30 Ιανουαρίου 2013

Μεγάλο «κράξιμο» στον πρίγκιπα Χάρι από αξιωματικούς!


Νέα προβλήματα για τον «μάχιμο» της βασιλικής οικογένειας, τον 28χρονο πρίγκιπα Χάρι, μετά από τη συνέντευξη της οποία έδωσε όπου περιέγραφε το πώς σκότωνε Ταλιμπάν στο Αφγανιστάν. Και δεν είναι οι μόνες ελαφρότητες που ξεστόμισε…
Ανώτατοι Βρετανοί αξιωματικοί, μιλώντας με την προϋπόθεση της ανωνυμίας – για ευνόητους λόγους – επιτέθηκαν στον νεαρό πρίγκιπα, με εκφράσεις ότι χρησιμοποίησε γλώσσα «κακομαθημένου, αναίσθητου έφηβου», περιγράφοντας την εικόνα που δημιούργησε με την περιβόητη συνέντευξη.
Ενόχληση υπάρχει και για τη δήλωση ότι θα προτιμούσε να είναι στο έδαφος στην επαρχία Χελμάντ του Αφγανιστάν, αντί να πιλοτάρει το επιθετικό ελικόπτερο Apache. Του καταλογίζουν για τη συγκεκριμένη δήλωση, αχαριστία και ανωριμότητα, ότι εμφανίζεται περισσότερο ως απογοητευμένος στρατιώτης, όχι ως αξιωματικός του Στρατού και αναφέρουν ότι θα έπρεπε να δείχνει περισσότερο σεβασμό απέναντι στα πληρώματα των επιθετικών ελικοπτέρων η δουλειά των οποίων θεωρείται ως εκ των δυσκολότερων στον βρετανικό Στρατό…
Γενικότερα, τον κατηγόρησαν ότι θα έπρεπε να σκέφτεται περισσότερο πριν μιλήσει και ότι είναι απαράδεκτο να είναι τόσο απαξιωτικός για την ανθρώπινη ζωή, ασχέτως ποιανού είναι αυτή, καθότι εξίσωσε την εξουδετέρωση των Ταλιμπάν με ηλεκτρονικό παιχνίδι που τόσο του αρέσει να παίζει…

ΠΗΓΗ 

28 Ιανουαρίου 2013

Women in Combat Roles: The Changing of the Guard


US Army Women in Combat 1 

RUSI Analysis, 28 Jan 2013  
By Joanne Mackowski, Researcher, Defence, Industries and Societies


With US women now being allowed to participate in combat roles, the US military can be applauded for its move towards gender equality. But its driving imperative must remain a commitment to military effectiveness, and to the lives of the men and women who serve.

Barely into the first week of President Obama's second term in office, and his Administration continued a march of change within the American military. On 24 January, Secretary of Defense Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dempsey signed away the ban against women in front-line combat roles within the US military....

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Pentagon Expanding Cybersecurity Force to Protect Networks Against Attacks


WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is moving toward a major expansion of its cybersecurity force to counter increasing attacks on the nation’s computer networks, as well as to expand offensive computer operations on foreign adversaries, defense officials said Sunday.
The expansion would increase the Defense Department’s Cyber Command by more than 4,000 people, up from the current 900, an American official said. Defense officials acknowledged that a formidable challenge in the growth of the command would be finding, training and holding onto such a large number of qualified people.
The Pentagon “is constantly looking to recruit, train and retain world class cyberpersonnel,” a defense official said Sunday.
“The threat is real and we need to react to it,” said William J. Lynn III, a former deputy defense secretary who worked on the Pentagon’s cybersecurity strategy.
As part of the expansion, officials said the Pentagon was planning three different forces under Cyber Command: “national mission forces” to protect computer systems that support the nation’s power grid and critical infrastructure; “combat mission forces” to plan and execute attacks on adversaries; and “cyber protection forces” to secure the Pentagon’s computer systems.
The move, part of a push by Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta to bolster the Pentagon’s cyberoperations, was first reported on The Washington Post’s Web site.
In October, Mr. Panetta warned in dire terms that the United States was facing the possibility of a “cyber-Pearl Harbor” and was increasingly vulnerable to foreign computer hackers who could dismantle the nation’s power grid, transportation system, financial network and government. He said that “an aggressor nation” or extremist group could cause a national catastrophe, and that he was reacting to increasing assertiveness and technological advances by the nation’s adversaries, which officials identified as China, Russia, Iran and militant groups.
Defense officials said that Mr. Panetta was particularly concerned about a computer attack last August on the state oil company Saudi Aramco, which infected and made useless more than 30,000 computers. In October, American intelligence officials said they were increasingly convinced that the Saudi attacks originated in Iran. They described an emerging shadow war of attacks and counterattacks already under way between the United States and Iran in cyberspace.
Among American officials, suspicion has focused on the “cybercorps” created in 2011 by Iran’s military, partly in response to American and Israeli cyberattacks on the Iranian nuclear enrichment plan at Natanz. There is no hard evidence, however, that the attacks were sanctioned by the Iranian government.
The attacks emanating from Iran have inflicted only modest damage. Iran’s cyberwarfare capabilities are weaker than those of China and Russia, which intelligence officials believe are the sources of a significant number of attacks on American companies and government agencies.
The expansion of Cyber Command comes as the Pentagon is making cuts elsewhere, including in the size of its conventional armed forces.

25 Ιανουαρίου 2013

China-Japan Island Dispute Escalates



....Last week, the Chinese government sent a civilian surveillance plane, a twin propeller aircraft, to fly near the uninhabited islands at the heart of a growing feud between China and Japan. Tokyo, in response, ordered F-15 fighter jets to take a look at what it considered Chinese meddling. The Chinese then sent their own fighters.
It was the first time that supersonic Chinese and Japanese military fighters were in the air together since the dispute over the islands erupted last year, significantly increasing the risk of a mistake that could lead to armed conflict at a time when both countries, despite their mutual economic interests, are going through a period of heightened nationalism that recalls their longstanding regional rivalry....

06 Ιανουαρίου 2013

Local resistance to global austerity: it will never work by Greg Sharzer -- OPEN DEMOCRACY



Quebec students protest against tuition fees 2012. 


The localist form of citizenship may empower us, but it cannot confront capitalism. Against a global network of power must emerge globalised forms of struggle.

In 2011, as Greece continued its inexorable slide towards bankruptcy, The Guardian featured economist Costas Lapavitsas on how Greeks were coping with the crisis. As unemployment grew, communities lost: 
the means to live as well as the norms, customs and respect of regular work. Barter has appeared among the poor and the not so poor… Schools and transport are disintegrating. People are abandoning cities to return to agriculture, a sure sign of social retrogression.
 

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