Excerpts: Border patrols in EU countries. New U.S. intelligence agency to
focus on Iran and China. Potential Iran action via Hizbullah. FBI warns web
infected April 25, 2012
+++SOURCE: Saudi Gazette 25 April ’12:”(France’s)Sarkozy wants EU partners
to toughen border controls”, Agence France Presse
SUBJECT: Border patrols in EU countries
QUOTE:”Sarkozy:’ the French ‘no longer want a sieve-like Europe’ ”
FULL TEXT:BRUSSELS — French President Nicolas Sarkozy, chasing far-right
voters in a troubled reelection bid, will press EU partners Thursday[26
April] to make it easier to recall border guards in Europe’s visa-free
travel area.
Sarkozy’s interior minister will present to EU counterparts a German-backed
proposal that would allow states to reintroduce border controls for 30 days
as a last resort if another Schengen nation fails to police its external
frontiers.
After coming second to Socialist candidate Francois Hollande in Sunday’s[22
April] first round, Sarkozy told a campaign rally on Monday[23 April] that
the French “no longer want a sieve-like Europe” and that “borders are meant
to be protected.” “If Europe cannot defend its borders, France will,” he
told flag-waving supporters. “This Europe that cannot control migration
flows is finished.”
Behind Hollande in opinion polls ahead of the runoff, Sarkozy began chasing
the far-right vote after anti-immigrant National Front (FN) candidate Marine
Le Pen grabbed third place with 18 percent of votes in the first round.
Schengen reform was supposed to be debated weeks after France’s May 6 final
vote but Paris intends to open the debate when interior ministers meet in
Luxembourg even though it is not on the official agenda.
Sarkozy’s tough talk on immigration and the FN’s high score has irked some
EU partners already worried about the rise of far-right movements all around
Europe.
“The timing of the debate stinks to high heaven,” Luxembourg Foreign
Minister Jean Asselborn, a socialist, told German mews weekly Der Spiegel.
“It’s no accident that this (Franco-German) letter was made public at the
height of the French presidential election campaign,” he said.
“The letter appeals to far-right ideology. It serves the goal of French
President Nicolas Sarkozy to woo votes from the far-right Front National.”
The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, refused to comment directly
on the French election but its president Jose Manuel Barroso and other
commissioners have warned against the allure of populism in the past. — AFP
+++SOURCE: Saudi Gazette 25 April ’12:”New Pentagon spy agency to focus on
Iran, China”, Agence France Presse
SUBJECT: New U. S. intelligence agency to focus on Iran and China
QUOTE:”Pentagon is creating a new intelligence agency that will focus on
Iran and China”
FULL TEXT:WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is creating a new intelligence agency
that will focus on Iran and China as it begins to pivot away from war zones
in Iraq and Afghanistan, the New York Times reported.
The newspaper said late Monday[23 April] that the new Defense Clandestine
Service would make use of existing agents, authorities and assets and work
closely with the Central Intelligence Agency to track emerging threats. “It
will thicken our coverage across the board,” it quoted a senior defense
department official as saying.
Case officers from the Defense Intelligence Agency already secretly gather
intelligence outside of conventional battle zones, the Times said, and the
latest move further cements cooperation between the military and the CIA.
The new intelligence service is expected to grow “from several hundred to
several more hundred” agents in the coming years by shifting personnel and
funding from existing assignments, the Times quoted the official as saying.
Defense officials did not immediately respond to AFP requests for further
information.
The announcement of the new agency comes a week after the Pentagon nominated
Lieutenant General Michael Flynn – who previously served with the secretive
Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) – to head military intelligence.
The selection of Flynn – who had been a strong critic of military
intelligence when he served as the top intelligence officer in Afghanistan
in 2010 – reflects the ascendancy of special forces in recent years.
The JSOC has been behind the killing of numerous suspected top insurgents in
Iraq and Afghanistan in recent years and carried out the raid that killed
Osama Bin Laden nearly one year ago. — AFP __
+++SOURCE: Naharnet (Lebanon) 25 April ’12:”(Israeli Chief of Staff)Gantz
Warns Against Iran’s Attempt to Act Freely through Hizbullah
SUBJECT: Potential Iran action via Hizbullah
QUOTE:”Gantz: ‘The military action is the last chronologically but the first
in terms of its credibility’ “
FULL TEXT:Israeli Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz warned on Wednesday[25
April] that a nuclear Iran would give itself freedom of action against
Israel through Hizbullah and other militants.
That freedom might be expressed "against us, via the force Iran will project
toward its clients: Hizbullah in Lebanon, Islamic Jihad in Gaza,” Gantz told
Israeli dailies in Independence Day interviews.
He warned that Israel will take strong action against Lebanon in any future
war
"When (Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan) Nasrallah comes out of his bunker, he’s
concerned – and rightfully so. He saw what happened to Lebanon last time,
and it won’t be close to what will happen to Lebanon next time," the Israeli
army chief said. "I think they understand it well."
He also hinted that Israel's military preparedness must now include a much
greater and more varied range of arenas and possibilities.
"I don't know what will happen in Syria, but presumably the Golan Heights
won't be as quiet as before. I cannot remove Syria from the military
equation, nor Lebanon,” he told the newspapers.
“I assume that if there are terror threats from the Golan or Lebanon I'll
have to take action,” Gantz said, adding “the enemy's fire capabilities have
developed at every distance, four or five times what they were in the Second
Lebanon War and four or five times compared to the Gaza Strip before
Operation Cast Lead, not to mention the new ground-to-air missile in Syria.”
Gantz said the international pressure on Iran, in the form of diplomatic and
economic sanctions, is beginning to bear fruit.
“The military option is the last chronologically but the first in terms of
its credibility. If it's not credible it has no meaning. We are preparing
for it in a credible manner. That's my job, as a military man,” he added
+++SOURCE: Naharnet (Lebanon) 25 April ’12:”FBI: Over 300,000 Could Lose Web
Access by July “, Agence France Presse
SUBJECT: FBI warns web infected
QUOTE:”dcwg.org FBI created [to check] whether …infected with malware and
remove any malicious software”
FULL TEXT:The FBI warned Monday(23 April] that more than 300,000 Internet
users worldwide could lose their Web access starting in July following a
multi-million-dollar scam.
But users can breathe a sigh of relief as a solution is just a few clicks
away at dcwg.org, a website the FBI created so people could check whether
they have been infected with malware and remove any malicious software.
Six Estonians were arrested on charges of fraud in November after a two-year
FBI sting -- Operation Ghost Click -- into the group's practice of infecting
computers around the world with their DNS Changer malware, which made the
machines vulnerable to viruses. A Russian collaborator remains at large.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation estimates that up to 568,000 computers
were infected with the malware, which redirected users to fraudulent
websites. Investigators say the alleged swindlers made up to $14 million
under the scam that involved online advertising.
"We replaced the bad service by a clean service so that way people's
Internet access remained intact," FBI spokeswoman Jenny Shearer told Agence
France Presse.
"But there's still a concern that there could be several hundreds of
thousands of people in the U.S. but also in EU and in India whose computer
might be relying on the clean service," which was never intended as a
permanent solution, she added.
Shearer said at least 300,000 people could still be affected.
SourceAgence France Presse.
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Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA
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