Special Operations

North Korea Agrees to Step Up Return of US MIA Remains

While most of the agreement between President Trump and Kim Jong Un was vague as the two met for only a few hours, perhaps the most concrete outcome of Tuesday’s summit is a commitment to recover the remains of U.S. military personnel missing in action and presumed dead from the Korean War.

In a joint statement signed by the leaders, the countries committed to the recovery of the remains and the immediate repatriation of those already identified.
Washington and Pyongyang agreed to hold follow-up talks at the “earliest possible date” between U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a relevant high North Korean official.
Nearly 7,800 U.S. troops remain unaccounted for from the 1950-53 war. About 5,300 were lost in North Korea.
It’s debatable whether North Korea’s commitment to recovering U.S. war remains could count as a major win for Washington when Pyongyang would be simply returning to what it had been doing for years. Between 1996 and 2005, joint U.S.-North Korea military search teams conducted 33 joint recovery operations and recovered 229 sets of American remains.
But efforts to recover and return the remains have been stalled for more than a decade because of the North’s development of nuclear weapons and U.S. claims that the safety of recovery teams it sent during the administration of President George W. Bush was not sufficiently guaranteed.

The sides are still technically at war, in 1953 the two sides agreed to an armistice not a peace treaty but perhaps this first summit meeting between Trump and Jong is a sign that the war may hopefully finally be over.

In the meantime, the North will cooperate with the recovery and return of US MIA remains and perhaps give some closure to the families of those missing.

To read the entire article from Fox News, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Chinese Hackers Steal Sensitive Data on US Submarines

Sensitive data about U.S. submarine research has been hacked from an unnamed government contractor by Chinese hackers working for China’s Ministry of State Security or MSS.

Included in the loss were six hundred fourteen gigabytes of data which were stolen, including submarine communications data and information on a secretive project known as Sea Dragon.

The Washington Post, citing anonymous American officials, reports that the data was stored on the contractor’s unclassified network, though officials said the material could be considered classified and was highly sensitive. The compromised data could give China important edges in both technology and tactics at sea, including in its conflict with a half-dozen nations including Japan and Indonesia over territorial claims in the South China Sea.
Little is known about the classified Sea Dragon initiative, but it is an underwater technology that the Defense Department has described as introducing a “disruptive offensive capability,” according to the Post, and which some defense experts regard as a key component in America’s precautions for conflict with China. Submarine weapons are key for China’s military ambitions, but Chinese cyber-incursions in recent years have nabbed designs and data for everything from advanced fighter jets to missile systems.
Former Navy officer and NSA analyst John Schindler, writing for the Observer, highlights the loss of cryptographic information used in submarine communications. Those techniques allow coordination of forces at sea, and their compromise can lend an enemy a huge tactical advantage in any conflict. As a precedent, Schindler cites the Allied compromise of the German Enigma cipher, and the resulting demolition of Nazi U-Boats that hastened the end of World War II—though it’s important to note that the Germans didn’t know the code had been cracked, and the U.S. may be able to react to the recent hack by changing codes and practices to keep messages out of Chinese hands.

The Chinese said that they were not aware of any such operation. Not much is known on Sea Dragon, however, the Pentagon has asked for or spent more than $300 million dollars for the project since late 2015 and said it planned to begin underwater testing by September.

Whether or not this latest hack sets that timetable back remains to be seen.

To read the entire article from Fortune, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Iran Seeks Help From China After US Sanctions

Politics makes for some strange bedfellows. This weekend, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani heads to China to participate in a Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit. Will China, insistent on pushing the United States on every turn, improve ties with the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism?

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a regional security bloc led by China and Russia, is set to hold its 18th annual gathering in the Chinese city of Qingdao on Saturday (June 9) and Sunday. Iran is currently an observer member of the SCO, though it has long sought full membership.
The event will be chaired by Chinese President Xi Jinping. The participants — including leaders from four ex-Soviet Central Asian republics and two new members, Pakistan and India — will discuss matters of international security and trade, with shoring up the Iranian nuclear deal likely to be on the top of the agenda. In May, US President Donald Trump announced that the United States will withdraw from the deal, which aimed to contain Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for lifting Western sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
China, along with the European Union and Russia, also signed onto the deal with Iran. The Chinese had been ardent supporters of the agreement, according to Kerry Brown, professor of Chinese Studies at King’s College, London.
Iran and China already have a strong relationship, as China is Iran’s biggest trading partner. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), an ambitious project launched by President Xi aiming to link China with other parts of Asia and Europe through multibillion dollar investments in infrastructure, also plays a role in strengthening their economic partnership.
Iran is a key transport hub between Asia and Europe. According to Berger, “Iran provides maritime access to land-locked countries and if China manages to build a high-speed railway across Central Asia, the Central Transport Corridor is faster and poses less hurdles in terms of rail-track standards and customs than the Northern route via Moscow.”

The Chinese are too shrewd and too cautious to get overly cozy with the Iranians who are back to square one economically after the US reinstituted sanctions after President Trump backed out of the nuclear deal. The Chinese will undoubtedly make some concessions to Iran, but probably not much more. They don’t view Iran as the major player that the Islamic Republic sees itself.

To read the entire article from Deutsche Welle, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

RAF Chief Defends Bombing Of Islamic State Targets

The top UK Royal Air Force general has defended the RAF’s bombing of Islamic State targets calling ISIS “really wicked and evil enemy that used civilians as human shields.”

Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach said the RAF had carried out “the most carefully planned air campaign in history” and was “meticulous” in trying to avoid civilian casualties.
Amnesty International has criticised the UK for its role in attacks on the Syrian city of Raqqa.
It claimed that the US-led coalition had been responsible for killing hundreds of civilians in Raqqa alone and it called on the Ministry of Defence to “come clean” over Britain’s role.
But Air Chief Marshal Peach, who earlier in his career served as a navigator in a Tornado jet, does not accept the charge.
He said any allegation of civilian harm, with evidence of time and place, was properly investigated.
RAF strikes ‘have killed more than 3,000 IS fighters’
In a valedictory interview with BBC News, Air Chief Marshal Peach highlighted some of the challenges he has faced as the most senior British military officer, including recruitment.
The regular Army is more than 10,000 soldiers short of its target strength of 82,000 and he admitted he was “worried” about the numbers, saying they presented a “challenge to do better”.
He suggested that part of the problem was an “unfortunate characterisation” of how the armed forces were often portrayed.
“We’re not all heroes and we’re certainly not all victims”, he said, adding that the vast majority who served were “enriched” by their life in uniform.
His own origins are humble – as the son of an Army sergeant major. Educated in a state grammar school, he was the first in his family to go to university and describes the RAF as a meritocracy with a long history of taking people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

With the call for more defense spending with threats rising, Peach highlighted the recent Skripal assassination attempt on British soil and said that those type of attacks are now becoming routine, almost regular.

To read the entire article from BBC News, click here:

Photo courtesy UK MOD

Top US, Russian Military Leaders Meet in Finland

The top U.S. military leaders of the United States and Russia are meeting in Finland to exchange views on U.S.-Russia military relations, Syria, and the current international security situation.

Finnish news agency FNB said Friday’s meeting of Gen. Joseph Dunford, current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Russia’s chief of the military’s General Staff, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, took place in a Finnish state-owned manor used for meetings, negotiations and receptions north of the capital, Helsinki.
No news conference or statement was planned.
FNB said Finland hosted a similar a meeting in 2008.
In April, NATO’s top military officer, U.S. Army Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, met with Gerasimov in Baku, Azerbaijan, for the first such encounter since relations between Moscow and the alliance sank to post-Cold War lows over the Ukrainian crisis.

Despite the bluster that we see in the press coming from each country, to include the militaries, the generals are the ones who know the cost of war and a failure in diplomacy could be devastating for both parties. They’ll try to sift thru the tough talk and work out the details of ensuring that a war between the two superpowers doesn’t happen.

To read the entire article from ABC News, click here:

Photo courtesy AP of Russian military leaders arriving at the conference.

US B-52 Bombers Fly by Chinese Contested Spratly Islands

Tensions in the South China Sea increased on Tuesday after the US sent two US B-52 bombers flew within the vicinity of the contested Spratly Islands, according to a statement from US Pacific Air Forces, which oversees air operations in the region.

The flyover came days after Secretary of Defense James Mattis called Beijing out over its militarization of the islands, accusing China of “intimidation and coercion” in the Indo-Pacific, making clear the US has no plans to leave the region and prompting a furious Chinese response.
Beijing claims the Spratly Islands, but those claims aren’t recognized by the US or by China’s neighbors — Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Taiwan — which also say the islands are theirs. China has used geographic features in the Spratlys to build man-made islands, some of which it has equipped with military facilities, including anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles.
A US defense official who has knowledge of the mission’s original flight plan said it called for the nuclear capable B-52 bombers to fly about 20 miles from the islands.
A spokesman for the Pentagon said the mission involved the Guam-based bombers conducting “a routine training mission,” flying from Andersen Air Force Base in the US territory of Guam “to the Navy Support Facility” in the United Kingdom’s Indian Ocean territory of Diego Garcia.
On Tuesday, the bombers flew from Diego Garcia and conducted “training” in the vicinity of the South China Sea, returning back to Diego Garcia the same day, according to the statement from US Pacific Air Forces.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said that the Chinese are using intimidation and coercion in the region by militarizing these man-made islands. The Chinese minced few words either as Foreign Minister Hua Chunying called the latest from Washington as “blatant lies.”

“China will not be intimidated by any planes or ships. We will only be firmer in our resolve to take all necessary measures to safeguard our sovereignty and security as well as maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea.”

To read the entire article from CNN, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Facebook Allowed Chinese National Security Threat to Access User Data

In the latest flap over the Facebook ongoing saga, the social media giant allowed a Chinese firm charged by the federal government as a national security threat to access to user information, without the consent of the individual.

Facebook confirmed to Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the top Democrat on the Senate intel panel, the social media giant entered into a third-party agreement with Shenzhen-based Huawei Technologies Co., one of roughly 60 other device manufacturers the company partnered with to help replicate a “Facebook-like” experience on other operating systems.
“Concerns about Huawei aren’t new – they were widely publicized beginning in 2012, when the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence released a well-read report on the close relationships between the Chinese Communist Party and equipment makers like Huawei. The news that Facebook provided privileged access to Facebook’s API to Chinese device makers like Huawei and TCL raises legitimate concerns, and I look forward to learning more about how Facebook ensured that information about their users was not sent to Chinese servers,” Warner said in a statement.
A Facebook spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The New York Times reported on Monday that Facebook, as part of its partnership with device manufacturers, allowed companies to access data from friends of an individual user, sometimes without explicit consent.
Facebook officials told the New York Times it would wind down its partnership with Huawei by the end of the week.
The federal government has sought to crack down on the U.S. operations of both Huawei and fellow Chinese-owned ZTE Corp.
The Commerce Department in April issued a denial order prohibiting any U.S. company from selling products to ZTE for seven years.
Reuters reported on Tuesday that ZTE agreed to pay a $1.7 billion fine to lift the ban, but a Department of Commerce spokesperson denied such a deal was reached.
“No definitive agreement has been signed by both parties,” the spokesperson said.

The Pentagon has halted the sales of either companies products on military bases and the FCC has sought to limit the companies access to rural telecom carriers.

To read the entire article from Washington Examiner, click here:

Photo: AP

A Third of All Injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan Are Non-Battle Variety

More than a third of all injuries sustained by U.S. military troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are sustained in non-battlefield conditions a recent DOD study found. By far, the most prevalent type of non-battle injuries consisted of falls or vehicle crashes. And they also accounted for about 10 percent of the deaths of troops there.

Researchers examined data on almost 30,000 casualties from 2003 to 2014 in the Department of Defense Trauma Registry, including cases that happened both on and off the battlefield. Overall, roughly half of these injuries were caused by explosives, and another 15 percent were from gunshot wounds.

But overall, about 34 percent of injuries were not sustained in battle. Injuries off the battlefield often involved motor vehicle crashes; other incidents involved operating machinery or playing sports, the study also found.

“It was clear from my own experience as a physician deployed to Afghanistan in 2011 that the deployed environment presents a significant risk of injury due to accidents and mishaps,” said senior study author Dr. Kevin Akers, a lieutenant colonel at the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research at Fort Sam Houston in Texas.

Non-battle injuries were most common in the Air Force, accounting for 67 percent of cases, followed by the Navy at 48 percent, the Army at 35 percent, and the Marine Corps at 26 percent, researchers report in JAMA Surgery.

Falls were the most common cause of non-battle injuries, accounting for 21 percent of cases, followed by car crashes at 19 percent and heavy machinery or equipment accidents at 13 percent, researchers report in JAMA Surgery.

Another 11 percent of injuries off the battlefield were from blunt trauma, and sports and gunshot wounds each accounted for another 7 percent of cases.

Many military troops are working under adverse conditions such as weather-related wind, rain or dust storms as mission-critical tasks have to be completed. And they also have to deal with less-than-ideal roads and local infrastructure in many cases. This coupled with the fatigue factor and combat environmental stress can lead to accidents on Air Force Colonel explained.

To read the entire article from Reuters, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

US Airstrikes Kill 27 al-Shabab Militants in Somalia

United States military airstrikes in northern Somalia have killed at least 27 members of the militant al-Shabab organization according to military officials. The several drone strikes against the militants are the second strike the U.S. has conducted in the past week.

The statement issued Monday by the U.S. Africa Command said it assesses that no civilians were killed in the attack on Sunday about 26 miles southwest of Bosasso, the commercial capital of the semiautonomous Puntland state.
The area has recently seen attacks on local forces by extremists aligned with the Islamic State group.
The Trump administration approved expanded military operations against extremists in Somalia, including al-Shabab, which is linked to al-Qaida and was blamed for the truck bombing in Mogadishu in October that killed more than 500 people.
And elsewhere in Somalia, at least 10 people were killed on Tuesday morning when Al-Shabaab and government clashed in the Gedo region town of Bardheere, Radio Dalsan reports. Two government soldiers and eight militants were killed in the fighting according to an official of Gedo region. Al-Shabaab had attempted to overrun the Bardheere Military camp but failed to succeed in executing the attack.
SNA displayed a captured militant.
The Al-qaeda linked group has intensified its activities since last Friday when they attacked the Hiraan region’s Moqokori town where it claimed tens of SNA soldiers were killed. The group displayed bodies purported to be government soldiers. The town was recaptured on Saturday.
On the same day in Puntland’s Balikhadar area the militants attacked a military camp killing 5 soldiers. Local authority said at least 40 militants were killed later including 27 in a US airstrike.

AFRICOM said that none of the strikes were assessed to have caused civilian casualties and that the strikes were carried out in coordination with the US-backed Federal Government of Somalia.

To read the entire article from AllAfrica, click here:

Photo courtesy DOD

Qatar Accuses Saudis of “Reckless Behavior” After Military Threat

Qatar wasn’t pleased after being threatened indirectly by Saudi Arabia after a letter reportedly sent from King Salman to France was published in a French newspaper. In the letter, the Saudis threatened military action if Qatar installs a Russian air defense system.

Qatar’s foreign minister told Al Jazeera he did not think the Saudi threat – reportedly made in a letter to France – was serious. But he accused Riyadh of using the letter to try and create a “disturbance” in a region already rocked by a year-long stand-off between Doha and other powers.

France’s Le Monde newspaper reported on Saturday that Saudi King Salman had sent a letter to French President Emmanuel Macron expressing concern over talks between Doha and Moscow about Russian S-400 missile air defense systems.
The newspaper added that the king had said Saudi Arabia was ready to consider all measures, including military action.
“We are seeking formal confirmation from the French government (about the letter),” Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani told the English-language channel of Qatar-based Al Jazeera in an interview aired on Tuesday.
“There is no serious military threat out of this, but the way it is being used to justify or to create a disturbance in the region is just unacceptable,” he said. “There is no legitimate grievance behind this letter and threatening Qatar.”
Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates severed diplomatic and economic ties with Qatar a year ago, accusing Doha of supporting terrorism. Qatar denies the accusation and says the boycott is an attempt to impinge on its sovereignty.

In the tricky world of Middle East politics, the United States has close ties with both parties in this dispute. Qatar has a base with 11,000 U.S. and coalition troops and they are considered a vital part of the Sunni Muslim alliance. They are countering the Shiite Muslim faction being backed by Iran.

To read the entire article from Reuters, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia