Editor denies NSA leaks endangered any lives
LONDON — The editor of the Guardian said Tuesday that his newspaper has published just 1 percent of the material it received from former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, and denied that the paper had placed lives or national security at risk.
Alan Rusbridger was questioned by Parliament’s home affairs committee as part of a session on counterterrorism.
The Guardian has published a series of stories based on leaks from Snowden disclosing the scale of telephone and Internet surveillance by spy agencies in the United States and Britain.
Rusbridger said the leak amounted to about 58,000 files and the newspaper had published “about 1 percent” of the total.
“I would not expect us to be publishing a huge amount more,” he said.
Government and intelligence officials have said the leaks compromised British security and aided terrorists. Britain’s top three spy chiefs said last month that al-Qaida and other terror groups were “rubbing their hands in glee” in the wake of Snowden’s leaks.
Palestinian officials urge pressure on Israel
RAMALLAH, West Bank – Senior Palestinians say the diplomatic pressure that produced the nuclear deal with Iran – world powers negotiating jointly in Geneva and wielding the stick of sanctions – should now be applied to the long-festering Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The call for emulating the “Geneva model” is a result of plummeting faith in the traditional formula of U.S.-mediated talks with Israel that produced two decades of failures. With the current round in trouble, Palestinians are grasping at alternatives.
“What happened in Geneva is a model that proves that if the world wants something, then it can achieve it,” said chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat. “If they want to achieve peace and stability, then the (Israeli) occupation is no less dangerous than nuclear weapons.”
Others around Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have made the same point in recent days, though Abbas himself has not spoken on the matter.
N. Korea airs apology by U.S. war veteran
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea state media claimed Saturday that an elderly U.S. tourist detained for more than a month has apologized for alleged crimes during the Korean War and for “hostile acts” against the state during a recent trip.
North Korean authorities released video showing 85-year-old Merrill Newman, wearing glasses, a blue button-down shirt and tan trousers, reading his alleged apology, which was dated Nov. 9 and couldn’t be independently confirmed.
Pyongyang has been accused of previously coercing statements from detainees
“I have been guilty of a long list of indelible crimes against DPRK government and Korean people,” Newman purportedly wrote in a four-page statement, adding: “Please forgive me.”
It wasn’t clear what would happen to Newman now.
Associated Press
