Police Work, Politics and World Affairs, Football and the ongoing search for great Scotch Whiskey!
Sunday, February 2, 2014
What's going on in the World Today 140202
As it it Superbowl Sunday and I’m sitting on my easy chair, with my dog Elmer next to me, a pizza on the way and scotch going in, I have to start this post with the words of the greatest coach in the history of the league, Vince Lombari. Sorry, no argument on this. The trophy of the championship is named for him!
What It Takes to be Number One
"Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all the time thing. You don't win once in a while; you don't do things right once in a while; you do them right all of the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.
There is no room for second place. There is only one place in my game, and that's first place. I have finished second twice in my time at Green Bay, and I don't ever want to finish second again. There is a second place bowl game, but it is a game for losers played by losers. It is and always has been an American zeal to be first in anything we do, and to win, and to win, and to win.
Every time a football player goes to ply his trade he's got to play from the ground up - from the soles of his feet right up to his head. Every inch of him has to play. Some guys play with their heads. That's O.K. You've got to be smart to be number one in any business. But more importantly, you've got to play with your heart, with every fiber of your body. If you're lucky enough to find a guy with a lot of head and a lot of heart, he's never going to come off the field second.
Running a football team is no different than running any other kind of organization - an army, a political party or a business. The principles are the same. The object is to win - to beat the other guy. Maybe that sounds hard or cruel. I don't think it is.
It is a reality of life that men are competitive and the most competitive games draw the most competitive men. That's why they are there - to compete. The object is to win fairly, squarely, by the rules - but to win.
And in truth, I've never known a man worth his salt who in the long run, deep down in his heart, didn't appreciate the grind, the discipline. There is something in good men that really yearns for discipline and the harsh reality of head to head combat.
I don't say these things because I believe in the ‘brute' nature of men or that men must be brutalized to be combative. I believe in God, and I believe in human decency. But I firmly believe that any man's finest hour -- his greatest fulfillment to all he holds dear -- is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted -- victorious.
Did you hear the one about the first lieutenant who had to pay $120,000 in fines for accepting bribes from contractors he'd awarded with lucrative Defense Department deals? Or the Navy civilian working who asked a fence contractor for a $5,000 payment so the contractor could be "recommended" for a $153,000 contract? What about the four senior officials, including two Air Force generals, a Marine general and a Navy admiral, who extended their stay in Tokyo to play golf at an illegal cost of $3,000 to the government?
The thing is, those aren't jokes. They're true stories. And they point to a growing problem within the military: a pattern of misconduct, misbehavior and outright thievery by senior generals, top Pentagon civilian officials and of course, the rank-and-file.
The laundry list of wrongdoing, in the Defense Department and in various other government agencies, is contained in a surprisingly readable but unknown document compiled by the equally unknown Defense Department's General Counsel's Standards of Conduct Office.
The name of the July 2013 report says it all: The Encyclopedia of Ethical Failure, a 164-page who's who of bureaucratic nee'r do wells that details all of those government personnel who have tried to fleece the government, line their pockets with public money, use government property for their own use or demand loans from subordinates.
There is a section on credit card abuse, another on political endorsements. There's one on financial aid disclosures, and others on fraud, gambling and gift violations. The Defense Department likes to say that most of its personnel are law-abiding, upstanding citizens, and that's true. But the numerous cases listed in the document beg the question: who does this kind of thing?
"Our goal is to provide DoD personnel with real examples of federal employees who have intentionally or unwittingly violated the standards of conduct," the introduction reads. "Some cases are humorous, some sad, and all are real.”…
http://complex.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2014/01/30/the_military_has_catalogued_its_ethical_failures_and_theyre_kind_of_awesome
January 28, Baltimore Sun – (Maryland) Tool containing radioactive material stolen Monday in Baltimore. The Maryland Department of the Environment stated January 27 that a device containing a small amount of radioactive material used to measure lead in paint was stolen in Baltimore and requested the public’s help in recovering it.
January 29, WWJ 62 Detroit – (Michigan) One person arrested in New Center bomb scare, evacuation. Medical offices, several businesses, and a preschool in the New Center One building in Detroit were evacuated January 29 for more than 3 hours due to a bomb threat. One person was arrested in connection to the threat and police cleared the scene after a search determined there were no explosive devices in the building.
Thailand: Red Shirts Suggest Northern Capital In Event Of Coup January 31, 2014
Pro-government red shirt supporters in northern Thailand say they are ready to resist any attempt by the military to stage a coup, the South China Morning Post reported Jan. 31. Some supporters said they expect Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to set up a government in Chiang Mai if the army tries to seize power in Bangkok. So far the army has not taken a stance on the political unrest in Thailand. After a coup in 2006 and a bloody crackdown in 2010, it has tried to play a subtler role in politics. But the military has left open the possibility of an intervention should violence escalate.
Myanmar: Police In Border Areas Want Firearms January 31, 2014
Police in Myanmar's border areas have asked to be equipped with firearms, alleging attacks against them by Muslim residents, Eleven Myanmar reported Jan. 31. Police say there have been seven such attacks in Rakhine state's Maungdaw township since 2011. Violence between Buddhists and Muslims in Rakhine has regional implications, and Myanmar is wary of militancy from Rohingya Muslims in the state, where it suspects Bangladesh could play a hand in stoking tensions.
NIGHTWATCH 140130
Pakistan: This week, the Pakistani Taliban welcomed peace talks with the government. In return, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif made a statement on internal security to the National Assembly on the 29th. Excerpts follow.
"… now that the other party has offered talks, we want to give a peaceful solution another chance by putting aside the bitter experiences of the past. It is necessary for the success of talks that this process should be started with honesty. The first requirement for this would be that acts of terrorism are stopped immediately. Talks and terrorism cannot go together…."
"…From the floor of this house today I announce the formation of a four-member committee in this connection. The committee will include my Special Assistant for National Affairs Irfan Siddiqui; Major, retired, Muhammad Amir, who belongs to a renowned religious family of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; Rahimullah Yousufzai, who not only is an expert on the affairs of this region but is also a renowned journalist of national stature, and former Pakistani ambassador to Afghanistan Rustam Shah Mohmand, who has been nominated in consultation with the government of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Federal Minister for Interior Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan who has been the focal person of the whole talks exercise in accordance with the decision of the All Parties Conference, will assist in the committee's day to day affairs and I myself will directly oversee this whole process."
Comment: Prime Minister Sharif and his PML (N) party promised peace talks with the Pakistani Taliban as part of their election campaign last year. After months of false starts, interrupted by drone or other attacks, the government is trying again.
The two sides remain far apart as to terms for a settlement, but a ceasefire agreement even of limited duration or application would represent progress. In his statement, the Prime Minister argued strongly that future drone attacks should not derail talks because Pakistanis do not control the drones.
Turkey: 500 Police Officers Removed From Capital January 30, 2014
Turkey fired or reassigned around 500 police officers, including some senior officers, on Jan. 30, AFP reported. The government of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has now sanctioned roughly 6,000 police officers nationwide in apparent retaliation for a corruption investigation.
Germany: Berlin Plans To Cut Renewable Energy Subsidies January 30, 2014
German Energy Minister Sigmar Gabriel announced plans to cut state subsidies for renewable energies in an address to the Bundestag lower house on Jan. 30, DW reported. The move is an effort to contain the high costs for industry and regular consumers brought about by a move to renewable energy. Gabriel reaffirmed his commitment to renewable energy sources, a planned solution to Germany's energy needs as it moves away from nuclear power.
SAYEDABAD, Afghanistan — They look like victims of an insurgent attack — their limbs in need of amputation, their skulls cracked — but the patients who pour daily into the Ghazni Provincial Hospital are casualties of another Afghan crisis.
They are motorists who drove on the road network built by the U.S. government and other Western donors — a $4 billion project that was once a symbol of promise in post-Taliban Afghanistan but is now falling apart.
Western officials say the Afghan government is unable to maintain even a fraction of the roads and highways constructed since 2001, when the country had less than 50 miles of paved roads. The deterioration has hurt commerce and slowed military operations. In many places, the roads once deemed the hallmark of America’s development effort have turned into death traps, full of cars careening into massive bomb-blast craters or sliding off crumbling pavement.
“There’s been nothing. No maintenance,” said a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss the issue publicly.
Since 2012, the United States has refused to fund the Afghan government’s road maintenance projects because it has no faith in the country’s ability to perform even simple tasks, such as dispatching a contractor to fill in a pothole or repaving a stretch of highway.
Despite those concerns, the U.S. government is still building new roads in Afghanistan, multimillion-dollar projects whose funds were allocated years ago.
The Afghans say they are doing some maintenance but claim the cutoff in U.S. funds has left them hamstrung.
“We don’t have enough money to work as they did,” said Mohammad Aref Raiskhel, the director of maintenance at Afghanistan’s Ministry of Public Works. “I beg them to help us once again.”
Before the U.S. invasion in 2001, almost all of Afghanistan’s roads — mostly Soviet-built — had been destroyed by war and neglect. The new, U.S.-built highways seemed to be a godsend for this impoverished nation. But the projects became notorious for their exorbitant costs and poorly implemented contracts. Sometimes, money landed in the hands of the Taliban in exchange for a tacit cease-fire during road construction.
Now the rapid deterioration of the roads could come to symbolize a failure to preserve key gains.
Some of the roughly 10,000 miles of roads and highways built by Western donors have been worn away by overuse. Others are shredded by hundreds of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) laid by insurgents. Not long ago, U.S. troops and contractors repaired them, but those resources are now gone….
China’s air force is fielding new precision-guided cruise missiles, long-range bombers and drones as its Navy expands its long-range punch, according to U.S. military intelligence officials.
“While we would not characterize the modernization as accelerated,” it’s “progressing at a steady pace” and is significant, Lee Fuell, a director at the Air Force’s National Air and Space Intelligence Center, said in a presentation released yesterday.
Fuell’s presentation and one prepared by the Office of Naval Intelligence for a hearing of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission in Washington are the most detailed new public assessments of the Chinese air force’s and navy’s growing military capabilities.
While China’s military spending is less than one-fifth of the U.S.’s, President Xi Jinping has vowed to create a strong and disciplined military since he took control of the Central Military Commission when he became party secretary in November 2012. Under Xi, the Chinese navy has conducted military drills in the Pacific and the South China Sea, and in November the nation declared an air defense identification zone over islands disputed with Japan.
China is improving its air and naval power to blunt U.S. military prowess in the Pacific, project force farther from Chinese shores, and even blockade or invadeTaiwan, the island democracy whose territory it claims.
Source: ChinaFotoPress via Getty Images
Soldiers of Jinan Military Region check a jet fighter during a China Air Force Military...Read More
“Given the pace” of China’s naval modernization, “the gap in military capability between the mainland and Taiwan will continue to widen in China’s favor,” wrote Jesse Karotkin, the ONI senior intelligence officer on China, in the newstatement to the commission.
In addition, the naval intelligence office said in its report “many of these capabilities are designed specifically to deter or prevent U.S. military intervention in the region.”
Cruise Missiles
Deploying additional land-attack cruise missiles on new submarines and surface vessels “could enhance China’s ability to strike key U.S. bases throughout the region, including Guam,” said the 12-page naval intelligence assessment.
The Chinese army, which manages and operates the missile force, “is progressing at a steady pace” in expanding its arsenal of medium-range ballistic missiles armed with conventional warheads to increase the range “at which it can conduct precision strikes against land targets and naval ships (including aircraft carriers) operating far from China’s shores out to the first island chain,” Fuell said in his presentation.
The rapid, widespread fielding of Chinese-made anti-ship cruise missiles with ranges greater than 100 nautical miles is typical of the developments in a navy transitioning from a coastal maritime force to one “capable of multiple missions,” wrote Karotkin.
‘Improve Capability’
The goal of China’s upgrades “is to improve capability to conduct offensive and defensive operations such as strike, air and missile defense, power projection, and early warning and reconnaissance,” said Fuell, the Air Force intelligence center’s technical director for force modernization and employment, in testimony prepared for the review commission, a panel created by the U.S. Congress.
“We believe the Chinese are not trying to match the U.S. system vs. system, but are pursuing more of a system-of-systems approach that exploits what they perceive to be adversary weaknesses or exploitable vulnerabilities,” he said.
China’s air force upgrades are in tandem with fielding long-range anti-ship cruise missiles on half of its 62 submarines, developing more mines to add to its inventory of 50,000, and a “dramatic improvement” in its navy’s ability to conduct satellite reconnaissance of broad areas, according to the naval intelligence officeassessment.
Threaten Adversaries
The growing arsenal also will enhance China’s ability to threaten potential adversaries and “significantly expand its counter-intervention capability further into the Philippine Sea and South China Sea,” it said.
China has grown increasingly assertive in territorial disputes with its neighbors, including Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Brunei and the Philippines. Still, a conflict in the South China Sea would strain the Chinese air force’s ability “to project airpower in a sustained fashion,” in part because of its “limited aerial refueling capabilities,” said Fuell.
China will cross a major threshold by 2020, when its new aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, is expected to be capable of launching and recovering aircraft “to support fleet operations in a limited air defense role,” the ONI said.
IRAN
NOTHING SIGNIFICANT TO REPORT
IRAQ
NOTHING SIGNIFICANT TO REPORT
ISRAEL
Egypt: Al Qaeda-Linked Group Claims Rocket Attack On Israel February 1, 2014
Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, a Sinai-based militant group that may have ties to al Qaeda claimed responsibility Feb. 1 for a failed rocket attack on the Israeli city of Eilat a day earlier, Reuters reported. The Jan. 31 attack was thwarted by Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system. Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, which translates to "Supporters of Jerusalem," has claimed several recent high-profile attacks in Egypt and rapidly become one of the most active jihadist groups in the world.
RUSSIA
2. January 28, Wired.com – (International) Coder behind notorious bank-hacking tool pleads guilty. A Russian man extradited from the Dominican Republic pleaded guilty in an Atlanta court to developing, selling, and customizing the SpyEye banking trojan that infected more than 1.4 million computers. The trojan was sold to over 150 customers worldwide who used it to compromise thousands of bank accounts and steal millions of dollars. Source: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2014/01/spy-eye-author-guilty-plea/
SYRIA
NOTHING SIGNIFICANT TO REPORT
MIDDLE EAST GENERAL
Egypt: Cabinet Reshuffle To Include Defense Ministry February 1, 2014
Interim Egyptian Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi said Feb. 1 that an upcoming Cabinet reshuffle will include the Defense Ministry, a sign that Field Marshal Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi plans to run for president, Al-Arabiya and al-Masry al-Youm reported. Al-Sisi, the current defense minister, must step down from the post in order to run for president. In backing al-Sisi's political pursuits, the armed forces are attempting to create a new civilian ruling class led by generals.
January 29, Threatpost – (International) High-volume DDoS attacks top operational threat to businesses, service providers. Arbor Networks released its Worldwide Infrastructure Security Report and found that distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks were the largest operational threat to service providers and enterprises, reaching unprecedented levels in 2013, among other findings.
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