UN Official warns of extremism in Central Asia

The UN envoy to Kyrgyzstan, Miroslav Jenca, is warning that extremist groups in Central Asia can use social and economic problems to spread their influence throughout the region.

Jenca also says the conflict in Kyrgyzstan was sparked because of tensions that exist in the country, and that reconciliation is needed between ethnic groups to avoid further conflict. He notes there is a danger of extremism in the Fergana Valley and in a broader sense throughout Central Asia, given that it borders Afghanistan.  He says there are a number of well-known extremist organizations in the area which can use current circumstances as fertile ground to realize their plans.

Southern Kyrgyzstan needs social and economic development and also reconciliation of local ethnic minorities, according to Jenca. He also says a lot will depend on how the government and international community will help the interim government get out of the current situation to help refugees and people who have lost a roof over their heads.

International assistance may prove of paramount importance, because Uzbekistan does not have enough resources to cope with as many as 100,000 refugees, who risk renewed slaughter if they try to return to homes in Kyrgyzstan that no longer exist, says Alisher Khamidov, a Central Asian researcher with Johns Hopkins University.

US intel wants to automate analysis of online videos

Intelligence News reports that a new project funded by the US intelligence community’s research unit aims to automate the collection and analysis of videos from YouTube and other popular online platforms, with the intent of unearthing “valuable intelligence”.

The program is called Automated Low-Level Analysis and Description of Diverse Intelligence Video (ALADDIN). It is directed by the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA), whose mission is to work under the Director of National Intelligence to create hi-tech applications for America’s intelligence agencies. Few people are aware of the existence of IARPA, which was quietly established in 2007, is based at the University of Maryland, and is staffed mostly by CIA personnel.

Canada commission faults law enforcement in 1985 Air India bombing final report

[JURIST] Canada’s Commission of Inquiry into the 1985 bombing of Air India Flight 182 released its final report Thursday 17 June. Led by former Canadian Supreme Court justice John Major, the Commission found that there were various institutional organizations that did not fulfill their responsibilities. Major condemned the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and the Royal Canadian Mountain Police (RCMP) for not utilizing the information available to them before the bombing, failing to enhance security, and not cooperating with each other during the investigation following the bombing. In remarks at press conference, Major explained the Commission’s findings:

The level of error, incompetence, and inattention which took place before the flight was sadly mirrored in many ways for many years, in how authorities, Governments, and institutions dealt with the aftermath of the murder of so many innocents: in the investigation, the legal proceedings, and in providing information, support and comfort to the families…Overall, the Government of Canada and its agencies in 1985 were not prepared for a terrorist act like the bombing of Air India Flight 182…Communications within and between security, law enforcement and transport agencies were often flawed or non-existent. Agencies relied on different concepts of risk and what constituted a threat to security. A lack of awareness of the threat of Sikh terrorism at the agency level led to inadequate procedures and practices, and employees were often poorly trained. This reflected a culture of complacency…The Government needs to take responsibility to avoid further failures and to prevent a return to a culture of complacency.

The Commission recommended enhancing the role of the National Security Advisor in the Privy Counsel Office to ensure coordination among different agencies, as well as creating a Director of Terrorism Prosecutions, amending the Canada Evidence Act, and establishing a National Security Witness Protection Coordinator. Additionally, the Commission concluded that the RCMP is not constructed to handle terrorism issues and the Canadian government lacks a knowledge and understanding of terrorism, further recommending the development of a terrorism-related academic center.

Napolitano: US must balance liberties with security

Fighting homegrown terrorism by monitoring Internet communications is a civil liberties trade-off the U.S. government must make to beef up national security, the nation’s homeland security chief said Friday 18 June.

As terrorists increasingly recruit U.S. citizens, the government needs to constantly balance Americans’ civil rights and privacy with the need to keep people safe, said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

But finding that balance has become more complex as homegrown terrorists have used the Internet to reach out to extremists abroad for inspiration and training. Those contacts have spurred a recent rash of U.S.-based terror plots and incidents.

“The First Amendment protects radical opinions, but we need the legal tools to do things like monitor the recruitment of terrorists via the Internet,” Napolitano told a gathering of the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy.

Napolitano’s comments suggest an effort by the Obama administration to reach out to its more liberal, Democratic constituencies to assuage fears that terrorist worries will lead to the erosion of civil rights.

The administration has faced a number of civil liberties and privacy challenges in recent months as it has tried to increase airport security by adding full-body scanners, or track suspected terrorists traveling into the United States from other countries.

“Her speech is sign of the maturing of the administration on this issue,” said Stewart Baker, former undersecretary for policy with the Department of Homeland Security. “They now appreciate the risks and the trade-offs much more clearly than when they first arrived, and to their credit, they’ve adjusted their preconceptions.”

Iceland’s Parliament votes in favour of legal protection to whistle-blower web sites

On Thursday 17 June, Iceland’s Parliament, the Althing, voted unanimously in favor of a package of legislation aimed at making the country a haven for freedom of expression by offering legal protection to whistle-blower Web sites like WikiLeaks, which helped to craft the proposal.

As noted last February, the proposal, the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative, combines in a single piece of legislation provisions from around the world: whistle-blower laws and rules about Internet providers from the United States; source protection laws from Belgium; freedom of information laws from Estonia and Scotland, among others; and New York State’s law to counteract “libel tourism,” the practice of suing in courts, like Britain’s, where journalists have the hardest time prevailing.

It is not yet clear how much help the new legislation will provide to foreign journalists trying to shield themselves behind Icelandic law. As the Nieman Journalism Lab notes:

In his analysis of the proposal — “Fortress Iceland? Probably Not.” — Arthur Bright of the Citizen Media Law Project has noted that in one major test case of cross-border online libel law, “publication” was deemed to occur at the point of download — meaning that serving a controversial page from Iceland won’t keep you from getting sued in other countries. But if nothing else, it would probably prevent your servers from being forcibly shut down.

Meantime, Mr. Assange, one of the leaders of Wikileaks, had told supporters that the site would soon release another video of an American military strike that killed civilians