Even offline computers can be monitored - The NSA uses radio technology to monitor offline computers, smart phones and other devices.   According to a New York Times report, the agency installed software on 10,000 computers which were shipped around the world, enabling NSA agents to locate and monitor the machines even when offline.  The NSA insists such technology – which relies on radio waves transmitted from tiny circuit boards and USB cards inserted into computers – is "only being deployed overseas".  The program, known as Quantum, has reportedly targeted Chinese Army, Russian military and Mexican drug cartels – among others – since its introduction in or before 2008.  The Internet isn't the only way to download information - On a more basic level, computers which aren't connected to the Internet still have any number of peripheral data ports that can be hooked up to USBs, disc drives or printers. Bradley Manning – now Chelsea Manning – transported 91,000 classified documents that became known as the Iran War logs via rewritable CDs.  Moreover, hard drives eventually break down, but remain susceptible to data harvesting. The same legal technology used by data reclamation companies to retrieve information from defunct computers can be used by thieves if old hard drives are not securely disposed of.  The Russians are already doing it - Last year Kremlin sources revealed Russia's Federal Guard Service (FSO) was spending 486,000 rubles – around £10,000 – on a number of electric typewriters.  The return to typewriters was prompted by the publication of secret documents by WikiLeaks, the whistle-blowing web site, as well as Edward Snowden, the fugitive US intelligence contractor. Directives to the defense minister and the supreme commander-in-chief, Mr Putin, were already printed on paper for security reasons, a defense ministry source said at the time. Each typewriter is uniquely traceable - Some models of typewriter including the Triumph Adler are designed so that each specific unit creates a unique "handwriting" traceable to that one alone.

However... Typewriters can be spied upon  - In 1952, the FBI analyzed the ribbon of a typewriter used by CIA officer Aldrich Ames – actually a double agent for the KGB – to unearth plans for a clandestine meeting in Venezuela.  And in 1985 Soviet spies installed secret "keystroke loggers" and antennas in at least 13 typewriters in the US Embassy in Moscow to detect and transmit the typing patterns of embassy secretaries.  The same technology is used more broadly today by criminals to steal passwords and credit card details.  And of course, paper documents are still unreliable - they can be stolen or photographed, or go up in smoke in case of a fire.  There is also the matter of human error – the history of intelligence is rife with examples of spies leaving briefcases of classified documents in public places, or in the company of friendly "honey trap" agents...

The war is waged by each ruling group against its own subjects, and the object of the war is not to make or prevent conquests of territory, but to keep the structure of society intact."  Passengers using airports that offer direct flights to the US may be forced to switch on their mobile phones and other electronic devices to prove to security officials that they do not contain explosives, it was announced on Sunday.
“During the security examination, officers may also ask that owners power up some devices, including cell phones,” the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said in a post on its website. It warned: “Powerless devices will not be permitted onboard the aircraft. The traveller may also undergo additional screening.”

The TSA did not disclose which airports would be conducting the additional screening. It was reported last week that passengers at British airports travelling to the US were facing extra checks on phones. Belgian officials said passengers there would also have devices checked.

Britain's Department for Transport (DfT) advised that the new restriction meant any electronic device with a flat battery would not be allowed on flights, the Press Association reported.

Last week the DfT said undisclosed extra measures at British airports were not expected to cause "significant disruption" to passengers and noted that the official UK threat status remained unchanged.
The chairman of the UK parliament's intelligence and security committee, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, said the increased airport security measures were "unavoidable".

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, he said jihadi extremists were deploying "devilish technical skill" to create ever more sophisticated devices to evade existing security measures. And he warned of the dangers of "complacency" among the public in the face of the failure of the terrorists to mount any successful mass casualty attack in the UK since the 7/7 bombings in London in 2005.

The new airport measure is the first to be confirmed since Jeh Johnson, the US Homeland Security secretary, warned last week that enhanced security checks would be implemented imminently at "certain overseas airports with direct flights into the United States".

 

Orwell:

“The war, therefore if we judge it by the standards of previous wars, is merely an imposture. It is like the battles between certain ruminant animals whose horns are incapable of hurting one another. But though it is unreal it is not meaningless. It eats up the surplus of consumable goods, and it helps to preserve the special mental atmosphere that the hierarchical society needs. War, it will be seen, is now a purely internal affair. In the past, the ruling groups of all countries, although they might recognize their common interest and therefore limit the destructiveness of war, did fight against one another, and the victor always plundered the vanquished. In our own day they are not fighting against one another at all.

Lawyers for the Government and the European Central Bank (ECB) clashed in court on last week over an ECB decision to ban big institutions in the UK from settling some trades denominated in the single currency. The Government claims that an ECB ruling on clearing houses – intermediaries between buyers and sellers of financial assets such as interest rate swaps – contravenes EU rules, in the latest altercation over Europe’s influence on London’s financial power. The ECB has said clearing houses should only be allowed to deal with trades denominated in euros if they are based in the eurozone, an affront to the UK institutions which account for a large proportion of euro clearing. The ECB ban would apply to clearing houses with daily exposures of more than €5bn (£4bn), a level that applies to several based in the UK, including LCH.Clearnet, owned by the London Stock Exchange. The Government is appealing against the policy, arguing that it is a violation of single market rules, in the latest disagreement with EU authorities. The UK has already lost appeals against curbs on short-selling and a tax on financial transactions, and is taking legal action over a cap on bankers’ bonuses. On Wednesday, ECB lawyers defended the policy at the European Court of Justice, claiming that authorities in the UK such as the Bank of England would be willing to sacrifice the safety of the euro in order to protect the pound, possibly by refusing to bail out institutions that deal in euros.

An ECB lawyer said if a clearing house were to default, it “could cause havoc in the euro area”, and that the ECB needed to be able to monitor clearing houses “day-to-day”, which it would only be able to do if the clearing house was in the eurozone.

A Treasury spokesman said: “We want to make sure that there is a level playing field across the EU for British businesses. We believe that the ECB’s location policy contravenes European law and fundamental single market principles.”

A ruling in the appeal, which was lodged by the Government in 2011, is not expected for months.

The president of Ukraine has accused pro-Russia rebels in the east of the country of shooting down a Malaysia Airlines jet, killing all 280 passengers and 15 crew.

The huge loss of life threatens to have wide-ranging and unpredictable consequences, coming just after the US imposed further sanctions on Russia for continuing to provide weapons to the rebels.

The plane, which was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, came down near the village of Grabovo, part of the area controlled by pro-Russian separatists.

The aircraft was flying just 1,000 feet above restricted airspace when it was shot down, according to the European air traffic control body. Eurocontrol said Ukrainian authorities had barred aircraft up to 32,000 feet but the doomed aircraft was cruising at 33,000 feet, still within range of sophisticated ground-to-air weaponry, when it was hit. All flights in eastern Ukraine have now been barred from the area.

A mounting crisis at one of Portugal’s biggest banks and signs of a deepening economic slowdown in Europe have sent tremors through financial markets, triggering a sharp fall on European bourses and a flight to safety across the world.   Portugal’s regulator suspended trading of Banco Espirito Santo after its share price crashed 17pc in Lisbon, reviving worries about the underlying health of Europe’s banks. The STOXX index of European lenders fell to its lowest this year following a bank run in Bulgaria and a profits shock from Austria's Erste Bank. The index is down 11pc since early June.   Yields on Portugal’s 10-year debt surged 20 basis points on Thursday to 3.95pc, with contagion spreading to Greek, Spanish and Italian debt.  Before I board for Budapest! I remarked yesterday about the closing FDI window through worries about €Z stability - highlighted by the Holy Ghost in Portugal but already with knock-ons in Greece, Spain, Slovenia and Bulgaria-Romania.  I mentioned the Indian budget/plan that would normally, because of its cautiousness, propelled some FDI into a stable €Z. Money the €Z desperately needs to catalyse growth.  Well another small nail in the €Z FDI coffin today http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/... - as the BRICS set up their own development bank as a counter to Laggard's arrogant stupidity in setting up an €MF and an IMF. Now the BRIC money (reserves not borrowings) will be going to their bank not into the last resort coffers of the €MF.
No FDI, a totally impotent ECB, like water on stone... Zero Hedge is always an interesting read at times like these. Only if they crash, and get another central bank asset bailout, like in 2008. The amount of imaginary 'money' the central banks can create is infinite. At least, until it becomes worthless during hyperinflation. I think that day is closer than most people realize. It won't be caused by banks, though. It will be a government response to the effects of peak oil. As the cost to go after what oil remains gets too high, governments will start pumping out money to try and prop up the economy, as it begins to shrink from not enough affordable oil being available. They will create euros & dollars by the trillions, and shove them into the economy to try to boost economic activity. It will work for a while. Then the inflation will hit, and accelerate very quickly. Anything they do to try and rein in the inflation, will cause an instant global financial collapse. The numbers in Pritchard's last oil article show how close we are to peak oil. He is dreaming that all that energy can be replaced in transportation, with any other energy source, in time to prevent the apocalypse. It is 40 years too late to get that done in the time we have left. Transportation is the weak link in the global economic system that will prevent Pritchard's energy fantasy from being realized. Oil products move over 90% of everything that moves. Today there's a fascinating article about how state-controlled Chinese banks have been conniving with Chinese oligarchs to park their ill-gotten gains in foreign countries, notably America, in contravention of the tight capital controls in that country,
The market for colossally expensive US developments has been booming thanks to this tsunami of illegal money.
The purpose of this official winking-at illegality has been to minimize inflationary pressure in China.
Now that the cat's out of the bag, we can expect the Chinese Government to cover their involvement by actually enforcing the capital control regulations.
The result will be a steep rise in Chinese inflation and a collapse in the market for premium US properties.
The rise in Chinese inflation will require a raising of interest rates and a reining-in of economic activity, with wider consequences for the world.  We are living through times of extreme financial froth and danger...It very much looks like another Euro crisis is in the offing.How much longer can they
keep this decrepit creaky edifice known as the EMU standing. Another cut in the  slow death of a 1000 cuts.

Global warming for sure!...hahaha, hihihi......

It is a barren landscape so remote that even the locals call it "the end of the world." Now the bleak tundra of Russia's remote Yamal peninsula has been scarred by a vast crater that has left scientists baffled and internet users looking for extra terrestrial explanations. Discovered by helicopter pilots who post video footage of their find in the remote Yamal peninsula on Youtube, the the scar in the otherwise barren tundra resembles a crater caused by a large explosion. At 50 to 80 meters across, the hole would be large enough to land several of the Mi-8 transport helicopters flown by the pilots who found it.

 

I think it's most likely to be a weapons test. Check out this local video & you'll see it's very near "surgical!". The immediate area appears to also be carbonated with very limited debris around the circumference....http://rt.com/news/173128-sibe...

 

I'd say a weapons test, most likely. Publicly declared spectral beam combining laser's are already well into the 100's of KW & speculation is rife of the 1-2GW equivalents in secret research & test on both sides of "East V West!". 1GW is more than capable of blowing a 100ft crater in the earths crust, no problem. Could also do that if it was mounted in space too, let alone the fighter aircraft & war ships they will soon be fitting out with it.

European and Chinese officials have made two notable announcements in recent weeks. On 18 June, China's second largest financial institution, China Construction Bank, was designated as the official renminbi clearing bank for London. The next day, the Frankfurt branch of the Bank of China, the country's largest commercial bank, received the same designation for the eurozone.

Both announcements were greeted with great acclaim. British chancellor George Osborne hailed the creation of a London clearing bank as "hugely important" for the financial future of the City. Joachim Nagel of the German Bundesbank lauded the Bank of China announcement as a "milestone on the road toward creating a renminbi trading centre in Frankfurt".

We should expect these kinds of enthusiastic pronouncements from European officials, who are desperate for good news, whatever its source. But should the rest of us care? After all, banks, firms, and even individuals already can buy renminbi for their pounds and euros. A range of financial institutions, both locally and in Hong Kong, have long stood ready to provide this service.

The only difference is that the two big Chinese banks, when doing business in London and Frankfurt, will be permitted to purchase renminbi in China itself when their foreign customers demand it. The People's Bank of China (PBOC) will give them a quota for this purpose. Other banks, when seeking to provide renminbi to their clients, are limited to bidding for the fixed supplies that circulate offshore. This raises their costs and limits demand for their services.  Thus, by permitting two clearing banks to access renminbi onshore, Chinese officials are effectively subsidising their London and Frankfurt operations and encouraging direct sterling and euro trades.  London and Frankfurt would be reckless to bank on rapid growth in their renminbi transactions. In its most recent survey of foreign-exchange markets, in April 2013, the Bank for International Settlements found that renminbi-dollar trades averaged $113bn a day, whereas direct renminbi-euro trades totalled a mere $1bn, while direct renminbi-sterling trades amounted to even less. In practice, when Europeans want China's currency, they use their euros and pounds to buy dollars, and then use those dollars to buy renminbi. This reflects the fact that the market in dollar-denominated assets is exceptionally deep and liquid, which limits transaction costs. In other words, European practice reflects the dollar's "exorbitant privilege" as the only true global currency, freely accepted by currency traders and investors in China and around the world. Chinese officials presumably believe that this situation will change over time. Once banks offer new assets denominated in renminbi, more customers will be drawn into the market, thereby adding liquidity and reducing transaction costs for purchases of renminbi in European currencies. The dollar's asymmetric role will be superseded. At that point, the renminbi, the euro, and sterling will all play consequential international roles. Thus, the decision to designate renminbi clearing banks in London and Frankfurt is, in effect, one more step by China to foster the emergence of an international monetary system with several global currencies, not just one. It is a step toward creating a better match between our multipolar global economy and its monetary and financial system – and thus a step towards ending the world economy's dependence on the dollar, which European and Chinese policymakers have complained about since the global financial crisis erupted in 2008. But it is only a step. Deep and liquid markets are not built in a day. In June 2013, when the PBOC unexpectedly tightened monetary policy, domestic interbank interest rates shot up to 25%. Thus, even a quota that permits an offshore clearing bank to tap funding in China does not guarantee that it can obtain that funding at a reasonable price.

Moreover, if China develops financial problems, capital outflows may accelerate. The Chinese authorities may then be forced to tighten the quotas made available to the clearing banks. Market liquidity would be a casualty.

One can also question how much appetite European investors will display for renminbi-denominated financial assets. In the past, demand for such assets has been fed by the expectation that the renminbi will continue to appreciate. If Chinese growth slows, such expectations might well dissolve.

There is no doubt that, with time, the renminbi will acquire a more consequential international role. Twenty-first-century financial technology will facilitate direct trading in a variety of different currencies, eliminating the need and custom of routing virtually all international transactions through the dollar. Ultimately this will spell the end of America's "exorbitant privilege". Just not yet. And not any time soon.

• Barry Eichengreen is Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley