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BLOOD CLOT BANDAGES DEBUT
The U.S. military is rolling out bandages with clotting agents inside, CNN reports. Made from a shrimp-based product, the dressings can supposedly stop bleeding within two minutes. They've just been approved by the FDA, and there are immediate orders from the military for 6000 units.
VIDEO, POWERPOINT CLOG MILITARY AIRWAVES
Think downloading a video clip at home is a pain? Try doing it aboard a frigate, chasing enemy forces through the north Arabian Sea during monsoon season. Or under hostile fire in a makeshift Army post in the Afghan hinterland.
The typical American soldier stationed overseas has access to hundreds of times as much network bandwidth as the average grunt in the first Gulf War. But despite all the extra capacity, U.S. troops face a bandwidth shortage that dictates where ships are sent, when drones can fly and what kind of messages sailors and soldiers can receive.
Streaming video is the biggest bandwidth hog, according to Steven Aftergood, an analyst with the Federation of American Scientists. Everybody wants to look at what the spy drones and satellites see.
Take the battle of Takur Ghar -- one of the bloodiest encounters in the Afghan campaign. While U.S. special forces engaged in a mountaintop firefight, a Predator drone fed real-time digital video to top brass in Tampa, Florida.
Gen. Lance Lord, the chief of Air Force Space Command, said the Afghan effort used 10 times more bandwidth than Operation Desert Storm, with one-tenth the human forces involved.
Video was one reason. But so was the military's predilection for PowerPoint presentations.
"Some say that 70 percent of that bandwidth was consumed by PowerPoint briefings," Lord joked.
My latest Wired News story has additional details on the military's bandwidth shortage.
THERE'S MORE: The Pentagon does have some long term solutions to this problem. By 2004, the Defense Department hopes to fatten its pipes by linking 90 sites worldwide with fiber optic cable into a "Global Information Grid." The military is also looking into satellites that communicate by laser light to ease the bandwidth squeeze.
But that's years away -- at least. For now, U.S. troops will have to rely on aging birds and borrowed time to talk.
DRONE VIDEO ONLINE
Wanna see through the eyes of a Predator drone? Soon, all you may need is a web browser.
MITRE, a not-for-profit group that handles a fair amount of Defense Department research, has been testing out a system that makes online accessible video from the Predator and Global Hawk unmanned spy planes. So far, MITRE has only worked with archived footage. But the idea is to get the shots in something approaching real time.
That's not going to happen without Defense Department involvement, however. And so far, the Pentagon hasn't sunk any money into the project. MITRE is hoping to get such funding soon.
NAVY: TATTOOS NOW TABOO
Like tomato sauce and pasta, like the Lone Ranger and Tonto, like J. Lo and that big ol' ass, sailors and their tattoos have long seemed like one of nature's unalterable combinations.
But now, the U.S. Navy is putting the brakes on some tattoos and ornamentation, according to Stars and Stripes.
"Tattoos/body art/brands that are excessive, obscene, sexually explicit or advocate or symbolize sex, gender, racial, religious, ethnic or national origin discriminationî are all out. So are forked tongues. So is branding, or "scarification."
The other armed services also have limits on "ink." In the Air Force, taboo tattoos are ones that exceed one-fourth of the exposed body part. Marines can't have body art on the head or neck. Nor are they allowed "objects, articles, jewelry or ornamentation through their skin, tongue or any other body part.î
"Mom" or "Semper Fi," written across the shoulder, are, presumably, still allowed.
PILOTS' UNREAL WORLD
How can you land a plane if you can't see the ground? When rough weather dials visibility down to zero, even the most routine landings become fraught with danger.
The U.S. Air Force is trying out a fix for this problem -- an onboard computer that digitally recreates pilots' surroundings. It lets pilots look at a rendered world, when they can't rely on the real one to guide them.
The program -- called "synthetic-vision" -- has been in use on civilian flights for years, National Defense magazine reports. And now the Air Force's 412th Flight Test Squadron is trying it out in a modified C-135 transport plane. Just like night-vision goggles let troopers roam around in the dark, this system is supposed to let pilots see in stormy skies.
But "synthetic-vision" is still years and years away from widespread military use. Digital maps of most major commercial airports already exist; but recreating the rough terrains an Air Force pilot would encounter -- and updating those images in real-time -- is going to take a lot of work.
"TIA" AIN'T DEAD YET
For those of you who thought that the Senate killed off "Total Information Awareness," the scandalously-broad, uber-database being developed by the U.S. military, think again. Salon's Farhad Majoo reports:
TIA is already steaming forward. According to people with knowledge of the program, TIA has now advanced to the point where it's much more than a mere "research project"' There is a working prototype of the system, and federal agencies outside the Defense Department have expressed interest in it.
THERE'S MORE: The Bush Administration now says that the CIA will be in charge of the new "Terrorist Threat" database project.
INTERNET ATTACKER: MYSTERY MAN
The FBI thinks they can catch whoever launched the "Slammer" worm that gummed up the Internet last weekend? Fat chance, computer security experts say.
While "Slammer" is somewhat similar to the "Honker" worm launched in 2001 by a Chinese hacker group, it's impossible to tell whether or not the same culprits unleashed the latest assault.
The Associated Press says, "Exhaustive reviews of the blueprints for the attacking software are yielding few clues to its origin or the author's identity."
NAVY GOES WIRELESS
The White House has labeled easy-to-access wireless networks a homeland security threat. The Defense Department believes the so-called "wi-fi" connections many interfere with as many as ten different radar systems.
But, apparently, someone forgot to tell the Navy all of this.
The destroyer USS Howard is being fitted with an 802.11b "wi-fi" network. According to Network World, The Navy is hoping it'll let crewmembers check motors and pipes from a single location -- instead of making rounds -- and control heating and air conditioning units, remotely.
Ultimately, the goal is to let the captain command from anywhere on the ship, and to reduce crew size from 300 to 90 through automation.
The Navy may want to think twice before handing sailors their pink slips, however. As several Slashdotters have pointed out, "wi-fi" networks are notoriously hackable. And anything from a cordless phone to a microwave oven has the potential to interfere with the "wi-fi" signal.
SMART BOMB STOCKPILE
StrategyPage details the U.S.' inventory of precision-guided weapons. The Air Force, for one, now has 17,000 Joint Direct Attack Munition kits -- which turn a regular bomb into a satellite-directed killer. The service expects to buy a total of 236,000 of the kits, some of which they'll share with the Navy and with the Marines.
FUTURIST-IN-CHIEF SPEAKS
Wired magazine has a Q&A; with Andrew Marshall, "the Pentagon's 81-year-old futurist-in-chief." The interview doesn't reveal much. But Marshall does say that he's worried about performance-enhancing drugs. He quips, "A future intelligence problem is going to be knowing what drugs the other guys are on."
INDIAN DRONE DOWN
Pakistan claims to have shot down an Indian unmanned spy plane over Kashmir. In June, the Pakistanis destroyed another Indian drone flying just south of Lahore.
THE CIA's SWINGIN' CATBOT
For decades, the CIA has been at the cutting edge of the very latest in surveillance technology. For an example, look no further than 1967's "Acoustic Kitty" project (scroll down to #27), a stroke of genius from the Agency's Directorate of Science and Technology. In it, a surgically altered cat, wired with transmitting and control devices, was trained to become a mobile, eavesdropping platform. As Victor Marchetti recalls in John Ranelagh's book The Agency:
they slit the cat open, put batteries in him, wired him up. The tail was used as an antenna. They made a monstrosity. They tested him and tested him. They found he would walk off the job when he got hungry, so they put another wire in to override that. Finally, theyíre ready. They took it out to a park bench and said ìListen to those two guys. Donít listen to anything else ñ not the birds, no cat or dog ñ just those two guys!îThey put him out of the van, and a taxi comes and runs him over. There they were, sitting in the van with all those dials, and the cat was dead!
A JUMBO JET WITH ATTITUDE
The Washington Times examines the Airborne Laser -- a modified 747 that shoots chemically-powered beams of ultrahot light. The Times touts the plane -- which has been in development since the Reagan years -- as an ideal anti-missile system to keep the North Korean arsenal in check. But it won't help much in the short term; the Airborne Laser won't be ready for full-fledged testing until 2004, at least.
STRYKERS WITHOUT DRIVERS
The U.S. Army's new Stryker light-armored vehicle has been less than ecstatically embraced by soldiers because, inside the vehicle, temperatures can shoot up to 120 degrees. Stryker maker General Dynamics' solution to the heat problem: build Strykers that can operate without people inside.
The robotic vehicles are being tested next month at Fort Bliss, Texas, and will face a live fire exercise in March, Reuters reports. If all goes according to schedule, the autonomous Strykers will be ready for action in 2008.
NAVY: NO TO "GO PILLS"
While the U.S. Air Force encourages -- maybe even orders -- some of its pilots to take amphetamine "go pills," Navy fliers rely almost exclusively on coffee or a Jolt cola to stay awake. According to the Virginian-Pilot, Navy pilots have only used the pills three times in the two years they have been allowed to do so. And now, the Navy is tightening controls on the drugs even further.
Amphetamines have been blamed for clouding the judgment of two American Air Force pilots who mistakenly bombed a group of Canadian soldiers near Kandahar, Afghanistan. Four were killed and eight were wounded in the incident.
The Air Force has a long history with "go pills." During a Gulf War survey, 58 percent of Air Force pilots said they took the stimulants occasionally, and 17 percent said they were regular users.
ARABS BUYING PATRIOTS
As America gears up to invade Iraq, Arab countries are buying up anti-missile systems to defend against Saddam's Scuds. Jordan is negotiating for American Patriot missile defenses, AFP reports. And Bahrain just got their shipment of Patriots.
In the first Gulf War, Iraq fired Scuds over Jordan and at Bahrain. Back then, the Patriots weren't much use against Iraq's arms. The new Patriot Advanced Capability 3 missiles are substantially better -- supposedly.
MAKE YOUR OWN MILITARY WEB SITE
Registering your own military website is laughably easy, The Register reports. A security hole in Defense Department computers has made it simple to sign up for a ".mil" domain, edit other ".mil" sites, and explore web pages previously obscured from public view.
U.S. CONSIDERING NUKING IRAQ
The Pentagon is contemplating pre-emptive nuclear strikes in Iraq, according to the Los Angeles Times. Two uses for tactical nukes are being discussed: "attacking Iraqi facilities located so deep underground that they might be impervious to conventional explosives; thwarting Iraq's use of weapons of mass destruction." Yikes.
THE DEVIL PILL
Drugs are being developed at Harvard and elsewhere that can soften feelings of fear and regret. White House science advisor Leon Kass says such a treatment could turn into "the devil pill...the monster pill, the anti-morality pill." The U.S. military hasn't funded research into these pharmaceuticals -- yet. But the Village Voice speculates that the drugs could be used to create soldiers without remorse.
E-BOMBS: ON IRAQ OR ON US?
"E-bombs" -- arms that fire massive electrical pulses, frying computers and circuitry -- are being hailed as the latest "wonder weapons" in America's arsenal. The U.S. may use it in Iraq.
But DefenseWatch argues that a crude version of the "e-bomb," made with $400 worth of materials, would serve as an almost ideal terrorist weapon against a high-tech target like the United States.
NO SANCTIONS FOR NORTH KOREA
North Korea is showing that blackmailing the world is easy; all you need is a nuke or two, and a madman with his finger on the atomic trigger.
Weeks ago, the U.S. government ruled out military action against North Korea for restarting its nuclear weapons program. Now, the Washington Post reports, American officials say that they won't use economic pressures, either, to persuade Pyongyang. North Korean officials have said that imposing economic sanctions would be "tantamount to war." And the Bush Administration has at least one on its hands already.
BRIT TROOPS POISON PLOT?
The biotoxin found in London earlier this month may have been part of a plot to poison the food supply of a British military base, the Times reports.
At least 16 people have been arrested since the discovery of ricin, a castor bean-derived poison, in a north London apartment. One British police officer was stabbed to death during a ricin-related raid.
RUMMY OVER BAGHDAD
An Air Force propaganda plane yesterday broadcast over Baghdad a briefing by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
The aircraft, a so-called "Commando Solo," is a modified C-130 transport plane that's been used in just about every American military operation since Vietnam. In the last month, American planes have dropped on Iraq a million and a half leaflets urging Iraqis to tune their radios to Commando Solo's daily broadcasts.
DANGER WRITER FREED -- BUT MORE ARE TAKEN
Danger zone reporter Robert Young Pelton is free after being held for four days by Colombian guerillas. Pelton and two colleagues, Megan Smaker and Mark Wedeven, were turned over by the right-wing United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia to a Catholic priest in the remote village of Unguia, 280 miles northwest of Bogota, according to Reuters.
But the sigh of relief from Pelton's release was quickly followed by another gasp of horror. The leftist National Liberation Army -- foes of Pelton's abductors -- have kidnapped journalists of their own. Scott Dalton and Ruth Morris, on assignment for the Los Angeles Times, were captured by the rebels in the state of Arauca. And the captors won't say when the pair will be let go.
SENATE UNPLUGS "TIA"
Total Information Awareness -- the notorious Pentagon database project to track nearly every area of every person's life -- may be close to dead. By a voice vote, Reuters reports, the Senate approved a measure Thursday to ban funding for the program. Now it's up to House and Senate budget negotiators to decide whether or not the ban will make it into the bill's final version.
NURSES: NO TO SMALLPOX SHOTS
Nurses and hospital workers in Atlanta, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts are refusing to go along with the Bush Administration's plan to vaccinate health care professionals for smallpox.
In the Bay State, the 20,000-member Massachusetts Nurses Association is telling its members not to volunteer for smallpox shots, the Boston Globe says. Rhode Island's two largest health care unions are making the same plea.
In Atlanta, five out of the city's seven trauma centers won't ask their staffs to participate in the inoculation program, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
"Absent the clear threat of an attack, they cannot ask their staff(s) to risk taking a vaccine with severe side effects," the paper reports. "Major urban and university hospitals in California, Colorado, Minnesota, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia" are also resisting Bush's smallpox edict. (via Global Security Newswire)
NUKE LAB REHIRES NOT WHAT THEY SEEM
It seemed too good to be true: the Los Alamos National Laboratory investigators fired for finding out too much about the Lab's dirty dealings were being hired back -- with back pay, even.
Now it turns out that the whistleblowers' rehires aren't all they're cracked up to be.
The two investigators, Steven Doran and Glenn Walp, will not be digging up any new dirt in their new roles as consultants to the University of California, which operates the Lab for the Department of Energy.
"I'm not even allowed on Lab property," Doran tells Defense Tech.
The University put the pair on the payroll on the same day the House Energy Committee sent a note to the school's president ordering him to rehire the investigators -- or face the consequences.
Doran and Walp will review what they've found out already, and will go over their security, intelligence, and management concerns with University and federal investigators. After that, they're back out on the street, out of work.
Doran says, "It could last a week, it could last a month. Then I'm back to looking for a job again."
So much for happy endings.
U.S. DENIES DRONE DOWN
The U.S. military says that Iraqi claims of shooting down a Predator drone are all wet.
"We did not lose a Predator," a Pentagon spokesman tells Reuters.
A Defense Tech source deep in the Department of Defense confirms this.
THERE'S MORE: Cyndi Wegerbauer, with Predator maker General Atomics, writes Defense Tech to say that Reuters, the Associated Press, and this website are all wrong about a Predator crashing in Pakistan this week. It was a Desert Hawk UAV, she asserts. Similar to the Marines' Dragon Eye drone, these are small, bungee cord-launched craft that can stay aloft for an hour or so, circling a target at 300 to 500 feet.
COLOMBIAN GUERILLAS CONFIRM PELTON NAB
A Colombian paramilitary group, the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, confirmed that they plucked daredevil journalist Robert Young Pelton and two others from the Panamanian jungle and are currently holding the trio.
But the group's leader, Carlos Castano, claims it was for the Americans' own good; there was fighting in the area between his forces at leftist guerillas, and Castano was only trying to help.
"This act cannot be seen in any way as a forced retention, and even less as a kidnapping," AFP reports Castano as saying.
Castano claims he will hand the trio over to representatives of either the Catholic church or human rights organizations.
DAREDEVIL SCRIBE KIDNAPPED
Robert Young Pelton, one of the world's gutsiest journalists, has likely been kidnapped by Colombian rebels, CNN reports. Pelton was on assignment for National Geographic Adventure magazine in the Panamanian province of Darien -- a haven for Colombian guerillas -- when he was nabbed with two other Americans, Mark Wedeven and Megan Smaker, both 22.
Pelton has become well known for finding stories in places that most sane people would never dare to visit: Chechnya, Uganda, Kosovo, Sudan, and dozens more.
"Some of Pelton's adventures include breaking American citizens out of jail in Colombia, living with the Dogon people in the Sahel, thundering down forbidden rivers in leaky native canoes, plowing through East African swamps with the U.S. Camel Trophy team, hitchhiking through war-torn Central America, and completing the first circumnavigation of the island of Borneo by land," his bio says. But that only begins to scratch the surface of Pelton's remarkable life.
I met Pelton once, recently, when he spoke at The Moth, New York's ongoing celebration of storytelling. In a rambling monologue, he talked about how he managed to get the first video interview ever with the heads of the Taliban. Dressed wrinkly, Pelton seemed bored, distracted as he recounted the events -- like calling Mullah Omar and his crew "a bunch of women" to goad them into talking on tape. It was if he couldn't wait to get out of Manhattan, and back into the action.
BIOSENSOR BASICS BEGIN
The Bush Administration is planning to turn environmental monitoring stations into a nationwide biotoxin warning system, according to the Times.
Under the system, the E.P.A. monitoring stations will send samples of a tissue-like paper from newly upgraded machines that filter air to the closest of some 120 laboratories across the country associated with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Results will be available within 24 hours, and possibly within 12 hours.
A more comprehensive detection program -- with near-instant analysis of biotoxins -- may not be too far way, however. See my recent Tech Central Station story for details.
PREDATOR DRONES BECOME PREY
Predator drones are the high-tech darlings of the new war. Too bad they're so slow, dumb, noisy, and near-sighted that almost anything stronger than a peashooter could take them down.
In recent months, the bulbous-nosed, 27 foot-long unmanned aerial vehicles (or "UAVs") have spied on Saddam, taken out terrorists in Yemen, and become the fancy-pants weapon that demonstrates American dominance on the battlefield. Now, the U.S. government is considering using the drones to patrol our borders and monitor our shores.
But, like the first Gulf War's Patriot missile, the Predator isn't all its cracked up to be. Nearly half of the military's 60-or-so plane Predator fleet has crashed or been taken out. On Wednesday, the Iraqis claimed to have destroyed their second American drone in a month. Two more have gone down in Pakistan since the start of the New Year.
Check out my latest Tech Central Station article for more on the Predator's shortcomings.
THE REAL AXIS OF EVIL?
Pakistan and North Korea closely cooperated for years on their nuclear weapons programs -- and the Bush Administration knew all about this partnership months before the current North Korean crisis began, Seymour Hersh reports for The New Yorker.
KGB SECRET HISTORY ONLINE
A top secret internal history of the KGB and other Soviet security agencies has been published online by the Harvard Project
on Cold War Studies. The book, completed in 1977, was used to train senior officers in the KGB's special academy. Still classified top secret in Moscow, the book is unavailable in Russia. But you can read it here. (via Secrecy News)
U.S. LAUNCHES CATAMARANS FOR WAR
Catamarans usually bring to mind island vacations, not war zones. But the U.S. military is about to send a high-speed, experimental catamaran to the Middle East in preparation for a possible Iraqi conflict.
The 370 foot Joint Venture HSV-X1 carries a helicopter, and can move 300 troops at a time. It can be used in a variety of roles, the Virginian-Pilot reports: "as a base and delivery vehicle for special operations forces, as a base for underwater vehicles for mine warfare, and as a medical treatment station that delivered patients to a hospital ship."
Most importantly, the HSV-X1 can do this all in a hurry: fully loaded, it skips along the oceans at 40 knots (46 miles per hour) -- more than three times faster than the Army's current Logistics Support Vessel.
THERE'S MORE: An observant Defense Tech reader points out that certain models of the catamaran will come with -- get this -- a 20' by 20' by 4' "mammal pool."
SCHOOLS EYE LOS ALAMOS PAYDAY
As the University of California struggles to maintain its operation of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, other big-name schools are angling to take over the Lab's multi-billion dollar management contract, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
POINDEXTER: MR. NICE GUY?
John Poindexter is no Big Brother; he's a misunderstood technical whiz with a tin ear for politics, the New York Times says in a sympathetic portrait of the man who brought us "Total Information Awareness."
"He may be the only guy in government who deeply understands computers," coos computer columnist John Dvorak.
That understanding helped Poindexter build the Reagan White House's e-mail system. But Poindexter wasn't slick enough to quietly get rid of the 5,000+ e-mails he and Col. Oliver North exchanged about trading arms for hostages and illicitly funding the Nicaraguan Contra rebels.
"What (Poindexter) apparently didn't know was that these messages were still retrievable from the e-mail system's backup tapes," CNN noted.
Brilliant.
BATTLEFIELD BANDWIDTH CRUNCH
An American soldier in Afghanistan had access to 322 times more network bandwidth than a Gulf War grunt had. But despite the added capacity, troops are facing a bandwidth crunch, and need to practice network "appetite suppression" if they want to continue to communicate effectively, Air Force Space Command chief Gen. Lance Lord told writers recently.
Lord hopes to get around this bottleneck by using lasers, rather than radios, to transmit communications. But that's years away. For the moment, it's belt-tightening time.
AL QAEDA NAVY?
A captured Al Qaeda operative has supposedly spilled the beans on the terrorist group's plans to strike at sea, Newsweek reports. Osama's boys are looking to employ a variety of methods for their maritime attacks -- from underwater demolition teams to suicidal trawlers to rubberized speedboats, packed with explosives. Al Qaeda has already used such crafts in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole and a 2002 attack on a French oil tanker.
TIME GETS E-BOMBED
Tomorrow's issue of Time drools over high-power microwave weapons -- bombs that use electromagnetic pulses to fry computers and other electronics.
Long in the planning pipeline, the Pentagon has been dropping hints for months that the so-called "e-bomb" might see some action in Gulf War II. It could prove useful for messing with Saddam's air defenses. But don't expect the high-power microwave to be the "wonder weapon" Time proclaims it to be.
THERE'S MORE: One Defense Tech reader (who's in a position to speculate intelligently about these things) believes that while an e-bomb might have some use in knocking out Iraqi communications, it probably wouldn't do much good against Saddam's air defenses. Why? The gear is old, old Soviet stuff, without integrated circuits, most likely -- and therefore, immune to electromagnetic pulses.
AND MORE: Time claims that the e-bomb unleashes as much energy "as the Hoover Dam generates in 24 hours." This is nonsense, another Defense Tech reader says. The Dam produces 11 Million Kw-H per day -- about the same amount of energy released in the Hiroshima nuclear blast. The e-bomb doesn't have nearly that much juice. Maybe it has a fraction of a second's worth of Dam energy, but no way does it have the equivalent of a whole Dam day.
LOS ALAMOS COPS BACK ON THE BEAT
Good news: Steven Doran and Glenn Walp -- the two Los Alamos National Laboratory investigators fired for digging too deep into the fraud and mismanagement -- have been hired back.
Struggling to hold on to their management of Los Alamos, the University of California agreed Friday to put Walp and Doran back on the payroll -- with back pay -- so the two can continue their inquiries into misspent government funds and missing Lab property.
Earlier in the day, members of the House Energy Committee told University of California President Richard Atkinson that if he didn't rehire Walp and Doran, it "will make it very difficult for this Committee to view seriously your statements that you intend to change the culture of secrecy at (Los Alamos)," the Albuquerque Journal reports.
More on the continuing drama at Los Alamos can be found here.
CIA: NO CHEMICALS IN IRAQ WARHEADS
"The CIA believes that 11 of 12 chemical warheads discovered Thursday in Iraq by UN weapons inspectors never contained lethal chemicals," Newsday reports. "A former inspector said the incident probably has little significance in demonstrating Iraqi noncompliance with a UN mandate to destroy weapons of mass destruction."
NICE JOB, PATAKI
After 9/11, the Federal Emergency Management Agency pledged $418 million to bankroll projects that helped New York City prepare for a possible terrorist attack.
But, according to the New York Times, "in the 16 months since the attack that destroyed the World Trade Center, (Gov. George Pataki's admnistration) has not submitted a single project for FEMA to review, even though it has received scores of proposals from state, city and private agencies desperate to do everything from reinforcing bridges to shoring up bioterrorism efforts at local hospitals."
Both New York State and New York City are facing colossal budget deficits this year. Mayor Mike Bloomberg has been counting on $200 million of that FEMA money to help close the City's budget gap, the Times says.
IRAQ: SPACE IS THE PLACE
Military space operations played a bit part in the first Gulf War. This time around, Aviation Week reports, space will get a meatier role.
Now, air strike planners routinely seek inputs from milspace (military space) experts to ensure a number of GPS satellites will be in view over a target area, particularly when GPS-aided weapons are to be delivered. They also rely on satellite-derived weather information and imagery of target areas. And as U.S. and coalition air forces move toward network-centric operations, space-based communication links become critical to the planning process.
RUMSFELD: TOO MUCH ON MILITARY WEB
Thousands of unclassified documents have been taken down from military web sites since 9/11. But it's still not enough, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld told his troops in a memo this week. More than 1,500 items marked "sensitive" and "for official use only" made their way online last year, Rumsfeld contends. He has ordered military webmasters to make sure it doesn't happen any more.
The Federation of American Scientists' Steven Aftergood told News.com that Rumsfeld's order over-reaches.
"I'm concerned that it sends a chilling signal that will only accelerate the withdrawal of public information from the Web," Aftergood said. "If he had said anything like operational plans should not be on the Web, I'd be hard pressed to disagree with that. But what he said is that anything that might be useful to an adversary should not be on the Web. And that is overreaching, because anything could be useful to an adversary."
IRAQ WARHEADS NO "SMOKING GUN"
Bush Administration officials are calling the chemical-capable warheads found in Iraq yesterday "an interesting development...but not exactly a smoking gun," according to the Los Angeles Times.
"It would have been more interesting if the warheads were filled with chemicals or if there'd been a larger stockpile or if they'd been newer, which would show that they're making them now," a senior U.S. official said.
The warheads were found at a well-known weapons site -- the Ukhaydir depot, 75 miles south of Baghdad. Coalition forces bombed the facility in 1991, and some veterans believe that their "Gulf War Illness" stemmed from exposure to Ukhaydir's mustard gas. The Defense Department denies this.
NUKE STORAGE INSANITY AT LOS ALAMOS
There would seem to be fewer things crazier than chucking radioactive waste in a steel shack -- without making sure the place was safe first.
But that's exactly what happened at the troubled Los Alamos National Laboratory.
For more than five years the lab kept plutonium-contaminated materials in a prefab, light steel building, known as PF-185, before the waste was shipped to Los Alamos' primary storage area.
But no one at the lab ever properly checked to see if PF-185 was a safe place to keep such dangerous material, government regulators assert. And that's a big problem, because at PF-185 there was enough plutonium, if combined together, to make a nuclear bomb.
Check out my article at Wired News for the rest of the story.
THERE'S MORE: "Personnel at Los Alamos National Laboratory today discovered that environmental monitoring equipment had been tampered with and that Laboratory property had been contaminated with an unknown, non-radioactive substance," according to a Los Alamos press release.
For additional material on the ongoing scandals at Los Alamos, click here, here, here, and here.
BIOMETRICS DETAINS 300+ ALIENS
More than 300 people trying to enter the country illegally have been stopped by a new fingerprint-scanning program, Technology Daily reports.
Since September 2002, the Justice Department's National Security Entry-Exit Registration System has taken the digital prints of non-immigrant aliens from suspect countries like Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan and Syria. Unnamed "intelligence criteria" has led to people from more than 140 other countries being scanned, as well. All told, over 31,000 people coming into the States have gone through the system in the last four months.
DRONE DOGFIGHT IN IRAQ
CBS' "60 Minutes II" has video of a dogfight between an American Predator drone and an Iraqi fighter. Crazy stuff. But one Defense Tech reader says CBS got the story partially wrong: the UAV was shot down the day after this footage was taken.
A POX ON VACCINE PLAN
President Bush's plan to vaccinate up to 10 million people for smallpox is seriously flawed, according to a draft report by a panel at the Institute of Medicine.
"The decision to vaccinate was essentially a political one, and there are a lot of scientific reservations about it," one panelist told the New York Times.
The smallpox vaccine can be dangerous. And the group is concerned that Bush's plan rushes the vaccination process, leaving little time to examine what ill effects may be produced.
THERE'S MORE: "Two of the nation's largest unions called on President Bush yesterday to suspend smallpox vaccination of health care workers until the administration agrees to provide medical screening of volunteers and compensation for anyone injured by the vaccine," the Washington Post reports.
AXIS OF EVIL NUCLEAR TRIFECTA
As if we didn't have enough problems. Now experts are worried that Iran could be on its way to developing nuclear weapons, Global Security Newswire reports.
Tehran isn't building a bomb at the moment. But, with Russian help, Iran is developing nuclear reactors which could later "lay the infrastructure" for a-bombs in the future.
The biggest concern is the light-water Bushehr reactor on the coast of the Persian Gulf. But the U.S. can't do much about the facility -- because it's so similar to the one America promised to build North Korea, in exchange for Pyongyang abandoning its nuclear weapons program.
International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei is set to visit Iran on Feb. 25, the Newswire says, "to address allegations the countryís civilian nuclear efforts are being used to pursue an atomic bomb."
RUSSIANS WANT A MISSILE SHIELD, TOO
President Bush has been hell-bent on building a missile defense system. Now Russian President Vladimir Putin's government has announced that they will start developing a missile shield of their own, AFP reports.
The Russians have hinted before that they might contribute ground-based, interceptor missiles to a pan-European or joint U.S-Russian anti-missile effort. But today, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said that his government would "definitely develop" air and space-based missile defenses by themselves.
Russia has long opposed American programs to build such systems. But they believe that the American anti-missile program is aimed at them -- and, therefore, have to respond in kind.
HOMELAND SECURITY TECH: $6 BILLION
The U.S. government is spending a bundle on IT for homeland security: $2.9 billion or so last year; at least that much again in 2003, News.com reports. And it may not be enough: agencies being folded into the new Homeland Security Department -- like the the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Coast Guard and the Customs Service -- all have big, unresolved IT issues.
But all this money is peanuts compared to what the Pentagon will spend; the Defense Department has requested more than $26 billion in IT funding for fiscal year 2003.
FEW OPTIONS FOR STOPPING S.A.M.s
The Bush Administration is scrambling to develop ways to counter shoulder-fired, surface-to-air missiles -- like the kind fired at an Israeli passenger jet in Kenya late last year. But there are no simple answers to these weapons.
Easy to find black markets from Beruit to Mogadishu, these missiles are alarmingly simple to use -- and deadly. Fighter jets have countermeasures; commercial planes are sitting ducks.
The airline industry clearly isn't willing to spend the money to defend against the missiles. "This subject is best addressed by our government," said a spokesman for the Air Transport Association told the Washington Post.
But the government's proposals so far don't sound so reassuring: vary the times planes take off, and "educate the American public on how to identify the missiles if they see them, 'while not wanting to scare anybody."
ATOM LAB PROBE EXPANDS
The University of California's management of Los Alamos National Laboratory is already under heavy scrutiny after a string of embarrassing revelations about fraud and ho-hum security at the Lab. Now, the House Energy Committee -- one of several panels looking into the Los Alamos mess -- has asked Congressional investigators to examine the university's supervision of the Lawrence Livermore and Lawrence Berkeley Labs, as well.
Such an expansion was "not unexpected," a university spokesperson told the Los Angeles Times. But it can't be considered a welcome development, either.
THERE'S MORE: In today's San Francisco Chronicle, former Los Alamos investigator Glenn Walp says that the university is still covering up financial shenanigans at the Lab.
NAVY MYSTERY SOLVED
For nearly 60 years, Navy sonarmen have been hearing a strange buzzing sound as they've listened for enemy ships. But they could never figure out what caused the noise. Now National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration researchers think they know: Itís the mating call of the Northern Pacific minke whale, Navy Times reports.
ANTHRAX DOES A BODY GOOD?
Anthrax is showing promise as a cancer treatment. Researchers at the National Institute of Health have used a genetically engineered version of the anthrax toxin to kill tumors in mice. The scientists found that:
After only one treatment, the toxin reduced tumor size 65-92%. Two treatments completely abolished 88% of fibrosarcomas and 17% of melanomas. Tumor cells began dying just 12 hours after the first treatment. The toxin did not damage skin cells or hair follicles surrounding the tumor, suggesting that the toxin is highly selective for tumors and might not have the severe side effects associated with other cancer treatments.
9/11 KEYSTONE KOPS COMMENDED
Blow the 9/11 investigation -- and get a reward. FBI lawyer "Spike" Bowman -- whose unit nixed a search of the "20th hijacker," Zacarias Moussaoui -- has received a presidential citation and a cash bonus of at least 20 percent of his salary.
Despite talk of cleaning shop, intelligence leaders throughout the federal bureaucracy still have their jobs intact, according to the Washington Post. Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet, for example, is on his way to becoming one of the CIA's longest-serving chiefs. And unlike Senators Bob Graham and Richard Shelby, who frequently clashed with Tenet and others, the intelligence community's new congressional overseers are widely regarded as pussycats, the Post says.
RAYTHEON UNDER THE GUN
Defense contractor Raytheon is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission -- for the third time in two years. The company's commuter aircraft division is being reviewed for possibly fishy accounting practices from 1997 to 2001, the Guardian reports. Raytheon was recently scrutinized for allegedly hiding cost overruns in a construction subsidiary, and for giving inside information to favored financial analysts.
In a separate case, Raytheon yesterday agreed to pay a nearly $4 million fine for improperly billing the Department of Defense from 1988 to 1999.
GREEN ROCKET FUEL
NASA says that they have successfully tested a new, environmentally-friendly rocket fuel.
The fuel is based on paraffin, a substance similar to what is used in common candles. According to NASA, it's non-toxic and easily handled. Its by-products are carbon dioxide and water. Conventional rocket fuel, on the other hand, produces aluminum oxide and acidic gasses, such as hydrogen chloride.
There's no word from NASA on when the paraffin fuel might be used in a live mission.
SCIENTISTS TRADE BIOWEAPON BARBS
Scientists are in a catfight over America's biological weapons research.
According to Global Security Newswire, two prominent university scientists accused the U.S. government of engaging in offensive biological weapons research -- research banned by international convention. The pair "hypothesized that the Bush Administration had scuttled a proposed (biological weapons) treaty inspection protocol primarily to prevent discovery of growing, illicit U.S. research."
Alan Zelicoff, a senior scientist at the Sandia National Laboratory, rejected the charges, saying that the two were
"indulg(ing) in an ugly exercise." The protocol was rejected, he said, because "the risk of loss of proprietary national security and business-related information far outweighed" the protocol's benefits.
WIRED TERRORIST
Militant Palestinian leader Mounir Maqdah is using the Net to raise funds and coordinate decentralized terror cells, according to the computer security firm mi2g.
A local chieftain for Yassir Arafat's Fatah movement in south Lebanon's Ain il-Hilweh refugee camp, Maqdah has been accused of directing suicide strikes in Israel and of being an Al-Qaeda "bagman." In 2000, he was convicted in absentia and sentenced to death for plotting terror attacks in Jordan.
CAVEBOT 2.0
The 40 lb. "PackBot" made its military debut in Afghanistan, exploring caves. The Associated Press looks at how the robot has been upgraded for Iraq.
A LAB -- FOR SECURITY POLICY?
U.S. security policy is at a standstill, argues the Federation of American Scientists' Steven Aftergood. The classification system is too bulky, the security clearance process too cumbersome. But bureaucrats block every effort to promote change, Aftergood says.
His solution: a security policy "laboratory" -- a safe zone in the national security bureaucracy in which new security policies could tested, scientifically. This enclosed environment wouldn't ruffle the feathers of the bureaucratic hens too badly. And with a limited scope, a failed experiment wouldn't become a national security disaster.
SADDAM VS. SPAM
America's latest weapon in its chess mass with Saddam: spam. "Since Thursday, the U.S. government has sent out thousands of e-mail messages to Iraqi leaders...urg(ing) them to give up, to dissent and to defect," CNN has learned.
This is the first time the American military has tried the tactic. Similar messages will soon be broadcast through more conventional means -- the radio.
THERE'S MORE: Reuters has the text of some of the messages. Here's a sample:
"If you provide information on weapons of mass destruction or you take steps to hamper their use we will do what is necessary to protect you and protect your families. Failing to do that will lead to grave personal consequences."Is there a chance in hell that anyone would be convinced by this?
IRAQ: SMART BOMBS OUTWITTED?
The American military is depending on satellite-guided bombs to make precision strikes in Iraq. But Iraq may have obtained hundreds of Russian jammers that can interrupt such targeting, Fox News says. About 80 percent of U.S. weapons that would be used in a war with Iraq would be directed via satellites. (via StrategyPage).
OR MAYBE NOT: "CPO Sparkey," a radar engineer, says that this story is all wet. Satellite-guided bombing systems have anti-jamming capabilities built in, he contends.
NORTH KOREA: MISSILES MAY FLY
First the North Koreans dropped out of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Now, the Associated Press reports, they might resume testing their ballistic missiles.
North Korea announced a freeze on testing long-range missile in September 1999, a year after launching one over Japan and into the Pacific Ocean.
ADAPTIVE AIRCRAFT
DARPA is researching a plane that can change its shape in-flight, Business Week reports.
Relying on adaptive materials that alter their form when exposed to heat or an electromagnetic charge, these planes would "morph -- or twist -- (their) wings into the most aerodynamic shape for take-off, cruising, or landing, just as a bird manipulates its wings to lift itself into flight and soar."
It's an old idea. "The Wright Brothers used a primitive version of 'wing warping' to steer their 1903 biplane after observing birds soaring above the North Carolina dunes," BW observes in a special report on military technology.
And it's one you won't see on the battlefield tomorrow. "Even the most advanced (adaptive materials) aren't yet as powerful as the human bicep."
"THE PATCH" -- FOR FOOD
For years, smokers looking to quit have used "the patch" to deliver small doses of their nicotine fix. Now the Army is working on a similar system -- to give soldiers the nutrients they need during wartime.
Here's how the Transdermal Nutrient Delivery System might work, its developers say: tiny physiological monitors would keep tabs on a soldier's metabolism, and then send information on his nutritional needs to a processor. This processor would then trigger a microelectrical mechanical system that would transmit the micronutrients ó either through skin pores or pumped directly into blood capillaries -- into the soldier's body.
But don't expect relief from those nasty-tasting rations any time soon. The Natick Soldier Center says it won't be ready for another decade, at least.
ARMY DRONES IN DISARRAY
The Army's efforts to develop unmanned vehicles are a mess, according to a new report from the National Research Council. The Army needs ground-based drones to haul equipment, clear mines, conduct reconnaissance, and fight foes autonomously. But these programs are uncoordinated -- and under funded. Unless changes are made, the Council says, the Army won't have working drones until the end of the decade.
NORTH KOREANS IN NEW MEXICO
Two North Korean diplomats have flown to Santa Fe to meet with New Mexico Governor -- and former Clinton Administration Energy Secretary -- Bill Richardson.
The North Koreans "have something to tell us, and they want to tell it to Richardson," a senior State Department official told the Los Angeles Times. "He's somebody the North Koreans feel comfortable talking to."
Richardson had extensive dealings with Pyongyang, negotiating the release of a downed Army helicopter pilot in 1994.
The last major Noth Korean flareup, during that same year, was defused when Pyongyang went outside official channels to cut a deal with former President Carter.
UPDATE: New Mexico Governor Bill Richardon said, after his talks with North Korean officials, that Pyongyang wants "to solve the nuclear issue through dialogue." His North Korean counterpart's only reply, "I think the governor is a tough negotiator."
IRAQI SCIENTISTS STAYING PUT
Iraq won't allow its weapons scientists to be taken abroad for interviews with UN inspectors.
Drawing blanks at nearly every turn in their search for Saddam's illicit arsenal, the inspectors were banking on these overseas interviews for fresh leads. The Iraqi scientists are not about to turn into stool pigeons under Saddam's watch. So the only way UN officials would have a chance at a straight answer is if the scientists are outside of the country, where Saddam's spies can't pry. Now, that's "effectively rul(ed) out," according to the Washington Post.
SEETHING IN SEATTLE
The Navy is firing thousands and thousands of depleted uranium rounds into the waters off of Washington State. And environmentalists are screaming bloody murder, the Seattle Times reports.
The Navy claims that the munitions -- fired from the Phalanx anti-missile system at a rate of 3,000 per minute -- are harmless. But the service is still phasing out the depleted uranium rounds in favor of non-toxic tungsten munitions.
STRYKER STRUGGLE
The Washington Post details the tug of war between Congress and the Pentagon over the controversial Stryker light armored vehicle. Rumsfeld's people want to delay the introduction of two more Stryker brigades until next year. But Senate Appropriations chiefs want their Strykers now.
SADDAM 1, BLIX 0.
Hans Blix, the head of the U.N.'s Iraq inspection program, says his people haven't found any "smoking guns" in their search for Saddam's terror weapons.
This should surprise absolutely no one. The bigger shock would have been if Saddam -- with months to prepare and hundreds of hiding spots -- actually allowed his weapons of mass destruction to be found by the inspectors.
Maybe Blix will have better luck when his people start interviewing Iraqi scientists in Cyprus, as Time reports Blix is preparing to do.
U.S. SOLDIERS HAVE NO SHOT?
American fighting men don't know how to shoot straight anymore, argues Soldiers for the Truth. As the cost for marksmanship training has increased -- and the Pentagon's romance with high-tech, long-range weaponry has grown -- soldiers' accuracy has withered. Computer games and other modern-day training programs can't make up for this lack, the article says. Only good ol' fashioned target practice can.
ARMY VACCINE LACK
"One of the Army's top biodefense officers said today that the Pentagon does not have vaccines to protect troops from some virulent biological agents because it has not been able to offer enough money to commercial pharmaceutical companies to produce them," the Times reports.
BIOSENSORS NOW
DARPA has launched a "crash research program" to build a radar-esque sensor for spotting biotoxins, Global Security Newswire says. Agents like anthrax have unique optical and electromagnetic signatures, which the "Spectral Sensing of Bio-Aerosols Program" hopes to rely on to quickly identify the agents.
As I wrote six weeks ago for Tech Central Station, there is already "spectral sensing" research underway -- including an Office of Naval Research-funded study at the University of Wisconsin. But these programs are far from perfect. For the moment, Wisconsin's "terahertz imaging" system can only analyze toxins that are 10 meters away or less.
A SLEW OF NEW SPOOKS
Recruitment at the CIA is through the roof, according to Strategy Page: 140,000 applicants in the year after 9/11, compared to just 52,000 in the year prior.
NUKE LAB STRIPS TOP COPS' BADGES
Heads continue to roll at the troubled Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Twin scandals involving fraud and lax security forced the atomic lab's director, John Browne, to resign late last week. On Tuesday, the lab announced that the security officials at the heart of the imbroglios have been demoted.
Stan Busboom and his deputy, Gene Tucker, were charged with keeping the country's most important nuclear lab secure. And they were supposed to prevent employees from stealing equipment and misusing government funds.
But Los Alamos suffered from chronically shoddy security. Many of the guards didn't even carry guns. Millions of dollars' worth of equipment was stolen or lost, including hard drives that almost certainly had classified information on them. And employees tried to use lab money to buy personal goods, from gas grills to fancy cars.
For the complete story behind the demotions, check out my article for Wired News.
And for additional background on the unfolding series of scandals at Los Alamos, click here, here, and here.
THERE'S MORE: John McTague -- the University of California vice president most responsible for the administration of the Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore, and Lawrence Berkeley National Labs -- has been replaced. His successor is Bruce Darling, who recently chaired a University review team looking at Los Alamos' business practices.
DR. DRONE?
Army R&D; chiefs are considering using a helicopter-style UAV to deliver blood to frontline troops, according to UVOnline. The Army's also looking into a cargo drone, as well.
Overall, Pentagon funding for UAVs is poised to triple in the next five years, to over $2 billion in 2007.
OBVIOUSLY...
Libya and Syria are trying to get weapons of mass destruction, too, the CIA says. Spooks, if you didn't see this one coming, hand in your secret decoder rings now... (via AFP)
ANTI-MISSILE TESTS OFF
President Bush wants a missile defense system in place by 2004. But the Missile Defense Agency has cancelled the next two tests of its top program, the Ground-based Midcourse Defense interceptor, Global Security Newswire reports.
The program has had its troubles in the past. The last test of the system, in December, flopped because of a failed booster system. The one before that was planned for August 2002, and then was twice delayed, to October.
When the test finally did happen, it was dumbed down severely, with "a transponder on the mock warhead provid(ing) early flight trajectory and location data (to the interceptor)," according to the Center for Defense Information.
The next test is now scheduled for the fall of 2003.
DESERT BRAINSTORM
The Washington Post visits the Prince Sultan Air Base, outside of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The center would coordinate all air strikes in a conflict with Iraq. And it's loaded with high-tech goodies -- over 100 T-1 lines worth of bandwidth, for example, compared with just one T1's capacity in the first Gulf War.
TOXIN ON THE THAMES -- A THREAT?
It sounds scary as hell: traces of the ultra-toxic ricin poison, found by an anti-terror squad in a north London apartment. Six men, all of "North African origin," are being held without charges.
But while Tony Blair says that the discovery shows a "present and real" danger of a bioterror attack, some experts aren't so sure. Phil Anderson, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, tells Defense Tech:
As a psychological weapon, perhaps (ricin is a major threat)...but it takes large quantities of ricin and the means to disperse it to generate a significant physical impact. My view is that this is not that big a deal. Keep in mind that it is not that difficult to produce anthrax or any number of other toxins/biotoxins. The trick is having the dispersal means necessary to generate significant loss of life/casualties."
BRITS: PAPERS, PUPILS, PLEASE
The British government is exploring whether to establish a national identity card -- complete with biometric information, like a fingerprint or iris scan.
Privacy advocates have long been spooked by such cards, calling them "internal passports." Backing up such a document with a nationwide biometric database makes the prospect even more fearsome. The 10-year program is slated to cost £1.5 billion. (via the Risks Digest and Politech listservs)
SPACE RACE REDUX
More than thirty years after American and Soviet astronauts jostled to reach the moon, India and China are gearing up for a space race of their own, the BBC reports.
BIG BROTHER BACKS OFF -- A BIT
The Bush Administration has toned down some of the most invasive elements of their cybersecurity plan, Technology Daily has learned. ISPs "will not required to build a centralized system to enable broad monitoring of the Internet." Instead, they "should consider the benefits of creating" a national center with a big picture view of the Net's health.
NUKE COMMISSION IGNORES TERROR
Nuclear reactors open to terrorist attacks? No big deal, says the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
It's too hard to tell what the risk of such attacks would be. And discussing such dangers would "unduly alarm the public," the Times reports.
"The commission has historically declined to speculate about terrorist threats against reactors. In the late 80's and early 90's, it fought off arguments that it needed stronger defenses against truck bombs, despite truck bomb attacks around the world. The commission argued that in the United States no bomb could be assembled without attracting the notice of the police. But in early 1993, terrorists exploded a truck bomb in an underground garage at the World Trade Center and a man with a history of mental problems drove his station wagon through an open gate at Three Mile Island and drove into the turbine building."Shortly after that, the commission revised its rules to cover bombs in small vehicles. But it has not instituted any sweeping rules related to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001."
According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, 24 percent of commission employees do not feel that "the NRC's commitment to public safety is apparent." Only 53 percent of the workers believe it is "safe to speak up in the NRC."
NORTH KOREA ON TARGET
Bad news: "North Korea's Rodong-1 ballistic missile, which can hit almost all of the Japanese islands, is more accurate than previously thought," AFP reports. Based on Iraq's Scud, the Rodong isn't a pinpoint-precise projectile. But it's accurate enough to cause fear of "tremendous damage" if aimed at Tokyo or another big city.
SADDAM: STRAIGHT SHOOTER?
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency says there's no proof that Iraq lied about nuclear weapons in its recent declaration to the U.N., CNN reports. Needless to say, the Bush Administration isn't sold on Saddam's veracity.
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