How can U.S. deal with cyber war?

Michael Hayden says lack of domestic agreement is driving U.S. to take the offense on cyber attacks.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Obama administration beefing up effort to counter cyberattacks


• Michael Hayden says emphasis is on striking first, as the U.S. does with drone attacks


• Ex-CIA director says drone policy reflects lack of consensus on handling prisoners


• Hayden: Is killing terrorists preferred because of division over how to try them?

Editor's note: Gen. Michael V. Hayden, who was appointed by President George W. Bush as CIA director in 2006 and served until February 2009, is a principal with the Chertoff Group, a security consulting firm. He serves on the boards of several defense firms and is a distinguished visiting professor at George Mason University.

(CNN) -- Human decisions have complex roots: history, circumstance, personality, even chance.

So it's a dangerous game to oversimplify reality, isolate causation and attribute any particular course of action to one or another singular motive.

But let me tempt fate, since some recent government decisions suggest important issues for public discussion.

Michael Hayden

Over the past several weeks, press accounts have outlined a series of Obama administration moves dealing with the cyberdefense of the United States.

According to one report, the Department of Defense will add some 4,000 personnel to U.S. Cyber Command, on top of a current base of fewer than a thousand. The command will also pick up a "national defense" mission to protect critical infrastructure by disabling would-be aggressors.

A second report reveals another administration decision, very reminiscent of the Bush Doctrine of preemption, to strike first when there is imminent danger of serious cyberattack against the United States.

Both of these represent dramatic and largely welcome moves.

But they also suggest the failure of a deeper national policy process and, more importantly, the failure to develop national consensus on some very difficult issues.

Chinese military leading cyber attacks

Let me reason by analogy, and in this case the analogy is the program of targeted killings supported and indeed expanded by the Obama administration. Again, I have no legal or moral objections to killing those who threaten us. We are, as the administration rightly holds, in a global state of war with al Qaeda and its affiliates.

But at the level of policy, killing terrorists rather than capturing them seems to be the default option, and part of that dynamic is fairly attributable to our inability to decide where to put a detainee once we have decided to detain him.

Congress won't let him into the United States unless he is going before a criminal court, and the administration will not send him to Guantanamo despite the legitimate claim that a nation at war has the right to detain enemy combatants without trial.

Failing to come to agreement on the implications of the "we are at war" position, we have made it so legally difficult and so politically dangerous to detain anyone that we seem to default to killing those who would do us harm.

Clearly, it's an easier path: no debates over the location or conditions of confinement. Frequently such action can be kept covert. Decision-making is confined to one branch of government. Congress is "notified." Courts are not involved.

Besides, we are powerful. We have technology at our fingertips. We know that we can be precise, and the professionalism of our combatants allows them to easily meet the standards of proportionality and distinction (between combatants and noncombatants) in such strikes, despite claims to the contrary.

And we also believe that we can live with the second and third order effects of targeted killings. We believe that the care we show will set high standards for the use of such weapons by others who will inevitably follow us. We also believe that any long-term blowback (akin to what Gen. Stanley McChrystal calls the image of "arrogance" such strikes create) is more than offset by the immediate effects on America's safety.

I agree with much of the above. But I also fear that the lack of political consensus at home can drive us to routinely exercise an option whose long-term effects are hard to discern. Which brings us back to last week's stories on American cyberdefense.

In the last Congress, there were two prominent bills introduced to strengthen America's cyberdefenses. Neither came close to passing.

In the Senate, the Collins-Lieberman Bill created a near perfect storm with the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Chamber of Commerce weighing in strongly against the legislation. That two such disparate bodies had issues with the legislation should suggest how far we are from a national consensus.

In the House, a modest proposal from the Intelligence Committee to enhance cybersharing between the private sector and the National Security Agency was met with a presidential veto threat over alleged privacy concerns and was never even considered by the Senate.

Indeed, my preferred option -- a more active and well-regulated role for NSA and Cyber Command on and for American networks -- is almost a third rail in the debate over U.S. cybersecurity. The cybertalent and firepower at Fort Meade, where both are headquartered, are on a short leash because few dare to even address what we would ask them to do or what we would permit them to do on domestic networks.

And hence, last week's "decisions." Rather than settle the roles of these institutions by dealing with the tough issues of security and privacy domestically, we have opted for a policy not unlike targeted killing. Rather than opt for the painful process of building consensus at home, we are opting for "killing" threats abroad in their "safe haven."

We appear more willing to preempt perceived threats "over there" than spill the domestic political blood that would be needed to settle questions about standards for the defense of critical infrastructure, the role of government surveillance or even questions of information sharing. And we seem willing to live with the consequences, not unlike those of targeted killings, of the precedent we set with a policy to shoot on warning.

I understand the advantage that accrues to the offense in dealing with terrorists or cyberthreats. I also accept the underlying legality and morality of preemptive drone or cyberstrikes.

I just hope that we don't do either merely because we don't have the courage to face ourselves and make some hard decisions at home.

Follow @CNNOpinion on Twitter

Join us at Facebook/CNNOpinion

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Michael Hayden.

Read More..

Football: LionsXII impress Fandi in 2-2 draw with Johor

SINGAPORE: Fandi Ahmad was left shocked and impressed after his star-studded Johor Darul Takzim were forced to share the spoils at a packed Larkin Stadium, as they drew 2-2 with an impressive LionsXII side in the Malaysian Super League (MSL) on Tuesday night.

Fandi told reporters after the match that he and his players were shocked that the LionsXII had opted to go on the offensive from the start, saying that he had expected V Sundramoorthy's side to adopt "a more counterattacking strategy".

"This has been the best I've seen the LionsXII play," praised Fandi. "I'm also quite puzzled why my players couldn't rise to the occasion tonight and perform."

Indeed, there was a very different look to the LionsXII on Tuesday as they refused to sit back in the first half and often pressed forward in numbers in search of goals.

The LionsXII hardly looked in awe of Johor - who boast the likes of former Lazio player Simone Del Nero and former Spanish international Daniel Guiza - and impressed with fluid passing and hard tackling.

Their desire to draw first blood did not take long to pay dividends when Hariss Harun - who was playing his first match since he suffered a broken fibula in November - blasted the visitors into the lead after four minutes.

The Larkin Stadium was thoroughly silenced by the midfield lynchpin, but it was only for a moment.

Just six minutes later, Johor's livewire midfielder Nurul Azwan lost his marker and sent a low cross into the area which Del Nero superbly headed past goalkeeper Izwan Mahbud to score his first club goal.

Eager to reclaim the initiative, Sundram's charges continued to attack and were rewarded in the 37th minute when Baihakki Khaizan scored with a spectacular diving header following a free-kick.

The match continued to be played at a frenetic pace even after the restart and Fandi soon brought on even more firepower in Safee Sali.

With Safee, Guiza and Norshahrul Idlan Talaha now in attack, the LionsXII found themselves pegged back and digging deep to defend.

Fandi's decision to overload the attack eventually paid off as Norshahrul shrugged off tired LionsXII defenders and fired home Johor's equaliser from 20 yards out.

Despite not bagging the win, Sundram was satisfied with the result, praising his players for the tenacity they displayed.

He said: "I'm very happy the players fought for every ball tonight. The MSL is a very physical league and we've got to be able to fight hard on the field. Player to player, I'm very pleased that our boys can compete against Fandi's."

- TODAY

Read More..

Execution looms for killer; lawyers say he has IQ of 70

By Matt Smith, CNN

updated 6:52 PM EST, Tue February 19, 2013

Warren Lee Hill's defenders say he should not be executed because he is mentally impaired.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: The U.S. Supreme Court denies a stay of execution


• Warren Lee Hill's defenders say he's mentally disabled


• Hill was convicted of beating to death another Georgia inmate in 1990

(CNN) -- Warren Lee Hill, whose defenders say he is mentally disabled, is scheduled to die by lethal injection Tuesday night for the 1990 killing of Joseph Handspike.

Handspike was another inmate in a Georgia state prison.

The U.S. Supreme Court denied a stay of execution Tuesday, as did the state Supreme Court earlier in the day, while the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles similarly denied a request for clemency.

In Georgia, the governor does not have clemency powers.

The execution is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET at a state prison in Jackson, about 45 miles south of Atlanta.

Hill was convicted of beating Handspike to death with a nail-studded board while already serving a life sentence in the 1985 killing of his girlfriend, Myra Wright.

Hill's lawyers had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the execution, arguing that his IQ of 70 means he should be spared under the 2002 decision that barred the execution of the mentally disabled. But a string of state courts has said Hill doesn't qualify under Georgia law, which requires inmates to prove mental impairment "beyond a reasonable doubt."

Georgia is the only state with the reasonable-doubt standard, which Hill's lawyers call "a virtually insurmountable barrier" that flies in the face of the justices' 2002 decision.

"The U.S. Supreme Court says we don't put mentally retarded people to death, but we'll let the states determine who's retarded and who's not," CNN legal analyst Paul Callan said Monday.

Handspike's family has called for the execution to be called off, as have former classmates and school officials. The Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities has weighed in against the execution, stating, "No other state risks the lives of those with developmental disabilities to this extreme."

Three doctors who examined Hill for the state "have now revised their opinions and find that Mr. Hill does meet the criteria for mental retardation," his lawyers argued in court papers.

But lawyers for the state argued that Hill had served in the Navy, held a job and managed his money before Wright's killing -- signs that while he had a low IQ, he didn't necessarily meet the legal standard for retardation.

Hill had been scheduled for execution in July, but the state Supreme Court halted the execution on procedural grounds.

Hill refused any special last meal, the state Department of Corrections said. Instead, prison officials said, he'll be offered the institution's meal tray of macaroni and cheese, baked beans, mixed vegetables, stir-fry vegetables, cornbread, cookies and iced tea.

CNN's Bill Mears, Dana Ford and Dave Alsup contributed to this report.

Read More..

Police identify gunman in LA freeway shooting spree

Police investigate a shooting spree in Southern California

/

CBS Los Angeles

(CBS/AP) TUSTIN, Calif. - Southern California law enforcement authorities have identified the gunman in an unexplained shooting rampage as a 20-year-old unemployed part-time student named Ali Syed.

Tustin police Chief Scott Jordan says Syed lived at the Ladera Ranch residence where the first victim was slain.

Orange County sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino says that victim is a young woman in her 20s who has not been identified and is not related to the shooter.

The rampage early Tuesday left three victims dead and several wounded. The shooter killed himself.

More on Crimesider
February 19, 2013 - Los Angeles Freeway Shooting Update: Police say four dead including gunman after shooting spree
February 19, 2013 - Los Angeles Freeway Shooting: At least 3 dead, others wounded in shooting spree, police say

Read More..

Report Fingers Chinese Military Unit in US Hacks

A Virginia-based cyber security firm has released a new report alleging a specific Chinese military unit is likely behind one of the largest cyber espionage and attack campaigns aimed at American infrastructure and corporations.

In the report, released today by Mandiant, China's Unit 61398 is blamed for stealing "hundreds of terabytes of data from at least 141 organizations" since 2006, including 115 targets in the U.S. Twenty different industrial sectors were targeted in the attacks, Mandiant said, from energy and aerospace to transportation and financial institutions.

Mandiant believes it has tracked Unit 61398 to a 12-story office building in Shanghai that could employ hundreds of workers.

"Once [Unit 61398] has established access [to a target network], they periodically revisit the victim's network over several months or years and steal broad categories of intellectual property, including technology blueprints, proprietary manufacturing processes, test results, business plans, pricing documents, partnership agreements, and emails and contact lists from victim organizations' leadership," the report says.

The New York Times, which first reported on the Mandiant paper Monday, said digital forensic evidence presented by Mandiant pointing to the 12-story Shangai building as the likely source of the attacks has been confirmed by American intelligence officials. Mandiant was the firm that The Times said helped them investigate and eventually repel cyber attacks on their own systems in China last month.

Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images

The Chinese government has repeatedly denied involvement in cyber intrusions and Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei said today that the claims in the Mandiant report were unsupported, according to a report by The Associated Press.

"To make groundless accusations based on some rough material is neither responsible nor professional," he reportedly said.

Mandiant's report was released a week after President Obama said in his State of the Union address that America must "face the rapidly growing threat from cyber attack."

"We know hackers steal people's identities and infiltrate private e-mail. We know foreign countries and companies swipe our corporate secrets. Now our enemies are also seeking the ability to sabotage our power grid, our financial institutions, and our air traffic control systems. We cannot look back years from now and wonder why we did nothing in the face of real threats to our security and our economy," he said.

Though Obama did not reference China or any country specifically, U.S. officials have previously accused the Asian nation of undertaking a widespread cyber espionage campaign.

Referring to alleged Chinese hacking in October 2011, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) said in an open committee meeting that he did not believe "that there is a precedent in history for such a massive and sustained intelligence effort by a government agency to blatantly steal commercial data and intellectual property."

Rogers said that cyber intrusions into American and other Western corporations by hackers working on behalf of Beijing -- allegedly including attacks on corporate giants like Google and Lockheed Martin -- amounted to "brazen and widespread theft."

"The Chinese have proven very, very good at hacking their way into very large American companies that spend a lot of money trying to protect themselves," cyber security expert and ABC News consultant Richard Clarke said in an interview last week.

Read More..

Borneo tension linked to rebel deal

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• More than 100 Filipinos arrived by boat on the Malaysian coast last week


• They say they represent a sultanate that once ruled the area


• The move seems to be a response to a recent peace deal in the Philippines


• The leaders of the sultanate appear to have felt left out of the accord, an expert says

(CNN) -- The peculiar standoff on Borneo between Malaysian security forces and a group of men from the southern Philippines has its roots in a recent landmark peace deal between Manila and Muslim rebels, according to an expert on the region.

More than 100 men from the mainly Muslim southern Philippines came ashore in the Malaysian state of Sabah on Borneo early last week demanding to be recognized as representatives of a sultanate that has historical claims on the area.

Their claims touch on an unresolved territorial question between the Philippines and Malaysia, as well as Manila's efforts to improve relations with Islamic insurgents in the country's south after decades of violence.

Malaysian police and armed forces soon surrounded the village in the eastern Sabah district of Lahad Datu where the men had gathered. Police officials said they were negotiating with the group in an effort to persuade its members to return to their homes in the Philippines peacefully.

The Philippine government also urged them to come back to the country, saying it hadn't authorized their voyage. There was no indication of a resolution to the standoff on Monday.

The men claim to be the Royal Army of the Sultanate of Sulu, which once encompassed Sabah, and say they don't want their people to be sent away from the area, Malaysian authorities said. There are conflicting claims about to what extent the men are armed.

Eroded power

Over the weekend, comments appeared in the news media from representatives of the sultanate, whose power is now largely symbolic, saying that their followers who had gone to Sabah planned to stay where they were.

"Nobody will be sent to the Philippines. Sabah is our home," Jamalul Kiram, a member of the sultanate's ruling family, told reporters in Manila on Sunday, according to Agence France-Presse.

The sultanate's claim to Sabah plays a long-standing and important role in the Philippine government's relationship with the country's Muslim minority and with neighboring Malaysia, said Julkipli Wadi, the dean of the Institute of Islamic Studies at the University of the Philippines.

Established in the 15th century, the Sultanate of Sulu became an Islamic power center in Southeast Asia that at one point ruled Sabah.

But the encroachment of Western colonial powers, followed by the emergence of the Philippines and Malaysia as independent nation states, steadily eroded the sultanate's power, according to Wadi.

It became "a sultanate without a kingdom" to rule over, he said. Sulu is now a province within the Republic of the Philippines.

But the sultanate has nonetheless retained influence over some people in the southern Philippines and Sabah who still identify themselves with it, according to Wadi.

Excluded from a peace deal

The members of the sultanate's royal family, although riven by internal disputes over who the rightful sultan is today, appear to have felt isolated by the provisional accord signed in October by the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which has fought for decades to establish an independent Islamic state in southern Philippines.

Malaysia, a mainly Muslim country, helped facilitate the agreement.

Kiram was cited by AFP as saying that the sultanate's exclusion from the deal, which aims to set up a new autonomous region to be administered by Muslims, prompted the decision to send the men to Sabah this month.

Dispatching the boat loads of followers to Lahad Datu served to make the sultanate's presence felt, according to Wadi.

"The whole aim is not to create conflict or initiate war, it is just to position themselves and make governments like Malaysia and the Philippines recognize them," he said.

Historical ties

The economic, cultural and historical links between Sabah and the nearby Philippines islands, as well as the porous nature of the border between the two, means that many of the Filipino men have friends and relatives in Lahad Datu.

But the historical connection still fuels tensions between Malaysia and the Philippines, with Manila retaining a "dormant claim" to Sabah through the Sultanate of Sulu, according to the CIA World Factbook.

According to the official Philippine News Agency, Manila still claims much of the eastern part of Sabah, which was leased to the British North Borneo Company in 1878 by the Sultanate of Sulu. In 1963, Britain transferred Sabah to Malaysia, a move that the sultanate claimed was a breach of the 1878 deal.

Malaysia still pays a token rent to the sultanate for the lease of Sabah, according to Wadi.

Read More..

Greater US military role in Mali likely after polls: senator

BAMAKO: The United States is likely to play a more active military role in Mali, where French-led forces are battling Islamist rebels, after the country holds elections, the chair of a key Senate sub-committee said Monday.

Washington has been providing intelligence, transport and mid-air refuelling to France, which launched its intervention last month, but cannot work directly with the Malian army until a democratically elected government replaces current leaders who came to power after a coup, said Christopher Coons, chair of the Senate foreign relations committee's Africa sub-committee.

"There is the hope that there will be additional support from the United States in these and other areas, but ... American law prohibits direct assistance to the Malian military following the coup," Coons told journalists in the Malian capital.

"After there is a full restoration of democracy, I would think it is likely that we will renew our direct support for the Malian military," added the senator, who led a bipartisan congressional delegation to Mali to meet with interim president Dioncounda Traore and French and African defence officials.

US military aid to Mali before the March 2012 coup consisted largely of training and equipment such as vehicles, a State Department official said.

But military assistance "would obviously be resumed in a way commensurate with the current needs. Priorities would have shifted a bit," the official added.

"There could be other kinds of assistance that had there not been a coup we could have provided, or requests for things now that we can't provide."

Some US lawmakers criticised President Barack Obama's administration last week for not doing more to help France in Mali.

"This is a NATO ally fighting Al-Qaeda-linked terrorists -- it shouldn't be that hard," said House foreign affairs committee chairman Ed Royce.

The hint of greater US involvement after elections adds to the complicated calculus of picking a date for the polls.

Traore, the interim president, has said he wants elections by July 31.

But critics say that is too soon given the problems Mali still faces, including ongoing insurgent attacks, a deeply divided military and hundreds of thousands of people who have fled their homes.

The minister responsible for organising the elections, Territorial Administration Minister Moussa Sinko Coulibaly, said last week the timeline "can be changed if necessary".

France, which launched its intervention on January 11 as Al-Qaeda-linked groups that had occupied the north for 10 months made incursions into government territory, is keen to share the military burden in Mali, and has announced plans to start bringing its 4,000 troops home in March.

The European Union formally approved a military training mission Monday that will be tasked with getting Mali's under-funded army ready to secure reclaimed territory.

But France is the only Western country with combat troops on the ground, and would like to hand over to some 6,000 west African troops who are slowly being deployed to help.

Mali imploded after a coup by soldiers who blamed the government for the army's humiliation at the hands of separatist rebels in the north.

With the capital in disarray, Al-Qaeda-linked fighters hijacked the independence rebellion and took control of a territory larger than Texas.

-AFP/ac

Read More..

Pistorius' girlfriend was alive after shooting, official says

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: Detectives are examining role of a blood-stained cricket bat, newspaper reports


• Runner Oscar Pistorius has been charged with murder in model Reeva Steenkamp's death


• Steenkamp was still alive when Pistorius carried her downstairs, an official says

Pretoria, South Africa (CNN) -- Model Reeva Steenkamp was shot four times through the bathroom door at the home of Olympian Oscar Pistorius, a South African official familiar with the case told CNN on Monday.

She was alive after she was shot and was carried downstairs by Pistorius, said the official, who was not authorized to release details to the media.

A blood-stained cricket bat has also emerged as key evidence in the case, according to the City Press newspaper of Johannesburg.

Detectives are working to determine whether the bat was used to attack Steenkamp or she used it in self-defense, the newspaper reported, citing a source with inside knowledge of the case. Detectives are also looking into the possibility that Pistorius used the bat to break down the bathroom door.

The details are the latest to emerge in the shooting death that has roiled the nation and left South Africans asking what went so terribly wrong inside the upscale Pretoria home of the man nicknamed "Blade Runner" for his lightning-fast prosthetic legs.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there were indications the 29-year-old model intended to stay the night at the house: She had an overnight bag and her iPad.

Opinion: Pistorius case and the plague of violence against women

Authorities have released little about a possible motive in the Valentine's Day shooting, while local media have reported that Pistorius had mistaken his girlfriend for an intruder. South African authorities have stressed that the scenario did not come from them, and said there was no evidence of forced entry at the home.

Police have charged Pistorius with murder, and he will appear in court Tuesday for a bail hearing. South African prosecutors have said they intend to upgrade the charge to premeditated murder, but have not released further details.

Pistorius, 26, has rejected the murder allegation "in the strongest terms," his agent said in a statement.

Nike's bullet ad with Pistorius backfires

Burial service

The same day Pistorius returns to court, Steenkamp will be buried in a private service in her hometown of Port Elizabeth.

Her burial Tuesday will come two days after South Africa's national broadcaster aired a pre-recorded reality TV show featuring Steenkamp discussing her exit from "Tropika Island of Treasure," on which local celebrities compete for prize money.

The decision to air the program took "much deliberation," and "this week's episode will be dedicated to Reeva's memory," said Samantha Moon, the executive producer.

The shooting has stunned South Africa, where Pistorius is a national hero as the first disabled athlete to compete in the able-bodied Olympic Games. He competed in the London Games as well as winning two gold medals in the Paralympic Games.

Headlines about the case have dominated in the days since Pistorius was arrested, though tight-lipped authorities have revealed little about what, if anything, the track star has said.

Oscar Pistorius with Reeva Steenkamp in January 2013.

Questions swirl

Reports say Pistorius and Steenkamp became an item around November and were popular in South African social circles.

The night before the shooting, Steenkamp appeared to be looking forward to Valentine's Day.

"What do you have up your sleeve for your love tomorrow?" she asked her Twitter followers the day before. "Get excited."

Steenkamp was found in a pool of blood at Pistorius' home Thursday morning. Neighbors alerted authorities to the early morning shooting, saying they had "heard things earlier," police spokeswoman Denise Beukes has said. She did not clarify what the neighbors reported they heard.

Authorities also have not said whether Pistorius called for help.

Pictures of his walk to a police car, his head covered by a sweatshirt, have flashed repeatedly across television screens.

On Sunday, Pistorius canceled his appearances in five upcoming races.

The move is meant to help Pistorius focus on the legal proceedings and "help and support all those involved as they try to come to terms with this very difficult and distressing situation," said Peet Van Zyl of Pistorius' management company, In Site Athlete Management.

CNN's Robyn Curnow reported from South Africa; Chelsea J. Carter and Faith Karimi reported from Atlanta.

Read More..

U.S. lawmakers visit Cuba, hope for Gross release

HAVANA A high-level delegation of American lawmakers headed by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., arrived in Havana at midday on a two-day fact-finding mission that includes meetings with Cuban leaders and an expected visit with jailed U.S. contractor Alan Gross.

"We would love him [Gross] to be on the plane with us when we leave" Wednesday, said Leahy.

However, speaking individually with members of the congressional delegation it was clear that they did not expect the Cubans to release Gross during their visit.

"Every one of us has an interest in Cuba and a number of us have been here over the years," said Leahy, who led a smaller delegation here a year ago with a similar purpose.

"I feel the same way I did before," Leahy said, "I would like to see relations improve between our countries. Both countries have to take steps" to make this happen.

Leahy said that the changes in Cuba between his 1999 visit to Cuba and his visit last year showed a "quantum jump" and he is eager to see what has been happening over the last 12 months.

Play Video

Pressure builds to bring home an American jailed in Cuba

One step that the U.S. is stressing is the release of Gross who is serving a 15-year-sentence for smuggling illegal communication equipment into Cuba as part of a USAID democracy program. Leahy who met with Gross last year, noted that Gross's congressman, Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., is in the group that flew in on a military plane.

The lawmakers expect to see outgoing National Assembly President and Communist Party Political Bureau member Ricardo Alarcon and Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez. A meeting with President Raul Castro appears likely and there will be meetings with Western diplomats posted here.

The delegation that includes Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz, and Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., both of who have been visited Cuba on numerous occasions and long advocated changing U.S. policy, talked informally with a small group of reporters at the U.S. Interests Section, Washington's lone diplomatic outpost in Havana shortly after arriving.

Flake, a strong believer in free markets, has advocated lifting the U.S. trade embargo and visited the island some dozen times to promote agricultural trade.

Senate Agriculture Committee chairman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., told reporters, "There's a tremendous amount we could do if we could trade back and forth...and it would be of benefit to both countries."

Leahy said the group was not here to negotiate with the Cuban government, "we have trained diplomats here who can do that but to listen and to go back and talk to the State Department" and others in Washington.

The delegation is interesting in seeing the economic changes implemented by Castro and gauging what political changes there might be.

The delegation, the first high-level U.S. visit since President Obama's reelection last November, was asked if they thought his second term presented an opportunity for change.

"There have been opportunities in the past," said Leahy. "[President Bill] Clinton wanted to do something but the shoot down (of an exile group's flight over the island) ended that," he said. "Now I think there is not a Cold War attitude in the U.S.," and that opens the possibility of change, he concluded.

McGovern also stressed it was time for "a new and more mature policy toward Cuba", adding, "I want Alan Gross released. I want Americans to be able to travel here freely."

Some staffers suggested that there might also be steps the U.S. could take to break the 50-plus years impasse in bilateral relations such as removing Cuba from the State Department list of terrorist countries.

Also on the delegation are Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.

Read More..

Nike, Oakley Distance Themselves from Pistorius

Corporate sponsors of Olympic "blade runner" Oscar Pistorius have begun to distance themselves from the sprinter, who is accused of murdering his model girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. Pistorius is back to court in South Africa Tuesday morning on murder charges.

Oakley, the eyewear manufacturer, and the sporting goods giant Nike announced today that they would no longer run ads featuring Pistorius, the South African double-amputee who gained worldwide fame for running on carbon-fiber blades.

"In light of the recent allegations, Oakley is suspending its contract with Oscar Pistorius, effective immediately. Our hearts are with the families during this difficult time and we'll continue to follow the developments in this tragic case," Oakley spokeswoman Cheri Quigley said in a statement released this afternoon.

Earlier in the day, Nike said it had "no plans" to use Pistorius in future ad campaigns, according to the Associated Press. Nike had already pulled an Internet ad showing Pistorius starting to sprint with the caption, "I am the bullet in the chamber."

The companies made their announcements shortly after Pistorius' own agent, Peet Van Zyl, said publicly that he expected the sponsors to stick with Pistorius through the legal process.

PHOTOS: Paralympic Champion Charged in Killing

Pistorius will appear in court Tuesday morning for a bail hearing. His attorneys are expected to argue against the charge of premeditated murder.

His family has said the shooting was an accident.

The news comes as more details emerge about the incident on Thursday morning in which Pistorius allegedly shot and killed Steenkamp at his gated home in Pretoria, South Africa.

Bryn Lennon; Gallo Images/Getty Images

Oscar Pistorius: Possibly Incriminating Information Leaked Watch Video

'Blade Runner' Murder Charges: Family Insist Accidental Shooting Watch Video

'Blade Runner' Murder Mystery: Family Speaks Out Watch Video

News reports in local papers have said that police are investigating whether Pistorius had an anger-management problem that led to the incident. They focused in on a bloodied cricket bat that may have been used when Steenkamp died.

A "shocked" teammate of Oscar Pistorius rebutted the rumors and speculation in South Africa that Pistorius had an anger problem.

Ofentse Mogawane, a sprinter for the South African Olympic team who ran the 400-meter relay with Pistorius in the London summer games last year, said Pistorius had always been genial to him and other people.

Mogawane said he would be in court Tuesday to support his friend.

"Basically, he was a very good guy to us, to the teammates and to most athletes," Mogawane said. "He was a really humble person and I wouldn't say a bad word about him. We never had any kind of clash, never any kind of fight or disagreement or arguing.

"The way Oscar's case was, it shocked me, shocked most of the people who know him. Tomorrow in court I am going to be there to support him. To hear what happened the night of the incident," he said.

"Sometimes when people are angry they cannot control their anger. Something must have happened."

Mogawane, 30, spoke in support of Pistorius after a report in South Africa's City Press newspaper that claimed police were looking into the possibility that a bloody cricket bat found in his bedroom was used before the shooting.

"The way the news has been running around in South Africa, that he is a short-tempered person, a person who has problems with anger management, they just want something to say," Mogawane said. "They don't know Oscar at all. They just want to get interviewed and take pictures. But truly speaking, it's just a lot of speculation."

Mogawane said he had seen Pistorius become angry before, but only in the same way as any other athlete or person.

But the City Press reported Sunday that police are investigating different scenarios involving the bat. Among them is the possibility that the flat-fronted bat was used in a violent argument before the shooting.

The paper also reported that Pistorius might have first shot Steenkamp in the bedroom, and that she possibly fled to the bathroom where she was shot three more times through the door.

When Pistorius' family arrived at the scene before paramedics, they saw him carrying Steenkamp down the stairs and performing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on her, City Press reported.

Pistorius, who is nicknamed the "blade runner" because of the carbon-fiber blades on which he runs, has canceled all his upcoming racing appearances, his agent said Sunday night.

The decision was made to "allow Oscar to concentrate on the upcoming legal proceedings and to help and support all those involved as they try to come to terms with this very difficult and distressing situation," Van Zyl, of In Site Athlete Management, said in a statement.

Pistorius' father was quoted overnight in the South African paper The Sunday Times saying his countrymen are destroying a national icon.

Read More..