From the Observer, the worst of both worlds:
Spyware and malware availability sparks surge in internet stalking
Domestic violence experts warn malicious software is increasingly being used to compromise victims’ computers and phones
Domestic violence experts have warned that the use of specialist technology that enables abusers to stalk victims online and via mobile phones is growing at an alarming rate.
A series of parliamentary answers has revealed that, in the 12 months up to April 2014, police received 10,731 reports of computers being compromised by spyware and malware (malicious software). Both can be used by abusers to gather information from someone’s computer or phone. They can allow abusers to view documents, photographs or passwords – and even turn on a device’s camera or microphone. Mobile spyware can also reveal a person’s location.
The real number of victims is likely to be considerably higher. “As most victims are unaware that they are being watched or are too scared to come forward, the real number of incidents could be up to 10 times that,” said Harry Fletcher, criminal justice director of the Digital-Trust, a new charity set up to help victims of cyber abuse.
A spy with conviction, via BBC News:
Ex-Colombian spy chief Maria del Pilar Hurtado convicted
The former head of Colombia’s secret police, Maria del Pilar Hurtado, has been found guilty of spying on politicians, judges and journalists. The Supreme Court said Hurtado’s sentence would be announced in 15 days.
Those targeted in the spying, which occurred between 2007 and 2008, were all political opponents of Alvaro Uribe, who was president at the time.
His former chief of staff has also been convicted but Mr Uribe denies any knowledge of the illegal intercepts.
Cold War 2.0 expostulation, via the Guardian:
Former MI6 chief warns over Russian threat
John Sawers says defence spending needs to increase to counter Vladimir Putin’s actions and Europe needs to find a new way to coexist with Russia
Russia has become a greater threat to Britain, and defence spending needs to increase to counter Vladimir Putin’s actions, the former MI6 chief has warned.
Sir John Sawers, who stepped down in 2014 after five years of running the Secret Intelligence Service, said the threat posed by Moscow was “not necessarily directly to the UK but to countries around its periphery”.
“The real problem is how we live with a Russia which feels very exposed. Putin’s actions are ones of a leader who believes his own security is at stake,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Saturday.
And from the New York Times, Cold War 1.0:
Cuba’s Designation as a Sponsor of Terrorism Snarls Negotiations With U.S.
More than a year ago, the State Department held a meeting with bankers and Cuban officials to deliver an unusual request: please accept Cuba’s money.
The one bank that did business with Cuban diplomats in Washington, M & T Bank of Buffalo, had announced that it would no longer serve foreign missions. Cuba could hardly shop around for a replacement, not least because it is on the American government’s list of nations that support terrorism — forcing Cuban diplomats in Washington to carry out many of their transactions with bundles of cash.
Now, Cuba’s spot on the American list of states that sponsor terrorism is emerging as a major sticking point in the effort to restore diplomatic ties with the United States and reopen embassies that have been closed for nearly five decades.
And so it continues, via the McClatchy Foreign Staff:
UN cites 2 ‘credible’ reports of torture at U.S. facilities in Afghanistan
The United Nations reported Wednesday that it had uncovered two credible accounts of torture at U.S. military facilities in Afghanistan in recent years during an investigation into the treatment of detainees.
The report, which was devoted primarily to mistreatment of prisoners held in Afghan custody, said the “credible and reliable” accounts came from two detainees who’d been held “in a U.S. facility in Maydan Wardak,” a province whose capital of Maidan Shar lies about 20 miles west of Kabul, and “a U.S. special forces facility at Baghlan,” a province that lies north of the Afghan capital.
The report quoted the prisoners as saying the mistreatment in Baghlan occurred in April 2013 and at Maydan Wardak in September 2013.
Torture as part of the U.S. war on terror has been a controversial issue. A recent report by the Senate Intelligence Committee outlined 20 cases of mistreatment of suspected terrorists held in secret CIA prisons, and U.S. soldiers have been accused of torturing Afghan prisoners, with the most notorious case being the death of Dilawar, an Afghan taxi driver who died after he was hung from the ceiling of his cell by his wrists and beaten in 2002.
But there have been few verified reports in more recent years, though Afghan authorities have accused Americans of abusing prisoners.
The New York Times covers the defense:
‘Jihadi John’ Stirs Britain to Defend Spy Agencies
After disclosures that the man who posed in videos of the murder of Western hostages was known to British intelligence, Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday defended the security services, saying they faced tough decisions and had prevented deadly attacks.
“All of the time, they are having to make incredibly difficult judgments, and I think basically they make very good judgments on our behalf,” Mr. Cameron said at a news conference.
“I think while we are in the middle of this vast effort to make sure British citizens are safe, I think the most important thing is to get behind them,” he said.
And from WMC Action News 5 in Memphis, a target:
Mid-South professor targeted by ISIS
A Mid-South professor is being targeted by ISIS, a group known for its gruesomeness.
“ISIS does not represent my faith, their actions are in contradiction to my faith, and I’m appalled at what they are doing in the name of my faith,” said Rhodes College professor of religious studies, and the Resident Scholar of the Memphis Islamic Center Yasir Qadhi.
ISIS is using its propaganda magazine in the name of Islam to call for the assassination of Qadhi.
“I was one two clerics that they targeted in their latest magazine, two American clerics, and basically called for my assassination,” said Qadhi. “And they have said this is an act of of worship…..that if somebody kills me, God is going to reward them.”
BBC News covers a designation:
Egypt court puts Hamas on terrorist list
An Egyptian court has listed the Palestinian group Hamas as a terrorist organisation, accusing it of supporting an insurgency in northern Sinai.
The ruling comes a month after a different court labelled the armed wing of Hamas as a terrorist group. Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, is an offshoot of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood – itself designated as a terrorist organisation in 2013.
Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood President Mohammed Morsi was ousted that year. The court ruling on Saturday effectively bans Hamas within Egypt, a wider verdict that January’s censure of its armed wing.
From the New York Times, agitation:
Online, American Helps Fuel Attacks in Egypt
Writing from an online perch in Istanbul, he calls on Egyptians to start off-hour attacks against KFC restaurants, banks, mobile phone shops and other corporate outposts. He urges assaults on the military’s commercial interests instead of its security checkpoints.
Nonviolent protests are worse than “futile,” he says, just an opportunity “to get arrested or shot in an exercise in crowd control training for the police.”
This Internet provocateur is an American convert to Islam, Shahid King Bolsen, a college dropout who speaks only rudimentary Arabic and has barely set foot in Egypt. He has nevertheless emerged as the unlikely apostle for a distinctive blend of anti-globalization sloganeering and Islamist politics that is fueling a new wave of violence against businesses across the country.
From the Independent, a Saudi blogger’s fate worsens:
Raif Badawi, the Saudi Arabian blogger sentenced to 1,000 lashes, may now face the death penalty
Raif Badawi, the Saudi Arabian blogger whose punishment of 1,000 lashes has prompted international condemnation, may now face the death penalty.
Mr Badawi’s wife, Ensaf Haidar, told The Independent in a series of messages that judges in Saudi Arabia’s criminal court want him to undergo a re-trial for apostasy. If found guilty, he would face a death sentence.
She said the “dangerous information” had come from “official sources” inside the conservative kingdom, where Mr Badawi has already been sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes – administered at a rate of 50 per week – for criticising the country’s clerics through his liberal blog.
After the jump, terror porn and fundamentalist eBayism, China alleged to spy on nuclear power plants, Aussie women head off to ISIS, China’s Muslims increasingly targeted, Pegida marchers outnumbered by foes in Britain, a looted Iraqi museum reopens, more U.S. drone kills in Yemen, Cameroonians stage an anti-Boko Haram rally, a former Peruvian leader charged in a journalist’s killing, terror fears raise a free speech crackdown on the U.K. campus, civil libertarians fear Canada’s anti-terror legislation, and new Turkish laws evoke the police state specter, South Korea pushes Japan for Comfort Women resolution, a partisan challenge to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s security state push, and a call for cybersecurity coordination. . .
Signal and noise, via RT:
Mossad busts coded terrorist communications on eBay, porn sites – report
Terror groups are using encrypted messages on eBay, Reddit, and pornographic websites. When decoded by Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency has discovered information concerning specific attacks – including when they may happen, a book claims.
Gordon Thomas made the revelations in the new edition of a book entitled ‘Gideon’s Spies: The Secret History of the Mossad,’ the New York Post reported. It explains how Israel’s secret service tracks terrorist threats – including trawling through X-rated online publications.
This is because terror groups like Al-Qaeda have learned to use a technique called steganography, which allows them to conceal secret information within a digital file. The militant organization uses this method by encrypting messages in goods that are for sale on eBay. They also use social networks and news aggregator site Reddit – and have even uploaded images on pornographic websites.
From Want China Times, China alleged to spy on nuclear power plants:
China spied on nuclear plants in South Africa and France: reports
Beijing has reportedly been spying on nuclear power plants in South Africa and France, reports Duowei News, a media outlet operated by overseas Chinese, citing reports from multiple foreign media outlets
Confidential documents revealed by Al Jazeera and the UK’s Guardian newspaper suggest that a nuclear power facility in South Africa has been repeatedly infiltrated by spies taking orders from Beijing.
French political weekly magazine Le Nouvel Observateur said that China has previously been the target of Western intelligence networks in the past, but that more recently Beijing has launched its own intelligence operations. Beijing’s operations in France are said to be based in a property in Chevilly-Larue, a suburb of southern Paris, which serves as a dormitory for staff members of the Chinese consulate in France. Two of the three large satellite dishes on the property’s roof have been used to wiretap and gather information while the third one transmits information gathered back to China, according to the report.
From BBC News, Aussie women head off to ISIS:
Dozens of Australian women ‘supporting terrorism’
Up to 40 Australian women have taken part in terror attacks or are supporting militant groups, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has said.
She said an increasing number of women were going to Syria and Iraq to join husbands fighting with Islamic State (IS) or to marry a militant.
Dozens of Australian nationals are thought to have joined IS.
Australian officials are worried about the effect of returnees, and on those who support them, on domestic security.
China’s Muslims increasingly targeted, via Want China Times:
Terror recruitment targets and methods expand in Xinjiang: HK paper
Religious extremism is continuing to pervasively penetrate northwest China’s restive Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region as recruitment targets and methods expand, reports the Hong Kong-based Phoenix Weekly.
Xinjiang is home to the Muslim Uyghur ethnic minority, who have long accused the Chinese government of suppressing their religious and cultural freedoms. Uyghurs have been largely blamed for the spate of terror attacks in and out of the region in recent years, the latest of which — a suicide bomb — killed up to eight people last week in Xinjiang’s impoverished Hotan prefecture.
One of the growing trends is the increased participation of women in the terror attacks. The Phoenix Weekly report describes a 27-year-old ethnic Uyghur woman who was arrested last July for planning a terror attack on the local government and police station with a group of four others. Police had discovered 25 incomplete Molotov cocktails at her residence, which she made under the guidance of her “husband,” a man with another wife and two children who is believed to have fled to Malaysia to evade authorities.
Pegida marchers outnumbered by foes in Britain, via Al Jazeera America:
Thousands protest against UK branch of anti-Islam group PEGIDA
About 2,000 counter-demonstrators overshadowed some 500 who came to support anti-Islam group in first-ever UK rally
An estimated 2,000 people protested on Saturday in the city of Newcastle, in northeast England, as part of a counter-demonstration against a smaller march held by the British branch of Germany’s anti-Islam group PEGIDA.
PEGIDA, which stands for “Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West” has for months been warning that Germany was being overrun by Muslims. While it has tried to spread its movement to other cities and countries, it has thus far met with limited success.
About 500 people attended Saturday’s rally, PEGIDA’s first-ever in the United Kingdom, the organization said on its Facebook page. That was compared to some 2,000 that staged a counter-demonstration.
A looted Iraqi museum reopens, via BBC News:
Looted Iraqi Museum in Baghdad reopens 12 years on
Iraq’s national museum has officially reopened in Baghdad, 12 years after it was closed in the aftermath of the US-led invasion. Many of the antiquities looted during the war have now been recovered and restored.
The museum’s opening was brought forward in response to an Islamic State (IS) video showing statues being destroyed in Mosul. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has vowed to punish those responsible.
“Those barbaric, criminal terrorists are trying to destroy the heritage of mankind and Iraq’s civilization,” Mr Abadi said while attending the museum’s opening.
More U.S. drone kills in Yemen, via the Guardian:
Security officials suspect US drone strike killed three al-Qaida militants in Yemen
The US has launched several strikes in recent weeks, reflecting Washington’s resolve to keep fighting militants despite Yemen’s political paralysis
A suspected US drone strike on Saturday in central Yemen killed three men believed to be al-Qaida militants, security officials said.
The officials said the attack took place in the town of Bihan in Yemen’s Shabwa province and that the nationalities of the men killed had not been established. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to brief journalists.
The US has launched several strikes in recent weeks, reflecting Washington’s resolve to keep fighting militants despite Yemen’s political paralysis. A Shia rebel power grab forced the president to flee the capital and run the country from the southern city of Aden.
Cameroonians stage an anti-Boko Haram rally, via Al Jazeera America:
Thousands in Cameroon protest against Boko Haram
March aims to build support for Cameroon’s fight against Boko Haram, discourage young people from joining armed group
Thousands of people marched in Cameroon’s capital Yaounde on Saturday to protest against Nigeria’s Boko Haram insurgency and support the central African nation’s army, which is fighting alongside its neighbors in the region to defeat the armed group.
Organizers said the march was aimed at informing the public, especially in the southern part of Cameroon, about the threat posed by Boko Haram, which has carried out regular cross-border raids in the far north. Yaounde is located in the central region of the country.
“It was important to tell Cameroonians that we are at war and a part of the country is suffering,” said Gubai Gatama, a newspaper editor, who was among the march’s organizers. “About 150,000 people have been displaced by the conflict.”
From the Washington Post, a former Peruvian leader charged in a journalist’s killing:
Popular Peru ex-minister charged in killing of journalist
A retired army general widely seen as a possible presidential candidate has been charged with murdering a journalist during the country’s conflicts 26 years ago, a prosecutor announced.
Luis Landa said in interviews published Sunday by three newspapers that he is seeking a 25-year prison term for former Interior Minister Daniel Urresti based on evidence that, as local army intelligence chief at the time, he was responsible for the murder of Hugo Bustios.
Bustios was a correspondent for the national magazine Caretas in the highlands town of Huanta. He was shot and then finished off with a grenade while investigating rights abuses in November 1988 at a time when the government was trying to stamp out a rebellion by the leftist Shining Path guerrillas.
From the Guardian, terror fears raise a free speech crackdown on the U.K. campus:
Government row over ban on extremist speakers on university campuses
Tories and Lib Dems argue over proposed free speech guidelines at centres of learning in wake of claims Mohammed Emwazi was radicalised while studying at Westminster
A coalition row about limiting free speech on university campuses to ban hate preachers has broken out with the Conservative chairman, Grant Shapps, accusing the Liberal Democrat business secretary, Vince Cable, of trying to weaken the planned guidance to universities.
The row came as the shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, separately accused the government of tying the hands of the security services over the past five years by removing the relocation powers that used to be within control orders.
The political point scoring has left the issue of the security services and routes to radicalisation in Muslim communities at the heart of the pre-election political debate.
From the Guardian, civil libertarians fear Canada’s anti-terror legislation:
Canadian anti-terror bill opens door for human rights abuses, law scholars argue
Legal analysis citing threat to democracy is latest criticism of proposed C-51 law being pushed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservative party
More than 100 Canadian law professors have warned the prime minister, Stephen Harper, that a sweeping new anti-terror law introduced by his Conservative government is a “dangerous piece of legislation” that threatens to undermine the rule of law, human rights and democracy itself.
Although one poll showed that four out of five Canadians supported the proposed law shortly after it was tabled last month, criticisms that originated with scattered human-rights groups have since been amplified by a growing chorus of the nation’s leading jurists, academics, editorial-writers and opinion-makers.
The latest open letter follows an earlier plea to scrap the bill signed by four former Canadian prime ministers, five former supreme court justices and several cabinet ministers.
“Protecting human rights and protecting public safety are complementary objectives, but experience has shown that serious human rights abuses can occur in the name of maintaining national security,” the former prime ministers and supreme court jurists wrote. “Given the secrecy around national security activities, abuses can go undetected and without remedy. This results not only in devastating personal consequences for the individuals, but a profoundly negative impact on Canada’s reputation as a rights-respecting nation.”
And new Turkish laws evoke the police state specter, via Deutsche Welle:
Opponents of new Turkish laws fear police state
The Turkish government has proposed new legislation to give police heightened powers to break up demonstrations. Opposition parties and human rights groups worry that the measures will turn Turkey into a police state.
Physical confrontations are not uncommon in the Turkish parliament, but the last two weeks saw escalations reach new levels. One member of parliament fell down the stairs in a scuffle, while others were injured by projectiles or punches. Even the chairman’s gavel and bell were used as weapons in a heated parliamentary brawl.
The trigger for the fighting was a controversial security bill consisting of over 100 amendments. With it, the government of Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu plans to give police greater stop and search powers. It would also allow police to detain people for up to 48 hours before being presented to a judge or an attorney, as well as use firearms against protesters. Demonstrators who cover their faces with masks or scarves during rallies could face years in prison.
Davutoglu claimed that the measures were necessary to protect social order and prevent violent clashes such as the one that broke out last year between Kurds, supporters of an Islamist group and police. He also insisted the planned amendments conformed to EU norms and made mention of new measures to curb police brutality.
From Kyodo News, South Korea pushes Japan for Comfort Women resolution:
Park urges Japan to resolve “comfort women” issue
South Korean President Park Geun Hye on Sunday urged Japan to resolve the issue of “comfort women” at an early time.
“There is not enough time to restore their honor as their average age is almost 90,” Park said in a speech commemorating the 96th anniversary of an independence movement against Japanese colonial rule.
Park said two former “comfort women” died this year, reducing the remaining number of such women who say they were forced to work in wartime Japanese military brothels to 53.
A partisan challenge to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s security state push, via the Japan Times:
DPJ vows at convention to hold firm against Abe’s security legislation
The Democratic Party of Japan pledged to stand firm against the government’s security legislation in the Diet as it held its party convention in Tokyo on Sunday.
In adopting an action plan, the main opposition party also lashed out at “Abenomics,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s economic program, claiming it is widening economic and social inequalities in the country.
The DPJ called for “cautious and sufficient” Diet debate on legislation aimed at giving the Self-Defense Forces bigger roles abroad. The government is expected to submit the legislation to the Diet in late April, after a nationwide series of critical local elections.
And finally, from Kyodo News, and a call for cybersecurity coordination:
Gov’t to ask 48 entities to cooperate over cybersecurity
The government will ask for cooperation from 48 entities in charge of the nation’s key infrastructure such as provision of information when they are hit by major cyberattacks as part of efforts to strengthen countermeasures against such a threat, a government official said Sunday.
The 48 entities designated by the basic law on cybersecurity enacted last November include Nippon Telegram and Telephone Corp., operators of highways, some of the Japan Railways group, NHK, the Bank of Japan and the Japanese Red Cross Society, the official said.
Ahead of hosting the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, the government sees cooperation as necessary to better prepare for growing cybersecurity threats and prompt recovery from damage as well as investigation into the cause of trouble, according to the official.
