[The Hill] President-elect Donald Trump told reporters on Saturday that messages "should be sent via courier like in the old days" to ensure security.
"It's very important, if you have something really important, write it out and have it delivered by courier, the old fashioned way because I'll tell you what, no computer is safe," Trump responded when asked about the importance of cybersecurity, according to pool reporters.
"I don't care what they say, no computer is safe. I have a boy who's 10 years old, he can do anything with a computer. You want something to really go without detection, write it out and have it sent by courier," Trump reiterated.
#2
...We will, of course, hear nothing but high-toned snorts of laughter about the technical Luddite we have elected against the advice of Our Betters.
And we will - we should - laugh quietly in reply, BECAUSE HE'S RIGHT.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/01/2017 8:18 Comments ||
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#3
It's how the Germans sent the orders to organize and initiate the Ardennes attack in Dec '44. The allies were caught by surprise due to the heavy dependence on sigint.
#4
And you can encrypt the message in a way that chops it up into X pieces to be sent via X messengers. Only Y out of X pieces are needed to assemble the message for decryption, so the loss of a couple of couriers wouldn't affect your ability to decrypt, and the captured data is useless.
#5
A wise old police training officer once told me: "Never say anything out loud that you would hate to hear repeated to a grand jury".
That about sums it up.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
01/01/2017 11:53 Comments ||
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#6
Never put in an email what you wouldn't want splashed on the front page of the New York Times out of context.
[Bangla Daily Star] Greece's ambassador to Brazil was murdered in a plot hatched by his Brazilian wife and her police officer lover, who confessed to the crime, officials said Friday. Ooh! Ooh! I seen dis movie!
The envoy, Kyriakos Amiridis, 59, was killed on Monday by the officer, Sergio Gomez Moreira, Rio homicide division chief Evaristo Pontes told a news conference.
Amiridis's charred body was found Thursday in Rio in his burned-out rental car, a day after his wife, Francoise de Souza Oliveira, declared him missing.
Oliveira, 40, and Moreira, 29, both admitted to having an affair, police said.
The pair are in jug, along with Moreira's 24-year-old cousin, Eduardo Tedeschi, who allegedly also took part.
According to the homicide division chief, Oliveira denied participating in the murder itself, but confessed she knew of the crime.
FAMILY VACATION
Amiridis, who was named ambassador this year, had been on a family vacation with his wife in the north of Rio de Janeiro since December 21. They had been due to fly back to the capital Brasilia on January 9.
His wife had originally told police that he had left the Rio apartment they were staying in, taken the car and not returned.
But her version had contradictions, and after Amiridis's body was found in the burned-out car under a bridge, police took Oliveira in for more questioning, and also detained Moreira.
Traces of blood were reportedly found on a sofa in the apartment Amiridis and Oliveira had been using, leading Sherlocks to believe he had been killed there, then his body was placed in the rental car and driven to the spot it was found.
Pontes said that Oliveira had offered Tedeschi the equivalent of $25,000 to help with murdering the ambassador.
Moreira acknowledged that he and Amiridis had had a physical fight, and that he had strangled the ambassador in self-defense.
- Young daughter -
Amiridis had previously served Greece's consul general in Rio from 2001 to 2004, where he met Oliveira.
The couple have a 10-year-old daughter.
A Greek police team was due to leave Friday for Brazil to take part in the investigation, while Greece's ambassador in Argentina ...a country located on the other side of the Deep South. It is covered with Pampers and inhabited by Grouchos, who dance the Tangle. They used to have some islands called the Malvinas located where the Falklands are now. They're not supposed to cry for Evita... was headed to Brasilia, Athens said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2017 00:00 ||
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King Agamemon to the courtesy phone. There's a Greek tragedy in there somewhere.
#2
Jobs and industry have been leaving the state for over 50 years. Not unlike elsewhere, small family farms are rapidly disappearing in favour of large corporate entities. I believe I recently read where Illinois now leads the nation in people relocating elsewhere. Strangely, or possibly not so, with the exception of Chicago, and the University towns, the entire state is Red. Like LA and NYC, the Blue mega 'city states' rule. It's all in the numbers and demographics.
[NYPOST] A 39-year-old father was fatally shot at a Brooklyn baby shower Saturday morning by one of the men who beat up his son earlier in the night, police said.
Hilario Paulino Cortez-Vidals took a bullet to the head about 1:05 a.m. near the glass entrance of the Afrika House banquet hall on Bedford Avenue in Flatbush-Ditmas Park, cops said.
Cortez-Vidals was declared dead at Kings County Hospital.
Earlier in the evening, a group of Hispanic men assaulted the victim’s son, cops said.
The trio punched and kicked the 21-year-old in face and the fled the gathering.
But one of them returned a short time later and fired off one shot, which struck their rivals father in the head.
It’s unclear that he was the intended target, cops said.
Cops recovered a 9mm shell casing at the scene, police sources said.
Police are interviewing the other revelers to determine who fired the shot.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2017 00:00 ||
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A person wouldn't expect to catch a bullet in the head at a baby shower on New Year's Eve. But then again, we had a shoot-up in a church a few years back. Goes to show you that with good shot placement even a 9mm can get the job done. "Caps off" a bizarre year.
[TAMPABAY] A dog bit its owner at an East Tampa home Friday afternoon, then attacked two other family members who tried to stop the attack, police said.
The incident occurred at 3405 Cord St. in the Highland Pines area about 2:30 p.m. and involved a pitbull mix named Scarface.
Police front man Stephen Hegarty said the incident began when Brenda Guerrero, 52, went outside to try to put a sweater on the dog and was attacked.
Her husband, 46-year-old Ismael Guerrero, was attacked when he tried to pull the dog off her, and a third person, 22-year-old Antoine Harris, was attacked after trying to stop the dog by stabbing it in the head and neck.
All three adults were able to escape into the house, leaving the dog in the back yard.
Both Hillsborough County Animal Control and Tampa police responded, and animal control shot the dog with a tranquilizer gun.
Police said the dog entered the home, where two children were in a back room. At that point, police said, police used a bean bag gun and a Taser to try to subdue the dog, and animal control officers caught it using a catch pole.
Both Brenda and Ismael Guerrero were taken to a hospital, police said. Her injuries were believed to be serious, but not life-threatening.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2017 00:00 ||
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Ugly Xmas sweater...then Scarface was beat, stabbed, shot with a tranq, bean bagged, tasered and finally choked out.
#5
So other policy will shoot a dog on sight and use the excuse that it barked at them, and they get away with it. These police gently take down an aggressive dog. Bizarre.
Him: Honey, that is one ugly-ass sweater.
Her: I think it's cute.
Him: Jeez girl, a dog wouldn't wear that.
Her: Oh yeah? C'mere Scarface. Mommy has a present for ya.
[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] An SUV drove off the fifth floor of a parking garage in Japan Saturday, killing three of its five passengers, local media reported.
The vehicle fell around 1:00 pm (0400 GMT) from the parking garage in Yokosuka city, south of Tokyo, according to media witnesses’ accounts.
Television footage showed a metal fence guarding the fifth floor of the garage was cut, apparently falling to the ground with the silver vehicle.
"The noise was like thunder. The fence came down and the vehicle came down," a witness told national broadcaster NHK.
The accident killed a man in his 50s, a woman in her 40s and another woman in her 70s, while a man in his 20s and an 11-year-old boy suffered serious injuries, according to private Nippon Television.
They were passengers of the vehicle, Japanese media said.
Local police and rescue officials could not immediately comment on the case.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2017 00:00 ||
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Welp, let me go ahead and put this on my nightmare queue.
[Jpost] Israel made public for the first time some 400,000 pages of documents related to the fate of the missing Yemenite children of the 1950s, something Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said was meant to “correct the historical injustice” of hiding the fate of the children.
“It is difficult to believe that for almost 70 years, people did not know what happened to their children,” Netanyahu said. “And as difficult as the reality may be, we are not willing for this to continue.”
Netanyahu’s comments came at a ceremony in the Prime Minister’s Office, where a website was launched with the documentation about the children.
The documents are those that three inquiry committees had at their disposal over the years in investigating the case of the missing children – in 1967, 1988, and 1995.
From now on, Netanyahu said, “with one touch of the keyboard,” everyone will have access to the documents and can trace what happened to the children.
In June, Netanyahu appointed Regional Cooperation Minister Tzachi Hanegbi to reexamine the evidence in the three previous inquiries, and in November the cabinet decided to release the classified documents. This decision overturned a 2001 decision to seal the documents until 2071.
During the early days of the state, from 1948 to 1954, hundreds of babies and toddlers of families of Mizrahi descent, mostly from Yemen, mysteriously disappeared during the massive wave of immigration at that time.
In the vast majority of cases, parents were told in the hospital that their children had died, though they never received any official confirmation. More at the link
China's military has become alarmed by what it sees as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's support of Taiwan and is considering strong measures to prevent the island from moving toward independence, sources with ties to senior military officers said.
Three sources said one possibility being considered was conducting war games near the self-ruled island that China considers as a breakaway province. Another was a series of economic measures to cripple Taiwan.
It was not clear whether any decisions had been taken, but the sources said the Taiwan issue had become a hot topic within the upper echelons of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) in recent weeks.
Trump, due to take office on Jan 20, angered Beijing this month by speaking to Taiwan's president by telephone, breaking decades of precedent and casting doubt on his incoming administration's commitment to Beijing's "one China" policy. Beijing fears this could embolden supporters of independence in Taiwan.
"If Trump challenges 'one China' after becoming president, this would cross our red line," said another source, who has ties to China's leadership.
They're going to test Trump early, just as they tested Champ and Bush.
China's defense ministry declined to comment. An official at the ministry's news department said China's position was clearly laid out in the 2005 Anti-Secession Law, which authorizes the use of force against Taiwan in the event China judges it to have seceded.
Asked about any possible aggressive moves from China, Taiwan defense ministry spokesman Chen Chung-shi said: "We are fully prepared, and plan for the worst while preparing for the best."
China claims self-ruled Taiwan as its sacred and inviolable territory and is deeply suspicious of President Tsai Ing-wen, whose ruling Democratic Progressive Party espouses the island's independence. Tsai, who took power this year, says she wants to maintain peace with China, but China is unconvinced. Tsai said on Saturday that Taiwan will be "calm" when facing issues to do with China, but uncertainties next year will test the self-ruled island and its national security team.
Beijing has also been angered by a trip planned by Tsai in January to Latin America in which she will transit through Houston and San Francisco. China has urged the United States to block the stopovers.
Chinese officials have blamed Taiwan for creating trouble rather than Trump, and many of them believe he will be more accommodating to China once in office.
"We're ready. If Taiwan wants to make trouble so can we. Let's hit them hard," said an official in Beijing who meets regularly with China's most senior military officers, including those who work directly with President Xi Jinping.
"We can hold exercises close to Taiwan, and show them the damage we could cause. Taiwan will have to give in then," the official added, citing a recent conversation with one of the military officers.
The United States is bound by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself, but it's unclear if the United States would send troops in the event of war between China and Taiwan.
Washington also acknowledges Beijing's position that there is only one China and Taiwan is its territory.
A retired senior officer who maintains contacts with the PLA told Reuters that China probably wouldn't need to fire any missiles to bring Taiwan to its knees. China is Taiwan's largest trading partner, and Taiwan runs a huge trade surplus with China, worth $27 billion in 2015.
"We can just cut them off economically. No more direct flights, no more trade. Nothing. Taiwan would not last long," the officer said. "There would be no need for war."
That assumes that the rest of the world would continue to do business as usual with China. Read on...
In addition, any Western economic blockade of China put in place in the event of war with Taiwan would also be damaging to China, already dealing with a slowing economy.
The yuan is falling. Western businesses are looking to work elsewhere. The Chinese government has been more demanding and more strident. This isn't a time for China to throw its weight around.
A U.S. defense official said Chinese actions had been more provocative in the past month, since Trump won the U.S. election and made comments about Taiwan.
This month, a Chinese naval flotilla headed by its sole aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, took part in drills that took it around Taiwan. Chinese air force jets have performed similar drills in recent weeks, flying close to the island, though China has officially called the air force and naval exercises routine.
China also scored a diplomatic victory when tiny Sao Tome and Principe switched recognition to Beijing from Taiwan.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/01/2017 00:00 ||
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The fact that the chicoms are freaking out and getting all huffy signifies that the One China policy has always been a fiction that can't stand the scrutiny of reality.
In any case,I really look forward to the Chinese getting botched slapped by reality. They're not as scary as they'relate made out to be. Let'stand see what happens when their bluff's called
Turkish authorities detained a Wall Street Journal staff reporter for 2½ days this past week, without permitting him contact with his family or attorneys before releasing him.
Shades of old Eastern Bloc behavior. I must say that I don't get as worked up about this as I used to. I suppose that's a moral failing of mine...
The reporter, Dion Nissenbaum, 49 years old, left Turkey to return to the U.S. on Saturday. Police took Mr. Nissenbaum from his Istanbul apartment on Tuesday evening. He was released from a detention center on Friday morning.
A person familiar with the matter said he was held for allegedly violating a government ban on publication of images from an Islamic State video.
“While we are relieved that Dion was released unharmed after nearly three days, we remain outraged at his peremptory detention, without any contact with his family, legal counsel or colleagues,” said Gerard Baker, editor in chief of the Journal.
Mr. Nissenbaum’s detention came amid a broader crackdown on press freedom in Turkey, where dozens of reporters, mainly Turkish, are behind bars. Since the summer, Turkey, where the government has imposed a state of emergency, has closed more than 100 domestic media outlets.
While in custody, Mr. Nissenbaum, a U.S. citizen, was denied access to lawyers despite repeated requests, he said. He also wasn’t allowed to contact his family or his employer. Mr. Nissenbaum said authorities told him he was under investigation, but they declined to say for what.
Turkish officials contacted Saturday did not respond to requests for comment.
I wouldn't push but so hard if I was a reporter trying to get them to comment. Which is the point of all this...
Plainclothes police told Mr. Nissenbaum when they detained him that he would be deported, according to Mr. Nissenbaum and a Journal staff member who was on the phone with him at the time. Police took Mr. Nissenbaum’s phone and led him away, leaving his wife and their seven-month-old child behind.
On the first night in police custody, Mr. Nissenbaum said, authorities asked him to sign a document written in Turkish. The document showed his Twitter handle and some personal information, he said. Mr. Nissenbaum said he declined to sign the document, insisting on an English translation. Police then told Mr. Nissenbaum that he didn’t have to sign anything, he said.
Mr. Nissenbaum was taken to a detention facility for foreigners outside of Istanbul. He said he was physically comfortable and treated well there.
So he wasn't in a Turkish prison. Perhaps a Turkish spa?
For two days, the Journal couldn’t determine Mr. Nissenbaum’s location. A person familiar with the situation said an administrative deportation order had been issued against him for allegedly violating the media ban. But the Journal’s representatives didn’t have access to documents about the case.
Late Thursday, the Journal confirmed Mr. Nissenbaum’s location and was told by people familiar with the situation that it should be ready to pick him up the following morning. He was released shortly after 10 a.m., without receiving any deportation order.
Mr. Nissenbaum’s family is accompanying him to the U.S.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/01/2017 00:00 ||
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A federal judge in Texas on Saturday issued a court order barring enforcement of an Obama administration policy seeking to extend anti-discrimination protections under the Affordable Care Act to transgender health and abortion-related services.
The decision sides with Texas, seven other states and three Christian-affiliated healthcare groups challenging a rule that, according to the judge, defines sex bias to include "discrimination on the basis of gender identity and termination of pregnancy."
In granting an injunction one day before the new policy was to take effect, US District Judge Reed O'Connor held that it violates the Administrative Procedure Act, a federal law governing rule-making practices.
The judge also ruled that plaintiffs were likely to prevail in court on their claim that the new policy infringes on the rights of private healthcare providers under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
As explained in O'Connor's 46-page opinion, the plaintiffs argued that the new regulation would "require them to perform and provide insurance coverage for gender transitions and abortions, regardless of their contrary religious beliefs or medical judgment." The times, they are a'changing?
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[The Hill] President-elect Donald Trump told reporters on Saturday that messages "should be sent via courier like in the old days" to ensure security.
[NYPOST] A 39-year-old father was fatally shot at a Brooklyn baby shower Saturday morning by one of the men who beat up his son earlier in the night, police said.
[TAMPABAY] A dog bit its owner at an East Tampa home Friday afternoon, then attacked two other family members who tried to stop the attack, police said.
[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] An SUV drove off the fifth floor of a parking garage in Japan Saturday, killing three of its five passengers, local media reported.
