Hackers

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SZ International

The Contractor Spies: Hackers for hire and a shadow army

By Bastian Brinkmann, Oliver Hollenstein and Atonius KempmannA soldier and a “Shadow” drone at the U.S. base in Vilseck-Grafenwöhr, GermanyA hacker-for-hire costs the U.S. government $117.99 per hour. If they need more than basic hacking, the American company MacAulay-Brown offers computer specialists from “level 1” to ‘level 4”. But that can run up to $187.30 per hour. And that’s the reduced piece reserved for government contracts, according to the online brochure.The U.S. is spying on the world and can’t keep up with the workload.That’s why the military and intelligence agencies rely so heavily on private contractors. It’s a billion-dollar industry. Large consortiums such as the CSC, L-3 Communications, SAIC and Booz Allen Hamilton have tens of thousands of employees.These companies maintain computer systems for U.S. troops, tend to intelligence databases and sort documents. Sometimes they send “analysts” to summarize raw data for intelligence briefings. All the major private intelligence companies have contracts in Germany (a complete list of all official “intelligence” contracts in Germany is available for download here, extracted from FPDS.gov).Camp GermanyGermany is one of the U.S.’s most important bases. In fiscal year 2012 alone the U.S. spent $3 billion here. That’s more than in Iraq. And more than in South Korea, where the U.S. Army is in a face-off with the enemy to the north.The U.S. uses Germany to fight an enemy very far away. When U.S. predator drones shoot down suspected terrorists in Somalia, those orders come from Stuttgart, Germany. That’s where the U.S. missions in Africa are headquartered. Private contractors are also heavily involved in this drone war. Their agents tend to drone equipment, calibrate lasers and collect information for targeting.The biggest profiteer in this set-up has been SOS International (SOSi for short) who has so far earned $61 million, according to the U.S. database of government contracts. SOSi is currently looking to hire for positions in Darmstadt, Germany—some 32 kilometers, or 20 miles south of Frankfurt. The new hires will focus on geo-data: who is where, when. Which streets do Somalis—among them suspected terrorists—take home in the evening? The kind of information that could be used to target drone attacks. Geospatial analysts transform the satellite signals into bright images—and try to find their target.And the military apparatus bears the consequences.How bad could it get?Just how much the U.S. and Germany rely on private contractors was well illuminated by Caci in 2009. The American group received nearly $40 million to send SIGINT analysts to Germany. SIGINT stands for signal intelligence—information collected from the internet.Caci isn’t your run-of-the-mill company. Its agents were employed in 2003 as interrogators in the U.S. Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Yes, that Abu Ghraib, where later the photos sparking the torture scandal originated. We’ve all seen the images: naked detainees stacked in human pyramids, leashed attack dogs inches from kneeling prisoners and grinning American soldiers.Two investigative reports from the U.S. Army showed the Caci contractors were involved in the abuse. Caci denies it.The disgraceful mess shows just how deeply the contractors are engaged in the U.S.’s dirty wars. Just how many could there be?Every fifth government intelligence worker is actually on the payroll of a private company.This information comes from a secret U.S. intelligence budget, which was made public by whistleblower Edward Snowden. Snowden, who worked for Booz Allen Hamilton until June 2013, is probably the most famous of these contractors. The company performed many IT jobs for the U.S. authorities, giving contractors like Snowden access to highly sensitive documents. Those included information about top-secret operations being performed by the U.S. and the UK.Many contractors have access to the most secretive of secrets.They have access to data collected by government intelligence agencies as well as internal communications. Assignments like these go for top-dollar in Germany. And Caci and their competitor SAIC together have raked in hundreds of millions of dollars here.An integral—albeit outsourced—intelligenceThese private companies were recently looking for developers for the XKeyscore program. After The Guardian revealed that the NSA-run program could record “nearly everything a typical user does on the internet”, including email content, websites visited, searches and metadata—they took the job listing down.The CIA even has their own investment firm to support start-ups, whose technological advancement they could later put to use.Even the highest levels of U.S. intelligence and private contractor personnel are interconnected. The top U.S. intelligence director James C. Clapper got his start at the U.S. military’s Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), then went to work with the contractor Booz Allen Hamilton and eventually returned to a government post as Director of National Intelligence.Private companies—such as Clapper’s former employer—have a lot to profit from special relationships like this.The relationship between private contractors and government agencies is so tight that the contractors now have offices on military bases. Up until a year ago MacAulay-Brown employees worked on the Dagger Complex in Griesheim, Germany. The base acts as a bridgehead for the NSA. The MacAulay-Brown workers shared the same main phone line as the troops stationed there, with their own extension. As though they were part of the team.(photo: Reuters)secretwarsGeheimer Kriegsecret warsThe Secret WarsNSAcontractorsintelligenceedwardsnowdenedward snowdenNov 17th, 2013

What happens when you fly a drone over a secret CIA post?

Spyware on the roof of the U.S. embassy and the U.S. airbase in Grafenwöhr, Germany: The investigative reporters of German broadcaster NDR man a drones to do some spying of their own. Then the police arrive.ciansasecret warsgeheimer kriegdronecscspyingespionageNov 16th, 20131 note

Outsourcing intelligence sinks Germany further into U.S.’s pocket

By Christian Fuchs, John Goetz, Frederik Obermaier and Bastian ObermayerThe CSC’s headquarter in Wiesbaden, GermanyWhen a private company is granted a government contract, it’s a stamp of approval. What about the flipside? What does it say when the government—say, the German government—does business with companies involved in abduction and torture? What does it say when German ministries share IT servicers with the CIA and the NSA? And what does it mean for Germany that those same agencies are involved in projects concerning top-secret material including ID cards, firearms registries and emails in the capitol?NDR (the German public radio and television broadcaster) and Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ, Germany’s leading broadsheet newspaper) are proving that these aren’t just hypothetical questions. Especially when it comes to spying, security and an American contractor called Computer Sciences Corporation, the CSC.Khaled el-Masri sits blindfolded in a container in Kabul. His hands are tied and he can hear a plane engine. It’s a white gulfstream jet. It’s May 28, 2004 and el-Masri has lived through hell. For five months he was tortured while in U.S. custody. He was beaten and humiliated. He received enemas and had to wear diapers. He was drugged and interrogated repeatedly. All this is public knowledge. It eventually became clear—even to the CIA—that they had the wrong man; el-Masri was innocent.That’s where the CSC comes in.The CIA had had good experiences with the company for years, as one of its largest private contractors. The mission: the unrightfully detained prisoners should be unobtrusively removed from Afghanistan. So, the CSC subcontracted a company with a jet. Records from July 2, 2004 show that the CSC paid $11,048.94 to have el-Masri picked up in Kabul, flown in handcuffs to Albania and once there driven to some hinterland and dropped-off. Mission accomplished.Everyone knows about the el-Masri case, but it doesn’t stop the contracts from coming in. The German government continues to give work to the CSC. In the past five years German ministries have given over 100 contracts to the CSC and its subsidiaries. Since 2009 alone, the CSC has earned €25.5 million, some $34.5 million. And since 1990, it’s earned almost €300 million, some $405 million, from its German contracts.We paid a visit to the German headquarters at 1 Abraham Lincoln Park in Wiesbaden, Germany. It’s a modern building made of grey concrete, a little metal and a lot of glass. The receptionists are friendly, but will they talk? No one here wants to talk.The German branch of the CSC was incorporated in 1970. On the CSC’s homepage it states vaguely that the company is a world leader in providing “technology enabled business solutions and services”.In fact, the CSC is a massive company with at least 11 subsidiaries in 16 locations in Germany alone. It’s no coincidence that these locations are often close to U.S. military bases. The CSC and its subsidiaries are part of a secret industry, the military intelligence industry. And they do the work traditionally reserved for the military and intelligence agencies, but for cheaper and under much less scrutiny.Related branches in this industry include security servicers, such as Blackwater (now going by the name Academi). Blackwater is now being legally charged for a massacre in Iraq. And then there’s Caci, whose specialists were allegedly involved in Abu Ghraib and the ‘enhanced interrogation’ methods used there.German CSC operations refuse to be tarnished by their bad reputation in the Middle East. Every year German companies including Allianz, BASF, Commerzbank and Dailmer pay for their services. Mostly they pay for IT consulting. But some German ministries who are among their regular costumers request more than IT help.The CSC’s annual report says nothing abduction. (They don’t advertise that on their homepage either.) For that kind of information you have to read investigative reports or human rights organization statements. And the Ministry of the Interior is quick to say: “Neither the federal government nor the Office of Procurement know of any allegations against the U.S. parent company of CSC Germany.”The first report of the CSC’s involvement in extraordinary rendition flights came out in 2005 in the Boston Globe and then again in 2011 in theGuardian. Since then at least 22 subsequent contracts have been signed, among them a contract to begin a national arms registry.After the abduction and torture of el-Masri, in 2006, the CSC sold its subsidiary Dyncorp. But the CSC remains more involved than ever in American intelligence operations. Thus, the company was part of a consortium that was awarded the so-called Trailblazer project by the NSA. The contract was to build a giant data vacuum, which would have dwarfed the later-developed PRISM program whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed to the world. The program ran over budget, failed and was cancelled altogether. But the CSC continued to be granted contracts.Basically, the CSC is like the IT department for the entire U.S. intelligence apparatus. And this is the company that has been handling German information at the highest of levels security for years.A few examples? The CSC tested the controversial Trojan horse spyware for the Federal Criminal Police Office. It helped the Justice Department implement electronic federal court recordkeeping. It has received several contracts to encrypt government communications.Should Germany be putting so much trust in the CSC, when the company’s more important partner is the U.S. intelligence apparatus?The Federal Ministry of the Interior who awards the framework agreements assures us, “usually there is a clause in the contracts prohibiting confidential information be passed onto third parties.”Somehow, that’s not very assuring.(Photo: Niklas Schenck)Nov 16th, 2013Dear GCHQ, we’re still waiting for your call.A visit to the information hotline of the secret service | NDRThis is what happens when you try to visit a top secret base in the middle of nowhere, England.The strictly guarded Government Communications Headquarters are located secluded somewhere in the south of England. But its observation camera performs a beautiful dance with the reporter.Source: youtu.bewaronterrorsecret warsthe secret warsCIANSANov 15th, 2013

Germany: Ally and Accomplice in U.S. ‘War on Terror’

The U.S. knows no limits. And Germany looks on—even asking where it can helpBy Christian Fuchs, John Goetz, Hans Leyendecker and Frederik ObermaierTapping Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel’s phone would seem like an outrageous breach of trust—except that there have been so many other, deadlier and lesser-known, breaches of trust wrought by the U.S. in Germany in recent years.Where to begin? There’s the worldwide secret drone war—a massive break with international law. Then there’s the large and growing shadow army of private spies. And, finally, the asylum seekers, whose knowledge is unwittingly used to drop bombs in their home countries.The worst part? Germany doesn’t even seem to mind.Since both U.S. and German agencies have answered questions with the same unconvincing reassurances (that their only knowledge of any problem comes from the morning newspaper), a team from Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR, the German public radio and television broadcaster) and Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ, Germany’s leading broadsheet newspaper) has spent the past few months investigating these topics, trying to shine some light on Germany’s dark secrets.A history of complacency Every nation has its threshold of pain. You’d image eavesdropping on Merkel would be one. Since the snooping targeted German domestic and foreign affairs, it’s out-right espionage. But Germany seems determined to ignore this threshold of pain—a long tradition in this country. In the 1980s an American spy leaked more than 13,000 secret documents from the Stasi, East Germany’s much-feared state security agency. The highest quality secrets at the highest level of confidentiality, including more than 4,000 pages of “National Sigint Requirements List” (NSRL). Therein laid a top-secret U.S. government wish list of the countries it would’ve liked to spy on. Many pages were supposedly dedicated to locations within West Germany.“Supposedly” because following this case quickly gets difficult. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the end of the East German government, the documents landed in West Germany. For the German agencies, this could’ve been a unique opportunity to find out what spying the U.S. was up to on German soil.Instead German Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s administration decided not to even look at the documents and simply passed them along to their American friends. No copies could be made. The material—went the reasoning—belonged to the Americans. Was this pure chutzpa? Criminologists call it something else: covering your tracks.By contrast, the attitude of today’s German government seems almost aggressive: They say they have demanded answers about the Merkel phone tapping scandal and the U.S. spying, both from Washington and elsewhere, to no avail.German agencies and politicians have obviously gotten used to American intelligence and military right here in their own backyard: tapping, code cracking, recruiting informants, observing suspects, kidnapping and abducting foreign enemies. The Germans have known all that for years.Military, money and mightSome 43,000 American soldiers are stationed in Germany, operating a total of about 40 military bases, and reportedly storing nuclear weapons on the German airbase in Büchel, southwest Germany. The U.S. spent $3 billion in Germany in 2012. Only in Afghanistan—where there’s a war to finance—does the U.S. spend more money annually. There’s no war in Germany. But where the U.S. army and intelligence agencies once protected the West during the Cold War, they now lead a worldwide secret war—a massive breach of international law.American soldiers—on bases in Ramstein and Stuttgart—are conducting a bloody drone war in Africa from within Germany. First they practice with their 57 drones getting ready for the real thing. When they receive intelligence on potential targets and suspected terrorists, they deliver that information to U.S. intelligence officers, also based in Germany. And these soldiers are responsible when innocent civilians in Africa die as a result. Moral issues aside, the fact remains: without these bases in Germany, the U.S.’s ‘war on terror’ would not be the well-oiled machine it is now. Germany acts as the headquarters for secret wars in Africa, the European hub for CIA operations and the training ground for drone attacks worldwide. And Germany’s location is indispensable.An American intelligence hub is concentrated in the Rhein-Main area around Frankfurt. That’s where the U.S. agents operating on behalf of the CIA, NSA, Secret Service, Homeland Security and other services are based. But it’s no longer the old, familiar story of dubious characters playing their dirty games in Germany. Now there are new players on the scene, even more sinister than before. These people are mathematicians, game theorists, statisticians, and data management experts of all kinds. These people don’t have to bug apartments or hide microphones in offices—they simply listen in on everything. They work for companies that get secret orders to do the dirty work: spying, analyzing, kidnapping and even torture.One in five employees of the monstrous U.S. intelligence apparatus is no longer a state employee. Now they work as “private contractors” technically employed by private companies. Whistleblower Edward Snowden was employed with one of them, until recently.Spies for hireThis eerie shadow army grows larger every year, especially in Germany. All told, Germany has granted 207 American companies special permits to conduct sensitive tasks for the U.S. government on German soil. The intelligence work billed for just in the past five years totals some $90.1 million. Most of the contracts are with the largely unknown SOS International. The American company, founded by an Armenian immigrant and started as a small translation office, now rakes in tens of millions of dollars for its operations in Germany. Their employees are called “Intelligence Analyst”, “Signal Intelligence Analyst” and “Counter Intelligence Operations Planner” in the official database of U.S. government contractors. Simpler put: spies for hire.The exact number of private agents in Germany is hard to determine, but it’s clear from the documents that it’s at least in the hundreds. Unlike the official CIA and NSA employees, these loaner spies are not registered with the German authorities.That begs two questions: Who keeps these private agents in check? And, who would keep them in check, seeing as no one’s really watching the government-registered spies, either?It’s clear that the federal government lost track a long time ago. And the government doesn’t really want to take back the reins. It’s no wonder the U.S. embassy doubles as a nest of spies. And the listening post in the middle of the U.S. embassy in Berlin, from which Merkel’s phone was allegedly tapped, should have been shocking. But a good host doesn’t ask questions—and ignores thresholds of pain.Access, asylum and drone attacksThe arm of the U.S. agencies reaches even farther: the Secret Service and Homeland Security increasingly reserve the right to dictate who can and cannot get on planes at German airports. Sometimes they even arrest suspects themselves. Would a German officer ever do that in the U.S.? Unthinkable.And German intelligence agencies don’t get in the way of their U.S. colleagues’ operations. To the contrary, they fully support them. According to one former Pentagon employee, German authorities systematically provide the U.S. with information from asylum seekers applying to come to Germany. That information is then used by the U.S. to plan drone attacks.Even the smallest detail can be a key piece of the puzzle, when it comes to whether a suspected terrorist should be killed or not by a predator drone attack.The German government left a comprehensive letter of inquiry submitted by NDR and SZ mostly unanswered. An in-depth answer to the questions would reveal details about methods, the government says, “jeopardizing the future ability and performance” of the intelligence agencies.Some of the contractors don’t even work for the NSA or CIA, but rather the German federal ministries. These private companies—some of whom were involved in grave human rights violations—are allowed access to data of the highest levels of German authorities.And we’re to believe they don’t give this intelligence on to their principal employer, the U.S. government—who supplies them with multimillion-dollar contracts?It would be naïve of the German government to believe that, says a former senior NSA agent.Naïve? Well, actually, that fits.(photo by AFP)Nov 15th, 20139 notes

Contagious Courage

An interview with Sarah Harrison of Wikileaks: Julian Assange’s associate and Snowden’s guardian angelBy John Goetz and Bastian ObermayerThere she sits: the woman who has spent the past four months at Edward Snowden’s side. First in Hong Kong, then in Moscow. The two made history and charted new global politics within this short span of time.Sarah Harrison, 31, a journalist and Wikileaks staffer, wears black leggings, a dark grey blouse and a wool cardigan as she sits on an old office chair in a basement meeting place, between file folders, tangled cables, blank CDs and computers. The exact location of the meeting may not be reported. “Sorry,” she says, running her fingers through her hair: “Nothing is very easy at the moment.”Who is this woman, who has spent so much time by Snowden’s side, resisting the pressures of the world power, the United States? Making flight plans and cancelling them again, always on the alert for intelligence agents?Sarah Harrison closes her eyes. She’ll talk, but on the topic of Snowden and his situation in Moscow, she won’t say anything more than what was released in a statement made by Wikileaks on Wednesday.A statement? It’s more of a manifesto. A bit celebratory, as most manifestos are, and a little flat, but quite clear and angry. It begins laconically, “As a journalist, I have spent the last four months with NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and arrived in Germany over the weekend.” It ends: “When whistleblowers come forward we need to fight for them, so others will be encouraged. When they are gagged, we must be their voice. When they are hunted, we must be their shield. When they are locked away, we must free them. Giving us the truth is not a crime. This is our data, our information, our history. We must fight to own it.” What a mission. And then just three words: “Courage is contagious.” What a sentence.The reason for Harrison’s departure from Moscow is simple: Snowden doesn’t need anyone at hand in Moscow anymore. She stayed in Moscow, as she says, as a journalist until it was clear, “he had settled and was free from the influence of any government.” What’s certain is: without Wikileak’s Harrison, Snowden would now be sitting in a U.S. prison. There was simply no one in the world who was willing or able to help him. Not his allies Glenn Greenwald or Laura Poitras. Not The Guardian. No one. Wikileak’s Harrison is the only one, even though Wikileaks apparently hasn’t received a single document from Snowden’s trove.Back onto the world stageFor Wikileaks, Snowden’s request for assistance was a matter of principle: Whistleblowers should be protected. But the action also helped changed public perception of the organization. You have to remember that Wikileaks was already considered a failure by many. The boycott of the credit card company Visa and the resulting money problems, an extradition battle in Sweden, the internal disputes—all painted a not-so-reassuring image. The fight for Snowden catapulted Wikileaks back onto the world stage. And Wikileaks got a new face, that of Sarah Harrison, Edward Snowden’s mysterious companion, his “guardian angel” as she was called in the newspapers. For four months she was his protector and the liaison for both the most influential digital dissidents of our time: Edward Snowden and Julian Assange.So, who is Sarah Harrison - Snowden’s saviour, the young woman now living in Berlin?Firstly, she’s a smart, educated 31-year-old Englishwoman from Kent county. A woman who works as an editor for Wikileaks around the clock, regardless of her location, sending emails and chatting online. Does she ever sleep? “If there’s time,” she says and shrugs.There was no thought of sleep in June as she sat in Hong Kong with Snowden as they considered whether he should try to abandon Hong Kong— even as he was bracing himself for prison; even as the lawyers were telling him to accept it; even as all others involved had said their goodbyes, as it was considered too dangerous to be involved with the slight, pale Edward Snowden.But Wikileaks knew then that both Hong Kong and China wanted to get out of the game. They also knew his arrest was nearing.It was the evening of Snowden’s thirtieth birthday, June 21. In his hiding place - a private apartment in Hong Kong - Snowden, Harrison and a few lawyers consulted over pizza and chicken wings. In the end, the decision was to get out of Honk Kong before it was too late, and Wikileaks and Harrison got started. First gaining an entry clearance from Ecuador and plane tickets, then an informal offer of asylum, they played out all the possibilities. They decided Harrison would fly with Snowden, putting her own safety and future at stake by shepherding public enemy number one.A heroine? Is that the right word for her? In any case, it was a momentous decision for Harrison and the reason she is in Berlin now and not in London. She has no idea if and when she can ever go home.When British police took Glenn Greenwald’s partner into custody for several hours of questioning at the London airport the reason given was, “involvement in terrorism”—as was cited in the publically available court documents.Terrorism? If that’s the accusation used by police for a journalist’s partner, then what accusations await someone who protected a whistleblower?Harrison thinks for a long moment. She crosses her arms, and then her legs. Julian Assange once said in a TV interview that he doesn’t worry about Edward Snowden much anymore, as Snowden has received temporary asylum. He worries much more about the safety of Sarah Harrison. The lawyers recommend that she not enter the UK any time soon. “There are many legal issues that are still unresolved,” Harrison says cautiously. It’s a difficult topic.Harrison is even less likely to go to the U.S., where there are active proceedings against Wikileaks. Harrison’s name maybe among them. The prospect of a prison sentence many times over your life expectancy would make anyone afraid. But what drives this young woman to push beyond that fear? She says, “That’s exactly why I don’t want to stop what I’m doing. Because they want to intimidate me.” She sits up straight and concentrates. “If that’s how they react when we shine light on the truth, a truth that concerns them, that makes their transgressions public, then it has the opposite effect on me. Then I will certainly continue. Not without reflection. But out of principle.”What a speech, in this small basement.The urge to change things was one she had early on. As a 10-year-old she wrote a desperate letter to then Prime Minister John Major urging him to fix the problem of homelessness in the country. Her idea was: if you pay for homeless people to build houses in which they could live, they would have both a job and a roof over their heads. The Prime Minister politely answered, thanking her for the suggestion.Idealism meets self-ironySarah Harrison comes from a middle-class home. Her mother, Jennifer, committed herself to helping children with learning disorders and her father, Ian, was a successful entrepreneur. They sent their daughter to a private school and later a good university where she studied English literature. Sarah was an excellent student and a talented athlete.The fact that she has since been on a rather unusual path doesn’t bother her parents at all. On the contrary, they seem quite proud, even if they worry about her a lot. “She has done nothing wrong,” Sarah’s parents wrote Süddeutsche Zeitung in an email, “and we are ready to fight for her rights, if that’s what she wants, and if she needs us.”Harrison’s parents would be much less afraid if Sarah had stuck with her original plan to become a doctor. “I liked the scientific work, the precise research, the inclusion of data analysis,” she says. But when she realized she could only help relatively few patients as a doctor, she became disillusioned. “That’s not very efficient if you really want to save the whole world,” Harrison says, grinning. Idealism meets self-irony. Even in the dimly lit basement you can see a little mocking pleasure in her eyes.A global approach to saving the world fits well with Wikileak’s founder Assange and his ideas. And you can’t deny he has already changed the world we live in quite significantly. Sarah Harrison first came to Wikileaks while she worked at the Bureau of Investigative Jounralism in London. “Wikileaks is, for me, the perfect combination,” she says. “Researching, writing, travel, adventure.” She laughs. The greatest adventure of her life may already be behind her; what could beat 39 days in the Moscow airport?When Harrison arrived in Moscow with Snowden in June, she was no longer a beginner or merely an aide that Assange could easily do without. At that point she was an important member of the editorial team. Assange listens to her advice and the two are friends.In the last few years Harrison has been involved not only in all major Wikileaks revelations, she led complicated investigations, configured databases for document analysis and dealt with encrypted data.Harrison already has experience with hasty escapes, asylum negotiations and methods we only know from spy movies. To stave off agents following Assange, she disguised him with make-up and a fake beard, transforming him into his lawyer, and turned his lawyer into Assange, complete with white wig and leather jacket. They switched cars all along the way through London, intermittently walking a stretch to throw off potential followers.A few years later, Harrison is now the connection between Assange and Snowden—two men who find themselves in strikingly similar circumstances: Edward Snowden somewhere in Russia and Julian Assange in a room in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. Only one character is missing from their virtual rebel house (they have contact through encrypted chats), and that is whistleblower Chelsea Manning, formerly known as Bradley Manning. But she will not be able to log on from her U.S. prison cell anytime in the foreseeable future. Manning acts as a living memorial to Assange, Snowden and Harrison; a permanent reminder of how serious the U.S. is.What an absurd situation we have here: Russia on the right side of an international moral issue.And Germany? If Snowden made his way to Germany, he would probably be extradited within days if the government had its way. In Moscow, Harrison was the only one who knew Snowden from before. She was also the only one he could trust from the beginning. She was his “shepherd, friend, protector and constant companion, all at the same time,” says Jesselyn Radack, a U.S. lawyer who has also written a whistleblower story and who visited Snowden and Harrison in Moscow. The German delegation led by German lawmaker Hans-Christian Ströbele met an alert Sarah Harrison who had eyes and ears on everything. Harrison made sure not one wrong word left the room. Because one wrong word can destroy everything and put Snowden in even more danger. She explained concepts Snowden mentioned to the less technically savvy, patiently rephrasing: “As Edward just said…”But Harrison is just one of the protagonists in the Snowden saga. Better known characters are Glenn Greenwald, the former Guardian columnist, Laura Poitras, the upstanding filmmaker, and of course Edward Snowden, the courageous whistleblower. They are the three dissidents. The material Snowden procured and Poitras and Greenwald distributed has shaken the world. Leaders from France to Brazil are now calling for apologies from the U.S. Even Germans, after a lot of struggle and discussion, find the whole thing outrageous.Poitras and Greenwald have determined the course of events. Snowden handed them his entire trove of material and they decided what documents to publish, where and when. Poitras and Greenwald, at least in the public eye, have disconnected themselves from Snowden. Though they are in contact with him, and publically support him, they have gone their own ways.It was just announced that they are both involved in Internet multimillionaire Pierre Omidyar’s new media venture. The eBay founder plans to create a $250-million portal for independent journalism, with Greenwald and Poitras as its stars.Snowden was, however, their ticket.No accusations. The world just continues to turn, unless you’re stuck somewhere in Moscow. His former allies’ agendas could very well support those of the whistleblower. But his agenda has changed. His agenda, above all, is not to be locked up for life. To find a country that will take him for the long-term. A country where he can stay alive.Sarah Harrison was the only person left after those hectic days in Hong Kong. The last woman standing. And in the past few days that period has come to an end.Of course, Snowden knows many are on his side; among them Assange and the millions of fans worldwide. But none of that helps much when you’re alone, and need someone you can really talk to about thingsabout all the crap that passes by the window looking out onto the world.Sarah, what’ll happen now? Sarah?Sarah Harrison will continue the fight, as she writes in her statement. If she has doubts about her actions, or her means or the meaning of it all, she hides it well. Or maybe she hasn’t yet found herself. “I firmly believe this is the right thing to do,” she says in the dim basement just before the conversation ends. It’s still unclear where she will live or work in the long run. Berlin would make sense. Berlin is where Poitras met with Greenwald’s partner for a document hand-off. Berlin is where a large faction of the hacker community is established, where the computer nerds of the Chaos Computer Club, the Wau Holland Foundation, the Telecomix activists and the hacker and political activist Jacob Appelbaum all are.But will they remain there for long?Only one thing is certain: Harrison will not fall back into line as an anonymous Wikileaks staffer. Anyone who saw her in action in Moscow—polite, cautious, yet determined—would have no doubt about that.For many reasons, Assange’s people remain mostly unseen. Not only because the press shines such a strong light on Assange—the tall charismatic one who has made many enemies—but also because it’s usually more comfortable to live in his shadow. It’s less dangerous there, but also quieter.“In fact, the media attention is new for me,” says Harrison, but, “I’m trying to get used to it.” She smiles.  She’ll need that in order to keep sane; get used to it, and smile.wikileaksnsaleaksjulianassangesarahharrisonglenngreenwaldlaurapoitraswhistlebloweredwardsnowdenNov 10th, 201317 notes

The Drone Wars: Modern Battlefield Tool Or International War Crime?

By Matthias Kolb und Ronen SteinkeThe U.S. government has come in for severe criticism about its use of drones, as many claim that it is violating one of the central tenets of international humanitarian law: Under no circumstances should civilians be the target of military operations. Any country that deliberately crosses that line is guilty of war crimes.Admittedly, this principle dates back to the 20th century, a time when wars were fought between two armies on a battlefield. Back then it was clear who counted as a soldier. Anyone wearing a uniform was a legitimate target. Anyone else was not.In modern warfare, however, there are no clearly defined battlefields. Conventional armies fight an opposition that makes bombs in the basements of residential buildings. The line between combatant and civilian is becoming increasingly blurred. Even the International Committee of the Red Cross says that the U.S. is justified in attacking “irregular combatants” — farmers who strap on a rifle or students who are drawn into jihad for a few months. The important distinction is that the target must have a sustained involvement.Washington’s approach to defining combatants has come in for heavy criticism in recent years. All men who have had contact with a known terrorist are “automatically” designated as combatants. U.S. journalist Jeremy Scahill writes in his book Dirty Wars that in certain regions of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen, the U.S. military classifies every man between 16 and 60 as a potential terrorist. “The number of civilian deaths in drone attacks is small because by definition there are very few civilians,” Scahill says.One thing is clear, however. Technological developments that allow drones to be more precise in targeting attacks are a positive development for international law. Indeed, this fact is what American officials emphasize in defending the use of drones. Though greater precision often allows the military to differentiate more clearly between combatants and civilians, tragedies still happen.Unintended targetsMahama Bibi was picking okra in her family’s field when she was killed by two Hellfire missiles on Oct. 24, 2012. Her three grandchildren were with her as she was torn apart by an American drone attack. Nabeela, 8, and Asma, 7, were also injured. Only Naeema, 5, was physically unharmed, but all three were traumatized. Another grandchild was wounded by a second attack that followed minutes later.The death of the 68-year-old grandmother is just one of the shocking cases of civilian casualties from U.S. drone strikes described in Amnesty International’s recent report “Will I be next?” The human rights organization claims that there are no terrorists in Mahama Bibi’s family. Her husband used to be a teacher and three of her sons are also teachers. “We are normal people,” says one son, Rafeequl Bibi.According to Amnesty’s research, the Pakistani secret service was convinced that a Taliban fighter had been glimpsed in a street near Bibi’s house shortly before the attack. Even if this was the case, the nearest street is more than 280 meters away from the family’s home.For its report, Amnesty researched 45 drone attacks that took place between January 2012 and August 2013 in the mountainous region of North Waziristan. It cites another example from July 2012, when 18 civilians in Zowi Sigdi came under attack from the skies as they sat down to eat together. Amnesty claims that although they “represented no threat,” the official U.S. report classified them as combatants.Amnesty International estimates that there have been between 400 and 900 Pakistani civilians killed in drone attacks since 2004, while at least 600 civilians have been “seriously wounded.” UN special rapporteur Ben Emmerson gives the number of victims in Pakistan alone as at least 2,200. Amnesty’s report criticizes Pakistan’s government for its “silent support” of the U.S. drone program but also blames Australia, the UK and Germany for making the attacks possible. On a recent visit to Washington, Pakistani President Nawaz Sharif called for an end to drone strikes, a subject the UN General Assembly has also debated. Though President Barack Obama has defended them, there’s no doubt that the use of drones raises uncomfortable questions for a democratic leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. (Translation by WorldCrunch, photo by Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP)Nov 8th, 20132 notes

Stash Of Nazi-Stolen Art Is About More Than Just Billions

By Thomas SteinfeldThe 1,500 artworks found this week in Munich and seized by the authorities have been described as a “rediscovered treasure.” It is an apt description.By all accounts, there is a dramatic story behind this historic cache of art missing since the Third Reich, a tale of a modern-day lair and an eccentric old man. It has also been reported that a pair of hardy policemen stumbled upon the trail that led to this buried treasure, whose value is quite simply immeasurable. A figure of one billion euros is being thrown around, but as only a very small number of the works have been identified, the value could turn out to climb far higher.Germany has made efforts to compensate many of those who had their property confiscated during the Third Reich. The government has tried to right the wrongs when it comes to the Prussian manors and “Aryanized” department stores, pension claims and forced labor. Although those affected know that there can be no true compensation for the pain inflicted, the financial payments have been agesture towards reconciliation. History has largely done its work and time has passed, more than the 60 years that Sir Walter Scott once claimed to be the ideal interval for a historical novel.However, when it comes to art the rules are different. Every demand for the restitution of an artwork that was stolen or confiscated during the Third Reich has the potential for scandal. That is because every work of art is unique and irreplaceable and, ironically, art can never truly be owned, a peculiarity that makes it all the more desirable.But it is also simply because the value of artworks, especially modern art, has increased dramatically over the last 40 years. And the fact that the history of modern art is so closely tied to the history of Jewish artists and art dealers makes this betrayal all the more shameful.Highly complex legal situationA treasure has been found inMunich and the authorities seem to have cast themselves as its new protectors. This has led Berlin art lawyer Peter Raue to demand that a complete list of the discovered works be published immediately. The authorities have replied that they are in the middle of an ongoing trial and therefore cannot reveal the individual works involved.It sounds like there is another chapter still to come in this story. But the authorities’ approach is correct, as the legal situation is highly complex. Some of the artworks discovered in this cache were not taken from private owners. They come from the “Degenerate Art” exhibition organized by the Third Reich with the aim of turning the German people against modern art movements that were considered un-German or Jewish Bolshevist. This involved taking exhibits from many museums, so the works did not belong to artists, art dealers or private collectors.More than a treasureThe Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-confiscated Art are binding for museums but not for private owners. Under certain circumstances, the latter can legally own confiscated artworks. Therefore it is not only 1,500 paintings that have been discovered, but also the potential for hundreds or even thousands of legal battles, which could stretch out for decades.Whether the discovery in Munich came about by chance or was the result of a tip-off, it represents far more than a few precious paintings. It is a story of theskyrocketing value of art in a time of increasing financial prosperity. It is a story of the shameful treatment of Jewish artists, art dealers and collectors, which will not be forgotten. It is a story of the fundamental distinction between public and private ownership. And it is a story of the Third Reich, a period that is just now beginning to fade into history.(Translation by WorldCrunch, photo of Franz Marc’s “Pferde in Landschaft” provided by Reuters)Nov 6th, 2013

In Fractured Turkey, Wave Of Nostalgia For Founding Father

By Christiane SchlötzerWhen the Turkish Republic was founded 90 years ago, then-President Kemal Atatürk’s wife Latife met the Italian ambassador at a reception in Ankara and asked him about the state of feminism in his country. The diplomat replied that for Italian women feminism meant marrying and providing their husbands with healthy offspring.“What an outdated idea,” Latife replied.This exchange — recounted by Latife’s biographer Ipek Calislar — was only made possible by the young woman’s courage and the revolutionary ideas of her husband, who not only did away with the Ottoman Empire’s segregation of the sexes but also with the Empire itself.In 1918, Atatürk wrote in his journal, “We have to be bold when it comes to the question of women.” At that time, the man who five years later would found the Turkish Republic, was on one of his few trips abroad to a spa in Karlsbad. Between mud baths and swimming, the general watched the “fine, beautiful women” dancing the four step with men in tuxedos. He wrote in his journal, “If I am entrusted with power, I think I must immediately introduce the desired changes in our society.”Born in 1881 in Selanik, modern-day Thessaloniki, Atatürk felt from a young age that he was called to greatness. His political ambitions and military skill came together at the right moment to spell the end for the reign of the sultans and caliphs. From his base in eastern Anatolia, Atatürk organized the uprising against the Western troops who had set their sights on the remains of the Ottoman Empire after World War I. Greek attempts to expand into the region were similarly defeated in the Turkish War of Independence.The Peace of Lausanne guaranteed Turkey secure borders, but it also uprooted 1.25 million Greeks and 500,000 Muslims from their homes in a “population exchange” approved by the West. On Oct. 29, children and grandchildren of the exiles recently sailed from Istanbul to Thessaloniki in a gesture of friendship and reconciliation.Atatürk chose the dusty Anatolian city of Ankara as his capital, symbolizing a break with the extravagance of the sultans. It spelled the end for the harem, the veil and the fez. Latife appeared beside her husband with her hair cut into a boyish bob.Headscarves increasingly politicizedOn the evening of Oct. 29, the presidential palace in Ankara welcomed international diplomats to celebrate the republic’s anniversary. It would be no surprise if the current president’s wife should find herself chatting with the Italian ambassador, as Hayrünnisa Gül is a pioneer in her own right. She is the first Turkish president’s wife to go to the European courts to demand the right to wear an Islamic headscarf.Indeed, clothing has been a controversial topic in Turkey for 90 years, and the bewildering contradictions in daily life have their roots in the founding of the republic. Atatürk was suspicious of religion and banned Islamists, sending them underground and causing deep divisions in society.Secularism is at the heart of Kemalism — Atatürk’s political ideology — but in the past it has been used by the Turkish elite as a means of privileging the Sunni religion to the detriment of the Alevi and Christian minorities.But Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan is making changes in this area. He argues that his government guarantees rights for all, including those with religious convictions, and one of his main achievements has been lifting the ban on women in headscarves teaching in public schools.The headscarf is a flashpoint in Turkish politics, but among the younger generation it does not cause such division. The secular protesters in Gezi — dismissed by ErdoÄŸan as hooligans — protected praying Muslims from the police, and pious women sat down to eat on the grass with non-believers.Deep divisionsAtatürk sought an emphatic break with the Ottoman Empire. He encouraged Turkish nationalism and introduced the Latin alphabet, producing a generation who were unable to read historical texts. His reasoning, according to his biographer Klaus Kreiser, was that the Turkish state “would be modern and progressive or would not exist.”After Atatürk’s death in 1938, his successor built a grand mausoleum in Ankara, a marble testament to his political legacy. Now many Turks are turning back to their nation’s founding father amid political tensions, but that does not necessarily mean a renaissance for the old Kemalism.The Republican People’s Party (CHP), founded in 1923 and currently the largest opposition party in government, has so far been unable to profit from the mood of political unrest that erupted in Gezi Park. When the protesters held up Atatürk posters amid a fog of tear gas, they were searching for stability in a changing world. As negotiations for EU membership have stalled, Europe has lost its appeal for many young Turks and instead they now take pride in their own country, despite its problems. Atatürk, whose adopted surname means “Father of the Turks,” is the perfect symbol to grasp for.In 1925, Atatürk and Latife divorced. Her younger brother Münci thinks that the reason was that Latife did not show her husband the respect he demanded. “My sister was a great woman,” he says. “But she treated him like any other man.”In the end, perhaps Latife proved too revolutionary for Atatürk. (Translation by WorldCrunch, photo by Reuters)Nov 2nd, 2013

Snowden tells Süddeutsche: “I have no regrets”

He started the NSA revelations: The whistleblower Edward Snowden met Hans-Christian Ströbele, member of the German parliament and the Green party, on Thursday in Moscow. Ströbele was accompanied by two German reporters, John Goetz, working for Süddeutsche Zeitung and public broadcaster ARD-Panorama, and Georg Mascolo, former editor-in-chief of Der Spiegel. Goetz summarizes the most important quotes.Do you regret the revelations?The consequence of doing the right thing is that I have no regrets.Which disadvantages hurt you the most? The cost of my action has been the loss of real and regular contact with my family and loved ones.Why don’t you give interviews concerning the content of the NSA documents? Independent journalists and experts should make their own judgments about what the documents show.How do you see your merits? I may have started this, but it is journalists, politicians, technical experts and ordinary citizens who will decide how much we benefit from this.How do you react to the accusations that you are damaging the US administration?What helps the US public and the public in other countries also helps the government of the United States.Why are younevertheless being prosecuted?The US government wants to set an example: if you [tell the truth], we will destroy you.Why did you not trust the internal control mechanisms of the NSA? In light of the recent stories about NSA espionage resulting from presidential order 12333 [without being specifically briefed to all members of the intelligence committees], it is clear that the NSA is avoiding oversight. It is even more important that a congressional investigation like the Church Committee finally looks into what is being done in our name.(German version here. Photo credit: dpa)Nov 1st, 20132 notes