Plus so much more.
And we begin with a couple of cases of American domestic terrorism, both from the Associated Press:
Mom charged with threatening to blow up daughter’s school
Authorities say a mother got so angry when told that her daughter had failed a New York state exam that she threatened to bomb the school.
Karen Shearon pleaded not guilty when she was arraigned Friday on a misdemeanor aggravated harassment charge.
A court complaint says the 48-year-old told a Staten Island high school guidance counselor Tuesday she was “going to blow up the school.”
And that second Associated Press story:
Ex-worker convicted in Home Depot bomb plot gets 30 years
A former employee convicted of planting a pipe bomb at a Home Depot store to try to extort $2 million from the company was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Daniel Sheehan’s case stemmed from a scare that spurred the evacuation of a Home Depot in Huntington in October 2012. Sheehan had sent an anonymous letter saying he’d put a bomb in the lighting department to show that he could plant one without being detected, and that he’d actually set off bombs in three other Long Island Home Depot stores on Black Friday that year if not paid, federal prosecutors said.
“This is a frightening type of crime” that also was costly for the store, U.S. District Judge Denis Hurley said at Sheehan’s sentencing Friday. Prosecutors said the company spent $1.5 million for additional security guards and other safety measures.
From the Guardian, look but don’t touch?:
Judge rules man’s upskirt photos of girl, 13, at Target not a crime but appalling
Portland man, 61, admits to snapping photos up her skirt, but he did not violate privacy laws because such sightings can occur by happenstance, judge cites
An Oregon judge has ruled that a 61-year-old man did nothing illegal when he crouched in the aisle of a Target store and snapped photos up a 13-year-old’s skirt.
It was lewd and appalling, but not outlawed, Washington county judge Eric Butterfield said.
“From a legal point of view, which unfortunately today is my job to enforce, he didn’t do anything wrong,” the judge said on Thursday.
The Associated Press covers an unhealthy situation:
No encryption standard raises health care privacy questions
nsurers aren’t required to encrypt consumers’ data under a 1990s federal law that remains the foundation for health care privacy in the Internet age — an omission that seems striking in light of the major cyberattack against Anthem.
Encryption uses mathematical formulas to scramble data, converting sensitive details coveted by intruders into gibberish. Anthem, the second-largest U.S. health insurer, has said the data stolen from a company database that stored information on 80 million people was not encrypted.
The main federal health privacy law — the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA — encourages encryption, but doesn’t require it.
The lack of a clear encryption standard undermines public confidence, some experts say, even as the government plows ahead to spread the use of computerized medical records and promote electronic information sharing among hospitals, doctors and insurers.
PandoDaily covers the cost of compromise:
How the ACLU, Ron Paul and a former EFF Director helped jail a CIA whistleblower
CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou, who went public about torture programs and was later jailed for leaking the name of a covert CIA agent, was just released from prison to serve out the remaining months of his sentence under house arrest. Kiriakou is the first CIA spy ever jailed for leaking secrets, and only the second American ever convicted under a 1982 law making it a crime to publicly identify covert CIA agents.
The story of how that law, the “Intelligence Identities Protection Act,” came to be is an important and depressing story in its own right, one that’s been totally forgotten. And for good reason: Bad memories are best suppressed, until they creep back up and become a serious “now” problem, and you need to figure out how things got to this point.
The story behind the 1982 law used to jail Kiriakou fills in some of the blanks about how the modern secrecy apparatus was first put together beginning in the Reagan-Bush years. It also reveals the complicity and collaboration of our leading civil libertarians in creating the secrecy-and-censorship leviathan that these same civil libertarians claim to be fighting today on our behalf. Everyone from the ACLU, libertarian hero Ron Paul, even the first executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation was complicit in giving us the anti-whistleblower law that put John Kiriakou in prison.
From CBC News, setting spooky limits in Canada:
Bill C-51 bars CSIS from committing ‘bodily harm,’ sexual violation
Bill C-51 would grant spy agency the power to ‘reduce the threat’ of terrorism, but tactics unclear
The government’s proposed anti-terror legislation expands the powers of Canadian Security Intelligence Service to allow it to “disrupt” suspected terrorist threats — but it also expressly prohibits CSIS from killing or seriously injuring a subject.
What’s not clear exactly is where the line between those activities is drawn and what that means for the agency when it comes to interrogation techniques, experts on civil liberties and security point out.
Bill C-51 would allow CSIS to take measures within or outside Canada to reduce threats to the security of Canada, but doesn’t spell out exactly what those measures could be. The bill lists prohibited activities, barring CSIS from:
Intentionally or by criminal negligence cause death or bodily harm.
In any way trying to obstruct, pervert or defeat the course of justice.
Violating the sexual integrity of an individual.
MintPress News covers a would-be police power grab:
NYPD Pushes For Broad Expansion Of Arrest Powers
NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton is urgently advising that they raise the penalty for resisting arrest from a misdemeanor to a felony
2 days ago, NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton pushed state legislators to consider raising the penalty for what could be considered the most useful tool at the disposal of police — resisting arrest. He is urgently advising that they raise the penalty for resisting arrest from a misdemeanor to a felony.
He said the raise in penalty would ensure that New York residents “get around this idea that you can resist arrest. You can’t.”
“You must submit to arrest, you cannot resist …The place to argue your case is in the courts, not in the streets.”
Several news outlets recognized the audacity of this plea for harsher laws, a Gawker article sporting the headline ‘NYPD Has a Plan to Magically Turn Anyone It Wants Into A Felon’. A Vox article has the headline ‘The NYPD chief supports harsher penalties for resisting arrest. That’s a horrifying idea.’
From Deutsche Welle, just like the first President Bush?:
Turkish spymaster Fidan quits to contest parliamentary election
Hakan Fidan, the head of Turkey’s intelligence service has resigned to run in a parliamentary election in June. Fidan is a close ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The head of the Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT), also one of the closest confidants of the president, has resigned to stand for election as a lawmaker, the official Anatolia news agency reported on Saturday.
Fidan played a key role in trying to stop the hacking of confidential state communications during a corruption scandal implicating Erdogan’s inner circle last year.
The former spymaster has been widely seen as a potential future foreign minister. “He will take the best of any job in place,” Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu – himself a former foreign minister – told the Hurriyet newspaper this week. He further described Fidan as “brave and valiant.”
From CBC News, trans-border bluster:
Anti-terrorism talk: Harper and Obama sound like yin and yang
White House refers to warped interpretation of Islam, Canadian PM warns of ‘great evil’
The last few days have shown vivid differences in the way the leaders of Canada and the United States discuss terrorism and the threat posed by Islamist fighters.
One raises the alert level. The other dials it down.
It’s been like a linguistic laboratory, with the chance to compare the choice of words from Prime Minister Stephen Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama over a similar time period.
After the jump, on to the war as the coalition launches 26 air strikes, another country prepares to rejoin the fray, a massive body count, reluctant Chinese ISIS recruits killed, ISIS sets a price for child slaves, the cinematic caliphate, returning European ISIS recruits tell tales of horror, and six Americans charged with aiding ISIS, 400+ Israeli rabbis protest Palestinian home demolitions, an estimate of Boko Haram battle strength as their attacks force a Nigerian election delay, Niger claims a Boko Haram body count, and troops are pledged for a multinational African anti-Boko Haram military force, Miss Universe sought a a Colombian peace negotiator, Pakistan enforces a ban on YouTube, North Korea fires off a new naval cruise missile, Japanese favor only non-military Mideast aid, Japanese U.S. bombing survivors push for state compensation, Japan looks to Moscow to resolve an insular dispute, Japanese publisher treats Mohammed’s face the same way Japanese video pornographers treat genitalia, and Tokyo inaugurates emergency SMS ap for Japanese abroad. . .
On to the battlefront and bombs away, via the Guardian
US-led coalition launches 26 air strikes against Isis in Syria and Iraq
As US and allies continue attacks and Jordan launches its own air strikes against militants, family of American aid worker holds out hope that she is still alive
US-led forces have launched 15 air strikes against Islamic State (Isis) militants in Iraq and 11 in Syria since Friday, the US military said on Saturday, adding that nine targets in Syria centered around the border city of Kobani that was recaptured from the militants last month.
On Friday, supporters of Isis claimed that an American aid worker held hostage by the militant group had been killed in a Jordanian air strike intended to avenge the burning to death of a captured Jordanian pilot.
Jordan carried out a third straight day of air strikes on Isis targets on Saturday, it said.
From the Washington Post, another country prepares to rejoin the fray:
UAE to resume airstrikes against the Islamic State, U.S. officials say
The United Arab Emirates is expected to resume airstrikes that it suspended after a Jordanian pilot was executed after being shot down over Syria last month, according to senior State Department officials.
UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed told Secretary of State John F. Kerry during a meeting Friday with Gulf diplomats that an announcement would be made within a few days, the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the talks, said.
The officials said they believe the decision was based in part on the “outrage” the six Arab diplomats expressed over a video showing Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh caged and drenched in fuel before he was burned alive.
A massive body count, via Reuters:
Syria death toll now exceeds 210,000: rights group
The death toll after nearly four years of civil war in Syria has risen to 210,060, nearly half of them civilians, but the real figure is probably much higher, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Saturday.
The Observatory, which is based in Britain and has a network of activists across Syria, said that 10,664 children and 6,783 women were among the dead.
Reuters tried to contact Syrian authorities for comment, but they were not immediately available.
Reluctant Chinese ISIS recruits killed, via Want China Times:
Islamic State reportedly kills three fleeing Chinese members
Extremist militant group Islamic State (IS) reportedly executed 120 of its own members over the past six months, including three Chinese nationals who tried to flee after joining the organization, according to the Global Times.
The official paper of the Communist Party of China People’s Daily cited a security official in the Kurdistan area, who said that one of the three Chinese nationals was killed in September after he was found planning to leave the organization which occupies large portions of Syria and Iraq.
The Chinese national was said to have entered IS-controlled Syria through Turkey and was reported by a Syrian IS member when attempting to flee, leading to his execution.
ISIS sets a price for child slaves, via CNN:
ISIS putting price tags on Iraqi children, selling them as slaves, U.N. says
ISIS has stepped up the use of children in its bloody campaign of terror, the United Nations says — subjecting them to horrors that include putting price tags on them to sell as slaves.
A report released this week focused on children in Iraq, as well as the responsibility of that nation’s government for ensuring the safety and security of young civilians in the conflict. But it certainly doesn’t preclude similar things happening in Syria, where ISIS is also entrenched and also has been blamed for various atrocities.
In reference to Iraq, at least, the U.N. report found that the terrorist group is resorting more and more to brutal acts such as enslaving, raping, beheading, crucifying and burying people alive. Some of those affected are children.
From MintPress News, the cinematic caliphate:
Slaying, Slaughtering, And Burning: ISIS, The Cinematic Caliphate
Watching the latest videos posted by the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq (ISIS), it is easy to see the changes in cinematic technique and the group’s choice of English as the main language. Their latest video, showing Jordanian pilot Moaz Kasasbeh being burned alive, sets a new precedent for brutality, ruthlessness, and high quality propaganda.
Before ISIS, most jihadist videos only documented various kinds of combat operations. The camera was always present to record the battles, to be incorporated in a single tape as part of a detailed report, which was released periodically as part of the counter-propaganda through which the group was trying to compete with the global media.
These videos were an attempt to say: we are present and will persist. The jihadist journey into visual production took a while to exceed this dull documentation. This shift only came after the change of the military situation on the ground.
In the nineties, the video “Russian’s Hell (Chechen Mujahideen)” set an unusual precedent. Youths rushed to watch and share the video, and jihadist songs were recorded on cassette tapes. Islamist fighters witnessed a period of glory in Afghanistan. Anecdotes about God supporting them and sending angels to fight with them went unquestioned. This was before everyone realized, years later, that the angels were highly-accurate US missiles.
Today, we are witnessing a completely different era, marked by a jihadist movement far more advanced than anything we have seen before. They coincide with a far more sophisticated viewership, who have access to the source of information and can scrutinize any image. Today’s viewers, who live in an age of instability where conspiracy theories prevails, have come to question everything. There is a direct relation between the new public psychology and ISIS’ new style of audiovisual production. Increasing suspicion has to be met with greater propaganda.
Returning Europoean ISIS recruits tell tales of horror, via News Corp Australia:
Returned jihadists reveal brutality of Islamic State group
JIHADISTS returning to Germany from fighting with the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq have revealed the extent of the terrorist militia’s brutality against its own members, according to a newspaper article.
Some 200 German jihadists have returned from the fighting and one in five of them is co-operating with German security services and giving details of the time spent with IS, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported on Saturday.
Many of the returning fighters speak of a climate of fear, mistrust and mercilessness. One spoke of being taken to a “slaughterhouse” because he refused to hand over his passport. The walls and floor were covered in blood.
And six Americans charged with aiding ISIS, via United Press International:
Six people charged in U.S. for allegedly supporting Islamic State
Six people of Bosnian descent were charged for allegedly providing support to the Islamic State, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday.
The six suspects, five of whom have been arrested, are accused of shipping firearms, camouflage clothing, military boots, rifle scopes, gloves and other military gear to radicals in Syria suspected of being linked to IS, which is also known by the acronyms ISIS and ISIL. The items were allegedly shipped by the U.S. Postal Service to Istanbul, then smuggled to Syria.
Those named in the indictment are Ramiz Zijad Hodzic, 40, and his wife, Sedina Unkic Hodzic, 35, and Armin Harcevic, 37, of St. Louis County, Mo.; Nihad Rosic, 26, of Utica, N.Y.; Mediha Medy Salkicevic, 34, of Schiller Park, Ill.; and Jasminka Ramic, 42, of Rockford, Ill.
400+ Israeli rabbis protest Palestinian home demolitions, via the Independent:
Hundreds of rabbis from around the world call on Israel to halt demolition of Palestinian homes
More than 400 rabbis from Israel, Britain and around the world have called on Benjamin Netanyahu to stop the demolition of Palestinian homes.
Rabbis for Human Rights (RHR) has submitted an open letter to the Israeli Prime Minister claiming his stance is not in line with “international law and Jewish tradition”.
It came after Mr Netanyahu announced the destruction of more than 400 Palestinian homes in the Israel-controlled part of the West Bank known as Area C.
An estimate of Boko Haram battle strength, via Reuters:
Nigeria’s Boko Haram has up to 6,000 hardcore militants: U.S. officials
The Islamist militant group, Boko Haram, which is fighting a violent insurgency in northeast Nigeria, has about 4,000-6,000 “hardcore” fighters, U.S. intelligence officials said on Friday.
In an assessment of the group, whose five-year uprising has included massacres and kidnappings and spread from Nigeria into neighboring states, the officials said they did not believe it posed a major threat to Nigeria’s oilfields in the south.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the militants were believed to be still holding about 300 schoolgirls they kidnapped early last year and had dispersed them to multiple locations.
As their attacks force a Nigerian election delay, via the Guardian:
Nigeria poll postponed over battle with Boko Haram
President Goodluck Jonathan fights to stay in power as foreign troops battle Islamist threat
Nigeria has postponed elections scheduled for next weekend to allow international forces to regain control of areas in the north-east of the country currently held by the Islamist extremists of Boko Haram.
The country’s electoral commission said on Saturday night that the election, which had been scheduled for 14 February, will now be held on 28 March.
The postponement will increase tension surrounding an intense election campaign which has been conducted in the shadow of Boko Haram’s brutal assaults on towns and villages of the north-east.
Niger claims a Boko Haram body count, via Reuters:
Niger forces kill 109 Boko Haram militants in battle: state TV
Niger’s forces killed 109 fighters from the Islamist militant group Boko Haram on Friday as they repulsed attacks on the southeastern town of Bosso, near the Nigerian border, Niger state television said.
Four soldiers from Niger were killed in the fighting against Boko Haram, whose insurgency is spreading from Nigeria to neighboring states.
And troops are pledged, via Reuters:
African nations pledge 8,700 for anti-Boko Haram force
African nations pulling together a regional force to fight Nigeria’s Boko Haram militants on Saturday pledged 8,700 soldiers, policemen and civilians, an increase from earlier estimates for the mission.
The African Union had previously authorised a force of 7,500 troops from Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Benin to take on the Islamists, who have seized large swathes of northeastern Nigeria and mounted attacks on neighbouring nations.
With Nigeria also trying to organise elections and the militant threat turning increasingly regional, diplomats have said neighbouring nations must bury mutual mistrust and join the fight to defeat the militants.
Miss Universe sought a a Colombian peace negotiator, via the Guardian:
Farc invites Miss Universe to assist in negotiation of peace deal with Colombia
Leftist rebels take newly crowned beauty queen Pauline Vega up on her offer to go to Havana so that an agreement can be signed
Whoever wears the Miss Universe crown can expect to be invited to star-studded cocktail parties, balls, charity events and galas. The newly crowned Miss Universe, however, has been given a different kind of invitation.
Leftist Farc rebels, from Pauline Vega’s native Colombia, want her to visit them in Havana, where they are trying to negotiate a peace deal with the Colombian government.
In a brief letter, Farc leaders invited the beauty queen to Havana “to inform [her] about the development of the negotiation process, its progress and the contributions that you and the great majorities who wish for peace can offer”.
Vega, a 22-year-old model and student of business administration who was named Miss Universe on 25 January at a pageant in Florida, said in a post-crowning interview she would be “willing to go to Havana so that a peace deal can be signed”.
Pakistan enforces a ban on YouTube, via the Express Tribune:
YouTube to remain blocked in Pakistan ‘indefinitely’: officials
YouTube will remain blocked in Pakistan ‘indefinitely’, an official said on Saturday, as experts have failed to find a way to filter content deemed offensive and blasphemous.
The video-sharing website has been blocked in Pakistan since September 2012 over its hosting of the “Innocence of Muslims” movie that sparked furious protests around the world.
The Supreme Court ruled at the time that the site should be banned until a way was found to block all so-called blasphemous content.
North Korea fires off a new naval cruise missile, via United Press International:
North Korea test-fires new anti-ship cruise missile
North Korean leader Kim Jung Un oversaw the test-firing of a “cutting-edge” anti-ship missile to be deployed by the country’s navy, state media reported on Saturday.
The state-run Korean Central News Agency and the ruling Workers’ Party Rodong Sinmun newspaper said North Korea’s leader watched as the missile was deployed.
“As the head of the East Sea Fleet ordered the test-firing, the ultra-precision anti-ship rocket blasted off from a rocket boat. The intelligent rocket precisely sought, tracked and hit the “enemy” ship after taking a safe flight,” Rodong Sinmun reported, without giving a location or date.
Japanese favor only non-military Mideast aid, via the Japan Times:
Poll: 57.9% say Japan’s Middle East aid should be nonmilitary
A majority of Japanese think the government’s aid for Middle Eastern countries fighting the Islamic State group should be limited to nonmilitary support, a Kyodo News poll showed Saturday.
The nationwide survey conducted via telephone on Friday and Saturday showed 57.9 percent of the respondents said Japan’s support should be nonmilitary, while 16.6 percent said it should include logistical support to the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group.
The approval rating for Abe’s Cabinet stood at 54.2 percent, up 1.4 percentage points from the previous survey on Jan. 25.
Japanese U.S. bombing survivors push for state compensation, via the Asahi Shimbun:
Survivors of wartime air raids plan rally for push for state redress
Civilian survivors of the Great Tokyo Air Raid and other acts of war 70 or more years ago will hold a mass rally with supporters next month to demand government compensation for their ordeal.
Organizers announced in a news conference that the event will be held at the Asakusa Public Hall in Tokyo’s Taito Ward on March 6, just four days prior to the 70th anniversary of the U.S. firebombing that killed more than 80,000 people in a single night.
The gathering will be organized by a committee headed by lawyer Taketoshi Nakayama. Organizers said Feb. 6 they expect 1,200 people to attend.
Via Channel NewsAsia Singapore, Japan looks to Moscow to resolve an insular dispute:
Abe hopeful for Japan-Russia island dispute resolution
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says a decades-long territorial dispute between Japan and Russia could soon be resolved, but Tokyo’s decision to slap sanctions in response to Moscow’s involvement in Ukraine, appears to have complicated the progress of the territorial talks
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Saturday (Feb 7) said a decades-long territorial dispute between Japan and Russia could soon be resolved.
He was speaking after a rally in Tokyo to demand the return of four Russian-controlled islands off Japan’s northern coast.
The islands are named Etorofu, Kunashiri, Habomai, and Shikotan and known as the Northern Territories by Japan, and the Southern Kurils by Russia.
From the Asahi Shimbun, Japanese publisher treats Mohammed’s face the same way Japanese video pornographers treat genitalia:
Publisher to blur face of Mohammed in reprint of Charlie Hebdo caricature
A publishing company that is planning to reprint a caricature of the Prophet Mohammed run by French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo has decided to blur Mohammed’s face in consideration to Muslim readers.
Based in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward, Daisanshokan is scheduled to publish the caricature in a book titled, “Islam Hate ka Fushi ka” (Is it hate against Islam or satire?). It will go on sale on Feb. 10.
The book plans to reprint 48 caricatures that were originally published in Europe and the United States–many of them having run initially in Charlie Hebdo.
And from JapanToday, going digital:
Gov’t to create international emergency SMS for Japanese nationals abroad
Following the recent hostage incident in which members of ISIS took two Japanese nationals hostage and executed them, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced that it will use an international emergency SMS for Japanese nationals abroad to inform them of potential threats.
The ministry said individuals who register with the service will be sent an emergency SMS as soon as any national disaster, terror threat, or other danger is identified, TV Asahi reported Saturday. If they need help, they will be asked to send back an alert. Once security has been restored, users will receive a second message informing them that the danger has passed.
Registration for Asia, the Middle East and North America where a large number of Japanese nationals reside is expected to begin sometime this week. Safety information will be made available on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ “Safety Abroad” home page which will also be formatted for optimal smartphone use by the end of next month.
