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<br /> When <keyword id="16945" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Taliban">Taliban</keyword> attacked the <keyword id="275394" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Afghan-parliament">Afghan Parliament</keyword> on Monday to turn down lawmakers’ attempt to find a new <keyword id="194123" type="POSITION" weightage="60" keywordseo="defense-minister">defense minister</keyword> for the country, the whole world looked on in horror. The way Talibanese planned and executed this attack, they send out a clear message to the <keyword id="236314" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Afghanistan-government">Afghanistan government</keyword> that they are against democracy. This attack took us back to December 13, 2001, when <keyword id="145182" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Indian-Parliament">Indian Parliament</keyword> was attacked by a bunch of militants. But, if you think India and Afghanistan are the only countries to have faced such an attack, you should check out this list: <br />
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(Image: Reuters)  <br />

5 Parliament attacks across the globe that shook everyone

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>A Tunisian official says eight people have been killed in a shooting attack on a leading museum.</p><p>Interior Ministry spokesman Mohamed Ali Aroui said on Radio Mosaique that only one of the dead in Wednesday's attack was a Tunisian. He did not provide nationalities for the others.</p><p>The Bardo National Museum is adjacent to the national parliament building, which was being evacuated after the shooting.</p><p>The museum is a leading tourist attraction that chronicles Tunisia's history and houses one of the world's largest collections of Roman mosaics.</p><p>It is unclear who the attackers are. Tunisia has struggled with violence by Islamic extremists in recent years, including some linked to the Islamic State group.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/drunk-driving-checkpoint-regulation-hack-2015-2">A lawyer in Florida has come up with an ingenious way for drivers to evade drunken-driving checkpoints</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="EwZXE5czqobpJLXsPUCBDsxSm8XxaRw0" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

At least 8 are dead after an attack on a leading museum in Tunisia

<p>The siege of Tunisia's Bardo Museum is over. Terrorists in military uniform <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/19/world/africa/gunmen-attack-tunis-bardo-national-museum.html?smid=tw-share">took over the museum in downtown Tunis</a>, killing 9 people and taking hostages. Two terrorists and a security officer were killed in the mayhem, <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/03/18/reports-shots-tunisia-parliament/24948295/">but the situation has reportedly been stabilized</a>. </p><p>The museum holds one of the world's greatest collections of Roman and Byzantine mosaics, a treasure trove that evokes Tunisia's centrality to the history of imperial Rome. It was after the Roman defeat of Carthage in 149 BC that Rome really became an empire, attempting to project power and erase all memory of their north African enemies by building roads, palaces, cities, <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/38">and even stadiums</a> that survive in Tunisia to this day.</p><p>Tunis is a harmony of Arab and French influences, a multilingual city with broad, Parisian-style avenues leading to a walled ancient center. The country's cosmopolitan legacy might help explain why its post-Arab Spring transition to democracy has gone relatively smoothly, weathering a potentially hazardous constitutional re-write and multiple changes in power since longstanding dictator Zine Abidine ben Ali fled the country among protests in early 2011.</p><p>Like Egypt, Tunisia elected an Islamist-controlled parliament in its first post-Arab Spring vote; unlike Egypt, that government left power through a subsequent election rather than at gunpoint.</p><p>But this might also explain why Tunisia's been one of the world's biggest exporters of jihadists to Iraq and Syria. Over 3,000 Tunisians have traveled to the battlefield <a href="http://knowmore.washingtonpost.com/2015/01/27/more-than-20000-foreign-fighters-have-joined-isis/">according to the Washington Post</a>, the most of any other country. This is especially incredible considering Tunisia only has a population of 11 million.</p><p>Conservative resentment of the country's democratic turn - along with economic stagnation and frustration at the lack of a clear post-Arab Spring dividend - might explain the Jihadist exodus. Tunisia also has a nagging domestic jihadism problem, with occasional <a href="http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/security/2013/08/tunisia-algeria-terrorist-acts-border.html">battles between security forces and extremist fighters</a> in the country's Jebel Chambi region.</p><p>Today's attack at the Bardo is a sign that there are actors within the country who violently resent Tunisia's unique history, along with its special place within the post-Arab Spring Middle East. </p><p>Here are some photos I took at the Bardo museum during a reporting trip in April of 2012.  Tunis is still one of the world's great cities. And despite today's atrocity, no visit would be complete without a stop at the Bardo.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/going-clear-sundance-premiere-scientology-bombshells-2015-1">6 Crazy Things Revealed In HBO's Explosive New Scientology Documentary 'Going Clear'</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="o5dzJpczpndV8YG9M7cnoa3JXgQXBqja" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Terrorists in Tunisia attacked one of the world's greatest collections of Roman art

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<p class="source"><span>AP</span></p>
<p class="caption">Followers of the Houthi movement shout slogans during a gathering to show support to the movement outside the Presidential Palace in Sanaa February 4, 2015.</p>
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<span>Iran-backed </span>Yemen's Shiite rebels just <a href="https://twitter.com/AP/status/563711326028328960">announced</a> they are taking over the country and dissolving parliament.
<p class="p1">Reuters reports that a&#xa0;<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">new assembly will elect a five-member interim presidential council to manage the country's affairs.</span></p>
<p class="p1">Yemen has been in political limbo for the last month after President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and the government of Prime Minister Khaled Bahah resigned after the Houthis seized the presidential palace and confined the head of state to his residence in a struggle to tighten control.</p>
<p class="ap-story-p">"This is a coup. There is no other word to describe what is happening but a coup," Saleh al-Jamalani, a Yemeni army colonel,&#xa0;<a href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_YEMEN?SITE=AP&amp;SECTION=HOME&amp;TEMPLATE=DEFAULT">told The Associated Press</a>&#xa0;after rebels attacked the presidential palace. He added that the rebels likely had the assistance of elements inside the deposed government, headed by president Abdu Mansour Haddi.</p>
<p class="ap-story-p"><span>Houthi rebels have been&#xa0;</span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-houthis-take-over-in-yemen-2014-10">stripping down Yemen's existing state apparatus</a><span>&#xa0;ever since marching into the capital of Sa'ana in September.</span></p>
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   The gloves are fully off. The Houthis are running the show in Yemen  </p>- Hugh Naylor  (@HughNaylor) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/563713587139448833">February 6, 2015</a>
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   One thing is clear from the audience of the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/houthi?src=hash">#houthi</a> speech at the republican palace, the Yemeni military is in their hands. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Yemen?src=hash">#Yemen</a>  </p>- Sama'a Al-Hamdani  (@Yemeniaty) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/563703736447795200">February 6, 2015</a>
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<p class="embed-spacer"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Yemen, which borders Saudi Arabia to the south and is home to nearly 25 million people, was one of four countries to replace its leader during the "Arab Spring" uprisings, along with Libya, Egypt, and Tunisia. Now, it threatens to become another one of the region's violent political and military vacuums - with the added complication of Yemen also being home to&#xa0;</span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/al-qaeda-is-back-in-big-way-2015-1">Al Qaeda's most capable foreign affiliate</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">.</span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">&#xa0;</span></p>
<p>The Houthis are a community of Shi'ite Muslim tribes from Yemen's desert periphery. A Houthi insurgency has been ongoing for most of the last decade, and was sparked in the early 2000s by the largely Sunni central government's encroachment on traditional Houthi governance and traditional authority, along with the group's traditional marginalization within Yemen's <keyword id="6358883" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Politics">politics</keyword>.</p>
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<a title_source="Stratfor" title_caption="Yemen sits on the periphery of the big players in the Middle East." class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/4ed23f00ecad041f6f00005b-960/middle-east-map.jpg"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><span>Stratfor</span></p>
<p class="caption">Yemen sits on the periphery of the big players in the Middle East.</p>
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</div></div>The Houthis have also&#xa0;<a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/15/us-yemen-houthis-iran-insight-idUSKBN0JT17A20141215">received forms of assistance from Iran</a>&#xa0;as well, turning Yemen into another possible battleground between Tehran and the Middle East's Sunni states.<span>&#xa0;</span>
<p><span>Yemen is just one of several Middle Eastern countries where groups either allied with or directed by Iran are the strongest political and military actor.</span></p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="106" data-total-count="5335">Qassem Suleimani, the head of the Qods Force, the foreign arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps is&#xa0;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/qassem-suleimani-running-iraq-2014-6#ixzz3D14dnytk">directing</a>&#xa0;sectarian militias in both Iraq and Syria. At the same time, Suleimani is nurturing the guerilla proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen. In other words, Iran is controlling powerful Shia proxies all across the Middle East.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="272" data-total-count="5607">"Suleimani is the leader of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen," Ali Khedery,&#xa0;<span>who served&#xa0;</span><span>as a special assistant to five US ambassadors and a senior adviser to three heads of US Central Command&#xa0;</span><span>between 2003 and 2009</span>, &#xa0;<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/04/world/middleeast/iran-airstrikes-hit-islamic-state-in-iraq.html?_r=0">told The New York Times</a> in December. "Iraq is not sovereign. It is led by Suleimani, and his boss, [Iranian Supreme Leader] Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei."</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="272" data-total-count="5607">While the Houthis are not as direct an extension or Iranian policy as Hezbollah and adhere to a different strain of Shia Islam than the regime in Tehran, Friday's development still means that an Iran-backed group has succeeded in replacing Yemen's western-backed transitional government. And it means Tehran is an even more powerful player in a populous, largely ungoverned country that borders oil-rich Saudi Arabia and <a href="http://www.eia.gov/countries/regions-topics.cfm?fips=wotc&amp;trk=p3">sits on a major global oil choke-point</a> at the mouth of the Red Sea.</p>

Iran-backed rebels in Yemen just dissolved parliament and took over

New Delhi, Nov 28 () Forty eight websites of ministries of Centre and state governments were hacked this year up to October, Parliament was informed on Thursday.
<p> "As per the information reported to and tracked by Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) a total number of 110 and 48 websites of Central Ministries/ Departments and State Governments were hacked during the year 2018 and 2019 (till October), respectively," Minister of State for Electronics and IT Sanjay Dhotre said in a written reply to Rajya Sabha.
</p><p> He added that there have been attempts from time-to-time to launch cyber attacks on Indian cyber space.
</p><p> The minister said it has been observed that attackers are compromising computer systems located in different parts of the world and use masquerading techniques and hidden servers to hide the identity of actual systems from which the attacks are being launched.
</p><p> "According to the logs analysed and made available to CERT-In, the Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of the computers from where the attacks appear to be originated belong to various countries including China, Pakistan, Netherlands, France, Taiwan, Tunisia, Russia, Algeria and Serbia," he added.
</p> CERT-In devises response measures in co-ordination with its counterpart agencies in foreign countries for resolution of incidents involving systems outside the country, he said.  SR  RVK

48 websites of central ministries, state govts hacked in 2019 till Oct

New Delhi, Dec 11 () Over 21,400 Indian websites were hacked this year up to October, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.
<p> "As per the information reported to and tracked by Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), a total number of 33,147, 30,067, 17,560 and 21,467 Indian websites were hacked during the year 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 (till October), respectively," Minister of State for Electronics and IT Sanjay Dhotre said in a written reply to Lok Sabha.
</p><p> He added that there have been attempts from time to time to launch cyber attacks on Indian cyber space.
</p><p> It has been observed that attackers are compromising computer systems located in different parts of the world and use masquerading techniques and hidden servers to hide the identity of actual systems from which the attacks are being launched, he said.
</p><p> "According to the logs analyzed and made available to CERT-In, the Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of the computers from where the attacks appear to be originated belong to various countries including China, Pakistan, Netherlands, France, Taiwan, Tunisia, Russia, Algeria and Serbia," Dhotre said.
</p><p> In response to a separate query, Dhotre said a total of 4,192 and 3,847 complaints for blocking of URLs under certain provisions of section 69A of the IT Act were received by the IT Ministry during the year 2018 and 2019 (till August), respectively.
</p><p> "Government has taken appropriate action for blocking of URLs following the norms prescribed in the rules notified under section 69A of the Act," he said.
</p> The minister noted that Section 69A of the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000 empowers government to block any information generated, transmitted, received, stored or hosted in any computer resource in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the State, friendly relations with foreign states or public order or for preventing incitement to the commission of any cognizable offence relating to above.  SR  RVK

21,467 Indian websites hacked in 2019 till October

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Reuters/Hannibal Hanschke</span></p><p class="caption">German Chancellor Angela Merkel.</p></div><p></p></div></div>German Chancellor Angela Merkel's "<a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/behind-angela-merkels-open-door-for-migrants-1449712113">open-door</a>" asylum policy to people from across the Middle East and North Africa is being scaled back after roughly 1.1 million refugees and migrants entered Germany in 2015.</p><p>The new rules come as Chancellor Angela Merkel's approval rating <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-04/merkel-s-approval-falls-to-lowest-since-2011-on-refugee-crisis">hit its lowest point</a> since 2011. The rules also come after mass New Year's Eve sexual attacks on women in Cologne involving many <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/18/cologne-attacks-algerian-asylum-seeker-arrested-new-years-eve-assaults">men of Middle Eastern or North African origin</a>.</p><p>On Wednesday, the German cabinet approved a plan that excluded three North African nations from its asylum list - Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/04/world/europe/german-cabinet-approves-measures-tightening-asylum-rules.html?em_pos=large&amp;emc=edit_nn_20160204&amp;nl=morning-briefing&amp;nlid=74096810">The New York Times reports</a>. The countries are now designated as safe states, and those who came to Germany from the countries now face deportation.</p><p>Those three countries are also the countries of origin for many of the men who were found to have committed the Cologne assaults. The current political schism in Germany, and the recently announced shift on asylum, is the direct fallout of the New Year's Eve attacks in Cologne.  </p><p><span><span>That night, a group of more than 1,000 men of North African and Middle Eastern descent allegedly broke up into smaller groups and robbed and sexually attacked women around the main train station in Cologne, with more than 650 <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/15/world/europe/as-germany-welcomes-migrantssexual-attacks-in-cologne-point-to-a-new-reality.html">police reports</a> alleging crimes spanning robbery to sexual molestation and rape being filed in the three weeks that followed.</span></span></p><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="164" data-total-count="1471">Among other new rules, the cabinet approved a two-year ban on family reunifications and a measure that requires asylum seekers to pay a fee from their government-provided stipends to cover the price of integration courses.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="164" data-total-count="1471"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>REUTERS</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>These moves must now be approved by the German Parliament, where they are likely to pass, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/04/world/europe/german-cabinet-approves-measures-tightening-asylum-rules.html?em_pos=large&amp;emc=edit_nn_20160204&amp;nl=morning-briefing&amp;nlid=74096810">according to The New York Times</a>. </p><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="164" data-total-count="1471">The package comes after Merkel announced last weekend that her government expects Syrian and Iraqi refugees to go home once the Syrian war is over and ISIS is defeated.  </p><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="164" data-total-count="1471">"Merkel has become a prisoner of her own <keyword id="6358883" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Politics">politics</keyword>," Jürgen Falter, a political scientist at Mainz University, told <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/could-europes-refugee-crisis-be-the-undoing-of-angela-merkel/2016/02/03/182cc0d2-c9bd-11e5-b9ab-26591104bb19_story.html">The Washington Post</a>. "I think the likelihood is about 60 percent that her policies don't work out and she throws in the towel."</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="164" data-total-count="1471">A recent German poll showed that 81% of respondents don't have faith in their government's handling of the refugee crisis. The same poll found that 46% approve of Merkel, which is down an astonishing 12 points from just a month ago and is <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-04/merkel-s-approval-falls-to-lowest-since-2011-on-refugee-crisis">her lowest rating</a> since the Eurozone economic crisis of 2011.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="164" data-total-count="1471">"I don't think there is any question anymore," Werner J. Patzelt, a political analyst at Technical University Dresden, told the Post. "Angela Merkel is really in trouble."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/big-misconceptions-about-islam-religion-politics-muslim-2016-1">Shockingly common misconceptions about Islam</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="5sY2hjMDE60FDD-YJ56LcDJxIKc7deqB" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Germany is changing its approach to the biggest crisis facing Europe

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div>Police in London have been criticized for not arresting a man who was apparently displaying an ISIS flag while walking near the Parliament,&#xa0;<a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33406768">the BBC reports</a>.<p>The man was carrying a small child, also waving a black flag, and his shoulders<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&#xa0;were wrapped in the black flag associated with Islamic State.</span></p><p class="story-body__introduction">Police apparently stopped the man to talk to him but let him go because police officers decided that he was <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jul/05/man-carrying-isis-flag-near-parliament-not-arrested-police-criticised">"acting within</a><span style="background-color: #ffffff;"><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jul/05/man-carrying-isis-flag-near-parliament-not-arrested-police-criticised"> the law," the Metropolitan Police said in a statement</a>, according to The Guardian.<br /></span></p><p class="story-body__introduction"><span style="background-color: #ffffff;">Last year, Prime Minister David Cameron wrote in the Telegraph that they would stamp out poisonous extremism and that <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/11721728/Met-Chief-defies-PMs-call-to-arrest-all-Isil-flag-carriers.html">anyone&#xa0;walking around with an ISIS flag would be arrested</a>.</span></p><p class="story-body__introduction">The <keyword id="6355470" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Law">law</keyword> states that <span>"wearing, carrying, or displaying of an emblem or flag" is not an offense as long as there is no reasonable suspicion that the person is a supporter or member of a proscribed organization. "</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">While support of and membership of [IS] is unlawful it is not a criminal offense to advocate the creation of an independent state," police said in a statement.&#xa0;<span style="background-color: #ffff00;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">At least two laws in the UK could have led to this person's arrest. <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/11/section/13">One from the pan-UK Terrorism Act 2000</a>, which states that a person is committing an offense if carrying or displaying an article "</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">in such a way or in such circumstances as to arouse reasonable suspicion that he is a member or supporter of a proscribed organisation," according to the BBC.</span></p><p>The other one is from the&#xa0;<a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1986/64" class="story-body__link-external">Public Order Act 1986</a><span>, that states someone is guilty if they&#xa0;<span>"display any writing, sign ... which is threatening or abusive within the hearing or sight of a person ..." and would cause that person harm or or distress, according to the BBC.</span></span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">Police may have concluded the man didn't break any laws because no one felt harmed or distressed, a key issue of the laws</span><span style="background-color: #ffffff;">,&#xa0;<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Gary Watt, a prof</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">essor of law at Warwick University, told the BBC, especially s</span></span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span>ince the reaction was mostly on social</span> media and not from the people around the man.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span>Many people were also upset that this happened so close to the&#xa0;</span><span></span><a href="http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/man-draped-in-isis-flag-walks-past-houses-of-parliament-days-before-anniversary-of-77-terror-attacks-10367597.html">ten year anniversary of the 7/7 bombings in London</a>&#xa0;and the <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-33394847">deadly attack in Tunisia in June</a>.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Watt adds it's interesting the police didn't consider wearing the flag a "breach of the peace" under common law.&#xa0;</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"Had this been a naked person walking down the street would the police have intervened? They probably would have intervened even though there is no strict letter of the law against being naked in public," he told the BBC.</span></p><p><span>Police also mentioned the man's display could have been a spoof, and they still needed to confirm whether the flag was the primary one used by ISIS, accoridng to the BBC.</span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/scientifically-ways-women-attractive-2015-5">6 scientifically proven features men find attractive in women</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="tiMGo5cTpwCabxNRPKR9Te43E3zYrTMd" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Why police didn't arrest the guy wearing an ISIS flag in London

<div><span style="color: #222222; line-height: 1.5em;">A wonderful map created by William Samari, Ray Yamartino, and Rafaan Anvari of <a href="http://thedoghousediaries.com/">DogHouseDiares</a> illustrates </span><span style="color: #222222; line-height: 1.5em;">what every country does better than every other country.</span></div>
<div><span style="color: #222222; line-height: 1.5em;"><br /></span></div>
<div><span style="color: #222222; line-height: 1.5em;"><span>They </span><a href="http://thedoghousediaries.com/maplesyrup">collected the information</a> from various sources and </span><span style="color: #222222; line-height: 1.5em;">sprinkled in some quirkier rankings </span><span style="color: #222222; line-height: 1.5em;">since many countries led the world in multiple things.</span><span style="color: #222222; line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></div>
<div>
<p>"Myanmar leads the world in 'Speaking Burmese.'  That's kind of a silly thing but still true," Anvari told BI. "UK leads in fascist movements, but that's all movements in history, not active movements."</p>
<p>(Some of the categories are hard to read so we published the full list below the map.)</p>
<p><div class="image-container"><div class="image"><p class="source"><a href="http://thedoghousediaries.com/">DOGHOUSEDIARIES</a></p></div></div></p>
<table dir="ltr" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<div><strong>Country</strong></div>
</td>
<td><strong>Leads World In…</strong></td>
<td>
<div><strong>Measure</strong></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Afghanistan</td>
<td>opium</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Albania</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Algeria</td>
<td>middle paleolithic flake tool techniques</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Andorra</td>
<td>reading</td>
<td>rate</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Angola</td>
<td>speaking umbundu</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Antarctica</td>
<td>emperor penguins</td>
<td>endemic</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Antigua and Barbuda</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Argentina</td>
<td>exporting soccer players</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Armenia</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Australia</td>
<td>deadly animals and melanoma</td>
<td>total and per 100,000 people</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Austria</td>
<td>mohnflesserl</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Azerbaijan</td>
<td>software piracy</td>
<td>avg per computer</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Bahamas</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Bahrain</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Bangladesh</td>
<td>peacekeeping</td>
<td>total and per 100,000 people</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Barbados</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Belarus</td>
<td>wisents</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Belgium</td>
<td>relaxing</td>
<td>%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Belize</td>
<td>destroying the ozone</td>
<td>per capita</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Benin</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Bhutan</td>
<td>farming</td>
<td>%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Bolivia</td>
<td>brazil nuts</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Bosnia and Herzegovina</td>
<td>having land mines</td>
<td>total per sq mi</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Botswana</td>
<td>diamonds</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Brazil</td>
<td>making coffee</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Brunei</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Bulgaria</td>
<td>living the american dream</td>
<td>rate</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Burkina Faso</td>
<td>illiteracy</td>
<td>rate</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Burundi</td>
<td>unsatisfied</td>
<td>index</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Cambodia</td>
<td>long alphabet</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Cameroon</td>
<td>killer lakes</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Canada</td>
<td>maple syrup and asteroid impacts</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Cape Verde</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Central African Republic</td>
<td>expensive internet</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Chad</td>
<td>not wasting electricity</td>
<td>per capita</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Chile</td>
<td>staying married</td>
<td>crude divorce rate (per capita)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>China</td>
<td>co2 emissions and renewable energy</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Colombia</td>
<td>rain</td>
<td>avg</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Comoros</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Congo, Democratic Republic of</td>
<td>pygmy chimpanzees</td>
<td>endemic</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Congo, Republic of</td>
<td>saving energy</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Costa Rica</td>
<td>happiness</td>
<td>index</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast)</td>
<td>malaria</td>
<td>deaths per 100,000 people</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Croatia</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Cuba</td>
<td>baseball</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Cyprus</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Czech Republic</td>
<td>beer consumption</td>
<td>per capita</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Denmark</td>
<td>education</td>
<td>index</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Djibouti</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Dominica</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Dominican Republic</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Ecuador</td>
<td>endangering plants</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Egypt</td>
<td>africa cup of nations</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>El Salvador</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Equatorial Guinea</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Eritrea</td>
<td>african cycling</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Estonia</td>
<td>prevalence of women</td>
<td>sex ratio (total)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Ethiopia</td>
<td>employing children</td>
<td>percent</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Federated States of Micronesia</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Fiji</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Finland</td>
<td>drinking coffee</td>
<td>per capita</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>France</td>
<td>tourism</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Gabon</td>
<td>sun-tailed monkeys</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Gambia</td>
<td>not spending money on military</td>
<td>total reserves</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Georgia</td>
<td>khachapuri</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Germany</td>
<td>almost winning the world cup</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Ghana</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Greece</td>
<td>olive oil consumption</td>
<td>per capita</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Greenland</td>
<td>personal space</td>
<td>pop per sq mi</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Grenada</td>
<td>olympic medals</td>
<td>per capita</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Guatemala</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Guinea-Bissau</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Guyana</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Haiti</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Honduras</td>
<td>homocide</td>
<td>rate</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Hong Kong</td>
<td>high IQ</td>
<td>avg</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Hungary</td>
<td>canoeing</td>
<td>total and total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Iceland</td>
<td>penetrating the internet</td>
<td>percent</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>India</td>
<td>movies and low prices</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Indonesia</td>
<td>volcanoes</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Iran</td>
<td>brain drain</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Iraq</td>
<td>not safe for journalists</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Ireland</td>
<td>quality of life</td>
<td>score</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Israel</td>
<td>r&amp;d</td>
<td>% of gdp</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Italy</td>
<td>UEFA competitions</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Jamaica</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Japan</td>
<td>robots</td>
<td>per 10,000 manufactoring workers</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Jordan</td>
<td>large falafel balls</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Kazakhstan</td>
<td>uranium</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Kenya</td>
<td>flowers</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Kiribati</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Kuwait</td>
<td>highest valued currency</td>
<td>exchange rate</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Kyrgyzstan</td>
<td>walnut forests</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Laos</td>
<td>solar energy</td>
<td>per capita</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Latvia</td>
<td>eco-friendly</td>
<td>index</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Lebanon</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Lesotho</td>
<td>mortality</td>
<td>rate</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Liberia</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Libya</td>
<td>heat</td>
<td>avg</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Liechtenstein</td>
<td>teachers</td>
<td>per capita</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Lithuania</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Luxembourg</td>
<td>generosity</td>
<td>per capita</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Macedonia</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Madagascar</td>
<td>lemurs</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Malawi</td>
<td>malawisaurus</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Malaysia</td>
<td>caves</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Maldives</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Mali</td>
<td>kulicoro firefinches</td>
<td>endemic</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Malta</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Marshall Islands</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Mauritania</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Mauritius</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Mexico</td>
<td>getting struck by lightning, cartels and boxing</td>
<td>total and total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Moldova</td>
<td>alcohol consumption</td>
<td>per capita</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Monaco</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Mongolia</td>
<td>velociraptor bones</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Montenegro</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Morocco</td>
<td>couscous</td>
<td>none</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Mozambique</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Myanmar</td>
<td>speaking burmese</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Namibia</td>
<td>wealth inequality</td>
<td>wealth gini</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Nepal</td>
<td>not killing themselves</td>
<td>per 100,000 people per year</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Netherlands</td>
<td>tall people</td>
<td>avg male and female height</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>New Zealand</td>
<td>sheep and rugby</td>
<td>totaland total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Nicaragua</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Niger</td>
<td>making babies</td>
<td>births per woman</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Nigeria</td>
<td>yams</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>North Korea</td>
<td>censorship</td>
<td>index</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Norway</td>
<td>democracy</td>
<td>index</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Oman</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Pacific</td>
<td>white shark cafe</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Pakistan</td>
<td>field hockey</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Palau</td>
<td>swimming with jellyfish</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Palestinian Territory</td>
<td>not having cancer</td>
<td>per 100,000 people per year</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Panama</td>
<td>defenselessness</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Papua New Guinea</td>
<td>linguistic diversity</td>
<td>index</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Paraguay</td>
<td>drinking tea</td>
<td>per capita</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Peru</td>
<td>sandboarding</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Philippines</td>
<td>social media</td>
<td>percent</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Poland</td>
<td>kielbasa</td>
<td>subjective</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Portugal</td>
<td>graduating high school</td>
<td>rate</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Puerto Rico</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Qatar</td>
<td>GDP</td>
<td>per capita</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Romania</td>
<td>download speed</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Russia</td>
<td>raspberries and nuclear warheads</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Rwanda</td>
<td>women in parliament</td>
<td>% of seats held</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>San Marino</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Sao Tome and Principe</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Saudi Arabia</td>
<td>oil</td>
<td>total reserves</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Senegal</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Serbia</td>
<td>water polo</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Seychelles</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Sierra Leone</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Singapore</td>
<td>science</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Slovakia</td>
<td>making cars</td>
<td>per capita</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Slovenia</td>
<td>casinos</td>
<td>per 1,000 inhabitants</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Solomon Islands</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Somalia</td>
<td>pirates</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>South Africa</td>
<td>ostrich</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>South Korea</td>
<td>workaholics</td>
<td>hrs per year per person</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>South Sudan</td>
<td>inflation</td>
<td>rate</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Spain</td>
<td>organ donation</td>
<td>rate</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Sri Lanka</td>
<td>cinnamon</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Sudan</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Suriname</td>
<td>forests</td>
<td>percent</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Swaziland</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Sweden</td>
<td>atheism</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Switzerland</td>
<td>employment</td>
<td>rate</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Syria</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Taiwan</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Tajikistan</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Tanzania</td>
<td>national parks and wildlife</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Thailand</td>
<td>rice exports</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Timor-Leste</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Togo</td>
<td>bad driving</td>
<td>road death per 100,000 cars</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Tonga</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Trinidad and Tobago</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Tunisia</td>
<td>gun control</td>
<td>per capita</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Turkey</td>
<td>apricots</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Turkmenistan</td>
<td>corruption</td>
<td>index</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Uganda</td>
<td>young people</td>
<td>median age</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Ukraine</td>
<td>population control</td>
<td>percent</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>United Arab Emirates</td>
<td>prevalence of men</td>
<td>sex ratio (total)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>United Kingdom</td>
<td>fascist movements</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Uruguay</td>
<td>eating beef</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>USA</td>
<td>falling off beds and chairs, getting killed by lawnmowers, nobel laureates and eating hot dogs</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Uzbekistan</td>
<td>being double landlocked</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Vanuatu</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Vatican City</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Venezuela</td>
<td>miss universe</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Vietnam</td>
<td>economic growth</td>
<td>index</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Western Australia (ocean)</td>
<td>deadly shark attacks</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Western Sahara</td>
<td>-</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Yemen</td>
<td>gender gap</td>
<td>index</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Zambia</td>
<td>rhodesian giraffe</td>
<td>index</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Zimbabwe</td>
<td>commercial bank prime lending rate</td>
<td>total</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>

This Funny World Map Shows What Every Country Leads The World In

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Lucas Jackson/Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard (2nd L) who was released from a U.S. federal prison in North Carolina overnight, leaves US District court in the Manhattan borough of New York on November 20, 2015.</p></div><p></p></div></div>One of the most notorious spies in American history has been freed after three decades in prison.</p><p>On November 20th, Jonathan Pollard was <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-israeli-spy-pollard-set-free-from-us-prison-israeli-pm-2015-11">paroled 30 years after being convicted of spying for Israel</a>.</p><p>It's not hard to see why Pollard's case has been such a consistent source of controversy.</p><p>Pollard was spying on behalf of a US ally and received a life sentence despite pleading guilty and fully cooperating with US investigators. He turned over thousands of classified documents and even <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/jonathan-pollard-israel-spy-one-million-dollars-357943">allegedly sold documents to Pakistan and apartheid South Africa</a> as well.</p><p>For some, Pollard is a victim of what they believe to be sectors of the US national-security establishment's discontent toward its close operational relationship with Israel. Pollard's defenders believe that his life sentence was used <a href="http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/159670/set-pollard-free">as a blunt tool</a> for bringing an often difficult ally to heel.</p><p>For others, Pollard was nothing more than a <a href="http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-07-28/jonathan-pollard-s-release-and-the-shame-of-american-jews">particularly energetic traitor</a> who sold crateloads of secrets to a foreign government.</p><p>The debate over Pollard, and what, if anything, his case may still mean for the US-Israel relationship probably won't end, even with his release from prison. Members of Israel's parliament are already <a href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/knesset-caucus-vows-to-fight-pollards-parole-restrictions/">calling on the US to relax Pollard's parole restrictions</a>, something that would allow him to move to Israel.</p><p>But his release is an opportunity to revisit the US intelligence community's official report on one of the most controversial affairs in national security security.</p><p>In 2012, the <a href="http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/">National Security Archive</a> at George Washington University successfully compelled the US government to release a version of <a href="http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB407/docs/Pollard%20damage%20assess%20CIA.pdf">the CIA's 1987 damage assessment of Pollard's espionage</a>. The heavily redacted document expands upon an almost entirely redacted version of <a href="http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB407/docs/Pollard%20damage%20assess%20CIA%20original%20redacted.pdf">the study's preface</a> which was released in 2006.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>REUTERS</span></p><p class="caption">Jonathan Pollard in a May 1991 file photo, six years after his 1985 arrest.</p></div><p></p></div></div>The damage assessment is a window into the tangled world of mid-1980s global power <keyword id="6358883" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Politics">politics</keyword>. It also chronicles a high-stakes intelligence operation gone horribly and perhaps inevitably wrong.</p><p>Here are some of the more startling bits of the CIA's assessment of a spy drama that's still a source of contention 30 years later - an event that will remain controversial even after Pollard's release from prison.</p><p><strong>Pollard stole an astounding amount of stuff.</strong></p><p>"Pollard's operation has few parallels among known US espionage cases," the damage assessment states.</p><p>Pollard stole "an estimated 1,500 current-intelligence summary messages," referring to daily reports from various regions of interest to US national security. He stole another 800 classified documents on top of that.</p><p>During the investigation into his espionage, Pollard recalled that "his first and possibly largest delivery occurred on 23 January [1984] and consisted of five suitcases-full of classified material."</p><p>He delivered documents to his Israeli handlers on a biweekly basis for the next 11 months, with only a short break for an "operational trip" to Europe.</p><p>In contrast, Adolf Tolkachov, who was <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-cia-secret-cell-phone-precursor-2015-7">one of the most valuable US intelligence assets of the Cold War</a>, met with his CIA handlers fewer than two dozen times over the course of seven years.</p><p><strong>Pollard and his handlers' tradecraft was surprisingly shoddy.</strong></p><p>As the assessment notes, Pollard gave himself away by blatantly accessing documents that were far outside of his professional purview:</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>George Washington University National Security Archive</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>But his handlers don't come off looking terribly competent either. One handler wanted Pollard to report on whether US intelligence had any potentially incriminating information about high-level Israeli officials and to help root out Israelis passing information to the US.</p><p>After this individual left the room, Pollard's personal handler reportedly told him he would terminate the operation if he complied with his supervisor's order, a sign that there were certain disagreements within the Israeli side on how the operation should proceed and what kind of information their asset should target.</p><p>Pollard also delivered 1,500 intelligence summaries that the Israelis never explicitly asked him for; despite the potential to expose the operation, Pollard's handlers kept accepting them anyway. And they didn't seem to care that such large, biweekly intelligence deliveries could expose their entire operation.</p><p>There seemed to be little consideration for the undue harm the operation could do to Israel's relationship with the US, either.</p><p>According to the report, "Pollard's objective was to provide Israel with the best available US intelligence on Israel's Arab adversaries and the military support they receive from the Soviet Union." The damage assessment gives a strong impression that Israeli operatives believed that their lack of interest in US weapons systems or capabilities could insulate them from a geopolitical incident if Pollard were ever exposed.</p><p>But they were wrong.</p><p><strong>In some ways, Pollard's espionage took place in an entirely different world ...</strong></p><p>The Israelis were primarily interested in getting two things out of Pollard: information about Pakistan's nuclear program and information relating to Soviet upgrades to the conventional arsenals of the Arab states, with a particular focus on Syria, then under the rule of president Hafez al-Assad. Pollard also provided details of the Palestine Liberation Organization's compounds in Tunis, Tunisia, information which the Israelis may have used during a 1985 raid.</p><p>The damage assessment notes that Israel was particularly keen on obtaining an NSA handbook needed to decrypt intercepted communications between Moscow and a Soviet military-assistance unit in Damascus, Syria. Pollard attempted emergency communications with his Israeli handlers on just two occasions: once to provide intelligence on an impending truck-bomb attack and another time to warn that the Soviet T-72M main battle tank had entered service with the Syrian military.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Wikimedia Commons</span></p><p class="caption">Syrian president Hafez Assad, right, near the Golan Heights frontline during the 1973 Middle East War. Syria's military was a major focus of Pollard's espionage.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Israel was eager for information on Soviet weapons systems likely to be passed to the Arab states, and wanted information on armaments its military would face if the conflict with the Arab states ever escalated into a hot war.</p><p>Today, there's little conventional military threat to Israel's existence and Syria is no longer a unitary state. The Palestine Liberation Organization is no longer at war with Israel, and the Soviet Union doesn't even exist.</p><p>But at one point, Israel was willing to jeopardize its relationship with the US to gain an advantage in all of these areas.</p><p><strong>... and, in some ways, it's the same world.</strong></p><p>Pollard's Israeli handlers at least tried to make it seem as if the US wasn't the target of their espionage, as Pollard was instructed not to take any information related to US weapons systems or strategic and military planning.</p><p>But Pollard still exposed highly sensitive operational details of US intelligence collection, giving invaluable insight into US intelligence methods, sources, and collection priorities. And it's possible to glimpse fissures between the US and Israel in the damage assessment.</p><p>Pollard's espionage was enabled by the US's refusal to share information that the Israelis considered vital to their national security. Of course, the US is never under any obligation to share the entirety of their intelligence with any foreign state, regardless of how closely allied it may be, and had perfectly valid reasons to withhold certain intelligence from Israel in the mid-1980s.</p><p>For instance, the damage assessment notes that Pollard's spying was damaging partly because of what it might have led the Arab states to conclude about the US's strategic posture:</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>George Washington University National Security Archive</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The US and Israel are different countries with interests and objectives that sometimes contradict. Sometimes they diverge in ways that only become visible when a once-a-decade Pollard-type scandal breaks.</p><p>And sometimes they diverge on a geopolitical level, as is currently occurring in the controversy over the Iranian nuclear deal, a top US foreign-policy priority that Israel's leadership <a href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-says-better-iran-deal-can-still-fix-historic-mistake/">vehemently opposes</a>.</p><p><strong>Israel versus Syria</strong></p><p>The damage assessment includes this interesting aside about how long US intelligence believed it would take Hafez al-Assad's army to retake the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, which Israel seized during the 1967 Middle East War and which Syria had used as a staging area for invasions of Israel in 1948 and 1967:</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>George Washington University National Security Archive</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The name of the agency that gave the more pessimistic assessment is still redacted, strongly suggesting that this was the view of a US entity.</p><p>So some office within the US intelligence community believed that the <keyword id="6354810" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Defense">Defense</keyword> Intelligence Agency had a highly inflated view of Israeli military capabilities - or was underestimating the military strength of the Assad regime.</p><p><a href="http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB407/docs/Pollard%20damage%20assess%20CIA.pdf">Read the entire damage assessment here.</a></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/song-made-using-coins-drummer-music-video-2015-7">This drummer created a whole song using only the sound of coins</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="s1ZDM1djoe2BbhjqVRCIwkLubOlkcQgk" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

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