And more. . .
We begin with attacks and the inept, via the Guardian:
US jets attack Isis as Turkish leader rebukes Biden for remarks about foreign fighters
Kurdish-held town of Kobani besieged by Isis fighters
Western Iraqi town of Kubaisa falls
Pakistani Taliban declares support for Isis
US-led war planes attacked Islamic State (Isis) targets around the Syrian border town of Kobani overnight as the insurgents pressed their assault against its Kurdish defenders, a monitoring group and witnesses said.
On Saturday, fighting continued around Kobani while in Iraq, Isis fighters captured the town of Kubaisa, in the western Anbar province, two days after the fall of the nearby town of Hit. The fall of Kubaisa jeopardises the Ain al-Asad military base, which allows Iraqi forces to send troops and supplies to defend the Haditha dam further west.
Also on Saturday, the Pakistani Taliban declared allegiance to Islamic State and ordered militants across the region to help the group in its campaign to set up a global Islamic caliphate.
In Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan demanded an apology from the US vice-president, Joe Biden, and warned he would become “history for me” over comments in which Biden said the Turkish leader had admitted Turkey had made mistakes by allowing foreign fighters to cross into Syria.
And the inevitable, via the Associated Press:
Biden apologizes to Turkey president in phone call
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden apologized Saturday to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was angry over comments in which Biden said Erdogan had admitted that Turkey had made mistakes by allowing foreign fighters to cross into Syria.
Erdogan denied ever saying that and told reporters in Istanbul before Biden’s apology that he “will be history for me if he has indeed used such expressions.”
Biden spoke with Erdogan by phone on Saturday, the White House said.
“The vice president apologized for any implication that Turkey or other allies and partners in the region had intentionally supplied or facilitated the growth of ISIL or other violent extremists in Syria,” the White House said, referring to an acronym for the Islamic State group.
From Deutsche Welle, when does engagement become marriage?:
Germany plans expanded engagement against ‘IS’ in Iraq
Germany is considering establishing a training center for Kurdish forces fighting the “Islamic State” in northern Iraq. However, the plans still don’t include joining an air campaign against the group.
Germany is planning to do more to help Kurdish and Iraqi troops fighting militants who have captured large amounts of territory in northern Iraq, the Defense Ministry announced on Saturday.
A ministry spokeswoman told the EPD news agency that plans were afoot to establish a military training center in Erbil, capital of the autonomous region of Kurdistan, for peshmerga soldiers involved in the conflict.
She said that the German government was also considering participating in a training facility for the Iraqi army, possibly in a neighboring country, in addition to dispatching additional military officers. The plans were announced on Friday at a briefing of parliament’s Defense Committee by Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen, the spokeswoman said.
From TheLocal.de,, and they’re, like, surprised?:
Berlin approves arms exports to Arab states
Germany has approved new deliveries of weapons to several Arab countries, including Qatar which had been accused of backing jihadists, according to a newspaper report Thursday.
The Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported on its website that weapons including tanks and machine guns are to be delivered to countries including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Algeria. Jordan, Oman and Kuwait would also receive German weaponry.
But critics rounded on the government’s decision, with Jan Van Aken, a deputy from the far-left party Die Linke, questioning the delivery to Qatar in particular.
Reuters covers pilgrimage agitprop:
At haj, Saudi Arabia clerics step up anti-Islamic State drive
Taking aim at Islamic State, Saudi Arabia has mounted a battle for hearts and minds at this year’s haj, warning pilgrims that the hardline group is “evil” and seeking to recruit their children to fight in Iraq and Syria.
As millions of pilgrims visited the holiest sites in Islam on the second day of the annual pilgrimage on Saturday, global leaders condemned the fourth beheading of a Westerner by Islamic State insurgents.
Saudi Arabia declared Islamic State a terrorist organization in March and sharply stepped up denunciations of the group after its fighters made rapid territorial gains in Iraq in June.
On to spooky things, first with the Guardian:
Failure to pass US surveillance reform bill could still curtail NSA powers
If the Senate doesn’t pass the USA Freedom Act after the midterm elections, a key section of the Patriot Act could expire
Two members of the US House of Representatives are warning that a failure to pass landmark surveillance reform will result in a far more drastic curtailment of US surveillance powers – one that will occur simply by the House doing nothing at all.
As the clock ticks down on the 113th Congress, time is running out for the USA Freedom Act, the first legislative attempt at reining in the National Security Agency during the 9/11 era. Unless the Senate passes the stalled bill in the brief session following November’s midterm elections, the NSA will keep all of its existing powers to collect US phone records in bulk, despite support for the bill from the White House, the House of Representatives and, formally, the NSA itself.
But supporters of the Freedom Act are warning that the intelligence agencies and their congressional allies will find the reform bill’s legislative death to be a cold comfort.
From RT, the Usual Suspects doing usual things:
Germany handed law-protected private data to NSA for years – report
Intelligence service BND failed to protect the private data of German citizens as it handed over internet data collected at a Frankfurt traffic hub to the US, German media report citing secret documents.
The documents cited by VDR and EDR television and the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, which broke the news together, were obtained from the federal government during an ongoing parliamentary investigation into US National Security Service spying on German soil.
Just like the NSA is forbidden by the law to spy on Americans, the BND is not allowed to spy on Germans. So when last year in was revealed that the two intelligence services had been collaborating to collect communication data at the De-Cix internet exchange node in Frankfurt, the BND had to produce explanations.
From the Department of the Panopticon, via Nextgov:
DHS No Longer Needs Permission Slips to Monitor Other Agencies’ Networks for Vulnerabilities
The Department of Homeland Security has spelled out its intentions to proactively monitor civilian agency networks for signs of threats, after agencies arguably dropped the ball this spring in detecting federal websites potentially harboring the Heartbleed superbug.
Annual rules for complying with the 2002 Federal Information Security Management Act released Friday require agencies to agree to proactive scanning. The regulations also contain new requirements for notifying DHS when a cyber event occurs.
“The federal government’s response to the ‘Heartbleed’ security vulnerability highlighted the need to formalize this process, and ensure that federal agencies are proactively scanning networks for vulnerabilities,” Office of Management and Budget Director Shaun Donovan said in an Oct. 3 memo to department heads. “This year’s guidance clarifies what is required of DHS and federal agencies in this area.”
Broadening the banking hacking front, via the New York Times:
Hackers’ Attack Cracked 10 Financial Firms in Major Assault
The huge cyberattack on JPMorgan Chase that touched more than 83 million households and businesses was one of the most serious computer intrusions into an American corporation. But it could have been much worse.
Questions over who the hackers are and the approach of their attack concern government and industry officials. Also troubling is that about nine other financial institutions — a number that has not been previously reported — were also infiltrated by the same group of overseas hackers, according to people briefed on the matter. The hackers are thought to be operating from Russia and appear to have at least loose connections with officials of the Russian government, the people briefed on the matter said.
It is unclear whether the other intrusions, at banks and brokerage firms, were as deep as the one that JPMorgan disclosed on Thursday. The identities of the other institutions could not be immediately learned.
A Mac infestation from Ars Technica:
Reddit-powered botnet infected thousands of Macs worldwide
Mac.BackDoor.iWorm used Minecraft server subreddit for command and control
The Russian antivirus vendor Dr. Web has reported the spread of a new botnet that exclusively targets Apple computers running Mac OS X. According to a survey of traffic conducted by researchers at Dr. Web, over 17,000 Macs worldwide are part of the Mac.BackDoor.iWorm botnet—and almost a quarter of them are in the US. One of the most curious aspects of the botnet is that it uses a search of Reddit posts to a Minecraft server list subreddit to retrieve IP addresses for its command and control (CnC) network. That subreddit now appears to have been expunged of CnC data, and the account that posted the data appears to be shut down.
The Dr. Web report doesn’t say how Mac.BackDoor.iWorm is being distributed to victims of the malware. But its “dropper” program installs the malware into the Library directory within the affected user’s account home folder, disguised as an Application Support directory for “JavaW.” The dropper then generates an OS X .plist file to automatically launch the bot whenever the system is started.
A controversial hand-off, from the Washington Post:
Ferguson police chief asks St. Louis County police to manage protests
Ferguson, Mo., police chief Thomas Jackson ceded responsibility for managing protests in the city to the larger St. Louis County police department on Friday.
A “lack of resources and manpower were the main driving force in Chief Jackson’s request,” according to a county press release. Sgt. Brian Schellman, spokesman for county police, added that Jackson made the request via a phone call to County Police Chief Jon Belmar.
Belmar almost immediately accepted the task, which will include authorizing arrests of protesters and handling their release. With 460 members, the county police department is nearly 10 times the size of the police department in this suburb of 21,000.
From the Charleston Gazette, a Klandestine disclosure:
Sources: Charleston cop suspended over videos
A Charleston police lieutenant on paid administrative leave is under investigation for making racially insensitive video recordings, sources familiar with the investigation said.
Lt. Shawn Williams, of the Charleston Police Department, was placed on leave last week pending an investigation by the Police Department’s professional standards division. The investigation was triggered after police obtained video recordings taken from Williams’ computer, according to those familiar with the investigation.
Two sources who have seen the recordings say the videos depict Williams’ young daughter dressed in what appear to be articles of a police uniform and dancing to an anthem of the Ku Klux Klan. The refrain of the song repeats the words, “Stand up and be counted, show the world that you’re a man. Stand up and be counted, go with the Ku Klux Klan.”
On the videos, a man alleged to be Williams can be heard asking the girl questions. Derogatory racial language can be heard, sources said. Sources said there were several similar videos on the computer.
And from Fusion, a tragic discovery:
Mass grave in Mexico found near area where students went missing
A mass grave has been discovered in the outskirts of the town of Iguala, where six students were killed and 43 went missing after a confrontation with police last weekend.
While authorities have yet to confirm the number of bodies in the grave — or if it is connected to the disappeared students — the news certainly appears grim.
The young people went missing on Sept. 25 after an outbreak of violence in Iguala. The incident began when a group of students from a nearby teachers college hijacked a bus in what they call an act of protest. Although the students were unarmed, police shot at the bus, killing three people. Later, masked gunman opened fire on two taxis and a bus carrying a soccer team on a nearby highway, bringing the death toll to six.
And a video background report from Fusion:
Mexican Students Hauled Away in Police Cars Before They Went Missing
Program notes:
In the United States, a missing college student can draw national media attention for weeks.
In Mexico, 44 students from the Ayotzinapa Teacher’s College have been missing since Sept. 25, after a group they were part of had a confrontation with police in the southern state of Guerrero.
After the jump, Sweden recognizes Palestine then draws fire, hostility trumps charitability in flooded Kashmir, then on to Hong Kong and an ultimatum to protesters followed by more protests and revelations of sexual assaults during attacks by gangster thugs, Chinese ships patrol contested waters, Japan announces plan to aid the U.S. in worldwide missions, and hands across the Korean border. . .
Recognition draws rebuke, via TheLocal.se:
US: Sweden recognition of Palestine ‘premature’
The US warned that Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven’s plan to formally recognize the state of Palestine was “premature” while it was welcomed by the Palestinians who called on the rest of the EU to follow suit.
Sweden’s new prime minister announced Friday that the country will recognise a Palestinian state, becoming the first EU member in Western Europe to do so.
Social Democrat leader Stefan Löfven — who won last month’s general election — said the Nordic country wanted to bolster a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Washington was among those who reacted quickly to the announcement calling Stockholm’s recognition “premature”, while Palestinians cheered the decision as “courageous” and urged the rest of the European Union to follow suit.
When hostility trumps charitability, via Channel NewsAsia Singapore:
Pakistan bars relief goods to flood-hit Indian Kashmir
Pakistan on Saturday (Oct 4) barred activists from taking relief goods intended for flood victims to the border of Indian-controlled Kashmir, where delays in aid have created widespread anger among residents. The frustration has spread to the Pakistani-controlled area of the territory because of the family ties across the de facto border, where movement even for close relatives is tightly restricted.
Around 300 protesters from Pakistan-administered Kashmir took 11 truckloads of relief goods to the border town of Chakothi in an attempt to send them across the border for flood victims on the Indian-controlled side of the mountainous region.
Monsoon-induced flooding has wreaked havoc on both sides of the Himalayan region, which is divided between the two nuclear-armed rivals.
On to Hong Kong and an ultimatum from the Los Angeles Times:
Hong Kong chief issues deadline for protesters to clear streets
Pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong and the Beijing-backed government appeared to be on a collision course Saturday night as the city’s chief executive issued a stern warning that people should clear the streets and protest leaders staged a defiant rally drawing tens of thousands.
“The most urgent thing is that the government headquarters’ entrances and exits must be kept clear on Monday, so 3,000 government staff can go to work normally and serve citizens,” Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said in a televised address. “The roads … must no longer be blocked, so all schools can resume classes on Monday.”
Leung took note of violence Friday as opponents of the protests assaulted pro-democracy demonstrators, but he did not directly address demonstrators’ vociferous complaints that police had failed to act forcefully enough to protect them. Police said they arrested 19 people, including eight with links to Triad gangs.
Followed by more protests, via the New York Times:
Large Protest Follows Hong Kong Leader’s New Warning
Pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong held one of the largest rallies of their campaign Saturday evening, a gesture of defiance following attacks on their encampments and a declaration by the territory’s leader that major roads they have occupied for the last week must be cleared by Monday morning.
Tens of thousands of protesters gathered at the main protest site at Admiralty, outside government headquarters, after the territory’s embattled leader, Leung Chun-ying, said that “all actions necessary” would be taken to ensure that government workers could go back to work next week. He did not specify what those actions would be, but police used tear gas in an attempt to break up a protest a week ago, leading to a wave of larger demonstrations.
“We know that every time they assault us, we resist harder,” Alex Chow Yong Kang, the secretary general of the Hong Kong Federation of Students, told the crowd. “And we know we’re on the right path, otherwise the government wouldn’t have been so afraid of us.”
Revelations of thuggery against women from Want China Times:
Amnesty blasts HK police for not protecting women from assault
Human rights group Amnesty International said Hong Kong police failed to protect women and girls and stood by while they were being sexually assaulted or harassed on Friday night when counter-demonstrators clashed with pro-democracy protesters.
The group’s Hong Kong branch director Mabel Au blasted the police for failing in their duties and called their inaction shameful. She also expressed concern that the failure may fuel an increased level of violence during the demonstrations.
A woman told the group that several police officers witnessed a man grab her breasts and touch the groins of two other women during the protest at 4pm, but the officers did not take any action. It was fellow protesters who restrained the man and prevented him from harassing other women. Amnesty International said there were also threats and intimidation against women throughout the evening.
From Global Times, Chinese ships patrol contested waters:
China patrols Diaoyu Islands
Vessels of the China Coast Guard (CCG) conducted a patrol mission in China’s territorial waters surrounding the Diaoyu Islands on Friday, according to a statement by State Oceanic Administration.
The vessels are CCG 2350, 2146, and 2113. China has been conducting the patrols on a regular basis.
From the Asahi Shimbun, doubling down with Uncle Sam:
Japan’s SDF to assist U.S. military globally under new guidelines
Japan and the United States will eliminate existing geographical constraints under their revised defense cooperation framework to enable the Japanese Self-Defense Forces to assist the U.S. military anywhere in the world, sources said.
The landmark change in the Guidelines for Japan-U.S. Defense Cooperation means that the SDF’s rear support to U.S. forces in terms of supplies and transport will no longer be limited to “areas surrounding Japan.”
However, given the sensitive nature of the issue, an interim report on the new framework is expected to stress that Japan will maintain an exclusively defense-oriented policy as its basic approach, the sources said.
And for our final item, via BBC News, hands across the Korean border:
North and South Korea ‘agree to talks’
North and South Korea have agreed to resume formal high-level talks that had effectively been suspended since February, reports from South Korea say.
The agreement came during a surprise visit to South Korea by North Korean officials for the closing ceremony of the Asian Games. The visit was led by two top-ranking North Korean officials seen as close aides to leader Kim Jong-un.
Both sides were said to have agreed to meet again within the next few weeks.
