Mexican Oil and Drug Cartels: Cocaine & Crude (Full Length)

Cyber attacks on Israel traced to Gaza

 WASHINGTON (AFP) -- A series of cyber attacks against Israel since mid-2013 appears to be coming from "Arab parties located in the Gaza Strip" and elsewhere, US security researchers say.


A research report by Trend Micro said the effort appears to be using "spear phishing" emails with an attachment disguised as a pornographic video.

When a user clicks on the attachment, it installs malware that allows for remote access of documents on the infected computer, the report said.

The researchers said in a report released Sunday that this highly targeted campaign dubbed "Arid Viper" is a sort of "smash-and-grab" first seen in the middle of 2013, and which uses network infrastructure located in Germany.

The security firm said those behind the scheme are using sophisticated methods with the goal of stealing sensitive data from Israeli-based organizations -- government, transport, military and academia and one organization based in Kuwait.

A similar campaign which uses some of the same techniques and infrastructure has also been hitting targets in Egypt. This less sophisticated effort has been called Operation Advtravel by Trend Micro.

The researchers said both campaigns are hosted on the same servers in Germany and can be tied back to activity from Gaza.

"On one hand, we have a sophisticated targeted attack, and on the other a less skilled attack that has all the hallmarks of beginner hackers. So why would these groups be working together?" Trend Micro said in a blog post.

"Our working theory (and subject of continuing investigation) is that there may be an overarching organization or underground community that helps support Arab hackers fight back against perceived enemies of Islam. They may do this by helping set up infrastructures, suggest targets and so on."

The report suggests there will be an increase of such "cyber militia" activity in the Arab world, where non-state actors fight against other organizations that would traditionally be considered enemies.

A separate report by the Russian security firm Kaspersky said it had uncovered "the first known Arabic group of cyber mercenaries to develop and run full-scale cyber-espionage operations."

Kaspersky said the group has targeted military and government entities, media outlets, security companies and other organizations.

Kaspersky said it identified more than 3,000 victims in 50 countries, with more than one million files stolen by the group it called "Desert Falcons."

Activity was found mainly in Egypt, Palestinian territories, Israel and Jordan, but also in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Lebanon, Norway, Turkey, Sweden, France, the United States and Russia.

The Falcons used emails secretly loaded with malware to infect computers for the scheme, Kaspersky said.

Palestinian Christians urge unity against IS in Jerusalem march

 JERUSALEM (AFP) -- Some 200 Palestinian Christians staged a candlelit march in occupied East Jerusalem Wednesday to mourn Egyptian Copts killed by the Islamic State group in Libya and call for Muslim-Christian unity across the region.


The demonstrators carried four cardboard coffins decorated with gold crosses, and held up banners showing pictures of the 21 Coptic Christians who were beheaded by IS militants in a graphic video released Sunday.

"We call on the international community to respond to the killing of innocents," one banner read, as an Orthodox priest read out a eulogy for the dead.

The sombre march made its way to Jerusalem's Coptic monastery, where banners were displayed featuring stills from the IS video and passages from the Bible.

"We want to express solidarity with Egyptians and Copts, and to show how sad Palestinian Christians and Muslim friends are" about the deaths, said Nashat Filmon, 39.

"It doesn't make up for the barbaric way they were slaughtered, so we pray for this region to wake up and reject (IS)," he said.

Joseph George, 25, said the international community should intensify its fight against the group.

"If the US could destroy Saddam Hussein's regime in a week, why can't they do it to a small group?" he asked.

"Christianity originated in the Middle East, but now there's no more place for us -- we've been fleeing for years," he said.

"Jesus taught us to turn the other cheek ... but if someone tries to kill you for no reason, you should defend yourself."

Marches also took place on Tuesday evening in Bethlehem and Beit Sahour, where they were attended by both Muslim and Christian residents opposed to the killings.

Cairo carried out strikes against IS in Libya after the video was released.

IS militants have been hammered by US-led air strikes in Iraq and Syria after taking over swathes of the two countries, and the group has active affiliates in Egypt and Libya.

Ma'an staff contributed to this report.

Iran nuclear talks continue in Geneva

The representatives of the Iranian regime and the U.S. Government will meet in Geneva to resume nuclear talks.

According to IRNA, the official news agency in Iran, Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi announced that the nuclear negotiations will continue Friday with the participation of Mohammad Javad Zarif and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

"At the end of the four days of bilateral talks between the Iranian and U.S. nuclear delegations, discussions will possibly continue with the participation of all members of the Group 5+1," Araqchi was quoted as saying.

Prior to the talks, Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of the religious dictatorship, vowed on Wednesday that his regime would resist international sanctions imposed over its nuclear program, and threatened to respond with cutting back gas exports.

Speaking in Tehran Khamenei said: "The enemy is using the lever of sanctions to the hit and their goal is to stop our progress."

"If we allow them to dictate to us on the nuclear issue, they will still keep the sanctions in place because what they are against the very foundation of our revolution."

"If sanctions are to be the way, the Iranian nation can also do it. A big collection of the world's oil and gas is in Iran so Iran if necessary can hold back on the gas that Europe and the world is so dependent on," he added.

Hassan Rouhani, the president of the clerical dictatorship ruling Iran, said on Tuesday that Tehran was speeding up its nuclear program adding that it will not seek permission form anyone to pursue technological advancement.

Rouhani boasted that Iran has made “highly important progress in the nuclear field,” but that such advancements have been eclipsed by the ongoing nuclear negotiations with world powers.
“We don’t and will not take permission from anyone to make progress in science and knowledge,” he said.

According to Fars News Agency, Rouhani boasted that Iran has made “highly important progress in the nuclear field.” However, he added that these advancements have been held back by the ongoing nuclear negotiations.

In his speech, Rouhani also said that interacting with the world does not mean that Tehran will give up its scientific endeavors.

Rouhani said no one should think that negotiation with the world means that Iran will quit making progress in a certain branch of science.

The Iranian regime and world powers have until a March 31 deadline to reach a political agreement on Tehran’s nuclear program.

President Urges Argentines to Remain Aloof from Outside Quarrels

BUENOS AIRES – Argentines must not allow their country to be dragged into “conflicts that are not ours,” President Cristina Fernandez said Wednesday, hours ahead of a march in memory of the late prosecutor who accused her of trying to conceal Iranian involvement in a deadly 1994 attack on a Jewish organization in Buenos Aires.

“It is a world of interests. They want some to be subjugated and they engage in confrontation with governments, such as this one, which don’t allow anyone else to determine their agenda,” she said during a nationally broadcast speech.

Accompanied by members of her Cabinet and thousands of supporters, the president referred to the letters Argentina’s foreign ministry delivered Tuesday to the U.S. and Israeli governments expressing “concern” about tensions between Washington and Tel Aviv over ongoing nuclear talks with Iran.

In the message to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Foreign Minister Hector Timerman also reiterated Argentina’s request that the multilateral negotiations with Iran include the issue of the 1994 car-bomb blast that left 85 dead at the Buenos Aires offices of the Jewish organization AMIA.

“Do not bring to us conflicts that are not ours. Our customs and our ideals are those of a peaceful country where different ethnic groups and religions co-exist,” Fernandez said at the inauguration of a nuclear power plant in northern Buenos Aires province.

“Here we don’t aim nuclear bombs at anybody or threaten anybody with missiles,” she said. “Our nuclear science is directed toward projects such as this.”

Fernandez has cautioned against importing foreign conflicts on several occasions since late prosecutor Alberto Nisman accused her, Timerman and six other people of conspiring to cover up Iran’s alleged role in the AMIA case.

Nisman, the AMIA special prosecutor, was found fatally shot on Jan. 18, four days after unveiling the allegations against the president.

He died of a single shot to the temple, fired from a gun he had borrowed from a colleague. The investigation into the prosecutor’s “suspicious death” continues.

Fernandez made no mention in her speech of the march in Nisman’s memory set for later Wednesday in the capital.

The president, who will leave office in December after two terms, told her supporters they need to work hard this year to elect a successor who shares her approach to government.

“In 2015 we have to guarantee that the one who leads has the same ideas. It is the best legacy we should leave,” Fernandez said.

Nisman’s accusation against Fernandez, now taken up by prosecutor Gerardo Pollicita, cites the Memorandum of Understanding her administration signed with Iran in 2013 to facilitate the AMIA investigation as the principal instrument of the purported cover-up.

The late prosecutor said that intercepts of telephone calls among some of the prospective defendants – though not Fernandez or Timerman – showed the outlines of a plan for Argentina to get Interpol to rescind the red notices the international police agency had issued for the arrest of Iranians accused in the AMIA bombing.
In exchange, according to Nisman, Iran was supposed to sell oil to Argentina.

The Fernandez administration has pointed out that no part of the ostensible conspiracy ever came to fruition, and the man who headed Interpol for 15 years until last November rebutted Nisman’s key accusation.

“I can say with 100 percent certainty, not a scintilla of doubt, that Foreign Minister Timerman and the Argentine government have been steadfast, persistent and unwavering that the Interpol’s red notices be issued, remain in effect and not be suspend or removed,” Ronald K. Noble said last month.

Many in the Argentine Jewish community believe the AMIA bombing was ordered by Iran and carried out by Tehran’s Hezbollah allies.

Both the Iranian government and the Lebanese militia group deny any involvement and the accusation relies heavily on information provided by the CIA and Israel’s Mossad spy agency.

Prosecutors have yet to secure a single conviction in the case.

In September 2004, 22 people accused in the bombing were acquitted after a process plagued with delays, irregularities and tales of witnesses’ being paid for their testimony.

Congressional Hopeful Slain in Southern Mexico

MEXICO CITY – A prospective congressional candidate for Mexico’s center-left PRD and two other members of the party were murdered in the southern state of Oaxaca, authorities said Wednesday.

Carlos Martinez Villavicencio was seeking the PRD nomination for a federal congressional district in Oaxaca.

Martinez Villavicencio, PRD official Fidel Lopez and their driver, Bernardo Bautista, were ambushed Tuesday night while traveling in a vehicle with Mexico City plates near the town of Santiago Juxtlahuaca, the state Attorney General’s Office said in a statement.

The bodies of Martinez Villavicencio and Lopez were found inside the vehicle, while Bautista was discovered among some weeds about dead about 50 meters (164 feet) away.

Martinez Villavicencio, a former Oaxaca state legislator, served as mayor of Santiago Juxtlahuaca in 2009-2011.

The PRD demanded that state authorities “expedite the investigation so this case does not go unpunished.”

Mexicans will go to the polls July 7 to select federal lawmakers, nine state governors and 1,487 municipal officials. 

Iran news in brief, 18 February 2015