22 Mar 2013
21 Mar 2013
NATO-Commissioned Report Says Killing Hackers Is Basically OK
Cyber-warfare is all well and civilized when it's confined to a tit-for-tat hacking of banks, but it's got the potential to spiral out of control real fast. To try and prevent that, and save the world from a hacked-WoW-account-induced apocalypse, NATO's comissioned a set of international laws to try and make cyber-warfare more…civilized.
Despite how it might seem, war's actually relatively civilized. Agreements like the Geneva Conventions and Ottowa Treaty lay down laws as to how warfare should be conducted - be nice to your prisoners and no blowing people up with landmines, for example - and the UN charter explains when war might be justified, say for self-defence. But none of those were written with cyber-warfare in mind, which is difficult when the Americans are going round hacking the Iranians, the Koreans are hacking each other and China's just hacking everyone.
In an attempt to make some sense of the mess, NATO (basically the Western powers-that-be) commissioned a report from a bunch of legal experts at the ‘NATO Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence' to suggest some rules for cyber-warfare. Well, the report's in, and the suggestions are kinda surprising.
Basically, cyber attacks which cause "physical damage, injury or death" constitute a ‘use of force', and thus can be retaliated to with real physical weapons. Equally surprising is the classification of civilian hacktivists as legitimate targets during war.
20 Mar 2013
The Spies Who Fooled the World
BBC Panorama: On the eve of the tenth anniversary of the Iraq War, Panorama reveals how key aspects of the secret intelligence used to justify the invasion were based on fabrication and lies.
19 Mar 2013
Unlawful Killing - ’US Army may be liable for Diana death’
The US military may have played a role in the 1997 death of Princess Diana as she was campaigning for a worldwide ban on landmines, says the author of The Murder of Princess Diana.
Noel Botham told Press TV that Princess Diana, during her visit to the US in 1997, succeeded in persuading former US President Bill Clinton to vote in favor of a global ban on landmines at the Oslo Conference, which was due to take place on the 19th of September of that year.
However, the idea did not appeal to US military officials and they knew that Clinton "would not change his mind with Diana alive," said the author.
"There was enormous pressure from the military in America to get him (President Clinton) to stop that (the international treaty on a worldwide ban on landmines) and change his mind, enormous lobbying in the White House," Botham added.
"Of course, after her death, 19 days later, Bill Clinton went to Oslo and voted against a ban on landmines," he further explained.
More on Red Ice – More video (Unlawful Killing is censored on YouTube)
Proving Americans that the Bible is repulsive
By watching this short video, you will be able to prove to yourself that the Bible is repulsive. The Bible is so repulsive that it has no place in a modern, civilized society.
British bloggers may face libel fines under press regulation deal
British Bloggers could face high fines for libel under the new Leveson deal with exemplary damages imposed if they don't sign up to the new regulator, it was claimed on Tuesday. Kirsty Hughes, the chief executive of Index on Censorship, which campaigns for press freedom around the world, said it was a "sad day" for British democracy. "This will undoubtedly have a chilling effect on everyday people's web use," she said.
She said she feared thousands of websites could fall under the definition of a "relevant publisher" according to the rules passed in the House of Commons on Monday night as part of the courts bill. Under the rules sites that generate news and are written by several authors could risk exemplary damages. Hughes said: "Bloggers could find themselves subject to exemplary damages, due to the fact that they were not part of a regulator that was not intended for them in the first place."
More on The Guardian - It is terrifying how quickly we've slid from a free press to politicians stitching up press regulation (The Telegraph) - British Censorship on Wikipedia
18 Mar 2013
17 Mar 2013
Cyprus bailout: 'people are panicking, they're afraid of losing their money'
Under the palm trees of Larnaca's waterfront promenade, George Kyprou was staring out to sea and scratching his head. "I don't know what to do," he said. Like most Cypriots, he was astonished to wake up one bank holiday weekend morning to discover the government had seized up to 10% of everyone's savings from their bank accounts without warning.
Kyprou, 62, born in Larnaca, had worked most of his life as a chauffeur and driver in England, proudly buying his London council flat and scrimping to put aside money in Cyprus for when he returned for holidays and eventually to retire. "I'd put aside £50 here, £20 there, all my life," he said. Over decades, he had built up around €6,000 (£5,200) in a Larnaca account. "It was a state building society; I assumed it was safe." But now, as depositors holding less than €100,000 are made to pay 6.75% and those with more than €100,000 9.9% as part of a €10bn (£8.7bn) bailout agreed in Brussels, Kyprou stands to lose €400 overnight. "That's a lot for someone like me," he said.
When he heard the news on Saturday morning, he rushed to the cashpoint and queued with others who were panicking and trying to take out as much money as they could. The media reported a run on ATMs that were depleted by mid-afternoon. But with Cyprus taking immediate steps to prevent any money transfers over the weekend, ordinary savers realised there was little they could do to lessen the blow.
Mother Teresa: Hell's Angel
In 1994, three years before her death, journalist Christopher Hitchens made this documentary asking if Mother Teresa 's reputation was deserved.
16 Mar 2013
Zimbabwean police are interrogating children aged 4-6 at school about whether their parents have radios
The illegal seizure of wind-up radios reached new levels this week with reports that the police are now using primary school pupils to source information about the receivers.
Villagers in Lupane revealed that the police have been visiting schools and asking little children in Grade 0 and Grade 1(aged between 4 and 6 years) whether their parents own or listen to any radios. This follows reports that suspected state security agents on Tuesday raided several homesteads at Mpofu village in the Gwampa area and confiscated the wind-up radios.
Speaking to SW Radio Africa one villager who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals, said the police have been going to schools, writing down names, and then visiting those suspected of owning the radios by night. She said although the agents will be wearing civilian clothes, the villagers know it is the police since they have been announcing their ban on radios.
Our source said she suspects the police are aware of the popularity of shortwave radios in the area, hence they are now confiscating them. “The police have been announcing that villagers should not be in possession of these radios. Their reason is that we listen to news broadcasts from outside the country which criticise ZANU PF.
David Brent Raps 'Equality Street'
David Brent returned to our screens last night, and it was as if he had never been away.
For Comic Relief, Ricky Gervais unwrapped his iconic alter ego, and we caught up with the last decade for Wernham Hogg's former boss - "What's happened, what hasn't happened?" he asked viewers, rhetorically, in his local pub. "Mostly repping."
Providence
A short film featuring Bradley Manning's voice.
Downloads, embed code, and transcript for full audio, as well as excerpts: Press Freedom Foundation
15 Mar 2013
Jack Schaap, Indiana Pastor, Claimed Jesus Wanted Him To Have Sex With Teenage Girl
A disgraced Indiana megachurch leader who seduced his teenage parishioner evidently told her Jesus wanted them to have sex. As part of the government’s sentencing memorandum, federal prosecutors this week released incriminating letters between Jack Schaap, the former pastor of First Baptist Church of Hammond, Ind., and his teen victim.
“In our ‘fantasy talk,’ you have affectionately spoken of being ‘my wife,’” Schaap wrote in one letter, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. “That is exactly what Christ desires for us. He wants to marry us + become eternal lovers!”
Egypt's Islamists warn giving women some rights could destroy society
Egypt's ruling Muslim Brotherhood warns that a U.N. declaration on women's rights could destroy society by allowing a woman to travel, work and use contraception without her husband's approval and letting her control family spending.
The Islamist movement that backs President Mohamed Mursi gave 10 reasons why Muslim countries should "reject and condemn" the declaration, which the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women is racing to negotiate a consensus deal on by Friday.
The Brotherhood, whose Freedom and Justice Party propelled Mursi to power in June, posted the statement on its website, www.ikhwanweb.com, and the website of the party on Thursday.
Egypt has joined Iran, Russia and the Vatican - dubbed an "unholy alliance" by some diplomats - in threatening to derail the women's rights declaration by objecting to language on sexual, reproductive and gay rights.
The Muslim Brotherhood said the declaration would give "wives full rights to file legal complaints against husbands accusing them of rape or sexual harassment, obliging competent authorities to deal husbands punishments similar to those prescribed for raping or sexually harassing a stranger."
14 Mar 2013
Does the New Pontiff Come with a Dark Past?
During Argentina's "dirty wars," which took place under a military dictatorship, 1976-1983, political opponents of the regime were routinely disappeared while American aid dollars rolled in to the junta. Throughout it all, most of Argentina's bishops remained silent, including Jorge Mario Bergoglio (now Pope Francis).
But Hugh O'Shaughnessy, writing two years ago in the Guardian, suggests that Bergoglio may have been more complicit than merely silent:
The extent of the church's complicity in the dark deeds was excellently set out by Horacio Verbitsky, one of Argentina's most notable journalists, in his book El Silencio (Silence). He recounts how the Argentine navy with the connivance of Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, now the Jesuit archbishop of Buenos Aires, hid from a visiting delegation of the Inter-American Human Rights Commission the dictatorship's political prisoners. Bergoglio was hiding them in nothing less than his holiday home in an island called El Silencio in the River Plate. The most shaming thing for the church is that in such circumstances Bergoglio's name was allowed to go forward in the ballot to chose the successor of John Paul II. What scandal would not have ensued if the first pope ever to be elected from the continent of America had been revealed as an accessory to murder and false imprisonment.
The cardinal's spokesman denied the charges, and, according to the U.K. edition of the International Business Times, "no evidence was presented linking him to the kidnapping" of the two priests he was accused of hiding.
13 Mar 2013
Apollo Astronaut, Edgar Mitchell, Claims UFO Cover Up
Edgar Mitchell, the sixth man to walk on the moon, appeared on a British radio show to say that he was "privileged enough to be in on the fact that we've been visited on this planet and the U.F.O. phenomena is real."
Mitchell, a member of the Apollo 14 team, has long held these beliefs despite the fact that he himself has never seen neither an alien or a U.F.O. The Times' story has an excellent collection of more information on Mitchell's beliefs. Mitchell's resurgence in the media was prompted by a radio interview that he did yesterday with a British radio show.
Gitmo inmates on hunger strike over seizure of Korans and personal belongings
Lawyers for Guantanamo Bay inmates have claimed "all but a few men" are on a hunger strike over their Qurans being taken away. The condition of the strikers "appears to be rapidly deteriorating and reaching a potentially critical level," they said. Most of 130 people housed in Camp 6 of Guantanamo Bay may be involved in the strike. More on RssiaToday