Spying

• Julia Child Was a Spy:
  Newly released files show that famous chef Julia Child was a World War-II era spy. The CIA declassified 35,000 top-secret personnel files that detailed the huge spy network run by the OSS, which later became the CIA. Former OSS agents are pleased with the release of the information, a list which includes other notables like Ernest Hemingway's and Teddy Roosevelt's sons.



• Inflation Hits Major High:
  Consumer prices rose at twice the rate expected to post the fastest rate of growth in 17 years. Costlier energy and food made the Consumer Price Index balloon. Food alone is six percent more expensive than a year ago.




• Lebanon Bombing Kills 15:
  A briefcase bomb detonated in a bus packed with Lebanese soldiers on their way to work, killing 15 and wounding more than 40 people. The bombing distracted from the news from Damascus that Syria and Lebanon were to establish diplomatic relations for the first time since both won their independence from France in the 1940s. The bombing is the deadliest attack in Lebanon in more than three years.

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She looks so happy checking her email in her Ikea-esque room! Too bad if she was actually in Sweden, she'd be hopping mad that her government was checking her email for her. A new law that provides the Swedish government the right to read all emails and listen to all phone calls crossing the country’s borders has outraged its citizens — who've harnessed build-your-own-irony and filed 2 million protests — online. The petition arrives as EU countries debate whether or not to grant governmental authorities previously unheard of domestic spying powers over their own citizens.

Unlike the United States, many European nations have already had the experience of their government spying and for hardly honorable reasons. “It looks too much like the Stasi,” said one Swedish citizen referring to the East German police during the Soviet Union’s influence in that country. The "you've got mail, and we can read it" law, which passed the Swedish Parliament by 142-138 votes gives their National Defense Radio Establishment (FRA) the right to scan all international phone calls, emails and faxes without court order beginning in the new year.

Proponents for the new law said, “The information is needed to evaluate, and meet, outside threats against Sweden.” And went on to stress the need to protect Sweden against terror attacks similar to those in New York, Madrid and London. Is checking inboxes the way to keep terrorism in check?

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Yesterday, an American mechanical engineer for a US Army weapons center was arrested for disclosing classified defense information to none other than our own allies, the Israelis.

Ben-Ami Kadish is being accused of acting as an illegal agent (read: spy) for the Israelis from 1979 to 2008 without notifying anyone in the US Attorney General’s office. Between 1979 and 1985, it is alleged that Kadish took classified documents to his home in New Jersey where his contact (code named CC-1) would photograph the sensitive material. One of the documents contained restricted information concerning nuclear weaponry.

Even more interesting, are rumors that are circulating concerning Israel’s current nuclear capabilities. Mordechai Vanunu, who has been imprisoned in Israel for eighteen years for treason, was convicted for telling a British newspaper in 1986 about his work as a technician at Israel’s main atomic reactor. This was the first time anyone was willing to come forward with physical proof of Israel’s nuclear assets. It gets trickier, just read more

Growing up, I would have been mortified if my parents had read my diary where I divulged crushes and friendship woes. It was my personal way to journal the experiences.

Nowadays, many parents spy without having to sneak under beds or between mattresses. Since kids are online more than ever, moms and dads can download spyware to see what their offspring have been doing. To learn more about the technology trend, read more