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Malware Linked to US, UK Spies; Torture Committee Didn’t Interview Key Victims; Hagel Resigns SecDef
Military-Grade Malware Linked to US and British Intelligence Agencies. According to security analysts with the Russian security firm Kaspersky Lab, which has been tracking the malware known as “Regin” for two years, the technology has two main objectives: intelligence gathering and facilitating other types of attacks. Perhaps most notable, security researchers point out, is that none of the targets are based in either the U.S. or U.K. According to the Guardian, 28 percent of victims are based in Russia and 24 percent are based in Saudi Arabia. Ireland, with 9 percent of detected infections, has the third highest number of targets.
Senate Torture Investigation Fails to Interview Key Torture Victims. “If you’re conducting a genuine inquiry of a program that tortured people, don’t you begin by talking to the people who were tortured?” David Nevin, who represents accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, told Ackerman. According to Nevin, his client along with accused al-Qaeda members Walid bin Attash, Abu Zubaydah, and suspected USS Cole bomber Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri were never approached by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), led by committee chairwoman Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), which is conducting the investigation on the CIA’s abusive interrogation practices.
Chuck Hagel Resigns as Secretary of Defense. A Republican with military experience who was skeptical about the Iraq war, Mr. Hagel came in to manage the Afghanistan combat withdrawal and the shrinking Pentagon budget in the era of budget sequestration. But now “the next couple of years will demand a different kind of focus,” one administration official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
