(CBS) “60 Minutes” has obtained an FBI videotape showing a Defense Department employee selling secrets to a Chinese spy for cash. The video, which has never been made public before, offers a rare glimpse into the secretive world of espionage and illustrates how China’s spying may now pose the biggest espionage threat to the U.S. China may be the number-one espionage threat now. “The Chinese are the biggest problem we have with respect to the level of effort that they’re devoting against us, versus the level of attention we are giving to them,” says Michelle Van Cleave, once America’s top counter-intelligence officer who coordinated the hunt for foreign spies from 2003 to 2006.

“Definitely, without a doubt,” the Chinese focus most of their espionage on the U.S., says Fengzhi Li, who once recruited spies for China’s Ministry of State Security and is now in the U.S. seeking asylum. In the videotape obtained by “60 Minutes”, Gregg Bergersen, a civilian Pentagon worker with a high-security clearance, is shown taking money, about $2,000, from the Chinese spy, Tai Shen Kuo.

I hope it was worth the 2,000 dollars, schmuck.


AUSTRALIA yesterday warned Israel its standing as a friend would be jeopardised if it were found to have condoned the suspected theft of three Australian citizens’ identities by its Mossad spy agency to carry out a political assassination.

As [Prime Minister] Kevin Rudd demanded answers over Israel’s role in the growing international scandal – and ASIO and the Australian Federal Police launched investigations – it was revealed that Australia had previously warned Israel not to use fake Australian passports for intelligence operations.

A diplomatic row broke out yesterday when three Victorians, all living in Israel, were confirmed among 26 people from four nations whose tampered passports were allegedly used by a team of suspected Israeli Mossad agents who assassinated Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai last month.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith summoned Israel’s ambassador to Australia, Yuval Rotem, early yesterday to express his “grave concern” about the issue.

The Aussie connection come in the wake of European nations having words to Israel over stolen identities apparently used in the hit. Israel has a history of this crap. In 2004, New Zealand suspended relations with Israel when Mossad agents were caught forging passports.

Why does Israel keep abusing its relationships with the West? I’d have thought they could use all the friends they could get.


Today’s Guests:
Sebastian Rupley, Co-Crank, Editor, GigaOM.com
Chris DiBona, Open Source Program Manager, Google
Andrew Eisner, Director of Community, Retrevo.com

The Topics:
Google Cleared to Buy and Sell Energy
Do 3D Blu-ray Players Have A Future?
Google Continues to Make Changes to Buzz
Is Video Chat Coming to the iPhone?
What’s Behind the Skype/Verizon Hookup?

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This Episode’s Executive Producer: Cathryn LL Girard

Associate Executive Producers: Anuson Ltd Hong Kong

Artwork by: Paul T.

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Wired via CNN Tech

Say the words “tablet computer” and ten bucks says it’s Apple’s iPad that springs to mind. But that doesn’t mean other companies aren’t busy building their own version of a touch-enabled, multimedia-sporting, slab of portable computing goodness.

Dell’s first effort at a tablet will be the Mini 5 (a name that is still in beta) — a slice of plastic and glass with a 5-inch capacitive touchscreen that according to Michael Dell will debut “in a couple of months.”

The Mini 5 will sport a 5-megapixel camera on the back, a separate front-facing camera that can be used for video conferencing, a standard 3.5-mm headphone jack, Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 1-GHz processor.

The 5-inch screen also means it will be be closer to the Sony PSP in its form factor than the longer legal notepad design of the iPad.

The Mini 5 will run the latest version of Google’s Android operating system, version 2.0 or higher. And instead of the 4:3 aspect ratio of the iPad, Dell’s tablets will support the 16:9 ratio. Widescreen films anyone?


LINO LAKES, Minn. – Ever since his 1996 Toyota Camry shot up an interstate ramp, plowing into the back of an Oldsmobile in a horrific crash that killed three people, Koua Fong Lee insisted he had done everything he could to stop the car.

A jury didn’t believe him, and a judge sentenced him to eight years in prison. But now, new revelations of safety problems with Toyotas have Lee pressing to get his case reopened and his freedom restored. Relatives of the victims — who condemned Lee at his sentencing three years ago — now believe he is innocent and are planning to sue Toyota. The prosecutor who sent Lee to prison said he thinks the case merits another look.

“I know 100 percent in my heart that I took my foot off the gas and that I was stepping on the brakes as hard as possible,” Lee said in an interview Wednesday at the state prison in Lino Lakes. “When the brakes were looked at and we were told that nothing was wrong with the brakes, I was shocked.”

Lee’s accident is among a growing number of cases, some long resolved, that are getting new attention since Toyota admitted its problems with sudden acceleration were more extensive than originally believed. Numerous lawsuits involving Toyota accidents have been filed over the recent revelations, and attorneys expect the numbers will climb. If Lee’s car was defective, “We don’t want an innocent man sitting in prison,” said Phil Carruthers, who prosecuted the case for Ramsey County.

A Toyota spokesman declined to comment on Lee’s case.

Could this problem go as far back as 1996? Wouldn’t it have been discovered sooner?




“I did not have sexual relations with that woman,” says Bill Clinton.

Right up there with excuses like the Twinkie Defense in believability. On the other hand, would you admit this if it weren’t true? Or desperate?

According to a recent deposition given by Republican Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons, he has not had sex in 15 years, he didn’t sleep with a former Playboy model, and perhaps most surprisingly, he doesn’t tell jokes very well.

CBS affiliate KLAS-TV reports that Gibbons was recently deposed regarding allegations of an assault that occurred in 2006. The federal civil suit was brought by Chrissy Mazzeo, a cocktail waitress who says that Gibbons assaulted and groped her in a parking lot after spending hours drinking at a Las Vegas restaurant.

The alleged assault never resulted in any criminal charges, but on February 5 of this year, the governor was deposed for four hours by Mazzeo’s attorney, Bob Kossack. During the deposition, Gibbons claimed that he hasn’t been sexually intimate with any woman since 1995, and that he’s “living proof that you can survive without sex for that long.”
[…]
Other things the Governor denied during the deposition: he didn’t play footsie with Chrissy Mazzeo on the night of the alleged assault, because he was wearing cowboy boots, and he didn’t tell her any raunchy jokes, because he isn’t a good joke teller.

Yes, we Nevadans are ashamed of our governor, for many reasons.




New Orleans Finest turning themselves in for murder charges.

Admitting a cover-up of shocking breadth, a former New Orleans police supervisor pleaded guilty to a federal obstruction charge on Wednesday, confessing that he participated in a conspiracy to justify the shooting of six unarmed people after Hurricane Katrina that was hatched not long after police stopped firing their weapons.

The guilty plea of Lt. Michael Lohman, who retired from the department earlier this month, contains explosive details of the alleged cover-up and ramps up the legal pressure on police officers involved in the shooting and subsequent investigation. It’s unclear when Lohman’s cooperation with federal authorities began, but he presumably is prepared to testify against the officers he says helped him lie about the circumstances of a shooting he immediately deemed a “bad shoot.”

Lohman, who pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiracy to obstruct justice, admits he failed to order the collection of evidence or canvassing of witnesses, helped craft police reports riddled with false information, participated in a plan to plant a gun under the bridge and lied to investigators who questioned police actions…

In a news conference after Lohman’s plea, U.S. Attorney Jim Letten said police must be held to the law.

“Police officers are there to protect us, and to protect the most vulnerable among us,” he said. “Their jobs are to help individuals and protect us, not to hurt us. Sadly, sadly, we come across in the course of our work here…officers who violate their oaths of office, who occasionally violate their duties, violate their commitment to serve the public. And we take actions against those individuals wherever they violate federal law. We will continue to do that.”

RTFA. A long and detailed narrative of corruption, conspiracy and cronyism.


If you build it (in the ‘cloud’) they will come… and give the government access when they ask.

Microsoft has managed to do what a roomful of secretive, three-letter government agencies have wanted to do for years: get the whistleblowing, government-document sharing site Cryptome shut down.

Microsoft dropped a DMCA notice alleging copyright infringement on Cryptome’s proprietor John Young on Tuesday after he posted a Microsoft surveillance compliance document that the company gives to law enforcement agents seeking information on Microsoft users.
[…]
The Microsoft Online Services Global Criminal Compliance Handbook (.pdf) also goes so far as to provide sample language for subpoenas and diagrams on how to understand server logs.

Other things you might not know and which Microsoft (sometimes oddly) doesn’t want you to know? [… If] you like to use Microsoft’s social networking products — like its old-school Group mailing list or its Facebook-like Spaces product, be aware that it’s very social when it comes to law enforcement or court subpoenas.
[…]
The compliance handbook is just the latest in a series of leaks of similar documents from other companies.
[…]
But hypocrisy is the name of the game for giant internet companies like Yahoo, Microsoft and Google that want us to entrust large portions of our lives to Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Buzz, Xbox, Hotmail, Messenger, Google Groups. When it comes to the most basic information about how, why and how often our data is subpoenaed and collected without our knowledge, these online innovators resort to lawyers, abusive legal process and double-talk.


  • Google cited for criminal activity in Italy over violation of Italian privacy laws. Huh?
  • Google also under threat by anti-trust division.
  • New Nintendo looks to be competing with iPad.
  • Yahoo does some sort of deal with Twitter.
  • Apple iTunes stores hits 10 billion songs sold. Company may bring out X-rated app store.
  • UN climate panel changing.
  • Twitter hits second phishing attack. I checked it out. What a lame attack. I explain.
  • Intel to continue to diversify.
  • Yelp slammed.

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“During that period of Nazism and fascism’s growth — a real danger to the United States and democratic countries around the world — there were people in this country and in the British parliament who said ‘don’t worry! Hitler’s not real! It’ll disappear!” – Bernie Sanders, the only self-proclaimed socialist in Congress.


CNet News

Business reviews site Yelp amounts to an “extortion scheme,” according to a class action lawsuit filed Wednesday in a Los Angeles court by two law firms and a Long Beach, Calif. veterinary hospital that claims it was “victimized” by Yelp sales representatives asking for payment in exchange for the removal of negative reviews.

“The plaintiff…asked that Yelp remove a false and defamatory review from the Web site,” a release from the law firms alleges. “In response, as set forth in the lawsuit, Yelp refused to take down the review. Instead, the company’s sales representatives repeatedly contacted the hospital and demanded a roughly $300 per-month payment in exchange for hiding or removing the negative review.” That payment is “in the guise of ‘advertising contracts,'” the release explained.

Sounds like extortion to me.


CNet News

SAN FRANCISCO–At its first-quarter media summit on Wednesday, Nintendo formally unveiled the newest model in its long-running DS line of handheld video game machines, the DSi XL.

With a 93 percent bigger screen than the DSi, the XL is intended to offer a more social gaming experience, as it will enable multiple viewing angles, said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America executive vice president of sales and marketing. That means, she predicted, that when someone plays games on a DSi XL, the machine’s larger screens will be inviting to other people nearby, making for more social play.

“This product really fills a gap between portable play and social experiences,” Dunaway said, “that up until now is only available on consoles.”


While Italy’s laws are a lot different than ours and there’s a lot of European bad will toward Google, imagine if this inspires new laws here. Impossible? The music and movie industries are trying hard to get other country’s extreme anti-piracy laws here. Pay the right politicians the right amount of money and…

On Wednesday an Italian judge delivered a stunning verdict in a long standing case against Google. The ruling sentenced three top Google executives — David Drummond, senior vice president and chief legal officer; George Reyes, former chief financial officer; and Peter Fleischer, chief privacy counsel — to a prison sentence of six months for violating privacy laws. A fourth employee, marketing executive Arvind Desikan, was found not guilty.
[…]
Despite the fact that the verdicts is largely a symbolic gesture, it represents a serious threat to the current way the internet is structured. To understand this, you must explore the case first.

Google describes the incident that started the case, writing, “In late 2006, students at a school in Turin, Italy filmed and then uploaded a video to Google Video that showed them bullying an autistic schoolmate.”

Vivi Down Association, an advocacy group for people with Downs syndrome, complained about the video a couple months later to Italian authorities. Google went out of its way to try to cooperate with them. It took down the video immediately. […] Despite that cooperation, Italian prosecutors decided to take the bizarre step of next charging a handful of Google executives for “allowing” the video to be uploaded.
[…]
The stunning verdict sets an alarming precedent. The decision, if upheld, threatens the freedom of having blogs, video sharing sites, internet hosting, Wiki pages, news sites with comments sections and virtually any other kind of user generated or user interactive content, for fear of criminal prosecution if users misbehave.


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