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Government Accountability Project
The Government Accountability Project (GAP) is a nonprofit whistleblower protection and advocacy organization in the United States. It was founded in 1977. Activities In 1992, GAP represented Aldric Saucier, who had lost his job and security clearance after he criticized the Strategic Defense Initiative. In December 2012, Eric Ben-Artzi came forward publicly with evidence of multi-billion dollar securities violations at his employer, Deutsche Bank. He internally reported violations stemming from the bank's failure to report the value of its credit derivatives portfolio accurately. The bank retaliated in multiple ways and ultimately dismissed him. GAP filed an official whistleblower complaint on Ben-Artzi's behalf. He was ultimately awarded $8 million from the SEC, which he declined to collect. GAP provided legal support to Thomas A. Drake, a former senior executive with the National Security Agency (NSA) who blew the whistle on multi-billion dollar programmatic fraud, waste, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Global Surveillance
Global mass surveillance can be defined as the mass surveillance of entire populations across national borders. Its existence was not widely acknowledged by governments and the mainstream media until the global surveillance disclosures by Edward Snowden triggered a debate about the right to privacy in the Digital Age. Its roots can be traced back to the middle of the 20th century when the UKUSA Agreement was jointly enacted by the United Kingdom and the United States, which later expanded to Canada, Australia, and New Zealand to create the present Five Eyes alliance. The alliance developed cooperation arrangements with several "third-party" nations. Eventually, this resulted in the establishment of a global surveillance network, code-named "ECHELON" (1971). Historical background The origins of global surveillance can be traced back to the late 1940s after the UKUSA Agreement was collaboratively enacted by the United Kingdom and the United States, which eventually culmina ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States Department Of State
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nations, its primary duties are advising the U.S. president on international relations, administering diplomatic missions, negotiating international treaties and agreements, and representing the United States at the United Nations conference. Established in 1789 as the first administrative arm of the U.S. executive branch, the State Department is considered among the most powerful and prestigious executive agencies. It is headed by the secretary of state, who reports directly to the U.S. president and is a member of the Cabinet. Analogous to a foreign minister, the secretary of state serves as the federal government's chief diplomat and representative abroad, and is the first Cabinet official in the order of precedence and in the pres ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United Nations Dispute Tribunal
The United Nations Dispute Tribunal (UNDT) is the court of first instance in the internal justice system of the United Nations. It became operational on 1 July 2009. The UNDT "hears and decides cases" filed by current and former staff members "appealing administrative decisions alleged to be in non-compliance with their terms of appointment or contract of employment". The staff members as well as the Administration have a "right to appeal the judgments of the UNDT to the United Nations Appeals Tribunal (UNAT)". In order to ensure the independence of this organ, it is composed not of officials of the Organization, but by judges appointed by the Member States of the United Nations through the General Assembly, from which UNDT derives its mandate.'' Procedures As a first step in the formal system, a staff member who wishes to contest an administrative decision will have to request a management evaluation. When no resolution through informal means can be arrived at, and when the result ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Wasserstrom
James Wasserstrom is a US diplomat who currently serves as an anti-corruption officer at the US embassy in Kabul. UN "whistleblower" He was posted to the UN mission in Kosovo to fight corruption but in 2007 he witnessed misconduct involving UN officials and a local utility company. He later reportedly uncovered evidence that two senior UN officials had received bribes for awarding a contract for the building of a coal fired power plant and mine. After complaining to the UN's oversight office his job was effectively abolished and he was investigated for misconduct. Wasserstrom then went to the UN's Ethics Office where it was eventually ruled that he was maltreated but that this did not count as retaliation against a whistleblower. After a lengthy legal battle, documents backing his version of events were uncovered and the UN's Dispute Tribunal overturned the original decision. Whilst a judgement was not made on the alleged corruption in the UN's Kosovo mission, it was decided that ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Optic Nerve (GCHQ)
Optic Nerve is a mass surveillance programme run by the British signals intelligence agency Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), with help from the US National Security Agency, that surreptitiously collects private webcam still images from users while they are using a Yahoo! webcam application. As an example of the scale, in one 6-month period, the programme is reported to have collected images from 1.8 million Yahoo! user accounts globally. The programme was first reported on in the media in February 2014, from documents leaked by the former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, but dates back to a prototype started in 2008, and was still active in at least 2012. The leaked documents describe the users under surveillance as "unselected", meaning that data was collected indiscriminately in bulk from users regardless of whether they were an intelligence target or not. The vast majority of affected users would have been completely innocent of any crime or suspic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Squeaky Dolphin
Squeaky Dolphin is a program developed by the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), a British intelligence agency, intelligence and security agency, security organization, to collect and analyze data from social media networks. The program was first revealed to the general public on NBC on 27 January 2014 based on documents previously leaked by Edward Snowden. Scope of surveillance According to a document of the GCHQ dated August 2012, the program enables broad, Real-time data, real-time surveillance of the following items: * YouTube video views * The Like button on Facebook. Facebook has since then encrypted the data. * Blogger (service), Blogspot/Blogger visits * Twitter, which has however encrypted its communications since this presentation was made The program can be supplemented with commercially available analytic software to determine which videos are popular among residents of specific cities. The dashboard software chosen was made by Splunk. The presentation, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dishfire
Dishfire (stylised DISHFIRE) is a covert global surveillance collection system and database run by the United States of America's National Security Agency (NSA) and the United Kingdom's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) that collects hundreds of millions of text messages on a daily basis from around the world. A related analytic tool is known as Prefer. Details The database is operated by the following agencies: * United States of America – National Security Agency (NSA) * United Kingdom – Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) The existence of the database was revealed in 2014 based on documents disclosed by whistleblower Edward Snowden. According to Snowden's documents, Britain's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) has been given full access to the Dishfire database, which the agency uses to obtain personal information of Britons by exploiting a legal loophole. Scope of surveillance Each day, Dishfire collects the following amounts of data: ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group
The Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG) is a unit of the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the British intelligence agency. The existence of JTRIG was revealed as part of the global surveillance disclosures in documents leaked by the former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. Mission The scope of the JTRIG's mission includes using "dirty tricks" to "destroy, deny, degrade nddisrupt" enemies by "discrediting" them, planting misinformation and shutting down their communications. - contains the DISRUPTION Operational Playbook slide presentation by GCHQ Known as "Effects" operations, the work of JTRIG had become a "major part" of GCHQ's operations by 2010. Slides leaked by Snowden also disclose the deployment of " honey traps" of a sexual nature by British intelligence agents. Operations In 2011, the JTRIG conducted a denial-of-service attack (DoS) on the activist network Anonymous. Other JTRIG targets have included the government of I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
FASCIA
A fascia (; plural fasciae or fascias; adjective fascial; from Latin: "band") is a band or sheet of connective tissue, primarily collagen, beneath the skin that attaches to, stabilizes, encloses, and separates muscles and other internal organs. Fascia is classified by layer, as superficial fascia, deep fascia, and ''visceral'' or ''parietal'' fascia, or by its function and anatomical location. Like ligaments, aponeuroses, and tendons, fascia is made up of fibrous connective tissue containing closely packed bundles of collagen fibers oriented in a wavy pattern parallel to the direction of pull. Fascia is consequently flexible and able to resist great unidirectional tension forces until the wavy pattern of fibers has been straightened out by the pulling force. These collagen fibers are produced by fibroblasts located within the fascia. Fasciae are similar to ligaments and tendons as they have collagen as their major component. They differ in their location and function: ligament ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
MUSCULAR
Skeletal muscles (commonly referred to as muscles) are organs of the vertebrate muscular system and typically are attached by tendons to bones of a skeleton. The muscle cells of skeletal muscles are much longer than in the other types of muscle tissue, and are often known as muscle fibers. The muscle tissue of a skeletal muscle is striated – having a striped appearance due to the arrangement of the sarcomeres. Skeletal muscles are voluntary muscles under the control of the somatic nervous system. The other types of muscle are cardiac muscle which is also striated and smooth muscle which is non-striated; both of these types of muscle tissue are classified as involuntary, or, under the control of the autonomic nervous system. A skeletal muscle contains multiple fascicles – bundles of muscle fibers. Each individual fiber, and each muscle is surrounded by a type of connective tissue layer of fascia. Muscle fibers are formed from the fusion of developmental myoblasts in a pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tempora
Tempora is the codeword for a formerly-secret computer system that is used by the British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). This system is used to buffer most Internet communications that are extracted from fibre-optic cables, so these can be processed and searched at a later time.GCHQ report on the technical abilities of the powerful spying program TEMPORA, which allows for a "full take" released by Der Spiegel on 18 June 2014 It was tested from 2008 and became operational in late 2011. Tempora uses intercepts on the fibre-optic cables that serve as the backbone of the Internet to gain access to large amounts of Internet us ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
