PILIGER article: ASSANGE - Epic Struggle For Justice

SPECIAL FEATURE 31 Jul 2015 Julian Assange: The Untold Story Of An Epic Struggle For Justice By John Pilger This is an updated version of John Pilger’s 2014 investigation which tells the unreported story of an unrelenting campaign, in Sweden and the US, to deny Julian Assange justice and silence WikiLeaks. FULL ARTICLE @ SOURCE: https://newmatilda.com/2015/07/31/julian-assange-untold-story-epic-struggle-justice --------------------- COMMENT Another great article, and an excellent overview of what's going on.

Business Insider - "British spies are officially setting the standard for fighting hackers"

British spies are officially setting the standard for fighting hackers Business Insider Alastair Stevenson, Business Insider Jul. 29, 2015, 7:27 AM 13 UK big ben union flag jack umbrellaREUTERS/Luke MacGregorBritish spy standards have gone international. A pilot scheme for the UK government’s cyber security training initiative has launched in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – meaning British spies are now setting the international standard for fighting hackers. The scheme will be run by the Communications-Electronics Security Group (CESG), the information security arm of the GCHQ. It is an extension of the CESG's ongoing UK Certified Professional (CCP) scheme. The UK scheme launched in October 2012 and is designed to ensure security professionals meet a quality benchmark set by the CESG, assuring potential hirers of their anti-hacker abilities. The scheme ranks professionals at three levels of competency: Practitioner, Senior Practitioner, and Lead Practitioner. To date, the scheme has accredited 1,200 UK professionals in a variety of roles, including penetration testers and crypto custodians. Penetration testers are hackers companies hire to find holes in their defences. Crypto custodians are professionals that manage companies' use of encryption. Encryption is a security technology that scrambles digital information using specialist mathematics. It makes it so only people in possession of a specific unlock key or password can read the encrypted information. The pilot international scheme will be limited to security and information risk advisors (SIRA) and IA architects – the people who advise companies on how to protect their data and design their information security systems. The new US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand tests will be run by the APMG International examination body and CESG. BUSINESS INSIDER - VIA http://www.techinsider.io/gchq-has-expanded-its-security-training-scheme-to-run-in-the-us-canada-australia-and-new-zealand-2015-7 --------------------- COMMENT Thought this was interesting, but now I'm not that sure.  LOL IA = information assurance APM Group Ltd (APMG) =  global accreditation body, UK based (offices all over) More:  CCP - 'CESG Certified Professional' http://apmg-cyber.com/products/ccp-cesg-certified-professional

Google Compute Engine - Cloud Computing & Customer Held Encryption Keys / Red Herrings

Google has just done something that’s going to annoy the US and UK governments Business Insider     Alastair Stevenson, Business Insider     Jul. 29, 2015, 11:15 AM    2 UK Prime Minister David Cameron is not going to like this. Google has rolled out a security service for its business customers that could put a serious downer on the UK government’s plans to increase law enforcement’s surveillance powers. The service was revealed by Google product manager Leonard Law in a blog post and is currently in beta form. It will let businesses running the company's Google Compute Engine create their own encryption keys. Encryption is a security technology that scrambles digital information using specialist mathematics. It makes it so only people in possession of a specific unlock key or password can read the encrypted information. Google’s move may not sound like a big deal to people outside the technology community, but the implications for the move are pretty massive. What the Google Compute Engine is Google’s Compute Engine is the basis of the company's cloud computing platform. Cloud computing is a special type of technology that uses a network of remote servers hosted on the internet to run computer processes traditionally done on a device’s internal hardware. In theory, this means cloud computing customers can get high-powered computer performance, or run complex tasks beyond normal hardware’s capabilities without having to buy lots of equipment. As well as Google, which uses the tech to power many of its own services, such as YouTube, numerous big-name companies including Coca Cola, Best Buy, Rovio, Avaya and Ocado also use the Compute Engine. How it links to government surveillance The widespread use of Google’s cloud tech means it handles vast amounts of  user data. Data running through the platform can include things like customer records, account information and, at times, the user's geographic location. PRISM documents leaked by Edward Snowden in 2013 revealed intelligence agencies, such as the NSA and GCHQ, have been siphoning vast amounts of web user information from Google's cloud platform – as well as many other cloud service providers. The move makes sense, as the Compute Engine’s large customer base lets the agencies collect data from multiple companies and services from one central source. A game of cat and mouse Google already encrypts services running through its Compute Engine by default. This partially protects customers as it means agencies like the NSA or GCHQ cannot read the data without knowing which encryption key was used. However, the tactic is not foolproof, as the NSA and GCHQ can use legal requests, such as letters sent under the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), to force Google to unlock or hand over unencrypted copies of the data. This issue was set to get even worse in the UK and US as both governments have hinted at plans to make it easier for law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Law enforcement agencies within the US have been lobbying for the US government to control business use of encryption since the PRISM leaks emerged. FBI director of counter-terrorism Michael Steinbach warned lawmakers that strong encryption technology allows terrorists "a free zone by which to recruit, radicalize, plot and plan," in June. UK prime minister David Cameron has hinted at plans to hamper the use of encryption. Cameron told Parliament he wants to "ensure that terrorists do not have a safe space in which to communicate," on June 6. How companies having their own keys will hamper surveillance Experts within the security community have argued that Google’s move will cause problems for the UK government’s plans. FireEye global technical lead Simon Mullis explained to Business Insider this is because it will make it so Google won’t be able to decrypt the data, even if ordered to. “Essentially the access to, ownership and management of the keys used to encrypt all data within Google Cloud is now handled by the end-customer," he said. "[This will] make it harder for any external agencies such as law enforcement or intelligence services to gain access to the decrypted data as there are fewer parties [people able to unlock the data] involved.” As a result, if law enforcement wanted access to the encrypted Compute Engine data, they would have to mount individual requests to each customer, a practice that would slow their surveillance operations. Business Insider has reached out to the UK Prime Minister's press team for comment on how custom encryption keys will impact Cameron's plans. Google is one of many technology companies working to fight the UK and US government’s surveillance plans. A group of 140 companies, including Google, Microsoft, Apple and Facebook, sent an open letter to President Obama in May urging him to reject the encryption proposals, fearing they would damage the US economy. Apple CEO Tim Cook claimed law enforcement’s hostility towards encryption is dangerous in June. SOURCE http://www.techinsider.io/google-has-offered-compute-engine-customers-advanced-encryption-powers-2015-7 --------------------- COMMENT 'Terrorists' is the big stick / leverage go-to for governments to demand access. If I were a company, I would prefer complete control of my own data.  Relying on cloud computing doesn't appeal, even though it may be cheaper.  And why would you trust any company that can unencrypt your data?  But I guess the advantage might be in passing the buck.  As in, if data is compromised, you can maybe blame it on the third party cloud host & they get lumped with compensation payouts? This is a good companion article regarding encryption offerings:   The Red Herring of Digital Backdoors and Key Escrow Encryption Bill Blunden EXTRACTS By concentrating on key escrow the CEOs of Silicon Valley are able to conjure up the perception of an adversarial relationship with federal agencies. This is absolutely crucial because tech companies need to face the public wearing a white hat. In the aftermath of the PRISM scandal, where C-suite types were caught colluding with the government on a first-name basis, American executives are frantically trying to convince people on behalf of quarterly revenue that they’re siding with consumers against spying. An interesting but fundamentally flawed narrative, given how much economic espionage the government conducts and how much spying corporate America does. Who do you think benefits from this sort of mass surveillance? All told it’s likely that private sector involvement henceforth will transpire off stage. Far removed from the encryption debate. Rather than forgo the benefits of aggressive spying, CEOs will merely conceal their complicity more deeply while making lots of noise for rubes about encryption. In this sense zero-day bugs offer the added benefit of plausible deniability. That is, backs doors based on zero-day bugs are vital spy tools that masquerade as mere accidents. Only fitting, one might conclude, as spies and magicians are kindred spirits performing artful tricks that beguile more susceptible members of the audience. http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/07/29/the-red-herring-of-digital-backdoors-and-key-escrow-encryption/ I really like this guy's articles.

Tor Vulnerability - Traffic Analysis Identifies Guard Servers

Vulnerability could make Tor, the anonymous network, less anonymous     by  Barb Darrow     @gigabarb July 29, 2015, 5:27 PM EDT The bad news; MIT and QCRI researchers found a vulnerability in the Tor network. The good news: they also found a fix. The Tor network—used by activists, journalists, law enforcement, and yes, criminals—is famous for cloaking web surfers’ identities and locations. And, apparently, it contains a vulnerability that poses a risk to all that protective anonymity, according to researchers at MIT and the Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI). The good (or bad) news—depending on how you view Tor— is they say they’ve also come up with a fix to the problem that they will demonstrate at the Usenix Security Symposium next month, according to an MIT News story “Shoring up Tor.” An estimated 2.5 million people—including journalists, political activists, terrorists or just consumers who don’t want to share their browsing histories with Facebook or other commercial entities—use Tor daily. And that is why the network is of keen interest not only to “repressive” regimes like Russia and Iran but to governments a lot closer to home, including our own. Not to put too fine a point on this, but one person’s activist could be another person’s terrorist, but I digress. DigitalTrends has a good description of the Tor basics:     Tor works by anonymizing the transport of your data. Like an onion, Tor encrypts the data you send through the web in multiple layers. Your data is then “relayed” through other computers. Each relay sheds one layer then finally arrives at the source in full form. The software bounces users around a network of open connections run by volunteers all over the globe. This prevents people from spying on your Internet connection and discovering sites you visit. Tor scrambles information that could pinpoint your exact physical location. By using a Tor-configured browser, the user enters her request, and it is automatically swaddled in those encryption layers and is sent it to the next, randomly chosen machine that runs Tor. This machine, called “the guard,” peels off the first encryption layer and forwards the still-masked request on until it finally reaches a randomly chosen “exit” machine that strips off the final layer encryption to reveal the destination. Only the guard machine knows the sender and only the exit machine knows the requested site; no single computer knows both. The network also offers “hidden services” that enable an activist to aggregate sensitive news reports and make them available to select users, but not the world at large. That is, the archive is not searchable or available on the public Internet. The creation of those collection points, which involves the building of what Tor calls a “circuit” of machines, offered the researchers a way to snoop on Tor. By connecting a ton of their own machines to the network and then analyzing traffic, they were able to identify likely guard machines. From the MIT report:     The researchers showed that simply by looking for patterns in the number of packets passing in each direction through a guard, machine-learning algorithms could, with 99 percent accuracy, determine whether the circuit was an ordinary Web-browsing circuit, an introduction-point circuit, or a rendezvous-point circuit. Breaking Tor’s encryption wasn’t necessary.     Furthermore, by using a Tor-enabled computer to connect to a range of different hidden services, they showed that a similar analysis of traffic patterns could identify those services with 88 percent accuracy. That means that an adversary who lucked into the position of guard for a computer hosting a hidden service, could, with 88 percent certainty, identify it as the service’s host. The researchers, including Albert Kwon, an MIT graduate student in electrical engineering and computer science, and Mashael AlSabah, assistant professor of computer science at Qatar University, and a QCRI researcher, said the fix lies in obscuring data traffic patterns to and from the guard machines in a way that renders such “traffic fingerprinting” ineffective. If the network sends around enough dummy packets so that all the data sequences look the same to prying eyes, problem solved, and anonymity remains safe. SOURCE http://fusion.net/story/175068/sorry-the-way-you-type-is-exposing-your-identity-online-even-if-youre-browsing-anonymously/ --------------------- COMMENT Tor anonymity browser: search/request via Tor browser, wrapped in encryption layers first server = random 'guard' server (knows where request came from) next server = does not know location of request or request final server = random 'exit' server knows the request no single server knows both location & search/request runs data via network of open connections / servers run by volunteers all over globe  So: scrambles info that could pinpoint your physical location anonymises the transport of your data encrypts the data you send (& relays through the web in multiple layers) each relay sheds one layer relay finally arrives at source in full form Thought this was interesting.  Imagine the Tor people are adapting to the fake packet fix, whatever that is.   My reference to 'server' should probably read 'node' in the Tor network, I would think.  ------- ------- ------- Data transferred by computer is sent via 'packets'.  Due to size constraints, data sent out is broken up and reassembled at the destination. TCP / IP TCP/IP protocols guide how data is sent TCP = Transmission Control Protocol (reliability of data / checks data for errors & resends if required)  IP = Internet Protocol (more direct 'step closer' transmission of data) TCP/IP = two separate protocol - used together Most common TCP/IP protocols: HTTP  - b/w client (ie browser) & server / non-secure data transmissions HTTPS - b/w client & server / SECURE data transmissions - eg. credit card transaction data or other private data   FTP - b/w two or more computers:  one computer sends data to (or receives data from) another computer DIRECTLY. web client =  browser web server = receives client/browser requests & relays data back to web client/browser These are just notes for my benefit.  Hoping I have the info. straight.  LOL    --------------------- MORE MIT researchers figure out how to break Tor anonymity without cracking encryption http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/211169-mit-researchers-figure-out-how-to-break-tor-anonymity-without-cracking-encryption Researchers mount successful attacks against Tor network—and show how to prevent them http://phys.org/news/2015-07-mount-successful-tor-networkand.html

Cybersecurity: Darktrace

British cyber company Darktrace ramps up D.C. presence, investors take notice  By Aaron Gregg July 26 at 5:57 PM Follow @Post_AG Washington has always been a government town. But in recent years, the economic pinch of sequestration and other federal cutbacks has many local business leaders wondering where the next source of revenue will come from. Many see cybersecurity as a possible path away from government dependency, hoping that experts from the region’s intelligence community can find ways to sell their expertise to multi-national corporations that want to shore up their data. Darktrace, a Britain-based cybersecurity company that tries to spot internal threats by applying big data analysis to employees’ behavioral patterns, is one of the upstarts seeking to turn the region’s indigenous intelligence know-how into a commercial operation. The company announced Wednesday that it closed a $22.5 million round of financing from Summit Partners, a prominent venture capital firm. The company says it will use the capital to continue expanding its international footprint, hiring sales and marketing people to help broaden its customer base. Last month, the young firm opened a cyber operations center in Columbia, Md., to give it closer proximity to the wealth of talent sitting next door at the National Security Agency. “We’re taking the know-how that people from government agencies like the FBI, CIA and NSA have, and helping people in the commercial private sector to identify threats,” chief executive Nicole Eagan said. Eagan said the company’s plan is to approximate the so-called five eyes of the international spy community — a collaboration of government intelligence agencies from New Zealand, Australia, Britain, the United States and Canada — and sell it to the private sector. Right now Darktrace has offices in all five locations. “When you start to realize that cyber is a global problem, a cyber-threat can originate in one part of the world and culminate in another part of the work,” Eagan said. The company employs about 100 people, but its workforce is spread across 16 cities on four continents, with plans to expand into Latin America. [Related: Founded by spies and mathematicians, Darktrace isn’t your typical cyber-security firm] The company was founded two years ago by a union of Cambridge mathematicians and NSA veterans, with the help of close to $10 million in seed funding from Invoke Capital, a British venture capital firm backed by Mike Lynch, founder of British IT company Autonomy. Darktrace is one of many firms trying to spot data breaches in real time. The company’s Enterprise Immune System technology uses complex mathematical algorithms to take a behavioral “fingerprint” of each company’s day-to-day operations, created from seemingly mundane details such as when particular people tend to log in to certain systems and what they do there, where they work from and from what computer they log in. When something looks out of the ordinary, the company is notified in real time, and management gets a weekly update on the biggest threats it needs to worry about. “What Darktrace offers is an intelligent platform which learns what normal behavior is, and picks out what is unusual,” said Dan Raywood, an information security analyst at IT consultancy 451 Research. After spending a few years honing its product with early testers that included BT Group, a British telecommunications corporation, the company said it is done with research and development and is now focusing its efforts on getting to market. Today, Darktrace works with more than 100 corporations worldwide. It takes on customers by offering them a 30-day free trial, after which they are asked to commit to a three- or four-year contract. The company said more than 80 percent of the companies that try the free trial sign a contract. Darktrace declined to provide details of its financial performance. The company is operating in a crowded field with new firms popping up every day. “Whilst not totally unique, Darktrace has an interesting proposition at a time when spotting the anomaly is a key trend,” Raywood said.  Aaron Gregg covers the local economy for Capital Business, the Post’s local business section. He studied music (Jazz guitar) and political science at Emory University in Atlanta, and has a graduate degree in public policy from Georgetown. SOURCE http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/british-cyber-company-darktrace-ramps-up-dc-presence-investors-take-notice/2015/07/26/0fbef782-316d-11e5-97ae-30a30cca95d7_story.html --------------------- COMMENT LOL .. wonder if this is CIA venture capital? Cambridge makes me think of Cambridge Five and NSA's the mass surveillance mob that's been spying on European corporations and politicians. So is this some kind of UK intel meets US intel off the grid (and therefore opaque) Five Eyes clone?  Govt intelligence agencies aren't exactly transparent, so it probably hasn't got anything to do with being 'opaque'.  Maybe it's about having some legit cover, while keeping close tabs on big business? Or, .... I've got an over-active imagination.  LOL --------------------- Founded by spies and mathematicians, Darktrace isn’t your typical cybersecurity firm "... part of a contingent of cybersecurity executives accompanying British Prime Minister David Cameron on his recent trip to Washington, where the two countries announced the launch of a joint cyber-sharing initiative." http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/on-it/founded-by-spies-and-mathematicians-darktrace-isnt-your-typical-cybersecurity-firm/2015/02/15/eb71787e-b079-11e4-886b-c22184f27c35_story.html

Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA)

TiSA – the new trade deal being kept under wraps Tony Burke The deal would enable corporations to monopolise entire sectors, such as telecoms and communications Earlier this month I wrote about Obama’s plans to fast track TTIP. Now, the WikiLeaks publication of seventeen documents related to the proposed TiSA trade deal has shone a welcome light on the secrecy surrounding negotiations on this trade deal. Although an outline of the plan has been in discussion for over a year it has remained secret, with the documents supposedly due to remain classified for five years. The Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) has been around since 2013. Discussions are taking place between the USA, the EU and twenty-two other nations including Canada, Mexico, Australia, Israel, South Korea, Japan, Norway, Switzerland, Turkey, and many others across South America and Asia. Twelve of the G20 nations have a place at the table, and it has been extended to include Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa. Like TTIP, CETA, and TPP, the TiSA deal would turbo-charge global trade this time in ‘services’, which includes air and maritime transport; parcel delivery; e-commerce; telecommunications; accounting; engineering; consulting; health care; private education; and financial services – around 80 per cent of the US economy. Like the other deals, TiSA is veiled in secrecy but the leaked documents show that that it would restrict the ability of sovereign governments to manage their own legislation. This would be done through a regulatory cap limiting regulation of services at all levels from national to local government level. Using ‘standstill’ clauses, TiSA will be able to stop new laws being passed, and prevent new professional licensing, new or amended qualifications or technical standards being enacted. And like TTIP it has a ‘ratchet’ clause, which would make decisions made under TiSA irreversible. Experts also say the TiSA text is almost incomprehensible unless you are a trade lawyer.  However, it appears that foreign corporations must receive the same ‘national treatment’ as domestic companies; that regulations cannot be ‘more burdensome than necessary to ensure the quality of the service’ and no restrictions can be placed on foreign investment. This would allow corporations to monopolise entire sectors such as telecoms and communications. Public services, including telephone and postal services, would be broken up or forced into competition with foreign service providers. The United States and EU have said that that these regulations need not be permanent, but they also ‘noted the important complementary role of the private sector in these areas to improve the availability and diversity of services’. Catch 22 again! Corporations would also be able to use secret courts similar to the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) process in TTIP, TPP and CETA where they can demand compensation equal to ‘expected future profits’ lost through violations of the ‘regulatory cap’. Experts have warned that if TiSA comes into force, governments would be helpless to stop ‘financial innovation’ – including the type of behaviour which brought about the collapse of the banks in the US and the EU in 2007- 2008. Switzerland, that bastion of transparency, has proposed that TiSA must allow ‘any new financial service’ to enter their market. Regulations designed to protect investors and savers are ‘allowed’, but they ‘must not act contrary to TiSA rules’. A win-win situation for the banks! Financial services suppliers will also be able to use individual client data regardless of national privacy laws. And what of employment protections and workers’ rights? Well, although there is still a lack of clarity it appears that TiSA would classify migrant workers as ‘independent service suppliers’. This would apply not just to professionals such as architects, vets, engineers, accountants, designers and IT consultants, but to other migrant workers like nurses and care workers, who would be classed as ‘service suppliers’ with no employer-employee relationship. TiSA will put corporations before governments on every occasion, and as with TPP and TTIP the US president will have ‘fast track’ authority to push TiSA through the US legislature without line-by-line scrutiny. Rosa Pavanelli, general secretary of Public Services International (the global trade union umbrella body for public service workers) criticised “The irony of the text containing repeated references to transparency, and an entire Annex on transparency requiring governments to provide information useful to business, being negotiated in secret from the population exposes in whose interests these agreements are being made”. Larry Cohen, outgoing president of Communication Workers of America, said: “This is as big a blow to our rights and freedom as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and in both cases our government’s secrecy is the key enabler.” Tony Burke is Assistant General Secretary of Unite responsible for manufacturing. He is a member of the TUC Executive Committee and General Council, the Labour Party National Policy Forum, Trade Union co-ordinator for the Morning Star newspaper and chair of the Campaign For Trade Union Freedom. He also contributes to Tribune, the Morning Star, The Manufacturer, the TUC’s Stronger Unions website and blogs at his own Power In A Union. SOURCE http://leftfootforward.org/2015/07/tisa-the-new-trade-deal-being-kept-under-wraps/ --------------------- COMMENT TiSA sounds as bad news as the TPP, so why would any responsible government enter into this?  Stand by for being screwed by corporations generally, as well as foreign corporations.

the dancer

PJ HARVEY the dancer  (acoustic version) [source: here] Like this quite a lot. Other PJH stuff is fascinating & quite compelling, but most of it is too intense & too jarring for me.

America - Penal Colony: Animal Welfare Activists Charged for 'Terrorism'

#animalwelfare  FBI Arrests and Charges Animal Rights Activists for 'Terrorism'  #animalwelfare  Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act 2006 USA federal law criminalizes damaging or interfering with ops of an animal enterprise Idaho ag-gag law 2014 criminalizes recording of animal-rights abuses taking place at livestock ops http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/FBI-Arrests-and-Charges-Animal-Rights-Activists-for-Terrorism-20150725-0014.html #animalwelfare #cali USA  FBI arrests activists accused of releasing 5,740 mink http://www.lewistownsentinel.com/page/content.detail/id/891259/FBI-arrests-activists-accused-of-releasing-5-740-mink.html?isap=1&nav=5013 #animalwelfare USA Pair of animal rights activists indicted by feds / terrorism for freeing 1000s of minks nationwide Conspiracy to Violate the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act govt allegations based on: *raising money on: eBay and Amazon "federal indictment centers around the procurement of money and then circumstantially ties it to the alleged activities" *transacted strictly in cash *avoided cell phones or Internet while active  *used unspecified "encrypted" e-mail https://hacked.com/feds-charges-mink-saviors-with-eco-terrorism-can-face-10-years-in-prison-and-a-250-000-fine/ --------------------- COMMENT Deleted my earlier comment because it was disjointed and not at all well thought out.

Foreign Service Updates

#SouthKorea US amb. Mark Lippert scored a crap post. Survived knife attack.  Now receives threat to kill. http://nation.com.pk/international/25-Jul-2015/s-korean-man-arrested-for-threat-to-kill-us-envoy #Cambodia rigid registration & reporting regime for NGOs PASSED + requirement that NGOs remain politically neutral http://www.phnompenhpost.com/post-weekend/senate-passes-ngo-law-amid-boycott #Russia opposes Malaysia’s draft res. on MH17 no transparency no precedent on interl tribunals re civilian airliners http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/russian-envoy-no-precedent-for-proposed-mh17-probe-team *Demonised Russia *Russia excluded *call for US surveillance satellite data release = NO RESPONSE / { sounds like a fake inquiry } #Somalia 2013 - Britain reopened embassy in Mogadishu, which was closed in 1991 (civil war). UK pledge support http://horseedmedia.net/2015/07/24/britain-pledges-continued-support-to-somalia/ #Japan #RUSSIA urged Russian PM Medvedev not to visit disputed islands off Hokkaido / Moscow reasserting control 4 islands http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/07/24/national/politics-diplomacy/japan-urges-russian-prime-minister-not-visit-disputed-isles/ #USA DIPLOMAT US diplomat used his-government-issued email to meet women on the internet & talk about sex http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3137631/US-diplomat-abused-child-posted-abroad-exposed-minor-received-nude-photos-female-colleagues-email-t-know-sacked-s-SECRET.html #Czech President Miloš Zeman sees a time to call up military to protect borders against immigrants http://www.praguepost.com/viewpoint/48984-zeman-criticized-for-provoking-france #Malaysia NGO hands memo to  British High Commission re Clare Rewcastle-Brown / news portal The Sarawak Report Malaysia NGO memo to Swiss Embassy next week to Bruno Manser Foundation to stop channelling money to news portal. Malaysian Communication & Multimedia Commission blocked The Sarawak Report for undermining national security. Looks like the news portal may be seen as contributing indirectly to efforts to topple:  Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v8/newsindex.php?id=1155267 Clare Rewcastle Brown = British investigative journalist https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clare_Rewcastle_Brown ---------------------- COMMENT Sounds like there might be a bit of a story in Malaysia.  Something interesting going on there.  That journalist is Gordon Brown's sister-in-law. The Russia and Japan issue over islands could be interesting.

America's Kurdish Marxist Allies

SOURCE http://aina.org/news/20150724184904.htm America's Marxist Allies Against ISIS By Matt Bradley and Joe Parkinson Wall Street Journal Posted 2015-07-24 22:49 GMT Female PKK fighters greet male counterparts before attending a meeting at the operations base on Iraq's Sinjar Mountain (PHOTO: ERIN TRIEB FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL). SINJAR MOUNTAIN, Iraq -- Nine years ago, Zind Ruken packed a bag and left her majority-ethnic-Kurdish city in Iran, escaping a brutal police crackdown and pressure to marry a man she'd never met. Now the 24-year-old is a battle-hardened guerrilla, using machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades to fight Islamic State extremists in Syria and Iraq. She has deployed to reverse their advances on self-governing Kurdish communities. Last summer, she says, she helped rescue Kurdish-speaking Yazidis besieged on Sinjar Mountain. Her unit has fought Islamist insurgents and conventional armies in Syria, Turkey, Iran and Iraq--countries where an estimated 30 million Kurds live. Ms. Ruken's journey provides a glimpse behind the remarkable rise of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, the cultlike Marxist-inspired group she fights for and whose triumphs against Islamic State have helped it evolve from ragtag militia to regional power player. The PKK and its Syrian affiliate have emerged as Washington's most effective battlefield partners against Islamic State, also known as ISIS, even though the U.S. and its allies have for decades listed the PKK as a terrorist group. The movement in the past has been accused of kidnappings, murder and narcotics trafficking, but fighters like Ms. Ruken have presented the world an appealing face of the guerrillas--an image of women battling as equals with male comrades against an appallingly misogynist enemy. U.S. war planners have been coordinating with the Syrian affiliate--the People's Defense Units, or YPG--on air and ground operations through a joint command center in northern Iraq. And in two new centers in Syria's Kobani and Jazeera regions, YPG commanders are in direct contact with U.S. commanders, senior Syrian Kurdish officials said. "There's no reason to pretend anymore," said a senior Kurdish official from Kobani. "We're working together, and it's working." By contrast, Ankara agreed only on Thursday to allow coalition airstrikes from an eastern-Turkey air base, after months of negotiations in which President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government resisted international calls to enter the war with Islamic State. U.S. officials said the base deal shouldn't affect U.S. air support to Kurdish fighters in Syria and may help increase collaboration with the YPG because jets and drones will be closer to the battlefield. U.S. defense officials said coordination with YPG units, including some inside Syria, has improved the ability of coalition aircraft to strike Islamic State positions and avoid civilian casualties. U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter during a visit to the region this week said YPG forces in Syria are "extremely effective on the ground." Constantly shifting alliances in the region mean the PKK's rise isn't certain to continue. But the guerrilla group's growing stature has alarmed Turkey, a crucial North Atlantic Treaty Organization ally of the U.S., with whom the PKK has fought a three-decade war costing some 40,000 lives. The PKK is in peace talks with Turkey, and a political party linked to the PKK won a record 12% of the vote in Turkey's June parliamentary elections. Troubled by the PKK's battlefield victories, Ankara has vowed to prevent the formation of a Kurdish state in Syria. "We recognize YPG are fighting [Islamic State] and that Americans are giving support to it," a Turkish foreign ministry official said. "We transmit our views to American allies." On Monday, an Islamic State suicide bomber killed 32 Kurdish and Turkish activists in a Turkish border town opposite the Syrian city of Kobani, a YPG stronghold. The PKK on Thursday said it had killed two Turkish police officers in retaliation for not stopping the bomb. Obama administration officials acknowledged the PKK and YPG have links and coordinate with each other in the fight against Islamic State, but they said the U.S. continues to formally shun the PKK while dealing directly with YPG. The groups operate under separate command structures and have different objectives, the officials said. America's association with a terror-listed Maoist-inspired militia, even if indirect, shows how dramatically Syria's conflict has reconfigured regional alliances and eroded once-rigid borders. Just two years ago, President Barack Obama told Turkey the U.S. would continue to aid its battle against PKK "terrorists." The U.S. continues to share intelligence about the PKK with Turkey, and military officials from the two countries sit together in an Intelligence Fusion Cell in Ankara established by the George W. Bush administration to help Turkey fight the group. MAP Sources: CIA; Institute for the Study of War. But now, "the U.S. has become the YPG's air force and the YPG has become the U.S.'s ground force in Syria," said Henri Barkey, a former State Department analyst on Turkey now at Lehigh University. Some senior U.S. and British diplomats said the time has come for the U.S. and some European states to consider a broader rapprochement with the PKK. But U.S. officials said Washington is unlikely to revise the PKK's terror listing without a green light from Turkey, which has itself sent mixed messages to Washington about its own dealings with the group. U.S. military personnel aren't on the ground inside Syria vetting Kurdish forces, making it difficult to discern the affiliations of individual Kurdish fighters who may benefit from U.S. airstrikes, said a senior U.S. defense official. "These guys don't exactly wear patches identifying what groups they're fighting for," the official said, "but they are fighting the right guys." The PKK says its affiliates--Syria's YPG and groups called the PJAK in Iran and the HPG in Iraq--are separate but closely linked. PKK fighters and some analysts say they are one and the same. "It's all PKK but different branches," Ms. Ruken said, clad in fatigues in her encampment atop Sinjar Mountain this spring as a battle with Islamic State fighters raged less than a mile away at the mountain's base. "Sometimes I'm a PKK, sometimes I'm a PJAK, sometimes I'm a YPG. It doesn't really matter. They are all members of the PKK." On the battlefield, fighters like Ms. Ruken have the momentum. Since the Syrian uprising flared in 2011, the PKK and YPG have seized and defended large swaths of oil-rich territory in Syria and Iraq and are busy building state institutions. U.S. airstrikes last year helped the YPG repel an Islamic State onslaught on the Kurdish city of Kobani. In June, the fighters captured the Islamic State stronghold of Tal Abyad, supported by U.S. air power, connecting long-disjointed Kurdish regions and dramatically expanding the territory they control. 'We're not terrorists' "People look at us as if we're terrorists and they put us on this blacklist. We're not terrorists," said Ms. Ruken, who like all PKK fighters uses a nom de guerre--hers means "alive smiling"--and declined to give her real name. "The Kurds know what we are fighting for. They know we will give our souls for them." The Kurdish guerrilla groups pledge allegiance to Abdullah Ocalan, the PKK chief imprisoned on a Turkish island since 1999. From jail in 2005, he established PKK affiliates that evolved into today's YPG, HPG and PJAK. The PKK and affiliates have car-bombed Turkish cities, kidnapped hundreds and killed Turkish and Kurdish state employees. In 2009, the U.S. Treasury Department designated their leadership as significant narcotics traffickers. The PKK ruthlessly dispatches Kurdish political rivals in Syria and elsewhere, according to New York based Human Rights Watch. Zagros Hiwa, a PKK spokesman, said: "We have been defending our people against the denial and elimination policies of the Turkish state against the Kurds. Our struggle has always been on the basis of legitimate self-defense." The PKK practices an offshoot of Marxism it calls Democratic Confederalism. The group's utopian goals echo those of some Cold War-era leftist militias. It aims to create a Maoist-inspired agrarian society that opposes landowning classes, espouses gender equality and distances itself from religion. Its guerrillas speak of a leaderless society of equals but also glorify Mr. Ocalan with fanatical devotion. They talk of needing to inculcate Kurdish populations with their ideology, rigidly centralized around Mr. Ocalan's writings. The group's largely pro-West stance, and its deployment of female fighters like Ms. Ruken, has brought sympathy from Western governments and populations. Hundreds of volunteers from the U.S. and Europe have enlisted with the group since 2014. Calls are growing from European and some U.S. policy makers for the PKK to be removed from terror lists and directly receive arms from Washington. In February, two fighters from the YPG's all-female YPJ militia were invited to Paris's Élysée Palace to meet with President François Hollande --their first such meeting with a NATO leader. "The Kurds have emerged as the best buffer against Islamic State, and the PKK's military prowess has shifted perceptions of them in the West," said Marc Pierini, former European Union ambassador to Turkey now at the Carnegie Endowment in Brussels. "It looks like their moment may be coming." But Ankara, which relaunched peace talks with the PKK in 2012, is nervous its advances and burgeoning links with the West will strengthen its negotiating position, said Western diplomats and analysts. And the PKK's expanding strength comes amid a rising tide of Kurdish autonomy that could augur a push for Kurdish independence across the Middle East, deepening the region's fault lines. At the PKK's Qandil Mountain base in Iraq, the group's chief commander, Cemil Bayik, said in an interview that perceptions of the PKK were shifting dramatically. "Islamic State's attacks on the Kurds, and the Kurds fighting back against Islamic State, has changed the international attitude toward all Kurds, especially the perception of the PKK," he said. "Now I want to ask: Who are the terrorists?" Around the base's cluster of buildings, fighters with AK-47s patrol in baggy Kurdish shalwar pants. The winding road there snakes past a massive color image of the imprisoned Mr. Ocalan etched into the mountainside, maintaining vigil on the soldiers below. Ms. Ruken's war Fighters like Ms. Ruken trace the arc of a Kurdish militia expanding its sway across these troubled borderlands. While her tale isn't independently verifiable, interviews with other footsoldiers like her echo elements of her story. In 2006, aged 15, she resolved to join the PKK after Iranian security forces broke up her family's New Year celebrations, beating and arresting her mother, father and older brother. Their crime: celebrating with a traditional Kurdish bonfire while clad in traditional Kurdish dress. "That made a fire inside me," said Ms. Ruken, whose ginger-colored hair sets her apart. "I couldn't accept it." She joined an underground Kurdish women's group with PKK links in her northern-Iran hometown of Sanandaj, training for two years in small arms and light artillery. She then traveled to Mr. Bayik's Qandil Mountain base, the heart of the group's operations in exile. Fighting with the PKK meant abandoning personal identity and accepting extreme austerity. Ms. Ruken and her comrades go by battlefield names chosen to honor fallen friends or convey political convictions. They are forbidden to own property, have romantic relationships or speak much of their pre-PKK past. The fighters often use a vocabulary of Marxist revolution honed in obligatory study of Mr. Ocalan's writings. Stories of personal sacrifice are often so extreme as to seem exaggerated. "We are not fighting just for ourselves," said Chavon Ageet, a fighter in Ms. Ruken's unit who chose his name, meaning "sheep herder," after a fallen friend. "If any Kurd fights only for their own family, we will never have our own Kurdistan." "We need to establish the greater Kurdistan first," said Mr. Ageet, adding that he regularly fights under the command of women, "and then think about marriage." Ms. Ruken's first deployment was in 2010 to fight Iranian forces, she said. Tehran had agreed with Ankara to confront the PKK's Iranian affiliate. She was schooled in guerrilla tactics honed during decades of conflict against Turkey's army, NATO's second largest. Lightly armed and operating in small groups, PKK fighters used hit-and-run attacks against better-armed enemy positions. Ms. Ruken described the battles as lopsided, often with only seven or eight guerrillas attacking more than 100 Iranian soldiers, sometimes creeping across open fields in ambush. When the Iranians fought, "they're thinking about their families, their children, their lives, how they shouldn't die," she said. "For us, when we join the PKK, we abandon our lives." That fighting faded in 2011, but hostilities with Turkey re-emerged. Aided by U.S. intelligence, Turkish warplanes bombed the PKK's Qandil Mountain base. Ms. Ruken traveled to the Turkish border town of Semdinli to fight more than 2,000 Turkish troops in a battle where more than 100 PKK guerrillas died. By the time Ankara restarted peace negotiations, the PKK was on the offensive in Syria, bolstering its affiliate in the Kurdish-dominated northeast. Ms. Ruken was posted there as the group solidified its grip over the province, boosting conscription and training and suppressing opposition Kurdish factions. When Islamic State surged into northern Iraq last summer, Ms. Ruken found herself fighting an enemy whose misogyny reminded her of some aspects of the Iranian regime she fled. Her unit deployed to rescue thousands of Yazidis--Kurdish-speaking adherents to an ancient religion who fled to Sinjar Mountain after Islamic State singled them out for murder and enslavement. As images of starving Yazidis shocked the world, PKK and YPG commanders punched through jihadist lines, opening a humanitarian corridor. Washington took note. When the YPG liberated the mountain, some U.S. officials helicoptered in and met YPG commanders. Ms. Ruken said she typically fights with an AK-47 or a Soviet-era heavy-infantry machine gun about as long as she is tall. "We fight our enemies whoever they are," she said. "Perhaps Islamic State will stand for a while. But they will fall." Ali A. Nabhan, Adam Entous and Ayla Albayrak contributed to this article. SOURCE http://aina.org/news/20150724184904.htm --------------------- MORE More info at this post. --------------------- COMMENT Been over this a couple of times.  Hard to keep everybody straight.  But I think I get it. Whatever the initials, it's the same deal:  they're all PKK affiliated, they're all Kurdish and they're all aiming for creation of an autonomous Kurdish state, I guess. That they're secular sounding, egalitarian, leftists, doesn't necessarily mean they'll remain that way, should their statehood aims be reached. It's curious that the US has teamed up with such a leftist group; but from what I read elsewhere, it's part of some US grand plan for the region. What I don't understand is how the Kurdish side has been supported by governments that it has also been in conflict with (eg Iran).  Also, I don't understand their 'pro-West stance'. All of this is new to me, so this is a good starter article, I guess.

Kurds - PKK - Partiya Karkeren Kurdistane

KURDS - est. 30 million PKK (Partiya Karkerên Kurdistanê) PKK (Turkey, Iraqi Kurdistan) affiliates: YPG  - Syria + (all female militia:  YPJ) PJAK - Iran HPG - Iraq Kurdistan Workers' Party Turkey & Iraqi Kurdistan f. 1978 core group students:  led by Abdullah Öcalan ("Apo") in Ankara, Turkey far-left / sought: independent Kurdistan 30% of armed forces = women largely Russian arms NATO declared terrorist group Switzerland, China & Russia do not blacklist PKK Kurdish region / affiliates MAP source: http://aina.org/news/20150724184904.htm Former KGB-FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko {poisoned in 2006} claims: PKK's leader Abdullah Öcalan was trained by KGB-FSB. Danielle Mitterrand, wife of former President of France = had active connections 1990s with elements of PKK leadership. PKK has received various support from the following: >Greece >Iran >Iraq >Russia >Syria https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurdistan_Workers%27_Party Alleged Activities car-bombed Turkish cities kidnapped hundreds killed Turkish & Kurdish state employees significant narcotics traffickers (according to US) ruthlessly dispatch Kurdish political rivals in Syria & elsewhere [SOURCE:  Wikipedia   &   WSJ article]  OTHER: Appear to be highly politically organised / quick to demonstrate. Presently dual demonstration:  London (anti Turkey biased BBC coverage) & in Berlin.  --------------------- ARTICLE America's Marxist Allies Against ISIS http://aina.org/news/20150724184904.htm

Extortion 17 - Aug 2011 Downing Kabul - Navy SEAL Team 6 - CIA, NSA, DOD in hot seat

SOURCE http://www.wnd.com/2015/07/contempt-citation-looming-for-dod-cia/ WND EXCLUSIVE Contempt citation looming for DoD, CIA? Attorney asks government to explain why it has refused to follow orders Published: 12 hours ago Bob Unruh joined WND in 2006 after nearly three decades with the Associated Press, as well as several Upper Midwest newspapers, where he covered everything from legislative battles and sports to tornadoes and homicidal survivalists. He is also a photographer whose scenic work has been used commercially. A famed Washington watchdog attorney is asking the Department of Defense and Central Intelligence Agency to explain why it should not be held in contempt for failing to follow court instructions in a case over the helicopter crash that killed 30 Americans, including members of the Navy SEALs unit that killed Osama bin Laden. WND reported in 2014 Larry Klayman of Freedom Watch is representing the parents of some of the servicemen who were killed in Afghanistan Aug. 6, 2011, when a Chinook helicopter with the call sign Extortion 17 was shot down near Kabul. The parents believe there’s evidence their sons were sold out by Afghan turncoats who set up a Taliban ambush, while the Pentagon insists they were victims of a lucky shot with a rocket-propelled grenade. The victims were 25 American special ops fighters and five Army National Guard and Reserve crew members, along with seven Afghan commandos and one Afghan interpreter. The attack happened only a short time after Vice President Joe Biden revealed to the world that it was SEAL Team 6 that killed bin Laden. The Extortion 17 attack is considered the worst single loss of U.S. military life in the Afghanistan campaign. Klayman’s current complaint seeks information from several federal agencies, including the National Security Agency. Told through the eyes of current and former Navy SEALs, “Eyes on Target” is an inside account of some of the most harrowing missions in American history – including the mission to kill Osama bin Laden and the mission that wasn’t, the deadly attack on the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi. The lawsuit alleges the defendants “have failed to make bona fide, good faith determinations about whether they will comply with plaintiff’s requests.” In the newest filing before U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, Klayman points out that the defendants have failed to follow the court’s schedule for production of information, and now they are not even meeting the deadlines they set themselves. “As predicted, defendants having previously violated this court’s order of Feb. 15, 2015, have now violated their own unilaterally imposed deadline which arrogantly gave themselves until June 30, 2015 to product documents,” Klayman wrote to the court this week. “As this court must be aware, this is not an ordinary Freedom of Information Act case, it involves obtaining records concerning the deaths of Navy SEAL Team 6 and other special operations forces on a mission with the call sign ‘Extortion 17.’ The families of these deceased heroes have been stonewalled by the Obama Department of Defense and the Obama National Security Agency in disrespect over their sons’ unexplained tragic deaths. “Many of these family members are undergoing psychological care over what has become a double tragedy: the deaths of their sons and the cover-up for which these family members feel betrayed by their own government,” he wrote. Klayman’s submission to the court notes that the court issued an order in February regarding the production of information. The defendants in the case so far have released one document, in March, the federal government said in a report to the court two months ago. Klayman previously brought to the attention of the court the government’s decision not to follow the court’s orders regarding the production of records, when the government not only missed a deadline but didn’t even seek to have the order modified. The court’s original schedule was to have the DoD and CIA release the pertinent records in stages, on March 20, April 3 and April 20. The original request sought, among other things, details about the decision “to invite a Muslim cleric to pray at the ramp ceremony in Afghanistan for the … U.S. servicemen.” Also, there are questions about the “missing” black box, the seven Afghani military members who were scheduled to be on the flight, but weren’t, and the seven Afghanis who replaced them. Earlier, Klayman said it’s always been hard to get information from the government. “This is because the attitude of government agencies in the executive branch – typically Congress has exempted itself from FOIA as it does not consider itself accountable to anyone – has always been, in Hamiltonian fashion, that ‘the people are a great beast’ and either do not deserve to be informed or do not have a say in governance, as they are inherently less able or intelligent,” he said then. But he said Obama has taken the position to a new level. “As a result, various public interest groups, the media and the citizenry in general have been stymied from learning the full truth about the myriad of scandals rocking the Obama administration, everything from IRS-gate, to Benghazi-gate, to Fast and Furious-gate, and Extortion 17-gate, where 17 Navy SEALS (including some who went on the mission that killed Osama Bin Laden), five other special ops forces and eight other servicemen died at the hands of the Taliban in a raid that some observers, like myself who represents some of the families of our heroes, feel was possibly compromised not just by the corrupt Afghani government that is infiltrated with Muslim terrorists but perhaps within our own government, including military brass,” he wrote. “We filed another lawsuit seeking to have the NSA and CIA cough up the records concerning Extortion 17. Yet, the Pentagon claims not to have and will thus not produce,” he said then. “My colleagues and I at Freedom Watch will not rest and will use all legal means to learn the truth about the downing of Extortion 17, as we owe a duty not just to the surviving family members we represent, but to other servicemen who are sent into wars only to be compromised by our president and his lackeys in the Defense Department.” The wrongful death lawsuit seeks more than $600 million in damages from the Taliban, al-Qaida, Iran, Afghanistan and others for the deaths of members of the U.S. military’s SEAL Team 6. The case alleges racketeering, terrorism and murder. It charges the terror groups are liable under America’s Anti-Terrorism Act for harboring or concealing terrorists, providing material support to a terror organization, wrongful death and more. The case traces back to Feb. 23, 1998, when the “terrorist organization Defendant Taliban, in concert with the terrorist organization Defendant al-Qaida, led by master terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, issued a fatwah (religious decree), dictating to all Muslim people to kill Americans and their allies – civilians and military – declaring that the slaying of Americans is an individual duty for every Muslim.” Bin Laden declared: “We – with God’s help – call on every Muslim who believes in God and wishes to be rewarded to comply with God’s order to kill the Americans and plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it.” The case ties the declaration to the deaths of Michael Strange, a National Security Agency cryptologist for SEAL Team 6; Patrick Hamburger, an Army National Guard member; and John Douangdara, a Petty Officer 1st Class, in support of SEAL Team 6. Family members and survivors Charles and Mary Strange, Douglas and Shaune Hamburger and Phouthasith Douangdara are suing. The defendants are accused of “violating plaintiffs’ and decedents’ rights, for engaging in racketeering and other prohibited activities, for engaging in international terrorism, for harboring and concealing terrorists, for providing material support to terrorists and terrorist groups, for directly and proximately causing the deaths of plaintiffs’ decedents, and for directly and proximately causing mental anguish, severe emotional distress, emotional pain and suffering, and the loss of society, earnings, companionship, comfort, protecting, care, attention, advice, counsel or guidance.” The full list of defendants is the Islamic Republic of Iran, former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Hoseyni Khamenei, the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution, Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai, the Afghan Operational Coordination Group, the Khasa Amalyati Qeta, Afghan National Security Forces, the Taliban and al-Qaida. It was a raid by Navy SEAL Team 6 that resulted in the killing of bin Laden on May 2, 2011, and made the service members and their families “a target for retaliatory attacks.” But the danger was relatively low because they hadn’t been identified. However, the lawsuit explains, Biden “intentionally released the name” of SEAL Team 6 to the world, prompting a horrified Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to explode: “Why doesn’t everybody just shut the —- up?” Only weeks later, the Taliban “shot down a U.S. Boeing CH-47D Chinook military helicopter, call sign Extortion 17 … killing 30 Americans.” SOURCE http://www.wnd.com/2015/07/contempt-citation-looming-for-dod-cia/ --------------------- COMMENT Very interesting article. Looks like the USG is covering up something.  Missing black box is very suspicious.  Either that, or they're maybe hard to retrieve from hostile territories?  This is why whistleblowers & whistleblower publishers like WikiLeaks are important. Maybe Joe Biden should have kept quiet?