We begin with consideration from the New York Times:
Holder Weighs Dismantling the Ferguson Police Dept.
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. vowed a firm response on Friday to what he called “appalling” racial misconduct by law enforcement officials in Ferguson, Mo., suggesting he was prepared to seek the dismantling of the police force there if necessary.
“We are prepared to use all the powers that we have, all the power that we have, to ensure that the situation changes there,” Mr. Holder told reporters here after returning from Columbia, S.C., where he appeared with President Obama at a town hall-style meeting at Benedict College. “That means everything from working with them to coming up with an entirely new structure.”
Asked if that included dismantling the police force, Mr. Holder said: “If that’s what’s necessary, we’re prepared to do that.”
From the Intercept, notable spooky news:
Documents Shine Light on Shadowy New Zealand Surveillance Base
Near the heartland of New Zealand’s renowned wine country, there is a place that visitors are not allowed to go. The peculiar large white domes that protrude from the earth in the Waihopai Valley are surrounded by razor wire and shrouded in secrecy.
But now, newly revealed documents from the National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden shine a light on what is behind the security perimeter. The buildings there are crammed with sophisticated NSA spying technology, used by New Zealand to sweep up text messages, emails, phone calls, and other communications in bulk across the Asia-Pacific.
The documents, revealed Saturday by the Sunday Star-Times in collaboration with The Intercept, show how closely New Zealand has worked with the NSA to maintain surveillance coverage of the region. The files also offer an unprecedented insight into the Waihopai base, exposing how it’s been integrated into a global eavesdropping network.
The spying station intercepts data from satellites, and is operated by Government Communications Security Bureau, or GCSB, New Zealand’s equivalent of the NSA. Waihopai is part of a group of surveillance stations used by the so-called Five Eyes, an alliance that New Zealand is part of alongside the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada.
CBC News covers options exercised:
Counter-terrorism work has ‘sidetracked’ 300 RCMP criminal probes
RCMP head Bob Paulson says he hopes full, unedited Zehaf-Bibeau video will be released eventually
RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson says he thinks the full, unedited version of Parliament Hill shooter Michael Zehaf-Bibeau’s self-filmed video will eventually be released.
In an interview airing Saturday morning on CBC Radio’s The House, host Evan Solomon asked Paulson if 18 seconds from the beginning and end of the video made on the day of the shooting would one day be made public by police.
“I think so, eventually. I would like to think so,” he said. “I can’t give you a time estimate, I don’t think anything is lost in terms of what Canadians are seeing from Zehaf-Bibeau.”
Next, a fusion, via BBC News:
Nigeria’s Boko Haram pledges allegiance to Islamic State
Nigerian militant group Boko Haram has pledged allegiance to Islamic State (IS), according to an audio statement. The message, which could not immediately be verified, was posted on Boko Haram’s Twitter account and appeared to be by the group’s leader.
Boko Haram began a military campaign to impose Islamic rule in northern Nigeria in 2009. The conflict has since spread to neighbouring states. It would be the latest in a series of groups to swear allegiance to IS.
Boko Haram’s insurgency has threatened Nigeria’s territorial integrity and triggered a humanitarian crisis. It has carried out frequent bombings that have left thousands dead and has also attacked targets in the capital, Abuja.
From the Guardian, yet another attempt to reboot history — a UNESCO World Heritage Site:
Isis militants destroy remains of Hatra in northern Iraq
2,000-year-old city has been demolished, says tourism and antiquities ministry
Islamic State militants have bulldozed ancient remains of the 2,000-year-old city of Hatra in northern Iraq.
An official said the tourism and antiquities ministry had received reports from its employees in Mosul, which is controlled by the radical Islamist group, that the site at Hatra had been demolished.
A nearby resident said he heard a powerful explosion early on Saturday and that neighbours had reported that Isis militants had destroyed some of the larger buildings in Hatra and were bulldozing other parts.
The destruction follows a similar incident this week when Isis fighters bulldozed the ancient Assyrian archaeological site of Nimrud, south of Mosul. Some of the works had survived for more than 1,500 years.
Here’s a video tour of what once was, via UNESCO:
Hatra (UNESCO/NHK)
Program notes:
A large fortified city under the influence of the Parthian Empire and capital of the first Arab Kingdom, Hatra withstood invasions by the Romans in A.D. 116 and 198 thanks to its high, thick walls reinforced by towers. The remains of the city, especially the temples where Hellenistic and Roman architecture blend with Eastern decorative features, attest to the greatness of its civilization.
From the Observer, archaeological anxiety spreads:
Isis vandalism has Libya fearing for its cultural treasures
With five World Heritage sites and historical remains stretching back to before Roman times, archaeologists worry a unique legacy may be lost
The Libyan capital of Tripoli lies more than 1,700 miles from the ancient Iraqi city of Nimrud. But for Mustafa Turjman, head of archaeological research at the University of Tripoli, the reported destruction of Nimrud’s ruins last week by the bulldozers of Islamic State (Isis) must have seemed rather closer to home.
For Libya, like Iraq, is home to a prized array of temples, tombs, mosques and churches, including five Unesco world heritage sites. And Libya, like Iraq, is racked by a complex civil war in which Isis plays a key role.
“Everything is unpredictable,” Turjman told the Observer. “But our heritage is in danger and it’s very difficult to protect it. We [academics] can protect it through restoration, but to protect it from people and explosions is very difficult. Sites, in particular in the centre and populated areas, are very endangered and very much at risk.”
The Washington Post covers the predictable:
Strains plague Iraqi, U.S. assessments of long-term fight against Islamic State
Signs of strain have emerged recently between the United States and Iraq over the timetable and military components of a campaign to retake major population centers occupied by the Islamic State.
Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter told Congress this week that the U.S. Central Command was “inaccurate” when it told reporters recently that an offensive in Mosul could begin as early as April. But that timeline had already provoked a retort from Carter’s Iraqi counterpart, who said the United States was “not familiar” with Iraq’s battle plan for the northwestern city.
Speaking at a news conference late last month, Iraqi Defense Minister Khaled al-Obeidi said that Baghdad would determine the timing for the Mosul offensive.
From VICE News, more cadaverous messaging:
Islamic State Hangs Corpses Over Iraq City Entrance During Tikrit Battle
Islamic State militants hung the bodies of men believed to be Iraqi soldiers at the entrance to the town of Hawija in northern Iraq. In a video posted to Youtube, the corpses are shown strung from Hawija’s gates as vehicles passed below.
Witnesses quoted by local Iraqi reports said the bodies, strung upside down, were bodies of Iraqi government soldiers killed while battling ISIS forces in Tikrit, located about 74 miles away.
The gruesome display comes as Iraqi troops and allied Shiite militias mount a massive push to retake Tikrit from Islamic State fighters. Approximately 30,000 troops used jets and helicopters to try to push into the Islamic State-held city that is only 100 miles from Baghdad. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the assault on Tikrit last Sunday during a press conference.
The Washington Post considers things to come:
U.S. sees even bigger test for Iraq and Iran in the aftermath of Tikrit battle
The top U.S. military officer will press the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi during a visit to Iraq this week about its plans for avoiding sectarian fallout once the Iranian-backed operation to dislodge the Islamic State from the city of Tikrit concludes.
Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he was confident that Iraq would ultimately defeat the Sunni militants in Tikrit, a largely Sunni city north of Baghdad. He said the group’s fighters numbered only in the hundreds there, while the force of Iraqi troops and Iranian-backed militia fighters advancing on the city stands around 23,000.
“The important thing about this operation in the Tikrit in my view is less about how the military aspect of it goes and more about what follows,” he told reporters ahead a visit to Iraq, where he will meet with Iraq’s Shiite-led government. “Because if the Sunni population is then allowed to continue to live its life the way it wants to, and can come back to their homes … then I think we’re in a really good place.”
Mediterranean escalation, via Reuters:
EU considers bigger naval presence to tackle Libya security issues
The European Union is discussing with the United Nations ways to bolster security in Libya, including a naval presence, if U.N.-backed peace talks lead to a settlement, the EU’s foreign policy head said on Saturday.
Libya’s warring factions had held talks on Thursday in an effort to end a conflict between two rival governments that threatens to drive the country into full-blown civil war.
The EU currently has ships that patrol the Mediterranean Sea to help rescue migrants trying to flee from Libya and other North African countries. But Federica Mogherini said this presence could go further.
From Reuters again, more Libyan anxiety:
U.N. experts concerned Libya arms could be diverted to militias
U.N. sanctions monitors said on Friday they are concerned that if a United Nations Security Council committee approves a request by Libya’s government for weapons, tanks and jets, some of the equipment could be diverted to militias supporting them.
The experts, who monitor violations of an arms embargo imposed on Libya in 2011, said in a letter – obtained by Reuters – that arms could also end up in the hands of other militia after battles or if Libyan troops lose control of stockpiles.
Libya’s internationally-recognized government of Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni has operated out of the east since a rival armed faction called Libya Dawn took over Tripoli in fighting last year and set up its own administration.
After the jump, Morsi supporters executed in Egypt, the U.N. Human Rights Council takes up the cause of privacy, the Internet of [hacked] Things, a lie-detecting app for corporate execs, the Saudis spurn blogger-flogging critics, on to the Boko Haram front with a suicide bombing assault in Nigeria and women protesting in Niger, the lynching of an alleged Indian rapist results in a trucker boycott, China jails women activists on the eve of International Women’s Day, an anti-hijab warning in eastern China, on to Tokyo and a hint Shinzo Abe may scale back remilitarization legislation, support for Abe’s agenda on the rise, Tokyo and Taipei ink a Game of Zones fishing pact, and mixed messaging inn the Okinawa/Tokyo feud over a U.S. base move, plus hints the Pope may help solve a four-decade-old murder mystery. . .
From the Guardian, executions in Egypt:
Egypt carries out first death sentence after mass trials of Morsi supporters
Mahmoud Ramadan hanged in Cairo after conviction last year for throwing youths off an apartment block
An Egyptian man has been executed for pushing a teenager from a building, the first time that Egypt has enacted any of the death sentences given to hundreds of people accused of taking part in the unrest that followed the removal of Mohamed Morsi as president in 2013.
Mahmoud Ramadan was hanged for his role in the murder of a young Morsi critic in July 2013 during clashes between Morsi’s supporters and opponents. More than 50 others have been jail for more than 15 months for their alleged involvement in the same case.
At least 720 alleged Morsi supporters have been sentenced to death for their claimed role in Islamist-led violence in 2013, including the head of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Badie. But most of their sentences have yet to be enacted or have been quashed on appeal and sent to retrial.
From the ACLU Blog of Rights, the U.N. Human Rights Council takes up the cause of privacy:
Privacy Might Be Getting an International Champion
The U.N. Human Rights Council could take a big step this month toward protecting privacy rights around the world. At its current session, the HRC plans to vote on whether to appoint an independent expert on the right to privacy, called a “special rapporteur.”
The ACLU joined with more than 60 other human rights and civil liberties groups this week in signing a letter urging the HRC to vote in favor of the initiative, which could help strengthen critically needed privacy standards and monitor compliance with those standards worldwide. I will be in Geneva next week to participate in meetings on the matter with members of the HRC and advocate for this important mechanism.
Privacy is one of the most fundamental – and widely violated – human rights not to have its own special rapporteur. While the U.N. General Assembly has recently passed resolutions expressing support for the right to privacy in the digital age, and the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights has recently issued a landmark report on the same issue, both of those bodies have a broad range of human rights issues to monitor and address. Privacy needs a dedicated international champion.
Special rapporteurs have played a key role in protecting human rights for decades. Some rapporteurs have “thematic” mandates, focusing on specific rights or issues, like freedom of opinion and expression or violence against women. Other rapporteurs have “country” mandates, meaning they focus on specific states, like Myanmar or Syria.
From Slate, the Internet of [hacked] Things:
Pretty Much Every Smart Home Device You Can Think of Has Been Hacked
At this time last year, numerous pundits were calling 2014 the year of the Internet of Things. The prediction was everywhere. Of course there were some skeptics, but buzz around smart homes, the quantified self, and general interconnectivity felt ubiquitous.
That vision got seriously derailed. Turns out that 2014 was the year of the hack.
But it isn’t really a coincidence that where we want an Internet of Things, we get a year of hacks. The more devices and points of entry there are on a network, the more opportunities there are for an intruder to find a sneaky way in. But that doesn’t make these hacks any less clever…or problematic.
From the London Daily Mail, a lie-detecting app for corporate execs:
How’s your poker face? New app that analyses facial expressions will be able to tell potential employers if you’re lying
Researchers fed the computer with pictures showing human expressions
Vast amounts of information taught it to effectively read human emotions
American company ooVoo says it could be useful in business and politics
But even they admit it could worry some people because of privacy issues
Political pollsters are planning to use it in the 2016 US presidential election
From Reuters, the Saudis spurn blogger-slogging critics:
Saudi Arabia rejects rights criticism after flogging of blogger
Saudi Arabia defended its human rights record on Saturday in its first public reaction to international criticism over last year’s sentencing of liberal Saudi blogger Raif Badawi to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in jail for “insulting Islam”.
The first 50 of Badawi’s lashes were carried out in January, prompting strong criticism of the kingdom’s rights record in Western countries, including its laws on political and religious expression and the status of Saudi women.
“Saudi Arabia expresses its intense surprise and dismay at what is being reported by some media about the case of citizen Raif Badawi and his sentence,” said a statement carried on state media and attributed to an unnamed “foreign ministry official”.
On to the Boko Haram front with a suicide bombing assault from BBC News:
Nigerian city of Maiduguri hit by multiple blasts
At least five blasts have killed 50 people and injured 56 in the city of Maiduguri in north-eastern Nigeria, an official has told the BBC.
Two crowded markets and a busy bus station were targeted by suicide bombers, witnesses said.
Witnesses in one of the markets described gory scenes with men, women and children lying on the ground.
Maiduguri was once the stronghold of the militant group Boko Haram, which is seeking to establish an Islamic state.
And from StarAfrica, protests:
Niger: Women protest against Boko Haram
Thousands of women marched in Niger’s capital on Saturday to protest against Nigeria’s Boko Haram insurgency.
The demonstration which was organised by the ministry of Women’s Empowerment, was held near the National Assembly where the women met with the Nigerien Prime Minister Birigi Rafini to whom they handed a document called “the Call of women in Niger”.
The event was held ahead of the International Women’s Day due to be marked on 8 March.
Children and elderly people in East Niger have been the target of the extremist sect, a situation decried by all women groups in Niger who have reaffirmed their full solidarity with victims of the Islamist group.
From the Hindu, the lynching of an alleged Indian rapist results in a trucker boycott:
Dimapur lynching: Assam truckers stop plying to Nagaland
Truckers in Assam on Saturday stopped plying their vehicles from here to Dimapur and other parts of Nagaland in protest against the lynching of a rape accused in Nagaland’s commercial hub Dimapur on Thursday.
At least 17 truckers’ bodies in Assam said on Saturday that the protest will continue until the victims’ family gets justice.
“The killing of Syed Farid Khan, a Dimapur-based businessman from Assam, is an inhuman act. The Nagaland government must provide adequate compensation to the family of the victim and ensure that no other traders or businessman of Assam is harassed in Nagaland,” said a member of the All Assam Truck Owners’ Association.
The truckers’ bodies also complained about the harassment of truckers by several sections in Nagaland, particularly by the militant outfits on ceasefire in the form of illegal tax collection.
China jails women activists on the eve of International Women’s Day, via Reuters:
China detains feminist activists ahead of Women’s Day
China has detained at least two feminist activists, a lawyer said, as the country escalates a crackdown on dissent ahead of planned rallies this weekend to mark International Women’s Day.
Li Tingting, who goes by the pseudonym Li Maizi, a young women’s rights campaigner who is best known for leading a campaign for unisex toilets, was detained in Beijing. Another activist, Zheng Churan, was being held in the southern metropolis of Guangzhou.
“They have not given information on why she was detained, but my guess is that it has something to do with maintaining social stability on International Women’s Day (on March 8),” said Yan Xin, Li’s lawyer, by phone.
Another rights activist who is close to the two women said they and other feminist campaigners were planning a demonstration against sexual harassment on public transportation on March 7, which would have taken place in both Beijing and Guangzhou as well as other places.
And a warning in eastern China, via Reuters:
China city boss warns against Islamic head coverings in Xinjiang
Veils and head coverings represent a cultural reverse in western China’s Xinjiang region, said the top Communist Party boss in Kashgar, the city the government describes as the “frontline” in its battle against religious extremism.
Kashgar and the surrounding areas of southern Xinjiang has suffered from some of the worst ethnic tensions in the region between the largely Muslim Uighur ethnic minority and majority Han Chinese.
Exiled Uighur groups and human rights activists say the government’s repressive policies in Xinjiang, including controls on Islam, have provoked unrest.
On to Tokyo and a hint Shinzo Abe may scale back remilitarization legislation, via Jiji Press:
Japan May Scale Back Planned Permanent Law on SDF Dispatch
The Japanese government is considering allowing the Self-Defense Forces to provide only logistic support to troops from other countries under a planned permanent law on SDF dispatch abroad, informed sources said Saturday.
The government initially hoped to include support for international cooperation, such as humanitarian and reconstruction assistance that the SDF provided in Iraq in the past, in the scope of SDF activities to be covered by the law.
But it now plans to enable such assistance by revising the existing law on cooperation for U.N. peacekeeping operations, in consideration of a cautious stance on the permanent law among members of Komeito, the coalition partner of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, according to the sources.
Support for Abe’s agenda on the rise, via Kyodo News:
Record 30% of Japanese want to see SDF capabilities boosted: survey
A record-high 29.9 percent of Japanese people said they want the Self-Defense Forces’ defense capabilities to be boosted, a government survey showed Saturday.
The figure was up 5.1 percentage points from a survey conducted three years ago, and almost twice the figure in 2009, after which SDF personnel were involved in search and rescue operations in the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster in Japan’s northeast.
But according to the Cabinet Office, a majority of respondents, 59.2 percent, said the SDF’s capabilities can be kept at their current level.
Tokyo and Taipei ink a Game of Zones fishing pact, via the Japan Times:
Japan, Taiwan agree to modify landmark fishing pact off Senkakus
Tokyo and Taipei have agreed to amend fishing regulations in a landmark pact covering waters off a cluster of Taiwan-claimed, Japan-administered islands in the East China Sea, Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said Saturday.
The ministry said in a statement that the Taiwan-Japan joint fishery committee reached the agreement Friday after three days of talks in Tokyo.
The two countries signed a bilateral fisheries pact in April 2013 to allow reciprocal fishing in what Japan regards as its exclusive economic zone near the Japanese-administered Senkaku Islands, known as Tiaoyutai in Taiwan and Diaoyu in China, which also claim them.
From the Japan Times, differential messaging:
Okinawa’s story told differently in Tokyo
Last week, at the end of a report on the TBS newsmagazine show “Hodo Tokushu” about protests against the proposed U.S. Marine Corps base at Henoko in Okinawa, the show’s host mentioned that in response to charges from local press that it had violently repelled sea-borne demonstrators, the Japan Coast Guard provided one statement for local journalists and another for mainland reporters. Tokyo-based newspeople were told that their Okinawan counterparts had reported “wrong” information, but when responding to Okinawan media, the coast guard ignored these assertions.
An announcer on the show observed that this discrepancy reveals why “Okinawan opinions” are not properly understood by the central government, which might explain why the current administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has become so intractable about Henoko. Veteran TBS reporter Shigenori Kanehira admitted that “the Tokyo media hasn’t adequately conveyed what is really going on.”
The central government knows exactly how the people of Okinawa feel about the U.S. Marine base construction. In the last general election local voters roundly rejected any candidate backed by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, as well as the prefecture’s governor, who had approved the Henoko project. What bothered Kanehira was that the mainland media has not made the rest of Japan understand what’s at stake. The information delivered by the mainstream press has perpetuated a myth that works against the interests of Okinawans, and while most Japanese people may sympathize with what they believe is a vocal minority’s displeasure at living side-by-side with the American military, it can’t be helped because, the story goes, Japan relies on the U.S. for security and the prefecture’s economy depends on the central government.
And to close, a Papal hand in a notorious political killing, via TheLocal.it:
Pope helps shed light on notorious murder in Italy
Pope Francis is breaking decades of Vatican silence to help Italy shed light on one of its most notorious crimes, the 1970’s murder of former premier Aldo Moro, a leading daily said Saturday.
Francis has given permission for Archbishop Antonio Mennini to be interviewed by a parliamentary commission, 37 years after Moro was kidnapped and killed by the Red Brigades, a leftist Italian militant group, the Corriere della Sera has reported.
Mennini is reported to have heard Moro’s final confession and served as a go-between between the militants and Pope Paul VI, who is believed to have attempted to buy the former prime minister’s release.
Francesco Cossiga, president of Italy from 1985 to 1992, confessed before he died that “Mennini managed to reach Aldo Moro in the Red Brigades’ den and we did not find out about it,” the Italian daily said.
