Today’s tales from the dark side begins with this from the Independent:
White House lawyers ‘unable to find’ critical Iraq letter from Tony Blair telling George Bush: ‘I’m with you whatever’
A letter sent by Tony Blair to George Bush that is “critical” to the Iraq Inquiry has gone missing from official White House records, it has been reported.
The publication of secret correspondence between the UK and US administrations in the build-up to the Iraq War has become a major stumbling block for Sir John Chilcot’s inquiry into the 2003 invasion.
While the Cabinet Office has said privately that it wants to release as many of the Blair-Bush communications as possible, there is one letter which lawyers at the White House say they have “not been able to locate”.
From the San Jose Mercury News, the panopticon on those other courts:
Big Data meets big-time basketball
As of this year, every NBA team has access to sophisticated tracking data that can tell them the position of the ball and every player on the court for every second of every game of the season. The data, provided by a system of cameras developed by a company called SportVU and installed in every NBA arena, is starting to revolutionize professional basketball, influencing everything from game strategy and player conditioning to how fans interact with the sport.
“It’s a real game changer,” said Ben Alamar, a professor of sport management at Menlo College in Atherton who works as a consultant to the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers. “It’s allowing us to ask questions that we really couldn’t ask before.”
The NBA’s new camera system is only the latest example of the power and pervasiveness of big data — the collection of large sets of small tidbits of information to explore everything from the farthest stars to individual consumer desires.
And on the roads, via the Los Angeles Times:
Use of license plate photo databases is raising privacy concerns
A growing number of cameras — hundreds around Los Angeles, thousands nationwide — are engaged in a simple pursuit: Taking pictures of license plates.
The digital photos, automatically snapped by cameras mounted on cars and street poles and then tagged with time and location, are transmitted to massive databases running on remote computer servers. Cops can then search those databases to track the past whereabouts of drivers.
Law enforcement officials say the data collection is invaluable for tracking down stolen cars and catching fugitives.
But such databases are also being built by private firms, which can sell access to anyone willing to pay, such as lenders, repo workers and private investigators. That is raising worries among privacy advocates and lawmakers, who say the fast-growing industry is not only ripe for conflicts of interest but downright invasive.
From TechWeekEurope, a victory perhaps, but also an exploit for Those Who Shall Not Be Named:
Minnesota Passes Smartphone Kill-Switch Legislation
Minnesota becomes the first US state to require manufacturers to offer kill switch for all smartphones sold
Minnesota has become the first US state to introduce legislation that requires all smartphones sold to have a kill-switch feature in the event that the device is lost or stolen.
Politicians on both sides of the Atlantic have been campaigning for such a measure and last month, manufacturers and operators agreed to include a “baseline anti-theft tool” in handsets sold in the US. However this is the first time such a requirement has been written into law.
“Any new smart phone manufactured on or after July 1, 2015, sold or purchased in Minnesota must be equipped with preloaded antitheft functionality or be capable of downloading that functionality,” reads the legislation. “The functionality must be available to purchasers at no cost.”
From the Miami Herald, more cause for domestic insecurity:
Behind bars, a brutal and unexplained death
The purported details of Darren Rainey’s last hour are difficult to read.
“I can’t take it no more, I’m sorry. I won’t do it again,’‘ he screamed over and over, according to a grievance complaint from a fellow inmate, as Rainey was allegedly locked in a shower with the scalding water turned on full blast.
A 50-year-old mentally ill inmate at the Dade Correctional Institution, Rainey was pulled into the locked shower by prison guards as punishment after defecating in his cell and refusing to clean it up, said the fellow inmate, who worked as an orderly. He was left there unattended for more than an hour as the narrow chamber filled with steam and water.
When guards finally checked on prisoner 060954, he was on his back and dead. His skin was so burned that it had shriveled from his body, a condition referred to as slippage, according to a medical document involving the death.
And via the Fort Collins Coloradoan, another whistleblower punished:
Whistleblower: VA punished me for not cooking books
The whistleblower behind the federal investigation of the Fort Collins Veterans Affairs clinic said she was put on two-week unpaid leave for not “cooking the books” when scheduling appointments.
Lisa Lee, a former Navy reservist now on active duty in Hawaii, told the Fort Collins Coloradoan she and another scheduler were transferred from Fort Collins, Colo., in March 2013 for refusing to hide wait times between desired appointment dates and actual dates. She said the suspension came after she filed an internal grievance about the transfer and scheduling practices.
The VA aims to see veterans within 14 days of desired appointment dates and uses it as a performance measure. It is a contributing factor to administrator bonuses, according to a VA spokesperson. Lee said a spreadsheet detailed which schedulers met the 14-day goal.
Bad news for would-be immigrants at home, via Homeland Security News Wire:
Records show Border Patrol agents typically not disciplined for abusing immigrants
Records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by the American Immigration Council(AIC) found that of 809 abuse complaints reported to the Border Patrol’s internal affairs unit between January 2009 and January 2012, only thirteen led to disciplinary action, and most of the agents cited for disciplinary action were only ordered to undergo counseling. One expert on unauthorized migration says that Border Patrol agents are not properly trained or disciplined by the agency.”People are not being held accountable for their actions,” he said. He conducted a survey in which he found that 10 percent of migrants reported abuse by Border Patrol agents when they were found illegally crossing the border.
And in Old Blighty, via the Observer:
MPs to investigate Serco over sex assault claim at Yarl’s Wood centre
Firm forced to disclose secret internal report as Keith Vaz says he is ‘shocked’ by events at immigration detention centre
Serco, the private outsourcing giant, is to be investigated by MPs after it was forced to disclose a secret internal report revealing evidence that it failed to properly investigate a claim of repeated sexual assaults by one of its staff against a female resident at Yarl’s Wood immigration detention centre.
The document, which was marked confidential, was made public last week following a four-month legal battle between Serco and Guardian News and Media. Lawyers said the report demonstrates a culture of disbelief towards women inside the detention centre, which is run by Serco, and hailed the high court’s decision forcing Serco to disclose the document as a victory for greater transparency.
The revelation comes a day after it was disclosed that Serco could be among companies to take over the running of privatised children’s social services, including child protection, under proposals being considered by Michael Gove’s Department for Education.
While Want China Times warns of other insecurities:
PLA wary of data leaks and malware from USB drives
In the internet era, mobile storage capacity is essential, especially in the form of USB flash drives or other portable storage drives. However, the risk of information leaks has prompted many, including the military, to consider how to monitor usage of such devices, reports the PLA Daily, the official newspaper of China’s armed forces.
The USB flash drives now readily available on the market are cheaper, smaller, faster and have thousands of times more capacity than the storage units that were around just a few years ago. Flash memory drives are also more durable and reliable than hard drives as they have no moving parts.
The drives present a significant security challenge for companies and organizations as their small size and ease of use allows unsupervised visitors or employees to smuggle out confidential data with little chance of detection. Both corporate and public computers are vulnerable to attackers connecting a flash drive to a free USB port to download material or to upload malicious software such as keyboard loggers or packet sniffers.
And Deutsche Welle sounds the panic alarm:
Spiegel: NATO unprepared if Russia moved into Baltic members
According to the German magazine Spiegel, NATO is examining scenarios in the event of a Russian military move in Eastern Europe. Alarm bells are already ringing in eastern states, and NATO is keen to show it could cope.
The article, which appeared in Spiegel’s online edition in German on Sunday, cites an internal North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) draft document pertaining to discussions occurring within the military alliance and among individual members about possible scenarios if Russia were to launch a military campaign in Eastern Europe.
The draft document arrives at the conclusion that Russia’s ability to “execute a significant military action without much warning poses a wide-reaching threat for maintaining safety and stability in the Euro-Atlantic zone.”
NATO has observed a Russian troop buildup near its border with Ukraine, but Russia claims it has no current plans for a military move. Ukraine is not a member of NATO, but the alliance is keen to show that it can effectively defend its Baltic members should the need arise.
On to the drone front, first with a video report from RT America:
“Drone Memos” author headed for Senate confirmation
Program notes:
On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced President Barack Obama’s nominee to the First Circuit Court of Appeals, David Barron, will receive a confirmation vote in the Senate next week. The nomination has drawn calls from both sides of the aisle for the White House to release the drone memos, written by Barron, to the public. Those memos served as a legal basis for the drone strike that killed American citizen Anwar al Awlaki in 2011, but they remain classified. RT’s Sam Sacks reports.
From TheLocal.se, drones over Scandinavia:
Swedish police mull drone deployment
The Swedish National Police Board is to review how unmanned aerial vehicles, also known as drones, could be of use while conducting routine police work.
The National Police Board (Rikspolisstyrelsen) has been awarded funds to investigate possible applications of the technology.
Examples of when the unmanned aerial vehicles could be of use include incidents such as oil spills and at crime scenes when forensic scientists could send in the drones to take pictures, reducing the risk of evidence being destroyed.
After the jump, the latest from the Asian Game of Zones, including emerging alliances, political posturing, and the nearly completed remilitarization authorization in Japan. . .
From Xinhua, China makes a move:
Chinese, Kyrgyz presidents agree to deepen strategic partnership
On regional affairs, Xi stressed that it is in line with the fundamental interests of regional countries to safeguard central Asia’s peace, stability, development and prosperity.
China opposes external forces’ interference in central Asian nations’ internal affairs, Xi said, stressing that China is willing to work with Kyrgyzstan in the CICA, Shanghai Cooperation Organization and other frameworks.
Xi urged the two sides to foster a sense of community of destiny and interests, advocate a common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable outlook of Asian security so as to jointly promote regional peace, stability and development.
While China Daily throws in a ringer:
Sino-US military ties get a boost, general says
The consensus on developing a new type of China-US military relationship is the “biggest gain” of the latest visit to the US by General Fang Fenghui, chief of the General Staff of China’s People’s Liberation Army, a senior military official said on Friday in New York.
“Both sides have expressed willingness to promote bilateral military relations to a new type of military relationship,” said Guan Youfei, chief of the Defense Ministry’s Foreign Affairs Office, at a news conference held at the Chinese consulate in New York, speaking of meetings with officials last week, including Fang’s US counterpart, General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“General Dempsey said now is the best time to develop bilateral military relations,” Guan said, adding that the idea fits within the framework of a new type of major country relationship, a consensus reached between President Xi Jinping and US President Barack Obama during their summit in Sunnylands, California, last June.
While Jiji Press stages a walk-around:
2,100 March around Futenma to Oppose U.S. Bases
About 2,100 local residents and other people marched around the U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma air station in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture, on Sunday to protest the government’s plan to relocate the base within Okinawa.
Braving large drops of rain, the participants in the antibase march chanted slogans, such as “We oppose a new base in Henoko” and “Remove the Osprey (military transport aircraft).”
After the march, they attended a rally in Ginowan to mark the 42nd anniversary last Thursday of Okinawa’s reversion to Japanese administration from 27 years of U.S. control since Japan’s defeat in World War II.
From the Yomiuri Shimbun, a voice in support:
Nago mayor calls Futenma relocation ‘rights issue’
Nago Mayor Susumu Inamine stressed his opposition here Saturday to the relocation of a U.S. Marine Corps base to the city of Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, calling it a human rights issue.
“Ignoring the results of the mayoral election in Nago would deny its citizens legitimate rights and be a human rights issue. Such an act would never be accepted in New York and the United States,” Inamine said in a speech to a meeting in New York.
Inamine staunchly opposes the Japanese government’s plan to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma Air Station in a residential area of Ginowan, Okinawa, to the Henoko coastal area of Nago. He was reelected Nago mayor in January.
Channel NewsAsia Singapore gets tough:
Vietnam stifles new demonstrations as China fumes
Vietnamese security forces stifled fresh protests on Sunday over China’s plans to drill for oil in contested waters, as Beijing sent five ships to help evacuate its nationals from Vietnam following deadly mass riots last week.
China’s state media said more than 3,000 of its citizens had already returned home in recent days after the territorial tensions and riots sent relations between the frequently quarrelsome communist neighbours spiralling to their lowest point in decades.
Enraged mobs torched or otherwise damaged hundreds of foreign-owned businesses last week, killing two Chinese nationals and injuring about 140.
More from the China Post:
Despite fears, Vietnam calm on set protest day
There have been no reports of major anti-China protests in Vietnam as of pres time, a spokeswoman from Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said.
Vietnam cities were largely peaceful and no major public gatherings in Ho Chi Minh City in the south or elsewhere were reported, Anna Kao told Taiwan’s Central New Agency.
MOFA will keep the latest updates on the situation in Vietnam on its website. Anti-China protests and rioting last week caused damage to Chinese and Taiwanese businesses in the Southeast Asian country. There were calls on the Internet for the public in Vietnam to hold demonstrations Sunday to protest against China, which on May 1 moved an oil rig into a disputed area of the South China Sea.
And the latest from South China Morning Post:
Firm grip kept on anti-China protests in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City
Fresh protests held in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi as Beijing urges cancellation of trips to Vietnam and suspends bilateral exchanges
Mainlanders were urged yesterday to put on hold plans to visit Vietnam as Hanoi clamped down on anti-China protests.
The foreign ministry in Beijing also announced it would suspend some bilateral exchanges after violence last week that left at least two Chinese dead and more than 100 injured.
“China will consider taking further measures according to how the situation develops,” foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said.
And a consequence, also from South China Morning Post:
Thousands more Chinese to be evacuated from Vietnam after riots
16 Chinese critically injured in protests flown home from Vietnam on chartered medical flight, while transport ministry sends five ships
Another 4,000 mainlanders are expected to be evacuated from Vietnam as soon as today in the aftermath of deadly anti-China protests last week.
China’s foreign ministry said yesterday that more than 3,000 people had already been evacuated as of Saturday afternoon.
Sixteen critically injured Chinese nationals were evacuated from Vietnam early yesterday aboard a chartered medical flight arranged by the central government, the ministry said. They landed in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province.
And from Want China Times, just in case:
PLA troops spotted near China-Vietnam border
A large number of People’s Liberation Army troops have been spotted heading towards the China-Vietnam border as tensions between the two countries continue to escalate, reports Hong Kong’s Sing Tao Daily.
As yet another large-scale anti-China protest was scheduled for Sunday, Chinese netizens reported seeing an “endless stream” of PLA soldiers in full combat gear at Chongzuo train station, apparently on their way to the 97-kilometer China-Vietnam border at Pingxiang city in southern China’s Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. The soldiers were said to have been accompanied by tanks, armored vehicles, missile launchers and other heavy artillery.
Pingxiang was where the Sino-Vietnamese War of 1979 began, and locals are reportedly preparing to evacuate the area out of fears of an imminent military conflict.
From Xinhua, a declaration with insular intent:
China cannot afford to lose an inch of its territory: general
China could not afford to lose an inch of its territory and called on the United States to hold an objective view on the South China Sea and East China Sea issues, a senior Chinese general said here Thursday.
The “border territory which has passed down from our ancestors into the hands of our generation — we cannot afford to lose an inch,” visiting Chief of General Staff of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Fang Fenghui stressed at a joint press briefing after meeting U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey.
Fang, who was on a U.S. tour since Tuesday, said: “We do not make trouble. We do not create trouble. But we are not afraid of trouble.”
And our last South China Morning Post headline, on the digital front:
China says internet security necessary to counter ‘hostile forces’
A senior official with China’s new top steering committee on internet security said political security was fundamental for the country’s cybersecurity policy, the People’s Daily reported.
China Daily recalls the past and a bone of contention:
Hidden dangers, ruined lives
Nearly seven decades after the end of World War II, chemical weapons discarded by retreating Japanese troops still pose a threat to life and limb, report He Na and Han Junhong in Dunhua, Jilin province.
The discovery of unexploded wartime shells often makes national headlines, but for residents of Dunhua city, in the northeastern province of Jilin, it’s a commonplace event and most people seem almost inured to it.
“If finding rusty shells is news, reporters should visit our village. They’d have a story to write almost every day,” said Zhang Yuxiang, 70, from the village of Daqiaoxi.
For our final item, if tensions over existing islands weren’t enough, more of them are coming into being. From NewsOnJapan:
Volcanic eruption continues, making island bigger
A remote Japanese Pacific island continues to expand because of lava flows from a volcano that began erupting nearly 6 months ago.
An NHK crew took an aerial video of Nishinoshima Island to the far south of Tokyo on Sunday. Columns of smoke are rising from 2 craters. One of them is spewing lava, cinders and black smoke every few seconds.
Tokyo Institute of Technology Professor Kenji Nogami accompanied the crew. He says lava is flowing from several locations other than the craters.
