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NATO brands civilian 'hacktivists' as terrorists and 'legitimate' targets for elimination

Shaun Waterman
The Washington Times
Wed, 20 Mar 2013 16:33 UTC
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Politically motivated civilian hackers, or "hacktivists," who conduct online attacks as part of a nation's cyberwar efforts could lawfully be targeted with deadly force, according to a new study commissioned by NATO's cyberwarfare center.

"An act of direct participation in hostilities by civilians renders them liable to be attacked, by cyber or other legal means," reads the study, "The Tallinn Manual on the International Law Applicable to Cyber Warfare."

An international group of experts in the laws of warfare wrote the manual, at the invitation of NATO's Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence in Tallinn, Estonia. It is not a statement of official policy by NATO or any of its member governments, but it reflects a consensus view of a large group of legal scholars and practitioners, including several senior military lawyers from NATO countries.

The manual is being launched next week in Washington, and the issue it raises, of hacktivists who join hostilities online, is far from merely hypothetical.
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Laptop

Chutzpah! NATO dictates 'international law' on cyberwarfare

Owen Bowcott
The Guardian
Wed, 20 Mar 2013 13:30 UTC
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Handbook drawn up for Nato's Co-operative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence is first attempt to codify how international law applies to state-sponsored online attacks

State-sponsored cyber-attacks must avoid sensitive civilian targets such as hospitals, dams, dykes and nuclear power stations, according to an advisory manual on cyber-warfare written for Nato, which predicts that online attacks could in future trigger full-blown military conflicts.

The first attempt to codify how international law applies to online attacks includes a provision for states to respond with conventional force if aggression through hacking into computer networks by another state results in death or significant damage to property.

The handbook, written by 20 legal experts working in conjunction with the International Committee of the Red Cross and the US Cyber Command, says full-scale wars could be triggered by online attacks on computer systems. It also states that so-called "hacktivists" who participate in online attacks during a war can be legitimate targets even though they are civilians.

Comment: NATO preaching to others about international law; it's like handing over school administration to pedophiles. NATO's decree that it's foul play to 'cyber-attack' hospitals apparently doesn't extend to the real thing:

NATO Missiles Target Libyan Hospital, Kill 50 Children

These same 'cyber' attacks, like 'terrorist' attacks, are generally sourced to the countries that spend most time talking about them:

Korea and US DDoS attacks: The attacking source located in United Kingdom

See also: NSA chief says America is ready to cyberattack

Mashable.com
Thu, 14 Mar 2013
For the first time, NSA chief and head of the U.S. Cyber Command Gen. Keith Alexander admitted America is ready to attack in cyberspace. Never before has a U.S. official acknowledged that the U.S. government is working on or is in possession of malware capable of attacking a foreign nation in a cyber conflict, despite the fact that at least one attack - the famous Stuxnext worm - has been attributed to the U.S.

On Wednesday, in his annual testimony to the House Armed Services Committee, Alexander took the cyberwar rethoric coming out of Washington up a notch. "I would like to be clear that this team, this defend-the-nation team, is not a defensive team," he said. "This is an offensive team."


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Handcuffs

NASA researcher arrested on China-bound plane

Stephanie Lambadakis
CBS News
Mon, 18 Mar 2013 16:12 UTC
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© Getty Images
The Justice Department has filed charges in a case that raises more questions than answers. The central figure is Bo Jiang, a researcher at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.

Jiang was arrested Saturday night on a plane as it pulled away from the gate at Dulles International Airport bound for China. An FBI affidavit filed in support of the charges against Jiang says he "was leaving the United States abruptly to return to China on a one-way ticket."

The affidavit also says Jiang was questioned by federal agents about electronic devices he was carrying. He allegedly said that he was carrying a cell phone, a memory stick, an external hard drive and a new computer.

But agents discovered several items that Jiang failed to disclose, including "an additional laptop, an old hard drive and a SIM card." Federal prosecutors then filed charges that Jiang lied to federal investigators. He appeared briefly in federal court in Norfolk Monday and will remain in custody at least until a detention hearing on Thursday.
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Document

Hacker begins distributing confidential memos sent to Hillary Clinton on Libya, Benghazi attack


The Smoking Gun
Mon, 18 Mar 2013 15:55 UTC
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© Getty Images
Armed with confidential memos to Hillary Clinton that were stolen from the e-mail account of a former White House aide, a hacker has distributed some of the documents to a wide array of congressional aides, political figures, and journalists worldwide.

In a series of weekend e-mail blasts, the hacker known as "Guccifer" disseminated four recent memos to Clinton from Sidney Blumenthal, a longtime confidant of the former Secretary of State.

The 64-year-old Blumenthal, who worked as a senior White House adviser to President Bill Clinton, had his AOL e-mail account hacked last week by "Guccifer," who has conducted similar illegal assaults against a growing list of public figures, including Colin Powell, relatives and friends of the Bush family, and a top United Nations official.

The hacker's e-mails went to hundreds of recipients, though the distribution lists were dotted with addresses for aides to Senate and House members who are no longer in office. But many of the addresses to which the Blumenthal memos were sent are good (though it is unclear whether karl@rove.com is a solid address for the Republican mastermind).

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Red Flag

CNN asked Rand Paul about abortion exceptions: This Is how he answered

Becket Adams
The Blaze
Tue, 19 Mar 2013 15:14 UTC
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© Getty Images
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.)
Republican Senator Rand Paul boldly declared last week when he introduced the Life at Conception Act that "human life begins at the moment of conception, and therefore is entitled to legal protection."

However, during an interview on Tuesday with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, the Kentucky senator seemed to soften his tone when asked about abortion in cases of rape, incest, or when the life of the mother is at risk.

"Just to be precise, if you believe life begins at conception, which I suspect you do, you would have no exceptions for rape, incest, the life of the mother. Is that right?" Blitzer asked.

"What I would say is that there are thousands of exceptions. I'm a physician and every individual case is going to be different," Sen. Paul responded. "Everything is going to be particular to that individual case and what is going on that mother and the medical circumstances of that mother."
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Stormtrooper

Who is the one conservative that Rush Limbaugh says has every Democrat 'scared to death'?

Jason Howerton
The Blaze
Tue, 19 Mar 2013 15:03 UTC
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Conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh on Tuesday said Dr. Ben Carson has the entire Democratic Party "scared to death" for several reasons.

"He is able to articulate and explain conservatism in a way that is persuasive, without raising his voice at all," Limbaugh said. It sounds like your dad talking to you, not your dad, your best buddy talking to you."

Should Carson ever decide to run for office, like his supporters want him to, the left would have a very hard time demonizing him, Limbaugh explained.
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Snakes in Suits

Local sheriff recycles a terrible presidential assassination joke

Eric Randall
Boston Magazine
Wed, 20 Mar 2013 14:56 UTC
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© Plymouth County Sheriff’s Office-Facebook
Plymouth County Sheriff Joe McDonald Jr.
Plymouth County Sherriff Joe McDonald attended the Republicans' rival St. Patrick's Day breakfast in Scituate on Sunday, and he's taking some serious criticism from left-leaning blogs for a joke he made suggesting that President Obama could help the nation by getting assassinated. The joke, it turns out, isn't just bad - it's also really, really old. According to an early edition of a Boston Globe article that has since removed the account, the joke goes like this:
McDonald offered a joke about Barack Obama being visited in a dream by three past presidents, who offered advice on how to improve the country. Lincoln's advice: "Go to the theater."
As Ted Nugent can tell you, joking about the assassination of a president typically doesn't go over well. At the breakfast, McDonald's line got "scattered laughter." In the blogosphere, it's getting condemnation.

St. Patricks Day breakfasts are a gauntlet for politicians to test out their best stand-up routines, so it's notable that McDonald failed not just for tastelessness, but for stealing his comedy. Indeed, politicians have been making this joke - replacing Obama with whichever president they dislike - since at least the Reagan years. Rarely has it gone over well. And it's not just an example of Republicans' poor taste. Cruddy comedians on both sides of the aisle have made use of it. (You think it's tasteless to make these jokes in the current era of gun violence, so imagine making it about a president who has actually already survived an assassination attempt!)
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Cupcake Choco

Maryland school district restricts hugs, party invitations and cupcakes

Erin McClam
NBC News
Wed, 20 Mar 2013 14:51 UTC
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A county in Maryland is putting limits on some of the trappings of elementary school: Hugs from grown-ups are restricted, birthday-party invitations are banned, and no more bringing cupcakes for the whole class.

Parents who visit the 17 elementary schools in St. Mary's County are still allowed to hug their own children, just not other kids. Only parents registered as volunteers are allowed on the playground, and even then they can't push other people's kids on the swings.

"What's OK with some families is not OK with others," Kelly Hall, the district's executive director of elementary schools, told NBC News on Tuesday.

The guidelines come from a committee of parents and school administrators that started meeting last fall. They were put in place after the massacre last December in Newtown, Conn. District officials stress that they are not final, and say they want feedback from parents.
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Pistol

Colorado Gov. Hickenlooper signs landmark gun-control bills

Matthew DeLuca
NBC News
Wed, 20 Mar 2013 14:47 UTC
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© Brennan Linsley / AP file
Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, left, serving as moderator in a debate on gun violence hosted by CELL, the Counterterrorism Education Learning Lab, listens as University of Colorado law professor and panelist David Kopel speaks against gun control legislation in Denver, Tuesday Feb. 19, 2013.
Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper signed landmark new gun laws on Wednesday expanding background checks on gun purchases and limiting the size of ammunition magazines, placing the traditionally firearm-friendly state among the handful to pass new restrictions in the wake of the shooting in Newtown, Conn.

The Democratic governor defended the legislation in a press conference on Wednesday. Hickenlooper said he had found widespread support among state residents for broadening background checks, and dismissed the idea that politicians had been pressured from outside the state.

"This didn't come from the White House," Hickenlooper said.

Hickenlooper's signature came the day after the head of Colorado's Department of Corrections, Tom Clements, was shot and killed in his home, apparently after he answered a ring at his front door, authorities said.

The state has been scarred by some of the deadliest incidents of mass gun violence in recent U.S. history, including the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School and the Aurora movie theater shooting that killed 12 last July. The state's gun control bills have gained national attention since they were first proposed, drawing the ire of those who oppose any new restrictions on gun purchases or ownership.

"We're all in shock here," state Senator Greg Brophy, a Republican, said on Wednesday. "It turns out this guy who everybody thought was a moderate Democrat is actually a gun-control governor."
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USA

Reminding the people why they need U.S.: Bombs kill nearly 60 on Iraq invasion anniversary

Patrick Markey and Kareem Raheem
Reuters
Tue, 19 Mar 2013 14:42 UTC
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© REUTERS/Mohammed Ameen
Residents gather at the site of a car bomb attack in the AL-Mashtal district in Baghdad March 19, 2013.
More than a dozen car bombs and suicide blasts tore through Shi'ite Muslim districts in the Iraqi capital Baghdad and other areas on Tuesday, killing nearly 60 people on the 10th anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.

Sunni Islamist insurgents linked to al Qaeda are regaining ground in Iraq, invigorated by the war next door in Syria and have stepped up attacks on Shi'ite targets in an attempt to provoke a wider sectarian confrontation.

One car bomb exploded in a busy Baghdad market, three detonated in the Shi'ite district of Sadr City and another near the entrance of the heavily fortified Green Zone that sent a plume of dark smoke into the air alongside the River Tigris.

A suicide bomber in a truck attacked a police base in a Shi'ite town south of the capital, and another blew himself up inside a restaurant to target a police major in the northern city of Mosul.

"I was driving my taxi and suddenly I felt my car rocked. Smoke was all around. I saw two bodies on the ground. People were running and shouting everywhere," said Ali Radi, a taxi driver caught in one of the blasts in Baghdad's Sadr City.
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