After calling for a picket, garnering 60 signatures on a petition and raising awareness on social media, the NSA cancelled their registration at the career fair.

The NSA surveils communication data from the internet, text messages and phone calls globally and domestically. Under the authority of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the NSA conducts mass surveillance on U.S. citizens and noncitizens without a warrant, oftentimes sharing this data with other government agencies. The NSA shared this data with the CIA which used it to conduct drone strikes. Currently, the Israeli military, specifically through Unit 8200, uses NSA data to train killer AI that is used to target Palestinians in Gaza.

NYU SDS declared victory over NYU and the NSA in a statement released on October 8. They highlighted the hypocrisy of NYU nviting deplorable organizations like the NSA to campus. They also highlighted past victories with their efforts to scare away the CIA and military companies from attending previous career fairs. The student group declared that they will continue to struggle and fight for the removal of these organizations in the future.

#NewYorkNY #NY #StudentMovement #NSA #SDS

On December 21, 2013, the Washington Post published a report about the latest covert action by the CIA, the NSA and the Pentagon, that is, of the United States of America, in Colombia's internal armed conflict. This involves decisions and authorizations by at least the last three governments of that country.

Interesting revelation, that shows many incredulous people that the interest of the US government is one of the main triggers of the long war Colombians are going through. More ambitious studies could easily show that the same thing has happened since the days of Operation Marquetalia in 1964, which was publicly recognized in Colombia. However, whenever the nature of the conflict is being studied, this fact is silenced with astonishing irresponsibility.

According to the report, the covert action program has helped the Colombian Army to kill at least two dozen rebel leaders, according to interviews with more than 30 serving or retired officers in the United States and Colombia. At the same time, the National Security Agency was carrying out electronic eavesdropping and wiretaps. All these operations were financed with a secret budget of billions of dollars, additionally to the nine billion dollars aid from Plan Colombia.

President Santos, according to the same report, tried to downplay the issue when he was interviewed by that North American newspaper. Minister Pinzón (Defense), on the contrary, had no qualms about openly recognizing it in the media and abate it as part of the traditional military agreements between the two countries. It is clear that neither of them feel the slightest appreciation for Colombian sovereignty, since gringo impositions on drugs and terrorism are more important to them than any consideration of national interest. Not to speak about Colombian General and Admirals; their knees are calloused.

It is not that we didn't know or didn't have any idea about it, but some things do become clearer with the report of the US newspaper. For example, that the columnist Oscar Collazos is completely right when he suggests that the greatest contradiction that generates debate between former Colombian presidents, is about showing which of them is responsible for the major part of killings of their citizens. This debate is also reproduced with clear interest by the Colombian media, which are always so prone to publish and enhance the crimes of the guerrilla, as they are called by such nefarious individuals. We could now parody Senator Piedad Córdoba, when she said that Colombia was a huge mass grave. saying that with the consent of recent governments, Colombia is a victim of the most blatant and unpunished wiretapping on behalf of the intelligence services of a foreign power.

Similarly, the cited report includes disclosures that give the shivers. The article states that according to President Santos “part of the experience and the efficiency of our operations and our special operations were the product of better training and knowledge we have acquired from many countries, including the United States”. This endorses what the report states about the transfer of the American experience in Afghanistan and the struggle against Al Qaeda to the Colombian conflict, ie intelligence procedures including bribery, illegal arrests, disappearances, torture and illegal pressure on people who are expected to give information.

This makes clear that the ongoing degradation of the methods used by Colombian military, police and security forces originates in the instruction and advice given by the Americans. The government of Juan Manuel Santos is aware of the kidnappings, blackmail, death threats and attacks employed by the Colombian intelligence service to obtain, through the families of the guerrilla commanders and fighters, the location of these in order to kill them. Methods that have even been employed against the families of the FARC-EP members of the Peace Delegation in Havana. He also knows perfectly well, because of his time as defense minister under Álvaro Uribe, the true story of the military intelligence that led to the gruesome murder and mutilation of Comrade Iván Ríos.

The analysis of the report also mentions the opportunistic and unilateral interpretations of international law by successive U.S. governments, submissively accepted by Colombian leaders. Mr. Reagan authorized military intervention on behalf of his country in any nation under the pretext of combating drug trafficking; Mr. Clinton authorized the interventions to secure his country's control of strategic resources located anywhere in the world; Mr. Bush acted the same way, under the pretext of preventing what his government qualified as the terrorist threat. All this was enough for the notions of independence, sovereignty and self-determination of people to be put in the museum of history, next to the corpse of the fundamental rights of human beings.

Only such a brazen reign of arbitrariness, born out of brute force, can explain, as corroborated by the report, the aggression of the Colombian military against the sovereignty of Ecuador on March 1, 2008, and the subsequent treacherous murders of Colombian guerrilla comandantes outside of combat, through the use of the cynically called “smart bombs” or the actions of the special forces. The report reveals the efforts of the CIA and the Pentagon to get the reprehensible legal interpretations, with which these crimes are perpetrated. It also exposes the wickedness of the American law schools in which all these new legal theories are cooked and which are responsible for legitimizing terror as a respectable method of political action.

It is true that more brainy scholars may draw many more implications from this report, but in addition to what is already said, we should ask ourselves now, when the discussion on the issue of illicit crops is coming up: What is the true role this oligarchy of vendepatrias (nation-sellers) grants to the peace talks with the FARC-EP, or possible talks with the ELN, when the interests that produce an intensification of the conflict in our country are exposed on national and international level? This report leaves many doubts about the desire for peace by the Colombian state and its imperial boss. Which confirms our idea that a true peace in our country can only be achieved with the massive and decisive participation of the millions of Colombian victims of this regime, who have just suffered one more mockery with the ridicule increase of the minimum wage while the military budget grows geometrically to crush their dissatisfaction.

SECRETARIAT OF THE CENTRAL HIGH COMMAND OF THE FARC-EP Colombian jungle, January 2014, year of the 50th anniversary of our uprising

#Colombia #FARCEP #CIA #NSA #Americas

Observers have known for many years that covert ‘signals intelligence’ gleaned by U.S. spy agencies plays an important part in keeping Colombia’s death squad government in power.

The Post article states, “The secret assistance, which also includes substantial eavesdropping help from the National Security Agency, is funded through a multibillion-dollar black budget. It is not a part of the public $9 billion package of mostly U.S. military aid called Plan Colombia, which began in 2000.”

The article says of the targeted killings, “The covert program in Colombia provides two essential services to the nation’s battle against the FARC and a smaller insurgent group, the National Liberation Army (ELN): Real-time intelligence that allows Colombian forces to hunt down individual FARC leaders and, beginning in 2006, one particularly effective tool with which to kill them. That weapon is a $30,000 GPS guidance kit that transforms a less-than-accurate 500-pound gravity bomb into a highly accurate smart bomb.”

The article states that the outstanding Colombia revolutionary, Raul Reyes, was targeted in these attacks.

In the face of harsh repression by U.S. government and its Colombian puppets, the FARC has continued to hold its own, forcing the Colombian government to join a new round of peace talks in Havana.

#WashingtonDC #InJusticeSystem #FARCEP #Colombia #CIA #NSA #Americas

The U.S. government has been placing intense pressure on governments around the world to deliver Snowden into U.S. custody. Earlier this week, the U.S. government sparked outrage when it prevailed on European countries to force down the plane of Bolivian President Evo Morales, on the grounds that he might be transporting Snowden from Moscow.

Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro announced the asylum offer, saying that the most powerful empire on earth was trying to persecute a young man who has done nothing but tell the truth.

Maduro then went on to say, Who is the terrorist? Governments like ours who offer humanitarian asylum to a young man like Snowden, or the U.S. government who shelters terrorists like airline bomber Luis Posada Carriles or sends bombs to the terrorist opposition is Syria?

Snowden has the support of progressive people across the globe for revealing massive NSA spying operations.

#Venezuela #NicholasMaduro #EdwardSnowden #NSA #Americas

By Prof. Jose Maria Sison Chairperson, International League of Peoples' Struggle

We, the International League of Peoples' Struggle, praise the heroic act of Edward Snowden in exposing PRISM, a secret national security electronic surveillance program operated by the US National Security Agency (NSA) since 2007. We applaud his noble and democratic purpose of making the exposure in order to defend the privacy rights of American citizens and the people of the world.

PRISM is covered by an unconstitutional blanket authority from the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) for the NSA to monitor the phone, email and other communications of US citizens and foreigners and require the world's leading technology companies to provide access to the electronic data. The antecedent of PRISM is the Terrorist Surveillance Program, implemented in the wake of 9-11.

In exposing PRISM, Snowden has provided copies of the classified documents about the program to The Guardian and Washington Post. The documents include 41 Power Point slides and identify the collaborating technology companies, such as Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, Paltalk, YouTube, AOL, Skype and Apple. The NSA intercepts all electronic data that pass into, from and through the US.

The whistleblower, Edward Snowden, is a 29 year-old technology expert and former technical assistant for the CIA, who has worked at the NSA as an employee of various defense contractors, including Booz Allen Hamilton and Dell. He was in a position to access and copy an enormous amount of intelligence documents from the NSA, the most secretive organization in the world.

He is now acknowledged as one of the most consequential whistle blowers in US history, together with Daniel Ellsberg who leaked the Pentagon papers and Bradley Manning who provided Wikileaks with the memoranda and cables to and from the US State Department. In fact, Snowden is now rated as the one who has exposed the most documents about the criminal and anti-democratic acts of the US government.

We admire his principled position and courage in exposing PRISM. He has declared that he stands for the right of the people to privacy and all related democratic rights against the unconstitutional and criminal acts of the state. By daring to fight the No. 1 imperialist power, he has sacrificed his relatively high salary and comfortable life and he is now in danger of being renditioned and even murdered by US covert operatives and their shady partners.

We condemn US imperialism for having laid the legal and electronic infrastructure of a surveillance state and a fascistic executive branch of government. In connection with PRISM, the US has arrogantly claimed that it is out to violate the rights of foreigners and not American citizens. This is a blatant demagogic lie disproven by the classified documents that have come to light.

We stand in solidarity with Edward Snowden and support him all the way in his fight for the democratic rights pf the people against the growing surveillance state in the US and against the criminal arrogance and hegemonism of the US. We are happy that the ILPS chapter and member-organizations in Hongkong and Macao have expressed support for Snowden. We call on all global region committees, national chapters, member-organizations and allies of the ILPS to do likewise and to act militantly in defense of Snowden.

#UnitedStates #US #JoseMariaSison #InjusticeSystem #PRISM #EdwardSnowden #NSA

Minneapolis, MN – More than 50 supporters of civil liberties join a protest at the office of Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar under the slogan, “Say no to NSA surveillance.” The protest was organized by Anti-War Committee and the MN Committee to Stop FBI Repression, and had the backing of the Twin Cites peace and justice community.

It has recently been exposed that the majority, if not all, of U.S. telephone calls are monitored by the NSA (National Security Agency) and have been for seven years. Also, the U.S. government is monitoring emails through a secret NSA program called PRISM. Edward Snowden is the whistleblower who made these revelations possible.

Misty Rowan of the Anti-War Committee told the crowd, “Edward Snowden is a hero for risking his life to shed light on this total surveillance state and sparking this conversation. We should thank him, right after we hold some people in Congress responsible for their actions and their compliance – people like Senator Klobuchar who is on the Senate Judiciary committee but doesn't think we should have been told any of this!”

Both Minnesota Senators, Klobuchar and Al Franken, have told the press that they knew of the NSA surveillance, yet aren’t concerned.

Mick Kelly, of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression said, “All of us should be inspired by the courage and determination of Edward Snowden. He is an example to all of us. The U.S. government is beset by resistance at home and abroad. It is like a frightened giant lashing out with repression and spying.”

Kelly is one of the anti-war and international solidarity activists who were raided by the FBI and called before a grand jury in 2010.

#MinneapolisMN #politicalRepression #NSA #StopFBIRepression #CSFR