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FACTBOX-Security developments in Iraq, May 14

Steven Aftergood — Fri, 14 May 2010 12:38:00 +0000

Source: Reuters May 14 (Reuters) – Following are security developments in Iraq at 1230 GMT on Friday. MOSUL – Gunmen shot dead a tailor specialising in military uniforms inside his shop in central Mosul, 390 km ( …

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FACTBOX-Security developments in Iraq, May 14

Threats to United States Remain, Northcom Commander Says

admin — Fri, 14 May 2010 02:53:11 +0000

By Donna Miles May 13, 2010 – Lauding successes within North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command aimed at protecting the homeland, the outgoing commander emphasized today that the threats confronting the United States – both natural and manmade – will continue. “It is important for us to understand that the threats have not gone away,” Air Force Gen. Victor E. “Gene” Renuart said during his last news conference before leaving the commands he has led for the past three years. Northcom was formed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to oversee the military ’s role in homeland defense. NORAD is a binational U.S.-Canadian Command that provides aerospace warning and control for North America. “Mother Nature, she is going to continue,” Renuart said at his Peterson Air Force Base, Colo., headquarters. “But even more importantly, the threats to the defense of our nations are not going away.

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Threats to United States Remain, Northcom Commander Says

Combined Force Kills Dozens of Insurgents

Fri, 14 May 2010 02:51:37 +0000

Compiled from International Security Assistance Force Joint Command News Releases May 13, 2010 – An Afghan-international security force killed more than two dozen insurgents and captured several others while pursuing a senior Taliban commander in Afghanistan’s Kunduz province last night, military officials reported. The combined force went to a compound in the province’s Kunduz district, after intelligence information confirmed the Taliban were staging for a large attack. As the Afghan-led element moved into the target area, it immediately began receiving fire from a mosque and surrounding woods, and then returned fire. Shortly after, several armed men ran toward and fired on the combined force. They were engaged and killed. Other insurgents were killed as they continued to fire on the combined force with machine guns, automatic rifles and hand grenades.

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Combined Force Kills Dozens of Insurgents

HASC Subcommittees Embrace Lockheed, But With Tough Love

Steven Aftergood — Thu, 13 May 2010 22:27:00 +0000

The budget axe is beginning to fall for the Joint Strike Fighter with two House defense authorization subcommittees proposing limited funding for F-35, unless Lockheed Martin makes good on its promises. The Pentagon requested about $11.4 billion for Navy, USMC and USAF F-35 development and procurement activities in Fiscal 2011. That includes 43 aircraft (42 in the base budget, and 1 in the war spending bill as a replacement). But, the full amount will be released on two key conditions. One congressional staffer calls this “incentives,” but notes that the requirements aren’t “anything Lockheed hasn’t already promised.” Only 30 of the single-engine stealthy Joint Strike Fighters will be purchased unless the pace of improvements to testing and manufacturing are improved. “Only 3 of the 14 test aircraft planned for the F-35 program have been delivered. Only 10% of the planned test flights last year were flown,” according to a HASC statement

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HASC Subcommittees Embrace Lockheed, But With Tough Love

Iraqis Arrest 4 Associates of Terrorists

Thu, 13 May 2010 20:46:08 +0000

May 13, 2010 – Iraqi security forces arrested four suspected al-Qaida in Iraq criminal associates during separate combined security operations in central and southern Iraq yesterday, military officials reported. Iraqi forces working with U.S., advisors arrested three suspected criminal associates south of Baghdad while searching for a suspected al-Qaida in Iraq member who allegedly is involved in bombing attacks against civilians and Iraqi and coalition forces. During another operation in Baghdad, Iraqi forces and U.S. advisors searched for a suspected al-Qaida in Iraq leader who allegedly is involved in high-profile vehicle-bomb attacks and has ties to senior the terror organization’s leadership. Information and evidence gathered at the scene led Iraqi forces to identify and arrest a criminal associate of the wanted man.

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Iraqis Arrest 4 Associates of Terrorists

Afghan Perceptions Key to Success, McChrystal Says

Thu, 13 May 2010 20:45:00 +0000

By Jim Garamone American Forces Press Service May 13, 2010 – Changing the perceptions of the Afghan people about the coalition, their own government and the Taliban will be key to success in that nation, the commander of the International Security Assistance Force and U.S. forces in Afghanistan said here today. Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal told Pentagon reporters that achieving more progress in the counterinsurgency campaign in Afghanistan will be a slow, deliberate endeavor, because changing perceptions is challenging. Efforts in the country will be directed toward “changing not only the dynamics of security, governance and development, but also the attitudes of a population long pressured by insurgents,” he said. The strategic priority in the country is the development of Afghan national security forces, McChrystal said. “While both the army and police have demonstrated considerable growth,” he said, “significant challenges remain. The bottom line is there’s much more work ahead to mature Afghan security forces

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Afghan Perceptions Key to Success, McChrystal Says

Pentagon Virus Detector Knows You’re Sick Before You Do

Steven Aftergood — Thu, 13 May 2010 19:12:53 +0000

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

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

Thu, 13 May 2010 16:31:52 +0000

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

Afghanistan Operation Leaves Taliban Commander Dead

Steven Aftergood — Thu, 13 May 2010 14:46:40 +0000

From an International Security Assistance Force Joint Command News Release KABUL, May 12, 2010 – Afghan and international forces killed a leading Taliban commander in Afghanistan’s Helmand province yesterday, military officials reported. Officials said the combined operation resulted in the death of a leading Taliban commander known as Amid. The insurgent commander’s demise is expected to disrupt the training facilitation of an active Taliban network in Helmand’s Malmand district. After several compounds were identified as possible locations for Amid, the operation was conducted to search the compounds and find him. As the combined force approached the first compound, one insurgent fled to an adjacent compound that was occupied by women and children, while two others hid in a nearby tree line. The combined force secured three compounds, and Afghan special police conducted numerous callouts in local dialects. Several men, women, and children vacated the compounds and were moved to a safe area for the duration of the operation. Once they were assured the civilians were safe, the combined force proceeded to the tree line to apprehend the insurgents who had fled from the first compound.

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Afghanistan Operation Leaves Taliban Commander Dead

Vice Chair Cartwright Tells Services to Wake Up to Reality of Smaller Budgets

admin — Thu, 13 May 2010 14:44:03 +0000

The point man in charge of requirements at the Pentagon, vice chair of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Hoss Cartwright, just told the services to “wake up!” at a CSIS sponsored conference in Washington, DC. In the real world, not the fantasy bubble of never ending defense budget increases, there are such things as economic dislocation, fiscal deficits and resource constraints, he said. “You are not going to have 300 to 500 ships. You are not going to have thousands of fighters.” At the same time, America must try and reverse its course of the last decade, which was bringing us to the point where we would have one ship on each coast and one plane on each coast, and focus on quantity to help reverse that stark reality: “We need quantity more than we need that high end exquisite capability. If we can’t figure out how to get to that we’re living in denial of the world we’re in and hoping for the world we want to have in front of us.” He echoed a theme that we’re hearing more and more from top military leaders, particularly SecDef Robert Gates, in recent weeks: we must think in terms of partnering and building coalitions. Defense planners too often look at a military challenge and say the U.S. military must buy up weapons in sufficient number to meet that challenge (think the rise of China).

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Vice Chair Cartwright Tells Services to Wake Up to Reality of Smaller Budgets

F L A S H C L U B » military

FACTBOX-Security developments in Iraq, May 14

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