BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

By Larry Johnson Last night’s arrest of a U.S. citizen who thought he was spying for Israel is going to unleash a fascinating dynamic. The Washington Post reported this morning : Stewart D. Nozette, 52, was arrested on a charge of attempted espionage and is being held pending an initial appearance Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Washington, authorities said. Authorities said the charges stemmed an undercover sting operation in which an FBI agent posed as an Israeli spy. Nozette allegedly passed the agent sensitive information through a “dead drop” at a D.C. post office in recent weeks, authorities said. Nozette worked for the Energy Department’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory from 1990 through 1999, prosecutors said. He was credited with helping develop a radar in 1994 that suggested ice on the south pole of the moon. He was president of the Alliance for Competitive Technology, a nonprofit group he founded in 1990. He has held security clearances as high as top secret and...

Four years ago, I found myself in a situation where police asked if they could watch my email for a while. Eventually, I gave away my computer and didn't get a new one for almost a year - and just allowed the police to monitor that email & ISP. At least they ASKED! I found out, they didn't have to, either. I also watched police pull up someones 3 years worth of online history -- including all their transactions, forums, posts, salacious stuff they'd downloaded and a lot of instant messaging in less than five minutes. While what they found made me sick - the speed and ease with which it was done? Made me sicker. Think you're anonymous, safe and your activities online will never be found out? THINK AGAIN! Fine print reveals that you have fewer rights than you might realize By Peter Svensson What's scary, funny and boring at the same time? It could be a bad horror movie. Or it could be the fine print on your Internet service provider's contract. Those doc...

WHO'S WATCHING US ONLINE? "This is damning evidence that privacy is being destroyed by the very nations that proclaim to respect our rights," he said. "It is clear that there is a systemic failure of legal mechanisms to protect us against the emerging surveillance society. Those responsible for protecting our rights have failed to do so ... Australia, Britain and the United States have not only performed abysmally but they are embracing surveillance at an alarming speed." LINKS ON PRIVACY, THE FIRST AMENDMENT and THE INTERNET LEGAL ENFORCEMENT VERSUS DATA MINING JUST BECAUSE ITS LEGAL DOESN'T MAKE IT RIGHT BLOGGING SAFELY GOOGLE FINALLY! DECIDES TO KEEP IT PRIVATE! KEEP IT VERIFIABLE One for ATLAS : A statement that the plaintiff is a "Dumb Ass," even first among "Dumb Asses," communicates no factual proposition susceptible of proof or refutation. TEXT MESSAGE SNAGGING: CHILD'S PLAY OR CLOAK AND DAGGER by Bob Sullivan Lost in ...

THE MARX BROTHERS & THE FBI Very interesting reading. Excerpt below. Click the link at the bottom for the whole article! The FBI spied on the Marx Brothers by Margie Burns Way back in the 1990s, it occurred to me that given the tendencies of late FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, the Bureau might well have been intrigued by the Marx Brothers’ last name, so I checked with the FBI and sure enough, it had indeed kept a file on that family comedy team, the Marx Brothers – Groucho, Harpo, Zeppo, Chico – which in due course I received. I still have the dossier. The FBI kept a careful eye on these popular malcontents or subversives from the 1930s into the 1960s. Julius Marx (Groucho), the most articulate and erudite member of the family and the one who most successfully handled the transition from movies to television, has a file of 186 pages. Herbert Marx (Zeppo) has a file of 48 pages, mostly a mimeographed copy of a comedy routine he and Groucho had been accused of stealing. Even Leonard ...