Purveyor
Purveyor's JournalFor Obama, NSA Debate Intrudes Into Both Domestic And Foreign Policy Agenda
By JULIE PACE | ASSOCIATED PRESS |
For President Barack Obama, August was supposed to be the time when a major immigration bill landed on his desk.
There was hope for movement on a deficit deal with Republicans, and in the optimistic early days of his second term, even a belief that he would have achieved stricter gun laws.
Instead, Obama finds his fifth year in office beset by distractions, perhaps none with broader implications than the revelation of secret government surveillance programs.
That matter dominated Obama's hourlong news conference Friday. The issues that the White House had hoped to be promoting this summer? They played a diminished role, if at all.
The president set the tone, opening the session by announcing that he would work with Congress to make "appropriate reforms" to the National Security Agency surveillance programs. He also made clear that he had no intention of stopping the daily collection of Americans' phone records.
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http://www.newser.com/article/da837jag2/for-obama-nsa-debate-intrudes-into-both-domestic-and-foreign-policy-agenda.html
Obama Administration Asserts Broad Surveillance Powers
By Ellen Nakashima and Robert Barnes, Published: August 9
The Obama administration on Friday asserted a bold and broad power to collect the phone records of millions of Americans in order to search for a nugget of information that might thwart a terrorist attack.
In a 22-page “white paper,” the Justice Department for the first time detailed its legal rationale for a massive National Security Agency data collection program that it claimed is both constitutional and subject to federal oversight.
The report, which echoes assertions the administration has made to Congress, said the law and subsequent court decisions bestow broad power on the government to seek telephone records “relevant” to investigations of suspected terrorism.
“Relevance,” the paper stated, is “a broad standard that permits discovery of large volumes of data in circumstances where doing so is necessary to identify much smaller amounts of information within that data that directly bears on the matter being investigated.”
The release of the white paper appeared to do little to allay the concerns of critics in Congress and the civil liberties community who say the surveillance program violates Americans’ right to privacy. Last month, the House narrowly defeated a proposal to terminate it. The closeness of the vote, 217 to 205, was surprising but gave fresh momentum to lawmakers who have been trying to rein in the collection effort.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-administration-asserts-broad-surveillance-powers/2013/08/09/ff429504-0134-11e3-96a8-d3b921c0924a_print.html
Americans Giving Up Passports Jump Sixfold as Tougher Tax Rules Loom
Americans renouncing U.S. citizenship surged sixfold in the second quarter from a year earlier as the government prepares to introduce tougher asset-disclosure rules.
Expatriates giving up their nationality at U.S. embassies climbed to 1,131 in the three months through June from 189 in the year-earlier period, according to Federal Register figures published today. That brought the first-half total to 1,810 compared with 235 for the whole of 2008.
The U.S., the only nation in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that taxes citizens wherever they reside, is searching for tax cheats in offshore centers, including Switzerland, as the government tries to curb the budget deficit. Shunned by Swiss and German banks and facing tougher asset-disclosure rules under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, more of the estimated 6 million Americans living overseas are weighing the cost of holding a U.S. passport.
“With the looming deadline for Fatca, more and more U.S. citizens are becoming aware that they have U.S. tax reporting obligations,” said Matthew Ledvina, a U.S. tax lawyer at Anaford AG in Zurich. “Once aware, they decide to renounce their U.S. citizenship.”
Fatca requires foreign financial institutions to report to the Internal Revenue Service information about financial accounts held by U.S. taxpayers, or held by foreign entities in which U.S. taxpayers hold a substantial ownership interest. It was estimated to generate $8.7 billion over 10 years, according to the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation.
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http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-08-09/americans-giving-up-passports-jump-sixfold-as-tougher-rules-loom
Wave Of Bombings Targeting Markets, Cafes In Iraq Kills 52
Source: Associated Press
BAGHDAD – A wave of car bombings, mainly targeting cafes and markets around the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, killed 52 people Saturday out celebrating the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, officials said.
Violence has been on the rise across Iraq since a deadly crackdown by government forces on a Sunni protest camp in April, and attacks against civilians and security forces notably spiked during Ramadan. The surge of attacks has sparked fears that the country could spiral into a new round of widespread sectarian bloodshed similar to that which brought the country to the edge of civil war in 2006 and 2007.
Police said the deadliest of Saturday’s attacks took place when a suicide bomber drove his explosive-laden car into a residential area in the town of Tuz Khormato, killing eight people and wounding dozens, Mayor Shalal Abdool said. The town is about 200 kilometres (130 miles) north of the Iraqi capital.
Police said a car bomb exploded near an outdoor market in the Baghdad’s southeastern suburbs of Jisr Diyala shortly before sunset, killing seven people and wounding 20.
Read more: http://globalnews.ca/news/773221/wave-of-bombings-targeting-markets-cafes-in-iraq-kills-52/
Guest Lineups For The Sunday News Shows
“Meet the Press” on NBC• Rep. Mike McCaul (R-Texas), chairman, House Homeland Security Committee
• Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.)
• Rep. Steve King, (R-Iowa)
• Anu Bhagwati, executive director, Service Women's Action Network.
“Face the Nation” on CBS
• Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.), ranking member, House Intelligence Committee
• Retired Gen. Michael Hayden, former director, NSA and CIA
• Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.)
“This Week” on ABC
• Lon Snowden, father of Edward Snowden
• Donald Trump
• Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), chairman, Senate Foreign Relations Committee
• Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.), chairman, House Foreign Affairs Committee
• Rep. Joaquín Castro (D-Texas)
• Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas)
“State of the Union” on CNN
• Reince Priebus, chairman, Republican National Committee
• Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.)
• Democratic strategist Stephanie Cutter
“Fox News Sunday” on Fox
• Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)
• Former Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.)
WikiLeaks Founder: Obama Surveillance Changes Vindicate Edward Snowden
The founder of the WikiLeaks website said on Saturday that President Obama’s announcement of changes to the National Security Agency’s (NSA) surveillance program this week vindicated Edward Snowden’s release of information about the program.
“Today the President of the United States validated Edward Snowden’s role as a whistleblower by announcing plans to reform America’s global surveillance program,” WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange said in a statement.
“But rather than thank Edward Snowden, the president laughably attempted to criticize him while claiming that there was a plan all along, ‘before Edward Snowden,’” Assange continued. “The simple fact is that without Snowden’s disclosures, no one would know about the programs and no reforms could take place.”
Assange compared Snowden to former solider Bradley Manning, who was convicted of releasing classified information about the Iraq War, and Daniel Ellsberg, who released the Pentagon Papers during the Vietnam War in the 1970s.
“As Thomas Jefferson so eloquently once stated, ‘All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent,’” Assange said. “Luckily for the citizens of the world, Edward Snowden is one of those ‘people of good conscience’ who did not ‘remain silent,’ just as Pfc Bradley Manning and Daniel Ellsberg refused to remain silent.”
Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/316499-wikileaks-founder-obama-surveillance-changes-vindicate-edward-snowden#ixzz2baZCKu1e
Obama Publishes Legal Background To Surveillance – but much is still unclear
The Obama administration has provided its fullest description yet of why it believes it has the authority under the Patriot Act to collect in bulk the phone records of millions of Americans without suspicion of wrongdoing.
On Friday, as President Obama gave a press conference announcing his willingness to consider reforms to the National Security Agency's bulk-collection programs, his administration released two unclassified "white papers" that Obama hailed as steps at transparency. One was a legal analysis of the bulk phone records program; the other was a generic description of the NSA's foreign-directed surveillance activities.
Neither document provided much in the way of new information for the programs: a significant amount of the legal analysis about the bulk phone records program echoed congressional testimony by NSA and Justice Department officials, especially a lengthy July speech from Robert S Litt, the top lawyer in the intelligence community. Nor was either document a dispassionate recitation of facts: both presented the administration's case for why Americans should be "comfortable" – as Obama put it today – with bulk collection of their data.
Still, the documents shed light on controversial legal theories that are likely to be tested in court in the weeks and months ahead.
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http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/09/obama-legal-background-surveillance-nsa
U.S. ‘Concerned’ About Israeli Plans To Build In Settlements
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The United States raised concerns with Israel over its approval of 147 new West Bank settler homes and its plans for 949 more.
“We are speaking to the government of Israel and making our concerns known,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Thursday at a press briefing in Washington. “The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued settlement activity and opposes any efforts to legitimize settlement outposts.”
The approval was made Wednesday by the Higher Planning Committee of Israel’s Civil Administration, according to the organization Peace Now, and comes one week after the launch of renewed peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The second round of talks is to be held in Jerusalem on Aug. 14.
Read more: http://www.jta.org/2013/08/09/news-opinion/united-states/u-s-slams-israeli-plans-to-build-1096-new-homes-in-settlements#ixzz2bWBQ5Smi
Putin to Meet With New Iranian President on Sept. 13
MOSCOW, August 9 (RIA Novosti) – Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold his first meeting with recently elected Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on September 13, as part of a Eurasian summit in the capital of Kyrgyzstan, a Russian presidential aide said Friday.
“After Rouhani’s election as president, the Iranian government sent us a proposal to hold a Rouhani-Putin meeting within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Bishkek on September 13,” Yury Ushakov said.
“We were grateful to the Iranian side for such initiative and naturally supported it and gave our consent,” Putin’s aide added. “We are now preparing for the meeting.”
The meeting will be Putin’s second this year with Iran’s head of state, following his talks with outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in early July.
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http://en.ria.ru/russia/20130809/182677230/Putin-to-Meet-With-New-Iranian-President-on-Sept-13.html
18 Of 19 Closed U.S. Embassies, Consulates To Reopen
Source: CBS/AP
WASHINGTON The State Department says that 18 of the 19 U.S. embassies and consulates in the Middle East and Africa that have been closed due to a terrorist threat will reopen on Sunday or Monday.
Officials say the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa, Yemen, will remain closed.
A statement issued Friday didn't cite a reason for resuming regular business operations at the 18 diplomatic missions.
Nineteen outposts had been closed to the public since last Sunday. Most American employees at the U.S. Embassy in Yemen were ordered to leave the country on Tuesday because of threat information.
Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57597937/18-of-19-closed-u.s-embassies-consulates-to-reopen/
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