Current Affairs: Sunday SITREP

Headlines from around the world, in no particular order....

SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi king shakes up religious establishment
GROUP OF 7: G7 members reject protectionism
MEXICO: Drug cartels behind northern protests
IRAN: Reformist candidate faces challenges
AFGHANISTAN: US Launches Key Afghanistan Talks
VENEZUELA: Chavez seeks ability to rule for life
CHINA: Military exercise sparks eathquake panic
IRAQ: Peace brings new meaning to Valentines day
PAKISTAN: Taliban declare a cease fire and American UN worker abducted
NORTH KOREA: Offering olive branches?
CAMBODIA: Khmer Rouge trials to start 30 years later

Current Affairs: NK Ship movement may signal upcoming missile test

SEOUL – Chinese fishing vessels have moved out of waters near a disputed sea border between the two Koreas, a South Korean military official said on Wednesday, which could signal a North Korean missile test is imminent.

North Korea usually orders its vessels to stay out of Yellow Sea waters off its west coast when it conducts short-range missile tests. China is the closest thing the North can claim as a major ally and is the impoverished state's biggest benefactor.
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Current Affairs: President Regan remembered

Hat Tip to One Marines View...

REAGAN REMEMBERED - A bugler from the 3rd U.S. Marine Aircraft Wing Band plays Taps at the Ronald Reagan Memorial site after a ceremony honoring the anniversary of Reagan's birth at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, Calif., Feb. 6, 2009. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Torrey W. Lee.

Current Affairs: Bailout is raising tension

U.S. Taxpayers Risk $9.7 Trillion on Bailout Programs

Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- The stimulus package the U.S. Congress is completing would raise the government’s commitment to solving the financial crisis to $9.7 trillion, enough to pay off more than 90 percent of the nation’s home mortgages.

The Federal Reserve, Treasury Department and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation have lent or spent almost $3 trillion over the past two years and pledged up to $5.7 trillion more. The Senate is to vote this week on an economic-stimulus measure of at least $780 billion. It would need to be reconciled with an $819 billion plan the House approved last month.

Only the stimulus bill to be approved this week, the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program passed four months ago and $168 billion in tax cuts and rebates enacted in 2008 have been voted on by lawmakers. The remaining $8 trillion is in lending programs and guarantees, almost all under the Fed and FDIC. Recipients’ names have not been disclosed.
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Current Affairs: Sunday SITREP

World headlines in no particular order

USA: Congress grumbles over bill competition
USA: Two plague carrying mice disappear from NJ lab
RUSSIA: Russia rattles sabers in Obama's direction
VATICAN: Pope to address Jews after bishop denies Holocaust
ECUADOR: Ecuador expels American official
IRAN: The US must rethink its policies for reconciliation
AUSTRALIA: Plagued by floods and bush fires
ISRAEL: Polls predict Netanyahu win
PAKISTAN: Group claims to be holding UN official
ATLANTIC OCEAN: First woman to swim the Atlantic Ocean
AFGHANISTAN: Obama may be putting brakes on Afghan Surge?
MEXICO: Mexico sends more police to airports to protect travelers
BRITAIN: Britain accuses Iran of intimidating staff
CHINA: China uses artillery to fight drought
EUROPE: Global economic woes worry Europe

Current Affairs: It doesnt just happen in China

WASHINGTON — A Georgia peanut plant knowingly shipped salmonella-laced products as far back as 2007, at times sending out tainted products after tests confirmed contamination, according to inspection records released Friday.
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Current Events: Deal or no Deal?

POINT: Senate Set to Vote Next Week on Stimulus After Accord on Cuts

Feb. 7 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Senate is slated to vote early next week on an economic stimulus package totaling at least $780 billion that President Barack Obama said is needed to prevent the economy from sinking into a deeper recession.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, scheduled a key procedural vote for 5:30 p.m. Washington time on Feb. 9 after a dispute over the measure’s size was resolved yesterday. If the procedural hurdle is cleared, Reid said a vote on the bill would take place on Feb. 10.

If it passes, lawmakers will attempt to reconcile the Senate bill with an $819 billion stimulus bill the House approved last month. Democratic congressional leaders are pushing to deliver a final bill to Obama by the end of next week.
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President Obama's economic recovery package will actually hurt the economy more in the long run than if he were to do nothing, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday.

COUNTER POINT: Congressional Budget Office Says stimulus will harm in long run

CBO, the official scorekeepers for legislation, said the House and Senate bills will help in the short term but result in so much government debt that within a few years they would crowd out private investment, actually leading to a lower Gross Domestic Product over the next 10 years than if the government had done nothing.
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Current Affairs: President Obama to be tested

Cypriots unload Iranian ship carrying illegal arms for Hamas

Although defense minister Ehud Barak did not confirm that the Iranian ships on their way to the Gaza Strip carry arms for Hamas - in a radio interview Thursday, Feb. 5, DEBKAfile's military sources report that Tehran is preparing to send a number of arms vessels to break the blockade on Gaza, encouraged by the failure of the US, Egyptian and Israeli navies to confiscate the arms aboard the Cypriot-flagged arms ships now docked at Limassol.

The Iranians calculate that while not all the ships may get through the Israeli naval blockade, one would suffice. Our sources report that some are already on the way. They are expected to enter the Gulf of Suez and waters opposite Gaza over the weekend and try to drop their cargoes of weapons containers off shore. Israeli warships and spy planes are tracking them.

At a special conference Thursday, Feb. 5, prime minister Olmert, foreign minister Tzipi Livni and the defense minister agreed to Iranian arms ships must be prevented from unloading its cargo, even at the cost of a marine clash with Iran.

Barak also disclosed that the Cypriot authorities are unloading the Iranian arms ship Monchegorsk renamed Iran Hedayt in Limassol harbor having discovered it is in contravention of the UN Security Council sanctions resolution 1747 which bans Iranian arms exports.

DEBKA file's military sources disclosed it was carrying 10 containers of Iranian rockets and other weapons for rearming Hamas in the Gaza Strip in violation of Israel's terms for accepting a Gaza ceasefire last month. Cyprus reported to the UN Security Council Sanctions Committee on its findings in two inspections of the vessel but has not published them.

At stake now is the entire international effort to stop the Palestinian Islamists rearming – to which the US, Egypt and European nations are party.
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Current Affairs: The touchless screen

MIT Researchers Turn Any Surface Into Touchless Screen

LONG BEACH, California -- US university researchers have created a portable "sixth sense" device powered by commercial products that can seamlessly channel Internet information into daily routines.

The device created by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) scientists can turn any surface into a touch-screen for computing, controlled by simple hand gestures.

The gadget can even take photographs if a user frames a scene with his or her hands, or project a watch face with the proper time on a wrist if the user makes a circle there with a finger.

The MIT wizards cobbled a Web camera, a battery-powered projector and a mobile telephone into a gizmo that can be worn like jewelry. Signals from the camera and projector are relayed to smart phones with Internet connections.

"Other than letting some of you live out your fantasy of looking as cool as Tom Cruise in 'Minority Report' it can really let you connect as a sixth sense device with whatever is in front of you," said MIT researcher Patty Maes.
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CURRENT EVENTS: Russian 0-3 in Cyber Attacks

In January of 2009 the world witnessed the third successful cyber attack against a country. The target was the small country of Kyrgyzstan. The country is only about 77,000 square miles in size with a population of just over 5 million. The attackers focused on the three of the four Internet service providers. They launched a distributed denial of service attack traffic and quickly overwhelmed the three and disrupting all Internet communications. The IP traffic was traced back to Russian-based servers primarily known for cyber crime activity. Multiple sources have blamed the cyber attack on the Russian cyber militia and/or the Russian Business Network (RBN). RBN is thought to control the world's largest botnet with between 150 and 180 million nodes. These reports go on to say that Russian Officials hired the technically capable group to do this. It is widely believed that this group also played a substantial role in the Estonia Attack in 2007 and the attack on Georgia in 2008. The mechanism of attack was a fairly large botnet with nodes distributed in countries around the world. (DefenseTech Enemy among Us) One significant difference in the Kyrgyzstan attack is that most of the DDoS traffic was generated in Russia.

INTEL: One source reports that this attack was commercial -- insinuating the civilian organization (attackers) may have been paid to carry this out.

ANALYSIS: The commercial sourcing of the cyber attack is believed to have been done to put the Russian government an arms length away from the hostile act.
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Current Affairs: Netanyau takes a stand

JERUSALEM - Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's leading candidate for prime minister, said Saturday that Iran "will not be armed with a nuclear weapon."

In an interview with Israel's Channel 2 TV, Netanyahu said if elected prime minister his first mission will be to thwart the Iranian nuclear threat. Netanyahu, the current opposition leader and head of the hardline Likud party, called Iran the greatest danger to Israel and to all humanity.

When asked if stopping Iran's nuclear ambitions included a military strike, he replied: "It includes everything that is necessary to make this statement come true."
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Current Affairs (OSINT): Divided House Passes Recovery Bill

WASHINGTON (AP) - In a swift victory for President Barack Obama, the Democratic-controlled House approved a historically huge $819 billion stimulus bill Wednesday night, filled with new spending and tax cuts at the core of the young adminstration's revival plan for the desperately ailing economy. The vote was 244-188.

Senate debate and a vote is next and then a meeting of the bills before it can be signed by the president. The target is mid February for signing.
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OSINT: Connectivity is everything!

Hat Tip to Dr. Tom Barnett.

The world is shrinking. Cheap flights, large scale commercial shipping and expanding road networks redefine Wilderness. Only 10% of the land area is remote – more than 48 hours from a large city mean that we are better connected to everywhere else than ever before. But global travel and international trade and just two of the forces that have reshaped our world. A new map of Travel Time to Major Cities - developed by the European Commission and the World Bank - captures this connectivity and the concentration of economic activity and also highlights that there is little wilderness left. The map shows how accessible some parts of the world have become whilst other regions have remained isolated. Accessibility - whether it is to markets, schools, hospitals or water - is a precondition for the satisfaction of almost any economic need. Furthermore, accessibility is relevant at all levels, from local development to global trade and this map fills an important gap in our understanding of the spatial patterns of economic, physical and social connectivity.

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OSINT: Current Affairs, Pakistan moves troops to border of India

Intelligence Officials: Pakistan Moving Troops Toward Indian Border
Friday, December 26, 2008

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan began moving thousands of troops away from the Afghan border toward India on Friday amid tensions following the Mumbai attacks, intelligence officials said.

The move represents a sharp escalation in the standoff between the nuclear-armed neighbors and will hurt Pakistan's U.S.-backed campaign against Al Qaeda and Taliban taking place near Afghanistan's border.

Two intelligence officials said the army's 14th Division was being redeployed to Kasur and Sialkot, close to the Indian border. They said some 20,000 troops were on the move. Earlier Friday, a security official said that all troop leave had been canceled.

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