Thursday, October 24, 2013

Will the real Elyssa Durant please step forward?

I started this private site after my name, ID, medical and financial info was stolen, made public in Pastebin, and sold on T-shirts at the DefCon hackers conference.

I never got one penny for the T-shirts and apparel sold and was never reimbursed for the damage done to my computer equipment and mobile devices as a result of HARD CORE hackers.

I was promised the T-shirts and promo ads would be pulled from the event and the black hat hackers known as Lulz, AntiSec, (Sabu and Co.) would take them down and refrain from using my likeness for promotional purposes.


They were not.

They used my name, my likeness, my photos, my social security number, my ID, my address and more to create a slew of fake social media accounts to post insane bullshit across a variety of platforms. 

They even socially engineered my closest friends and family members in various forums to reinforce the charade.

They claimed the T-shirts were for charity and that $1.00 would be donated for every ELyssaD garment sold.

Not only did I not receive any such monies, I am quite certain these fuckwits have no idea how serious it is to impersonate a 501(c)3.

So not only did they make a profit from exploiting every aspect of my life, they harassed my friends, impersonated an ex-cop who has been one of most trusted allies and confidant; threatened friends who dare to speak up on my behalf by calling them on the phone and identifying themselves as law enforcement. ANOTHER felony.

They made a profit. They offered a reward for tittie pics, had podcasts, comic books and sold a line of women's apparel to promote their podcasts, show and of course, make money.

They created multiple fake identities on various social media platforms. They pwned my website, social media accounts, linked in, private forums, etc...  harassed my friends and posted my fathers home address on the Internet.

They altered personal documents they stole from my private files, altered them, and had the nerve to put the FAKE documents back in to my web albums and made them public.

ONE LOGIN = ONE FELONY

Destruction of evidence (especially records that pertain to employee benefits is a whole other class of crimes)

These individuals are clearly guilty, and have no problem advertising their skills across the hacker community.

They destroyed my professional credibility with disinformation writing posting ridiculous website entries that present my professional certifications as a practicing therapist to make them appear as if I was the patient not the provider.

65 "people" impersonating me on social media platforms?

My friends, sister, brothers, my mother, and even "Agent Daddy" became targets as well.

I started this site hoping for a do-over.  My name is ELyssa. ELyssaD™ and, for he record I've never done midget porn!

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

UNWRITTEN: Evidence July

CUIT closed incident report and no one responded from Public Safety as I was told by the help-LESS desk every time I report security breach.

I filed multiple reports with all my ISPs that were compromised using a sophisticated hacking tools combined with social engineering techniques making it near impossible to explain to 99% of the human race who simply can not understand why I can't just fix it by changing my password.

I have been dealing with this ridiculous situation for so long that I am all too familiar with ignorant and judgmental InfoSec elitist and law enforcement who seem to think a stolen cellphone does not warrant a police report or follow up call to Computer Crimes and the Fraud Unit.

CyberSecurity has become a not believing that clearly I must be either stupid, paranoid or crazy think have gotten even the police report got "lost" in the mail.

I am now escalating my complaint to whomever I need to in order to have this resolved one way of another.

The OIG requested as that I provide as much detail as possible which happens to be one of my strong suits.

Annoying? Yes.

Loquacious and verbose? Absolutely.

Thorough and an eye for details and specifics? Absolutely.

I was told that the single most critical
Don't worry, you are in good company since

I am resending a few KEY documents that went through CUIT since no one took this seriously three years ago.

That is all. For now.

Elyssa D. Durant, Ed.M.
Research & Policy Analyst


Begin forwarded message:

From: Elyssa Durant
Date: November 20, 2010, 1:41:09 PM
To: rockingjude-v@hotmail.com
Subject: Fwd: testing cubmail

----- Forwarded message from-
Date: Thu, 07 Dec 2000 22:19:29 -0500 (EST)
From: Elyssa Danielle Durant
Reply-To: Elyssa Danielle Durant Subject: testing cubmail/aol

test 123
_____________________________________
Elyssa D. Durant
Columbia University
New York, NY 10025
Phone/FAX:
~or~
E-Mail: elyssa
ALT: ElyssaD

"Right now my life is just one learning experience after another... by the end of the week, I should be a genius!"


----- End forwarded message -----


--
Elyssa Durant, Ed.M.
E-mail:
http://thepowersthatbeat.blogspot.com

"You may not care how much I know, but you don't know how much I care"


Sent from my BlackBerry® RIM Job

Social Security Card for Sale

> There are a lot of things in the financial world that do not make sense. Such as having my tax return rejected from the IRS because someone had filed a tax return using my social security number.
>
> Countless calls to the IRS, and although they were able to identify the person who had used my number fraudulently, they would not release that information to me so I could file a police report for identity theft (as I was instructed to do by regulatory authorities.) It took the IRS 9 months to send my refund, something that most people receive in less than 2 weeks.
>
> So, after about a decade of this situation, and going through the motions year after year, to provide alternative forms of Income verification, I think I am well within my rights to be a little agitated.
>
> This year I will be fling for an extension, as other related issues are currently under investigation.
>
> Now I don't have much money, in fact I don't have any, but I find white collar crime despicable and repulsive.
>
> When taken into account the substantial cost to society, not to mention the havoc it wreaked on my life, I respectfully think that maybe you should not assume that someone is making false claims just because you don't think it sounds "right."
>
> Lots of things don't "sound right" however that doesn't mean they aren't true. Gotta go now, I have a date with eBay to auction my social security card to the highest bidder. Clearly, it is not worth anything to me so long as the authorities fail to do their part in ENFORCING the laws associated with Identity theft.
> Sure, it is easy to blame the victim as being irresponsible or somehow negligent in these situations, however I will refer you to some fascinating research that has been done on the emotional consequences of Identity theft. The cost is far more than just an issue of financial discomfort, it is something that can ultimately leave you questioning your own identity.
>
> It should be noted that Identity theft is a criminal matter, so whatever costs associated with such events, the victim is not reimbursed for any of the costs associated with having their life disrupted by something that is ultimately completely beyond their control.
>
> It happens more often than you think, and it is a complicated, intricate, and time intensive to resolve such crimes, are in more complicated... To be continued...
>
> Edd, Ed.M.

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Domestic Drones

la-na-domestic-drones-20130216,0,3374671.story
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-domestic-drones-20130216,0,3374671.story


Federal authorities step up efforts to license surveillance aircraft for law enforcement and other uses, amid growing privacy concerns.

By Brian Bennett and Joel Rubin, Los Angeles Times

5:20 PM PST, February 15, 2013

WASHINGTON — While a national debate has erupted over the Obama administration's lethal drone strikes overseas, federal authorities have stepped up efforts to license surveillance drones for law enforcement and other uses in U.S. airspace, spurring growing concern about violations of privacy.

The Federal Aviation Administration said Friday it had issued 1,428 permits to domestic drone operators since 2007, far more than were previously known. Some 327 permits are still listed as active.

Operators include police, universities, state transportation departments and at least seven federal agencies. The remotely controlled aircraft vary widely, from devices as small as model airplanes to large unarmed Predators.

The FAA, which has a September 2015 deadline from Congress to open the nation's airspace to drone traffic, has estimated 10,000 drones could be aloft five years later. The FAA this week solicited proposals to create six sites across the country to test drones, a crucial step before widespread government and commercial use is approved.

Local and state law enforcement agencies are expected to be among the largest customers.

Earlier this month, TV footage showed a midsized drone circling over the bunker in southeast Alabama where a 65-year-old gunman held a 5-year-old boy hostage. After a tense standoff, an FBI team stormed the bunker, rescued the boy and shot his captor. Authorities refused to say who was operating the AeroVironment drone, which has a 9-foot wingspan.

In Colorado, the Mesa County Sheriff's Office has used a fixed-wing drone to search for lost hikers in the mountains, and a helicopter drone to help crews battling fires. Flying manned planes or helicopters would cost at least $600 an hour, explained Ben Miller, who heads the program.

"We fly [drones] for less than $25 an hour," Miller said. "It's just a new way to put a camera up that's affordable."

Big-city police departments, including Los Angeles, have tested drones but are holding back on buying them until the FAA issues clear guidelines about operating in congested airspace, among other issues.

"You've got to take baby steps with this," said Michael Downing, the LAPD deputy chief for counter-terrorism and special operations.

Los Angeles Police Department officials went to Simi Valley in December, he said, to watch a demonstration of a helicopter-like device that measured about 18 inches on each side and was powered by four propellers. It could fly about 90 minutes on its battery.

Downing said the LAPD was "pursuing the idea of purchasing" drones, but wouldn't do so unless the FAA granted permission to fly them, and until the department could draw up policies on how to keep within privacy laws.

If the LAPD bought drones, Downing said, it initially would use them at major public events such as the Oscars or large protests. In time, drones could be flown to track fleeing suspects and assist in investigations. Tiny drones could even be used to fly inside buildings to shoot video if a suspect has barricaded himself within.

In theory, drones can offer unblinking eye-in-the-sky coverage. They can carry high-resolution video cameras, infrared sensors, license plate readers, listening devices and other high-tech gear. Companies have marketed drones disguised as sea gulls and other birds to mask their use.

That's the problem, according to civil liberties groups. The technology is evolving faster than the law. Congress and courts haven't determined whether drone surveillance would violate privacy laws more than manned planes or helicopters, or whether drone operators may be held liable for criminal trespassing, stalking or harassment.

"Americans have the right to know if and how the government is using drones to spy on them," said Catherine Crump, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, which has called for updating laws to protect privacy.

A backlash has already started.

In Congress, Reps. Ted Poe (R-Texas) and Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose) introduced privacy legislation Thursday that would require police to get a warrant or a court order before operating a drone to collect information on individuals.

"We need to protect against obtrusive search and surveillance by government and civilian use," Poe said in a telephone interview. A similar bill failed last year.

Legislatures in 15 states are considering proposals to limit drone use. The City Council in Charlottesville, Va., passed a resolution on Feb. 4 barring local police from using drones — which they don't yet have — to collect evidence in criminal cases.

In Seattle, Mayor Mike McGinn ordered police to return two Draganflyer X6 helicopter drones earlier this month after privacy advocates and others protested. The police said they had hoped to use them for search-and-rescue operations.

Federal agencies fly drones to assist in disasters, check flood damage, do crop surveys and more. U.S. Customs and Border Protection flies the largest fleet, 10 unarmed Predators, along the northern and southern borders to help track smugglers and illegal immigrants.

Although flying drones might appear as easy as playing a video game, pilots and crews require extensive training.

In 2004 and 2005, the U.S. Marshals Service tested two small drones in remote areas to help them track fugitives, according to law enforcement officials and documents released to the ACLU under the Freedom of Information Act. The Marshals Service abandoned the program after both drones crashed.

Except in rare cases, the military is barred from using drones in U.S. airspace to conduct surveillance or pursue individuals. No state or federal agency has proposed arming domestic drones with weapons, but the prospect has raised alarms in Congress and elsewhere.

In response to a question during an online Google chat Thursday, President Obama said drones had never been used to kill "an American citizen on American soil."

"The rules outside of the United States are going to be different than the rules inside the United States, in part because our capacity, for example, to capture terrorists in the United States are very different than in the foothills or mountains of Afghanistan or Pakistan," Obama said.

No drone was sent up to help find suspected killer Christopher Dorner after his truck was found burning near Big Bear Lake on Feb. 7, said Al Daniel, an officer in the aviation division of the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department. But Customs and Border Protection transmitted secure video from a Pilatus PC-12 plane to police commanders on the ground.

Despite a massive manhunt, Dorner vanished and authorities speculated he had escaped to Mexico. Five days later, however, he was found in a snowbound cabin near his truck and died after a shootout and fire.

The long delay, and the embarrassing fact that Dorner was hiding close by the police command post, sparked sharp criticism of police tactics and abilities.

Steve Whitmore, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, said an aerial drone might have helped find Dorner more quickly.

"The search would have been much wider and quicker because you'd have an unmanned aircraft looking," he said. "You can cover more ground."

brian.bennett@latimes.com

joel.rubin@latimes.com

Bennett reported from Washington and Rubin from Los Angeles. Times staff writer Robert Faturechi in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2013, Los Angeles Times





Just me,

e 📧
@ELyssaD™


^ed 

EFF's Staff | Electronic Frontier Foundation

Mark, 


Could you please contact me to discuss my options. I can't find a decent cop or a attorney who understands the complicated nature in this city. 

 


EFF's Staff

eff.org | Oct 18th 2011

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Dan Auerbach

Staff Technologist

Dan is a Staff Technologist who is passionate about defending civil liberties and encouraging government transparency. Coming to EFF with a background in mathematical logic and automated reasoning, as well as years of engineering experience at Google, Dan now works on EFF's various technical projects and helps lawyers, activists, and the public understand the civil liberties implications of important technologies.

Kevin Bankston

Senior Staff Attorney

Kevin Bankston, a senior staff attorney specializing in free speech and privacy law, was the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Equal Justice Works/Bruce J. Ennis Fellow for 2003-05. His fellowship project focused on the impact of post-9/11 anti-terrorism laws and surveillance initiatives on online privacy and free expression. Before joining EFF, Kevin was the Justice William J. Brennan First Amendment Fellow for the American Civil Liberties Union in New York City. At the ACLU, Kevin litigated Internet-related free speech cases, including First Amendment challenges to both the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (Edelman v. N2H2, Inc.) and a federal statute regulating Internet speech in public libraries (American Library Association v. U.S.). Kevin received his J.D. in 2001 from the University of Southern California Law Center, and received his undergraduate degree from the University of Texas in Austin.

bankston@eff.org

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Kellie Brownell

Donor Relations Coordinator

Kellie Brownell helps EFF keep in touch with its many and wonderful major donors. Before protecting digital rights, she advocated for the performing arts as a fundraiser at orchestras, operas, and theaters in the US, Canada, and Germany. She majored in Medieval Studies and wrote her masters thesis on philanthropy both at Stanford University. A bit of computer history trivia: Kellie worked one summer at an office in DEC's Maynard Mill, long after its heyday. Her hair was cut as an homage to the community of creative hackers who helped fund raise for EFF at Defcon 18.

kellie@eff.org

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Andrea Chiang

Accounting Manager

Andrea came to EFF with years of experience in accounting. Prior to joining EFF, she was an Airline Accounts Specialist for MSAS Cargo International. Before that, she was a Bookkeeper for Spectrel International Corp. She likes to travel almost as much as she enjoys playing with the pets in our office.

andrea@eff.org

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Cindy Cohn

Legal Director

Cindy Cohn is the Legal Director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation as well as its General Counsel. She is responsible for overseeing the EFF's overall legal strategy and supervising EFF's ten staff attorneys and its legal fellow. Ms. Cohn first became involved with the EFF in 1995, when the EFF asked her to serve as the lead attorney in Bernstein v. Dept. of Justice, the successful First Amendment challenge to the U.S. export restrictions on cryptography. Outside the Courts, Ms. Cohn has testified before Congress, been featured in the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle and elsewhere for her work on cyberspace issue. The National Law Journal named Ms. Cohn one of 100 most influential lawyers in America in 2006 for "rushing to the barricades wherever freedom and civil liberties are at stake online." In 2007 the Journal named her one of the 50 most influential women lawyers in America. In 2010 Intellectual Property Section of the State Bar of California awarded her its Intellectual Property Vanguard Award.

cindy@eff.org

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Peter Eckersley

Technology Projects Director

Peter Eckersley is Technology Projects Director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. He keeps his eyes peeled for technologies that, by accident or design, pose a risk to computer users' freedoms—and then looks for ways to fix them. He explains gadgets to lawyers, and lawyers to gadgets. Peter's work at EFF has included privacy and security projects such as Panopticlick, HTTPS Everywhere, SSDI, and the SSL Observatory; and running the first controlled tests to confirm that Comcast was using forged reset packets to interfere with P2P protocols. Peter's PhD research at the Intellectual Property Research Institute of Australia and the computer science department at the University of Melbourne focused on the practicality and desirability of using "virtual market" public funding systems to legalize P2P file sharing and similar distribution tools while still paying authors and artists for their work.

pde@eff.org

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Hanni Fakhoury

Staff Attorney

Hanni Fakhoury is a Staff Attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation focusing on the intersection of technology and criminal law within the Coders Rights Project. Prior to joining EFF, Hanni worked as a federal public defender in San Diego. In less than four years, he tried fourteen felony jury and bench trials and argued before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals four times, winning three reversals, including a reversal in U.S. v. Sandoval-Gonzalez, 642 F.3d 717 (9th Cir. 2011). He also served as a copy editor for the 2010 edition of Defending a Federal Criminal Case. While in law school, Hanni worked at the federal public defender's office in Sacramento, where he obtained acquittals in one jury trial and two bench trials. Hanni is a graduate of UC Berkeley, where he received two degrees, including a honors degree in history, and Pacific McGeorge School of Law, where he was elected to the Order of Barristers for his excellence in written and oral advocacy. Hanni is also a member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

hanni@eff.org

415.436.9333 x117

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Eva Galperin

Activist

A lifelong geek, Eva misspent her youth working as a Systems Administrator all over Silicon Valley. Since then, she has seen the error of her ways and earned degrees in Political Science and International Relations from SFSU. She comes to EFF from the US-China Policy Institute, where she researched Chinese energy policy, helped to organize conferences, and attempted to make use of her rudimentary Mandarin skills. Her interests include aerials, rock climbing, opera, and not being paged at 3 o'clock in the morning because the mail server is down.

eva@eff.org

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David Grant

Systems Administrator

David Grant, also known as Starchy, works ruthlessly to keep the servers running on time. His tireless passion for making sure things actually work right has served him well in his previous experience not only as a sysadmin but in systems engineering, tech support, software development, lit rag editor, and as the night clerk at a Hungarian youth hostel. In his free time he enjoys gaming, trail running, scuba diving, and incredibly dumb ideas poorly disguised as art.

starchy@eff.org

415.436.9333 x114

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Gwen Hinze

International IP Director

Gwen Hinze is EFF's International Intellectual Property Director. Gwen is an attorney specializing in international intellectual property policy issues. She works on policy development and legal analysis for EFF's international program, which focuses on educating global policy-makers about the need for balanced intellectual property regimes that protect creators, preserve access to knowledge, foster technological innovation, and empower digital consumers. Before joining EFF, she practiced in M&A, capital markets, and infrastructure law at the international Australian law firm, Allens Arthur Robinson, and worked for the Australian government in public policy and litigation. Gwen holds a Bachelor of Laws with Honors and a Bachelor of Arts with Honors from Australia's Monash University.

gwen@eff.org

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Marcia Hofmann

Senior Staff Attorney

Marcia Hofmann is a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, where she works on a broad range of digital civil liberties issues including computer security, electronic privacy, and free expression. She currently focuses on computer crime and EFF's Coders' Rights Project, which promotes innovation and protects the rights of curious tinkerers and researchers in their cutting-edge exploration of technology. She is also a non-residential fellow at Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society.

Marcia co-founded EFF's FOIA Litigation For Accountable Government Project in 2006. Documents made public though her open government work have been reported by the New York Times, Washington Post, National Public Radio, Fox News, and CNN, among others.

Prior to joining EFF, Marcia was staff counsel and director of the Open Government Project at the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). She is a graduate of the University of Dayton School of Law and Mount Holyoke College.

marcia@eff.org

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Rebecca Jeschke

Media Relations Director

Rebecca Jeschke is EFF's Media Relations Director. Before joining EFF, she worked in television and Internet news for more than ten years, including stints as an Internet producer for CBS 5 in San Francisco and as a senior supervising producer for TechTV. She has also been a travel guide editor, an English teacher in the Dominican Republic, and a worker on a "slime line" gutting fish in Alaska. Rebecca has a Bachelor of Arts in English and American Literature and Language from Harvard University.

rebecca@eff.org

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Aaron Jue

Membership Coordinator

Aaron is EFF's Membership Coordinator. He started in the Massachusetts development world supervising membership at the New England Aquarium, and in donor operations at Perkins School for the Blind. Aaron's interest in human rights and civil liberties came to a head during his years at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles' Little Toyko, which works to educate the public about the unconstitutional incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII. He still carries the spirit of "gaman" perseverance everywhere he goes. Aaron enjoys 70s and/or artsy foreign horror, cake sculpting, and generally making things out of other things. He is also an avid barbecue enthusiast.

aaron@eff.org

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Micah Lee

Web Developer

Micah Lee is EFF's web developer. An avid GNU/Linux user, he has been writing code in a variety of languages for a variety of platforms for over a decade. Prior to joining EFF he worked for Radical Designs, an activist-oriented web development cooperative. He has also tried his hand at iPhone and Android game development. He takes a keen interest in computer security, privacy, and internet freedoms. Other interests include bicycling, attending steampunk events, and nerdy TV shows like Star Trek, Buffy, and Firefly.

micah@eff.org

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Cherese Logan

Membership/Administrative Assistant

Cherese Logan is the Administrative Assistant, just starting her career here at EFF. As part of the Development team, she is responsible for donors and shoppers receiving their merchandise on time and assisting with the 'smooth running' of EFF events as well as general office duties and lending a hand to anyone who may need it. Prior to joining EFF, she was the Administrative Assistant at KPIX ch.5 / KBHK ch.12 and then a stay – at – home mom and home - maker to her four children. She enjoys being awesomely charming, cooking, baking and traveling and values family time with all 12 of her (step) children.

cherese@eff.org

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Jennifer Lynch

Staff Attorney

Jennifer Lynch is a staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and works on open government, transparency and privacy issues as part of EFF's FOIA Litigation for Accountable Government (FLAG) Project. Prior to joining EFF, Jennifer was the Clinical Teaching Fellow with the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic at UC Berkeley School of Law. At the Samuelson Clinic, Jennifer specialized in privacy and intellectual property issues, including investigations on social media, privacy and the smart electrical grid, digital books, and open source regimes for biotech. Before the Clinic, Jennifer practiced with Bingham McCutchen in San Francisco and clerked for Judge A. Howard Matz in the Central District of California. She earned both her undergraduate and law degrees from UC Berkeley. She has published academically on identity theft and phishing attacks (20 Berkeley Tech. L.J. 259) and sovereign immunity in civil rights cases (62 Fla. L. Rev. 203).

jlynch@eff.org

415-436-9333 x136

Mark M. Jaycox

Legal Intake Coordinator

Mark is the Legal Intake Coordinator and is often the first point of reference for people interested in representation by the EFF. When not on the phones or answering emails, Mark can be found reading, taking photos, and riding his bike. He was educated at Reed College, and Wadham College, University of Oxford. His studies focused on early 20th c. British Political History and contemporary U.S. Politics, but were accompanied by side passions for cyberlaw and technology policy.

Lori McCoy

Administrative Assistant

Lori comes to EFF with a lengthy background in emergency communications and has extensive experience in training, operations management and event planning. Lori also spent several years serving as a volunteer on the Board of Directors of the Center for Independent Living and the Tabitha Foundation. She's now putting her event planning skills to work at EFF helping with fundraising events such as our Geek Readings and Pioneer Awards. Lori loves working with the staff and membership of EFF. "It's heartening to see how a member's sustaining donations add up to significant amounts over time!" Lori received her B.A. from Mills College in Political, Legal, and Economic Analysis.

lori@eff.org

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Corynne McSherry

Intellectual Property Director and Kahle Promise Fellow

Corynne McSherry is Intellectual Property Director at EFF, specializing in intellectual property and free speech issues. Prior to joining EFF, Corynne was a civil litigator at the law firm of Bingham McCutchen, LLP. Corynne has a B.A. from the University of California at Santa Cruz, a Ph.D from the University of California at San Diego, and a J.D. from Stanford Law School. While in law school, Corynne published Who Owns Academic Work?: Battling for Control of Intellectual Property (Harvard University Press, 2001).

corynne@eff.org

+1 415 436 9333 x122

Kurt Opsahl

Senior Staff Attorney

Kurt Opsahl is a Senior Staff Attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation focusing on civil liberties, free speech and privacy law. Before joining EFF, Opsahl worked at Perkins Coie, where he represented technology clients with respect to intellectual property, privacy, defamation, and other online liability matters, including working on Kelly v. Arribasoft, MGM v. Grokster and CoStar v. LoopNet. For his work responding to government subpoenas, Opsahl is proud to have been called a "rabid dog" by the Department of Justice. Prior to Perkins, Opsahl was a research fellow to Professor Pamela Samuelson at the U.C. Berkeley School of Information Management & Systems. Opsahl received his law degree from Boalt Hall, and undergraduate degree from U.C. Santa Cruz. Opsahl co-authored "Electronic Media and Privacy Law Handbook." In 2007, Opsahl was named as one of the "Attorneys of the Year" by California Lawyer magazine for his work on the O'Grady v. Superior Court appeal.

kurt@eff.org

+1 415 436 9333 x106

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Rebecca Reagan

Operations Manager

Rebecca Reagan is the Operations Manager at EFF. Prior to coming to EFF, Rebecca directed the federally-funded Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange for Young Professionals, worked in employee benefits consulting and software project management, and was a participant in the Robert Bosch Foundation Fellowship Program, through which she worked for Karsten Voigt, the Coordinator of German-American Cooperation for the German Foreign Ministry. Rebecca enjoys rock climbing, knitting and long-distance bicycling, and loves being back in a non-profit, values-driven environment.

rsreagan@eff.org

415.436.9333 x 135

Rainey Reitman

Activism Director

Rainey Reitman leads the activism team at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Prior to joining EFF, she served as Director of Communications for the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a nonprofit advocacy and education organization promoting consumer privacy. She is primarily interested in the intersection between personal privacy and technology, particularly social networking privacy, locational privacy and online data brokers. Reitman earned her BA from Bard College in Multidisciplinary Studies: Creative Writing, Russian & Gender Studies.

Reitman serves as a steering committee member for the Bradley Manning Support Network, a network of individuals and organizations advocating for the release of accused WikiLeaks whistleblower Pfc. Bradley Manning. She also volunteers with several nonprofit and feminist groups.

rainey@eff.org

415.436.9333 x140

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Katitza Rodriguez

International Rights Director

Katitza Rodriguez is EFF's international rights director. She concentrates on comparative policy of international privacy issues, with special emphasis on law enforcement, government surveillance, and cross border data flows. Her work in EFF's International Program also focuses on cybersecurity at the intersection of privacy, freedom of expression, and copyright enforcement. She is an advisor to the UN Internet Governance Forum (2009-2010), and a member of the Advisory Board of Privacy International. Before joining EFF, Katitza was director of the international privacy program at the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington D.C., where amongst other things, she worked on The Privacy and Human Rights Report, an international survey of privacy law and developments. Katitza is well known to many in global civil society and in international policy venues for her work at the U.N. Internet Governance Forum and her pivotal role in the creation and ongoing success of the Civil Society Information Society Advisory Council at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, for which she served as the civil society liaison while at EPIC from 2008 to March 2010. Katitza holds a Bachelor of Law degree from the University of Lima, Peru.

katitza@eff.org

+1 415 436 9333 x121 @txitua

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Mark Rumold

Open Government Legal Fellow

Mark is the Open Government Legal Fellow at EFF, where he works primarily on the FOIA Litigation for Accountable Government (FLAG) Project. His legal interests include the First Amendment, information privacy, and the ways technology can improve how we structure government. He received his law degree from Boalt Hall and his undergraduate degree from Northwestern University. In his spare time, Mark likes doing the New York Times crossword puzzle, cheering for disappointing sports teams, and traveling.

mark@eff.org

415.436.9333 ext. 137

Julie Samuels

Staff Attorney

Julie Samuels, a Staff Attorney at EFF, focuses on intellectual property issues. Before joining EFF, Julie litigated IP and entertainment cases in Chicago at Loeb & Loeb and Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal. Prior to becoming a lawyer, Julie spent time as a legislative assistant at the Media Coalition in New York and as an assistant editor at the National Journal Group in D.C. She was also an intern at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. Julie earned her JD from Vanderbilt University and her B.S. in journalism from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

julie@eff.org

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Seth Schoen created the position of EFF Staff Technologist, helping other technologists understand the civil liberties implications of their work, EFF staff better understand the underlying technology related to EFF's legal work, and the public understand what the technology products they use really do. Schoen comes to EFF from Linuxcare, where he worked for two years as a senior consultant. While at Linuxcare, Schoen helped create the Linuxcare Bootable Business Card CD-ROM. Prior to Linuxcare, Schoen worked at AtreNet, the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Toronto Dominion Bank. Schoen attended the University of California at Berkeley with a Chancellor's Scholarship.

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Leez, a second-person narrative. You find pleasure in freely-modifiable and redistributable things. While writing your college thesis on the free and open-source software movements, you rebuilt Continuing Education's course-management servers with free and open-source software. You are a social justice advocate that specializes in vehemently arguing why worker-run factories are so rad. Lately you also find pleasure in the ancient art of seafaring, the modern art of flashmobs, and trying to make music emerge from your electronic keyboard.

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Jillian writes regularly for Al Jazeera and is on the board of directors of Global Voices.

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Matt Zimmerman is a Senior Staff Attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, focusing on civil liberties, free speech, and privacy law. He is particularly interested in how anonymity, free expression, and online activism are affected by Internet intermediaries. His practice further includes ongoing work in intellectual property law as well as government transparency issues. Prior to joining EFF, Matt was a Privacy Fellow at the public interest law firm The First Amendment Project where he specialized in privacy and open government issues. Previously, Matt worked at the international law firm Morrison
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Morgellons Victims Across the US and Europe (Part 1)

Morgellons Victims Across the US and Europe (Part 1)

by Hank P. Albarelli, voltairenet.org
June 12th 2010

http://www.morgellons-research.org/...

Three weeks ago, we wrote about a "disease" known as Morgellons that very few people in the world know anything about. We placed the word disease above in quotation marks only because a large number of physicians refuse to recognize Morgellons as a medical affliction, with some even refusing to treat patients who suffer from it.

We have listened to a long litany of accounts about doctors who have literally laughed in the faces of Morgellons sufferers, male and female, young and old, with many attempting to make referrals to psychologists. Remarkably, other physicians have mounted web sites mocking and attacking people who report they have Morgellons and those who write about it. Some physicians have dubbed the disease Delusions of Parasitosis, meaning it's all in the patient's head. Additionally, there is a website entitled morgellonswatch.com "dedicated to examining the claims made regarding what is termed 'Morgellons Disease'" and to preventing "sick people into thinking they may have a terrible disease." Oddly, there are no formal individual or institutional sponsoring names identified on this site.

Despite this seemingly general stance from the "medical community" there are clear exceptions. Nearly every state across the US, and country in Europe, has at least several medical professionals who regard Morgellons as "a serious emerging infectious disease deserving study and research." Dr. Ahmed Kilani, Laboratory Director of Clongen Laboratories, Germantown, Maryland, says, "I have personally listened to detailed descriptions of the symptoms of this disease and something has got to be done."

At present, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia is conducting a study of Morgellons in partnership with Kaiser Permanente's Northern California Division of Research. The study was formally announced and launched in January 2008. The stated objective of the study was "to learn about an unexplained skin condition known as Morgellons." The study, said a CDC spokesperson, was expected to "Take up to 12 months or longer to complete." Said the CDC's Dr. Michele Pearson, the principle investigator on the study, "We earnestly want to learn more about this unexplained illness which impacts the lives of those who suffer from it. Those who suffer have questions, and we want to help them."

Over two years past the CDC's announcement it appears unknown as to when the study will be completed or be released. About a month ago there were unconfirmed reports that the study had been handed off entirely to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington, D.C., an identified partner in the study as explained by the CDC in 2008.

Morgellons Symptoms

The initial symptoms of Morgellons involve patients experiencing the discomforting sensation of insects crawling on and biting or stinging their skin. This sensation results in skin lesions that can appear much like mild to severe cases of acne. The lesions can appear anywhere on a patient's body and quite often contain fiber-like strands or fibrous material. The fibers are the most perplexing visible feature of Morgellons. Often when an attempt is made to remove or extract the fibers the material will resist and act to withdraw or move away from whatever instrument is being employed.

Skeptics have put forth various explanations for the presence of the fibers that plague sufferers of Morgellons disease. Some have suggested that the fibers are merely clothing fibers, and other common everyday material, that become attached to scabbed lesions accidentally; the sufferers, skeptics claim, are falsely convinced that the fibers are being produced by their bodies.

Other explanations are less kind; many ascribe to the idea that the lesions themselves are a product of "neurotic excoriation," a psychological condition wherein the patient scratches the skin compulsively to the point of creating wounds, or even that they are created deliberately by the sufferer in an effort to convince others that he is suffering from a disease. The fibers, these skeptics explain, are then collected by the sufferer from non-bodily sources, as a means of providing "evidence" that the disease condition exists. The psychiatric community has long associated the collection of body specimens with delusional parasitosis and other psychiatric or fictitious conditions. In fact, the act of collecting these specimens is, itself, considered a psychiatric symptom, referred to as "the matchbox sign." The name is a reference to the fact that fibers and other material are often presented in small containers such as matchboxes. As a result, the collected specimens are often disregarded completely by healthcare providers, and a psychiatric cause is assumed rather than a physical condition considered.

These arguments fall apart quickly, however, when the fibers — and the patients — are actually examined. Morgellons fibers, when examined closely, consistently appear as autoflourescent, meaning that they exhibit a glow under ultraviolet light. Certain marine organisms, such as particular types of jellyfish, also have autofluorescent properties. One fluorescent protein, known as "green flourescent protein," has been studied extensively in recent years as a marker in the study of gene expression; it has been successfully introduced into many bacteria and fungi, as well as into fish, plant, insect, and even human cells. Fluorescent markers, in the form of genetic modifications or dyes, are also often used to track the presence of microbes in the environment. Oil consuming microbes, for example, are often marked with the use of a fluorescent stain for monitoring purposes.

A privately funded study conducted by Dr. Hildegarde Staninger, Industrial Toxicologist & Doctor of Integrative Medicine, revealed that the fibers are able to withstand temperatures of up to 1700 degrees Fahrenheit [= 927º C] before burning, and that they do not melt. Her results indicated that the fiber's outer casing appears to consist of high-density polyethylene fiber, an industrial material commonly used in the production of fiber optic cables. Interestingly, this material is also used in the emerging field of bionanotechnology as a compound to encapsulate a viral protein envelope. Furthermore, Staninger reported finding blue fibers that exhibited a golden tip; she believes these to be a form of nano-machinery, able to be programmed to perform specific functions.

Susan Lindquist

If this sounds farfetched, consider the following information from a 2004 article in the U.S. News and World Report: Susan Lindquist, director of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, has managed to do just this using a type of protein called a prion. "She triggered a chain reaction in which the yeast prions spin themselves into long, durable fibers," the article reports. "Lindquist then genetically engineered these fibrous prions so they could bind to gold and silver nanoparticles. As she reported last spring, the result was prion fibers clad in precious metal—ultrafine conductive wires that could someday shuttle electrons around nano-size circuits."

Consider this information, as well, from the same article: "Last August [2003], the U.S. Army announced a $50 million Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies, bringing together biotech and engineering skills from leading universities and companies. And early last month, President Bush signed the 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act, which authorizes $3.7 billion over five years — a hefty chunk of which will go to bionanotechnology."

Fort Detrick & Morgellons

Without doubt, the number of people suffering from Morgellons disease is increasing worldwide. Some estimates range as high as 100,000 people. At the same time that reported cases are rising, reports connecting the disease to various military research institutions and installations are also increasing, as are reported instances of strange developments with the disease. What is really going on with Morgellons across the world?

For the past several years there have been consistent and credible reports that the US Army's biological warfare research facility at Fort Detrick, Frederick, Maryland, has experimented with a lab-created disease very similar to Morgellons.

Said one former Detrick microbiologist, who refused to allow his name to be printed: "That I remember research on something similar — I don't recall what it was specifically called — began not long after the Defense Appropriations for 1970… it began around then…there were all kinds of things under study then. It was hard to keep track of it all." This remark about the 1970 Defense Appropriations is significant in light that at about this same time the US Defense Department made a startling budget request to the US Congress.

On July 1, 1969, a high-ranking Pentagon biological warfare official, Dr. Donald MacArthur, appeared before the Defense Department Appropriations Subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives. Dr. MacArthur told the assembled elected officials that "dramatic progress being made in the field of molecular biology [by Army researchers at Fort Detrick and elsewhere] led [the Army] to investigate the relevance of this field of science to biological warfare."

Said MacArthur, "A small group of experts considered this matter and provided the following observations:
(1) All biological agents up to the present time are representative of naturally occurring disease, and thus known by scientists throughout the world. They are easily available to qualified scientists for research, either for offensive or defensive purposes;
(2) within the next 5 to 10 years; it would probably be possible to make a new infective microorganism, which could differ, in certain important aspects from any known disease-causing organisms. Most important of these is that it might be refractory to the immunological and therapeutic processes upon when we depend to maintain our relative freedom from infectious disease."

Dr. MacArthur's testimony went on, and he informed the subcommittee that a research program to explore the feasibility of developing such a disease, "a synthetic biological agent, an agent that does not naturally exist and for which no natural immunity could be acquired," would take only about 5 years to complete, and would cost $10 million. Quite understandably, since MacArthur made his memorable remarks, speculation has been rampant about just exactly what disease he was talking about.

Some declassified Army reports from this same time are quite interesting in that many documents make it readily apparent that some of the Army's most secret experiments with laboratory manipulated diseases were conducted in those same states where Morgellons is reported to be most prevalent: Texas, Florida, and California.

Dr. MacArthur informed Congress: "[Establishing new biological weapons] is a highly controversial issue, and there are many who believe such research should not be undertaken lest it lead to yet another method of massive killing of large populations. On the other hand, without sure scientific knowledge that such a weapon is possible, and an understanding of the ways it could be done, there is little that can be done to devise defensive measures. Should an enemy develop it there is little doubt that this is an important area of potential military technological inferiority in which there is no adequate research program."

Patients Warned Not to Talk

Since our last article was published here, a very disturbing number of verified incidents involving Morgellons victims have been reported. Many of these accounts concern infected people receiving warnings "not to speak" with the media or to "keep your mouth shut about this disease." These warnings have come from people claiming to represent or to work for "intelligence" or "law enforcement" agencies. Several of the warned individuals had earlier reported seeing odd "fabric-like" and "web-like" materials falling from the sky prior to their coming down with the disease.

Caroline Carter, 50 years old, an alternative health therapist practicing in Cyprus, Greece, contracted Morgellons disease in August 2007, after discovering her garden in England "covered in a very strange web-like substance." Looking further, she found the same substance covering other nearby gardens and hedgerows. Within about a day all of the foliage touched by the substance began wilting and dying.

Carter began collecting some of the web-like substance and felt a bit on her left upper arm. She recalled, "It was a sharp nip but there was not any visible mark." Yet by the end of the day her arm was "really aggravating me as no matter what I did I could not stop a persistent itch that had begun shortly after the bite." From that day forward the itch never left Carter.

In 2008, Caroline Carter moved to Cyprus. About a year later, she was diagnosed as having intestinal fungal overgrowth and a B12 deficiency. Carter's rash also had worsened, despite concentrated efforts at treatment. The rash produced severe burning and itching, and continued to spread over her entire body. At the time, Carter did "not consider that Morgellons was the cause of my pain as many lesions appearing over my body were scabbing over." While she knew about the disease everything she had seen informed her that Morgellons lesions "do not scab over or heal."

After placing a piece of her skin under a microscope, however, Carter knew the problem was Morgellons. "I felt sick to my stomach…sure enough entangled through my skin sample were bright red, blue and black fibers." Continued Carter, "I took another skin sample and found the very same fibers, this time I placed the skin sample in a solution of H202 [hydrogen peroxide]. I left the sample to soak for 12 hours before placing it back under the scope. The fibers had not lost their color."

http://www.morgellons-research.org/...

Over the next few weeks, Carter's rash intensified and she was in extreme pain. "My skin would form blisters that would burst then reform," she said, "it felt like broken glass and lit cigarettes were attacking my skin from the inside."

The ensuing weeks were sheer agony for Carter. She recounts, "The only medication that helped was opiates, both oral and intravenous." Eventually, Carter says, "I decided to try frequency healing [alternative healing based on electromagnetic waves] and I really improved." She says, "The change was immediate. On a Saturday I visited a therapist who discovered that my left and right brain hemisphere had switched, everything that should test positive ran negative and vice versa. I was also emitting radiation from my thymus area for approximately two meters. My thymus had felt permanently on fire and I could feel small metal particles under the skin."

Not long after Carter was able to resume her normal work routine she assembled a thick packet of information on Morgellons disease, including a CD containing photos and videos of fibers, some in the process of actually moving about, that she passed on to a local elected official, who she thought might help her in her now intensive investigation of the disease. Since resuming her practice she had been alarmed to find that some of her clients, including children, were also experiencing health problems that appeared to be the results of Morgellons disease.

About a week later, a man who said he was from the Cyprus Intelligence Services contacted her. Carter says, "He told me that I should stay away from politicians as they would not do anything with my information, he said that there was something going on in Cyprus and that they were aware of it. He wanted my help. He told me a scientist has broken ranks and given information about a strange substance picked up in the EU air filter checking system."

The man asked Carter "to stay quiet about my findings for now as it could cause problems." Before he departed, the man told Carter that her telephone and e-mail was being closely monitored.

Carter explains, "I think the problem is due to my having found out just how many people have this problem as well as having grown one of these fibers. It has to be 'artificial life' from the way it grew. I say grew and not cultured because that is what it did. I placed a piece of my skin, which I had kept since my breakout on a slide with a small drop of H202 slightly diluted. Within 9 minutes a bacteria type of incubator sprouted long fibers. It was like watching something out of the film 'Alien.'"

Caroline Carter's story is not unique. Since our first article on Morgellons appeared, we have been contacted by nearly a dozen people, all Morgellons patients, who, over the past seven years, have received warnings from people who have identified themselves as either "federal agents", state law enforcement, or "Army intelligence officers." One woman in the mid-west says she was told, "If you know what's good for you and your family you wouldn't talk to anyone about this." All the warned patients who contacted us are women who are fearful for their well-being and that of their loved ones. Most of these women are too frightened to want their names being used in this article.

Barb Metcalf, a Morgellons sufferer in Connecticut, who lives only 30 miles from the US Army's top secret Plum Island research facility, felt differently. Metcalf's story is incredible, and is presented here in her own words. Recounts Metcalf:

"It was December 8, 1998 a beautiful 72F winter day in Manchester, Connecticut. The weather was most unusual, we had had snow and several hard frosts, but this day was like a Spring day. I was outdoors at a party, standing under a large oak tree. I felt something inside my shirt; I never considered it to be a bug because nothing should have survived the winter weather. When I removed my shirt that night, it was very clear that I had been bitten at least 8 times on my back. There was a leg left behind in the struggle, so I placed it in a bag for identification. The next day, I had a major allergic attack with signs of oncoming breathing difficulties. I went to the doctor who did nothing more than a Lyme disease test, although there were no obvious signs that it was a tick.

"I took the leg to an entomologist at University of Connecticut who identified it as coming from an arthropod. By leg size, mouth size, he determined that it was not a tick, but could not otherwise determine the exact type of bug. Living in here is always reason enough to be checked for insect bites, living so close and in the migratory bird path of Old Lyme, Connecticut, just 12 miles from Plum Island, the world's depository of infectious diseases of all types. Old Lyme is just 42 miles from my home, and about 30 miles 'as the crow flies' or any other species of insect, birds, geese, etc. that take the migratory bird path that literally goes over Plum Island.

"Three months to the day, I felt as though I was being bitten all over again! I was screaming in horror and pain and could see nothing attacking me. After careful examination, my husband could see crystals sticking out of my back! He removed several of them with tweezers — they were all alike: triangular in shape, with one side serrated the other two rather straight, and all had either a black or red dot in the center. Once the crystal was removed the pain ceased immediately. Along with some of these crystals pieces of black material also was removed to find later that they were actually pieces of an insect's leg. This cycle happened like clockwork every 3 months, leaving behind scars of white pox-like marks, red striated lines, red dots, and tender skin.

"Visits to specialists of Infectious Disease, was the least helpful. They would not look at the samples, nor listen to how I became ill. Then, other symptoms became apparent. Abdominal bloating and severe pain, upper right quadrant pain and swelling; difficulty swallowing, headaches, muscle pain, no apparent lesions or other marks on my body except for those lines and red dots. I was tested for Lyme disease, and both tests were negative.

"Having been married to a microbiologist for the EPA and having worked in the lab alongside my husband, studying what he studied, made me wonder just what had attacked me and why. I got out my old microscope and could see that there was more there than met the eye. Insect pieces, pieces that looked like crystal, and when dissected, appeared to be very interesting indeed. It was time I invested in another piece of equipment and found a child's toy - Digital Blue; a digital microscope for about $100 solved the problem immediately. From that day forward, I documented everything that I found unusual coming from my body.

Cataloguing by date, location in the body where the specimen came from, i.e. oral, nasal, head, other body parts, stool...I have compiled a digital microscopy library of over 300,000 photographs in color and b & w, including videos of microbes and various bacterial specimens from my own body.

"Getting more ill as time went on, I literally begged my rheumatoid specialist to help me find out what this disease was. I was tested and the results were startling. From being a relatively healthy 54 year old, active female business woman, to have positive test results for: fibromyalgia, diabetes, chronic fatigue syndrome, IBS, and Rheumatoid arthritis. All in just a few months' time!

"When the bugs, worms and large strange specimens began coming from my body, none of my doctors would have anything to do with me. They shunned me in total disbelief! I was mortified to say the least that someone they had trusted to be knowledgeable in the past 10 years had suddenly told them of worms, insects, and God-know-what coming from her body! I was told to see a psychiatrist, which shocked me to no end. I was not crazy, nor was I delusional - you can't photograph a delusion.

"I searched the internet endless hours for photographs of specimens in all areas of medicine and veterinary medicine that looked like mine, to no avail. The disease got worse. I could no longer sleep, the pain increased to where I could no longer walk without a cane, and needed assistance from my family to do simple, everyday chores around the house and maintain my own body. "Being of a medically scientific mindset, I just knew there had to be an answer out there. But after several years of not finding anything similar, I began to be more than frustrated. I called on several scientific friends and associates for help and they too were stymied by the change in my appearance, I had lost more than 50 pounds within 3 months...and did not sleep more than a couple hours a day. Without sleep, the body cannot produce Serotonin, which it needs to repair and maintain a healthy system.

"Then in 2005, I needed water to be replaced in my swimming pool. I called for a delivery and asked where it was coming from - a local reservoir. When I first went into the pool, I noticed hundreds of small snails along the surface of the pool. I had never seen anything like this in the previous years. Then the large slugs began to be seen in the early morning hours...some as large as 4-5" long. Knowing better, I still picked up hundreds of these snails in my hands to dispose of them.

"In April 2006 I went to Florida to visit my son and his family only to begin feeling ill just 3 days into the visit. I left earlier than planned, and within one day of my return to CT I became extremely ill. Vomiting, diarrhea (with obvious worm-like specimens which I saved for future observance), and then within 2 days had a fever of 104F. I collapsed and was admitted into the ICU at a local hospital. All manner of specialists were called in, including infectious disease, cardiology, immunology, pulmonary, and dermatology. With a raging fever for 8 days, nothing was determined except that I was diagnosed with bilateral pneumonia...of unknown origin. Upon discharge, the disease worsened, especially the abdominal bloating, abdominal pain, diarrhea and vomiting. I brought samples of these worms to the specialists along with other unidentifiable specimens that looked like undeveloped insects, and they refused to even consider them, and threw them away. They would ask me, "Can you part with them?" I was treated as though I was some type of idiot, let loose on the street. I was incensed to say the least!

"I took literally hundreds of preserved samples to a university Microbiology Department in another state, where specialists - all PhDs in various specialties: microbiology, parasitological, entomology, biology, marine biology, virology. They selected an obvious egg specimen that they all agreed was a Schistosoma mansoni egg and tested it with stain. It did not respond in the normal manner. They did another ... same results. They were surprised to say the least. When the Department head asked why they thought this had happened, to a person, the response was, "It's genetically modified".

"'Genetically modified' appears to be an understatement at this point in time. This was not the first time that my interests were being challenged. In September, 2008 I woke to check my pool to find thousands of beige/khaki colored threads all over my deck and the roof of my home. I couldn't imagine where they had come from. I picked them up in my hands and put them in a bag for disposal, then vacuumed the area still wondering where they had come from. Curious, I put one under the microscope only to be shocked again. These fibers were not normal threads at all, but were twists and braided forms of fibers with many types of organisms literally woven into the pattern. What shocked me most was that some of these specimens I saw were the very same specimens I had seen come out of my own body. I double-checked my photographs to be certain I was not in error. I wasn't. The next day, the same thing happened again. I checked the neighborhood by walking the street to see if there were more threads, but did not find any.

"A year later in September, 2009, the threads appeared again. Same type of thread, same type of organisms entwined within the fibers. By coincidence, just a few days later, I was lying on a raft in my pool, looking up into the sky, and saw something floating down from the sky where there were no trees. I jumped out of the pool and caught it before it hit the ground! It was one of those same threads! No doubt about it. I ran into the house and put it under the scope - and sure enough even though it was a year later, this lone thread blew into my yard, just like those before it, with what looked like the colored threads of red, black, blue and white of what I became to know as Morgellons Disease or the Fiber Disease!

"So, where had they come from? To this day, I have no idea, but they didn't just fly in on their own.

"From about that same time, I was studying what I found to be called Morgellons Disease from an ABC Special that showed these same fiber masses that I had photographed! A friend called me and asked me why I had given my material and photographs to ABC. I told her I hadn't; she said they are on TV right now! And, yes, those there looked like my very own photos. I was overwhelmed to say the least. A whole new world of investigation opened for me.

"I've contacted medical facilities all over the country looking for help, to no avail, until I found an infectious disease facility in Boston MA who finally took me on as a patient, after checking me for DOP [Delusions of Parasitosis], and I submitted samples from my body sometimes within 30 minutes! They had never seen anything like it. I brought and sent in many digital photographs of the specimens from my body, and none could be identified - even in this area of the country known for its excellence in medicine and new technology. I asked about Morgellons...they had not heard of it. However, I could match what came out of my body with photographs published by others. I was finally given medicine to help remove these parasites from my body, along with extensive testing of my brain, abdomen, chest, lungs, etc. and blood. No conclusive findings or diagnosis was found and no etiology of what was in my body. They agreed to advise me if anyone else came to their facility with my same symptoms in the future. I must have faith in what they try to do...until I learn more.

"It is now 2 months since I took the medicine that was prescribed, and I am still producing fungus gnats, flies, from my nasal cavities, eggs and worms and various other strange specimens in my stool. My abdomen is again bloating and in pain, and the vicious circle of this debilitating disease goes on.

"Many strange incidents have happened since I contracted Morgellons Disease; my computer has been broken/hacked into and only certain information, including my book that I had been writing for more than 10 years, was removed. While discussing Morgellons with another Morgy, we were both viewing the same site, when both our computers went black! We were also on the phone at the time. He lives in another state and does not have the same ISP; his computer came back on, mine did not. I took my computer to experts to verify what had happened.

"I have no doubt that this disease has killed more people than we are aware of; we are getting no support from anyone; we are researching daily; many victims have lost their jobs, their homes, their families, support from their friends and families, and most of all from the lack of care from the medical community at large. They are all waiting for what the CDC finds in their Kaiser Permanente Investigation that has been a long time coming. In the meanwhile, people have been dying from this disease or complications of this disease, or have committed suicide because they no longer are able to fight the daily horrors and pain this horrific disease does to mind and body."

Original Page: http://www.voltairenet.org/article165822.html




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Mind Justice - Experts 2005

Four Prominent Experts Weigh In on the 2005 Government Mind Control Debate

by Gloria Naylor, mindjustice.org
April 14th 2005

William Arkin's 2005 book Code Names is a succinct and impressive account of the post 9-11 system of U.S. government secrecy. The New York Review of Books, May 26th, 2005 stated; "Arkin believes that the classification system has developed a momentum of its own, uncoupled from the legitimate demands of operational secrecy, and become a life support system for policies and activities-like the invasion of Iraq-which would not hold up under the light of public or congressional scrutiny."

Seymour Hersh, the well-known investigative reporter wrote; "William Arkin makes amateurs of all of us who think we know something about America's constantly expanding hidden world. Code Names is quite simply a stunning array of secrets and super-secrets that Arkin has put together in a way that makes it easy for any citizen to comprehend..."

In the mid 1990s, as a student majoring in government at California State University, Sacramento, I networked with William Arkin, then a Human Rights Watch Arms Project analyst. I sent Arkin several russian newspaper articles on mind control and the proposed russian legislation to ban russian mind control weapons which became available as a result of the breakup of the Soviet Union. Arkin reviewed the information and advised me to find government documents or solid scientific evidence before a group such as Human Rights Watch could take on the issue of mind control weapons and illegal government experiments.

Arkin's book excerpts and Democracy Now interview excerpts below provide a reliable explanation for how mind control weapons would be classified

Page 13;

As I have learned in compiling this directory, most genuine secrets ironically remain secret. Enormous segments of the activities of the military and Intelligence Community remain safely under wraps and represent an even more staggeringly complex secret world.

Page 14;

Yet Abu Ghraib is like every other national security surprise: We cannot know who the players are or what they are up to until after disaster strikes." [Arkin lists disasters including] "...domestic spying operations, illegal weapons developments, and human experimentation".

Arkin's book corroborates the 1991 Guardian article and Ronson's book. Page 13;

...Beyond the ridiculous, though, there is a rapidly growing army of secret "special mission units" that are beyond scrutiny and increasingly a law unto themselves. SAPs, moreover, include a fair share of weapons and capabilities that are secret only because they might be perceived as repugnant (high-powered microwaves or blinding lasers), illegal (domestic programs that obscure the lines restricting what the military and Intelligence Community can do inside the United States), or downright dangerous (capabilities being developed to go beyond nuclear weapons in cyber-warfare and directed-energy weaponry to nullify enemy weapons- perfectly logical on the one hand, but potentially destabilizing if Russia or some other nuclear power ever perceived that they were part of a "first strike" program).

Amy Goodman, Democracy Now 2005 Interview William Arkin

Thursday, January 27th, 2005. More information available at codenames.org. Complete interview at democracynow.org.

...We speak with military analyst, William Arkin, author of the new book Code Names: Deciphering U.S. Military Plans, Programs, and Operations in the 9/11 World. ...I began by asking him why he published the book.

WILLIAM ARKIN: Well, I'm in a position as a journalist and a military expert to collect a lot of this information. I guess it has been a passion of mine to follow the secret and not-so-secret meanderings of the military over the years.

It seemed to me that there was an incredible explosion of secrecy after 9/11, and I guess I just felt compelled to do what it is that I was asking the government to do, which is to put it out there. I felt like if I had hoarded that information or kept it for my own use, then I would be no better than what I'm criticizing the government for doing.

And I also believe that, you know, there are secrets and there are secrets, and merely because the government stamps something classified or claims that it is secret doesn't make it so. And I wanted to challenge the trivial secrecy because it seemed to me that was also the area where we got into the most trouble.

Scandal follows secrecy like night follows day. And to me, I felt compelled, both as a citizen and then as an expert, to put as much out there as I could, so that people would be able to understand better the kind of world that we are building after 9/11.

...

WILLIAM ARKIN: Well, I have been doing this for a long time. I think one of the first jobs I had was working for a little non-profit in Washington, DC called the Center for Defense Information. This was in the early 1980's. And I was -- I worked on an article relating to where all the nuclear weapons were in Germany, US nuclear weapons. And I pieced it together by looking at telephone books and various military manuals. And I promptly was fired from my job. You know, big deal. In a way, I can't work somewhere that's not going to support the notion of openness.

As I say in the introduction to the book, you either believe in democracy or you don't. You believe in openness or you don't. There's no way I'm going to convince you of it if you don't believe in it.

So I have been doing this now for almost 30 years. I wrote a book in the 1980's that revealed where all the nuclear weapons were around the world. The Reagan administration was not very happy about it and came down on me pretty hard. And --

AMY GOODMAN: How?

WILLIAM ARKIN: Well, they threatened to throw me in jail. And it took many months of negotiations with the Reagan administration to convince them that I had not used any access to classified information in order to compile that book. That was the key that they would have used as the excuse to put me in jail. So it took many, many months to do that. It was quite a hairy time.

...

AMY GOODMAN: William Arkin, let's step back for a minute to the Pentagon's so-called "black budget." How much of it is secret? How much of it is there congressional overview?

WILLIAM ARKIN: Well, you know, when you look at a guide book of 3,000-plus code names, 600 of which have never been in the public domain before, which means they're not in the budget, they're not in newspaper articles, they've never been published, you know, one of the things that you got to conclude from that is: How can anybody in Congress monitor and oversee all of this activity? I mean, I've spent years on this and have a very tentative grasp upon all of these secrets.

So, I know that there is a statutory requirement for the Pentagon to report the existence of special access programs to the Congress on an annual basis. But most people would be surprised to know that that's done in the form of, literally, a report.

A list of names gets sent forward with a one or two-line description of what the program is, and there are literally a half dozen people within the entire U.S. Congress who have a high enough clearance to read that report.

So, when you're talking about hundreds of programs, and then you're talking about layers of different types of special access programs, I think we can all agree they don't get very effective oversight.

So, you have the double problem of the compartmentalization itself used as a way of avoiding oversight within the Defense Department and within the government.

Lawyers or others don't have access to all these programs; and then you have Congress which is only sort of perfunctorily made aware of the existence of these programs as well.

So, I would conclude, as we've watched again and again and again during the Abu Ghraib scandal or during the whole debate over the handling of prisoners in Guantanamo, that Congress is not effectively monitoring what's going on.

They have a tentative grasp upon the totality of U.S. military and intelligence activities around the world and one of the devices that's used to ensure that the Congress isn't able to monitor it is this alphabet soup of code names which is basically employed to keep it secret.

Arkin described the significant changes of a vast and Byzantine cold war government secrecy system in the post 9-11 world of secrecy. At a minimum, what is lacking today, are public commentaries and discussions on mind control weapons and their characteristics and dangers which go beyond the atomic bomb.

Arkin's book raises the likelihood of developing mind control weapons completely lacking in accountability and oversight. Arkin predicted future scandals as a result of this out-of-control massive secrecy system, including illegal weapons development and human experiments.

Original Page: http://mindjustice.org/experts_6-05.htm

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Monday, October 21, 2013

New mobile updates for Android, iPhone and mobile web

New mobile updates for Android, iPhone and mobile web
Twitter Blog


We just released a new version of Twitter for Android. Its new design reflects a native Android experience: wider and taller timelines that fill the screen, a flat navigation bar, tap and hold for quick actions, and more. You can now quickly navigate between tabs by swiping across your screen. And as you type your Tweet or search, you'll see username and hashtag suggestions, making it easier to connect with friends and join conversations.

In addition to the Android app, we've also updated Twitter for iPhone and mobile.twitter.com. All three mobile apps, plus twitter.com, now show more types of content in expanded Tweets: photo galleries, apps and product listings.

You'll also see a new link right below content that is shared from another mobile app, such as Foursquare or Path.


The link lets you open or download the app right from the Tweet, depending on whether or not you have it installed. As an example, if you expand a Tweet to view a photo from Flickr, you can tap the link to open the photo in Flickr. If you don't yet have the Flickr app on your phone, you can tap to install it from the Tweet.

These updates, which are rolling out to users over the next several days, are part of our ongoing effort to make it easier for you to connect with interesting and relevant content on Twitter. If you're interested in the under-the-hood details, there are more on our Developer blog.

You can download these updates from the Google Play or App Store.

Posted by Jonathan Le (@jle)
Technical Lead, Android

Original Article: http://blog.twitter.com/2013/04/new-mobile-updates-for-android-iphone.html


^ed