Arms smuggling

Police seize weapons 'en route to Swedish militants'

Five of the suspected weapon smugglers were seized in the towns Gradiska and Laktasi in Republika Srpska, according to its interior ministry. Authorities further stated that another person had "previously" been arrested in Sweden, while another two remained at large.

Five arrests were made by Bosnian-Serbian anti-terrorism officials on Thursday, said officials, after large quantities of military-grade weapons were found during police raids.

A spokesperson said the arrests were carried out as part of Swedish-run operation called 'Varg RS', but Swedish authorities would not confirm nor comment on the police raids.

"We have no comments to this information at present. We await more information from Bosnia," national police spokesperson Carolina Ekéus told the TT news agency.

Airport security

Bomb-sniffing dogs help speed up airport security lines

The use of bomb sniffing dogs by local, state, and federal law enforcement, as well as private institutions like universities, has steadily increased after the 9/11 attacks.

There are currently about 1,000 sniffing around U.S. transportation hubs. The K9s are specially selected, trained for nearly a year, and then serve for about eight years. But as demand around the world has increased, U.S. law enforcement has seen the market for available dogs tighten.

Doctor Cindy Otto runs the University of Pennsylvania's Working Dog Center.

"It really makes me concerned," said Dr. Otto. "I think we really have an obligation to the public to keep us safe, and the dogs we know are the most effective screening tool for explosives."

Predictions

The National Intelligence Council: The Upcoming Global Trends 2035 Report

The new Global Trends 2035 report will be read by a range of policymakers throughout the government, but perhaps none as eagerly as within the Department of Defense (DoD). Over the past few years, the DoD and military services have responded to a more austere fiscal environment by emphasizing the importance of preparing to counter future threats to the Joint Force. For example, in defending the department’s proposed fiscal year 2017 budget in February, Defense Secretary Ash Carter highlighted a number of investments in advanced technology. He emphasized that, along with readiness, such modernization “is important because our military has to have the agility and ability to win not only the wars that could happen today, but also the wars that could happen in the future.”

Drug trafficking

The Air Force's quiet war on the Latin American drug cartels

As the drug smugglers' go-fast boat streaked across the blue Caribbean Sea in March, carrying more than a thousand pounds of cocaine toward its U.S. destination, they were completely unaware they were being observed from above.

Suddenly, they felt a presence and looked up. Coming at them, low and fast, was the unmistakeable silhouette of one of the nastiest weapons in the Air Force arsenal — a B-1B Lancer, the backbone of America's long-range bomber force.

In a panic, the smugglers scrambled to retrieve all the packages of cocaine aboard and then dumped them over the side, like million dollar buoys spreading out in their wake.

Intel briefings

Intelligence Briefings Come With Presidential Nomination

After the political convention confetti is swept away, a more sobering tradition of the presidential election begins: The regular, top-secret intelligence briefings for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, the likely Democratic nominee.

Started by President Harry S. Truman, the briefings are designed to get the candidates, before they walk into the Oval Office, up to speed on problems around the globe. Truman, who was Franklin D. Roosevelt's vice president for almost three months before Roosevelt died, first learned about the Manhattan Project to develop an atomic bomb only 12 days into his presidency, and he pledged not to leave any future commander in chief behind the ball.

Health security

Transcendental meditation shows promise as PTSD therapy


Identifying effective treatments for combat veterans battling post-traumatic stress disorder is a top priority for researchers and clinicians. A variety of talk therapies and medications are available that provide relief to many. However, recognizing the limitations with traditional treatments for PTSD, interest in alternative therapies is growing.

And more importantly, so far, the evidence is promising.

Transcendental meditation, typically referred to as TM, is one of those promising alternative therapies.

Originating in India in the 1950s, TM is the practice of meditation that incorporates the use of a word or sound that helps the person meditate and move beyond conscious awareness. It’s typically practiced for 20 minutes twice a day while the person sits in a relaxed position with eyes closed.

Whistleblowing

Holder: Snowden performed a 'public service'

Eric Holder's thaw on NSA leaker Edward Snowden continued this week, with the former attorney general now saying the former government contractor performed a valuable "public service."

CNN reported Monday that Holder still says Snowden needs to face consequences for illegally leaking classified intelligence documents, but he told a fellow Obama administration alumnus that Snowden helped facilitate necessary changes.

"We can certainly argue about the way in which Snowden did what he did, but I think that he actually performed a public service by raising the debate that we engaged in and by the changes that we made," Holder told David Axelrod on "The Axe Files," a podcast produced by CNN and the University of Chicago Institute of Politics.

"Now I would say that doing what he did — and the way he did it — was inappropriate and illegal."

Holder added Snowden "harmed American interests."

Counterterrorism

Navy Irregular Warfare andCounterterrorism Operations:Background and Issues for Congress

The Navy in recent years has carried out a variety of irregular warfare (IW) and counterterrorism (CT) activities. Among the most readily visible of the Navy’s recent IW operations in recent years have been those carried out by Navy sailors serving ashore in the Middle East and Afghanistan. The May 1-2, 2011, U.S. military operation in Abbottabad, Pakistan, that killed Osama bin Laden reportedly was carried out by a team of 23 Navy special operations forces, known as SEALs (an acronym standing for Sea, Air, and Land). The SEALs reportedly belonged to an elite unit known unofficially as Seal Team 6 and officially as the Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU). The Navy established the Navy Expeditionary Combat Command (NECC) informally in October 2005 and formally in January 2006. NECC consolidated and facilitated the expansion of a number of Navy organizations that have a role in IW operations. The Navy established the Navy Irregular Warfare Office in July 2008, published a vision statement for irregular warfare in January 2010, and established “a community of interest” to develop and advance ideas, collaboration, and advocacy related to IW in December 2010.

Missile defense

Navy Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD)Program: Background and Issues for Congress

The Aegis ballistic missile defense (BMD) program, which is carried out by the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and the Navy, gives Navy Aegis cruisers and destroyers a capability for conducting BMD operations. Under MDA and Navy plans, the number of BMD-capable Navy Aegis ships is scheduled to grow from 33 at the end of FY2016 to 49 at the end of FY2021. The figure for FY2020 may include up to four BMD-capable Aegis cruisers in reduced operating status as part of a program to modernize 11 existing Aegis cruisers. Under the Administration’s European Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA) for European BMD operations, BMD-capable Aegis ships are operating in European waters to defend Europe from potential ballistic missile attacks from countries such as Iran. BMD-capable Aegis ships also operate in the Western Pacific and the Persian Gulf to provide regional defense against potential ballistic missile attacks from countries such as North Korea and Iran.

Laser

Dstl to make Laser Weapon System Demonstrator announcement 'imminently'

The UK Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) is expected to select a consortium to take forward its solid-state high-power Laser Weapon System Demonstrator (LWSD) programme in the coming days, an industry official told reporters on 25 May.

Speaking at Raytheon UK's Integrated Power Solutions (IPS) business site in Glenrothes, Scotland, Andy Rhodes, Business Development Missile Systems, said the meeting to select the winning bid in the competition to build a prototype will be held in the next week or so, with a public announcement set to follow shortly after.

"The decision of the winning proposal is imminent - the meeting is on 3 June, though can't say when it will be announced. It needs to be soon after that, though, as the demonstration dates are already challenging - in February the then First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Sir George Zambellas publicly stated that the RN [Royal Navy] will put a laser to sea by the end of 2018 [for demonstrations]," Rhodes said.

Weapons

Navy Lasers, Railgun, and Hypervelocity Projectile: Background and Issues for Congress

The Navy is currently developing three potential new weapons that could improve the ability of its surface ships to defend themselves against enemy missiles—solid state lasers (SSLs), the electromagnetic railgun (EMRG), and the hypervelocity projectile (HVP). Any one of these new weapon technologies, if successfully developed and deployed, might be regarded as a “game changer” for defending Navy surface ships against enemy missiles. If two or three of them are successfully developed and deployed, the result might be considered not just a game changer, but a revolution. Rarely has the Navy had so many potential new types of surfaceship missile-defense weapons simultaneously available for development and potential deployment. Although the Navy in recent years has made considerable progress in developing SSLs, EMRG, and HVP, a number of significant development challenges remain. Overcoming these challenges will likely require years of additional development work, and ultimate success in overcoming them is not guaranteed.

Cybersecurity

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Introduces Encryption Solution

Information technology firm Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has announced the release of HPE SecureData along with Hyper Format-Preserving Encryption (FPE) and Hyper Secure Stateless Tokenization (SST), a National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) certified set of tools designed to increase the protection of data for organizations and government agencies that must comply with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requirements.

With the growth of the cloud and the Internet of Things, opportunities for cyber criminals to strike are increasing. Consequently, it is imperative that organizations take a data-centric approach to the protection of sensitive data. In the event of a breach, end-to-end encryption can be vital, rendering stolen information useless.

In an exclusive with Homeland Security Today, Albert Biketi, vice president and general manager, HPE Security – Data Security, HPE, said, “HPE SecureData protects sensitive Personally Identifiable Information (PII) such as Social Security number, Tax ID, date of birth, email and physical addresses, location data and sensor data, with FPE.”

Cybersecurity

When good encryption is bad for security

In August 2015, attackers used an advertisement on Yahoo to redirect users to a site infected by the Angler exploit kit. Just weeks before, users were exposed to more malicious software through compromised ads that showed up across the web. In all, at least 910 million users were potentially exposed to malware through these attacks. The common thread? The malware was hidden from firewalls by SSL/TLS encryption.

When victims don't have the right protections in place, attackers can cipher command-and-control communications and malicious code to evade intrusion prevention systems, or IPS, and anti-malware inspection systems. In effect, the SSL/TLS encryption serves as a tunnel to hide malware, as it can pass through firewalls and into organizations' networks undetected if the right safeguards aren't in place. And as SSL/TLS usage grows, so does the appeal of this threat vector for hackers.

Intel & politics

Intelligence File: Military need or political necessity?

Officially, the security cabinet, which usually comprises up to seven or eight ministers, is the most important body of the government. The cabinet is legally authorized by the entire government to discuss and confirm the most sensitive issues of war and peace, special intelligence operations and secret diplomatic missions. It is supposed to be an intimate forum, where its ministers can conduct an open and free debate and reach the right decision. But in reality the cabinet has turned into a kind of debating club and has been bypassed by a smaller group that makes the real decisions.

This privileged group has no legal or official standing but, for all intents and purposes, calls the shots. This is the trio of the prime minister, the defense minister and the chief of staff. Sometimes the chiefs of the Mossad and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), the head of Military Intelligence and the commander of the air force are invited to take part in the consultations.

Sport security

Islamic State has Euro 2016 in its sights, German spy chief says

Islamic State militants have the Euro 2016 soccer tournament in their sights though there is no concrete evidence at the moment of an attack being planned, the head of Germany's domestic intelligence agency has said.

The comments from Hans-Georg Maassen, head of Germany's Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, come after France's spy chief said Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant militants are gearing up for a campaign of bomb attacks on large crowds in France.

France, where terrorists last year killed 130 people in coordinated assaults on cafes, bars, a soccer stadium and a music hall across Paris, will host Euro 2016, which starts on June 10 and runs for a month at 10 stadiums across the country.

Nuclear security

Dangerous Nuclear Security Failures in Russia's Backyard

Nuclear security is seemingly at the forefront of global attention, but the large framework of international safeguards is increasingly perceived as a toothless tiger. In the contemporary age, where asymmetric threats to security are among the most dangerous, the time is nigh to mitigate the risk of rogue actors having potential access to materials that are necessary to develop nuclear weapons.

Nowhere is this urgency more pivotal than in already turbulent areas, such as the South Caucasus. With many geopolitical instabilities, lasting for decades with no completely bulletproof conflict resolution process in place, adding the threat of potential nuclear weapons means creating a house of cards that can cause a complete collapse of regional peace and stability. That is precisely why Armenia’s recently uncovered recurring actions toward the goal of building its own nuclear capacity must be addressed more seriously. They should also attract a bolder response to ensure safety of the region is sustained.

According to a report by the Vienna-based nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Armenia has established a record of illegal trafficking in nuclear and other radioactive materials.

Nuclear trafficking

Interpol conducts anti-nuclear trafficking operation at NAIA

The International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) in Manila screened passengers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) this week as part of an international campaign against illegal trafficking of nuclear and radioactive materials.

The exercise, dubbed Operation Conduit, involved the use of specialized portable radiation detection equipment of the Interpol placed at passenger movement areas at Terminal 3 – including the screening checkpoints and the immigration area.

These devices trigger an alarm if passers-by are positive of radioactive material.

A mobile facial recognition system was also set up that identifies people involved in nuclear trafficking or with cases recorded in the Interpol database.

The said screening of passengers and baggage took place from May 17 to 18 led by the Radiological Nuclear Terrorism Prevention Unit of the Interpol.

Results of the operation showed that no baggage or passenger was found to be with radioactive material during the conduct of the exercise.

Training was also provided to local enforcement agencies involved in airport operations on nuclear trafficking and coordination procedures in such cases.

Organ trafficking

Egypt's Islamist Authority blasts ISIS organ harvesting

Dar al-Ifta, Egypt's official religious institution tasked with drafting edicts, issued a fatwa according to which human organ harvesting is "a violation of Sharia," the London-based daily Arab newspaper a-Sharq al-Awasat reported on Sunday.

According to the edict, issued on Saturday, ripping out human organs from a live captive to transplant them in another body is prohibited, whether or not it endangers someone's life.
While ISIS has long argued that Sharia permit harvesting organs of "apostate captives" to save Muslims' lives, even if doing so would lead to captives' death, an Egyptian cleric told a-Sharq al-Awasat: "It is only allowed to harvest organs from a dead body, since a live person is better than a dead one."

Organ trafficking

UN Commission adopted Belarus sponsored resolution on combating trafficking in human organs

On May 27, 2016 Vienna hosted 25th session of the United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice. At the session, resolution “Preventing and combating trafficking in human organs and trafficking in persons for the purpose of organ removal” sponsored by Belarus was adopted.

The Belarussian initiative is aimed at attracting broad international attention to such emerging transnational crime as trafficking in human organs. The discussion on Belarussian draft resolution demonstrated the importance of this topic both in the context of rapid development of transplantation medicine and also due to the appearance of information about growing involvement of terrorist groups in crime of human organ trafficking.

The resolution mandates the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to conduct a study on the issue of trafficking in human organs in cooperation with Member States and interested international organizations.

The Belarussian resolution was co-sponsored by Cuba, Ecuador, Indonesia, Russia, Serbia and Spain.

Slavery

FACTBOX -From sex trafficking to forced labour, what is modern slavery?

Modern slavery has become a catch-all term to describe human trafficking, forced labour, debt bondage, sex trafficking, forced marriage and other slave-like exploitation.

Nearly 46 million people are enslaved around the world, according to the 2016 Global Slavery Index published on Tuesday.

While there is no globally agreed definition of modern slavery, some of the key elements are defined below. Many forms of slavery involve more than one of these elements.

BONDED LABOUR: People become bonded labourers after falling into debt and being forced to work for free to repay the lender. Many will never pay off their loans, and debt can be passed down through the generations. Bonded labour has existed for hundreds of years and flourishes in South Asia in agriculture, brick kilns, mills and factories.

DESCENT-BASED SLAVERY: When people are born into slavery because their families belong to a class or caste of "slaves" in countries that have strict hierarchical social structures.

Human trafficking


Maneka Gandhi Releases Human Trafficking Draft Bill, Says Victims Will Not Go To Jail

Human Trafficking victims will not be sent to jail, according to the first draft bill of trafficking, which was released by Union Minister Maneka Gandhi on Monday.

"At present the law says the trafficked and the trafficker are both criminals and they both go to jail. Now, we are saying the victim will not go to jail. We will find different ways to reform her life," the minister said after releasing the draft bill on Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation).

She said decriminalisation of prostitution is a "grey area" which needs to be further discussed.

The provision was made in view of treating "victims as victims and not offenders", irrespective of the trade they are trafficked for, including sexual exploitation, which is currently punishable under Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956.

Drug smuggling

PCSO arrested man smuggling almost 500 lbs of marijuana

The Pinal County Sheriff's Office arrested a man who they said had almost 500 pounds of marijuana in his car. 

PCSO said the incident started around 7:30 a.m. May 25, near Papago Road south of Maricopa, when a deputy noticed a red SUV make an abrupt turn off the road.

The deputy followed the vehicle onto a dirt farm road where the suspect, later identified as Aldo Aleman, 19, ditched the car and ran into surround farm fields.

Inside the abandoned SUV, the deputy found 22 bales of marijuana later weighed at 495 pounds.

The deputy found the suspect trying to hide among farm workers in the area.

Human smuggling





Security officials believe 90 per cent of all human smuggling to Europe takes place with the help of criminal groups. That percentage is expected to increase as the lucrative smuggling routes draws more criminal elements looking to make a profit.

The smugglers are part of a multinational network – and they are as diverse as the very people fleeing conflict, persecution and economic crisis: Smugglers belong to 100 nationalities, often sharing the same country origins as those desperate to get to Europe.

Smugglers are no strangers to criminal activity – and the increasing demand for their services is drawing those already involved with other areas of crime, including drug trafficking, property crime and document forging.

Smuggling networks have a loose structure: Leaders who co-ordinate and control activities along the main routes; organizers who take charge in towns and cities where migrants are transiting and staying; and low-level facilitators that include drivers, scouts and recruiters who promise safe passage for the right price.

Human smuggling

Judo champion is charged over people smuggling plot

A former Judo champion has appeared in court charged in connection with a plot to smuggle illegal immigrants across the Channel.

Robert Stilwell, 33, from Dartford, who represented Great Britain and has held European and Commonwealth titles, was charged alongside 35-year-old Mark Stribling from Dartford after 18 Albanians were rescued from a sinking boat off the Kent coast early on Sunday morning.

The two men, who were also on board the inflatable craft, were remanded in custody after making a brief appearance at Medway Magistrates’ Court in Kent.

...Theresa May has responded to the threat of mass sea borne migration by ordering a new fleet of patrol boats to help crush migrant smugglers in the English Channel.

In a boost for The Telegraph’s borders campaign, the Home Secretary is also creating three permanent command centres in Cornwall, the Thames Estuary and the Humber.

However ministers were on Monday accused by John Vine, the former independent chief inspector of borders and immigration, of ignoring repeated warnings over the vulnerability of England’s smaller ports.

Forensics

Could Facial Recognition Prevent The Next Terror Attack?

The departments of Defense and Homeland Security have invested in technology to prevent attacks like the one in Brussels, including facial recognition technology that can spot and flag a suspected terrorist in a car heading toward an airport or crowded subway. But bringing that technology out of the lab and getting it to airports and street corners is a lot harder than just snapping a photo.

In order to thwart an attack, a facial-recognition-based system must have access to a database that already contains the would-be perpetrator’s face, sensors that can obtain usable snapshots of people approaching the protected area, and a way to alert guards or otherwise cut off access to the target. Getting all three of those at once is the challenge of securing a place like an airport’s departure area or a metro station.

According to Defense One, In 2014, the US military tested a General Electric high-speed, multi-resolution camera capable of capturing a facial image even at an angle. The system was designed to ID someone in a moving car headed toward a base, but could be deployed on city streets or on the road to an airport.

Biosecurity

An old disease rears its ugly head

A catastrophic outbreak of Aleppo boil is underway in the Middle East, according to scientists collating data and information from refugee camps and conflict zones in the region.

The disease, properly known as cutaneous leishmaniasis, is caused by a parasite in the blood stream and transmitted through the bite of the sand fly. It provokes disfiguring lesions on the body, which are liable to secondary infection. 

Hundreds of thousands of people across the Middle East region are now affected by cutaneous leishmaniasis, which until recently was contained to areas around Aleppo and Damascus in Syria. 

The figures, which are published yesterday in a PLOSeditorial, have spiked with the advent of war. 

“The numbers are looking very bad and there’s no access to intra lesional antimony compounds …We're seeing lots of diseases, including leishmaniasis… in these conflict zones and we need to ring fence them or risk another situation like Ebola out of the conflict zones in West Africa in 2014,” says Peter Hotez, dean of the US National School of Tropical Medicine, US Science Envoy to the Middle East, and lead author of the PLOS editorial.

Biosecurity

Anthrax detected in initial air testing in the Twin Cities metro area: ‘Does not appear to present a threat’

The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) worked with local, state and federal partners this week to investigate an abnormal test result from routine air monitoring conducted in the Twin Cities metropolitan area.

Testing at one location in suburban Ramsey County Wednesday yielded a result consistent with the bacteria that can cause anthrax infection (Bacillus anthracis). However, there are no reports of human or animal illness and extensive additional sampling has been negative.

“Based on what we know now, this does not appear to present a threat to public health,” Minnesota State Epidemiologist Dr. Ruth Lynfield said. “The information we’ve gathered is consistent with a naturally occurring, low-level detection.”

After receiving the initial laboratory result, MDH conducted follow-up testing at the location and other sites in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. All of the additional tests were negative. Communication with healthcare providers, clinical laboratories and veterinary care providers found no evidence of anthrax infections in people or animals.

Panama papers

Norway to regulate $850 billion fund's tax haven exposure-lawmakers

Norway will take a first step this week towards using its $850 billion sovereign wealth fund, the world's biggest, as a tool to combat the use of tax havens, two key members of parliament's finance committee told Reuters on Wednesday.

The country's right-wing minority government will be asked to take a two-pronged approach to regulation, examining both the fund's own use of ownership structures designed to cut its liability for tax on its foreign investments as well as that of companies it invests in, the politicians said.

The move follows the Panama Papers leaks in April, which revealed details of corporate and individual tax evasion and triggered a global backlash against tax havens.

"We need to clarify the extent of the fund's exposure to tax havens," said finance committee chairman Hans Olav Syversen of the centrist opposition Christian Democrats, on which the government frequently relies for support.

Navy

Spain ‘betrays NATO allies’ hosting Russian warships – oh, really?

Looks like Spain is in trouble. The country has been slammed for “betraying its NATO allies” allowing Russian Navy vessels to refuel in its North African territories – but in reality what the claim does is expose a massive web of hypocrisy.

Since 2011, Spain has rankled NATO by allowing 57 Russian warships, submarines and other vessels to refuel at its North African enclave of Ceuta, according to a report in the Times. Now the issue has been highlighted by US Congress after Republican Congressman Joe Pitts proposed an amendment to the annual defense bill which would require defense officials to “report on NATO countries that allow Russian warships to dock at their ports.”

Pitts is not a happy camper at all. Spain’s actions “undermine NATO’s solidarity”against Russia, while governments “across the globe” should be “isolating the Russian Navy, not accommodating it”, he writes.In fact, he goes on, NATO should have a“cohesive strategy” to deny Russia access to warm water ports.

Corruption

Tax your ex: Russia may force former spouses of officials to declare income

In a move aimed at preventing the concealment of property through fake separations, two Communist Party MPs have prepared a motion demanding that former spouses of senior state officials declare their income for five years after divorce.

Vadim Solovyov and Vladimir Pozdnyakov told Izvestia daily that the bill, scheduled to be filed in the State Duma next week, would introduce the notion of a Politically Exposed Person (PEP). They believe this would help Russia to better fulfill its obligations within the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an inter-governmental body it joined in 2003 that aims to combat illegal financial practices.

Intel tolerance

CIA ex-boss: secretive spooks tolerated in UK more than in US

British people are not demanding more transparency from the intelligence services as loudly as Americans, the former director of the US National Security Agency (NSA) and CIA has said.

Michael Hayden played a pivotal, leading role in American intelligence until he was replaced as director of the CIA shortly into the presidency of Barack Obama.

In a wide-ranging talk on the fourth day of the Hay festival, Hayden addressed CIA torture, targeted killings, what he thinks about Edward Snowden and how Facebook is perhaps a greater threat to privacy than government.

Hayden said the security services were changing faster in the US than the UK. “You as a population are far more tolerant of aggressive action on the part of your intelligence services than we are in the United States,” he said.

Codebreaking

Device used in Nazi coding machine found for sale on eBay

For codebreakers with the allied forces, it was more important a discovery than the Enigma machine, offering encryption for the Nazi command that, when cracked, would hasten the end of the second world war and lead to huge breakthroughs in modern computing.

Less than 80 years later, for a thrifty woman in Essex, the “telegram machine” was little more than a dusty old gadget languishing in the garden shed.

But after an eagle-eyed volunteer with the National Museum of Computing (NMC) spotted an ad on eBay this week, the extremely rare, military-issue Lorenz teleprinter has been saved and provides the latest piece in international efforts to rebuild Hitler’s complete encoding device.

Immigration security

More than 700 migrants feared dead in three Mediterranean sinkings

More than 700 people are believed to have drowned in the Mediterranean last week, the deadliest seven days for Europe-bound asylum seekers in more than a year.

The casualties happened in three separate incidents on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday after more than 13,000 people set sail from Libya for Italy in an eight-day period.

Dozens feared dead as migrant boat capsizes in Mediterranean

 

Read more

The full details of the disasters emerged slowly because of the chaotic nature of the situation. The UN refugee agency said it was now certain that this was the highest weekly death toll since April 2015, when more than 1,300 died in two separate incidents off Libya.

Law & order

The prisoner 'trapped' 10 years into a 10-month jail sentence

Justice Secretary Michael Gove has ordered a review of the position of thousands of prisoners serving a sentence known as an IPP or Imprisonment for Public Protection.

Many are considered to be languishing inside because they are several years over the minimum sentence they were given.

James Ward was given a 10-month IPP for arson in 2006. Now nearly 10 years on, he is still inside and has no release date.

He regularly self-harms, sets light to his cell, barricades himself in and has staged dirty protests. With a low IQ, and mental health problems, he cannot cope with prison life.

His sister, April, fears what he might do next.

"I do believe that one day we'll get the phone call that Jimmy has taken his own life, definitely."

Border security

Kicked out by us, let go by Germans! Migrants sneaking onto Britain-bound ships from Germany are being sent back and freed

Migrants caught trying to sneak into Britain on ships from Germany are being sent back – and immediately freed to try again.

Two Albanians deported after being found on a freighter arriving in Immingham, Lincolnshire, this week were let go within hours of arriving in Germany.

They are among scores of young men from Albania released without charge after being discovered trying to smuggle themselves on to UK-bound cargo in the port town of Cuxhaven, close to Hamburg.

German police have launched a crackdown after illegal immigrants used the North Sea port to open a new route into the UK.

But officers say there is no law to prosecute those they catch trying to stow away, so they have to release them.

Intel recruitment

Spy chiefs' Mumsnet mission to recruit Jane Bonds

British intelligence agencies no longer insist new recruits have a university degree and favour "emotional intelligence" instead as part of a plan to recruit more middle-aged Mums, it has emerged.

MI5, MI6 and GCHQ have all used Mumsnet to find new female spies, dubbed Jane Bonds, while some agencies are targeting older women working in social care who may be bored with their careers.

It marks the first time the intelligence agencies have admitted to using female-friendly websites to recruit more women, as it emerged local newspapers are also being targeted by spy agencies to get a better balance of staff from both genders.

A new report on plans to rebalance the intelligence workforce states that the security services are looking for women with "high emotional intelligence, rather than focusing on standard qualifications" and are keen to demonstrate the family-friendly nature of working as a spy.

Arms trade

US Arms Industry Dead: World Bought American Weapons, Stole the Technology

On Tuesday, US defense industry analysts offered a report claiming that American military contractors will be overtaken in coming years by defense contractors in Israel, South Korea, and Brazil, marking an end to Western dominance over war profiteering.
On Tuesday, US defense industry analysts offered a report claiming that American military contractors will be overtaken in coming years by defense contractors in Israel, South Korea, and Brazil, marking an end to Western dominance over war profiteering.
...The development occurs as the US military-industrial complex has shifted its focus toward exporting weapons to tyrannical regimes throughout the world, as a means to offset reductions in the size of the American war machine following the drawdown in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to the report, "in 2010, only 17% of defense equipment manufactured in the US was exported; by 2015, that number jumped dramatically to 34%."

Foreign trade

German Machine Makers Move to Russia to Bypass European Sanctions

A German machinery firm in Chemnitz has decided to recoup its export losses to Russia by localizing the production of its machine tools in Russia's Republic of Tatarstan, local German newspaper Freie Presse reported on Wednesday.

During Soviet times Chemnitz was known as Karl-Marx-Stadt, and the Soviet Union was the largest purchaser of the machinery goods produced there.

German manufacturers continued to benefit from this trade connection until the imposition of anti-Russian sanctions in 2014, which were followed by Russia's counter-sanctions and policy of import substitution, also partly stimulated by last year's fall in the ruble's value. As a result the state of Saxony, where Chemnitz is the third largest city, has seen a drop in the value of its exports to Russia from 327 million euros ($365 million) in 2013, to 177 million euros in 2015, Freie Presse reported.

Foreign trade

Trade Is a National Security Imperative

In an uncertain world, America’s future security depends on both upgrading military capabilities and expanding economic opportunities. The Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade accord among 12 countries accounting for almost 40% of the global economy, draws together these two strands of strategy. But TPP has been widely criticized by Republican and Democratic presidential candidates alike and faces an uphill battle in Congress.

Strategists have long recognized the interrelationship between economics and security. As early as 1787, John Jay pointed out in Federalist No. 4 that U.S. trade with Asia could one day lead to conflict. Over the years that followed, oceans that once barred foreign armies became highways for the U.S. Navy and mariners seeking markets. In 1854, Commodore Matthew Perry “opened” Japan to trade. In 1899, Secretary of State John Hay resisted imperialist designs to carve up China, as Africa had been, in favor of an “Open Door” policy to secure equal commercial opportunities.