European security

EUROPEAN SECURITY IN CRISIS: WHAT TO EXPECT IF THE UNITED STATES WITHDRAWS FROM NATO

It is February 2021. A few months after his re-election as president of the United States, Donald Trump declares that NATO has become obsolete and the United States withdraws from the alliance. All U.S. forces — military personnel and equipment — including nuclear and missile defense assets will be withdrawn from Europe as soon as possible.

This nightmare scenario has been on the mind of many security policy officials, and experts, ever since the New York Times reported in January 2019 that Trump discussed several times over the course of 2018 wanting to withdraw from the alliance. Congress has acted and passed the NATO Support Act, which prohibits the use of funds to withdraw the United States from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Yet the possibility of such a move cannot entirely be excluded.

Trump’s musings about a NATO withdrawal have served as a wake-up call for some in Europe that Europeans urgently need to assume greater responsibility for their own security. This realization is one of the reasons why closer defense cooperation and a greater degree of strategic autonomy are high on the European Union’s agenda. But are Europeans able to defend themselves? How would they think about their defense without the United States?

A policy game prepared by Körber-Stiftung and the International Institute for Strategic Studies sought to answer these questions this summer in Berlin. Five country teams with experts from France, Germany, Poland, the United Kingdom, and the United States addressed a fictional scenario that involved a U.S. withdrawal from NATO, followed by crises in a NATO member state in the western Balkans and across Eastern Europe.

NATO

Macron Says NATO Should Focus on Terrorism Instead of Russia

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday said his remarks that NATO was experiencing "brain death" had been a useful wake-up call to alliance members, and he would not apologize for saying it.

Macron's blunt verdict ahead of a Dec. 4 summit in Britain drew strong reaction from European peers who believe Europe still needs to rely heavily on the transatlantic military alliance for its defense.

But the French leader, speaking alongside NATO's Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, made no apology for the remarks, which he said were needed after allies became too focused on budget issues instead of evolving geopolitics.

"The questions I have asked are open questions, that we haven't solved yet," Macron said at a joint news conference with NATO's secretary general.

Weapons

Russia Tests Hypersonic Missile in Arctic

Russia's MiG-31K interceptor jet carried out a test of the Kinjal (Dagger) hypersonic missile in Russia's part of Arctic earlier this month, TASS new agency reported on Saturday, citing two military sources.

The report came a day after Danish intelligence service warned of intensifying geopolitical rivalry in the Earth's freezing North, and said that China's military was increasingly using scientific research in the Arctic as a way into the region.

"The tests took place in mid-November," TASS quoted one of its sources as saying.

The MiG-31K interceptor took off from the Olenegorsk airfield in the northern Murmansk region and fired the missile against a ground target at the Pemboi training ground in Russia's Arctic Komi region, TASS reported. It did not provide any further detail.

War on terror

The impact of designating Mexican cartels a 'foreign terrorist organization'

President Trump has said efforts to designate Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) are moving ahead – prompting both praise and criticism. But what impact would such a title have, and would it work in dismantling such networks who burn, behead, smuggle and instill fear?

“The Mexican Cartels certainly earned a designation of a Foreign Terrorist Organization which is authorized in the Immigration and Naturalization act. Under the ‘terrorist activity defined, they meet the criteria for being engaged in hijacking and sabotage conveyances, detaining/murder/ injuring an individual or a government organization to keep them from doing any act as a condition for the release of an individual,” Lenny DePaul, Chief Inspector/Commander of the U. S. Marshal Service, told Fox News. “As well as assassinations and use of explosives, firearms, or other weapons with the intent to endanger individuals, government agencies or damage to property, etc.”

In his view, “the impact that a designation would have is significant in a variety of ways. It heightens public awareness and knowledge of individuals or entities linked to terrorism.”

“It also sends a message to other Governments about the concerns the U. S. has about individuals or entities aiding terrorism, and promotes due diligence by such governments and private sector entities operating within their territories to avoid potential contact with terrorist,” DePaul continued.

Mind control

The Sinister Scientist Behind the CIA’s Mind-Control Mayhem

Stephen Kinzer has written books about civil wars, terror attacks, and bloody coups, but his latest might be his most alarming. “I’m still in shock,” Kinzer says of what he learned about the appalling experiments conducted by a government scientist most Americans have never heard of. “I can’t believe that this happened.”

These aren’t the words of an author trying to fire up the hype machine. Though the events recounted in Kinzer’s Poisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control took place a half-century ago, they’re scandalous in a way that transcends time.

For much of his 22-year CIA career, Gottlieb ran mind-control projects designed to help America defeat Communism. In the ’50s and ’60s, Kinzer writes, Gottlieb “directed the application of unknowable quantities and varieties of drugs into” countless people, searching for the narcotic recipe that might allow him to mold his human test subjects’ thoughts and actions.

Gottlieb and a network of medical professionals gave LSD and other drugs to prisoners, hospital patients, government employees, and others—many of whom had no idea they were being dosed. A CIA staffer died in highly suspicious fashion after Gottlieb had his drink spiked with LSD. Meanwhile, when his bosses considered killing a foreign leader, Gottlieb developed custom-made poisons.

Nuclear security

It Could Extinguish 'Essentially All Life on Earth': U.S. Air Force’s Nuclear Command Is Reorganizing

The U.S. Air Force’s nuclear command says it’s about to undergo a major reorganization as it prepares to field new bombs, missiles, bombers and rockets.

Air Force Global Strike Command stood up in 2009 as the successor to Strategic Air Command, which maintained around-the-clock nuclear alerts during the Cold War.

Today the command’s 34,000 personnel oversee 20 B-2 stealth bombers, 76 B-52 bombers and 450 Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles together capable of delivering thousands of nuclear warheads.

It also operates 62 B-1 bombers that do not have a nuclear mission.

AFGSC’s forces comprise the aerial and ground “legs” of the United States’s atomic triad, which also includes the U.S. Navy’s submarine-launched Trident ballistic missiles.

The command’s forces are capable of extinguishing essentially all life on Earth within a matter of hours.

Accidents and misbehavior marred AFGSC’s early years. In 2014 ICBM crews got caught cheating on tests. In 2018 security forces at Minot Air Force Base, home to a portion of the Minuteman fleet, lost track of some of their weapons. The suicide rate is high in the atomic force.

Now the command is in the beginning of a modernization effort costing tens of billions of dollars. New B-21 stealth bombers are slated to supplant the B-1s and B-2s starting in the mid-2020s. The Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent rocket, a replacement for the 1960s-vintage Minuteman, is in development.

Airport security

Good News for Airport Passengers

Airport passengers often complain about the long security lines and the security check-ups that they are obliged to go through, mainly having to take off their shoes. New technologies being tested by the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) could speed up screenings and shorten waiting time at the security lines.

Researchers from  the University of Rhode Island are working on new ways to detect and stop explosives popular with terrorists. In collaboration with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), they are developing a sensor – called a “digital dog nose” – that will soon be the size of cell phone. Able to be mounted on a drone, it could can detect homemade explosives as well or better than a bomb-sniffing dog.

An additional technology developed is a gel that can surround an explosive or chemical agent and flash-freeze it so it can be safely removed from a transit hub.

Jose Bonilla, the director of TSA’s Innovation Task Force, told cbsnews.com that they are trying to make the security process a more seamless process for the traveling public, without  giving up on security capability.

At a new airport “Innovation Checkpoint” in Las Vegas, together for the first time with real passengers, the TSA is testing future technologies. Among other technologies being tested, new scanners can more easily see through all the clutter in bags. New walk-by body scanners display a generic male or female form and flag an area of the body where there may be a concern. The technology is also better at spotting non-metallic threats that a metal detector might miss. The improvement is that the passengers don’t have to take their shoes off. 

Public security

Multiple People Were Injured In A Stabbing In The Hague

At least three people have been injured in a stabbing in The Hague, Netherlands.

According to a tweet from police, the incident took place in Grote Marktstraat, a shopping area that was busy with Black Friday shoppers. According to NOS, the Dutch public broadcaster, the victims were outside a Hudson's Bay department store.

"I saw two girls screaming and running away. A man fled," a witness told NOS.

It is unclear whether this event was a terrorist attack or has any connection to a stabbing in London earlier in the day that killed two people.

Police said on Twitter that they are investigating.

Extremism

Italy’s ‘Miss Hitler’ Among 19 Investigated for Starting New Nazi Party in Italy

The tattoo of a Nazi eagle above a swastika that spans the back of Francesca Rizzi leaves no doubt about her political ideology. The 36-year-old winner of an online beauty pageant in which she was crowned “Miss Hitler” was one of 19 people across Italy put under formal investigation this week for illegally forming a Nazi political party. Her co-collaborators include a 50-year-old female civil servant named Antonella Pavin from Padua who dubbed herself “Hitler’s Sergeant Major,” and a former mobster from the Calabria ‘Ndrangheta mafia who was allegedly in charge of militant training.

Italy’s anti-mafia and anti-terrorism forces spent two years investigating the group, which has ties to a number of other far-right clusters across Europe, including the U.K.’s Combat 18 and similar hate groups in Portugal, Spain and Greece.

Armed special forces carried out the sting operation dubbed “Black Shadows” in 16 cities from Palermo to Milan Thursday morning after someone alerted “Miss Hitler” that police were monitoring the group. Fearful she and others involved might destroy or hide evidence, they swooped in.

What they found was more than troubling. In 16 of the homes searched, they found similar caches of weapons including grenades and semi-automatic rifles and explosives. They also found Nazi and fascist memorabilia adorned with swastikas and the faces of Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, alongside militant training texts designed to teach new members how to target Jewish people and gays. Their party motto, “Invisible, Silent and Lethal,” was scrawled on the material. 

Radiation safety

Germany is closing all its nuclear power plants. Now it must find a place to bury the deadly waste for 1 million years

When it comes to the big questions plaguing the world's scientists, they don't get much larger than this.

Where do you safely bury more than 28,000 cubic meters -- roughly six Big Ben clock towers -- of deadly radioactive waste for the next million years?

This is the "wicked problem" facing Germany as it closes all of its nuclear power plants in the coming years, according to Professor Miranda Schreurs, part of the team searching for a storage site.

Experts are now hunting for somewhere to bury almost 2,000 containers of high-level radioactive waste. The site must be beyond rock-solid, with no groundwater or earthquakes that could cause a leakage.

The technological challenges -- of transporting the lethal waste, finding a material to encase it, and even communicating its existence to future humans -- are huge.

But the most pressing challenge today might simply be finding a community willing to have a nuclear dumping ground in their backyard.

Public security

London Bridge shooting: What we know so far

A man has been shot dead by police and a number of people have been stabbed in an attack on London Bridge which is being treated as "terror-related".

What happened?

The Met Police said officers were called to a stabbing at a premises near the bridge in central London just before 14:00 GMT.

A number of people have been injured, some seriously.

Videos on social media show members of the public wrestling a man to the floor who then disperse before the man is shot by an armed police officer.

Another man in a suit and jacket can be seen running from him, having apparently retrieved a large knife.

A separate video has also emerged showing police officers aiming guns at a white lorry that jack-knifed across the bridge.

The footage shows several officers surrounding the vehicle before moving to the rear to check its container.

Whitehall officials have told BBC Security Correspondent Frank Gardner the police action was not intelligence-led and was spontaneous and reactive.

Military

UK force leaders want Prince Andrew stripped of military titles

Senior UK military leaders want Prince Andrew to be stripped of his honorary positions in the Royal Army and Navy because he has become such an embarrassment over the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, a report said.

Andrew is a former naval helicopter pilot who flew in the Falklands War and holds several senior honorary military positions.

But his disastrous recent BBC interview in which he tried to defend his friendship with the late pedophile has made him a source of derision among the ranks, leading current and former navy and army members to call for him to be “quietly faded out,” the Times of London reported Thursday.

“It’s just not viable. It’s embarrassing to be represented by someone like that,” a source told the UK paper.

Others suggested Andrew’s apparent reluctance to cooperate with US authorities probing Epstein was against military values.

“A soldier would be expected to stand up for what he’s done,” one source reportedly said.

Climate security

EU declares EMERGENCY for Europe: Parliament issues chilling warning

A vote to register the current situation across the continent a “climate emergency” was passed by a large majority. It comes a day after an internal EU docoment revealed climate protection could cost Europe €3trillion. German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said the European Commission laid out how €300billion would be spent each year. This is part of Brussels plans for Europe to become the first carbon neutral continent by 2050.

The funds would be coming from the EU budget as well as member states and the private sector, claims the bloc paper.

New EU President Ursula von der Leyen has called for at least half the budget of the bloc to be spent on climate protection.

However, a spokesman for Ms von der Leyen said: "The cited Commission document is not known to her and it could at most be administrative considerations."

Activists praised the move with many seeing it as a rebuke to Donald Trump and his actions against the Paris climate deal.

Drug smuggling

Cocaine seized from 'narco-submarine' in Spain was likely headed for UK

A large portion of the three tonnes of cocaine smuggled aboard the “narco-submarine” seized by Spanish police last weekend would have ended up on British streets, according to the UK National Crime Agency (NCA).

The 20-metre semi-submersible craft was intercepted off the coast of Galicia, north-west Spain, on Sunday following a joint operation with police forces from the UK, Portugal, the US and Brazil. The NCA said the cocaine was worth hundreds of millions of pounds.

Two alleged crew members were arrested after attempting to leave the boat and swim ashore. A third is still being sought by Spanish police officers.

“It is highly likely a lot of this cocaine would have ended up on the streets of the UK, fuelling serious violence and impacting on the most vulnerable members of society,” Tom Dowdall, the NCA’s deputy director international said on Wednesday.

Border security

At helm of DHS, Chad Wolf vows to confront the gangs behind illegal drugs, guns and migrants

 Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf, in an exclusive interview with Fox News while touring the border just days after taking the helm at DHS, detailed what he described as an urgent and “exciting” plan to go after the gangs fueling the flow of illegal migrants, weapons and drugs across the southern border.

"The TCOs and cartels, they control the southern side of the border — they have to be paid, they have to be compensated for any of these large flows coming across the border,” he told Fox News. “You eliminate that and you eliminate their ability to recruit in Central America and bring these folks up.”

"TCO" refers to transnational criminal organizations, a term covering both the murderous drug-running cartels that have plagued Mexico as well as other gangs responsible for smuggling operations at the border. The Trump administration has prioritized going after these organizations, last year labeling groups ranging from MS-13 to the Sinaloa Cartel as top TCO threats.

Public security

Yesterday's Washington D.C. Air Alert Revealed a Secret Missile Battery

Washington’s skies are heavily regulated, the result of the 9/11 attacks in order to protect the White House, Capitol building, and other government locations. North American Air Defense Command, or NORAD, sent a Coast Guard HH-65 Dolphin helicopter to investigate. The helicopter, call sign “Blackjack,” did not notice anything unusual but note it nearly ran into a flock of birds at 1,300 feet.
The alert lasted 45 minutes. During that time a CBS News reporter, Sara Cook, noticed something unusual on a building across the street from the White House: a missile launcher.

The launcher is an Avenger air defense missile system. Avenger consists of eight Stinger missiles and a M3 .50 caliber machine gun, and was originally designed to protect U.S. Army forces from low-level air attack. Avenger is typically mounted on a Humvee, but the Washington system appears to be mounted on a pedestal on top of the building.

Stinger is a short range system with a relatively small explosive warhead, so it is ideally suited for shooting down hostile small aircraft, drones, and other threats in and around the White House. Stinger missiles are infrared-guided and have a range of approximately two miles.

Corruption

Russia corruption: Putin's pet space project Vostochny tainted by massive theft

Russia's new Vostochny space centre has lost at least 11bn roubles (£133m; $172m) through theft and top officials have been jailed.

So what went wrong with President Vladimir Putin's pet project?

Russia's Federal Investigative Committee (SK) says it is handling 12 more criminal cases linked to theft in this mega-project, which Mr Putin sees as a strategic priority for Russia, because of its huge commercial potential.

The longest jail term handed down so far was 11-and-a-half years for Yuri Khrizman, former head of state construction firm Dalspetsstroy.

Prof Mark Galeotti, a Russia expert at the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi), told the BBC the Vostochny scandal highlighted the scale of corruption in Mr Putin's huge state bureaucracy.

"How can you deal with it without declaring war on your own elite? He's not prepared to do that. This dependency on mega-projects almost invariably creates massive opportunities for embezzlement," Mr Galeotti said.

Whistleblowing

SCOTT RITTER: The ‘Whistleblower’ and the Politicization of Intelligence

The whistleblower. A figure of great controversy, whose actions, manifested in an 11-page report submitted to the Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG) on August 12 alleging wrongdoing on the part of the president of the United States, jump-started an ongoing impeachment process targeting Donald Trump that has divided the American body politic as no other issue in contemporary time.

His identity has been cloaked in a shroud of anonymity which has proven farcical, given that his name is common knowledge throughout the Washington-based national security establishment in whose ranks he continues to serve. While Trump publicly calls for the identity of the whistleblower to be revealed, the mainstream media has played along with the charade of confidentiality, and Congress continues to pretend his persona is a legitimate national security secret, even as several on-line publications have printed it, along with an extensive document trail sufficient to corroborate that the named man is, in fact, the elusive whistleblower.

There is no legitimate reason for the whistleblower’s identity to remain a secret. The Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Representative Adam Schiff, (D-CA) has cited statutory protections that simply do not exist while using his authority as chairman to prohibit any probe by his Republican colleagues designed to illicit information about the whistleblower’s identity. “The whistleblower has a right, a statutory right, to anonymity,” Schiff recently opined during recent impeachment-related testimony. And yet The Washington Post, no friend of Trump, was compelled to assign Schiff’s statement three “Pinocchios”, out of a scale of four, in rejecting the claim as baseless.

International security

Russia’s Comeback Isn’t Stopping With Syria

For many in the West, Russia’s return to the world stage over the past few years has come as a surprise, and not an especially pleasant one. After the downfall of the Soviet Union, the country was written off as a regional power, a filling station masquerading as a state.

Five years later, however, Russia is still resilient, despite the Western sanctions imposed over its actions in Ukraine. It has effectively won, militarily, in Syria: Today it is a power broker in that country; the victory has raised its prestige in the Middle East and provided material support for Moscow’s claims to be a great power again.

Those who experience this moment with some discomfort should get used to it: Russia is not a superpower, but it is back as an important independent player. And it will be playing in various regions around the world in the years to come.

Public security

Officials still puzzled about 'hovering' object that prompted lockdown in DC

Security officials on Capitol Hill are still puzzled by what sparked the security threat to be issued Tuesday morning that put both the White House and the Capitol on lockdown.

The incident caused an abrupt security situation, with jets being scrambled and officers warning people outside Capitol facilities to stay far away. The U.S. Secret Service said personnel at the White House were told to remain in place.

“We don’t know what the hell it was,” one security source told Fox News. Officials said the alert could have been sparked by birds, a drone, or possibly a “weather anomaly.”

Security officials received different information regarding the location and speed of the object in question. Officials heard it was “hovering” and were even given “knots” measuring its speed, sources said.

War on terror

‘Shock & awe’ for Sinaloa? Trump to declare Mexican cartels ‘terrorists’, won't rule out DRONE STRIKES

US President Donald Trump said that his administration will begin designating Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations, citing their role in narco- and human trafficking, and refused to rule out military action.

Asked whether that designation means he would “start hitting them with drones and things like that,” the US president refused to elaborate:“Look, we’re losing 100,000 people a year to what’s happening and what’s coming through Mexico,” he said, referring to deaths linked to the drug trade. “[The cartels] have unlimited money, because it’s drug money, and human trafficking money.”

Outraged by the prospects of a US military intervention, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, told reporters on Monday: “We will never accept that, we are not ‘vendepatrias’ [nation sellers],” while the country’s foreign relations minister said it would be “unnecessary and inconvenient.”

Weapons

Russia shows cutting-edge Avangard hypersonic glider to US inspectors

Moscow has showcased its top notch Avangard hypersonic missile system to a team of US military inspectors, saying the unprecedented move is an attempt to revitalize the key New START arms control treaty.

The US team became familiar with Avangard over the past two days, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday. It was not immediately clear how close the US inspectors were able to get to the cutting-edge system and whether it was shown to them in action.

The Avangard is a hypersonic glider, launched by silo-based ballistic missiles, said to be able to penetrate any – both existing and prospective – defenses. It achieves extremely high speeds during its final approach while retaining the ability to maneuver.

International security

NATO’s Next Threat: Its Own Leaders

There are two NATOs. There’s the slick military machine that plans, trains and coordinates to adapt to new security threats to Europe and North America. And there’s the political alliance that depends on the unity and resolve of leaders on both sides of the Atlantic.

The first, let’s call it NATO 1, is doing relatively well. Defense budgets are rising again after a 25-year slump, military readiness is slowly improving and a multinational tripwire force is in place in the Baltic states and Poland to deter potential Russian aggression. Work is in progress to counter cyber, hybrid and space threats and facilitate more rapid reinforcements.

Story Continued Below

The second, which we’ll call NATO 2, is in deep trouble. U.S. President Donald Trump, who has branded NATO “obsolete,” likes to breathe fire at European governments over defense spending, trade, climate change and now their reluctance to take back jihadist fighters captured in Syria.

The so-called Quad, an informal inner circle of four powers — the United States, Britain, Germany and France — that has shaped Western decisions for decades, has ceased to function in the Trump era, insiders say.

Nuclear security

A nuclear detonation in the South China Sea? No, more Twitter conspiracy nonsense

The Twitter account @IndoPac_Info pushes out news at a relentless pace; it’s a seemingly good feed to follow for those interested in military issues in Asia. By Friday afternoon last week, the account had posted dozens of tweets over a 36-hour-or-so period linking to stories from outlets such as Reuters and Foreign Policy on topics ranging from US naval activity in contested waters to Pentagon drone policy. Oh yeah, and then there was the one about a nuclear detonation in the South China Sea.

The big news that China had perhaps exploded a tactical nuclear weapon in the ocean originated with a man labeled by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a former federal convict, white supremacist, and FBI informant named Hal Turner. Turner posted the story on his website and touted the supposed scoop further on his nighttime AM radio show, attributing the information to military sources. On Friday, a Pentagon spokesperson called Turner’s article “silly fiction.” And the man behind @IndoPac_Info himself—he describes himself as a Spanish man living in Vietnam—now seems to agree. “Without further evidence or independent corroboration of Hal Turner’s article, it may not be credible at this point,” he tweeted. “Apologies.”

WWII history

This Is How Volkswagen Aided Nazi Germany's World War II Effort

The Volkswagen, or “People’s Car,” that so many millions have known for more than half a century had its genesis in Nazi Germany. Dr. Ferdinand Porsche, who designed the Volkswagen, had to share the concept with none other than Adolf Hitler. And though the Volkswagen may have first been intended for use as a civilian recreational vehicle, it was quickly transformed into three basic military iterations: the Kommandeurswagen (commander’s car), Kubelwagen (bucket car), and Schwimmwagen (amphibious car). The VW’s transformation into a military vehicle was a rapid metamorphosis over which Porsche had no control.

...When Hitler took power, Porsche announced his concept of a small, inexpensive car at the 1933 Berlin Auto Show. At the show, Hitler promised to transform Germany into a truly motorized nation. Porsche and Hitler met in May 1934 to discuss plans for the “People’s Car.” Porsche outlined the specs he had in mind. The car would have a one-liter displacement air-cooled motor, producing approximately 25-brake horsepower at 3,500 RPM, weigh less than 1,500 pounds, with four-wheel independent suspension to reach a top speed of 100 kilometers per hour. Hitler added specs according to his own vision: the car was to be a four-seater, get 100 kilometers per seven liters of gasoline, and maintain 100 kilometers per hour. Porsche proposed that the car be priced at around 1,550 marks ($620 at 1934 exchange rate).

Navy

Chinese Submarines Thought To Be Catching Up With U.S. Navy

“[Chinese submarines] are definitely catching up to us,” said Captain Chester Parks, commanding officer of the U.S. Navy’s missile submarine base at Kings Bay, Georgia, earlier this month while speaking about the Navy’s next-generation Colombia Class missile submarine.

The comment resonates with me. As a defense analyst I am constantly reminded of the rapid modernization of the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). China has had a few nuclear-powered submarines since the 1970s but for many years they were widely regarded as inferior to Western types. The latest Type-093 ‘Shang’ Class fast attack submarines and Type-094 ‘Jin’ Class ballistic missile submarines are a different matter. They are more numerous and, very likely, substantially more potent. They are not necessarily as capable as their western equivalents, but the gap is closing over time.

Drug trafficking

The Dutch are Waking Up to Discover They Live in a 'Narco State'

On the morning of Sept. 18, Derk Wiersum, the public defender for a key witness against the international drug kingpin Ridouan Taghi, was walking to his car with his wife in a quiet suburb of Amsterdam when he was shot and killed.

The murder of the 44-year-old Wiersum, who left two children behind, represented a new and dangerous threshold of violence here that shocked not only the public, but the entire judicial system. For the first time in Dutch history the criminal world murdered a legal representative of the state itself.

This is the Netherlands 2019, not Sicily 1992, but the assassination of a dedicated public servant like Wiersum attests to the sense of impunity gangsters in Amsterdam currently enjoy, and appears to be part of a strategy to intimidate not only Dutch state representatives but Dutch society as a whole.

Ironically, the Netherlands has seen a decrease in murders and overall violent crime, but there is a deep sense of urgency among Dutch police as they face the growing power of criminal networks on Dutch soil.

“The Netherlands is at risk of becoming a narco state,” Dutch Minister of Justice and Security Ferdinand Grapperhaus warned in August. The cops are concerned they are losing their grip. Some say they have lost it already.

Cybersecurity

A professional hacker reveals the top security mistake people make online — and it's something you probably do every day

But there's another critical security mistake people often make online: oversharing on social media. That's according to Etay Maor, an executive security adviser at IBM Security. It's not just sensitive personal data like phone numbers, credit card numbers, and addresses that you should avoid sharing online, but also seemingly harmless information like mother's maiden name or your pet's name.

Such details are often used as answers to two-step verification questions or passwords, and they can easily be found just by scanning someone's Facebook page if that person frequently shares photos of their pets.

"Today, people are writing about everything," said Maor, who studies cyber criminal tactics on the dark web to help clients better protect themselves by understanding how hackers work. "They're putting everything online, and then they get mad at you if you don't read it."

Impeachment

Responding to Lt. Col. Vindman about my Ukraine columns … with the facts

I honor and applaud Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman’s service to his country. He’s a hero. I also respect his decision to testify at the impeachment proceedings. I suspect neither his service nor his testimony was easy.

But I also know the liberties that Lt. Col. Vindman fought on the battlefield to preserve permit for a free and honest debate in America, one that can’t be muted by the color of uniform or the crushing power of the state.

So I want to exercise my right to debate Lt. Col. Vindman about the testimony he gave about me. You see, under oath to Congress, he asserted all the factual elements in my columns at The Hill about Ukraine were false, except maybe my grammar

Here are his exact words:

“I think all the key elements were false,” Vindman testified.

Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y, pressed him about what he meant. “Just so I understand what you mean when you say key elements, are you referring to everything John Solomon stated or just some of it?”

Assassination of President

Edward Curtin, Unspeakable Memories: The Day John Kennedy Died

There is a vast literature on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, who died on a November 22nd Friday like this in 1963.  I have contributed my small share to such writing in an effort to tell the truth, honor him, and emphasize its profound importance in understanding the history of the last fifty-six years, but more importantly, what is happening in the U.S.A. today. In other words, to understand it in its most gut-wrenching reality: that the American national security state will obliterate any president that dares to buck its imperial war-making machine. It is a lesson not lost on all presidents since Kennedy.

Unless one is a government disinformation agent or is unaware of the enormous documentary evidence, one knows that it was the CIA that carried out JFK’s murder. Confirmation of this fact keeps arriving in easily accessible forms for anyone interested in the truth.  A case in point is James DiEugenio’s recent posting at his website, KennedysandKing, of James Wilcott’s affidavit and interrogation by the House Select Committee on Assassinations, declassified by the Assassinations Record Review Board in 1998.  In that document, Wilcott, who worked in the finance department for the CIA and was not questioned by the Warren Commission, discusses how he unwittingly paid Lee Harvey Oswald, the government’s alleged assassin, through a cryptonym and how it was widely known and celebrated at his CIA station in Tokyo that the CIA killed Kennedy and Oswald worked for the Agency, although he did not shoot JFK.  I highly recommend reading the document.