NSA Hacked World’s Largest SIM Card Maker
A new investigation by The Intercept reveals the National Security Agency and its British counterpart, GCHQ, hacked into the internal computer network of the largest manufacturer of SIM cards in the world, stealing encryption keys used to protect the privacy of cellphone communications. The secret operation targeted the Dutch company Gemalto, whose clients include AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint and some 450 wireless network providers around the world.
Greece Considers Seeking Reparations from Germany over Nazi Crimes
Greece’s new prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, visited a World War II National Resistance Memorial in his first outing as the country’s new leader. The memorial is located at the site where the Nazis executed 200 Greek communist resistance fighters in May 1944. During the recent campaign, Tsipras called on Germany to pay Greece reparations for damages incurred during the Nazi occupation. A 2013 governmental study determined Germany owed Greece an estimated $200 billion.
New Greek Finance Minister Vows to Destroy Greek Oligarchy
Yanis Varoufakis is expected to be named as Greece’s new finance minister today. He is an economics professor who once described the EU-imposed austerity measures as “fiscal waterboarding.” During an interview on Channel 4 in Britain, he vowed to destroy the Greek oligarchy. Yanis Varoufakis: “Freedom of speech in Greece has been jeopardized by this unholy alliance between bankrupt bankers, developers and media owners who become the voice of those who want to sponge and scrounge off everyone else’s productive efforts. We are going to destroy the basis upon which oligarchy have built, for decade after decade, a system and network that viciously sucks of the energy and the economic power from everybody else in society.”
U.S. Ambassador Robert White Dies, Criticized Salvadoran Death Squads
The former U.S. ambassador to El Salvador, Robert White, has died at the age of 88. In 1981, he was fired after he refused to cover up the Salvadoran military’s responsibility for the murders of four American women who were Maryknoll church workers. White was there when the women’s bodies were dug up. He was quoted as saying, “This time the bastards won’t get away with it.”
Germany’s Largest Utility Gets Out Of The Fossil Fuel Business
Germany’s biggest utility E.ON announced plans to split into two companies and focus on renewables in a major shift that could be an indicator of broader changes to come across the utility sector. E.ON will spin off its nuclear, oil, coal, and gas operations in an effort to confront a drastically altered energy market. Germany currently has 35 gigawatts of installed solar generation and 30 gigawatts of onshore wind.
CIA Officer Jeffrey Sterling Convicted for Leaking Information
A federal jury in Virginia has convicted former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling of nine felony counts, including espionage. Prosecutors accused Sterling of leaking classified information about a secret operation to disrupt Iran’s nuclear program to journalist James Risen of The New York Times. Risen later revealed how the risky operation could have inadvertently aided the Iranian nuclear program. Supporters of Sterling described him as a whistleblower, but prosecutors claimed he leaked the information to settle a score with the agency. Sterling is scheduled to be sentenced in April. He faces a maximum possible sentence of decades in prison.