Articles by "Law"

Docs revealed by court order show only flimsiest safeguards against abuse.

The UK's intelligence agencies (MI5, MI6, and GCHQ) are spying on everything you do, and with only the flimsiest of safeguards in place to prevent abuse, according to more than a thousand pages of documents published today as a result of a lawsuit filed by Privacy International.
The documents reveal the details of so-called "Bulk Personal Datasets," or BPDs, which can contain "hundreds to millions of records" on people who are not suspected of any wrongdoing.
These records can be “anything from your private medical records, your correspondence with your doctor or lawyer, even what petitions you have signed, your financial data, and commercial activities,” Privacy International legal officer Millie Graham Wood said in a statement. "The information revealed by this disclosure shows the staggering extent to which the intelligence agencies hoover up our data."
Nor, it seems, are BPDs only being used to investigate terrorism and serious crime; they can and are used to protect Britain’s “economic well-being”—including preventing pirate copies of Harry Potter books from leaking before their release date.
BPDs are so powerful, in fact, that the normally toothless UK parliament watchdog that oversees intelligence gathering, the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC), recommended in February that "Class Bulk Personal Dataset warrants are removed from the new legislation."
These data sets are so large and collect so much information so indiscriminately that they even include information on dead people.

I see dead people

One document, entitled "SIA Bulk Personal Data Policy," states that "Whilst DPA [the Data Protection Act] refers only to 'a living individual', many bulk personal datasets will contain details about individuals who are dead. SIA [GCHQ, MI5, and MI6/SIS] policy and processes in relation to bulk personal data is the same for both the living and the dead."
The document does not state what threat decomposing corpses—or cremated remains—pose to national security.

But what about safeguards?

The documents show a lack of any real safeguards in place to prevent abuse of these intimate data sets beyond just "trust us." In the same document, the intel outfits write, "The Agencies must... ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to prevent and detect inappropriate use."
But what do those safeguards look like?
The SIS (aka MI6), for their part, seem to think that sternly worded bold-faced warnings will be enough to prevent temptation, writing in their “SIS database Code of Practice":
Whilst the database may afford you the potential to view information and/or data that you do not have a need to know, it is your duty and responsibility to avoid doing so...The database must not be a 'free for all'.
SIS, the document explains, has implemented rigorous technical safeguards to prevent abuse, including a drop-down menu and a free-text field:
The database users are required to fill in two mandatory fields before conducting each new search, these are: Purpose and Justification. Purpose is a drop-down field with the three statutory areas of SIS' work: NS — National Security, EW Economic Wellbeing and SC — Serious Crime. Justification is a free-text field designed for the user to provide the business need for the search, including the intelligence requirement or investigation it relates to and, where possible, a source document reference.
Well, that settles it, then. Feel better now?

What happens when the secret police are naughty?

The SIA Bulk Personal Data Policy indicates that UK intelligence agencies will discipline anyone who abuses this data, writing “The Agencies will take appropriate disciplinary action against any person identified as abusing or misusing analytical capabilities, BPD, or any information or intelligence derived therefrom.”
But what does that discipline look like? Privacy International asked the UK intelligence services to identify how many times they disciplined officers for non-compliance with those rules. In their submission to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), Privacy International asked the court to order the secret police to answer the following questions:
For each of the Intelligence Services and each set of Handling Arrangements, please state:
(a) The number of instances of non-compliance that have been detected;
(b) The number of staff members identified as responsible;
(c) The number of staff who have been (i) prosecuted; (ii) dismissed; and (iii) otherwise disciplined for non-compliance; and
(d) The means by which the instances of non-compliance were detected.
The secret services responded, indicating that in the period of June 2014 to early 2016, no officers had been prosecuted, none had been dismissed, and only five had been "subject to disciplinary procedures"—three in the SIS, two at MI5, and none at the GCHQ. In numerous cases, the agencies list non-compliance issues that resulted in no staff members being disciplined at all.

If you build it, they will come

Privacy International also expressed concern about the security of these large, sensitive data sets. "This highly sensitive information about us is vulnerable to attack from hackers, foreign governments, and criminals," Wood said.
However, security researcher Nicholas Weaver of UC Berkeley disagreed, citing the real threat: the British government itself.
"I actually think it would be very hard for an adversary to steal such data in bulk," he told Ars. "I think a far greater concern is phrased as 'What Would J. Edgar Hoover [the late, corrupt FBI director] do?': What if a demagogue—Hoover, Nixon, Trump, LePen—gains power in Britain. Such mass databases are incredibly powerful for tyrants and represent a level of potential collection and control that would make the Stasi blush."

The Investigatory Powers Bill

That seems to be where we’re headed in the UK with the new Investigatory Powers Bill (IPB), which would normalise this indiscriminate spying. The new documents reveal that the UK intelligence services have been engaged in mass surveillance since at least 2001. Now they want more. "The agencies have been doing this for 15 years in secret and are now quietly trying to put these powers on the statute books for the first time," Woods said, "in the Investigatory Powers Bill, which is currently being debated in Parliament." Privacy International filed the lawsuit in June of last year, challenging the legality of Bulk Personal Datasets, which were first mentioned in a March 2015 report. The court then heard the case in secret, barring Privacy International from sending legal counsel and, after secret deliberation, ordered these documents to be released.
Our requests for comment to the collective UK intelligence services went to /dev/null. The Home Office press office, which handles media requests for MI5, did not answer our phone calls. The FCO press office, which handles media enquiries for the SIS, did not answer our e-mailed request for comment. GCHQ did not answer our e-mail requesting comment.
J.M. Porup is a freelance cybersecurity reporter who lives in Toronto. When he dies, his epitaph will simply read, "assume breach." You can find him on Twitter at @toholdaquill.
This post originated on Ars Technica UK

David Kravets


The federally run online court document access system known as PACER now finds itself listed on a federal docket. Its overseer, the US government, is a defendant in a proposed class-action lawsuit accusing the service of overcharging the public.
The suit, brought by three nonprofits on Thursday, claims millions of dollars generated from a recent 25-percent increase in page fees are being illegally spent by the Administrative Office of the Courts (AO). The cost for access is 10 cents per page and up to $3 a document. Judicial opinions are free. This isn't likely to break the bank for some, but to others it adds up and can preclude access to public records. The National Consumer Law Center, the Alliance for Justice, and the National Veterans Legal Services Program also claim in the lawsuit that these fees are illegal because the government is charging more than necessary to keep the PACER system afloat (as is required by Congress).
The groups cite the E-Government Act of 2002, which authorizes PACER fees necessary "to reimburse expenses in providing these services." The suit says that millions of dollars in PACER online access fees have been diverted to other courthouse projects instead. The system was once a dial-in phone service and became an Internet portal in 1998. Fees began at 7 cents per page, rose to 8 cents, and now sit at 10 cents.
"Rather than reduce the fees to cover only the costs incurred, the AO instead decided to use the extra revenue to subsidize other information-technology-related projects—a mission creep that only grew worse over time," the suit (PDF) claims. Citing government records, the suit says that by the end of 2006, the judiciary's information-technology fund had accumulated a surplus of $150 million with $32 million from PACER fees [PDF]. When fees were increased to 10 cents a page in 2012, the amount of income from PACER increased to $145 million, "much of which was earmarked for other purposes such as courtroom technology, websites for jurors, and bankruptcy notification systems," according to the suit.
The suit pointed out that PACER refused to provide a four-month fee exemption in 2012 for journalists at the Center for Investigative Reporting. Those journalists “wanted to comb court filings in order to analyze ‘the effectiveness of the court’s conflict-checking software and hardware to help federal judges identify situations requiring their recusal.'" Five years before, the lawsuit notes that PACER sued a California woman claiming she owed more than $30,000 in document retrieval fees. After explaining that she didn't have "enough paper and ink to print 380,000 pages as the Complaint alleges," the government dismissed the complaint.
The Administrative Office of the Courts declined comment, saying it had a policy to not publicly discuss ongoing litigation.
This isn't the first time the PACER service has been in the legal news. In 2014, the Administrative Office of the Courts signed off on the deletion of a decade's worth of PACER records because of a computer upgrade. Lawmakers complained, and the agency eventually restored them. At the time of the purging, the agency said those records were maintained on "locally developed legacy case management systems" and weren't compatible to be culled into the new PACER system.

Lawsuit says Tidal now has the ill-gotten personal information of millions of users.

On Monday, Kanye West fan Justin Baker-Rhett sued (PDF) West and S. Carter Enterprises (SCE), the company that owns music streaming service Tidal. Baker-Rhett alleges that the rapper and the streaming platform falsely promised that West’s most recent album, The Life of Pablo, would be exclusive to Tidal and would never show up on any other competing streaming service, nor would it be sold for download or in any physical media format. But just a month and a half after the release of Life of Pablo on Tidal, the album showed up on Apple Music and Spotify.
Baker-Rhett is asking the court to certify a class action against West and SCE, which is owned by rapper Jay-Z. The plaintiff claims that West and Tidal defrauded customers, engaged in false advertising, practiced unfair competition, and enjoyed unjust enrichment from the millions of subscribers who handed over their personal information to the company to sign up for the service because they believed Life of Pablo wouldn't be available anywhere else. The complaint claims that Tidal found itself struggling to gain subscribers after its launch. But when West, who is an investor in Tidal and has a financial interest in the platform’s success, tweeted, “My album will never never never be on Apple. And it will never be for sale... You can only get it on Tidal,” the platform’s subscription numbers allegedly jumped from 1 million to 3 million. Those 2 million subscribers were given a free trial period in exchange for submitting their credit card information, which was automatically charged if they did not cancel the subscription before the free period was over.
In addition to the album's release on Apple Music and Spotify less than two months later, West also began selling the album on his own website.
"Mr. West’s promise of exclusivity also had a grave impact on consumer privacy,” the complaint adds. "For each new Tidal subscriber who signed up as a result of Mr. West’s claims, Tidal obtained that consumer’s e-mail address, social media account information, and other personally identifiable information.” The plaintiff’s lawyers allege that this information is worth up to $84 million to the streaming service.
Ars contacted Tidal for comment, but we have not yet received a response.
West has claimed that his debts exceed $50 million, and the complaint notes that “during this time of financial difficulty for Mr. West (and concurrent with Tidal’s fiscal failings) he announced that his album would be available on Tidal in early 2016.” In the subsequent time, news outlets echoed West’s assertions that Life of Pablo would be permanently exclusive to Tidal.
Baker-Rhett’s complaint mentions that Tidal needed to boost its subscriber numbers badly, noting that SCE “is preparing to sue the two entities it purchased the Tidal platform from” because the sellers allegedly over-inflated subscriber numbers to the company. "Defendant SCE knows the value of subscribers all too well,” the complaint alleges.
In a statement, Baker-Rhett’s attorney asserted "We fully support the right of artists to express themselves freely and creatively, however creative freedom is not a license to mislead the public.”
This isn't Tidal's first lawsuit. Earlier this year, a musician sued Tidal along with Slacker Radio and Google Play for allegedly stiffing him on royalties. And in February, West reportedly considered suing The Pirate Bay for illegally copying Life of Pablo while it was still exclusive to Tidal.

Judge weighing if data hacked from the cheating site may be used at trial.

We all remember last year's hype surrounding the Ashley Madison dating site's data breach. Hackers exposed identifying information about millions of users of the site that has the tagline, "Life is short. Have an affair."
Then came the lawyers smelling blood in the water—filing proposed class-action suits targeting the cheating site's not-so-perfect "Full Delete" option that was supposed to, and didn't, remove all identifying information from the service for a $19 fee per user. Then it surfaced that the site perhaps made phony profiles of women to attract more men to the site.
The massive litigation has been co-mingled in Missouri, and there are some interesting elements at play. For starters, the judge presiding over the case says that if you want to be a named plaintiff in the litigation, you can't use a pseudonym like "John Doe," and instead you have to use your real name. The judge, in agreeing with Ashley Madison's owners, ruled that only in extraordinary circumstances may civil litigation proceed under fake names, like in cases such as sex crimes and suits about juveniles.

"The disclosure of Plaintiffs' identities could expose their sensitive personal and financial information—information stolen from Avid when its computer systems were hacked—to public scrutiny and exacerbate the privacy violations underlying their lawsuit," US District Judge John Ross ruled (PDF) earlier this month. "At the same time, there is a compelling public interest in open court proceedings, particularly in the context of a class action, where a plaintiff seeks to represent a class of consumers who have a personal stake in the case and a heightened interest in knowing who purports to represent their interests in the litigation." Days ago, a "John Doe" plaintiff removed (PDF) himself from the case.
The judge has given the class, so far using unnamed plaintiffs, until June 3 to lodge their official class-action complaint and to allow those suing to determine whether they wish to be named plaintiffs or drop out. The advantages of being a named plaintiff are largely monetary. Those named in class-action cases are usually rewarded with tens of thousands of dollars in a settlement. However, data breach cases traditionally bring little financial reward to class members, yet they give large payouts to prevailing plaintiffs' attorneys.
There's also a big wrinkle that could affect the upcoming class-action filing. Attorneys want to use confidential communications between Ashley Madison executives and their attorneys as part of their lawsuit in a bid to establish that the company made fake female profiles to induce people to become one of the site's 39 million members. Obviously, Avid Life Media, the site's operator, is opposed. Plaintiffs' lawyers say the data is not protected by attorney-client privilege and can be part of the case because of the "crime-fraud" exception. That exception means that a client and their attorney's back-and-forth communications are not protected if the communications were made "with the intention of committing or covering up a crime or fraud." The plaintiffs' lawyers noted a story in Gizmodo citing the hacked data in which Avid Life attorneys are discussing "fictitious" profiles on the Ashley Madison site.
Judge Ross has not ruled on the request but is expected to do so before the June 3 filing deadline.

You can't pay someone who's unlicensed to mill a lower into a firearm.

This is a stripped (and fully milled) AR-15 lower.
A man in Sacramento, California, has pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful manufacture of a firearm and one count of dealing firearms. According to federal prosecutors, Daniel Crowninshield, known online as "Dr. Death," would sell AR-15 blanks, which customers would then pay for him to transform into fully machined lower receivers using a computer numerically controlled (CNC) mill. (In October 2014, Cody Wilson, of Austin, Texas, who has pioneered 3D-printed guns, began selling a CNC mill called "Ghost Gunner," designed to work specifically on the AR-15 lower.)
"In order to create the pretext that the individual in such a scenario was building his or her own firearm, the skilled machinist would often have the individual press a button or put his or her hands on a piece of machinery so that the individual could claim that the individual, rather than the machinist, made the firearm," the government claimed in its April 14 plea agreement.
As Ars has reported previously, the lower receiver part of a firearm is the crucial part that contains all of the gun's operating parts, including the trigger group and the magazine port. (Under American law, the lower is what's defined as the firearm itself.) The AR-15, the civilian version of the M-16 military assault rifle, is designed to be modular, meaning it can be assembled from different receivers, barrels, buttstocks, and other components, each with its own characteristics.
The sale of AR-15 blanks (sometimes known as "80 percent" lower) is not restricted. In fact, the metal piece is openly sold by various vendors, usually for under $100. Some of the vendors have received certification from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms that these 80 percent lowers are not, in fact, firearms.
While anyone could mill their own AR-15 lower using either hand tools or a CNC, paying for someone else to do it constitutes a sale, which requires the seller hold a Federal Firearms License (FFL). Crowninshield did not have a FFL. Wilson, by contrast, does. However, Wilson does not take payment for milling nor does he transfer milled firearms.

 “Great guy and great work”

As prosecutors describe it, on May 3, 2013, an undercover agent (UC) with the California Department of Justice arrived at Crowninshield’s shop, C&G Tool.
That agent brought with him two AR-15 blanks that he had purchased elsewhere. Crowninshield then:
…took one of the blanks and assembled a jig around the blank. Crowninshield then directed the UC to place the blank into a CNC machine, owned by Crowninshield at C&G Tool and used to mill out machine parts. Crowninshield then directed the UC to close the safety door on the CNC machine and to hit a specific button to start the machine.
During this time, the UC observed another customer that appeared to be doing the same thing at another machine. The UC overheard Crowninshield and another employee discussing a customer purchasing blanks. These blanks were known colloquially as blanks because they purportedly constituted 80 percent of a completed firearm and could be milled out at machine shops into completed firearms. The UC inquired if Crowninshield sold such blanks. Crowninshield showed the UC an inventory of such blanks for sale. The UC purchased a blank for $260, a gray blank for $180, and an aluminum blank for $160, all from Crowninshield.
In total, the agent paid Crowninshield a total of $920 for those two blanks and for the service of milling the four lowers. Crowninshield never asked the agent to fill out any purchasing paperwork or complete a background check. He also didn't mark the lowers with any sort of serial number. Previously, some gun enthusiasts would participate in "build parties," where they would gather at a CNC to finish off their product. However, the ATF began raiding these on-site build parties—but doing it yourself to achieve the same ends is still within the law.
Crowninshield advertised his services "on at least one online firearm enthusiast forum." In September 2013, he also advertised his new shop in San Jose, under the name "Dr. Death." One customer described Crowninshield and his services as a "great guy and great work. You will not be disappointed."
Crowninshield was criminally charged in June 2014 on six counts.
"The production and sale of assault rifles without serial numbers, background checks or waiting periods poses a serious danger to public safety," US Attorney Benjamin Wagner said in a statement in June 2014. "We will continue to investigate and prosecute those who seek to profit from such conduct."
Crowninshield is scheduled to be sentenced on June 30, 2016 in federal court in Sacramento. He could face up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.


Analysis: The meaning of Iran's Russian missiles deal
The weapons deal poses a mostly symbolic threat to Israel right now, but it is part of a regional arms war
There is no need for panic. The S-300 missiles deal between Russia and Iran is today more of a symbolic rather than an actual threat. While Israel was waging a campaign against the Iranian nuclear program, that deal not only symbolized the breaking of the embargo on Iran, but also, primarily, that Iran would be able to build fortifications to defend against a potential Israeli air strike on its nuclear weapons facilities.
Today we are in a different position. The global embargo against Iran no longer exists, and it's safe to assume that Israel, for all intents and purposes, has conceded attacking Iran in the near future.
From Israel's perspective, as long as these missiles remain on Iranian soil and don't reach Syria or Lebanon, the weapons deal only has political implications. Russia is attempting to defy NATO and the West, while Iran has garnered another international achievement after signing the nuclear deal.
As of yet, the Russian Foreign Ministry has not approved the deal, which was originally signed in 2007 and again in 2015. The Iranian reports claiming that the deal has been implemented do not mean that it actually has been. Six months ago, it was reported that the agreement had been implemented, but the Russians stopped the delivery of the missiles at the last second because the Iranians did not transfer the required payment.
It would not be surprising if Monday's one-sided Iranian report (which included a photo of a truck carrying something covered) is a part of the bargaining process between the two states.
The original deal included four batteries of S-300 missiles. But after Iran decided to pursue Russia in justice to receive financial compensation for delaying the implementation of the deal, the Russians agreed to increase the number of batteries that will be transferred to Iran. The exact number is still unknown.
If Israel nevertheless acts against Iran in the future, it will do so in the framework of an international coalition. There are other technological solutions to stand against S-300 missiles coming from all over the world. Greece, which acquired S-300 in the distant past, is used as a training grounds for NATO to combating these missiles, while Israel is due to receive stealth F-35 jets by the end of this year.
The existence of S-300 missiles on the border of Israel, on Syrian or Lebanese soil, will put every aircraft in Israel's skies at risk. This is a serious military threat.
Incidentally, Russia already challenged Israel with anti-aircraft missiles such as SA-5 missiles, which it sent to Syria in the early 1980s. It was not the end of the world, and Israel learned to live in the missiles' shadow and continued to operate in Lebanon and Syria whenever it deemed it necessary.
It seems that the Russians will indeed honor their deal with the Iranians and supply them with the missiles Moscow no longer produces; its army now possesses the more advanced S-400 missiles.
The S-300 missile agreement is the first sign of the world opening its doors to selling advanced weapons to Iran, which will reportedly invest $20 billion in reconstructing its army. The Russians alone already sell the Iranians cargo planes, fighter planes, training planes, command and control planes and P-800 Oniks anti-ship missiles.
The Sunni coalition, led by Saudi Arabia, is also concerned about this development. It is in an ongoing confrontation with Iran and is trying to undo Shiite influence in the region. To that end, it is undertaking $60 billion of arms deals with countries that are not necessarily friendly with Israel.
Israel cannot ignore this regional arms race and therefore needs to sign—and the sooner the better—the military aid deal with the United States.

MEXICO CITY - The Mexican army made a rare public apology on Saturday over a scandal in which two soldiers and a policewoman tortured a terrified woman in a video that went viral.
Some 26,000 Mexican soldiers assemble at a military base in Mexico City on April 16, 2016 to hear Defense Secretary Salvador Cienfuegos read out a public apology
It is just the latest allegation of abuse committed by security forces in Mexico, who are often accused of violent acts against civilians, including murder.
General Salvador Cienfuegos, the defense minister, read out the apology before 26,000 soldiers assembled at a military base in Mexico City.
"In the name of all of us who make up this great national institution, I offer my heartfelt apology to all in society wronged by this impermissible event," Cienfuegos said.
In the video, which went viral on social media this week, a barefoot woman is seen crying and screaming on the floor as a female soldier puts the muzzle of an assault rifle to her head.
A federal policewoman is then seen handcuffing the woman and proceeding to tightly wrap a plastic bag around her head while one of the officials demands threateningly: "Are you going to talk?"
The incident is reported to have taken place in February 2015 in the town of Ajuchitlan del Progreso, in the southern state of Guerrero.
The defense ministry says it only learned of the video in December.
The male army captain and the female soldier seen in the video were arrested in January and charged with disobeying orders.
Mexican authorities are investigating a policewoman to determine if she was the one in the footage.
"It's necessary to publicly express our outrage over the regrettable events that occurred nearly 14 months ago," Cienfuegos said.
"Bad members of our institution besmirch the honorable behavior of thousands of women and men in military uniform," he added.
"Although isolated, (such incidents) damage in a major way our image and the prestige we have worthily earned."
Cienfuegos told the soldiers they would continue to be on the frontlines of Mexico's war against drug cartels.
But he stressed: "We must not, nor cannot, confront illegality with more illegality. Crime is contained with the law in hand."
Federal prosecutors have been investigating the case officially since January 7 and they plan to try the three troops in a civilian court.
- Abuse allegations -
Human rights groups say police and troops have committed a slew of abuses since the military was deployed to combat drug cartels in 2006 in a massive federal reinforcement surge.
Over the past decade, the violence linked to the drug war has left 100,000 people dead or missing.
And this week, the National Human Rights Commission said two Mexican federal police officers allegedly participated in the disappearance of 43 students -- implicating national agents in that 2014 case for the first time.
The attorney general's office declared last year that police officers from Iguala and the neighboring town of Cocula abducted the students and delivered them to the Guerreros Unidos drug cartel.
The gang then killed the students, incinerated their bodies at a garbage dump in Cocula and dropped the remains in a nearby river.
But experts from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights who conducted an independent investigation said there was no scientific evidence the students were incinerated at the dump.
The case is considered the biggest challenge faced by President Enrique Pena Nieto's administration, prompting protests and causing his approval rating to drop.


US Air Force plane intercepted by Russian jet in 'unsafe' mannerWASHINGTON - A US Air Force reconnaissance plane was intercepted by a Russian SU-27 jet in an "unsafe and unprofessional" manner while flying a routine route in international airspace over the Baltic Sea, the Pentagon said.
The Pentagon said the Russian interception of an RC-135 surveillance aircraft took place in international airspace over the Baltic Sea
"The US aircraft was operating in international airspace and at no time crossed into Russian territory," said Laura Seal, a Pentagon spokeswoman.
The incident comes shortly after Russian aircraft repeatedly buzzed the USS Donald Cook this past week, including an incident Tuesday in which a Russian Su-24 flew 30 feet (nine meters) above the ship in a "simulated attack profile," according to the US military's European Command.
Russia has denied the action was reckless or provocative.
"This unsafe and unprofessional air intercept has the potential to cause serious harm and injury to all aircrews involved," Seal said of Thursday's incident.
"More importantly, the unsafe and unprofessional actions of a single pilot have the potential to unnecessarily escalate tensions between countries."
The US aircraft in question was an RC-135.

Australians killed in Vietnam War to be brought homeSYDNEY - Australian soldiers killed in the Vietnam War and buried in Malaysia and Singapore will be brought home in June with a full military ceremony, it was announced Sunday.
An Anzac Day dawn service at Kranji War Memorial Cemetery in Singapore
Thirty-five soldiers who died in the conflict lie in Malaysia's Terendak Cemetery, which sits inside a large, operational military base, and one other in Kranji War Cemetery in Singapore.
In May last year, then prime minister Tony Abbott offered repatriation to the families and more than 30 of them have accepted the offer.
"The homecoming of their family member will be a very moving and emotional time, and their right to privacy, grief and reflection has been central in the government's planning," said Australia's Veterans' Affairs Minister Dan Tehan in a statement.
For families who decided not to take up the offer, their relatives' graves will be maintained in perpetuity as is the standard for all Australian war dead in cemeteries around the world, the government said.
Royal Australian Air Force planes will fly the remains back to a military base outside Sydney on June 2 where they will be received in a formal ceremony, followed by a private memorial service for their families.
Vietnam Veterans Association of Australia president Ken Foster said the families and the veterans community had been asking for the bodies to be reinterred for some time.
"It was the family members who started putting pressure and raising all sorts of questions about, 'Is there some way we can have these veterans brought home?'," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Foster added that the move would enable not just family but those who fought alongside the fallen to pay their respects.
"A lot of the veterans would not be in the situation where they could go to Malaysia and visit the graves," he said.
"Now the families will have the choice of where they're reinterred and the local veteran community within Australia will be able to visit those graves whenever they want."
Australian soldiers killed in World Wars I and II and the Korean War were buried near to where they fell but around the time of the Vietnam engagement this policy changed and bodies were usually brought home.
Almost 60,000 Australian military personnel fought alongside the United States in Vietnam, with 521 losing their lives. Of these, all but the 36 in Malaysia and Singapore were returned home.
Australia became one of the first Western countries to establish diplomatic ties with Hanoi in 1973, and has become a substantial aid donor and business partner of the communist nation.

Robert Rich

Americans have been calling for justice when it comes to Bowe Bergdahl, ever since President Barack Obama willingly traded 5 deadly terrorist for Bergdahl – a known deserter. However, it seems that the day of justice may be just around the corner, as he just got the book thrown at him and is about to get a lot worse.
We all remember the day Bowe Bergdahl, described by Obama as a U.S. Army “hostage,” was released by the Taliban in exchange for five of the deadliest terrorists in the world. It quickly came out that Bergdal was actually a cowardly criminal who fled his post to seek out and hold hands with the enemy.
Bowe Bergdhal
Seeing how Obama not only violated one of America’s strictest policies – that we don’t negotiate with terrorists – it’s been made clear that the exchange was made to politically further Obama during a time he was struggling in the polls. America has been calling for blood ever since, and they may soon get it.
Although Bergdahl was charged with desertion earlier this year in March, the charge really wasn’t going to have a significant effect, but that’s all about to change. Most recently, it has been announced that the deserter is also being charged with “misbehavior before the enemy.”
According to Breitbart, “The ‘misbehavior’ charge, which has seldom been used since World War II, carries a stiffer penalty in Bergdahl’s case when compared to desertion.” Furthermore, a statement released by the Army explains that Bergdhal put his fellow countrymen’s lives in danger after abandoning Observation Post Mest in Paktika Province, which prompted the military to launch “search and recovery operations.”
Bowe Bergdhal (Image credit: Washington Post)
The best part? The charge carries a potential life sentence.
For those Americans hoping that the coward gets such a sentence, I wouldn’t hold my breath, as legal analysts say it is unlikely Bergdahl will end up with a lengthy prison sentence on account of his time in so-called captivity. “I cannot see him getting a monster sentence,” said former Air Force lawyer John Economidy. “I could see him getting a dishonorable discharge.”
His case is now set to go to an Article 32 hearing, which is similar to a grand jury, where it will be decided whether Bergdahl is court martialed or not. Lucky for him, Obama has crawled into bed with him, and he’s being forced to stay there now.
Bowe Bergdhal
It’s because of that reality that I strongly believe some work of “magic” will make sure Bergdahl doesn’t get a single day behind bars — and by that I mean Obama working vigorously behind the scenes. After all, can you imagine the egg on Obama’s face if that were the case?
This man deserted his country and should be treated as a traitor, and it’s time we bring back the rope and gallows. Maybe we can tie two knots and throw Obama up there too.
(h/t: Breitbart)
(Image source: Breitbart)

Dawn Parabellum

The Big Apple is recognized by its towering skyscrapers on the horizon, its hustle and bustle, and its draconian gun laws. However, boasting firearms legislation that is even more stringent than Chicago has done little more than make residents of NYC sitting ducks. The SAFE Act, brutally strict gun legislation put into effect after the Sandy Hook massacre, makes it almost impossible to be armed in New York City and limits the number of cartridges allowed in a gun to seven. Thanks to Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New York, and the logic of those who literally cower in fear when the word “gun” is said — unless the word is followed by the word “control” — New Yorkers are nothing more than the proverbial “fish in barrels.”
But now, Andrew Cuomo is “outraged” that his gun laws are failing. A shooting in the gun control mecca of the United States has left Cuomo’s Empire State Development First Deputy Counsel Carey W. Gabay badly wounded. Gabay, 43, was shot in the head during pre-parade events at around 3:40 am on Sunday. A fight on the street saw stray bullets being “sprayed,” according to Cuomo, all over the place. He’s now speaking out, and he hasn’t had a change of heart. Cuomo asked for more gun control in the wake of this shooting.
Carey Gabay
“It’s personal to me. I know this young man. So beautiful. So giving. So kind. So unnecessary,” Cuomo said. “I was just with the family. And the tears and the frustration. And I’m governor of the state of New York and there’s nothing I can say and there’s nothing I can do.”
Cuomo continued by saying, “Anyone who doesn’t believe we don’t need to do something about gun control is delusional. We can protect the Second Amendment and legitimate gun owners, but we also need to protect people. How many young, innocent people have to die before this nation comes to its senses?”
Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo
Since laws didn’t stop a shooting, Cuomo’s solution is more laws. How odd that four people were stabbed, one fatally, around the same time in another street fight gone bad at this same parade, and Cuomo chooses to ignore those injured people.
He’s not calling for more knife control, but he’s demanding more control over guns. Perhaps one of these days Cuomo will remove his head from his rear, look in the mirror, and realize that he’s not only a hypocrite, but he is responsible for Gabay’s shooting. Cuomo’s laws ensured that no one in the vicinity of the criminal who pulled the trigger was armed and able to stop him.  The bad guy was literally shooting fish in a barrel.

Amanda Shea

Lakeview, Illinois Chipotle (left), Officer Hagarty with man he questioned (right)
A woman was enjoying her lunch at a Chicago area Chipotle, when in between bites she witnessed an unusual situation unfold outside the restaurant. Assessing if the situation was really happening as it appeared, she took out her phone and began snapping pictures of what she saw. When the outside scenario came inside the dining room, she couldn’t believe what the cop did to a guy after he had simply asked a question.
Rachel Mitchell uploaded the cellphone shots she took to Facebook, along with a description of what she witnessed, unbeknownst to the officer at the time, who was involved in the interaction. It was soon discovered that the cop was Chicago Police Sgt. B. Hagarty, and now he has something he would like to share with Mitchell after learning of the post she made about him.
According to Mitchell’s post, a man was outside the Lakeview Chipotle digging in the trash, when Hagarty came up and questioned his unusual behavior. From her vantage point, she could see that the officer asked the man, who appeared dirty and homeless, if he was hungry. The guy told him that he was, as he was hoping to find some tossed scraps in the dumpster. That’s when the officer turned his back to the struggling man and told him to follow him.
Officer Hagarty led the homeless man into the restaurant, where he bought the guy a fresh full meal, so he didn’t have to dig for a shred of lettuce. He handed the needy man the bag of food, then simply shook his hand and walked out to his patrol car to carry on with his day. Mitchell had witnessed the generous deed from start to finish, and she couldn’t believe the kindness this cop bestowed on a vagrant, who he didn’t owe a thing.
Officer Hagarty buying homeless man a meal
“Touched my heart so much, with all the cr** police are getting these days it reminds me there’s so much more good out there than anyone ever wants to give credit,” the deeply touch and impressed woman wrote in her social media post.  “If everyone did something simple like this every day the world would be a better place,” she added.
Soon, the word got out about Hagarty’s good deed, which made it all the way back to the Chicago Police Department. That’s when they decided to make their own post praising the 25-year veteran of the force on the department’s page.
“He [Hagarty] was not aware that someone had captured the moment, a break in his day as he was finishing his lunch, while at work just yesterday,” the department wrote in their post online. “He did not think he had done anything out of the ordinary. He did not want to brag about what he had done. As he walked out a young lady approached him and told him that he had made her day. Sergeant Hagarty said thank you and walked out.”
Hagarty hasn’t had the chance to tell Mitchell thank you for noticing what he did when he thought nobody was looking, and he wants her to know how appreciative he is for her kind words.
This leader in his community is showing by example how to serve others and likely left an impression on other officers in his department to do the same, who will follow in his footsteps after he retires by the end of this year. What speaks volumes is that he didn’t do the good deed for accolades or acknowledgement, he did it with genuine love and concern for someone in his community who was hungry.
h/t: [DailyMail]

Phoenix Rose

The media frenzy around Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk who was jailed for refusing to sign same-sex marriage licences, has taken the Internet by storm. It seems that everyone has an opinion on the matter, and the armchair lawyers of social media are busy presenting their case. In one corner of the ring, there are those who believe Davis should have quit her job if she was not able to perform her duties as county clerk, then there are others who believe she is being jailed for her religious convictions.
In light of Kim Davis’s recent arrest, there have been multiple people who have come forward to voice support, including Allen West and presidential hopefuls Ted Cruz and Rand Paul. However, there is one person who has stepped forward to lend their support that I am sure no one saw coming, considering their direct link to pop music royalty.
Madonna and her brother Christopher Ciccone
Madonna’s gay brother, Christopher Ciccone, 54, has made a public Facebook post that says Davis has the right to deny marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Ciccone wrote, “The county clerk in [Kentucky] deserves about as much support as you would give her if she were a Muslim [woman] who insisted on covering her face and refused not only gay marriages licenses but divorce, accusations of rape and driving a car without your man’s approval.”
You can read the rest of his post in its entirety here:
He ends his post by saying, “Once again, the gay community feels the need to be sore winners, is it so difficult to allow this women her religion? Or must we destroy her in order for her to betray her faith. No matter how we judge, its truth. The rights we have all fought for, mean nothing, if we deny her hers.”
Ciccone is absolutely correct with this post. We are a country that was founded on religious freedom, and if we can afford Muslims and other protected classes their right to practice their beliefs, why are Christians not included? If we only pick and choose which religious groups we decide to protect, then our Founding Fathers and our veterans have fought for nothing. It is refreshing to hear that someone in Hollywood and also someone who is openly gay understands these principles.
It would behoove the LGBTQ community to take note of Ciccone’s support and also rally around Davis, demanding her release. The concern surrounding same-sex marriage for most Christians involved a fear that legalization would also mean forced participation. That’s exactly what’s happened, as we’ve seen in the case involving Davis, as well as the Christian bakers and other wedding venues alike. It would make sense for the gay community to ease Christian fears by standing up for Christians’ rights to practice their beliefs and showing the tolerance that the community demanded for themselves. Kudos to Ciccone for setting an example and not joining the gaystapo in their efforts to crush Christians everywhere.
If the gay community was more like this, they may actually receive the acceptance that some of them are trying to force on other people.
H/T [Daily Mail]
[Image Credit Google Images]

Phoenix Rose

Yesterday, Deputy Darren Goforth was laid to rest after having been brutally murdered while pumping gas into his police cruiser earlier this week. Across the country, law enforcement officials have been on guard as the Black Lives Matter and black supremacy groups have called for the murders of police officers and white people. While the country waits to see what action will be taken against these terroristic groups, our police officers are wondering if they will be the next victim.
Yesterday morning, a Houston police officer, Tommi Jones-Kelley, was pumping gas in her patrol car in the pouring rain when suddenly someone walked up directly behind her. Kelley turned around and noticed that a teenage boy named McKinley Zoellner was standing behind her. The startled Jones-Kelley was taken aback when Zoellner asked her if he could stand watch while she fueled up.
Officer Tommi Jones-Kelley
Jones-Kelley’s initial reaction was “why?” To which the teen simply responded, “To make sure you stay safe!”
After Jones-Kelley finished pumping her gas, Zoellner casually walked back to the passenger side of the car he was riding in. Jones-Kelley followed him back to the car and asked the woman who was driving if she was Zoellner’s mother, to which she responded she was. Jones-Kelley told the mother that she had an amazing son for standing watch while she pumped gas into her car. Zoellner’s mother replied that her son just wanted to make sure no one hurt Jones-Kelley and that he had her “6.”
Jones-Kelley quickly made a post on her personal Facebook page to express her gratitude for this young man’s selfless act.
“Yes, I’m the one with the gun on my hip while he stood there empty-handed, but he for sure had my ‘6’ while my back was turned. With all the terror going on nationwide, this reassured me there are still some pretty awesome individuals out there!”
This kind gesture that Zoellner demonstrated to officer Jones-Kelley comes at the perfect time in the wake of so many senseless police tragedies. Zoellner demonstrates all that is right with humanity and how we all can learn from this simple act of kindness and selflessness.
These are the very attributes that have made our country great and seem to have been lost along the way in the name of progressivism. I not only would like to shake the hand of this amazing teenager, but his mother as well, for raising such a commendable person.

Dawn Parabellum

California is one of the states with the most draconian and tyrannical gun laws in the entire country. Other than New York, there is not a state in which it is harder for a law-abiding citizen to get a gun and use it to defend themselves. Because of that, criminals know that their targets will almost always be unarmed and sitting ducks, making crime almost impossible to control in the major cities and suburbs of the Golden State.
What makes things more difficult is when the criminals outnumber their victims. Such was the case in a recent incident that took place in Santa Ana, California. The homeowner, Erickson Dumaual, called police around 4 am on Friday morning, claiming that two burglars were rooting around his property. Dumaual got tired of waiting for the police to respond to his call, so he made the decision to go investigate the trespassing incident on his own. That is when things took a more violent turn.
Erickson Dumaual, Santa Ana homeowner
Two men proceeded to demand, at gun point, that Mr. Dumaual take them inside and show them where he kept his valuables. Once Dumaual took the men into his bedroom, he devised a plan. As one thief began rummaging through his bedroom drawers, the perpetrator with the gun took his attentions off Dumaual. That was a big mistake. Dumaual sprung into action. He attacked the man holding the gun and was able to wrestle the firearm away from him, gaining possession of the weapon.
Dumaual is a fierce self-defense student in the Israeli fight system called Krav Maga. His training enabled him to remove the gun from the thug and caused the other to flee from his home. Dumaual chased the previously armed thief to his backyard, cornering the man by his pool. He then said the criminal lunged at him, so he fired the gun and shot the thug in the leg — with his own gun. Dumaual used punches and elbowing to keep the thug subdued until police arrived at the scene to take the injured man away.
Bryan Bravo on the stretcher leaving Dumaual’s residence
“He came at me. So I had to pull the trigger,” explained Dumaual. “He deserved it. He deserved every bit of it. I’d do it again if it happened again,” he said.
The wounded man is expected to survive and will be arrested upon release from the hospital. He is identified as 19-year-old Bryan Bravo.
Unfortunately, not all Californians are Krav Maga experts. Erickson Dumaual did what he had to do without a gun in a state where criminals appear to always have the upper hand, thanks to the overly strict regulations on firearms. Crime will continue to increase in California until the good people can legitimately start defending themselves. Until then, would-be thieves would do well to realize that good people are tired of being victims and will fight back.
H/T [LA Times]

Dana Thiede, KARE
MINNEAPOLIS - A three-year-old child is safe after being rescued by Minneapolis Police at the conclusion of an armed standoff early Friday.
Minneapolis Police spokesman John Elder tells KARE 11 the situation began around 10:30 p.m. Thursday with a 911 call reporting an armed, suicidal male with a young child inside the home. A woman and another child were able to escape before officers arrived.
Squads responded to the scene at 39th and Garfield Avenues and began negotiations with the man.
At around 2:45 a.m. Friday negotiations broke off, and shortly afterwards SWAT officers used flash bang grenades to enter the home.
They were able to safely remove the three-year-old from the home, and the male was taken into custody.
Elder says police have had contact with the suspect in the past, but did not have specifics on what those incidents involved.
Charges against the man are pending.
Read or Share this story: http://www.kare11.com/story/news/crime/2015/09/04/child-rescued-after-armed-standoff/71692422/

Jay Hathaway
Katie Rees, the former Miss Nevada 2007 who had her crown (and her shot at the Miss USA title) taken away in a naughty photo scandal, is having an eventful 2015. After being arrested in July for allegedly selling meth in Las Vegas, she was picked up again Tuesday on drug charges including meth possession.
http://gawker.com/former-miss-ne...
Rees, 31, was in the car with her boyfriend of 10 months, Kevin “DJ Kulprit” Sims, when Vegas police stopped them for speeding and failing to signal, the Las Vegas Sun reports.
According to the arrest report, the cops smelled marijuana and asked DJ Kulprit if he had any weed or weapons in the car. He hesitated to answer, and he and Katie both ended up in cuffs.
Kulprit, who had three outstanding traffic warrants (that’s why they call him Kulprit, I guess?) was carrying a jar of liquid GHB, as well as coke and meth, according to police. Rees allegedly had weed, pipes, and rolling papers in her purse, along with Xanax, Oxy, and yes, more meth in her purse.
Sims chivalrously told the cops all the drugs were his, not Katie’s, but police say she admitted to smoking meth earlier that day.
When DJ Kulprit was searched at Clark County Detention Center, officers found another baggie of meth in his sock. He’s charged with multiple counts of trafficking and drug possession.
Rees, who was out on $10,000 bond after her previous charges, faces five new counts, notably felony meth possession. Her new bond has been set at $9,000.
[Photos: Las Vegas Metro Police]

By Joel Hruska 
In recent months, we’ve seen calls from multiple government officials to roll back encryption protections and create backdoors in software. At certain points, the debate over these issues has reached a fever pitch, with New York District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr telling Congress that Apple’s decision to include strong encryption in iOS 8 was basically intended to please criminals, child pornographers, and murderers. Now, two FTC commissioners have weighed in on the topic — and their own views couldn’t be more different.
According to FTC Commissioner Terrell McSweeny, encryption is absolutely necessary if the so-called Internet of Things is ever to become a reality. Writing for HuffPo, McSweeny praises the steps that companies like Apple have taken to provide end-to-end encryption and notes that encrypting devices is one of the only way to secure smartphones, tablets, and laptops against the loss of potentially critical information if the device is physically stolen. In her Op/ed, Sweeny notes:
If consumers cannot trust the security of their devices, we could end up stymieing innovation and introducing needless risk into our personal security. In this environment, policy makers should carefully weigh the potential impact of any proposals that may weaken privacy and security protections for consumers.
Compare that against Cyrus Vance’s comments from earlier this summer:
This defendant’s appreciation of the safety that the iOS 8 operating system afforded him is surely shared by criminal defendants in every jurisdiction in America charged with all manner of crimes, including rape, kidnapping, robbery, promotion of child pornography, larceny, and presumably by those interested in committing acts of terrorism. Criminal defendants across the nation are the principal beneficiaries of iOS 8, and the safety of all American communities is imperiled by it.
Sweeny’s comments echo those of Ashkan Soltani, the Chief Technologist of the FTC. In a recent blog post, Soltani detailed how he recently had a laptop stolen, but was much less concerned about the theft than he would’ve been thanks to his use of firmware passwords and strong disk encryption. When the thief was unable to unlock the laptop, he made an appointment at an Apple Genius Bar. The FTC CTO made contact with local Apple stores and was eventually able to retrieve his laptop after the thief took it to a different store.
Germany’s Enigma machine. From the beginning, there’s been tension over how encryption should be used.
In his conclusion, the Soltani writes:
In the end, strong end-user controls like device encryption and firmware passwords not only protect sensitive info stored on the device, they also prevent criminals from utilizing stolen property. The more devices feature strong end-user controls, the less likely thieves can profit from their theft on the open market.

Encryption wars

It’s become obvious that the law enforcement community has a fundamentally different view of encryption than pretty much anybody else. To some extent, this makes sense. If your job fundamentally revolves around catching bad guys, you’re going to encounter encryption and data protection in environments where the technology is being used for criminal activity. Most of us, if we’re being honest, would be furious to see a rapist, murderer, or child pornography distributor walk free simply because their personal electronic devices couldn’t be checked for conclusive evidence that would prove their guilt.
The problem with letting this gut-level emotion run our justice system is that it produces unfair results. Emotional responses gave us the War on Drugs, mandatory minimum sentences, and a staggering rise in total prison population because getting tough on crime was the order of the day. Emotional responses gave us the Patriot Act, the explosion of warrantless wiretapping, and made Snowden’s leaks necessary to inform the public about what its government was doing.
It’s true that embracing ubiquitous strong encryption will occasionally mean that criminals escape punishment, but every single technological advance carries intrinsic trade-offs. We need more people to stand up and defend the concept of encryption — and law enforcement officials need to understand that there are uses for privacy technology that go beyond the criminal. The UK’s effort to ban encryption is as short-sighted as the NSA’s talk of adding so-called “front doors” to devices. The problem with these viewpoints is that they assume, implicitly, that denying strong encryption to criminals and terrorists will give law enforcement a critical advantage that totally outweighs the cost of everyone’s lost privacy, security, and freedom.


A newly released police body-cam video (below) shows an unidentified police officer stepping on a suspect's face with his boot after the suspect was taken into custody by other officers in Henryetta, Oklahoma, in July.
Police chased Gary Hubbs, who allegedly robbed a Dollar General store while armed with a knife, across Interstate 40 highway and into a wooded area where they used a stun gun on him.
According to The Henryettan, Officer Joey Cantrell was the officer who caught Hubbs.
Civil rights attorney Mitchell Garrett told KJRH, which obtained the arrest video from an anonymous source:
"Now, this is the first time we see something a little concerning in the video. At a 1:07 into the video, where you hear one officer whispering very low to the other officer, possibly the one with the body cam, 'Turn it off.'"
A police officer, who was not part of the chase, is then seen stepping on Hubbs' face.
Garrett added:
"What's concerning to me is when you see someone who is not even involved in the chase scene applying quite a bit of force to the suspect's head and neck, you know, once the suspect is fully in custody.
"The officer with the body-cam then turns away from the scene so that it cannot be captured on video."
Henryetta Police Chief Steve Norman told KJRH by phone: "I believe in this situation he was justified in holding him down."
Garrett stated, "Just from the video evidence presented, it appears that there was improper application of force."
Norman tried to justify the incident by noting the weather: "That day the heat index was probably 110. These guys doing the chasing were worn down and the other officer was giving them a break."
Norman also tried to paint police officers as victims in the court of public opinion: "Everyone is against law enforcement. That's why they're having such a hard time filling positions."
The Okmulgee County District Attorney's Office is not going to charge the officers, but Hubbs' lawyer Mary McMillan said in a statement:
"Excessive force by law enforcement seems to be a phenomenon sweeping across our nation. Prevention comes with education and training. When I see evidence that my clients’ civil rights have been violated, I purse remedies to the fullest extent of the law."
RAW FOOTAGE
Sources: KJRH, The Henryettan / Photo credit: KJRH Screenshot

The Uganda maid who was filmed battering that little girl a few weeks ago was in court today Dec. 8th where she pleaded guilty to child abuse.
Jolly Tumuhirwe, 22, who was in court with her mum, asked her parents, the girl's parents and all of Uganda to forgive her.

According to the BBC, the girl's father Eric Kamanzi broke down in court when Jolly asked for forgiveness. Jolly faces up to 15 years in prison for the crime or a fine of about $400 (£260) or both.

Her case was adjourned to Wednesday December 10th when the judge is expected to sentence her. She was led away in cuffs by prison officers after the session this morning.

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