Terrorism & Security

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro (l.), Ecuador's President Rafael Correa (r.), and Bolivia's President Evo Morales acknowledge supporters during a welcome ceremony for Latin American leaders attending a meeting in Cochabamba, Bolivia, Thursday, July 4. Morales said Thursday that the rerouting of his plane in Europe was due to suspicions that the National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden was on board. (Juan Karita/AP)

Faulty lead linked Snowden to Bolivian jet, European officials say

By Arthur Bright, Staff writer / 07.05.13

In the first official statement from Europe tying former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden to the forced grounding of Bolivian President Evo Morales' flight in Austria Tuesday, the Spanish government confirmed Friday that it and other European governments had been told Mr. Snowden was on board the plane.

The Guardian reports that Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel García-Margallo said on television Friday that "they told us that the information was clear, that he was inside" the Bolivian presidential plane. Mr. García-Margallo did not say who "they" was, or whether he had been in contact with the United States.

Mr. Morales and other Latin American leaders were outraged on Tuesday night when their plane, flying from Moscow to La Paz, Bolivia, was reportedly denied permission to fly through French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish airspace, forcing it to land in Austria. The Bolivian government, which has been considering Snowden's asylum application, said the grounding was due to suspicions that the American was on board. But as the BBC notes, no European officials had confirmed they had such suspicions before the Spanish announcement Friday.

While García-Margallo did confirm the Snowden connection to the flight's grounding, Reuters writes that he also said that Spain "doesn't have to ask for a pardon [from Bolivia] in any way because its airspace was never closed" – leaving the rationale behind the flight's obstruction still ambiguous.

He said a permit granted on Monday for the plane to go through Spanish airspace expired when Morales was grounded in Austria after [the] French and Portuguese ban.

The permit then had to be reissued and the Bolivian presidential plane stopped in Spain's Canary Islands on Wednesday for refueling on its way back to Bolivia.

But France, another of the countries that blocked Morales' passage, has expressed "regrets" to Bolivia over the incident, reports the BBC. The French foreign ministry said in a statement that "the foreign minister called his Bolivian counterpart to tell him about France's regrets after the incident caused by the late confirmation of permission for President Morales' plane to fly over [French] territory."

The Christian Science Monitor in a report Wednesday offers that regardless of motivation, the stopping of Morales' plane was, "imperialism at its worst," according to Coletta Youngers, a senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America.

"A diplomatic plane with a president on board, diverted from its route and then searched – it is precisely the kind of mistreatment that the Bolivian government has rejected in its bilateral relations with the United States," she says. "This would not happen to President Obama’s plane; why should diplomatic protocol be shunned for President Morales?"

In fact, the result may have increased Bolivia's willingness to help Snowden, she adds.

"Given Snowden’s situation, Bolivia is in many ways a logical choice for him,” says Ms. Youngers. “US-Bolivian relations remain tense, with no exchange of ambassadors in sight, and US economic aid to the country is at an all-time low, so Bolivia has little to lose in taking him in.”

Further, Morales threatened on Thursday to close the US embassy in response to the diplomatic incident, reports the BBC.

Ultimately, however, the plane episode appears to have had little impact on the legal limbo in which Snowden finds himself. The American is still believed to be in a Moscow airport transit zone, awaiting the outcome of his asylum applications, which have so far been broadly rejected. The Wall Street Journal reports that both Italy and France have denied his request, saying he must be present in their country in order to make an application. No nation has yet approved his request, though it is still being considered by Venezuela and Bolivia. 

Thursday did see a group of six Icelandic members of parliament submit a bill to grant Snowden citizenship in Iceland, which would give him permission to travel to and enter the country. But Forbes reports that the proposal faces "long odds" due to the government's political makeup, which turned conservative in April elections. "That election was won by the Independence and Progressive parties, while the sponsors of [parliamentarian Birgitta] Jonsdottir’s bill are members of the smaller Left Greens, Social Democrats, Bright Future and Pirate parties."

An evidence photo showing a set of pressure cookers is displayed as RCMP Asst. Commissioner James Malizia speaks during a news conference in Surrey, B.C., on Tuesday, July 2, 2013. Police have arrested a Canadian man and a woman and charged them as terrorist suspects for attempting to leave a suspicious package at British Columbia's provincial legislature on Canada Day. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press/AP)

Canadians ask what 'inspired by Al Qaeda ideology' means

By Arthur Bright, Staff writer / 07.03.13

• A daily summary of global reports on security issues.

Canadian police yesterday announced they had foiled a Boston-marathon-like bomb attack on the British Columbian legislature earlier this week by a Canadian couple “inspired by Al Qaeda ideology.” But experts say that the connection to Al Qaeda is dubious, and that the pair likely have nothing to do with that or any other terrorist group.

In a press conference on Tuesday, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police described in brief the alleged plot by John Stewart Nuttall and Amanda Marie Korody of Surrey, B.C., near Vancouver. The pair allegedly planned to set off pressure cooker bombs at Canada Day celebrations on July 1 at the legislature in Victoria, where thousands had gathered to celebrate the country's founding. The RCMP said the pair are charged with "knowingly facilitating a terrorist activity, conspiracy to commit an indictable offence and making or having in their possession an explosive substance," according to The Globe and Mail.

The RCMP revealed few details about what may have motivated the alleged plot, only saying they believe the two accused were “inspired by al-Qaeda ideology” but were “self-radicalized” without support from abroad. What is known is that the police have been monitoring Mr. Nuttall and Ms. Korody for some time (the investigation was launched after a tip from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the country’s spy agency) and that law-enforcement officials say they intervened at some earlier point to ensure the bombs could not have exploded and hurt people.

Police allege the accused took steps to build the explosive devices and place them at the legislature in Victoria, where thousands gather each Canada Day to celebrate the country’s birthday. Evidence displayed by the Mounties showed pressure-cookers filled with rusted nails and a collection of metal nuts and washers.

RCMP Assistant Commissioner James Malizia added that there was no evidence of any connection with militant groups, reports the BBC. "Our investigation demonstrated that this was a domestic threat, without international linkages," he said.

CTV News writes that Canada has seen several terrorism-related plots in recent years, most recently in April, when two immigrants were arrested for plotting to blow up a Toronto-New York rail line, reportedly with assistance from Sunni militants based in Iran.

But the alleged conspirators in those plots appear to have little in common with Mr. Nuttall and Ms. Korody, whom The Vancouver Sun reports were recovering drug addicts and recent converts to Islam. According to their landlady, Nuttall was polite and somewhat timid, and converted to Islam about two years ago.

The Sun notes that Nuttall has numerous criminal convictions dating back to the 1990s, including robbery, kidnapping, and assault, largely connected to drugs.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation notes that although the RCMP said the pair were "inspired by Al Qaeda" and "took steps to educate themselves," experts are doubtful that Nuttall and Korody had a real connection to the terrorist group or any other radical Islamic organization.

[Former Canadian Security Intelligence Service agent Michel Juneau-Katsuya said] "'Inspired from al-Qaeda' I think is misleading. I don't think we will discover that they had anything to do at all with al-Qaeda, because the indicators are not there."

"Al-Qaeda has never used women. Al-Qaeda converted people who will embrace the cause, who will usually convert and change their names, and these people have Canadian names."

"I think we are witnessing much more of what we have been observing since 9/11, which is the rise of extremists, various extremist groups, which has nothing to do with al-Qaeda, but are using terrorists' means to sort of promote their ideology and promote their message."

The Surrey Leader reports similar concerns from Joshua Labove, a terrorism expert at Simon Fraser University in B.C., who called the RCMP's reference to being inspired by Al Qaeda a "strange turn of phrase."

"Their extremist view could just be the harm of others for no apparent reason," he said.

Musa Ismail, the president of the B.C. Muslim Association, told the Leader that the pair were not part of the local Muslim community.

"We don't know these people, we've never seen these people," he said. "We are proud citizens, we are proud Canadians. These two individuals have nothing to do with Islam, as far as we know."

And while the entire B.C. Muslim community is "absolutely delighted" that Mounties intervened to stop a "potentially huge disaster", Ismail said the RCMP's description of the Canadian-born duo as inspired by Al-Qaeda is an "ill-worded reference" that will focus undue attention on Muslims.

"These are just individuals who copied whatever happened in Boston," he said.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin, right, looks on as his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro, left, shakes hands with presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov during a meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Tuesday, July 2. Russia told former NSA contractor Edward Snowden he was welcome to enter the country and stay but would need 'to stop his work directed to hurt our American partners.' (Maxim Shemetov/AP)

Snowden waits in Moscow as asylum rejections pile up (+video)

By Whitney Eulich, Staff writer / 07.02.13

• A daily summary of global reports on security issues.

The options for former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden are narrowing quickly as he sits in a Moscow transit terminal and waits for responses to asylum requests sent around the globe this week.

Mr. Snowden, who leaked top-secret NSA intelligence and is wanted by the US on charges of espionage, has already been rejected by seven European countries which told him his requests for asylum were invalid, reports the BBC.

Russia told Snowden he was welcome to enter the country and stay, but that he would have to stop leaking information about the US surveillance program, The Christian Science Monitor reports. "Snowden is free to go but if he decides to stay, he has to stop his work directed to hurt our American partners. I know that this kind of statement sounds strange from me," said Russian President Vladimir Putin.

President Obama has “made clear to a number of countries that granting him asylum would carry costs,” according to Reuters. Snowden has accused Obama of using "deception" and "bad tools of political aggression" to convince countries not to accept his asylum request, according to the LA Times.

Ecuador, which as of last week was viewed as the target destination for Snowden, seems to be backpedaling from early indications of support. Issuing Snowden a temporary travel pass when he left Hong Kong “was a mistake on our part," Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa told the Guardian on Monday. The South American country will consider his asylum request once he is on Ecuadorean soil, President Correa said, but “in this moment he is in Russian territory and these are decisions for the Russian authorities.”

On whether Correa would like to meet [Snowden], the president said: "Not particularly. He's a very complicated person. Strictly speaking, Mr Snowden spied for some time.”

The comments contrasted with expressions of gratitude the 30-year-old fugitive issued hours later, before Correa's views had been published.

"I must express my deep respect for your principles and sincere thanks for your government's action in considering my request for political asylum," Snowden said, according to a letter written in Spanish and obtained by the Press Association news agency, based in London.

"There are few world leaders who would risk standing for the human rights of an individual against the most powerful government on earth, and the bravery of Ecuador and its people is an example to the world."

This comes just a day after President Correa told The New York Times that “perhaps [Snowden] broke the law of the United States, but in order to tell the truth to the United States, the American people and the entire world, and it’s a very urgent truth.” Ecuador granted Wikileaks founder Julian Assange asylum and has housed him in its London Embassy for more than a year.

The Wall Street Journal listed the countries to which Snowden has applied for Asylum and organized each as “unlikely,” “possibility,” and “no response.”

Two South American nations, both part of the region's leftist bloc, are the only ones to sit on the list of possibilities: Bolivia and Venezuela.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is in Russia this week, and said his country has not yet received Snowden’s request for asylum, but that he had “done something very important for humanity” and “deserved the world's protection.”

"The world's conscience should react, the world youth should react, the decent people who want a peaceful world should react, everyone should react and find solidarity with this young man who has denounced and altered the world that they [the US] pretend to control," President Maduro said.

Given the current administration, Venezuela could make sense as place to seek asylum: Maduro has maintained former President Hugo Chávez’s anti-US rhetoric, and according to a separate Guardian article “the country's huge oil reserves and strong regional alliances with other socialist nations in Latin America put it in a strong position to resist US demands for extradition.” (Venezuela does have an extradition agreement with the US – dating back to the 1920s – but there is a long list of exceptions, which Snowden would likely fall under.)

However, as many Latin-America-watchers have pointed out, if and when power changes hands in Venezuela – Maduro's current term is until 2018 – Snowden could find himself on his own. A New York Time’s correspondent in Latin America, Damien Cave, tweeted last week: "Venezuela would be an interesting choice as well for Snowden: it assumes an anti-US gov will be in place longterm. Not necessarily true."

“Snowden himself is in a pretty difficult situation,” Dmitri V. Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center told The Times. “I think he was following Assange’s advice trying to get to Ecuador, but then Ecuador, and, indirectly, Cuba, have failed him. I think Venezuela is talking to the U.S. as well. The U.S. can offer things to Venezuela.”

Maduro has said he will not use his personal plane to fly Snowden out of Russia when he leaves for Venezuela.

A kite flies near antennas of a former National Security Agency listening station at the Teufelsberg hill in Berlin Sunday. The US taps half a billion phone calls, e-mails, and text messages in Germany in a typical month and has classed its biggest European ally as a target similar to China, according to secret US documents quoted by Der Spiegel. (Pawel Kopczynski/Reuters)

Has NSA spying put US-EU trade deal on the rocks?

By Sara Miller Llana, Staff writer / 07.01.13

Revelations that the United States has systematically spied on Europe are threatening what is being billed as a pivotal moment for the transatlantic relationship: the start of negotiations next week for a major trade deal.

The latest disclosures from Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor, came in a report over the weekend in the German daily Der Spiegel, alleging that the NSA bugged European Union offices and that half a billion phone calls, e-mails, and text messages from Germany alone are tapped by the US in an average month – far surpassing the average attention given to other European allies. In fact, Germany is spied on just as often as China or Iraq, the paper claims.

If the extent of US surveillance in the world is not surprising to some, it’s still controversial in Europe, especially in countries like Germany that place a high priority on data privacy. But the timing of the revelations, as negotiations for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) are set to begin July 8, has created a firestorm, says Johannes Thimm, an expert on US foreign policy at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin.

“There are economic interests involved on both sides, and while the [TTIP] is generally in the spirit of cooperation, there are some trade-offs and really hard negotiations ahead,” Dr. Thimm says. American ability to access that communication as it is playing out, he says, gives the US “a huge strategic advantage."

The Spanish daily El Pais quoted a slew of EU officials voicing their outrage. The European commissioner for justice and fundamental rights, Viviane Reding, said plainly: "Partners do not spy on each other," she said. "We cannot negotiate over a big transatlantic market if there is the slightest doubt that our partners are carrying out spying activities on the offices of our negotiators.”

The European Parliament's foreign affairs committee head, Elmar Brok, reiterated that view. "The spying has taken on dimensions that I would never have thought possible from a democratic state," he told Der Spiegel. "How should we still negotiate if we must fear that our negotiating position is being listened to beforehand?"

The anger has generated not only threats that the TTIP is at risk, but that a cloud looms over the entire transatlantic relationship. Germany Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said the fact that  “our friends in the US see Europeans as enemies exceeds the imaginable.” The president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, said that “if this is true, it’s an immense scandal that could have a severe impact on relations between the EU and the US.”

He added on French radio: "I was always sure that dictatorships, some authoritarian systems, tried to listen ... but that measures like that are now practiced by an ally, by a friend, that is shocking, in the case that it is true," he said on France 2.

Writing in Le Monde, Corine Lesnes says that “the transatlantic gulf is yet again gaping," she writes. "The electronic spying of the European Union by the NSA provokes an outcry in Europe, while the Americans minimize the facts, even though they understand European indignation,” she writes.  “[Mr. Snowden] is succeeding in reopening the transatlantic wound.”

France's Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius, has demanded a response from the US, echoing larger EU concerns.

The EU has demanded immediate answers. "As soon as we saw these reports, the European External Action Service made contact with the US authorities in both Washington D.C. and Brussels to seek urgent clarification of the veracity of, and facts surrounding, these allegations," Catherine Ashton, the EU's foreign-policy chief, said in a statement.

"The US authorities have told us they are checking on the accuracy of the information released yesterday and will come back to us as soon as possible," she said. 

But discontent is likely to be at its peak in Germany, not only because of the sheer volume of scrutiny, but because its citizens’ demand for privacy is deeply ingrained, a legacy of the widespread surveillance by the Stasi in East Germany and the Gestapo in Nazi Germany.

President Obama visited Berlin last month, after Snowden revealed details of the controversial surveillance program known as PRISM, receiving a cooler welcome than during his 2008 trip as a presidential candidate, according to The Christian Science Monitor's correspondent in Berlin. 

On the day before his arrival in the German capital, protesters were carrying placards through the city center, reading “Yes, we scan!” or depicting Martin Luther King Jr. and Obama, the former with the caption “I have a dream,” the latter with “I have a drone.”

The Obama administration attempted to play down the scandal before the trip. “We understand the significant German interest in privacy and civil liberties,” the president’s deputy national security adviser, Ben Rhodes, told reporters. As The Wall Street Journal reported: "Mr. Obama will seek to reassure Ms. Merkel that the Prism program is limited to detecting terrorist plots and has safeguards against abuse, Mr. Rhodes said."

Now the narrative is different. And if industrial espionage or spying on banks become clear motivations in the NSA surveillance, the outcry will grow, says Josef Braml, a transatlantic expert at the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin. Germany and the US are partners, but they are also competitors with different visions of how to steer the current economic crisis. "On the economy we couldn’t be any more different," he says.

He doubts this is a simple question of terrorism. “I expect this to go much farther.”

An Egyptian man sits next to a poster of Egypt's Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in front the presidential palace in Cairo on Friday. The sign, in Arabic, reads 'June 30, the end of the reign of terror,' a reference to planned mass protests against Mr. Morsi's government. (Hassan Ammar/AP)

As Egypt nears boil, leading religious institution calls for calm (+video)

By Ariel Zirulnick, Staff writer / 06.28.13

• A daily summary of global reports on security issues.

Egypt's leading religious institution made an urgent appeal for calm and encouraged the defiant opposition to accept President Mohamed Morsi's calls for dialogue after a member of the Muslim Brotherhood was killed today. But there is little indication that tensions will ease as the country braces for what may be the biggest protests since the revolution that ousted former dictator Hosni Mubarak – and brought the Egyptian military onto the streets to restore order.

According to Reuters, Al Azhar University usually keeps itself separate from politics, but today it waded in. "Vigilance is required to ensure we do not slide into civil war," a statement from Al Azhar read. Al-Azhar scholar Hassan El-Shafei said the opposition, which plans to hold massive rallies across the country on June 30, should choose dialogue "for the benefit of the nation instead of the insistence on confrontation."

Al Azhar is not the only institution inserting itself into the fray in an attempt to turn down the heat.

The powerful military, which maintains the respect of both government supporters and the opposition, has also made clear that it is willing to step in temporarily, invoking "national security," according to a separate Reuters report.

Earlier this week the head of the armed forces warned that Egypt was headed toward a "dark tunnel."

The warning at the start of the week from General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was presented as a wake-up call to the rival factions, President Mohamed Morsi and his Islamist allies on one side, a disparate coalition of liberals and a mass of Egyptians simply frustrated by economic stagnation on the other.

But the velvet glove of Sisi's language, urging politicians to find consensus and avert bloodshed, could not conceal an iron-fist of possible intervention, even if he was widely believed when he said the generals, secure and prosperous in their new role, have no wish to go back to running the country. 

…

Few believe Sisi and a new generation of leaders elevated by Mursi want to grab long-term control in a full coup by a military that is held in high regard by almost all Egyptians. 

But many of the Islamists' adversaries, from hardline Mubarak nostalgists to liberal idealists, seem ready to welcome a short-term shove by the army to abort the direction the revolution has taken and give a second chance to efforts to agree an institutional framework to end the polarised deadlock.

Respect for the military is one of the only things that President Morsi's supporters and the opposition have in common. Whether it makes good on its threat to intervene will depend in part on whether there is violence. 

"The army has made its position clear: it will not allow violence and won't stand by if things seem to be getting out of control," one military source told Reuters yesterday, noting that it doesn't seem that leaders on either side can control their supporters. 

Also at play is what the military judges as "popular will," Reuters reports. The military source said that if the size of the June 30 protests rivals that of the 2011 uprising, Morsi will be forced to relent. "No one will be able to oppose the will of the people," he said. "At least, not for long."

Egypt expert Nathan Brown writes in Foreign Policy that the potential for violence and mass protest have made military intervention an "explicit option."

The message from the military leadership in recent months has been clear in its general thrust but generally short on specifics: the military does not wish to take a political role, but it does regard itself as responsible for security of Egypt. That vagueness has likely sprouted from a desire to communicate to the presidency that it needed to improve its governance performance without offering the opposition the incentive to be so disruptive as to provoke an intervention.

…

Much still remains unclear. What would provoke an intervention? And what would the military do? Military intervention can take many forms -- suppressing demonstrations or violence, imposition of a government of national unity, deposing the president, suspending the constitution, asserting temporary authority -- and since it is not clear that any of these options would solve or even alleviate Egypt's political crisis, it can hardly be taken for granted that the military would intervene. 

But all signs point to escalation, Mr. Brown writes, painting a picture of deep polarization, rhetoric on both sides running at an alarmingly high temperature, and a conflict that has become deeply personal for all involved.

And now attitudes have grown hard indeed. I asked one leading [Morsi-allied] parliamentarian – a figure I have come to respect as level headed, calm, introspective, and patient – whether he thought he wished his side had done anything differently… . He replied with visible anger that not only did he think they would do it all over again but that in fact they will do it all over again if necessary. And when I remarked to a friend in a responsible position that I did not think Morsi would leave office voluntarily, he replied that he thought the Egyptian people would deal with him as Libyans had dealt with Muammar al-Qaddafi.

Calmer language was used in Europe in the summer of 1914.

People wait before boarding an Aeroflot Airbus A330 plane heading to the Cuban capital Havana at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport June 27, 2013. (Alexander Demianchuk/REUTERS)

Long layover: Ecuador says it could take two months to decide on Snowden's asylum

By Whitney Eulich, Staff writer / 06.27.13

• A daily summary of global reports on security issues.

For the fifth straight day former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden remains “in transit” in a Moscow airport, officials there say, while Ecuador announced his political asylum bid could take up to two months to approve.

"If he goes to the [Ecuadorean] embassy, we will make a decision," Ecuador’s foreign minister, Ricardo Patino, said yesterday. He acknowledged the parallel with WikiLeak’s founder Julian Assange who has been holed up in the South American country’s embassy in London for over a year.

"It took us two months to make a decision in the case of Assange, so do not expect us to make a decision sooner than that," Mr. Patino said.

Mr. Snowden is wanted by the US government after he leaked top secret information on US surveillance programs to The Guardian, The Washington Post, and a paper based in Hong Kong where he first sought refuge. The US revoked his passport, but he managed to flee Hong Kong Sunday. Reuters reports that Ecuador denies granting Snowden special travel documents.

Snowden was expected to leave Russia on Monday on a flight to Cuba, however he did not board the plane. The Los Angeles Times writes that some speculate Snowden has already left the Moscow airport and is slowly making his way toward Ecuador’s Embassy there.

Ecuador has come under fire for offering Snowden asylum, to which embassy official Efraín Baus told the White House, "Mr. Edward Snowden has requested political asylum in Ecuador ... this situation is not being provoked by Ecuador."

There have been calls in the US Congress to cut off aid to Ecuador.

"The fact is is that we're giving millions of millions of dollars to this country right now who may potentially be harboring somebody who could have been responsible for one of the most massive intelligence leaks in the history of both private contracting and our espionage world," national security analyst Aaron Cohen told Fox News in reference to Ecuador. "We've had trouble with these guys for a long time." 

Ecuador has received $144.4 million in US aid over the past five years, Fox reports.

Some speculate Ecuador is taking its time considering the asylum application in order to come across as seriously weighing the legal implications of Snowden’s asylum request; others point to the windfall of media attention Ecuador garners while the decision is pending.

Mr. Baus stated that Snowden’s application "will be reviewed responsibly, as are the many other asylum applications that Ecuador receives each year.” Ecuador does have an extradition agreement with the United States, but makes exceptions for political crimes, reports The Christian Science Monitor.

"This legal process takes human rights obligations into consideration," Baus said, inviting the US to submit its position on Snowden in writing so that it could be taken into consideration during the decision process.

Steve Striffler, a Latin America specialist at the University of New Orleans, wrote on CNN that Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa isn’t considering Snowden’s asylum request just to gain political points at home. He notes that after offering Mr. Assange asylum President Correa actually fueled opposition party criticism.

Politicians are always looking to score political points, and Correa has certainly had his moments. But when Correa offered Wikileaks journalist Julian Assange asylum in 2012, he had relatively little to gain politically beyond raising his international profile….

Similarly, Correa will score relatively few political points by embracing Snowden in 2013. Correa's stance is best seen as a principled one. In broad terms, Correa's openness to Assange and Snowden, as well as his decision to close a U.S. military base in Ecuador, is part of an effort to deepen Ecuadorian sovereignty while strengthening Latin America's ability to limit the influence of the United States in the region.

This is perfectly within the rights of an independent nation, even one that has historically followed the U.S. lead.

Many have criticized Ecuador for the apparent irony in its support of freedom of information when it comes to individuals like Assange and Snowden sharing top-secret information, but deterring expression at home. The country recently passed a media law that contains "questionable or dangerous provisions" to clamp down on criticism by the press according to Reporters without Borders. Correa has called reporters there "rabid dogs" and "assassins with ink," according to the Monitor.

There could be some immediate political and economic consequences for Ecuador if it does indeed grant Snowden asylum, as well. The renewal of preferential treatment for trading certain products including roses and tuna is on the table, reports The New York Times.

Michael Shifter of the Inter-American Dialogue told the Times, “The risks are enormous… It would bring the United States down very hard on him.”

Others, however, say preferential treatment was already at risk of not being renewed. “The US Congress was already unlikely to renew trade preferences for Ecuador that are set to expire this summer,” according to a second Monitor story.

“The US doesn’t have too many measures it can utilize, other than to criticize,” says Jonas Wolff, a senior research fellow at the Frankfurt-based Peace Research Institute.

The Guardian’s Stephen Kinzer says Ecuador is a good choice for Snowden because even if Ecuador’s government drastically changes in coming years, the region as a whole has moved away from falling in line behind US policy.

Because President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela was the most flamboyant of these defiant leaders, some outsiders may have expected that following his death, the region would return to its traditional state of submission. In fact, not just a handful of leaders but huge populations in Latin America have decided that they wish for more independence from Washington.

This is vital for Snowden because it reduces the chances that a sudden change of government could mean his extradition. If he can make it to Latin America, he will never lack for friends or supporters.

Clashes in tightly-controlled Muslim region of China leave 27 dead

By Arthur Bright, Staff writer / 06.26.13

A new outbreak of violence in China's far-western Xinjiang region, home to its Muslim Uighur minority, has left 27 people dead, according to state reports – the area's deadliest unrest since 2009.

According to state media, "riots" broke out in Lukqun, a township about 120 miles southeast of the regional capital, Urumqi, during which police opened fire on "knife-wielding mobs," reports Agence France-Presse.

Police shot at "mobs" who had attacked police stations, a local government building and a construction site, the Xinhua news agency said, citing local officials.

"Seventeen people had been killed ... before police opened fire and shot dead 10 rioters," it said. The mobs were also "stabbing at people and setting fire to police cars", the report said.

Nine police or security guards and eight civilians were killed before police opened fire, the report said, adding that three other people were taken to hospital with injuries.

AFP adds that Xinhua did not explain the cause of the violence, and that state officials were unresponsive to requests for comment.

The Associated Press reports:

A man in Lukqun contacted by phone said the area has been cordoned off and armed police officers were posted at road intersections. Police, anti-riot forces and paramilitary police were patrolling the town armed with pistols and machine guns, said the man, who refused to give his name out of fear of government reprisals.

“People are not being allowed to walk around on the streets,” he said before disconnecting the call.

Uighur activist Dilxat Raxit, based in Germany, issued a statement saying the violence was caused by China's “sustained repression and provocation” of the Uighur community.

Such events are not uncommon in Xinjiang, however, nor is the state's silence about them. The Christian Science Monitor reported just two months ago, after a similar clash between knife-wielding "suspected terrorists" and local authorities left 21 people dead, that "violence flares sporadically" in the region between its native population and job-seeking immigrants from China's Han majority. The worst instance occurred in 2009, when almost 200 people, mostly Han, were killed in riots across Urumqi.

Chinese officials have claimed in the past that such attacks were the work of Islamic separatists, and have attempted to quell outbreaks with a massive security presence in the region. But the native population says the problems run deeper.

"Local people complain that their culture and language are being eroded and that Han now outnumber original inhabitants, who are ethnic Uighurs, with linguistic and cultural ties to central Asian peoples," the Monitor's Peter Ford reported.

Ultimately, it is difficult to determine precisely what is happening in Xinjiang, Mr. Ford wrote in March 2012, because of the tight restrictions the Chinese authorities keep on media in the region. Writing after yet another attack by "violent mobs" that left 12 dead, he wrote that "the authorities have been largely successful in hiding what has been going on from outsiders."

The obvious way for a foreign reporter to find out what is really happening in Xinjiang or [the Tibetan region of] Sichuan would be to go there and talk to people. But that is not as easy as it sounds.

We are allowed to go to Xinjiang, but when I reported from there I found very few Uighurs brave enough to risk the punishment they feared if they were found to have talked to me. Never, in 30 years of reporting from five continents, have I found it so difficult to be a journalist. And after my return to Beijing, I discovered that plainclothes policemen had secretly followed me every step of my weeklong trip. ...

So the world is heavily dependent for news from such places on government-sanctioned reports from the official Chinese news agency, whose reports seem designed to obfuscate rather than clarify, and on exile groups who clearly have their own political agenda, however well-meaning they are.

A man walks by a gate at Cyber Terror Response Center of National Police Agency in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, June 25. South Korea said multiple government and private sector websites were hacked on Tuesday's anniversary of the start of the Korean War, and Seoul issued a cyberattack alert warning officials and citizens to take security measures. (Lee Jin-man/AP)

On anniversary of Korea War, cyber fireworks fly

By Whitney Eulich, Staff writer / 06.25.13

• A daily summary of global reports on security issues.

As the Korean Peninsula awoke to commemorate the 63^rd anniversary of the start of the Korean War today, major government and media websites in both North and South Korea appeared to be under electronic attack.

Seoul said it was investigating cyber attacks on the websites for the presidential Blue House, prime minister’s office, and a handful of major media organizations. The South Korean intelligence service is also looking into whether or not the shutdown of some North Korean sites was due to being hacked, reports The Associated Press.

According to South Korea's Arirang News, a message referring to North Korean president appeared on screens in Seoul’s presidential office this morning: “Hurrahs to Kim Jong-un, the president of a unified Korea!”

It is unclear who is responsible for these attacks and if they are linked. The hacker group “Anonymous” has warned that it would target North Korea due to its strict controls over Internet access, specifically citing today’s date, reports The New York Times.

Less than 1 percent of North Koreans have access to the Internet.

There are reports of Twitter users claiming responsibility for the attacks in the South today, “demanding that the Seoul government stop censoring Internet content and that its intelligence agency apologize for a recent political scandal in which government intelligence agents were accused of engaging in an online campaign to attack opposition candidates ahead of the Dec. 19, presidential election,” reports the Times.

Earlier this year a much more serious breach of Internet security in South Korea took down an estimated 48,000 computers and servers at banks and media institutions. Some banks were hamstrung for up to five days. North Korea was accused of being behind the cyber attack, the seventh such accusation from the South since 2008.

“Cyber attacks are much easier weapons for North Korea as they cost far less than missiles or nuclear tests, but they can send more people into a real panic,” Park Choon Sik, a Seoul Women’s University professor of cyber security, told Bloomberg at the time.

This last attack, in March, came just weeks after the United Nations slapped North Korea with renewed sanctions for conducting nuclear tests. Tensions heightened on the peninsula as a military hotline connecting the two countries was cut off, threats were made to close an important shared industrial complex, and North Korea warned of severing the Korean War armistice. The rhetoric of war went so far as to implicate a potential nuclear attack on various US cities.

According to The Christian Science Monitor’s correspondent in Seoul:

For all its bombast, North Korea may actually be reluctant to enter into a military conflict with the South and its US allies because of the alliance’s superior military strength. But cyberattacks can be harmful, create a climate of fear, and avoid any direct consequences.   

This type of attack suits North Korea.

“Cyberwar is right up their street. It’s cheap and deniable,” says Aidan Foster Carter, a Korea expert at the University of Leeds.

South Korea may also have “more to lose” than North Korea if “the inter-Korean conflict were to move into cyberspace,” reports a separate AP story. There are more Internet connections than there are people in South Korea, according to 2012 OECD data.

“Many daily tasks [in South Korea] are performed online, from banking and the purchasing of movie or train tickets to social interactions. As such, South Koreans have a lot to lose from a malicious attack on the country’s IT infrastructure,” according to the Monitor. 

Tens of thousands of people gathered in Kim Il-sung Square in North Korea’s capital to commemorate the start of the three-year-long Korean War and protest the United States today, according to AP. Thousands gathered in South Korea to mark the date, with military drills taking place near the demilitarized zone between the two countries, as well. 

In this 2004 file photo, Nanga Parbat, the ninth highest mountain in the world, is seen from Karakorum Highway leading to neighboring China in Pakistan's northern area. (Musaf Zaman Kazmi/AP/File)

Pakistan: Militants kill 10 mountaineers in 'well planned' attack

By Arthur Bright, Staff writer / 06.24.13

The Pakistani government has halted mountaineering expeditions on Nanga Parbat, a day after armed militants attacked and killed 10 foreign climbers and a local guide.

A Pakistani mountaineering expert told Agence France-Presse that some 40 climbers on the mountain, the second-tallest in Pakistan and ninth-tallest in the world, have been evacuated and that no further climbs would be allowed this summer.

“Local authorities have evacuated them. They have all been informed of this incident,” Manzoor Hussain, president of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, told AFP. “We are reviewing the overall security situation. The fallout apparently will be serious.”

“This [mountaineering] season is over for them,” Mr. Hussain added.

AFP reports that the 10 foreign climbers have been identified "as an American with dual Chinese citizenship, three Ukrainians, two Slovakians, two others from China, a Lithuanian and a climber from Nepal."

The Christian Science Monitor reported yesterday that the attack took place in the middle of the night, as several militants, dressed as members of the local paramilitary police, ambushed the base camp at the foot of Nanga Parbat. A spokesman for the banned terrorist group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) told the Monitor and other media outlets that his group claimed responsibility for the attack.

“We will continue to target the foreigners until the drone strikes stop. This attack was particularly in revenge for the killing of our commander Wali-ur-Rehman. Our local Taliban faction in the area carried it out under our instructions,” TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said.

The Los Angeles Times reports that another militant group that operates in the area, Jundullah, also claimed responsibility for the attack in separate calls to the media. The Times writes that it isn't yet clear which group – if either – is responsible, and notes the claims could be a smokescreen by a third group, trying to deflect attention.

The BBC notes that because of the mountain's remoteness, the ambush – launched by up to 20 attackers – likely required a great deal of planning and preparation, not just tactically but physically as well. The BBC's M Ilyas Khan writes:

Officials in the Diamir district of Gilgit-Baltistan say the area where the gunmen struck is extremely remote and there are no roads and no means of transportation other than mules.

They say the attackers must have been well trained and well acclimatised. A lot of planning must have gone into conducting this operation. The area is a vast mountain desert, having approaches from three sides, each requiring 20 hours of walking; in practice two days of trekking.

The BBC adds that officials say the mountain's isolation should aid in the search for the gunmen, as they ought to be easy to spot from the air. Unconfirmed reports from local media claim that 37 people have been arrested so far in the investigation.

The attack is of particular concern to Pakistan's struggling tourism industry. The country's mountains were among the few regions regarded as safe from its ongoing struggle with Islamist militants. Experts told the Monitor that the attack could shatter that confidence, costing the country "billions of rupees."

“Around fifteen to twenty thousand tourists including mountaineers came to Pakistan each year during the summer season. Each one of them spends over five to six thousand dollars. The loss to Pakistan because of this attack will be in billions of rupees,” says Ghulam Nabi, a representative of Pakistan Tour Operators’ Association. “And it’s not just tourists that run away then, it also affects the foreign investor confidence."