Category: 10 Security

Posted on

NIGHTWATCH Extract: China Using Rare Earth Elements (REE) to Test Economic & Technical Pressure Options

02 China, 03 Economy, 10 Security, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Government, Military

China and Rare Earth Elements: China's new Five-Year Program will fail to bring any rapid change in export quotas for rare earth elements (REE), Chinese Ambassador to the World Trade Organization Sun Zhenyu said, Reuters reported. He also said China's REE reserves were depleting quickly and that Beijing must conserve them. According to Sun, China's reserves have fallen from 33 percent of the world's total in 1996 to 30 percent presently, and that they will last only for another 15-20 years. He urged other nations to begin developing their own REE reserves.

China-Japan: Japan's stockpile of rare earth elements (REE), if China does not restart REE exporting, could empty by March or April 2011, said Yoshikatsu Nakayama, Japanese vice-minister of the economy, trade and industry, Agence France-Presse reported on 21 October.

China-Germany: German companies have been told by Chinese officials to increase their investments in China if they wish to continue to receive rare earth elements (REE) and two other elements China mines, tungsten and antimony, The New York Times reported on 21 October, citing a spokeswoman for the German engineering federation.

On 21 October, unidentified German industry officials said that Chinese customs officials were for the fourth day blocking the final paperwork approval necessary for REE to be exported to Germany. The officials said China is still exporting REE that had paperwork approved before 18 October.

NIGHTWATCH Comment: The Chinese appear to be using rare earth elements exports for testing economic pressure tactics against potential rivals or adversaries. Rare earth elements are used in many high technology applications.

NIGHTWATCH KGS Home

Phi Beta Iota: This is what happens when government becomes irresponsible, divorced from reality, without a strategic analytic model, and so ideologically insane as to make a lobbyist for Goldman Sachs the National Security Advisor.  This all started in the 1970's, it is not new, but now it is close to a fatal sucking chest wound for the Republic.

See Also:

Election 2008 Chapter: The Substance of Governance

Posted on

Journal: US State Department Clueless on Afghanistan

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Officers Call
DefDog Recommends...

humanitarian news and analysis
a project of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Analysis: Peace moves in Afghanistan as fighting goes on

EXTRACT:

The Taliban have rejected formal contacts with Kabul and dubbed the process “futile propaganda”. They have repeatedly vowed not to engage in any negotiations until all foreign forces leave Afghanistan.

Ordinary Afghans are suffering the most. The conflict has killed and wounded thousands over the past few years, according to the UN.

EXTRACT:

Richard Barrett, coordinator of the UN al-Qaeda-Taliban monitoring team, however, believes the Taliban are “beginning to look at alternatives to fighting”.

The government has dropped the term “moderate Taliban” which it used in previous peace efforts: President Karzai has invited all Taliban, including their reclusive supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, to peace talks.

However, Washington has rejected a role for Mullah Omar in the peace process.

“I can’t imagine Mullah Omar playing a constructive role in Afghanistan… Our focus on Mullah Omar, from a US standpoint, is based on his complicity in support of al-Qaeda that led to the plot of 9/11,” Philip J. Crowley, assistant secretary in the US State Department, told reporters on 14 October.

Read full article…..

Phi Beta Iota: Over the past decade we have observed that at the political level, the US Department of State is next to worthless for two reasons: it does not know the truth of any matter, it simply parrots ideologically designed phrases; and it is consequently incapable of speaking truth to power.  The US Government is broken and bankrupt beyond imagination.

Posted on

Journal: UK Defence Bottoms Up, US DoD Next…

10 Security, 11 Society, Budgets & Funding, Military, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence
Joe Cirincione

Joe Cirincione

President of Ploughshares Fund

Posted: October 20, 2010 02:13 PM

British Budget Collapse Foreshadows Cuts to Come in U.S. Defense Budget

Great Britain's cuts, particularly to its nuclear forces, are the canary in the defense budget mine. Just as massive deficits forced the conservative UK government to cut deep into its military programs, the United States will soon have to choose: update its force structure or cling to obsolete Cold War posture?
– – – – – –

U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is going through his own budget pain, now choosing which weapons to cut in an effort to save some $100 billion over the next five years. The Pentagon budget has doubled since 2001, rising an average of seven percent a year. This budget growth is expected to slow to only 1 percent in the near future, and even that may be unsupportable. Something's got to give. To preserve vital conventional military forces, the service chiefs will likely have to cut into the $54 billion spent each year on nuclear weapons-related programs.

Read full article…

Phi Beta Iota: DoD needs to fall back to $500 billion a year, and wean itself of contractors at the same time that it creates a long-haul Air Force, a 450-ship Navy, and a military-based multinational Peace Corps.

2010: Human Intelligence (HUMINT) Trilogy Updated

2010: OPINION–America’s Cyber Scam

2009 Perhaps We Should Have Shouted: A Twenty-Year Restrospective

2008 U.S. Naval Power in the 21st Century

2008 Rebalancing the Instruments of National Power–Army Strategy Conference of 2008 Notes, Summary, & Article

2001 Threats, Strategy, and Force Structure: An Alternative Paradigm for National Security

2000 Presidential Leadership and National Security Policy Making

1998 JFQ The Asymmetric Threat: Listening to the Debate

1997 Strategic Intelligence in the USA: Myth or Reality?

1997 USIP Conference on Virtual Diplomacy Virtual Intelligence: Conflict Avoidance and Resolution through Information Peacekeeping

1995 Re-Inventing Intelligence The Vision and the Strategy

1995 GIQ 13/2 Creating a Smart Nation: Strategy, Policy, Intelligence, and Information

1993 On Defense & Intelligence–The Grand Vision

1991 MCG Intelligence Support for Expeditionary Planners

Posted on

Journal: Flag Officers & Members Fronting for China

02 China, 03 Economy, 10 Security, 11 Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Government, Military, Mobile
DefDog Recommends...

From Intelligence Online:

Suspected by Congress of being linked to the Chinese army, Huawei is working in the U.S. in partnership with Amerilink, which is headed by a former U.S. Navy admiral.

Trusted third party – In a few weeks’ time the U.S. telecoms operator Sprint Nextel is due to award the $2 billion 7-year contract for the development of its 3G network in the United States. To strengthen its chances of winning the lucrative deal, China’s Huawei Technologies, which is regularly suspected of having links to the Chinese People’s Liberation
Army (IOL 619 ), has placed a joint bid with Amerilink, a small U.S. company founded in 2009. The company employs fewer than 20 engineers and is headed by William Owens, a former vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Amerilink acts as the interface between Huawei and potential U.S. clients. If Huawei were to win the Sprint contract, Amerilink would handle the integration of Chinese equipment in the U.S. operator’s network.

Powerful support – U.S. parliamentarians have been Huawei’s most vociferous opponents: they prevented the Chinese group from buying the U.S. telephony company 3Com in 2008. To defend its partner in Congress, Amerilink recently added two Democrat personalities to its board of directors, the former World Bank president James Wolfenson and Richard Gephardt, president of the House of Representatives ’ Democratic group from 1989 to 2003.

LINK:
http://www.intelligenceonline.com

Posted on

Journal: USG Cannot Control 7,000 of 8,000 Border Miles

08 Immigration, 09 Justice, 10 Security, Government, Law Enforcement

CNCNews.com Tuesday, October 19, 2010

By Edwin Mora

(CNSNews.com) – The U.S. government does not have “effective control” of 1,081 miles of the 1,954-mile-long U.S.-Mexico border, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the division of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) responsible for securing the border.

– – – – – – –

The Border Patrol, a division of CBP, is responsible for securing a total of 8,607 miles of the U.S. border. This includes all 1,954 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border, approximately 4,000 miles of the U.S.-Canada border, plus sectors of coastline in the Gulf of Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

As of Sept. 30 (the end of fiscal year 2010), the Border Patrol had established “effective control” over 1,107 miles of the 8,607 miles it is responsible for securing, a CPB spokesperson told CNSNews.com on Monday.

Read Full Article Online….

Tip of the Hat to Jay DeArrastia at LinkedIn.

Posted on

Journal: Outside the Beltway ….

08 Immigration, 09 Justice, 10 Security, Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Law Enforcement
Cheery Waves Recommends....

Pelosi, Boxer star in TV ad telling Latino voters “don't vote”

Unflattering photos of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Sen. Barbara Boxer and California Rep. Maxine Waters play a central role in a new TV commercial created by a Republican front group, telling Latino voters to stay home on Election Day.

The Spanish-language ads, entitled “No Votes” (“Don't Vote”), are sponsored by a Virginia-based group that calls itself “Latinos for Reform.”

Published reports indicate that the ads are the work of Robert Desposada, a Republican political consultant, former Republican National Committee director of Hispanic affairs and pundit on the Spanish language TV network Univision.

Imagine for a moment that the New York State Police are warning American boaters to steer clear of the Canadian side of Lake Ontario because they might fall victim to pirates.

Imagine that violent gangs armed with military weaponry created a no man's land along a portion of the border shared by the United States and Canada that challenged the sovereignty of both nations.

Would this for a moment be tolerable? Would the president of the United States or the leaders of Congress simply treat it as a regrettable yet acceptable border problem? Of course not. Yet residents of South Texas are expected to endure precisely this situation on the U.S.-Mexican border.

Read Rest of Article….

Posted on

Graphic (12): Gun Control Perspectives

10 Security, 11 Society, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, History, Mobile, Open Government, Peace Intelligence, Standards, Strategy, Tools
Marcus Aurelius Recommends

Following is self explanatory. About all I can add is:

– “The West wasn't won with a registered gun.”
– As Charlton Heston said, “… from my cold, dead hand …”
– “Better to be judged by twelve than carried by six.”
– “Don't dry fire in a gunfight.”
– “I am the NRA — and I vote!”

Click on Image to Upload

Eleven Other Images Below the Line

Continue reading “Graphic (12): Gun Control Perspectives”

noble gold