[BBC] The Pentagon will change its security policies after a review into a big leak of classified files found officials struggled to keep up with the number of staff who had top secret access.
New measures include the appointment of officers to control the level of access to top secret data and installing systems to detect electronic devices.
It follows the unauthorised publication of dozens of classified files online.
Ex-airman Jack Teixeira, 21, is charged with leaking files, which he denies.
The results of a 45-day review of Pentagon policies and procedures, ordered by US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin in the wake of the leak, suggested the need to increase oversight for those trusted with classified national security information.
A senior defence official suggested to reporters at a briefing that Pentagon security protocols had struggled to keep pace with the growth in the number of cleared personnel and the number of facilities where secret files are accessed.
#4
My older brother, USN retired, told me a Sea Story:
...There was a RAN (Royal Australian Navy) liaison officer that was going to be transferred from one USN vessel to another USN vessel but the orders were classified as "TS/NF" (Top Secret/No Foreign) so they couldn't tell him more than: "Pack your kit and go down the pier and wait over there for further instructions..." Amusing yarn, if true, about over classification...
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] French police should be able to spy on suspects by remotely activating the camera, microphone and GPS of their phones and other devices, lawmakers agreed late Wednesday.
Part of a wider justice reform bill, the spying provision has been attacked by the left and rights defenders as an authoritarian snoopers' charter, though Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti insists it would affect only 'dozens of cases a year'.
Covering laptops, cars and other connected objects as well as phones, the measure would allow geolocation of suspects in crimes punishable by at least five years' jail.
Devices could also be remotely activated to record sound and images of people suspected of terror offenses, as well as delinquency and organised crime.
The provisions 'raise serious concerns over infringements of fundamental liberties,' digital rights group La Quadrature du Net wrote in a May statement.
It cited the 'right to security, right to a private life and to private correspondence' and 'the right to come and go freely', calling the proposal part of a 'slide into heavy-handed security'.
During debate on Wednesday, MPs in President Emmanuel Macron's camp inserted an amendment limiting the use of remote spying to 'when justified by the nature and seriousness of the crime' and 'for a strictly proportional duration'.
Any use of the provision must be approved by a judge, while the total duration of the surveillance cannot exceed six months.
And sensitive professions including doctors, journalists, lawyers, judges and MPs would not be legitimate targets.
'We're far away from the totalitarianism of ''1984'',' George Orwell's novel about a society under total surveillance, Dupond-Moretti said.
'People's lives will be saved' by the law, he added.
The contested measure, part of an article containing several other provisions, was voted through by National Assembly members as a wider justice overhaul bill making its way through parliament.
#1
An ITSEC group, back in 2005 was demo'ing this ability here in the USA. Given some lamely secured configure smart phones, just having the IMEI code opens the door to a lot easy hacks.
Like Bud Light, the problem is getting involved with politicized topics at all. Because of course this is the logical conclusion. My questions are not about the destruction of books, but how close to the embassy gate they can demonstrate, and whether setting fires in public spaces is deemed a safety hazard.
[IsraelTimes] Self-described free-speech advocates submit 3 requests to burn religious texts in what will likely spark further global uproar after Koran was burned outside a mosque in Stockholm
Three requests to burn religious texts, including a Torah book, have been submitted to police in Sweden by self-described free-speech advocates in what would likely spark further international uproar a week after a Koran was burned outside a mosque in Stockholm in a similar demonstration.
Local police confirmed to Sweden’s national public broadcaster on Wednesday that it had received an application from an individual in his 30s to burn a Jewish and a Christian Bible outside Israel’s Embassy in Stockholm on July 15 as "a symbolic gathering for the sake of freedom of speech."
Another request to burn a Koran "as soon as possible" in Stockholm was submitted by a woman in her 50s.
“Pay attention to meee!”
Police did not immediately rule out either request, saying every application is reviewed on an individual basis.
Israel’s Ambassador to Sweden Ziv Nevo Kulman expressed his dismay over the request, tweeting: "I am shocked and horrified by the prospect of the burning of more books in Sweden, be it the Koran, the Torah or any other holy book. This is clearly an act of hatred that must be stopped."
Police allowed the demonstration to take place in Stockholm last week, citing freedom of speech after a court overturned a ban on Koran burning ...One of the basic tenets of Islam is that once a Koran has been printed it is expected to last for all time, no matter how old, ratty, and smelly other, lesser holy books may become. Should it actually become necessary to put a Koran out of its misery there is a ritual that includes extensive charivari, featuring long drawn-wailing and head bonking, ritual wife beating, and the sacrifice of dozens of women's noses and pubic lips. When the actual disposal has been completed there is a prescribed period of celebratory gun sex with the expectation of a minimum of two hundred casualties. Should actual infidels dispose of a Koran, Islamic custom calls for three weeks of rioting and a minimum of three dozen dead, which is a holdover from the days of Moloch worship.... Sweden’s government on Sunday condemned the Koran burning, calling it an "Islamophobic" act after a call for collective measures to avoid future Koran burnings was issued by the Saudi-based Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
The 57-member body met at its Jeddah headquarters to respond to last Wednesday’s incident, in which an Iraqi citizen living in Sweden, Salwan Momika, 37, stomped on the Islamic holy book, filled some pages with bacon and set several others alight.
"The burning of the Koran, or any other holy text, is an offensive and disrespectful act and a clear provocation. Expressions of racism, xenophobia and related intolerance have no place in Sweden or in Europe," the Swedish foreign ministry said.
At the same time, the ministry added that Sweden has a "constitutionally protected right to freedom of assembly, expression and demonstration."
Countries including Iraq, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Morocco have summoned Swedish ambassadors in protest at the Koran burning incident.
Swedish police had granted Momika a permit in line with free speech protections, but authorities later said they had opened an investigation over "agitation against an ethnic group," noting that Momika had burnt pages from the Islamic holy book very close to Stockholm’s largest mosque.
[Shafaq News] In a striking move on Wednesday, Islamic Resistance® factions
...also known as the Iraqi Resistance Coordination Commission, an umbrella of paramilitary groups aligned with the pro-Iran Axis of Resistance, ie. the Popular Mobilization Forces(PMF)...
declared that The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire... would be exempted from their self-proclaimed 'final opportunity', concurrently announcing an assault on a Ottoman Turkish base located in Duhok, within the Kurdistan region.
The official spokesperson for the 'Brigades of the Free Iraqis', Abu Mohammed, Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... 's , "The final opportunity that was declared by the Iraqi Resistance® Coordination Committee, and to which we have pledged our commitment after the guidance of the Honorable Secretary-General, does not include the Ottoman Turkish occupation whatsoever."
Abu Mohammed added, "In the Islamic Resistance® Brigades of Free Iraqis, we wanted to clarify that through actions, not words, in a time where talk is abundant, but action is scarce."
He heralded the success of his faction's targeting of the "Ottoman Turkish occupation base in Duhok (Batifa)," at exactly a few minutes before two o'clock (01:55) following an intensive intelligence effort.
Two weeks prior, the entity known as the 'Iraqi Resistance® Coordination Committee' had granted the government of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani a 'final opportunity' to curtail American violations and warned Washington of an 'appropriate response' should it carry out its threat to target one of the 'faction leaders'.
[Rudaw] Ottoman Turkish intelligence on Wednesday claimed to have "neutralized" a member of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) near Sulaimani, after being accused of plotting the liquidation of a Ottoman Turkish diplomat in 2019.
Ottoman Turkish state media reported that Celal Kaya was "neutralized" in the countryside of Kurdistan Region’s Sulaimani province. It added that Kaya was the PKK’s "Iraq intelligence officer." The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... uses the term neutralized to denote adversaries captured, maimed, or killed.
The PKK has not yet commented on the incident.
Kaya is accused by Turkey of being the criminal mastermind behind the murder of Osman Kose, a Ottoman Turkish diplomat, who was killed in a restaurant in Erbil when three button men opened fire with pistols fitted with suppressors.
At the time, Turkey blamed the attack on the PKK.
The reports come two days after Turkey announced it was extending the suspension of flights with Sulaimani International Airport until January 2024. Flights were initially suspended on April 3 for three months, with Ankara saying it was in response to the alleged "intensification" of PKK activity in the city, referring to the crash of two helicopters carrying Syria-based Kurdish fighters a month prior.
Ottoman Turkish officials have repeatedly accused Sulaimani authorities of supporting the PKK. Ottoman Turkish forces often carry out aerial attacks in the province on the grounds of targeting the PKK.
The PKK never grabbed credit for Kose's liquidation and denied carrying it out, but praised the perpetrators for killing a "blood sucker".
Days after the incident, the Kurdistan Region Security Council (IKSC) released CCTV footage showing the moment of the liquidation and the confession of the primary suspect, Mazlum Mohammed Zaki, who goes by the name Mazlum Dag.
Zaki is the brother of Dersim Dag, a former MP of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party ...every time you hear the phrase white people, white supremacy,white anything but paint, you're listening to a Democrat. Ask him/her/it to reimagine something for you; they do that a lot, though not well. They can hear a dog whistle a mile or two away. They invented the spoils system and Tammany Hall, and inspired the addition of the word (Thomas) Nasty to the English language. They want to stop continental drift and repeal the law of unintended side effects... (HDP) in the Ottoman Turkish parliament.
IKSC arrested seven people involved in the liquidations. In 2020, an Erbil court released two of the detainees, while sentencing Zaki and Abdulrahman Shahin, who were the main culprits of the incident, to be executed.
The attack has been condemned by Kurdistan Region officials, foreign diplomatic missions, and HDP, which called on the media and political opponents not to defame its MP Dag.
The Ottoman Turkish state has been at war with the gang for several decades. The conflict regularly spills over into the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, where the PKK has its headquarters in the Qandil Mountains.
The Ottoman Turkish army often targets them at home and in the Kurdistan Region. Ottoman Turkish intelligence is accused of carrying out liquidations of the group’s members in the Region.
[IsraelTimes] As counter-terror operation ends, thousands of refugee camp residents start returning and others emerge from their homes to find roads torn up, vehicles and buildings destroyed
After the Israel Defense Forces withdrew all troops from the Jenin refugee camp early Wednesday, local Paleostinian residents emerged from their homes in the morning to large-scale destruction, as the thousands who fled their homes during the counter-terror operation started to return.
Israel launched the major operation early Monday to crack down on what it says is a hotbed of terror in the city. IDF forces started leaving the area around midnight Tuesday, with the pullout completed in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
People emerged from their homes to find alleys lined with piles of rubble and flattened or scorched cars. Shopkeepers and bulldozers started clearing the debris.
Many parts of the refugee camp and some parts of the adjacent West Bank city were temporarily left without electricity or water due to the damaged infrastructure.
The fighting saw multiple festivities between the IDF and Paleostinian button men, with Israeli troops also targeted by improvised bombs and the IDF carrying out dronezaps on various targets.
Jenin Mayor Nidal al-Obeidi said around 4,000 Paleostinians, nearly one-third of the camp, had fled to stay with relatives or in shelters.
Returning residents described finding devastation, with roads torn up and buildings reduced to rubble during the fighting.
Fortified military vehicles had dug up parts of some streets in areas where there was intelligence pointing to possible improvised bombs, as a lesson from a massive IED that went kaboom! a few weeks ago near the city as an IDF vehicle was passing, injuring eight soldiers.
A number of attacks on Israelis in recent years have been carried out by Paleostinians from the area surrounding Jenin, and observers say the Paleostinian Authority has little control on the ground.
The operation has focused on a local wing of the Paleostinian Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... terror group known as the Jenin Battalion, as well as other smaller gangs in the city and refugee camp.
The army said it inflicted heavy damage on terror groups in the two-day operation, which included a series of Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s and hundreds of ground troops.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated Tuesday that it was not a one-off operation.
An Israeli soldier, Sgt. First Class David Yehuda Yitzhak from the elite Egoz commando unit, was shot and killed while securing the beginning of the military’s withdrawal from the refugee camp Tuesday night. The military was investigating whether his death was the result of so-called "friendly fire."
The number of Paleostinians killed during the operation remained unclear.
Paleostinian health officials said 13 people were killed, and at least 100 others were maimed, including 20 listed at death's door, during Israeli airstrikes and in festivities with Israeli forces.
IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said at least 18 Paleostinian button men had been killed by Israeli forces. According to the IDF, all of the slain Paleostinians were involved in the fighting, but there were some noncombatants among the maimed.
[IsraelTimes] Defense minister says military is restoring its freedom to operate in the city and ending its status as a sanctuary for gunmen, though ‘it may take another round or two’
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Wednesday that the two-day Israeli operation in the Jenin refugee camp had “fully achieved” its goals, though it was “not the final word as far as we’re concerned.”
In a briefing to reporters, Gallant said that the military was restoring its freedom to operate in the northern West Bank city with smaller forces and ending Jenin’s status as a sanctuary for gunmen. “It may take another round or two, but the situation today is not the one we faced at the start of the week,” he said.
“We brought down the terror factory that was built in Jenin. These were many dozens of sites that hosted bomb workshops, labs, weapons caches as well as security means guarding the entrances to the camp,” he said.
“As of this morning, the IDF and Shin Bet have [greater] freedom to act in Jenin,” Gallant declared.
He added that “at the moment of truth, the terrorists in Jenin chose to hide or flee… These are gunmen fighting for money or to show their friends that they’re heroes. Most left, and those who stayed hid within the civilian population, including in hospitals and places with children. I think this testifies most of all to their cowardice.”
Looking forward, he asserted Israel would “use any force necessary in any specific location or in the entire refugee camp” to counter terrorism and noted that “we have the capability to copy this operation in other locations.”
Gallant noted that significant funds for armed activity in Jenin and its refugee camp are Iranian — part of Tehran’s continuous effort “to promote terror” in the West Bank.
[IsraelTimes] The deputy to Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase.... was driven out of a Jenin funeral for those killed in fighting with the IDF in recent days, with participants shouting "out" as they raged against the PA.
The Fatah-led PA is increasingly seen by some Paleostinians as collaborating with Israel rather than fighting for their rights.
Mahmoud al-Aloul and other senior Fatah leaders arrived at the mass funeral for button men killed in fighting with Israeli troops, but were met with heckling and shouting from angry crowds and left the scene.
[IsraelTimes] Jakarta pulls budget for World Beach Games, set to include Israeli athletes; tournament to be canceled; Olympic umbrella group notes ‘great surprise and extreme disappointment’.
Apparently Jew-hate is the hill they choose to die on. But at least they’re not hypocrites about it.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...One of the basic tenets of Islam is that once a Koran has been printed it is expected to last for all time, no matter how old, ratty, and smelly other, lesser holy books may become. Should it actually become necessary to put a Koran out of its misery there is a ritual that includes extensive charivari, featuring long drawn-wailing and head bonking, ritual wife beating, and the sacrifice of dozens of women's noses and pubic lips. When the actual disposal has been completed there is a prescribed period of celebratory gun sex with the expectation of a minimum of two hundred casualties. Should actual infidels dispose of a Koran, Islamic custom calls for three weeks of rioting and a minimum of three dozen dead, which is a holdover from the days of Moloch worship....
...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire...
...every time you hear the phrase 
...
...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase....
