We begin with a case of serious security failure in Old Blighty via the Independent:
Hoax call put through to David Cameron from person claiming to be head of GCHQ
Security procedures are being reviewed at both No 10 and GCHQ, where a mobile phone number for director Robert Hannigan was disclosed to the caller
A hoax caller was put through to David Cameron’s phone after claiming to be the director of eavesdropping agency GCHQ.
The Prime Minister ended the call when it became clear it was a hoax and no sensitive information was disclosed, Downing Street said.
Security procedures are being reviewed at both No 10 and GCHQ, where a mobile phone number for director Robert Hannigan was disclosed to the caller.
A Government spokeswoman said: “Following two hoax calls to Government departments today, a notice has gone out to all departments to be on the alert for such calls.
From the Toronto Globe and Mail, Canadian punitive panopticon enhancements:
Anti-terror bill to give agencies more authority to share private information
Canada will introduce new legislation aimed at giving more powers to its police and security agencies in the two deadly attacks on Canadian soldiers on domestic soil, including a shooting in Parliament, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Sunday.
Mr. Harper said the new laws will be put before Parliament next Friday.
“These measures are designed to help authorities stop planned attacks, get threats off our streets, criminalize the promotion of terrorism, and prevent terrorists from traveling and recruiting others,” he said in the prepared text of speech in Ottawa.
“It will contain a range of measures to ensure that our police and security agencies have the tools they need to meet evolving threats, and keep Canadians safe.”
The Associated Press covers security insecurity in Spain:
Thousands of Spaniards protest proposed security law
Thousands of protesters are marching in Spanish cities to express their opposition to a proposed law that would set hefty fines for offenses like demonstrating outside parliament buildings or strategic installations.
Protesters with tape over their mouths and carrying banners calling the measures a “gagging law” gathered Sunday near Spain’s parliament under heavy police surveillance.
The bill is heavily criticized by opposition parties and human rights groups as an attempt by the government to muzzle protests over its handling of Spain’s financial crisis. The law would allow fines of up to 600,000 euros ($745,000) for individuals demonstrating outside key buildings if they are deemed to breach the peace.
From the Hill, a billing notice:
NSA reform still cyber bill’s biggest hurdle
By June 1, Congress must reauthorize the sections of the Patriot Act that are the basis for the NSA’s most controversial surveillance programs.
Surveillance concerns have taken a back seat to cybersecurity following the dramatic hack on Sony and a subsequent White House cyber push. But many believe NSA reforms are crucial before the centerpiece of the White House’s cybersecurity proposal — cyber information sharing between the public and private sector — can pass Congress.
“I think whenever you talk about cyber information sharing, you’re going to have to address the NSA issue, or, more properly, the privacy issue,” said Alex Manning, who was staff director of the House Homeland Security subcommittee on cybersecurity last Congress.
The White House proposal would put the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) at the center of a program allowing the private sector to share information about cyber threats with government agencies, in exchange for legal liability protection.
Sputnik covers iNsecurity:
Snowden Refuses to Use iPhone for Security Reasons
According to the Edward Snowden’s lawyer, the whistleblower never uses an iPhone due to security issues, as iPhone has special software that can activate itself without the owner and gather information about him.
Former US National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden never uses an iPhone as this device has software able to collect personal information regarding its owner, the whistleblower’s lawyer said Monday.
“Edward never uses an IPhone, he’s got a simple phone… The iPhone has special software that can activate itself without the owner, having to press a button and gather information about him, that’s why on security grounds he refused to have this phone,” Anatoly Kucherena told RIA Novosti.
Kucherena added that the decision on whether or not to use an iPhone is a matter of personal choice, but Snowden is approaching this issue from a professional standpoint.
From the Los Angeles Times, bigots on the march in Germany:
Anti-migrant group marches in Germany despite scandal
Thousands of supporters of a far-right German anti-immigrant group marched Sunday for the first time since their leader stepped down in disgrace after posing as Adolf Hitler and making remarks that were widely perceived to be racist.
The group, Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West, widely known by the acronym PEGIDA, had been forced to abandon its weekly Monday march last week after Dresden police announced that “concrete threats” had been made against a member of the movement’s organization team.
Then-founder Lutz Bachmann resigned in the midst of a furor over remarks he made on Facebook, calling refugees “animals” and “scum.” At about the same time, photos surfaced—and were prominently displayed in German newspapers—showing Bachmann sporting a Hitler haircut and mustache.
While PEGIDA spokeswoman Kathrin Oertel acknowledged that Bachmann’s comments crossed the line, she played down the significance of the Hitler photo, describing it as “satire, which is every citizen’s right.”
More from the Washington Post:
New far-right anti-immigrant sentiment hits German streets
Ahmed, a 36-year-old Moroccan, hoped to find a better life in Europe’s economic powerhouse, Germany. But these days in Dresden, he said, he is afraid to walk the streets.
This urban phoenix rebuilt from ashes after World War II is the center of a movement against immigrants — Muslims in particular — that has shocked much of the rest of Germany even as anti-immigration marches have spread to 10 cities nationwide. Downtown Dresden, Ahmed and other immigrants here say, has become a no-go zone for them on Monday nights, when the Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West — or Pegida, in German — stages its weekly rallies.
Since the movement was founded here last October, refugee advocates say the number of aggressive acts against foreigners has sharply increased. After one Pegida rally just before Christmas, for instance, demonstrators chased a group of young refugees, leaving a 15-year-old girl battered and bruised.
From Deutsche Welle, a parallel track:
Saxony’s premier Tillich says Islam is not part of Germany
The premier of the eastern German state of Saxony, Stanislaw Tillich, says he disagrees with Chancellor Merkel on the status of Islam in Germany. But he says he wants more immigrants in his state.
In an interview published on Sunday, Tillich told the paper Welt am Sonntag that he did not hold Chancelor Angela Merkel’s recently expressed view that Islam was a part of Germany.
“I do not share this opinion,” Tillich said. “Muslims are welcome in Germany and can practice their religion. But this does not meant that Islam is part of Saxony.”
While condemning the xenophobic views expressed by some PEGIDA members, Tillich, who belongs to Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, called for continued dialogue with the organization, saying many of its fears were born of a dissatisfaction with the “political decision-making process and decisions.”
“To counter misleading rumors, you need objective arguments and information. To counter fears, education and information are necessary,” Tillich said.
From Jiji Press, another hostage slain:
Photo of Apparent Murder of Japanese Hostage Credible: Abe
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Sunday that a photo that appeared to show the Islamic State militant group had beheaded one of its two Japanese hostages is highly credible.
Abe commented in a television program on the picture showing what appears to be the murdered body of Haruna Yukawa, 42, believed to have been held hostage by the group along with Kenji Goto, 47.
Abe told U.S. President Barack Obama over the phone later that Japan will not give in to terrorism and that this is an unforgivable act of violence and that he feels strong outrage.
More from GlobalPost:
Abe remains defiant, says Japan will never give in to terrorism
With one hostage remaining with the Islamic State, Abe said Sunday that Japan is ‘not wavering at all on this policy.’
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sunday branded the murder of a Japanese hostage by Islamic State militants as “outrageous and unforgivable” and demanded the immediate release of a second captive, amid a tide of global revulsion.
The apparent beheading of self-employed security contractor Haruna Yukawa was announced in a video generally agreed to be credible, and appeared to mark a grave turn of events in a crisis that has gripped Japan for nearly a week.
“Such an act of terrorism is outrageous and unforgivable,” Abe told broadcaster NHK. “I condemn it strongly and resolutely,” he said, calling for the immediate freeing of Yukawa’s fellow captive, freelance journalist Kenji Goto.
The United Press International covers another hostage:
White House: American women still being held hostage by ISIS
ISIS is demanding $6.6 million or a prisoner-swap for her safe release
A White House spokesman confirmed on Sunday that a woman from the United States remains a hostage of the Islamic State, and that the administration is working aggressively to free any and all captives.
“We are sparing no expense and sparing no effort, both in trying to make sure that we know where they are and make sure that we’re prepared to do anything we must to try to get them home,” White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”
As the White House confirmed Sunday, an unnamed 26-year-old American woman remains under the control of IS. She has been held by the terrorist group for nearly two years, taken in April of 2013 while serving on a humanitarian mission in the region.
After the jump, inside the ISIS training camps, Germans cancel Saudi arms sales, anti-immigrant riots in South Africa, Egyptians riots suppressed with 17 dead, Boko Haram escalates Nigerian assaults, Riots repressed with violence in Yemen, thousands arrested in Pakistani crackdown and gridlock on Pakistani’s anti-terror strategy, multiple police deaths in a Philippine anti-terror raid, the deadliest bolt in China’s nuclear quiver, Shinzo Abe plans more historical revisionism, more protests against an American base relocation in Okinawa, and to close, a dose of British utopianism. . .
A look inside ISIS boot camps, via the Observer:
The secret world of Isis training camps – ruled by sacred texts and the sword
We reveal how the terror group recruits and retains its members through zealotry, rhetoric and obscure theology
Clerics in charge of religious training at Isis, known as sharii, are mostly academically qualified and have longstanding experience within the organisation’s ranks. Isis also relies on young clerics who have recently joined its ranks to compensate for the shortage of imams to cover the approximately 20 mosques in every town that falls under its control. It often uses imams with limited religious training to speak at pulpits across eastern Syria and western Iraq, where mosques had typically been controlled by Sufis from the Naqshbandi order or its Khaznawi branch before Isis arrived. (Isis also uses local imams to pit local residents against each other as part of its divide and rule strategy.) These imams are generally asked to preach about three key concepts that are shared by all Salafi and jihadist groups, but Isis has its own take on their functionalities, namely tawhid (strict monotheism), bida’a (deviation in religious matters) and wala wal baraa (loyalty to Islam and disloyalty to anything un-Islamic).
“People say al-dawla excommunicates Muslims,” said Abu Moussa, using the term “al-dawla”, or State, in reference to Isis. “We don’t do that. Yes, we have no tolerance for anybody who opposes our message. Why do we fight the Free Syrian Army? We spread our message by proselytisation and sword. Ibn Taymiyyah said ‘the foundation of this religion is a book that guides and a sword that brings victory’. We guide and the sword brings victory. If someone opposes the message of the prophet, he faces nothing but the sword. As the prophet spread the message across the Earth, we are doing the same. When al-dawla first fought the Free Syrian Army, it was a problem for many. They did not believe the accusations. But later, one thing after another began to unfold and people started to accept them.”
Another member echoed Abu Moussa’s reasoning. “The prophet said: ‘I have been given victory by means of terror.’ As for slaughter, beheading and crucifixion, this is in the Qu’ran and Sunna [oral sayings attributed to prophet Muhammad]. In the videos we produce, you see the sentence ‘deal with them in a way that strikes fear in those behind them’, and that verse speaks for itself. One more thing: the prophet told the people of Quraish, ‘with slaughter I came to you’.”
From TheLocal.de, no deal:
Germany halts arms exports to Saudis
Germany has decided to stop arms exports to Saudi Arabia because of “instability in the region,” German daily Bild reported on Sunday.
Weapons orders from Saudi Arabia have either been “rejected, pure and simple,” or deferred for further consideration, the newspaper said, adding that the information has not been officially confirmed.
The decision was taken on Wednesday by the national security council, a government body that includes Chancellor Angela Merkel, Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel and seven other ministers, it said.
“According to government sources, the situation in the region is too unstable to ship arms there,” added the daily.
From the Associated Press, anti-immigrant riots in South Africa:
South Africa shaken by anti-immigrant riots
South African authorities have re-established order — for now — in Soweto and other Johannesburg townships, after a week of looting of foreign-owned shops and violence in which four people were killed.
The 19-year-old mother of an infant who died after being trampled by a mob during the looting said she was accidentally caught in the street chaos. Some witnesses, however, said the mother was herself pillaging when she was knocked down with her baby strapped to her chest.
The dispute about the baby boy, Nqobile Majozi, echoes conflicting stories about what motivated some of the worst unrest in Soweto and nearby areas since protests swept the same districts before white racist rule ended in 1994. The casualty toll was higher during mass rallies and bloody, apartheid-era crackdowns, but the new upheaval raises concerns about anti-immigrant sentiment, the frustration of the poor and the government’s handling of social tensions.
In a separate incident, a truck carrying livestock overturned on a highway in the Johannesburg area last week, and people carrying knives and buckets descended on the injured cattle and slaughtered nearly three-dozen for their meat, according to Eyewitness News, a South African media outlet. The driver alleged that people on a bridge threw objects at his vehicle, causing it to crash.
Egyptians riots suppressed with 17 dead, via Reuters:
At least 17 killed in protests on anniversary of Egypt uprising
At least 17 people were killed on Sunday in Egypt’s bloodiest protests since Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was elected president, as security forces fired at protesters marking the anniversary of the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak.
Gunfire and sirens could be heard in Cairo into the night as armoured personnel carriers moved through the centre of a city where security forces had once again used lethal force against dissenters. A Health Ministry spokesman said at least 17 people had been killed at protests across the country.
The anniversary was a test of whether Islamists and liberal activists had the resolve to challenge a government that has persistently stamped out dissent since the then-army chief Sisi ousted elected Islamist president Mohamed Mursi in July 2013 after mass protests against his rule.
Boko Haram escalates Nigerian assaults, via Reuters:
Nigeria repels suspected Boko Haram attack on Maiduguri city
Nigeria’s military repelled multiple attacks by suspected Boko Haram militants on Borno state capital Maiduguri in the northeast, security sources said on Sunday, but the insurgents captured another Borno town.
The assault on Maiduguri, with a population of around two million, began just after midnight. Sources at two hospitals said at least eight people had died and 27, mostly civilians, had been injured. A second attempt to take the city’s airport in the afternoon was also repelled.
A raid on Monguno, 140 km (80 miles) north, began later in the morning and the town fell under militant control by the late afternoon.
Riots repressed with violence in Yemen, via Al Jazeera English:
Yemen’s Houthis violently disperse Sanaa protest
Shia rebels break up anti-Houthi rally in Sanaa, arresting protesters and attacking journalists, witnesses say
Houthi fighters have violently dispersed a protest against their takeover of the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, wounding several people, witnesses have said.
The Houthis reportedly arrested several demonstrators in Sanaa on Sunday, after firing rounds in the air to break-up the rally by their opponents.
Witnesses told the AFP news agency that several protesters who had gathered near Sanaa University, in the heart of the city, were injured while journalists were attacked and had their cameras broken.
Thousands arrested in Pakistani crackdown, via the Express Tribune:
National Action Plan: Nearly 9,000 ‘terrorists’, 1,710 clerics arrested
Security officials have rounded up at least 9,000 suspected terrorists and 1,710 clerics as part of a massive crackdown launched in the wake of the execution of the National Action Plan (NAP).
The crackdown – mounted after a new anti-terror strategy was drawn up to eradicate militancy from the country – has also targeted people promoting hate speech. Up to 3,100 prayer leaders of various seminaries/mosques in Punjab, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and Islamabad have been picked up so far.
Over 3,650 Afghan refugees suspected of involvement in terror-related activities, were also arrested by the police, Rangers and Frontier Constabulary (FC) across the country, according to the latest figures obtained by The Express Tribune.
Another 490 and 400 suspected militants have been picked up in Sindh and Balochistan, respectively.
And gridlock on Pakistani’s anti-terror strategy, via the Express Tribune:
Counter-terrorism plan: Deadlock as religious, secular parties stick to their guns
A deadlock persists on a mechanism for the implementation of a new national plan to counter terrorism and extremism as the federal government struggles to evolve a consensus on required changes in the country’s criminal justice system.
The 20-point National Action Plan was worked out at two multiparty conferences that followed the December 16 massacre of schoolchildren at the Army Public School in Peshawar. Subsequently, parliament approved constitutional changes in order to set up military courts for speedy trial of terror suspects.
Sources in the interior ministry told The Express Tribune that some parliamentary parties have concerns over certain points of the NAP, including functioning and scope of the military courts, and action against militant groups, banned outfits, seminaries and hate literature.
From Deutsche Welle, multiple police deaths in a Philippine anti-terror raid:
Philippine pursuit ends in shoot-out
Reports from the Philippines say numerous police commandos have been killed in a clash with Muslim rebels while pursuing a Malaysian bombing suspect on Mindanao island. The clash interrupts a year-old peace deal.
Local Filipino officials said as many as 27 police personnel and five rebels were killed during the 12-hour battle. Government and rebel intermediaries later held talks to prevent a further escalation.
The reported toll would make it the largest single-day combat loss for Philippines forces in many years.
The Philippine army said the police commandos had wanted to arrest Zulkifli bin Hir, a suspected Malaysian bomb-making expert wanted by the US on a $5 million bounty (4.5 million euros).
Also known as Marwan, he is believed to have been hiding in the country’s south since 2003.
The deadliest bolt in China’s nuclear quiver, via Want China Times:
Anti-ship cruise missile is China’s deadliest weapon: US expert
Anti-ship cruise missiles like the YJ-83 will pose the largest threat to the United States and its security partners in the Western Pacific, Associate professor Lyle Goldstein from the US Naval War College writes in an article for the Washington-based National Interest magazine on Jan. 22.
Goldstein said the outcome of the Falklands War between Britain and Argentina in 1982 would have been different if Argentina possessed between 50 to 100 Exocet anti-ship cruise missiles. However, it lost the war because it only had five Exocets to take on the British task force sent to reclaim the islands in the South Atlantic following the Argentine invasion. China has devoted huge resources in the development of anti-ship cruise missiles over the last 30 years to prepare for a potential conflict off its coast.
Equipped with sophisticated radars and electronic countermeasures, the large fleet of land-based aircraft of the People’s Liberation Army Navy pose a great threat to regional stability, Goldstein said, adding that the PLA Navy has the capability to launch an “air-sea battle” with Chinese characteristics. The arrival of 24 Russian-built Su-30MK2 fighters in 2004 for the first time has given Beijing a credible “air-sea battle” strategy.
Shinzo Abe plans more historical revisionism, via Kyodo News:
PM Abe keen to reflect gov’t stance in wording of WWII statement
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Sunday he wants to reflect his government’s position in a statement to be released in August on the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, signaling that the wording of a 1995 statement, which offered apologies for Japan’s wartime aggression in Asia, could be changed.
“Rather than whether to use the wording we have repeated, I want to issue (a statement) in light of how the Abe government considers the matter,” he said on a TV program aired Sunday morning.
Asian countries as well as the United States are closely watching for whether the new statement will stick to a 1995 statement issued by then Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama.
More protests against an American base relocation in Okinawa, via the Japan Times:
Thousands protest in Tokyo against Futenma move
Thousands of people gathered Sunday outside the Diet to protest the plan to move U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to the Henoko district in Okinawa from the city of Ginowan.
Various speakers addressed what they described as the harmful presence of U.S. forces in Okinawa, including excessive force to clamp down on protesters and environmental damage, and the government’s refusal to address these concerns.
The speakers included Australian-born Catherine Jane Fisher who, addressing the crowd through a translator, delivered an “open message to Prime Minister (Shinzo) Abe.”
And to close, British utopianism, via the London Telegraph:
British army to be replaced by ‘home defence force’ if Greens win power in May
Natalie Bennett, the leader of the Greens, also said she wanted to take down immigration controls
The British army would be replaced with a new “home defence force” and immigration controls dismantled if the Green party wins power in May.
Natalie Bennett, the leader of the Greens, also said illegal migrants would be given the right to stay in the UK. She added that in the longer term she wanted all immigration controls to be taken down.
She also suggested that the Greens would not be illegal for people in the United Kingdom to join terrorist organisations such as al Qaida or Islamic State.
