Month: August 2014

Tonight’s episode of The
Independents (Fox Business Network, 9 p.m. ET, 6 p.m. PT,
with re-airs three hours later), will continue our familiar-sounding
countdown of the show’s 25 Enemies of Freedom. Speaking of which,
here’s numbers 20-22, from last night:

The program will kick off with a discussion about a new poll
showing
Americans hate all their politicians, and their future, and
maybe their country. Newsday columnist Ellis Henican and comedian
Vinnie Nardiello
will Party Panelize about this and other topics, including the

alleged new Edward Snowden, the NBA’s
first female assistant coach, and Pima County, Arizona’s
proposal to have the county
refuse to hire smokers.

Glenn “Instapundit” Reynolds joins to talk about
his great USA Today
column about CIA liar John Brennan and the ruling-class values
he represents. The co-hosts will discuss the
epic election-night rant from libertarian fave Rep. Justin
Amash (R-Michigan), and a band called
Bear Hands will come testify about their unpleasant experience
with picture-stealing Chicago cops at Lollapalooza last week.

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follow on Twitter @ independentsFBN, and
click on this page
for more video of past segments.

The
latest police brutality reporting from the New York Daily
News is about an incident that happened July 20, three days
after
Eric Garner died after being placed in a chokehold by cops from
the New York Police Department (NYPD), and comes not via video but
because of a complaint filed by emergency medical technicians from
the Fire Department of New York (FDNY), who say they had to
intervene when cops got too violent. The Daily News

reports:

The emotionally disturbed patient was punched multiple times in
the face by the cops on July 20, according to FDNY documents
obtained by The News. The cops only stopped when the EMTs bodily
intervened, the report said.

The violence broke out when the patient spit at the Emergency
Service Unit officers and swore at them. The officers responded by
hitting him in the face, hauling him off the stretcher to the
ground and then tossing him back on the stretcher, the EMTs said in
written statements submitted to the FDNY.

Bill De Blasio insists that “the
law’s the law,” although that seemingly strict worldview
doesn’t apply to immigration laws—New York remains a sanctuary city
under De Blasio. The police commissioner, Bill Bratton, suggests
people “correct their behavior” when approached by police but the
flurry of news about
police brutality by the NYPD in the wake of Garner’s death suggests
the department, and the city government, ought to think about how
to correct their behavior. 

“You just cannot unify standards and run roughshod over
what has always been considered a local obligation–which is
schooling,” declares Andrew Ferguson, senior editor
at The
Weekly Standard. 

Ferguson sat down with Reason TV’s Nick Gillespie to
discuss Common Core, why teachers and parents are beginning to sour
on the new rules, and the perpetual nature of education reform.

View this article.

Just when you thought it was safe to surf the Silk
Road-replacement sites… Wired’s Kevin Poulsen
reported
this week on the FBI using hacker-like techniques to track
Tor users, in an effort the agency calls “Operation Torpedo.” So
far the agency says it has only tracked computers accessing
underground child pornography sites. But some privacy advocates
worry that the FBI’s antics could easily be expanded—or already
have. 

Tor is the
software and open network that allows for anonymous web browsing
and accessing the so-called
“dark net” or “deep web”. It works by bouncing your
communications around a distributed network to effectively keep
your IP address from being linked to your web activity.

In 2012, the FBI busted a Nebraska man, Aaron McGrath, who was
hosting three dark-net child porn sites via three separate servers.
A federal magistrate
gave the FBI permission to modify the code on these servers to
deliver a malware program to any computers accessing those sites.
The “network investigative technique” (NIT), as the FBI calls it,
allowed the agency to identify IP addresses for these computers and
eventually led to 14 arrests.

While it’s hard to disagree with busting kiddie-porn proponents,
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) technologist Chris Soghoian
said there needs to be “a public debate about the use of this
technology … and whether the criminal statutes that the
government relies on” even permits it.

It’s one thing to say we’re going to search a particular
computer. It’s another thing to say we’re going to search every
computer that visits this website.

Soghoian noted that “the mere act of looking at
child pornography is a crime,” but “you could easily imagine (the
FBI) using this same technology on everyone who visits a jihadi
forum, for example. And there are lots of legitimate reasons for
someone to visit a jihadi forum: research, journalism, lawyers
defending a case.”

Let’s note that these “legitimate reasons” could all apply to
child porn sites, too, even if it may be less likely. In terms of
Jihadi sites: why should anyone need a ‘legitimate reason’ to
visit? Maybe you’re just curious. Maybe you’re thinking of joining
al Qaeda. Until you start engaging in criminal activity or the
planning of it, then the FBI has no right to just up and install
secret spyware on your computer.

Soghoian’s worries over the FBI spying on non-criminal Tor users
may have sounded paranoid until not too long ago. Post Edward
Snowden, they seem not just plausible but likely. 

The National Security Agency (NSA) is admittedly monitoring
servers running TOR—though this week a Department of Defense (DOD)
spokeswoman
said neither the NSA or the DOD had received personal data on
Tor users during this monitoring. “This particular project was
focused on identifying vulnerabilities in Tor, not to collect data
that would reveal personal identities of users,” she told
Reuters. This particular project…

Reuters also notes that “she did not rule out the FBI or other
agencies obtaining the data.” The FBI declined to comment to the
news agency. The U.S. State
Department, meanwhile, has been funding Tor, while the
Russian govenrment
is offering a prize for cracking the Tor code. 

Just when you thought it was safe to surf the Silk
Road-replacement sites… Wired’s Kevin Poulsen
reported
this week on the FBI using hacker-like techniques to track
Tor users, in an effort the agency calls “Operation Torpedo.” So
far the agency says it has only tracked computers accessing
underground child pornography sites. But some privacy advocates
worry that the FBI’s antics could easily be expanded—or already
have. 

Tor is the
software and open network that allows for anonymous web browsing
and accessing the so-called
“dark net” or “deep web”. It works by bouncing your
communications around a distributed network to effectively keep
your IP address from being linked to your web activity.

In 2012, the FBI busted a Nebraska man, Aaron McGrath, who was
hosting three dark-net child porn sites via three separate servers.
A federal magistrate
gave the FBI permission to modify the code on these servers to
deliver a malware program to any computers accessing those sites.
The “network investigative technique” (NIT), as the FBI calls it,
allowed the agency to identify IP addresses for these computers and
eventually led to 14 arrests.

While it’s hard to disagree with busting kiddie-porn proponents,
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) technologist Chris Soghoian
said there needs to be “a public debate about the use of this
technology … and whether the criminal statutes that the
government relies on” even permits it.

It’s one thing to say we’re going to search a particular
computer. It’s another thing to say we’re going to search every
computer that visits this website.

Soghoian noted that “the mere act of looking at
child pornography is a crime,” but “you could easily imagine (the
FBI) using this same technology on everyone who visits a jihadi
forum, for example. And there are lots of legitimate reasons for
someone to visit a jihadi forum: research, journalism, lawyers
defending a case.”

Let’s note that these “legitimate reasons” could all apply to
child porn sites, too, even if it may be less likely. In terms of
Jihadi sites: why should anyone need a ‘legitimate reason’ to
visit? Maybe you’re just curious. Maybe you’re thinking of joining
al Qaeda. Until you start engaging in criminal activity or the
planning of it, then the FBI has no right to just up and install
secret spyware on your computer.

Soghoian’s worries over the FBI spying on non-criminal Tor users
may have sounded paranoid until not too long ago. Post Edward
Snowden, they seem not just plausible but likely. 

The National Security Agency (NSA) is admittedly monitoring
servers running TOR—though this week a Department of Defense (DOD)
spokeswoman
said neither the NSA or the DOD had received personal data on
Tor users during this monitoring. “This particular project was
focused on identifying vulnerabilities in Tor, not to collect data
that would reveal personal identities of users,” she told
Reuters. This particular project…

Reuters also notes that “she did not rule out the FBI or other
agencies obtaining the data.” The FBI declined to comment to the
news agency. The U.S. State
Department, meanwhile, has been funding Tor, while the
Russian govenrment
is offering a prize for cracking the Tor code. 

Looks like Arkansas
politicians don’t like admitting they were wrong, let alone making
up for past mistakes. The Arkansas Project‘s Nic Horton
reports on the story of Gyronne Buckley, who was wrongfully
imprisoned for more than a decade and is now seeking compensation
after the state’s Supreme Court ordered him released. Buckley’s
compensation has been denied so far, and one member of the
legislature even told reporters that the man should consider
himself “blessed” that he was released at all.

The facts of the case,
according to Horton:

In 1999, Buckley was convicted of two counts of “delivery of a
controlled substance” and sentenced to two consecutive
life sentences. The Arkansas Supreme Court vacated Buckley’s
sentencing in 2000 and ordered the lower court to resentence him:
the Clark County Circuit Court responded by resentencing him to two
consecutive terms of 28 years.

Buckley was originally convicted based on audio tapes that
allegedly captured conversations of two drug deals between Buckley
and an undercover agent. But — after Buckley had already served
more than a decade in prison — it was discovered that evidence had
been withheld from Buckley’s attorneys by the state during his
initial trial. 

The withheld evidence included significant proof that an
informant’s testimony was unreliable: The informant misremembered
key detail of his accusations against Buckley and was coached by
the police to give the desired answers. One of the undercover
narcotics agents involved in Buckley’s conviction was also found to
have falsified evidence and lied on the stand in another case.

Buckley is now a free man. He should also be compensated for his
time behind bars, which was the result of gross misbehavior on the
part of law enforcement. The claim he put forth was $400,000, which
is about what the average resident of Arkansas would have made over
the course of Buckley’s 11 years behind bars.

The Arkansas Claims Commission approved the amount, but a state
senate committee rejected it. State Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson, who
sits on the committee, said Buckley should feel “blessed that [he]
got acquitted on a technicality,” according to the
Democrat-Gazette.

Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel played a role in
encouraging the legislature to reject the compensation claim—an
unjust outcome, according to Horton.

Buckley will file a lawsuit against the state seeking fair
compensation.