And a lot of that last one.
We begin with serious reservations from USA Today:
Senators press Holder on police radar that sees inside homes
Radar devices that allow police officers to effectively see into suspects’ homes raise “privacy concerns of the highest order,” top lawmakers on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee said Thursday.
At least 50 U.S. law enforcement agencies have secretly equipped their officers with that technology, with little notice to the public or the courts. The devices work like very fine motion detectors, capable of determining whether someone is inside a building by detecting movement as slight as human breathing.
Coupled with the disclosure that federal agents had deployed sophisticated cellphone monitoring tools, use of the radar “raises questions about whether the Justice Department is doing enough to ensure that — prior to these technologies’ first use — law enforcement officials address their privacy implications, seek appropriate legal process, and fully inform the courts and Congress about how they work,” Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the chairman and ranking Democrat of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday.
From Ars Technica, yet another African American shot by a cop:
Public records request exposes dash cam video of cops killing man
Footage of shooting “raises serious questions,” says dead man’s family attorney
A local New Jersey newspaper has published the dash cam footage of police officers killing a passenger during a routine traffic stop, the latest haunting images to surface online as President Barack Obama and others push law enforcement to equip themselves with surveillance cameras in the wake of this summer’s officer-involved shooting death of an unarmed teen in Ferguson, Missouri.
If it wasn’t for an Open Public Records Act request by the South Jersey Times, the Bridgeton Police Department would not have released the short video. The footage shows officers shooting 36-year-old passenger Jerame Reid—who appeared to have his hands up.
“In absence of the OPRA request this video would not be released to the public out of respect for the family of Jerame Reid, basic human dignity, and to protect the constitutional rights of all those involved,” Michael Gaimari, the agency’s captain, said in a statement. He said the police department does not “consider the posting of any such video as compassionate or professional.”
Meanwhile, Reid’s death on December 30 has sparked protests in Bridgeton—a town 40 miles south of Philadelphia with a population of 25,000. The shooting comes amid a string of people being killed by cops, with many incidents making their way to YouTube in recent months. The latest video has become part of an energized public demanding more accountability in the wake of this summer’s Ferguson shooting of unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown. One solution has been to equip police vehicles and their officers with surveillance cameras. That reality has pushed body camera maker Taser’s stock to record heights.
From the New York Times, and we’re not surprised:
U.S. Not Expected to Fault Officer in Ferguson Case
Justice Department lawyers will recommend that no civil rights charges be brought against the police officer who fatally shot an unarmed teenager in Ferguson, Mo., after an F.B.I. investigation found no evidence to support charges, law enforcement officials said Wednesday.
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and his civil rights chief, Vanita Gupta, will have the final say on whether the Justice Department will close the case against the officer, Darren Wilson. But it would be unusual for them to overrule the prosecutors on the case, who are still working on a legal memo explaining their recommendation.
A decision by the Justice Department would bring an end to the politically charged investigation of Mr. Wilson in the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown. The Missouri authorities concluded their investigation into Mr. Brown’s death in November and also recommended against charges.
From Network World, a panopticon push:
EU should oblige Internet firms to hand over encryption keys, says antiterrorist advisor
Internet and telecommunications companies should be obliged to share encryption keys with police and intelligence agencies to help them fight terrorism, the European Union’s Counter-Terrorism Coordinator has advised.
It’s a remarkable suggestion, because companies such as Google and Facebook have only just begun encrypting their Internet traffic to shield it from intelligence agencies, after documents leaked by Edward Snowden detailed the depth of government surveillance programs.
EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator Gilles de Kerchove suggested that the European Commission “should be invited to explore rules obliging Internet and telecommunications companies operating in the EU to provide … access of the relevant national authorities to communications (i.e. share encryption keys),” according to a leaked document published by civil rights group Statewatch.
Another extension attempted, via Homeland Security News Wire:
European govts. urge U.S. tech companies to remove terrorist-related postings from sites
The terror attacks in Paris have led French and German authorities to call on U.S. tech firms to help identify terrorist communications and remove hate speech from social media sites. The United Kingdom has also, for several months now, pressed Internet firms to be proactive in removing extremist content such as videos of sermons by radical Islamic preachers or recruitment material, from their sites. German interior minister Thomas de Maizière has called on Twitter, Facebook, and other sites to work closely with law enforcement authorities. “The less people take responsibility, the more legislators will be forced to take the initiative,” he said at a recent cybersecurity conference.
U.S. tech firms do not see themselves as digital police forces, but they fear potential laws which may limit their operations in Europe.
“Just because the vast majority of this content is found on American services doesn’t reduce their impact on French people,” said French interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve. “We won’t succeed in our fight against terrorism unless Internet actors start taking responsibility.”
Deutsche Welle covers a conscientious objection:
Chaos Computer Club contradicts EU, demands full encryption
The leading German computer club has rejected EU anti-terror plans to tap online chatter, instead calling for all online communication to be encrypted. Politicians, meanwhile, are seeking ways to read encoded messages.
Germany’s main hackers’ association contradicted EU security officials on Thursday by demanding strictly confidential data handling across the board online, using readily available encryption methods.
[T]he Chaos Computer Club (CCC) said on its blog Thursday that “anyone who transfers or archives customers’ data unencrypted and thereby endangers their security must face significant penalties.”
The CCC demanded that the millions spent by nations to “militarize” networks to spy on their citizens be invested instead in the construction of secure systems and technical training for the public.
From Al Jazeera America, a writer imprisoned:
Writer tied to Anonymous hackers sentenced to prison
Barrett Lancaster Brown receives five years for threatening an FBI agent and helping share stolen data
An activist and writer linked to the hacking collective Anonymous was sentenced to prison on Thursday for threatening an FBI agent and helping share stolen data. The criminal case had come under criticism by international free-speech advocates.
Barrett Lancaster Brown originally faced charges that carried more than 100 years in prison, but he pleaded guilty to greatly reduced charges last year. Supporters say Brown, who was sentenced to five years in prison, was targeted by the federal government after sharing data hacked from the Austin-based defense contractor Stratfor.
The 33-year-old was often quoted on the workings of Anonymous, a shadowy group of hackers that has staged several high-profile attacks on governments and businesses all over the world. Brown courted attention on the Internet with provocative tweets and YouTube videos — including a live chat he conducted while taking a bubble bath. But some of those posts also landed him in trouble, including one in which he threatened an FBI agent.
From RT, another encrypted communications channel opens:
Dotcom wants ‘to kill Skype’ with MegaChat, his encrypted video calling service
Kim Dotcom has launched a public beta version of his latest project, with which he aims to wipe out Skype. The video calling service called MegaChat is to be encrypted to ensure secure communications for all its users.
The program will be introduced “starting with video calling today,” the German born entrepreneur said on Twitter on Thursday. The new program registered half a million calls in just a matter of hours.
Dotcom has says the new product, which has been developed by the Mega “Conspiracy Team” will be a “Skype killer,” and hopes to end the domination of the Microsoft based product.
From SecurityWeek, a hack attack assails Russia:
‘Scarab’ Hackers Focus Aim on Select Russian Targets in Attack Campaigns
Researchers at Symantec have identified a group of attackers targeting Russian-speaking individuals since at least January 2012
Symantec has dubbed the hacking team “Scarab” and linked the group to several campaigns. In each instance, the attackers have targeted a small group of individuals as opposed to enterprises or governments. On average, less than 10 unique computers are infected per month and there is no indication that the attackers are spreading through the victim’s local network.
“Based on our research, the Scarab attackers are a technically-capable group, judging on how they have custom-developed several malicious tools for these campaigns,” blogged Symantec researcher Gavin O’Gorman. “However, they are not highly skilled or well resourced, as they rely on older exploits and executables stored in compressed archives to distribute their threats.”
Many of the Scarab campaigns distribute the group’s custom malware – which Symantec has named Scieron and Scieron B – through email. Scieron is a backdoor and is used to drop Scieron B., which has a rootkit-like component that masks some of its network activity and includes more backdoor functionality.
And a hacking denial from Global Times:
China denies hacking Outlook
China’s Internet regulator has dismissed rumors that Microsoft’s Outlook email service was hacked by Chinese authorities as slander by “foreign anti-China forces,” the Xinhua News Agency reported on Thursday.
“The Chinese government safeguards Internet security and opposes any form of cyber attacks. We will investigate and crack down on Internet attacks in China or against the Chinese network in accordance with the law,” Jiang Jun, a spokesperson at China’s Cyberspace Administration, said on Thursday.
The GreatFire.org said on Monday that people using e-mail clients like Outlook, Mozilla’s Thunderbird and apps on their phone with the SMTP and IMAP e-mail protocols, which are used to send and receive messages, suffered attacks on Saturday, Reuters reported on Monday.
Another Chinese hacking denial from TechWeekEurope:
Huawei Denies Spying; Fights Internal Fraud With Confession Program
Elusive Huawei boss uses World Economic Forum at Davos to prove firm’s transparency
Ren Zhengfei, founder of Chinese telecommunications and smartphone maker Huawei, has said that allegations surrounding spying on Western countries are false.
Speaking in a rare press appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the 70-year-old former Red Army soldier said: “Why would I want to take someone’s data? Who would give me money for it?”
Backdoor allegations
The company, which was founded in 1987 and moved into the IT enterprise business four years ago, has effectively been barred from operations in the U.S. because of allegations of implementing backdoors in hardware that would allow it to spy on the country.
Ironically, it was the U.S. which was then purported to have been snooping on Huawei. This ‘Snowden revelation’ came to light in German newspaper Der Spiegel.
Network World covers a curious omission:
Adobe fixes just one of two actively exploited zero-day vulnerabilities in Flash Player
Emergency updates for Flash Player released Thursday fix a vulnerability that is actively exploited by attackers, but leave a separate one unpatched.
Adobe Systems released Flash Player 16.0.0.287 for Windows and Mac, Flash Player 11.2.202.438 for Linux and Flash Player Extended Support Release 13.0.0.262. These updates address a vulnerability identified in the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures database as CVE-2015-0310.
Adobe is aware of an exploit for this vulnerability “in the wild” being used to attack older versions of Flash Player, the company said in a security advisory.
From TheLocal.se, the not-so-purrrfect crime:
Catcam busts Swedish burglars in Norrköping
A Swedish woman keeping an eye on her cats via a webcam in her apartment caught burglars in the act on Wednesday and tipped off the police, who arrested them.
Police in Norrköping south of the capital Stockholm said they were warned by a resident who had spotted two intruders in her home unaware of the fact that they were being filmed.
The woman noticed the alleged thieves in images sent to a mobile device that she normally used to remotely look after her cats.
“Three minutes after the alert the first police patrol had arrested two suspects who were about to leave the crime scene,” the police wrote in a statement.
SecurityWeek covers a massively lucrative cybercrime spree:
Email Scam Nets $214 Million in 14 Months: FBI
An email scam which targets businesses with bogus invoices has netted more than $214 million from victims in 45 countries in just over one year, an FBI task force said Thursday.
The Internet Crime Complaint Center, a joint effort of the FBI and the nonprofit National White Collar Crime Center, said the losses were calculated from October 1, 2013 to December 1, 2014.
In the scheme, fake invoices are delivered to businesses which deal with overseas suppliers, asking for payment by wire transfer.
After the jump, Netanyahu to play the congressional trump and meets with an Obama rebuff, Israeli spooks try to rein in Neytanyahu Iranian agenda, Anderson Cooper’s no-go Islamophobic error admission, ramping up the pressure in French schools, German Islamophobes beat the press but police presence limits numbers, a prediction of failure, Pegida brings the game to Old Blighty, Greek neo-Nazis go full Nazi, ISIS suspects busted in Germany, media fears in the Big Apple, Canadian troops up their anti-ISIS role, Boris Johnson takes up arms, the Pentagon’s secret body count lists, former French elite troops take up arms for ISIS, regime change in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, the Afghan/Pakistani ISIS recruiting grounds, Japan makes a frantic bid to save its ISIS captives, Britain’s secret spooky partnership with Qadaffi, fears of narcoterrorists using drones to target DEA agents, the growing controversy over an Argentine prosecutors death and claims of a coverup, a Turkish beauty queen’s alleged act of lese majestie, French flags burn in continuing Mideast Charlie Hendo protests, virulent Islamophobia in Myanmar, China delivers a papal warning, a Chinese crackdown on Chinese correspondents for Western media as more American shows vanish from Chinese airwaves, a Chinese warning to Washington over Asian sea disputes as China reaches naval parity with Japan, London and Tokyo near a security pact, plus Moscow calls out Tokyo for a historical learning fail. . .
An Israeli trump card played, via Al Jazeera America:
Netanyahu gambles by challenging Obama in Congress
Analysis: GOP leadership enlisted Israel’s leader to challenge US Iran policy, despite reported dissent in Israel
“I know what America is,” Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Israeli settlers in 2002 in a hot-mic moment captured on video by Israel’s Channel 10. “America is a thing you can move very easily, move it in the right direction.”
That’s a proposition House Speaker John Boehner plans to test on March 3, when he presents the Israeli leader to a joint session of the House and Senate in the expectation that Netanyahu will give full-throated support to a congressional effort to overrule the Obama administration’s Iran policy.
Boehner may be counting on Netanyahu’s popularity across the partisan divide to help Republicans attract enough support for new sanctions on Iran to override the veto promised by President Barack Obama. And there are certainly a number of Democrats pushing for new sanctions despite the administration’s warning that such a move would torpedo prospects for a diplomatic solution to the nuclear standoff.
And a rebuff from United Press International:
Obama will not meet Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in March
U.S. President Barack Obama will not meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the prime minister’s visit to address Congress in March.
On Wednesday, Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, announced he invited Netanyahu to speak on “the threats posed by radical Islam and Iran.”
The invitation surprised the White House, which regarded it as a breach of protocol.
“As a matter of long-standing practice and principle, we do not see heads of state or candidates in close proximity to their elections,” White House spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said in a statement. “As to avoid the appearance of influencing a democratic election in a foreign country.”
From intelNews, a spooky disagreement:
Mossad breaks with Israeli PM, cautions against new Iran sanctions
The Israeli intelligence agency Mossad has broken ranks with the Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, cautioning American members of Congress against imposing new sanctions on Iran.
In November of 2013, Iran signed a Joint Plan of Action with six world powers in Geneva, Switzerland. Known as the Geneva interim agreement, the pact eases economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic in exchange for a short-term suspension of core aspects of the Iranian nuclear program.
But two members of the Republican-controlled Senate in the United States, Robert Menendez and Mark Kirk, have voiced strong displeasure with what they see as the slow pace of progress in the talks. The two senators are co-sponsors of a proposed bill that would impose new sanctions on Iran if the Islamic Republic fails to make substantial progress toward the Geneva agreement by next June.
Anderson Cooper’s no-go Islamophobic error admission, via the Associated Press:
CNN’s Cooper says he was mistaken on Muslim zones
CNN has joined Fox News Channel in saying that it was mistaken to report in the wake of an attack on the French newspaper Charlie Hebdo that there were neighborhoods in Europe considered “no go” zones for non-Muslims.
Fox apologized over the weekend for on-air comments made by pundits, including one who described the English city of Birmingham as “totally Muslim.” In an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo threatened to sue Fox over comments made about her city.
On Monday, CNN’s Anderson Cooper aired a story on his program about what Fox had said. But The Washington Post subsequently pointed out the supposed “no go” zones were talked about on CNN the previous week — including on Cooper’s program. Cooper even used one analyst’s comments about Muslim-dominated areas as the basis for a question he put to another guest.
From Deutsche Welle, ramping up the pressure:
France to move against radicalization in schools
France will introduce new measures to promote secularism in schools and to prevent students’ radicalization. The move follows complaints that a number of students refused to pay respect to victims of the Paris attacks.
The new project will cost 250 million euros ($289 million) and will involve training courses for schoolteachers across France. The students will receive an additional civic and ethics education, and French symbols such as the national flag and anthem, will be celebrated on December 9, which has been declared as a “Day of Secularism.”
Efforts will also be made to make French schools more socially and culturally diverse and poor students will receive more grants from the state.
“Schools are and will be the firm, discerning and pedagogical front lines against challenges to the Republic – that is their identity and profound mission. The schools and the Republic are inseparable,” Education Minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem told reporters on Thursday.
From TheLocal.de, bigotry energized:
Legida marchers attack police and journalists
Police found themselves at the receiving end of firecrackers, thrown bottles and laser pointers as scuffles broke out at the protest march by Legida in Leipzig on Wednesday.
Legida – an off-shoot of Dresden-based anti-Islam movement Pegida – also assaulted journalists, spitting on them and destroying photo equipment, to the Leipziger Volkszeitung reported.
Around 15,000 Legida supporters showed up to march from Leipzig’s Augustusplatz to the inner city – much less than the 60,000 originally announced by the group’s organizers. Many of the marchers traveled from Dresden.
The McClatchy Foreign Staff covers inhibition:
Big German police presence cuts attendance at anti-Islam rally
Thousands of police and opponents from across Germany descended on Leipzig on Wednesday in an effort to block thousands of anti-Islamization protesters from reaching a rally in the city known for beginning the movement that led to the collapse of the East German government decades ago.
Wednesday’s effort, which cut the size of the scheduled demonstration by as much as half, was the latest sign that German officials are getting very nervous about a grass-roots movement that critics deride as neo-Nazi but supporters claim represents the common German worker and taxpayer. It’s also becoming increasingly clear that this movement and the countermovement that dogs its every step in the former East Germany represent a battle for the soul of Europe after the Charlie Hebdo terror attack in Paris on Jan. 7.
The German movement, while only loosely organized, is the largest and loudest example of the anti-Muslim fears that are finding a voice across Europe.
A prediction of failure, via Deutsche Welle:
Schmidinger: ‘PEGIDA will fizzle out,’ but anti-Islam mood worrying
Ructions within Germany’s PEGIDA movement will likely lead to its swift demise, but it won’t put a stop to a general anti-Islamic mood in Europe, also among its elites, political scientist Thomas Schmidinger told DW.
DW: After the resignation of one of its leaders, Lutz Bachmann, PEGIDA aims to reorganize itself – it wants to be taken more seriously. But there have been major ructions within the movement. Does it have a future, and if so, as what exactly?
Thomas Schmidinger: It is a local phenomenon in Saxony. It hasn’t really gone beyond a small group of die-hard protesters anywhere else. I don’t think that PEGIDA has a bright future as a Germany-wide, or even European movement.
In Saxony, it’s different though. There, we’ve seen strong far-right activity, with the NPD party in parliament and some far-right politicians in local councils. In the last 25 years since reunification, a lot of vague and often incoherent social protest potential has built up there, both on the far right and the far left.
The Toronto Globe and Mail crosses the channel:
Pegida UK marches will test racial tensions in Britain
A German group that has made headlines – and drawn criticism – worldwide by organizing mass marches against the supposed “Islamisation of Europe” has now spawned a chapter in the United Kingdom, one that wants to hold demonstrations in two English cities in the coming weeks.
Patriotic Europeans Against Islamisation of the West, better known by its German acronym Pegida, is the mobilizing force behind a series of weekly demonstrations held every Monday in the eastern German city of Dresden. The marches have pulled up to 25,000 people at a time into the streets to protest against what they see as the spread of Muslim culture inside historically Christian parts of Europe.
The appearance of Pegida UK comes at a time of high intercommunal tensions in the country. British police were placed on their highest level of terror alert following the attacks by Islamist gunmen on a satirical newspaper and a kosher grocery market in Paris earlier this month.
And from To Vima, ghosts from the past:
Golden Dawn speaker and supporters chanting Nazi hymn
Newspaper publishes another shocking video of the neo-Nazi party’s supporters
A video published by the Efimerida ton Syntakton newspaper has caused controversy, as it shows Golden Dawn supporters chanting the Nazi Germany hymn and yell “seig heil” at the end.
The “event” begins with the speaker standing before a Nazi flag, telling the crowd that it is dedicated to “the righteous fallen, for blood, for dignity”, while referring to the “longevity of our race”.
After he is finished the crowd does the Nazi salute, with some chanting the Greek national anthem. Afterwards they begin chanting the Nazi hymn “Deutschland über alles”.
Here’s the video in question:
ISIS suspects busted in Germany, via New Europe:
2 Islamic State group suspects arrested in Germany
Prosecutors say there’s no evidence they were planning attacks
Two men who have been under investigation since last year were arrested in Germany Thursday on suspicion of membership in the Islamic State group, prosecutors said.
The two, identified only as 26-year-old Mustafa C. and 27-year-old Sebastian B. in accordance with German privacy laws, were arrested Thursday morning in raids in the western state of North-Rhine Westphalia, federal prosecutors said.
The two Germans are accused of traveling to Syria through Turkey in March and August 2013 where they joined a group known as the Muhajireen Brigade. By the end of 2013, they were suspected of joining IS, undergoing training and providing logistical support during battles.
From PandoDaily, media fears in the Big Apple:
NYPD guards Gawker, BuzzFeed, and Daily Beast offices after republishing Charlie Hebdo cartoons
According to Gawker, its offices along with at least two other New York media companies are under special protection of the New York Police Department, after all three outlets republished Charlie Hebdo covers depicting Muhammed.
On January 7, the Paris magazine Charlie Hebdo came under attack by gunmen who killed 12 people, presumably in response to controversial cartoons it published depicting the Islamic prophet Muhammed. Some Islamic teachings explicitly forbid pictorial representations of Muhammed. Furthermore, Charlie Hebdo’s illustrations often mocked Islam — along with every other religion on the planet.
An officer stationed outside Gawker told the outlet that the department was not acting on any specific threats made against media companies. Nor did the officer state whether the department had only offered protection to outlets that republished the Charlie Hebdo cartoons.
From CBC News, escalation:
ISIS mission: Ground combat situation has ‘evolved,’ says Tom Lawson
Briefing on targeting of airstrikes, firefight sparked debate over possible ‘mission creep’ in Iraq
Acknowledging the situation on the ground in Iraq has “evolved” since last fall, Chief of Defence Staff Tom Lawson says the activities of the Canadian special operations team deployed against ISIS are “entirely consistent” with its original mandate from the government.
Last October, Lawson told CTV Question Period host Robert Fife that Canadian troops sent to advise Iraqi and Kurdish forces battling ISIS “would have nothing to do” with pinpointing targets for airstrikes.
“All coalition troops on the ground in Iraq are being used in the same role — advise and assist, but not accompany, and not engage in direct combat,” Lawson said last October. “It’s very important that it’s Iraqi soldiers who do that.”
He also agreed that helping out with laser targeting would be a “semi-combat role.”
And from the London Telegraph, one way that fighting has evolved:
The Pentagon’s secret body count lists, via Reuters:
Don’t believe the U.S. military when it says it doesn’t keep body counts
Earlier this month, a reporter asked the question that usually comes up when the United States gets involved in a sustained military campaign. Just how many enemy troops — in this case, Islamic State foot soldiers — have U.S. forces killed in more than five months of aerial attacks?
The military’s answer was basically the same given to all similar questions going back more than a decade. Counting the dead is “not the goal,” said Pentagon chief spokesman John Kirby, a Navy admiral.
Since the Vietnam War, with its gruesome and inflated U.S. tallies of enemy dead, the Pentagon has denied keeping body counts. But, in fact, the military does add up the number of enemy fighters it believes it has killed — and proudly boasts of the totals in official documents that it never intends for public circulation.
The disconnect over wartime body counts reflects a yawning gap between the military’s public face and its private culture.
French recruits, via RT:
Dozen former French soldiers, including elite troops, join ISIS – reports
A dozen former French soldiers, mostly from special forces and the Foreign Legion, have joined jihadists fighting in Syria and Iraq, a defense ministry source confirms, as the government readies a new multimillion anti-terror plan.
Reports of French ex-military turning to jihad first appeared on Radio France Internationale (RFI) and in L’Opinion daily on Wednesday.
An anonymous defense ministry source later confirmed the information to AFP.
“We estimate around a dozen former troops have joined these networks,” the source said. “Our concern is not former soldiers… It’s preventing the phenomenon of radicalization within our forces.”
From Al Jazeera America, regime change:
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia dies at 90
King Abdullah, who ruled Saudi Arabia from 1995 to 2015, will be succeeded by his half-brother, Crown Prince Salman
He was one of the world’s few remaining absolute monarchs. But King Abdullah’s years as Crown Prince might have marked his legacy even more strongly than his rule as king.
King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud became de facto ruler of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1995 when his predecessor, King Fahd, suffered a stroke. At the time, Abdullah was crown prince — but from that position he wielded a tremendous amount of power and influence.
Saudi state television reported his death on Thursday. He had been in hospital for several weeks and was suffering from pneumonia.
More regime change, via Reuters:
Yemeni president quits, throwing nation deeper into chaos
Hadi quits after government resigns
President held virtual prisoner by Houthi rebels
Aide says Hadi quit after Houthi “threats”
Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi resigned on Thursday, throwing the volatile Arab country deeper into chaos days after Houthi rebels battled their way into his presidential palace.
Hadi, a key counter-terrorism ally of the United States, stood down abruptly shortly after Prime Minister Khaled Baha had offered his government’s resignation, saying it did not want to be dragged into “an unconstructive political maze”.
This was an apparent reference to a stand-off between Hadi and the Shi’ite Muslim Houthi movement which has been holding the president a virtual prisoner in his own official residence.
More from the Intercept:
How Al Qaeda’s Biggest Enemy Took Over Yemen (and Why the U.S. Government Is Unlikely to Support Them)
The streets in Yemen’s capital are now a maze of checkpoints, a few still manned by government forces wearing military uniforms, but most these days are controlled by Houthis. Unlike government forces, the Houthis are typically dressed in tribal garb–a shawl wrapped around their face and a skirt known as a ma’awaz.
Armed with AK-47s, the Houthis are primarily looking for members of AQAP.
The Houthis, however, are quickly proving that the old adage, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend,” is not always true. While they are bitter enemies of AQAP, the Houthis manning the checkpoints often adorn their AK-47s with stickers bearing the group’s motto: “Death to America, death to Israel, curse on the Jews, victory to Islam.”
For the West, this labyrinth of Yemeni politics underscores the complexity of trying to find a reliable ally to fight Al Qaeda’s Yemen affiliate, which claimed credit for the deadly attack earlier this month against the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris. While the U.S. government had continued to back Hadi as a close partner in the war on terror, it’s the Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah, who have been battling AQAP on the streets of Sanaa.
ISIS recruiting grounds, via the Express Tribune:
Disenchanted militants in Pakistan, Afghanistan eye Islamic State with envy
Splits within the Taliban, and doubts over whether its elusive leader is even alive, are driving a growing number of militant commanders in Afghanistan and Pakistan towards Islamic State (IS) for inspiration.
Security and intelligence sources believe there are no operational links yet between IS and South Asia, and that the region is not a priority for a group that occupies areas of Syria and Iraq and is focused on the Arab world.
But regional leaders worry that a new ultra-violent movement bent on toppling governments could be born from the stubborn Taliban insurgency that carries out frequent attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Japan makes a frantic bid to save its ISIS captives, via Kyodo News:
Japan seeks negotiating channels to win release of IS hostages
The Japanese government was scrambling Thursday to secure negotiating channels to urge Islamic State militants to release two Japanese hostages unharmed, as a 72-hour deadline for paying a ransom approaches.
“We do not know,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a press conference when asked about the safety of the hostages, and declined to comment on whether there have been any messages from the group.
A masked man wielding a knife and claiming to be an Islamic State member threatened in an online video message Tuesday to kill the two captives — Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto — unless Japan pays $200 million within 72 hours.
And why they were there, via the Wall Street Journal:
Japanese ISIS Hostages Kept Video Journals Prior To Capture
Program notes:
Islamic State jihadists say that unless they’re paid ransom, they plan to execute two Japanese hostages. How did these men end up in extremists’ hands? WSJ’s Jason Bellini has #The Short Answer.
The Guardian covers a spooky alliance:
Cooperation between British spies and Gaddafi’s Libya revealed in official papers
Links between MI5 and Gaddafi’s intelligence during Tony Blair’s government more extensive than previously thought, according to documents
The exhaustive study of the papers from the Libyan government archives shows the links between MI5, MI6 and Gaddafi’s security agencies were far more extensive than previously thought and involved a number of joint operations in which Libyan dissidents were unlawfully detained and allegedly tortured.
At one point, Libyan intelligence agents were invited to operate on British soil, where they worked alongside MI5 and allegedly intimidated a number of Gaddafi opponents who had been granted asylum in the UK.
Previously, MI6 was known to have assisted the dictatorship with the kidnap of two Libyan opposition leaders, who were flown to Tripoli along with their families – including a six-year-old girl and a pregnant woman – in 2004.
However, the research suggests that the fruits of a series of joint clandestine operations also underpinned a significant number of court hearings in London between 2002 and 2007, during which the last Labour government unsuccessfully sought to deport Gaddafi’s opponents on the basis of information extracted from people who had been “rendered” to his jails.
An update from the the Yomiuri Shimbun:
All channels tried as 72-hr deadline nears/Govt seeks ways to free hostages
With the 72-hour deadline approaching, the government is stepping up efforts to collect information on two Japanese nationals taken hostage by a group believed to be the Islamic State via diplomatic channels and seek cooperation from Britain, Jordan and other countries to break the impasse.
On Thursday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the government has not been able to confirm the safety of hostages Kenji Goto and Haruna Yukawa.
Senior Vice Foreign Minister Yasuhide Nakayama, who heads a local headquarters set up in Amman to deal with the hostage crisis, met with King Abdullah II of Jordan and requested the country’s cooperation on Wednesday.
Fox News Latino fears of narcoterrorists using drones to target DEA agents:
DEA: Narco-drones not major smuggling concern, but could help set up attacks on agents
The worry for many in federal law enforcement is that smugglers – whether drug or human – will use their own drones to keep tabs on border agents and other law enforcement officers, allowing them to evade detection or, worse, set up attacks on federal agents.
During fiscal year 2014, which ended on Sept. 30, the CBP registered 373 attacks on Border Patrol agents, most of them on the U.S.-Mexico border. The Tucson sector accounted for the largest number of assaults, with 99 incidents, followed by the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, with 89.
“Surveillance is more of a concern ours than drug trafficking,” Barden said of the drones. “Especially in regards to the safety of all our law enforcement officers.”
From the New York Times, an Argentine crisis grows:
Argentine President Now Says Prosecutor’s Death Was Not a Suicide
Confronted with a deepening scandal, the president of Argentina abruptly reversed herself on Thursday, saying that the death of a prosecutor investigating the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center was not a suicide as she and other government officials had asserted.
The change of position by the president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, added a major new twist into the death of the prosecutor, Alberto Nisman, who was found dead in his luxury apartment in Buenos Aires late Sunday of a gunshot wound to the head.
Mr. Nisman has long accused Iran of planning and financing the attack, which left 85 people dead. But this month he intensified his claims, accusing Mrs. Kirchner and top aides of trying to subvert his 10-year investigation into the bombing — allegations that the government has flatly rejected.
Using intercepted phone transcripts, Mr. Nisman asserted that the government had pursued a secret deal with Iran to exchange Iranian oil for Argentine grains — and to shield Iranian officials from charges that they had orchestrated the bombing.
An update from Deutsche Welle:
Argentina’s Kirchner claims prosecutor died in operation to frame government
Argentine President Cristina Fernandez Kirchner has said she believes the death of Buenos Aires prosecutor Alberto Nisman was not suicide. Instead, she contested, it was part of a plot to mire her government in scandal.
Nisman was found dead at his home, with a gun and bullet casings beside him
In a post on her Internet site, Kirchner maintained that the lawyer – the lead prosecutor in a case against suspects in the 1994 bombing of the Argentine-Israeli Jewish Mutual Association (AMIA) Jewish center – was killed to immerse her government in scandal.
“I’m convinced that it was not suicide,” said Kirchner, asserting that Nisman’s accusation in itself had never been credible – and therefore represented no threat to her administration.
Kirchner suggested instead that Nisman’s death had been carefully timed and the prosecutor himself had been used to frame her and other officials.
The Guardian covers a later development:
Service door to Argentinian prosecutor’s home not fully locked
New findings raise questions over death of Alberto Nisman, who was found shot dead after alleging terrorist attack ‘cover up’
A locksmith has said the service door was not fully locked at the apartment where a crusading Argentinian prosecutor was found shot dead, and investigators have revealed the existence of a previously unknown entry, as more questions arose over the death of the man who had accused the president of a cover-up in a terrorist car bombing.
Alberto Nisman, who was set to testify to Congress on his allegations that President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner conspired to protect Iranian officials blamed for Argentina’s worst terrorist attack, was found late on Sunday next to a .22-calibre handgun and a bullet casing on the floor of the bathroom of his flat in Buenos Aires.
Viviana Fein, lead investigator into Nisman’s death, said on Monday it appeared to be suicide and there were no indications anyone else was involved. The apartment’s door was locked from the inside and there were no signs it had been forced, she said.
And the New York Times claims a coverup:
Argentine Phone Calls Detail Efforts to Shield Iran
Intercepted conversations between representatives of the Iranian and Argentine governments point to a long pattern of secret negotiations to reach a deal in which Argentina would receive oil in exchange for shielding Iranian officials from charges that they orchestrated the bombing of a Jewish community center in 1994.
The transcripts were made public by an Argentine judge on Tuesday night, as part of a 289-page criminal complaint written by Alberto Nisman, the special prosecutor investigating the attack. Mr. Nisman was found dead in his luxury apartment on Sunday, the night before he was to present his findings to Congress.
But the intercepted telephone conversations he described before his death outline an elaborate effort to reward Argentina for shipping food to Iran — and for seeking to derail the investigation into a terrorist attack in the Argentine capital that killed 85 people.
A Turkish beauty queen’s alleged act of lese majestie, via the Independent
Former Miss Turkey ‘questioned by police’ over poem criticising President Erdogan
Merve Büyüksaraç reportedly shared a satirical poem on social media
A former Miss Turkey winner was reportedly questioned by police after posting a satirical poem on social media mocking the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Merve Büyüksaraç, an industrial designer and model, shared a satirical poem on her Instagram account before taking the post down, Hurriyet Daily News (HDN) reports.
The alleged poem was ‘The Master’s Poem,’ which reportedly criticises President Erdogan and adapts the country’s national anthem in its verses.
Unflagging enthusiasm, via TheLocal.fr:
French flags burned in Charlie Hebdo protests
Protesters torched French flags in Iraq and Afghanistan on Thursday as thousands marched in Pakistan, all in protest against the image of the Prophet Muhammad on the cover of the latest issue of French magazine Charlie Hebdo.
After French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo printed a cover last week featuring the Prophet Muhammad in tears, reactions have spread far and wide across the world.
On Thursday in Baghdad, protesters carried banners reading “We demand the French authorities apologize to all Muslims,” and “No, no, France”, reported the AFP news agency.
More from Radio France Internationale:
Thousands protest at Charlie Hebdo Mohammed cartoon in Pakistan
Pakistan saw its biggest demonstration yet against French paper Charlie Hebdo’s latest cartoon of the prophet Mohammed on Friday with thousands on the streets of the commercial capital, Karachi. A religious party has called for a million people to turn out on Sunday.
Demonstrations in Pakistan against the “blasphemy” of depicting Mohammed have grown in size since the survivors of the Charlie Hebdo massacre published a reduced-size paper with the prophet on its front page last Wednesday.
Click for RFI reports of the Charlie Hebdo killings
“Down with Charlie Hebdo! Down with the blasphemers!” the thousands-strong crowd in Kaarachi chanted.
The protest was called by Sunni Tehreek, a political-religious movement set up in the 1990s by supporters the Barelvi school of Sunni Islam.
Virulent Islamophobia in Myanmar, via CNN:
Top U.N. official slams Myanmar monk over ‘whore’ comments
The United Nations’ top human rights official has called on Myanmar’s leaders to “unequivocally condemn” an ultra-nationalist Buddhist monk who labeled a visiting U.N. rapporteur a “whore” at a protest.
Ashin Wirathu, the leader of the far-right, anti-Muslim 969 movement, made the remarks about Yanghee Lee, the U.N.’s Special Rapporteur on Myanmar, at a public rally on Friday.
“Don’t assume you are a respectable person, just because of your position,” he said in the speech, footage of which was widely circulated on social media. “To us, you are just a whore.”
China delivers a papal warning, via SINA English:
China warns Vatican about potential Pope, Dalai Lama meeting
China on Wednesday urged the Vatican to take tangible steps to better ties, after Pope Francis sent his greetings to Chinese President Xi Jinping while denying that he had turned down a meeting with the Dalai Lama.
“China is always sincere in improving ties with the Vatican and has been making efforts to this end. We are willing to have constructive dialogue with the Vatican,” said Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying at a Wednesday press briefing in response to a question about the telegram.
Religious experts believed the pontiff’s greetings, a follow-up to two 2014 letters, are another encouraging sign of improving Sino-Vatican ties, but worried the possibility of a meeting with the Dalai Lama might be a setback to bilateral relations.
From the Washington Post, a Chinese crackdown on Chinese correspondents for Western media:
China harassing and imprisoning Chinese working for foreign news outlets
Zhang Miao has now been in prison for almost four months.
She is a Chinese researcher for a German newspaper in China, and her arrest has sparked fear, outrage and some soul-searching among foreign news organizations in China about the role of their Chinese assistants.
Reporting from China has become increasingly difficult and harrowing in recent years for both Chinese and foreign media, with a sweeping crackdown on press freedom since China’s President Xi Jinping took power.
According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, China had more journalists in prison last year than any other country. Most were Chinese citizens.
A video purge from SINA English:
More American TV shows taken down from China streaming sites
Several popular American TV series were removed from Chinese video-streaming sites on Wednesday, reportedly related to the top media watchdog’s new rules on managing online content.
The shows, including Agent Carter, Empire and Shameless, were taken down from video streaming sites like iqiyi.com, tv.sohu.com, youku.com, and v.qq.com.
Many netizens believe that the sudden removal was related to new rules announced last year by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT).
A Chinese warning to Washington over Asian sea disputes, via Xinhua:
China urges U.S. to be impartial in South China Sea
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson on Thursday urged non-parties to stick to an objective and impartial stance over the South China Sea issue.
Non-parties should contribute to mutual trust, cooperation, regional peace and stability instead of sowing discord or fanning flames, said spokeswoman Hua Chunying at a routine press briefing.
Hua’s remarks came after U.S. assistant secretary of state Daniel Russel on Wednesday said that “bigger nations can’t bully the small” in the South China Sea.
Parity reached, via Want China Times:
China may overtake Japan in naval power this year: report
Since Xi Jinping became China’s top leader, there has been a noticeable change in the country’s foreign policy, according to Duowei News, an outlet run by overseas Chinese.
Beijing has implemented a shift in the geopolitical focus of its global strategy, which has seen the relationship with the US and with the European Union displaced as first priority ties for the country. At the same time, China has strengthened its sea power, with many speculating that the power of the PLA Navy is set to overtake that of Japan in 2015.
At the end of November, as the US was scrambling to find a way to contain Russia, a low-profile but important meeting was being held in Beijing — the Central Conference on Work Relating to Foreign Affairs. At the meeting several leaders made key speeches that indicated a change in China’s external geopolitical strategy.
London and Tokyo near a security pact, via the Japan Times:
Japan, Britain agree closer on security cooperation
In their first-ever two-plus-two talks, Japan and Britain agreed Wednesday to enhance security cooperation, including the possible joint development of missile technology and an exercise to evacuate nationals from an overseas contingency.
The Japanese and British foreign affairs and defense ministers underscored readiness to enable the Self-Defense Forces and the British military to share supplies and transportation when deployed on U.N. peacekeeping operations.
Japan has already signed an acquisition and cross-servicing agreement, or ACSA, with the United States and Australia.
And from Kyodo News, Moscow calls out Tokyo for a historical learning fail:
Russia says Japan not learning from history
The Russian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday Japan does not wish to learn from history, after Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida compared the Ukrainian situation with Russia’s control of islands claimed by Japan both as being Russia’s attempts to change the status quo.
Noting the legitimacy of Russia’s sovereignty over the islands that the former Soviet Union seized after Japan’s surrender in World War II, the ministry said in a statement that the militarist Japan, together with Nazi Germany, destroyed the status quo before the war by military force and occupied many countries.
The islands are known as the Southern Kurils in Russia and as the Northern Territories in Japan.
