We begin with a hopeful finding, via the Guardian:
High school students care more about free speech than adults, poll finds
For first time in poll’s history, American students are more in favour of the first amendment than adults
American high school students are more concerned about freedom of speech and the first amendment than adults, including their teachers, a new poll has found.
The national study of 10,463 high school students and 588 teachers was released Wednesday to coincide with the celebration of Constitution Day and was funded by the John S and James L Knight Foundation.
This was the first time in the poll’s history that students were more in favour of the first amendment than adults. Ten years ago when the poll began 35% of students said the amendment went too far compared with 30% of adults.
The poll also found that students who consumed the most news online were the most supportive of free expression. And those who had been taught about the first amendment were more supportive still.
Salon covers a half-measure:
Los Angeles schools will relinquish grenade launchers … but not rifles or armored vehicles
L.A. Unified says that M-16 automatic rifles are “essential life-saving items”
The Los Angeles Unified school police announced on Tuesday their intention to give up military-grade weaponry obtained through the 1033 federal program that gives civilian police departments surplus military equipment. The school police said it intended to relinquish three grenade launchers, but notably will keep 61 rifles and one Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) armored vehicle.
The Yomiuri Shimbun investigates:
Attorney general: U.S. will launch study of policing bias
Broadening its push to improve police relations with minorities, the Justice Department has enlisted a team of criminal justice researchers to study racial bias in law enforcement in five American cities and recommend strategies to address the problem nationally, Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday.
The police shooting last month of an unarmed black 18-year-old in Ferguson, Missouri underscored the need for the long-planned initiative, Holder said in an interview with The Associated Press.
He said the three-year project, which will involve training, data analysis and interviews with community residents, could be a “silver lining” if it helps ease racial tensions and “pockets of distrust that show up between law enforcement and the communities that they serve.”
And from Al Jazeera English, heading down a familiar road:
US lawmakers back plan to arm Syrian rebels
House of Representatives vote 273 to 156 to approve President Obama’s train-and-equip plan meant to defeat ISIL
US lawmakers have voted to authorise training and arming of vetted Syrian rebels to combat fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a crucial step in President Barack Obama’s bid to thwart the self-declared jihadist group surging across Iraq and Syria.
The House of Representatives on Wednesday voted 273 to 156 to approve Obama’s train-and-equip plan despite misgivings by both Democrats and Republicans.
Some war-weary Democrats say the move could open the door to full-blown American military intervention in the Middle East.
The Los Angeles Times coveys reassurance:
Obama reiterates that U.S. forces have no ‘combat mission’ in Iraq
Emphasizing the American military’s unrivaled expertise, President Obama thanked service members Wednesday and repeated that U.S. forces taking on the Islamic State militant group would not serve in combat, a day after his top general repeatedly raised that prospect.
American forces “do not and will not have a combat mission,” Obama told troops at the U.S. Central Command headquarters here. “They will support Iraqi forces on the ground as they fight for their own country against these terrorists.”
He made that pledge a day after Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the military’s top officer, described for a Senate panel the challenges of fighting the militants without combat troops on the ground.
But the New York Times conveys counterspin:
U.S. Army Chief Says Ground Troops Will Be Needed Against ISIS
The United States general who beat back Islamic extremists in Iraq in 2007 suggested on Wednesday that the battle against Islamic State jihadis would only succeed with the use of ground forces.
Speaking a day after his commander, Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that American ground troops might be needed in Iraq, Gen. Ray Odierno was careful not to specify that those ground troops had to be American. But he made clear that success would be dependent on the presence of forces from all of Iraq’s sectarian groups.
Airstrikes have halted the advance of the Islamic State, also known by the acronyms ISIS or ISIL, General Odierno, now the Army chief of staff, told journalists from four news organizations, including The New York Times, in what aides said were his first public comments on the current situation in Iraq. Ultimately, though, “you’ve got to have ground forces that are capable of going in and rooting them out,” he said, referring to the Islamic extremists.
And from the Washington Post, tramp, tramp, tramp:
U.S. boots are already on the ground against the Islamic State
Talking with U.S. and foreign military experts over the past week, I’ve heard two consistent themes: First, the campaign against the Islamic State will require close-in U.S. training and assistance for ground forces, in addition to U.S. air power; and, second, the best way to provide this assistance may be under the command of the Ground Branch of the CIA’s Special Activities Division, which traditionally oversees such paramilitary operations.
There are some obvious drawbacks with this approach: These “special activities” may be called covert, but their provenance will be obvious, especially to the enemy; they will build irregular forces in Iraq and Syria that may subvert those countries’ return to a stable, transparent system of governance and military operations; and history tells us (from Vietnam to Central America to the Middle East) that black operations, outside normal military channels, can get ugly — opening a back door to torture, rendition and assassination. That’s why clear guidelines and congressional oversight would be necessary.
Though these paramilitary operations are rarely discussed, the United States has extensive experience with them, especially in Iraq and other areas of the Middle East. The 2001 campaign to topple the Taliban in Afghanistan was led by the CIA, using teams of Special Operations forces to mobilize fighters from the Northern Alliance. In 2002, before the invasion of Iraq, Kurdish special forces were brought to a base in the Western United States and trained in insurgency tactics. They conducted fierce attacks as the war was beginning.
In other words, it’s the same old foreign policy so eloquently expressed by Nancy Sinatra way back in 1966:
From Defense One, points we often made back in the days of Vietnam:
The Constitution Is More Than Just an Obstacle To Fighting ISIL
Congress seems to be on track to authorize President Obama to address the situation in the Middle East. Strikingly enough, however, it is authorization for one small part of it—to provide arms to Syrian rebels. Currently, U.S. law prevents the president from transferring weapons to rebel groups, and Obama wants an exception for Syria.
What about the prolonged campaign he announced last week to “degrade, and ultimately destroy, ISIL through a comprehensive and sustained counterterrorism strategy?” Obama’s strategy—systematic airstrikes against ISIS targets “wherever they are”; material support to Iraqi, Kurdish, and Syrian forces fighting ISIS on the ground; intelligence and counterterrorism campaigns against ISIS; and humanitarian assistance to those displaced by the fighting—sounds like what I will call, for lack of a better term, “war.”
And war needs authorization from Congress. Not little dribs and drabs of authorization, and not small measures tucked onto spending bills, but a resolution, adopted after a serious debate, authorizing the whole thing, setting out our war aims, and indicating when or how the authority will expire.
The president says he has the authority to do what he wants but wouldn’t mind if Congress wants to tag along by voting him “more” authority. Members of Congress say, variously, Why is he asking us? Why isn’t he already doing more without it? Can’t we wait to see what happens? Can we go now?
From the Guardian, media mania:
Islamic State video threatens to target White House and US troops
Video purports to be trailer for film entitled Flames of War with strapline ‘fighting has just begun’
Islamic State militants have threatened to target the White House and kill US troops in a new slickly made video response to Barack Obama’s campaign to “degrade and destroy” the organisation.
The video, in the style of a blockbuster movie trailer for what is “coming soon”, purports to show a masked man apparently about to shoot kneeling prisoners in the head. Towards the end of the clip there is shaky footage of the White House filmed from a moving vehicle, suggesting the building is being scoped out for attack.
It was released on Tuesday after US defence chiefs suggested that American troops could join Iraqi forces fighting Isis, despite Obama’s assurance that US soldiers would not be engaged in fighting on the ground.
While the video has been yanked from YouTube, it was still available at LiveLeak when last we looked [and WordPress doesn’t enable embedding videos from that site].
More on that media thing from the Christian Science Monitor:
How Islamic State is wielding the Internet in new ways
Federal prosecutors announced the indictment of a New York man on charges he was trying to recruit for the Islamic State. US officials say they are increasingly concerned about the possibility of a home-grown terror threat.
[E]ven as a handful of Americans attempt to get more engaged with extremist groups, media observers say IS has become one of most sophisticated social media operations yet seen.
“I think that what’s new is the sophistication and focus of the groups like ISIS,” says Nicco Mele, a lecturer at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government in Boston, who focuses on the intersection of media, politics, and power in the digital age. “The frequency and quality and quantity of what’s happening here is significant – it’s sophisticated, clearly planned, and executed with a well-oiled team.”
Up to a hundred Americans have tried to travel abroad to fight alongside IS, also known as ISIS or ISIL, in recent weeks – including some killed by the US bombing campaign in Iraq. But officials say they are also worried about the solitary, would-be domestic terrorist, inspired by propaganda and instructions found online, who would then attempt to carry out an attack similar to the Boston Marathon bombing on April 15, 2013.
Business Insider covers the furor Down Under:
Australian Authorities Say Terrorists Planned To Drape People In ISIS Flags And Behead Them In Public
Police have confirmed Australia’s largest ever counter-terrorism operation targeted a group planning “random acts of violence” against a member, or members of the public, on the streets of Sydney.
News agencies are reporting court documents, to be released later this morning, are expected to reveal the terror group planned to behead a member of the public in Sydney, or potentially engage in a random mass shooting.
Australian Federal Police and intelligence officials launched the “largest counter-terrorism operation” in Australia across a number of suburban areas in Sydney and Brisbane this morning.
From the Express Tribune, a Pakistani blackout continues:
Two years on, no light at the end of the tunnel for YouTube
Two years, a new government and the promise of change, and at least 20 court hearings later, internet users from Pakistan are still denied access to YouTube. This restriction of access has become the symbol of a state which has increasingly become obsessed with controlling the online space in a non-transparent manner.
The ban had been imposed on September 17, 2012 by then prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf following national outrage over a sacrilegious video clip. The video had prompted outrage across the Muslim world and prompted temporary bans on the website in Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Sudan. Threat of bans in Saudi Arabia prompted YouTube to selectively curb access in that country and it took a court order to censor it in Brazil.
But even after a US court ordered YouTube to take down versions of the video following a suit filed by one of the actors appearing the clip, the site remains inaccessible in Pakistan. The refrain, that the clip hurts religious sentiments of the people, is obscene or hurts national security has acted as an effective screen for a process which is less than transparent and has gone on to impact services and content beyond just pornography and blasphemous videos.
From The Intercept, spooky high dudgeon:
Irate NSA Staffer Doesn’t Like Being Filmed in Public, for Some Reason
The NSA sent someone bearing the nametag “Neal Z.” to the University of New Mexico’s Engineering and Science Career Fair today, in the hopes of recruiting young computer geniuses to help manage the yottabytes of data it is collecting about you. But instead of eager young applicants, Mr. Z. encountered University of New Mexico alumnus Andy Beale and student Sean Potter, who took the rare opportunity of being in the room with a genuine NSA agent to ask him about his employer’s illegal collection of metadata on all Americans. Mr. Z. did not like that one bit.
In two videos posted on YouTube—each shot from a slightly different perspective—you can watch Beale politely question Mr. Z. about NSA programs, and watch Mr. Z. attempt to parry those queries with blatant falsehoods like, “NSA is not permitted to track or collect intelligence on U.S. persons.” As Beale continues to attempt to engage the recruiter on the legality of the NSA’s mass surveillance initiatives, Mr. Z. becomes increasingly angry, calling him a “heckler,” saying, “You do not know what you’re talking about,” and warning, “If you don’t leave soon, I’m going to call university security to get you out of my face.”
After a few minutes of back-and-forth, Mr. Z announces, “You’re done,” and attempts to grab the phone that Potter had been using to film the encounter, literally at the very moment he says, “I’m not touching your phone.” Beale and Potter were later ejected from the facility by campus police for “causing a disturbance,” though their on-camera behavior is unfailingly quiet and civil.
Here’s one of the videos, posted by Andy Beale:
NSA Attacks Student at University of New Mexico
After the jump, a German demand on Google, spooky Danish blowback, a twisted Kiwi concession, public intelligence endangered, spying in the bovine interest, committing covert journalism on the farm, hacks at your bank account at home and abroad, Papuan police punished, allegations of Chinese defense contractor hacks, Chinese line-crossing, a spooky Japanese coup on China, Korean diplomatic shifts, a Japanese panopticon extension, an Asian test of the American fog of war, and a Thai sartorial security alert. . .
RT states a nascent demand:
Germany wants Google’s search engine formula
As the European Union continues to pressure Google for concessions in an ongoing antitrust probe, Berlin is now urging the company to do the unthinkable: reveal its secret search engine formula.
Although asking Google to disclose the guts of its search engine is like asking a popular chef to reveal the ingredients in a secret sauce, Germany believes that in order to ensure the company is not violating Europe’s antitrust laws, it needs to be more “transparent” about its algorithm.
Speaking with the Financial Times, German Justice Minister Heiko Maas made the comment after being asked what “practical steps” Google could take to satisfy the EU’s concerns.
“In the end it relates to how transparent the algorithms are that Google uses to rank its search results,” he said. “When a search engine has such an impact on economic development, this is an issue we have to address.”
CNN covers blowback:
Fallout so far from Danish spy’s dramatic revelations
When first revealed, Morten Storm’s account of his life as a double agent inside al Qaeda sent shockwaves through Denmark’s political and intelligence establishment. The first accounts came in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in October 2012.
In those articles, and in his new memoir “Agent Storm: My Life Inside al Qaeda and the CIA,” which we co-authored, Storm recounted how after being recruited by Danish intelligence agency PET, he helped the CIA target several al Qaeda terrorists for assassination, most notably the American terrorist cleric Anwar a-Awlaki, who was killed in a CIA drone strike in September 2011.
The allegations have proven explosive in Denmark, where it is illegal for the government to take part in targeted killings.
Storm says his Danish handlers set up and attended meetings he had with the CIA in Denmark and overseas at which plans to track down terrorists were set in motion. He says Danish intelligence was fully aware the Americans planned to use lethal force.
From RT, a twisted concession:
‘Snowden may well be right’: New Zealand PM doesn’t rule out nation being spied on by NSA
Prime Minister John Key said Edward Snowden ‘may well be right’ in his claims that the NSA has access to communications from New Zealand. The politician, however, said he ‘did not believe’ mass surveillance was taking place.
Key was interviewed in the aftermath of Edward Snowden’s revelations on Monday published by The Intercept, in which he claimed he “routinely came across the communications of New Zealanders” in his work with “a mass surveillance tool we [NSA] share with GCSB, called ‘XKeyscore’.”
Snowden was probably telling the truth, the prime minister told Radio New Zealand on Wednesday.
“I think the point he was making was, in that shared database, he said ‘I regularly came across information about New Zealanders’ … That may well be right,” he said.
Public intelligence endangered via the New York Times:
In Brutal Year, 7th Journalist Is Killed in Afghanistan
An Afghan woman has become the seventh journalist killed in Afghanistan so far this year, an Afghan media group said Wednesday, adding to a toll that has already made 2014 by far the deadliest year for the news media here since the fall of the Taliban.
Palwasha Tokhi, who worked for Bayan Radio in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, was called out of her home purportedly to receive a wedding invitation from a visitor Tuesday night. (Wedding invitations are typically delivered by hand in Afghanistan.)
She was then stabbed to death by the visitor, who fled, according to Hafizullah Majidid, the head of Bayan Radio. Ms. Tokhi had just returned to Afghanistan after earning her master’s degree in Thailand.
From Business Insider, committing an act of journalism:
Animal Rights Group Secretly Films Horrifying Video Of Dairy Cows Being Abused In New Mexico
Authorities in New Mexico are investigating a dairy farm in the state after an animal rights group secretly recorded video apparently showing workers punching and kicking cows and stabbing them with screwdrivers.
Los Angeles-based Mercy for Animals said the video was captured using a hidden camera in August and September by a member of the group who got a job at the Winchester Dairy, outside the city of Roswell.
Winchester Dairy said it shut down operations at the farm and fired some employees after seeing the video. Mercy For Animals said the dairy was a supplier of milk to Denver-based Leprino Foods, the world’s largest maker of mozzarella cheese.”This is the most egregious example of animal cruelty we have ever seen in the dairy industry,” Matt Rice, head of investigations for Mercy For Animals, said on Wednesday.
The Asahi Shimbun hacks at your bank account:
Computer virus steals cash when users log on to bank accounts
A virus that illegally transfers funds to another online account when the user logs on has infected more than 20,000 personal computers in Japan.
Information technology firms have warned depositors to exercise caution, as reports of illegal remittances in online banking are on the rise.
Tokyo IT security firm Trend Micro Inc. scanned PCs installed with its antivirus software and detected in May the new-type computer virus for the first time in Japan. It said that 20,641 PCs in Japan had been found to be infected with the virus as of the end of August.
More of the same in the U.S.A. via Slashdot:
Tinba Trojan Targets Major US Banks
from the protect-ya-neck dept.
An anonymous reader writes Tinba, the tiny (20 KB) banking malware with man-in-the-browser and network traffic sniffing capabilities, is back. After initially being made to target users of a small number of banks, that list has been amplified and now includes 26 financial institutions mostly in the US and Canada, but some in Australia and Europe as well. Tinba has been modified over the years, in an attempt to bypass new security protections set up by banks, and its source code has been leaked on underground forums a few months ago. In this new campaign, the Trojan gets delivered to users via the Rig exploit kit, which uses Flash and Silverlight exploits. The victims get saddled with the malware when they unknowingly visit a website hosting the exploit kit.”
The Jakarta Globe cops out:
Adulterer, Gambling Racketeer, Knife Attackers — Just the Papua Police Cleaning House
A senior police officer in Papua province has been fired over a personal indiscretion and another for his alleged involvement in a gambling racket, while a third has been linked to a knife attack on a lawyer for a prominent activist.
First Insp. Angga, the chief of detectives at the Jayapura Police, was fired after being caught in bed with the wife of one of his subordinates, Papua Police Chief Insp. Gen. Yotje Mende told the Jakarta Globe on Wednesday.
Yotje said the affair was discovered when the woman’s husband followed her to Angga’s house and burst in on them in bed together.
More hackery, from higher up. From the Guardian:
China hacked into Pentagon contractor networks ‘nine times’, US Senate finds
Yearlong investigation identified at least 20 break-ins, and blamed Chinese government for sophisticated intrusions
China’s military hacked into computer networks of civilian transportation companies hired by the Pentagon at least nine times, breaking into computers aboard a commercial ship, targeting logistics companies and uploading malicious software onto an airline’s computers, Senate investigators said Wednesday.
A yearlong investigation announced by the Senate Armed Services Committee identified at least 20 break-ins or other unspecified cyber events targeting companies, including nine successful break-ins of contractor networks. It blamed China’s government for all the most sophisticated intrusions, although it did not provide any detailed evidence. The Senate report did not identify which transportation companies were victimized.
China’s government did not immediately respond to telephone messages and emails from The Associated Press requesting comment in Beijing and to its embassy in Washington.
Crossing the line with the Yomiuri Shimbun:
Senkakus see rise in China’s fishing forays
The number of intrusions into Japanese territorial waters near the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture by Chinese fishing boats has been rapidly increasing since the start of this year, suggesting a change in China’s strategy.
Two years have passed since Japan’s nationalization of the Senkaku Islands. Chinese government vessels, which carry similar equipment to Japan Coast Guard patrol vessels, have been less active.
But the number of intrusions into territorial waters by Chinese fishing boats in 2014 has increased more than 25-fold compared with that of 2011, before the nationalization of the islands.
The Japan Times, a spooky coup on China:
Amid Japan spying report, China mum on whereabouts of its ambassador to Iceland
China’s Foreign Ministry refused to say on Wednesday where its ambassador to Iceland was or who was even representing Beijing in the country, following reports he had been arrested by state security for passing secrets to Japan.
New York-based Chinese language portal Mingjing News reported on Tuesday that China’s Ambassador to Iceland Ma Jisheng and his wife had been taken away by Chinese state security earlier this year.
It said Ma was suspected of becoming a Japanese spy while working in the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo between 2004 and 2008.
From the state-controlled Global Times, the Chinese take:
Be wary of espionage trap surrounding us
According to foreign media outlets, Ma Jisheng, who served as Chinese ambassador to Iceland, was allegedly arrested by the Ministry of State Security earlier this year on suspicion of passing intelligence to Japan. In recent years, we have frequently witnessed vicious incidents where top Chinese diplomats, military officers and senior research fellows of think tanks have been involved in espionage and selling intelligence. If Ma is confirmed to be involved in this case, that will be startling news.
China has become one of the most powerful strategic competitors with incredible strength, rapid development and a self-contained decision-making mechanism, which has made it a key target of the world’s major intelligence agencies. Meanwhile, given the relatively low vigilance in Chinese society, authorities have failed to effectively convey their judgments and understandings to the public. Among the high-risk groups easily eyed by overseas intelligence services, some lack both sufficient knowledge in this regard and a capacity of discernment.
There have been no contemporary spy dramas made in China for a long time, as directors will find it hard to acquire materials, and even if they do, such screenplays would not gain approval. Therefore literary creation in this area seems like a forbidden zone, despite continuous information warfare.
Korean diplomatic shifts converge at the Japan Times:
South Korea says door open for talks with North, calls on Japan to take ‘courageous’ action on issue of ‘comfort women’
South Korean President Park Geun-hye says the door is open for talks with the North on beginning the process of reunification during the upcoming U.N. General Assembly, and has urged Japan to take “courageous” action on the issue of wartime sex slaves.
However, Park said in an interview with Reuters, Pyongyang must show sincerity in seeking a constructive dialogue and “walk the talk” in taking up South Korea’s offers for engagement.
Park also called for a “courageous decision” by Tokyo to improve ties between the two nations. Relations have chilled deeply over the past two years largely over the issue of Korean “comfort women,” as those forced to work in Japanese military brothels during World War II are known.
Homeland Security News Wire extends the panopticon:
Japan to adopt automated airport gates equipped with facial recognition technology
More than eleven million people visited Japan last year, the highest on record, and the government is anticipating close to twenty million foreigners in 2020, the year Tokyo will host the Summer Olympics and Paralympics. Japan plans to adopt automated airport immigration gates supported by facial recognition technology, because while the number of foreign visitors continues to increase, the number of immigration officers remains limited, or even shrinks. A general concern with using facial recognition technology at immigration gates is that passports can be valid for a decade, while a person’s appearance may change within that timeframe. Another concern with the proposed system is how facial data image collected will be stored or erased.
Japan’s Ministry of Justice plans to adopt automated airport immigration gates supported by facial recognition technology as the country anticipates an increase in the number of foreign visitors while the number of immigration officers remains limited. “Speeding up immigration procedures is an important issue, but increasing the number of immigration officials commensurate with the rising volume of work is not a realistic option,” a justice ministry official said.
The fog of war from Want China Times:
US Navy tests Pandarra Fog in exercise
To defend its carrier battle group from a potential attack by Chinese supersonic cruise missiles such as the C-602 and the C-805, the United States Navy launched an exercise to test its new obscurant, Pandarra Fog, between June 21-25 this year near the island of Guam according to National Defense, a monthly magazine operated by the Russian defense ministry.
The USS Mustin and the USS Wayne E Meyer, two Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers, were tasked with protecting the USS Frank Cable, an Emory S Land-class submarine tender, which was to be disguised as an aircraft carrier or some other large vessel of the United States Navy during the exercise. The destroyers released the carbon fiber clouds known as Pandarra Fog to defend the submarine from simulated incoming enemy anti-ship cruise missiles.
Pandarra Fog was developed by the US Navy with the threat of Chinese missiles in mind to defeat the guidance systems of missiles aimed at its ships. The Russian military magazine stated that one advantage of Pandarra Fog is that it is very cheap compared to the other ways of intercepting missiles. The obscurant’s weakness is that it can’t be used in bad weather.
And for our final item, a sartorial security alert from the Independent:
Thai PM suggests ‘attractive’ female tourists cannot expect to be safe in bikinis
Thailand’s military ruler has suggested that “beautiful” female visitors to his country should not expect to be safe in bikinis. Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha allegedly made the comments as the investigation into the death of two Britons intensifies.
David Miller, 24, and Hannah Witheridge, 23, were killed earlier this week after they attended a beach party on the island of Koh Tao in the Gulf of Thailand.
Negative attention on the country – to which 800,000 Britons visit each year – appears to have left its leader attempting to offer explanations for why young travellers may run into trouble there.
