A newly disclosed National Security Agency document illustrates the striking acceleration of the use of cyberweapons by the United States and Iran against each other, both for spying and sabotage, even as Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iranian counterpart met in Geneva to try to break a stalemate in the talks over Iran’s disputed nuclear program.
The document, which was written in April 2013 for Gen. Keith B. Alexander, then the director of the National Security Agency, described how Iranian officials had discovered new evidence the year before that the United States was preparing computer surveillance or cyberattacks on their networks.
It detailed how the United States and Britain had worked together to contain the damage from “Iran’s discovery of computer network exploitation tools” — the building blocks of cyberweapons. That was more than two years after the Stuxnet worm attack by the United States and Israel severely damaged the computer networks at Tehran’s nuclear enrichment plant.
The document, which was first reported this month by The Intercept, an online publication that grew out of the disclosures by Edward J. Snowden, the former N.S.A. contractor, did not describe the targets. But for the first time, the surveillance agency acknowledged that its attacks on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, a George W. Bush administration program, kicked off the cycle of retaliation and escalation that has come to mark the computer competition between the United States and Iran.
Negotiators Weigh Plan to Phase Out Nuclear Limits on Iran →
Iranian and American officials ended a round of high-level nuclear talks here on Monday considering a proposal that would strictly limit, for at least 10 years, Iran’s ability to produce nuclear material, but gradually ease restrictions on Tehran in the final years of any deal.
The proposed phasing out of restrictions is part of a broader effort to mollify critics in Tehran, where some hard-liners in the government and the military oppose any deal that would force Iran to forsake nuclear production for a generation, and Washington, where some members of Congress have objected to an agreement that would not impose lengthy restrictions on Iran’s program.
The question of how long any agreement would endure is a critical one: President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry have said they will not sign an agreement that would give Iran the ability to produce enough fuel for a nuclear weapon in less than a year should it decide to “break out” of the accord...
A Whistleblower's Horror Story →
One man's story in particular highlights just about everything that can go wrong when you give evidence against your bosses in America: former Countrywide/Bank of America whistleblower Michael Winston.
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Two years ago this month, Winston was being celebrated in the news as a hero. He'd blown the whistle on Countrywide Financial, the bent mortgage lender that one could plausibly argue nearly blew up the global economy in the last decade with its reckless subprime lending practices.
He described Countrywide's crazy plan to give anyone who could breathe a mortgage in a memorable January, 2013 episode of Frontline called "The Untouchables," a show that caught the eyes of several influential politicians in Washington. The documentary inspired Senate hearings and even the crafting of new legislation to combat too-big-to-jail corruption in the financial world.
Winston was later featured in the New York Times as the man who "conquered Countrywide." David Dayen of Salon described Winston as "Wall Street's greatest enemy."
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He says he's spent over a million dollars fighting Countrywide (and the firm that acquired it, Bank of America) in court. At first, that fight proved a good gamble, as a jury granted him a multi-million-dollar award for retaliation and wrongful termination.
But after Winston won that case, an appellate judge not only wiped out that jury verdict, but allowed Bank of America to counterattack him with a vengeance.
Last summer, the bank vindictively put a lien on Winston's house (one he'd bought, ironically, with a Countrywide mortgage). The bank eventually beat him for nearly $98,000 in court costs.
That single transaction means a good guy in the crisis drama, Winston, had by the end of 2014 paid a larger individual penalty than virtually every wrongdoer connected with the financial collapse of 2008.
The disappeared: Chicago police detain Americans at abuse-laden 'black site' →
The Chicago police department operates an off-the-books interrogation compound, rendering Americans unable to be found by family or attorneys while locked inside what lawyers say is the domestic equivalent of a CIA black site.
The facility, a nondescript warehouse on Chicago’s west side known as Homan Square, has long been the scene of secretive work by special police units. Interviews with local attorneys and one protester who spent the better part of a day shackled in Homan Square describe operations that deny access to basic constitutional rights.
Alleged police practices at Homan Square, according to those familiar with the facility who spoke out to the Guardian after its investigation into Chicago police abuse, include:
- Keeping arrestees out of official booking databases.
- Beating by police, resulting in head wounds.
- Shackling for prolonged periods.
- Denying attorneys access to the “secure” facility.
- Holding people without legal counsel for between 12 and 24 hours, including people as young as 15.
Give Millennials a Bailout →
Matt Bruenig, a writer at the think tank Demos, has a very interesting theory about poverty. He points out that poverty declines as people age. Much of it is simply due to the life cycle of earnings -- as people get older, they earn more money. Earnings tend to increase steadilyfrom age 25 to age 45, then top out.
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Remember, to smooth the transition from youth to middle age, young people need to borrow. But borrowing exposes people to a lot of risk. If the labor market tanks, and interest rates or inflation soars, people who borrowed a lot of money could be stuck with an unbearable debt burden.
That seems like it may have happened with our current millennial generation -- especially the slightly older members of the cohort. The Great Recession left a lasting scar on that generation’s employment prospects and earning power. Unfortunately, that generation also took out record amounts of student loans.
In other words, millennials suffered a huge shock that reduced their chances of becoming old and comfortable, at the exact time that they had made themselves most vulnerable to such a shock. That one-two punch is taking its toll, and the generation is buckling under the strain. A huge number have moved back in with their parents. Meanwhile, fertility rates have plunged to lows not seen since the 1970s, erasing much of the demographic advantage that had recently made the U.S. look like a better long-term bet than other rich countries.
Turkey says joint U.S. training of Syria rebels to start in March →
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Friday Turkey and the United States aimed to start a program to train and equip moderate Syrian rebels early next month.
The United States and Turkey signed an agreement on Thursday to train and equip opposition rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The Cost of a Decline in Unions →
The abuses are real. But, as unions wane in American life, it’s also increasingly clear that they were doing a lot of good in sustaining middle class life — especially the private-sector unions that are now dwindling.
Most studies suggest that about one-fifth of the increase in economic inequality in America among men in recent decades is the result of the decline in unions. It may be more: A study in the American Sociological Review, using the broadest methodology, estimates that the decline of unions may account for one-third of the rise of inequality among men.
“To understand the rising inequality, you have to understand the devastation in the labor movement,” says Jake Rosenfeld, a labor expert at the University of Washington and the author of “What Unions No Longer Do.”
Take construction workers. A full-time construction worker earns about $10,000 less per year now than in 1973, in today’s dollars, according to Rosenfeld. One reason is probably that the proportion who are unionized has fallen in that period from more than 40 percent to just 14 percent.
“All the focus on labor’s flaws can distract us from the bigger picture,” Rosenfeld writes. “For generations now the labor movement has stood as the most prominent and effective voice for economic justice.”
Prisoners Sentenced to Life as Kids Just Lost Their Best Chance for Freedom →
Until recently, the U.S. was the only developed country in the world in which people under 18 could be sentenced to death or to a mandatory sentence of life without parole. For almost a decade, the Supreme Court has chiseled away at laws allowing these sentences. In 2005, the court ruled that juveniles’ "lack of maturity," susceptibility "to negative influences and outside pressures," and "transitory, less fixed" personality traits meant they couldn't be sentenced to death. Following this logic, it ruled five years later that juveniles couldn't be sentenced to life without parole for non-homicide offenses.
Then, in 2012, in Miller v. Alabama, the court ruled that a mandatory sentence of life without parole, handed down in 29 states’ murder cases as well as those in federal court, is unconstitutional for offenders younger than 18.
The decision left a question on the table: What about those who had already been convicted? Should they be resentenced?