A lot more.
First, from Al Jazeera English:
UN: ISIL committing war crimes in Syria
Massacres, beheadings, torture, sexual enslavement and forced pregnancy being carried out by group, investigators say.
Fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) are committing war crimes and crimes against humanity on a large scale in areas under the group’s control in Syria, UN investigators say.
In its first report focused squarely on acts by ISIL, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria presented on Friday a horrifying picture of what life is like in areas controlled by the group, including massacres, beheadings, torture, sexual enslavement and forced pregnancy.
“The commanders of ISIS have acted wilfully, perpetrating these war crimes and crimes against humanity with clear intent of attacking persons with awareness of their civilian or ‘hors de combat’ (non-combat) status,” the report said, using an alternate acronym for ISIL.
“They are individually criminally responsible for these crimes.”
The view from Canada, via CBC News:
Inside ISIS: Calgary man’s picture found in documents revealing underbelly of extremist group
CBC is first North American broadcaster to view secret files obtained by German TV from Iraqi forces
The face of a Calgary man who drove a bomb-laden car into an Iraqi military base outside Baghdad last November, killing 46 people, appears amid a treasure trove of documents and videos that lay bare the bureaucratic underbelly of ISIS.
The documents and videos provide a new weapon for coalition forces fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
Coalition forces obtained the documents, videos and 160 USB keys after Iraqi special forces hunted and killed the group’s top commander, Abu Abdul-Rahman al-Bilawi, in early June.
Collateral damage from the New York Times:
Strikes by U.S. Blunt ISIS but Anger Civilians
American airstrikes on the Syrian city of Raqqa, the vaunted capital of the Islamic State’s self-proclaimed caliphate, have scattered its fighters and disrupted the harsh system they had imposed, residents and visitors there say. But they see no gratitude toward the United States.
Rather, they suggested in interviews, many people are angry at the Americans. Food and fuel prices in Raqqa have soared, power blackouts have prevailed, and order is now threatened by a vacuum of any authority.
For all their violence and intolerance toward disbelievers, the fighters of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, at least functioned as a government, providing basic services and some semblance of stability.
And about that ISIS social infrastructure. . .from Deutsche Welle:
Documents reveal extensive bureaucratic structures in Islamic State
IS has set up a complex bureaucratic infrastructure that includes health care and social benefits in territories it has seized. Secret documents obtained by German media outlets shed light on the group’s inner workings.
Documents obtained by German public radio and television broadcasters NDR and WDR along with German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung detail the complex bureaucratic system set up by the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) terrorist group.
The documents, which the reporters were allowed to peruse and copy in some cases, give extensive insight into the bureaucratic infrastructure IS has implemented in areas captured in Iraq and Syria. Among other things, they detail a complex health care and pension system, marriage benefits along with financial benefits to widows or wives of IS fighters captured in combat.
The report released on Friday points to IS’ seeing itself as more than just a militia: the jihad group fighting to install a caliphate in much of the Middle East sees itself as an actual state. Not only does the group have enough income – believed to be mostly from oil sales and ransom money – but it also has the bureaucratic infrastructure needed to run a caliphate.
More from Süddeutsche Zeitung itself:
‘Islamic State’: A Bureaucracy of Terror
Süddeutsche Zeitung, NDR and WDR examine confidential documents of the ‘Islamic State’
The terrorist organization ‘Islamic State’ (IS) has already begun building an extensive government structure. Internal IS documents examined by German public radio and television broadcasters NDR and WDR, and Germany’s leading broadsheet newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung detail IS’s extensive bureaucratic system. The documents (which the reporters were shown and in some cases able to copy) shed light on IS’s framework for health insurance, marriage benefits and support for the families of IS fighters who are killed or taken as prisoners.
The documents also contain extensive lists of names of fighters, detailed weapons purchases and the personnel records of suicide bombers. In a sort of index, IS leaders list “martyrs” who have been reassigned to suicide bomb missions. Most names on the list are accompanied by a phone number of a family member or friend who can be notified later. The documents show that many IS volunteers were assigned to suicide missions within just a week of their arrival in Iraq.
The documents provide an unprecedented insight into the radical Islamist organization that has seized territory in Syria and Iraq. The material analyzed dates from 2013 through early 2014 and relates almost exclusively to IS activity in Iraq. According to the Iraqi government, the documents were saved to memory sticks and hard drives which were obtained in a raid at high-ranking IS leader Abdul Rahman al-Bilawi’s hideout on June 5, 2014. At the time, al-Bilawi was second in command within IS and operated as ‘minister of war’, according to Iraqi sources. The UK’s Guardian newspaper reported on the documents in June. Since then the Iraqi government has made some of the documents available to NDR, WDR and Süddeutsche Zeitung.
Still more from the Guardian:
Isis to mint own Islamic dinar coins in gold, silver and copper
Islamic State to produce own currency for use in self-declared caliphate – as soon as it can locate a mint and enough metal
It has gathered its fortune through the tools of modern finance, but now Islamic State (Isis) aims to mint its own coins.
The move is reportedly the brain child of the Isis leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who has personally overseen the design of gold, silver and copper coins of the Islamic dinar to be used in his self-declared caliphate – as soon as the terror group can locate a mint and enough precious metals.
Isis has released designs of the coins and a breakdown of denominations. It claims the currency will free Muslims from a financial order that has “enslaved and impoverished” them. But it isn’t totally eschewing the mainstream economy, acknowledging that each coin’s worth will reflect the metal’s value on commodities markets.
Seeking a disconnect with the McClatchy Washington Bureau:
In Australia, Obama looks for help cutting cash flow to Islamic State
President Barack Obama arrived in Australia on Saturday looking for help on one of the most difficult tasks in the fight against the Islamic State: cutting off the millions of dollars flowing to one of the world’s best-funded terrorist organizations.
Obama made some progress in previous stops this week in China and Myanmar (formerly Burma).
In China, Obama and his counterpart, President Xi Jinping, agreed to work together on “cracking down on terrorist funding networks.” In Myanmar, the 18 leaders of the East Asia Summit reaffirmed in a statement their support to help combat the Islamic State, including its financing.
From the Associated Press, troubles:
West-backed Syria rebels shaken on multiple fronts
During a key battle in the rugged mountains of a northern province earlier this month, U.S.-backed Syrian rebels collapsed before an assault by al-Qaida fighters. Some surrendered their weapons. Others outright defected to the militants.
A detailed account of the battle in Idlib, from a series of interviews with opposition activists by The Associated Press, underscores how the moderate rebels that Washington is trying to boost to fight the Islamic State group are instead hemorrhaging on multiple fronts.
They face an escalated assault by Islamic extremists, which activists say are increasingly working together to eliminate them. At the same time, a string of assassinations has targeted some of their most powerful commanders.
“This is the end of the Free Syrian Army,” said Alaa al-Deen, an opposition activist in Idlib, referring to Western-backed rebel groups. “It’s the beginning of an Islamic emirate.”
From Reuters, cockeyed optimist?:
U.S. military chief says battle with IS starting to turn
The United States’ top military officer told American troops on a surprise visit to Baghdad on Saturday that the momentum in the battle with Islamic State was “starting to turn”, but predicted a drawn-out campaign lasting several years.
General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was visiting Iraq for the first time since President Barack Obama responded to Islamic State advances this summer by ordering troops back into a country they left in 2011.
Hours earlier, an Iraqi army colonel said security forces appeared close to retaking the country’s biggest refinery at Baiji, which has been under siege for months by Islamic State militants.
From the Washington Post, well, gollleeee:
U.S. weighs expanded CIA training, arming of Syrian allies struggling against Assad
The Obama administration has been weighing plans to escalate the CIA’s role in arming and training fighters in Syria, a move aimed at accelerating covert U.S. support to moderate rebel factions while the Pentagon is preparing to establish its own training bases, U.S. officials said.
The proposed CIA buildup would expand a clandestine mission that has grown substantially over the past year, U.S. officials said. The agency now vets and trains about 400 fighters each month — as many as are expected to be trained by the Pentagon when its program reaches full strength late next year.
The prospect of expanding the CIA program was on the agenda of a meeting of senior national security officials at the White House last week. A White House spokesman declined to comment on the meeting or to address whether officials had reached a decision on the matter.
Meanwhile. . .from Xinhua, the Spring has sprung:
Death toll in Libya’s Benghazi clashes rises to 356
Another 16 people were killed in violent clashes between Libyan army and Islamic militants in the eastern city of Benghazi on Sunday, adding the total death toll to 356, sources said.
“The center has received 16 dead bodies killed in clashes and random shooting on Sunday,” a medical source in Benghazi medical center said.
The Libyan army, reinforced by gunmen loyal to retired Major- General Khalifa Haftar, has been waging a street war against Islamic militants in Libya’s second city Benghazi since mid- October, in an attempt to regain control of the city, which fell into the hands of Islamists last July.
Rebooting the big bang, from the Los Angeles Times:
Major overhaul of nuclear force planned to improve security and morale
Stung by a series of scandals in the nation’s nuclear force, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced plans Friday to overhaul its management, calling for billions of dollars to upgrade equipment, improve training, increase oversight and address security lapses and poor morale.
Speaking at the Pentagon and later in this snow-dusted base that is home to a fleet of B-52 bombers and missiles with nuclear warheads, Hagel said that sweeping changes were needed to address problems that could undermine the safety, security and effectiveness of the nation’s nuclear arsenal.
Disclosures of cheating on tests, drug use, violations of security rules and lax supervision have rocked the Pentagon’s nuclear force over the last two years. The Air Force has fired at least two nuclear commanders and disciplined others.
More from the Guardian:
US nuclear force reviews find security flaws and poor leadership
Defence secretary, Chuck Hagel, to order major changes and billions in extra funding to improve management of arsenal
The reviews – one by Pentagon officials and the other by outside experts – concluded that the structure of US nuclear forces was so incoherent that it could not be properly managed in its current form, and that this explained why top-level officials were often unaware of problems below them.
The officials said the reviews found a “disconnect” between what nuclear force leaders said and what they delivered to lower-level troops who executed the missions in the field.
To illustrate the extent of decay in the intercontinental ballistic missile force, the reviews found that maintenance crews used to have access to only one set of tools required to tighten bolts on the warhead end of the Minuteman III missile, and that this toolset was being used by crews at all three ICBM bases, in North Dakota, Wyoming and Montana. They had to share it via Federal Express delivery, the officials said. The crews now had one tool set at each base.
The reviews also found that a combination of problems amounted to fundamental flaws rather than random or periodic slip-ups, the officials said. The nuclear forces were currently meeting the demands of the mission but were finding it increasingly difficult to cope.
From the New York Times shrinks, self-shrinking:
Psychologists to Review Role in Detainee Interrogations
The nation’s largest organization of psychologists will conduct an independent review into whether it colluded with or supported the government’s use of torture in the interrogation of prisoners during the Bush administration.
The American Psychological Association said in a statement released late Wednesday that its board had named David H. Hoffman, a Chicago lawyer, to conduct the review.
For years, questions about the role of American psychologists and behavioral scientists in the development and implementation of the Bush-era interrogation program have been raised by human rights advocates as well as by critics within the psychological profession itself. Psychologists were involved in developing the enhanced interrogation techniques used on terrorism suspects by the Central Intelligence Agency. Later, a number of psychologists, in the military and in the intelligence community, were involved in carrying out and monitoring interrogations.
Intrusive neighbors, from VICE News:
More Drones on US Borders Create Privacy Concerns for Its Neighbors
The US will soon launch widespread drone surveillance on its border with Canada, after blanketing half its border with Mexico with the unmanned aerial vehicles in place of border patrol agents.
But the drones — which officials told VICE News cost $10 million each and take high-resolution videos while soaring over remote areas — violate people’s right to privacy and will further “militarize” the line between the US and Canada, analysts told VICE News.
“This creates a virtual wall between the countries,” Don Alper, the director of Western Washington University’s Center for Canadian-American Relations and Border Policy Research Institute, told VICE News. “It doesn’t make sense to me. There are other ways of security, like close cooperation between Canadian and American enforcement — and they already do cooperate really well.”
Ditto, via Reuters:
Sweden says has proof of foreign submarine intrusion in October
Sweden has proof that a small foreign submarine was operating illegally in its waters last month, its top military officer said on Friday after a mysterious episode that triggered the country’s biggest military mobilization since the Cold War.
More than 200 troops, stealth ships and helicopters scoured Baltic waters off the capital Stockholm in October after reports of foreign “underwater activity”, but without finding or bringing to the surface any submarine.
“The military can confirm that a small U-boat breached Sweden’s territorial waters. We can exclude all alternative explanations,” the head of Sweden’s armed forces, General Sverker Goransson, told a news conference.
After the jump, Washington deploys its naval ray guns, Germany’s costly deployment, a post-Snowden Humint preference, spy versus spy in Israel, apprehension in Ferguson, a Border Patrol backshooter named, a polygraphic cheating teacher busted, Marvel’s warriors recruited by Spanish cops, British cyberbullying soars, malware targets Europe’s governments, China busts malware makers, Spain moving on Palestinian recognition, Israeli issues lifetime ban on humanitarian surgeon, cultural hubris from the Turkish president, a Pakistani denial of a Washington allegation, kiss-ins challenge Indian moral police, the unspeakable spoken in Myanmar, on to Hong Kong and Occupy leaders rebuffed, Obama voices a challenge to China, China complains of U.S. spy flights, China announces streaming media bans, China shows off drones and rockets, Xi wants tighter Aussie ties and a maritime code of conduct, Japan sides with Washington as it continues retooling remilitarization, adopting a new anti-terror law, Okinawa’s likely next governor opposes U.S. base relocation, plus enhancing enhancement for enhancements. . .
A benchmark deployment, from RT:
US Navy deploys laser weapon to Persian Gulf for first-ever combat mission
The US Navy has deployed its first ever combat laser. The futuristic weapon has boosted the arsenal of the Fifth Fleet’s command vessel in the Persian Gulf. The laser is said to be effective against numerous small targets, such as Iran’s gunboats.
A 30-kilowatt-class Laser Weapon System has been equipped on the USS Ponce amphibious transport ship since late August, Navy officials told Bloomberg.
The device is capable of focusing beams from six solid-state commercial welding lasers into a single strong beam, which can be used both as a blinding warning shot and as a weapon capable of setting fire to a drone or small boat.
Germany’s costly deployment, via Deutsche Welle:
Germany’s new security policies come with a price tag
Germany has said it wants to play a larger role in global security affairs. The country’s budget doesn’t reflect spending for those plans yet – but that will have to change over the next few years.
German President Joachim Gauck, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen all made headlines at the start of the year. Germany, they said, must shoulder greater responsibility in tackling global crises and be ready to resort to force should the need arise. Even then it was clear: it’s not for free.
Policymakers were clear that additional Bundeswehr operations abroad and an expansion of the powers of Germany’s BND foreign intelligence agency would carry a large price tag.
Months after the announcement of a new foreign policy course, it has become clear that the cost will be more than anyone estimated at the beginning of the year. The Ukraine conflict, the war against the “Islamic State” terrorist militia, the German armed forces’ struggle with faulty military equipment and von der Leyen’s plans to make the Bundeswehr a more attractive employer have all added large sums to country defense bill.
A post-Snowden Humint preference, via the Guardian:
Experts call for ‘return to human intelligence’ after Snowden
Security agencies need a ‘real cultural shift’ including protection for whistleblowers and citizens as part of its oversight body
The UK’s national security boss, Robert Hannigan, should come clean on surveillance and stop attacking technology companies, privacy experts have said.
Intelligence agencies must use the debate sparked by Edward Snowden’s surveillance revelations to overhaul their attitude to privacy and oversight, said the group speaking at Dublin’s Web Summit in November.
“What’s urgently required is a real cultural shift amongst our politicians and among our civil servants in Whitehall as to the value of privacy: the fact that it’s a public and social good, and it’s a collective good as well,” said Bella Sankey, policy director at civil liberties organisation Liberty.
Sankey, speaking alongside the former MI5 intelligence officer and whistleblower Annie Machon, criticised Hannigan for his attack on technology companies, in which he claimed were “in denial” about the misuse of the internet by terrorists, and that “privacy has never been an absolute right”.
From the Los Angeles Times, spy versus spy in Israel:
Israel’s usually secretive spy agencies get into a public spat
Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, known as the Shin Bet, has been trading barbs with the military over whether faulty army intelligence left Israel unprepared for war with the militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The spat went high-profile this week when Israel’s Channel 2 aired a report featuring Shin Bet officials – rendered in pixilated, shadowed form – claiming the military had brushed aside the agency’s assessment, months before fighting erupted in July, that an armed conflict with Hamas was in the making.
The army’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, fired back with a furious letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose office oversees the Shin Bet, accusing the agency of not only behaving in a self-serving manner but making dangerous disclosures about intelligence-gathering methods.
From the Guardian, apprehension in Ferguson:
Schools near Ferguson to be given advance notice of grand jury decision
Missouri school districts to get at least three hours’ notice when a grand jury decides whether to charge police officer in shooting death of Michael Brown
A suburban St Louis school district told parents that it expects to receive at least three hours’ notice from prosecutors when a grand jury decides whether to charge a white police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri.
Officials and residents around Ferguson, which was torn by weeks of sometimes violent protests following the 9 August shooting of Michael Brown, 18, were braced on Friday for a report from the grand jury, which has been meeting in secret for weeks and is expected to decide before the month’s end whether to charge officer Darren Wilson.
The superintendent of the Hazelwood school district, which is adjacent to Ferguson, said in a letter posted to the district’s website that the St Louis County prosecutor’s office had told districts it would provide them with three hours’ notice if the grand jury reaches its decision on a weekday, and 24 hours’ notice if it comes on a weekend.
Lee Judge of the Kansas City Star offers his own sardonic take:
From the McClatchy Foreign Staff, a Border Patrol backshooter named:
After 2 years, judge names Border Patrol agent who shot Mexican multiple times in back
A U.S. district court judge has released the name of a Border Patrol agent who pointed his firearm through the border fence that divides Mexico from the United States in 2012 and killed a 16-year-old Mexican youth as he walked on a sidewalk in his home country.
Judge Raner Collins in Tucson, Ariz., ruled Thursday that the public had a right to know the identity of the agent, Lonnie Swartz.
Swartz is a defendant in a civil lawsuit filed by Araceli Rodriguez, mother of Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez, who was killed about 11:30 p.m. on Oct. 10, 2012, as he walked along a street parallel to the border fence that divides Nogales, a city that straddles the border between Arizona and Mexico. Elena was shot 10 times, all but one of the bullets striking him from behind.
Border Patrol accounts of the shooting said that the agent had opened fire because he felt threatened by rock throwers, but witnesses said Elena Rodriguez was simply walking along the street when the gunfire broke out. The position from which Swartz fired was a bluff 15 to 20 feet above the street. A nearby Border Patrol camera likely captured what took place, but the video it recorded has never been made public.
So will they arrest the CIA instructors and folks from other spook shops who teach the things to agents? From the McClatchy Washington Bureau:
In Federal crackdown, ex-cop indicted for coaching to beat polygraphs
A former Oklahoma City police officer has been indicted on charges of training people to lie about crimes during polygraph tests as part of the Obama administration’s unprecedented crackdown on security violators and leakers.
Douglas Williams, 69, is accused of committing mail fraud and obstructing justice in a five-count indictment handed down Thursday in the Western District of Oklahoma. The indictment alleges that Williams, who runs the website Polygraph.com, trained two undercover agents to lie or conceal crimes during government lie-detector tests.
“Williams, who was paid for both training sessions, is alleged to have instructed the individuals to deny having received his polygraph training,” the Justice Department said in a news release sent out Friday.
Marvel’s warriors recruited by Spanish cops, from El País:
Iron Man teams up with Spain’s Civil Guard to promote internet safety
Force recruits Marvel superheroes and Disney characters for school workshops
Charismatic multi-millionaire Tony Stark lifts the visor from his robot suit and spells his message out to a group of third and fourth graders gathered in front of a giant television screen in their Madrid classroom: “You should never give your personal details online without the permission of your parents, or create a profile on the social networks until you reach 14.”
Iron Man, along with Thor, Wolverine, and Captain America, have teamed up with Disney’s online Club Penguin and Spain’s Civil Guard to teach youngsters how to use the internet safely.
“I bet the majority of you have better smartphones and tablets than your parents, but you still need to be careful,” says Arsenio Fernández de Mesa, director general of the Civil Guard, to the assembled students. “There are bad people out there who will try to get to know you through the internet. What we’re about to tell you is so that from now on you will use it properly and nobody will be able to hurt you.”
Rising British abuse, via the Guardian:
Number of children who are victims of cyberbullying doubles in a year
Poll finds 35% of 11- to 17-year-olds bullied online, as fears grow over number of young teenagers using dating app Tinder
The number of children being bullied on the internet has doubled in the past year, with more than one in three victims, research suggests.
In a poll of 11- to 17-year-olds, 35% reported that they have experienced cyberbullying – compared with 16% last year. Four in 10 said they had witnessed others being picked on online – almost double the 22% recorded last year.
The study also suggests that thousands of teenagers, including many aged 15 or under, are using messaging service Snapchat and dating app Tinder every day.
Some parents even helped set their children up with accounts, prompting fears that they are unwittingly putting them at risk.
Cyberwar in Europe, via Network World:
Malware served through rogue Tor exit node tied to cyberespionage group
A malware program distributed recently through a rogue server on the Tor anonymity network was also used in targeted attacks against European government agencies.
The malware has been dubbed OnionDuke by security researchers from antivirus firm F-Secure, who believe it is connected to MiniDuke, a cyberespionage threat of Russian origin that was used to attack NATO and European governments before its discovery in February 2013.
In October, Josh Pitts, a researcher with Leviathan Security Group, found a Tor exit node located in Russia that was wrapping malware with all executable files downloaded by users through the node. When browsing the Web anonymously through Tor, the traffic is passed through random relays inside the Tor network and then it goes back out on the Internet through one of the many so-called exit nodes run by volunteers around the world.
China busts malware makers, from Network World:
Suspected WireLurker malware creators arrested in China
Beijing police have arrested three people suspected of developing the “WireLurker” malware that may have infected as many as hundreds of thousands of Apple users.
Local authorities arrested the three suspects on a tip from Chinese security company Qihoo 360 Technology, the Beijing police’s Internet security team said Friday.
The three suspects, surnamed Chen, Li and Wang, were detained Thursday and charged with creating and spreading the malware, the police said in a post on its official Sina Weibo account. The police did not publish the full names of the suspects.
Political progress, via El País:
Spain poised to vote on Palestine state
Israel says non-binding motion asking the government to recognize Palestine is “not useful”
The Spanish parliament may approve recognition of Palestine as a state for the first time, if ongoing negotiations between the ruling Popular Party (PP) and opposition groups prosper.
Foreign Minister José Manuel García-Margallo met on Thursday morning with representatives of the Socialist Party, the Catalan CiU bloc and the PP to discuss the terms of such a move.
On Tuesday, the lower house will debate a non-binding motion presented by the Socialists asking the government to “recognize Palestine as a State […], out of the conviction that only a situation with two coexisting States, Israel and Palestine, can ensure the dialogue and negotiation that may lead to agreements guaranteeing peace and security for both, respect for citizens’ rights and stability in the area.”
The Only Democracy in the Middle East™ strikes again, via the Independent:
Israel bars outspoken Norwegian doctor Mads Gilbert from entering the Gaza Strip
Israel has barred a Norwegian doctor from entering the Gaza Strip through its territory after he severely criticised its military campaign while volunteering at a Gaza hospital during the devastating conflict over the summer.
There was no immediate Israeli confirmation of Norwegian media reports that Dr Mads Gilbert, a trauma surgeon and far-left political activist, had been banned for life from entering Gaza for security reasons.
Dr Gilbert told The Independent yesterday that he did not know how long the ban was for. He said that when he tried to enter Gaza via the Erez crossing last month he was told he could not do so for “security reasons”.
More, via RT:
Israel bans outspoken Norwegian doctor from Gaza for life for ‘security reasons’
Israel has banned Mads Gilbert, a Norwegian doctor who has helped Palestinians during conflicts for over 30 years, from entering Gaza, following his outspoken criticism of the Israeli government. Oslo has asked Jerusalem to reverse the decision.
“I was asked by the Norwegian authorities to go down to continue working in Gaza. When we arrived at the Erez Crossing, I was told by Israeli soldiers that I could not go into Gaza. I had to turn back to Norway,” said the 67-year-old, who was attempting to return to the region for the first time since the end of Israel’s Gaza offensive, which ended in August, as reported by Norway’s VG newspaper.
“I have never broken any Israeli laws. It’s provocative, unreasonable and totally unacceptable.”
And the latest, from the Guardian:
Trauma surgeon Mads Gilbert will defy Israeli ban on Gaza entry
Norwegian has worked in Gaza for 15 years and will resist attempts at stopping him returning there
A Norwegian trauma surgeon and activist who helped provide life-saving medical care during this summer’s 100-day war in Gaza has said he will defy an Israeli ban on his return.
“I had a valid permit for multiple entries, an invitation from the Palestinian Ministry of Health and a recommendation from the director at my hospital.”
In a written statement, Norway’s Secretary of State, Bard Glad Pedersen, said: “From the Norwegian perspective, we have raised Gilbert’s exclusion from Gaza and asked Israel to change their decision. The humanitarian situation is still difficult and there is a need for all health workers.”
From RT, cultural hubris from the Turkish president:
Before Columbus: Erdogan says Muslims ‘discovered America,’ eyes mosque in Cuba
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan says the Muslim faith was “widespread” in America before the arrival of Columbus in the 15th century, and insists that a massive mosque should be erected in Havana, despite the city’s refusal to grant a building permit.
“The religion of Islam was widespread before Columbus,” the longtime Turkish leader told the audience at the first ever Latin American Muslim leaders summit in Istanbul, as cited by Hurriyet Daily News.
“Muslim sailors had arrived in the shores of America in 1178. In his diaries, Christopher Columbus referred to the presence of a mosque on top of a mountain in Cuba.”
The veracity of this statement has been comprehensively disproved in the past.
From the McClatchy Washington Bureau, denial:
Pakistan denies Pentagon charge it’s soft on terrorism
A senior Pakistan military official Friday rejected recent claims by the Pentagon and civilian or defense leaders of other nations that it coddles Islamic militants who’ve launched numerous attacks on neighboring India and Afghanistan from Pakistani territory.
Maj. Gen. Asim Saleem Bajwa, the Pakistani military’s top spokesman, also said Islamabad sees no signs of Islamic State fighters having infiltrated the country despite recent reports that the radical group is recruiting hundreds of people in Baluchistan, a province in southwestern Pakistan on the borders of Iran and Afghanistan.
Bajwa said an ongoing Pakistan Army offensive against extremists in Waziristan, a mountainous province on the Afghan border, shows his government’s determination to combat terrorism.
And from India, the Christian Science Monitor reminds that it’s not just the Saudis who have a religious moral police:
Defying Hindu moral police, Indian students hold ‘kiss of love’ protests
Hindu moral police emboldened by India Prime Minister Modi have faced crowds of smoochers and huggers in Kerela, Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Delhi. The ‘kiss of love’ crowds were organized by social media, including on Facebook.
Kissing in public is not against the law here, but it is still considered somewhat taboo – and it is totally unacceptable to an increasingly active right-wing Hindu moral police. Lovers can be beaten up for kissing on the street or even for holding hands.
But a unique public kissing event – a protest against right wing groups in south India – is catching on around the country, challenging a deeply conservative belt of society.
On Nov. 8 hundreds of youth stole kisses, hugged each other, and blocked traffic in the nation’s capital – to protest right-wing activists who see such public displays as a Western import that threatens India’s traditional culture.
From the Associated Press, speaking the unspeakable in Southeast Asia:
Obama says ‘Rohingya,’ displeasing Myanmar hosts
Myanmar’s minority Rohingya Muslims are among the most persecuted people on earth, and advocates of their cause were hoping President Barack Obama would not only press the issue during his visit this week — they were hoping he would simply say their name.
On Friday, the last day of his trip, he finally did — uttering the word publicly for the first time on his three-day visit at a news conference with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
“Discrimination against the Rohingya or any other religious minority does not express the kind of country that Burma over the long term wants to be,” Obama said, in response to a reporter’s question about the status of reforms in Myanmar, also known as Burma.
Myanmar’s government views the estimated 1.3 million Rohingya — living in dire, segregated conditions in western Rakhine state — not as citizens, but as illegal migrants from Bangladesh encroaching on scarce land. For that reason, they say the Rohingya ethnicity does not exist.
On to Hong Kong and Occupy leaders rebuffed, from BBC News:
Hong Kong protest leaders denied Beijing flight
Three pro-democracy student leaders from Hong Kong have been stopped from boarding a plane to Beijing.
They had hoped to meet China’s leaders as part of their push for greater democracy, but were told at the airport that their travel permits were invalid.
Protesters have been camped out on the streets of the territory since late September. They want Beijing to allow more candidates to stand in the territory’s next leadership election in 2017.
Obama voices a challenge to China, via Reuters
In veiled message to China, Obama renews commitment to Asia-Pacific pivot
President Barack Obama sought on Saturday to reassure Asia-Pacific allies about Washington’s strategic shift toward the region as he sent a veiled message to a rising China with a vow to “deepen our engagement using every element of our power”.
Speaking in Australia on the final stop of a three-country regional tour, Obama insisted that Asia’s security order must not be based on “coercion or intimidation … where big nations bully the small, but on alliances for mutual security”.
Although Obama did not explicitly point the finger at China, there was little doubt that he was alluding to Beijing’s maritime disputes with its neighbors and growing concern in the region about its military build-up.
“No one should ever question our resolve or our commitments to our allies,” Obama said in a policy speech at Queensland University in Brisbane, where he is attending a G20 summit.
Complaint registered, from Reuters:
China raised issue of U.S. spy flights during military talks: Pentagon
China raised the thorny subject of U.S. military spy flights during talks that led to agreements this week on reducing friction between the two militaries, but was told U.S. missions in international airspace and waters would continue, the Pentagon said.
The closed-door conversations underscore China’s sensitivity to surveillance by U.S. P-8 Poseidon spy planes and other aircraft, especially off Hainan Island, home to a major Chinese submarine base. A Chinese intercept of a P-8 plane in international airspace off Hainan in August was described as dangerous by Washington.
U.S. President Barack Obama announced the military agreements on Wednesday after meeting his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing.
From the Guardian, bad news for American television in the world’s biggest market:
China bans sex, murder and ghosts from TV streaming services
Government’s online content crackdown continues as society’s dark side is denied to the world’s most populous nation
Film and television programmes featuring one-night stands, adultery, supernatural occurrences and gambling will be banned from Chinese streaming websites in the latest fallout from Beijing’s continuing moral crackdown, reports the Global Times.
US streaming sites such as Netflix and Amazon Prime are unavailable in China due to the country’s firewall. However, local sites such as Sohu, which recently saw Netflix’s salacious political drama House of Cards find a niche audience, would be expect to suffer under the effects of the ban. In a statement to content providers, authorities also demanded the removal of content featuring depictions of sexual abuse, rape, polyamorous relationships, necrophilia, prostitution and masturbation. Violent murder, suicides, drug use and gambling were also among the subjects banned via the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT) circular, as well as instances of pornography.
Prof Tan Tian of Jinan university told the Times the new regulations would radically reduce the number of movies and television shows that could be legally streamed in China.
China shows off drones, from Want China Times:
SK-1, WJ-600 UAVs on display at Zhuhai Air Show
Various new advanced unmanned aerial vehicles were on display during the 10th China International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition held in Zhuhai in Guangdong province between Nov. 11 and Nov. 12 according to our Chinese-language sister newspaper Want Daily.
Among all the drones displayed at the show, China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation’s Skyhawk, also known as the SK-1, and the WJ-600 garnered the most attention from aviation experts. The SK-1 is an unmanned aerial scout which plays a very similar role to the OH-58 Kiowa helicopter of the United States Army. With its small size and stealth capability, it is extremely difficult for the enemy forces to locate the SK-1 above the battlefield.
The WJ-600 is one of China’s most advanced unmanned combat aerial vehicles. With the capability to reach as high as 10,000 feet, the WJ-600 serves the People’s Liberation Army in a similar role to a satellite but at a lower altitude. It can fly 200 meters every second and launch attacks against ground targets. The drone is also capable of conducting electronic warfare and transferring critical information back to the command center.
Other drones such as the CH-4 and the Wing Loong-1 were displayed again at the exhibition too.
And rockets too, from the New York Times:
China’s Rise as Arms Supplier Is Put on Display
Queen Bee anti-tank rocket system. Halberd supersonic target drone. Sky Dragon 12 surface-to-air missile system.
Those were among the many weapons on display in the past week at Airshow China here in this southern city adjacent to Macau, and exhibitors included an array of new and established manufacturers as China expands its arms industry to bolster its military as well as exports.
China is the world’s fourth-largest exporter of arms, having overtaken France last year, according to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Ten large state-owned defense manufacturers dominate the sector, but the government is encouraging smaller, private companies to enter the field.
Xi wants tighter Aussie ties, via People’s Daily:
Xi outlines proposal to further cement China-Australia ties
Chinese President Xi Jinping, in a signed article published Friday on the Australian Financial Review newspaper, propounded a multi-point proposal on deepening China-Australia friendship and cooperation.
The two sides should enhance mutual understanding, deepen practical cooperation, encourage people-to-people exchanges and step up strategic communication, suggested Xi, who arrives in Australia later in the day for a Group of 20 (G20) summit and a state visit.
Xi recalled the fruitful results the two countries have achieved in bilateral interaction since the establishment of diplomatic ties 42 years ago, saying China-Australia relations “have traversed an extraordinary journey, making us good friends and strategic partners and bringing real benefits to our two peoples.”
The expected, via the Mainichi:
Japan, U.S. at odds with China over tension in S. China Sea
Japan and the United States were at odds Thursday with China over the tension in the South China Sea, with the two allies urging Beijing to refrain from taking actions that could undermine stability in the resource-rich, strategically important sea but China apparently snubbing such a call.
Speaking at the East Asia Summit in Myanmar’s capital Naypyitaw, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said, “We expect (countries involved in territorial disputes in the sea) to exercise self-restraint against action that could undermine peace and stability in the South China Sea,” without singling out China by name.
U.S. President Barack Obama urged claimants — Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam — to lower the tension, ensure maximum self-restraint and address disputes based on international law, according to ASEAN diplomatic sources.
Seeking a code of conduct, from China Daily:
Country pushes for code at South China Sea
China will push for the implementation of a code of conduct for the South China Sea – a document that will lessen the risk of escalating tensions in the area-but experts said such an agreement faces obstacles, at least in the short term.
Premier Li Keqiang reaffirmed China’s resolve to safeguard territorial sovereignty at a series of three regional meetings in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar, on Thursday, saying the country is willing to adhere to the code, which has been under discussion for more than a decade.
Leaders from the Philippines and Vietnam, countries that have seen maritime tensions with China rise, also attended the meetings.
“China and Southeast Asian countries are close neighbors with common interests and diversified concerns. It is inevitable-not strange at all-that differences emerge among us, but those differences will not affect the general stability in the South China Sea,” Li said at the East Asia summit. “I believe that as long as we treat each other with sincerity and seek common ground while acknowledging differences, there will be no insurmountable obstacles that will stand in our way,” Li said.
Retooling remilitarization, via the Mainichi:
Changing situation calls for changing SDF role: Joint Staff chief
In light of moves to revamp security legislation, there has emerged a possibility that the activities of the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) could be expanded substantially to include the use of armed force overseas. The Mainichi Shimbun asked Katsutoshi Kawano, who took the post of Chief of Staff of the SDF Joint Staff last month, how we are to face our changing environment.
Mainichi: Following a Cabinet decision to reinterpret the Constitution to open the way for Japan to exercise the right to collective self-defense, the government is moving toward changing security-related legislation. Some worry that such changes will lead to Japan getting caught up in war. What is your take on the state of affairs?
Kawano: I will refrain from commenting on the issue at the political level, but I think these moves have been made in response to major changes in Japan’s security environment. All we can do on the ground is train in accordance with new laws and make sure we are able to carry out effective operations.
Tightening the national security state, from NHK WORLD:
Japan enacts tougher anti-terror law
Japan’s Diet has enacted a revised law to prevent funding for terrorism, with a larger scope of punishable cases.
The Upper House of the Diet passed the law at its plenary session on Friday by a majority.
The original law penalized only those funding terrorism. The new one also stipulates punishment for providing information, goods, land or buildings that enable acts of terror. It also expands the scope of punishable people from “primary partners” to “secondary collaborators.”
A leading opponent from the Washington Post:
As Okinawa prepares to pick new governor, U.S. military bases are on voters’ minds
The man likely to become the next governor of Okinawa insists he’s not anti-American. He’s not even anti-alliance. In fact, he declares, he loves the United States.
But what he really loves, most of all: democracy.
“It’s good to be democratic,” Takeshi Onaga said in an interview at one of his campaign offices in central Naha, the capital of this sub-tropical island chain south of the Japanese mainland. “How can we criticize countries like China if we don’t respect democracy here in Japan?”
For the first time, the U.S. military -bases are the centerpiece of a major campaign in Okinawa. And, in another possible break with political tradition, Okinawa stands to elect a candidate Sunday with an unaccommodating stance toward the U.S. military.
And from the London Telegraph, enhancing enhancement for enhancements:
Home Office designs new body armour for policewomen with breast enhancements
The form-fitting protective wear will protect female police officers’ breasts and also cater for policemen with ‘moobs’ (male boobs), to make it more comfortable for them too
Home Office scientists are creating new police body armour to provide extra protection for female police officers who have had breast enhancements.
The form-fitting protective wear will also cater for policemen with ‘moobs’ (male boobs), to make it more comfortable for them too.
Policewomen have long been warned not to wear push-up bras with underwire support in case they are attacked, which could lead to the wire digging into their breasts and injuring them.
