A new criminal case was launched into two Pussy Riot members who escaped police after participating in an infamous ‘punk prayer’ in Moscow’s main cathedral. The announcement comes days after their co-participants were sentenced to two years in jail.
“We have launched a separate criminal case against the unknown members of the ‘Pussy Riot’ band, and are seeking to establish their identities,” a police spokesperson told the Interfax news agency.
Five members of Pussy Riot performed a ‘punk prayer’ in Christ the Savior Cathedral in February, and video of the event was later posted on YouTube. Two of the participants escaped detection, while the other three were identified at the scene.
On August 17, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Ekaterina Samutsevich and Maria Alyokhina were found guilty of ‘hooliganism motivated by religious hatred,’ and sentenced to two years each in a medium-security prison.
The women’s defense team has said they will appeal the verdict and push for a full acquittal.
The controversial case has triggered a wave of criticism, with governments criticizing the verdict as “disproportionate” and rallies in support of Pussy Riot taking place all over the world.
Julian Assange made his first public appearance in two months, ever since he took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
Addressing the hundreds of people gathered outside the embassy, Assange thanked them for their support, claiming it was their resolve and presence that stopped British police storming the building.
“On Wednesday night, after a threat was sent to this embassy and police desceneded on this building, you came out in the middle of the night to watch over it, and you brought the worlds eyes with you. Inside this embassy after dark I could hear teams of police swarming up into the building through the internal fire escape,” Assange said.
“But I knew thered be witnesses. And that was because of you.”
The WikiLieaks founder thanked President Correa “for the courage he has shown” in granting him asylum, and to all the nations and individuals who have shown him support.
Assange also addressed the US government and President Obama, calling for the “witch hunt against WikiLeaks” to end.
“The United States must pledge before the world will not pursue journalists for shining light on the secret crimes of the powerful. The US administration’s war against whistleblowers must end.”
Police allowed to track cell phones in US without court warrants
The US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Americans have no reasonable expectation of privacy when carrying cell phones, allowing police to track GPS signals without a warrant or probable cause.
The decision came the court ruled in United States v. Skinner that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) abided by the Constitution by using a drug runner’s cellphone data to track his location and determine his identity.
Melvin Skinner, also known by his false name as “Big Foot,” was a drug mule with more than 1,100 pounds of marijuana in his Texas motorhome.
The throwaway mobile phone he was using was registered under a false name, so agents did not know the identity of the drug trafficker.
By using GPS data from his disposable phone, police learned that “Big Foot” was planning to deliver a large shipment of marijuana from Arizona to Tennessee in his mobile home.
In 2006, agents obtained a court order – but not a warrant – to track the disposable phone’s location using its GPS.
After tracing the phone’s exact location, police dogs discovered the mobile home and indicated a presence of drugs. “Big Foot” was arrested and charged for drug trafficking and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
But on appeal, the defendant argued that his cell phone data could not be used because the DEA failed to obtain a warrant for it, thereby violating the Fourth Amendment.
The Fourth Amendment protects against “unreasonable searches and seizures” without the issuance of a warrant obtained due to probable cause.
The Court considers cell phone use to be a public – not private – action, thereby being ineligible for the protections of the Fourth Amendment. A court brief of the case states that “a suspect’s presence in a publicly observable place is not information subject to Fourth Amendment protection.”
Additionally, Judge John M. Rogers, writing for the majority, said Skinner “did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the data given off by his voluntarily procured pay-as-you-go cell phone. If a tool used to transport contraband gives off a signal that can be tracked for location, certainly the police can track the signal.”
While any US cell phone can now be tracked by police without probable cause or a warrant, the Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that police must obtain a warrant before secretly attacking a GPS tracking device to a suspect’s car.
That ruling is currently being contested, leaving the possibility for police to secretly track vehicles without permission. Without the requirement of a warrant to access cell phone data, US authorities are gaining increasing power over what some would consider “private” rights of individuals – but what the Courts call “public.”
The continued involvement of actor and humanitarian Sean Penn in the 36th Congressional race set off a little war of words between the candidates.
Penn will headline a private fundraiser in Los Angeles today to benefit Democrat Raul Ruiz, an emergency room physician who helped Penn rebuild an earthquake-destroyed Haiti in early 2010.
Tickets to the event start at $500, with sponsor tickets going for $2,500.
“Who would have thought that they would have the nerve to be monitoring my communications to Congress?”
Several federal agencies have purchased an advanced software application that allows administrators to see every single action, item, mouse click and more performed on their employees’ computers. Some say it’s being implemented to end whistleblowing.
In the midst of a witch-hunt that has targeted anyone accused of leaking documents, the US federal government has been linked to a massive acquisition of spyware that allows the higher ups to get ahold of essentially any communiqué and comment made by its employees on any electronic device. Some agents with the Food and Drug Administration insist that their personal conversations were unlawfully monitored by their higher-ups using the program, citing their superiors’ fears that whistleblowers will continue to come to lawmakers to voice concern over dangerous practices within the FDA.
“We are looking for what we call indicators of compromise,” Joy Miller, deputy assistant secretary for security at the Department of Health and Human Services, the FDA’s parent agency, says to the Washington Post. “We’re monitoring a system, not everybody in that environment.”
Journalists with the Post penned an article this week that examines the use of Spector 360, monitoring software made by the SpectorSoft group, within the FDA and other agencies.
According to the FDA, staffers had their computer activity monitored and logged over concern that employees were disclosing trade secrets. Those agents, however, argue that they were spied on to ensure that they were not reporting internal corruption to Congress. And while the Post’s expose examines the government’s attempts to chill any employee’s attempt at blowing the whistle on wrongdoing, it only begins to open up what great lengths the feds are willing to go to.
The spiritual leader of the Taliban said the group’s insurgents have succeeded in foisting the ranks of the Afghan security forces, allowing them to attack their fellow NATO service members. The admission comes amidst a rise in friendly fire attacks.
“Mujahideen have cleverly infiltrated the ranks of the enemy according to the plan given to them last year,” Mullah Mohammed Omar, the one-time de facto leader of Afghanistan, who is now believed to have taken refuge in Pakistan, said in a statement Thursday. “They are able to [safely] enter bases, offices and intelligence centers of the enemy. Then, they easily carry out decisive and coordinated attacks.”
Rogue shootings of foreign troops claimed lives of nearly 40 soldiers in several dozen attacks in 2012.
The latest instance of Afghan security forces turning their weapons against US troops came in two separate attacks on Friday. In one of the attacks, an Afghan man who had been recruited to a the Afghan Local Police (ALP), a special security force for villages, shot and killed two US service members in the western province of Farah. He was later shot dead by other US troops. Just hours later, an Afghan soldier turned his gun on foreign troops in the southern Kandahar province, wounding two of them before being gunned down himself.
The so-called “green-on-blue” or “insider incidents” shootings are responsible for 13 per cent of foreign troop deaths in Afghanistan, the Long War Journal website reported.
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