Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

*Inside TAO: Documents Reveal Top NSA Hacking Unit
Der Spiegel | Staff | 12/30/13

The NSA's TAO hacking unit is considered to be the intelligence agency's top secret weapon. It maintains its own covert network, infiltrates computers around the world and even intercepts shipping deliveries to plant back doors in electronics ordered by those it is targeting.

In 2005, the agency took over a former Sony computer chip plant in the western part of the city. A brisk pace of construction commenced inside this enormous compound. The acquisition of the former chip factory at Sony Place was part of a massive expansion the agency began after the events of Sept. 11, 2001.

One of the two main buildings at the former plant has since housed a sophisticated NSA unit, one that has benefited the most from this expansion and has grown the fastest in recent years -- the Office of Tailored Access Operations, or TAO. This is the NSA's top operative unit -- something like a squad of plumbers that can be called in when normal access to a target is blocked.

According to internal NSA documents viewed by SPIEGEL, these on-call digital plumbers are involved in many sensitive operations conducted by American intelligence agencies. TAO's area of operations ranges from counterterrorism to cyber attacks to traditional espionage. The documents reveal just how diversified the tools at TAO's disposal have become -- and also how it exploits the technical weaknesses of the IT industry, from Microsoft to Cisco and Huawei, to carry out its discreet and efficient attacks. ... Read more

*NSA's Secret Toolbox: Unit Offers Spy Gadgets for Every Need
Der Spiegel | Staff | 12/30/13

The NSA has a secret unit that produces special equipment ranging from spyware for computers and cell phones to listening posts and USB sticks that work as bugging devices. Here are some excerpts from the intelligence agency's own catalog.

When agents with the NSA's Tailored Access Operations (TAO) division want to infiltrate a network or a computer, they turn to their technical experts. This particular unit of the United States intelligence service is known internally as ANT. The acronym presumably stands for Advanced Network Technology, because that's what the division produces -- tools for penetrating network equipment and monitoring mobile phones and computers. ANT's products help TAO agents infiltrate networks and divert or even modify data wherever the NSA's usual methods won't suffice. You can read more about the TAO division, its strengths and tricks in a SPIEGEL feature that was published in English on Sunday. ... Read more

*REVISIT | Who's Pulling the Strings?
Bill Moyers | staff | 10/11/13

A lot of press coverage has focused on the relatively small group of lawmakers, many of them tea party endorsed backbenchers, who pushed their leadership into shutting down the government in a desperate last-gasp effort to kill off Obamacare.

But how does that work? Why can a cabal of hard-right legislators tell their party's leadership what to do? Why doesn't the rest of the Republican caucus stop them? The answer is that in the wake of the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision a well-funded network of conservative groups has arisen that has the ability to make the lives of Republicans who seek compromise very, very difficult.

Legislators are hesitant to cross these enforcers, fearing primary challengers from the right, or grassroots tea party activists flooding their offices with angry calls. Here's a look at some of the key players behind the scenes (above) and some of the key lawmakers in front of the cameras (below). Roll over the heads to learn more about each player. Read more

*REVISIT | Is Your State Legislator a Member of ALEC?
Bill Moyers | Theresa Riley | 10/28/13

Many of the laws that affect us most directly -- from taxes to marriage equality to voter ID -- are made at the state level. The idea that change begins with the states is one of the founding principles of the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC. In state houses around the country, hundreds of ALEC "model laws" are proposed or enacted that would, among other things, dilute collective bargaining rights, make it harder for some Americans to vote and limit corporate liability for harm caused to consumers. ... Read more
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Is Your State Legislator an ALEC Member?

*REVISIT | The Day That TV News Died
Bill Moyers | Chris Hedges | 03/25/13

I am not sure exactly when the death of television news took place. The descent was gradual -- a slide into the tawdry, the trivial and the inane, into the charade on cable news channels such as Fox and MSNBC in which hosts hold up corporate political puppets to laud or ridicule, and treat celebrity foibles as legitimate news. But if I had to pick a date when commercial television decided amassing corporate money and providing entertainment were its central mission, when it consciously chose to become a carnival act, it would probably be Feb. 25, 2003, when MSNBC took Phil Donahue off the air because of his opposition to the calls for war in Iraq. ... Read more