News Roundup Archive

Thursday, August 22, 2013

USIP's Science, Technology & Peacebuilding Roundup

 

United States Institute of Peace

 

Center of Innovation: Science, Technology and Peacebuilding

Weekly News Roundup, August 15 - 21, 2013

Table of Contents

**Click here to subscribe to USIP's Media, Conflict and Peacebuilding News Roundup,
which includes a special section on Internet and social media.**


NSA Gathered Thousands of Americans’ E-mails Before Court Struck Down Program
The National Security Agency unlawfully gathered as many as tens of thousands of e-mails and other electronic communications between Americans as part of a now-discontinued collection program, according to a 2011 secret court opinion. The 86-page opinion, which was declassified by U.S. intelligence officials Wednesday, explains why the chief judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ruled the collection method unconstitutional.
See the full article (Washington Post, Ellen Nakashima, 8/21/2013)
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Manning Sentenced to 35 Years for Leaking Government Secrets
A military judge sentenced Pfc. Bradley Manning on Wednesday to 35 years in prison for providing more than 700,000 government files to WikiLeaks, a gigantic leak that lifted the veil on military and diplomatic activities around the world. The judge said that Private Manning was dishonorably discharged. She reduced him to the lowest rank of private, from his previous rank of private first class.
See the full article (New York Times, Charlie Savage and Emmarie Huetteman, 8/21/13)*NYT sign-up may be required to view the full article
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Can New X-Ray Vision Technology Defeat the Staying Power of IEDs?
A new X-ray system of innovative optical processing technology will allow soldiers to identify potential bombs from the safety of their vehicles, providing a potentially powerful weapon against insurgents’ signature weapon, the IED. Unveiled last month in London, Raytheon UK‘s Soteria vehicle-mounted system is the latest solution offered by the defense industry.
See the full article (Wired, Allen McDuffee, 8/21/13)
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Iranian School Kids Will Now Learn ‘Drone-hunting’ Skills
This fall, while American grade school students learn under the Obama administration’s Common Core that 3 x 4 can totally be 11 as long as there’s a good reason for the answer, Iranian students will learn a much more useful life skill: how to hunt for unmanned U.S. drones. Paramilitary units from the theocratic nation’s Revolutionary Guards will provide the lessons, reports the Daily Mail.
See the full article (Yahoo, 8/20/13)
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Report: NSA Can ‘Reach Roughly 75% of All U.S. Internet Traffic’
A new report by the Wall Street Journal [says that] the NSA “has the capacity to reach roughly 75% of all U.S. Internet traffic.” And while the NSA is only supposed to “target” foreigners, the NSA sometimes “retains the written content of emails sent between citizens within the U.S.”
See the full article (Washington Post, Timothy B. Lee, 8/20/13)
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PRISM Works Because a Ton of Data Moves Through U.S. Servers. That’s Also Why it Could Fail.
One of the reasons electronic surveillance tools such as PRISM work so well is because much of the world’s Internet traffic goes through U.S. servers. The American companies that own and operate that equipment can be subpoenaed and the data handed over to the government. But that works only so long as the traffic keeps going where intelligence agencies want it to go.
See the full article (Washington Post, Brian Fung, 8/20/13)
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How Big a Threat is State Sponsored Computer Hacking?
In recent times, hacking has featured in the news a little more literally that organisations would like - everyone from the BBC to Reuters has had social media accounts compromised. But governments themselves are believed to target other nations to search for intelligence, information and data that might be useful.
See the full article (BBC, 8/19/13)
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Is Glenn Greenwald's Journalism Now Viewed as a 'Terrorist' Occupation?
The detention at Heathrow on Sunday of the Brazilian David Miranda is the sort of treatment western politicians love to deplore in Putin's Russia or Ahmadinejad's Iran. His "offence" under the 2000 Terrorism Act was apparently to be the partner of a journalist, Glenn Greenwald, who had reported for the Guardian on material released by the American whistleblower, Edward Snowden.
See the full article (Guardian, Simon Jenkins, 8/19/13)
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In Classified Cyberwar against Iran, Trail of Stuxnet Leak Leads to White House
The Obama administration provided a New York Times reporter exclusive access to a range of high-level national security officials for a book that divulged highly classified information on a U.S. cyberwar on Iran's nuclear program, internal State Department emails show.
See the full article (Washington Times, Rowan Scarborough, 8/18/13)
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How Drones Fundamentally Alter The Nature Of Conflict
The use of drones in the war on terror has been getting a lot of attention. Morning Edition's Renee Montagne talks to author Mark Bowden about his article on the U.S. government's use of drones in this week's The Atlantic magazine.
See the full article (NPR, Mark Bowden, 8/15/13)
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which includes a special section on Internet and social media.

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USIP's Media, Conflict & Peacebuilding Roundup

 

United States Institute of Peace

 

Center of Innovation: Media, Conflict and Peacebuilding

Weekly News Roundup, August 15 - 21, 2013

Media and Journalism

Internet and Social Media

What's New from PeaceMedia

**Click here to subscribe to USIP's Science, Technology and Peacebuilding News Roundup.**


Media and Journalism

Foreign Media Under Fire over Coverage of Violence
Amid an international outcry over its bloody crackdown, the new government named by General Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi is putting concerted pressure on the only remaining news outlets in Egypt offering criticism of the violence: the foreign press.
See the full article (New York Times, David Kirkpatrick, 8/18/13)*NYT sign-up may be required to view the full article
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An Afghan Poet Shapes Metal and Hard Words
With his unflinching words, Mr. Turab, 44, offers a voice for Afghans grown cynical about the war and its perpetrators. Even as his social affiliations are narrow and divisive, his poetry has mass appeal. Mr. Turab reserves his charity for ordinary Afghans, weighed down by the grinding corruption and disappointment that have come to define the last decade of their lives.
See the full article (New York Times, Azam Ahmed, 8/18/13)*NYT sign-up may be required to view the full article
Click to read "Responsibility to Protect Weighed Down by Misconceptions" an Olive Branch Post by Jonas Claes.
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Polarised Media Fuels Conflict in Egypt
Starting shortly before former President Mohamed Morsi’s ouster, state run media began to rename the ruling political elite. Former politicians quickly became "terrorists" as public channels began to undergo a campaign to publicly rebrand the Muslim Brotherhood and its political arm, the Freedom and Justice party, as an enemy of the state.
See the full article (Al Jazeera, 8/17/13)
Click to read "Islamic Law: Getting Beyond the Bombast" an Olive Branch Post by Viola Gienger.
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Radio Station Employee Is Shot Dead in Somalia
A technician for the state-run broadcaster Radio Mogadishu was murdered on Saturday, the sixth media employee killed so far this year in Somalia. Separately, in the first such execution in Somalia, a man found guilty of killing a journalist last year was executed by firing squad.
See the full article (New York Times, Mohammed Ibrahim and Nicholas Kulish, 8/17/13)*NYT sign-up may be required to view the full article
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Gunmen Fire on Pakistan TV Offices
Two people were injured earlier today when four men stepped off their motorcycles and sprayed the Express News office in Karachi, [Pakistan] with gunfire. More than 30 rounds were fired at the building. A guard and a female member of staff were taken to hospital.
See the full article (Guardian, Roy Greenslade, 8/16/13)
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Internet and Social Media

Is Facebook Holding Burmese Media Back?
There's much to be said for the unquestionably positive role Facebook has played in facilitating open conversations in Burma's rapid transition. But the nation's media, and its people, need more.
See the full article (Guardian, Jeanne Bourgault, 8/21/13)
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Manning Sentenced to 35 Years for Leaking Government Secrets
A military judge sentenced Pfc. Bradley Manning on Wednesday to 35 years in prison for providing more than 700,000 government files to WikiLeaks, a gigantic leak that lifted the veil on military and diplomatic activities around the world. The judge said that Private Manning was dishonorably discharged. She reduced him to the lowest rank of private, from his previous rank of private first class.
See the full article (New York Times, Charlie Savage and Emmarie Huetteman, 8/21/13)*NYT sign-up may be required to view the full article
[Return to top] | [Return to section]

China Steps Up Campaign against Major Opinion-leading Bloggers, to Wrest Control of Internet
Many famous Chinese — from pop stars to scholars, journalists to business tycoons — have amassed substantial online followings. Now Beijing is tightening its grip on China’s already heavily restricted Internet by making influential microbloggers uncomfortable when they post material the government doesn’t like.
See the full article (AP, 8/19/13)
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Washington Post, CNN and Time Websites Hit by Pro-Assad Hackers
Websites belonging to the Washington Post, CNN, and Time have been attacked by supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Some links on the sites were redirecting readers to the website of the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA). The breaches have been blamed on a third-party link recommendation service that all three sites used.
See the full article (BBC, Dave Lee, 8/15/13)
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What's New from PeaceMedia

"Syrian Journalists Remain Defiant" - Al Jazeera
Reporters who fled Syria to Europe are taking advantage of press freedom to get their message across back home.
See the full video
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