Thursday, October 07, 2010
Israel Buying US F-35 Fighter Jets
Report Reveals North Korea Moving Ahead With Uranium Enrichment to Produce Atomic Arms
Israel Believes Iran Plots Proxy Coup in Lebanon
US Journalist Tells Russian Government-Financed TV Network 'America is the Devil' in Afghanistan
US Senate Candidate Tells Voters Islamic Law is Advancing, Taking Hold in Parts of the Country
"My thoughts are these, first of all, Dearborn, Michigan, and Frankford, Texas are on American soil, and under constitutional law. Not Sharia law. And I don't know how that happened in the United States. It seems to me there is something fundamentally wrong with allowing a foreign system of law to even take hold in any municipality or government situation in our United States."
Scandal: GIs Guarded by Taliban-Tied Goons
Afghan private security forces with ties to the Taliban, criminal networks and Iranian intelligence have been hired to guard American military bases in Afghanistan, exposing United States soldiers to surprise attack and confounding the fight against insurgents, according to a Senate investigation.
Drug Companies Settling Hawaii Lawsuits
Former Head of CIA Unit Assigned to Hunt Bin Laden Says Today's Al Qaeda Bigger Threat than in 2001
Michael F. Scheuer tells Deutsche Welle:VOA Reports North Korea Can Jam GPS; Will Pyongyang Peddle New Technology to Iran?
Iran President Plans to Provoke, Humiliate Israel
Turkey's Ties to China, Iran Concern US, Israel
US Avoids Labeling Pakistan Terrorism Sponsor
Wednesday, October 06, 2010
US-China Currency Dispute Deepens
Friday, 8 October 2010
The New York Times:
Certainly it's a much more dangerous organization today than it was in 2001. Just from the perspective of where we had to focus, we in the West, in Europe and in the United States. Before 9/11 most of the activities that were directed against us came out of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Today we have them coming from there, but we also have them coming out of Yemen, out of Iraq, out of the Levant, out of Somalia and out of North Africa. So the platforms from which people are being directed toward us have grown considerably.
As for the second part of the question, al Qaeda and bin Laden have always seen their role primarily as violence or military activities, but also through inspiration, providing the materials whether written or spoken that would inspire other Muslims to conduct Jihad against the West and especially the United States. And I can't think how you can avoid the conclusion that that has been tremendously successful. The number of young Muslim males in Europe and the United States, Canada and Australia who are willing to at least consider and increasingly are ready to pick up the tools of violence against their home countries has increased dramatically since 2006.
Part of that is due of course to our own foolish invasion of Iraq, but much of it is due to the religiously consistent rhetoric of Osama bin Laden. And so I think this is a fight that we are really not cognizant of in terms of its dimensions and of its length. And one that will turn out much more bloody than we expected.
Click here to read the whole must-read interview.
VOA reports that Defense officials in South Korea and military analysts elsewhere are expressing concern about what they call a new type of threat from Pyongyang. The North Koreans, according to South Korea's government, are now capable of disrupting GPS receivers--a critical component of modern military and civilian navigation.
This week, the South Korea Communications Commission informed lawmakers that between August 23 and 25, signals emanating from near the North Korean city of Kaesong interfered with South Korean GPS military and civilian receivers on land and at sea.
Officials say the jammers were repeatedly switched on for 10-minute periods over a number of hours during the three days.
Sources in South Korea, Japan and the United States say defense officials in all three countries are concerned about Pyongyang's apparent ability to disrupt GPS navigation, and are discussing its ramifications.
Military Use of GPS receivers
GPS uses up to 32 satellites operated by the U.S. Air Force. It is freely accessible to anyone with a receiver, but it has a range of critical military uses.
Retired U.S. Marine Colonel Andy Harp, a military analyst and author, notes that the military applications go beyond guiding bombs and missiles.
"It can be involved with air support, air delivery, artillery. The entire system, to a great extent, relies on GPS," says Harp.
U.S. Forces Korea spokesman Colonel Jonathan Withington declined to assess the reported North Korean jamming, saying it is a matter of intelligence and operational security.
"We also would not be able to comment on our assessment of the effects of North Korean jamming on any civilian commercial systems. While U.S. military forces do use GPS navigation technology, our forces are not reliant on the GPS to conduct ground, air or sea operations and routinely train to operate in a contested electronic environment," Willington told VOA.
Military specialists point out that while some guided bombs might be affected by jamming, newer weapons would not be.
North Korea's Culture of Military Creativity
Harp, who headed the Marines' Crisis Action Team that monitored developments in North Korea, is not surprised by North Korea's new ability.
"The North Koreans are great innovators," he says. "So we have to be greatly wary of what they develop and what they're capable of. The North Koreans are technologically trying to make advances across the entire front and it has to be a great concern to stay ahead of their efforts."
That sentiment is echoed by South Korea's defense minister, Kim Tae-young. He told members of the National Assembly the North Korean GPS jamming poses a "new kind of threat." Kim referred to an intelligence report saying the North Koreans can mount devices on vehicles that can jam GPS signals within a 50 to 100 kilometer radius.
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