We’ve been a bit under the weather, so today’s tales form the world of bugs, hacks [digital and political], corporate buccaneering, and military, geographic, and historical crises begins with a panopticon obstruction from the Oakland Tribune:
Oakland council sours on surveillance system
In a sharp reversal, council members made clear early Wednesday they would no longer support moving forward with an intelligence center that has the capacity to conduct surveillance on Oakland streets.
Twice last year, the City Council voted to support the Domain Awareness Center — a joint project with the Port of Oakland that was billed as helping police solve crimes, first responders react to emergencies, and the port protect itself from terrorist attacks.
But after further revelations of federal surveillance programs, threats of lawsuits from First Amendment advocates, and unsatisfactory attempts by city officials to address privacy concerns, a majority of council members said the center should not include any tools that could be used to spy on residents.
The full extent of the council’s reversal won’t be known until it revisits the issue on March 4. Council members did indicate that they would support the center to be used for its original purpose — to safeguard the port from attack.
From USA TODAY, American opinion takes a turn:
Poll: China, not Iran, now USA’s top enemy
North Korea rises to second place, with Iran, in Gallup survey. Russia is third.
China, not Iran, is now America’s No. 1 enemy, according to a new Gallup Poll.
The Chinese hold that distinction primarily because Americans have spread their negative views across several perceived threats — Iran (16%), North Korea (16%), Russia (9%), Iraq (7%), Afghanistan (5%) and Syria (3%) — while holding relatively constant in their mistrust of China (20%) over the past few years.
The poll, reported Thursday, also found that a slight majority (52%) sees China’s growing economic power as a “critical threat” to “the vital interests” of the United States in the next decade, while 46% cite such a threat from the country’s military.
From The Guardian, the disappointing but unsurprising decision about the partner of a principal Edward Snowden leak reporter:
David Miranda detention at Heathrow airport was lawful, high court rules
Detention of former Guardian journalist’s partner was justified by ‘very pressing’ interests of national security, judges say
Three high court judges have dismissed a challenge that David Miranda, the partner of the former Guardian journalist, Glenn Greenwald, was unlawfully detained under counter-terrorism powers for nine hours at Heathrow airport last August.
The judges accepted that Miranda’s detention and the seizure of computer material was “an indirect interference with press freedom” but said this was justified by legitimate and “very pressing” interests of national security.
The three judges, Lord Justice Laws, Mr Justice Ouseley and Mr Justice Openshaw, concluded that Miranda’s detention at Heathrow under schedule 7 of the Terrorism 2000 Act was lawful, proportionate and did not breach European human rights protections of freedom of expression.
Some consequences, also from The Guardian:
The David Miranda judgment has chilling implications for press freedom, race relations and basic justice
The interference of Britains’ security services is shocking, but it’s also vital that we shed light on the murky reality of schedule 7
One person’s freedom fighter may be another’s terrorist, but David Miranda is very clearly neither. Yet he was detained at Heathrow airport for nine hours under schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000. That the high court has now found his detention to be lawful is disappointing to say the least.
If someone travelling as part of journalistic work can be lawfully detained like this – questioned for hours without a lawyer present, his electronic equipment confiscated and cloned and all without the merest suspicion of wrongdoing required – then clearly something has gone wrong with the law.
We’ve been here before. Schedule 7 suffers the same glaring flaws as the old section 44 counter-terrorism power that also allowed stop and search without suspicion. Such laws leave themselves wide open to discriminatory misuse: section 44 never once led to a terrorism conviction but was used to stop people like journalist Pennie Quinton. In a significant victory, Liberty took her case to the European court of human rights and the power was declared unlawful.
Meanwhile, parliamentary questions remain, via the London Telegraph:
Inquiry into phone and email snoopers
Sir Anthony May, the Interception of Communications Commissioner, says number of requests last year for access to people’s private data – around 500,000 – was “too large”
Britain’s intelligence and law enforcement agencies are facing an inquiry from Whitehall’s snooping watchdog into whether they are collecting too many private telephone and internet records, The Telegraph can disclose.
The investigation by Sir Anthony May, the Interception of Communications Commissioner, will start this year and comes after he told MPs he was worried that the security services were making too many requests for access to people’s private data.
In evidence to the Home Affairs select committee, Sir Anthony suggested that the number of requests last year – around 500,000 – was “too large”.
Bloomberg reminds:
NSA Official Warned About Threat 17 Years Before Snowden
Seventeen years before Edward Snowden began releasing secret documents on U.S. electronic spying, an analyst with the National Security Agency foresaw just such a threat.
“In their quest to benefit from the great advantages of networked computer systems, the U.S. military and intelligence communities have put almost all of their classified information ‘eggs’ into one very precarious basket: computer system administrators,” the unidentified analyst wrote in a 1996 special edition of Cryptologic Quarterly, an NSA magazine.
Despite the warning, the NSA remained vulnerable. When Snowden’s first disclosures became public last year, some of the agencies’ computers were still equipped with USB ports where thumb drives could be used to copy files, according to a National Public Radio report in September.
Snowden was a systems analyst working as a contractor with Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp. (BAH) at an NSA regional signals intelligence facility in Hawaii when he exploited his administrative access to copy thousands of top-secret documents before fleeing to Hong Kong and then Moscow.
The McClatchy Washington Bureau has a deal:
Online company hawking Snowden action figure
He’s been called a low-down traitor and a noble whistleblower, and now there’s a new label for fugitive NSA leaker Edward Snowden: action figure.
An Oregon-based company, Thatsmyface.com, is offering Snowden’s “lifelike head mounted on a 12-inch fully-articulated action figure body with detailed pre-fitted clothes.” Clothing options include casual, business suit or “Indiana Jones.” Perhaps a spinoff line will include a Moscow airport-terminal play set?
Each doll is $99, with proceeds reportedly going to Freedom of the Press Foundation. (The foundation told news agencies that it hadn’t been contacted about the project.)
The website is here, including this video of the Snowden doll alongside their Julian Assange action figure:
And another pair of small victories from the ACLU Blog of Rights:
State High Courts Realize It’s Not 1986 Anymore, Broaden Privacy Protections
Technology in the digital age has changed the way the government conducts surveillance against targets, and the law must change accordingly. So ruled two separate state supreme courts in decisions that take on the so-called ‘third-party doctrine,’ an outdated legal precedent that serves as the foundation for the federal government’s defense of NSA and FBI bulk records surveillance programs.
In two state supreme court rulings published Tuesday, jurists in Massachusetts and Hawaii created new space for the expansion of privacy rights under their state constitutions. The Hawaiian justices found that, as technology changes, the law must change with it—and state courts have a role to play in pushing legislatures and federal courts to adapt more quickly. Massachusetts’ high court did just that, by limiting the government’s authority to obtain without warrants information held about us by third parties. Specifically, Massachusetts justices ruled 5-2 that police must obtain a probable cause warrant in order to obtain two weeks or more of cell site location information from our telecommunications companies.
The Intercept [new venue of Greenwald & Co.] lays the blame:
Judge Tosses Muslim Spying Suit Against NYPD, Says Any Damage Was Caused by Reporters Who Exposed It
A federal judge in Newark has thrown out a lawsuit against the New York Police Department for spying on New Jersey Muslims, saying if anyone was at fault, it was the Associated Press for telling people about it.
In his ruling Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge William J. Martini simultaneously demonstrated the willingness of the judiciary to give law enforcement alarming latitude in the name of fighting terror, greenlighted the targeting of Muslims based solely on their religious beliefs, and blamed the media for upsetting people by telling them what their government was doing.
The NYPD’s clandestine spying on daily life in Muslim communities in the region — with no probable cause, and nothing to show for it — was exposed in a Pulitzer-Prize winning series of stories by the AP. The stories described infiltration and surveillance of at least 20 mosques, 14 restaurants, 11 retail stores, two grade schools, and two Muslim student associations in New Jersey alone.
Well, gollleeee! From the Washington Post:
U.S. intelligence agencies can’t justify why they use so many contractors
In the wake of last year’s NSA revelations, many agencies have been reviewing their contracting policies. But few people have a good grasp on just how many contractors the government employs. What’s worse, the country’s eight civilian intelligence agencies often can’t sufficiently explain what they use those contractors for, according to a Government Accountability Office report.
Every year, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence is supposed to count how many contractors serve the intelligence community (IC). Due to differences in the way intelligence agencies define and assess their workers, however, the data are inconsistent and in some places incomplete. Out of hundreds of agency records, for example, GAO found that almost a fifth lacked enough paperwork to prove how much a contractor was paid. Another fifth of the records were found to have either over-reported or under-reported the actual cost of the contract work.
But the GAO reserves its harshest judgment for the agencies that couldn’t fully explain why they resorted to contractors in the first place.
From Deutsche Welle, attempting the ol’ pot/kettle maneuver:
‘Not shocked if Germany spied on us’
Americans would not be shocked if they found out that German intelligence services monitored them, former CIA Director John McLaughlin tells DW. He also explains why he feels mass surveillance is justified.
RT goes for the help:
No spying on friends: NSA bugs Merkel aides instead of chancellor
In the wake of President Obama’s promise to stop spying on German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the US intelligence has switched its attention to her top government officials, a German newspaper reported.
Washington’s relations with Germany were strained last year after revelations that the US National Security Agency (NSA) was conducting mass surveillance in Germany and even tapped the mobile phone of Chancellor Merkel.
Facing the German outrage, President Barack Obama pledged that the US would stop spying on the leader of the European country, which is among the closest and most powerful allies of America.
After the promise was made, the NSA has stepped up surveillance of senior German officials, German newspaper Bild am Sonntag (BamS) reported on Sunday.
Seeking a change with The Hill:
Dems press Holder on secret FBI letters
Two House Democrats are calling on Attorney General Eric Holder to make changes to secret letters that the FBI uses to get information.
In a letter on Wednesday, the lawmakers demanded answers about the FBI’s National Security Letters, which do not require a court order and require communications companies and financial institutions to turn over details about their customers.
“This is deeply troubling and, therefore, addressing the proper use of NSLs must be part of any meaningful reform of government surveillance authorities,” Reps. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and David Cicilline (D-R.I.) said in a joint statement accompanying the letter.
“We look forward to working with the Administration as we find a path forward on this issue.
Aviation Week fesses up:
USAF Space Chief Outs Classified Spy Sat Program
The U.S. Air Force is planning to launch two new and previously classified space situational awareness satellites into geosynchronous orbit this year, according to Gen. William Shelton, who leads Air Force Space Command.
The spacecraft were developed covertly by the Air Force and Orbital Sciences under the Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSAP), according to service officials.
The first two spacecraft will be boosted this year with two more to follow in 2016 to prevent a gap in surveillance on activities in the geosynchronous belt, Shelton said at the annual Air Force Association Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando. This is where commercial satellite communications are based, as well as critical national security assets such as the Space-Based Infrared System (Sbirs) early missile warning system and Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) constellation designed to provide jam-proof communications for the president even during a nuclear event.
“One cheap shot” against Sbirs or AEHF would be “devastating” to the Pentagon’s capabilities, Shelton said of a potential anti-satellite attack.
From the London Daily Mail, guess who’s listening:
Head of NSA’s Korea division charged with beating adopted son, three, to death. But he INSISTS the boy’s injuries were suffered in fall and his wife believes him
Brian O’Callaghan and his wife adopted the boy from Korea in October
O’Callaghan told police the boy fell in the shower two days before he died
Authorities describe the boy’s injuries as being ‘from head to toe’
Investigators believe O’Callaghan beat the boy while his wife was out of town
The autopsy and other medical tests offer conflicting causes of the boy’s death
O’Callaghan is an Iraq War veteran who now works as the NSA’s Korea division chief
O’Callaghan’s wife and other families say he is incapable of hurting a child
The National Security Agency’s Korea division chief has been charged with murder in the alleged beating death of his 3-year-old son who he and his wife adopted from Korea just months before his tragic death.
Brian O’Callaghan, a decorated Iraq War veteran who was awarded the Marine Corps Achievement Medal for his part in a gun battle that helped lead to the rescue of captured soldier Jessica Lynch, is accused of beating his adopted son, Hyunsu, so badly that he ultimately died two days after the alleged beating.
From BBC News, a busted Murdoch operative with a friend in a very high place:
Phone-hacking trial: Blair ‘advised Brooks before arrest’
Tony Blair gave advice to newspaper executive Rebekah Brooks on handling the phone-hacking scandal six days before her arrest, a court has heard.
The court heard Mrs Brooks spoke to the former prime minister and passed on what he had said to James Murdoch, then News International executive chairman.
In an email, she said Mr Blair had said he was “available” to her, James and Rupert Murdoch as an “unofficial adviser”, the Old Bailey heard.
Mrs Brooks denies any wrongdoing.
From Ars Technica, hack attack:
Iranians hacked Navy network for four months? Not a surprise.
NMCI, now being phased out, is the world’s biggest intranet, and its biggest target.
In 2012, Iranian hackers managed to penetrate the US Navy’s unclassified administrative network, the Navy Marine Corps Intranet. While the attack was disclosed last September, the scale of it was not—the attack gave hackers access to the NMCI for nearly four months, according to an updated report by The Wall Street Journal.
Vice Adm. Michael Rogers, who is now President Barack Obama’s choice to replace Gen. Keith Alexander as both NSA director and commander of the US Cyber Command, led the US Fleet Cyber Command when the attack came to light. Rogers’ response to the attack may be a factor in his confirmation hearings.
Iranian hackers attacked NMCI in August of 2012, using a vulnerability in a public-facing website to gain initial access to the network. Because of a flaw in the security of the network the server was hosted on, attackers were able to use the server to gain access to NMCI’s private network and spread to other systems. While the vulnerability that allowed the attackers to gain access in the first place was discovered and closed by October, spyware installed by the attackers remained in place until November.
RT raises the bar:
German telecom firm to roll out text, voice encryption app
Deutsche Telekom plans to launch an app for smartphones that encrypts voice and text messages. The move is the latest step taken by the firm to address users’ privacy concerns following NSA whistleblower, Edward Snowden’s, mass surveillance revelations.
The cloud-based app will encrypt each voice or text exchange between two devices using a unique code, Reuters cites Deutsche Telekom as saying in a statement.
The firm will roll the app out at Cebit – the world’s largest and most international computer expo – in Hanover, Germany, next month. It remains unclear when it will be available for download, though versions for Android smartphones will be released first, followed by a version for iOS smartphones. The product will be made available to business customers.
And Xinhua calls for a deal:
EU, Brazil to enhance cyber security cooperation
The European Union and Brazil have agreed to launch a new EU-Brazil dialogue on international cyber policy at the annual EU-Brazil summit held here on Monday.
Addressing a press conference, President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy said both the EU and Brazil share the common interest of protecting a “free and open” Internet, which has spurred tremendous economic and social progress.
“At the same time, we will continue to enhance data protection and global privacy standards,” he said.
EU and Brazil have agreed to have the first meeting on cyber security take place during the conference on Internet governance, which Brazil will host in Sao Paulo on April 23-24.
From Sky News, recycling:
US Airlines Warned Over Possible Shoe Bombs
Concerns are raised for the second time in less than three weeks over possible attempts to smuggle explosives onto planes.
Airlines flying to the United States have been warned to be on alert for explosives hidden in shoes.
It is the second time in less than three weeks the US government has raised concerns over possible attempts to smuggle explosives onto commercial jetliners.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) declined to discuss specific details about the warning but said it regularly shares relevant information with domestic and international partners.
ANSA keeps the secret keepers safe:
Italian spy agency officials acquitted in CIA snatch
State secrecy invoked in extraordinary rendition case
Italy’s supreme court on Monday acquitted the former head and the No.2 of the Italian secret service agency, Nicolo’ Pollari and Marco Mancini, as well as three agents, for involvement in the CIA’s extraordinary rendition of Muslim cleric Hassan Mustafa Omar Nasr from Milan in 2003.
The Cassation Court said sentences could not be upheld due to State secrecy.
Pollari and Mancini were respectively appealing a 10-year and a nine-year sentence at a lower court for allowing the CIA to commit “a grave violation of national sovereignty” when they snatched Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, an Islamist suspected of recruiting jihadi fighters.
And from Al Jazeera America, the expected:
Turkey increases control of Internet
President Abdullah Gul signs law allowing telecom authority to block websites without a court order
Turkish President Abdullah Gul approved a new law Tuesday which critics said aims to increase government controls over the Internet.
The legislation, approved by Parliament earlier this month, allows the telecommunications authority to block websites without a court decision. It also requires Internet providers to keep records of users’ activities for two years and make them available to authorities.
The move is seen by critics of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s critics as an authoritarian response to a corruption inquiry shaking his government and a bid to stop leaks from circulating online.
SecurityWeek spots another player:
US Man Sues Ethiopian Government for Spyware Infection
US Man Sues Ethiopia for Cyber Snooping
A lawsuit filed on Tuesday accuses Ethiopia of infecting a US man’s computer with spyware as part of a campaign to gather intelligence about those critical of the government.
“We have clear evidence of a foreign government secretly infiltrating an American’s computer in America, listening to his calls and obtaining access to a wide swath of his private life,” said attorney Nate Cardozo of Internet rights group Electronic Freedom Foundation.
“The current Ethiopian government has a well-documented history of human rights violations against anyone it sees as political opponents.”
And from thinkSPAIN, the game of zones, European style:
UK to lodge formal complaint against Spain following ‘illegal incursion’ into Gibraltarian waters
BRITISH Foreign Office officials have announced they will make a complaint ‘to the highest-possible authority’ after a fresh incursion into Gibraltar’s waters by a Spanish Naval ship.
The UK’s Royal Navy was carrying out military sky-diving exercises in the sea off the Rock on Tuesday when the Spanish ship SPS Vigia approached the area, heightening the tension between London and Madrid over the concrete blocks placed in the sea in Gibraltarian territory to create an artificial reef, which the Spanish government insists are within the seas belonging to the Bay of Algeciras (Cádiz).
The Royal Navy continued with its parachuting practice despite the incursion, says the Foreign Office, which says it intends to present a ‘formal protest’ at the ‘highest level’ against the Spanish government.
After the jump, the latest on the rapidly escalating Asian military escalation, border-claiming, historical, revanchist, and other security crises — plus social media lie detection, punishing proof of insecurity, felonious pseudospooking sexpionage, an Internet ban defeated, and a very serious worm in the Apple. . .
For our first Asian item, the silver lining to noxious clouds from Want China Times:
China’s smog a perfect defense against US laser: expert
China’s crippling pollution problem could be its biggest defense against the US Navy’s Laser Weapon System.
Zhang Zhaozhong, Chinese military theorist at the PLA National Defense University, said in an interview with China’s state broadcaster CCTV that the “fatal weakness” of laser weapons is hazy conditions. The range of a laser that can hit a target 10 kilometers away will be reduced to just one kilometer under hazy conditions, Zhang said in response to questions regarding the US Navy’s plans to deploy its first laser on a ship later this year.
If that is the case, China has little to be concerned about as its infamous PM2.5 ratings — in reference to airborne particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers — is often so high that its air would be almost impenetrable to lasers. Various major cities across the country such as Beijing recorded PM2.5 levels exceeding 115 micrograms per cubic meter as recently as this month, far above the 25 micrograms level considered safe by the World Health Organization. At such levels, the air quality index of these cities will also often hit the maximum of 500, which is considered “extremely hazardous.”
From South China Morning Post, and it’s about time:
US Army chief of staff announces regular high-level talks with PLA
China and the United States will establish regular high-level dialogue between their armies to promote better understanding and avoid possible conflict, US army chief of staff General Raymond Odierno said yesterday.
Such communication was crucial because any mishap between them could significantly affect stability in the Asia-Pacific region, Odierno said after meetings his Chinese counterparts in Beijing.
“This is really about expanding co-operation and, frankly, managing competition,” Odierno said as he wrapped up his two-day visit.
Xinhua raises the alarm:
China calls for alert on Japanese political move
China on Thursday called on neighboring countries of Japan and the international community to be on high alert after Japanese politicians backed their prime minister’s visit to the Yasukuni Shrine.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying made the appeal at a daily press briefing when commenting on Japanese politicians’ words which ignored Japan’s history of aggression.
Etsuro Honda, economic policy advisor to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, on Wednesday reportedly praised Abe’s courage to visit the war-linked shrine on Dec. 26. Japanese Vice Prime Minister Taro Aso also said the controversial visit was a matter of course.
“Turning blind eyes to the just appeal of the international community, Japanese politicians voiced such ridiculous remarks. It again showcased that they totally have no intention to reflect on the Japanese history of aggression,” Hua said.
And the Japan Daily Press, ratchets up:
China practicing for “short, sharp war” against Japan, says intelligence report
A U.S. Navy intelligence analyst believes that China is preparing for a “short, sharp war” with Japan as the People’s Liberation Army were seen conducting training drills that seem to simulate the taking over of the disputed Senkakus. While the uninhabited group of islands are under Japan’s administration, China, which calls them the Diaoyus, claims it is part of their inherent territory.
Deputy Chief of Staff Intelligence and Information Operations for the U.S. Pacific Fleet (PACFLEET) Capt. James Fannell, speaking at a West 2014 conference in San Diego said, said that they were able to see the “massive amphibious and cross-military region enterprise” of China. He added, “they concluded that the PLA has been given the new task to be able to conduct a short, sharp war to destroy Japanese forces in the East China Sea following with what can only be expected a seizure of the Senkakus or even a southern Ryukyu [islands] – as some of their academic say.”
Kyodo News bans:
China’s senior diplomat tells N. Korea “war or chaos” not allowed
China has told North Korean senior officials it “will never allow war or chaos” on the Korean Peninsula and agreed with Pyongyang to seek an early resumption of multilateral nuclear disarmament talks, the Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.
China’s position was delivered by Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin to North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun and other senior officials, including Ri Yong Ho, the country’s chief negotiator at the long-stalled six-party nuclear talks.
Liu’s four-day visit to North Korea from Monday comes after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry held a meeting on Friday in Beijing with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.
And from Want China Times, another border, more tension:
Indian Army sends special cells to monitor PLA at border
Three special teams of officers from the Indian Army, known as “China cells,” were recently sent to areas in the northern, central and eastern sectors of the country’s border to monitor the movement of the Chinese military in the disputed border regions, according to the New Delhi-based Hindustan Times.
General Bikram Singh, chief of staff of the Indian Army, told the paper that the establishment of the cells is a way for the nation’s military to understand China better. In addition to tracking the movements of the People’s Liberation Army in the border regions, Beijing’s foreign policy strategy, including its soft power initiatives and economic reforms will also be monitored and studied.
“It’s not about an incursion here or a transgression there. The China cells are looking at the big picture,” said an officer from the Indian Army quoted by the Hindustan Times. The Kolkata-based Eastern Command has a six-man team led by a brigadier general, which is the largest team among the regions, whereas three officers led by colonels staff the cells at the Udhampur-based Northern Command and the Lucknow-based Central Command.
South China Morning Post admonishes:
Likely next Indian PM Narendra Modi tells China: drop expansion mindset
Narendra Modi, the leading candidate to be India’s next prime minister after a forthcoming election, declared the disputed territory of Arunachal Pradesh an integral part of India yesterday and urged China to abandon its “mindset of expansion”.
India and China fought a brief border war in 1962. The nuclear-armed neighbours signed a pact in October to ensure that differences on their shared border do not spark a confrontation.
“Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India and will always remain so. No power can snatch it away from us,” Modi was shown on television saying on a campaign stop to the state. He wore the region’s traditional headdress and jacket.
“Times have changed. The world does not welcome the mindset of expansion in today’s times. China will also have to leave behind its mindset of expansion,” he said.
And Aviation Week & Space Technology cashes in:
U.S. Defense Trade With India Evolves
In the international race to court export weapons to India, the U.S. lags compared with longtime trading partners Russia and Israel.
The U.S. has made up some ground—the U.S. India Business Council estimates military trade between the two nations has gone from nearly nonexistent to more than $14 billion in the last dozen years. And to build on that success, U.S. companies are eager to pursue tighter partnerships with India, which is shifting its emphasis from weapon imports to deals that can help it develop a domestic manufacturing base.
From the Japan Daily Press, history leads the agenda:
Xi Jinping’s Germany visit reportedly to discuss World War II issues in relation to Japan
Diplomatic sources are saying that the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Berlin next month will be to discuss World War II issues, specifically to compare post-war actions by Germany and Japan. The two Asian countries have been locked in conflict the past years due to lingering historical issues from the Japanese occupation of China prior to and during the war.
China has in the past been comparing Germany’s apologies over the Nazi regime to that of Japanese politicians’ controversial statements over their wartime aggression that seems to undermine the past apologies offered by previous administrations. But a focus on World War II issues is not something that Berlin is very keen on discussing. “Germany is not happy,” said the diplomatic source. Another source said that China wanted Xi Jinping to visit the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin but that idea was immediately rejected by the German government. China is now looking at having the president visit the Neue Wache Memorial, a shrine for the war dead but not for convicted war criminals.
The Japan Times centralizes:
Cabinet will decide defense role: Abe
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Thursday that Cabinet approval is enough to change the government’s interpretation of war-renouncing Article 9 and allow Japan to help defend allied nations.
Previous administrations have followed the interpretation by the Cabinet Legislation Bureau that Japan cannot exercise the right of collective self-defense. Abe said the decision will be made by the Cabinet, not by the head of the bureau.
“Ultimately, the Cabinet will approve the reinterpretation,” Abe said during a session of the powerful Lower House Budget Committee. “And I am the one who is ultimately responsible for the Cabinet.”
He said that the administration will consider the issue along with the ruling camp before the matter comes before the Cabinet for approval, and the administration would also submit bills to the Diet necessary to amend the Self-Defense Forces Law.
More from Kyodo News:
Japan’s possible use of collective self-defense bound by Article 9: Abe
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe indicated Thursday that Japan’s exercise of the right of collective self-defense will still be bound by war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution even if the government removes its self-imposed ban.
Presenting the ongoing discussions of a government panel on security, Abe told the budget committee of the House of Representatives, “The main idea of the discussion is that Japan’s use of self-defense itself is restricted under Article 9, and it will also be the case for the right of collective self-defense.”
Removing the ban on exercising the right of collective self-defense is one of Abe’s main policy goals, amid concern about China’s growing assertiveness at sea and in airspace, and North Korea’s nuclear and missile development.
The Yomiuri Shimbun lays down the law:
Law allows for armed SDF rescues
The government has started a study on new legislation concerning the dispatch of Self-Defense Forces personnel to rescue Japanese citizens overseas, aiming to allow them to use weapons in perilous situations such as a hostage crisis involving armed groups or rescue operations in a country in a state of anarchy.
A bill will be submitted to either revise the existing SDF law or create a new measure at an extraordinary Diet session to be convened in autumn.
Concerning the rescue of Japanese citizens in perilous situations overseas, the SDF law was revised in November 2013 in the wake of the hostage crisis in Algeria in January last year. The revisions allow SDF personnel to transport Japanese nationals to safety by land in the event of an emergency situation overseas.
However, current criteria on the use of weapons by SDF members were not revised.
And the latest, via the Mainichi:
Panel to recommend Japan come to defense of allies under attack
A panel of experts on security affairs plans to recommend that Japan exercise the right to collective self-defense in the event that a country with which it has close ties comes under attack, a key panel member said Friday, citing the outline of a report to be submitted to the government possibly in April.
The panel also plans to recommend that Japan exercise the right when its national security would be significantly undermined were it not to act, said Shinichi Kitaoka, president of the International University of Japan and the acting chairman of the panel.
The panel is expected to recommend the government exercise the right in a more restrained manner than internationally accepted levels, Kitaoka said in a speech in Tokyo.
Massive opposition for another Abe plank from Kyodo News:
67% opposed to relaxing Japan’s arms export controls: Kyodo poll
A total of 66.8 percent of respondents in a Kyodo News opinion poll said they are opposed to relaxing Japan’s arms export controls, while 25.7 percent expressed support, in a sign that many voters are cautious about the government’s move to change Japan’s self-imposed restrictions on arms exports.
The nationwide telephone survey conducted over the weekend showed those opposed to relaxation of arms controls exceeded those in favor in all age groups. Among women, 74.7 percent said they are opposed to such a move.
In 1967, Japan adopted “three principles” on arms exports blocking the transfer of weapons to communist states, countries subject to embargoes under U.N. resolutions, and those involved in international conflicts.
More from the Asahi Shimbun:
Abe set to lift arms embargo to nations involved in armed conflicts
In a sweeping change to Japan’s security policy, the Abe administration is set to scrap its expansive ban on arms exports by allowing shipments to countries involved in international conflicts.
Under the administration’s draft, Japan would prohibit exports to nations sponsoring terrorism or violating international treaties regarding ammunition.
But experts are concerned that the new rules governing arms exports, presented to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner, New Komeito, could allow Japan to export weapons almost without restrictions.
The Cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is seeking to approve the new rules replacing the existing three principles on arms exports after gaining the backing of the ruling coalition.
And Kyodo News lays out the next, chilling stage:
Abe wants constitutional change to give premier more emergency power
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed on Monday a desire for a Japanese premier to be given more authority in case of state emergencies through constitutional revision.
At a Diet committee session, Abe backed a proposal by his Liberal Democratic Party for newly inserting a clause concerning the premier’s power to address armed attacks by other countries, insurgency and serious natural disasters.
The proposal was stirred partly by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan.
And yet another move toward the neoliberal national security state, via the Mainichi:
Expanded wiretapping proposal discussed by Legislative Council committee
A Justice Ministry sectional committee has proposed that the scope of crimes subject to wiretapping in Japan be greatly expanded, dividing opinions among members of a committee debating the issue.
The proposal, made by a subgroup of the “Special Committee on New-age Criminal Justice System” that was established by the Justice Ministry’s Legislative Council, was presented during a committee meeting held on Feb. 21.
Under current laws, wiretapping by investigative authorities is limited to four categories: crimes involving drugs, crimes involving weapons, group smuggling, and organized murder. A police representative on the committee criticized the current system as difficult to use, and said that the number of wiretapping investigations was low compared with those overseas. The sectional committee’s proposal suggests that nine types of crimes be added to the list, including general cases of murder, infliction of injury, blackmail or fraud, abduction, theft or robbery, arson of inhabited structures, use of explosives, and hiding criminal proceeds.
Under a basic interim framework compiled by the committee in January last year, bank-transfer fraud and organized theft — including cases involving foreign nationals — were cited as examples of an expanded scope of wiretapping. The latest proposal widens this scope even further.
Kyodo News escalates another crisis:
Takeshima Day ceremony held, attended by senior gov’t official
A senior government official attended a ceremony on Saturday commemorating the Japanese “incorporation” of islets at the center of a territorial dispute with South Korea.
Yoshitami Kameoka, parliamentary secretary with the Cabinet Office, represented the government at the Takeshima Day ceremony to mark the incorporation in 1905 of several islets known as Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea.
The Foreign Ministry of South Korea, which controls the islets, had demanded that Kameoka not attend and that the ceremony be cancelled.
More from JapanToday:
Shimane stages annual rally over disputed islands with S Korea
An annual rally was held on Saturday marking Japan’s claim to a set of tiny islands controlled by South Korea, further fueling a long-standing territorial row between the neighbors.
Some 500 people gathered at the event in Shimane Prefecture in western Japan, including a high-ranking Japanese government official as well as local and national politicians, organizers said.
Tokyo refers to the islands in the Sea of Japan (known as East Sea in South Korea) as Takeshima, while they are known as Dokdo in South Korea. The Shimane prefectural government claims that the islands are under its jurisdiction.
Yoshitami Kameoka, a parliamentary secretary in Tokyo’s Cabinet Office, attended the event representing the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the organizers said.
Jiji Press first a counterblast:
S. Korea Raps Japan over Takeshima, Comfort Women
A South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman on Saturday issued a statement criticizing Japan over the Sea of Japan islands of Takeshima and so-called comfort women.
The Japanese government is turning a deaf ear to harsh criticism from the international community and denying historical truth, the statement said.
The statement was issued as an annual “Takeshima Day” ceremony was held in Shimane Prefecture, western Japan, the same day. The islands, called Dokdo in South Korea, are at the center of the two countries’ territorial dispute.
The Japan Times adds another shot:
Wartime labor case brews in South Korea
Japanese officials may soon get a fresh diplomatic headache stemming from its colonialist past with South Korea as it struggles to cope with the sex slave denial issue, a territorial dispute and challenges to the naming of the Sea of Japan.
The government is paying close attention to a lawsuit filed in South Korea by those conscripted to work for Japanese companies during the war. Speculation is growing that the South Korean Supreme Court will rule in favor of the plaintiffs in the first half of 2014.
A court victory for the former workers, who are seeking withheld wages and compensation from the firms, may effectively overturn the terms of the 1965 bilateral agreement that settled wartime compensation issues and established diplomatic ties.
“If left as is, every other compensation problem would be revived,” a Japanese government source said.
And from the Asahi Shimbun, yet another escalation:
Tokyo hints it will re-examine accounts by former ‘comfort women’ to verify credibility
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga suggested the government may re-examine statements given by former “comfort women” that formed the basis of a formal apology Japan made 21 years ago.
Suga referred to the move, which South Korea has likened to turning “back the clock of history,” in response to a lawmaker’s call for verification of the accuracy of the statements.
Some Japanese lawmakers maintain there is little documentation to show coercion was involved in recruiting the women to wartime military brothels by Japanese authorities.
Suga’s comment at the Lower House Budget Committee on Feb. 20 came after Nobuo Ishihara, former deputy chief Cabinet secretary, told an earlier committee session that the Japanese government never investigated whether the women’s accounts were accurate.
Joining the chorus with the Japan Daily Press:
NHK chief vows impartiality after ‘comfort women’ remarks, refuses to resign
The embattled NHK chief, who became caught in the middle of controversy over insensitive remarks about the issue of sexual slavery, maintained that he would remain impartial as head of the public broadcast group. Katsuto Momii was criticized last month for saying that women forced into sexual slavery during the Second World War were “common in any country at war.”
Momii has since apologized for the comments, which earned him the ire of the Chinese, South Koreans and even much of the Japanese public. Speaking to lawmakers who are discussing NHK’s annual budget, Momii said, ‘The most important thing is that all NHK staff strictly adhere to the principles of freedom of expression, political neutrality and fairness.” He also noted the controversy he was involved in, saying, “That I offered personal views at my inaugural press conference was inappropriate, and I will be more cautious in the future.” While he has already expressed regret over this, no effort was made to retract his remarks, which casted some doubts on the integrity of the broadcasting firm. Many rights groups and a Japanese journalist association have already called for Momii to step down, but Abe’s administration were bent on keeping itself from the furor and described it as “comments made as individual.”
The Asahi Shimbun has chutzpah:
Embattled NHK chairman: What’s wrong with what I said?
Despite having offered apologies and retractions, the chairman of Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK) sees no problem with his remarks that offended overseas countries and called his political neutrality into question, sources said Feb. 18.
“What is wrong with (what I said)?” Katsuto Momii was quoted as saying before NHK’s Board of Governors on Feb. 12. “I’ve already canceled my comments.”
His words at the abruptly closed meeting have raised doubts within NHK that the controversy will end soon.
More from Jiji Press:
Japan’s Apology to Comfort Women Based on Unconfirmed Testimony: Ex-Official
A 1993 comment by then Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono apologizing to so-called comfort women was based on unconfirmed testimonies, former Japanese Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobuo Ishihara said on Thursday.
In the Kono statement, the Japanese government admitted that the now-defunct Japanese Imperial Army and state officials were behind the recruitment of comfort women, who were forced to work as prostitutes for Japanese soldiers in the wartime.
Kono said many comfort women were recruited against their will and in some cases the Japanese military and government officials were directly involved in the recruitment process, and offered apology.
Ishihara said at Thursday’s House of Representatives Budget Committee meeting that the government at the time did not verify testimonies given by 16 South Korean women picked as former comfort women by the South Korean government.
The Asahi Shimbun brings it to the Golden State:
Japanese residents demand removal of ‘comfort women’ statue in California
A group of Japanese residents sued the City of Glendale, California, over the construction of a statue honoring “comfort women,” claiming it violates the U.S. Constitution by interfering with the federal government’s authority to set foreign policy.
The lawsuit demanding the statue’s removal was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on Feb. 20 by the Global Alliance for Historical Truth (GAHT), a nonprofit group made up of Japanese citizens living in the United States and naturalized Americans from Japan. It says the city’s actions could cause confusion over U.S. diplomatic relations with Tokyo given Japan’s stance over the delicate and controversial issue.
In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga clearly empathized with the lawsuit in a news conference held Feb. 21. “It is extremely regrettable that the statue was erected,” he said. “Japanese residents in America felt the same way as the Japanese government over the statue and resorted to the lawsuit.”
Another blast from Kyodo News:
Abe aide hits back at U.S. over criticism of Yasukuni visit
An aide to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has expressed disappointment at U.S. criticism of Abe’s visit in December to the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, but the top government spokesman on Wednesday hurriedly denied that the aide was expressing the government’s view.
Referring to the U.S. expression of dismay at Abe’s visit to the Shinto shrine that has also annoyed Japan’s neighbors in Asia, Seiichi Eto, a House of Councillors member of Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party, said in a message recently posted on the YouTube video-sharing website, “It’s us who are disappointed.”
The close aide to Abe, however, said Wednesday he will withdraw the message from the website, citing the possibility it could be misunderstood as a government message. The about-face came only hours after Eto told reporters, “That was my personal view. Why is it be a problem?”
And yet another from the Japan Daily Press:
Tokyo museum tells artist to remove anti-Yasukuni Shrine sculpture
A Japanese sculptor is currently in hot water with the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum because of one of his works depicting critical sentiments regarding Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to the Yasukuni Shrine last December. But Katsuhisa Nakagaki says giving in to the museum’s demand to remove his sculpture is curtailing his freedom of expression.
Nakagaki is the chief of an organization of Japanese sculptors and has around 60 artworks on display at the museum until February 21. The one that has caught the ire of museum officials is a 1.5 meter high dome-shaped work which he calls Toki no Shozo–Zetsumetsukigushu idiot JAPONICA Enfun (“Portrait of the Times: The Endangered Species idiot JAPONICA Round Tomb”). There is a very frank and critical handwritten sign on the sculpture which says, “Let us protect Article 9 of the Constitution, admit the stupidity of visiting Yasukuni Shrine, stop the rightward tilt of the current administration and seek political leaders who are more intellectual and thoughtful.”
South China Morning Post takes countermeasures:
China considers submitting Nanking massacre papers to Unesco heritage project
Beijing considers countering Japanese bid to send kamikazi letters to heritage programme with documents from the ‘rape of Nanking’
China says it might counter a Japanese bid to submit wartime letters by suicide pilots to a UN heritage programme with documents of Japanese atrocities during the Nanking massacre.
Earlier this month, Minamikyushu city in southern Japan, the site of a base where young kamikaze pilots trained for their final missions, applied to list pilots’ final letters to their families with the Memory of the World Programme of the UN cultural organisation, Unesco.
Beijing’s move was revealed to non-mainland journalists during a two-day tour – organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs – to the former Chinese capital, which today uses the post-war pinyin spelling Nanjing . It was where defeated Chinese troops and residents were subjected to mass rape and slaughter after the Japanese invaded.
While Kyodo News propagandizes:
New Japan video criticizes S. Korea’s move to rename Sea of Japan
The Foreign Ministry released on its website Monday a new video criticizing South Korea for causing “unnecessary confusion” by pressing other countries to adopt its name “East Sea” in referring to the body of water between Japan and the Korean Peninsula.
“The Sea of Japan is the only internationally established name” for the body of water, a ministry official said, adding that the ministry hopes to spread in the international community what it says is “the correct understanding.”
The video says that after studying maps in libraries in Europe and the United States, the Japanese government has determined that the phrase “Sea of Japan,” or “Nihonkai” in Japanese, has been in wide use globally since around the end of the 18th century.
Another echo of times past from the Japan Times:
Media await rightist ex-general’s next move
“Thank you, everyone,” wrote Toshio Tamogami in his weekly column in Shukan Asahi Geino (Feb. 27). “This has given me great courage toward