Archive News & Video for 2013

Spies worry over doomsday cache stashed by ex-NSA contractor Snowden | Reuters
▻http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/25/us-usa-security-doomsday-idUSBRE9AO0Y120131125

(Reuters) - British and U.S. intelligence officials say they are worried about a “doomsday ( une sorte de cache secrète, on entre dans du Stevenson )” cache of highly classified, heavily encrypted material they believe former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden has stored on a data cloud.

The cache contains documents generated by the NSA and other agencies and includes names of U.S. and allied intelligence personnel, seven current and former U.S. officials and other sources briefed on the matter said.

The data is protected with sophisticated encryption, and multiple passwords are needed to open it , said two of the sources, who like the others spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.

The passwords are in the possession of at least three different people and are valid for only a brief time window each day, they said . The identities of persons who might have the passwords are unknown.

Spokespeople for both NSA and the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment.

One source described the cache of still unpublished material as Snowden’s “insurance policy” against arrest or physical harm.

#snowden #surveillance #encryption

First pieces from Banksy’s New York stunt to go on sale | Reuters

▻http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/22/us-usa-newyork-banksy-idUSBRE9AK1IW20131122

“Banskymania...”

via Jean-Christophe Servant

(Reuters) - A broken heart and a graffiti-covered car door will be the first two pieces from street artist Banksy’s New York series to go up for public sale next month in Miami.

http://s1.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20131121&t=2&i=813987747&w=460&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&r=CBRE9AK1T2E00.jpg

The sale by an artist whose pieces have gone for as much as $1.87 million at Sotheby’s has drawn fire from some street-art experts who say they are public art that Banksy did not want sold.

Banksy is the unidentified British artist who in October posted a piece of art a day, including satirized cartoons and pithy fake Plato quotes, on New York streets as part of his “Better Out Than In” series.

Israeli markets gain, investors say Iran deal not a mistake | Reuters
▻http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/24/us-israel-markets-iran-idUSBRE9AN0CC20131124

Israeli stock prices rose to another record high on Sunday, ignoring local politicians’ comments that a deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program was a mistake.

Iran and six world powers clinched a deal earlier in the day to curb the Iranian nuclear program in exchange for initial sanctions relief, signaling the start of a game-changing rapprochement that could ease the risk of a wider Middle East war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the agreement with Iran as a historic mistake that left the production of atomic weapons within Tehran’s reach. Netanyahu told his cabinet his government would not be bound by the deal.

But Israeli investors ignored such talk from Netanyahu and other lawmakers and doubt Israel will attack Iran on its own.

LIBAN. 15 morts dans un double attentat à Beyrouth
▻http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/monde/20131119.OBS5939/liban-attentat-pres-de-l-ambassade-d-iran-a-beyrouth.html

Deux explosions aux abords de l’ambassade d’Iran située dans le sud de Beyrouth ont causé la mort d’au moins 15 personnes mardi 19 novembre. Les témoins parlent d’un attentat à la voiture piégé. Une journaliste présente dans la capitale libanaise évoque des scènes de dévastation après l’attentat, le feu ayant gagné un immeuble voisin.

Special Report: The Pentagon’s doctored ledgers conceal epic waste
▻http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/18/us-usa-pentagon-waste-specialreport-idUSBRE9AH0LQ20131118

«Les registres falsifiés du #Pentagone dissimulent un #gaspillage épique»

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel declined to comment for this article. In an August 2013 video message to the entire Defense Department, he said: “The Department of Defense is the only federal agency that has not produced audit-ready financial statements, which are required by law. That’s unacceptable.”

DFAS [ organe de surveillance des dépenses du Pentagone ] Director Teresa McKay declined to be interviewed for this article.

Over the past 10 years, the Defense Department has signed contracts for the provision of more than $3 trillion in goods and services. How much of that money is wasted in overpayments to contractors, or was never spent and never remitted to the Treasury, is a mystery. That’s because of a massive backlog of “closeouts” - audits meant to ensure that a contract was fulfilled and the money ended up in the right place.

#vol

Incoherent P5+1 Hinder Iran Nuclear Talks Progress - Iran’s View | Iran’s View
▻http://www.iransview.com/incoherent-p51-hinder-iran-nuclear-talks-progress/1430

French negotiators are said to take the strictest position in the talks against Iran, witnesses of the talks have said, and their bald statements have repeatedly derailed the progress of the talks.

A member of the Iranian negotiating team told IransView that during Almaty I and II talks which took place in February and April 2013 in Kazakhstan, French Foreign Ministry Director-General for Political and Security Affairs Jacques Audibert, who served as the French top negotiator then, prompted Saeed Jalili to warn of leaving the talk session.

“While Jalili was elaborating on a PowerPoint slideshow provided by the Iranian team, Audibert undiplomatically reactioned to a slide titled as ‘Common grounds of Iran – P5+1 cooperation’ and said they had not come to cooperate with Iran to reach a deal, but to stop Iran’s nuclear program,” the diplomat, who wished to remain anonymous, said. “In response, Jalili said he would leave the room if the group is seeking to fight in the talks.”

The diplomat further added that Ashton and other members of the P5+1 group tried to stop Audibert from making such statements during the next rounds of talks.

Observers in Tehran say that France take a stark position towards Iran while the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei has invited French officials to cooperate with Iran several times.

“I would like […] to point out that officials of the French government have been openly hostile towards the Iranian nation over the past few years and this is not a clever move by French government officials,” said Ayatollah Khamenei during a speech on March 21, 2013.

“A wise politician should never have the motivation to turn a neutral country into an enemy. We have never had problems with France and the French government, neither in the past nor in the present era. However, since the time of Sarkozy, the French government has adopted a policy of opposing the Iranian nation and unfortunately the current French government is pursuing the same policy. In our opinion, this is a wrong move. It is ill-advised and unwise.”

Il semble que Mr Fabius soit seul à vouloir faire capoter les négociations avec l’Iran.

Palestinians lose more than most in Syrian exodus |

Reuters
▻http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/03/syria-crisis-palestinians-idUSL5N0IM1IW20131103

AIN AL-HELWEH, Lebanon, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Palestinians Mahmoud and Ahmed fled Syria last month for Egypt, where they paid smugglers to bring them to Europe. Once at sea, they were robbed at knifepoint and herded onto an overloaded boat that sank, pitching over 100 into the sea. [ID:nL6N0I13N9

The brothers made it back to shore while others drowned, then to be deported in days from a volatile Egypt where anti-Palestinian sentiment runs high. Now at the Lebanese camp of Ain al-Helweh, they face as Palestinians restrictions on their lives far more severe than any other refugees from Syria.

A people all too familiar with refugee life, Palestinians have lost out more than most in the exodus from Syria.

“They grabbed the women and children and tossed us onto the boats like they were tossing rocks or some other worthless thing,” said Mahmoud, 23, who asked that his family name not be used. “There was no way to turn back.”

“They pulled knives on us and took our money and mobile phones and stripped the gold off the women.”

The war has forced some 50,000 Palestinians to flee Syria, a country where they had enjoyed some of the most favourable treatment in all of the Arab world.

The number is a sliver of the 700,000 registered Syrian refugees in Lebanon, but enough to strain overcrowded and volatile camps and stir memories of Lebanon’s own civil war; a conflict some see rooted in the arrival of armed Palestinian factions in the decades after Israel’s foundation in 1948.