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Ms. Smith (not her real name) is a freelance writer and programmer with a special and somewhat personal interest in IT privacy and security issues.

At the outdoor hacker camp and conference SHA2017, which is taking place in the Netherlands, NSA whistleblower William Binney gave the talk, How the NSA tracks you.

As a former insider, Binney knew about this long before Snowden dropped the documents to prove it is happening. Although he didnt say anything new, Binney is certainly no fan of the NSAs spying he calls the NSA the New Stasi Agency. If you are no fan of surveillance, then his perspective from the inside about the total invasion of the privacy rights of everybody on the planet will fuel your fury at the NSA all over again.

In todays cable program, according to Binney, the NSA uses corporations that run fiber lines to get taps on the lines. If that fails, they use foreign governments to get taps on the lines. And if that doesnt work, theyll tap the line anywhere that they can get to it meaning corporations or governments wont even know about the taps.

The companies are involved at the next step the PRISM program, which includes collection directly from the servers of U.S. service providers. However, Binney said PRISM is the minor program when compared to Upstream, which includes collecting data from the taps on fiber-optic cables in hundreds of places around the world. Thats where they are collecting off the fiber lines all the data and storing it.

PRISM was for show-and-tell purposes, to show Congress and courts what the NSA was doing and to say we have warrants and are abiding by the laws. Upstream was the one that allowed the NSA to take everything off the line.

Regarding worldwide SIGINT, CNE (computer network exploitation) was the big one. Implants in hardware or software, lets say switches or servers, make them do anything they want because the NSA pwned them.

That feeds the NSAs Treasure Map, which provides a map of the entire internet in near real-time; any device, anywhere, all the time every minute of every day. As Binney put it, So its not just collecting what youre saying encrypted or not but its also monitoring where you are when you do it.

Treasure Map is also how intelligence agencies use GPS from cell phones to target drone attack victims. Binney noted there are at least 1.2 million people on the drone hit list.

He also mentioned the programs that include the input of all phone data, fixed, mobile, satellite any kind of phone which both the FBI and CIA can directly access so that when they want to see who did what, they have an index, all, to everything they ever said in their database.

All the data is collected without warrants so its a basic violation of the rights of every human, Binney said.

He also covered how other agencies can directly access the NSAs data, Five Eyes, CIA, FBI, DEA and DIA. The police can access it via the FBIs system.

The NSA could choose to look at the right targets, but doesnt. The NSA may collect it all, but thats not the same as intelligence, as understanding all of what was collected. If you use one of the hot keywords in an email, for example, it will get flagged for review. But planned attacks happen because analysts are so buried beneath the data they cant see the attacks coming. Binney previously tried to convince the U.K. that bulk data kills people.

While all this data isnt helping to stop attacks, having all the data gives the intelligence community the power to manipulate anyone they want. Its like J. Edgar Hoover on super steroids all the collected data gives intelligence agencies the means to target anyone. Then parallel construction is used after the fact to go back and build a separate basis for an investigation to cover up the fact that the data was obtained unconstitutionally.

Before taking questions from conference attendees, Binney pointed out an icon on a slide as a teaser to his startup, which will advise on ways you can do privacy and security by design. He came to Europe, since they cant get anything done in the U.S. The U.S. and U.K. are too dense to realize it can be done it also goes against their agenda for more money, power and control.

Can we expect more NSA employees to blow the whistle? Perhaps, but the people in power there are corrupt, Binney said. During the portion of the talk when attendees could ask questions, he talked about how the NSA has employed a lot of introverts, people with ISTJ personalities, making them easy to threaten. Binney added that the See Something, Say Something (about your fellow workers) program inside the NSA is what the Stasi did. Theyre picking up all the techniques from the Stasi and the KGB and the Gestapo and the SS; they just arent getting violent yet that we know of internally in the U.S.; outside is another story.

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NSA whistleblower discusses 'How the NSA tracks you' - CSO Online - CSO Online

LARGO Charges against a 40-year-old man involved in a fatal scuffle outside a St. Petersburg bar were dismissed this week after his defense attorneys invoked the state's new "stand your ground" law.

Bobby Ryan of St. Petersburg was charged with manslaughter after he was accused of punching Christopher Motlenski, who later died from complications of his injuries. On Thursday, Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Frank Quesada granted his motion to dismiss the case.

Under Florida law, a person "does not have a duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground" if they believe they or others could face imminent death or great bodily harm.

Previously, it was up to the defense to show their client is immune from prosecution under this law. But in the spring, the state Legislature revised the law, shifting the burden of proof to prosecutors.

Ryan's case is likely the first time the new law, signed by Gov. Rick Scott in June, was invoked in a Pinellas courtroom.

According to court records filed by Ryan's defense attorneys, James Beach and Richard Watts, this is what happened the night of Feb. 10, 2016. At 2 a.m., Ryan and friend Torsten Simpson, arrived at Angelo's Grill and Bar on First Avenue N in downtown St. Petersburg to pick up some sandwiches.

They were standing near the bar when Motlenski began an argument with them about their British accents. An employee escorted Motlenski, 53, outside. When Simpson and Ryan left the bar, Motlenski "continued to harass the defendant," records stated. The men threw punches and Motlenski "bull charged" Simpson against a pair of doors, drawing other patrons' attention.

That's when Ryan punched Motlenski, who fell and hit his head on the pavement. Ryan was initially arrested on a charge of felony battery. After Motlenski died of complications, the charge was upgraded to manslaughter.

"It was just a tragic accident that shouldn't have happened," said Beach, adding that Motlenski's comments and aggression toward Simpson "led my client to believe that there was certainly danger involved."

In an all-day hearing July 6, prosecutors and defense attorneys presented their arguments to Quesada. On Thursday, the judge dismissed Ryan's charges.

Contact Laura C. Morel at lmorel@tampabay.com. Follow @lauracmorel.

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Pinellas judge tosses charge against man under new Stand Your Ground law - TBO.com

Collins currently has a single out titled Cold Dead Hands. It is a declaration to gun-grabbers everywhere that the Second Amendment has been preserved by generation upon generation and that preservation will not end on his watch.

The first verse of Cold Dead Hands tells the story:

Theres a rifle in my closet, Made in 1893

Carved right on the barrel it says Winchester Company

Its been passed through generations, Ive been taught to use it well

Its put food there on the table, And it aint never been for sale

Theres people on my TV, telling me whats right and wrong

Not one damn gun of mine, has ever pulled the trigger on its own

From the verse, Collins transitions to a chorus reminiscent of the great Charlton Heston:

From my Cold Dead Hands

Its about you and me, aint no redneck thing, why dont you understand

You can bitch and moan, all you want

Youll get my gun from my Cold Dead Hands

When I wrote this song I was watching the news and I just got super aggravated, Collins told Breitbart News on Sunday. I got real irritated with the whole thing I thought about everybody I grew up with here in Kentuckyout here in rural America. You know, we get guns for our birthdays and Christmas. Its something you get when youre very young. When youre eight, nine, ten years old, you get your first rifle and go deer hunting and stuff. People out there in other parts of the country dont understand customs and traditions like we have in rural America.

America was built on guns, he added. We took our freedom from the English. If it wasnt for guns wed be having tea and biscuits instead of steak and beer. Its that kind of thing to me. Without the Second Amendment there is no First Amendment. Theres nothing that stops anybody from coming and taking what you worked hard for. To me its just a very simple fact of life; its freedom, thats what owning a gun is. Its the very foundation of freedom.

The Nelson County, Kentucky native is set to play a handful of concerts across his home state through the end of September.

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host ofBullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter:@AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.

P.S. DO YOU WANT MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS ONE DELIVERED RIGHT TO YOUR INBOX?SIGN UP FOR THE DAILY BREITBART NEWSLETTER.

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Country Singer Dustin Collins: 'Without the Second Amendment, There Is No First Amendment' (Exclusive) - Breitbart News

From: Steven J. Beyers Winona

A July 30 opinion writer stated that the Second Amendment was originally meant for militia, now expanded to self defense.

In 1791, George Mason asked, Who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people, except a few public officers. He also wrote ... that standing armies, in time of peace, are dangerous to liberty ...

Patrick Henry said, The great object is, that every man be armed ... Everyone who is able may have a gun.

In the Federalist No. 28, Alexander Hamilton, wrote, If the representatives of the people betray their constituents, there is then no course left but in the exertion of that original right of self-defense which is paramount to all positive forms of government.

The opinion writer also stated, The founders understood that majority rule had its dangers ... That is why we are not a democracy, but are, in the words of Ben Franklin, A republic, if you can keep it.

The Constitution provides an amendment process that allows for additions and adjustments. From privates to presidents, all public servants swear an oath to protect and defend the Constitution from all enemies. As someone who has sworn that oath twice, I find it curious that the writer, who has sworn that same oath, would describe the Constitution as deeply flawed.

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Second Amendment insight - Winona Post

London:Tensions are rising in the southern Mediterranean's migrant crisis, after Italian coastguards seized a German aid group's boat suspected of aiding illegal immigration.

But refugee advocates have in return accused Italy of being complicit in human rights abuses, by sending navy vesselsinto Libyan waters to turn back migrant boats.

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Jugend Rettet, an aid group working in the Mediterranean say their equipment may have been hacked after being accused of allegedly helping people traffickers.

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Italian police arrested a 30-year-old man suspected of abducting a British model in Milan and threatening to auction her online unless a ransom of $300,000 was paid.

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China has said new UN sanctions on North Korea were the right response to a series of missile tests, but dialogue was vital to resolve a sensitive issue.

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US Vice President Mike Pence denounced as false New York Times article suggesting he is eyeing a run for president.

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The Dow has risen to its eighth straight record closing high.

Jugend Rettet, an aid group working in the Mediterranean say their equipment may have been hacked after being accused of allegedly helping people traffickers.

Refugee advocates deny accusations that non-government organisations have formed a "taxi service" for migrants fleeing Libya, saying instead they are providing a vital search-and-rescue service that is saving thousands of lives.

Italian coastguards confiscated the boat, named Iuventa and operated by activistcollective Jugend Rettet, on the island of Lampedusa after receiving evidence that its crew were in communication with people smugglers.

"The evidence is serious," Ambrogio Cartosio, chief prosecutor in the western Sicilian city of Trapani, said.

"We have evidence of encounters between traffickers, who escorted illegal immigrants to the Iuventa, and members of the boat's crew."

He said nobody had been charged but his investigation was continuing. He also said it would be a "fantasy" to say there was a coordinated plan between the NGOs and the Libyan traffickers.

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Jugend Rettet did not respond to a request for an interview from Fairfax Media.

On Twitter on Thursday they said their crew were interviewed by officials "as part of the standard procedure" and they had received no information about an investigation.

"Our legal teams are working hard to examine the legal basis of the confiscation of the ship," they said.

They watched their ship's forced departure from Lampedusa "with heavy hearts" because the ship was "dearly needed", they said.

Last month, Italy, with the backing of the European Union, imposed a code of conduct for NGOs in the Mediterranean.

Jugend Rettet said they had been negotiating with Rome over the code, but on Tuesday had decided not to sign it until it was rewritten.

"Our top priority is to save people in distress but this is not prioritised [in] this code of conduct [which] would legally put us in an uncertain position," they said in a statement on Facebook.

In May,Cartosio told a parliamentary committee in Rome that he had become suspicious of NGOs after noticing some rescue crews seemed to know in advance where to find migrant boats, and were making rescues without informing the Italian coastguard.

Carmelo Zuccaro the chief prosecutor of the Sicilian port of Catania, has claimed he had evidence of phone calls between people smugglers and aid groups, but in May admitted he was expressing only a "hypothesis" and had no proof that could be used in court.

A fleet of around a dozen boats crewed by humanitarian groups are working on the Mediterranean to perform rescues.

Around 85,000 migrants arrived in Italy by boat in the first six months of 2017, 21 per cent more than in the same period in 2016.

More than 2200 people have died attempting the crossing this year, according to the International Organisation for Migration.

Last year, rescues in the Mediterranean were closer to Italy, but now they were happening much closer to the border between Libyan and international waters, prompting accusations the NGOs are encouraging people smugglers.

Smugglers were "including the presence of NGO boats in their business model", aEuropean official familiar with the situation told Fairfax Media last month.

Izza Leghtas, a senior advocate for Refugees International, said search and rescue should not be made into a political issue.

NGOs performed more than a third of the rescues in the area in the first part of 2017, Leghtas said.

"They are filling a huge gap if they weren't doing that work then we would be talking probably about thousands more people drowning."

"They are proactive, they go to the areas where they know people are at risk in international waters," she said, while official boats were more focused on border control. "We are talking about life and death situations and that needs to be the priority."

Part of the problem was the pressure Italy was coming under because other European countries, including Italy's closest neighbours, had not stepped up to take a share of the migrants and refugees arriving from Africa.

The Italians had been traumatised by the number of deaths at sea and felt they had been left alone to handle it, Leghtas said.

She rejected the claim that NGOs were encouraging migrants to take to the sea.

"The conditions in Libya are so horrific, it's a question of a push factor not a pull factor," she said. "People get out of Libya because it's unbearable, because people are killed and tortured and sexually abused.

"To focus on the rescue operations and ignore the fact they are fleeing for their lives [is wrong] people are going to go regardless [of the NGO boats]."

She said her group was deeply concerned by the Italian government's plan to send its vessels into Libyan territorial waters to help the Libyan coastguard intercept migrant and refugee boats.

"It is no secret that migrants and refugees who are intercepted and returned by the Libyan coast guard face horrific abuses in Libya's migrant detention centers," said Leghtas. "By engaging in these operations, the Italian government would be knowingly complicit in these abuses."

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Migrant crisis: German NGO boat that 'contacted people ...