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A landmark ruling in one of the many mass-BitTorrent lawsuits in the US has delivered a severe blow to a thus far lucrative business. Among other things, New York Judge Gary Brown explains in great detail why an IP-address is not sufficient evidence to identify copyright infringers. According to the Judge this lack of specific evidence means that many alleged BitTorrent pirates have been wrongfully accused by copyright holders.

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Over the last few years, we’ve noticed that nearly every victory the FBI celebrates against terrorism is actually about stopping its own terrorist plots that it feeds to hapless individuals, often nudging them and pushing them down the road to “become” terrorists, despite commonly displaying little to no aptitude for actual terrorism.

Add the NY Times to the newspapers who are beginning to question the FBI’s penchant for setting up its own plots for the sake of a high profile arrest of some clueless individuals.

The United States has been narrowly saved from lethal terrorist plots in recent years – or so it has seemed. A would-be suicide bomber was intercepted on his way to the Capitol; a scheme to bomb synagogues and shoot Stinger missiles at military aircraft was developed by men in Newburgh, N.Y.; and a fanciful idea to fly explosive-laden model planes into the Pentagon and the Capitol was hatched in Massachusetts.

But all these dramas were facilitated by the F.B.I., whose undercover agents and informers posed as terrorists offering a dummy missile, fake C-4 explosives, a disarmed suicide vest and rudimentary training. Suspects naïvely played their parts until they were arrested.

As the article makes clear, claims of entrapment rarely work in these cases, but it certainly raises questions about whether the FBI is actually protecting us from real plots or spending time creating publicity stunts that leave some people in jail. No doubt, some of these setups bust people who could potentially be interested in taking part in attacks if they had any real opportunity to do so. But, in most cases, it doesn’t seem like they would ever have the opportunity (unless the FBI was helping). In one case, the judge — even as she was sentencing the guy to decades in prison — admitted that the guy wouldn’t be a “terrorist” if it weren’t for the FBI:

“Only the government could have made a ‘terrorist’ out of Mr. Cromitie, whose buffoonery is positively Shakespearean in its scope….”

This is the same guy who laughed at earlier attempts by an FBI informant to get him to get involved in a plot.

There’s no doubt that there are real plots being attempted. But wouldn’t the FBI be better off focusing on those, rather than play acting all the time?

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US firm KBR, which helped build detention camp, among consortiums bidding to run police services in West Midlands and Surrey.

A US Pentagon contractor that was involved in building Guantánamo Bay is on a shortlist of private consortiums bidding for a £1.5bn contractto run key policing services in the West Midlands and Surrey.

The Texas-based Kellogg Brown & Root, which was sold off by the controversial Halliburton corporation in 2007, is part of a consortium which has made it to the final shortlist for a contract that will see large-scale involvement of the private sector in British policing for the first time.

When KBR was still part of Halliburton it won a large share of Pentagon contracts to build and manage US military bases in Iraq after the 2003 invasion. Its former chief executive, Dick Cheney, was US vice-president.

The Guardian has learned that 15 groups of companies and individual firms have made it on to the most recent shortlist. More than 200 firms initially expressed an interest at a “bidders’ conference” held in March.

The list includes several private security companies that are already involved in running private prisons, escorting and deporting prisoners or providing other criminal justice services.

Chris Sims, the West Midlands chief constable, told the FT last month that his force was a good testing ground for fundamental change as he battles to find £126m of budget savings. He said that the armed forces had already embraced a greater role for the private sector more fully than the police without sparking uproar.

Sims cited the KBR as one example as the Texas company employs the large contingent of civilian staff managing the British Camp Bastion in Afghanistan.

A KBR spokesman has confirmed to the Times its interest in the West Midlands/Surrey contract: “KBR is not involved in policing, our objective in the privatisation of the police force is to get more police doing actual police work while KBR brings operational efficiencies to the back office with the objective of achieving an overall lower cost of service while improving service levels,” said a spokesman. “We are an operational support company whose capabilities are transferable to critical, uniformed, command-led environments such as the police.”

A joint statement by the West Midlands and Surrey forces said they were still in the early stages of the procurement process: “There are a number of commercial organisations expressing an interest in working in partnership. It is inappropriate at this time to comment on the interests of these organisations.”

But the disclosure raised fears among critics that the contract is close to privatising core elements of policing: “This is the latest move that seems to be designed to make the police more and more remote from the public we serve,” said Julie Nesbit of the Police Federation.

“We believe simply that if you call a cop, you should get a cop, not a security guard, not a uniformed civilian nor an employee of a major international conglomerate. We believe it’s what the public expect and believe that there should be a public debate before parts of the police service are sold off to the highest bidder.”

Derek Barnett, president of the Police Superintendents’ Association, called for greater public consultation over moves towards privatisation. “The legitimacy of policing stems from the fact that it takes place with the consent of the public,” he said. “It is only right, therefore, that the public should have a say in who they want to deliver operational policing services.”

Unite national officer Peter Allenson said there was a lack of awareness among the public about the proposals.

“The police are fundamental to the society we live in. This is an issue of major importance, yet the government are pushing through privatisation at breakneck speed without proper public consultation.”

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The Drug Enforcement Administration has apologized to a college student that was left handcuffed in a holding cell for nearly five days without food or water.

DEA San Diego Acting Special Agent-In-Charge William R. Sherman said in a statement to theAssociated Press that he extended his “deepest apologies” to 24-year-old Daniel Chong, an engineering student at UC San Diego. The DEA is investigating the incident.

Chong was arrested along with eight other people during a drug raid on April 21. DEA agents reportedly seized a large amount of drugs and some weapons.

 

Seven of those arrested were taken to jail and one was released. Chong was not charged with a crime and should have been released as well. However, he was left handcuffed in a 5 ft. by 10 ft. holding cell.

Chong said he screamed and kicked the door, but to no avail. He said he could hear DEA workers walking around outside the cell.

“I kicked the door many, many times,” he explained during a press conference. “Even my [cell] neighbors were getting annoyed, telling me to shut up.”

Eventually, he began hallucinating and drank his own urine in hopes of staying hydrated. After days without any human contact, he tried to kill himself by breaking his glasses with his teeth, and using the glass to cut himself.

Surprisingly, Chong found a bag of methamphetamine in the holding cell, which he ingested out of hunger and because he wanted to stay awake. DEA agents said the bag was left in the cell accidentally.

After five days, a DEA worker heard noises coming from the holding cell and discovered him. Chong was taken to the hospital, where he spent three days in the intensive care unit.

During a press conference, Chong thanked that hospital workers who helped him recover.

He plans to take legal action against the federal government.

“The DEA’s answer to this is: ‘Oh, we forgot about him. I’m sorry,’” his lawyer said. “He nearly died. If he had been there another 12 to 24 hours he probably would have died.”

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A US Pentagon contractor that was involved in building Guantánamo Bay is on a shortlist of private consortiums bidding for a £1.5bn contract to run key policing services in the West Midlands and Surrey.

The Texas-based Kellogg Brown & Root, which was sold off by the controversial Halliburton corporation in 2007, is part of a consortium which has made it to the final shortlist for a contract that will see large-scale involvement of the private sector in British policing for the first time.

The UK government seems to have a checklist titled “Worst Possible Decisions” and is working its way down…

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The bottom line: The F-35 is not the wonder its advocates claim. It is a gigantic performance disappointment, and in some respects a step backward. The problems, integral to the design, cannot be fixed without starting from a clean sheet of paper.

It’s time for Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, the U.S. military services, and Congress to face the facts: The F-35 is an unaffordable mediocrity, and the program will not be fixed by any combination of hardware tweaks or cost-control projects. There is only one thing to do with the F-35: Junk it. America’s air forces deserve a much better aircraft, and the taxpayers deserve a much cheaper one. The dustbin awaits.

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The Catholic primate of all-Ireland has said that he will not resign as Church leader despite revelations in the BBC’s This World programme.

It found Cardinal Sean Brady had names and addresses of those being abused by paedophile priest Brendan Smyth.

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“The commentary in the programme and much of the coverage of my role in this inquiry gives the impression that I was the only person who knew of the allegations against Brendan Smyth at that time and that because of the office I hold in the Church today I somehow had the power to stop Brendan Smyth in 1975.

“I had absolutely no authority over Brendan Smyth. Even my Bishop had limited authority over him. The only people who had authority within the Church to stop Brendan Smyth from having contact with children were his Abbot in the Monastery in Kilnacrott and his Religious Superiors in the Norbertine Order.”

No, you stupid fuck. The people with authority to do something about this are the police. After all this you still think of it as an internal church matter? You ARE the problem. Who gives a shit what the “Religious Superiors in the Norbertine Order” think, it’s the cops that needed the info you had, and you failed. Child abuse is not an ecumenical matter. You covered up for serial child rape, and you shouldn’t just resign over that, you should go to jail.

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“We reported a true story,” he said. “That’s why I’m no longer with CBS News.”

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Last week the UK High Court ruled that several of the country’s leading ISPs must block subscriber access to The Pirate Bay. The decision is designed to limit traffic to the world’s leading BitTorrent site but in the short-term it had the opposite effect. Yesterday, The Pirate Bay had 12 million more visitors than it has ever had, providing a golden opportunity to educate users on how to circumvent blocks. “We should write a thank you letter to the BPI,” a site insider told TorrentFreak.

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The Koch Brothers group Americans for Prosperity has launched a $6.1 million ad attacking President Obama. You can tell they are prosperous when they spend over $6 million on one ad. In fact, this is now the second time Americans for Prosperity has spent around $6 million on an attack ad against the president.

The Obama response:

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Nance paraphrased the remarks, as told to him by those who were present: “During the conversation, Ms. Brunstetter said her husband was the architect of Amendment 1, and one of the reasons he wrote it was to protect the Caucasian race. She said Caucasians or whites created this country. We wrote the Constitution. This is about protecting the Constitution. There already is a law on the books against same-sex marriage, but this protects the Constitution from activist judges.”

Nance said he recruited a friend, who works for the Coalition to Protect All North Carolina Families, to witness his interview with Jodie Brunstetter. He said Brunstetter reluctantly acknowledged that she had used the term “Caucasian” and then repeated the statement previously attributed to her, but substituted the pronoun “we” for “Caucasian. Nance said Brunstetter insisted there was nothing racial about her remarks, but could not explain why she used the term “Caucasian.”

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For months, the technology world has wondered when — not if — Amazon would get into original TV programing by soliciting scripts and beefing up its nascent in-house staff. Now, it’s official: Amazon (AMZN) will produce original television content.

On Wednesday, the company announced its intentions to develop original comedy and children shows that will be distributed by way of its online streaming service, Amazon Instant Video. “Amazon Studios wants to discover great talent and produce programming that audiences will love,” Roy Price, director of Amazon Studios, said in a release. “In the course of developing movies, we’ve heard a lot of interest from content creators who want to develop original series in the comedy and children’s genres. We are excited to bring writers, animators and directors this new opportunity to develop original series.”

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So I guess this means the Justice Department is about to investigate Apple TV.

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FlyRights is a smartphone app designed to provide a quick and easy way to report complaints of air travel harassment, profiling, and discrimination. Within the first ten hours of its launch, FlyRights had fielded two complaints of harassment and profiling. By contrast, the DHS’s report to Congress on civil rights and civil liberties listed only 11 complaints in the first six months of 2011. FlyRights was designed by the Sikh Coalition, the nation’s largest Sikh civil rights organization.