The European Commission is proposing the creation of a database that will hold information on those using virtual currencies and that will record data on the users’ real-world identity, along with all associated wallet addresses. This is under the guise of “fighting terrorism.”

This is the first proposal part of an action plan that the EU got rolling after the Paris November 2015 terror attacks and that it officially put forward in February 2016 and later approved at the start of July 2016.

As we wrote in our article from a few weeks back, the action plan, a reform of the Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD) so it would also include the terms “virtual currency,” was only approved by the (EU President) Juncker Commission.

New AMLD will end anonymous Bitcoin transactions in the EU

This action plan is now making its way through the rest of the EU regulatory body, with the European Commission now in charge of putting the reformed AMLD to paper. As expected, the first draft of the AMLD now includes mentions to virtual currencies.

Besides recognizing crypto-currencies as another form of money, the draft also includes a set of regulations that would provide FIUs (financial intelligence units) with the tools needed to keep track of digital currencies, in the same way they do with fiat currencies.

To combat money laundering via digital currencies, EU officials plan to create a database that links Bitcoin and other crypto-currency addresses with real-world individuals, essentially putting an end to the anonymity that accompanies such payments.

FIUs across member states will have the power to create and then manage such databases, but users will also be allowed to register on their own, as a sign of good faith. The current AMLD draft reads:

The report shall be accompanied, if necessary, by appropriate proposals, including, where appropriate, with respect to virtual currencies, empowerments to set-up and maintain a central database registering users’ identities and wallet addresses accessible to FIUs, as well as self-declaration forms for the use of virtual currency users.

As mentioned when ministers from various countries met in Brussels last year, the EU is interested in regulating Bitcoin and similar currencies so that it would be harder for terrorists and cyber-criminal groups to use the currency to hide their operations and move large sums of money across borders.

Digital currency exchanges and wallet providers operating in Europe will most likely have to abide by the reformed AMLD and force EU users to register with their real information so that FIUs could track down individuals behind suspicious operations.

Bitcoin is regularly used for ransomware payments, in human trafficking (slavery, prostitution rings), kidnappings, extortions, hacking tools, and all sorts of illegal services and products.

Initial estimations have the reformed AMLD reaching the European Parliament for a final vote later in the year.

In the wake of the tragic events in Paris last week encryption has continued to be a useful bogeyman for those with a voracious appetite for surveillance expansion. Like clockwork, numerous reports were quickly circulated suggesting that the terrorists used incredibly sophisticated encryption techniques, despite no evidence by investigators that this was the case. These reports varied in the amount of hallucination involved, the New York Times even having to pull one such report offline. Other claims the attackers had used encrypted Playstation 4 communications also wound up being bunk.

Yet, pushed by their sources in the government, the media quickly became a sound wall of noise suggesting that encryption was hampering the government’s ability to stop these kinds of attacks. NBC was particularly breathless this week over the idea that ISIS was now running a 24 hour help desk aimed at helping its less technically proficient members understand encryption (even cults help each other use technology, who knew?). All of the reports had one central, underlying drum beat implication: Edward Snowden and encryption have made us less safe, and if you disagree the blood is on your hands.

Yet, amazingly enough, as actual investigative details emerge, it appears that most of the communications between the attackers was conducted via unencrypted vanilla SMS:

“…News emerging from Paris — as well as evidence from a Belgian ISIS raid in January — suggests that the ISIS terror networks involved were communicating in the clear, and that the data on their smartphones was not encrypted.

European media outlets are reporting that the location of a raid conducted on a suspected safe house Wednesday morning was extracted from a cellphone, apparently belonging to one of the attackers, found in the trash outside the Bataclan concert hall massacre. Le Monde reported that investigators were able to access the data on the phone, including a detailed map of the concert hall and an SMS messaging saying “we’re off; we’re starting.” Police were also able to trace the phone’s movements.

The reports note that Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the “mastermind” of both the Paris attacks and a thwarted Belgium attack ten months ago, failed to use any encryption whatsoever (read: existing capabilities stopped the Belgium attacks and could have stopped the Paris attacks, but didn’t). That’s of course not to say batshit religious cults like ISIS don’t use encryption, and won’t do so going forward. Everybody uses encryption. But the point remains that to use a tragedy to vilify encryption, push for surveillance expansion, and pass backdoor laws that will make everybody less safe — is nearly as gruesome as the attacks themselves.

Published first by techdirt.com

French President Francois Hollande proposed constitutional amendments and a three-month extension of state of emergency measures Monday that will severely limit the civil liberties of French citizens.

After a series of coordinated terrorist attacks left 129 dead in Paris Friday, Hollande immediately declared a state of emergency, based on a rarely used 1955 law that allows the state to conduct warrantless searches of private property, impose curfews, restrict public gatherings and movements of people, confiscate weapons at will and take over the press.

By law the state of emergency cannot last more than 12 days, but Hollande asked for a three-month extension Monday. He also proposed a series of constitutional amendmentsto increase the state’s surveillance powers and give it power to strip convicted terrorists and bi-nationals who commit hostile acts toward France of citizenship.

Hollande said the amendments are necessary so the state doesn’t have to “resort to the state of emergency” to deal with terror threats. “We must change our constitution to act against terrorism,” he said Monday.

The proposed amendments will also give the state “more sophisticated methods” to crack down on weapons trafficking, a quicker way to deport foreigners considered a threat, and the ability to bar bi-nationals considered a terror risk from entering the country.

French conducted 168 raids Sunday night, turning up cash, bulletproof vests, various types of guns and a rocket launcher, reported The Wall Street Journal. Police put 104 people on house arrest and detained 23 others.

Hollande has promised a “merciless” fight against ISIS in response to the attack. French fighter jets dropped 20 bombs on the group’s defacto Syrian capital of Raqqa Sunday night, destroying a command center and training camp.

By Rachel Stolzfoos; Follow Rachel on Twitter

By Deric Lostutter

It’s been two days since the Paris attacks that claimed the lives of hundreds of innocent concert goers. The entire world stood still in silence for the first time since 9/11. Friends and family divided over the acceptance of Syrian refugees into the United States and other countries as a result of a coordinated ISIS attack meant to divide us and fill us with fear. Does that mean they are winning?

Anonymous says no, and they will hunt ISIS down to the end of the Earth.

As a former operative in the hacker/activist group myself, I knew just were to find the people lurking in the dark corners of the internet, and monitored their chat in real time as they took down website after website, which they claimed were used to recruit people to ISIS and spread propaganda to instill fear in those that seen it.

I spoke with a 19 year old American Anonymous hacker named “Vex” via IRC chat in the #OpParis channel using the handle “flyingnimjeh”.

[14:54] (FlyingNimjeh:) Okay. So you are a hacker/activist in OpParis correct?
[14:55] (Vex:) Yes you could say that.
[14:55] (FlyingNimjeh:) What made you get involved in OpParis?
[15:00] (Vex:) Well for around 2 months I was on OpIceIsis working on taking down, defacing Isis sites that would lead to the recruitment of vulnerable people. The night of the attack I was shocked and we all scrambled to the chat to figure out what was going on, we all sat in OpParis looking for leads to the attack, Isis people claiming responsibility and what not. I believe I got in OpParis because I suffer
[15:00] (Vex:) watching France go though isis attacks and other countrys. Im trying to do what I can from where I’m at.

Just one day after the attacks on Paris, Anonymous reportedly took down 3,824 ISIS Twitter Accounts.

I continued my interview with Vex, who claimed to have taken down 24 sites himself, defacing, or destroying the integrity and design of well over half.

[15:01 ] (FlyingNimjeh:) How many sites would you say that you have personally taken down or defaced in the name of the Anonymous operation?
[15:03] (Vex:) Overall I think on my own I have taken down around 20 sites and left around 14 defaced.
[15:05] (FlyingNimjeh:) Are you American? and how old are you? what do you think the age range of the operatives in this operation is?
[15:07] (Vex:) I myself am American. I am 19, but I believe the age range for this operation and most of our operations range from 16 or 17 to 36 or 40

Anonymous comes in all shapes and sizes, old and young alike participate in cyber-attacks, civil disobedience, and activism. During the OperationPayback campaign, people ranging in age from 20-60 years old were charged with participating in the distributed denial-of-service, or DDOS attacks of PayPal, MasterCard, and Visa in response to their attacks on WikiLeaks.

Vex went on to tell me what the goal of OpParis is, to him at least;

[15:09] What is the next big move for this operation? What is the end goal?
[15:14] Right now parts of the operation are to be kept silent about due to recent Isis hacks, but what I can say is we are working a huge, growing list of Isis social media accounts. Taking them off social media. End goal I would say Is take them off our internet and let it be known to them that recruiting people for isis through our web is not okay, and we will find every last one and expose them.

I continued to ask questions, wondering if any of these sites were based in the United States. Vex had resolved some of the registrar information and found that the majority of the ISIS websites they were targeting were protected by CloudFlare, a United States based company out of San Francisco, California, who has raised millions of dollars in mitigating DDOS attacks.

Vex informed me that despite their efforts at reporting the accounts to CloudFlare, the American company continued to protect the recruiting websites of ISIS.

[15:46] (FlyingNimjeh:) Have you uncovered any United States connections, or are any of the sites used to recruit being hosted in the United States?
[15:49] (Vex:) Yes, but very few. Most sites by Isis I have found to be hosted in Rome and France
[15:56] (FlyingNimjeh:) What connections?
[17:28] (Vex:) So far I cannot say we have found “connections” persay, although we are(America) shipping weapons to “guns for hire” but what I do know is that these Isis members are registering hosts with US servers
[17:31] (FlyingNimjeh:) do you have an example site with a US server?
[17:31] (Vex:) Let me see if I can dig one out of the wreckage for you.
[17:32] (FlyingNimjeh:) ok. imgur any screenshots of registrar information if you can
[17:37] (Vex:) Putting into Imgur now 🙂
[17:39] (Vex:) http://imgur.com/XCzMphR
[17:39] (Vex:) this is the sites adress: www.islamic-dw.com
[17:45] (Vex:) Also something might peak your interest here. CloudFlare is Protecting 70% of these sites AFTER reporting them.

Vex confirming that a United States company protecting ISIS assets may be a huge implication for the company, and it’s shareholders and business partners. Damning evidence that may skew the public as to who is on who’s side in the fight against terrorism.

I asked Vex if he has been involved in any other operations, and where he learned his skills before signing off.

[17:49] (FlyingNimjeh:) How did you learn your skillset? and have you been involved in any other operations?
[17:53] (Vex:) Since I was a young kid I was drawn to code, picked it up by myself I guess. Later on when anonymous hit big we started making tutorials for new members so they could help, thats when I got more developed in “hacking”. OpKKK, OpIceIsis, OpNimir, OpSandra, OpBaltimore, OpDeathEaters to name a recent few
[17:56] (FlyingNimjeh:) has cloudflare responded to anyones inquiry thus far as to why the continue to protect the websites of these extremists?
[17:56] (Vex:) No responce so far.

Vex confirmed that CloudFlare has not responded to any of the groups reports about ISIS websites under their protection.

I have placed a call to CloudFlare for comment, and was told they could not comment on the matter and to email [email protected] I am currently awaiting reply.

US President Barack Obama, surrounded by US Secret Service agents, walks to greet guests after arriving on Air Force One at Griffiss International Airport in Rome, New York on May 22, 2014. Obama is traveling to visit the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York, before attending Democratic fundraisers in Chicago. AFP PHOTO / Saul LOEB (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

When Obama spoke to BBC last week he stressed his frustration over not being able to secure more gun control and suggested that the guns outweigh terrorism as a threat to Americans’ safety.

Obama’s exact words: “If you look at the number of Americans killed since 9/11 by terrorism, it’s less than 100. If you look at the number that have been killed by gun violence, it’s in the tens of thousands.”

In the lead up to this statement, Obama mentioned “mass killings” with guns but did not mention mass killings or attempted mass killings in which those holding the guns were jihadists.

He said, “The United States of America is the one advanced nation on earth in which we do not have sufficient common-sense, gun-safety laws.” However, it is not that America does not have gun control. Rather, it is that Americans increasingly see that gun control does not stop criminals from acting out their criminality, therefore support for more gun laws has waned.

For example, the push to expand background checks to cover more types of sales had a lot of momentum nearly three years ago, then Americans noticed that those behind the high profile, mass killings were passing background checks to get their guns. Since Sandy Hook alone (December 2012), attackers and alleged attackers like John Russell Houser (Lafayette), Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez (Chattanooga), Dylann Roof (Charleston), Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi (Garland), Jared and Amanda Miller (Las Vegas), Elliot Rodger (Santa Barabara), Ivan Lopez (Fort Hood 2014), Darion Marcus Aguilar (Maryland mall), Karl Halverson Pierson (Arapahoe High School), Paul Ciancia (LAX), Andrew John Engeldinger (Minneapolis), Aaron Alexis (DC Navy Yard), and Tennis Melvin Maynard (West Virginia), acquired guns via a background check. So what benefit do Americans gain from expanding such checks?

Nevertheless, Obama is determined to keep pushing more laws. As he told BBC, “[This] is not something that I intend to stop working on in the remaining 18 months [of my administration].”

(AP) A woman protesting the silencing of journalists at a demonstration across from the Egyptian embassy in London last year

AMMAN, Jordan – Jordanian authorities are curtailing media freedom by detaining and bringing charges against journalists under broad and vague provisions of the country’s terrorism law.

In the most recent case, on July 8, 2015, authorities detained Ghazi al-Marayat, a journalist with the government-controlled al-Rai newspaper, alleging that he violated a media gag order by publishing details about a foiled terrorism plot. They held him for four days for investigation under a vaguely worded provision of the counterterrorism law, and then released him on bail. But he could still face criminal charges. The newspaper said it had not received written notice of the gag order when it published the article.

“Jordan’s concerns over its security situation shouldn’t translate into branding journalists and writers as security threats merely for doing their jobs or expressing themselves peacefully,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director. “Jordan should stop prosecuting journalists and revise its terrorism law to remove vague language used to limit peaceful speech.”

Authorities have circulated several gag orders to news outlets via the state’s media commission in 2015. In addition to the alleged “Quds Force” terrorism plot involved in the al-Marayat case, earlier in 2015 authorities formally banned media from printing photos or news issued by the extremist group Islamic State, also known as ISIS, on the murdered Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kasasbeh, as well as critical statements about Jordan’s military after it joined the bombing campaign against ISIS.

Detaining a journalist for investigation based on their writing appears to violate article 42 of the country’s Press and Publications Law, which prohibits pretrail detention for media workers for “expressing opinion by word, writing, or other means of expression,” Human Rights Watch said.

The al-Rai article disclosed details of the State Security Court charge sheet involving an Iraqi-Norwegian man arrested in Jordan in April. Various media outlets had reported on July 6 that the State Security Court issued a media gag order, but the editor-in-chief of al-Rai, Tareq al-Momani, said on July 8 that “Al-Rainewspaper did not receive any written circular from the prosecutor imposing a ban on publishing on the Iranian Quds Force plot.”

A July 9 al-Rai article on al-Marayat’s arrest described the gag order as “verbal,” but an article later that day stated that the State Security Court had finally directed Jordan’s Media Commission to circulate the written gag order.

Earlier on July 9, Jordan’s State Security Court prosecutor ordered al-Marayat detained for 15 days for investigation under article 3b of Jordan’s terrorism law, which prohibits “engaging in acts that expose the kingdom to risk of hostile acts, disturb its relations with a foreign state, or expose Jordanians to acts of retaliation against them or their money.” The charge carries a sentence of between 3 to 20 years.

In another case, Jamal Ayoub, a freelance columnist, has been in jail since April 22 for writing an article that criticizes Saudi Arabia’s bombing campaign in Yemen. Ayoub’s lawyer told Human Rights Watch that Ayoub is on trial before the State Security Court for “disturbing [Jordan’s] relations with a foreign state” under the terrorism law. The lawyer said that the court rejected numerous bail requests.

Other journalists detained in 2015 include Seif al-Obeidat and the Saraya News website publisher Hashem al-Khalidi on January 28 after the site posted an article on negotiations between Jordan and ISIS over the release of al-Kasasbeh. A statement by Saraya Newsissued on January 29 said that the men were arrested after the site posted “a quote by a lawyer, whose quotes all the news websites publish as he is the lawyer for the Salafis in Jordan.”

Saraya News removed the article following the arrests, but activists and one government official told Human Rights Watch that the quote included false allegations that Jordan had released an Iraqi women convicted in connection with the 2005 Amman hotel bombings. The statement said she was exchanged for a Japanese prisoner held by ISIS rather than for al-Kasasbeh. Jordan executed the woman, Sajida al-Rishawi, on February 4, shortly after ISIS released a video showing al-Kasasbeh’s immolation.

Authorities released al-Obeidat and al-Khalidi on March 8 on bail, but both are on trial before the State Security Court.

“There is no legitimate reason to jail journalists simply for publishing news that turns out to be wrong,” Stork said. “Instead, authorities should simply deny such stories and set the record straight.”

On July 12, Jordanian authorities detained Jihad al-Mohaisen at Amman’s international airport after he returned from a trip to Lebanon. He said he had been fired in June as a columnist for the independent daily al-Ghad after he wrote on Facebook that he had converted to Shia Islam and wanted to resist “the Zionist enemy” in southern Jordan.

Al-Mohaisen’s brother told Amman News website on July 12 that he had been detained on order of the State Security Court, and later media reports revealed that he is facing charges of “insulting the king” as well as “subverting the political regime,” a vaguely worded terrorism provision.

The charge Ayoub faces, and that al-Marayat potentially faces, “Disturbing [Jordan’s] relations with a foreign state” has been a crime under Jordan’s penal code for many years and has been used by Jordanian prosecutors against speech critical of foreign rulers. The State Security Court reform law, passed in early 2014, removed this charge from the jurisdiction of the court. But in April 2014, lawmakers reversed the reform by adding the provision to Jordan’s terrorism law, with a penalty of 3 to 20 years in prison.

Article 15 of Jordan’s constitution guarantees freedom of expression. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Jordan is a state party, protects the right to freedom of expression, including “freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice” (article 19). The Human Rights Committee, which interprets the ICCPR, has stressed the importance under the covenant of “uninhibited expression” with respect to debate concerning public officials in the political domain and public institutions.

Under article 9.3 of the ICCPR, “[i]t shall not be the general rule that persons awaiting trial shall be detained in custody.”

“Labeling speech ‘terrorism’ merely for criticizing other countries doesn’t hide the reality that Jordan is punishing citizens who speak freely,” Stork said.

This report also appears on Human Rights Watch. You can help them by making a tax-deductible donation.

“Everything that starts with ‘Al’ in the Middle East is bad news,” said U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina at an AIPAC dinner in Boston on Monday. “Al-Qaida, Al-Nusra, Al-Qaida in the Arab Peninsula,” said the senator, who may be running for president.

Graham, who was the keynote speaker at the AIPAC New England Leadership Dinner in Boston, also told the approximately 1,000 pro-Israel attendees, “You will see me in New Hampshire,” former Haaretz investigative journalist Uri Blau has reported on his blog.

The problem – linguistically – with Graham’s comment is that “Al” is the definite article in Arabic (i.e. equivalent to English’s “the”), and usually appears before most Arabic proper nouns, especially place and personal names.

As for relations between the U.S., Israel, and Palestine, Graham said: “If the Palestinians will sue one Israeli soldier who risked his life securing Israel, the US will cut all aid to Palestine.” Reiterating a pledge he made to AIPAC a few months ago, he also threatened to cut off U.S funding to the UN if the UN Security Council pushes through action on behalf of the Palestinians. “I’m gonna put the United Nations on notice,” Graham, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee said in March, adding that he would go after its funding if the organization “marginalized” Israel. “All the money that goes in to support the State Department comes through my committee.”

Attending the dinner were Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, Governor Charlie Baker, and Israeli Consul General for New England Yehuda Yaakov, who posted pictures and comments about the event, according to the report.