CIA, FBI Caught Editing Wiki Pages

Sue, at MLN, recently reported on propaganda spammers filling the CFL Wiki pages with garbage:

Well, someone who is doing the nasty work for one SKorchin was easily traced to Fema.gov.

If you've been reading Dailykos, here and here, watching Keith Olbermann, or listening to NPR, you would know that an IP address can now be traced on Wikipedia.

This might help explain why the Katrina victims are still waiting for competent assistance.

Fema.gov vandalizes Lieberman opponent's biography page
by Sue
Fema.gov vandalized the John Orman, chairman of the CFL party's Wiki page.

71.252.64.8 came back as- Multi-RBL check 71.252.64.8 (poker-2.fema.gov) using Robtex. FEMA, of course, is under Homeland Security, which the senator runs.

I also traced another vandalizing IP address to Courtyard Hartford in Cromwell (Mr. Korchin's home town), but that's another story.

Crooks and Liars has the goods on Diebold and FOX "news" playing the propaganda game for their own benefit:

Via Salon:

“Diebold Election Systems” are three words synonymous with the aggressive pursuit of failure. Not only did the company badly implement a dubious concept — unverifiable electronic touch-screen voting machines — but it did so with determined flourish, letting its code and internal communication leak out onto the Web; employing as a chief executive a man who declared he was “committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year”; abusing copyright law in an attempt to quell its critics; and, among many other caught-red-handed indiscretions, deleting criticism of itself from Wikipedia.

No wonder, then, that Diebold Election Systems has decided to steal a page from the playbook of that paragon of corporate responsibility Philip Morris (aka the Altria Group): Diebold will erase its sorry history with a simple name change!

Henceforth, when reaching for an example of mind-boggling incompetence, please say “Premier” rather than “Diebold,” because Diebold Election Systems is now Premier Election Systems.

The name change, the company says in a press release, “signals a new beginning” and a “fresh identity” — though in the same release the firm concedes that it will still be making and pushing the same sorry voting machines (machines that, as Princeton computer scientist Edward Felten and his colleagues showed last year, are actually vulnerable to a virus-based attack). Read more…

It seems Diebold has teamed up with FOXNews in an attempt to re-write history. We have to stay on top of this sort of trickery, especially with the crucial 2008 presidential election on the horizon. Let’s review - Diebold Election Systems is now PREMIER Election Systems.

But, now, even the CIA and the FBI are getting into Wiki propaganda game, adding a governmental censorship twist to the game:

People using CIA and FBI computers have edited entries in the online encyclopedia Wikipedia on topics including the Iraq war and the Guantanamo prison, according to a new tracing program.

snip

WikiScanner revealed that CIA computers were used to edit an entry on the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. A graphic on casualties was edited to add that many figures were estimated and were not broken down by class.

Another entry on former CIA chief William Colby was edited by CIA computers to expand his career history and discuss the merits of a Vietnam War rural pacification program that he headed.

Aerial and satellite images of the U.S. prison for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were removed using a computer traced to the FBI, WikiScanner showed.

There is nothing like a Grand Old Propaganda war being carried out by GOP wingnut arm chair warriors, corporations, and the government here in the US of A.

Face the facts wingnuts...

There are too many of us in the reality based world, and too few of you in the slimmest of minority GOP propaganda spinners, for you to get away with your kind of propaganda, censorship and yellow jopurnalism anymore.

Just another war you right-wingnuts will lose.

All Spin Zone has a list of the most active government agencies that are messing with Wikpedia, and a useful reader beware warning:

Want to know what agencies in the U.S. government are making changes to Wikipedia? Try this “top 25″ list on for size (from Government Executive Tech Insider):

1. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (nasa.gov) 6,846
2. Department Of Veterans Affairs (va.gov) 4,210
3. Forestry And Fire Protection (ca.gov) 4,148
4. Dept Homeland Security (dhs.gov) 4,081
5. Information Systems U.S. House Of Representatives (house.gov) 3,736
6. National Institutes Of Health (nih.gov) 3,019
7. U.S. Courts (uscourts.gov) 2,869
8. U.S. Dept. Of Agriculture (usda.gov) 2,435
9. City Of New York (nyc.gov) 2,404
10. Salem Public Schools (ct.gov) 2,398
11. U.S. Dept Of Justice (usdoj.gov) 2,189
12. Information Services Division (nd.gov) 2,140
13. U.S. Senate Sergeant At Arms (senate.gov) 1,809
14. Federal Aviation Administration (faa.gov) 1,706
15. NOAA Aircraft Operations Center (noaa.gov) 1,590
16. Dotrspavolpe Center (dot.gov) 1,566
17. Lawrence Livermore Laboratory (llnl.gov) 1,456
18. U.S. Department Of Labor/Employment Standards Admin (dol-esa.gov) 1,449
19. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (epa.gov) 1,449
20. Internal Revenue Service (irs.gov) 1,290
21. National Park Service (nps.gov) 1,214
22. Library Of Congress Information Technology Services (loc.gov) 1,142
23. Social Security Administration (ssa.gov) 1,134
24. U.S. Patent And Trademark Office (uspto.gov) 1,097
25. Virginia Information Technologies Agency (Vita) (virginia.gov) 1,047

Obviously, some of the changes being made were probably benign, in order to correct some factual error - but it’s easy to imagine that the vast majority of changes from government internet domains are being made to change perception. In other words, massaging the propaganda to fit a particular agency’s agenda.

I’ve always maintained that there’s a lot of good info on Wikipedia, but due to the open source nature of the site, it’s important to take what you find, and corroborate it through second and third sources. However, it’s interesting that government agencies have been sooooooooo active in altering entrys into on of the web’s most accessed information sites.

As with all things online, caveat emptor. Multiple sources are your friend.

In other words:

"Trust, but verify!"

The same kind of due diligence and protection that the FISA courts used to provide in the case of spying on Americans until Reid and Pelosi handed the criminal bush administrations the keys to our liberty, but that is a whole other Blog post.

[updtae] Via the Government Executive Tech Blog:

WikiScanner provides "Wired's list of salacious edits" on a stand alone page. The list provides some of the more troublesome edits and from where they originated, including some from government agencies

Bloggers Muzzled by Lawsuits in Canada

A CBC news report on how some Canadian Bloggers are being silenced by lawsuits:



Coming soon to an American court near you... Considering corporations have already tried it here. Remember the Blogger Spocko and his fight with Disney and ABC? But we enjoy a little more protection of our freedom of speech here, as the CBC report points out in their report, and a large chunk of the Blogosphere kicked into high gear spreading the word in Spocko's fight. Without that support Spocko might have been silenced by those corporations.

"What is that? Impeachment?"Judge asks how to stop illegal spying

Via Matt at ThinkProgress, and very disturbing given the outlandish criminal behaviour of the bush administration:

Federal lawyers argued that “almost nothing about the substance of the government’s conduct could be talked about in court,” but that the judges must give executive branch claims of state secrets the “utmost deference.”

The three judges on the court were unsatisfied with the argument, offering various stinging comments and rebuttals:

- “Is it the government’s position that when our country is engaged in a war that the power of the executive when it comes to wiretapping is unchecked?” asked Pregerson.

- “This seems to put us in the ‘trust us’ category. ‘We don’t do it. Trust us. And don’t ask us about it,’” said Judge M. Margaret McKeown.

- “Every ampersand, every comma is top-secret?” queried Judge Michael Daly Hawkins about a withheld document.

- “”Are you saying the courts are to rubber-stamp the determination of the executive of what’s a state secret? What’s our job?” asked Pregerson.

- “I feel like I’m in Alice and Wonderland,” observed McKeown.

When Deputy Solicitor General Greg Garre argued that “other avenues” than the court system were the proper forum for complaints about government surveillance, Pregerson shot back:

“What is that? Impeachment?”

3 judges, all of them very concerned about the legality of the programs, and even more so by King Lame Duck claims that he can be trusted and that the judges can't see the evidence at all in order to decide the case.



"Quack, quack... Nothing to see here!"


"Quack, quack... Move along!"

How Does Your Candidate Measure Up?

Many of us are familiar with the Political Compass. Some at MLN even had their compass score in their signatures for a while, and even took the time to chart some of their own personal scores in March. But do you know where the 2008 Presidential Candidates sit on this political chart?

You should:

My kingdom for a real progressive candidate!

Perhaps you've heard of the Political Compass website, where you can take a test that places you on a grid based on the degree to which you are "left" or "right" on the economic scale as well as how socially libertarian or authoritarian you are.

I'm damn near as moonbatty as it gets: -6.50, -6.67, which puts me in, for lack of a better term, the "deep Southwest" of the grid.

Anyway, thanks to a recent article on London's TimesOnline, we can see how the 2008 U.S. presidential candidates fit on the grid.

This should worry those on the left, and I know that many at MLN scored even further left than I did (I am a Liberal, but I am a moderate Liberal), as they watch the next candidate chosen for the Democratic party who is nothing less than a conservative. That is, if they chose anyone other than Kucinich or Gravel. And right now they aren't even counted in the top 3 contenders.

This is where the Democratic party is failing miserably. They are not really providing any different ideology than the GOP, just a moderate version of it, if they choose any of those conservative candidates on that chart.

Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards, Chris Dodd, Bill Richardson, Joe Biden... They are all conservatives, as moderate as some of them may be, they are conservatives nonetheless.

Turkey-Contra Affair?

Black market arms deals...

The attacks were no mystery. What puzzled Turkish police was the weapons' origin. Glocks are high-quality sidearms, but by last year they had practically become common street weapons in Turkey. More than 1,000 had been taken from criminals, guerrillas, terrorists and assassins all over the country, and authorities believed tens of thousands more had found their way onto the black market

There are many more where those came from. At least three U.S. government agencies are now investigating the massive "disappearance" and diversion of weapons Washington intended for Iraqi government forces that instead have spread to militants and organized gangs across the region. The potential size of the traffic is stunning. A report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office last month showed that since 2004, some 190,000 AK-47 assault rifles and pistols, bought with U.S. money for Iraqi security forces, have gone missing.

snip

Major U.S. arms transfers began when Gen. David Petraeus was commander of the Multi-National Security Transition Command—Iraq (MNSTC-I), better known as Minsticky. Its mission was to train, arm and organize Iraq's military and police forces, but the Iraqis' weapons came via the State Department, and the supply line was actually run by private contractors.

Drugs...

According to the State Deparment's Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs' 2006 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, Turkey is a key player in this industry:

Turkey
I. Summary.
Turkey is a major transit route for Southwest Asian opiates to Europe, and serves as a base and refining center for major narcotics traffickers and brokers.... While most of the heroin trafficked via Turkey is marketed in Western Europe, an increasing amount of heroin and opium also is smuggled from Turkey to the U.S., but not in quantities sufficient to have a significant impact on the U.S.
II. Status of Country
Turkey is a major transshipment point. Turkey is also a base of operations for international narcotics traffickers and associates trafficking in opium, morphine base, heroin, precursor chemicals and other drugs. The majority of these opiates originate in Afghanistan, and are ultimately trafficked to Western Europe. A smaller but still not insignificant amount of heroin is trafficked to the U.S. via Turkey... Turkish authorities continue to seize large amounts of heroin and precursor chemicals, such as acetic anhydride. It is estimated that multi-ton amounts of heroin are smuggled through Turkey each month. Some heroin is still being refined in Turkey.
[SNIP]
Drug Flow/Transit. Turkey remains a major route, refining center and storage, production and staging area, for the flow of heroin to Europe. Turkish-based traffickers and brokers operate in conjunction with narcotics smugglers, laboratory operators, and money launderers in and outside Turkey. They finance and control the smuggling of opiates to and from Turkey. Afghanistan is the source of most of the opiates reaching Turkey. Morphine and heroin base are smuggled overland from Afghanistan and Pakistan via Iran. Opiates and hashish also are smuggled to Turkey overland from Afghanistan via Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. Traffickers in Turkey illegally acquire the heroin precursor chemical, acetic anhydride, from sources in Western Europe, the Balkans and Russia. For fiscal year 2004, 2,304 liters of acetic anhydride were seized in, or destined for, Turkey. Some criminal elements in Turkey reportedly have interests in heroin laboratories operating near the Iranian-Turkish border in Iran. Turkish-based traffickers control much of the heroin marketed to Western Europe.

That's quite straightforward - Turkey is a key player up and down the value chain - yet the comprehensive 228 page report from Paul Wolfowitz' World Bank essentially ignores Turkey's role using various mechanisms of sophistry and mendacity - just as Sibel predicted.

At least three quarters of all heroin sold in Western Europe comes from Turkey - 4 to 6 tons every month - yet the World Bank report mentions Turkey exactly... once!
Here's the reference, in all it's glory:

The large dealers in both Lashkar Gah city and Kandahar claimed that they deal directly with buyers in Pakistan, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

That single reference to Turkey is all that the report could muster.

And republican hacks behind the whole thing too, eh? Not like it hasn't happened before...

It is starting to look like a conspiracy theorist's dream. Or just what Sibel Edmonds was talking about all along. And the State Department keeps popping up in these kindof stories.

Immigration, Exploitation and Religion

Via ctblogger at HatCity Blog, New Milford's Rev. Gail Keeney-Mulligan talked about immigration, exploitation and and how it relates to religion last Sunday:

As a preview of tomorrow's full report on Sunday's prayer vigil from Kennedy Park, here's remarks from Rev. Gail Keeney-Mulligan of St. John's Episcopal Church.


Online Videos by Veoh.com

HMMM? She seems mighty familiar... :)

ctblogger promises updates on the event:

I'll have more details on what happened at the prayer vigil, including my rather intense confrontation with one of Elise Marciano's wackos who disrupted the event.

I am guessing there was some sort of nutty immigrant bashing involved. Figure the odds, eh?

The NewsTimes did a writeup on the event:

The unity vigil was organized by Danbury resident Jean Hislop and the Rev. Gail Keeney-Mulligan of St. John's Episcopal Church with the goal of bringing respect and dignity for the immigrants in the area.

"This vigil was held in recognition that all of us hold the same dreams and aspirations," Hislop said. "We hold the same value in life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, regardless of our race, our religion or our legal status.

Hislop said the "blatant racism" seen in e-mails being circulated, reader responses to immigration articles on The News-Times Web site, and things she has heard people say to each other on the streets of Danbury had to be addressed and dispelled.

When there are 185 comments on a NewsTimes article there usually is not much point sifting through the garbage that is in there. It is always the same people bashing immigrants using different screen names. Don't get me wrong, there are always some thoughtful comments too, BUT... The thoughtful commenters are wasting their time if they think that the bigots and xenophobes are there to debate honestly.

Tonight on Don't Hijack My Thread Blog Radio

ePluribus Media presents ePluribus Radio

"Don't Hijack My Thread!" is an interactive discussion on today's hot political topics with a progressive slant. Join "rapid fire" hosts Adam Lambert (clammyc) and David Atkins (thereisnospoon)!

Listen Live Online!

8:00 pm EST

Call in to participate:

(718) 508-9410

Don't Hijack My Thread! will be recording another live show this week and we need callers. Think you have what it takes to sit on hold for upwards of five minutes for a few moments of radio obscurity and acute political observation?

Tonight's juicy list of topics include the following:

* Buh-bye Rove. Or is it just a smokescreen?

* Hastert's retirement - another one bites the dust.

* The "Petraeus" Report. Edited and rewritten by the White House.

* Bush declares Iran military "special terrorists".

* FISA - Dems backtracking on new law and govt. plans to use spy satellites on Americans.

* Not "mining" their business. Declining mine safety and lack of consequences under Bush administration.

The show is scheduled to tape every Wednesday, 8:00 PM (EST), though times are subject to change and update, of course! We are still in BETA testing, after all...

For those interested in calling in, the number is: (718) 508-9410

Don't Hijack My Thread is produced with ePluribus Radio, and the site is http://www.blogtalkradio.com/hostpage.aspx?show_id=40864

You can stream the show live as it airs or download it an hour after air time.

TIPS FOR CALLERS:

• Please turn the radio off in the background when you go on air
• We can't screen callers or talk to you off-air, so be ready to state your name or blogger handle when we suddenly throw you live, on air with clammy c and the gang!
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• Familiarize yourself with our format and foibles by taking a listen to last week's show, linked in a previous Don't Hijack My Thread! post. Just click the media player embedded for your convenience--you don't have to download ANYTHING.

ePluribus Media

More Whackamole and the game is rigged

Here is a preview of what the juice-box politicians will be throwing out as those success stories that mean we have to stay in Iraq for forever and a day:

Intent on demonstrating progress in Iraq, the top U.S. general there is expected by Bush administration officials to recommend removing American troops soon from several areas where commanders believe security has improved, possibly including Al Anbar province.

According to the officials, Gen. David H. Petraeus is expected to propose the partial pullback in his September status report to Congress, when both the war's critics and supporters plan to reassess its course. Administration officials who support the current troop levels hope Petraeus' recommendations will persuade Congress to reject pressure for a major U.S. withdrawal.

snip

But it does not necessarily follow that Petraeus would call for reducing the overall number of troops in the country. Instead, he could move them to another hot spot, or use them to create a reserve force to counter any rise in violence.

More whackamole where the game is rigged against American citizens and, even worse, against the American soldiers forced to endure endless war from the failed bush propaganda administration. And just remember that the January surge ESCALATION is just a rinse and repeat pattern of failure.

From the LAT ...

Despite Bush's repeated statements that the report will reflect evaluations by Petraeus and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, administration officials said it would actually be written by the White House, with inputs from officials throughout the government.

--Josh Marshall

Just another White House snowjob that will barely resemble the facts on the ground. When will those republican children and their inbred neocon kissing cousins ever learn?

The Kiss Float

Joe Lieberman and George Bush about
to do the neocon wild thing...
Kiss and make war.

This is what happens when you marry car magnet faux support for the troops in an endless war they wouldn't let their children fight even if they might have, by some miracle of logic, wanted to because it is beneath their important positions in American society with the endless war, lying and traitorous military profiteers club.

Kucinich getting kicked for what?

We know that Kucinich is popular across the netroots for his his position on Iraq... So? WTF is this crap?

Iraq war veteran and short-time U.S. Senate candidate Paul Hackett tomorrow will announce his support for Rosemary Palmer, who's trying to move Dennis Kucinich out of Congress.

Palmer, running for the 10th Congressional District nomination, has a tough challenge, but if Hackett were to truly get involved, he might draw some attention for Palmer.

Palmer's 23-year-old son, Lance Cpl. Edward "Augie" Schroeder II, was killed in Iraq two years ago. A former teacher, Palmer says that Kucinich seems too preoccupied with his quest to become president to represent the district well.

Kicking Kucinich, one of the few real liberals left in the Democratic party, would be political suicide on the party's part.

I don't live in OH-10, but what the party does across the country reflects on every other candidate. Connecticut Dems and indies didn't work their asses off in an effort to ditch Joe neocon Lieberman in order to drag the Democratic party kicking and screaming that tiny amount to the left for the pleasure of watching the rest of the party in other parts of the country losing their effin' minds on right wing crack.

No offense to Palmer, but the Dems need more Kucinich type candidates. There is nothing controversial about Kucinich's Iraq position. Most Americans agree with it.

If this is the Democratic party's answer to all of the problems in Iraq, then this country is fucked. And so is the Dem party.