Senators Questioning FBI About Use of Stingray Fake Cell Towers

Posted: January 4, 2015 by gamegetterII in Police state USSA
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Two U.S. senators are questioning whether the FBI has granted itself too much leeway on when it can use decoy cellphone towers to scoop up data on the identities and locations of cellphone users. The lawmakers say the agency now says it doesn’t need a search warrant when gathering data about people milling around in public spaces.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the chairman and ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee respectively, have written a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and Department of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson about the use of the surveillance technology called an IMSI catcher, though also referred to by the trade name “Stingray.”

Cell tower simulators work by mimicking the legitimate cell towers used by companies like Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint. They catch the signals emitted from cellphones and other mobile devices and extract insight into who owns the phone, his or her location, and other details. That’s a bit like someone setting up a big blue box, posting a United States Postal Service logo on the side, copying information from the letters fooled users deposit in it, and then soon after dumping the accumulated mail into a real mail box. No one need be the wiser.

The hitch of, course, is that spoofing the U.S. Postal Service would be illegal. What Leahy and Grassley are wondering is whether what the FBI is doing crosses a legal line.

What has particularly prompted their concerns, they say, is a meeting between their Senate staffs and the FBI. In that discussion, the agency representatives, they say, indicated that FBI policy requires obtaining a search warrant before using a cell-tower simulator to go after a target. But, say the senators, FBI officials revealed that along with the carve-outs for search warrants for cell-tower spoofing that follow regular law enforcement practice — where the public is in immediate danger or where it is a fugitive being tracked — the FBI has recently granted itself an exception for “cases in which the technology is used in public places or other locations at which the FBI deems there is no reasonable expectation of privacy.”

That would seem to suggest that the FBI has determined that simply making a call while walking down a city street is enough to free federal law enforcement from its internal restrictions on digging into your phone data. The senators have given the departments until Jan. 30 to respond. The FBI did not respond to a request for comment.

Read more @

http://tablet.washingtonpost.com/politics/senators-question-legality-of-fbis-new-policy-on-cellphone-tracking/2015/01/03/a12b6aec2287b69b9cddc8c30a75ef4f_story.html

Swedes Tire Of Government’s “Open Door Policy” On Muslim Immigration … Mosques Are Burning

Posted: January 3, 2015 by gamegetterII in Uncategorized
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johngalt's avatarYouViewed/Editorial

In Sweden, The Land Of The Open Door, Anti-Muslim Sentiment Finds A Foothold

” As Khalif Samantar knelt for afternoon prayers at the Eskilstuna Islamic Dawa Center on Christmas Day, he sensed a growing heat and a low, rushing sound coming from a nearby hallway. He focused his mind on the ritual, only to realize seconds later that someone was shouting, “The mosque is on fire!”

  Mr. Samantar sprang through an open window and rushed through the snow in his stocking feet for help. Though about 70 people were inside the mosque at the time, no one was injured.

  The fire, which gutted the Dawa center, was the worst of three suspected arson attacks on mosques in Sweden over the last 10 days. In the same period, two freighters bearing hundreds of asylum seekers were abandoned by their crews off the coast of Italy, adding to a surge of more than…

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EFF: Law enforcement ‘desperately’ trying to hide use of surveillance cell towers

Posted: January 3, 2015 by gamegetterII in Police state USSA
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The_forgotten_man

Stingrays Go Mainstream

We’ve long worried about the government’s use of IMSI catchers or cell site simulators. Commonly known as a “Stingray” after a specific device manufactured by the Harris Corporation, IMSI catchers masquerade as a legitimate cell phone tower, tricking phones nearby to connect to the device in order to track a phone’s location in real time. We’re not just worried about how invasive these devices can be but also that the government has been less than forthright with judges about how and when they use IMSI catchers. This year the public learned just how desperately law enforcement wanted to keep details about Stingrays secret thanks to a flurry of public records act requests by news organizations across the country. The results are shocking. The public learned that Harris requires police departments sign a non-disclosure agreement promising not to reference Stingrays. Federal agencies like the US Department of Justice and the US Marshals Service have instructed local cities and police to keep details of Stingray surveillance secret, with the Marshals physically intervening in one instance to prevent information from becoming public. There have been repeated instances of police agencies across the country hiding their use of IMSI catchers from the judges entrusted to provide police oversight:

  • In Sarasota, Florida internal police emails revealed officers concealed their use of Stingrays from judges, having one officer withdraw a warrant affidavit that mentioned the use of an IMSI catcher, and describing a policy of referring to Stingrays as a “source” in official documents.
  • Judges in Tacoma, Washington signed more than 170 orders unknowingly authorizing Stingray use from 2009 to 2014 because police officers did not disclose the orders would be used to operate an IMSI catcher. Judges first learned they were approving IMSI catchers from local newspaper reporting.
  • In a robbery case in Baltimore, Maryland, prosecutors abandoned their use of Stingray evidence after a judge threatened to hold a police officer in contempt for refusing to testify about the device.
  • It’s not just local police. The Wall Street Journal reported on a secret US Marshals surveillance program that attaches IMSI catchers called “DRTboxes” to airplanes to track suspects, gathering data about scores of innocent people in the process. The report prompted a letter from US senators to the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security demanding more information.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/01/2014-review-stingrays-go-mainstream

Sparks31: One-Time Pad (OTP) Generation and Use

Posted: January 3, 2015 by gamegetterII in Uncategorized
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WeaponsMan: Small- and Home-Shop Rifling Machines

Posted: January 2, 2015 by gamegetterII in Uncategorized
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Ohio Muzzleloader Season Starts-1/2/14-1/5/14

Posted: January 2, 2015 by gamegetterII in deer hunting
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Since Muzzleloader season starts a half hour before sunrise,ends a half hour after sunset,and we’ve got an hour and 15 minute drive each way…posting will be light until Mon 1/5/14.

I may have time to do a couple posts in the evenings,or if I get another deer,I’m done for the year,as our freezer is filled to max capacity.

If my brother doesn’t get a deer,and I do,I’ll give him the venison from the one I get,if he does get one-I may just donate the doe I’m gonna shoot tomorrow or Sat. Ohio has a bunch of programs where you can donate venison,doesn’t cost you anything,you just have to drop the deer off at a processor.

We usually donate at least one deer to one of the programs,all the venison goes to help those who can’t buy groceries for whatever reason.

Donating venison also helps people have a better perception of hunters-every little bit helps because the anti-hunters never stop,now we have HSUS funding campaigns to get anti-hunting shit on the ballot. These people spend billions trying to get all hunting banned. Wayne Pacelle-prez of HSUS stated in public that his goals are to ban all hunting,and require everyone to become vegan.

HSUS gets billions in donations by scamming clueless people. They air ads on TV that make it appear that HSUS operates animal shelters-the fact is HSUS does not operate a single shelter-not one.

They just show pictures of mistreated and/or injured,starving pets-and poof-the $$$ rolls in.

After collecting the billions,they then try to get anti-hunting crap on the ballot with lies,half-truths and obfuscation-and the low info voters gladly vote for the garbage. Pacelle stated they are starting in Ca,then moving on to the rest of the states.

They never stop,they sneak shit into petitions,get the issues on the ballot-then bam-we can’t hunt mountain lions or bears with dogs,they’re trying to get hunting fox,raccoons and rabbits with dogs.

Once they get one thing banned-they just keep going,taking hunting rights away a little at a time.

What these clueless dolts do not comprehend is that the fewer hunting licenses and tags sold-the less money for wildlife conservation. Hunters fund over 90% of all wildlife conservation efforts in the USA. paid for every wildlife refuge in the refuge system,by buying duck stamps, both state and fed.

Remember this as you’re sitting in a treestand or a blind as this hunting season winds down.

Think about joining or donating to Ducks Unlimited,Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation,National Wild Turkey Federation,Ruffed Grouse Society,Pheasants Forever-there’s a bunch more,along with lots of local and state groups/orgs.

Anyone who likes to hunt,and wants to pass the tradition on to their kids should be donating $$ or labor to one of these groups/orgs-it helps balance out the horsepucky spread by HSUS,PETA,Center for Biological Diversity,World Wildlife Fund,Wild Earth Guardians,Defender of Wildlife,and on and on and on.

Good luck to anyone hunting the Ohio muzzleloader season !

Read.

Learn.

Train.

Do More PT !

Since most of us ate way too much,and drank way too much over the holidays-do some extra PT !

A Mania Of Manias

Posted: January 2, 2015 by gamegetterII in Uncategorized
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Food Storage Calculator

Posted: January 2, 2015 by gamegetterII in Uncategorized
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The calculator uses some items I do not store,as I’m sure will happen with anyone who uses it.
The calculator will give a good idea of how much food it really takes to feed a family for a year.

All you have to do is type in number of family members over 7 years old,and number less than 6 years old.

You then get the total amounts you need to have for each category of food.

It ain’t perfect,but it will give you a close approximation of what you need as far as food storage.

http://www.thefoodguys.com/foodcalc.html

Bracken: Dear Mr. Security Agent

Posted: January 1, 2015 by gamegetterII in Uncategorized
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Military hardware still flowing to local police after Ferguson

Posted: January 1, 2015 by gamegetterII in Police state USSA
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By Stephen Dinan – The Washington Times – Tuesday, December 30, 2014

The federal government shipped nearly 4,000 more assault rifles to local law enforcement agencies in the three months following the Ferguson riots, marking a huge surge in the amount of lethal firearms being doled out to police and sheriff’s offices.

The Ferguson riots drew attention and criticism to the massive firepower state and local police are now able to bring to bear on their citizens, and earned scrutiny for the Pentagon project, known as the 1033 program, that helps arm many of those agencies by making surplus military equipment available to them.

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