Remember when Russian President Medvedev and Hugo Chavez signed that big deal for Russia to help Venezuela in building a nuclear plant?
Now Chavez is strengthening his ties with Iran as he prepares to visit to Tehran next week. “‘Some important issues were examined, including the progress of joint projects, especially as concerns industrial cooperation and technology transfers,’ a diplomatic source told AFP.”
You gotta love thinly-veiled conspiracies!
H/T: The Rhetorican.
Stratfor’s George Friedman offers an interesting perspective on Iran’s position in the international arena and in relation to the United States.
A particularly salient point that Friedman makes is that “merely working on a nuclear device — regardless of how close or far Iran really is from having one — provides Iran with a dramatically important strategic lever.” In essence, Iran recognizes that the U.S. is willing to do a great deal to prevent nuclear proliferation among states it considers a threat, such as making significant concessions e.g. North Korea.
To avoid the U.S. destroying its associated facilities, Friedman suggests Iran is following a similar strategy to North Korea, striving for “maintaining maximum ambiguity and anxiety in the West while minimizing the need to strike immediately.
Click here for more perspective on Iran’s stance, including the Hezbollah/Iraq question, the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, and the new Obama administration.
What the Iranians get out of this is exactly what the North Koreans got: disproportionate international attention and a lever on other topics, along with something that could be sacrificed in negotiations. They also have a chance of actually developing a deliverable device in the confusion surrounding its progress. If so, Iran would become invasion- and even harassment-proof thanks to its apparent instability and ideology. From Tehran’s perspective, abandoning its nuclear program without substantial concessions, none of which have materialized as yet, would be irrational. And the Iranians expect a large payoff from all this.
H/T: The Rhetorican.
We’ve been hearing about how the cartels have been resorting to land routes to smuggle in drugs and people, but now Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed group based in Lebanon, is using the Mexican cartels’ routes to do their own drug and human smuggling into the U.S., “reaping money to finance its operations and threatening U.S. national security.”
Interesting to see the increasing presence of Iran and Hezbollah in Latin America…
View Washington Times article here.
Talk about “March Madness.”
The Canadian research group Information Warfare Monitor has discovered that a cyber spy network based in China have hacked computers and accessed the classified documents of gov’t and private organizations from 103 countries, including the computers of Tibetan exiles.
“We uncovered real-time evidence of malware that had penetrated Tibetan computer systems, extracting sensitive documents from the private office of the Dalai Lama,” investigator Greg Walton said. The research group says it has not conclusively been able to detect the exact identity or motivation of the hackers.
The IWM is composed of researchers from Ottawa-based think tank SecDev Group and the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. The group’s initial findings lead to a 10-month investigation that has been summarized in the report, “Tracking GhostNet: Investigating a Cyber Espionage Network.” It will be released online Sunday.
The researchers detected a cyber espionage network involving over 1,295 compromised computers from the ministries of foreign affairs of Iran, Bangladesh, Latvia, Indonesia, Philippines, Brunei, Barbados and Bhutan. They also discovered hacked systems in the embassies of India, South Korea, Indonesia, Romania, Cyprus, Malta, Thailand, Taiwan, Portugal, Germany and Pakistan.
H/T: The Considered Opinion.
In over the past year or two, land-based shipments of cocaine through Central America to Mexico appears to have skyrocketed, e.g. an estimated 300 to 400 tons per year through Guatemala alone. Apparently drug trafficking organizations have increasingly come to rely upon land shipment routes as surrounding countries have stepped up their efforts at monitoring, etc. air and sea routes.
Notwithstanding the difficulty associated with estimating drug flows, it is clear that Central America has evolved into a significant transshipment route for drugs, and that the changes have taken place rapidly. These developments warrant a closer look at the mechanics of the drug trade in the region, the actors involved, and the implications for Central American governments — for whom drug-trafficking organizations represent a much more daunting threat than they do for Mexico.
H/T: The Rhetorican
AP reports:
Sec. of State Hilary Rodham Clinton has made a global push toward “spreading the word about American foreign policy and restoring Washington’s image.” This fits in with the aim of the Obama administration to cast a “broader Internet outreach”; thus far, AP reports that “Clinton’s Web efforts already have outpaced those of her predecessors”:
_They have revamped the department’s Web site (http://www.state.gov) and the Dipnote blog (http://blogs.state.govandhttp://twitter.com/dipnote) with a fresh array of features, graphics and colorful posts.
_Users can track her foreign travel on an interactive map (http://www.state.gov/secretary/trvl/map).
_They can keep up virtually with her every move through Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/user/statevideo).
_They can pose questions through an “ask-the-secretary” column (http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/ask/secretary/117297.htm) that recently was revised to “text the secretary.” (http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/ask/secretary/120236.htm)
“New media is critical in this new era of diplomacy, where smart power and expanded dialogues are essential to achieving our foreign policy goals,” said Cheryl Mills, Clinton’s longtime confidante and chief of staff.
Even for a government Web site, early indications show a surge in interest, according to internal State Department statistics provided to The Associated Press.
Daily views of the Dipnote have doubled from 10,000 a year ago to 20,000 today, with 700 subscribers to its RSS feed, twice as many as in March 2008. The number of followers of the department on Twitter has tripled since Jan. 20, when Obama took office, while the department’s Facebook friends have increased by 2 1/2 times in the same period.
Of particular interest to me:
Clinton has retooled Dipnote with a Twitter feed and a broader range of posts from diplomats.
It’s more than just window dressing. This past week, diplomats used Twitter to “tweet” down false rumors they feared might lead to a siege on the U.S. Embassy in Madagascar.
On her first two foreign trips, to Asia and then the Middle East and Europe, local bloggers were “embedded” with the traveling press corps, broadening the audience for Clinton’s official meetings and public appearances, which often produce more personal than policy questions.
Was it lack of common scents? On a lighter (but more potent) note, the Associated Press reported last week:
Authorities said a man accused of money laundering was tripped up because he could have used a little cleansing himself. Court records show that during his trips to a Eugene bank a man drew attention to himself because of a foul odor, possibly linked to fertilizer. A teller vomited. Customers complained. Authorities investigated. After an Internal Revenue Service investigation into a drug operation involving high-potency marijuana and hallucinogenic mushrooms, a federal grand jury indicted the man. He does not face drug charges, but he is accused of laundering cash in dozens of transactions totaling nearly $500,000 in 2007 and 2008. Court records show he pleaded guilty in 1999 to manufacturing and delivering a controlled substance.
Just heard on KFI news radio:
L.A. County Sheriff’s Department has busted 48 members of the Mendoza drug organization, which reportedly up ’til now had been moving 15 to 20 pounds of black tar heroin a week. This clan, a Oaxacan Indian family, had allegedly been smuggling heroin for two decades through Tijuana into southern California.
The traffickers initially stumped investigators listening to the wiretaps, as they communicated about their activities in a local dialect from their home village in Oaxaca. Other points of interest: they distributed the illegal product in plain sight in parking lots of 99 cents stores, Home Depot, Food 4 Less, and McDonalds, and used Ford, Hondas, and Pontiacs in which to stash the drugs.
U.S. Atty. Thomas P. O’Brien said “the defendants in the case were indicted on charges of conspiracy to possess and distribute heroin, among other charges. If convicted, they face 10 years to life in federal prison.”
Click here for the Los Angeles Times story on the clan and how they did it.
The Boston Globe reports:
In the face of increasing violence and insufficient security across the U.S.-Mexico border, Obama’s administration, including Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano and Dep. AG David Ogden, has presented a broad sweeping plan to provide a “comprehensive response to the situation along the border with Mexico.”
As part of the plan, the Boston Globe reports that “the administration says it will spend $700 million this year to work in collaboration with Mexico on law enforcement and courts. Also the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and Treasury are increasing personnel and efforts directed at the Southwest border. And the White House it is renewing the commitment to reduce the demand for illegal drugs in the United States.”
Click here for more on the proposed plan.
The NYT reports that the spread of the malicious software virus Conficker has continued, with the author of the program repeatedly updating its software to cause further damage. A loose alliance to target and combat the potential fall out and damage from Conficker has been formed by organizations across the globe consisting of computer security firms and a network governance group known as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.
The program grabbed global attention when it began spreading late last year and quickly infected millions of computers with software code that is intended to lash together the infected machines it controls into a powerful computer known as a botnet….Last month,Microsoft announced a $250,000 reward for information leading to the capture of the Conficker author.. Botnets are used to send the vast majority of e-mail spam messages. Spam in turn is the basis for shady commercial promotions including schemes that frequently involve directing unwary users to Web sites that can plant malicious software, or malware, on computers. Botnets can also be used to distribute other kinds of malware and generate attacks that can take commercial or government Web sites off-line.”
H/T: Considered Opinion.
So reports The Intelligencer: apparently in the past, school buses have been often overlooked in schools’ security plans.
However, many districts, including ones across the Philadelphia region, have been working with local law enforcement and task forces to ensure school buses are secure and the kids are safe.
I remember hearing about this potential targeting years ago; it is a relief to see more agencies and administrators taking solid steps to make sure this doesn’t happen.
National Terror Alert reports:
A Rock Rapids man is under arrest after a tip from the F.B.I.’s Joint Terrorism Task Force.Lyon County Sheriff’s officers say 19-year-old Michael Edward Bauman was arrested Thursday after a search of his home on Thursday. Agents from the F.B.I. and the Iowa Intelligence Fusion Center as well as local deputies conducted the search.
Authorities seized a number of computers and guns. Bauman is accused of threatening to blow up a television relay tower, burn down a business and kill law enforcement officers.
Bauman is charged with a “Class D” threat of terrorism and is being held in jail on a $10,000 bond.
…and fiance, who mainly posts on his weblog, The Rhetorican. Please do visit his site for more of his excellent commentary and views.
His guest appearances have been unsung until now – he has filled in for me during the last few weeks when I was out of town and only online via creakingly slow dial up.
His insightful, witty blogs here have been much appreciated both my me and the readers who consistently visit. Cheers, and thank you, Rhetorican!
A scary picture emerges:
[T]he U.S. has been “experiencing a 9/11 in cyberattacks” for a number of years. “Because there is no visible catastrophic outcome, we lie in bed at night asleep without realizing how much damage is being done”.
Clenched Fists Around The World: Iran test-fires a new missile. Is North Korea next?
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