In other words, three of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. . .
We begin on the bright side with the Oakland Tribune:
Settlement reached in Occupy Oakland mass arrest
The 360 Occupy Oakland protesters who were jailed following a mass arrest outside the YMCA two years ago stand to share a $1.36 million settlement that would resolve the city’s last major Occupy-related lawsuit.
A federal magistrate last week tentatively approved the settlement, which stems from a Jan. 28, 2012, protest march that ended when police quarantined hundreds of marchers outside the fitness center on Broadway between 23rd and 24th streets and then transported them to county jails, according to court papers.
Most of those arrested were taken to Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, where they were held in cold, overcrowded cells, denied hygiene products and subjected to inadequate sanitary facilities, according to the lawsuit. Protesters were imprisoned for 12 to 85 hours. None of them was charged.
“OPD can’t arrest everybody in a crowd just because they don’t want (them) to march anymore,” said Yolanda Huang, an attorney for the protesters. “You can only arrest someone if you see that they are committing a crime. That is the premise of our law.”
Another bright spot, at least for such as esnl and other not-so-ink-stained wretches, via the McClatchy Washington Bureau:
Justice Department expands protections for reporters
Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday expanded protections for journalists, setting new standards that federal prosecutors must meet before seeking subpoenas or search warrants covering media professionals.
Prosecutors must consult with the department’s Policy and Statutory Enforcement Unit before taking steps that include issuing a subpoena to a member of the news media, using a subpoena or court order to obtain records concerning a member of the media, or questioning, arresting or charging a member of the media for actions arising out of “newsgathering activities.”
A significant change praised by media representatives was to drop the word “ordinary” from the phrase “newsgathering activities.”
From ABC News, here we go:
Ohio Man Arrested for Alleged ISIS-Inspired Plot on US Capitol, FBI Says
The FBI has arrested an Ohio man for allegedly plotting an ISIS-inspired attack on the U.S. Capitol, where he hoped to set off a series of bombs aimed at lawmakers, whom he allegedly considered enemies.
Christopher Lee Cornell, 20, of Green Township, was arrested today on charges of attempting to kill a U.S. government official, authorities said.
According to government documents, he allegedly planned to detonate pipe bombs at the national landmark and open fire on any employees and officials fleeing after the explosions.
The FBI first noticed Cornell several months ago after an informant notified the agency that Cornell was allegedly voicing support for violent “jihad” on Twitter accounts under the alias “Raheel Mahrus Ubaydah,” according to charging documents. In addition, Cornell allegedly posted statements, videos and other content expressing support for ISIS — the brutal terrorist group also known as ISIL — that is wreaking havoc in Iraq and Syria.
Meanwhile, via the Los Angeles Times:
Senior Al Qaeda leader in Yemen claims responsibility for Paris attack
Hailing the gunmen who carried out last week’s attack on a French satirical magazine as “heroes of Islam,” a senior commander of Yemen’s branch of Al Qaeda declared Wednesday in an online video that the group had organized and financed the deadly strike.
The claim of responsibility by Nasr Ansi came in a nearly 12-minute video that surfaced one week after the assault on the Paris editorial offices of the weekly Charlie Hebdo, a publication known for lampooning religions of all stripes. The SITE intelligence group, which tracks jihadist activity, said the video, produced by an Al Qaeda media arm, was originally posted on Twitter.
Yemen’s branch of Al Qaeda, considered one of the terrorist network’s most dangerous franchises, had previously praised the attack, but stopped short of claiming to have been behind it. In the video, Ansi explicitly states that the Yemen group, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, “chose the target, laid out the plan and financed the operation.”
Xinhua covers a judgment:
Al-Qaeda video claiming responsibility for Charlie Hebdo attacks “authentic”: U.S.
An Al-Qaeda video claiming responsibility for last week’s bloodshed at the French satirical newspaper was “authentic”, but U.S. officials were cautious about holding the terrorist organization responsible for the attack, a State Department spokeswoman said Wednesday.
“The (U.S.) intelligence community has now determined that the AQAP video is authentic,” said spokeswoman Marie Harf, adding that officials were still determining if the claim of responsibility was true.
“We hold the attackers responsible for the attacks clearly,” said Harf. “We’re still trying to get complete fidelity in the exact links.”
The New York Times covers a reboot:
Europe Focuses on Emerging Threats From Smaller Crews of Terrorists
The horrors of the Paris shootings, after similar assaults recently by gunmen in Canada and Australia, have underscored for European leaders the need to find ways to blunt an emerging new element of terrorism: the lone actor, or small group of actors, whose plans are hard to detect.
There continue to be threats of carefully orchestrated raids by large terrorist groups, started and planned from abroad, like the attacks in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, and the bombings in Britain on July 7, 2005. In part because of the success of international intelligence agencies in detecting such complicated plots, however, there has been a sharp increase throughout Europe in what Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain this week called “a sort of roving firearms terrorist attack.”
These acts do less damage and kill fewer people than large-scale attacks, but they inspire significant fear and create high-profile propaganda that helps recruitment and fund-raising for affiliated extremist groups. Media-conscious militants now often wear GoPro cameras to create high-quality videos that can be shown online.
From Deutsche Welle, a crackdown coming in Germany:
Germany closer to confiscating Islamist IDs
The German cabinet has agreed on a plan for issuing replacement ID cards to potentially dangerous Islamists. The regular IDs of such individuals could then be taken away for up to three years.
Answering questions on the cabinet meeting in the Bundestag on Wednesday, Germany’s Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said that while the plan wouldn’t put a complete stop to travels by German islamists, it would certainly lower the number of departures by making it more difficult to leave the country.
“In the situation we’re in right now, effective measures that reduce the problem and not completely solve it are still sorely needed,” de Maiziere emphasized.
Without a regular ID, extremists cannot leave the country to fight alongside “Islamic State” (IS) militants in Syria or Iraq. When they return, trained in war and terrorism, these fighters pose a great potential threat to Germany.
And hints of tightening in Austria, from TheLocal.at:
FPÖ wants to ‘intern’ suspected jihadists
Austria’s right-wing Freedom Party (FPÖ) has said that anybody who returns to Austria after suspected involvement with the Islamic State (Isis) terrorist militia should be “interned” and have their citizenship revoked.
FPÖ leader Heinz-Christian Strache and general secretary Herbert Kickl made the comments on Tuesday – with Kickl adding that suspects would have to prove themselves that they had not been fighting with Isis if they wanted to avoid being interned.
There has been much discussion in Austria on boosting security in the wake of the deadly attacks in Paris last week by Islamist gunmen.
Strache said that more than 60 suspected jihadists have already returned from Austria after fighting in Iraq and Syria and that they are “ticking time bombs”. Kickl added that internment would protect the public and said
El País covers the coming Spanish construction:
PP and PSOE to draft joint terror law
Paris attacks underscore need to update existing legislation to address new jihadist threat
Until now, Spain’s terrorism legislation had been aimed at fighting organized groups such as ETA, the Basque separatist organization that announced a permanent cessation of activities in 2011 after over 40 years of violence.
The new law will address the issue of lone-wolf terrorists and punish the recruitment and training of future combatants. This would make it possible to jail individuals who travel for jihadist training to countries such as Yemen or Syria.
Jihadist recruiters are active on Spanish soil, especially in the exclave cities of Ceuta and Melilla on the northern coast of Africa, which are surrounded by Moroccan territory.
Intelligence services are also concerned about online videos in which known jihadists call for the reconquest of Al-Andalus, the name given to the parts of Spain and Portugal that were under Arab rule in medieval times.
TheLocal.fr covers the French panopticon’s coming enhancement:
France to beef up its surveillance powers
Prime Minister Manuel Valls has said that France is now engaged in a “war on terrorism”, announcing plans to ramp up intelligence capabilities, aimed at amending the faults that lead to the country’s “clear failings” over the Paris terror attacks.
Valls gave a rousing speech to the French Parliament on Tuesday, in the lawmakers’ first session since 17 people were killed in Paris in what have been dubbed as the worst terror attacks in recent times.
His proposals included beefing up surveillance of imprisoned radicals, speeding up current laws when it comes to searching suspects’ homes or wiretapping their phones, and a closer look at how to fight the rise in social media in terrorist recruitment.
“I have asked the Interior Minister to send me some propositions to strengthen our powers in the next eight days,” he said. “They should relate to internet and social networks, used more and more for recruitment and indoctrination, putting people in contact, and learning of techniques that allow them to act.”
And then there’s this from the Associated Press:
France arrests 54 in hate-speech, anti-Semitism crackdown
France ordered prosecutors around the country Wednesday to crack down on hate speech, anti-Semitism and glorifying terrorism, announcing that 54 people had been arrested for those offences since the Paris terror attacks.
The order came as Charlie Hebdo’s defiant new issue sold out before dawn around Paris, with scuffles at kiosks over dwindling copies of the satirical newspaper fronting the Prophet Mohammed.
Like many European countries, France has strong laws against hate speech and especially anti-Semitism in the wake of the Holocaust. In a message distributed to all French prosecutors and judges, the Justice Ministry laid out the legal basis for rounding up those who defend the Paris terror attacks as well as those responsible for racist or anti-Semitic words or acts.
BBC News covers the most prominent and controversial arrest:
Paris attacks: Dieudonne held as France tackles hate speech
Controversial French comedian Dieudonne M’bala M’bala has been detained by police for a Facebook comment appearing to back Paris gunman Amedy Coulibaly. His is one of dozens of cases opened by authorities in a crackdown on condoning or threatening terrorism.
Justice Minister Christiane Taubira said words of hatred and contempt had to be fought with the “utmost vigour”. Dieudonne already has convictions for inciting anti-Semitism and the courts banned several one-man shows last year.
Hours after 3.7 million people took part in rallies across France on Sunday, with the biggest in the centre of Paris, Dieudonne said on his Facebook page that the “historic” march had been as magical as the Big Bang that had created the universe.
“I’m finally going home,” he wrote. “Know that this evening, as far as I’m concerned, I’m feeling like Charlie Coulibaly [French: je me sens Charlie Coulibaly].”
And in Germany, via the Independent:
Pegida movement’s marches attract thousands as hatred of Islam and immigrants sweeps across Germany in the wake of Paris attacks
The controversial anti-Islamic Pegida movement and terror attacks in neighbouring France have polarised Germany, bringing thousands on to the streets in protest against racism and in support of press freedom. But there are disturbing signs that anti-immigrant xenophobia is on the increase.
An estimated 100,000 people took to the streets across Germany on Monday to show their support for the victims of the attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and to condemn intolerance. But the anti-Islamic Pegida movement rallied a record 25,000 supporters in Dresden and there are to be more Pegida marches in Cologne.
Chancellor Angela Merkel and Germany’s President Joachim Gauck have been among the first to condemn the Charlie Hebdo attacks outright and dismiss Pegida – which stands for “Patriotic Europeans against Islamisation of the Occident” – as a movement followed by those with “hatred in their hearts”.
Deutsche Welle offers nuance:
PEGIDA a vehicle for discontent, fear of Islamization secondary
Protesters in the anti-Islamization movement PEGIDA are mostly dissatisfied with politics and elites in general, rather than specifically worried about Islamization, according to a survey.
The typical PEGIDA (Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West) demonstrator is male, in his late forties, educated with an above-average salary and hails from the eastern state of Saxony, according to a survey among PEGIDA protesters carried out by the Technical University of Dresden, the city where the movement started.
Around 400 people were surveyed at the end of December, although roughly 65 percent of PEGIDA protesters refused to take part.
Those who did take part mostly said that the demonstrations were “first and foremost an opportunity to express deep-seated but hitherto unarticulated resentment and discontent with the political and other elites,” according to Hans Vorländer, who headed the study.
And from the Atlantic, resurrection of fascist semantics in Germany:
The ‘Worst’ German Word of the Year
What the return of Lügenpresse, a Nazi-era phrase, says about political developments in Germany and Europe
On Tuesday, a panel of linguists in Germany declared Lügenpresse the dubious winner in the annual “Unwort des Jahres” competition. The annual, politically charged “non-word of the year” event critiques phrases that have taken on a pernicious meaning in the country over the course of a given year.
The coronation of Lügenpresse represents a troubling trend. The Nazi-era phrase, which means “lying press,” has become something of a watchword among Germany’s increasingly vociferous anti-immigrant (and largely anti-Muslim) activists. In recent months, these demonstrators have called on the media to “tell the truth” about what immigrants are doing to Germany.
Other recent winners include Sozialtourismus (“social tourism”), which in a certain context also relates to immigrants who come to Germany to indulge in state benefits, and Döner-Morde (Döner murder), which dismissively refers to murders of Turkish and Greek people. (For a compelling contrast, consider that just last week, the American Dialect Society named #blacklivesmatter as 2014’s word of the year—the first time a hashtag has won.)
After the jump, psychic costs of the ISIS hack of military account, and a Tweet announces a Canadian ISIS recruit’s death, a Pirate Party hacker captures Swedish secrets, a virulent piece of ransonware stages a comeback, the Zombie Cookie that can’t be killed, anti-Islamic ads back on Bay Area buses, France readies a Syrian war escalation, the CIA absolves itself of Senate computer misconduct, did a CIA double agent steals Germany’s spy list?, Britain’s domestic spookshop gets a gay thumbs up, trigger-happy Brazilian cops emerge as a political power, A look at Nigeria’s bloody Boko Haram ground zero, AfriLeaks created to like whistleblowers and reporters, a South Korean activist busted for praising the North, Japan’s foreign ministry challenges a U.S. textbook’s Comfort Women section and complains over the Chinese Prime Minister’s Nanjing Massacre speech, Japan’s prime minister wins a record defense budget a boosts forces for a possible island war and China complains, and Abe’s budget punishes Okinawa for electing its governor, plus a ban on Tanzania’s albino-killing shamans. . .
From CNN, another cost of hackery:
After ISIS Twitter threat, military families rethink online lives
This week brought the latest in a string of attacks that members of military families say has spooked them into quietly changing the way they operate online and in real life
The U.S. military’s Central Command Twitter account was hacked. In all caps, this message: “AMERICAN SOLDIERS, WE ARE COMING. WATCH YOUR BACK. ISIS.”
The tweet included a link to a statement that said, in part, “We won’t stop! We know everything about you, your wives and children. U.S. soldiers! We’re watching you!”
The hacker managed to post other threatening messages, propaganda videos and some military documents until the accounts were disabled. Central Command quickly assured that it was relatively easy to hack Twitter, no serious security details were revealed and it would find who was behind the hack.
Army wife Ashley Broadway-Mack said the messages just amplified the anxiety she already feels after recent terror attacks targeting military personnel, law enforcement officers and civilians.
And a Tweet announces a Canadian ISIS recruit’s death, from National Post:
Pro-ISIS Twitter account claims Canadian who starred in video threatening attacks back home is dead
John Maguire, who dropped out of the University of Ottawa to join ISIS and starred in a jihadi propaganda video threatening attacks on Canada, is dead, a pro-ISIS Twitter account says.
The message claims Maguire, 23, who went by the name Abu Anwar Al-Canadi, was killed in Kobani, northern Syria. The circumstances of his death were not detailed.
The Canadian starred in an ISIS video in December threatening attacks on Canadians at home. He died alongside another notorious jihadi recruit who this week appeared in an ISIS video of a child executing purported spies, the jihadi source said.
A Pirate Party hacker captures Swedish secrets, via TheLocal.se:
Young Pirate hacker gets top security secrets
UPDATED: The president of the Swedish Pirate Party’s youth wing has told The Local that Sweden’s leading security and military experts searched for ‘holidays’ and ‘forest hikes’ during working hours, after he tricked them into logging onto an unsecure server at a conference.
Gustav Nipe, 26, set up a Wi-Fi network called ‘Open Guest’ at the conference earlier this week and claims that several high profile officials used the network to log into their email accounts and surf the internet.
As the Wi-Fi network was not encrypted, Nipe says he was able to track which sites people visited as well as the emails and text messages of around 100 delegates, including politicians and journalists as well as security experts.
“The security establishment was in Sälen pushing for more surveillance, but then leading figures go and log on to an unsecure W-Fi network,” he told The Local.
A virulent piece of ransonware stages a comeback, via Network World:
CryptoWall ransomware is back with new version after two months of silence
Attackers have started distributing a new and improved version of the CryptoWall file-encrypting ransomware program over the past few days, security researchers warn.
The new version, dubbed CryptoWall 3.0, uses localization and passes traffic to a site where users can pay for their decryption keys through two anonymity networks—Tor and I2P (the Invisible Internet Project).
CryptoWall is a sophisticated ransomware program that encrypts the victims’ files with a strong cryptographic algorithm. Users are asked to pay the equivalent of US$500 in bitcoin virtual currency in order to receive the decryption key that allows them to recover their files.
The Zombie Cookie that can’t be killed, via ProPublica:
Zombie Cookie: The Tracking Cookie That You Can’t Kill
An online ad company called Turn is using tracking cookies that come back to life after Verizon users have deleted them. Turn’s services are used by everyone from Google to Facebook.
An online advertising clearinghouse relied on by Google, Yahoo and Facebook is using controversial cookies that come back from the dead to track the web surfing of Verizon customers.
The company, called Turn, is taking advantage of a hidden undeletable number that Verizon uses to monitor customers’ habits on their smartphones and tablets. Turn uses the Verizon number to respawn tracking cookies that users have deleted.
“We are trying to use the most persistent identifier that we can in order to do what we do,” Max Ochoa, Turn’s chief privacy officer, told ProPublica.
Turn’s zombie cookie comes amid a controversy about a new form of tracking the telecom industry has deployed to shadow mobile phone users. Last year, Verizon and AT&T users noticed their carriers were inserting a tracking number into all the Web traffic that transmits from a users’ phone – even if the user has tried to opt out.
From the San Francisco Chronicle, anti-Islamic ads back on Bay Area buses:
Anti-Islam ads back on S.F. Muni buses — this time featuring Hitler
They’re back.
Controversial ads splattered on the sides of Muni buses, purchased by blogger Pamela Geller’s American Freedom Defense Initiative, are again all over San Francisco.
This time, the ads equate Islam with Nazism.
The newest round of vitriolic banners, 50 of which went up Jan. 9, feature an image of Adolf Hitler and Haj Amin al-Husseini, a 20th Century Palestinian Muslim leader who opposed Zionism, with the words, “Islamic Jew-Hatred: It’s In The Quran.”
The ads are already attracting attention on social media.
France readies a Syrian war escalation, via Deutsche Welle:
Hollande slams slow response to Syria conflict, pledges further action in Iraq
In a speech to the armed forces, French President Francois Hollande criticized the international community for not reacting quickly enough to the Syria conflict. He is also sending an aircraft carrier to help fight IS.
Addressing the armed forces aboard the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier, Hollande said that he continued “to regret the fact that the international community did not act in the required time to stop massacres in Syria and prevent extremists from gaining even more ground.”
The aircraft carrier is to be sent to the Gulf to support the US-led coalition fighting “Islamic State” (IS) militants. France has already carried out air strikes against the terror group as part of the coalition. The carrier has a fleet of air and naval craft, including Rafale and Super Etendard fighter jets and an attack submarine.
Hollande said the carrier could, if necessary, carry out operations “with even more intensity and efficiency.”
The CIA absolves itself of Senate computer misconduct, via the Hill:
CIA board breaks with watchdog, clears agency of spying on Senate
In a break with its former inspector general and overseers on Capitol Hill, a CIA accountability board has determined that agency officials did not wrongly spy on the Senate early last year.
Instead, the board — which was tapped to intervene in an escalating standoff between the CIA and the Senate Intelligence Committee last summer — determined that the spy agency staffers were in the right to access Senate files on a shared network after believing that a security breach may have occurred.
Senate staffers “were or should have been aware” that the agency occasionally monitored their use of the network, the board said in a 38-page report released on Wednesday, because of previous “discoveries of [committee] staffers’ misconduct” on the system. In 2009 and 2010, the board said, Senate staffers had tried to bring a camera into a secure facility and skirt the CIA’s rules to print a secret document from the shared network.
Did a CIA double agent steals Germany’s spy list?, via RT:
German double agent stole list with 3,500 spy identities – report
Investigators have found a list reportedly compiled by a BND agent accused of working for the US, containing the names and aliases of 3,500 German intelligences employees, Bild newspaper reports.
The 32-year-old, identified as Markus R., an employee of Germany’s foreign intelligence agency (BND), was arrested by the country’s federal prosecutor last July on suspicion of passing on information to a CIA contact. Investigators seized the hard drive containing the list during a search on his apartment.
For months following the suspect’s arrest, security specialists had trouble cracking his laptop. The suspect reportedly communicated with his CIA handlers using a secure connection that opened up when he checked the weather in New York using a specially installed app, according to The Local.
Britain’s domestic spookshop gets a gay thumbs up, via the Independent:
Stonewall names MI5 as one of Britain’s top 10 gay-friendly employers
After decades of paranoia about homosexuals in its ranks, MI5 has for the first time made it into the top 10 of the UK’s most gay-friendly employers.
The domestic intelligence agency was ranked seventh in the lesbian, gay and bisexual charity Stonewall’s 2015 list of top 100 employers – up from 25th place last year.
MI5’s success came alongside improvements in all three branches of Britain’s Armed Forces. For the first time the Army, Navy and RAF all made it into the top 100 of lesbian, gay and bisexual-friendly employers.
Trigger-happy Brazilian cops emerge as a political power, via the New York Times:
‘Bullet Caucus’ in Brazil Signals a Shift to the Right
Paulo Telhada rolls his eyes, denouncing Brazil’s support for the leftist government of Venezuela. He frowns, grumbling about gun control measures.
But when the subject turns to how many people he killed as a police officer on São Paulo’s streets, he gives a broad smile.
“More than 30,” said Mr. Telhada, 53, a rising star in Brazilian right-wing political circles, having recently won a seat in São Paulo’s state legislature in a landslide.
“I feel no pity for thugs,” he added, emphasizing that he did not enjoy working in a fancy office. “But I know my future lies in politics now.”
A look at Nigeria’s bloody Boko Haram ground zero, via the Guardian:
Boko Haram massacre: ‘I walked through five villages and each one was empty except for dead bodies’
Victims tell harrowing tales of attacks, but clearest revelation may be the divisive politics underlying the five-year insurgency
Traumatised victims fleeing the fog of war have thrown up staggering figures for the four-day carnage that ensued; they are unlikely to know the true number of dead. But the massacre’s clearest revelation may be the divisive political undercurrent on which the five-year insurgency has thrived.
Rather than addressing the mounting death toll, Nigerian officials initially traded accusations with neighbours Cameroon and Chad, allies it nominally works with against Boko Haram. With some local officials putting casualties at up to 2,000, it took a week before the government gave its first response.
The military said the massacre was Boko Haram’s deadliest in its five-year insurgency, but it added that the reports of 2,000 dead “cannot be true”. It suggested they were part of a smear campaign.
But the psychological damage of the incessant attacks is indisputable. The massacre has not, so far, warranted comment from the president, Goodluck Jonathan. Months after 276 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram made global headlines – a fact which has barely featured in the campaigns of candidates jostling for election in February – a largely mute reaction from ordinary citizens points to a nation inured to violent deaths. Last year, around 27 Nigerians died each day from Boko Haram-related violence. Now the first march for Baga victims is being organised in Paris , where 1 million people poured on to the streets after the Charlie Hebdo attack.
AfriLeaks created to like whistleblowers and reporters, via teleSUR:
AfriLeaks Connects Journalists, Whistleblowers to Expose Abuses
Developers of the whistleblower website afriLeaks say they are anything but a Wikileaks knock-off.
A group of 19 media outlets and activist organizations launched a whistleblowing website this week aimed at circumventing surveillance in order to expose political and corporate abuses in Africa.
Dubbed afriLeaks, the website claims to provide a secure and anonymous platform for whistleblowers to contact journalists from its member publications. However, it isn’t another Wikileaks.
“Wikileaks publishes the information it receives directly. AfriLeaks, on the other hand, is a highly secure mailbox connecting investigative media houses to whistleblowers,” the organization’s website states.
From the Asahi Shimbun, a South Korean activist busted for praising the North:
S. Korean activist arrested for allegedly praising Pyongyang
South Korean officials on Jan. 14 arrested a leftist activist for allegedly praising archrival North Korea, just days after an American was deported on similar charges and adding to criticism that the government seeks to limit free speech and suppress dissidents.
The Seoul prosecutors’ office arrested Hwang Sun soon after the Seoul Central District Court issued an arrest warrant, according to court spokesman Kim Dae-hyun. Hwang is the former spokeswoman for a now-disbanded leftist party and has long been hounded by claims she supports Pyongyang.
In an Internet talk show she hosted between 2011 and 2013, Hwang dressed in black and mourned the death of former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in late 2011. She also introduced an editorial of the North’s main Rodong Sinmun newspaper.
Japan’s foreign ministry challenges a U.S. textbook’s Comfort Women section, via the Asahi Shimbun:
Ministry complains to U.S. publisher over ‘comfort women’ passages in history textbook
The Foreign Ministry has asked a New York publisher to change passages dealing with “comfort women” and geographical designations in a history textbook used in U.S. public high schools.
The ministry complained to McGraw-Hill Education that the history textbook contains erroneous passages claiming that the Japanese military during the World War II era forcibly recruited about 200,000 girls and young women between the ages of 14 and 20 as comfort women to provide sex to Japanese soldiers.
The ministry also complained that a map of the world in the textbook identified the Sea of Japan concurrently as the “East Sea,” which is the name preferred by South Korea.
More proof that Japan is rewriting history from the Japan Times:
Japan complains after China says 300,000 died in Nanking Massacre
Japan told China in late December that it wasn’t appropriate for Chinese President Xi Jinping to say that 300,000 people were killed in the 1937 Nanking Massacre, government sources said on Wednesday.
Xi made the comment in a Dec. 13 speech at a ceremony marking the first national observance and the 77th anniversary of the massacre in the eastern Chinese city, which is now called Nanjing.
He called on Japan to own up to responsibility for the tragedy, saying that acknowledgment of the countries’ shared troubled past is crucial to improving relations between them.
Japan’s prime minister wins a record defense budget, via the Wall Street Journal:
Japan Approves Record Defense Budget
Japan’s government has allocated a record amount to defense spending in its budget for next year as it seeks to counter China’s growing military strength and play a greater role in regional security.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s cabinet on Wednesday approved a budget for the fiscal year beginning in April that included Y4.98 trillion ($42.6 billion) for defense programs, an increase of 2% and an all-time high.
Among new procurement programs financed at least partly by the budget are the purchase of a system for the deployment of three Global Hawk spy drones, made by U.S. company Northrup Grumman Corp., and 20 domestically developed P-1 anti-submarine patrol aircraft. They are designed to strengthen Japan’s ability to monitor and defend maritime territory.
The Mainichi covers insular ambitions:
Defense spending hits record high in FY 2015 as remote island defense eyed
To counter potential attacks on remote islands, Japan will purchase six F-35 stealth fighter jets for 103.2 billion yen, five V-22 Osprey aircraft for 51.6 billion yen, and 30 AAV-7 amphibious vehicles for 20.3 billion yen.
Chinese patrol ships and planes have been repeatedly spotted in the East China Sea since the Japanese government’s purchase in 2012 of a major part of the Senkaku Islands from a private Japanese owner. Japan and China agreed Monday during working-level talks to launch a maritime and aerial crisis management mechanism at an early date.
The defense outlay includes 3.2 billion yen to acquire land in the Amami island chain for Ground Self-Defense Force personnel to be deployed there, and 0.2 billion yen to prepare for the launch of a coastal surveillance unit on Yonaguni Island in Okinawa, not far from the Sekakus.
And China complains, via Global Times:
China voices concern over Japan’s record-high military budget
China on Wednesday voiced concern over Japan’s annual military budget.
Japan’s military and security policies have long drawn the attention of the international community, for it indicates Japan’s future plans for peaceful development, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a routine press briefing.
“We hope Japan will reflect on its history, follow the path of peaceful development and play a constructive role in promoting regional peace and stability,” he said.
The Wall Street Journal covers punitive pettiness:
Abe Government Cuts Spending on Okinawa’s Economy
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s administration has cut spending to promote Okinawa’s economy after the prefecture elected a governor staunchly opposed to a plan to relocate a U.S. military base on the island.
Mr. Abe’s cabinet on Wednesday approved a record-high Y96.34 trillion national budget for the fiscal year starting in April, one heavy on social welfare and defense spending.But the government reduced the amount allocated to Okinawa, which plays host to three-quarters of U.S. bases in Japan, for the first time in five years. The outlay was cut to Y334 billion, down Y16 billion.
Questioned by reporters, government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said the reduction was appropriate given surplus funds from previous years and unrelated to opposition by the new governor, Takeshi Onaga, to a plan to relocate U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to Okinawa’s northeastern coast.
And to close, this from the Thomson Reuters Foundation:
Tanzania bans witch doctors to deter albino killings
Tanzania has banned witch doctors in a bid to curb a rising wave of attacks and murders of albinos whose body parts are prized for witchcraft after a four-year-old albino girl was kidnapped from her home by an armed gang.
More than 70 albinos, who lack pigment in their skin, hair and eyes, have been murdered in the east African nation in the past decade for black magic purposes, according to United Nations figures, many hacked to death and body parts removed.
The government has accused witch doctors of fuelling these killings by luring people to bring albino body parts which they grind up with herbs, roots and sea water to make charms and spells that they claim bring good luck and wealth.
The nationwide ban come less than a week after U.N. officials urged the government to step up efforts to end the discrimination and attacks after a girl was abducted last month from her home in northern Mwanza region. She is still missing.
