Salon.com > Reuters

Are the Syrian rebels the ones using chemical weapons?

Mon, 06 May 2013 12:05:00 +0000

So, wait. It wasn't the Syrian regime, but rather the Syrian rebels who used sarin nerve gas recently? That's the story being reported tonight by Reuters, from actually named sources among U.N. investigators. But will anybody notice? Or, with Israeli airstrikes already under way, and the neo-cons already demanding another new war, is the news too little, too late...again?

The week before last, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, reading from a letter sent by the White House to Congress, announced that the Administration believes that the Syrian government recently used chemical weapons against its own people. If true, it would be a move which President Obama had previously described as a "red line" and a "game changer" in the Administration's policy on the two-year old civil war still raging in that country.

Hagel's statement was somewhat measured [emphasis added]: "Our intelligence community does assess, with varying degrees of confidence, that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons on a small scale in Syria, specifically, the chemical agent sarin."

Former Reuters employee pleads not guilty to Anonymous charges

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 15:34:00 +0000

Matthew Keys -- the social media editor fired from his position at Reuters Monday for reasons he believes could be political -- pleaded not guilty Tuesday to federal charges that he conspired with members of Anonymous to attack websites of the Tribune Co., his former employer.

According to the government's indictment, Keys provided Anonymous hackers with information including usernames and passwords to access Tribune Co. sites in late 2010, after he was fired from his job at a Tribune-owned station in Sacramento, Calif. Keys has rejected a plea bargain and, if found guilty, could face up to 25 years in prison and a fine of up to $750,000. His attorneys argue that although Keys had communicated with Anons via online chat rooms, it was someone posing as the journalist who provided the Tribune Co. access to information.

"There's an incongruity to all of this that we're hoping to get to the bottom of in the next couple months," Keys' attorney Jay Leiderman told HuffPo.

Reuters’ Matthew Keys indicted for aiding Anonymous

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 21:20:00 +0000

Updated, March 15.: According to the AP, Reuters has suspended Matthew Keys with pay. Keys took to Twitter to reassure friends that he is "fine." He noted, "I found out the same way most of you did: From Twitter. Tonight I'm going to take a break. Tomorrow, business as usual."

Original post: Matthew Keys, a deputy social media editor for Reuters, could face up to 25 years in prison. According to a Justice Department announcement Keys has been indicted for allegedly providing members of Anonymous with log-in credentials for a computer server belonging to the Tribune Company (where Keys formerly worked), according to the DoJ's press release.

Via the DoJ:

China tightens Internet restrictions

Fri, 28 Dec 2012 21:28:00 +0000

China has further restricted Internet usage, legalizing the deletion of posts or pages that contain illicit information and requiring all users to provide their real names to service providers.

The new rules, issued on Friday, make it harder for businesses to protect commercial secrets and for individuals to access websites from abroad that the Chinese government believes are politically sensitive, The New York Times reported.

The estimated number of Internet users in China has grown to more than 500 million, about 40 percent of the population, the Bangkok Post reported.

Egypt protests continue over the Morsi decree

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 23:30:00 +0000

Protests continued in Egypt for a sixth day as demonstrators in Cairo's Tahrir Square demanded that President Mohamed Morsi rescind the decree that they say gives him dictatorial powers.

There were reports of clashes between riot police and demonstrators, according to CNN, with the police firing tear gas and charging at protesters who threw stones. CNN said the police arrested many demonstrators, beating some.

The protesters, nearly 200,000 of them, filled Tahrir Square from Tuesday night into Wednesday. Observers said the crowds were the biggest since former President Hosni Mubarak was ousted from power last year.

Reuters reported that two of Egypt's top courts also stopped work in protest of the decree.

Stocks in Egypt tumble for a second day

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 19:24:00 +0000

President Mohamed Morsi met with Egyptian judges Monday in an effort to stem the rising protests against his controversial degree that widely expanded his presidential power.

Justice Minister Ahmed Mekky was mediating negotiations between Morsi and members of the Supreme Judicial Council, BBC News reported.

One possible way out of the crisis would be for a memorandum or amendment defining the decree's limits, although several prominent opposition leaders have said they will not engage with Morsi until the decree is rescinded.

Meanwhile, stocks in Egypt continued to tumble Monday.

According to Reuters, the stock market is down 7 percent, with the country's main index down 3.9 percent right after it opened.

More than 500 people have been injured in protests since Morsi issued the decree on Thursday, which shields his decisions from becoming subject to judicial review.

From Cairo, GlobalPost's Erin Cunningham reported that Egyptians are concerned about the direction protests may take.

Hurricane Sandy: Income inequality writ large

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 14:44:00 +0000

After an explosion at a power station cut off power to Lower Manhattan, photos showed a stark divide in Manhattan between lit-up uptown and downtown blanketed in darkness. The image was gripping, but when the inevitable posts went up declaring that "New York is now divided," I had to laugh. Because it's not the divisions we can see after a storm, but rather the city's giant unseen fissure which makes events like Sandy so threatening.

Witness this piece from Gothamist, in which a citizen sleuth checked out what was happening in parts of Downtown where the poorest residents live and wrote in with his findings:

Beirut bomb blast kills eight, injures dozens

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 18:17:00 +0000

BEIRUT — One of Lebanon's highest security officials, Wissam al-Hassan, is reported dead in a huge car bomb explosion in central Beirut today.

According to the BBC at least eight people have been confirmed dead in the blast, which happened in Sassine Square, a busy part of the mostly Christian Ashrafiya district in the eastern part of the Lebanese capital.

Dozens more were injured, Reuters reported, citing witnesses and security officials.

Hassan was the target of the attack, a Lebanese police official told the Associated Press.

The source said he hadn't yet confirmed whether Hassan was hit, but according to Reuters, at least one Lebanese TV station is reporting that Hassan was among those killed.

After Bain firing, sick workers struggle

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 18:53:00 +0000

For many Americans Mitt Romney’s long campaign has been a primer in private equity, the quiet business of buying and selling companies in which the candidate made his fortune. Romney has talked up his role as a job creator at companies like Staples and Dominos Pizza and journalists have learned about other investments Romney would rather not discuss.

In January, Reuters published an investigation into another of those investments, a 1993 takeover of Kansas City, Mo., steel mill Worldwide Grinding Systems:

It was a gamble. The old mill, renamed GS Technologies, needed expensive updating, and demand for its products was susceptible to cycles in the mining industry and commodities markets.

Less than a decade later, the mill was padlocked and some 750 people lost their jobs. Workers were denied the severance pay and health insurance they'd been promised, and their pension benefits were cut by as much as $400 a month.

What's more, a federal government insurance agency had to pony up $44 million to bail out the company's underfunded pension plan. Nevertheless, Bain profited on the deal, receiving $12 million on its $8 million initial investment and at least $4.5 million in consulting fees.

Reuters: George Soros is secretly behind Occupy Wall Street!

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 15:43:00 +0000

[UPDATED BELOW] Who is responsible for Occupy Wall Street? Is it a protest initially organized by longtime anti-consumerist magazine Adbusters that grew in size and scope (with the support of members of the Anonymous collective) due to widespread frustration about economic injustice, leading organized labor and other left-wing groups to sign on in solidarity? Yes. But for some journalists, that is a very boring answer. So Reuters attempts to "follow the money" (there is not really that much money involved; it's not like they've launched a targeted ad buy or something), leading them straight into Glenn Beck nonsense-land. It turns out that Occupy Wall Street... is funded by George Soros!

Mark Egan and Michelle Nichols have written a very sloppy piece that starts off saying "Soros Soros Soros" but then basically admits that it can't really justify making the connection. It begins:

Anti-Wall Street protesters say the rich are getting richer while average Americans suffer, but the group that started it all may have benefited indirectly from the largesse of one of the world's richest men.