London Mayor Rejects Trump's Muslim 'Exception'by webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News) Tuesday May 10th, 2016 at 1:54 PM
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London Mayor Rejects Trump's Muslim 'Exception'by webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)
London's new mayor, Sadiq Khan, has rejected U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump's suggestion that Khan could be an exception to Trump's proposed ban on Muslims. “...Trump's ignorant view of Islam could make both our countries less safe. It risks alienating mainstream Muslims...” Khan wrote on his Twitter account. “This isn’t just about me. It’s about my friends, my family and everyone who comes from a background similar to mine, anywhere in the world,” Khan said,...
Germany will increase, albeit modestly, the size of its armed forces for the first time since the end of the Cold War, citing Russia’s militaristic behavior, the fight against terrorism and dealing with the migrant crisis.
US says diplomats to resume talks on Syria next weekby Josh Lederman | AP
The world powers working to promote a resolution to Syria’s civil war plan to resume talks next week in Vienna, with U.N.-led, indirect peace negotiations between Syria’s government and opposition representatives expected to follow some days later, Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday.
 The Guardian |
Five Cuban spies released by US hailed as heroes in Russia
The Guardian Russia gave a red-carpet reception to five Cuban spies who served long prison terms in the United States, hailing them as heroes “of fortitude and resistance” and stressing its own role in securing their release. The Cuban Five were convicted of spying ... and more » |
FBI suspects insiders in $81 mn Bangladesh central bank theft: report
Phys.Org Quoting sources familiar with the matter, the Journal said FBI agents investigating the case "have found evidence pointing to at least one bank employee acting as an accomplice." But it added that "a handful of others" may have also aided the hackers ... and more » |
The United States on Thursday will move a step closer to establishing a missile shield over Europe at a time when new threats are emerging that could curb its utility.
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Servicemembers are clinging onto hope that retired U.S. Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis will throw his name into the presidential race despite his decision last month to cancel out a third-party bid.
More than half—52 percent—of service members supported an independent Mattis ticket, responding to a Military Times survey that his addition to the 2016 race would be a “positive development” in 2016’s contentious political environment.
A mere 16 percent of the 948 troops surveyed said a Mattis candidacy would have a negative impact on the race while 32 percent responded that it wouldn’t have an impact.
Several military members said they would write in the retired general’s name regardless of whether his name is on the ticket.
Last month, conservative billionaires established a coalition aimed at pulling Mattis into the race as a third-party contender in an attempt to blunt Republican front-runner Donald Trump’s momentum.
But Mattis decided not to take the bait, announcing three weeks later that he would not enter the race.
“The thoughtfulness and patriotism—and for that matter, the modesty—Jim showed as he reflected on this decision make me more convinced than ever that he would have made a truly admirable president, and also a good candidate,” Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol wrote in an email obtained by the New York Times. “But it’s not to be. So we won’t have a President Mattis.”
Support for Mattis was highest among Marines with 71 percent responding that his candidacy would positively impact the race, according to the Military Times survey.
The majority of Republicans—53 percent—also predicted a Mattis run would be positive while only 22 percent said it would negatively effect the race.
Among Democrats, 49 percent said it would have zero impact.
Nicknamed “Mad Dog” by his troops, Mattis served in the military for 44 years and was dubbed the “most revered Marine general” in a generation by the Military Times.
The post Servicemembers Back Gen. Mattis Presidential Bid appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.
President Vladimir Putin says Russia has achieved "a turning point” in the fight against terrorist groups in Syria thanks to the "efficiency and high quality" of its weapons.
Nominations are now open for the United State of Women's Summit on June 14, 2016. Visit the theunitedstateofwomen.org for more information.
Cameron caught on camera boasting to queen about 'fantastically corrupt' leaders attending his anti-corruption summit. Report by Jessica Wakefield. New stories everyday. Subscribe to ODN:http://bit.ly/ODNsubs
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CNN's Tom Foreman explains how Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton has addressed her husband's infidelity, in the wake of GOP presumptive nominee Donald Trump's attacks.
Ali Haider Gilani was believed to have been held by the Taliban and was rescued in a special forces operation in Afghanistan.
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Rwandan Mayors Tried in France Over Genocide Chargesby webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)
Two former Rwandan mayors go on trial in France Tuesday, facing charges of genocide and crimes against humanity stemming from the 1994 massacres in the Central African country. Tite Barahirwa, 64, and Octavien Ngenzi, 58, are accused of playing a direct role in the massacre of some 2,000 Tutsis who sought refuge in a church in the eastern town of Kabarondo on April 13, 1994. Witnesses have said they saw Barahirwa wielding a spear at a rally at a football field, where he called for...
Treasury Secretary Lew says time is now to help Puerto Ricoby By MARY CLARE JALONICK
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- As Congress debates how to help Puerto Rico with its $70 billion debt, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew is trying to prod lawmakers into action with stories of crumbling infrastructure on the island and a lack of basic services....
SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday held a telephone conversation with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to discuss the situation in Syria and Libya, the Kremlin said.
Five members of an Egyptian group whose satirical videos have mocked President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi have been arrested, their lawyer says.
SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) - The situation in Syria remains complicated, but Russia hopes that its cooperation with the United States will lead to fundamental changes in this country, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday.
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that he threatened to send Israeli commandos into Cairo in 2011 to rescue a number of Israeli security staff besieged by demonstrators who had stormed the mission.
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A German court has rejected a bid by Turkey’s president for an injunction against the head of one of Germany’s biggest publishing houses in a standoff over a satirical poem.
French President François Hollande moved to use special constitutional powers to ram a contested labor bill through the lower house of parliament.
Baghdad Trying to Stagger Out of Political Crisisby webdesk@voanews.com (Sharon Behn)
Although protesters demanding political reform have retreated from Baghdad’s streets, the underlying challenges to Iraq’s leadership and stability is not over. Negotiations between the country’s highly polarized political factions have failed to produce solutions, and its parliament is now so fractured that it cannot even gather a quorum. Talks of replacing the government with a transitional cabinet are in the air. “The country’s political situation is an absolute...
SAO PAULO (AP) -- Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is facing possible impeachment by Congress, with the Senate expected to vote Wednesday on a measure to suspend her. The effort comes amid an angry public mood over the South American nation's worst recession in decades and a big bribery scandal at the state oil company Petrobras. Yet, it is not tied to either of those. AP explains what's behind the movement to oust her, and how it could play out:...
The legislative impasse over a new governing cabinet deepens Iraq’s political crisis and tests the U.S.-backed prime minister’s leadership.
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Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron was caught on camera telling Queen Elizabeth that leaders of some "fantastically corrupt" countries, including Nigeria and Afghanistan, were set to attend an anticorruption summit in London. Cameron plays host to the international summit on May 12, aiming to coordinate global efforts to combat corruption in all walks of life. (Reuters)
When the presumptive Republican presidential nominee embraces the fiction that General John Pershing killed Muslims in the Philippines with bullets dipped in pigs blood, calls for ending the international alliances that have kept the peace since World War II and talks about encouraging nuclear proliferation, you know that this is not a typical campaign.
Donald Trump has proposed massive changes to American foreign policy over the course of the Republican primary, arguing that he could get things done the same way he has with his real estate deals: with a mixture of bluster and bargaining.
But could a President Trump actually follow through on these dramatic proposals? In a few cases, yes—a prospect that his critics find worrisome. But on many of the other ideas, a combination of constitutional restraints, international politics and simple practicality means that he’d have a tougher road than he admits.
While the Constitution gives the President more latitude on foreign affairs than it does on domestic policy, the founders made sure that there were plenty of checks and balances on the chief executive’s international powers. Treaties, Cabinet members and U.S. Ambassadors all must be approved by the Senate. Congress also must approve all federal spending, which means it could thwart Trump’s proposals by refusing to pay for them.
Most critically, the wheeler-dealers sitting across the table from a President Trump will represent sovereign states, not New York real estate interests. They’ll have international law, existing trade deals and other leverage to use against him.
Here’s a look at how some of Trump’s foreign policy proposals might play out.
About immigrants and that wall
Trump’s biggest international initiatives have involved immigration. He has pledged to deport the roughly 11 million illegal immigrants in the country and to build what he calls a “Great Wall of Trump” along the Rio Grande. He’d pay for that by intercepting funds undocumented Mexicans wire to their families back home (before they’re deported). Getting rid of undocumented workers in two years, as Trump has proposed, only calls for enforcing existing laws. But that resulting lack of workers would cost the private sector hundreds of billions of dollars and require a humungous hike to pay for the stepped-up deportations.
Trump has said he can seize funds Mexicans send home by tweaking the anti-terrorism USA Patriot Act, but that he’d take up to $10 billion from the Mexican government to pay for the wall instead. Experts say such moves are legally dubious and politically nuts.
“If a President Trump tried to impound remittances, he would likely incite such broad anti-government fear and loathing across the U.S. landscape that the attempt wouldn’t even last long enough to be struck down by the courts,” says geostrategist Thomas P.M. Barnett. “It would be very much, ‘If Washington can grab their income unilaterally, then what’s to stop it from doing the same to me someday?’’”
“NATO costs too much!”
Trump wants to shake up long-standing U.S. alliances like a snow globe. As one of two superpowers following World War II—and the only one for the past 25 years—both the U.S. and its allies have benefited from Washington’s lead role in NATO, whose Supreme Allied Commander has always been an American military officer. But the U.S. is an ocean away from Europe’s rising tensions with Russia, Trump says, so why should Washington foot so much of NATO’s costs? He hasn’t ruled out withdrawing from the alliance.
The 1949 treaty that created the North Atlantic Treaty Organization allows any of its now-28 members to pull out with a year’s notice. President George W. Bush unilaterally withdrew from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Moscow shortly after becoming President in 2001, contending “extraordinary events” required Washington to build a stronger missile shield than the ABM pact allowed. Despite warnings from foreign-policy experts that the move would be traumatic, few noticed. Bush’s action “set the precedent of a President withdrawing from a treaty without Senate action,” believes Ivo Daalder, who served as the U.S. ambassador to NATO from 2009 to 2013.
Trump is on far more solid ground when he demands that U.S. NATO allies pay more for their own defense. Britain (2.1%), Estonia (2%), Greece (2.4%) and Poland (2.2%) are, along with the U.S. (3.6%), the only members meeting NATO’s goal of investing 2% of their gross domestic product in their militaries. “They’re ripping off the United States,” Trump told a Wisconsin crowd last month—and pretty much every U.S. defense secretary has agreed.
Swapping U.S. troops for foreign nukes
The New York billionaire has warned of bringing home the 54,000 U.S. troops in Japan (costing $5 billion annually, of which Tokyo pays about a third) and 30,000 in South Korea (where Seoul foots about 40% of the $2 billion annual bill), unless those nations pay a bigger share of the cost. If the U.S. pulls out, he has suggested, the nations could develop nuclear weapons to counter neighboring North Korea’s. (Japan is the only nation ever attacked with nuclear bombs.)
The U.S. can withdraw from its treaties with both countries after a year’s notice. And while Japan and South Korea have both declared they won’t acquire atomic arms under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, they can withdraw from that pact with three-months’ notice. “The conservative parties in Japan and South Korea are already pushing for national nuclear arsenals,” frets Joe Cirincione, president of the pro-disarmament Ploughshares Fund think tank.
A nuclear war between Pyongyang and Tokyo would be “a terrible thing,” Trump said in April, breaking a human catastrophe down into a cost-benefit analysis. “If they do, they do,” he said of a possible nuclear war ringing the Sea of Japan. “We can’t be the policemen to the world and have $19 trillion in debt, going up to $21 trillion.” Saudi Arabia, he has suggested, might consider doing the same to counter Iran. “Nuclear proliferation, even to allies, doesn’t make sense,” says Anthony Zinni, a retired Marine general who ran U.S. military operations in the Middle East from 1997 to 2000. “It could spark a new Cold War, or worse.”
Time for a change?
But Trump has prevailed in the GOP primaries precisely because he has shunned conventional wisdom, both at home and abroad. Overseas, the past 15 years have brought the U.S. 9/11, a pair of inconclusive wars that have killed nearly 6,900 U.S. troops and cost $3 trillion, a rising China and Russia, messes in Libya, Somalia and Yemen, and the scourge of terrorism.
“It’s time to shake the rust off America’s foreign policy,” Trump said in his first major foreign-policy talk April 27. “It’s time to invite new voices and new visions into the fold.”
For example, he appears willing to ramp up the war on the Islamic State—and a wobbly Congress might let him.
“We really have no choice—we have to knock out ISIS,” he said in March. “I would listen to the generals, but I’m hearing numbers of 20,000 to 30,000.” Over the past 20 months, President Obama has dispatched 5,000 troops back to Iraq without explicit congressional authorization.
Trading favors
When it comes to trade, Trump would have to convince Congress to approve his recommendation fora punishing 45% tariff on Chinese goods, and 35% on Mexican products. He has long argued that other nations take advantage of the U.S. because Americans spend more money on their goods than foreigners spend on U.S.-made products. The U.S. has pursued free-trade pacts since World War II as a way of increasing commerce while reducing chances of war. U.S. tariffs average 1.4%, among the lowest in the world.
But under existing law, the U.S. can only impose tariffs on specific products—not entire nations—and only after showing the exporting nation has illegally subsidized their production.
Trump’s global rhetoric will cool the closer he gets to getting his fingers, of whatever size, on the nation’s nuclear trigger, the nation’s top spy tells TIME.
“Once a President is inaugurated and is in office, and realizes the burden and responsibilities of the position, I think that has a tempering effect on anyone,” James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, said. “There are far more complexities, policy implications, legal implications to things than would appear on the campaign trail.”
Read the whole story
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US officials in Belgium to promote intelligence-sharingby John-Thor Dahlburg | AP
A U.S. government delegation is in Belgium to promote greater intelligence-sharing by Belgian and European authorities in the wake of the March suicide bombings that killed 32 victims here, the group’s members said Tuesday.
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Атлас Мира: Несоветский Баку - 10 мая, 2016by Андрей Шароградский, Александр Гостев
Как выглядит официальная и бытовая жизнь столицы Азербайджана; сирийская Пальмира, как утверждается, была сдана в рамках договоренностей между Асадом и группировкой "Исламское государство"
Download audio: http://audio.rferl.org/RU/2016/05/10/59a63ea6-fc49-4508-b800-6b03818f81ba.mp3
Download audio: http://audio.rferl.org/RU/2016/05/10/59a63ea6-fc49-4508-b800-6b03818f81ba.mp3
МРК будет иметь водоизмещение около 800 тонн, скорость хода более 30 узлов, его вооружат комплексом высокоточного ракетного оружия и современными артиллерийскими системами.
Turkish Border Guards Accused of Attacking Syrian Refugeesby CEYLAN YEGINSU and KARAM SHOUMALI
Refugees near the northern city of Azaz, Syria, waiting to cross into Turkey in February. A Turkish government spokesman said on Tuesday that Turkey’s open-door policy did not amount to open borders.
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The burger contained goat's cheese in reference to a satirical poem about the Turkish President
Police have arrested two Afghan men in southern Italy as part of an investigation into a militant cell suspected of planning attacks in Italy, France, and Britain.
 Newsweek |
Russia Vows to Help Rein In Syrian Airstrikes Near Civilians
Newsweek Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during a meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, October 20. Russia has vowed to help Assad reduce aerial operations near civilian-populated ... Putin: Syria war shows "quality" of Russia's new weaponsCBS News Putin warns those who want to try Russia's strengthPravda Russia showcases military might at Victory Day paradeCNBC NPR-International Business Times- Business Insider all 240 news articles » |
A Turkish court has ruled there is insufficient evidence to prosecute a man suspected of killing a Russian pilot, the RBC newspaper reported Friday.
Amir Hekmati, a former U.S. Marine who was imprisoned in Iran for more than four years after being sentenced to death for spying, is suing Tehran for alleged torture during his time in detention, his attorneys said Tuesday.
BRUSSELS (AP) - A U.S. government delegation is in Belgium to promote greater intelligence-sharing by Belgian and European authorities in the wake of the March suicide bombings that killed 32 victims here, the group's members said Tuesday.
Lisa Monaco, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, said "what ...
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The extradition of drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman to the United States has received initial approval from a Mexican federal judge, The Associated Press reported Monday, kicking off what could still be a lengthy process to transfer the cartel leader into American custody.
Mexico's Foreign Relations Department ...
New York Post |
Church head wants FBI to take over fire investigation
New York Post The head of the Serbian Orthodox Church is sick of waiting for answers on the fire that gutted a Manhattan cathedral — and is now demanding that the FBI step in and take over the investigation. “The FBI could help. They are the most competent to untie ... and more » |
An expanding alliance between two of the most powerful armed groups in Afghanistan, the Taliban and the Haqqani Network, is reshaping regional power dynamics and possibly altering the course of the ongoing Afghan war. It was last summer when it was announced that Sirajuddin Haqqani, the leader of the notorious Haqqani Network based in southeastern […]
Wall Street Journal |
FBI Suspects Insider Involvement in $81 Million Bangladesh Bank Heist
Wall Street Journal Subhankar Saha, a spokesman for Bangladesh Bank, said the FBI hadn't informed it that one or more of its employees could have acted as accomplices in the heist. “The central bank is pursuing this case with the utmost vigor and if anyone within the bank ... FBI suspects an inside job in $81M Bangladesh bank hackThe Hill FBI suspects insiders in $81 mn Bangladesh central bank theft: reportPhys.Org Bangladesh central bank hack may be an insider job, says FBIPCWorld all 43 news articles » |
A Soldier’s Challenge to the Presidentby By THE EDITORIAL BOARD
A lawsuit could force the Obama administration and Congress to formally authorize the military campaign against the Islamic State.
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The Early Edition: May 10, 2016 by Nadia O'Mara
Before the start of business, Just Security provides a curated summary of up-to-the-minute developments at home and abroad. Here’s today’s news.
IRAQ and SYRIA
Syria peace process. The Syrian government extended the ceasefire by another 48 hours on Monday, in spite of which fierce fighting has so-far continued in the city of Aleppo. Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking from Paris, warned that the extension was “words on a piece of paper. They are not actions,” and that it will be up to the commanders in the field and interested parties to put them into action. [Washington Post’s Carol Morello and Hugh Naylor]
Earlier, officials from the US and Russia agreed to work together to revive a cessation of hostilities originally brokered in February, during a meeting in Paris, France. Secretary of State John Kerry also joined talks held by the “Friends of Syria” – including representatives from European countries, the EU, the UAE, Qatar, Jordan and Turkey – who were meeting to try to relaunch the Syrian peace process. [Wall Street Journal’s Felicia Schwartz]
Airstrikes in northwestern Syria have today killed at least ten people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees. It is unclear whether the warplanes were Russian or Syrian. [AP]
“Double standards as well as shortsighted indulgence of those who nurture criminal plans are impermissible.” President Putin’s remarks during Russia’s annual Victory Day celebrations, in which it marks its defeat of Germany at the end of WWII, may have been a “swipe” at the West, particularly the US, and its support for rebel groups in Syria which Russia designates as terrorists, suggests Andrew Higgins. [New York Times]
The Russian army in Syria is “bigger and more sophisticated” than most would think, reports Frederik Pleitgen, who was one of over 100 journalists flown to Palmyra by the Russians last week to witness Moscow’s role in liberating the historic city. What is more, “it does not look like an army that plans on leaving Syria any time soon.” [CNN]
Capt. Nathan Michael Smith sued President Obama last week over his military campaigns in Iraq and Syria, making the case that they are illegal unless explicitly authorized by Congress. The New York Times editorial board discusses the case and the Obama administration’s “thin legal rational” for its use of military force in Iraq and Syria.
Contradictions and inconsistencies in the UK government’s justification for drone strikes in Syria have prompted a parliamentary committee to call for “urgent clarification.” Drone strikes in Syria killed two UK citizens last year. [BBC]
A senior Islamic State commander has been killed in US-led airstrikes in Iraq. Abu Wahib, who appeared in Islamic State execution videos and who had been a member of the Islamic State’s precursor group since the US occupation in Iraq, was killed on May 6 alongside three of his colleagues, the Pentagon said. [Reuters; BBC]
A suicide bomb in a city close to Baghdad has killed at least 13 people, Iraqi officials said today. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack. [AP]
The UK’s Chilcot report is to be published on July 6, following an inquiry into Britain’s role in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which was done despite a lack of support from the UK public and on the basis of what turned out to be misinformation about the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq at the time. The release of the report, of an inquiry which was set up seven years ago, in 2009, and last held public hearings in 2011, has been repeatedly delayed. [Washington Post’s Adam Taylor; The Guardian’s Ewen MacAskill]
US-led airstrikes continue. US and coalition airstrikes carried out nine airstrikes against Islamic State targets on May 9. Separately, partner forces conducted a further 16 strikes against targets in Iraq. [Central Command]
EUROPEAN TERROR THREAT
Three suspects on trial in Belgium for alleged involvement in a foiled terror plot were sent back to Belgium from Syria by Islamic State in 2014, according to evidence revealed on the first day of their trial yesterday. [Wall Street Journal’s Matthew Dalton]
One man has died and three others have been injured in a stabbing attack near Munich, Germanythis morning, the perpetrator, a 27-year-old German man, reportedly shouting “Allahu akbar” (Arabic for “God is great”). Police are treating the attack as potentially Islamist. [BBC; New York Times’ Melissa Eddy]
Italian police have arrested two Afghan citizens in connection with a terrorism and human trafficking investigation, and have issued arrest warrants for three others. [AP]
France is to establish “anti-jihadist rehabilitation centers” in each of its regions by the end of 2017, Prime Minister Manuel Valls announced yesterday. [Politico’s Vince Chadwick]
AFGHANISTAN
Taliban insurgents overran two checkpoints in Helmand province today, killing at least 15 Afghan policemen, officials said. Reuters reports.
A joint US-Afghan raid has rescued the son of a former Pakistani prime minister who has been in Taliban captivity for the past three years, officials said. [AP]
The Taliban has claimed it shot down a US drone in Afghanistan, close to the Pakistan border. [Washington Post’s Antonio Olivo]
OTHER DEVELOPMENTS
The Guantánamo Bay parole board has approved the release of Yemeni “forever prisoner” Salem bin Kanad, following his fifth review. Bin Kanad, who has been detained at the prison since 2002, will be released to “an Arabic speaking country with a rehabilitation program or reintegration program.” [Miami Herald’s Carol Rosenberg]
A US warship navigated the South China Sea today as a counter to China’s territorial claims there. The USS William P Lawrence sailed within 12 nautical miles of Fiery Cross Reef, a disputed land mass on which China has built a 10,000-foot runway, a port, and other military facilities in recent years. This was the third such operation in less than a year. [Wall Street Journal’s Gordon Lubold;Reuters’ Michael Martina and Greg Torode]
A bomb attack on a university in southwestern Pakistan has killed at least two police officers and wounded five people, according to a provincial official. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. [AP]
Two elderly Israeli women have been stabbed in Jerusalem by masked attackers, who were arrested during the ensuing manhunt, according to Israeli police. They have not released details of the alleged attackers. [AP]
Islamic State now claims affiliates in countries far beyond the Middle East, including Nigeria, Russia and Afghanistan. Karen Leigh, Jason French and Jovi Juan provide a look at some of them, their ties to one another and their varying natures. [Wall Street Journal]
“The lie exposes the truth. Obama wanted the deal (almost) no matter what.” The President’s speech-writer revealed how he had deceived the press over when negotiations with Iran on its nuclear program actually began in an interview last week: not when the more moderate current regime took over, but before that, when the previous “more recalcitrant hard-liners” were in power. This shows Obama wanted the deal more than Iran did, observes Richard Cohen. [Washington Post]
An alleged cyber hacker accused of stealing “massive quantities” of sensitive data from the US Federal Reserve, and who is fighting extradition from the UK to the US, will not have to hand over passwords to his encrypted devices to UK law enforcement, a court has decided in a landmark decision, reports Jamie Grierson. [The Guardian]
A “mock terror attack” training exercise was staged at a busy shopping centre in Manchester, UK, last night, involving over 800 volunteers. A video has been published by the Guardian.
Emails and text messages to and from Bryan Pagliano to former secretary of state Hillary Clinton from the time she was in office are “missing,” according to the State Department, responding to a FOIA lawsuit brought by the Republican National Committee. Pagliano was responsible for setting up and maintaining Clinton’s private email server. He has reportedly struck an immunity deal with the Justice Department to help the FBI in its investigations into Clinton’s treatment of classified messages. [Politico’s Josh Gerstein; The Daily Beast’s Shane Harris]
“George W Bush is still right on Iraq.” In this sense, anyway: he understood that when US soldiers are sent to war, their commander in chief is obliged to win that war, says William McGurn, mourning what he says is the replacement of that principle in this year’s presidential election with “a new, bipartisan orthodoxy which holds that the only thing that matters about Iraq is Mr Bush’s 2003 decision to invade it.” [Wall Street Journal]
The impression that North Korea has been rapidly developing its nuclear capabilities is illusory, say Joel S Wit and Sun Young Ahn of SIAS, which conducted an extensive study last year called the “North Korea Nuclear Future’s Project.” The current nuclear weapons program is actually the “predictable” result of years of preparation, North Korea having simply chosen to step up its advertising more recently. [CNN]
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Los Angeles Times |
Two LA Deputies Sentenced to Prison
Courthouse News Service The deputies were nabbed after a jail chaplain, Paulino Juarez, who saw the attack, went to theACLU after repeatedly being "rebuffed" by senior L.A. Sheriff's Department officials, the U.S. attorney said in a statement. The ACLU reported it to the FBI. Two LA County Sheriff's deputies sentenced to prisonCal Coast News all 10 news articles » |
Turkey accused of violating rights of Kurds, Syriansby SUZAN FRASER and DOMINIQUE SOGUEL
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - Turkey came under scrutiny on Tuesday for alleged human rights violations committed by security forces against Kurds in the southeast and Syrian refugees trying to enter the country, with two organizations calling for investigations.
Human Rights Watch claimed that Turkish border guards have in the past ...
Chaos, Confusion Portrayed In Pentagon Report On Kunduz Battle by support@pangea-cms.com (RFE/RL)
U.S. troops involved in the intense fighting in Kunduz, Afghanistan, that led to the mistaken bombardment of a hospital last fall have testified of chaos and confusion at the scene.
Self-harm is one of the biggest killers of young adults, experts warn as they call for urgent changeby syndication@telegraph.co.uk (Lydia Willgress)
LIVE UPDATES: President Vladimir Putin has removed from Russia’s Security Council Viktor Ivanov, the former head of the Federal Narcotics Control Service, a close associate from his days in the KGB, and may tap him as deputy interior ministry.
Welcome to our column, Russia Update, where we will be closely following day-to-day developments in Russia, including the Russian government’s foreign and domestic policies.
The previous issue is here.
Recent Analysis and Translations:
– Does it Matter if the Russian Opposition Stays United?
– Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov Has Invented A Version Of History To Meet His Needs
– Getting The News From Chechnya – The Crackdown On Free Press You May Have Missed
– Aurangzeb, Putin, Realism and a Lesson from History
– Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov Has Invented A Version Of History To Meet His Needs
– Getting The News From Chechnya – The Crackdown On Free Press You May Have Missed
– Aurangzeb, Putin, Realism and a Lesson from History
UPDATES BELOW
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One Dead, Three Wounded in Stabbing in German Train Stationby webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)
One man was killed and three others injured in a knife attack at a German railway station outside Munich Tuesday morning. Police said they have arrested a 27-year-old German in connection with the attack, which took place around 5 a.m. local time at the station in the small town of Grafing, about 23 miles east of Munich. Prosecutors have said they believe the man had "an apparent Islamist motive". Local media report witnesses heard the assailant shout "Allahu Akbar (God is great)" during the attack. The "assailant made remarks at the scene of the crime that indicate a political motive -- apparently an Islamist motive," Ken Heidenreich, spokesman for the prosecutor's office, told AFP. "We are still determining what the exact remarks were." One of the victims, a 50-year-old man, later died of his wounds in a hospital, Heidenreich said. The names of the other victims, men aged 43, 55, and 58, have not been released. No more information about the assailant or his motives has been released. "We can say very little at the moment about the background," Karl-Heinz Segerer, a spokesman for Bavaria's state criminal police office said. This marks the third knife attack in Germany with an apparent Islamist motivation since September.
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The Daily Vertical is a video primer for Russia-watchers that appears Monday through Friday. Viewers can suggest topics via Twitter @PowerVertical or on the Power Vertical Facebook page.
Syrian Hacker to Face US Chargesby webdesk@voanews.com (Wayne Lee)
An alleged Syrian computer hacker sympathetic to the Syrian government is scheduled appear in U.S. federal court Tuesday to face conspiracy charges in connection with a hacking-related blackmail plot. A U.S. law enforcement official said Peter Romar, an alleged member of the hacking group Syrian Electronic Army, is being extradited and was flown Monday from Germany. Romar, a Syrian national who lives in Germany, is scheduled to appear Wednesday federal court in Alexandria, Virginia. Romar is one of three Syrian nationals charged by U.S. prosecutors in March. The other defendants are believed to still be in Syria. Prosecutors alleged their activities included attempts to blackmail victims and transfer their extortion payments to Syria. At the time of the indictment, the U.S. Justice Department said they allegedly targeted computers belonging to American media outlets, Microsoft Corporation, Harvard University and Human Rights Watch. Their most notorious case allegedly involved the hacking of an Associated Press Twitter account in 2013 and the issuing a message indicating the White House had been bombed and President Barack Obama was hurt. The hack caused a temporary sharp decline in the stock market. The indictment alleges the hackers also unsuccessfully tried on multiple occasions to infiltrate the White House data systems. The two other alleged hackers, Ahmad Umar Agha and Firas Dardar have been placed on the FBI's "Cyber Most Wanted" list. The FBI is offering $100,000 rewards for information leading to their arrests.
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Zachary Goldman and Samuel Rascoff recently released Global Intelligence Oversight: Governing Security in the Twenty-First Century. The edited volume “is a comparative investigation of intelligence oversight systems in democratic countries, which focuses on some of the new dynamics shaping and constraining intelligence services, and the range of purposes a holistic approach to oversight should serve.” This week, Lawfare is hosting a mini-forum where contributing authors discuss their chapters.
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As Lawfare readers know, the post-9/11 years have been replete with substantive public debates about the legality, morality, and public wisdom of various U.S. intelligence activities, ranging from the NSA’s electronic surveillance to the CIA’s detention, interrogation, and rendition program. Nor have the intelligence activities of other states been immune from scrutiny: surveillance by the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters, Israel’s alleged targeting of Iranian nuclear scientists, and Russian and Chinese cyber-espionage have all come under the microscope.
Alongside debates about the substance of intelligence activities are debates about the role and efficacy of intelligence oversight in constraining and modulating these intelligence activities. When most people think about intelligence community oversight, they tend to focus on domestic actors and to analyze overseers prescribed in law: parliamentary committees, inspectors general, and courts. These days, they might also think about the media and non-governmental organizations, which play a less formalized but important watchdog role over intelligence activities. Yet even this range and quantity of oversight frequently proves insufficient and unsatisfying in capturing some of the most prominent forces that shape and regulate intelligence activities.
My chapter in the recently released book “Global Intelligence Oversight: Governing Security in the Twenty-First Century” identifies and analyzes a different law-driven source of constraint that operates transnationally on a given intelligence community (IC): its peer ICs. Peer ICs are the intelligence services of foreign states with which a state’s intelligence community works, whether on a one-off operation or in a decades-long partnership. One IC can impose forms of discipline or structural limits on the activities of its counterparts, particularly when it implements its own domestic and international legal obligations. Through various mechanisms—formal and informal, public and private—one state’s IC can affect the way in which another IC conducts activities such as interrogation, detention, targeted killings, and surveillance; the amount and type of intelligence the other IC receives; and, less tangibly, the way in which the other IC views its own legal obligations. More broadly, one state’s legal limitations can constrain joint operations.
It is unsurprising that an IC is constrained by laws enacted by its own legislature. What is more surprising, I suggest, is that the nature of IC relationships can lead to second-order effects that result in one state IC being constrained not only by its own domestic laws and rules but also by the laws and legal interpretations of other states. I term these “peer constraints,” by which I intended to capture the limitations imposed on an IC in excess of those imposed by the IC’s own state. Measured against a baseline of an IC’s domestic laws and regulations, peer constraints are those rules that, in the context of intelligence cooperation, decrease the IC’s operational flexibility.
These constraints complement the more public, transparent, and expected sources of oversight, though they cannot replace them. Indeed, peer constraints offer certain benefits that may be absent from other forms of oversight, including a granular understanding of operations, technologies, and techniques that those who are not intelligence professionals lack, and an ability to minimize the politicization that frequently accompanies public critiques of ICs in their own country.
In the chapter, I identify three types of mechanisms that can and do produce peer constraints: formalized constraints, informal constraints, and public critiques. The mechanisms constrain peer ICstransitively: in order for the peer relationship between two ICs to function in a particular situation, one peer IC must alter its preferred behavior in order to allow the other IC to continue to cooperate.
I offer several examples of formal peer constraints, including “humane treatment assurances” by one IC as a condition of receiving a detainee. I also describe various informal constraints that have arisen in practice. To pick one example, in 2011, German intelligence officials informed their U.S. counterparts about a German citizen in Pakistan who had bragged about planning a suicide attack, and gave the U.S. IC his cell phone number and the address of a café in Mir Ali that he frequented. The United States reportedly used that information to target and kill the German citizen in a drone strike. Germany’s Interior Ministry subsequently instructed Germany’s domestic intelligence service to stop providing U.S. intelligence officials with information that would enable them to locate German citizens and use force against them. Further, when providing non-locational information to the U.S. IC, German intelligence agencies caveat the use of that information, such that the United States only may use it to arrest (not kill) suspected terrorists. Assuming the United States continues to receive information from the Germans about German citizens in areas outside of the Afghan theater, the United States thus faces a peer constraint on how it uses that information, even though its own domestic laws and interpretation of international legal rules might allow it to target the individual using lethal force.
Peer constraints are likely to become more prevalent as ICs face more law, more leaks (such as those by Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning), and more litigation. As a result, it is critical to understand when and how these constraints operate. Some scholars have bemoaned the lack of oversight and accountability surrounding intelligence liaison relationships. This chapter tilts the prism to argue that, rather than maximizing flexibility, these relationships in some cases actually impose constraints that result in increased individual rights protections and, at least among Western democracies, promote convergence around more restrictive substantive rules governing intelligence operations.
The idea that peer ICs can constrain each other will undoubtedly be met with skepticism from some corners, especially in the wake of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Report on the CIA’s detention and interrogation program. Some critics may acknowledge that peer ICs influence each other, but at the same time doubt that the influence pushes in a rights-protective direction. Others may argue that powerful states such as the United States need intelligence cooperation from their peers only on the margins, and can easily walk away from constraining peer pressure without incurring significant security costs. Still others may note that the states best positioned to constrain often need cooperation from those states least likely to care about human rights. It is the goal of the chapter to identify and explicate the ways in which peer mechanisms can and do impose real, though modest, constraints that produce more rights-protective behavior, notwithstanding those arguments.
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Let Normalization Pave the Way to Peace by Ammar Abdulhamid
It’s no secret at this stage that Saudi Arabia is trying to court Israel as part of its ongoing efforts to contain the perceived Iranian threat in the region, especially in the aftermath of the signing of the Iran Deal and the current American efforts aiming at “disengaging” from the region or, at the very least, minimizing America’s military footprint there.
But there’s courting and there’s courting. And Saudi courting, at least for now, doesn’t involve treating Israel like a normal state and is unlikely, therefore, to prove effective. As a recent statement by former Saudi intelligence chief and ambassador to Washington Turki Al-Faisal makes clear, the Saudis continue to hold on to the belief that Israel needs to accept the Arab Peace Initiative in order for normalization to begin. The statement was made at a rare joint public appearance by a Saudi official alongside an Israeli, IDF Maj. Gen. (ret.) Yaakov Amidror. The Times of Israel reports:
“I can’t understand why the Netanyahu government doesn’t seek to grab that offer that was presented in 2002 and work with not just the US, but with the Arab world in establishing peace,” al-Faisal said at the gathering, hosted by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “There is no requirement for divine revelation or Einsteinian genius to know what peace is—two states, mutual swaps, mutual recognition, and engaging with each other.”
While Mr. Al-Faisal’s bafflement seems quite genuine and is, in my judgment, justified to a considerable degree, it nonetheless represents an outdated reading of the current situation.
The problems surrounding the prospects of Palestinian-Israeli peace talks at this stage cannot be easily reduced to Netanyahu’s government’s unreasonable, if not downright belligerent, attitude. There are problems on the Palestinian side as well: deep divisions along ideological and personality lines pitting the Palestinian Authority (PA) against Hamas, and various figures within the PA against each other; the calcification of corrupt PA rule in the West Bank; and the continuing rule of Hamas violence in Gaza.
At such, insistence on the Arab Peace Initiative at this stage is a non-starter. Netanyahu is not interested in symbolic gestures, and the Palestinian side is simply too divided and leaderless to enter into a meaningful agreement of the type that Al-Faisal envisions. Moreover, and considering what’s at stake—namely, containment of the Iranian threat—Iran will likely try to do something to derail any talks, and intra-Palestinian conflicts can be siezed upon for this purpose.
What all this means is that Saudi Arabia, among other Arab states, needs to reexamine its approach. In fact, what is probably needed at this stage is to flip the formula: it’s not peace that should pave the way to normalization but the other way around: normalization could pave the way to peace.
Instead of hiding a working relationship with Israel in the shadows, improved open diplomatic and economic relations between Israel and Arab countries could go a long way in improving the lives of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. That could have a positive influence on political talks and may strengthen Palestinian governance and government institutions. Since the linkage between normalization and final status talks would no longer be there, the combination of open relations and improved living conditions could create the political opportunity for the long-awaited, historic agreement to happen.
Meanwhile, the Israelis, the Saudis and other Gulf Arabs, the Turks and the Egyptians can also talk about a security arrangement for the region. The reality of normalization, rather than the vague promise of it, could allow talks in this regard to acquire the serious edge they need, and could produce something credible within a reasonable period. Initially, this would be an open bloc against Iran which would not be invited to take part in this initial phase. That said, a seat at the table would be left for her provided her leaders moderate their regional behavior by allowing for reasonable compromises to be reached in places like Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon.
To the extent that Russia has now become a regional power through its de facto expanded presence in Syria, the same consideration might be reserved for its leaders as well, very much on the same condition. Israel and the Sunni states have a great interest in common: regional stability. That interest would be far easier to pursue were relations between them open.
What’s clearly at stake at this stage is the future of the entire region and all of its peoples. It’s not just the Palestinians, the Syrians, the Christians, the Sunnis, the Shia, or this or that people or group. The question is how much more of the region is going to erupt in flames while the main powers do their usual dance around the issues. Given these stakes, it’s a mistake to make progress on one track conditional on progress on another. A much bolder move is required.
Indeed, it’s probably high time the Saudis used their considerable regional influence to put together a high-level Arab delegation to pay an official visit to Tel Aviv with a clear and direct offer of normalization. The delegation should invite Israel to take part in a regional security conference where a variety of current issues, including Palestinian statehood and the Syrian conflict, should be on the table. Open talks on parallel tracks could foster more positive developments than secret contacts and tentative symbolic steps. Time is of the essence these days, for we’re marking its passage with human lives lost, families displaced, homes and schools destroyed, and hopes dashed. For this, normalization should be a means of finding common grounds, not a reward for finding it.
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A trial over media mogul Sumner Redstone's mental competence abruptly ends when a California judge throws out a lawsuit brought about by the 92-year-old's former girlfriend. Vanessa Johnston reports.
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