Lots of ground to cover and some very interesting stories from the world of deep politics, spooks, hacks, blunders, and the Asian Game of Zones.
First up, from the New York Times, ignorance of history or simply slippery politics?:
A President Whose Assurances Have Come Back to Haunt Him
The comment that has caused Mr. Obama the most grief in recent days was his judgment about groups like ISIS. In an interview last winter with David Remnick of The New Yorker, Mr. Obama sought to make the point that not every terrorist group is a threat like Al Qaeda, requiring extraordinary American action.
“The analogy we use around here sometimes, and I think is accurate, is if a JV team puts on Lakers uniforms, that doesn’t make them Kobe Bryant,” Mr. Obama told Mr. Remnick. He drew a distinction between Al Qaeda and “jihadists who are engaged in various local power struggles and disputes, often sectarian.”
Asked about that by Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press” last weekend, Mr. Obama denied that he necessarily meant ISIS. “Keep in mind I wasn’t specifically referring to ISIL,” he said, using an alternate acronym for the group.
“I’ve said that regionally, there were a whole series of organizations that were focused primarily locally — weren’t focused on homeland, because I think a lot of us, when we think about terrorism, the model is Osama bin Laden and 9/11,” Mr. Obama said. And some groups evolve, he noted. “They’re not a JV team,” he added of ISIS.
But the transcript of the New Yorker interview showed that Mr. Obama made his JV team comment directly after being asked about terrorists in Iraq, Syria and Africa, which would include ISIS. After Mr. Obama’s initial answer, Mr. Remnick pointed out that “that JV team just took over Fallujah,” a city in western Iraq seized by ISIS. Mr. Obama replied that terrorism in many places around the world was not necessarily “a direct threat to us or something that we have to wade into.”
From Want China Times, blowback metastasis:
Influence of ISIS felt in China, Southeast Asia
The influence of the brutal jihadist group known as the Islamic State, formerly the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), may be spreading in Southeast Asia and China despite strong opposition from governments in the region.
According to a report from Singapore’s New Straits Times, Malaysian security authorities have identified four new terror groups that have the same broad goals as Islamic State and may eventually join forces to carve out territory in countries like Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia to form an independent, unified “super” Islamic caliphate to rule parts of Southeast Asia.
The four organizations, identified by the acronyms BKAW, BAJ, Dimzia and ADI, are said to have strong links with similar groups active in the Southeast Asia region as well as Islamic State and the terrorist group Abu Sayyaf.
From RT, maybe they should bust ‘em for trademark infractions:
‘Brand suicide’: Companies sharing name with ISIS forced to rebrand
Program note:
RT looks at how sharing the same name as the infamous extremist group is causing a major headache for a number of companies with no links to jihad. And it’s not just corporations that are suffering because of being called ISIS.
From the London Daily Mail, another intellectual property assault?:
ISIS declares war on Twitter: Terror group warns employees they will be assassinated for closing down Islamist propaganda accounts
Jerusalem-based group connected to ISIS tweeted threat to Twitter
Called on ‘lone wolves’ to assassinate employees for closing accounts
Issued specific warning to staff at headquarters in Silicon Valley
The social media site is a key platform for the group’s propaganda
From Reuters, blowback in Africa continues to rage:
Battle for Benghazi could break up Libya
Pro-government Libyan forces, already reeling from the fall of the capital, are fighting to prevent Islamist militants from seizing the eastern city of Benghazi and splitting the North African country into three warring parts.
Three weeks after losing Tripoli to a different militia, the army now faces an offensive in Libya’s second-largest city from the Islamists of Ansar al-Sharia, which has overrun special forces bases and is attacking Benghazi airport.
Losing the port city would not only leave the government looking impotent and irrelevant. It would also increase the risk of the country crumbling into de facto autonomous regions: the militants demand Islamist rule, while other armed groups want greater powers for the eastern region they call by its ancient name of Cyrenaica.
From Want China Times, recognition:
US planned industrial espionage against China, Russia: report
Though the United States claims that it does not engage in economic and industrial espionage to benefit American corporations, a secret document issued by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence revealed that Washington had plans to steal information from corporations in China, Russia, India and Iran, says the Intercept, a news platform established to report on the documents released by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The secret document known as 2009 Quadrennial Intelligence Community Review anticipates a series of potential scenarios that the United States may face by 2025 from China, Russia, India and Iran. “One of the principal threats raised in the report is a scenario in which the United States’ technological and innovative edge slips”— in particular, that the technological capacity of foreign multinational corporations could outstrip that of US corporations,” said the report.
It then recommended that the US government launch a multi-pronged, systematic effort to gather open source and proprietary information through clandestine penetration and counterintelligence. Furthermore, the report envisions cyber operations penetrating covert centers of innovation such as R&D facilities. The report also suggested the use of cyber espionage to bolster the competitive advantage of American corporations.
From the Guardian, takin’ it to court:
‘Five Eyes’ surveillance pact should be published, Strasbourg court told
Appeal lodged at European court of human rights for disclosure of intelligence sharing policies of UK and foreign agencies
The secret “Five Eyes” treaty that authorises intelligence sharing between the UK, US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand should be published, according to an appeal lodged on Tuesday at the European court of human rights.
The application by Privacy International (PI), which campaigns on issues of surveillance, to the Strasbourg court is the latest in a series of legal challenges following the revelations of the US whistleblower Edward Snowden aimed at forcing the government to disclose details of its surveillance policies.
The civil liberties group alleges that the UK is violating the right to access information by “refusing to disclose the documents that have an enormous impact on human rights in the UK and abroad”.
Network World lobbies:
Tech industry groups ask US Senate to ‘swiftly pass’ NSA curbs
Tech industry organizations have written a letter to leaders in the U.S. Senate, to ask them to swiftly pass the USA Freedom Act, legislation that is expected to end the collection of bulk domestic phone data by the National Security Agency.
Disclosures about the U.S. government’s surveillance programs since June 2013 have led to an erosion of public trust in the U.S. government and the U.S. technology sector, anti-software piracy group BSA, Computer and Communications Industry Association, Information Technology Industry Council, Reform Government Surveillance and the Software and Information Industry Association wrote to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Republican Leader in the Senate Mitch McConnell on Monday.
Reforms contained in the USA Freedom Act “will send a clear signal to the international community and to the American people that government surveillance programs are narrowly tailored, transparent, and subject to oversight,” the industry groups added.
But California’s plutocratic senator suggest a politically convenient delay, via the Guardian:
Feinstein: CIA torture report will be delayed as Democrats decide redactions
Though 600-page report was planned for September, top senator says arguments may not finish until after midterms
The public release of a long-awaited US Senate report detailing the CIA’s use of harsh interrogation techniques could be held up for weeks as the Senate Intelligence Committee and Obama administration negotiate what material can be included in the document, the committee’s chairwoman said on Monday.
The committee had hoped to release its 600-page summary of the report on the Central Intelligence Agency’s use of tactics many label as “torture” before Congress left for its August recess, a target that was pushed to September as discussions continued.
On Monday, as Congress returned from its five-week break, Senator Dianne Feinstein said the document would not be released this week, and might not come out before lawmakers leave later this month to campaign for the 4 November congressional elections.
Vice News covers a homicidal excuse:
A Justice Department Memo Provides the CIA’s Legal Justification to Kill a US Citizen
“This white paper sets forth the legal basis upon which the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) could use lethal force in Yemen against a United States citizen who senior officials reasonably determined was a senior leader of al-Qaida or an associated force of al-Qaida.”
So begins a 22-page, heavily redacted, previously top-secret document titled “Legality of a Lethal Operation by the Central Intelligence Agency Against a US Citizen,” which provides the first detailed look at the legal rationale behind lethal operations conducted by the agency. The white paper [pdf below] was turned over to VICE News in response to a long-running Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Justice Department.
It’s one of two white papers the Justice Department prepared in 2011 after lawmakers demanded to know what the administration’s legal rationale was for targeting for death the radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, a US citizen. The first white paper, released last year, addressed why the targeted killing by the US military of an American abroad was lawful. This second white paper addresses why it was lawful for the CIA to do so. Neither white paper identifies Awlaki by name.
The May 25, 2011 document is based on a 41-page Justice Department memo that lays out the government’s legal basis for targeting Awlaki without affording him his right to due process under the US Constitution. For years, the Obama administration was pressured by lawmakers to share the memo, but officials refused — and wouldn’t even confirm that such a memo existed.
From The Intercept, the usual suspects, pocketing loot:
Murky Special Ops Have Become Corporate Bonanza, Says Report
The U.S. government is paying private contractors billions of dollars to support secretive military units with drones, surveillance technology, and “psychological operations,” according to new research.
A detailed report [PDF], published last week by the London-based Remote Control Project, shines a light on the murky activities of the U.S. Special Operations Command by analyzing publicly available procurement contracts dated between 2009 and 2013.
USSOCOM encompasses four commands – from the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps – and plays a key role in orchestrating clandestine U.S. military missions overseas.
Researcher Crofton Black, who also works as an investigator for human rights group Reprieve, was able to dig through the troves of data and identify the beneficiaries of almost $13 billion worth of spending by USSOCOM over the five-year period. He found that more than 3,000 companies had provided services that included aiding remotely piloted drone operations in Afghanistan and the Philippines, helping to conduct surveillance of targets, interrogating prisoners, and launching apparent propaganda campaigns.
From the Guardian, don’t hold your breath:
Police using military gear in riots could be forced to repay millions in grants
Senators express concern over scenes in Ferguson in review hearing on federal militarisation of local police forces
US police forces that use military equipment earmarked for counter-terrorism to handle public order disturbances instead could be forced to repay millions of dollars in grants, under a review revealed during the first congressional hearings into this summer’s riots in Ferguson, Missouri.
The Department of Justice and the White House were already investigating whether to limit federal programs that have showered local law enforcement agencies with armoured vehicles and military-style equipment in recent years.
But the Department of Homeland Security, one of three US agencies primarily responsible for providing the equipment, said it was now considering whether to demand that its grants be repaid if police are found to have broken a little-known rule prohibiting its use in riot suppression.
More from USA Today:
Senators: ‘Police militarization’ needs more oversight
The federal government is sending more than $1 billion a year to police departments across the country — in the form of equipment and grants — with little assessment of whether that aid is needed and with minimal follow-up on how the weapons or money is used, according to testimony at a Senate committee on Tuesday.
The hearing — co-chaired by Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., to probe “police militarization” in the wake of the police response to protests in Ferguson, Mo. — focused on three federal programs designed to help local police departments respond to drug crime and terrorist attacks. Lawmakers and witnesses suggested those programs have run amok, haphazardly doling out military equipment and federal funds and transforming some local police into paramilitary forces.
Pressed by McCaskill and others on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, federal officials who oversee the programs testified they had no way to track any “military-grade” equipment supplied by the government or purchased with federal dollars.
Next, from Mother Jones, a story close to Casa esnl:
Video: What We Saw Before Being Kicked Out of the SWAT Convention
This weekend, my colleague Prashanth Kamalakanthan and I attended Urban Shield, a first-responder convention sponsored by more than 100 corporations and the Department of Homeland Security. The five-day confab included a trade show where vendors display everything from armored trucks to sniper rifles to 3-D printable drones. (We documented a few of the more remarkable offerings here.) It also involved the largest SWAT training exercise in the world. Some 35 SWAT teams competed in a 48-hour exercise involving 31 scenarios that included ambushing vehicles, indoor shootouts, maritime interdiction, train assaults, and a mock eviction of a right-wing Sovereign Citizens group. The teams came from cities across the San Francisco Bay Area, Singapore, and South Korea and included a University of California SWAT team, a team of US Marines, and a SWAT team of prison guards.
But on Sunday, at a competition site near the Bay Bridge, our coverage was cut short. A police officer confiscated our press badges, politely explaining that his captain had called and given him the order. The captain, he said, told him we had been filming in an unauthorized location, though he could not tell us where that location was. (We’d been advised earlier that it was okay to film so long as we did not go on the bridge itself.) After several phone calls from both me and my editors, no one could tell us exactly what we had done wrong, but Sergeant J.D. Nelson, the public information officer for the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department (which hosts the Department of Homeland Security-funded event) made it clear that we could not have our passes back.
And the video, also via Mother Jones:
Inside Urban Shield: The World’s Largest SWAT Training Event
Program note:
At Urban Shield, a first-responder convention sponsored by over 100 corporations and the Department of Homeland Security, our coverage was cut short by police.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution covers another misbehavior:
Former Atlanta officer indicted for alleged brutal assault
A Fulton County Grand Jury has indicted a former Atlanta police officer accused of assaulting a suspect, the District Attorney said Wednesday.
Nicholas J. Dimauro, 32, was indicted on two counts of aggravated battery, two counts of violation of oath by a public officer and one count of aggravated assault for the 2010 attack, DA Paul Howard’s office said.
The indictment alleges that in 2010, Robert Wormley was returning to his home at 3 a.m. on Woods Drive when he was approached by Officer Dimaur, Howard said. Dimauro claimed that Wormley was illegally walking on a public street and ran when he tried to question him.
Dimauro apprehended Wormley behind a house on Hood Street, where the officer allegedly hit and kicked a man on the ground, later identified as Wormley, for 15 minutes, according to prosecutors. A resident of the home allegedly witnessed the assault.
After the jump, protesting a Mexican cop’s conviction, a clarion call for reform, a Confederate militia forms, remilitarizing the Axis powers, major league malware, cyberbuffing and cyberamnesia, terrorism allegations in Pakistan, a Chinese admonition, hints of Sino/American thaw?, neo-Nazi woes in Japan and the view from Beijing, a Sino/Indian feeler, verbal sparring over Chinese jets [and problems thereof], and a Sino/Japanese sit-down sought. . .
Frontera NorteSur protests:
U.S. Congressmen Demand Freedom for Nestora
The imprisonment of a Mexican woman police commander is increasingly a hot issue between the United States and Mexico. Nine members of the U.S. Congress sent a letter August 29 to Secretary of State John Kerry urging Washington’s intercession on behalf of Nestora Salgado, jailed in Mexico since August 2013 on what supporters contend are trumped-up kidnapping charges.
A native of the southern state of Guerrero, Salgado lived and worked for many years in the United States, eventually becoming a citizen of this country. She later returned home only to encounter rampant insecurity and delinquency.
Determined to do something for her community, Salgado joined the community policing movement and became the coordinator of the Olinala branch of the CRAC, an indigenous-led organization that legally bases its grassroots policing efforts on the Mexican Constitution, Guerrero State Law 701 and the provisions of the International Labor Organization.
In their letter to Kerry, two U.S. senators and seven House representatives urge the Obama administration to work for Salgado’s freedom and safe return to her family currently residing in the state of Washington.
From Al Jazeera America, a clarion call:
World figures call for legal regulation of drug use
Global Commission on Drugs says drastic drug policy changes needed to combat high costs of drug trafficking
Otto Pérez Molina, the president of Guatemala, floated an audacious idea last December. His government was considering legalizing the production of opium poppy — the source of morphine, which is the principal ingredient of heroin — as an alternative to combating drug-fueled bloodshed in Central America, where the number of violent deaths today mirrors those of the 1980s, when the region was entangled in civil wars.
That seemingly fanciful proposal gained steam on Monday with the release of a pioneering report, “Take Control: Pathways to Drug Policies That Work.” In it a group of global luminaries calls for the decriminalization of all drug use and the legal regulation of psychoactive substances. The Global Commission on Drugs — headed by the likes of former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, Reagan-era U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz and former presidents of Latin America — represents the most distinguished group of leaders to call for drastic drug policy alternatives.
Punitive drug laws, the commission says, must be replaced by public health principles and a focus on human rights. Treat drug users as patients, not criminals, its members say, and counter drug traffickers by regulating illegal drug markets and slicing into the money — and power — generated by drug syndicates, which the United Nations estimates rake in $330 billion a year.
The report is available for download here.
Salon Confederates:
Southern secessionist group forming paramilitary unit called the “Indomitables”
The neo-Confederate organization is training to advance a second southern secession by any means necessary
After years of rhetoric threatening violence, the neo-Confederate League of the South (LOS) is training a uniformed, paramilitary unit tasked with advancing a second southern secession by any means necessary, Hatewatch has learned.
According to anonymous sources from within the LOS, as well as leaked internal communications, the LOS secret unit has been dubbed “The Indomitables”and appears to be stacked with white supremacists, former Klan members and neo-Nazis.
Michael Hill, in a note offered to encourage his Indomitables, said, “We desire that our women and children be warm and snug while the world outside rages. And as our due for that we must face the world.”
The Christian Science Monitor hears echoes from the past:
Japan, Germany shake off WWII arms constraints. A cause for concern?
Germany is sending arms to the Kurdish peshmerga in Iraq, and Japan is negotiating weapons deals with Australia and India. Their neighbors have very different responses
Nearly 70 years after the end of World War II, Germany and Japan are finally loosening the last of the bonds that the victorious allied powers tied to limit their military ambitions.
Germany, for the first time, is sending lethal weapons to irregular forces in a war zone – arming the Kurdish peshmerga against Islamic State fighters. On the other side of the world Japan, easing decades-old restrictions on arms exports, is in negotiations to sell submarines to Australia and sea-planes to India.
“As these two powers emerge from the cold war, it is much harder for them to rely on the United States or other allies for their defense,” says Chris Hughes, professor of International Politics and Japanese Studies at Warwick University in Britain.
Network World hacks:
Salesforce warns customers of malware attack
Salesforce.com users are being targeted by a new version of a computer Trojan that has typically attacked online banking customers until now.
The malware threat is called Dyre or Dyreza and came to light in June. Like most online banking Trojans, it hooks the browser process to capture log-in credentials entered by users on websites belonging to financial institutions.
The original Dyre version found in June by researchers from PhishMe and CSIS Security Group targeted the sites of Bank of America, NatWest, Citibank, RBS and Ulsterbank. However, it appears the program’s creators have recently added Salesforce.com to the list.
From the Independent, powers that be buff their propaganda:
Google ‘right to be forgotten’ ruling enriches PR companies scrubbing the web
The Google “right to be forgotten” ruling is creating a boom time for reputation management PR companies, which are charging clients for having personal information erased from the Internet.
Freedom of speech campaigners today called for Google to “be robust” in resisting claims, saying that a new culture of censorship had taken hold in Britain.
Public interest in deleting embarrassing or damaging personal content has also surged in the wake of the revelations of hacked photographs of naked celebrities, including Jennifer Lawrence and Rihanna.
In an email touting for business and sent under the subject line “Problems with Google”, the Leeds-based company Igniyte, boasts of being “one of the world’s leading experts at removing negative search results from Google”.
It states: “If your business or even you personally are having problems with Google, for example negative reviews, aggrieved former employees or customers posting defamatory content or anything that means that when people search for you they see negative comment, then we can help.”
From Guardian Professional, abuse metastasizing:
Human rights violations have increased 70% since 2008 globally
The UK government must hold companies to account for abuses such as slavery, land grabs and trade in conflict minerals, says report
Since 2008, there has been an unprecedented rise in human rights violations globally, up 70% according to a new report. Workers’ rights are seriously compromised and rural and indigenous communities are facing land grabs and forced displacement amid growing demand for low-cost labour and resources, according to the 2014 Human Rights Risk Atlas published by risks analytics firm Maplecroft.
The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPS), unanimously endorsed by the UN Human Rights Council in 2011, are designed to address these issues. They summarise states’ duties and business’ responsibilities to protect and respect human rights, and provide guidelines on how they should be put into practice.
On to Asia, scene of the Games of Zones.
First up, via the Express Tribune, allegations of terrorism from within:
Navy investigating possible connivance of officials in Saturday’s attack: Defence Minister
Minister for Defence Khawaja Asif on Tuesday revealed that authorities were investigating possible connivance of some Naval officials in Saturday’s attack on the Navy dockyard in Karachi.
During the joint session of Parliament, PPP’s Senator Raza Rabbani requested the defence minister to take the House into confidence over the terrorist attack on the Naval dockyard in Karachi.
From Reuters, another feeler:
Ahead of Xi trip, China says not seeking to contain India
China is not seeking to contain India by military or other means, a senior diplomat said on Tuesday, ahead of a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping next week to a country with which Beijing has a history of uneasy ties and mutual suspicion.
From economic parity in 1980, China’s growth has outstripped India’s fourfold and Beijing has sought to recycle some of its vast export surpluses into foreign investment in resources and infrastructure in South Asia to feed its industrial machine.
That rising economic presence in the Indian Ocean region has stoked concerns in New Delhi that China is creating a “string of pearls” that surrounds India and threatens its security, including Chinese investments in ports and other key projects in Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
SINA English admonishes:
Don’t make trouble over S China Sea, Wang warns
Countries outside the South China Sea are expected to play a constructive role in the regional issue and not “create trouble”, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Sunday in a message analysts said was aimed at Washington.
Speaking to the second round of the China-Australia Diplomatic and Strategic Dialogue in Sydney on Sunday, Wang said China understands why countries that are far from the actual areas of tension would express concern, but hopefully, those countries will “play a constructive role rather than create trouble”.
China and the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are able to maintain peace, stability and freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, Wang said, according to a statement on the Foreign Ministry’s website.
On the call of the National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq, Asif said that the attack took place due to the possible connivance of some insiders and some suspected officials have already been apprehended in this regard while further investigations were being carried out.
China Daily strikes a different tone:
China, US rein in disputes
Beijing has called upon Washington to achieve “proper management and control over divergence and sensitive issues” as US President Barack Obama will visit China soon.
State Councilor Yang Jiechi delivered the message while meeting with visiting US National Security Adviser Susan Rice on Monday. And he confirmed that the two countries have “begun preparations” for Obama’s attendance at the APEC leaders’ summit in China in November.
Despite having traded barbs this year over maritime issues and security interests, the two major powers showed a clear, shared readiness to “synchronize agendas” and eliminate major distractions, observers noted.
But then there’s this from Reuters:
U.S., China security leaders trade barbs over jet maneuvers
Top U.S. and China security officials traded accusations this week over what the United States said was China’s intercept of a U.S. Navy patrol plane near the southern island province of Hainan.
U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice, on a three-day visit to Beijing, told several senior Chinese officials that China must halt the “dangerous intercepts”, senior Obama administration officials said.
General Fan Changlong, vice chairman of China’s Central Military Commission, called on the U.S. to “reduce and ultimately cease naval and aerial reconnaissance activities near China”, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
While Want China Times points to another problem:
Engine issues mean China can’t power J-15, J-16 fighters
China is unable to produce advanced fighters such as the J-15 and the J-16 in large numbers because it lacks the proper engines to power the aircraft, according to the Moscow-based Military-Industrial Courier on Sept. 8.
According to Kanwa Defense Review, a magazine operated by military analyst Andrei Chang, also known as Pinkov, China is not even capable of producing J-11B fighters due to problems with Shenyang Liming Aircraft Engine Company’s WS-10A engine. Similar problems led the People’s Liberation Army Navy to cancel their plans to install the WS-10A in the J-15, a carrier-based fighter designed to serve aboard the Liaoning, China’s first aircraft carrier.
Both the PLA Air Force and Navy Air Force have asked to replace the WS-10A with the more reliable Russian-built AL-31F engines, the magazine stated. China is unlikely to get enough AL-31F engines to power all of its J-15 and J-16 fighters when production starts on the aircraft however. The only option left for China is to stop producing more advanced fighters until it is capable of designing the engines the aircraft need.
The Guardian mulls the problematic:
Neo-Nazi photos pose headache for Shinzo Abe
Two newly promoted political allies of Japanese PM shown smiling alongside far-right figure Kazunari Yamada
Barely a week after Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, overhauled his administration amid flagging popularity, two of his senior colleagues have been forced to distance themselves from rightwing extremism after photographs emerged of them posing with the country’s leading neo-Nazi.
Sanae Takaichi, the internal affairs minister, was among a record-equalling five women selected by Abe as he attempts to make his cabinet more female voter-friendly and to increase women’s presence in the workplace.
Takaichi, an Abe ally on the right of the governing Liberal Democratic party (LDP), was pictured posing alongside Kazunari Yamada, the 52-year-old leader of the National Socialist Japanese Workers party, on the neo-Nazi party’s website.
SINA English offers the view from Beijing:
Two of Japan PM’s new cabinet ministers rumored to have neo-Nazi links
The pictures will add fuel to claims that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is increasingly surrounding himself with people on the right of Japanese politics.
Yamada’s blog postings indicate admiration for Adolf Hitler and praise for the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center.
In video footage posted on the website, Yamada is seen wearing a stylised swastika during street demonstrations.
NHK WORLD stakes a provocative claim:
Japan to expand continental shelf
The government has decided to extend the limits of the continental shelf to which Japan maintains sovereign rights.
One of the extended areas is about 3,000 square kilometers in size and located south of Okidaitojima island. The other is about 174,000 square kilometers, and north of Okinotorishima island.
Under the order made by the Cabinet on Tuesday, the 2 sea areas will be included in Japan’s continental shelf.
And Kyodo News makes a finding:
Anti-China sentiment in Japan at worst level: survey
A recent Japan-China poll has found that 93 percent of Japanese have a negative impression of China, marking the worst reading since the survey began in 2005, the poll’s organizers said Tuesday.
The joint opinion survey sponsored by Japanese nonprofit organization Genron NPO and Chinese English-language newspaper China Daily was conducted at a time when relations between Tokyo and Beijing remain strained over territorial and historical issues.
The annual poll showed that the percentage of Japanese who view China unfavorably has risen 2.9 percentage points from last year, while 86.8 percent of Chinese respondents had a negative view of Japan. The Chinese figure marked an improvement from last year’s worst ever reading of 92.8 percent.
While Want China Times alarms:
PLA may apply Japanese technology to bioweapons: report
The People’s Liberation Army could be applying advanced Japanese technology to produce genetically engineered bioweapons, says Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun.
The Sunday report claimed that the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Japan’s national research institute for information and communications, and RIKEN, Japan’s largest comprehensive research institution, are both working with Chinese research organizations, including those from the People’s Liberation Army.
According to the report, RIKEN signed a research partnership agreement with the Chinese Academy of Sciences Shanghai Branch in May 2006 to cooperate in the areas of organic chemistry, material science, chemical biology, bioresource technology, immunology and synchrotron science.
And, for our final item, a search for a sit-down from Kyodo News:
Japan’s MSDF chief sounds China out about talks with counterpart
The head of Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force said Tuesday he has sounded out his Chinese counterpart about holding a formal meeting on the sidelines of an international symposium in the United States next week.
“The situation in the East China Sea is extremely severe. I’d like to exchange views frankly and communicate with each other,” Adm. Katsutoshi Kawano, chief of staff of the MSDF, said at a press conference, voicing hope for one-on-one talks with Wu Shengli, commander in chief of the People’s Liberation Army Navy.
If realized, it would be the first meeting between a top MSDF officer and the Chinese navy commander since July 2009, when Adm. Keiji Akahoshi, the MSDF’s then chief of staff, met with Wu in China.
