Drones

Army seeks micro spy drones in the sky

The Australian Army will buy up to 200 spy planes — small enough to be held between two fingers — fitted with cameras to let troops see what threat is lying ahead.

The army says the nano drone will provide soldiers in the field with an “over the hill, down the road and around the corner” ­reconnaissance capability.

It is likely to be used by a special forces combat team of four or five soldiers or by a platoon of 30.

The Australian Defence Force has opened tenders to supply 200 of the tiny helicopters, which The Australian has been told that with control units, batteries and other supporting equipment are likely to cost several million dollars. One option is the game-changing Black Hornet nano, which was successfully trialled by Australian troops on operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Biosecurity

Zika Cases in Puerto Rico Are Skyrocketing

The Zika epidemic that has spread from Brazil to the rest of Latin America is now raging in Puerto Rico — and the island’s response is in chaos.

The war against the Aedes aegypti mosquito carrying the virus is sputtering out in failure. Infections are skyrocketing: Many residents fail to protect themselves against bites because they believe the threat is exaggerated.

Federal and local health officials are feuding, and the governor’s special adviser on Zika has quit in disgust.

Crime

Nuts, by the truckload, make appetizing targets for thieves

Almonds, pistachios and other high-value nuts are an appealing commodity for not only health nuts, but also more recently to highly sophisticated criminal organizations in the San Joaquin valley.

A cargo theft specialist describes the motivation behind a crime wave hitting California's lucrative tree nut industry: "It's not easy to track a nut."

It's also not easy to immediately detect the criminals strategically robbing millions of dollars in nut cargo. But that's what's facing growers, the industry and authorities in California, where nut production brought in $9.3 billion in 2014.

Terror threat

Met police head expects terror attack in UK

Britain's Metropolitan police commissioner warns the risk of a terror attack in the United Kingdom is a case of "when, not if."

In light of the recent wave of worldwide terror attacks, Met Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said he believes the threat from terrorism is very real and expresses "a greater sense of fear that Britain will be the next victim" on the official police blog Sunday.

Despite the threat level in the United Kingdom being at "severe" since 2014, Hogan-Howe said the British "way of life and culture" have been instrumental in preventing terrorist attacks similar to those seen across Europe, most recently in Nice and Normandy, France; Brussels, Belgium; and Wurzburg and Ansbach, Germany.

Middle East

Decree by Turkey’s Erdogan brings military more under govt

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a new presidential decree Sunday that introduced sweeping changes to Turkey’s military in the wake of a July 15 failed coup, bringing the armed forces further under civilian authority.

The decree, the third issued under a three-month state of emergency declared after the attempted coup, gives the president and prime minister the authority to issue direct orders to the commanders of the army, air force and navy.

It also announces the discharge of 1,389 military personnel, including Erdogan’s chief military adviser, who had been arrested days after the attempted coup, the Chief of General Staff’s charge d’affaires and the defense minister’s chief secretary.

Cybersecurity

Clinton campaign denies reports that its computer system was hacked

The Clinton presidential campaign said Friday that an “analytics data program” maintained by the Democratic National Committee had been hacked but that its computer system had not been compromised, denying news reports from earlier in the day that the campaign had become the third Democratic Party organization whose systems had been penetrated.

So far, campaign computer experts “have found no evidence that our internal systems have been compromised,” campaign spokesman Nick Merrill said in a statement.

Drug smuggling

Business family involved in drug smuggling: NCB

Nearly one week after the arrest of two suspects with 492 kg of pseudoephedrine (a precursor chemical), the Narcotics Control Bureau today divulged the involvement of a prominent business family in the smuggling of chemicals used in amphetamine.

The NCB launched a thorough investigation with the arrest of Mohit Halan (28) of Birgunj, Parsa in possession of 20.125 kg pseudoephedrine from Bara on July 27. Mohit is a son of Shankar Halan, director of Bara-based Arya Pharmalab Pvt Ltd.

International security
Former MI6 chief ‘slapped down’ for Iraq gaffe

Sir John Sawers, the former head of MI6, was given a “slapping down” more than a year before the 2003 invasion of Iraq after sending an explosive memo that downplayed questions about the legality of toppling Saddam Hussein.

Declassified documents published alongside Sir John Chilcot’s damning report into the decision to go to war and its aftermath reveal how a dispatch in February 2002 from Sawers, then ambassador to Egypt, caused alarm in Downing Street and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).

Health security

Should we be concerned about Hillary Clinton’s health?

Unfortunately, Secretary Clinton’s health records reveal some cause for concern.

Her medical history includes two deep vein thromboses (DVTs) in 1998 and 2009, as well as a cerebral venous sinus thrombosis in 2012.  A thromboses is a clot; basically, the formation of a solid plug inside a vein, a misfire of the body’s ability to plug holes and stop bleeding.  While I could not find news articles discussing the 2009 incident in further detail, the 1998 incident was a proximal DVT — one that had ascended into the popliteal vein — an especially dangerous form of DVT that is most likely to cause a condition called pulmonary embolus which can be fatal.  A cerebral venous sinus thrombosis is also a deadly condition, with a mortality of approximately 10 percent and negative cognitive effects, though survivors make a good recovery.

Information security

Assange: 'We have more material related to the Hillary Clinton campaign'

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is boasting about how his group's release of hacked Democratic National Committee emails is affecting the US presidential election -- and says it has unreleased information about Hillary Clinton's campaign.

"We have more material related to the Hillary Clinton campaign," Assange told CNN's Anderson Cooper on "Anderson 360" Friday night. "That is correct to say that."

Assange has been coy about how WikiLeaks came into possession of internal Democratic party cyber information. The FBI and Justice Department are investigating a computer hack of Democratic nominee Clinton's presidential campaign in addition to its examination of intrusions of other Democratic Party organizations, two law enforcement officials told CNN.

Cybersecurity

EU Cybersecurity Directive published in the Official Journal of the EU

On May 17, the Council of the EU (Council) announced it had formally adopted the new EU Directive concerning measures for a high common level of security for network and information systems (Cybersecurity Directive).

The Cybersecurity Directive establishes EU-wide security and incident notification requirements for operators of essential services (such as banking and financial market infrastructures) and digital service providers (such as online marketplaces and online search engines). It also establishes obligations for EU Member States to adopt national strategies on the security of network and information systems and to designate national authorities for similarly related tasks.

Next steps are for the Cybersecurity Directive to be approved by the EU Parliament at second reading. The Council notes that it expects the Cybersecurity Directive to go into effect in August 2016.

Biosecurity

Russia sends military planes, biohazard troops to fight Siberian anthrax outbreak

The Russian military are assisting the local authorities in dealing with a deadly anthrax outbreak. The occurrence in western Siberia has already killed 1,500 reindeer, which are used as livestock by the indigenous people.

The Russian Air Force is surveying the area in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area affected by the anthrax outbreak in preparation for the deployment of biohazard troops.

Transport planes have delivered 200 personnel, some 30 all-terrain vehicles and all the necessary supplies for the decontamination mission, which is mostly disposing of carcasses of animals killed by the lethal disease, to the region’s capital Salekhard.

The response comes after anthrax was confirmed to be the cause of death of some of 1,500 reindeer, who died in Yamal over the past weeks. The governor declared a state of emergency on Monday, when numerous reports of the mass deaths of livestock started to surface.

Military

You Have To Close Your Eyes To See The Military’s Powerful New Weapon

On a March evening in 2002, the USS Oscar Austin began a nighttime transit through the Skagerrak, a busy shipping lane connecting Norway, Denmark and Sweden, when disaster nearly struck. 

Retired U.S. Navy Capt. John Cordle was on the bridge navigating the ship. “It was a very narrow, confusing transit at night,” Cordle told The Huffington Post. Three Navy ships were following. 

It had been a long day. Cordle had pulled an all-nighter, working various shifts. That’s when he nearly caused a drowsy driving catastrophe that could have caused several naval vessels to collide. 

Intel failure

Frontline Europe: the intelligence war

A recently published French parliamentary report following a six-month probe into the handling of the terrorist attacks that took place on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and at the Bataclan concert hall in November last year in Paris, cited considerable organisational dysfunction within the country’s intelligence agencies.

“We are not pointing a finger at men but at organisations,” insisted Georges Fenech, a centre-right MP who headed the probe.

In one example of a failing that happened during the Bataclan attack, Fenech said a special police unit that showed up first was insufficiently armed to take on the attackers. But when the arriving officers asked a group of soldiers - themselves deployed as part of an anti-terrorism operation - to lend their assault rifles so they could attempt a raid, the soldiers refused. They were under orders not to fire their weapons and had heard no updates.

War on terror

Intelligence trove provides details of Islamic State recruitment drive

A large trove of captured Islamic State records and computer files has provided new details of the extremist group’s efforts to send terrorists into Europe, according to senior U.S. intelligence officials.

The material — an estimated 10,000 documents and several terabytes of data — was recovered in recent weeks by Arab and Kurdish forces fighting to retake Manbij, a strategic border town that Islamic State uses to move fighters and supplies in and out of Syria.

The Pentagon trumpeted the intelligence haul as a positive development after a deadly series of terrorist attacks in France and Germany this month raised fears and rattled nerves around the globe.

Drones

World Finds Interest in Russian Hydrogen UAV Technology

During the operation in Syria, the Russian Aerospace Defence Forces (VKO) has tested hydrogen-powered unmanned aircraft (UAV), the RIA Novosti news agency reported. According to a top-ranking representative of the military-industrial complex, air drones equipped with hydrogen engines showed very good results during the test flights, according to UAS Vision.

The source told RIA Novosti that many unmanned combat air vehicles that were flying in Syria used hydrogen fuel. “This means that such unmanned aircraft are able to stay in the air for enough long time, constantly producing hydrogen and allowing the engine to recharge its energy,” he added.

Sputniknews reported that According to the source, all UAVs have returned to Russia for analysis of combat data, including performance in sandstorms.

Electronic warfare

Turkish President Should Thank Russian EW Systems

Russia is now one of the world leaders in the development and application of EW (Electronic Warfare), even though 20 years ago it was seriously lagging behind other countries in this area. According to experts, Russian EW systems installed on air carriers are comparable to American ones, while the ground-based EW stations used in the Russian army can claim the title of the world’s best.

The Khibiny electronic countermeasures system is installed on all Russian military aircraft. Visually, it consists of several containers with electronics, which are attached to the wings. However, these containers immediately convert the aircraft into a formidable combat unit.

Khibiny reflects an interrogation signal aimed at the aircraft by a radar from the ground or from another aircraft, and completely distorts it. The consequences of this operation may be most serious for the radiation source, from distortion of a signal to the complete blocking of work.

Drug smuggling

Investigation into cocaine smuggling from Mexico to Canada results in arrests

Mounties say they have arrested people from Manitoba and Ontario after a two-year investigation into a criminal group moving large amounts of cocaine into Canada from Mexico.

RCMP say during the course of their investigation, they seized more than two kilograms of cocaine.

They say the group was using sophisticated concealment methods to get the drug across the border undetected, but did not say what those methods were.

The arrests were made after search warrants were executed at a rural property near Rosenort, Man., and at residences in Leamington, Ont.

Smuggling 

Smuggling life

After a month of terrorist violence by the usual suspects, mostly suicidal attacks by brainwashed Palestinian youth, a report surfaced last week of an alleged new, nonviolent direction in Palestinian opposition to Israel: in vitro fertilization.

According to the Los Angeles Times, about 50 Palestinian children have been born over more than a decade via IVF, made possible by their terrorist fathers smuggling sperm from prison. IVF doctors report that sperm samples have arrived in eye-dropper bottles, candy wrappers, potato chip bags, and other improvised containers.

Cybersecurity

FSB Detects Cyberattacks on 20 Russian Organizations, Including Military Targets

Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) exposed planting of malicious software designed for cyber espionage in computer networks of about 20 Russian institutions, including government and military bodies, FSB press service said Saturday.

"Instances of planting of malicious software designed for cyber espionage in computer networks of some 20 organizations located on the territory of Russia have been exposed… Information resources of public authorities, scientific and military institutions, enterprises of the military — industrial complex and other objects of country's critical infrastructure were contaminated," the statement read.

Health security

Jill Stein on vaccines: People have ‘real questions’

For a week, Jill Stein was everywhere that the Democratic National Convention was not. The Green Party's likely candidate for president made drop-ins to a four-day Socialist Convergence at the Quaker meeting hall, rallied "Bernie or Bust" protesters outside the gates of Philadelphia's sports complex and sat for interview after interview.

When she sat with The Washington Post's Sarah Parnass and Alice Li, Stein explained her stance on something that had flared up during a Reddit AMA. Did she think vaccines were harmful?

Criminal investigation

US military investigates weapons theft at base in Germany

U.S. military authorities are investigating the theft of several weapons from an Army arms room at a base in Germany.

Chris Grey, spokesman for the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command in Quantico, Virginia, said in an emailed statement Friday that the items stolen at the facility in Stuttgart included several semi-automatic pistols, a small-caliber automatic rifle and a shotgun.

He says “it does not appear that an outside entity stole the firearms and equipment or breached the fence line,” although that hasn’t been entirely ruled out.

Military officials didn’t immediately specify when the theft occurred.

Climate security

Study blames climate change for floods and storms threatening US military installations on coast

An analysis of 18 major US military installations — including bases, training or testing areas, infrastructure storage, and housing of military personnel — found that by 2050, projections of moderate sea-level rise could mean that most of the installations will receive more than 10 times the amount of flooding currently experienced. 

Based on moderate projections, all but two of the installations analyzed would experience more than 100 floods per year in low-lying areas by 2050, the report, conducted by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), stated.

Climate security

A stunning prediction of climate science — and basic physics — may now be coming true

A lot of people deny climate change. Not many, though, deny gravity.

That’s why a recent animation released by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory — well, it came out in April, but people seem to be noticing it now — is so striking. Because it suggests the likely gravitational imprint of our changing climate on key features of the Earth in a way that’s truly startling.

The animation uses measurements from NASA’s squadron of GRACE satellites(Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment), which detect changes in mass below them as they fly over the Earth, to calculate how the ocean changed from April 2002 until July 2013, based on corresponding changes in the mass of the continents.

Middle East

CIA chief not optimistic Syria will remain one country

The head of the US Central Intelligence Agency has said he is not optimistic about the future of Syria remaining one country.

John Brennan's comments are a rare public acknowledgement by a senior US official that Syria may not survive a five-year civil war in its current state.

"I don't know whether or not Syria can be put back together again," he said on Friday at the annual Aspen Security Forum in Colorado.

"There’s been so much blood spilled, I don’t know if we’re going to be able to get back to [a unified Syria] in my life time."

Chemical security

Real-time chemical sensor to improve airport security

A team of European scientists has created a hand-held chemical sensor capable of instantaneous detection from a distance of 30m. Harnessing new photonics technology, the mid-IR sensor uses spectroscopic sensors that read the unique frequencies, or ‘signatures’, given off when liquids or gases interact with light.

Capable of a detection rate of one every few seconds, the device is six times faster than state of the art trace portal scanners.

The MIRPHAB, or ‘Mid-Infrared photonics devices fabrication for chemical sensing and spectroscopic applications’ project, is being coordinated by CEA-Leti, France, and has received funding of €13million from the European Commission's Photonics Public Private Partnership under the Horizon 2020 program, and €2m from the Swiss Government.

Intel history

The successes and dysfunctions of World War II intelligence operations

In his ambitious new book, “The Secret War,” veteran historian Max Hastings delves into the intelligence operations of the competiting powers of World War II: the United States, Britain, Russia, Germany and Japan. Hastings does not set out to be exhaustive but rather to deliver “a study of both sides’ secret war machines and some of the characters who influenced them.” The true value-added of the book is that it provides warnings about the ambiguous role of clandestine activities that remain relevant today.

While Hastings finds faults with the U.S. and British intelligence services, he shows that they were able to overcome rivalries and biases to produce accurate and honest assessments that influenced key decision-makers. 

Intel failure

Post- 9/11 'Bureaucratic Intelligence' Playing Into Hands of Lone Wolf Terrorism

Intelligence services have become increasingly bureaucratic, hindering their fight against terrorism, Dr. Goran Matic of the Faculty of International Politics and Security at Belgrade's Union — Nikola Tesla University told Sputnik Serbia.

French security and intelligence services have been criticizedfollowing the most recent spate of terrorist attacks in Europe for failing to better protect the public from terrorism. 

Matic said that intelligence services continue to collect masses of data, but lack the "human factor" which could lead to a crucial tip-off about a potential attack.

Matic said that France is home to migrant communities which "have not accepted European values and French culture," and that France contributes a large number of the Islamic militants fighting for the internationally-condemned terrorist group Daesh (ISIS) in Iraq and Syria.

Intel briefing

How Intelligence Briefings for Trump, Clinton Will Work

Now that Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have accepted their parties’ nominations for president, they will be entitled to several classified briefings from U.S. intelligence officials. Here’s a look at how the briefings will work:

The White House will reach out to both campaigns and connect them with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which has been planning the briefings for weeks. The campaigns can either accept the offer for intelligence briefings or decline. They will most likely accept.

The candidates, and sometimes senior aides, will then schedule a time and place for the meeting. Often, intelligence officials travel to meet the candidates during the hectic campaign schedule. Candidates can receive one briefing or multiple briefings, depending on their interest.

Flight security

No survivors after Texas hot air balloon crashes with 16 on board

Federal investigators began arriving in central Texas on Saturday to investigate the crash of a hot air balloon with at least 16 passengers on board.

“It does not appear at this time that there were any survivors of the crash,” the Caldwell County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement posted on Facebook.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Lynn Lunsford told the Associated Press that the balloon was found in an isolated pasture near Lockhart, Tex., about 7:40 a.m.

International security

Russian military ‘serious adversary’ after making ‘impressive’ progress – top NATO commander

The Russian military has significantly progressed in recent years to become “a very serious adversary” to the US and NATO, the bloc’s top commander has said, noting Russia’s army is now more professional, faster-learning, and more agile at thinking.

“Russia is back,” General Curtis Scaparrotti, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) and head of US European Command, told the Aspen Security Forum on Friday.

Run by the renowned Aspen Institute to discuss US national security issues, this year’s forum featured top military brass, including US Army Chief of Staff Mark Milley, NSA Director Mike Rogers, and Commandant of the US Marine Corps Robert Neller.

“I’m impressed with the fact that they’ve taken a force that really had some serious problems only a few years ago,” General Scaparrotti said, referring to the large-scale military reforms and re-armament program that have been taking place in Russia in recent years.

Middle East

Israel and U.S. are close to a deal on the biggest military aid package ever

A senior Israeli official will arrive in Washington next week for a final round of negotiations involving the largest military aid package the United States has ever given any country and that will last more than a decade after President Obama leaves office.

Brig. Gen. Yaakov Nagel, the acting head of Israel’s National Security Council, has been dispatched with instructions to meet with White House officials in hopes of signing an agreement “as soon as possible,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said this week.

Energy security

World’s largest solar power plant planned for Chernobyl nuclear wasteland

The world’s most famous and damaging nuclear meltdown is now being considered for the world’s largest solar power plant. The Ukrainian nuclear power station Chernobyl had a nuclear meltdown on April 26, 1986. Since then 1,600 square miles of land has been deemed an ‘exclusion zone’ as the radiation levels are too high for human health. But in a recent interview, Ukraine’s ecology minister said the government was negotiating with two US investment firms and four Canadian energy companies, which have expressed interest in the Chernobyl’s solar potential.

It would be among the modern world’s greatest technical ironies if one of the worst industrial accidents ever would be replaced with a solar power plant, one of the world’s safest energy technologies. Greenpeace estimates that 100,000 people will die of cancer as a result of fallout from the disaster. Interestingly,  as a result of human activity within the region being minimized larger animal populations are thriving, while the smallest of animals – microbes that digest leaves – are showing signs of stress.

Intel failure

PRIEST KILLER WAS "UNDER SURVEILLANCE" YET STILL ATTACKED FRENCH CHURCH

Shocked residents in Saint Etienne du Rouvray in Normandy have paid their respects with candles and flowers after the brutal killing of a catholic priest.

A major police investigation has been launched into the attack which involved two men taking hostages in a church and slitting the throat of the elderly cleric. The two assailants were shot dead by police.

Anger has grown since it became known one of the attackers, 19-year-old Adel Kermiche was on probation and wearing a surveillance tag after two failed attempts to reach Syria.

Surveillance

Spies targeted 20 VIPs in ‘unjustified’ surveillance operations

British security services spied on high-profile figures in operations that were not justified, according to previously top secret information released on the second day of a court hearing on surveillance powers.

The revelations show that between 2009 and 2013, three spies conducted searches into VIPs that were “not operationally justifiable.”

The disclosed report found another 17 searches, carried out by five intelligence operatives, “may not have been operationally justifiable.”

Civil liberties campaign group Privacy International said it is a matter of “serious concern” that the unidentified high-profile persons were not notified of the surveillance.

Law enforcement

Number of law enforcement officers fatally shot this year up significantly after ambush attacks, report says

The attacks on police in Dallas and Baton Rouge that left eight officers dead earlier this month sent waves of fear through law enforcement agencies across the country, with departments ordering officers to double up on patrols as a safety measure.

These deaths contributed to a grim tally this year. Through last week, 32 officers were shot and killed in the line of duty, according to the National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund, a nonprofit group that tracks these deaths. More than half of the officers fatally shot died in ambushes, the group said in a report released Thursday.

On average, about 25 officers have been shot and killed by the midyear point over the last decade, FBI data show.

Communications security

Clinton Confidential and Foreign Intelligence

Yesterday Rush Limbaugh raised the possibility that Russian intelligence services may have been responsible for the hacking of the Democratic National Committee and could blackmail a second Clinton White House. In so doing he sounded a concern earlier voiced by Donald Trump, though Donald puckishly added, “Russia, if your listening I hope your able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing “ from Hillary’s server. And he added, “I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”

I have no idea what might be in the DNC’s hacked emails or on Hillary’s errant emails, but I do know that the Russian intelligence services and for that matter the Israeli and French services have plenty of the Clintons’ confidential material to blackmail them with. I wrote about it in The Clinton Crack-Up: The Boy President’s Life After the White House. 

Just for starters those intelligence agencies eavesdropped on Bill and they have tapes of him having “phone sex” with Monica Lewinsky. In fact, these sleuths probably listened in on Clinton’s calls with other women. The American Spectator chronicled over a dozen other White House employees who had their way with the Boy President. He foolishly made these calls on open lines.

Information security

FBI agents signed NDA for matters involving Hillary’s emails

In an unusual move, FBI agents working the Hillary Clinton email case had to sign a special form reminding them not to blab about the probe to anyone unless called to testify.

Sources said they had never heard of the “Case Briefing Acknowledgment” form being used before, although all agents must initially sign nondisclosure agreements to obtain security clearance.

“This is very, very unusual. I’ve never signed one, never circulated one to others,” said one retired FBI chief.

An FBI agent currently on the job admitted, “I have never heard of such a form. Sounds strange.”