National Security News

Missile Defense Fails Again

7:21 pm EST February 1st, 2010 | News | 5 Comments

The ongoing Pentagon-fueled debacle marches forward.

According to an military news release, a Sea-Based X-Band (SBX) radar in the middle of the Pacific Ocean was supposed track a target missile launched from Kwajalein Atoll, relaying the data to a ground-based interceptor launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. While both the target missile and interceptor launched successfully, the interceptor failed to hit the target. According to the agency, the SBX ‘did not perform as expected.’

It was supposed to be a test of a new concept: using the SBX as the primary engagement radar for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system. But it was was also supposed to be an advertisement for a missile defense system that was gradually working out the kinks.

Topic: , ,

 

Drone Hack

8:12 pm EST December 17th, 2009 | Uncategorized | 6 Comments

This seems like a failure on the side of multi-billion dollar contractors and the military people signing off on their work.

Militants in Iraq have used $26 off-the-shelf software to intercept live video feeds from U.S. Predator drones, potentially providing them with information they need to evade or monitor U.S. military operations.

Senior defense and intelligence officials said Iranian-backed insurgents intercepted the video feeds by taking advantage of an unprotected communications link in some of the remotely flown planes’ systems. Shiite fighters in Iraq used software programs such as SkyGrabber — available for as little as $25.95 on the Internet — to regularly capture drone video feeds, according to a person familiar with reports on the matter.

Topic: ,

 

VIDEO: Alan Grayson Tells Cheney To STFU

6:22 pm EST December 9th, 2009 | News | 7 Comments

Love.

Topic: , , ,

 

Sec. Of State Clinton Calls Out Pakistan

4:56 pm EST October 29th, 2009 | Uncategorized | 11 Comments

It’s like we have a secretary of state actually interested in fighting Al Qaeda, for a change.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday questioned why Pakistani officials have not been able to capture or kill members of al Qaeda taking refuge in the country.

“Al Qaeda has had safe haven in Pakistan since 2002,” she told a group of Pakistani journalists during her trip to the country.

“I find it hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where they are and couldn’t get them if they really wanted to … Maybe that’s the case,” she added. “Maybe they’re not gettable. I don’t know.”

Al Qaeda, she said, has launched attacks on Indonesia, the Philippines and many other countries, “so the world has an interest in seeing the capture and killing of the people who are the masterminds of this terrorist syndicate.”

“As far as we know, they are in Pakistan.”

Topic: , , ,

 

Robert Gibbs On Cheney’s Beclowning On Afghanistan

3:46 pm EST October 22nd, 2009 | News | 57 Comments

That anyone listens to people like Cheney is pretty amazing considering the trail of American bodies behind him.

Topic: , , , ,

 

OMG Teh Diplomacy (Iran Edition)

9:18 pm EST October 1st, 2009 | News | 117 Comments

Wait, so we talk to Iran and negotiate stuff like adults and we get some movement? You’re kidding.

Iran agreed on Thursday in talks with the United States and other major powers to open its newly revealed uranium enrichment plant near Qum to international inspection in the next two weeks and to send most of its openly declared enriched uranium to Russia to be turned into fuel for a small reactor that produces medical isotopes, senior American and other Western officials said.

Are there a million caveats? Sure. But the conservative Bush policy of just being an ass to everyone went against decades of U.S. foreign policy that produced results – step by step. We’re back on track now, and able to do what needs to be done – a step at a time.

Topic: ,

 

Biden Approach To Afghanistan Sounds Right

10:39 pm EST September 22nd, 2009 | Terrorism | 24 Comments

I don’t agree with nation-building, not now in the way the world is currently going, at least. But neither do I think its wise to just get out while Al Qaeda elements are there. Al Qaeda is the target. 9/11. Seriously.

Among the alternatives being presented to Mr. Obama is Mr. Biden’s suggestion to revamp the strategy altogether. Instead of increasing troops, officials said Mr. Biden had proposed scaling back the overall American military presence. Rather than trying to protect the Afghan population from the Taliban, American forces would concentrate on strikes against Qaeda cells, primarily in Pakistan, using special forces, Predator missile attacks and other surgical tactics.

The Americans would accelerate training of Afghan forces and provide support as they took the lead against the Taliban. But the emphasis would shift to Pakistan. Mr. Biden has often said that the United States spends something like $30 in Afghanistan for every $1 in Pakistan, even though in his view the main threat to American national security interests is in Pakistan.

Topic: , , , ,

 

Goodbye, Theoretical Missile Shield

2:18 pm EST September 17th, 2009 | Uncategorized | 56 Comments

It’s totally horrible that President Obama scrapped a useless initiative in favor of a sane, realistic one.

Seriously I don’t see any evidence that these types of devices work in any real world capacity, nor do I see the point of spending a whole lot of cash on them to make certain hawks feel better about it.

President Obama is in his job largely due to his stated policies of not being George W. Bush on foreign policy and national security.

Thank God.

Topic:

 

Natl. Security Adviser Jim Jones: More Success Terrorists Killed/Captured Under Obama

6:11 pm EST August 31st, 2009 | News | 80 Comments

Elect a president like Obama who actually takes national security and the defense of America seriously and the results tend to follow.

‘This type of radical fundamentalism or terrorism is a threat not only to the United States but to the global community,’ Jones said. ‘The world is coming together on this matter now that President Obama has taken the leadership on it and is approaching it in a slightly different way – actually a radically different way – to discuss things with other rulers to enhance the working relationships with law enforcement agencies – both national and international.’

Jones said that ‘we are seeing results that indicate more captures, more deaths of radical leaders and a kind of a global coming-together by the fact that this is a threat to not only the United States but to the world at-large and the world is moving toward doing something about it.’

Topic: , ,

 

Pete Hoekstra: National Security Expert? Don’t Make Me Laugh

7:38 am EST August 29th, 2009 | Republicans | 1 Comment

pete-hoekstraRobert Costa of the conservative National Review has an interview up with Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Michigan. In the interview, Hoekstra has dire warnings – OH NOES – about national security under President Obama:

Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R., Mich.), the ranking Republican member of the House Intelligence Committee, tells NRO that the Obama administration’s national-security apparatus is in “free fall” and showing “no adult leadership”

Now, you would think someone like Hoekstra would be far too busy breaking his promise to term limit himself, but oh no, Hoekstra’s fashioned himself as a national security expert for some time now.

You might remember that Hoekstra was the one (along with Rick Santorum) who breathlessly claimed WMD had been found in Iraq, despite um… evidence (it was all the rage on Fox News though).

Then, a website created at the behest of Hoekstra and Pat Roberts turned out to have details on how to build a nuclear bomb available for all to see.

And most recently when visiting Iraq, Hoekstra created a security breach by revealing that his congressional delegation was there. Via Twitter.

Yes, friends, in the world of the National Review and conservative/Republican politics, a patsy like Pete Hoekstra is a perfect national security expert.

This guy doesn’t know his butt from a hole in the wall. Why in God’s name would anyone believe a single thing he said about anything, let alone something as vital as national security?

IN RELATED WTF “expert” pundit work, Pat Caddell, who recently spent a couple days playing sock puppet to the feces-flinging Glenn Beck, spoke to another National Review writer, telling them what they wanted to hear about health care reform.

Pat Caddell was a political adviser to President Carter. Which in the world of politics is sort of like being the guy on the Titanic who saw the iceberg but didn’t think it would be that big a deal. Pat Caddell has not been relevant to any politics within my entire adult lifetime.

Caddell is a reliable “Democrat” who hates Democrats and makes a living doing so on Fox News.

Topic:

 

« Older Entries