DAILY INTEL DUMP

• HERE WE GO AGAIN
  Jun 13 2013 05:40 PM
  The Syrian government used chemical weapons against its opponents, the Obama administration said Thursday, acknowledging that President Bashar Assad’s regime has crossed the “red line” President Obama laid down for U.S. action.Putting American boots on the ground in Syria still isn’t an option, but White House officials now say the U.S. will provide other types of “military support” possibly including communications equipment, medical supplies and potentially training for Syrian rebel forces.“The president has made his decision … we’re just not going to be able to lay out an inventory” of what the U.S. and its allies will provide...
  
  
  
• DEPUTY DIRECTOR CIA RESIGNS
  Jun 12 2013 02:37 PM
  CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell retired from his post Wednesday, after managing the resignation of former CIA Director David Petraeus over an extramarital affair, and defending the agency's performance over the attack on a U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya.Morell was passed over for the top CIA spot by President Barack Obama in favor of his counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, who announced Morrell's departure Wednesday.Brennan said he Morell will be replaced by Avril Haines, currently a deputy assistant to the president and legal adviser at the National Security Council.Morell agreed to the State Department's request...
  
  
  
• INTRODUCING "BOUNDLESS INFORMANT"
  Jun 08 2013 08:30 PM
  Everyone, meet the National Security Agency's Boundless Informant. It's the pretty tool designed to help staffers get an overview of the data collected by the agency and which comes complete with its own Frequently Asked Questions guide. The Guardian's Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill unleashed another scoop about the NSA's big data troves Saturday afternoon, introducing the world to the agency's handy system for easily "recording and analysing where its intelligence comes from." The program tells staffers how much data was collected in each country. There's a color-coded map showing where most data comes from, with green signi...
  
  
  
• OUR GOVERNMENT HAS BEEN A TECH BUSY BODY
  Jun 08 2013 08:38 AM
  The latest revelations about the breadth of the US government’s intelligence dragnet, an apparent effort to monitor a broad range of domestic internet and phone communication in search of foreign terrorists, is a reminder that when it comes to surveillance, the land of the free is more like Syria or Iran than we might think. But don’t worry! Even as the National Security Agency monitors US internet activity, the State Department has been financing technology that will allow people to set up their own networks—the old “internet in a suitcase“—to get around monitoring by governments like Iran’s.Iran holds a presidential election o...
  
  
  
• PUTIN MEDDLING IN THE GOLAN
  Jun 07 2013 07:44 AM
  Russia is ready to replace peacekeepers from Austria in the Golan Heights, President Vladimir Putin said on Friday, after Vienna said it would recall its troops from a U.N. monitoring force due to worsening fighting in Syria.Austria, whose peacekeepers account for about 380 of the 1,000-strong U.N. force observing a four-decade-old ceasefire between Syria and Israel, said it would pull out after intense clashes between Syrian government forces and rebels on the border."Given the complicated situation in the Golan Heights, we could replace the leaving Austrian contingent in this region on the border between Israeli troops and the...
  
  
  
• PATRIOT MISSILES AND F-16'S TO JORDAN
  Jun 05 2013 07:51 PM
  The U.S. will send anti-missile batteries and fighter jets to Jordan at the kingdom's request to boost defense capabilities in the face of an attack from neighboring Syria, Jordanian officials said Wednesday.The equipment is being sent to Jordan as part of preparations for an annual joint military exercise, but the officials said some would be kept in the country amid fears that the civil war raging in Syria will spill over the border.The U.S.-made Patriot batteries are designed to detect and shoot down Scud and other short-range missiles, which are part of Syria's arsenal. They could also be used in enforcing a no-fly-zone, whi...
  
  
  
• AMBASSADOR STEVEN KILLED BY LETHAL INJECTION?
  Jun 05 2013 05:28 AM
  An al Qaeda terrorist stated in a recent online posting that U.S. Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens was killed by lethal injection after plans to kidnap him during the Sept. 11 attacks in Benghazi went bad.The veracity of the claim by Abdallah Dhu-al-Bajadin, who was identified by U.S. officials as a weapons expert for al Qaeda, could not be determined. However, U.S. officials have not dismissed the terrorist's assertion.An FBI spokeswoman indicated that the bureau is aware of the claim but declined to comment because of the ongoing investigation into the Benghazi attacks."While there is a great deal of information in th...
  
  
  
• FRANCE, BRITAIN CONFIRM SYRIA USED SARIN GAS
  Jun 04 2013 07:50 PM
  France said Tuesday it has confirmed that the nerve gas sarin was used "multiple times and in a localized way" in Syria, including at least once by the regime. It was the most specific claim by any Western power aboutchemical weapons attacks in the 27-month-old conflict.Britain later said that tests it conducted on samples taken from Syria also were positive for sarin.The back-to-back announcements left many questions unanswered, highlighting the difficulties of confirming from a distance whether combatants in Syria have crossed the "red line" set by President Barack Obama. The regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad has refused...
  
  
  
• RUSSIA AND MISSILES FOR SYRIA
  Jun 03 2013 11:39 PM
  Should the Russians conclude that Israel's air force is likely to overcome the S-300, the loss of marketability of that missile system might outweigh the financial benefits of the sale to Syria.The news that Russian S-300 surface-to-air missile batteries may be deployed in Syria is a reminder that more than 40 years ago the Israel Air Force fought major duels against such weapons. Then it was Soviet SA-2s, SA-3s and SA-6s deployed in Egypt, at the time a severe challenge to the IAF.Already during the Vietnam War it became apparent that newly developed Soviet surface-to-air missiles had changed the balance between aircraft and ant...
  
  
  
• HEZBOLLAH FIGHTING IN ALLEPO
  Jun 03 2013 07:13 PM
  BEIRUT — Thousands of Lebanese Hezbollah militants were massed around the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on Sunday, according to rebels and a senior commander in the Lebanese Shiite movement, broadening Hezbollah’s backing of President Bashar al-Assad’s forces and stoking fears of an imminent assault on the city.The commander, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to talk to the media, said there were about 2,000 Hezbollah fighters in Aleppo province, largely stationed in Shiite towns north of the city. The rebel Free Syrian Army said Hezbollah forces had gathered in a suburb of the city Sunday and...
  
  
  
• HEZBOLLAH HIT
  May 25 2013 11:54 PM
  Lebanese security officials say two rockets have slammed into a Beirut neighborhood that is a Hezbollah stronghold, wounding 3 people.The rockets landed in the Mar Mikhael district just south of the capital Sunday and at least one of them struck a car exhibit on the street.The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. It was not clear from where the rockets were fired.Tensions have been running high in Lebanon, and Syrian rebels have threatened to retaliate against the militant Shiite Hezbollah group for sending fighters to assist President Bashar Assad's forces in Syria.
  
  
  
• U.S. MILITARY: WE COULD HAVE SAVED AMBASSADOR STEVENS
  May 25 2013 10:16 PM
  Elite U.S. troops were completely capable of saving Ambassador Chris Stevens during the Benghazi Consulate attacks on September 11, 2012. Elements of the highly specialized Combatant Commanders In-Extremis (CIF) units are always on alert, on forward deployment, ready to respond. Their job description is to hit the ground in 3 to 5 hours. CIF elements are ready to engage in active combat anywhere in their region, 3 to 5 hours after the call.Leon Panetta, Secretary of Defense at the time, either misled the U.S. Congress or was incompetent. Panetta testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on February 7, 2013 that th...
  
  
  
• FOILED CYBER ATTACK
  May 25 2013 12:08 PM
  An Israeli security expert says Syrian hackers tried to break into the computers of the water system of the city of Haifa.Speaking at a lecture on Saturday in the southern city of Beersheba, Yitzhak Ben Yisrael,Israel's former cyber security adviser, said that a group calling itself "The Syrian Electronic Army" had launched the failed attack two weeks ago.In April, an assault in the name of the hacking group Anonymous mostly failed.The attack took place just after Israel bombed a military complex near Damascus. Israel refuses to comment on the strike but officials at the time said Iranian missiles set for Hezbollah were hit. Syri...
  
  
  
• GET THIS, MI5 OFFERED WOOLWICH KILLER A JOB
  May 24 2013 06:04 PM
  MI5 asked Woolwich murder suspect Michael Adebolajo if he wanted to work for them about six months before the killing, a childhood friend has said.Abu Nusaybah told BBC Newsnight his friend - one of two men arrested after Drummer Lee Rigby's murder in south-east London on Wednesday - had rejected the approach from the security service. The BBC could not obtain any confirmation from Whitehall sources. Mr Nusaybah was arrested at the BBC after giving the interview. The Met Police said a 31-year-old man had been arrested at 21:30 BST on Friday in relation to suspected terrorism offences and search warrants were being executed at two...
  
  
  
• ISRAEL IS LOCKED AND LOADED
  May 22 2013 06:50 PM
  Israel is prepared to attack Syria to prevent advanced weapons reaching jihadi rebels or Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon if President Bashar al-Assad is toppled, Israel's air force chief said on Wednesday.Major-General Amir Eshel also said Israelis should brace for a protracted and painful conflict should their forces engage in combat with Hezbollah or its main backer, Iran."If Syria collapses tomorrow, we will need to take action to prevent a strategic looting of advanced weaponry," he told the Fisher Institute for Air & Space Studies near Tel Aviv."We have to be ready for any scenario, at a few hours' notice," Eshel said.He...
  
  
  
• HEZBOLLAH FIGHTING FOR ASSAD
  May 19 2013 08:19 PM
  Syrian government troops backed by warplanes and Lebanese Hezbollah militants have attacked the rebel-held town of Qusair, as part of a weeks-long offensive to recapture the strategic area connecting Damascus to the Mediterranean coast.Activists in the town, along the Lebanese border, said Sunday that security forces intensified their assault during the day, hitting Qusair with artillery and warplanes and destroying multiple homes.The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 52 people were killed, including 48 rebel fighters.A Syrian official told Western news agencies that government troops had captured th...
  
  
  
• NOK FIRES SOME SHORT RANGE MISSILES
  May 18 2013 11:24 AM
  The South Korean Defense Ministry said North Korea fired three short-range guided missiles into waters off its east coast Saturday, raising concerns about the potential for more military provocation in the region.Two KN-02 missiles were fired in the morning, followed by another in the afternoon, spokesman Min-seok Kim said.Unlike the mid-range Musudan missiles which are believed to be capable of traveling more than 1,800 miles, within reach of Japan and South Korea, the missiles launched Saturday only have a range of 75 miles.Kyodo News, citing an unnamed Japanese official, said the missiles never reached Japanese waters.North Ko...
  
  
  
• RUSSIA BOLSTERS FLEET OFF SYRIAN COAST
  May 17 2013 08:40 AM
  RUSSIA has sent a dozen or more warships to patrol waters near its naval base in Syria, a build-up that US and European officials see as a new, aggressive stance meant partly to warn the West and Israel not to intervene in Syria's bloody civil war.Russia's expanded presence in the eastern Mediterranean, which began attracting US officials' notice three months ago, is one of its largest sustained naval deployments since the Cold War. While Western officials say they don't fear an impending conflict with Russia's aged fleet, the presence adds a new potential source of dangerous miscalculation in an increasingly combustible region."...
  
  
  
• RUSSIA SHIPPING "KILLER" GROUND TO AIR MISSILES TO SYRIA
  May 17 2013 08:24 AM
  WASHINGTON: Russia has sent advanced anti-ship cruise missiles to Syria, a move that illustrates the depth of its support for the Syrian government led by President Bashar al-Assad, American officials said on Thursday. Russia has previously provided a version of the missiles, called Yakhonts, to Syria. However, those delivered recently are outfitted with an advanced radar that makes them more effective, according to American officials who are familiar with classified intelligence reports and would only discuss the shipment on the basis of anonymity. Unlike Scud and other longer-range surface-to-surface missiles that the Assad gov...
  
  
  
• IRS
  May 16 2013 09:18 PM
  NEWS that employees at the Internal Revenue Service targeted groups with “Tea Party” or “patriot” in their name for special scrutiny has raised pious alarms among some lawmakers and editorial writers. Yes, the I.R.S. may have been worse than clumsy in considering an avalanche of applications for nonprofit status under the tax code, and that deserves scrutiny whether or not the agency’s employees were spurred by partisan motives. After all, some of these “tea party” groups are most likely not innocent nonprofit organizations devoted to the cultural significance of hot beverages — or to other, more civic, virtues. Rather, they and...