April 2010 – Present: China reads emails of top US officials

“China’s cyber spies have accessed the private emails of “many” top Obama administration officials, according to a senior U.S. intelligence official and a top secret document obtained by NBC News, and have been doing so since at least April 2010.

The email grab –- first codenamed “Dancing Panda” by U.S. officials, and then “Legion Amethyst” –- was detected in April 2010, according to a top secret NSA briefing from 2014. The intrusion into personal emails was still active at the time of the briefing and, according to the senior official, is still going on.

In 2011, Google disclosed that the private gmail accounts of some U.S. officials had been compromised, but the briefing shows that private email accounts from other providers were compromised as well.

The government email accounts assigned to the officials, however, were not hacked because they are more secure, says the senior U.S. intelligence official.

The senior official says the private emails of “all top national security and trade officials” were targeted.

The Chinese also harvested the email address books of targeted officials, according to the document, reconstructing and then “exploiting the(ir) social networks” by sending malware to their friends and colleagues.

The time period overlaps with Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email account while Secretary of State from Jan. 21, 2009 to Feb. 1, 2013. The names and ranks of the officials whose emails were actually grabbed, however, were not disclosed in the NSA briefing nor by the intelligence official.” (Read more: NBC News, 8/10/2015)

April 22, 2010 – Haiti earthquake aid totals nearly $15 billion in donations

Three months after the earthquake in Haiti, many people still in need of basic emergency help.

CBS News set out to answer what seemed like a simple question: how much has been spent on and promised to Haiti?

The answer didn’t exist in one place.

So we compiled the best figures available to come up with a total.

Here’s what we came up with:

 

Total Donations for Haiti Earthquake Relief:

• $4 billion: NGO’s and charities. That includes $66 million raised by record-breaking Hope for Haiti Now telethon.
• $1.019 billion: U.S. tax dollars through USAID (as of April 9)
• $1.15 billion: U.S. tax dollars (for future redevelopment)
• $8.75 billion (for redevelopment from non-U.S. countries and world bodies)

TOTAL: $14.9+ billion

(Not included is debt forgiveness which the US and other countries are offering Haiti)

Haiti’s government has estimated losses from the quake to be approximately $8 billion. Economists and world bodies have estimated the cost of rebuilding at between $8 billion and $14 billion.

The $14.9 billion donated so far works out to nearly $10,000 for each of the estimated 1.5 million Haitians left homeless and displaced by the disaster. On average, workers there earn just $4 a day. The funding includes emergency aid as well as pledges to help rebuild Haiti to a state better than it was before: new hospitals, clinics, school systems, government buildings, better sanitation and a more modern infrastructure. (CBS News, 4/22/2010)  (Archive)