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Taliban Raid on Kabul
The Taliban in Afghanistan launched explosions today, firing rockets and gunfire throughout Kabul which targeted Western embassies in the city; the NATO force headquarters, and parliament building.
Attacks also took place In the eastern city of Jalalabad, as the Taliban militants attacked a foreign force base near a school, there were also reports of a blast near the airport.
The attack is one of the most serious within the capital since the U.S.-backed Afghan forces removed the Taliban from power in 2001 and highlights how the Taliban are still able to strike heavily guarded diplomatic areas after more than 10 years of war.
U.S. President Barack Obama, who has staged a long campaign against the Taliban, had hoped to see the departure of most foreign combat troops by the end of 2014. This new fighting will be a setback to these hopes.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid speaking to the Reuters news agency said “These attacks are the beginning of the spring offensive and we had planned them for months,” adding that the this was revenge for the actions of American troops in Afghanistan – including the burning of Korans at a NATO base and the massacre of 17 civilians by a U.S. soldier. It is feared there will probably be more such attacks.
Fighting was still raging after nightfall, more than five hours after the Taliban first struck. Buildings targeted included the German and British embassies and the headquarters of the NATO-led force. . Black smoke was seen rising from the embassies while rocket-propelled grenades whizzed overhead. Heavy gunfire could be heard from many directions as Afghan security forces tried to repel Taliban fighters.
There has been some opposition to the Taliban’s recent attacks including from several Afghan members of parliament who joined the Afghan security forces in repelling attackers from a roof near the parliament.
Some of the Taliban fighters were seen dressed in women’s full-length burqas in an attempt to conceal their identities.
The Ministry of Interior said 19 insurgents, including suicide bombers, died in the encounters across the country and two were captured. Fourteen police officers and nine civilians were wounded.
Todays attacks come a month before a NATO summit on the transition to Afghan security control.
Related articles
- Taliban Attacks on NATO in Afghanistan: LIVE (atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com)
- Gunfire, explosions rock Afghan capital (abc.net.au)
- Taliban claims responsibility for several attacks in Kabul (itv.com)
UN votes to send monitors in Syria
Today the UN Secuity Council has issued a statemet to send military obesevers into Syria to monitor the current ceasfire, and Russia and China joined the other 13 security council members in voting in favour of resolution. The secuity council has issued the following statement today
The full statement is available on the UN Website
E3+3 Talks on Iran
The major E3+3 countries of the world (including the UK, US, China, France, Germany and Russia) will be meeting today in Instanbul with the Iranian Government once again to discuss and have an offer of an assurance over any proposed nuclear programme that Iran may be conducting. This follows a meeting of the E3+3 at the UN General Assembly in September 2009. At that meeting Iran’s nuclear programme was found a matter of concern to the E3+3 countries as they said in their statement – those talks basically wanted to see Iran to implement all measures required by the IAEA and the UN Security Council and to build confidence that a exclusively peaceful nature nuclear programme was only being developed.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) website has issued the following statement : “We welcome the fact that the Iranian government is ready to re-engage with the United Kingdom and other members of the international community on its nuclear programme. These talks present a genuine opportunity to move things forward. The Iranian government has written to us to say it wants these talks to cover its nuclear programme. The talks will be a demonstration of whether or not the Iranian government is really ready to do that”
The Oxford Research Group have said on their website about the risk of a conflict appearing greater than ever due to events in Iran and the arab world since the last meeting took place.ORG say’s in a statement about the talks that a negotiations between Iran and the member states of the E3+3 have proved elusive due to ‘a lack of political will, demonization, deep distrust and misunderstanding on all sides.’ They warn that if these talks fail, there could be the prospect of a military attack on Iran - which they have previously published a series of reports since 2006. Israeli itself is also poised to take action should Iran be planning such a programme (as discussed in their Global Security Briefing ‘The Potential for Israeli Military Action against Iran’s Nuclear Facilities’)
Below is the Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt discussing his hopes for negotiations with the Iranian Government during the E3+3 talks today.
Related articles
- Key Iranian nuclear talks resume – BBC News (bbc.co.uk)
- Iran Begins Nuclear Talks With Six Nations – New York Times (nytimes.com)
- Talks begin with Iran over nuclear programme (independent.co.uk)
EU Imposes Oil Sanctions
In an attempt to deflect Tehran‘s nuclear development program the European Union has today joined the United States in a new round of measures and imposed sanctions on Iran‘s oil imports to Europe. It however has not imposed a complete ban on oil imports.
In response to this a Iranian politician responded by renewing a threat to blockade the Strait of Hormuz, which is a oil export route vital to the global economy, and another said Tehran will cut off it’s crude shipments to the EU immediately which would greatly affect ailing European economies such as Greece, Italy, which depend heavily on Iranian oil.
All this follows after a U.S. aircraft carrier, accompanied by French and British warships, made a symbolically loaded voyage into the Gulf, defying Iranian hostility,
The expected EU sanctions are likely to prove angering to Iran in an already tense region.
It is believed by some political analysts and observers, that Iran, which denies accusations that it is seeking nuclear weapons could be in a position to make them next year. Israel has also warned it could use force to prevent that Iran from any such development program
This row over Tehran’s plans is an increasingly pressing for world leaders, not least U.S. President Barack Obama as he is campaigning for a re-election in November. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has voiced skepticism about the chances of Iran being persuaded by non-military tactics, called the EU sanctions a “step in the right direction” but said Iran was still developing atomic weapons.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said of the new sanctions: “I want the pressure of these sanctions to result in negotiations … I want to see Iran come back to the table and either pick up all the ideas that we left on the table … last year … or to come forward with its own ideas.”
Iran has said lately that it is willing to hold talks with Western powers, though there have been mixed signals on whether conditions imposed by either side make new negotiations likely.
Related articles
- EU Iran sanctions: Ministers adopt Iran oil imports ban (direcmood.wordpress.com)
- EU bans Iranian oil, Tehran responds with threats (business.financialpost.com)
- Iran ‘definitely’ closing Strait of Hormuz over EU oil embargo (thecommunicatorwv.wordpress.com)
- Tehran responds with threats EU bans on its oil (sayou.wordpress.com)
Project MKULTRA
Project MKUltra was one of many experiments that the american secret service (CIA) and Department of Defence carried out between the 1950s and 1970s and was eventually declassified and exposed to the world by the Church Commission in 1975
Film’s such as “Jacob’s Ladder” starring Tim Robbins probably did a lot to bring the subject of the secret experiments that ‘volunteers’ from within US academic campuses and US defence staff – however many of the subjects had no idea as to the fact they being administered with hallucinogenic drugs and amphetamines in these experiments and some of these drugs such as BZ or 3-Quinuclidinyl benzilate whose compound is shown here:
Is probably one of the most hallucinogenic and probably one of the most potent drugs ever produced.
Oxford Research launch Everycasualty.org
Following the public launch of the Charter for the Recognition of Every Casualty of Armed Violence, the Every Casualty team has redeveloped www.everycasualty.org into a more dynamic, purposeful and accessible public platform.
Who monitors the internet?
There are some people who have the misguided impression that the internet is not regulated, want it either not regulated or self-regulated – actually it is and by many agencies.
So who are the agencies well there are the Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center (DC3) in the US that provides digital forensics; international agencies like CEOP monitoring the safety of children in Britain Scotland Yard has the Serious Organised Crime Agency computer department also Metropolitan Police Service – Specialist Crime Department , the Police Central e-crime unit within the Metropolitan Police, other well-known involve International Cyber Security Protection Alliance (ICSPA) a international business organisation and Interpol as the international Policing organisation itself.
Those that think it safe to search into a search engine hopefully realise that Google has stored every single search since it started – it says to improve its engine, but it stores the particular search IP tracing route, and search engines are obligated to provide any activity that a federal government and police organisations across the world require of them. Newsgroups are monitored which led very only onto to every US and now worldwide universities flagging known ‘.alt’ newsgroups that carried discussion or video and imagery that is suspicious. Those using anonymizing software or privately browsing are also not above the law as every agency has the power to trace those users and even file sharing and torrent searching is of course monitored by clients and law enforcement.
Viral services and viral videos are monitored of course – one famous example was of animal abuse, where users of YouTube who found a video of a dog being thrown off a bridge immediately reported the abuse within the video to YouTube who then not only removed the video but sent information to police authorities in Lithuania who used image recognition and enhancement software to not only trace the bridges location and through local investigation of residents were able to track the two individuals – both the person recording the footage and the animal abuser – no viral of this actual video is now to be found but a viral of their apology to angry people outside the court before their subsequent sentencing is in existence.
Famously the technology of organisation is the UK such as M.I.5 and GCHQ monitors every text, internet activity and telephone with special tracking software and keyword or sound analyser in milliseconds and plans to record a database have also been discussed. More recently the finding and subsequent sending of a specialist SEAL unit flown into Pakistan by new specialist stealth helicopter would never have occurred unless the CIA had been able to monitor through a database of thousands of Islamic extremist with al-Qaeda connections one telephone call out of millions its computers were tracking and observing that led to a particular runner of al-Qaeda into Pakistan leading then to spy plane and satellite activity in tracking down the of the Abbottabad compound in Pakistan.
Embassies in Egypt on Alert
Hours after protesters stormed the Israeli Embassy in Cairo, Egypt has vowed to protect all of its embassies and evacuate diplomats working within them .
Months after its new Government has taken power, the interim military government said protesters involved in the attack on the Israeli Embassy would be on alert after the attack, so far three people have died as security forces fought rioters in Cairo.
Anti-Israeli feeling rose after violence on the Gaza border last month. Five Egyptian policemen were killed as Israeli forces pursued Palestinian militants. The clashes at the Israeli embassy, which went on through Friday night, have shocked people both in Egypt and abroad.
A report on Russian News confirms the most recent information at time of writing:
Recording Casualties of War
Oxford Research Group (ORG) are inviting members of the public to the launch of a new initiative, “The Charter for the Recognition of Every Casualty of Armed Violence” on Thursday, 15 September 2011, at the British Academy in London, 9.30 – 11.30 am.
The Charter contains a set of three core demands on states to ensure that every person killed by armed violence is:
- promptly recorded,
- correctly identified, and
- publicly acknowledged.
The Charter is the first to set out for the international community clear casualty-recording requirements that are grounded in international law. Such recording is vital, because it enables every individual’s death to be recognised in the interest of truth, justice, accountability, and greater public awareness of human losses.
For more information visit: http://www.oxfordresearchgroup.org.uk/news/charter_launch
Oxford Research Group report – 9/11 10 yrs on
9/11 and the Paths not Taken – New Report Offers Fresh Appraisal on the Eve of the Ten-year Anniversary of the Attacks
London, 6 September 2011. The ten-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks presents a crucial opportunity to reflect on the catastrophic mistakes of the last decade of the ‘war on terror’, argues a new report from the respected British think tank, Oxford Research Group.
The report, A War Gone Badly Wrong – The War on Terror Ten Years On, assesses the consequences of the response from the United States and its coalition partners. It questions whether the response was either appropriate or wise and whether the results so far have been counterproductive – and may even indicate the need for an entirely new security paradigm.
Credit Source & Further reading: ORG
Syria – Assad May Be Next!
President Bashar Assad - Image via Wikipedia
Thousands of anti-government protesters took to the streets across Syria today after a televised appearance by President Bashar Assad, shouting for him to step down.
Security forces opened fire in the central city of Homs, killing at least one person. Crowds there and in several other cities were angered by Assad’s remarks on TV and taunted him with warnings that his regime would be the next to unravel, as Muammar Gaddafi‘s 42-year rule was crumbling under a rebel advance in Libya
Human rights groups say more than 2,000 people have been killed in the government’s crackdown on a five-month-old uprising. The regime has unleashed tanks and snipers in an attempt to stamp out the revolt.
In a now-familiar refrain, Assad on Sunday promised imminent reforms – including parliamentary elections by February – but insisted the unrest was being driven by armed gangs and Islamic militants, not true reform seekers.
He also said he was not worried about security in his country and warned against any Libya-style foreign military intervention. His remarks appeared designed to portray confidence as the regime comes under blistering international condemnation.
Source: P.A. & Huffington Post
Yesterday the United Nations Human Rights Chief blasted the President for human rights.
There are different views to the protest and also suspicion as to the UNs and especially American intervention and involvement with the situation in Syria.
Cross Party hopes for raising US debt Limit
Democrats and Republicans have expressed cautious optimism about the chances of raising the US debt limit by Tuesday and averting possible default. The gross public debt increases or decreases as a result of the annual unified budget deficit or surplus.
As of June 29, 2011, the Total Public Debt Outstanding was $14.46 trillion and was approximately 98.6% of calendar year 2010′s annual gross domestic product (GDP) of $14.66 trillion
Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell commented that there was “a level of seriousness with the right people at the table” as talks continued. Senior Senate Democrat Richard Durbin spoke of “a more positive feeling”.
During the uncertainty of being able to pay troops in Afghanistan, Admiral Mike Mullen who as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff currently on a visit to southern Afghanistan, said he did not know whether that would be the case if the US fails to raise the limit by 2 August. Democrats and Republicans have so far rejected each others’ proposals for cutting spending and raising the debt limit.
Hackers break into Lockheed Martin defence
RUETERS
By Jim Finkle and Andrea Shalal-Esa
BOSTON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Unknown hackers have broken into the security networks of Lockheed Martin Corp and several other U.S. military contractors, a source with direct knowledge of the attacks told Reuters.
They breached security systems designed to keep out intruders by creating duplicates to “SecurID” electronic keys from EMC Corp’s RSA security division, said the person who was not authorized to publicly discuss the matter.
It was not immediately clear what kind of data, if any, was stolen by the hackers. But the networks of Lockheed and other military contractors contain sensitive data on future weapons systems as well as military technology currently used in battles in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Weapons makers are the latest companies to be breached through sophisticated attacks that have pierced the defenses of huge corporations including Sony, Google Inc and EMC Corp. Security experts say that it is virtually impossible for any company or government agency to build a security network that hackers will be unable to penetrate.
The Pentagon, which has about 85,000 military personnel and civilians working on cyber security issues worldwide, said it also uses a limited number of the RSA electronic security keys, but declined to say how many for security reasons.
The hackers learned how to copy the security keys with data stolen from RSA during a sophisticated attack that EMC disclosed in March, according to the source.
Modeling and Simulation for Defense Demand Expands as Budgets Tighten
May 20 — A $2.5 billion contract to provide planning, modeling, simulation and training solutions to the Army and Department of Defense (DoD) has been awarded to Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC).
This contract signifies the growing need for simulation training to prepare troops for combat. Despite budget constraints, Modeling and Simulation (M&S) is expanding as technological improvements develop. M&S is the more viable and cost-effective option for tomorrow’s armed forces.
Wiki-leak files show Al-Quada assasin a MI6 informer
An alleged al-Qaeda militant suspected of bombing a luxury hotel and two churches in Pakistan in 2002 was an informer for MI6, it has been claimed.
Adil Hadi al Jazairi Bin Hamlili was detained at Guantanamo Bay between 2003 and last year.
The Guardian claims to have seen secret Wikileaks files in which he is described as an al-Qaeda “assassin”.
Other Wikileaks files suggest a mosque in north London served as a “haven” for Islamic extremists.
MOD Invests in Nano Unmanned Air Systems
Falcon 8 from Ascending Technologies
The MoD has put out a public tender notice for a contract worth up to £20m for the supply of up to 100 Nano unmanned air systems, to be ready by the autumn.
The expenditure has been authorised as the government announces deep cuts to the RAF and other services – a coincidence that will underline the military‘s growing reliance on robot technology. Several years ago the US defence department set itself the target of having a third of its fighting strength made up of unmanned vehicles by 2015.
The RAF is already using Predator drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), armed with Hellfire missiles and Paveway bombs, in Afghanistan. The Royal Artillery is also launching the smaller Desert Hawk spotter drones, weighting 3.5kg each, in close support of ground troops in Helmand province.
The use of tiny UAVs – compared by one defence source to “toys in Hamleys” – represents a significant expansion of military resources into new areas of combat technology.
Last month a US defence contractor, AeroVironment Unmanned Aircraft Systems, exhibited its Nano hummingbird spy drone. Remotely controlled by a ground operator, it weighs only 19gm and resembles a hovering bird. The Nano unmanned air system (NUAS) sought by the MoD is required to be slightly larger.
The tender notice for the contract says: “The MoD may have an urgent operational requirement for deployable NUAS.” The drones should be available “off the shelf”, powered by a rotary wing, weigh less than 1.7kg,and able to operate in “typical conditions found in Afghanistan and the UK”
Source : Slasdot.org
http://news.slashdot.org/story/11/03/03/0055246/UK-MOD-To-Spend-20-Million-On-Toy-Size-Spy-Drones
Jack Straw tells Chilcott Inquiry of rejection of UK Forces Invasion of Iraq
BRITISH troops did not need to go into traq, Jack Straw told the Chilcot inquiry yesterday.
On the last day of the public inquiry into the war, the former foreign secre¬tary said he told Tony Blair that British troops could stay out of the conflict.
Mr Straw said a ‘perfectly straightfor¬ward alternative’ to war was to help with any post-war effort along with the Spanish and Italian forces.
He repeatedly warned Mr Blair that a policy of regime change would be `palpably illegal’.
`I made that point in quite categorical terms to the prime minister on more than one occasion,’ Mr Straw said.
`I came at this issue from a different perspective to the prime minister. How¬ever, I ended up at the same point as the prime minister — let me make that clear — and backed the position that he and the cabinet and the House of Commons made to take military action,’
He ended by saying: ‘I want to express my deep sorrow for the loss of life in this conflict — notwithstanding the fact that I also happen to believe the military action we took was justified.’ The inquiry, launched in July 30, 2009, has twice heard evidence from Mr Blair and a host of military leaders. Sir John Chilcot said he would be taking months to complete his report.
Source : Fred Attewell (Metro Newspaper 03/02/2011)
DOD To Prohibit Waterboarding and SERE Techniques in Interrogation
Defense agencies have complied with a recommendation to prohibit the use of military survival training techniques — such as waterboarding — in prisoner interrogation, the DoD inspector general confirmed in a report last year.
In response to a previous Inspector General report (pdf), a 2008 DoD directive (pdf) stated that “Use of SERE [survival, evasion, resistance, and escape] techniques against a person in the custody or effective control of the Department of Defense or detained in a DoD facility is prohibited.” Likewise, a 2009 memorandum for the military services and the Special Operations Command specified that use of “SERE techniques for interrogations of personnel in DoD custody or control is prohibited.”
The 2010 IG report found that “all US Air Force, US Army, US Navy, US Marine Corps, and [Joint Personnel Recovery Agency] SERE training programs included, as part of their curriculum, a prohibition against the use of SERE techniques for interrogation of personnel in DoD custody or control.” See “Field Verification-Interrogation and Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) Techniques Recommendation,” DoD Inspector General Report 10-INTEL-05, April 16, 2010 (released under FOIA in December 2010).
SERE training provides “a reasonable means to train [U.S. military personnel] for the most challenging captivity environment where captors do not abide by the Geneva Conventions,” the IG report said. But “the physical and psychological pressures developed for… SERE training were not intended for real-world interrogations. Intelligence resistance training does not qualify a SERE Specialist instructor to conduct interrogations or provide subject matter expertise to those who are trained in that specialty.”
Source:http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2011/01/ig_sere.html“>
D-Notice Advice on Wikileak further disclosure
Andrew Vallance Secretary, Defence Press and Broadcasting Advisory Committee has written to editors of all TV & Radio, Newspaper, and Satelite/Cable broadcaters in the UK:
“To All Editors
Impending Further National Security Disclosures by Wikileaks
I understand that Wikileaks will very shortly release a further mass of US official documents onto its internet website. The full scope of the subject matter covered by these documents remains to be seen, but it is possible that some of them may contain information that falls within the UK’s Defence Advisory Notice code. Given the large number of documents thought to be involved, it is unlikely that sensitive UK national security information within these documents would be recognised by a casual browser. However, aspects of national security might be put at risk if a major UK media news outlet brought such information into obvious public prominence through its general publication or broadcast.
Therefore, may I ask you to seek my advice before publishing or broadcasting any information drawn from these latest Wikileaks’ disclosures “
Source http://britanniaradio.blogspot.com/2010/11/that-wikileaks-d-notice-guido-fawkes.html
Wikileaks Funding blocked – blacklisted by US Govt?
The whistleblowing group WikiLeaks claims that it has had its funding blocked and that it is the victim of financial warfare by the US government. Moneybookers, a British-registered internet payment company that collects WikiLeaks donations, emailed the organisation to say it had closed down its account because it had been put on an official US watchlist and on an Australian government blacklist.
The apparent blacklisting came a few days after the Pentagon publicly expressed its anger at WikiLeaks and its founder, Australian citizen Julian Assange, for obtaining thousands of classified military documents about the war in Afghanistan, in one of the US army’s biggest leaks of information. The documents caused a sensation when they were made available to the Guardian, the New York Times and German magazine Der Spiegel, revealing hitherto unreported civilian casualties. WikiLeaks defied Pentagon calls to return the war logs and destroy all copies. Instead, it has been reported that it intends to release an even larger cache of military documents, disclosing other abuses in Iraq.
Moneybookers moved against WikiLeaks on 13 August, according to the correspondence, less than a week after the Pentagon made public threats of reprisals against the organisation. Moneybookers wrote to Assange: “Following an audit of your account by our security department, we must advise that your account has been closed … to comply with money laundering or other investigations conducted by government authorities.” When Assange emailed to ask what the problem was, he says he was told in response by Daniel Stromberg, the Moneybookers e-commerce manager for the Nordic region: “When I did my regular overview of my customers, I noticed that something was wrong with your account and I emailed our risk and legal department to solve this issue. “Below I have copied the answer I received from them: ‘Hi Daniel, you can inform him that initially his account was suspended due to being accessed from a blacklisted IP address. However, following recent publicity and the subsequently addition of the WikiLeaks entity to blacklists in Australia and watchlists in the USA, we have terminated the business relationship.’”
Assange said: “This is likely to cause a huge backlash against Moneybookers. Craven behaviour in relation to the US government is unlikely to be seen sympathetically.” Moneybookers, which is registered in the UK but controlled by the Bahrain-based group Investcorp, would not make anyone available to explain the decision.
Its public relations firm, 77PR, said: “We have never had any request, inquiry or correspondence from any authority regarding this former customer.” Asked how this could be reconciled with the references in the correspondence to a blacklist, it said: “We stick with our original statement.”
Source : The Guardian Newspaper – UK
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