Showing posts with label Paris. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paris. Show all posts

3 May 2016

'Nuclear terror' magnet isn't Pakistan

The Blog


In Europe, the US and the west in general, many professed experts would say Pakistan is the weakest link when it comes to nuclear security, and the most likely target of terrorists trying to obtain a nuclear weapon.


However as explained in a report at the Pakistan-based Voice of East website based on facts covered earlier by the Guardian, Pakistan isn't the location where terrorists would obtain nuclear materials. In fact, Europe is.

Terrorists are frequently recruiting and operating with impunity inside Europe without any clear strategy from the EU or NATO, who instead try to cynically benefit by letting them go to Syria to attack their enemy, Bashar al-Assad's troops.

Only the most recent consequences of this were the Paris and Brussels attacks by the so-called "Islamic" State (Daesh). The atrocities marked the return of the unspeakable terrorism for "democracy" that Europe stupidly still justifies and exports for consumption in Syria as an alternative to Assad's government.

According to facts published at the Guardian, Daesh-associated terrorist Salah Abdeslam possessed sensitive information on a Germany nuclear waste facility. Whether the ultimate intent was to cause nuclear disaster there, obtain data on the locations of fissile material, or construct a "dirty bomb", it is a closer call than anything that has been reported in Pakistan of late.

More consequentially, there was a recent scare in Belgium that resulted in iodine capsules being issued to the population in the hopes of fighting radiation sickness after a "dirty bomb".


However, a "dirty bomb" is considered to be no threat as long as you have a fully functioning suit of skin, according to scientists. The US government, and apparently Belgium too, have failed to note this when telling the media over and over again that terrorists may detonate a "dirty bomb" - probably to justify criminal surveillance and human rights abuses by NATO countries.

The likelihood of a Daesh nuclear attack that would kill one or more people is very unlikely, under any circumstances. Daesh lacks the codes or knowledge to detonate any state's nuclear devices or the rockets to deliver such a weapon on target, and lacks the equipment to safely dismantle and handle nuclear devices. It is unlikely that nuclear waste is stored in areas proximate to significant populated sites, making an attack on nuclear waste sites not very threatening.

Despite that more vulnerabilities exist in their own countries, westerners still consume anti-Pakistan propaganda such as statements from regional nemesis India that Pakistan's nuclear weapons are not secure and could easily be obtained by Daesh.


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24 November 2015

Mass surveillance unjustified: NYT

The Blog


In an unusual step by a publication close to the US government and part of mainstream media, the New York Times editorial board has slammed mass surveillance in an article.


The article in question mentioned that CIA director John Brennan was trying to blame Edward Snowden and the youth of America, who idolize the whistleblower, for jeopardizing the country's security. In remarks, the CIA man tried to put some of blame for the outrageous terror attacks in Paris, which killed 129 civilians, on Snowden and others who condemn espionage.

Brennan even called the attacks in Paris a “wake-up call.” However, Brennan is a known liar, as the NYT article points out:

  • "Last year, he bluntly denied that the C.I.A. had illegally hacked into the computers of Senate staff members conducting an investigation into the agency’s detention and torture programs when, in fact, it did.
  • "In 2011, when he was President Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser, he claimed that American drone strikes had not killed any civilians, despite clear evidence that they had.
  • "And his boss, James Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence, has admitted lying to the Senate on the N.S.A.’s bulk collection of data."

The article further states that mass surveillance would not have prevented the Paris attacks, as it was already being used on the attackers but there are simply too many extremists being monitored for the government to know who to arrest and when. As stated in the article, "the problem in this case was not a lack of data, but a failure to act on information authorities already had."

If this is so, then mass surveillance is useless, apparently impressive at a technical level, but in reality impractical in ensuring any security whatsoever for the state or the people. It does no good to have all the information in the universe if you don't know what to do with it. It must be remembered that millions of dollars continue to be poured into these programs, which do nothing to make anyone safe. Not a single terrorist attack has been stopped by intercepting phone calls or emails.

Commenting on the controversy, internet freedoms lobby group Fight for the Future praised the NYT article and asked Americans to forward it to their representatives in Congress. They also added that the technology actually used by terrorists to coordinate the attacks in Paris consisted of non-encrypted SMS messages, meaning that encryption is simply not needed in terror attacks.

The only possible goal of the government's plan for backdoors into encryption is actually to harass political opposition (which Britain's GCHQ admitted in a leaked slideshow), since militant groups and terrorists have shown no reliance on encryption anyway.


In its concluding paragraphs, the NYT article encouraged readers to ignore the lies of the CIA head John Brennan and the FBI's James Comey, who try to muddle Americans' minds by making them believe Snowden has put them at risk from terror when he has merely told the truth. If anything, the ones who are putting Americans in danger are rogue intelligence agencies.

Comey's idea that Apple and Google should ensure all software is sabotaged to be easier to decode and spy on was criticized by Fight for the Future, who said this will actually make people more vulnerable to terrorists. The NYT board concurs with this analysis, having stated, "requiring that companies build such back doors into their devices and software could make those systems much more vulnerable to hacking by criminals and spies".


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20 November 2015

Russia to carpet-bomb ISIL out of Syria?

The Blog


What will the Russian Federation's new deployment of strategic bombers to the battlefields of Syria mean for the war?


Russia's fighter jets have already been rolling back territorial gains by terrorist groups including the so-called Islamic State (ISIL, ISIS). But these inflict only piecemeal losses on the militants, compared with the area-bombing capabilities of aircraft like the Tupolev Tu-95 and Tu-160. Such strategic bombers are capable of leveling entire towns and destroying whole armies single-handedly.

The efficiency of all airstrikes against ISIL has been suspect. The US-led coalition has been striking ISIL positions for over a year with almost no effect. In fact, the terrorist group has actually gained more territory throughout the US-led air campaign in Syria, as is demonstrated by maps of the conflict so far. The Russian-led airstrikes have been somewhat more effective, clearing key highways and fortifications for the advancing Syrian Army - a force the US refuses to acknowledge or work with, in the belief that it is not "legitimate".


However, the course of the war is still slow, and thousands continue to face torture, genocide and persecution at the hands of the many sectarian militias supported by the West to take control of the country. Russia has compared ISIL with Nazi Germany, with no illusions about how the group should be dealt with and the kind of firepower that might be necessary to defeat it.

In an analysis for the Beliefnet website all the way back in June, it is advocated that strategic bombers are used instead of mere fighter jets (although in that case it was supposing the US would be doing all the bombing). The bombers should be used with the aim of wiping entire ISIL-controlled towns off the map and making it clear that this so-called "state" will be destroyed at all costs by the most powerful weapons available.

The analysis noted that the goal of such bombing is to put the enemy on the run, making them reactive rather than active, which will enable them to be fought on better terms. They will be drastically weaker on the battlefield, as they will be unable to hold any base or position for long.

ISIL has made no secret of the fact that it is in a state of war with Russia, the US and other major powers. It's recent attacks on Paris, and on a Russian airliner over Sinai, have been described as acts of war. France and Russia now not only say ISIL is intolerable and must be destroyed at all costs, but that they will do it themselves if the US is not capable.

World powers accept that ISIL is a significant military opponent. They want to eliminate  ISIL's capacity to wage war, which means they won't hesitate to use their most powerful weapons. Such weapons will be determined by the size and nature of military targets, as they were in the Second World War, and not by moral concerns about how such strikes may later be perceived.

The more civilians are killed by ISIL, the more the case for 'pinpoint' strikes against ISIL weakens and the stronger the case for indiscriminate area-bombing of ISIL becomes. Russia's movement of strategic bombers to the battlefields of Syria might mean they are moving to apply exactly this ruthless approach to warfare.


If used to its greatest extent, such a weapon will batter ISIL's already ruined territory into craters, and demolish any semblance of "state" in the "Islamic State". If Russia and its allies intend to treat ISIL like Nazi Germany, the geopolitical analysts comparing Russia's involvement with the Soviet War in Afghanistan are far off the mark in their historical comparisons.


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