‘Zero tolerance for terror activity’

Facebook tells judge it takes ‘threats’ seriously

NEW YORK, Sept 28, (Agencies): Lawyers for Facebook Inc on Tuesday sought to assure a US judge overseeing lawsuits by victims of militant attacks in the Middle East that it took a “zero tolerance” approach to any communications that may promote terrorist threats or activity.

The comments came after US District Judge Nicholas Garaufis in Brooklyn on Thursday accused Facebook’s law firm of insulting the court by sending just a junior attorney to address him in lawsuits implicating violent attacks on Israelis.

The judge on Tuesday apologized to the extent his comments may have sounded like criticism of the first-year associate, but said he was concerned about whether Facebook’s lawyers at Kirkland & Ellis LLP were taking the matter seriously.

“We heard you loud and clear, and we apologize,” Craig Primis, a partner at Kirkland & Ellis, told Garaufis.

As a sign of the level of attention the judge’s critique drew at Facebook, the company flew Paul Grewal, a deputy general counsel, from California to New York to appear before him for what was otherwise a procedural hearing.

Incite

Grewal told the judge that Facebook had people working around-the-clock trying to pro-actively monitor and remove posts on its website that glorify or incite violence through terrorism.

“Facebook has a very serious interest in keeping terrorism content off,” he said.

The hearing came in a pair of related lawsuits, including one filed last year by 20,000 Israelis seeking an order requiring Facebook to stop allowing militant groups like Hamas from using its platform to incite attacks against Israeli citizens.

The company also faces claims by victims of such attacks who are seeking to hold Facebook accountable

Through a combination of legal cases, diplomatic sanctions and an effort to publicly name and shame hacking adversaries, Carlin sought to tame what he often called under the US Anti-Terrorism Act for providing support to militant groups.

At a hearing last week, Garaufis criticized Facebook’s lawyers decision to send only a first-year associate to appear before him as “outrageous and irresponsible and insulting” given the issues at stake.

He questioned whether Facebook had a “moral obligation” to help prevent communications by people who express interest in carrying out violent attacks, and asked whether it should be “working this out as opposed to litigating it.”

At Tuesday’s hearing, Primis assured the judge that Facebook took a “zero tolerance” approach to such communications.

He said Facebook will be seeking the dismissal of both lawsuits on grounds including that as a communications platform, it had immunity from being sued under federal law. Oral arguments are scheduled for Jan. 19.

The case is Cohen v. Facebook Inc, US District Court, Eastern District of New York, No. 16-cv-4453.

The suspect in the bombing this month in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood appears to have acted on his own, with no connection to an extremist movement, the FBI said Tuesday.

“We see so far no indication of a larger cell or the threat of related attacks,” FBI director James Comey testified at a Senate committee hearing.

The suspect in the Sept 17 bombing that left 31 people wounded, Ahmad Khan Rahami, was arrested in New Jersey two days after the attack.

Arrest

He was wounded in a shootout with police as they closed in to arrest him. He has remained hospitalized and is unable to appear before a judge, according to the New Jersey prosecutor’s office.

the wild west of cyberspace, where international norms for appropriate cyber activity are nascent or nonexistent.

“We’ve laid a strong foundation in cyber,

US prosecutors, in a 13-page indictment on Sept 20, slapped him with four charges, including use of weapons of mass destruction.

In addition to the New York attack, he is charged with a pipe bombing, also on Sept 17, in Seaside Park, New Jersey, and planting several other bombs.

A naturalized US citizen born in Afghanistan, Rahami, 28, made several trips in recent years to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Rahami’s sister told police in August 2014 that he was getting ready to hit her with a dumbbell and stabbed another brother in the leg when he jumped in to help her, police reports show.

Zobydha Rahami told investigators that Rahami was preparing to pray when he began throwing things at her in their family’s home above their fried chicken restaurant in Elizabeth. She said he then punched and slapped her in the face, hit her and her mother with a phone charger wire and grabbed the dumbbell.

DALLAS:

Also:

The father of a Muslim boy arrested after taking a homemade clock to his Dallas-area school has sued conservative commentator Glenn Beck and a Texas mayor alleging they falsely portrayed the family as terrorists.

Mohamed Mohamed filed the defamation lawsuit Sept 21 in Dallas on behalf of himself and his 14-year-old son, Ahmed. Irving Mayor Beth Van Duyne (dyn) is among those named in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit seeks a retraction, a jury trial and unspecified damages related to comments following the teen’s Sept 2015 arrest at an Irving school. A charge of having a hoax bomb was later dropped.

The lawsuit describes the Mohamed family as “peaceful Muslims” falsely accused of being terrorists.

but we’ve got to do more, faster, given the state of the threat,” Carlin told Reuters. He said he hoped the next presidential administration could further “institutionalize” consequences from cyber crime. (RTRS)

‘No plans to change rules’:

US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Tuesday the Pentagon has no plans to pursue a “no-first-use” nuclear weapons policy.

His remarks at a nuclear research facility in New Mexico follow media reports saying President Barack Obama was weighing an overhaul of longstanding US nuclear policy, including by pledging to never conduct the first strike in a nuclear conflict.

“It has been the policy of the United States for a long time to extend its nuclear umbrella to friends and allies, and thereby to contribute to the deterrence of conflict and the deterrence of war,” Carter said.

Though some nations including China have declared “no-first-use” policies, America and NATO allies insist that retaining the right to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike is a vital tactical option.

The ability to strike first “has been our policy for a long time, and is part of our plans going forward,” Carter said.

America’s nuclear policy has been the subject of increased public discussion following a number of contentious comments by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, including that he wouldn’t rule out the use of nuclear weapons. (AFP)