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Chess

Leaked Cables Offer Glimpses Into Relations of U.S. and China

Michael Wines
The New York Times
Wed, 07 Sep 2011 22:03 UTC
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© Guang Niu/Getty ImagesA smoggy day in Beijing, where American air-quality monitoring once caused diplomatic difficulties.
This capital city's skies were clogged with pollution, as is often the case, and China's government was concerned. So it summoned officials of the American Embassy here to a meeting.

But the session had nothing to do with hazy skies. Rather, Chinese officials were peeved that the Americans were monitoring pollution themselves, and posting on Twitter for anyone to read, their more precise findings, which usually judged the smog far worse than official Chinese readings.

Chinese officials feared the conflicting information "might lead to 'social consequences,' " an American Embassy cable quoted the officials as saying. So could the Americans please block Chinese citizens from visiting the Web site?

That July 2009 cable, posted on the WikiLeaks Web site on Friday, is one of hundreds from the American Embassy in Beijing that offer a glimpse into the depths, and heights, of relations between the United States and Chinese governments. The cables, involving secret but not very diplomatically delicate correspondence between the two powers, cover topics ranging from China's claims on the South China Sea to the daily exercise regimen that the Chongqing Communist Party secretary, Bo Xilai, designed for himself.
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Star of David

Leak Offers Look at Efforts by U.S. to Spy on Israel

Scott Shane
The New York Times
Mon, 05 Sep 2011 00:00 UTC
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© Peter Dejong/Associated PressShamai K. Leibowitz in 2002. He leaked secret transcripts.
When Shamai K. Leibowitz, an F.B.I. translator, was sentenced to 20 months in prison last year for leaking classified information to a blogger, prosecutors revealed little about the case. They identified the blogger in court papers only as "Recipient A." After Mr. Leibowitz pleaded guilty, even the judge said he did not know exactly what Mr. Leibowitz had disclosed.

"All I know is that it's a serious case," Judge Alexander Williams Jr., of United States District Court in Maryland, said at the sentencing in May 2010. "I don't know what was divulged other than some documents, and how it compromised things, I have no idea."

Now the reason for the extraordinary secrecy surrounding the Obama administration's first prosecution for leaking information to the news media seems clear: Mr. Leibowitz, a contract Hebrew translator, passed on secret transcripts of conversations caught on F.B.I. wiretaps of the Israeli Embassy in Washington. Those overheard by the eavesdroppers included American supporters of Israel and at least one member of Congress, according to the blogger, Richard Silverstein.
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Eye 1

US: The shadow of suspicion falls in the Mall of America

G.W. Schulz, Daniel Zwerdling and Andrew Becker
Salon.com
Wed, 07 Sep 2011 16:10 UTC
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© Unknown
Visitors who have done nothing wrong are winding up identified in counterterrorism reports

Bloomington, Minnesota - On May 1, 2008, at 4:59 p.m., Brad Kleinerman entered the spooky world of homeland security.

As he shopped for a children's watch inside the sprawling Mall of America, two security guards approached and began questioning him. Although he was not accused of wrongdoing, the guards filed a confidential report about Kleinerman that was forwarded to local police.

The reason: Guards thought he might pose a threat because he had been looking at them in a suspicious way.

Najam Qureshi, owner of a kiosk that sold items from his native Pakistan, also had his own experience with authorities after his father left a cellphone on a table in the food court.

The consequence: An FBI agent showed up at the family's home, asking if they knew anyone who might want to hurt the United States.

Mall of America officials say their security unit stops and questions on average up to 1,200 people each year. With 4.2 million square feet under one roof, the two-decade-old mall is a monument to suburban shopping and entertainment. Nearly 100,000 people from around the world pass through on a given day.

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People

US: Feds assume control of Bastrop County fire; volunteer firemen turned away

Dave Mundy
Gonzales Cannon
Tue, 06 Sep 2011 15:00 UTC
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© Fayette County Sgt. Ron NaumannAerial photo taken Monday afternoon.
Bastrop, Texas: Firefighting-trained volunteers from around the state converged on Bastrop and Smithville Tuesday to lend a hand to the beleaguered local firefighters battling the Bastrop County Complex Fire - only to be sent away as federal officials arrived at the scene and took command, apparently because local officials never made a formal request for volunteers.

"We were at the station getting set up into strike teams, and this guy came up and said that the U.S. Forest Service had 'assumed control of the situation, and that 'If you don't have a vehicle that squirts water, go home,'" said Gordon Greer of Kirbyville, who drove all night Monday to arrive in the town beset by the worst wildfire in Texas history. "You've got guys who had driven all night long from Corpus Christi and Brownsville on their own dime, and they turned them away. He was really a (bleep) about it.

"There was a whole line of beige cars that came in this morning, tinted windows and such," Greer said.
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Dollar

Italy Senate Okays Austerity Plan, Moves to Chamber

James Mackenzie
Reuters
Wed, 07 Sep 2011 00:00 UTC
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© Reuters/Paolo BonaA demonstrator holds a flare in front of Milan's Stock Exchange Palace, September 6, 2011.
The Italian Senate on Wednesday approved the government's widely criticized austerity program aimed at staving off financial crisis in a vote of confidence called by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

The plan, which has been radically overhauled on several occasions under pressure from the European Central Bank and the European Union, now passes to the Chamber of Deputies, where Berlusconi has a slimmer but still stable majority.

It is expected to be definitively approved in the next few days.

Late on Tuesday, the government yielded to growing calls for the package to be reinforced, increasing value added tax, extending the retirement age for women in the private sector and introducing a tax on very high earners.

The Senate approved the plan, which aims to balance the budget in 2013, with 165 votes in favor and 141 against.
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Propaganda

Propaganda Alert! Harper Says 'Islamicism' Biggest Threat to Canada


CBC News
Wed, 07 Sep 2011 00:00 UTC
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© CBC News Prime Minister Stephen Harper talks with CBC chief correspondent Peter Mansbridge about how Canada changed after 9/11.
In an exclusive interview with CBC News, Prime Minister Stephen Harper says the biggest security threat to Canada a decade after 9/11 is Islamic terrorism.

In a wide-ranging interview with CBC chief correspondent Peter Mansbridge that will air in its entirety on The National Thursday night, Harper says Canada is safer than it was on Sept. 11, 2001, when al-Qaeda attacked the U.S., but that "the major threat is still Islamicism."

"There are other threats out there, but that is the one that I can tell you occupies the security apparatus most regularly in terms of actual terrorist threats," Harper said.

Harper cautioned that terrorist threats can "come out of the blue" from a different source, such as the recent Norway attacks, where a lone gunman who hated Muslims killed 77 people.
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Laptop

The Register , Vodafone, Telegraph, Acer, National Geographic got hacked by Turkguvenligi


The Hacker News
Mon, 05 Sep 2011 01:36 UTC
hackshot
© THN
The Register One of the Biggest British technology news and opinion website got hacked by Turkguvenligi . Not only this Vodafone, Telegraph, Acer, National Geographic, Ups.com , betfair.com also got hacked by him. Turkguvenligi is also know with name "TG Hacker'. These hacks are done by DNS Hijacking method. But still theregister.co.uk and other sites are accessible via the original IP address (68.68.20.116) from several places around the world.
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Display

Everyone knew NoTW 'rogue reporter' bit was untrue

Kelly Fiveash
The Register
Tue, 06 Sep 2011 01:31 UTC
Including the police, says former tabloid lawyer

James Murdoch was made aware in 2008 that alleged phone-hacking practices at the News of the World went beyond "one rogue reporter", the former legal manager of News Group Newspapers claimed to MPs today.

Tom Crone said that an email with the subject line "For Neville" was "the first piece of evidence we'd seen that showed [illegal voicemail interception] went beyond Clive Goodman".

Goodman was the News of the World's royal editor. He, alongside private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, was jailed for illegal phone hacking in early 2007.

Crone told the Media, Culture and Sports committee that he didn't make a copy of the email, nor did he ever refer to it as the "For Neville" [understood to be NotW reporter Neville Thurlbeck] email. But he insisted that James Murdoch knew about the existence of the document.
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Magnify

Claimed DigiNotar hacker: I have access to four more CAs

John Leyden
The Register
Tue, 06 Sep 2011 01:27 UTC
Iranian 'Comodohacker' says he can still issue bogus certs

The digital miscreant known as ComodoHacker has claimed responsibility for the high-profile DigiNotar digital certificate authority hack.

Soon after the Comodo forged certificates hack an Iranian using the handle Comodohacker posted a series of messages via Pastebin account providing evidence that he carried out the attack. The account, which has been dormant since March, sprung back to life on Tuesday with claims that the individual or individuals behind it hacked DigiNotar as well, net security firm F-Secure reports.
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Laptop

Sony hires a US Department of Homeland Security official

Dean Wilson
The Inquirer
Tue, 06 Sep 2011 01:24 UTC
Director of cybercrime centres to increase Sony security

Gaming console maker Sony has hired a former US Department of Homeland Security and Department of Defence official to fill its primary security post after a series of large scale attacks on its gaming networks by hackers earlier this year.

The position of chief information security officer and senior vice president will be filled by Philip Reitinger, who previously worked as director for the US National Cyber Security Centre and executive director for the US Department of Defence Cyber Crime Center, which gives him plenty of experience with cybercrime.

Reitinger will report to Nicole Seligman, executive vice president and general legal counsel for Sony US, suggesting that the appointment will not just be about bumping up security, but will also involve tracking down some of the people behind this year's attacks.

Reitinger has also previously worked for Microsoft as chief security strategist, so he also has experience working with top technology firms.

"Certainly the network issue was a catalyst for the appointment," said a Sony spokesperson, according to Reuters. "We are looking to bolster our network security even further."
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