Schneier on Security

A90210 • May 5, 2019 1:29 PM

https://www.democracynow.org/2019/5/3/mass_judge_refuses_to_halt_pro

“AMY GOODMAN: We begin today’s show in Western Massachusetts, where a judge ruled Thursday a panel on Palestinian rights can move forward. “Not Backing Down: Israel, Free Speech, and the Battle for Palestinian Human Rights.” That’s the title of the event set to take place Saturday at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Three anonymous UMass students filed a lawsuit to stop the event, claiming they will, quote, “suffer irreparable harm” if it takes place. But Judge Robert Ullmann ruled Thursday the event can proceed, saying, quote, “There’s nothing that comes even close to a threat of harm or incitement to violence or lawlessness,” he said. Meanwhile, the university has backed the event despite the protests, saying it’s committed to the principles of free speech and academic freedom.

The event is co-sponsored by Jewish Voice for Peace. Group member and attorney Rachel—a group member and attorney responded to Thursday’s decision, saying, quote, “The judge ruled that to shut down this event would be to violate the First Amendment. But we also challenged the false premise that criticism of Israel is somehow inherently antisemitic. We have every right to criticize Israel’s violations of Palestinian human rights. As members of JVP, and as Jews, we stand in solidarity with the event and with the panelists,” Rachel Weber said. …”

and https://www.democracynow.org/2019/5/3/roger_waters_on_palestine_you_have

We also recently spoke to Noam Chomsky, the world-renowned political dissident, linguist and author. He said Democrats are supporting Palestinian rights more now than in the past. He said times have changed.

NOAM CHOMSKY: The support for Israeli expansionism, repression, the whole alliance that’s developing, that support has shifted in the United States from the more liberal sectors—roughly, the Democratic Party—to the far right. Not very long ago, support for Israel was based passionately in the liberal sectors of the population. It was a Democratic issue. It isn’t anymore. In fact, if you look in the polls, people who identify themselves as Democrats by now tend to support Palestinian rights more than Israel. That’s a dramatic change. Support for Israel now is in the most reactionary parts of the population: evangelical Christians, ultranationalists. Basically, it’s a far-right issue. Among younger people, this is even more the case.

AMY GOODMAN: That was Noam Chomsky, who had just returned to Boston, to Massachusetts. I was interviewing him at the Old South Church there. About a thousand people packed into the church. Roger Waters, do you feel that kind of optimism? I mean, here, Noam Chomsky has been so critical of the Israeli state for so long, and yet he says he feels there is a different climate right now.

ROGER WATERS: Absolutely. I mean, I’ve been involved in this struggle only for the last 12 years. But over those 12 years it has changed dramatically. And Noam Chomsky is exactly right. And so is Sut. They are desperate now. That’s why they pulled this silly legal stunt about this meeting in UMass. And I’m so happy to see it. And working with people from Jewish Voice for Peace and other Jewish organizations, as well, has developed dramatically over the years, as the demographic within the Jewish community in United States has changed, and they’re coming more and more ’round to saying, “Not in my name,” and which is hugely encouraging, yeah. I feel overcome, almost, with joy even to be able to speak about it in these terms now. And I’m really looking forward to Saturday in Massachusetts and having—you know, speaking to young people and meeting also the other panelists, all of whom I admire. …”

A90210 • May 7, 2019 9:53 AM

To borrow from Prince, You are not engaged in kid stuff, or something like that.

https://www.npr.org/2019/05/02/719536645/journalist-explains-john-boltons-push-for-aggressive-use-of-american-power
GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. And if you’re just joining us, my guest is Dexter Filkins. He’s a staff writer for The New Yorker. His new piece is called “John Bolton On The Warpath.” [ https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/05/06/john-bolton-on-the-warpath ] John Bolton is President Trump’s national security adviser.

Let’s talk about Bolton’s background. In 1985, Bolton joined the Reagan Justice Department. And there, he helped shepherd in the Supreme Court nomination of Robert Bork. He did not get confirmed in the Senate. And as you say, that began the era of fiercely partisan high-court nominations. I think Bork went on to found or co-found the Federalist Society…

FILKINS: Yeah.

GROSS: …The group of very conservative, you know, lawyers.

So what were Bolton’s priorities back then? Do you know?

FILKINS: Again, he’s been a conservative his whole life. If you go back – when Bolton got out of law school, he was an assistant to his Yale law professor Ralph Winter. And Ralph Winter was a very well-known figure in the conservative intellectual movement. And when Bolton got out of law school, he joined up with Winter. So he’s just in his 20s. They take this – what turns out to be a landmark Supreme Court case, Buckley v. Valeo, in – which was the first big lawsuit – kind of the precursor to Citizens United – it was the first big lawsuit that challenged restrictions on campaign spending and giving. And they won.

And essentially, it was Buckley v. Valeo – landmark case – it established essentially that money and political contributions is essentially political speech. And that ultimately led to rulings like Citizens United, which have basically just unleashed, you know, as we now have the system – we now have this massive flood of private money into our campaigns.

And that was the beginning. And Bolton was involved in that when he was just in his 20s. And he was involved in the Bork nomination. And he was involved in the Iraq War. So you can just chart his career, and it takes you through the whole rise of the Republican establishment as we now know it.

GROSS: Is there anything I left out of the interview…

FILKINS: Yeah.

GROSS: …That you reported that you think is really important and you want to share with…

FILKINS: Well…

GROSS: …Us before we have to move on?

FILKINS: Yeah. Yeah, I would do – I think there’s one. You know, Bolton has aggressively advocated attacking North Korea for years. And I had a conversation with – Larry Wilkerson was chief of staff to Colin Powell. And Bolton was essentially advocating, you know, preemptive war with North Korea in the early 2000s – like, after 9/11. He was going around saying, they’ve got this nuclear program. We have to act now and take them out.

And it was so disturbing to Wilkerson that – and there’s a scene in the piece where he said, we arranged – we had to find a way to shut him up. And he said, we arranged for a briefing for Bolton. So we brought him into the room – he and Richard Armitage, who was the deputy secretary of state – and we gave him a briefing on what would happen if we went to war with North Korea. And as Wilkerson said to me – he said, it’s, you know, tens of thousands of casualties. And they kind of laid it out. He said, we laid it out for John – like, how many South Koreans would die, how many Americans would die – there’s 200,000 Americans in Seoul – how many Japanese would die, how many Chinese would die.

And he said, I’ll never forget what Bolton said to me. He looked at me, and he said, are you finished now? You clearly do war. I don’t do war. I do policy. And I think that for Wilkerson, you know, that really stunned him. And I think their – you know, their relationship has never been the same since. But there was – that it was – it struck him as a very cavalier attitude towards going to war and having a war like that.

And I just – one more thing about North Korea – I remember when I was on the plane of secretary – then-Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis. This is in 2017. And the subject of North Korea came up. And he said, if there was a war, a war with North Korea would be bloodier than – it would be a bloodier war than anyone alive has seen. That’s how bad it would be. I mean, he got very sober very fast. And so that struck me as a pretty remarkable moment.

GROSS: And I guess a question that we’re left with is, you know, there’s a difference between recommending policy and being responsible for pushing us into a military conflict with devastating consequences and tens of thousands of deaths. Would Bolton go to the point where tens of thousands of deaths were kind of, you know – that he’d be responsible for the action that led to it? Is he…

FILKINS: Well, that’s – yeah. That’s a really good point. Look. I – it’s one thing to be a highly paid commentator on Fox News and to say, we should bomb North Korea. We should bomb Iran. We – you know, we need to take action. Regardless, you know, go forward. Damn the torpedoes. That’s one thing. But when you’re actually, you know, in the cockpit and it’s – and you’re flying the plane and it – you got to drop that bomb yourself, it starts to look a little bit different.

And I think – I don’t know. I mean, I think this brings us to Bolton in Vietnam, sitting next to President Trump, sitting across the table from the North Korean leaders on – and negotiating the – their nuclear weapons. It’s – you never could’ve imagined that John Bolton, who has made fun of and mocked, you know, every American diplomat who has ever done that – he’s sitting there in the same chair himself, doing exactly the same thing.

And I – he didn’t say it in quite that way to me, but I think you can imagine that you can’t – you can’t be – you can’t speak as freely and as loosely when you’re the national security adviser, as opposed to when you’re a commentator on Fox News. And I think he’s finding that out right now.

GROSS: Well, Dexter Filkins, it’s always great to talk with you. Thank you so much for coming back to FRESH AIR.

FILKINS: Thank you, Terry.”

A90210 • May 7, 2019 10:23 AM

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/03/venezuela-protests-news-latest-maduro-uprising-that-fizzled-

“… In Washington, Bolton and Pompeo have hinted at the possibility of direct US military intervention to tip the scales to oust Maduro, but have so far been restrained by the Pentagon. The Washington Post reported a confrontation in the White House, between Bolton’s hawks and the vice-chairman of the chiefs of staff, Paul Selva.

As Selva made the case against any risky US escalation, he was repeatedly interrupted by Bolton aides demanding military options, until the normally mild-mannered air force general slammed his hand on the table, and the meeting was adjourned early.

Fulton Armstrong, a former CIA expert on Latin America now at American University said he was concerned that the generals could not hold out indefinitely against the calls for action.

Armstrong said: “These [Trump administration] guys are so desperate for a win – and with so much testosterone in their veins, I am really worried they are going to do something really stupid.””

A90210 • May 7, 2019 11:47 AM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIC4j6Rn9s4
Warren Zevon – Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner – His Last David Letterman Show

https://theintercept.com/2019/05/03/erik-prince-trump-uae-project-veritas/

https://www.democracynow.org/2019/5/6/ex_blackwater_ceo_erik_prince_makes yesterday

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Zevon

A90210 • May 7, 2019 4:34 PM

[ Human Rights Watch’s Five minute video ] https://www.hrw.org/report/2019/05/01/chinas-algorithms-repression/reverse-engineering-xinjiang-police-mass-surveillance

https://www.democracynow.org/2019/5/7/as_countries_seek_trade_with_china

“… The New York Times reports the Trump administration has shelved proposed targeted sanctions over the mass detentions out of fear it could derail a potential trade deal. Last week, Human Rights Watch revealed new details about how China is carrying out massive surveillance in Xinjiang in part thanks to a mobile app that lets authorities monitor the Muslim population. This video, produced by Human Rights Watch, begins with a Uyghur student.

ALIM: I used to be one of those people like, “I’ve got nothing to hide. I’m just a student.” But I was very wrong. They’re targeting everyone. As long as you’re going out of your house, you’re being surveilled.

[…]

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And you mentioned that even such an otherwise normal act as going outside the back door of your home as opposed to the front door of your house could be a trigger for the Chinese authorities to gather information on these apps?

SOPHIE RICHARDSON: Yeah. Some of the behaviors described or logged are really ludicrous. Front door versus back door. If you’re suddenly talking to your neighbor more or less. If facial recognition software logs you putting gas into a car that doesn’t belong to you. These are all behaviors that are perfectly legal under Chinese law, and yet they are now considered grounds for investigation, and in some cases, arbitrary detention.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to turn to Al Jazeera’s Mehdi Hasan, who recently interviewed the Chinese professor Charles Liu, who works as an informal adviser to the Chinese government.

MEHDI HASAN: Your country, the government you support and have advised, according to a U.N. rapporteur, according to the U.S. State Department, according to Amnesty International, according to Human Rights Watch, according to plenty of journalists and many others, are believed to have detained maybe a million people or more, mainly from the Uyghur Muslim ethnic minority, in re-education camps. A million people, Charles. A million.

CHARLES LIU: OK, OK. It’s certainly not grabbing headlines in China.

MEHDI HASAN: Is it not because you don’t have a free press in China, so you can’t have—

AUDIENCE: [laughter]

MEHDI HASAN: —headlines about the Uyghur?

CHARLES LIU: No, it’s because there are 55 national minorities in China, and Uyghurs population is in total—

MEHDI HASAN: Between 9 million and 10 million, I believe, in Xinjiang.

CHARLES LIU: Yes—0.7% of the population.

MEHDI HASAN: OK, but the world doesn’t work on percentages. If you lock up a million people in camps—

*CHARLES LIU: The world doesn’t—

MEHDI HASAN: —the world pays attention.

CHARLES LIU: 1.4 billion people need to be fed, need to be clothed, need to be educated.

MEHDI HASAN: [inaudible] locking up a million people in Xinjiang. That must concern you, to hear that a million people of your fellow Chinese countrymen and women have been locked up by your government.

CHARLES LIU: If it’s true, sure.

MEHDI HASAN: How do we establish if it’s true or not? Why don’t you let people in to check and count? Then we’ll know for sure.

CHARLES LIU: I think people have visited.

MEHDI HASAN: No. They’ve been on kind of supervised trips with Chinese monitors to select camps where they haven’t been able to see everything. In fact, Reuters went to the trip last year—they were taken around, they were allowed to meet some people, and the people sang, “If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands.”

AMY GOODMAN: That’s Mehdi Hasan at the Oxford Union in Britain, along with the Chinese Professor Liu. Rushan Abbas, you are Uyghur. You’re a Uyghur-American activist. Your sister is still disappeared. Your response?

[…]”