USA
China hacked a Navy contractor and secured a trove of highly sensitive data on submarine warfare
Chinese government hackers have compromised the computers of a Navy contractor, stealing massive amounts of highly sensitive data related to undersea warfare — including secret plans to develop a supersonic anti-ship missile for use on U.S. submarines by 2020, according to American officials. The breaches occurred in January and February, the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. The hackers targeted a contractor who works for the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, a military organization headquartered in Newport, R.I., that conducts research and development for submarines and underwater weaponry. The officials did not identify the contractor. Taken were 614 gigabytes of material relating to a closely held project known as Sea Dragon, as well assignals and sensor data, submarine radio room information relating to cryptographic systems, and the Navy submarine development unit’s electronic warfare library. The Washington Post agreed to withhold certain details about the compromised missile project at the request of the Navy, which argued that their release could harm national security.
The data stolen was of a highly sensitive nature despite being housed on the contractor’s unclassified network. The officials said the material, when aggregated, would be considered classified, a fact that raises concerns about the Navy’s ability to oversee contractors tasked with developing cutting-edge weapons. The breach is part of China’s long-running effort to blunt the U.S. advantage in military technology and become the preeminent power in east Asia. The news comes as the Trump administration is seeking to secure Beijing’s support in persuading North Korea to give up nuclear weapons, even as tensions persist between the United States and China over trade and defense matters. The Navy is leading the investigation into the breach with the assistance of the FBI, officials said. Navy spokesman Cmdr. Bill Speaks said, “There are measures in place that require companies to notify the government when a ‘cyber incident’ has occurred that has actual or potential adverse effects on their networks that contain controlled unclassified information...”
China Grows Anxious About Taiwan Reunification
One of the biggest obstacles to China's campaign for "national rejuvenation," President Xi Jinping's plan to guide the country to world prominence, lies across 180 kilometers (112 miles) of water on the island of Taiwan. The mainland's drive to return China to a position of global strength — which it hopes to complete by 2049 — includes reunification with Taiwan. The remnants of the Nationalist Party that fled to the island during the civil war waged in China in the 1940s remain there, creating a situation that the conflict's Communist victors cannot accept. While successive governments in Beijing have tried without success to reclaim or to reintegrate the island, they did prevent it from pulling away. Their efforts to draw Taiwan closer have yielded mixed results, but over the past few decades, Taiwanese nationalism has continued to rise. Today, with the island's younger generations displaying an increasing desire for independence, the United States is showing signs of greater support for Taiwan. These factors have helped to push tensions across the Taiwan Strait to their highest point in a decade...
Pentagon Puts Cyberwarriors on the Offensive, Increasing the Risk of Conflict
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has quietly empowered the United States Cyber Command to take a far more aggressive approach to defending the nation against cyberattacks, a shift in strategy that could increase the risk of conflict with the foreign states that sponsor malicious hacking groups.
Until now, the Cyber Command has assumed a largely defensive posture, trying to counter attackers as they enter American networks. In the relatively few instances when it has gone on the offensive, particularly in trying to disrupt the online activities of the Islamic State and its recruiters in the past several years, the results have been mixed at best.
But in the spring, as the Pentagon elevated the command’s status, it opened the door to nearly daily raids on foreign networks, seeking to disable cyberweapons before they can be unleashed, according to strategy documents and military and intelligence officials...
...The new strategy envisions constant, disruptive “short of war” activities in foreign computer networks. It is born, officials said, of more than a decade of counterterrorism operations, where the United States learned that the best way to take on Al Qaeda or the Islamic State was by destroying the militants inside their bases or their living rooms.
The objective, according to the new “vision statement” quietly issued by the command, is to “contest dangerous adversary activity before it impairs our national power.”
Pushing American defenses “as close as possible to the origin of adversary activity extends our reach to expose adversaries’ weaknesses, learn their intentions and capabilities, and counter attacks close to their origins,” the document says. “Continuous engagement imposes tactical friction and strategic costs on our adversaries, compelling them to shift resources to defense and reduce attacks...”
...This article is adapted from “The Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage and Fear in the Cyber Age,” to be published on Tuesday by Crown, an imprint of Penguin Random House.
AFRICA
NOTHING SIGNIFICANT TO REPORT
ASIA
NOTHING SIGNIFICANT TO REPORT
EUROPE
On the water and in the air, French military pushes back against Beijing’s South China Sea claims
France has sent warships through contested waters and will hold air exercises in the area later this year
France is increasing its military presence in the Indo-Pacific region, sending warships through the South China Sea and planning air exercises to help counter China’s military build-up in disputed waters.
In late May, the French assault ship Dixmude and a frigate sailed through the disputed Spratly Islands and around a group of reefs that China has turned into islets, pushing back against Beijing’s claim to own most of the resource-rich South China Sea.
“Our patrol involved passing close to these islets to obtain intelligence with all the sensors it is possible to use in international waters,” the Dixmude’s commanding officer, Jean Porcher, said.
Writing in The Wall Street Journal, a researcher from the Hudson Institute think tank who was on board, said “several Chinese frigates and corvettes” tailed the French vessels.
China puts missiles back on contested South China Sea island as United States pushes allies for bigger military presence in waters [1]
Porcher said the ship maintained “cordial” radio contact with Chinese military vessels, “which were present in the area until we left”.
So far the United States has taken the lead in confronting China over its territorial claims in the South China Sea, which are contested by several neighbours, particularly Vietnam...
LATIN/SOUTH AMERICA
NOTHING SIGNIFICANT TO REPORT
AFGHANISTAN
NOTHING SIGNIFICANT TO REPORT
CHINA
NOTHING SIGNIFICANT TO REPORT
IRAN
Khamenei Fires Air Force Chief over Israeli F-35 Deep Penetration of Iran’s Sky
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei fired Iranian air force commander Brigadier General Farzad Ismaili, who had been in office since 2010, because the latter had hid from him the fact that Israeli F-35 planes had penetrated Iran’s sky, the Kuwaiti daily Al Jarida reported on Saturday.
The newspaper emphasized that it was the original media source that exposed the Israeli raids, which had taken place last March. Al Jarida cited senior Iranian military who said that only following its March report did the intelligence services of the Revolutionary Guards and the Iranian intelligence ministry begin to investigate the case, under direct orders from Khamenei.
According to the newspaper’s investigation, the IAF F-35 “Adir” planes penetrated Iran’s airspace, circled high above Tehran, Karajrak, Isfahan, Shiraz and Bandar Abbas – and photographed Iran’s air defense system.
One of the sources reported that Iran’s air defense system, including its Russian radar, did not detect the entry and exit of the fighter planes, and that Ismaili hid this information from the supreme leader to cover his corps’ failure. However, three weeks ago, Iranian intelligence discovered that the Israeli fighter jets had carried out this sortie as a test of the possibility of an undetected military attack on Iranian outposts and bases, during which they photographed those sensitive bases, evading the Russian S-300 missile system’s radar...
Bending the Internet: Iran Brings the National Information Network Online
Highlights
- Wary of the internet's power as a tool for political dissent and even revolution, Iran's conservatives have pushed for more stringent oversight online.
- Part of the strategy involves banning foreign apps and services, such as Telegram, and offering users closely monitored domestic alternatives.
- Iran's intranet, the National Information Network, will help authorities in this endeavor by giving them greater control over internet users, internet service providers and online content.
For as long as Iran has had cyberspace, the Iranian government has been trying to control it. The spate of color revolutions in the 2000s, followed by the Green Movement in Iran in 2009, further illustrated the dangers of electronic communication, prompting the Islamic republic's hard-line factions to push for more stringent oversight online. And since the United States has begun backing a policy akin to regime change and supporting domestic opposition movements, the need to control the internet is greater now for Tehran than perhaps ever before...
IRAQ
I Fought Against Muqtada al-Sadr. Now He's Iraq's Best Hope.
Michael D. SullivanJune 18, 2018, 7:08 AM
The former militia leader who once terrorized U.S. forces has reinvented himself as an Iraqi nationalist and a pragmatist.
BAGHDAD — I’ve fought against Muqtada al-Sadr’s Shiite militias in Iraq. I’ve ducked from rockets from his Mahdi Army and lost friends to improvised explosive devices from his Promised Day Brigade. But the Muqtada al-Sadr of 2018, whose Sairun coalition won the most seats in this recent Iraq parliamentary election, is not the Muqtada al-Sadr of 2004. The man who once directed his Mahdi militias to fight U.S. forces in Najaf and Baghdad has changed for the better.
While Sadr may have acted counter to U.S. interests in the past, he is now more aligned with Western attempts to reign in Iranian influence and Sunni extremism. Sadr has, in his view, always been a pragmatist. But his pragmatic approach went from trying to change the situation in Iraq through physical violence (2003 to 2008) to understanding the power of politics and civic actions (2011 to 2018). Today, Sadr understands the need for coalition support to help bolster Iraq’s security forces, thereby preventing another collapse that allows an extremist group like the Islamic State to emerge.
I have read the doom and gloom articles. I have received panicked e-mails, Facebook messages, and WhatsApp texts from friends who have served in Iraq.I have read the doom and gloom articles. I have received panicked e-mails, Facebook messages, and WhatsApp texts from friends who have served in Iraq. They all ask the same question: “Sadr? Really? Didn’t we fight this guy for years? How can this happen?” They, too, lost loved ones fighting against Sadr’s militias in Najaf, Baghdad’s Dora neighborhood, and along the infamous from the Green Zone to the Baghdad airport...
...Michael D. Sullivan, a colonel in the U.S. Army, served five tours in Iraq between 2004 and 2018. He holds a doctorate in international relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and currently works at the U.S. Embassy Office of Security Cooperation-Iraq in Baghdad. His views are his own and do not represent the U.S. Department of Defense or any other government agency.
ISRAEL
NOTHING SIGNIFICANT TO REPORT
KOREAN PENNSULEA
China: Beijing Welcomes the Trump-Kim Summit, Cautiously
Highlights
Beijing will support warmer ties between the United States and North Korea, so long as their dialogue does not precipitate a complete collapse or, conversely, a rapid rapprochement in their relations.
China will likely increase its economic influence over Pyongyang to ensure North Korea does not fall into the United States' orbit.
Chinese leaders will base their actions on the North Korean nuclear issue on the principle of maintaining the balance of power on the peninsula in regard to the United States...
The Trump-Kim Summit: What It Means and What Happens Next
Highlights
Trump and Kim signed a declaration outlining the next steps of the relationship between their two countries, leaving the details for lower-level officials to pencil in later.
The most notable developments from the summit are that the United States plans to halt military exercises with South Korea and that Washington is prepared to accept a more phased approach to North Korean denuclearization.
With many thorny details to work out, there is still plenty of room for the U.S.-North Korea dialogue to break down. But the events of the summit make it hard for the United States to justify any future return to a strategy of applying maximum pressure...
Rebooting Inter-Korean Economic Relations: A Challenging Road Ahead
The dramatic shift in inter-Korean relations now underway provides a strategic opportunity to rethink future economic cooperation between the two Koreas. The nearly blank slate created by the May 24 measures in 2010 following the sinking of the ROK warship Cheonan and the closure of the Kaesong Industrial Complex in 2016 offers a unique opportunity to set new objectives and priorities for both Koreas in shaping their economic future in ways that will serve their longer-term as well as immediate interests. Notably in the April summit, neither President Moon nor Chairman Kim included senior economic officials in their delegations, reflecting a wise understanding that appearing to jump the gun on the delicate questions of commitment to denuclearization and stage-setting for a summit between President Trump and Chairman Kim could undermine the potential for moving forward on the economic front.
Nevertheless, the April 2018 summit declaration included agreement “to actively implement the projects previously agreed in the 2007 October 4 Declaration in order to promote balanced growth and co-prosperity of the nation. As a first step, the two sides agreed to adopt practical steps towards the connection and modernization of railways and roads on the eastern transportation corridor as well as between Seoul and Sinuiju for their utilization.”[1] The 2007 Summit Declaration included an agreement to promote investments in natural resources and infrastructure and preferential conditions and benefits for inter-Korean projects. It highlighted the expansion of the Kaesong Industrial Complex; rail, road and cooperative shipbuilding projects; and projects in agriculture, health and medical services, and environmental protection.[2] Beyond these formal statements of intent, an informal private conversation about future inter-Korean economic relations did reportedly occur during the April Moon-Kim Summit, with President Moon conveying a USB stick to Chairman Kim with details of South Korean ideas...[3]
More on North Korea’s Missile Test Sites
A 38 North exclusive with analysis by Joseph S. Bermudez Jr.
Following up on 38 North’s recent assessment concluding that there were no changes to the Sohae (Tongchang-ri) Satellite Launch Facility, further analysis shows that there have been no alterations or activity akin to dismantlement to any of the six known launch and engine test facilities and two ejection test stands, including:
Chamjin (Tae-sung) Machine Factory test stand[1]
Iha-ri Driver Training and Test Facility test stand
Magunpo Solid Rocket Motor Test Facility
Nampo Shipyard submersible test stand barge
Sinpo South Shipyard submersible test stand barge
Sinpo South Shipyard test stand
Sohae (Tongchang-ri) Satellite Launch Facility
Tonghae (Musudan-ri) Satellite Launch Facility
Of these facilities and test stands, it is likely that President Trump’s comment on June 12 regarding the destruction of a “…major missile engine testing site” was not referring to either the Iha-ri test stand—which was razed in May—or the Sinpo South Shipyard test stand that has not been used in approximately a year. And contrary to the president’s statement, both sites have been solely used for ejection tests, not engine tests or launches...
RUSSIA
Terror, hooligan threats cast shadow over Russia's World Cup
Russia has deployed air defence systems and stringent fan background checks in a sweeping security operation to counter the twin threats of terror attacks and hooliganism at the World Cup.
The country was already intensely policed when it was controversially awarded the right to host the event in 2010 but the clampdown that followed saw hardened hooligans seek cover and business barons wind down the operations of factories that process hazardous materials for fear they might be attacked.
Fans travelling to Russia are required to register with the police on their arrival in one of the 12 host cities and even riverboat traffic is being curtailed to make it easier for the authorities to keep track of everything that moves.
At least 30,000 security personnel will fan out across Moscow by the time the hosts kick off against Saudi Arabia at the Luzhniki Stadium on Thursday.
Squadrons of fighter jets will be on standby near the capital and air defences will be on the alert for suspicious aircraft...
MIDDLE EAST GENERAL
NOTHING SIGNIFICANT TO REPORT
CYBER ISSUES
Aircraft Avionics Hacking: Is It Possible?
When two security researchers hacked into the wireless entertainment and navigation systems of a Jeep Cherokee in 2015 and managed to take control of the vehicle’s steering, braking, engine and other functions while the car was moving, it made headlines around the world.
The Jeep SUV reflected the technology implicit in today’s automobiles: drive-by-wire and digital engine control, where there is no mechanical connection between the steering wheel, brake and accelerator pedals, and the wheels, brakes, and injector system, and the engine is managed by an electronic control similar to an aero engine’s FADEC.
Other researchers at the Universities of Washington and California-San Diego had previously published papers elucidating vulnerabilities in contemporary automotive wireless technology that could be exploited by hackers, including key fobs that can be penetrated to unlock doors and start cars’ engines. According to writer Andy Greenberg, who was a willing victim of the Jeep Cherokee attack for his article, “Hackers Remotely Kill a Jeep on the Highway — With Me in It,” in the July 2015 issue of Wired magazine, all this was possible because car manufacturers were “doing [their] best to turn the modern automobile into a smartphone,” a move reminiscent of the unmanned aerial vehicles detailed in “Drone Revolution...”
Apple will throw forensics cops off the iPhone Lightning port every hour
Cops unlikely to be the only grumblers
Apple isn't backing down from a move to lock down the iPhone’s data port to increase security for users, even though it means thwarting some of the password-cracking tools used by forensics experts.
In the latest beta versions of iOS, Apple includes a feature called USB Restricted Mode, which disables the data connection of the iPhone’s Lightning port after a given time, while allowing it to continue to charge the device. Further data access would require the user's passcode.
Initially, Restricted Mode required a passcode after one week. But Apple confirmed yesterday that a plugged-in iPhone will require a passcode every hour for the data transfers to continue...
Support Grows For Unmanned Tanker, Transport Aircraft
From surviving in contested airspace to supplying remote areas, interest in unmanned transport and tanker aircraft is growing.
A U.S. Senate committee is proposing funding to “explore options for optionally manned and more survivable tankers,” while Russia’s Ilyushin is studying an unmanned cargo demonstrator based on the Il-112V light transport.
In its markup of the fiscal 2019 defense budget, the Senate Armed Services Committee says it is “concerned about the growing threat to large high-value aircraft” and recommends an increase of $10 million, for a total of $38.4 million, for prototyping a contested environment tanker.
Essential to the operational availability and range of U.S. combat and transport aircraft, the Air Force’s Boeing KC-135 and KC-46A aerial refueling tankers “are manned and increasingly difficult to protect,” the committee says.
“Given the increasingly challenging operating environments our potential adversaries are presenting, it is prudent to explore options for optionally unmanned and more survivable tankers that could operate autonomously as part of a large, dispersed logistics fleet that could sustain attrition in conflict,” it says.
An unmanned tanker prototype could draw on research underway at Boeing to increase the level of automation in its commercial aircraft and to address a looming pilot shortage by introducing supervised autonomy, as well as demonstrations of a robotic co-pilot by subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences under Darpa’s Alias program...
The Pentagon’s JEDI cloud will be designed to store the government’s most sensitive classified information, including nuclear secrets.
The Defense Department’s Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud will be designed to host the government’s most sensitive classified data, including critical nuclear weapon design information and other nuclear secrets.
The Pentagon is expected to bid out the controversial JEDI cloud contract this week, and new contracting documents indicate the winning company must be able to obtain the full range of top secret government security clearances, including Department of Energy “Q” and “L” clearances necessary to view restricted nuclear data.
In response to questions from Nextgov, Defense Department spokeswoman Heather Babb confirmed “JEDI cloud services will be offered at all classification levels.” Babb said military and defense customers “will determine which applications and data migrate to the cloud.”
Amazon Web Services, considered a front-runner to win the JEDI contract, is already able to host some Defense Department classified data in a $600 million cloud it developed several years ago for the CIA.
JEDI, however, represents a massive jump in size and scale. The contract could be worth as much as $10 billion over 10 years, with Defense officials describing it as a “global fabric” available to warfighters in almost any environment, from F-35s to war zones. Because government customers could use the cloud for almost anything, it must be built to host almost everything, Steven Aftergood, head of the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy, told Nextgov...
TERRORISM
How Do You Measure Success Against Jihadists?
By Scott Stewart
VP of Tactical Analysis, Stratfor
Highlights
Measuring success against a militant organization requires understanding the group's objectives and how far it has progressed toward achieving them, as well as the types of warfare it is capable of waging.
Instead of gauging a group's strength through the number of terrorist attacks, it is necessary to examine the quality of the assaults and determine how they fit into the group's other operations.
Defeating a group requires more than victory on the physical battlefield; it also needs progress in the much more difficult ideological realm.
It was just last week that I was talking to a person who is working to help a country combat a significant jihadist threat. In the course of our chat, we started thinking, how do you actually measure success against jihadist groups? As operations the world over have shown, simply destroying a high number of Toyota Hiluxes driven by militants isn't necessarily the defining mark of success in the "war on terrorism," and a tally of terrorist attacks doesn't necessarily signal failure. I've written before on terrorism and insurgent theory and the trajectories of specific groups, but never on how to gauge militant groups. As it turns out, there's more to assessing a jihadist group's strength than straight numbers...
MISC
NOTHING SIGNIFICANT TO REPORT
Tuesday, June 19, 2018
What's going on in the World Today 180619
HYPERLINKS MAY REQUIRE AN EMAIL:
Monday, June 18, 2018
Officer Down
Deputy Sheriff Casey L. ShoemateRest in Peace Bro…We Got The Watch
Miller County Sheriff's Office, Missouri
End of Watch Friday, April 20, 2018
Age 26
Badge 5318
Deputy Sheriff Casey Shoemate was killed in a vehicle crash on Route Y, just north of Rabbit Hill Road, while responding to a structure fire at a fellow employee's house.
He collided head-on with an oncoming vehicle during the response. Deputy Shoemate was pronounced dead at the scene. The other driver was flown to a local hospital in serious condition.
Deputy Shoemate had served with the Miller County Sheriff's Office for one year. He is survived by his two children, fiancee, parents, and several siblings.
Nemo me impune lacessit
Day is done, Gone the sun, From the lake, From the hills, From the sky. All is well, Safely rest, God is nigh.
A New Hope for the movie industry...
I've said for ages, Hollywood sucks. While the studios employ thousands of writers for original ideas, not to mention there are thousands of books coming out yearly, all the "smart people" in that pathetic Los Angeles suburb can do is redo older films or TV shows. Not to mention in one production after another, it has to take a swipe against America. In entertainment, the customer always seems to be wrong.
In one of the few movies I went to a theater to see, Darkest Hour was phenomenal. And I was shocked that the Academy awarded Gary Oldman the Oscar for Best Actor. He actually earned it. And Oldman, a British citizen, spent most of his time thanking America for everything she had given him, his career, his family, etc. And the Hollywood great ones were silent.
Now there is a possibility that Hollywood may start looking at making movies for people who may actually watch them.
In one of the few movies I went to a theater to see, Darkest Hour was phenomenal. And I was shocked that the Academy awarded Gary Oldman the Oscar for Best Actor. He actually earned it. And Oldman, a British citizen, spent most of his time thanking America for everything she had given him, his career, his family, etc. And the Hollywood great ones were silent.
Now there is a possibility that Hollywood may start looking at making movies for people who may actually watch them.
Making Movies in the Trump Era for the Audience Hollywood IgnoredIt amazes me that an industry, faced with massive competition from direct to home video sources (e.g.Amazon.com Prime, Hulu, etc) needs to be reminded they should put out things that sell. I used to go to 2-3 movies a month, now it's 2-3 a year. It's not worth it. And until some people in Hollywood start loosing their shirts and houses, it may never get through.
Producer Dallas Sonnier fled Los Angeles to create ‘populist entertainment’; Vince Vaughn as an unemployed mechanic who kills drug dealers to protect his wife from a forced abortion
These cousins of his are schoolteachers, HVAC installers, construction workers—just the kind of audience he thinks Hollywood has unwisely left behind.
“If I text them the name of, let’s say, Timothée Chalamet, they don’t know who the hell he is,” Mr. Sonnier says. “They haven’t seen ‘Lady Bird,’ and they certainly haven’t seen ‘Call Me By Your Name.’ But if I text them Vince Vaughn, Kurt Russell, Don Johnson ? They go f—ing crazy!”
His October release, “Brawl in Cell Block 99,” passed the test. Mr. Vaughn portrayed an out-of-work mechanic who killed Mexican drug dealers to protect his wife from a forced abortion. It had a tiny theatrical release with little media coverage, but its DVDs were a hit at Walmart as soon as they hit the shelves.
Mr. Sonnier’s company, Cinestate , which made “Brawl,” is backed by an anonymous Texas oil heiress, he says, to produce “populist entertainment.”
The 38-year-old former talent manager, who got his start working with actor and director Greta Gerwig, now finds himself navigating culture, commerce and politics in trying to answer a question facing Hollywood: Where does entertainment go in the Trump era?
The industry has responded to that question largely by using platforms such as the Academy Awards to rail against the Trump administration. That has alienated many moviegoers, and today those are the people Mr. Sonnier has in mind.
“If we can make a movie that does not treat them as losers, or ask how dare they vote a certain way, or pander to them, naturally they’re going to respond in a positive way,” says Mr. Sonnier, who says he wrote in a candidate for the 2016 presidential election because he didn’t support Hillary Clinton and had lost respect for Donald Trump following the “Access Hollywood” tape’s release.
Since fleeing Los Angeles in 2015 for Texas, where he grew up, Mr. Sonnier has cast himself as the producer willing to do features that others in Hollywood consider politically radioactive. In the past year, he has wrapped production on “Dragged Across Concrete,” starring Mel Gibson as a cop accused of beating a suspect, filmed a drama about militia members, and bought a script about a school shooting in which a female student wrests control of a gun and fights back...
...Hollywood has occasionally targeted conservative moviegoers, releasing faith-based movies in specific neighborhoods or producing patriotic blockbusters such as “American Sniper.” The difference is that Mr. Sonnier is betting a whole company on a strategy of finding consumers he says are “outside the coasts,” marrying ideology with opportunism...
Saturday, June 16, 2018
Pursuits, politicians, and stupidity....
Ages ago I was speaking with some Houston Police sergeants and officers about their short lived updated pursuit police. In summary, they could “pursue,” but not pursue. Well, the HPD command staff was a bit embarrassed the next day when the Harris County Sheriff’s Office (Harris County is most of Houston) pursued a suspect and after he was stopped, he was shocked. He said, in response to a TV reporter’s question, "I though the cops couldn't chase anymore...." Suffice to say the pursuit policy was revised.
I don't argue, chases are dangerous, for the cops, the suspects, and most importantly, the general public. That's why they can't be started for no reason. If we have the suspect's name, and it's a relatively minor crime, it's often better to let them go, pick them up the next day, or file a warrant. If you have a child molester or a murder suspect, that's another thing.
With that a background, let's look at Cleveland and how they handling this issue:
Exaggeration? Ask the officers of Baltimore after the district attorney indicted them in the Freddy Gray with no evidence, their lives were destroyed.
Effective policing is, by its nature, aggressive and assertive. However, when cops are hamstrung by restrictive policy, and have no faith in the command staff to back them up,/= they will join the fire department. Sign on, wait for calls for service, answer them, and play it safe. And as the crime rate goes up, the people of Cleveland wil have to make a decision. Vote out the gutless wonders who put another group of gutless wonders in charge of the police.
I don't argue, chases are dangerous, for the cops, the suspects, and most importantly, the general public. That's why they can't be started for no reason. If we have the suspect's name, and it's a relatively minor crime, it's often better to let them go, pick them up the next day, or file a warrant. If you have a child molester or a murder suspect, that's another thing.
With that a background, let's look at Cleveland and how they handling this issue:
Cleveland policy called into question after LEOs take gunfire twice but told not to pursueI found a decent summary of the facts on the Williams and Russell case. I found this interesting:
Officers were shot at during two separate incidents and supervisors would not allow officers to give chase
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams on Tuesday addressed growing concerns that the department's policy regarding chasing violent suspects is preventing officers from doing their jobs and emboldening criminals.
The chief's sharply worded memo comes less than a week after officers were shot at during two separate incidents and supervisors would not allow officers to give chase.
Both incidents, and three others involving officers who had their cars rammed by suspects but were not allowed to pursue them, led the police union and other city officials to question how Cleveland police officials are applying the policy on when officers are allowed to chase suspects.
"These criminals now feel empowered to do whatever they want because they know they're not going to be chased," Cleveland City Councilman Mike Polensek said. "When you shoot at a cop, you're shooting at every one of us."
Williams, who did not directly address the recent incidents, defended the department's policy by saying that his officers are authorized to chase suspects. He said he crafted the policy based on the best-practices for chases and that the policy gives the best chance at protecting both police officers and residents.
"Officers are authorized to conduct vehicle pursuits in order to take violent suspects or intoxicated drivers into custody," he wrote. "This most certainly includes suspects who have committed violence, including attempting to harm our police officers."
The city enacted the policy in 2014, two years after a deadly chase involving 62 police cars that ended with more than a dozen officers firing 137 shots and killing Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell, who were unarmed...
Why is a judge deciding this case?I underline the section because of the inherent racism of the prosecution. Don’t believe me? Imagine the outcry if a the DA said a white jury should try the case of a black man, accused of murdering a white grandmother.
Brelo waived his right to a jury trial last month. Prosecutors argued in a counter-motion that his decision was racially motivated, and that the black communities of Cleveland and East Cleveland have a right to hear the case.
But Judge John P. O'Donnell ruled that he will be the one to hear the trial, as in Ohio the right to have or refuse a jury lies with the defendant alone.
...New policy enacted in 2014OK, the guidance is already clear. An officer will simply not pursue unless under extreme circumstances. Remember, a suspect takes off, the officer must start the chase to keep him in sight, concurrently call a supervisor on the radio (assuming it’s not tied up), explain detailed information, answer questions, and wait for the supervisor to say yes or no. Sometimes that can take a bit. Meanwhile, if the suspect crashes into a car, injuring or killing someone, the internal affairs report will say, “Officer Smith, as you were not authorized by a supervisor to pursue this suspect...”
The policy allows officers to chase people suspected of violent crimes or drunken driving. The officers are not allowed to give chase unless they get permission from a supervisor. If the supervisor calls off the chase at any point, they must stop or face discipline.
The policy is at some points intentionally vague, leaving room for supervisors to take into account a myriad of factors -- including road conditions, how fast the chase is going and how many others cars are on the road -- when deciding whether to authorize a chase.
"Officers shall err on the side of caution and interpret this policy in the most restrictive manner if, for any reason, this directive does not offer clear guidance for a specific set of circumstances," the policy says in bold type-face...
Exaggeration? Ask the officers of Baltimore after the district attorney indicted them in the Freddy Gray with no evidence, their lives were destroyed.
Effective policing is, by its nature, aggressive and assertive. However, when cops are hamstrung by restrictive policy, and have no faith in the command staff to back them up,/= they will join the fire department. Sign on, wait for calls for service, answer them, and play it safe. And as the crime rate goes up, the people of Cleveland wil have to make a decision. Vote out the gutless wonders who put another group of gutless wonders in charge of the police.
Friday, June 15, 2018
Officer Down
Detective Sergeant Brian Scott CuscinoRest in Peace Bro…We Got The Watch
New Castle Police Department, Pennsylvania
End of Watch Thursday, April 19, 2018
Age 44
Tour 17 years
Badge 3249
Detective Sergeant Brian Cuscino suffered a fatal heart attack while participating in the department's mandatory physical fitness program at approximately 7:30 am.
He collapsed while using a treadmill at a local gym that was authorized to be used for the wellness program. Another officer found him unconscious.
Sergeant Cuscino had served with the New Castle Police Department for 17 years and was assigned to the Criminal Investigations Division and Special Response Team. He is survived by his wife and two sons.
He passed away on the same day he was to receive the department's Officer of the Quarter award.
Nemo me impune lacessit
Day is done, Gone the sun, From the lake, From the hills, From the sky. All is well, Safely rest, God is nigh.
Let it be.....
The weekend!
A very long week, last two days have been crazy. Managed to snake out an hour early and now I’m at home, cooling off, with my beautiful wife and two doggies. And the season premiere of Goliath.
To start what will hopefully be a great weekend, here is a great version of a Beatles classic
A very long week, last two days have been crazy. Managed to snake out an hour early and now I’m at home, cooling off, with my beautiful wife and two doggies. And the season premiere of Goliath.
To start what will hopefully be a great weekend, here is a great version of a Beatles classic
Wednesday, June 13, 2018
Officer Down
Sergeant Noel Ramirez:Rest in Peace Gentlemen…We Got The Watch
Gilchrist County Sheriff's Office, Florida
End of Watch Thursday, April 19, 2018
Age 29
Tour 7 years
Deputy Sheriff Taylor Lindsey
Gilchrist County Sheriff's Office, Florida
End of Watch Thursday, April 19, 2018
Age 25
Tour 2 years
Deputy Sheriff Taylor Lindsey and Sergeant Noel Ramirez were shot and killed from ambush as they took their lunch break in a restaurant at 1122 East Wade Street, in Trenton.
At approximately 3:00 pm a male subject opened fire on them from outside of the establishment, fatally shooting both through the restaurant's front window. The man then went to his car in the parking lot and committed suicide.
Sergeant Ramirez had served with the Gilchrist County Sheriff's Office for seven years. He is survived by his wife and two children.
Deputy Lindsey had served with the Gilchrist County Sheriff's Office for two years.
Nemo me impune lacessit
Day is done, Gone the sun, From the lake, From the hills, From the sky. All is well, Safely rest, God is nigh.
A good look at what needs to be disarmed in North Korea...
As the world looks at what to make of the short US-NK "summit," Foreign Policy has an excellent look at what has to be looked into. It's not just the nukes:
Mr. Stangarone, I'm shocked FP let you mention that disaster (JCPOA) was such a disaster.
Don't forget the thousands of tubes of artillery that can range Seoul, the ICBMs, and other missiles. Again, a first step, but there is an old Vulcan saying, "Only Nixon could go to China." The next few years will determine if there is also, "Only Trump could go to Pyongyang."
Nukes Aren’t the End of North Korea’s Arsenal
Any deal needs to remember Pyongyang's range of deadly programs.
Troy Stangarone
In a tweet on June 5, U.S. President Donald Trump expressed his hope that his June 12 summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore could be “the start of something big.” True, a promise of denuclearization would be a genuinely important step forward. But that’s not the only threat North Korea poses — and if Trump really cares about the big picture, he needs to remember that.
The Iran nuclear deal was weak because it provided sanctions relief while failing to address Tehran’s ballistic missile program and the regime’s support for militias elsewhere. A North Korean nuclear deal that doesn’t address the country’s extensive chemical and biological weapons programs, as well as its aggressive cyber-operations, could lose political support over time as well. Any potential deal can’t just be words on paper; it needs to include real protections against backsliding...
Mr. Stangarone, I'm shocked FP let you mention that disaster (JCPOA) was such a disaster.
North Korea turned to chemical weapons shortly after the Korean War. They served as low-cost weapons of mass destruction to supplement North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, and they also provided a tactical means to counter superior U.S. and South Korean forces. As North Korea’s conventional military has deteriorated, chemical weapons are likely seen as more important for suppressing the advancement of U.S. and South Korean forces.
North Korea has demonstrated a willingness to both use and sell chemical weapons.North Korea has demonstrated a willingness to both use and sell chemical weapons. A United Nations panel of experts has documented North Korean cooperation with Syria on chemical weapons, and a VX nerve agent was used last year to assassinate Kim Jong Nam, Kim Jong Un’s half-brother, allegedly on the supreme leader’s orders. Kim’s potential meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad only underscores the need to address this issue. U.N. Security Council resolutions also require North Korea to address this issue. Resolution 2270 calls for North Korea to meet its obligations under international treaties on biological weapons and to join the Chemical Weapons Convention.
North Korean cyberattacks are also a significant concern. In a relatively short period of time, Pyongyang has assembled one of the most capable groups of hackers in the world and uses them for a wide range of activities. Experts suspect that North Korea has hacked more than 100 banks and cryptocurrency exchanges, stealing up to $650 million. Beyond the government’s efforts to earn hard currency and evade sanctions, the Sony Pictures hack demonstrates Pyongyang’s willingness to go after private actors whose actions it doesn’t like.
While some of North Korea’s cyber-activities fall into the realm of traditional espionage that all states engage in, the United States and North Korea as part of any nuclear deal and peace process should agree to a series of limits on Pyongyang’s digital intrusions. In 2015, the United States and China agreed to refrain from using cyberattacks to steal intellectual property for economic gain, but Washington should look to build on that model given North Korea’s financial theft. This should include an agreement from North Korea not to engage in financial theft, while also refraining from using cyber-operations to intimidate private actors or steal their intellectual property. At the same time, North Korea should agree to refrain from selling its services or software to others to achieve the same purposes....
...At the same time, North Korea will need to allow foreign companies to repatriate profits. The fate of the Egyptian firm Orascom, which invested in North Korea and now has no way to get its money back, is a cautionary tale. After building North Korea’s first 3G network, Orascom has faced a series of problems operating in North Korea. It lost its exclusive license to operate in the country, now faces competition from the state-run Byol, and has been unable to . If firms are unable to take their profits home, there will be little incentive for the type of private-sector investment Trump has suggested.
North Korea’s failure to live up to prior agreements and the regime’s sudden shift in policy are reasons to approach the current talks cautiously. The United States should be open to the prospect of change but needs to ensure that there is a way to maintain pressure on North Korea if this is another false start. This is why any agreement needs a snapback provision to put sanctions back in place if North Korea backslides...
...As Trump himself has acknowledged, this is the beginning of a process. If the right elements aren’t built in from the beginning, there is a greater risk things will unravel in the future. Ensuring that the North Koreans understand that any final deal needs to address their other weapons programs, that they will need to undertake real economic reforms, and that any agreement will not be built on blind faith will help give the process a greater chance of succeeding.
Don't forget the thousands of tubes of artillery that can range Seoul, the ICBMs, and other missiles. Again, a first step, but there is an old Vulcan saying, "Only Nixon could go to China." The next few years will determine if there is also, "Only Trump could go to Pyongyang."
A look at "purging" the rolls....
Monday the Supreme Court had an excellent case come down, 5-4, which is to be expected. From the great website, Legal Insurrection:
Basically, you don't vote for two years, they send a message. You send it back, you stay on the rolls. You don't return it, but vote next time, no issue. But if you don't vote for an additional four years afterwards, you name is removed from the voting rolls. Sounds like a logical process to insure dead people, or people who have moved from the district (aka Democratic voters,) no longer can vote. Sounds like we're insuring the vote. Who could have an issue with that? Well libtards, of course:
Again, this is a legitimate effort to insure a fair and accurate vote, but Justice Sotomayor:
No Mrs Justice Sotomayor, the legislative and executive branches make "policy," It's up to the court to determine if this policy meets constitutional restrains. And seeing you voted for Obamacare, when the "fee" was called a "tax," your more than happy to make government policy. But Professor Jacobson had a great quote to sign you off with:
Well done SCOTUS. Now, as the court takes up the Obamacare rulings in the future, hopefully they will make up for the abortion of law that was National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius.
...Husted v. A. Philip Randolph Institute presented a fairly boring legal issue of statutory construction.
The legal issue was whether the process used by Ohio to clean up its voter rolls complied with federal statutes.
The problem is significant, as the Supreme Court majority described in the opening paragraph of its Opinion issued today:
It has been estimated that 24 million voter registrations in the United States—about one in eight—are either invalid or significantly inaccurate. Pew Center on the States, Election Initiatives Issue Brief (Feb. 2012). And about 2.75 million people are said to be registered to vote in more than one State. Ibid.
At issue in today’s case is an Ohio law that aims to keep the State’s voting lists up to date by removing the names of those who have moved out of the district where they are registered. Ohio uses the failure to vote for two years as a rough way of identifying voters who may have moved, and it then sends a preaddressed, postage prepaid card to these individuals asking them to verify that they still reside at the same address. Voters who do not return this card and fail to vote in any election for four more years are presumed to have moved and are removed from the rolls. We are asked to decide whether this program complies with federal law.
Justice Alito, joined by Kennedy, Roberts, Gorsuch and Thomas, found that the Ohio process complied with the law. The alleged legal violation, that Ohio relied on mere non-voting to strike someone from the voter rolls, was not consistent with the facts. Ohio used a process, allowed by the statute, of sending a card to people who have not voted for two years asking them to confirm whether they have moved. If the card is not returned, the person would not be removed unless the person did not vote in the subsequent two federal election cycles. So it would take a total of 6 years not voting PLUS failure to return the card to be removed.
Justice Breyer wrote a dissent disagreeing with the statutory construction of the majority.
Basically, you don't vote for two years, they send a message. You send it back, you stay on the rolls. You don't return it, but vote next time, no issue. But if you don't vote for an additional four years afterwards, you name is removed from the voting rolls. Sounds like a logical process to insure dead people, or people who have moved from the district (aka Democratic voters,) no longer can vote. Sounds like we're insuring the vote. Who could have an issue with that? Well libtards, of course:
But it was Justice Sotomayor’s dissent which evoked the particular ire of the majority, who saw it as a policy disagreement with Congress:
… Congress enacted the NVRA against the backdrop of substantial efforts by States to disenfranchise low-income and minority voters, including programs that purged eligible voters from registration lists because they failed to vote in prior elections. The Court errs in ignoring this history and distorting the statutory text to arrive at a conclusion that not only is contrary to the plain language of the NVRA but also contradicts the essential purposes of the statute, ultimately sanctioning the very purging that Congress expressly sought to protect against.
Concerted state efforts to prevent minorities from voting and to undermine the efficacy of their votes are an unfortunate feature of our country’s history….
In concluding that the Supplemental Process does not violate the NVRA, the majority does more than just misconstrue the statutory text. It entirely ignores the history of voter suppression against which the NVRA was enacted and upholds a program that appears to further the very disenfranchisement of minority and low-income voters that Congress set out to eradicate. States, though, need not choose to be so unwise. Our democracy rests on the ability of all individuals, regardless of race, income, or status, to exercise their right to vote. The majority of States have found ways to maintain accurate voter rolls without initiating removal processes based solely on an individual’s failure to vote. See App. to Brief for League of Women Voters of the United States et al. as Amici Curiae 1a–9a; Brief for State of New York et al. as Amici Curiae 22–28. Communities that are disproportionately affected by unnecessarily harsh registration laws should not tolerate efforts to marginalize their influence in the political process, nor should allies who recognize blatant unfairness stand idly by. Today’s decision forces these communities and their allies to be even more proactive and vigilant in holding their States accountable and working to dismantle the obstacles they face in exercising the fundamental right to vote...
Again, this is a legitimate effort to insure a fair and accurate vote, but Justice Sotomayor:
"All of the legal defense funds out there, they're looking for people with Court of Appeals experience. Because it is - Court of Appeals is where policy is made," she said. "And I know, and I know, that this is on tape, and I should never say that. Because we don't 'make law,' I know. [Laughter from audience] Okay, I know. I know. I'm not promoting it, and I'm not advocating it. I'm, you know. [More laughter] Having said that, the Court of Appeals is where, before the Supreme Court makes the final decision, the law is percolating. Its interpretation, its application."
No Mrs Justice Sotomayor, the legislative and executive branches make "policy," It's up to the court to determine if this policy meets constitutional restrains. And seeing you voted for Obamacare, when the "fee" was called a "tax," your more than happy to make government policy. But Professor Jacobson had a great quote to sign you off with:
Personally, I love Sotomayor’s scorching dissents. I wish her a long career in dissent, scorching or otherwise.
Well done SCOTUS. Now, as the court takes up the Obamacare rulings in the future, hopefully they will make up for the abortion of law that was National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius.
Monday, June 11, 2018
Officer Down
Yarmouth Police Department, MassachusettsRest in Peace Bro…We Got The Watch
End of Watch Thursday, April 12, 2018
Age 32
Tour 7 years, 5 months
Badge 5992
Sergeant Sean Gannon was shot and killed while assisting with a warrant service at 109 Blueberry Lane, in Barnstable.
Sgt. Gannon and his canine partner, Nero, were searching the home and located the wanted man in a closet. The man opened fire, fatally wounding Sgt. Gannon and wounding Nero. The man then barricaded himself inside the house for two hours before being taken into custody.
The 29-year-old subject was charged with Sgt. Gannon's murder. His record showed he had 111 prior offenses and was on probation.
Sergeant Gannon had served with the Yarmouth Police Department for 7-1/2 years and previously served with the Stonehill College Police Department and Nantucket Police Department. He is survived by his wife, parents, brother and sister.
Sgt. Gannon was posthumously promoted to the rank of sergeant with the Yarmouth Police Department a week after his death.
Nemo me impune lacessit
Day is done, Gone the sun, From the lake, From the hills, From the sky. All is well, Safely rest, God is nigh.
Friday, June 8, 2018
Officer Down
Patrolman Kevin F. Crossley:Rest in Peace Bro…We Got The Watch
Age 34
Tour 8 years
Badge 5988
Patrolman Kevin Crossley was killed in a vehicle crash at the intersection of Oriskany Boulevard and Westmoreland Street at approximately 7:55 pm.
A vehicle traveling on Oriskany Boulevard in the opposite direction attempted to make a left turn in front of Patrolman Crossley's patrol car, causing a collision. Patrolman Crossley was transported to a local hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.
Patrolman Crossley had served with the Whitesboro Police Department for eight years and also served as a part-time police officer with the Whitestown Police Department. He is survived by his parents and brother.
Nemo me impune lacessit
Day is done, Gone the sun, From the lake, From the hills, From the sky. All is well, Safely rest, God is nigh.
Waiting on a sunny day.....
We got them!
Hot as hell right now in southern Texas, where is that cold weather we were complaining about back in January?
But seeing we've had the unofficial start of the summer, and my teacher friends are decompressing, I figured this would be a great song to go on.
Have a great weekend!
Hot as hell right now in southern Texas, where is that cold weather we were complaining about back in January?
But seeing we've had the unofficial start of the summer, and my teacher friends are decompressing, I figured this would be a great song to go on.
Have a great weekend!
Wednesday, June 6, 2018
Officer Down
Police Officer Keith O'Neal EarleRest in Peace Bro…We Got The Watch
Huntsville Police Department, Alabama
End of Watch Monday, April 9, 2018
Age 46
Tour 25 years
Badge 203
Police Officer Keith Earle succumbed to injuries sustained in a vehicle crash on March 26th, 2018, at the intersection of Pulaski Pike and Grizzard Road.
He was transported to Huntsville Hospital where his condition deteriorated until passing away on April 9th, 2018.
Officer Earle had served with the Huntsville Police Department for 25 years.
Nemo me impune lacessit
Day is done, Gone the sun, From the lake, From the hills, From the sky. All is well, Safely rest, God is nigh.
Officer Down, Officer Safety, Police, Police Training
What's going on in the World Today 180606
 |
| Back when men didn't need safe spaces or worried about micro aggressions. To the men and women who served mankind on one beachhead, or another, thank you. |
Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force:
You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months.
The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.
In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.
Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped, and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely.
But this is the year 1944. Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man-to-man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our Home Fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned. The free men of the world are marching together to victory.
I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty, and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full victory.
Good Luck! And let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.
Dwight D Eisenhower
General, U. S. Army
HYPERLINKS MAY REQUIRE AN EMAIL:
USA
The first drone warship just joined the Navy and now nearly every element of it is classified
The first warship to traverse open waters without a single crew member recently joined the U.S. Navy's fleet after eight years of development and testing.
And now nearly every element of the vehicle, known as the Sea Hunter, has become classified.
"About all I can tell you is that it has transitioned from [the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency] to the Navy, and that's a success in the world of science and technology," said Rear Adm. Nevin Carr. "And that's a good thing, because that means that there's a there there."
Carr talked to CNBC about the vessel's status shift during the Sea-Air-Space conference, the largest maritime expo in the United States. He is uniquely familiar with Sea Hunter since he oversaw its testing as chief of the Office of Naval Research and its current development as Leidos vice president and Navy strategic account executive.
Leidos is the sole defense contractor helping to engineer the vessel.
The product of 'mad science'
The concept for the unmanned vessel was born in 2010 out of the Pentagon's so-called mad science wing, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA.
The Pentagon's request from DARPA was colossal: Develop a drone warship capable of hunting submarines, detecting torpedoes and avoiding objects at sea while traveling at a top speed of 27 knots, or 31 mph.
Six years later, the crewless, 140-ton, 132-foot-long robotic ship, was christened as Sea Hunter on the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon...
U.S. Army Scoping Out Potential Future Apache
PHOENIX—The U.S. Army is gathering potential requirements for another evolution of the Boeing AH-64 Apache attack helicopter, which is now expected to remain in service into the 2040s and possibly the 2060s.
The possible improvements are being grouped into two categories of engineering change proposal (ECP): upgrades that could be incorporated relatively easily into the current AH-64E, and major changes that would require helicopters to return to the depot, says Rich Tyler, the Army’s Apache deputy program manager.
Topping the list of major changes is re-engining with the 3,000-shp Improved Turbine Engine, but the array of potential upgrades includes adding a propulsor and compounding wing to increase the helicopter’s performance. Also listed are sensor and survivability upgrades and an advanced cockpit and flight controls.
The requirements-gathering exercise is aimed at both upgrades to the AH-64E in fiscal 2019-2024 and a notional “Future Apache” that could be developed in fiscal 2021-25 and produced in fiscal 2025-2035. But there is not yet any formal requirement or program for an improved Apache, cautions Tyler, speaking on the sidelines of AHS International’s Forum 74 convention here on May 15...
A-29, AT-6 Face Off For Light Attack Experiment Part II
Sierra Nevada/Embraer’s A-29 Super Tucano and Textron Aviation’s AT-6B Wolverine are facing off over the sands of Holloman AFB, New Mexico, for the second phase of the U.S. Air Force’s Light Attack Experiment.
Over the next three months, pilots will fly the Super Tucano and AT-6B in a second evaluation designed to gather additional information about the aircraft’s capabilities in a light attack role, as well as interoperability with partner nations, the Air Force says. The event kicked off May 7.
The first phase took place in August 2017 at Holloman AFB, with four models of light attack aircraft, including the A-29 and AT-6 as well as Textron’s Scorpion jet and L-3-Air Tractor’s AT-802L Longsword. The goal of the high-profile experiment was to evaluate the four off-the-shelf aircraft for the light-attack counterterrorism mission ahead of a potential procurement.
Now the Air Force is taking the next step toward possibly buying a fleet of 100 aircraft or more to fight terrorists in the Middle East...
USAF prepares for rapid demo of high-energy laser weapon
The US Air Force has started preparing to rapidly stage a demonstration of a highly mature laser weapon system (LWS) for an unspecified “airborne vehicle”, with the potential for a follow-on production programme.
The plans for the near-term demonstration of a “High Energy Laser (HEL) Flexible Prototype” programme are revealed in an 11 May notice to potential suppliers from the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC).
The notice outlines a plan to pay a supplier to deliver a HEL prototype and perform a system level ground verification test of an LWS within 12 months of contract award.
AFRICA
NOTHING SIGNIFICANT TO REPORT
ASIA
NOTHING SIGNIFICANT TO REPORT
EUROPE
NOTHING SIGNIFICANT TO REPORT
LATIN/SOUTH AMERICA
NOTHING SIGNIFICANT TO REPORT
AFGHANISTAN
Taliban militants besiege Farah provincial capital in Afghsanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Taliban insurgents launched attacks from multiple directions on the capital of Farah province in western Afghanistan near the border with Iran early Tuesday, killing and wounding "dozens" of security forces, a local official said. Fared Bakhtawer, head of the provincial council, said several security checkpoints in the city of Farah were overrun by Taliban fighters and that an intense gun battle was ongoing.
Bakhtawer said casualties were high among security forces, but couldn't provide a precise number.
"Security checkpoints around the city have collapsed in the hands of the Taliban, causing high casualties among security forces," he said.O REPORT
CHINA
China Enlists U.N. to Promote Its Belt and Road Project
Top United Nations officials are helping sell Xi Jinping’s signature foreign-policy initiative.
Speaking at an African Union summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, last July, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed suggested a way for African leaders to boost their economies and end decades of strife: sign up to participate in China’s Belt and Road Initiative, a plan to invest a trillion dollars or more into the construction of ports, roads, and railways across dozens of countries from East Asia to East Africa.
“We must work to take advantage of one of the world’s largest infrastructure initiatives,” Mohammed urged at the summit’s opening ceremony. “This is an opportunity not just to provide alternatives to silencing the guns for our people but one that will keep our assets both human and natural on the continent building our tomorrow today.”
The promotion highlighted the U.N.’s curious role in China’s public relations campaign to sell the Belt and Road to the developing world. In speech after speech, top U.N. officials, including Secretary-General António Guterres, have sung its praises in terms that echo Chinese government talking points, portraying the Belt and Road Initiative as a vital pillar in a U.N.-sponsored plan to tackle poverty around the world by the year 2030.
The Chinese initiative, Guterres said in a speech before the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing in May 2017, holds “immense potential” and promises greater market access for “countries yearning to become more integrated with the global economy.”
U.N. support for the Chinese project comes just as Beijing is facing growing criticism for imposing unsustainable debt burdens on poor countries and feeding suspicions that the program is a cover for projecting China’s economic and military interests.
In March, then-U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned that Chinese “predatory loan practices” were encouraging dependency in African nations and “undercut[ting] their sovereignty.” European Union officials and European leaders have sounded the alarm about the political implications of greater Chinese investment, especially in Southern Europe. And China’s Asian neighbors are increasingly alarmed by Beijing’s checkbook diplomacy that threatens to upend the military balance across the Indo-Pacific region.
The United Nations, in contrast, has embraced the Belt and Road, which offers the prospect of trillions of dollars in desperately needed infrastructure investment at a time when the United States is cutting back foreign assistance.
“It’s an international stamp of approval to the Belt and Road Initiative at a time when it is under fire,” says Elizabeth Economy, a China scholar with the Council on Foreign Relations and author of The Third Revolution: Xi Jinping and the New Chinese State...
China tests bombers on South China Sea island
A July 2016 file photo shows a Chinese H-6K bomber patrolling islands and reefs, including Huangyan Island in the South China Sea.
(CNN) — China says it has landed long-range bombers for the first time on an island in the South China Sea, the latest in a series of maneuvers putting Beijing at odds with its neighbors and Washington over China's growing military presence around disputed islands.
The People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) announced on Friday it successfully organized the takeoff and landing of several bombers, including the nuclear-capable H-6K, on an unspecified island. The PLA claimed the mission was a part of China's aim to achieve a broader regional reach, quicker mobilization, and greater strike capabilities.
A military expert, Wang Mingliang, was quoted in the statement as saying the training will hone the Chinese air force's war-preparation skills and its ability to respond to various security threats in the region, where China claims large swathes of territory...
...Over the past few years China has been rapidly transforming various reefs and inlets into artificial islands to install military infrastructure. Some experts have called them "unsinkable aircraft carriers..."
...The move is a strategic accomplishment for China to further reinforce its military and political power in the disputed waters.
Upgrading capabilities
The H-6K is a considerable upgrade from the fighter jets believed to have previously landed on the islands. China's top-of-the-line bomber is capable of reaching a nearly 1,900-nautical-mile (3,500-kilometer) radius. Flying the twin-engine bombers out of Woody Island would mean the entirety of Southeast Asia is within combat flight range, experts say.
"The H-6K is significant because it provides Beijing with longer-ranging bomber capabilities that can drop precision-guided munitions on both ground and sea targets," Rand Corp. defense analyst Derek Grossman said in an email to CNN.
"Moreover, landing the bomber on Woody Island provides an opportunity for Chinese pilots to train under realistic circumstances," Grossman said.
While Woody Island sits in the central South China Sea, the AMTI says satellite imagery indicates China has built near identical operational runways at its three main outposts in the Spratly Islands known as Mischief, Subi and Fiery Cross Reef, which sit near the southern extent of the sea...
IRAN
Iran's Strategy for Surviving U.S. Sanctions
Highlights
Now that the United States is piling on sanctions, Iran's government is preparing for an inevitable economic decline.
Iran's political factions are in relative agreement about how to handle the economic pressure, at least over the next several months.
Tehran's goal will be to keep its head above water long enough to outlast the current U.S. administration. It will try to increase non-oil exports to make up for the loss of oil sales, implement financial reforms and slow the depreciation of its currency.
Iran's key priorities while it is coping with sanctions will be to keep prices for food and other goods down, minimize protests against the government, and make foreign exchange reserves last as long as possible.
One big question is how long Iran's discouraged population will trust the government's survival strategies before they start to protest against inflation and increasing wealth inequality
Iran is preparing for major economic and financial challenges now that the United States is ready to implement tough oil-specific sanctions in November. The government in Tehran is unwilling to heed Washington's demands, which include halting its missile program and ending its support for regional militias, because it considers these basic components of the country's defense strategy. So Iran is managing its economy for the long haul, hoping it can insulate itself against the effects of sanctions long enough to outlast the current U.S. administration...
IRAQ
Once Hated by U.S. and Tied to Iran, Is Sadr Now ‘Face of Reform’ in Iraq?
The Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr on his way to vote in the parliamentary election in Najaf, Iraq, on May 12.Alaa Al-Marjani/Reuters
BAGHDAD — Iraqis are still haunted by memories of black-clad death squads roaming Baghdad neighborhoods a decade ago, cleansing them of Sunnis as the country was convulsed by sectarian violence.
Many of the mass killings in the capital were done in the name of Moktada al-Sadr, a cleric best remembered by Americans for fiery sermons declaring it a holy duty among his Shiite faithful to attack United States forces.
The militia he led was armed with Iranian-supplied weapons, and Mr. Sadr cultivated a strong alliance with leaders in Tehran, who were eager to supplant the American presence in Iraq and play the dominant role in shaping the country’s future.
Now, the man once demonized by the United States as one of the greatest threats to peace and stability in Iraq has come out as the surprise winner of this month’s tight elections, after a startling reinvention into a populist, anticorruption campaigner whose “Iraq First” message appealed to voters across sectarian divides...
ISRAEL
NOTHING SIGNIFICANT TO REPORT
KOREAN PENINSULA
North Korea Signals Intent To Resolve Overflight Concerns
North Korea has committed to taking steps to improve its airspace safety, which could open the way for airlines to resume using North Korean airspace for overflights.
ICAO officials traveled to North Korea to hold talks with the reclusive nation’s civil aviation authorities.
During these meetings, North Korean aviation officials "made an unqualified pledge that no further unscheduled, unannounced missile testing or other activities hazardous to civil aviation will occur" over the country, ICAO said.
Concerns regarding missiles have been a major reason why foreign airlines do not overfly North Korea, even when such routes would be more efficient.
The ICAO mission included the agency’s air navigation bureau director Stephen Creamer and ICAO director Asia-Pacific office Arun Mishra. They met with North Korea’s General Administration of Civil Aviation (GACA) deputy director general Ri Yong Son.
GACA said there will be no more launches of ICBM missiles because of a government resolution, and North Korean officials remarked that the country’s nuclear arms program is complete, according to an ICAO summary of the meetings. GACA said it has procedures in place to ensure communication between military and civilian aviation authorities, and can "fully comply" with notification requirements.
North Korea expressed its "interest in opening new routes through [its] airspace for overflight traffic," ICAO said. The country’s aviation authorities have previously sent a request to ICAO to establish a new air traffic service route between North Korea’s Pyongyang flight information region (FIR) and the Incheon FIR, which is controlled by South Korea. ICAO has forwarded this proposal to South Korea...
North Korea replaces three top military leaders, Yonhap news agency reports
Three of North Korea’s top military officials have been replaced, a South Korean news agency reported Monday, marking an apparent shake-up in leader Kim Jong Un’s inner circle before next week’s planned summit with President Trump.
The report by the Yonhap news agency, citing an intelligence source, could not be independently verified.
But, if confirmed, the moves suggest another step in Kim’s ongoing reorganization in military leadership — this time bringing in younger military overseers to replace older ranks possibly at odds with his outreach to the United States and its ally South Korea, experts said...
RUSSIA
Russia hints at a nuclear armed drone submarine for 2027: The Poseidon drone submarine, should it be built, will be both nuclear powered and nuclear armed, a dangerous package inside an autonomous body.
Poseidon is an unsubtle name for a robot. So when a country decides to name a category of vessel after the god of the ocean, it suggests a gravitas, a significance that no lesser name would convey. This week, Russian media floated a new machine, an underwater uninhabited robot program, tentatively aimed at at 2027 release, which earns its divine moniker in the least subtle of ways: it’s built to carry and use nukes.
We first saw a glimpse of Poseidon or a Poseidon-like craft in the draft of the Pentagon’s nuclear posture review released this January, though it didn’t have that moniker then. That document referred to an “autonomous underwater vehicle” dubbed Kanyon by the Pentagon and formally labeled Ocean Multipurpose System Status-6. This vehicle would operate from another submarine, though it’s own speed and depth ranges fall within the capabilities listed this week for the Poseidon drone.
As reported by Russian state-owned media agency TASS, Poseidon is designed to be armed with a “two megatonne warhead,” primarily aimed at destroying hardened naval bases accessible from the sea. To get to those targets, the Poseidon will travel at depths of over 3,000 feet below the surface and with a top speed of around 80 mph. In addition to potentially carrying a nuclear warhead, the Poseidon will run on a nuclear powerplant...
MIDDLE EAST GENERAL
NOTHING SIGNIFICANT TO REPORT
CYBER ISSUES
Hacker Breaches Securus, the Company That Helps Cops Track Phones Across the US
A hacker has provided Motherboard with the login details for a company that buys phone location data from major telecom companies and then sells it to law enforcement.
A hacker has broken into the servers of Securus, a company that allows law enforcement to easily track nearly any phone across the country, and which a US Senator has exhorted federal authorities to investigate. The hacker has provided some of the stolen data to Motherboard, including usernames and poorly secured passwords for thousands of Securus’ law enforcement customers.
Although it’s not clear how many of these customers are using Securus’s phone geolocation service, the news still signals the incredibly lax security of a company that is granting law enforcement exceptional power to surveill individuals...
TERRORISM
Prison: A Training Ground for Terrorists
By Scott Stewart
VP of Tactical Analysis, Stratfor
Highlights
Hundreds of convicted jihadists are scheduled to be released from prison in the next few years, and their numbers will be bolstered by those prisoners who have embraced extremism while behind bars.
Prisons can serve as universities of crime for grassroots jihadists who lack terrorist tradecraft, and career criminals who convert will already possess skills useful in attacks.
The released extremists will add to the caseload for overburdened government forces working to counter the jihadist threat...
MISC
China Has Already Won the Drone Wars
Chinese companies are proving that America is not first in the UAV export market. Can Trump roll that back?
Jordan’s Chinese CH-4 drone on display at this year’s SOFEX arms show. (Sharon Weinberger/Foreign Policy)
AMMAN, Jordan — At a military airfield on the outskirts of the Jordanian capital, three American businessmen stood admiring the star exhibit, which looked eerily familiar: a large drone, armed with weapons under its wings, with a domed front.
“They brought the Predator here,” said one, in reference to the ubiquitous U.S. drone used in wars from Bosnia to Iraq.
“That is not a Predator,” another countered.
The drone on display was, in fact, a Chinese unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) called the Rainbow CH-4, which has quickly spread around the world. Jordan bought the drone in 2015 but displayed it publicly for the first time this year at the Special Operations Forces Exhibition and Conference, known as SOFEX, a biennial event where companies market their latest wares.
Once upon a time, the sight would have been unthinkable: The MQ-1 Predator and its successor, the more lethal MQ-9 Reaper, were for more than a decade synonymous with armed drones. But that now is changing, not because Beijing has built a better drone but because it has been willing to sell them to countries where the United States wouldn’t.
For years, advocates of U.S. arms sales bemoaned tight export restrictions on armed drones, which has allowed China to move in on a lucrative market while depriving American companies of valuable business. Jordan had originally requested to buy the Reaper, made by San Diego-based General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, but was turned down. When Beijing subsequently secured the deal, Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter lamented in late 2015 that “China is seizing the opportunity.”
More than two years later, China’s growing share of the armed drone market is on display. To date, only the United Kingdom, France, and Italy have bought an armed version of the MQ-9 Reaper, while other U.S. allies, including Jordan, are flying Chinese drones, such as the CH-4.
The United States now belatedly is trying to recapture the armed drone market. For years, U.S. companies were restricted from such sales, in part as a result of the Missile Technology Control Regime, an international pact that aims to curb the export of certain long-range cruise missiles and drones. (China is not a signatory to the agreement.)...
...The CH-4, whose resemblance to the iconic Predator is no accident, follows a long tradition of Chinese technology manufacturing, whether in cars or smartphones: Make it look like a name-brand Western equivalent, but build it cheaper and good enough to get the job done. (Amusingly, a video at the show advertising the CH-4 called it “one of the best” UAVs in the world, as in, not the best.) Analysts have even suggested, albeit without proof, that China pilfered U.S. technical information for its drone program....
Uber Seeks International ‘Pilot’ City For UberAIR Trial
May 10, 2018 Guy Norris and Graham Warwick | Aerospace Daily & Defense Report
LOS ANGELES—Ride-hailing operator Uber has issued an open call to cities around the world to bid to become the first international test site of the company’s proposed uberAIR aerial rideshare program.
The chosen community will join Dallas and Los Angeles, which have already been selected by Uber as U.S. launch cities for the pioneering urban air mobility initiative. Uber aims to begin demonstration flights in 2020 and initial commercial services in 2023.
The call for proposals, which must be submitted by July 1, is directed at cities with a greater metropolitan area population of more than 2 million and a density of more than 2,000 people per square mile. Uber says populations of this size will be able to support “pooled ridesharing services and thus benefit the most from an uberAIR network...”
Turbojet Runs Precursor to Hypersonic Engine Heat Exchanger Tests
Advanced propulsion developer Reaction Engines is nearing its first step toward validating its novel air-breathing hybrid rocket design at hypersonic conditions by firing up a vintage General Electric J79 turbojet to act as a heat source for testing, expected later this month.
The ex-military engine, formerly used in a McDonnell Douglas F-4, is a central element of Reaction’s specially developed high-temperature airflow test site, which will soon be commissioned at Front Range Airport, near Watkins, Colorado. The J79 will provide heated gas flow in excess of 1,000C (1,800F) which, together with conditioned ambient air, will be mixed to replicate inlet conditions representative of flight speeds up to and including Mach 5.
The flow will verify the operability and performance of the pre-cooler heat exchanger (HTX), which is at the core of Reaction’s Sabre (synergistic air-breathing rocket engine). It is also key to extracting oxygen from the atmosphere to enable acceleration to hypersonic speed from a standing start. The HTX will chill airflow to minus 150C in less than 1/20th of a second, and pass it through a turbo-compressor and into the rocket combustion chamber where it will be burned with sub-cooled liquid hydrogen (LH) fuel. Beyond Mach 5, and at an altitude approaching 100,000 ft. the inlet will be closed and the engine will continue to operate as a closed-cycle rocket engine fueled by onboard liquid oxygen and LH.
Full heat exchanger testing expected to begin in third quarter
Reaction Engine sees potential early roles for heat exchanger in turbofans and hypersonic systems
“The facility will be undergoing characterization throughout June,” says Adam Dissel, president of Reaction Engines Inc. “By mixing the flow we can control the ramp up and down, and it allows us to dial in the appropriate conditions so the pre-cooler will see an environment analogous to what it would see in a flight vehicle over a flight time line. If your vehicle took off from a runway and accelerated to Mach 5 over the next 4-5 min. we can dial in the temperatures, pressures and mass flows corresponding to that ascent. The whole set up allows us to do flight-like tests,” he adds...
Pentagon to Take Over Security Clearance Checks: The Defense Department is poised to take over background investigations for the federal government.
WASHINGTON — The Defense Department is poised to take over background investigations for the federal government, using increased automation and high-tech analysis to tighten controls and tackle an enormous backlog of workers waiting for security clearances, according to U.S. officials.
The change aims to fix a system whose weaknesses were exposed by the case of a Navy contractor who gunned down a dozen people at Washington's Navy Yard in 2013. He was able to maintain a security clearance despite concerns about his mental health and an arrest that investigators never reviewed.
Problems had earlier surfaced with former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who now lives in Russia to avoid charges for disclosing classified material, and Army Pvt. Chelsea Manning, who went to prison for leaking classified documents, triggering calls to update the antiquated system to include more frequent criminal and financial checks of workers who have security clearances.
Another problem has been delays: a backlog of about 700,000 people, including high-ranking federal officials waiting as much as a year to get clearances. President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, for example, received his permanent clearance just a few weeks ago, more than 16 months after Trump took office. The delay, his lawyer said, was caused by the backlog in the new administration and Kushner's extensive financial wealth, which required lengthy review...
Monday, June 4, 2018
Officer Down
Corporal Dale Shannon HallmanRest in Peace Bro…We Got The Watch
Saluda County Sheriff's Office, South Carolina
End of Watch Friday, April 6, 2018
Age 30
Tour 5 years
Corporal Dale Hallman was killed in a single-vehicle crash on Pencreek Road while responding to a call at approximately 1:00 a.m.
His patrol car left the roadway and overturned while he was en route to provide canine support in search of a subject who had fled into a wooded area.
Corporal Hallman, who also served as a lieutenant with the Saluda County fire department, served with the Saluda County Sheriff's Office for more than five years.
He is survived by his expectant wife and two children.
Nemo me impune lacessit
Day is done, Gone the sun, From the lake, From the hills, From the sky. All is well, Safely rest, God is nigh.
Sunday, June 3, 2018
Back online
Been a crazy two weeks. Last Saturday we had the annual crawfish party and a lot more people than I though showed up. My youngest graduated high school last Sunday and we've had her party yesterday. I'm home for the first time in ages, and I hope to catch up on a few things, including the posting on my blog.
Hope you have a great week.
Hope you have a great week.
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