Monthly Archives: November 2009

Pakistani Army ran Muslim extremist training camps, says anti-terrorist expert
The Pakistani Army ran training camps for a Muslim extremist group, at least until recently, with the acceptance of the US Central Intelligence Agency, according to France’s foremost anti-terrorist expert.

U.K.’s largest, autonomous unmanned aircraft completes initial flight trials
BAE Systems has flown the largest, fully autonomous unmanned aircraft ever to be built in the U.K. The next-generation autonomous system, MANTIS, completed its maiden flight in Woomera, South Australia.

In Tokyo, Our Common Future
Read translations of the President’s speech in Chinese, Indonesian, Japanese or Korean.

China detains dissidents ahead of US visit
Chinese police have detained dozens of dissidents and political reform advocates ahead of US President Barack Obama’s first visit to China, according to family members and human rights activists.

A Superpower Stirs
600 years after bringing home its armada, will China once again stride the world’s stage?

James Lilley, Ex-Ambassador, Is Dead
James R. Lilley, a longtime CIA operative and later the U.S. ambassador to China during the time of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, has died. He was 81.

Is the US DoD Locked in an Ivory Tower?
given that the DoD is, for all intents and purposes, and ivory tower when it comes to military innovation, all new and innovative military thought will occur outside of it. While this deficit of innovation can be papered over during times of plenty with an endless supply of financing, it won’t last once those dollars slow to a trickle (and they will). It also won’t survive a true opponent armed with the right innovation, which is occurring.

Dubai 09: Dubai debut for F-22 prompts Paris review

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2009/11/14/334846/dubai-09-dubai-debut-for-f-22-prompts-paris-review.html

Afghanistan plans court for corrupt ministers
Afghanistan is to set up a special court to try corrupt ministers, the attorney general said on Saturday, as international pressure builds on President Hamid Karzai to act against graft.

Dutch troops’ method in Afghanistan gains new prominence
The soldiers from the Netherlands deployed in Oruzgan province have been focusing more on development work and civilian protection and less focus on fighting.

Chile urges ‘caution’ in spying row
Chile has dismissed allegations that members of its military had spied on neighbouring Peru as a diplomatic row between the two countries deepens.

Iran Student Gets Eight Years Over Protests
An Iranian court today sentenced a student who took part in protests following Iran’s disputed presidential election this year to eight years in prison, a website reported.

Niger Opposition Insists on Return to Constitutional Order before Talks
Niger’s opposition coalition has rejected direct talks with the government unless President Mamadou Tandja reverts to constitutional order. The group met in Abuja with former Nigerian military ruler Abdulsalami Abubakar, who is mediating a resolution to the crisis that has unfolded in Niger.

Ethiopia rebels claim offensive
Ethiopian rebels have launched a wide offensive in the southeastern Somali ethnic Ogaden region and recaptured seven towns from government forces, they claimed on Saturday in a statement.

Worth Watching: The Gnome Society

Attacks kill 16 in Pakistan, spy agency targeted
A suicide bomber in a pickup truck attacked the northwestern regional headquarters of the Pakistani spy agency overseeing a campaign against militancy, killing 10 people Friday. Another suicide assault in the area killed six more.

Podcast: Pakistan’s Security Fears
More than 250 people have been killed in recent weeks by a series of bombings that have targeted Pakistan’s major cities, including the capital Islamabad. Asma Jahangir, chairwoman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, an independent body of lawyers and activists, says people in Pakistan are “tremendously afraid” because of deteriorating security conditions. She says recent attacks, especially those targeted at the security forces, have also raised concerns about the country’s ability to combat terrorism. “There is a crack within the security forces,” she says.

U.S. Is Targeting Assets Linked to Iran
Last year, the government asked courts to allow it to seize a stake held by Assa Corp. in 650 Fifth Ave., a New York skyscraper known as the Piaget building. Prosecutors moved Thursday to seize Alavi’s stake in the building and other assets, including properties in New York, California, Texas, Virginia and Maryland. None have yet been seized by the government.

Travel Alert: Germany
The Department of State alerts U.S. citizens that Al Qaeda has threatened it will conduct terrorist attacks in Germany immediately prior to and following the federal elections on September 27. This Travel Alert expires on November 11, 2009. Al Qaeda recently released a video specifically warning Germany of attacks. German authorities are taking the threat seriously and have taken measures to enhance the level of security throughout the country.

9/11 suspects to be tried in New York
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and four others will be sent for prosecution in a criminal court in New York from the US military prison at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, an Obama administration official said on Friday.

Prime Minister comments on Afghanistan strategy
I’ve said that three things are necessary to make our strategy work. We are prepared to put more troops into Afghanistan, but there has got to be burden-sharing amongst the alliance and I am suggesting sending people round Europe to persuade other countries that they should commit more troops. So we are in a process of persuading burden-sharing. The second thing is, our troops have got to be fully equipped before they go. The third thing, we have got to have an indication from President Karzai that he will tackle the very problems that have given some succour to the Taliban, and that is corruption, and that is local governance, and that is the quality of district governors, and that is the determination, which I have talked to him about in some detail over the last few weeks, about tackling corruption with a new anti-corruption law, new anti-corruption commissioners and bringing in people from abroad to monitor it.

Extra bunker-buster missiles for Afghan front line
An extra 1,300 of the lightweight, shoulder-mounted Javelin guided missiles are being sent to the front line in Afghanistan to top up stocks of the combat-proven weapon, where it is being used extensively by front line forces.

Administration plans to punish leakers
The Obama administration is increasingly exasperated by leaks of national-security-related information and is planning a major effort to root out and punish those responsible, top officials said Thursday.

Turkey warm to storing Iranian uranium
Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said on Friday that if asked, his country would be willing to temporarily store Iran’s enriched uranium to help defuse a standoff over Western suspicions that Teheran is trying to build an atomic bomb.

Beijing, Global Free-RiderWhen U.S. President Barack Obama starts his first-ever visit to China on Sunday, he will ask Beijing to take more responsibility for solving key global issues in troubled countries such as North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. But while Washington needs Beijing more than ever, China’s own interests in those hot spots make it deeply conflicted about playing a larger role on the world stage. While the United States frames China in terms of its growing responsibilities as a major power, China continues to think primarily in terms of its own interests.

The Cyberwar Plan
At the request of his national intelligence director, Bush ordered an NSA cyberattack on the cellular phones and computers that insurgents in Iraq were using to plan roadside bombings. The devices allowed the fighters to coordinate their strikes and, later, post videos of the attacks on the Internet to recruit followers. According to a former senior administration official who was present at an Oval Office meeting when the president authorized the attack, the operation helped U.S. forces to commandeer the Iraqi fighters’ communications system. With this capability, the Americans could deceive their adversaries with false information, including messages to lead unwitting insurgents into the fire of waiting U.S. soldiers.

Homeland Security CIO reviewing dozens of IT programs for cost and risks
“We need to run programs better,” CIO Richard Spires told Nextgov on Thursday during one of his first sit-down interviews since taking the job in August. “If you read the [inspector general] reports and [Government Accountability Office] reports, they say that. This is not new news.

Video: Hillary Clinton calls on Myanmar to free Aung San Suu Kyi
We don’t think she should be in detention. We believe that she has every right, as any person should have, and certainly that she has demonstrated over the years a commitment to democracy, to participate in the active democratic life of her country as she chooses, not as the United States chooses and not as the Burmese leadership chooses, but as she chooses.

Clinton urges youth to fight corruption through social media
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton encouraged Filipinos, particularly the youth, “to report corruption” through social networking at a town hall meeting in a Manila university on Friday before she ended her two-day visit to the Philippines.

Russians Claim Georgia Plans to Buy Sophisticated Weapons from the U.S.
Georgians believe that their defeat during Russia’s military aggression in August 2008 was mostly due to their county’s poor antiaircraft and antitank capabilities. Furthermore, many think that had Georgia been better prepared militarily, Russia would not have resorted to war in the first place fearing high costs and mass casualties. Nevertheless, if Georgia indeed plans to buy the above-mentioned sophisticated American systems, they must be viewed as just one way of preventing Russian military aggression in the future. Without becoming a full member of the Western collective security system with all the political, military and diplomatic assurances it entails, even a well-armed Georgia will hardly be able to prevent war with Russia and secure its sovereignty, territorial integrity and foreign-policy orientation in the long run.

Former Georgian ambassador to Russia to manage opposition TV channel
Kitsmarishvili, who is one of main propagators of the “rose revolution” hasn’t concretized the financing sources of the broadcasting company, only saying that financing will be absolutely legal.

Low, Slow And Dangerous
While the U.S. Air Force had its safest flying year ever in 2009, army aviation took heavy losses, even though aviation accidents and fatalities are being reduced.

Implications of the All Volunteer Force
Veterans’ Day reminds us that military commitment and sacrifice has historically been a national burden, not one borne by those we hire to perform our duty for us (we have, of course, also done that, as in the provision for draftees to hire replacements on the Union side of the Civil War). Philosophically, the danger is that we become so disconnected from the military obligation that we forget that sacrifice is a national, not a minority, responsibility.

Video: United Against MS-13
See how the U.S. and Central America countries are targeting the gang problem through an FBI-run exchange program.

Rise of the Cyber Wingman
The “Rise of the Cyber Wingman” philosophy incorporates the following 10 guiding principles every Airman needs to know and use to secure cyberspace.

“Moving to the Cloud: An Introduction to Cloud Computing in Government”
Dr. Wyld examines the entry of the cloud computing phenomena into the government. He avoids the technical language and focuses on the business and societal impacts of cloud computing. He examines how this concept has changed the expectations of both the public and of government executives and managers.

Worth Watching: UKinUSA

CIA Said to Have Won Turf War Against Intel Chief
CIA Director Leon Panetta and National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair squared off in May over Blair’s effort to choose his own representative at U.S. embassies to be his personal eyes and ears abroad, instead of relying on CIA station chiefs. Blair issued a directive in May declaring his intention to select his own representatives overseas. Panetta followed up shortly thereafter with a note telling agency employees that station chiefs were still in charge. The dispute made it all the way to national security adviser Gen. James L. Jones. An official in Blair’s organization said the White House decided the matter this week in the CIA’s favor.

State Department officials get insight on Army Special Operations interpersonal communications capabilities
These future PSYOP Soldiers are engaging pseudo tribal leaders to address true-to-life dilemmas common to today’s operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Obama Seeks to Deepen U.S.-East Asia Engagement
Obama will visit Japan, Singapore, China and the Republic of Korea (ROK) November 12–19. His trip includes participation in the annual leaders’ meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Singapore and also a meeting with the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes said in a press briefing November 9. “The overarching theme is that America is a Pacific nation, it understands the importance of Asia in the 21st century, and it’s going to be very engaged in a very comprehensive way to make progress on a whole series of issues that are critical for our prosperity and our security,” Rhodes said in a conference call with reporters in Washington.

Court: CIA Didn’t Violate Plame’s Rights
In the ruling Thursday, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a 2007 lower court decision. It barred Plame from revealing the length of her tenure with the CIA.

ARCA to Launch First Romanian Space Vehicle on Friday 13th
On Friday, November 13th , ARCA will launch the Helen rocket, Romania’s first space vehicle. The launch will take place on the Black Sea shore, with the Navy’s support. The test flight will begin around 10 a.m. Launch procedures will last around three hours. The Helen Rocket will be launched from the world’s largest solar balloon and will use an innovative stabilization system.

Lebanon sentences 4 Israeli spies to death
The four were found guilty of “conspiring with Israel, allowing it to launch an attack against Lebanon and to make contacts with its agents in Lebanon.”

Blackwater and the Limits to Outsourcing Security
There are two basic reasons why certain functions should never be outsourced. First, it would make effective accountability impossible — as in the case where a program operates in secret and has the potential for abusive conduct. Second, if the public interest would require oversight by a governmental (and therefore politically accountable) actor.

DOD modernizes cryptographic device
DOD will switch to the Really Simple Key Loader, or RASKL, from Sypris Electronics, a subsidiary of Sypris Solutions, in replacing the KYK-13 devices. Cryptographic key fills load cryptographic keys into electronic encryption machines. The RASKL is rugged, small and lightweight, and it requires no formal training; it uses a one-button “key squirt” process for loading. It holds up to 40 modern electronic keys and is depot repairable.

Surveillance State, U.S.A.
Don’t be too surprised, then, when, in the midst of some future crisis, advanced surveillance methods and other techniques developed in our recent counterinsurgency wars migrate from Baghdad, Falluja, and Kandahar to your hometown or urban neighborhood. And don’t ever claim that nobody told you this could happen — at least not if you care to read on.

Did Hoekstra Compromise A Sensitive Intelligence Program?
In confirming, on the record, that the government knew about Hasan’s e-mails to al-Awlaki, Hoekstra, at the very least, could have given the cleric notice that his e-mails were being monitored, officials said. But even more than that, his words appear to confirm a sensitive capability that the N.S.A. regularly employs to collect intelligence: to wit, that it can monitor ostensibly private e-mails sent from outside the United States to people inside the United States.

Why did a top Israeli intelligence officer join the KGB?
“The nightmare of every intelligence organization is to find an enemy agent at the heart of its own intelligence community, inside the working environment of the highest-ranking decision-makers in the country,” the Shin Bet site says. “Such an agent has access to extremely sensitive information, including strategic plans, to which he is liable to cause damage. The affair of Shimon Levinson – a retired army intelligence colonel, a former member of the Shin Bet and the Mossad, and a chief of security in the Prime Minister’s Office – was a case of this nightmare coming true.”

Forces in Afghanistan Capture Terrorism Suspects
Afghan and international forces in Afghanistan today captured a sought-after Taliban commander following a firefight in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province, and also captured a Haqqani terrorist group leader in another area, military officials reported.

DOD expands access to Defense Connect Online
Defense Connect Online (DCO), the Defense Department’s online collaborative tool previously accessible only to those holding DOD common access cards, will now be accessible to to sponsored non-DOD personnel who serve as mission partners. Under the new policy, government employees with .gov e-mail addresses who are sponsored by CAC holders may take advantage of DCO’s tools that include Web conferencing, chat, video, application and desktop sharing, and voice-over-IP capabilities.

Send stealthy, encrypted missives via the web with Norbt
Norbt (not to be confused with Eddie Murphy’s epic film character) uses client side, browser-based cryptography to secure your transmissions. Your recipient must correctly answer the secret question. Once they do, your note is decrypted and displayed for their eyes only.

DHS Keeping Close Eye On FCC Broadband Plan
The Department of Homeland Security is monitoring the FCC’s broadband plan, according to Rand Beers, under secretary for the National Protection and Programs Directorate, which he suggests will need to take into account sufficient infrastructure to handle real time video for command center situational awareness, mapping systems, censors for emergency medical response, weather status, and more.

JOURNAL: The Mumbai Model of Urban Takedowns
In short: the breadth (number of sites/zones attacked), speed, and duration of urban assaults are increasing. However, even with these upgrades, the improvement in the productivity of urban assaults is, at best, only slightly better than linear. Why? The costs and the training required to accomplish these attacks, once factored in, are still extensive (made even less effective by the loss of the attackers in the assault).

Searching an Encrypted Cloud
Recent advances in cryptography could mean that future cloud computing services will not only be able to encrypt documents to keep them safe in the cloud–but also make it possible to search and retrieve this information without first decrypting it, researchers say.

Book review: The Great Gamble by Gregory Feifer
Eight years into the international military intervention in Afghanistan and the constituent members of ISAF are beginning to ask themselves the same question the Soviets were asking at the same point: to be or not to be here? More likely than not, ISAF will reach a different answer than the USSR did and with time the two attempts to pacify and modernise Afghanistan will be seen in completely different lights. Right now, however, it’s still fashionable among the chattering classes to draw parallels between the two conflicts (the argument being that if the USSR failed in Afghanistan, ISAF surely will too).

Homeland Security Unveils New Job Site for Veterans
The site, http://www.dhs.gov/veterans, also serves as a resource for veterans organizations to learn about the department’s veteran outreach initiatives.

Defense Acquisitions: Strategic Airlift Gap Has Been Addressed, but Tactical Airlift Plans Are Evolving as Key Issues Have Not Been Resolved
The Air Force and Army have not completed a plan for meeting Army direct support requirements, which could affect future decisions on both the C-27J and the C-130J. DOD’s recently established portfolio management structure is supposed to provide a useful forum to address the broad range of airlift investment decisions. However, efforts so far have primarily focused on new programs rather than addressing gaps and making other airlift decisions such as when and how many C-5s to retire or the appropriate mix of C-130s and C-27Js needed to perform Army missions.

Worth Watching: Dan Deakin (MedC2)

Navajo Code Talker Veterans Break Silence
Only about 50 of the 400 Code Talkers are believed to be still alive, most living in the Navajo Nation reservation that spans Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. Many are frail or ill, with little time left to tell the world about their wartime contribution. But on Tuesday, 13 of the Code Talkers, some using canes, a few in wheelchairs, arrived in New York City to participate for the first time in the nation’s largest Veterans Day parade, set for Wednesday.

Secretary of the Army Thanks Veterans
Today, whether you are stateside or deployed to one of over 80 countries around the world, please take a moment to feel the thanks of a grateful nation for your honorable service. Today is your day – Happy Veterans Day.

Memoirs of a World War II Buffalo Soldier
“If you feel the inside of the helmet, you can see how close it was,” he says of the shrapnel from a German mortar that struck the young private in Italy in the fall of 1944. A few more millimeters, and he might never have lived to write his memoir, which is what I went to his home in Silver Spring, Maryland, to learn about.

Military’s newest citizens saluted in San Diego Veterans Day ceremony
Hailing from 24 different countries, the 75 service members took the oath of allegiance and pledged to “… support and defend the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” while family, friends, and fellow service members looked on.

Veterans Day Discounts
Find great Veterans Day discounts for military servicemembers. For your complete listing of military deals, discounts and coupons visit the Military.com Discount Center.

Veterans Day Poster Gallery
Via the Department of Verterans Affairs

Brazil Blackout: Conspiratorial Tongues Will Wag
After the CBS 60 Minutes doc that claimed 2007 blackouts in Brazil were the work of hackers, and the story’s subsequent debunking, comes this: Massive blackout leaves Brazil on edge

China proves to be an aggressive foe in cyberspace
One day in late summer 2008, FBI and Secret Service agents flew to Chicago to inform Barack Obama’s campaign team that its computer system had been hacked. “You’ve got a problem. Somebody’s trying to get inside your systems,” an FBI agent told the team, according to a source familiar with the incident. The McCain campaign was hit with a similar attack. The trail in both cases led to computers in China, said several sources inside and outside government with knowledge of the incidents. In the McCain case, Chinese officials later approached staff members about information that had appeared only in restricted e-mails, according to a person close to the campaign.

State to ‘spy’ on every phone call, email and web search
All telecoms companies and internet service providers will be required by law to keep a record of every customer’s personal communications, showing who they have contacted, when and where, as well as the websites they have visited. Despite widespread opposition to the increasing amount of surveillance in Britain, 653 public bodies will be given access to the information, including police, local councils, the Financial Services Authority, the ambulance service, fire authorities and even prison governors. They will not require the permission of a judge or a magistrate to obtain the information, but simply the authorisation of a senior police officer or the equivalent of a deputy head of department at a local authority.

Security Theater in Kabul
In the States this manifests itself in a false sense of security. In Kabul I can only assume the people in charge of security delude themselves into thinking they are effective. In reality all they are doing is hopefully making people feel safer. And don’t get me wrong, we know that perception is often more important than reality. But in the case of security, reality is all that’s left when an attack occurs.

Guinea Military Threatens Problems if Current Leader is Forced Out
At mediation talks in neighboring Burkina Faso, Guinea’s ruling military says there is no way their current leader, Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, will relinquish his role in a transitional government. But opposition leaders are saying that is the only way they will discuss the country’s political future.

Help Marines Bring Irrigation to Struggling Farmers in Afghanistan
You can make an impact in the lives of hundreds of villagers who are struggling to raise life-sustaining crops in the drought-stricken region of Helmand Province. The Marines of the 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion swept out the Taliban from villages along the Helmand River in hard fighting last spring and summer. Now they are committing themselves to helping the villagers build sustainable agriculture. This drought-devastated area desperately needs to bring the waters from the Helmand River up to the farm fields to raise crops. If they are successful, the villagers will be able to earn enough money to open schools, support a police force, and resist the Taliban for the long term.

Bloggers jailed in Azerbaijan
An Azerbaijan court has jailed two opposition bloggers who posted a video on the internet of the president dressed as a donkey conducting a news conference.

Violence in Zimbabwe
On 16 October the Movement for Democratic Change disengaged from the inclusive government in Zimbabwe. Since then there has been an increase in ZANU-PF-orchestrated violence and human rights abuses. In particular, ZANU-PF has targeted civil society activists, MDC members, farm workers and trade union leaders. We will continue to monitor the situation closely, and to urge the Government of Zimbabwe to comply with international human rights standards – including by guaranteeing a fair trial for those prosecuted.

Anonymity at CCS’09
I am currently sitting in the anonymity techniques session of ACM CCS 2009 in Chicago, and thought I might as well provide a roadmap to what is being presented here regarding traffic analysis and anonymity. Aside the main event, WPES was also hosted on Monday and contained quite a few relevent papers.

“Freedom in Crisis” on YouTube
My “Freedom in Crisis” speech, which has gotten some compliments as I’ve delivered it in various venues, is now available on the web, complete with accompanying Powerpoint illustrations. – David Boaz

DOD goes on defensive in cyber warfare
Under the $28 million contract, the Raytheon team will develop an integrated network operations situational awareness (NetOps SA) solution, which will enable DOD to quickly detect network intrusions and assess the overall health of its networks.

Worth Watching: VeteransHealth