Navy Tracking Possible North Korean Nuke Shipment

The Navy is tracking a North Korean cargo ship suspected of carrying illegal weapons, equipment or nuclear fissile material that North Korea has been prohibited from transporting by the U.N. Security Council, top U.S. defense officials said Thursday.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at the Pentagon that “clearly, we intend to vigorously enforce the U.N. Security Council Resolution 1874,” although the Navy cannot use force to stop or board the vessel suspected of carrying the contraband.

A U.S. warship could hail the North Korean ship and ask to search it, and if the ship’s crew didn’t comply, the U.S. sailors could order the vessel to sail to the nearest port and request officials in that port to do the search — although the U.S. ship couldn’t use force for that, either.

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Mullen, who briefed reporters with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, gave few details about how the Navy was tracking the North Korean ship — whether U.S. warships or aircraft were shadowing it — and what led U.S. officials to believe it was carrying contraband material.

The U.N. Security Council voted to place additional strictures on North Korea after the country detonated a nuclear bomb May 25 and launched ballistic missiles into the ocean off Southeast Asia. One of the restrictions was that North Korean ships suspected of carrying nuclear material would be interdicted at sea, but the North has said it would consider the boarding of any of its ships as an act of war.

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Phone Threats Target Asian-American Business Owners

Asian-American business owners and professionals across the country have been terrorized by threatening phone calls originating in China using Skype, authorities say.

Some of the recipients have wired thousands of dollars to the extortionists after receiving threats of violence against their businesses and families. The perpetrator demands $20,000-$30,000 so that his brother can be released from a jail in China, then threatens the victim if he or she will not pay.

The perpetrator demands $20,000-$30,000 so that his brother can be released from a jail in China, then threatens the victim if he or she will not pay.

“I will kill you,” “I will cut the limbs off your children in front of you,” and “I’ll firebomb your business,” are three of the threats that detectives said were used.

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China Military Build-up Seems Focused On U.S.

China’s build-up of sea and air military power funded by a strong economy appears aimed at the United States, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Monday.

Admiral Michael Mullen said China had the right to meet its security needs, but the build-up would require the United States to work with its Pacific allies to respond to increasing Chinese military capabilities.

“They are developing capabilities that are very maritime focused, maritime and air focused, and in many ways, very much focused on us,” he told a conference of the Navy League, a nonprofit seamen’s support group, in Washington.

“They seem very focused on the United States Navy and our bases that are in that part of the world.”

China in March unveiled its official military budget for 2009 of $70.24 billion, the latest in nearly two decades of double-digit rises in declared defense spending.

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Chinese Spies May Have Put Chips In US Planes

Chinese cyber spies have penetrated so deep into the US system — ranging from its secure defense network, banking system, electricity grid to putting spy chips into its defense planes — that it can cause serious damage to the US any time, a top US official on counter-intelligence has said.

“Chinese penetrations of unclassified DoD networks have also been widely reported. Those are more sophisticated, though hardly state of the art,” said National Counterintelligence Executive, Joel Brenner, at the Austin University Texas last week, according to a transcript made available on Wednesday.

Listing out some of the examples of Chinese cyber spy penetration, he said: “We’re also seeing counterfeit routers and chips, and some of those chips have made their way into US military fighter aircraft.. You don’t sneak counterfeit chips into another nation’s aircraft to steal data. When it’s done intentionally, it’s done to degrade systems, or to have the ability to do so at a time of one’s choosing.”

Referring to the Chinese networks penetrating the cyber grids, he said: “Do I worry about those grids, and about air traffic control systems, water supply systems, and so on? You bet I do. America’s networks are being mapped. There has also been experience of both Chinese and criminal network operations in the networks of some of the banks”.
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North Korea to Restart Nuclear Weapons Plant

North Korea vowed Tuesday to bolster its nuclear deterrent and boycott six-party talks aimed at its denuclearization in protest of a U.N. Security Council statement condemning the country’s recent rocket launch.

North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it “resolutely condemns” the action by the United Nations, which it said “rampantly” infringes upon the country’s sovereignty and “severely debases” the people’s dignity.

“We have no choice but to further strengthen our nuclear deterrent to cope with additional military threats by hostile forces,” the statement said.

The statement also said that “six-party talks that we are taking part in are not necessary any more.”

Those negotiations, which also involve China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States, began in 2003 and have been aimed at achieving North Korea’s denuclearization.

The North also said it will restore nuclear facilities it has been disabling in line with an international disarmament-for-aid deal negotiated under the six-party process and resume operating them.

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Electric Grid Hacked By Chinese and Russian Cyberspies

The intruders, who came from countries including China and Russia, were believed to be attempting to map the US electrical system and work out how it was controlled, according to reports in the Wall Street Journal.

Officials said the cyberspies had not tried to damage the grid, but warned they could during a crisis or war.

“The Chinese have attempted to map our infrastructure, such as the electrical grid,” a senior intelligence official told the paper. “So have the Russians.”

The intrusion spread across the country and didn’t target any specific companies or regions, a former Department of Homeland Security official said. “There are intrusions, and they are growing,” the former official said, referring to electrical systems. “There were a lot last year.”

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From The Wall Street Journal

Cyberspies have penetrated the U.S. electrical grid and left behind software programs that could be used to disrupt the system, according to current and former national-security officials.

The spies came from China, Russia and other countries, these officials said, and were believed to be on a mission to navigate the U.S. electrical system and its controls. The intruders haven’t sought to damage the power grid or other key infrastructure, but officials warned they could try during a crisis or war.

“The Chinese have attempted to map our infrastructure, such as the electrical grid,” said a senior intelligence official. “So have the Russians.”

The espionage appeared pervasive across the U.S. and doesn’t target a particular company or region, said a former Department of Homeland Security official. “There are intrusions, and they are growing,” the former official said, referring to electrical systems. “There were a lot last year.”

Many of the intrusions were detected not by the companies in charge of the infrastructure but by U.S. intelligence agencies, officials said. Intelligence officials worry about cyber attackers taking control of electrical facilities, a nuclear power plant or financial networks via the Internet.

Authorities investigating the intrusions have found software tools left behind that could be used to destroy infrastructure components, the senior intelligence official said. He added, “If we go to war with them, they will try to turn them on.”

Officials said water, sewage and other infrastructure systems also were at risk.

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Plot To Smuggle Nuclear Materials To Iran Smashed

Chinese financier Le Fang Wei indicted in plot to send nuclear materials to Iran.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office has smashed a sinister plot to smuggle nuclear weapons materials to Iran through unwitting New York banks, the Daily News has learned.

Officials plan to unseal a 118-count indictment Tuesday accusing a Chinese national of setting up a handful of fake companies to hide that he was selling millions of dollars in potential nuclear materials to Tehran.

“This case will cut off a major source of supply to Iran and it shows how they are going ahead full steam to get a nuclear bomb. Long-range missiles they pretty much have already,” a law enforcement source close to the case said.

“We think it is one of the largest suppliers of weapons of mass destruction to Iran.”

Experts say Iran, under the leadership of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, appears close to amassing enough nuclear material to make an atom bomb. A United Nations embargo bans Iran from acquiring the high-tech metals needed to make a long-range nuclear weapon a reality.

The indictment will outline the financial conspiracy behind 58 different transactions, including shipments of various banned materials from China to Iran between 2006 and late 2008.

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GhostNet – Canadians Find Vast Computer Spy Network

Canadian researchers have uncovered a vast electronic spying operation that infiltrated computers and stole documents from government and private offices around the world, including those of the Dalai Lama, The New York Times reported on Saturday.

In a report provided to the newspaper, a team from the Munk Center for International Studies in Toronto said at least 1,295 computers in 103 countries had been breached in less than two years by the spy system, which it dubbed GhostNet.

Embassies, foreign ministries, government offices and the Dalai Lama’s Tibetan exile centers in India, Brussels, London and New York were among those infiltrated, said the researchers, who have detected computer espionage in the past.

They found no evidence U.S. government offices were breached.

The researchers concluded that computers based almost exclusively in China were responsible for the intrusions, although they stopped short of saying the Chinese government was involved in the system, which they described as still active.

“We’re a bit more careful about it, knowing the nuance of what happens in the subterranean realms,” said Ronald Deibert, a member of the Munk research group, based at the University of Toronto.

“This could well be the CIA or the Russians. It’s a murky realm that we’re lifting the lid on.”

A spokesman for the Chinese Consulate in New York dismissed the idea China was involved. “These are old stories and they are nonsense,” the spokesman, Wenqi Gao, told the Times. “The Chinese government is opposed to and strictly forbids any cybercrime.”

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Radioactive Material Lost In China

Authorities in China have ordered an all-out search for a missing nuclear scale that contained a dangerous radioactive component, state press said Friday.

The scale, used to make precision measurements, was found to be missing on Monday after workers began dismantling a cement factory where it was used in Tongchuan city in northwest China’s Shaanxi province, Xinhua news agency said.

A lead ball containing extremely dangerous Caesium-137 was a major component of the scale, it said.

Local government offices in Shaanxi could not be immediately reached for comment on the issue.

The report did not say how much Caesium-137 was missing but warned that only a tiny amount could damage the human nervous system and even lead to death. The material could also explode if it comes in contact with water, it added.

The provincial environmental protection agency and police have issued urgent orders to find the radioactive material which may have been buried in up to 5,000 tonnes of scrap waste from the factory, the report said.

In a later report, Xinhua said environmental officials had found Caesium-137 radioactivity at a steel refinery in Shaanxi’s Fuping county, but it was not immediately known whether it was from the missing material.

“Although radioactivity was detected at a steel refinery in Fuping county, it is not necessarily linked to the missing radioactive material,” the report quoted an environmental protection official as saying.

via Radioactive material lost in China: state media.

North Korea Holds US Reporters

North Korean soldiers have detained at least one Korean-American journalist near the North’s border with China, South Korean media say.

YTN TV channel quotes a South Korean official as saying two reporters were held after being asked to stop filming. Other reports say one female journalist was arrested. It is not yet clear who the journalists were working for. The reports come amid heightened tension between the US and North Korea.

The North has angered the US by planning a missile launch for April as part of its space communications programme. The US believes the launch is intended to test a rocket that could potentially carry a warhead as far as US territory.

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Pentagon: Chinese Ships Harassed U.S. Naval Ship in International Waters

The Pentagon charged Monday that five Chinese ships shadowed and maneuvered dangerously close to a U.S. Navy vessel in an apparent attempt to harass the American crew.

The Obama administration said the incident Sunday followed several days of “increasingly aggressive” acts by Chinese ships in the region.

U.S. officials said a protest was to be delivered to Beijing’s military attache at a Pentagon meeting Monday.

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A Chinese intelligence ship and four others surrounded the USNS Impeccable, an unarmed vessel with a civilian merchant marine crew, as the craft conducted ocean surveys in international waters in the South China Sea, the Defense Department said in a statement.

The Impeccable sprayed one ship with water from fire hoses to force it away. Despite the force of the water, Chinese crew members stripped to their underwear and continued closing within 25 feet, the Defense department said.

“We expect Chinese ships to act responsibly and refrain from provocative activities that could lead to miscalculation or a collision at sea, endangering vessels and the lives of U.S. and Chinese mariners,” Upton said.

via Fox News

Fake Budweiser Van Was Carrying 13 Alleged Illegal Immigrants

Tucson Sector Border Patrol Agents seized a vehicle replicating a Budweiser delivery van smuggling thirteen illegal aliens near Three Points, Ariz.

Yesterday morning at 9:00am, Border Patrol agents assigned to the Tucson Station encountered a suspicious Budweiser Van traveling north from the border. Agents recognized this was abnormal and the vehicle appeared out of place. Agents were able to then successfully yield the van using emergency lights and sirens from their patrol cruiser. Inside the van agents discovered 13 illegal aliens of which eight were citizens of China, and the other five citizens of Mexico. All occupants were arrested and transported to the Tucson Border Patrol station.

Prosecution is being sought against the driver for the violation of alien smuggling.

Defending our borders against terrorists, illegal narcotics, and illegal aliens is priority ONE for the Tucson Sector Border Patrol. Networks of individuals exists who desire to bring chaos and suffering to our nation. Criminal elements are creative, ingenious, and persistent in their efforts to profit from illegal activity.