We begin with a warning from the McClatchy Washington Bureau:
Nobel Prize winner Malala told Obama U.S. drone attacks fuel terrorism
The teenager who became the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize Friday told President Barack Obama at a White House meeting last year that she worried about the effect of U.S. drone strikes.
The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan, as well as Kailash Satyarthi of India, for pushing for young people’s rights, including the right to education.
Malala, now 17, made international headlines after being shot in the head by the Taliban on a school bus two years ago for promoting education for girls in Pakistan. After recovering, she took her campaign for children’s education across the world, writing a book and even speaking at the United Nations last year.
Hysteria in Old Blighty, via the London Telegraph:
Security services monitoring ‘thousands’ of terrorism suspects in London, says Boris Johnson
Mayor of London discloses that threat from Isil and other terrorist groups is larger than previously known
The security services are monitoring “thousands” of terrorist suspects in London, Boris Johnson has disclosed, suggesting the threat from Islamist extremists may be far greater than has previously been admitted.
Until now, it was thought that the main danger came from around 500 jihadis who have travelled to Syria and Iraq from the UK to join Isil or al-Qaeda fighters, around half of whom have returned to Britain.
But the Mayor of London suggested the threat from home-grown terrorist plots was far more widespread than the relatively small numbers of extremists who have gone abroad to fight.
More from the Independent:
UK terror threat: Police put on special terror alert for their own safety
Britain’s 130,000 police officers were urged to be “vigilant for their personal safety” after counter-terror chiefs warned the threat level against them had increased in the past 24 hours.
Mark Rowley, the national lead for counter-terrorism at the Association of Chief Police Officers, refused to discuss specific intelligence but confirmed the threat level against detectives and support staff up and down the country had been “heightened”.
Police and the intelligence agencies are working around the clock to track hundreds of suspected British jihadists as they return from fighting with Islamic State (Isis) militants in Syria and Iraq.
Assistant Commissioner Rowley said: “The threat level to police officers and staff has been heightened, but we are used to confronting risk and danger; this is what we do on a daily basis, and we are well trained.
“We are informing our officers and staff of the heightened risk and reminding them to remain vigilant and alert to any possible dangers. We are asking them to follow existing policies and good practice. Measures are being put in place to increase the vigilance of officers and staff.
The Japan Times covers motivation:
Ancient prophecies of apocalypse give Islamic State jihadists hope
An infidel horde flying 80 banners meets a Muslim army at the Syrian town of Dabiq in an apocalyptic battle. The Muslims are decimated but ultimately prevail and conquer the world.
This ancient Sunni Muslim prophecy — mentioned in canonical accounts of the Prophet Mohammed’s sayings — has become a rallying cry for Islamic State jihadists in Iraq and Syria, especially since they seized Dabiq in August.
The town itself has negligible military value compared with the strategic Islamic State-controlled cities of Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq.
But as Islamic State jihadists come under a U.S.-led aerial onslaught to stop their advance, its importance as a symbol has become clear.
Reuters delivers a warning:
U.N. says thousands likely to be massacred if jihadists take Kobani
Thousands of people most likely will be massacred if Kobani falls to Islamic State fighters, a U.N. envoy said on Friday, as militants fought deeper into the besieged Syrian Kurdish town in full view of Turkish tanks that have done nothing to intervene.
U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura said Kobani could suffer the same fate as the Bosnian town of Srebrenica, where 8,000 Muslims were murdered by Serbs in 1995, Europe’s worst atrocity since World War Two, while U.N. peacekeepers failed to protect them.
“If this falls, the 700, plus perhaps the 12,000 people, apart from the fighters, will be most likely massacred,” de Mistura said. The United Nations believes 700 mainly elderly civilians are trapped in the town itself and 12,000 have left the center but not made it across the border into Turkey.
From Deutsche Welle, a recruit on trial:
Young man confesses in Germany’s first IS terror trial
A 20-year-old on trial for involvement in a terrorist organization has confessed to fighting alongside the IS in Syria. In a statement, he said he saw it as his duty to defend Sunni Muslims from the tyranny of Assad.
A man on trial in Germany for his alleged involvement in the “Islamic State” (IS) war in Syria has confessed to having joined the militia and fighting in Syria. Twenty-year-old Kreshnik B is on trial for his alleged membership in a foreign terrorist organization.
Born in Hesse to a family from Kosovo, Kreshnik B admitted to going to Syria in 2013 to fight against the Assad regime in his third day of court on Friday, October 10.
In a written confession read out by his lawyer in Frankfurt on Friday, he said, “The inconceivable violence used by the Alawite Assad regime against the Sunni majority was enraging and bewildering. No one wanted to help the people there.”
On to the world of spies and hacks, first with SecurityWeek:
Hackers Show the NSA’s Capabilities Are Not Magic
A group of security researchers, hardware hackers, hardware developers and hobbyists have set out to demonstrate that many of the tools similar to those used by the United States National Security Agency (NSA) for surveillance operations can be reproduced on a low budget with open source software and hardware components.
The project, called the “NSA Playset,” came out of a collaboration between security researcher Dean Pierce and Michael Ossmann, founder of Great Scott Gadgets. Shortly after the NSA’s ANT catalog was leaked online, they recruited several others who had already implemented or were working on implementing capabilities that were similar to the ANT tools.
The ANT catalog is a 48-page classified document containing information on the technologies used by the NSA’s Tailored Access Operations (TAO) unit for cyber surveillance. The document is one of the many files obtained by the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
On to the pros, via The Intercept:
Core Secrets: NSA Saboteurs in China and Germany
The National Security Agency has had agents in China, Germany, and South Korea working on programs that use “physical subversion” to infiltrate and compromise networks and devices, according to documents obtained by The Intercept.
The documents, leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, also indicate that the agency has used “under cover” operatives to gain access to sensitive data and systems in the global communications industry, and that these secret agents may have even dealt with American firms. The documents describe a range of clandestine field activities that are among the agency’s “core secrets” when it comes to computer network attacks, details of which are apparently shared with only a small number of officials outside the NSA.
“It’s something that many people have been wondering about for a long time,” said Chris Soghoian, principal technologist for the American Civil Liberties Union, after reviewing the documents. “I’ve had conversations with executives at tech companies about this precise thing. How do you know the NSA is not sending people into your data centers?”
Here’s one of those delightful NSA grahpics accompanying the report:
From the Guardian, reunited:
Edward Snowden’s girlfriend living with him in Moscow, film reveals
Lindsay Mills, thought to have been deserted by Snowden before NSA revelations, appears beside whistleblower in Citizenfour
The mystery of the whereabouts of Edward Snowden’s long-time girlfriend is solved in a documentary that premiered in New York on Friday night: she has been living with the national security whistleblower in Russia since July.
The surprise revelation in the documentary, filmed by Laura Poitras, upends the widespread assumption that Snowden had deserted Lindsay Mills and that she, in a fit of pique, fled Hawaii where they had been living to stay with her parents in mainland US.
Since Snowden, a former NSA contractor, outed himself last year as being behind the biggest leak in US intelligence history, Mills has remained silent, giving no interviews or any hints of her feelings on the subject of her boyfriend or his actions.
From the London Telegraph, sadly, partly true:
Big companies snoop on public more than GCHQ, says spy chief
Sir Iain Lobban, Director of GCHQ, says private firms are the ones who know everything about you and share data
Private firms snoop far more on the public than the spy agencies, the head of GCHQ has said.
Sir Iain Lobban, Director of the intelligence agency, said it was the “commercial companies” who know everything about people and share the data with each other.
There is an ongoing row over the level of snooping powers the police and intelligence agencies should have.
But Sir Iain’s comments came as it emerged three of the UK’s main mobile phone companies automatically provided data on customers to the police if asked.
The Los Angeles Times covers cops misbehavin’:
LAPD ghost cars: Cops lied about officers on patrol, report finds
Los Angeles police deliberately deceived senior officials by artificially inflating the number of officers on patrol, according to an investigation by the LAPD’s independent watchdog.
In a report released Friday, the inspector general for the Police Commission found evidence that officers in at least five of the department’s 21 patrol divisions were said to be patrolling city streets in cars when, in fact, they were at station desks.
The report’s findings bolstered allegations made by union officials that patrol commanders around the city were using the so-called ghost cars to mask the fact that they did not have enough officers on patrol to meet mandatory staffing levels.
And yet more hacking, via United Press International:
Massive Snapchat nude photo leak targeting everyday people underway, Snapchat blames users
“We can confirm that Snapchat’s servers were never breached and were not the source of these leaks,” Snapchat said.
Hackers posting in the online forum 4Chan are actively leaking at least 100,000 nude or compromising photographs obtained from users of mobile picture message app Snapchat.
Initially suspected to be an elaborate hoax by trolls posting on 4Chan, Snapchat confirmed the leak on its official Twitter account and denied any responsibility for security breach, saying the pictures were lifted from third-party apps that allow users to save photos sent via the history-less mobile app.
“We can confirm that Snapchat’s servers were never breached and were not the source of these leaks,” the company tweeted.
Network World covers another hack attack:
Dairy Queen stores hit by ‘Backoff’ malware, payment card data stolen
Dairy Queen said Thursday the “Backoff” point-of-sale malware infected systems at 395 of its stores, stealing payment card data.
The company, which has 4,500 independently owned franchises in the U.S., said in a statement it believes the “malware has been contained.” Most of the stores, including one Orange Julius location, were affected for between three weeks to a month starting in early August, according to a list.
“We deeply regret any inconvenience this incident may cause,” wrote CEO and President John Gainor.
PCWorld covers another one:
Kmart hacked, exposing customers’ card numbers
Sears Holding Corp. said Friday the payment systems at its Kmart retail chain had been breached as a result of malware, compromising shoppers’ credit and debit card numbers.
The U.S. retail chain’s payment systems were infected with a form of malware that went undetected by its anti-virus systems, Sears said. There is no evidence that Kmart shoppers’ personal information, PIN numbers, email addresses or Social Security numbers were stolen, and the malware has since been removed, Sears said.
A forensic investigation indicates that the breach began in early September, Sears said. Kmart’s IT team discovered the breach only this Thursday.
After the jump, Japan orders Google amnesia, more unrest in St. Louis after police shooting, protests in Ferguson, more violence in St. Louis, protests in Ferguson, military misbehavin’ comes home to roost, digital crime in the police station, on to the deepening mystery of the mass graves and missing Mexican students, parental vigils, a missing mayor, and a hunt for masterminds, more murderous criminality, this time military, violence in Brazil, on to Asia and a bloody border battle, a Korean Coast Guard killing of a Chinese fisherman sparks a diplomatic row, Hong Kong protesters hit the street, and Taiwan lends its support. . .
From the Japan Times, court-ordered amnesia:
Japanese court orders Google to halt search harassment
The Tokyo District Court on Thursday issued an injunction ordering Google Inc. to remove some Internet search results revealing the name of a man who claims his privacy rights have been infringed upon due to articles hinting he may have been involved in a crime in the past, according to a document obtained by Kyodo News.
Some of the results “infringe personal rights,” Judge Nobuyuki Seki said in the document. “Google, which manages the (Google) search engine, has the obligation to delete them.”
It is likely the first legal decision in Japan ordering the operator of a search engine to remove search results, according to the man’s lawyer.
More violence in St. Louis via the Los Angeles Times:
St. Louis unrest over police shooting leads to eight arrests
What started as a peaceful but boisterous march protesting a young black man’s shooting death by a white police officer turned into a standoff with riot police that ended late Thursday night with eight arrests.
St. Louis police officials said an officer was hit in the arm with a brick and that someone threw a knife with brass knuckles at police.
In a likely preview of protests planned this weekend in nearby Ferguson, where another young black man was shot and killed by a police officer two months ago, scores of demonstrators gathered in the racially diverse neighborhood of Shaw earlier in the evening to protest Wednesday’s shooting death of 18-year-old Vonderrit D. Myers Jr. by an off-duty St. Louis police officer.
And nearby, via the Guardian:
Thousands to gather in Ferguson for ‘weekend of resistance’
Demonstrations, educational programmes and prayer vigils to be held to mark two months since fatal shooting of Michael Brown
Just about everyone – the politicians, the police, the protesters themselves – has been surprised by the staying power of the campaign over the death of Michael Brown at the hands of a police officer in Ferguson two months ago. What began with violent confrontations on the streets has evolved into a sustained protest to demand justice and reform.
“I think they thought this would just go away,” said Katherine Fenerson, a telecoms worker who has regularly joined the daily vigil outside Ferguson’s police station. “I think it’s surprised them we’ve been so resilient.”
Resilient but frustrated in their demands that the officer who shot 18 year-old Brown six times, Darren Wilson, be brought to trial, for the removal of Ferguson’s white police chief and for major reforms to policing in the city and neighbouring St Louis. But the protests are set to widen on Friday at the beginning of a “weekend of resistance” expected to draw thousands of people from across the US for demonstrations, educational programmes and prayer vigils.
From the Guardian again, this time military misbehavin’ comes home to roost:
Army War College revokes Montana senator’s degree over plagiarism
John Walsh’s master’s degree rescinded after investigation concluded he plagiarized research paper needed to graduate
The US Army War College revoked Democratic Senator John Walsh’s master’s degree after an investigation completed Friday concluded that he plagiarized a research paper required to graduate, a college spokeswoman said.
The college assigned an academic review board to the probe in August after The New York Times published a story showing Walsh borrowed heavily from other sources for the paper he wrote in 2007.
Walsh was pursuing a master of strategic studies degree at age 47, a year before he became Montana’s adjutant general overseeing the state National Guard.
From TechWeekEurope, digital crime in the police station:
Police Admit Seized Mobile Phones Are Being Remotely Wiped
A report suggest smartphones and tablets taken in as evidence are being remotely wiped
Some smartphones and tablets seized as evidence by police are being remotely wiped, according to a report by the BBC.
Police in Cambridgeshire, Cleveland, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Durham all told the corporation that such incidents had happened in their jurisdiction, while police in Dorset said it had happened six times during one year.
Their colleagues in Derbyshire said a device seized as part of a case involving romantic fraud had been wiped, but added it had not impacted the investigation as they went on to secure a conviction. Cleveland police said a similar incident had happened on their watch, but they were unsure whether it had an effect on their investigations as they had no idea what was stored on the device.
On to the deepening mystery of the mass graves and missing Mexican students, via the Guardian:
Suspects in case of missing Mexican students reveal more mass graves
Forty-three students disappeared in southern Mexico after clashes with police, sparking protests across the country
Two weeks after 43 students disappeared in rural southern Mexico after clashes with police, authorities say the suspects have led them to more mass graves.
Dozens of anxious parents have gathered at a teaching college that was supposed to be their sons’ escape from life as subsistence farmers, waiting for word on the fate of their sons and holding prayer sessions in a makeshift shelter on the school’s covered courtyard.
“They took him away alive, and that’s the way I want him back,” said Macedonia Torres Romero, whose son José Luis is among the disappeared. But that seems ever more unlikely as time passes and new graves are found.
The attorney general, Jesus Murillo Karam, announced the arrest of four more people on Thursday, taking the total number of those detainedto 34, including 26 police officers. The suspects led investigators to four new burial pits near the southern city of Iguala, where authorities unearthed 28 badly burned bodies last weekend.
A video report from CCTV focusing on the missing students and their parents:
Search continues for missing Mexican students
Program notes:
Mexican police and distraught family members are still searching for 43 students who traveled to Iguala to protest against discriminatory hiring practices for teachers that resulted in clashes with the local police. The day after protests the students went missing. CCTV America’s Franc Contreras reports with details about the identities of the missing students.
From the Latin American Herald Tribune, targeting:
Mexico AG Says Focused on Tracking Down Masterminds of Attacks on Students
Mexico’s attorney general said Friday that nearly 40 suspects have been apprehended in connection with the attacks on trainee teachers two weeks ago in the southern state of Guerrero, although he acknowledged that his office has not yet pinpointed who was ultimately behind the violent incidents.
In statements to MVS radio, Jesus Murillo said that while the arrests have led to the discovery of four new clandestine graves, he is “more interested” in determining who masterminded the violence on the night of Sept. 26 in the city of Iguala that left six dead and dozens of students missing.
The attorney general, who on Thursday announced the arrest of four suspects, including a brother of Iguala Mayor Jose Luis Abarca’s wife, Maria de los Angeles Pineda, said that “over the course of the night” two other people were detained for their suspected role in the violence.
The Los Angeles Times covers the missing mayor:
Iguala’s fugitive mayor a symbol of Mexico’s ills
You can’t sit down and talk with the mayor of Iguala these days. He’s on the lam.
Implicated in the possible massacre of 43 college students, Jose Luis Abarca took a leave of absence as the atrocity came to light, walked out the back door of City Hall and hasn’t been heard from since.
But the connections he apparently had to drug gangs who infiltrated the police and have been terrorizing this violent region of Guerrero state, just south of Mexico City, are increasingly clear. In fact, they were there to be seen for years, if anyone bothered to notice.
Abarca is the embodiment of so many things wrong in Mexico. He used his position of power to coddle the gangs, to enrich himself and to flout the law, according to prosecutors, political opponents and members of his political party, at least one of whom has publicly accused him of homicide.
More from Breaking the Set:
Dozens of Police Arrested over Mexico’s Mass Graves Atrocity
Program notes:
BTS Producer Manuel Rapalo discusses the disturbing discovery of mass graves filled with 28 bodies in the southern Mexican city of Iguala, and how these deaths could be directly connected to the joint US-Mexican militarized war on drugs.
More murderous criminality, this time military, from the Associated Press:
Official: soldiers killed survivors with own guns
Mexico’s attorney general says soldiers used alleged criminals’ own guns to kill others who were still alive following a confrontation at a warehouse southwest of Mexico City.
In an interview with MVS Radio, Jesus Murillo Karam said Friday that three soldiers have been charged with murder and a lieutenant with a cover up for the events of June 30 in San Pedro Limon, a community in the municipality of Tlatlaya in the state of Mexico.
Murillo said the majority of the 22 alleged criminals killed that day had already died in the shootout, but that at least eight were still alive before the three soldiers finished them off.
Federal authorities did not investigate the scene until mid-September.
The Latin American Herald Tribune covers Brazilian outbreaks:
Number of Attacks in Southern Brazil State Rises to 100
The wave of violence, which has left at least three people dead and 41 buses destroyed, has spread to 31 cities in Santa Catarina, whose authorities say the attacks are ordered by a criminal gang from Argentina
One school and two trucks set on fire Friday raised to 100 the number of attacks against establishments and vehicles recorded over the past two weeks in the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina, authorities said.
The wave of violence, which has left at least three people dead and 41 buses destroyed, has spread to 31 cities in Santa Catarina, whose authorities say the attacks are ordered by a criminal gang that rules inside the jails of this state bordering Argentina.
The criminal outfit is thought to have ordered the attacks in revenge for tougher police operations against drug trafficking.
On to Asia and a bloody border battle via the Express Tribune:
India fighting small-scale war with Pakistan: DG Rangers Punjab
As violence on border between Pakistan and India continues, DG Rangers Punjab on Friday said India is not just violating ceasefire but fighting a small-scale war with Pakistan, Express News reported.
In a comprehensive briefing to the media at the working boundary, DG Rangers Major General Tahir Javaid Khan said though the aggression appears to be military, there could a political agenda behind the recent border clashes.
While talking to the media, DG Rangers provided a breakdown of firearms used in the ceasefire violations between 2010 and 2014. According to him, Indian Border Security Force (BSF) used 3.48 million small firearms on the working boundary during the stated period.
More than 30,000 mortar shells have also been fired between the aforementioned years and DG Rangers said such a large amount is not even used in a full-scale war.
A bloody high seas confrontation from the Guardian:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/10/chinese-fishing-boat-captain-dies-in-south-korea-sea-clash
Chinese fishing boat captain dies in South Korea sea clash
Fight escalates into fatal shooting after South Korean coast guard officers intercept and board vessel
The captain of a Chinese fishing vessel was killed on Friday in a fight with South Korean coast guard officers who stopped his ship for suspected illegal activities, officials said.
A South Korean guardsman shot the man in the stomach with a handgun after he violently resisted inspections in the waters off South Korea’s western coast, said coast guard official Kim Hye-gyeong.
The 45-year-old Chinese national was airlifted to the Mokpo Hankook hospital and pronounced dead about 30 minutes later, officials said.
The deadly fight occurred as a dozen South Korean coast guard officers boarded the Chinese ship for searches in South Korea’s exclusive economic zone, which extends 200 nautical miles (370km) from shore. When other Chinese fishing ships pulled nearby and sent their crew members aboard the ship being inspected, the Chinese captain began resisting more violently, which led to his shooting death, according to South Korean coast guard officer Cho Nam-yong.
Global Times covers the response:
China voices strong discontent over fisherman’s death
China on Friday voiced strong discontent over heavy handedness by the Republic of Korea(ROK) coastguard, which caused death of a Chinese fisherman.
The fisherman was shot dead by the ROK coastguard Friday morning in a confrontation over alleged illegal fishing in ROK waters.
“China is shocked by the violent law-enforcement of the ROK side,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei at a routine press conference.
China demands the ROK side begin an immediate and thorough investigation of the incident, appropriately punish those responsible for the fisherman’s death, and inform China promptly of the progress and outcome of the investigation, said the spokesman.
South China Morning Post covers a protest revitalized:
Thousands return to streets in protest at government’s decision to cancel talks with students
Massive show of support for protesters follows government decision to cancel talks – and comes as city’s leaders leave for Guangzhou forum
Supporters of the Occupy movement returned to the streets in a massive show of support after the government scrapped a promised dialogue with students. The crowds at the main rally site in Admiralty swelled to tens of thousands, organisers said. A police estimate was not immediately available.
Student group Scholarism – one of the organisers – called on supporters to occupy “every inch of the streets”.
Tensions flared after the government on Thursday scrapped a meeting with student leaders scheduled to take place yesterday. Both sides accused the other of lacking sincerity.
For our final item, Taiwan lends its support via Want China Times:
Ma restates ‘strong support’ for Hong Kong democracy movement
President Ma Ying-jeou of Taiwan on Friday reiterated his “strong support” for the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong and urged Beijing to fulfill its promise of a high degree of autonomy in the special administrative region.
China should allow the people of Hong Kong to enjoy the first taste of democracy in the same way that the late leader Deng Xiaoping allowed some of the Chinese to get rich first, Ma said in his National Day address.
He said Beijing has an opportunity to turn around the crisis and create a win-win situation for both the mainland and Hong Kong, which in turn will be “a huge boost” to the development of relations between Taiwan and China.
