YALE DAILY NEWS · THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
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WORLD
“Every man is surrounded by a neighborhood of voluntary spies.” JANE AUSTEN ENGLISH NOVELIST
US denies spying on UN BY PETER JAMES SPIELMANN ASSOCIATED PRESS UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations said Wednesday it has received assurances from the U.S. government that U.N. communications networks “are not and will not be monitored” by American intelligence agencies. But chief U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky would not comment on whether the world body had been monitored in the past, as reported recently by the German magazine Der Spiegel.
Nesirky said the United Nations had been in contact with Washington about the reports that surfaced two months ago and has received a U.S. guarantee of no current or future eavesdropping. “Back in August when these reports first surfaced, we said we would be in touch with the relevant authorities,” he said. “And I can tell you that we were indeed in touch with the U.S. authorities. I understand that the U.S. authorities have given assurance that the United
Nations communications are not and will not be monitored.” Nesirky would not elaborate on whether spying had taken place and declined to answer related questions. For emphasis, he held up a piece of paper that said: “No comment.” A U.S. official told The Associated Press that “The United States is not conducting electronic surveillance targeting the United Nations headquarters in New York.” The official, who was not authorized to be named, spoke on condition of anonym-
New police scrutiny in Beijing BY CHRISTOPHER BODEEN AND ISOLDA MORILLO ASSOCIATED PRESS BEIJING — In a dusty outdoor curio market in China’s capital, traders from the minority Uighur community gathered Wednesday to swap stories about the omnipresent harassment they say they suffer at the hands of the police. That scrutiny has only intensified after this week’s deadly vehicle attack at Tiananmen Square in which Uighurs are the prime suspects. Before the day ended, five suspects had been arrested on suspicion of involvement in Monday’s audacious attack, which a police statement described as carefully planned terrorism strike — Beijing’s first in recent history. Police also said knives, iron rods, gasoline and a flag with religious slogans were found in the vehicle used in the suicide attack. Since the attack, police “come to search us every day. We don’t know why. Our IDs are checked every day, and we don’t know what is happening,” said Ali Rozi, 28, a Uighur trader at the sprawling Panijayuan market. “We have trouble every day, but we haven’t done anything,” said Rozi, who is from Kashgar, the capital of Xinjiang province where most Uighurs live. Militants from the Muslim Uighur community have been fighting a low-intensity insurgency against Chinese rule in Xinjiang for years. Recent clashes,
including an attack on a police station, have left at least 56 people dead this year. The government typically calls the incidents terrorist attacks. The police scrutiny of the Uighurs in Beijing highlights the years of discrimination that have fueled Uighur demands for independence for their northwestern homeland of Xinjiang. Many Uighurs say they face routine discrimination, irksome restrictions on their culture and Muslim religion, and economic disenfranchisement that has left them largely poor even as China’s economy booms.
I am … upset. They crashed a car, and we end up being harassed by police every day now. ROZI URA IMU In Monday’s incident, a sports utility vehicle barreled through crowds and burst into flames near the portrait of Mao Zedong on Tiananmen Gate. Three of the car’s occupants and two bystanders were killed, and dozens were injured in the strike at the capital’s political heart, where China’s Communist Party leaders live and work. The incident is the first such attack outside Xinjiang in years,
and among the most ambitious given the high-profile target. An attack in one of the eastern population centers is “something that the Chinese authorities have been worried about for a long time,” said University of Michigan expert Philip Potter. “Once this threshold has been crossed, it is a difficult thing to constrain,” Potter said, predicting tighter surveillance and scrutiny of Uighurs in eastern cities. Rozi Ura Imu, a 48-year-old trader in jade and other precious stones from the ancient Silk Road city of Kashgar, condemned the attack, but said it didn’t justify the harsher treatment by authorities. “I am also upset. They crashed a car, and we end up being harassed by police every day now, saying that we Xinjiang people are like that,” Rozi said, standing at the gate of the Panijayuan market, which has thousands of stalls featuring crafts from regions throughout China: rows of statues and furniture, bins of beads and trinkets, cases of books and scrolls. Uighurs are a Turkic Central Asian people related to Uzbeks, Khazaks and other groups. With their slightly European features and heavy accents, most are immediately recognizable as distinct from China’s ethnic Han majority. The 9 million Uighurs now make up about 43 percent of the population in Xinjiang, a region more than twice the size of Texas where they used to dominate.
ity. It was not clear whether foreign U.N. missions in New York could be monitored by U.S. intelligence agencies. Former U.S. Ambassador John Bolton, who held the post at the United Nations from 2005-2006, would not comment on “what may or may not have gone on in the past” because he’s no longer in government. “That said, it seems to me that the United Nations and everybody walking through
the U.N. building are perfectly legitimate intelligence targets, and I think any decision by any president to say we are not going to eavesdrop on U.N. headquarters is a mistake,” he told the AP. “There’s nothing in the U.S. Constitution that says you may not eavesdrop on the U.N.,” Bolton said. “Silence and a deeply emphasized ‘No comment’ is how you should deal with all these intelligence questions.” Der Spiegel reported that documents it obtained from
Israel plans over 1,500 homes
ADEL HANA/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Omar Masoud, left, who was arrested in May 1993 for killing an Israeli lawyer is greeted by his neighbor.
BY JOSEF FEDERMAN ASSOCIATED PRESS JERUSALEM — Israel announced plans Wednesday to build more than 1,500 homes in Jewish settlements in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, dealing a setback to newly relaunched peace efforts hours after it had freed a group of long-serving Palestinian prisoners.
It’s [the settlement plans] a message … that Israel is a state that doesn’t abide by international law. NABIL ADU RDENEH Spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas
NG HAN GUAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Chinese police have been checking IDs of Uighur vendors every day since Wednesday’s vehicle attack in Beijing.
The construction plans drew angry condemnations from Palestinian officials, who accused Israel of undermining the U.S.-led talks by expanding settlements on the lands where they hope to establish an independent state. U.N. Secretary General Ban Kimoon also condemned the Israeli decision, and Washington said it would not create a “positive environment” for the negotiations. Israel had freed the 26 Palestinian prisoners as part of a U.S.-brokered agreement to restart the talks. The construction was meant to blunt anger over the release of the prisoners, all of whom had been convicted of murder in the deaths of Israelis. Israel’s Interior Ministry said 1,500 apartments would be built in Ramat Shlomo, a large settlement in East Jerusalem, the section of the holy city claimed by the Palestinians as their capital. It also announced plans for archae-
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U.S. leaker Edward Snowden show the National Security Agency secretly monitored the U.N.’s internal video conferencing system by decrypting it last year. Der Spiegel quoted an NSA document as saying that within three weeks, the number of decoded communications had increased from 12 to 458. Der Spiegel also reported that the NSA installed bugs in the European Union’s office building in Washington and infiltrated the EU’s computer network.
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ology and tourism projects near the Old City, home to Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy sites. Israel first announced the Ramat Shlomo plan in 2010 during a visit to Israel by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, sparking a diplomatic rift with Washington that took months to mend. Wednesday’s decision is the final approval needed, and construction can begin immediately, officials said. Ofir Akunis, a lawmaker from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party, said construction also had been approved for several West Bank settlements. “The building in Judea and Samaria will continue and be intensified,” said Akunis, using the biblical terms for the West Bank. In addition, he told parliament that Netanyahu had given orders to “advance plans” for more than 2,000 homes in a longer list of settlements across the West Bank. While these projects still need additional bureaucratic approvals, they are especially provocative because several of the settlements are deep inside the West Bank and almost certainly would have to be dismantled as part of a peace deal. Israel captured East Jerusalem, along with the West Bank and Gaza Strip, in the 1967 SixDay War. The Palestinians seek all three areas for a future state. The Palestinians, along with virtually all of the international community, consider the settlements to be illegal or illegitimate. Nabil Abu Rdeneh, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, condemned the settlement plans, saying they were “destructive to the peace efforts and will only lead to more tensions.” “It’s a message to the international community that Israel is a state that doesn’t abide by international law and continues to put obstacles in the way of peace,” he said.