A jury in Moscow has found five men guilty of taking part in the 2006 murder of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, though investigators have yet to identify who ordered the killing.
The journalist, human rights activist and fierce critic of president Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin was gunned down in the lobby of her Moscow apartment in 2006, raising alarm about the danger faced by those challenging Russian authorities.
Australian government spies and companies monitor billions of private mobile phone calls
Mobile phones are the real weak link, they have revolutionised communications and monitoring [spying], Professor Ball said.
Australian citizens are supposed to be protected from an army of electronic eavesdroppers by strict laws that forbid agencies such as the ASD from spying on their own citizens within Australia. However thanks to the Snowden leaks we know that such protections count for little when it comes to the deeply interwoven and complex world of America’s spy agencies and their loyal allies including Australia and Britain. A leaked slide prepared by the NSA’s Special Source Operations group proves the point; “Much of the world’s communications flow through the US. Your target’s communication could easily be flowing into and through the US,” it says.
The idea goes beyond just not being interfered with. It takes on a stronger notion, whereby the individual is empowered to look others straight in the eye without fear or deference; what Petit calls the eyeball test.
‘Polybius describes theliber —the free person—as having no dominus, a commander or master. You have a range of choices on your own terms. Just as there is no master, there is no public domination either and that space is created by common law; a law that all share in the making of.’
