republican administrations. What a sad little man.

Also posted at The Dread Pundit Bluto.

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