SRINAGAR: The Indian Army is gearing up to turn their soldiers into real-life ‘Iron Man’ with the help of jet pack suits that will provide them with enhanced surveillance capabilities at the country’s borders with China and Pakistan, as well as in the conflict ridden region of Jammu and Kashmir, The EurAsian Times reported.
These suits are propelled by engines running on gas or liquid fuel and can carry a person weighing at least 80 kilograms while flying at a speed of at least 50 kilometers per hour for a minimum of eight minutes. The Indian Army recently got a demonstration of the technology from the UK-based company, Gravity Industries, owned by ex-marine and innovator Richard Browning.
Quoting an Indian Army official, The EurAsian Times reported that the jet pack suits are coming as an aerial surveillance platform, and their effectiveness will vary depending on the terrain, wind factor, and vegetation. However, the army is also exploring the possibility of equipping soldiers with infrared goggles to scan through thick vegetation to identify enemy combatants.
The Indian Army’s requirements for the purchase specify that the equipment should be suitable for desert, marine, and mountain warfare. Military strategists are also considering the use of jet pack suits as another significant disruptor in the tactical battle space, similar to drone technology on the battlefield.
The technology can be used as a force multiplier to counter terrorists in urban and semi-urban settings. According to Gravity Industries, the military version of the jet suit is powered by five gas turbine engines that generate more than 1,000 horsepower and produce 144 kilograms of thrust, allowing vertical lift of up to 12,000 feet.
The Indian Navy’s marine commando (MARCOS) also sees potential in the jet pack suits as a mode of insertion, allowing soldiers to gain vantage points for reconnaissance, intelligence gathering, or placing a sniper. Additionally, the suits can be used for quick exhilaration.
The UK’s Royal Navy and the US Marine Corps already use these jet pack suits in various limited roles. The Indian Army’s interest in this innovative technology comes in the backdrop of skirmishes with the People’s Liberation Army along the Line of Actual Control between India and China.
At least, not enough for Congress to re-up the program without changes, according to some of the intelligence community’s biggest allies.
“The FBI is absolutely the problem child in FISA and 702. The abuses are abhorrent. Director [Christopher] Wray is not a compelling advocate for FISA or 702, because he’s not been a compelling advocate for reform,” House Intelligence Chair Mike Turner (R-Ohio) said in an interview.
Turner added that while Wray had “attempted and advanced” some reforms, the FBI director’s effort was “disconnected” from congressional oversight.
Another lawmaker, who also supports extending the program with reforms, put it more bluntly: “I don’t think the FBI, the DOJ, has the credibility with the Republican side any longer to make an argument.”
Back in 2020, then-Attorney General Bill Barr was deeply involved in making the pitch to Republicans during a fight on an unrelated surveillance provision. Yet the lawmaker, granted anonymity to speak frankly, warned Attorney General Merrick Garland against trying to play a similar role this time: “Bill Barr among Republicans is very different than Merrick Garland.”
In the meantime, negotiators are already signaling that they will likely miss the Dec. 31 deadline to re-up the warrantless surveillance program. There’s no chance Congress would agree to a long-term extension as is, but lawmakers are quietly making backup plans to avoid a lapse.
Congress’ tensions with the FBI are multi-faceted, encompassing both Section 702 and the broader surveillance law it’s housed under, known as FISA. That’s in addition to the political tensions that have further frayed the relationship between some House Republicans and law enforcement agencies like the FBI and DOJ.
When it comes to 702 specifically, lawmakers don’t believe the FBI stays within the guardrails of a highly shrouded surveillance program, pointing to a bulk of reported abuses. And it’s gotten personal, too: An FBI analyst used the program to improperly search for a U.S. lawmaker’s name about three years ago, reportedly over fears that he was being targeted by a foreign government.
Rep. Darin LaHood (R-Ill.) recently disclosed he believed he was the one who was the subject of the search. Now, LaHood is leading the House Intelligence Committee’s 702 talks.
But even more pervasive among Republicans, both in and outside of the Capitol, is a general distrust of the FBI fueled in part by the bureau’s clashes with Trump. House Republicans are conducting a sweeping probe into claims of politicization of the Justice Department and the bureau, which fringes of the conference have backed Trump’s calls to “defund.”
The skepticism over the FBI played out publicly when Wray testified before both the House and Senate Intelligence committees, fielding warnings from both sides of the aisle.
He responded to those red flags by touting recent improvements to the surveillance program, pointing to a 93 percent decrease between 2021 and 2022 in the number of FBI searches for U.S. persons — a statistic critics have argued belies how large the number was to begin with. He also noted the creation of an Office of Internal Audit that he said is focused specifically on FISA. Administration officials are also expanding their scope as they try to make the case for 702 reauthorization, arguing that it is critical on everything from countering cyberattacks and China to tracking Russia’s moves in Ukraine.
The Justice Department has also been offering lawmakers briefings to walk them through the compliance changes they have made in recent years. Those changes include new internal guardrails, like requiring additional layers of review before certain searches can take place, as well as new mandatory training, according to a DOJ memo released earlier this year.
“We clearly have work to do, and we are eager to do it with this committee, to show that we can be worthy stewards of these important authorities,” Wray told House lawmakers.
He’ll be back soon, too. House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), said he expects both Wray and Garland to appear before his panel for routine oversight hearings.
The FBI declined to comment for this article.
Data and talking points are unlikely to tamp down tensions; House Republicans say there’s little the FBI or DOJ could say to regain the conference’s favor. Rather, an appearance before Jordan’s panel, which is stocked with surveillance skeptics, is likely to showcase why the bureau shouldn’t be making the direct pitch about extending the program.
“When Jim Jordan is out there talking about cutting the funding for the FBI, you know, and there’s … intense skepticism about the FBI, I’m not sure that the right first step for my Republican colleagues is to spend a lot of time with the leadership of the FBI,” Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said in an interview.
And the House GOP has another relevant appearance coming up on their docket: DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz will testify before a Judiciary subpanel on Thursday, an appearance first reported by POLITICO, as the committee launches its formal work on 702. He’s all but guaranteed to face questions about his previous findings of widespread errors within warrant applications made to the shadowy FISA surveillance court.
It’s left the Biden administration with a tricky question: If the FBI or DOJ can’t be called upon to make the case, who can?
Turner pointed to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and CIA Director Bill Burns as two people who are having to “overcome” some of the frustrations with the FBI. Jordan, meanwhile, asked who in the administration he could work with on 702 reauthorization, only pointed to Turner.
Indeed, it seems unavoidable that the Intel chair and other lawmakers who are committed to renewing the program in some form will have to lead the sales pitch.
That rough sledding doesn’t even factor in negotiations with a Democratic-controlled Senate and White House. And supporters are likely to have to contend with a coalition of libertarian-minded Republicans and privacy-minded Democrats in both chambers who are likely to want to go further if not let the program sunset altogether.
“At this point, we’re pulling together all of our partners that are necessary to find a clear path for reauthorization that also satisfies the real need for reform and … people’s perception that reform and reauthorization cannot be separated,” Turner said.
But he acknowledged that renewing Section 702 in some form is “certainly going to be difficult to accomplish” by year’s end.
One option lawmakers have mulled is passing a short-term extension of the program, giving Congress more time to craft a deal on a longer reauthorization with changes. But questions remain about the viability of such a move and what supporters might trade in exchange for more time.
Himes, who is working closely with Turner, also floated Washington’s favorite back-up plan — a discharge petition, which would allow Republicans to work with Democrats to force a vote — in case GOP detractors make it otherwise impossible to bring to the floor.
“Because this authority is so important, I do think we need, you know, a Plan A, a Plan B and a Plan C,” Himes said.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
The victims were identified as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, all 8 or 9 years old, and adults Cynthia Peak, 61; Katherine Koonce, 60; and Mike Hill, 61.
The website of The Covenant School, a Presbyterian school founded in 2001, lists a Katherine Koonce as the head of the school. Her LinkedIn profile says she has led the school since July 2016.
Police gave unclear information on the gender of the shooter. For hours, police identified the shooter as a 28-year-old woman and eventually identified the person as Audrey Hale. Then at a late afternoon press conference, the police chief said that Hale was transgender. After the news conference, police spokesperson Don Aaron declined to elaborate on how Hale currently identified.
The attack at The Covenant School — which has about 200 students from preschool through sixth grade, as well as roughly 50 staff members — comes as communities around the nation are reeling from a spate of school violence, including the massacre at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, last year; a first grader who shot his teacher in Virginia; and a shooting last week in Denver that wounded two administrators.
“I was literally moved to tears to see this and the kids as they were being ushered out of the building,” Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake said at an afternoon news conference.
Drake did not give a specific motive when asked by reporters but gave chilling examples of the shooter’s prior planning for the targeted attack.
“We have a manifesto, we have some writings that we’re going over that pertain to this date, the actual incident,” he said. “We have a map drawn out of how this was all going to take place.”
The Covenant School was founded as a ministry of Covenant Presbyterian Church. The affluent Green Hills neighborhood just south of downtown Nashville, where the Covenant School is located, is home to the famed Bluebird Café – a beloved spot for musicians and song writers.
President Joe Biden, speaking at an unrelated event at the White House on Monday, called the shooting a “family’s worst nightmare” and implored Congress again to pass a ban on certain semi-automatic weapons.
“It’s ripping at the soul of this nation, ripping at the very soul of this nation,” Biden said.
There have been seven mass killings at K-12 schools since 2006 in which four or more people were killed within a 24-hour period, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University. In all of them, the shooters were males.
The database does not include school shootings in which fewer than four people were killed, which have become far more common in recent years. Just last week alone, for example, school shootings happened in Denver and the Dallas-area within two days of each other.
Monday’s tragedy unfolded over roughly 14 minutes. Police received the initial call about an active shooter at 10:13 a.m.
Officers began clearing the first story of the school when they heard gunshots coming from the second level, police spokesperson Don Aaron said during a news briefing.
Two officers from a five-member team opened fire in response, fatally shooting the suspect at 10:27 a.m., Aaron said. One officer had a hand wound from cut glass.
Aaron said there were no police officers present or assigned to the school at the time of the shooting because it is a church-run school.
Other students walked to safety Monday, holding hands as they left their school surrounded by police cars, to a nearby church to be reunited with their parents.
Rachel Dibble, who was at the church as families found their children, described the scene as everyone being in “complete shock.”
“People were involuntarily trembling,” said Dibble, whose children attend a different private school in Nashville. “The children … started their morning in their cute little uniforms, they probably had some Froot Loops and now their whole lives changed today.”
Dr. Shamendar Talwar, a social psychologist from the United Kingdom who is working on an unrelated mental health project in Nashville, raced to the church as soon as he heard news of the shooting to offer help. He said he was one of several chaplains, psychologists, life coaches and clergy inside supporting the families.
“All you can show is that the human spirit that basically that we are all here together … and hold their hand more than anything else,” he said.
Jozen Reodica heard the police sirens and fire trucks blaring from outside her office building nearby. As her building was placed under lockdown, she took out her phone and recorded the chaos.
“I thought I would just see this on TV,” she said. “And right now, it’s real.”
From her office nearby, Kelly Stooksberry could see parents rushing to park their cars on the side of the road before sprinting to locate their children. She saw one woman fall to her knees and grab her chest.
“It was gut-wrenching,” she said.
Top legislative leaders announced Monday that the GOP-dominant Statehouse would meet briefly later in the evening and delay taking up any legislation.
“In a tragic morning, Nashville joined the dreaded, long list of communities to experience a school shooting,” Mayor John Cooper wrote on Twitter.
Nashville has seen its share of mass violence in recent years, including a Christmas Day 2020 attack where a recreational vehicle was intentionally detonated in the heart of Music City’s historic downtown, killing the bomber, injuring three others and forcing more than 60 businesses to close.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
PARIS — Vegetarian sushi and rugby brought the leaders of Britain and France together after years of Brexit rows.
U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday held the two countries’ first bilateral summit in five years, amid warm words and wishes for closer post-Brexit cooperation.
“This is an exceptional summit, a moment of reunion and reconnection, that illustrates that we want to better speak to each other,” Macron told a joint press conference afterward. “We have the will to work together in a Europe that has new responsibilities.”
Most notably from London’s perspective, the pair agreed a new multi-annual financial framework to jointly tackle the arrival of undocumented migrants on small boats through the English Channel — in part funding a new detention center in France.
“The U.K. and France share a special bond and a special responsibility,” Sunak said. “When the security of our Continent is threatened, we will always be at the forefront of its defense.”
Macron congratulated Sunak for agreeing the Windsor Framework with the European Commission, putting an end to a long U.K.-EU row over post-Brexit trade rules in Northern Ireland, and stressing it marks a “new beginning of working more closely with the EU.”
“I feel very fortunate to be serving alongside you and incredibly excited about the future we can build together. Merci mon ami,” Sunak said.
It has been many years since the leaders of Britain and France were so publicly at ease with each other.
Sunak and Macron bonded over rugby, ahead of Saturday’s match between England and France, and exchanged T-shirts signed by their respective teams.
Later, they met alone at the Élysée Palace for more than an hour, only being joined by their chiefs of staff at the very end of the meeting, described as “warm and productive” by Sunak’s official spokesman. The pair, who spoke English, had planned to hold a shorter one-to-one session, but they decided to extend it, the spokesman said.
They later met with their respective ministers for a lunch comprising vegetarian sushi, turbot, artichokes and praline tart.
Macron congratulated Sunak for agreeing the Windsor Framework with the European Commission | Christophe Archambault/AFP via Getty Images
Speaking on the Eurostar en route to Paris, Sunak told reporters this was the beginning of a “new chapter” in the Franco-British relationship.
“It’s been great to get to know Emmanuel over the last two months. There’s a shared desire to strengthen the relationship,” he said. “I really believe that the range of things that we can do together is quite significant.”
In a show of goodwill from the French, who pushed energetically for a hard line during Brexit talks, Macron said he wanted to “fix the consequences of Brexit” and opened the door to closer cooperation with the Brits in the future.
“It’s my wish and it’s in our interests to have closest possible alliance. It will depend on our commitment and willingness but I am sure we will do it,” he said alongside Sunak.
Tackling small boats
Under the terms of the new migration deal, Britain will pay €141 million to France in 2023-24, €191 million in 2024-25 and €209 million in 2025-26.
This money will come in installments and go toward funding a new detention center in France, a new Franco-British command centre, an extra 500 law enforcement officers on French beaches and better technology to patrol them, including more drones and surveillance aircraft.
The new detention center, located in the Dunkirk area, would be funded by the British and run by the French and help compensate for the lack of space in other detention centers in northern France, according to one of Macron’s aides.
According to U.K. and French officials, France is expected to contribute significantly more funding — up to five times the amount the British are contributing — toward the plan although the Elysée has refused to give exact figures.
A new, permanent French mobile policing unit will join the efforts to tackle small boats. This work will be overseen by a new zonal coordination center, where U.K. liaison officers will be permanently based working with French counterparts.
Sunak stressed U.K.-French cooperation on small boats since November has made a significant difference, and defended the decision to hand more British money to France to help patrol the French northern shores. Irregular migration, he stressed, is a “joint problem.”
Ukraine unity
Sunak and Macron also made a show of unity on the war in Ukraine, agreeing that their priority would be to continue to support the country in its war against Russian aggression.
The French president said the “ambition short-term is to help Ukraine to resist and to build counter-offensives.”
“The priority is military,” he said. “We want a lasting peace, when Ukraine wants it and in the conditions that it wants and our will is to put it in position to do so.”
The West’s top priority should remain helping Ukrainians achieve “a decisive battlefield advantage” that later allows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to sit down at the negotiating table with Russian President Vladimir Putin from a stronger position, Sunak said en route to the summit.
“That should be everyone’s focus,” he added. “Of course, this will end as all conflicts do, at the negotiating table. But that’s a decision for Ukraine to make. And what we need to do is put them in the best possible place to have those talks at an appropriate moment that makes sense for them.”
The two leaders also announced they would start joint training operations of Ukrainian marines.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
PARIS — A controversial video surveillance system cleared a legislative hurdle Wednesday to be used during the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics amid opposition from left-leaning French politicians and digital rights NGOs, who argue it infringes upon privacy standards.
The National Assembly’s law committee approved the system, but also voted to limit the temporary program’s duration until December 24, 2024, instead of June 2025.
The plan pitched by the French government includes experimental large-scale, real-time camera systems supported by an algorithm to spot suspicious behavior, including unsupervised luggage and alarming crowd movements like stampedes.
Earlier this week, civil society groups in France and beyond — including La Quadrature du Net, Access Now and Amnesty International — penned an op-ed in Le Monde raising concerns about what they argued was a “worrying precedent” that France could set in the EU.
There’s a risk that the measures, pitched as temporary, could become permanent, and they likely would not comply with the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act, the groups also argue.
About 90 left-leaning lawmakers signed a petition initiated by La Quadrature du Net to scrap Article 7, which includes the AI-powered surveillance system. They failed, however, to gather enough votes to have it deleted from the bill.
Lawmakers also voted to ensure the general public is better informed of where the cameras are and to involve the cybersecurity agency ANSSI on top of the privacy regulator CNIL. They also widened the pool of images and data that can be used to train the algorithms ahead of the Olympics.
The bill will go to a full plenary vote on March 21 for final approval.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
Hyderabad: The Telangana Education Department has decided to conduct the class 10th annual examinations under strict supervision without any scope for errors. As part of this, SSC examinations will be held under the supervision of CCTV cameras in all the examination centers.
In this regard, officials have been instructed to install CCTV cameras in every examination center. The entire process of opening the sealed question papers to sealing the answer scripts will be recorded in cameras.
Last year, class 10 papers were leaked in Andhra Pradesh and keeping this in consideration, the Education Department has taken this decision. Director examinations A Krishna Rao directed DEOs to ensure that CCTV cameras are installed in all centres of government schools. While in the private schools, the officials of the concerned schools have been instructed to install CCTV cameras on their own.
Class 10 exams will be held from April 3 to 13. More than 5.1 lakh students will appear in these exams. It has also been instructed that examination centers should have a 3-megapixel, 30-meter range CC camera that can move up to 180 degrees. Instructions have been given to save its recorded data. It has been desired to install monitors for CCTV feeds.
Chief superintendents have been directed to store the CCTV footage in a sealed cover and hand it over to the DEOs on the last day of the examination.
The Virginian, who argues continuing the program in some form is essential but is open to changes, will have his work cut out for him. Influential and newly emboldened House Republicans have made it clear they won’t let Section 702 stay alive without significant changes — if they support reauthorization at all — amid an all-time-low relationship with the Justice Department and the FBI.
And the intelligence community can also count Section 702 critics among House Democrats and senators in both parties, many of whom believe this is their best chance to force more limits on the program.
Warner is trying to combat naysayers by discussing negotiations early, fighting against a congressional culture that often leads to delay until an imminent deadline forces action. And he’s ratcheting up public pressure on the intelligence community to give him more to work with as he tries to sell skeptical colleagues, who resoundingly rejected officials’ opening ask last week that Congress re-up the program largely as is.
“We’ve got to get 702,” Warner said. ”How we get there is a work in progress. I’m open to reforms.”
He’s already in conversations with other members of the Intelligence Committee, including Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who has previously backed changes to the program and said in an interview that there’s “broad bipartisan support” for adjustments.
“I do not believe in its current form [that] it does enough to protect privacy,” Wyden said. “One of the things that is good about this, is people aren’t waiting until the last minute.”
The intelligence community is trying to help supporters like Warner build their case. Attorney General Merrick Garland and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines sent a letter to congressional leaders last week that detailed specific examples where the warrantless surveillance program helped counter cyber threats, as well as actions posed by China, Russia and North Korea.
And the administration plans to continue what it sees as a larger education effort, though it will have to balance Congress’ call for declassified information about the program with protecting classified sources.
Warner’s influence over the surveillance reauthorization debate will soon be tested in all corners: House Republicans, his own fellow Democrats and in particular the Senate Judiciary Committee, which also has jurisdiction over the program and isn’t planning to wait for the Intelligence panel to come up with legislation. A Democratic aide noted that the Judiciary panel will hold hearings and try to come up with a bipartisan deal.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, the Intelligence Committee’s top Republican, said that Warner’s colleagues “respect him” and “his knowledge,” but still hinted at the challenge ahead: ”It’s the Senate, and people can respect you and still reach conclusions that are very different than your own.”
Though Warner reiterated that he was open to changing Section 702, as well codifying internal adjustments that the intelligence community has made, privacy advocates are skeptical that the Virginia Democrat represents Congress’ true ideological center on the upcoming surveillance fight.
In 2018, Warner was one of only 18 Democrats, plus Independent Sen. Angus King (Maine), who helped cut off debate on a warrantless surveillance bill even as their colleagues pushed for more restrictions. Since then, five of those Democrats have left the Senate, and the chamber’s surveillance-skeptic caucus has grown.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) — a Judiciary Committee member who succeeded former Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), a supporter of the 2018 reauthorization — said he wanted to give it more thought but warned he has “a lot of concerns.”
“I’m increasingly skeptical about the set up of the FISA court and its purpose,” Hawley said, questioning if enough guardrails were in place on the secretive court that approves and denies surveillance requests under the broader Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that gives that entity its name.
And Warner is one of only nine still-serving Democrats who opposed a proposal from Wyden and Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) in 2020 that would have protected Americans’ internet browsing and search history from federal surveillance.
Warner and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) were also the only two Democrats to oppose a separate 2020 measure from Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) that would have increased protections for federal surveillance targets. (Warner said at the time he had concerns it would disrupt a deal with the House.)
Both plans he opposed were offered as amendments to a bill re-upping three surveillance programs unrelated to Section 702. While the Lee-Leahy proposal was ultimately folded into the legislation, the entire bill subsequently collapsed amid a stalemate between Congress, then-President Donald Trump and his then-Attorney General Bill Barr.
Lee said he planned to bring back some variation of that past legislation and plans to push for “major reforms” to the program.
That’s not the only specific change under discussion, and some already have bipartisan support. Another idea gaining steam is requiring a warrant to search surveillance databases for Americans. House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Wyden and others support that measure — Warner, when asked if he would vote for such a requirement, sidestepped the question.
Underpinning the discussions is a new political reality: Post-Trump-era fault lines are now rippling through the surveillance debate, thanks to the conclusion among some Republicans that the intelligence community inordinately targeted the former president.
To add further fuel to the problem, a recently declassified report on Section 702’s use between December 2019 and May 2020 sparked bipartisan outrage when it disclosed that an FBI intelligence analyst queried surveillance databases using only the name of an unidentified U.S. House member.
There’s also lingering heartburn from a series of reports from DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz that found “widespread” non-compliance by the department when it came to an FBI procedure that was designed to ensure accuracy in surveillance applications.
Still, the Biden administration is asking Congress to stay narrowly focused on 702, rather than address the broader foreign intelligence surveillance law, and to keep the program’s function largely intact. Though Garland and Haines said in their letter that they are open to improvements, they still argued lawmakers need to “fully preserve its efficacy.”
Rubio acknowledged the challenges ahead and suggested that by early to mid-April, lawmakers would need a better understanding of whether the House or the Senate would act first. If the House starts, it will need to reconcile differences between Intelligence Committee Republicans, who are likely to propose some reforms, and Judiciary Committee Republicans, who are prepared to push much more sweeping changes.
“From what I hear, the idea that the House is just going to do a simple reauthorization — just a straight reauthorization without any changes — does not appear likely,” Rubio said.
Warner acknowledged that, despite his efforts at early discussions, he hadn’t yet crossed the Capitol to begin talks with the House GOP.
“If I was going to be glib, I would say I want to talk about something serious,” he said, in a not-so-subtle knock on Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee. “But I’m not going to say that.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
ATHENS — Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was supposed to be preparing to call an early election — instead he’s dealing with protestors throwing Molotov cocktails at police as a wave of public rage convulses Greece following a train crash that killed 57 people.
Last week’s train collision was caused when a freight train and a passenger train were allowed on the same rail line. The station-master accused of causing the crash was charged with negligent homicide and jailed Sunday pending a trial.
The crash has raised deeper questions about the functioning of the Greek state, following reports that Athens hadn’t updated its rail network to meet EU requirements and that the state rail company was accused of mismanagement.
Mitsotakis initially blamed the incident on “tragic human error” but was forced to backtrack after he was accused to trying to cover up the government’s role. The first political victim was Transport Minister Kostas Karamanlis, who resigned soon after the accident. Mitsotakis put out a new message over the weekend saying: “We cannot, will not and must not hide behind human error.”
“As prime minister, I owe everyone, but above all the relatives of the victims, a big SORRY. Both personal, and in the name of all those who have ruled the country for years,” Mitsotakis wrote on Facebook.
His conservative New Democracy party is now weighing the political implications of the crash.
Before Tuesday’s deadly event, it was widely expected that the government would hold a final Cabinet meeting where it would announce a rise in the minimum wage. Mitsotakis would then dissolve parliament, with the likeliest election date being April 9.
But that’s now very uncertain. If the April 9 date slips away, alternatives range from a first round vote later in April, May or even July.
“Anyone who hinted to the prime minister these days that we need to see what we do about the elections was kicked out of the meeting,” government spokesperson Giannis Oikonomou told Skai local TV. “It is not yet time to get into that kind of discussion.”
Instead of election plans, the government is dealing with a massive outpouring of public rage at the accident that has seen large protest rallies and clashes between demonstrators and police.
“When a national tragedy like this is underway, it is difficult to assess the political consequences,” said Alexis Routzounis, a researcher at pollster Kapa Research. “Society will demand clear explanations, and a careful and discreet response from the political leadership is paramount. For now, the political system is responding with understanding.”
Opposition parties have so far kept a low profile, but that is starting to change.
“Mitsotakis is well aware that the debate on the causes of the tragedy will not be avoided by the resignation of his [transport] minister, but becomes even more urgent,” the main opposition Syriza party said.
Before the crash, New Democracy was comfortably ahead of its rivals, according to POLITICO’s poll of polls.
GREECE NATIONAL PARLIAMENT ELECTION POLL OF POLLS
For more polling data from across Europe visit POLITICO Poll of Polls.
That lead came despite a growing series of problems, including high inflation, skyrocketing food prices, financial wrongdoing by conservative MPs, a wiretapping scandal and reports of a secret offer by Saudi Arabia to pay for football stadiums for Greece and Egypt if they agreed to team up and host the 2030 World Cup.
“The government has managed to weather previous crises, including devastating wildfires in 2021 and the recent surveillance scandal, while suffering only a minor impact to its ratings,” said Wolfango Piccoli, co-founder of risk analysis company Teneo.
He added that the government is now scrambling to ensure it’s not hurt politically by the crash.
“It is following a similar strategy in wake of the train crash, with Mitsotakis playing a central role in establishing the narrative and swiftly announcing action aimed at getting ahead of the story,” Piccoli said.
Missed warnings
People are especially outraged because the tragedy appears to have been avoidable.
The rail line was supposed to use a modern electronic light signaling and safety system called ETCS that was purchased in the early 2000s, but never worked.
Even the current outdated system was not fully operational, with key signal lights always stuck on red due to technical failure and station managers only warning one another of approaching trains via walkie-talkie.
The rail employees’ union sent three legal warning notes in recent months to the transport minister and rail companies asking for speedy upgrades to railway infrastructure.
“We will not wait for the accident to happen to see them shed crocodile tears,” said one sent on February 7.
In mid-February, the European Commission referred Greece to court for the eight-year delay in signing and publishing the contract between the national authorities and the company that manages rail infrastructure.
Last April, the head of the automated train control system resigned, complaining that trains were running at 200 kilometres per hour without the safety system.
The government even voted to allow Hellenic Train a five-year delay in paying any compensation for an accident or a death, while EU rules call for a 15-day time limit. The company said on Sunday it would not use the exemption.
On Monday, Mitsotakis met with Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and she pledged that Brussels would help Greece “to modernize its railways and improve their safety.”
All of that is grim news for a party aiming to win a second term in office.
“Historically, when the state, instead of stability, causes insecurity, it is primarily the current government that is affected, but also all the governing parties, because the tragedy brings back memories of similar dramas of the past,” Routzounis said.
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To add to the political headache, the Justice Department will need to win over a Republican House, where many of the lawmakers with oversight of the program are the very same who are leading a sweeping investigation into alleged political motivations within the DOJ and the FBI. The party’s relationship with the law enforcement apparatus soured sharply during former President Donald Trump’s tenure, amid GOP accusations that the Feds improperly targeted Trump and his allies.
A group of House Republicans are already discussing letting the surveillance authority sunset entirely, according to a GOP aide. And in a significant red flag for supporters of the currently written program, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) — who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, one of the four congressional panels that will lead the Section 702 discussions — said he won’t support extending the program without changes.
In fact, he isn’t convinced yet that it needs to be continued at all.
“We’re working on the kind of reforms we think need to happen, but frankly I think you should have to go get a warrant,” Jordan said in a brief interview.
The Ohio Republican didn’t support reauthorizing the program in January 2018, so his skepticism is hardly surprising. But his influence has grown significantly since then: He is now wielding a gavel and has transitioned from leadership foe to ally. And his panel is now stacked with several members who not only oppose the specific surveillance authority set to sunset this year, but also have concerns about the broader Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Those calls are being fueled, in part, by a recently declassified report on the use of Section 702 between December 2019 and May 2020. In a sign of the odd political bedfellows who are likely to push reforms, conservative Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) and progressive Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), both members of Jordan’s panel, vented publicly over a detail tucked into a footnote of the report: An FBI intelligence analyst queried surveillance databases using only the name of a U.S. House member.
The administration is aware that they are facing a heavy lift and aren’t ruling out changes to the program. Officials have stressed in interviews and in the Tuesday letter to congressional leadership that it is open to potential improvements.
And they’re taking initial steps to try to quell a fight on the front end. Biden administration officials’ opening pitch is coming much earlier than it did in past years — they estimated they waited until September to begin discussions last time — and they’ve dropped their pitch for a permanent extension, which lawmakers balked at in 2018. They’re also offering to give lawmakers classified briefings to make their case for reauthorization.
But the Biden Administration is drawing a red line on an overhaul that would change the essential function of the authority. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and Attorney General Merrick Garland, in a letter to congressional leadership, wrote that they needed to “fully preserve its efficacy.”
In a second prong of the administration’s opening salvo, Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen made his pitch for continuing the program during a Brookings Institution event on Tuesday using stark terms.
“What keeps me up at night is thinking about what will happen if we fail to renew Section 702 of FISA,” he said.
And Biden administration officials are preemptively pushing back on likely proposals from privacy advocates who want to change the program. One area that is already coming under early reform chatter is so-called “backdoor” searches, when government agencies sift through already acquired data for information that was “incidentally” collected on Americans. A senior administration official argued that banning or trying to restrict searches involving U.S. persons “would either ban or restrict the government from accessing in a timely way potentially critical information.”
The administration does have its congressional allies, particularly among Senate leadership and members of both the House and Senate Intelligence Committees. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, as well as the Intelligence panel’s bipartisan leaders, all voted to reauthorize the program in 2018. Of the 65 lawmakers who previously voted to reauthorize 702, roughly 20 have left the Senate — meaning supporters will need to pick up new allies.
And in a nod to the difficult debate ahead, Reps. Darin LaHood (R-Ill.), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and Chris Stewart (R-Utah) have been quietly working on the reauthorization effort since last year. The three Republicans, each on their chamber’s Intelligence Committee, want to reauthorize the program, though they are expected to pair that with broader FISA reforms — including in how judges are assigned to surveillance applications.
Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), who chairs the House Intelligence Committee and who tapped the trio to take the lead, echoed their general direction, saying FISA is a “critical tool in our national security arsenal” and that he supports extending it but “with reforms that will protect American’s civil liberties.”
But privacy advocates believe they are at a point of maximum leverage. Unlike in 2020 when a congressional stalemate — and mixed signals between then-President Trump and Attorney General Bill Barr — led to three unrelated surveillance powers lapsing, critics of Section 702 believe the administration views the program as so critical that they will agree to sweeping changes that might have once been off the table.
The administration is urging lawmakers to stay narrowly focused on Section 702, but officials admit that’s unlikely. That’s in part because of a high-profile series of reports from DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz that found “widespread” non-compliance by the department when it came to a key step in FBI procedure that was designed as a guardrail for ensuring accuracy in surveillance applications.
We are “aware that there are those who want to talk about reforms or changes,” said a senior administration official, granted anonymity to speak candidly. “And in the months to come, of course, we anticipate hearing what it is that others who want to have those conversations have in mind.”
John Sakellariadis and Alexander Ward contributed to this report.
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Washington: China has violated the sovereignty of not just the United States but of countries across five continents, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said, days after American fighter jets shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon.
Earlier this week, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman briefed diplomats from about 40 friendly nations, including India, Japan and Australia, over the Chinese surveillance balloon.
The huge balloon was shot down on by a US fighter jet on Saturday off the coast of South Carolina in the Atlantic Ocean. It had hovered over continental America for several days after entering the US airspace on January 30 in Montana.
US officials have described the balloon as being about 60m tall, with the payload portion comparable in size to a regional aircraft.
China has acknowledged that the balloon was theirs but denied that it was for surveillance purposes rather for weather monitoring and that it had drifted off course.
The US, however, has asserted that it has enough evidence to prove that this was a surveillance balloon. It accused China of intruding on its sovereignty and violating international laws.
China on the other hand has alleged that the United States has violated international law by shooting down its balloon.
According to a report of The Washington Post, based on interviews with several anonymous defence and intelligence officials, China has operated a fleet of spy balloons targeting several countries including India and Japan.
At a joint news briefing on Wednesday with the visiting NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Blinken said, “The United States was not the only target of this broader programme which has violated the sovereignty of countries across five continents.” “In our engagements, we are again hearing from our partners that the world expects China and the United States to manage our relationship responsibly. That’s precisely what we’ve set out to do. We continue to urge China to do the same,” he told reporters.
Reacting to the statements from Washington, China on Thursday repeated its stand that the large unmanned balloon was a civilian meteorological airship that had accidentally blown off course and that the US had “overreacted” by shooting it down.
Responding to questions at a foreign ministry briefing in Beijing, ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said that she has not heard of China possessing a “fleet of balloons.” “I am not aware of any “fleet of balloons”,” Mao said.
“That narrative is probably part of the information and public opinion warfare the US has waged on China. As to who is the world’s number one country of spying, eavesdropping and surveillance, that is plainly visible to the international community,” she said, referring to the US.
On Tuesday, the Pentagon said that China has declined Washington’s request for a telephonic call between US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his Beijing counterpart Gen Wei Fenghe.
On Wednesday, Stoltenberg said the Chinese balloon over the United States confirms a pattern of Chinese behaviour, and it has been seen that Beijing over the last few years has invested heavily in new military capabilities, including different types of surveillance and intelligence platforms.
“We have also seen increased Chinese intelligence activities in Europe – again, different platforms. They use satellites, cyber, and as we’ve seen over the United States, also balloons.
“So, we have to be vigilant. We need to be aware of the constant risk of Chinese intelligence and then step up what we do to protect ourselves,” the NATO secretary general said while highlighting that security is not regional but global.
What happens in Asia matters for Europe, and what happens in Europe matters for Asia and also North America, he said.
“This message was confirmed during my visit to Japan and South Korea last week, where those close partners of NATO very much highlighted the importance of strengthening the cooperation between NATO and our partners in the Indo-Pacific to address the challenges that China poses to our security, values, and interests,” Stoltenberg said.
Defense Department Spokesperson Gen Pat Ryder told reporters at a Pentagon news conference that the US is in the process of updating its international allies and partners.
“Clearly, we maintain an intelligence-sharing relationship with many countries, and so as we have information to provide and as we currently are, we will share that information,” he said.
Ryder said that Chinese balloons have been spotted in various parts of the world.
“When you look at the scope of this (Chinese balloon surveillance) programme and the fact that we know that these balloons have been spotted, and what we now can subsequently assess to be Chinese balloons operating over at least five continents in regions like Latin America, South America, Southeast Asia, East Asia and Europe.
“It demonstrates why, for the Department of Defense, China remains the pacing challenge, and something that we’ll continue to stay focused on,” he said.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that these balloons are all part of a “Chinese fleet” developed to conduct surveillance operations, which have also violated the sovereignty of other countries.
“Over the past several years, Chinese balloons have previously been spotted over countries across five continents. We have been in touch with allies and partners on this issue,” she said.
