"Sinocism is the Presidential Daily Brief for China hands"- Evan Osnos, New Yorker Correspondent and National Book Award Winner
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- Mortgage Settlement as Attorney General Sellout: Deal is Not Done, and Final Version Guaranteed to be Worse Than Advertised « naked capitalism – Reader Mikent was correct when he called this deal a robosettlement. Just like its namesake, it’s more about getting it done than doing it right.
- Robert Kagan on Why the World Needs America – WSJ.com – Foreign-policy pundits increasingly argue that democracy and free markets could thrive without U.S. predominance. If this sounds too good to be true, writes Robert Kagan, that's because it is.
- Ten Questions for China’s Heir Presumptive – NYTimes.com – shambaugh calls bo xilai a "reformer", asks xi if he will make PBSC. assume he wrote this a few days ago?
1. Will Xi return to a politically reformist path for the Chinese Communist Party?
Since late 2009, the party has retrenched significantly — halting and rolling back reforms by Xi’s predecessor, Zeng Qinghong. Can Xi stand up to the powerful conservative institutions that have blocked reforms — the state security apparatus, the military, the party propaganda system and large state-owned enterprises — or will he be beholden to them, as Hu Jintao has been? Will reformers such as Li Yuanchao, Wang Yang, Bo Xilai, Wang Huning and Liu Yandong be promoted to top Politburo positions along with Xi at the 18th Party Congress in October?
- Chinese at North Dakota School Got Unearned Degrees, State Says – Bloomberg – Dickinson State University in North Dakota granted hundreds of degrees to Chinese transfer students who didn’t complete the required class work, according to a state report.
- Information Dissemination: PLAN conventional submarine fleet update –
- 央视记者李文学的红与黑_公司频道_财新网 – 在2011年11月22日，即达芬奇家居向央视纪委举报《达芬奇“密码”》暗访记者李文学涉嫌敲诈勒索一周之后，李文学将自己在北京红黑文化传媒有限公司所持的95.5%股份转手他人，其创办的红黑网也于今年1月4日悄然“改版”谢客
【财新网】（记者 靳晴）在新闻出版总署就中央电视台《达芬奇“密码”》报道调查情况通报中，被批评“违规独立从事新闻采访，且节目播出后多次私下会见达芬奇公司负责人”的央视“记者”李文学，又被发现办有私人公司红黑传媒，且自办同以“质量监督”和“打假”为旗帜的“红黑网”与“315网”，显系利益冲突。 - Electronic Security a Worry in an Age of Digital Espionage – NYTimes.com – At the State Department, employees get specific instruction on how to secure their devices in Russia and China, and are briefed annually on general principles of security. At the Brookings Institution, Mr. Lieberthal advises companies that do business in China. He said that there was no formal policy mandating that employees leave their devices at home, “but they certainly educate employees who travel to China and Russia to do so.”
McAfee, the security company, said that if any employee’s device was inspected at the Chinese border, it could never be plugged into McAfee’s network again. Ever. “We just wouldn’t take the risk,” said Simon Hunt, a vice president.
At AirPatrol, a company based in Columbia, Md., that specializes in wireless security systems, employees take only loaner devices to China and Russia, never enable Bluetooth and always switch off the microphone and camera. “We operate under the assumption that we will inevitably be compromised,” said Tom Kellermann, the company’s chief technology officer and a member of President Obama’s commission on cybersecurity.
- Rock Center with Brian Williams – Israel teams with terror group to kill Iran’s nuclear scientists, U.S. officials tell NBC News – Deadly attacks on Iranian nuclear scientists are being carried out by an Iranian dissident group that is financed, trained and armed by Israel’s secret service, U.S. officials tell NBC News, confirming charges leveled by Iran’s leaders.
ROCK CENTER EXCLUSIVE
The group, the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, has long been designated as a terrorist group by the United States, accused of killing American servicemen and contractors in the 1970s and supporting the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran before breaking with the Iranian mullahs in 1980.The attacks, which have killed five Iranian nuclear scientists since 2007 and may have destroyed a missile research and development site, have been carried out in dramatic fashion, with motorcycle-borne assailants often attaching small magnetic bombs to the exterior of the victims’ cars.
U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Obama administration is aware of the assassination campaign but has no direct involvement.
The Iranians have no doubt who is responsible – Israel and the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, known by various acronyms, including MEK, MKO and PMI…
Deadly attacks on Iranian nuclear scientists are being carried out by an Iranian dissident group that is financed, trained and armed by Israel’s secret service, U.S. officials tell NBC News, confirming charges leveled by Iran’s leaders.ROCK CENTER EXCLUSIVE
The group, the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, has long been designated as a terrorist group by the United States, accused of killing American servicemen and contractors in the 1970s and supporting the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran before breaking with the Iranian mullahs in 1980.The attacks, which have killed five Iranian nuclear scientists since 2007 and may have destroyed a missile research and development site, have been carried out in dramatic fashion, with motorcycle-borne assailants often attaching small magnetic bombs to the exterior of the victims’ cars.
U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Obama administration is aware of the assassination campaign but has no direct involvement.
The Iranians have no doubt who is responsible – Israel and the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, known by various acronyms, including MEK, MKO and PMI.
- Israel, MEK and state sponsor of Terror groups – Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com – One of the most under-reported political stories of the last year is the devoted advocacy of numerous prominent American political figures on behalf of an Iranian group long formally designated as a Terrorist organization under U.S. law. A large bipartisan cast has received substantial fees from that group, the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), and has then become their passionate defenders. The group of MEK shills includes former top Bush officials and other Republicans (Michael Mukasey, Fran Townsend, Andy Card, Tom Ridge, Rudy Giuliani) as well as prominent Democrats (Howard Dean, Ed Rendell, Bill Richardson, Wesley Clark). As The Christian Science Monitor reported last August, those individuals “have been paid tens of thousands of dollars to speak in support of the MEK.” No matter what one thinks of this group – here is a summary of its activities – it is formally designated as a Terrorist group and it is thus a felony under U.S. law to provide it with any “material support.”。。
Of course, as I documented in my last book, those who are politically and financially well-connected are free to commit even the most egregious crimes; for that reason, the very idea of prosecuting Giuliani, Rendell, Ridge, Townsend, Dean and friends for their paid labor on behalf of a Terrorist group is unthinkable, a suggestion not fit for decent company, even though powerless Muslims have been viciously prosecuted for far less egregious connections to such groups. But this incident also underscores the specific point that the term Terrorism is so completely meaningless, manipulated and mischievous: it’s just a cynical term designed to delegitimize violence and even political acts undertaken by America’s enemies while shielding from criticism the actual Terrorism undertaken by itself and its allies. The spectacle whereby a designated Terrorist group can pay top American politicians to advocate for them even as they engage in violent Terrorist acts, all while being trained, funded and aided by America’s top client state, should forever end the controversy over that glaringly obvious proposition. - 王立军逃亡美领馆全过程（推特） –
- Siweiluozi’s Blog: Wang Lijun, Episode One – Shortly thereafter, a series of posts appeared last night on the Twitter feed belonging to @lee91741 (who I don't know) that add (embellish?) details on the account as we know it. I've done a rough translation below. I don't vouch for the veracity of any of this, and in fact, there are some details of the story that don't make sense. Just think of this of the outline of a screenplay for the one-hour first episode of a television drama and enjoy it for what it's worth.
- 重庆病人王立军：从铁岭发迹的“打黑”明星_城市_凤凰网 –
- 重庆病人 – 经济观察网 － 专业财经新闻网站 –