Defense & Security Archive

TEL AVIV, Israel — You don’t have to understand Hebrew to read the worried faces of Israelis glancing at this week’s newspapers. The picture under yesterday’s bold headlines shows the familiar round face of North Korea’s Kim Jong Il. Looking at him from a Tel Aviv sidewalk near the beach, Israeli readers show a familiar expression: one of profound worry. “Now Iran will feel it can do whatever it wants,” said Nili Orvin, a local businesswoman. North Korea, on Asia’s Pacific rim, lies thousands of miles from the Mediterranean Sea that laps gently upon Tel Aviv’s shore. Still, Israelis know […]

BASRA, Iraq — Shadows are growing long on the afternoon of Oct. 1 when British Army Captain Steve Morte, 39, strolls into the garden courtyard of a decaying Saddam-era palace-turned-British base in this sweltering city of 2 million. In one sweaty hand he clutches a government-issued receipt book. In the other, $25,000 in cash in a soggy yellow envelope. His grip on the money tightens as he approaches two Iraqi men sitting on a bench, for they are — or were — the enemy. But dealing with erstwhile enemies — and tolerating cultural mores that seem somehow wrong to Westerners […]

WASHINGTON — With its move into eastern Afghanistan last week, NATO assumed full responsibility for security throughout the entire country, but the commander of the Atlantic alliance said in Washington Wednesday that victory “will not be resolved by military means.” U.S. Marine General James L. Jones said NATO’s troop strength of 35,000 from 26 member countries is “adequate for the mission,” but he said the real challenge is to break the logjam in the faltering reconstruction effort and halt the growth of the narco trade. Troops from some NATO countries were first deployed in Kabul in 2001 as ISAF, the […]

HONG KONG — The arrest of the most high-profile public figure in China in a decade may be a shocking example of endemic corruption in the world’s biggest out-of-control economy, but the question on the lips of some financial investigators in the West is: Will the trail of Chen Liangyu’s ill-gotten loot lead to the United States? The shadow economy in China, a combination of embezzlement, bribery, tax avoidance and underground banking of both legal and illegal money, is huge, and growing. Much of this money is laundered abroad, mostly via Hong Kong, say investigators, and there is growing evidence […]

BOGOTÁ, Colombia — A “black year,” is how the local press has described the series of scandals battering the Colombian army in recent months. In an unprecedented address to the nation last month, Colombia’s president, Alvaro Uribe, urged citizens to restore their faith in the country’s armed forces after the head of the army issued a public statement tentatively accusing his own troops of staging terrorist attacks in Bogotá days before the May presidential elections. The attacks were originally blamed on guerrilla groups. General Mario Montoya, head of the army, said that there was evidence to suggest that soldiers and […]

With respect to the U.S. Air Force’s program to replace its aging aerial refueling tankers, it may be time to expect the unexpected: that this big acquisition program may proceed hereafter without a major hitch. Sheer necessity may make it so, according to a defense analyst who has spoken with senior Air Force officials about the program. That driving necessity: “They do not have the money to keep this competition going” indefinitely, said Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute, an Arlington, Va.-based think tank. The Air Force had been very close to wrapping up a tanker replacement deal with The […]

Two items I came across today tell two sides of the same story: Computer network attack and defense are a growing part of 21st century warfare. The first item adds to the mounting body of evidence that Islamists and terrorists are seeking to use computers and the Internet to wage holy war. The Jamestown Foundation’s Terrorism Focus yesterday reported that Islamists, sparked by the Pope’s recent comments, have set up a new Web site “to help organize an electronic jihad against websites that insult Islam and Islamic sacred figures.” The Terrorism Focus story continues: The site has been well publicized […]

The North Korean foreign minister announced Tuesday his country will conduct a nuclear test, the Associated Press reports. We managed to get our hands on the English version of the nuclear test announcement put out by North Korea’s state-controlled media organ, the Korean Central News Agency. The release doesn’t appear to be posted on the KCNA’s Web site as yet. Reading the announcement gives one a sense of the regime’s propaganda style, and the paranoid, almost desperate, voice that characterizes it: DPRK Foreign Ministry Clarifies Stand on New Measure to Bolster War Deterrent Pyongyang, October 3 (KCNA) — The Foreign […]

JERUSALEM — The usually ferocious Jerusalem traffic moves a little more slowly these days. According to the lunar calendars followed by Muslims and Jews, the holy Muslim month of Ramadan this year coincides with Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, making this a time when both Muslims and Jews, separately but simultaneously, are engaging in reflection and prayer. Their prayers this year ought to include requests for new leaders, brave and creative, for both sides of this conflict. Palestinians and Israelis are giving pollsters mind-bogglingly inconsistent views of what they want. That means they are ready for […]