I don't want to say much.
"US and China plan high-level talks on hacking; Government, private breaches occur every day" by David E. Sanger and Mark Landler | New York Times, June 02, 2013
WASHINGTON — The United States and China have agreed to hold regular, high-level talks on how to set standards of behavior for cybersecurity and commercial espionage, the first diplomatic effort to defuse the tensions over what the United States says is a daily barrage of computer break-ins and theft of corporate and government secrets.
The talks will begin in July. On Friday, President Obama and President Xi Jinping of China are scheduled to hold an unusual, informal summit meeting in Rancho Mirage, Calif., that could set the tone for their relationship and help them confront chronic tensions like the nuclear threat from North Korea.
US officials say they do not expect the process to immediately yield a significant reduction in the daily intrusions from China. The head of the US Cyber Command and director of the National Security Agency, General Keith B. Alexander, has said the attacks have resulted in the “greatest transfer of wealth in history.”
Pfft! Try the Wall Street bailout and the continued quantitative easing first.
Hackers have stolen a variety of secrets, including negotiating strategies and schematics for next-generation fighter jets and gas pipeline control systems.
Nonetheless, a senior US official involved in the negotiations to hold regular meetings said in an interview on Friday that “we need to get some norms and rules.”
“It is a serious issue that cannot simply be swatted away with talking points,” said the official, who noted that the meetings would focus primarily on the theft of intellectual property from American companies. “Our concerns are not limited to that, but that’s what needs urgent attention,” he added.
The Chinese government has insisted it is a victim of cyberattacks, not a perpetrator, and Chinese officials have vigorously denied the extensive evidence gathered by the Pentagon and private security experts that a unit of the People’s Liberation Army, Unit 61398, outside Shanghai, is behind many of the most sophisticated attacks on the United States.
That doesn't necessarily mean China did it. Hackers can hide in servers anywhere. Who would want to frame China, and why would they allow the trail to lead back there if they did?
On Saturday, after Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel spoke of a “growing threat of cyberintrusions” at a conference in Singapore, in comments directed at China, a Chinese general gave a tart response about the growing US military presence in Asia.
We see where this is going.
While cyberattacks will be a major subject of the talks in Rancho Mirage, at an estate that belonged to Walter Annenberg, the main effort will be to forge a rapport between Obama and Xi. US officials hope the estate, known as Sunnylands, which has played host to US presidents and foreign dignitaries dating to Richard M. Nixon, will put both men at ease.
US officials said they have been surprised by the pace at which Xi, a longtime party functionary who consolidated his grip on power in March, has installed new faces in the Chinese leadership and moved to take greater control over the military, something his predecessor, Hu Jintao, never mastered.
Another main issue at the meeting will be North Korea. US officials, emerging from talks with Xi and his team, believe the new Chinese leader has less patience for North Korea and little of the sentimental attachment to its leaders that his predecessors had.
“What’s interesting here is the dog that isn’t barking,” the US official said....
Hmmmm!
Related: Slow Saturday Special: Santa Monica Psyop
Also see: Police ID killer of 5 in shootings in Santa Monica
His name was Zawahri, and it doesn't say what country his mom was visiting.
UPDATE: College reopens after shootings
He may have had mental health issues, huh?
Related: Santa Monica False Flag Pushing the Envelope
That is what your "news" is these days, folks. More often than not it is a staged and scripted production if not outright fabrication -- all in the service of mind-manipulating thought control.
Cybersecurity issues loom large between the United States and China because they go to the heart of the economic relationship between the two countries, even moreso now that previous sources of friction, like China’s foreign exchange policies, have eased in the last year.
Chinese academics and industrialists say that if China is to maintain its annual economic growth rate of 7 or 8 percent, it needs a steady inflow of new technology.
That could make the Chinese reluctant to cut back on the systematic theft of intellectual property. In return, the Chinese will press the Americans on their use of cyberweapons: while there is no evidence they have been used against Chinese targets, the sophisticated cyberattacks on Iran’s nuclear program by the United States and Israel are often cited by the Chinese news media and military journals as evidence that Washington, too, uses cyberspace for strategic advantage.
But it's okay if we are doing it, yeah.
Related: Obama Takes a Hack at China
Who is doing the hacking and from where?
The talks over computer hacking will start as part of the Strategic and Economic Dialogue, an annual meeting of Chinese and US officials on a broad range of issues. But a new working group is being organized on the subject that will meet more frequently, officials say.
--more--"
But we are only on the defensive, my war-propaganda paper tells me:
"US to help allies battle cyberattacks; Middle East, Asian countries would benefit" by Thom Shanker and David E. Sanger | New York Times, June 09, 2013
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has begun helping Middle Eastern allies build up their defenses against Iran’s growing arsenal of cyberweapons, and will be doing the same in Asia to contain computer-network attacks from North Korea, according to senior US officials.
SIGH!
The officials would not say which countries in the Persian Gulf have signed up for help in countering Iran’s computer abilities. But the list, some officials say, includes the nations that have been the most active in tracking Iranian arms shipments, intercepting them in ports, and providing intelligence to the United States about Iranian actions.
The three most active in that arena are Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain.
That's why Bahrain's protests and repression are not a concern to the U.S.
In Asia, the countries most worried about being struck by North Korean computer attacks are South Korea and Japan.
The Defense Department’s new effort is the latest example of how the Obama administration is increasingly tailoring its national security efforts for a new era of digital conflict.
A directive signed by the president that surfaced Friday — the third in a series of leaked documents published by The Guardian and The Washington Post — underscored how the Obama administration is trying to prepare itself and its allies. The leaks also revealed how the Obama administration has put in place a large Internet surveillance operation to identify terrorism threats.
Related: Sunday Globe Special: NSA Clapper Trapper
The presidential directive included the declaration that the United States reserved the right to take “anticipatory action” against “imminent threats,” a reference, it seemed, to the kind of crippling infrastructure attacks that Iran appears to be working on.
The new help for strengthening computer-network defenses for allies closely parallels earlier efforts by the Obama administration in two volatile parts of the world.
In recent years it has helped install advanced missile-defense systems and early-warning radars in Persian Gulf nations to counter Iran’s missile ability, and it has done something similar in Asia in response to North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
But deterring cyberattacks is far more complex, and American officials concede that this effort, which will include providing hardware and software and training, is an experiment.
It has been propelled by two high-profile attacks in the past year. One was against Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s largest, state-run oil producer, and according to American officials it was carried out by Iran. That attack crippled 30,000 computers but did not succeed in halting oil production.
The other, an attack on South Korea’s banking and media companies this spring, was later attributed to North Korea. It froze the ability of several banks to operate for days.
Both must have been false flag attacks since they are being cited by the intelligence agency operation we call a newspaper over here.
China and Russia have strong incentives to limit the destructiveness of their attacks; they are so tied into the global economy that anything truly disruptive to financial or energy markets would backfire. But North Korea and Iran, especially in times of tensions, would be less prone to show restraint, US officials say.
Good thing the Koreas are making nice then.
--more--"
I guess Iran will be the designated scapegoat for the cyberattack that destroys the AmeriKan banking system before it collapses. And who would benefit?
Back to the talks.
"Obama, Xi ‘blaze new trail,’ China official says" by Julie Pace | Associated Press, June 09, 2013
RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. — A senior Chinese official said President Obama and Chinese leader Xi Jinping ‘‘blazed a new trail’’ away from the two nations’ past differences at a two-day summit in the California desert that ended Saturday with few policy breakthroughs but the prospect of stronger personal ties....
Government elites feeling comfortable with each other was never a good sign for the people.
Obama told reporters that the talks were ‘‘terrific’’ as he and Xi opened their second day of talks Saturday by walking side by side through the manicured gardens of the Sunnylands estate.
The unusual summit site was aimed at fostering more candid and free-flowing discussions on numerous high-stakes issues, including cybersecurity, North Korea’s nuclear provocations, and the economy.
The White House said shortly after Xi departed the estate that the two nations agreed to work together for the first time to reduce hydrofluorocarbons, a potent greenhouse gas. The agreement was cast as a significant step toward tackling climate change.
Pffft!
--more--"
Also see: In China, signs the economy is slowing
"Obama, new Chinese leader discuss key security issues; Aim for greater cooperation on N. Korea threat" by Jackie Calmes and Steven Lee Myers | New York Times, June 08, 2013
PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — President Obama and China’s new president, Xi Jinping, arrived at a famed desert estate here Friday evening for their unusually informal weekend meeting, starting with discussions of security issues that bedevil them, including North Korea’s nuclear threat, on which the United States sees a chance at greater cooperation.
On Saturday, officials said, the leaders plan to delve into economic issues, including the United States’ accusation that Beijing has encouraged or at least tolerated cyberattacks on US systems in which business and military secrets were stolen.
On a day when the temperature here reached 110 degrees, Obama and Xi, along with their interpreters and closest aides, retreated to the comfort of the sprawling Sunnylands estate in nearby Rancho Mirage, built by the publishing magnate Walter H. Annenberg. But Obama could not completely escape a domestic controversy over US surveillance of domestic phone records and foreign Internet traffic, despite his attempt earlier Friday to dampen the furor with a public defense of the antiterrorism tactics.
White House officials said they did not know why someone had leaked details about the surveillance programs, though they said they did not think they were timed to sabotage the talks here.
Well, the Clapper Trapper tells us this is all another government-controlled leak, and its prominence in the paper seems to prove it out.
A spokesman for Obama, Josh Earnest, dismissed suggestions from reporters flying with the president to Palm Springs that the surveillance flap would undercut Obama’s own efforts to pressure his counterpart on human rights and civil liberties within China.
Related: China censures America on human rights
They have a point, and that was before the spying scandal broke.
Earnest even suggested that the intensity of the current debate in the United States could serve as a good example to the Chinese. “This is a pretty good illustration of the type of conversation we want to have about respecting civil liberties and protecting the constitutional rights of the people that you govern,” he said.
Nothing like turning an issue on its head to advance the agenda!
Related: Googling China
Yeah! And that was over two years ago.
On the question of tensions with North Korea, the administration has welcomed what officials have described as a growing impatience in China — on the part of Xi in particular — with its longstanding ally in Pyongyang. That has raised administration hopes of new cooperation.
I think it is lip service.
--more--"
Related: The Two Faces of China
Looks like it is Washington that is two-faced.
"Chinese activist’s kin get passports" Associated Press, June 08, 2013
BEIJING — Family members of a Chinese activist who fled house arrest and later moved to the United States have been granted passports so they can travel outside China, just ahead of a summit between President Xi Jinping of China and President Obama.
Chen Guangfu, the oldest brother of blind activist Chen Guangcheng, said that the passports for him and their mother, Wang Jinxiang, were delivered Friday and that they were planning to seek visas and visit Chen Guangcheng in New York.
Obama and Xi are scheduled to hold talks in California on Friday and Saturday.
--more--"
Related: Cutting Out the Chinese Crap
See why it is getting so hard to believe anything in my newspaper?
Also see: Keeping Current on Chinese Crap
Good idea:
"Obama, Xi assert desire to find common ground; But cyberattacks, Pacific power remain unsolved" by David E. Sanger | New York Times, June 10, 2013
WASHINGTON — President Obama and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, emerged from their first lengthy talks in California over the weekend declaring their determination to keep disputes over cyberespionage and territorial claims in the Pacific from descending into a Cold War mentality and to avoid the pitfalls of a rising power confronting an established one.
Established and in decline.
But officials on both sides describe forces at work in Beijing and in Washington that risk pushing the two leaders into exactly the spiral they are warning against.
Related(?):
[China is evidently just another power working to install the Jews on the world throne, leaving the rest of us to serve as their footstool. If all things shall truly "flow from Jerusalem," then they will be the most corrupt, evil things imaginable. And all this time we thought that the God of the Hebrew Bible was a God of goodness. All we have seen "God's Chosen" do so far is to sow hatred and divisioin throughout the earth. It is a sad reality we must live in when the outcome of all things is to be that good is bad, black is white, humanitarianism is war. I am really getting sick of reporting this shit!] -- Zionist/Chinese Union Raises Its Ugly Head—China To Build Rail Line for Israel
I know how he feels.
US intelligence officials have told Obama that the cyberattacks on American companies emanating from China, which have swept up billions of dollars’ worth of intellectual property, are happening because of increasing desperation inside China to keep the economy there growing at 7 or 8 percent a year. That is the rate that Chinese leaders consider necessary to create enough jobs.
How much has the U.S. government swept up with its spy net?
The territorial claims are an expression of China’s sense that it is now ready to seize its moment as a global power. US officials who attended the summit at the Sunnylands estate in Rancho Mirage say Xi gave no ground on those claims....
“This was the most important meeting between an American president and a Chinese leader in 40 years, since Nixon and Mao,” said Joseph Nye, a Harvard political scientist who once guided the preparation of National Intelligence Estimates, including several that dealt with China’s rise....
WOW! And we have a president like Nixon!
US and Chinese officials appear to finally be on the same page about how to contain a nuclear North Korea. During the talks at Sunnylands, according to two officials, the Chinese spoke in unusually specific terms about how they might use their leverage as the North’s economic savior and energy provider to bring the young North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, to heel.
“They made clear they would not be engaging with him directly until there is a change in action,” one official said.
Already is and has!
If Xi chooses to act on those commitments, Obama will have accomplished a major task. For the first time in six decades since the Korean war ended, an American leader will have persuaded the Chinese that the threat posed by its ally’s ambitions is greater than the risk of chaos if the North were to collapse.
Who is talking about regime collapse?
But there has been no such convergence on cyber issues. Obama spent much of Saturday morning describing to Xi specific incidents involving Chinese theft of intellectual property — an exercise intended to make clear how seriously the US government takes the issue.
“It is now really at the center of the relationship,” Thomas E. Donilon, Obama’s departing national security adviser, told reporters.
He just got the job and he's out? What, he not want to go into Syria?
Still, he said, China’s leadership has yet to acknowledge that units of the Chinese government are at all responsible for the wave of hacking.
Why should they if they didn't really do it?
In the talks, Donilon said, Obama “underscored that the United States did not have any doubt about what was going on here.”
Yeah, except since the Iraq lies every one doubts the U.S. One of those unintended consequences.
So far, Obama’s approach has been to try to get China to agree to what the president called “norms” of behavior....
Does that include drone strikes, indefinite detention, and torture?
Nor is there trust: The Chinese point out that the United States has used cyberattacks against an adversary, Iran, while the Pentagon warned in a recent report that China was pouring huge resources into a cyberarsenal of its own.
Well, yeah, but when it's us it is only AmeriKan heroes being cool.
China’s military sees US cyberpower as one more form of pressure to be countered, just like its naval presence in the Pacific. That is zero-sum Cold War thinking — but China and the United States are far more economically interdependent than the United States and the Soviet Union ever were.
That interdependence gives no guarantee that the two leaders will work out what Xi called a “new type of great-power relationship.” But each man clearly understands the damage that the other could do to his legacy, and each has a motive for reining in the forces that would argue for continued low-level confrontation.
Somehow I have the feeling the decisions are out of their hands.
--more--"
Related:
"China hacked designs for arms systems, US panel says" by Ellen Nakashima | Washington Post, May 28, 2013
WASHINGTON — Designs for many of the nation’s most sensitive advanced weapons systems have been compromised by Chinese hackers, according to officials from government and the defense industry and a report prepared for the Pentagon.
What, they didn't just buy the stuff from Israel this time?
Among more than two dozen major weapons systems whose designs have been breached were programs critical to US missile defenses and combat aircraft and ships, according to a previously undisclosed section of a confidential report prepared by the Defense Science Board for Pentagon leaders.
Experts warn that the electronic intrusions gave China access to advanced technology that could accelerate the development of its weapons systems and weaken the US military advantage in any future conflict.
Does there have to be a future conflict when we are allegedly so closely interlinked?
The Defense Science Board, a senior advisory group composed of government and civilian experts, did not accuse the Chinese of stealing designs.
If I'm not mistaken that's the same crew that said it would be a good idea to go into Iraq.
But senior military and industry officials with knowledge of the breaches said most were part of a widening Chinese campaign of espionage against US defense contractors and government agencies. The significance and extent of the targets help explain why the Obama administration has escalated its warnings to the Chinese government to stop what Washington sees as rampant cybertheft.
Some of the weapons form the backbone of the Pentagon’s regional missile defense for Asia, Europe, and the Persian Gulf. The designs included those for the advanced Patriot missile system, known as PAC-3; an Army system for shooting down ballistic missiles; and the Navy’s Aegis ballistic missile defense system.
--more--"
And even more offensive:
"Chinese hackers got surveillance data on Google; Breach tried to ID operatives under US watch" by Ellen Nakashima | Washington Post, May 21, 2013
WASHINGTON — Chinese government hackers who breached Google’s servers in recent years gained access to a sensitive database with years’ worth of information about American surveillance targets, according to current and former US government officials.
The breach appears to have been aimed at unearthing the identities of Chinese intelligence operatives in the United States who may have been under surveillance by American law enforcement agencies.
It’s unclear how much the hackers were able to discover. But former US officials familiar with the breach said the Chinese stood to gain valuable intelligence. The database included information about court orders authorizing surveillance — orders that could have signaled active espionage investigations into Chinese agents who maintained e-mail accounts through Google’s Gmail service.
‘‘Knowing that you were subjects of an investigation allows them to take steps to destroy information, get people out of the country,’’ said one former official, who like others interviewed for this article, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter.
The official said the Chinese could also have sought to deceive US intelligence officials by conveying false or misleading information....
Giving them a taste of their own medicine?
The US government has been concerned about Chinese hacking since at least the early 2000s, when network intrusions were discovered at US energy labs and defense contractors. The FBI has for years led a national security investigation into Chinese cyberespionage, some of which has been linked to the Chinese military.
And they have been getting away with it all this time?
The Chinese, according to government, academic, and industry analysts, have stolen massive volumes of data from companies in sectors including defense, technology, aerospace, and oil and gas.
The Chinese emphatically deny that they are engaged in hacking into US computer systems and have said that many intrusions into their own networks emanate from servers in the United States....
Google’s crisis began in December 2009, when, several former government officials said, the firm discovered that Chinese hackers had penetrated its corporate networks through ‘‘spear phishing’’ — a technique in which an employee was effectively deceived into clicking a bogus link that downloads a malicious program. The hackers had been rooting around inside Google’s servers for at least a year.
Alarmed by the scope and audacity of the breach, the company went public with the news in January 2010.
See: Giving China the Googley Eye
As Google was responding to the breach, its technicians made another startling discovery: its database with years’ worth of information on surveillance orders had been hacked. The database included data on thousands of orders issued by judges around the country to law enforcement agents seeking to monitor suspects’ e-mails.
Maybe China did you a favor, Americans.
The most sensitive orders, however, came from a federal court that approves surveillance on foreign targets such as spies, diplomats, suspected terrorists and agents of other governments.
--more--"
Also see: Wikileaks Target: China
"Chinese hackers pose a growing threat" May 11, 2013
The Pentagon this week issued its most direct acknowledgment to date of the serious threat that Chinese hackers pose to American security and industry. The new report details the systematic thievery of trade and technology secrets and even hints that the Chinese government and its People’s Liberation Army are behind most cyber attacks on US interests.
The parsing of the language is interesting.
And it lays bare what is truly at stake: America’s capacity to innovate and, in turn, its economic competitive advantage. A coordinated effort both to put pressure on China to end cyber espionage and protect US networks must be pursued.
Chinese officials have denied any state policy of industrial espionage, suggesting they are as much victims as the United States. The Obama administration has rightfully pushed back against such claims, and officials have traveled to Beijing to press the message that the White House is running out of patience.
The time to discuss more punitive actions is here. The American military can’t ask China to stop developing cyber weaponry because it is quietly racing to build similar capacity itself; but it can keep beefing up its defense. Stealing American intellectual property is another matter. The Justice Department has signaled it will step up the investigation and prosecution of cyber thefts. There is also talk of denying visas to anyone found to be stealing trade secrets. Both should be done immediately.
If problems persist, the United States should consider trade restrictions and, in the worst case scenario, offensive action by the military Cyber Command. Meanwhile, the House and Senate must find middle ground to address the languishing cyber security bill.
Always an agenda at bottom with them.
Yes, a compromise that adequately respects online privacy is important, but easing the ability of government agencies to share classified cyber-threat information with vulnerable corporations is long overdue. Economic piracy needn’t be tolerated as the cost of doing business with China.
But it will be when it comes to Israel....
--more--"
UPDATE: NSA leak may test US, China ties
And about those Korean peace talks:
"Koreas reach deal on terms for first talks in six years; Dialogue to be held in Seoul later this week" by Choe Sang-Hun | New York Times, June 10, 2013
SEOUL — The agreement was a clear sign that North and South Korea were easing tensions and moving toward a thaw after years of recriminations that hit a peak earlier this year....
Leave it to my war media to toss cold water on the talks:
In the upcoming high-level talks, the most contentious question will be the conditions imposed on any of the suspended projects before they can be reopened. President Park Geun Hye of South Korea has repeatedly said her government is determined to end a “vicious cycle” in which the South appeases the North after its provocations. And her aides have said that the South would not revive the projects “as if nothing had happened” and that the North must take steps to ensure that it would not sacrifice economic projects for political ends.
They have also said that South Korean efforts to engage the North would be limited until the stalemate is broken over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. Before starting the talks on Sunday, Chun Hae Sung, the chief South Korean delegate, reiterated that the North and South could move toward greater economic cooperation and political reconciliation when they “start building trust on small things first.”
But during the border talks, North Korea called for more expansive exchanges with the South, causing a prolonged haggling over the agenda of upcoming high-level talks in Seoul.
In the end, they agreed not to nail down the agenda. The South announced that the Seoul meeting would only discuss the reopening of the three economic and humanitarian projects. But in its own announcement, North Korea said that the agenda would also include discussions on increasing civilian exchanges and other cooperative projects between the two Koreas. It also wanted to discuss a possible joint celebration of the anniversary of the 2000 inter-Korean summit meeting agreement that called for large South Korean investments in the North.
That deal has been suspended since 2008, when conservatives came to power in Seoul and insisted that North Korea give up its nuclear weapons first if it wanted South Korean largess to continue.
The meeting follows a summit by President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping in California....
China provides a lifeline for a North Korea struggling with energy and other economic needs and views stability in Pyongyang as crucial for its own economy and border security. But North and South Korea agreed Monday to hold high-level government talks later this week to discuss reversing not only the recent suspension of their joint operation of an industrial complex in a North Korea border town, but also other economic and humanitarian projects that faltered years ago....
--more--"
I had many other articles noted for this issue, but why bother with them when I am so behind?
And this stunned even me:
"Japanese troops to get training in California" by Jjlie Watson | Associated Press, June 10, 2013
SAN DIEGO — Japanese troops will converge on California’s southern coast in the next two weeks as part of a military exercise with US troops aimed at improving that country’s amphibious attack abilities.
US and Japanese military officials said the unprecedented training, led by US Marines and sailors, will help Japan’s Self-Defense Force operate in stronger coordination with the United States, its main ally, and better respond to crises such as natural disasters.
China may see it differently, however....
Yeah, like an invasion exercise!
China asked the United States and Japan to cancel the drill, scheduled to begin Tuesday, Japan’s Kyodo News service reported, citing unnamed Japanese government sources. The Japanese Defense and Foreign Ministries would not confirm whether China had made any request but said they are going ahead with the exercises.
US military officials said strengthening Japan’s amphibious capabilities is vital as the United States focuses more attention on developing an Asia-Pacific strategy amid ongoing defense budget cuts.
--more--"
