And a whole lot more. . .
While most of today’s headlines focus on the expected, we start with a troubling development in another sector, via the Washington Post:
Big corporations want to know how you feel, and defense contractors are happy to help
It’s no secret that businesses track consumers online and study social media to learn more about their shopping habits. But the public backlash against Sony after its response to being hacked, criticism of Target’s handling of its 2013 cyberattack and other examples of corporate embarrassment have put a spotlight on another type of analysis — measuring public sentiment about a business.
Now, contractors that traditionally performed this type of work for government intelligence agencies are offering their skills to large corporations.
BAE Systems, which spent more than $200 million acquiring analytics companies last year, is the latest example of a defense contractor branching out into commercial work as federal spending shrinks.
Corporations are increasingly looking for early warnings to manage potential disruptions, said Peder Jungck, vice president and chief technology officer for BAE’s intelligence and security sector.
And that story of the day, first with Al Jazeera America:
Official: Paris unity rally largest in French history
Up to four million marchers flood streets across France after 17 people were killed during three days of attacks
France’s Interior Ministry said Sunday’s Paris rally for unity was the largest demonstration in France’s history — a march organized to show harmony after three days of attacks that left 17 dead.
Calling the rally “unprecedented,” the ministry said the demonstrators were so numerous they spread beyond the official march route, making them impossible to count.
French media estimate that nearly two million people participated in the Paris rally, more than the numbers who took to the capital’s streets when the Allies liberated the city from the Nazis in World War II. And up to four million people took part in marches across the country.
A video report from Deutsche Welle [and note who’s hogging the limelight]:
Parisians in solidarity march after killings
Program notes:
Paris has seen the largest demonstration in French history: More than a million people turned out on Sunday, and more than 3 million in all of France, to rally against terrorism. Some 40 world leaders were also there.
From Deutsche Welle again, a global perspective:
Charlie Hebdo solidarity marches sweep world
Berlin, Bonn, London, Brussels, Madrid, Montreal, Moscow, Istanbul, Beirut, Jerusalem, Ramallah: As millions marched through Paris, people around the world have shown solidarity after the attack on Charlie Hebdo.
People gathered in cities around the world on Sunday, singing the Marseillaise national anthem and holding up pens in solidarity with France and satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. The demonstrations coincided with a major ceremony involving well over 1 million people in Paris, described by an official as the largest rally in France’s history.
Around 18,000 people gathered in front of the French embassy, next to the Brandenburg Gate, in Berlin; some held up Charlie Hebdo cartoons, while others held pens or signs saying “Je suis Charlie,” and other variations on the theme.
A smaller demonstration also paraded through the streets of Bonn on Sunday evening, ending at the Friedensplatz square in the city center. In Brussels, some 20,000 people marched silently through the city center waving banners with messages including: “United against hatred.”
And from TheLocal.fr, beneficiaries of the violence:
National Front marches alone to defend ‘liberty’
France’s far-right National Front (FN) held a demonstration of its own against terrorism on Sunday, after being excluded from a massive unity rally in Paris.
Party leader Marine Le Pen led a demonstration in the FN-controlled southern town of Beaucaire after denouncing what she called the “exclusion” of her party from Paris march, which drew more than a million people in solidarity with the 17 victims of terror attacks this week.
Though debate had raged among French political leaders over whether the generally ostracised FN should be allowed to participate alongside other parties in the Paris demonstration against terrorism, Le Pen claimed she and her supporters had been shunned even though President Francois Hollande had invited “all citizens” to participate.
A related story from CBC News:
France attacks: Far-right emboldened?
Program notes:
French political expert Anand Menon talks about how the extremist attacks in Paris will change the political landscape in France.
The New York Times covers another inevitability:
Jihadists and Supporters Take to Social Media to Praise Attack on Charlie Hebdo
Within hours of the deadly attack on the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, Islamic extremists and their supporters were praising the killings and lauding the attackers on social media under hashtags like #we_avenged_the_prophet and #lone_wolves.
The attack on Wednesday and the subsequent manhunt shook France and unleashed an international outpouring of sympathy for the victims.
But for jihadists from North Africa to Pakistan, the attack was a justified blow against a state perceived as an enemy of Islam.
And from the Guardian, a declaration of war:
Eric Holder says US ‘at war’ with ‘lone wolf’ terrorists after Paris attacks
Eric Holder echoes sentiment that extremists ‘corrupt the Islamic faith’ to justify violence. US plans conference on anti-extremism on 18 February
As a million people gathered in Paris to march and express solidarity in the face of Islamist terror attacks that this week killed 17 people, attorney general Eric Holder said the US was “at war” with “lone wolf” terrorists.
Holder’s comments echoed those of the French prime minister, Manuel Valls, who said on Saturday his country was at war with radical Islam. “It is a war against terrorism,” Valls said, “against jihadism, against radical Islam, against everything that is aimed at breaking fraternity, freedom, solidarity.”
Speaking to NBC from Paris, where he was attending a counter-terrorism summit and the march, Holder said: “That is the thing that I think keeps me up most at night, this concern about the lone wolf who goes undetected.” Questioned by CNN about how the Paris attackers were known to authorities but still managed to act, he said such people “float under the radar screens”.
“I certainly think we are at war with those who would commit terrorist attacks and corrupt the Islamic faith to try to justify their terrorist actions,” he told ABC during a tour of Sunday talk shows as he led the Obama administration’s response to the attacks. “That’s who we are at war with and we are determined to take the fight to them.”
Capitalizing on crisis, via RT:
Paris massacre possible prelude to wave of Europe-wide attacks – media citing NSA
The deadly events that unfolded in France over the last week may be the first in a wave of attacks to strike Europe, a German daily reports, citing NSA intercepts of communications between Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) leaders.
Paris was marked as the first in a series of European cities to be attacked, including Rome, the report in the German tabloid Bild read. However, the article didn’t furnish details of a concrete plan to launch an attack.
The US National Intelligence Agency (NSA) also reportedly had information that Cherif and Said Kouachi, the brothers who carried out the mass shooting at the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, had contacts in the Netherlands.
A plea from a Muslim victim’s brother, via Channel 4 News:
‘Don’t trigger wars, don’t burn mosques – or synagogues’
The brother of the French policeman who was killed during the attack at Charlie Hebdo calls for unity in the country.
Malek Merabet said those who killed his brother Ahmed Merabet were not doing what they did because they represented any “religion”, it was because they were “mad men”.
He said: “I address myself now to all the racists, islamophobes and anti-semites that one must not confuse extremists with Muslims. Mad people have neither colour nor religion.
“I want to make another point: don’t tar everybody with the same brush, don’t trigger wars, don’t burn mosques – or synagogues. You are attacking people. It won’t bring our dead back and it won’t appease the families.
“It’s not two terrorists, two madmen who are going to represent all Muslims. We have nothing to do with that. My brother was Muslim, he was killed by false Muslims, by two terrorists, there you go.”
And a plea from a shooter’s widow, via Sky News:
Wife Of Charlie Hebdo Gunman Condemns Attack
Izzana Hamyd, who was arrested after the assault on the magazine’s offices, says she was “stupefied” by Cherif Kouachi’s actions.
The wife of Cherif Kouachi, one of the brothers who attacked the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris, has condemned his actions and offered condolences to victims.
Izzana Hamyd had been detained by investigators for 72 hours after Wednesday’s act of terror, and “expressed her indignation and condemnation of violence” to officers.
According to the young woman’s lawyer, Christian Saint-Palais, her response to the shootings “was the same reaction as that of the entire nation”, as she was “stupefied” by the attack. Ms Hamyd has now been released from custody.
Also capitalizing on crisis, via CNN:
Retailers walk line with ‘Je Suis Charlie’ merchandise
In the days since the horrific attack in Paris on Charlie Hebdo, signs of support are everywhere: “Je Suis Charlie” can be found on leather key rings, decals, bumper stickers, mugs, and of course, t-shirts.
But it raises a question: Are these sellers raising awareness or profiting off of a tragedy?
The artistic director who created the logo most used tweeted this week that he “regrets the commercial uses of it.”
The Los Angeles Times covers another form of capitalizing on crisis call for another panopticon enhancement:
Holder says U.S., allies must improve terrorism intelligence sharing
Improving the sharing of information between the U.S. and its allies is crucial to stopping terrorist attacks like the one last week in Paris, Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. said Sunday, adding that the issue will be discussed at a White House summit next month on ways to counter violent extremism.
“One nation cannot by itself hope to forestall the possibility of terrorism, even within its own borders,” Holder said in an interview from Paris on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.”
Appearing on four Sunday TV talk shows, Holder said the U.S., France and other allies already share information on potential terrorists. But “there’s a greater need for us to share information, to knock down these information-sharing barriers, so that we can always stay on top of these threats,” he told ABC.
From the Associated Press, a pledge of allegiance:
France gunman pledges loyalty to IS in posthumous video
The gunman in the Paris kosher supermarket siege appeared Sunday in a posthumous video, pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group and explaining the planning and the reasoning behind the attacks that sowed terror across France.
Apparently filmed over several days and edited after the attacks, the video shows Amedy Coulibaly displaying a small arsenal of weapons, doing pushups and pullups in a drab courtyard and, in broken Arabic, giving fealty to IS militants. The video appeared Sunday on militant websites, and two men who dealt drugs with Coulibaly confirmed his identify to The Associated Press.
“My brothers, our team, divided things in two,” he tells the camera in a close-up.
“We did things a bit together and a bit apart, so that it’d have more impact,” he said in fluent French, adding that he had helped the brothers financially with “a few thousand euros” so they could finish with purchases for the operation.
After the jump, a German newspaper firebombed, German Islamophobes to rally in Dresden as the government pleas for a halt, European states push for online data, Harper vows a lengthy Canadian war on terror, the mayor of London says to hell with civil liberties, Austrian cops bust would-be ISIS recruits, Paris attacks complicate Obama’s immigration reforms, incoming Republicans capitalize on the fears of the moment, Spain calls for an end of unrestricted border crossing within Europe, Harry Potter author upbraids Rupert Murdoch, a Cold War 2.0 story from Sweden, allegations of high level corruption in the Los Angeles jail, the soaring costs of cybercrime, Sony still computerless after superhack, Rand Paul sacrifices Palestine to political ambition, UN troops in the Congo ready to rumble, U.N. condemnation of Bokom Haram’s use of pre-teen suicide bombers in Nigeria, a Washington/Tokyo/Seoul military intel sharing pact, a Chinese denial of sheltering Pyongyang’s hackers, The Japanese remilitarization push hits a stumbling block and hints of things to come. . .
The Guardian covers another attack:
German newspaper that reprinted Muhammad cartoons firebombed
Arson attack on offices of Hamburg tabloid that published Charlie Hebdo cartoons on front page after Paris massacre
A German newspaper that reprinted the Muhammad cartoons from the French satirical paper Charlie Hebdo has been the target of an arson attack.
Several stones and an incendiary device were thrown through the window of the archive of the regional tabloid daily, the Hamburger Morgenpost, early on Sunday morning. The paper had splashed three Charlie Hebdo cartoons on its front page after the Paris massacre, running the headline “This much freedom must be possible!”
“Rocks and then a burning object were thrown through the window,” a police spokesman told AFP. “Two rooms on lower floors were damaged but the fire was put out quickly.”
No one was hurt in the attack in the northern port city. Two people were detained and an investigation has begun, police said.
From Al Jazeera America, German Islamophobes to rally in Dresden:
German anti-Islam movement hopes for big showing at Leipzig rally
In aftermath of Paris attacks, far-right anti-immigration group to hold pivotal gathering on Monday in eastern city
On Monday night, anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand people will gather in a parking lot outside Leipzig’s Red Bull soccer arena and set out on what organizers are calling an “evening stroll” through the city’s Waldstrasse Quarter.
Calling themselves LEGIDA, in German short for Leipzig Against the Islamicization of the West, they are hoping to bring to Leipzig the success of the anti-immigrant protests that began in Dresden in October and have roiled German politics in recent weeks.
The march — and its reception in Leipzig, an hour’s drive from Dresden in eastern Germany — marks a potential pivot point for the anti-immigrant protests. In Dresden, the weekly PEGIDA (Patriotische Europäer Gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes) rallies have grown to an estimated 18,000 people, far outnumbering the 4,000 or 5,000 counterprotesters who gather to shout them down each week.
A plea, via Deutsche Welle:
German Justice Minister Maas urges cancellation of PEGIDA rally
German Justice Minister Heiko Maas has urged the “anti-Islamization” group PEGIDA to call off a march planned for Monday. He accused the group of “exploiting” jihadi killings in France.
German Justice Minister Heiko Maas on Sunday called on the organizers of a rally by “anti-Islamization” group PEGIDA scheduled for Monday to cancel the protest, saying the movement was capitalizing on the recent Islamist terrorist attacks in Paris.
“If the organizers had a shred of decency they would simply cancel these demonstrations,” the mass-market Bild newspaper quoted him as saying in its issue to be published Monday.
“The victims (of the Paris attacks) do not deserve to be abused by rabble-rousers like these,” he said.
European states push for online data, via the Register:
Paris terror attacks: ISPs face pressure to share MORE data with governments
Ministers call for ‘greater cooperation’ from internet firms
Government ministers from European states, who met in Paris today in the wake of the atrocious attacks that stunned the French capital’s population last week, have called on internet firms to do a better job of cooperating with spooks and police to help them fight terrorism.
In a joint statement from a number of Europe’s interior ministers including France’s Bernard Cazeneuve and Britain’s Home Secretary Theresa May, the politicians said:
We are concerned at the increasingly frequent use of the internet to fuel hatred and violence and signal our determination to ensure that the internet is not abused to this end, while safeguarding that it remains, in scrupulous observance of fundamental freedoms, a forum for free expression, in full respect of the law.
With this in mind, the partnership of the major internet providers is essential to create the conditions of a swift reporting of material that aims to incite hatred and terror and the condition of its removing, where appropriate/possible.
From the Toronto Globe and Mail, Harper vows a lengthy Canadian war on terror:
Canadian demonstrators told to prepare for lengthy battle against terrorism
Canadians need to gird for a long battle against terrorism while maintaining their unity and not singling out any religious groups for blame, Mayor John Tory and federal Finance Minister Joe Oliver told several hundred people demonstrating on a cold Sunday afternoon at Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto.
“We must look evil in the eye and call it by its name – jihadist terrorism,” Mr. Oliver said at one of several rallies in Canada held in a gesture of solidarity with France, after Islamic terrorists attacked the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, the shooting of a policewoman and two hostage-takings left 20 people, including three gunmen, dead. Those attacks followed separate terrorist incidents in Ottawa and St-Jean-Sur-Richilieu, Que., in October in which three people, including one armed attacker, were killed.
Addressing terrorists directly, Mr. Oliver said they should know that they cannot divide Canadians. “You will not succeed because we are united by our determination to protect our values, our freedoms and our citizens, be they Christian, Jews, Muslims or Hindus. We will defeat you. We will ultimately win because we are in solidarity and we are strong.
He suggested the battle could last decades. “We need continued support and endurance. With that we will triumph over evil. . . and our grandchildren will live in freedom and peace.”
While the mayor of London says to hell with civil liberties, via the London Telegraph:
Boris Johnson: I am not bothered with civil liberties stuff for terror suspects
Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, says that the authorities must know where terror suspects are and what they are saying
Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, has said security services should be able to monitor the emails and phone calls of anyone who poses a threat to Britain as he is “not particularly bothered with this civil liberties stuff”.
Mr Johnson said that the authorities have to be “absolutely determined to monitor these people” and added that those who are unwilling to accept British values should “go away”.
The Conservatives want to resurrect the Communications Data Bill, which would give the security and intelligence services greater power to monitor terrorists. However, they are being blocked by the Liberal Democrats.
Austrian cops bust would-be ISIS recruits, via the Associated Press:
Austrian police detain 2 teenage girls looking to join IS
Austrian law enforcement officials say two teenage girls have been detained on suspicion of seeking to travel to Syria as potential wives for militants fighting there.
Marcus Neher of the Salzburg public prosecutor’s office says they were detained in Salzburg and Upper Austria province on Saturday. He says they were “offering themselves as spouses for IS fighters.”
Neher declined to give further details Sunday. The Austria Press Agency says the Salzburg suspect was 16 and originally came from Chechnya, while the other girl was 17 and born in Bosnia.
Paris attacks complicate Obama’s immigration reforms, via Homeland Security News Wire:
Paris attacks complicate efforts to freeze DHS funding over Obama’s immigration executive orders
Last week’s terror attacks in Paris have increased concerns of DHS officials that terrorists may be looking to attack U.S. targets. For many members of Congress, the Paris events are proof that DHS operations should continue to be funded, but opponents of the president’s executive order to remove the threat of deportation from nearly five million undocumented immigrants appear ready to freeze funding for DHS altogether unless such funding does not include funds for the implementation of the president’s executive orders.
Senate and House Republicans worry that if they end up in a standoff with Obama and congressional Democrats over funding DHS, they could wind up taking the blame if a terror attack occurred. “Defunding that part of the bill that deals with enforcing the executive order makes sense but we can’t go too far here because look what happened in Paris. The Department of Homeland Security needs to be up and running,” said Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina).
The Hill reports that a Senate GOP aide warned that Democrats would blame a DHS shutdown as the reason for DHS not being able to stop a terror attack in the United States. Some Democrats would also label Republicans as prioritizing their conservative campaign promises over national security, the aide said.
And the incoming Republicans capitalize on the fears of the moment, via the Hill:
Homeland Security chairman: Foreign fighters a threat to US
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said on Sunday that Europe should tighten its travel restrictions.
While on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” McCaul told Host Bob Schieffer that the terror attacks that happened last week in Paris could happen in the U.S.
“These individuals were actually on a no-fly list and still traveled to Yemen and back,” he said of the gunmen, who launched a targeted attacked on the weekly satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday.
“We had the woman, the female terrorist, leave and go to Syria. But she’s on a no-fly list. So I think Europe has to strengthen and tighten its travel restrictions, but we need to look at protecting this country because I see it as a real threat.”
Inevitable, via TheLocal.es:
‘Change Schengen rules to catch Islamists’: Spain
Spain wants to see the Schengen treaty modified to allow border controls to be restored to limit the movements of Islamic fighters returning to Europe from the Middle East, a report said on Sunday.
“We are going to back border controls and it is possible that as a consequence it will be necessary to modify the Schengen treaty,” Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz told the daily El Pais ahead of a Sunday morning ministerial meeting on the subject in Paris.
EU and US security ministers met at France’s interior ministry on Sunday to work out a joint response to the threat of jihadist attacks following days of carnage in Paris by three gunmen claiming to act on behalf of Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.
“The existing mobility in the European Union is facilitating the movements (of jihadists) to any country and also to our country,” the minister was quoted as saying.
From the Guardian, Harry Potter author upbraids Murdoch:
JK Rowling attacks Murdoch for tweet blaming all Muslims for Charlie Hebdo deaths
Peaceful Muslims are no more responsible for terror than I am for Murdoch, says Harry Potter author
JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books, has condemned and mocked the tweet from Rupert Murdoch which insisted that even peaceful Muslims must bear responsibilities for jihadi attacks.
“I was born Christian. If that makes Rupert Murdoch my responsibility, I’ll auto-excommunicate,” she tweeted on Sunday.
The News Corp boss’s tweet on Saturday morning said that “maybe most Moslems” were peaceful but all must be held responsible “until they recognise and destroy their growing jihadist cancer”.
A Cold War 2.0 story from Sweden, via the Associated Press:
Sweden confirms 2nd submarine search
Sweden’s military says it carried out a second submarine search just a week after calling off a major hunt for a suspected underwater intruder in the Stockholm archipelago in October.
Military spokesman Jesper Tengroth on Sunday confirmed a report in Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter that the Navy searched waters near the capital on Oct. 31 after receiving a tip from a “trustworthy” person. No submarine was found.
A week earlier, Sweden had carried out its biggest anti-submarine operation since the end of the Cold War. Swedish authorities later said there was evidence that a small submarine illegally entered Swedish waters before escaping into the Baltic Sea.
Allegations of corruption, from the Los Angeles Times:
Sheriff’s Dept. higher-ups now appear to be targets in jails inquiry
Sheriff’s officials convicted of obstructing a federal investigation into the Los Angeles County jails have been testifying before a grand jury as prosecutors set their sights on the highest echelons of the department, according to sources familiar with the probe.
The questioning has focused partly on meetings where then-Sheriff Lee Baca and his No. 2, Paul Tanaka, discussed how to deal with the discovery of a cellphone provided to a county jail inmate by the FBI. In addition to the convicted officials, some current Sheriff’s Department officials have also received grand jury subpoenas.
Many in the Sheriff’s Department believe that low-ranking officials took the fall for following orders from Tanaka and Baca. Now, with the convening of the grand jury, it appears that prosecutors are attempting to target more sheriff’s officials after convicting seven last year for obstructing justice.
The soaring costs of cybercrime, via Homeland Security News Wire:
Cybercrime imposing growing costs on global economy
A new report released by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the Intel Security Group have found that the cost of cybercrime to the global community and infrastructure is not only incredibly high, but steadily rising as well.
As theTelegraph reports, the study carried out by the two organizations concluded that up to $575 billion a year — larger than some countries’ economies — is lost due to these incidents. Additionally, up to 150,000 jobs could be lost in Europe due to damage from cybercrime and the theft of personal records from 40 million people in the United States, 54 million in Turkey, 20 million in Korea, 16 million in Germany, and over 20 million in China. These thefts have occurred due mostly to the vulnerability of the majority of the world’s data.
Additionally, the report broke down which types of attacks had occurred, including the percentages of “physical” attacks, data leaks, password captures, and stolen accounts. Further, the researchers found a significant rise in these events from the previous year, as well as an increase between 2012 and 2013.
Lingering hack attack impacts from the Japan Times:
Sony Pictures had to draft new playbook on the fly
The network was crippled. Days before Thanksgiving, Sony Pictures employees had logged onto computers that flashed a grim message from a hacker group calling itself Guardians of Peace. Soon personal information for tens of thousands of current and former workers was dumped online, including Social Security numbers and the purported salaries of top executives. Five Sony-produced movies, including the unreleased “Annie,” appeared on file-sharing websites. Thousands of private, and sometimes embarrassing, emails hit the Internet.
“They came in the house, stole everything, then burned down the house,” Michael Lynton, the movie studio’s CEO, said in an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday. “They destroyed servers, computers, wiped them clean of all the data and took all the data.”
More than six weeks later, the studio’s network is still down — and is expected to remain so for a few weeks, as technicians work to rebuild and get it fully back online. In that time, Sony has been thrust into the geopolitical spotlight as the target of an unprecedented corporate cyberattack that the United States has attributed to North Korea. In a wide-ranging interview Lynton talked about the isolation and uncertainty created by the attack and the unique position the company found itself in a case that’s undoubtedly being closely watched in boardrooms around the world.
From the Christian Science Monitor, Rand Paul sacrifices Palestine to political ambition:
With eye on 2016, Rand Paul tries to block Palestinian aid
Sen. Rand Paul has caused some concerns among supporters of Israel with his libertarian foreign policy. But they can all rally around halting aid to Palestinians.
By introducing a bill this week to halt all United States foreign aid to the Palestinian Authority, Sen. Rand Paul (R) of Kentucky was hardly blazing into new political territory. This is the libertarian senator who, in 2011, proposed ending all foreign aid to all countries, after all.
But as with most things in Washington, timing is everything.
Senator Paul clearly has his eye on running for president in 2016, and last week he met with top Jewish donors including casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire who bankrolled Newt Gingrich’s surprisingly successful 2012 campaign. The race for Adelson’s support among potential 2016 Republican presidential candidates has been called the “Sheldon Adelson Primary.”
Ready to rumble with the Associated Press:
UN official in Congo says force ready to rout out rebels
The United Nations Congo force is militarily prepared to strike against Rwandan rebel positions if given orders to do so by Congo’s president, a U.N. official said.
The Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or FDLR rebel group, missed a six-month deadline extension to voluntarily disarm by Jan. 2. Martin Kobler, head of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Eastern Congo, MONUSCO, said late Saturday military action may be the only viable option.
“They did not use the time they were given to voluntarily surrender and because of this we reached a conclusion that the time is over. The clock is ticking. The military option is the only option which remains now in order to put an end to negative groups,” Kobler said.
From the United Nations News Center, condemnation of Bokom Haram’s use of pre-teen suicide bombers in Nigeria:
UN condemns Boko Haram’s latest ‘depraved act’ as child suicide bombers attack northern Nigeria market
Appalled by the escalating bloodshed at the hands of Boko Haram in northern Nigeria over the past week, capped by reports that suspected child suicide bombers attacked a crowded market in war-torn Borno state, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Anthony Lake, head of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), have both strongly condemned the terrorist group’s “depraved act.”
A statement issued by his spokesperson in New York, said Mr. Ban is appalled about reports of hundreds of civilians killed around the town of Baga, Borno state, near Nigeria’s border with Chad in the past week.
“The situation in Nigeria and the region remains at the top of the Secretary-General’s agenda,” said the statement, adding that just yesterday, it was reported that a 10-year old girl was used to detonate a bomb at a market in Maiduguri, also in Borno state, killing at least 19 people.
Utterly condemning the “depraved act at the hands of Boko Haram terrorists,” Mr. Ban underscored the readiness of the UN to assist the Nigerian Government and all affected neighboring States in bringing an end to the violence and to alleviate the suffering of civilians with all available means and resources.
A Washington/Tokyo/Seoul military intel sharing pact, via Want China Times:
US, Japan, South Korea sign MOU to exchange military intel
The defense ministers of the United States, Japan and South Korea recently signed a memorandum of understanding on an agreement to exchange intelligence about the threat of North Korean nuclear weapons–but the MOU is already being called an Asian version of NATO whose sole purpose is to give the US an upper hand in the Asia-Pacific region by Chinese government-controlled media, our sister paper Want Daily reports.
Chinese military expert Zhang Junshe, a researcher at the People’s Liberation Army Naval Military Studies Research Institute, told the Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily (overseas edition) that the MOU was actually orchestrated by the US to realize the exchanges of military intelligence to further extend the Japan-South Korea military intelligence protection agreement which expired in 2012.
Zhang said the move will help build up an alliance between the three countries and further strengthen the US leadership in the Asia-Pacific region.
A denial, via Want China Times:
Shenyang hotel denies housing North Korean hackers
A journalist for the Chinese nationalist tabloid Global Times has visited a hotel in Shenyang in northeast China’s Liaoning province that has been alleged to accommodate North Korean computer hackers.
CNN quoted a North Korean defector named Kim Heung-Kwang in its report on Jan. 7 about the Chilbosan hotel in Shenyang, a joint venture between North Korea and China. The spot is alleged to be the home of a secret network of the North Korean hacking unit dubbed Bureau 121.
Kim is a former Pyongyang computer science professor who fled the country in 2004. He claims North Korean hackers have operated secretly in Shenyang for years, using various locations to conceal their tracks. Bureau 121 began its large-scale operations in China in 2005. It was established in the late ‘90s, Kim said.
The Japanese remilitarization push hits a stumbling block, via Jiji Press:
Japan Ruling Bloc May Push Back Security Legislation Talks
Odds are increasing that Japan’s ruling coalition will move back the planned restart of discussions on new national security legislation related to collective self-defense to spring or later.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its partner, Komeito, initially planned to resume the talks before the Jan. 26 start of the regular Diet session.
While LDP lawmakers with interests in the defense industry are calling for an early restart, however, Komeito remain cautious due to concern that discussions on national security issues could affect a series of local elections scheduled for April. In addition, the office of the prime minister apparently wants to avoid impacts on budget deliberations at the Diet.
And hints of things to come, via the Asahi Shimbun:
Japan eyes legal revision to respond to attacks on allies that threaten nation’s survival
The central government is considering revising legislation on dealing with armed attacks that would allow the nation to respond militarily when an attack on another nation threatens Japan’s survival, as an exercise of the right to collective self-defense.
The new condition, tentatively called “the situation threatening Japan’s existence,” could be applied when its existence or safety is imperiled when a nation with close ties is in a state of war after coming under military attack.
Under the existing law being considered for revision, local governments and public entities are obliged to cooperate with the Self-Defense Forces and U.S. military when Japan is under direct attack or threatened with attack.
The law on armed attack situations also stipulates that in the event of such a contingency, the rights of the people can be restricted.
