F L A S H C L U B http://flashclub.ch/flog  The World Is What You Know Fri, 14 May 2010 12:50:48 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 U.S. Commanders Want More Firepower for Afghan Border Police http://flashclub.ch/flog/afghanistan/u-s-commanders-want-more-firepower-for-afghan-border-police/ http://flashclub.ch/flog/afghanistan/u-s-commanders-want-more-firepower-for-afghan-border-police/#comments Fri, 14 May 2010 12:44:37 +0000 Steven Aftergood http://flashclub.ch/flog/uncategorized/u-s-commanders-want-more-firepower-for-afghan-border-police/

]]> Former Defense Tech editor Christian Lowe is embedded with U.S. forces in Afghanistan through June 1 and sends us this dispatch from FOB Salerno near the city of Khost in eastern Afghanistan. American troops fighting along the Pakistan border have shifted their emphasis from interdicting insurgent forces flowing through the porous border to hunting down enemy elements as they lay up and refit in towns nearby. The job of patrolling the border is increasingly being put at the feet of the Afghan Border Police who man remote outposts perched on the hills overlooking the approaches from Taliban hotbeds like Miramshah. But increasingly, American units recognize that the border police are in some cases outgunned, patrolling around in unarmored pickups with nothing more than AK-47s and pistols to fend off aggressive assaults by well armed insurgents. One official at a briefing DT sat in on today at the command post for the 3rd Brigade Combat Team at FOB Salerno in Khost, Afghanistan, said some of the border policemen are reluctant to go to work because of it. So units here are pushing higher command to either pair Afghan army units with the border police at some outposts, or start outfitting those vulnerable outposts with heavier weapons and protection

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U.S. Commanders Want More Firepower for Afghan Border Police

]]> http://flashclub.ch/flog/afghanistan/u-s-commanders-want-more-firepower-for-afghan-border-police/feed/ 12 Fifth Annual Movie-Plot Threat Contest Semi-Finalists http://flashclub.ch/flog/cia/fifth-annual-movie-plot-threat-contest-semi-finalists/ http://flashclub.ch/flog/cia/fifth-annual-movie-plot-threat-contest-semi-finalists/#comments Fri, 14 May 2010 11:51:42 +0000 admin http://flashclub.ch/flog/uncategorized/fifth-annual-movie-plot-threat-contest-semi-finalists/

]]> On April 1, I announced the Fifth Annual Movie Plot Threat Contest: Your task, ye Weavers of Tales, is to create a fable of fairytale suitable for instilling the appropriate level of fear in children so they grow up appreciating all the lords do to protect them. Submissions are in, and here are the semifinalists. Untitled story about polar bears, by Mike Ferguson. ” The Gashlycrumb Terrors ,” by Laura. Untitled Little Red Riding Hood parody , by Isti. ” The Boy who Didn’t Cry Wolf ,” by yt. Untitled story about exploding imps , by Mister JTA. Cast your vote by number; voting closes at the end of the month

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Fifth Annual Movie-Plot Threat Contest Semi-Finalists

]]> http://flashclub.ch/flog/cia/fifth-annual-movie-plot-threat-contest-semi-finalists/feed/ 14 US faces same problems as Greece, says Bank of England http://flashclub.ch/flog/headlines/us-faces-same-problems-as-greece-says-bank-of-england/ http://flashclub.ch/flog/headlines/us-faces-same-problems-as-greece-says-bank-of-england/#comments Fri, 14 May 2010 00:00:00 +0000 Mervyn

]]> Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, fears that America shares many of the same fiscal problems currently haunting Europe. He also believes that European Union must become a federalised fiscal union (in other words with central power to tax and spend) if it is to survive. Just two of the nuggets from one of the most extraordinary press conferences I have been to at the Bank.

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US faces same problems as Greece, says Bank of England

]]> http://flashclub.ch/flog/headlines/us-faces-same-problems-as-greece-says-bank-of-england/feed/ 5 Autistic Boy Charged With Making Terrorist Threats Over Stick-Figure Sketch http://flashclub.ch/flog/headlines/autistic-boy-charged-with-making-terrorist-threats-over-stick-figure-sketch/ http://flashclub.ch/flog/headlines/autistic-boy-charged-with-making-terrorist-threats-over-stick-figure-sketch/#comments Fri, 14 May 2010 00:00:00 +0000 admin %excerpt%

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Autistic Boy Charged With Making Terrorist Threats Over Stick-Figure Sketch

]]> http://flashclub.ch/flog/headlines/autistic-boy-charged-with-making-terrorist-threats-over-stick-figure-sketch/feed/ 5 After 40 years, $1 trillion, US War on Drugs has failed to meet any of its goals http://flashclub.ch/flog/headlines/after-40-years-1-trillion-us-war-on-drugs-has-failed-to-meet-any-of-its-goals/ http://flashclub.ch/flog/headlines/after-40-years-1-trillion-us-war-on-drugs-has-failed-to-meet-any-of-its-goals/#comments Fri, 14 May 2010 00:00:00 +0000 http://flashclub.ch/flog/uncategorized/after-40-years-1-trillion-us-war-on-drugs-has-failed-to-meet-any-of-its-goals/ After

]]> After 40 years, the United States’ war on drugs has cost $1 trillion and hundreds of thousands of lives, and for what? Drug use is rampant and violence even more brutal and widespread.

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After 40 years, $1 trillion, US War on Drugs has failed to meet any of its goals

]]> http://flashclub.ch/flog/headlines/after-40-years-1-trillion-us-war-on-drugs-has-failed-to-meet-any-of-its-goals/feed/ 4 Canadian Faces Prison for U.S. Internet Gambling Role http://flashclub.ch/flog/internet/canadian-faces-prison-for-u-s-internet-gambling-role/ http://flashclub.ch/flog/internet/canadian-faces-prison-for-u-s-internet-gambling-role/#comments Thu, 13 May 2010 21:50:29 +0000

]]> A Canadian man has pleaded guilty to charges of assisting overseas online gambling sites to process hundreds of millions of dollars in wagers. The conviction of Douglas Rennick, 35, comes as some U.S. lawmakers are looking to tax online gambling revenue rather than criminalizing such wagering. Federal law prohibits financial institutions and individuals from knowingly assisting in collecting and paying bets stemming from online chance gaming like poker, blackjack, slot machines and other games. Clearly, Americans love to gamble online. The United States charged Rennick with processing or “laundering” more than $565 million in gambling payments in the United states through phony companies between 2007 and 2009. “I had a business that transferred money from offshore gaming sites to American players within the Southern District of New York,” Rennick told U.S

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Canadian Faces Prison for U.S. Internet Gambling Role

]]> http://flashclub.ch/flog/internet/canadian-faces-prison-for-u-s-internet-gambling-role/feed/ 9 NYPD Building CCTV Camera System Which It Hopes Will Be Better than London’s http://flashclub.ch/flog/security/nypd-building-cctv-camera-system-which-it-hopes-will-be-better-than-londons/ http://flashclub.ch/flog/security/nypd-building-cctv-camera-system-which-it-hopes-will-be-better-than-londons/#comments Thu, 13 May 2010 20:51:54 +0000 http://flashclub.ch/flog/uncategorized/nypd-building-cctv-camera-system-which-it-hopes-will-be-better-than-londons/

]]> New York Police Department is building a closed-circuit TV surveillance system which it hopes ultimately will be more sophisticated and effective than the closed circuit TV (CCTV) system used by police in London and other British cities. The widespread use of CCTV monitoring in Britain has been touted by U.K. authorities as a critical tool for solving crimes and maintaining public order but has been criticized by civil libertarians as a Big Brother-like widespread invasion of personal privacy. According to official estimates, in London, the Metropolitan Police (a.k.a. Scotland Yard) and its partners in the City of London Police, who patrol the “square mile London borough that hosts most of Britain’s financial industry, have access to video from roughly 500,000 cameras

]]> http://flashclub.ch/flog/security/nypd-building-cctv-camera-system-which-it-hopes-will-be-better-than-londons/feed/ 10 Pentagon Virus Detector Knows You’re Sick Before You Do http://flashclub.ch/flog/military/pentagon-virus-detector-knows-you%e2%80%99re-sick-before-you-do/ http://flashclub.ch/flog/military/pentagon-virus-detector-knows-you%e2%80%99re-sick-before-you-do/#comments Thu, 13 May 2010 19:12:53 +0000 Steven Aftergood

]]> Imagine knowing you’ll be too sick to go to work, before the faintest hint of a runny nose or a sore throat. Now imagine that preemptive diagnosis being transmitted to a national, web-based influenza map — simply by picking up the phone. That’s the impressive potential of an ongoing Pentagon-funded research project, spearheaded by geneticists at Duke University. Since 2006, they’ve been hunting for a genetic signature that can accurately assess, well before symptoms appear, whether someone’s been infected with a virus. Eight months into a $19.5 million grant from Darpa , the Pentagon’s out-there research agency, the expert behind the program is anticipating a tool with implications far beyond military circles. Dr. Geoffrey Ginsburg, director of Duke’s Institute for Genome Science & Policy , is collaborating with a team of colleagues to create a gadget that can detect viral infection hours before the sniffles. Between 2006 and 2009, his team made rapid strides in identifying 30 genetic markers, found through blood samples, that are activated by a virus. They’ve since moved to human trials, testing 80 people in four studies. Healthy participants were exposed to three different viral strains

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Pentagon Virus Detector Knows You’re Sick Before You Do

]]> http://flashclub.ch/flog/military/pentagon-virus-detector-knows-you%e2%80%99re-sick-before-you-do/feed/ 5 Counterinsurgency is a Long Term Process, Not an Event: McChrystal http://flashclub.ch/flog/security/counterinsurgency-is-a-long-term-process-not-an-event-mcchrystal/ http://flashclub.ch/flog/security/counterinsurgency-is-a-long-term-process-not-an-event-mcchrystal/#comments Thu, 13 May 2010 18:32:18 +0000 admin http://flashclub.ch/flog/uncategorized/counterinsurgency-is-a-long-term-process-not-an-event-mcchrystal/

]]> Afghan commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal didn’t give away much on the pending Kandahar offensive in today’s presser at the Pentagon, predicting a “difficult” fight against a “smart” insurgency that constantly probes for openings where it can slip fighters into villages and towns and intimidate the local population through assassinations and “night letters” under the noses of U.S., NATO and Afghan troops. Special operations units are targeting insurgent networks and leaders in Kandahar, he said, prepping the terrain for the coming offensive. But he cautioned against expecting a D-Day like offensive. That’s not how wars amongst the people are fought, he said, channeling a bit of the Rupert Smith; fighting a war in the middle of somebody’s home isn’t easy. He plans a gradual “rising tide” of security that will, over time, convince the local people to side with the Afghan central government against the Taliban.

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Counterinsurgency is a Long Term Process, Not an Event: McChrystal

]]> http://flashclub.ch/flog/security/counterinsurgency-is-a-long-term-process-not-an-event-mcchrystal/feed/ 0 Confessed Spy Convicted of Exporting U.S. Crypto Gear to China http://flashclub.ch/flog/internet/confessed-spy-convicted-of-exporting-u-s-crypto-gear-to-china/ http://flashclub.ch/flog/internet/confessed-spy-convicted-of-exporting-u-s-crypto-gear-to-china/#comments Thu, 13 May 2010 16:31:52 +0000 http://flashclub.ch/flog/uncategorized/confessed-spy-convicted-of-exporting-u-s-crypto-gear-to-china/

]]> A Chinese national was convicted this week of smuggling and other charges over his efforts to acquire sensitive military and NSA-encryption gear from eBay and other internet sources. Chi Tong Kuok, of Macau, told Defense Department and Customs investigators that he had been “acting at the direction of officials for the People’s Republic of China,” according to a government affidavit in the case. “Kuok indicated he and PRC officials sought the items to figure out ways to listen to or monitor U.S. government and military communications.” Kuok was arrested at the Atlanta International Airport last year en route from Paris to Panama, where he planned to meet an undercover federal agent he believed was going to provide him with military radios. He was transferred to California and indicted (.pdf) for money laundering, conspiracy, smuggling and one count of attempting to export a defense article without a license. On Tuesday, a jury convicted him on all counts. The U.S. began investigating Kuok in December 2006, when, using the first of many aliases, the man e-mailed a contact in the defense industry in search of software for a VDC-300 airborne data controller, used for secure satellite communications from American military aircraft. The contact referred Kuok to an undercover agent in San Diego, who began negotiating with Kuok over a shopping list of military technology that eventually grew to at least 43 different items, ranging from a GPS receiver with anti-spoofing defenses, to the NSA-developed AN/CYZ-10 crypto key management device.

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Confessed Spy Convicted of Exporting U.S. Crypto Gear to China

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