We were a bit under the weather yesterday and missed our usual post, so we’re extra long today and very, very eventful including [after the jump] the latest developments in the Japanese transformation into a state with ominous parallels to the institutions of an aggressively militarized past.
Straight to the news from the dark side, starting with yet another drone war disaster via RT:
Drone strike kills 15 ‘wedding party-goers’ in Yemen
Fifteen people who had been heading to a wedding in Yemen have been killed in an air strike. Local media reported that a drone attack had been responsible, and the party-goers had been hit instead of an Al-Qaeda convoy.
“An air strike missed its target and hit a wedding car convoy, ten people were killed immediately and another five who were injured died after being admitted to the hospital,” a Yemeni security official told Reuters.
Next, another just-breaking drone story, this one from TheLocal.es:
‘Spain stopped Al-Qaeda drone attack’: US
The FBI has praised Spain’s police force for helping the US to prevent potential terrorist attacks on European cities, including an Al-Qaeda plan to deliver explosives by using drones.
James Comey, director of the US’s Federal Bureau of Investigation, commended Spain on Monday for playing an “essential” part in stopping numerous terrorist attacks from taking place across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
Spiegel announces an appearance:
European Parliament: Snowden Will Make Video Appearance
Leaders in the European Parliament have agreed to allow NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden to answer questions by video, despite efforts by some conservative parliamentarians to block the testimony out of fear it could further harm trans-Atlantic relations.
Parliamentary leaders of the European Parliament voted Thursday to allow the planned video appearance of the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden to take place despite an attempt by conservative members of the European People’s Party (EPP) to block it.
More from EUobserver:
British MEPs fail to stop Snowden video
Conservative MEPs in Brussels have tried and failed to stop a European Parliament video chat with US leaker Edward Snowden.
Parliament sources say the centre-right ECR group, which includes the ruling British Conservative Party, rallied against the idea and forced the issue to a vote on Thursday (12 December) in the “conference of presidents” – a body of political group chiefs.
Deutsche Welle covers an important argument:
ECJ officer argues against EU Data Retention Directive in Luxembourg
An EU law requiring companies to log telecommunications data for law enforcement breaches rights, an advocate-general of Europe’s top court has said. Germany in particular had challenged the Data Retention Directive.
Thursday’s opinion at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg responds to challenges against the directive in Ireland and Austria. Adopted the by the EU in 2006 following attacks on the London tube and trains in Madrid , the Data Retention Directive specifies that firms must save telephone and Internet data – user, recipient and length of calls – for a period of up to two years.
The Washington Post brings us their latest NSA revelation:
NSA uses Google cookies to pinpoint targets for hacking
The National Security Agency is secretly piggybacking on the tools that enable Internet advertisers to track consumers, using “cookies” and location data to pinpoint targets for government hacking and to bolster surveillance.
The agency’s internal presentation slides, provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, show that when companies follow consumers on the Internet to better serve them advertising, the technique opens the door for similar tracking by the government. The slides also suggest that the agency is using these tracking techniques to help identify targets for offensive hacking operations.
From the Economic Times, a claim:
No better way to protect US than surveillance, says NSA
The National Security Agency chief says he knows of no better way his agency can help protect the US from foreign threats than with spy programs that collect billions of phone and Internet records from around the world.
Pleading with the Senate Judiciary Committee to not abolish the NSA bulk-collection programs, Gen. Keith Alexander said Wednesday that global threats are growing _ specifically in Iraq and Syria _ that pose what he called “an unacceptable risk” to America.
More from PCWorld:
Show us a better way than collecting metadata, NSA director says to critics
The NSA’s bulk collection of U.S. telephone records is the “least intrusive” way to track suspected terrorists’ communications with people in the U.S., General Keith Alexander said, defending the NSA’s mass data collection and surveillance programs to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.
“If we can come up with a better way, we ought to put it on the table and argue our way through it,” Alexander said. “There is no other way that we know of to connect the dots.”
From Ars Technica, a question and an equivocal answer:
Will NSA cut it out if Congress passes no-bulk-spying bill? “Depends”
DOJ lawyer says they’ll wait for a court interpretation of any new law.
The bill’s sponsors have made it unequivocal that they want to shut down the bulk data collection programs. In Rep. James Sensenbrenner’s (R-WI) breakdown of the bill, the first point is in boldface: “End bulk data collection of Americans’ communication records.”
But a top DOJ lawyer who testified at today’s hearing said he sees some ambiguity in the language of the bill, and the government probably won’t shut down any programs—at least not without a court fight.
From Nextgov, an accounting:
NSA Spends $1 Billion on Crypto – A Fraction of Total Spy Budget, Researchers Say
Only 23 percent of the United States’ black intelligence budget goes toward information technology for bugging other IT systems worldwide, according to a new IDC report.
That said, researchers expect this slice to widen to up to 34 percent, largely because intelligence analysts need more data collection tools and supercomputers to parse ever-growing bits and bytes.
TheLocal.se covers a Snowden declaration:
US ‘totally dictates’ Swedish surveillance
The US dominates Sweden during joint surveillance cooperation, as the Swedes give information but ask for nothing in return, claimed journalist Glenn Greenwald on Wednesday.
When Sweden’s National Defence Radio Establishment (Svenska Försvarets radioanstalt – FRA) works with foreign countries, it usually gets something in return. But this is not the case when it cooperates with the US National Security Agency (NSA) in its efforts to gain unauthorized access to computers, said Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who revealed Edward Snowden’s leaks this year.
TheLocal.se with another revelation:
Sweden aids NSA-led hacking ops: report
Sweden cooperated with the United States in operations to hack into computers and carry out internet surveillance on Swedes, according to documents leaked by NSA-whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The documents, reviewed by Svergies Television (SVT) investigative news programme Uppdrag Granskning, show that Sweden’s signals intelligence agency, the National Defence Radio Establishment (Svenska Försvarets radioanstalt – FRA) worked with the US National Security Agency (NSA) in its efforts to gain unauthorized access to computers.
An internal NSA memo from a planned meeting between Swedish and US spy chiefs in April 2013 explains that the Swedes wanted to be updated on operation “Winterlight (Quantum Project)”.
From Deutsche Welle, an opinion:
Uhl: Germany cannot tolerate a digital occupier
German parliamentarian Hans-Peter Uhl visited Washington to talk with the US government about the NSA scandal. He tells DW that US officials are still missing the point and calls for an economic response in Germany.
Hans-Peter Uhl: The message is relatively simple. On the one hand, we have to fight terrorism alongside American agencies. We’ve been successfully doing so for years and that must continue. On the other hand, and this is something people in the US still have to learn, data protection is an issue – not just for citizens, but also for businesses and for the state as a whole. We cannot tolerate America ruling Germany as a digital occupying power.
From The Guardian, French government expands internet surveillance powers:
French officials can monitor internet users in real time under new law
Clause lets police and other agencies spy without authorisation, weeks after France expressed outrage at NSA revelations
French intelligence and government officials will be able to spy on internet users in real time and without authorisation, under a law passed on Wednesday.
More from Reuters:
France’s Greens start fight against new surveillance powers
France’s Green Party said it would back a campaign to force the constitutional court to review a new law that expands the government’s powers to monitor phone and Internet connection data without authorization from a judge.
The new measure, which grants monitoring powers to additional agencies such as tax and finance authorities and broadens the reasons surveillance can be carried out, was included in a military budget law passed on Tuesday. In the Senate, 164 voted for the law and 146 against.
More cause for French concern form Al Jazeera America:
Drones: What France wants for Christmas
The country hailed for its privacy laws is investing in drones to surveil its citizens
Although, according to polls, a majority of Europeans oppose drones, France and other countries are beefing up their fleets. In November, France joined Greece and Italy to form what French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has called a “drone club,” to manufacture and develop military and surveillance drones from 2020 onward. Meanwhile, France and its neighbors are buying American drones, many of which will surveil the French from above.
And what France is doing, so too are many other European governments, reports EurActiv:
EU nations developing cyber ‘capabilities’ to infiltrate government, private targets
European countries have entered a global race to develop aggressive cyber attack capabilities, according to the latest threat landscape analysis published by the European cyber security Agency ENISA yesterday (11 December).
ENISA analysed 250 reports and sources for its annual report, revealing that “maturity in cyber activities is not a matter of a handful of nation states”.
Rather, “multiple nation states have now developed capabilities that can be used to infiltrate all kinds of targets both governmental and private ones in order to achieve their objectives,” the report claims.
Ars Technica next, with a sale in question:
AT&T accused of violating privacy law with sale of phone records to CIA
Consumer advocates want FCC to declare sale of phone records illegal.
From CNN’s Security Clearance, an edge sought:
U.S. seeks spy edge with stealth drone
It looks like a bat, sweeping, turning. But it’s actually the new super-secret Air Force stealth drone.
CNN has learned this unmanned spy plane is designed to fly for up to 24 hours behind enemy lines in countries like North Korea, Iran, and Syria.
Network World covers a hacker jailed:
Hacker sentenced to 18 months for peddling computer access to US national security lab
The man offered to sell an undercover FBI agent entry to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory supercomputers
Andrew Miller, 24, pleaded guilty in August to one count of conspiracy and two counts of computer fraud for actions committed between 2008 and 2011, when he was part of the Underground Intelligence Agency hacking group, the U.S. Department of Justice said Thursday. Miller was sentenced Wednesday.
Miller asked an undercover FBI agent in 2011 for US$50,000 in exchange for access to two supercomputers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, according to the DOJ.
From PCWorld, corporate headaches:
Resistance to EU data protection law adds to red tape for Facebook, Google
With European data protection supervisors saying they are not ready for the proposed E.U. data protection law, multinationals such as Facebook and Google are being left to contend with 28 different legal frameworks to address the issue across the region.
The proposed law suffered a blow last Friday when the Council of Ministers failed to reach agreement on the controversial “one-stop shop” regulator. This proposal would allow multinational companies to deal only with the privacy regulator of the member state in which the company is established. This has particular implications for the Irish regulator where Google, Facebook and LinkedIn are registered.
CNN’s Security Clearance covers White House insecurity:
A spat over Justice Department national security job
President Barack Obama’s pick for the Justice Department’s national security prosecutor is expected to be among several nominations to move in the coming weeks as Senate Democrats start wading through the presidential appointments backlog built up amid partisan fights.
John Carlin’s nomination to head the Justice national security division had come under fire in recent days after some critics groused in a Foreign Policy magazine article that Attorney General Eric Holder’s pick, his former aide Amy Jeffress, was passed over by the White House.
After the jump, extended coverage of the rapidly intensifying security crises in Asia [including the emerging Japanese national security state], rolling heads in Korea, corporate insecurity, sexual insecurity in Asia and Down Under, Italian insecurity [including the threat of a Bunga Bunga revolution and a secually insecure cop], plus madness on death row. . .
And now on to Asia, where security has become a flashpoint, with major American trading partners shaking mailed fists at each other. From the Japan Daily Press:
Japan to ask for support from ASEAN countries over China disputes
Japan is hosting a special summit with the member nations of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) this weekend. Pundits however say that one side agenda is to strengthen relationships with countries excessively influenced by China, in hopes of swaying their loyalties to the Asian giant. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is also expected to seek support from the 10 members of the ASEAN who also have their own disputes with China.
JapanToday covers one major consequence and cause of the ongoing affray:
Gov’t panel calls for stronger military to deal with China
A near-final draft of a new Japanese national security strategy calls for a stronger military to deal with a rising China and other growing risks close to home.
The development of the formal security strategy is part of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s push to boost Japan’s defense and its international role. It reflects global power shifts, notably changes in the relative influence of Japan’s longtime protector, the United States.
From the Japan Times, the accompanying rise of the industrial part of the military/industrial dyad:
Robust arms industry part of security policy
The Abe administration will seek to make the Japanese arms industry more competitive globally, according to a near-complete draft of its first National Security Strategy, drawn up as tensions with China rise over the Senkaku Islands.
The strategy and a new 10-year defense plan will both refer to the need to maintain and strengthen Japan’s weapons industry, according to drafts given to reporters at a Liberal Democratic Party security panel meeting Wednesday.
The government will also “consider” whether to revise the self-imposed curbs on arms exports, according to the strategy document.
China Daily interprets from across the China Sea:
‘Containing China’ a Japanese strategy
Draft of Tokyo’s new defense program calls for more early warning and surveillance.
Japan is trying to justify attempts to break away from its pacifist Constitution and build up its military by fanning the so-called China threat, experts said after Japan released the final draft of its national security strategy on Wednesday.
In the draft, Japan vowed countermeasures against what it calls “China’s attempts to change the status quo with force” in the East China and South China seas, according to the summary of the draft issued by Japanese news agency Jiji Press.
Kyodo News adds a development:
Japan to bolster warning system to defy China
Japan will strengthen its surveillance and warning capabilities with new aircraft to cope with China’s growing assertiveness at sea and in airspace, and drop the word “modest” to describe the country’s defense power in upcoming defense program guidelines, government sources said Wednesday.
In a clear departure from Japan’s defense policy since 1995, the move highlights Tokyo’s vigilance against China, as well as North Korea’s missile and nuclear development programs, the sources added.
South China Morning Post has more:
Japan plans to set up amphibious military unit and deploy drones
The new defence guideline and military build-up plan, to be approved by the government next week, follow China’s declaration in November of a new air defence identification zone in an area that includes the disputed isles, triggering protests from Tokyo, as well as Washington and Seoul.
The drafts of the two plans were made available at a meeting of ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lawmakers and shown to reporters. Final versions of the defence guideline, which lays out Japan’s defence policy for the next 10 years, and the build-up plan, called the mid-term defence programme and covering a five-year period, will be unveiled next Tuesday.
China Daily commands:
Japan told to stop Diaoyu Islands provocation
Japan should immediately stop all of its provocative actions over the Diaoyu Islands, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman told a regular press briefing Thursday.
Hong Lei was commenting on an Internet video clip posted on the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s website. The clip promoted the Diaoyu Islands as Japanese territory.
And South China Morning Post provokes:
Japan and South Korea hold joint exercise in China’s air defence zone
Rescue exercise near Suyan Rock is seen as sending out a strong signal to Beijing, but two nations are at odds over commercial flights
While Want China Times differs:
Differences surface in US-Japan alliance over China’s ADIZ
There are signs that Tokyo and its close ally Washington are increasingly out of sync in their dealings with Beijing, which established a new air defense identification zone over a disputed area of the East China Sea in late November, highlighting a divide in their response to China’s rise.
The Mainichi discovers a glaring gap:
Japan has no third-party oversight body for nuclear secrets
There has been no third-party body in Japan for nearly 15 months to check the validity of the designation by the central government and nuclear plant operators of information related to nuclear power facilities as secrets, it has been learned.
No third-party oversight body has been set up since the establishment in September 2012 of the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA). This means that the government and nuclear plant operators have decided what should be made secret behind closed doors with no external checking functions. While the recently enacted state secrecy law poses serious questions over the way in which the government is to designate information as “special secrets,” the latest revelation is likely to call into question the government’s stance toward a third-party oversight body.
The Mainichi again, this time with the latest development in that draconian official secrets act designed to suppress and punish whistleblower and journalists who report their leaks:
Gov’t to appoint supporters of secrets law to council to check suitability of info
The government intends to appoint mainly those supportive of the controversial special state secrets protection law to an advisory council on the enforcement of the legislation, government sources said.
Critics point to the possibility that discussions among the panel on the appropriateness of classifying information will be conducted in a way favorable to the government.
More of the law from the Japan Times:
Government to promulgate new secrets law quickly
The government will promulgate the contentious state secrets law Friday, and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Cabinet will be tested in its ability to create viable independent overseers to check how the state classifies and declassifies information before the law takes effect within a year.
The law lacks detailed standards for determining what information to classify as secret or declassify for release. This apparently led during Diet deliberation to uncoordinated responses by the Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito administration.
The Japan Times again, with a warning, later partially withdrawn:
Reporters who divulge secrets could face new law’s wrath: Ishiba
On the eve of the contentious state secrets law getting the official nod, Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Shigeru Ishiba waded into the fray Wednesday by saying journalists could be punished for reporting state-designated classified information, only to backpedal slightly.
“It is legal to obtain the information. But if reporting state secrets threatens our national security, common sense tells me reporting will be somehow restricted,” Ishiba said at the Japan National Press Club.
More from the Asahi Shimbun:
Ishiba says media reports on state secrets should be regulated
A ruling party executive suggested that media coverage of state secrets specified under new legislation should be regulated, contradicting the prime minister’s assurances that the public’s right to know will not be compromised.
Shigeru Ishiba, secretary-general of the Liberal Democratic Party, also told the Japan National Press Club on Dec. 11 that those who reported specified secrets could be punished.
“I think the act (of reporting specified secrets) will be kept in check in one way or another if our nation’s safety is put at great risk,” he said. “It will be eventually up to judicial judgment (whether those who reported them should be punished).”
A critic speaks out, via the Asahi Shimbun:
Oe: State secrets law endangers freedoms in Japan
Nobel Prize-winning author Kenzaburo Oe expressed grave concerns about how the new state secrets protection law will affect human rights guaranteed by the nation’s Constitution.
“It will endanger the freedoms of religion, thought, conscience, expression, assembly and association,” Oe said Dec. 10 to an audience of about 800.
Index on Censorship sums up:
Japan’s designated secrets bill – the sound of the jackboots
Japan’s new secrecy law is yet another disturbing symptom of the country’s rising militarism, broadening the government’s power to classify state secrets amidst increased belligerence in the region
As if it ever needed repeating, the people of Japan were once again treated to a reminder of how secretive and arbitrary their government can be during the nuclear disaster in Fukushima 2011. Government foot-dragging and reluctance to divulge information meant that people remained exposed to high doses of radiation for over a month after the meltdown with potentially grave health consequences. Now, what is easily the most right wing government Japan has seen in decades has forced through parliament a bill to classify “special secrets” that would essentially give the executive carte blanche to withhold information on a massive scale, not seen since the period of militarism directly leading up to, and during, World War 2.
The Guardian covers another new form of Japanese secrecy:
Japan condemned for ‘secret’ executions
Two more men have been hanged, under a system where death row prisoners are not told of their execution until hours before
Japan has carried out another round of “secret” executions, bringing to eight the number of inmates sent to the gallows under the year-old administration of Shinzo Abe.
Media reports said two men had been hanged in the fourth round of executions since Abe took office last December. Previous hangings took place in February, April and September, suggesting that the government plans to carry them out every few months.
The Asahi Shimbun covers a pending correlate:
Government takes another stab at unpopular ‘conspiracy’ legislation
The government is seeking to rejuvenate decade-old legislation to make the act of “conspiracy” a punishable crime, even if no criminal act has been committed.
Word of the move sparked revived criticism that such a law could lead to prosecution against civil advocacy groups for the mere act of communicating. Even members of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s administration questioned the need for a conspiracy law.
And another sign of the militarizing times from the Asahi Shimbun:
National Police Agency expresses concerns about xenophobic groups
For the first time, the National Police Agency’s annual report on Japan’s security situation mentioned right-wing groups that espouse xenophobia.
“They could continue to prompt illegal acts, including friction with opponent forces,” according to the report, titled “Chian no Kaiko to Tenbo” (Security retrospection and prospection), released on Dec. 11.
Meanwhile, insecurity elsewhere in Asia from SINA English:
Kim Jong-un’s uncle reportedly executed
North Korea has confirmed that the powerful uncle of young leader Kim Jong-Un has been purged, with some reports suggesting Jang Song-Thaek has been executed.
The official news agency KCNA accused the man once seen as the power behind the throne of being a corrupt, drug-taking womaniser bent on building his own faction in the ruling party.
Another Korean head rolls, via the Mainichi:
Handler of ex-North Korean leader’s secret funds executed
North Korean official Ri Su Yong, who handled secret funds for former leader Kim Jong Il, has been executed, sources familiar with the country’s leadership have disclosed.
The execution was related to the recent purge of Jang Song-thaek, an uncle of current leader Kim Jong Un, according to the sources.
The Diplomat covers South Korean insecurity:
US-Japan Alliance Sparks Korean Grand Strategy Debate
Korea’s issues with Japan are much more deep-seated than U.S. policymakers seem to understand.
And Want China Times drones on:
Lijian is a copy of Russian drone: Military Parade
After China’s first stealth combat drone, the Lijian, completed its first test flight on Nov. 21, the Moscow-based Military Parade stated that the drone — designed jointly by the Shenyang Aircraft Corporation and Hongdu Aviation Industry Group — is in fact a copy of a Russian design.
The Lijian’s 20-minute test flight was completed at an unknown test center located in southwestern China, according to China’s Global Times on Dec. 9. Photos of the new drone first appeared on the Chinese military website in May this year, with the US-based Strategy Page reporting that the People’s Liberation Army may have released the images to demonstrate its military muscle.
More Asian insecurity, this time via Channel NewsAsia Singapore:
Indonesia warns of Christmas terror attack threat
Indonesian police warned on Thursday that Islamic extremists may be planning to target worshippers at Christmas and New Year celebrations in the capital Jakarta and other parts of the country.
Profiting from insecurity, via SecurityWeek:
Swiss Set Sights on Becoming World’s Data Vault
Business for Switzerland’s 55 data centers is booming. They benefit from the Swiss reputation for security and stability, and industry insiders predict the wealthy Alpine nation already famous for its super-safe banks will soon also be known as the world’s data vault.
Channel NewsAsia Singapore covers the impetus:
Companies urged to do more to protect sensitive data, information
Singapore businesses are not keeping pace with current cyber security threats and they should be doing more to protect sensitive data and information.
From El País, privatizing policing:
Private security guards to get powers to arrest people on the street
Legislation approved by PP, CiU and PNV at congressional committee
Law will apply to areas such as bank cash machines and sporting and cultural events
And then there’s sexual insecurity, via Deutsche Welle:
India’s top court does u-turn on gay sex law
India’s Supreme Court has ruled consensual sex between adults of the same gender an offense, leaving the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community dejected and angry. Gay rights activists now seek a review.
A response from Press Trust of India:
Homosexuality ruling: Govt hints at legislative route
Amid an uproar over Supreme Court ruling that gay sex is illegal, the government today hinted at taking legislative route to address the issue but made it clear that any such action will take time. “It is the prerogative of the Supreme Court under the Constitution to test the constitutionality of a law…. We have the prerogative to make laws. We shall exercise our prerogative,” Law Minister Kapil Sibal told reporters here.
RT covers it Down Under:
Australia’s top court strikes down same-sex-marriage law in capital territory
Australia’s High Court struck down Thursday the Australian Capital Territory’s same-sex marriage legislation, contending that only federal parliament could amend the nation’s marriage laws.
The unanimous ruling found that the Marriage Equality (Same Sex) Act 2013 passed in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) in October could not go into effect concurrently with the Marriage Act 1961 – a federal law outlawing same-sex marriages. ACT is a small, self-governing territory in southeast Australia which includes the country’s capital city, Canberra.
And from Salon, a statement of the obvious:
Corporations’ greedy motive to oppose surveillance: Profits!
Tech companies are just fine with the government violating your privacy — until it makes them lose customers
PCWorld covers corporate insecurity:
NY state AG demands answers on smartphone security decision
The state attorney general for New York has sent the five largest U.S. cellphone carriers each a letter asking why they all oppose the installation of a “kill-switch” device in their handsets as a deterrent against smartphone theft.
In the letter, Eric Schneiderman alludes to possible collusion between the carriers on the decision.
And South China Morning Post covers corporate insecurity on the mainland:
Hacking of company computer systems on the rise in China
Survey of executives reveals heavy toll for businesses and their customers, with records compromised and identity information stolen
MintPress News covers legislating agencies of security, national that is:
Arizona Bill Aims To Make State Inhospitable for NSA
The bill would prohibit state and local agencies from providing the NSA with any material, such as water and electricity.
An Arizona state senator on Monday introduced a piece of legislation, inspired by a template from the Tenth Amendment Center, that would make it nearly impossible for the National Security Agency to operate in the state.
Republican Sen. Kelli Ward says she backs the Fourth Amendment Protection Act to demonstrate support for those privacy advocates in neighboring Utah who are working to drive the NSA out of its borders, as well as to ensure the NSA doesn’t end up setting-up-shop in her state.
From Europe via TheLocal.de, on a German surveillance project we can agree with:
More cops to carry ID numbers – and cameras
The central state of Hesse is set to be the third in Germany to require police officers to wear identification numbers, while others have been wearing cameras in a pilot project to try to reduce the thousands of attacks against them.
The conservative Christian Democratic Union, currently negotiating a state governing coalition with the Greens, have dropped their opposition to the ID numbers, meaning the measure will be adopted, politicians from the two parties said on Tuesday.
This was agreed against a background of criticism of the police for violence against Occupy protesters this year.
While TheLocal.it brings us the first of three stories about Italian insecurity:
‘Protests could become dangerously rebellious’
Anti-austerity protests, which have gathered momentum across Italy over the past week, risk becoming “dangerously rebellious against national and European institutions”, Italy’s depurt prime minister Angela Alfano said on Thursday.
Alfano, who is also the interior minister, said the sometimes violent rallies, which are calling for tax cuts to small businesses, is “a violent front that has violated the law”.
From TheLocal.it, the second headline:
‘Jailing me will lead to revolution’: Berlusconi
Scandal-tainted Italian former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, sentenced to a year in prison for tax fraud, claimed on Thursday there would be a “revolution” in Italy if he was jailed.
The 77-year-old, who lost his parliamentary seat over a conviction for tax fraud earlier this year as well as his parliamentary protection from the law, told Europe 1 radio he was “not scared” of being imprisoned.
TheLocal.it again, with the semifinal headline of the day:
Italian protester’s kiss was ‘sexual violence’
The woman who kissed a riot policeman during protests near the northern Italian city of Turin in November has been detained for “sexual violence” and “offence to a public official”.
Franco Maccari, the Secretary General of Coisp, the Italian police officers’ union, said during an interview on Radio24 that he had pressed charges against the demonstrator who kissed an officer’s helmet. The kiss took place during a protest march against controversial plans for a new high-speed TAV train line.
And the final headline, a truly tragic one, from the Los Angeles Times:
Judge orders state to plan for mentally ill on death row
A federal judge has ordered California to come up with a plan to provide intensive, long-term psychiatric care to mentally ill prisoners on death row.
