Iran in Europe MISSILE threat warning of WW3 rocket attack

THREAT: Iran has warned Europe that it will place its missiles in range of the continent [Getty]

 

IRAN has issued a chilling threat to Europe – warning it will increase its missile range so rockets can be launched at the continent.

The deputy head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warned that it may increase the range of missiles to over 2,000 km – enough to strike Europe.

Brigadier General Hossein Salami said: “If we have kept the range of our missiles to 2000 kilometres, it’s not due to lack of technology – we are following a strategic doctrine.

State Department: Yeah, Christianity Is Under Attack Worldwide

With the rise of the Islamic State the world has witnessed the persecution of Christians at an alarming rate. But the religious group is being targeted well beyond the confines of the Middle East, the State Department’s annual International Religious Liberty report found.

Who Would Win A War In The South China Sea: The Pentagon Infographic

 

Back in May we highlighted an infographic showing how China stacks up, from the perspective of maritime military might, to its neighbors and to the US.

The context (of course), is the ongoing dispute over China’s land reclamation project in the South China Sea where Beijing has constructed, at last count, some 3,000 acres of sovereign territory atop reefs in the Spratlys. 

China’s land reclamation in South China Sea grows, claims Pentagon report

US military says reclamation now totals more than 1,170 hectares, compared to an earlier estimate of 800 hectares

China has reclaimed more land in the disputed Spratly islands of the South China Sea than previously known, according to a new Pentagon report, which says Beijing is also completing construction of a runway on one of its seven man-made outposts.

Once the airstrip on Fiery Cross Reef was operational, China could potentially use it as an alternative runway for carrier-based planes, allowing the PLA to conduct “sustained operations” with aircraft carriers in the area, the report said.

Clouds on US Horizon: Greek Debt Crisis Knocking on Washington’s Door?

While Greece is suffering from a protracted debt crisis, facing new tough reforms, the question arises whether if the United States will soon become incapable to handle its own growing debts, asks Romina Boccia, the Heritage Foundation’s Grover M. Hermann Fellow in Federal Budgetary Affairs.

“The United States differs from Greece in important ways. The US economy is much larger and better diversified. More than half of the US debt is held by creditors within its borders, rather than by foreign entities. Moreover, the United States also creates its own money, enabling it to devalue its currency and debt to avoid defaulting on payments for a lack of cash,” the analyst underscored.

US Nuclear Weapons Program Faces Disruptive Lithium Shortage

So, basically, the United States may not even be able to catch up with modernizing its nuclear deterrent, even if it did decide to wake up to the Chinese and Russian threat and attempt to counter it. There’s so many flaws in every aspect of the entire U.S. national security apparatus, from military purges across all branches to 1970’s hardware being used in the American nuclear deterrent, that a successful Russian or Chinese first strike isn’t implausible.

 

 

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The US government is running short of lithium which will be a key bottleneck in its ambitious plans to replace and expand its nuclear arsenal, a General Accountability Office (GAO) report said.

“The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) has identified various challenges in its lithium production strategy that may impact its ability to meet demand for lithium in the future,” the report, issued on Monday, warned.

U.S. Power Grid Being Hit With ‘Increasing’ Hacking Attacks, Government Warns

One can only imagine how much more the threat is multiplied because of the “patch and pray” culture America was warned about as early as 1998. Nobody in the industry cares until after the problem happens, then they stick a band-aid on it.

 

Potential to ‘take down’ U.S. power grids, water systems and other critical infrastructure

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While experts have long signaled that the U.S. power grid and related systems are vulnerable to physical attacks by terrorists and other individuals, the U.S. government is now warning that sensitive computer systems that maintain the grid are increasingly being attacked, according to a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report that was not made public until the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) disclosed it this month.

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These types of computer viruses are able to comb internal systems for private information in a clandestine manner; they can also be used to wrest control of certain computers away from their owners.

“In recent years, new threats have materialized as new vulnerabilities have come to light, and a number of major concerns have emerged about the resilience and security of the nation’s electric power system,” the report says. “In particular, the cyber security of the electricity grid has been a focus of recent efforts to protect the integrity of the electric power system.”

Iran Steps Up Cyber Attacks Across the Globe

Launching cyber attacks on Israel, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and other nations

Iran has significantly stepped up efforts to launch cyber attacks and hack into the critical systems of multiple Middle East governments, including those of Israel, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and a host of other nations, according to a new report by a leading Israeli cyber security firm.

Iran’s cyber operations have become increasingly sophisticated over the past year, with the Islamic Republic aiming to obtain state secrets and penetrate sensitive online systems of various governments, according to a new report by ClearSky Cyber Security.

HSBC fears world recession with no lifeboats left

The world authorities have run out of ammunition as rates remain stuck at zero. They have no margin for error as economy falters

The world economy is disturbingly close to stall speed. The United Nations has cut its global growth forecast for this year to 2.8pc, the latest of the multinational bodies to retreat.

We are not yet in the danger zone but this pace is only slightly above the 2.5pc rate that used to be regarded as a recession for the international system as a whole.

It leaves a thin safety buffer against any economic shock – most potently if China abandons its crawling dollar peg and resorts to ‘beggar-thy-neighbour’ policies, transmitting a further deflationary shock across the global economy.

China launches ‘mystery object’ into space

US Department of Defence’s annual report warns of Beijing’s ‘destructive’ space programme

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In what could ring alarm bells for the Indian security establishment, a report of the United States Department of Defence (DoD), has warned about China “destructive” space programme of stalling or destroying satellites of other countries and how its nuclear-powered submarines now make forays into the Indian Ocean.

Released on May 8, the DoD’s annual report to the US Congress on ‘Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China 2015’ talks about a mystery ‘object’ that Beijing had launched in space on a ballistic trajectory with a peak altitude above 30,000 km.

Air Force Confirms Shuttering of Vital Airlift Wing

Before your very own eyes, you’re looking at the tearing down and absolute decimation of the United States military. Key and critical military personnel are being purged on a weekly basis while the nuclear deterrent is faulty and being reduced. The country is suicidally letting down its homeland defenses and leaving itself open for attack.

Sen. Tillis: ‘It essentially takes the ‘air’ out of ‘airborne’’

The Air Force confirmed this week that it is shuttering a vital airlift wing at Fort Bragg, N.C., that trains the Army’s airborne and special operations forces, prompting outrage from the state’s lawmakers.

The Air Force finally submitted on Tuesday its “Report on C-130 Force Structure” to Congress after its release had been delayed since January. Units such as the 440th Airlift Wing at Fort Bragg’s Pope Army Airfield fly the C-130s to prepare airborne forces for emergency operations overseas.

How the U.S. Is Vulnerable to Terrorism in Space

Space terrorism is a growing threat to U.S. national security, according to a new report.

And an attack on a U.S. satellite—or damage to one from another country’s debris—could have astronomical effects on national security, says the report from the Council on Foreign Relations.

Confidential report lists U.S. weapons system designs compromised by Chinese cyberspies

Designs for many of the nation’s most sensitive advanced weapons systems have been compromised by Chinese hackers, according to a report prepared for the Pentagon and to officials from government and the defense industry.

Among more than two dozen major weapons systems whose designs were breached were programs critical to U.S. missile defenses and combat aircraft and ships, according to a previously undisclosed section of a confidential report prepared for Pentagon leaders by the Defense Science Board.

New Report Says China Secretly Executes Thousands Of People A Year

China is carrying out thousands of secret executions but refusing to report them, according to a report released this week by Amnesty International.

Amnesty believes China executed several thousand people last year — more than all other countries put together — but its government won’t confirm any exact numbers. 

Exclusive: Cyberattack leaves natural gas pipelines vulnerable to sabotage

For further information on SCADAs, please see the following Global Geopolitics entries that were ahead of the curve:

• Security backdoor found in China-made US military chip
• UPDATE 3: U.S. probes cyber attack on water system

“Red Dragon Rising: Communist China’s Military Threat to America” from 1999 is a highly recommended read. The United States is in more vulnerable than most people know, and longer than most people would have thought.

Cyberspies linked to China’s military targeted nearly two dozen US natural gas pipeline operators over a recent six-month period, stealing information that could be used to sabotage US gas pipelines, according to a restricted US government report and a source familiar with the government investigation.

From December 2011 through June 2012, cyberspies targeted 23 gas pipeline companies with e-mails crafted to deceive key personnel into clicking on malicious links or file attachments that let the attackers slip into company networks, says the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) report.

The report does not mention China, but the digital signatures of the attacks have been identified by independent cybersecurity researchers as belonging to a particular espionage group recently linked to China’s military.

The confluence of these factors –  along with the sensitive operational and technical details that were stolen – make the cyberbreaches perhaps among the most serious so far, some experts say. The stolen information could give an adversary all the insider knowledge necessary to blow up not just a few compressor stations but perhaps many of them simultaneously, effectively holding the nation’s gas infrastructure hostage. Nearly 30 percent of the nation’s power grid now relies on natural gas generation.

“This theft of key information is about hearing the footsteps get closer and closer,” says William Rush, a retired scientist formerly with the Gas Technology Institute who chaired the effort to create a cybersecurity standard applicable to the gas pipeline industry.

“Anyone can blow up a gas pipeline with dynamite. But with this stolen information, if I wanted to blow up not one, but 1,000 compressor stations, I could,” he adds. “I could put the attack vectors in place, let them sit there for years, and set them all off at the same time. I don’t have to worry about getting people physically in place to do the job, I just pull the trigger with one mouse click.”