NSA Web Site Used Banned 'Cookies' on Computers

Update (1.12.06): NSA Whistleblower Alleges Illegal Spying
Says the number of Americans subject to eavesdropping by the NSA "could be in the millions."

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By ANICK JESDANUN, AP

NEW YORK (Dec. 29) - The National Security Agency's Internet site has been placing files on visitors' computers that can track their Web surfing activity despite strict federal rules banning most of them.

These files, known as "cookies," disappeared after a privacy activist complained and The Associated Press made inquiries this week, and agency officials acknowledged Wednesday they had made a mistake. Nonetheless, the issue raises questions about privacy at a spy agency already on the defensive amid reports of a secretive eavesdropping program in the United States.

"Considering the surveillance power the NSA has, cookies are not exactly a major concern," said Ari Schwartz, associate director at the Center for Democracy and Technology, a privacy advocacy group in Washington, D.C. "But it does show a general lack of understanding about privacy rules when they are not even following the government's very basic rules for Web privacy."

Until Tuesday, the NSA site created two cookie files that do not expire until 2035 - likely beyond the life of any computer in use today.

Don Weber, an NSA spokesman, said in a statement Wednesday that the cookie use resulted from a recent software upgrade. Normally, the site uses temporary, permissible cookies that are automatically deleted when users close their Web browsers, he said, but the software in use shipped with persistent cookies already on.

"After being tipped to the issue, we immediately disabled the cookies," he said.

Cookies are widely used at commercial Web sites and can make Internet browsing more convenient by letting sites remember user preferences. For instance, visitors would not have to repeatedly enter passwords at sites that require them.

But privacy advocates complain that cookies can also track Web surfing, even if no personal information is actually collected.

In a 2003 memo, the White House's Office of Management and Budget prohibits federal agencies from using persistent cookies - those that aren't automatically deleted right away - unless there is a "compelling need."

A senior official must sign off on any such use, and an agency that uses them must disclose and detail their use in its privacy policy.

Peter Swire, a Clinton administration official who had drafted an earlier version of the cookie guidelines, said clear notice is a must, and `vague assertions of national security, such as exist in the NSA policy, are not sufficient."

Daniel Brandt, a privacy activist who discovered the NSA cookies, said mistakes happen, "but in any case, it's illegal. The (guideline) doesn't say anything about doing it accidentally."

The Bush administration has come under fire recently over reports it authorized NSA to secretly spy on e-mail and phone calls without court orders.

Since The New York Times disclosed the domestic spying program earlier this month, President Bush has stressed that his executive order allowing the eavesdropping was limited to people with known links to al-Qaida.

But on its Web site Friday, the Times reported that the NSA, with help from American telecommunications companies, obtained broader access to streams of domestic and international communications.

The NSA's cookie use is unrelated, and Weber said it was strictly to improve the surfing experience "and not to collect personal user data."

Richard M. Smith, a security consultant in Cambridge, Mass., questions whether persistent cookies would even be of much use to the NSA. They are great for news and other sites with repeat visitors, he said, but the NSA's site does not appear to have enough fresh content to warrant more than occasional visits.

The government first issued strict rules on cookies in 2000 after disclosures that the White House drug policy office had used the technology to track computer users viewing its online anti-drug advertising. Even a year later, a congressional study found 300 cookies still on the Web sites of 23 agencies.

In 2002, the CIA removed cookies it had inadvertently placed at one of its sites after Brandt called it to the agency's attention.

Source: AOL News

'Mass grave' unearthed in Gujarat

Villagers have found the remains of a number of bodies in a grave in the Indian state of Gujarat, officials say.

Human rights activists say they are the remains of Muslims killed in the 2002 Gujarat riots.

But a senior police official says it is still unclear whether the remains belong to riot victims or whether an older graveyard has been dug up.

More than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in the 2002 riots, although many believe the figure to be higher.

Judicial inquiry

Residents of the Pandarwada village in the state's Panchmahal district uncovered the remains near a river bank.

Twenty-six people are said to have died in an attack on the village in 2002.

A human rights activist, Teesta Setalvad, says all those accused of carrying out the killings were acquitted in 2002 for lack of evidence.

She says human rights organisations will now approach the Gujarat High Court on Wednesday to press for the remains of the bodies to be sent for a forensic test.

The director general of police in Gujarat, AK Bhargav, says a team of police officials has been sent to the area to investigate.

The Gujarat riots broke out after 58 Hindus were killed when a train was set on fire in the town of Godhra, allegedly by a Muslim mob.

The Sabarmati Express was carrying Hindu pilgrims returning from the disputed holy site at Ayodhya when it was attacked. How the blaze started is not clear.

Gujarat police and local authorities have been heavily criticised for failing to come to the help of victims during the violence, which was among the worst in India since partition in 1947.

A judicial inquiry into the riots is still to conclude its investigation.

Source: BBC News

Munich mastermind spurns Spielberg's peace appeal

GAZA (Reuters) - The Palestinian mastermind of the Munich Olympics attack in which 11 Israeli athletes died said on Tuesday he had no regrets and that Steven Spielberg's new film about the incident would not deliver reconciliation.

The Hollywood director has called "Munich," which dramatises the 1972 raid and Israel's reprisals against members of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), his "prayer for peace."

Mohammed Daoud planned the Munich attack on behalf of PLO splinter group Black September, but did not take part and does not feature in the film.

He voiced outrage at not being consulted for the thriller and accused Spielberg of pandering to the Jewish state.

"If he really wanted to make it a prayer for peace he should have listened to both sides of the story and reflected reality, rather than serving the Zionist side alone," Daoud told Reuters by telephone from the Syrian capital, Damascus.

Daoud said he had not seen the film, which will only reach most screens outside the United States next month.

But he noted that Spielberg arranged previews in Israel, where some have accused "Munich" of lacking historical accuracy.

Several Israeli historians have also complained about what they see as a moral symmetry in the film between slain Olympians and the Palestinians assassinated by the Mossad spy service.

"Spielberg showed the movie to widows of the Israeli victims, but he neglected the families of Palestinian victims," said Daoud. "How many Palestinian civilians were killed before and after Munich?"

MOSSAD ASSASSINS

The Munich attack was "one of the pivotal moments of modern terrorism," the Los Angeles Times said last week.

Daoud used different terms.

"We did not target Israeli civilians," he said.

"Some of them (the athletes) had taken part in wars and killed many Palestinians. Whether a pianist or an athlete, any Israeli is a soldier."

Spielberg's producer, Kathleen Kennedy, told a preview audience at Princeton University that a Palestinian consultant was used for "Munich." She did not say who it was.

"I do feel that we spent an enormous amount of time in discussion and put effort into exploring a fair and balanced look at the Palestinians that were involved in the story," she said, according to an official transcript of the event.

Historians noted that "Munich" presents Mossad assassins as having hunted 11 members of the PLO, while other accounts put the final Palestinian toll at as many as 18.

Daoud survived a 1981 shooting in Poland that he blamed on a Mossad mole in the rival Palestinian faction of Abu Nidal.

Though Israel allowed him to visit the occupied West Bank after 1993 peace accords, and Mossad veterans say the reprisals are over, Daoud said he feels he could still be targeted.

"When I chose a long time ago to be a revolutionary fighter I prepared to be a martyr. I am not afraid, because people's souls are in God's hands, not Israel's," he said.

Source: Yahoo! News

Israel expands West Bank settlements

Israel has said it will build more than 200 new homes in Jewish West Bank settlements.

The latest settlement construction was revealed in newspaper advertisements published on Monday seeking bids from building contractors, and would violate Israel's commitments under the US-backed road map peace plan.

The plans include a total of 228 housing units in the settlements of Beitar Illit and Efrat. Both communities are just outside Jerusalem.

The road map calls for a freeze on all settlement construction in the West Bank, which the Palestinians claim as part of a future independent state. Since accepting the plan in June 2003, Israel has continued to expand settlements.

The Palestinians also have not carried out their road map obligation to disarm fighter groups.

Raanan Gissin, spokesman for Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, said plans for the latest construction began more than five years ago and would take place in existing communities.

Gissin also noted that the construction would be in settlements that Israel plans to retain after a final peace settlement with the Palestinians.

He said: "These are the large settlement blocs, they will be strengthened."

US intervention

Saeb Erikat, the Palestinian negotiator, condemned the settlement expansion and urged the US to intervene.

US embassy spokesmen in Israel were not immediately available for comment.

he settlement plans came even as Sharon's new political party, Kadima, signalled that it is ready to hand over West Bank territory to the Palestinians and work toward an independent Palestinian state after March elections.

Opinion polls forecast a strong victory by Sharon's bloc in the vote on 28 March.

A draft of Kadima's election platform published on Monday calls for conceding more land to the Palestinians as part of peace talks culminating in a Palestinian state.

The talks would be based on the road map, which endorses a Palestinian state, but says its borders must be reached through negotiations.


Source: Al-Jazeera

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