Cybersecurity bill passes despite concerns about personal data protection !

Cybersecurity bill passes despite concerns about personal data protection 26 Apr 2012 Ignoring a veto threat from the White House, the House passed legislation Thursday [CISPA] designed to protect communications networks from cyberattacks

 allow corpora-terrorists and USociopaths to censor the Internet. The vote was 248-168. But even as the House bill moves forward, privacy concerns about granting government agencies access to personal information transmitted on the Internet could prove to be a major obstacle to any new cybersecurity law. The Obama administration, many congressional Democrats, and numerous outside civil liberties advocates... worry the new rules allowing Internet companies to share information with the National Security Agency could give unfettered access by the intelligence community to data about any individual surfing the Web or sending e-mail.

House Passes Controversial Cybersecurity Measure CISPA 26 Apr 2012 The House on Thursday approved cybersecurity legislation that privacy groups have decried as a threat to civil liberties. TheCyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, or CISPA, sponsored by Reps. Mike Rogers (R-MI) and Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD), passed on a vote of 248 to 168. Its goal is a more secure internet, but privacy groups fear the measure breaches Americans' privacy along the way. The White House had weighed in on Wednesday, threatening a veto unless there were significant changes to increase consumer privacy. The bill was amended to provide more privacy protections, but it was not immediately clear whether the Senate or the White House would give the amended bill its blessing. [Yeah, right! Obusha will withdraw the veto threat and cower in the corner five picoseconds after the first Faux News pundit criticizes him.]

Monkeypox fears prompts Delta plane quarantine in Chicago --Plane was met with emergency crews and Chicago Department of Public Health: Chicago Department of Aviation 26 Apr 2012 Fears of a potential monkeypox outbreak led a Delta flight to be quarantined for more than two hours Thursday afternoon in Chicago. Federal health officials later determined there was "very little risk" to passengers. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement that "based on the patient's symptoms and photographs of the rash, it does not appear that the signs and symptoms are consistent with a monkeypox infection." The ill passenger, who had been travelling in Africa, was released from the plane before others on board were allowed to disembark. Flight 3163 was coming from Detroit, and landed at Midway International Airport in Chicago at about 3:45 local time.

Jet thought to be struck by monkeypox on lockdown --WBBM Newsradio: Passenger may have been traveling from Ghana and may have had 'sort of rash' or contagious disease 26 Apr 2012 Passengers are being let off a plane that was quarantined after landing in Chicago. The Centers for Disease Control determined there was no threat, and normal operations have resumed at Midway Airport. Aviation officials in Chicago said the city's health department and fire department  responded to a flight that landed at Midway International Airport, but local police and fire officials told Fox News the CDC was handling it. Chicago Aviation Department spokeswoman Karen Pride said a passenger on Delta flight 3163 had a reported medical issue. Television images showed emergency vehicles lined along the aircraft on the tarmac.

Heads up! Major exercise scheduled at Minot Air Force Base 26 Apr 2012 The North American Aerospace Defense Command or NORAD and U.S. Northern Command will conduct a major exercise at Minot Air Force Base focused on defense support of civil authorities May 2-9. The exercise will primarily be a command post exercise, but there will be field-training events within the exercise. Those events will take place in North Dakota, Oregon, Texas, Alaska, Connecticut, and Nova Scotia and involves U.S. and Canadian military. In North Dakota, Air Force Global Strike Command will respond to a simulated nuclear weapons accident on Minot AFB. About 150 people will be here for the exercise, base officials said. [Let's hope they don't 'go live,' as they did on 9/11. Also, see CLG's Minot AFB Clandestine Nukes 'Oddities'.]

Bradley Manning loses 2 more rounds in motions hearing 26 Apr 2012 Pfc. Bradley Manning's attorneys failed again Thursday in their attempts to persuade a judge to throw out some of the charges against him. Manning is the Army intelligence analyst suspected of leaking hundreds of thousands of classified military and State Department documents while serving in Iraq. Many of those documents ended up on the WikiLeaks website. Among the motions filed by Manning's legal team is one addressing what the attorneys call "unreasonable multiplication of charges" in the 16 specifications he is facing for the second charge against him. Each specification carries a 10-year maximum sentence.

Secret Service expands misconduct probe to El Salvador: lawmaker 26 Apr 2012 The U.S. Secret Service is examining a new report of alleged misconduct by agents at an El Salvador strip club ahead of a trip there last year by President Barack Obama, a senior lawmaker said on Thursday. Representative Peter King, a Republican who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, said in a statement to Reuters that the review is part of an extensive investigation the Secret Service is conducting in the aftermath of an incident involving prostitutes in Columbia. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters the agency also is looking into the El Salvador allegations, aired Thursday in a report by Seattle channel KIRO-TV.