Jamming Tripoli: Inside Moammar Gadhafi's Secret Surveillance Network | Threat Level. The Internet enabled surveillance on a scale that would have been unimaginable with the old tools of phone taps and informants.Photo: Michael Christopher Brown He once was known as al-Jamil—the Handsome One—for his chiseled features and dark curls. But four decades as dictator had considerably dimmed the looks of Moammar Gadhafi. At 68, he now wore a face lined with deep folds, and his lips hung slack, crested with a sparse mustache.
When he stepped from the shadows of his presidential palace to greet Ghaida al-Tawati, whom he had summoned that evening by sending one of his hulking female bodyguards to fetch her, it was the first time she had seen him without his trademark sunglasses; his eyes were hooded and rheumy. It was February 10, 2011, and Libya was in an uproar. Tawati was one of the most outspoken dissidents blogging openly from inside Libya. Despite the dictator’s haggard appearance, his manner remained confident and effusive. Gadhafi acted oblivious. Pages: 1 23456View All. 8 LCSs Could Be Based in Gulf, Says U.S. Navy Undersecretary. The U.S. Navy could eventually have a force of eight ships operating from Bahrain if plans to base littoral combat ships (LCS) in the Arabian Gulf continue as envisioned, the service’s No. 2 official said May 21.
The Navy has long been planning to operate LCS ships in the gulf, Undersecretary Bob Work told an audience at the Cato Institute in Washington. The ships, able to perform several different missions when fitted out with specialized equipment packages, already are to replace U.S. minesweepers and patrol boats in the region. The four-ship minesweeper force operating from Bahrain will be doubled by next month when another four ships arrive from the U.S.
Work did not lay out any timetable for LCS deployments, but it is likely to be late this decade before enough LCS ships will be available to be forward-based in the gulf at the eight-ship level. “These plans are preliminary,” Work cautioned after his talk, “pending approval from the Pentagon, the Congress and the host nation.” Navy Needs Both LCS Versions For War With China, Iran; Navy UnderSec Defends Program. WASHINGTON: While the Littoral Combat Ship is not suited for the front lines of a war with China, it would provide vital protection to US supply lines in such conflict, said Under Secretary of the Navy Robert Work, and against Iran, LCS would be in the battle from “day one,” with eight LCSs ultimately operating out of Bahrain. Indeed, the two potential theaters of war are so different that the Navy may consider focusing the “much more maneuverable” Lockheed Martin version of the LCS on fighting fast attack boats in the narrow waters of the Persian Gulf, while the very different General Dynamics design, with its larger flight deck and fuel tanks, operates primarily in the vast reaches of the Pacific.
“We like having two options,” said Work, one of the Navy’s most passionate advocates of the controversial LCS, speaking this afternoon at the libertarian Cato Institute, where three other panelists all questioned the Navy’s decision to buy two distinctly different designs. EU threatens China, India over airline emissions. THE GEOPOLITICAL PLAYGROUND. Google to map movements of ships at sea including US Navy.
Search engine has plans to map the entire ocean floor over next five yearsGoogle has spent $3million on satellite technology and claims it is better at tracking ships than most governments By Daily Mail Reporter Published: 03:34 GMT, 18 May 2012 | Updated: 04:24 GMT, 18 May 2012 Google is set to track the world's warships and make the data available to billions of internet users, raising concerns over the security of the American naval fleet. The search engine plans to offer the coordinates and identity of virtually all vessels at sea on Google Maps after spending around $3million on satellite technology.
The company continues to consult with the U.S. Google has claimed that it is better placed to track the military boats than most governments. Ship-shape: Google will soon be able to show the location of every vessel at sea and maps of the ocean floor Michael Jones, who is chief technology advocate at Google Ventures, told Aol: 'I watch them and they can't see themselves. Military source. Russia’s Asia Play Mustn’t be Ignored. The U.S. risks making a serious strategic error if it neglects Russia. As the White House and Pentagon look to the Pacific, Moscow and China are making moves of their own. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to skip both the G-8 and the NATO summits this month suggests he plans to delegate relations with the West as much as possible to his deputy, Dmitri Medvedev, while he concentrates his diplomatic efforts in the former Soviet republics of Eurasia and the emerging economic powerhouses of East Asia.
Putin is a leading advocate among Russian leaders of deepening Russia’s Asian connections, and the Pentagon and the White House need to orient their Asian pivot properly to address Moscow’s new Asian orientation. With this in mind, trying to influence Russia’s relationship with China, particularly in the nuclear realm, is especially important, since Putin and other Russians see China as both an opportunity and a challenge.
An Asian Security Standoff. PIVOTAL MOMENTS in history are seldom anticipated. And when change is systemic, this rule is even truer. There are unmistakable signs in East Asia, however, that the old, U.S. -dominated order can no longer be sustained in the face of China’s emerging challenge and the relative weakness of both the United States and Japan. A failure of American diplomacy to adjust to these new power realities, or of China to accommodate long-standing U.S. and Japanese interests, could jeopardize the promise of the much-heralded Asian century and return East Asia to its bloody and fractious past. What emerges in this critical region will have global consequences.
New Khyber Pakhtunkhwa strategy to eradicate militancy. Masked Pakistani pro-Taliban militants at an undisclosed location in Swat, Sept 14, 2008. — Photo by Reuters/File PESHAWAR, May 20: Moving beyond the vague and clichéd 3-D strategy, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has come up with a plan which officials and cabinet ministers say could well serve as the first comprehensive state response to overcome militancy. The 24-page presentation “Continuing Militancy, Challenge & Response”, unveiled at a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti early this month envisages a full state response in terms of governance, deliverance and coordination to overcome the challenges from non-state actors.
“We have to acknowledge that there is a deep-set malaise that will not be cured by a single dose of anti-biotic. We need an aggressive; multiple doses of medication to attack the malaise from all sides,” Secretary Home, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Azam Khan, told Dawn. Minister for Information Mian Iftikhar Hussain concurred. Misleading Report Released on Progress in Afghanistan. While this assessment may be statistically true, the authors have failed to note that in 2011-2012, the majority of troops in Afghanistan never leave their base. Those who actually go outside the wire often conduct "show of force operations. " When they leave their bases, they travel in military armored convoys to a destination, never leave their vehicles engaging with the local populace, and simply return to their FOBs.
These operations serve little purpose other than to annoy Afghans traveling on the same roads our troops travel. The reduction in offensive boots-on-the-ground operations in Afghanistan is not limited to just military personnel. An undisclosed source who works for a non-government organization has informed that "we once traveled freely throughout the country. The security situation in Afghanistan has gotten so bad, those days are long gone. " The only objective of the insurgency is to retake Afghanistan after NATO's International Security. Spy games: Pentagon to set up Defense Clandestine Service to focus on North Korea, Iran, China and regions in Africa. Russia’s new air defense systems: Pantsir to shield S-400. By Voice of Russia on Wednesday, April 25th, 2012 Among the most important tasks faced by modern troops is protecting their air defense systems.
The Russian defense ministry has struck a number of deals with the weapons manufacturing giant Almaz-Antei, triggering a major revamp of production facilities. Still, manufacturing rates have already begun to surge. Under the 2012 state arms program, Russian troops are to be supplied with 28 Pantsir-S1 surface-to-air missile and anti-aircraft artillery weapon systems. These mobile close combat systems are designed to protect long-range air defense and anti-missile complexes from cruise missiles, self-propelled bombs and other high-precision attacks. The Russian air defense is currently equipped with just 10 systems of this type, supplied in 2010. This two-year military experience was taken into account by system’s designers who updated the Pantsir-S1. Its deliveries were later resumed and even surged.
The entire system works as follows. Keywords: Military Expenditure Database — www. The SIPRI Military Expenditure Database consistent time series on the military spending of 172 countries since 1988. It provides military expenditure data by country in the following three formats: in local currency, at current prices. 1988-2012in US dollars, at constant (2011) prices and exchange rates, 1988-2012, and in current (2012) US$b. for 2012.as a share (%) of gross domestic product (GDP), 1988-2012 Military expenditure in local currency at current prices is presented according to the financial year of each country. Figures in constant (2011) US$ and as a share of GDP are present according to calendar year, calculated on the assumption that, where financial years do not correspond to calendar years, spending is distributed evenly through the year. SIPRI military expenditure data is based on open sources only, including a SIPRI questionnaire which is sent out annually to all countries included in the database.
User Rules You may freely download or cite the data in the database. Angry North Korea threatens retaliation, nuclear test expected. Geopolitics and energy.