Snowden: United States and Israel created the Stuxnet Virus that attacked Iran

The Stuxnet virus that decimated Iranian nuclear facilities was created by the NSA and co-written by Israel, Edward Snowden has confirmed. The whistleblower added the NSA has a web of foreign partners who pay “marginal attention to human rights.”

In an interview with Jacob Applebaum published in German daily Der Spiegel on Monday, Snowden stated that the US and Israel were behind the computer worm. Stuxnet infiltrated Iranian nuclear facility networks in 2009-2010 and was used to change the speed of thousands of gas-spinning centrifuges, sabotaging nuclear research.  

Washington and Tel Aviv were thought to have been behind the cyber-attack, however, this was never confirmed by either government. “The NSA and Israel wrote Stuxnet together,” Snowden told Applebaum in the interview that was carried out in May.

Snowden stressed that the National Security Agency (NSA) often cooperates with foreign partners through a special body known as the Foreign Affairs Directorate (FAD). Referring to Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, also known as the ‘Five Eye Partners,’ he said their practices often go further than those of the NSA.

In particular he flagged the system used by the UK’s General Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), TEMPORA as one of the worst offenders. “TEMPORA is the signals intelligence community's first ‘full-take’ internet buffer that doesn't care about content type and pays only marginal attention to the Human Rights Act,” said Snowden.

The UK buffer is able to hold a vast quantity of internet data for up to three days, said the whistleblower. “You should never send information over British lines or British servers. Even the Queen’s ‘selfies’ with her lifeguards would be recorded, if they existed.”

While Snowden conceded that monitoring abroad had its limits and the NSA has to prioritize the information it collects, he stressed that monitoring on its own territory was “practically limitless.” Private enterprise is also involved in the NSA’s mass collating of internet data, but proving their complicity is very difficult.

“The names of the cooperating telecom companies are the crown jewels of the NSA... Generally you can say that multinationals with headquarters in the USA should not be trusted until they prove otherwise,” Snowden pointed out.

When asked about how one could avoid falling into the traps of NSA surveillance, Snowden said anyone who had been targeted “was just owned.” The analyst charged with following an individual receives a report every day, meaning the “target's machine doesn't belong to them anymore, it belongs to the US government.”

Snowden’s interviewer, 30-year-old Jacob Applebaum, has also fallen foul of US law enforcement in the past. Applebaum co-wrote a book with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange detailing tips on how to evade cyber-surveillance while surfing the web.

The book called ‘Cypherpunks: Freedom and the Future of the Internet’, was also co-written by Jeremie Zimmermann and Andy Muller-Maguhn. Assange invited his co-authors on to the Julian Assange show, which aired on RT last year in March, to discuss cyber resistance.

“Two of them, besides myself, have been targeted by law enforcement agencies as a result of their work to safeguard privacy and to keep governments accountable. Their words, and their stories, need to be heard,” Assange told the New York Times.

The members of the Cypherpunks movement shared their stories with Julian Assange whilst sitting down to discuss the problems of privacy, online communication and freedom on the internet.

US citizen Edward Snowden is believed to be eluding an extradition order to the US on charges of espionage in the transit zone of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport. Snowden has sent a number of applications for political asylum. Thus far Venezuela and Nicaragua have confirmed receipt of the applications, but are yet to grant asylum. However, Snowden is still unable to travel as his passport has been voided by the US authorities.

Russia Today

Moscow to hold beauty pegeant for Snakes

The Moscow Zoo plans to hold a "beauty pageant" for snakes from March to May to mark the year of the snake.

The zoo has already allocated about 2 million rubles ($66,000) for the event's organization, according to information on the official state procurement website.

A condition of the event is that it must be held in a pavilion with a total area of nearly 300 square meters.

In the statement, the maximum price of the contract was calculated based on the planned attendance of the zoo from March to mid-May, and that at least 36 different kinds of non-venomous snakes will be on display at the event.

Only the brightest, most beautiful and unique kinds of snakes will be showcased: Leptocercal ladder snakes, false smooth snakes, slim, ancestral, European, American and burrow snakes, sand snakes, South American bush snakes, king snakes, red king snakes and Madagascar snakes, as well as Australian and reticulated pythons, ordinary snakes and tree boas.

The zoo requires whoever wins the contract to ensure veterinarian services for the animals and any treatment they require, as well as to prepare admission tickets for the show and forms for voting. The tender winner will also have to provide all equipment and heating for the snakes' cages, as well as security for the event.

Fans Ready to Pay Fortune for Titanic's Replica Maiden Voyage

                              
A handout picture received from Southampton City Council on April 4, 2012 shows the Titanic leaving Southampton on her ill-fated maiden voyage on April 10, 1912. (AFP Photo)


Australian billionaire Clive Palmer, who plans to build a modern replica of the legendary Titanic cruise ship by 2016, has received an “overwhelming” response from people around the world willing to be the first paying passengers.

A half-dozen people have even offered $1 million or more to be on the maiden voyage, officials from Palmer's company Blue Star Line announced at a press conference.

Raymond Tam, Director of Asia Operations for Blue Star Line said "Many people when they think about Titanic II, they think about the romantic story of Rose and Jack, Romeo and Juliet, so I am sure many people can associate themselves one way or the other with Titanic. So I guess our target has no limit on boundaries.”

The global launch of the Titanic II project is scheduled for February 26, according to the Blue Star Line website. It will be held in New York on the retired aircraft carrier USS Intrepid, not far from the original Titanic’s would-be port of destination. Details concerning the project are expected to be released at the event.

Preliminary plans and drawings of the Titanic II were revealed in July 2012. The ship is being designed by the Finland-based Deltamarin engineering company, and will be constructed by China's CSC Jinling Shipyard company.

The upgraded version of the world’s most famous cruise liner will have the same dimensions as its ill-fated original: It will be 270 meters long (885 feet), 53 meters high, and will weigh 40,000 tons. The ship will have 840 rooms and nine decks, and retain the first, second and third-class divisions of the original.

However, the replica will also be equipped with cutting-edge technology and the newest navigation and safety systems. The ship will also be wider, its bridge will have greater visibility over the bow, and this time there will be lifeboats for everyone.

Once completed, the Titanic replica will first sail from China to Southampton, and then carry passengers to New York along the original ship’s 1912 route. The Titanic was the world’s largest and most luxurious ocean liner, but it sank 100 years ago during its maiden voyage after hitting an iceberg in the North Atlantic, killing around 1500 passengers.

Palmer is not the first to set the ambitious goal of recreating the Titanic. In 1998, the same project was announced by South African business mogul Sarel Gous. It was abandoned in 2006 over lack of public interest and investment.

                      
This handout diagram provided by The Blue Star Line on July 17, 2012 shows the preliminary plans and drawings for the Titanic II. (AFP Photo/The Blue Star Line)