Spy agency seeks criminal probe into leaks

By Timothy Gardner and Mark Hosenball

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. intelligence agency requested a criminal probe on Saturday into the leak of highly classified information about secret surveillance programs run by the National Security Agency, a spokesman for the intelligence chief's office said.

Confirmation that the NSA filed a "crimes report" came a few hours after the nation's spy chief, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper launched an aggressive defense of a secret government data collection program.

Clapper blasted what he called "reckless disclosures" of a highly classified spy agency project code-named PRISM.

It was not known how broad a leaks investigation was requested by the super-secret NSA, but Shawn Turner, a spokesman for Clapper's office, said a "crimes report has been filed."

The report goes to the Justice Department, which has established procedures for determining whether an investigation is warranted. Prosecutors do not accept all requests, but they have brought a series of high-profile leak investigations under President Barack Obama. U.S. officials said the NSA leaks were so astonishing they expected the Justice Department to take the case.

A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment.

In a statement earlier on Saturday, Clapper acknowledged PRISM's existence by name for the first time and said it had been mischaracterized by the media. The project was legal, not aimed at U.S. citizens and had thwarted threats against the country, he said.

"Over the last week we have seen reckless disclosures of intelligence community measures used to keep Americans safe," Clapper said in a statement.

He said the surveillance activities reported in the Washington Post and Britain's Guardian newspaper were lawful and conducted under authorities approved by Congress. "Significant misimpressions" have resulted from recent articles, he said.

ESCALATING BATTLE

Clapper's comments were the latest development in an escalating battle over government spying and civil liberties, involving the Obama administration and news organizations that have published details of U.S. data-mining efforts.

Clapper's statement discussed in general terms what had been until Thursday an unknown and highly classified program. It made a rare public acknowledgement that U.S. spy agencies obtained data from U.S. telecommunications providers, but defended the practice as legal and regulated by courts.

"The United States Government does not unilaterally obtain information from the servers of U.S. electronic communication service providers. All such information is obtained with FISA Court approval and with the knowledge of the provider," said a fact sheet accompanying Clapper's statement, referring to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Court.

PRISM, characterized in news reports as a top-secret National Security Agency program for extracting data from the computers of internet companies, in reality is an "internal government computer system" used to "facilitate" the government's handling of information it collects from service providers, according to the fact sheet.

The reports this week said the surveillance program involving internet firms and established under Republican President George W. Bush in 2007, had seen "exponential growth" under Obama, a Democrat. It said the NSA increasingly relied on PRISM as a source of raw material for dailyintelligence reports to the president.

The news reports included PowerPoint slides showing that major Internet companies such as Yahoo, Google, Facebook and a half-dozen others were involved in the program.

Alan Rusbridger, editor-in-chief of the Guardian, had no comment on Clapper's statement. Washington Post spokeswoman Kris Coratti said the company had no comment.

'APPROPRIATE FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE PURPOSE'

Internet providers have said they knew nothing about any NSA collection program called PRISM and that they have only cooperated with legal government requests for data.

The government can only target someone for internet surveillance if "there is an appropriate, and documented foreign intelligence purpose" for collection, the fact sheet said.

Those purposes include countering terrorism, weapons proliferation and cyber threats, Clapper said in the statement. He did not further explain how those broad targeting guidelines were used in practice.

Previous administration statements in the wake of leaks about the NSA program had not mentioned that it was gathering information related to cyber threats and weapons proliferation.

The Guardian published a story on Saturday, based on what it said were more leaked classified NSA documents, about what it described as an internal agency data mining tool created to track the focus of NSA's efforts to collect "metadata" - primitive raw information about message traffic - from around the world.

The newspaper said that a different NSA fact sheet it obtained said that the tool, code-named Boundless Informant, "allows users to select a country on a map and view the metadata volume and select details about the collections against that country."

The Guardian said documents showed NSA collected "almost 3 billion" pieces of intelligence from U.S. computer networks over a period ending in March 2013. It said the new documents raised questions about what NSA had told Congress about its inability to keep close track on the extent to which it inadvertently collects information about messages sent by Americans.

(Writing by David Ingram; Editing by Warren Strobel and Peter Cooney)

Turkey rules out early polls, thousands defy call to end protest

Riot police use a water cannon against anti-government protesters as others run away during a demonstration in central Ankara, June 9, 2013. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic

A protester shows a placard as a crowd gathers in central Ankara, June 9, 2013. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic

By Nick Tattersall and Ece Toksabay

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party on Saturday ruled out early elections as tens of thousands of anti-government demonstrators defied his call for an immediate end to protests.

Huseyin Celik, deputy chairman of the Justice and Development (AK) Party founded by Erdogan just over a decade ago, said local and presidential elections would be held next year as planned, and a general election in 2015.

"The government is running like clockwork. There is nothing that necessitates early elections," he told reporters after a meeting of the party's executive committee in Istanbul.

"The world is dealing with an economic crisis and things are going well in Turkey. Elections are not held because people are marching on the streets."

A few kilometres away, tens of thousands of Turks defied Erdogan's call on Friday for an immediate end to anti-government demonstrations, massing again in the central Taksim Square, where riot police backed by helicopters and armored vehicles first clashed with protesters a week ago.

Tourists and curious locals swelled their numbers around a makeshift protest camp in Gezi Park, a leafy corner of the square where activists have been sleeping in tents and vandalized buses, or wrapped in blankets under plane trees.

Senior AK officials said they had discussed calling a rally of their supporters in Istanbul or Ankara next week but no decision had yet been taken, with some party figures urging restraint for fear of provoking the situation on the streets.

What began as a campaign against government plans to build over the park spiraled into an unprecedented display of public anger over the perceived authoritarianism of Erdogan and his Islamist-rooted AK Party, leading to the worst riots in decades.

In a rare show of unity, thousands of fans from Istanbul's three main football clubs Besiktas, Galatasaray and Fenerbahce, who have helped organize some of the protests, marched on Taksim roaring "Tayyip resign!" and "Arm in arm against fascism!".

Police fired teargas and water cannon in the Kizilay district of central Ankara late on Saturday to try to disperse protesters blocking roads and burning bonfires in the streets.

There were similar scenes overnight in Istanbul's working-class Gazi neighborhood, which saw heavy clashes with police in the 1990s. Three people have been killed and close to 5,000 injured around the country since the violence began a week ago.

Thousands protested in Berlin, home to a large Turkish population, waving red Turkish flags and chanting "Occupy Gezi".

Erdogan has given no indication of plans to clear out Taksim, around which protesters have built dozens of barricades made of ripped up paving stones, street signs, vandalized vehicles and corrugated iron, clogging part of the city centre.

Police pulled back from the square days ago.

"Let them attack. They can't stop us," a member of the Turkish Communist Party shouted through loudspeakers to a cheering crowd from on top of a white van in the square.

Taksim is lined by luxury hotels that should be doing a roaring trade as the summer season starts in one of the world's most-visited cities. But a forced eviction might trigger a repeat of the clashes seen earlier in the week.

ANGER BOILS OVER

The gatherings mark a challenge to a leader whose authority is built upon three successive election victories. Erdogan takes the protests as a personal affront.

"Turkey is a democracy and it will prove its inner disposition in the face of these protests," German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle told Germany's Welt am Sonntag.

"Prime Minister Erdogan has a special responsibility to calm the situation and he has to be aware of that," he said.

Sources close to the AK Party speak of a sense of siege within the party leadership, with influential if disparate forces loath to break ranks publicly but worried about the extent of Erdogan's power and his uncompromising stance.

Erdogan has made little secret of his ambition to run for the presidency after his third term as prime minister comes to an end, although the AK Party could also change internal rules to allow him to stand for a fourth term.

Celik said the protests had been discussed "in detail" at Saturday's party meeting, but that the question of early elections had never been on the agenda.

"A government that doesn't have people's trust cannot be permanent. We got the message of the protests and we respect that, but there's nothing to respect about people throwing stones," he said.

Erdogan has made clear he has no intention of stepping aside - pointing to the AK Party's 50 percent of the vote in the last election - and has no clear rivals inside the party or out.

He has enacted many democratic reforms, taming a military that toppled four governments in four decades, starting entry talks with the European Union and forging peace talks with Kurdish rebels to end a three-decade-old war.

But in recent years, critics say his style, always forceful and emotional, has become authoritarian.

Media have come under pressure, opponents have been arrested over alleged coup plots, and moves such as restrictions on alcohol sales have unsettled secular middle-class Turks who are sensitive to any encroachment of religion on their daily lives.

"These protests are partly a result of his success in economic and social transformation. There's a new generation who doesn't want to be bullied by the prime minister and who is afraid their lifestyle is in danger," said Joost Lagendijk, a former European parliamentarian and Istanbul-based academic.

(Additional reporting by Parisa Hafezi in Ankara, Ece Toksabay in Istanbul, Stephen Brown and Michelle Martin in Berlin; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Bloodiest Week for Rhinos Ever?

Seven rhinos, their heads bloodied and their horns cut off, were found dead in the last week of May in five wildlife sanctuaries and national parks in different regions of Kenya. The rhinos had all been shot, one on a private ranch, Oserian Wildlife Sanctuary, where poachers were actually seen cutting off the animal’s horns.

The killing of the seven rhinos, and in sanctuaries specifically established to protect them, brings the number of rhinos killed so far this year in Kenya to 24. The attacks, writes Paula Kahumbu in the Guardian, seem to have been coordinated. No arrests have yet been made even though the poachers in the Oserian Wildlife Sanctuary were sighted.

30 rhinos were killed in 2012. It is not an exaggeration to say that, if this rate of killing continues in Kenya, the country’s remaining population of about 1,000 rhinos will be fast depleted, even by 2030 — in less than 20 years.

The Kenyan government has sought to assure the public that it has undertaken a wide-scale effort to pursue poachers. Just before the killings of the seven rhinos, Kenyan legislators had passed a motion to increase penalties for poaching. These are currently in the equivalent of $500; the new emergency legislation increases penalties to up to 15 years in jail and fines amounting to millions of shillings (a million Kenya shillings is equal to about $11,747.00).

The latest killings could, says Kahumbu, be seen as the poachers “collectively giving Kenyan lawmakers the proverbial finger.” Despite the government’s efforts, Kenya’s population of 43 million has been feeling that the poachers are, in effect, running the show.

The numbers of endangered animals killed in the past two years makes this too clear. According to the Kenya Wildlife Service, Kenya lost 384 elephants and 30 rhinos to criminals in 2012. By the end of May of this year, besides so many rhinos, Kenya has also lost 117 elephants, though experts think these estimates are low. Rhino deaths are even higher in South Africa, where 350 rhinos have been killed so far this year.

Nepal’s Success at Protecting Rhino

The fight against poachers is certainly a tremendous challenge, but it is not impossible. In Nepal, only one rhino was killed last year and one the year before.

While Nepal’s government faces numerous challenges (the country is one of the world’s poorest), its Prime Minister, Khilraj Regmi, has taken a “personal interest in the crisis” and created three new organizations to address wildlife crime. Law enforcement is now focusing on fighting traders. Communities, who receive 50 percent of the proceeds from parks, have gained from supporting and protecting the parks via voluntary patrols. The army’s presence in national parks has also been vastly increased from 7 posts to 51 posts in Chitwan National Park, where 503 of the country’s 534 rhinos live.

Demand for Rhino Horn Traced to Vietnam

The ever-growing economic might of Asia and its expanding middle class play a huge role in the demand for rhino horns. The reason is traditional Asian medicine (according to which rhino horns have healing and aphrodisiac properties) and, even more, the growing wealth of members of the middle class. In the case of rhino horns, the “nouveau riche” in Vietnam have been especially eager for traditional luxuries such as ornamental rhino horns. Rhino horn can fetch a price of up to $1,400 an ounce — almost the price of gold — in Vietnam.

As Richard Leakey, the former Director of the Kenya Wildlife Service says to the Guardian, “I am not surprised at this attack and when it comes time to do an accounting of our rhinos, I would be surprised if there were more than 500 individuals left in Kenya.”

Preserving Kenya’s wildlife is crucial for the country’s economy and reputation as a tourist destination. It is possible to crack down and get serious on creating and enforcing laws to protect rhinos. Can Kenya do so before its rhino count has dwindled into the three figures?

Read more: africa, asian medicine, endangered wildlife, kenya, rhino, rhino horn, rhinoceros, south africa, traditional chinese medicine, vietnam

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Activist Murdered for Protecting Sea Turtles

Last Friday morning, the bound and beaten body of Jairo Mora Sandoval, a 26-year-old sea turtle activist in Costa Rica, was found on Moín Beach on the Caribbean coast near Limón, the very place where he had labored to save endangered sea turtles and their eggs. Mora had been shot in the head and conservation groups are offering a $10,000 reward for his murder.

Mora, three American women and one from Spain who were volunteering as turtle surveyors, were kidnapped by armed men on Thursday night, says TicoTimes.net. The four women were let go unharmed.

Didiher Chacón, the coordinator for the Wider Caribbean Sea Turtle Conservation Network program, says that Mora’s killing “seemed like an act of revenge.” The activist had recently connected the poaching of turtle eggs to drug trafficking in a national newspaper. Poaching has indeed been linked to drug trafficking in Mexico, as turtle conservationist Wallace J. Nichols wrote in 2009.

Turtle eggs are believed to be an aphrodisiac in Costa Rica, according to TicoTimes.net. A single nest can contain as many as 200 eggs; a single turtle egg can fetch $1 on the black market.

Could Maro’s Death Have Been Prevented?

Back in April of 2012, poachers had raided a hatchery where volunteers were reburying turtle nests. The poachers tied up the volunteers and took all the eggs, says Vanessa Lizano, the head of a rescue center who frequently patrolled the beaches with Mora.

After the hatchery theft, armed police began to accompany the two activists on their night patrols. But Lizano was forced to leave her job as a volunteer coordinator for the Moín sea turtle program when she received a threat along with pictures of her young son. She still continued to work at the rescue center and to walk the beaches on weekends with Mora.

Turtles begin to lay their eggs in April. Limón police says they guard Moín beach four days a week, but the guarded night patrols did not continue. Mora’s awareness of the amount of danger to the turtles and to himself was apparent in an April 23rd Facebook message in which he asked that police come to Moín Beach. Noting that 60 turtles had been lost, Mora wrote “don’t be afraid, but just come armed.”

Limón police say they have interviewed nine people in connection with Mora’s killing and have turned over the information to Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Police to help in the investigation.

Conservationists have expressed widespread grief over Mora’s death, which, they say, could have been prevented in view of the hatchery theft and the threats to Lizano and her family. Arturo Rodríguez proclaims via Twitter that “Jairo Mora had to die so that the authorities would pay attention. And we are the happiest country in the world? I don’t think so.”

Todd Steiner, a wildlife biologist and executive director of SeaTurtles.org, emphasizes that “the whole world is watching to make sure the Costa Rican government brings these thugs to justice and makes sea turtle nesting beaches safe for conservationists to do their work.”

Costa Rica has become known for making ecotourism central to its economy and its president, Laura Chinchilla, has pledged on Twitter that “coordinated actions with Limón judicial authorities must insure no impunity” for those who killed Mora.” As Andrew Revkin writes in the New York Times, Chinchilla must make good on her pledge and seek justice for Mora by finding and prosecuting whoever killed him. It is the least that can be done to honor his heroic advocacy on behalf of Costa Rica’s endangered turtles.

Read more: costa rica, limon, poacher, poaching, turtle, turtle egg

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