Things got flipped, squashed, and remolded.
Seek weekly posts, and great tid-bits as required. Thanks, The Datasphere......
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Dick Cheney says memoir will have heads 'exploding'
August 25, 2011, 5:30 a.m.
 |
| Former Vice President Dick Cheney addresses the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington. (Alex Brandon/Associated Press / February 9, 2011) |
Dick Cheney is already promising there will be “heads exploding all over Washington” when his new book hits stores Tuesday.
The 46th vice president made that declaration in an interview with NBC -- portions of which were aired on the Today Show Wednesday morning -- as he embarked on a media blitz to promote the book, “In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir.”
The memoir discusses Cheney's health, the Sept. 11 attacks, his secret resignation letter, and his thoughts about President George W. Bush and other prominent characters from the Bush White House, NBC reports.
“I didn't set out to embarrass the president or not embarrass the president,’’ Cheney, 70, told NBC's Jamie Gangel. “If you look at the book, there are many places in it where I say some very fine things about George Bush. And believe every word of it.’’
Cheney, who suffered four heart attacks before becoming vice president, reveals in the book that he had a secret resignation letter locked away in a safe. Only Bush and a staffer knew about the letter.
“I did it because I was concerned that — for a couple of reasons,’’he said. “One was my own health situation. The possibility that I might have a heart attack or a stroke that would be incapacitating. And there is no mechanism for getting rid of a vice president who can’t function.’’
Cheney also said he stood by the use of waterboarding as an interrogation tool, one of the most controversial policies of the Bush adminstration.
“I would strongly support using it again if we had a high value detainee and that was the only way we could get him to talk,’’ he said.
The NBC interview will be aired in full Monday night on Dateline.
China Slams Pentagon Over Critical Military Report
08/25/2011
China is responding angrily to a new U.S. Defense Department report which describes the country's military modernization as a threat to regional military balances.
In a commentary Thursday, the official Xinhua news agency dismissed that suggestion as an "utterly cock-and-bull story" based on "a wild guess and illogical reasoning." Xinhua also noted that U.S. military spending far exceeds that of China.
The Pentagon report to Congress was released Wednesday in Washington. It noted China has made major strides in the past year, including the development of a stealth jet fighter and initial sea trials of its first aircraft carrier. Pentagon official Michael Schiffer told reporters that China will likely become a major military power in this decade.
The report said the Chinese build-up appears aimed at preventing outside powers from interfering in any future conflict with Taiwan, but that China is also developing a capacity to project power into the western Pacific Ocean.
Schiffer, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia, told reporters in Washington that China is developing capabilities he described as "potentially destabilizing to regional military balances."
He said the United States is closely watching the development of China's new weapons systems.
The Xinhua commentary found some positive elements in the U.S. report, notably a comment that China has made modest improvements in the transparency of its military and security affairs.
But it said the report exaggerated the threat posed by China's military development, and said a competent Chinese military will be conducive to regional and world peace and stability.
The Pentagon estimates that China spent more than $160 billion for its military in 2010. Xinhua estimated U.S. military spending at almost $700 billion a year.
Source: http://www.emergencyemail.org/newsemergency /anmviewer.asp?a=1374&z =1
Secrecy News: 08/24/2011
Secrecy News Blog: http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/
** OPEN UP OPEN SOURCE INTELLIGENCE
** THE INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF OPEN SOURCE INTELLIGENCE
** SOME CRS REPORTS ON CHINA
OPEN UP OPEN SOURCE INTELLIGENCE
If the Obama Administration wants to advance the cause of open government, one particularly fruitful way to do so would be to share unclassified open source intelligence publications with the public.
The Federation of American Scientists offered that suggestion in response to a White House call for public input into the development of the pending Open Government Plan.
"The U.S. Government should adopt a policy of publishing all non-sensitive products generated by the Director of National Intelligence Open Source Center," we wrote. "Doing so would serve to enrich the online domain with uniquely high-value content on a broad range of national security and foreign policy topics. It would foster increased public awareness and understanding of national security and foreign policy affairs. And it would provide the public with a tangible 'return on investment' in this vital area of national policy."
The U.S. Open Government Plan is being developed as part of the multi-national Open Government Partnership that is to be launched next month. The White House solicited public input to the process in an August 8 blog posting.
THE INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF OPEN SOURCE INTELLIGENCE
The battle for public access to open source intelligence may have been lost before most people even knew it began, judging from the new book, "No More Secrets: Open Source Information and the Reshaping of U.S. Intelligence" by Hamilton Bean (Praeger, 2011).
"No More Secrets" is an academic work, not an expose. But it is an exceptionally stimulating one that brings the theoretical principles of organization management and communications theory to bear on intelligence policy in original and insightful ways.
As Bean shows in depth, the meaning of "open source" has been fiercely contested, beginning with the very definition of the term (which generally refers to policy-relevant information that can be acquired legally). Other disputed questions include, Whom does open source serve? Is it only for policy makers, or also the public? Who should perform the open source mission? Should it be housed within the intelligence community or outside of it? Which aspect of "open source intelligence" dominates? Is it the logic of openness or the logic of secrecy?
For the most part, these questions have now been answered, at least provisionally. Open source intelligence is for policymakers, not the public. It is part of the intelligence community, not separate from it. The logic of secrecy, not openness, is primary. "Intelligence officials have successfully marginalized" those who would argue differently, Bean says.
Among several fateful turning points in the current institutionalization of open source intelligence, Bean highlights a conflict between Robert Steele, a former CIA officer and Marine Corps open source advocate, and Eliot Jardines, who served as the senior ODNI official on open source.
While Steele favored an open, expansive and inclusive vision of open source intelligence, "Jardines sought to institutionalize the collection and analysis of open source within the U.S. intelligence community in ways that did not overtly challenge the dominant institutional logic of secrecy." In 2005 or thereabouts, Jardines won that battle, and "those who share Steele's vision of an independent open source agency find their ability to affect change similarly constrained," the author says. (Steele's own review of the book is here.)
Of course, there is no reason why the status quo must be perpetuated indefinitely. In fact, Prof. Bean notes, "many stakeholders... are still, to this day, actively struggling to institutionalize their preferred meanings of open source...."
Secrecy News is cited a couple of times in the book and the Federation of American Scientists makes an appearance in this peculiar sentence: "A principal reason that WikiLeaks, Public Intelligence, Cryptome, and FAS are controversial is because they threaten to rupture distinctions between open and secret information and destabilize conventional notions of authority, expertise and control."
SOME CRS REPORTS ON CHINA
New and updated reports on China and Taiwan from the Congressional Research Service include the following (all pdf).
China-U.S. Trade Issues, August 4, 2011
U.S.-Taiwan Relationship: Overview of Policy Issues, August 4, 2011
China's Currency: A Summary of the Economic Issues, August 3, 2011
Taiwan: Major U.S. Arms Sales Since 1990, August 2, 2011
U.S.-China Military Contacts: Issues for Congress, July 26, 2011
China Naval Modernization: Implications for U.S. Navy Capabilities -- Background and Issues for Congress, July 22, 2011
Human Rights in China and U.S. Policy, July 18, 2011
**Visit Mr. Robert D. Steele's Phi Beta Iota - Public Intelligence Blog, It is a must read. **
** OPEN UP OPEN SOURCE INTELLIGENCE
** THE INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF OPEN SOURCE INTELLIGENCE
** SOME CRS REPORTS ON CHINA
OPEN UP OPEN SOURCE INTELLIGENCE
If the Obama Administration wants to advance the cause of open government, one particularly fruitful way to do so would be to share unclassified open source intelligence publications with the public.
The Federation of American Scientists offered that suggestion in response to a White House call for public input into the development of the pending Open Government Plan.
"The U.S. Government should adopt a policy of publishing all non-sensitive products generated by the Director of National Intelligence Open Source Center," we wrote. "Doing so would serve to enrich the online domain with uniquely high-value content on a broad range of national security and foreign policy topics. It would foster increased public awareness and understanding of national security and foreign policy affairs. And it would provide the public with a tangible 'return on investment' in this vital area of national policy."
The U.S. Open Government Plan is being developed as part of the multi-national Open Government Partnership that is to be launched next month. The White House solicited public input to the process in an August 8 blog posting.
THE INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF OPEN SOURCE INTELLIGENCE
The battle for public access to open source intelligence may have been lost before most people even knew it began, judging from the new book, "No More Secrets: Open Source Information and the Reshaping of U.S. Intelligence" by Hamilton Bean (Praeger, 2011).
"No More Secrets" is an academic work, not an expose. But it is an exceptionally stimulating one that brings the theoretical principles of organization management and communications theory to bear on intelligence policy in original and insightful ways.
As Bean shows in depth, the meaning of "open source" has been fiercely contested, beginning with the very definition of the term (which generally refers to policy-relevant information that can be acquired legally). Other disputed questions include, Whom does open source serve? Is it only for policy makers, or also the public? Who should perform the open source mission? Should it be housed within the intelligence community or outside of it? Which aspect of "open source intelligence" dominates? Is it the logic of openness or the logic of secrecy?
For the most part, these questions have now been answered, at least provisionally. Open source intelligence is for policymakers, not the public. It is part of the intelligence community, not separate from it. The logic of secrecy, not openness, is primary. "Intelligence officials have successfully marginalized" those who would argue differently, Bean says.
Among several fateful turning points in the current institutionalization of open source intelligence, Bean highlights a conflict between Robert Steele, a former CIA officer and Marine Corps open source advocate, and Eliot Jardines, who served as the senior ODNI official on open source.
While Steele favored an open, expansive and inclusive vision of open source intelligence, "Jardines sought to institutionalize the collection and analysis of open source within the U.S. intelligence community in ways that did not overtly challenge the dominant institutional logic of secrecy." In 2005 or thereabouts, Jardines won that battle, and "those who share Steele's vision of an independent open source agency find their ability to affect change similarly constrained," the author says. (Steele's own review of the book is here.)
Of course, there is no reason why the status quo must be perpetuated indefinitely. In fact, Prof. Bean notes, "many stakeholders... are still, to this day, actively struggling to institutionalize their preferred meanings of open source...."
Secrecy News is cited a couple of times in the book and the Federation of American Scientists makes an appearance in this peculiar sentence: "A principal reason that WikiLeaks, Public Intelligence, Cryptome, and FAS are controversial is because they threaten to rupture distinctions between open and secret information and destabilize conventional notions of authority, expertise and control."
SOME CRS REPORTS ON CHINA
New and updated reports on China and Taiwan from the Congressional Research Service include the following (all pdf).
China-U.S. Trade Issues, August 4, 2011
U.S.-Taiwan Relationship: Overview of Policy Issues, August 4, 2011
China's Currency: A Summary of the Economic Issues, August 3, 2011
Taiwan: Major U.S. Arms Sales Since 1990, August 2, 2011
U.S.-China Military Contacts: Issues for Congress, July 26, 2011
China Naval Modernization: Implications for U.S. Navy Capabilities -- Background and Issues for Congress, July 22, 2011
Human Rights in China and U.S. Policy, July 18, 2011
**Visit Mr. Robert D. Steele's Phi Beta Iota - Public Intelligence Blog, It is a must read. **
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Activists accuse Vietnam of cyber attack
(AFP) – 1 day ago
HANOI — A US-based opposition group labelled "terrorist" by Vietnam on Monday blamed the communist government for a cyber attack that it said had crippled its website.
"Beginning on August 13, hackers launched a sustained attack against www.viettan.org," said Viet Tan, also known as the Vietnam Reform Party, which campaigns for peaceful political change in the authoritarian state.
On August 13 the "Hanoi government's firewall" was lifted to allow a "botnet", or network of compromised computers, to take down the Viet Tan website, the group alleged in a statement.
"This is further evidence that the communist authorities of Vietnam are behind the ongoing hacker attacks against pro-democracy websites and blogs," it said.
Authorities could not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Viet Tan said the attack, known as a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) operation, was carried out by a botnet using 77,000 Internet protocol addresses, most of which originated in Vietnam.
Since early last year rights activists and other observers have accused Vietnam of using cyber attacks in a more aggressive stance towards politically sensitive Internet sites.
Vietnamese users of Facebook also report difficulties in accessing the social networking site.
The alleged attack on Viet Tan's website occurred shortly after a member of the group was jailed by a court in Ho Chi Minh City. French-Vietnamese lecturer and blogger Pham Minh Hoang, 56, was convicted of attempted subversion, a decision France said it deeply regretted.
Internet use has grown rapidly in Vietnam, with more than 30 percent of the population online, the government says.
Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gGw9GXJGSZ5NfBuW86o2N2ioLCdQ?docId=CNG.1ffa5725145b1f21b1207d603659c6b8.541
Slip-Up in Chinese Military TV Show Reveals More Than Intended
Piece shows cyber warfare against US entities
Created: Aug 21, 2011 Last Updated: Aug 23, 2011
(YouTube Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_Wu1HlZbBk&feature=youtu.be&t=36s)
 | |
| EXPOSED: A picture of the hacking software shown during the Chinese military program. The large writing at the top says "Select Attack Target." Next, the user choose an IP address to attack from (it belongs to an American university). The drop-down box is a list of Falun Gong websites, while the button on the left says "Attack." (CCTV) |
A standard, even boring, piece of Chinese military propaganda screened in mid-July included what must have been an unintended but nevertheless damaging revelation: shots from a computer screen showing a Chinese military university is engaged in cyberwarfare against entities in the United States.
The documentary itself was otherwise meant as praise to the wisdom and judgment of Chinese military strategists, and a typical condemnation of the United States as an implacable aggressor in the cyber-realm. But the fleeting shots of an apparent China-based cyber-attack somehow made their way into the final cut.
The screenshots appear as B-roll footage in the documentary for six seconds—between 11:04 and 11:10 minutes—showing custom-built Chinese software apparently launching a cyber-attack against the main website of the Falun Gong spiritual practice, by using a compromised IP address belonging to a United States university. As of Aug. 22 at 1:30pm EDT, in addition to Youtube, the whole documentary is available on the CCTV website.
The screenshots show the name of the software and the Chinese university that built it, the Electrical Engineering University of China's People's Liberation Army—direct evidence that the PLA is involved in coding cyber-attack software directed against a Chinese dissident group.
The software window says "Choose Attack Target." The computer operator selects an IP address from a list—it happens to be 138.26.72.17—and then selects a target. Encoded in the software are the words "Falun Gong website list," showing that attacking Falun Gong websites was built into the software.
A drop-down list of dozens of Falun Gong websites appears. The computer operator chooses Minghui.org, the main website of the Falun Gong spiritual practice.
The IP address 138.26.72.17 belongs to the University of Alabama in Birmingham (UAB), according to an online trace.
The shots then show a big "Attack" button on the bottom left being pushed, before the camera cuts away.
"The CCP has leaked its top secret here," says Jason Ma, a commentator for New Tang Dynasty Television. "This is the first time we see clearly that one of the top Chinese military universities is doing this research and developing software for cyber-attacks. There's solid proof of it in this video," he said.
The Chinese Communist Party has consistently denied that it is involved in cyber-attacks, but experts have long suspected that the Chinese military engages in them.
"Now we've got proof," Ma says. "They're also extending their persecution of Falun Gong overseas, attacking a civil website in the U.S. These are the clear messages revealed in these six seconds of video."
Network administrators at UAB contacted on Friday took a look at the IP address on their network and said it had not been used since 2010.
One of the technicians also recalled that there had been a Falun Gong practitioner at the university some years ago who held informal Falun Gong meetings on campus. They could not confirm whether that individual used that IP address.
A UAB network administrator assured The Epoch Times that they have safeguards against both network intrusions, and that their network is not compromised.
After the short interlude, the documentary continued with the themes it had started with for another nine minutes.
Last month McAfee, a network security company, said that an unprecedented campaign of cyber-espionage—affecting over 70 organizations or governments around the world and implicating billions of dollars in intellectual property—was being carried out by a "state actor."
Later evidence traced IP addresses involved in the attack to China, and a growing mountain of other circumstantial evidence also suggests that the attacks originated from China.
The documentary itself was otherwise meant as praise to the wisdom and judgment of Chinese military strategists, and a typical condemnation of the United States as an implacable aggressor in the cyber-realm. But the fleeting shots of an apparent China-based cyber-attack somehow made their way into the final cut.
The screenshots appear as B-roll footage in the documentary for six seconds—between 11:04 and 11:10 minutes—showing custom-built Chinese software apparently launching a cyber-attack against the main website of the Falun Gong spiritual practice, by using a compromised IP address belonging to a United States university. As of Aug. 22 at 1:30pm EDT, in addition to Youtube, the whole documentary is available on the CCTV website.
The screenshots show the name of the software and the Chinese university that built it, the Electrical Engineering University of China's People's Liberation Army—direct evidence that the PLA is involved in coding cyber-attack software directed against a Chinese dissident group.
The software window says "Choose Attack Target." The computer operator selects an IP address from a list—it happens to be 138.26.72.17—and then selects a target. Encoded in the software are the words "Falun Gong website list," showing that attacking Falun Gong websites was built into the software.
A drop-down list of dozens of Falun Gong websites appears. The computer operator chooses Minghui.org, the main website of the Falun Gong spiritual practice.
The IP address 138.26.72.17 belongs to the University of Alabama in Birmingham (UAB), according to an online trace.
The shots then show a big "Attack" button on the bottom left being pushed, before the camera cuts away.
"The CCP has leaked its top secret here," says Jason Ma, a commentator for New Tang Dynasty Television. "This is the first time we see clearly that one of the top Chinese military universities is doing this research and developing software for cyber-attacks. There's solid proof of it in this video," he said.
The Chinese Communist Party has consistently denied that it is involved in cyber-attacks, but experts have long suspected that the Chinese military engages in them.
"Now we've got proof," Ma says. "They're also extending their persecution of Falun Gong overseas, attacking a civil website in the U.S. These are the clear messages revealed in these six seconds of video."
The hacking software, as the user decides on which website to target. (CCTV)
Network administrators at UAB contacted on Friday took a look at the IP address on their network and said it had not been used since 2010.
One of the technicians also recalled that there had been a Falun Gong practitioner at the university some years ago who held informal Falun Gong meetings on campus. They could not confirm whether that individual used that IP address.
A UAB network administrator assured The Epoch Times that they have safeguards against both network intrusions, and that their network is not compromised.
After the short interlude, the documentary continued with the themes it had started with for another nine minutes.
Last month McAfee, a network security company, said that an unprecedented campaign of cyber-espionage—affecting over 70 organizations or governments around the world and implicating billions of dollars in intellectual property—was being carried out by a "state actor."
Later evidence traced IP addresses involved in the attack to China, and a growing mountain of other circumstantial evidence also suggests that the attacks originated from China.
The military documentary on July 17, on the other hand, was meant to show that the United States is the real aggressor in cyberspace, and that China is highly vulnerable to cyber-attacks. “America is the first country to propose the concept of a cyberwar, and the first country to implement it in a real war,” the narrator said at one point.
It might have worked, except for those screenshots.
It might have worked, except for those screenshots.
Source: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/china-news/slip-up-in-chinese-military-tv-show-reveals-more-than-intended-60619.html
Senior Yemen official dies from palace attack injuries
By Hakim Almasmari, For CNN
August 22, 2011 -- Updated 1800 GMT (0200 HKT)
Sanaa, Yemen (CNN) -- The third most powerful political figure in the Yemeni government has died from wounds he received in the presidential palace attack in Sanaa last June.
Yemen State TV announced the death in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, of Abdul Aziz Abdul Ghani, the president of the Shura Council, and announced the start of a three-day mourning period. Along with President Ali Abdullah Saleh, he had been receiving treatment in Saudi Arabia since June 3.
Saleh remains in Saudi Arabia.
Ghani is the second senior official to be reported dead from the palace bombing.
Ghani was known to be one of the few officials Saleh trusted, and he stood beside Saleh for more than three decades. He took the post of prime minister in 1975, three years before Saleh became president.
Government spokesman Abdu Ganadi said that Yemen lost a leader who served his country for more than five decades.
"He is a victim of a terror attack. Yemen lost a leader and the government holds the Ahmar family responsible for his death. The palace attack was planned by the terrorist Ahmar family," Ganadi said.
He was referring to the family of Sadeq al-Ahmar, the leader of Hamil al-Ahmar, a Hashed tribal confederation. Hours after the attack, Yemeni security forces pounded al-Ahmar's home, killing 10 people and wounding 35, because they blamed his followers, a Hamil al-Ahmar official said.
Ghani's death came as hundreds of security forces were deployed to the streets of the capital, Sanaa, amid fears that the imminent toppling of the regime in Libya could have an effect on Yemen.
Tens of thousands of youth protesters marched in the streets of main cities celebrating the success of a third revolution of the Arab world in 2011.
"Yemen will follow the path of Libya, Egypt, and Tunisia. It is only a matter of time until the Saleh regime faces the same fate," said Khaled Anesi, a leader in the Yemen Revolution Youth Council.
Anti-government protests continued on Monday in 15 of Yemen's 18 provinces.
Opposition parties are giving youth extra dose of courage and hope, vowing that they will not give in until Saleh meets the fate of other fallen rulers.
Mohammed Qahtan, the spokesman for the opposition Joint Meeting Parties, said that what happened in Libya is a brief showcase of what will soon follow in Sanaa.
He said that the Yemeni people will have their goals met within days and the revolution will prosper.
"The ruling family has not learned its lesson from Libya and insists on using force against its own people," Qahtan said. "The will of the people is stronger than any ruler or dictator."
Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/08/22/yemen.ghani.dead/?hpt=T2
Secrecy News: 22 August 2011
Secrecy News Blog: http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/
** SOME NEW WRINKLES IN NUCLEAR WEAPONS SECRECY
** STERLING DEFENSE ARGUES AGAINST SECRET EVIDENCE
** EUROPEAN UNION SECURITY POLICY, AND MORE FROM CRS
SOME NEW WRINKLES IN NUCLEAR WEAPONS SECRECY
A newly released intelligence guide to document classification markings explains the meaning and proper use of control markings to designate classified information. See "Authorized Classification and Control Markings Register" (pdf), CAPCO, Volume 4, Edition 2, May 31, 2011. (See also the associated Implementation Manual of the same date.)
This material is very detailed, comprehensive and quite informative, with only a few redacted passages pertaining to some code word usages.
But though it is only three months old, it is already out of date due to the constant churning within the classification system that regularly generates new marking requirements and cancels old, familiar ones. This has been particularly true lately with respect to changes in markings for "Restricted Data," or classified nuclear weapons information.
Thus, the intelligence guide to classification marking refers to the so-called "Sigma" system for marking Restricted Data. Each Sigma level refers to a particular aspect of nuclear weapons design. According to the intelligence community guide, the Sigma system extends from Sigma 1 to Sigma 15 and also Sigma 20. But that is no longer accurate.
In a July 2011 order (pdf), the Department of Energy determined that Sigma levels 1 through 5 and 9 through 13 are now obsolete. So they have been disestablished. Meanwhile, a new Sigma category, Sigma 18, has been created to address "Control of Complete Designs" and to protect "past and present U.S. nuclear weapons, nuclear devices and weapon designs." See "Control of Nuclear Weapon Data," DoE Order 452.8, July 21, 2011.
At this late date in the nuclear era, there are still other "innovations" in nuclear technology and nuclear secrecy. The New York Times reported last weekend on an apparent breakthrough in the use of lasers to enrich uranium. This laser enrichment process, known as SILEX (Separation of Isotopes by Laser Excitation), also poses new proliferation issues. See "Laser Advances in Nuclear Fuel Stir Terror Fear" by William J. Broad, August 21.
Though the Times story did not mention it, the SILEX process is also a unique case in which information that was privately generated was nevertheless classified by the government. As far as could be determined, the decision to classify this non-governmental information under the Atomic Energy Act is the first and only time that such authority has been exercised. See this 2001 "Record of Decision to Classify Certain Elements of the SILEX Process as Privately Generated Restricted Data." (See also "A Glimpse of the SILEX Uranium Enrichment Process," Secrecy News, August 22, 2007.)
For its part, the Department of Defense issued a new Instruction last week on "Disclosure of Atomic Information to Foreign Governments and Regional Defense Organizations" (DoDI 5030.14, August 17, 2011).
STERLING DEFENSE ARGUES AGAINST SECRET EVIDENCE
Prosecutors in the case of former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling, who is accused of leaking classified information, should not be permitted to present their evidence at trial in modified or redacted form and should also not be able to employ other extraordinary security measures, defense attorneys argued in an August 19 pleading (pdf).
Specifically, the defense team said that prosecutors should not be allowed to use the provisions of the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA) to introduce unclassified substitutions for classified evidence that they wish to present.
The purpose of CIPA, the defense said, is to allow the defendant to present exculpatory classified evidence in an unclassified form while preventing "graymail," i.e. the threat to disclose classified information as a tactic for evading prosecution.
But CIPA does not entitle prosecutors to introduce their own classified evidence in redacted form, the defense argued, particularly since "the Government... cannot 'graymail' itself." Instead, the prosecution "must either declassify information it wishes to use in its case-in-chief or forego using that information."
"What CIPA does not provide is the ability of the Government to prosecute a defendant using substitute or redacted evidence against him in its case-in-chief," the defense said.
The Sterling defense also objected to the prosecutors' proposed use of the "silent witness" rule, by which classified information is shared with the jury but not disclosed in open court.
The silent witness rule is fundamentally unfair, is not authorized by law, is possibly unconstitutional, and should not be approved by the court, the defense said. (The proposal to invoke the silent witness rule was first reported by Josh Gerstein in Politico on August 10.)
"It will be impossible effectively to contest and challenge the Government's evidence before a jury if the Court permits use of the silent witness rule, which would impermissibly provide the stamp of secrecy and national security importance to information that the Government has elected to disclose in a criminal trial where those very issues are contested. The Court must decline this invitation to conduct an unfair and constitutionally impermissible trial," the defense said.
For similar reasons, the defense also objected to the proposed use of security measures such as initials and screens to conceal the identities of government witnesses.
"The Department of Justice, surely after consultations with the CIA, approved this prosecution," the defense pleading said. "In doing so, it should have expected an open and public trial that featured all of the Constitutional protections afforded a defendant in the United States."
EUROPEAN UNION SECURITY POLICY, AND MORE FROM CRS
Recent reports from the Congressional Research Service that have not been made readily available to the public include the following (all pdf).
"The European Union: Foreign and Security Policy," August 15, 2011
"Standard & Poor's Downgrade of U.S. Government Long-Term Debt," August 9, 2011
"The Obama Administration's Cybersecurity Proposal: Criminal Provisions," July 29, 2011
** SOME NEW WRINKLES IN NUCLEAR WEAPONS SECRECY
** STERLING DEFENSE ARGUES AGAINST SECRET EVIDENCE
** EUROPEAN UNION SECURITY POLICY, AND MORE FROM CRS
SOME NEW WRINKLES IN NUCLEAR WEAPONS SECRECY
A newly released intelligence guide to document classification markings explains the meaning and proper use of control markings to designate classified information. See "Authorized Classification and Control Markings Register" (pdf), CAPCO, Volume 4, Edition 2, May 31, 2011. (See also the associated Implementation Manual of the same date.)
This material is very detailed, comprehensive and quite informative, with only a few redacted passages pertaining to some code word usages.
But though it is only three months old, it is already out of date due to the constant churning within the classification system that regularly generates new marking requirements and cancels old, familiar ones. This has been particularly true lately with respect to changes in markings for "Restricted Data," or classified nuclear weapons information.
Thus, the intelligence guide to classification marking refers to the so-called "Sigma" system for marking Restricted Data. Each Sigma level refers to a particular aspect of nuclear weapons design. According to the intelligence community guide, the Sigma system extends from Sigma 1 to Sigma 15 and also Sigma 20. But that is no longer accurate.
In a July 2011 order (pdf), the Department of Energy determined that Sigma levels 1 through 5 and 9 through 13 are now obsolete. So they have been disestablished. Meanwhile, a new Sigma category, Sigma 18, has been created to address "Control of Complete Designs" and to protect "past and present U.S. nuclear weapons, nuclear devices and weapon designs." See "Control of Nuclear Weapon Data," DoE Order 452.8, July 21, 2011.
At this late date in the nuclear era, there are still other "innovations" in nuclear technology and nuclear secrecy. The New York Times reported last weekend on an apparent breakthrough in the use of lasers to enrich uranium. This laser enrichment process, known as SILEX (Separation of Isotopes by Laser Excitation), also poses new proliferation issues. See "Laser Advances in Nuclear Fuel Stir Terror Fear" by William J. Broad, August 21.
Though the Times story did not mention it, the SILEX process is also a unique case in which information that was privately generated was nevertheless classified by the government. As far as could be determined, the decision to classify this non-governmental information under the Atomic Energy Act is the first and only time that such authority has been exercised. See this 2001 "Record of Decision to Classify Certain Elements of the SILEX Process as Privately Generated Restricted Data." (See also "A Glimpse of the SILEX Uranium Enrichment Process," Secrecy News, August 22, 2007.)
For its part, the Department of Defense issued a new Instruction last week on "Disclosure of Atomic Information to Foreign Governments and Regional Defense Organizations" (DoDI 5030.14, August 17, 2011).
STERLING DEFENSE ARGUES AGAINST SECRET EVIDENCE
Prosecutors in the case of former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling, who is accused of leaking classified information, should not be permitted to present their evidence at trial in modified or redacted form and should also not be able to employ other extraordinary security measures, defense attorneys argued in an August 19 pleading (pdf).
Specifically, the defense team said that prosecutors should not be allowed to use the provisions of the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA) to introduce unclassified substitutions for classified evidence that they wish to present.
The purpose of CIPA, the defense said, is to allow the defendant to present exculpatory classified evidence in an unclassified form while preventing "graymail," i.e. the threat to disclose classified information as a tactic for evading prosecution.
But CIPA does not entitle prosecutors to introduce their own classified evidence in redacted form, the defense argued, particularly since "the Government... cannot 'graymail' itself." Instead, the prosecution "must either declassify information it wishes to use in its case-in-chief or forego using that information."
"What CIPA does not provide is the ability of the Government to prosecute a defendant using substitute or redacted evidence against him in its case-in-chief," the defense said.
The Sterling defense also objected to the prosecutors' proposed use of the "silent witness" rule, by which classified information is shared with the jury but not disclosed in open court.
The silent witness rule is fundamentally unfair, is not authorized by law, is possibly unconstitutional, and should not be approved by the court, the defense said. (The proposal to invoke the silent witness rule was first reported by Josh Gerstein in Politico on August 10.)
"It will be impossible effectively to contest and challenge the Government's evidence before a jury if the Court permits use of the silent witness rule, which would impermissibly provide the stamp of secrecy and national security importance to information that the Government has elected to disclose in a criminal trial where those very issues are contested. The Court must decline this invitation to conduct an unfair and constitutionally impermissible trial," the defense said.
For similar reasons, the defense also objected to the proposed use of security measures such as initials and screens to conceal the identities of government witnesses.
"The Department of Justice, surely after consultations with the CIA, approved this prosecution," the defense pleading said. "In doing so, it should have expected an open and public trial that featured all of the Constitutional protections afforded a defendant in the United States."
EUROPEAN UNION SECURITY POLICY, AND MORE FROM CRS
Recent reports from the Congressional Research Service that have not been made readily available to the public include the following (all pdf).
"The European Union: Foreign and Security Policy," August 15, 2011
"Standard & Poor's Downgrade of U.S. Government Long-Term Debt," August 9, 2011
"The Obama Administration's Cybersecurity Proposal: Criminal Provisions," July 29, 2011
Monday, August 22, 2011
South Africa seizes children of Zimbabwe beggars
Published: Sunday, Aug. 21, 2011 - 1:00 am
Last Modified: Sunday, Aug. 21, 2011 - 10:06 pm
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- The young mother crossed the surging Limpopo River, the water up to her neck, like cruel hands trying to drag her under. Other women traveling with her were terrified, screaming, "We're going to die."
Ruvarashe Chibura concentrated all her strength on the little bundle she held high in the air: her 15-month-old baby, Cynthia.
"I never cried. I had my baby over my head," she says now of that desperate crossing from her native Zimbabwe to South Africa. "I was afraid that Cynthia would be swept away."
But it wasn't until two years later that her little girl was swept away, this time by police and social workers in a country she had hoped would prove a refuge from the ordeals of her homeland.
Chibura and dozens of other unemployed illegal immigrants from crisis-ridden Zimbabwe have seen their children placed in state institutions. Their crime: begging at traffic lights with their babies at their sides.
For a Zimbabwean immigrant with no visa or papers, living illegally in a shabby city-owned building, South Africa's child welfare bureaucracy has proved as implacable as the river that nearly took her life three years ago. Chibura's daughter was taken into state care late last year, and now she says, despairingly, "She doesn't even remember that I'm her mother."
The government says its main concern is the best interests of the children. And even the mothers acknowledge that sitting by the road in traffic fumes in Johannesburg's desolate winter chill is a dismal environment for a baby.
"It's not good," says Memory Konjiwa, another young Zimbabwean mother whose child was taken into care.
But for the women, it's a difficult and lengthy process to get their babies back, because social workers and judges require proof that they are living in suitable, permanent housing, the very thing that most jobless Zimbabwean immigrants lack. They are told they will get their children back once they find a job, a nearly impossible task in a country where unemployment is estimated at 40 percent.
Simon Zwane, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Social Development, confirms that women must have jobs and housing before they can recover their babies, to prove they were capable of caring for them.
"We have taken babies into places of safety until parents can prove they can look after their babies, they have fixed places of abode and they have partners or they have found employment and they will not be on the streets with babies," he says.
Konjiwa, 26, spends her days remembering. Her 2-year-old son, Joe, is growing up fast without her in an institution far from the squalid building where she lives. She too carried her child across the Limpopo River.
"I can't survive without my baby," she croaks miserably. "I miss him more than anything."
Zwane says some women use their babies to beg. But Konjiwa and Chibura say they cannot feed their children without begging, let along afford child care while they seek money.
As many as 2 million Zimbabweans have flooded into South Africa in recent years looking for work after fleeing their country's economic collapse and political violence. They find they are not particularly welcome, particularly in townships, where xenophobic violence in 2008 saw machete-wielding mobs storm through, beating up Zimbabweans and other migrants and burning some to death.
Konjiwa, who left her older son, 4, in Zimbabwe with her mother, says passing drivers shout abuse, telling them to get out of South Africa or to get a job. Many shout "Kwere-kwere," an abusive term in South Africa for foreigners.
It would be unbearably bleak but for the coins dropped like pearls by some drivers, or the food and clothes that others donate.
"Everyone shouts at you, 'Find a job, find a job.' You feel shame that people are shouting at you. I just want money for my children. The fact that I don't have an ID or passport makes it hard to get a job because no one will trust you," Konjiwa says.
In October, police arrested her and another Zimbabwean beggar woman with their babies at traffic lights in the upscale suburb of Bryanston.
"At first I thought it was a joke," she says. "When I realized it was serious, I was so agitated. They just grabbed the babies by force and the babies were crying."
Konjiwa went to court to try to get her child back, but the judge told her she wouldn't get him until she had decent housing. She lives in dire conditions, squatting in a freezing city building, with hundreds of other Zimbabwean refugees.
"We don't regard that as an appropriate environment to bring up children," says Zwane, the government spokesman. Authorities have accused some of the women of "renting out" their children to other beggars.
Kaajal Ramjathan-Keogh of Lawyers for Human Rights said that although roadside begging was against a child's interests, the situation was complex because unemployed Zimbabwean women often lacked the means to earn money for food, and couldn't afford child care.
But she said the requirement that women find housing and jobs before recovering their children was unfair. "It seems like people are being penalized for being poor and for not having a home at whatever standards the social workers are holding them up to."
Chibura has been ordered to attend classes on how to look after her daughter. But she says she can't afford them.
"It's so painful," Chibura says. "I think about her every day."
Ruvarashe Chibura concentrated all her strength on the little bundle she held high in the air: her 15-month-old baby, Cynthia.
"I never cried. I had my baby over my head," she says now of that desperate crossing from her native Zimbabwe to South Africa. "I was afraid that Cynthia would be swept away."
But it wasn't until two years later that her little girl was swept away, this time by police and social workers in a country she had hoped would prove a refuge from the ordeals of her homeland.
Chibura and dozens of other unemployed illegal immigrants from crisis-ridden Zimbabwe have seen their children placed in state institutions. Their crime: begging at traffic lights with their babies at their sides.
For a Zimbabwean immigrant with no visa or papers, living illegally in a shabby city-owned building, South Africa's child welfare bureaucracy has proved as implacable as the river that nearly took her life three years ago. Chibura's daughter was taken into state care late last year, and now she says, despairingly, "She doesn't even remember that I'm her mother."
The government says its main concern is the best interests of the children. And even the mothers acknowledge that sitting by the road in traffic fumes in Johannesburg's desolate winter chill is a dismal environment for a baby.
"It's not good," says Memory Konjiwa, another young Zimbabwean mother whose child was taken into care.
But for the women, it's a difficult and lengthy process to get their babies back, because social workers and judges require proof that they are living in suitable, permanent housing, the very thing that most jobless Zimbabwean immigrants lack. They are told they will get their children back once they find a job, a nearly impossible task in a country where unemployment is estimated at 40 percent.
Simon Zwane, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Social Development, confirms that women must have jobs and housing before they can recover their babies, to prove they were capable of caring for them.
"We have taken babies into places of safety until parents can prove they can look after their babies, they have fixed places of abode and they have partners or they have found employment and they will not be on the streets with babies," he says.
Konjiwa, 26, spends her days remembering. Her 2-year-old son, Joe, is growing up fast without her in an institution far from the squalid building where she lives. She too carried her child across the Limpopo River.
"I can't survive without my baby," she croaks miserably. "I miss him more than anything."
Zwane says some women use their babies to beg. But Konjiwa and Chibura say they cannot feed their children without begging, let along afford child care while they seek money.
As many as 2 million Zimbabweans have flooded into South Africa in recent years looking for work after fleeing their country's economic collapse and political violence. They find they are not particularly welcome, particularly in townships, where xenophobic violence in 2008 saw machete-wielding mobs storm through, beating up Zimbabweans and other migrants and burning some to death.
Konjiwa, who left her older son, 4, in Zimbabwe with her mother, says passing drivers shout abuse, telling them to get out of South Africa or to get a job. Many shout "Kwere-kwere," an abusive term in South Africa for foreigners.
It would be unbearably bleak but for the coins dropped like pearls by some drivers, or the food and clothes that others donate.
"Everyone shouts at you, 'Find a job, find a job.' You feel shame that people are shouting at you. I just want money for my children. The fact that I don't have an ID or passport makes it hard to get a job because no one will trust you," Konjiwa says.
In October, police arrested her and another Zimbabwean beggar woman with their babies at traffic lights in the upscale suburb of Bryanston.
"At first I thought it was a joke," she says. "When I realized it was serious, I was so agitated. They just grabbed the babies by force and the babies were crying."
Konjiwa went to court to try to get her child back, but the judge told her she wouldn't get him until she had decent housing. She lives in dire conditions, squatting in a freezing city building, with hundreds of other Zimbabwean refugees.
"We don't regard that as an appropriate environment to bring up children," says Zwane, the government spokesman. Authorities have accused some of the women of "renting out" their children to other beggars.
Kaajal Ramjathan-Keogh of Lawyers for Human Rights said that although roadside begging was against a child's interests, the situation was complex because unemployed Zimbabwean women often lacked the means to earn money for food, and couldn't afford child care.
But she said the requirement that women find housing and jobs before recovering their children was unfair. "It seems like people are being penalized for being poor and for not having a home at whatever standards the social workers are holding them up to."
Chibura has been ordered to attend classes on how to look after her daughter. But she says she can't afford them.
"It's so painful," Chibura says. "I think about her every day."
Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/08/21/3851400/south-africa-seizes-children-of.html#ixzz1Vnkc5Wuf
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)