Twitter Terrorist Tool? Japan Drill, Russia, Expanding GWOT

Full updates later this evening..

Terrorists Could Use Twitter For Mayhem, Army Report Muses
http://www.informationweek.com/news/mobility/messaging/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=211600844"

An intelligence paper outlines technologies that terrorist organizations could use to inflict harm, including cell phone GPS data, voice-changing technology, and Twitter updates.

Terrorism and Twitter go together like Darth Vader and Tribbles -- the former aspiring to instill fear, the latter chirpy and not very threatening.
Yet a draft Army intelligence paper, "Al Qaida-Like Mobile Discussions & Potential Creative Uses," contemplates just that combination. The October 16 paper, posted on the Federation of American Scientists Web site, was written by the Army's 304 Military Intelligence Battalion Open Source Intelligence Team.
It touches briefly on "Pro Terrorist Propaganda Cell Phone Interfaces," using cell phone GPS data to assist terrorist operations, mobile phone surveillance, possible use of voice changing technology by terrorists, "Potential For Terrorist Use of Twitter," and other mobile phone technology and software that bears further consideration.
In one "Red Team" scenario -- the red team being the traditional attacker in attack/defense scenario planning -- the report imagines a terrorist operative using a cell phone with built-in camera or video capability to send Twitter messages to other terrorist operatives in near real-time updates, "similar to the movement updates that were sent by activists at the [Republican National Convention]." The goal would be to provide troop strength intelligence and to coordinate an ambush. An intelligence paper outlines technologies that terrorist organizations could use to inflict harm, including cell phone GPS data, voice-changing technology, and Twitter updates.
(Twitter could also be useful to to fight martial law...so I guess we are the terrorist contingency)

GSDF stages huge defense drill (Japan)
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20081028a5.html

BETSUKAI, Hokkaido (Kyodo) The Ground Self-Defense Force held its biggest homeland defense drill in nearly a quarter of a century Monday in Hokkaido, mobilizing some 3,000 personnel and digging some 2,000 hillside caves and trenches to hide troops, tanks and command posts.

The conventional warfare drill took place in the Yausubetsu Maneuver Area at a time when the Russian military is becoming more active around Japan and elsewhere, and amid China's continued defense buildup.

US crossing more borders in terror war?
The alleged incursions into Syria, and previously into Pakistan, could be risky.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1028/p02s04-usmi.html


Washington - In the name of protecting its forces in Afghanistan and now Iraq, the United States appears to have begun to step up a bold gamble: conducting raids in countries it believes are not doing enough to fight extremist militants.
But taking such actions in Pakistan and now Syria may involve high diplomatic risks and offer limited military gain, say experts outside the military. "It could be morally justifiable, legally justifiable, and strategically a mistake," says Michael O'Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington.
For the past few months, there have been reports of US airstrikes inside Pakistan as violence increased in neighboring Afghanistan. Over the weekend, the US reportedly conducted a strike inside Syria's shared border with Iraq. (cont..)

Russia military offers Cuba air defence aid
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20081027/tpl-uk-russia-cuba-defense-b64c7e7.html
Russia will offer to share its air defence expertise with Cuba when a military delegation visits the Caribbean island this week, Interfax news agency reported on Monday.
"The Russian and Cuban military will exchange experience in organising tactical air defence and in training officers," Interfax quoted Russian Land Forces spokesman Igor Konashenkov as saying.
The two sides will "discuss the prospect of training Cuban servicemen at the tactical air defence academies and training centres in Russia, using upgraded Russian-made military hardware," Interfax quoted him as saying.

Nouriel Roubini: I fear the worst is yet to come
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/article5014463.ece
Excerpt: "What does Roubini think is going to happen next? Rather worryingly, in London last Thursday he predicted that hundreds of hedge funds will go bust and stock markets may soon have to shut – perhaps for as long as a week – in order to stem the panic selling now sweeping the world. "

Attention Readers:
Colors Magazine
http://www.colorsmagazine.com/victims/
"We are doing an upcoming issue on post-9/11 paranoia and I'm searching for people with interesting, funny and/or disturbing stories of anti-terrorism efforts around the world, from people being stopped without cause, to strange anti-terror devices, to uncanny anti-terrorism drills and trainings, to non-governmental groups of interest."

Please send input to nixongreg@msn.com and I'll forward them to the editor.

'Dozens' of potential terrorists in U.S. under watch, Chertoff says
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-uschertoff1028,0,4206201.story

LI military contractor emerging from black op shadows http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-bzinside5899046oct27,0,1209494.storyTactronics Holdings Llc has been on Long Island since 1992, but as far as the public was concerned, the company might as well not have existed at all.It's not simply that the Bellport-based company was relatively small. It was that Tactronics worked entirely in the world of "black ops," military slang for covert operations.Few were ever invited for a visit. The privately held company never issued news releases or attracted attention to itself."The company has always been low-key and under the radar because of the customer base we serve," said Kevin Wilson, president of Tactronics Operations, the electronics side of the company. (cont...)

Raytheon demos new submarine-launched UAV http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/27/raytheon_sothoc_sub_uav/

America has gone one better than Germany in the race to develop the world's most powerful submarine-launched robot aircraft. US arms giant Raytheon has announced a model which can be deployed at depth without modification to the submarine.The new U-UAV is dubbed SOTHOC, for Submarine Over the Horizon Organic Capabilities. The launch system works by deploying a sealed can through the sub's waste disposal lock. The can then sinks away safely to get clear of the boat. On reaching a preset depth it dumps weight to become positively buoyant and ascends to the surface. Once stable at the surface, it aligns itself into wind and launches a one-shot, disposable UAV...

QinetiQ North America to support FBI http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2008/10/27/daily11.html

Carteret to offer drive-through flu clinic (NC)http://www.enctoday.com/news/flu_60297_jdn__article.html/clinic_health.html

MOREHEAD CITY - An upcoming flu clinic being offered by the Carteret County Health Department will serve two purposes.The drive-through flu clinic scheduled for Nov. 1 will offer convenience to the public while also serving as a preparedness exercise for public health officials."We are trying a new approach this year by conducting our seasonal flu clinic as a pandemic flu exercise," said Health Department Nursing Director Ann Baugham. "If we were giving out medication during a pandemic flu situation, we would not want large numbers of people gathered together inside a building. So, for our flu clinic this year, everyone will stay in their car, roll up their sleeves and roll down their windows to receive the shot."