CIA Should Come to Grips With the Lessons of the Past

December 12, 2014

ALL countries fail to live up to the ethical standards they set themselves; only a few have the moral purpose to examine their lapses in the public square. After the attacks of September 11th 2001 the waterboarding, sleep-deprivation, insult-slapping and “rectal feeding” used by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to interrogate prisoners were a betrayal of America’s values. By criticising the CIA’s programme in a report this week, the Senate intelligence committee has enraged the agency’s defenders and comforted America’s rivals. Yet, for all its flaws, this airing of the CIA’s tactics is vital, because it is a necessary step towards redemption. 

The report accuses the CIA of mismanaging the programme and of concealing its extent and its severity. The methods were dreamed up by two psychologists who were neither practised interrogators nor experts in al-Qaeda. And contrary to what the CIA told Congress, the White House and the public, interrogations produced hardly any useful intelligence. 

The rebuttal has been furious (see article). Yes, there was mismanagement, argue the spooks, but after September 11th the threat of another attack meant timely intelligence was vital. The CIA programme had legal approval and the public demanded protection by whatever means—this was a time when torture warrants were debated. Indeed, the CIA was not gung-ho enough for hawks like Dick Cheney, then vice-president. Most important, say the report’s critics, the programme produced intelligence of genuine value. 

The rebuttal misses the point. Even if the CIA’s techniques were deemed legal, they were designed to extract information using physical and mental anguish. To call that anything but torture is self-deception. Torture may well yield information, but it is a devil’s bargain. An official policy of torture corrupts the torturers and the people charged with overseeing it. Congress and the White House wanted to shield themselves from the cruelty of acts being committed in their name but which, in the atmosphere of the time, they could not or would not condemn. If the CIA misled members of Congress, it was partly because the politicians were willing. Everybody becomes implicated—even Democrats now sloughing off responsibility. 

There’s No Way Bush and Cheney Didn’t Know

By Fred Kaplan

DEC. 10 2014

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The Senate Intelligence Committee suggests that the White House knew everything about the CIA’s torture program but the details. 

U.S. President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney talk to the press in the Oval Office on March 21, 2002.

Of all the shocks and revelations in the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on CIA torture, one seems very strange and unlikely: that the agency misinformed the White House and didn’t even brief President George W. Bush about its controversial program until April 2006.

The question of the claim’s truth or implausibility is not trivial or academic; it goes well beyond score-settling, Bush-bashing, or scapegoating. Rather, it speaks to an issue that’s central in the report in the long history of CIA scandals, and in debates over whether and how policy should be changed: Did the torture begin, and did it get out of hand, because the CIA’s detention and interrogation program devolved into a rogue operation? Or were the program’s managers actually doing the president’s dirty business?

If the former was the case, then heads should roll, grand juries should be assembled, organizational charts should be reshuffled, and mechanisms of oversight should be tightened. If the latter was the case, well, that’s what elections are for. “Enhanced-interrogation techniques” were formally ended by President Obama after the 2008 election, and perhaps future presidents will read the report with an eye toward avoiding the mistakes of the past.

Opinion: Is America's reign as a superpower ending?

By Andreas Krieg, Special for CNN

December 12, 2014 

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Andreas Krieg: Barack Obama does not want to be remembered as the President who embarked on a third Mideast adventure.

Editor's note: Andreas Krieg is an assistant professor at the Defence Studies Department of King's College London. He currently works as an advisor to the Qatari Armed Forces in Doha. Follow him on Twitter. The views expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

(CNN) -- The Pentagon's recent statement that Iran may have conducted air strikes against ISIS targets in Iraq's Diyala Province is tantamount to a U.S. tacit approval of Iran's growing military footprint in Iraq.

No military operation of such scale evades detection from U.S. radars. Even if not pre-approved or coordinated, Iran's air and ground operations against the murderous thugs of self-proclaimed caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi make the Islamic Republic effectively a U.S. partner in the fight against America's greatest enemy: Islamist fundamentalism.

The U.S. strategy towards the Middle East since the Arab Spring has been defined by proactive disengagement and hesitance.

Haunted by the legacy of Iraq and Afghanistan, the American public has no stomach to get bogged down in lengthy ground-intense military operations -- particularly not to fight a fight that at least in Washington is perceived to be primarily a matter of regional concern.

Why releasing the CIA torture report will make America stronger

By Fareed Zakaria 

December 11

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Even some of those who have supported the release of the Senate intelligence committee’s torture report agree that it could damage U.S.interests abroad. And opponents of the report are sure that, in Sen. Ted Cruz’s words, it “will endanger lives, drive away our allies” and “undermine” national security. But will it really? 

Cruz’s argument is similar to what we heard often during the Cold War. The United States was at a disadvantage compared with the Soviet Union, it was said, because it had to operate with its hands tied behind its back, with congressional interference, media exposure and all the other trappings of a democracy. Moscow, on the other hand, could act speedily, effectively, lethally and in secret. Even a dove like George Kennan would lament that conducting foreign policy in a large, messy democracy was a handicap. 

Fareed Zakaria writes a foreign affairs column for The Post. He is also the host of CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS and a contributing editor for The Atlantic. View Archive

In fact, the Soviet Union pursued an utterly disastrous foreign policy. It so brutally suppressed its “allies” that, by the 1980s, it was flanked by a group of countries in Eastern Europe that had become deeply hostile. It pursued an arms race with the United States that consumed by some estimates 10 percent to nearly 20 percent of its gross domestic product. It invaded Afghanistan and bled itself dry in a war it could not admit it had lost. 

Obama’s Strategy for Defeating ISIS is the Only Viable Option. It Can Work.

by Joseph Becker

December 12, 2014

On September 10, 2014, President Obama gave a public address outlining his strategy for defeating the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). To the chagrin of some, he couched his objective to “degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL” in terms of a protracted conflict characterized by limited U.S. commitment over the course of time.[1] While Obama’s chosen path may have disappointed more hawkish critics, his speech reflected a stark political reality. The U.S. is a democracy, and a majority of Americans do not support direct involvement of U.S. ground forces in either Iraq or Syria. Some have argued that the U.S. is entering a fight with one hand tied behind its back. The reality is that, with few exceptions, the U.S. has faced political constraints in every conflict. In the case of ISIL, however, these constraints might prove a blessing in disguise. This paper will argue that the threat posed by ISIL cannot be eradicated in the short term, and the involvement of U.S. ground forces would do little to address the underlying problems that have paved the way for ISIL’s advance thus far. Only sustained, long-term pressure combined with proactive regional engagement will adequately protect U.S. national security interests in this region. 

What would a decisive military victory over ISIL look like, specifically in Iraq? Planners might argue over the finer details, but there are certain objectives that would likely be included in any such list. First and foremost, a victory would have to return the sovereignty and control of all Iraqi territory to the central government in Baghdad. The ultimate plan for political power sharing in Iraq could take any number of shapes, but allowing an unelected group to retain any territory that it has seized by force would set a disastrous precedent. Likewise, these unelected groups should be disarmed. Most importantly, heavy weapons would have to be returned to government control so Baghdad could reassert its monopoly as a government on the legitimate use of force. Also, the international hostages and Iraqi citizens held by ISIL would have to be freed. 

A decisive military victory over ISIL would need to provide a measure of justice for the crimes committed by this organization on the world stage. It is unlikely that all the leadership of ISIL could be killed or captured in the short-term, but ISIL should not be allowed to retain its current structure of command and control. Key leaders would have to answer for the beheadings of foreign journalists along with their host of other crimes against humanity, and those who escape should be hunted indefinitely as fugitives until they are brought to justice. It would be preferable to try these individuals for their crimes in order to delegitimize their message and avoid producing martyrs. But as with Osama Bin Laden, some might be dangerous or problematic to capture alive. 

Is 2015 the year cyber security shows its human side?

Ben Rossi

10 December 2014

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'No hardware or software defence can stop a determined human'

With growing tensions between the West and both Russia and China, 2015 will undoubtedly see more skirmishes in the global cyber war.

Targeted attacks should and will remain a top concern for businesses and nations alike, with NATO recently conducting digital war games and 65% of IT professionals citing them as a priority.

With countries rapidly waking up to the need to defend their cyber interests, we may well see new players enter the stage next year. The current controversy between North Korea and Sony Pictures shows that any state can become a significant threat in cyber space when it dedicates its best and brightest people to the cause – even if its technology is limited.

Cyber security guide to the 10 most disruptive enterprise technologies

2015 will also be the year we realise APTs are being used as a marketing tool. Many security companies claim to solve the threat of targeted attacks, but the reality is that a persistent, resourceful attacker who efficiently surveils an organisation will always find a way in.

No hardware or software defence can stop a determined human. In most cases, victims won’t even know they’ve been breached until the attacker shows their hand.

Cybercrime will evolve

During 2015, organisations will realise just how ineffective traditional anti-virus tools are. New types of elite malware and zero day attacks that cannot be stopped by technology-led security will become increasingly common – such as obfuscation tools, or ‘crypters’, which enable malware writers to bypass signature-based detection. Ultimately if an attacker wants to compromise your machine, they can.

Meanwhile, criminals will continue to have little difficultly in recruiting talented individuals to their cause. The bad guys often have the smartest and most determined people, and they are well motivated to hone their skills given the potential profits from cybercrime.

The potential attack surface for cyber criminals will also increase exponentially next year. We’ve already seen the number of attack avenues multiply rapidly as organisations adapted to trends like remote access, BYOD and cloud – but wearable technology and the Internet of Things will shift this into overdrive.

Today, 25% of companies are rolling out wearable tech in the workplace but 85% also see it as a security risk. In the coming year, organisations must ask how they can ensure watertight data protection when employees can take photos at the flick of a wrist, record conversations instantly or capture data via Bluetooth.

The march of technology is inevitable and we can’t put our heads in the sand. With BYOD, we’ve already seen that bans proved ineffective and employees brought devices in anyway.

Attempting to stop this behaviour actually made the situation worse – employees would just bring devices in under the radar and outside of any security policy, creating unmanaged risk.

The risk posed by wearable tech is not yet clear. It may offer another avenue of attack, but in many cases this will depend on the specific device as much as the person using it.

In 2015, organisations will finally realise this is not a “fixable” problem. Instead, they’ll move to a risk-based approach to security: assessing the capabilities of new devices individually and then mitigating any danger to an acceptable level.

Informed security

Organisations will not sit quietly by in the face of these security challenges. In 2015, intelligence-driven security will become a mainstream reality.

Businesses will move away from focusing on technology-driven solutions and start to counter threats proactively by applying the right people and processes to focus time and expertise where it’s needed most.

 Cyber security: the solutions aren't working?

Organisations will move towards more active defences that assess vulnerabilities inside and the threats outside to inform security strategies – enabling organisations to identify and mitigate breaches more quickly. 

Human expertise, cloud connectivity and big data analytics will come together to deliver truly contextual security, analysing vast volumes of data to extract vital security intelligence in real-time and isolating the 1% of threats businesses need to worry about.

Human capital

Finally, 2015 will be dominated by a war for talent. The need to apply human expertise to the security equation will become obvious to both attackers and defenders. Access to the best and brightest people will be a critical factor in determining who stays ahead in the cyber arms race. It only remains to be seen which side will prove more attractive.

Either way, the number of attacks will increase exponentially. With breaches doubling every year, 2014’s trickle of lost jobs and damaged reputations from compromises will become a flood.

Ultimately, 2015 will be the year when security stopped being a problem for some people and become a problem for everyone.

http://www.information-age.com/technology/security/123458744/2015-year-cyber-security-shows-its-human-side#sthash.QJH4bq7J.dpuf

Spy agency GCHQ builds Android app to inspire next wave of code-breakers

By Steve Ranger

December 12, 2014

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GCHQ's headquarters, know as 'The Dougnut' in Cheltenham. Image: Ministry of DefenceDuring the Second World War, the British government famously recruited winners of a newspaper cryptic crossword competition to work as code-breakers at Bletchley Park. Now it hopes to use an app for Android tablets to encourage similar skills, needed to tackle emerging cybersecurity threats.

As a result, the usually very-low-profile government surveillance agency GCHQ has found itself in the unexpected situation of publishing an app which it hopes will encourage the next generation of code-breakers.

GCHQ said the Cryptoy app will help users to understand basic encryption techniques, learn about their history, and create their own encoded messages, which can then be shared with friends via social media or email. Recipients can then use the app to try to decipher the messages.

Here's How Cyber-Warfare Started And Where It's Going

Reuters

DEC 13, 2014

When America dropped its two atom bombs, Little Boy and Fat Man, over Japan in August 1945, it launched the world into a devastating new era of warfare. Nearly 70 years later, humanity is still trying to contain the fallout. But in its zeal to check nuclear proliferation, America--along with Israel--opened up yet another theatre of war: cyberspace.

In 2007 a computer worm called Stuxnet was detected for the first time by virus-scanning software, although signs of it may have existed unnoticed before that. At least three more versions followed, seeking to wreak havoc upon Iran's uranium-enrichment facility at Natanz. Stuxnet made itself busy. It turned valves on and off and meddled with the centrifuges, wasting uranium and damaging equipment. It succeeded in slowing Iran's uranium enrichment, and by extension its purported nuclear-weapons programmes, making Stuxnet the first documented case of cyber-warfare intended to cause physical damage.

Where Stuxnet fell short was in remaining hidden, thanks to a series of "flubs that should never have occurred", writes Kim Zetter in "Countdown to Zero Day", an authoritative account of Stuxnet's spread and discovery. In June 2010 a tiny antivirus firm in Belarus stumbled upon Stuxnet while investigating a malfunctioning machine in Iran. The worm contained a "zero-day exploit"--a previously undiscovered software bug--that brought it to attention. An unprecedented five "zero-day exploits" were eventually found in the code. Researchers also discovered that Stuxnet had used a stolen digital certificate, the foundation of the internet's web of trust, bringing the worm further renown.

Was 2008 Turkish Pipeline Explosion Caused by Cyber Attack?

Jordan Robertson and Michael Riley

December 10, 2014

The pipeline was outfitted with sensors and cameras to monitor every step of its 1,099 miles from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean. The blast that blew it out of commission didn’t trigger a single distress signal.

That was bewildering, as was the cameras’ failure to capture the combustion in eastern Turkey. But investigators shared their findings within a tight circle. The Turkish government publicly blamed a malfunction, Kurdish separatists claimed credit and BP Plc (BP/) had the line running again in three weeks. The explosion that lit up the night sky over Refahiye, a town known for its honey farms, seemed to be forgotten.

It wasn’t. For western intelligence agencies, the blowout was a watershed event. Hackers had shut down alarms, cut off communications and super-pressurized the crude oil in the line, according to four people familiar with the incident who asked not to be identified because details of the investigation are confidential. The main weapon at valve station 30 on Aug. 5, 2008, was a keyboard.

The revelation “rewrites the history of cyberwar,” said Derek Reveron, a professor of national security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport,Rhode Island.

Countries have been laying the groundwork for cyberwar operations for years, and companies have been hit recently with digital broadsides bearing hallmarks of government sponsorship. Sony Corp.’s network was raided by hackers believed to be aligned with North Korea, and sources have said JPMorgan Chase & Co. blamed an August assault on Russian cyberspies. Security researchers just uncovered what they said was a campaign by Iranian hackers that targeted commercial airlines, looking for vulnerabilities that could be used in physical attacks.

Re-Imagining The Network

By Eurasia Review

December 13, 2014

http://www.eurasiareview.com/13122014-re-imagining-network/

Communication networks are evolving to keep pace with increasing consumer needs and business demands. We’ve already experienced the progressive jumps from 1G to 4G wireless networks and 5G is looming in the not-too-distant future.

But 5G is much more than 4G plus 1. In the manner of an evolutionary leap, 5G technologies and ICT networks bring the global competition for technological leadership to a whole new level. This is a truly wireless environment that will realize the promise of near-instantaneous, zero-distance online connectivity at any time, from anywhere and from almost any device or terminal.

Scaling wireless networks to keep pace with the ever-increasing mobile traffic is increasingly challenging. There are today 6 billion mobile subscriptions and 200 million smart phones are sold every quarter.

The use of network and bandwidth resources has grown beyond expectations and scientists have already begun to design the innovative network architectures that are to enable the 5G vision by the year 2020: 1,000-fold gains in capacity, 7 trillion wireless devices serving over 7 billion people, and a individual user data rates on the order of 10 Gb/s combined with extremely low latency and response times.

In this context, IMDEA Networks Institute launches and coordinates a pioneering research project on integrated technologies for the management and operation of 5G networks: TIGRE5-CM.

The aim of the TIGRE5-CM project is to design an architecture for future generation mobile networks based on the emerging Software Defined Networking (SDN) paradigm, which simplifies the deployment, configuration and management of the network while integrating the latest technologies, both in the access network (reaching the end-user’s terminal) and in the core network.

Through a combination of the state of the art in wireless technologies with the SDN architecture paradigm, TIGRE5-CM aims to make the jump from specific-purpose networking equipment to virtualization-based SDN. As the use of SDN spans different architectural layers, they are turned into truly programmable resources, thus creating networks that are flexible, scalable, adaptable and easily upgraded to integrate new functionalities.

Arms and Men: Technology’s Shadow Over Democracy

John Ferejohn and Frances Rosenbluth

9 December 2014

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NEW HAVEN: US Defense Secretary nominee Ashton Carter’s background in physics and technology is a reflection of the technological demands of modern warfare. Less well understood is that the nomination also signals the continuing erosion of manpower’s part in America’s armed forces.

In centuries past, the temporary erosion of civil rights during wartime – including free speech and freedom from detention without trial – was often counterbalanced by extensions of the franchise to fighting men, and sometimes also to the women who supported them. The need for soldiers to fight wars gave democracies a kind of built-in correction from the grassroots. From the American Revolution, when fighting-aged men gained the right to vote, through the Vietnam War when the suffrage expanded to 18-year-olds, contribution to collective defense has shored up political rights. Contrast this with the small number of specialized warriors, volunteers all, who are needed to fight the counterinsurgency wars of today.

This is not to say that the United States should bring back the draft. In the 20th-century wars of full mobilization, the US needed manpower to match large opposing armies. The post–Cold War world poses different challenges: A world pockmarked with insurgencies is better handled with smaller, more professionalized, more flexible forces. Far from the days of high school dropouts going to World War I and being drafted to serve in Vietnam, US military recruit ads play up the modern fighting machine. Uncle Sam now seeks the tech-savvy drone pilot with video-game skills.

No one wishes a return to wars of existential threat that require mass conscription and widespread death, yet it should be recognized that technological and geopolitical changes have removed a democratic check on government.

US military recruit ads play up a modern fighting machine – seeking tech-savvy drone pilots. 

Flights disrupted after computer failure at UK control centre

12 December 2014

Passengers are facing widespread flight disruption after a computer failure at the UK's air traffic control centre.

National Air Traffic Services (Nats) said a technical fault in the flight data system at its Swanwick centre had caused the problem.

Passengers were left waiting at Heathrow's Terminal 5

It had now been restored to "full operational capacity", the air traffic control company said.

The government said the disruption was "unacceptable" and demanded a "full explanation" of what had gone wrong.Knock-on effects

The glitch caused problems at airports around the country - including delays at Heathrow and Gatwick, where departing flights were grounded for a time. Other UK airports reported knock-on effects.

It comes a year after a telephone failure at the Hampshire control room caused huge disruption - one of a number of technical hitches to hit the part-privatised Nats since the centre opened in 2002.

Hitler's Last Stand: Why the Battle of the Bulge Still Matters

Michael Peck

December 13, 2014 

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As the Bulge proved, brave soldiers can make up for failed strategy. But only at immense cost.

The attack began with a barrage from 1,600 guns and rocket launchers that pounded trenches and command posts. Then came waves of tanks and infantry that surged out of the winter mist and slammed into the stunned and bewildered defenders.

It was a perfect example of shock and awe. Except that in December 1944, it was Americans who were on the receiving end.

This month marks the 70th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge, perhaps the greatest battle ever fought by the U.S. Army. A few tired or inexperienced U.S. divisions, assigned to what was supposed to be a quiet sector in the Ardennes region of Belgium, were assaulted by thirty German panzer and infantry divisions and 600 tanks in a massive surprise offensive.

Thousands of American troops surrendered, to be marched off to prison camps. Others fled for their lives, while still others, desperate and outgunned, made last stands against Nazi tanks.

What a different time it seems. In today's era of small wars, American soldiers fear IEDs or snipers more than enemy tank blitzkriegs. It says volumes that a single U.S. soldier captured in Afghanistan draws headlines. At the Bulge, 6,000 soldiers of the encircled U.S. 106th Infantry Division raised the white flag.

Federated Defense in Asia

By Michael J. Green, Kathleen H. Hicks, Zack Cooper

DEC 11, 2014 

http://csis.org/publication/federated-defense-asia

This report is the first regional study in the CSIS Federated Defense series. The Federated Defense Project aims to shift the paradigm with key allies and partners from capacity building to a federated approach that would expand regional security and prosperity by joining regional allies and partners together in the pursuit of shared security objectives across the conflict spectrum. Federated defense should include forward-thinking strategies for how to develop and share capabilities and capacity, thereby more deeply integrating the U.S. military with its allies and partners.

In this report, the CSIS project team highlights six potential federated initiatives in the areas of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, information and intelligence sharing, maritime security, undersea warfare, missile defense, and cyber security. Federated approaches such as these are vital to developing and integrating Asian security capabilities to manage emerging security challenges. 

Download PDF file of "Federated Defense in Asia"

Planning for a new commission

Sanjeev Sharma

Dec 14 2014

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Narendra Modi’s made it clear that the Planning Commission has to go. His predecessor had five years back sought recommendations on shaking up the panel, but these were left unattended. A new institution to replace the plan body is now in the works. There’s receptivity among CMs, with varied degrees of acceptability. What works out and what doesn’t remains to be seen.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Chief Ministers during a meeting on the revamp of the Planning Commission in New Delhi on December 7.

It was in 2009 that Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh had alluded to the Planning Commission having outlived its utility and asked the members to consider changes to make it more relevant.

A year later, recalls Arun Maira, a member of the Planning Commission till recently, recommendations on the changes in the structure, role, functions and resources were given. The then Prime Minister and the then Deputy

Chairman of the Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, sat on these.

Just months into the job, as Narendra Modi stood up to deliver the Independence Day address, he announced his stand: the Planning Commission had to go, a new institution would take its place.

Maira says the changes recommended to Dr Singh are very similar to what Prime Minister Modi is attempting to do now. “It is not as if suddenly a dramatic idea has appeared. We consulted the stakeholders — states, ministries, private and civil society,” he adds. What’s changed is the urgency and firmness to get on with things. 

India and the Great Game of Energy

By Sanjeev S. Ahluwalia

December 11, 2014

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India has negligible resources of oil and gas in the context of our future needs and from the perspective of the currently available extraction technology.

If 25% of our energy needs are to be met by gas – one of the cleanest fossil fuels, we will have to ramp up our gas imports. Today, households still cook with wood, charcoal or kerosene because domestic gas supply is so constrained.

Enter Russia: President Putin could be the White Knight meeting India’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) demand. Of course, selling gas to India is a propitious move, as the post Ukraine sanctions are hurting Russia and it needs to have reliable, long term arrangements for selling gas and oil.

Welcoming India into the fold

India is not a party to the sanctions and it is in its self-interest to focus on energy during the Modi-Putin talks in New Delhi this week.

Russia hasn’t exactly been sitting on its hands to counter the U.S. sanctions. It has already mended fences with China, with which it has concluded oil and gas supply deals.

More generally, it is leaning towards China as a natural partner in the global clustering against the U.S.-led set of allies. Russia would like to induct Iran and India as partners in this grouping.

India is a marginal player in this “great game.” It would be a complete mistake for India to barter our acceptability to all sides by putting our eggs into one basket. There is little reason for India to choose between the Great Powers.

Superbugs could kill 10 MILLION people a year by 2050 and cost the world economy $100 TRILLION

By LIZZIE PARRY FOR MAILONLINE

11 December 2014

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Superbugs could kill 10 MILLION people a year by 2050 and cost the world economy $100 TRILLION unless urgent action is taken to tackle growing resistance to antibiotics 

Superbugs could claim the lives of 10 million people each year, as well as hundreds of trillions of dollars by 2050, a new report has warned today.

Vicious infections resistant to drugs already kill hundreds of thousands of people across the globe every year.

But a review by economist Jim O'Neill claims the trend is set to get worse if urgent action is not taken.

Mr O'Neill heads the Review on Antimicrobial Resistance, which was set up in July by Prime Minister David Cameron and publishes its findings today.

Antimicrobials are a class of drugs that includes antibiotics, antivirals, antiparasitics and antifungals. 

The first paper from the Review on Antimicrobial Resistance, chaired by economist Jim O'Neill found 700,000 deaths across the world each year are attributed to resistance to antimicrobials - a class of drugs that includes antibiotics, antivirals, antiparasitics and antifungals

By 2050 the report estimates that number could soar to 10 millions if urgent action is not taken 

The report cites an example of E.coli that has now become resistant to the last-resort antibiotics, carbapenems.

196 nations near climate deal - Delegates to fall short of what is needed to reduce warming impact

CORAL DAVENPORT 

Activists dressed as (from left to right) Prime Minister Stephen Harper, President Xi Jinping, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Vladimir Putin protest at the climate change conferences being held in Lima, Peru. (AFP)

Lima, Dec. 13: Negotiators from around the globe were haggling today over the final elements of a draft climate change deal that would, for the first time in history, commit every nation to cutting its greenhouse gas emissions.

However, they would still fall far short of what is needed to stave off the dangerous and costly early impacts of global warming.

Delegates from the world's 196 countries have been working for two weeks here, in a temporary complex of white tents at the headquarters of the Peruvian Army, to produce the framework of a climate change accord to be signed by world leaders in Paris next year.

Saluting their supreme sacrifice

Shakti Singh Chandel

Dec 14 2014

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Memorials and memorial days remind us of our brave soldiers who fought many battles and brought honour to the nation

Amar Jawan Jyoti, or the flame of the immortal soldier, was erected under the India Gate after the liberation of Bangladesh in December 1971 to commemorate the Indian soldiers killed during the war

Since days of yore, death on the battlefield was considered glorious and the merit of dying martyr in the cause of dharma was considered a sure way to heaven.

Teen Murti memorial was built in 1922 in the memory of the Indian soldiers from three Indian princely states of Jodhpur, Hyderabad and Mysore who served during World War I under the British-India Army Tribune

Tibet core to Sino-Indian ties

BY BRAHMA CHELLANEY

December 8, 2014

Despite booming two-way trade, strategic discord and rivalry between China and India is sharpening. At the core of their divide is Tibet, an issue that fuels territorial disputes, border tensions and water feuds.

The Tibetan plateau is Asia’s “water tower.” © Brahma Chellaney, Water: Asia’s New Battleground (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2013).

Beijing says Tibet is a core issue for China. In truth, Tibet is the core issue in Beijing’s relations with countries like India, Nepal and Bhutan that traditionally did not have a common border with China. These countries became China’s neighbors after it annexed Tibet, a sprawling, high-altitude plateau where, after waves of genocide since the 1950s, ecocide now looms large.

Take China’s relations with India: Beijing itself highlights Tibet as the core issue with that country by laying claim to large chunks of Indian land on the basis of purported Tibetan ecclesial or tutelary links, rather than any professed Han Chinese connection. Indeed, since 2006, Beijing has a new name — “South Tibet” — for the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, which is three times the size of Taiwan and twice as large as Switzerland.

Tibet historically was the buffer that separated the Chinese and Indian civilizations. Ever since Communist China, in one of its first acts, gobbled up that buffer with India, Tibet has remained the core matter with India.

In the latest reminder of this reality, President Xi Jinping brought Chinese military incursions across the Indo-Tibetan border on his India visit in September. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government responded to the border provocations by permitting Tibetan exiles to stage protests during Xi’s New Delhi stay.

In response to China’s increasing belligerence — reflected in a rising number of Chinese border incursions and Beijing’s new assertiveness on the two Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir — India since 2010 has stopped making any reference to Tibet being part of China in a joint statement with China. It has also linked any endorsement of “one China” to a reciprocal Chinese commitment to a “one India.”

BURDWAN AND RISING ISLAMIST THREATS: INDIA, BANGLADESH NEED TO MARCH IN STEP – ANALYSIS

By Rupak Bhattacharjee

DECEMBER 12, 2014 

India and Bangladesh have stepped up cooperation on security and counter-terrorism following the accidental blast in Burdwan, West Bengal. Jamaat-ul-Mujahidin Bangladesh’s (JMB) sinister designs to undermine democracy, political stability, security and peace in the sub-continent have been gradually unfolding since the National Investigation Agency (NIA) started probing the case.

The political leaders of both the nations felt the urgency to intensify bilateral engagement in wake of the sudden spurt in cross-border terrorism, realignment of Bangladesh-based Islamic terrorist groups and their concerted efforts to spread tentacles across South Asia.

According to information available with the government, the JMB had been planning to create “serious unrest” in Bangladesh by using Indian territory as base for its terror operations. It has been clearly pointed out that targeting top leaders belonging to both the ruling Awami League (AL) and major opposition party Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) was part of their nefarious schemes in Bangladesh. Earlier, the Rapid Action Battalion — Bangladesh’s elite security force, informed the Indian intelligence agencies that terror strikes against the AL and BNP leaders, including Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia, was planned before the parliamentary elections in December 2008. A few JMB leaders had trained some cadres from Bengal and sent them to execute the missions.

The intelligence inputs indicate that the JMB militants also planned to carry out a coup to dislodge the AL government. It is suspected that a section of retired Bangladeshi army officers subscribing to jihadi ideology are aiding the JMB militants in their bid to subvert the democratic process restored in 1991 after long spells of military rule. Senior security officials claim that the conspiracy was hatched on Indian soil. The junior home minister of Bangladesh, Asaduzzaman Khan, said Dhaka was “unofficially” informed about a possible militant plot.

The New Fulcrum of Asia: The Indo-Japan Entente and the Rise of China

John W. Garver

December 09,2014 

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A new and potentially pivotal alignment of India and Japan is forming in response to China’s rise. This still informal security and military partnership implicitly premised on countering an ever-more-powerful China reflects deep common apprehensions about China’s rise and will probably take increasing substance in coming years. This entente marks a crucial failure of China’s diplomacy to reassure Tokyo and New Delhi that its rapidly growing military power will not be directed against them. Instead, its successive dismissal of their security concerns throughout the post–Cold War period, combined with China’s rapidly growing military power and more assertive approach to maritime conflicts since 2009, has driven them to conclude that prudence requires that the two stand together, informally, to convey to Beijing the message that it will not be able to subordinate its neighbors and rivals one at a time. Tokyo especially has concluded that Japan’s SDF could well be in the PLA’s line of fire over maritime and other issues, and that it is therefore prudent to counter this possibility by building a coalition of like-minded regional states. Its search for security seems to be driving the new partnership.

The Philippines and Vietnam are showing interest in Tokyo’s new approach, but the country with the greatest national capabilities, including military, and with the deepest apprehensions about a rising China, is India. Its collective memory of “1962” generates deep apprehensions over China’s future course. Beijing taught its “lesson” very well, which continues to resonate in New Delhi. Beijing’s on-again, off-again exercise of intimidation against India—most recently over the border in the vicinity of the Karakorum pass in early 2013—ensures that these apprehensions do not fade. Psychologically, India lacks the anti-Japanese animus over “history” found in some Asian countries; instead mutual memory of World War II joins them together in a way not found in any other Asian country. This translates into positive responses to proposals for closer security partnership emanating from successive governments in Tokyo. Apprehensive of becoming entangled in China’s quarrels with Japan and the United States, New Delhi is, nonetheless, cognizant of the real leverage with Beijing and enhancement of Indian national capabilities that may flow from a tilt toward Tokyo and Washington.

Neither Tokyo nor New Delhi desires confrontation with China, the major trading partner of each. Participation in China’s growing markets is vital to Japan’s search for economic revival. For India, China has emerged as a major customer for India’s raw materials and semi-finished goods and supplier of cheap consumer goods. Yet, economics does not trump national security. Both are deeply apprehensive of possible confrontation with China, and have concluded that standing together, informally, with other like-minded Asian countries, especially ones of substantial national capabilities, is likely to reduce the likelihood that China will take such a course.

Chinese Ministry of State Security Has Beefed Up Presence in Hong Kong to Ward Off Further Pro-Democracy Demonstrations

Reuters

December 12, 2014

Two workers walk in front of demolished tents, barricades and supplies dumped at a site at the financial Central district in Hong Kong December 12, 2014.

(Reuters) - As the dust settles on Hong Kong’s pro-democracy ‘Occupy’ protests,China is likely to embark on a sweeping but covert campaign across the territory’s judiciary, media and universities to ensure there is no recurrence, activists and politicians say.

The surprisingly resilient, 75 days of protest for a fully democratic vote to choose Hong Kong’s next leader was the most serious challenge to China’s authority since the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations and crackdown in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

To ward off future protests, activists say Beijing’s rulers are unlikely to embark on a harsh response that could pose a risk to stability and prosperity in Hong Kong, a financial hub that is the gateway to the world’s second-biggest economy.

Alex Chow, one of the student protest leaders, said “Chinese methods” could be applied in Hong Kong, a term he used to refer to pressure, intimidation and coercion against government critics in China.

"How long can we maintain Hong Kong’s judicial independence?" Chow said at the protest site before he was hauled away by police as they cleared the main protest site on Thursday. "We’ve already seen judges make decisions that have been highly contentious. Beijing might be able to put pressure on Hong Kong to charge us (the protest leaders) with more serious offences to shut us up."

China Takes Nuclear Weapons Underwater Where Prying Eyes Can’t See

By David Tweed 

Dec 9, 2014

China is preparing to arm its stealthiest submarines with nuclear missiles that could reach the U.S., cloaking its arsenal with the invisibility needed to retaliate in the event of an enemy strike.

Fifty years after China carried out its first nuclear test, patrols by the almost impossible-to-detect JIN class submarines armed with nuclear JL–2 ballistic missiles will give President Xi Jinping greater agility to respond to an attack.

The nuclear-powered subs will probably conduct initial patrols with the missiles by the end of this year, “giving China its first credible sea-based nuclear deterrent,” according to an annual report to Congress submitted in November by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

Deploying the vessels will burnish China’s prestige as Xi seeks to end what he calls the “cold war” mentality that resulted in U.S. dominance of Asia-Pacific security. Since coming to power, Xi has increased military spending with a focus on longer-range capacity, including plans to add to the country’s tally of a single aircraft carrier.

“For the first time in history, China’s nuclear arsenal will be invulnerable to a first strike,” said independent strategist Nicolas Giacometti, who has written analysis for The Diplomat and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “It’s the last leap toward China’s assured nuclear-retaliation capability.”

China’s nuclear-defense strategy is engineered to provide retaliation capability in the event of attack from nuclear powered nations as far away as the U.S. and also from Russia and India, according to Felix Chang, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia.

Germany Is Europe’s New Front Line

JUDY DEMPSEY

DECEMBER 11, 2014

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Germany is now undisputedly on the front line in the conflict between the EU and Russia over Ukraine.

This is a new situation that has immense implications for the EU’s future policy toward Russia and, especially, toward Eastern Europe. The line is making it more difficult for Russia to play EU member states off against each other. But it also obliges European leaders to set out a new strategy for Russia and Eastern Europe. Germany holds the key to both.

Being on the front line is nothing new for Germany. During the Cold War, West Germany was armed to the teeth with NATO’s conventional forces, backed up by nuclear weapons. The country was pitted against an East Germany that was supported by the armies and nuclear weapons of the Moscow-led Warsaw Pact.

Yet even then, West Germany was divided over how to deal with the Kremlin. The Christian Democratic Union, the party of Chancellor Angela Merkel, never gave up on the idea of German reunification. The Social Democratic Party opted for a pragmatic, cooperative approach toward Moscow centered on a policy known as Ostpolitik.

While the pacifist movement loathed NATO’s presence on West German soil, there was no getting away from the fact that Germany was on the front line. That was the reality of the Cold War.

Today, Germany is on a different forward edge that Merkel has been systematically shaping to adapt to Europe’s new geosecurity and geostrategic realities. Ever since Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded and annexed the Crimean peninsula in March 2014, Merkel has realized how he has challenged the post–Cold War consensus and Europe’s security.