We begin with the ACLU Blog of Rights, shining the light:
This Secret Domestic Surveillance Program Is About to Get Pulled Out of the Shadows
The federal government will have to produce information on a vast and secret domestic surveillance program and defend the program’s legality in open court. That’s the result of a decision issued Friday by the federal judge presiding over our lawsuit challenging the Suspicious Activity Reporting program, part of an ever-expanding domestic surveillance network established after 9/11.
The program calls on local police, security guards, and the public — our neighbors — to report activity they deem suspicious or potentially related to terrorism. These suspicious activity reports (“SARs” for short) are funneled to regional fusion centers and on to the FBI, which conducts follow-up investigations and stockpiles the reports in a giant database that it shares with law enforcement agencies across the country.
The decision is significant.
Surveillance programs have largely been shielded from judicial review, as many courts have accepted the government’s position that people cannot prove they have been under surveillance, and thus lack standing to sue. In this case, we represent clients who were confronted by law enforcement or know that SARs were uploaded to a counterterrorism database based on their entirely lawful activity. The government will now have to turn over information about a program that has never been subject to public scrutiny.
The problems with the Suspicious Activity Reporting program are manifold, beginning with the fact that government doesn’t require reasonable suspicion of criminal activity — an already low threshold — for a SAR to be maintained and shared. That violates a binding federal regulation, which is part of the basis for the lawsuit.
From AJ+, our first [but not last] leak story:
Spy Cables: Inside South Africa’s Spy Agency
Program notes:
Ever wondered how Africa’s most powerful spy agency operates? The Spy Cables show us how South Africa’s State Security Agency’s plans to build a secret satellite with Russia which would enable them to spy over all of Africa — take that NSA! Also, learn how a security screw up led to the African Union Chief almost being killed in Addis Ababa.
From the Guardian, domestic snooping:
South Africa spied on own government to get facts on joint project with Russia
Intelligence agency used agent with links to Russian government to glean information about satellite surveillance programme, leaked cables reveal
South Africa’s intelligence service relied on a spy “with direct access to the Russian government” to find out details of its own government’s involvement in a $100m (£65m) joint satellite surveillance programme with Russia, the leaked spy cables obtained by al-Jazeera and shared with the Guardian reveal.
The satellite system, known as Project Condor, which was launched into orbit by Russia in December last year, provides surveillance coverage of the entire African continent. The project has been shrouded in secrecy, with Russia originally refusing to reveal who its client was.
Those in the dark appear to have included South Africa’s intelligence agency. But a South African agent with access to Russian military intelligence was able to help, according to a leaked espionage report marked “top secret” and dated 28 August 2012.
From the Guardian, a Russian Al Queda warning:
Al-Qaida planning kamikaze attacks on ships in Mediterranean, cables claim
Leaked document from Russian intelligence agency claims north African branch wants to extend its range to Europe with marine unit
Al-Qaida has developed a seaborne unit to attack targets around the Mediterranean, according to a confidential report from Russian intelligence, one of a cache of secret documents from spy agencies around the world tracking jihadi terrorist groups.
According to the Russians, North African al-Qaida (Aqim – al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb) has established a 60-strong team of suicide bombers to plant mines under the hull of ships and to use small, fast craft for kamikaze attacks.
The claim, in a leaked document from Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), is one of a string of reports on the rise of Islamic State (Isis) and al-Qaida.
They include a two-month briefing by Omani intelligence estimating that Isis now has up to 35,000 fighters and an income of $1.5m (£1m) a day, reports from United Arab Emirates agents about the Isis leadership structure and a dossier from Jordanian intelligence on confessions extracted from terrorist suspects.
The Guardian has another leak story:
Spies, lies and fantasies: leaked cables lift lid on work of intelligence agencies
In the world of espionage, reports peppered with half-truths, rumours and the seemingly outlandish are par for the course, documents show
Intelligence agencies thrive on impressing politicians and the public with their mystique, exploits real or imagined, and possession of information that supposedly gives them a unique understanding of the world.
The reality is often bureaucratic and banal, the information unreliable, uncheckable or available in open sources and their judgments frequently politicised and self-serving. All of those elements can be found throughout the spy cables leaked to al-Jazeera and the Guardian.
Take the story about an Israeli plot to use water-gobbling plants to sabotage Egypt. The alleged scheme is mentioned in a 56-page report compiled by South African intelligence on the Israeli spy agency Mossad.
SecurityWeek covers snoopery north of the border:
Canada Monitoring Citizens’ Emails to Government: Media
Ottawa – Canada’s electronic eavesdropping agency has amassed a huge trove of emails sent to the government, as part of its cybersecurity mandate, according to a leaked secret document Wednesday.
And their retention by the Canadian Security Establishment (CSE) for days, months or years in some cases, is worrying privacy advocates.
Public broadcaster CBC, citing a 2010 document obtained from former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, said the CSE closely monitors visits to government websites and scans about 400,000 emails per day for suspicious content, links or attachments.
The electronic communications include Canadians’ electronic tax returns, emails to members of Parliament and passport applications, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation said.
From RT, dis-Dane-ful:
Denmark’s plan to give spooks greater-than-NSA spy powers sparks outcry
Copenhagen is considering empowering its intelligence services to conduct covert electronic surveillance on citizens abroad without the need for a court order. Outraged privacy advocates have pledged to fight the initiative.
Despite the global outpouring of criticism of the National Security Agency and its affiliated partners in the so-called Five Eyes spying ring, which was exposed by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden in 2013, it seems the Danish government is only too willing to take spying to an unprecedented new level.
As part of a package of new anti-terror initiatives, Copenhagen is now prepared to empower the Danish Defense Intelligence Service (Forsvarets Efterretningstjeneste, or FE) with greater snooping authority than the NSA.
However, plans to give Danish intelligence what appears to be unlimited access to the electronic communications of Danish citizens abroad is being criticized by privacy watchdog groups, including the think-tank Justitia and Associate Professor Anders Henriksen, from the University of Copenhagen.
From TheLoca.de, jailed for a speech “crime”:
Ex-lawyer jailed again for Holocaust denial
A Munich court on Wednesday sentenced a previously convicted Holocaust denier and ex-lawyer to a second jail term, after she publicly declared that there had been no organized genocide of the Jews under Adolf Hitler.
Sylvia Stolz, 51, was sentenced to 20 months’ imprisonment for telling an anti-censorship congress in Switzerland in 2012 that the “so-called Holocaust” under Adolf Hitler’s National-Socialist (Nazi) Party had never been legally defined or proven, the Süddeutsche Zeitung reported.
In an almost 100-minute address, video footage of which was used as evidence in her trial, Stolz stated before a crowd of 2,000 people there was no hard evidence of either Nazi plans or orders “to partially or wholly destroy Jewry”.
Therefore it was in itself a breach of the law that people like her who defended others put on trial for Holocaust denial should be prosecuted, she argued.
Another U.S. ISIS-related bust, via the Guardian:
Three New York men charged over alleged attempt to join Isis in Syria
One arrested at airport trying to board flight to Istanbul, another purchased ticket for Turkey on 29 March and third allegedly operated ‘domestic support network’
Three men from Brooklyn, New York are facing terrorism charges for allegedly attempting to join Islamic State (Isis) militants in Syria, federal authorities said on Wednesday.
Two of the men, Abdurasul Hasanovich Juraboev, 24, and Abror Habibov, 30, are Uzbekistani citizens; the other is a 19-year-old Kazakhstani citizen, Akhror Saidakhmetov. All three were charged with conspiracy to provide material support to Isis.
Their indictment was announced by the the FBI, the New York police department and US attorney Loretta Lynch, who is in the process of being confirmed by the Senate as US attorney general.
From the Guardian, a call for justice in the Windy City:
Chicago ‘black site’: former US justice officials call for Homan Square inquiry
Two ex-senior Justice Department officials say allegations about police operation are ‘very disturbing’ and raise serious questions about constitutional violations
Two former senior Justice Department officials are calling on their colleagues to investigate a secretive warehouse used for interrogations by Chicago police and likened to a CIA “black site” facility.
Sam Bagenstos, who during Barack Obama’s first term was the Justice Department’s No 2 civil rights official, said that the Guardian’s exposé of the Homan Square police warehouse raised concerns about “a possible pattern or practice of violations of the fourth and fifth amendments” that warranted an inquiry.
William Yeomans, who worked in the civil rights division from 1981 to 2005, and served as its acting attorney, said the allegations about off-the-books interrogations and barred access to legal counsel reported by the Guardian merited a preliminary investigation to confirm them, a first step toward a full civil rights investigation.
From the Guardian, intimidating cops under the gun in Old Blighty:
British police investigated over attempts to recruit activists as spies
Two Cambridgeshire officers face misconduct allegations after approaches by covert unit that campaigners said left them stressed and paranoid, with some ending their political activities
It is examining allegations that coercive and at times repeated approaches by police caused the activists to give up their political campaigning, or left them stressed and paranoid.
One campaigner wore a secret camera to capture police attempting to persuade him to spy on Cambridge University students, environmentalists, campaigners against government cuts and anti-racist activists. The footage was broadcast by the Guardian in 2013.
Another, a 23-year-old single mother, has alleged that police threatened to prosecute her if she disclosed to anyone, including her mother, the attempt to recruit her as an informer.
Cambridgeshire police are carrying out the internal investigation into what they have described as serious allegations surrounding its attempted recruitment of informers.
From the New York Times, more arrests for presidential wiretapping in Turkey:
Turkish Police Arrested and Accused of Wiretapping President Erdogan
Police officers in Turkey arrested dozens of fellow officers on Wednesday accused of wiretapping President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and top government officials.
The chief prosecutor’s office in Ankara, the capital, issued 54 arrest warrants, the Anadolu News Agency reported, and at least 40 people were arrested in a wave of early morning raids that were carried out simultaneously in 19 cities.
The arrests are the latest salvo in a feud between Mr. Erdogan and his former ally, Fethullah Gulen, an influential Muslim cleric who lives in exile in Pennsylvania and has been accused of participating in a plot to overthrow the government.
After the jump, Al Jazeera reporters busted for droning Paris, a drone ban in Morocco, Charlie Hebdo back on schedule, a big reward for a hacking bank robber, Instagram leaks celebrity locations, an Aussie Anonymous hacker charged with attacking spooky sites, major civil rights failures by the major powers, on to the ISIS front and historical nihilism as libraries are burned and artifacts sold, and ISIS sounds up Syrian Christians, Lakes Chad fish traders bombed by Niger to defund Boko Haram, as Boko Haram targets Nigerian elections, a 100-bomb North Korean nuclear arsenal envisioned, China demotes a spy chief, corrupt officials planned to assassinate China’s leaders, China extends its bombers’ reach, and Okinawan opposition to an American base increases. . .
Busted by the drone police, via the Guardian:
Al-Jazeera journalists arrested for allegedly flying drone over Paris
Three foreign nationals taken into custody after police spot drone flying in the Bois de Boulogne woods in western Paris
Three Al-Jazeera journalists have been arrested on suspicion of illegally flying a drone over key Paris landmarks, the prosecutor’s office has said.
It said the three foreign nationals, aged 70, 54 and 36 were taken into custody on Wednesday afternoon after police spotted the drone flying in the Bois de Boulogne woods in western Paris.
They can be held for a maximum of 24 hours under French law. Flying drones without a license in France is illegal and carries a maximum one-year prison sentence and a €75,000 (£55,000) fine.
A drone ban in Morocco, via the Associated Press:
Morocco bans import of drones citing security concerns
Morocco’s Interior Ministry has announced a ban on the import of drones and remote-controlled flying objects in general, citing security concerns.
The statement Wednesday said the ban had taken effect two days earlier and was due to threats to security and property and the invasion of privacy. There have been no reports of drone incidents in the country.
The statement said illegally imported drones will be seized while those purchased before the ban must be authorized. Companies or government institutions requiring a drone must obtain permission.
From the Los Angeles Times, Charlie Hebdo back on schedule:
Seven weeks after attack, Charlie Hebdo resumes regular publication
The French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo returned to newsstands on Wednesday with its first regular issue since Islamist extremists gunned down 12 people in an attack on its headquarters.
The magazine had published a special “survivors issue” last month, but the new issue marked its return to regular weekly publication, seven weeks after the attackers killed its editor and some of France’s best known cartoonists.
The cover of Wednesday’s edition features a cartoon depicting a range of political and religious figures — although not, this time, the prophet Muhammad, whose depiction in the past offended many Muslims and apparently led to the attack on the publication.
From the Washington Post, a big reward for a hacking bank robber:
U.S. announces record $3 million bounty for alleged Russian hacker
The FBI and the State Department announced a record $3 million reward Tuesday for information leading to the arrest of a Russian accused of executing a sophisticated computer heist that siphoned more than $100 million from American bank accounts.
Evgeniy Bogachev, who is believed to be in Russia, was charged last year and in 2012 with computer crimes. He was already on the FBI’s “Cyber’s Most Wanted” list. The $3 million bounty is the highest ever for an alleged cybercriminal.
The 31-year-old fugitive, who authorities say used the online monikers “lucky 12345″ and “slavik,” is accused of deploying malicious software known as GameOver Zeus, which is designed to steal bank account numbers and passwords.
Instagram leaks celebrity locations, via Fusion:
Michelle Obama, Reese Witherspoon and other celebs are leaking location information on Instagram
On Monday, the AP dropped a big scoop about a rising Republican star who has been using taxpayer money and campaign funds to finance personal trips around the country. The AP journalists said the source for the takedown was Instagram:
“The AP tracked [Illinois Rep. Aaron] Schock’s reliance on the aircraft partly through the congressman’s penchant for uploading pictures and videos of himself to his Instagram account. The AP extracted location data associated with each image then correlated it with flight records showing airport stopovers and expenses later billed for air travel against Schock’s office and campaign records.”
When the AP journalists say they “extracted location data,” they actually mean: “We looked at his Instagram photo map.” Instagram strips the metadata off all the photos that are uploaded to the network (for privacy reasons), but users can elect to add location information when they post, which then displays those geo-tagged photos on a map. (The location that gets displayed is where the phone is when the photo gets uploaded, not necessarily where the photo was actually taken.) It’s this information that got Schock busted.
From Techworm, an Aussie Anonymous hacker charged with attacking spooky sites:
Anonymous Australia member charged with ‘revenge hack’ against Australian Intelligence websites
Australian police produced Mathew John Hutchison at Melbourne Magistrates Court this week and charged him of egging and abetting Indonesian hackers to attack the websites of Australian Signals Directorate (ASIO) and ASIS.
Hutchison is believed to belong to the Australian chapter of Anonymous hacker collective and was taking part a operation by Indonesian hackers against Australia after a news surfaced that Australian embassy in Jakarta was allegedly used for spying on Indonesian citizens including its President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
The Los Angeles Times covers major civil rights failures by the major powers:
Amnesty International: Powerful nations failing to stop rights abuses
Shameful milestones in human rights abuses were reached in 2014 as tens of thousands of civilians were killed amid armed conflicts from Syria to Ukraine and the world’s wealthiest countries did little to halt the violence, Amnesty International reported Wednesday.
The number of refugees from the world’s battle zones topped 50 million last year, the greatest human displacement since World War II, the London-based rights group reported. It accused Western nations of an “abhorrent” response to the plight of those driven out of their countries, noting that of the 4 million Syrian refugees only 150,000 have been taken in by European Union countries.
As thousands took to rickety boats to escape the horrors of war in their Middle Eastern and African homelands, at least 3,400 lost their lives in Mediterranean Sea crossings in 2014, the report noted. It appealed to European states to do more to help desperate asylum-seekers.
On to the ISIS front and historical nihilism via the London Daily Mail:
ISIS burn 10,000 books and more than 700 rare manuscripts as they destroy library in Mosul in latest attack on civilisation and culture
Extremists used improvised explosive devices to blow up Mosul library
Presumed destroyed are its significant collection of Iraqi newspapers
Maps and books from the Ottoman Empire have also been burned
Isis said it will kill anyone privately hoarding books or manuscripts
Isis terrorists have blown up the Mosul Public Library, sending 10,000 books and more than 700 rare manuscripts up in flames.
Leading members of Mosul society reportedly tried to stop the fanatics destroying the building, but failed.
The director of the library, Ghanim al-Ta’an, said that the extremists used homemade bombs in the attack, which took place on Sunday.
From the Washington Post, looter profiteers:
Islamic State is selling looted Syrian art in London to fund its fight
Almost 100 Syrian artifacts looted by the Islamic State have been smuggled into Britain and sold to raise money for the extremist group’s activities, art crime experts and archaeologists have warned, according to British news organizations.
The items, allegedly being sold in London, include gold and silver Byzantine coins as well as Roman pottery and glass worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, the Times newspaper reported Wednesday.
The London paper compared the phenomenon with Africa’s “blood diamond” industry, in which money raised by the sale of African diamonds financed wars and conflicts across the continent.
And ISIS sounds up Syrian Christians, via the Associated Press:
Dozens of Christians abducted by Islamic militants in Syria
The Islamic State militants struck before dawn, staging house-to-house raids in a cluster of villages nestled along the Khabur River in northeastern Syria. They abducted at least 70 Christians — many of them women and children — while thousands of others fled to safer areas.
The captives’ fate was unclear Tuesday, a day after they were seized, and relatives said mobile phone service was cut off and land lines also were not going through, adding to the fear and uncertainty about their loved ones. Heavy fighting was reported in the area.
The Islamic State group has a history of killing captives, including foreign journalists, Syrian soldiers and Kurdish militiamen. Most recently, militants in Libya affiliated with the extremist group released a video showing the beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians.
Lakes Chad fish traders bombed by Niger to defund Boko Haram, via Reuters:
Niger air force bombs fish traders thought to finance Boko Haram
Niger’s air force has bombed a convoy of trucks carrying smoked fish to Nigeria, a trade banned by local officials because it is suspected of helping to finance the Islamist militant group Boko Haram, security sources said on Wednesday.
“Earlier this week, air forces fired on merchandise vans along the river Kamadougou,” said one of the sources. The river separates northern Nigeria from southeastern Niger.
The people in the trucks fled over the border into Nigeria, the source said.
Niger officials say Boko Haram taxes fishermen or seizes their catches along the shores of Lake Chad and uses the money to help fund their bid to carve out a caliphate in northeast Nigeria. The insurgency, which has killed thousands, was partly responsible for delaying Nigeria’s election earlier this month.
As Boko Haram targets Nigerian elections, via IRIN:
Boko Haram takes aim at Nigeria’s elections
Three bomb explosions in the space of two days in northern Nigeria signal a resumption of urban terror tactics by Boko Haram, a jihadist group that wants to demonstrate it is still a force to be reckoned with despite recent military setbacks, according to analysts.
Two suicide bombings on Monday at bus stations in Potiskum, and 360 kms away in Kano, killed an estimated 27 people. On Sunday a young girl strapped with explosives killed five at a security checkpoint at a market, again in Potiskum.
President Goodluck Jonathan on Tuesday condemned the “callous bombing of soft targets” by the militants, linking the attacks to the success of a military offensive that has reportedly won back a string of towns held by Boko Haram in recent weeks. The group is yet to claim responsibility for the latest blasts.
From the Japan Times, a 100-bomb North Korean nuclear arsenal envisioned:
North Korea could amass 100 nuclear weapons by 2020, U.S. study warns
North Korea appears poised to expand its nuclear program over the next five years and in a worst-case scenario could possess 100 atomic arms by 2020, U.S. researchers warned Tuesday.
And cutting-edge European companies could be unwittingly contributing to Pyongyang’s suspect nuclear program with their equipment diverted to the isolated country via China, the researchers said.
Unveiling the first results of what will be a 15-month study, Joel Wit, senior fellow at the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University, said some of their conclusions were very “disturbing.”
From Reuters, China demotes a spy chief:
China ejects spy chief from group of advisers: Xinhua
China has dropped one of its espionage chiefs from a high-profile panel of advisers, official news agency Xinhua said on Wednesday, after the ruling Communist Party announced he was being investigated for corruption.
Ma Jian, a vice minister at the Ministry of State Security, is the most senior security official facing investigation since former domestic security czar Zhou Yongkang was ensnared in a graft scandal last July.
The investigation into Ma could lead to a shake-up in the powerful state security ministry, a KGB-like operation that spies on citizens and foreigners at home and abroad.
Want China Times covers an assassination plot alleged:
Corrupt officials sought sniper kills of Xi Jinping, Wang Qishan: Boxun
President Xi Jinping of China and his top graft-buster Wang Qishan may be targeted by assassination attempts from corrupt officials who have been allegedly buying high-powered sniper rifles from the United States, reports Boxun News, a US-based citizen journalism outlet with a reputation for releasing unsubstantiated “insider” reports on Chinese politics.
According to a Boxun reporter in Hong Kong, recent raids on the homes of more than one corrupt official unveiled evidence of a revenge plot to assassinate Xi and Wang with American sniper rifles.
Xi, who launched on ongoing campaign to take down all corrupt officials — regardless of whether they are lowly “flies” or high-flying “tigers” — back at the start of 2013, has reportedly been bolstering his security detail over the last six months after the conspiracy came to light, Boxun said. Safety measures at outdoor appearances have also been upgraded, with even vice-ministerial-level officials needing to pass security checks, Boxun said.
And from Want China Times, China extends its bombers’ reach:
PLA H-6 bombers capable of striking all targets in Asia-Pacific
The H-6K strategic bomber of the People’s Liberation Army equipped with KD-20 cruise missiles is capable of attacking all US military facilities from Northeast Asia to Guam, according to an expert in Chinese military development as cited in the state-run Global Times.
President Xi Jinping’s visit to a bomber unit which operates three variants of the H-6 bomber on Feb. 17 attracted the attention of Western experts. Richard Fisher, an American military expert, noticed significant changes and modifications to the H-6K, the latest version of the bomber. The photo published by official state media has allowed an inside view of the H-6K cockpit, he added in his article written for the London-based Jane’s Defence Review.
The H-6K uses a “glass” cockpit with five or more multifunction displays. Also, it is the first variant of the H-6 bomber to use ejection seats for all three to four crew members, according to Fisher. The H-6K bombers are currently in service with at least two PLA Air Force bomber regiments. The plane can be equipped with six KD-20 cruise missiles and has a combat radius of 3,500 kilometers.
And in Japan, Abe opposition amps up, via the Asahi Shimbun:
Okinawa governor likely to halt seabed survey for Futenma relocation
The governor of Okinawa looks set to reverse his predecessor’s decision to allow the central government to destroy coral reefs as part of a seabed survey for the construction of a U.S. air base.
“There is a high possibility (that it will be withdrawn),” Takeshi Onaga said Feb. 24, referring to permission given last August to the Okinawa Defense Bureau to allow the destruction so survey work can continue off the Henoko district in Nago.
Onaga’s stance reflects his exasperation at the lack of straight answers to his queries to the defense bureau and the central government over local concerns about work being done in preparation for relocating the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Ginowan to Henoko.
