Is China Poking at Japan Through Video Games?

The Chinese Army has commercially released an FPS originally designed as a training game, and the scenarios are all Japan-baiting scenarios fighting for the Diaoyu Islands.

n the latest passive-aggressive escalation of the Diaoyu/Senkaku Island dispute, a Chinese computer game originally designed to train soldiers has added a level that lets players “reclaim and defend” the vacant but heavily disputed islands between China and Japan.
“Glorious Mission Online,” China’s Call of Duty equivalent, already involved the standard faux-military missions common in such games. But the updated online version, as first reported by the South China Morning Post, will also have players simulating a battle against Japanese soldiers on the islands and using the Liaoning, China’s first aircraft carrier. It’s particularly provocative given that the People’s Liberation Army helped develop the game.

By: Brant

Norks Parade to Commemorate "Victory"

Nork parade celebrates "a great victory" in the Korean War

North Korea celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Korean War truce on Saturday with a massive military parade trumpeting the revolutionary genius of three generations of leaders that gave it "Victory in the Great Fatherland Liberation War".

Leader Kim Jong-un was joined by Chinese Vice President Li Yuanchao on the podium overlooking Pyongyang's main Kim Il Sung square to inspect a massive throng of soldiers in goosestep and a display of weapons including its mid-range missiles.

Kim clad in black exchanged words with Li through an interpreter but did not make public remarks at the parade, which appeared to be one of the largest ever put on by the North.

Choe Ryong-hae, Kim's main military aide and the chief political operative of the North's 1.2-million-strong army, said the reclusive state sees peace as a top national priority and its military was aimed at safeguarding North Korea from invasion.

Hey, any excuse to play this again:



By: Brant

Egypt = Not Good

The Egyptian military is shooting protestors.

Egyptian security forces shot dead at least 70 supporters of ousted President Mohamed Mursi on Saturday, his Muslim Brotherhood said, days after the army chief called for a popular mandate to tackle "violence and terrorism".

Brotherhood spokesman Gehad El-Haddad said the shooting started shortly before pre-dawn morning prayers on the fringes of a round-the-clock sit-in being staged by backers of Mursi, who was toppled by the army more than three weeks ago.

"They are not shooting to wound, they are shooting to kill," Haddad said. The death toll might be much higher, he said.

Activists rushed blood-spattered casualties into a makeshift hospital, some were carried in on planks or blankets. One ashen teenager was laid out on the floor, a bullet hole in his head.

more at the link

By: Brant

Japan Expanding Marine Role? More Drones?

A government-sponsored report on Japan's capabilities note that Japan needs to increase their numbers of marines and drones.

Under Article 9 of its post-war constitution, Japan is blocked from the use of force to resolve conflicts except in the case of self-defence.

But Mr Abe has indicated he wants to re-examine the role of Japan's military to meet the changing security environment in the Asia-Pacific region.

"This will guide the focus of the direction that the Self Defence Forces should be heading going forward," Japanese Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera said of the report.

Amphibious units that could be dispatched quickly to remote islands were needed, the report said, and surveillance equipment to detect "at an early stage signs of changes in the security situation".

The report also called for a strengthened ability to "to deter and respond to ballistic missiles".

"Japan needs to enhance its ability to respond to ballistic missile attacks in a comprehensive manner," Kyodo news agency quoted the report as saying.

But officials have been keen to emphasise that this does not mean Japan is eyeing pre-emptive strikes on enemy targets.

"It is necessary to consider whether we should have the option to strike an enemy's missile launch facilities," an unidentified defence ministry official told Reuters news agency.

"But we are not at all thinking about initiating attacks on enemy bases when we are not under attack."

The full report isn't due 'til late this year, but there are more details in the BBC article above.

By: Brant

Leave No Man Behind: Korean War I-Made-A-Promise Edition

An excellent story about a pilot returning to North Korea to bring back his wingman 60 years later.

Two years after he made history by becoming the Navy's first black pilot, Ensign Jesse Brown lay trapped in his downed fighter plane in subfreezing North Korea, his leg broken and bleeding. His wingman crash-landed to try to save him, and even burned his hands trying to put out the flames.

A chopper hovered nearby. Lt. j.g. Thomas Hudner could save himself, but not his friend. With the light fading, the threat of enemy fire all around him and Brown losing consciousness, the white son of a New England grocery-store magnate made a promise to the black son of a sharecropper.

"We'll come back for you."

More than 60 years have passed. Hudner is now 88. But he did not forget. He is coming back.

Go read the rest...

By: Brant

The Enemy of my Enemy...

The CIA tipping off Hezbollah? I guess if it's to foil an attack by AQ, then go ahead, eh?

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency warned Lebanese officials last week that al Qaida-linked groups are planning a campaign of bombings that will target Beirut’s Hezbollah-dominated southern suburbs as well as other political targets associated with the group or its allies in Syria, Lebanese officials said Monday.

The unusual warning – U.S. government officials are barred from directly contacting Hezbollah, which the U.S. has designated an international terrorist organization – was passed from the CIA’s Beirut station chief to several Lebanese security and intelligence officials in a meeting late last week with the understanding that it would be passed to Hezbollah, Lebanese officials said.

Hezbollah officials acknowledged the warning and took steps to tighten security in the southern suburbs that are known locally as Dahiya.

“Yes, a warning came from the CIA,” said a Hezbollah internal security commander who spoke on the condition that he not be identified because he was not authorized to talk to reporters. “They passed us this information through the mukhabarat (military intelligence), but we had our own information about the bombs.”

One Lebanese official who was at the meeting said the CIA warning included evidence that was “very convincing and scary” because it was so specific. The evidence included phone intercepts and very detailed information on a number of cells operating along Lebanon’s border with Syria, as well as inside Beirut itself.

By: Brant

Chinese Deploy to Africa

The are an expeditionary force under the auspices of the UN, but they are still combat troops on the ground in Africa.

China traditionally sends thousands of engineering, medical and other support troops on U.N. missions each year. Of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, China is the largest manpower contributor to U.N. peacekeeping missions.

However, until very recently, China did not send infantry on U.N. missions. In fact, Beijing officially insists the soldiers in Mali aren't combat troops, perhaps in order to maintain the idea that China doesn't send official combat troops on peacekeeping missions.

"The Chinese security force is actually a guard team that will mainly be responsible for the security of the [U.N. mission] headquarters and the living areas of peacekeeping forces," a Chinese defense ministry spokesman is quoted by China's state-run Xinhua news agency as saying.

Still, this latest deployment marks the second time in the last two years that China has sent infantry soldiers to Africa with the purpose of guarding peacekeeping missions. In 2011, Beijing sent infantrymen to guard PLA engineers participating in a U.N. mission in South Sudan. Despite Beijing's claims that these troops were there solely for the purpose of guarding the engineers, the U.S. China Economic and Security Review pointed out that these guards were from an "elite" combat unit.

The mission to protect PLA engineers and medics isn't without merit; just last week, seven UN personnel were killed when their convoy was attacked in Sudan. And the operation reflects China's growing interest in Africa. Chinese business leaders have been all over the continent for the last decade, spending billions of dollars on projects and prompting some to worry that Beijing was going to beat the U.S. in the African influence game (an assertion U.S. President Barack Obama dismisses). All of this has prompted Chinese military deployments aimed at protecting Chinese workers abroad.

Is this cause for concern when the UN is already allowing offensive action from some of their forces in Africa?

By: Brant

Cuba-Nork Smuggling Op Busted in Panama?

Maybe they were just going in for repair. If so, why hide obsolete SAMs and jet engines in a hold full of brown sugar?

Military equipment found by Panamanian authorities on a North Korean boat consisted of "240 metric tons of obsolete defensive weapons" sent to North Korea for repair, Cuba's Foreign Ministry said.
The equipment, hidden beneath packages of brown sugar on the boat, was manufactured in the mid-20th century and included two anti-aircraft missile complexes, nine missiles in parts and spares, two MiG-21 jets and 15 motors for this type of airplane, the foreign ministry said.
"The agreements subscribed by Cuba in this field are supported by the need to maintain our defensive capacity in order to preserve national sovereignty," the statement said. "The Republic of Cuba reiterates its firm and unwavering commitment with peace, disarmament, including nuclear disarmament, and respect for international law."
The Cuban government's revelation, which was also read on state television, is the latest chapter in an international drama that has all the elements of a thriller: a violent confrontation on a detained North Korean ship, a suspected missile onboard, a heart attack and an attempted suicide.
Panamanian authorities on Tuesday were examining the military equipment, discovered late Monday during an anti-drug inspection.
Because it is pursuing nuclear weapons, North Korea is banned by the United Nations from importing and exporting most weapons.

By: Brant

Political Overhaul of Turkish Military

Is it creating civilian control over a dangerous institution? Or is it reining in an anti-democratic self-selecting gang of armed political meddlers? Either way, the situation is about to change, big time.

Turkey's parliament has amended an internal armed forces' regulation long relied on by the country's once-powerful generals as grounds for intervening in politics, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported Saturday, in a move that further strips the military of its political influence.

The military has wielded huge political power in the country, overthrowing four governments between 1960 and 1997 and issuing a warning against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamic-rooted government as recently as 2007.

The generals have in the past pointed to an internal military regulation that stipulated the army's duty as watching over and protecting the Turkish republic, to justify army takeovers or stepping in whenever they felt uneasy over civilian leaders' policies.

In a midnight vote Friday, legislators voted to redefine the military's duty as: "defending the Turkish homeland against external threats and dangers, and maintaining and strengthening military powers to ensure deterrence."

They also emphasized the Turkish army's role in international peacekeeping missions, saying its tasks also included taking up any overseas duty assigned by parliament and helping secure international peace.

Erdogan's party proposed the amendment to strip the military of any legal basis for intervention in domestic affairs following a spate of anti-government protests in June, which the prime minister has blamed on a conspiracy against his democratically-elected government. The protesters were airing discontent with what opponents have said is Erdogan's increasingly authoritarian style of governing and moves to impose his conservative and religious views on society.

By: Brant

OK, and...?

Snowden claims that US officials are interfering with his asylum processes.

Former intelligence agency contractor Edward Snowden said U.S. officials have been waging a campaign to prevent him from taking up offers of asylum, he said in a letter sent to a Human Rights Watch official and posted on Facebook.

Well, duh. You tried to screw over the country and then run away. You really think they're just going to let it all go?

By: Brant

Navy to Try Landing Fighter-Sized UAV on Carrier

THe Navy is going to try to land the X-47B UAV on a carrier and see how it goes.

The Navy will attempt to land a drone the size of a fighter jet aboard an aircraft carrier for the first time Wednesday, showcasing the military's capability to have a computer program perform one of the most difficult tasks a pilot is asked to do.

If all goes as planned, a successful landing of the X-47B experimental aircraft will mean the Navy can move forward with its plans to develop another unmanned aircraft that will join the fleet alongside traditional airplanes to provide around-the-clock surveillance while also possessing a strike capability. The aircraft's success would pave the way for the U.S. to launch unmanned aircraft without the need to obtain permission from other countries to use their bases.

The X-47B experimental aircraft will take off from Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland before approaching the USS George H.W. Bush, which is operating off the coast of Virginia. The drone will try to land by deploying a tailhook that will catch a wire aboard the ship and bring it to a quick stop, just like normal fighter jets do. The maneuver is known as an arrested landing and has previously only been done by the drone on land at Patuxent River. Landing on a ship that is constantly moving while navigating through turbulent air behind the aircraft carrier is seen as a more difficult maneuver.

"Your grandchildren and great grandchildren and mine will be reading about this historic event in their history books. This is not trivial, nor is it something that came lightly," said Rear Adm. Mat Winter, the Navy's program executive officer for unmanned aviation and strike weapons.

Just like a traditional airplane, if the landing has to be called off for any reason at the last second, it can perform a touch-and-go maneuver. It performed nine such maneuvers in May, when it also took off from an aircraft carrier for the first time.

The X-47B will never be put into operational use, but it will help Navy officials develop future carrier-based drones. Those drones could begin operating by 2020, according to Winter. Four companies are expected to compete for a contract to design the future unmanned aircraft, which will be awarded in Fiscal Year 2014.

There's more at the link, but not a huge discussion of the implications of remotely-, or even computer-piloted, aircraft to be used in combat.


By: Brant

Bin Laden Records "Hidden"?

Are the records of the OBL raid being scrubbed from public scrutiny? Or is this a legit security move?

The nation's top special operations commander ordered military files about the Navy SEAL raid on Osama bin Laden's hideout to be purged from Defense Department computers and sent to the CIA, where they could be more easily shielded from ever being made public.

The secret move, described briefly in a draft report by the Pentagon's inspector general, set off no alarms within the Obama administration even though it appears to have sidestepped federal rules and perhaps also the Freedom of Information Act.

Hmmm... not a big fan of suppressing records of publicly-known events like this. Unless there's some sort of sources and methods info to be protected, and it seems unlikely given that we're talking about the raid itself, of which there's already a lot of info in the public.

An acknowledgement by Adm. William McRaven of his actions was quietly removed from the final version of an inspector general's report published weeks ago. A spokesman for the admiral declined to comment. The CIA, noting that the bin Laden mission was overseen by then-CIA Director Leon Panetta before he became defense secretary, said that the SEALs were effectively assigned to work temporarily for the CIA, which has presidential authority to conduct covert operations.

"Documents related to the raid were handled in a manner consistent with the fact that the operation was conducted under the direction of the CIA director," agency spokesman Preston Golson said in an emailed statement. "Records of a CIA operation such as the (bin Laden) raid, which were created during the conduct of the operation by persons acting under the authority of the CIA Director, are CIA records."

OK, now it sounds like they're dodging public scrutiny for something

Golson said it is "absolutely false" that records were moved to the CIA to avoid the legal requirements of the Freedom of Information Act.

OK, now it definitely sounds like they're dodging public scrutiny for something

The records transfer was part of an effort by McRaven to protect the names of the personnel involved in the raid, according to the inspector general's draft report.

OK. Now that's a reason I could get behind, and I wish they'd led with that. Given the proliferation of Islamonutjobs who think it's their sacred duty to become/protect/glorify mass murderers and their benefactors, I can understand some level of protection for our guys.



By: Brant

Espionage Recruitment 101

There's a very good article from the WSJ about the challenges of recruiting assets & sources in international espionage.

An excerpt...

How, then, does a case officer persuade someone to become a traitor? There is no definitive handbook. The process is as complex as human relationships. If possible, a friendship should develop between the case officer and the prospective agent; bonds of trust must be established. But beneath the surface, there is the CIA officer's constant and often uncharitable assessment of the target's aspirations, fears and desires. You must know what motivates the potential recruit so that you can better exploit his vulnerabilities and, in the end, put him in the right frame of mind for your "pitch." In making this assessment, the CIA relies on four basic human motivations, described by the acronym MICE: money, ideology, conscience and ego. Some agencies in the U.S. intelligence community, perhaps not realizing that MICE is already a plural word, insist on adding an S to the end for sex. But sexual entrapment is not a reliable recruitment technique. A blackmailed agent tends to be resentful, brooding, prone to disloyalty and the fabrication of intelligence. Other countries, most infamously Russia, have used sexual entrapment in intelligence operations without compunction. The relationship with an agent motivated by money is straightforward: "We give you cash, and you steal secrets." Consider the case of the aircraft mechanic in a North African country who, in 1974, reported that six new export models of the Soviet MiG 23 fighter had been delivered to his military air base. He was willing to photograph every detail of the planes and proposed being paid per frame, as long as the images were of value. One night, under a brilliant African moon, he crawled all over the plane, snapping photos. For a final rear-facing shot, he shinnied out onto the shark's nose of the aircraft—and suddenly slid backward off the front. He looked up to discover that he had bent down the hollow nose needle at a twenty-degree angle. Unable to straighten the thing out—and worried that his payment would be jeopardized—he proceeded down the flight line in a panic and bent the five needles on the remaining fighters to match the first. He got his money, but his access was lost, along with his usefulness.

Plenty more entertainment at the link. Go read.

By: Brant

The Declaration of Independence

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.

He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.

He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing taxes on us without our consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies:

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

By: Brant

Egypt Melting Down - Coup ousts Morsi and Events Rolling Along

And pundits coming out of the woodwork

Guess this is what a Military Coup looks like? PHOTO: Tanks deployed on Gam3a Bridge in #Giza #Egypt pic.twitter.com/UZFmdnHWKT ht @saramsalem
— Ahmed Shihab-Eldin (@ASE) July 3, 2013

Hmmm... not a tank in sight, eh?

Excellent live online coverage over at The Guardian's website


By: Brant