Spam Trap headline roundup, April 7, 2010
WikiLeaks to release more murder footage
http://spot.us/pitches/396
There is more. Concerned individuals have also given us an encrypted military video from a May 2009 attack in western Afghanistan which killed over 100 civilians, including many women and children, through bombing. The U.S. Military has said it would release the video, but it has not.
But you can help release that video to the public. We have successfully decrypted the footage and now are currently devoting intensive resources to provide context to the footage, including tracking down witnesses and military experts. But this is expensive. [Also see WikiLeaks ‘Collateral Murder’ update]
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Senior Australians learn to circumvent filter-Reseller throws filter hacking masterclass
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/171366,reseller-throws-filter-hacking-masterclass.aspx
A Newcastle-based computer help desk business has become one of the first organisations in Australia to host a masterclass on how to “hack” the Federal Government’s planned internet filter.
The class was held last Thursday by David Campbell of Newcastle-based service provider Clear Computers on behalf of euthanasia advocacy group Exit International. Campbell told around 70 senior citizens about the filter and how to get around it.
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North Korean Red Star operating system details emerge
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8604912.stm
Details of a home-grown computer operating system developed by North Korea have emerged.
Further analysis by a government institute in neighbouring South Korea said the operating system is aimed at monitoring user activity.
However, very few North Koreans own a computer or have internet access.
Web content is also heavily censored.
It is designed “to control [North Korea's] own information security”, a report by South Korea’s Science and Technology Policy Institute (STPI) said.
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Airline passenger conversations to be monitored under EU project
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/7553214/Airline-passenger-conversations-to-be-monitored-under-EU-project.html
Currently security on airplanes is mainly limited to a CCTV camera located by the cockpit.
But under the new system microphones would be installed and passenger conversations listened to for the first time. Suspect words and phrases would alert a monitoring system.
Simon Davies, director of Privacy International, said: “Audio airline surveillance is the line that must never be crossed in a high security environment. Passengers must already face intolerable intrusions and restrictions on their movements. The day the airlines install hidden microphones on planes is the day that all trust in the airlines is destroyed.”
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Vietnam dismisses Google hacking claims
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8604698.stm
Vietnam has rejected accusations made by Google and McAfee that malicious software had been used to spy on tens of thousands of Vietnamese web users.
The companies said the software had been used to target anti-government blogs and websites.
McAfee said the perpetrators of the attacks “may have some allegiance” to the country’s government.
But Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Nguyen Phuong Nga said the accusations were “groundless”.
aaah McAfee. The Same McAfee that actually blocks p2pnet.net when using its software.
I’m sorry, who is blocking who here? Pot calling the kettle black?
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Rupert Murdoch defiant: ‘I’ll stop Google taking our news for nothing’
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/apr/07/rupert-murdoch-google-paywalls-ipad
News Corp boss hails iPad as potential saviour of newspapers, but says industry must stand up for itself and charge for content
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Wikileaks in the news
The Focus Falls on WikiLeaks
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/opinions/view/opinion/The-Focus-Falls-on-WikiLeaks-3130/
How did they get this video, what did they hope to accomplish, and what role are they playing in the global conversation into which they’ve just injected themselves?
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Wikileaks Better at Finding Classified Pentagon Videos Than Pentagon
http://gawker.com/5511200/wikileaks-better-at-finding-classified-pentagon-videos-than-pentagon
According to an AP report (http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_US_IRAQ_VIDEO?SITE=INLAF&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT):
Capt. Jack Hanzlik, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said that the military has not been able to locate the video within its files after being asked to authenticate the version available online.
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Calls for inquiry into Apache attack on Iraqi civilians
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/7560561/Calls-for-inquiry-into-Apache-attack-on-Iraqi-civilians.html
The Iraqi Journalists’ Union yesterday called for an investigation into the shooting claiming the footage was evidence of a crime and should be investigated.
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Iraq outrage over US killing video – through the eyes of the 2 children
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2010/04/20104782857326667.html
Two young children whose father was killed in the attack could not understand why they were targeted.
“We were coming back and we saw an injured man. My father said, let’s take him to hospital. Then I heard only the bullets … Why did they shoots us? Didn’t they see we were children?” said Sajad Mutashar, who was injured along with his sister.
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Al Jazeera releases interview with children wounded in Iraq massacre
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/04/20104705310123161.html
The footage from a helicopter cockpit also shows a man stopping to help the injured, but he too is shot dead.
In an Al Jazeera exclusive, Omar al-Saleh speaks to the man’s children, who were injured but survived the attack.
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Iraq Video Brings Notice to a Web Site
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/world/07wikileaks.html
By releasing such a graphic video, which a media organization had tried in vain to get through traditional channels, WikiLeaks has inserted itself in the national discussion about the role of journalism in the digital age. Where judges and plaintiffs could once stop or delay publication with a court order, WikiLeaks exists in a digital sphere in which information becomes instantly available.
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But How Could Wikileaks Break A Story Without Traditional Newspaper Backing?
http://techdirt.com/articles/20100405/1857418890.shtml
While there’s a lot of ongoing back-and-forth over what the video really shows, there’s no doubt that the release of the video is a journalistic scoop.
And yet, we keep being told that if newspapers fail, no one will be left to do investigative journalism?
… There’s nothing inherent in newspapers that says that only they can do investigative reporting. As we’ve seen over and over and over and over again, investigative reporting comes in many forms, and it need not come directly from newspapers.
Perhaps the real question is why the traditional press never set up anything like Wikileaks itself.
..… and identi.ca
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
April, 2010
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