Bit under the weather, so two day’s worth of headlines from the realms of spies, hacks, privacy, and the geopolitical Game of Zones underway in Europe.
We’re using just a couple of stories form the escalating Iraqi debacle, given the wide coverage in the mainstream press. First up, this from Sky News:
US Military: Airstrikes ‘Won’t Stop ISIS’
Islamist militants in Iraq will continue to seize territory and attack security forces despite airstrikes, the US warns.
Islamic militants fighting in northern Iraq are unlikely to be stopped by targeted airstrikes, a US general has warned.
Joint staff operations director Lieutenant General William Mayville told a news conference that 15 airstrikes on Islamic State (IS) positions were focused initially on protecting US facilities and citizens, as well as aiding the humanitarian mission.
He said: “These airstrikes have helped check the advance of missile forces around Mount Sinjar and in the area west of Irbil.
And the New York Times offers a timely reminder:
U.S. Actions in Iraq Fueled Rise of a Rebel
Baghdadi of ISIS Pushes an Islamist Crusade
When American forces raided a home near Falluja during the turbulent 2004 offensive against the Iraqi Sunni insurgency, they got the hard-core militants they had been looking for. They also picked up an apparent hanger-on, an Iraqi man in his early 30s whom they knew nothing about.
The Americans duly registered his name as they processed him and the others at the Camp Bucca detention center: Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim al-Badry.
That once-peripheral figure has become known to the world now as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the self-appointed caliph of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and the architect of its violent campaign to redraw the map of the Middle East.
From the Washington Post, adding yet more arms to the pile:
U.S. sending weapons directly to Kurdish forces, officials say
The U.S. government has begun to funnel weapons directly to Kurdish forces fighting Islamist militants in northern Iraq, U.S. officials said Monday, deepening American involvement in a conflict that the Obama administration had long sought to avoid.
The decision to arm the Kurds, via a covert channel established by the CIA, was made even as Pentagon officials acknowledged that recent U.S. airstrikes against the militants were acting only as a temporary deterrent and were unlikely to sap their will to fight.
“I in no way want to suggest that we have effectively contained, or that we are somehow breaking, the momentum of the threat,” said Army Lt. Gen. William C. Mayville Jr., the director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
More Indonesian blowback from the Jakarta Globe:
Maluku Police Arrest Four Students Over Alleged ISIS Ties
Maluku Police have arrested four high school students in Ambon for alleged ties with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
“I was reported last night [Sunday] by the police that four students were arrested because of their ties to ISIS,” Maluku Governor Said Assagaff was quoted as saying by newsportal Harianterbit.com on Monday. “They have to be intensively questioned to find out to what extent they were involved and what were their exact roles.”
One of the suspects is a junior high school student, while the other three were senior high school students.
“The junior high school student is still very young, so [he’s] easy to provoke. Therefore [this case] needs to be handled seriously,” Said told the state-run Antara news agency on Monday.
On to that agency that gives everyone the shivers, first with the Wall Street Journal:
Surveillance Court Judge Criticized NSA ‘Overcollection’ of Data
Decision Offers Scathing Assessment of Agency’s Management of Internet-Surveillance Program
Newly declassified court documents show one of the National Security Agency’s key surveillance programs was plagued by years of “systemic overcollection” of private Internet communications.
A 117-page decision by Judge John Bates of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court offers a scathing assessment of the NSA’s ability to manage its own top-secret electronic surveillance of Internet metadata—a program the NSA scrapped after a 2011 review found it wasn’t fulfilling its mission.
The newly declassified documents suggest another possible reason for its demise. The surveillance agency struggled to collect metadata, such as the “to” and “from” information of an email, without also collecting other information, such as the contents or partial contents of such communications, information that is supposed to be beyond what it legally is permitted to gather.
Reuters covers up:
U.S. can keep court orders, phone cos secret in NSA spy case
The U.S. government need not turn over a secret surveillance court’s orders or the names of phone companies helping it collect call records, because it might reveal methods needed to protect national security, a federal judge decided on Monday.
U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, rejected the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s argument that the U.S. Department of Justice should turn over the materials, in the wake of unauthorized disclosures last year by a former National Security Agency contractor, Edward Snowden.
The EFF noted that the government had already declassified hundreds of pages of other documents discussing data collection under the U.S. Patriot Act, including some that the data privacy advocacy group had requested. These declassifications came after Snowden’s leaks had been revealed.
While The Intercept covers boosterism:
NPR Is Laundering CIA Talking Points to Make You Scared of NSA Reporting
On August 1, NPR’s Morning Edition broadcast a story by NPR national security reporter Dina Temple-Raston touting explosive claims from what she called “a tech firm based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.” That firm, Recorded Future, worked together with “a cyber expert, Mario Vuksan, the CEO of ReversingLabs,” to produce a new report that purported to vindicate the repeated accusation from U.S. officials that “revelations from former NSA contract worker Edward Snowden harmed national security and allowed terrorists to develop their own countermeasures.”
The “big data firm,” reported NPR, says that it now “has tangible evidence” proving the government’s accusations. Temple-Raston’s four-minute, 12-second story devoted the first 3 minutes and 20 seconds to uncritically repeating the report’s key conclusion that “just months after the Snowden documents were released, al-Qaeda dramatically changed the way its operatives interacted online” and, post-Snowden, “al-Qaeda didn’t just tinker at the edges of its seven-year-old encryption software; it overhauled it.” The only skepticism in the NPR report was relegated to 44 seconds at the end when she quoted security expert Bruce Schneier, who questioned the causal relationship between the Snowden disclosures and the new terrorist encryption programs, as well as the efficacy of the new encryption.
With this report, Temple-Raston seriously misled NPR’s millions of listeners. To begin with, Recorded Future, the outfit that produced the government-affirming report, is anything but independent. To the contrary, it is funded by the CIA and U.S. intelligence community with millions of dollars. Back in 2010, it also filed forms to become a vendor for the NSA. (In response to questions from The Intercept, the company’s vice president Jason Hines refused to say whether it works for the NSA, telling us that we should go FOIA that information if we want to know. But according to public reports, Recorded Future “earns most of its revenue from selling to Wall Street quants and intelligence agencies.”)
Defense One braves a new frontier:
Navy Chief Says the Future of War Lies in ‘Information Dominance’
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert views “information dominance” as key to the future of warfare while the service’s new transformation framework calls for development of a “data-savvy” workforce.
Speaking at a ceremony last Thursday at which Rear Adm. David Lewis took command of the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command in San Diego, Greenert said: “SPAWAR is the technical agent for information dominance, we know that. It is also the technical agent for a new era in Navy and naval warfare. Control of the information is going to be the key to the future.”
That control includes electronic warfare systems. Greenert focused on shortcomings in jamming systems used by the EA-18G “Growler” electronic attack aircraft in his SPAWAR speech.
Here’s another kind of “information dominance,” via the Guardian:
Kuwaiti media owner is stripped of his citizenship
The owner of a newspaper and TV outlet is one of five people who have been stripped of their citizenship by the Kuwaiti authorities.
It means that Ahmed Jabr al-Shammari, proprietor of the independent Alam Al-Yom newspaper and the Al-Yom television station, has been rendered stateless.
The decision, a parliamentary decree, was announced by the Kuwait news agency on 21 June 2014 following a call by the Kuwaiti cabinet for a crackdown on people who “undermine the country’s security and stability.”
But it has only just emerged through Human Rights Watch (HRW) in an interview with al-Shammari, who explained that the revoking of citizenship was based on Kuwait’s nationality law.
Defense One again, this time with a piece by a former Obama Pentagon official:
The U.S. Needs More Drones
Al-Qaeda is morphing and metastasizing, spreading like a cancer in an arc of jihadism from the deserts of Northern Mali through Libya, Nigeria, Somalia, Yemen, Syria, and Iraq. Islamic extremists continue to gain ground in Iraq, and President Barack Obama has authorized more than a dozen airstrikes as fighters with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant threaten to take Irbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.
Meanwhile, the Defense Department is cutting one of the most vital tools against this threat: loitering unmanned aircraft, aka drones, to provide persistent surveillance of terrorist networks.
While DOD has had drones flying over Iraq for over a month, a drastic shortfall in global supply means that their presence in Iraq is at the expense of another vital mission elsewhere. And yet not only is DOD not moving to address this shortfall, it is taking steps to reduce its drone fleet, a dangerous move that will make it harder to keep tabs on a growing and changing terrorist threat.
From the Associated Press, getting dope the old fashioned way, illegally:
DEA improperly paid $854,460 for Amtrak passenger lists
The Drug Enforcement Administration paid an Amtrak secretary $854,460 over nearly 20 years to obtain confidential information about train passengers, which the DEA could have lawfully obtained for free through a law enforcement network, The Associated Press has learned.
The employee was not publicly identified except as a “secretary to a train and engine crew” in a report on the incident by Amtrak’s inspector general. The secretary was allowed to retire, rather than face administrative discipline, after the discovery that the employee had effectively been acting as an informant who “regularly” sold private passenger information since 1995 without Amtrak’s approval, according to a one-paragraph summary of the matter.
On Monday, the office of Amtrak Inspector General Tom Howard declined to identify the secretary or say why it took so long to uncover the payments. Howard’s report on the incident concluded, “We suggested policy changes and other measures to address control weaknesses that Amtrak management is considering.” DEA spokesman Matt Barden declined to comment.
TheLocal.dk covers reconsideration:
Denmark to reconsider its terror laws
Following through on a 2011 promise, the government will appoint a commission to look at the effectiveness of national terror laws and their effects on residents’ rights.
The Danish government will set up a commission to examine the effects of the nation’s anti-terror laws on personal rights and freedoms.
The tax minister, Morten Østergaard, announced the move on Tuesday.
“In the words of former Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, it is important that we don’t trample the same freedoms we are trying to defend,” Østergaard told Politiken.
From Ars Technica, more digital spookery:
Espionage programs linked to spying on former Soviet targets
Same malware was previously linked to attacks on US and European targets
A one-two combination of malware programs has infiltrated the embassies and government systems of a number of former Eastern Bloc nations as well as European targets, according to a technical analysis by security researchers.
Using exploits and malicious downloads delivered through phishing attacks or on compromised websites, attackers first infect a system with a program, known as Wipbot, according to an analysis posted by security firm Symantec on Friday. The program conducts initial reconnaissance, collecting system information and only compromising systems that correspond with a specific Internet address. After the target is verified, a second program—alternatively known as Turla, Uroburos, and Snake—is downloaded to further compromise the system, steal data, and exfiltrate information camouflaged as browser requests.
The one-two combination has all the hallmarks of a nation-state intelligence gathering operation targeting the embassies of former Eastern Bloc countries in Europe, China, and Jordan, according to Symantec.
While IDG News Service covers hacks at home:
Many home routers supplied by ISPs can be compromised en masse, researchers say
Specialized servers used by many ISPs to manage routers and other gateway devices provisioned to their customers are accessible from the Internet and can easily be taken over by attackers, researchers warn.
By gaining access to such servers, hackers or intelligence agencies could potentially compromise millions of routers and implicitly the home networks they serve, said Shahar Tal, a security researcher at Check Point Software Technologies. Tal gave a presentation Saturday at the DefCon security conference in Las Vegas.
At the core of the problem is an increasingly used protocol known as TR-069 or CWMP (customer-premises equipment wide area network management protocol) that is leveraged by technical support departments at many ISPs to remotely troubleshoot configuration problems on routers provided to customers.
PCWorld has more:
Fifteen new vulnerabilities reported during router hacking contest
Routers appear to be as insecure as ever, after hackers successfully compromised five popular wireless models during a contest at the DefCon 22 security conference, reporting 15 new vulnerabilities to affected vendors.
The SOHOpelessly Broken contest pitted hackers against 10 router models from different manufacturers: Linksys EA6500, ASUS RT-AC66U, TRENDnet TEW-812DRU, Netgear Centria WNDR4700, Netgear WNR3500U/WNR3500L, TP-Link TL-WR1043ND, D-Link DIR-865L, Belkin N900 DB and the Open Wireless Router firmware developed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).
There were three challenges. In one researchers had to demonstrate unpatched—zero-day—vulnerabilities in the preselected devices, and received points based on their criticality. The second challenge was a capture-the-flag-style game in which contestants had to hack into routers running known vulnerable firmware to extract sensitive information, and the third was a similar surprise challenge targeting a router from Asus and one from D-Link.
And from Network World, non-reassurance:
Study finds firmware plagued by poor encryption and backdoors
The first large-scale analysis of a fundamental type of software known as firmware has revealed poor security practices that could present opportunities for hackers probing the “Internet of Things.”
Firmware is a type of software that manages interactions between higher-level software and the underlying hardware, though it can sometimes be the only software on a device. It’s found on all kinds of computer hardware, though the study focused on embedded systems such as printers, routers and security cameras.
Researchers with Eurecom, a technology-focused graduate school in France, developed a web crawler that plucked more than 30,000 firmware images from the websites of manufacturers including Siemens, Xerox, Bosch, Philips, D-Link, Samsung, LG and Belkin.
Frontera NorteSur covers discontent to the south:
Indigenous Mexico Rising Again
Representatives of Mexico’s indigenous peoples have issued a new declaration and announced upcoming mobilizations to further their cause. Unveiled on August 9, the UN-celebrated International Day of the World’s Indigenous People, the declaration followed a week-long meeting between the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) and National Indigenous Congress (CNI) in the southern Mexican border state of Chiapas.
Detailing 29 points, the Declaration of the Plundering of Our Peoples blasted the Pena Nieto Administration, big corporations and capitalism in general for threatening the culture and survival of indigenous peoples.
Couched in historical terms that reference the sacrifices made by indigenous people and small farmers for a Mexico that was denied to them, the statement was read by Venustiano Vazquez Navarette, indigenous resident of Tepotzlan, Morelos, in the Zapatista base community of La Realidad.
It read in part: “Capitalism has grown from plunder and exploitation since the beginning. Invasion and plunder are the words that best describe what is called the conquest of America, plunder and robbery of our lands, our territories, our knowledge, our culture. Plunder accompanied by war, massacres, jail, death and more death…”
And Brazzil Magazine benefits from blowback:
Brazil Talks About a Revolution in Exports After Russia’s Embargo on US’s and EU’s Produce
Russian president Vladimir Putin Russia’s announcement about its embargo on agriculture products from the US and Europe opens “a great window of opportunities for Brazil” to get into the Russian market, says Secretary for Agricultural Policy Seneri Paludo from the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply.
Russia has imposed a ban on imported food products from European countries and the US in response to their economic sanctions against Moscow over its involvement in the Ukrainian war. This embargo includes beef, pork, chicken, fish, cheese, milk, vegetables and fruit originated from the US, the European Union and also Australia, Canada and Norway.
“From the point of view of Brazilian agriculture policy, this is positive,” stated the secretary, because “Russia is a big consumer not only of grains but also of meat.” In his view, Russia’s move may result in a “revolution” in Brazil’s meat, corn and soy exports.
After the jump, the latest from the Asian Game of Zones, including expanding arsenals, political posturing [domestic, regional and trans-Pacific], dirty war deaths, historical assertions, and much, much more. . .
For our first Asia item, bumps in Abe road via the Guardian:
Shinzo Abe looks for allies outside Japan as popularity wanes at home
Japanese PM’s approval ratings drop following Abenomics finance strategy and reinterpretation of pacifist defence policy
Japan’s prime minister Shinzo Abe showed off his football skills in Brasilia earlier this month, kicking a ball around with Zico, the Brazilian who once coached the Japanese team. The premier also had a friendly meeting with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and signed some energy deals.
When he was in Mexico the week before, Abe and his wife, Akie, visited the ancient ruins in Teotihuacan, where they took photos alongside Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and his wife, Angelica Rivera. Later, Peña Nieto praised Abe’s “bold transformations” of the Japanese economy.
Abe returned to Japan last Monday after a 10-day, five-nation tour of Latin America and the Caribbean, the latest trip of his premiership. By the time he touched down in Tokyo, he had visited 47 countries since being elected to his position for the second time at the end of 2012.
The Asahi Shimbun feels a draft:
Fears reverberate about possible draft despite Abe’s dismissal as ‘unconstitutional’
Although Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has repeatedly ruled out conscription, fears remain strong among the public about the possibility as Japan heads toward a more expansive defense role in the world.
Abe vehemently denies that his Cabinet’s approval in July of reinterpreting the war-renouncing Constitution to allow Japan to deploy the Self-Defense Forces overseas in collective self-defense situations will lead to introducing the draft.
“I am aware of off-the-beam criticism (that exercising the right to collective self-defense) will pave the way for Japan to introduce conscription,” he told a meeting of senior officials of his Liberal Democratic Party’s regional branches on Aug. 5. “But I repeatedly stated in the Diet that conscription is unconstitutional.”
People’s Daily does the meet and greet:
ASEAN vows to strengthen ties with China
Foreign Ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) reiterated commitment on Sunday to further strengthen ASEAN-China relationship by enhancing mutual trust and confidence and promoting cooperation in the political-security, economic, and social-cultural areas.
The ASEAN foreign ministers reaffirmed the commitment in their joint communique issued on the final day of their 47th AMM meeting in Nay Pyi Taw, chaired by Myanmar.
ASEAN looks forward to working closely with China to further strengthen the ASEAN-China strategic partnership, the communique said.
Nikkei Asian Review sees it differently:
Asean forum exposes rifts over China
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations is deeply torn on China, possibly posing serious hurdles to resolving territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
At the Asean Regional Forum held on Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry explicitly criticized the Chinese for deploying an oil-drilling rig in May near the Paracel Islands, which both China and Vietnam claim as their own. Kerry called for compliance with international law and also expressed concerns over Chinese construction in waters disputed with the Philippines.
The Philippines proposed a moratorium on provocative actions in the South China Sea — a move backed by the U.S. and Vietnam. But China stated that the affected countries are seeking a solution on their own terms and that outsiders, meaning Americans, should not exacerbate the conflict.
JapanToday adds another note:
China urges Japan to ease political tensions in informal meeting
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi called on Japan to “make practical efforts to overcome existing political obstacles between the two sides” during an informal meeting with his Japanese counterpart during an ASEAN summit in Myanmar.
According to a statement posted on the website of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (www.fmprc.gov.cn) on Sunday, Wang met Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum in Naypyidaw on Saturday. It gave no further details.
Tensions between the two countries have risen in recent months, with each side accusing the other of flying military aircraft too close to its own jets in a long-running territorial dispute over a cluster of Japanese-administered islets in the East China Sea.
SINA English reconceives:
Chinese FM calls for new security concept to ensure lasting peace in Asia
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called for a security concept for the 21st century so as to ensure the long-lasting peace and security of Asia.
Addressing the 21st ASEAN Regional Forum(ARF) that ended here on Sunday, Wang Yi noted Asia has maintained peace, stability and relatively fast development over recent years. He attributed this to the joint commitment by Asian countries to improving economy and people’s well-being, their active efforts to engage in and promote regional cooperation as well as the sound interactions between major countries in the region, which help create a generally stable regional environment.
He reiterated China’s view for a common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security concept of Asia, and willingness to blaze a new trail of security that is upheld and shared by all and brings benefits to all.
NHK WORLD crosses the line:
Chinese ships leave Japanese waters
Three Chinese patrol ships have temporarily entered Japan’s territorial waters off the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.
The Japan Coast Guard says the Chinese vessels intruded into waters off Minami-kojima shortly after midday on Tuesday. They stayed there for more than 4 hours.
The 3 ships are now sailing in the contiguous zone just outside Japan’s territorial waters. The Japan Coast Guard has been keeping an eye on the vessels and is warning them to stay away from the area. Japan controls the Senkaku Islands. China and Taiwan claim them.
People’s Daily rebukes:
Japan’s criticism of Chinese military “ill-founded”
Japan’s criticism of the Chinese military in a new defense white paper is ill-founded, China’s Ministry of National Defense has said.
The Japanese cabinet approved the country’s defense white paper for 2014 on Tuesday. It said Japan needs to improve its defense capacity to cope with “an increasingly severe security environment,” citing threats from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, China and Russia.
“The white paper has played the same old tune by making presumptuous comments on China’s normal defense and military development,” Yang Yujun, spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense, said in a written statement on Sunday.
The Yomiuri Shimbun fortifies:
LDP eyes bill to put SDF on remote islands
The Liberal Democratic Party will likely submit a lawmaker-sponsored bill to the extraordinary Diet session in autumn to designate about 10 inhabited remote islands near national borders as “special border remote islands” to intensively promote the islands’ protection and development.
The bill will call on the government to construct Self-Defense Force facilities on the islands and provide more financial support for the islands’ development, according to sources.
The bill is aimed at countering China’s maritime expansion and land acquisition on remote islands through foreign capital.
Want China Times sends a warning:
US should fear littoral capability of PLA subs: retired officer
The United States should fear a potential submarine war with China, Wang Hongguang, retired deputy commander of the Nanjing Military Region, wrote in a commentary for the state-run Global Times on Aug. 11.
While admitting that the nuclear-powered attack submarines and ballistic missile submarines of the United States Navy have a longer range and faster speed than their Chinese counterparts, Wang said the PLA’s submarines are better suited to fighting in littoral waters. He said US submarines have several major weaknesses that Chinese subs do not have. First, they are simply too large to conduct operations within the narrow First Island Chain of the Pacific, he said.
Compared to American submarines with displacement between 8,000 and 10,000 tons, Wang said it is much easier for 2,000-ton conventional PLA submarines to hide and evade the enemy. Wang said further that Chinese submarines employ the world’s best air-independent propulsion system and can stay submerged for between 15 and 20 days. This is enough for them to travel 3,000 kilometers without being detected, he said.
While the Guardian covers bloviation:
US defence secretary: ‘we are a Pacific power, we aren’t going anywhere’
Chuck Hagel confirms security ties with partners, including Japan and Australia, and to treaty obligations in the region
The US secretary of defence, Chuck Hagel, has insisted during a visit to Australia that the US is a Pacific power and will remain a force in the region despite the considerable challenges posed by conflagrations around the globe and China’s apparent aspiration to assert its growing military might.
In Australia for the Ausmin talks – a regular gathering of foreign and defence ministers from Australia and the US – Hagel was asked by reporters about Washington’s commitment to the Pacific in the context of China’s inexorable rise and its obvious determination to make its presence felt.
Beijing has this past weekend successfully rebuffed a motion at the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean), which sought to curtail China’s provocative actions in the disputed territory of the South China Sea.
Channel NewsAsia Singapore signs on the dotted line:
Australia to sign 25-year US Marine agreement
Australia and the United States will sign a 25-year deal allowing 2,500 US Marines and air force personnel to train Down Under, Defence Minister David Johnston said on Monday (Aug 11), describing it as a “win-win situation”.
The agreement will be inked on Tuesday when US Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel meet with their Australian counterparts Julie Bishop and Johnston in Sydney.
Trouble spots abroad including Iraq and Ukraine will also be on the agenda for the Australia-US Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN), which focus on regional security and military cooperation.
Want China Times makes a point:
LA’s new CSS-20 missile could take out US Pacific bases
China’s new CSS-20 ballistic missile could take out all US military facilities in the Western Pacific, claims the Kanwa Defense Review operated by Andrei Chang, also known as Pinkov, a military analyst based in Canada.
The primary mission of the CSS-20, designed to carry out China’s Anti Access and Area Denial strategy, is to strike at ground targets instead of aircraft carriers or other warships, the report said. The missile even has the range to hit Elmendorf Air Force Base and Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska, some 5,000 kilometers from mainland China, the report said.
Other targets for the People’s Liberation Army in a potential conflict with the United States would be Guam in the Western Pacific and Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.
Want China Times again, flying high:
China conducts test flights for nine aircraft: Kanwa
To strengthen the fighting and power projection capabilities of its air force, China is currently testing nine different new types of aircraft, according to the Canada-based Kanwa Defense Review.
One of those aircraft is China’s first fifth-generation stealth fighter, the J-20. Photos released on a Chinese military website indicate that the J-20 is a multirole fighter designed for both aerial combat and ground attack because of its longer and larger build than Russian fighters such as the Su-33 and Su-37. China is testing the avionic system of J-20 through attaching its radar to a Russian-built Tu-204 passenger plane.
Another four — the J-10B, J-11B, J-16 and J-15 — are fourth-generation fighters for China’s air force and navy. Tactical bombers such as the JH-7A and JH-7B are being examined as well. The J-16 has already gone through test flights for three years. To shorten the process, Shenyang Aircraft Corporation has decided to modify the aircraft’s weapon systems. After the J-20 and J-31 begin service, their the J-16’s primary mission will be to provide close air support for ground forces.
The Mainichi takes wing as well:
Mitsubishi eyes first test flights of homegrown prototype stealth fighter jet
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. has firmed up its plan to conduct the first test flights of a homegrown prototype stealth fighter jet in January next year, it has been learned.
Mitsubishi has been commissioned by the Ministry of Defense to develop a stealth fighter jet, Japan’s first stealth fighter aircraft to be developed by a domestic company. After confirming the capabilities and costs of the aircraft, the ministry plans to make a final decision on whether to put it to practical use by fiscal 2018.
China and Russia have separately been developing stealth aircraft. The two countries have already flown their prototype stealth jets. In 2009, Japan sought to introduce U.S.-made F-22 fighter jets equipped with the world’s most advanced stealth technology, but it had to abandon the plan due to an embargo the U.S. placed on exports of the cutting-edge fighter for fear of revealing details of its advanced technology. Because of this, Japan deemed it necessary to build up its own technologies to boost its defense capabilities.
And Want China Times adds muscle:
PLA Navy set to build 10 aircraft carriers
To create its first blue-water navy, China plans to construct a total of 10 domestic aircraft carriers according to the Kanwa Defense Review, a Chinese-language military magazine operated by Andrei Chang also known as Pinkov, a military analyst from Canada.
After Admiral Jonathan Greenert, the US chief of naval operations, visited China’s first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, a refitted Soviet-era carrier purchased from Ukraine, the blueprint of the nation’s first domestic carrier is nearly complete, according to Kanwa. Greenert said China is speeding up the construction of its second aircraft carrier and even predicted the vessel will enter service in the near future.
Richard Fisher, a military expert from US thinktank the International Assessment and Strategy Center, said China may have between four and five aircraft carriers in active service by 2030. This number may eventually increase to 10 in the next few decades. Greenert said, however, that the gap between US and Chinese aircraft carriers is still large. While a US carrier is capable of launching and retrieving 100 aircraft simultaneously, a Chinese aircraft carrier can only operate 10.
The Mainichi imitates the University of California:
Joint research between Defense Ministry, universities on the rise
An increasing number of universities and research institutions have been joining hands with the Defense Ministry in their research into defense technology, with the past fiscal year seeing a steep surge in such collaborations, it has been learned.
According to the Defense Ministry, there were a total of 27 joint research agreements concluded between the ministry and eight universities and 11 research institutions in Japan since fiscal 2001. Of them, 10 agreements were struck in fiscal 2013.
The ministry has been promoting joint research with universities and other organizations in an effort to adopt research by outside parties that will contribute to the development of the country’s defense technology.
While South China Morning Post singals a chill:
China’s antitrust crackdown threatens a more hostile climate for Western businesses
China’s antitrust crackdown on firms including technology and car companies may presage a more hostile climate for Western businesses
China’s antitrust crackdown threatens to end the era when products from Audi saloons to Starbucks lattes generated fatter profits in Beijing than in London or New York.
In the past month, antitrust authorities have pressured at least seven carmakers to cut prices. Officials raided the offices of software maker Microsoft, Qualcomm, Caterpillar, Mead Johnson Nutrition and Danone among other foreign businesses have fallen under anti-monopoly scrutiny since last year.
The probes, combined with signs that the central government is shunning some US technology companies for security reasons, have left foreign businesses struggling to figure out the evolving laws and regulations in the world’s most populous country. Those that try to adapt must interpret vague rules in an economy that’s no longer as reliant on foreign investment as in past decades.
And the Japan Times pays a visit fraught with historical symbolism:
Senior MSDF officers making annual visits to Yasukuni Shrine
More than 100 senior Maritime Self-Defense Force officers have been making annual visits to Yasukuni Shrine, according to the Shinto shrine’s publications.
This year, 119 MSDF officers visited the shrine in uniform on May 20, just before going on a long training exercise, according to a newsletter issued by the shrine.
Some intellectuals say the visits may breach the constitutional separation of state and religion, and that such action in uniform on a weekday could be viewed as a public duty. May 20 was a Tuesday.
From the New York Times, the first of our two final items, both covering dirty wars of the past:
Philippine Ex-General Wanted in Activists’ Disappearance Is Arrested
The Philippine military on Tuesday captured a former army general wanted in connection with the disappearance of two students in 2006, a case that human rights groups say has come to symbolize the country’s legacy of abductions and abuses of leftist activists by members of the security forces.
Former Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan was arrested in a densely populated area of Manila after spending nearly three years as one of the Philippines’ most wanted fugitives.
“This is a major accomplishment,” Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said Tuesday, adding later, “He must now face his accusers.”
General Palparan became known as the Butcher for his aggressive approach to fighting the Philippines’ communist insurgency during more than two decades in the military. In a 2006 address, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, then the president, singled him out for praise for his contributions to the fight against the rebels.
And from BBC News, another war, another culprit:
Bolivia deports Argentine ‘Dirty War’ officer Paez
Bolivia says it has extradited an Argentine ex-officer accused of crimes against humanity committed under Argentina’s military rule (1976-1983).
The officer, Jorge Horacio Paez Senestrari, was captured on Friday in the Bolivian city of Santa Cruz. He is accused of torture and aggravated homicide in Argentina’s north-western San Juan province.
An estimated 30,000 people were tortured and killed during this period, in a campaign known as the “Dirty War”.
