National security threat

Rebecca Grant: Chinese spying is major threat to US national security

...China’s plan for world dominance is not new. What’s changed is that Barr and his Justice Department and FBI teams now see America’s struggle with China as on a par with the Cold War, and even World War II. The twin goals in this round of the China Initiative are to raise awareness and to take aim for a fresh U.S. push against China’s potential dominance of the future Internet via 5G.

But the China threat is getting too big for the FBI to handle by itself. Chinese espionage against the United States has reached unprecedented levels – greater than anything seen in the Cold War. The FBI has over 1,000 cases ongoing, and has already arrested spies accused of infiltrating the State Department, CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency.

The FBI and Justice Department are “working their tails off” but “we can’t do it on our own,” Wray said. Wray wants “a whole of society response” in which the government, academic and private sectors working together.

National security threat

Three Huge Defense Threats For Which Washington Is Woefully Under-Prepared

The United States outspends every other nation on defense, and as a result has the best trained, best equipped military in the world. The joint force regularly undertakes missions that no other country’s military would be capable of executing.

However, there are existential defense threats for which the nation is not prepared—existential in the sense that they could make the continued functioning of democratic government within U.S. borders nearly impossible.

These threats get short shrift in national strategy, either because they have never occurred before or because there are no easy remedies. Unfortunately, the vulnerability of the U.S. to the threats could make them attractive options for America’s enemies in the future.

Here are three such threats.

Artificially engineered pandemics. Pandemics are epidemics that spread across vast areas, including potentially the whole world. There have been several in recent centuries that killed many millions of people. The 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, which originated in Kansas, eventually spread throughout the world and killed 50-100 million. Life expectancy in the U.S. declined by ten years. Smallpox killed more human beings than all the wars of the 20th century combined...

National security threat

Why China is a bigger threat than the Soviet Union

For reasons of politics, economics, and military power, the Chinese Communist Party now poses a greater threat to U.S. security than the Soviet Union did during the Cold War.

The similarities between those two behemoths are obvious.

Both nations rooted their power in authoritarian control over the people and in devotion to party supremacy, and both viewed America's submission as a prerequisite for their ultimate success, but most of the threat similarities end there. In large part, that's because communist China has a far better strategy than the Soviet Union. Where Moscow sought to dominate its adversaries, Beijing seeks first to co-opt and then dominate them. Where the Soviet Union relied on ramshackle KGB efforts to steal Western technology, China matches domestic hackers to academic infiltrators. Where the Soviet military tried to overmatch NATO with mass, Xi Jinping fragments our alliances and targets our defensive weak points.

Let's consider the political, economic, and military elements in turn.

Beijing's ideology takes the center in what might be described as warped communism. The Standing Committee believes that the party is supreme and China is destined for global hegemony, but it's flexible about how to get there. Xi's inner circle is happy to make foreign nations rich if that will earn their loyalty. We see the patronage-cronyism side of things in Africa and Asia, where China has invested hundreds of billions of dollars in infrastructure projects. This has facilitated webs of pro-Beijing political corruption, but the most striking example of this Chinese gambit is found in the West.

National security threat

Transnational Organized Crime and National Security

Traditional organized crime, ranging from the Italian-American mafia to street gangs, has long been a target of American law enforcement efforts. Unlike purely domestic organized crime, transnational organized crime, defined by the Justice Department as groups that pursue criminal activities across geographic boundaries, has profound national security implications. The FBI warns that transnational organized crime poses a diverse array of national security threats related to border security, government corruption both in the United States and abroad, energy and “strategic material” markets around the world, and “logistical and other support to terrorists and foreign intelligence services.”

This is the first in a new series of posts about developments in Justice Department efforts to combat transnational organized criminal groups. The series will focus on the national security threats posed by transnational organized crime and will summarize how the U.S. government addresses those threats, such as prosecutions, sanctions and developing legislation.

This post will emphasize notable developments in the past few months in the Justice Department’s drive to prosecute transnational organized crime groups. Several cases demonstrate the Justice Department’s strategy of targeting international terrorist organizations by pursuing their criminal conduct. Additionally, a case brought in New Jersey illustrates the continuing threat posed by organized hackers to sensitive information held by the U.S. government. Finally, in the battle to stymy drug trafficking cartels that operate inside the U.S. and along its borders, recent cases demonstrate the ongoing ability of such groups to corrupt anti-trafficking forces in the U.S. and Latin America.

National security threat

Islamism still biggest threat to Swedish national security, domestic spy agency says

Sweden’s domestic spy agency, Sapo, has warned of a rise in radical nationalism and major foreign spying operations against the country in its latest report, but still lists Islamism as the top national security threat.

The report states that violent Islamism still poses the biggest threat to Swedish national security but the threat has not grown in the past year. Adherents of the radical ideology are still plotting to carry out attacks in Sweden, however.  

While the Sapo report unequivocally states it found that “no extensive influence campaigns aiming at influencing the Swedish elections,” in 2018, it provided no evidence of or allusions to any attempts either.

The report mentions “around 15” foreign powers that are at least attempting to conduct espionage operations in Sweden, specifically naming Russia, Iran, and China as key figures in this regard, using data from a security survey of 100 public agencies.

“In the past few years we have seen that Russia in particular has improved its ability to actively and covertly influence other states,” Klas Friberg, head of the Swedish Security Service, said.

“This makes it necessary to enhance the ability of the security service and other agencies tasked with combating crime and other grey area activities.”

National security threat

Killer drones, cyber attacks and targeted propaganda will undermine national security as 'malicious AI' grows increasingly powerful, warn experts

Terrorists, rogue states and criminals could soon use artificial intelligence to undermine national security, warns a new report.

Superhuman hacking, surveillance and persuasion are just some of the terrifying ways 'malicious' AI could threaten our freedom.

In a 100-page report, 26 AI experts have outlined the security implications of 'emerging technologies'.

They predict 'bots' to interfere with news gathering and penetrate social media among a host of plausible scenarios in the next five to 10 years.

'Artificial intelligence is a game changer and this report has imagined what the world could look like in the next five to ten years,' said Dr Seán Ó hÉigeartaigh, co-author and Executive Director of Cambridge University's Centre for the Study of Existential Risk.

'We live in a world that could become fraught with day-to-day hazards from the misuse of AI and we need to take ownership of the problems - because the risks are real. 

'There are choices that we need to make now, and our report is a call-to-action for governments, institutions and individuals across the globe. 

'It is troubling, but necessary, to consider the implications of superhuman hacking, surveillance, persuasion, and physical target identification.'

National security threat

Intel chief: Federal debt poses 'dire threat' to national security

Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats warned lawmakers Tuesday that failing to curb the national debt could jeopardize national security.

Coats, testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he’s concerned that the U.S. government’s “increasingly fractious political process, particularly with respect to federal spending, is threatening our ability to defend our nation, both in the short term and especially in the long term.”

Coats’s warning comes days after President Trump signed a bipartisan budget deal with a $300 billion increase in federal spending tied to a short-term bill to fund the government through March 23. The bill also suspended the debt ceiling, the federal limit on how much debt the U.S could hold, until 2019.

Trump also rolled out his fiscal 2019 budget on Monday, which doesn’t balance within 10 years or eliminate yearly federal deficits.

National security threat

Russia Is Not the ‘No. 1 Threat’—or Even Among the Top 5

Nation contributing editor Stephen F. Cohen and John Batchelor continue their weekly discussions of the new US-Russian Cold War. (Previous installments, now in their fourth year, are at TheNation.com. This installment is posted a few days later than usual because of the Thanksgiving holiday.)

In the 1990s, the Clinton administration embraced post-Soviet Russia as America’s “strategic partner and friend.” Twenty years later, the US policy establishment, from liberals to conservatives, insists that Russia under Vladimir Putin is the number-one threat to American national security. The primary explanation for this transformed perception, which began under President George W. Bush, became more insistent during the Obama administration, and is now a virtual bipartisan axiom, lies in Washington, not in Moscow. But whatever the full explanation, it is gravely endangering US national security by diminishing real threats and preventing the partnership with Russia needed to cope with them.

National security threat

Kim Jong-un's hit list revealed: North Korea's top 15 targets for a nuclear strike include The White House, Manhattan and Tokyo

Kim Jong-un's nuclear hit list includes major US cities and specifically names The White House and The Pentagon, it has been revealed. 

A report by the think tank European Commission of Foreign Relations shows a list of 15 North Korean targets.

As well as the iconic governmental landmarks, Manhattan, Guam, Kyoto and Tokyo are all earmarked by the hermit kingdom.

The research, published yesterday, stated: 'From the North Korean sources, one can compile a list of possible targets for a nuclear strike.

'Pyongyang repeatedly threatens both US bases in the Asia-Pacific and cities on the US mainland, while the media repeats the threat that North Korean "strategic forces" are ready at any time to strike the US mainland, their stronghold, their military bases in the operational theatres in the Pacific, including Hawaii and Guam, and those in South Korea.

National security threat

UK braced for attacks: North Korean 'sleeper' agents thought to be living in the UK

Intelligence chiefs fear they could launch cyber attacks on nuclear power stations and air traffic control centres in the hope of plunging the country into chaos.

MI5 and MI6 believe they entered using fake passports and posing as South Korean students.

They are thought to be part of a North Korean secret unit called the General Bureau of Reconnaissance, which conducts clandestine operations against “enemies of North Korea”.

They would have been acting on the orders of Kim Jong-un the country’s supreme leader.

The group, who are trained in assassinations, unarmed combat and sabotage, are part of an elite band of North Koreans who are allowed to leave the country.

It is believed that members of the unit were involved in the assassination of Kim’s half-brother Kim Jong-nam at Kuala Lumpur International Airport this year.

National security threat

The Opioid Crisis Becomes a National Security Threat

Carfentanil, a synthetic opioid, is highly toxic. The drug is 10,000 times stronger than morphine and 5,000 times more potent than heroin. Only 20 micrograms, roughly the size of a grain of salt, can be fatal. The seizure in Vancouver was enough to kill 50 million people – every man, women, and child in Canada.

Carfentanil was developed in the 1970s as a tranquilizer for large animals – elephants and hippos. Dr. Rob Hilsenroth, the executive director of the American Association of Zoo Veterinarians said last year that carfentanil is so powerful that zoo officials wear protective gear "just a little bit short of a hazmat suit" when sedating animals because even one drop in a person's eye or nose can be fatal.

The extreme lethality of carfentanil has led most countries to classify it as a chemical weapon. It is banned from the battlefield under the Chemical Weapons Convention. Andrew Weber, President Barack Obama’s Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Defense Program, said it plainly and simply last year: “It’s a weapon.”

National security threat

EMP, Enhancement Of DHS Overseas Operations, Other Bills Pass House

The nation’s first Critical Infrastructure Protection Act legislation included in the National Defense Authorization Act was passed by the House.

It stands as “the first major legislation to produce a strategy to protect the critical infrastructure of the homeland against threats of electromagnetic pulse and geomagnetic disturbance, two of the most dangerous short term national security threats facing America,” said an announcement by Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), the bill’s sponsor, who noted, “I am grateful to Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Congressman Pete Sessions (R-TX) for their critical roles in the passage of this historic legislation. I am especially grateful to House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mike McCaul for shepherding this vital legislation through his committee. It is efforts like this that make Mike McCaul the kind of individual we need as Director of America’s Department of Homeland Security.”

“It is my hope that this legislation will ultimately effect the protection of America’s vital electrical grid against the highly dangerous threats of weaponized electromagnetic pulse and natural geomagnetic disturbance,” Franks said in a statement.

The House also voted on the Conference Report for S. 2943, the Fiscal Year 2017 Defense Authorization Act which includes bipartisan legislation authored by Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), ranking member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, to strengthen international border security efforts, including Customs and Border Protection’s Preclearance program and Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Visa Security Program.

National security threat

Improving national security

The greatest threat to world peace today is North Korea, Sen. Heidi Heitkamp told members of the Minot Area Chamber of Commerce’s Military Affairs Committee, Thursday.

Heitkamp just returned from an official Senate fact-finding trip to several sites in the Asia-Pacific Region and Alaska. The trip with other congressional members from both the Senate and the House looked at missile defense capabilities in Alaska, Japan, South Korea, Guam and Hawaii.

Heitkamp’s group spent considerable time in South Korea, including visiting the demilitarized zone.

“Anyone who thinks that Kim Jong-un is crazy is wrong,” said Heitkamp, referring to the North Korean leader. She said her dad used to use the phrase “crazy like a fox.” That phrase means someone is seemingly foolish but in fact extremely cunning.

National security threat

How likely is an existential catastrophe?

To underline the urgency of existential risks, let’s compare these estimates to the probability of an average American dying in an “air and space transport accident”—which is 1 in 9,737 over the course of a roughly 80-year lifetime. As mentioned above, the Future of Humanity Institute survey participants assigned a 19 percent chance of human extinction by the year 2100, which would mean that the average American is at least 1,500 times more likely to die in a human extinction catastrophe than in a plane crash.

Rees’ estimate concerns civilizational collapse, which is more probable than human extinction. His estimate of a 50 percent chance of collapse this century suggests a 42 percent chance within the average American’s life span. This means that the average US citizen is nearly 4,000 times more likely to encounter the ruination of modern civilization than to perish in an aviation disaster. Even relative to dying in a motor vehicle crash, which has a probability of about 1 in 113, Rees’ figure implies that the average individual is almost 50 times more likely to see civilization collapse than to die in a vehicular accident.

National security threat

Kabul blast: Afghanistan mourns protest bombing victims

Afghanistan is observing a day of national mourning following the suicide bombing of a protest march in the capital, Kabul, that killed 80 people and wounded 230.

So-called Islamic State (IS) has said it was behind Saturday's attack on members of the Shia Hazara minority.

In a televised address, President Ashraf Ghani vowed to take revenge against those responsible.

The UN mission in Afghanistan has described the attack as a "war crime".

Tadamichi Yamamoto, head of the UN assistance mission, said the attackers had specifically targeted a large number of civilians.