Pirates hijack tanker with 24 Russian crew off Togo: IMB

By Agence France-Presse

Pirates exchanged fire with security forces and hijacked a Greek-owned oil tanker with 24 Russian crew off Togo on Tuesday in the latest attack in the region, the International Maritime Bureau said.
The Isle of Man-flagged vessel, which was carrying gas oil, was seized 17 miles off the coast of the Togolese capital Lome, where it had reportedly been anchored, said Noel Choong, head of the IMB’s piracy reporting centre.
The hijackers exchanged fire with a Togo navy patrol boat that answered a distress call but managed to elude the patrol by steaming off aboard the tanker called Energy Centurion, Choong said.
“Normally in this area they will hold the ship for four or five days, ransack it and steal part of the cargo, usually gas oil,” Choong said.
Togo officials said the pirates fled toward neighbouring Benin after the country’s navy intervened following a distress call at around 2:00 am (0200 GMT).
“Our patrol boats went to rescue it and there was an exchange of fire between the pirates and our men,” said military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Inoussa Djibril.
An official with the vessel’s Athens-based operator, Golden Energy Management, said Tuesday afternoon that the tanker remained in the hands of the pirates and there had been no word from the crew.
“In that area, it is not like off of Somalia,” the official said.
“They aren’t pirates who want ransom, but thieves who take control of vessels to take the cargo. Because of that, we hope that the vessel will be quickly released once the gas oil it is transporting is siphoned off.”
Choong said that the perpetrators could be from the same syndicate that hijacked a UK-operated oil tanker on August 19. That vessel, along with 18 people on board, was released Thursday off Nigeria.
None of those on board were injured in that incident, Choong said, but the pirates made off with some of the gas oil that the vessel was carrying.
The Malaysia-based IMB has repeatedly warned ships plying the Gulf of Guinea off the west coast of Africa to be vigilant and called on authorities to step up patrols, last year saying the region was emerging as a new piracy “hot spot”.
The area has seen 36 attacks, including several hijackings, kidnappings and killings, so far this year. Pirates usually target fuel cargo, loading it onto other ships to sell on the lucrative black market.
Nigeria and nearby Benin launched joint patrols last year in a bid to combat the problem.
Piracy has long been a problem off Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer and most populous nation, but it has now spread to neighbouring nations.
Benin, located between Togo and Nigeria, last year recorded a sharp uptick in pirate attacks.
Analysts have suspected that one or several organised gangs, possibly from Nigeria, have been behind the spate of attacks.

 http://www.defencetalk.com

Leader of Triangle terrorist cell gets 18-year sentence

By Anne Blythe

Three years after eight men were accused of stockpiling weapons in rural Johnston County and conspiring to commit jihad overseas, the ringleader of what prosecutors describe as a homegrown terror cell was sentenced in federal court Friday.
Daniel Patrick Boyd, who engaged in a plea deal with prosecutors in exchange for his testimony in the trials of four others who fought the charges, was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
The federal accusations in July 2009 that eight men had been amassing weapons and plotting to maim, injure and kidnap people abroad brought shock and disbelief to the Johnston County community where they lived.
The case highlighted the government’s use of FBI informants to build a slew of terror cases across the country since the Sept. 11 attacks.
It also raised questions about the influence that an older, outspoken man could have over young men in a rural community who were seeking direction in their lives. Two of the eight involved were Boyd’s sons.
“Daniel Boyd recruited his own sons and others into conspiracies to murder persons abroad and provide material support to terrorism,” said Lisa Monaco, assistant attorney general for National Security. “Today, he is being held accountable for his actions.”
Boyd, 42, received a lesser prison term than some of the younger men he was accused of influencing. He pleaded guilty in February 2011 to conspiring to provide material support to terrorists and conspiring to murder persons abroad.
One of the other men – Anes Subasic, 36 – also was sentenced in the federal courthouse in New Bern. He was given 30 years in prison for conspiring to provide material support to terrorists and conspiring to murder, kidnap, maim and injure persons abroad.
‘This is stupid’
Subasic, a Bosnian refugee who was tried by himself because of his propensity for outbursts in the courtroom, ranted at Senior U.S. District Judge Louise Flanagan and federal prosecutors during his sentencing hearing.
He shouted that he was not guilty, not a terrorist and not a Muslim.
“This is stupid and retarded,” Subasic yelled.
When prosecutors suggested that Flanagan give Subasic a sentence of life in prison, he yelled out: “How about two?”
Flanagan ordered Subasic to get a mental health evaluation while in custody.
Friday’s sentences bring to a close the first terror case in the Triangle, which came among a wave of similar post-9/11 cases across the nation. Charges were filed and arrests occurred before any violent acts happened.
The federal government used confidential informants in the Boyd case to help gather more than 800 hours of video and audio recordings.
In June 2009, investigators seized rifles, ammunition and pistols from the Boyd home.
A Svengali figure
Boyd was portrayed as a Svengali-like figure who indoctrinated young Muslims in a plot to wage jihad overseas. He called himself Saifullah – Arabic for “Sword of God.” The drywaller sported long hair and a wild beard before his arrest, and he was taped by informants spouting jihadist rhetoric, federal prosecutors have contended.
His sons – Dylan Boyd, 24, and Zakariya Boyd, 21 – also accepted plea deals in exchange for their testimony.
Defense argument
The cases have raised questions about how far Muslims in the United States can promote jihad and spread radical Islamic propaganda while committing no violent acts.
Defense attorneys have argued that the government’s case was nothing more than a prosecution of young Muslims who debated controversial ideas. The accused, their attorneys said, did little more than watch jihadist videos on computers and trade Facebook posts about fighting Americans overseas.
In October 2011, a federal jury convicted three of the younger men charged in the case – Hysen Sherifi, 27, Mohammad Omar Aly Hassan, 25, and Ziyad Yaghi, 24.
Hassan and Yaghi were found guilty of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. Yaghi was convicted also of conspiring to murder, kidnap, maim and injure persons in a foreign country. Hassan received a 15-year prison term, and Yaghi received 31 years in prison.
The starkness of their punishments, some in the Triangle Muslim community have contended, contrasts sharply with the murkiness of their crimes. The men were convicted of conspiring, not acting, in terror schemes that never played out in the United States or abroad.
Murder-for-hire plot
Sherifi was found guilty of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists; conspiring to murder, kidnap, maim and injure persons in a foreign country; two counts of possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence; and conspiring to kill a federal officer or employee. He was sentenced to 45 years in prison.
He has since been charged in what prosecutors contend is a murder-for-hire plot that called for the beheading of three witnesses at his trial.
Boyd’s two sons received the lightest sentences in the case.
Zakariya Boyd received a nine-year sentence for conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. Dylan Boyd was sentenced to eight years in prison for aiding and abetting a conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists.

 http://www.charlotteobserver.com/100

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/08/24/3476440/leader-of-triangle-terrorist-cell.html#storylink=cpy

 

 

Navy SEAL to release book on bin Laden raid, publishing company says

A book company said Wednesday that it will release on September 11 a firsthand account of the raid that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Christine Ball, director of marketing and publicity for Dutton, a subsidiary of Penguin Group USA, said the book was written by a Navy SEAL under a pen name.

Although CNN has confirmed the name of the SEAL, the network agreed not to publish his identity at the request of Pentagon officials who said the information might lead to other SEALs on the raid being identified through social media links.

After The Associated Press and Fox News reported the SEAL's name online Thursday, many other websites, including The New York Times and USA Today, published his identity.

The book is entitled "No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama bin Laden."

The former Navy SEAL was on the Bin Laden raid, according to Pentagon officials. The 36-year-old chief petty officer left the Navy as a highly-decorated commando in April, but he could be subject to criminal prosecution, they said.

His military awards include five Bronze Stars with a special combat designation and a Purple Heart. He led others under fire at least seven times, Pentagon officials said.

The book account includes the stealth helicopter crash that could have killed the author and his teammates, his publisher said.

U.S. Special Operations Command has not reviewed the book or approved it, a Defense Department official said. Officials only recently became aware the former SEAL was writing a book but were told it encompasses more than just the raid and includes vignettes from training and other missions.

They would like to see a copy, the official said, to make sure no classified information is released or the book contains any information that might out one of the team members.

Officials have been told that some of the profits are going to charity.

Former Special Forces officers slam Obama over leaks on bin Laden killing

About two dozen U.S. Special Operations members and two helicopters were involved in the raid early May 2, 2011, in Abbottabad, Pakistan, that killed bin Laden.

The raid occurred in a span of 38 minutes, after CIA reports of repeated sightings of a tall man doing "prison yard walks" around the yard of the housing compound in Abbottabad, which was under constant surveillance, an official said on condition of anonymity a few days after the raid.

U.S. authorities did not definitively determine beforehand that the man was bin Laden, but they eventually concluded that there was enough evidence to go through with the operation.

One helicopter made a hard landing when it apparently came too close to a wall. It landed inside the western side of the compound with its tail rotor over the southern wall.

The first man killed in the mission -- which the U.S. official said was code-named Operation Neptune Spear -- was the Kuwaiti courier who had worked for bin Laden. He was shot dead after a brief gunfight in a guest house. From that point on, it is believed no other shots were fired at the U.S. forces, the official said -- which contrasts with early U.S. government reports describing the operation as a "firefight."

The troops then moved into the compound's three-story main building, where they shot and killed the courier's brother. As they went upstairs and around barricades, one of bin Laden's sons rushed at them and was killed. Neither of these men had weapons either on them or nearby, the official said.

The U.S. official said that the team then entered the third-floor room where bin Laden was, along with his Yemeni wife and several young children. The al Qaeda leader was moving, possibly toward one of the weapons that were in the room, when he was shot, first in the chest and then in the head. He never had a gun in hand but posed an imminent threat, according to the U.S. official.

Bin Laden's body was flown to the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, then in the North Arabian Sea. After DNA tests and further confirmations of his identity, he was buried at sea within 12 hours of his killing "in conformance with Islamic precepts and practices," White House press secretary Jay Carney said.

President Obama met with some of the Navy SEALs, often referred to as SEAL Team Six and officially as the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

The U.S. raid, which was conducted without the knowledge of Pakistan, enraged the Pakistani public and embarrassed its military.

Three months later, 15 members of Seal Team Six were killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan.

Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal are working on a movie about the raid.

"Zero Dark Thirty" is about the decade-long hunt for bin Laden. Bigelow and Boal are the team behind the 2008 Oscar-winning film "The Hurt Locker."

The new movie was said to be set for release just before the election, but after Republicans complained that it was a pro-Obama ad, it was pushed back until December. There is some dispute over whether it was ever meant for release before December.

The movie has been the focus of a Washington partisan fight since last summer.

The Pentagon's inspector general began an inquiry after questions were raised by Rep. Peter King, R-New York.

He demanded investigations by the Department of Defense and CIA inspectors general into what, if any, classified information about Special Operations tactics, techniques and procedures were leaked to the filmmakers, calling the film a "potentially dangerous collaboration" between liberal filmmakers and the administration.

Some of what those investigations found did show collaboration between the administration and the filmmakers, but Defense Department and White House officials have said it's no different than what they give many filmmakers and news reporters on a regular basis.

 http://edition.cnn.com/

How to act if there is a fire on a high-speed train

Researchers have used computer models to analyze the best way to evacuate the Spanish High Speed Train (AVE) in the case of fire; the involvement of the crew in organizing the fast transfer of passengers, completing the process before the train comes to a halt, and collective collaboration to assist those with reduced mobility are just some of the strategies to be followed

Researchers find best way to evacuate a high speed train // Source: yupedia.com

Researchers at the University of Cantabria in Spain have used computer models to analyze the best way to evacuate the Spanish High Speed Train (AVE), in the case of fire. The involvement of the crew in organizing the fast transfer of passengers, completing the process before the train comes to a halt, and collective collaboration to assist those with reduced mobility are just some of the strategies to be followed.
“In the event of fire on an AVE, two stages should be defined: the first is pre-evacuation in which passengers are transferred from one coach to another while the train is still in motion and the second involves evacuation once the train has stopped,” explains Daniel Alvear, member of GIDAI Fire Safety Group of the University of Cantabria.
A Servicio de Información y Noticias Científicas (SINC) release reports that the team of researchers have analyzed the best evacuation strategies on a high speed train, which has more inertia and less stops than others, using modeling tools and computer simulation. As Alvear says, “in this way it is possible to overcome drill exercise limitations which are costly, unrealistic and have a limited number of possible scenarios.”
Even so, input data supplied to the computer come from a real drill carried out in 2009 by 218 people inside the Guadarrama tunnel between Madrid and Segovia. The study enjoyed the participation of the Spanish Railway Network, RENFE and has been published in the Fire Safety Journal.
The results show that the pre-evacuation stage is “crucial” and the best strategy is to gather all passengers together before the train comes to a halt. Using a type of software, it was possible to determine the optimum and maximum number of coaches that can be evacuated from this type of AVE along with the time required to do so.
Two key aspects were identified in this process. One is to avoid those at the front of the evacuation line from impeding the movement of those behind. The solution involves one member of the crew hurrying up those at the front while another tells the others not to stop for their belongings. As a result, the aisle is not obstructed.
The second aspect refers to the need to evacuate those with reduced mobility. This is complex due to the AVE’s narrow aisles that make the passage of wheelchairs difficult and the fact that the amount of crew is limited. Therefore, the involvement of all passengers is recommended to assist disabled people.
Once the train has come to a halt, evacuation of the passengers can begin, taking into account the number of exits. If evacuation takes place onto the platform of the nearest station, exit availability will depend on the pre-evacuation strategy used.
For example, if the train is estimated to stop in less than ten minutes, the results indicate that the coach on fire should ideally be evacuated along with both adjacent coaches either side.
When stopping time is calculated at more than ten minutes, it is recommended that the maximum possible number of coaches is evacuated during pre-evacuation. This increases evacuation time by 27 percent compared to the first method, but passengers leave the train in safer conditions.
The driver and the railway traffic control centre are the ones who estimate how long it will take for the AVE to reach the nearest safe area, like a platform. The international standards stipulate that the train should arrive at a safe area some fifteen minutes after the fire is detected.
In many cases this is difficult and the train has to quickly stop in the middle of the line to avoid further damages. The researchers have also considered the possibility of analyzing what would happen if passengers had to alight directly onto the track ballast (the layer of gravel on which lays the track) using the emergency stairs.
The data show evacuation should be controlled by stages, giving priority to those individuals closest to the fire. This allows for quick, congestion free movement for those closest to the fire and minimizes their exposure to the harmful effects of the flames.

 http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/

India to Equip Police Cars With Radiation Scanners

Some police cruisers in leading urban areas of India are to be equipped with portable radiation sensors in accordance with government efforts to rein in unapproved uses of sensitive substances, the Indo-Asian News Service reported on Thursday.
Indian Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs V. Narayanasamy informed lawmakers that in excess of 800 law enforcement outposts in the South Asian state would receive radiation detection technology.
"The radiation detection systems installed in a mobile platform will have the capability to search and detect gamma emitting radionuclides," Narayanasamy said. "The mobile radiation detection vehicles are intended to help the police forces to detect any inadvertent presence of radioactivity in public domain. This system will also act as a deterrent for unauthorized usage of radioactive materials."
A number of radiological materials have uses in the civilian sector but authorities are concerned they could be exploited by terrorists looking to build a radiological "dirty bomb." 

http://www.nti.org/gsn/

Russian court imprisons Pussy Riot band members on hooliganism charges

By Laura Smith-Spark

 Three members of Russian female punk rock band Pussy Riot were sentenced to two years in prison Friday after they were found guilty of hooliganism for performing a song critical of President Vladimir Putin in a church.

The five months they have spent in detention since their arrests in March count toward the sentence, Judge Marina Sirovaya said.

The judge said the charges against the three young women -- Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich -- had been proved by witnesses and the facts.

The Pussy Riot members were charged after screaming, "Mother Mary, please drive Putin away," in a protest act in February inside Christ Savior Cathedral, one of Moscow's grandest houses of worship.

Punk bands perform in support of jailed rockers

Sirovaya rejected the women's defense that they were acting from political motives, ruling that they had intended to insult the Russian Orthodox Church and undermine public order.

However, the fact that two of them have young children was a mitigating factor in the sentencing, the judge said.

The defendants were accused of offending the churchgoers present -- through their actions, obscene language and their clothing -- and showing a lack of respect for the rules of the Orthodox Church. They ignored requests to stop their brief unscheduled protest performance, the court heard.

While their actions outraged many of Russia's faithful, their high-profile trial prompted international concern about freedom of speech in Russia.

Opinion: Why the Pussy Riot case matters

The U.S. Embassy in Moscow said on its official Twitter feed that the sentence was "disproportionate."

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton condemned the court's decision as "deeply troubling."

"Together with the reports of the band members' mistreatment during their pre-trial detention and the reported irregularities of the trial, it puts a serious question mark over Russia's respect for international obligations of fair, transparent, and independent legal process," she said.

Pussy Riot and Russia's surreal 'justice'

"It also runs counter to Russia's international obligations as regards respect for freedom of expression."

Urging Russia to reverse the sentence, Ashton said the case "adds to the recent upsurge in politically motivated intimidation and prosecution of opposition activists in the Russian Federation, a trend that is of growing concern to the European Union."

Rights group Amnesty International said that the court's decision was "a bitter blow for freedom of expression in the country" and that the women were now "prisoners of conscience."

Amnesty believes that the women's conduct "was politically motivated, and that they were wrongfully prosecuted for what was a legitimate -- if potentially offensive -- protest action," it said in a statement.

Supporters vent anger on Twitter

John Dalhuisen, director of Amnesty International's Europe and Central Asia Program, urged Russian authorities to overturn the sentence and release the trio unconditionally.

He also highlighted recent measures "restricting the freedom of expression and association" introduced after a wave of popular protests that accompanied elections earlier this year. "This trial is another example of the Kremlin's attempts to discourage and delegitimize dissent. It is likely to backfire," he said.

Human Rights Watch also said the women should never have been prosecuted for a hate crime.

"The charges and verdict against the Pussy Riot band members distort both the facts and the law," Hugh Williamson, the rights group's Europe and Central Asia director, said in a statement.

Band member's husband condemns Pussy Riot's prison sentences

Earlier, a number of arrests were made outside the court, where protesters gathered as the verdict was read, RIA Novosti reported.

The women are expected to appeal the court's decision.

The charge of hooliganism aimed at inciting religious hatred carried a potential sentence of up to seven years in prison.

None of the three women is older than 30. They have been in custody since their arrest shortly after the unexpected performance.

They looked calm and occasionally smiled and exchanged remarks as they stood, sometimes in handcuffs, behind a glass wall in the court, listening to the lengthy ruling.

Moscow district court heard that the three worked together to carry out their "criminal act which violated public order" -- in an action that "went against tradition and is a great insult to the church and people."

The three wore revealing, brightly colored clothing and covered their faces with balaclava-style masks in a style "inappropriate" for a church before making use of a microphone and electric guitar, the court was told.

Video footage of the "punk prayer" protest song was placed online, although the judge said it was not clear who had posted it.

Sirovaya said that the apologies by the defendants "were not sincere" and described their conduct as "an unprecedented act of hooliganism by women."

Celebrities back Pussy Riot

Evidence from character witnesses for the three women was also read out. Alyokhina was described as being a writer of poetry, a vegan and a good mother, RIA Novosti said.

Pop star Madonna last week performed Pussy Riot-style in a face mask and with the group's name on her back during a packed Moscow gig. She's one of a number of celebrities to back the women's cause.

"Everyone has the right to free speech, everywhere in the world. Maria, Katya, Nadia, I pray for you," Madonna said at Tuesday's concert, according to RIA Novosti. "They did something brave with their action. And I am praying for their freedom."

Rallies in support of Pussy Riot were also organized Friday outside Russian embassies around the world, including in London and Washington.

Pussy Riot and Putin's iron fist

Putin criticized the women's action this month but said they should not be judged "too harshly," RIA Novosti said. He added that he hoped the court makes "the right decision."

Pussy Riot specializes in sudden, often illegal public performances, including one in Moscow's Red Square.

The "punk prayer" was inspired by the women's anger about the relationship between the Russian government and the Orthodox Church, according to the band's manager, who is married to one of the women.

The Orthodox leader Patriarch Kyril has been widely reported as saying Putin's years in power have been a miracle from God.

Putin won reelection to the presidency in March in a vote that international observers said did not meet international standards.

The presidential election came just months after allegations of fraud in parliamentary elections prompted the largest anti-government demonstrations Russia had seen in two decades.

 http://edition.cnn.com/

Solving "Gauss"

By Suzanne Kelly

Researchers at the same cybersecurity lab that announced the discovery of the Flame virus this past May believe they have discovered a related set of code that serves as a Trojan horse, and they're asking the wider cryptographic community to help them crack it.
The newly found code dubbed "Gauss" appears to be a cyber-espionage toolkit that has the ability to intercept passwords, steal computer system configuration information and access credential information for banks located in the Middle East. But researchers at Kaspersky Lab in Russia say things don't seem to be only as they appear.
"We're talking about a complex package," says senior security researcher Kurt Baumgartner, who says the code appears to be created by a nation-state. "It's unique and different in a few ways; it maintains code and has similar functionality to Flame and Stuxnet."
Flame and Stuxnet are computer viruses that have the ability to rewrite code. Stuxnet targeted Iran's nuclear program. It rewrote code that caused enrichment centrifuges to spin out of control, rendering them useless. The U.S. and Israel are widely believed to be behind the creation of the virus.
Baumgartner says researchers have had a harder time understanding what Gauss was actually created to do, or what its payload really is.
A payload is a piece of code or technology that is being delivered within a software package. Baumgartner says the stealing of credentials and monitoring capability may be just a smokescreen for something more sinister.
"It's very likely that its meant to cover up or hide whatever that payload is," says Baumgartner, who adds that it's possible the code was designed to avoid detection until it reached its final target.
Kaspersky Lab posted an appeal on its company website for encryption experts to try to help crack the code. They say they've gotten a number of responses from "talented people."
"There's all sorts of speculation we could make about what's really in the payload," says Baumgartner. "But for a blob of encrypted data to reside within a piece of code that's related to Stuxnet and that has spread to thousands or tens of thousands of machines in that region, it suggests that there is a more significant or more important payload."
So far, Kaspersky says most of the "Gauss" detections have been in Lebanon, with a smaller number reported in Israel.
Researchers have no idea how the code spreads, but say that it has the ability to infect USB ports that, once infected, can spread to as many as 30 computers before the code self destructs.
The toolkit earned its name because of references discovered within the code that pay tribute to mathematicians and philosophers. Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss was a German mathematician.


 http://edition.cnn.com/

Greek police accused of stoking racist attacks

Human rights groups say hate crimes in Greece are rising and that police behaviour is making the situation worse.
They say in the past six months there have been hundreds of victims and that state crackdowns on illegal immigrants are encouraging nationalist sentiment.
Activists say it is not just the frequency of the attacks that has increased but also the ferocity.
“In the past six months from the testimonies that we have, there have been about 500,” says Javied Aslam, president of the Pakistani Community of Greece. “Just over 500 people have told us that they were attacked by fascists. And now, in the past three weeks to one month it’s moved on from verbal attacks to knuckle-dusters and bats and now they go out with knives – so in the past three weeks more than twenty people have been stabbed and have had to have hospital treatment.”
Because of recent police operations against illegal immigrants, rights groups say people are now fearful of even going to the authorities if they are attacked.
“People are really scared now and they don’t say anything to anyone. It’s terrible, a really bad situation,” Aslam added.
Migrant groups say there is evidence to suggest that the people carrying out the attacks are associated with vigilante groups and Golden Dawn.
The extreme right-wing party gained seven percent of the vote at the last election.

 http://www.euronews.com/

Underground spies to secure Indo-Pakistan border

With the discovery of a 400-foot long tunnel at the India-Pakistan Border, the IndianHome Ministry has decided to acquire Unattended Ground Sensors (UGS) that could be installed along the international border with Pakistan as an important line of defense
With the discovery of a 400-foot long tunnel at the India-Pakistan Border, the IndianHome Ministry has decided to acquire Unattended Ground Sensors (UGS) that could be installed along the international border with Pakistan as an important line of defense.
The Daily Mail reports that the UGS can detect any movement above or under the ground and send an alert in real time to the control room. On 9 August the Border Security Force (BSF) issued an expression of interest for procuring UGS.
The United Stateshas used these devices extensively to slow infiltration on the Mexican-American border as well as planted UGS in Afghanistan in order to detect anyone moving towards troops and report the locations back to American control rooms. They devices havealso been used by Israel.
The UGS are wireless and would help bolsterthe fencing that separates Pakistan and Bangladesh in order to stop infiltration. The technology is expensive, but highly effective as each UGS can monitor can area of at least three kilometers and can last on one battery for almost two years after being buried.
The underground spies detect movement by man or machine through its magnetic, seismic,and infrared sensors and can even take a photo of a possible intruder and send it to the control room. With electro-optic and infrared imaging capability, UGS provide high quality photos day or night. The sensor can also endure adverse weather and temperatures from -10 degrees Celsius to 55 degrees Celsius.
The Mail notes that the Indian Home ministry officials say the UGS could have detected the tunnel that was unearthed in the Samba sector of Jammu last month which has been allegedly dug from the Pakistan side 110 meters into India’s territory.
A preliminary report submitted by the BSF, to the home ministry said that the tunnel was three feet wide and five feet high, which means that intruders spent their time building the tunnel as they could literally walk through it. The tunnel’s origin seems to be in a forested area, evidenced by the oxygen pipes found on the roof of the tunnel.
BSF director general U.K.Bansal visited the spot and has told the home ministry that thirtylocations on the Indo-Pak border in Jammu frontier have been identified which need a close watch in wake of the discovery of the tunnel. Sources in the army, meanwhile, blame the BSF for lack of surveillance and ineffective patrolling that led to such a huge tunnel being dug up.
It is also unclear who exactly was using the tunnel and whether it was being used for terrorist activity or for people wanting to move from one country to the next.
With the UGS planted, it will be almost impossible for infiltrators to get past the border using underground tunnels.

http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/

FBI: White Extremists Don’t Have the Organization to Launch Suicide Attacks

By Carlton Purvis

-
During the rise of right-wing extremism in the United States, the FBI examined the likelihood of suicide attacks by white extremists, according to a 2007 report, one of 38 documents recently released by the National Security Archive last month.
“The white extremist movement would likely need to experience an extreme sense of crisis before it would adopt the tactic of suicide terrorism.” However, the report states, “Lone offender attacks post the most likely scenario for suicide terrorism.”
The movement lacks the leadership and organization to carry out “well-orchestrated campaigns of violence,” says the report which is dated two years before a Department of Homeland Security assessment on the resurgence of radicalization on the right. Experts say right-wing extremists lack the conviction and community support that make suicide attacks more prevalent in other cultures.
“I think you have to have a very strong belief system or ideology to even contemplate a suicide attack. Within American white supremacist ideology, there is no promise of 72 virgins or guarantee of martyrdom after death,” said Mark Potok, extremist expert at the Southern Poverty Law Center and editor-in-chief of the Intelligence Project by phone Tuesday morning. “A huge proportion of white supremacists out there are atheist so the promise of something in the afterlife is not terribly appealing to them.”
Both Potok and the FBI report note that white supremacist literature has mentioned suicide attacks, including The Turner Diaries, a tactical manual for white supremacists suggesting the creation of a Record of Martyrs “to provide suicide operatives a legacy within the movement,” but both say the chance of suicide attacks by right-wing extremists is remote.
Right-wing terrorists like Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, and James Von Brunn, the Holocaust Museum shooter, were prepared to die carrying out their attacks, but “this is more suicide-by-cop than jihadist-type bombings,” Potok said.
Martyr culture in that form exists to some extent among white supremacists, but the interest in suicide terrorism had been sporadic as supremacists see it more as of a means of uniting the movement rather than a strategy of advancing the movement’s causes, according to the report. Groups that use suicide attacks as a tactic typically have long-range goals, extensive training, and at least some level of community approval.
Right-wing extremists lack national, regional, or local sympathy that would support suicide attacks, the FBI says.
“In [countries where suicide attacks are more prevalent] there’s a whole ideology that backs this. You have at least a portion of the society behind you, and that’s not true at all in the American radical right. Most of the people on the radical right are isolated from their own families or have broken off from their original set of friends,” Potok said.
They also lack the heart, according to Potok. “There is an enormous amount of secret doubt of the ideology in the world of white supremacists. They all act like they're committed but as soon as their crowd doesn’t treat them right or their girlfriend breaks up with them, they quit the movement and they decide it was wrong.”

 http://www.securitymanagement.com/

2 skydivers land on Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base, taken into custody

By Terry Dickson

Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base had some unwelcome boots on the ground Sunday when two skydivers missed the nearby St. Marys Airport.

Not only that, their papers were not in order, said Jay Stanford, chairman of the St. Marys Airport Authority.

Stanford said he answered the phone at the airport Sunday to hear the Navy say it had two jumpers in custody.

“They said one was a naturalized citizen and one was not a U.S. citizen and [didn’t have] a passport,” Stanford said Monday.

Cathy Kloess, owner of The Jumping Place, a skydiving business that operates from the St. Marys Airport, said the skydivers landed on a baseball diamond on the base.

Once her business provided adequate identity for the two jumpers, base security released them.

“They definitely don’t want people landing on their military installation,’’ Kloess said. “They were very stern with us.”

But with an “act of God,’’ like the strong wind that blew the skydivers off target, the Navy was understanding, Kloess said.

“The object is to get people on the ground safely,” even if it means landing on the high security base, she said.

The skydivers didn’t know the fields were on Kings Bay and, in fact, thought they were in St. Marys, Kloess said.

That may be because the most recent aerial photo she has of the base shows trees where the baseball fields are now located. “We’ve definitely got to update our photos,” she said.

Some of the airspace above Kings Bay is prohibited, meaning no planes or skydivers are allowed, but Kloess said that jumpers were more than a mile from it.

Stanford said the Airport Authority will make its own inquiry and see what the Navy’s position is on such incidents.

The Jumping Place is just back into the air over St. Marys after months of wrangling over a permit with the Airport Authority. One of the provisions of the permit is establishing a landing zone on the airport.

On her website, Kloess called the sub base landing an “isolated incident.”

It is at least the third time in three years, however, that skydivers have missed the airport.

A woman suffered head and neck injuries in March 2011 when she was blown off course and hit power lines and landed on Georgia 40. A year earlier, a Sarasota woman died after she also was blown off target and landed in woods at a subdivision.

Kloess estimates that as many as 6,000 people visit St. Marys each year because of The Jumping Place.

The site is popular, she said, because of the views of St. Marys, the ocean and Cumberland Island.

 http://m.jacksonville.com/news

Executives advocate a military approach to cybersecurity

By Suzanne Kelly
CNN Intelligence Correspondent

A new study being released by a private Internet security company highlights cyberworld weaknesses when it comes to gathering intelligence on hackers and suggests that businesses take a more military-minded approach to defense.
The cybersecurity company CounterTack polled 100 information security executives at companies with revenues greater than $100 million. Nearly half of the respondents said their organization had been the victim of a targeted cyberattack within the past year.
Some 80% of those polled believe that taking a more military-minded approach to the cyberwar could benefit business, according to CounterTack CEO Neal Creighton, whose firm released the poll Monday. For Creighton, that means incorporating more military-style intelligence gathering into companies' cyberworld defenses.
"We're talking about that great intelligence real-time situational awareness," said Creighton, who added that hackers will get into systems, and when they do, companies need to know in real time not only that the intrusion has occurred, but also what the hacker's intentions are.
"Today's attacks are very targeted, so when they come after you, they probably have something that no one else has seen before, so what we're advocating is once they have penetrated the network, that you have technologies that look at behaviors based on what the attacker is going to do," Creighton said.
CounterTack is one of several companies in the private sector that focus on gathering information on the threat as it is happening as a key strategy for defense, in addition to building effective firewalls.
But the CounterTack survey, though not a scientific one, found that those capabilities are lacking.
Surveyed executives said their most pressing challenges when it comes to combating "advanced persistent threats are "disparate systems that don't talk to each other" (63%) and having trouble gathering relevant attack 'intelligence' in real time (61%).
Cybersecurity experts have often warned that by the time a company realizes it has been hacked, the damage has already been done.
When it comes specifically to the issue of training these new cyberwar soldiers, 44% of executives, according to the CounterTack study, said that their team members didn't have the necessary technical skills to combat the threat.
CounterTack has hired retired Admiral William Fallon, who has experience heading both U.S. Central Command and Pacific Command to help them in their push to get companies to focus on this military-minded approach.
Government is also making the case for better recruitment cyber warriors.
The head of U.S. Cyber Command, Gen. Keith Alexander, made a rare appearance at a hacker's conference in Las Vegas last month encouraging those with advanced cyber skill sets to put them to work for the U.S. government.
The Senate recently failed in its effort to pass basic cybersecurity legislation that would have allowed a closer public-private partnership when it comes to information sharing on cyberworld threats.
In light of that, the White House is mulling its options.
The President's homeland security adviser, John Brennan, suggested last week that the president may issue an executive order that would allow the government to use more of the tools it has on hand to combat the growing threat. Brennan added that such a measure would likely encompass a combination of resources from the Department of Homeland Security, the National Security Agency and the FBI.

 http://edition.cnn.com/

Hamas: We will close tunnels if Egypt opens Rafah

Hamas is prepared to close all the tunnels under the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt if the Egyptians agree to reopen the Rafah border crossing on a permanent basis, Hamas officials announced on Sunday.
“The tunnels are a necessary popular method to break the criminal blockade on the Gaza Strip,” Salah Bardaweel, a Hamas legislator and spokesman, told reporters.

He said the tunnels were needed “to consolidate the steadfastness of the Palestinian people and their resistance against occupation, which is working to Judaize the holy sites and is killing children, women and ill people.”
On Saturday, the Palestinian Authority called on Cairo to destroy the tunnels, saying they posed a threat to Egyptian security and damaged chances of achieving Palestinian unity.
Bardaweel said that a “civilized alternative” to the tunnels would be the opening of the Rafah terminal to goods and passengers.
“We are confident that the Egyptian leadership would work toward creating this alternative and we hope that the border crossing would not be closed for too long,” Bardaweel added.
He pointed out that Muslims were now observing Ramadan and would soon celebrate Id al-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of the 30-day fast.
The Hamas official reiterated the claim that Israel was behind last week’s terrorist attack in Sinai, in which unidentified men killed 16 Egyptian border guards.
“The attack serves the higher interest of Israeli occupation,” Bardaweel said. “There is a lot of theoretical and practical evidence to back this up. The Zionist enemy has been seeking to undermine Egyptian security and embarrass the Egyptian leadership, which it believes is hostile to the aggressive Zionist project.”
Bardaweel accused Israel of seeking to drive a wedge between Egypt and Hamas in light of improved relations between the two sides and Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh’s recent visit to Cairo, “where he was welcomed as the legitimate prime minister of the Palestinian government.”
Bardaweel also accused the PA of spreading lies in an attempt to implicate Hamas and the Gaza Strip following the Sinai attack.
He said the Egyptians had not notified Hamas about the possible involvement of any Palestinian from the Gaza Strip in the attack.
Hamas is prepared to work together with the Egyptian authorities to reveal the identity of the perpetrators, he added. Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar expressed his government’s readiness to destroy the tunnels once the Rafah border crossing was reopened. He called for setting up a free trade zone between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.
Zahar told the Saudiowned Al-Arabiya TV station that the closure of the tunnels would be in the context of Hamas’s efforts to help the Egyptians. He too strongly denied Hamas involvement in the Sinai attack. He said that those who carried out the attack were acting on orders of Israel in a bid to frame Hamas.
“Why should Hamas, for the first time ever, carry out an attack outside Palestine?” Zahar asked. “And even if Hamas wanted to strike against targets outside Palestine, why should it attack the Egyptian brothers? Is it religiously permissible to kill a fasting person while he’s having his [breakfast] meal?”

http://www.jpost.com/

Security experts push free Gauss detection tools

Two security organizations have released online tools that let Windows users check for possible infections by Gauss, the newly-revealed cyber surveillance malware thought to have been built by one or more governments.
Kaspersky Lab and the Laboratory of Cryptography and System Security (CrySys) at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics each published Gauss detection tools today.
Gauss, Kaspersky said yesterday, is a sophisticated threat that monitors financial transactions with Middle Eastern banks, perhaps as part of a wider investigation into the funding of terrorist groups. Kaspersky believes that Gauss was built by or under the auspices of a government, in large part because of coding practices that resemble those used in Flame, an advanced spying and data-stealing toolkit that targeted Iranian computers.
Flame, which was uncovered three months ago but may have been operating since mid-2008, was notable for its ability to fake the Windows Update service, then use that to infect up-to-date Windows PCs.

Kaspersky has rejected the idea that Gauss is a run-of-the-mill money-stealing Trojan.
Both CrySys and Kaspersky sniff out Gauss by looking for a custom-built font, dubbed "Palida Narrow," that the malware adds to infected machines.
CrySys first posted a detection tool that relied on the Palida Narrow strategy; Kaspersky took the same approach, but simplified it by inserting an IFRAME element into a Web page. The IFRAME uses JavaScript to check for the presence of the font.
The CrySys tool is available here, while Kaspersky's sniffer can be found here.
CrySys has played a prominent role in analyzing some of the malware that Kaspersky argued is linked to Gauss, including "Duqu," which is believed to have been crafted by the same team that built Stuxnet, the worm used to sabotage Iran's nuclear fuel enrichment program several years ago.
It's not yet clear why Gauss inserts the Palida Narrow font into infected PCs, or what purpose the new font serves. Some have speculated that it may hint at the use of a yet-undiscovered "zero-day" exploit of an unpatched vulnerability in word processing software, such as Microsoft Word.
Yesterday, Kaspersky senior researcher Roel Schouwenberg acknowledged that there are many facets of Gauss that remain mysterious, including whether it, like Stuxnet, relied on one or more unpatched bugs -- "zero days" in security speak -- to compromise personal computers.
Because one payload that Gauss installs is heavily encrypted, Kaspersky and other security firms cannot yet analyze it, and so cannot say whether it exploits unpatched vulnerabilities.

 http://www.computerworld.com/

Jared Loughner to plead guilty in Tucson shooting, sources say

By Richard A. Serrano

August 4, 2012, 5:20 p.m.

WASHINGTON — Jared Lee Loughner is set to plead guilty Tuesday in the shooting attack that severely wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, according to knowledgeable sources, as mental health officials believe he is now competent to understand the charges against him in the assault, which killed six people and injured 13 at a gathering with the congresswoman’s constituents in Tucson.

At the hearing Tuesday morning in U.S. District Court in Tucson, psychiatric experts who have examined Loughner, 23, are scheduled to testify that they have concluded that despite wide swings in his mental capacity, at this time he comprehends what happened and acknowledges the gravity of the charges, according to two sources who spoke on condition of anonymity because the case was still unfolding.

The terms of the plea arrangement remained unclear Saturday on whether Loughner would admit guilt to all or some of the charges in return for a lengthy prison sentence rather than risk a potential death penalty verdict at trial.

State prosecutors in Tucson initially said they would pursue charges against Loughner as well, but the federal government went first. They now would probably review their options and decide whether it would be wise to go forward.

Many of the victims of the Jan. 8, 2011, attack and their families are likely to attend the hearing in downtown Tucson, not far from the site of the attack during Giffords’ Congress On Your Corner event. Survivors would be invited to testify about the assault and their injuries at a separate hearing yet to be scheduled, in which Loughner would be formally sentenced.

Loughner’s agreement to plead guilty, if finalized in court Tuesday, would probably end more than a year and a half of psychiatric evaluations and testing, including some periods in which he was medicated at a federal prison hospital. It also would close out complex legal disagreements between prosecutors and defense attorneys over his mental capacity.

The shooting on a quiet Saturday morning stunned the nation. A man with repeated episodes of bizarre behavior was able to easily acquire a Glock 9-millimeter semiautomatic pistol and ammunition, authorities said, and then open fire at the congresswoman’s event.

Capital punishment initially was on the table when federal prosecutors in Tucson obtained a grand jury indictment against Loughner, and they announced the case as one with “potential death penalty charges.”

The indictment said a search of Loughner’s home turned up a letter hidden in a safe in which Giffords thanked him for attending an earlier Congress On Your Corner event. Also in the safe was an envelope with handwriting that said, “I planned ahead” and “My assassination” and Giffords’ name, “along with what appears to be Loughner’s signature,” the indictment said.

Prosecutors pointed to that as evidence that Loughner coldly calculated the attack.

But soon after his arrest, the focus immediately turned to whether he was mentally fit to stand trial.

His friends said he dabbled in marijuana and alcohol; while attending a local community college, he videotaped a rant in September 2010 on the campus in which he screamed that the school was not following the Constitution.

According to the indictment, Loughner purchased the Glock at a Tucson gun shop in November 2010 and the ammunition at a Wal-Mart store on the morning of the shooting. He took a taxi to the Safeway parking lot where Giffords was holding her constituent meeting.

Among those killed were 9-year-old Christina-Taylor Green, born on Sept. 11, 2001, and U.S. District Judge John M. Roll, the presiding federal judge in Tucson. Giffords, though seriously wounded in the head, has slowly been recovering. The Democrat has since resigned from Congress.

Loughner was quickly subdued, and more details came out about his troubled psyche. In July 2011, a prison doctor reported that Loughner was depressed and was insisting that “the radio was talking to him and inserting thoughts into his mind.”

He was placed under suicide watch and often paced in circles about his cell, according to court records and pretrial testimony. He screamed and cried. He remained convinced that Giffords was dead, and became angry when told she survived. Once, advised he might face the death penalty, Loughner sobbed for nearly an hour. “I want to die,” he said. “Give me the injection now. Kill me now.”

According to court records, two medical experts agreed that Loughner suffered from schizophrenia and predicted that any improvements would be far away, if possible at all. Even when they tried to interview him, they said, he lay in bed and hid under his covers. What statements he did make were nonsensical, often obsessing about treason.

In a May 2011 hearing, federal marshals forcibly removed Loughner from the courtroom after he began shouting and screaming incoherently, something about “kill free” or “kill shot” — words that were hard to understand. Then he yelled, “She died in front of me!”

Given the option of behaving or watching the proceedings from a nearby cell with a remote television screen, Loughner chose the cell.

http://www.latimes.com/

Al Qaeda leader designated as global terrorist

By Wesley Bruer

A senior al Qaeda leader who trained militants in Afghanistan and who has close ties to other top members of the group has been designated by the State Department as a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist."
The designation also comes with sanctions against Azaam Abdullah Zureik Al-Maulid, better known as Mansur al-Harbi.
Though the United States is just now turning its attention to al-Harbi, he has long been a wanted man in his home country of Saudi Arabia.
In early 2009, al-Harbi was among the 83 Saudis and two Yemenis named on Saudi Arabia's list of most wanted terrorists for engaging in extremist activities abroad.
A veteran of Afghanistan's terror training camps, al-Harbi also was wanted for his connections with other senior al Qaeda leaders.  According to the U.S. State Department, al-Harbi "traveled to Afghanistan more than a decade ago to join al Qaeda.  He is responsible for training militants and for the coordination of foreign fighters who travel to Afghanistan to fight against coalition forces.  As a result of his key training position, al-Harbi is closely associated to many senior al Qaeda leaders."
Al-Harbi's most wanted associates include Saif al-Adel, the interim al Qaeda leader following the death of Osama bin Laden. Al-Adel is also wanted for his role in the 1998 African embassy bombings.  Another wanted associate, Abdel Aziz Migrin, was al Qaeda's leader in Saudi Arabia but was killed in a shootout with Saudi authorities in 2004.
When the list of Saudi's most wanted terrorists was released, Interpol subsequently issued "Orange" notices seeking information on all of the wanted men and "Red" notices thereafter for 81 of the suspects. Authorities believed all of the suspects were planning attacks against Saudi Arabia from abroad.
Of the 83 Saudi terrorists wanted, 11 were once detainees at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay.  Upon their release they were repatriated and placed in rehabilitation programs aimed at abating their extremist views, but it wasn't long before all 11 fled.  Authorities believe they rejoined their jihadist associates in neighboring Yemen, which is home to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), one of the terror group's deadliest franchises.
Three of them have since surrendered to Saudi authorities.  The most recent was Adnan Muhammad Ali al-Saigh, who turned himself in just days ago. Al-Saigh fought with bin Laden's 55th Arab Brigade in Afghanistan prior to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States and went on to join AQAP after being transferred back to his home country from Guantanamo Bay.

 http://edition.cnn.com/