What's going on in the World Today 190819

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USA

White House Is Pressing for Additional Options, Including Cyberattacks, to Deter Iran

WASHINGTON — American intelligence and military officers are working on additional clandestine plans to counter Iranian aggression in the Persian Gulf, pushed by the White House to develop new options that could help deter Tehran without escalating tensions into a full-out conventional war, according to current and former officials.

The goal is to develop operations similar to the cyberattacks conducted on Thursday and that echo the shadow war the United States has accused Tehran of carrying out with attacks on oil tankers in the Middle East, according to American officials briefed on the effort. Iran maintains that it was not responsible for the attacks on the tankers.

The cyberattacks were aimed at an Iranian intelligence group that American officials believe was behind a series of attacks on tankers in the Persian Gulf region. The American operation was intended to take down the computers and networks used by the intelligence group, at least temporarily. A separate online operation was aimed at taking out computers that control Iranian missile launches.

The White House has told military and intelligence officials it also now wants options in line with the kind of operations conducted by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, the officials said...

New Designs Vault Scramjets Into Lead In Hypersonic Race

Raytheon is “very close” to flying a scramjet-powered missile codeveloped with Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems and attempting to revive the near-term prospects for a hypersonic technology that once appeared eclipsed by an emerging class of winged gliders boosted by rockets to double-digit Mach speeds.

Attempts to design a supersonic combustion ramjet—also known as a scramjet—have achieved only limited success in experimental flight tests stretching back decades. But the Raytheon/Northrop team’s new approach to an operationally viable missile that relies on a relatively low-risk, all-metallic design and an additively manufactured scramjet engine designed by Northrop (formerly ATK) has inspired confidence based on wind-tunnel tests and simulations.

Schedule details remain classified for the Defense Department’s three-pronged, $10 billion campaign to field multiple hypersonic weapons over the next five years, but Raytheon’s perspective now is that scramjets finally are poised to leap slightly ahead of the winged-glider alternative...

AFRICA

NOTHING SIGNIFICANT TO REPORT

ASIA

Philippines On Alert Amid Warnings Of New Islamic State-Linked Group In North

Philippine security officials have been placed on heightened alert following a report that a group allied to the Islamic State (IS) was targeting churches and establishments for bomb attacks in the north, officials said Tuesday. … a group calling itself Suyuful Khilafa Fi Luzon (SKFL) was scouting for targets to make its presence felt in an area where IS-linked groups are not known to operate. …. Little is known about the group, but loosely translated, its name means “soldiers of the caliphate in Luzon.” Most of its members were once allied with the Rajah Solaiman Movement (RSM), the sources said.

EUROPE

NOTHING SIGNIFICANT TO REPORT

LATIN/SOUTH AMERICA

Two more border cities added to U.S.-Mexico asylum program: sources

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - U.S.-bound asylum seekers will be sent back to at least two additional Mexican border cities later this week to wait for their claims to be processed, officials said, with one of the cities in a region that is among Mexico’s most chaotic and violent.

Central American migrants get off a raft after crossing the Suchiate river from Tecun Uman, in Guatemala, to Ciudad Hidalgo, as seen from Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico, June 9, 2019. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas
The policy known as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), or Remain in Mexico, will be implemented later this week in Nuevo Laredo in the northern state of Tamaulipas, which borders Texas, said two Mexican officials with knowledge of the matter, who declined to be identified...

AFGHANISTAN

NOTHING SIGNIFICANT TO REPORT

CHINA

NOTHING SIGNIFICANT TO REPORT

IRAN

Iran using GPS jammers, pretend to be American warships to trick vessels, US says

Iranian forces are actively using GPS jammers and pretending to be U.S. or allies’ warships to trick commercial vessels into traveling through Iranian waters and then seizing them, federal government officials say. The US Department of Transportation's Maritime Administration released a warning Wednesday, claiming Iran is using “GPS interference, bridge-to-bridge communications spoofing, and/or other communications jamming with little to no warning...”

Iran unveils 'upgraded missile defence system' - Gulf tensions

Iran unveiled a new air defence system it says is capable of detecting missiles and drones at a range of 400 kilometres (250 miles)…. The "Falagh" is a locally overhauled version of the imported "Gamma" surveillance radar, the semi-official news agency said, in an apparent reference to a Russian-made system of that name. It had been inoperable due to "sanctions, lack of spare parts and the inability of foreign engineers to carry out repairs", it added.

IRAQ

Iran says it will break the uranium stockpile limit agreed under nuclear deal in 10 days

(CNN)Iran is ramping up enrichment of low-grade uranium and will pass the limit it is allowed to stockpile under the nuclear deal in 10 days, a spokesman for the Iranian atomic agency announced Monday.

During a news conference at the Arak heavy water reactor facility, Behrouz Kamalvandi said that Iran had increased low enriched uranium production fourfold and would exceed the limit of 300 kilograms by June 27, in the latest blow to the nuclear deal agreed between Tehran and world powers in 2015.

"If Iran feels that the sanctions have been reinstated or not lifted, Iran has the right to partly or on the whole suspend its commitments," Kamalvandi said, referring to sanctions that were lifted as part of the nuclear deal but have since been reinstated by the US. The Trump administration withdrew from the pact in May 2018.

However, he said, there was still time for European countries to save the nuclear deal if they "abide by their commitments."

After exceeding the limit, Iran will accelerate uranium enrichment to 3.7%, Kamalvandi said -- above the 3.67% mandated by the nuclear deal. Enrichment at this percentage is enough to continue powering parts of the country's energy needs, but not enough to ever build a nuclear bomb...

ISRAEL

NOTHING SIGNIFICANT TO REPORT

KOREAN PENNSULEA

The North Korean Economy—June 2019: Kim Jong Un’s Reforestation Plans: The Dilemma of Forests Versus Food and Fuel

North Korea’s environmental problems have not garnered nearly as much attention as its nuclear and missile programs, signature construction projects or vague commitments to improving the economy, but it is an area that has seen the most interesting developments under Kim Jong Un’s tenure.[1]

Deforestation is a massive problem in the country as the lack of trees contributes to flooding during the annual rainy season. Much more so than his predecessors, Kim has put a spotlight on the problem and more frankly described its systemic causes as he wrestles with a basic dilemma: deforestation occurred largely because of an economic crisis whose root causes remain unresolved. People cut down trees for fuel and firewood, and to clear land for farming. As long as the lack of food and fuel persists, Kim’s reforestation plans will be very difficult to implement...

Toward a Better Understanding of North Korea’s Cyber Operations

The cybersecurity capabilities of the North Korean government are certainly more advanced than a country with such a small economy would traditionally field and should not be underestimated. The commitment of the regime to acquire cybersecurity capacities is consistent with its broader efforts to pursue disruptive technologies such as nuclear, chemical and biological weaponry. While it is assumed that much of the information on North Korea’s cyber capabilities is classified, there is a large amount on their attacks in the public domain, making it relatively easy to unpack and discuss these capabilities abilities (also known as the Lazarus Group, APT37 or Hidden Cobra). A careful reading of this information suggests that while North Korean cyber operations are broadly reported and studied, they are often treated separately from other issues on the peninsula, increasing the risk that decision makers will produce an incomplete analysis of the strategic environment...

RUSSIA

Russia deploys anti-ship missile system near Norway border

A Russian coastal anti-ship missile system was moved to a new location on the Sredny Peninsula late Wednesday, a short distance from its border with Norway and Finland on the Barents Sea. More than 60 military personnel and 15 units of military hardware were moved into the new position on the Barents coast, Russia's Northern Fleet said. Moscow plans firing exercises with the Bal coastal missile system this fall.

Russia Says Its Jets Drove Off NATO Warplane

Russia's Defense Ministry has said that Russian Su-27 warplanes forced away a NATO F-18 jet after it approached an aircraft carrying Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu over international waters. The TASS news agency on August 13 reported that Shoigu’s plane was flying from Russia’s Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad to Moscow when the incident occurred over the Baltic Sea.

MIDDLE EAST GENERAL

NOTHING SIGNIFICANT TO REPORT

CYBER ISSUES

DHS CISA warns of Iranian hackers' habit of deploying data-wiping malware

CISA also warns against other Iranian hackers' favorite techniques: password spraying, credential stuffing, spear-phishing.

The Department of Homeland Security's cyber-security agency is warning of increased cyber-activity from Iranian hackers, and urging US companies to take protective measures against these hacker groups' most common practices -- the use of data-wiping malware, credential stuffing attacks, password spraying, and spear-phishing.

The warning was published in a tweet by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Director Christopher Krebs.

The CISA alert comes as Iranian hackers launched new waves of cyber-attacks against US targets following escalating tensions between the US and Iran, according to a CBS News report.

The US has responded to these Iranian cyber-attacks with a volley of its own, per a Yahoo News report...

FBI wants to monitor Facebook and Instagram for domestic threats in real time

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has quietly been searching for private contractors who could gather and feed to law enforcement tremendous amounts of user data straight from social media platforms such as Twitter (TWTR), Facebook (FB) and Instagram. The U.S. government needs "real-time access to a full range of social media exchanges" to better fight terrorist groups and domestic threats, the FBI said in its request for bids, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. But the FBI's effort to gain far-reaching visibility into the social media activities of both Americans and foreigners risks clashing with other parts of the federal government that have sought to clamp down on Silicon Valley for data breaches, privacy violations, and other cases in which user information was shared without consent...

INTEL GENERAL

FBI wants to monitor Facebook and Instagram for domestic threats in real time

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has quietly been searching for private contractors who could gather and feed to law enforcement tremendous amounts of user data straight from social media platforms such as Twitter (TWTR), Facebook (FB) and Instagram. The U.S. government needs "real-time access to a full range of social media exchanges" to better fight terrorist groups and domestic threats, the FBI said in its request for bids, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. But the FBI's effort to gain far-reaching visibility into the social media activities of both Americans and foreigners risks clashing with other parts of the federal government that have sought to clamp down on Silicon Valley for data breaches, privacy violations, and other cases in which user information was shared without consent.

TERRORISM
Saudi forces say they have captured leader of Yemen branch of Islamic State - Reuters

DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi special forces have captured the leader of the Yemeni branch of the Islamic State militant group, the Saudi-led military coalition fighting in Yemen said on Tuesday.

The leader, Abu Osama al-Muhajer, as well as other members of the organization including its chief financial officer, were captured on June 3 in a raid on a house carried out by Saudi and Yemeni forces, the coalition said in a statement carried on Saudi state news agency SPA.
NOTHING SIGNIFICANT TO REPORT


https://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-isis/saudi-forces-say-they-have-captured-leader-of-yemen-branch-of-islamic-state-idUSKCN1TQ1TX

MISC

From Cold War Space Race To Evolving ‘Moon Village’

After he went to Mars, Andy Weir went to the Moon. The acclaimed science fiction author followed up The Martian, a novel of human exploration on the red planet, with a high-concept tale of men and women living and working on Earth’s huge natural satellite. It is no coincidence that NASA chose his title—Artemis—as the name for its new effort to return humans to the lunar surface 50 years after Apollo 11.

In Greek mythology, Artemis was Apollo’s twin sister, a huntress associated with wildlife, the wilderness and the Moon itself. As China, India and a host of private companies target the Moon for exploration and exploitation, the U.S. space agency is pitching a 37-mission effort to put the first woman on the surface by 2024. NASA’s bosses in the White House want to plant the American flag on the rim of a deep polar crater at the Moon’s south pole, potentially staking a claim to the frozen reservoir of water believed to lie in its permanently shadowed depths.

The concept remains unfunded by the currently dysfunctional U.S. government and probably will not happen—at least not as outlined and certainly not in five years. Like military organizations preparing to fight the last war, NASA’s Artemis program is a throwback to the superpower space race of the 1960s. Then, competing teams of U.S. and Soviet engineers enjoyed almost unlimited access to public resources in the hope their side would cross the lunar finish line first...

...Today, humankind’s return to the Moon is likely to require a very different kind of leadership. The job of planting a colony there will be too big for any one nation to develop and fund and too complex for a single master designer to oversee. The evolution of a Moon base will be much more organic, and evolutionary, than a one-off engineering feat on the model of Apollo. Weir’s fictional vision is more likely a foreshadowing of what comes next than a rehash of what has been...