Monday, February 18, 2013

Russia Posturing Against U.S. Through Nuclear-Armed Bombers Over Guam and Armed Subs by Florida Coast

The Russian Tu-95 Bear-H strategic bombers were equipped with nuclear-tipped cruise missiles

Two Russian nuclear-armed bombers circled the western Pacific island of Guam

Air Force F-15 jets from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, “scrambled and responded to the aircraft.”

The Tu-95s were intercepted and left the area in a northbound direction.

Russian bomber flights threatening strategic posture against U.S.

Russian strategic bombers not known to conduct operations into the south Pacific from the Russian Far East, thousands of miles away, over water

Guam is one of the key strategic U.S. military bases under the Obama administration’s new “pivot” to Asia policy

Guam is a target of China and North Korea

U.S. military would defend Japan in military confrontation with China over Senkakus.

Bomber flights signal Russian support for China the dispute.

November 2012-Russian nuclear-powered attack submarine cruised within 200 miles of the East Coast of U.S.

First time that class of Russian submarine detected near U.S. coast

Reminiscent of Cold War activities of the Soviet navy

Anti-submarine warfare efforts against U.S. ballistic and cruise missile submarines

Russian electronic intelligence-gathering vessel granted safe harbor in commercial port of Jacksonville, Fla

Russian attack submarine outfitted with SS-N-21 anti-submarine warfare missiles, SS-N-16 anti-submarine warfare missiles, torpedoes

Air Force confirms Russian jets circled US territory of Guam

Published February 16, 2013

FoxNews.com

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/02/16/nuclear-armed-russian-jets-reportedly-circled-us-territory-guam/#ixzz2LGyQz0xO

Russian Tu-95 Bear long rang bomber aircraft / AP

Russian Tu-95 Bear long rang bomber aircraft / AP

Bear Bombers Over Guam

Russian nuclear bombers circle Guam

BY: Bill Gertz
February 15, 2013 4:04 pm

Two Russian nuclear-armed bombers circled the western Pacific island of Guam this week in the latest sign of Moscow’s growing strategic assertiveness toward the United States.

The Russian Tu-95 Bear-H strategic bombers were equipped with nuclear-tipped cruise missiles and were followed by U.S. jets as they circumnavigated Guam on Feb. 12 local time—hours before President Barack Obama’s state of the union address.

Air Force Capt. Kim Bender, a spokeswoman for the Pacific Air Force in Hawaii, confirmed the incident to the Washington Free Beacon and said Air Force F-15 jets based on Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, “scrambled and responded to the aircraft.”

“The Tu-95s were intercepted and left the area in a northbound direction. No further actions occurred,” she said. Bender said no other details would be released “for operational security reasons.”

The bomber incident was considered highly unusual. Russian strategic bombers are not known to have conducted such operations in the past into the south Pacific from bomber bases in the Russian Far East, which is thousands of miles away and over water.

John Bolton, former U.N. ambassador and former State Department international security undersecretary, said the Russian bomber flights appear to be part of an increasingly threatening strategic posture in response to Obama administration anti-nuclear policies.

“Every day brings new evidence that Obama’s ideological obsession with dismantling our nuclear deterrent is dangerous,” Bolton said. “Our national security is in danger of slipping off the national agenda even as the threats grow.”

Defense officials said the bombers tracked over Guam were likely equipped with six Kh-55 or Kh-55SM cruise missiles that can hit targets up to 1,800 miles away with either a high-explosive warhead or a 200-kiloton nuclear warhead.

The F-15s that intercepted the bombers were based at Kadena Air Base, Japan, and were deployed to Guam for the ongoing annual Exercise Guahan Shield 2013.

Two U.S. B-2 strategic bombers were deployed to Guam in late January and last fall advanced F-22 fighter bombers were temporarily stationed on the island. Three nuclear-powered attack submarines and the Global Hawk long-range drone also are based in Guam.

About 200 Marines currently are training on the island. Earlier news reports stated that Japanese and Australian military jets joined U.S. jets in the Guam exercises.

Guam is one of the key strategic U.S. military bases under the Obama administration’s new “pivot” to Asia policy. As a result, it is a target of China and North Korea. Both have missiles capable of hitting the island, located about 1,700 miles east of the Philippines in the Mariana island chain.

This week’s bomber flights are a sign the Russians are targeting the island as well, one defense official said.

Guam also plays a key role in the Pentagon’s semi-secret strategy called the Air-Sea Battle Concept designed to counter what the Pentagon calls China’s anti-access and area denial weapons—precision guided missiles, submarines, anti-satellite weapons, and other special warfighting capabilities designed to prevent the U.S. military from defending allies or keeping sea lanes open in the region.

Defense officials disclosed the incident to the Free Beacon and said the Russian bomber flights appeared to be a strategic message from Moscow timed to the president’s state of the union speech.

“They were sending a message to Washington during the state of the union speech,” one official said.

The bomber flights also coincided with growing tensions between China and Japan over the Senkaku islands. A Chinese warship recently increased tensions between Beijing and Tokyo by using targeting radar against a Japanese warship.

The U.S. military has said it would defend Japan in any military confrontation with China over the Senkakus. The bomber flights appear to signal Russian support for China in the dispute.

Russian Sub Skirts Coast

Russian attack sub detected near East Coast

BY: Bill Gertz
November 5, 2012 5:05 pm

A Russian nuclear-powered attack submarine cruised within 200 miles of the East Coast recently in the latest sign Russia is continuing to flex its naval and aerial power against the United States, defense officials said.

The submarine was identified by its NATO designation as a Russian Seirra-2 class submarine believed to be based with Russia’s Northern Fleet. It was the first time that class of Russian submarine had been detected near a U.S. coast, said officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of anti-submarine warfare efforts.

One defense official said the submarine was believed to have been conducting anti-submarine warfare efforts against U.S. ballistic and cruise missile submarines based at Kings Bay, Georgia.

A second official said the submarine did not sail close to Kings Bay and also did not threaten a U.S. aircraft carrier strike group that was conducting exercises in the eastern Atlantic.

Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base, north of Jacksonville, Fla., is home port for two guided missile submarines and six nuclear missile submarines. The submarines are known to be a target of Russian attack submarines.

Meanwhile, the officials also said that a Russian electronic intelligence-gathering vessel was granted safe harbor in the commercial port of Jacksonville, Fla., within listening range of Kings Bay.

The Russian AGI ship, or Auxiliary-General Intelligence, was allowed to stay in the port to avoid the superstorm that battered the U.S. East Coast last week. A Jacksonville Port Authority spokeswoman had no immediate comment on the Russian AGI at the port.

“A Russian AGI and an SSN in the same geographic area as one of the largest U.S. ballistic missile submarine bases—Kings Bay—is reminiscent of Cold War activities of the Soviet navy tracking the movements of our SSBN’s,” said a third U.S. official, referring to the designation for ballistic missile submarines, SSBN.

“While I can’t talk about how we detected it, I can tell you that things worked the way they were supposed to,” the second official said, stating that the Russian submarine “poses no threat whatsoever.”

According to naval analysts, the Russian attack submarine is outfitted with SS-N-21 anti-submarine warfare missiles, as well as SS-N-16 anti-submarine warfare missiles. It also is equipped with torpedoes.

The U.S. Navy deploys a series of underwater sonar sensors set up at strategic locations near the United States that detected the submarine sometime late last month.

Friday, February 15, 2013

Russia Gets Hit By Meteorite. Is This a Piece of Asteroid 2012 DA14 Coming to the Sky Near You Today?

Moment meteorite exploded in the sky above Russian town as doctors treat 950 people injured when sonic boom shattered windows

Large object flashed across the sky at 9.20am local time
Pictures show a streak of smoke followed by several bright blasts of flames
82 of the injured are children and two are in intensive care
Landed in a lake near Chebarkul, a neighbouring town
6,000 square feet of a roof at a zinc factory collapsed
One local said it 'was like a scene from the Armageddon movie'

Same day as Asteroid 2012 DA14, which is due to skim Earth's orbit tonight

The city of Chelyabinsk, 900 miles east of Moscow and close to the Kazakhstan border, took the brunt of the super sonic impact.

Spectacular sky: The Urals region was struck by falling meteorite fragments which fell in the city of Chelyabinsk, 900 miles east of Moscow and close to the Kazakhstan border

Tim O'Brien, associate director of the University of Manchester's Jodrell Bank Observatory, said the injuries were caused when the meteor created a sonic boom. 'This reasonably large chunk of rock was moving faster than the speed of sound, maybe 20,000 miles per hour. It made a sonic boom in the atmosphere, and that hit buildings and shattered windows. That is what seems to have caused the injuries,' he explained.

A six metre wide hole was found in the ground close to Lake Chebarkul, said Russian military sources cited by RIA Novosti news agency.

Earlier it was thought the main body of the meteorite had hit the lake. 'The meteorite that passed over the Chelyabinsk region fell into a body of water 1km from the city of Chebarkul,' said a statement posted on the website of Chelyabinsk governor, Mikhail Yurevich.

According to an unconfirmed report in Russia Today, the meteorite was intercepted by Russian air defense.

The strike came on the same day that Asteroid 2012 DA14 is due to skim the orbit of the Earth tonight. But astronomers say that it is probably just a coincidence - Dr Robert Massey of the Royal Astronomical Society told MailOnline: 'As I understand it, the Russian meteorite(s) were travelling from east to west whereas 2012 DA14 will be travelling from north to south.'

Pictures show a streak of smoke followed by several bright blasts of flames and eyewitnesses spoke of several devastating explosions.

Mobile phones are only working intermittently and there were localised power cuts.

According to RT.com, the Urals regional centre of the Emergency Ministry claimed it sent out a mass text message warning residents about a possible meteorite shower. But eyewitnesses said they either never received it, or got the message after the explosion had already occurred.

Fear: First reports suggested that there had been a plane crash but officials confirmed it was one or more meteorites falling to Earth

Wounded: This woman suffered cuts across her face when the sonic boom of the meteor sent broken glass flying

The emergencies ministry said that 10,000 rescue workers had been dispatched to help the injured and locate those needing help.

All schools and kindergartens were closed in Chelyabinsk region today.

Damaged: A zinc factory in Chelyabinsk was seen with a partially collapsed roof and walls in the morning after meteor pieces rained on the town

Moment of impact: A pair, seen on CCTV, cower from the impact as the window near them explodes

The Russian Academy of Sciences is estimating the meteor weighed about 10 tons.

The academy said in a statement hours fall that the meteor entered the Earth's atmosphere at a speed of at least 54,000 kph (33,000 mph) and shattered about 30-50 kilometres (18-32 miles) above ground.

One eyewitness Gulnara Dudka, in her 20s, gave a dramatic account of the meteorite, telling how she feared 'doomsday' had arrived, reported the Siberian Times.

Residents in one 19 storey block reported feeling the shockwaves of the explosions.

The sounds of car alarms and breaking windows could be heard in the area, said a witness, and there were reports that the internet and mobile networks were temporarily down.

The meteorite flew across the Russian sky from the direction of Kazakhstan, its trajectory going over southern Siberia, above the Tyumen, Kurgan and Sverdlovsk regions, said the head of the Urals regional branch of the Emergencies Ministry press service, Vadim Grebennikov.

Officials stressed that radiation levels remained normal amid fears that one of dozens of nuclear facilities in the region could have been hit.

Ruined: The sounds of car alarms and breaking windows could be heard in the area, said a witness, and there were reports that the internet and mobile networks were temporarily down

Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the nationalist leader noted for vehement statements, said 'It's not meteors falling, it's the test of a new weapon by the Americans,' the RIA Novosti news agency reported. 'At the moment we are checking the territories and counting how many towns and settlements suffered from it. 'Preliminary information says the meteorite did not fall down but exploded in the air. '

Destroyed: The building of the local zinc plant badly damaged by a shockwave from a meteorite impact

The site of Friday's spectacular show is about 5,000 kilometers (3,000 miles) west of Tunguska, which 1908 was the site of the largest recorded explosion of a space object plunging to Earth. That blast, attributed to a comet or asteroid fragment, is generally estimated to have been about 10 megatons; it leveled some 80 million trees.

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said the incident showed the need for leading world powers to develop a system to intercept objects falling from space. "At the moment, neither we nor the Americans have such technologies" to shoot down meteors or asteroids, he said, according to the Interfax news agency.

Small pieces of space debris — usually parts of comets or asteroids — that are on a collision course with the Earth are called meteoroids. They become meteors when they enter the Earth'satmosphere. Most meteors burn up in the atmosphere, but if they survive the frictional heating and strike the surface of the Earth they are called meteorites. Meteors typically cause sizeable sonic booms when they enter the atmosphere because they are traveling much faster than the speed of sound. Injuries on the scale reported Friday, however, are extraordinarily rare.

read more at http://www.newsday.com/news/world/russian-meteor-shower-causes-blasts-injures-hundreds-1.4652395

for the following video... Published on Feb 15, 2013 Multiple meteors touched down in Central Russia in Ural region February 15th. These meteors caused injury from shattered windows, and broken class. It is believed these meteors broke off from the larger meteor 2012-Da14, which missed the earth by less than 30,000 miles the same day. Had Da-14 stuck earth, it would have destroyed everything within a 10 mile radius much like a nuclear bomb. In this video we see a building getting damaged.
for the following video... At 7:17 AM on the morning of June 30, 1908, a mysterious explosion occurred in the skies over Siberia. It was caused by the impact and breakup of a large meteorite, at an altitude roughly six kilometers in the atmosphere. Realistic pictures of the event are unavailable. However, Russian scientists collected eyewitness accounts of the event. I believe that we now know enough about large impacts to "decode" the subjective descriptions of the witnesses and create realistic views of this historic asteroid impact as seen from different distances.

Russia is no stranger to this type of event. A huge event happened in 1908 called the Tunguska Event.

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Obama Ordered Stuxnet Virus. Impeachable Offense?

Obama Ordered Stuxnet Virus, Part of Organized Cyberattacks Against Iran

Cyberattacks Escalated Obama's cyberattack order significantly expands the historical use of cyberweapons in the United States. Wikimedia Commons

According to a report today in the New York Times, President Obama secretly ordered accelerated cyberattacks against the computers running Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities.

Started by the Bush administration in 2006, the stealth operation went under the handle "Olympic Games" and a major part of the project, a worm planted by spies meant to knock out enrichment facilities, went public in the summer of 2010 when the worm escaped Iran's Natanz plant because of a programming error and made it into the Internet. The president and other members of the administration then considered shutting it down, but ultimately let it continue. Two new versions of the worm hit the plant in the coming weeks and at one point shut down 1,000 of the 5,000 centrifuges Iran was using to purify uranium. After that, the worm was discovered -- though its source was unknown -- and named Stuxnet. Observers marveled at how advanced the malware was.

According to the report, it's since been shut down, but Olympic Games as a whole is marching on.

[New York Times]

source: CLICK HERE

Stuxnet virus origin confirmed: USA and Israeli governments

This week it has been confirmed that the computer virus known as Stuxnet which spread accidentally across the global internet in 2010 was created originally by the governments of the United States and Israel to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities. The worm was originally created to sabotage and shake apart Iran’s nuclear program, and was part of a larger program code-named “Olympic Games.” This virus became public after what’s assumed to have been a rogue laptop transported the virus out to the global web.

The new information we have today comes from a New York Times article created after 18 months of interviews with “American, European and Israeli officials involved in the program, as well as a range of outside experts.” The New York Times notes that none of the names of the people they interviewed will be shared due to the “highly classified” nature of the program.

Interviewees suggest that the effort was actually successful in setting back Iran’s nuclear weapons program “18 months to two years” despite the accidental leak of the virus at the center of it all. To get the worm into the Iranian facility they’d targeted, Stuxnet was placed on a USB flash drive.

“Getting the worm into Natanz, however, was no easy trick. The United States and Israel would have to rely on engineers, maintenance workers and others—both spies and unwitting accomplices—with physical access to the plant. “That was our holy grail,” one of the architects of the plan said. “It turns out there is always an idiot around who doesn’t think much about the thumb drive in their hand.”" – NYT

Since the software “escaped”, a word used many times in this report, the Stuxnet code was “found then disassembled by security researchers” according to Ars Technica. It appears though that the United States government has things well in hand at this point outside this situation – but do acknowledge the threat for the future.

“He repeatedly expressed concerns that any American acknowledgment that it was using cyberweapons — even under the most careful and limited circumstances — could enable other countries, terrorists or hackers to justify their own attacks. “We discussed the irony, more than once,” one of his aides said.” – NYT

Stuxnet

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Stuxnet is a computer worm discovered in June 2010 that is believed to have been created by the United States

and Israel to attack Iran's nuclear facilities. Stuxnet initially spreads via Microsoft Windows, and targets Siemens

industrial software and equipment. While it is not the first time that hackers have targeted industrial systems,^[1]

it is the first discovered malware that spies on and subverts industrial systems,^[2] and the first to include a

programmable logic controller (PLC) rootkit.^[3]^[4]

The worm initially spreads indiscriminately, but includes a highly specialized malware payload that is designed to

target only Siemens supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems that are configured to control and

monitor specific industrial processes.^[5]^[6] Stuxnet infects PLCs by subverting the Step-7 software application that

is used to reprogram these devices.^[7]^[8]

Different variants of Stuxnet targeted five Iranian organizations,^[9] with the probable target widely suspected to be

uranium enrichment infrastructure in Iran;^[8]^[10]^[11] Symantec noted in August 2010 that 60% of the infected

computers worldwide were in Iran.^[12] Siemens stated that the worm has not caused any damage to its

customers,^[13] but the Iran nuclear program, which uses embargoed Siemens equipment procured secretly, has

been damaged by Stuxnet.^[14]^[15] Kaspersky Lab concluded that the sophisticated attack could only have been

conducted "with nation-state support".^[16] This was further supported by the F-Secure's chief researcher

Mikko Hyppönen who commented in a Stuxnet FAQ, "That's what it would look like, yes".^[17]It has been

speculated that Israel^[18] and the United States may have been involved.^[19]^[20]

In May 2011, the PBS program Need To Know cited a statement by Gary Samore, White House Coordinator for

Arms Control and Weapons of Mass Destruction, in which he said, "we're glad they [the Iranians] are having

trouble with their centrifuge machine and that we – the US and its allies – are doing everything we can to make

sure that we complicate matters for them", offering "winking acknowledgement" of US involvement in Stuxnet.^[21]

According to The Daily Telegraph, a showreel that was played at a retirement party for the head of the Israel

Defense Forces (IDF), Gabi Ashkenazi, included references to Stuxnet as one of his operational successes as

the IDF chief of staff.^[18]

On 1 June 2012, an article in The New York Times said that Stuxnet is part of a U.S. and Israeli intelligence

operation called "Operation Olympic Games", started under President George W. Bush and expanded under

President Barack Obama.^[22]

On 24 July 2012, an article by Chris Matyszczyk from cnet^[23] reported how the Atomic Energy Organization of

Iran e-mailed F-Secure's chief research officer Mikko Hyppönen to report a new instance of malware.

On 25 December 2012, an Iranian semi-official news agency announced there was a cyberattack by Stuxnet,

this time on the industries in the southern area of the country. The virus targeted a power plant and some other

industries in Hormozgan province in recent months.^[24]

Affected countries

A study of the spread of Stuxnet by Symantec showed that the main affected countries in the early days of the

infection were Iran, Indonesia and India:^[32]

Country	Infected computers
Iran	58.85%
Indonesia	18.22%
India	8.31%
Azerbaijan	2.57%
United States	1.56%
Pakistan	1.28%
Others	9.2%

Iran was reported to have "beefed up" its cyberwar capabilities following the Stuxnet attack, and has been

suspected of retaliatory attacks against U.S. banks.^[33]

Issues On Call

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