NSA leaks: Theresa May says editors ‘should recognise their responsibilities’

The Guardian home

Monday 11 November 2013

Home secretary follows cabinet colleagues in criticising newspapers over stories based on Edward Snowden revelations

Theresa MayTheresa May has criticised newspapers for publishing stories based on Edward Snowden’s NSA leaks.  Photograph: David Cheskin/PA

Theresa May has become the latest Tory cabinet minister to criticise the publication of stories based on Edward Snowden’s NSA leaks, saying anything that “potentially gives help to terrorists” is something the government “needs to be concerned about and act on”.

 

The home secretary, speaking to the Society of Editors annual conference in London on Monday, warned newspaper editors that they have to “recognise their responsibilities” to national security alongside their “natural desire to have a story in their newspaper”.

However, May admitted that deciding whether the publication of leaked material was in the public interest was “not an easy area” and noted that the Guardian had gone through “various processes” available before running stories based on the Snowden leaks.

“It is the case that anything that reveals security issues, which by definition are kept secret for a purpose and potentially gives help to terrorists, is something the government needs to be concerned about and act on,” said May.

Asked about newspaper reports based on leaks by whistleblowers, such as the revelations in the Guardian and elsewhere by former NSA analyst Snowden, May said newspaper editors “did not always know the impact of the material in national security terms” of the information they had been given.

“We have a security service and intelligence agencies that have to operate on a secret basis,” she said. “We need to make sure terrorists don’t get information that will help them in their tasks.”

Asked who should make the decision whether the publication of leaked material was either in the public interest or endangered national security, May admitted: “This is not an easy area. There are processes available and there were various processes that were went through in relation to the Guardian material. There is of course the D notice that is available.

“There is an onus on every editor looking at material of that sort to recognise their responsibilities as well as the natural desire to have a story in their newspaper.”

May’s comments followed fresh criticism over the weekend from government government ministers over the Guardian’s handling of the Snowden leaks, with foreign secretary William Hague and Philip Hammond, the defence secretary, saying its revelations had endangered national security.

But the two ministers sidestepped questions whether they would like to see a prosecution, after former defence secretary Liam Fox wrote to the Crown Prosecution Service asking whether there is a case for legal action against the paper

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Shock artist nails his genitals to Red Square cobblestone in protest

Written by RT News

Published time: November 11, 2013

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A Russian artist stripped naked outside Lenin’s Mausoleum and nailed his testicles to a Red Square cobblestone in front of horrified passersby. It was a “metaphor for apathy, political indifference and fatalism of modern Russian society,” he explained.

The St. Petersburg-based artist, Pyotr Pavlensky, was taken to  police after being treated in a hospital. He could spend up to 15  days in jail as a standard punishment for hooliganism.
“It’s not a bureaucratic mess that deprives society of its  ability to act, but fixation on our own defeats and losses that  nails us to the Kremlin’s pavement stronger and stronger,  creating an army of apathetic idols out of people, patiently  awaiting their fate,” Pavlensky said about the meaning of his  latest Red Square protest meant to mark the annual Police Day  holiday celebrated in Russia on November 10.

Artist Pyotr Pavlensky sits on the pavestones of Red Square during a protest action in front of the Kremlin wall in central Moscow, November 10, 2013. (Reuters/Maxim Zmeyev) 

Artist Pyotr Pavlensky sits on the pavestones of Red Square during a protest action in front of the Kremlin wall in central Moscow, November 10, 2013. (Reuters/Maxim Zmeyev)

It’s not the first time the 29-year-old has chosen extreme  methods of protest. His name didn’t ring a bell until last year  when Pavlensky sewed his lips together to protest against the  jailing of the Pussy Riot members who staged an anti-Putin  performance inside a landmark Moscow cathedral.
Earlier this year, in May, Pavlensky was arrested after wrapping  his naked body in barbed wire outside a Legislative Assembly  building in St. Petersburg. He said his stunt stood for “human  existence in repressive legal system where any movement causes a  severe reaction of the law, which sinks its teeth into the body  of an individual.”

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John Major ‘shocked’ at privately educated elite’s hold on power

The Guardian home

Monday 11 November 2013

Former PM blames ‘collapse in social mobility’ on Labour and says government should do more to help pensioners

Elite dominanceSir John Major has expressed his shock at the way in which every sphere of modern public life is dominated by a private school-educated elite and well-heeled middle class. He also suggested interest rates should go back to “normal levels of 3% to 5 %” as one way of helping pensioners deal with the recent squeeze on earnings.

The former prime minister has been warning for months about the threat of so-called net curtain poverty, and claimed the government needs to do more to address the quiet poverty gripping the responsible middle class. He blamed the slowdown in social mobility on Labour, including the abolition of grammar schools.

In a speech in Norfolk on Friday reported on Monday by the Daily Telegraph, he claims that pensioners’ savings are being squeezed by a mix of inflation and low interest rates.

Major – who went to a grammar school in south London and left with three O-levels – said: “In every single sphere of British influence, the upper echelons of power in 2013 are held overwhelmingly by the privately educated or the affluent middle class. To me from my background, I find that truly shocking.”

He blamed this “collapse in social mobility” on Labour, claiming that despite Ed Miliband’s “absurd mantra to be the one-nation party, they left a Victorian divide between stagnation and aspiration”.

Major said: “I remember enough of my past to be outraged on behalf of the people abandoned when social mobility is lost.”

“Our education system should help children out of the circumstances in which they were born, not lock them into the circumstances in which they were born. “We need them to fly as high as their luck, their ability and their sheer hard graft can actually take them. And it isn’t going to happen magically.”

The Commission on Child Poverty and Social Mobility chaired by Alan Milburn, the former Labour cabinet minister, has found no evidence that social mobility slowed due to Labour policies.

The coalition will argue its pupil premium is aimed specifically  at poorer children and designed to help them achieve higher results than the better resourced middle class. It will also point to free childcare aimed at the poorer two-year-olds.

Major also said the government should help pensioners who have saved carefully for their retirement and are being punished by “cripplingly unfair” low interest rates. He suggested the Bank of England ought to return interest rates to “normal levels, say 3% to 5%”, so that society treats “the saver as fairly as it treats the debtor”. Critics will point out that pensioners have been relatively immune from spending cuts, partly due to the triple lock on the value of pensions.

There is, however, cross-party concern  about the potential impact of rising interest rates on household debt.

At the weekend, Tory MP Mark Garnier told the BBC: “The important point, I think, is that we have to remember that we’re in a period of super-low interest rates: this is not normal, this is the lowest interest rates have been for 300 years. And actually when we go back to a normal period of low interest rates – so if they rise by 2%-3%, which is perfectly reasonable even before the the three years target that [bank of England governor] Mark Carney has set – it’s going to have a really dramatic effect on quite a number of households that are already suffering a bit of forebearance on their mortgages.”

The thinktank the Resolution Foundation recently warned: “The number of families in Britain with perilous levels of debt repayments could more than double to 1.2m if interest rates rise faster than expected in the next four years and household income growth is weak and uneven.” Current market expectations are for interest rates to reach 1.9 % by mid-2017.

Major said the Conservative leadership should also pull their punches on the United Kingdom Independence party (Ukip), pointing out that “many of the Ukip supporters are patriotic Britons who fear their country is changing” and will ultimately come back to the Tory party.

Turning to the Conservatives‘ prospects for the 2015 general election, the former prime minister said that if the party decided to “shrink into our comfort zone we will not win general elections – the core vote cannot deliver a general election majority”.

Party members were right to feel “unsettled” by “bewildering” changes such as the coalition’s decision to legalise same-sex marriage, he said.

“Social mores have moved on from the way in which we were brought up, with the values that we had. They have moved and changed,” Major added. “And that is why issues such as gay marriage have proved so toxic for the Conservative party.

“Because for many Conservatives, people who are conservative because their instinct is to conserve, to change slowly and only when you know it is certain for the better, that is classically Conservative.

“For people like that who form the bulk of our party and a great deal of our country too, these are difficult issues, these bewildering social changes and mostly it is my generation and older who are unsettled by these changes.

“We may be unsettled by them, but David Cameron and his colleagues have no choice but to deal with this new world. They cannot, Canute-like, order it to go away, because it won’t.”

Major also called for loyalty from party members, saying: “Public criticism is destructive. Take it from me. Political parties who are divided and torn simply do not win general elections.”

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UPDATE: China Will Trade Debt for US Land…

Tellurian's avatarPumas Unleashed

CHINA POISED TO PLAY DEBT CARD – FOR U.S. LAND
Communist nation could control American land as ‘development zones’

by JEROME R. CORSI

EDITOR’S NOTE: Barack Obama’s involvement in the DeMar Second Amendment case was previously reported in Chapter 7 of Jerome R. Corsi’s “America for Sale: Fighting the New World Order, Surviving a Global Depression, and Preserving USA Sovereignty.”

NEW YORK – Could real estate on American soil owned by China be set up as “development zones” in which the communist nation could establish Chinese-owned businesses and bring in its citizens to the U.S. to work?

That’s part of an evolving proposal Beijing has been developing quietly since 2009 to convert more than $1 trillion of U.S debt it owns into equity.

Under the plan, China would own U.S. businesses, U.S. infrastructure and U.S. high-value land, all with a U.S. government guarantee against loss.

Yu Qiao, a professor of…

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MILLER: No worries! Obama golfs 150th round as superstorm devastates Philippines, Iran deal enrages

The Washington Times

By Emily Miller

Friday, November 8, 2013

aptopix_obama_vacation__mstainerwashingtontimescom_1_s640x427President Obama’s approval ratings may be stuck in a sand trap, but that has  not deterred him from sticking to his weekly round of golf.  After teeing off on Saturday at the private course in Florida where the film  “Caddy Shack” was filmed, Mr. Obama hit the milestone number of 150 golf rounds  in less than five years in the White  House.

The Secret Service loaded Mr. Obama’s  golf  clubs bag  emblazoned with the presidential seal into the motorcade Saturday morning to  head to the private Grande Oaks  Golf Club. Sporting a blue polo shirt with  tan slacks and a cap, he spent five hours on the private course with former NBA star Alonzo  Mourning, friend Cyrus Walker and  former U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk.

Mr. Obama wasn’t much of a duffer before he ran for president. His regularity  on the green started on April 26, 2009. He played 27 times that first year in  office, seven of which were during his vacations on Martha’s Vineyard and  Hawaii.

During his second year as president, Mr. Obama played a little more — 30 rounds. He  included a woman for only the second time when Health and Human Services  Secretary Kathleen Sebelius joined on  Oct. 10, 2010.

Perhaps time on the links gave them time to discuss all the people they knew  would lose their insurance when Obamacare was implemented. Ms.  Sebelius also joined the president on the golf course on May 18 this  year.

President Barack Obama, center, shakes hands with former NBA basketball player Alonzo Mourning, right, at Grande Oaks golf club, Saturday, Nov. 9, 2013 in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. Obama traveled to the Miami area yesterday for a series of private Democratic fundraisers and a golf outing today. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
President Barack Obama, center, shakes hands  with former NBA basketball player Alonzo …  more >

After 57 rounds in 19 months, Mr. Obama’s golf  game improved.  At the private Mid Pacific Country  Club in Kailua, Hawaii on Dec. 28, 2010, the club’s  golf pro, Mark Sousa, remarked to reporters  that the president’s “swing looks a lot better this year.”

The president played even more in his third year in office — a total of 34  rounds. Throughout his presidency, he has most frequently used military golf  courses at Andrews Air Force Base and Fort Belvoir.

White House Trip Director Marvin  Nicholson, who Golf Digest reported has an eight handicap, plays with the  president almost every week. The only times Mr. Nicholson is not on the course with the  commander in chief is during the Christmas vacations in Hawaii.

Vice President Joe Biden, who had a handicap of only 6.3 in 2011, according  to Golf Digest, has only been invited to tag along with his boss six times in  the last five years. (The golf magazine estimated Mr. Obama’s handicap at 17 two  years ago. It has undoubtedly improved since.)

Other politicians who have played with Mr. Obama during his presidency  include House Speaker John Boehner, President Bill Clinton (twice), New York  City Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Virginia governor-elect Terry McAuliffe.

Mr. Obama put aside his weekly golf outings for several periods while running  for re-election in 2012. His annual total fell to 19 rounds, seven of which were  in the two months after he won a second term.

Never having to run for office again has given Mr. Obama a free  pass to spend  every weekend on the golf course. So far in 2013, he has already passed his 2011  record with a total of 39 rounds of golf, as of today. This includes his  whopping 27 holes played in one day at The Courses at Andrews  Air Force Base on Sept. 14.

Mr. Obama’s supporters get enraged whenever I tweet or write about my  tracking his golf  games. They  defend him by either saying everyone needs a break or comparing the golf outings  to President George W. Bush’s time at his  Texas ranch.

However, Mr. Bush stopped playing golf  in Aug. 2003 out of respect for the families of servicemen in Iraq and  Afghanistan. Mr. Obama has shown no such feeling of  inappropriateness.

Even if you compare number of rounds up to that point in the first term, Mr.  Obama had played three times the number of times as Mr.  Bush — 76 to 29 rounds.

The difference in cutting brush in Texas and Mr. Obama’s form of relaxation  is that golf is an elitist pastime that few can afford in expense or time,  especially in this prolonged economic downturn.

Mr. Obama is fully aware of the optics of his favorite hobby since he always  stops the weekly foursome when he is engaged in a budget battle with Congress or  nearing an election. Once those moments pass, he goes right back to his nine  iron.

Emily Miller is senior editor of opinion for The Washington Times  and author of the book “Emily Gets Her Gun … But Obama Wants to Take  Yours” (Regnery 2013)

 

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No deal better than a bad deal, Kerry says after failure of talks with Iran

By Tom Curry, National Affairs Writer, NBC News

Sun Nov 10, 2013

Secretary  of State John Kerry said Sunday that the major world powers remain united on  reaching a deal with Iran that would lead to it abandoning any efforts to build  nuclear weapons. He spoke after the failure of talks Saturday in Geneva with  Iranian diplomats. An agreement had seemed imminent on Friday when Kerry flew to  Geneva from Israel.

“I  think there was unity (among western diplomats) there, David, with respect to  getting it right,” Kerry told NBC’s David Gregory on Meet the Press. “And we all  have said, President Obama has been crystal clear.  Don’t rush. We’re not in a  rush. We need to get the right deal. No deal is better than a bad deal.”

After three days of bargaining, diplomats from six nations were unable to come on an agreement on Iran’s nuclear future. NBC’s Ann Curry reports.

He  added,” We are absolutely determined that this would be a good deal, or there’ll  be no deal.”

The  United States, France, Germany and other nations have agreed with Iranian  diplomats to resume talks on Nov. 20.

Kerry  explained that “a number of nations, not just the French, but ourselves and  others wanted to make sure that we had the tough language necessary, the clarity  in the language necessary to be absolutely certain that we were doing the job  and not granting more or doing something sloppily that could wind up a  mistake.”

The  election of President Hassan Rouhani last July led to new efforts on both sides  to come to terms on Iran’s nuclear program and to avert any military attack by  the United States or Israel on Iranian nuclear sites.

The  chance for success in the negotiations with Iran “has changed since the election  (of Rouhani).” Kerry said. “This is a new overture.  And it has to be put to the  test very, very carefully.”

Meanwhile  Rouhani on his Twitter account repeated a statement he had made to the Iranian  parliament Sunday after the failure of the talks. “For us, there are red lines  that cannot be crossed. Our national interests are our red lines – incl  enrichment & other rights under intl law,” Rouhani said – a referring to  Iran’s insistence that it been allowed to continue its research on enriching  uranium for research purposes. Highly enriched uranium can be used to make  nuclear weapons.

 

Jason Reed / REUTERS

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry prepares to step aboard his aircraft in Geneva, November 10, 2013.

Kerry  described a plan in which there would first be a preliminary deal that would  freeze certain parts of Iran’s nuclear development program, followed later by a  final agreement.

Kerry  said the United States and its allies “are together, unified, pushing for things  that we believe provide the guarantees that Israel and the rest of the world  demand here. But one thing is clear, is that we’re not going into a full deal  and giving away something.”

But  Kerry said that the United States, France and the other nations had to show some  willingness to ease up on the trade and financial sanctions which they have  imposed on Iran, in order to demonstrate some good faith to Rouhani and other  Iranian leaders.

“We  voted for these sanctions in order to bring Iran to the negotiating table,”  Kerry said. “Now that they’re there, you have to act in some good faith, and an  effort to be able to move towards the goal you want to achieve.”

He  explained that if “as their act of good faith, they freeze their program and  allow us absolutely unprecedented access to inspection and do other things,”  then the United States and its partners must respond by giving the Iranians some  of what they want – specifically, a letup in some of the economic sanctions

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Oliver North predicts Russians will kill Snowden: ‘He’s a dead man walking’

 

Matt Labo

bizpacreview.com

November 10, 2013

Ever the crack military analyst, Lt. Col. Oliver North predicted that the Russians will kill famed National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden and pin the murder on the United States.

“Edward Snowden is in the hands of the Russian intelligence services. Everyone he meets every day with is a Russian intelligence agent,” North said Tuesday on the Fox News show, “Markets Now.” “They’re all asking the questions: ‘How do the Americans do this? Can we do this? How do we protect ourselves from what you’re doing? How do we penetrate things like the American data system for, let’s say, the Affordable Care Act?’ And at the end of the day, what will happen is the Russians will kill Edward Snowden. And we will be blamed for it.”

Given Russian President Vladimir Putin’s momentum in the Middle East and the tenuous relationship between the Obama administration and the Russians, prospects don’t look good, for Snowden or America. Snowden’s death would benefit Russia, North said. He also offered this advice to Secretary of State John Kerry:

“And the reason they’ll kill him is because they don’t want us to know how much he gave away. This is a very, very serious problem. And what Mr. Kerry really ought to be doing is traveling to Moscow to see if he can convince Edward Snowden’s dad to get the kid back home to face the music because the Russians will kill him.”

When asked about Obama’s handling of intelligence matters and the NSA scandal, North said the president hasn’t done his job well in either case.

“I don’t think this president has handled anything in regards to national security in this country well.”

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Team Arpaio: New Obama Fraud Evidence

November 9, 2013  by

This is bigger than the birth certificate…

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Tory MP apologises after claiming taxpayers’ money for electricity bills to run his horse-riding STABLES

By  Lizzie Edmonds

PUBLISHED: 09:39, 10 November 2013

  • Nadhim Zahawi, 46,  claimed money for electricity used to run a horse riding stables at his home in  Upper Tyfoe,  Warwickshire
  • Today MP for  Stratford-Upon-Avon apologised, saying he made a ‘mistake’
  • Follows calls for police  and IPSA to investigate his £6,000-a-year claims
  • Last week it was revealed  that 340 MPs claim for electricity bills in their second homes, including Labour  leader Ed Miliband

An MP has apologised after he claimed for  electricity bills to run a business at his second home.

Conservative Nadhim Zahawi, 46, claimed  taxpayers’ money to run a horse riding stables at his estate in Upper Tyfoe, Warwickshire.

The politician also claimed for electricity  used for a yard manager’s temporary home on the site.

Mr Zahawi – who came top of a list of 340 MPs  revealed to have claimed expenses for electricity bills last week – told the The Sunday Mirror today he made a  ‘mistake’.

Apology: Tory MP Nadhim Zahawi, 46, has apologised for claiming almost £6,000 in electricity bills to run a business from his second homeApology: Tory MP Nadhim Zahawi, 46, has apologised for  claiming almost £6,000 in electricity bills to run a business from his second  home

The MP for Stratford-upon-Avon told the  newspaper: ‘On investigation I have  made a mistake with the  electricity.

‘I will be paying back any money  wrongly  claimed immediately and I apologise unreservedly.’

Mr Zahawi, who claimed £5822.27 in one year  for energy bills, added that while a meter was installed in the stable yard, he  only received one bill from his supplier and had not deducted the amount used to  run his business.

MPs are only allowed to claim expenses linked  to their work in Parliament.

energy graphic.jpg

There are, however, allowed to run businesses  from their second homes.

Today, MPs and local businessmen have called  for police and the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) to  investigate.

Local  businessman Rob O’Malley, who  voted for Mr Zahawi, said: ‘Both the police and  IPSA should investigate  Mr Zahawi over this situation and in the meantime he  should resign.’

 

Labour councillor in  the Stratford-upon-Avon  constituency, Jeff Kenner, also told the  newspaper: ‘People will be stunned to  find they have been paying for the running of Mr Zahawi’s stables.’

Previously, the MP had defended his energy  bill expenses in his local newspaper.

He said his claims were high, but  commented:  ‘They do reflect the costs of many people in rural areas that rely only on  kerosene and electricity.’

Mr Zahawi manages the Oaklands Riding School  and Livery Yard with his wife on his 31-acre, £1million estate, which he has  designated his second home.

The business is thought to have around 20  stables plus other facilities such as a tack room – in which electric heaters  are used to dry out riding equipment.

The MP also owns a £5million mansion in  Putney, London, and makes money from renting three other flats in the  city.

Last week it was revealed that hundreds of  MPs – including Ed Miliband – together claimed a total of £200,000 on expenses  to pay their energy bills.

Some 340 MPs claimed up to £6,000 each for  gas and electricity in their second homes.

The politicians, many of them  multi-millionaires, took advantage of the perk at a time when many people are  struggling to pay rising utility bills.

Labour leader Mr Miliband, who has attacked  the Government over spiralling costs, claimed £403.59 for fuel at his  constituency home in Doncaster.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg claimed  £254.29 for electricity and gas in his Sheffield constituency home, but David  Cameron and George Osborne did not take advantage of the privilege.

Today, MP Chris Williamson has called for all  650 members of Parliament to be housed in student-style halls of residence to  avoid expenses scandals.

The Labour politician and shadow minister for  communities and local government said he was tired of MPs coming under attack  over their expenses claims and argued it was time to consider housing MPs in the  same place, so accommodation-related expenses could be axed.

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He said: ‘There is a block of flats opposite  the House of Commons. I would have thought the more sensible thing to do would  be to purchase a block like that to accommodate MPs. I have no problem with  that.

‘If you could do that, it would be a good  idea. It would settle a lot of criticism that is sometimes unfairly levelled at  MPs when they claim expenses.

‘It could benefit MPs. When I first became an  MP, no support was given to help me find accommodation close by, or any guidance  given as to who would be a good landlord.’

 

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UK: Now the taxman is spying on your home using Google Earth: Satellite images give clues about wealth and lifestyle that may show you’re not paying enough