 |
| Mohammed Alhassan, Inspector General of Police |
By Christian Kpesese
Mohammed Ayorogo, a 24 year old dispatched rider was
allegedly knocked down by a police vehicle and instead of taking him into their
car; the police put him in the boot of a taxi.
They allegedly drove him straight to the
mortuary at the police hospital and ordered the attendant to put him in the
freezer.
No medical officer had pronounced Mohammed dead
and protests from the attendant were ignored by the policemen who told him
(attendant) to just take instructions.
Now, the family of Mohammed says it is
disappointed by the reluctance of the police administration to prosecute the
policemen involved and compensate them.
In a petition signed and
copied to the Insight by a brother to
the late victim, Mr Richard Ayorogo appealed to government through the Attorney
General and Minister of Justice, the Ministry of Interior and the Inspector
General of Police to ensure justice by expediting action on the prosecution of
the culprits.
They are
alleged to be from the Rapid Deployment Force at the Police Headquarters.
The victim who was a dispatch rider with the
Royal Dutch Pharmacy was allegedly knocked down from the opposite direction by
a Police van which veered off its lane against traffic when he was riding on
the company`s official motor-bike with registration number M- 10- GR- 96 on
that sad day from Abokobi towards Accra around 3:00 pm.
According
to Mr Richard Ayorogo the victim’s lifeless body was found at the Police
mortuary in Accra the following day in bizarre circumstances.
The
petitioner lamented the carefree attitude of the police whom he said did not
show any form of sympathy or support to the family during the burial and
funeral rites of his late brother.
The Director General of the Motor Traffic and
Transport Unit (MTTU) of the Ghana Police Service, ACP Angwutoge Awuni
confirmed the incident to the Insight in
an interview and said investigations have been completed by the police and the
docket on the case has been handed over to the Attorney- General’s Department
for advice.
He disclosed that, the police administration
will act immediately the Attorney General`s directive is issued on the case and
urged the family to remain calm.
Editorial
THE POLICE
The Ghana Police Service is undoubtedly doing a good job and
there are strong indications that the crime rate has gone down considerably.
Unfortunately, the image of the service
continues to be tarnished by the few bad nuts who are engaged in acts
unbecoming of police personnel.
The other
time, there was the report of a Police Inspector who was involved in robbery.
In this issue, we are carrying the petition of a
family whose member was knocked down by a police vehicle and the Police
Administration has failed to even sympathize with them.
There many more incidents and happenings which
do the image of the police no good.
We call
on the Inspector- General of Police to take urgent steps to deal with the bad
nuts in the Service.
The
Insight congratulates the Police for their good work but house cleaning is
necessary.
20th Anniversary of The
Insight Programme
DATE:
September 3, 2013-07-25 TIME: 10: 00am
VENUE: Freedom
Centre, Kokomlemle, Accra
10:
00am - Lecture
By Dr Tony Aidoo, on The media And National Development
11:
00am - Opening
of Exhibition by Honourable Mahama Ayariga Minister of Information
11:
30am Viewing
of Exhibition
12: 00noon
- Reception And Honouring of Those who
have contributed to the development of The Insight
Bringing the Office of the First Lady into Disrepute
 |
| Mrs Patience Jonathan |
By Akintokunbo Adejumo
I was about to write another article dealing with Africans’
penchant for power, abuse and perpetuation in power, and then our First Lady’s
excesses caught my imagination instead, and in a way, what I was going to write
was apt to the First Lady anyway.
I have studied and observed my people for
decades and, cultural relativism or not, some parts of our cultures need to be
discussed. Africans love power just for the love of it. Those Africans who
possess the power never seem to use it for the benefit of the weak. The African
man prefers to have power first rather than money, because he knows that when
he gets the power, he can always effortlessly get the wealth later. He needs
the power to deal with and be superior to his neighbours; he needs the power to
oppress his people; he needs the power to perpetuate all kinds of evil and
crime, hardly giving a thought to the repercussions or the end game that he
himself would die one day; he needs the power to carry out revenge against
imaginary and real enemies and rivals; he needs the power to steal audaciously
from his people and country. That is the African man for you.
The African leader misapplies and abuses power
without a second thought. This is probably part of our genetic make-up. Put a
uniform or any paraphernalia of authority on the African (male or female) and
you have made him/her a mini-god. You have virtually given him immortality and
immunity from worldly inconveniences. You have virtually given him/her the
licence to abuse you; to kill you, to oppress you.
The society is replete with
examples of this abuse and misapplication of power. Look at the police, the
military, and the paramilitary like customs, immigration, and drug enforcement
officers in Nigeria. Even lowly state employees like LASTMA, OYES or whatever
they call themselves think they are “The Authority” and you see their beastly,
rude, oppressive and brutal behaviours and attitudes against the members of the
public, who, incidentally, are their employers on the long run.
It is therefore no wonder that when some people
find themselves in positions of power and authority, they become power-drunk
and irresponsible. This is even made worse by the fact that these people
usually cheated or rigged or forced themselves into such responsible positions.
The result is a mockery of democracy and governance as we are experiencing in
Nigeria today, and as a matter of fact, in many African countries.
We often, mistakenly, regard politics as a game.
Well, if it is a game, then it is a perilous one, and should not be trivialised
as we often do, because playing or practicing of politics defines and impacts
the lives of millions of people; it defines their well-being and puts the
responsibility of looking after the welfare of millions of people squarely in
the hands of a few people who regard themselves as political leaders or simply,
politicians. If these few politicians fail, then the effect on the society is
massively fatal. Again, this is what we are experiencing now in Nigeria.
But back to our very own current First Lady: If
not for the abuse of power and office that we Africans so much love to
perpetrate, the Office of the First Lady should normally be a respectable and
welcome addition to good governance, responsibility and a healthy democratic
dispensation. It hardly matters if the position is catered for in the
Constitution or not. There normally should not be anything wrong with
respecting the wife of the President or Governor, and it is supposed to be a
position cum office where the wives contribute to the successful reign/rule of
their husbands and is complimentary and advantageous to helping their husbands
whilst in office. Mrs Obama and others before her have an Office of the First
Lady. Yes, the Office of the First Lady exists in the USA (although I am not
sure if it is entrenched in the Constitution of the United States, but it does
exists)
“The Office of the First Lady of the United
States is accountable to the First Lady of the United States for her to carry
out her duties as hostess of the White House, and is also in charge of all
social and ceremonial events of the White House. The First Lady has her own
staff that includes the White House Social Secretary, a Chief of Staff, Press
Secretary, Chief Floral Designer, Executive Chef, etc. The Office of the First
Lady is an entity of the White House Office, part of the Executive Office of
the President”. (Source: Wikipedia.
“The First Lady of Nigeria is the title of the
wife of the President of Nigeria. The Constitution of Nigeria does not create
an office for the country's First Lady or potential First Gentleman. However,
official funding and staff have been allocated to the First Lady of Nigeria
since the country's independence. The First Lady is addressed by the title, Her
Excellency”. (Source: Wikipedia)
But in Africa, where positions of authority and
power tend to make us drunk and irresponsible, it is adding more oil to the
fire and giving liberty to illegality and opportunity to oppress, loot the
treasury and generally obfuscate the masses and distort democracy, governance
and politics.
Imagine the wife of the local government
Chairman in Eket LG, Akwa Ibom State, having an "Office of the First Lady
of the Local Government Chairman" and the temerity to advertise it on the
pages of the newspapers a while ago.
Even the glamorous Mrs Victoria Gowon was not
that forward and impetuous. She was the first real First Lady of the nation.
The late Mrs Maryam Babangida, despite my misgivings about her husband, was
also very modest. So was Mrs Maryam Abacha, despite the despotic rule of her
husband. The late Mrs Stella Obasanjo knew her place and her stand with her
husband, and kept her excesses to a minimum. It was only Mrs Turai Yar 'Adua
who was overly ambitious and conniving, but then she never pushed herself on
our faces like this our present First Lady is doing.
Dame Patience has rubbished that office and has
brought it into great disrepute and ridicule, but I am not surprised. Her
previous very lowly position in the Nigerian society is perhaps responsible for
making her behave like she does. She has to prove to the world that she has
arrived. And so has she, hasn't she? Paraphrasing the late Malcolm X,
“Nigerians did not land on Aso Rock; Aso Rock and Dame Jonathan landed on us”.
I would not want to go into historical details
but media is replete with Dame Jonathan’s excesses: disrespecting and insulting
a sitting governor, security agencies shutting down and paralysing whole towns
and cities just because she’s in town; doing away with protocol and bulldozing
her way in front of her husband, the President and Commander-in-Chief; politicising
her Office or position; her greed and corruption; and generally imposing
herself on us – she is even accused of ordering Federal ministers around.
And with a rather lame husband behind her,
literally, we are not surprised. He doesn't seem to fit the image of a proper
African husband (pardon me if I sound chauvinistic here) but there it is. A
husband should be able to exercise some control over his wife's behaviour, not
only within the confines of their house, but externally, especially when you are
the leader and boss of 150 million people.
Dame Patience needs to respect the law and
behave with decorum, protocol and some measure of dignity. Her husband did not
become President by her doing; it is the people of Nigeria that voted him into
Aso Rock and these people warrant to be served with all respect and humility.
She should stay in their home, built for them by Nigerians, and work with her
husband, and her husband’s political rivals, to put this country right; but
using her temporary office to disturb the peace of the nation can have very
serious repercussion on herself. She’s not going to be First Lady forever.
Her attitude is inappropriate, hence an affront
on our collective psyche. She must be called to order. I am not sure where she
got the title of “Dame” from, but if she knows what is expected of a proper
Dame, and what it means to the holder of that title and the public, she will
bury her head in perpetual shame.
However, her behaviour and lack of decorum might
not be unconnected with her interests in politics. According to Sahara
Reporters of Sunday, 14 July 2013 “Mrs. Jonathan, who is notorious for greed
and corruption, has acquired extensive landed properties in both Rivers and
Bayelsa states. Her desire to control the politics of her home state of Rivers
State is a big element in a simmering political crisis that turned bloody last
week. Lawmakers loyal to Mrs. Jonathan stormed the state legislature with a
contingent of thugs in a daring attempt to hijack the leadership of the
legislative body. Outraged by the absurd turn of events, Nobel laureate Prof
Wole Soyinka called on President Jonathan to restrain his wife’s meddlesomeness
in the governance of Rivers State. You may wish to know that Mrs. Jonathan had
bankrolled the lavish wedding ceremony of one of the four lawmakers who
spearheaded the chaos in the state assembly”.
Perhaps that explains it all, perhaps not. The
problem is that we are not hearing her own side of the story, and maybe for
good reasons too, else any attempt by her to defend herself may fall flat and
make it worse for her and her husband and the Presidency. Who knows, the party
might even be affected since these days there is no clear delineation between
the Party and the Government.
Many state governors’ wives or first ladies are
also prone to excesses, and they should and must be curbed. However one should
recognise and commend some current and former States first ladies such as Mrs
Abimbola Fashola of Lagos; Mrs Onarie Duke, former first lady of Cross River;
former first lady of Lagos, now Senator Remi Tinubu; and Mrs Eki Igbinedion,
formerly of Edo State (I always thought it would have been better to elect her
rather than her dim, clueless and corrupt husband). With these ladies, you can
see and feel the class and modesty and humility and of substance, combined with
their breeding and education. Most of the northern governors’ wives are
virtually unknown to the public for obvious reasons, and so few of them had the
opportunity to behave recklessly, irresponsibly and impetuously.
Dame Patience has brought the position or Office
of the First Lady of the Federation of Nigeria into absolute disrepute. Despite
her age, which I don’t know, she is regarded as a Mother of the Nation, a
mother to 150 million people; but is she behaving as a mother? Therein lays the
problem.
Humility is the quality of being modest or
respectful, even when you possess power, authority and wealth. Humility, in
various interpretations, is widely seen as a virtue in many religious and
philosophical traditions, being connected with notions of egoless-ness. Dame
Patience apparently does not consider humility as a virtue.
It is no use proffering solutions; we are beyond
that. We all should know better. And if we don’t, a word is enough for the
wise. We are not going to be in any position forever.
Let the Truth be said always, I always maintain.
 |
| Late President Mills |
By Nana Akua Tweneboah-Koduah
He was described in various ways at a poignant
commemorative lecture marking the first anniversary of his passing at the Accra
International Conference Centre on Monday July 22.
Professor Kwamena Ahwoi of the Ghana Institute of
Management and Public Administration who delivered the first memorial lecture
did not disappoint the huge crowd who turned out to hear the innumerable roles
that the late President John Evans Fiifi Atta Mills had played in Ghana and
beyond.
We heard about President Mills as a sports
administrator, an internationalist, educationist, a President we could trust,
the politician, the tax administrator, the intellectual, the lawyer, the
sportsman, the family man, the religious man, the oil and gas man, his role in
agriculture, infrastructure development, the promises he kept and finally how
he earned the Asomdweehen accolade.
Professor Ahwoi touched the hearts of many when he stated
that, “Let Ghana use the death of President Mills to unite. Let his death
remind us of the reason why we named him “Asomdweehen”.
Professor Ahwoi added, “Wherever Prof is on the
anniversary of his death I am sure he is talking to us addressing us with his
famous salutation ‘my dear Brothers and Sisters’, and imploring us to live by
the words in the epistle of Paul to the Philippians 4:8 -Finally, brothers and
sisters, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things
are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things
are if good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything
praiseworthy – meditate on these things.”
“And verily, verily Prof says to us, as you
meditate on these things, be sure of one thing – Ghana shall not die. Ghana
shall live to give glory to God”, Professor Ahwoi thundered as he got a
standing ovation.
Professor Ahwoi stated that the evidence that
President Mills was someone you could trust was simply too abundant to be missed.
“That is why many believe that even in death his promises will continue to be
kept. That is why many interpreted the date of his death, 24/7/12, to mean that
he would keep watch over us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 12 months a year
– in other words, forever.”
In describing President Mills as a gas an oil
man, Professor Ahwoi told the gathering that large scale petroleum production
started during his time and Ghana became a petroleum producing and exporting
country in his usual modesty.
“President Mills would not take the credit alone
in his 2010 State of the Nation Address, as stated as follows: Kwame Nkrumah
laid the foundation for oil and gas exploitation in Ghana; Jerry John Rawlings
created the institutional framework for its exploitation; The oil and gas was
struck in commercial quantities in the period of John Agyekum Kufuor; Actual
commercial exploitation is beginning in the period of John Evans Atta Mills. In
between, others have played their part. My vision is to use the oil and gas discovery
to transform the Ghanaian economy from its over-dependence on primary raw
materials to a diversified, prosperous 21st century industrial
nation”, Prof Ahwoi stressed.
Touching on President Mills as a Family Man,
Prof Ahwoi noted that he believed so much in the innate goodness of all human
beings. “When people were plotting against him, he preferred to leave it to God
because as he put it, “God is in control”, he added.
“Perhaps it was this humanism that led people to
criticise him that as a politician, ‘he did not have fire in his belly”. I can
imagine Prof retorting to such critics as follows, “Fire burns, I don’t want to
burn anybody”, Prof Ahwoi said amidst laughter from the audience.
FGJ ON PROF MILLS
 |
| Late Ghanaian President Mills |
It is
with solemn reflection and deep appreciation of unity and tranquility that the
Forum for Governance and Justice (FGJ) calls on Ghanaians at this special time
to reminisce on the sad event that befell us on 24th of July 2012;
the painful demise of our beloved President, Prof. John Evans Fiifi Atta Mills.
Clearly,
this sad event was a shock to our nation, which left everybody in a state of
mourning. However, we demonstrated unity and a sense of maturity even in grief,
as exhibited by the enviable smooth transfer of power within six hours to then
Vice President of the republic and now President, H.E. John Dramani Mahama.
Indeed, we showed a belief in the rule of law, respect for the constitution and
upheld our national interest.
As we
mark the first anniversary of his untimely departure, FGJ urges all Ghanaians
to bond together in this period as a sign of the indivisible unity that our
late President Mills stood for. This anniversary should be a timely chord of
unity that should bind the petitioners and respondents in the electoral
petition together, as we all live in anticipation for the verdict of the
Supreme Court. At this critical time in our history, we need to employ the
virtues of Peace and Love for one another in consonance to what President Mills
stood for, which earned him the designation 'Asomdweehene'.
We
further call on the NPP and the NDC to comprehensively engage their grass root
supporters by preparing their minds to maintain the peace after the verdict,
while refraining from provocative acts that could have the potential of
eliciting reactions from opponents. The onus lies on the leadership of both
political parties in the epochal Supreme Court case to influence the conduct of
their followers to maintain the political stability and peace we are enjoying
in our country today.
We
conclude by extending our heartfelt condolence to the widow, Dr. Naadu Mills
and the late President’s family. We again urge all Ghanaians to emulate the
values that the late President stood for, and to continue to uphold the
national interest, our unity and peace in the years to come. May his soul
continue to rest in perfect Peace.
Signed, Signed,
Robert
Afulimi Daniel Thiombiano Lompo
Director
Of Communications National
Organizer
(0248208127) (0245280025)
Please Stop This Embarrassment Called Mrs. Patience
Jonathan
 |
| Mr and Mrs Jonathan |
By Joe Igbokwe
Nigerians must speak out now to stop this embarrassment
called Mrs. Patience Jonathan. Those who knew this woman before President
Goodluck Jonathan became the President told us that what is unfolding today at
the presidency had been a reoccurring decimal when Jonathan was a Deputy
Governor, a governor and Vice President. We were told then that Mrs. Patience
Jonathan must always have her way no matter what is at stake. We heard stories
of bizarre things that happened in her days at Bayelsa State House as Deputy
Governor’s wife or the Governor’s wife. All these were ignored because she was
confined to a small State called Bayelsa but now she is the Nigerian first
lady, events are unfolding and they are so unhealthy to the presidency and
governance of the country.
Shortly after President GEJ was sworn in as
President, her deficiency began to manifest. Comportment, carriage, finesse,
decency, prestige, honour and glory that go with the exalted position began to
suffer. Any public outing becomes a big embarrassment to President Jonathan and
Nigerians. Her public engagements became unbecoming of anybody that is
privileged to be called the wife of the President of Nigeria. These
embarrassments were of public knowledge and even at the presidency, the matter
was well-known but nothing was done to stop the ridicule. Nobody quarreled with
President Jonathan because Dame Patience is his wife but we expected that he
would have put his feet down and ensured that his wife went for training or
back to school to learn few things about social graces and carriage. If it was
impossible for her to humble herself to learn, the president would have
confined her to the State House to prepare food for him. But President Jonathan
did not do any of these. He pretended that nothing is lost and that probably
the woman will learn through practice. But has she learnt anything? Not to my
knowledge. Her reckless and primitive use of State power has gotten into her
head, her mouth, her eyes, her mind, her heart, her soul, her system.
Today, her unrestricted movements and engagement
have dented the presidency and Nigeria’s image. Her encounter with Governor
Amaechi sometime ago in Port Harcourt was an eye opener of what to expect. In a
public function, she grabbed the microphone and began to direct the sitting
Governor that his demolition of shanties in Port Harcourt is unacceptable.
Governor Amaechi was stunned into disbelief but he restrained himself for the
respect he has for Mr. President. Mrs. Patience did not stop there. Anytime she
goes to any State, commuters suffer excruciating pains because there will be no
movement until she cruises in and out. Last year, Dame Patience came to Lagos
on a mission that is yet not too clear except the position put forth by her
handlers that she came to thank Lagos women for supporting her husband in the
2011 election. For the duration of her visit, Lagos was shut down and Lagosians
went through excruciating torture moving about and carying out their normal
duties. Last year also, she was said to have stormed Warri to open a boutique
and the whole town was shut down. Tales of woes have been told of these
excesses in other cities she visited but even the presidency paid no attention.
The present unavoidable and unfortunate crisis
in Rivers State has also exposed the excesses, recklessness, the timid use of
power to achieve diabolical ends. An anti Amaechi lawmaker in Rivers State
House of Assembly said Dame Patience Jonathan is his Jesus Christ on earth.
This statement at once exposed the neck-deep involvement of Dame Patience
Jonathan in the dangerous political game being played in Rivers State that may
derail our hard-earned democracy if the presidency fails to act.
Now the questions are: do we have a
constitutional provision for the office of the first lady in the 1999
constitution? Did anybody elect Mrs. Jonathan for any post in Nigeria? Is there
anything like the office of the first lady in Nigeria? What is pushing this
limited educated wife of the President to indulge in this show of power and
strength? Why is the presidency keeping quiet about this abuse of privilege?
Why is the National Assembly deaf and dumb on these abuses of privileges by Dame
Patience Jonathan and the wanton excesses she is manifesting in the polity? Why
is the Council of States keeping mute on these unwarranted embarrassments from
Mrs. Patience Jonathan? Apart from a voice from the global personality called
Professor Wole Soyinka, what are the elders of Nigeria saying about this mess
and shame? Why are the women not speaking out? Why this deafening silence? What
about the intelligentsia, the University teachers? Why are the lawyers not
speaking? What of labour? If a writer is silent, he or she is lying.
Now, we must stop this nonsense. Those who knew
nothing about this democracy we are enjoying today are working 24 hours a day
to scuttle the hard earned system of government, but we must not allow this.
Elders must speak out for the children to hear. President Jonathan must have
the courage to call his wife to order. Dame Patience is not too old to go back
to school to help herself. I am 100% sure that if she had a better education,
she would have understood her limits and where to stop as the President’s wife.
This is a lesson to all women whose husbands
have political ambition. Go and help yourself, go to school, learn the art of
carriage, learn finesse, learn self control, learn diplomacy, learn public
speaking, understand your limitations, read voraciously, learn about dignity
and integrity, discipline and respect for constituted authority.
When the NSA can't break into your computer, these
guys break into your house.
By Matthew M. Aid
During a coffee break at an intelligence conference held in
The Netherlands a few years back, a senior Scandinavian counterterrorism
official regaled me with a story. One of his service's surveillance teams was
conducting routine monitoring of a senior militant leader when they suddenly
noticed through their high-powered surveillance cameras two men breaking into
the militant's apartment. The target was at Friday evening prayers at the local
mosque. But rather than ransack the apartment and steal the computer equipment
and other valuables while he was away -- as any right-minded burglar would
normally have done -- one of the men pulled out a disk and loaded some programs
onto the resident's laptop computer while the other man kept watch at the
window. The whole operation took less than two minutes, then the two
trespassers fled the way they came, leaving no trace that they had ever been
there.
It did not take long for the official to determine that the
two men were, in fact, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operatives conducting
what is known in the U.S. intelligence community as either a "black bag
job" or a "surreptitious entry" operation. Back in
the Cold War, such a mission might have involved cracking safes, stealing code
books, or photographing the settings on cipher machines. Today, this kind of
break-in is known inside the CIA and National Security Agency as an
"off-net operation," a clandestine human intelligence mission whose
specific purpose is to surreptitiously gain access to the computer systems and
email accounts of targets of high interest to America's spies. As we've learned
in recent weeks, the National Security Agency's ability to electronically
eavesdrop from afar is massive. But it is
not infinite. There are times when the agency cannot gain access to the
computers or gadgets they'd like to listen in on. And so they call in the CIA's
black bag crew for help.
The CIA's clandestine service is now conducting these sorts
of black bag operations on behalf of the NSA, but at a tempo not seen since the
height of the Cold War. Moreover, these missions, as well as a series of
parallel signals intelligence (SIGINT)
collection operations conducted by the CIA's Office of Technical Collection,
have proven to be instrumental in facilitating and improving the NSA's SIGINT
collection efforts in the years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Over the past decade specially-trained CIA clandestine
operators have mounted over one hundred extremely sensitive black bag jobs
designed to penetrate foreign government and military communications and
computer systems, as well as the computer systems of some of the world's
largest foreign multinational corporations. Spyware software has been secretly
planted in computer servers; secure telephone lines have been bugged; fiber
optic cables, data switching centers and telephone exchanges have been tapped;
and computer backup tapes and disks have been stolen or surreptitiously copied
in these operations.
In other words, the CIA has become instrumental in setting
up the shadowy surveillance dragnet that has now been thrown into public view.
Sources within the U.S. intelligence community confirm that since 9/11, CIA
clandestine operations have given the NSA access to a number of new and
critically important targets around the world, especially in China and
elsewhere in East Asia, as well as the Middle East, the Near East, and South
Asia. (I'm not aware of any such operations here on U.S. soil.)
In one
particularly significant operation conducted a few years back in a
strife-ridden South Asian nation, a team of CIA technical operations officers
installed a sophisticated tap on a switching center servicing several
fiber-optic cable trunk lines, which has allowed NSA to intercept in real time
some of the most sensitive internal communications traffic by that country's
general staff and top military commanders for the past several years.
In
another more recent case, CIA case officers broke into a home in Western Europe
and surreptitiously loaded Agency-developed spyware into the personal computer
of a man suspected of being a major recruiter for individuals wishing to fight
with the militant group al-Nusra Front in Syria, allowing CIA operatives to
read all of his email traffic and monitor his Skype calls on his computer.
The fact that the NSA and CIA now work so closely together
is fascinating on a number of levels. But it's particularly remarkable
accomplishment, given the fact that the two agencies until fairly recently
hated each others' guts.
Ingenues and TBARs
As detailed in my history of the NSA, The
Secret Sentry, the CIA and NSA had what could best be
described as a contentious relationship during the Cold War era. Some NSA
veterans still refer to their colleagues at the CIA as 'TBARs,' which stands
for 'Those Bastards Across the River,' with the river in question being the
Potomac. Perhaps reflecting their higher level of educational accomplishment,
CIA officers have an even more lurid series of monikers for their NSA
colleagues at Fort Meade, most of which cannot be repeated in polite company
because of recurring references to fecal matter. One retired CIA official
described his NSA counterparts as "a bunch of damn ingenues." Another
CIA veteran perhaps put it best when he described the Cold War relationship
amongst and between his agency and the NSA as "the best of enemies."
The historical antagonism between the two agencies started
at the top. Allen W. Dulles, who was the director of the CIA from 1953 to 1961,
disliked NSA director General Ralph Canine so intensely that he deliberately
kept the NSA in the dark about a number of the agency's high-profile SIGINT
projects, like the celebrated Berlin
Tunnel cable tapping
operation in the mid-1950s. The late Richard M. Helms, who was director of the
CIA from 1966 to 1973, told me over drinks at the Army-Navy Club in downtown
Washington, D.C. only half jokingly that during his thirty-plus years in the
U.S. intelligence community, his relations with the KGB were, in his words,
"warmer and more collegial" than with the NSA. William E. Colby, who
served as Director of Central Intelligence from 1973-1976, had the same
problem. Colby was so frustrated by his inability to assert any degree of
control over the NSA that he told a congressional committee that "I think
it is clear I do not have command authority over the [NSA]." And the
animus between CIA director Admiral Stansfield Turner (CIA director from
1977-1981) and his counterpart at the NSA, Admiral Bobby Ray Inman, was so
intense that they could only communicate through intermediaries.
But the 9/11 terrorist attacks changed the operational
dynamic between these two agencies, perhaps forever. In the thirteen years
since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the NSA and CIA have largely, but not
completely, moved past the Cold War animus. In addition, both agencies have
become increasingly dependent on one another for the success of their
respective intelligence operations, leading to what can best be described as an
increasingly close symbiotic relationship between these two titans of the U.S.
intelligence community.
While the increasingly intimate relationship between the NSA
and CIA is not a secret, the specific nature and extent of the work that each
agency does for the other is deemed to be extremely sensitive, especially since
many of these operations are directed against friends and allies of the United
States. For example, the Special Collection Service (SCS), the secretive joint
CIA-NSA clandestine SIGINT organization based in Beltsville, Maryland, now
operates more than 65 listening posts inside U.S. embassies and consulates
around the world. While recent media reports have focused on the presence of
SCS listening posts in certain Latin America capitals, intelligence sources
confirm that most of the organization's resources have been focused over the
past decade on the Middle East, South Asia, and East Asia. For example,
virtually every U.S. embassy in the Middle East now hosts a SCS SIGINT station
that monitors, twenty-four hours a day, the complete spectrum of electronic
communications traffic within a one hundred mile radius of the embassy site.
The biggest problem that the SCS currently faces is that it has no presence in
some of the U.S. intelligence community's top targets, such as Iran and North
Korea, because the U.S. government has no diplomatic relations with these countries.
At the same time, SIGINT coming from the NSA has become a
crucial means whereby the CIA can not only validate the intelligence it gets
from its oftentimes unreliable agents, but SIGINT has been, and remains the
lynchpin underlying the success over the past nine years of the CIA's secret
unmanned drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere around the world.
But the biggest changes have occurred in the CIA's human
intelligence (HUMINT) collection efforts on behalf of NSA. Over the past
decade, foreign government telecommunications and computer systems have become
one of the most important targeting priorities of the CIA's National
Clandestine Service (NCS), which since the spring of this year has been headed
by one of the agency's veteran Africa and Middle East hands. The previous
director, Michael J. Sulick, is widely credited with making HUMINT collection
against foreign computer and telecommunications systems one of the service's
top priority targets after he rose to the top of the NCS in September 2007.
Today, a cadre of several hundred CIA NCS case officers,
known as Technical Operations Officers, have been recruited and trained to work
exclusively on penetrating foreign communications and computer systems targets
so that NSA can gain access to the information stored on or transmitted by
these systems. Several dozen of these officers now work fulltime in several
offices at NSA headquarters at Fort George G. Meade, something which would have
been inconceivable prior to 9/11.
CIA operatives have also intensified their efforts to
recruit IT specialists and computer systems operators employed by foreign
government ministries, major military command headquarters staffs, big foreign
multinational corporations, and important international non-governmental
organizations.
Since 9/11, the NCS has also developed a variety of
so-called "black boxes" which can quickly crack computer passwords,
bypass commercially-available computer security software systems, and clone
cellular telephones -- all without leaving a trace. To use one rudimentary
example, computer users oftentimes forget to erase default accounts and
passwords when installing a system, or incorrectly set protections on computer
network servers or e-mail accounts. This is a vulnerability which operatives
now routinely exploit.
For many countries in the world, especially in the
developing world, CIA operatives can now relatively easily obtain telephone
metadata records, such as details of all long distance or international
telephone calls, through secret liaison arrangements with local security
services and police agencies.
America's European allies are a different story. While the
connections between the NSA and, for example, the British signals intelligence
service GCHQ are well-documented, the CIA has a harder time obtaining personal
information of British citizens. The same is true in Germany, Scandinavia and
the Netherlands, which have also been most reluctant to share this sort of data
with the CIA. But the French intelligence and security services have continued
to share this sort of data with the CIA, particularly in counterterrorism
operations.
U.S. intelligence officials are generally comfortable with
the new collaboration. Those I have spoken to over the past three weeks have
only one major concern. The fear is that details of these operations, including
the identities of the targets covered by these operations, currently reside in
the four laptops reportedly held by Edward Snowden, who has spent the past
three weeks in the transit lounge at Sheremetyevo Airport outside Moscow
waiting for his fate to be decided. Officials at both the CIA and NSA know that
the public disclosure of these operations would cause incalculable damage to
U.S. intelligence operations abroad as well as massive embarrassment to the
U.S. government. If anyone wonders why the U.S. government wants to get its
hands on Edward Snowden and his computers so badly, this is an important reason
why.
Mafia
The Italian mafia is ramping up
investment in wind farms to launder money and benefit from EU subsidies.
Europol reports winds farms, and
renewable energy in general, are the most popular target for laundering money,
after analysing the financial activities of Italy's four mafia groups.
"The Italian mafia is
investing more and more in renewable energy, especially in wind farms, to
profit from generous European grants paid for by member states which allow them
to mix dirty money with legitimate economic activities," the report
said.
The renewables industry – is one
of the country’s most promising sectors that have surged even as the rest of
the economy slid into recession, globalpost.com reports. Developers built
more wind and solar plants in 2012 than in any previous year, and added 5,000
jobs to a country racked with unemployment, according to the article.
The boom is explained by the most
generous renewable incentives in the world, globalpost.com quotes Andrea
Gilardoni, an economist at Milan’s Bocconi University.
“They were so high that all
kinds of people have become involved,” he said. “Even cats and
dogs can make money in this kind of climate.”
The government gave out more than
$75 billion to producers of wind and solar energy over the past six years,
doubling and sometimes even tripling their revenues, globalpost.com
reports.
Earlier this year Italy made its
biggest confiscation of mafia assets in history, including dozens of
alternative energy companies worth a total of over $1.6 billion, Reuters quotes
police.
The owner Vito Nicastri, a
57-year-old businessman , once dubbed the "Lord of the Wind" because
of his vast wind farm holdings, invested money made from extortion, drug sales,
and other illicit activities for Matteo Messina Denaro, believed to be the Cosa
Nostra's boss of bosses, Reuters quotes police.
Italy's main crime groups, the Cosa
Nostra, 'Ndrangheta, and the Camorra from the southern city of Naples, have an
annual turnover of 116 billion euros, according to the United Nations Office on
Drugs and Crime. That is more than the annual sales of Italy's biggest
company, oil giant Eni.
ALL IS SET
FOR BISEASE ABANGYE FESTIVAL
 |
| King Ayisoba |
By Theodore M.K. Viwotor
The Ajumako Bisease Township is witnessing massive
preparations and an inflow of visitors from across the world as the Chiefs and
people gear up for the Bisease Abangye Festival that takes off from July 29 to
August 5.
The people are upbeat about the
festival that is expected to unite them, promote peace and stimulate
development as citizens identify and tackle the problems affecting their growth
in line with the theme for this year’s festival, “Development in Unity”.
Ajumako Bisease Hene and Adontehene
of Ajumako Traditional Area, Nana Okofo Kwakora-Gyan III, is calling on
citizens of the area home and abroad, Ghanaians and tourists to come home and
savor the proverbial Ghanaian hospitality and rich culture as they mingle
together in unity and love.
He is hopeful the event would
contribute to easing tension in the country ahead of the declaration of the
Presidential Election Petition verdict by the Supreme Court, considering that
it would help Ghanaians from the various political divide to appreciate the
need to live together to continually enjoy the peace prevailing in the country.
Nana Kwakora-Gyan III is also using
the opportunity to appeal to Ghanaians to accept the verdict of the Supreme
Court, disclosing that the case represents the greatest test of Ghana’s
democracy and “we as a nation have a responsibility to prevent anything that
has the potential of destroying all we have worked for over the years.”
The Abangye Festival is a
commemoration of the protection of properties of warriors during the days of
war. The warriors kept their belongings under a big tree and protected the tree
with palm branches. They came back to find their items intact. The cutting of
the branches also helped them count the citizens since each person was required
to participate in it. It is held yearly on the
first Friday of August.
Activities for the Festival include
clean-up and keep fit exercises, Asafo Akwambo cutting of palm trees, Parading
of Twins, Football Gala and games, Cooking competition, a Durbar of Chiefs,
Fund Raising and Crowning of Miss Abangye which takes place on August 2.
The legendary King Ayisoba will lead
an array of artistes to make the festival very lively.
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