DHS forced to release list of social network keywords

The Department of Homeland Security has been forced to release a list of keywords and phrases it uses to monitor social networking sites and online media for signs of terrorist or other threats against the U.S.

The intriguing the list includes obvious choices such as 'attack', 'Al Qaeda', 'terrorism' and 'dirty bomb' alongside dozens of seemingly innocent words like 'pork', 'cloud', 'team' and 'Mexico'.

Released under a freedom of information request, the information sheds new light on how government analysts are instructed to patrol the internet searching for domestic and external threats.


The words are included in the department's 2011 'Analyst's Desktop Binder' used by workers at their National Operations Center which instructs workers to identify 'media reports that reflect adversely on DHS and response activities'.

Department chiefs were forced to release the manual following a House hearing over documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit which revealed how analysts monitor social networks and media organisations for comments that 'reflect adversely' on the government.

However they insisted the practice was aimed not at policing the internet for disparaging remarks about the government and signs of general dissent, but to provide awareness of any potential threats.

As well as terrorism, analysts are instructed to search for evidence of unfolding natural disasters, public health threats and serious crimes such as mall/school shootings, major drug busts, illegal immigrant busts.

The list has been posted online by the Electronic Privacy Information Center - a privacy watchdog group who filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act before suing to obtain the release of the documents.

In a letter to the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counter-terrorism and Intelligence, the centre described the choice of words as 'broad, vague and ambiguous'.

Read the full keywords and phrases list and the rest of this article HERE: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2150281/REVEALED-Hundreds-words-avoid-using-online-dont-want-government-spying-you.html#ixzz2VYhizXa0
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NSA "PRISM" program secretly gathering information for nearly six years

WASHINGTON NYTIMES:  — The federal government has been secretly gathering information from the nation’s largest Internet companies going back nearly six years — including Google, Facebook and, most recently, Apple — according to documents that emerged on Thursday. A senior government official confirmed the program, but said it targeted only foreigners abroad.

While the data provided varies according to the online provider, it could include e-mail, chat services, videos, photos, stored data, file transfers, video conferencing and logins — according to an apparently highly classified document describing the National Security Agency program called Prism.

The program is authorized under law and was recently reauthorized by Congress, said the senior official, who said it minimizes the collection and retention of information “incidentally acquired” about Americans and permanent residents. Several of the Internet companies issued statements strongly denying knowledge of or participation in the program.

“The law does not allow the targeting of any U.S. citizen or of any person located within the United States,” said the official, who insisted on anonymity to discuss a highly classified program. “Information collected under this program is among the most important and valuable intelligence information we collect, and is used to protect our nation from a wide variety of threats.”

But the disclosure of the documents by American and British newspapers came just hours after government officials acknowledged a separate seven-year effort to sweep up records of telephone calls inside the United States. Together, the unfolding disclosures opened an extraordinary window into the growth of government surveillance that began under the Bush administration after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and has clearly been embraced and even expanded under the Obama administration.

The extraordinary revelations, in rapid succession, also suggested that someone with access to high-level intelligence secrets had decided to unveil them in the midst of furor over leak investigations. Both were reported by Britain’s Guardian newspaper, while The Washington Post, relying upon the same presentation, simultaneously reported the Internet company tapping. The Post said a disenchanted intelligence official provided it with the documents to expose government overreach.

Before the disclosure of the alleged Internet company surveillance program late Thursday, the White House and Congressional leaders defended the phone program, saying it was legal and necessary to protect national security.

Josh Earnest, a White House spokesman, told reporters aboard Air Force One that the kind of surveillance at issue “has been a critical tool in protecting the nation from terror threats as it allows counterterrorism personnel to discover whether known or suspected terrorists have been in contact with other persons who may be engaged in terrorist activities, particularly people located inside the United States.” He added: “The president welcomes a discussion of the trade-offs between security and civil liberties.”

The Guardian and The Post posted several slides from the 41-page presentation about the Internet program, listing the companies involved — which included Yahoo, Microsoft, Paytalk, AOL, Skype and YouTube — and the dates they joined the program, as well as listing the types of information collected under the program.

The N.S.A. and other government agencies declined to comment about the disclosures. The possibility of a broad government sweep of domestic telephone data in pursuit of potential terrorists has long been suspected by civil liberties advocates and even hinted at by members of Congress. But the public disclosure of a secret court order confirmed it in a more concrete way than ever before.

The reports came as President Obama was traveling to meet President Xi Jinping of China at an estate in Southern California, a meeting intended to address among other things complaints about Chinese cyberattacks and spying. Now that conversation will take place amid discussion of America’s own vast surveillance operations on its own citizens.

READ THE REST OF THE STORY HERE

Watch The Spy Factory on PBS. See more from NOVA.

Happy Memorial Day ...

Teach your children well. Teach them about the sacrifices brave American's made to keep our nation free. Sit down with them and talk to them about The Battle at Yorktown, Gettysburg and Mount Suribachi.

Impress on them how many lives were saved (and lost) fighting both World Wars and in the War Against Terror. Impress on them that War is a terrible thing but sometimes to preserve freedom have to be fought.

Remind them that the young men and women who gave their lives were not much older than them - but also celebrate the heroes such as Audie Murphy and Chris Kyle.

Educate them about the Tuskegee Airmen and Seal Team Six.

Show them that war is not something that needs to be glorified but something to be avoided at almost all costs - the exception being freedom.

Tell them we should always fight for freedom.

God wants us to be free. He endowed us with free agency and we should rail against those who try and take that away from us.

For those who are against freedom - for the exploitation of others - be it the enslavement of their hearts minds or bodies, be it the suppression of expression, be it in the name of a race, sex, country or religion are enemies of us all and enemies of God.

Have a wonderful Memorial Day and take time to thank HIM for the brave and the lost, for those who gave some and those who gave all

RAF intercepts aircraft after terroristic threats

BLOOMBERG: Royal Air Force fighters intercepted a U.K.-bound Pakistan International Airlines Corp. (PIAA)jet and diverted it to London Stansted, the country’s designated counter-terrorism airport, where two people were arrested.

Flight PK709 from Lahore was due to land in Manchester, northern England, at 1:30 p.m. local time with 297 people on board, Manchester Airports Group spokesman John Greenway said. PIA said air traffic controllers ordered a diversion after being contacted by the jet’s pilots when the men quarreled with crew.

Two men have been arrested on suspicion of endangerment of an aircraft,” police in Essex, where Stansted is located, said, adding that the incident is being dealt with as a “criminal offence.” The pair, British nationals aged 30 and 41, were removed under armed escort and will be interviewed by detectives, Superintendent Darrin Tomkins told reporters.

The episode comes with Britain on high alert, two days after a soldier died in an attack near an army base in London. Lee Rigby, a drummer in the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, was killed by two knife-wielding men yelling the Islamic incantation “Allahu akbar,” or “God is great,” according to the BBC. They were subsequently shot by police and arrested.

Two Eurofighter Typhoons were scrambled from RAF Coningsby in eastern England to intercept the airliner, a Boeing Co. (BA) 777, and escort it to Stansted, 35 miles north of London, where it touched down at 2:15 p.m. The warplanes then returned to base.

“The crew and the rest of the passengers are safe,” Pakistan International said in a statement in Karachi. The flight will proceed to Manchester once the plane, those on board and their baggage have undergone security checks, it added.

An initial search of the Boeing found no suspicious items, Tomkins said, and the plane will undergo a more detailed forensic examination. Passengers will be debriefed at the Stansted terminal, he said.

Attack in london now classified as terror attack.

THE GUARDIAN: Dramatic footage has emerged of the suspected terrorist attack near the London barracks that left one man dead, showing a suspect with blood-covered hands using jihadist rhetoric to justify the violence.

On Wednesday night the prime minister, David Cameron, vowed that Britain will "never buckle" in the face of terrorist incidents, and condemned the "absolutely sickening" killing in Woolwich.

As the government's emergency committee Cobra convened in central London to assess the implications of the incident, ITV News broadcast footage of one of the alleged attackers.

Brandishing a cleaver and a knife, and with the body of the victim lying yards away, the man said: "We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you. The only reason we have done this is because Muslims are dying every day. This British soldier is an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth."

"We must fight them. I apologise that women had to witness this today.

Police at the scene in Woolwich, south London, where a man was killed and two others were taken to hospital with gunshot wounds following a 'serious incident'. BBC screengrab

It is believed the person died after suffering knife injuries, possibly around the head area.

Two people have been taken to hospital after they were shot by armed police.

There were reports that the man who was fatally attacked was wearing a Help for Heroes T-shirt.

The Woolwich and Greenwich MP, Nick Raynsford, said it was his understanding that one person, a serving soldier, was dead but there was no immediate confirmation of this from the Ministry of Defence.

The prime minister said: "Tonight, our thoughts should be with the victim, with their family, with their friends."

"People across Britain, people in every community, I believe, will utterly condemn this attack.

"We have had these sorts of attacks before in our country and we never buckle in the face of them."

Cameron was speaking at a Paris press conference with French president Francois Hollande but confirmed he would cut short the visit to return to the UK tonight to chair a meeting of the Government's Cobra emergency committee in the morning.

Chiefs at the Woolwich barracks were understood to be trying to account for military personnel, amid reports the dead person may have been connected to the military. The incident happened 300-400 metres from the perimeter of the barracks.

The barracks is home to the Princess of Wales regiment and the Kings Troop, which is a ceremonial unit, that relocated to Woolwich last year.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission is investigating the shooting by police, which is standard in cases where officers open fire.

In a statement the IPCC said it had "been made aware by Metropolitan Police Service of an incident in Woolwich, south London. IPCC investigators have been deployed to the scene and to the post-incident process. The IPCC has declared this as an independent investigation."

Earlier Raynsford said: "The incident occurred early afternoon. One individual is dead, two others are seriously injured and in hospital.

"We think a serving soldier was the victim. We don't know the circumstances surrounding the incident.