And lots more. . .
We open with diminished expectations, via The Hill:
Obama: Expect ‘setbacks’ in ISIS fight
President Obama on Tuesday warned that there would be periodic “setbacks” in the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) as the administration faces criticism over its strategy.
“This is going to be a long-term campaign, there are no quick fixes involved,” Obama said after a meeting with coalition military leaders at Joint Base Andrews, adding that there were “going to be periods of progress and setbacks.”
The president acknowledged that the terror network, which controls large swaths of land in Iraq and Syria, did not present a “classic” military challenge.
From BBC News, what a difference a border makes:
Turkish jets bomb Kurdish PKK rebels near Iraq
Turkish F-16 and F-4 warplanes have bombed Kurdish PKK rebel targets near the Iraqi border, as their ceasefire comes under increasing strain.
The air strikes on Daglica were in response to PKK shelling of a military outpost, the armed forces said.
Both sides have been observing a truce and it is the first major air raid on the PKK since March 2013.
Kurds are furious at Turkey’s inaction as Islamic State (IS) militants attack the Syrian border town of Kobane.
From BBC News again, adding fuel to flame:
Terror trial: Suspect ‘had Tony Blair’s address’
A terror suspect was considering an indiscriminate Mumbai-style attack and had an address for Tony Blair and his wife, Cherie, the Old Bailey has heard.
Erol Incedal plotted to attack a “significant individual” or killings similar to the 2008 Mumbai attacks, which left 174 dead, prosecutors said.
He also had a phone containing material supporting Islamic State, they added.
Mr Incedal, 26, from London, denies preparing for acts of terrorism. He is being tried partly in secret.
From the Guardian, noteworthy:
US security contractor shot dead in Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh
One American killed and another wounded in gun attack at petrol station in eastern district of city
A US national was shot dead and another wounded in Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh on Tuesday, police said, in what appeared to be the first killing of a westerner in years in a gun attack in the kingdom.
Police later shot and wounded an assailant and then arrested him, said the brief statement, carried by SPA, the state media agency said.
“The attack resulted in the killing of one person and the wounding of another and it turned out they were of American citizenship,” it said.
A US official said both victims were working with a private security contractor, Vinnell Arabia. The company was working with the Saudi national guard, the official said.
An echo from Cold War 1.0, via the London Daily Mail:
Atomic bomb spy David Greenglass, whose false testimony sent his own sister and her husband to the electric chair, dies aged 92
David Greenglass served 10 years in prison for his role in the most explosive atomic spying case of the Cold War
He gave testimony that sent his brother-in-law and sister, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, to the electric chair in 1953
Greenglass, 92, died in New York City on July 1
He lived for decades under an assumed name in Queens, hoping to be forgotten for his part in the case that is still furiously debated to this day
A clarion call from the Guardian:
UK intelligence agencies need stronger oversight, says David Blunkett
Former home secretary tells committee continued secrecy is undermining public confidence in wake of Snowden revelations
The former home secretary David Blunkett has called for stronger oversight of the UK’s intelligence agencies and warned that the “old-fashioned paternalism” of secrecy based on perceived security interests was undermining public confidence in their activities.
Blunkett called for the legal framework on mass surveillance to be updated on a regular basis and for judicial oversight to be made much more robust and transparent.
The Labour MP’s call came during only the second public evidence session ever held by the intelligence and security committee. Its inquiry into security and privacy was set up following the disclosures by Edward Snowden of the scale of the bulk collection of personal data by GCHQ and the US National Security Agency.
From the National Journal:
Snowden’s Closest Confidant Reveals What It Was Like Spilling the NSA’s Secrets
“We knew we were going to piss off the most powerful people in the world,” Laura Poitras told National Journal
There’s a prolonged scene in Laura Poitras’ new documentary, Citizenfour, when Edward Snowden looks in his hotel room’s mirror and tussles his hair in a nervous—and, ultimately fruitless—attempt to defeat bedhead.
The shot is a revealing and humanizing moment for Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who became known the world over last summer after his leaks exposed the agency’s vast phone and Internet surveillance programs.
Despite his notoriety, such an intimate look at Snowden has been missing from the story of arguably the greatest heist and disclosure ever of U.S. government secrets—until now.
Cyberwar revelations from SecurityWeek:
Russia-linked Hackers Exploited Windows Zero-day to Spy on NATO, EU, Others
Attackers exploited a zero-day vulnerability in Windows to spy on NATO, the European Union, Poland, Ukraine, private energy organizations, and European telecommunications companies, according to cyber-intelligence firm iSight Partners.
Microsoft is expected to patch the flaw today as part of October’s Patch Tuesday release.
The espionage campaign began five years ago and is still in progress, iSight said in its advisory. It has evolved several times over the years to adopt new attack methods, and only began targeting the Windows zero-day with malicious PowerPoint files in August, according to the company. iSight analysts have named the operation “Sandworm Team” because the attackers included several references to Frank Herbert’s Dune in the code.
Very curious, via the Guardian:
Chat logs reveal FBI informant’s role in hacking of Sun newspaper
US agency faces questions after records show Lulzsec leader, who was informant at time, helped attack that closed UK sites
The FBI is facing questions over its role in a 2011 hacking attack on Rupert Murdoch’s Sun newspaper in the UK after the publication of chat logs showed that a man acting as an agency informant played a substantial role in the operation.
In July 2011, a group of hackers known as Lulzsec – an offshoot of Anonymous – posted a fake story about the death of Murdoch, penetrated several News International (now News UK) corporate sites, and claimed to have obtained gigabytes of material from the company’s servers.
The attack was so successful that the publisher took down the websites of the Sun and the Times while technicians worked out the scale of the hack.
Dropbox punts, via SecurityWeek:
Dropbox Denies It Was Hacked, Says Passwords Stolen From Other Services
On Monday, a group of hackers posted a message on Pastebin claiming they have “hacked” nearly 7 million Dropbox accounts. The cloud storage giant said the data was stolen from other services, not from its own systems.
The hackers have already published hundreds of email addresses and associated passwords in clear text. They claim they will publish more as they get Bitcoin donations, but so far only 0.0001 BTC has been transferred to their address.
Reddit users have confirmed that at least some of the credentials are valid, but Dropbox says the information has been stolen from other services. In an effort to protect its customers from such attacks, the company is resetting the passwords for compromised accounts.
Another hack from TechWorm :
Personal Data of 850,000 job seekers of Oregon potentially compromised
850,000 Job seekers from Oregon at risk of data theft
News emerge of another hack taking place, this time in Oregon, USA. The system in question is Oregon Employment Department’s WorkSource Oregon Management Information System (WOMIS).
This system is in short, a database for job seekers. Potential candidates share personal information on the site, information that might help them secure a job. This information has apparently been breached.
An anonymous tip was sent to the organization notifying them of a security vulnerability in the WorkSource Oregon Management Information System (WOMIS). As per the reports available, the data that may be compromised includes names, addresses and Social Security Numbers.
On to Ferguson with BBC News:
Dozens arrested in Ferguson protests
Nearly 50 people have been arrested at protests in Ferguson, Missouri, over the shooting of an unarmed black teenager two months ago.
Civil rights activist Cornel West was among those held after he led a march to the police station.
Riot police lined up outside the building and arrests were made when people tried to break the line.
The protests were part of four days of events called “Ferguson October”, which calls for an end to police brutality.
A video report from RT America:
Police shut down protests in Ferguson
Program notes:
Marches continued in Ferguson, MO on Monday, with protesters descending on several Walmarts to demonstrate against police violence and what they call racial discrimination by law enforcement. Part of “Moral Monday,” the activists demanded justice for the killings of Ferguson resident Michael Brown and John Crawford III, who was gunned down inside an Ohio Walmart in August. RT’s Lindsay France followed the protests and has more details.
After the jump, it’s on to Mexico and the deepening mystery of the missing students, protest takes an inflammatory turn, Mexican anti-riot police dispatched, on to Asia and a reappearing Kim, it’s police to the barricades in Hong Kong, Japan sends mixed messages on the eve of a China trip as maritime talks also draw near, and Shinzo Abe grabs the power of the state secret and protests ensue. . .
On to Mexico and the deepening mystery of the missing students, via Deutsche Welle:
Mass grave bodies don’t belong to missing Mexico students
A probe of a mass grave near the Mexican city of Iguala has proven fruitless in the search for 43 missing students. Mexican officials say they will continue working to identify human remains in other nearby graves.
Mexico’s attorney general confirmed early Wednesday that none of the missing students’ remains had been found in a mass grave where investigators had thought they might be buried.
The probe had recovered 28 bodies, but none of the DNA matched those of the 43 college students’ who disappeared late last month near the Guerrero state town of Iguala.
Guerrero Governor Angel Aguirre also confirmed the results, adding that “some [of the graves] are from months ago,” which could mean they belonged to earlier victims. He also noted that the remains were difficult to identify because they had been burned.
Protest takes an inflammatory turn, via the McClatchy Foreign Staff:
State capital building burned in Mexico during angry protest over missing students
Masked demonstrators protesting the disappearance of 43 students in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero late last month set fire Monday to the state’s government headquarters after fierce clashes with riot police.
Some 600 protesters in Chilpancingo, Guerrero’s capital, began their siege of the headquarters at around noon. As clashes with riot police wore on, the protesters allowed women employees to leave the modernist structure around 3 p.m., then later forced the remaining employees to leave. Some protesters ran through the building breaking windows, news reports said.
By late afternoon, huge flames erupted from the glass-fronted building. A snack truck parked nearby erupted in flames, hit by a Molotov cocktail.
The sinembargo.mx news portal said five teams of firefighters were battling the blaze. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
More from the Guardian:
Mexico violence flares as fury grows over fate of missing students
Demonstrators attack government building with rocks and Molotov cocktails in protest at alleged abduction by police
Hundreds of students and teachers have smashed windows and started fires inside a state capital building in southern Mexico, as fury erupted over the disappearance of 43 young people believed to have been abducted by local police linked to a drug cartel.
The protesters called for the safe return of the students from a rural teachers’ college in Guerrero state, who have been missing since 26 September, even though fears have grown that 10 newly discovered mass graves could contain their bodies.
Associated Press photographs showed smoke billowing from the government building in Chilpancingo, the capital of Guerrero, and flames licking from office windows. Firefighters battled the blaze.
The government spokesman, José Villanueva Manzanarez, said the protesting members of a teachers’ union initially tried to get into the state congress in Chilpancingo but were repelled by anti-riot police. They then headed to the state government palace.
With the support of hundreds of students from the Ayotzinapa teachers’ college, the teachers blockaded the capital building, attacking it with iron bars, rocks and Molotov cocktails, he said.
And a video report from Agence France-Presse:
Mexican state HQ torched in demo for missing students
Program notes:
Protesters torched part of the government headquarters of Mexico’s southern state of Guerrero Monday during demonstrations over the disappearance of 43 students following an attack by gang-linked police on September 26.
A response from BBC News:
Mexican anti-riot police sent to Guerrero after clashes
Anti-riot police have been deployed to the Mexican city of Chilpancingo after protesters attacked local government buildings in anger at the disappearance of 43 students on 26 September.
Thousands of people have taken to the streets across Mexico to demand government action to locate the missing students.
On Monday, demonstrators gathered outside the government complex in Chilpancingo, allowing workers to leave before ransacking and setting fire to the building and a vehicle parked outside.
They vowed to “radicalise” their actions if there was no progress in the investigation.
On to Asia and a reappearing Kim via the Los Angeles Times:
North Korea’s Kim reemerges after mysterious absence
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has made his first public appearance since early September, the nation’s official media reported Tuesday, ending a mysterious absence of nearly six weeks.
The front page of Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party, showed Kim walking with a cane at a new complex of apartment buildings in Pyongyang, the capital, where he reportedly provided “field guidance.” Kim had last been seen in public Sept. 3, attending a concert with his wife.
The front page of the newspaper bore a large photo of Kim with a broad grin. Lower on the page was a photo spread of him touring the complex. Among the officials accompanying Kim was Hwang Pyong So, a high-ranking military official who was one of three senior officials who recently traveled to South Korea to attend the closing ceremony of the Asian Games and hold meetings with their South Korean counterparts.
It’s police to the barricades in Hong Kong via the Washington Post:
Hong Kong police clear barricades, open roads around protest site
Police used chain saws and sledgehammers to clear away barricades around protest sites and reopen several major roads in Hong Kong on Tuesday, appearing to gain the upper hand for the first time since pro-democracy protests began late last month.
In two efficient operations Tuesday morning, hundreds of police descended first on the Causeway Bay shopping area and then on Queensway, a wide road running through the heart of Hong Kong’s business district. Forming lines around groups of protesters, other officers demolished barricades that had been reinforced the night before and cleared the roads.
Police left untouched the main protest area on Harcourt Road, just north of Queensway in Admiralty District, while some protesters continued to occupy one side of the road in Causeway Bay. But the police action significantly eased traffic congestion and allowed trams, buses and taxis to operate much more freely on Hong Kong island.
Japan sends mixed messages on the eve of a China trip, from the Wall Street Journal:
Japan Cabinet Minister to Visit Yasukuni as Abe Gears Up for China Trip
Relations between Tokyo and Beijing appear to be on the mend, but disagreements over World War II legacy issues will likely continue to fester.
A prominent member of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s cabinet said Tuesday she intends to visit a controversial war memorial in Tokyo during its semiannual festival starting Friday. Sanae Takaichi, minister of internal affairs and communications, is the first state minister to say she will visit Yasukuni Shrine since Mr. Abe reshuffled his cabinet last month.
“Every year, in the spring and in the fall, and on other occasions, I have expressed appreciation and respect to the sacred spirits,” Ms. Takaichi said at a news conference. “I will stay true to myself and continue my visit as a Japanese.” Ms. Takaichi is one of five female ministers Mr. Abe appointed last month with fanfare as a way to promote the role of women in society. But some of them, including Ms. Takaichi, have come under scrutiny in recent weeks because of their highly conservative views. She and another minister were found to have posed for photos with a member of a neo-Nazi group in the past. Ms. Takaichi later said she didn’t know about the man’s affiliations when the photo was taken.
Asked about Ms. Takaichi’s comment, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, said the Abe government leaves it up to cabinet members to decide whether to visit the shrine as individuals. “Other countries also have occasions to express heartfelt condolences to those who lost their lives for their country and pray for peace.”
On a parallel note from Kyodo News:
Japan, China eye resumption of maritime talks by end of month
Japan and China are considering resuming negotiations for a maritime communications mechanism involving the two countries’ defense authorities possibly by the end of the month, sources familiar with bilateral relations said Tuesday.
The envisaged mechanism is aimed at preventing unintended maritime collisions around the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, a group of uninhabited islets administered by Japan but claimed by Beijing and Taiwan.
Japan wants the talks resumed as early as possible as part of efforts to lay the groundwork for a meeting between Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of a regional summit in November in Beijing. It is not yet certain whether China will respond to such a call.
From the Mainichi, Abe grabs the power of the state secret:
Gov’t sets guidelines on state secrets as concerns remain over arbitrary designation
The government on Oct. 14 decided on guidelines for classifying and declassifying state secrets under the new state secrets protection law, together with a government decree which stipulates that 19 administrative bodies will be allowed to designate state secrets.
The guidelines state that a new post of “independent public document control officer” will be created within the Cabinet Office to monitor whether state secrets are properly designated. But concerns raised since the time the law was enacted have not been addressed. These include the possibility that the scope of the law could be expanded, with arbitrary designation of state secrets, as well as concerns that monitoring bodies lack independence. The state secrets protection law will take effect on Dec. 10.
With respect to concerns over arbitrary designation of state secrets, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at a news conference on Oct. 14, “The operational guidelines set out a mechanism to ensure that the law will be applied appropriately, banning designation of secrets to cover things up. We want to carefully explain the issues to the public to defuse concerns.”
Protests ensue, via NHK WORLD:
Many groups protest state secret standards
Many other groups are also protesting the Cabinet’s approval of the standards.
Japan Federation of Bar Associations President Susumu Murakoshi released a statement calling for abolishment of the state secrecy law. He said the legislation could endanger the public’s right to know and democracy.
Murakoshi said public debates should be held to establish a balanced system for information disclosure and to protect secrets.
Japan Pen Club President Jiro Asada said the group will stand firm for the freedom to search for, disclose and comment on information, regardless of its type.
More from the Mainichi:
Guidelines on state secrets law lack measures to ensure public’s right to know
The government has produced guidelines governing a secrets protection act to take effect in less than two months, citing “respect for the public’s right to know,” but it has failed to explain in concrete terms how it will protect this right.
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) approved the guidelines during a recent General Council meeting, but even some politicians at this meeting raised questions over how to guarantee the public’s right to know.
Experts familiar with information laws fear that if a protected secret is leaked, while the reporter who obtained the information might not be criminally prosecuted, investigative authorities may confiscate his or her computer or recording devices to uncover the source of the leak, and might pressure the reporter to reveal the source.
