RTC Director

Clapper: Reports US tapped French phones 'false'

A senior US intelligence official has stated that reports the US collected data on French citizens' telephone calls are "false". 

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper challenged recent reports in Le Monde newspaper detailing US surveillance programmes in France.

The newspaper reported US spies had hacked foreign networks, introducing spyware into millions of computers.

The report was based on leaks from an ex-US intelligence contractor.

"Recent articles published in the French newspaper Le Monde contain inaccurate and misleading information regarding US foreign intelligence activities," Mr Clapper said in a statement released on Tuesday.

"The allegation that the National Security Agency collected more than 70 million 'recordings of French citizens' telephone data' is false."

Mr Clapper said he would not discuss details of surveillance activities, but he did acknowledge "the United States gathers intelligence of the type gathered by all nations".

And he did not specifically contest allegations the National Security Agency (NSA) had spied on French diplomats in Washington and at the UN.

The statement from the US spy chief came after Le Monde reported details of Genie, an alleged NSA surveillance programme in which spyware implants were introduced remotely to overseas computers, including foreign embassies.

The details in the article are based on internal NSA memos from ex-NSA technical contractor Edward Snowden, through Glen Greenwald, the outgoing Guardian journalist who is feeding the material from Brazil, says the BBC's Christian Fraser in Paris.

It comes on the day US Secretary of State John Kerry was in London meeting foreign counterparts to discuss Syria.

The report claims bugs were introduced to the French Embassy in Washington (under a code name "Wabash") and to the computers of the French delegation at the UN, codenamed "Blackfoot".

The article suggests that in 2011, the US allocated $652m (£402m) in funding for the programme, which was spent on "spy implants". Tens of millions of computers were reported to have been hacked that year.

A document dated August 2010 suggests intelligence stolen from foreign embassy computers ensured the US knew ahead of time the positions of other Security Council members, before a UN vote for a resolution imposing new sanctions on Iran.

The US was worried the French were drifting to the Brazilian side - who were opposed to implementing sanctions - when in truth they were always aligned to the US position, says our correspondent Christian Fraser.

The intelligence agency quotes Susan Rice, then-US ambassador to the UN, who praises the work done by the NSA: "It helped me know... the truth, and reveal other [countries'] positions on sanctions, allowing us to keep one step ahead in the negotiations."

On Monday, Le Monde alleged that the NSA spied on 70.3 million phone calls in France between 10 December 2012 and 8 January 2013.

At a breakfast meeting with the US secretary of state on Tuesday, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius demanded a full explanation.

Referring to a telephone call between the French and US presidents, Mr Fabius told reporters: "I said again to John Kerry what Francois Hollande told Barack Obama, that this kind of spying conducted on a large scale by the Americans on its allies is something that is unacceptable."

Asked if France was considering reprisals against the US, government spokeswoman Najat Vallaud-Belkacem replied: "It is up to Foreign Minister Fabius to decide what line we take but I don't think there is any need for an escalation.

--BBC

by RTC Director

Australia Firefighters Battle Hot, Windy Conditions

Authorities warned residents in Australia's most populous state to flee their homes as firefighters battle dozens of wildfires in what are expected to be dangerously hot and windy conditions Wednesday. 

Since late last week, the fires burning across the mountainous bushlands in New South Wales have destroyed more than 200 homes and damaged dozens of others. So far, one person has been killed.

Conditions are set to worsen Wednesday. Temperatures are expected to reach 30 degrees Celsius as winds gust up to 100 kilometers per hour.

Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said that although the conditions could be "as bad as it gets," so far the fires have not worsened.

"For every hour that we get through today without any outbreak, without any serious run of fire, that's an indication we've got every prospect of keeping fires that little bit further away from people, from homes and communities that might find themselves in the path of developing large fires," said Fitzsimmons.

Officials say 59 fires are burning in the state, 19 of which are out of control. In some cases, fire crews are merging the blazes in an attempt to make them more manageable and steer them away from more populated areas.

Many area schools and nursing homes have been closed and residents have been told to evacuate their homes before conditions get worse. Local media reports say that some residents have decided to leave.

The blazes, which have a massive perimeter of 1,600 kilometers, have been extraordinarily intense and early in an annual fire season that peaks during the southern hemisphere's summer, which begins in December.

by RTC Director

Greek Parliament Defunds Neo-Nazi Party

Greek lawmakers voted late Tuesday for an indefinite suspension of state aid to political parties accused of criminal activities, in a move targeting the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party.

The measure was adopted by a 235-0 vote, when members of Golden Dawn walked out of the chamber after debate on the proposal.

The vote comes just weeks after five Golden Dawn parliamentarians and 10 other party members were arrested in the aftermath of the killing of a leftist musician.

The party's leader and at least two lawmakers remain jailed in pre-trial custody, facing charges of belonging to a criminal organization.  Ten others have been stripped of prosecutorial immunity to face similar charges.

None of the party leadership has been charged with any direct connection to the September 18 killing of rap singer Pavlos Fissas, and the party claims the prosecution of its members is politically motivated. The attack has been blamed on a party volunteer, who faces murder charges.

The killing triggered protests in Athens by thousands of Greeks, and calls for an outright public ban on Golden Dawn, whose party emblem resembles a Nazi swastika.

But some analysts have called for restraint, citing similar scenarios elsewhere in Europe where far-right parties facing outright bans have simply vanished, before reappearing later under different names.

Founded in 1985, Golden Dawn entered parliament in June 2012 and currently has 18 deputies. Its popularity has surged ahead of last year's polls, as the Greek economy remained in shambles and the party mounted an anti-immigrant electoral campaign.

by RTC Director

37 Boko Haram Militants Killed in Military Strikes

Nigeria's military says it killed 37 suspected Boko Haram militants in a ground and air attack that began late Monday on an encampment in a remote area of the country's embattled northeast.

A military spokesman said the assault occurred in Borno state. He said arms and ammunition were recovered at the site, and that several vehicles and motorcycles belonging to the Islamist group were destroyed.

The military strike came two days after witnesses said heavily armed Boko Haram fighters dressed as Nigerian soldiers ambushed and killed 19 people at a fake checkpoint in a nearby village near the Cameroon border. Witnesses and survivors told Western news agencies that most of the victims were hacked to death.

Boko Haram Islamists have been fighting since 2009 to impose a strict form of Islamic law in Nigeria's Muslim-majority north.

The militants have been blamed for thousands of deaths, and they continue to launch attacks in the region despite an all-out military offensive ordered by Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan in May.

Analysts say the government offensive has driven the militants deep into the countryside, where they appear to be regaining strength.

by RTC Director

US Expanding Airport Security Checks

The New York Times reports the U.S. Transportation Security Administration is expanding its screening of airline passengers before they arrive at U.S. airports by searching what the newspaper calls a "wide array of government and private databases."

The Times says the goal, according to the TSA, is to streamline security procedures for passengers who pose no risk. But the paper says the measures increase the government's authority to use travelers' data for domestic airport screenings in a way that previously only applied to those entering the U.S. from elsewhere.

It says the screenings go beyond the background checks the TSA has conducted for years - comparing a passenger's name, gender and date of birth to terrorist watch lists.  The Times reports the search now includes using a traveler's passport number and other identifiers to access a system of databases maintained by the Department of Homeland Security.

The paper says the databases the TSA uses can include records like car registrations and employment information.

But in an Internet blog post Tuesday, the agency denied it was expanding the type of information it uses for pre-screening, saying it is not using car registrations, employment information or "private databases."

But the TSA did not deny using government databases for the checks.  And it said some passengers who have not signed up for the agency's pre-screening program, known as TSA PreCheck, are still getting the program's "expedited screening benefits."  The agency said it is providing those benefits using each passenger's name, date of birth and gender, which it described as information travelers have provided for years.

Under the TSA PreCheck program, people can sign up for a background check and pay a small fee to receive expedited screening, allowing them to keep their shoes, belts and coats on and their laptops in their bags.

The TSA blog team says the goal of such programs is to improve passenger's traveling experiences, moving from a "one-size-fits-all" security approach to one that provides "a much larger part of the traveling population" the opportunity for "faster" security and "less hassle." The statement said the agency has "a very high bar" when it comes to protecting travelers' civil liberties.

But The New York Times said privacy groups it contacted expressed concern about the security agency's "widening reach."

The TSA was created after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, when al-Qaida terrorists hijacked four U.S. commercial airliners, flying two into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York and one into the Pentagon, outside Washington. The fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.

by RTC Director