Foreign Affairs
Related: About this forumPoland says Washington stonewalling CIA jail investigation
The United States is ignoring a request from Poland to hand over the full version of a Senate report that could shed light on allegations the CIA abused al Qaeda suspects at a secret prison in the north of the country, according to Polish prosecutors.
The report last December by the U.S. Senate intelligence committee detailed how the CIA used techniques including water-boarding and mock executions on terrorism suspects at secret overseas facilities in the years following the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.
It named the locations of the secret prisons, but these were blacked out in the summary that was released to the public.
Polish prosecutors say they formally asked the U.S. Justice Department for a full, unredacted copy of the report to help their criminal investigation into allegations the CIA ran one of the facilities in a Polish fores
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/12/us-usa-cia-torture-poland-idUSKBN0OS1N220150612
bemildred
(90,061 posts)A blogger's publication of documents from a probe into a wiretapping scandal that rocked the Polish government in 2014 has been described as 'the biggest leak from an investigation in Polish history.'
http://www.thenews.pl/1/9/Artykul/209593,Documents-from-tape-affair-probe-biggest-leak-in-Polish-history
jakeXT
(10,575 posts)Of particular interest, however, is Radosław Sikorski, Polands foreign minister at the time, who was recorded describing Polands alliance with the United States as worthless and bulls***. Sikorski, widely seen as being friendly with the U.S., was also heard saying, Well get into a conflict with the Russians and the Germans, and well think that everything is super because we gave the Americans a b*** j**. Losers. Complete losers.
The story roiled Polish politics, and Sikorski, who later became speaker of parliament, resigned on Wednesday.
How does this relate to U.S. politics? Jeb Bush met with Sikorski a day later, despite what he said about the United States and the American alliance with Poland. MSNBCs Benjy Sarlin reported:
Walking delicately around one potential minefield, Bush met Radek Sikorski, who was the countrys parliamentary speaker before he resigned over a leaked tape of comments he made decrying the United States as a worthless ally.
Asked about Sikurskis criticisms of Bushs own country, the Republican added, Maybe theres a degree of frustration that over the last few years weve kind of changed course as it relates to the deployment of the missile system, for example . So perhaps he was expressing frustration.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/jeb-bushs-unexpected-connection-europes-waitergate
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Last edited Sat Jun 13, 2015, 12:57 PM - Edit history (1)
Can he pick them or what?
jakeXT
(10,575 posts)Nature abhors a vacuum and for the dozen-odd people seeking to become the next U.S. president, American drift and indecision look like easy targets. Certainly Republicans have identified foreign policy as a winning issue. While in Germany this week, Jeb Bush described Russian President Vladimir Putin as a ruthless pragmatist who will push until someone pushes back and called for a renewal of the Western alliance. Marco Rubio has also demanded renewed American strength and greater global leadership. Its probably only a matter of time before Hillary Clinton finds a way to delicately separate Obamas first term from his second, the better to attack the latter as well.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/americas-foreign-policy-recovery/2015/06/12/e89d609e-10fb-11e5-9726-49d6fa26a8c6_story.html?hpid=z3
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Not stupidilty, not incompetence, not ignorance and arrogance, we just have not been dogmatic and aggressive enough yet. Like that was not how we got here in the first place.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)"NATO needs a new decision making process". Lots of InfoWar bullshit too. Like they did not just get the crown jewels stolen, web-security wise, again, with no whistle-blower to blame this time. "It's the Chinese" or something. Well, we built the web, right, why is anybody able to steal our stuff on it?
jakeXT
(10,575 posts)We need more money ... more money, and it will probably used mainly for offense
Former CIA official sees terrorism-cyber parallels
Different wars for different times. Cofer Black, a former top CIA counterterrorism official, said on Wednesday he sees parallels between the terrorism threat that emerged before the September 11 attacks a decade ago and the emerging cyber threat now.
The question of validation -- judging the severity of the threat and who is behind it -- is just as much an issue now as it was in the lead-up to the September 11 attacks, he told an audience of information security experts at the annual Black Hat conference.
---
A "state actor" was blamed on Wednesday for a massive wave of cyber attacks that spanned five years and affected the networks of 72 organizations around the world, including the United Nations, governments and corporations.
....
"Cyber will be a key component of any future conflict whether it's with a nation state, a rogue state or terrorist groups," Black said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/03/us-usa-security-cyber-idUSTRE7727AJ20110803
It's like that Korea fairytale
N.S.A. Breached North Korean Networks Before Sony Attack, Officials Say
WASHINGTON The trail that led American officials to blame North Korea for the destructive cyberattack on Sony Pictures Entertainment in November winds back to 2010, when the National Security Agency scrambled to break into the computer systems of a country considered one of the most impenetrable targets on earth.
Spurred by growing concern about North Koreas maturing capabilities, the American spy agency drilled into the Chinese networks that connect North Korea to the outside world, picked through connections in Malaysia favored by North Korean hackers and penetrated directly into the North with the help of South Korea and other American allies, according to former United States and foreign officials, computer experts later briefed on the operations and a newly disclosed N.S.A. document.
A classified security agency program expanded into an ambitious effort, officials said, to place malware that could track the internal workings of many of the computers and networks used by the Norths hackers, a force that South Koreas military recently said numbers roughly 6,000 people. Most are commanded by the countrys main intelligence service, called the Reconnaissance General Bureau, and Bureau 121, its secretive hacking unit, with a large outpost in China.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/19/world/asia/nsa-tapped-into-north-korean-networks-before-sony-attack-officials-say.html?_r=0
bemildred
(90,061 posts)And now they intend to take their games onto the internet. I admit I am curious to see how that works out, it should get pretty wild, but it will likely degrade if not destroy the internet in it's present form, and may make it unusable for commerce.
Ash Carter is a type I know well.
Thats vicky and her crew.
JM
jakeXT
(10,575 posts)Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)The NSA or the russians?
Regarding the threats of killing the opposition, I suppose it would have been a lesser body count than the bloody civil war.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)jakeXT
(10,575 posts)Days after the Wprost began releasing the recordings, police raided the magazines headquarters, prying laptops out of editors hands. The government, meanwhile, launched a criminal investigation while publicly pointing fingers at Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk, in remarks reminiscent of the fall of Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal, has emphasized that the bugging of private conversations is strictly illegal and has blamed the leaks on an organized criminal group that is destabilizing the state,' Newsweek reported in July. Tusk has encouraged the widespread belief that Russia is behind the bugging because it seeks to undermine the Polish state, as it has in neighboring Ukraine. Fingers are being pointed at Marek Falenta, a Polish multimillionaire whose company imports coal from Russia and who was detained in connection with the recordings.
Despite the uproar, however, it initially seemed that Civic Platform would escape any serious consequences. Tusk stepped down in September after being appointed president of the European Council a major coup for both the politician and for Poland passing the torch to Kopacz. Sikorski, meanwhile, became speaker of parliament.
...
The scandal escalated again earlier this week when a blogger and activist, Zbigniew Stonoga, published 2,500 pages of sealed documents from the ongoing investigation into the audio tapes. The materials, which Stonoga claimed to have found on Chinese Internet sites, include testimony from the accused and from witnesses, along with personal information such as addresses and phone numbers, and evidence for the case, according Russias state-owned Sputnik news agency.
Ultimately, the mystery over who bugged the bread basket remains unsolved.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/06/11/sex-lies-and-audio-tape-secret-recordings-finally-catch-up-to-polish-government/
Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)Hi Guys!
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz, facing elections in the fall, is shuffling her government after the ruling party has been battered by a defeat in presidential elections and an eavesdropping scandal.
Were in an election period and Poles are waiting for concrete proposals, Kopacz told reporters in Warsaw on Wednesday. The ruling Civic Platform party cant be constantly blamed for the tape scandal.
The ministers in charge of state-owned companies, health care and sports will leave the cabinet along with three deputies, Kopacz said. Parliament speaker Radoslaw Sikorski, a former foreign minister, also resigned, as did ex-Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski, Kopaczs chief political adviser. The government plans to announce replacements next week, spokeswoman Malgorzata Kidawa-Blonska told the PAP news service.
The move underscores the speed of change in the political landscape of the European Unions largest eastern country. A come-from-behind victory by opposition candidate Andrzej Duda in last months presidential ballot raised the prospects of the nation unseating one of the trading blocs most economically successful governments. Kopaczs Civic Platform party, in power since 2007, is also seeking to distance itself from the eavesdropping scandal that rocked the country last year.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-10/polish-premier-shuffles-cabinet-after-presidential-vote-defeat
bemildred
(90,061 posts)WARSAW, Poland (AP) -- Poland's Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz has dismissed opposition calls for her to resign with her Cabinet amid a revived 2014 eavesdropping scandal.
Kopacz is to name four new ministers next week to replace Cabinet members who resigned Wednesday. They were secretly taped in 2013 and 2014 during private meetings in restaurants. The public was shocked to hear their views and foul language.
Illegal publication this week of secret files from an investigation into the recordings revived the scandal, just months before Poland's general elections.
The opposition party, whose candidate Andrzej Duda won the May presidential election, has suggested that Kopacz and the Cabinet should resign now and that an interim government should be formed until the parliamentary vote.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_POLAND_POLITICS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-06-12-11-33-15
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Attorney General Andrzej Seremet answers questions in Poland's lower house of parliament (Sejm) on Wednesday.
Although senior coalition partner Civic Platform has criticised the Attorney General fornot managing to keep the files confidential while the investigation continued, a two thirds majority in parliament would be necessary to dethrone Seremet.
Furthermore, at least half of all currently serving MPs would have to be present for the vote to be valid.
Meanwhile, opposition party Law and Justice has already confirmed that it is against the removal of the Attorney General.
http://www.thenews.pl/1/9/Artykul/209995,Tape-Affair-Attorney-General-next-to-go
Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)Good thing we brought them FREEDOM and DEMOCRACY.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Two days after resigning as the Speaker of Polands Parliament following an eavesdropping scandal, veteran Polish politician Radosław Sikorski said his country and the United States must jointly stand up to Russian President Vladimir Putins provocations in Ukraine.
Speaking June 12 at the Atlantic Councils Wrocław Global Forum 2015, Sikorski thanked the US government for boosting its military presence in Eastern Europe in a time of great uncertainty following Russias 2014 annexation of Crimea and its current military aggression in eastern Ukraine.
We have felt some frustration that so many years after Polands accession to NATO, we didnt see visible signs of a US presence here, Sikorski conceded in a keynote speech following his introduction by the Atlantic Council President and CEO Fred Kempe.
But in the last few years, contingency plans have been written for Poland, which have now started being backed up with capabilities, he said. Weve seen convoys from the Baltic states, permanent rotational exercises in Poland, a small permanent air detachment in Poland, and well soon be building a missile defense base. Now its happening and I feel satisfied.
http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/poland-s-sikorski-urges-tougher-nato-stance-against-russia
jakeXT
(10,575 posts)bemildred
(90,061 posts)bemildred
(90,061 posts)WARSAW (Reuters) Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz appointed a group of relative political unknowns to her cabinet on Monday in an effort to regain voters trust and avoid defeat in a parliamentary election due later this year.
The appointments included a former Olympic rower, Adam Korol, who was named sports and tourism minister, and Marian Zembala, a celebrated heart surgeon, who is to be the new minister for health, Kopacz told a news conference.
Kopacz said in a televised address she had also picked Andrzej Czerwinski as the new treasury minister, whose job it is to oversee the states shares in public companies.
Czerwinski, a member of parliament with Kopaczs centre-right Civic Platform party, is head of a parliamentary energy panel.
http://www.euronews.com/newswires/3025507-polish-pm-appoints-political-novices-to-her-struggling-government/