Category Archives: NSA

Chinas very aggressive actions against India, including the brutal attack on Indian soldiers in eastern Ladakh, and its moves in the South China Sea and Hong Kong give a good insight into how the ruling Communist Party of China is thinking these days, U.S. National Security Advisor Robert OBrien has said.

The Indian and Chinese armies were locked in a stand-off in multiple locations in eastern Ladakh since May 5. The tension escalated in the Galwan Valley on June 15 in which 20 Indian Army personnel were killed during a violent face-off with Chinese soldiers.

The Chinese have been very aggressive with India, Mr. OBrien said on Tuesday alleging that during the recent clash they beat some of the Indians so badly they were disfigured and could not be identified.

This is a dispute between India and China, but China has shown itself for what it was. Chinese troops ambushed the Indians. They beat 20 Indians to death. They beat them so badly with clubs with nails in them and wrapped with concertina barbed wire, Mr. OBrien told Fox News Radio in an interview.

He was responding to a question on the recent Chinese aggressive behaviour against India in eastern Ladakh.

Responding to a question on U.S.-India bilateral relations, he said, India is a democracy and is a great friend of the United States.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President (Donald) Trump have a super relationship, Mr. OBrien said.

In fact, it was the last foreign trip that I took with the President before the COVID crisis hit, was to India, and we had a great reception of the Indian people there. We have a lot in common with them, we speak English, were democracies. Weve got a growing, very strong relationship with India, Mr. OBrien said.

But Chinas action towards India, just like its actions in the South China Sea, just like what its doing in Hong Kong, just like the bullying intimidation of Taiwan, really gives you a good insight into how the Communist Party of China is thinking these days, he said.

China claims almost all of the 1.3 million square mile South China Sea as its sovereign territory. China has been building military bases on artificial islands in the region also claimed by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.

Its something to be very concerned about, Mr. OBrien said.

On Monday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo rejected most of Chinas maritime claims in the South China Sea, the latest in the escalation between Washington and Beijing.

Last week, the Trump administration took action against Chinese officials for their involvement in human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region, where Uighur Muslims and other minority groups have been detained and tortured.

And two weeks ago, the administration announced visa restrictions on current and former Chinese officials who it says were responsible for eviscerating Hong Kongs freedoms.

The Trump administration has been openly critical of Beijings sweeping national security law aimed at limiting Hong Kongs autonomy and banning literature critical of the Chinese Communist Party.

Earlier in the day, Senator Bob Menendez, a ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, alleged that China is seeking to redraw the map of Asia without regard to its neighbours.

As India and China work to disengage along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), I remain deeply concerned by Chinas aggressive behaviour in territorial disputes, he said.

From the 2017 Doklam stand-off to the recent violence along the borders in Sikkim and Ladakh, to Chinas new claims to Bhutanese territory, Beijing has all too often sought to redraw the map of Asia without regard for its neighbours, he said.

The international community must be clear that such behaviour is unacceptable, he added.

Mr. Menendez, the top Democratic Senator from New Jersey, said that the U.S.-India partnership, based on their shared commitment to democracy, is vital to uphold international law, international norms and the institutions that can peacefully and diplomatically resolve disputes and aggression.

I am committed to working with the Indian government and the Indian-American community in New Jersey and throughout the United States to advance U.S.-India cooperation, Mr. Menendez said.

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Chinas aggressive actions against India give insight into how CPC thinking these days, says U.S. NSA - The Hindu

Editors NoteThe following is the first edition of a newly launched newsletter, The Dissenter, which covers whistleblower stories and the obstacles they face. A subscription is $5/month. To subscribe, visit https://dissenter.substack.com/subscribe

At Federal Medical Center Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas, where NSA whistleblower Reality Winner is incarcerated, the number of COVID-19 infections have tripled in one week.Her sister Brittany Winner said one of her bunkmates had severe symptomatic COVID-19 and was removed. Brittany Winner believes it is a matter of time before Reality Winner falls ill. Reality Winner received one of the 733 tests administered at the facility, but as of July 14, she is still waiting for the results.The rapidly intensifying facility outbreak comes as the 11th United States Court of Appeals deliberates over Winners request to reverse a district court ruling and release her into home confinement.Reality Winner filed an appeal on May 12. Her attorneys warned, The entire basis for Realitys motionand so many like hersis that she cannot afford to wait until she is removed from FMC Carswell in a stretcher, or worse, before she is afforded relief.Two months later, the 11th Circuit still has not ruled on her appeal or scheduled a hearing on the increasingly dire circumstances she faces during the pandemic. Reality Winner pled guilty in 2018 to one count of violating the Espionage Act when she disclosed an NSA report to The Intercept. She believed the report contained evidence that Russian hackers targeted United States voter registration systems during the 2016 election. She has served well over half of her 63-month sentence.According to the Bureau of Prisons (BOP), in the last two weeks, 134 inmates and three staff members have tested positive for COVID-19. Winner submitted a filing on July 13 with additional details on the outbreak that indicates how cases have spiked. On June 29, according to the BOP, there were zero confirmed cases among prisoners. There were 45 confirmed cases on July 6. Three days later, there were 68 confirmed cases. One day later, there were 77 confirmed cases.The BOP reported 113 cases among prisoners on July 11 and 127 cases among prisoners on July 12.Realitys burden in the district court was to demonstrate that her circumstancesincluding, for instance, her underlying health issues coupled with her environment at FMC Carswellmeet the required test of being extraordinary and compelling, justifying her release, declared Winners attorney Joe Whitley. The exponentially growing harm at FMC Carswell is relevant to that inquiry andcombined with the other evidence in this recordjustifies her release.Brittany Winner communicates with her sister regularly and said those in Reality Winners unit are confined to their cells except at specific times to shower once per day or use the restroom.After her bunkmate contracted the virus, Reality Winner suggested it was almost better in the cell with only three people now, as they have more space, but they still cant all stand up at the same time because the space is so tight.In recent days, guards are using the stairs and the hallways for personal exercise while prisoners remain confined. Not only do they feel like they are being taunted, but Reality Winner and other prisoners are concerned their increased breath rate will exacerbate the spread of COVID-19.She hasnt seen the sun in almost three weeks and hasnt been given the time or space to exercise, Brittany Winner shared. Her sciatica is flaring up, and her anxiety is through the roof, as she isnt allowed video chats with her family and some days is not allowed to use the phone or computer. Shes helpless and frustrated and trapped.The July 13 filing mentions it took over a week for Realitys counsel to be able to schedule a phone call with her to obtain more insights into her current circumstances, which her attorney sees as an illustration of BOPs inadequate handling of the COVID-19 pandemic as a whole. It is apparent, in view of the spiking numbers at this facility, that her health is, as argued in the district court and in this Court, in serious jeopardy. Counsel fears what information will be learned that is not reflected in the BOPs numbers alone when he does have the opportunity to speak to Reality, Whitley added.

Local news reporting from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram paints an increasingly bleak picture. One prisoner named Sandra Shoulders suggested she is living in a horror movie. Every day, prison staff at FMC Carswell, a federal medical prison in Fort Worth, take about a dozen people out of [Shoulders] unit to get tested for COVID-19. Some of them come back; others do not.The newspaper added, When a woman tests positive for the virus, her mattress is dragged from the room she shares with three other people and stacked in what used to be the TV room. Every day, the mountain of mattresses grows. Shoulders tries to avoid walking past it.Multiple women in the prison who did not want to be named out of fear of retaliation wrote the Star-Telegram to describe the conditions, according to the newspaper. The women shared the following:

When an inmate tests positive, her belongings are not removed from the shared living space for hours. Inmates are responsible for cleaning the infected rooms but often do not have the proper PPE, two inmates wrote. One inmate who tested positive was allowed to use a shared bathroom, which was not cleaned for hours after she used it.

The inmates are primarily responsible for cleaning the showers, phones and computers the women share, Shoulders said, even though they have not all been tested and do not have the proper cleaning supplies.

One man named Steven, who withheld his last name because he is fearful of retaliation, told the Star-Telegram that his wife believes she will die at Carswell. She thinks nobody in that place cares. And she watches people holding up signs at the mens prison when that (outbreak) happened, and shes saying, Why does no one care about whats happening here?Reality Winner believes she is suffering through this hell in a black hole, where nobody seems to know or care whats happening to them.If a prisoner tests positive at Carswell, they are put in solitary confinement. The use of solitary confinement in U.S. prisons has grown by 500 percent during the pandemic.A recent paper from researchers and physicians at Amend Correctional Culture at the University of California San Francisco highlighted the effect solitary confinement could have.Many advocates fear that use of isolation to curb transmission of COVID-19 in correctional facilities will complicate the emerging crisis, as incarcerated people become reluctant to report symptoms for fear of being moved to solitary confinement, those who do report symptoms will be forced to endure an experience known to cause psychological and physical harm, and system-wide unrest will be triggered in institutions where fears about being placed in medical isolation could run rampant, the paper warned.Given the grave health risks that COVID-19 pose to correctional institutions and their surrounding communities, the group of researchers and physicians recommends corrections officials and advocates for incarcerated people and their families persuade governors, legislators, and the public that rapid decarceration, including of the sentenced population, is necessary and can be done safely.Winners request for compassionate release invokes the First Step Act and argues it allows her to bring a motion before a federal court that shows extraordinary and compelling reasons exist, which require the court to free her. If she is released, her case could be a model for other prisoners who are vulnerable to COVID-19.But the 11th Circuit is notorious when it comes to appeals from prisoners. In June, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor stated, The 11th Circuit is significantly out of step with other courts. The 11th Circuit, as the New York Times noted, requires that prisoners us a form that is so small one is lucky to fit 100 words. That submission can form the basis for rulings on appeals without even an individualized response from the government.

This stands in stark contrast to the practices of the other circuits, which often hear oral argument and read particularized government briefs, and which consider the statutory 30-day time limit to be optional, Judge Charles R. Wilson declared in 2019.

Winner is not appealing her conviction, but there may be little difference. Absent a recognition of the health risks facing prisoners, and how the outbreak may fuel the spread in surrounding communities if decarceration does not happen, the 11th Circuit is likely to reject the notion she should be released. There is a deep prejudice in the Justice Department and the courts against people like Winner who leak classified information. As a result of their hostility, they may transform her already harsh sentence into a death sentence if the press and public do not shame them into showing mercy.

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COVID-19 Cases Triple At Carswell Where Reality Winner Is Imprisoned - Shadowproof

The National Security Agency issued a new cybersecurity advisory on Thursday, warning that virtual private networks, or VPNs, could be vulnerable to attacks if not properly secured. The agency's warning comes amid a surge in telework as organizations adapt to coronavirus-related office closures and other constraints.

A VPN allows users to establish private, encrypted connections to another network over the internet. They are used widely by corporations and other organizations to protect proprietary data from hackers while employees work remotely.

A senior NSA official who briefed reporters Wednesday said the increase in remote work had attracted the attention of potentially malicious cyber actors.

"We certainly see adversaries focused on telework infrastructure," the official said. "We've seen exploitation and as a result, have felt that this was a product that is particularly helpful now."

VPN gateways in particular are "prone to network scanning, brute force attacks, and zero-day vulnerabilities," the NSA's advisory said. "[N]etwork administrators should implement strict traffic filtering rules to limit the ports, protocols, and IP addresses of network traffic to VPN devices."

The senior official said the NSA, whose employees deal daily with highly classified materials and systems, had taken its own steps to adapt to the pandemic, reducing some of its workforce to "mission-essential" for several weeks and introducing social distancing measures within its outposts.

The advisory was issued by the agency's Cybersecurity Directorate, which launched last October. Its mandate involves reinvigorating a set of missions the NSA has long had protecting government and private sector systems by accelerating, broadening and "operationalizing" its dissemination of unclassified threat information, according to officials.

The directorate has now issued over a dozen public advisories since its launch. In October, it warned that nation-state actors were targeting VPN devices. In January, it was behind the disclosure of a "critical vulnerability" in Microsoft's Windows 10 software something the agency might have once exploited, instead, as a hacking tool. And in May, in another rare move, it named a Russian military hacking unit that was secretly accessing commonly used email software.

"Attribution is always interesting," the senior NSA official said Wednesday. "We do it if we believe it creates a sense of urgency to address a vulnerability."

The directorate's emphasis on information-sharing stems from a recognition that nation states are getting more aggressive and more sophisticated in going after government and non-government targets. Its leadership has said it is also a conscious effort to move away from stubborn perceptions that the agency is a secretive black box or "No-Such-Agency," as the NSA has been labeled. (Its foreign intelligence mission which involves intercepting signals and communications overseas is likely to continue avoiding the public eye.)

The agency has also broadened its presence on social media, launching an Instagram account, a dedicated Twitter account for the directorate, and even bringing its notoriously circumspect director to the platform. (Paul Nakasone has tweeted three times in three weeks.)

"General Nakasone has looked at the environment and said, 'We see adversaries increasingly using cyber to achieve national security objectives below the level of armed conflict,'" the senior official said. "'We're seeing rapid technological change, which just brings in a whole new set of vulnerabilities.'"

"It led him to say, 'We really need to up our game.'"

Continued here:
National Security Agency warns that VPNs could be vulnerable to cyberattacks - CBS News

The National Security Agency issued a new cybersecurity advisory on Thursday, warning that virtual private networks, or VPNs, could be vulnerable to attacks if not properly secured.

The National Security Agency issued a new cybersecurity advisory on Thursday, warning that virtual private networks, or VPNs, could be vulnerable to attacks if not properly secured. The agencys warning comes amid a surge in telework as organizations adapt to coronavirus-related office closures and other constraints.

A VPN allows users to establish private, encrypted connections to another network over the internet. They are used widely by corporations and other organizations to protect proprietary data from hackers while employees work remotely.

A senior NSA official who briefed reporters Wednesday said the increase in remote work had attracted the attention of potentially malicious cyber actors.

We certainly see adversaries focused on telework infrastructure, the official said. Weve seen exploitation and as a result, have felt that this was a product that is particularly helpful now.

VPN gateways in particular are prone to network scanning, brute force attacks, and zero-day vulnerabilities, the NSAs advisory said. [N]etwork administrators should implement strict traffic filtering rules to limit the ports, protocols, and IP addresses of network traffic to VPN devices.

The senior official said the NSA, whose employees deal daily with highly classified materials and systems, had taken its own steps to adapt to the pandemic, reducing some of its workforce to mission-essential for several weeks and introducing social distancing measures within its outposts.

The advisory was issued by the agencys Cybersecurity Directorate, which launched last October. Its mandate involves reinvigorating a set of missions the NSA has long had protecting government and private sector systems by accelerating, broadening and operationalizing its dissemination of unclassified threat information, according to officials.

The directorate has now issued over a dozen public advisories since its launch. In October, it warned that nation-state actors were targeting VPN devices. In January, it was behind the disclosure of a critical vulnerability in Microsofts Windows 10 software something the agency might have once exploited, instead, as a hacking tool. And in May, in another rare move, it named a Russian military hacking unit that was secretly accessing commonly used email software.

Attribution is always interesting, the senior NSA official said Wednesday. We do it if we believe it creates a sense of urgency to address a vulnerability.

The directorates emphasis on information-sharing stems from a recognition that nation states are getting more aggressive and more sophisticated in going after government and non-government targets. Its leadership has said it is also a conscious effort to move away from stubborn perceptions that the agency is a secretive black box or No-Such-Agency, as the NSA has been labeled. (Its foreign intelligence mission which involves intercepting signals and communications overseas is likely to continue avoiding the public eye.)

The agency has also broadened its presence on social media, launching an Instagram account, a dedicated Twitter account for the directorate, and even bringing its notoriously circumspect director to the platform. (Paul Nakasone has tweeted three times in three weeks.)

General Nakasone has looked at the environment and said, We see adversaries increasingly using cyber to achieve national security objectives below the level of armed conflict,' the senior official said. Were seeing rapid technological change, which just brings in a whole new set of vulnerabilities.'

It led him to say, We really need to up our game.'

2020 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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NSA warns that VPNs could be vulnerable to cyberattacks - WTOP

Bengaluru: Lauding Indian government for the way it handled the Balakot airstrike, former US National Security Advisor (NSA) John Bolton has added it was a crisis well handled by the Indian side, reports India Today, in its exclusive.

Also Read:All about Balakot airstrike you need to know

John Bolton, who has recently released his book 'The Room Where it Happened', said that during the India-Pakistan crisis in 2019, India showed restraint and acted in a balanced way.

The website adds that among a host of other things, John Bolton's book mentions the Balakot airstrikes conducted by the Indian Air Force in February last year. When asked why he did not write about it in detail, Bolton said Donald Trump, him and other officials of the US government were caught up with the meeting with North Korea.

In this regard, he said, "This was potentially a very significant military confrontation, very risky behaviour on the Pakistani side. The US spoke to India as it is a part of expanding and deepening bilateral US-India relationship. We have many common threads. We have some issues which need to be resolved between the US and India, but there's no underestimating the stronger India-US connection.

Also Read:How Balakot was planned

About Americas intelligence on the issue, he said, I won't get into what the US intelligence revealed to us of course, but the US authority had a very good conversation with his counterpart. We came away from the crisis feeling that the Indian side had exercised appropriate kind of restraint and it was a real incentive for deepening communication in the future crisis. If we are prepared for it, there are chances that it can be resolved more easily.

He also gave this reaction on what US felt about it. He said, We were pleased by the way the crisis played up and the restraint showed by the Indian side and that it was resolved peacefully. We had a similar conversation with the Pakistani side. These things have different versions depending on what capital city you are sitting in. But it showed something of the enhanced communication with New Delhi in particular.

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Former American NSA John Bolton says Indias reaction on Balakot airstrike was appropriate - MyNation

AS THE UK begins trade talks with New Zealand and Australia, the National Sheep Association has urged the government to consider the 'potential ramifications' of what will be agreed.

NSA chief executive Phil Stocker said: Trade deals are always going to be complex by nature, with each presenting different challenges and opportunities. With the addition of Australia, New Zealand and the CPTPP, the UK is now undertaking six major new trade deals running alongside each other. Having come from a position of not negotiating our own deals for many years, the UK is undertaking a big challenge, particularly when our future trading relationship with the EU is so uncertain.

NSA is concerned about several factors with the new trade deals that are underway: Every country that we negotiate with is unique, and for the farming industry, sheep farming in particular, deals with New Zealand and Australia create unique challenges," said Mr Stocker. "This is due to sheep farming, and the export of sheepmeat, being such large parts of their industry. We are talking here about the three largest sheepmeat exporting nations in the world, with the UK being additionally unique by having such a large population and consumer market.

You can be sure that sheepmeat would only travel in one direction, in part because of population numbers, but also because our high production standards mean we can be undercut even though the product is travelling across the globe. It is not uncommon for nations to protect their agriculture industries for sound strategic reasons and this is exactly what we will expect from the UK Government," he said.

NSA been clear with our Government from day one, when seeking free trade agreements, the UK must not be willing to sacrifice our farming industry or undermine our values and standards for the sake of a deal that might benefit other British industries.

The UK currently has a fine balance with lamb and mutton exports, imports, and domestic consumption," added Mr Stocker. "There is very real concern that increasing Tariff rate quotas (TRQs) for either New Zealand or Australia will damage this balance and make no common sense at all. We would have that concern in normal times but now, with future trade with the EU being uncertain, getting these deals wrong would have catastrophic effects for our industry and for the environments and communities that benefit from it.

We have heard Government commit to not compromising the UK market and our production standards time and time again, yet they wont commit to it in legislation and as such it just leaves you feeling very nervous.

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NSA urges Government to stand by UK farmers during trade talks - The Scottish Farmer

By Fakir Hassen

Johannesburg, Jun 20 (PTI) South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has congratulated India, Kenya Ireland, Mexico and Norway on their election as non-permanent members of the UN Security Council and pledged to work with them in ensuring collective multilateral action to maintain international peace and security.

India on Wednesday overwhelmingly won the election to the Security Council for a non-permanent seat. Along with India, Norway, Ireland and Mexico will join the Security Council as the non-permanent members for a two-year term beginning January 1, 2021.

As South Africas two-year term will come to an end on 31 December 2020, we will continue to work closely with the existing and newly elected members of the Security Council, in ensuring collective multilateral action to maintain international peace and security, President Ramaphosa said on Friday.

South Africa wishes the elected members a successful tenure on the Security Council and assures them of its support in resolving regional and global conflicts, addressing the root causes of conflict and promoting inclusive political dialogue and peaceful settlement of disputes in accordance with the United Nations Charter and International Law.

Ramaphosa said South Africa remains deeply concerned about the emergence of unilateralism and its attendant threat to the International rules-based system.

South Africa, therefore, reaffirms the centrality of the United Nations Charter and the primacy of the UNSC on issues of international peace and security, Ramaphosa said. PTI FH NSA AKJ NSA

Disclaimer :- This story has not been edited by Outlook staff and is auto-generated from news agency feeds. Source: PTI

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S Africa reaffirms support for India and other members elected to UN Security Council - Outlook India

Rome, Jun 20 (AP) Pope Francis has welcomed doctors and nurses from Italy''s coronavirus-ravaged Lombardy region to the Vatican to thank them for their selfless work and sacrifice.

Francis told the delegation on Saturday that their example of professional competence and compassion would help Italy forge a new future of solidarity.

Francis said Lombardy''s medical personnel became angels helping the sick recover or accompanying them to their death, given their family members were prevented from visiting them in the hospital.

He said they gave witness to God''s proximity to those who suffer; they were silent artisans of the culture of proximity and tenderness. The northern region of Lombardy, Italy''s financial and industrial capital, was the hardest-hit region in the onetime European epicenter of the pandemic. It has counted more than 92,000 of Italy''s 232,000 infections and half of its 34,500 dead. (AP) NSA

Disclaimer :- This story has not been edited by Outlook staff and is auto-generated from news agency feeds. Source: PTI

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Pope welcomes medics from hard-hit Italy region - Outlook India

Attorney General William Barr at a White House press briefing. (Win McNamee / Getty Images)

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On the afternoon of June 1, as President Donald Trump raged about the Black Lives Matter protests outside his gates, reporters noticed a familiar figure in Lafayette Park across from the White House. William Barr, Trumps attorney general, was scoping out the scene with top military and law enforcement officers. It was an ominous sight, coming just hours after the president promised the nations governors that we will activate Bill Barr and activate him strongly.1Ad Policy

What happened next would transform the outcry and anger about racial injustice into a national uprising against Trump and his white nationalist agenda. Over the next few days, starting with Barrs brazen order to clear the park, Washington experienced an unprecedented military operation and occupation. Nearly 8,000 troops from the Armys National Guard and an astounding array of federal security forces and intelligence assets were assembled to confront the protesters.2

With US military leaders hesitant to use their troops against Americans, Barr has emerged as Trumps wartime consiglierean attorney generalissimo for the times. There are few people in Washington more suited for this task: Servility to presidential power, mixed with fealty to the institutions of government control, have long been hallmarks of Barrs career.3

You can rise fast when youre willing to tell your boss whatever he wants to know, says Michael German, a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice who spent 16 years in the FBI before leaving in 2004. Barr spent a lot of time working in these agencies, so his knowledge of how they operate is helpful to using them in an aggressive manner.4

In fact, a deep look into Barrs career exposes a deep commitment to what Dick Cheney called the dark sidethe insidious world of covert operations, executive action, and mass surveillance. Moreover, his experiences in the national security state and the private telecommunications industry reveal a man who has operated at the pinnacle of Americas privatized intelligence system since the dawn of the digital age.5No Intel

As attorney general for President George H.W. Bush in 1992, Barr authorized one of the nations first domestic spying operations. The Department of Justice (DOJ) program, first disclosed by USA Today in 2015, was a giant database that amassed logs of virtually all telephone calls from the USA to as many as 116 countries linked to drug trafficking. The bulk collection system was operated secretly by the DOJs Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) until it was suspended in 2013.6

The DEA program ultimately became a model for the NSAs phone records collection program, which the agency used to collect the domestic calls and e-mails of millions of American citizens after 9/11, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) wrote last year in a critical analysis of Barrs career.7Current Issue

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Barr was part of the NSA spying program, too, not as a government official but as a top executive with Verizon, the company formed from a merger with NSA contractor GTE, where Barr worked for many years. Like Cheney, who was instrumental to the NSAs secret operation, Barr seems to know every lever of power available to a president willing to use them. (The DOJ did not respond to questions about Barrs career.)8

William Barr is one of four sons of Donald Barr, a former member of the Office of Strategic Services, the precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency. In 1968, he enrolled at Columbia University, where his father taught for many years. There, he had his first experience in confronting the American left when a group of radicals seized campus buildings to protest Columbias role in gentrifying black neighborhoods and the universitys close ties to the Institute for Defense Analysis.9

The Institute is a military think tank that, according to an insiders account of the Columbia struggle, developed weapons for the counterinsurgency wars the United States was fighting in Vietnam and across the world. Barr hated the protests. In a recent profile, the historian Paul Cronin remembered Barr as part of a gang of upper-class thugs called the Majority Coalition that physically fought and threatened anti-war demonstrators.10

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From Columbia, Barr went straight into the CIA, where he worked from 1973 to 1977 as an analyst and assistant legislative counsel. After a stint working on domestic policy for President Reagan, he joined the first Bush administration, where he rose from deputy AG to attorney general. He quickly became known as a determined advocate for the expansive use of presidential and military power. This was also his entre into the early surveillance state, which began with the domestic spying program he ordered at the DEA.11

In 1993, Barr was hired as general counsel and executive vice president of GTE, the worlds third-largest telecommunications network. After GTE merged in 1999 with Bell Atlantic, it was renamed Verizon, and Barr stayed on as general counsel, where he remained until 2008. This period of his careerwhere he made the bulk of his $40 million fortuneis typically described as a shift toward antitrust and industry regulation issues.12(Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty Images)'>

President Donald Trump walks with US Attorney General William Barr (L), US Secretary of Defense Mark T. Esper (C), Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark A. Milley (R), and others from the White House to visit St. John's Church on June 1, 2020, after the area was cleared of people protesting the murder of George Floyd. (Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty Images)

But thats only part of the story. When Barr joined GTE, he also became counsel for GTEs government services division. Created in 1984, it had become, through a series of acquisitions, one of the Pentagons largest contractors, providing secure communications systems to the Army, Navy, and Air Force as well as the NSA. Barr hinted at GTEs classified work in 1996, when he testified before a hearing of a commission on the roles and capabilities of US intelligence after the Cold War.13

Theres never been a greater need for a robust intelligence capability in this country than now, he said. I would include not only the function of collection of intelligence, but also my view that we need a very strong covert action capability. It was an illuminating choice of words, because both collection and covert were key to one of the programs that Barr inherited when he took over in 1993.14

In the mid-1980s, GTEs government unit was tapped by NSAs Operations Directorate to develop a digital storage system for voice communications collected by NSA listening posts. At the time, of course, the NSAs secret work and its system of global surveillance were little known to Americans.15Outside Agitators

MINSTREL, its code name, was the largest Automated Data Processing contract to date for NSA at that time, says Tom Drake, the prominent whistle-blower, who worked on the project as a contractor and later exposed corruption at an NSA program run by military giant Science Applications International Corporation. (See Obamas Crackdown on Whistleblowers, The Nation, March 2013.)16

Drake was hired by GTE in 1989 and soon discovered that MINSTRELs costs were out of control. The award was for $144 million, but with lots of cost overruns, NSA ended up spending closer to $250 million.17

Much of that, he believed, was due to outright fraud. Moreover, the program didnt work, forcing the NSA to keep extending the contract. When Drake asked a top GTE executive about its failure to deliver MINSTREL on time, he said he was told that were under no obligation to show anythingall we need to show is best effort.18

In 1991, disgusted at what hed seen, Drake took his complaints to the Pentagons Office of Inspector General as well as GTEs general counselBarrs immediate predecessor. Thats how I became a whistle-blower, Drake told me. This is where, to my horror, I really began to appreciate how run amuck the military-industrial complex had become.19

MINSTREL, which was just one of the contracts GTE held with the NSA, was eventually canceled, partly because of Drakes IG complaint. In 1996, Barr helped orchestrate the government units merger with General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT). Following its recent acquisition of CSRA Inc., GDIT is now one of the nations five largest intelligence contractors, with a strong presence at the NSA.20

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After he moved from GTE to Verizon, Barr turned his knowledge of the mechanics of intelligence collection to domestic surveillance. In 2001, the phone giant was one of a handful of companies that participated in Stellar Wind, the massive warrantless-surveillance program launched by the George W. Bush administration.21

Under Barrs watch, Verizon allowed the NSA without any court approval to intercept the contents of Americans phone calls and emails and to vacuum up in bulk the metadata associated with Americans phone calls and internet activities, the ACLU wrote in 2019.22Related Article

Some of Barrs hard-line policies on dissent may have come into play in recent weeks. On May 31, he activated a network of 56 FBI Joint Terrorism Task Forces to confront what he called the violent agenda pursued by anarchistic and far left extremists using Antifa-like tactics. Basically, this was Barrs attempt to mollify Trump, said German, the former FBI agent.23

Meanwhile, reports that surveillance drones and airplanes were observed over both Minneapolis and Washington have sparked concerns in Congress that federal agencies might be conducting illegal surveillance. In response, on June 11, a top Pentagon official informed the House that none of the collection agencies, including the NSA, had been asked by the White House to undertake any unlawful or inappropriate intelligence activities.24

With Barr in charge, theres a good possibility that the DEA might be up to its old tricks again. On June 2, Buzzfeed News obtained a memorandum from the agencys acting administrator, Timothy J. Shea, stating that the DEA had been granted sweeping new authority to conduct covert surveillance of the protests. That prompted Representative Jerrold Nadler, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, to ask Barr to immediately rescind the authorities, which he called unwarranted and antithetical to civil rights.25

Meanwhile, the protests in Washington continue day after day, and the crossroads near the White House where Barrs security forces attacked demonstrators and reporters has been named Black Lives Matter Place. Chances are good that the new title will last much longer than Barrs ugly legacy of providing legal cover for Trump, arguably the most hated president in the citys history.26

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How Bill Barr Became Trumps Generalissimo - The Nation

Katsina state Governor, Aminu Masari has met with the Inspector General of Police, Muhammed Adamu and the National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno, to find a lasting solution to recent attacks by bandits and other criminal elements across communities in the state.

Also present at the meeting was the Director-General of the Department of State Services, Yusuf Magaji as well asother security stakeholders led by the Commissioner of Police in the state, Sanusi Buba.

The closed door meeting which lasted for about two hours was held at the state Government House, Katsina.

According to the NSA, the purpose of the meeting was to identify the underlining causes of the recent attacks from a collective point of view.

Addressing journalists, Monguno expressed optimism that security agencies can effectively deal with the criminal elements behind the attacks.

He said, We need to build and restore the confidence of the local community and we had necessary reassurance from the state governor.

In the past weeks dozens of people have been killed with property worth millions of naira destroyed in bandit and criminal attacks in several parts of Katsina state

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Police IG, NSA, others, visit Katsina over growing attacks - TV360