Is Snowden Really A Double Agent Sent By USA To China To Assess Chinese Hacking Capabilities?

Edward Snowden, a former contractor for the U.S. National Security Agency, said he believed there had been more than 61,000 NSA hacking operations globally, including hundreds in Hong Kong and on the Chinese mainland. Those claims followed intelligence leaks Mr. Snowden made earlier this month to British newspaper the Guardian about U.S. surveillance, which prompted a political furor in the U.S.
When it comes to Hong Kong politics, activists typically see Beijing as the main source of meddling in local affairs. Although the former British colony returned to mainland rule in 1997 and continues to operate with its own distinctive political systems and rule of law, pro-democracy activists fear Beijing is encroaching on the city.
“Usually we hear from Western media that Chinese government is the one hacking,” said Oiwan Lam of Hong Kong In-media, which supports citizen journalism and is helping organize  a rally Saturday in support of Mr. Snowden. “But apparently it’s a double standard, and when the U.S. hacks we are just in the dark,” said Ms. Lam.
Supporters plan to march Saturday on Hong Kong’s government and the U.S. consulate.
“What are we going to say to fight our battles now [against Chinese hacking] if the U.S. is doing the same?” she said.
While some Hong Kong lawmakers called on the government to ask for clarifications from Washington about what activities were carried out, others said the allegations so far didn’t seem to amount to much. “We all know Hong Kong is a city where lots of spying has been carried out. If the U.S. government has been spying in Hong Kong, that’s not surprising at all,” said lawyer Martin Lee, who helped establish the city’s Democratic Party. Compared with Chinese spying activities in Hong Kong, he said, the U.S.’s activities so far revealed by Mr. Snowden are “nothing.”
Mr. Lee said he already assumes his phone line is bugged and his office computers regularly the target of Chinese hackers. “At least if I know that there’s more than one government is spying on me I might feel safer, that way it’s not just the Chinese,” said Mr. Lee, who doesn’t expect the local movement supporting Mr. Snowden to gain much traction.
“People think it’s really a matter between a U.S. citizen and his government. I doubt if that [issue] would raise too much enthusiasm from Hong Kong citizens,” he said.
On Thursday, a spokeswoman for China’s Foreign Ministry said she had no information on Mr. Snowden’s claims and reiterated China’s stance that it is a victim rather than a perpetrator of hacking. The Chinese University in Hong Kong, which Mr. Snowden named as one target of American hacking and is home to the Hong Kong Internet Exchange—an Internet hub for the Asia-Pacific region—said it hadn’t detected any form of hacking on its network.
While China’s state-controlled media at first paid minimal attention Mr. Snowden’s case, his latest allegations spurred various outlets to become more vocal. On Thursday, CCTV highlighted Mr. Snowden’s claims in its widely watched evening news broadcast. On Friday, Hong Kong’s Communist Party-sympathizing Chinese-language newspaper Wen Wei Po ran a photo illustration of Mr. Snowden’s head imposed on the body of a man wearing a long trenchcoat, frozen in a “Matrix”-style pose, under the headline “The U.S. Breaches Hong Kong Computers, Meddles in Hong Kong Affairs.”
Mr. Snowden has said that he wants to stay in Hong Kong, where he has been hiding out since May 20. He told the South China Morning Post that he ultimately plans to fight the U.S. in its courts. While Hong Kong has an extradition treaty with the U.S. government, if he chooses to apply for asylum or contest any potential extradition, Mr. Snowden could prolong his stay in Hong Kong for potentially years, lawyers say.
Still, Hong Kong-based lawyer Kevin Egan said it wasn’t likely Mr. Snowden would be able to escape extradition if the U.S. issues a request. “If I was his legal adviser, I’d be telling him to get out of town,” said Mr. Egan, citing the numerous occasions on which Hong Kong has surrendered suspects back to the U.S. “He says he has a great deal of faith in Hong Kong’s legal system and he’s going to stay and fight? Good luck to him.”
Lawyer Ronny Tong said that Hong Kong could be a good base for Mr. Snowden if his goal is to get his message out, given its international media presence and independent judicial system. But he cautioned that top-notch legal representation in Hong Kong for Mr. Snowden will be expensive, particularly if it ends up involving a protracted yearslong battle. In such a case, Mr. Snowden could wind up with a bill for up to $650,000 in legal fees, Mr. Tong said.
In addition to the attention Mr. Snowden’s allegations have received in Hong Kong and in state media, they’ve also been the object of some amusement—as well as outrage—on China’s voluble social media network.
“Chinese exiles used to run to America,” posted one user of the popular Sina Weibo microblogging service Thursday. “Now Americans start running to China.”
– Te-Ping Chen and Brian Spegele

Don't Ask, Don't Tell, and Don't Issue An ID Card.

With repeal last year of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell law, many military people, including senior leaders, assumed that married gay and lesbian couples had gained not only job security but also equality in allowances, benefits and access to family support programs. That assumption is wrong.
Since the law took effect 14 months ago, the Department of Defense has kept in place policies that bar spouses of same-gender couples from having military identification cards, shopping on base, living in base housing or participating in certain family support programs.
Repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, says Army Lt. Col. Heather Mack, 39, "simply just prevented me from losing my job. It didn't do anything else."
Mack's spouse, Ashley Broadway, also 39, can shop in stores on nearby Fort Bragg, N.C., only in the status of "caregiver" for their son, Carson. Lacking a military dependent ID card, Ashley has been challenged by checkout clerks when her shopping cart includes items such as deodorant that clearly aren't needed by their two-year old.
If Mack is reassigned, the couple will have to pay Ashley's travel and transportation costs out of pocket. Mack draws housing allowance at the higher "with dependents" rate only because of their child. Marriage alone for same-sex couples, though recognized as legal by 11 states and the District of Columbia, doesn't qualify a military sponsor for married allowances or civilian spouses for entry onto bases.
 If Mack were killed during her next deployment, Ashley would not qualify for full "spousal" survivor benefits, even though, by paying higher premiums, she could be covered as an "insurable interest."  And as a surviving widow, Ashley would not qualify for Dependency and Indemnity Compensation from the Department of Veterans or be eligible to receive the folded flag off the coffin in the graveside ceremony, Mack says, because to the military and the VA, Ashley would not be next of kin despite spending a career together.
A heterosexual soldier "who meets someone on a Friday night and Saturday gets married would have full benefits," Mack says. "But you have partners who have been together 15 years or more and they can't even go on base and shop…That's a quality of life issue."

Some disparities of treatment for same sex couples won't end unless Congress repeals the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines marriage as solely between a man and woman, or unless the U.S. Supreme Court rules that DOMA is unconstitutional. The high court was expected to announce soon if it will review and rule on conflicting opinions on the constitutionality of DOMA by appellate courts in recent years.
The Obama administration views the law unconstitutional and won't allow Justice Department attorneys to defend it in court. By default, the government's defense of DOMA is being led by the general counsel for the Republican-led House of Representatives.
While the law remains in effect, it prohibits extension of many federal benefits, including military allowances, travel reimbursements and health coverage to same-sex spouses. But Stephen L. Peters II, president of the gay and lesbian advocacy group American Military Partner Association, says the Department of Defense has authority to do much more than it has to date to support service members and spouses of same-sex marriages.
It could give gay and lesbian spouses access to base housing, commissaries and exchanges, base recreation facilities and legal services. It could direct the services to open more family support programs to them and to offer relocation and sponsorship at many overseas duty stations. The services could also extend dual-service couple programs to same-sex marriages thus ensuring these couples too get co-located on reassignments.
No DoD official would be interviewed on this issue. The department instead issue a statement explaining that a work group continues to conduct "a deliberative and comprehensive review of the possibility of extending eligibility for benefits, when legally permitted, to same-sex domestic partners."  Benefits are being examined "from a policy, fiscal, legal and feasibility perspective" and "laws and policies surrounding benefits are complex and interconnected."  The work group, it says, has been striving "to fully understand the scope and interconnectivity."

Life in service is better for gays and lesbians since repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. But the department's unresponsiveness to qualify-of-life concerns raised by same-sex married members for the past year, unrelated to DOMA, continue to impact not only families but readiness, Peters argues.
"It's not like the Pentagon doesn't know which benefits it can extend…These have been repeatedly pointed out," he says. "Not only has the Pentagon failed to take action but its silence on the issue is deafening."
Mack, assistant chief of staff for the 1st Theater Sustainment Command at Bragg, is pregnant and due to deliver their second child in January. This time Ashley won't have to pose as her sister to be present at the birth in the post hospital. After maternity leave, Mack expects to deploy again.
She believes commanders would be pressuring policymakers on quality-of-life challenges for same-sex couples if they knew more about them. Mack's own boss was surprised before Mack's promotion in October to be told the Army treats married lesbians like her as if they aren't married.
"He said, ‘That's not true. With repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, you get all the benefits.'  I said, ‘No. Any gay or lesbian soldier, regardless of their marital status, is considered a single soldier.'  He had no clue," Mack says.
As a lieutenant colonel, Mack knows she is better able to afford $500 a month in extra health insurance for Ashley, and to cover her travel costs when the family is reassigned. Enlisted members can't afford to handle these disparities, and that's something leaders can't ignore, she says.
If these spouses could at least be issued ID cards, and gain access to base amenities, she says, it would go a long way to improving quality of life.
By Tom Philpott
(Tom Philpott has been breaking news for and about military people since 1977. After service in the Coast Guard, and 17 years as a reporter and senior editor with Army Times Publishing Company, Tom launched "Military Update," his syndicated weekly news column, in 1994. "Military Update" features timely news and analysis on issues affecting active duty members, reservists, retirees and their families. Tom also edits a reader reaction column, "Military Forum." The online "home" for both features is Military.com.)

That's A More Ray.

Italian judge is keeping Amanda Knox, an American murder suspect in jail.

She is an American student suspected in the slaying of her British roommate in Italy. An Italian judge rules 17 May 2008 that she must remain behind bars.

The judge rejected a lawyer's request to put Amanda Knox, 20, of Seattle, under house arrest.

Knox is being held in Perugia in central Italy in connection with the Nov. 1 stabbing death of 21-year-old Meredith Kercher. Knox has been jailed since Nov. 6, and judges have ruled that she can be held for up to a year while the case is investigated.

Luciano Ghirga, a lawyer for Knox, said Saturday that he had sought to have her placed under house arrest. But the judge in Perugia rejected the request, Ghirga said, without elaborating.

The defense lawyers wanted Knox moved to a shelter operated by Catholic charity Caritas. They had hoped this would persuade the judge to release Knox from jail.

Kercher was found dead from a stab wound to the neck in the apartment she shared with Knox in Perugia, a university town about 110 miles north of Rome. Prosecutors have said she was killed resisting a sexual assault.

Knox and two other suspects have been jailed for months in the case, although no formal charges have been filed against them. All three deny wrongdoing.

The others being held are Knox's former Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito and Ivory Coast national Rudy Hermann Guede.

All Justice and No Mercy!

Saudi Arabia defended on Tuesday a court's decision to sentence a woman who was gang-raped to 200 lashes of the whip, after the United States described the verdict as "astonishing".

The 19-year-old woman from the town of Qatif in the Eastern Province and an unrelated male companion were abducted and raped by seven men in 2006.

Ruling according to Saudi Arabia's strict reading of the law, a court had originally sentenced the woman to 90 lashes and the rapists to jail terms of between 10 months and five years. It blamed the woman for being alone with an unrelated man.

Last week the Supreme Judicial Council increased the sentence to 200 lashes and six months in prison and ordered the rapists to serve between two and nine years in jail.

The ruling provoked rare criticism from the United States, which is trying to persuade Saudi Arabia to attend a Middle East peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland next week.

A State Department spokesman told reporters on Monday that "most (people) would find this relatively astonishing that something like this happens".

The court also took the unusual step of initiating disciplinary procedures against her lawyer, Abdul-Rahman al-Lahem, forcibly removing him from the case for having talked about it to the media.

"The Ministry of Justice welcomes constructive criticism ... The system allows appeals without resort to the media," said Tuesday's statement issued on the official news agency SPA.

It berated media for not specifying that three judges, not one, issued the recent ruling and reiterated that the "charges were proven" against the woman.

It also repeated the judges' attack against Lahem last week, saying he had "spoken insolently about the judicial system and challenged laws and regulations".

Lahem was not available for comment.

New York-based Human Rights Watch has called on King Abdullah, who last month announced plans to overhaul the system, to drop all charges against the woman.

A series of erratic verdicts have focused attention on the Saudi legal system, which is dominated by clerics. Personal status law remains uncodified and the system does not recognize the concept of precedent.

On 19 December 2007 we learned that Saudi King Abdullah had pardoned the young woman known as "Qatif Girl" -- who was gang-raped and then sentenced to 200 lashes and six months imprisonment for "improper mingling".

With something less than gratitude -- how does one feel grateful for mercy when none should have been required in the first place? -- Westerners are nonetheless relieved. It is quite possible that the first lady Laura Bush's October journey to Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries to promote breast cancer awareness, research and treatment may have had a little something to do with the King assuming the Mercy Seat.

Woman Killed By Family Because She Loved Wrong Man.

Banaz Mahmod loved not less but last.LONDON (Reuters) - A Kurdish woman was brutally raped, stamped on and strangled by members of her family and their friends in an "honor killing" carried out at her London home because she had fallen in love with the wrong man.

(What kind of an animal could do something like this to another human being; or, worse still, to his own daughter? Are these the people who are in competition with us for the Moral Highground in this world?)

Banaz Mahmod, 20, was subjected to the 2-1/2 hour ordeal before she was garroted with a bootlace. Her body was stuffed into a suitcase and taken about 100 miles to Birmingham where it was buried in the back garden of a house.

Her badly decomposed body was found in April 2006, three months after the killing.

Last month a jury found her father Mahmod Mahmod, 52, and his brother Ari Mahmod, 51, guilty of murder after a three-month trial. Their associate Mohamad Hama, 30, had earlier admitted killing her.

On Thursday at a pre-sentence hearing for Hama, the Old Bailey heard details about Banaz's last moments.

Prosecutors said the three convicted men, along with two other suspects who are still at large, had carried out the killing fearing that the authorities were closing in on them.

They believed Banaz had brought shame on the family by leaving her husband, an Iraqi Kurd she had been forced to marry at 17, and falling in love with Rahmat Suleimani, an Iranian Kurd.

Her former unnamed partner had raped her as well as repeatedly beating her, the court heard.

Hama, who prosecutors said had been a ringleader in the murder, was caught by listening devices talking to a friend in prison about the murder.

In the recordings, transcripts of which were relayed to the court, Hama and his friend are hearing laughing as he described how she was killed with Banaz's uncle "supervising".

"I was kicking and stamping on her neck to get the soul out. I saw her stark naked, only wearing pants or underwear," Hama is recorded as saying.

His lawyers say there is no evidence to support the prosecution's claims.

The decision to kill her came after a meeting on January 23 -- the day before she was murdered -- when the family decided to take action before the police could foil their attempts, said prosecutor Victor Temple.

Hama is due to be sentenced on Friday with Mahmod Mahmod and his brother, Ari.

LEAVE NO COMRADE BEHIND!

Long before the Band of Brothers hit the screen, it was unwritten law for the U S military to leave no man behind. In this day and age, we can expand that to say "Leave no man or woman behind".
A third-class female cadet, a sophomore, USCGA Class of 2010, and a male enlisted man claimed two Mexican policemen assaulted them after they came ashore from skinny-dipping at the beach during the pre-dawn hours in Veracruz, Mexico.
It appears that female 3/c Cadet Jane Doe and the enlisted man may have been swimming or cavorting on the beach while the two policemen hid behind some rocks and surprised them when they came out of the ocean.
Cadet Jane Doe said the police officers attempted to handcuff them, and forced her to perform oral sex on one of them.
The Eagle docked Friday in Veracruz and left on Monday. Cadet Jane Doe and the enlisted man are still in Mexico working with authorities. The ship, CGC EAGLE, is continuing on its summer training program. It is due to arrive in Miami on July 27 as its next port call.

The Coast Guard Academy can look forward to some rude awakenings in this case. I dare say they have little or no experience in dealing with Mexico and corrupt Mexican officials. They made a big mistake in leaving a teenage female cadet and an enlisted man in Mexican custody. Someone had better fly to Mexico quickly and carry plenty of CASH. This is not the Cadet Webster Smith case and the Rule of Law. In Mexico, money talks and justice walks.
The Commanding Officer of the Eagle is out of his mind. If I had been CO, that ship would never have sailed without every cadet and crewman on board.
There would be no reason to leave cadets or crewmen behind if they were only witnesses to an investigation. That is an easy call. Take their statements and let them leave on the ship. They could even fly back whenever and if ever there was a trial. This case will never see a trial.
These two kids are going to be charged. That is why they were not allowed to leave Mexico. Mommie and Daddy and the Coast Guard Academy are going to have to come up with some CASH, and a lot of it.
Silvina Morales, the prosecutor's office agent in charge of the case, indicated that a Complaint had been drafted; and according to the complaint, the female cadet and the enlisted man decided to swim at a local beach. She said the two policemen apparently hid behind some rocks and surprised the swimmers when they came out of the ocean.. They could be charged with almost anything; such as, public drunkenness, swimming nude on a public beach, public indecency, drunk and disorderly, having sex in public, assaulting a police officer, refusal to cooperate with a police officer, being on the beach after dark or sundown. They may have entered a closed or secured area.




Nevertheless, we will not rest until these two brave young Americans are returned to American soil.


Even if the female cadet and the enlisted man are eventually released from Mexican custody, this case will be far from over.
What standard will be used to dispose of this case? The Webster Smith Standard, where the female cadet gets no discipline? Shelly Raudenbush had a torrid fling with a Navy enlisted man in Norfolk, Virginia and went on to be the Star Witness against Webster Smith. She received complete immunity for fraternizing with a Navy enlisted man, and Webster Smith was convicted, essentially, for keeping her secret.
Or, will it be the Shelly Raudenbush Standard where the female cadet gets immunity from prosecution, no charges for fraternizing with an enlisted man?
Or the Cadet John Miller Standard where the local authorities take care of resolving the case and the cadet is returned to duty with a warning to be more discrete next time?

Either way, the female cadet corps has the Wisniewski Curse? Or, perhaps it is the Shelly Raudenbush Curse? Either way, the Coast Guard albatross is still there around the neck of the Coast Guard Academy. Until the Webster Smith travesty is resolved fairly, and Webster Smith is given his Commission and his degree, and his record is wiped clean, the cadets will continue to suffer these terribly embarrassing incidents.

The torch has been passed to a new Gender, and the females continue to get a free ride with no ethical accountability. With each Academy entering class containing more and more females, the Coast Guard Academy can look forward to more of the same, underway as before and steady as she goes.



LATE BREAKING NEWS: On or about Tuesday, 24 July, 3/c Cadet Jane Doe was repatriated to Miami, Florida to her family. Not as big as Elian Gonzales, but just as emotional. She is awaiting the arrival of the CGC Eagle with the rest of her classmates. The skids were greased and she was released. She will have the best sea story to tell from this cadet summer training cruise.
What deal was struck with the Devil to secure her release?
Was she an unfortunate victim of circumstances, or a victim of her own bad judgment?

Natalie Granger, a Coast Guard spokeswoman, said U.S. officials are working with the Mexican government on the investigation. She said the details of the investigation could not be released until the work is complete, and she could not say how long that would take. The two policemen were charged with robbery, abuse of authority and sexual misconduct.

12 Jan 2008, Update: White Teenage Female Cadet Claims Sexual assault By Mexican Police on Veracruz Beach.Two Mexican law enforcement officers accused of assaulting a white female Coast Guard Academy third class cadet and a Black enlisted crew member stationed onboard the Coast Guard Academy training ship USCGC Eagle are still in jail.
The incident occurred during a port call in Veracruz, Mexico, in mid-July 2007.

The case is under review by the First Criminal Court in Veracruz, and the judge has not issued a final decision, according to a Coast Guard Academy spokesman.

The U.S. Embassy has just received a verbal update from the Mexican court.

According to that update, the accused police officers filed an appeal against their imprisonment, and a federal court denied the appeal, but the criminal court is expecting a new appeal. Mexican courts are like German jokes, they are not funny and you never know where they are going or how they will come out.

The third-class female cadet and the male crew member said the police officers attempted to handcuff them, stole some of their possessions, threatened them and forced the female to perform oral sex on one of them, while they were on liberty after a late night swim at a beach in Veracruz, Mexico.

The two policemen have allegedly been charged with robbery, abuse of authority and sexual misconduct.


BRING ME MEN.