Iron Dome successfully intercepts a missile. Photo: Defense Ministry
Iron Dome System Successfully Intercepts Kassams, Katyushas -- Jerusalem Post
Israel inched a step closer to deploying a missile defense system along the border with the Gaza Strip on Wednesday after the Iron Dome successfully intercepted a number of missile barrages in tests held in southern Israel this week.
The tests were overseen by the Defense Ministry, the Israeli Air Force and the Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. which has developed and is manufacturing the Iron Dome, slated to become operational and deployed along the Gaza border in the middle of 2010.
Negotiations: China and Russia signed a US$1 billion (euro670 million) nuclear cooperation deal Friday and stood together in firm opposition to U.S. missile defense plans. Photo from The Daily Mail
While US Disarms, Russia And China Build Up Their Military -- American Thinker
In this week's issue of Defense News , Ilan Berman, vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council, warns, "Stagnation threatens U.S. arms superiority." After noting recent tests by Russia and China of new nuclear-armed missiles, Berman writes,
Indeed, practically every declared nuclear weapon state is engaged in a serious modernization of its strategic arsenal. The United States, by contrast, has allowed its strategic infrastructure to atrophy since the end of the Cold War.
My Comment: While it is true that both Russia and China are investing heavily into their military programs, they still have a very long way to go to threaten U.S. nuclear forces. But military trends and direction have an impact on policy and the politics of today .... and the trends today are obvious .... the U.S. may decide to forgo modernizing its strategic arsenal.
Women In Uniform: Eight Who Fell, And One Who Steps Forward -- Politics Daily
It started with a picture -- 2nd. Lt. Emily J.T. Perez. In her United States Military Academy photograph, she holds her feathered hat, grips her sword and smiles.
Perez had a lot to smile about. She was the first minority female command sergeant in West Point history.
And she was the first combat death from the class of 2005, also known as the class of 9/11. In 2006, a roadside bomb south of Baghdad killed her.
Women have to be tough in today's asymmetrical warfare, where the "support" jobs are as risky as the front lines. More women have fought and died since 9/11 than in all the wars of the previous five decades combined.
What was a unique news story a few years ago .... the death of a female soldier .... is now common news and does not even lift an eyebrow. The age of these soldiers also strike me .... most of them were very young when 9/11 happened .... and now they are off to war.
On a personal note, this even impacts me at home. My friends daughter was 9 when 9/11 happened, and now she wants to join the Army .... to serve a calling that is very important to her. For personal reasons I hope that she will change her mind as she gets older .... but something tells me that she will not.
These people .... these soldiers .... they represent the best of us. I can only hope that as these wars grind on, our country does not forget that.
The administration has ordered tight new security measures for US-bound passengers. Photo AFP
U.S. Learned Intelligence On Airline Bomb Suspect While He Was En Route -- L.A. Times
U.S. border enforcement officials came close to stopping the attempted bombing of a Northwest Airlines jet while the suspect was en route to Detroit on Christmas Day, new data show.
Reporting from Washington - U.S. border security officials learned of intelligence about the alleged extremist links of the suspect in the Christmas Day airline bombing attempt as he was en route to Detroit and had decided to question him when he landed, officials said in new disclosures today.
The past year seemed a fitting end to a decade during which the world lurched from crisis to crisis. The list of unfinished business is long and many pressing issues are set to demand attention in 2010. SPIEGEL presents the ones to watch.
The year 2009 seems to have left behind more unfinished business than accomplishments. Topping the list, of course, were climate talks in Copenhagen, which left behind little more than a vague roadmap for a possible way forward as the world searches for a joint strategy to combat global warming.
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel And President Obama
Emanuel: U.S. Fed Up With Israel, Palestinians -- Haaretz
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel recently told the Israeli consul in Los Angeles that the Obama administration is fed up with both Israel and the Palestinians, Army Radio reported on Wednesday.
Emanuel met with Jacob Dayan, consul general of Israel in Los Angeles, about two weeks ago, after which Dayan briefed the Foreign Ministry.
Emanuel told Dayan the U.S. is sick of the Israelis, who adopt suitable ideas months too late, when they are no longer effective, according to Army Radio.
The U.S. is also sick of the Palestinians who never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity, Emanuel reportedly said.
My Comment: When the President's Chief of State is "alleged" to have said that the U.S. is "fed-up" with Israel, you would think the U.S. main stream media would be covering this story from top to bottom. But of course .... with the exception of the Politico .... no one is reporting this story.
But seriously .... after decades (centuries?) of fighting .... who would not be fed up with this continuous conflict with no end.
U.S. President Barack Obama gestures to the crowd to be quiet as he walks onto the 18th green at Mid-Pacific Country Club in Kailua, Hawaii. REUTERS
Out-To-Lunch O Living Out A Disaster Film -- Michael Goodwin, New York Post
Someday, somebody not from Hollywood will make a movie about President Obama's disastrous vacation. About how his aides waited for nearly three hours after the Christmas airliner attack to wake him. About how he waited three more days to appear publicly. About how even then, he didn't grasp the seriousness of the situation, racing through a bloodless speech so he could play golf.
Until that film is made, reality is frightening enough. Even the true believers in the White House now realize they blew the response to a potentially catastrophic attack by an al Qaeda-trained terrorist.
Suicide Attack On CIA Agents 'Was Planned By Bin Laden Inner Circle' -- Times Online
US intelligence officials believe that the suicide bomb attack that killed seven CIA officers in Afghanistan last month was planned with the help of Osama bin Laden’s close allies, raising fears that the al-Qaeda leader is enjoying a lethal resurgence.
They think that the attack could not have taken place without the prior knowledge and assistance of the Haqqanis, the powerful Taleban group thought to be shielding bin Laden.
Baathist officers who fled Iraq in the wake of the fall of Saddam are working with US intelligence Photo: Reuters
US Forges Alliance With Saddam Hussein Officers To Fight Al-Qaeda -- The Telegraph
American counter-terrorism specialists and Saddam Hussein's former intelligence officers have forged an unlikely alliance in Yemen to tackle al-Qaeda.
The two sides were enemies on the battlefield just seven years ago but have been brought together by the failings of Yemen's security and intelligence apparatus, according to diplomatic and military sources in the country.
Although mutual suspicions linger, the collaboration is said to have achieved some intelligence breakthroughs and helped instill greater efficiency and professionalism within the most elite Yemeni counterterrorism outfit.
Initial Report On Failed Plane Attack Coming Out Thursday -- CNN
Washington (CNN) -- The initial report ordered by President Obama on the failed Christmas Day terrorist attack will be released Thursday, Obama's spokesman said.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters Wednesday that the unclassified version of the report by John Brennan, the assistant to the president on homeland security and counterterrorism, would be made public.
Tsutomu Yamaguchi, survivor of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, has died aged 93. Photograph: Jemal Countess/WireImage
'Lucky' Yamaguchi, The Man Who Survived Both The Hiroshima And Nagasaki Atomic Bombs, Dies Aged 93 -- The Daily Mail
Tsutomu Yamaguchi, the only person officially recognised as a survivor of both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings at the end of World War II, has died at the age of 93.
Mr Yamaguchi, known as 'Lucky', was in Hiroshima on a business trip for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries on August 6, 1945, when a U.S. B-29 dropped an atomic bomb on the city.
He suffered serious burns to his upper body as well as temporary blindness and spent the night in the city.
In Yemen's Capital, Fearful Talk Of War With al-Qaeda -- Time Magazine
Shopkeepers are whispering in the medieval, walled Old City in Sana'a, the capital of Yemen, about a war they cannot yet imagine. Workers, students and the old men who sit outside the ancient mosques are wondering what fighting between al-Qaeda and the government would look like. Would it be like the conflict in the north, where extremist insurgents occupy villages with gunfire and government bombs rain down from the sky? Is al-Qaeda an army or just a bunch of ill-equipped gangs? "All citizens are scared," says Jamal al-Najjar, an English-language translator, while waiting for a group of foreign journalists at the airport. The visible influx of overseas media, hungry for stories, adds to the sense of crisis.
An exclusive photo obtained by ABC News shows Humam Khalil Muhammed al Balawi, identified as suicide bomber who killed seven C.I.A. agents and his handler at Forward Operating Base Chapman near Khost city, Afghanistan, on Dec. 30, 2009. (ABC News)
EXCLUSIVE: CIA Suicide Bomber Photo -- ABC News
First photo of Humam al-Balawi, Double Agent Who Killed Seven CIA Operatives in Afghanistan
ABC News has obtained an exclusive photo of suicide bomber Humam Muhammed al-Balawi, the Jordanian double agent who killed seven CIA operatives and his Jordanian handler in Afghanistan on December 30.
Al-Balawi, a 32-year-old Jordanian doctor, had convinced the Americans that his jihadist postings on the web were only part of his cover identity. He lured 13 CIA operatives and his handler to a meeting at Camp Chapman, an American forward operating base in Afghanistan, by saying he had just met with al Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri and had information to share.
Homeland Security’s National Operations Center ‘Unable’ to Do Its Job, Inspector General Finds -- CNS News
(CNSNews.com) – The Homeland Security Department’s National Operations Center (NOC) is “unable” to do its job of ensuring coordination among the 22 federal agencies that make up the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and focuses too much on disaster management rather than terrorism prevention, according to its own inspector general.
The National Operations Center, in fact, functions largely in name only, and current operations apparently have diminished its ability to respond to terrorist threats.
I recall visiting Saudi Arabia a couple of years ago and being briefed by Saudi officials on their program to reeducate and rehabilitate Islamist extremists in their prisons. The program had long been seen as a model effort; it influenced a similar program created in the U.S. detention system in Iraq that is now being replicated in Afghanistan. But recent events suggest the Saudi program was not all it was cracked up to be.
My Comment: Suspending the transfer of Guantanamo detainees will probably only last a short time .... the Obama administration have made their intentions very clear. Guantanamo is going to be closed .... and its prisoners sent to "who knows where".
China Moves To The Center Of The World. America Moves To The Edge -- Fabius Maximus
American tend to see ourselves as white knights. Selflessly defending nations like the EU and Japan that will not defend themselves. A force for morality — banning bribery, pushing feminism and other western values (which we call “human rights). Meanwhile we beg for lower oil prices and borrow like an tramp on a street corner.
Much of the world finds this a pain in the ass, but until now has had no alternative leader. Someone to provide leadership — political and economic coordination, loans and aid, military protection — without America’s moralizing, without America’s erratic behavior. Just business.
My Comment: Every once in a while FM looks at China and provides some useful insights .... his above post is no exception.
On a side note, I had an interesting discussion about the decline of America with a friend yesterday. We both came to the same understanding .... for years America had its "act" together, and the rest of the world was "basically screwed up". This is all now changing, with good portions of the world .... particularly in Europe and Asia .... now adopting the same strategies and policies that had originally made America great. India and China are the two countries that stick out in Asia, but the EU and other European countries (Russia being one of them) are also groping towards stable and free markets accompanied with stable and free governments.
I know that the world has a long way to go before it can even reach a fraction of what it is capable of, but as the world stabilizes this stability will be accompanied by a decline in the influence and power of the United States. Is this a bad thing .... yes and no. The U.S. is a beacon of freedom and the rule of law for many people in the world, but its recent economic and financial behavior now makes it an international pariah .... especially to those countries who now own much of its growing debt.
Clueless In Afghanistan: General Speaks Out -- Sydney Morning Herald
THE most senior US military intelligence officer in Afghanistan has launched a scathing attack on American information gathering.
Major-General Michael Flynn said that after eight years, the US was still unable to answer ''fundamental questions about the environment in which we operate and the people we are trying to protect and persuade''.
He said that little was being done to fully understand support for insurgents, declaring that US intelligence efforts were ''ignorant of local economics and landowners, hazy about who the power brokers are and how they might be influenced, incurious about the correlations between various development projects … and disengaged from people in the best position to find answers''.
Yemen Captures Key Qaeda Chief As Embassies Reopen -- AFP
SANAA — Yemeni security forces, under US pressure to rein in extremists, Wednesday captured a key Al-Qaeda leader believed to be behind threats that saw foreign embassies in Sanaa closing their doors, police said.
Mohammed al-Hanq had evaded arrest on Monday during a security force raid in Arhab, 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of Sanaa, in which two of his relatives were killed and three other people wounded.
There was widespread criticism of the military's conduct during its devastating 22-day Gaza offensive one year ago. Photo AFP
Israel Army to Seek Legal Advice During Operations -- New York Times/AP
JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israel's military will consult more closely with its legal advisers on future offensives, security officials said Wednesday -- a move motivated by war crimes accusations that followed last year's war in the Gaza Strip.
Officers are also receiving more intensive training in the rules of war and international law, the officials said.
Officials said military chief Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi has ordered the military to consult with its legal advisers in the course of operations, and not just in the planning stage, as was the case with the Gaza war. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the policy revision with the media.
The Israeli military spokesman's office had no immediate comment.
Air Force Completes Killer Micro-Drone Project -- The Danger Room
The Air Force Research Laboratory set out in 2008 to build the ultimate assassination robot: a tiny, armed drone for U.S. special forces to employ in terminating “high-value targets.” The military won’t say exactly what happened to this Project Anubis, named after a jackal-headed god of the dead in Egyptian mythology. But military budget documents note that Air Force engineers were successful in “develop[ing] a Micro-Air Vehicle (MAV) with innovative seeker/tracking sensor algorithms that can engage maneuvering high-value targets.”
The Time For Preemptive Cyber Strikes Has Come -- Defense Tech
More and more terrorists and extremist groups are using the Internet to fund their activities, recruit, covertly communicate and coordinate activities with their followers around the world. The use of the Internet now plays a key role in terrorist activities throughout the world. This fact has given rise to a number of questions coming amidst the three recent events. The most controversial question being that of preemptive cyber strikes. In the past few weeks three significant events took place that has raised the concern about the way terrorists leverage the Internet to further their cause.
Got arrested at the Seattle airport for refusing to say how much money I make. (The uniformed ones say I was not "arrested", but they definitely handcuffed me.) Their videos and audios should show that I was polite, but simply refused questions that had nothing to do with national security. Port authority police eventually came -- they were professionals -- and rescued me from the border bullies
My Comment: Michael Yon is probably the best reporter in the field. His coverage of the war in Iraq .... and now Afghanistan .... has always been riveting and a must read. As for his experience with customs .... I also agree with his comments about U.S. border security. I have traveled through 50 countries in the past 25 years .... take it from me .... U.S. Customs is in a league by itself.
The review is shaping up to be a major showdown for Obama this year. It is taking on some of the most sacred cows of the nuclear program. For the first time, influential voices, including a former top nuclear commander and senior Obama advisers, are proposing that one leg of the nuclear arms “triad’’ - a $30 billion-a-year enterprise made up of land-, air-, and sea-based weapons - be eliminated.
My Comment: For the past few months I have been blogging on the direction that America's nuclear forces may be going. In this case .... American Generalist has put together a good summary and review.
Gordon Brown and Barack Obama exchange a joke during a recent White House visit Photo: EPA
Analysis: Political Discord At The Highest Level Plays Havoc With The 'Special Relationship' -- The Telegraph
THE admission by Gordon Brown that he had not spoken to President Barack Obama since the attempted Christmas Day bombing spoke volumes about the fracture between Downing Street and the White House.
So too did an extraordinary 24 hours in which the Prime Minister’s spokesman indicated that MI5 had passed on the name of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Detroit bomber, to American intelligence in 2008 – a claim that at first mystified the White House.
Photo: Taliban fighters pose with weapons in an undisclosed location in Afghanistan in this October 30, 2009 file photo. (ABC News Photo Illustration)
Spies Like Us: Top U.S. Intel Officer Says Spooks Could Learn From Journos -- The Danger Room
American intelligence in Afghanistan is broken, says the top U.S. intelligence officer there. That’s because it focuses too much on whacking Taliban, and not enough on figuring out Afghanistan’s social and cultural landscapes. But the report from Maj. Gen. Michael Flynn, the top intelligence aide to International Security Assistance Force Commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal, raises lots of other issues, too. Like, what happened to the military’s “human terrain” programs to map those landscapes? Can spies really perform better if they think and work like journalists? And why is this report being publicly distributed through a think tank?
