Thursday, February 2, 2012

"'Anonymous' hackers strike again !

'Anonymous' hackers attack Brazilian bank websites --'Attention sailors: Target hit! Itau is adrift. TANGO DOWN!,' the hackers crowed. 01 Feb 2012 The computer hacker group Anonymous said Wednesday it attacked the websites of three major Brazilian banks over the past few days to protest widespread inequality in Latin America's leading economy. Hackers from Anonymous's Brazilian branch told the economy daily Valor that their attacks on Bradesco, Itau and Banco do Brasil did not aim to defraud clients, but were meant to protest "the countless inequalities in the country." The last to be targeted was the website of Banco do Brasil, the country's largest state-run bank. Monday, Itau, the country's biggest private bank and the biggest in Latin America, was attacked, followed a day later by Bradesco, Brazil's third biggest bank.


Salt Lake City police website hacked; Anonymous takes credit 31 Jan 2012 Salt Lake City police took their website offline Tuesday afternoon, after it was hacked.  At about 2:30 p.m., police started seeing information on the department's website that "weren't in line with our typical postings," prompting closure of the site, said Salt Lake City Police spokesman Shawn Josephson. The group taking the credit for the hack is a collective known as Anonymous. According to a news release from police, the hacker group says the attack is a response to an anti-graffiti paraphernalia bill being sponsored by state Sen. Karen Mayne, D-West Valley City. Depending on the extent of the vandalism, the crime could be boosted to a felony.

Pair Detained in Twitter Homeland Threat Mix-Up 30 Jan 2012 A young couple from across the pond was detained at a Los Angeles airport after Homeland Security agents mistook a couple Twitter quips for threats against the U.S., the two told British media today. Friends Irishman Leigh Van Bryan, 26, and British citizen Emily Bunting, 24, were reportedly interrogated and spent 12 hours locked up under armed guardafter going through customs in Los Angeles International Airport last week. According to several British outlets, the couple was taken into custody by U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents because of the slang in Bryan's tweets. "Free this week, for quick gossip/prep before I go and destroy America," one of the tweets read. Bryan told The Sun that in this context "destroy" just meant party.


US bars friends over Twitter joke 30 Jan 2012 Two pals were barred from entering the US after innocent tweets joking about "destroying America" were picked up by the country's anti-terror cops. US special agents monitoring Twitter

 spotted Leigh Van Bryan's messages weeks before he left for a holiday in Los Angeles with pal Emily Bunting. Leigh, who also quipped about "digging up Marilyn Monroe" on Twitter, said they were treated like terrorists on arrival at a Los Angeles International Airport. The pair were held by armed guards and quizzed for five hours before being handcuffed, put in a van with illegal immigrants and locked up overnight.


DHS Announces 'If You See Something, Say Something' Partnership with NFL for Super Bowl XLVI 01 Feb 2012 Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano today traveled to Indianapolis to highlight the Department's "If You See Something, Say Something™" public awareness campaign's continued partnership with the National Football League (NFL) to help ensure the safety and security of employees, players and fans during the regular season, and Super Bowl XLVI. The Department launched the "If You See Something, Say Something™" campaign in conjunction with the Department of Justice's Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative-an administration effort to train state and local law enforcement to recognize behaviors and indicators related to terrorism and terrorism-related crime; standardize how those observations are documented and analyzed; and ensure the sharing of those reports with the Federal Bureau of Investigation-led Joint Terrorism Task Forces for further investigation.


US No-Fly list doubles in past year to 21,000 known or suspected terrorists: AP --The government lowered the standard for putting people on the list, and then scoured its files for anyone who qualified. The government will not disclose who is on its list or why someone might have been placed on it. [Anonymous, get in there and edit the No-Fly list, would you please? Remove the pseudo-terrorists and insert the names of actual terrorists, such as Scott Walker, Paul Ryan, the entire Oakland Police Department - you know the drill.] Feb 2012 Even as the Obama administration says it's close to defeating al-Qaida [al-CIAduh], the size of the government’s secret list of suspected terrorists who are banned from flying to or within the United States has more than doubled in the past year, The Associated Press has learned. The no-fly list jumped from about 10,000 known or suspected terrorists one year ago to about 21,000, according to government figures provided to the AP.


Mossad chief holds secret U.S. meetings on Iran nuclear threat, Senate panel reveals 31 Jan 2012 Mossad chief Tamir Pardo held secret talks with top U.S. officials in recent days, cursory comments made during a public Senate hearing indicated on Tuesday. The clandestine Washington visit was exposed during a hearing of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which was participated by CIA Director David Petraeus, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and Dianne Feinstein, who chairs the Senate panel. During the meeting, Feinstein asked Clapper whether or not Israel intended to strike Iran's nuclear facilities, with the top U.S. intelligence official answering that he would rather discuss the issue behind closed doors.


Panetta Says U.S. to End Afghan Combat Role as Soon as 2013 02 Feb 2012 In a major milestone toward ending a decade of war in Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said Wednesday that American forces would step back from a combat role there as early as mid-2013, more than a year before all American troops are scheduled to come home. Mr. Panetta cast the decision as an orderly step in a withdrawal process long planned by the United States and its allies, but his comments were the first time that the United States had put a date on stepping back from its central role in the war. Mr. Panetta said no decisions had been made about the number of American troops to be withdrawn in 2013, and he made clear that substantial fighting lies ahead.


Yemen minister eludes assassination attempt 02 Feb 2012 Gunmen riddled the car of Yemen's information minister with bullets as he left a cabinet meeting in the capital on Tuesday but he escaped the assassination attempt unhurt, an aide said. In southern Yemen, at least 12 'al Qaeda' militants, including four local leaders, were killed in a US strike in south Yemen. In the capital of Sanaa, unidentified assailants opened fire on Information Minister Ali al-Amrani's car as he prepared to leave after a cabinet meeting. The minister was not hurt, according to his secretary, Abdel-Basset al-Qaedi.


Lawyers use ancient code in Assange's last stand 02 Feb 2012 For more than four hours in the UK Supreme Court yesterday, there were references to complex European law, citations from 14th and 15th-century texts, and a quote from the Codex Iustinianus, dated 376 AD, all of which lawyers used in an effort save Julian Assange from extradition to Sweden, where he faces allegations of rape and sexual assault involving two women. There were utterings in court in German, French and Latin as Assange's barrister, Dinah Rose, presented her case to six Lords and a Lady, all judges of the Court, that the arrest warrant under which Assange faces extradition is flawed.

oppiggybank1 By a guest 31 Jan 2012 'We are the new digital race' @CabinCr3w & @ItsKahuna #Anonymous #OpPiggyBank Dear Salt Lake City Police Department, We took note that Senator Karen Mayne has put forth a bill SB107 - that tries to resolve an inconvenience with a flamethrower. Regardless whether the messages spray painted are disturbing, this bill sets an attitude that will down the line lead to invasions of privacy in people's homes and raids at 6 am over spray paint. We know that law enforcement functions as a mindless machine led by InfraGard, PERF, and other domestic civil intelligence (so marches the security state) networks. We know there's money to be made in the "just doing my job" compartmentalized economy... We are Anonymous We are Legion We do not forgive We do not forget Expect us -Target- http://www.slcpd.com/ Salt Lake City PD Login Page http://www.slcpd.com/login.php.


San Onofre Nuclear Plant Closed After Radiation Leak --Nuclear reactor is in the heart of US earthquake country 01 Feb 2012 A 'small quantity' of radioactive gas leaked inside one of the buildings at San Onofre nuclear power plant north of San Diego, according to a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Officials say the radiation leak likely occurred in the steam generator tubes of San Onofre's reactor #3. The steam system, which is supposed to be shielded from exposure to radiation, was replaced in December 2010. San Onofre is located next to Camp Pendleton, a Marine Corps base where 38,000 military families live, and another 32,000 people work each day, all of whom would be in immediate danger if there is a meltdown.


Officials: Radiation could have escaped Calif. nuclear reactor 01 Feb 2012 A 'tiny amount' of radiation could have escaped into the atmosphere from a Southern California nuclear power plant after a water leak prompted operators to shut down the reactor as a precaution, officials said Wednesday. Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Victor Dricks said radioactive gas "could have" escaped the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station on the northern San Diego coast. The leak occurred in equipment that was installed in the plant in the fall of 2010. The leak occurred in one of thousands of tubes that carry radioactive water from the Unit 3 reactor. However, the company has found damage to other tubes, Dricks said.


Occupy Vermont Yankee: A Judge Rules Vermont Can't Shut Nuclear Plant 19 Jan 2012 A federal judge on Thursday blocked Vermont from forcing the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor to shut down when its license expires in March, saying that the state is trying to regulate nuclear safety, which only the federal government can do. The judge, J. Garvan Murtha of United States District Court in Brattleboro, Vt., also held that the state cannot force the plant's owner, Entergy, to sell electricity from the reactor to in-state utilities at reduced rates as a condition of continued operation, as Entergy asserts it is now doing. The ruling is almost certain to be appealed by the state and an array of private groups that want the plant shut down because of leaks of radioactive tritium and other issues.


Occupy Shell: Oil Firm Shell's Profits Double to £18bn 02 Feb 2012 Royal Dutch Shell has reported a profits of £18.1bn ($28.6bn) for 2011, a jump of 54% on a year ago. The improvement for the Anglo-Dutch company came as high oil prices outweighed poor margins in its refining business and despite a 3% decline in production. The oil firm still made profits of £4.1bn ($6.5bn) in the fourth quarter, which represented a 13% rise on a year ago.


Mitt Romney to Receive Secret Service Protection --According to a federal law enforcement officials Romney's campaign, which has long traveled with private security of its own, did request Secret Service protection. 31 Jan 2012 Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign has been informed that it will start receiving Secret Service protection this week, two campaign sources and a senior Republican tell ABC News. Secret Service protection is being given to the campaign not because of a specific threat but because of the increase in crowd sizes as the primary season has progressed over the past few weeks, according to the sources, who refused to be identified because they don’t have authority to comment on such matters publicly.


Harold Simmons gives Karl Rove's Crossroads groups $7 million 31 Jan 2012 The Karl Rove-linked juggernaut Crossroads groups raised $51 million last year – including a whopping $7 million from Dallas billionaire Harold Simmons – but that's still a far cry from the $300 million the two-pronged outfit intends to spend boosting Republicans and attacking Democrats in the run-up to Election Day. The bulk of Crossroads’ 2011 haul – $33 million – went into a secret money group called Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies (Crossroads GPS) that does not disclose its donors. The other group, a super PAC called American Crossroads, filed a report with the Federal Election Commission showing that it pulled in $18 million last year.


People with Bain Capital ties give $3m to Super Pac that supports Mitt Romney 01 Feb 2012 Over the past year, Mitt Romney's former Bain Capital colleagues gave $3 million to the super PAC that supports the Republican presidential candidate, Restore Our Future. The super PAC raised $18 million from 200 donors in the last six months of 2011, according to a filing with the Federal Election Commission released at midnight. Bain-related people provided 10 percent of the $30.1 million collected over all of last year. Domenic Ferrante, a managing director and portfolio manager with Bain's Brookside hedge fund, gave $250,000. Bain Capital managing director John Connaughton gave $250,000, while managing director Steven Barnes and his wife gave $125,000 each.


Mitt Romney: 'I'm not concerned about the very poor' 01 Feb 2012 Mitt Romney said Wednesday he's "not concerned about the very poor." Romney told CNN during a morning interview after his Florida primary win that his focus is on the middle class - and not on the "very poor." Romney addressed his controversial comment later Wednesday, telling reporters on his campaign plane that his statement was taken out of context.


Romney Wins Big in Florida Primary, Regaining Momentum 01 Feb 2012 Mitt Romney rolled to victory in the Florida primary on Tuesday, dispatching an insurgent threat from Newt Gingrich and reclaiming his dominant position as he urged Republicans to rally behind his quest to capture the party's presidential nomination. The triumph by Mr. Romney offered a forceful response to the concerns that were raised about his candidacy only 10 days ago after a stinging loss to Mr. Gingrich in the South Carolina primary. It stripped Mr. Gingrich of his momentum and raised questions about his effort to persuade Republicans of his viability.


Paul campaign: Newt must pay medical bills for broken foot 01 Feb 2012 The Ron Paul campaign is demanding that Newt Gingrich pay the medical bills for Eddie Dillard, a Paul supporter whose foot was broken Tuesday after Gingrich staffers intentionally stomped on it. Campaigning at a Florida polling place Tuesday, Gingrich was greeted by Dillard, who held his Paul sign as Gingrich supporters rallied around their candidate. Gingrich staffers were not pleased with this and, according to a report by Yahoo! News' Chris Moody, encouraged one another to physically impede the flip-flop wearing Dillard.

No comments: