Drones

CIA Reveals Details Of Bird-Like 1970s Stealth Drone — With Planned Nuclear Propulsion

The CIA’s Project Aquiline was a drone with a ten-foot wingspan which would carry out spy missions deep into the Soviet Union. The CIA has declassified a new stash of documents about the project from the early 1970s, revealing among other things, plans to fit nuclear propulsion and have it operating out of the celebrated Area 51.

Project Aquiline never became operational, for reasons which we will explore. But, as the CIA notes in a preface to the new release, “the concept proved invaluable as a forerunner to today's multi-capability UAVs [Unmanned Aerial Vehicles].”

The project originated in the 1960s. After the shooting down of Gary Powers U-2 spy plane over the Soviet Union, manned flights were becoming politically too risky. Satellites could peer over the Iron Curtain, but only provided grainy long-range photographs. What was needed was a small, unmanned aircraft for strategic reconnaissance from close-up.

The solution was a propeller-driven drone disguised as a soaring bird. From a distance, it was indistinguishable from an ordinary vulture of buzzard.

Drones

How to Hide from a Drone – the Subtle Art of ‘Ghosting’ in the Age of Surveillance

The first thing you can do to hide from a drone is to take advantage of the natural and built environment. It’s possible to wait for bad weather, since smaller devices like those used by local police have a hard time flying in high winds, dense fogs and heavy rains.

Trees, walls, alcoves and tunnels are more reliable than the weather, and they offer shelter from the high-flying drones used by the Department of Homeland Security.

The second thing you can do is minimize your digital footprints. It’s smart to avoid using wireless devices like mobile phones or GPS systems, since they have digital signatures that can reveal your location. This is useful for evading drones, but is also important for avoiding other privacy-invading technologies.

The third thing you can do is confuse a drone. Placing mirrors on the ground, standing over broken glass, and wearing elaborate headgear, machine-readable blankets or sensor-jamming jackets can break up and distort the image a drone sees.

Mannequins and other forms of mimicry can confuse both on-board sensors and the analysts charged with monitoring the drone’s video and sensor feeds.

Drones equipped with infrared sensors will see right through the mannequin trick, but are confused by tactics that mask the body’s temperature. For example, a space blanket will mask significant amounts of the body’s heat, as will simply hiding in an area that matches the body’s temperature, like a building or sidewalk exhaust vent.

The fourth, and most practical, thing you can do to protect yourself from drone surveillance is to get a disguise. The growth of mass surveillance has led to an explosion in creative experiments meant to mask one’s identity. But some of the smartest ideas are decidedly old-school and low-tech. Clothing is the first choice, because hats, glasses, masks and scarves go a long way toward scrambling drone-based facial-recognition software.

Military

The Real Problem With 'Politicizing the Military'

Most of us have come to accept civilian control and the normative antipode of politicization — political neutrality — as both necessary and desirable in democracy if it is to survive and thrive. Neither of these fundamental precepts is mentioned in the U.S. Constitution – or for that matter in statute. Rather, they have come to be embraced and accepted as matters of practice over time.

Civilian control can exist in any form of government, but democracy can’t operate as it should without duly elected and appointed civilian authorities — executive and legislative — calling the military shots, issuing direction, providing oversight, and exercising final decision-making authority. But civilian control is a minimalist condition, the floor of relations among the military, its civilian masters, and society. Its intrinsic value lies in giving authority and legitimacy to what the military does (presumably on behalf of the country) and in restraining and justifying military action.

The ceiling of the civil-military relationship — the ideal — is what might best be referred to as civilian supremacy, where there are layers of public oversight of legislative oversight of executive oversight of a willingly accountable, self-policing military. But civilian supremacy is an illusory ideal, considering our persistent public apathy and congressional inertia, thereby leaving civilian control in the hands of the commander in chief and his minions.

Navy

China adds turbo generators to warships to power high-energy weapons, state media says

China has equipped its warships with advanced generators to power high-energy weapons like lasers and rail guns, according to state media.

Work on the 20-megawatt turbo generators was finished in 2018, and they went into service “recently”, according to their developer, the 704 research institute of the China State Shipbuilding Corporation.

Announcing the move on its WeChat account, the institute did not say which ships now had the generators installed, but it is believed they will be used to power the navy’s most advanced destroyers, such as the Type 055 guided-missile destroyer.

They will quadruple the power-generating capacity on the warships, making full electric propulsion possible. The generators will also be used for electromagnetic rail guns that can fire high-speed projectiles and laser weapons.

Health security

Could military working dogs detect COVID in humans? The Army is working to find out

A joint research effort between the U.S. Army and the University of Pennsylvania is hoping to train dogs to develop pinpoint detection of COVID-19 biomarkers in humans.

Researchers from the university previously trained dogs to successfully detect both diabetes and ovarian cancer. Given present circumstances, shifting focus to the coronavirus was a no-brainer.

“I called up the research partner in my branch who I work most closely with on dogs,” Michele Maughan, a researcher at the Combat Capabilities Development Command Chemical Biological Center, said in a release. “And said to her, ‘We keep saying we need to find a way for dogs to detect COVID-19, let’s do this!”

Maughan then reached out to the director of Penn Vet’s Working Dog Center, Cynthia Otto, who quickly endorsed the partnership. An additional phone call to Patrick Nolan, a U.S. Army Special Forces veteran and former military working dog trainer, got the ball rolling, and by May 26, just months after proposing the idea, the first dogs entered training.

Nolan, who now owns a training center for working dogs in Maryland, enthusiastically supplied 10 working dogs to participate in the six- to nine-week program.

International security

Trump’s military shuffle in Europe will take time and be costly

The United States will take years to move its main military command in Europe from Germany to NATO headquarters in Belgium and updating facilities will be costly, three former senior officials said.

Despite concerns that the move announced on Wednesday is politically motivated, they told Reuters that “streamlining and rationalising” the U.S. military presence in Europe made some strategic sense.

Under a plan to reduce U.S. troop numbers in Germany, President Donald Trump has instructed the United States European Command (EUCOM) to be moved from Stuttgart to Mons, near Brussels.

Mons is where NATO has its Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), the defence alliance’s top military command.

“This is not picking up your tent and moving to a different campground,” said retired U.S. General Ben Hodges, who commanded U.S. army forces in Europe from 2014 until 2017. “SHAPE is desperately in need of renovation and repair.”

Jamie Shea, a former senior NATO official now at the Friends of Europe think tank in Brussels, said the buildings at SHAPE “date from the 1960s and look as if they date from the 1960s.”

Privacy security

How to Tell If Your Apps Are Spying on You

If you've Zoomed at all over the last four-plus months, you're certainly familiar with that pop-up box that requests permission to use your device's microphone or camera. How else are you supposed to see or hear the person on the other line?

But there can be a more sinister side to these permissions: Some apps don't bother asking for your consent at all, turning your device into a pocket spy, loaded with cameras and microphones at the ready.

Back in 2018, for example, over 250 apps across the App Store and Google Play market were listening in for background audio through smartphone microphones, allowing the apps to figure out what you watch or listen to in order to serve up better targeted advertisements. And then, of course, there's the long-standing conspiracy theory that our smartphones are actively eavesdropping on us.

The good news: You can take a few simple precautions to always maintain your privacy and ward off any watchful apps. The following tips just take a few seconds to complete.

National security

Secrets and Spies: The UK's Proposal for Foreign Agent Registration

On July 21, 2020, the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament published the Russia Report (the Report). The Report found that the UK was one of Russia’s “top Western intelligence targets” and that the UK government had thus far failed to investigate allegations of Russian interference, including potential involvement in the Brexit referendum. One of the underlying issues the Report identified was the lack of adequate legislative powers granted to the intelligence community. It brought attention to the Law Commission’s 2017 consultation, in relation to updating the Official Secrets Acts1, and the possibility of creating a new Espionage Act. The committee recommended the introduction of a new Espionage Act that would address the issue of “individuals acting on behalf of a foreign power and seeking to obfuscate the link”. While no details of how the UK will incorporate this recommendation, the Report made reference to the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act 1938 (FARA) and Australian equivalent. Given the explicit reference to FARA, it is very likely that a registration requirement for foreign agents is imminent, and the new requirement will be fashioned on the U.S. legislative framework. Additionally, the report highlighted the importance of updating the Computer Misuse Act, and encouraged the use of tools such as unexplained wealth orders to eliminate the proceeds of crime infiltrating the UK’s economic system.

Navy

In the North Atlantic, NATO navies are practicing to take on a wave of Russian submarines

NATO navies converged in the North Sea in late June for this year's Dynamic Mongoose anti-submarine-warfare exercise, reflecting a growing focus on countering enemy submarines amid "great-power competition" with Russia and China.

During the exercise, US Navy destroyer USS Roosevelt and four other surface ships took turns hunting and being hunted by Navy fast-attack sub USS Indiana and four other subs in the waters off Iceland.

"It was fantastic because we would have such a small, confined area that it forced interaction between the submarine and the surface ships," Cmdr. Ryan Kendall, commanding officer of the Roosevelt, said in an interview.

Nuclear security

‘Drone Swarm’ Invaded Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant Last September — Twice

Documents gained under the Freedom of Information Act show how a number of small drones flew around a restricted area at Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant on two successive nights last September. Security forces watched, but were apparently helpless to act as the drones carried out their incursions before disappearing into the night. Details of the event gives some clues as to just what they were doing, but who sent them remains a mystery.

Details of the events were obtained from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by Douglas D. Johnson on behalf of the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies (SCU) using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The SCU’s main interest is in anomalous aerospace phenomena, what other people term UFOs. In this case though the flying objects were easily identifiable as drones, although their exact mission and origin are unknown. Johnson passed the information to The War Zone who give a detailed account.

Information security

I'm a former CIA analyst trained to spot fake news. Here's how you can do it, too.

In early 2017, I watched from my desk at the CIA as the world learned Russia had waged an influence campaign targeting the U.S. presidential election months before. As an intelligence analyst, I worked in a world where countries often used covert action against each other to influence events, outcomes and policies, but the scale and scope of Russia’s actions to try to help Donald Trump get elected were unprecedented. As the intelligence community’s declassified assessment stated, Russia’s interference was “a significant escalation” in its long-running effort to undermine the United States. 

Since then, I have seen this revelation lead to a (mostly) collective panic, but essentially no government action. The panic has manifested in a growing distrust of institutions we traditionally counted on for information, like the news media, fear that social media conversations are orchestrated by “Russian bots,” the mainstreaming of conspiracy theories, and in the most extreme cases, people giving up on the existence of facts and truth altogether. But none of these things will solve our information problem.

Financial safety

Bye Bye Benjamin! Russia & China speed up de-dollarization process: most trade no longer conducted in greenbacks

After years of talking about abandoning the US dollar, Russia and China are doing it for real. In the first quarter of 2020, the share of the dollar in trade between the countries fell below 50 percent for the first time.

To give an indication of the scale of the adjustment, just four years ago the greenback accounted for over 90 percent of their currency settlements.

According to Moscow daily Izvestia, the share has dropped to 46 percent, tumbling from 75 percent in 2018. The 54 percent of non-dollar trade is made up of Chinese yuan (17 percent), the euro (30 percent), and the Russian ruble (7 percent).

The dollar's reduced role in international trade can mainly be blamed on the ongoing trade war between the US and China. Relations between the two countries have deteriorated even further in 2020, after US politicians accused Beijing of hiding the severity of Covid-19 and President Donald Trump called disease the "China Virus" and "Kung Flu."

Outer space

Space Force on alert: Behind Russia's mysterious testing of deadly anti-satellite weapons in orbit

Last week, the head of the U.S.'s newest military branch, the Space Force, cautioned publicly for the first time that Moscow had undertaken at least two concerning anti-satellite weapon tests in recent months, in a potential bid to develop on-orbit efficiency that could dangerously hinder the U.S.'s heavy dependency on space-based systems.

"On July 15, Russia injected a new object into orbit from Cosmos 2543," the U.S. Space Force said in a statement. "Russia released this object in proximity to another Russian satellite, (which was) inconsistent with the system's stated mission as an inspector satellite."

While Russia's Defense Ministry dismissed the allegation, it is not the first time the Pentagon has said such an incident occurred.

Gen. John W. "Jay" Raymond, commander of U.S. Space Command and U.S. Space Force chief of space operations, further highlighted that the Russian satellite system used to conduct this on-orbit weapons test is the same onr they "raised concerns about earlier this year when Russia maneuvered near a U.S. government satellite."

Mass surveillance

The Age of Mass Surveillance Will Not Last Forever

What I showed those journalists was proof, in the form of the government’s own classified documents, that the self-described “Five Eyes”—the state security organs of the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada—had together conspired to weaken their laws. They had forced clandestine access to the networks of their largest telecommunications and internet titans (some of whom hadn't needed much in the way of arm-twisting) in pursuit of a single goal: the transformation of the free and fragmented internet into history’s first centralized means of global mass surveillance. This violation of our fundamental privacy occurred without our knowledge or consent, or even the knowledge and consent of our courts and most lawmakers.

Here’s the thing: Although the global response to this violation was furious, producing the largest intelligence scandal of the modern age, mass surveillance itself continues to work today, virtually unimpeded. Nearly everything you do, and nearly everyone you love, is being monitored and recorded by a system whose reach is unlimited, but whose safeguards are not.

Health security

Medieval Medicine Remedy – Found in 9th Century Bald’s Leechbook – Could Provide New Treatment for Modern Day Infections

Antibiotic resistance is an increasing battle for scientists to overcome, as more antimicrobials are urgently needed to treat biofilm-associated infections. However scientists from the School of Life Sciences at the University of Warwick say research into natural antimicrobials could provide candidates to fill the antibiotic discovery gap.

Bacteria can live in two ways, as individual planktonic cells or as a multicellular biofilm. Biofilm helps protect bacteria from antibiotics, making them much harder to treat, one such biofilm that is particularly hard to treat is those that infect diabetic foot ulcers.

Researchers at the University of Warwick, Dr. Freya Harrison, Jessica Furner-Pardoe, and Dr. Blessing Anonye, have looked at natural remedies for the gap in the antibiotic market, and in the paper, ‘Anti-biofilm efficacy of a medieval treatment for bacterial infection requires the combination of multiple ingredients’ published in the journal Scientific Reports today (July 28, 2020), researchers say medieval methods using natural antimicrobials from every day ingredients could help find new answers.

MI6

UK names new MI6 spy chief to tackle challenges from China, Russia

Britain on Wednesday named career diplomat and intelligence officer Richard Moore as the new chief of the MI6 spy service as the West seeks to bolster its defences against hostile espionage from China and Russia.

Moore, 57, joined the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) in 1987, just four years before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

An accomplished intelligence officer, Moore served in various diplomatic and security roles before winning one of the most powerful jobs in the Western intelligence. Alex Younger, the current chief of MI6 - or plain “C” - will step down in the autumn.

“I am pleased and honoured to be asked to return to lead my Service,” said Moore, who is currently director general of political affairs at the Foreign Office.


Moore served as British ambassador to Turkey from January 2014 to December 2017 and has also served as deputy national security adviser. Born in Libya, he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford University and was a Kennedy Scholar at Harvard.

Corruption

Revealed: A Former FBI Director’s Double Game With Stolen Russian Money

Earlier this month, the Estonian Finance Ministry announced it had hired a major American law firm, headed by a controversial former FBI director, to spend the next two years, at a cost of at least 3 million euros, digging into widely reported allegations of international money laundering through Nordic banks.

In normal circumstances, such a deal would be seen as an unmitigated PR coup in the deeply pro-American Baltic state. But in this instance the firm, Freeh Sporkin & Sullivan LLP, is run by senior managing partner Louis Freeh, a former federal court judge and ex-FBI director who recently defended one of the alleged money launderers in U.S. court. And the Finance Ministry for which Freeh and his law firm are contracted to work is headed by the racist leader of a far-right political party, now part of Estonia’s tenuous coalition government with centrist and conservative parties.

Freeh has also been named “the leader of the advisory team to the Estonian state,” as per an Estonian press report. Several sources in the Estonian government, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that Freeh’s appointment to such a role has raised eyebrows in Tallinn.

Climate security

Siberia’s ‘gateway to the underworld’ grows as record heat wave thaws permafrost

On a spring day in 2019, Alexander Kizyakov rappelled down the 60-meter headwall of the Batagay megaslump in eastern Siberia, pausing to chisel out chunks of ice-rich soil that had been frozen for eons. “One of my hobbies is rock climbing,” says Kizyakov, a permafrost scientist at Lomonosov Moscow State University. Colleagues below sampled the most ancient soil along the base of the cliff. Such work is too dangerous in summertime, when the constant crackling of melting ice is punctuated by groans as slabs of permafrost, some as big as cars, shear off the headwall.

Known to locals as the “gateway to the underworld,” Batagay is the largest thaw slump on the planet. Once just a gully on a slope logged in the 1960s, the scar has expanded year by year, as the permafrost thaws and meltwater carries off the sediment. Now more than 900 meters wide, it epitomizes the vulnerability of permafrost in the Arctic, where temperatures have shot up twice as fast as the global average over the past 30 years.

But it is also a time capsule that is seducing scientists with its snapshots of ancient climates and ecosystems. “It’s a mind-blowing place,” says Thomas Opel, a paleoclimatologist at the Alfred Wegener Institute. Dates from ice and soil gathered at Batagay show it holds the oldest exposed permafrost in Eurasia, spanning the past 650,000 years, Opel and colleagues reported in May at the European Geosciences Union’s online general assembly. That record could reveal how permafrost and surface vegetation responded to past warm climates. “It gives us a window into times when permafrost was stable, and times when it was eroding,” Opel says.

Financial safety

China, Russia and Gold vs. the Dollarised World

Trending and gaining traction throughout the economic world is the increasingly relevant search for safe and secure alternatives to the U.S. dollar. Some due to geopolitical reasons and pressures, others from recognising the significantly deepening debt associated with the dollar and government. Many have started questioning and doubting aspects of its sustainability and inviolability over the ballooning short and long term.

Others are looking to innovative crypto ideas in the hope that extra-governmental blockchain backed mechanisms of peer-to-peer ‘agreed value’ may be the unhindered path to securing wealth. In short, all of these approaches are looking for the security which gold together with similar recognised assets like silver have provided and assured since the dawn of our varied successive civilizations.

China, Russia, Turkey and quite a few others see themselves sanctioned, shackled and hindered by the overwhelming market dominance of the American currency and the quickly changing policies linked to it by successive U.S. administrations most especially of late. Some refer to this as the abnormal ‘weaponization’ of the U.S. dollar as this millennia’s sad new normal.

Biosecurity

The Tragedy of Vaccine Nationalism

Trump administration officials have compared the global allocation of vaccines against the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 to oxygen masks dropping inside a depressurizing airplane. “You put on your own first, and then we want to help others as quickly as possible,” Peter Marks, a senior official at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration who oversaw the initial phases of vaccine development for the U.S. government, said during a panel discussion in June. The major difference, of course, is that airplane oxygen masks do not drop only in first class—which is the equivalent of what will happen when vaccines eventually become available if governments delay providing access to them to people in other countries.

By early July, there were 160 candidate vaccines against the new coronavirus in development, with 21 in clinical trials. Although it will be months, at least, before one or more of those candidates has been proved to be safe and effective and is ready to be delivered, countries that manufacture vaccines (and wealthy ones that do not) are already competing to lock in early access. 

Law & order

MI6 accused of tribunal hearing 'interference'

MI6 has been accused of “inappropriate interference” after two of its officers allegedly asked a chief clerk at the investigatory powers tribunal to conceal secret material relating to the agency from its presiding judges.

The spy agency was forced to apologise after the incident, which took place in relation to a court case about whether fellow agency MI5 can authorise informants to participate in murder, torture or other serious crimes.

The embarrassing episode occurred in March 2019 but can only be reported now after a special hearing on Monday of the tribunal, which oversees complaints against British intelligence.

The two spies had rung the tribunal secretary and according to her claimed that “various inspection reports” about MI6 had been provided in error to the tribunal and said they had unspecified concerns in relation to the material.

Scam

Profiting from panic: the bizarre bogus cures and scams of the coronavirus era

As the world awaits a scientifically proven treatment for COVID-19 alternative and evidence-free remedies such as pure vodka in Fiji or dried fish in Egypt have been circulating online. Since March, we have been cataloguing the various misinformation narratives around the coronavirus pandemic and have found more than 243 distinct storylines about false cures, preventative measures, and diagnostic procedures. This misinformation involves promoting existing drugs, alternative medicinal practices, and everyday food items as treatments for coronavirus. In many cases, companies or individuals have even tried to profit off of naïve individuals by selling bogus cures and making exaggerated claims about their products.

Old drugs new uses. One of the most common threads of misinformation around coronavirus treatments and preventative measures involves the repurposing of existing medical treatments—whether for malaria, bacterial infections, or pain relief. Common drugs such as aspirin as well as prescription drugs such as chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine, and azithromycin have been touted without evidence or with limited evidence as effective against COVID-19.

Nuclear security

Nuclear Gulf: Is Saudi Arabia pushing itself into a nuclear trap?

When countries start dabbling in nuclear energy, eyebrows raise. It's understandable. Stopping the spread of nuclear weapons while allowing countries to pursue civilian nuclear programmes has proven a tough and sometimes unsuccessful balancing act for the global community.

So when atom-splitting initiatives surface in a region with a history of nuclear secrecy and where whacking missiles into one's enemies is relatively common, it is not just eyebrows that are hoisted, but red flags.

Right now, warning banners are waving above the Arabian Peninsula, where the United Arab Emirates has loaded fuel rods into the first of four reactors at Barakah - the Arab world's first nuclear power plant.

Military

United States Special Operations equipment

ARK VIII SEAL DELIVERY VEHICLE Members of SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team Two (SDVT-2) prepare to launch one of the team's SEAL Delivery Vehicles (SDV) from the back of the Los Angeles-class attack submarine USS Philadelphia (SSN 690) on a training exercise. The SDVs are used to carry Navy SEALs from a submerged submarine to enemy targets while staying underwater and undetected. SDVT-2 is stationed at Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, Va., and conducts operations throughout the Atlantic and Southern, and European command geographic areas of responsibility. U.S. Navy photo by Chief Photographer's Mate Andrew McKaskle.

Navy

Putin says Russian Navy to get hypersonic nuclear strike weapons

Speaking in St Petersburg at an annual naval parade that showcases Russia’s best ships, nuclear submarines and naval aviation, Putin said the navy’s capabilities were growing and it would get 40 new vessels this year.

He did not specify when it would receive new hypersonic weapons, but suggested that day was drawing closer.

“The widespread deployment of advanced digital technologies that have no equals in the world, including hypersonic strike systems and underwater drones, will give the fleet unique advantages and increased combat capabilities,” Putin said.

Aerospace

Man VS Machine, Battle Of The Skies

U.S. Air Force researchers are currently in the midst of developing an autonomous aircraft, equipped with the capabilities of taking down a manned fighter jet in a battle of the skies.

Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan, head of the Pentagon’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, said the Air Force Research Laboratory team is expanding the military’s horizons in the manufacture of aircrafts in comparison to the current ones.

The Air Force Research Laboratory team first began their endeavor back in 2018, hoping to display results in approximately 18 months. By first integrating machine learning technology into a less sophisticated plane such as the F-16, they can adjust whatever is needed and then pursue this into the more advanced models such as F-35 or F-22.

EMP security

China Has ‘First-Strike’ Capability To Melt U.S. Power Grid With Electromagnetic Pulse Weapon

Last week, the Department of Homeland Security issued a scary report on China’s ability to conduct an Electromagnetic Pulse attack on the United States. The key takeaway, according to Dr. Peter Pry, executive director of the department’s EMP task force, is that China now has super-EMP weapons, knows how to protect itself against an EMP attack, and has developed protocols to conduct a first-strike attack, even as they deny they would ever do so.

According to the Center for Strategic International Studies, China has the most active ballistic missile development program in the world, so this is doubly troubling. China used stolen U.S. technology to develop at least three types of high-tech weapons to attack the electric grid and key technologies that could cause a surprise “Pearl Harbor” attack that could produce a deadly blackout to the entire country.

EMP security

Pentagon Works On Detecting Electromagnetic Pulse Weapons

The Pentagon is researching better ways to detect and respond to electromagnetic pulse weapons, which can disable or destroy electronic devices in a devastating sneak attack.

The Pentagon’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency is working on sensors to detect and analyze EMP attacks under its Conventional Nuclear Integration/Battlefield Nuclear Warfare program.

EMPs can range in size from narrowly targeted cannons that could disable an aircraft to massive atmospheric nuclear blasts that could wipe out the entire nation’s electricity grid.

Increasingly, war planners fear an EMP sneak attack that could cripple key capabilities, with China, North Korea, Russia and Iran known to be developing such weapons.

In 2017, the United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs reported: ‘A successful nuclear electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack against the United States could cause the death of approximately 90 percent of the American population.’

Geoengineering

Harvard Profs Plan Geoengineering Experiment, Igniting Ethics Debate

When Mount Pinatubo erupted in June of 1991, it shot 20 million tons of sulfur dioxide 22 miles into the atmosphere. As the gas spread around the world, it cooled the Earth by about half a degree Celsius. Now two Harvard professors say they are planning to inject calcium carbonate dust into the air over Arizona to see what effect it has on the amount of solar radiation reaching the Earth below. The dust “would reflect away a little bit of sunlight, just the way a very thin cloud reflects away a little bit of sunlight … to offset some of the warming that comes from the slow buildup of carbon dioxide from our industrial activity, David Keith, a professor of applied physics at Harvard, tells WBUR.

Public security

Federal agents likely permanently blinded by Portland protesters’ lasers, White House says

Three federal agents who were sent to Portland, Ore., to try to help quell the city’s  violent protests were “likely left permanently blinded” from clashes, White House officials said Friday.

“A federal agent’s hand was impaled by planted nails, another federal agent was shot with a pellet gun, leaving a wound deep to the bone, and tragically, three federal officers were likely left permanently blinded by the rioters using lasers pointed directly into their eyes,” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters Friday.

All five of the injured federal agents were hurt Monday during ongoing protests at the Multnomah County Justice Center and a nearby federal courthouse in Oregon’s largest city.

International security

War Between Greece and Turkey Is Now a Real Possibility

Greek and Turkish fighter jets engaged in mock dogfights this week over the Greek island of Kastellorizo, just a mile and a half from the Turkish coast, causing tourists to flee. Meanwhile, there is a growing risk that the Turkish and Greek navies will clash, hundreds of miles to the west if Turkey pushes forward with its plans to survey for has in Greece’s exclusive economic zone. Greek officials say that all options are on the table, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel has rushed to mediate as U.S. officials remain largely absent.

There has never been any love lost between Turkey and Greece, but the danger of war between the two NATO members has not been this high since the Cyprus conflict more than forty-five years ago. In the past, Turkey and Greece have gone to the brink, but policies initiated by Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan may very much push the two neighbors over the edge.

UFO

No Longer in Shadows, Pentagon’s U.F.O. Unit Will Make Some Findings Public

Despite Pentagon statements that it disbanded a once-covert program to investigate unidentified flying objects, the effort remains underway — renamed and tucked inside the Office of Naval Intelligence, where officials continue to study mystifying encounters between military pilots and unidentified aerial vehicles.

Pentagon officials will not discuss the program, which is not classified but deals with classified matters. Yet it appeared last month in a Senate committee report outlining spending on the nation’s intelligence agencies for the coming year. The report said the program, the Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Task Force, was “to standardize collection and reporting” on sightings of unexplained aerial vehicles, and was to report at least some of its findings to the public within 180 days after passage of the intelligence authorization act.