China has warned the United States against meddling in Hong Kong’s internal affairs after Vice President Joe Biden met with two former Hong Kong legislators

China tells US not to meddle in Hong Kong's internal affairs

Published time: April 07, 2014 19:47

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden.(Reuters / Ints Kalnins)

China has warned the United States against meddling in Hong Kong’s internal affairs after Vice President Joe Biden met with two former Hong Kong legislators who expressed concern that Beijing is tightening control over the territory.
Biden met with Anson Chan, former chief secretary and founder of pro-democracy group Hong Kong 2020, and Martin Lee – founder of Hong Kong's opposition Democratic Party – at the White House on Friday.
During the meeting, the activists spoke out against whey they described as Beijing’s increasing control over Hong Kong. They also said they fear that only candidates picked by the central government will be allowed to take part in the 2017 chief executive vote. Lee and Chan also voiced concerns over press freedom in Hong Kong - referring to violent assaults on journalists and alleging that Beijing is pressuring advertisers to shun critical media, AFP reported.
Vice President Biden underscored Washington’s “long-standing support for democracy in Hong Kong and for the city’s high degree of autonomy under the 'one country, two systems' framework,” the White House said in a statement.

PHOTO: The Vice President drops by a meeting with Hong Kong pro-democracy advocates Martin Lee and Anson Chan. pic.twitter.com/5HXNqSMGWp
— Office of VP Biden (@VP) April 4, 2014

In response, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it “firmly opposes any countries meddling in the city's internal affairs in any way,” South China Morning Post quoted.
“Hong Kong affairs are China's internal affairs,” said a spokesperson for the Office of the Commissioner of the Foreign Ministry in Hong Kong.
The official added that Hong Kong is currently going through a sensitive political reform period.
“[We] would hope the US would be cautious of their words and actions regarding Hong Kong affairs and not let Hong Kong issues impede Sino-American relations,” he noted.

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White House staffer fired for notorious anti-administration Twitter account

Published time: October 23, 2013 05:35

 

AFP Photo / Saeed Khan

A senior US National Security Council staffer has been fired for using an anonymous Twitter account to send hundreds of messages criticizing the Obama administration from inside the White House.
Jofi Joseph, a director in the nuclear non-proliferation team inside the NSC, was let go a week ago after administration officials spent months investigating who was tweeting from @natsecwonk. The account opened in February 2011 and lasted until last week, sending thousands of tweets critical of Obama’s policies, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and various high level officials in the interim.
Two sources in the administration confirmed to The Daily Beast that Joseph, 40, was behind the account. The staffer was a member of the NSC team that sat across the negotiating table from Iran in Istanbul earlier this year.
“Is it just me, or with the Jews celebrating Rosh Hashanah tonight, is Twitter much quieter?” he once wrote.
“What’s so disturbing about the Hillary dancing photo is the high-def resolution of Ben Rhodes’ balding pate. And Jake Sullivan behind him,” another read, referencing US President Obama’s deputy national security advisor and speechwriter as well as Vice President Joe Biden’s national security advisor.

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NSC aide admits Twitter attack on White House

By GLENN THRUSH |

10/22/13 9:25 PM EDT

A senior National Security Council staffer who was a key member of the White House team negotiating on Iran’s nuclear weapons program told POLITICO he deeply regrets tweeting hundreds of anti-administration messages under the pseudonym @natsecwonk.
Jofi Joseph, 40, was fired from his job on the NSC nuclear non-proliferation team a week ago after a months-long probe into a barrage of tweets that included caustic criticisms of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and top NSC officials, especially Ben Rhodes – whom he accused of dodging questions about Benghazi.
“It has been a privilege to serve in this Administration and I deeply regret violating the trust and confidence placed in me,” Joseph told POLITICO in an email.
“What started out as an intended parody account of DC culture developed over time into a series of inappropriate and mean-spirited comments.  I bear complete responsibility for this affair and I sincerely apologize to everyone I insulted.”
(Also on POLITICO: White House official fired for tweets)
Obama spokesman Eric Schultz confirmed that Joseph  had left the White House – and that he no longer had his top security clearances.
In the course of their investigations, officials also told Joseph they suspected he was responsible for a second anonymous Twitter account “@dchobbyist” which included racier tweets about sexual encounters, escort services – and the inner workings of the State Department.
“Wow, you look amazingly sexy in this photo!” the @dchobbyist wrote in an Oct. 5^th post.
“That was him,” a person briefed on the probe told POLITICO.
Joseph didn’t respond to a request for comment on the second account.
Joseph, who was part of the White House team that opened up preliminary negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program in Istanbul earlier this year, lived a double life, working with NSC officials and State Department higher-ups on the most sensitive issues while secretly tweet-bombing them with comments like: “’Has shitty staff.’ #ObamaInThreeWords.”
For months, White House and State department officials searched for @NatSecWonk, a hunt that intensified after he repeatedly expressed doubts about the official administration accounts about the Sept. 11, 2012 attack in Benghazi.
After a probe that included an investigation into Joseph’s travel and shopping patterns – parsed from over 2,000 tweets - lawyers from the White House counsel’s office confronted Joseph and ordered him to leave the executive complex, according to two sources familiar with the situation. Joseph had been scheduled to rotate out of White House duty to a senior job in the Pentagon, an administration official told POLITICO.
The revelation that Joseph was @natsecwonk came as a shock because Joseph was a familiar figure in the foreign policy world – as is his wife Carolyn Leddy, a highly-regarded staffer on the Republican side of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, according to Daily Beast reporter Josh Rogin.

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Powers Limited, Obama, Biden Seek Action on Guns

Image Source :  Wikimedia.org
Official White House photostream on Flickr, P012209PS-0151
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WASHINGTON August 29, 2013 (AP)

By JOSH LEDERMAN Associated Press

Months after gun control efforts crumbled in Congress, Vice President Joe Biden stood shoulder to shoulder Thursday with the attorney general and the top U.S. firearms official and declared the Obama administration would take two new steps to curb American gun violence.
But the narrow, modest scope of those steps served as pointed reminders that without congressional backing, President Barack Obama's capacity to make a difference is severely inhibited.
Still, Biden renewed a pledge from him and the president to seek legislative fixes to keep guns from those who shouldn't have them — a pledge with grim prospects for fulfillment amid the current climate on Capitol Hill.
"If Congress won't act, we'll fight for a new Congress," Biden said in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. "It's that simple. But we're going to get this done."
One new policy will bar military-grade weapons that the U.S. sells or donates to allies from being imported back into the U.S. by private entities. In the last eight years, the U.S. has approved 250,000 of those guns to come back to the U.S., the White House said, arguing that some end up on the streets. From now on, only museums and a few other entities like the government will be eligible to reimport military-grade firearms.
The ban will largely affect antiquated, World War II-era weapons that, while still deadly, rarely turn up at crime scenes, leaving some to question whether the new policy is much ado about nothing.
"Banning these rifles because of their use in quote-unquote crimes is like banning Model Ts because so many of them are being used as getaway cars in bank robberies," said Ed Woods, a 47-year-old from the Chico area of northern California.
Woods said he collects such guns because of their unique place in American history. He now wonders whether he'll be prohibited from purchasing the type of M1 Garand rifle his father used during World War II. The U.S. later sold thousands of the vintage rifles to South Korea.
"Someday my kids will have something that possibly their grandfather, who they never had a chance to meet, is connected to," Woods said in an interview.
The Obama administration is also proposing to close a loophole that it says allows felons and other ineligible gun purchasers to skirt the law by registering certain guns to a corporation or trust. The new rule would require people associated with those entities, like beneficiaries and trustees, to undergo the same type of fingerprint-based background checks before the corporation can register those guns.
Using the rule-making powers at his disposal, Obama can only place that restriction on guns regulated under the National Firearm Act, a 1934 law that only deals with the deadliest weapons, like machine guns and short-barreled shotguns. For the majority of weapons, there is no federal gun registration.
"It's simple, it's straightforward, it's common sense," Biden said of the measures he unveiled Thursday as he swore in Obama's new director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Todd Jones.
The quick reproach from gun control opponents, however, underscored that the same forces that thwarted gun control efforts in Congress have far from mellowed on the notion of stricter gun laws in the future.


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Venezuela and Nicaragua Offer Asylum to Snowden courtesy of US and their respective puppet Nations bullying tactics . Russia encourages him to accept Venezuelan Offer.

Los Angeles Times

Venezuela, Nicaragua open their doors to NSA leaker Snowden

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, left, and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, seen at a meeting last month, have both offered asylum to U.S. intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, who is believed to have been stranded at a Moscow airport since June 23. (Inti Ocon / AFP/Getty Images / June 29, 2013)

By Chris Kraul, Tracy Wilkinson and Mery Mogollon
 

July 5, 2013, 7:27 p.m.

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro offered NSA leaker Edward Snowden political asylum Friday, possibly the firmest offer of refuge the U.S. fugitive has received since exposing a massive program of surveillance of phone calls and emails in the United States and abroad. Also Friday, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said his government had received an asylum request from Snowden and would be willing to grant it under the right circumstances. Snowden, who is believed to be stranded in the transit area of a Moscow airport, has applied for refuge to about 30 countries. Many have already refused his request. Maduro made the offer during a military parade in Caracas commemorating the 202nd anniversary of Venezuela’s declaration of independence. Maduro had previously said he would consider such an offer, as had Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa. Correa, however, appeared to back away from his offer after receiving a phone call from Vice President Joe Biden. Although Maduro’s statement Friday seemed to go a step further in making a firm offer, the Venezuelan leader was in Moscow earlier this week and did not take the opportunity to bring Snowden back with him. And Maduro made no mention of facilitating Snowden’s trip to Venezuela with either an aircraft or travel documents.

Read More Here    

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Snowden asylum bid: 3 offered, 1 withdrawn, 11 denied, 13 pending

Published time: July 02, 2013 16:27
 Edited time: July 07, 2013 11:02


NSA leaker Edward Snowden has reportedly sought asylum in 27 countries, hoping to gain protection from US prosecutors. So far, Venezuela has offered Snowden asylum, with Nicaragua joining in, while 11 other states rejected the requests. As Snowden awaits replies at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro offered asylum to the NSA whistleblower, making the announcement Friday on television during a broadcast of a parade marking the country’s day of independence.  

"I have decided to offer humanitarian asylum to the young American, Edward Snowden, so that in the fatherland of Bolivar and Chavez, he can come and live away from imperial North American persecution," said Maduro.

Venezuela has offered Snowden asylum despite a US extradition request, demanding that the whistleblower be “arrested” if he “travels to” or “transits through” Venezuela and “be kept in custody” for “the purpose of extradition”. Nicaragua also said that it would “gladly receive” Snowden, who has been holed up in a transit section of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport since fleeing Hong Kong twelve days ago, and give him asylum, “if circumstances permit.”

In the meantime Snowden has received five outright rejections from Finland, Brazil, Poland, India, and Germany, according to WikiLeaks. New Dehli said on Tuesday that it has “no reason” to accede the whistleblower’s request. In his application to Poland, Snowden said that he risks facing the death penalty if he is returned to the US. Spain, Norway, Italy, Ecuador, and Austria have also rejected Snowden’s applications, stating that asylum requests cannot be granted unless the applicant is already inside the country. Italy stated that Snowden’s application was made via fax, which is not allowed, ITAR-TASS reported, citing a source in the Italian Foreign Ministry. France has also rejected Snowden’s application for asylum, saying that police would have to arrest the whistleblower if he entered the country due to the US extradition request.  

"Like many countries, France received a request for asylum from Mr. Edward Snowden through its embassy in Moscow. Given the legal analysis and the situation of the interested party, France will not agree," the interior ministry said in a statement.

French newspaper Le Monde revealed that the asylum request has reached the French authorities in the form of a one-page letter, where Snowden argues that he will not be able to get a fair trial in his home country and explains the fate of Bradley Manning – another whistleblower currently on trial in the US.

 Other nations have yet to respond to Snowden’s asylum requests. Those countries include Bolivia, China, Cuba, Iceland, Ireland, Netherlands, and Switzerland. Despite Wikileaks' claim that Snowden has, in fact, sought asylum in China, Beijing said on Tuesday that it is not aware of the request. France has also denied receiving a request in the past.

WikiLeaks announced on Friday that Snowden has applied to another six states in search of political asylum. In an effort to avoid US interference, the countries weren’t disclosed.

Read More and Watch Video Here

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Escobar: 'Imperial hijack' reopens asylum bid for Snowden in Latin America

RussiaToday

Published on Jul 4, 2013

 

Latin American leaders meet to discuss the "hijack" of Bolivian president Evo Morales' plane in Austria. Regional leaders presented a united front, defending Latin American sovereignty in the face of what they see as post-colonial imperialism. International affairs analyst Pepe Escobar says such a turnover in Snowden chase could significantly increase NSA Whistleblower's chances on asylum in one of Latin America's countries.

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Los Angeles Times

Snowden should take Venezuelan asylum offer, Russian official says

Demonstrators show support for NSA leaker Edward Snowden in New Delhi on Sunday. India denied asylum to Snowden, but he has received offers from Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia. (Tsering Topgyal / Associated Press / July 7, 2013)

By Carol J. WilliamsJuly 7, 2013, 11:30 a.m.

An influential Russian lawmaker on Sunday advised fugitive leaker Edward Snowden to take up Venezuela's offer of asylum, deeming it his "last chance" and cautioning that the leaker of U.S. security secrets can't live at Moscow's airport forever. It was a clear sign from the Kremlin that it has tired of the international standoff over Snowden, the 30-year-old former National Security Agency contractor who disclosed classified information about widespread U.S. surveillance of worldwide telephone and Internet contacts.

"Venezuela is waiting for an answer from Snowden," Alexei Pushkov, head of the Russian parliament's international affairs committee, said on Twitter. "This, perhaps, is his last chance to receive political asylum."

 In a separate tweet, Pushkov noted that Snowden "shouldn't live in Sheremetyevo," Moscow's main international airport where the fugitive has been stuck in a transit area for two weeks. Snowden arrived to Moscow on a flight from Hong Kong on June 23. But his U.S. passport had been revoked after Justice Department officials brought espionage charges against him and sought his extradition. That has prevented him from proceeding through passport control and officially entering Russian territory. The airport corridors and holding areas between the arrival gates and the immigration booths staffed by border guards comprise a diplomatic no-man's land from which an undocumented person can neither enter nor depart.

 Read More Here


 

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