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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 6, 2015)
CITY DISMISSES CHARGE AGAINST SLEEPS PROTESTER MAP OF AGENCIES THAT SHOWED UP IN THE HACK OF HACKING TEAM IMAGE: SHAWN MUSGRAVE According to Hacking Team’s brochure, RCS allows an agency to “take control of your targets and monitor them re- gardless of encryption and mobility. It doesn’t matter if you are after an Android phone or a Windows computer: You can monitor all the devices. Remote Control System is invisible to the user, evades antivirus and firewalls and doesn’t affect the devices’ performance or battery life.” The private Italian spying firm Hacking Team was itself The hack on Hacking Team has raised debates on what recently hacked and some of its internal documents, invoices, some see as government and law enforcement’s need to be emails and customer lists were made public — the informa- able to monitor terrorists and criminals versus the ethics tion can be found on WikiLeaks. According to Wired not only of who those agencies are dealing with, including Hacking has the FBI used Hacking Team’s wares, “many of the other Team’s troubling relationships with repressive regimes. governments who bought the same software are repressive re- EPD’s McLaughlin tells EW, gimes, such as Sudan and Bahrain.” “We are are not using this system. Public records request-focused When officers go to trainings the news site MuckRock put together vendors at booths sometimes get a map showing agencies that have emails of attendees.” According to gotten Hacking Team demos or got- MuckRock, Hacking Team pulls ten onto the company’s email list. lists from law enforcement confer- The Eugene Police Department ap- ences. pears on the map. WikiLeaks emails show that the EPD spokesperson Melinda email account of EPD detective McLaughlin says there was no hack Curtis Newell sent automatic replies on EPD emails, and the emails post- to Hacking Team on messages with ed on WikiLeaks “are ‘reply’ emails the subjects “Hacker Can Send Fatal from those sent to an individual at Dose to Hospital Drug Pumps” and EPD.” — HACKING TEAM “IRAN v. SAUDI: (CYBER) esca- The FBI purchased Hacking lation” in June 2015. Team’s premiere spy product, “Gali- Newell has worked on human leo” aka “Remote Control System,” trafficking cases and on Lane County Interagency Narcotics which Wired says is “a simple piece of hacking software that Team, according to media reports. has been used by the Ethiopian regime to target journalists The WikiLeaks emails involving EPD can be seen here: based in Washington, D.C. It has also been detected in an at- wkly.ws/21x. — Camilla Mortensen tack on a Moroccan media outlet, and a human rights activist from the United Arab Emirates.” EPD SHOWS UP ON MAP OF AGENCIES IN CONTACT WITH PRIVATE SPYWARE AGENCY ‘Remote Control System is invisible to the user, evades antivirus and firewalls and doesn’t affect the devices’ performance or battery life.’ Hedin Brugh, one of three protesters charged with trespassing during a Safe Legally Entitled Emergency Places to Sleep (SLEEPS) protest at the Wayne Morse Free Speech Plaza in 2013, had his charge dismissed by the city of Eugene on July 24. According to the Civil Liberties Defense Center (CLDC), Lane County “conspired with the Eugene Police Department” to “unconsti- tutionally restrict First Amendment rights on the Wayne Morse Free Speech Plaza” by clos- ing the plaza to protesters in September 2013. Several SLEEPS protesters defied the order and received trespassing charges. Though Brugh and his CLDC legal counsel say they are happy the charge was dropped, lawyer and CLDC Executive Director Lauren Regan says the decision by the city to drop the charges was “pretty weak” and likely done because “clearly they knew they were going to lose and didn’t want an opinion stating for the third time the CLDC has proven that Lane County has violated the constitutional rights of the community” by closing the Wayne Morse Free Speech Plaza. The SLEEPS protesters were charged after returning to the plaza following its closure by a 4-1 Lane County Commission vote for “emer- gency” cleaning — cleaning that, according to the CLDC, should not have taken six days. CLDC also says the city of Eugene violated the protesters’ equal protection rights after the city allowed Saturday Market to operate in the closed plaza but immediately clamped down on returning SLEEPS protesters. “Within five to 10 minutes of the tents being up, the EPD swarmed in with eight officers,” Brugh says. Two protesters had their charges upheld this June but have asked the Oregon Court of Ap- peals to take the case. According to city spokesperson Jan Bohm- an, there are “two other cases going forward and there are some issues in there that are more important,” and it “wasn’t necessary to move forward” with the case against Brugh. The situation has been sticky for the city of Eugene and Lane County because the plaza’s name has an inherent connection to free speech. “The county needs to acknowledge that free speech rights trump all sorts of other factors when it comes to Wayne Morse Free Speech Plaza,” Regan says. — Mike Bivins PACIFIC GIANT SALAMANDER, DICAMPTODON TENEBROSUS IT’S ABOUT TIME BY D AV I D WA G N E R T his year August is set up with a glorious week of stargazing. The Perseid meteor shower will send hundreds, maybe thousands, of shooting stars across the sky during the second week of August. Peak shower activity will be August 11-13. The best meteor watching will be in the hours before dawn, when the constellation Perseus rises from the northeastern horizon. What makes this year’s shower likely to be spectacular is that nearly moonless nights coincide with the peak streaking. It may be dry and hot during the day but an overnight camping trip to central Oregon might be worth activating your explorer cards. Meteors and the Milky Way are a great combination. To find clear skies it will be necessary to pay attention to forest fire smoke. It is an extreme fire season. The east side Delta Ponds are now covered with a nearly pure layer of duckweed. Not only are the ducks out there shoveling it in, but geese also. The sight of geese sucking duckweed is not a common one. They usually prefer eating fresh, green grass but the grass around the ponds is so dry that the duckweed seems to be an attractive feast. One of summer’s most enjoyable pastimes is wading up and down small streams. The streams which now have low flow over gentle bedrock are especially fun. It is easy wading and there are lots of things to see in the water. Look for newts and the Pacific giant salamander. David Wagner is a botanist who works in Eugene. He teaches moss classes, makes nature calendars and studies liverworts. Contact him at fernzenmosses@me.com. eugeneweekly.com • A ugust 6, 2015 9
