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Excerpts: Italian contract to repair and maintain Mosul. Israel Army to return Palestinian land.Hizbullah labeled terrorist. Jordan kills Daesh cell in Ibid. Syria peace talks to resume March 9.Apple still resistant re smartphone March 02, 2016
Excerpts: Italian contract to repair and maintain Mosul. Israel Army to
return Palestinian land.Hizbullah labeled terrorist. Jordan kills Daesh cell
in Ibid. Syria peace talks to resume March 9.Apple still resistant re
smartphone March 02, 2016
+++SOURCE:Al Arabiya News 2 Mar.’16:”Iraq signs deal ro repair and maintain
its key Mosul dam”,by Associated Press
SUBJECT:Italian contract to repair and maintain Mosul
QUOTE:”Mosul Dam was built in the early 1980s on highly unstable ground with
the underlying bedrock easily dissolvable in water “
FULL TEXT:;Iraq has signed a deal with an Italian company to repair and
maintain the country’s largest dam near the northern, ISIS-held city of
Mosul. The Mosul dam is in danger of a possibly catastrophic collapse.
Government spokesman, Saad al-Hadithi, says the contract worth €
275-million, or about $296 million, was signed with Italy’s Trevi group on
Wednesday[2 Mar].
He wouldn’t give a specific timeframe for when the work would start, but
says it needs to be “as quickly as possible.”
The dam outside the ISIS-held city of Mosul grabbed headlines recently amid
fears it could collapse due to neglect and lack of needed maintenance
because of the ongoing fighting.
It was built in the early 1980s on highly unstable ground with the
underlying bedrock easily dissolvable in water
+++Source Naharnet(Lebanon)_2 Mar.’16:”Israel Army to Return Palestinian
Land after Decades Says NGO”,by Agence France Presse
SUBJECT:Israel Army to return Palestinian land
Quote:The land had ceased to be used by the army”
FULL TEXT:The Israeli army is to return West Bank land it requisitioned
nearly 40 years ago to its Palestinian owners in what a human rights group
called an “extremely unusual” move.
Israeli rights group Yesh Din said that the army had taken the decision to
surrender control of the land after it petitioned the High Court late last
year.
The decision, which spares the army a potentially lengthy court case, will
see more than 170 hectares (420 acres) of what used to be valuable farmland
restored to its original owners, Yesh Din said.
The land, which had been seized for military purposes in the 1970s and
1980s, had ceased to be used by the army.
The largest of the claims involves 170 hectares of land in the village of
Jalud in the northern West Bank.
Control of other tracts of land near the city of Ramallah will also be
transferred.
“These are lands that have been seized nearly 40 years ago,” Yesh Din
spokesman Gilad Grossman told AFP. “Palestinian farmers rely on their land.
“For them to be able to return to these lands, maybe they can improve their
lives.”
Grossman called on the army to give up other land that it had seized but was
no longer using. “We shouldn’t have to go to court every time,” he said.
The army did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Jalud village council leader Abdullah Hamed welcomed the army’s decision to
surrender control but said villagers were still waiting for a second
decision allowing them to actually return to their land.
He said that before it was confiscated, the land had supported up to 1,000
people.
Israel seized the West Bank in the Six Day War of 1967.
In the early years of the occupation, the army confiscated large tracts of
the territory for military purposes.
Some were later used for the construction of Israeli settlements regarded as
illegal by the international community.
SourceAgence France Presse
+++SOURCE: Naharnet(Lebanon)2 Mar.’16:”Mashnouq Refuses to Label Hizbullah
as Terrorist at Imterior Ministers Meeting”
SUBJECT:Re:Hizbullah labeled terrorist
QUOTE:Lebanese Minister:’ Outside Lebanon I cannot but all defend the
Lebanese’
FULL TEXT:(Lebanese)Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq refused on
Wednesday[2 Mar] to label Hizbullah as a terrorist organization hours after
the Gulf Cooperation Council had blacklisted the party, reported LBCI
television.
The minister made his objection against the closing statement of the 33rd
Arab Interior Ministers Conference held in Tunisia.
The gatherers at the conference had condemned the practices of Iran and
Hizbullah, describing the Lebanese party as terrorist, said al-Jazeera
television.
Mashnouq had stated ahead of the conference that he will defend “all the
Lebanese people.”
“Outside Lebanon, I cannot but defend all the Lebanese,” he declared.
During the conference, he told the gatherers that no one can change the
identity of the Arab people, adding: “We refuse to al low Lebanon to become
a thorn in the Arab world’s side.”
The GCC on Wednesday[2 Mar] labeled Hizbullah a “terrorist organization,” a
day after Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah accused Saudi Arabia of pressuring Lebanon
to silence his party.
The GCC cited the party’s “terrorist acts and incitement in Syria, Yemen and
in Iraq,” which were threatening Arab security.
Tensions rose in Lebanon last week when Saudi Arabia announced that it was
halting $4 billion in aid to the Lebanese army and security forces.
Its decision was followed by a travel warning and a decision to blacklist
several individuals and firms over their alleged ties with Hizbullah.
Several Gulf states also issued travel advisories to Lebanon.
Saudi Arabia has linked its move to Lebanon’s refusal to join the Arab
League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in condemning attacks on
Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran, and alleged Hizbullah “terrorist acts
against Arab and Muslim nations.”
M.T.
+++SOURCE: Jordan Times 2 Mar.’16:”GID says Irbid raid targeted Daesh –
affiliated terrorists”, by JT
SUBJECT: Jordan kills Daesh cell in Ibid
FULL TEXT:AMMAN – The General Intelligence Department (GID) said Wednesday[2
Mar] that the seven armed men killed in Irbid during a raid by specialised
security forces were Daesh affiliates who were planning to carry out attacks
on military and civil sites in the Kingdom.
In a statement carried by the Jordan News Agency, Petra, the GID said that
it foiled a terror plot by thorough intelligence, adding that ahead of Irbid
operation, 13 members of the group were arrested.
Security forces identified the location of the other seven members, who
holed up in a residential building in Irbid. They refused to surrender and
opened fire from automatic rifles, prompting the specialised force to
respond and kill the entire cell members.
During the clashes, Captain Rashed Zyoud was killed and five other security
officers injured in addition to two civilians who happened to be in the
area.
The seven terrorists were wearing explosive belts, according to GID, which
said that weapons and explosives were seized from the location.
+++SOURCE:Jordan Times 2 Mar.’16:”UN tto restart Syria peace talks on March
9”, by Reuters
SUBJECT:Syria peace talks to resume March 9
FULL TEXT:GENEVA — The United Nations will delay the next round of Syria
peace talks by two days to allow the cessation of hostilities in force since
Saturday to take hold, UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said.
International observers have acknowledged violations of the agreement
intended to halt nearly five years of fighting while reporting that the
level of violence has decreased considerably.
“We are delaying it to the afternoon of [March] 9th for logistical and
technical reasons and also for the ceasefire to better settle down,” de
Mistura told Reuters on Tuesday. The talks had been pencilled in for March
7.
The cessation of hostilities in force since Saturday[27 Feb] was “a glimmer
of hope”, Syrian President Bashar Assad said, although he accused the
opposition of violating the agreement.
The opposition in turn says the Syrian government has breached the fragile
truce by repeatedly attacking its positions, which the government denies.
“We will play our part to make the whole thing work,” Assad said in an
interview with Germany’s ARD television network.
He said the Syrian army had not reacted to truce violations in order to give
the agreement a chance.
“The terrorists have breached the deal from the first day. We as the Syrian
army are refraining from responding in order to give a chance to sustain the
agreement. But in the end there are limits and it all depends on the other
side,” Assad said.
The cessation of hostilities agreement, drawn up by the United States and
Russia, is seen by the United Nations as an opportunity to revive peace
talks which collapsed before they had even started a month ago in Geneva.
Negotiating table
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
said there was an urgent need to implement the agreement and for the warring
parties to return to the negotiating table, a UN statement said.
“They agreed on the importance of urgently moving forward simultaneously on
implementing the cessation of hostilities agreement, providing vital
humanitarian assistance to civilians, and returning to political
negotiations,” the statement said.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Monday[20 Feb] that while efforts
were being made to track down alleged violations of the cessation of
hostilities, there was currently no evidence to suggest they would
destabilise the fragile peace.
De Mistura said he expected to see attempts to disrupt the ceasefire, and
these needed to be contained to avoid them spreading and undermining the
credibility of the truce.
“We don’t want discussions in Geneva to become a discussion about
infringements or not of the ceasefire, we want them to actually address the
core of everything,” he said in an interview.
De Mistura wants the Syrian sides to focus on constitutional reform,
governance, and hopes elections can be held in 18 months. Prisoner releases
would also be “very much up front on the agenda”, he said.
Extremist groups
The cessation of hostilities agreement does not include Daesh and Al Nusra
Front, and Assad and his Russian backers have made clear they intend to keep
attacking the extremist groups.
The Saudi-backed “moderate” opposition says that because some of their
fighters are located in areas alongside Nusra, they fear being targeted too.
The Russian defence ministry said it was refraining from striking areas in
Syria where the “moderate opposition” was respecting the ceasefire
agreement, Interfax news agency reported.
A total of 15 ceasefire violations have been registered in Syria in the past
24 hours, Interfax quoted the Russian military as saying.
The Syrian military denied it was responsible for any violations and said
“terrorist groups”, the term it uses to describe its enemies, were to blame.
Operations against Daesh and Al Nusra Front were going ahead.
“The combat operations that the Syrian Arab Army is carrying out against
Daesh and Nusra are continuing according to the plans of the military
command,” a Syrian military source said.
Moscow, meanwhile, called for the Syrian border with Turkey to be closed.
Russia’s Lavrov said it was a channel being used to supply weapons to groups
he described as terrorists, with some arms hidden in humanitarian aid
deliveries.
+++SOURCE: Jordan Times 2 Mar,’16:”Can the FBI force a company to break into
its own products?,by Associated Press
SUBJECT: Apple still resistant re smartphone
SAN FRANCISCO — Can the FBI force a company like Apple to extract data from
a customer’s smartphone? In the fight over an iPhone used by an extremist
killer in San Bernardino, some legal experts say Congress has never
explicitly granted that power. And now a federal judge agrees in a similar
case.
In a New York drug case that echoes the much higher-profile San Bernardino
dispute, US Magistrate James Orenstein has ruled the government doesn’t have
authority to make Apple pull information off a suspect’s iPhone. The judge
said in his ruling that Congress has already considered, but rejected,
extending the government’s authority in this fashion.
Orenstein cited the history of a 20-year-old federal law — one that requires
phone companies to assist police in conducting court-authorised wiretaps.
Congress has resisted attempts over the years to extend that authority to
tech companies like Apple, according to experts who have studied the law,
known as the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, or CALEA.
Federal prosecutors have argued that a much older law known as the All Writs
Act allows courts to compel private parties to assist law enforcement. But
Orenstein said that shouldn’t apply when, in his words, “Congress has
considered legislation that would achieve the same result but has not
adopted it.”
The New York ruling isn’t binding on the magistrate in the San Bernardino
case. And federal authorities said Monday[29 Feb.] they’ll appeal Orenstein’s
decision. But a senior Apple executive, who spoke on condition that he
wouldn’t be named, said Apple believes Orenstein’s ruling is both persuasive
and relevant to the issues at stake in San Bernardino.
In that case, the FBI wants Apple to create software that would bypass some
iPhone security features, making it easier to guess the passcode that would
unlock it. Prosecutors say they’re only seeking what amounts to routine
cooperation; Apple and its supporters say the request is unprecedented and
would make other iPhones vulnerable to hacking by authorities and criminals
alike.
By contrast, US phone carriers have long been required to design and build
their networks in ways that allow federal wiretaps of digital phone calls.
That government authority stems from CALEA, a 1994 law that drew heated
debate before it passed, and even more controversy on occasions when federal
officials sought to expand its scope. Tech industry and civil liberty groups
have mostly succeeded in blocking those efforts.
Even before Orenstein’s ruling, some legal experts said in recent weeks that
the history of CALEA suggests that authorities are overreaching in the San
Bernardino case.
The law was narrowly focused and “the product of years of public debate,
with many compromises on both sides of that debate,” said Ahmed Ghappour, a
visiting professor who focuses on tech issues at the University of
California, Hastings School of the Law. “That’s what Congress is for.”
As with the iPhone dispute today, the 1994 law was enacted at a time when
the nation’s police agencies were struggling to keep up with new technology.
Authorities feared that a switch from old-fashioned copper wire to digital
phone networks would hinder their eavesdropping capabilities.
CALEA intentionally covers only telecommunication carriers and specifically
excludes “information service providers” — including Internet companies such
as Apple and Google. Extensive negotiation produced a law that preserved the
wiretapping ability authorities already had without adding new types of
surveillance capabilities, said Deirdre Mulligan, co-director of the Centre
for Law & Technology at the University of California, Berkeley
The Federal Communications Commission updated CALEA-related regulations in
2005 to extend the government’s sway to voice-over-Internet phone services.
Moves to expand it further, however, have fizzled, according to a report by
the Congressional Research Service, which cited proposals for extending the
law to “a wide range of technology services”, including instant messaging
and video game chats.
“This is a power that Congress has had numerous opportunities to extend and
has chosen not to,” said Mulligan.
Federal authorities argued that CALEA isn’t relevant to either iPhone case.
But Apple and its supporters are likely to cite CALEA in the San Bernardino
case, said Alex Abdo, an ACLU attorney who is helping draft a
“friend-of-the-court” brief on Apple’s behalf. He said the All Writs Act can
only be used to enforce authority the government already has, such as a
legal search warrant.
The history of CALEA shows that if Congress wanted the government to have
the authority it’s invoking against Apple, “it would have given it already,”
said Abdo, echoing the New York magistrate’s ruling.
==================
Sue Lerner – Associate, IMRA
Source: http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=70114
