We begin with a positive development, via CNN:
Ferguson police chief resigns, says it’s ‘hard pill to swallow’
Embattled Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson resigned Wednesday, a week after a scathing Justice Department report slammed his department. Jackson and the city “have agreed to a mutual separation,” Ferguson officials announced.
“It’s a really hard pill to swallow,” Jackson said in a text message responding to CNN’s request for comment. He also confirmed his resignation in a letter to Ferguson’s mayor.
“It is with profound sadness that I am announcing I am stepping down from my position as chief of police for the city of Ferguson, Missouri,” Jackson said, adding that serving the city as police chief “has been an honor and a privilege.”
From BuzzFeed News, young-uns quick on the trigger:
Younger Police Officers Are More Likely To Shoot People Than Older Ones
Research shows that younger officers are more likely to be involved in shootings, even though age is rarely mentioned as a factor in the aftermath. “It’s a dirty little secret that we’re hiring police officers too young,” a veteran Boston officer said.
The age of an officer is perhaps the least-discussed factor in a fatal encounter with police, and the maturity of an officer rarely comes up in news conferences after an incident. Age wasn’t mentioned in the Justice Department’s deep, 86-page analysis of Brown’s fatal shooting released last week.
Yet research shows that younger officers are more likely to be involved in shootings, and that the risk of shootings declines as officers age. That may be because younger officers are more likely to be working on the street than behind a desk, according to researchers, but it could also be that younger officers are predisposed to react with deadly force.
Unions for the Ferguson Police Department, New York City Police Department, and Cleveland Police Department did not respond to requests for comment.
What’s a little snooping between friends?, via the Guardian:
Australian spy officer was sent to New Zealand to lead new surveillance unit
New revelations also show NZ’s spy agency, GCSB, had access to NSA program to hack phones and computers of targets in the Asia-Pacific
Australia’s defence intelligence agency sent an officer to work with New Zealand’s spy agency to help them develop their cyber capabilities and lead a new operational unit, new documents from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden reveal.
On Wednesday the New Zealand Herald and the Intercept published new revelations about the role of New Zealand’s spy agency, the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) which disclose new details about its role gathering intelligence from Vietnam, China, India, Pakistan, Japan, South Pacific nations and other countries.
The disclosures also reveal that the GCSB had access to an NSA program codenamed WARRIORPRIDE used to access phones and computers that “can collect against an Asean target”. A March 2013 report describes New Zealand working towards improving its cyber capabilities to improve detection, discovery of new tools and disruption of the source of intrusions.
From the Verge, flying high to get the downlow:
The CIA helped develop planes that scrape cell phone data
The US may be using cellphone-sniffing planes to find suspects across the world, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal. In November, the Journal revealed the US Marshal’s secret program to locate specific fugitive through airplane equipped to mimic cell towers. Flying over an urban area, the planes can pinpoint the location of a single number amid a million or more phones. The new report shows the technology first originated with the CIA, which guided the initial deployment of the planes by the Marshal Service. Furthermore, Journal sources say continues to be used to locate intelligence targets overseas.
If true, the report unveils a powerful weapon in US intelligence efforts abroad, but also reveals a troubling trend of foreign intelligence tools used for domestic law enforcement purposes. The plane-mounted cellphone detector is a potentially ingenious tool for intelligence gathering, but it seems to have moved from CIA intelligence work to domestic fugitive tracking with little to no oversight, a troubling reminder of how easily tools designed for the War on Terror can be put to domestic ends. Electronic privacy advocates have already raised doubt about the practice. “There’s a lot of privacy concerns in something this widespread, and those concerns only increase if we have an intelligence agency coordinating with them,” the EFF’s Andrew Crocker told the Journal.
Norse cops busted for doing what American cops — and spooks — do routinely, via TheLocal.no:
Norway police broke law with fake base stations
Norway’s Police Security Service (PST) persistently violated the law as it established a network of fake mobile phone base stations across Oslo last year, Norway’s Aftenposten has revealed.
According to the paper, police and PST deliberately ignored a requirement that they should inform the country’s telecoms authority before setting up ‘IMSI catchers’, which mimic mobile base stations, allowing their operators to intercept and eavesdrop on mobile phone calls made nearby.
The newspaper last December identified a series of “fake base stations” outside Norway’s parliament, outside its government headquarters, and outside the residence of the prime minister, using a German CryptoPhone 500 to identify them.
It now appears that many, if not all of the devices, were set up by Norway’s own security services.
From Agence France-Presse, a Dutch metadata and email collection defeat:
Dutch court nixes data storage law, says privacy breached
A Dutch court on Wednesday struck down a law requiring telecoms and Internet service providers to store their clients’ private phone and email data, saying it breached European privacy rules.
“The judge ruled that data retention is necessary and effective to combat serious crime. Dutch legislation however infringes on the individual’s right to privacy and the protection of personal data,” the Hague district court said.
“The law therefore contravenes the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union,” the court said in a statement. Seven groups and organisations including privacy watchdog Privacy First and the Dutch Association of Journalists dragged the Dutch state to court last month over the issue.
From SecurityWeek, don’t phone it in:
Dropbox Android SDK Flaw Exposes Mobile Users to Attack: IBM
IBM researchers discovered a flaw in Dropbox’s Android SDK which can leave mobile users vulnerable to attack.
The issue was not in the Dropbox service or the mobile app itself, but rather in the company’s SDK that third-party developers include to let users easily connect to their Dropbox files, Michael Montecillo, director of security intelligence at IBM Security, told SecurityWeek.
The vulnerability (CVE-2014-8889) was present in the SDK versions 1.5.4 through 1.5.1.
From the Associated Press, Cold War 2.0 intensifies:
Ukraine’s neighbor Poland to test resilience to attack
Poland will hold an exercise this year to test its resilience to a “crisis” like the conflict in neighboring Ukraine, President Bronislaw Komorowski said Wednesday.
Komorowski spoke to reporters during an annual meeting of army commanders and the defense minister that examines Poland’s defense potential and outlines key security tasks.
He said the nation needs to raise its defense potential in the face of threats, including the armed conflict that involves Poland’s two neighbors, Russia and Ukraine.
More casualties in the Forth Estate, via Fox News Latino:
2 Journalists murdered in Guatemala
Two journalists, one who worked for the daily Prensa Libre and another employed by Radio Nuevo Mundo, were murdered in front of a government office building in Suchitepequez, a province in Guatemala, emergency services officials said.
Danilo Lopez and Federico Salazar were gunned down on Tuesday in the city of Mazatenango’s central park by two individuals riding a motorcycle.
Lopez, a reporter for Prensa Libre, was pronounced dead at the scene, while Salazar, who worked for Radio Nuevo Mundo, died at a hospital in the city.
From RT, the Hexagon at high alert:
France to keep 10,000 troops on streets as terror threat remains high
As the threat of attacks by Islamist extremists remains high in France, President Francois Hollande has decided to continue the deployment of 10,000 troops on the streets across the country.
“The threat of terrorist attack against our country remains high. The head of state has decided to maintain the level of the army on the national territory at 10,000 troops in support of security forces from the Interior Ministry,” Hollande’s office said in a statement after a meeting of senior ministers, AFP reported.
A total of 7,000 troops will be monitoring and protecting religious buildings that are “particularly threatened,” the statement added.
From TheLocal.it, ISIS insanity:
Italian police: ‘Isis flag’ was jacket in tree
Police called to investigate an alleged Isis flag hanging outside an apartment building in Italy made a surprise discovery, finding what they feared may be extremist propaganda was, in fact, a resident’s washing put out to dry.
Police were called to an apartment block in Porto Recanati, on Italy’s eastern coast, after locals raised the alarm that an Isis sympathizer may be within their midst.
The officers searched the building and questioned residents, but were unable to recover the mystery black cloth spotted hanging from a tree next to the apartment block.
On further investigation police discovered that the supposed propaganda tool was nothing more than a jacket, swept into the trees after being hung out to dry, Corriere della Sera reported on Wednesday.
From Agence France-Presse, Britain’s NSA goes all how-to:
UK spies write ‘how to catch a terrorist’ guide
Secrecy is a cornerstone of spycraft, but Britain’s GCHQ communications agency has gone public with a guide on how to catch a “terrorist” as the government calls for increased online snooping powers.
In an apparent effort to make the secret services more transparent, the five-step guide illustrated with the image of an old-school spy in a trenchcoat was published on the monitoring agency’s website.
Entitled “How does an analyst catch a terrorist?”, it takes readers through the ways in which GCHQ analysts identify a suspicious stranger spotted overseas.
Under the scenario, the guide says an MI6 source based overseas spots a leader of the Islamic State group handing a stranger a message containing information “that will cause carnage across London”.
After the jump, the Saudi/Swedish schism widens after a denunciation and an arms deal ended, on to the ISIS battlefront, first with another archaeological assault, ISIS on the brink of losing Tikrit while another city threatens to fall under ISIS guns, America’s top general voices concerns of events after an ISIS collapse, Washington frets over its own anti-Assad forces, hundreds of medics killed in the Syrian conflict, the UN’s plan to send Syrian refugees to northern Europe, and ISIS hacks Japanese websites while Anonymous down an ISIS social network, it’s on the the Boko Haram front and the claim of hundreds slain, France pledges more troops to the effort, and the U.S. backs a U.N. call for a regional anti-Boko Haram command, Indonesian fears of an ISIS insurgency and Indonesia threatens to flood Australia with refugees, Chinese island-building draws a Philippine demand, Japan mulls extending North Korean sanctions, the U.S. Marine commandant frets an Okinawan base relocation, and after Ringling Brothers retires its elephants, the Pentagon ponders using them as bomb detectors. . .
From the Peninsula in Doha, Qatar, a Saudi accusation:
Saudi accuses Sweden of ‘flagrant interference’ in affairs
Saudi Arabia accused Sweden’s foreign minister Wednesday of “flagrant interference” in its internal affairs after she criticised the country’s human rights record, and confirmed that it is recalling its envoy in protest.
Margot Wallstroem’s criticism was “harmful to the kingdom,” the Saudi foreign ministry said, adding that it represented a “flagrant interference in internal affairs, which is not accepted in international conventions.”
And an ambassadorial escalation, via the Guardian:
Clash between Sweden and Saudi Arabia escalates as ambassador is withdrawn
Saudi foreign ministry recalls its ambassador to Sweden over criticism of its human rights record, following Stockholm’s tearing up of arms agreement
A clash between Sweden’s progressive foreign policy and the harsh realities of the Middle East has escalated with Saudi Arabia’s withdrawal of its ambassador after Stockholm tore up an arms trade agreement between the two countries.
Accusing Sweden’s foreign minister of “flagrant interference” in its internal affairs, the Saudi foreign ministry said it was recalling Ibrahim bin Saad Al-Ibrahim in protest over Sweden’s criticism of its human rights record, which it said was “harmful to the kingdom”.
Comments by Margot Wallström, the foreign minister, represented a “flagrant interference in internal affairs, which is not accepted in international conventions,” it added, according to an official statement carried by state news agency SPA.
And on to the ISIS battlefront, first with another archaeological assault, via Reuters:
Islamic State ransacks Assyrian capital as Iraq appeals for help
Islamic State militants have desecrated another ancient Iraqi capital, the government said on Wednesday, razing parts of the 2,700-year-old city of Khorsabad famed for its colossal statues of human-headed winged bulls.
Officials have said for several days they were checking reports of damage at Khorsabad following attacks on the cities of Nineveh, Nimrud and Hatra by the Islamist radicals who control much of northern Iraq.
On Wednesday the head of Iraq’s antiquities board and the country’s antiquities minister both confirmed that damage had been inflicted in recent days at Khorsabad, although neither was able to give details.
From the Guardian, ISIS on the brink of losing Tikrit:
Iraqi forces poised to recapture Tikrit from Isis
Having taken control of nearby town, pro-government forces move closer in offensive that would mark first time Islamic State cedes a major city
Iraqi forces led by Shia militias and backed by the army and Sunni tribal fighters appear poised to recapture the Islamic State stronghold of Tikrit in northern Iraq, in an offensive that could mark the first major reversal for the militant group in the country.
The pro-government forces have taken control of al-Alam, a strategic town on the eastern outskirts of Tikrit, and inched closer to the centre of Saddam Hussein’s hometown and former government installations west of the Tigris river, now held by Isis.
“The forces want to hold the Friday prayers in the centre of Salahuddin,” said Dr Hisham al-Hashimi, who advises the Iraqi government on Isis, referring to the province whose administrative capital is Tikrit.
While another city threatens to fall under ISIS guns, via the New York Times:
ISIS Attacks Ramadi as Iraqi Army Takes Ground in Tikrit
Militant fighters of the Islamic State mounted one of their fiercest assaults in months on Wednesday, setting off 21 car bombs in the city of Ramadi, even as the group lost ground in an Iraqi government offensive in Tikrit, security officials said.
Security forces fought Islamic State holdouts in two remaining neighborhoods on the west side of Tikrit, the birthplace of Saddam Hussein, where militants massacred more than 1,000 Shiite Iraqi soldiers last year.
The city has been the focus of a weeklong assault by Iraqi forces, the largest operation against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, since it swept into control of much of the country last year. Iraqi government troops and their Shiite militia allies appeared to be close to recapturing the city on Wednesday and scoring a strategically and emotionally significant victory.
The Associated Press covers general anxiety:
Top military chief voices concerns about fight against IS
America’s top military officer says that while Iran’s support in the fight against Islamic State militants is helpful, the U.S. remains concerned about what happens “after the drums stop beating” and IS is defeated.
Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday that anything anyone does to counter IS is a “positive thing.” But he said there is concern about whether Iran-backed militamen, who are Shia, will turn against Sunni Iraqis, further destabilizing Iraq.
“We are all concerned about what happens after the drums stop beating and ISIL is defeated, and whether the government of Iraq will remain on a path to provide an inclusive government for all of the various groups within it,” Dempsey said, using an acronym for the militant group. “We’re very concerned about that.”
Washington frets over its own anti-Assad forces, via Reuters:
U.S. may be unable to defend its Syria recruits against Assad
The United States does not appear to have clear-cut legal authority to protect Syrian rebels it trains from attack by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, even under new war powers, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Wednesday.
Still, Carter told Congress, a final determination had not yet been made.
The remarks underscore the deep uncertainty surrounding a fledgling U.S. military-led training program expected to get under way in the coming weeks, first in Jordan, then at training sites in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and, later, Qatar, with the goal of training upwards of 5,000 fighters a year.
A soaring medical body count, via the Associated Press:
Report: More than 600 medical staff killed in Syrian war
More than 600 medical workers have been killed in Syria’s civil war in deliberate and indiscriminate attacks, most of them by government forces, an international rights group announced on Wednesday.
Physicians for Human Rights said it has documented 233 attacks on 183 medical facilities across Syria since the country’s conflict began in March 2011. In a report, it said that President Bashar Assad’s government is responsible for 88 percent of the recorded attacks on hospitals and 97 percent of the killings of medical workers.
It documented 139 deaths directly attributable to torture and execution.
The group’s director of investigations Erin Gallagher said, “every doctor killed or hospital destroyed leaves hundreds or even thousands of Syrians with nowhere to turn for health care.”
From the Guardian, the UN’s plan to send Syrian refugees to northern Europe:
UN plan to resettle Syrian refugees in northern Europe
UNHCR proposes one-year pilot programme for ‘orderly relocation’ from overstretched southern countries
The UN has drawn up radical plans for an “orderly relocation” of thousands of Syrian refugees from southern Europe to richer countries in the north, and is pressing the EU to agree to a year-long pilot programme.
On the eve of the fourth anniversary of the start of the Syrian conflict, and with ever greater numbers of refugees arriving in southern European countries, the UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, has approached senior EU figures to get backing for its pilot programme.
The proposal, outlined in a letter to the EU foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, and the commissioner for home affairs, Dimitris Avramopoulos, is a radical departure from current EU policy, which forces asylum seekers to apply for asylum in their first country of entry, under legislation known as the Dublin law.
ISIS hacks Japanese websites, via the Japan Times:
Japanese websites allegedly hacked by Islamic State group
Two organizations in Japan appear to have had their websites hacked and temporarily defaced by the Islamic State militant group, according to informed sources.
The two organizations are the Nishinomiya Tourism Association in Hyogo Prefecture and Fuchu Athletic F.C. in the suburban Tokyo city of Fuchu.
Both confirmed on Sunday that the top pages of their websites were showing a logo of the black flag used by the militants, together with a message that read “Hacked by Islamic State.”
While Anonymous does worse to ISIS, via TechWorm:
Anonymous down a pro-ISIS Social Network even before it could begin its journey
#OpISIS Hacktivist collective Anonymous down 5elafabook pronounced Khelafabook just when it went live, Facebook bans its FB offshoot
A pro-ISIS website and Facebook page met an untimely death at the hands of Anonymous and Facebook admin.
5elafabook which is pronounced Khelafabook and meaning “Caliphate book” went live with a message that it was a independent website/FB page and did not have links to the Islamic State.
However, Facebook, which has been pretty strict with pro-IS fan pages, found that khelafabook shared the same ideology as IS, so banned its Facebook account. Khelafabook was espousing the martyrdom tenets of IS as well wanted a worldwide implementation of Sharia.
From the Associated Press, it’s on the the BOKO Haram front and the claim of hundreds slain:
Niger’s police says military kills more than 500 militants
Military operations in Niger’s east have killed at least 500 of Nigeria’s Boko Haram Islamic extremists whose war has spilled over into neighboring countries, Niger’s police spokesman said Wednesday.
The provisional count of 513 since Feb. 8 does not take into account land and air operations launched Sunday jointly by Niger and Chad’s army in Nigeria, Capt. Adili Toro said.
Niger has also lost 24 soldiers in operations that have also killed at least one civilian and wounded 38 soldiers, Toro said.
From Reuters, France pledges more troops to the effort:
France to increase West Africa troops to support Boko Haram fight
France is increasing its West African counter-insurgency force to support regional forces fighting Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko Haram, Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Wednesday.
France has headquartered its more than 3,000-strong Sahel counter-insurgency force, Barkhane, in the Chadian capital N’Djamena, some 50 km (30 miles) from the Nigerian border.
Until now those troops have largely been tasked with tracking al Qaeda-linked militants spanning across the Sahara from Mauritania in the west and southern Libya in the east.
And the U.S. backs a U.N. call for a regional anti-Boko Haram command, via Reuters:
U.S. backs UN resolution on Boko Haram regional force
The United States supports the creation of a West African force of up to 10,000 troops to fight Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram, a U.S. defence official said on Wednesday.
The 54-nation African Union has approved the force and has asked the United Nations to endorse it urgently, after attacks by the group in northeastern Nigeria and neighbouring Chad, Niger and Cameroon as it seeks to carve out an Islamic state.
U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for African Affairs Amanda J. Dory said on a visit to Cameroon that Washington, one of five veto-holding members of the U.N. Security Council, would back a U.N. resolution.
Indonesian fears of an ISIS insurgency, via the Guardian:
Indonesian jihadis could be strengthened by return of Isis fighters, analyst warns
The return of up to 200 Indonesians believed to be fighting in Syria and Iraq could give local terrorist groups ‘a real oomph’, Lowy Institute told
Indonesia’s jihadi movements could be galvanised by the return of up to 200 Indonesians currently fighting with Islamic State (Isis) and other militant groups, a leading analyst has said.
If fighters were to return from Syria with combat experience and increased legitimacy, it could give local terrorist groups “a real oomph”, the director of the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, Sidney Jones, told the Lowy Institute on Tuesday.
Terrorist groups are currently splintered and weaker than at any time since the 2002 Bali bombings, she said. The 1998 downfall of the Suharto regime followed by the attacks on nightclubs that killed 202 people were “the peak of the strength of terrorist organisations in the region”, Jones said.
And Indonesia threatens to flood Australia with refugees, via Sky News:
Indonesia Threatens Oz With A ‘Human Tsunami’
Relations between the two countries continue to sour over the planned executions of two Australians on drugs charges.
A senior Indonesian minister has warned a “human tsunami” of asylum seekers will be unleashed on Australia if it keeps pursuing clemency for two drug smugglers.
Andrew Chan, 31, and Myuran Sukumaran, 33, are due to be executed by firing squad after being convicted of drug smuggling in Bali 10 years ago.
But a growing campaign to save the Australians has angered Indonesia, with security minister Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno warning its neighbour over asylum seekers.
Chinese island-building draws a Philippine demand, via Want China Times:
Philippines demands China stop maritime land reclamation
Encouraged by a statement from the United States, the government of the Philippines demanded China put an end to its land reclamation program in the disputed South China Sea, the Sputnik News based in Moscow reported on March 10.
China is undertaking a vast project to reclaim land for future military use on several reefs under the Chinese administration in the contested maritime region. They include Hughes Reef, Fiery Cross Reef, Johnson South Reef, Gaven Reef and Mischief Reef in the Spratly archipelago. Mischief Reef is the closest of these reefs to the Philippines, located 113 kilometers from the western province of Palawan and Manila feels it will be under direct threat from the People’s Liberation Army after air and naval facilities are established.
Jen Psaki, spokesperson for the US Department of State, said on March 9 that China’s land reclamation and construction activities are fueling greater anxiety within the region.
Japan mulls extending North Korean sanctions, via Kyodo News:
Japan mulls extending sanctions against N. Korea by 2 years
The government is making final arrangements to extend by two years its trade embargo and other unilateral sanctions against North Korea that are set to expire in April, sources familiar with bilateral relations said Wednesday.
The extension is seen as Japan’s latest attempt to break an impasse over stalled bilateral talks on Pyongyang’s abductions of Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s.
The Cabinet is expected to approve a two-year extension after securing support by the end of March from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition ally Komeito party, the sources said.
The U.S. Marine commandant frets an Okinawan base relocation, via NHK WORLD:
US Marine commandant concerned over Futenma
The commander of the US Marine Corps has voiced concerns over the slow progress of relocating the Futenma Air Station in Okinawa Prefecture, southwestern Japan.
General Joseph F. Dunford, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, was speaking before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday. He said the matter is one of the problems facing the US defense strategy to shift focus to the Asia-Pacific Region.
Dunford said the Futenma relocation is necessary for the redeployment of Marines from Okinawa to Guam.
And to close, a pachydermatous detector, via the Associated Press:
Bomb-sniffing elephants? Not so nutty, US Army says
Armed with a sharp sense of smell, dogs have a long history of detecting explosives for their human handlers. Trained rats sniff out land mines from old African wars. In Croatia, researchers have tried to train bees to identify TNT.
Now elephants. New research conducted in South Africa and involving the U.S. military shows they excel at identifying explosives by smell, stirring speculation about whether their extraordinary ability can save lives.
“They work it out very, very quickly,” said Sean Hensman, co-owner of a game reserve where three elephants passed the smell tests by sniffing at buckets and getting a treat of marula, a tasty fruit, when they showed that they recognized samples of TNT, a common explosive, by raising a front leg.
Another plus: elephants remember their training longer than dogs, said Stephen Lee, head scientist at the U.S. Army Research Office, a major funder of the research.
