Georgetown Security Law Brief

FBI admits US surveillance with drones

2013-06-19T21:10:00-04:00

06/19/13: Wired's Threat Level reports FBI Director Robert Mueller said today the bureau was surveilling the United States with drones. The revelation was during an FBI oversight hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee and comes as the bureau, along with the National Security Agency, are on the defensive about revelations that they are obtaining metadata on Americans' phone records. The FBI is not alone in monitoring the US with drones. Federal agencies use them to survey US borders, help fight wildfires and survey dams after hurricanes. Dozens of local law enforcement agencies nationwide deploy the unmanned crafts, too. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) asked: “Does the FBI use drones for surveillance on US soil?” “Yes, in a very, very minimal way, and seldom.” Moments later, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California) said drones were a huge privacy threat to Americans. The director was unprepared to answer Feinstein’s questions on what “privacy strictures” are in place to protect Americans’ privacy in connection to FBI drone use. Still, Mueller said the drone program “is very narrowly focused on particularized cases and particularized leads.” The bureau had employed drones to monitor a kidnapping scene in Alabama in February, when the FBI rescued a 5-year-old boy from a bunker, unnamed sources told CNN at the time.

UK soldiers' families can sue over Iraq deaths

2013-06-19T09:23:12-04:00

06/19/13: The Miami Herald reports the families of several British soldiers killed or injured in Iraq can sue the government for failing to protect them, the country's highest court ruled Wednesday. The cases have been brought by relatives of soldiers including Cpl. Stephen Allbutt, who died in a "friendly fire" incident involving two Challenger tanks in March 2003; and Pvt. Phillip Hewett, killed in July 2005 when his Snatch Land Rover was blown up. The families want to sue the government under human rights law, and for negligence. They say the Ministry of Defense failed to provide armored vehicles or equipment that could have saved lives. The government argued that the soldiers were outside British jurisdiction - and so not subject to European human rights law - and that the deaths were covered by the principle of combat immunity, which excludes battlefield operations from legal liability for negligence. But the Supreme Court rejected both arguments and said all the claims could proceed to trial. The judges agreed with an earlier ruling that the doctrine of combat immunity should be "narrowly construed" and said "it would be premature to reject the claims on that basis at this point. Defense Secretary Philip Hammond said he was "very concerned at the wider implications of this judgment." He said the ruling "could ultimately make it more difficult for our troops to carry out operations and potentially throws open a wide range of military decisions to the uncertainty of litigation."

BioWatch's chief aim is off-target, US security officials say

2013-06-19T09:20:27-04:00

06/19/13: The Los Angeles Times reports BioWatch, which has cost more than $1 billion so far, is designed to detect large-scale biological attacks. But Homeland Security officials say small-scale attacks are more likely to occur. Homeland Security Department planners have privately rejected a central premise of BioWatch, the nation's decade-old system for detecting biological weapons released into the air, according to government documents and testimony Tuesday at a congressional hearing. Although BioWatch was designed with the belief that hostile foreign governments could sponsor large-scale germ attacks on American cities, the Homeland Security planners said they no longer saw this as the primary threat. They instead believe that small-scale releases of anthrax or other pathogens are the most plausible type of attack — but that these events would be least likely to be detected by BioWatch. The department's pending proposal to spend billions more to automate the system would expand BioWatch's reach in both outdoor and indoor settings. BioWatch presently operates in more than 30 US cities and at major spectator events, including sports championships and national political conventions.

Obama has plans to cut US nuclear arsenal, if Russia reciprocates

2013-06-19T09:15:01-04:00

06/19/13: The New York Times reports President Obama plans to use a speech in Berlin on Wednesday to outline plans for further reductions in the American nuclear arsenal if Russia agrees to pare back its weapons at the same time, administration officials said Tuesday. Resuming a drive toward disarmament that he had largely shunted aside over the past two years, Mr. Obama will propose trimming the number of strategic warheads that each of the two big nuclear powers still maintains by up to a third, taking them below the 1,550 permitted in the treaty he signed with Russia in his first term, a senior administration official said. That would leave each country with just over 1,000 weapons. Mr. Obama will also declare that he will work with NATO allies to develop proposals for major cuts in tactical nuclear weapons, which are not covered by the existing treaty. Russia, which has far more tactical nuclear weapons deployed than the United States and Europe do, has firmly resisted such cuts. There are fears that its tactical weapons are in parts of Russia where they risk being seized by terrorist groups. Mr. Obama will also announce that he will host a final nuclear security summit meeting in the United States just before he leaves office.

Google challenges US gag order, citing First Amendment

2013-06-19T09:11:24-04:00

06/19/13: The Washington Post reports Google asked the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Tuesday to ease long-standing gag orders over data requests the court makes, arguing that the company has a constitutional right to speak about information it is forced to give the government. The legal filing, which invokes the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech, is the latest move by the California-based tech giant to protect its reputation in the aftermath of news reports about broad National Security Agency surveillance of Internet traffic. A high-profile legal showdown might help Google’s efforts to portray itself as aggressively resisting government surveillance, and a victory could bolster the company’s campaign to portray government surveillance requests as targeted narrowly and affecting only a small number of users. Tuesday’s unusual legal move came after days of intense talks between federal officials and several of the technology companies, including Google, over what details can be released. It also comes as the firms increasingly show signs of wanting to outdo each other in demonstrating their commitment to protecting user privacy. In its petition, Google sought permission to publish information about how many government data requests the surveillance court approves and how many user accounts are affected. Google long has made regular reports with regard to other data demands from the US government and other governments worldwide, but it has been forced to exclude requests from the surveillance court, which oversees an array of official monitoring efforts that target foreigners.

Somalia UN office attack by al-Shabab 'kills 12'

2013-06-19T09:08:00-04:00

06/19/13: The BBC reports at least 12 people, including three foreigners, have been killed in an assault by militant Islamists on a UN office in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, a government minister says. The gun-battle inside the office lasted for more than an hour, witnesses said. A cameraman outside the UN Development Programme office told the BBC a suicide bomber blew up a car at its entrance and he saw four gunmen enter. The al-Qaeda-linked group al-Shabab said it was behind the attack. Officials says pro-government forces have now secured the compound. Somalia has not had an effective national government for more than 20 years, during which much of the country has been a constant war-zone. But a UN-backed government now controls most of the country's main cities after ousting al-Shabab. The UN Development Programme office is next to the heavily fortified airport in southern Mogadishu.

Rebels in North Mali sign peace deal allowing in government troops

2013-06-19T09:06:50-04:00

06/19/13: The New York Times reports nomadic rebels whose revolt in northern Mali last year split the West African nation signed a peace deal Tuesday with the government, resolving a stumbling block to the country’s reconstruction. The rebels of the Tuareg ethnic group had been clinging to swaths of Mali’s desert north, refusing to disarm or allow the country’s army to enter Kidal, a dusty Sahara outpost near the Algerian border. The peace accord, which calls for the deployment of the Malian Army there, followed a French military intervention at the beginning of the year that itself went some way to putting the fractured country back together. That intervention did not go all the way, however, and the accord signed Tuesday in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, now appears to resolve the last major sticking point. The agreement also helps clear the way for elections in late July. International donors, whose billions of dollars in promised aid is vital to Mali’s reconstruction, have been calling for elections. The Malian government’s chief negotiator, Tiébilé Dramé, said Tuesday night that “the agreement re-establishes the international consensus that Malian territory is indivisible and that the state is secular.” Mr. Dramé said no concessions on the issue of sovereignty had been made to the rebels. “I think they saw that things were not going in their favor,” he said.

More than seven million refugees displaced in 2012 - UN

2013-06-19T08:59:37-04:00

06/19/13: The BBC reports the UN says 7.6 million people became refugees in 2012, with the total number now higher than at any time since 1994. A report from the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says that Syria is "a major new factor" driving up refugee numbers. The report say 55% of all refugees come from five countries: Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq, Sudan and Syria. It also found that developing countries now hosted 81% of the world's refugees, 11% more than a decade ago. Mr Guterres said that the figure of 7.6 million meant there was a new displaced person every 4.1 seconds. The UNHCR says the figures are based on data from the agency itself as well as from governments and other NGOs. Afghanistan remained the world's biggest source of refugees, a position it has now held for 32 years, with 95% of Afghan refugees located in either Iran or Pakistan. Somalis were the second biggest group of refugees in 2012, followed by Iraqis. Syrians were the fourth biggest group. The figures do not, however, reflect the additional one million people who have fled Syria in the last six months.

Taliban attack and Afghan move cast pall on peace talks

2013-06-19T08:56:31-04:00

06/19/13: The New York Times reports within hours of opening an office for peace talks in the Gulf emirate of Qatar, Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan launched a deadly ambush on an American convoy, and the Afghan government separately broke off talks on military cooperation with the United States. It was at best a rocky prelude to peace talks with the Taliban, which have collapsed repeatedly in the past. American officials have long pushed for such talks, believing them crucial to stabilizing Afghanistan after the withdrawal of Western forces next year. Earlier on Tuesday, the American military had formally handed over control of security in all of Afghanistan to Afghan forces, a development that was followed hours later with the three sides announcing that peace talks would begin at the new Taliban offices in Doha, Qatar. But then came the surprise announcement Wednesday that Afghan officials would cease cooperation with the United States in discussing the presence of American troops after most foreign forces withdraw next year. The Afghan officials were said to be angry that the new Taliban office in Qatar to host the peace talks would be called the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan” with the Taliban flag flying there, which Afghan officials felt would grant the insurgents too much legitimacy. The Taliban formally opened their Qatar office Tuesday evening, complete with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, after more than a year of efforts to restart peace talks. But the portrayal of that office itself has emerged as a significant sticking point.

North India floods: Army leads rescue operations

2013-06-19T08:26:53-04:00

06/19/13: The BBC reports military helicopters are leading rescue operations in India's flood-hit northern states, where 130 people are now known to have died. Some 18 helicopters have rescued 5,000 people in the worst-hit Uttarakhand state, an army official told the BBC. Tens of thousands of pilgrims are stranded in Uttarakhand, where more than 100 people have been killed. Flood-related deaths have also been reported in Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh states and neighbouring Nepal. At least 22 people have been killed and 18 are missing in landslides and floods triggered by heavy rainfall in remote parts of Nepal, home ministry spokesman Shankar Koirala told the AFP news agency. He said that more than 100 homes - mostly in western Nepal - had been damaged by the floods and the government had agreed to step up relief efforts at an emergency meeting. The monsoon season generally lasts from June to September, bringing rain which is critical to the farming output of both countries, but this year the rain in the north of India and parts of Nepal has been heavier than usual. An Indian military statement quoted by AFP said five airbases were being used to help speed up rescue operations. The floods have swept away buildings and triggered landslides in some places, blocking roads. More than 20 bridges have collapsed. India's Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said more than 62,000 pilgrims were stranded at various places.

Red Cross to Guantánamo judge: Don’t give 9/11 defense lawyers our confidential records

2013-06-19T08:24:05-04:00

06/19/13: The Miami Herald reports a lawyer for the International Committee of the Red Cross on Tuesday urged a military judge not to order release of its confidential communications with the Pentagon about Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four other captives accused of perpetrating the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. “The ICRC goes places, to places of conflict that no one else can go to. We visit and speak to people that no else can speak to,” said attorney Matthew MacLean, arguing that release of Red Cross records would jeopardize its ability to have confidential dialogues with governments worldwide. At issue is whether the judge will order the Pentagon to give defense lawyers copies of confidential communications from the Geneva-based organization. Defense officials want to read them because they may detail what Mohammed and the others told Red Cross representatives about their treatment by the United States. If they are convicted, the communications might help them argue against their execution. Prosecutors and the Red Cross oppose that release, even to US military defense attorneys. Governments grant Red Cross delegates access to their prisons, and captives speak to them, because the Red Cross doesn’t publicize its complaints about how countries treat captives. The Pentagon’s chief war crimes prosecutor reminded the judge at the hearing that the Red Cross intervenes on behalf of US troops held captive overseas as well. In a particularly pointed question, given these are death-penalty proceedings, the judge asked the Red Cross lawyer whether the organization had not on occasion breached confidentiality when a life was at risk. Yes, MacLean replied, but only when the organization decides on its own to do it.

NSA Chief says surveillance has stopped dozens of plots

2013-06-18T13:52:45-04:00

06/18/13: The New York Times reports Gen. Keith B. Alexander, the head of the National Security Agency, said on Tuesday that American surveillance had helped prevent “potential terrorist events over 50 times since 9/11,” including at least 10 “homeland-based threats.” But he said that a vast majority must remain secret to avoid disclosing sources and methods. In addition, the deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Sean Joyce, listed two newly disclosed cases that have now been declassified in an effort to respond to the leaking of classified information about surveillance by Edward J. Snowden, a former NSA contractor. Mr. Joyce described a plot to blow up the New York Stock Exchange by a Kansas City man, whom the agency was able to identify because he was in contact with “an extremist” in Yemen who was under surveillance. Mr. Joyce also talked about a San Diego man who planned to send financial support to a terrorist group in Somalia, and who was identified because the NSA flagged his phone number as suspicious through its database of all domestic phone call logs, which was brought to light by Mr. Snowden’s disclosures. In an apparent reference to Mr. Snowden, for example, Mr. Rogers criticized his actions as “selectively leaking incomplete information” that “paints an inaccurate picture and fosters distrust in our government.”

US and Taliban to open direct peace talks in Qatar

2013-06-18T13:50:07-04:00

06/18/13: The BBC reports the US is to open direct peace talks with the Taliban, senior White House officials have announced. The first meeting is due to take place in the coming days in Doha, Qatar, where the Taliban have just opened their first official overseas office. Afghan President Hamid Karzai said his government was also sending delegates to Qatar to talk to the Taliban. The announcement came on the day Nato handed over security for the whole of Afghanistan to government forces. US officials said prisoner exchanges would be one topic for discussion with the Taliban, but the first weeks will mainly be used to explore each other's agendas. However, the talks are on condition that the Taliban renounce violence, break ties with al-Qaeda and respect the Afghan constitution - including the rights of women and minorities. US officials told reporters the first formal meeting between US and Taliban representatives was expected to take place in Doha next week, with talks between President Karzai's High Peace Council and the Taliban due a few days after that. The level of trust between the Afghan government and the Taliban is described as "low". In the past, the Taliban have always refused to meet President Karzai or his government, dismissing them as puppets of Washington.

China set to grab UAV market while US restricts sales

2013-06-18T11:44:52-04:00

06/18/13: The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission released a report discussing the future of China's military unmanned aerial vehicle industry. In the long term, China’s continued interest and progression in strategic-level UAVs appear poised to position China as a leader in the high-end UAV market. While firms such as SAC and CASIC are better known within China’s UAV industry, they are relative newcomers and occupy a much smaller and more specialized niche within the field – namely long-range ISR – than does ASN. Furthermore, their specialties cater to the PLA’s emerging operational requirements, particularly to monitor foreign military forces at longer ranges. However, limited public information on UAVs in development at China’s defense industry and PLA-based R&D centers, as well as their long incubation periods, makes it difficult to assess the timeline for development and operational capability in the PLA.

Commentary: How to arm friends and influence enemies, 5 rules for giving guns to Syrian rebels

2013-06-18T11:08:58-04:00

06/18/13: Foreign Policy published an article by Edward Luttwak arguing that before going to war in Syria, the Obama administration should heed the lessons of history. Even if conditions on the ground in Syria virtually exclude the possibility of a good outcome, the following five rules -- derived from bitter experience in arming other rebels -- could at least serve to minimize the damage: (1) Figure out who your friends are. (2) Be prepared to do all the work. (3) Don't give away anything that you would want to have back. (4) Do not invite an equal and opposite response by another great power. (5) Lay some ground rules for the endgame. The Obama administration has displayed prudent restraint in dealing with Syria until now. After recent regime successes against the rebels, it can convincingly argue (despite the somewhat inconclusive and murky assertion that Assad's use of chemical weapons has now been verified) that it must provide some help to the rebels simply to deny a victory to Iran and Hezbollah. Even so, one hopes that it retains its prudence -- and keeps these five rules in mind.

Tuesday Tech Updates 06/18/13

2013-06-18T09:51:37-04:00

06/18/13: Here are today's technology updates:

DARPA recently awarded a contract for Phase II of its Persistent Close Air Support (PCAS) program to the Raytheon Company. PCAS aims to enable ground forces and combat aircrews to jointly select and employ precision-guided weapons from a diverse set of airborne platforms. The program seeks to leverage advances in computing and communications technologies to fundamentally increase CAS effectiveness, as well as improve the speed and survivability of ground forces engaged with enemy forces.
Researchers have developed an algorithm to produce a simple 3-D model of a convex room simply by analyzing inputs from four casually placed microphones. This algorithm may help enable cell phones to identify where in a room a caller is calling from.
EPFL's Biorobotics Laboratory has developed a robot that runs like a cat. This robot is the fastest in terms of normalized speed for small quadruped robots under 30Kg. During tests, it demonstrated its ability to run nearly seven times its body length in one second. Although not as agile as a real cat, it still has excellent auto-stabilization characteristics when running at full speed or over a course that included disturbances such as small steps. The robot is extremely light, compact, and robust and can be easily assembled from materials that are inexpensive and readily available. According to the Director, this invention is the logical follow-up of research the lab has done into locomotion that included a salamander robot and a lamprey robot. "It's still in the experimental stages, but the long-term goal of the cheetah-cub robot is to be able to develop fast, agile, ground-hugging machines for use in exploration, for example for search and rescue in natural disaster situations."
Researchers at MIT have, using a bi-polymer 3-D printer, been able to print artificial bone resembling natures hierarchical model. These structures are capable of providing skeletal support and resist fracturing. Further, the team was able to validate that the new metamaterials followed the fracture pattern of the original computer simulated material. The process could be scaled up to provide a cost-effective means of manufacturing materials that consist of two or more constituents, arranged in patterns of any variation imaginable and tailored for specific functions in different parts of a structure. Eventually, entire buildings might be printed with optimized materials that incorporate electrical circuits, plumbing and energy harvesting.
Honda Motor and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) have jointly developed a remotely controlled survey robot that will conduct on-site surveys on the first floor of a nuclear reactor building at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station and help discern structures in high and narrow areas. Its newly developed robot arm can easily approach hard-to-see objects that are behind other objects in a structurally-complex environment in the reactor building by applying simultaneous control on multiple joints. When approaching the objects, the robot uses a zoom camera, laser range finder and dosimeter located at the tip of the arm to confirm detailed images, collect 3D data and identify the source of radiation. This newly-developed survey robot will begin working inside the reactor building on June 18, 2013.
A magnetic phenomenon newly discovered by MIT researchers could lead to much faster, denser and more energy-efficient chips for memory and computation. With very thin films of a ferromagnetic material deposited on a metal base, and with a layer of an oxide material on top, spin rotations are aligned, consistently either turning clockwise or counterclockwise. Because of this peculiar effect, the forces pushing the magnetic domains are 100 times greater than in conventional ferromagnetic storage systems. Since the power needed to move the domains varies with the square of these forces, such a system could be 10,000 times more efficient than existing technology.

Obama, Putin find agreement on nuclear weapons

2013-06-18T09:16:44-04:00

06/18/13: The Washington Times reports President Obama and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, did find common ground on reducing the threat posed by nuclear weapons. After a meeting Monday evening at this week’s G-8 Summit in Northern Ireland, the two men announced that they would sign a new nuclear security agreement to replace a 1992 deal that expired Monday. The bilateral deal represents a renewed commitment to secure vulnerable nuclear material in the former Soviet Union, and the White House described it as “a new framework for cooperative threat reduction.” The agreement will replace 1992’s Cooperative Threat Reduction Program — better known as Nunn-Lugar in honor of the two senators who sponsored it, Sam Nunn and Richard Lugar — passed into law in the immediate aftermath of the Cold War and designed to reduce existing nuclear weapons stockpiles. It provided funding for former Soviet states to dismantle their nuclear arms and also assigned American personnel to watch over those weapons as they were taken apart.

Turkey arrests dozens in crackdown on protests

2013-06-18T09:12:02-04:00

06/18/13: The New York Times reports Turkish antiterror units arrested dozens of people in several cities early Tuesday as part of an intensifying crackdown against anti-government protests that have persisted for weeks. The semiofficial Anatolian news agency said 84 people were arrested in the sweeps aimed at “members of terror organizations who destroyed public property, incited the public and attacked the police.” The names of the detainees, or the specific charges against them, were not released. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has reacted with growing annoyance to the protests, which have given him his most serious domestic challenge in a decade and embarrassed him abroad. In recent days, Mr. Erdogan has seemed to rule out a compromise with a movement that started with protests against the planned destruction of an Istanbul park and that grew by tapping into broader complaints over what critics see as Mr. Erdogan’s authoritarian manner. On Monday, the interior minister, Muammer Guler, said that new regulations were being prepared to police social media outlets, aimed at people who use Twitter or Facebook, for “inciting people or coordinating and directing events that would cause social incidents or endanger material and physical public safety through manipulative, false news.” Separately, the deputy prime minister, Bulent Arinc, raised the possibility that the military could be called in to help quell the unrest. Mr. Arinc said the “innocent protests had ended” and that the continuing demonstrations were illegal.

Weather disasters cost $110 billion in 2012

2013-06-18T09:07:17-04:00

06/18/13: CNN reports from Superstorm Sandy and last year's drought to tornadoes, wildfires and a hurricane, the weather and climate disasters of 2012 caused more than $110 billion in damages, making it one of the costliest years on record for weather events, national climate data show. There were 11 disaster events last year, each one causing more than $1 billion in damages, the National Climatic Data Center said. Since 1980, only 2005 had a higher damage total at $160 billion, according to the center, which is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The two most expensive disasters were Sandy, which caused about $65 billion in losses, and the yearlong drought, which cost about $30 billion, the center said. The drought, which affected more than half the country for most of 2012, also led to several wildfires and a fatal heatwave, the center said. Among the other major disasters of 2012 were tornadoes in the Southeast, Ohio Valley, Texas and the Midwest, along with Hurricane Isaac and severe storms across the country.

Group of 8 leaders press Russia on Syria

2013-06-18T09:03:40-04:00

06/18/13: The New York Times reports senior officials at a meeting of the Group of 8 industrialized countries here struggled on Tuesday to draft a statement on the war in Syria acceptable to both Russia — the main international backer of President Bashar al-Assad — and to countries that want to see a rapid transition of power in Damascus. Tensions over how to deal with the widening conflict and growing humanitarian crisis in Syria have dominated the two-day meeting in Northern Ireland that ends Tuesday. The summit meeting’s host, Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain, had indicated that he was hoping the gathering would yield a joint declaration as the basis for talks expected to take place in Geneva under the auspices of the United States and Russia. Mr. Putin has supported Mr. Assad both diplomatically and with weapons. As the line-by-line discussion of the summit declaration continued on Tuesday, there was a growing likelihood that Russia would sign up to a communiqué with the other seven nations but only in return for softer language about a political transition. The summit statement was also expected to announce initiatives on tackling global tax avoidance and on clamping down on the legal ruses used by multinational companies to reduce their tax liabilities. Britain is also seeking an agreement on preventing ransom payments in kidnappings, which it believes is now a major source of terrorist funding.

South Korea begins bidding for $7.3 billion fighter buy

2013-06-18T09:01:14-04:00

06/18/13: The Miami Herald reports South Korea has begun accepting bids from aircraft makers to supply 60 new fighter jets at an estimated cost of $7.3 billion. Two arms procurement officials said the bidding began Tuesday and is scheduled to end next week. Boeing's F-15 Silent Eagle, EADS' Eurofighter Typhoon and Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter are competing. The deal would be South Korea's biggest arms purchase ever. The 60 fighter jets will replace the country's aging fleet of F-4s and F-5s. Both officials at the Seoul-based Defense Acquisition Program Administration declined to be identified by name, citing office policy. South Korea faces rival North Korea over a heavily armed border. The 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce that has left the Korean Peninsula technically at war.

Elite units in US military to admit women

2013-06-18T08:57:06-04:00

06/18/13: The New York Times reports women will be permitted to serve in the most intense and physically hazardous combat positions in the military, including the Navy SEALs, the Army Rangers and the Marine infantry, senior defense officials said Monday. Leaders of each service branch are expected to make public at the Pentagon on Tuesday their plans for how they will integrate women into the units without reducing rigorous standards. Although Leon E. Panetta announced in January in one of his last decisions as defense secretary that he was lifting the military's official ban on women in combat, he did not specify which of the hundreds of thousands of front-line combat positions might be open to them. The plans to be released on Tuesday under Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel indicate for the first time that the military is prepared to integrate women into the most elite combat units, like the SEALs, who carried out the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. But the emphasis is on inclusion: If a branch of the military decides that a specific job should not be opened to women, representatives of the branch will have to ask the defense secretary for an exception.

West Africa piracy overtakes Somali ship attacks

2013-06-18T08:42:50-04:00

06/18/13: The BBC reports piracy off the coast of West Africa has now overtaken Somali piracy, a report by the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) and other seafarers' groups says. It says 966 sailors were attacked in West Africa in 2012, compared with 851 off the Somali coast. West African pirates mostly steal fuel cargo and the crews' possessions, often resorting to extreme violence. Five of the 206 hostages seized last year off West Africa have been killed, the document says. Maritime piracy off West Africa differs from that off Somalia and may eventually prove harder to deal with. In the Somali Basin there is a large concentration of patrolling warships - from the US Navy 5th Fleet, Nato, the EU and others - as well as reconnaissance aircraft, all acting in coordination. But in the Gulf of Guinea there is not one but several national coastlines to patrol with no single unified policing body. Somali pirates generally aim to capture a ship with minimum casualties then hold the vessel, its crew and cargo to ransom for millions of dollars, sometimes for as long as two years. West African pirates tend to be land-based criminals, mostly from Nigeria, who look to steal the cargo and any valuables they can find in a quick grab-and-dash operation, often staying onboard for less than a week.

Lavrov: Iran ready to stop 20-percent enrichment

2013-06-18T08:39:02-04:00

06/18/13: The Miami Herald reports Russia's foreign minister says Iran is willing to halt its 20-percent enrichment of uranium, which has been a key concession sought in international negotiations over Iran's nuclear program. That is the highest level of enrichment acknowledged by Iran and one that experts say could be turned into warhead grade in a matter of months. In an interview with the Kuwaiti news agency KUNA that was released by the Foreign Ministry on Tuesday, Sergey Lavrov said that "for the first time in many years" there are encouraging signs in international efforts to resolve the Iranian nuclear dispute. He said Iran has confirmed that it is ready to halt production of uranium enriched to 20 percent. He did not give details, but said the sextet of international negotiators should make "substantial reciprocal steps."

Mali says reaches deal with Tuareg rebels

2013-06-18T08:36:13-04:00

06/18/13: Reuters reports Mali has reached a deal with Tuareg separatist rebels paving the way for Malian government troops to return to the rebel-held northern town of Kidal ahead of planned elections in July, Mali's chief negotiator said on Tuesday. "The accord is ready to be signed," Tiebile Drame told Reuters in the Burkina Faso capital Ouagadougou where talks have been taking place for over a week. "I can tell you that the interim accord will be signed this afternoon." Drame did not provide further details. Mediators said a week ago that both parties had reached an agreement "in principle". However, Mali's interim President Dioncounda Traore, sworn in after a military coup last year, had baulked at a deal imposing conditions on the army's return to Kidal. Bamako has made clear that it wants its civilian administration and army reinstated in the rebel stronghold before elections scheduled for July 28, which are meant to complete a democratic transition after the March 2012 coup. The army has threatened to seize the town if no agreement was reached. Mediators, including delegates from the European Union and the United Nations, have worked round the clock to salvage the ceasefire deal.

Top Senator on panel blocks aid to Afghans

2013-06-18T08:34:11-04:00

06/18/13: The New York Times reports President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan may still be getting his monthly cash deliveris from the CIA. But now, until the Obama administration explains the rationale behind the payments, the Afghan government will have to go without $75 million in American aid. Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, the ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, announced Monday that he was putting a hold on the aid until the White House offered “sufficient assurances” that the bags of cash being delivered to Mr. Karzai by the CIA were not fueling the corruption that pervades the Afghan government. One Afghan official said the cash is known at the presidential palace as “ghost money.” All told, the agency has delivered tens of millions of dollars worth of secret cash payments to Mr. Karzai’s office over the years, according to Afghan and American officials. The $75 million being withheld was intended to help Afghanistan organize elections, including a presidential vote scheduled for April. Compared with the billions in development and military aid provided each year by the United States to Afghanistan, it is a small sum. But its cutoff marked a rare moment of concrete Congressional pushback on the Obama administration’s Afghan strategy.

North Korea to send senior envoy to China

2013-06-18T08:24:41-04:00

06/18/13: The New York Times reports a senior nuclear negotiator from North Korea will visit Beijing for a strategic dialogue this week, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Monday. The planned trip by the first vice foreign minister of North Korea, Kim Kye-gwan, follows his country’s proposal on Sunday to hold senior-level talks with Washington to discuss easing tensions and eventually removing nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula. Mr. Kim, a veteran diplomat and a central figure in North Korea’s negotiations with the outside world over its nuclear weapons programs, is scheduled to meet with the Chinese vice foreign minister, Zhang Yesui, in Beijing on Wednesday, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman told reporters at a press briefing. The two will discuss bilateral relations and the situation on the Korean Peninsula, said the spokeswoman, Hua Chunying. Mr. Kim’s planned trip to Beijing also coincides with a gathering of the envoys of the United States and its two Asian allies, South Korea and Japan, that is scheduled for Wednesday in Washington. The three allies are to discuss the North’s recent overtures of dialogue and coordinate their approaches.

US names prisoners slated for indefinite detention

2013-06-18T08:22:03-04:00

06/18/13: The Miami Herald reports the names and nationalities of the 48 Guantánamo captives, whom an Obama administration Task Force in 2010 classified as indefinite detainees ineligible for release, transfer or prosecution. Their formal classification is “continued detention pursuant to the Authorization for Use of Military Force (2001), as informed by principles of the laws of war.” The captives’ names are different on different documents. This lists reflects the names on a release to The Miami Herald under the Freedom of Information Act, and includes each captive’s internment serial number, ISN, as a guide. Two of the detainees on the list have since died at Guantánamo, one of a suicide and another of a heart attack. Each of these men is identified with an asterisk and the notation deceased.

Split over Syria becomes clearer as Group of 8 meets

2013-06-17T10:30:56-04:00

06/17/13: The New York Times reports Ahead of a meeting of leaders of industrialized nations that is likely to be dominated by the crisis in Syria, Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain said Monday that he found some elements of the Syrian opposition worrying, but that he sought to keep open the option of arming those who want a democratic future. Even before leaders had arrived for the two-day meeting, differences were evident on Sunday when President Vladimir V. Putin, who has supported the government of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, warned against arming the rebels there. On Monday, the subject is likely to provoke more tension during a summit meeting that is also expected to start discussions on closer trade ties between the European Union and the United States. Leaders also plan to discuss international moves to clamp down on tax evasion and the questionable practices companies use to reduce their tax payments. The United States has said that it will supply some rebels with direct military aid, and Britain and France succeeded in getting the European Union to allow its ban on supplying arms to the country to expire, despite the reservations of many countries within the 27-member bloc.

Turkish government says it may use army to end protests

2013-06-17T10:28:45-04:00

06/17/13: The BBC reports the Turkish government has said it could use the army to end nearly three weeks of unrest by protesters in Istanbul and other cities. The government would use "all its powers" and the armed forces if necessary, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said on state-run television. It is the first time the Islamist-rooted ruling party has raised the prospect of deploying the armed forces. The issue is sensitive as the army is seen as a bastion of secularism. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told hundreds of thousands of supporters at a rally in Istanbul on Sunday that the protesters were manipulated by "terrorists". Trade unions have called a strike to protest against the police crackdown on demonstrators which has seen some 500 people arrested. Medical officials estimate that 5,000 people have been injured and at least four killed in the unrest. The protests began on 28 May against a plan to redevelop Istanbul's Gezi Park, on the city's central Taksim Square, but it snowballed into nationwide anti-government protests after the perceived high-handed response of the authorities under their three-term prime minister.

New leak indicates US and Britain eavesdropped at ’09 World Conferences

2013-06-17T07:44:00-04:00

06/17/13: The New York Times reports a new set of classified documents disclosed Sunday suggested that Edward J. Snowden, the former NSA contractor who has provided a trove of documents to The Guardian newspaper, had obtained a wider range of materials about government surveillance than had been known, including one document revealing how American and British intelligence agencies had eavesdropped on world leaders at conferences in London in 2009. The latest disclosures, appearing again in The Guardian, came the night before a meeting of the Group of 8 industrialized nations was to open in Northern Ireland, where some of the leaders who were intelligence targets four years ago will be in attendance. The newspaper reported Sunday night that Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ, the British eavesdropping agency that works closely with the NSA, monitored the e-mail and phones of other countries’ representatives at two London conferences, in part by setting up a monitored Internet cafe for the participants. In addition, the United States intercepted the communications of Dmitri A. Medvedev, then the Russian president and now the prime minister, the newspaper said. Richard J. Aldrich, a professor of international security at the University of Warwick and the author of a history of the GCHQ, said the logos of the NSA and Canadian intelligence on one of the British documents suggested that they were accessible to Mr. Snowden “under the auspices of a joint program.” He said Mr. Snowden’s leak showed that British and American diplomats and politicians got a real-time feed of intelligence on their counterparts at major summit meetings. “Now this is integrated into summit diplomacy, almost like a newsreader getting a feed in their ear,” he said.

Turkey expands violent reaction to street unrest

2013-06-17T07:40:49-04:00

06/17/13: The New York Times reports the Turkish authorities widened their crackdown on the antigovernment protest movement on Sunday, taking aim not just at the demonstrators themselves, but also at the medics who treat their injuries, the business owners who shelter them and the foreign news media flocking here to cover a growing political crisis threatening to paralyze the government of Prıme Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. After an intense night of street clashes that represented the worst violence in nearly three weeks of protests, Mr. Erdogan rallied hundreds of thousands of his supporters on Sunday — many of them traveling on city buses and ferries that the government had mobilized for the event — at an outdoor arena on the shores of the Sea of Marmara. In some of his toughest language yet, he called his opponents terrorists and made clear that any hope of a compromise to end the crisis was gone. The escalating tensions have raised the risk of an extended period of civil unrest that could undermine Turkey’s image as a rising global power and a model of Islamic democracy, which Mr. Erdogan has cultivated over a decade in power. As he spoke, the police fired tear gas and water cannons at demonstrators in Istanbul and in several other cities. In at least two strongholds of support for Mr. Erdogan, the nature of the confrontation seemed to take a more dangerous turn, as antigovernment protesters clashed with his civilian backers.

Obama chooses lawyer as Guantánamo closure envoy

2013-06-17T07:34:22-04:00

06/17/13: The Miami Herald reports President Barack Obama has chosen a high-powered Washington lawyer with extensive experience in all three branches of the government to be the State Department's special envoy for closing down the military-run prison at the US Navy base at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba. Clifford Sloan is the pick to reopen the State Department's Office of Guantánamo Closure, shuttered since January and folded into the department's legal adviser's office when the administration, in the face of congressional obstacles, effectively gave up its attempt to close the prison. A formal announcement of Sloan's appointment was expected Monday, according to officials briefed on the matter. They spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the appointment publicly before the formal announcement. Sloan has served in senior government positions in both Democratic and Republican administrations and is now a partner in the Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom LLP law firm. For the past several years, he has been an informal adviser to Secretary of State John Kerry, who recommended him for the post, the officials said.

US cool on North Korea talks offer

2013-06-17T07:29:37-04:00

06/17/13: The BBC reports the US and South Korea have responded coolly to North Korea's offer of high-level talks with Washington. North Korea will be judged "by its actions and not its words", a US spokeswoman said. The North proposed talks on "regional peace" with the US on Sunday, but said there should be no "preconditions". Last week, planned talks between Pyongyang and Seoul fell through following disagreement over which delegates should attend. Regional tensions were raised earlier this year after Pyongyang conducted its third nuclear test and threatened to attack South Korean and US targets in the region. In recent weeks rhetoric from Pyongyang has softened, but US officials appeared sceptical of its offer.

Afghans poised to take security lead from US, NATO

2013-06-17T07:27:59-04:00

06/17/13: The AP reports one of the most significant turning points in one of America's longest and costliest wars is imminent: Afghanistan's fledgling security forces are taking the lead for security nationwide, bringing the moment of truth on the question of whether they are ready to fight an insurgency that remains resilient after nearly 12 years of conflict. Nowhere is that question more pressing than in this city near the Pakistani border, which is the capital of Nangarhar province. In the province, which has a predominantly Pashtun population, the ethnic group that makes up the Taliban, insurgents regularly ambush government forces, blow up the offices of humanitarian organizations, and control parts of a countryside that has seen a spike in opium poppy cultivation. Nangarhar is considered so dangerous that foreign military forces still handle security in more than half of its 22 districts. That will change, after Afghan President Hamid Karzai declares - in an announcement expected soon - that Afghan forces are taking over security around the country and US and other foreign forces will move entirely into a supporting, backseat role. At that point, the remaining districts in Nangarhar, along with other hotspots still in the hands of the US-led International Security Assistance Force, will become the Afghan troops' full responsibility.

US to keep warplanes in Jordan, pressing Syria

2013-06-16T11:27:28-04:00

06/16/13: The New York Times reports ratcheting up the pressure on President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, the United States will keep American warplanes and antimissile batteries in Jordan, officials said Saturday. The decision, which came at the request of Jordan, means that a detachment of American F-16 warplanes and Patriot missile-defense systems would remain in Jordan after a military exercise there concludes next week. The move followed President Obama’s decision last week to send arms to Syrian rebels and came as efforts were being made on multiple fronts on Saturday to increase the pressure on the government.

Iranians celebrate Hassan Rouhani's election as president

2013-06-16T11:21:38-04:00

06/16/13: The BBC reports thousands of Iranians have taken to the streets of Tehran, shouting pro-reform slogans and hailing Hassan Rouhani's election as president. The reformist-backed cleric won just over 50% of the vote and so avoided the need for a run-off. Mr Rouhani said his win was a "victory of moderation over extremism". The US expressed concern at a "lack of transparency" and "censorship" but praised the Iranian people and said it was ready to work with Tehran. Some 72.2% of the 50 million eligible voters cast ballots on Friday to choose the successor to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei congratulated Mr Rouhani on his victory, saying: "I urge everyone to help the president-elect and his colleagues in the government, as he is the president of the whole nation." Ayatollah Khamenei will ratify the vote on 3 August and the new president will then take the oath in parliament.

Fears of national ID with immigration bill

2013-06-16T11:11:32-04:00

06/16/13: The New York Times reports driver’s license photographs and biographic information of most Americans would be accessible through an expanded Department of Homeland Security nationwide computer network if the immigration legislation pending before the Senate becomes law. The proposed expansion is part of an effort to crack down on illegal immigration by requiring all employers to confirm the identity and legal status of any new workers by tapping into a Homeland Security Department system called E-Verify, which is now used voluntarily by about 7 percent of employers in the United States. But the proposal already faces objections from some civil liberties lawyers and certain members of Congress, who worry about the potential for another sprawling data network that could ultimately be the equivalent of a national ID system.

North Korea proposes high-level talks with US

2013-06-16T10:28:24-04:00

06/16/13: The BBC reports North Korea has proposed high-level talks with the US days after cancelling a meeting with South Korean officials. The National Defence Commission said it wanted "serious discussions... to secure peace and stability". The US said it wanted "credible negotiations", but Pyongyang had to comply with UN resolutions and move towards "denuclearisation". US and North Korean officials meet periodically, but have not engaged in high-level talks since 2009. Earlier this year Pyongyang threatened to launch a nuclear attack on both the US and South Korea. For years the North has cajoled the US and regional neighbours with a mixture of dire threats and promises of co-operation. Correspondents say Pyongyang is constantly trying to improve its bargaining position to extract more food aid or fuel. However, the regime has conducted three nuclear-weapons tests in recent years that have even angered its only ally, China. Beijing co-authored a Security Council resolution imposing new sanctions on the regime earlier this year in response to its latest nuclear test.

Egypt’s Morsi cuts off diplomatic relations with Syria, orders embassy closed

2013-06-16T10:26:27-04:00

06/16/13: The Washington Times reports Egypt's Islamist president says he is cutting off diplomatic relations with Syria and has ordered that Damascus Embassy in Cairo to be closed. Mohammed Morsi told thousands of supporters in a rally held on Saturday that his government is also withdrawing the Egyptian charge d’affaires from Damascus. Morsi also called on Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group to leave Syria, where the Iranian-backed Shiite group has been fighting alongside troops loyal to embattled President Bashar Assad against the mostly Sunni rebels.

Saturday Tech Updates 06/15/13

2013-06-15T14:13:20-04:00

06/15/13: Here are today's technology updates related to national security:

Researchers at China's National University of Defense Technology already have gotten Tianhe-2 up an running. Tianhe-2, with more than 3 million processor cores, is the world’s most powerful supercomputer. It can perform more than 30 quadrillion calculations per second, easily dwarfing the runner-up, an Oak Ridge National Laboratories machine known as Titan (at 17.59 quadrillion). The United States, long the dominant power in supercomputing, won’t have a comparable system until around 2016, when the US Department of Energy is expected to build a Tihane-2-range supercomputer called Trinity.
Google is launching Internet-beaming antennas into the stratosphere aboard giant, jellyfish-shaped balloons with the lofty goal of getting the entire planet online. While the project is still in the very early testing stages, Google hopes eventually to launch thousands of the thin, polyethylene-film inflatables and bring the Internet to some of the more remote parts of the globe.
A team of researchers in China, Singapore, and Canada have proved a 2009 quantum algorithm works by solving linear equations on a simple quantum computer. This step opens the door for much more complex equations to be solved by quantum computers in the future.

Judge rejects Fort Hood shooting suspect’s defense strategy

2013-06-15T14:10:00-04:00

06/15/13: The New York Times reports days after the Army major charged in the Fort Hood shooting rampage here in 2009 argued that he had carried out the attack to protect Taliban leaders from American soldiers, a military judge effectively tossed out his defense, ruling on Friday that the claim had no legal merit. Last week, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan told the judge he was protecting Taliban leaders in Afghanistan from danger when he opened fire at the base on Nov. 5, 2009, killing 13 people. In describing his new defense — known in legal terms as a “defense of others” — he said he was defending the lives of Taliban leaders, including Mullah Muhammad Omar, the group’s founder, from Fort Hood soldiers deploying to Afghanistan. On Friday, the judge, Col. Tara A. Osborn, told Major Hasan that his defense in this case failed as a matter of law, and that no one at Fort Hood posed an immediate threat to anyone in Afghanistan that day. In addition, she told him that the legitimacy of the United States’ involvement in the war in Afghanistan was not at issue in the case, and that as a soldier, he had no justification to kill other soldiers. He was forbidden to present evidence and testimony relating to his “defense of others” argument when his trial begins.

Russia faults proof of use of chemicals in Syrian war

2013-06-15T14:05:00-04:00

06/15/13: The New York Times reports the Russian government on Saturday stepped up its attack on the accusation by the United States that Syria had used chemical weapons in its civil war, saying that evidence cited by the Americans was unreliable because the samples were not properly handled by experts until they reached a laboratory. The criticism, by Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov at a news conference in Moscow, laid out Russia’s most specific argument to date supporting its contention that the evidence was faulty. The remarks came a day after President Obama spoke with the leaders of four of the United States’ closest allies — Britain, France, Germany and Italy — about the charge of chemical weapons use by the forces of President Bashar al-Assad. The United States said last week that it would begin sending weapons to the Syrian rebels because of the evidence of chemical arms, but the European allies have expressed differing views and pressed for urgent discussions on how to respond, including at a Group of 8 summit meeting in Northern Ireland beginning on Monday. Russia has reacted furiously to the announcement by the United States, saying the allegations are not reliable and accusing American officials of creating a pretense for military intervention, based on intelligence assessments similar to the later-disproven reports of unconventional weapons in Iraq that preceded the invasion there.

Syria no-fly zone: Russia's Sergei Lavrov opposed

2013-06-15T14:03:00-04:00

06/15/13: The BBC reports Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said any attempt to enforce a no-fly zone over Syria using US fighter jets and missiles operating from Jordan would violate international law. The US has moved Patriot missiles and F-16 fighter jets to Jordan, officially as part of an annual exercise. Russia opposes any foreign military intervention in the Syrian conflict. The uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, which began in 2011, has left an estimated 93,000 people dead. "There have been leaks from Western media regarding the serious consideration to create a no-fly zone over Syria through the deployment of Patriot anti-aircraft missiles and F-16 jets in Jordan," said Mr Lavrov, speaking at a joint news conference in Moscow with his Italian counterpart. "You don't have to be a great expert to understand that this will violate international law," he said. Mr Lavrov also said evidence presented by the US of chemical weapons use in Syria apparently did not meet reliability criteria set out by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

Hassan Rouhani is Iran's next president

2013-06-15T14:01:00-04:00

06/15/13: CNN reports Iranian centrist candidate Hassan Rouhani has won the Islamic republic's presidential election, Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar announced Saturday. Iranian officials reported a high turnout, with nearly 73% of some 50 million registered voters -- men and women, young and old -- turning out, Najjar said. The lines extended into the streets at times Friday, as voters waited to pick their choice to succeed two-term President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the country's 11th presidential election. Rouhani takes Ahmadinejad's mantle as one of the country's most visible figures, at a time when it's dealing with painful economic sanctions tied to international concern about its nuclear program. But he won't be Iran's most powerful man. That distinction belongs to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has been Iran's supreme leader since 1989. He's got plenty of backing, from conservative citizens to loyalist militia groups to, most notably, the Revolutionary Guard.

Researchers find biological evidence of Gulf War illnesses

2013-06-15T14:00:36-04:00

06/15/13: The New York Times reports in the two decades since the 1991 Persian Gulf war, medical researchers have struggled to explain a mysterious amalgam of problems in thousands of gulf war veterans, including joint pain, physical malaise and gastrointestinal disorders. In some medical circles, the symptoms were thought to be psychological, the result of combat stress. But recent research is bolstering the view that the symptoms, known collectively as gulf war illness, are fundamentally biological in nature. In the latest example, researchers at Georgetown University say they have found neurological damage in gulf war veterans reporting symptoms of the disease. Using magnetic resonance imaging to study the brains of gulf war veterans before and after exercise, the researchers discovered evidence of damage in parts of their brains associated with heart rate and pain. Such damage was not evident in the control group, which included nonveterans and healthy veterans. Such neurological damage, the researchers theorize, caused the veterans to be more sensitive to pain, to feel easily fatigued and to experience loss of short-term “working memory,” all symptoms associated with gulf war illness.

Unprecedented landing of Marine Osprey aircraft on Japanese ship

2013-06-15T13:58:49-04:00

06/15/13: The AP reports a US Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey aircraft made an unprecedented landing Friday on a Japanese naval vessel off the California coast. The tilt-rotor aircraft flew from San Diego's Marine Corps Miramar Air Station to the Japanese ship Hyuga as part of an 18-day drill aimed at improving Japan's amphibious capabilities. The Osprey has sparked protests in Japan over concerns about its safety record, which includes two crashes last year in Florida and Morocco. The Japanese government approved the deployment of 12 Ospreys in 2012 to Okinawa after receiving additional assurances from the Pentagon. "The very first landing of an MV-22 Osprey on a Japanese ship is a historic moment," said Marine Brig. Gen. John Broadmeadow, adding that the exercise provided the US. military "an opportunity to enhance our longstanding relationship with the Japanese and to highlight the capabilities of the MV-22 Osprey, which allows the Marine Corps to quickly respond to a crisis when launched from sea or land." US military officials say strengthening Japan's amphibious capabilities is vital as the US focuses more attention on developing an Asia-Pacific strategy amid ongoing Defense Department budget cuts.

Shelling of UN base in Sudan kills peacekeeper

2013-06-15T13:51:49-04:00

06/15/13: The BBC reports a peacekeeper was killed and two others were injured in Sudan when artillery shells hit a UN logistics base, the UN has said. Both the UN secretary general and Security Council condemned the attack. It is not clear who was behind it, but the UN has recently accused rebels of shelling the town of Kadugli in South Kordofan state, the base's location. The Sudanese government has also blamed rebels for attacking an oil pipeline in Abyei, a nearby disputed region. Khartoum said Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) fighters were being supported by South Sudan, and earlier ordered oil companies to block the flow of South Sudanese oil exports through its pipelines. South Sudan's government has denied supporting the rebels.

US-bound Egypt plane diverted after threat

2013-06-15T13:42:56-04:00

06/15/13: The AP reports British fighter jets escorted a plane from Cairo bound for New York to an emergency landing in the UK after a passenger discovered a letter threatening the aircraft, officials said Saturday. Flight 985 to John F. Kennedy Airport had around 300 passengers onboard when it was diverted to Glasgow's Prestwick Airport after a passenger found the letter in a lavatory, EgyptAir chairman Tawfiq Assi said. Police in Glasgow said the flight was diverted after a "suspicious note" was discovered, adding that there are no reports of any injuries and that officers are making arrangements for the 326 passengers to disembark. At that point all passengers will be interviewed by police, the local police force said. The BBC said one of its producers, Nada Tawfik, had discovered the note, written in pencil on a napkin, with the words "I'll set this plane on fire." She said that after discovering the note by the lavatory sink, she alerted cabin crew who then locked the toilet.

Source: Obama considering releasing NSA court order

2013-06-15T13:40:46-04:00

06/15/13: NPR reports it has learned that the Obama administration, under pressure to lift a cloak of secrecy, is considering whether to declassify a court order that gives the National Security Agency the power to gather phone call record information on millions of Americans. The document, known as a "primary order," complements a shorter Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court document leaked to The Guardian newspaper . That document revealed the US government had been asking Verizon Business Network Services Inc. to turn over, on a daily basis, phone call records for its subscribers, for 90 days. Since then, senior members of the Senate Intelligence Committee have said the program has existed in some form since 2006, and involves a long list of telecommunications companies, not just the Verizon business unit. The still-secret primary order provides more information about the program, spells out specific limits on government authority and includes safeguards to protect the privacy of US citizens, a senior administration official said.