China: Cybersecurity and Mosaic Intelligence

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Any computer connected to the Internet is potentially subject to this same sort of assault, but the danger is particularly high in China itself or in places like Afghanistan, where half the Internet traffic is routed through China. Foreign government, military and contractor computers are prime targets.

It is already fairly common corporate practice among IT-savvy firms to dispatch employees to such areas only with “disposable” computers stripped to the greatest extent possible of sensitive or proprietary information. Indeed, some companies will actually physically shred laptops that have been connected to the Internet through China in special machines because they are considered permanently compromised when it comes to sensitive or classified information. Malicious software (malware) has been discovered in other parts of the computer outside the hard drive. There are even studies suggesting that a computer’s firmware (the code that is embedded in a computer’s hardware) could be infected; some cybersecurity professionals already consider this a real concern.

Indeed, computer hardware, including hard drives, now are even coming out of the factory infected with malware (USB “thumb” drives reportedly have notoriously high infection rates). This is hardly limited to China — again, like much in cyberspace, culprits usually are extremely difficult to pinpoint — but Beijing is a particular concern. ....

Beijing relies heavily on a model known as mosaic intelligence, which consists of maximizing the quantity of raw material collected — not targeting anything specific, simply seeing what bits of data can be found — seeing what comes back, and then piecing the information together into a “mosaic” in China. While this might not seem like the most efficient means of collection, China enjoys a demographic position where manpower is not a primary concern. ....

The History and Future of Suicide Terrorism

Suicide terrorism, as a tactic, it has infiltrated our national consciousness. However, we need to stop viewing suicide terrorism as something exotic and incomprehensible, which only leads to confusion. We can best make sense of it if we think of it as a military innovation.

Mexican Troops Cross Border, Hold Border Agent

Mexican troops crossed the border into Arizona and held a U.S. Border Patrol agent at gunpoint on Sunday, according to a published report.

Agents assigned to the Border Patrol at Ajo, Ariz., said the Mexican soldiers crossed the border into an isolated area southwest of Tucson and pointed rifles at the agent, who has not been identified.

The Mexicans withdrew after other American agents arrived on the scene, The Washington Times reports.

It’s not known why the troops crossed the border, but American law enforcement authorities have said that current and former Mexican soldiers have been hired to protect drug and immigrant smugglers.

“Unfortunately, this sort of behavior by Mexican military personnel has been going on for years,” union Local 2544 of the National Border Patrol Council said on its Web site. ....

Judge Unseals Anthrax Files

A U.S. federal judge today authorized the release of hundreds of pages of records from the FBI’s years-long investigation of the anthrax mailings that killed five people in 2001, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Aug. 5).

District Judge Royce Lamberth unsealed at least 14 search warrants that targeted Bruce Ivins, a veteran microbiologist at the U.S. Army Research Institute of Infectious Diseases who was considered the investigation’s prime suspect. He died last week in an apparent suicide. ...

Moqtada Packs It In

By the The Wall Street Journal

Good news out of Iraq is becoming almost a daily event: In just the past week, we learned that U.S. combat fatalities (five) dropped in July to a low for the war, that key leaders of al Qaeda in Iraq have fled to the Pakistani hinterland, that troop deployments will soon be cut to 12 months from 15, and that Washington and Baghdad are close to concluding a status-of-forces agreement.

Now this: Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr plans to announce Friday that he will disarm his Mahdi Army, which was raining mortars on Baghdad's Green Zone as recently as April. Coupled with the near-total defeat of al Qaeda in Iraq, this means the U.S. no longer faces any significant organized military foe in the country. It also marks a major setback for Iran, which had used the Mahdi Army as one of its primary vehicles for extending its influence in Iraq. ....

DHS Ignoring Maritime Cargo Law, Lawmaker Says

Rep. Thompson calls Chertoff's resistance 'troubling'

On the heels of faulting the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for misinterpreting a congressional mandate to scan 100 percent of passenger air cargo, House Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) has decried the department's resistance to scanning 100 percent of US-bound maritime cargo for terrorist threats as well. ....

Defense Study Asks, ‘Why Have We Not Been Attacked Again?’

by Mickey McCarter

DTRA and SAIC weigh possibilities as to why no attack on US soil has occured since 9/11

A recent report commissioned by the US Department of Defense examines a number of hypotheses that might explain why Al Qaeda has not launched another attack on US soil since 9/11, questioning whether US counter-terrorism capabilities simply have succeeded in thwarting another attack or terrorists harbor reasons for refraining from an attack.

"The efforts of America's national security community have doubtlessly contributed to the non-occurrence of a subsequent attack on the homeland," the report reads. "Yet a number of less obvious explanations may also have been at work. Among them is the possibility that, in contrast to repeated warnings that the nation faces an ever-present terrorist threat, our enemies have simply not made conducting another large-scale attack on the United States their overriding priority."

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) collaborated with Science Applications International Corp. to produce the report, titled "Why Have We Not Been Attacked Again?" The report is dated June 2008 but released publicly only this week through the Heritage Foundation think tank. The report summarizes analyses from a group of participants who examined various theories during a conference in September 2007.

While the report draws no overriding conclusions, it examines support and objections to a number of hypotheses that could explain terrorist attacks like those of 9/11 have not occurred again. Some of these hypotheses compete with one another while some complement others. The report focuses on Al Qaeda but also encompasses other radical Muslim groups and lone jihadists.

The report acknowledges that US forces have disrupted terrorist plots against the United States since 9/11 and cites those cases as evidence in favor that successful counter-terrorist activities have defeated potential attacks, including these under hypotheses that proclaim US capabilities against terrorism.

In addition, researchers recognize that any break in terrorist attacks on the United States also may stem from the intent of the terrorists and seek to explore potential terrorist motivations in a separate group of hypotheses.

The DTRA report proceeds from the assumption that 9/11 was not an anomaly but rather it represented the manifestation of "enduring grievances" against the United States from radical Islamists who object to US foreign policy in the Middle East. The National Intelligence Estimate of July 2007 noted that Al Qaeda continues to possess an active interest in attacking the US homeland, the report says. ....

Ending Londonistan

.... highlights the profound conceptual flaws at the heart of Britain's strategy for combating the threats facing the country, criticism made more devastating by the combined weight and authority of its authors.

The RUSI paper is a direct challenge to current British government policy that pursues a strategy of cultural appeasement in order to buy off—as it believes—the worse prospect of terrorism and urban violence. But the British government's misguided approach merely enables radical Islamismto achieve its goals. ....

You Still Can't Write About Muhammad

Starting in 2002, Spokane, Wash., journalist Sherry Jones toiled weekends on a racy historical novel about Aisha, the young wife of the prophet Muhammad. Ms. Jones learned Arabic, studied scholarly works about Aisha's life, and came to admire her protagonist as a woman of courage. When Random House bought her novel last year in a $100,000, two-book deal, she was ecstatic. This past spring, she began plans for an eight-city book tour after the Aug. 12 publication date of "The Jewel of Medina" -- a tale of lust, love and intrigue in the prophet's harem.

It's not going to happen: In May, Random House abruptly called off publication of the book. The series of events that torpedoed this novel are a window into how quickly fear stunts intelligent discourse about the Muslim world. ....

Hirsi Ali discusses democracy and Islam

...Ayaan Hirsi Ali says the creed of Islam itself, rather than the way it's practised, is the problem, because the ideas of Mohammed are incompatible with the ideas of liberal democracy.

(To Ayaan Hirsi Ali) Is Islam the problem or is fundamentalist Islam the problem?

AYAAN HIRSI ALI: Islam, as a creed, is the problem, depending on how you define the problem and I define it as the ideas of Mohammed are incompatible with the ideas that liberal secular democracies are based on.

And I also want to emphasise that it's not Muslims as in individuals, because they're varied, they're very diverse. Some Muslims are a problem, some Muslims are not, some Muslims are apathetic, but Islam as a system of ideas is incompatible with liberal democracy as a system of ideas......

Bin Laden's Former Driver Convicted by Military Tribunal

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, Aug. 6 -- Osama bin Laden's former driver was convicted on one charge and acquitted on another Wednesday, handing the Bush administration a partial victory in the first U.S. war crimes trial in a half-century but failing to settle the debate over whether the proceeding was just. ....

The sentencing hearing will start at 2 p.m. Eastern time and is expected to last for the rest of the day Wednesday. Prosecutors are expected to present "aggravating factors" they say call for a harsh punishment, while defense attorneys introduce evidence of mitigation. The same two-thirds vote applies to sentencing, unless the term is more than 10 years. That would require the vote of three-fourths of the jurors.

The verdict only intensified a dispute over whether Hamdan's conviction was preordained in an unfair system -- or whether military trials are appropriate for people who allegedly committed heinous acts against the United States.

President Bush first empowered the modern military commissions after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, reversing a decade-long U.S. policy of trying accused terrorists in civilian courts. ...

Documents: Ivins had custody of purified anthrax

WASHINGTON (AP) - Army scientist Bruce Ivins had custody of highly purified anthrax spores that had "certain genetic mutations identical" to the poison that killed five and rattled the nation in 2001, according to documents unsealed Wednesday in the government's investigation.

Also, Ivins was unable to give investigators "an adequate explanation for his late laboratory work hours around the time of" the attacks, and he apparently sought to mislead investigators on the case, according to an affidavit filed by one government investigator.

The scientist committed suicide last week as investigators were preparing to charge him with murder in the 2001 attacks. The documents were released as the FBI held a private briefing for families of the victims of the episode, and officials said the agency was preparing to close the case....

Islamic Finance Qualification - first regional launch in Singapore

(Compiler's note: Lost in Wall Street's scramble to grab management and other fees from these Islamic-compliant funds, which are growing fast thanks to Arab petrodollars, is that the funds must "purify" their returns by transferring at least 3% into Islamic charities, many of which funnel funds to terrorists.

So, the American financial community may unwittingly be helping our sworn enemy.)

Today, the Sharia'a finance and banking industry is one of the fastest growing markets in the world and is estimated to be worth more than $1 trillion in the next 2 years.

El Paso intelligence center

The El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC) is a multi-agency regional intelligence center in El Paso, Texas, that gathers and disseminates information about drug and weapons trafficking, alien smuggling, and terrorism activities. The agencies at the core are the Drug Enforcement Administration, Customs and Border Protection, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and includes representatives from more than 15 other agencies. EPIC is run jointly by the DEA and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which is part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ....

Texas executes Mexican in defiance of world court

Texas has put to death a Mexican convicted murderer, defying a ruling from the International Court of Justice and ignoring a last-minute appeal from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.

Jose Ernesto Medellin, 33, was killed by lethal injection in the Huntsville death chamber at 9:57 p.m. (0257 GMT Wednesday), Texas Department of Criminal Justice official Jason Clark told AFP.

Medellin was sentenced to die for the 1993 rape and murder of two girls, aged 14 and 16, in Houston, Texas. Medellin, a Mexican-born member of the Black and Whites street gang, was 19 at the time. ....

Limited Progress In Preparing For Bioterrorism

The Justice Department is working out whether it can officially close the investigation of the 2001 anthrax attacks after scientist Bruce Ivins, described as the prime suspect, killed himself last week.

Even if the case is closed, though, the government still has to prepare for any future attacks or natural contagions.

Since the attacks, the federal government has spent about $50 billion to improve the way it detects and responds to biological threats. But progress has been limited, and some security experts say the threat is greater than it was. ....

File Keepers

If someone develops a practical mind-reading device, you can expect the Department of Homeland Security to argue that skulls are merely another "closed container" that officers guarding the border may search at will. After all, government agents have long been allowed to read documents in briefcases carried by Americans returning from abroad. Why should the medium in which information is stored make a constitutional difference?

That argument is only slightly more far-fetched than the one DHS uses to justify its policy regarding border searches of laptop computers. Given the nature and quantity of the data they contain, portable computers are in many ways extensions of our brains. Yet DHS is treating them as if they were no different from purses or fruitcake tins. ....

"Rheostat Warfare": An Interview With Gen. David Petraeus

by Austin Bay

....A soldier and scholar like Gen. David Petraeus, commander of Multi-National Force-Iraq, knows history is never over, but judgments must be made. This week, I spoke with Petraeus in a half-hour interview that touched on numerous difficult subjects, including establishing the "Rule of Law" in Iraq and the Iraqi Army's "surge" in professional capabilities and numerical strength. ....

I translate from the mil-speak: The smart and resilient enemy "always has a vote," and in Iraq's case what Iran does or does not do matters. "Rheostat victory" requires a United States willing to act with all "the tools of power" to back its new ally, Iraq.

Living with the Bomb

Alan Caruba

What is Sen. Barack Hussein Obama's response to the threat of a nuclear attack on America?

Supreme Defiance: D.C. City Council Still Trying to Shred Second Amendment

Gregory D. Lee

Only corrupt or dishonest politicians knowingly violate the U.S. Constitution, and then pat themselves on the back for making more trouble for the citizens whose rights they have violated.

Reducing Illegal Immigration: How Congress Can Support Federal Initiatives

One of the most contentious issues in the debate over immigration reform is how to deal with the estimated 12 to 15 million illegal aliens in the United States. Supporters of "comprehensive" reform often falsely present the issue as a choice between permanent legalization and the forced deportation of each and every illegal immigrant. As the latter is unacceptable, the only reasonable position, "comprehensive" reform proponents contend, is legalization, the approach adopted by the amnesty provisions of the Senate's immigration legislation.

The "legalization" approach is deeply flawed; it has been tried before and failed miserably. The better solution is to rely on law enforcement and market forces to end America's addiction to undocumented labor and to create legitimate opportunities for immigrants to continue their contributions to keeping America safe, free, and prosperous.

As part of this superior approach, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has recently initiated a pilot program to encourage those unlawfully present to leave voluntarily. Congress should build on this initiative with measures creating better alternatives to illegal immigration. ....

A Nation of Thieves

By Walter Williams

Edgar K. Browning, professor of economics at Texas A&M University, has a new book aptly titled "Stealing from Each Other." Its subtitle, "How the Welfare State Robs Americans of Money and Spirit," goes to the heart of what the book is about. The rise of equalitarian ideology has driven Americans to steal from one another. Browning explains that certain kinds of equality have been a cherished value in America. Equality under the law and, within reason, equality of opportunity is consistent with a free society. Equality of results is an anathema to a free society and within it lie the seeds of tyranny. ...

China’s Xia-Class SSBN Leaves Dry Dock

The Xia-class SSBN appears to have completed a multi-year overhaul. The submarine has been in dry dock at least since 2005. Click on image to download large version.

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By Hans M. Kristensen

China’s single Xia-class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine has been launched from the dry dock at the Jianggezhuang Naval Base where it has been undergoing a multi-year overhaul. The Xia was discovered on a commercial satellite image, which shows the submarine moored in the harbor. ...

U.S. counterterrorism efforts flounder in North Africa, GAO says

By Katherine McIntire Peters

Federal agencies agree that terrorist activity in North Africa presents a growing security threat to U.S. interests. Vast ungoverned spaces, porous borders and groups aligned with al Qaeda have raised concerns about the area becoming a safe haven for terrorists to launch attacks against the United States. But the agencies most responsible for implementing a key counterterrorism partnership program -- the State and Defense departments and the U.S. Agency for International Development -- can't seem to agree on how to implement policy there.

Disagreements between State and Defense over the control of personnel and activities, and funding fluctuations in USAID programs have hindered U.S. objectives in the region, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office. In addition, agencies have no way of measuring the effectiveness of their activities.

The Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership is the primary vehicle of U.S. counterterrorism policy in northwest Africa, GAO noted. Through diplomacy, development assistance and military activities, the multiagency effort, led by State, aims to limit the spread of extremist ideology, strengthen government institutions and foster cooperation among the nations of the regions known as the pan-Sahel (Mauritania, Mali, Chad and Niger); the Maghreb (Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia); and the sub-Sahara (Nigeria and Senegal).