Paris is Burning After Gay Marriage Legalized

300,000 protesters took to the streets in Paris, France to demonstrate against the gay marriage law which was approved by the lower house of the French Parliament last month. The ‘marriage for everyone’ bill comes up for a vote in the Senate next.

France becomes the fourteenth country in the world to legalize same sex marriage. The law was not put to a vote by the people, which angered many French citizens.

The French protesters believe the gay marriage law was passed due to the majority of homosexual politicians in the French parliament.


Police maced rioters who tossed bottles, iron railings and bricks at them. The violence was confined to the area around the Parliament in central Paris.

Thousands of men, women, children and activists took part in the protests. An official said 2 rioters were arrested and no injuries were reported.

Boston Bombing Suspect Tells Investigators that He and Brother Acted Alone

Steve Neavling

The plan to set off bombs at the Boston Marathon wasn’t hatched until about a week before the event, the surviving suspect told investigators Tuesday, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Writing from his hospital bed, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev said he and his brother acted alone and were not trained by outsider terrorist groups, the L.A. Times reports.
The brothers were angry over the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and hastily plotted the attack, learning how to build bombs using pressure cookers in an online magazine tied to Al Qaeda, Tsarnaev told investigators, who do not believe outside Islamic groups were involved.

Female Prison Guards Charged in Smuggling Case with Baltimore Jail Gang

Steve Neavling

Thirteen female guards are accused in a federal indictment of working with an inmate gang to smuggle drugs and other banned items into a Baltimore jail, the USA Today reports.
Four of those women were impregnated by the leader of the gang, the .

Inmates and the guards were charged with racketeering, drug trafficking, extortion, bribery and money laundering, the USA Today reported.

The Black Guerrilla Family was formed in San Quentin Prison in 1966, the USA To

Here’s a Good Reason to Encrypt Your Dat

News Link  •  Hacking, Cyber Security


04-23-2013  •  David Kravets via WIRED.com 

  There’s many reasons to password-protect — or encrypt — one’s digital data. Foremost among them is to protect it during a security breach.
Another top reason is to keep the government out of your hard drive.
The issue is front and center as a federal magistrate is refusing to order a Wisconsin computer scientist to decrypt his data that the authorities seized from kiddie-porn suspect Jeffrey Feldman. The reason is simple: The Fifth Amendment right against compelled self-incrimination protects even those suspected of unsavory crimes, according to U.S. Magistrate William Callahan Jr. of Wisconsin, who wrote:

This is a close call, but I conclude that Feldman’s act of production, which would necessarily require his using a password of some type to decrypt the storage device, would be tantamount to telling the government something it does not already know with ‘reasonably particularity’—namely, that Feldman has personal access to and control over the encrypted storage devices. Accordingly, in my opinion, Fifth Amendment protection is available to Feldman. Stated another way, ordering Feldman to decrypt the storage devices would be in violation of his Fifth Amendment right against compelled self-incrimination. (.pdf)

Hanni Fakhoury, a staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, stressed that the decision was important, and not because it might hinder a kiddie-porn prosecution.
“This isn’t just about child porn. It’s about anything on your computer that prosecutors or government officials may want,” he said in a telephone interview.
Federal prosecutors did not immediately respond for comment, but said in court papers they have spent months trying to decrypt the data.
“The FBI is performing admirable in the digital arms race between those seeking to hide evidence of their wrongdoing through encryption and law enforcement officers seeking to uncover that evidence; but the expense in time and resources in investigating cases like this one is beginning to inhibit the provision of justice,” the government said (.pdf)  in seeking the magistrate to compel the suspect to unlock the data.

  Read Full Story
Reported by Freedomsphoenix Reader 2

Glenn Beck’s Info on Obama Bombing Coverup Released

News Link  •  Obama Administration

Drone Strikes and the Boston Marathon Bombing

News Link  •  Obama Administration


04-23-2013  •  Robert Wright via The Atlantic 

  In 2011, after President Obama used a drone to kill Anwar al-Awlaki, the American citizen who was recruiting jihadists from his perch in Yemen, many hailed the assassination as a powerful blow against terrorism.
"The death of al-Awlaki is the last nail in the coffin of the al Qaeda brand,"wrote Lisa Merriam (a "brand consultant") in a piece for Forbes. "Yes, bombs are what we think of when we think of al Qaeda, but powerful bombs require a powerful brand. The al Qaeda brand has been the key to raising awareness, raising an army of recruits, raising money, and raising terror. Now that the brand is dead, all of those goals are out of reach."
Tell that to the people of Boston. The more we learn about the Boston Marathon bombing--and the accused bombers, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev--the more reason there is to doubt the wisdom of Obama's drone-heavy approach to fighting terrorism. Not only did his hundreds of drone strikes fail to prevent the bombing; they've probably made this kind of terrorism--home-grown terrorism, committed by longtime residents of America--more likely.

  Read Full Story
Reported by Freedomsphoenix Reader 2

13 corrections officers indicted in Md., accused of aiding gang’s drug scheme

News Link  •  Drug War


04-23-2013  •  Washington Post 

More than a dozen Maryland state prison guards helped a dangerous national gang operate a drug-trafficking and money-laundering scheme from behind bars that involved cash payments, sex and access to fancy cars, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

  Read Full Story
Reported by Powell Gammill

Los Angeles to pay $4.2 million to two women fired at in Dorner manhunt

News Link  •  Law Enforcers or Peace Officers


04-24-2013  •  Reuters 

The city of Los Angeles will pay $4.2 million to a mother and daughter who were caught in a hail of bullets in February when police mistook their truck for one driven by renegade ex-policeman Christopher Dorner and opened fire, officials said on Tuesday.

  Read Full Story
Reported by Powell Gammill

Caught in the System, Ex-Hacker Is Stalked by His Past

News Link  •  Hacking, Cyber Security


04-24-2013  •  wired.com 

"He said, ‘We want to ask you about this Boston thing. I think you know what we’re talking about. I’m talking about the attacks,’” Watt recalls. “Then he said, ‘If you know any rumors that you heard about beforehand or even afterwards, please [tell us] through your lawyer.’”

They told Watt they weren’t accusing him of anything, just that he should come forward if he had any information. Watt and his wife were shocked by the random inquiry. But in some ways, it’s part and parcel of Watt’s new life as a hacker ex-con.

 

Watt, a striking 7-foot-tall software engineer, once had a bright future coding software for a maker of real-time stock trading systems. Then a small packet-sniffing program he wrote for a friend got him embroiled in a multi-million-dollar bank card heist that netted him a two-year prison sentence and a hefty restitution judgment.

  Read Full Story
Reported by Freedomsphoenix Readerfour

What Is Cowardice?

News Link  •  Obama Administration

04-22-2013  •  Mark Piggott, Huff Post 

The Boston bombers were misguided, misled and loathsome - but were they 'cowards'?
Imagine for a moment you're sitting at your kitchen table making bombs. Knowing that should you sweat too much, or make a sudden move, you will be terribly maimed or killed. Then, later, weaving through the happy crowd: seeing the faces of smiling children. Knowing that if you succeed in your terrible mission, your name will be cursed by millions; and when you are eventually killed (the brothers Tsarnaev may not have been suicide bombers exactly, but they must have known their chances of survival were slim), only then will you discover if the holy men were right about the next life.

Now imagine you are sitting in a reinforced bunker at a secret Virginia location. Someone feeds you a set of co-ordinates which you punch into your laptop. You press the 'send' button, in much the same way you send an email: the drone is launched. In a few minutes, people - hopefully some Mullah, some Taliban jeep, some US citizen deemed beyond the pail - will die. Knowing that if there is 'collateral damage' - wedding parties incinerated, children killed or mangled - you have the full legal, political and military backing of the world's most powerful state.
 

  Read Full Story
Reported by Leon Felkins