Chelsea Manning still hasn’t received promised gender transition treatment

Chelsea Manning, who is currently serving a 35-year sentence for leaking classified national security documents to WikiLeaks, has accused the military of refusing to provide promised hormone treatment and gender transition assistance, despite authorization from Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel. According to Manning, she has received nothing more than lip service from Hagel and the Army as she attempts to move forward with her transition.

In a public statement released via NBC News, the former Army private explained that the militarys failure to provide treatment impinges on her medical needs:

Treatment is, as a matter of law, about medical necessity. Such as treating depression or anxiety. But, receiving treatment is very important to me, as a person. It has a little bit to do with the perception of myself the sense of unending discomfort with the gender that has been imposed on me but not out of vanity.

For example, in my daily life I am reminded of this when I look at the name on my badge, the first initial sewed onto my clothing, the hair and grooming standards that I adhere to, and the titles and courtesies used by the staff. Ultimately, I just want to be able to live my life as the person that I am, and to be able to feel comfortable in my own skin.

Last month, Hagel approved an Army recommendation to allow the early stages of gender transition, including counseling and dress code changes. Manning has already begun what the military is calling real life experience therapy, ostensibly covering the counseling requirement, but her lawyer, David Coombs, says the military has failed to move forward with the rest of the recommendation. On Friday, Coombs also issued a statement asserting that he is prepared to sue if the military does not begin Mannings treatment:

The militarys failure to comply with the treatment recommendations and protocols for Chelseas diagnosed gender dysphoria violates her well-established constitutional rights to be free from cruel and unusual punishment. The Constitution does not authorize prison officials to withhold medically necessary care from a prisoner because of the arbitrary decisions of governmental officials.

The military has yet to announce when Manning will begin hormone treatment.

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Chelsea Manning still hasn’t received promised gender transition treatment

Chelsea Manning ‘Denied Gender Dysphoria Treatment’

The US military has yet to offer Pte First Class Chelsea Manning sex change treatment despite medical recommendations, her lawyer has said.

Defence secretary Chuck Hagel approved treatment for a condition known as gender dysphoria in July.

But lawyer David Coombs says her requests for hormone therapy and other accommodations have been "ignored".

The soldier formerly known as Bradley Manning is serving a 35-year sentence for leaking secret files to Wikileaks.

"This time last year I publicly asked that I be provided with a treatment plan, to bring my body more in line with my gender identity," Pte Manning said in a statement to NBC News.

"Unfortunately, despite silence, and then lip service, the military has not yet provided me with any such treatment."

Hair and grooming

She adds that despite legally changing her name in April, she is not referred to as Chelsea at the military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where she is currently held.

"In my daily life I am reminded of this when I look at the name on my badge, the first initial sewed onto my clothing, the hair and grooming standards that I adhere to and the titles and courtesies used by the staff," Pte Manning said.

The Pentagon has not yet responded to a BBC request for comment.

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Chelsea Manning 'Denied Gender Dysphoria Treatment'

Designing an Efficient Image Encryption-Then-Compression System via Prediction Error Clustering – Video


Designing an Efficient Image Encryption-Then-Compression System via Prediction Error Clustering
To get this project in ONLINE or through TRAINING Sessions, Contact:JP INFOTECH, Old No.31, New No.86, 1st Floor, 1st Avenue, Ashok Pillar, Chennai -83. Landmark: Next to Kotak Mahendra Bank....

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Designing an Efficient Image Encryption-Then-Compression System via Prediction Error Clustering - Video

As governments invade privacy, tools for encryption grow more popular

In the wake of Edward Snowdens revelations about the NSA collecting massive amounts of user meta-data, many people went in search of safer, more secure ways to use the internet anonymously. Once thought to be something only used by the tech-savvy, increased interest in end-to-end e-mail encryption has prompted both Google and Yahoo to develop user-friendly versions of the protocol that would, in theory, make personal messages exceedingly difficult to intercept.

GeeksPhone, a Spanish hardware manufacturer, and Silent Circle, U.S. communication firm, promise to provide the same kind of privacy with Blackphone, the first fully encrypted smartphone meant for the average consumer. While technically an Android device, Blackphone runs a forked version of the operating system called PrivatOS that rids the phone of any and all connections to Googles servers.

Encrypting e-mail is effective, but requires that both the sender and recipient of a message use the same specific encryption protocol to maintain privacy. Blackphone, for all of the protection that it provides, cuts users off from most of the serviceslike games, maps, and other functionsso as to make sure that there are absolutely no gaps through which information might be extracted.

The Onion Router also known as Tor, a browser designed keep users entirely anonymous, is something of a happy medium, and the NSA is actively trying to scare people away from it. Tor guides its internet traffic through complex networks of layered encryption that hide a computers physical location and make it nearly impossible to monitor the IP addresses that it visits.

Post-Snowden, Tor saw a substantial increase in the number of people using its browser and network, undoubtedly in-part due to privacy concerns. Documents published by The Guardian revealed that the NSA were actively engaged with attempting to infiltrate Tors network, and considered the browser to be the king of high-secure, low-latency anonymity. Following widespread, successful-attempts at tracking Tor users activity, the FBI openly admitted to exploiting a loophole in Tors infrastructure as a part of a larger operation in pursuit of a child pornography ring.

Authorities have justified their pushes into the anonymous internet, asserting that by and large, much of Tors traffic is related to illegal activities, but that seems to be changing. Richard David James, better known by his stage name Aphex Twin, is a fixture in the electronic music scene. Earlier this week James announced his latest album using a website that could only be accessed using Tor, drawing in a significant number of pageviews in a single day.

The attention, says Tor executive director Andrew Lewman, is both a blessing and a curse. While Tors network was able to handle the 133,000 visits that Aphex Twin drew, he doubts whether it could withstand the kinds of gargantuan traffic that Facebook sees on a daily basis. Tor users, comparatively speaking, are rarea fact that Lewman asserts is what makes them targets for governmental organizations.

Its been co-opted by GCHQ and the NSA that if youre using Tor, you must be a criminal, Lewman explained to The Guardian. I know the NSA and GCHQ want you to believe that Tor users are already suspect, because, you know, god forbid who would want their privacy online, they must be terrorists.

Proponents of Tor and other forms of ubiquitous encryption have called for the public to adopt the technologies on a larger scale, logic stating that if everyone is using encryption, then no one can be singled out for it. Rather than adopting the small, experimental proofs of concept like Tor, Lewman says, true privacy on the internet will come when internet juggernauts like Facebook, Twitter, and Google incorporate the technology into their platforms, making them the standard rather than the exception.

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As governments invade privacy, tools for encryption grow more popular

Forums: encryption, crashes and hot Macs

This week, MacNN forum-goers discuss a wide range of topics including encryption software, consistent crashes, and how to cool down a hot Mac. One Fresh-Faced Recruit was wondering if there was some kind of one-click encryption solution that could encrypt a file before it is uploaded to cloud storage, and decrypt it when it is needed again. Moderator "Rumor" reported their third crash in one day, and was hoping fellow forum goers could help troubleshoot and get to the root cause of this problem.

Useful tips on how to deal with a problematic MagSafe charger connection can be found in the thread titled "can't get the charge plug to stay connected charge-wise," where one Senior User had their problem resolved. In a post started by "chasg" earlier this month, forum-goers continue to discuss ways to determine what might be making an iMac run hot, and how to fix it. Yesterday, "rotuts" was asking fellow forum-goers if anyone had any opinions on Apple's USB DVD drive, wondering if they should use their $100 Apple credit on something else instead.

by MacNN Staff

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Forums: encryption, crashes and hot Macs

US Military To Launch Open Source Academy

News & Analysis

EVANSTON, ILL. -- Open source software, which has become increasingly common throughout the US military from unmanned drones to desktops, has now been enlisted as a career option for military personnel. In September, Camp Shelby Joint Forces Training Center will open a Linux certification academy, marking the first time such a training program has been hosted on a military base.

The Mississippi installation, which is already a training hub for all branches of the military, hopes to ramp up to four to six classes, processing 50 to 75 military and civilian students per month.

The training academy will fall under the auspices of the Open Technology Center, a joint agency nonprofit research entity whose mission is to support national security objectives by facilitating the development and implementation of open source software technologies for public and private sector entities.

The academy is part of a broader effort to ramp up the IT skills of current military personnel as well as those transitioning out of the services, center director John Weathersby told InformationWeek in a phone call. Weathersby, who lives near Camp Shelby, has been a consultant on a variety of federal, military, and homeland security initiatives for nearly 15 years. "We've got to make sure people are trained, as the military is downsizing," he said, noting that the commercial sector has rapidly embraced open source, such as the Linux operating system.

This story continues on our sister site, InformationWeek

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US Military To Launch Open Source Academy

How to use OpenPGP to encrypt your email messages and files in the cloud

Putting sensitive data in email messages or cloud storage should give you the heebie-jeebies, but a good dose of cryptography can give you peace of mind. Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) or its open-source implementation, OpenPGP, is the gold standard of encryption online, and when used properly, has the potential to thwart even the likes of the NSA.

Encryption solutions like BitLocker and DiskCryptordont secure email messages or files in the cloud. OpenPGP's industrial-strength encryption can ensure secure delivery of files and messages, as well as provide verification of who created or sent the message using a process called digital signing.

Using OpenPGP for communication requires participation by both the sender and recipient. You can also use OpenPGP to secure sensitive files when theyre stored in vulnerable places like mobile devices or in the cloud.

The trade-off for all this protection is that it's a little more complicated to use. Follow these steps to get started.

The OpenPGP-compatible Windows program well use is gpg4win (GNU Privacy Guard for Windows).

First, download and run the setup program. When prompted for which components youd like to install, include the GPA (GNU Privacy Assistant) component in addition to others that are chosen by default. GPA is the program I recommend for managing your encryption keys, which I also cover in this article.

Youll need to install gpg4win on all the computers you think youll have to encrypt or decrypt your files on.

If you plan to use the encryption on your mobile devices, consider downloading the APG app for Android or the oPenGP app for iOS.

To use OpenPGP, you have to generate at least two keys: a public key and a private key. Keys are just very small files containing encrypted text. Your public key can be handed out to anyone to send you an encrypted message or file. Your private key is passphrase-protected, and is required to decrypt the message or file.

The name you choose will be displayed on the certificate key. If you'd like more anonymity, consider creating another key pair with a fake name and email address.

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How to use OpenPGP to encrypt your email messages and files in the cloud

Julian Assange backtracks on plan to leave Ecuadorean …

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange gave mixed signals about his immediate future Monday, first indicating hes about to end his fugitive status, before an aide clarified that such a move is not imminent.

Assange, 43, caused confusion by saying he is planning to soon leave the Ecuadoran Embassy in which hes been holed up in London. He then had his spokesman make clear that hell do that only when the limbo over his extradition is resolved.

Stepping off the embassy grounds would mean near-certain arrest for the eccentric Australian, who is wanted in Sweden in sex crimes allegations.

Assange has been holed up in the diplomatic office for more than two years, but says the fugitive life has been taking a toll.

The embassy has no outside areas, no sunlight, Assange told reporters in the briefing broadcast live on the Internet. Its an environment in which any healthy person would find themselves soon enough with certain difficulties they would have to manage.

Sources told the Mail on Sunday newspaper hes suffering from an irregular heartbeat, a chronic lung condition and high blood pressure, as well as a Vitamin D deficiency from the lack of sunlight.

At his Monday news conference, Assange denied that he was planning on leaving because of his health, but said, I am leaving the embassy soon.

As confused journalists sought clarification after the presser, WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson said his boss merely meant that hes ready to bolt once hes allowed to travel to Ecuador, which has granted him asylum. The plan is to leave as soon as the U.K. government decides to honor its obligations, Hrafnsson said.

That has essentially been the master leakers position all along, and his status appears unchanged with Ecuador Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino, who said Monday negotiations with Britain remain deadlocked.

Assange sought refuge at the South American country in June 2012, after exhausting options in British courts to avoid extradition to face questioning on allegations of rape and molestation during a 2010 visit to Sweden.

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Julian Assange backtracks on plan to leave Ecuadorean ...

What next for WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange?

WikiLeaks' Julian Assange speaking from the window of Ecuador's UK embassy in 2012. Charlie Osborne/CNET

Locked inside a small apartment in central London, Julian Assange has avoided arrest only because his dimly lit ground-floor bedroom also happens to be de facto Ecuadorian soil.

Almost exactly two years after the WikiLeaks founder gave a soundbite-laden speech on the balcony of Ecuador's embassy in Britain's capital, he opted Monday for a more modest affair, only to offer a similar string of pointless remarks, which were all but retracted after the fact.

In case you missed it, Assange said he would leave the embassy "soon," after being holed up in the small embassy since June 2012.

Following the appearance Monday morning, however, his spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson said that although Assange was ready to leave the embassy, it would only be when he is offered passage free from the threat of arrest.

Assange's message was anything but clear -- leaving more questions than answers. One being whether the political and legal situation has shifted since he first entered the embassy.

It hasn't. Very little has changed in the diplomatic standoff between Ecuador and the UK.

Assange, who founded the whistleblowing site WikiLeaks, rose to prominence in 2010 after the leak of classified US military documents on the Afghan and Iraq wars. He remains concerned that should he step outside of the protection of Ecuador's London embassy, he will first be extradited to Sweden -- where he faces accusations of sexual assault dating back to 2010 -- but then will be forced to travel to the US. An onwards extradition, he claims, could see him tried in a US court for espionage crimes for his involvement in the release of the classified cache.

The Australian-born hacker turned media figure and document leaker was arrested in Britain, but received bail as he awaited court decisions in efforts to roll back the extradition process.

Once the Supreme Court, the highest court in the UK, ruled against him, he fled to the Ecuadorian embassy to seek political asylum.

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What next for WikiLeaks' Julian Assange?