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How about listener Orlando’s Call of Duty: Black Ops II: 404 emblem?

On today’s show we’re welcoming Dan Chiappini from GameSpot Australia along with 404 veteran Scott Stein. We’ll briefly recap Scott’s time down at
WWDC but then get right into some more E3 talk where we make Scott feel jealous about missing what was probably the biggest E3 in something like seven years. Dan think he knows why Nintendo refuses to open its “vault” of games and we all wonder how the company can rebound from a bleak E3 showing.

We’re also chatting about the mundane abundance of shooters at
E3, the lack of innovation, and which games actually piqued our interest.

And be sure to enter CNET’s awesome “From Old School to Tech Cool” contest that’s currently underway on our Facebook page!

– Follow our new buddy Dan Chiappini on Twitter

– Make sure to do the same for 404 veteran Scott Stein

– Catch up on Scott’s and the rest of CNET’s WWDC coverage

– Give CNET’s E3 2013 page one last skim

Episode 1286

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Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cnet/pRza/~3/zd6j6RqWBy4/

Obama bristles at suggestion he’s shifted on snooping

CNN poll: Obama numbers plunge into generation gap

Snowden said he leaked details of the surveillance programs because Obama campaigned for the presidency on a platform of ending abuses.

However, Obama “closed the door on investigating systemic violations of law, deepened and expanded several abusive programs, and refused to spend the political capital to end the kind of human rights violations like we see in Guantanamo, where men still sit without charge,” a blog post said.

Snowden also said that he had to get out of the United States before the leaks were published by the Guardian and Washington Post to avoid being targeted by the government.

Details on NSA-thwarted plots coming, lawmaker says

The blog post rejected accusations that he had or might provide classified information to China, saying he only leaked to journalists and calling such a charge a smear tactic intended to turn public opinion against his effort to provide Americans with full information about how their government monitors them.

A CNN/ORC International poll released Monday showed 54% of respondents didn’t approve of Snowden’s admitted actions, while 44% backed the leaks.

Snowden’s father told Fox News that he hoped and prayed his son “will not release any secrets that could constitute treason.”

The father, Lon Snowden, also said he wanted his son to return to the United States “and face this,” adding “I love my son.”

Snowden, 29, worked for the NSA through a private contractor firm until May, when he decamped to Hong Kong. He went public earlier this month as the source of articles by the newspapers, saying the agency’s efforts pose “an existential threat to democracy.”

The revelations about the NSA’s collection of millions of records from U.S. telecommunications and technology firms have led to a furious debate within the United States about the scale and scope of surveillance programs that date from the days after the 2001 al Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington.

Opinion: Did NSA snooping stop ‘dozens’ of terrorist attacks?

Defenders say the programs — approved by Congress after a warrantless surveillance effort under the Bush administration was revealed in 2005 — have protected American lives by helping agents break up terrorism plots. And they argue that the program is under close oversight by all three branches of government, including the congressional intelligence committees and a court set up under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that hears cases in secret.

But Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian columnist who broke Snowden’s story and moderated the chat, said the safeguards placed on the program is “a very symbolic and empty oversight that really ought not to give the assurances to anybody that these powers aren’t being abused.”

“They go once every six months to the FISA court,” he said. “The FISA court rubber-stamps these vague guidelines that the NSA says they’re using to make sure they’re complying with the law. And once that happens, the NSA can force telecoms and Internet companies to give them whatever they demand under the guise that the FISA court has blessed their guidelines.”

Bigger threat: Snowden or NSA?

Critics call the programs an unconstitutional overreach of authority under the Patriot Act, the law that authorized increased government surveillance in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.

In a new development, the Guardian reported Sunday that Britain’s electronic intelligence agency monitored delegates’ phones and tried to capture their passwords during an economic summit held there in 2009.

Targets included British allies such as Turkey and South Africa, the newspaper reported. The Guardian cited documents provided by Snowden.

According to the newspaper, the documents show that the British “signals intelligence” agency GCHQ used “ground-breaking intelligence capabilities” to intercept calls made by members of the G-20 conference delegations at meetings in London.

Facebook, Microsoft disclose information on user data requests

Analysts received round-the-clock summaries of calls that were being made, and GCHQ set up Internet cafes for delegates in hopes of intercepting e-mails and capturing keystrokes, the Guardian reported.

One briefing slide explained the intercepts would give intelligence agencies the ability to read delegates’ e-mails “before/as they do,” providing “sustained intelligence options against them even after (the) conference has finished.”

GCHQ is Britain’s equivalent of the secretive NSA in the United States.

The Guardian reported that the NSA had attempted to eavesdrop on then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev during the conference as his phone calls passed through satellite links to Moscow and briefed its British counterparts on the effects.

The latest report was published on the eve of a smaller economic summit hosted by the British government — the Group of Eight gathering in Northern Ireland.

Shawn Turner, a spokesman for the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said Sunday he was aware of the Guardian’s latest report but declined to comment on it.

“What we should be focused on is how irresponsible and egregious these recent leaks are,” he told CNN. “It’s impossible to know exactly how much damage is being done by these disclosures, but they will have an effect on our counterterrorism efforts.”

Cheney defends NSA, calls Obama’s credibility ‘nonexistent’

Retired Gen. Michael Hayden, a former NSA director, said on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS” that what the agency collects are “essentially billing records” that detail the time, duration and phone numbers involved in a call.

The records are added to a database that agents can query in cases involving a terror investigation overseas, and agents can’t eavesdrop on Americans’ calls without an order from a secret court that handles intelligence matters, he said.

If a phone number related to an investigation has links to a domestic phone number, “We’ve got to go back to the court,” he said.

GOP tries to keep focus on IRS targeting scandal

However, critics such as Sen. Mark Udall, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, had raised questions about the scale of the program even before Snowden’s leak.

Udall said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that he doesn’t believe the program is making Americans any safer, “and I think it’s ultimately, perhaps, a violation of the Fourth Amendment.”

“I think we owe it to the American people to have a fulsome debate in the open about the extent of these programs,” said Udall, a Colorado Democrat. “You have a law that’s been interpreted secretly by a secret court that then issues secret orders to generate a secret program. I just don’t think this is an American approach to a world in which we have great threats.”

Obama does not feel that he has violated the privacy of any American, his chief of staff, Denis McDonough, said on the CBS program “Face the Nation.”

McDonough said the president will be discussing the need to “find the right balance, especially in this new situation where we find ourselves with all of us reliant on Internet, on e-mail, on texting.”

Hong Kong rallies in the rain for Edward Snowden

CNN’s Paul Steinhauser, Matt Smith and Jessica Yellin contributed to this report.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/17/politics/nsa-leaks/index.html?eref=edition

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewsRipplesWeb/~3/pawhVe9nuso/snowden-answers-reader-questions

Obama bristles at suggestion he’s shifted on snooping

CNN poll: Obama numbers plunge into generation gap

Snowden said he leaked details of the surveillance programs because Obama campaigned for the presidency on a platform of ending abuses.

However, Obama “closed the door on investigating systemic violations of law, deepened and expanded several abusive programs, and refused to spend the political capital to end the kind of human rights violations like we see in Guantanamo, where men still sit without charge,” a blog post said.

Snowden also said that he had to get out of the United States before the leaks were published by the Guardian and Washington Post to avoid being targeted by the government.

Details on NSA-thwarted plots coming, lawmaker says

The blog post rejected accusations that he had or might provide classified information to China, saying he only leaked to journalists and calling such a charge a smear tactic intended to turn public opinion against his effort to provide Americans with full information about how their government monitors them.

A CNN/ORC International poll released Monday showed 54% of respondents didn’t approve of Snowden’s admitted actions, while 44% backed the leaks.

Snowden’s father told Fox News that he hoped and prayed his son “will not release any secrets that could constitute treason.”

The father, Lon Snowden, also said he wanted his son to return to the United States “and face this,” adding “I love my son.”

Snowden, 29, worked for the NSA through a private contractor firm until May, when he decamped to Hong Kong. He went public earlier this month as the source of articles by the newspapers, saying the agency’s efforts pose “an existential threat to democracy.”

The revelations about the NSA’s collection of millions of records from U.S. telecommunications and technology firms have led to a furious debate within the United States about the scale and scope of surveillance programs that date from the days after the 2001 al Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington.

Opinion: Did NSA snooping stop ‘dozens’ of terrorist attacks?

Defenders say the programs — approved by Congress after a warrantless surveillance effort under the Bush administration was revealed in 2005 — have protected American lives by helping agents break up terrorism plots. And they argue that the program is under close oversight by all three branches of government, including the congressional intelligence committees and a court set up under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that hears cases in secret.

But Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian columnist who broke Snowden’s story and moderated the chat, said the safeguards placed on the program is “a very symbolic and empty oversight that really ought not to give the assurances to anybody that these powers aren’t being abused.”

“They go once every six months to the FISA court,” he said. “The FISA court rubber-stamps these vague guidelines that the NSA says they’re using to make sure they’re complying with the law. And once that happens, the NSA can force telecoms and Internet companies to give them whatever they demand under the guise that the FISA court has blessed their guidelines.”

Bigger threat: Snowden or NSA?

Critics call the programs an unconstitutional overreach of authority under the Patriot Act, the law that authorized increased government surveillance in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.

In a new development, the Guardian reported Sunday that Britain’s electronic intelligence agency monitored delegates’ phones and tried to capture their passwords during an economic summit held there in 2009.

Targets included British allies such as Turkey and South Africa, the newspaper reported. The Guardian cited documents provided by Snowden.

According to the newspaper, the documents show that the British “signals intelligence” agency GCHQ used “ground-breaking intelligence capabilities” to intercept calls made by members of the G-20 conference delegations at meetings in London.

Facebook, Microsoft disclose information on user data requests

Analysts received round-the-clock summaries of calls that were being made, and GCHQ set up Internet cafes for delegates in hopes of intercepting e-mails and capturing keystrokes, the Guardian reported.

One briefing slide explained the intercepts would give intelligence agencies the ability to read delegates’ e-mails “before/as they do,” providing “sustained intelligence options against them even after (the) conference has finished.”

GCHQ is Britain’s equivalent of the secretive NSA in the United States.

The Guardian reported that the NSA had attempted to eavesdrop on then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev during the conference as his phone calls passed through satellite links to Moscow and briefed its British counterparts on the effects.

The latest report was published on the eve of a smaller economic summit hosted by the British government — the Group of Eight gathering in Northern Ireland.

Shawn Turner, a spokesman for the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said Sunday he was aware of the Guardian’s latest report but declined to comment on it.

“What we should be focused on is how irresponsible and egregious these recent leaks are,” he told CNN. “It’s impossible to know exactly how much damage is being done by these disclosures, but they will have an effect on our counterterrorism efforts.”

Cheney defends NSA, calls Obama’s credibility ‘nonexistent’

Retired Gen. Michael Hayden, a former NSA director, said on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS” that what the agency collects are “essentially billing records” that detail the time, duration and phone numbers involved in a call.

The records are added to a database that agents can query in cases involving a terror investigation overseas, and agents can’t eavesdrop on Americans’ calls without an order from a secret court that handles intelligence matters, he said.

If a phone number related to an investigation has links to a domestic phone number, “We’ve got to go back to the court,” he said.

GOP tries to keep focus on IRS targeting scandal

However, critics such as Sen. Mark Udall, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, had raised questions about the scale of the program even before Snowden’s leak.

Udall said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that he doesn’t believe the program is making Americans any safer, “and I think it’s ultimately, perhaps, a violation of the Fourth Amendment.”

“I think we owe it to the American people to have a fulsome debate in the open about the extent of these programs,” said Udall, a Colorado Democrat. “You have a law that’s been interpreted secretly by a secret court that then issues secret orders to generate a secret program. I just don’t think this is an American approach to a world in which we have great threats.”

Obama does not feel that he has violated the privacy of any American, his chief of staff, Denis McDonough, said on the CBS program “Face the Nation.”

McDonough said the president will be discussing the need to “find the right balance, especially in this new situation where we find ourselves with all of us reliant on Internet, on e-mail, on texting.”

Hong Kong rallies in the rain for Edward Snowden

CNN’s Paul Steinhauser, Matt Smith and Jessica Yellin contributed to this report.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/17/politics/nsa-leaks/index.html?eref=edition

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewsRipplesWeb/~3/pawhVe9nuso/snowden-answers-reader-questions

Details on NSA-thwarted plots coming, lawmaker says

The blog post rejected accusations that he had or might provide classified information to China, saying he only leaked to journalists and calling such a charge a smear tactic intended to turn public opinion against his effort to provide Americans with full information about how their government monitors them.

A CNN/ORC International poll released Monday showed 54% of respondents didn’t approve of Snowden’s admitted actions, while 44% backed the leaks.

Snowden’s father told Fox News that he hoped and prayed his son “will not release any secrets that could constitute treason.”

The father, Lon Snowden, also said he wanted his son to return to the United States “and face this,” adding “I love my son.”

Snowden, 29, worked for the NSA through a private contractor firm until May, when he decamped to Hong Kong. He went public earlier this month as the source of articles by the newspapers, saying the agency’s efforts pose “an existential threat to democracy.”

The revelations about the NSA’s collection of millions of records from U.S. telecommunications and technology firms have led to a furious debate within the United States about the scale and scope of surveillance programs that date from the days after the 2001 al Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington.

Defenders say the programs — approved by Congress after a warrantless surveillance effort under the Bush administration was revealed in 2005 — have protected American lives by helping agents break up terrorism plots. And they argue that the program is under close oversight by all three branches of government, including the congressional intelligence committees and a court set up under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that hears cases in secret.

But Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian columnist who broke Snowden’s story and moderated the chat, said the safeguards placed on the program is “a very symbolic and empty oversight that really ought not to give the assurances to anybody that these powers aren’t being abused.”

“They go once every six months to the FISA court,” he said. “The FISA court rubber-stamps these vague guidelines that the NSA says they’re using to make sure they’re complying with the law. And once that happens, the NSA can force telecoms and Internet companies to give them whatever they demand under the guise that the FISA court has blessed their guidelines.”

Bigger threat: Snowden or NSA?

Critics call the programs an unconstitutional overreach of authority under the Patriot Act, the law that authorized increased government surveillance in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.

In a new development, the Guardian reported Sunday that Britain’s electronic intelligence agency monitored delegates’ phones and tried to capture their passwords during an economic summit held there in 2009.

Targets included British allies such as Turkey and South Africa, the newspaper reported. The Guardian cited documents provided by Snowden.

According to the newspaper, the documents show that the British “signals intelligence” agency GCHQ used “ground-breaking intelligence capabilities” to intercept calls made by members of the G-20 conference delegations at meetings in London.

Facebook, Microsoft disclose information on user data requests

Analysts received round-the-clock summaries of calls that were being made, and GCHQ set up Internet cafes for delegates in hopes of intercepting e-mails and capturing keystrokes, the Guardian reported.

One briefing slide explained the intercepts would give intelligence agencies the ability to read delegates’ e-mails “before/as they do,” providing “sustained intelligence options against them even after (the) conference has finished.”

GCHQ is Britain’s equivalent of the secretive NSA in the United States.

The Guardian reported that the NSA had attempted to eavesdrop on then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev during the conference as his phone calls passed through satellite links to Moscow and briefed its British counterparts on the effects.

The latest report was published on the eve of a smaller economic summit hosted by the British government — the Group of Eight gathering in Northern Ireland.

Shawn Turner, a spokesman for the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said Sunday he was aware of the Guardian’s latest report but declined to comment on it.

“What we should be focused on is how irresponsible and egregious these recent leaks are,” he told CNN. “It’s impossible to know exactly how much damage is being done by these disclosures, but they will have an effect on our counterterrorism efforts.”

Cheney defends NSA, calls Obama’s credibility ‘nonexistent’

Retired Gen. Michael Hayden, a former NSA director, said on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS” that what the agency collects are “essentially billing records” that detail the time, duration and phone numbers involved in a call.

The records are added to a database that agents can query in cases involving a terror investigation overseas, and agents can’t eavesdrop on Americans’ calls without an order from a secret court that handles intelligence matters, he said.

If a phone number related to an investigation has links to a domestic phone number, “We’ve got to go back to the court,” he said.

GOP tries to keep focus on IRS targeting scandal

However, critics such as Sen. Mark Udall, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, had raised questions about the scale of the program even before Snowden’s leak.

Udall said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that he doesn’t believe the program is making Americans any safer, “and I think it’s ultimately, perhaps, a violation of the Fourth Amendment.”

“I think we owe it to the American people to have a fulsome debate in the open about the extent of these programs,” said Udall, a Colorado Democrat. “You have a law that’s been interpreted secretly by a secret court that then issues secret orders to generate a secret program. I just don’t think this is an American approach to a world in which we have great threats.”

Obama does not feel that he has violated the privacy of any American, his chief of staff, Denis McDonough, said on the CBS program “Face the Nation.”

McDonough said the president will be discussing the need to “find the right balance, especially in this new situation where we find ourselves with all of us reliant on Internet, on e-mail, on texting.”

Hong Kong rallies in the rain for Edward Snowden

CNN’s Paul Steinhauser, Matt Smith and Jessica Yellin contributed to this report.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/17/politics/nsa-leaks/index.html?eref=edition

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewsRipplesWeb/~3/yuiiUMg2-EA/snowden-data-leak

According to a UK government website, a caution is issued for minor crimes.

“Cautions are given to adults aged 18 or over for minor crimes – eg writing graffiti on a bus shelter,” the website says.

“You have to admit an offence and agree to be cautioned. If you don’t agree, you can be arrested and charged.

“A caution is not a criminal conviction, but it could be used as evidence of bad character if you go to court for another crime.”

Sunday People, part of the stable of tabloids published by the Mirror Group, published the photos Sunday of Lawson and Saatchi at a restaurant.

The tabloid’s website includes the caption: “Nigella Lawson attacked in public by Charles Saatchi.”

Earlier a representative for Lawson confirmed that the chef and her children had moved out of their home. Saatchi also denied the reports of an attack in another British newspaper.

“About a week ago, we were sitting outside a restaurant having an intense debate about the children, and I held Nigella’s neck repeatedly while attempting to emphasize my point,” Saatchi, an art dealer and former advertising mogul, told The Evening Standard.

“There was no grip, it was a playful tiff. The pictures are horrific but give a far more drastic and violent impression of what took place. Nigella’s tears were because we both hate arguing, not because she had been hurt,” he added. “We had made up by the time we were home. The paparazzi were congregated outside our house after the story broke yesterday morning, so I told Nigella to take the kids off till the dust settled.”

The restaurant involved told CNN that its employees did not witness any such incident.

Lawson’s Facebook page is filled with messages from fans expressing their support for her.

Lawson is known as the “queen of food porn.” She has written numerous successful cookbooks and hosted TV shows.

Watch a CNN interview with Nigella Lawson

CNN’s Richard Greene and Bharati Naik contributed to this report.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/17/world/uk-lawson-inquiry/index.html?eref=edition

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewsRipplesWeb/~3/03sR48VVn6M/nigella-lawson

Read a version of this story in Arabic.

(CNN) — Though Syria is set to dominate discussion at this week’s Group of Eight summit, leaders began the conference Monday with talk of a possible trade deal they said could create millions of jobs.

The first round of negotiations for a trans-Atlantic trade agreement between the United States and the European Union will take place next month in Washington, U.S. President Barack Obama said.

“I believe that we can form an economic alliance as strong as our diplomatic and security alliances,” he told reporters after the leaders of eight of the world’s most powerful nations kicked off their meeting in Northern Ireland.

“The whole point of this meeting … is to fire up our economies and drive growth and prosperity around the world. … There’s no better way than by launching these negotiations on a landmark deal between the European Union and the United states of America,” British Prime Minister David Cameron said.

Putin warns against arming organ-eating Syrian rebels

The conference comes days after the United States pledged to play a greater role in assisting Syrian rebels, citing evidence that President Bashar al-Assad’s regime used chemical weapons against the rebels and his own people. The move was backed by seven of the eight nations represented at this week’s conference in Loch Erne, while Russia remains the sole G8 nation supporting al-Assad.

On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin sharply criticized the decision to provide arms to Syrian rebels, referencing a widely circulated video of an opposition fighter appearing to eat the heart of a dead solider.

Speaking to reporters in London after meeting with Cameron, Putin warned against arming Syrian rebels “who kill their enemies and eat their organs.”

“Do you want to support these people? Do you want to supply arms to these people?” Putin asked.

The White House announcement last week that it was increasing the “size and scope” of its material support to Syrian rebels came after months of political debate over the U.S. role in the conflict. Great Britain and France, two other G8 members, were strong backers of the May decision to end the European Union arms embargo on Syria, and both countries asserted that al-Assad’s regime had used chemical weapons before the United States did.

Russia, however, has downplayed the claims of chemical weapons use, and Putin has opposed outside intervention into the county’s 2-year-old internal conflict. G8 leaders hope a unified front against al-Assad will help pressure Russia to end its support for the regime, which extends back to al-Assad’s father and the Cold War.

Opinion: A new breed of terror in Northern Ireland

Obama and Putin will discuss Syria one-on-one Monday, the first time the two leaders will have spoken face to face since last year’s G-20 summit in Mexico.

“They clearly have a very broad agenda to discuss,” Obama’s deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes noted, adding the pair would also talk about counterterrorism and arms control.

“It’s in Russia’s interest to join us in applying pressure on Bashar al-Assad to come to the table in a way that relinquishes his power and his standing in Syria, because we don’t see any scenario where he restores his legitimacy to lead the country,” Rhodes continued.

Hollywood A-listers ‘demand zero’ nukes in new video

On Friday, Rhodes said further discussions with other nations were necessary to determine next steps.

“This is a fluid situation, so it’s necessary for (Obama) to consult with all the leaders at the G8 about both our chemical weapons assessment and the types of support we’re providing to the opposition,” Rhodes said.

The G8′s Syria discussions will come in a setting imbued with reminders of American diplomatic involvement overseas. The U.S.-brokered Good Friday Agreement, signed in 1998, created the current system of government in Northern Ireland and helped end the decades-long violence between republican and loyalist forces in the region.

Before the G8 summit officially began, Obama delivered remarks on the U.S.-supported peace process in Belfast, though massive security operations served as evidence of Northern Ireland’s still-shaky peace.

“It has been 15 years since the Good Friday Agreement; since clenched fists gave way to outstretched hands; since the people of this island voted in overwhelming numbers to see past the scars of violence and mistrust, and choose to wage peace,” the president said, promising U.S. support as long as North Ireland continues to pursue peace.

“We will always be a wind at your back. And like I said when I visited two years ago, I am convinced that this little island, that inspires the biggest things — its best days are yet ahead.”

Cameron, the host of this week’s conference, named the problem of tax avoidance by large corporations as a central issue for G8 leaders to resolve at this year’s summit. The British prime minister hopes to secure agreements among nations on sharing tax information, with the goal of ensuring global companies aren’t able to dodge tax bills.

The measure met resistance from firms’ chief executives, though Cameron said he’s willing to withstand corporate ire for a fairer global tax system.

“You don’t get anywhere unless you are prepared to give the lead and perhaps make a few enemies along the way,” Cameron said. “In setting the G8 agenda around trade, tax and transparency, yes, you are taking on some vested interests, you are taking on some difficult decisions. But actually will it help both the developing world and us in the West? I believe it can.”

While in Europe, Obama will also likely be forced to defend U.S. Internet surveillance techniques that were disclosed in a series of newspaper articles in early June. The intelligence programs, which were previously considered top secret, involved large tech companies who operate globally, including Facebook, Google and Yahoo.

Snowden says online he had to ‘get out’ of the U.S. before leaks

Individual privacy online is highly regarded in Europe, but leaders there have faced a quandary in publicly condemning the American program called PRISM, which monitors e-mails, photos, search histories and other data from American-based Internet companies.

A robust intelligence-sharing network exists between some members of the G8 and the United States, and intelligence gathered through the NSA’s program has the potential to benefit other countries targeted by terrorists.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has nonetheless vowed to discuss the program with Obama during his visit to Germany and told CNN in an interview that other European officials are also concerned about PRISM. She said she wanted the greatest possible transparency on issues of surveillance and privacy.

The European Union — represented at the G8 by European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso — also has “serious concerns” about the reported large-scale surveillance of online data by U.S. authorities, European Commission Vice President Viviane Reding said.

Rhodes said on Friday that the president would defend the programs, which also came under fire from civil libertarians in the United States.

“We certainly understand that — like the United States — countries in Europe have significant interests in privacy and civil liberties, so we will want to hear their questions and have an exchange about these programs and other counterterrorism programs that we pursue in the United States and in partnership,” Rhodes said.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/17/world/europe/g8-summit/index.html?eref=edition

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewsRipplesWeb/~3/rNCc26hJfi4/g8-fire-up-our-economies

The tabloid’s website includes the caption: “Nigella Lawson attacked in public by Charles Saatchi.”

Police have not received a complaint of an assault.

In a statement, London’s Metropolitan Police said they are making inquiries to determine “whether an investigation is necessary.”

The restaurant involved told CNN that its employees did not witness any such incident.

Lawson’s Facebook page is filled with messages from fans expressing their support for her.

Lawson is known as the “queen of food porn.” She has written numerous successful cookbooks and hosted TV shows.

Watch a CNN interview with Nigella Lawson

CNN’s Richard Greene and Bharati Naik contributed to this report.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/17/world/uk-lawson-inquiry/index.html?eref=edition

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewsRipplesWeb/~3/-ZKF2Nmp-kc/nigella-lawsons-husband-denies-attack

Editor’s note: Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is an author, award-winning scholar, Middle East expert and U.S. foreign policy specialist. He is the president of the International American Council and serves on the board of Harvard International Review and Harvard International Relations Council. Follow him on Twitter.

(CNN) — At the outset of his term, the new president of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, will confront a thicket of national and international challenges.

Rouhani’s presidential term starts at a particularly challenging time; the Islamic Republic of Iran is facing an unprecedented level of regional and international isolation. One of the most crucial foreign policy objectives which will take precedence in Rouhani’s agenda is the Syrian conflict, which has now entered its third year.

The election result raises vital questions regarding whether Iran’s foreign policy towards Assad’s sect-based and police regime will be altered or whether Iranian-Syrian alliance will evolve into a new phase. Will the presidency of the centrist Rouhani influence Iran’s diplomatic ties with Damascus and its unconditional support for Assad? Will Tehran change its political, military, intelligence and advisory assistance to Syria’s state apparatuses, army, security forces, and Mukhabart?

READ: Rouhani wins Iran election

While there is a significant amount of high expectations and enthusiasm among some Western political leaders and scholars that the election of the centrist Rouhani might influence Iran’s support of Assad, it is crucial to be realistic about Iran’s centrist and moderate camp’s ideology, the power of the presidential office, Iran’s political structure, and Tehran’s foreign policy objectives.

First of all, it is necessary to note that the Iranian centrists and moderates’ political spectrum analyze Syria from the realms of balance of power as well as from a religious and geopolitical paradigm rather than from a human rights one.

READ: Who is Rouhani?

Although Rouhani argues for constructive interactions with other countries and although he supports applying a softer political tone — as opposed to the combative, controversial and provocative language that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or other hardliners utilize — when dealing with the international community and regional state actors in regards to Syria, Rouhani has not called for an overall sweeping shift in Iran’s foreign policy. For instance, Rouhani has neither asked Assad to step down from power nor pressed to halt the Islamic Republic of Iran’s military, intelligence, financial, and advisory support to Damascus.

From the perspective of the centrists, including Rouhani, withdrawing support to Damascus equates to undermining Tehran’s geopolitical leverage and balance of power in the region, which ultimately endangers their own power. This becomes particularly more significant to the Iranian leaders who argue that they are surrounded by what they perceive as existential and strategic enemies; the United States’ military bases, for instance, are located throughout Iran’s borders and in the Gulf Arab states (Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, etc).

More fundamentally, because of the role the Supreme Leader plays in Iran’s foreign policy objectives, it would be unrealistic to argue that Rouhani would alter Iran’s current political status quo towards Assad’s regime. Rouhani does not completely control the country’s foreign relations with Syria; Iran’s policy towards Damascus is closely guided by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the high generals of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, and Etela’at — Iran’s intelligence. However, Rouhani does have the ability to set the tone in regional and international circles for the Supreme Leader. In addition, the Supreme Leader has been very clear about his political stance on Syria, stating that Assad’s regime is targeted by Israeli and U.S.-backed groups, foreign conspirators and terrorists.

Lastly, religiously and ideologically speaking, one of the major pillars of Iran’s foreign policy has been that it has proclaimed itself as the safe-guarder of Islamic — particularly Shiite — values. The Alawite sect-based state of Syria serves as a crucial instrument for advancing, empowering, and achieving this ideological foreign policy objective.

Iran under Rouhani’s presidency is unlikely to change the current status quo, push for regime change in Syria, ask Assad to step aside as many Western and Arab Gulf states did, or halt any political, military, intelligence and advisory assistance to Assad’s ruling Alawite and socialist Bath party, due to the belief that they will be ideologically and religiously weakening their own regional influence and foreign policy leverage.

If the Alawites lose power, the next government would likely be constituted from the current oppositional groups and the Sunni majority in Syria, who comprise roughly 74% of the population. As in Egypt and Tunisia, where the Islamic Sunni parties were the ones who won the elections, in Damascus, the Sunni oppositional groups are more likely to win most of the parliamentary seats in the situation of a new government forming after Assad. This will be regarded as a considerable shift in regional and international balance of power against Iran and in favor of the Arab Gulf states, particularly Saudi Arabia.

Considering the aforementioned factors: the president’s limited control over directing foreign policy compared to the Supreme Leader’s more powerful role, the centrist and moderate ideologies, as well as the geopolitical, and ideological elements surrounding the issue , it is more likely that Iran will continue implementing its current strategies towards Syria to preserve Iran’s regional and international balance of power, its political and economic national interests, and the survival of the ruling clerics.

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he opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Majid Rafizadeh.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/16/opinion/iran-rouhani-syria-rafizadeh/index.html?eref=edition

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Bigger threat: Snowden or NSA?

GCHQ is Britain’s equivalent of the National Security Agency, the highly secretive U.S. communications intelligence service. The Guardian reported that the NSA had attempted to eavesdrop on then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev during the conference as his phone calls passed through satellite links to Moscow and briefed its British counterparts on the effects.

Snowden, 29, worked for the NSA through a private contractor firm until May, when he decamped to Hong Kong. He went public a week ago as the source of articles by the Guardian and The Washington Post, saying the NSA’s efforts posed “an existential threat to democracy.”

Shawn Turner, a spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said Sunday he was aware of the Guardian’s latest report but declined to comment on it.

“What we should be focused on is how irresponsible and egregious these recent leaks are,” he told CNN. “It’s impossible to know exactly how much damage is being done by these disclosures, but they will have an effect on our counterterrorism efforts.”

Snowden’s revelations about the NSA’s collection of millions of records from U.S. telecommunications and technology firms have led to a furious debate within the United States about the scale and scope of surveillance programs that date to the days after the 2001 al Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington. Defenders say the programs — approved by Congress after a warrantless surveillance effort under the Bush administration was revealed in 2005 — have protected American lives by helping agents break up terrorism plots.

Cheney defends NSA, calls Obama’s credibility ‘nonexistent’

But President Barack Obama does not feel that he has violated the privacy of any American, his chief of staff, Denis McDonough, told CBS’ “Face the Nation.” McDonough said the president will discuss the need to “find the right balance, especially in this new situation where we find ourselves with all of us reliant on Internet, on e-mail, on texting.”

Shortly after the stories broke, Obama publicly defended the NSA programs as “modest encroachments on privacy” that help prevent terrorism.

CNN’s Jessica Yellin contributed to this report.

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Opinion: Will Rouhani alter Iran’s policy on Syria?

The Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, along with his military loyalists, the Revolutionary Guards and its militia wing Basij — the alliance that many believe stole the election in favor of the incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — still remain in ultimate power. Many had suspected that the regime would go to extraordinary lengths, as it did in 2009, to manage the vote from start to finish.

Rouhani is Iran’s next president

Although the election was far from democratic, it provided an opportunity for many Iranians, especially the young, to break the deadly atmosphere of fear the government has imposed for the past four years. The watchdog Guardian Council had already helped Khamenei sideline his rivals, barring a prominent politician and a former president, Rafsanjani, from running in the race. Government forces arrested activists and campaigners in the months before the election.

Economic issues were paramount on the minds of voters as U.S.-led sanctions have reduced Iran’s oil revenue by half and shot the inflation rate up to more than 30%. Voters recalled Rouhani as the county’s pragmatist nuclear envoy who deterred threats in 2003 by signing the Additional Protocol, allowing inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency to visit Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Further, Iran suspended its sensitive uranium enrichment activities, a process that can be used to make nuclear fuel or a nuclear bomb if uranium is enriched to high levels. Those measures built trust around Iran’s nuclear program until Ahmadinejad reversed them in 2005.

It is not clear if Khamenei’s hard-line allies will allow Rouhani to introduce real change. The president sets the tone for domestic and foreign policy and can make room for more moderate voices in politics. But he holds little power compared with the authority that the constitution gives Khamenei. If Khamenei is willing to end international pressure over Iran’s nuclear program, Rouhani provides the perfect opportunity.

Rouhani’s victory has already bolstered a sense of optimism. Iranian currency, the rial, strengthened slightly against the U.S. dollar for the first time on Saturday after its steady downward spiral since 2011. In his first message after his election, Rouhani declared that “a new chapter” has begun and hoped the international community would use a more respectful rhetoric toward Iran.

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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Nazila Fathi.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/16/opinion/fathi-irans-new-leader/index.html?eref=edition

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