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How Walmart’s Financial Services Became A Fraud Magnet

Christy Browne was in a panic. The man on the phone said he was from the FBI. He warned her that drug traffickers had obtained her Social Security number and were using it to launder money. He said the FBI needed money to catch them. “They told me not to go to local law enforcement,” Browne testified in court recently about the February 2020 call. The police were watching her and considered her a suspect, the man said. At his direction, Browne, a retired elementary school teacher who lives in upstate New York, bought four $500 Walmart gift cards at her local Walmart. It was 3:15 pm. She took photos of the serial numbers and PINs on the back and texted them to the man on the phone. With that information, the fraudster had access to $2,000.

Legislators Declare ‘Over Militarization’ A Threat To Hawai’i’s Security

In a remarkable twist, four members of the Legislature of the State of Hawai’i are finally challenging the U.S. military in Hawai’i.  No doubt using the U.S. Navy’s massive jet fuel leak at Red Hill that contaminated the drinking water for over 100,000 residents of O’ahu as an inflection point of deteriorating military and Hawai’i citizen relationships, on March 23, 2022, four legislators held a hearing titled “Declaring Over Militarization to Be a Threat to the Security of Hawai’i and the International Community.” Having served 29 years in the US Army and Army Reserves and retiring as a Colonel,  also being a U.S. diplomat in the Asia-Pacific, for two years at the US Embassy in the Federated States of Micronesia and at the US Embassy in Mongolia and as a U.S. diplomat...

It is Time To Get Serious About Security At Events

Along with many people that surely read this website, I watched the recent documentary on Atomwaffen Divison several days ago. The documentary didn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know, other than the cadre of the group, some of which had already been outed by antifascists, liked to hang out in Houston, Texas at black metal shows. However the push by the group to leave behind ‘activism’ and public rallies and instead focus on soft targets also lines up strongly with the actions of groups like Identity Evropa, Rise Above Movement, the Proud Boys, and Patriot Front. In the lead up to Unite the Right, Identity Evropa walked into Leftist professors classrooms in Southern California for the purpose of “monitoring them.” Also across the campus and others near by, saw IE flyers, posters, meet-ups and banner drops.

Amazon’s Facial “Rekognition” Mismatches 28 Lawmakers With Criminals

The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California tested Amazon’s facial Rekognition software and the program erroneously and hilariously identified 28 members of Congress as people who have been arrested for crimes. According to Jake Snow, an ACLU attorney, the ACLU downloaded 25,000 mugshots from a “public source.” The ACLU then ran the official photos of all 535 members of Congress through Rekognition, asking it to match them up with any of the mugshots—and it ended up mix-matching 28 members to mug shots. Ooops! Out of those 28, the ACLU’s test flagged six members of the Congressional Black Caucus, including Rep. John Lewis (D-Georgia.) Facial recognition historically has resulted in more false positives for African-Americans.

Why National Security Has Nothing To Do With Security

If some extraterrestrial species were compiling a history of Homo sapiens, they might well break their calendar into two eras: BNW (before nuclear weapons) and NWE (the nuclear weapons era). The latter era, of course, opened on August 6, 1945, the first day of the countdown to what may be the inglorious end of this strange species, which attained the intelligence to discover the effective means to destroy itself, but -- so the evidence suggests -- not the moral and intellectual capacity to control its worst instincts. Day one of the NWE was marked by the “success” of Little Boy, a simple atomic bomb.  On day four, Nagasaki experienced the technological triumph of Fat Man, a more sophisticated design. Five days later came what the official Air Force history calls the “grand finale,” a 1,000-plane raid -- no mean logistical achievement...

Signal Foundation

Long before we knew that it would be called Signal, we knew what we wanted it to be. Instead of teaching the rest of the world cryptography, we wanted to see if we could develop cryptography that worked for the rest of the world. At the time, the industry consensus was largely that encryption and cryptography would remain unusable, but we started Signal with the idea that private communication could be simple. Since then, we’ve made some progress. We’ve built a service used by millions, and software used by billions. The stories that make it back to us and keep us going are the stories of people discovering each other in moments where they found they could speak freely over Signal, of people falling in love over Signal, of people organizing ambitious plans over Signal.

Corporate Red Carpet & Largest Security Op For Super Bowl LII

Protests are planned by community members, organizations, unions, and other activists spanning the week leading up to SB52 and on game day itself. A coalition of organizers and community members have created the Super Bowl Anti-Racist Anti-Corporate Coalition aiming to highlight racial and class disparities. Other coalitions have formed and have publicly stated their involvement in the upcoming week of actions. Black Visions Collective, “a Black-led organization committed to creating a world where all Black Lives Matter“, are demanding the decriminalization of sex workers, an agreement that local police will not work with ICE agents, a long-term divestment from the police, and an investment into communities of color.

Snowden’s New App Turns Phones Into Home Security Systems

YOUR DIGITAL SECURITY, any sufficiently paranoid person will remind you, is only as good as your physical security. The world's most sensitive users of technology, like dissidents, activists, or journalists in repressive regimes, have to fear not just hacking and online surveillance, but the reality that police, intelligence agents, or other intruders can simply break into your home, office, or hotel room. They can tamper with your computers, steal them, or bodily detain you until you cough up passwords or other secrets. To help combat that threat, one of the world's most well-known activists against digital surveillance has released what's intended to be a cheap, mobile, and flexible version of a physical security system.

Charo Mina-Rojas Speaks At UN On Women, Peace & Security

By Working Group on Women, Peace and Security. New York, NY - This statement was made by Ms. Charo Mina-Rojas, a member of the human rights team of the Black Communities’ Process, the Afro-Colombian Solidarity Network, the Black Alliance for Peace, and the Special High Level Body for Ethnic Peoples, on behalf of the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security at the United Nations Security Council Open Debate on “Women and peace and security.” The statement highlights the participation of ethnically diverse women in peace negotiations; ensuring the security of human rights defenders, civil society activists and Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities; and inclusive monitoring and implementation of peace processes.

University of New Haven & Saudi Police Make Strange Bedfellows

By Samayia Taylor for Popular Resistance. In the US, college students are just arriving on their campuses- some for the first time- ready to start the new academic year. They have a wide range of interests and goals, from bringing about the latest medical breakthrough to wanting to change U.S. foreign policy. Some may even want to become President. One thing they all have in common though, is that they have just entered a time in their lives where they will explore, learn, and- most importantly- be able to express themselves. At the same time as millions of American college students begin to express their newfound views, people their age on the other side of the world are forced into silence. In Saudi Arabia, alternative political views are crushed by an oppressive regime that stamps out even the slightest form of dissent. These two seemingly opposite worlds, the United States and Saudi Arabia, have a disturbing new connection.

Security Firm’s Adviser Led Military Intelligence Efforts For LA Riots

By Steve Horn and Curtis Waltman for Desmog - Retired Major General James “Spider” Marks chairs the advisory board for TigerSwan, a private security firm hired by Energy Transfer Partners to help police protests of the Dakota Access pipeline — an approach for which Marks has shown vocal support. DeSmog has found that Marks also headed up intelligence efforts for the task force which brought over 10,000 U.S. military troops to police the 1992 riots following the acquittal of Los Angeles Police Department members involved in beating Rodney King. In addition, Marks, a long-time military analyst for CNN, led intelligence-gathering efforts for the U.S. military’s 2003 “shock and awe” campaign in Iraq, which was dubbed “Operation Iraqi Liberation.” In recent months, Marks has endorsed Dakota Access and its southern leg, the Bayou Bridge pipeline. He has shown this support by writing op-ed pieces published in various newspapers and on the website of a pro-Dakota Access coalition run by a PR firm funded by Energy Transfer Partners. “I spent a good portion of my adult life in Iraq, and I must tell you that the similarities are stark,” Marks said in November of the anti-Dakota Access encampment set up by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

U.S. Airport Pat-Downs Are About To Get More Invasive

By Justin Bachman for The Spokeman-Review - While few have noticed, U.S. airport security workers long had the option of using five different types of physical pat-downs at the screening line. Now, those have been eliminated, replaced instead with one universal approach. And this time, you will notice. The new physical touching – for those selected to have a pat-down – will be more invasive in what the federal agency describes as a more “comprehensive” physical screening, according to a Transportation Security Administration spokesman. Denver International Airport, for example, notified employees and flight crews on Thursday that the “more rigorous” searches “will be more thorough...

Politicians Making Plans In Case Public Turns Against Them Violently

By James Holbrooks for Activist Post - Some of the suggestions, the news outlet reports, include “having a physical exit strategy at town halls, or a backdoor at congressional offices to slip out of, in case demonstrations turn violent; having local police monitor town halls; replacing any glass office-door entrances with heavy doors and deadbolts; and setting up intercoms to ensure those entering congressional offices are there for appointments, not to cause chaos.” While protests are popping up all over, the Republicans’ private session was no doubt prompted by events that happened over the weekend. While speaking before a raucous crowd in Roseville, California, Representative Tom McClintock had to be escorted from the stage and away from the event by local police officers.

Private Security Licensing Board Investigates Use Of Dogs

By Caroline Grueskin for Bismarck Tribune - The state licensing board for private security has opened investigations into whether the security officers who clashed with pipeline protesters Saturday were licensed and if their use of force was appropriate. Monte Rogneby, counsel for the North Dakota Private Investigation and Security Board, said Friday the investigations were started in response to complaints received, including some specifically in reference to the dogs, which allegedly bit protesters.

Security Firm Guarding Dakota Access Pipeline Used Psychological Warfare Tactics

By Steve Horn for Desmog - G4S, a company hiring security staff to guard the hotly contested Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL), also works to guard oil and gas industry assets in war-torn Iraq, and has come under fire by the United Nations for human rights abuses allegedly committed while overseeing a BP pipeline in Colombia and elsewhere while on other assignments. Recently, the UK-based G4S placed job advertisements on its website, announcing it would be hiring security teams to work out of offices in Mandan and Bismarck, North Dakota.

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Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

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