Category Archives: NSA

Former US National Security Advisor (NSA) John Boulton stated that the Taliban have broken all of their promises, and hence their interim government should not be recognised. In an interview with Voice of America (VOA), John Boulton accused the Taliban of lying and stated that they do not seek to construct an all-inclusive administration.Boulton alsostated that at this point, no country in the world has any reason to recognise the Taliban.The former NSA admitted that his country is not causing problems for ordinary Afghans, but emphasised that Afghans do not want the Taliban to rule over them.

The Taliban's spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahidstatedthat Boulton was aggressive and that the two-decade war in Afghanistan was caused by his ideas. Mujahid also disputed the claims that they have broken promises, according to Khaama Press. Taliban's temporary administration has yet to be recognised, and the move now appears tough and distant after the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) delayed a seat for the Taliban and confirmed Afghanistan's former permanent representative Ghulam Muhammad Ishaqzai as the envoy of Afghanistan.

Earlier, a few months ago, John Boulton chastised Islamabad for backing the Taliban and supplying them with safe havens in Pakistan during the last two decades, according to The Khaama Press. He stated that parts of the Pakistani government are directly responsible for the Taliban's return to power. He also claimedthat Pakistan's intelligence and other internal circles have been in contact with the Taliban for decades.

On Wednesday, Pakistan's Minister of Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain remarked that the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan is worsening by the day. He further stated that the people of Afghanistan were experiencing the worst humanitarian catastrophe this winter andthat Pakistan is attempting to develop a mechanism with Saudi Arabia and other brotherly countries to assist the people of the war-torn country, according to Daily Times.

The Crisis Group has also warned that if the ongoing humanitarian crisis and winter season are not addressed, one million people will die in Afghanistan. The Group has urged the international community to intervene and repeal sanctions in order to stop widespread famine as the country faces a terrible winter, according to Khaama Press. Meanwhile, the organisation has also warned that the continued crisis and malnutrition will result in more deaths than Afghanistan's two decades of conflict.

See the original post here:
Ex-US NSA Boulton says Taliban breached every promise, doesn't deserve to be recognised - Republic World

The United States is in a better position from a year earlier to compete with China, partly thanks to its strong alliances with countries such as South Korea, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Wednesday.

The top US security advisor also underscored the importance of a US military presence in the Indo-Pacific region to help maintain peace and stability.

"I believe that there's a fairly straightforward way of looking at this, which is, close to one year into the Biden administration are we in a stronger position to deal with China than we were one year ago?, and I would argue that the answer to that question is unequivocally yes," Sullivan said in a webinar hosted by US online news outlet Defense One.

Sullivan explained reasons for the US' increased strength in dealing with China included the recently launched security arrangement with Australia and Britain, called AUKUS, as well as the Quad, which President Joe Biden elevated to a leader-level forum by hosting its first-ever summit this year, involving his counterparts from Australia, Japan and India.

"President has welcomed the president of Korea, the prime Minister of Japan to the White House, and those alliances are at their strongest point that they've been in in many years," said Sullivan.

He said the US alliances, along with its engagement with partners in multilateral formats, place the US in a position to both "compete effectively" with China and manage its relationship with China responsibly.

Sullivan also highlighted the importance of a US military presence in North East Asia.

"He (Biden) believes that stationing troops in an operational posture that is effective and adaptable in the Indo Pacific is important to keep peace and stability there, as well as to do so in the face of a rising challenge and threat from China," said Sullivan when asked how keeping US troops in the region serves US national interests.

The US currently has some 28,500 troops stationed in South Korea and around 50,000 in Japan.

"We feel good about where we are," said Sullivan.

"Now, that doesn't mean that we are not going to work with China where it's in our interest to do so ... We are going to work with China to try to deal with the climate crisis. We are going to work with China on questions related to regional security issues like the Iran nuclear deal, and that's in America's interests," he added. (Yonhap)

Read more:
Strong alliances place US in better position to compete with China: NSA Sullivan - The Korea Herald

Its been said that a rising tide lifts all ships, and that its better to succeed as a community than as an individual. These axioms can be seen in action at National Safety Apparel (NSA), which has been manufacturing protective clothing and work wear while steadily growing its brand since 1935.

A fourth-generation family-owned business, NSA operates out of a main manufacturing facility in West Cleveland, with satellite facilities in Chicago and Arkansas and a total headcount of around 700 employees across all locations. Chief operating officer Sal Geraci said an ambitious expansion strategy and well-chosen acquisitions have fueled the companys growth and made the organization stronger.

Every time we do an acquisition, I think we learn something from the company we acquire in terms of what works for their organization, what works better in ours and using a best practices model to determine what were going to incorporate, Geraci said.

While acquisitions and an aggressive growth pattern have expanded NSAs footprint, the factors that truly set the business apart include adaptability, flexibility and a dedication to providing innovative solutions for customers.

For many years, our key competency was our ability to customize products for industrial workers very quickly, Geraci said. So, we would do made-to-order (products) in a matter of days or weeks at the most, where many companies would struggle with that.

This spirit of versatility and willingness to adapt to shifting circumstances would end up serving the company well when COVID-19 struck in 2020 and global supply chain difficulties carried on well into 2021.

See original here:
Standing tall as a beacon for NEO manufacturing - Crain's Cleveland Business

The National Sheep Association (NSA) is urging sheep farmers across the UK to update themselves with the latest guidance on how best to deal with a sheep worrying by dog attack on their flock.

As the end of the year approaches, many sheep farmers will once again look back having experienced an increase in sheep worrying by dog attacks on their flocks during 2021.

Despite the shorter days and colder temperatures of winter now having arrived, the threat of attacks from dogs continues, with the festive period often seeing an increase in cases once again.

NSA chief executive Phil Stocker commented: The past two years have brought an increase of dog walkers into the countryside as dog ownership has soared and Covid-19 has kept many people from their usual past times.

This has led to many sheep farmers across the UK reporting an increase in sheep worrying attacks by dogs on their flocks.

With Christmas and New Year holidays almost upon us, it is likely many people will once again get out and about walking with their pets, placing sheep flocks at risk.

In the case of an attack happening, NSA hopes its advice available online will be useful to secure the best outcome.

To help sheep farmers know how best to act should they suffer an attack on their flock, the NSA recently posed a series of questions to PC David Allen of North Wales Police who provided some important advice that all sheep farmers in the UK should be aware of.

PC Allen is a member of the Livestock Worrying Roundtable, with a number of years of experience of dealing with sheep worrying cases.

Having taken questions submitted by NSA members he was able to offer valuable advice on the issue ranging from what farmers are legally able to do if a dog is caught in the act of sheep worrying, to how to best trace owners of straying dogs.

Sheep farmers are also reminded of the downloadable warning signs that NSA has available on its website that can be used to inform dog walkers to keep their pets on a lead near sheep.

In addition to the traditional warning signs NSA has offered for several years, the association is now pleased to also offer a downloadable sign designed by recent competition winner Max, aged nine, from Kent.

Max designed his winning sign in a recent NSA childrens competition. It is hoped the winning sign could act as an effective method of communication highlighting the serious issue to walkers passing through farmland.

RELATED STORIES

See the rest here:
NSA issues advice on how best to deal with a sheep worrying attack - Agriland.co.uk

Bloom, located on the southwest corner of Friendship Square,has served breakfast and brunchinMoscowsince 2011andclosedits doorsDec. 5.

New Saint Andrews College, a private Christian college, owns the building in which Bloom currently resides. NSA resides in the same building and had been renting out a portion of it to Bloom but is nowrefusing to renew Blooms lease.

Before closing, a farewell ceremony occurred out front ofBloom with acrowdof about 30. In attendancewereabout10fellow business owners,members of the community, friends of the ownersand Bloomemployees.

A trombone, accordionand drums were played,giving a solemn goodbye to the restaurantwith the audience demanding an encore, and a tearful goodbye fromownersNaraandBrandonWoodland.

Sandra Kelly, acouncilorof Moscow City Council,spoke about how she felt about the closure.

Im sadBloomis(closing),I really like the heartbeat ofour downtown community.Theydo such amazing things, Kelly said.They do nonprofitwork, they donate to nonprofits all over town and they have been just such an integral part ofthat inclusive, diverse Moscow community thatit breaks my heart to see this happen.

Bloom hadbeen a partofandlaunchedvariousprograms helping the community with food insecurity over many years, such as they had launched in November 2020, Healthy Home: Feed a FamilywhereBloom sought out families through local schools with food insecurity and cooked and delivered fresh meals to them.

Theclosurefirst became public with alarge sign outside BloomandaFacebookposton Nov. 16addressing the closure,New Saint Andrews College wants our restaurant space for their own purposes. We are sorry to inform you that December 5th will be our final day of service. We truly regret the loss to our community this decision will have.

Thestatementcontinuedto thank the community for its supportofthe restaurantscharitableprograms.Thisstatement resulted in an outpouring of grief and sadness over the closureonthe businesssFacebook page.

Right now, with the impending closure of our restaurant, we are feeling so sad and disappointed, Nara Woodland said.With the outpouring of love and support people have shared on our social media pages and through conversations, we understand how important Bloom is to our community. Bloom embodies mutual respect andinclusivity,which added to the vibrancy of our downtown.

As for reopening at anew location, there are no currentplans.

To retain what we all love about a vibrant Moscow, it is essential that downtown businesses serve the greater population of our community and not just a few,she continued.Rightnow,we are just taking it one step at a time. We have been invited by individuals in both Moscow and other communities to relocate our business. We are so grateful that our communities have provided so much support, kind words and memories.

NSA,respondedtoBlooms public statementwith their ownpostthenext day.

Thecollege is experiencing unprecedented growth and is scrapping for every square foot of space to accommodate this growth. Our current plan is to move the NSA bookstore into the space that we rented to Bloom, allowing us to expand the bookstore and add study space in the library where the bookstore currently exists,NSA stated.

New Saint Andrews has experienced a13.9% increase in enrollmentfromthe2019-2020 to 2020-2021 schoolyears,greatlyexceeding the previous average 2%annualincrease in enrollment from2011 to 2020.

In 2019,Moscow City Councilapproved an ordinancethatbarred further expansion of any schoolswithin the Central Business District of Moscow. Thisdistrictenclosesmuch of the buildingswithinthe core ofdowntown Moscow,includingtheSkattaboeBuilding which contains both New Saint Andrews and Bloom.

Brandy Sullivan, co-owner of One World Caf andaMoscowCity Council Member, spoke about the ordinance.

The zoning code doesnt prevent UI or NSA or any other educational institution from purchasing a building in the central business district. The code does, however, limit the use of those buildings to permitted uses, Sullivan said.Since changes were made to the zoning code in 2019, the expansion of existingor addition of new educational services in the central business district is no longer permitted under any condition.

Sullivan states that one of the conditions of the conditional use permit was that NSA must maintain 160 feet of frontage for commercial usage or public usage. A bookstore, to her knowledge, would fit that requirement even if the space would not be used by as wide of a segment of the public as Bloom had been.

Some locals hold concerns ofNSAbeingaffiliated with Christ Churchand taking over downtown through expansion.Previously,The Guardianhasinvestigatedthe churchs financial and political interests.

There is concern from some that the welcoming, diverse makeup of downtown may be threatened as more and more downtown buildings are being bought by a single organized entity, and in this case, one in whichitsleaders stated goal is a strategic takeover tomake Moscow a Christian town, Sullivan said.

Sullivan explained that fears surrounded the idea that landlords could selectivelychoosetenants,limiting downtownsgrowth.

Bloom had been an exception to this. I hope to see non-discriminatory rental practices regardless of who owns a building, and a diversity of business owner backgrounds, beliefs,and cultures, so that our treasured downtown remains a welcoming space for all, rather than providing opportunities to only those of a particular religious affiliation to the exclusion of those with differing beliefs,Sullivan said.

Photos from Blooms farewell ceremony can be seen here.

President of NSA Ben Merkledeclined to commenton Blooms closure.

Cory Summers can be reached at [emailprotected]

See more here:
Bloom closes after 10 years in Moscow The Argonaut - Argonaut

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the National Security Agency (NSA) released the third installment of the Security Guidance for 5G Cloud Infrastructures four-part series, which is intended to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data within a 5G core cloud infrastructure.

According to CISA and NSA, the third installment of the Security Guidance for 5G Cloud Infrastructures four-part series explains how to protect sensitive data from unauthorized access.

Data protection is critical because our adversaries are constantly attempting to steal our sensitive data, said Natalie Pittore, chief of Enduring Security Framework (ESF) in NSAs Cybersecurity Collaboration Center. As the amount of data increases, it is even more important that we all prioritize securing data in all stages of its lifecycle. This guidance can help us do that.

In a press release, CISA and NSA said that their latest guidance for 5G cloud infrastructures explains how to protect data in transit, at rest, or in use through the use of encryption, cryptographic keys, and secure protocols.

Data in a network as vast as 5G cloud infrastructures cannot be secured by a solitary entity, said Morgan Adamski, the chief of NSAs Cybersecurity Collaboration Center. It takes the collaboration of government agencies and our industry partners. When we combine our unique perspectives, we can fit together the pieces of the puzzle and solve critical cybersecurity issues.

The organizations said that the latest release from the Enduring Security Framework, a public-private cross-sector working group led by NSA and CISA, provides best practices to secure data in 5G cloud environments.

Data is an incredibly valuable resource driving every industry in the modern world, noted Bob Kolasky, CISA assistant director for the National Risk Management Center. This makes it an especially attractive target for adversaries. This paper highlights the importance of government and industry coordination in addressing the complex task of protecting our critical data. As with the previous two parts of this series, CISA encourages the 5G community to review this guidance and take actionable steps to help strengthen the nations 5G cloud infrastructure.

Here is the original post:
CISA and NSA Release Third Installment of 5G Cybersecurity Guidance - MeriTalk

Snowden will talk for sixty minutes about Web 3.0, data privacy and surveillance capitalism, and his use of cryptocurrency in the NSA leaks at the BlockDown: DeData Conference on December 3, 2021

London, United Kingdom, November 29, 2021 This Friday, Edward Snowden will be appearing at Blockdown: DeData, a virtual conference fully dedicated to the challenges and alternatives of ownership and consent in this new era where data is the most sought-after commodity.

The former American former computer intelligence consultant, famous for leaking highly classified information from the National Security Agency in 2013 while a subcontractor for the Central Intelligence Agency, will join a sixty-minute fireside chat about the importance of Web 3.0, data privacy and surveillance capitalism in our increasingly digital world.

Last week, Snowdenan enthusiast for blockchain technology and cryptocurrenciesrevealed that he used Bitcoin to hide his identity when buying the servers that made the NSA leaks possible. You know that whole NSA story from almost TEN YEARS AGO? I paid for the servers that made that possible... using Bitcoin, he said in a tweet.

Credit: Mike Mozart

Snowdens revelations in 2013 uncovered the extensive network of global surveillanceprograms conducted by the United States and the Five Eyes Intelligence Alliance (the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand) with the cooperation of telecommunication companies and European governments, which prompted a global discussion about individual rights, privacy and the monitoring and abuse of personal data by governments.

Snowden will be appearing alongside privacy and security experts, industry leaders and academics, including David Chaumthe inventor of digital currency and the godfather of privacy.

BlockDown Conference was first launched in March of 2020 and is now preparing for its fifth event, this time fully dedicated to decentralized data, coming Dec. 3, from 2 pm to 10 pm CET (8:00 am to 4:00 pm UTC).

In this one-day eight-hour special conference, experts and academics from across the blockchain and crypto space will join to discuss data ownership, privacy, Web 3.0, personal information security and self-governance in detail through panels, keynotes, fireside chats, debates and much more.

BlockDown DeData aims to educate the public about the use and abuse of data in a world where everybody is a digital citizen. Nowadays, security breaches and manipulation of data can be powerful enough to put entire countries at risk, cripple large institutions, affect the way we see the world and even turn the results of government elections.

Erhan Korhaliller, CEO of leading Web 3.0 public relations agency EAK Digital and founder of BlockDown, said the event would educate, inspire and make people aware of the importance of data in this era.

DeData puts the power back into the hands of individuals. We look forward to welcoming guests to Blockdown so they can find out more about what decentralized data is and the many different advantages and current possibilities of taking control of your data. Your crypto is making yields, so why not your data?

BlockDown DeData will be streamed as usual across top media in the crypto space including CryptoSlate, Theta.tv, NewsBTC, CryptoNews, Bitcoinist and CriptoNoticias, making it available to millions of viewers easily through these sites home pages.

Previous editions of BlockDown have already attracted some of the biggest names in the industry including Akon, CZ, Charles Hoskinson, Erik Voorhees, Sergey Nazarov, Roger Ver and Nicholas Merten from DataDash, all providing glowing feedback.

BlockDown Presents: DeData takes place on Friday, Dec. 3. To find out more and to order tickets, visit https://blockdownconf.com or email contact@blockdownconf.com for further information.

This is a paid press release. Cointelegraph does not endorse and is not responsible for or liable for any content, accuracy, quality, advertising, products, or other materials on this page. Readers should do their own research before taking any actions related to the company. Cointelegraph is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods, or services mentioned in the press release.

Go here to see the original:
Edward Snowden set to discuss his use of Bitcoin in the NSA leaks at BlockDown Conference - Cointelegraph

ISLAMABAD: The presentation of national security policy in a parliamentary committee and ensuing meaningful discussion on the topic will remain a one-sided affair if it is confined to the ruling coalition only in the absence of the opposition parties.

Speaker Asad Qaiser heads the parliamentary committee on national security, which will hold an in-camera session on Monday. It was officially stated that the National Security Adviser Moeed W Yusuf will give the presentation.

All the opposition parties have jointly announced that they will boycott the forum in protest against what they described as the dictatorial attitude of the government. They accused the government of riding roughshod over the Constitution and making parliament a rubber stamp.

They said the briefing would merely provide the government another chance to put up a show that would have nothing to do with the critical issues facing the country and the people or providing solutions to those problems.

Reacting to this decision, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry had urged the opposition parties to review their decision and show a responsible attitude as the government was facilitating them by giving them a briefing on national security issues.

There is a long list of invitees to the meeting. They include not only the top leaders of the opposition parties but also several of their MPs. Apart from the 29 notified members of the committee, many other lawmakers have also been invited to the meeting.

One list of special invitees consists of 22 legislators and six federal secretaries. Then there are 41 additional special invitees. Altogether, there will be more than a hundred participants in the session, which will lose its value due to the absence of the opposition MPs who would have given the other side of the story on national security had they attended. Primarily, such briefings are held for the opposition parties. The chief ministers of the four provinces, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan have also been invited.

The opposition is apparently irked over the governments decision to send the unelected Moeed Yusuf to give the briefing. The opposition parties described Moeed Yusuf as merely a showpiece and said that neither the NSA had the relevant information nor the authority to take any decisions, and his briefing would not have anything to do with the real factors and future blueprints.

In the past, the parliamentary forum had been briefed by top military and intelligence officials more than once. Useful question-answer sessions had also followed. The opposition parties had attended all such events. There is no mention in the official notice issued bythe National Assembly Secretariat that Prime Minister Imran Khan would attend the briefing.

It is not clear why the committee has been convened while it had met less than a month back and what new developments have taken place necessitating the present session. The chiefs of the army and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) had briefed it on national security, foreign affairs, internal and external challenges.

After the deliberations, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had stated that army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa had responded to the queries raised during the briefing. Leader of the opposition Shehbaz Sharif had said the presentations by the chiefs of the army and ISI were very good and the meeting was held in a very cordial atmosphere.

The oppositions boycott is not an isolated event but is the result of the perennial tension with the government lasting more than three years. Even a semblance of a working relationship has been missing on issues of national importance and interest. No side is willing to budge from its line. The two sides are also unwilling to break bread on the legislative agenda, further intensifying the confrontation.

More:
In oppositions absence: NSAs briefing to MPs panel to be one-sided, lacking critical queries - The News International

After narrowly avoiding a government shutdown by passing a stopgap funding bill on Friday, Congress faces what could be a packed schedule in the final weeks of the year.

Or it could end up doing not much of anything (*fingers crossed*).

The end-of-year scramble will kick off this week with an expected House vote on the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Though the military spending package usually sails through Congress with little more than token resistance, there are a few possible stumbling blocks popping up in the Senate, The Wall Street Journalreports.

Some Republican senators are reportedly threatening to withhold support for the package unless it includes a provision that would complicate Russia's completion of the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea as a way to deter a feared Russian invasion of Ukraine. Another group, led by Sen. Marco Rubio (RFla.) wants to include language that would block American imports of goods produced in forced labor camps in China's Xinjiang region, where members of the Uyghur ethnic group are being systematically repressed.

After the NDAA starter course, we'll find out if the Democrat-controlled Congress has an appetite for finally passing President Joe Biden's $2 trillion (or $4 trillion, depending on how you count) social spending plan. Negotiations over the "Build Back Better" plan have been a dominant storyline in Washington nearly the whole year, but Democrats have been unable to cobble together the necessary votesin no small part because of defections from within their own ranks.

We'll also have to prepare for another showdown over the debt limit. A short-term deal struck in October to raise the debt limitwhich authorizes the Treasury to borrow funds to pay for already-approved spendingexpires on December 15.Politicoreports that some lawmakers are considering rolling the debt limit increase into the NDAA, but that might do little more than convince Republicans to vote against the measure. Then again, most Republicans are likely to vote against the debt limit increase no matter what form it takes.

And the fight over vaccine mandates could spill over into Congress as well. Sen. Joe Manchin (DW.Va.), a key swing vote, tells Politicothat he supports Sen. Mike Braun's (RInd.) attempt to use the Congressional Review Act to strike down the Biden administration's vaccine mandate for private businesses. (The mandate is currently on hold per an order from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, which is reviewing the case in more detail.)

Oh, and that stopgap funding bill passed on Friday to avert a government shutdown? It lasts for just 11 weeksso we'll be doingthat all over again in mid-February.

"I am not a traitor. I am not a spy. I am somebody who only acted out of love for what this country stands for," Reality Winner told 60 Minuteson Sunday night in her first televised interview since being released from prison.

Winner, a former National Security Administration (NSA) contractor who leaked documents to The Intercept about Russia's attempt to hack into voting systems during the 2016 presidential election, was given the longest prison sentence ever applied to a civilian under the Espionage Act. In a sometimes-tearful conversation with CBS's Scott Pelley, Winner defended her decision to smuggle documents out of the NSA facility in Fort Gordon, Georgia, in 2017a defense she did not get to offer in courtand about her physical and mental struggles during four years in prison.

Watch the whole interviewhere.

San Francisco will delay the implementation of a new Cannabis Business Tax in order to give legal pot shops a chance to compete with the black market.

The tax, applied at a rate of between 1 percent and 5 percent on gross sales (the rate rises as the volume of sales do), was supposed to go into effect in January. Instead, it will be suspended until the end of 2022. California's taxes on legal marijuana sales are already some of the highest in the country, and those taxes have made it difficult for legal sellers to supplant a robust (and untaxed) black market.

Reason's annual Webathon is ongoing! If you've enjoyed all the free content we've put out supporting free minds and free markets, please consider donating.

Bob Dole, the World War II vet, longtime senator from Kansas, and 1996 Republican presidential nominee, died Sunday at age 98.

"American public education is broken," writes Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire former mayor of New York City. He will donate $750 million to help expand charter schools in 20 big cities.

More evidence that the omicron variant could be more transmissible but less dangerous: It shares genetic traits with the common cold.

Amazon is bypassing some of the supply chain chaos by manufacturing its own containers and chartering cargo planes.

The "good old days" weren't actually all that goodbut they're still screwing with our politics.

Inflation is becoming a global problem.

Saturnino Orestes Armas "Minnie" Minoso Arrieta, who played major league baseball from 1946 until 1980 (yes, really) and was one of the sport's first Cuban stars, was finally elected to the hall of fame.

Nailed it:

View original post here:
After Avoiding a Government Shutdown, What Will Congress Do With the Waning Days of 2021? - Reason

It was a salutary event when the National Security Adviser addressed the IPS probationers at the passing-out parade at the National Police Academy, Hyderabad on November 11. Ajit Doval made the following striking points: One, People cannot feel safe and secure if law enforcers are weak, corrupt and partisan. Two, the implementation of laws is more important than their legislation. Three, The quintessence of democracy does not lie in the ballot box. It lies in the laws made by the people who are elected through those ballot boxes, (which effectively means the party in power, the BJP). Four, wars are no longer an effective instrument for achieving political or military objectives. Then comes the knock-out punch: But it is the civil society that can be subverted, suborned, that can be divided to hurt the interest of a nation. And you (IPS probationers) are there to see that they are fully protected. The last bit in this pot-holed oration left some of us old-timers scratching their dandruffed scalps. The focus was not on those suborned TV channels spouting fake news, putting a slant on almost every national event. It was on those people in India who were hell-bent upon subverting the nation, Are there such people? Of course there are, some indoctrinated right-winger will say, pointing to, we all know whom.

The basic point the NSA made, namely that police must implement laws honestly and impartially, is unexceptionable. He did not nudge the door open for a larger debate. The state and its laws, its entire constitutional structure, was subverted from the top during Indira Gandhis Emergency. The judiciary, like a lamb, complied. Civil rights, now termed human rights, and civil society are interrelated. Civil society consists of individuals who have an opinion on matters affecting them, and they critique the state and government. Civil rights and civil society are the ballast, the foundation on which liberal philosophy stands. Civil disobedience is an example of concretising the dissenting assertion against the aggression of the state. It would be worth our while to remember Jeremy Bentham, the utilitarian philosopher, who opined that it was allowable to, if not incumbent on every manto enter into measures of resistancewhen the probable mischiefs of resistance, appear less to him than the probable mischiefs of obedience.

Is the police guilty, as seen in Hathras, of mischiefs of obedience?

With states becoming more aggressive and omnivorous, the need is to protect civil society from depredations of the state. The state, through its laws, has made many people stateless, one could call them non-persons. A majoritarian state can pass a slew of laws bearing on individual rights and liberty. Didnt Mrs Gandhi talk incessantly of a committed bureaucracy? The present dispensation wants a committed police. Uma Bharti, ex Union minister, and formerly Chief Minister Madhya Pradesh, stated recently that the bureaucracy was just fit to carry the slippers of politicos. However abhorrent the statement, it reflects a strain of thinking in the establishment. So we have a situation where the right-wing concentrates on the police, which faithfully carries out orders. We must take heed of the number of police encounters in UP.

Another statement by the NSA needs pondering over. The implementation of laws is more important than their legislation. What if laws themselves are bad? Three farm laws are being repealed. In fact, the NSAs admonitions are singularly ill-timed. And what if the implementation is too zealous? Have we forgotten the Emergency and the forced vasectomy of rickshaw pullers?

The offensive portions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) have been used against people like Kobad Ghandy and late Father Stan Swamy, who died in jail. This draconian law has no clause for anticipatory bail and the minimum punishment prescribed is five years. This is the aggressive state in action. There are also old laws like Section 124 A of the IPC that penalises sedition, something the police has made great use of. That was, of course, the colonial state in action. India ranks 142 out of 180 in the Global Law index due to the draconian and colonial laws that still exist, according to the former Justice of the Supreme court, Rohinton Nariman. India is close to the bottom of the list.

Before government functionaries enter debates on state power and individual liberty, one would recommend the study of the salutary judgment the Delhi High Court delivered on June 15 this year. On the bail plea of the Pinjra Tod activists Natasha Narwal, Devangana Kalita and student leader Asif Iqbal Tanha, who had been in jail for 13 months, the court granted them bail and made certain stringent observations. In sum, it said that in a bid to stifle dissent, the state blurs the line between the constitutional right to protest and terrorism. Talking of the UAPA, the bench of eminent Justices Siddharth Mridul and Anup Jairam stated the more stringent a penal provision, the more strictly it must be construed. But chargesheets are filed blithely. The justices also called attention to little evidence but alarming hyperbole verbiage against the wronged activists.

Civil society expects steadiness, not bonanzas from the state, which doles out five-year tenures for chiefs of CBI and Enforcement Directorate. Four days before superannuation, an officer is made DGP Delhi. The CBI office was subjected to a midnight raid, at the chosen hour when the CBI itself raids others. The Secretary General of the Rajya Sabha was moved out after two months to accommodate P C Mody, an IRS officer. This is almost anarchy.

And lastly, Doval could have emphasised wider reading by IPS probationers, before one day they, like their seniors, put a floundering foot into issues beyond their ken.

This column first appeared in the print edition on December 2, 2021 under the title Who should be policed. Daruwalla is a poet, writer and former chairman, Joint Intelligence Committee

Go here to see the original:
Why National Security Advisors advice to IPS probationers is worrying - The Indian Express