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U.S. national leaders do grasp the importance of network security and information assurance — but seeing the problem is not the same thing as solving it
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The Gaza campaign -- the air war
Israel’s air war over Gaza is impressive: astonishingly accurate intelligence, continuously updated by a fleet of UAVs; aerial-platform-acquired intelligence instantly overlaid on existing human intelligence; improved ISR systems shorten sensor-to-shooter loop; small infantry units to communicate directly with available aircraft to request rapid fire against a target
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In the U.K. they jam cell phones in the area around the location of a terrorist attack to prevent terrorists from remotely detonating additional bombs; during the Mumbai attacks, the handlers of the terrorists which killed 170 people used cell phones to micromanage the attack; NYPD wants to be able to jam cell phone during a terrorist incident
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Trend
FBI experts say that cyber attacks pose the greatest threat to the United States after nuclear war and weapons of mass destruction — and these attacks are increasingly hard to prevent
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The Gaza campaign -- Analysis // Ben Frankel
Israeli drew many lessons from its inconclusive 2006 war in Lebanon; one of the more important ones is that Israel had been too restrained, too careful about distinguishing between Hezbollah and the state of Lebanon (i.e., civilian population and institutions) — with the result being too many Israeli soldiers dead and an inconclusive end to the fighting; whether the different, more ruthless tactics used in Gaza will succeed remains to be seen
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The Gaza campaign -- Analysis // Ben Frankel
The strategy Israel’s defense minister Ehud Barak is pursuing in Gaza harks back to an earlier Israeli approach — the unalloyed realism of David Ben Gurion; this approach has served Israel well; alternative approaches have not
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The Gaza campaign -- battle innovations
Advocates of air power were humbled in the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, but they hope to be vindicated in the Israel-Hamas conflict; Israel uses new ISR systems which shrink the sensor-to-shooter loop, and new bunker-busting ordnance
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Analysis
Mounting terrorist operations is cheap, but maintaining a terrorist network is expensive; disrupting the money flow to a terrorist organization is thus an important preventive tool; it is also a valuable intelligence-gathering tool
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The transfer of power from the Bush administration to the Obama administration will be the first handoff since 9/11; the Bush administration is taking unprecedented measures to make sure the incoming administration is ready from day one
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The leaders of the Commission on the Prevention of WMD Proliferation and Terrorism say that the incoming administration must do more, much more, to prevent a terrorist attack on the United States
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The large UAV — it has a 62-ft. wingspan and weighs around 45,000 pounds at takeoff — is the U.S. military’s principal vanguard for a potential new age of stealthy, autonomous combat aircraft
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Stung by the last in a series of deadly terrorist attacks, the Indian government will set up a new agency dedicated to combating terrorism; critics charge the budget and manpower of the new agency will likely be insufficient to the task
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A Massachusetts company develops a system which helps soldiers pinpoint the location of sniper fire; system has been successfully used in Iraq and Afghanistan
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David Petraeus, head of the .S. Central Command, says that without “crushing” the illegal trade in weapons and drugs which sustains terrorism and piracy, it will be difficult to defeat them
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Close Quarters Combat // Tzviel (BK) Blankchtein
A police officer or soldier approaching a criminal or a terrorist would be in dire straits if the bad guy were to grab the officer’s weapon, thus leaving him defenseless; retaining one’s weapon is thus key, and here is a discussion of how to do it
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During the past fifteen years many Somalis have left the country in search of work; many found jobs in major European and Middle eastern ports; some of them now serve as eyes and ears for the pirates back home, providing information about ships’ cargo, routes, and security on board
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Trend
The U.S. military is shifting more emphasis and resources toward combating terrorism and helping civilian authorities, both at home and abroad, cope with man-made and natural disasters; institutions tend to overshoot, and the Pentagon should not forget that the United States must still prepare to fight and win conventional wars
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Somalia depends on food donations for its people to survive; trouble is, these food shipments are among the prime targets of pirates; donors respond by recreating the Second World War-era idea of maritime convoys
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The owners of the German cruise ship Columbus decided on a new way to deal with piracy off the coast of Somalia: The 246 passengers were flown to Dubai to await the ship — and the ship itself, with but a skeletal crew, sail at top speed through the dangerous waters of the Gulf of Aden, hoping to avoid being raided by pirates
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Moving military units from theater to theater is a challenge for the military’s lift capabilities; an integral part of such capabilities is the ability to refuel aircraft in mid-flight, which is dangerous; researchers offer a way to use laser to recharge the plane’s batteries; for now the system is limited to surveillance UAVs, but the developers envision it being used for larger planes
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The long view
To prevent Iranian nukes, a negotiated deal better than a military strike: David Albright
David Albright is the founder and president of the Washington, D.C.-based non-profit Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), and author of several books on fissile materials and nuclear weapons proliferation. In a testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday, and an interview with Deutsche Welle on Thursday, Albrights says that there is every reason to be suspicious of Iran because it has cheated on its obligations in the past and has been uncooperative on an ongoing basis. Iran has also built many sites in secret, so any agreement with Iran should have extra insurance — a more powerful inspection and verification tool to try to ferret out any secret nuclear activities or facilities that Iran would build. Still, a negotiated deal, if it includes sufficiently robust inspection and verification measures, would be a more effective way than a military strike to make sure Iran does not develop nuclear weapons.
Fusion centers, created to fight domestic terrorism, suffering from mission creep: Critics
Years before the 9/11 attacks, law enforcement agencies throughout the country, alarmed by the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, began to monitor and investigate signs of domestic terrorism. That increased monitoring, and the need for coordination among various law enforcement agencies, gave rise to the fusion centers. A new report, which is supported by current and former law enforcement and government officials, concludes that post-9/11, fusion centers and the FBI teams which work with them shifted their focus from domestic terrorism to global terrorism and other crimes, including drug trafficking.Experts say that at a time when the number of domestic terrorism threats, many of which are linked to right-wing extremist groups, is surging, law enforcement must refocus their attention on the threats from within.
Lack of evidence-based terrorism research hobbles counterterrorism strategies
The Global Terrorism Database at the University of Maryland estimates that groups connected with al-Qaeda and the Islamic State committed almost 200 attacks per year between 2007 and 2010. That number has increased to about 600 attacks in 2013. As terrorism becomes more prevalent, the study of terrorism has also increased, which, in theory, should lead to more effective antiterrorism policies, and thus to less terrorism. The opposite is happening, however, and this could be partly due to the sort of studies which are being conducted. The problem: few of these studies are rooted in empirical analysis, and there is an “almost complete absence of evaluation research” concerning anti-terrorism strategies, in the words of a review of such studies.
California drought highlights the state’s economic divide
As much of Southern California enters into the spring and warmer temperatures, the effects of California’s historic drought begin to manifest themselves in the daily lives of residents, highlighting the economic inequality in the ways people cope. Following Governor Jerry Brown’s (D) unprecedented water rationing regulations,wealthier Californians weigh on which day of the week no longer to water their grass, while those less fortunate are now choosing which days they skip a bath.