hackers take down mastercard for a second time

from raw story: The website of credit card provider MasterCard was taken offline Tuesday morning, apparently due to hacker activists trying to make a statement about the financial blockade of anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks.

MasterCard, along with Visa, PayPal, Bank of America and Western Union, have all decided to withhold funds from WikiLeaks, and the site placed their resulting losses at nearly $15 million. They took the drastic action after the site began releasing U.S. diplomatic cables allegedly turned over to them by a lone U.S. Army private.

When MasterCard first announced it was cutting off WikiLeaks back in December, hackers with the protest group Anonymous took their site offline and stopped MasterCard transactions for at least several hours. Visa, PayPal and Bank of America were also targeted by similar attacks and saw their website services interrupted, but did not lose the ability to process transactions.

MasterCard's site outage Tuesday morning comes just one week after WikiLeaks released a promotional video in the style of MasterCard's "Priceless" advertising campaign. It urges viewers to learn more about the site's ongoing battle with the financial world, and to support their work.

Tuesday's hack was announced from a Twitter account that did not appear to be directly related to Anonymous or the now infamous "LulzSec" group, and almost immediately repeated by the official WikiLeaks account. MasterCard's site had returned at time of this story's publication.

assange: internet greatest spying machine

Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange warned Cambridge students, who waited hours to hear him speak, internet is "greatest spying machine the world has ever seen," in article at guardian.co.uk. Assange continued, "It [the web] is not a technology that favours freedom of speech. It is not a technology that favours human rights. It is not a technology that favours civil life. Rather it is a technology that can be used to set up a totalitarian spying regime, the likes of which we have never seen. Or, on the other hand, taken by us, taken by activists, and taken by all those who want a different trajectory for the technological world, it can be something we all hope for." Has Assange been directed to convince Anglo-American elite the internet represents a threat? The present writer views Assange as an agent for the global elite and enjoys a relationship with Israel as related in a previous post here.

Assange also responded to an inquiry about Bradley Manning, "we have no idea whether he is one of our sources. All our technology is geared up to make sure we have no idea...there is no allegation that he was arrested as the result of anything to do with us. The allegation is that he was arrested as a result of him speaking to Wired magazine in the United States."

Is Assange's message shutdown the internet to stop "totalitarian spying regime"? Is there a war on technology? It seems, both, the web and nuclear power are under attack. The global elite do not fancy technology as it represents a challenge to their control and domination!

related defcon updates:
nasa to use lasers to shoot space junk around earth*
nytimes again seeks to charge for web news*
'homefront': new video game features nkorean invasion of US*

3/10 defcon: supermoon, double sun, mirage men

extreme 'supermoon' to take place next week*
mystery of two suns in chinese sky leaves scientists puzzled*
does the sun have jupiter-sized companion star in far reaches of solar system?*
persistent evidence of a jovian mass solar companion in the oort cloud*
'mirage men' book on paranoia, technology, psyops & ufo's*
giffords plans to attend husband's space shuttle launch*
US probes 'anonymous' hacker threat over wikileaks soldier*
manning's father condemns treatment of imprisoned son*
zuckerberg's dog, 'beast', gets facebook page*
google is america's british east india company*
video: new robot has incredibly realistic facial expressions*

wikileaks confirms billy meier on peak oil

The Billy Meier contactee story surfaced, again, in the press this past week. Cables provided by Wikileaks, supposedly, confirm Billy's past warnings about peak oil. An Examiner.com article by Mike Albee reports, "..cables contain a warning from a senior Saudi oil executive that the countries oil reserves may be vastly overstated". Billy Meier has issued many prophetic statements and predictions, over the years. Michael Horn, a representative for Meier in the United States, reminds the public in this article that Meier made similar statements back in 2008. The present writer is more impressed by Meier's concern about disturbances of tectonic plates deep within the Earth. "Meier warned decades ago that there shouldn't be any more oil drilling - especially offshore - since it further destabilizes the tectonic plates." The Peak Oil concept fails to impress since vested interests have pushed the idea for the past decade--even if true! The past week's Wikileaks episode seems clearly a psyop to discredit all discussion, an attempt to make everyone jaded and weary of a topic when it's so plainly tortured. This discourages asking the real queston, cuo bono, i.e., who benefits? The present writer will venture to predict higher high gas prices this summer!

1/27 defcon: congress, connections & 'the company'

s3480: 'protecting cyberspace as a national asset act of 2010' - bill to give president right to shutdown net back in congress*
doj seeks to have all web surfing tracked*
mozilla proposes 'do not track' addition to firefox*
google comes under fire for 'secret' relationship with nsa*
apple hires a military grade security chief*
zuckerberg's facebook page hacked*
social networks under attack as tide of cyber-scepticism sweeps US; they don't connect people – they isolate them*
report: US can't link manning to assange*
police arrest five over 'anonymous' wikileaks attacks*
video: tarpley on wikileaks & assange -
limited hangouts in the service of 'the company'?*

update: internet down in egypt ahead of protests*

who will weep for the banksters?

Who will weep? Will anyone regret when a foreclosure mill is finally stopped? When the Federal Reserve has one less party to provide hefty bailouts that possibly go towards big bonuses? When will Wikileaks pull the plug and start leaking?

Who will weep for Bank of America when the contents of a rumored 5GB hard drive of a bank executive are sent to media outlets? Mary Bottari wonders how bad it will be in a recent article, 'What Does Wikileaks Have on Bank of America?' The writer implies it must be bad as the bank buys up unflattering website domain names, e.g., BankofAmericaSucks.com and BrianMoynhihanblows.com!

Bottari wonders whether Wikileaks has evidence the bank was peddling toxic securities to investors fully aware of their worthlessness? The writer notes as recently as "...September 2009, for example, BofA underwrote $239 million worth of securities backed by subprime loans...". Bank of America is also at ground zero of the robo-signing scandal. A bank employee admits in a legal deposition she signed 8,000 foreclosure documents a month without reading them--a clear violation of law! The writer wonders whether mounting evidence of a fraudulent disregard for the law, may place Bank of America in an unsustainable position, legally?

Bank of America may regret the purchase of Countrywide in 2008 and as Bottari observes "...one of the most aggressive and fraudulent lenders during the housing bubble. The result has been a trainwreck of liability and lawsuits for the megabank that now has over 1.3 million customers in foreclosure."

Former Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo, the son of a Bronx butcher, is considered one of the worst chief executives of all time by Conde Nast Portfolio. You may catch a glimpse of this scary guy as Mozilo testifies in front of the House of Representatives. Mozilo defends CEO compensation in a very articulate manner after he pocketed almost $450 million in stock options over the years!

Bottari concludes with parting shots at the zombie bank. The writer reminds the reader of recent news the Fed has provided--what amounts to life support--to the bank with $931 billion in short term loans and subsidies! Whew! The writer's last remark is not only does Bank of America want you to know the bank and its top executive do not suck, but also, it's other top executives. The bank has been buying up a long list of domains which use their names! Wow! Great Stuff! It sounds like Bottari can't wait for Wikileaks!

The present writer still wonders if Wikileaks isn't just a new operation and a more sophisticated form of eliminating targets? Who will be next? Who is behind Wikileaks?

1/13 defcon: crimestop, doublethink, disconnect

child porn probe leads to fbi headquarters*
ex-tsa worker gets 2yrs for planting 'logic bomb' malware in colorado springs screening system*
US subpoenas twitter for wikileaks info*
how secret were the wikileaks state dept. cables?*
wikileaks contributes $15k to bradley manning's defense*
assange claims 504 'insurance files' on news corp.*
algorithms take control of wall street*
cyberdyne is real & making thought-controlled exoskeletons*
video: 'stop. think. connect.' - dhs announces new fear agenda of 'crimestop. doublethink. disconnect.'*

wikileaks: a big dangerous US government con job

William Engdahl provides, perhaps, the best summation of America's plight in a recent article and podcast. In last month's article, "Wikileaks--a Big Dangerous US Government Con Job," Engdahl's observations are chillingly apt. Wikileaks is too well-scripted to be true. Bradley Manning, the alleged leaker, had impossible access and his leaked material's content is not "top secret". Manning is, now, incarcerated and incommunicado - all too convenient. Once, the 250,000 leaked pages reached Julian Assange and Wikileaks, "Assange decides to selectively choose several of the world’s most ultra-establishment news media to exclusively handle the leaking job for him...The New York Times even assigned one of its top people, David E. Sanger to control the release of the Wikileaks material... sits as a member of the elite Council on Foreign Relations as well as the Aspen Institute Strategy Group..." observes Engdahl.

The clear conclusion of the article is, "but for anyone who has studied the craft of intelligence and of disinformation, a clear pattern emerges in the Wikileaks drama. The focus is put on selected US geopolitical targets...".  F William Engdahl sees right through the entire operation. "The Wikileaks is a big and dangerous US intelligence Con Job which will likely be used to police the Internet." You may catch today's Deadline Live interview of Engdahl here, which makes a great audio companion to the article!

12/31 defcon: high chance, top threats & the cloud

top cyber threats of 2011*
living with our heads in 'the cloud'*
paul allen tries patent megasuit again*
apple sued for app privacy violations*
man quits job to sue spammers*
with 15 minutes of fame ticking; assange signs $1.5m-worth of book deals*
smith, assange, soros & claims that assange is helping the neocons*
assange: 'high chance' i'd be killed 'jack ruby-style’ in US prison*
video: 'reality of illusion 4: julian assange, the white brotherhood & the nazis'*

2010: the year the internet went to war

from threat level: It was a year without parallel. Threat Level’s bread-and-butter themes of censorship, hacking, security, privacy, copyright and cyberwar were all represented in tug-of-war struggles with unprecedented outcomes.

Google defeated China’s censors, but caved to corporate censorship in the United States. The largest computer-crime case ever prosecuted ended in the nation’s longest prison term. A small-time Xbox modder who advertised his services online beat the federal rap. And a mysterious computer virus called Stuxnet finally put proof to decades of warnings that malware will eventually be used to kinetic effect in the real world.

A myriad of court decisions seemed to be a boon for online rights, while others clearly were a step backward. The year 2010 saw the rise of the newspaper copyright troll, and judges pushed back on absurd jury verdicts for music file sharing and outdated electronic spying rules.

And a secret-spilling website flirting with insolvency and dissolution suddenly burst onto the world stage. WikiLeaks was without a doubt the biggest 2010 development in Threat Level’s world.

related: cyber-warfare centre coming, germany says

12/23 defcon: spectacles & seizures

the wikileaks spectacle*
apple bans lame wikileaks app*
dhs seized domains based on bad evidence*
new zealand military releases ufo files*

espionage act rears ugly head

(Note: This writer's greatest apprehension is the coming clamp down on the internet.) Naomi Wolf, writes in Huffington Post, reprinted at Before It's News, "Espionage Act Rears Its Ugly Head And Threatens American Tradition Of Freedom" recaps oppressive history of this flawed law. The 1917 law was used to suppress dissent of anti-war advocates. Many people were imprisoned. We may face a similar political fate? Wolf aptly observes, "'Step Ten'...to a closed society: 'Rename Dissent 'Espionage' and Criticism of Government, 'Treason'." This is a reference to her ten steps from her book, "The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot". Benjamin Wittes, from The Brookings Institution, says in the same article, "Taken at its word, the Espionage Act makes felons of us all." Is this the path Wikileaks is leading us down?

wikileaks: manufactured dissent

Michel Chossudovsky, a frequent contributor to Global Research.ca, writes an insightful examination of Wikileaks in recent article, "Who is Behind Wikileaks?" Chossudovsky identifies longstanding relationships at work behind the scenes such as The New York Times and the Rockefellers and The Economist in the UK with the Rothschild family. These background tidbits make for indispensible reading!

Chossudovsky points out, "from the outset, Wikileaks' geopolitical focus on 'oppressive regimes' in Eurasia and the Middle East was 'appealing' to America's elites..." The Canadian writer advises readers to make note of the Wikileaks support network, which comes from established elite media outlets. "Wikileaks is not a typical alternative media initiative. The New York Times, the Guardian and Der Spiegel are directly involved in the editing and selection of leaked documents. The London Economist has also played an important role." Chossudovsky concludes, "all the Wiki-facts are selectively redacted, they are then 'analyzed' and interpreted by a media which serves the economic elites."

The most important point to take away from the Chossudovsky article, is his advice. "In turn, we must ensure that the campaign against Wikileaks in the U.S., using the 1917 Espionage Act, will not be utilized as a means to wage a campaign to control the internet. In this regard, we should also stand firm in preventing the prosecution of Julian Assange in the US." Wikileaks represents a new sophisticated level of propaganda or "manufactured dissent" to the writer. The glib, offhand manner Chossudovsky comfortably refers to relationships between the interests of economic elites and their media outlets, makes for an excellent education for most readers.

anon of operation payback speaks out!

Russia Today's Alyona Minkovski interviews a representative of Operation Payback, who is called "Anon" for purposes of the interview. It's an interesting insight into how hackers conduct themselves. Anon gives his views on company policies, especially, when they cut off services to Wikileaks, he believes corporations will loose every time. The anonymous hacker shows, at least, some good taste with the comment, "we don't care much about Sarah Palin". The price of this hacktivism will unfortunately be a restricted internet!

busted! wikileaks struck a deal with israel over cable leaks

Gordon Duff, at Veteran's Today, reveals why there were no damaging leaks concerning Israel!  Duff explains in article, "Busted! Wikileaks Struck a Deal With Israel Over Cable Leaks", “Assange met with Israeli officials in Geneva earlier this year and struck the secret deal." The sources added the documents, which originated mainly in embassies in Tel Aviv and Beirut, were removed. The only person with password to open the documents, is [Julian] Assange. "Assange had allegedly struck a deal with Israel before the recent ‘cable gate’, which may explain why the leaks “were good for Israel,” as the Israeli prime minister put it."

Other statements seem revealing, "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a press conference that Israel had 'worked in advance' to limit any damage from leaks, adding that “no classified Israeli material was exposed by WikiLeaks. In an interview with the Time magazine around the same time, Assange praised Netanyahu as a hero of transparency and openness!" 

Cynics will only find more ammunition by reading following report, "according to an Arabic investigative journalism website, Assange had received money from semi-official Israeli sources and promised them, in a 'secret, video-recorded agreement,' not to publish any document that may harm Israeli security or diplomatic interests." Suspicions have simmered since the the cablegate document dump and this report only seems to confirm them!

wikileaks: brought to you by the cia

Brasscheck TV ran, recently, New World Next Week (NWNW), July 29, 2010 episode on the Wikleaks Afghanistan war diaries and said, "these guys nailed it back in July!" The activist website, which features videos, gave the NWNW episode the title, "Wikileaks: Brought to you by the CIA", revealing the website's opinion of the renegade leaking operation.

tarpley's take on wikileaks

Webster Tarpley reveals the self-exposure operation of Wikileaks on the Alex Jones Show recently. Julian Assange is a MK-Ultra zombie, the product of an Australian mind control cult led by Anne Hamilton-Byrne, in Tarpley's view. Assange's peroxide blonde hair color is noted as significant, as the Australian cult members' hair was dyed peroxide blonde or platinum, and reveals his cult ties. Assange is compared to Daniel Ellsberg and may be an expendible intelligence asset? Tarpley summarizes the Wikileaks document dumps, observing there are no damaging references to a George W. Bush or Richard Cheney and concludes they are most damaging to the CIA's enemies. Please take a moment to listen how Julian Assange and Wikileaks may be controlled intelligence assets and the present operation bears similarities to the Pentagon Papers of the early seventies. Tarpley believes Wikileaks is the product of White House information czar, Cass Sunstein. Sunstein pledged government infiltration of extremist groups, some time ago, and wrote the following paper: "Conspiracy Theories". It's must listen and available, here.

hacktivism!

Activist Post picked up the Reuters article, "Wikileaks battle: a new amateur face of cyber war?", which seems to confirm cyber war has escalated and entered a new more dangerous phase. The article reports Wikileaks' defense has become "...something of a popular rebellion amongst hundreds or thousands of tech-savvy activists." The online movement even has a name: "Operation Avenge Assange". The current operation behind recent attacks on Mastercard and Visa among others is an outgrowth of an earlier series of attacks called, Operation Payback. These operations use distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks to deny access to a targeted website. An online group Anonymous "...appears to be using social networking site Twitter to coordinate attacks on websites belonging to entities it views as trying to silence WikiLeaks." Will attacks continue until Assange is set free and Wikileaks no longer targeted? This new development of internet anarchism via amateur attacks is bad news, as it plays right into the hands of those who wish to restrict the internet! Is this synthetic terror?

wikileaks is not a psy op?

Anok Black, in a blog entry at www.seismologik.com, offers the reader four reasons why Wikileaks is not a tool of the agenda. Black lists them: 1) it would be irrational and damaging for US government to use Wikileaks to build support for war, 2) it would be ineffective since patrons of Wikileaks already have anti-establishment views, 3) Julian Assange is anti-authoritarian not a CIA asset with supporting links to Assange's personal essays and an archive of Assange's blog, and 4) Wikileaks is not Julian Assange. Non-sequiturs flow from each of the four points. This is from someone who is, ostensibly, finishing a PHD in analytic philosophy!

Readers should ask why defend Wikileaks, because it's exposing injustice worldwide? It doesn't make sense for US government to use a platform such as Wikileaks? The conclusions do not follow from the arguments for each of the above reasons. Wikileaks history is suspicious at best. Where does the money for this project come from and how does Assange pay for his world travels? The only response to Black's blog entry may be the biggest knock against Wikileaks, Julian Assange aside, "...what seems missing from the leaks tells a stronger tale".

is internet 9/11 under way?

Zen Gardner shares signs in "Is the Internet 9/11 Under Way?" that Wikileaks may lead to another watershed event as 9/11? Gardner questions, rightfully so, the website's high visibility and constant media references. "Where's anyone else trying to expose the agenda? Only Julian [Assange]. Hmmm." Perhaps, the biggest red flag Gardner points out, is when Assange "...says the 9/11 truth issue is 'a distraction'". The sketchy backgrounds and a building crescendo, where Assange is labeled a new kind of terrorist and compared to bin Laden only adds to the cloud.