Tag: police state

Postal Inspectors Have Used iPhone Hacking Tools Hundreds of Times

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) owns sophisticated hacking tools that can breach iPhones, and has used them hundreds of times over the last several years, according to USPIS records.

Law enforcement’s use of hacking tools such as Cellebrite and GrayKey has attracted considerable attention in recent years, particularly following reports that the FBI used the Israeli-based Cellebrite to help access the iPhone belonging to San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook—though there has since been reporting to the contrary. More recently, records obtained by Vice Motherboard last year revealed how police departments use GrayKey.

The use of such tools by the USPIS, the law enforcement arm of the Postal Service, is disclosed in its 2019 and 2020 annual reports, but has gone largely unpublicized until now. The Epoch Times has also reviewed an internal Postal Service letter, which shows that one technician in the USPIS digital evidence unit used GrayKey to crack more than 150 iOS devices—iOS being the mobile operating system for the iPhone.

Altogether, the records suggest that the USPIS has cracked hundreds of iPhones—generally thought to be one of the most secure commercial phones on the market—as well as other devices.

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Apple’s AirTag uncovers a secret German intelligence agency

A researcher has sent one of Apple’s AirTags to a mysterious “federal authority” in Germany to locate its true offices — and to help prove that it’s really part of an intelligence agency.

Apple’s AirTags have already been used for good and for bad in cases involving the tracking of individuals, but now a German researcher has used one in an expose of government secrets.

Activist Lilith Wittmann claims that she has uncovered how Germany’s little-known Federal Telecommunications Service is actually a “camouflage authority” for a secret intelligence agency. Initially she wrote how she “accidentally stumbled upon a federal authority that does not exist.”

Now Wittmann has detailed her subsequent and extremely thorough attempts to prove her suspicion. She has methodically gone through every step of learning what she can of the intelligence agency, including where it is.

Some of the steps she details are no longer possible to reproduce, such as her initial one of simply looking up a list of federal authorities online. Similarly, Wittmann includes transcripts of phone calls with an official whose cell number that she reports then ceased working.

Through calls like that, IP searches, and even driving to official buildings, Wittmann worked to track down the mysterious Bundesservice Telekommunikation, or Federal Telecommunications Service.

She establishes multiple reasons to believe it is part of the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI), and ultimately concludes that there are actually two “camouflage” authorities. Both are allegedly a secret part of an intelligence agency named the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.

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Post Office’s Law Enforcement Arm Is Expanding Its Surveillance Powers

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has announced plans to provide its law enforcement branch with access to its vast trove of customer data, raising concerns among privacy activists about the organization’s expanding surveillance powers.

The USPS came under scrutiny in 2021 when it was revealed that its law enforcement arm, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), was monitoring both left- and right-wing protest groups on social media. Multiple nonprofit organizations sued the USPS, seeking internal records about its surveillance program and questioning the legality of such activities.

Those lawsuits haven’t stopped the Postal Service from seeking additional surveillance powers. On Dec. 17, 2021, the USPS announced that it intended to provide customer data to USPIS investigators.

“USPIS will collect and aggregate eight data elements—Name, Address, 11-Digit Delivery Point ZIP Code (ZIP 11), Phone Number, Email Address, Tracking Number, IP Address, and Moniker,” the Postal Service stated.

According to the USPS, the influx of new data will allow postal inspectors to conduct “link analysis,” using data analytics to discover patterns and trends in criminal activity.

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Unvaccinated to be Accompanied by Staff in Walmart to Make Sure They Don’t Buy Anything Other Than Food & Pharma

Under Quebec’s draconian new vaccine passport scheme, unvaccinated people who visit large stores like Walmart and Costco will have to be accompanied by employees to make sure they don’t buy anything other than food or pharmaceutical products.

Yes, really.

The rule is set to apply in big box stores so as “to make sure they (the unvaxxed) do not go and buy other products or other items that might be in the store,” according to a CBC newsreader.

In other words, in order to stop the spread of COVID-19, disgusting unvaccinated extremists must be prevented from purchasing things like disposable barbeques and electronic goods.

“For pharmacies located in big-box stores, such as Walmart or Costco, an unvaccinated person must be “accompanied at all times during his or her travels by an employee of the business, the pharmacy or any other person mandated by them for this purpose,” reports CBC, citing the decree. “This person may not purchase products other than those related to the pharmaceutical service they are receiving.”

“The leftists running Walmart, who endorsed the Black Lives Matter movement during the Floyd riots of 2020 and championed their stance against “discrimination,” are happily going along with the government’s plan to discriminate against the unvaxxed to “ensure a safe and efficient customer experience,” writes Chris Menahan.

This is yet another indication of how vaccine passport schemes are purely a means of punishing the unvaccinated for disobeying the regime.

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Oppressive COVID Measures for the Unvaccinated Were Based on ‘Software’ Error, Claims German Minister.

The “pandemic of the unvaccinated” was caused by a computer glitch. That was the conclusion of the Health Minister of Germany Karl Lauterbach, after months of vilifying the unvaccinated in the nation’s second largest city, Hamburg.

In November 2021, news outlets reported on the increasing “incident numbers” in the city – where the figure grew from 111.6 infected people per 100,000 to 160 per 100,000 in a span of few of days. By the end of November, that number shot up from 209.2 to a record of 223.3.

The ostensibly drastic increases have been used to legitimize new COVID policy measures in the city. First, 2G (vaccinated or recovered) status limitation was announced in order to enter shops, restaurants, and clubs. Social contact limitation was mandated for the unvaccinated. After the order, Mayor Peter Tschentscher, claimed to observe an increase in vaccination numbers, and implied it was the only way out of the pandemic.

Now, an investigation from the Sueddeutscher Zeitung and Welt newspapers has found that the numbers in Hamburg’s Social Services departments were drastically skewed and, in most cases, they didn’t even know who was vaccinated and who was not. This, however, did not stop them classifying everyone with an unknown status as unvaccinated. Indeed, by the end of November, a whopping 70 percent of the positive cases had unknown status.

In the second week of November, the Mayor of Hamburg held a press conference and incorrectly claimed that 90 percent of all new infections were amongst the unvaccinated. In addition, he alleged the 7-day infection average for the unvaccinated was at 605 per 100,000 and just 22 in 100,000 for the vaccinated.

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While Serving Warrant on the WRONG Person, Police Execute Teen as He Slept on the Couch

If you were to read the local news sites in Las Vegas earlier this month, you would think that police — while saving the public from a dangerous murderer — were ambushed and two of them were shot, barely escaping with their lives. The “shooter’s” face, plastered on news sites, telling the public that he fired 18 shots at officers before they finally and heroically killed him. But Isaiah Tyree Williams wasn’t so much a shooter as he was a victim of police violence. Their badges do nothing to change this reality.

After police executed Williams in his own home, a report from a local CBS affiliate read as follows, “Police said the shooter, 19-year-old Isaiah Tyree Williams, opened fire when officers broke a window and entered the apartment near Nellis Boulevard and Vegas Valley Drive at about 5 a.m. on Monday.”

But the question is this: does defending your home from armed intruders make you a “shooter”?

Had Williams been accused or suspected of a crime, perhaps police may have been more justified in their actions. However, he was not. Williams was not the person police were looking for and thanks to their brutal incompetence, two cops are recovering from bullet wounds and a black teenager is dead.

On that early morning raid, police were looking for 23-year-old Wattsel Rembert who was not staying at that apartment. Rembert is accused of participating in a shooting at a casino back in November. Instead of simply arresting Rembert in a normal manner, police chose to dangerously show up in the middle of the night, bash in doors, throw flash bang grenades, and put everyone involved in danger.

During the raid, Williams, who was asleep on the sofa when armed intruders broke into his home, began firing after a flashbang grenade smashed through his window. Police answered back with their AR-15s and pistols, firing 23 shots into the teen’s body — executing him on the sofa. He was still under the blanket when he died.

Two of the armed intruders, Officer Kerry Kubla, 50, and Officer Brice Clements, 36 were injured in the shooting.

After the shooting, police held a press conference, during which they demonized Williams, rattling off all the charges Williams would have faced for defending himself in his own home against armed intruders who threw a grenade through his window as he slept.

“Had he survived,” police explained, “Williams would have been arrested on counts of attempted murder with use of a deadly weapon on a first responder; battery with a deadly weapon on a first responder, assault on a first responder and three counts of discharging a firearm into an occupied structure.”

For defending himself against armed intruders, clearly intent on doing him harm in his own home as he slept.

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Capitol Police examines backgrounds, social media feeds of some who meet with lawmakers

After the Jan. 6 insurrection, the Capitol Police’s intelligence unit quietly started scrutinizing the backgrounds of people who meet with lawmakers, according to three people familiar with the matter.

POLITICO also viewed written communications describing the new approach, part of a host of changes that the department implemented after the Capitol attack. Examining the social media feeds of people who aren’t suspected of crimes, however, is a controversial move for law enforcement and intelligence officials given the civil liberties concerns it raises.

Among those who have been subject to new Capitol Police scrutiny are Hill staffers, the three people said. All spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.

Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.) said in an interview that he is unaware of any members who know about the “very, very bad” practice.

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Israel insists it only ‘legally’ spies on citizens

An Israeli minister has denied reports that police illegally used Pegasus surveillance software to spy on the country’s own citizens, calling the “central claim” – that the practice was illegal – “not true.”

Several government investigations were launched this past week after the Israeli newspaper Calcalist reported that law enforcement had been using NSO Group’s infamous Pegasus spyware to illegally intercept the calls of citizens.

The newspaper claimed that police had been using the spyware since 2013 to carry out surveillance on citizens “who were not criminals or suspects.”

Omer Bar-Lev, Israel’s Minister of Public Security, told Channel 12 on Saturday that the allegations were not true, “except for the fact that the Israel Police used advanced technology.”

“The central claim that the police are illegally spying is not true,” he declared, citing the assurances of Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai, before claiming to be “very happy that the Israel Police has advanced technological tools to help deal with serious crime organizations that are using advanced technology.”

Commissioner Shabtai vowed on Friday that the police’s “legal use of technological tools” would “continue,” and said the force would carry on “developing and improving these tools.”

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