NATO: Russia has 1,000 troops in Ukraine, 20,000 more along border

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STORY HIGHLIGHTS

(CNN) -- Russia still has about 1,000 troops inside eastern Ukraine, a NATO military officer said Thursday, a week after Ukraine's government and pro-Russian rebels agreed to a ceasefire aimed at ending months of conflict.

NATO also sees 20,000 more Russian troops aligned along the border, the NATO officer told CNN. He was not named according to standard practice in the organization.

NATO believes that these numbers amount to a large and effective military force, the officer said. In addition to the troop numbers, NATO continues to see sophisticated Russian military equipment in Ukraine.

NATO remains concerned and urges Russia to engage with the international community and Ukraine to find a political solution to the crisis, the officer said.

Moscow has consistently denied allegations by Kiev and the West that Russia has troops in Ukraine, and that it has armed and supported the rebels.

On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said some 70% of the Russian troops believed to have been in Ukraine had withdrawn back across the border, according to the national news agency Ukrinform.

Information released by Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council on Thursday indicated that the rebel forces control a strip of eastern Ukraine running from the city of Luhansk down to the Sea of Azov.

'Very fragile' ceasefire

The truce was signed Friday after talks in Minsk, Belarus, between representatives of Ukraine, the rebels and Russia.

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NATO: Russia has 1,000 troops in Ukraine, 20,000 more along border

Turkey Seeks Behind-Scene Role in NATO Coalition

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Turkey is the big Muslim power that sits atop raging conflicts in Iraq and Syria, so it might be expected to take a leading role in the NATO coalition announced this month to take on the Islamic State group.

Instead it has told allies that it will stay quietly behind the scenes, keeping its soldiers out of combat operations and even declining to allow NATO to use its bases or territories to launch air attacks.

The reticence has roots in two dilemmas: the Islamic State group holds dozens of Turkish hostages, including diplomats, and Turkey is wary of boosting its rebellious Kurdish minority in the battle against Islamic State group enemies in Iraq.

Turkey's position is complicated by its eagerness to uproot the Syrian regime of Bashar Assad, which led to tolerance of anti-Assad Islamist fighters taking refuge on its side of the Syrian border and may have given the Islamic State group some breathing room in Turkey. More recently, it has been forced to confront the threat that the group posed.

Western concerns that Turkey was tacitly tolerating the Islamic State group have been allayed by Turkey's strong statements of condemnation of the group and steps to rein it in, including kicking out suspected Islamic State group sympathizers.

But while expressing public support for Turkey, NATO allies are quietly saying they would like more action from their ally.

They would chiefly like to see Turkey tighten its border controls, stem the flow of fighters transiting Turkey from Western Countries and the Middle East, and crack down on oil smuggling from Syria that finances the Islamic State group. They could also benefit from closer intelligence cooperation and possibly the use of Incirlik Airbase in southern Turkey as a base from which to launch strikes against the group.

Western governments have been alarmed by a trend of the Islamic State group managing to smuggle Iraqi and Syrian oil across its borders. Turkey has cracked down, but analysts say that Turkey has simply not been able to police the smuggling across more than 750 miles of border with Iraq and Syria.

Both U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel were in Ankara last week on successive trips to press Turkey on its role, meeting with officials, including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. But they failed to win pledges for support of combat operations at least publicly. Both expressed understanding for the delicate position Turkey was in.

Turkey also declined to sign a U.S. brokered statement by Middle Eastern countries last week repudiating the Islamic State group and pledging to fight it.

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Turkey Seeks Behind-Scene Role in NATO Coalition

MoneyWatch: Yahoo lost lawsuit over NSA surveillance; Pre-orders begin for new iPhones – Video

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MoneyWatch: Yahoo lost lawsuit over NSA surveillance; Pre-orders begin for new iPhones
Unsealed court documents revealed that Yahoo went to court to prevent the NSA from collecting data on its users and lost the case. Plus, customers can pre-or...

By: CBSNews.com Web Extras

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MoneyWatch: Yahoo lost lawsuit over NSA surveillance; Pre-orders begin for new iPhones - Video

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Edward Snowden didn't raise concerns internally: National Security Agency

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WASHINGTON: The National Security Agency was unable to find evidence that leaker Edward Snowden ever raised concerns internally about its sweeping surveillance programs, after an exhaustive search that included deleted emails, court documents showed.

NSA Associate Director for Policy and Records David Sherman said that the agency had launched a "comprehensive" investigation after media reports were published about classified NSA spy programs based on information leaked by Snowden.

As part of last year's probe, the NSA collected and searched Snowden's "sent, received and deleted email," including that "obtained by restoring back-up tapes" Sherman said in a sworn declaration filed yesterday.

"The search did not identify any email written by Mr Snowden in which he contacted agency officials to raise concerns about NSA programs."

Searches for the emails included the records from the agency's Office of General Counsel, Office of the Inspector General and Office of the Director of Compliance.

The findings contradict Snowden's claim in an interview with NBC News in May that he did raise concerns through "internal channels" within the NSA and was told to "stop asking questions" before ultimately deciding to leak the secret files.

Sherman, who has worked with the NSA since 1985, has the authority to classify information as "top secret."

The NSA made its declaration in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by VICE News against the NSA earlier this year.

The only relevant communication uncovered was a previously released email between Snowden and the Office of General Counsel inquiring about material in a training course he had completed.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, said at the time that the exchange "poses a question about the relative authority of laws and executive orders -- it does not register concerns about NSA's intelligence activities."

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Edward Snowden didn't raise concerns internally: National Security Agency

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Public be damned Litchfield latest example

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A school official, this one the superintendent in Litchfield, is not having his contract renewed by the school board. Why? The school board, officially, won't say.

"I can't disclose or discuss the contents of the board's discussion, or the rationale behind the vote," said school board chairman Dennis Miller, sounding very much like someone pleading the Fifth Amendment before Congress

Chairman Miller and a majority of the board have decided this is a "personnel matter" and therefore not for the public's ears.

Well, of course it is a personnel matter. But it involves a public employee, paid for with taxpayer dollars and not only responsible to the citizens of the school district, but in charge of the district.

Yet again, we have a case where elected officials, acting on the public's behalf, refuse to tell the public the reason for their actions. Such cases are happening too frequently.

The public has limited, but powerful, recourse. It can decide not to renew the employment "contracts" of school board members.

Some argue that they are elected to represent the public, which needs to just trust their judgment. But without knowing their reasoning for such important decisions as the hiring or firing of key personnel, how is that judgment to be assessed?

To his credit, board member John York, one of the two board members who opposed not renewing the contract, said it was more personality than anything else.

Supt. Brian Cochrane also spoke out to the Union Leader. And the world, surprise, didn't end.

The public doesn't need great specificity or gory details in such cases. But officials like Miller who won't explain their actions either don't care to take the time to do so or they really don't have a strong case in the first place.

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Public be damned Litchfield latest example

Students invited to enter First Amendment contest

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OK NAACP asks for AG investigation on OKC Officer OK NAACP asks for AG investigation on OKC Officer

Updated: Sunday, September 14 2014 7:19 AM EDT2014-09-14 11:19:45 GMT

The president of the Oklahoma NAACP wants the U.S. attorney general to open a hate crimes and civil rights investigation into alleged sexual assaults on black women by an Oklahoma City police officer.

The president of the Oklahoma NAACP wants the U.S. attorney general to open a hate crimes and civil rights investigation into alleged sexual assaults on black women by an Oklahoma City police officer.

Updated: Sunday, September 14 2014 7:17 AM EDT2014-09-14 11:17:59 GMT

Oklahoma's broadcast airwaves are practically void of political advertising just seven weeks before Oklahomans make their choices for the U.S. Senate, Congress, governor and other offices in the November 4th general election.

Oklahoma's broadcast airwaves are practically void of political advertising just seven weeks before Oklahomans make their choices for the U.S. Senate, Congress, governor and other offices in the November 4th general election.

Updated: Sunday, September 14 2014 7:16 AM EDT2014-09-14 11:16:26 GMT

An Amber Alert issued out of Tulsa late Saturday night was canceled just hours later after police determined the report was falsely reported.

An Amber Alert issued out of Tulsa late Saturday night was canceled just hours later after police determined the report was falsely reported.

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Students invited to enter First Amendment contest

Tor Browser for iOS – Free download and software reviews …

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by: Ben Markton on January 07, 2014

Tor Browser is designed to provide an added layer of security when browsing the Internet on your mobile device. Using proxy technology to keep your IP address and location secure, the app taps into the Tor browsing interface that many journalists, hackers, and academics use to protect their privacy online. From our tests, the proxies appear to work well, but the actual browser has issues of its own.

While the browsing experience with Tor did protect privacy and ensure an anonymous browsing experience, the actual Web surfing experience was hurt because of it. The setup time is long, requiring about 30 seconds or so to connect and ready itself for use. After this, the browser will often take a bit longer than other browsers to load Web pages, sometimes as much as twice the time needed by Safari. Combined with the often overseas IP addresses opening non-U.S. versions of sites, it can be a bit frustrating to get to your favorite sites and access content.

The core component of Tor Browser works as advertised and offers a secure, private browsing experience, but the browser built around that technology is not quite good enough to replace the other browsers on your device, at least not for quick reads of articles, e-mail checking, and other basic activities. It's an OK free app that could use some work on the usability side.

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Tor Browser for iOS - Free download and software reviews ...