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15 Tote in Mogadischu – Islamisten-Miliz stürmt UN-Gebäude in Somalia

In Somalias Hauptstadt Mogadischu haben Kämpfer einer islamistischen Miliz ein Gebäude der Vereinten Nationen angegriffen. Erst zündete ein Attentäter am Eingang eine Bombe, dann stürmten bewaffnete Angreifer das Areal. Mindestens 15 Menschen starben.

In der somalischen Hauptstadt Mogadischu hat die radikal-islamische Al-Schabaab-Miliz am Mittwoch eine UN-Niederlassung angegriffen. Dabei kamen mindestens 15 Menschen ums Leben. Unter den Toten seien vier ausländische Mitarbeiter des UN-Entwicklungsprogramms (UNDP) und vier somalische Sicherheitskräfte, sagte Innenminister Abdikarim Husien Gulled am Nachmittag. Auch mehrere Attentäter kamen ums Leben. Zudem wurden mindestens zehn Zivilisten verletzt.

Ein Selbstmordattentäter und Bewaffnete konnten nach Angaben der Vereinten Nationen in das Gebäude eindringen. Nach Polizeiangaben zündete der Selbstmordattentäter am Eingang zum Haus des UN-Entwicklungsprogramms zunächst einen Sprengsatz. Daraufhin hätten mehrere bewaffnete Männer das Gebäude gestürmt und um sich geschossen.

Die Gefechte dauerten den Angaben zufolge länger als eine Stunde. Nach Angaben eines Militärsprechers, der namentlich nicht genannt werden wollte, waren sieben oder acht Angreifer an der Tat beteiligt. Viele Anwohner flohen in Panik, und mehrere Gebäude in dem Gebiet wurden beschädigt, berichtete der britische Sender BBC.

Regierungstruppen brachten Gebäude unter Kontrolle

Regierungstruppen gelang es gemeinsam mit Soldaten der Afrikanischen Union (AU), das Gelände zu umstellen und den Komplex unter ihre Kontrolle bringen. Der Gebäudekomplex, in dem Büros von UN-Organisationen wie Unicef, der Weltgesundheitsorganisation WHO und des UNDP untergebracht sind, liegt gegenüber des Stützpunktes der Somalia-Mission der AU.

Aus UN-Kreisen im benachbarten Kenia hieß es, das gesamte Personal der Anlage sei in Sicherheit gebracht worden. Das UN-Entwicklungsprogramm ist mehrere hundert Meter vom festungsartig gesicherten Flughafen entfernt, über den der Nachschub für die afrikanische Friedenstruppe in dem Bürgerkriegsland am Horn von Afrika läuft. 18 ;000 Soldaten der AU-Mission unterstützen die Regierung beim Wiederaufbau.

Islamistische Miliz bekennt sich zum Anschlag

Die

mit dem Terrornetzwerk Al-Kaida in Verbindung stehende somalische Al-Schabaab-Miliz

teilte mit, sie habe den UN-Sitz attackiert. „Unsere Kommandos haben den UN-Komplex angegriffen, eine Explosion ausgelöst, sind in den Komplex eingedrungen und kämpfen nun gegen die Truppen der Ungläubigen“, sagte ein Shebab-Vertreter. Die Angaben konnten jedoch zunächst nicht überprüft werden.

Die Milizen hatten in jüngster Zeit ihre Angriffe in Mogadischu wieder intensiviert, nachdem Truppen der Afrikanischen Union die Al-Schabaab-Kämpfer im August 2011 aus der Hauptstadt vertrieben hatten. Seit dem Sturz von Machthaber Siad Barre im Jahr 1991 herrscht in Somalia Bürgerkrieg. In den vergangenen Jahren entwickelte sich das Land am Horn von Afrika zu einem Rückzugsgebiet für Islamisten und Piraten.

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15 Tote in Mogadischu – Islamisten-Miliz stürmt UN-Gebäude in Somalia

Cheney to China: Obama interview

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

  • In a PBS interview, Obama dismisses criticism that “now he’s Dick Cheney”
  • National security is his No. 1 priority — then he adds middle class woes are important, too
  • Obama and China’s president “had a very blunt conversation about cybersecurity”
  • Obama disagrees with those who say the U.S. is scarred by Iraq and should avoid Syria

(CNN) — As his popularity has dropped to 45%, the lowest in a year and a half, President Barack Obama talked with PBS’ Charlie Rose.

The president covered a world of issues, including how some critics now liken him to a particular Republican adversary. Here are his thoughts on seven of the topics he discussed on Monday evening.

Obama as the new Dick Cheney?

When asked if there is enough transparency in how government seeks secret court orders to obtain phone records, Obama abruptly brought up former Vice President Dick Cheney, who served under President George W. Bush.

“Some people say well, Obama was this raving liberal before, now he’s Dick Cheney. Dick Cheney sometimes says, ‘Yes, you know, he took it all, lock stock and barrel,’” Obama said, referring to the Bush-Cheney security agenda.

Obama bristles at suggestion he has shifted on snooping

“My concern has always been not that we shouldn’t do intelligence gathering to prevent terrorism but rather are we setting up a system of checks and balances?” Obama added.

His administration has advanced checks on security initiatives, he said. “You know, what amuses me is now folks on the right who were fine when it was a Republican president but now Obama’s coming in with a black helicopter,” Obama added.

Obama asserted that the process of securing secret rulings from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court is transparent and is examined by the U.S. Justice Department and Congress.

On surveillance

In the wake of revelations that his administration secured a secret court order to obtain Verizon phone logs, the president assured Americans that the National Security Agency isn’t listening to phone calls or targeting personal e-mails — unless the government has a specific court order to do so.

Obama’s job is to balance national security and personal freedom.

“To say there’s a trade-off doesn’t mean somehow that we’ve abandoned freedom. I don’t think anybody says we’re no longer free because we have checkpoints at airports,” Obama said.

“My job is both to protect the American people and to protect the American way of life, which includes our privacy. And so every program that we engage in, what I’ve said is, let’s examine and make sure that we’re making the right tradeoffs,” Obama added.

His top priorities

National security is Obama’s No. 1 priority, he said, but he quickly added he hasn’t forgotten you — the working person now reeling in the recession’s aftermath and struggling to find or keep a job.

That’s why he became president in the first place, he said.

“The biggest challenge we face right now, in addition to the ongoing challenge of national security, is having recovered from the worst recession since the Great Depression, having dug our way out, with the economy now growing, jobs being created, auto industry back, stock market back, housing recovering by about 10% in terms of prices,” Obama said, “how do we now go back to the issue that led me to run for president in the first place — which is the fact that the economy is not working for everybody, that we have the structural problems that could lead us to second-rate status if they continue.”

Growing economic inequality and declining wages for middle-class families is occurring in the United States — and “worldwide,” Obama added — because of globalization and technology.

“We’ve got to address that if we are going to continue to be the greatest nation on Earth,” the president said. “And that is the thing that I’m going to be focused on for the remainder of my presidency, along with the basics like making sure nobody blows us up.”

Iran’s new president

Obama noted how the newly elected president of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, is a centrist, which gives Obama optimism that Iran may now want to seriously address its nuclear program, which many feel is being used to eventually build weapons. In response, Iran is now being internationally punished with “the most powerful” economic sanctions ever applied against it, Obama said.

“The Iranian people rebuffed the hardliners and the clerics in the election who were counseling no compromise on anything, anytime, anywhere,” Obama said. “Clearly you have a hunger within Iran to engage with the international community in a more positive way.

U.S. takes ‘wait and see’ stance on Iran’s new president

“Our bottom lines have been, show the international community that you’re abiding by international treaties and obligations, that you’re not developing a nuclear weapon.”

Supporting Syrian opposition

Though his administration has declared that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons in his country’s two-year civil war, and as a result he has pledged military support for the opposition, Obama avoided specifying what kind of military support that will be.

What complicates the matter is how some of the Syrian opposition is affiliated with al Qaeda.

G8 leaders agree on need but not methods to stop Syrian bloodshed

“One of the challenges that we have is that some of the most effective fighters within the opposition have been those who, frankly, are not particularly friendly toward the United States of America. And arming them willy-nilly is not a good recipe for meeting American interests over the long term,” Obama said.

He also spoke of avoiding a sectarian Islamic quagmire between Shiites and Sunnis in Syria.

The United States has learned some hard lessons from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, he said.

“We know what it’s like to rush into a war in the Middle East without having thought it through. And there are elements within the Middle East who see this entirely through the prism of a Shia/Sunni conflict and want the United States to simply take the side of the Sunnis. And that I do not think serves American interests,” Obama said.

“Now on the other side there are folks who say, ‘You know we are so scarred from Iraq, we should have learned our lesson, we should not have anything to do with it.’

“Well I reject that view as well because the fact of the matter is that we’ve got serious interests there and not only humanitarian interests. We can’t have a situation of ongoing chaos in a major country that borders a country like Jordan, which in turn borders Israel. And we have a legitimate need to be engaged and to be involved.”

Meeting with China on alleged hacking

Last week, Obama met with new Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The U.S. president broached the serious allegations of hacking against China.

“You know, when you’re having a conversation like this I don’t think you ever expect a Chinese leader to say, ‘You know what? You’re right. You caught us red-handed. We’re just stealing all your stuff and every day we try to figure out how we can get into Apple,’” Obama said.

‘New model’ for U.S.-China relations

But, he added: “We had a very blunt conversation about cybersecurity” with the Chinese president.

Ben Bernanke on way out?

Asked if he is going to reappoint Ben Bernanke to a third term as Federal Reserve chairman, Obama sidestepped a direct answer, opening the door to speculation that Bernanke’s tenure may be ending.

“He’s already stayed a lot longer than he wanted, or he was supposed to,” Obama said. “He has been an outstanding partner along with the White House in helping us recover much stronger than, for example, our European partners from what could have been an economic crisis of epic proportions.”

Bernanke led the central bank’s response to the global financial collapse that began in fall 2007, keeping interest rates at historic lows and shepherding a massive Fed intervention in the government bond market.

He became chairman in February 2006 as an appointee of President George W. Bush. Obama appointed Bernanke to a second term in 2010. Bernanke’s term expires on January 31, 2014.

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Cheney to China: Obama interview

Obama to call for warhead cuts


Obama to call for U.S., Russia to cut nuclear warhead supply by one-third

By Holly Yan, CNN

June 19, 2013 — Updated 0930 GMT (1730 HKT)

A missile systems analyst inspects a Minuteman III missile inside a silo in North Dakota.

A missile systems analyst inspects a Minuteman III missile inside a silo in North Dakota.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

  • Official: We hope to work with Russia to move past Cold War nuclear postures
  • New START limits the U.S. and Russia to 1,550 nuclear warheads by the year 2018
  • Obama’s plan calls for both countries to reduce stockpiles further by about one-third
  • White House: The U.S. would still have enough nukes to deter other countries from attacking

(CNN) — President Barack Obama will ask Russia to join the United States in slashing its supply of strategic nuclear warheads by about one-third, a senior administration official said.

Obama will announce the goal during a speech Wednesday in Berlin — a city rife with Cold War history.

The president will also outline his goal to reduce U.S. and Russian tactical nuclear weapons in Europe, the official said. The president hopes to work with NATO allies on proposals toward that goal.

It’s all part of Obama’s “vision of achieving the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons,” the official said.

“We will seek to negotiate these reductions with Russia to continue to move beyond Cold War nuclear postures,” the official added.

Obama’s speech will take place almost exactly 50 years after President John F. Kennedy delivered his “Ich bin ein Berliner” — or “I am a Berliner” — speech in the city that was divided by Western and Soviet occupations during the Cold War.

Berlin is also where President Ronald Reagan’s delivered a famous line to the Soviet Union in 1987: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

Beyond New START

Obama’s latest proposals come two years after New START — a nuclear agreement between the United States and Russia — went into effect. New START, which stands for strategic arms reduction treaty, calls for both countries to limit their nuclear warhead arsenal to 1,550 by the year 2018.

Obama’s proposals Wednesday would reduce both stockpiles by another one-third — to roughly 1,000 warheads for each country.

U.S. guidance on nukes

After New START was ratified, Obama ordered a detailed internal analysis of U.S. nuclear needs and what it would take to deter other countries from attacking, the White House said.

“The president has determined that we can ensure our security and that of our allies and partners … while safely pursuing up to a one-third reduction in deployed strategic nuclear warheads below the New START treaty level,” the administration official said.

Obama has also said the United States will only consider the use of nuclear weapons in extreme circumstances to defend the vital interests of the United States or its allies and partners, the White House said.

Pressuring Iran and North Korea

The United States will continue working to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, with specific pressure on Iran and North Korea, the administration official said.

Obama will also participate in the 2014 Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague and will host a Nuclear Security Summit in 2016 to work with other countries in securing nuclear materials and preventing nuclear terrorism, the official said.

Nuclear deterrence could restrain N. Korea, Iran

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Obama to call for warhead cuts

Bollywood star in baby scandal

Indian Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan (left) poses with his wife Gauri.

Indian Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan (left) poses with his wife Gauri.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

  • Health Ministry investigates reports Bollywood star and wife expecting a boy
  • Sex determination tests are banned in India due to a traditional preference for sons
  • Doctors and parents that break the law face time in jail, expert says
  • Sex detection tests are also banned in China and South Korea

Hong Kong (CNN) — A Bollywood star is facing a storm of controversy over the sex of his unborn child.

India’s Health Ministry has launched an investigation into media reports that the actor Shah Rukh Khan and his wife are expecting a boy through a surrogate mother.

Sex determination tests are banned in India, and elsewhere in Asia, due to a traditional preference for sons.

Dr Jignesh Thakkar of the Indian Radiological & Imaging Association told CNN that India’s Health Ministry had investigated the case at the association’s request.

“We wanted to know how this had been leaked out because it’s confidential information that only a doctor and not even a patient knows,” said Thakkar, who is the association’s coordinator for the Pre-Conception Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act that bans sex selection.

“Action should be taken against the doctors and the patients who are not following this law. The celebrities or the rich and famous cannot get away with it.”

Khan — who has a 16-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter — has not yet commented on the issue.

Thakkar said that doctors proven to have divulged an unborn child’s sex could face three years in jail and the suspension of their medical license for five years, while parents could face up to five years in jail.

India banned sex detection in 1996 as it attempted to prevent the abortions of girls but, according to Rob Brooks at the University of New South Wales in Australia, this measure has had little impact on the country’s skewed sex ratio.

Sex detection tests are also illegal in China, another country where sex ratios are strongly biased toward males, but the ban has done little to correct the country’s gender ratio, which in 2011 stood at 117 men for every 100 women. The global average is between 103 to 107 men per 100 women.

“It’s not particularly effective because there are always unscrupulous doctors,” he said.

“And ultrasound is a really important diagnostic technology so people go and get the ultrasound for other reasons and sometimes you can’t help but notice the sex of the child.”

READ: Some find ways to beat one-child policy

Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran, Afghanistan, Taiwan and South Korea also have unbalanced gender ratios, Brooks added.

Brooks said that, in India, the preference for sons was historically confined to upper castes but as its economy has grown and the technology for sex selection made more widely available, the middle class had adopted the practice.

In China, the preference is magnified by the country’s one-child policy and campaigns to stress gender equality are undermined by provisions that allow families in rural areas to have a second child if the first is a girl.

“Rich people want to have a male heir to inherit the family fortune, while people in rural areas want strong manpower and farmers think boys can do more to the help the family,” Zhang Zhongtang, an expert in family planning from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences told the Global Times in March.

READ: Forced abortion sparks outrage, debate in China

Brooks said that banning abortion for sex selection is just one small part of the measures needed to change attitudes, with improvements needed in women’s rights to property ownership and better pension provision to reduce parents’ reliance on their children along with reform to dowries and dowry like systems.

But change is possible. Through legal reforms and a “love your daughter” public awareness campaign that highlighted the dangers of skewed sex ratios, South Korea managed to reduce its sex ratio at birth from 116 men per 100 women to 107 by 2007.

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Bollywood star in baby scandal

Fire threatens hundreds of U.S. homes


Fast-moving wildfire threatens hundreds of homes near Yosemite

By Miguel Marquez and Greg Botelho, CNN

June 19, 2013 — Updated 0250 GMT (1050 HKT)

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

  • NEW: The fire has burned nearly 1,900 acres and is 40% contained
  • More than 2,200 fire personnel are fighting Carstens Fire; 800 structures threatened
  • The blaze is striking in and around Mairposa County near Yosemite National Park
  • The fire is happening weeks before the normal start of wildfire season in California

Mariposa, California (CNN) — More than 2,000 firefighters rushed Tuesday to save hundreds of homes near Yosemite National Park, which are threatened by a blaze alarming for its size, speed and the fact it’s striking so early in California’s wildfire season.

The Carstens Fire “is exhibiting extreme behavior to include fire whirls and strong adverse winds,” reported California’s Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, which is known as CalFire.

That has left many in the affected area on edge, including some told to grab whatever they can from their home and get to safety.

Orlando Vigil is one of them, telling CNN affiliate KGPE that it’s been stressful for animals he took from his property to the Mariposa County Fairgrounds. They’re safe now, but he’s not so sure about his home.

“We’ll see if there’s anything when when we get back,” Vigil said.

Summer wildfires are nothing new in California. But this one is happening weeks earlier than normal, and comes as parts of the state experience “exceptional” dryness that could fuel flames.

“We usually see this sort of fire behavior in August. This is June,” said Gary Wuchner, fire spokesman for Yosemite National Park. “It’s making us nervous.”

The Carstens Wildfire was first spotted Sunday afternoon, after embers from a campfire that hadn’t been totally put out spread into surrounding forest.

By Tuesday night, it had burned nearly 1,900 acres, of which 40% was considered contained, according to CalFire. Some 2,200 fire personnel were working the scene, using 53 engines, 11 water tenders. eight bulldozers and other equipment.

At least 800 structures are imperiled by the blaze, with some residents taking up shelter at Mariposa Elementary School. Red Cross officials are there with food, medical help and other basics.

“We also have a mental health worker to help those that are overstressed emotionally from the ordeal of being uprooted from their home,” Cindy Thomas of the Red Cross told KGPE.

Not everyone is heeding the calls to evacuate, however.

Among them is Paul “Bear” Vasquez. More than 37 million people have viewed his YouTube video showing him becoming overjoyed and then breaking down at the site of a vibrant double rainbow over a mountain in 2010.

Today, that mountain is singed by the Carstens Fire. But Vasquez says he’s staying on the property he bought in 1998, hacking out of the wilderness a spot for the home where he’s raised his children.

“I am the protector of this land,” he said. “I am part of this place. It has magical powers and I can’t leave.”

CNN’s Miguel Marquez reported from Mariposa, California, and Greg Botelho reported and wrote this story from Atlanta.

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Fire threatens hundreds of U.S. homes

Trust us, we’re from Silicon Valley

Fearful of a backlash over surveillance, Facebook, Google and other tech companies deny giving the NSA access to their servers.

Fearful of a backlash over surveillance, Facebook, Google and other tech companies deny giving the NSA access to their servers.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

  • Big Internet companies are tripping over themselves to bolster their public image
  • Apple, Facebook, Google and others deny giving the NSA access to their servers
  • The tech companies have released aggregate numbers of total U.S. data requests
  • But the disclosures skirt around the central issue of the NSA-snooping controversy

(Time) — Trust us, we’re from Silicon Valley.

America’s largest Internet companies are tripping over themselves to bolster their public image following blockbuster disclosures about their role in the U.S. government’s controversial data-gathering program.

Ever since news reports suggested that major tech firms — including Apple, Google, Facebook and Yahoo — provide the National Security Agency (NSA) with unfettered or “direct” access to their servers, the companies have been waging an aggressive campaign to demonstrate that they’re not government stooges.

Now, several of the top Silicon Valley firms are engaged in a game of one-upmanship to show that they are the most transparent Internet company on the block.

The initial reports about “direct access,” as part of a classified U.S. intelligence system called Prism, have turned out to be wrong. But the Prism reports have highlighted long-standing privacy fears about how the largest U.S. tech companies handle their vast troves of user data. The Internet giants have come under scrutiny following reports that the NSA uses Prism to examine data — including e-mails, videos and online chats — that it collects via requests made under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), one of the controversial laws at the heart of the current NSA-snooping furor.

Following the Prism leak, which was supplied to the Guardian and the Washington Post by whistle-blower Edward Snowden, Apple, Google, Facebook and Yahoo all issued statements — in strikingly similar legal language — denying that they give the NSA “direct” or unfettered access to their computer servers.

But the companies apparently felt the need to go further than those denials, and in recent days have engaged in a competition to demonstrate their commitment to transparency.

MORE: Google: We’re no NSA stooge, and we’ll prove it if the feds let us

Although Silicon Valley has roots in the U.S. military — the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency was central to the development of the Internet — today’s big tech companies are keen to demonstrate their independence from the government and often display a libertarian streak.

Many engineers in Silicon Valley are sympathetic to “hacker” culture. Above all, Silicon Valley tech titans are wary of losing the trust of consumers, which could endanger their businesses. These companies are no doubt well aware of the numerous more secure alternatives to their services, some of which enable users to roam the Internet anonymously.

Google kicked off the transparency battle last week when it asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and FBI Director Robert Mueller for permission to publish “aggregate numbers of national-security requests, including FISA disclosures — in terms of both the number we receive and their scope.”

That request was noteworthy because it was the first time Google had even acknowledged that it receives national-security FISA requests. Facebook and Microsoft quickly followed suit with similar requests. A Department of Justice spokesperson told TIME that the agency is in the process of reviewing the request.

Then, over the weekend, Facebook, which unlike Google has never published a transparency report, reached an agreement with the government allowing it to disclose data on U.S. information requests. Facebook said that for the six months ending Dec. 31, 2012, it received between 9,000 and 10,000 data requests, including criminal and national-security-related requests, covering between 18,000 and 19,000 accounts.

“We’re pleased that as a result of our discussions, we can now include in a transparency report all U.S. national-security-related requests (including FISA as well as National Security Letters) — which until now no company has been permitted to do,” Facebook general counsel Ted Ullyot said in a not-so-subtle dig at the company’s rivals.

Shortly thereafter, Microsoft released similar data, indicating that the company received between 6,000 and 7,000 criminal and national-security requests affecting between 31,000 and 32,000 consumer accounts.

“This only impacts a tiny fraction of Microsoft’s global customer base,” John Frank, Microsoft’s deputy general counsel, said in a blog post. “Transparency alone may not be enough to restore public confidence, but it’s a great place to start.”

On Monday, Apple joined the party and announced that from Dec. 1, 2012, to May 31, 2013, it received between 4,000 and 5,000 requests from U.S. law enforcement for customer data related to between 9,000 and 10,000 accounts or devices, including both criminal investigations and national-security “matters.” Apple said it was releasing the data “in the interest of transparency.”

Yahoo followed late Monday, saying it received “between 12,000 and 13,000 requests, inclusive of criminal, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), and other requests.”

MORE: Here’s why Google is buying Waze, a red-hot mobile traffic app, for $1 billion

Here’s the problem. According to the agreement Facebook, Microsoft, Apple and Yahoo reached with the government, the companies were only permitted to release aggregate numbers of total U.S. data requests. Crucially, they were not permitted to separately break out the number of FISA requests.

For this reason, we don’t know if they received 50 FISA requests, 500 or 5,000. As a result, the disclosures, while laudable, skirt around the central issue of the NSA-snooping controversy, which is the nature and extent of the companies’ participation in secret U.S. national-security investigations.

“We believe the companies should be allowed to break out specific numbers for FISA requests,” said Amie Stepanovich, director of the Domestic Surveillance Project at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a Washington-based public-interest organization. “These numbers would provide nationwide transparency. We also believe that individual users targeted under FISA should receive notice that they were subject to surveillance, even after the fact, so they have the chance to contest the surveillance in court.”

For Google, which earlier this year was the first Internet company to disclose requests made for National Security Letters (NSLs) — a separate type of query than FISA requests — the arrangement struck by Facebook, Microsoft, Apple and Yahoo was not satisfactory.

“We have always believed that it’s important to differentiate between different types of government requests,” Google said in a statement. “We already publish criminal requests separately from National Security Letters. Lumping the two categories together would be a step back for users. Our request to the government is clear: to be able to publish aggregate numbers of national-security requests, including FISA disclosures, separately.”

MORE: Viewpoint: Obama’s ‘patent troll’ reform: Why everyone should care

Twitter, which was not named in the NSA leak as a participant in the Prism program, quickly threw its support behind Google.

“We agree with Google,” Benjamin Lee, Twitter’s legal director, said in a Twitter message. “It’s important to be able to publish numbers of national-security requests — including FISA disclosures — separately.”

Thus, the contours of the transparency battle were drawn. On one side: Facebook, Microsoft and Apple. On the other, Google and Twitter.

For their part, Facebook, Microsoft and Yahoo said they would continue to urge the government to allow them to be more specific about national-security requests, including FISA requests. Facebook said it would continue “to push for even more transparency, so that our users around the world can understand how infrequently we are asked to provide user data on national-security grounds.” Microsoft said: “What we are permitted to publish continues to fall short of what is needed to help the community understand and debate these issues.”

But only Google has thus far resisted striking a deal with the government on the disclosure of data requests. On Monday, a Google spokesperson told TIME that the company had no update on its negotiations with the government concerning breaking out FISA requests.

&copy 2012 TIME, Inc. TIME is a registered trademark of Time Inc. Used with permission.

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Trust us, we’re from Silicon Valley

Police: Attacker saws off own hands


Police: Son stabs father, then saws off his own hands

By Elwyn Lopez and Greg Botelho, CNN

June 18, 2013 — Updated 2324 GMT (0724 HKT)

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

  • A northern California sheriff’s office says a son stabbed his father with scissors
  • The son, 27, then cut off his hands with a radial-arm saw, authorities say
  • Both father and son had life-threatening injuries but were still alive the next day
  • “I just can’t imagine anything like that happening between family,” a neighbor says

(CNN) — A 59-year-old man lay bloody on the driveway. His son stood nearby, both his hands cut off at the wrist.

That’s the gruesome scene Shasta County, California, sheriff’s deputies encountered Monday afternoon, before calling ambulances to transport the two to area hospitals.

A full day later, both Gregory Dunn and his son Jason are still alive despite their life-threatening injuries, said sheriff’s office Detective Will Gardner.

No charges had been filed in the case as of Tuesday afternoon. The incident is being investigated as an attempted homicide, police said.

The bloody scene played out Monday in the northern California city of Redding, in a neighborhood close to a municipal airport in that city.

According to police, what began as a verbal fight between family members at some point became physical. Based on interviews, the sheriff’s office alleged that the 27-year-old son stabbed his father multiple times with scissors.

Then, the sheriff’s office said a press release, Jason Dunn mutilated himself by using a radial-arm saw to sever his hands.

Neighbors heard the altercation, as did an unnamed witness who contacted authorities, according to Gardner.

Gary Rinehart told CNN affiliate KRCR that he saw both men being wheeled from the scene into separate ambulances. The first, the son, had “a lot of blood at the end of his arms, like his hands weren’t there.” The second, the father, had “blood in the upper area.”

“This is definitely the craziest thing that’s ever happened on this street,” Rinehart said.

The father would walk his dog around the neighborhood, according to Rinehart, who described him as a “nice guy” based on their occasional conversations. The neighbor said he’d only met the son once in eight years living there, when Jason Dunn apologized for shooting a pellet gun toward another neighbor’s house.

Reflecting Tuesday on the bloody incident that occurred across the street from his home, Rinehart said, “I just can’t imagine anything like that happening between family.”

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Feds: 3 in Ohio held woman, child in ‘subhuman’ conditions

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Police: Attacker saws off own hands

Wieder ein Entführungsfall in Ohio – Mit Schlangen und Kampfhunden bedroht: Mutter und Kind jahrelang versklavt

Zwei Jahre lang wurden eine behinderte Mutter und ihr Kind im US-Bundesstaat Ohio wie Sklaven gehalten. Eine Frau und zwei Männer sollen sie gequält, geschlagen und mit Kampfhunden sowie Schlangen bedroht haben. So zwangen sie die geistig behinderte Frau, Haus- und Gartenarbeiten für sie zu erledigen.

In Ashland im US-Bundesstaat Ohio sollen eine Frau und ihr Kind zwei Jahre lang gewaltsam festgehalten worden sein. Wie die Lokalstation „WCPO“ des Fernsehsenders CNN berichtete, wurden am Dienstag zwei Männer und eine Frau aus Ashland verhaftet. Sie sollen die geistig behinderte Mutter gezwungen haben, Haus- und Gartenarbeiten für sie zu erledigen.

Sie hätten sie geschlagen und ihr mit dem Tode gedroht – unter anderem mit Kampfhunden und Schlangen. Außerdem sollen sie Mutter und Kind gezwungen haben, in einem abgeschlossenen Raum mit einem großen Leguan zu schlafen. Tagelang sei ihnen das Essen entzogen worden. Nach Berichten der Polizei sei die Mutter vor laufender Videokamera gezwungen worden, ihr eigenes Kind zu schlagen. Dann sei ihr angedroht worden, das Video der Polizei zu übergeben, falls sie fliehen würde.

„Sklaverei existiert auch heute“

„Wir wurden erneut daran erinnert, dass auch in der modernen Zeit Sklaverei um uns herum existiert“, sagte Steven M. Dettlebach, Staatsanwalt für den Norden Ohios der Fernsehstation. „Einer der Grundwerte unserer Gesellschaft ist Freiheit, und diese wurden der Frau und ihrem Kind für zwei Jahre verweigert. In diesem Fall mussten die Opfer Gewalt, Drohungen, unmenschliche Lebensbedingungen und entsetzliche Taten ertragen“.

Der 26-jährige Jodie L., die 31 Jahre alte Jessica H. sowie der 33-jährige Daniel B. seien am Dienstag festgenommen worden, wie „WCOP“ berichtet. Ihnen werde Zwangsarbeit vorgeworfen. L. soll außerdem einen Zeugen bestochen haben. „Die Straßen sind um einiges sicherer, jetzt wo diese Typen eingesperrt sind“, sagte der Chef der Polizei von Ashland, David Marcelli.

Gegen die Festgenommen wird Anklage erhoben

Gegen die Festgenommenen sollte noch im Laufe des Dienstags Anklage erhoben werden. Die Polizei habe die Ermittlungen bereits im vergangenen Jahr aufgenommen, nachdem die Frau Süßigkeiten in einem Laden gestohlen hatte. Sie habe damals angegeben, dass sie bei Menschen lebe, die gemein zu ihr seien. Am Dienstag habe die Polizei schließlich das Haus gestürmt. Die Opfer seien nun in Sicherheit.

„Die Beschuldigten haben die das grundlegendste aller Bürgerrechte der Opfer verletzt: Freiheit“, sagte Stephen D. Anthony, ein Sonderermittler des FBI-Büros Cleveland. „Und das, indem sie ihren Grundinstinkt ausgenutzt haben: Den Schutz ihres Kindes“, ergänzte Anthony.

Im Mai wurden Entführungsopfer in Cleveland befreit

Erst Anfang Mai war ein anderer

spektakulärer Entführungsfall im Bundesstaat Ohio

bekannt geworden. In Cleveland hatte in Mann drei junge Frauen entführt und zehn Jahre lang in seinem Haus gefangen gehalten. Dort quälte und missbrauchte er sie, mehrmals kam es zu Schwangerschaften. Eines der Opfer brachte während des Martyriums eine Tochter zur Welt.

Mit Hilfe von Nachbarn hatte sich eine der Frauen befreien können

. Daraufhin hatte die Polizei das Haus gestürmt, die anderen Opfer befreit und kurz darauf auch den Täter festgenommen.

Originally posted here: 

Wieder ein Entführungsfall in Ohio – Mit Schlangen und Kampfhunden bedroht: Mutter und Kind jahrelang versklavt

Bush’s war on terror is over

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

  • Terrorism has been in the news with Boston bombing and killing of UK soldier in the street
  • Peter Bergen says despite recent acts, the enemy behind 9/11 has been defeated
  • He says President Obama signaled he wants Bush’s endless war on terror to end
  • Bergen: Key part of Obama speech was idea that America’s perpetual war footing should end

Editor’s note: Peter Bergen is CNN’s national security analyst, a director at the New America Foundation and the author of “Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for bin Laden — From 9/11 to Abbottabad,” the basis for the HBO documentary “Manhunt” that will be shown on CNN at 9 p.m. ET Monday.

Washington (CNN) — In the past few weeks, we’ve seen a British soldier hacked to death with a meat cleaver on the streets of London and bombers blowing up spectators at the Boston Marathon.

On the surface, terrorism is alive and well.

So how should the United States react to these continuing threats?

Peter Bergen

Peter Bergen

For the first time on Thursday, President Obama laid out the full scope of his proposed counterterrorism strategy, and it boiled down to this: George W. Bush’s endless war on terror is over.

And that’s appropriate, since the enemy Bush went to war with after September 11 has largely been defeated.

Obama’s speech at the National Defense University in Washington was designed to lay the political groundwork to wind down America’s longest war, the war that began when al Qaeda destroyed the World Trade Center and a wing of the Pentagon 12 years ago.

Thursday’s speech was the first time Obama had delivered an overarching framework for how to conceptualize the conflict that has defined U.S. national security policy since 9/11.

Other speeches by Obama have focused on aspects of that conflict, such as Guantanamo and the Afghan war. But no speech has made such an expansive examination of the war against al Qaeda and its allies in all its manifestations, from drone strikes to detention policies to a clear-eyed assessment of the scope of the threats posed by al Qaeda and its affiliates, as well as by those “homegrown” extremists who attacked the Boston Marathon in April.

Much of the coverage of the speech has centered on the measures the president outlined to impose greater constraints on CIA drone strikes and to try to hasten the eventual closing of Guantanamo.

But the most significant aspect of the speech was the president’s case that the “perpetual wartime footing” and “boundless war on terror” that has permeated so much of American life since 9/11 should come to an end.

Obama argued that the time has come to redefine the kind of conflict that the United States is engaged in: “We must define the nature and scope of this struggle, or else it will define us.”

This is why the president focused part of his speech on a discussion of the seemingly arcane Authorization for the Use of Military Force that Congress passed days after 9/11 and that gave Bush the authority to go to war in Afghanistan against al Qaeda and its Taliban allies.

Few, if any, in Congress who voted for the authorization understood at the time that they were voting for a virtual blank check that has provided the legal basis for more than a decade of war. It is a war that has expanded in recent years to other countries in the Middle East and Africa, such as Yemen and Somalia, where the U.S. has engaged in covert military operations against al Qaeda-affiliated groups.

Theoretically, when U.S. combat troops finally withdraw from Afghanistan in December 2014, the authorization should simply expire, and the nation will no longer be at war. After all, once combat operations are over in Afghanistan, why would you want to keep in place an authorization for a permanent war?

However, there are now some in Congress who would like to expand the scope of the Authorization for the Use of Military Force beyond its present parameters to include military operations against terrorist groups that were not involved in the 9/11 attacks, which could prolong America’s wars indefinitely and add additional terrorist groups to the United States’ list of enemies it is at war with.

U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tennessee, ranking member of the influential Senate Foreign Relations Committee, for instance, last month called for an expansion of the scope of the authorization.

Obama made it quite clear in his Thursday speech that he would oppose such an expansion, saying he hopes instead to “ultimately repeal the AUMF’s mandate. And I will not sign laws designed to expand this mandate further.”

In short, Obama intends to end a seemingly endless war.

That’s because, according to Obama, “the core of al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan is on the path to defeat. Their remaining operatives spend more time thinking about their own safety than plotting against us.”

On Thursday, Obama asserted (in my view, correctly) that what remains of the terrorist threat, while significant and persistent, is nothing on the scale of the al Qaeda organization that launched the 9/11 operation and instead consists of “less capable al Qaeda affiliates, threats to diplomatic facilities and businesses abroad, homegrown extremists.”

These threats, the president further asserted, can be managed by carefully targeted drone strikes overseas and efforts to counter extremist ideology at home and do not require some kind of broader war.

Obama is also looking to his legacy and the presidents who will follow him and is trying to begin to create the public consensus and legal framework that will help to ensure that the United States isn’t “drawn into more wars we don’t need to fight, or continue to grant presidents unbound powers more suited for traditional armed conflicts between nation states.”

Obama clearly hopes to leave office in 2016 as the commander in chief who finally ended America’s longest war.

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Bush’s war on terror is over