And much more.
We begin with a huge amount of Japanese metadata for spooks to vacuum up, via the Asahi Shimbun:
Survey: High school girls use mobile phones 7 hours daily
Female senior high school students use their smartphones or cellphones an average of seven hours a day, drawn in by a plethora of apps that keep them connected to their friends, a survey showed.
The phone time for the group was an increase from 6.4 hours in a previous study conducted in February 2014, according to the results of the latest survey released by information security company Digital Arts Inc. on Feb. 9.
“As female senior high school students typically put emphasis on communications with their friends, as many as 94.2 percent of them now use the Line (free call and messaging) app,” said Akiko Yoshida, a public relations official of Digital Arts.
From RT, update on a leaker:
Snowden fine, speaks Russian, still single – lawyer
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, who was given political asylum in Russia after being stranded at a Moscow airport, is adjusting to his new life quite well, his Russian lawyer reports. He has a job, his Russian’s improving and has no plans to leave.
“He is still working for a Russian company. His salary is commensurate with his skill level, so he has no problems making a living,” Anatoly Kucherena told journalists.
The lawyer, who is representing Snowden pro bono, said he wouldn’t reveal details of the American fugitive’s private life, but assured that he is quite happy with his new life in Russia.
The company built by the Washington Post’s new publisher deepens its spooky ties, via Defense One:
The CIA Is Bringing Amazon’s Marketplace to the Intelligence Community
In the coming months, Amazon will launch a separate version of its widely successful commercial cloud marketplace for the intelligence community.
Last year, the Central Intelligence Agency took the 17 agencies within the intelligence community to the cloud through a ground-breaking $600 million contract with Amazon Web Services.
In the next few months, AWS will launch a separate version of its widely successful commercial cloud marketplace for the IC that aims to shake up the way spy agencies purchase software.
On to European xenophobia fails, first from TheLocal.no:
Pegida sees ‘complete failure’ in Norway
A leading expert on the far-Right has branded the anti-Islamic movement Pegida “a complete failure” in Norway after just 25 people showed up to take part in a march in Oslo on Monday.
“Pegida in Norway has been a complete failure with infighting breaking loose already before the first demonstration,” Tor Bach, editor of Vepsen, a magazine which tracks the far-Right in Norway, told The Local. “The group has gathered less people for each demonstration, ending with 25 people showing up this week.”
Pegida’s Norway head Max Hermansen had hailed the organisation’s first Oslo march, which came shortly after January’s brutal attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, as a record for Norway, with nearly 200 protestors attending, but the numbers attending rallies have dropped consistently.
And a serious Swedish Pegida fail, via TheLocal.se:
Anti-racists swamp first Pegida rally in Sweden
Sweden’s first rally by the German-inspired anti-Islam movement Pegida in Malmö was dwarfed by a counter-demonstration about a hundred times larger, according to police estimates.
Television images showed a small group of Pegida demonstrators in a cordoned-off area of the southern city’s central square, Stortorget, surrounded by anti-racism protesters.
“There are at least 3,000, most of them counter-demonstrators,” Malmö police spokesman Lars Förstell told news agency AFP, adding that there were about 30 Pegida protesters.
From The Hill, predictable:
Court upholds NSA snooping
A district court in California has issued a ruling in favor of the National Security Agency in a long-running case over the spy agency’s collection of Internet records.
The challenge against the controversial Upstream program was tossed out because additional defense from the government would have required “impermissible disclosure of state secret information,” Judge Jeffrey White wrote in his decision.
Under the program — details of which were revealed through leaks from Edward Snowden and others — the NSA taps into the fiber cables that make up the backbone of the Internet and gathers information about people’s online and phone communications. The agency then filters out communications of U.S. citizens, whose data is protected with legal defenses not extended to foreigners, and searches for “selectors” tied to a terrorist or other target.
In 2008, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) sued the government over the program on behalf of five AT&T customers, who said that the collection violated the constitutional protections to privacy and free speech.
British journalists paid not thought in Britain’s cybersnooping expansion law, via the Bureau of Investigative Journalism:
Former GCHQ legal director: Journalists’ communications not considered in RIPA drafting
GCHQ’s former legal director admitted tonight that journalists’ communications with their sources were barely considered when the RIPA snooping law governing how the police and intelligence services can intercept communications data was drafted.
Michael Drury, who was GCHQ’s director of legal affairs between 1996 and 2010, was partly responsible for drafting the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) and was heavily involved in lobbying government over the law.
Speaking at an Oxford University seminar on interception and the law in the digital age, Drury said that at the time attention had been focused on privacy rights under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, rather than the right to freedom of expression under Article 10, which ensures journalists are free to do their job.
“The purpose of the Act was to ensure that interception met Article 8 privacy standards,” he said. “Very little attention was given to Article 10.”
A hack attack, via CBC News:
Newsweek’s Twitter account hacked by group calling itself CyberCaliphate
Same group took responsibility for hacking Pentagon accounts last month
Hackers calling themselves “CyberCaliphate” threatened U.S. President Barack Obama and his family when they took control of Newsweek magazine’s Twitter account on Tuesday with the words “Je suIS IS,” a reference to Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and the deadly attack at French newspaper Charlie Hebdo.
The group, which also took responsibility for hacking Pentagon social media accounts last month, tweeted “#CyberCaliphate Bloody Valentine’s Day #MichelleObama! We’re watching you, you girls and your husband!”
The Twitter account showed a head wrapped in a black-and-white scarf next to a banner proclaiming “CyberCaliphate.”
More from CNN:
Newsweek Twitter, others hacked by CyberCaliphate
CyberCaliphate, a group claiming ties to ISIS, appears to have hacked multiple twitter accounts and the breaking news system of a Maryland television station.
The Twitter feeds of Newsweek and veterans’ group Military Spouses of Strength were hacked Tuesday morning by a group identifying itself as CyberCaliphate, the same organization that was confirmed to have hacked the twitter account for U.S. Central Command earlier this year. According to Newsweek, IBTimes.com, the website of the International Business Times, was also hacked.
The group posted threatening tweets against First Lady Michelle Obama and others, and photos on the two pages that were similar to the postings on the hacked @CentComm twitter feed.
Anonymous does the reverse, via the Independent:
Operation Isis: Anonymous vows to take down accounts associated with extremist group
Anonymous has vowed fresh attacks against social media accounts affiliated with Isis, warning its supporters: “We will hunt you down and expose you.”
The hacking collective’s latest post comes after it “declared war” on jihadist websites and social networks in response to the Charlie Hebdo shooting massacre in January.
The group claimed it has disabled some Twitter and Facebook accounts used by Isis supporters.
An update from TechWorm:
OpISIS; Anonymous takes down 1800 Twitter accounts & 12 Facebook pages of ISIS supporters
Anonymous fulfill their promise of taking down ISIS supporters across cyber world
The hacktivist collective Anonymous has claimed victory in its fight against the terrorists by taking down as many as 1800 Twitter accounts and 50 Facebook pages belonging to various supporters of ISIS. Anonymous had announced the fight against ISIS and its cyber backers through a concerted campaign called #OpISIS last month. The OpISIS was announced after the brutal killings of 12 people in Charlie Hebdo office in Paris.
In a new video posted on YouTube, Anonymous has warned of further action against the ISIS and their supporters. It grandly stated that “You will be treated like a virus, and we are the cure. We own the Internet.”
In a paste on Pastebin, the hacker collective listed nearly 800 Twitter accounts, 12 Facebook pages and over 50 email addresses that it said were attacked because of their suspected ties to ISIS.
Here’s the video, via Maj Houl:
Anonymous- #OpISIS Continues…
From MintPress News, a double standard:
Israel Threatens Int’l Criminal Court With Retribution If War Crime Investigations Continue
From forcing the resignation of the head of the U.N. inquiry into Operation Protective Edge to calling for cuts to funding, Israel is pulling out all the stops to prevent the International Criminal Court from investigating war crimes allegations stacking up against it.
Israel is pulling out all the stops to prevent an examination by the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague in the Netherlands into alleged war crimes committed during its offensive on Gaza last summer that left over 2,300 dead and over 500,000 people homeless.
In an interview with Israel Radio last month, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said, “We will demand of our friends in Canada, in Australia and in Germany simply to stop funding it [the court].”
Since Jan. 16, when Fatou Bensouda, the chief prosecutor of the ICC, opened a preliminary examination into the situation in Palestine, Israel has forced the resignation of the head of the United Nations inquiry into Operation Protective Edge and called on members of the tribunal to cut funding to the court.
After the jump, how Washington inadvertently cyberarmed Iran, federal Twitterpation acquisition, allegations of deeper motives in a Chinese hack attack, Brazilian cybercrime expands, a WhatsApp hacking tool evades security, the ransomware cancer metastasizes, on to the Mideastern battlefront as boots draw closer to ground, ISIS withdrawal reveals mass graves, Yazidis take reprisals, an ISIS hostage assumes a media role, a German rapper-turned-ISIS-fighter named to Washington’s terrorist list, Niger dispatches troops to battle Boko Haram, Miss Universe departs for a peace mediation in Havana and FARC announces plans to transform from army to unarmed party, on to the Asian Game of Zones and Malaysian response to Chinese island militarization, Aussies offer Washington permanent naval basing, U.S. scholars blast Japanese “Comfort Women” denialism, A reporter files a “Comfort Women” libel suit, media shamed for letting Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to play the ISIS hostage crisis, a state network poll casts a dim light on foreign military rescues, Abe’s historical whitewashing endeavors pose blowback threats, and new revelations about a dark American past. . .
From the Intercept, an Iranian instance of the Law of Unintended Consequences:
NSA Claims Iran Learned from Western Cyberattacks
The U.S. Government often warns of increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks from adversaries, but it may have actually contributed to those capabilities in the case of Iran.
A top secret National Security Agency document from April 2013 reveals that the U.S. intelligence community is worried that the West’s campaign of aggressive and sophisticated cyberattacks enabled Iran to improve its own capabilities by studying and then replicating those tactics.
The NSA is specifically concerned that Iran’s cyberweapons will become increasingly potent and sophisticated by virtue of learning from the attacks that have been launched against that country. “Iran’s destructive cyber attack against Saudi Aramco in August 2012, during which data was destroyed on tens of thousands of computers, was the first such attack NSA has observed from this adversary,” the NSA document states. “Iran, having been a victim of a similar cyber attack against its own oil industry in April 2012, has demonstrated a clear ability to learn from the capabilities and actions of others.”
From Nextgov, federal Twitterpation acquisition:
US Government Requests for Information on Twitter Users Spike
The U.S. government made twice as many requests for Twitter user information in the last half of 2014 compared with the year before, according to a detailed report out from Twitter this week.
And usually—about 80 percent of the time—Twitter gives officials in the United States what they want. That information might include direct messages, a user’s location, IP address, and even deleted tweets. Mostly, government officials are asking for information as part of a subpoena or search warrant (and less often a court order). Twitter has been releasing details about such requests twice a year since 2012 in an effort to promote transparency.
The latest report shows the United States made 1,622 requests for information between July and December of last year, Twitter said. That’s compared with 833 such requests over the same period the year before. The requests also affect more than twice as many Twitter accounts—3,299 in late 2014 compared with 1,323 in late 2013.
Allegations of deeper motives in a Chinese hack attack, via Network World:
China seen targeting banks, military in Forbes web attack
A Chinese hacking group infiltrated the Forbes.com site in November and used it to launch targeted attacks against website visitors from U.S. banking and defense companies, a cybersecurity company said on Tuesday.
The attack took place over a period of several days, starting Nov. 28, and took advantage of unpatched vulnerabilities in Adobe Flash and Microsoft Internet Explorer 9, according to ISight Partners. The vulnerability was kept quiet until Tuesday, when Microsoft issued a patch to plug the security hole in its web browser. Adobe had previously published a patch for Flash.
The attack used a Flash vulnerability and was launched from the “Thought of the day” Flash widget that appears when people first visit the financial magazine’s site, said Invincea, a second cybersecurity company that independently detected the attack.
Brazilian cybercrime expands, via SecurityWeek:
Cybercriminals Use DNS Poisoning in Brazilian Boleto Fraud Scheme
In recent months, cybercriminals have started relying on DNS poisoning to target Brazilian Boletos, RSA reported on Monday.
Boleto is a popular payment method that allows people in Brazil to purchase services and products by using vouchers instead of credit cards. Boletos can be paid online, at ATMs, banks, post offices, and even in some supermarkets.
Boleto fraud is a widespread phenomenon in Brazil. In July 2014, RSA reported that cybercriminals had used a specialized malware, dubbed Bolware, to compromise close to 500,000 Boleto transactions over a two-year period. The value of the transactions was estimated at roughly $3.75 billion.
Now, in addition to malware, cybercrooks have started leveraging DNS cache poisoning in their operations. The attackers target the DNS servers of Internet service providers (ISPs) and change the DNS entries for certain bank websites so that their IP addresses are resolved to a rogue server, RSA said.
A WhatsApp hacking tool evades security, via TechWorm:
“WhatsSpy Public” a tool for spying on WhatsApp users bypassing security settings
Social media is growing at a fast pace nowadays but with growing socialization the safety measures and privacy option should also be developed so that one’s information cannot be leaked at any endpoints. Social apps such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Hike, Instagram etc. are used by several people without knowing that how safe they really are or if their messages or personal information are not leaked.
The smartphone stand alone instant messaging App, WhatsApp is once again in the news due to a certain tool which can break its security features. WhastSpy Public tool which was recently released can give you status updates of any WhatsApp user, even if privacy options have been enabled.
WhatsSpy Public uses the web-based utility to trace the moments of a WhatsApp user and shows them in a dashboard with events being displayed in a timeline. The tool can be used to compare activities from one user to those of another for a more comfortable experience.
The ransomware cancer metastasizes, via Network World:
Ransomware authors streamline attacks, infections rise
Ransomware authors continue improving file-encrypting programs and infection methods for Windows and Android, making these nightmarish attacks harder to avoid.
The biggest ransomware threat for Windows users is CryptoWall, a sophisticated malware program that encrypts a wide range of files and demands that victims pay a ransom in Bitcoin cryptocurrency to recover them.
CryptoWall uses uncrackable encryption algorithms and hides its control servers on the Tor and I2P anonymity networks, making it harder for security researchers and law enforcement to shut them down.
On to the Mideastern battlefront as boots draw closer to ground, via The Hill:
Obama’s war pitch to Congress bans ‘enduring’ ground troops
The White House’s request of a war authorization from Congress against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria will include a ban on “enduring” ground operations, according to a congressional aide.
The language, which would authorize action for three years, will specifically ban “enduring offensive ground operations,” the aide said.
The wording is intended to win over congressional Republicans while not losing the votes of Democrats who have argued a war authorization should not allow ground troops.
But it is unclear whether the language will pass muster on Capitol Hill — particularly the use of the word “enduring,” which could mean different things to different people.
From BuzzFeed News, ISIS withdrawal reveals mass graves:
Finding The Bodies That ISIS Left Behind
Mass graves are being discovered as ISIS cedes territory in northern Iraq
The path to the mass grave is rugged and long, winding past a farmhouse and then off-road through muddy, rock-strewn grass. It ends at a quiet shore of the Mosul Dam, which is fed by the Tigris River. It was a long way for ISIS militants to take their captives — some 20 men, plus a woman and child — for execution. Locals can’t say for sure why they chose such a serene place. All they left behind were the corpses, piled together with their hands bound behind their backs and covered haphazardly with dirt.
“There were holes in their heads, like an execution,” said Abdulhamid Abdulrahman Mohamed, a 60-year-old man from the village of Bardia, where the bodies were found. He kicked through the dirt of the grave site to point out bullet casings and faded clothes.
Mohamed said the victims were farm laborers from the Yazidi religious minority, which ISIS targeted in a summer surge into the region around Mt. Sinjar, stranding tens of thousands of them near its peak and sparking U.S. airstrikes. No one came to identify the bodies, which were removed by the regional government last week. “We don’t know what happened to their families,” Mohamed said.
From Reuters, reprisals:
Iraqi Yazidis take revenge as Islamic State atrocities unearthed
Some members of Iraq’s Yazidi minority are turning on their Arab neighbours, staging deadly reprisals against Sunni villagers they believe collaborated in atrocities inflicted by Islamic State on their community.
Yazidis returning to their northern home area of Sinjar are uncovering one mass grave after another, evidence of Islamic State’s rule from last August until its fighters were driven back there late last year.
Now some are striking back. More than a dozen Sunni Arab residents told Reuters that armed groups of Yazidis raided four of their villages in Sinjar two weeks ago, killing at least 21 people. A further 17 went missing.
From the McClatchy Foreign Staff, an ISIS hostage assumes a media role:
Hostage’s role in Islamic State videos may have raised his value to group
The Islamic State issued a new video Monday featuring its last known Western hostage narrating a news-broadcast-like report from the Syrian city of Aleppo and its surrounding areas.
The 11-minute video featuring John Cantlie, who’s been in Islamic State custody since Nov. 22, 2012, is the third on-the-scene report from the British hostage since October. It feeds growing speculation among some observers that Cantlie’s talents as a news presenter have made him more valuable to the Islamic State than just another soon-to-be-executed hostage.
“While the Islamic State has access to native British speakers, I suspect none is capable of the kind of delivery Cantlie can achieve,” said Shiraz Maher, a senior fellow at King’s College London who closely studies the group. “They also know that we’re all much more likely to talk about, and focus on, a Western hostage than a random individual who’s gone out there and joined Islamic State.”
And from the McClatchy Washington Bureau, a German rapper-turned-ISIS-fighter named to Washington’s terrorist list:
U.S. blacklists German rapper-turned-militant who held severed head in ISIS video
A 39-year-old German convict and former rapper who appeared in an Islamic State propaganda video holding a severed head was designated by the State Department on Monday as a global terrorist, part of a crackdown on foreign members of the extremist group.
Denis Cuspert joined the Islamic State – sometimes known as ISIS or ISIL – in 2012 and has appeared in “numerous videos on its behalf,” including one from November after a beheading, according to the State Department announcement of the designation.
The statement noted that the Berlin-born Cuspert had been convicted of unspecified crimes in his home country before popping up on the Syrian battlefield with the nom de guerre Abu Talha al Almani, meaning “Abu Talha the German.” Before his conversion to Islam, according to news reports, Cuspert was active in Berlin’s hip-hop scene, rapping under the stage name “ Deso Dogg.”
Niger dispatches troops to battle Boko Haram, via BBC News:
Boko Haram crisis: Niger to send troops to Nigeria
Niger’s parliament has voted to send troops to Nigeria to join the fight against militant Islamist group Boko Haram.
The vote took place after Boko Haram attacked a prison and detonated a car bomb on Monday in the town of Diffa, near Niger’s border with Nigeria.
MPs said parliament unanimously authorised deploying 750 soldiers with a regional force battling Boko Haram.
The Boko Haram has increasingly drawn in Nigeria’s neighbours.
From Latin Times, Miss Universe departs for a peace mediation in Havana:
Miss Universe Paulina Vega Heads To Havana To Talk FARC Peace
After Colombian pretty person Paulina Vega won the Miss Universe contest last month, the FARC published a brief open letter inviting her to Havana to participate in the peace talks.
“We […] invite you to materialize your visit to update you about the development of the peace talks, the progress and the enormous contribution that you and the majorities who desire peace can make. Be assured that we are willing to address your concerns and consider your views a valuable contribution to peace; we are waiting for your confirmation and your contribution.”
Vega responded to the letter with a quick “yes” to a visit.
And FARC announces plans to transform from an army into a party, via MercoPres Newss:
FARC vows to lay down arms and to reinvent itself as a political party
Colombian FARC guerrillas on Saturday vowed to lay down their weapons and reinvent themselves as a political party, if the Colombian government follows through with the reforms under discussion in peace talks.
The rebel group, Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, “is committed to ensuring that the armed hostilities of the past don’t get recur,” one of its negotiators Jesus Santrich said in a statement read to the media at the start of another day of talks.
Among the changes the FARC hopes to see, Santrich said, is the group’s “transformation into a political movement that can work to bring about structural change” in Colombia.
The FARC as a political party would also endeavor to bring about reparations for victims, and to preserve “the historical truth” about the country’s decades-old civil conflict, he said.
On to the Asian Game of Zones and Malaysian response to Chinese island militarization, via Want China Times:
Malaysia to upgrade air defense of S China Sea naval base
The People’s Liberation Army’s land reclamation activities in the South China Sea have seen it accused of changing the status quo of the disputed maritime region. Chinese military analysts have responded by citing Malaysia’s “occupation” of Swallow Reef, stating that not only have they turned the reef into an island, they have also built a runway there, according to our sister paper Want Daily.
Malaysia also recently announced that it would equip its navy base in the vicinity of the South China Sea with an air defense system, a measure widely interpreted as being carried out with China’s expansion in the region in mind, the paper said.
Chinese military commentator Song Zhongping decried the reports in overseas media outlets that say China is changing the status quo in the South China Sea during a recent appearance on Jue Sheng Hai Lu Kong, a program on Gansu Network Television, the title of which translates to “Victory Navy, Army, Air Force.”
Aussies offer Washington permanent naval basing, via RT:
US could permanently base warships in Australia – admiral
The US Navy is mulling a plan to base warships in Australia and is eying an expansion of yearly maritime exercises with India to permanently include Japan and Australia, potentially straining relations with China, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The news coincided with a visit by US Chief of Navy Operations, Adm. Jonathan Greenert, who further said the US would like to support a regular Marine training presence in Australia’s northern city of Darwin. He added that officials from Washington and Canberra were both interested in increasing maritime cooperation.
“We’re doing a study…to see what might be feasible for naval cooperation in and around Australia, which might include basing ships,” the WSJ cited Greenert as saying during a lecture on security at the Australian National University in Canberra.
U.S. scholars blast Japanese “Comfort Women” denialism, via the Washington Post:
U.S. academics condemn Japanese efforts to revise history of ‘comfort women’
A group of American historians is issuing a call to their Japanese counterparts to remain steadfast in the face of pressure from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government to play down the army’s use of “comfort women” during World War II.
As it prepares to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the war, Abe’s conservative government is pushing to put a gloss on Japan’s wartime history and, in turn, to loosen some of the postwar constraints on its military.
“We stand with the many historians in Japan and elsewhere who have worked to bring to light the facts about this and other atrocities of World War II,” says a letter signed by 19 academics from American University as well as Princeton, Columbia and others, referring to the “comfort women” who were coerced into working in Japanese military brothels during the 1930s and 1940s.
“As historians, we express our dismay at recent attempts by the Japanese government to suppress statements in history textbooks both in Japan and elsewhere about the euphemistically named ‘comfort women,’ ” says the letter to be published in the March issue of the American Historical Association’s magazine, Perspectives on History.
A reporter files a “Comfort Women” libel suit, via the Japan Times:
Former Asahi reporter files libel suit over ‘comfort women’ issue
A former Asahi Shimbun reporter filed a libel suit Tuesday against a journalist and three publishers, arguing that their articles erroneously claimed he fabricated a report on a former Korean “comfort woman.”
In the suit filed with the Sapporo District Court, Takashi Uemura is demanding that journalist Yoshiko Sakurai and the publishers, including Shinchosha Publishing Co., pay ¥16.5 million in damages and publish an apology.
The suit states that Sakurai wrote articles branding Uemura’s 1991 report as a fabrication and intentionally false. It goes on to say that three magazines, including the weekly Shukan Shincho in its April 17, 2014, edition, carried Sakurai’s erroneous articles.
A media submission alert, via the Asahi Shimbun:
Media under fire for lack of critical coverage since hostage crisis
The Japanese media was slapped from within its ranks by journalists, writers and scholars who accused it being soft in its coverage of the Abe administration since the hostage crisis flared last month.
The group released a joint statement on Feb. 9 to warn against self-restraint and to alert the public to the dangers of such a trend.
In a news conference held in Tokyo, it pointed to a marked drop in critical coverage of the government after two Japanese hostages were threatened with beheading by the Islamic State.
Some 1,200 people have expressed support for the statement, including film director Tatsuya Mori, sociologist Shinji Miyadai, novelist Keiichiro Hirano and political historian Takeshi Nakajima.
A state network poll casts a dim light on foreign military rescues, via NHK WORLD:
Poll: 25% support SDF rescue operations abroad
In a new poll conducted by NHK, a quarter of those surveyed said they would support the use of weapons by the Self-Defense Forces to rescue Japanese nationals in trouble abroad.
NHK conducted a telephone survey over the weekend. 978 people responded.
25 percent said they would support the SDF’s use of weapons in foreign countries to rescue Japanese people. 33 percent said they would not. 36 percent said they were undecided.
Abe’s historical whitewashing endeavors pose blowback threats, via Reuters:
Japan global PR message could misfire with focus on wartime past
A push by Japan to correct perceived bias in accounts of the country’s wartime past is creating a row that risks muddling the positive message in a mammoth public relations campaign to win friends abroad.
The PR campaign, which has a budget of over half a billion dollars, comes as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe aims to adopt a less apologetic stance on Japan’s actions before and during World War Two and ease the fetters imposed on defense policy by Japan’s post-war, pacifist constitution.
History is hardly the sole focus of the PR program. Many of the funds will be used for soft-power initiatives to cultivate “pro-Japan” foreigners, such as supporting Japan studies at universities and setting up “Japan House” centers to promote the “Japan Brand”.
And new revelations about a dark American past, via Al Jazeera America:
New details emerge on lynchings in Jim Crow South
New report documents 3,959 lynchings from 1877 to 1950 – more than earlier estimates
A new report from the Alabama-based Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) said its researchers have documented nearly 4,000 lynchings of African-Americans in 12 states during the Jim Crow era — about 700 more than previous comprehensive studies have found.
Titled “Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror,” the EJI report said 3,959 lynchings of African-Americans took place from 1877 to 1950 in states across the South: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
Jim Crow laws enforced racial segregation in the South from 1877, when Reconstruction ended, to the beginning of the civil rights movement of the 1950s. The disenfranchisement of African-Americans in the Jim Crow era was cemented by the widespread use of violent tactics, including lynchings.
“Racial terror lynching was a tool used to enforce Jim Crow laws and racial segregation — a tactic for maintaining racial control by victimizing the entire African-American community, not merely punishment of an alleged perpetrator for a crime,” the report said.
