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San
José, Costa Rica, Monday, July 7, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 132
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 A.M.
Costa Rica/Michael Krumholtz
Daniela Brenes of the All-Star
Cheerleading Squad pays
a tribute to U.S. Independence Day at the American Colony picnic Friday. Supporting her efforts is Maynor Ruiz Barrios. Organizers said the picnic attracted at least 3,000. Credit cards are international targets By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Costa Ricans, expats and tourists continue to be vulnerable to crooks when they use their credit or debit card at a restaurant, store or even an upscale hotel. Crooks have infiltrated all these locations with the goal of stealing credit card information. These highly organized international gangs then use runners to visit automatic teller machines to steal the cash. The Fuerza Pública said that was the case about 7 p.m. Saturday when a man made the mistake of trying to block the lens of a security camera at a Banco de Costa Rica machine. The bank machine was in San Pedro de Poás but the company's security officers were watching from afar. They called police. Officers managed to surround the automatic teller while a suspect still was inside. He was identified as a Romanian. An accomplice in a vehicle managed to escape, the Fuerza Pública said. The suspect had 1.8 million colons, about $3.360, and a number of cloned credit or debit cards, they said. If this is a typical case, police will find that the cards come from all over the world. In just a few minutes using modern equipment, crooks can clone a credit card. Typically this is done out of sight of a customer after the card holder has offered the plastic for a purchase. Case confirmed of virus with funny name By the A.M. Costa rica staff
Health officials announced the first confirmed case of chikungunya, a virus transmitted by the Aedes mosquito, in Costa Rica. Friday a health director said a French tourist who was in the country from May 10 to May 21 had recently tested positive for the disease at France's national virology lab. María Ethel Trejos, the ministry's health surveillance director, said the infected traveler may not have been detected at the borders because she could have still been in a primary, non-symptom phase of infection. As cases have risen throughout the Caribbean and other parts of the region, police border units have been trained to spot chikungunya symptoms. “In this case, it could be that the patient came with the disease still incubating while in the country,” Ms. Trejos said. “Nonetheless, to oversee more proactive measures and more protection at the national level, we are considering this as the country's first confirmed case.” Ms. Trejos said Costa Rican officials received the French lab's results from a test taken May 27. Taking into account the normal incubation periods of chikungunya that last about two to three days, it seems highly likely that the person was infected during the stay here. More than 250,000 people in Caribbean states like Haiti, Cuba, Saint Martin, and the Dominican Republic have already been infected with the disease this year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There is currently no medication available to prevent chikungunya. The center has sent out an advisory to travelers, warning them that if they are visiting any Caribbean island to avoid getting mosquito bites as best they can, as that is the only assured prevention. This is the first time the disease has broken out in the Americas, said the center's report, although it remains on the level one watch stage. The painful illness is akin to dengue. Infections are rarely deadly and both are spread by the Aedes mosquito. It causes severe joint aches, nausea, fevers, and insomnia. Outfits from the Ministerio de Salud, the Caja Costarricense del Seguro Social, and the Instituto Costarricense de Investigación y Enseñaza en Nutrición y Salud are collaborating to prevent and weed-out any potential outbreaks of chikungunya or dengue in Costa Rica. On top of securing land, sea, and air borders, officials have been rooting out common breeding-grounds for the Aedes mosquitos. These are usually places with sitting water, like outdoor buckets, animal feeders, and gutters. Debtors can only get emergency service By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Public medical providers can deny non-emergency service to those who are not up to date with payments. That is a decision from the Sala IV constitutional court. The case arose from an April appeal from a patent who was denied service at the Tibás clinic. The Sala IV said it would have been appropriate for the public clinic workers to charge for the services or to effect collection of the amount outstanding. The clinic is run by the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social. Generally everyone can receive emergency treatment at clinics and hospitals, including tourists, although the Caja may make an effort to collect later. Twin quakes rattle Nicoya area By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The usually seismically active Nicoya peninsula has been generally quiet for the last six days. But early Sunday there was a double earthquake in the northeastern part of the Nicoya peninsula about 14 kilometers east of Nicoya Central. A 5.1 magnitude quake took place at 5:43 a.m., followed eight minutes later by a 3.6 shaker, according to the Laboratorio de Ingeniería Sísmica at the Universidad de Costa Rica. No major damage or injuries were reported. Coast guard crew makes arrest By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Members of the Servicio Nacional de Guardacostas responded to an alert about robbers in Flamingo Saturday night. The coast guard crew members from the Flamingo station chased a vehicle and collared four suspects. The men are accused of robbing individuals on the beach of the Guanacaste community, said the security ministry. The coast guard crewmen recovered three firearms. Two of them were legally reqistered to other persons, they said. They said they presume they have been stolen. Training for the Servicio Nacional de Guardacostas includes many of the same courses as for the Fuerza Pública.
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, July 7, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 132 | |
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Police officer keeps an eye on the area around the Fuente de Hispanidad. This is the San Pedro location that hosts celebrations ranging from sports to political. Those who showed up early were disappointed as the national team lost a squeaker to the Netherlands. |
 Ministerio
de Gobernación, Policía y Seguridad Pública photo
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| Stabbings amid crowd of game viewers leads to eight arrests |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A few violent acts marred World Cup viewing in San José during Costa Rica's heartbreaking loss to Holland Saturday. Three people ended up being stabbed at the popular site in Plaza de la Democracia where more than 1,000 fans had gathered to watch the quarterfinal match on a big screen. During extra time dozens of police made a human barrier around the front of the stage, where three bodies lay. Medics and Cruz Roja workers attended to the wounded and carted one off into an ambulance. Two were said to be stabbed from a knife while another was injured by a glass bottle. All three appear to be in stable condition. |
Eight persons in
the area were detained as a result of the stabbings
and obstructing justice, according to a Fuerza Pública report.
Police
are still investigating motives for the stabbings that took place in
the middle of the crowd. One 59-year-old man, identified as Bernal Marín Delgado, was killed in Santa Ana after being stabbed around 5 p.m. Saturday night. Police caught a suspect fleeing on a motorcycle nearby after he crashed into a pole and suffered a severe head wound. The dispute developed because the man's motorcycle struck a dog. Around 3,500 police were on duty during Saturday's game, said the report. |
| National soccer team will be welcomed as champions Tuesday |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
and wire service reports The amazing journey of the national soccer team came to an end Saturday, but most Costa Ricans see reaching the World Cup quarter finals as a great victory. The team will be welcomed home Tuesday with a celebration at Parque la Sabana and perhaps a motorcade up Paseo Colon. Elsewhere in the world, the team that defeated some of Europe's best is considered a tournament standout. The Costa Rican team played two regular periods and two periods of extra time without surrendering a point Saturday. The match with the Netherlands came down to penalty shots. Dutch goalie Tim Krul, who came off the bench late in extra time and played in the shootout, dove to his left to stop penalty shots by Bryan Ruiz and Michael Umaña. Krul is taller than starting goalie Jasper Cillessen. The Dutch, who converted all four of their penalty shots, dominated the match in regulation and extra time. But Costa Rica's goalie Keylor Navas made a series of outstanding saves, stopping star striker Robin van Persie at least twice. Van Persie also was denied by midfielder Yeltsin Tejeda, who blocked an attempt while standing on the goal line. Another dangerous Dutch player, Wesley Sneijder, was inches away from scoring. But his shot in regulation hit the post and another in extra time bounced off the crossbar. "We had a lot of chances, but it didn't go in," Krul said on Dutch television. "Then I come in, stop two penalties and here we are." Argentina qualified for its first trip to the World Cup semifinals in nearly a quarter-century Saturday. The Argentines knocked off Belgium, 1-0, in Brasilia. Striker Gonzalo Higuain scored the only goal, firing the ball into the corner of the net less than 10 minutes into the match. Argentine superstar Lionel Messi had a chance to make it 2-0 toward the end of the game, but goalie Thibaut Courtois made the save. |
Argentina now
heads to its first World Cup semifinal since 1990, after being
eliminated in the quarterfinals in 2006 and 2010. "We produced a very complete match," Messi said. "We weren't able to create that many chances, but they didn't make that many clear chances, either." The Argentines are seeking their third World Cup championship, after wins in 1978 and 1986. In 1986, they were led by Diego Maradona, a man widely considered the greatest soccer player ever behind Brazilian legend Pele. Germany and Brazil emerged victorious in the World Cup quarterfinals Friday, setting up an epic battle in the semifinals between what many believe are the world's top two football powers. In Friday's first game, Germany beat European rival France, 1-0, in a hard-fought match in Rio de Janeiro. German defender Mats Hummels scored the game's only goal in the 13th minute of the first half. He leaped over a French defender on a free kick by Toni Kroos and guided a header into the net. Germany is seeking its fourth World Cup championship. It has not won one since West Germany captured its third championship in 1990. In Fortaleza Friday, five-time champion Brazil benefited from goals by two defenders, Thiago Silva and David Luiz, to beat Colombia, 2-1. For Brazil, the win came at a huge price. Neymar, who leads his team with four goals, took a hit in the waning minutes and had to be hospitalized. His status for the semifinal against Germany on Tuesday is doubtful, according to Brazil's coach Luiz Felipe Scolari. "We lost Neymar on that play and based on what I've seen, I think it's going to be tough for him to play," Scolari said. "He was kneed in his lower back, and he was crying out in pain, and I can guarantee it won't be easy for him to recover based on what the doctor told us. Let's hope everything goes well." Brazil last won the World Cup in 2002. It lost to Uruguay in the championship game in Rio de Janeiro in 1950, the last time Brazil hosted the World Cup. |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page | |||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, July 7, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 132 | |||||
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| Magic mushrooms and LSD found to create a state similar to
dreaming |
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By
the Imperial College London news staff
New research shows that the human brain displays a similar pattern of activity during dreams as it does during a mind-expanding drug trip. Psychedelic drugs such as LSD and magic mushrooms can profoundly alter the way humans experience the world, but little is known about what physically happens in the brain. New research, published in Human Brain Mapping, has examined the brain effects of the psychedelic chemical in magic mushrooms, called psilocybin, using data from brain scans of volunteers who had been injected with the drug. The study found that under psilocybin, activity in the more primitive brain network linked to emotional thinking became more pronounced, with several different areas in this network - such as the hippocampus and anterior cingulate cortex - active at the same time. This pattern of activity is similar to the pattern observed in people who are dreaming. Conversely, volunteers who had taken psilocybin had more disjointed and uncoordinated activity in the brain network that is linked to high-level thinking, including self-consciousness. Psychedelic drugs are unique among other psychoactive chemicals in that users often describe expanded consciousness, including enhanced associations, vivid imagination and dream-like states. To explore the biological basis for this experience, researchers analyzed brain imaging data from 15 volunteers who were given psilocybin intravenously while they lay in a functional magnetic resonance imaging scanner. Volunteers were scanned under the influence of psilocybin and when they had been injected with a placebo. “What we have done in this research is begin to identify the biological basis of the reported mind expansion associated with psychedelic drugs,” said Robin Carhart-Harris from the Department of Medicine, Imperial College London. “I was fascinated to see similarities between the pattern of brain activity in a psychedelic state and the pattern of brain activity during dream sleep, especially as both involve the primitive areas of the brain linked to emotions nd memory. People often describe taking psilocybin as producing a |
 Imperial College London graphic
Brain activity under psilocybin
with a decrease (blue) in evolutionary advanced brain regions and an
increase (orange) in memory and emotion centers.dream-like state and our findings have, for the first time, provided a physical representation for the experience in the brain.” Lead author Dr Enzo Tagliazucchi from Goethe University, Germany said: “A good way to understand how the brain works is to perturb the system in a marked and novel way. Psychedelic drugs do precisely this and so are powerful tools for exploring what happens in the brain when consciousness is profoundly altered. It is the first time we have used these methods to look at brain imaging data and it has given some fascinating insight into how psychedelic drugs expand the mind. It really provides a window through which to study the doors of perception.” Dr. Carhart-Harris added: “Learning about the mechanisms that underlie what happens under the influence of psychedelic drugs can also help to understand their possible uses. We are currently studying the effect of LSD on creative thinking and we will also be looking at the possibility that psilocybin may help alleviate symptoms of depression by allowing patients to change their rigidly pessimistic patterns of thinking. Psychedelics were used for therapeutic purposes in the 1950s and 1960s but now we are finally beginning to understand their action in the brain and how this can inform how to put them to good use.” |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, July 7, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 132 | |||||||
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| Overseas airport restrictions now include electronics By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
U.S. officials say travelers heading to the United States from some overseas airports will be required to power on cell phones, laptop computers and other electronic devices, as part of new security measures. In a brief statement Sunday, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration said powerless devices will not be permitted on board such flights and that travelers carrying them may also face additional screening. The U.S. statement did not offer further search details and did not reveal which foreign airports will conduct the enhanced screening. Last week, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson directed the Transportation Security Administration to implement the new measures at airports with direct flights to the United States but details were not originally released. The order comes as U.S.-bound travelers from Europe and the Middle East continue to face tighter security procedures. Analysts have linked the new measures to intelligence suggesting al-Qaida-linked militants are developing new explosives that could be placed on airplanes undetected. Congress faces immigration as lawmakers return to work By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
U.S. lawmakers will weigh in on border enforcement and immigration reform when they return to work this week after an Independence Day recess. A stream of undocumented minors arriving on America’s southern border, along with President Barack Obama’s pledge to alter immigration enforcement through executive order, have sparked a firestorm on Capitol Hill. With an estimated 11 to 12 million foreign nationals living illegally in the United States and a crush of underage would-be immigrants arriving daily, Republican lawmakers like Sen. Jeff Sessions are pinning the blame on the Obama administration. “The sad reality of lax enforcement, plus the lack of a clear message is what is driving the surge. The reality is, if you get into the country today, you are not being deported. That is true!”said Sessions. But America’s immigration challenges cannot be solved through law enforcement alone, according to Sen. Harry Reid, a Democrat. “Eleven million people. We cannot fiscally deport 11 million people. We cannot physically do it. It will not work,” said Reid. A comprehensive immigration reform bill that would provide an arduous path to citizenship for the undocumented and boost border enforcement passed the Senate last year, but stalled in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. Now, President Obama is asking Congress for additional funds to speed the processing and deportation of new arrivals from mostly Central American nations. U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske notes U.S. law treats non-Mexican arrivals as refugees, not illegal immigrants. “These are not gang members. These are not dangerous individuals,” said Kerlikowske, speaking on ABC’s This Week program. At the same time, high-ranking U.S. officials have gone to Central America with a simple message: Do not send children to the United States. That message is too little too late, according to Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican. “Unless we send a clear message that our border is being enforced and our laws are being upheld, we will continue to face crisis after crisis after crisis. Meanwhile, untold numbers of migrants will continue suffering and dying in Central America and Mexico, just trying to get here. Or get here, showing up on our doorstep, and overwhelming our capacity to deal with them in a responsible way,” said Cornyn. Hopes Congress would enact a long-term fix to America’s immigration woes died when House Speaker John Boehner ruled out a vote for the remainder of the year. Last week, President Obama pledged to do what he can on his own through executive authority. Islamic State seen gaining more support in the West By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Analysts and security experts are expressing mounting fears that the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant may be gaining international support following the launch of its One Billion Muslims campaign last month. Some are especially troubled that some of that support is coming from Muslims in the West. Several photographs posted onto social media sites show Islamic State in Iraq supporters posing in front of identifiable landmarks – including London’s Big Ben and Rome’s Colosseum. One image posted shows four people, their faces blurred, holding up Islamic State in Iraq banners in a Dutch city decorated with flags to celebrate The Netherlands’ participation in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Followers from Britain, Germany, Spain, Austria and other European and non-European countries have posted photographs online, increasing worries that the al-Qaida breakaway group could draw on its foreign followers to help plan and execute terrorist attacks in the West. The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, which recently began calling itself the Islamic State, launched its One Billion Muslims campaign June 14. The group urged sympathizers worldwide to show solidarity with the organization and created a special Twitter hashtag for the purpose. “Having taken control of large areas of Iraq, IS is now enjoying increasing shows of solidarity from the Middle East and from across the Muslim world – and also from Western countries,” the Middle East Media and Research Institute, a Washington D.C.-based non-profit which monitors and translates jihadist media, said in a recent report. Western support is crucial to the group’s propaganda efforts, the institute said. “…in addition to swelling the ranks of its fighters and bringing in funds and logistical support, it increases its prestige and deters its rivals,” said the group. Al-Qaida leaders disowned the Islamic State in Iraq last winter after a dispute over jihadist strategy. Western security agencies are fearful al-Qaida may try to unleash a terror spectacular of its own as a way to grab back the initiative and attention from its one-time affiliate, whose leaders have declared an Islamic caliphate and are demanding allegiance from jihadists worldwide. European governments have ramped up airport security in response to U.S. concerns that al-Qaida suicide bombers could be planning attacks on American-bound commercial flights, possibly using a new generation of non-metallic explosives that current airport security equipment may not be able to detect. International airports in the U.K. introduced new anti-terror measures Thursday. Transatlantic passengers are undergoing greater scrutiny, often accompanied by rigorous body searches. Airport agents are swabbing all electronic items – including cell phones, computers, cameras and even electric toothbrushes – for signs of explosive residue and requiring owners to switch the equipment on and off, passengers told the British press. Western security has been focused on the threat from Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaida’s affiliate in Syria, which U.S. and European officials say is collaborating with al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. A Sunni jihadist group based in Yemen and Saudi Arabia, the al-Qaida spinoff has persisted in attempts to attack U.S.-bound passenger jets. But former and current U.S. security officials say the longer-term worry is the Islamic State in Iraq, which has managed to attract the bulk of foreigners recruited by jihadists to fight in Syria and Iraq. And they cite growing fears of blowback, worrying that returning foreign fighters will be used to stage attacks in their home countries. Some of those posting solidarity with the Islamic State in Iraq now could be former fighters, say intelligence officials, or people they have helped to recruit. Most of the western Muslims who have gone to fight in Syria have not joined moderate rebel militias but rather foreign-dominated, radical Islamic militias, including the Islamic State in Iraq, said retired FBI agent Martin Reardon, a former chief of the bureau’s Terrorist Screening Operations Center. “These guys knew exactly who they were joining when they signed up with IS or Jabhat al-Nusra,” Reardon said. “If only a few of them morph from being a foreign fighter into a terrorist, that will be a big challenge.” Reardon said jihadist groups are always on the lookout for ways to circumvent western defenses and launch attacks in America or Europe. And he harbors no doubt there will be consequences for America and Europe. “You shouldn’t underestimate the threat,” he said. U.S. anxiety about a blowback was heightened May 25, when Florida-born Moner Mohammad Abusalha became the first known American fighter in Syria to undertake a suicide bombing mission against Syrian government troops. Adding to concerns, a former foreign fighter, 29-year-old French-Algerian Mehdi Nemmouche, has been accused by Belgian authorities of a May 24 shooting in the Brussels Jewish Museum in which four people died. High courts strong stand on privacy hailed by some By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
In the end, it wasn’t anything David Riley said to police that landed him in prison. It was what his mobile phone said about him. In 2009, Riley was arrested by San Diego police who suspected him of attempted murder. While in custody, police searched the mobile phone Riley was carrying, and found pictures and texts linking Riley to the crime. Introduced as evidence, those pictures and texts help convict Riley, who is currently serving a sentence of 15 years to life. Although Riley faded from public view, his case worked its way through the legal system all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Last week, all nine justices of the Court agreed that the search of Riley’s phone was unconstitutional in what many privacy advocates are hailing as a landmark ruling. The unanimous verdict declaring mobile phones to be “…a digital record of nearly every aspect…” of users lives was notable for both its unambiguous tone and its potential to reshape how courts see the issue of electronic privacy. Predicting what cases the court may hear in the future, much less how they might rule, is a tricky business. Yet it seems clear that other issues of online and digital privacy will only become more frequent as electronic devices become more personal and pervasive. Reading the Riley decision may provide some important clues as to how this Court sees the issues at play. The decision did not help Riley much. He remains in prison while his attorneys petition for a retrial.) “I was very much one of those praising the decision,” says Hanni Fakhoury, an attorney with the digital rights advocacy group the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “I think the court got it right on the specific issue, and what’s more important, I think the court recognized the 21st century. They recognized that people really do carry all sorts of sensitive and important information on their phones and that triggers privacy protections.” Fakhoury’s group has a long history of waging legal battles to expand individual’s privacy rights and protections in the U.S. He says the ruling was a rare instance of this Court demonstrating the will to engage with new and emerging technologies and consider the constitutional issues that may be at play. While some court observers in the past have decried the justices as old fogies who just don’t get technology, this opinion, authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, demonstrates a clear understanding of just how much the data on mobile phones reveals about private lives. “Cell phones differ in both a quantitative and a qualitative sense from other objects that might be carried on an arrestee’s person,” Roberts writes. “Notably, modern cell phones have an immense storage capacity.” Jake Laperruque, a fellow at the Center for Democracy and Technology, is an attorney working on issues of online privacy, surveillance and security. In the past, he says, searches and seizures of a suspect’s personal items were limited foremost by size. “You couldn’t carry all the contents of every letter you wrote in the palm of your hand, you couldn’t communicate electronically rapidly in the past,” says Laperruque. “Those norms have changed and now we need the law to evolve to protect them. And it seems this Court has embraced that and is willing to protect them.” The ruling makes clear that smart phones are less like an incriminating letter which a suspect might be carrying, and more like a suspect’s home, which traditionally has been afforded the highest level of privacy protection under the Fourth Amendment. “The scope of the privacy interests at stake is further complicated by the fact that the data viewed on many modern cell phones may in fact be stored on a remote server,” writes Chief Justice Roberts. “Thus, a search may extend well beyond papers and effects in the physical proximity of an arrestee, a concern that the United States recognizes but cannot definitively foreclose.” The unanimity of the decision (seven other justices joined in the Roberts ruling, while Associate Justice Samuel Alito concurred with the judgment in a separate ruling) is a clear indication that, at least in this matter, this court appears sensitive to protecting an individual’s electronic life. “The court clearly got it,” said Laperruque. “I think you definitely had a strong understanding in this case from the court that these new technologies are raising new questions, and that electronic data can be fundamentally different in terms of what it reveals and may be entitled to a fundamentally new type of protection.” He adds that the ruling is probably the strongest case for privacy rights in a long time, and will likely have broad implications. While the Riley decision made no reference to the National Security Agency’s controversial programs to collect phone metadata in mass quantities, many court watchers scoured through the decision to see how the court may rule in any future cases challenging the NSA’s activities. “The court found that digital data is different and that has constitutional significance, particularly in the realm of Fourth Amendment,” Marc Rotenberg with the Electronic Privacy Information Center told Politico. “I think it also signals the end of the NSA program.” But other analysts cautioned against reaching conclusions based on just one decision. Fakhoury says although there are already several challenges to the NSA’s programs working their way up the legal ladder, there’s no indication which case – or cases – the court may ultimately agree to hear. And despite the forcefulness of this most recent decision, the court in the past has also given strong weight to matters of national security. Still, he says, he’s hopeful the logic of this ruling will find its way into future rulings on electronic privacy. “The court is going to get challenges to electronic search and seizures in the NSA context, and also in the traditional criminal context, because electronic searches and seizures are becoming such a common part of the criminal justice system,” he said. “It’s going to be very interesting to see how the court deals with it.” The ruling may also have implications for other modern privacy issues; among them, a series lawsuits challenging police use of mobile phone tracking data to pinpoint a suspect’s specific location at any particular time. The court declined to hear in this term an appeal by Google to a lower court’s findings that Google’s surreptitious monitoring of people’s unsecured WiFi networks while grabbing its Street Map images could make it liable to prosecution. And the recent revelations that Facebook allowed researchers to intentionally manipulate nearly 700,000 accounts to conduct a secret psychological experiment have only upped concerns about how private corporations mine, store and manipulate private electronic data. The Center for Democracy and Technology’s Laperruque says technology such as mobile phones and the Internet are evolving much more rapidly than the law. The Riley ruling, he says, provides welcome hope for privacy advocates that this Supreme Court is willing to address that gap. “I don’t know how much the individual justices get each technology, but what they do seem to get is that this technology is having a very strong impact on how we live our daily lives, our basic constitutional rights,” said Laperruque. “They get that when these cases come up they have to dig in, understand the technology, and understand what kind of ruling is needed. Hopefully we’ll see more of that in the future.” NSA eavesdropping sweep caught many innocent users By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A report in a major U.S. newspaper said when the National Security Agency intercepted the online accounts of legally targeted foreigners over a four-year period, the agency also collected the conversations of nine times as many ordinary Internet users, both Americans and non-Americans. The Washington Post, in a story posted on its Web site late Saturday, said nearly half of the surveillance files contained names, e-mail addresses or other details the NSA marked as belonging to U.S. citizens or residents. "Nine of 10 account holders found in a large cache of intercepted conversations, which former NSA contractor Edward Snowden provided in full to The Post, were not the intended surveillance targets but were caught in a net the agency had cast for somebody else," the Post said of its four-month study of the NSA-intercepted electronic data. Snowden, 30, who fled the United States, was granted temporary asylum by Russia last August after shaking the U.S. intelligence establishment with a series of devastating leaks on mass surveillance in the United States and around the world. By law, the NSA may target only foreign nationals located overseas unless it obtains a warrant based on probable cause from a special surveillance court, the Post reported. Incidental collection of third-party communications is inevitable in many forms of surveillance, according to the newspaper. In the case of the material Snowden provided, those in an online chat room visited by a target or merely reading the discussion were included in the data sweep, as were hundreds of people using a computer server whose Internet protocol was targeted. The newspaper said there were discoveries of considerable intelligence value in the intercepted messages, including revelations about a secret overseas nuclear project, double-dealing by an ostensible ally, an unfriendly power's military calamity, and the identities of aggressive intruders into U.S. computer networks. The Post says the files show that months of tracking communications across more than 50 alias accounts led directly to the 2011 capture in Abbotabad of Muhammad Tahir Shahzad, a Pakistan-based bomb builder, as well as Umar Patek, a suspect in a 2002 bombing on the Indonesian island of Bali, it said. However, The Washington Post reports many of the other files described as useless by NSA analysts were retained. The newspaper said those files have a startling intimate, even voyeuristic quality, telling stories of love and heartbreak, illicit sexual liaisons, mental-health crises, political and religious conversions, financial anxieties and disappointed hopes. The Post said the daily lives of more than 10,000 account holders who were not targeted are, nevertheless, catalogued and recorded. The paper said it reviewed about 160,000 emails and instant-message conversations and 7,900 documents taken from more than 11,000 online accounts, collected between 2009 and 2012. The cache Snowden provided to the newspaper came from domestic NSA operations under the broad authority granted by Congress in 2008 with amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, according to the Post. U.S. intelligence officials declined to confirm or deny in general terms the authenticity of the intercepted content provided by Snowden to the Post. Last week the Post reported that all but four countries, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, were seen as valid spy targets for the NSA. Germany's parliament is investigating the extent of spying by the NSA and its partners on German citizens and politicians, and whether German intelligence aided its activities. |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, July 7, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 132 | |||||||||
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Putin visits Brazil in World Cup trip
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Russian President Vladimir Putin will start a major Latin America tour next week that will take him to Cuba and Argentina ahead of a summit in Brazil for emerging economies, which include Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The Kremlin says Putin visits Cuba next Friday. There he will meet with Cuban President Raúl Castro and Fidel Castro, the father of the Cuban Revolution. Putin will travel from Cuba to Argentina for trade and energy talks with Argentine President Cristina Kirchner. In Brazil, Putin will attend the closing ceremony of the World Cup, in which Brazil will hand over hosting duties to Russia for the 2018 tournament. The summit for the group of developing countries will follow on July 15 in Fortaleza, Brazil. Almost three billion people live in the five nations. Guatemalan guerilla sentenced in deaths By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A Guatemalan court has sentenced a former leftist guerilla commander to 90 years in prison in connection with a massacre committed during the country's 36 year-long civil war. Solano Barrillas is the first rebel commander to be convicted for the 1988 massacre of alleged army collaborators. He had been charged with taking part in the killing of 21 people who were searching for a missing Guatemalan military liaison in the town of El Aguacate. The rebels believed all 21 were collaborating with the army. Barrillas had pleaded innocent. Several high-ranking Guatemalan military officials have already been convicted of civilian massacres. They include former dictator Efrain Rios Montt, who will be re-tried after the constitutional court last year threw out his earlier conviction. No letup in smuggling cocaine By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Anti-drug police said they discovered 86 kilos of cocaine in the car of a truck that was about to leave the country at the Peñas Blancas border crossing to Nicaragua Friday. The 33-year-old driver was detained, said police. In another drug action, officers said they found seven kilos of cocaine hidden in a small truck at the same border crossing on Sunday. |
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| From Page 7: Guanacaste seeks to boost tourism By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Guanacaste needs another marina, an improved airport at Tamarindo and a permanent structure for the tourist police, according to a representative of the Cámara de Turismo de Guanacaste. Chamber officials met last week with a special legislative committee set up to consider the needs of the province. The three points came from businessman Hubert Gysemans, one of the founders of the chamber. Also attending were mayors Jorge Chavarría Carrillo of Santa Cruz, Carlos Cantillo of Carrillo and Luis Gerardo Castañeda de Liberia The goal, of course is to generate more tourists for the area. Juan Marín Quirós, a lawmaker, said the important need is to create a program of training and more resources for the tourist police and financing, according to an announcement. |
