Eeyore's News and View

Homeland Security drone patrolling NNY
A monitor inside an operations trailer shows a close-up view of a boat skimming across the water on Lake Ontario.

The image was taken from an unmanned aircraft more than three miles away.
A Predator B Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) has been temporarily based at Fort Drum since early June in an experiment by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office.
The Department of Homeland Security is using the extensive restricted air space over Fort Drum to test whether the drone could be a good fit along this stretch of the northern border.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has five of the aircraft but so far none of them based permanently in the Northeast.
The Predator will operate out of Fort Drum for about three weeks for testing and training, and to evaluate its use to law enforcement.
John Stanton, director of CPB's Office of Air and Marine, said state, provincial and local law enforcement agencies were quick to take up the offer of added surveillance of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River.
"So while we were flying, we were asked by our partner law enforcement agencies if we would be kind enough to be on the lookout for suspicious activities," Stanton said.
The surveillance also includes the land border between the U.S. and Canada after the border peels away from the St. Lawrence River.
By flying in restricted air space at 19,000 feet, the Predator avoids lower-level air traffic, cutting the risk of collisions, Stanton said.
The aircraft is virtually identical to Predators used by the military, with the exception of lower-power engine and no weapons, he said.
http://www.newswatch50.com/news/local/story/Homeland-Security-drone-patrolling-NNY/8ujqf9M2YkCXVlOmBVxFOg.cspx

Taliban averts attacks with U.S. equipment
Some Taliban fighters have been able to ward off attacks by U.S. aircraft by wearing special infrared patches on their shirts that signal that they are friends rather than foes.
The patches, which can also help suicide bombers get close to U.S. targets, are supposed to be the property of the U.S. government alone, but can be easily purchased over the Internet for about $10 each. Also available online: night-vision goggles and military-grade communications systems like the ones used by the terrorists who attacked the Indian city of Mumbai last year.
While stealing uniforms is as old as warfare itself, the Internet has made purchases of military equipment much easier and increased the risk to U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Some of the patches have been stolen during raids on U.S. resupply convoys in Afghanistan and Pakistan. But they can also be purchased in the United States and sent overseas with little detection.
In a recent investigation, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) bought patches using fake names and a front company with only a valid credit card. The patches reveal an American flag when looked at with an infrared light and were designed to avoid friendly fire during nighttime battles.
Jonathan Meyer, assistant director of forensic audits and special investigations for the GAO, told The Washington Times, "Based on our conversations with the Department of Defense, terrorists have used U.S. uniforms and the infrared patches to get close to U.S. and allied forces on the battlefield and at bases. This is more of a potential suicide-bomber risk."
Mr. Meyer helped lead the GAO investigation, which concluded that few regulatory controls exist for dual-use and military technology sold domestically.
Rep. Bart Stupak, Michigan Democrat, who chairs the House Energy and Commerce oversight and investigations subcommittee, said the infrared patches are also made in China.
"It is rather simple technology," he said. "We not only sell this to domestic people here, and they sell them to anybody, but you can get them from China, and the Chinese will sell them to others.
"They have been used by the enemy in the war. It's of grave concern because you don't know who is friendly or not," Mr. Stupak added.
Newsweek magazine first reported in 2007 that 4,800 such patches had been sold inadvertently in 2006 to 23 U.S. and Canadian companies by an Arizona-based company, Government Liquidation. The patches were still sewn onto uniforms that were sent out.
The GAO was able to purchase the patches from a New York-based military-supply dealer, but did not identify the seller's name.
"An enemy fighter wearing these [infrared] flags could potentially pass as a friendly service member during a night combat situation, putting U.S. troops at risk," the June 4 report said. "Nevertheless, these items are completely legal to buy and sell within the United States."
The report followed up on a 2008 GAO study that exposed the fact that military-surplus items, such as spare parts for fighter jets, could be purchased on eBay and Craigslist. That same year, an NBC team also was able to procure the infrared patches and have them sent to a mailing address in Amman, Jordan. Earlier, the Associated Press reported that F-14 spare parts had found their way to Iran from U.S. suppliers after the Pentagon sold the equipment to military wholesalers.
Rep. Brad Sherman, California Democrat and chairman of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee that deals with export controls, said that it may be time to treat the infrared patches as a munition that would need to be controlled through the Arms Export Control Act.
"If there is an item that has only a military use, like the patches, the fact that they are nonlethal doesn't mean we should not treat them as munitions," he said. "The term 'munitions' perhaps should apply to anything that does not have a legitimate civilian use."
However, a retired four-star general, Jack Keane, said the risk had been overstated.
"Since the beginning of warfare, people have been dressing up as the enemy to infiltrate," he said. "We certainly have done this in the past to our enemies, and our enemies have done this to us."
Mr. Keane, who played a key role in developing the counterinsurgency strategy for Iraq, added, "There are other safeguards in addition to [these patches]. A visual identification and other identification is in the soldier's possession. There are multiple things that are being checked. When it comes to the tactical situation, infrared certainly helps identify where we are, but there is also a dialogue that is taking place describing the situation."
But "it would seem to me that something we are using to help identify ourselves should not be available to the general public, and it should be something that is only acquired through military channels," Mr. Keane said.
Lt. Col. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, said the military was reviewing the GAO report.
"The Department of Defense takes force protection very seriously. As a matter of course, we are concerned any time sensitive equipment has the potential to fall into enemy hands," he said.
Other items acquired from U.S. companies by the GAO included a "triggered spark gap," a specialized medical component the size of a spool of thread that is also a necessary component for detonating a nuclear weapon. The investigators were also able to purchase an oscilloscope and an accelerometer, important gauges for measuring elements of nuclear explosions.
David Albright, president for the Institute for Science and International Security, a Washington think tank, said the triggered spark gap "can be used in a nuclear weapon to fire high explosives and compress the nuclear core." He added that this sensitive item, whose medical use is to dissolve kidney stones, has shown up in the nuclear programs of Pakistan, North Korea and Iran.
The GAO concluded that "sensitive dual-use and military technology can be easily and legally purchased from manufacturers and distributors within the United States and illegally exported without detection."
At issue is a loophole in the U.S. arms-export control regime. Many kinds of dual-use items would require licensing and an end-user certificate - specifying the ultimate purchaser - if sold to a buyer overseas. But no such safeguards exist if the buyer is in the United States. It is also relatively easy to send sensitive equipment purchased in the U.S. to foreign countries through the mail.
Ed Timperlake, a former senior technology official in the Defense Department and an expert on what is known as "defense critical assets," said the loophole for domestic sales of sensitive technology is a counterintelligence risk.
"There are a lot of Chinese espionage agents and others grabbing anything they can, anything they can find. And with our free market they can find a lot," he said.
Mr. Timperlake added, "The GAO report is fair, and everyone I worked with knew their mission had life-and-death consequences, especially for troops in combat. The issue really comes down to more resources" for the FBI and other agencies.
A former U.S. undersecretary of commerce for industry and security, Mario Mancuso, said he did not find it surprising "that many of these items can be easily sold in the U.S."
"It would have been a more balanced report if the GAO had highlighted the many legitimate commercial uses these items have," he said. "This is important because, in my experience, most manufacturers are not trying to equip U.S. adversaries or turn a blind eye to illicit procurement efforts."
A spokesman for the Justice Department's National Security Division, Dean Boyd, said that since October 2007, the U.S. government has created 20 counterproliferation task forces to look at the issue.
Mr. Stupak said, however, that "no one is really taking responsibility" in the U.S. government for dealing with the problem.
The National Security Council, the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security have declined comment on the GAO report.
Matthew Borman, acting assistant secretary of commerce for export administration, said, "We are currently reviewing the findings in the GAO report, and we are always looking for ways to improve interagency cooperation. We know an effective export-control system requires a combination of domestic and international activities to educate parties on their export-control responsibilities, proactive compliance efforts and the conduct of enforcement investigations. We are committed to protecting U.S. national security, foreign-policy and economic interests by ensuring secure trade in high-technology items."
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/22/taliban-averts-attacks-with-us-equipment/print/

Iran Police Quash Rally as Revolutionary Guards Warn Protesters
June 23 (Bloomberg) -- Iranian police massing in force broke up a demonstration over the disputed presidential election just hours after the Revolutionary Guards said they would crush further protest.
Police used tear gas and fired shots into the air to quell yesterday’s rally in central Tehran, the Associated Press reported. Witnesses said helicopters hovered overhead as about 200 protesters gathered in Haft-e-Tir Square before they were dispersed, AP said.
Security forces were deployed in the capital to prevent further demonstrations after hundreds of thousands of Iranians took to the streets in more than a week of rallies. At least 17 people have been killed in the worst internal violence in the oil-producing nation of 66 million since the shah was overthrown in 1979.
Former Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mousavi, the main challenger in the disputed June 12 election won by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, urged his supporters to continue peaceful protests. Another of the three defeated presidential candidates, former Parliament Speaker Mehdi Karrubi, yesterday called for a ceremony June 25 in memory of those killed in the protests.
The Revolutionary Guards, who answer directly to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and act as a counterweight to the Iranian army, warned the protesters to halt their activity.
‘Saboteurs Must Stop’
“The saboteurs must stop their actions” or face “the decisive and revolutionary action of the children of the nation in the Revolutionary Guards, the Basij and other security and military forces, to put an end to the chaos,” the state-run Mehr news agency cited the Revolutionary Guards as saying in a statement.
Also yesterday, the clerical Guardian Council, the top election body, acknowledged that the number of ballots cast in 50 districts surpassed the number of eligible voters in those areas, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
A council spokesman, Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei, said the discrepancies, in areas with a total electorate of about 3 million, may have sprung from voters being allowed to cast their ballot in cities or provinces other than those where they live.
The council has rejected a call from Mousavi for a new vote, offering only a partial recount. Opponents of Ahmadinejad’s victory say the ballot was rigged.
The protests and the divisions within the regime mark an unprecedented challenge to the authority of Khamenei, the successor of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, leader of the revolution.
Nations Warned
The Guards warned the international community including the U.S., U.K. and Israel to stop stirring unrest in the country. Iran has accused foreign nations of provoking the protests, a charge denied by Western diplomats.
The U.K.’s Foreign Office said yesterday it is evacuating families of diplomats and other Iran-based officials. The Italian Foreign Ministry discouraged that nation’s citizens from non-essential travel to Iran, while Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper called the police response “totally unacceptable.”
The 125,000-strong Guards, established to protect the Islamic Revolution, have their own ground, air and sea forces. Club-wielding members of the Basij volunteer militia, which is linked to the Guards, have played a role in suppressing the protests.
Without the Guards’ intervention, the protests won’t stop, Yossi Mekelberg, director of international relations at Regent’s College, London, said in an interview.
“This shows that it is very serious and can destabilize the regime,” he said.
Labeled as Terrorists
The U.S. designated the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force a terrorist organization in October 2007, accusing the paramilitary group of supporting attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq. The focus of the Quds Force has been assistance to Islamic militant groups in other countries.
The Guards’ intervention came as splits within Iran’s ruling elite deepened after police arrested relatives of an ex- president and after Parliament’s current speaker said that most Iranians questioned Ahmadinejad’s electoral victory.
Security forces temporarily detained five relatives of former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, believed to be rallying support within the clerical establishment for Mousavi, state media said yesterday.
Rafsanjani, who heads the Assembly of Experts, a clerical body with the power to appoint or dismiss the supreme leader, may try to dislodge Khamenei, said Anoush Ehteshami, a professor of international relations at Durham University in the U.K.
Speaker Ali Larijani, who served as Iran’s nuclear negotiator until 2007, criticized the top election body for siding with Ahmadinejad and said most Iranians don’t accept the results.
‘Eat Its Own’
“There is some serious dissatisfaction within the ranks,” said Ilan Berman, an analyst with the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington. “Anytime a regime begins to eat its own, it signals significant transformation.”
On June 19, Khamenei reaffirmed Ahmadinejad’s electoral victory. The president was re-elected for a second four-year term with 63 percent of the vote to Mousavi’s 34 percent, according to the official tally.
Iran’s ril weakened 0.4 percent to 9,929.3 to the dollar yesterday, compared with 9,894.6 at the close of trading on June 19. The currency’s rate is managed by Bank Markazi, the central bank.
Iran’s governor at the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Mohammad Ali Khatibi, said the protests haven’t affected the country’s oil industry or crude exports. Iran is OPEC’s second-biggest producer.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aTMTGmuvvDkM

Ammonia leak at NC plant kills 1, injures 3
June 20, 2009 - 5:30pm
LUMBER BRIDGE, N.C. (AP) - An ammonia leak Saturday at a poultry processing plant in North Carolina killed one worker and injured three others, authorities said.
Robeson County Sheriff Kenneth Sealey said the leak occurred about 10 a.m. Saturday at the Mountaire Farms plant in Robeson County in southern-central North Carolina, about 16 miles south of Fayetteville.
Sealey identified the worker who died as Clifton Swain of Fayetteville at a mid-afternoon briefing. Sealey did not have additional details about Swain. It was not immediately clear how he died or what caused the leak.
County Emergency Management Director Charles Britt told The Fayetteville Observer that the leak has been contained. The three injured workers, who were not identified, were taken to hospitals.
Two of the injured men were being treated at Southeastern Regional Medical Center in Lumberton, N.C., said spokeswoman Amanda Crabtree. She did not provide further details.
Authorities have said that 30 to 40 people were at the plant when the leak occurred. Sealey said all workers have been accounted for at the plant, which employs 2,500 people.
A call to Mountaire Farms was not immediately returned Saturday. However, the company issued a statement expressing condolences for the victims and promising to cooperate with authorities.
http://www.wtop.com/?nid=111&sid=1701098