Wife Tracking App Sparks Outrage | The Spy Who Betrayed Me | In the Moo(d) for Love

FEBRUARY 14, 2019  /   SUBSCRIBE
 
 
 

 

“Our wedding was held in the Ft. Lewis Chapel with just the chaplain, Heather and me. I had very little to offer her. I still owed years to my military commitment, and the only guarantee about my immediate future was a deployment overseas. She didn’t ask for a fancy wedding, a ring or a honeymoon. She didn’t ask for a newspaper column in which to broadcast our marriage.

“She just gave me her love, and I gave her mine. Love can be complicated. But for us it’s the simplest thing in the world.”

– Tim Hsia, Valentine’s Day 2008, Modern Love Column, A Valley of Misery Between Peaks of Joy (we plan to avoid the columnist’s purported middle-aged misery)

 
 
 

 

Human Rights Violation Application: Human rights advocacy groups and lawmakers are criticizing US tech giants Apple and Google for carrying an app that allows Saudi men to track the whereabouts of their wives. The app, called Absher, was created by the National Information Center, an arm of the Saudi Ministry of Interior, and is carried in the Apple and Google app stores in Saudi Arabia. Women’s lives are highly restricted in the country; the Absher app makes spying on their wives a lot more convenient for Saudi men. Rothna Begum, an expert on women’s rights at Human Rights Watch said the app was “incredibly demeaning, insulting and humiliating for the women and downright abusive in many cases, because you’re allowing men absolute control over women’s movements.”

Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore) sent a letter to both companies this week asking them to remove the app. “It is hardly news that the Saudi monarchy seeks to restrict and repress Saudi women, but American companies should not enable or facilitate the Saudi government’s patriarchy,” Wyden wrote. Asked in an interview about Absher, Apple CEO Tim Cook said “I haven’t heard about it… obviously we’ll take a look at it if that’s the case.” Google did not respond to a request for comment.

Additional reads:

 

 
 
 

 

It’s My Way Or The Huawei: Telecom operators in South East Asia aren’t hanging up on Chinese telecoms giant Huawei despite US insistence that the company is spying for the Chinese government, stealing trade secrets and breaking US sanctions on Iran. The firm has consistently denied it is a security threat, and says it would never hurt its customers. Huawei is one of the main providers of telecommunications equipment for operators conducting 5G trials in the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. Industry sources say competitors can’t match Huawei on cost and technological capability, and believe the company is a year ahead of other challengers in terms of what it can offer customers. (BBC)

Additional read: “Huawei Was a Czech Favorite. Now? It’s a National Security Threat.” (NYT)

Duterte VS Freedom Of Speech: Maria Ressa, 55, an award-winning newswoman and frequent critic of Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte, was arrested and charged with cyber libel Wednesday at the headquarters of Rappler, the news outlet she runs in the Philippines. She is a former CNN bureau chief and was one of four journalists, including the murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, named by Time Magazine as 2018’s Person of the Year. Ressa launched Rappler in 2012 along other high profile journalists. It has since become known for its thorough investigations into corruption and the extrajudicial killings in Duterte’s war on drugs. Duterte has threatened and intimidated the news media, repeatedly targeting Rappler of spreading “fake news.” Ressa was denied bail. (NPR)

The Spy Who Betrayed Me: A 39-year-old Farsi-speaking former counterintelligence specialist has been indicted by the Justice Departmentand charged with conspiracy, computer intrusions, identity theft and providing classified information to the Islamic Republic. Monica Witt, a native Texan who holds dual US-Iranian citizenship, served in the US Air Force from 1997 to 2008. She learned to speak Farsi before deploying overseas for four years to conduct classified missions collecting signals intelligence. While in the military she had top secret clearance, giving her access to intelligence materials that contained the real names of American sources and clandestine agents. In 2012 she attended a conference in Iran sponsored by the anti-American Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp. She returned to the US, but defected to Iran a year later. Prosecutors say Witt provided Iranian security officials with the code name and classified mission of a US Defense Department special access program, and also did research to help Iranian authorities target her former co-workers within the American intelligence community. Four Iranian nationals were named in the same indictment with Witt. (NPR)

Additional read: “Iran Bus Bombing Kills 27 Revolutionary Guards and Wounds 13.” (NYT)

Breaking Kim: Methamphetamines are illegal in North Korea, but the gifting of crystal meth for birthdays, graduations and holidays like the Lunar New Year is an open secret. Meth production in North Korea has been going on for decades, and like other private economic activities there, it has effectively become legal “because officials take bribes to look the other way, and because the state indirectly benefits from a food chain of bribes that goes all the way to the top,” according to a political scientist who has studied North Korean drug trafficking networks. (NYT)

Additional read: “El Chapo Is Behind Bars, but Drugs Still Flow From Mexico.” (NYT)

 
 
 

 

Gangster, Racketeer, and Liar: Criminals aren’t always convicted for their heinous illegal acts. Everyone may “know” anecdotally the bad guys are guilty, but proving that in court might be difficult. Al Capone was a murderous gangster, bootlegger and racketeer, but he was sent to prison in 1932 for tax evasion. Martha Stewart was accused of insider trading and securities fraud but the crime that sent her to prison in 2004 was lying to investigators. The False Statements Act provides that anyone who knowingly and willfully makes a false statement to a federal official has committed a felony punishable by up to five years in prison. That act, along with the perjury statute, are powerful tools for use by investigators and prosecutors to gain leverage over individuals suspected of more serious criminal wrongdoing. They can be critical in defeating an attempted cover-up of an underlying crime or conspiracy. They can also be used by prosecutors as a fallback method of meting out punishment when a more serious crime cannot be proved. Special Counsel Robert Mueller hasn’t concluded his work as yet, but if there is one unifying feature of the Trump-Russia investigation so far it is the significant number of President Trump’s associates who have been charged with lying to federal agents or to Congress. (CSM)

Additional read: “Federal judge finds Manafort lied to Mueller: Former Trump aide breached plea deal by making false statements about dealings with alleged Russian operative” (Guardian)

Additional USA News:

 
 
 

 

Are you in the Moo(d) for Love: Launching today: a new app for farmers only called “Tudder” (Tinder + udder.) Dairymen and cattlemen alike can swipe right to search for that most special bovine bull. Swipers are then directed to a page on the SellMyLivestock website where they can browse more pictures and data before deciding whether he’s really the right one for your Bessie. (Reuters)

To quote Gattaca, probably Tim’s favorite movie and one of his favorite movie scenes, “I never saved anything for the swim back”Scientists at Cornell who study the swimming skills of sperm have found evidence that the female human reproductive tract is shaped in such a way that stops poor swimmers from reaching their goal. Tests with sperm from men and bulls revealed that the strongest swimmers were most likely to make it through the tight spots, known as “strictures”, while weaker ones were caught in oncoming currents that propelled them backwards when they got too close. It’s like Jerry Butler told us back in ’68: “Only the strong survive.” (Guardian)

Love (Not) Actually: The Federal Trade Commission says it received over 21,000 reports of romance scams in 2018, with total losses of $143 million. Romance scammers often use online dating sites and create fake profiles or use a real person’s identity. They also cultivate targets on Facebook and social media sites not specifically designed for dating. Once a scammer is able to start an online relationship, requests for money will follow. Fraudsters may say they can’t meet in person because they’re serving in the military abroad, but they need money for a medical procedure. Or maybe they need money for travel expenses to come meet you, but can’t come because they got into a car accident; now they need more money for doctor and hospital bills. So Please, says the FTC, don’t wire money or send gift cards to people you haven’t met in person, or who give inconsistent answers to your questions. And that’s not just on Valentine’s Day, but on any day of the year! (NPR) This reminds me of Punch Drunk Love. Perhaps Adam Sandler’s best movie.

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