In a largely issue-free presidential election, attempts to parse policy positions can be difficult. Here is what Republican Donald Trump said Sept. 6 at an event with former General Michael Flynn:

"Well, that's it. And you know cyber is becoming so big today. It's becoming something that a number of years ago, short number of years ago, wasn't even a word. And now the cyber is so big. And you know you look at what they're doing with the Internet, how they're taking and recruiting people through the Internet. And part of it is the psychology because so many people think they're winning. Any you know, there's a whole big thing. Even today's psychology — where CNN came out with a big poll. Their big poll came out today that Trump is winning. It's good psychology, you know. It's good psychology. I know that for a fact because people they didn't call me yesterday, they're calling me today. So that's the way life works, right? But I think we're doing very well and I really thank the state of Virginia, so many different places have been so incredible. So I thank you very much. But cyber has been very, very important and it's becoming more and more important as you look and a lot of it does have to do with ideology and psychology and lots of other things."

There seems to be only one factual statement that could be fact-checked in that monologue. Trump claims "cyber" was not a word a few years ago. In 2013, the blog Gizmodo traced the history of the word to the 1940 book "Cybernetics." Other than that, Trump seems to be saying he will stop the online tactics of ISIL because of his large poll numbers.

The New York Times reports that the Air Force has a shortage of pilots for its radio-controlled drone fleet, and now the Pentagon will rely more on private contractors for reconnaissance missions in Afghanistan and Iraq. The private contractors are not allowed to be "trigger pullers" shooting targets, but can fly reconnaissance, sending video feeds of operations. Over the past ten months, "the Pentagon has added four drones flown by contractors to the roughly 60 that are typically flown every day by uniformed Air Force personnel," the Times reports. “This is opening up a whole new can of worms — we have seen problems with security contractors on the battlefield since 9/11, and there’s been an improvement in oversight in that area, but that came after a decade of problems,” said Laura A. Dickinson, a law professor at George Washington University, who studies military contractors. “With drones, this is a new area where we already do not have a lot of transparency, and with contractors operating drones there’s no clearly defined regime of oversight and accountability.” Read the full story in The New York Times.

Scientific American was quick to jump into the discussion last week about the sounds Russian scientists supposedly heard, saying the discovery of a possible radio signal from outer space is, "this week’s biggest non-story in science." Science journalist Paul Gilster wrote last week about a message he had received from some Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence researchers reporting a powerful three-second burst of radio waves from less than 100 light-years away, and claiming they could not rule out the possibility that the signal was artificial. In reality, in May of 2015, the RATAN-600 radio telescope in Zelenchukskaya, Russia detected the signal from about 94 light-years away in the constellation Hercules. Seth Shostak, an astronomer at the SETI Institute in California, claims that, "a radio blast sent out in all directions by a hypothetical alien civilization would take hundreds of times more power than that of all the sunlight bathing the Earth, based on how bright the signal appeared in the Russian telescope.... If it were instead a beam focused solely on the Earth, the signal would still require twice the electricity used by the United States in an entire year. Eric Korpela, an astronomer at the University of California in Berkeley said, "SETI@home has seen millions of potential signals with similar characteristics, but it takes more than that to make a good candidate.... Multiple detections are a minimum criterion.” But this radio signal everyone is talking about this week was only heard once and Korpela said the signal could have been, "due to flares from the target star, the burp of a supermassive black hole in a background galaxy, or even the chance magnification of ordinary, all-natural stellar radio emissions by a passing foreground star or a transient ripple of interstellar plasma."

David Oxenford at the Broadcast Law Blog reports that the Federal Communications Commission is currently going through one of its every-few-years efforts to make it seem like it is cracking down on pirate radio. After many New York and New Jersey politicians have repeatedly complained to the FCC about competing transmissions from unlicensed broadcasters, the regulators have taken several public actions. There's a new FCC website, where one can track enforcement actions by location (see map above). The FCC has also issued several large fines to individual pirates and a railroad company that had been illegally operating hundreds of stations. Oxenford notes that the FCC also, "sent a warning letter to a property owner for a home from which a pirate radio station operated, warning that the operation was illegal – perhaps setting the stage for more aggressive actions against those who enable pirate radio operators."

If a group set up "more than a hundred wireless radio facilities" without any licenses, that might be a big deal? Turns out the Canadian Pacific Railway Company is the biggest pirate radio operator in the U.S., with the Federal Communications Commission’s Enforcement Bureau announcing a $1,210,000 fine against the railroad company. Canadian Pacific got in trouble for setting up all those pirate studios, and for failing to obtain FCC authorizations for the transfer of control of thirty wireless radio licenses. “Wireless facilities are critical to the safe and efficient operation of our nation’s railways,” said Travis LeBlanc, Chief of the Enforcement Bureau. “We take seriously our responsibility to ensure that the ownership and operation of all such facilities comply with the FCC’s licensing processes.” Canadian Pacific, which used to be called the Soo Line Corporation, found during an internal audit in 2015 the non-compliance with FCC licensing regulations, and they told the FCC. The railroad industry widely uses radio transmitting devices for voice and data transmissions, and the Soo Line Corporation had been constructing, relocating, modifying, and operating various unlicensed transmitters since 1979.

The Air Force Times reported last week that the service is increasing retention bonuses to $35,000 per year for radio-controlled drone operators. With the Obama administration expanding the drone program over the years and both major presidential candidates in favor of keeping it, the Air Force needs more pilots. Now officer drone pilots re-upping get $175,000 for five more years beginning Oct. 1. In July, Barack Obama claimed that drone and other airstrikes have killed between 64 and 116 civilians during his administration. The administration claimed that it launched 473 strikes that killed between 2,372 and 2,581 terrorist “combatants.” Activists claim those reported numbers are lower than reality.

Legislators in the United States are on a long vacation, so there has not been much to report lately on the Amateur Radio Parity Act, H.R. 1301. Just before the break, on July 13, the bill, which would make it easier for amateur radio users to raise antennae around the country, received a unanimous favorable report from members of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee, the ARRL reports. The bill was amended before the vote, making it more palatable to the homeowners association that was opposing the measure. “The amendment guarantees that even in deed-restricted communities, Amateur Radio operators are able to use an effective outdoor antenna,” Rep Greg Walden, an amateur radio operator licensced W7EQI (R-OR), said. “Without an effective antenna Amateur Radio operators are severely limited, so this amendment ensures that amateurs are free to pursue their passion wherever they live.” The bill failed in the last Congressional session, but has proceeded farther this time. Lawmakers will be back in Washington D.C. in September.

Techdirt reports that French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve announced Aug. 11 a "global initiative" to "fight" messaging encryption. Ahead of an Aug. 23 meeting with German counterpart Thomas de Maiziere, the French want to limit terrorists use of messaging encryption, but that means limiting everyone's access to secure messages. Techdirt does not believe that is a smart plan. "First of all, encryption is still difficult to use and easy to mess up. In fact, most reports suggest that ISIS is pretty bad about its opsec when it comes to encryption. And, even if they are successfully using encryption, they still leave plenty of other breadcrumbs for law enforcement and the intelligence community to track," the website says. France has been hit with several terrorism-related crimes recently, and wants to do something.

The Washington Post reported last week that court-ordered declassified administration guidelines say that President Barack Obama approves radio-controlled drone operations, but does not sign off on every single strike. The 18-page top-secret document was signed by Obama in May 2013, when the administration released a “fact sheet” briefly outlining the secret procedures. The rules say the military must have, “near certainty” that the target is correct and that no civilians will also be hit, and that the target poses a “continuing and imminent” threat to Americans, and capture is not feasible, while the U.S. obeys all relevant domestic and international laws. Last month, the U.S. published aggregate numbers on how many civilians have been killed by CIA and military strikes in countries including Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia and Libya, with 64 to 116 civilians and 2,372 to 2,581 “combatants” in 473 strikes in countries where the United States is not at war. Many nongovernment groups claimed the numbers should be much higher, and all agreed they do not include actions in the war zones of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria. An American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit before Judge Colleen McMahon, in the Southern District of New York, forced the release of the rules. “The [Presidential Policy Guidance] PPG should have been released three years ago, but its release now will inform an ongoing debate about the lawfulness and wisdom of the government’s counterterrorism policies,” said ACLU Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer. “The release of the PPG and related documents is also a timely reminder of the breadth of the powers that will soon be in the hands of another president.”

The Commission considered items on Relay Services for Deaf-Blind Individuals; Improvements to Benchmarks and Related Requirements Governing Hearing Aid-Compatible Mobile Handsets; and Rates for Interstate Inmate Calling Services. Held on August 4, 2016 at FCC Headquarters in Washington, DC.

The Guardian reports that when HTML5 was introduced it it included a battery status API that allowed website, "owners to see the percentage of battery life left in a device, as well as the time it will take to discharge or the time it will take to charge, if connected to a power source." That enables tracking online, not just its intended use to let website owners switch users to low-power versions of their sites and web apps. Now security researchers from Princeton University have proven that the battery status indicator is being used to track users. "Steve Engelhard and Arvind Narayanan found two tracking scripts that used the API to “fingerprint” a specific device, allowing them to continuously identify it across multiple contexts," The Guardian reported. Lukasz Olejnik was one of four researchers who first warned about the abuses possible with the battery status API in 2015. “Some companies may be analysing the possibility of monetising the access to battery levels,” he writes. “When battery is running low, people might be prone to some – otherwise different – decisions. In such circumstances, users will agree to pay more for a service.” And, any app that can track users locations is dangerous for many reasons.

Safe Tech For Schools uploaded this video of Green Party Presidential candidate Jill Stein saying, "We Should Not Be Subjecting Children's Brains To Wi-Fi Screens In Schools. It's Not OK."

Ars Technica reported that last week that Illinois is the latest state to require law enforcement officials to seek court approval before deploying cell-site simulators, so-called "Stingray" devices, which can locate and track a person’s cell phone without their knowledge. Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner signed the “Citizen Privacy Protection Act,” with law enforcement officials forced to, “include a description of the nature and capabilities of the cell site simulator device to be used and the manner and method of its deployment, including whether the cell site simulator device will obtain data from non-target communications devices.” The law also makes law enforcement immediately delete any information collected about others, non- "targets." Some stingrays can intercept calls and text messages, others just collect metadata, and they can collect all sorts of records near their location, including criminals, and folks just passing by. California, Washington, Virginia, Minnesota, and Utah mandate a warrant for use of the devices, and the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice last year created new policies that require a warrant for stingray use in most cases.

Human Rights Watch reported that the Turkish government last week shut down 23 radio stations and 16 television channels under the State of Emergency law. All together, 131 newspapers, news agencies, publishers, television, and radio stations were forced to close July 27, in a backlash from the conservative government after the recent failed military coup. “The government crackdown is on media outlets and journalists it accuses of being linked to the Fethullah Gülen movement, which it blames for the foiled military coup,” said Emma Sinclair-Webb, Turkey director at Human Rights Watch. “In the absence of any evidence of their role or participation in the violent attempt to overthrow the government, we strongly condemn this accelerated assault on the media, which further undermines Turkey’s democratic credentials.” The government also arrested many individual journalists, according to the group.

Here's the relevant piece of transcript, from 2015: https://t.co/yVbzyziDHF pic.twitter.com/wXh3Hunx1I

— Ben Taub (@bentaub91) July 25, 2016

There's lots of talk in the news about whether Russian hackers broke into a Democratic computer, copied a lot of information and internal communications, and sent it to Wikileaks to disrupt the Presidential election in the United States. Wikileaks denies that is true, President Obama has said anything is possible, and Donald Trump on July 27 spoke about how a foreign country hacking and releasing emails to affect the outcome of an election was a good thing. Last year, The New York Times included a long story about how Russia employed trolls posting hoaxes and conspiracy theories, heavily-produced YouTube videos, fake Wikipedia entries, and using tens of thousands of bogus social media accounts to alter discourse on topics affecting Russia worldwide. The Times writer, Adrian Chen, said in a podcast released with the story that, "I created this list of the Russian trolls I was researching. And I check on it once in awhile, still. And a lot of them have turned into conservative accounts, like fake conservatives. I don't know what is going on, but they're all tweeting about Donald Trump and stuff." So you don't need to believe the Wikileaks story to think that the Russian government is attempting to influence this presidential election. Chen said, "I feel like maybe it's some kind of really opaque strategy of electing Donald Trump, to undermine the U.S., or something. Like a false flag kind-of thing. You know, that's how I started thinking about this stuff after being in Russia."

The New York Times reported last week that the Federal Communications Commission will trust a foreign company, Ericsson, to route billions of U.S. cellphone calls and text messages. A New Jersey subsidiary of Ericsson, Telcordia, presented the lowest bid, to manage the system that American company Neustar has since the 1990s. The Times reports that several months ago Telcordia used a small number of foreign nationals, including one Chinese citizen, for computer coding after Telcordia was given preliminary approval for the job. But only “vetted U.S. citizens” were allowed to work on the project, so the FCC made the company discard the work and start over. The paper points out that, "In 2006... a $6.8 billion deal that would have allowed a company in the United Arab Emirates to manage six American port terminals set off outrage in Congress and was eventually killed." Now, critics says, the FCC is putting communications infrastructure into foreign hands.

John Anderson at DIYmedia.net breaks down the 103-page report from Meintel, Sgrignoli, & Wallace, Maryland-based consulting engineers hired by the New York State Broadcasters’ Association to report on the breadth of pirate radio in the New York City area. The firm camped out at two New York City locations and two northern New Jersey locations and tuned in 76 different illegal transmitters recently, using dozens of watts up to 3,000 or more. Anderson writes that, "the rest [of the report] is full of conjecture, including such specious assertions that pirate stations interfere with Emergency Alert System broadcasts (they provide no substantive evidence of this); expose unsuspecting citizens to 'significant public health and safety issues' from antenna-radiation (again, no evidence beyond best-guesses); and have the potential to interfere with aviation-related frequencies (yet 'Importantly, our survey did not find that these unauthorized pirate stations were directly causing interference to FAA systems')." Anderson says the reports claims about the interference the station's cause is filled with words such as, “potential,” “may be,” “likely,” “not certain,” and “certainly possible.” The consultants main takeaway is that, “While it is beyond the scope of this analysis to make policy recommendations, it appears more resources and a new enforcement strategy is necessary to address this growing problem since current efforts do not appear to be effective.” Read the full story at DIYmedia.net.

FULL DISCLOSURE: John Anderson is on Wave Farm's board.

The New York Times reports that Edward Snowden, who worked for the National Security Agency before leaking government information, last week announced he will help develop a modified version of Apple’s iPhone for journalists to ward off government surveillance. The announcement was part of the “Forbidden Research” conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab, with Snowden joining by video link from exile in Russia. Snowden teams with Andrew Huang, a computer hacker known as Bunnie, to modify a smartphone to, "alert journalists working in dangerous environments to electronic surveillance." Snowden is also on the board of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, and said journalists need to operate without government oversight. He specifically cited a mortar attack in 2012 by the Syrian government that killed Marie Colvin, an American journalist who was reporting in Homs, Syria, for The Sunday Times of London. “The radio frequency emissions of her communications that she used to file those news reports were intercepted by the Syrian Army,” he said. If their plan works, journalists would get modified phones, "in a special case with a separate display that would provide an alert when the phone was active and transmitting data at improper times."

Photo by Kelly Benjamin.

WGXC correspondent Kelly Benjamin talks to protesters outside the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, including Medea Benjamin from Code Pink.

Click here to download or play this interview.

The Republican National Convention began in Cleveland July 18, and the Democratic Convention begins in Philadelphia July 25, and both have radio stories. First, both cities won't allow radio-controlled drones during the conventions, with the Federal Aviation Administration blocking 30 nautical miles in radius around the Quicken Loans Arena from 6 p.m. July 17 through 3 a.m. July 22. Radio-controlled drones not only can't be flown within 30 miles of the RNC, they are among the 26 types of items not allowed in the zone around the arena. Mike Pence, the Republican nominee for vice-president, is familiar with the airwaves. After losing two Congressional campaigns, he started hosting "The Mike Pence Show," on WRCR in Rushville, Indiana in 1994, with Pence calling himself "Rush Limbaugh on decaf." The show was syndicated by Network Indiana on 19 stations there, including WIBC in Indianapolis. Slate reports that anyone protesting Pence, or any other issue during the convention, should note what local and federal police can do with the local airwaves. Cleveland has a flash mob law, for instance, that allows the police to arrest anyone arriving at an event organized over social media “to commit a crime,” and police will then confiscate your cell phone as evidence. Ohio police and the FBI also have face recognition technology they may use, and a $50 million grant from Congress to buy equipment such as cameras, surveillance trailers, and and sound cannons. Of course, protesters will also bypass the media by broadcasting from their phones, as we've seen recently in events as diverse as a failed coup in Turkey and a sit-down protest in the U.S. Congress.