Around the World

AROUND THE WORLD Sea Piracy Presumed #Indonesia pirates rob #Vietnam vessel - 1/3 cargo (of 5k tonnes of oil & goods) release crew - http://tinyurl.com/nn29wna >> Hijacking is 12th in South China Sea since APRIL !!! Piracy costs shipping est. $8bn per annum. ---------------------------------------------------------- US Banking Piracy NY banking regulator still screwing BNP Paribas >dollar clearing ban in energy trade fin. for 2015 (+ $9 bil fine) http://tinyurl.com/m4nhoxw >Cannot operate energy trade div. w/out clearance >asks JPMorgan, BAML & Citi clearance help > unlikely b/c risks. No comment. >> If other banks agree to do clearing for them ... hey, they can CHARGE extortionate risk rates ... lol .. win/win USA - 2 main payment systems foreign trade in dollars  - CHIPS (owned by 23 comm.banks, overseen Central Bank + Fed) & FedWire (Fed Reserve) ---------------------------------------------------------- Immigration UNHCR- 330,700 ppl sought refugee status during the first 6mths 2014 - http://tinyurl.com/odnavxl  - Syria, Iraq, Afghan + Eritrea >> 2/3 claims in Germany, USA, France, Sweden, Turkey + Italy >> Germany rec'd largest no. of claims @ 65,700 ---------------------------------------------------------- Nuclear - South Africa #SouthAfrica + #Russia nuclear co-op agreement - merits questioned - http://www.iol.co.za/news/disquiet-over-nuclear-deal-with-russia-1.1756743 … ---------------------------------------------------------- Russia Nuclear - Turkey, Finland, Jordan + Hungary >> #Russia's Rosatom also has agreements to build nuclear power stations in Turkey, Finland, Jordan + Hungary ---------------------------------------------------------- Arms Smuggling Arms-smuggling #Taiwan duo snared in FBI sting plead guilty > high-grade military technology to mainland #China - http://tinyurl.com/kewve29 ----------------------------------------------------------  Ted Belman Article - Middle East #Libya >> US has gone from being a world power to dealing w/ ISIS. And you know who has facilitated that ... http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/15710 … >> #Obama undermined: Qaddafi, Mubarak & Assad & worked in concert w/ Qatar, Turkey & the Muslim Brotherhood. [inn] >> Arab Spring >> US democracy-building campaigns played a bigger role in fomenting protests than known /US NGO training + $ It is the job of the CIA to stir up rebellion in countries the US govt want to make unstable (or unseat the govt in power) [src Ted Belman] #Syria - plan for deposing Assad started when Bush Jr. admin decided 2 align with Sunni states to challenge Iran’s hegemony>[src Ted Belman] #Iraq most insurgent violence directed at American military has come from Sunni forces, & not from Shiites. http://tinyurl.com/p2rlotq  / belman US >> most profound—& unintended—strategic consequence of #Iraq war is the empowerment of Iran. >>> [Ted Belman] >> Saudis shared this concern >joined with US to reduce Iranian influence in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. [Ted Belman] ---------------------------------------------------------- US Gets Cosy with Malaysia #USA - #Malaysia - immigration hand-holding - investors, tourists and students - 4 profit - http://tinyurl.com/p4pkcdn  - US Visa Waiver Programme #USA - #Malaysia - CIA hand-holding >> Dr Ahmad Zahid met Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director John Brennan - http://tinyurl.com/p4pkcdn  #Malaysia - Dr Ahmad Zahid - Home Affairs min - crack down opposition leaders & dissents - sedition laws 2 suppress opposition – wikipedia #Malaysia /Dr Ahmad Zahid>NY Pol Dept chief Charles V. Campisi on collaboration b/w Malaysia police & dept. "on enhancing police integrity" ---------------------------------------------------------- India-US Relations #India - PM Modi denied US visa until now b/c 2002 Gujarat riots (Hindu vs Muslim) - Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party - Modi party /saudigaz. #India - Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) - most likely spied on by CIA - b/c 'concerns' re 'extremist' elements >> http://tinyurl.com/mfq7cbt  #India - now US wants to cosy up to India for profit & strategic reasons .. tradit. India avoids Big Bloc commitments / Piss off, USA ..lol ---------------------------------------------------------- UK Role Undermining Syria #Syria - Free Syrian Army (FSA), umbrella group of ‘moderate’ opposition fighters .. receiving training Jordan - CIA-funded sec. Contractors #UK - involved training FSA in Jordan - http://tinyurl.com/p2jk5tm  - Pentagon drawing up plans 4 training bases or. countries, FSA + Peshmerga #UK - no parliamentary approval required/ FSA training /free to act over borders also - citing 'humanitarian' + hostages scenario [guardian] --------------------------------------------------------- US Warfare Middle East #USA drone attacks in Yemen, Somalia + Pakistan are carried by CIA or, in Yemen + Somalia, by military's Joint Special Operations Command. Bombing in #Iraq + #Syria not being held to the near-certainty standard that no civilians will be killed or injured, http://tinyurl.com/p7847ta  #Iraq + #Syria, US Air Force & Navy using cruise missiles & conventional guided bombs to destroy buildings and other infrastructure/DailyStar >> Allies, including Britain, France & Arab countries, are also using conventional bombs" [dailystar] Human rights groups said 2 dozen civilians killed by US & allied bombings in #Iraq & #Syria. [dailystar] Civilian casualties #Iraq + #Syria >US says inter'l law no 'near certainty' - not deemed "action outside areas of active hostilities" - {DS} Obama: "Conventional airpower or missiles are far less precise than drones" but using "conventional military air campaign" ---------------------------------------------------------- US Plans for Afghanistan #USA - Brookings Institution - takes in retired CIA - who presumably provide 'benign expert' advice along with Brookings - ref ArabNews #USA - CFR + Brookings lobbying US presence #Afghanistan for building & institutionalizing a national Afghan army - http://tinyurl.com/q69y646 ---------------------------------------------------------- Iran - Anti-Zionist Conference   #Iran #Teheran “New Hori­zon Con­fer­ence” 3-day conference for anti-Zionists / dubbed anti-semites by ADL / http://tinyurl.com/pn4l962 ---------------------------------------------------------- US Throwing Weight Around Threatens Zimbabwe Sanctions (re $3 billion Russia mine deal)  #Zimbabwe US threatening sanctions against Zimbabwe over their #Russia US$3billion platinum mine deal / [allafrica] "It (Zimbabwe) should not proceed or else we are under sanctions." --- http://allafrica.com/stories/201410040017.html … ---------------------------------------------------------- People's Voice Article Lavrov Counters Irresponsible Western Policies   The evil that is US imperialism >>> the Lies, the Hypocrisy & drive for Unchallenged World Domination >>> http://tinyurl.com/lfa5yeo  Lavrov Counters Irresponsible Western Policies - http://tinyurl.com/lfa5yeo  - West's lies .. enlist popular support for imperial lawlessness UN envoy Samantha Power calls genocidal imperial interventions stunning successes / destroying one country after another No nation deplores peace more than America. None cause more harm to more people. None more mass destruction. Washington's killing machine gets wholehearted support. Americans are systematically lied to. Everything .. is suppressed. Big Lies reflect long-standing US tradition. They launch wars. They're weapons of mass deception. http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2014/10/03/lavrov-counters-irresponsible-western-po ---------------------------------------------------------- UK Govt Lobbying to Ditch European Court Human Rights #UK ditching European Court of Human Rights in Britain (ECHR) proposal - http://tinyurl.com/qgpnb4h  - former Att-Gen unimpressed #UK Dave & his buddy Chris Grayling's Bill of Rights looks a joke: http://tinyurl.com/kdwysry  > Check out the limitations > #UKpolitics ... Rights & *Responsibilities* / limitations / caveats / triviality test / change definition / limit on reach / >>> Philip Hammond, Theresa May & David Cameron are onboard with this. ---------------------------------------------------------- Greenland Govt Shake-up Protests force #Greenland premier (Aleqa Hammond, Siumut Party) out of office >> misuse $20k (repaid) -- http://tinyurl.com/qbduslp On 1 Oct x4 govt ministers resigned -- shaking coalition govt formed March 2013 - ELECTION new govt = Nov. 28   ---------------------------------------------------------- European anti ISIL Campaigners Europeans involved in US ISIL campaign: France, Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium & Britain [PressTV] >> Let me guess, assets in Middle East? ---------------------------------------------------------  Another Cost of EU Membership Countries getting ripped off by #EU membership: UK , Czech Republic, Germany, Latvia & Netherlands - http://tinyurl.com/kfoucps  - money overseas --------------------------------------------------------- Kenya - President Uhuru Kenyatta - International Criminal Court Hearing Internat. Criminal Crt hearing, Hague Wed. - President Uhuru Kenyatta - http://tinyurl.com/plt6fce  / #Kenya - cannot accomm. Attendees --------------------------------------------------------- Taiwan #Taiwan - bids to enter US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) & Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) / [wantchinatimes] ---------------------------------------------------------- Russia Gas | Fracking | Environment    #Baltic - Estonia, Finland, Latvia & Lithuania get 100% of their natural gas from #Russia - [townhall] > Czech Republic (57%), Poland (59%), Ukraine (60%), Hungary (80%), Slovakia (84%) & Bulgaria (89%) - [ibid] >> #Russia 60% of its exports are oil + natural gas [ibid] - Hey, here's part of REAL AGENDA: they could import more natural gas from the US & other countries besides Russia" !! LOL > "Europe needs to allow fracking. Right now" ... says mouthpiece of US NGO lobbying group, posing as benign experts 'Benign' NGO mouthpiece proposes EU needs to devise incentives 4 landowners & residents / stake in #fracking rape of Europe >> Congress & #Obama "should also fast-track US natural gas exports to Europe" - 'benign' NGO lobby mouthpiece says. #EU nations ban #fracking >> #Poland & #UK are sell-outs who have embraced destruction of environment for profit Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) lobby for destruction of environment for profit / http://tinyurl.com/o8lwcl4  -- http://tinyurl.com/nsl8q3d  --------------------------------------------------- Ambassador - New Appointment - Russia / Hungary #Russia's Vladimir Sergeyev is new ambassador to #Hungary - new guy has lots of experience. Soros NGOs Many most powerful NGOs are connected to network of American billionaire George Soros / last year he spent $1 bil on civil assocs. [HunTod] --------------------------------------------------- Turkey Rivalry with Egypt #Egypt - President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi - UN GA - PR coup / has finally emerged from the cold / http://tinyurl.com/krran2d  /al-arabiya article -- BUT .. #Turkey boycotted his speech + Pres Recip Tayyip Erdogan condemned the #UN for “legitimizing” Sisi !! --------------------------------------------------- G.U.A.M Protocol (US Puppets) GUAM -organization for colluding against Russians, HQ Kiev, another US strategy in region .. adopted protocol in NY / http://tinyurl.com/ohns2xs GUAM Members: Georgia Ukraine Azerbaijan Moldova   /   Observers: Turkey Latvia --------------------------------------------------- Ben Gurion on Israel / Palestine David Ben Gurion >>"If I were an Arab leader, I would never make terms with Israel ... we have ... stolen their country...” [Gulf News] >> Checked. It's a real quote. Said to Nahum Goldmann, President of World Jewish Congress. -------------------------------------------------- US Imperialism - Norman Pollock Article #Putin KGB -VERSUS- #Obama's personally authorized drone assassinations, air-strikes, world-encircling military bases, CIA ops & NSA spying #Obama is more capitalist than patriotic ... he favours JPMorgan Chase, Boeing, banking firms & corporations / http://tinyurl.com/na4tbwd  Naked US capitalism = massive surveillance, hostile climate re labour, vast wealth-disparity, foreign war, intervention for global hegemony. US capitalism = aggressive-expansive system of global annexation Crony capitalism in both #Russia & the West, yet West criticises the same ideological framework that holds true for US & Russia / fm Pollack #USA - Crony capitalism is SYSTEMIC ... advancing the wide cleavage in US wealth distribution / http://tinyurl.com/na4tbwd  / Pollack #Obama serves as a shill for US business abroad, esp. in the Far East --- Norman Pollack --- http://tinyurl.com/na4tbwd   Sanctions on #Russia = to contain, isolate & weaken Russia ... as US desperately strives to return to unilateral pre-eminence / Pollack  Wow, I really liked the Norman Pollack article ... got a bit lost on types of socialism & nearly gave up ... but it was a great read.   --------------------------------------------------- ICSID - Corporations Violate National Sovereignty International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) - means for trans-national corporations to violate sovereignty - http://tinyurl.com/oocrsng >>HQ Washington - receives its funding from the World Bank - Case studies involve lawsuits against governments by corps /wikipedia --------------------------------------------------- COMMENT Random information that I looked at.  Links are available for follow-up. It was all very interesting at the time.   Doubt I'll remember all this information.  But even if I remember some of it, it helps form a larger picture. The buzz is in eventually linking bits of information together to make more sense of the whole.

SURVEILLANCE, CYBER-SECURITY & OTHER

SURVEILLANCE, CYBER-SECURITY & OTHER NSA New Chief Risk Officer Position NSA/CSS Dir Adm Michael S. Rogers announced creation of new Chief Risk Officer pos'n @ Agency/ http://tinyurl.com/plruj5r  / NSA insurance? #USA >> Why would a spy agency be involved in insurance? Cyber-Security #Hacker / eBay custom Javascript & Flash content expose users / cross-site scripting (XSS) / http://goo.gl/9FUTzs  / criticism eBay #cybersecurity Windows XP anywhere on network / unpatched & unsupported XP = "Swiss Cheese of operating systems" 4 hackers /bitcoinmag Taiwan  Population: 2.619 million (Dec 2010) >> Taiwan aka: The Republic of China .. Ma Ying-jeou is President .. lawyer, US exposure .. aka "Teflon pot" / controversies #Taiwan govt investigates Xiaomi /China's smartphone co / on potential #cybersecurity concerns http://tinyurl.com/jwmly6l  / dec'n in 3mths #China & #Taiwan historical foes /defeated Nationalists fled 2 island / civil war loss 2Communists 1949 / Renegade province #Surveillance - Xiaomi smartphone accused of sending copies user text-msgs 2 servers mainland China / co. DENIES - http://tinyurl.com/jwmly6l >> #China Shi Tao journalist leaked censorship order govt had sent Chinese media: IMPRISONED 2005 b/c YAHOO handover E-MAILS >Apple has begun 2 store user data on servers @ mainland #CHINA / first time tech giant has stored user data on Chinese soil ! WikiLeaks #WikiLeaks founder calls Google “a privatized NSA” >>> http://tinyurl.com/pgz7nwy  - DailyDigestNews  #UN's Ban suppresses information >> not a word about corporations or #Assange or #Wikileaks raised by #Ecuador!! >> http://www.innercitypress.com/unga1ecuador092414.html … Believe: Techie corporate fatcat in bed w/ US govt or whistleblower-publisher political prisoner? VIDEO  http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=EejoN7Z-OZE …  >#Assange has the 'luxury' of UK police guards in #Ecuador embassy corridors & elevators. PSYCHOLOGICAL TORTURE - HR violation >"If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place" - Eric Schmidt >"Since Google stopped colluding with the Chinese govt ... " >> http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1601886/google-reminds-web-censorship … Ray McGovern / USA ‘Surveillance state’ "Ex-CIA analyst joins Chico State profs in discussion of Fourth Amendment, government power over Americans" Ex-CIA Ray McGovern /4th Amendment / #USA / http://tinyurl.com/prut7me  /#Surveillance has NOT stopped a single terrorist attack NSA's Alexander Black Market #Surveillance - Dark Net - 34 countries ops. - drugs busts - Europol - http://tinyurl.com/mvh5abq  - 1,000 ppl / ppl traffic, 600kg cocaine + or FBI - Fake Cellphone Towers Surveillance #Surveillance - FBI uses IMSI catchers, ie fake cellphone towers, to pipe private cellphone data thru government monitors / ocregister International Mobile Subscriber Identity = telephony device - 'man in the middle' attack >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMSI-catcher … >> countries w/out encrypted phone data traffic (or weak encryption) render IMSI device unnecessary! FBI forced state & local law enforcement 2 sign non-disclosure 2 acquire IMSI tech themselves / police militarization!! [ocregister] #USA >> #USA federal agents want to disseminate spying technology while keeping it a secret >> http://tinyurl.com/lr3hehn FBI on Apple & Google Encryption FBI Director James Comey concerned Apple & Google selling ph's w/ encryption they can’t break >> http://www.zdziarski.com/blog/?p=3894  - #surveillance > above link = The Politics Behind iPhone Encryption and the FBI - Jonathan Zdziarski #Hacker 'Poison Ivy' / China-based / trying to infect visitors to human rights & environmental NGO sites http://bit.ly/1qzJ9xz  Roman Seleznev - Russian Alleged Hacker US Fed judge in hacker case - Roman Seleznev /blocks #Philadelphia law firm Fox Rothschild LLP from acting - http://tinyurl.com/n5s62wq  #Russia - conflict of interest issue / firm represented some of Roman Seleznev's alleged victims [politico] Satellite Navigation #Russia /US refused Russia’s GLONASS satellite navigation system on its territory. Russia then banned use GPS on Russian territory for military purposes >> Globalnaya navigatsionnaya sputnikovaya sistema = "Global Navigation Satellite System" [wiki] COMMENT Buch of random information in the IT, cyber-security, surveillance, hacking and similar category, that I found interesting at the time.

Japan - UN HRC - 'Hate Speech' Legislation

Japanese officials order removal of war memorial for Korean labourers Petitions complained that monument erected by a friendship society in a public park in Gunma prefecture was anti-Japanese Justin McCurry in Tokyo theguardian.com, Wednesday 23 July 2014 20.22 AEST [PHOTO -  Toru Yamanaka/AFP] Comfort women protest Japanese women hold portraits of South Korean, Chinese, Philippine and Taiwanese former comfort women who were sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during the second world war, in a protest in Tokyo in 2007. Local authorities in Japan have demanded the removal of a monument in memory of the tens of thousands of labourers forcibly recruited from the Korean peninsula during the second world war. [...] Many of the 600,000 ethnic Koreans living in Japan are the descendants of labourers who remained in the country after its defeat in 1945.

Commemorating the use of forced labour is causing similar controversy in other parts of Japan. In Nagasaki, a row has erupted over a proposed monument to Korean victims of the atomic bombing ... The controversies are being played out against a rise in anti-Korean sentiment in Japan, fuelled by disputes between Tokyo and Seoul over territory and Japan's conduct during its 1910-1945 occupation of the Korean peninsula. The UN human rights committee has called on Japan to do more to clamp down on hate speech directed at Koreans during demonstrations in Tokyo and other cities. The committee, which noted that there were more than 360 such demonstrations and speeches last year, mainly in Korean neighbourhoods in Tokyo, is expected to make recommendations to Japan on Wednesday, possibly including the introduction of legislation against hate speech. ... officials from both countries met in Seoul to discuss Japan's use of as many as 200,000 mainly Korean and Chinese women as sex slaves before and during the war. Japan recently ruled out a revision to a 1993 official apology... The prime minister, Shinzo Abe, is one of several prominent conservative politicians who have questioned claims that the imperial Japanese army coerced the women – euphemistically referred to as comfort women – into working in frontline brothels. Source - The Guardian - here.

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COMMENT

It's supposed to be commemorative but it's not merely commemorative; it's a political statement also -- even if that's not the intention.

Political or commemorative, it shouldn't matter.

But it's obviously rocking the boat over in Japan.

Even so, the anti 'hate speech' legislation proposed by the UN is legislation to silence disapproval.

But isn't that kind of like trying to legislate to produce an altered perception of reality?