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A story on Reuters reported late last week that Facebook is making an entry into the healthcare space. Here's an excerpt from the article about Facebook's plans for healthcare:
The company is exploring creating online "support communities" that would connect Facebook users suffering from various ailments. A small team is also considering new "preventative care" applications that would help people improve their lifestyles.
In recent months, the sources said, the social networking giant has been holding meetings with medical industry experts and entrepreneurs, and is setting up a research and development unit to test new health apps. Facebook is still in the idea-gathering stage, the people said.
This move is especially interesting when paired with the announcements of Apple Health, Samsung Health, and Google Fit (and a few other Google health initiatives like Calico). It's not the first time that big corporations have seen an opportunity in healthcare (See Microsoft HealthVault and Google Health). However, we have yet to see any of these big corporations really make a dent on healthcare.
The reality for many of these large corporations is that they don't realize the crazy complexities that exist in healthcare. Many like to site the healthcare privacy argument as a reason for their failure. No doubt, HIPAA and privacy are a challenge for these organizations. In fact, I can already hear the outcry of people talking about Facebook and privacy of their health data. Many don't trust Facebook with privacy and with good reason. However, privacy is the least of the reasons why these big corporations have a challenge entering the healthcare space.
Remember that healthcare is a complex beast with the largest customer being the government (ie. Medicare and Medicaid). Healthcare is not a rational market. The government, employer owned health insurance, health insurance plans, etc etc etc all make healthcare extremely complex to navigate full of perverse incentives. Plus, how do you do an ROI on the value of saving someone's life?
While I'm skeptical of any large corporation entering healthcare, I'm actually quite interested in what Facebook could do to help healthcare. No doubt, a lot of healthcare already exists on Facebook.
Just a few weeks ago I was running up an escalator to catch a flight and sliced my big toe from top to bottom (you should see the pics). Luckily TSA was really helpful and I made my flight. Once I got home, I assessed the damage and wasn't sure if I should go get sutures or not. I turned to Facebook where I posted a picture of my toe and tagged a few of my doctor friends. Long story short, my doctor friends told me I should go to the doctor and quickly, because if I waited until the next day they wouldn't be able to suture it.
This is a small example, but Facebook was really effective for me. In fact, I posted a follow up picture a few days later (you know how men always like to show off their scars) and a doctor friend told me it was healing well. Of course, many might say that it was a small flesh wound and so that's not as big a deal to post on Facebook. Would I post me health details if I had some chronic condition?
The interesting thing is that chronic patients are more than happy to give up all privacy in search of a cure. Unfortunately, they have nothing to lose and everything to gain. It's part of the reason why Patients Like Me has been so successful. Plus, Patients Like Me has proved that we want to take part in online support communities for our conditions.
We'll see if Facebook can really execute on online support communities like they have on Patients Like Me. It will be a real challenge for them because it's not the focus of the company. However, they're obviously well connected to a lot of people that could and would benefit from these types of healthcare communities. No doubt many people on Facebook don't visit or even know about sites like Patients Like Me.
I'll be interested to see what Facebook does in this space. I think they'd be smart to roll it off into a separate product that focuses on things like privacy and security. Being tied to the Facebook brand is a huge liability in this case. Plus, the value of Facebook to a Facebook created healthcare community is not in the Facebook brand, but in the Facebook audience and reach.
Besides creating various healthcare communities similar to Patients Like Me, I think Facebook has a huge opportunity to use social pressure to influence healthcare decisions. Changing behavior is an extremely hard thing to accomplish. However, never underestimate the power of positive peer pressure. Peer pressure can be one of the most powerful ways to change people's behavior. Unfortunately, it works for good and bad. Facebook has all of your peers mapped to you. Can Facebook use that to help you become healthier? If they can, they'll be on to something.
What do you think of Facebook possibly entering healthcare?


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1 min readFrom Harmless Colonizers to Virulent Pathogens: Microbiologists Identify What Triggers Disease
Buffalo, NY – The bacteria Streptococcus pneumoniae harmlessly colonizes the mucous linings of throats and noses in most people, only becoming virulent when they leave those comfortable surroundings and enter the middle ears, lungs or bloodstream.
Now, in research published in July in mBio, University at Buffalo researchers reveal how that happens.
"We were asking, what is the mechanism behind what makes us sick?" explains Dr. Anders P. Hakansson, assistant professor of microbiology and immunology in the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. "We are looking to find ways to interfere with the transition to disease. Few have looked at the specific mechanism that suddenly makes these bacteria leave the nose where they typically prefer to reside and travel into the lungs or the middle ear where they cause disease. If we can understand that process, then maybe we can block it."
Hakansson and his colleagues had previously found that when the pneumococci colonize the nose, they form sophisticated, highly structured biofilm communities.
In the current study, the research team grew biofilms of pneumococci on top of human epithelial cells, where the bacteria normally grow. They then infected these bacteria with influenza A virus or exposed them to the conditions that typically accompany the flu, including increased temperature to mimic fever, increased concentrations of ATP (the energy molecule in cells), and the stress hormone norepinephrine, released during flu infection.
All three stimuli triggered a sudden release and departure of bacteria from the biofilm in the nose into otherwise normally sterile organs, such as the middle ears and lungs or into the bloodstream. At the same time, the researchers found that the gene expression profile of the bacteria that had dispersed from the biofilms revealed far more virulence.
Hakansson says the research demonstrates how the mammalian and bacterial kingdoms interact. "Humans are the only natural hosts for these bacteria," he explains, "when the viral infection comes in, there is this interkingdom signalling, where the bacteria respond to host molecules. If we can find ways to interrupt that signalling, we might be able to prevent disease."
Publication: Interkingdom Signaling Induces Streptococcus pneumoniae Biofilm Dispersion and Transition from Asymptomatic Colonization to Disease. Laura R. Marks, Bruce A. Davidson, Paul R. Knight, Anders P. Hakansson. (2013): http://mbio.asm.org/content/4/4/e00438-13.abstract?sid=a5ab6e36-3930-4176-bfbf-e827e41ffe7f

subset: commoncrawl


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WASHINGTON - President
Obama's health care proposal, preserving as it does a central role for
the for-profit, private health insurance industry, is incapable of
achieving the kind of universal, comprehensive and affordable reform
the country needs, a spokesman for a national doctors' group said
the president's proposal is built on some of the worst aspects of the
Senate bill," said Dr. Quentin Young, national coordinator of
Physicians for a National Health Program, an organization of 17,000
doctors who support single-payer, Medicare-for-All approach to reform.
Young's statement comes on the eve of the president's bipartisan summit
in Washington.
example, the president's proposal would ship hundreds of billions of
taxpayer dollars to the private health insurance industry in the form
of subsidies," Young said. "And to help finance this, it would impose a
new tax on health benefits of workers, especially those in high-cost
individual mandate would force millions of middle-income uninsured
Americans to buy insurers' skimpy products - insurance policies full of
gaps like ever-rising co-pays, deductibles and premiums. Such policies
already leave middle-class American families vulnerable to economic
hardship and medical bankruptcy in the event of a serious illness like
cancer," continued Young, citing a recent study.
so, at least 23 million people would remain uninsured," he said. "We
know that being uninsured raises your chance of dying by about 40
percent," he continued, citing another recent study. "That translates into about 23,000 unnecessary deaths each year. As physicians, we find this completely unacceptable."
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short," Young said, "this proposal is an insurance company bonanza, not
good, evidence-based health reform. The president would do better by
abandoning the insurance and drug companies and instead taking up the
single-payer approach." His group has estimated that such an approach
could save hundreds of billions of dollars annually by simplifying health administration.
building on and improving the already popular Medicare program, we
could put our patients' interests first," he said. "Were President
Obama to do so, he would meet with strong public support, including
from the medical community."
Although the physicians' group requested an invitation
to Thursday's summit at Blair House, no reply from the White House has
been forthcoming, Young said. Similarly, requests from Reps. Dennis
Kucinich of Ohio, Anthony Weiner of New York and Peter Welch of Vermont
president that single-payer advocates be included in the meeting have
apparently gone unanswered.
Outside the Blair House on Thursday, a grassroots "Sidewalk Summit for Medicare for All" will underscore popular support for the measure.


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Annual 'Trouble in Toyland' Report Cites Toy Dangers
Excessive lead levels, choking hazards, magnets can all cause serious injury for kids, PIRG says
WEDNESDAY, Nov. 21, 2012 (HealthDay News) -- Toy cars with parts so small a child could choke on them, a plastic "robot" with excessive lead levels, and a play car horn that's so loud it could damage a child's hearing are just some of the dangerous playthings on this year's "Trouble in Toyland" report from the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG).
These types of toys are still being sold in stores across the United States and parents need to be vigilant while doing their holiday shopping, according to the 27th annual report.
"We should be able to trust that the toys we buy are safe. However, until that's the case, parents need to watch out for common hazards when shopping for toys," Nasima Hossain, public health advocate for U.S. PIRG, said in a news release issued by the group.
For their report, PIRG staffers bought toys off store shelves and tested them for lead, cadmium and phthalates, all of which have been shown to pose a serious threat to the health of young children.
The researchers found toys that contained phthalates, as well as toys with lead levels above the limit of 100 parts per million. They also found toys that exceed recommended noise standards and are potentially harmful to children's hearing.
Despite a ban on small parts for children under age 3, the researchers also found toys that still pose choking hazards.
Some of the toys parents need to watch out for this holiday season, according to PIRG:
- "Dragster" cars -- These tiny cars, bought at a Toys R Us and made by Z WindUps, have a rubber traction band on their wheels that could detach and choke a child if swallowed.
- "Super Play Food Set" -- The miniature plastic pretend "food" set is made by Geoffrey LLC, a subsidiary of Toys R Us. PIRG warns that "toy food poses a special [choking] hazard because it looks as if it should be eaten."
- "Morphobot" -- Made by GreenBrier International and bought at a Dollar Tree store, the toy robot measured 180 parts per million (ppm) of lead, which "violates current 100 ppm lead standard" for toys, PIRG said.
- "Dora the Explorer" backpack -- According to PIRG the backpack, made by Global Design Concepts and bought at a Target store, contains phthalates. The level of phthalates is not high enough to violate federal standards but a warning label should be on the product, PIRG contends.
- "Car Wheel/Horn" -- This Toy State product, bought at a Toys R Us, makes noise exceeding the 80 decibel level that hearing experts say is safe for young ears.
Toys containing tiny magnets are a particular hazard this year, PIRG said.
"The Trouble in Toyland report appropriately alerts parents and consumers to the dangers of high-powered magnets, such as those sold in sets of 100 or more, and the life-threatening gastrointestinal injuries they can cause when swallowed," Dr. Bryan Rudolph, a pediatric gastroenterology fellow at Children's Hospital at Montefiore in New York and a member of the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, said in the news release.
"The rising number of magnet injuries in children and teenagers suggests that the sale of high-powered magnets should be prohibited. In the meantime, the best defense against high-powered magnet ingestion and a trip to the emergency department is to make sure they are not present where children, live, visit or play," he advised.
Parents need to remember that no government agency tests all toys before they go on store shelves and that toys not on the list of potentially dangerous items could still pose hazards, said Robert Adler, commissioner of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
"The message of today is clear. Parents have to stay vigilant. We cannot and must not accept any weakening of our consumer and public health safeguards because they protect young children, America's littlest consumers," he said in the news release.
More information
U.S. PIRG provides tips for safe toy shopping that consumers can access on their smartphones.


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Sponsor a kid in your own community!
Sponsor a kid in your own community! You are not just funding a fee; you're funding a future, a talent undiscovered, a chance to press play on a dream that will move a child forward.
Grace for Vets Surpasses the Million Car Mark
The Grace for Vets Organization, which brings together professional carwashers in four countries to wash veterans' cars for free, today announced that it surpassed one million free washes since its inception in 2004.
International Carwash Association sponsors Grace for Vets
Mike Mountz, Founder of Grace for Vets, today announced that the International Carwash Association has agreed to sponsor the organization...
Splash gives $2500 to Greenwich Based Neighbor to Neighbor
This year Splash Car Wash is more than happy to give $2500 to Greenwich based Neighbor to Neighbor. Every dollar of this amount comes directly from Splash Greenwich and Cos Cob customers buying gift certificates from Splash!
Splash Car Washes gives $1000 to Waterside School of Stamford, CT
This year Splash Car Wash was happy to give $1000 to Stamford based Waterside School . Every dollor of this amount comes directly from Splash Stamford customers buying gift certificates from Splash! Great job Stamford!
Operation Hope
This year Splash Car Wash was happy to give $784 to Fairfield based Operation Hope . This means that this amount comes from Splash Fairfield customers buying gift certificates from Splash! Great job Fairfield!
Splash Car Wash Announces New Sites
Splash Car Wash, a leader in the car wash industry, has announced their addition of new sites as they continue to expand and grow across Connecticut and New York.
Splash Car Wash Opens 17th Location!
Splash Car Wash, headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut, today announced the opening of their 17th location in Southbury, Connecticut. The site, formerly operated as Southbury Car Care, includes a wash tunnel, an oil change, and detailing facility.
Splash Car Wash, with 16 locations in Connecticut and New York, washed several hundred cars for free on Veterans Day joining with over 2800 other carwashes around the world which were honoring vets in the same way.
Grace for Vets 2014!
Splash Car Wash is celebrating Veterans Day by offering all American veterans and active-duty personnel a free car wash on TUESDAY, November 11th.


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Uncharted: Golden Abyss on the PS Vita is set prior to the events of the action-packed Uncharted: Drake's Fortune originally released on the PlayStation 3, this prequel from developer Sony Bend Studio tasks you with uncovering the dark secret behind the massacre of a Spanish expedition to Central America some 400 years ago. Caught between the rivalry of old friend, Jason Dante, and Marisa Chase, the granddaughter of an archaeologist who mysteriously vanished, you're going to have to traverse ancient ruins and treacherous jungle terrain in a bid to find out the truth.
Super Gamer Dude
PS Vita
The story of Uncharted Golden Abyss would not be out of place in a Boys Own magazine or, dare I say it, an Indiana Jones adventure. A jolly decent sort of fellow, ruggedly handsome who likes women but does not let them get in the way of adventures, and is fairly good at almost anything. He has a loyal friend, a bit of a sort with probably a murky past, useful in a scrape and, when it comes to the crunch, does the right thing. Throw in a damsel in distress and a load of treasure to be discovered and bunch of baddies who will stoop to all sorts of underhand tricks to get their hands on the loot. Well something like that anyway.
Nathan Drake (all round good egg), the principal player in the uncharted series and his buddy Jason Dante (dodgy friend) are on their travels through Central America, where all the best adventures take place, investigating the four hundred year old mystery of the massacre of a Spanish Expedition involving a secret Spanish sect and a legendary lost city and, possible, lost treasures. They meet up with Marisa Chase (damsel in distress) who does not see eye to eye with Dante, and whose grandfather is an archeologist who has, unfortunately, disappeared leaving no clues as to his whereabouts. But the aptly named General Guerra (all round bad egg) is out to stop them whatever the cost. And so the story rumbles along, quite slowly at first, but picking up speed and getting interesting when a great many unexpected twists and turn are thrown into the mix, and there are plenty of puzzles to solve, artifacts to collect and lots and lots of fighting, and more fighting, along the way. It comes to a climax when they come to the edge of the Golden Abyss.
There is some pretty varied and interesting scenery and locations on offer reflecting the true nature of Central America with its deserts, jungles, raging rivers and bottomless caverns. The PS Vita does an admirable job of portraying them given the relatively small dimensions of the screens. The audio is equally good, again given the limitations of the inbuilt sound system with its tiny speakers, but sounds better through earphones.
Control in most cases can be achieved either by the analog controls or the touch screen. The touch screen is also put to good use for rubbing dust from some of the inscriptions and artifacts by rubbing fingers across it. The inbuilt 'gyro' system of the Vita also finds a use for keeping Drake and friends upright when crossing raging rivers by balancing on rickety bridges and such like, and also as a sort of point and shoot method for zapping enemies. Arranging archeological fragments into a complete object can also be achieved by dragging pieces across the screen. Of course all these things are peculiar to the PS Vista for which this version of the game was developed.
When push comes to shove it turns out to be a pretty good game of its genre which behaves well on the PS Vita system, which also adds novelty value introduced by the clever use of the Vita touch screen control system. Whether or not this novel use will make up for the lack of the bigger screen graphics is something which only time, and sales figures, will reveal.
|Submitted by
|Cheat Title


text:
Blue Pineapple iPhone 11 Series
Case information:
.: Extremely strong plastic
.: Slim form and lightweight
.: Photographic print quality
.: Clear, open ports for connectivity
.: Supports wireless charging
Care instructions: Clean with damp cotton or microfiber cloth. Add a drop of dish soap to the rag if needed and wipe the soap down with a clean and damp cloth.


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Sue Scott Gallery
1 Rivington Street, 212-358-8767
East Village / Lower East Side
January 15 - February 28, 2009
Reception: Thursday, January 15, 6 - 8 PM
Web Site
Sue Scott Gallery is pleased to announce a solo exhibition of new paintings by Kristopher Benedict entitled Fake Your Death. Opening January 15, 2009, the works will be on view through February 28, 2009.
This series of paintings was inspired by a brief event occurring during a fall residency in a small town in Pennsylvania, a fleeting but imagined sighting by Benedict of a friend who had died of a drug overdose several years before. After a double take Benedict realized the person viewed across the street could not be his deceased friend. The experience, however, triggered thoughts of "the double, the outcast, hopelessness, rebirth, visions or apparitions or phantasms, anamnesis, memory, small town life, escape, drugs and addiction," ideas that form the foundation of this new work. That place between logic and fantasy that allows the question – what if this really was my friend, and his death had been a successful pseudocide – engages both artist and viewer in explorations of memory, truth, and myriad ways of seeing.
These paintings explore the connection between the idea of pseudocide and representation in painting. For Benedict, the title Fake Your Death is directed towards the reinvention, transformation, and falsehoods inherent in the way that these figurative paintings are made. Though Benedict draws his imagery from diverse sources – photography, internet images, comic books and movies – and is clearly inspired by late 19th century painters like Edouard Vuillard, Pierre Bonnard, William Blake and the Nabi – his interest lies in the leaps between different types of image making, questions of authorship and elliptical narrative. Kristopher Benedict was born in 1978 in Middletown, New York. He received his BFA from Cooper Union in 2000 and his MFA from Columbia University in 2002. Benedict lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. This is his first exhibition with Sue Scott Gallery.


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Rigo White Grey Stripe Round Bottom Sleeveless Tshirt
Look Cool & Trendy in this stylish Vest from Rigo. Made of 100% cotton this Vest will keep you sweat free & comfortable in summers. This Sando can be worn with trousers, denims & shorts.
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- Due to Hygiene concerns we do not allow returns for Bath and Beauty products
- You can return or exchange products within 7 days of receiving the order
- For Combo Offers Like 3 For Rs. 999 and others we charge Rs. 50 per product for return or exchange. In case the product received is defective or wrong then No Charge.
- We will arrange for a reverse pickup from your delivery address upon receiving return request
- All returns must be in unused condition with all original tags and packaging intact
- We will only issue refund within 48 hours of receiving back the product
- The product amount will be credited back to you in your Bank in case of COD order. In case of online payment amount will be credited back to the card or account used to make payment
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Customer Care No.: +91-9643669057
For any queries you can write to us at email@example.com


text:
My adventures in front-end-land or two backbone apps later… Lessons learned.
I have to admit, I've been a secret admirer of great front end developers. I thought my brain wasn't wired for HTML/JS/CSS.
My wife Marianne and I started a SaaS about a year ago aimed at off-loading teachers in schools teaching math for kids aged 6-12 years old. You find the service at http://nomp.se/
The service makes it a breeze to give out personalized assignments and to follow them up. All content is automatically generated, so the teacher doesn't have to produce the assignments either. The service is free for all kids to use. If you have a subscription you can do the teacher/parental thing.
When you try to run a bootstrapped (self-funded) business you have to roll up your sleeves and just get things done. Often there are things that you haven't done before. Marianne and I are Java developers by trade. I have a background in Unix sys-admin but haven't done that professionally in 12 years. Instead I've been coding Java, with a break between 2007-2011 when I was Chief Architect for Unibet. It was a very challenging and a learning experience technically, but there is no time for coding when you're constantly running or governing key transformation projects and trying to be a line manager at the same time.
Some of the jobs that need to be performed in our startup include:
- Business development / requirements management
- Back-end developer (Java/Spring)
- Front-end developer (HTML/CSS/LESS, jQuery/Underscore/Backbone)
- Quality assurance (testing all the different browsers etc)
- Systems administrator (Amazon Web Services: EC2/RDS/R53/SES/SQS/Cloudfront, Apache/Tomcat perf tuning, Security patching)
- Database administrator (Tuning, backup strategy)
- Configuration management (Maven/Jenkins/RPM-packaging and deploy automation)
- Sales and marketing (Social media campaigns and online ads)
- Finance (book keeping, invoicing)
- Customer service (email support)
As both Marianne and I still have our daytime jobs to manage, there is a lot of late nights… but also a lot of fun!
The first versions of our Math SaaS was a "traditional" server-side rendered application using Spring MVC and Freemarker for templating.
After the initial launch, we spent some time looking at rewriting the most heavily used part – the student quiz – in Javascript in order to improve user experience. We didn't know much about jQuery, Javascript or Ajax at this point.
The first rewrite did the job. It off-loaded the server and improved the user experience in terms of response times, as eleven server round trips was reduced to two (start the quiz and submit result). However, it was unmaintainable due to a number of things:
- No name spacing or modules (all functions in the global space)
- Adding a new quiz type involved changing the core quiz logic which meant that stuff broke
- The DOM manipulation was spread out all over the javascript code
- Client side templating of the quizzes was done with custom code
- We had two implementations, one for the desktop and another for mobile (jQuery mobile)
- The markup was a mess, without good structure and class names
- HTML5 canvas code was too low level to be productive
So after spending some additional months doing other stuff, we increasingly felt that the solution had grown out of hand.
We then spent some time researching the front-end open source space and found some interesting contributions:
Backbone is a tiny MVP (model-view-presenter) framework for developing client side applications in Javascript.
For better and for worse, its a tiny frame work, only about 7000 bytes to transfer minified/gzipped.
Twitter Bootstrap
Bootstrap is a HTML/CSS framework with standardized markup and ready-made components that can be customizable. It supports responsive design so that the same site can be used for mobile, tablet and desktop.
We then started to rewrite the quiz engine once again using Bootstrap and it was quite a struggle, being javascript rookies.
Backbone is elegant, but there is a lack of good tutorials beyond the trivial hello world examples. I learned a lot from Christophe Coenraets blog post: http://coenraets.org/blog/2012/05/single-page-crud-application-with-backbone-js-and-twitter-bootstrap/ even though it's very simple (in retrospect).
We also struggled with things I take for granted in other frameworks, such as a best-practice project structure and naming practices.
Never the less, we shipped a new quiz engine in backbone/bootstrap for Nomp.se in less than a month, which was pretty ok considering our skill level at the time. Was it perfect? No, but it was a huge improvement. Now we can extend the quiz engine with new quizzes quickly in a modular way.
The next evolution was a complete rewrite of the teacher/parent backoffice, which was pretty limited from a functionality point of view and a horrible user-experience to be honest.
This was a considerably bigger effort with twenty odd views and perhaps twice as many use-cases.
In this case we felt it was necessary to use a module system (and a module loader) in order to track dependencies between components.
When it comes to data-binding, we started to use Backbone.Forms, but we quickly felt it was overly complicated and not always designed by be extended. I18n wasn't supported in a good way either.
To minimize duplication, we ended up rolling our own minimal data binding solution that consists of a Backbone model mixin, a view mixin and a few JS helpers.
Here's how the resulting code looks when using the mixins. The code implements a form with client-side and server side validation. Both types of errors are displayed in the form,
Backbone Model and View
Backbone.Model.extend({ urlRoot: "/api/profile", initialize: function() { var mixin = new Util.ErrorHandlingMixin(); // <--- the pixie dust _.extend(this, mixin); }, validate: function(attributes, options) { var errors = new Array(); if (this.get('firstName') == null || this.get('firstName').length < 2) { errors.push({ attr: 'firstName', error: 'You need to provide at least two characters' }); } if (this.get('lastName') == null || this.get('lastName').length < 2) { errors.push({ attr: 'lastName', error: 'You need to provide at least two characters' }); } if (this.get('rewardIcon') == null) { errors.push({ attr: 'rewardIcon', error: 'Mandatory field' }); } if (errors.length > 0) { return errors; } else { return null; } }, getAllRewardIcons: function() { return ["BLUE_STAR", "YELLOW_STAR", "GREEN_STAR", "ORANGE_STAR", "BLUE_HEART", "YELLOW_HEART", "GREEN_HEART", "ORANGE_HEART", "BLUE_SMILEY", "YELLOW_SMILEY", "GREEN_SMILEY", "ORANGE_SMILEY", "BLUE_CANDY", "YELLOW_CANDY", "GREEN_CANDY", "ORANGE_CANDY"]; }, getAllLocales: function() { return["en_GB", "sv_SE"]; } }); BaseView.extend({ initialize: function () { var mixin = new Util.ErrorHandlingViewMixin(); // <--- the pixie dust _.extend(this, mixin); this.model.on("invalid", this._showErrors, this); }, events: { "click .save-form": "saveForm", "focus input": "validateForm" }, template: _.template(tpl), render: function () { $(this.el).html(this.template(_.defaults(this.model.toJSON(), {rewardIcons: this.model.getAllRewardIcons(), locales: this.model.getAllLocales()}))); return this; } }); });
Markup with helper functions

 <form class="form-horizontal"> <fieldset> <legend><%= i18n.t('Personal information') %></legend>
<%= i18n.t('First name') %>
<input name="firstName" type="text" value="<%- firstName %>">

<%= i18n.t('Last name') %>
<input name="lastName" type="text" value="<%- lastName %>">

<%= i18n.t('Description') %>
<input name="description" type="text" value="<%- description %>">

<%= i18n.t('The description is shown to students that would like to become your mentee') %>

 </fieldset> <fieldset> <legend><%= i18n.t('Settings') %></legend>
<%= i18n.t('Language') %>
 <%= forms.select("locale", locale, "Locale", locales) %>

 <%= forms.checkbox("subscribedToNewsletters", subscribedToNewsletters, i18n.t('Send me news about Nomp (about two times per month)')) %>

 <%= forms.checkbox("subscribedToNotifications", subscribedToNotifications, i18n.t('Send me quest notification emails')) %>

<%= i18n.t('Reward symbol') %>
 <%= forms.select("rewardIcon", rewardIcon, "RewardIcon", rewardIcons) %> <img class="reward-icon" src="/static/img/rewardicon/<%=rewardIcon%>.png">
<%= i18n.t('The reward symbol is used in quests that you give out.') %>

 </fieldset>
 <button class="btn btn-primary save-form"><%= i18n.t('Save') %></button>
 </form>

We'd love your feedback on the binding issue. If people find it useful, we'll probably open source the small data-binding framework when we've used it a bit more. We think it minimizes boiler-plate code and avoids duplication without violating Backbone principles such as using Model.validate() for validation.
Let us know what you think!


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Government capital planning professionals have a new tool to help them visualize, track and allocate funds and resources.
Decision Lens Capital Assets is designed for government and industry capital planners working in transportation, mass transit, facilities, water, and public works and utilities. Based upon Decision Lens' cloud-based prioritization and resource optimization software, Capital Assets gives agencies a more systematic and repeatable approach to ensure that capital projects are aligned with overall agency objectives, said John Saaty, Decision Lens' president.
The Maryland Transit Administration used Decision Lens software to revise its capital planning process across eight divisions, integrating and aligning the conflicting priorities of all the decision-makers with the agency's goals.
Capital Assets uses the same prioritization process as Decision Lens software, but incorporates features that are more useful for capital planning, Saaty said. Those features include:
Decision Lens software is delivered in a software-as-a-service model and is used across government to help set priorities and allocate resources, Saaty told GCN in August. Other government agencies using the software include Homeland Security and Agriculture departments; U.S. Army, Air Force and Navy; the Maryland Department of Transportation and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.
About the Author
Rutrell Yasin is is a freelance technology writer for GCN.
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Twenty years after a video of officers kicking and clubbing motorist Rodney King made the Los Angeles Police Department the poster child for police abuse, residents and community activists say the department has turned a corner.
A succession of police chiefs – most notably William Bratton – have made reform a top priority. Eight years of federal oversight helped clean up the department. And the changing demographics of the LAPD – 37 percent white, compared with 59 percent in 1992 – has changed the character of the force, many say.
There are signs of slippage, some say, such as a reluctance to reprimand officers who were found by a commission to have killed or wounded people unjustifiably. But on a 20th anniversary bus tour of the riot areas Tuesday – organized by Operation Hope, which was formed in the wake of the riots to expand economic opportunity in underserved communities – the notes were universally positive.
"Don't you love the police when they're on your side?" said Eric Clay, HOPE's vice president for community lending, going for a laugh as tour guide on one bus, nodding out the window at the police escort.
The Los Angeles Times reports that 70 percent of Los Angeles residents now say they approve of the police department, and at one stop on the bus tour, the Korean owner of a small convenience store offers words of praise.
"Twenty years ago, when the police showed up, everyone got more tense. Now you feel they're here to help," he says. "That's a big change."
Across the street, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa speaks to an assembly of elementary school students gathered at the Quincy Jones Elementary School, built in the heart of South Los Angeles in the wake of the riots. Noting the hiring of more women and Latino officers, he says, "because of the attention and outcry of this city, we've been able to make hosts of reforms."
Earl Ofari Hutchinson, president of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable and a longtime critic of the LAPD, says the department has made big strides. Several blue-ribbon commissions have helped, as has community policing, in which cops on the beat spend time getting to know residents rather than just speeding through neighborhoods in their squad cars. Federal oversight from 2001 to 2009 also meant comprehensive audits.
But it was the leadership of Mr. Bratton, who arrived in 2002 and left in 2009, that marked a high point for the department in becoming kinder and gentler and demanding zero tolerance for abuse, violence, and misconduct.
"Bratton really went out of his way to say what was needed, [and] also to show up at our meetings and talk to us all the time," says Mr. Hutchinson. "There was a mandate from within to hire more women, Latinos, Asians, and gays, and a personal demonstration from him and other leadership that he meant everything he said. I'd have to say it has worked."
Local black activist Najee Ali likewise gives the LAPD an "A" for what it has achieved. He says police regularly come into the neighborhoods for formal discussions with residents and have improved response times dramatically, which makes residents feel the police are for them rather than against them.
"They have a senior lead officer assigned directly to work with each neighborhood so that when some complaint or nuisance report comes in, it's usually dealt with within 24 hours," he says. Those reports include complaints such as vagrancy, gang activity, drug dealers, and graffitti.
The board of directors of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, however, suggests that these reforms are not the product of the riots.
"Many of these retrospectives have included analyses that overstate the riots' role in the evolution of the Department," the league says in a release. "Any balanced analysis must recognize that policing in general has evolved across the nation. Changes in the Department were part of a larger national trend of evolving approaches to policing."
The league says that even though officers of Hispanic descent now account for 42 percent of the police force, "this change is as much a result of the changing community demographics as it is of any single event in the city's history."
It also points out that many LAPD officers working today were not on the job two decades ago: of the 9,940 officers on the force, only 2,641 were on the job in April 1992.
But with the exit of Bratton, Hutchinson and others say they are concerned that old habits could be returning. The killing of an unarmed black man in 2011, a 90-bullet shootout with a suspect after a car chase in April, and revelations that an officer racially profiled Latinos are among the concerns.
Hutchinson notes that current Chief Charlie Beck has come under fire from the current police commission for his reluctance to reprimand officers the commission found used excessive force.
"There are still some of the old troubling signs," says Hutchinson. "Officers that overuse deadly force or commit acts of misconduct must be punished. Without it, it reinforces the notion that officers can administer street corner justice. This is the practice that got the LAPD into so much hot water in years past."


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As if it wasn't galling enough that Sweden trumps Britain with its exemplary welfare system, enviable standards of living and super-high life expectancy, now it's trying to show us how to make folk music. What will Laura Marling and Emmy The Great think when they find out that Stockholm's First Aid Kit are coming over here and taking their jobs? They'll be fuming.
Or maybe they'll be a little more gracious and recognise The Lion's Roar for what it is: a gorgeous, gripping study of English and north American folk music that covers as many of the genre's quirks as it can, without crawling from cliché to catastrophe.
The breadth of this album makes it one that's unlikely to please all of its listeners all of the time, and songs like 'Emmylou' will put off all but the most casual fans of soppy, daytime Radio 2, acoustic balladry. Its drippy slide guitar and un-empowered, love-struck lyrics would work better on a Dolly Parton album than on one that's being put out by the indie experts at Wichita Recordings. But thankfully, there's more to First Aid Kit than over-wrought country chord patterns and fake folksiness.
Over the course of The Lion's Roar, sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg inevitably return to folk's great themes of love and loss several times, but they're never covered as charmlessly as they are on 'Emmylou'. 'To A Poet', for example, is quite inspiring in the way the Söderbergs face up to their heartache, explaining in spine-tingling harmony how, "I miss you more than I can take and I will surely break", before concluding, "But there's nothing more to it / I just get through it". The deceptively upbeat 'Blue' is even more unusual, as First Aid Kit tell the tale of a depressive friend who's not been the same since their lover died in a car accident, while a sweet shuffle of plucky major chords plays out underneath.
The likes of opener 'The Lion's Roar' and 'Wolf' are more forthright, sitting at the blustery, battle-worn end of the folk spectrum. The former has a cinematic quality, prefaced by skeletal chords that become bolder and brasher each time they are returned to over the song's ritualistic five minutes, while a pagan flute melody blows a cold chill through the rest of the record. Then 'Wolf', with its sinister chants and forest setting, powerfully evokes the darkest, most dangerous rural landscapes.
Elsewhere, First Aid Kit take the listener on a trek across the north American plains ('I Found A Way' has a dusty desert vibe that's akin, in parts, to the Rawhide theme music) before enlisting the help of an accordion, a fiddle, a mandolin, a bunch of trumpets and Conor Oberst for an authentic Americana jamboree (closing track 'King Of The World').
What's clear from The Lion's Roar then, is that not only do Johanna and Klara Söderberg know their banjos from their bagpipes, but they have a strong set of songs which makes them more than your average, all-purpose folk duo for hire. They are, perhaps, a bit too twee for hardened folk traditionalists and there's nothing in the vein of 'Five Years Time' or 'Little Lion Man' here to win them any crossover appeal, but the Söderbergs prove that they're more than talented enough to keep Britain's current crop of folk superstars on their toes.
7Robert Cooke's Score


text: The Eagle Eye Platinum digital IVUS catheter is the #1 choice of physicians for intravascular imaging (in the US).* As a unique plug-and-play intravascular imaging catheter it is designed for ease of use and deliverability. Features include a soft tapered tip, GlyDx hydrophilic coating for increased lubricity, a long, rapid exchange lumen for improved pushability, three radiopaque markers, and compatibility with SyncVision for co-registration with angiography.


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I won't update deathboogie.com anymore...
So move your bookmarks and update your RSS readers to point to my Phiary. Long time visitors have heard a lot about this site, as I've been working on it with Hilde and the Nordaaker guys for a good while now. We're still working on making it look and act as good as it deserves, but stuff like this takes a lot of time in between all the other stuff we've got going on in our lives.
Post links to your photos here and I'll see if I can talk the crew into letting me invite more than my 5 monthly allowances. Or just send me an email at email@example.com if you'd rather do that.
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Double drama!
by Jan Schjetne


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PALO ALTO, California -- Leatherbacks. They are the Olympians of the turtle world – swimming farther, diving deeper and venturing into colder waters than any other marine turtle species. But for all their toughness, they have still suffered a 90 percent drop in their population in the eastern Pacific Ocean over the last 20-plus years, largely at the hands of humanity.
Now, new data from a 5-year-long project tagging and tracking the turtles are providing insights into their behavior, explaining why they congregate for months in what appeared to be one of the most nutrient-poor regions in the oceans, the South Pacific Gyre, and also helping researchers predict their movements on the high seas.
This new view of the lives of leatherbacks could offer a way to keep the turtles out of harm's way and give their numbers a chance to rebound.
"By taking the data we've gathered on their movements and integrating it with data on the surrounding oceanographic conditions, we've been able to identify what kind of habitats the leatherbacks prefer. This information is helping us develop models to predict where they might go and when they might show up there," said Stanford biologist George Shillinger, lead author of a paper to be published in Marine Ecology Progress Series and available online.
Until now, researchers didn't know why the leatherbacks that nest at Playa Grande in Costa Rica headed for the gyre and lingered for months. Satellite surface data suggested that this area spanning the Pacific Ocean between South America and New Zealand, from the low to mid-latitudes, appeared to be a virtual desert in the ocean, largely devoid of nutrients.
However, the presence of substantial tuna and swordfish fisheries within the region suggested there must be ample forage of some sort available.
Because only limited data exist concerning the diversity, abundance and distribution of the leatherback's favorite prey – gelatinous zooplankton, such as jellyfish – within the South Pacific Gyre, no one knew whether the turtles had food down there or not.
"Nobody is really out chasing jellyfish down," Shillinger said. "They are poorly studied organisms and there is very little data on them in the region of the gyre."
But the data that came back from the tagged turtles suggest there may be plenty of jellyfish on which to feast.
"We saw a distinct reduction in the swimming speed of the turtles as they entered the South Pacific Gyre," Shillinger said. "They were making more turns, diving more frequently and diving deeper. All those things suggest feeding behavior."
Another piece of evidence was the timing of the turtles' dives. Like many marine organisms, jellyfish appear to engage in daily vertical migrations, moving into shallower depths at night and returning to somewhat deeper depths during the day.
The turtles' dives mirrored those movements, with their nighttime dives averaging about 38 meters deep, while average daytime dives were around 65 meters.
"The deepest dives we had in the data set were in the daytime, including the longest one, which was over 900 meters," Shillinger said. "That dive was also one of the longest leatherback dives ever reported. It was about 84 minutes." The cause for these superlative dives remains a mystery, although seeking prey and avoiding predators are likely motivations.
"Understanding what sort of areas leatherbacks are likely to favor is a critical first step in protecting them in the open ocean," he said.
From 2004 to 2007, Shillinger and his colleagues tagged 46 female leatherbacks on the beach in Costa Rica with satellite tags that broadcast information on location, depth and water temperature for an average of 245 days, with one tag transmitting for 562 days. "Altogether, it added up to 13,038 days of turtle tracking," Shillinger said.
One of the biggest hazards leatherbacks face on the high seas is longline fishing, a widely used approach for capturing commercially valuable species such as tuna and swordfish. The turtles also face fishing pressure from gill nets and longlines as they swim through coastal waters on their way out to the open ocean.
The problem, Shillinger said, is that areas that attract commercially desirable species also tend to be attractive to leatherbacks and other non-targeted species, known as by-catch.
"We are really going to have to link our research on turtles with a better understanding of where and how fishing is being done, things like how many hooks and nets are in the water and for how long," he said. "We also need to know more about the by-catch – which non-targeted species are being caught and in what numbers."
Having all that data would help Shillinger and his colleagues pinpoint the areas where fishing activity is most likely to coincide with turtle activity and determine what mitigation measures would be most effective.
Temporary closure of certain areas – breeding zones, migration routes and rich foraging habitats – when turtles are most likely to be concentrated there is one possible measure.
"We are not talking about closing the whole ocean. When the turtles have moved through, they can go back to fishing, in a lot of cases," Shillinger said.
Modification of fishing techniques, such as deploying hooks at the depths that are least likely to be occupied by turtles, could also help.
Shillinger emphasized that the timing of the turtles' presence, or the exact locations they inhabit, may well vary somewhat from year to year as ocean conditions vary, so mitigation measures will have to adapt to changing conditions.
"No one is out to kill turtles," Shillinger said. "We are looking for solutions that are less adversarial with fishermen and more productive for turtle conservation."
The information collected from turtles in the South Pacific Gyre is already helping Shillinger and his colleagues refine their modeling of the turtles' movements.
Overall, Shillinger said, the leatherbacks showed an affinity for areas with cooler sea surface temperatures and stronger upwellings of deep, cool, nutrient-rich water, which drives in an increased abundance of life, including prey.
Another striking piece of data involved some synchronized swimming on the part of the turtles, Shillinger said. When the turtles hit about 35 to 37 degrees latitude south of the equator, they would stop swimming south and fan out along a belt to the east and west.
"They would be strung out hundreds of miles apart along this boundary and then, in concert, swing northward, all at about the same time," Shillinger said. "They might be responding to some sort of cue that we're not aware of, we just don't know. At this point, it is a mystery."
Although the temperature of the sea surface water decreases closer to the south pole, the leatherbacks can readily tolerate the colder water, so the researchers speculate that changes in the distribution of gelatinous zooplankton may have influenced the turtles not to go farther south. Or the turtles might just prefer to avoid the cooler waters, as it takes less energy to stay warm. The southern thermal bound occurred where the sea surface water temperature was about 14 to 15 degrees Celsius (57 to 59 degrees Fahrenheit).
"This information will help us refine our predictions regarding what sort of conditions attract leatherbacks, which is a challenge in the continually changing, highly dynamic conditions in the ocean," Shillinger said.
"Our hope is that these findings will further humanity's efforts to develop workable solutions for reducing our impacts and insuring the survival of this unique, enigmatic and critically endangered species."
Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of UnderwaterTimes.com, its staff or its advertisers.


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text:
|Part of a series on
|Global surveillance
|Proposed changes
|Related topics
ECHELON, originally a secret government code name, is a surveillance program (signals intelligence/SIGINT collection and analysis network) operated by the US with the aid of other four signatory nations to the UKUSA Security Agreement[1]—Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States, also known as the Five Eyes.[2][3][4]
The ECHELON program was created in the late 1960s to monitor the military and diplomatic communications of the Soviet Union and its Eastern Bloc allies during the Cold War, and was formally established in 1971.[5][6]
By the end of the 20th century, the system referred to as "ECHELON" had allegedly evolved beyond its military and diplomatic origins, to also become "…a global system for the interception of private and commercial communications."[7]
- 1 Name
- 2 Reporting and disclosures
- 3 Organization
- 4 History and context
- 5 Concerns
- 6 Workings
- 7 In popular culture
- 8 See also
- 9 Bibliography
- 10 Notes and references
- 11 External links
The European Parliament's Temporary Committee on the ECHELON Interception System stated, "It seems likely, in view of the evidence and the consistent pattern of statements from a very wide range of individuals and organisations, including American sources, that its name is in fact ECHELON, although this is a relatively minor detail".[7] The U.S. intelligence community uses many code names (see, for example, CIA cryptonym).
Former NSA employee Margaret Newsham claims that she worked on the configuration and installation of software that makes up the ECHELON system while employed at Lockheed Martin, from 1974 to 1984 in Sunnyvale, California, in the United States, and in Menwith Hill, England, in the UK.[8] At that time, according to Newsham, the code name ECHELON was NSA's term for the computer network itself. Lockheed called it P415. The software programs were called SILKWORTH and SIRE. A satellite named VORTEX intercepted communications. An image available on the internet of a fragment apparently torn from a job description shows Echelon listed along with several other code names.[9][10]
Britain's The Guardian newspaper summarized the capabilities of the ECHELON system as follows:
A global network of electronic spy stations that can eavesdrop on telephones, faxes and computers. It can even track bank accounts. This information is stored in Echelon computers, which can keep millions of records on individuals.
Officially, however, Echelon doesn't exist.[11]
Reporting and disclosures
Public disclosures (1972–2000)
In 1972, former NSA analyst Perry Fellwock under pseudonym Winslow Peck, first blew the whistle on ECHELON to Ramparts in 1972,[12] where he gave commentary revealing a global network of listening posts and his experiences working there. Fellwock also included revelations such as the Israeli attack on USS Liberty was deliberate and known by both sides, the existence of nuclear weapons in Israel in 1972, the widespread involvement of CIA and NSA personnel in drugs and human smuggling, and CIA operatives leading Nationalist China (Taiwan) commandos in burning villages inside PRC borders.[13]
In 1982, James Bamford, investigative journalist and author wrote "The Puzzle Palace", an in-depth look inside the workings of the NSA, then a super secret agency, and the massive eavesdropping operation under the codename "SHAMROCK". (The NSA has uses many codenames, SHAMROCK was the codename used for ECHELON prior to 1975) [14][15]
In 1988, Margaret Newsham, a Lockheed employee under NSA contract, disclosed the ECHELON surveillance system to members of congress. Newsham told a member of the U.S. Congress that the telephone calls of Strom Thurmond, a Republican U.S. senator, were being collected by the NSA. Congressional investigators determined that "targeting of U.S. political figures would not occur by accident, but was designed into the system from the start."[16]
Also in 1988, an article titled "Somebody's Listening", written by investigative journalist Duncan Campbell in the New Statesman, described the signals intelligence gathering activities of a program code-named "ECHELON".[16] James Bamford describes the system as the software controlling the collection and distribution of civilian telecommunications traffic conveyed using communication satellites, with the collection being undertaken by ground stations located in the footprint of the downlink leg.[17]
In 1996, a detailed description of ECHELON was provided by New Zealand journalist Nicky Hager in his 1996 book Secret Power – New Zealand's Role in the International Spy Network.[18] Two years later, Hager's book was cited by the European Parliament in a report titled "An Appraisal of the Technology of Political Control" (PE 168.184).[19]
In March 1999, for the first time in history, the Australian government admitted that news reports about the top secret UKUSA Agreement were true.[20] Martin Brady, the director of Australia's Defence Signals Directorate (DSD) told the Australian broadcasting channel Nine Network that the DSD "does co-operate with counterpart signals intelligence organisations overseas under the UKUSA relationship."[21]
In 2000, James Woolsey, the former Director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, confirmed that U.S. intelligence uses interception systems and keyword searches to monitor European businesses.[22]
Lawmakers in the United States feared that the ECHELON system could be used to monitor U.S. citizens.[23] According to The New York Times, the ECHELON system has been "shrouded in such secrecy that its very existence has been difficult to prove."[23] Critics said the ECHELON system emerged from the Cold War as a "Big Brother without a cause".[24]
European Parliament investigation (2000–2001)
The program's capabilities and political implications were investigated by a committee of the European Parliament during 2000 and 2001 with a report published in 2001.[7] In July 2000, the Temporary Committee on the ECHELON Interception System was established by the European parliament to investigate the surveillance network. It was chaired by the Portuguese politician Carlos Coelho, who was in charge of supervising investigations throughout 2000 and 2001.
In May 2001, as the committee finalised its report on the ECHELON system, a delegation travelled to Washington, D.C. to attend meetings with U.S. officials from the following agencies and departments:
- U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)[26]
- U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC)[26]
- U.S. National Security Agency (NSA)[26]
All meetings were cancelled by the U.S. government and the committee was forced to end its trip prematurely.[26] According to a BBC correspondent in May 2001, "The US Government still refuses to admit that Echelon even exists."[5]
In July 2001, the Temporary Committee on the ECHELON Interception System released its final report.[27] On 5 September 2001, the European Parliament voted to accept the committee's report.[28]
The European Parliament stated in its report that the term ECHELON is used in a number of contexts, but that the evidence presented indicates that it was the name for a signals intelligence collection system. The report concludes that, on the basis of information presented, ECHELON was capable of interception and content inspection of telephone calls, fax, e-mail and other data traffic globally through the interception of communication bearers including satellite transmission, public switched telephone networks (which once carried most Internet traffic), and microwave links.[7]
Confirmation of ECHELON (2015)
Two internal NSA newsletters from January 2011 and July 2012, published as part of the Snowden-revelations by the website The Intercept on 3 August 2015, for the first time confirmed that NSA used the codeword ECHELON and provided some details about the scope of the program: ECHELON was part of an umbrella program codenamed FROSTING, which was established by the NSA in 1966 to collect and process data from communications satellites. FROSTING had two sub-programs:[29]
- TRANSIENT: for intercepting Soviet satellite transmissions, and
- ECHELON: for intercepting Intelsat satellite transmissions.
|UKUSA Community
The UKUSA intelligence community was assessed by the European Parliament (EP) in 2000 to include the signals intelligence agencies of each of the member states:
- the Government Communications Headquarters of the United Kingdom,
- the National Security Agency of the United States,
- the Communications Security Establishment of Canada,
- the Australian Signals Directorate of Australia, and
- the Government Communications Security Bureau of New Zealand.
The EP report concluded that it seemed likely that ECHELON is a method of sorting captured signal traffic, rather than a comprehensive analysis tool.[7]
Likely satellite intercept stations
In 2001, the EP report (p. 54 ff)[7] listed the following ground stations as likely to have, or to have had, a role in intercepting transmissions from telecommunications satellites:
- Hong Kong (since closed)
- Australian Defence Satellite Communications Station (Geraldton, Western Australia)
- RAF Menwith Hill (Yorkshire, U.K.) Map (reportedly the largest Echelon facility)[30]
- Misawa Air Base (Japan) Map
- GCHQ Bude, formerly known as GCHQ CSO Morwenstow (Cornwall, U.K.) Map
- Pine Gap (Northern Territory, Australia – close to Alice Springs) Map
- Sugar Grove (West Virginia, U.S.) Map (since closed)
- Yakima Training Center (Washington, U.S.) Map (since closed)
- GCSB Waihopai (New Zealand)[31]
- GCSB Tangimoana (New Zealand)[31]
- CFS Leitrim (Ontario, Canada)[32]
- Teufelsberg (Berlin, Germany) (closed 1992)[33] – Responsible for listening in to the Eastern Bloc.[34]
The following stations are listed in the EP report (p. 57 ff) as ones whose roles "cannot be clearly established":
- Ayios Nikolaos (British Sovereign Base area of Dhekelia, Cyprus – U.K.)
- Gibraltar (U.K.)
- Diego Garcia (U.K.)
- Bad Aibling Station (Bad Aibling, Germany – U.S.)
- Buckley Air Force Base (Aurora, Colorado)
- Fort Gordon (Georgia, U.S.)
- Gander (Newfoundland & Labrador, Canada)[citation needed]
- Guam (Pacific Ocean, U.S.)
- Kunia Regional SIGINT Operations Center (Hawaii, U.S.)
- Lackland Air Force Base, Medina Annex (San Antonio, Texas)
- RAF Edzell (Scotland)[citation needed]
- RAF Boulmer (England)[citation needed]
|Operated by the United States
|Brasília, Federal District
|Bad Aibling, Munich
|New Delhi
|Misawa, Tōhoku region
|Bangkok (?)
|United Kingdom
|Menwith Hill, Harrogate
|United States
|Sugar Grove, West Virginia
|Yakima, Washington
|Sábana Seca, Puerto Rico
|Not operated by the United States (2nd party)
|Geraldton, WA
|Darwin, NT
|New Zealand
|Waihopai, Blenheim
|United Kingdom
|Bude, Cornwall
|Ayios Nikolaos Station
History and context
The ability to intercept communications depends on the medium used, be it radio, satellite, microwave, cellular or fiber-optic.[7] During World War II and through the 1950s, high-frequency ("short-wave") radio was widely used for military and diplomatic communication[50] and could be intercepted at great distances.[7] The rise of geostationary communications satellites in the 1960s presented new possibilities for intercepting international communications.
In 1964, plans for the establishment of the ECHELON network took off after dozens of countries agreed to establish the International Telecommunications Satellite Organisation (Intelsat), which would own and operate a global constellation of communications satellites.[20]
In 1966, the first Intelsat satellite was launched into orbit. From 1970 to 1971, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) of Britain began to operate a secret signal station at Morwenstow, near Bude in Cornwall, England. The station intercepted satellite communications over the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Soon afterwards, the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) built a second signal station at Yakima, near Seattle, for the interception of satellite communications over the Pacific Ocean.[20]
In 1981, the GCHQ and the NSA started the construction of the first global wide area network (WAN). Soon after Australia, Canada, and New Zealand joined the ECHELON system.[20] The report to the European Parliament of 2001 states: "If UKUSA states operate listening stations in the relevant regions of the earth, in principle they can intercept all telephone, fax, and data traffic transmitted via such satellites."[7]
Most reports on ECHELON focus on satellite interception. Testimony before the European Parliament indicated that separate but similar UK-U.S. systems are in place to monitor communication through undersea cables, microwave transmissions, and other lines.[51] The report to the European Parliament points out that interception of private communications by foreign intelligence services is not necessarily limited to the U.S. or British foreign intelligence services.[7]
The role of satellites in point-to-point voice and data communications has largely been supplanted by fiber optics. In 2006, 99% of the world's long-distance voice and data traffic was carried over optical-fiber.[52] The proportion of international communications accounted for by satellite links is said to have decreased substantially to an amount between 0.4% and 5% in Central Europe.[7] Even in less-developed parts of the world, communications satellites are used largely for point-to-multipoint applications, such as video.[53] Thus, the majority of communications can no longer be intercepted by earth stations; they can only be collected by tapping cables and intercepting line-of-sight microwave signals, which is possible only to a limited extent.[7]
British journalist Duncan Campbell and New Zealand journalist Nicky Hager asserted in the 1990s that the United States was exploiting ECHELON traffic for industrial espionage, rather than military and diplomatic purposes.[51] Examples alleged by the journalists include the gear-less wind turbine technology designed by the German firm Enercon[7][54] and the speech technology developed by the Belgian firm Lernout & Hauspie.[55]
In 2001, the Temporary Committee on the ECHELON Interception System recommended to the European Parliament that citizens of member states routinely use cryptography in their communications to protect their privacy, because economic espionage with ECHELON has been conducted by the U.S. intelligence agencies.[7]
American author James Bamford provides an alternative view, highlighting that legislation prohibits the use of intercepted communications for commercial purposes, although he does not elaborate on how intercepted communications are used as part of an all-source intelligence process.
In its report, the committee of the European Parliament stated categorically that the Echelon network was being used to intercept not only military communications, but also private and business ones. In its epigraph to the report, the parliamentary committee quoted Juvenal, "Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes." ("But who will watch the watchers").[7] James Bamford, in The Guardian in May 2001, warned that if Echelon were to continue unchecked, it could become a "cyber secret police, without courts, juries, or the right to a defence".[56]
Alleged examples of espionage conducted by the members of the "Five Eyes" include:
- On behalf of the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service of Canada spied on two British cabinet ministers in 1983.[57]
- The U.S. National Security Agency spied on and intercepted the phone calls of Princess Diana right until she died in a Paris car crash with Dodi Fayed in 1997. The NSA currently holds 1,056 pages of classified information about Princess Diana, which has been classified as top secret "because their disclosure could reasonably be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security ... the damage would be caused not by the information about Diana, but because the documents would disclose 'sources and methods' of U.S. intelligence gathering".[58] An official insisted that "the references to Diana in intercepted conversations were 'incidental'," and she was never a 'target' of the NSA eavesdropping.[58]
- U.K. agents monitored the conversations of the 7th Secretary-General of the United Nations Kofi Annan.[59][60]
- U.S. agents gathered "detailed biometric information" on the 8th Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon.[61][62]
- In the early 1990s, the U.S. National Security Agency intercepted the communications between the European aerospace company Airbus and the Saudi Arabian national airline. In 1994, Airbus lost a $6 billion contract with Saudi Arabia after the NSA, acting as a whistleblower, reported that Airbus officials had been bribing Saudi officials to secure the contract.[63] As a result, the American aerospace company McDonnell Douglas (now part of Boeing) won the multibillion-dollar contract instead of Airbus.[64]
- The American defense contractor Raytheon won a US$1.3 billion contract with the Government of Brazil to monitor the Amazon rainforest after the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), acting as a whistleblower, reported that Raytheon's French competitor Thomson-Alcatel had been paying bribes to get the contract.[65]
- In order to boost America's position in trade negotiations with the then Japanese Trade Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, in 1995 the CIA eavesdropped on the conversations between Japanese bureaucrats and executives of car manufacturers Toyota and Nissan.[66]
At least one non-commercial journalist has already suggested that technologies likely connected with ECHELON might be used illegally, for unhuman treatment of politically repressed people.[67]
The first American satellite ground station for the ECHELON collection program was built in 1971 at a military firing and training center near Yakima, Washington. The facility, which was codenamed JACKKNIFE, was an investment of ca. 21.3 million dollars and had around 90 people. Satellite traffic was intercepted by a 30-meter single dish antenna. The station became fully operational on 4 October 1974. It was connected with NSA headquarters at Fort Meade by a 75-baud secure Teletype orderwire channel.[29]
In 1999 the Australian Senate Joint Standing Committee on Treaties was told by Professor Desmond Ball that the Pine Gap facility was used as a ground station for a satellite-based interception network. The satellites were said to be large radio dishes between 20 and 100 meters in diameter in geostationary orbits. The original purpose of the network was to monitor the telemetry from 1970s Soviet weapons, air defence- and other radar's capabilities, satellite's ground station's transmissions and ground-based microwave communications.[69]
In popular culture
The television series Alias made recurring references to ECHELON throughout its run.
The antagonist of the anime series Digimon Tamers, D-Reaper, was created by ECHELON.
Echelon Conspiracy, inspired by the surveillance system ECHELON, is a 2009 action thriller film directed by Greg Marcks. It tells the story of Max Peterson (Shane West), an American computer specialist who attempts to uncover a secret plot to turn the world into a global police state. After being chased down by NSA agent Raymond Burke (Martin Sheen), Peterson decides to flee to Moscow.
The video game series Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell also draws inspiration from this. The series features the protagonist, Sam Fisher, a trained operative belonging to a fictional branch of the National Security Agency called Third Echelon (later, in Splinter Cell: Blacklist, the unit is replaced by the Fourth Echelon).
The 2007 film The Bourne Ultimatum makes several references to ECHELON. A CIA listening station in London is alerted when ECHELON detects the keyword "Blackbriar" in a cell phone conversation between a journalist and his editor.[70] Later in the film, CIA Deputy Director Pamela Landy requests an "ECHELON package" on the main character, Jason Bourne.
Alternative rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars' first album includes a song called "Echelon". Their fan base is also referred to as the Echelon, though an explanation has not been given as to why the fanbase and the song are referred to as such.
In the 2000 computer game Deus Ex, the signals intelligence supercomputers Daedalus and Icarus (later Helios) are referred to as Echelon IV.
The sci-fi crime thriller, Person of Interest, a television show which aired from 2011 to 2016 on the CBS network, had a data-collecting supercomputer as its central narrative.
See also
- List of government surveillance projects
- 2013 mass surveillance disclosures
- Mass surveillance
- Operation Ivy Bells
- Onyx (interception system), the Swiss "Echelon"
- Frenchelon
- Aldrich, Richard J.; GCHQ: The Uncensored Story of Britain's Most Secret Intelligence Agency, HarperCollins, July 2010. ISBN 978-0-00-727847-3
- Bamford, James; The Puzzle Palace, Penguin, ISBN 0-14-006748-5; 1983
- Bamford, James; The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA from 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America, Doubleday, ISBN 0-385-52132-4; 2008
- Hager, Nicky; Secret Power: New Zealand's Role in the International Spy Network; Craig Potton Publishing, Nelson, NZ; ISBN 0-908802-35-8; 1996
- Keefe, Patrick Radden Chatter: Dispatches from the Secret World of Global Eavesdropping; Random House Publishing, New York, NY; ISBN 1-4000-6034-6; 2005
Notes and references
- ↑ Given the 5 dialects that use the terms, UKUSA can be pronounced from "You-Q-SA" to "Oo-Coo-SA", AUSCANNZUKUS can be pronounced from "Oz-Can-Zuke-Us" to "Orse-Can-Zoo-Cuss".
- From Talk:UKUSA Agreement: "Per documents officially released by both the Government Communications Headquarters and the National Security Agency, this agreement is referred to as the UKUSA Agreement. This name is subsequently used by media sources reporting on the story, as written in new references used for the article. The NSA press release provides a pronunciation guide, indicating that "UKUSA" should not be read as two separate entities."(The National Archives)". Archived from the original on 2 May 2013. Retrieved 2012-10-10. Unknown parameter
|deadurl=ignored (help)<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles> (National Security Agency)"
- From Talk:UKUSA Agreement: "Per documents officially released by both the Government Communications Headquarters and the National Security Agency, this agreement is referred to as the UKUSA Agreement. This name is subsequently used by media sources reporting on the story, as written in new references used for the article. The NSA press release provides a pronunciation guide, indicating that "UKUSA" should not be read as two separate entities."(The National Archives)". Archived from the original on 2 May 2013. Retrieved 2012-10-10. Unknown parameter
- ↑ "UK 'biggest spy' among the Five Eyes". News Corp Australia. 22 June 2013. Retrieved 19 October 2013.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ Google books – Echelon by John O'Neill
- ↑ "AUSCANNZUKUS Information Portal". auscannzukus.net. Archived from the original on 20 February 2012. Retrieved 1 February 2010.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Q&A: What you need to know about Echelon". BBC. 29 May 2001.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ Nabbali, Talitha; Perry, Mark (March 2004). "Going for the throat". Computer Law & Security Review. 20 (2): 84–97. doi:10.1016/S0267-3649(04)00018-4.
It wasn't until 1971 that the UKUSA allies began ECHELON<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ 7.00 7.01 7.02 7.03 7.04 7.05 7.06 7.07 7.08 7.09 7.10 7.11 7.12 7.13 7.14 Schmid, Gerhard (11 July 2001). "On the existence of a global system for the interception of private and commercial communications (ECHELON interception system), (2001/2098(INI))" (pdf – 194 pages). European Parliament: Temporary Committee on the ECHELON Interception System. Retrieved 5 January 2013.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ Elkjær, Bo; Kenan Seeberg (17 November 1999). "ECHELON Was My Baby". Ekstra Bladet. Retrieved 17 May 2006.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles> "Unfortunately, I can't tell you all my duties. I am still bound by professional secrecy, and I would hate to go to prison or get involved in any trouble, if you know what I mean. In general, I can tell you that I was responsible for compiling the various systems and programs, configuring the whole thing and making it operational on mainframes"; "Margaret Newsham worked for the NSA through her employment at Ford and Lockheed from 1974 to 1984. In 1977 and 1978 Newsham was stationed at the largest listening post in the world at Menwith Hill, England ... Ekstra Bladet has Margaret Newsham's stationing orders from the US Department of Defense. She possessed the high security classification TOP SECRET CRYPTO."
- ↑ Goodwins, Rupert (29 June 2000). "Echelon: How it works". ZDNet. Retrieved 28 January 2014.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ =Campbell, Duncan (25 July 2000). "Inside Echelon". Heise Online. Retrieved 28 January 2014.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ Perrone, Jane (29 May 2001). "The Echelon spy network". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 January 2014.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ David Horowitz (August 1972). "U.S. Electronic Espionage: A Memoir". Ramparts. 11 (2): 35–50.
|url=(help)<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ "Ramparts interview". Cryptome archive. 1988. Retrieved 21 April 2017.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ Bamford, James; The Puzzle Palace: A Report on America's Most Secret Agency, Houghton Mifflin, ISBN 0-14-006748-5; 1982
- ↑ "Puzzle Palace excepts". Cryptome archive. Retrieved 21 April 2017.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 Campbell, Duncan (12 August 1988). "Somebody's Listening" (PDF). New Statesman. Retrieved 27 November 2013.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ Bamford, James; Body of Secrets, Anchor, ISBN 0-385-49908-6; 2002
- ↑ Duncan Campbell (1 June 2001). "Echelon Chronology". Heise Online. Retrieved 19 December 2013.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ Wright, Steve (6 January 1998). "An Appraisal of Technologies of Political Control" (PDF). European Parliament. Retrieved 28 January 2014.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 20.3 Duncan Campbell. "Echelon: World under watch, an introduction". ZDNet. Retrieved 19 December 2013.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ Duncan Campbell and Mark Honigsbaum (23 May 1999). "Britain and US spy on world". The Observer. Retrieved 19 December 2013.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ R. James Woolsey (17 March 2000). "Why We Spy on Our Allies". The Wall Street Journal.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 NIALL McKAY (27 May 1999). "Lawmakers Raise Questions About International Spy Network". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 December 2013.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ SUZANNE DALEY (24 February 2000). "An Electronic Spy Scare Is Alarming Europe". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 December 2013.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ Kieren McCarthy (14 September 2001). "This is how we know Echelon exists". The Register. Retrieved 19 December 2013.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ 26.0 26.1 26.2 26.3 Roxburgh, Angus (11 May 2001). "EU investigators 'snubbed' in US". BBC. Retrieved 28 January 2014.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ "Report on the existence of a global system for the interception of private and commercial communications (ECHELON interception system) (2001/2098(INI))". European Parliament. 11 July 2001. Retrieved 10 September 2013.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ "Report: Echelon exists, should be guarded against". USA Today. Associated Press. 5 September 2001. Retrieved 7 February 2014.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ 29.0 29.1 The Northwest Passage, Yakima Research Station (YRS) newsletter: Volume 2, Issue 1, January 2011 & Volume 3, Issue 7, July 2012.
- ↑ Le Monde Diplomatique, September 2010
- ↑ 31.0 31.1 Eames, David (19 March 2010). "Waihopai a key link in global intelligence network". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
Both Waihopai and the Tangimoana radio listening post near Palmerston North have been identified as key players in the United States-led Echelon spy programme.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ Stupak, edited by David S. Greisler, Ronald J. (2007). Handbook of technology management in public administration. CRC/Taylor & Francis. p. 592. ISBN 1420017012.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ "Teufelsberg mirrors Berlin's dramatic history". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
More than 1,000 people are said to have worked here around the clock, every day of the year. They were part of the global ECHELON surveillance network.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ Beddow, Rachel. "Teufelsberg, Berlin's Undisputed King Of Ghostowns, Set For Redevelopment". NPR. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
The Teufelsberg mission is still shrouded in secrecy, but it's generally agreed that the station was part of the ECHELON network that listened in to the Eastern Bloc.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ According to a statement by Terence Dudlee, the speaker of the US Navy in London, in an interview to the German HR (Hessischer Rundfunk)
"US-Armee lauscht von Darmstadt aus". Archived from the original on 30 June 2007. Retrieved 19 August 2016. Unknown parameter
|dead-url=ignored (help)<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles> (German), hr online, 1 October 2004
- ↑ 36.0 36.1 Roberto Kaz e José Casado. "Capitais de 4 países também abrigaram escritório da NSA e CIA". O Globo (in Portuguese). Retrieved 31 January 2014.CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ 37.0 37.1 Hubert Gude, Laura Poitras and Marcel Rosenbach. "German Intelligence Sends Massive Amounts of Data to the NSA". Der Spiegel. Retrieved 31 January 2014.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ "Cover Story: How the NSA Targets Germany and Europe". Der Spiegel. Retrieved 31 January 2014.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ 39.0 39.1 "US spy centre in India too". Deccan Chronicle. 30 October 2013. Retrieved 31 January 2014.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ 40.0 40.1 40.2 40.3 40.4 40.5 40.6 40.7 40.8 40.9 Dorling, Philip. "Singapore, South Korea revealed as Five Eyes spying partners". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 30 January 2014.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ "Document 12. "Activation of Echelon Units," from History of the Air Intelligence Agency, 1 January - 31 December 1994, Volume I (San Antonio, TX: AIA, 1995)". George Washington University.
The second extract notes that AIA's participation in a classified activity "had been limited to LADYLOVE operations at Misawa AB [Air Base], Japan."Missing or empty
|url=(help)<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ 42.0 42.1 42.2 42.3 42.4 42.5 "Eyes Wide Open" (PDF). Privacy International. p. 11. Retrieved 31 January 2014.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ Norton-Taylor, Richard (1 March 2012). "Menwith Hill eavesdropping base undergoes massive expansion". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 January 2014.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ Steelhammer, Rick (4 January 2014). "In W.Va., mountains of NSA secrecy". The Charleston Gazette. Retrieved 31 January 2014.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ 45.0 45.1 Laura Poitras, Marcel Rosenbach and Holger Stark. "Friendly Fire: How GCHQ Monitors Germany, Israel and the EU". Der Spiegel. Retrieved 31 January 2014.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ Troianello, Craig (4 April 2013). "NSA to close Yakima Training Center facility". The Seattle Times. Retrieved 31 January 2014.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ Roberto Kaz and José Casado. "Capitais de 4 países também abrigaram escritório da NSA e CIA". O Globo (in Portuguese). Retrieved 31 January 2014.CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ 48.0 48.1 48.2 48.3 Nick Hopkins and Julian Borger (1 August 2013). "Exclusive: NSA pays £100m in secret funding for GCHQ". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 January 2014.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ Squires, Nick (5 November 2013). "British military base in Cyprus 'used to spy on Middle East'". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 31 January 2014.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ The Codebreakers, Ch. 10, 11
- ↑ 51.0 51.1 For example: "Nicky Hager Appearance before the Euro ean Parliament ECHELON Committee". April 2001. Retrieved 2 July 2006.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ "NSA eavesdropping: How it might work". CNET News.com. Retrieved 27 August 2006.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ "Commercial Geostationary Satellite Transponder Markets for Latin America : Market Research Report". Retrieved 27 August 2006.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ Die Zeit: 40/1999 "Verrat unter Freunden" ("Treachery among friends", German), available at "Zeit.de". Archived from the original on 9 October 2008. Retrieved 2007-08-19. Unknown parameter
|deadurl=ignored (help)<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ "Amerikanen maakten met Echelon L&H kapot". daanspeak.com. 30 March 2002. Archived from the original on 21 March 2012. Retrieved 28 March 2008. Unknown parameter
|deadurl=ignored (help)<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles> (Google's translation of the article into English).
- ↑ Bustillos, Maria (9 June 2013). "Our reflection in the N.S.A.'s PRISM". The New Yorker. Retrieved: 2013-10-12.
- ↑ "Thatcher 'spied on ministers'". BBC. 25 February 2000.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ 58.0 58.1 Vernon Loeb (12 December 1998). "NSA Admits to Spying on Princess Diana". The Washington Post.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ "UK 'spied on UN's Kofi Annan'". BBC. 26 February 2004. Retrieved 21 September 2013.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ PATRICK E. TYLER (26 February 2004). "Ex-Minister Says British Spies Bugged Kofi Annan's Office". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 September 2013.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ "US diplomats spied on UN leadership". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 August 2013.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ Marcel Rosenbach and Holger Stark. "Diplomats or Spooks? How US Diplomats Were Told to Spy on UN and Ban Ki-Moon". Der Spiegel. Retrieved 27 August 2013.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ "Echelon: Big brother without a cause". BBC News. 6 July 2000. Retrieved 27 August 2006.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ "Airbus's secret past". The Economist. 14 June 2003. Retrieved 15 October 2013.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ "Big Surveillance Project For the Amazon Jungle Teeters Over Scandals". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 15 October 2013.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ David E. Sanger and Tim Weiner (15 October 1995). "Emerging Role For the C.I.A.: Economic Spy". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 October 2013.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ Piotr Nizynski – the blog with proofs
- ↑ The Northwest Passage, Yakima Research Station (YRS) newsletter: Volume 2, Issue 1, January 2011.
- ↑ "Pine Gap" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 June 2011. Retrieved 19 August 2016. Unknown parameter
|dead-url=ignored (help)<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>, Official Committee Hansard, Joint Standing Committee on Treaties, 9 August 1999. Commonwealth of Australia.
- ↑ Gunn, Angela. "Security goes to the movies: The Bourne Ultimatum". Computerworld. Retrieved 30 April 2014.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
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text:
Senators voted by unanimous consent June 3 for a resolution in support of Meriam Yahia Ibrahim, who was convicted under Sharia law for "apostasy" (leaving Islam) by refusing to renounce her Christian faith. A Khartoum court sentenced her to death by hanging. She also received a sentence of 100 lashes for adultery on the basis of her marriage to a Christian, Daniel Wani, a South Sudanese-born citizen of the United States.
The Senate resolution gained approval a week after Ibrahim gave birth to the couple's second child, a daughter, Maya, in the Omdurman Federal Prison for Women. Martin, their 20-month-old son, also is imprisoned with his mother.
Rep. Trent Franks, R.-Ariz., has introduced a similar resolution in the U.S. House of Representatives, but a floor vote has yet to take place.
Russell D. Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, applauded the Senate action and called Ibrahim "a living picture of Jesus keeping his promise, made to us at Caesarea Philippi."
"Jesus said that He would build His church, and that the gates of hell would not prevail against it," Moore said in a statement for Baptist Press. "As we thank God for the Gospel to which she clings, let's continue to pray that these actions by our officials will be the catalyst for release."
Moore also commended a June 2 letter from Sen. James Inhofe, R.-Okla., urgently requesting Secretary of State John Kerry to "use all official and personal channels" to seek Ibrahim's release. In his letter to Kerry, Inhofe asked the State Department to explore providing political asylum to Ibrahim and her family.
"I ask you to use your powers of diplomacy to convince the Sudanese government to end this all too real and potentially deadly case of religious persecution," Inhofe wrote.
Moore, as well, wrote Kerry seeking robust action. In his May 20 letter, Moore encouraged Kerry to denounce Ibrahim's sentencing and to demand her release.
So far, the response from Kerry and the State Department to Ibrahim's plight has failed to match the requests from religious freedom advocates inside and outside Congress.
The Senate's resolution, however, not only condemned the sentencing and called for Ibrahim's release but urged the U.S. government to refuse to normalize relations with or lift sanctions against Sudan until the Eastern African country abides by "international standards of freedom of religion or belief." The measure also called for Khartoum to work to ensure its new constitution incorporates religious liberty protections.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R.-Fla., the resolution's chief sponsor, said after its passage, "While the Senate made strides in its commitment to religious freedom, Ms. Ibrahim is still in the fight of her life. The world is watching as we await the decision of the Sudanese court, and today's passage is a testament to our obligation to Ms. Ibrahim and her young family."
Inhofe was a leading cosponsor of the bill, as were Democratic Sens. Christopher Coons of Delaware and Robert Menendez of New Jersey.
If the Sudanese court refuses to relent, Ibrahim's death sentence reportedly would be carried out after she nurses her daughter to age 2.
The court confirmed the sentence May 15 after Ibrahim was granted 15 days to recant her faith. Ibrahim told the court, "I am a Christian, and I have never been a Muslim." Ibrahim reportedly was born to a Sudanese Muslim father who disappeared from her life when she was 6 years old and an Ethiopian mother who was Ethiopian Orthodox. Though her mother reared her as a Christian, Islamic law asserts she is Muslim by birth because her father was Muslim.
Ibrahim, 27, was under regular pressure to reject Christianity after her son and she were imprisoned in mid-February. Before her May 15 court appearance, a Muslim scholar spent nearly 40 minutes trying to coerce her into recanting her Christian confession.
She received the sentence of 100 lashes for adultery because marriage to a Christian is considered illegal under Sharia law.
Ibrahim's death sentence is the latest evidence of Sudan's standing as one of the world's worst violators of religious liberty. The State Department has listed the militant Islamic regime among its "countries of particular concern" (CPC) since 1999, the first year such designations were made by the U.S. government. Only eight countries are on the State Department's CPC list, which is reserved for governments with the most severely repressive policies toward religious freedom.
Tom Strode is the Washington bureau chief for Baptist Press,the Southern Baptist Convention's news service. BP reports on missions, ministry and witness advanced through the Cooperative Program and on news related to Southern Baptists' concerns nationally and globally. Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter (@BaptistPress), Facebook (Facebook.com/BaptistPress) and in your email (baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp).
Copyright (c) 2014 Southern Baptist Convention, Baptist Press www.BPNews.net


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