Holder OK’d search warrant for Fox News reporter’s private emails, official says

Attorney General Eric Holder signed off on a controversial search warrant that identified Fox News reporter James Rosen as a “possible co-conspirator” in violations of the Espionage Act and authorized seizure of his private emails, a law enforcement official told NBC News on Thursday.

The disclosure of the attorney general’s role came as President Barack Obama, in a major speech on his counterterrorism policy, said Holder had agreed to review Justice Department guidelines governing investigations that involve journalists.

“I am troubled by the possibility that leak investigations may chill the investigative journalism that holds government accountable,” Obama said. “Journalists should not be at legal risk for doing their jobs.”

Rosen, who has not been charged in the case, was nonetheless the target of a search warrant that enabled Justice Department investigators to secretly seize his private emails after an FBI agent said he had “asked, solicited and encouraged … (a source) to disclose sensitive United States internal documents and intelligence information.”

Obama’s comments follow a firestorm of criticism that has erupted over disclosures that in separate investigations of leaks of classified information, the Justice Department had obtained private emails that Rosen exchanged with a source and the phone records of Associated Press reporters.

Holder previously said he recused himself from the AP subpoena because he had been questioned as a witness in the underlying investigation into a leak about a foiled bomb plot in Yemen. His role in personally approving the Rosen search warrant had not been previously reported.

A Justice Department spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Department of Justice later issued a statement about the review of media guidelines: “This review is consistent with Attorney General Holder’s long-standing belief that freedom of the press is essential to our democracy,” it said. “At the same time, the attorney general believes that leaks of classified information damage our national security and must be investigated using appropriate law enforcement tools. We remain steadfast in our commitment to following all laws and regulations intended to safeguard national security as well as the First Amendment interests of the press in reporting the news and the public in receiving it.” …

The law enforcement official said Holder’s approval of the Rosen search, in the spring of 2010, came after senior Justice officials concluded there was “probable cause” that Rosen’s communications with his source, identified as intelligence analyst Stephen Kim, met the legal burden for such searches. “It was approved at the highest levels– and I mean the highest,” said the law enforcement official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. He said that explicitly included Holder.

Kim has since been indicted on charges that he leaked classified information to Rosen about how North Korea would respond to a United Nations resolution condemning the country’s nuclear program. He has denied the charges.

In an affidavit in support of a search warrant to Google for Rosen’s emails, an FBI agent wrote that the Fox News journalist — identified only as “the Reporter” — had “asked, solicited and encouraged Mr. Kim to disclose sensitive United States internal documents and intelligence information.”

“The Reporter did so by employing flattery and playing to Mr. Kim’s vanity and ego,” it continued. “Much like an intelligence officer would run a clandestine intelligence source, the Reporter instructed Mr. Kim on a covert communications plan that involved” emails from his gmail account.

The affidavit states that FBI agents had tracked Rosen’s entrances and exits of the State Department in order to show that they had coincided with Kim’s movements. Based on that and other findings, the affidavit by FBI Agent Reginald B. Reyes, stated, “There is probable cause to believe that the Reporter has committed a violation” of the Espionage Act “at the very least, either as an aider, abettor and/or co-conspirator of Mr. Kim.”

It also said that Google was specifically instructed not to notify “the subscriber” — Rosen — that his emails were being seized.

In new documents disclosed Thursday, the Justice Department sought and obtained approval to keep the search warrant, which was approved by a federal magistrate, under seal. It was unsealed in November 2011, but never made a part of the docket of Kim’s case and went unnoticed until this week.

Justice officials have since said they do not intend to criminally charge Rosen, but media groups have condemned the issuance of the search warrant itself.”The Justice Department’s decision to treat routine newsgathering efforts as evidence of criminality is extremely troubling and corrodes time-honored understandings between the public and the government about the role of the free press,” said Bruce Brown, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. …

via Holder OK’d search warrant for Fox News reporter’s private emails, official says – Open Channel.

Who oversees the Justice Department, you know, to make sure they are following the Constitution? I mean I know no one does this right now, but who is supposed to do it?

Obama DOJ formally accuses journalist in leak case of committing crimes

It is now well known that the Obama justice department has prosecuted more government leakers under the 1917 Espionage Act than all prior administrations combined – in fact, double the number of all such prior prosecutions. But as last week’s controversy over the DOJ’s pursuit of the phone records of AP reporters illustrated, this obsessive fixation in defense of secrecy also targets, and severely damages, journalists specifically and the newsgathering process in general.

New revelations emerged yesterday in the Washington Post that are perhaps the most extreme yet when it comes to the DOJ’s attacks on press freedoms. It involves the prosecution of State Department adviser Stephen Kim, a naturalized citizen from South Korea who was indicted in 2009 for allegedly telling Fox News’ chief Washington correspondent, James Rosen, that US intelligence believed North Korea would respond to additional UN sanctions with more nuclear tests – something Rosen then reported. Kim did not obtain unauthorized access to classified information, nor steal documents, nor sell secrets, nor pass them to an enemy of the US. Instead, the DOJ alleges that he merely communicated this innocuous information to a journalist – something done every day in Washington – and, for that, this arms expert and long-time government employee faces more than a decade in prison for “espionage”.

The focus of the Post’s report yesterday is that the DOJ’s surveillance of Rosen, the reporter, extended far beyond even what they did to AP reporters. The FBI tracked Rosen’s movements in and out of the State Department, traced the timing of his calls, and – most amazingly – obtained a search warrant to read two days worth of his emails, as well as all of his emails with Kim. In this case, said the Post, “investigators did more than obtain telephone records of a working journalist suspected of receiving the secret material.” It added that “court documents in the Kim case reveal how deeply investigators explored the private communications of a working journalist”.

But what makes this revelation particularly disturbing is that the DOJ, in order to get this search warrant, insisted that not only Kim, but also Rosen – the journalist – committed serious crimes. The DOJ specifically argued that by encouraging his source to disclose classified information – something investigative journalists do every day – Rosen himself broke the law. Describing an affidavit from FBI agent Reginald Reyes filed by the DOJ, the Post reports [emphasis added]:

“Reyes wrote that there was evidence Rosen had broken the law, ‘at the very least, either as an aider, abettor and/or co-conspirator’. That fact distinguishes his case from the probe of the AP, in which the news organization is not the likely target. Using italics for emphasis, Reyes explained how Rosen allegedly used a ‘covert communications plan’ and quoted from an e-mail exchange between Rosen and Kim that seems to describe a secret system for passing along information. . . . However, it remains an open question whether it’s ever illegal, given the First Amendment’s protection of press freedom, for a reporter to solicit information. No reporter, including Rosen, has been prosecuted for doing so.”

Under US law, it is not illegal to publish classified information. That fact, along with the First Amendment’s guarantee of press freedoms, is what has prevented the US government from ever prosecuting journalists for reporting on what the US government does in secret. This newfound theory of the Obama DOJ – that a journalist can be guilty of crimes for “soliciting” the disclosure of classified information – is a means for circumventing those safeguards and criminalizing the act of investigative journalism itself. These latest revelations show that this is not just a theory but one put into practice, as the Obama DOJ submitted court documents accusing a journalist of committing crimes by doing this. …

via Obama DOJ formally accuses journalist in leak case of committing crimes | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk.

Why don’t we all require that our elected officials uphold our Constitution? Naw, that would be too much trouble.

Mafia boss Peppe Pesce gives himself up

This week the boss of one of southern Italy’s most powerful mafia dynasties sensationally handed himself in to police after three years on the run – and now faces 16 years in jail. The BBC was inside the police station when it happened.

At 4:15pm local time on Wednesday, ‘Ndrangheta boss Giuseppe “Peppe” Pesce walked into the Carabinieri station in his native Rosarno like a man who had come to pay a parking ticket.

Freshly shaven and smiling incongruously, the mafioso – one of Calabria’s most-wanted – was only a quarter of an hour late for the deadline he had set for his own surrender to the authorities.

The special Carabinieri team who had been hunting him obsessively for nearly three years looked resentful. Being denied the chance to capture him themselves seemed to have temporarily blinded them to the enormous symbolism of this criminal’s public gesture.

Mafia bosses never normally turn themselves in. In extreme circumstances, if faced with certain death at the hands of their rivals or when too old or ill to survive in hiding, they may strike secret “face-saving” deals where authorities pretend to have captured them against their will.

Instead, there he was, healthy 33-year-old Peppe Pesce. The undisputed scion of one of the supreme clans of the ‘Ndrangheta, Italy’s little-known but most powerful mafia organisation, amenably holding out his hands – palms up – for the black ink to be rolled over them ahead of old-fashioned fingerprinting.

The authorities had been so incredulous Pesce would turn up – as his lawyers had secretly told them he would – that no other journalists had been forewarned, in case news leaked and made him change his mind.

I was lucky to be the only one there, on a follow up trip to a BBC This World documentary on the ‘Ndrangheta I had recently made with historian John Dickie. As the Pesces featured prominently in it I knew this was to be an extraordinary day in Calabria.

This was no family of mafia quitters. The Pesce are a criminal dynasty. Peppe Pesce inherited the baton of “regent” of the clan after his older brother Francesco “Ciccio” Pesce was captured in an underground bunker in 2011. Ciccio had taken the boss’s mantle over from their father Antonino, as Antonio had from grandfather Don Peppino.Over half a century they had built a family empire worth at least £200m through drug trafficking across Europe, as well as extortion, violence and corruption in their own ravaged Calabrian backyard. This is the way of the ‘Ndrangheta which, unlike the Sicilian Mafia, favours bloodline over merit.

From the mafioso perspective, I assumed he would be bringing the ultimate disgrace to himself and his own family. But I was wrong. As news of Peppe’s appearance spread in Rosarno, the Carabinieri station turned into a pilgrimage site.

In pairs, small groups, leaning on walking sticks or carried in push-chairs, dozens and dozens of relatives and well-wishers from six months old to 90, came to pay their respects to the fallen boss.

The Carabinieri were faced with a difficult decision. Whether or not to show magnanimity to a man who had not seen his family in three years and most likely will not for many more. Grandmother Giuseppa, fully clad in black from head to toe, was among the first to be allowed in the room where her grandchild was sitting. Covering the last tooth left in her mouth with a hand, she wept.

“Where are you going?” she asked.

“Come on, grandma. To prison, of course,” he said.

“I will never see you again,” she said.

“Don’t worry,” he said and laughed dismissively. “I’ll hurry up. I have done nothing wrong. I am in the goat business.”

The second, younger-looking grandmother chimed in. “Your innocence will be proved, just as Christ was resurrected,” she said. …

via BBC News – Mafia boss Peppe Pesce gives himself up.

Woah. He’d make a friggin’ great Lex Luthor. Am I right, or am I right? The image below is Michael Rosenbaum as Lex, used without permission:

Russia reveals Moscow CIA station chief’s identity

This handout photo from the Russian FSB shows a man named as Ryan Fogle, arrested on suspicion of spying

Russia has named the alleged US intelligence chief in Moscow – a move seen as breaching diplomatic protocol.

It follows Moscow’s decision to expel US diplomat Ryan Fogle, who was accused of trying to recruit a Russian intelligence officer as a spy.

Mr Fogle, a purported CIA agent, was arrested on Tuesday while wearing a blond wig and was briefly detained.

Russia says it warned the CIA Moscow station chief in 2011 to stop the “provocative” recruitment of spies.

An unnamed official of the Russian FSB security services told the Interfax news agency on Friday that if recruitment attempts continued, the FSB “would take ‘mirror’ actions in relation to CIA officers”.

The report gave the full name of the alleged CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) chief of station in Moscow. However, it is not clear if the same person remains in the post.

Mr Fogle is said to have been a third secretary at the US embassy in Moscow. He has been declared “persona non grata” for what the Russian foreign ministry called “provocative actions in the spirit of the Cold War”.

He has been ordered to leave Russia but it is not clear whether he has already done so.

Russia said Mr Fogle was caught while trying to recruit an FSB counter-terrorism agent in the Caucasus.

The Kommersant newspaper said he was investigating the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing attacks, who came from the Caucasus.

The FSB said another alleged spy, also a third secretary, was caught and expelled in January.

US officials have refused to comment on the naming of the alleged CIA chief. …

A spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin told the Itar-Tass news agency: “This does nothing to contribute to the further building of mutual confidence between Russia and the US.”

Relations between the two countries have been strained, most recently over the conflict in Syria. Russia backs the government, while the US supports the rebels. …

via BBC News – Russia reveals Moscow CIA station chief’s identity.

If only Putin and Obama would join forces and worship the same stone owl at the Bohemian Grove they wouldn’t have to turn citizens into remotely controlled human drones to conduct mass killings for political change. Of course there may be other reasons for the conflict over Syria.

Syria is the only significant crude oil producing country in the Eastern Mediterranean region, which includes Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza. According to the Oil and Gas Journal, Syria had 2,500,000,000 barrels (400,000,000 m³) of petroleum reserves as of 1 January 2010.^[31] Syria’s known oil reserves are mainly in the eastern part of the country in the Deir ez-Zor Governorate near its border with Iraq and along the Euphrates River; a number of smaller fields are located in the center of the country.^[32] In 2010, Syria produced around 385,000 barrels (61,200 m³) per day of crude oil.^[29][30] Oil production has stabilized after falling for a number of years, and is poised to turn around as new fields come on line. – wikipedia

The military exercises going on by NATO and the Russians on 9/11/2001 and the events that unfolded after the attacks make interesting reading: http://www.historycommons.org/entity.jsp?entity=russian_air_force_1

Confessions of an atheist Freemason | Religion And More…

Tonight, while reading a thick secret Masonic book left to me by my departed Master Mason grandfather, who reached the 32nd degree (Master of the Royal Secret) on June 16, 1944, I became curious if I might be able to start a Science-Based Masonic lodge. It appears not… but things do change.

At this time in history, an atheistic Freemason must hide his true beliefs according to this:

I’m an atheist Freemason (they’d expel me if they knew)

Is it possible to reconcile being a confirmed atheist with participating in a religious organisation?

People usually think Masons are either a bunch of old farts with their trousers rolled up, or evil genuises bent on world domination. Dan Brown, in his otherwise execrable Lost Symbol, described us fairly and with a sneaking admiration (though in this country we don’t do anything like locking ourselves in cupboards with skulls). It’s a way of meeting people (well, men) on a basis of immediate friendship. It teaches a moral code: integrity, fidelity, benevolence etc. It raises a *lot* of money for charity. It offers a chance to perform ceremonies. Why does it need to be religious?

Every candidate for initiation is asked “Do you believe in a Supreme Being?”. When I was asked this, I replied “Yes”, and meant it – nothing further is ever asked or expected. At the time I was a wishy-washy not-quite-a-Christian, like many other members I’ve met. People from any faith are welcome, and oaths of secrecy and fidelity are taken on a bible, or other holy book if appropriate (requests for Darwin or Dawkins wouldn’t be well received!). Each meeting involves prayers to the generic “Great Architect of the Universe” to look favourably upon the organisation and its members, and to keep us steadfast in our oaths. I question whether any passing God would trouble Himself to shine His rays upon a bunch of men waffling on in coloured aprons, but this low-key interventionism is woven in. The secrets themselves serve no purpose other than identification, aren’t hard to find on google, and really aren’t interesting in their own right.

Moral teachings are a central part of the ceremonies, in which the “candidate” (new member) is taught various lessons about how to be a better man. There are some wonderful moments in these ceremonies, which are genuine once-in-a-lifetime experiences, and I can honestly say that they’ve had a very real and positive effect on my conduct in everyday life. One key point they hold that I utterly reject is that God is the moral compass and fount of all goodness.

I derive a lot of enjoyment from performing the ceremonies. They involve learning large tracts of dignified, old-fashioned dialogue and monologue, and performing them in such a way as to give the candidate a memorable and impressive experience. Any frustrated actor would revel in this. Amateur pageantry is also an important part, and for anyone who enjoys watching the pomp and circumstance of a royal wedding, military parade, or a high church service, this is good fun to take part in. Some of the buildings are nothing short of magnificent and it’s a privilege to use them. Alas, those small parts of the ceremony which reflect the religious underpinning engender in me feelings of hypocrisy; I’ve filled various offices which involve leading short prayers. It feels dirty – perhaps more so than mumbling the Lord’s Prayer at a wedding, though there is no logical reason for this to be the case. Is it any different from being in a church and not agreeing with the letter of everything being said? Maybe it’s the difference between being an atheist church-goer and an atheist priest.

Why do I do this? It’s fun. It fills a gap which I think church fills in the lives of the religious – community, morality, ceremony etc. I agree strongly with the intent of its teachings, even though I reject the jump from “being nice to people is good” to “God is good and He wants you to be nice to people”. Given the don’t-ask-don’t-tell policy after the initial interview (religion and politics are taboo subjects on account of being too divisive), all that’s required is a certain amount of finger-crossing and keeping my mouth shut. It’s a price to pay, but the benefits (strictly non-pecuniary!) of membership far outweigh this price.

There’s no secular equivalent, alas – society is still to emerge fully from the assumption that all good people are religious, and all religious people are good, and Freemasonry is lagging far behind. In my opinion, the religion could be removed from Freemasonry to no loss, but I’m probably in the minority.

You may call me a hyprocrite, and you may very well be right. So be it. I’ve made a significant positive contribution to a number of lodges over a number of years, and they to me. I have every hope this will continue.

http://religionandmore.wordpress.com/2011/05/09/im-an-atheist-freemason/

Of course, if I had successfully formed an Non-Religious Masonic lodge bent on proving that moral behavior is a human right, a human creation, and a universally human struggle, I couldn’t tell you about it.

My grandfather only said one thing about the Masons to me… Ever. It seemed totally random to me at the time because I didn’t know he was one. He said that if anyone ever tells you the Masons asked him to join, they were lying. You have to go to them.

- Xeno

“Buycott” App Lets You Boycott Monsanto And More By Scanning Items in Your Shopping Cart

In her keynote speech at last year’s annual Netroots Nation gathering, Darcy Burner pitched a seemingly simple idea to the thousands of bloggers and web developers in the audience. The former Microsoft MSFT +0.94% programmer and congressional candidate proposed a smartphone app allowing shoppers to swipe barcodes to check whether conservative billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch were behind a product on the shelves.

Burner figured the average supermarket shopper had no idea that buying Brawny paper towels, Angel Soft toilet paper or Dixie cups meant contributing cash to Koch Industries through its subsidiary Georgia-Pacific. Similarly, purchasing a pair of yoga pants containing Lycra or a Stainmaster carpet meant indirectly handing the Kochs your money (Koch Industries bought Invista, one of the world’s largest fiber and textiles companies, in 2004 from DuPont).

At the time, Burner created a mock interface for her app, but that’s as far as she got. She was waiting to find the right team to build out the back end, which could be complicated given often murky corporate ownership structures.

She wasn’t aware that as she delivered her Netroots speech, a group of developers was hard at work on Buycott, an even more sophisticated version of the app she proposed.

“I remember reading Forbes’ story on the proposed app to help boycott Koch Industries and wishing that we were ready to launch our product,” said Buycott’s marketing director Maceo Martinez.

The app itself is the work of one Los Angeles-based 26-year-old freelance programmer, Ivan Pardo, who has devoted the last 16 months to Buycott. “It’s been completely bootstrapped up to this point,” he said. Martinez and another friend have pitched in to promote the app.Pardo’s handiwork is available for download on iPhone or Android, making its debut in iTunes and Google GOOG +3.26% Play in early May. You can scan the barcode on any product and the free app will trace its ownership all the way to its top corporate parent company, including conglomerates like Koch Industries.

Once you’ve scanned an item, Buycott will show you its corporate family tree on your phone screen. Scan a box of Splenda sweetener, for instance, and you’ll see its parent, McNeil Nutritionals, is a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson JNJ +0.77%.

Even more impressively, you can join user-created campaigns to boycott business practices that violate your principles rather than single companies. One of these campaigns, Demand GMO Labeling, will scan your box of cereal and tell you if it was made by one of the 36 corporations that donated more than $150,000 to oppose the mandatory labeling of genetically modified food.

Deciding to add that campaign to your Buycott app might make buying your breakfast nearly impossible, as that list includes not just headline grabbers like agricultural giant Monsanto but just about every big consumer company with a presence in the supermarket aisle: Coca-Cola, Nestle, Kraft, Heinz, Kellogg’s, Unilever and more.

Buycott is still working on adding new data to its back end and fine-tuning its information on corporate ownership structures. Most companies in the current database actually own more brands than Buycott has on record. The developers are asking shoppers to help improve their technology by inputting names of products they scan that the app doesn’t already recognize. …

via New App Lets You Boycott Koch Brothers, Monsanto And More By Scanning Your Shopping Cart – Forbes.

Cool, I got the app and looked at the campaigns. With a click I’m now one of the 20,641 people who demand GMO labeling.

It has only 2 stars in the Apple App Store, seemingly due to it not working for barcode scans seemingly due to server problems. Could it be bad planning for the amount of interest, or are they under a denial of service attack from one of those super rich companies they want to financially impact?

AP says Justice subpoenaed phone records

The Justice Department secretly collected two months of telephone records for reporters and editors at The Associated Press, the news service disclosed Monday in an outraged letter to Attorney General Eric Holder.

The records included calls from several AP bureaus and the personal phone lines of several staffers, AP President Gary Pruitt wrote. Pruitt called the subpoenas a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into its reporting.

“These records potentially reveal communications with confidential sources across all of the newsgathering activities undertaken by the AP during a two-month period, provide a road map to AP’s newsgathering operations and disclose information about AP’s activities and operations that the government has no conceivable right to know,” wrote Pruitt, the news agency’s CEO.

The AP reported that the government has not said why it wanted the records. But it noted that U.S. officials have said they were probing how details of a foiled bomb plot that targeted a U.S.-bound aircraft leaked in May 2012. The news agency said records from five reporters and an editor who worked on a story about the plot were among those collected.

The subpoenas were disclosed to the news agency on Friday, Pruitt wrote. In all, federal agents collected records from more than 20 lines, including personal phones and AP phone numbers in New York; Hartford, Connecticut; and Washington, he wrote.

“We regard this action by the Department of Justice as a serious interference with AP’s constitutional rights to gather and report the news,” he told Holder. Pruitt demanded that the department return all records collected and destroy all copies.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Washington responded that federal investigators seek phone records from news outlets only after making “every reasonable effort to obtain information through alternative means.” It did not disclose the subject of the probe.

“We must notify the media organization in advance unless doing so would pose a substantial threat to the integrity of the investigation,” it said. “Because we value the freedom of the press, we are always careful and deliberative in seeking to strike the right balance between the public interest in the free flow of information and the public interest in the fair and effective administration of our criminal laws.”

Federal agents have launched several investigations into leaks of classified information in the past few years. Holder announced in June 2012 that he had assigned two U.S. attorneys to lead investigations into the possible leaking of state secrets, and members of Congress have complained about disclosures of electronic warfare campaigns against Iran, U.S. drone attacks w and Obama’s personal involvements cix in “kill lists” of militants in Yemen and Pakistan….X

http://www.cnn.coxxm/2013/05/13/us/justice-ap- xphones/index.html

“Because we value the freedom of the press…”

Unless an organized crime gang has taken over our DOJ, that organization does not get to choose which parts of the Constitution it values.

Apple deluged by police demands to decrypt iPhones

Apple receives so many police demands to decrypt seized iPhones that it has created a “waiting list” to handle the deluge of requests, CNET has learned.

Court documents show that federal agents were so stymied by the encrypted iPhone 4S of a Kentucky man accused of distributing crack cocaine that they turned to Apple for decryption help last year.

An agent at the ATF, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, “contacted Apple to obtain assistance in unlocking the device,” U.S. District Judge Karen Caldwell wrote in a recent opinion. But, she wrote, the ATF was “placed on a waiting list by the company.”

A search warrant affidavit prepared by ATF agent Rob Maynard says that, for nearly three months last summer, he “attempted to locate a local, state, or federal law enforcement agency with the forensic capabilities to unlock” an iPhone 4S. But after each police agency responded by saying they “did not have the forensic capability,” Maynard resorted to asking Cupertino.

Because the waiting list had grown so long, there would be at least a 7-week delay, Maynard says he was told by Joann Chang, a legal specialist in Apple’s litigation group. It’s unclear how long the process took, but it appears to have been at least four months.

The documents shed new light on the increasingly popular law enforcement practice of performing a forensic analysis on encrypted mobile devices — a practice that can, when done without a warrant, raise Fourth Amendment concerns.

Last year, leaked training materials prepared by the Sacramento sheriff’s office included a form that would require Apple to “assist law enforcement agents” with “bypassing the cell phone user’s passcode so that the agents may search the iPhone.” Google takes a more privacy-protective approach: it “resets the password and further provides the reset password to law enforcement,” the materials say, which has the side effect of notifying the user that his or her cell phone has been compromised.

Ginger Colbrun, ATF’s public affairs chief, told CNET that “ATF cannot discuss specifics of ongoing investigations or litigation. ATF follows federal law and DOJ/department-wide policy on access to all communication devices.”

In a separate case in Nevada last year, federal agents acknowledged to a judge that they were having trouble examining a seized iPhone and iPad because of password and encryption issues. And the Drug Enforcement Administration has been stymied by encryption used in Apple’s iMessage chat service, according to an internal document obtained by CNET last month.

The ATF’s Maynard said in an affidavit for the Kentucky case that Apple “has the capabilities to bypass the security software” and “download the contents of the phone to an external memory device.” Chang, the Apple legal specialist, told him that “once the Apple analyst bypasses the passcode, the data will be downloaded onto a USB external drive” and delivered to the ATF.

It’s not clear whether that means Apple has created a backdoor for police — which has been the topic of speculation in the past — whether the company has custom hardware that’s faster at decryption, or whether it simply is more skilled at using the same procedures available to the government. Apple declined to discuss its law enforcement policies when contacted this week by CNET.

Mobile device users should take this as a warning that Google and Apple can provide access to data stored on an encrypted device at least in some circumstances, says Christopher Soghoian, principal technologist with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project.

“That is something that I don’t think most people realize,” Soghoian says. “Even if you turn on disk encryption with a password, these firms can and will provide the government with a way to get your data.”

An August 2012 article in MIT Technology Review by Simson Garfinkel, an associate professor at the U.S. military’s Naval Postgraduate School, says “Apple customers’ content” is so well-protected that often “it’s impossible for law enforcement to perform forensic examinations of devices seized from criminals.”

That depends largely, however, on the length of the passphrase or password that someone selects to protect a modern iOS device. (Because the original iPhone and iPhone 3G did not use hardware encryption, they were protected only by a passcode that could be easily bypassed.)

Elcomsoft claims its iOS Forensic Toolkit can perform a brute-force cryptographic attack on a four-digit iOS 4 or iOS 5 passcode in 20 to 40 minutes. “Complex passcodes can be recovered, but require more time,” the company’s marketing literature says. But the iPhone 5 doesn’t appear in Elcomsoft’s list of devices that can be targeted.

Garfinkel estimates that if a user chooses a six-digit passcode, the maximum time required to guess the number would be 22 hours, while a nine-digit PIN would require two and a half years. A 10-digit PIN would take 25 years. Average times, of course, cut those maximum brute-force durations in half, and that could be whittled down much further if it’s possible to guess PINs a suspect is more likely to use. …

via Apple deluged by police demands to decrypt iPhones | Politics and Law – CNET News.

Most people have 4 digit passcodes, but if Apple has a backdoor for the 4S then no length of password would make your device secure.  Do they? Everyone should switch to a random 12 digit PIN. Then we can watch the news and see if anyone reports Apple being able to get in. You might be tempted to use something like this to generate your password:

RANDOM.ORG offers true random numbers to anyone on the Internet. The randomness comes from atmospheric noise, which for many purposes is better than the pseudo-random number algorithms typically used in computer programs.

But of course, you must proceed as if ALL Internet traffic is recorded, which means any random numbers you downloaded over the Internet were intercepted.

Even if the random data is intended for a one-time download only, the random data can be compromised.  Never use downloaded random data if security or legal issues are of concern. – http://randomnumber.org/download.htm

Here’s a quick secure random number generator:

Chessex Dice Sets: Opaque Blue with White – Ten Sided Die d10 Set (10)

Cheers erupt as spire tops One World Trade Center

A crane lifted the last of a 408-foot tall spire on top of One World Trade Center on Friday, a capstone to an emotional 12-year effort to replace the twin towers destroyed by terrorists.

The 18-piece silver spire will top out the tower at a symbolic 1,776 feet, a nod to the year America signed the Declaration of Independence. The new building is just north of the original towers, now the hallowed ground known as Ground Zero.

“This really is a symbolic moment because this building really represents the resiliency of this country,” Port Authority Vice Chair Scott Rechler told TODAY’s Matt Lauer, who earlier had made his way up the 104 floors to witness the process. “These people, the thousand men and women who have worked here tirelessly, really as a tribute for the people that perished on 9-11 right on this site.”…

http://www.today.com/news/cheers-erupt-spire-tops-one-world-trade-center-1C9870947

Even more cheers would erupt if the real culprits were disclosed and all the suppressed evidence was released.

San Francisco surrenders in fight over cell phone warnings

San Francisco city leaders, after losing a key round in court against the cell phone industry, have agreed to revoke an ordinance that would have been the first in the United States to require retailers to warn consumers about potentially dangerous radiation levels.

In a move watched by other U.S. states and cities considering similar measures, the city Board of Supervisors voted on Tuesday to settle a lawsuit with the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association by accepting a permanent injunction against the right-to-know cell phone ordinance.

The group had alleged the law violated its free-speech rights, and the settlement marked a victory for the industry as the Federal Communications Commission considers a reassessment of safe radiation exposure limits adopted in 1996.

“This is just a terrible blow to public health,” Ellen Marks, an advocate for the measure, said outside the supervisors’ chambers. She said her husband suffers from a brain tumor on the same side of his head to which he most often held his mobile phone.

The industry association has asserted the San Francisco ordinance, if put into effect, would mislead consumers about the relative risks posed by cell phones, contrary to the FCC’s determination that all wireless phones legally sold in the Unites States are safe.

The group’s members include some of the nation’s largest cell phone carriers and manufacturers, including Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Samsung and Apple.

Deputy City Attorney Vince Chhabria said a federal appeals court decision last year upholding a preliminary injunction against the measure signaled that trying to win the case at trial would be a long shot. If the city lost, a judge could have awarded the industry group as much as $500,000 in attorneys’ fees, he said.

The 2011 ordinance mandated warnings that cellular phones, including smartphone devices, emit potentially cancer-causing radiation. The statute, which a judge blocked before it took effect, also would have required retailers of the devices to post notices stating that World Health Organization cancer experts have deemed mobile phones “possibly carcinogenic.”

Supervisor David Campos reluctantly supported the settlement. “I think the legal reality is that if we don’t approve the settlement, we’re talking about having to pay $500,000 in legal fees,” he said.

Chhabria said the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling had left San Francisco in the position of having to prove that scientists concurred about the hazards of cell phones and that the FCC no longer believes they are safe.

Despite mounting evidence the phones may cause brain tumors, scientists disagree and are hesitant to draw conclusions.

Dr. Gabriel Zada, a neurosurgery professor at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine, found in a 2012 study that the age-adjusted incidence of malignant tumors in the parts of the brain closest to where people hold their phones rose significantly from 1992 and 2006 in California. But Zada told Reuters he could not draw any conclusions about the dangers of cell phones from his findings.

The Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit research organization, had pushed for San Francisco’s right-to-know law.

“If the nation’s experience with tobacco taught us anything, it is that it is dangerous to wait until there is scientific consensus about a potential health threat before providing consumers with information on how they can protect themselves,” said Renee Sharp, the group’s research director.

Mobile phones are tested to ensure their emissions fall within FCC limits considered safe. The limits, however, fail to reflect the latest research or actual conditions under which mobile phones are used, liked being held in a pocket directly against the body while talking through an earpiece, according to a Government Accountability Office report. …

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/08/usa-sanfrancisco-cellphones-idUSL2N0DP02320130508?feedType=RSS&feedName=cyclicalConsumerGoodsSector