Just Don’t Torture

President Bush knew of and approved of high level meetings in which White House officials like Rice, Powell, Cheney, Tenet, and Rumsfeld signed off on American torture policies. This strikes against the heart of who we are as a nation.

The ACLU and John Amato of Crooks & Liars are calling for a special counsel to investigate the Bush administration’s actions regarding torture and war crimes.

Join the ACLU and our friends at Crooks & Liars: Call on your members of Congress to demand an independent prosecutor to investigate possible violations by the Bush administration of laws including the War Crimes Act, the federal Anti-Torture Act and federal assault laws.

Please sign on.

Digby et alia at Hullaballoo have been doing a ton of leg work on this story since it broke, shock of shocks, on late Friday.

Separate from the discussions of what this says about Bush and his cabal or how and when these officials should be tried for their crimes against our country (not to mention the almost entirely unknown list of victims of policies set and approved by Bush and his top officials), there has to be a public, thorough re-commitment to the rule of law. NJ House candidate Dennis Shulman gets the ball rolling with a good statement at Open Left. But this is just a small start. We need to proclaim loud and clear that we do not believe in torture, that what was done both from a legalistic standpoint and under the guidance of such opinions was illegal, and that those who made these decisions will be held accountable.

Contrary to what Bush has said in the past, America has tortured on his watch. It is wrong and it cannot be allowed to go without massive public scrutiny and investigation leading to the prosecution of those who orchestrated this strike against the US Constitution and America’s sensibilities of human dignity.

Update:

Turkana at The Left Coaster has more.

More on Cyber Attacks from China

Business Week has followed up their previous story on cyber attacks from China on US military and intelligence agencies and defense contractors with another detailed piece on how similar attacks from China are being directed at Students for a Free Tibet and other Tibet support groups. The piece discusses a specific, targeted attack disguised as an email from a member of the Tibetan independence movement, sent with a hidden virus aimed at damaging SFT’s efforts.

When Conall Watson resigned from the board of directors at activist group Students for a Free Tibet UK in June, 2007, someone—not a friend—was watching on the Web. The 25-year-old British pharmacist, who worked for the free-Tibet movement in his spare time, had sent a mass farewell e-mail mentioning his departure and a change in his e-mail address. “I’m stepping down from the SFT UK organizing group,” part of the message, reviewed by BusinessWeek, reads.

Nine months later, Conall Watson’s name—and parts of that same 2007 sayonara e-mail—returned to haunt the activist organization in the form of a stealthy cyber-attack the group believes was launched from China. On Feb. 19, Students for a Free Tibet Executive Director Lhadon Tethong and other board members found a new message in their in-boxes. The note, addressed from Conall Watson, mentioned that he planned to pass along the résumé of a potential new activist.

“Dear Alex, Ben and all other SFT friends,” the message, also reviewed by BusinessWeek reads. “What a pity I can do little for the Tibetan cause, while I know you are all still fighting bravely for it. Yesterday a Tibetan friend came to my office and asked me to recommend his nephew Rinzen Yeshe to join the SFT UK.… I will email his [résumé] very soon. Best wishes, Conall. p.s. He is a Tibetan friend of mine who I trust, so I trust his nephew.”

An hour later, the résumé arrived. But suspicious SFT UK members called Watson to ask if he had sent the message. He had not. An alert was sent out, say SFT officials, and nobody opened the résumé. How did the unknown attackers learn so much about Conall Watson? “Either the message was intercepted, or it might have been an inside job,” says Watson. SFT UK members have received harassing phone calls in the past, he says. “But the Internet was new.”

These attacks are quite common. I hear regularly from friends in the Tibetan independence movement about new viruses and email attachments that must not be opened. In recent weeks, this has been happening daily. The Business Week piece doesn’t make the conclusion that the attacks are authored by the Chinese government, but it’s clear that the Chinese government is a beneficiary of digital attacks on Tibetan groups in exile. In any case, whoever is sending messages like the one described above has dedicated serious resources to learning about the individual members and activities of Students for a Free Tibet. Separate from any blame being assigned to the source of the attacks, it has simply raised the awareness of the Tibetan independence movement to not trust attachments, even when they know the sender. These attacks don’t work when the recipients are cautious and thoughtful about their e-communications.

Tibet & P.R. Strategy

The New York Times has a good article on how effective the Tibetan independence movement, lead by Students for a Free Tibet, has been at creating the sort of public relations narrative that has drawn global interest and support for Tibet in recent months. The ironic thing in this is that the Beijing Olympics were and are meant to be a public relations coup for the Chinese government. The response by groups like SFT has developed out of the need to communicate better and more effectively than China. So far, it looks like SFT has succeeded.

Chinese Youth Sentiment

Matthew Forney has a very interesting op-ed in today’s New York Times about the loyalty Chinese youth show towards the Chinese government and how unlikely it is to find seeds of dissent in the educated elites in China. Though Forney doesn’t go into it, the same loyalty seen inside China is likely even heightened amongst Chinese students pursuing graduate degrees in the West.  Forney’s analysis points towards a tremendously successful state-run pedagogy that teaches Han Chinese that they are ascendant victims and outside forces critical of China (Tibetans, human rights groups) are not to be treated seriously. In this regard, it’s clear that the Chinese government has created a brilliant propaganda machine that reaches into the educational system and ensures that dissent is less likely today than it was twenty years ago.

The main problem that this creates down the line for China is that it is never shocking that elites are complacent under the current regime. They are, after all, elites. The economic underclass in China, however, does not necessarily harbor the same feelings of ascendancy. China has averaged over 75,000 annual instances of mass protest in recent years – coming almost entirely from laborers, farmers, and fisherman. Nationalism may help shift the underclass’ attention off of their economic woes, but it’s hard to imagine a situation where internal political turmoil in mainland China originate from the educated elites and not the working class.

The Real Insult

I’ve avoided writing about the Democratic presidential primary for the better part of the last month. Staying out of daily pie fights has been good for my health.

I’m going to break that streak in reference to Barack Obama’s alleged insult of working class Americans in describing how they have been repeatedly disappointed by the political leadership they elect. It’s scary to think of how much ink and how many pixels have been spent on this comment, perceived by the press as a gaffe and the Clinton and McCain campaigns as an insult to working Americans. Amidst all the commentary on this I’ve read, I think Rafael Noboa has the best take on why this wasn’t an insult and why those suggesting are performing the real insult now. Raf writes:

You know what’s an even greater insult to them — hell, to me, because I am those folks?

Putting our lives on the line to fight a war that we never should have fought.

Keeping our lives on that line for no greater reason than…well, there’s no reason, really, just some sad and twisted contrivance that passes for a policy.

Choosing to adopt a law that makes it harder for folks to get financial relief when placed in hardship by factors beyond their control. My parents went bankrupt when my stepfather lost his job during the first Bush recession — did this make them less upstanding citizens?

Waiting not once, not twice, but three times to notice that American homeowners were in trouble and spell out a plan to help them out — and still failing to do so.

I could go on — flag amendment? torture? — but my point is clear. To pretend to be some sort of champion, some sort of tribune for me, my friends and our interests when time and again these folks have acted against those interests is, in itself, an insult to our intelligence and our integrity.

Right on. The rest of Noboa’s post is worth a read, as he contextualizes the real insult and pushes back hard on those who are infantilizing America’s working class in their attacks on Obama.

And with that, hopefully I can go another month without wading back into the presidential primary race.

Next Generation Activists

PBS’s Frontline had a feature on Students for a Free Tibet a couple days ago which I’m just finding now. It’s a great piece, with both video and text at the following link. The intro by Alison Satake really captures the essence of SFT and the Tibetan independence movement today.

It’s the night before the highly anticipated Olympic torch relay in San Francisco, and I am watching a training session for protestors led by Students for a Free Tibet, the group who scaled the Golden Gate Bridge to unfurl two banners the day before. A stream of young Tibetans files into the back of a Berkeley church until the room is filled. Lhadon Tethong, the executive director of the organization, arrives with a caravan of weary protesters who had attended a candlelight vigil in San Francisco. Nobel Peace laureate Bishop Desmond Tutu had spoken there. So did actor and activist Richard Gere. Draped in Tibetan flags, with their face paint reading “Free Tibet,” the protestors look like sports fans after a long tournament.

But the outcome of this event is still to be decided.

The organizers of Students for a Free Tibet are sophisticated. In their black American Apparel tracksuit jackets with “Team Tibet ’08” on the back, they immediately plug their white Apple laptops, iPods, and Blackberrys into the available jacks in the room and get wired. One organizer, a tall Tibetan in a black leather jacket said I could subscribe to their Twitter account to receive text message updates on my cell phone. He shows me how.

The leaders are recent college grads, who are savvy when it comes to the media and technology. They immediately begin drilling the group of mostly teenage immigrants about “message discipline” and “how to talk to the media.” The trainer, Gopal Dayaneni, tells them “Free Tibet” has been a useful message, but he encourages them to trade it in for a stronger catch-phrase: “End the Occupation.”

This is definitely the next generation of Tibetan activists.

The ironic thing with this description is that SFT is not a new organization. It has existed, with many of the same members and leaders, since the mid 1990s. The level of effectiveness that SFT has achieved in recent years is not a product of youth, but experience. Core organizers have done and seen many actions, trained many students in nonviolent tactics, found new ways to fund raise, and stayed in tune to new technologies that make their organizing more effective. But it is true, this is the next generation of activists, defining themselves in a moment brought on by the global spotlight of the Olympics in China and the imperative of human rights and freedom for Tibet.

Satake’s piece goes on through her experience in San Francisco during the protests of the torch relay minute-by-minute. It’s a detailed retelling of the actions and activities surrounding the relay and it’s worth a read.

Japan Refuses Chinese Torch Guards

london_guards

Japan has now joined Australia and refused to allow the Chinese People’s Armed Police guard the Olympic torch while it is in Japan.

“We should not violate the principle that the Japanese police will firmly maintain security,” Kyodo news agency quoted Shinya Izumi, head of the National Public Safety Commission, as saying.

“We do not know what position the people who escorted the relay are in,” Izumi was quoted as saying. “If they are for the consideration of security, it is our role.”

Security is the province of a sovereign nation? What a radical idea. It’s a shame that no one thought of it in the US, the United Kingdom or France.

Will There Be More Blood on Their Hands?

Lhadon writes:

The photos in this video are hard to look at. They are of Tibetans shot and killed inside Tibet over the past month. This is the reality of Chinese rule in Tibet and what Chinese authorities do to Tibetans who dare to protest. This is what we can expect if the IOC allows China to take the torch through Tibet in May and June. The IOC doesn’t seem to get it?! Maybe this video will help them see the reality.

The IOC has once again refused to stop the torchwashing of China’s occupation of Tibet. The relay through Tibet will likely produce protests and those protests will likely be met with violence by Chinese security forces. If and when that happens, the IOC will bear just as much responsibility as the China Chinese government.

Cyber Attacks From China

Business Week has an in-depth, cover article on cyber attacks originating from China on top US defense contractors and military and intelligence agencies in the American government. Tibetan support groups like Students for a Free Tibet also receive frequent cyber attacks.

Peng’s 3322.org and sister sites have become a source of concern to the U.S. government and private firms. Cyber security firm Team Cymru sent a confidential report, reviewed by BusinessWeek, to clients on Mar. 7 that illustrates how 3322.org has enabled many recent attacks. In early March, the report says, Team Cymru received “a spoofed e-mail message from a U.S. military entity, and the PowerPoint attachment had a malware widget embedded in it.” The e-mail was a spear-phish. The computer that controlled the malicious code in the PowerPoint? Cybersyndrome.3322.org—the same China-registered computer in the attempted attack on Booz Allen. Although the cybersyndrome Internet address may not be located in China, the top five computers communicating directly with it were—and four were registered with a large state-owned Internet service provider, according to the report.

A person familiar with Team Cymru’s research says the company has 10,710 distinct malware samples that communicate to masters registered through 3322.org. Other groups reporting attacks from computers hosted by 3322.org include activist group Students for a Free Tibet, the European Parliament, and U.S. Bancorp (USB), according to security reports. Team Cymru declined to comment. The U.S. government has pinpointed Peng’s services as a problem, too. In a Nov. 28, 2007, confidential report from Homeland Security’s U.S. CERT obtained by BusinessWeek,

“Cyber Incidents Suspected of Impacting Private Sector Networks,” the federal cyber watchdog warned U.S. corporate information technology staff to update security software to block Internet traffic from a dozen Web addresses after spear-phishing attacks. “The level of sophistication and scope of these cyber security incidents indicates they are coordinated and targeted at private-sector systems,” says the report. Among the sites named: Peng’s 3322.org, as well as his 8800.org, 9966.org, and 8866.org. Homeland Security and U.S. CERT declined to discuss the report.

It’s hard to say whether the Chinese government is organizing these attacks themselves, or if they’re done by intrepid nationalistic Chinese hackers. But one source in the Business Week piece cites the People’s Liberation Army – China’s military – as having “”tens of thousands” of trainees launching attacks on U.S. computer networks.”

The attacks SFT, defense contractors, and the US government get are real. They seek to intimidate, threaten, and disable the targets of the attacks. When the target is a Tibet support group like SFT, the goal is to globalize the oppression found inside Tibet. When the attack is on governmental agencies and defense contractors, the goal may be something with far more deadly repercussions. In both cases this is a serious problem that needs to be addressed. If the Chinese government is organizing or funding these attacks, that should be a matter of international diplomatic debate. If they are done by private citizens, the Chinese government has an obligation to stop the source of the attacks. As there is massive censorship and tens of thousands of full-time Chinese government internet monitors, the continued propagation of attacks, even if done by private citizens, must be assumed to be taking place with at least the tacit approval of the Chinese government.