Ron Deibert

The Perils of Military Professionalism Operation Epic Fury follows a familiar pattern of military excellence enabling political malpractice

"If you play Russian roulette enough times, eventually things turn out like the Deer Hunter."

Brilliant analysis of Trump's profoundly deranged international bellicosity by my colleague Jon Lindsay

dolos.substack.com/p/the-perils...

A knock on the window and a glimpse of America’s surveillance future “This is taking a big and very scary step toward a kind of totalitarian checkpoint society,” a privacy advocate warns in a special France 24–Mother Jones report.

I am old enough to remember when there was momentum behind banning facial recognition tech for police

Now, it's all: scan-your-face-if-you-are-not-white

A knock on the window and a glimpse of America’s surveillance future www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

For a small country in our geopolitical situation, a rules-based system in which int'l law, humanitarianism and human rights are respected is not only good, it is in our naked self interest too

His "variable geometry" is anchor-less without that critical element & ultimately self defeating

NSO Group has been sanctioned by the US because of abuses connected to its Pegasus spyware

Of course it's furiously lobbying to get off of those lists, in order to open up the lucrative 🇺🇸 defence and intelligence contract opportunities

@vaspanagiotopoulos.com describes those efforts in detail 👇

Iran war heralds era of AI-powered bombing quicker than ‘speed of thought’ Speed and scale of US military’s AI war planning raises fears human decision-making may be sidelined

Anthropic and Palantir tech was used by the US military to target lethal strikes in Iran www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

You don't need to hack a device when you can get all you need from real-time data brokerages

The personal data surveillance economy has now become fully integrated into the operations of the police state

Only rigorous and independent oversight of both sectors can preserve rights & freedoms

Florida wants its own CIA. That could lead to unchecked domestic surveillance | Seth Stern, Lauren Harper and Bobby Block A bill to create a state intelligence operation would allow scrutiny based on ‘opinions’ – and could prompt other states to follow

Nothing to worry about here

Florida wants its own state-level CIA.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The Austrian Ministry of the Interior bought social media surveillance software 'Tangles' from Cobwebs/Penlink and refuses to tell parliament whether they also bought the intrusive Tangles add-on 'Webloc', which relies on the mass collection of personal data from digital advertising and mobile apps.

No "stupid rules of engagement" -- like, you know, the Geneva Convention.

It's clear where the 🇺🇸 stands on international law.

Question for Canadians 🇨🇦: what's our position?

1/ NEW: There’s currently a heavy push over X in support of (1) the ongoing attacks on Iran (2) Reza Pahlavi. It’s hard to quickly quantify this wave, but anecdotal evidence shows that the main support hashtags - as well as by the *real* people promoting them - are also pushed inorganically.

Lloyd Axworthy: Canada once rejected America’s aggressive, unlawful foreign policy. Today Mark Carney embraced it By endorsing preventive strikes on Iran during ongoing diplomacy, and after Washington itself shredded the previous agreement, we are embracing the very doctrine we used to reject, writes Lloyd Axwort...

"We invoke international law and the 'rules based international order' when adversaries engage in unlawful actions, but abandon those same rules entirely when it’s the Americans doing the bombing."

#Opinion from former foreign minister Lloyd Axworthy

Another disturbing signpost of the US 🇺🇸 descent into authoritarianism

MAGA friendly consolidation of major streaming , tv, and related media. See below 👇

Lawmakers say US military used laser to take down Border Protection drone Members of Congress say the U.S. military used a laser to shoot down a Customs and Border Patrol drone.

Maybe Claude hallucinated

And about this below 👇

As a 🇨🇦, this doesn't exactly make me feel good.

About this part below 👇

I've got breaking news for you Anthropic:

The US government is fascist

Statement from Dario Amodei on our discussions with the Department of War A statement from our CEO on national security uses of AI

Great that Anthropic took this stand against Hegseth and the "Department of War"

BUT....... 1/
www.anthropic.com/news/stateme...

100%

Authoritarians work on the basis of personal ties, which of course are arbitrary and often have some kind of corrupt intent.

It's straight out of the despot's playbook.

Thanks @vaspanagiotopoulos.com about this and also the information about referral to a prosecutor for potential criminal investigations

Great news from 🇬🇷 & a first for an spyware firm executive: guilty & sentenced to jail for wiretapping & privacy violations

The case has its origins in @citizenlab.ca investigations into the targeting of Greek journalist Thanasis Koukakis, which I wrote about in Chasing Shadows chasingshadowsbook.ca

Trump's 🇺🇸 DHS Goon Squad lies to gain entry into Columbia University's residences and then abducts a student

It is good to see the law being exercised, where those avenues remain, to check and constrain 🇺🇸 authoritarianism

DOJ seeking to search journalists' data w/o proper legal authorization, judge finds.

What Stops ICE from Snatching People Off Canadian Streets? Very Little | The Walrus The legal reality Canadians don’t want to face

Sobering interview in @thewalrus.ca with my @utoronto.ca colleague, constitutional law professor, Kent Roach

What stops 🇺🇸 ICE from snatching people off of Canadian 🇨🇦 streets?

Answer: not much.

thewalrus.ca/what-stops-i...

The seamy underbelly of state cyber ops gets a little disinfectant sunlight

I can confirm. They still have not replied to our last letter with questions.

Just imagine what we do not know is happening in the covert realm - and add that to your list of horrors

‘I literally felt naked’: Angolan journalist Teixeira Cândido targeted with Predator spyware - Committee to Protect Journalists Angolan journalist and lawyer Teixeira Cândido wants to know who targeted him with spyware, and he wants justice. “First and foremost, we must seek to find out who the entities are that have acquired ...

More reckless abuse of mercenary spyware, in this case, Predator spyware in Angola.

Great work by @donncha.is & colleagues @amnesty.org

cpj.org/2026/02/i-li...

So long, humanity. It's been a wild ride.

Citizen Lab: Kenyan authorities used Cellebrite to break into phone of dissident Traces of commercial surveillance technology manufactured by the Israeli spyware maker Cellebrite were found on a prominent Kenyan dissident’s phone, the latest in a series of abuses of the technology...

And here is @suzannesmalley.bsky.social and @therecordmedia.bsky.social with further details 👇

therecord.media/spyware-keny...

Citizen Lab links Cellebrite to the hacking of a Kenyan presidential candidate’s phone Researchers have found forensic evidence suggesting that Kenyan authorities used Cellebrite’s phone-cracking technology on the device of a prominent human rights activist after arresting him, accordin...

And @timstarks.bsky.social of @cyberscoop.bsky.social has written a piece here:

cyberscoop.com/citizen-lab-...

See @skirchy.bsky.social and Carlos Mureithi, who have an extended piece in @theguardian.com 👇

bsky.app/profile/skir...