Georgetown Security Law Brief

Indian and Chinese Premiers pledge cooperation on border issues

05/20/13:  The New York Times reports the prime ministers of India and China papered over their recent border dispute on Monday with a friendly joint statement and an array of promises for future economic and military cooperation. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India emphasized in his remarks that friendly relations between the Asian giants depended on “peace and tranquillity on our borders.” The two sides promised to appoint special representatives to investigate the reasons for the recent border spat. On April 15, a contingent of 50 Chinese troops was found to have set up camp in the mountainous Ladakh section of Kashmir that India claims as its own. India then stationed troops about 300 yards away from the Chinese troops and the two camps faced each other for weeks before the dispute was resolved. The two sides pledged Monday to enhance cooperation and agreed to joint military training exercises later this year. Their statement also referred to improved cooperation on maritime security. China’s growing maritime presence, including the building of ports in countries like Sri Lanka and Pakistan in what has been called a “string of pearls” strategy, has alarmed India. Mr. Li is scheduled to leave India on Tuesday to visit Pakistan.

Sinai kidnapping: Egyptian police seal border with Gaza

05/17/13:  The BBC reports Egyptian police have sealed off the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip in protest at the abduction of seven security personnel in Sinai. Reports say police locked the gates and placed barbed wire at the entrance. Rafah is the only regular exit from Gaza for 1.6m Palestinians living there. Other crossings into Israel are allowed only in exceptional cases. The three policemen and four soldiers were captured while travelling in the peninsula, east of El Arish. Four of the men worked at the Rafah crossing, reports said. An Egyptian security official said the Rafah crossing will remain closed until the group is released, the Associated Press news agency reported. The Palestinian Maan news agency said Gaza's Interior Ministry declared a state of alert along its border with Egypt and large numbers of Egyptian soldiers have been in the area. The BBC's Rushdie Abu Alouf, who is among some 150 Palestinians stuck on the Egyptian side, says people including the sick and elderly have been sitting on the ground under the heat of the sun since early morning waiting to cross.

India and China 'pull back troops' in disputed border area

05/07/13:  The BBC reports India and China have started pulling back troops from disputed territory near the two countries' de facto border, India's foreign ministry says. Soldiers were said to have set up camps facing each other on the ill-defined frontier in Ladakh region last month. The two sides held a series of talks to resolve the row and on Sunday, agreed to withdraw the troops. The two countries dispute several Himalayan border areas and fought a brief war in 1962. Tensions flare up from time to time. They have held numerous rounds of border talks, but all have been unsuccessful so far. A spokesperson for India's foreign ministry, Syed Akbaruddin, told the BBC that India and China had agreed to pull their troops back to positions they held prior to the current stand-off, which began last month. Meetings between border commanders were being held to confirm the arrangement, he added. Indian officials had accused Chinese troops of straying 10km (six miles) into Indian territory on 15 April and putting up tents in the Depsang valley in Ladakh, in eastern Kashmir. China had denied reports of an incursion. The pull-out comes days ahead of Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid's visit to China, ahead of a scheduled visit by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to India. Mr Khurshid is visiting China on 9 May, ahead of Mr Li's visit on 20 May for his first overseas trip.

Will Iran's national internet mean no world wide web?

04/27/13:  The BBC reports eight years ago, when President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad first took office, the Iranian government announced plans to develop a national internet network. The project attracted little attention at the time but now, with less than two months to go until the next presidential election, some analysts say it is so well advanced that the authorities could soon be in a position to cut off the entire country from the world wide web. When Iran's former Information Technology Minister Mohammad Soleimani complained last week about the difficulties he was having accessing the internet, he was expressing the frustrations of many. For months now, Iranian social media sites have been full of postings about slow download speeds and intermittent access. Internet 'demons' While some put the blame on the country's overloaded and outdated internet infrastructure, others have a more sinister explanation for what is going on.

As Bird Flu spreads to Taiwan, governments act to prepare

04/25/13:  The New York Times reports the new strain of avian influenza that has infected more than 100 people in China in the last two months has, for the first time, been reported outside mainland China. Officials in Taiwan reported one case in a 53-year-old Taiwanese citizen who traveled regularly to the Chinese city of Suzhou for work, where he probably contracted the virus. He fell ill on April 12, three days after returning to Taiwan. Tests revealed on Wednesday that he was infected with the H7N9 bird flu virus. As of Tuesday, Chinese officials had reported 108 cases and 22 deaths from the new flu. The case has set off alarms in Taiwan, where the Central Epidemic Command Center says that it has “continued to strengthen surveillance and fever screening of travelers arriving from China.” The patient in Taiwan, described as severely ill, is being treated in a special isolation room, and 139 people who had contact with him — including 110 health workers — are being watched for symptoms. So far, there is no evidence that any have contracted the disease, which has not been found to spread from person to person. Officials elsewhere in the region are increasingly jittery about the spread of the virus from China. On Wednesday, Japan said it was racing to make changes that would essentially allow local governments to consign bird flu patients or suspected patients to hospitals, and order them to stay away from their workplaces. The Japanese government took similar precautions during epidemics of the H5N1 and severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, viruses in the last decade.

Chinese troops camping in "Indian territory:" police

04/20/13:  Reuters reports several dozen Chinese soldiers have set up a remote camp some 10 km (6 miles) inside territory claimed by India in the high altitude Himalayan desert of Ladakh, Indian police sources said, in a possible return to border tension between the Asian giants. An Indian foreign ministry spokesman said the two countries were in touch with each other to resolve the row. The ill-defined border has fuelled 50 years of mistrust despite blossoming economic ties. The Indian army set up its own temporary camp just 500 meters (1600 feet) from the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers after the incident on April 15, a senior police official stationed close to the border told Reuters. India lost a short but bloody war with China in 1962, fought in Ladakh and the eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh. Today India controls Arunachal Pradesh, while China administers a large area adjacent to Ladakh called Aksai Chin. Neither side is comfortable with the arrangement. Small incursions are common across the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the de facto border that runs some 4,000 km (2,500 miles) across the Himalayas, but it is rare for either country to set up camp so deep within disputed territory. The two countries have increased their military presence on each side of the border in recent years as their fast-growing economies permit more spending on defense of remote regions. They hold frequent meetings to diffuse tensions, but high-level talks to resolve the dispute have not produced results. The latest incident took place at Daulat Beg, where India established a landing strip during the 1962 war. At 5,100 meters (16,700 feet), the strip is one of the world's highest. It was reopened in 2008.

China punished North Korea as US asks for more

03/23/13:  The Miami Herald reports China is trying to punish ally North Korea for its nuclear and missile tests, stepping up inspections of North Korean-bound cargo in a calibrated effort to send a message of Chinese pique without further provoking a testy Pyongyang government. Freight handlers and trading companies at ports and cities near the North Korean border complain of more rigorous inspections and surprise checks that are raising the costs to doing business with an often unpredictable North Korea. Machinery, luxury goods and daily necessities such as rice and cooking oil are among the targeted products, the companies said, and business is suffering. North Korea's economic lifeline, China is showing signs of getting tough with an impoverished neighbor it has long supported with trade, aid and diplomatic protection for fear of setting off a collapse. The moves to crimp, but not cut off trade with North Korea come as Beijing falls under increased scrutiny to enforce new UN sanctions passed after last month's nuclear test, Pyongyang's third. US officials in Beijing for two days of talks to lobby China on enforcement said Friday that they were heartened by Chinese expressions of resolve. Spurring Beijing to cooperate, the US officials said, is a concern that North Korean behavior had begun threatening China's interests in a region vital to its economic and security.

Israel apologizes to Turkey over 2010 flotilla raid

03/22/13:  NPR reports in a phone call today with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized to Turkey over the 2010 Israeli raid of a flotilla that left nine people dead. The flotilla was attempting to break an Israeli naval blockade of Gaza, when it was intercepted by Israel. "PM Netanyahu made it clear that the tragic Consequences of the Mavi Marmara flotilla were not intended & that Israel is sorry for loss of life," Ofir Gendelman, the prime minister's spokesman said on Twitter. "PM Netanyahu apologized to the Turkish ppl for any mistake that could have led to loss of life, agreed to complete the compensation agreement." This is a tremendous diplomatic breakthrough. As we've reported, back in September of 2011, Erdogran said the raid in international waters was "cause for war." Israel had refused to apologize since the incident. In September of 2011, a United Nations panel found Israel's naval blockade of Gaza was legal but that the raid was "excessive and unreasonable." According to a senior White House official, Erdogan accepted the apology. Another senior administration official said this was a "first step" toward normalization of relations between the two countries. The phone call between Netanyahu and Erdogan took place in a trailer at the Tel-Aviv airport where President Obama was taking off for Amman. The senior administration official said at one point Obama jumped in on the call.

DHS officials still seek ways to assess border security

03/22/13:  The New York Times reports more than two years after Homeland Security officials told Congress that they would produce new, more accurate standards to assess security at the nation’s borders, senior officials from the department acknowledged this week that they had not completed the new measurements and were not likely to in coming months, as the debate proceeds about overhauling the immigration system. Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers were taken aback at a hearing on Wednesday in the House of Representatives when Mark Borkowski, a senior Homeland Security official, said he had no progress to report on a broad measure of border conditions the department had been working on since 2010. The lawmakers warned that failure by the Obama administration to devise a reliable method of border evaluation could imperil passage of immigration legislation. Amid contentious discussions in Congress over immigration, one point of wide agreement is that an evaluation of border security will be a central piece of any comprehensive bill. A bipartisan group in the Senate is working to write legislation that includes a “trigger,” which would make the path to citizenship for more than 11 million illegal immigrants in the country contingent on measurable advances in security at the borders. Lawmakers have been pressing Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to devise a measure they can use to judge if the Obama administration’s claims of significant progress in border enforcement are justified. Republican senators in the bipartisan group have said a border standard is pivotal to their efforts.

 

US rescues 71 Haitian migrants near Puerto Rico

03/10/13: The Miami Herald reports federal officials have rescued seventy-one Haitian migrants found stranded on the shores of a cluster of islands just west of Puerto Rico.  US Customs and Border Protection and the Coast Guard first rescued two migrants found on one island and then the remainder of the group from the island of Desecheo off the western coastal town of Rincón.  Customs spokesman Jeffrey Quinones said Saturday that a large number of the Haitians were dehydrated and had bruises and scratches.  They were taken to hospitals for treatment.  The rescue comes a week after sixty-seven migrants from Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic were found in the same cluster of islands.  One Haitian woman was found dead.

Court curbs laptop searches at US border

03/09/13:  The Washington Times reports a federal appeals court on Friday said the Border Patrol cannot confiscate or download every laptop or electronic device brought into the US, ruling that people have an expectation their data are private and that the government must have “reasonable suspicion” before it starts to snoop. In a broad ruling, the court also said merely putting password protection on information is not enough to trigger the government’s “reasonable suspicion” to conduct a more intrusive search — but can be taken into account along with other factors. The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals judges said it was a “watershed care” that gets at what kinds of limits the government must observe when it comes to technology and privacy. Privacy advocates cheered the decision, saying that the government had previously believed it had the right to copy all electronic data of anyone crossing into the US.

Small airports irked by removal of body scanners

03/07/13:  The Miami Herald reports managers at dozens of small airports have expressed outrage at federal officials for hauling new full-body scanners away from their facilities and sending them to large hubs that haven't yet upgraded older machines criticized for showing too much anatomy. US Transportation Security Administration contractors were threatened with arrest after officials at a Montana airport said they received no notice before the workers arrived. In North Dakota, the scanners are set to be yanked from a terminal remodeled last year with $40,000 in local funds just to fit the new machines. The L3 Millimeter Wave body scanners, which are about the size of a minivan on end and produce cartoonlike outlines of travelers, are being removed from 49 smaller airports across the country to help replace 174 full-body scanners used at larger airports. After controversy erupted over the bare images of a person's body the full-body scanners produce, Congress set a June deadline for them to be removed or updated. But officials at smaller airports said removing their machines will produce longer lines, increased pat-downs, decreased security and a waste of taxpayer money. 

Mexican police find improvised border drug cannon

02/26/13:  The Miami Herald reports police in the border city of Mexicali say they have recovered a powerful improvised cannon used to hurl packets of marijuana across a border fence into California. Police told the Televisa network that the device was made up of a plastic pipe and a crude metal tank that used compressed air from the engine of an old car. The apparatus fired cylinders packed with drugs that weighed as much as 30 pounds, police. It was confiscated last week after U.S. officers told Mexican police that they had been confiscating a large number of drug packages that appeared to have been fired over the border. Mexican police on the border have recovered a series of similar devices in recent years.

Egypt floods tunnels into Gaza

02/13/13: Reuters reports Egyptian forces have flooded smuggling tunnels under the border with the Palestinian-ruled Gaza Strip in an effort to shut them down.  The network of tunnels is a vital lifeline for Gaza, bringing in an estimated 30 percent of all goods that reach the enclave and circumventing a blockade imposed by Israel for more than seven years.  “The Egyptians have opened the water to drown the tunnels,” said Abu Ghassan, who supervises the work of thirty men at one tunnel some 220 yards from the border fence.  An Egyptian security official said the campaign started five days ago.  Dozens of tunnels have been destroyed since last August following the killing of sixteen Egyptian soldiers in a militant attack near the Gaza fence.

Technical difficulties delay DHS plan for upgraded sensors on US-Mexico border

02/11/13: Wired reports the US Government’s plan to install new advanced ground sensors at the Mexican border has been delayed due to bandwidth and frequency problems the.  The delay isn’t the first, and it comes as thousands of aging sensors along the border trigger false alarms that have proved deadly to Border Patrol agents.  The Department of Homeland Security and US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) originally planned to blanket the border with a new generation of “unattended ground sensors” (UGS’s).  According to CBP, the plan hasn’t been canceled outright, but it has been delayed for much, if not most, of 2013.  The problem: the sensors can’t communicate with the rest of the tech along the border.

DHS Watchdog okays ‘suspicionless’ seizure of electronic devices along border

02/09/13:  The Wired's Threat Level reports the Department of Homeland Security’s civil rights watchdog has concluded that travelers along the nation’s borders may have their electronics seized and the contents of those devices examined for any reason whatsoever — all in the name of national security.  The DHS, which secures the nation’s border, in 2009 announced that it would conduct a “Civil Liberties Impact Assessment” of its suspicionless search-and-seizure policy pertaining to electronic devices “within 120 days” More than three years later, the DHS office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties published a two-page executive summary of its findings.  "We also conclude that imposing a requirement that officers have reasonable suspicion in order to conduct a border search of an electronic device would be operationally harmful without concomitant civil rights/civil liberties benefits,” the executive summary said.

Reid: Immigration bill will pass Senate

02/04/13: The Hill reports Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Sunday said that immigration reform was “certainly going to pass” the upper chamber.  “It has to get done.  We have to work hard to get it done,” Reid said.  “It’s really easy to write principles.  To write legislation is much harder.  And once we write the legislation, then you have to get it passed.  But I think things are looking really good.”  Last week a bipartisan group of senators introduced a framework for reform, which includes a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants and calls for tighter border security.  But the plan faces obstacles from GOP lawmakers who are opposed to measures granting illegal immigrants citizenship and want border-security issues addressed first.

Senators reach agreement on immigration overhaul

01/28/13: NPR reports a bipartisan group of leading senators has reached agreement on the principles of sweeping legislation to retool the nation’s immigration laws.  The deal covers border security, guest workers and employer verification, as well as a path to citizenship for the 11 million illegal immigrants already in this country.  Although thorny details remain to be negotiated and success is far from certain, the development heralds the start of what could be the most significant effort in years toward overhauling the nation's inefficient patchwork of immigration laws.  The eight senators expected to endorse the new principles Monday are Democrats Charles Schumer (N.Y.), Dick Durbin (Ill.), Robert Menendez (N.J.) and Michael Bennet (Colo.); and Republicans John McCain (Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Marco Rubio (Fla.) and Jeff Flake (Ariz.)  Several of these lawmakers have worked for years on the issue.  McCain collaborated with the late Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) on comprehensive immigration legislation pushed by then-President George W. Bush in 2007, only to see it collapse in the Senate when it couldn’t get enough GOP support.  Comprehensive immigration reform has not been seriously attempted since.

Kashmir crisis: India and Pakistan agree 'de-escalation'

01/17/13:  The BBC reports India and Pakistan have agreed to "de-escalate" military tensions in Kashmir after a spate of deadly shootings in the disputed territory, officials say.  Their chiefs of operations along the Line of Control reached the agreement in a 10-minute phone call on Wednesday.  Pakistan's military earlier accused the Indian army of killing one of its soldiers with "unprovoked firing" in the territory.  Tensions have risen following deadly exchanges along the border last week.

TSA experiments with behavior screening

01/08/13:  The New York Times reports the Transportation Security Administration is taking another step back from its one-size-fits-all security screening that requires all airline passengers to remove their belts, shoes and coats at checkpoints. Now, the agency is testing a new behavior detection program where officers use on-the-spot observations and conversations with passengers to select some for the quicker pass through the checkpoint. The idea is to selectively identify certain passengers who appear to pose no threat and invite them to use lanes dedicated to the PreCheck program that the agency began in October 2011. For several years, the T.S.A. has been looking for alternative screening methods to address public dissatisfaction with the current system. But one of those methods, behavior science, has its own critics, who warn of the potential for racial and ethnic profiling. Some critics also question whether the T.S.A. gives adequate training to its behavior detection officers. The officers had been receiving only four days of training, though the agency said recently it was expanding the program to provide “additional specialized training.”

Israel plans to construct a Syrian border fence

01/07/13:  The New York Times reports Israel announced Sunday that it was constructing a border fence along the length of its armistice line with Syria in the Golan Heights and that it was coordinating its intelligence with the United States in light of the deteriorating security situation in Syria. Mr. Netanyahu’s announcement came as he sought to reinforce his security credentials as a strong leader ahead of national elections on Jan. 22, and as he appealed to his traditional supporters to cast their ballots for the conservative Likud-Beiteinu ticket he is leading and not be lulled by polls showing that he is favored to win.

Israel, in shift, lets building materials cross into Gaza

01/02/13:  The New York Times reports for the first time in five years, Israel on Sunday allowed 20 truckloads of building materials into Gaza for use by the private sector, according to Israeli and Palestinian officials. One of the first tangible concessions under a cease-fire deal reached after eight days of intesnive fighting in November, it signaled a shift in Israel’s approach to the Palestinian enclave. Israeli officials said that construction materials would now be allowed in on a daily basis via the Kerem Shalom crossing on Israel’s border with Gaza. The shipment on Sunday came in addition to 34 trucks of gravel that crossed into Gaza over the weekend from Egypt, which also had Israel’s approval. The materials from Egypt were earmarked for housing complexes and other construction projects.

Border agents’ power to search devices facing increasing court challenges

12/04/12:  The New York Times reports the government has historically had broad power to search travelers and their property at the border. But that prerogative is being challenged as more people travel with extensive personal and business information on devices that would typically require a warrant to examine. Several court cases seek to limit the ability of border agents to search, copy and even seize travelers’ laptops, cameras and phones without suspicion of illegal activity. A decision in one of those suits, Abidor v. Napolitano, is expected soon, according to the case manager for Judge Edward R. Korman, who is writing the opinion for the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

Chinese firm in illegal nuclear exports to Pakistan

12/04/12:  The BBC reports a Chinese government-linked company has pleaded guilty to illegally exporting high-performance coatings from the US to a nuclear power plant in Pakistan. The US has restricted nuclear-related exports to Pakistan since the country's detonation of a nuclear device in 1998. It marks the first time a Chinese company has admitted guilt in a US criminal export case. Nanjing-based Huaxing admitted to charges that it conspired to ship the epoxy coating through China to Pakistan's Chashma II Nuclear Power Plant in 2006 and 2007.

Border killings prompt scrutiny of Border Patrol lethal force policy

11/25/12: NPR reports the Department of Homeland Security is examining its policy on deadly force along the US-Mexico border.  In less than two years, US Border Patrol agents have killed eighteen Mexican citizens there, including eight people who were throwing rocks.  Last month, Border Patrol agents responded to a report of two drug smugglers jumping the fence between the twin cities of Nogales, Arizona, and Nogales, Mexico.  As the agents approached, a group of people on the Mexican side began throwing rocks.  The Border Patrol says the agents told the people to stop.  When they didn’t, one agent opened fire and killed a teenager on Mexican soil who wasn’t one of the smugglers.  Since 2010, six of the eight rock-throwers killed by Border Patrol agents were on the Mexican side of the border.

US lifts Myanmar imports ban

11/17/12:  The BBC reports the US has lifted a decade-old ban on most imports from Burma, ahead of a historic visit by President Obama. The move was intended to support political reform in Burma and to offer new bilateral business opportunities, said US officials. Mr Obama will on Monday be the first US president to visit Burma, which has seen rapid change since nearly half a century of military rule ended in 2010. The US export ban will remain in place on imports of some gems. Burma is famous for its jade and rubies, but the precious stones were a source of revenue for the military and concerns remain about human rights abuses in the industry, correspondents say.

Outrage in Texas after airborne police sharpshooter kills two

11/06/12:  The New York Times reports as a red pickup truck believed to be carrying drugs raced down a rural road near this border town last month, a state police helicopter that joined the pursuit warned units on the ground to keep their distance. An officer with a high-powered rifle in the helicopter opened fire, but after the truck came to a stop, the authorities discovered that the sharpshooter had made a tragic mistake. The truck’s cargo was not drugs but people. Illegal immigrants from Guatemala being smuggled across the border had been hiding in the bed of the truck, covered by a dark blanket. Two of them were killed by the sharpshooter from the state’s top law enforcement agency, the Department of Public Safety.

Turkey begins trial of Israeli military over Gaza ship killings

11/06/12:  Reuters reports hundreds of protesters chanting "Murderer Israel!" gathered outside an Istanbul court on Tuesday at the start of a trial of a group of former Israeli military commanders charged over the 2010 killing of nine Turks aboard a Gaza-bound aid ship. The trial in absentia of four of Israel's most senior retired commanders, including the head of the army, has been dismissed by Israel as a politically motivated "show trial" and threatens to further strain already fraught relations. Ties between the Jewish state and what was once its only Muslim ally crumbled after Israeli marines stormed the Mavi Marmara aid ship in May 2010 to enforce a naval blockade of the Palestinian-run Gaza Strip.

Lawmaker warns sequester will weaken border protection

10/24/12: The Washington Times reports more than 8,500 US Customs and Border Protection officers and Immigration and Customs and Enforcement (ICE) personnel face termination in January under the automatic spending cuts scheduled to take effect next year in a bid to attack the spiraling fiscal deficit.  The job losses, in the wake of massive efforts by the Border Patrol to significantly beef up security along the US-Mexico border, would be the result of a “sequestration” in the federal budget, automatic spending cuts of 9.4 percent in 2013 for discretionary defense appropriations and 8.2 percent in 2013 for discretionary nondefense spending.  Representative Norman D. Dicks (D-Wash.) noted in a letter earlier this month that the scheduled cuts at the Department of Homeland Security would roll back “significant progress” in securing the nation’s borders.

Nigerian navy detains Russian crew over arms

10/23/12:  The BBC reports the Nigerian navy has seized a foreign-flagged ship carrying arms and ammunition and arrested its 15 mainly Russian crew members.  The vessel was intercepted over the weekend by patrol boats, a naval official told AFP news agency.  Officials said the boat, belonging to Moscow-based security firm Moran, was carrying rifles and ammunition.  Moran told the BBC the boat had all the required permissions to carry arms and had stopped in Lagos to change crew.

Israel takes control of ship heading to Gaza

10/20/12:  The New York Times reports The Israeli Navy on Saturday boarded a European ship en route to the Gaza Strip that was trying to break Israel's maritime blockade against the Hamas-controlled region.  The passengers on the ship, the Estelle, included five members of European parliaments and a former Canadian lawmaker, according to those involved in the campaign. An Israeli military spokesman said that the ship was seized without incident and taken to the port of Ashdod , in southern Israel, and that those on board would be turned over to the police.

Israel counted Gaza calorie needs during 2008 blockade

10/18/12:  The New York Times reports Israeli authorities blockading the Gaza Strip in 2008 went so far as to calculate how many calories would be needed to avert a humanitarian disaster in the impoverished Palestinian territory, according to a newly declassified military document. The military said the guidelines were never implemented. However critics rejected the claim, saying the document was new evidence that Israel used food as a pressure tactic to try to force Gaza's Hamas rulers from power — a strategy that ultimately failed. Israel maintained a strict blockade over Gaza from 2007-2010. During that time, Israel limited food supplies entering Gaza and maintained a baffling list of items that were banned or permitted as part of a broader effort to topple the violently anti-Israel Hamas by squeezing the economy.

Devices go nose to nose with bomb-sniffer dogs

10/16/12:  The New York Times reports at a binational armaments and security research center in eastern France, Dr. Spitzer and his colleagues are working on a sensor to detect vapors of TNT and other explosives in very faint amounts, as might emanate from a bomb being smuggled through airport security. Using microscopic slivers of silicon covered with forests of even smaller tubes of titanium oxide, they aim to create a device that could supplement, perhaps even supplant, the best mobile bomb detector in the business: the sniffer dog.

Chamber of Commerce and others push to eliminate 9/11 Commission security regulation

10/15/12: The Hill reports the US Chamber of Commerce and other business groups want Congress to overhaul a rule that all cargo shipped to the United States from foreign ports be scanned for security.  The groups argue the requirement, a key element of the 2007 law implementing the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, will raise costs for businesses by slowing international trade and could harm the US economy.  They also argue security measures already in place make the scanning unnecessary.  Supporters of the mandate say it is the best safeguard against the nightmare scenario of a ship sailing into the Globe Marine Terminal in Jersey City or another busy port with a dirty bomb or other devastating weapon.  It passed Congress overwhelmingly five years ago, 85-8 in the Senate and 371-40 in the House.

Syria plane carried radar parts, not weapons - Russia

10/12/12:  The BBC reports Russia says the Syria-bound plane intercepted by Turkey amid reports it was carrying cargo which could aid government war efforts was transporting a legal shipment of radar equipment. "There were no weapons on the plane," said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. His comments followed heated exchanges between Turkey and Syria over the exact nature of the items confiscated.  Turkey's PM earlier said Russian-made defence equipment was found on board - a claim Syria dismissed as a lie. Damascus has challenged the Turks to put the confiscated items on public view, something Ankara has declined to do so far.

Defector goes unseen, embarrassing South Korea

10/12/12: The New York Times reports a North Korean soldier who defected to South Korea this month not only scaled three barbed-wire fences along one of the world’s most heavily patrolled borders without being detected, he also had to knock on barracks doors — twice — when he reached the South to get any attention.  The startling details of the border guards’ failure to spot the defector are no doubt an embarrassment for the government. But the news has been greeted with something of a shrug by many South Koreans, who have learned to live next to a country with which they remain technically at war.

Cargo aboard seized Syria-bound plane included missile parts from Russia

10/11/12:  The Miami Herald reports Turkey’s decision to force down a Syrian aircraft en route from Moscow to Damascus with a suspect cargo was intended to ensure that Turkey’s airspace is not used by any country to resupply the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad, the foreign ministry said Thursday. F-16 fighter intercepted a Syrian A320 Airbus and escorted it to Ankara Wednesday afternoon, then offloaded and inspected the cargo. Turkish news media reported that there were 10 sealed containers on the plane that had not been on the manifest. The pro-government daily Yeni Safak said they contained radio transmitters and missile parts.

TSA put inspection notices in luggage it didn't inspect

10/10/12: CNN reports the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General (IG) announced Tuesday that a number of incidents took place in 2010 in which Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officials placed notices in checked luggage indicating that it had been inspected without actually performing an inspection.  The incidents led to the firing of thirty-six screeners at Honolulu International Airport.  The IG’s report said a whistle-blower triggered investigations when he came forward with video showing some TSA officers skirting procedures.  Thousands of bags went on commercial jets unscreened, risking the safety of the traveling public.  The IG concluded that while the screeners in Honolulu were ultimately responsible for the failures, the situation “might not have occurred” if TSA leaders had more thoroughly evaluated protocols before changing them and provided better oversight, adequate staff, and screening equipment.

Weekly Tech Updates

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Texas company charged in illegal technology transfers to Russia

10/04/12:  NPR reports that federal prosecutors in Brooklyn say they have broken up a ring that allegedly exported sensitive electronic technology to Russia. Eight people were arrested today in Houston, including Alexander Fishenko, an immigrant from Kazakhstan who built a multi-million dollar export firm called Arc Electrics. The indictment names Fishenko as an unregistered agent of the Russian government who bought high-tech microchips and other electronic items from American suppliers, then re-sold them to a defense contracting company in Russia.  The micro-electronics are known as "dual-use" technology because they can be used in both civilian and military systems.  The chips and other devices are readily available to civilian businesses in the U.S., but exporters need special licenses and clearance if they want to ship the technology to other countries.

Chinese smuggler tried to sneak carbon fiber for fighter jets

09/28/12:  Wired's Danger Room reports that the US has busted up a plot to smuggle tons of carbon fiber to China, where the material would ostensibly be used in the construction of new fighter planes. That might seem worrying, but if the allegations are true, it’s probably a comforting sign. That’s because if Beijing needs to illegally import the ultra-tough polymers from America, that means we don’t have to worry too much about China's upgraded air force.  The case involves a 40-year-old Chinese man named Ming Suan Zhang. On Wednesday, Zhang was charged in federal court in the Eastern District of New York with “attempting to illegally export aerospace-grade carbon fiber” from the U.S. to China.