And lots more, starting with a rebuke to Obama secrecy from BBC News:
US judge unseals Guantanamo Bay force-feeding tapes
A US judge has ordered the government to release videotapes depicting a Guantanamo Bay prisoner being force-fed while on hunger strike.
US District Court Judge Gladys Kessler granted a request from a number of media organisations for their release.
The videos show Syrian prisoner Abu Wa’el Dhiab being forcibly removed from his cell and fed. But the tapes will remain sealed until some information, including faces and voices, has been redacted.
From the Guardian, adding more bombers to the fray:
Australian government approves air strikes targeting Islamic State in Iraq
Six F/A-18 Super Hornets will begin combat operations in support of Iraqi government forces after national security committee and cabinet sign off
The federal government has approved air combat operations in Iraq to fight Islamic State extremists.
The decision to send in Super Hornets as part of a US-led mission came after a meeting of the national security committee and cabinet in Canberra on Friday.
“Today cabinet has authorised Australian air strikes in Iraq at the request of the Iraqi government in support of the Iraqi government,” Abbott said. “Also, subject to final legal documentation, cabinet has authorised the deployment of Australian special forces into Iraq to advise and assist Iraqi forces.”
And more bombers, via the Associated Press:
Canada to launch airstrikes in Iraq
Canada plans to launch airstrikes against the Islamic State militant group in Iraq following a U.S. request and may extend airstrikes into Syria if invited by President Bashar Assad’s government, the prime minister announced Friday.
The combat mission needs parliamentary approval but Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government has the majority of seats so it is expected to pass.
Harper said the motion authorizes air strikes in Iraq for up to six months and explicitly states that no ground troops be used in combat operations.
From the McClatchy Foreign Staff, they just keep coming:
Islamic State reportedly on Baghdad’s outskirts after week of victories
Islamic State militants have taken control of key cities in Iraq’s western province of Anbar and have begun to besiege one of the country’s largest military bases in a weeklong offensive that’s brought them within artillery range of Baghdad.
The Islamic State and its tribal allies have dominated Anbar since a surprise offensive last December, but this week’s push was particularly worrisome, because for the first time this year Islamist insurgents were reported to have become a major presence in Abu Ghraib, the last Anbar town on the outskirts of the capital.
“Daash is openly operating inside Abu Ghraib,” according to an Iraqi soldier, who used a common Arabic term for the Islamic State. “I was at the 10th Division base there two days ago, and the soldiers cannot leave or patrol,” he said, asking that he be identified only as Hossam because Iraqi soldiers are barred from speaking with foreign reporters. “Daash controls the streets.”
RT America casts doubt:
Vast majority of US soldiers oppose Iraq deployment
Program notes:
Over 70 percent of active-duty US soldiers oppose the idea of deploying ground forces to Iraq, according to a new Military Times poll. Despite many politicians and top media figures calling for boots on the ground to combat the Islamic State group, the newly released figure matches the opinion of the general public, which has also expressed disapproval with calls to intervene in Iraq and Syria with ground forces. Doctoral researcher and Iraq War veteran Jake Diliberto explains to RT’s Ameera David some of the reasons why soldiers may be so strongly opposed.
Reuters covers another source of insecurity:
Secret Service in disarray, fueling questions over Obama’s safety
When Secret Service officer Timothy McCarthy took a bullet to protect Ronald Reagan in a 1981 assassination attempt and agent Jerry Parr shoved the president into a limousine, their quick reflexes projected a Hollywood-style image of invincibility around the agency.
Fast-forward to today: the 149-year-old Secret Service is struggling to emerge from a succession of scandals that have tarnished that iconic reputation, forced the abrupt resignation of its director and raised questions about its ability to fulfill its most critical duty: protecting President Barack Obama and his family.
Sources inside and outside the administration say many problems such as low morale, a leadership crisis and a culture of covering up mistakes can be traced back 11 years to when the Secret Service was pulled out of the Treasury Department and absorbed into the sprawling new Department of Homeland Security, where it had to compete for turf and money.
From the Guardian, corporate greed runs amok:
Marriott fined $600,000 for jamming Wi-Fi at Nashville hotel
Hotel blocked conference attendees’ own networks, forcing them to pay as much as $1,000 each to use the hotel’s connection
Marriott International will pay the government a $600,000 fine for jamming conference attendees’ own Wi-Fi networks at one of its hotels, forcing them instead to pay as much as $1,000 each to use the hotel’s own connection.
Frequent travelers often carry personal Wi-Fi hotspots — tiny devices that can connect to the internet via cell phone towers. For $50 a month, they can connect to the internet on the move, often avoiding hefty fees charged by hotels, airports and conference facilities.
Last year, a conference attendee at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center in Nashville, Tennessee — which is managed by Marriott — found that the hotel was jamming their device in its ballrooms and complained to the Federal Communications Commission. In the complaint, the guest noted that it had happed previously at another Gaylord property.
From TheLocal.fr, dronal punishment:
Notre Dame drone flight lands tourist in jail
An Israeli tourist had to spend a night behind bars before being hit with a hefty fine for flying a drone over the world famous Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. He’s just the latest amateur drone pilot to run afoul of France’s tough laws around the devices.
An Israeli tourist who was arrested in front of the Notre Dame Cathedral while flying a drone above one of Paris’s main attractions, was slapped with a €400 ($500) fine on Thursday, after spending the night in jail.
The 24-year-old tourist had launched the drone, equipped with a Go-Pro camera, above the famous Gothic church on Wednesday morning, and sent it hovering over the historic Hotel Dieu hospital and a police station, a police source told AFP.
A seminal political move from BBC News:
Sweden to recognise Palestinian state
Sweden is to “recognise the state of Palestine”, Prime Minister Stefan Lofven has said, the first long-term EU member country to do so.
“The conflict between Israel and Palestine can only be solved with a two-state solution,” he said during his inaugural address in parliament. It should be “negotiated in accordance with international law”, he said.
Sweden last month voted out the centre-right Alliance coalition of Fredrik Reinfeldt after eight years.
The memory hole war continues in the Centennial State, via the New York Times:
Colorado School Board Retreats on Curriculum-Review Plan After Uproar
A battle over teaching American history that stirred student protests and kindled a debate about censorship in schools reached an emotional climax on Thursday night, as hundreds of parents and students here in suburban Denver sparred with a conservative school board majority over a proposal to create a curriculum-review panel.
But after two weeks of demonstrations and a fierce backlash across Colorado and beyond, the Jefferson County school board scrapped a plan that sought to teach students the “benefits of the free-enterprise system, respect for authority and respect for individual rights” while avoiding lessons that condoned “civil disorder, social strife or disregard of the law.” Instead, the board voted 3 to 2 to adopt a compromise that would allow community members, students and teachers to join the experts who already conduct curriculum reviews for the school district.
The superintendent, Dan McMinimee, who suggested the compromise, said it represented the “middle ground” in a fevered debate that pitted the board’s three new conservative members against students, parents, the teachers union and other critics who opposed an effort to steer lessons toward the “positive aspects of the United States and its heritage.”
From BBC News, hack attack admitted by a Murdoch minion:
Ex-NoW news editor Ian Edmondson admits phone hacking charges
Former News of the World news editor Ian Edmondson has admitted plotting to hack phones while at the paper. Edmondson, 45, is the eighth person to be convicted in relation to phone hacking at the now-defunct tabloid.
The judge at the Old Bailey warned Edmondson he was likely to receive a custodial sentence.
Edmondson’s victims included two home secretaries, along with Sir Paul McCartney and actors Jude Law and Sienna Miller.
The Christian Science Monitor ponders a mystery:
Cybersecurity mystery at JPMorgan Chase: What were hackers after?
The massive online security breach at JPMorgan Chase has confounded investigators because only customers’ contact information appears to have been taken. And there is no evidence that funds were stolen
The online security breach of JPMorgan Chase has raised puzzling questions about what the overseas hackers were after – and has pointed up just how steep the challenges are to keep information safe online.
In the JPMorgan Chase incident, which is one of the largest online security breaches in history, the hackers were able to access the contact information of 76 million households and 7 million small businesses having accounts with the banking behemoth, the company disclosed Thursday.
The massive incursion, however, has confounded investigators and other cybersecurity experts since only names, mailing addresses, e-mail addresses, and phone numbers appear to have been taken. And so far, there is no evidence that the hack was used to steal funds or gather sensitive account information.
From BBC, another memory hole, this time in the form of fruit from an iCloud hack:
Google deletes ‘tens of thousands’ of celeb nude pics
Google has removed “tens of thousands” of nude pictures stolen from celebrities and published online.
A statement from the web giant said it has deleted photos “within hours” of requests being made and has “closed hundreds of accounts.”
It comes after reports Hollywood entertainment lawyer Marty Singer has threatened to sue Google for “violating privacy”.
The New York Post published a letter addressed to senior staff at Google.
Network World covers vulnerability:
Windows PCs still riddled with unpatched Java, QuickTime and Adobe Reader
US Windows users remain badly exposed to dozens of basic software vulnerabilities, according to third quarter 2014 figures from Danish security firm Secunia. Java was by far the worst offender with 42 percent of systems unpatched against one or more flaws.
In total, Java 7 suffered a humungous 145 vulnerabilities in the third quarter of 2014, which Secunia found to be running on two thirds of the US-based consumer systems it assessed. From this, 42 percent were in an unpatched state and therefore taking a big risk given the popularity of Java exploits among cyber-criminals.
In second place was Apple QuickTime 7, running on 59 percent of systems with 33 percent unpatched, while Adobe Reader was running on 42 percent of system of which 30 percent were unpatched.
And TheLocal.no tallies hack attacks:
Hacking attacks inside Norway to double in 2014
The number of serious cyber-security attacks is set to double this year as many companies remain unaware they have been exposed to such attacks, said a study on Thursday.
Top security organization, National Security Authority Norway (Nasjonal Sikkerhetsmyndighet), stated in their quarterly report that the situation in the Nordic country is set to only get worse.
The company’s director, Kjetil Nilsen, presenting the report, said: “The number of attacks are increasing. They are becoming more and more advanced. More and more businesses are being hit.”
From Aviation Week & Space Technology, another move in the Game of Zones, Arctic Edition:
Denmark Looks To Boost Greenland Defenses
Denmark bolsters its Arctic claims by strengthening defenses in Greenland
While world attention is focused on Ukraine and Iraq, the nations surrounding the Arctic Circle have been quietly flexing their polar muscle.
Russia has revealed plans to re-open polar airfields and naval bases on remote islands, while Canada has used the summer light to train its troops in the region. For those two countries, exercises in the higher latitudes are fairly straightforward, with their significant air assets and—if necessary—limited land access.
But for Denmark, which is responsible for the defense of the world’s second-largest island, Greenland, Arctic operations are considerably more challenging. However, the Danish government is keen to exert its sovereignty as the ice retreats and the region becomes more accessible.
After the jump, the latest from Hong Kong, including an organized crime assault on protesters, defiance on the ground, talks cancelled, a forced government shutdown, and accusations fly, followed by a grim warning from Beijing, a Chinese ship line-crossing, China shows off its nuclear might, Washington promises Japan military help over contested islands, teaming up with the Philippines against China, an exercise with the U.S., an island dispute heads to litigation, and Abe declares war on a liberal paper. . .
The New York Times covers the assault:
Protest Camps in Hong Kong Come Under Assault
Pro-democracy demonstrations in two of Hong Kong’s most crowded shopping districts came under attack on Friday from unidentified men who assaulted protesters and tore down their encampments, as the Beijing-backed government sent sharply conflicting messages about how to grapple with the unrest.
The protesters said the attackers were pro-government gangs, and several protest groups called off planned negotiations with the government in response. Whoever the culprits were, and by Saturday morning it was still unclear, they drew crowds of angry supporters, neighbors fed up with the inconvenience of the protests and happy to see gangs step in where the police refused to go.
A week after the protests began with a student rally, both the pro-democracy movement and the government were showing increasing signs of wear and desperation, each improvising its next moves like chess players in the face of dwindling options.
More from the Guardian:
Hong Kong protesters beaten and bloodied as thugs attack sit-in
Pro-democracy leaders call off talks with government and accuse police of sending triads against Occupy Central rally
Thugs punched and kicked pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong on Friday night, shedding blood as they tore down demonstrators’ tents and attempted to forced them out.
Student leaders called off talks with the government – offered the previous night – accusing officials of allowing violence to be used against them. It dashed the hopes of a resolution to a mass movement that saw tens of thousands take to the streets of the city at its height.
The veteran democracy activist Martin Lee and Occupy Central leader Benny Tai blamed triads for the violence in Mong Kok, a densely populated area also popular with shoppers. The area is known for its gang presence.
And now police have confirmed the organized crime thugs were involved. From Channel NewsAsia Singapore:
Triad gang members arrested in Hong Kong clashes: police
Hong Kong police have arrested several people with suspected links to the city’s notorious “triad” criminal gangs after a series of attacks on pro-democracy protesters, officials said early Saturday (Oct 4).
Police made a total of 19 arrests over the clashes, with at least eight of those detained believed to have triad backgrounds, a police press conference heard.
From the Independent, defiance:
Hong Kong protests: Demonstrators in vow not to be intimidated by ‘hired guns’
An uprising needs energy. It needs a kick-start. Hong Kong’s initial burst of energy came not from within but from outside, when police last Sunday used tear gas to try to break up a demonstration.
That spark of brutality ignited the anger which produced the biggest revolt in the ex-colony’s history. Then, today, just as the whole thing was starting to flag badly from exhaustion and indirection, came a new burst of negative energy from outside.
An organised gang of hundreds of outsiders, most of them much older than the student-age demonstrators, descended on the remaining occupiers of a protest site in the busy and congested shopping district of Mong Kok.
Talks cancelled, with the Associated Press:
Hong Kong protesters cancel talks with government
Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters called off planned talks with the government on electoral reforms Friday after mobs of people tried to drive them from streets they had occupied in one of the city’s main shopping areas.
The Hong Kong Federation of Students, one of the groups leading the protests that swelled to the tens of thousands earlier this week, said they saw no choice but to cancel the talks.
“The government is demanding the streets be cleared. We call upon all Hong Kong people to immediately come to protect our positions and fight to the end,” the group said in a statement.
Hong Kong’s leader, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, proposed the talks late Thursday, seeking to defuse the standoff, the biggest challenge to Beijing’s authority since China took control of the former British colony in 1997.
From Kyodo News, a government shutdown:
Hong Kong gov’t HQ shut down by protesters, anti-protesters strike
The Hong Kong government complex was shut down Friday as tens of thousands of people protesting election restrictions stepped up their blockade following Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying’s refusal to resign, while violence erupted in some occupied areas, instigated by people opposed to the occupation movement.
Since the occupation movement began Sunday, a total of 131 people have sought hospital treatment for various injuries or illnesses, including 37 on Friday, the government said.
Most of some 3,000 government workers and officials could not enter the government headquarters for work as metal barricades set up by protesters cut off access to the building.
And the latest from South China Morning Post:
Pan-democrats accuse government of orchestrating Mong Kok violence
There were clashes in several parts of the city on Friday as anti-Occupy groups took to the streets to confront demonstrators in Causeway Bay and Mong Kok. Eighteen people were injured, including six police officers. Police arrested 19 people, some of whom they said had “triad backgrounds”.
The Hong Kong Federation of Students called off talks with Chief Secretary Carrie Lam after they said police and government turned a blind eye to attacks on protesters by suspected triad and pro-Beijing groups.
In a joint press conference, pan-democrat lawmakers have called the Mong Kok violence an orchestrated attack by the government and triad gangs on demonstrators.
“Over the past few hours police did not deploy manpower to ensure safety in Hong Kong, which is highly suspicious. I cannot believe that the experienced Mong Kok police could not identify triad gangsters … The government has used organised, orchestrated forces and even triad gangs in attempt to disperse citizens,” said Democrat James To Kun-sun, who is also the deputy chairman of the Legislative Council’s security panel.
While Beijing strikes an ominous note, via People’s Daily:
HK protests challenge supreme power organ: People’s Daily
The illegal gatherings of the Occupy Central movement are aimed at challenging both China’s supreme power organ and Hong Kong citizens’ democratic rights, and are doomed to fail, according to a commentary to be carried by Friday’s People’s Daily.
For several days, some people have been staging protests in Hong Kong in the name of seeking the so-called “real universal suffrage.”
They attempt to force the central authorities to change the decision made by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s top legislature, on Hong Kong’s electoral system. Such actions blatantly violate the Basic Law of Hong Kong and the principle of rule of law, according to the opinion piece.
Crossing the line with NHK WORLD:
Chinese ships leave Japanese territorial waters
Three Chinese patrol vessels have left Japanese territorial waters near the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea after they intruded into it on Friday morning.
The Japan Coast Guard says the 3 Chinese government ships entered the waters off Kuba Island at around 9 AM. The Coast Guard says all the Chinese vessels sailed out of Japanese waters by 11 AM after their patrol ships urged them to leave there.
Friday’s incursion follows similar cases on September 20th.
From South China Morning Post, China shows off its nuclear might:
China puts on show of force with DF-31B mobile ICBM missile test
PLA puts upgraded Dongfeng-31 system through its paces to underscore nuclear strength as US makes military pivot to Asia-Pacific region
The first flight test of an upgraded mobile intercontinental ballistic missile in the lead-up to National Day aimed to show the world that China was reinforcing its nuclear deterrent, military experts said yesterday.
The People’s Liberation Army launched a Dongfeng-31B on September 25 from the Wuzhai Missile and Space Test Centre – also known as the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre – in Shanxi province, according to US-based online newspaper The Washington Free Beacon.
The DF-31B is an upgraded version of the DF-31A and the launch was at least the second time the PLA’s Second Artillery Corps had tested a DF-31 missile in the past three months. In late July, the PLA conducted a flight test of a DF-31A in what was the fourth known flight test of that missile in two years.
From Want China Times, a military promise fraught with danger:
US would defend Diaoyutai Islands against PLA attack: US official
Robert O. Work, the US deputy secretary of defense said that the US will support Japan if the disputed Diaoyutai Islands in the East China Sea are attacked by the People’s Liberation Army, according to Duowei News, a media outlet operated by overseas Chinese.
Work made the statement during a meeting of the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations according to Moscow-based RIA Novosti. He said that the United States has repeatedly refused to take a position on whether the disputed islands belong to China and Japan although the islands are currently administered by Japan as the Senkaku.
Work said that the United States will have to support its Japanese allies if China attacks the islands under Article Five of the US-Japan Security Treaty. When asked if the US would take a military stance if tensions were to escalate, Work said that it all depends on the situation. He said however, that Washington is firm in its support for Tokyo’s administration of the island.
From the Asahi Shimbun, teaming up with the Philippines against China:
SDF observes island defense exercise in Philippines, aimed at countering China
Japan had observer status for the first time in a combat training exercise involving the Philippine military that simulated seizing an island under attack by enemy forces.
The move is in line with concerted efforts by Japan to bolster cooperation with nations in the Asia-Pacific region in response to China’s recent maritime advances.
Both Japan and the Philippines have territorial disputes with China.
The joint U.S.-Philippine PHIBLEX amphibious landing exercise was held Oct. 2 on Arrecife island, 5 kilometers east of Palawan island.
The Asahi Shimbun exercises with Uncle Sam:
SDF simulates armed escort of Japanese citizens overseas
The Self-Defense Forces conducted their first drill to escort Japanese civilians on the ground, in the event of an emergency overseas.
The drill was part of exercises held Oct. 2 at the Air SDF Komaki Base. It was made possible by revisions to the Self-Defense Forces Law last year.
Although the revised law lifted restrictions on the type of weapons that can be carried, in the latest drill, SDF members toted handguns, rifles and machine guns, as stipulated by the previous law.
An island dispute heads to litigation, via Reuters:
Philippines halts work in disputed South China Sea
The Philippines has stopped all development work in the disputed South China Sea because of the impact such activity might have on an arbitration complaint it has filed against China, a defense official said on Friday.
The Philippines has called for all countries to stop construction work on small islands and reefs in the South China Sea, virtually all of which is claimed by China.
The Philippines and other Southeast Asian also have claims in the resource-rich sea, through which passes $5 trillion of trade a year.
For our final item, via Kyodo News, Abe declares war on la liberal paper:
Japan’s image “badly hurt” by false reporting on comfort women: Abe
Japan’s image abroad was “badly hurt” by false reporting on the issue of “comfort women” by a major Japanese daily, and Tokyo will work to spread “correct perceptions” of history, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Friday.
“It’s true that many people were hurt, saddened and angered by false reporting on comfort women. Japan’s image was badly hurt,” Abe told a session of the House of Representatives Budget Committee, referring to a series of articles by The Asahi Shimbun in the 1980s and 1990s which the newspaper recently retracted.
“The government will make sure that correct perceptions of history will be formed based on objective facts,” Abe said as he stressed the importance of providing the right information to the world.
