Home Front The changing face of Balochistan’s separatist insurgency

By MAHVISH AHMAD  

1 July 2014 

http://www.caravanmagazine.in/reportage/home-front-changing-insurgency-balochistan

IN THE EARLY HOURS of 25 December 2012, the paramilitary Frontier Corps of Pakistan’s Balochistan province launched an operation in the small, remote village of Mai. The operation went unnoticed by all save a handful of local newspapers. According to residents of Mai, which lies deep inside Balochistan, six helicopters and up to two hundred cars carrying soldiers arrived on that winter morning. The soldiers went door-to-door pointing guns, and were surprised when people answered their accusations of being foreign spies with recitations of the kalima. “They thought we were Hindu agents,” said Muhammad Amin, a wrinkled farmer who witnessed the soldiers’ arrival.

Three helicopters circled above the village, and shelled some mud homes. A few abandoned huts with mortar holes still dot the landscape. “It was as if the earth was on fire, and the sky was raining bullets,” Amin said. Three other choppers landed in front of a mosque, where the village’s women and children had hidden themselves. “Soldiers pulled us outside to stand in the cold for several hours,” Mahnaz, a peasant woman, said. Other villages nearby underwent similar attacks. By the time the operation ended, the Frontier Corps had set up 12 checkpoints controlling every entry and exit around Mai.

At first glance, Mai does not look like a sufficiently grave threat to warrant any kind of troop deployment. It is a 12-hour drive from the nearest city—Karachi—and its sandy-brown mud huts are home to a couple of hundred peasants who spend their days grazing sheep and goats. After the operation, critics in Baloch newspapers raged against the Pakistani media for failing to cover it. Abdul Malik, once a member of the senate and now the chief minister of Balochistan, claimed the operation had taken innocent lives, and that heavy bombardment had destroyed several villages. It was a “genocide” that had to be stopped, Malik fumed, and a “brutality” that needed to end. For those who did not know Mai, the attack was a clear example of the rampant violence exercised by Pakistani security forces within their own country.

The Legacy of Obama’s “Pivot” to Asia

BY MIKE GREEN

SEPTEMBER 3, 2016 

http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/09/03/the-legacy-of-obamas-pivot-to-asia/

President Barack Obama heads to China and Laos this weekend for his final visit to Asia. The administration will portray this as a victory lap, asserting that Obama is America’s first “Pacific president” (in fact, Richard Nixon made a similar claim in 1969, while William H. Taft, Herbert Hoover, John F. Kennedy, and George H.W. Bush also spent formative years in the region). The administration will also claim credit for a wave of initiatives that actually started in the George W. Bush administration (the G-20, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the strategic partnership with India, the Pacific Command force posture changes, etc.). The fact is that there is not all that much new in the “pivot.” On the other hand, Obama’s most vociferous critics will be wrong to argue that the pivot is completely devoid of content. Since 2009, American strategic partnerships have generally expanded in the region, as they did from 2001 to 2008. Any historically informed assessment of Obama’s legacy in Asia should therefore begin by acknowledging that there is more continuity and bipartisan consensus around Asia policy than not.

A more detailed breakdown of Obama’s Asia legacy highlights one significant achievement, one sub-par performance, one lost opportunity, and one dangerous incomplete.

Where the War on Terror Lives Forever

Uzbekistan’s dictator is dead, but his brutal efforts to crush Islamist extremism leave a long and ugly legacy. And…

Would America Really Go to War Over the South China Sea?

Hugh White

September 2, 2016

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What would America do if China starts to build an island base on Scarborough Shoal, declares an ADIZ over the Spratlys, or in some other way plainly takes steps to strengthen still further its grip on the South China Sea in defiance of international law and American demands? President Obama ought to think about this very carefully as he visits China for the last time as President, because it has become the question that will define the future of the US-China relationship.

The question is hardly hypothetical. Indeed, it is already being asked, albeit in an apparently rather casual manner, at the highest military levels, as the New York Times reported a few months ago. “Would you go to war over Scarborough Shoals?” General Dunford asked Admiral Harris, in a conversation overheard by a reporter. If Admiral Harris responded, it could not be heard.”

The question arises because over the past few months Washington has appeared to be warning, by word and deed, that it would be willing to use armed force to stop Beijing tightening its grip on the South China Sea. That is the presumed meaning of extended deployments by two Carrier Battle Groups, high-profile visits and statements by the Secretary of Defense, frequent remarks by senior U.S. military officers, and reportedly a phone conversation between President Obama and President Xi.

Issuing this kind of warning is a very grave step. What could be more serious for an American President today than deciding whether, and under what circumstances, America should go to war with China. And yet these warnings have been issued without the question apparently being seriously discussed among U.S. policymakers and analysts – certainly not in public, nor, so far as one can judge from the seemingly offhand tone of General Dunford’s query, in private either.

So are these warnings serious, or just a bluff? 

Escalations In The East China Sea: Is Conciliation Possible? – Analysis

By Tan Ming Hui and Lee YingHui* 
SEPTEMBER 5, 2016

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Responding to both domestic and external pressures, China sends a strong signal by raising tensions in the East China Sea. Japan is likely to continue engagement of Southeast Asia to balance the perceived Chinese provocation. Can China and Japan explore conciliatory options to avoid a worsening security situation in the region?

During the first half of August between six and 13 Chinese coast guard ships have been deployed in waters close to the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu islands in the East China Sea, ostensibly to escort hundreds of fishing boats swarming the area. According to the Japanese coast guard, some of the Chinese coast guard ships appeared to be armed.

Japan’s Foreign Ministry lodged multiple protests at these sailings and Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida has met twice with the Chinese ambassador Cheng Yonghua to express displeasure at China’s unilateral move, warning that bilateral ties are “deteriorating markedly”. Cheng responded by repeating China’s usual claims to the contested waters and calling for diplomatic means to resolve the dispute. Significantly the Chinese naval fleets also held an exercise to practise for “sudden cruel and short conflicts”.

Sources of Chinese Assertions

Beijing’s mass deployments in the East China Sea is consistent with its hardening stance to assert its maritime sovereignty over the East and South China Seas after the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) ruled on 12 July 2016 in favour of the Philippines and dismissed Chinese claims to historical rights in the South China Sea. After issuing strong statements to reject the ruling, China has recently reinterpreted its laws to allow the arrest and jailing of seafarers who enter territorial waters it considers its own.

China’s Militarisation Of South China Sea: Creating A Strategic Strait? – Analysis

By Richard A. Bitzinger*
SEPTEMBER 4, 2016

China continues to up the ante in the South China Sea (SCS), by moving more military and paramilitary forces into the area. The apparent objective is to turn the SCS into a Chinese-controlled waterway and strategic chokepoint.

It has become increasingly evident that China intends to make the South China Sea (SCS) a Chinese lake, subject to its “indisputable sovereignty”. However, the issue of Chinese hegemony in the SCS is less and less about economics – oil and gas reserves, or fishing rights – and increasingly about the militarisation of this body of water. The South China Sea is becoming a key defensive zone for China.

This can be seen in a number of recent activities. The first of these is the ratcheting up of activities by China’s “militarised fisherman,” the so-called “little blue men” who go out in the SCS and clash with ships from other nations, both commercial and naval. These are not simply private fishermen engaged in “patriotic activities”. On the contrary, according to researchers at the US Naval War College (NWC), these vessels are in fact a maritime militia subsidised by Beijing and effectively a part-time military organisation.

Militarised Islands and 3Ds Strategy

These boats are sent out to collect intelligence, show the flag, and promote sovereignty claims. Moreover, they are not above creating minor clashes with other ships, as they provide Chinese naval and paramilitary forces, particularly the Chinese Coast Guard, with a pretext (protecting Chinese “civilians”) to intervene and thereby bolster China’s military presence in the SCS. While this maritime militia has been around for decades, researchers at the NWC point out that it has become a much more active and aggressive force, and one that has a growing strategic purpose, what has been dubbed the “3Ds” of China’s SCS strategy: declare (Chinese claims), deny (other countries’ claims), and defend (those claims).

Overview of People's Liberation Army Air Force "Elite Pilots"

by Michael S. Chase, Kenneth W. Allen, Benjamin Purser

PDF file

Research Questions 

What can Chinese primary sources tell us about how the PLAAF selects and trains what it regards as itselite fighter pilots? 

What makes elite fighter pilots different than other pilots in the PLAAF? 

How does the PLAAF use domestic competitions (such as the Golden Helmet and Golden Dart) and international competition (such as the Aviadarts in Russia) to showcase the PLAAF's desire to project a more open and confident image at home and abroad? 

This report uses Chinese primary sources to provide an overview of how the Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) selects and trains what it calls its elite fighter pilots. The PLAAF identifies three groups of pilots as elite pilots. The first comprises 33 pilots who have won the annual Golden Helmet competition at the Dingxin Test and Training Base in Gansu province since 2011; the Golden Helmet is "the supreme contest among Chinese fighter pilots." The second group comprises pilots who belong to the PLAAF's Bayi Aerobatics Team, created in 1962. The third comprises six Su-30 attack pilots, including one Golden Helmet winner, who competed in Russia's Aviadarts 2014 competition for the first time. While each of the three groups competes using existing flight procedures, the lessons learned are reviewed extensively for ways to change existing tactics and combat methods. For example, one of the most important lessons learned has been the PLAAF's desire to move toward less scripted training, which Chinese sources typically refer to as "unrestricted air combat" or "free air combat" training. Official Chinese media reports on the PLAAF's Golden Helmet competition, its participation in the Russian Aviadarts competition, and the Bayi Aerobatics Team's participation in air shows in Russia in 2013 and Malaysia in 2015 appear to reflect a desire on the part of the PLAAF to project a more open and confident image at home and abroad. In 2014, the PLAAF implemented a Golden Dart competition to identify elite ground attack and bomber crews.

Key Findings

Saudi Arabia Wants to Roll Back Iran

Arash Reisinezhad

September 4, 2016

http://nationalinterest.org/feature/saudi-arabia-wants-roll-back-iran-17574?page=show

On July 9, Prince Turki bin Faisal, former Saudi intelligence head, unprecedentedly attended a rally for the notorious Iranian opposition group Mujahedeen Khalq (MEK) and called for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic of Iran. His remarks were immediately followed on July 30 by a meeting between the head of the MEK, Maryam Rajavi, and the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, in Paris. Earlier before, in late March, the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI), which has not taken up arms against Iran for roughly twenty years, suddenly waged a vicious insurgency against Tehran, leading to bloody skirmishes between the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Iranian Kurdish peshmerga in northwestern Iran. These sequential events herald a new era in confrontation between Tehran and Riyadh.

The growing escalation between Tehran and Riyadh has been sometimes mentioned in the context of a new geopolitical “Great Game.” Both countries have been engaged in a decades-long strategic contest for regional supremacy in an area stretching from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean and Arabian seas. The two powers are backing different sides in Syria, Iraq, Bahrain, Lebanon and finally Yemen.

In the pre-9/11 era, Saudi Arabia used to regionally contain Iran and its foreign policy of “exporting the revolution” by siding with the Baath regime of Baghdad and later with Kabul’s Taliban. Despite grave ideological differences, Riyadh’s leaders backed Saddam Hussein in the bloody eight-year war with Iran. Rooted in King Faisal’s financial support for the extension of Wahhabism in Pakistan and then backing the Afghan mujahideen during the Soviet war in Afghanistan (1979–89), the Saudis had also a key role in establishing the fundamentalist Taliban in Kabul. By the late 1990s, Saudi Arabia’s achievements in containing Iran reached their peak.

Iran's Financial Long Game to Beat the Nuclear Deal

Greg Everett

September 3, 2016

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Recent diplomatic efforts on the part of Tehran reveal it to be pursuing a two-pronged strategy towards attracting investment and reintegrating with the global economy: (1) seeking foreign capital to rebuild the country’s domestic infrastructure, while (2) using Iranian capital to finance the construction of oil refineries throughout the world. With Iran’s infrastructure investment needs estimated at $1 trillion over the next ten years, Tehran will be heavily reliant on project finance arrangements in order to rebuild its infrastructure. Under these arrangements, investors put up large sums of money in exchange for a return based on long-term cash flows—often for up to thirty years.

Iran’s heavy reliance on project financing arrangements will have consequences that far outlive the initial terms of the Iranian nuclear agreement, while creating a potentially unique set of incentives for the various parties in the event Iran defaults on its commitments or resorts to old patterns at the expiration of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). As such, Tehran’s strategic thinking is clearly calculated well beyond the terms of the JCPOA. In its strategy to reintegrate with the world economy, Iran is playing the long game.

Sanctions Snapback and Incentives

How U.S. Policy Almost Ended Up Fighting Itself in Syria

Seth J. Frantzman

September 2, 2016

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“Let me be clear, I have no idea what I’m doing,” read a meme posted online mocking Barack Obama on August 31. It was shared among supporters of the People’s Protection Units, the Kurdish group that has been fighting ISIS for two years in northeastern Syria. They were angry and accused the United States of “betraying” Kurdish forces and supporting a Turkish intervention that has now clashed with the Kurdish-backed Syrian Democratic Forces between Jarabulus and Manbij.

In the puzzle that is Syria, with its plethora of different groups fight againstBashar al-Assad, with Iranian and Hezbollah proxies allied with Assad, and the areas dominated by ISIS and Kurdish forces, the Turkish intervention around the city of Jarabulus has added a new element to a complex web of competing groups. For American policymakers it presents a particular problem because the United States is a close ally of Turkey and has worked with some Sunni Syrian rebel groups over the last four years. At the same time the United States has also cultivated a close, and very successful, relationship with the YPG in its war against ISIS. So how did America get to the point where its policy was described as “U.S.-backed Turkish offensive in Syria targets U.S.-backed Kurds”?

The origins of the conflict lie in the fact that the United States has two policies in Syria. Initially the U.S. policy was designed to support the opposition to the Assad regime. In Geneva in February 2014 John Kerry said theAssad regime was obstructing the peace process. “The opposition demonstrated a courageous and mature seriousness of purpose…they put forward a viable and well-reasoned roadmap for the creation of a transitional government body.” Viewing Assad as having lost the legitimacy to govern, the United States sought to work with “viable Sunni opposition groups,” as Hillary Clinton described them in a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in November 2015.

Border with Syria cleared of all terror groups, including Islamic State: Turkish PM Binali Yildirim

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Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim on Sunday affirmed that its border with Syria was cleared of all terror outfits, including the Islamic State group. "Thank God, today, from Azaz to Jarablus, our 91-km borderline with Syria has been entirely secured...All the terrorist organisations were pushed back – they are gone," he said in a televised speech, BBC reported.

He added that Turkey would never allow an artificial state to be formed in the north of Syria, referring to the so-called Islamic State. Besides this militant outfit, Turkey considers Kurdish groups terrorist organisations, as well.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, "rebels and Islamist factions, backed by Turkish tanks and warplanes" recaptured a number of villages along the border between Turkey and Syria after Islamic State group militants withdrew from them. This brings an end to the terrorist group's presence in the region and also cuts of its supply lines for arms and new fighters.

Yildirim's announcement came hours after Syrian regime forces seizedareas in southwest Aleppo, including two military academies. Government troops, backed by allies, launched an offensive and recaptured the Weaponry College and the Air Force Technical College in the Ramousah locality.

We welcome your comments at letters@scroll.in.

How Much Do We Know (Or Not Know) About Canadian Intelligence

Victori H.S. Scott

September 4, 2016

How much do we really know about the Canadian intelligence community?

Last year American whistle-blower Edward Snowden proclaimed that Canadian intelligence agencies have the “weakest oversight” in the Western world and compared the Canadian government’s Bill C-51 to George W. Bush’s post-9-11 U.S. Patriot Act.

Canada became a surveillance state under the Stephen Harper Conservatives. In 2014, for example, it came to light that the Government Operations Centre was monitoring residents of Newfoundland and Labrador, including Indigenous Peoples, residents of the Island’s west coast who opposed fracking, and fishermen who were protesting shrimp quotas. This ongoing problem is further complicated by multiple transnational intelligence sharing agreements, in place since World War II, that remain largely unknown to the general public.

Indeed, the rise of the surveillance state is a global phenomenon that cannot be separated from the rise of the internet. But in Canada, because of the lack of any credible oversight, it has played out in a very specific way. This has everything to do with what the Canadian public knows—and more importantly, does not know—about Canadian intelligence agencies.

Canada’s new and highly invasive so-called anti-terror legislation came into force last year with the support of then-Opposition Leader Justin Trudeau and the Liberal caucus. The Trudeau Liberals knew that in order to win the election they would need to undo—or at least promise to undo—much of the damage done by their predecessors. They would have to address the alienation felt by Canadians from having a government that used national security as an excuse to trade away its citizens’ freedom and civil liberties.

Lack Of Clear Plan For Brexit Has Negative Impact On British Economy And Social Moods – Analysis

BY PENZA NEWS 

SEPTEMBER 5, 2016

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The UK’s decision to exit the European Union taken with only a small majority in a referendum on 23 June continues to cause divisions within the United Kingdom.

According to the observers, numerous demonstrations and protests organized by the supporters of European integration throughout the country highlight the split of the nation based on age, social and geographic grounds.

In particular, the Scottish National Party – the third largest party at Westminster – expressed the intention to block a UK Government plan for Brexit.

“Theresa May can serve Article 50 without going to the House of Commons but she needs to get the Brexit plan for what happens next through the House of Commons and there isn’t a majority for Brexit in the House of Commons, which she knows full well. So our votes, our 56 votes in the House of Commons are going to be quite critical to her getting something through,” SNP deputy leader candidate Tommy Sheppard said.

Commenting on the social moods in the United Kingdom, European politics expert Simon Usherwood, University of Surrey, said that the British are particularly concerned about the unknown future.

“As much as people still care, there is unhappiness about the lack of progress and the lack of a clear plan. However, protests are unlikely to help change this,” he said.

According to him, the situation may become more clear in 2017.

NSA’s Secret Stash of “Digital Holes”

John Naughton

September 4, 2016

Opinion: The NSA’s stash of digital holes is a threat to everyone online

Here’s a phrase to conjure with: “zero-day vulnerability”. If you’re a non-techie, it will sound either like a meaningless piece of jargon or it’ll have a vaguely sinister ring to it. “Year Zero” was the name chosen by the Khmer Rouge for 1975, the year they seized power in Cambodia and embarked on their genocidal rule. Behind the term lay the idea that “all culture and traditions within a society must be completely destroyed or discarded and a new revolutionary culture must replace it, starting from scratch”.

If you run a computer network, though, especially one that hosts sensitive or confidential data, then zero-day vulnerability evokes nightmares and worse. It means that your system has a security hole that nobody, including you, knew about and that someone is now in a position to exploit. And you have no real defence against it.

In its determination to screw the bad guys, the NSA left all of us vulnerable

All software has bugs and all networked systems have security holes in them. If you wanted to build a model of our online world out of cheese, you’d need emmental to make it realistic. These holes (vulnerabilities) are constantly being discovered and patched, but the process by which this happens is, inevitably, reactive. Someone discovers a vulnerability, reports it either to the software company that wrote the code or to US-CERT, the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team. A fix for the vulnerability is then devised and a “patch” is issued by computer security companies such as Kaspersky and/or by software and computer companies. At the receiving end, it is hoped that computer users and network administrators will then install the patch. Some do, but many don’t, alas.

It’s a lousy system, but it’s the only one we’ve got. It has two obvious flaws. The first is that the response always lags behind the threat by days, weeks or months, during which the malicious software that exploits the vulnerability is doing its ghastly work. The second is that it is completely dependent on people reporting the vulnerabilities that they have discovered.

Hackerpocalypse: A Cybercrime Revelation

FROM THE EDITORS AT CYBERSECURITY VENTURES

2016 Cybercrime Report

Steve Morgan, Editor-In-Chief

This special report on cybercrime is sponsored by Herjavec Group, a leading global information security advisory firm and Managed Security Services Provider (MSSP) with offices across Canada, the United States, United Kingdom and Australia. Download a PDF version of the report or view the Cybercrime Infographic.

HIGHLIGHTS

Cybersecurity Ventures predicts cybercrime will cost the world in excess of $6 trillion annually by 2021. 

Cybersecurity Ventures predicts global annual cybercrime costs will grow from $3 trillion in 2015 to $6 trillion annually by 2021, which includes damage and destruction of data, stolen money, lost productivity, theft of intellectual property, theft of personal and financial data, embezzlement, fraud, post-attack disruption to the normal course of business, forensic investigation, restoration and deletion of hacked data and systems, and reputational harm. 

Global spending on cybersecurity products and services for defending against cybercrime is projected to exceed$1 trillion cumulatively over the next five years, from 2017 to 2021, according to the Cybersecurity Market Report, which is published quarterly by Cybersecurity Ventures. 

The U.S. has declared a national emergency to deal with the cyber threat, while others claim the world is engaged in a global cyberwar. 

Cyber threats have evolved from targeting and harming computers, networks, and smartphones — to people, cars, railways, planes, power grids and anything with a heartbeat or an electronic pulse. 

The world’s cyber attack surface will grow an order of magnitude larger between now and 2021. 

imp papers

Are artificial intelligence, genetic modification, and human enhancement taboo? Our adversaries may not think so. Should we let imagination lead the way into the future or be stymied by our fears?

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Social and behavioral sciences are increasingly converging with basic physical science leaving us to ponder important questions about the nature and limits of the human being in relation to the machine.

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BMI is a technology with enormous potential that deserves more attention, resourcing, and development. While it is not generally accessible today, technologists, ethicists, and the public should consider its implications now.

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Increasing knowledge of genetics and cellular function, coupled with increases in computing power, is allowing development of novel, highly targeted treatments for all manners of disease and injury. However, every new treatment also represents a potential new lethal weapon.

Governments and nation states are now officially training for cyberwarfare: An inside look By Steve Ranger

Source Link

erylia is under attack. Again.

The island nation, located somewhere in the cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean, relies on its state-of-the-art drone industry for a large part of its income. But recently its drone research labs have come under cyber attack from unknown assailants, forcing Berylia to deploy rapid-reaction teams of security experts to its labs, under orders to find out what's happening, and to stop the attacks as quickly as possible.

Over two hectic days, the teams will have to battle against mounting attacks on their systems, hijacking of their drones, and questions from a sometimes hostile press.

And it's not the first time Berylia has come under attack: strangely these cyber onslaughts happen every year at around the same time. And these incursions won't be the last time the country comes under attack either, because the fictional drone-building country is the setting for the NATO annual cyber defence wargame, Locked Shields.

The exercise is run from Estonia by NATO's cyberwarfare think tank, the Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCD COE). The annual event, which has been running since 2010, aims to train the security experts who protect national IT systems on a daily basis. While the exact scenario changes every year, the setting—the embattled Berylia—remains the same, and arch-rival Crimsonia often makes an appearance too.

Berylia might be a fictional state, but Estonia itself has first hand experience of these sort of digital attacks: back in 2007 its banks and government systems suffered weeks of disruption from hackers after Estonian authorities proposed moving a Soviet war memorial. Russia denied any involvement in the attacks, but the incident accelerated plans for the formation of the NATO's cyber think tank, located in the Estonian capital, Tallinn.

Devastating attacks to public infrastructure 'a matter of when' in the US

By Teena Maddox

September 1, 2016 

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Cybercriminals are focusing on public infrastructure to disrupt services and cause mayhem as new targets are emerging and expanding throughout the world. 

The water supply is at risk of a cyberattack to public infrastructure. Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto

Cyberattacks have already impacted public infrastructure in other countries and it's only a matter of time until a similar attack results in a major catastrophe disrupting crucial services in the United States, according to IoT security experts.

"I think that it's definitely not a matter of if, it's a matter of when," said Zulfikar Ramzan, CTO ofRSA and former chief scientist of Sourcefire. Ramzan is also the co-author of Crimeware: Understanding New Attacks and Defenses.

Public infrastructure refers to whatever is critical to keep society functioning, from utilities and water to hospitals, transportation and public safety. This infrastructure can be part of either the public or private sector, such as with financial services, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies. If any part of this structure is attacked, it could lead to an unprecedented crisis.

Overall, industrial control systems (ICS) incidents, as these type of attacks are known, are on the rise. The number of incidents reported to U.S. authorities increased 17 percent in 2015, with 295 incidents, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security ICS Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT).

Cyber-Attack Against Ukrainian Critical Infrastructure

https://ics-cert.us-cert.gov/alerts/IR-ALERT-H-16-056-01

All information products included in http://ics-cert.us-cert.gov are provided "as is" for informational purposes only. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) does not provide any warranties of any kind regarding any information contained within. DHS does not endorse any commercial product or service, referenced in this product or otherwise. Further dissemination of this product is governed by the Traffic Light Protocol (TLP) marking in the header. For more information about TLP, see http://www.us-cert.gov/tlp/.

On December 23, 2015, Ukrainian power companies experienced unscheduled power outages impacting a large number of customers in Ukraine. In addition, there have also been reports of malware found in Ukrainian companies in a variety of critical infrastructure sectors. Public reports indicate that the BlackEnergy (BE) malware was discovered on the companies’ computer networks, however it is important to note that the role of BE in this event remains unknown pending further technical analysis.

An interagency team comprised of representatives from the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC)/Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT), U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), Department of Energy, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation traveled to Ukraine to collaborate and gain more insight. The Ukrainian government worked closely and openly with the U.S. team and shared information to help prevent future cyber-attacks.

This report provides an account of the events that took place based on interviews with company personnel. This report is being shared for situational awareness and network defense purposes. ICS-CERT strongly encourages organizations across all sectors to review and employ the mitigation strategies listed below.

Military intelligence troops learn to work together in new multifunctional platoon

By Drew Brooks Military editor 

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A soldier meets with a source in a simulated environment during a military intelligence field exercise in August on Fort Bragg.

Soldiers conduct an air assault insertion during a field exercise on Fort Bragg. The soldiers are assigned to D Company, 127th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division.

A soldier uses the wolfhound system, a lightweight radio direction-finding system that targets VHF and UHF bands.

The 82nd Airborne Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team, serving as the core of the nation's Global Response Force, is looking to change the way it collects intelligence on the battlefield.

For the last six months, soldiers in D Company, 127th Brigade Engineer Battalion have been honing their skills as part of the brigade's first multifunctional military intelligence platoon.

That platoon is merging two of the 82nd Airborne's intelligence efforts that previously have been split into two separate domains.

The first, signal intelligence, is focused on using advanced technology, some of which is classified, to track enemy whereabouts and unveil future plans. The other, human intelligence, relies on people with direct knowledge of the enemy. It depends on relationships between soldiers and trusted contacts who may conduct covert meetings.

Soldiers assigned to each specialty attend separate schools, use different methods and, often, aren't aware of what each other is doing or the intelligence they collect.

How Both Sides Got Cambodia Wrong

DONALD BEACHLER

09.05.16

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/09/05/how-both-sides-got-cambodia-wrong.html

Sidney Schanberg, who died in July, was an award winning journalist who covered the Vietnam War and genocides in East Pakistan (Bangladesh) and Cambodia. Perhaps more than any other reporter, Schanberg made western publics aware of the terrible suffering the people of Cambodia endured under the three-and-a-half-year reign of the Khmer Rouge (1975-1979). Disregarding the wishes of his editors at the New York Times, Schanberg stayed on after other westerners had left Phnom Penh as the Khmer Rouge approached the city. He was forced out of Cambodia not long after the Khmer Rouge took power, but before departing he witnessed the forced evacuation of the capital and largest city in Cambodia as well as executions by officials of the deposed government. 

Dith Pran, Schanberg’s Cambodian assistant, translator, and friend, was forced to remain in the country and endured the reign of terror of the Khmer Rouge government. Dozens of members of his extended family including his four siblings were killed between 1975 and 1979. Dith survived the Khmer Rouge era and was eventually reunited with Schanberg who wrote a book based on Dith’s experiences. The book was the basis for the 1984 Academy Award winning film, The Killing Fields, which did much to make the broader U.S. public aware of the terrible atrocities that had occurred in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge.

While many Americans have some general knowledge of the crimes of the Khmer Rouge government, the extent of the genocide committed by the Cambodian Communists is worth recalling. Scholars estimate that between 1.5 and two million people—between a fifth and a quarter of the population—were killed or perished from starvation and disease that were a direct result of the severe privations that the Khmer Rouge imposed on the country. Among those especially targeted for persecution were Buddhist Monks, Cambodian Muslims, Cambodians of Chinese or Vietnamese ethnicity, people with foreign ties, and those associated with the regime of former American-backed dictator Lon Nol, who governed from 1970 to 1975.

Company That Had Convicts Build Defective Combat Helmets Got Off With a Small Fine

MICHAEL DALY

09.05.16 

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Here is a scandal to raise your ire on Labor Day.

Fraud and the production of defective combat helmets in time of war were certainly not what President Franklin Roosevelt hoped inmates would be learning when he signed Executive Order No. 6917, on December 11, 1934 creating Federal Prison Industries to allow “industrial operations (to) be carried on in the several penal and correctional institutions of the United States.”

The subsequent mission statement issued by this government-owned company says, “The mission of Federal Prison Industries, Inc. (FPI) is to protect society and reduce crime by preparing inmates for successful reentry through job training.”

In recent times, FPI has assumed the trade name Unicor, but its avowed purpose has remained the same as it has grown to a workforce of 21,0000 in various types of manufacturing at 109 correctional institutions. 

“The impetus behind FPI is not about business, but rather inmate release preparation,” the company says. “UNICOR assists offenders with acquiring marketable job skills so that they can one day become law-abiding, contributing members of society. The production of items and provision of services are merely by-products of those efforts.”

A seven-year U.S. Department of Justice investigation suggests that a very different kind of job training took place at the FPI facility in the federal prison in Beaumont, Texas between 2006 and 2009. The summary report – released in August — is titled “Findings of Fraud and Other Irregularities Related to the Manufacture and Sale of Combat Helmets by the Federal Prison Industries and ArmorSource.” It says that inmates were placed on production lines where “helmets were manufactured with degraded or unauthorized ballistic materials, used expired paint and unauthorized manufacturing methods. Helmets also had other defects such as deformities and the investigations found that rejected helmets were sold to the DOD.”

What Patton’s Poems Tell Us About Today

BY THOMAS E. RICKS

SEPTEMBER 2, 2016 

http://foreignpolicy.com/author/thomas-e-ricks/

"Patton, you magnificent bastard! I read your verse!" —Charlie Sherpa

Even casual consumers of military history — at least, those familiar with actor George C. Scott's portrayal of Patton in the 1971 movie — suspect the historical general may have more than occasionally written poetry. In an early scene set in World War II North Africa — the original script was written by a young Francis Ford Coppola — Lt. Gen. George S. Patton briefly diverts his command car to an ancient battlefield he senses from a past incarnation. Patton then delivers this memorable roadside monologue to Maj. Gen. Omar Bradley, played by Karl Malden:

“It was here. The battlefield was here. The Carthaginians defending the city were attacked by three Roman legions. The Carthaginians were proud and brave but they couldn't hold. They were massacred. The Arab women stripped them of the tunics and swords, and lances. And the soldiers lay naked in the sun. Two-thousand years ago. I was here.

You don't believe me, do you, Brad? You know what the poet said:

Through the travail of ages,

Midst the pomp and toils of war,

Zika Is Just the First Front in the 21st-Century Biowar

BY JAMES STAVRIDIS

AUGUST 24, 2016 

Source Link

Why a new era of synthetic biology could make the dangers of the atomic age seem quaint. 

There are many national security challenges facing the United States, but too often our focus is exclusively on threats from terrorism, geopolitics and cyberattacks. As the country confronts the arrival of the Zika virus and contemplates travel bans to Miami, it’s time to have an adult conversation about the threats posed by biology.

It’s not hard to understand why our lives are increasingly wrapped up in the latest twists and turns of the cyberworld. That supercomputer you are carrying in your pocket (when its tiny colorful screen isn’t parked six inches in front of your eyes) is a synthesizer of all the world’s knowledge, photography, art, music, and data. It is also a kind of X-ray machine that can provide insights into the deepest recesses of our personal lives: our preferences, choices, intimate moments, health, purchases, and indeed our character.

Blast Rocks Controversial Philippine President’s Hometown…

A blast rocked the controvesial Philippine president's hometown as he arrived for a visit.

Yet the impact of all that information and data pales in comparison to what is heading our way in the world of biology. Biological, not cybernetic, developments will determine the course of the 21st century. Ebola, Zika, and the emergence of antibiotic-impervious superbugs are just previews of the coming challenges.

Why Blame Modi For Praising Teresa When We’ve Forsaken Sister Nivedita?

http://swarajyamag.com/politics/why-blame-modi-for-praising-teresa-when-weve-forsaken-sister-nivedita
Aravindan Neelakandan - August 31, 2016, 




Given our own omission of indigenous nation-builders rooted in our culture and spirituality, what right do we have to criticise Modi who, by praising Mother Teresa, was just following his political mentors?
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has come in for severe criticism from his home constituency, the Hindu nationalists. For them, he has committed the unimaginable sin of going out of the way to praise Mother Teresa. In his recent ‘Mann Ki Baat’, he said that she had “dedicated her life for the upliftment of the poor” and, as an Indian, he felt proud and exhorted his countrymen to feel proud of her canonisation.
Narendra Modi is the Prime Minister of this country. He cannot be rude and uncivilised like Dravidian racists such as Karunanidhi who, even when occupying the Chief Ministerial chair, refuses to wish Hindus during their festivals. In praising Teresa, the Prime Minister was only following his political mentors. Vajpayee had praised her for giving “selflessly to those whom society had forsaken.” To him “she was a symbol of understanding faith.” To LK Advani, she would continue to inspire millions of people both in her life and death and would “bring joy in the lives of the less fortunate.”
Modi is even more vulnerable, what with old media and New York Times op-eds trying to make India look like it is blatantly discriminating against its Christian and Islamic minorities. Modi’s utterances on the subject are being closely watched in the run up to the canonisation of the Catholic missionary. The same liberal West which would ruthlessly attack and denounce most of Teresa’s stands and actions on issues like birth control etc., would take Hindus to task if their leaders spoke against Teresa. Because then it becomes civilisational.

Nevertheless, one thing is certain.
By praising Teresa, Modi has escaped one trap, but that will not make him dearer to the Church. The empire of evangelical business in the third world knows its enemies. Irrespective of what words of praise Modi utters, they know where he stands when it comes to evangelism. In this, they are far more intelligent than the Internet Hindutva-ites who start attacking Modi for his “praise” of Teresa.
Empirically speaking, one can say that Modi is wrong in his statement about the nun. Teresa was dedicated, all right. But she was dedicated to the Church. She worked not for the upliftment of the poor but for her charities. She wanted the poor in her clinics to suffer physical pain from their illnesses, sometimes depriving them of even basic pain-killers. As a Western textbook ( ‘Max scholar’ book for Level Five on the recipients of the US Presidential Medal) succinctly puts it, that would bring her patients “closer to Christ.”

PM Modi’s Balochistan Remark: Far From Casual, A Calculated Move

http://swarajyamag.com/world/pm-modis-balochistan-remark-far-from-casual-a-calculated-move
Ramananda Sengupta - September 02, 2016, 

It’s a threat.
There is no other way of parsing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks about Balochistan in his Independence Day address to the nation on 15 August 2016.
In his one-and-a-half-hour-long speech at the Red Fort to mark India’s 70th year of independence, the Prime Minister had just one sentence on the troubled regions controlled by Pakistan. But that one sentence was enough to spark off acute heartburn not just in Pakistan but also in China.
After spelling out a long list of things that his government had achieved and had hoped to achieve, Modi spoke of how Indians wept after the killing of children in a Peshawar school in December 2014 while the terrorists exulted.

And then he declared:
Today from the ramparts of Red Fort, I want to greet and express my thanks to some people. In the last few days, people of Balochistan, Gilgit, Pakistan Occupied Kashmir have thanked me, have expressed gratitude, and expressed good wishes for me. The people who are living far away, whom I have never seen, never met – such people have expressed appreciation for Prime Minister of India, for 125 crore countrymen. This is an honour for our countrymen.
e didn’t think it necessary to spell out what exactly he was being thanked for. Because the threat was implicit.
A day before, Pakistan’s President Mamnoon Hussain, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and High Commissioner in New Delhi, Abdul Basit, had dedicated their country’s 70th Independence Day to “freedom of Kashmir” from Indian rule.arlier, following the uproar over the death of Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Wani in a shootout with security forces in Kashmir 8 July 2016, Nawaz Sharif had lauded Wani as a martyr to the Kashmiri cause and pledged to continue supporting the separatists in the Valley.