And spies, too. . .
The Guardian covers the latest from Belgium:
Belgian ‘jihadi leader’ remains free despite two arrests in Greece
Police are seeking Abdelhamid Abaaoud, 27, in connection with Thursday’s gun battle in Verviers, which left two dead
The presumed mastermind of the jihadi cell dismantled this week in Belgium remains at large, a Belgian minister said on Sunday, after arrests in Greece.
Asked if the suspected leader remained on the run after two people were arrested in Athens on Saturday in connection with the Belgian investigation, Koen Geens, the justice minister, told VRT television: “That is indeed the case.”
“Last night’s arrests did not succeed in nabbing the right person. We are still actively looking for him and I presume we will succeed,” he added.
More from Greek Reporter:
No Links Between Men Detained in Greece and Belgian Terrorist Cell
Greek police announced they found no evidence that the four people they detained yesterday, Saturday January 17, were linked to the jihadist cell in Verviers, Belgium.
Greek authorities made the arrest in Pagrati, Athens, Greece, yesterday and collected DNA sample to send to Belgium for analysis. It was determined that police were searching for a 27-year-old man of Morrocan origin who used to reside in Brussels.
After careful examination of the DNA sample in Brussels, federal prosecutor Eric Van der Sypt said there was no positive match with any individual they sought and said “they had nothing to do with the Belgian case.”
CBC News covers releases:
Charlie Hebdo shooting: 3 suspects released after police raids
Other suspects will have interrogations prolonged by 48 hours
French police have released three women arrested Friday and will continue to interrogate nine others who were detained in an anti-terror sweep connected to last week’s attacks in Paris that has put Europe on high alert.
Paris prosecutor spokesman Denis Fauriat said the nine suspects will have their interrogations prolonged by 48 hours, a step allowed under France’s tough anti-terror laws.
Police in France, Germany, Belgium and Ireland have arrested dozens of suspects in recent days as part of the crackdown on terrorism sparked by last week’s bloody spree in and around Paris, in which brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi and their friend Amedy Coulibaly killed 17 people at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, a kosher grocery, and elsewhere.
From the Hill, a bonanza:
Intelligence chief: ‘Unbelievable amount of data’ coming after Paris attacks
Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) said he expects that data will pour in over the next few months that will provide intelligence to better protect the U.S. and Europe against global terrorism threats.
The new chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee said that following the attack in Paris, there will be an “unbelievable amount of data that’s going to tell us what the next step is in defending this country and defending Europe, as well.”
On CNN’s “State of the Union,” he pointed a spate of raids and arrests around Europe over the weekend that netted more than a dozen people with suspected ties to the Paris attacks, which left 12 dead at a satirical newspaper Charlie Hedbo and 17 people total around the city.
He called the recent arrests in Belgium an “intelligence win.”
From BuzzFeed, high dudgeon:
Charlie Hebdo Editor Blasts U.S. Outlets For Not Showing Prophet Muhammad Cover
Several news organizations are censoring the newspaper’s cartoons of Prophet Muhammad, following the deadly attack on its office.
In an interview on Meet the Press, Gerard Biard said he understands that publications in totalitarian countries may ban the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, but he said he is “highly critical” of publications in democratic nations which refuse to do so.
“This cartoon is not just a little figure…it’s a symbol,” Biard said. “It’s the symbol of freedom of speech, of freedom of religion, of democracy and secularism. It is this symbol that newspapers refuse to publish. This is what they must understand.”
“When they refuse to publish this cartoon, when they blur it out, when they decline to publish it, they blur out democracy, secularism, freedom of religion and they insult the citizenship,” he said.
From the Guardian, a disposition:
Charlie Hebdo gunman Chérif Kouachi buried in unmarked grave near Paris
Official says no relatives attended funeral in Gennevilliers and the grave is unmarked to avoid it becoming a ‘pilgrimage site’ for Islamists
Chérif Kouachi, one of the two brothers who killed 12 people in an attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, has been buried in an unmarked grave near Paris under tight security, the local mayor’s office said.
Kouachi was buried late on Saturday at a cemetery in Gennevilliers, where he used to live, officials said.
No relatives attended the funeral and the grave was unmarked to avoid it becoming “a pilgrimage site” for Islamist militants, the official said.
The Associated Press covers what journalists calls a “skinback”:
Fox apologizes after pundit’s remarks about English city
U.S. broadcaster Fox News has issued at least two on-air apologies for comments made by a pundit who described the English city of Birmingham as “totally Muslim.”
The remarks by author Steven Emerson inspired ridicule in Britain and prompted Prime Minister David Cameron to label him “a complete idiot.” Emerson, who apologized soon after the broadcast, suggested that in Britain “there are actual cities like Birmingham that are totally Muslim, where non-Muslims just simply don’t go in.”
Census data shows that Britain’s second-largest city has 234,411 Muslims, or 22 percent of Birmingham’s population.
Fox News presenter Julie Banderas told viewers Saturday that “we have made some regrettable errors on air, regarding the Muslim population in Europe.” Presenter Jeanine Pirro said her guest made factual errors “we wrongly let stand unchallenged.”
From the Christian Science Monitor, bipolar disorder:
Europe pivots between safety and privacy online
European countries lead a push for the right to anonymity in the Digital Age. But, in the wake of terrorist shootings in France, calls for greater surveillance rise, too.
Across the country, Germans are gathering – in university halls, in private homes, or, as here, in donated office space – to learn how to use technology with terminology that may have seemed as foreign as Mandarin or advanced mathematics just a year ago. They’re attempting to master the complexities of new Web browsers that aim to provide anonymity for users, or computer programs that seek to ensure e-mails are read only by the intended recipients. Encryption as a form of security – in e-commerce transactions, for example – has long been commonplace. But fueled by anger, frustration, and, for a few, a dose of paranoia, citizens are turning a deep form of self-encryption – once the fringe domain of government geeks and a few private hackers – into a mainstream movement.
The trend is being driven by far more than just fear of NSA snooping or government surveillance in general, which may now be tempered in the aftermath of the Paris attacks. Across Europe, concern runs deep about how and why private data is being used. It is leading to new rules and actions throughout the 28-member European Union, from a major push by Brussels to hand greater privacy rights to European citizens, to a landmark court case giving people an unprecedented “right to be forgotten” from search engines in Europe, to a class action suit against Facebook in Austria.
It’s not that Europeans reject new technology. Despite the constant hand-wringing, they are still signing up for Gmail, Facebook, and Amazon in huge numbers. But the new laws and legal actions are being pushed by a new generation of computer techies, crusading bureaucrats, and privacy lawyers. They represent the front lines of a revolt that some call a clash of cyber civilizations – one that is moving Europe in a different direction than the United States on privacy and could set a new global standard against the unwieldy will of the Internet.
The Hill covers polymorphous perversion:
Terror threat ‘keeps morphing,’ British prime minister says
British Prime Minister David Cameron said in an interview broadcast on Sunday that the threat of terrorism is severe and that an attack is highly likely.
Cameron, who was in Washington last week for meetings with President Obama at the White House, said the two leaders agree on a coordinated strategy to battle terrorist factions and acknowledge that the fight is a long one.
“Frankly we’ve been in this struggle against extremists Islamist terrorism now for well over a decade and half so we know what it takes to win, but it’s going to take a lot of perseverance,” he said in an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
From the Los Angeles Times, anxiety:
French Muslims resent scrutiny after Charlie Hebdo attack
Although only an isolated few extremists even contemplate such violent acts, the attacks dramatize how much mayhem a few determined fanatics can wreak. Police have since raided suspected militant cells across Europe, arresting dozens.
The intense public focus on largely Muslim neighborhoods in the banlieues, or suburbs, associated with the three terrorists has angered many dwellers of La Grande Borne and other areas. Many see a case of guilt by association, with a strong hint of anti-Muslim bigotry.
Foreign news crews have stalked the streets of various outlying districts of Paris, seeking local color, backdrops for stand-up satellite TV reports and clues to the killers’ motivations.
From TheLocal.fr,, schizoaffective:
Muhammad cartoons divide French: poll
Almost half of French oppose publication of cartoons depicting Islam’s Prophet Muhammad, according to a poll Sunday, as global debate deepened on the limits of free speech in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo killings.
The Ifop poll found 42 percent believe Mohammed cartoons seen as offensive by many Muslims should not be published. Fifty percent said they backed “limitations on free speech online and on social networks.”
However, 57 percent said opposition from Muslims should not prevent the cartoons being published, according to the poll, published in Le Journal du Dimanche.
After the jump, Britain sets the line for British mosques, a German anti-Islam rally cancelled after threats, German launches ISIS suspect probes, ISIS femme fatales, Boko Haram kidnappings in Cameroon, as Chad troops arrive to give battle, Israel moves to strangle the International Criminal Court while Netanyahu finds a new BFF in Shinzo Abe, and Abe’s got another new pal on the Jordanian throne, Saudi-based Islamists plan to sue Charlie Hebdo, Pakistani Charlie Hebdo protests continue, three fatally burned in Indian Hindu/Muslim violence, lack of spooky oversight in Canada, a dead film writer’s spooky end, stealthy questions in a Japanese/Australian sub deal, Abe continues his Stalinist historical revisionism, plus Randy Andy allegation deciphering. . .
From the London Telegraph, drawing a line:
Government tells mosques: force out the preachers of hate
Eric Pickles writes to 1,100 imams and community leaders, urging them to tackle radicals and make young Muslims proud of Britain
The Government has taken the unprecedented step of writing to every mosque in the country to tell Muslim leaders that they must do more to root out the “men of hate” who are preaching extremism.
Eric Pickles, the Communities Secretary, has written to 1,100 imams and Islamic leaders urging them to publicly condemn the Al Qaeda terrorists behind the Paris massacres, the Daily Telegraph has learned.
Whitehall is unable to defeat jihadist ideology alone and Muslim leaders have “a responsibility” to prevent young men and women from becoming radicalised, Mr Pickles said in a letter sent last Friday.
From Deutsche Welle, a German rally cancelled:
Anti-Islamist PEGIDA rally in Dresden called off after threat
The anti-immigration group PEGIDA has canceled plans for a rally in Dresden on Monday, seemingly after threats against the main organizer, Lutz Bachmann. This follows considerable international attention on the group.
Dresden’s police called off Monday’s PEGIDA demonstration because of a “concrete threat against a member” of the organizing body. The police chief on Sunday issued a blanket ban on all demonstrations in the city on Monday, citing the threat of an attack.
The ban means that a demonstration by opponents of PEGIDA planned for Monday will also not take place.
“On analyzing the current situation, we now no longer believe this is an abstract danger, but rather a concrete one,” Dieter Kroll of Dresden’s police said. Kroll said that one particular member of PEGIDA and that person’s entourage was most at risk.
From Deutsche Welle, German launches ISIS suspect probes:
German authorities investigating 350 suspects tied to ‘IS’
German police are on the trail of 350 individuals with possible ties to the self-styled “Islamic State,” and 100 suspected Islamist cells, while politicians debate whether to revive a terrorism law ditched in 2002.
German Justice Minister Heiko Maas told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper that investigations were currently ongoing against 350 suspects in connection with the self-proclaimed “Islamic State” organization.
A separate report in Sunday’s Welt am Sonntag paper said that a growing number, currently around 100, suspected terror cells were also under surveillance in Germany. According to the report, the groups usually involved between 10 and 80 people, from a spectrum including prayer groups, online propaganda writers, fundraisers and fighters returning from Syria.
Maas, a Social Democrat, told Bild that the large numbers of ongoing investigations “show that our laws against terrorism are working.” He said that there was no need to revise the German legal code. “Simply acting for action’s sake does not stop any terrorists.”
ISIS femme fatales, via the Guardian:
Isis using UK female jihadis to incite terror acts back home, say researchers
Intensive monitoring of social media accounts of female Britons based in northern Syria reveals women’s key new role
A hardcore of British women who have travelled to Syria to join Islamic State (Isis) are encouraging other women in the UK to carry out terrorist attacks back home, the Observer has learned.
The role of British female jihadists in inciting terrorism in the UK has been uncovered by the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) at King’s College London, which has identified a group of around 30 female Britons based in northern Syria.
According to monitoring of their social media accounts, a number have been acting as Isis recruiters or openly praising the Charlie Hebdo shootings, while encouraging more bloodshed, including the beheadings of westerners.
Boko Haram kidnappings in Cameroon, via Reuters:
Suspected Boko Haram fighters kidnap around 80 in Cameroon
Suspected Boko Haram Islamist fighters from Nigeria kidnapped around 80 people, many of them children, and killed three others on Sunday in a cross-border attack on villages in northern Cameroon, army and government officials said.
The group, which has killed thousands and kidnapped hundreds in its bid to carve out an Islamic state in northern Nigeria, has also targeted Cameroon and Niger over the past year as it seeks to expand its zone of operations.
Sunday’s kidnappings, among the largest abductions on Cameroonian soil, came as neighbouring Chad deployed troops to support Cameroon’s forces in the area.
As Chad troops arrive to give battle, via Reuters:
Chadian soldiers arrive in Cameroon to battle Boko Haram
A contingent of soldiers from Chad has arrived in northern Cameroon where it will deploy to the Nigerian border as part of efforts to contain the Boko Haram insurgency, a spokesman for Cameroon’s defence ministry said on Sunday.
Boko Haram, which aims to carve out an Islamist state in northern Nigeria, has stepped up attacks in the region as Africa’s biggest economy prepares for a Feb. 14 presidential election.
The group has expanded its operational zone into northern Cameroon over the past year, prompting Yaounde to deploy thousands of additional forces, including elite troops, to its border with Nigeria.
A convoy of troops from Chad arrived in Maroua, the main town in Cameroon’s Far-North Region, late on Saturday, Colonel Didier Badjeck said while declining to say how many soldiers had been dispatched by N’Djamena.
Israel moves to strangle the International Criminal Court, via Reuters:
Israel lobbies foreign powers to cut ICC funding
srael is lobbying member-states of the International Criminal Court to cut funding for the tribunal in response to its launch of an inquiry into possible war crimes in the Palestinian territories, the country’s foreign minister said on Sunday.
The ICC did not immediately respond to the news, but experts thought it unlikely that the lobbying effort was likely to persuade the countries that contribute most to the court to reduce their funding.
Israel, which like the United States does not belong to the ICC, hopes to dent funding for the court that is drawn from the 122 member-states in accordance with the size of their economies, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said.
While Shinzo Abe finds a new BFF, via the Japan Times:
Abe, Netanyahu agree to join hands on defense, Internet security
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu agreed in Tokyo Monday to bolster bilateral defense cooperation, including in cyberspace.
Abe also urged Netanyahu to resume peace negotiations with the Palestinians after nine months of U.S.-led efforts froze up last month.
“The earliest resumption of the suspended peace negotiations will benefit both parties,” Abe said. “Maximum self-restraint is needed so as not to take unilateral measures including settlement activities, which would serve as an impediment to negotiations.”
More from Haaretz:
Netanyahu says Europe’s ‘Islamization’ pushing Israel to expand Asia trade
‘We want to reduce our dependence on certain markets in Western Europe,’ prime minister tells cabinet.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that a wave of anti-Semitism and what he called “Islamization” in Western Europe are factors in the government’s push to expand trade with Asia.
Europe is Israel’s biggest trading partner, but deepening diplomatic disputes over policy toward the Palestinians and anti-Jewish incidents such as the January 9 attack by an Islamist gunman on a Paris kosher supermarket have triggered Israeli worries.
Netanyahu, a free-market champion who is acting as interim finance minister, presented his courting of China, India and Japan over the past two years as a partial response to European developments. He was due to host a Japanese government and business delegation led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sunday.
Still more from Xinhua:
Japan’s Abe hopes to bolster economic ties with Israel
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Sunday that his country hopes to bolster economic cooperation with Israel.
Abe made the remarks in a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Japanese leader is on a six-day visit to the Middle East. He is leading a delegation of government officials and leading Japanese business people.
During their talks, Abe said the two countries have seen steady progress in bilateral ties since Netanyahu’s visit to Japan last year.
And Abe’s also got a new pal on the Jordanian throne, via Jiji Press:
Japan, Jordan to Jointly Cope with Terrorism
Visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Jordan’s King Abdullah II agreed Sunday that their countries will jointly cope with terror threats such as the rise of the Islamic State group.
At the outset of their talks at the Royal Palace in Amman, the king said antiterror collaboration will lead to the development of the two nations. In reply, Abe said the spread of extremism should be stopped.
During the meeting, Abe pledged 12-billion-yen loans for helping Jordan take measures for refugees from neighboring Syria, which has been battered by a civil war and attacks by the Islamic State group. Besides, the prime minister offered to provide such refugees with food and other aid goods worth 28 million dollars.
Meanwhile, Saudi-based Islamists plan to sue Charlie Hebdo, via the Independent:
Saudi Muslim leader organising ‘legal action against Charlie Hebdo’ over Mohamed cartoons
The Saudi Arabia-based Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is planning to sue the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo following its publication of a front cover depicting the Prophet Mohamed.
It comes as demonstrations against the controversial image on last week’s “survivor” issue turned violent in Niger, Pakistan and Algeria, while the Iranian authorities banned a daily newspaper for a front-page headline allegedly offering Charlie Hebdo its support.
In Saudi Arabia, the former culture minister and now head of the Jeddah-based OIC condemned the new edition of Charlie Hebdo as “an idiotic step that requires necessary legal measures”.
Pakistani Charlie Hebdo protests continue, via the Express Tribune:
Protests against Charlie Hebdo cartoons continue in all major cities
Protests against French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo were held across Pakistan on Sunday as thousands of people in almost all major cities chanted slogans against the publication of blasphemous cartoons.
Workers from both religious and secular political parties gathered in Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad, Quetta, Peshawar, Multan and many other cities and burnt effigies of French president Francois Hollande and of cartoonists at the magazine along with French flags.
More than 2,000 people marched in Karachi, where the Jamaat-e-Islami party organised a rally at the Quaid-e-Azam’s mausoleum.
A delegation of Christian pastors also took part to show solidarity with their Muslim countrymen.
Three fatally burned in Indian Hindu/Muslim violence, via the Washington Post:
3 burned to death in Hindu-Muslim clash in India
At least three Muslim villagers were burned to death Sunday when their thatched huts were set on fire during a clash between Hindu and Muslim groups in eastern India, a government official said.
Atul Prasad, a Bihar state administrator, said the violence erupted after the body of a young Hindu boy was found in Sarayian village more than a week after he went missing.
Prasad said Hindu fishermen blamed Muslims for killing the boy who was friendly with a Muslim girl from the village, 105 kilometers (65 miles) north of Patna, the capital of Bihar state.
From CBC News, lack of spooky oversight:
More stringent oversight of military intelligence at DND in limbo
Harper facing criticism from human rights groups
National Defence has been looking at ways to introduce more stringent oversight of its intelligence operations, but “fiscal restraint” may prevent the department from implementing the preferred option.
A series of internal documents and slide presentations, obtained by The Canadian Press under access-to-information legislation, show the head of defence intelligence ordered the exhaustive, independent review — which was conducted in the wake of the scandal involving navy sub-Lt. Jeffery Delisle, who was convicted of spying for the Russians.
Unlike the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the Communications Security Establishment, there is no direct civilian oversight body to review the actions and operations of military agents, who conduct investigations into possible threats against the Forces both overseas and on Canadian soil.
From the London Daily Mail, a dead film writer’s spooky end:
EXCLUSIVE: Screenwriter mysteriously killed in 1997 after finishing script that revealed the ‘real reason’ for US invasion of Panama had been working for the CIA… and both his hands were missing
Gary Devore, writer of Raw Deal and Time Cop, disappeared in June 1997
He had finished script alleging ulterior motive for US invading Panama
Body was found a year later in California Aqueduct but raised questions
His hands were missing from the car, his script was never found
There was widespread speculation the CIA was connected to his death
Now a former White House official has confirmed Devore was working with the agency in Panama
Coroner revealed the hands sent for autopsy were 200 years old
Stealthy questions in a Japanese/Australian sub deal, via the Japan Times:
Stealth tech no given in Japanese sub deal
The Maritime Self-Defense Force’s submarines are not nuclear-powered but have a reputation for being ultra-quiet.
Now Australia, seeking to build a new fleet of large, long-range submarines, seems keen on acquiring Japan’s latest Soryu-class subs, or at least their technology.
If the deal goes through, the top-secret submarines will become the first major pieces of military hardware Japan has authorized for export since the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe lifted the decades-long blanket ban on arms sales last year.
From RT, Abe continues his Stalinist historical revisionism:
History Clean: Japan deletes WWII ‘comfort women’ chapters from textbooks
Program notes:
The Japanese government appears to have developed an effective method for dealing with the darker chapters of its history. It’s simply getting rid of some unpleasant facts from its high school textbooks. The Education Ministry gave the go-ahead to take out passages about the plight of so-called ‘comfort women’ from China, South Korea and other parts of Asia during World War II.
And Randy Andy allegation implications from Al Jazeera America:
What scandal involving Prince Andrew says about Britain’s elites
Analysis: Sex allegations are symbolic of deeper problems for the royal family and others involving links to arms deals
Prince Andrew, the Duke of York and fifth in line to the British throne, has hit the headlines again, this time at the center of a scandal involving U.S. financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
A 30-year-old American woman, Virginia Roberts, has accused Epstein of forcing her to have sex with the prince on three occasions, including once in 2001 when she was under the age of consent. The claim was made as part of an ongoing lawsuit filed by two female plaintiffs who say they were sexually exploited by Epstein over a number of years.
Buckingham Palace dismisses the allegation as “categorically untrue” and insists that Andrew is innocent of any “impropriety.”
However, media coverage of the scandal has sparked a national debate about the suitability of Andrew for public life — and shone an unflattering light not only on Britain’s monarchy but also on the workings of the country’s political and social elites. In particular, their willingness to arm and finance foreign dictatorships has raised questions about how seriously they take Britain’s professed commitment to liberal values.
