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Taliban and al-Qaeda militants believe that the CIA and U.S. military rely on cellular communication intercepts to track and kill members of the two organizations; Taliban leaders warned Pakistan not to expand the cellular network in the areas under Taliban control; those networks already in place must be shut down overnight
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U.S., Germany sign a research and development collaboration agreement which will see secret U.S. laboratories open to German scientists
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Home Office says 60,000 U.K. workers will be trained in counterterrorism so they can assist in responding to terror incidents; the trained workers will augment the existing force of 3,000 dedicated counterterrorism police officers
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For a while the U.S. military, wary of using lethal weapons against Iraqi insurgents hiding among the population and for controlling unruly crowds, was looking for pain-inducing non-lethal weapons as a solution; not anymore
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Ray-guns used to be limited to sci-fi or to a movie studio’s special effects department; not any more: Northrop Grumman develops an electric laser which reaches 105 KW in power — 5 KW beyond the 100 KW the military says is the minimum necessary for a laser to be operationally useful; the day of an effective defensive system against Katyusha rockets and other projectiles nears
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Analysis // Grant Lally
The dissident republican splinter terror groups which killed two British soldiers and a Northern Ireland police officer this weekend hope to re-ignite sectarian violence in the province; far from igniting a new civil war, the attacks brought together Protestant and Catholics; for the sake of Northern Ireland’s stability and future, however, the unresolved policing issue should be addressed soon
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U.S. Terrorist Watchlist reaches 1 million entries; since many individuals on the list have several entries owing to the different ways in which their names may be rendered, the number of individuals on the list is about 400,000
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Good news corner
A unique experiment: a combination of private money, government support, and intellectual leadership is helping to build the first private research school for science and engineering in Pakistan
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Pakistan perplexities
There have been five U.S. UAV strikes inside Pakistan since President Obama took office; more than 100 people have died as a result of these attacks; the administration expands the geographical scope of the attacks, and equips the Reaper UAV with new and deadlier munitions
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U.S. director of national intelligence tells lawmakers that “It often takes weeks and sometimes months of subsequent investigation [to identify the source of a cyber attack]… And even at the end of very long investigations you’re not quite sure who carried out the offensive”
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The U.S. government has spent more than $50 billion since the 2001 anthrax attacks to beef up U.S. defenses against biological attacks; there has not been another attack so far, but the cost of hoaxes and false alarms is rising steeply
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Trend
New RAND report says that organized crime and terrorists turn to film piracy for financing their activities; in Malaysia, a pirated DVD costs 70 cents to make and sells on a corner in London for $9, more than 1,000 percent markup
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There are many stories about CIA-operated UAVs flying missions inside Afghanistan; we note that the U.S. Army has begun to operate its own killer UAVs against insurgent forces in Iraq
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Eye on Afghanistan
The UAVs Canadian forces are using in Afghanistan will soon do more than surveillance duty; Canada has leased Heron UAVs from Israel for the purpose of using them in offensive operations
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Pentagon selects Lockheed martin to replace L-3 to provide maintenance and critical infrastructure support to U.S. Special Operations Command
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Country watch: Moribund Mexico
Mexico is spinning out of control; narco-terrorists have infiltrated the Mexican government, creating a shadow regime that complicates efforts to contain and destroy the drug cartels; Mexico ranks behind only Pakistan and Iran as a top U.S. national security concern — but above Afghanistan and Iraq
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As a result of the Mumbai attacks, the Indian private security industry has been growing by leaps and bounds; already the country’s private security force numbers 5 million, 1.3 million more than India’s police forces
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Eye on Afghanistan
Lt. Gen. (Ret.) David Barno, the former head of coalition forces in Afghanistan, says Afghan war will last until 2025; testimony before a congressional panel opens window to Obama administration’s counterinsurgency approach to war
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Pakistani perplexities // Analysis
Using information partly supplied by the FBI, Indian police says the ten Islamist militants who rampaged through Mumbai spoke to their handlers in Pakistan during the attacks via mobile phones connected to Callphonex, an Internet telephony provider based in New Jersey; communication was facilitated by Col. Saadat Ullah of Pakistan Army’s Special Communications Organization (SCO), an offshoot of the signals corps
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New Mexico company awarded a contract to develop the “foam-based vehicle arresting system,” which could stop a car or a truck before it gets close enough to do real damage
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The long view
Improving the Security of Soft Targets and Crowded Places
Attacks on soft targets and crowded places (ST-CPs) represent a significant challenge. How can prevention, protection, and response and recovery investments reduce the risk of casualties from attacks on ST-CPs?