And so much else.
First, you knew it was coming, via the Guardian:
US military considers sending combat troops to battle Isis forces in Iraq
General Martin Dempsey tells House committee that he would consider abandoning Obama’s pledge and send troops to fight Isis in Iraq
The top-ranking officer in the American military said on Thursday that the US is actively considering the direct use of troops in the toughest upcoming fights against the Islamic State (Isis) in Iraq, less than a week after Barack Obama doubled troop levels there.
General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, indicated to the House of Representatives armed services committee that the strength of Isis relative to the Iraqi army may be such that he would recommend abandoning Obama’s oft-repeated pledge against returning US ground troops to combat in Iraq.
Retaking the critical city of Mosul, Iraq’s second largest, and re-establishing the border between Iraq and Syria that Isis has erased “will be fairly complex terrain” for the Iraqi security forces that the US is once again supporting, Dempsey acknowledged.
“I’m not predicting at this point that I would recommend that those forces in Mosul and along the border would need to be accompanied by US forces, but we’re certainly considering it,” he said.
And, uh, that droned guy? Uh, well. . .via BBC News:
Islamic State: ‘Baghdadi message’ issued by jihadists
Islamic State has released an audiotape it says was recorded by its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, days after reports that he had been killed or injured.
In the recording, released via social media, the speaker says IS fighters will never stop fighting “even if only one soldier remains”.
Correspondents say the recording appears authentic and recent. BBC analysts say the message is probably also intended to counter the claim that Baghdadi has been killed.
Ancillary action, via BBC News:
Egypt sailors missing after navy ship attacked in Med
Gunmen have attacked an Egyptian navy ship in the Mediterranean Sea, state media say, leaving five servicemen injured and eight more missing at sea.
The vessel reportedly caught fire in the assault, some 70km (45 miles) off the northern port of Damietta. In two further attacks in northern Sinai, militants killed five policemen and soldiers, officials said.
A three-month state of emergency was declared in northern Sinai last month after 31 soldiers were killed.
Gettin’ spooky, from the Guardian:
Race to revive NSA surveillance curbs before Congress handover
Harry Reid, leader of the outgoing Democratic Senate majority, attempts to bring USA Freedom Act to a vote
The major post-Edward Snowden legislation meant to constrain the National Security Agency received a new lease on life Wednesday when the Senate majority leader paved the way for the USA Freedom Act to receive a vote before the congressional session expires.
Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat who will cease being majority leader when his party returns to the minority in January, filed a procedural motion that will permit the bill to receive a hearing on the Senate floor, perhaps as early as next week. Its supporters have feared that Senate inaction would quietly kill the only post-9/11 attempt at curtailing mass surveillance.
The USA Freedom Act, which passed the House of Representatives in May with bipartisan support, seeks to get the NSA out of the business of bulk domestic phone records collection, though how far it restrains the surveillance agency is a matter of dispute.
The London Telegraph covers cellular spooks aloft:
US using fake cellphone towers on planes to gather data
The devices, nicknamed ‘dirtboxes,’ can collect information from tens of thousands of cell phones in a single flight
An agency of the US Justice Department is gathering data from thousands of cell phones, including both criminal suspects and innocent Americans, by using fake communications towers on airplanes, according to reports.
The program run by the US Marshals Service began operations in 2007 and uses Cessna planes flying from at least five major airports and covering most of the US population, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.
The planes use devices made by Boeing Co that mimic the cell phone towers used by major telecommunications companies and trick mobile phones into revealing their unique registration data, the report said.
The devices, nicknamed “dirtboxes,” can collect information from tens of thousands of cell phones in a single flight, which occur on a regular basis, according to those with knowledge of the program, the Journal said.
Big Brother’s Mini-Mes, from the East Bay Express:
Controlling the Surveillance State
A new report from the ACLU shows that local law enforcement agencies have been spending big bucks on surveillance technology — and offers recommendations on how to rein in the spending
California cities and counties have spent more than $65 million on surveillance technologies in the past decade while conducting little public debate about the expenditures, according to a new report published this week by three American Civil Liberties Union chapters in the state. Public records reviewed by the ACLU also indicate that though cities and counties in California bought surveillance technologies 180 instances, they only held public discussions about the proposals just 26 times.
The technologies examined in the report included automated license plate readers, closed-circuit video cameras, facial recognition software, drones, data mining tools, and cellphone interception devices known as ISMI catchers or stingrays. The report analyzed purchases by 59 cities and by 58 county governments in California. In many instances, city and county officials used federal grant money to make the purchases, and then asked local legislative bodies to rubber-stamp their decisions. “We long suspected California law enforcement was taking advantage of federal grant money to skirt official oversight and keep communities in the dark about surveillance systems,” said Nicole Ozer, the technology and civil liberties director for the ACLU of California.
The report also found that only one-third of the cities and counties surveyed had privacy policies to prevent law enforcement abuse.
Nuclear cowboys reined in, from International Business Times:
Chuck Hagel To Order Shake-Up Of US Nuclear Forces, Following Series Of Scandals
U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is ordering significant changes to the management of the country’s nuclear weapons, after internal reviews concluded that the “incoherent” structure of forces means they cannot be properly managed, according to the Associated Press.
Two senior U.S. defense officials, who discussed the situation with the AP on condition of anonymity, told the agency that Hagel will be proposing additional investment of between $1 billion and $10 billion dollars and appointing more senior military officers to key posts.
U.S. nuclear forces have been rocked by a series of scandals in recent months. In January, a group of Air Force officers who work on nuclear launch duty were suspended and had their security clearances revoked, after being caught cheating on proficiency tests.
In addition, military-run nuclear facilities have failed safety inspections, troops have been found violating safety protocols surrounding launch command centers and an Air Force general in charge of an entire section of U.S. nuclear weapons was removed from his post, following an incident of embarrassing, drunken behavior while on an official visit to Russia, according to the AP.
Drones over the border with BBC News:
US-Mexico border ‘patrolled by drones’
The US government is using drones to patrol half of its border with Mexico, a report by the Associated Press says.
The strategy means that the US is increasingly able to move away from using large numbers of border patrol agents along the entire frontier. The drones allow border control agents to focus on areas of “greater threat”, says the report.
The US border immigration system is under pressure in the face of a worsening border crisis.
And Amazon drones launched, from the Guardian:
Amazon to begin testing same-day delivery drones in Cambridge
Online retailer expands R&D operations in England, two years after buying Cambridge-based startup Evi Technologies
Amazon is planning to test drones in Cambridge, England, as the battle to offer consumers same-day deliveries heats up.
The US company announced with considerable fanfare late last year that it was considering using drones as a way of dramatically reducing the time it takes to deliver orders to customers. At the time there was speculation that the move was little more than a publicity stunt. But Amazon said in July that it had sought permission from the US Federal Aviation Administration to test drones that could fly as fast as 50 miles per hour for up to 30 minutes at a time to deliver packages weighing up to 2.3kg (5lb).
Amazon is now expanding its R&D operations in Cambridge – two years after buying Cambridge-based startup Evi Technologies – to take advantage of the talent pool of academics and researchers in the area. The lab will focus on Prime Air, Amazon’s name for its drones project, the blog TechCrunch reported.
Old-fashioned spookery, from intelNews:
Lithuania charges state employee with spying for Belarus, Russia
Prosecutors in Lithuania have charged an employee of a state-owned airline navigation services provider with spying for neighboring Belarus, though it is presumed the compromised information may have also been shared with Russia.
Lithuanian government prosecutor Darius Raulusaitis told reporters at a news conference on Monday that the man charged was a Lithuanian national living and working in capital Vilnius. He has been identified only with his initials, which are R.L.
The alleged spy is being accused of collecting information relating to Lithuania’s military strength with the intention of sharing it with unregistered agents of Belarus.
TheLocal.es covers a continuing coverup:
Spain scraps plan to declassify military files
Spain’s decision to shelve plans to declassify thousands of documents relating to the country’s Civil War and the dictatorship of Francisco Franco is a mistake, a top historian has told The Local.
Defence Minister Pedro Morenés has said that the government will not be classifying some 10,000 armed services documents from the Civil War and Franco dictatorship era because of insufficient resources to analyse their contents.
The papers from the 1936-1968 period, which reportedly shed light on issues such as the military’s role during the Civil War and relations with foreign powers during the dictatorship, had been slated for declassification by the previous Socialist government.
BuzzFeed starts our “cops behaing badly” segment:
Secret Service Agent Chatting On Cell Phone Missed White House Intruder
A new review points to a series of Secret Service failings as the reason Omar Gonzales managed to penetrate the White House in September.
An intruder managed to climb the White House fence and make it inside the presidential residence due to Secret Service failures, a new review has found.
The Department of Homeland Security review explores how 42-year-old Army veteran Omar Gonzalez penetrated the White House on Sept. 19. Gonzalez had hundreds of rounds of ammunition in his car, investigators later found.
According to the review, the Secret Service’s radios and alarms didn’t function correctly, The New York Times reported. In addition, a Secret Service officer missed Gonzales because he was talking on his personal cellphone and didn’t have his earpiece in. The officer had also left his second radio in his locker.
From the Guardian, slightly harder than shooting fish in a barrel:
Ex-Maryland police officer sentenced for shooting handcuffed suspect
Johnnie Riley to serve five years in prison for shooting which paralyzed suspect from the waist down, far less time that prosecutors had requested
A former Maryland police officer convicted in a shooting that paralyzed a handcuffed suspect from the waist down was sentenced Thursday to five years in prison, far less time than prosecutors had requested.
Former District Heights police Sg Johnnie Riley, 44, was sentenced in Prince George’s County Circuit Court. He could have faced up to 45 years in prison, and prosecutors asked for a 20-year sentence.
Prosecutors say Riley shot a handcuffed man in the back in September 2012 after the man got out of a police cruiser and ran away. The injured man, Kalvin Kyle, was paralyzed from the waist down. Riley had pulled Kyle over on suspicion of driving a stolen motorcycle.
From euronews, a Parisian police protest:
Schools barricaded in Paris in anger over alleged police brutality
Program notes:
Hundreds of students barricaded school entrances across Paris and held demonstrations on Thursday against alleged police brutality.
It’s the latest in three weeks of protests since the death of 21-year-old botany student Remi Fraisse.
He was killed during a march against plans to build a dam in southwestern France. His death has been blamed on a grenade fired by police which hit him in the back, getting lodged between his back pack and clothes before exploding.
And from the Independent, prosecutorial misbehavin’:
Hundreds of asylum-seekers ‘wrongly deported’ on drug smuggler’s evidence
Theresa May is facing fresh embarrassment amid allegations that the Home Office has for years been relying on the work of a convicted drug smuggler who lied about his qualifications to help it determine sensitive asylum cases – which may have resulted in hundreds of people being wrongly deported.
The unnamed individual works as a language analyst for Sprakab, a Swedish firm which since 2000 has been paid by the Home Office to study audio recordings of people claiming asylum in Britain. It often uses the firm’s judgements – which are based on 20-minute telephone interviews – to support its rejection of asylum applications.
Allegations have now surfaced in Sweden suggesting that the man is a convicted criminal who fabricated parts of his CV. Several independent linguistic experts have also cast doubt on the quality of his work, which earlier this year was criticised by the UK’s Supreme Court as offering “wholly inappropriate” views on whether an asylum-seeker sounded convincing.
After the jump, hard times intolerance in Rome Ferguson, and Germany [where an an alleged neo-Nazi pederast is busted as well], anti-Semitism resurgent in Europe, European Memory Hole fines for Google, California concealed weapons upheld, tracing a hack attack’s epidemiology, fake iPhone app hack attacks, and a jailed hacker confesses, on to China and a promise of maritime peace, Taiwan cedes air supremacy to the Mainland, Japan next and an Abe bid for a three-way with Seoul and Beijing, Abe’s cops stage a heavy-handed raid on leftist students, Japanese/Australian defense talks, and Robocop, the mall version. . .
Hard times intolerance in the Eternal City, via the Guardian:
Riot police deployed after violence against refugees in Rome
Neighbourhood of Tor Sapienza has seen several days of violence by residents who blame foreigners for crimes
Riot police have been deployed in a neighbourhood on the outskirts of Rome to prevent residents from attacking refugees at a holding centre, the latest incident of anti-immigrant tensions in Italy.
The working-class neighbourhood of Tor Sapienza has seen several days and nights of violence against refugees by residents who blame foreigners for crimes.
The residents say they are not racist but are fed up with what they say is years of neglect by government authorities who have allowed Gypsies, migrants and asylum seekers to settle in Rome’s peripheries without providing adequate services.
From VICE News, ditto, but closer to home:
KKK Missouri Chapter Threatens Ferguson Protesters with ‘Lethal Force’
Members of a Missouri-based KKK chapter have been distributing fliers in the St. Louis metro area and on social media promising to use “lethal force” against Ferguson protesters they say have threatened police officers and their families.
In the flier, the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan refer to the protesters as “terrorists” masquerading as peaceful, and says that they have “awakened a sleeping giant.”
“You have been warned by the Ku Klux Klan!” the flier exclaims. “There will be consequences for your acts of violence against the peaceful, law-abiding citizens of Missouri.”
And more of the same in Germany, via Deutsche Welle:
Hanover court overrules hooligan demonstration ban
A police ban on an anti-Islamist protest has been overruled by a court in the northern German city of Hanover. Organized by self-proclaimed hooligans, the last protest resulted in riots and a lock-down in Cologne.
A demonstration, planned for November 15 by self-proclaimed German Hooligans against Salafists (HoGeSa), has been given the go ahead by Hanover’s Administrative Court.
The decision overturns a previous police ban on the protest organized by HoGeSa, a newly formed group made up mainly of neo-Nazis and radical football fans.
According to a spokeswoman, authorities are currently investigating whether they can appeal the decision before the Higher Administrative Court in Lüneburg.
An alleged neo-Nazi pederast busted, from TheLocal.de:
Neo-Nazi to face child sex abuse charges
Far-right extremist and former informant for the security services Tino Brandt will face charges of serious sexual abuse of children.
State prosecutors in Gera, Thuringia, said that Brandt, 39, would answer 157 charges for acts that took place between 2011 and 2014.
“This means that he himself had sexual contact with children and young people,” a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office said.
Brandt is accused of having supplied minors to adults for sex in exchange for money in 45 cases.
And the New York Times covers that old time hatin’:
U.S. Ambassador, Samantha Power, Issues Warning on Anti-Semitism in Europe
Against the backdrop of what several speakers called an unmistakable rise in anti-Semitism in Europe, the American ambassador to the United Nations warned on Thursday that the increase in attacks poses a threat to European values, and urged leaders to step up their efforts to thwart anti-Jewish sentiment.
“Make no mistake – we have a problem,” said Samantha Power, a top aide to President Obama, at a conference here organized by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. She said the growing number of anti-Semitic acts “are not only a threat to the Jewish community, they are a threat to the larger project of European liberalism and pluralism.”
The two-day conference was attended by only about two-thirds of the 57 member states, most of whom, unlike the United States, sent deputy-level representatives.
The Guardian covers European Memory Hole fines for Google:
Google’s French arm faces daily €1,000 fines over links to defamatory article
Paris court orders parent company to remove links across global network, following right to be forgotten online ruling
Google’s French subsidiary has been ordered to pay daily fines of €1,000 unless links to a defamatory article are removed from the parent company’s entire global network.
The punitive judgment by the Paris Tribunal de Grande Instance, based on the controversial right to be forgotten online established by the European Court of Justice, breaks new ground in making the subsidiary liable for the activities of its parent company – in this case Google Inc.
The court handed down the ruling in September but it has barely been reported reported outside France. At one level, the decision represents a pioneering attempt by a European court to enforce its order of justice on the internet worldwide.
California concealed weapons upheld, from the Los Angeles Times:
California can’t challenge ruling on concealed guns, court says
Relaxed rules for carrying concealed guns in public may not be challenged by California state officials or advocacy groups, a federal appeals panel decided Wednesday.
The decision was another victory for gun rights advocates, but it was not likely to be the last word. The state has the right to appeal Wednesday’s order and legal analysts expect the state to do so. There is another pending gun case involving the right to carry concealed weapons in California and a ruling in that case could resolve the debate.
In its 2-1 ruling Wednesday, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals denied an attempt by Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris, a gun control group and law enforcement associations to intervene in a case that struck down San Diego County’s policy of tightly restricting the carrying of concealed guns. Gun owner Edward Peruta was the lead challenger of the San Diego rules.
Tracing a hack attack’s epidemiology, via RT:
Stuxnet patient zero: Kaspesky Lab identifies worm’s first victims in Iran
Nearly four years after the notorious worm Stuxnet wreaked havoc on Iranian nuclear centrifuges, Kaspersky Lab has identified patient zero for the world’s “first cyber weapon.”
After analyzing more than 2,000 Stuxnet files collected over a two-year period, Kaspersky has revealed the first five victims of the Trojan attack, which was first uncovered in June 2010.
All five of the victims worked within industrial control systems in Iran, and in one way or another, had connections to Iran’s nuclear program.
The first two targets – Foolad Technical Engineering Co. and Behpajoah Co. Elec & Comp Engineering – were initially targeted as early as June 2009.
From Network World, fake iPhone app hack attacks:
Vulnerability leaves iPhones open to fake app attack
Security researchers have discovered a vulnerability in iPhones and iPads that allows attackers to install fake apps that take the place of legitimate ones.
FireEye, a mobile security company based in California, said the problem, which it calls “Masque Attack,” allows attackers to potentially gain access to vast amounts of personal information.
In a video demonstration of the attack, an iPhone was sent a URL to install a new version of the “Flappy Bird” game. When the link was clicked, the phone asked the user to confirm installation of the game, but upon that confirmation what was actually downloaded and installed was a compromised version of the Gmail app.
The new Gmail app, installed over the top of the real one, mimicked the real one, making it difficult for a user to detect the change. But in the background, it uploaded the entire mailbox to a server run by the attacker. A second part of the attack, also demonstrated in the video, allowed an attacker access to all SMS text messages sent to the phone.
And a jailed hacker confesses, from TechWorm:
Jeremy Hammond confesses from jail ‘I hacked into govt to expose truth’
Jailed United States hacker and a cult hero for some, Jeremy Hammond has confessed that he hacked to expose the naked truth about governments ‘I hacked into the government websites to expose the truth’. He added that hacking government websites is all he ever wanted to do. When asked what was the reason for his utter contempt for government, he said he is worried about the invasive power states have with computer technology and justified his actions by the need to expose the truth and confront justice.
Who is Jeremy Hammond
Jeremy Hammond is a 29 year old political activist and computer hacker from Chicago. He was convicted and sentenced in November 2013 to 10 years in Manchester Federal Prison in rural Kentucky for hacking the private intelligence firm Stratfor and releasing the leaks through Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks. He is perhaps the only hacker in the world to receive such a long sentence. He will complete his first anniversary of prison sentence on 15th November, 2014.
His Mission
Jeremy has stated that his mission is to use his undeniable knowledge of computer systems and websites to bring to light the dark truths that the governments hide from us. He believes it is laughable that he could be seen as a threat to national security because of his actions. “I mean, I didn’t kill anybody,” he said an interview with the AP.
On to China and a promise of maritime peace from SINA English:
Li vows S.China Sea stability
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Thursday reiterated a dual-track approach to solving South China Sea disputes, signaling China’s insistence on one-on-one discussion between the nations directly involved, while providing assurances of regional stability.
Speaking on Thursday in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar, during the East Asia Summit, Li said the situation in the South China Sea is on the whole stable, and restated China’s desire to settle territorial disputes using a dual-track approach wherein disputes are to be solved through negotiations between the countries directly concerned, while the region’s peace and stability are upheld through cooperation between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
“China and ASEAN agreed to actively carry out consultation to reach, on the basis of consensus and at an early date, a code of conduct in the South China Sea,” Li said, reported the Xinhua News Agency.
Taiwan cedes air supremacy to the Mainland, via Want China Times:
PLA’s Su-35s will see Taiwan cede air superiority to China
Once the PLA Air Force begins to put its 24 Su-35 fighters purchased from Russia into service, the Republic of China Air Force in Taiwan will no longer be able to match it in aerial combat, our sister paper Want Daily writes.
Russia made the decision to sell 24 Su-35 fighters to China in 2012. Even though this number is only enough for the PLA Air Force to equip one of its fighter regiments, China is still capable of gaining the technology it needs to develop additional fourth-generation models from the planes.
What China needs most is the technology used by the Russians to make the Su-35′s 117S engine. Even though China has already designed two types of stealth fighters, it is still unable to produce sufficiently powerful and reliable engines for them. Once China is capable of developing its own engines, the ROC Air Force will lose its only advantage against the PLA. In addition, China can design and produce its own version of Su-35 through reverse engineering.
Japan next and an Abe bid for a three-way with Seoul and Beijing, via Jiji Press:
Abe Wants Trilateral Summit with China, S. Korea
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed hopes Thursday that he will hold a trilateral summit meeting with Chinese and South Korean leaders. Foreign ministers from the three countries should hold talks early to pave the way for a trilateral summit, Abe said.
Abe made the comments at a meeting of leaders from members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as well as Japan, China and South Korea in Naypyitaw, the capital of Myanmar.
Leaders from Japan, China and South Korea last held three-way talks in May 2012.
Abe’s cops stage a raid, from JapanToday:
Riot police raid Kyoto University after 3 activists arrested
Scores of fully-clad riot police raided a dormitory at a leading Japanese university Thursday, reports said, in an apparently heavy-handed response to a left-wing movement that may involve students.
Television footage showed ranks of helmeted officers carrying shields and wearing protective clothing converging on the dormitory at the prestigious Kyoto University, backed up by plain-clothed officers.
The operation was being carried out by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police, Jiji Press news agency and the private Nippon Television network said, in connection with the arrest earlier this month of three leftist activists, including at least one Kyoto University student.
The Yomiuri Shimbun covers Japanese/Australian defense talks:
Japan, Australia to talk defense
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Australian counterpart, Tony Abbott, agreed Wednesday that their countries will continue talks on the transfer of Japanese defense equipment and technologies to Australia.
The two countries agreed in July to conclude a treaty on joint defense equipment development as part of efforts to strengthen maritime security cooperation between them.
Australia is hoping to import Japanese submarine technologies, sources familiar with the situation said.
Abe and Abbott also agreed to put a bilateral economic partnership agreement into force early and work together to conclude Trans-Pacific Partnership multilateral free trade negotiations.
A sitdown comin’ from News Corp Australia:
Third Australian warship sent to halt Russian flotilla bound for G20 in Brisbane
A THIRD Australian warship has been dispatched to intercept a Russian flotilla steaming towards the G20 summit in Brisbane and a fourth navy vessel is ready to divert to the area.
The replenishment ship HMAS Sirius is heading into the Coral Sea to support the frigates HMAS Parramatta and HMAS Stuart and the frigate HMAS Sydney is preparing to divert from an exercise in New Zealand to join the mission, according to a government source.
Both Parramatta and Stuart are understood to be carrying Seahawk anti-submarine warfare helicopters, although defence sources said it was unlikely that a Russian submarine is in the area.
And to close, Robocop, the mall version, from MIT Technology Review:
Rise of the Robot Security Guards
Startup Knightscope is preparing to roll out human-size robot patrols
As the sun set on a warm November afternoon, a quartet of five-foot-tall, 300-pound shiny white robots patrolled in front of Building 1 on Microsoft’s Silicon Valley campus. Looking like a crew of slick Daleks imbued with the grace of Fred Astaire, they whirred quietly across the concrete in different directions, stopping and turning in place so as to avoid running into trash cans, walls, and other obstacles.
The robots managed to appear both cute and intimidating. This friendly-but-not-too-friendly presence is meant to serve them well in jobs like monitoring corporate and college campuses, shopping malls, and schools.
Knightscope, a startup based in Mountain View, California, has been busy designing, building, and testing the robot, known as the K5, since 2013. Seven have been built so far, and the company plans to deploy four before the end of the year at an as-yet-unnamed technology company in the area. The robots are designed to detect anomalous behavior, such as someone walking through a building at night, and report back to a remote security center.
