Polity News

Click ****LINK**** to the documents released.

On June 1, 2014, Polity News filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for records held by their National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (NIPRCC). The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The documents released are complaints made about the Pirate Bay that were sent to the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (NIPPRCC). A total of fifteen complaints filed between 2012 and 2014 were released through the FOIA request. It appears that New Zealand author Maree Anderson filed a complaint against the Pirate Bay. Maree Anderson complains about the Pirate Bay publicly posting legal notices and ridiculing the legal notices on their website. At the end of her complaint she states, “Perhaps you would have more luck in putting pressure on them than one individual like myself. And if you are unable to take further action, I hope this notification will put The Pirate Bay in your sights so you can keep an eye on them. Thank you for your time.”

Someone claiming to be a legal representative of the CSA group complains about a link on the Pirate Bay website. The complaints states, “CSA Group is requesting that all the material which is housed under ‘CSA’ on the infringing website is disabled, including the direct link to the Canadian Electrical Code belonging to CSA Group.”

In one bizarre and Orwellian complaint from June 26, 2012, a mother reports her son’s father for copyright infringement. The mother even mentions that she has photographs of the father’s TV screen as evidence. Ironically enough, the complaint was logged as a complaint against “littlesnitch.com”:

"Yesterday, my son and I visited the FBI office here in Houston to share with an employee the illegal downloading of movies, music and games that my son has witnesses his father doing for several months now. They told me to report the fact that his dad has downloaded over 150 movies, I have photos of from the TV screen, that his father has stored on an Apple TV console. All movies say do not copy for there will be a fine but no one does anything. So I am writing to tell you that this man has done everything possible to see that the is not caught but vcerbally shares with family and friends of how he does infringe upon these copyrights for entertainment. He also makes or burns discs for friends to share. MPAA only wanted to know where he was downloading and could not help. I ask you what can I do, as a parent, to prevent a 14 year old from witnessing such a law breaking citizen in his own home? It is not setting a good example for him and I don’t think that it is right to subject him to this cyber crime. Devices on websites used: www.piratebay.com for downloads and www.LittleSnitch.com so he won’t be detected. this is not right. Any help would be appreciated.”

It appears that the form people were using to send in the complaints was logging IP-addresses as can be seen blacked-out in some of the newer emails from 2013 and 2014.

Polity News will be appealing in order to release more documents held by the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (NIPRCC) through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) process.

UPDATE July 26, 2014 9:00 am EST - Exodus Intelligence releases video showing that the vulnerability in Tails was due to a software called I2P. ****LINK****

UPDATE July 25, 2014 8:30am EST - Tor Project responds to questions by Polity News. ****LINK****

UPDATE July 22, 2014 8:30pm EST - Document from the National Democratic Institute regarding use of Tails for elections in Belarus is available here. ****LINK****

July 22, 2014

Photo from Tails.

How was Edward Snowden, the famous whistleblower, able to evade the NSA? Shortly after the Snowden leaks, the news media started to become familiar with tools such as OTR (off-the-record) encryption for instant messaging and software for email encryption. The press also learned of Tails and soon dubbed it “Snowden’s favorite operating system”.  Tails was even promoted in the popular press as a way to use the internet like James Bond.

A recent article by Thomas Brewster of Forbes details how a company called Exodus Intelligence discovered security vulnerabilities (also known as zero-days and 0days) in the Tails operating system. Exodus Intelligence is a company that sells security vulnerabilities to its customers. Exodus Intelligence’s customers could then use the information about the security vulnerabilities in Tails to hack or identify computers using Tails. This is extremely concerning since activists, journalists, and whistleblowers were encouraged to use the Tails operating system. Tails had promised to help provide security and anonymity to people whose security was at risk. Loc Nguyen, a researcher for Exodus Intelligence, has stated that the company will not be selling the Tails exploits. Exodus Intelligences’ promise is not reassuring, especially considering that its past clients include DARPA (a US military research agency) and the US Department of Defense (which oversees the NSA).

Photo from Twitter.

The Forbes article failed to mention that Tails is financed by the US government. The Tor Project has given $36,000 to the Tails project from 2010 to 2013. As reported earlier this week by Yasha Levine of Pando.com, the Tor Project is almost entirely funded by the US government. Here at Polity News, I also reported on the Tor Project’s connections to the NSA and other US government offices connected to spying operations.

After a series of scandals involving covert CIA attempts to overthrow governments abroad, the Reagan administration decided to publicly and openly fund “democracy assistance”. The Reagan administration was able to convince Congress to establish the National Endowment for Democracy and its subsidiaries: the American Center for International Labor Solidarity (ACILS), the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), and the International Republican Institute (IRI). The National Endowment for Democracy’s subsidiaries are run by the AFL-CIO, the American Chamber of Commerce, the Democratic Party, and the Republican Party respectively with annual funding from the US government. The National Endowment for Democracy has also faced a series of scandals as Barbara Conry of the Cato Institute chronicles in this article. Due to the scandals, there have been numerous attempts by members of Congress  to shut down the National Endowment for Democracy. One of the National Endowment for Democracy’s subsidiaries, the International Republican Institute, was responsible for covertly financing an activist group called Otpor! during the Serbian revolution. In Serbia, the US government financed TV ads, t-shirts, music concerts, and even cans of spray-paint for graffiti. In a different scandal, Eva Golinger, a supporter of Chavez, obtained documents from the US government showing that the National Endowment for Democracy was financing Chavez’s opponents during the elections in Venezuela.

The National Democratic Institute (abbreviated NDI), a subsidiary of the National Endowment for Democracy, gave the Tails project $21,000 in 2013. The National Democratic Institute was training elections monitors in Belarus to use the Tails operating system. In its 2013 budget justification, the National Endowment for Democracy admitted to being the major funder behind many civil society groups in Belarus. The budget justification states, “NED will continue to foster free, fair and transparent elections in the region, especially Belarus, where it has been the main funder of civil society groups for many years despite aggressive repression by the government.” It is an open secret that the United States and European countries have been financing groups to overthrow Belarus’ dictator. The National Democratic Institute convinced Belarusian opposition parties to put their supporters’ contact information and other personal information in a database set-up by the National Democratic Institute. A National Democratic Institute report states on page 5, “Creating a detailed record of supporters (due to the absence of voter files) will greatly improve upon their ability to conduct outreach.  In the months since the launch of the data system, eight political forces have uploaded over 113,220 contacts into the system.”

At its awards dinner, the National Democratic Institute honored the Tails project as a civil innovator. Guests at the awards dinner included the President of Estonia Toomas Hendrik, former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, and the US Representative to the UN Samantha Power. The National Democratic Institute even hosted Tails 1.0 launch party. Karen Reilly and Runa Sandvik of the Tor Project were there for the launch party’s discussion panel. Some readers might remember that Runa Sandvik is the Tor Project member who had hosted a CryptoParty in Honolulu, Haiwaii with Edward Snowden six months before Snowden went public as the NSA leaker. Tails was listed as one of the possible subjects for a workshop at the CryptoParty.

Video of Karen Reilly and Runa Sandvik of Tor Project at the National Democratic Institute’s Tails 1.0 launch party.

Today, Polity News is sending a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the National Endowment for Democracy to obtain documents about the Tails project and its government funding. [link to FOIA]

[Updated - see the link at the top of this article] Polity News has also emailed the Tor Project a series of questions for public comment. A link to the response email will be provided here.

Added July 22, 2014 - All articles on this blog (Polity News) are under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. This means you are free to copy and repost this article online. I do not own some of the videos and images on this website. You will have to look up copyright and creative commons licenses for videos and images separately.

Photo from Tor Project.

July 18, 2014

Earlier this week, Yasha Levine of Pando.com wrote a detailed history of the Tor Project. The article goes into depth about how TOR (the Onion Router) was originally created and financed by the Naval Research Laboratory. During the Cold War, the Naval Research Laboratory was key in the US government’s spying operations. The Naval Research Laboratory was involved in Operation Ivy Bells to wiretap the undersea cables so the US government could spy on international phone calls. The Naval Research Laboratory continues to fund research in SIGINT (signals intelligence), aka NSA-style spying. Andrew Lewman, Tor Project’s Executive Director, even admitted that one of Tor Project’s SRI International grants is really a grant from the US Navy’s SPAWAR program. The SPAWAR program is the US Navy’s version of the NSA. On a regular basis, SPAWAR openly solicits research and contract proposals for SIGINT technologies.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced a new program in 2003, the Total Information Awareness (TIA) program. The aim of the TIA program was to collect huge amounts of personal information in a massive database. The Los Angeles Times compared TIA to George Orwell’s 1984. US Senator Wyden called TIA the “biggest surveillance program in the history of the United States”. After public outcry and pressure from Congress, the TIA program was shut down. [Note: DARPA also funded Tor Project from 2001-2006.]

The Department of Defense, which oversees DARPA, wanted to continue the TIA program. Fearful of public outcry, the Department of Defense quietly shifted parts of the TIA program to the NSA and other intelligence agencies. Parts of the TIA program were put under the NSA’s ARDA office (Advanced Research and Development Activity). ARDA was involved in the NSA’s early mass surveillance programs. In his book The Shadow Factory, James Bamford wrote, “Another 2007 study, this one by the Congressional Research Service examining the federal government’s data mining practices, gave a hint at the NSA’s data dragnet. It cited a statistic from the Web page (now removed) for the NSA’s Advanced Research and Development Activity (ARDA): ‘Some intelligence data sources grow at a rate of four petabytes per month now,’ the study said, ‘and the rate of growth is increasing.’ As noted in the opening of this book, in a year at that rate, the database would hold at least 48 petabytes, the equivalent of nearly one billion four-door filing cabinets full of documents. It would also be equal to about twenty-four trillion pages of text.” ARDA’s old website from 2002, even describes the massive amount of information it was collecting.

In order to evade renewed concerns from Congress and civil liberties groups over mass data collection, the former TIA projects were put under a new office at the NSA called the Disruptive Technology Office in 2005. During the fiscal year 2005, the Disruptive Technology Office began to oversee and supervise the Cyber-TA (Cyber Threat Assessment) program. Publicly, the Cyber-TA program was funded by the US Army Research Office. At the time though, the Disruptive Technology Office had a large black budget (classified budget). According to the Tor Project’s own website, the Cyber-TA program helped to sponsor the Tor Project from 2006-2008. Roger Dingledine, one of Tor Project’s developers and a former private contractor at the Naval Research Laboratory, allegedly attended some of the Cyber-TA meetings. Roger Dingledine and Paul Syverson, a researcher at the Naval Research Laboratory who had helped to create Tor, were on the Cyber-TA’s project team. Roger Dingledine has also previously been an intern at the NSA and has given several presentations there.

Fearful of more Congressional oversight, the Department of Defense disbanded the NSA’s Office of Disruptive Technology and put the former TIA programs under IARPA (Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity) under the Director of National Intelligence. IARPA is the same agency that financed a quantum computer capable of breaking encryption. Documents were leaked by Edward Snowden showing that the NSA was involved in a research project to build a quantum computer at the Laboratory for Telecommunications Sciences in College Park, Maryland. The NSA wants to use this quantum computer to crack encryption to better enable the agency to spy on people. The research park in Maryland the NSA was referring to is in the same research park where IARPA is located. IARPA also continues to solicit contracts for surveillance technology.

For several years, it appears that the NSA was de-anonymizing Tor users by identifying Tor users through Google ads and browser cookies. Documents leaked by Edward Snowden show that the NSA had various ways of de-anonymizing users. Silk Road was an infamous online marketplace for selling illegal drugs and it was hosted on a Tor hidden service. In May 2013, Silk Road was hit with a ddos attack. The ddos attacker demanded only $5,000 which seemed rather odd considering ddos-ing a Tor hidden service requires technical skills and Silk Road was making millions of dollars a year at the time. Several months later in October 2013, the FBI arrested the owner of the Silk Road. In December 2013, the Naval Research Laboratory (the same laboratory that created Tor) published a paper showing how Tor hidden services (much like Silk Road) could be de-anonymized through selective ddos attacks. In a separate incident known as TorSploit, hundreds, if not thousands, of Tor users’ MAC and IP addresses were exposed. 

Even without a massive multi-billion dollar NSA budget, it is still possible to de-anonymize Tor users and hidden services. Alexander Volynkin and Michael McCord, presenters at this year’s BlackHat conference, promise to show conference attendees how to de-anonymize Tor users and hidden services for only $3,000.

Was the promise of Tor too good to be true? After all, the NSA marks Tor users for surveillance…

"TorButton cares about TOR users being indistinguishable from [other] TOR users. We only care about TOR users versus non-TOR users. Thanks to TorButton, it’s easy!" said one leaked NSA document.

Added July 22, 2014 - All articles on this blog (Polity News) are under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. This means you are free to copy and repost this article online. I do not own some of the videos and images on this website. You will have to look up copyright and creative commons licenses for videos and images separately.

July 14, 2014

A month ago, Polity News filed a series of FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests to various US government agencies requesting documents regarding the Pirate Bay. Normally, US government agencies have only 20 business days to respond to a FOIA request. As of today, out of the twelve FOIA requests filed, only one agency has responded to the FOIA request by releasing documents. The United States International Trade Commission (USITC) released some documents that were already publicly available from its website (Digital Trade in the U.S. and Global Economies, Part 1 and China: Effects of Intellectual Property Infringement and Indigenous Innovation Policies on the U.S. Economy).

As part of the FOIA request, USITC also released other documents, mostly letters from business trade organizations. On February 28, 2013, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) submitted a letter to USITC (United States International Trade Commission). In the letter, RIAA thanks USTR (Office of the United States Trade Representative), the Department of Justice, and the Department of Homeland Security for helping to shut down websites and services alleged to have been involved in copyright infringement. RIAA goes on to say, “While its operators have been criminally adjudicated, the Pirate Bay (TPB) continues to be one of the top sites in the world providing access to unlicensed content.”

On January 30, 2014, the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) submitted a letter to USITC. In the letter, IIPA complains about websites such as thepiratebay.se, kickass.to, torrentz.edu, torrentz.in, and 4shared.com. The IIPA mentions that the music industry associations have won many civil court orders against more than 250 websites, but the IIPA states that that it is difficult to force ISPs (internet service providers) to shut down websites. IIPA even suggests implementing special IP (intellectual property) courts in India. The letter even alludes to the fact that copyright holders are often allowed to choose judges in the Delhi courts to hear their cases. The letter also states, “The Indian government has been urged to amend Indian tax laws to classify software piracy as a form of tax evasion…”. The IIPA even wants the Indian government to change its laws in order to allow special tax breaks for anti-piracy associations. In an appendix attached to the letter, the IIPA also mentions that India is part of the US government’s GSP (Generalized System of Preferences) trade program, “Among the criteria the President must take into account in determining whether a country should continue to be designated as a GSP beneficiary country are ‘the extent to which such country is providing adequate and effective protection of intellectual property rights,’ and ‘the extent to which such country has assured the United States that it will provide equitable and reasonable access to the markets … of such country.’” IIPA states, “India needs to continue to endeavor to meet the adequate and effective test under the statute to remain eligible to receive favorable treatment under the GSP program.” In other words, the IIPA is encouraging the US government to blackmail India into enforcing intellectual property, and to threaten India with trade sanctions if it refuses to comply.

In a different letter to USITC, the IIPA included a previous letter it had sent to the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR). Interestingly, USTR is also one of the same US government offices that has refused to respond to Polity New’s FOIA request regarding Pirate Bay. USTR obviously has documents regarding the Pirate Bay, but has so far refused to release any documents. In IIPA’s letter to USTR on October 25, 2013 on page 182 (obtained through a FOIA request to a different agency, USITC), the IIPA requests that USTR designate certain websites as “notorious markets”. The Pirate Bay (piratebay.sx) made it in second place on IIPA’s hit list, just after VK.com (VKontakte), a Russian social media website.

A document has been discovered online (not through a FOIA request) that shows the US Copyright Office, the US Department of Justice, and the US State Department worked with the Government of Sweden to prosecute the Pirate Bay. NIPLECC’s (The National Intellectual Property Law Enforcement Coordination Council) 2006 report to Congress and the President states on page 102, “The Copyright Office also provides assistance to other U.S. Government agencies involved in enforcement efforts around the globe. During the last year, the Copyright Office worked with the State Department and the Department of Justice to provide assistance to the Government of Sweden in their efforts to address “The Pirate Bay,” a website notorious for facilitating Internet piracy.”

The 2006 NIPLECC report was available on the US Commerce Department’s website, but has since been deleted. There is still a copy of the document on the Internet Archive’s website. The NIPLECC 2006 report was released just months after the raid against Pirate Bay in 2006. In light of the 2006 NIPLECC report, Polity News will be submitting more FOIA requests to various government agencies. In addition, Polity News is submitting appeals to US government agencies that have not complied with the previous FOIA requests.

USITC FOIA Documents:

• Original FOIA Request to USITC link
• USITC’s Initial Response Letter to FOIA Request link
• Digital Trade in the U.S. and Global Economies, Part 1 link
• China: Effects of Intellectual Property Infringement and Indigenous Innovation Policies on the U.S. Economy link
• February 28, 2013 RIAA submission to USITC link
• January 30, 2014 IIPA submission to USITC link
• March 21, 2014 IIPA submission to USITC (includes October 25, 2013 IIPA submission to USTR on page 182) link
• Can Trade Policy Set Information Free by Susan Ariel Aaronson, with Miles D. Townes (submitted as part of public comment for USITC 332-531 link)
• (Disregard this document. It only came up in the FOIA request because a Pirate Bay link was in a news article) link

Added July 22, 2014 - All articles on this blog (Polity News) are under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. This means you are free to copy and repost this article online. I do not own some of the videos and images on this website. You will have to look up copyright and creative commons licenses for videos and images separately.

Reset the Net is a campaign by Fight for the Future and endorsed by many organizations. Organizations that fight for internet freedom such as the Free Software Foundation, Electronic Frontier Foundation, American Civil Liberties Union, and Restore the Fourth endorsed the Reset the Net campaign. Also, some more questionable organizations such as Google and Yahoo were allowed to join the campaign, even though they work closely with the NSA on its spying efforts. Even DropBox, which was mired in controversy over appointing Condoleezza Rice to its corporate board, was allowed to participate (Condoleezza Rice was part of the Bush administration and supported Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program).

With all the talk and paranoia that currently surrounds the NSA’s spying programs, it seems rather odd that Reset the Net would be promoting software that is actually funded by the US government.

Reset the Net is encouraging people to download and use software that is part of its Privacy Pack. Four of the six software programs on Reset the Net’s infographic are actually financed by the US government. Tor, ChatSecure, TextSecure, and RedPhone all receive US government financing.

Image from Reset the Net

Tor (The Onion Router) was originally a US Naval Research Laboratory project. The Naval Research Laboratory was instrumental in research for the US government’s COMINT and SIGINT programs (aka spying/mass surveillance programs) after World War II. On page 10 under the “Electronic Warfare” section, the Naval Research Laboratory lists that it continues to conduct research in COMINT and SIGINT technologies. Paul Syverson, a researcher at the Naval Research Lab, continues to work with the Tor Project on research and design. On Tor Project’s own website, it lists Tor as having received direct and indirect funding from the Naval Research Laboratory for almost a decade from 2001-2010.

Tor, ChatSecure, TextSecure, and RedPhone all receive money from the Open Technology Fund. The Open Technology Fund is run by Radio Free Asia. Due to a bizarre law, Radio Free Asia is technically a nonprofit, even though it was established and is funded by the US Congress. Radio Free Asia is under the direct supervision and oversight of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which is a US federal government agency.

US Government Funding Through The Open Technology Fund
$600,000 - Tor Project
$455,000 - Open Whisper Systems (makers of RedPhone and TextSecure)
$388,500 - The Guardian Project (makers of ChatSecure)

Dan Meredith, Director of the Open Technology Fund, spoke about his work at the Broadcasting Board of Governors public meeting. In his presentation, he talks in detail about the types of software programs the US government is funding.

Dan Meredith, Director of the Open Technology Fund, talks at the Broadcasting Board of Governors public meeting. You can skip ahead to the 15:00 mark on the video where he discusses financing for software programs.

Added July 22, 2014 - All articles on this blog (Polity News) are under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. This means you are free to copy and repost this article online. I do not own some of the videos and images on this website. You will have to look up copyright and creative commons licenses for videos and images separately.

Photo via @sevketuy on twitter.

Updated June 2, 2014 with links to FOIA requests that were faxed or mailed.

Polity News had planned to file numerous FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests regarding the Pirate Bay in the coming months. In light of Peter Sunde’s arrest yesterday, Polity News has requested documents regarding the Pirate Bay and Sunde’s recent arrest. In addition, Polity News will request documents held by US government agencies regarding the Pirate Bay to be declassified.

The first official documents request went to the National Police of Sweden regarding Peter Sunde’s arrest on May 31, 2014. A similar request was also sent to Sweden’s Ministry of Justice. Under Sweden’s Public Access to Information and Secrecy Act, anyone has the right to request access to and copies of official documents. More information about this law in Sweden is available here and here.

Information Requests to Government of Sweden Regarding Peter Sunde’s May 31, 2014 Arrest

• National Police of Sweden link
• Ministry of Justice - Sweden link

Many US federal agencies have offices dedicated to the enforcement of intellectual property legislation and international treaties. Under US law, the FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) allows anyone to request documents from US federal agencies. The US government agency then has 20 working days (excluding holidays and weekends) to respond to the request. If the US government agencies fail to respond to the requests, they face appeals and possible lawsuits. More information about the FOIA law can be found at the National Freedom of Information Coalition's website. The US Department of Justice also has a guide to the FOIA laws.

FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) Requests to US Government Regarding the Pirate Bay

• National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center under the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) link
• Cyber Division, Federal Bureau of Investigations link
• Intellectual Property Rights Division, Federal Bureau of Investigations link
• Office of Intellectual Property Rights (OIPR), US Department of Commerce link
• International Trade Administration, US Department of Commerce link
• US Patent and Trademark Office link
• US Copyright Office  - mailed Monday June 2, 2014 link
• Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Division, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) - mailed Monday June 2, 2014 link
• Office of International Intellectual Property Enforcement (IPE), U.S. Department of State link - to be faxed Monday (June 2, 2014), link will be updated - waiting for fax confirmation
• United States International Trade Commission link - to be faxed on Monday (June 2, 2014), link will be updated
• Office of the United States Trade Representative link
• Office of the U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator. White House - to be faxed Monday (June 2, 2014), link will be updated, waiting fax confirmation
• U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), U.S. Postal Service - to be faxed Monday (June 2, 2014), link will be updated, waiting fax confirmation

Added July 22, 2014 - All articles on this blog (Polity News) are under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. This means you are free to copy and repost this article online. I do not own some of the videos and images on this website. You will have to look up copyright and creative commons licenses for videos and images separately.

Photo credit - Scott Schiller

Mysteriously overnight, TrueCrypt was gone from the internet. A cryptic message was left. Truecrypt.org now redirects to its SourceForge page. It instructs users to migrate to Windows’ BitLocker, because TrueCrypt is no longer safe. Many security experts have warned against downloading the latest version of TrueCrypt. Windows’ BitLocker is also a bad replacement as several former BitLocker engineers have blown the whistle and admitted that the FBI pressured Windows to install a backdoor in BitLocker. The Russian firm, Elcomsoft, also has a utility for only $299 that claims to be able to decrypt BitLocker and TrueCrypt.

There has been speculation that there might be a NSL (national security letter) or some other type of court order against the TrueCrypt developers. The Google cache and the Internet Archive’s cache for TrueCrypt’s old website at truecrypt.org are also gone which could possibly signal some kind of court order. Right now, there is very little information that can be confirmed or ruled out.

Late last year, Kenn White and Matthew Green started an online campaign to have a full open audit of TrueCrypt. They solicited donations online and raised over $70,000 according to Ars Technica. Perhaps less known is that the Open Technology Fund is also funding a substantial part of the TrueCrypt audit. “And thanks to a matching donation by the Open Technology Fund the iSec team will be able to dedicate 5-6 weeks of full time analysis, beginning today.” was posted as an update on the istruecryptauditedyet.com website. Matthew Green’s blog also mentions the Open Technology Fund, “The Open Technology Fund has generously agreed to donate a substantial amount of contracted evaluation time to our effort”. It is important to note that the Open Technology fund is a program of Radio Free Asia which was established by the US Congress and funded through the US government as Revolution News previously reported. iSEC Partners completed the first part of the audit and did not discover any intentional backdoors in TrueCrypt. The second part of the audit is scheduled to begin soon.

Today, Polity News filed a series of FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests with various agencies of the US government. Polity News has sent a FOIA request to the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) which oversees Radio Free Asia and its Open Technology Fund. Polity News is requesting documents relating to TrueCrypt and the TrueCrypt audit. In addition, Polity News has sent a FOIA request to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) regarding any documents about TrueCrypt. NIST is responsible for developing many of the US government’s official recommendations on cryptographic standards. And finally, Polity News has sent FIOA requests regarding TrueCrypt to the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls at the US Department of State, Bureau of Industry and Security at the US Department of Commerce, Defense Technology Security Administration at the US Department of Defense, and the Delegation to Wassenaar Arrangement of the US Mission to International Organizations in Vienna. These four offices are listed on the Wassenaar Agreement’s website. The US government is part of the Wassenaar Arrangement which controls the import and export of weapons. Under this agreement certain types of cryptography are considered “cryptographic munitions”.

Polity News is looking for help to file freedom of information requests in the Czech Republic where TrueCrypt is reportedly based. If you or someone you know might be able to help us, please contact Polity News at politynews()gmx.com

TrueCrypt has now been forked in Switzerland at truecrypt.ch. Unfortunately, the government of Switzerland is also party to the Wassenaar Arrangement.

Links to FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) Requests:

Broadcasting Board of Governors - link
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) - link
Directorate of Defense Trade Controls, US Department of State - link
Bureau of Industry and Security, US Department of Commerce - link
Defense Technology Security Administration, US Department of Defense - link
Delegation to Wassenaar Arrangement, US Mission to International Organizations in Vienna, US Department of State - link

Added July 22, 2014 - All articles on this blog (Polity News) are under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. This means you are free to copy and repost this article online. I do not own some of the videos and images on this website. You will have to look up copyright and creative commons licenses for videos and images separately.

On May 24, 2014, local Tampa residents came to the March Against Monsanto. This was the third global march held to protest Monsanto. Many of the demonstrators want GMOs (genetically modified organisms) labelled and eventually banned. In addition, many of the demonstrators were worried about the potential negative effects of the long term health effects of GMO food and products.

Last year, Florida state legislators proposed a GMO labelling law. The bill was quickly stopped by Bill Montford, a Florida state legislator. Bill Montford refused to talk to WTSP, a local news station. It was finally discovered that Bill Montford had received campaign contributions from Monsanto in 2012.

Anyone can download the pictures from this Dropbox link.

Local news stories about the march:

• "Hundreds come out in Tampa to march against Monsanto corporation" - Creative Loafing Tampa
• "Students to ‘March Against Monsanto’" - USF Oracle
• "People march against Monsanto Tampa" - WTSP

You can find more information about Monsanto from the links below:

• March Against Monsanto Tampa(local Tampa group)
• Bee Against Monsanto
• March Against Monsanto
• Non-GMO Project
• Union of Concerned Scientists
• Organic Consumers Association

Full disclosure: The writer for this story has been an organizer for March Against Monsanto demonstrations.

Added July 22, 2014 - All articles on this blog (Polity News) are under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. This means you are free to copy and repost this article online. I do not own some of the videos and images on this website. You will have to look up copyright and creative commons licenses for videos and images separately.