Tag: secrecy

NYPD Will Spend Nearly $400 Million to Hide its Radio Communications

The New York Police Department (NYPD) will spend nearly $400 million to upgrade its radio system, including encrypting its communications channels, which the public has been able to tune into since 1932.

At a New York City Council meeting Monday, NYPD Chief of Information Technology Ruben Beltran said the upgrade, expected to cost $390 million, will be completed by the end of next year, replacing the old analog radio network with a fully encrypted digital system. 

The move is part of a growing trend. Over the last decade, other large police departments in Chicago, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Portland have all encrypted their radio communications or are planning to do so. Departments say broadcasting in the clear gives criminals advance warning. Beltran said encryption would also protect the information of crime victims and block pranksters who jam up NYPD frequencies. (The NYPD regularly leaks information on arrestees and even victims for political purposes.)

However, scanner enthusiasts, news organizations, and elected officials complain that encrypted radio is cutting off a longstanding and useful source of information on police activity. As Gothamist reported, NYPD radio chatter has been the source of several major news stories over the years:

The New York Daily News obtained the crucial video of Officer Daniel Pantaleo killing Eric Garner thanks to a call that came over the police radio in Staten Island. As tens of thousands of peaceful demonstrators flooded the streets in June 2020, Gothamist recorded NYPD officers on radio airwaves using threatening language about the protesters, including saying that officers should run protesters over and shoot them. Responding, one officer was recorded saying “don’t put that over air.”

Police frequencies going dark is especially challenging for photojournalists, who rely on scanners to get to emergency scenes as fast as possible. The Chicago Police Department is considering a 30-minute public broadcast delay to allow news organizations to still hear dispatch calls.

Keep reading

U.S. MILITARY IS SECRETLY SUPPLYING WEAPONS TO ISRAEL USING UK BASE ON CYPRUS

Respected Israeli newspaper Haaretz has reported that over 40 US transport aircraft, 20 British transport aircraft and seven heavy transport helicopters have flown to RAF Akrotiri, Britain’s vast base on Cyprus, carrying equipment, arms and forces.

RAF Akrotiri has long been the staging post for British military operations and bombing campaigns in the Middle East. It sits 180 miles from Tel Aviv with a flight time of 40 minutes. 

The planes have been loaded with cargo from strategic depots belonging to the US and NATO in Europe, Haaretz reported. Around half the US flights are said to be “delivering military aid”. 

Declassified has found these US weapons and equipment are likely being delivered to RAF Akrotiri from US bases in Turkey, Spain and Germany.

On October 18 and 24, the US flew two huge C-17A Globemaster military transport vehicles to RAF Akrotiri from its air base at Rota in southern Spain. On October 25, the US flew another C-17 to Akrotiri from Ramstein air base in Germany, the site of NATO’s air command. 

The C-17 is capable of transporting 134 personnel and many types of military equipment, including Abrams tanks and Black Hawk helicopters. The US military notes that the C-17’s role is to “rapidly project and sustain an effective combat force close to a potential battle area”.

On November 5, a US C-130J Hercules military transport aircraft flew from Adana in southern Turkey to RAF Akrotiri. Adana is home to the Incirlik air base, a major US facility with 5,000 American personnel. The Hercules can carry 128 combat troops and 19,600kg of cargo.

Declassified could find no US Air Force (USAF) planes arriving from these bases in the two months before the Gaza bombing campaign began. 

US planes landing at Nevatim Air Force Base – located in southern Israel near the Negev desert – have delivered arms for the Israel’s military, Haaretz also reported. In addition, US aircraft landing at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv have carried, among other things, armoured vehicles.

Keep reading

Michigan Lawmakers Signed Nondisclosure Agreements, Can’t Discuss Corporate Welfare Scheme

When a state gives away tax money to a private company in an attempt to sway its business decisions, the least that a taxpayer can hope for is some openness in the process.

Unfortunately, the state of Michigan’s economic development agency is actively preventing transparency, leaving questions on how the state plans to spend billions of taxpayer dollars unanswered.

In December 2021, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, signed legislation establishing the Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve (SOAR) program, intended “to ensure the state can compete for billions of dollars in investment and attract tens of thousands of jobs to bolster our economy.” SOAR funds would be disbursed with approval from the state Senate Appropriations Committee and would benefit companies that chose to do business in the Great Lake State.

As Reason reported in May, SOAR disbursed $1.4 billion in its first 18 months, all to benefit companies making electric vehicles, batteries, or battery components.

This week, Beth LeBlanc of The Detroit News reported that since its founding, “at least 163 individuals or entities have signed non-disclosure agreements” (NDAs) related to SOAR projects. The agreements were required by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), which manages the SOAR program.

Keep reading

U.S. WEAPONS TRANSFERS TO ISRAEL SHROUDED IN SECRECY — BUT NOT UKRAINE

ONE MONTH SINCE Hamas’s surprise attack, little is known about the weapons the U.S. has provided to Israel. Whereas the Biden administration released a three-page itemized list of weapons provided to Ukraine, down to the exact number of rounds, the information released about weapons sent to Israel could fit in a single sentence.

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby acknowledged the secrecy in an October 23 press briefing, saying that while U.S. security assistance flows to Israel “on a near-daily basis,” he continued, “We’re being careful not to quantify or get into too much detail about what they’re getting — for their own operational security purposes, of course.”

The argument that transparency would imperil Israel’s operational security — somehow not a concern with Ukraine — is misleading, experts told The Intercept.

“The notion that it would in any way harm the Israeli military’s operational security to provide more information is a cover story for efforts to reduce information on the types of weapons being supplied to Israel and how they are being used,” William Hartung, a fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and expert on weapons sales, told The Intercept. “I think the purposeful lack of transparency over what weapons the U.S. is supplying to Israel ‘on a daily basis’ is tied to the larger administration policy of downplaying the extent to which Israel will use those weapons to commit war crimes and kill civilians in Gaza.”

Keep reading

U.S. QUIETLY EXPANDS SECRET MILITARY BASE IN ISRAEL

TWO MONTHS BEFORE Hamas attacked Israel, the Pentagon awarded a multimillion-dollar contract to build U.S. troop facilities for a secret base it maintains deep within Israel’s Negev desert, just 20 miles from Gaza. Code-named “Site 512,” the longstanding U.S. base is a radar facility that monitors the skies for missile attacks on Israel. 

On October 7, however, when thousands of Hamas rockets were launched, Site 512 saw nothing — because it is focused on Iran, more than 700 miles away.

The U.S. Army is quietly moving ahead with construction at Site 512, a classified base perched atop Mt. Har Qeren in the Negev, to include what government records describe as a “life support facility”: military speak for barracks-like structures for personnel.

Though President Joe Biden and the White House insist that there are no plans to send U.S. troops to Israel amid its war on Hamas, a secret U.S. military presence in Israel already exists. And the government contracts and budget documents show it is evidently growing. 

Keep reading

King Charles urged to use his ‘direct hotline’ to President Joe Biden to expose ‘the truth about UFOs’

King Charles has been urged to apply “pressure” on US President Joe Biden to “reveal the truth about UFOs”.

Nick Pope, a former employee of the UK’s UFO desk, has revealed the many ways in which the British monarch can help the UK disclosure process commence as it did across the pond three months ago, as someone with direct access to the world leader.

In UFO expert Mark Christopher Lee’s new film, ‘The King Of UFOs’, Pope says: “Here is somebody who could pick up the phone and say look here what’s going on in the United States. He could ask for a full classified briefing.”

The documentary states that Charles can request Ministers for the UK parliament to compile a report if there is ever any unexplained activity in UK airspace as it would be a potential defence and safety issue.

The royal could also gather parliamentary questions much like the US initiated discourse and gather enough momentum to force the Defence Minister to hold a hearing.

Pope claims that the king must be interested in UFOs, as his late Prince Phillip and great uncle Lord Mountbatten were.

Lee believes part of the UK government’s fears against investigating the phenomena is the “demonic” element to UFO sightings.

The filmmaker recently made the hit Tubi film ‘God Versus Aliens’, an exploration of “the spiritual implications that first contact would have.”

Former Canadian diver Dan Costello was interviewed in the film and claims he worked with the then-Prince Charles on Project Serpico in Nova Scotia in Canada in 1975.

Keep reading

Hide-and-Seek: Jeffrey Epstein Victim Virginia Giuffre Fighting Jane Doe’s Objection to Unsealing of Records

Jeffrey Epstein’s loudest victim Virginia Giuffre is battling a woman associated with a sex trafficking case who is fighting tooth and nail to remain anonymous, RadarOnline.com can exclusively reveal.

Giuffre, who famously accused Prince Andrew of sexually molesting her as a teenager, filed court documents in Manhattan federal court seeking to unseal the name of the woman labeled as Jane Doe #133.

“Doe 133’s objections to unsealing are the same as those the Court has already rejected numerous times: that unsealing certain documents might be embarrassing, would expose nonparties to media attention, and could result in some unfortunate association between the non-parties and Jeffrey Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell,” Guffre’s renowned attorney Sigrid S. McCawley wrote in a legal brief.

“But as the Court has previously recognized, such generalized concerns about annoyance or embarrassment are insufficient to overcome the presumption of public access to judicial documents in a case of great public interest like this one.”

Jane Doe #133 is among hundreds of anonymous characters implicated or simply named in a now-settled 2015 defamation lawsuit Guffre filed against Epstein’s alleged pimp Maxwell — who was convicted of sex trafficking and is 20 years in federal prison – for publicly calling her a liar.

Keep reading

U.S. Attorney declines to name those involved in decision not to prosecute Hunter Biden

Matthew Graves, the U.S. Attorney for Washington D.C. who was a key figure in Jan. 6 prosecutions and refused to bring tax charges against Hunter Biden, backed out of naming those involved in declining to prosecute the first son, according to his transcribed interview with lawmakers.

“I’m already dealing with enough threats and harassment of my assistant United States attorneys,” Graves said in the official transcript obtained by Just the News as he explained why their names were not revealed. 

He told lawmakers during the interview how his agency decided to not partner with David Weiss, the U.S. Attorney for Delaware who was later named special counsel, and prosecuting a Hunter Biden in tax charges.

Graves told lawmakers he met with five or six people from his office in March 2022 to determine whether they should get involved in the Hunter Biden case.

Three weeks later the office decided to not get involved in the case, and Graves refused to disclose his office’s thoughts because the investigation is still ongoing.

Graves also said it was “normal” for federal prosecutors to bring tax cases without partnering with the Justice Department Tax Division, but in this case, Weiss needed the division’s approval to open a grand jury probe into Hunter Biden.

While Graves said he never told the Delaware prosecutor to not bring charges, he also never followed up with Weiss to make it clear that he was still welcome to bring charges even if his own office would not be involved.

Furthermore, Graves said he never felt a need to recuse himself from being involved in the case involving President Joe Biden’s son even though he worked on the president’s campaign, as well as candidate John Kerry’s 2004 Democratic presidential campaign and President Bill Clinton’s 1996 reelection campaign. 

Keep reading

Man Given Secret Jan. 6 Plea Deal Finished His Prison Sentence With No Public Court Record

A Jan. 6 defendant from Pennsylvania originally charged with felonies including assaulting police at the U.S. Capitol and civil disorder was given a secret plea deal and served his entire prison term without details being recorded on a public court docket.

Samuel Lazar, 37, of Ephrata, Pa., was arrested by the FBI on July 26, 2021, and later charged in a superseding indictment (pdf) with assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers, civil disorder, entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon, engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon, and an act of physical violence in the Capitol grounds or buildings.

Mr. Lazar was ordered detained until trial despite his numerous requests for reconsideration.

On March 8, 2022, Mr. Lazar accepted a deal from prosecutors and pleaded guilty to one felony: assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers and aiding and abetting. The plea deal included language that Mr. Lazar would assist federal authorities with the ongoing Jan. 6 investigation, according to a case status report (pdf) filed on Oct. 2.

Keep reading