In Benghazi, CIA Trusted Local Militia That Melted Away - The Daily Beast
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/05/10/in-benghazi-cia-trusted-local-militia-that-melted-away.html
The agency seemed unaware prior to the attack of how unreliable or possibly compromised the February 17 militia actually was, reports Eli Lake.
As reports of chemical weapons abound, Obama urges caution on Syria | McClatchy
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/04/26/189773/as-reports-of-chemical-weapons.html
Le degré de confiance avec lequel on peut affirmer que le régime syrien a utilisé des armes chimiques serait « faible ou modéré » selon le renseignement étasunien,
In U.S. intelligence analytical parlance, “moderate confidence” generally means that information lacks sufficient corroboration, while low confidence usually means that it’s too fragmented, it isn’t authenticated and there are major concerns about the credibility of the sources.
Mais, fait remarquer le site FAIR, il n’en faut pas plus pour que les « médias de référence » en parlent comme d’une certitude, http://fair.org/take-action/media-advisories/syria-skepticism
Secret US documents show Brennan’s ‘no civilian drone deaths’ claim was false: The Bureau of Investigative Journalism
http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2013/04/11/secret-us-documents-show-brennans-no-civilian-drone-deaths-cl
US intelligence officials were aware that at least one civilian had died in drone strikes in Pakistan during 2011, despite claims to the contrary made by the man now running the Central Intelligence Agency.
In June 2011, John Brennan, at the time President Obama’s chief counter terrorism adviser, stated publicly that for ‘almost a year’ no civilian had died in US drone strikes in Pakistan.
But leaked US intelligence documents obtained by news agency McClatchy show this was not true.
An Inconvenient Truth
Finally, proof that the United States has lied in the drone wars. http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/04/10/an_inconvenient_truth_drones
Jonathan Landay, national security reporter at McClatchy Newspapers, has provided the first analysis of drone-strike victims that is based upon internal, top-secret U.S intelligence reports http://seenthis.net/messages/129176.
It is the most important reporting on U.S. drone strikes to date because Landay, using U.S. government assessments, plainly demonstrates that the claim repeatedly made by President Obama and his senior aides — that targeted killings are limited only to officials, members, and affiliates of al Qaeda who pose an imminent threat of attack on the U.S. homeland — is false.
...
It is important to note that the claim of a single civilian casualty is based on the CIA’s interpretation that any military-age males who are behaving suspiciously can be lawfully targeted . No U.S. government official has ever openly acknowledged the practice of such “signature strikes” because it is so clearly at odds with the bedrock principle of distinction required for using force within the laws of armed conflict. According to the documents reviewed by Landay, even the U.S. intelligence community does not necessarily know who it has killed; it is forced to use fuzzy categories like “other militants” and “foreign fighters.”
Some of the drone strikes that Landay describes, such as a May 22, 2007 attack requested by Pakistan’s intelligence service to support Pakistani troops in combat, do not appear in the databases maintained by the New America Foundation, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, or Long Wars Journal . This should strengthen the concerns of many analysts about the accuracy of reporting from Pakistan’s tribal areas. It also suggests that there may be a few additional targeted killing efforts of which we know nothing.
...
...based on the Obama administration’s patterns of behavior, the Department of Justice will assuredly target Landay and his sources for leaking classified information. While the DOJ has refrained from plugging the many selective leaks by anonymous administration officials that praise the precision and efficacy of drone strikes, it has sought more criminal prosecutions of leaks in Obama’s first term than during all previous presidential administrations combined. (...) Absolutely nothing in Landay’s reporting reveals the CIA’s sources and methods for determining who had been killed.
Three key lessons from the Obama administration’s drone lies - http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/11/three-lessons-obama-drone-lies
(1) The Obama administration often has no idea who they are killing.
....
(2) Whisteblowers are vital for transparency and accountability, which is precisely why the Obama administration is waging a war on them.
...
(3) Secrecy ensures both government lies and abuses of power.
...
Sequestering the War on Terror : The New Yorker
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/closeread/2013/04/sequestering-the-war-on-terror.html
Questions capitales:
The logic is deeply troubling. Are drone strikes a diplomatic chit? Do we call someone dangerous because he gets in the way of what we’ve persuaded ourselves we need to do somewhere? If it was necessary to get a foreign leader to help us with a war, could we, by the same reasoning, kill someone who was merely a political threat—or a political figure who, say, by rallying domestic opposition to drone strikes in a foreign country, we’d decided was helping Al Qaeda?
Rights Groups Question Legality of Targeted Killing - NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/13/us/politics/rights-groups-question-legality-of-targeted-killing.html
.... efforts on Thursday by Representative Jan Schakowsky, Democrat of Illinois, to get John O. Brennan, formerly the president’s counterterrorism adviser and now the C.I.A. director, to discuss strike policies during a hearing of the House Intelligence Committee went nowhere.
(...)
Ms. Schakowsky was prompted to question Mr. Brennan in part by an article this week by McClatchy News Service reporting that it had obtained classified government documents showing that the drone strikes had killed hundreds of low-level suspected militants whose identities were not known. The article suggested that the documents undercut assertions by Mr. Obama and his aides.
“There are a lot of things that are printed in the press that are inaccurate, in my mind, and misrepresent the facts,” Mr. Brennan said. When Ms. Schakowsky pressed the point, he said, “I’m not going to engage in any type of discussion on that here today, congresswoman.”
Obama’s drone war kills ‘others,’ not just al Qaida leaders | McClatchy
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/04/09/188062/obamas-drone-war-kills-others.html
Contrary to assurances it has deployed U.S. drones only against known senior leaders of al Qaida and allied groups, the Obama administration has targeted and killed hundreds of suspected lower-level Afghan, Pakistani and unidentified “other” militants in scores of strikes in Pakistan’s rugged tribal area, classified U.S. intelligence reports show.
« Others » sont les victimes du « side-payment strike », les frappes contre les ennemis des amis du régime étasunien, afin d’obtenir l’autorisation desdits amis d’utiliser leur ciel pour mener des frappes contre AQ et leurs alliés.
The revelation that this first target was not part of al Qaeda, but rather a target picked by an ally country, has raised serious questions for critics of the CIA’s actions. “How many other killings have been carried out not pursuant to a strict legal analysis and examination of threat to the U.S., but rather as a bargaining chip, at the request of another government?” Sarah Knuckey, a lawyer and the director of NYU Law School’s Project on Extrajudicial Executions, asks Rolling Stone.
The secrecy in which the targeted killing program is shrouded makes that question impossible to answer conclusively at this time, but there is reason to believe that some of the individuals on the kill list (or lists) are known as “side payment” targets – people who are enemies of a U.S. ally, not the U.S. itself.
Syrian Spillover - By J. Dana Stuster | Foreign Policy
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/04/04/syrian_spillover_map_civil_war
https://mts0.google.com/vt/lyrs=h@211000000&hl=en&src=app&x=38&y=25&z=6&s=Gal
https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=213559362522542994464.0004d76e1ac6fd59f6d87&hl=en&ie=UTF8
Click the map above to enlarge and expand the flags, which highlight instances of a widening conflict.
Syria chemical weapons: finger pointed at jihadists
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/9950036/Syria-chemical-weapons-finger-pointed-at-jihadists.html
The source said that the town of Khan al-Assal has been in government control since March 13 but - like so much of the area - has been much fought over and parts of the area change hands with relative frequency. Rebel Sunni groups with al-Qaeda sympathies have been attacking the town, where the population is predominantly Shia.
The military’s version of events is that the home-made rocket was fired at a military checkpoint situated at the entrance to the town. The immediate effects were to induce vomiting, fainting , suffocation and seizures among those in the immediate area.
A second source - a medic at the local civilian hospital - said that he personally witnessed Syrian army helping those wounded and dealing with fatalities at the scene. That Syrian soldiers were among the reported 26 deaths has not been disputed by either side.
Exact, @alaingresh. Mais je crains une autre sorte de confusion, qui consisterait à présenter ce recours à des armes chimiques comme la preuve qu’il faut intervenir pour « sécuriser » les stocks d’armes du régime, en suggérant (par omission) qu’il s’agirait ici d’armes du régime volées par un groupe jihadiste et retournées contre les soldats.
Alors qu’ici, il est question d’armes chimiques rudimentaires assez faciles à produire avec du matériel industriel (du produit de nettoyage de piscines ?). Rien à voir avec des armes chimiques du régime qu’il conviendrait de « sécuriser », mais je sens que certains vont volontairement entretenir la confusion.
Ce qui se traduit par des expressions comme « game changer », « ligne rouge », par lesquelles les Occidentaux s’autoriseraient « automatiquement » à bombarder n’importe qui et n’importe quoi en Syrie au motif de « sécuriser » des armes chimiques.
Une « ligne rouge » un peu floue, si l’on en croit le WAPO, http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/backing-up-obamas-warnings-to-syria-creates-tough-challenges-on-two-fronts/2013/03/24/95cd5570-9314-11e2-a31e-14700e2724e4_print.html
Although Obama has implied that the U.S. response to a chemical weapons attack would be harsh, the former official said the options being considered range widely in scale. A chemical attack that causes relatively few casualties might not prompt any U.S. military response.
“The Syrians are already killing 100 people a day with rockets and small arms,” said the former official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in talking about contingency plans. “The United States may not feel compelled to do anything unless there is widespread use.”
U.S. Terrorism Agency to Tap a Vast Database of Citizens - WSJ.com
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324478304578171623040640006.html
Top U.S. intelligence officials gathered in the White House Situation Room in March to debate a controversial proposal. Counterterrorism officials wanted to create a government dragnet, sweeping up millions of records about U.S. citizens—even people suspected of no crime.
Et l’article complet sur Youhou :
http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/u-terror-agency-tap-citizen-034700666.html
Le Wall Street Journal rend compte de l’autorisation fédérale reçue par un groupe de lobbying basé aux Etats-Unis et intitulé le Syrian support group de collecter des fonds afin de soutenir l’Armée Syrienne Libre. Notons que ce groupe de lobbying emploie un ex-officier de l’OTAN comme « directeur des relations avec le gouvernement [américain] » :
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444405804577561482242140956.html#articleTabs%3Darticle
The Syrian Support Group was established earlier this year to lobby for U.S. backing for the Free Syrian Army. It includes Syrian expatriates and works with retired Syrian military officers, Louay Sakka, a Syrian-Canadian co-founder of the group, said in a June interview. Mr. Sayers, its director of government relations, is a former political officer at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Il n’est pas autorisé à ce groupe d’acheter directement des armes , mais que l’on se rassure, cela devrait pouvoir se faire indirectement :
The Syrian Support Group hopes to directly finance FSA’s military councils. The councils could then use the money to fund things such as soldier salaries or buy weapons or medical supplies, Mr. Sayers said.
En passant, remarquons l’expression « soldier salaries », quand il s’agit de la solde versée à des combattants qui n’appartiennent pas une armée régulière et qu’en bon français (et anglais) on appellerait donc des mercenaires.
L’article nous dit que le groupe a été fondé « plus tôt » cette année. Un autre article daté du 26 juin du WSJ rendait d’ailleurs compte de la création de ce groupe de lobbying : http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304458604577490912251836588.html
Effectivement le site de ce groupe semble récent et peu étoffé. Il permet surtout de s’inscrire à une mailing list et de faire des dons par paypal : http://syriansupportgroup.org
Un coup de whois permet d’en savoir plus exactement sur ce « plus tôt » : le site du groupe n’a en effet été enregistré que le 8 juin dernier : http://www.whois.net/whois/syriansupportgroup.org
Remarquable efficacité de l’administration fiscale américaine qui a délivré l’autorisation, donc !
Former U.S. officials say CIA considers Israel to be Mideast’s biggest spy threat - Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/former-u-s-officials-say-cia-considers-israel-to-be-mideast-s-biggest-spy-t
Former U.S. officials say CIA considers Israel to be Mideast’s biggest spy threat
U.S. intelligence agents stationed in Israel report multiple cases of equipment tampering, suspected break ins in recent years; CIA officials tell the Associated Press that Israel may have leaked info that led to the capture of an agent inside Syria’s chemical weapons program.
The CIA station chief opened the locked box containing the sensitive equipment he used from his home in Tel Aviv, Israel, to communicate with CIA headquarters in Virginia, only to find that someone had tampered with it. He sent word to his superiors about the break-in.
The incident, described to the Associated Press by three former senior U.S. intelligence officials, might have been dismissed as just another cloak-and-dagger incident in the world of international espionage, except that the same thing had happened to the previous station chief in Israel.
It was a not-so-subtle reminder that, even in a country friendly to the United States, the CIA was itself being watched.
In a separate episode, according to another two former U.S. officials speaking to the Associated Press, a CIA officer in Israel came home to find the food in the refrigerator had been rearranged. In all the cases, the U.S. government believes Israel’s security services were responsible.
Ils sont vraiment aussi naïfs les agents de la CIA ?
Les Etats Unis voient leur proche allié israélien comme une menace en matière d’espionnage
Par Adam Goldman et Matt Apuzzo, Associated Press,
San Francisco Chronicle (USA) 28 juillet 2012 traduit de l’anglais par Djazaïri
WASHINGTON (AP) — Le chef de la station de la CIA à Tel Aviv avait déverrouillé la boîte qui contenait le matériel sensible dont il se servait à son domicile de Tel Aviv, en Israël, pour communiquer avec le siège de la CIA en Virginie, et n’avait pu que constater que quelqu’un l’avait trafiqué. Ce dont il référa à ses supérieurs.
Cet incident, décrit par trois anciens cadres des services secrets US aurait pu être rangé simplement parmi les péripéties qui émaillent le monde de l’espionnage international, sauf que le même chose était arrivée au précédent chef de station en Israël.
C’était un rappel pas très subtil que, même dans un pays ami des Etats Unis, la CIA elle-même était sous surveillance.
http://mounadil.blogspot.fr/2012/07/soumission-tel-aviv-lavertissement-des.html#links
The New Number Two
Attention, je crois que le Monde a une annonce super-importante : Le numéro 2 d’Al-Qaida tué par un drone au Pakistan
http://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2012/06/05/le-numero-2-d-al-qaida-vise-par-un-drone_1712624_3210.html
Un responsable américain a confirmé, mardi 5 juin, la mort du numéro deux d’Al-Qaida, Abou Yahia Al-Libi, tué la veille par un drone américain dans les zones tribales pakistanaises.
Tu sais qu’un autre Numéro 2 d’Al Qaeda a été tué pas plus tard que la semaine dernière ? Sakhr al Taifi, al Qaeda’s No. 2 in Afghanistan, killed in air strike
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/says_qaeda_no_in_afghanistan_killed_Ta2xG6KnAlXo0ItGgNjQhN
The US-led NATO force in Afghanistan killed al Qaeda’s second-highest leader in the country in an airstrike in eastern Kunar province, the coalition said Tuesday.
Sakhr al-Taifi, also known as Mushtaq and Nasim, was responsible for commanding foreign insurgents in Afghanistan and directing attacks against NATO and Afghan forces, the alliance said.
Et qu’un Numéro 2 d’Al Qaeda est mort en août 2011 ? Al-Qaeda’s No. 2 reported killed in Pakistan
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/al-qaedas-no-2-reported-killed-in-pakistan/2011/08/28/gIQAjXUmkJ_video.html
U.S. and Pakistani officials say al-Qaeda’s second-in-command, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, has been killed in Pakistan, delivering another big blow to a terrorist group that the U.S. believes to be on the verge of defeat. (Aug. 27) (The Associated Press)
Si tu ne connais jamais le nom de tous ces Numéros 2, c’est parce que depuis mai 2011, l’ancien Numéro 2 est devenu Numéro 1 : Al Qaeda No.2 Zawahri most likely to succeed bin Laden
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/02/us-zawahri-ayman-newsmaker-idUSTRE7410RF20110502
Auparavant, on avait tué un Numéro 3 en juin 2010 (qui serait donc devenu Numéro 2 quand le Numéro 2 est devenu Numéro 1 – concentre-toi, s’il te plaît) : Al-Qaeda No. 3 Yazid reported killed by U.S. drone
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/31/AR2010053103617.html
A U.S. official said there is “strong reason” to believe that Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, known as Sheik Saeed al-Masri, apparently was killed by a CIA drone strike in Pakistan’s tribal belt within the past two weeks.
En février 2012, Seïf Al-Adel, le numéro 3 d’Al-Qaïda, arrêté au Caire. Question rigolote : toi qui a bien suivi, qui était Numéro 2 à l’époque ?
http://www.lematindz.net/news/7499-seif-al-adel-le-numero-3-dal-qaida-arrete-au-caire.html
Ces responsables n’ont pas précisé pourquoi l’Egyptien, longtemps considéré comme le numéro trois d’Al-Qaïda, et qui se trouve sur la liste des personnes les plus recherchées par le FBI, a pris l’avion pour Le Caire.
Attention, c’est un peu subtil : ce Numéro-3-là, en fait, a été Numéro 1 « par intérim » avant que l’ancien Numéro 2 ne devienne le Numéro 1 en CDI : Saif al-Adel, le nouveau chef d’Al-Qaïda
http://www.africa1.com/spip.php?article11338
Saif al-Adel, un haut responsable égyptien d’Al-Qaïda, a été désigné chef par intérim du groupe extrémiste, après l’élimination de son dirigeant Oussama Ben Laden par un commando américain, rapporte mardi 17 mai la chaîne CNN.
En 2003, Khalid Cheikh Mohammed était le Numéro 3 :
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalid_Cheikh_Mohammed
Il était considéré par les États-Unis comme terroriste islamiste et numéro 3 d’Al-Qaida et fut surnommé le « cerveau » (al-Mokh) par Oussama ben Laden.
Abou Faraj al-Libbi a dit : « je veux être Numéro 3 à la place du Numéro 3 ! » :
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abou_Faraj_al-Libbi
Présumé proche d’Oussama Ben Laden, il a été considéré comme le numéro 3 d’Al-Qaida, soupçonné ainsi de n’avoir des comptes à rendre qu’à Ben Laden et à al-Zawahiri.
En février 2008, un certain Abu Laith al-Libi décédait de mort violente. Il était… « Ucciso n.3 di Al Qaeda in Waziristan » :
http://it.peacereporter.net/stampa/10006
Récemment, il y a eu des « rumeurs » concernant… le Numéro 4 : Rumors swirl that Syria freed Al-Qaeda No. 4 from prison
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Politics/2012/Feb-01/161761-rumors-swirl-that-syria-freed-al-qaeda-no-4-from-prison.ashx
Mais non, pas le Numéro 4 qui est mort en 2008 (ne raconte donc pas de bêtises !) : Al-Qaeda No. 4 Killed In Pakistan
http://www.nationalterroralert.com/2008/10/18/al-qaeda-no-4-killed-in-pakistan
A missile attack from a U.S. drone aircraft is believed to have killed Khalid Habib, an Egyptian who is described by the CIA as the No. 4 in the Al-Qaida hierarchy, according to a former member of a militant group in the region.
Aide-moi un peu, là : est-ce le même Numéro quatre recherché par « un juge espagnol » en avril 2009 ? Spanish Judge Seeks Al Qaeda’s No. 4
http://www.hstoday.us/channels/federalstatelocal/single-article-page/spanish-judge-seeks-al-qaedas-no-4/c7d1cfbb2b490dc82f0db56431407b43.html
Sur Fox News (où l’on est pointus), tu trouveras des nouvelles du Numéro 5 en décembre 2005 : Musharraf Confirms Al Qaeda Death
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,177585,00.html
“He was Al Qaeda’s No. 5 and this is what we know,” Ahmed told The Associated Press.
Après, tout le monde le sait, il n’y a pas de Numéro Six : le Numéro six n’est pas un numéro.
Permets-moi de corriger une petite erreur. On ne dit pas « tuer », mais « éliminer ».
Libération : « Les États-Unis pensent avoir éliminé le numéro 2 d’Al Qaeda »
http://www.liberation.fr/monde/2012/06/05/les-etats-unis-pensent-avoir-elimine-le-numero-2-d-al-qaeda_823852
Tu sais que les drones américains sont programmés pour ne tuer que des Numéros officiels d’Al Qaeda ? Par exemple, là, l’OTAN revendique la mort d’un Numéro Un local, en revanche, les morts numéro 2 à 17 ne sont pas vraiment morts.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2012/06/20126664410739115.html
A local Afghan official has said that 17 civilians have been killed in a NATO airstrike in eastern Afghanistan.
In a statement, NATO said it knew of only two light injuries to civilians during the pre-dawn incident on Wednesday.
U.S. Turns Osama Against al-Qaida With Document Dump | Danger Room | Wired
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/05/bin-laden-documents
n an apparent attempt to sow discord within the ranks of al-Qaida’s remaining sympathizers, the U.S. government declassified personal communications from Osama bin Laden showing the terror leader fretting about the bloodthirsty movement he launched.
If al-Qaida affiliates keep killing Muslim civilians, bin Laden wrote to an aide shortly before the Navy SEAL raid that killed him, “they will spoil [things and] alienate the people, who could be won over by enemy after enemy. … our brothers are making things worse by opening themselves up to evil and hostility!”
Satellite Photos of Iran Doubted | Consortiumnews
http://consortiumnews.com/2012/03/12/satellite-photos-of-iran-doubted
News stories about satellite photographs suggesting efforts by Iran to “sanitize” a military site that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said may have been used to test nuclear weapons have added yet another layer to widely held suspicion that Iran must indeed be hiding a covert nuclear weapons program.
But the story is suspect, in part because it is based on evidence that could only be ambiguous, at best. The claim does not reflect U.S. intelligence, and a prominent think tank that has published satellite photography related to past controversies surrounding Iran’s nuclear program has not found any photographs supporting it.
U.S. officials: Al Qaida behind Syria bombings
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/02/10/138593/us-officials-al-qaida-behind-syria.html
The Iraqi branch of al Qaida, seeking to exploit the bloody turmoil in Syria to reassert its potency, carried out two recent bombings in the Syrian capital, Damascus, and likely was behind suicide bombings Friday that killed at least 28 people in the largest city, Aleppo, U.S. officials told McClatchy.
The officials cited U.S. intelligence reports on the incidents, which appear to verify Syrian President Bashar Assad’s charges of al Qaida involvement in the 11-month uprising against his rule. The Syrian opposition has claimed that Assad’s regime, which has responded with massive force against the uprising, staged the bombings to discredit the pro-democracy movement calling for his ouster.
Blasts Rock Aleppo as Dozens More Are Reported Killed in Syria
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/11/world/middleeast/blasts-in-aleppo-syria-homs-violence-said-to-continue.html
In Washington, analysts were looking seriously at the possibility that Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Iraq was responsible for Friday’s attack in neighboring Syria. “It comes as no surprise that Al Qaeda’s Iraq affiliate — through its networks in Syria — might attempt to seem relevant by going after the Assad regime,” said an American official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the assessment contained classified information. “It is opportunism, plain and simple.”
Ce qui signifie que, sur France 24, un responsable de l’ASL revendique un attentat que des analystes américains attribuent à la branche irakienne d’Al Qaeda.
http://www.france24.com/fr/20120210-attentats-alep-armee-syrienne-libre-peine-accorder-ligne-officiel
Un peu plus tôt dans la journée, un haut gradé de l’ASL, le colonel Aref Hamoud, lui aussi interrogé par France 24, tenait un discours bien différent de celui de Ryad al-Assad : « Ce ne sont pas de simples explosions qu’il y a eu ce matin, mais bien une attaque que nous avons organisée, nous, l’Armée syrienne libre », avait-il alors confié, revendiquant ainsi la responsabilité des attaques. « Il ne s’agissait pas de voiture piégée mais de nos bombes qui ont détruit ces bâtiments. Nous avons voulu envoyer un message fort au régime : nous pouvons frapper n’importe où. »
La #NSA attend une crise pour cyber-attaquer
Ex-U.S. spy chief says may take crisis for new cyber law | Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/23/us-usa-cyber-idUSTRE80M2FZ20120123
U.S. intelligence agencies have unique capabilities that can help protect American companies from cyber espionage and attack, but it will probably take a crisis to change laws to allow that type of cooperation, a former spy chief said on Monday.
Intelligence agencies like the National Security Agency are authorized to operate abroad but generally are restricted from working within the United States,
“Until we have a banking collapse or electric power goes off in the middle of a snowstorm for eight weeks, or something of that magnitude, we’re likely just to talk about it and not do much,” Mike McConnell, former director of national intelligence, said.
Vu dans le flux un outil qui sert aux échanges instantanés ici : #OTR - permet le chiffrement, outils qui existent déjà depuis plusieurs années. voir http://www.cypherpunks.ca/otr - cryptographie vs. DPI c’est une des grandes oppositions qui montent alors que l’existence d’une surveillance approfondie des communications est de plus en plus documentée dans tous les pays ; le chiffrement et la #cryptographie faisant l’objet de nombreuses présentations sur le 28c3, dans ses aspects techniques comme politiques et sociaux.
Va commencer d’ailleurs une présentation de la censure de TOR par certains gouvernements :
http://events.ccc.de/congress/2011/Fahrplan/events/4800.en.html
Sauf erreur c’est aussi une des seules présentations autour des « Printemps arabes » - dont peu d’acteurs sont référencés au Congrès (peu présents aussi, à ma connaissance)
Demain est annoncé du sport avec la présentation d’un Français, Eric Filliol, qui dit avoir démontré des vulnérabilités du réseau TOR http://events.ccc.de/congress/2011/Fahrplan/events/4581.en.html
Présentation qui a été faite (peut-être dans une autre version) au Brésil en octobre
https://threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/researchers-demonstrate-tor-network-hijack-method-102411
et dont les tenants et aboutissants sont largement discutés : http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=310737
et contestés par la Fondation TOR
https://blog.torproject.org/blog/rumors-tors-compromise-are-greatly-exaggerated
Le débat est intéressant car il souligne les enjeux d’outils qui passaient peu à la connaissance du grand public par le passé. Alors que TOR a par exemple été très employé dans le cours des « Révolutions arabes » - c’est aussi un outil très présent dans la galaxie Wikileaks et ses suites. Il semblerait qu’en dépit de ce qu’affirme Filliol TOR reste un outil de choix, davantage que les VPN qui sont susceptibles d’être compromis à des niveaux multiples
voir là : http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-22/china-based-hacking-of-760-companies-shows-cyber-cold-war.html
et
http://www.computerworlduk.com/news/security/3325422/ibahn-denies-hotel-internet-hack-aimed-at-travelling-executives
mais aussi responsabilités de VPN de remettre les logs de leurs clients à la justice, en particulier avec les tentatives de mise en place de législations plus restrictives autour du copyright (débat sur la #SOPA aux Etats-Unis) : http://www.industryleadersmagazine.com/the-stop-online-piracy-act-what-industry-leaders-can-do-abo
D’où volonté de certains groupes hacktivistes d’aller voir du côté des #darknets (internets « alternatifs »), notamment Telecomix qui veut remettre en cause la hiérachie http://dns.telecomix.org ; débat également repris par @Stephane Bortzmeyer ici-même
http://seenthis.net/messages/47785
America’s Debt to Bradley Manning – #cablegate
http://consortiumnews.com/2011/12/24/americas-debt-to-bradley-manning
So, it was useful to examine the WikiLeaks documents regarding the election of the new IAEA leader in 2009 to understand why this flip may have occurred. What those classified State Department cables show is that the IAEA’s new director general, Japanese diplomat Yukiya Amano, credited his victory largely to U.S. government support and promptly stuck his hand out for U.S. money.
Further, Amano left little doubt that he would side with the United States in its confrontation with Iran and that he would even meet secretly with Israeli officials regarding their purported evidence on Iran’s nuclear program, despite the fact that Israel is arguably the world’s preeminent rogue nuclear state and rejects IAEA inspections of its own nuclear sites.
According to U.S. embassy cables from Vienna, Austria, the site of IAEA’s headquarters, American diplomats in 2009 were cheering the prospect that Amano would advance U.S. interests in ways that outgoing IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei wouldn’t.
A New and Frightening #Stuxnet | isssource.com
http://www.isssource.com/a-new-and-frightening-stuxnet
ISSSource has learned leaders of the three major software companies, Sergey Brin at Google, Steve Ballmer at Microsoft and Larry Ellison at Oracle have been working with Israel’s top cyber warriors and have now come up with new version of a Stuxnet-like worm that can bring down Iran’s entire software networks if the Iranian regime gets too close to a breakout, according to U.S. intelligence sources.
Cet article est-il crédible ? il est très flou sur ses sources et références, ce qui est d’ailleurs fortement reproché par Dale Peterson à la plupart des papiers sur Stuxnet
Stuxnet Reporting Needs Facts and Attribution
http://www.digitalbond.com/2011/10/13/stuxnet-reporting-needs-facts-and-attribution
(lire aussi sous cet article le commentaire de Ralph Langner lui-même)
Hum... Quoi qu’il en soit, le code source de Stuxnet semble bel et bien servir de nouveau pour Duqu, où le logiciel a désormais pour mission d’espionner les machines infectées sans se reproduire, puis de s’auto-détruire sans laisser de traces, d’après Symantec :
http://www.symantec.com/connect/w32_duqu_precursor_next_stuxnet
Les premières versions de Duqu dateraient de décembre 2010, et la dernière en date du 18 octobre 2011, le logiciel malveillant étant a priori en fonction depuis au moins plusieurs mois, d’après les informations de Symantec.
All your data are belong to us : Google admits Patriot Act requests ; Handed over European data to U.S. authorities | ZDNet
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/igeneration/google-admits-patriot-act-requests-handed-over-european-data-to-us-authorities/12191
Google has handed EU data stored in European datacenters back to U.S. law enforcement, by using the Safe Harbor framework to transport data across the Atlantic.
Specifically, U.S. intelligence, according to one source, asked Google to hand over data stored in a European datacenter.
Admitting to complying with Patriot Act requests, it follows Microsoft’s admission earlier this year, proving that EU-based data is insecure and at risk from U.S. inspection, if local subsidiaries are linked to a U.S. based headquarters.
[...]
It is likely that in the coming months, after the European Parliament resume after the summer break, that an official inquiry will explore avenues raised by the European insecure cloud.
Tu n’es pas obligé de croire que le Parlement européen va réellement y faire quelque chose.
la réponse du Mr Privacy de Google, Peter Fleischer : ceux qui s’indignent sont des cons
http://peterfleischer.blogspot.com/2011/09/september-11.html
La réponse de Fleischer est typiquement une réponse d’avocat, pas du tout celle qu’on peut attendre d’un spécialiste de la protection des données.
A Declaration of Cyber-War | Culture | Vanity Fair
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2011/04/stuxnet-201104
The cyber-world where #Stuxnet lives is so murky, so hard to know the truth about, that some experts still question certain elements of the public story. From the beginning, many have found it odd that, of all the security companies in the world, an obscure Belarusian firm should be the one to find this threat—and odder still that the serial rebooting that gave Stuxnet away has been reported nowhere else, as far as most of the worm’s top analysts have heard. Such facts moved one former C.I.A. official to suggest that perhaps Stuxnet was not actually discovered—but dropped. Maybe its limited impact on Natanz indicates that it was not fully successful as a cyber-operation. After being detected by Iran, it may have been retooled by the country as “psyops”—psychological operations—against the West. Robert Baer, the former C.I.A. officer and author of The Devil We Know: Dealing with the New Iranian Superpower, says, “The moment Iran caught Stuxnet, they could easily have put out misinformation”—to the effect that their nuclear program had been set back several years—“simply to alleviate meetings in Western capitals. So that everyone will say, ‘All right, Stuxnet worked.’ ”