|  Author | Topic: The War On Terror II (Read 5,184 times) |
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« Reply #165 on Nov 30, 2011, 4:40am » | |
BBC World News blocked in Pakistan
Channel taken off air after showing documentary on accusations that country was failing to meet commitments in 'war on terror'
* Beatrice Woolf
* The Guardian, Wednesday 30 November 2011
![[image]](http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/1678/bbcworldnews0075829056.jpg "[image]")
Pakistan's cable TV association has taken BBC World News off air after screening of a documentary that it deemed anti-Pakistan. Photograph: BBC
The BBC's World News has been taken off the air in Pakistan after broadcasting a documentary that was deemed to be critical of the country. Secret Pakistan, which was screened last Wednesday, explored accusations by CIA officials and western diplomats that Pakistan was failing to meet its commitments in the "war on terror". Khalid Arain, president of the country's cable TV association, said operators had blocked the BBC service as a result.
The BBC condemned the decision, which is understood to have been applied to other foreign news broadcasters airing "anti-Pakistan" content as well.
"We are deeply concerned that BBC World News has been taken off air by the Cable Association of Pakistan," said a BBC spokesman.
"We condemn any action that threatens our editorial independence and prevents audiences from accessing our impartial international news service. We would urge that BBC World News and other international news services are reinstated as soon as possible."
The service was suspended in parts of Pakistan today, with the broadcaster expected to be off-air across the whole country by tomorrow.
The blocking of the BBC comes amid high tensions following Nato air strikes that accidentally killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on Saturday.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/nov/30/bbc-blocked-in-pakistan
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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Big Bunny
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| | Re: The War On Terror II
« Reply #166 on Dec 2, 2011, 9:17pm » | |
3 December 2011 Last updated at 00:28 GMT
What happened when US forces left Afghan hotspot?
![[image]](http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/7577/56975610afghankunar624x.gif "[image]")
What happens when US forces pull out of the most dangerous parts of Afghanistan? The BBC's Bilal Sarwary, the first journalist to visit one of the areas the US left in Kunar province, uncovers a disturbing situation.
Kunar has always been a crucible of conflict. Tucked away in the north-eastern corner of Afghanistan, it borders Pakistan's tribal badlands. It is one of the first ports of call for war-minded militants crossing the mountain passes.
But after the US-led invasion, troops began to assert their hold over the province. It is now littered with US and Nato bases and despite bloody battles there, the US invested heavily. Roads were asphalted, buildings renovated and a sense of security slowly developed. Villagers went about their business while infrastructure was put in place.
The US pulled out of parts of Kunar last year, beginning the withdrawal process. What has happened in the province since then makes for grim reading.
The new roads are now pock-marked with craters left by militants who plant bombs targeting Western and Afghan forces.
The province is becoming more dangerous - UK aid worker Linda Norgrove was kidnapped on one of the main roads in Kunar last year and in the past few months an Afghan translator was also abducted from exactly the same area.
The stretch between Chaw Kay and Nur Gal has become a favourite haunt of militants seeking targets.
The Taliban now roam at will in some rural districts, ruling villages by night while the government exerts nominal power by day. Taliban radio stations broadcast daily and hypnotic chants exhorting jihad (holy war) dominate Kunar's airwaves.
Intelligence officials say the Taliban operate radio stations from transmitters loaded on the backs of donkeys. "The donkeys are always mobile and they are guarded by armed insurgents," one spy told me.
It is a potent weapon for insurgents, they argue. A number of Kunar youth are being recruited as suicide bombers and there is evidence of militant training camps in areas where the US used to patrol.
Rising against militants
When I visited the picturesque Pech valley in the west of the province, a cloud of gloom hung over it.
In Barkanday village, I found a group of tribal elders brooding over their predicament: where once US forces were a deterrent to the Taliban, the Afghan government is notable only for its absence.
"It is Taliban across the river," one elder said. "They are lying in wait. At the first opportunity, they will descend on the village to take their revenge," he said, refusing to give his name for fear of retribution.
![[image]](http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/9100/56718515bilalpech806450.jpg "[image]")
Pech River Valley - Villagers say the Taliban are making a comeback now US forces have left
Barkanday dared to rise against the Taliban when they blew up a bridge over the river, restricting the villagers' movement and obstructing water meant for their fields. The revolt did not go down well with the Taliban leadership, the elder said.
One local pointed to a dozen men in the distance carrying grenade launchers and machine guns, most dressed in Afghan army and police uniforms. They were Taliban, I was told.
Inside the village, 30-year-old Suleman told me insurgents enter the village at night. "They catch hold of anyone who dares to step out," he said.
Several people whose family members work for the security forces fled after US forces left the village. "Those still here live in fear day and night," another elder said.
Suleman spoke of one recent morning when villagers woke to find a bullet-riddled body. There was a typed note saying anyone found working for the "infidels" would meet the same fate.
"When US forces left, they told us that our security was now the responsibility of the Afghan government," Mohammad Akbar said. "But the Afghan government exists only in the district headquarters at Mano Gai."
I did not come across a single soldier or official on my way there or during my four-hour stay. Villagers say development has also suffered.
"US forces built bridges, roads, schools and clinics in the area," said Abu Zubair. "Now there is no such activity."
Taliban judiciary
The Taliban even run a shadow judiciary in parts of Kunar. Like increasing numbers of Afghans in rural areas looking for speedy justice, Bibi Gul turned to a Taliban court when her son was murdered after a spat with a neighbour.
When government officials failed to act she took her grievance to the Taliban.
"I crossed the river and travelled several hours... I met the Taliban-appointed governor. He promised me justice," she said, showing me a letter from him.
It said: "Tell us if there is a tribal solution to the woman's complaint. If not, we will resolve the dispute our way."
Several villagers told me that Taliban judges hold court every Friday in nearby areas, deciding cases ranging from robbery to murder.
"They don't make us wait for months… justice is handed out instantly," one woman said.
The governor of Kunar, Fazlullah Wahidi, rejects the argument that there is no government in places such as Barkanday. But he admits that there are not enough Afghan forces to instill confidence, admitting "that is our weakness".
Afghanistan's intelligence spokesman, Luftullah Mashal, insists that training camps are based over the border in Pakistan.
But as Western forces withdraw, more areas like those in Kunar will be handed over to Afghan forces. Many Afghans ask if local forces will be able to hold on to these areas. If Kunar is an example, there will be many doubts.
Suicide bomber profiled
![[image]](http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/8368/56864533568645328083131.jpg "[image]")
Omar suicide bomber
Omar is 16 and came from the Pech River Valley. He carried out a suicide car attack against US forces in the summer. One police officer was injured.
Soon afterwards, the Taliban's mobile radio station FM Voice of Sharia was praising him, calling him a "hero" and an example to other Afghans. But how did the Taliban manage to recruit him?
Relatives say Omar was recruited at a refugee camp in Pakistan. He kept all details of his life as a Taliban fighter secret from his loved ones until the last minute. He recorded a video saying he needed to carry out a suicide attack against "foreign invaders".
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-15733325
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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Big Bunny
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| | Re: The War On Terror II
« Reply #167 on Dec 5, 2011, 2:57am » | |
Air strike deaths due to faulty data: claim
Rob Crilly
December 5, 2011
ISLAMABAD: American officers gave the wrong co-ordinates to their Pakistani counterparts as they sought clearance for the air strike that killed 24 friendly troops last weekend, a senior Pakistani officer has said.
NATO and US officials voiced regret but have refused to apologise until an investigation is complete into the incident near the Afghan border, which triggered a crisis in US-Pakistan relations.
Officials had offered varying accounts of the event as they sought to shift blame.
Yesterday, a senior Pakistani military officer said a border co-ordination unit, established to avoid such a tragedy, was given incorrect details of a suspected Taliban position.
''The strike had begun before we realised the target was a border post,'' he said.
''The Americans say we gave them clearance but they gave us the wrong information.''
It is understood that American officers have not disputed this Pakistani account.
The American pilots had been confident in their targets as they flew towards a mountain ridge that marked the border with Pakistan. Afghan and US commandos hunting Taliban training camps inside the east of Afghanistan had called in air support as they came under fire from the border.
The pilots believed the co-ordinates had been checked with a Pakistani officer and the Apache attack helicopters and lone AC-130 gunship were given the go-ahead to unload their payload on the mountainside.
But as dawn arrived it became clear that a terrible mistake had been made.
Twenty-four Pakistani soldiers lay dead and their border posts were a smoking ruin, unleashing a wave of anti-American anger in Pakistan, which has halted co-operation in the fight against al-Qaeda and Taliban militants.
Nowhere is the grief and anger more obvious than among the families whose sons were killed.
In the north-western town of Charsadda, Asfandyar Khan told how proud his son Najeebullah had been in 2005 to get a soldier's uniform and to help make his country safe. He fought against the Pakistan Taliban before being transferred to the Afghan border post where he died.
''He was very happy to fight against the Taliban as he wanted to take on Pakistan's enemy,'' Mr Khan said outside his mud brick home set among lush, green fields. A newly dug grave was decorated with flowers.
Mr Khan, who has another son in the army, now wants his government to end its close association with the US and its war in Afghanistan.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/air-strike-d....l#ixzz1fe2XLGWQ
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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Big Bunny
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| | Re: The War On Terror II
« Reply #168 on Dec 7, 2011, 7:38am » | |
U.S. Built Its Own Secret Pakistani Spy Service
* By Spencer Ackerman
* December 6, 2011
Pakistan’s powerful intelligence agency is schizophrenic about terrorism. It sponsors terrorist groups like the Haqqani network and Lashkar-e-Toiba while also collaborating with the CIA to attack other terrorists. Quietly, the U.S. has a way to mitigate the tension: It sponsors an office inside the Pakistani spy apparatus and buys cooperation.
But now that office might be a casualty of the rising acrimony between Washington and Islamabad.
Deep within Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) lurks T Wing, one of the few offices inside the agency that the U.S. trusts, unearthed by our friend Eli Lake of Newsweek in a blockbuster story. Around the 10th anniversary of September 11, U.S. spies got a bead on the cellphone of al-Qaida’s operations chief in Pakistan. Pakistan’s Frontier Corps snatched him, and soon the terrorist was subjected to “intensive interrogation” at a “special detention center in Punjab province,” Lake reports. T Wing runs that center.
If the name sounds odd, it’s likely a play on S Wing — the branch of the ISI believed to sponsor terrorist groups and undermine pro-American factions nestled within the spy bureaucracy. Lake reports that T Wing emerged “from scratch” beginning in 2007. And it’s not alone.
“America also has embraced and funded units connected to Pakistan’s Interior Ministry,” Lake writes, “particularly in the corruption-ridden megalopolis of Karachi, where the local police are not considered reliable counterterrorism partners.”
Beyond that, the CIA has its own network of Pashtun spies who traverse the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, spotting strike targets for the drone war overhead.
Or at least it did. A week after a U.S. helicopter crew accidentally killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, U.S.-Pakistani relations are continuing their downward spiral. Sure, Pakistan has yet to deny the U.S. flyover permissions, which would seriously complicate the drone war. But it’s “temporarily” withdrawing troops from the Afghanistan border, effectively turning a blind eye to insurgent infiltration. Powerful U.S. senators are publicly flirting with yanking American financial subsidies to Pakistan.
Whatever the merits of that step, it could doom T Wing, which probably hasn’t had an easy time maintaining itself inside ISI to begin with. (Just imagine the awkward break-room conversations.) That’s one way to resolve Pakistan’s terrorism schizophrenia.
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/12/u-s-pakistan-spy-wing/
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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Big Bunny
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| | Re: The War On Terror II
« Reply #169 on Dec 15, 2011, 5:13pm » | |
What Makes Solo Terrorists Tick?
ScienceDaily (Dec. 15, 2011) — The double terrorist attack in Norway last July, which claimed 77 lives, has moved violent acts committed by single individuals up the political, media and now research agendas. Known as “lone wolf terrorism,” these acts are carried out independently of established terrorist organizations.
In his new report Understanding Lone Wolf Terrorism, Dr. Ramón Spaaij, from La Trobe University in Australia and the University of Amsterdam, examines this so-far largely unexplored phenomenon.
According to Ramón Spaaij, "While lone wolf terrorism incidents still account for only a very small percentage of the total number of terrorist attacks, the number of lone wolf incidents has been on the rise in recent decades.” Indeed, the report shows that international security agencies now consider acts of terrorism carried out by individuals as one of the most likely forms of terrorist attack. Spaaij's report examines and maps the extent and nature of lone wolf terrorism, by drawing on a combination of international data from terrorism databases and high-profile case studies, including Anders Behring Breivik's acts in Norway last summer. Such acts tend to be carefully planned and prepared.
For the first time, an in-depth analysis is provided of the key features of lone wolf terrorism worldwide over the last four decades. The report provides insights for those working to prevent or minimize the effects of terrorism and political violence, by exploring what drives the lone wolf terrorist to commit mass violence and discussing how this phenomenon can be countered effectively.Dr. Spaaij said, “Overall, a significant discrepancy exists between the recent political and media attention for lone wolf terrorism on the one hand, and scientific investigation of this phenomenon on the other. Systematic research projects into lone wolf terrorism have been few and far between."
His report focuses on six key dimensions of lone wolf terrorism: its definition; where, how, and how frequently it occurs; what motivates lone wolf terrorists; radicalization and potential links with other terrorist networks or ideologies; how the acts are planned and carried out; and what lessons can be learned from government responses to these acts over the last 40 years.
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Springer.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111215113510.htm
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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Big Bunny
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| | Re: The War On Terror II
« Reply #170 on Dec 21, 2011, 12:01pm » | |
21 December 2011 Last updated at 02:06 GMT
Bird flu: Research row as US raises terror fears
US authorities have asked the authors of two controversial bird flu studies to redact key details after a government advisory panel suggested the data could be used by terrorists.
The papers show how a bird flu variant can pass easily between ferrets.
Editors at the journals Science and Nature say they will not agree to the redactions until they are assured the data will be accessible to researchers.
A spokesman for US health authorities said such a system was being prepared.
At least one set of scientists have already rewritten their paper in light of the recommendation, Science reports.
Albert Osterhaus told Science his team "completely disagreed" with the recommendation of the panel, the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB).
But Mr Osterhaus, who believes the information should be made widely available, said an editorial explaining his team's "genuflection" to the panel is a condition of the paper's publication in Science.
A second research team at the University of Wisconsin, Madison is also reluctantly submitting a revised paper to Nature, a university spokesman confirmed to Science.
'Bona fide need'
While bird flu is deadly, its reach has been limited because it is not transmissible between humans.
However, the flu virus was altered in the new studies to be passed easily between ferrets.
Those mutations mean the flu would have "greater potential" to be contagious among humans, the NSABB said in a statement on Tuesday.
The lab-created version, the board warned, represented an "extremely serious global public health threat".
The NSABB recommended that the "general conclusions" be published but that final manuscripts not include details that "could enable replication of the experiments by those who would seek to do harm".
Editors at Nature and Science said they wanted a clearer plan from the US government about how the potentially redacted data could be used by "all those responsible scientists who request it".
"Many scientists within the influenza community have a bona fide need to know the details of this research in order to protect the public, especially if they currently are working with related strains of the virus," Science editor-in-chief Bruce Alberts said.
Mr Alberts said the magazine's response would be "heavily dependent upon the further steps taken by the US government to set forth a written, transparent plan" to ensure the information can be used by scientists who request it.
"It is essential for public health that the full details of any scientific analysis of flu viruses be available to researchers," Dr Philip Campbell, editor of Nature said in a statement.
'Critical question'
The recommendation is unprecedented for the board, which was created in the wake of the 2001 anthrax attacks.
Speaking to the BBC, Anthony Fauci of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) said a system to allow those with proper credentials to access the full research was now being put together.
It was expected to be ready in time for the publication dates during January, he said, but it was prudent to restrict key information to those directly involved in public health programmes.
"The critical question is whether there is a compelling public health reason to gain access to the knowledge," Mr Fauci said.
The Department of Health and Human Services said it agreed with the recommendation.
The research was partly funded by the NIH, the parent body of the NSABB, as part of "pandemic preparedness", Mr Fauci confirmed, adding that it was entirely proper that the NIH fund such research.
But he conceded that there was little the NSABB could do to stop the publication of the full papers if the editors of Science and of Nature decided to take that path.
"The journals want to publish but understand the concerns of the NSABB," Mr Fauci said.
NSABB is made up of scientists and public health experts, 23 from outside the government, and 18 from within. It cannot stop publication but makes recommendations to researchers.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16279365
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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Big Bunny
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| | Re: The War On Terror II
« Reply #171 on Dec 23, 2011, 10:29am » | |
US peace bid with Taliban collapses
Karen Deyoung
December 24, 2011
![[image]](http://img805.imageshack.us/img805/7637/tahtalibanlw24091120111.jpg "[image]")
US commanders have said the Taliban's interest in talks stems from coalition gains on the battlefield. Photo: AFP
THE Obama administration, as part of an accelerated push towards an endgame in Afghanistan, last month reached a tentative accord with Taliban negotiators that would have included the transfer of five Afghans from detention at Guantanamo Bay and the Taliban's public renunciation of international terrorism.
The deal called for the prisoners to be sent to house arrest in Qatar, where the Taliban planned to open an office, according to US and European officials.
Until now, no Guantanamo detainees have left the prison as bargaining chips in a larger deal.
It was the closest that the parties have come to genuine peace negotiations after nearly a year of talks. Officials said the agreement collapsed after Afghan President Hamid Karzai baulked at its terms.
''Right now, things have stopped,'' said a senior Obama administration official. ''Everybody is taking a deep breath.'' Contacts with the Taliban are expected to be re-established early in the new year.
The negotiations reflect a marked change over the past year in what the administration believes is acceptable and achievable in Afghanistan, apart from the core objective of eliminating al-Qaeda and the possibility that it could re-establish an Afghan presence.
Disappointment in the governments of both Afghanistan and Pakistan, economic and political pressures at home, and sheer fatigue with the decade-long effort have led to lowered expectations as the US and its allies head towards the scheduled withdrawal of all foreign troops by the end of 2014.
The need to fashion a comprehensive, realistic exit strategy was also underlined in a national intelligence estimate on Afghanistan, a classified assessment produced by US intelligence agencies. Officials described it as uniformly pessimistic about the future.
US commanders have said the Taliban's interest in talks stems from coalition gains on the battlefield. But officials said they believe the insurgents are in a similar position as the US in forecasting that the conflict will reach an inconclusive end. The Taliban may believe that political accommodation now will better position them for future struggles after the troop withdrawal, officials said.
Short-term agreements with the insurgents, such as the establishment of ceasefire zones, could influence decisions on when to transfer areas to Afghan control. Those transitions could, in turn, dictate the pace of troop withdrawal, as well as longer-term assessments of what ''good enough'' means in terms of stability and central government control.
Negotiations with Mr Karzai over an ongoing US military presence beyond 2014 - the Pentagon's working number is somewhere between 10,000 and 30,000 troops - will be influenced by whether countries in the region perceive that presence as aiding or undermining their own security goals.
US President Barack Obama has already ordered the withdrawal by September of the 33,000 troops he sent to Afghanistan last year.
General John Allen, the commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, said last week that the pace of withdrawal after September would not be resolved until his staff completed a ''strategy-based discussion'' and received specific orders from Mr Obama.
But General Allen indicated that a change of mission had already been decided, with US troops shifting gradually from broad counterinsurgency operations and ''shoulder-to-shoulder'' partnership with Afghan troops to an advisory role: ''That will in many respects be a preview of how we'll see our forces postured in the years to come.''
The administration hopes to have all elements of the strategy working together by May, when NATO leaders meet at a Chicago summit to flesh out plans for achieving the 2014 withdrawal deadline.
One administration official said: ''We see reconciliation as the most important pillar of our effort. It's one that's intertwined with everything else we're doing, especially the military elements.''
The potential transfer of prisoners was the result of at least a half-dozen meetings this year between the US and a Taliban delegation.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/us-peace-bid....l#ixzz1hN7iY4X8
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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Big Bunny
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| | Re: The War On Terror II
« Reply #172 on Dec 25, 2011, 6:47pm » | |
Drone Watches Last U.S. Convoy Leave Iraq
* By Spencer Ackerman
* December 18, 2011
On March 19, 2003, U.S. ground forces crossed the concertina wire in Kuwait that marks Iraq’s southern border, beginning one of America’s most controversial wars. On Dec. 17, 2011, at 11:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, the last military convoys rolled off Iraqi soil, back to Kuwait. This time, a U.S. Air Force Predator drone loitered overhead, bearing witness: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVLN5H8VFNs&feature=player_embedded
This is what a U.S. withdrawal looks like to a robotic plane in the sky. An orderly, blue-tinged column of trucks — 125 of them, according to the U.S. Air Force — moves along a stretch of road. The Predator doesn’t see any of the accomplishments or the sacrifice that U.S. troops achieved, endured and earned in Iraq for the past nine years. Nor does it see the suffering, the bitterness and the loss.
But it does record a minor success. The Predator video feed does not show chaos at the border. There is no insurgent assault seeking to chase the U.S. military out. Nor is there a panicked helicopter flight from an embassy rooftop. Instead, as the final trucks calmly cross into Kuwait, the Predator watches border guards shut a gate, providing a sense of finality.
It may not be so final. The U.S. leaves behind a massive embassy in Iraq guarded by up to 5,500 armed security contractors. Little is known about that hired army — when, for instance, it can open fire on Iraqis to protect U.S. diplomats — but it amounts to a privatized residual U.S. force. And in addition to Iraq’s lingering political problems, the country is still a battleground for competing U.S. and Iranian interests. Still, Pentagon Press Secretary George Little tweeted on Sunday morning that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has “approved the order officially ending the Iraq war: EXORD 1003 Victor, Mod 9.”
And the Predators? They won’t exactly leave Iraq after the pullout. On Friday, Panetta secured Baghdad’s approval to allow the drones to fly — unarmed — over northern Iraq from Turkey’s Incirlik air base. They’ll be spying for Kurdish terrorists.
Beyond that, after December 31, when the pullout must legally be complete, drones — armed and otherwise — will be in reserve at the U.S.’ constellation of bases near Iraq in Persian Gulf states.
“Any operation of any aircraft of any type into the sovereign airspace over Iraq after that date would need to comply with Iraqi laws and policies,” Capt. Melissa Milner, chief spokeswoman for the U.S. Air Force in the Middle East, told Danger Room in October. “We are not aware of any special arrangements or exceptions for any aircraft, and are not aware of any ongoing discussions with [the Iraqi defense ministry] on the matter.”
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/12/predator-convoy-iraq/
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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Big Bunny
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| | Re: The War On Terror II
« Reply #173 on Dec 25, 2011, 6:50pm » | |
Pakistan’s Taliban Launches Jihad Against Sexting
* By Spencer Ackerman
* December 19, 2011
![[image]](http://img847.imageshack.us/img847/8693/brokencellphone6899099.jpg "[image]")
Do not even think about texting an adorable photo of your baby to your grandmother if you live in the tribal regions of Pakistan. The Taliban might attack you for it — and they’re definitely going to smash your cell phone. It’s all sexting to them.
The conspiratorial religious fanatics are on a new jihad against the always-on future. And if you’ve ever shared an NSFW pic through your phone, you know why. Leaflets are turning up in the tribal areas calling camera phones “the source of promoting obscenity and vulgarity,” reports Pakistan’s The News.
Over 300 cellphones and a dozen computers have been seized and burned so far. The Taliban have reportedly shut down sales of cameraphones and asked tribesmen to cooperate against the “misuse” of those they’ve yet to confiscate.
“The Taliban said they had already banned watching movies and listening to music,” The News reports. “Some of the people, they claimed, were still using their computers for watching movies and music and they had to initiate action against them.” The audacity!
It wasn’t long ago that the Taliban had a different beef with cellphones: They were essentially electronic homing devices for the armed drones overhead. Trackers placed in SIM cards used in militants’ cellphones told the drones who to kill, Taliban propaganda used to argue. Now the anti-cellphone campaign is a mechanism for social control.
But the Pakistani Taliban are out of step with recent militant advances in communication. Their Afghan counterparts are tweeting frenetically, as are their allies in Somalia’s Shabab. The Afghan Taliban even texts their death threats these days.
The Taliban have run effective terror campaigns against the Pakistani people before. But maybe the anti-cellphone drive could turn into a donnybrook. In Iraq, al-Qaida turned popular support into popular disgust by mutilating Sunnis for the crime of smoking. And you know how the kids love to sext these days.
Photo: Flickr/Simon Davidson
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/12/taliban-sexting-war/
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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Big Bunny
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« Reply #174 on Dec 25, 2011, 6:53pm » | |
Al-Qaida Puts Out YouTube Preacher’s Greatest Hits
* By Adam Rawnsley
* December 20, 2011
![[image]](http://img805.imageshack.us/img805/4318/awlaki660x3957076705.png "[image]")
Al-Qaida’s Yemeni affiliate has unexpectedly released a final video from slain YouTube propagandist Anwar al-Awlaki. But don’t expect an unreleased message from beyond the grave, Tupac style. It seems the only thing left of his preaching is the highlight reel.
On Tuesday, Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula’s al-Malahim Media arm describes the new tape as a ”a recorded message that was taken from the archive” of Awlaki and addressed to Americans and Muslims in the west.
But as terrorism expert J.M. Berger notes, almost all of Awlaki’s speech covers material taken directly from his March 2010 missive, “Call to Jihad.” In both tapes, Awlaki unloads on American Muslims for their patriotism in standing with the Army and the FBI. He disputes that Fort Hood Shooter Nidal Malik Hasan was motivated by mental problems, preferring to cast him as a jihadi hero. And in contrast to his father’s depiction of him as reconciling Islam with the west, the tapes show Awlaki pressuring Muslims to leave their homes in the U.S. and join up with al-Qaida.
The speech only takes up around half of the 33-minute video. The rest of the film is taken up by a hagiography of Awlaki narrated by the group’s top religious leader, Ibrahim al-Rubaysh. There’s also a brief interview with an English-speaker, identified “Brother Abu Yazeed.” Yazeed whose face is obscured by shadows, criticizes the U.S. for killing Awlaki, an American citizen, in a drone strike without judicial review. “For us, we don’t recognize America’s laws,” he scoffs, “let alone the fake rights of the U.S. citizenship.” OK then.
The lack of original material in the release would seem to indicate that the Awlaki canon is closed. If a new generation of jihadis is going to find inspiration in his words, as many have feared, they’re probably going to have to stick to those already blasted out on the internet.
Photo: Al-Malahim Media
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/12/awlaki-greatest-hits/
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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Big Bunny
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| | Re: The War On Terror II
« Reply #175 on Dec 25, 2011, 7:04pm » | |
U.S.: ‘Lack of Trust’ in Pakistanis Fueled Helo Disaster
* By Spencer Ackerman
* December 22, 2011
![[image]](http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/4805/apache7254206.jpg "[image]")
On the surface, the direct cause of a deadly U.S. helicopter incident that prompted a crisis in relations with Pakistan was faulty mapping information and miscommunication. But the official investigation into the disaster strongly suggests that its real cause is the Pakistani military’s persistent habit of coordinating with insurgents more closely than with U.S. forces.
In late November, a U.S. helicopter in Afghanistan opened fire on a Pakistani military position on the border, killing 24 Pakistani soldiers. The acrimony in Islamabad has yet to subside: The Pakistanis kicked the CIA out of a major air base used for the drone war and shut down overland shipping routes that resupply NATO troops in Afghanistan.
The investigating officer, Air Force Brig. Gen. Stephen Clark, a special-operations veteran of many helicopter missions, pinned a fair amount of blame on the Americans. “Our reliance on incorrect mapping information” helped result in “a misunderstanding about the true location of Pakistani military units.” Those bad maps were shared with a “Pakistani liaison officer” — a precaution taken to minimize friendly fire — but without the intention to deceive the Pakistanis, Clark found.
But there’s much more to the incident than that. Clark told Pentagon reporters on Thursday morning that a 120-man raiding team operating at night in a village one kilometer from the Pakistani border took heavy, accurate machine gun fire — which prompted the ground commander to call in a “show of force” from AC-130 gunships, Apache helicopters and F-15s overhead for the operation. But even after the aircraft fired flares, leaving “no doubt” that U.S. troops were in the area, the ground force continued to take fire, including from what Clark described as a nearby “ridge line” over the Pakistani border. The Apaches and the AC-130s opened fire on the ridge line at nearly midnight.
Soon after, Pakistani officers began calling their U.S. counterparts to say their forces were under attack. “You know where it is, because you’re shooting at them,” Clark summarized the Pakistanis as saying. “Once they had identified that there was [Pakistani military] in the area, the ground tactical leader ceased fire support from the air,” he said.
Clark faulted the U.S. for not relaying “specific” communications to the Pakistanis about where U.S. forces were operating. There was also confusion between both sides as to exactly where the incident took place, thanks to faulty mapping, resulting in the U.S. describing the location to the Pakistanis “incorrectly.” But he found the problem ran deeper than just a mapping glitch.
“There is a perception from ISAF [the NATO military command in Afghanistan] that the Pakistanis are unwilling or reticent to give full disclosure on all their border locations, and are under the perception that when they have given specifics, their operations have been compromised,” Clark said. “It is out there, and it is real.”
It’s also something that U.S. military commanders have warned about for months. They’ve noted that Pakistani border units have aided insurgents in rocketing U.S. troops on the border — either with active military assistance or by passively ignoring attacks launched near their positions. At some point during the November incident, Pentagon spokesman Capt. John Kirby clarifies, Pakistani military forces positioned on the ridge line — a position unfamiliar to the U.S. before the incident — indeed fired on U.S. troops.
U.S. commanders also warned that ever since the Osama bin Laden raid, Pakistani military officials have effectively stopped coordinating with U.S. troops. U.S.-Pakistani military communications are “not at the regularity that one time they were or that I’d like them to be,” Lt. Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, the day-to-day commander of the Afghanistan war, told Pentagon reporters in October. Moreover, Pakistan has reportedly tipped off insurgents after learning that the CIA has identified their locations.
Clark’s investigation, accordingly, lists “gaps in information about the activities and placement of units from both sides” as a fundamental cause of the “tragic result.” He said it was beyond the scope of his inquiry to determine whether Pakistan really does tip off insurgents and terrorists — but emphasized that the perception that it does lurked in the background of the mission. (Pakistan didn’t cooperate with Clark’s inquiry anyway.)
“I can only point to the lack of trust in giving precise information,” Clark said.
That may be why the Defense Department’s official statement on the incident both stops short of an apology — it expresses “deepest regret” and “sincere condolences” instead — and all but begs Pakistan to end the silent treatment.
“We cannot operate effectively on the border — or in other parts of our relationship — without addressing the fundamental trust still lacking between us,” the statement reads. “We earnestly hope the Pakistani military will join us in bridging that gap.”
Photo: U.S. Army
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/12/pakistan-helicopter-inquiry/
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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Big Bunny
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| | Re: The War On Terror II
« Reply #176 on Dec 29, 2011, 11:13pm » | |
Turkish airstrike error kills 35 smugglers
December 30, 2011 - 1:21PM
Turkish warplanes mistakenly killed 35 smugglers and other villagers in an operation targeting Kurdish rebels in Iraq, a senior official said - one of the largest one-day civilian death tolls during Turkey's 27-year drive against the guerrillas.
The killings spurred angry demonstrations in Istanbul on Thursday and several cities in the mostly Kurdish southeast, and were the latest incident of violence to undermine the Turkish government's efforts to appease the aggrieved Kurdish minority by granting it more cultural freedoms.
Huseyin Celik, a spokesman for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party, said authorities were still trying to identify the dead, but that most were youngsters from an extended family in the mostly Kurdish-populated area that borders Iraq.
All of the victims were under age 30 and some were the sons of village guards who have aided Turkish troops in their fight against rebels, he said.
"According to the initial information, these people were not terrorists but were engaged in smuggling," Celik said, adding that Turkey was ready to compensate the victims.
"If there was a mistake, if there was a fault, this will not be covered up, and whatever is necessary will be done."
In Istanbul, police used tear gas and water canons to disperse pro-Kurdish protesters denouncing the air strikes, the Dogan news agency reported.
Dogan footage showed some demonstrators smashing glass panels at a bus stop and others throwing stones at a police vehicle near Taksim square, a transit hub adjacent to shopping and hotel districts. Plainclothes officers hustled or dragged away several protesters.
Earlier, the Turkish military confirmed the Wednesday night raids, saying its jets struck an area of northern Iraq frequently used by rebels to enter Turkey after drones detected a group approaching the often unmarked mountainous border.
Border troops were on alert following intelligence indicating that Kurdish rebels were preparing attacks in retaliation for recent military assaults on the guerrillas.
The military said drones had detected a group approaching Turkey, apparently at a mountain pass that the rebels have used to smuggle weapons into Turkey, and that the military conducted strikes in areas where the rebels have bases far away from civilian settlements.
Pro-Kurdish legislator Nazmi Gur said earlier that most of those killed were teenagers making a living out of smuggling from Iraq into Turkey and claimed that officials should have known that Turkish smugglers would be operating in the area.
Video footage provided by Dogan on Thursday morning showed mourners, some crying, as they surrounded more than a dozen bodies that lay side-by-side and wrapped in blankets in the Turkish village of Ortasu.
Ahmet Deniz, a spokesman for the rebel group, said earlier that the victims were among a group of about 50 people attacked on their way back to Turkey from Iraq's self-ruled northern Kurdish region. Most of the survivors were injured, he said.
"Those who were killed yesterday had no links to the PKK. They were only smugglers who were on their way back to Turkey from Iraq," Deniz said, referring to the Kurdish rebel group, the Kurdistan Workers' Party.
"We were on our way back when the jets began to bomb us," the pro-Kurdish Firat news agency quoted one survivor, Servet Encu, as saying.
"Five or six took refuge behind some rocks, but the planes bombed those as well. They all died behind the rocks."
Firat said some of the survivors rushed back to Ortasu for help and that its villagers then transported the bodies back to the village.
Some of the bodies were carried to the village tied to donkeys or to mules, photographs obtained by The Associated Press showed.
Gur's pro-Kurdish party released a statement condemning "the massacre," and Turkey's main opposition party said it was "extremely disturbed" that civilians were apparently killed in the fight against the PKK.
Kurds, who make up around 20 per cent of Turkey's 74 million people, have long felt marginalised in the country and many want autonomy in Kurdish-dominated southeast Turkey. Since Kurdish rebels took up arms in 1984, tens of thousands of people have been killed in the conflict with the state.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/turkish-airs....l#ixzz1hzJ7ZhvV
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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Big Bunny
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| | Re: The War On Terror II
« Reply #177 on Dec 31, 2011, 3:16am » | |
565 foreign troops killed in Afghan unrest
* From: AAP
* December 31, 2011 2:57PM
FOREIGN troops fighting in Afghanistan continue to pay a high toll, with more than 560 killed in 2011, the second highest number in the 10-year war against the Taliban-led insurgency.
Commanders from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) say violence is declining following the US military surge which saw an extra 33,000 troops on the ground.
But the UN says violence is up, while recent mass casualty strikes by the Taliban on civilians and coalition troops have fuelled analyst predictions that more bloodshed is likely as NATO hands control for security to Afghan forces.
The death toll of coalition service personnel in 2011 was 565 and includes 417 from the US and 45 from Britain, according to an AFP tally based on figures from independent website icasualties.org.
The number is down from a wartime high of 711 in 2010 after the start of the surge but up from 521 in 2009.
The fatality count, which includes 11 Australians, has been worsened by several devastating attacks, including the car bombing of an ISAF convoy in Kabul in October which killed 17, and the shooting down of a helicopter in Wardak, south of the capital, in August in which 30 US troops perished.
But it is Afghan civilians who have paid the highest price.
The deadliest attack saw at least 80 people killed in a shrine bombing in Kabul on the Shi'ite holy day of Ashura in early December.
The surge troops - ordered in by US President Barack Obama two years ago to turn the tide in the war - have now begun to pull out, with 10,000 already gone and the rest leaving by next autumn.
Other foreign forces are also scaling down their missions ahead of a 2014 deadline for the withdrawal of all NATO combat forces. And one Western military official said some units have already been told not to carry out offensive operations.
Since the US-led invasion toppled the Taliban from power in 2001, a total of 2,846 foreign troops have died in the conflict.
"We've seen a considerable reduction in enemy attacks (this year). That's a result of successes on the battle field and a reduction of their capability to attack us," said ISAF spokesman Brigadier General Carsten Jacobson.
While fewer ISAF troops on the ground in the coming years may mean fewer coalition deaths, the civilian toll will not necessarily fall.
The UN said the number of civilians killed in violence in Afghanistan rose by 15 per cent in the first six months of this year to 1,462. A full-year report is due out in mid-January.
Insurgents are blamed for 80 per cent of the deaths, which are mostly caused by homemade bombs or IEDs.
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/for....#ixzz1i69CpO Qh
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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Big Bunny
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« Reply #178 on Jan 30, 2012, 9:54am » | |
US plans Mid-East 'mothership'
Craig Whitlock, Washington
January 29, 2012
THE US military is rushing to send a large floating base for commando teams to the Middle East, as tensions rise with Iran, al-Qaeda in Yemen and Somali pirates, among other threats.
In response to requests from the US Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, the navy is converting an ageing warship it had planned to decommission into a makeshift staging base for the commandos.
Unofficially dubbed a ''mothership'', the floating base could accommodate smaller high-speed boats and helicopters commonly used by Navy SEALs, procurement documents show.
Special operations forces are a key part of the Obama administration's strategy to make the military leaner and more agile as the Pentagon confronts at least $US487 billion ($A458 billion) in spending cuts over the next decade.
Lieutenant-Commander Mike Kafka, a navy spokesman, declined to elaborate on the floating base's purpose or to say where it will be deployed in the Middle East. Other navy officials acknowledged that they were moving with unusual haste to complete the conversion and send the mothership to the region by the middle of the year.
Navy documents indicate that it could be headed to the Persian Gulf, where Iran has threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial shipping route for much of the world's oil supply.
Other contract documents do not specify a location but say the mothership would be used to ''support mine countermeasure'' missions. Defence officials have said that if Iran did attempt to close the Strait of Hormuz, it would rely on mines to obstruct the waterway.
With a large naval base in Bahrain and one or two aircraft carrier groups usually assigned to the region, the navy already has a substantial presence in the Persian Gulf and surrounding waters.
Adding the mothership would do relatively little to bolster US sea power overall, but it could play an instrumental role in secretive commando missions.
Other details of the project became public last week when the Military Sealift Command posted a bid request to retrofit the USS Ponce, an amphibious transport docking ship, on a rush-order basis.
The navy had planned to retire the Ponce in March after 41 years of service.
Instead, the ship will be modified into what the military terms an Afloat Forward Staging Base.
Commander Kafka said it would be used to support mine-clearance ships, smaller patrol ships and aircraft.
The documents posted by the Military Sealift Command in December, however, specify that the mothership will be rebuilt so that it can also serve as a docking station for several small high-speed boats and helicopters commonly used by Navy SEAL teams.
Military officials declined to say what prompted them to give the Ponce a sudden new lease of life. But contract and bidding documents underscore the urgency of the project.
One contract for engineering work states that the military was waiving normal procurement rules because any delay presented a ''national security risk''.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/us-plans-mid....l#ixzz1kxAyUGdY
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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Big Bunny
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« Reply #179 on Feb 1, 2012, 12:18am » | |
Bird flu 'censorship' decision
![[image]](http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/9741/58205895fluapcdccgoldsm.jpg "[image]")
H5N1 under the microscope
A group which advises the US government on biosecurity has explained why it wants two research papers on H5N1 bird flu to be censored.
Two scientific research teams have modified influenza strains to create mutant avian influenza viruses that can be transmitted efficiently between mammals. In one case, the virus remained highly pathogenic.
The US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) said publishing the work in full holds significant potential for harm.
The board explains that its main concern was that publishing the experiments in detail could help someone to develop viruses for harmful purposes.
But it acknowledges the work holds "clear benefits" in alerting humanity to the potential H5N1 threat, and that it could lead to greater preparation and potential development of novel strategies for disease control.
The board states that by recommending that the basic results be communicated without methods or details, the benefits to society will be maximised and the risks minimised.
Together with the release of this official statement, the journal Nature has also published a Q&A with the acting chair of the NSABB.
In it, he explains in more detail why they have recommended redaction for the paper in press at Nature even though the modified H5N1 virus that it describes is not highly pathogenic.
A copy of the NSABB Comment can be viewed on the Nature press site, and at: Policy Adaptations of avian flu virus are a cause for concern.
Nature's Q&A article is also on the Nature press site and is available here: Q&A Reasons for proposed redaction of flu paper Nature Nature Publishing Group.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16822541
AND:
Policy: Adaptations of avian flu virus are a cause for concern
* Kenneth I. Berns,1
* Arturo Casadevall,2
* Murray L. Cohen,3
* Susan A. Ehrlich,4
* Lynn W. Enquist,5
* J. Patrick Fitch,6
* David R. Franz,7
* Claire M. Fraser-Liggett,8
* Christine M. Grant,9
* Michael J. Imperiale,10
* Joseph Kanabrocki,11
* Paul S. Keim,12
* Stanley M. Lemon,13
* Stuart B. Levy,14
* John R. Lumpkin,15
* Jeffery F. Miller,16
* Randall Murch,17
* Mark E. Nance,18
* Michael T. Osterholm,19
* David A. Relman,20
* James A. Roth21
* & Anne K. Vidaver22
Journal name: Nature
Year published: (2012)
DOI: doi:10.1038/482153a
Published online 31 January 2012
Members of the US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity explain its recommendations on the communication of experimental work on H5N1 influenza.
We are in the midst of a revolutionary period in the life sciences. Technological capabilities have dramatically expanded, we have a much improved understanding of the complex biology of selected microorganisms, and we have a much improved ability to manipulate microbial genomes. With this has come unprecedented potential for better control of infectious diseases and significant societal benefit. However, there is also a growing risk that the same science will be deliberately misused and that the consequences could be catastrophic. Efforts to describe or define life-sciences research of particular concern have focused on the possibility that knowledge or products derived from such research, or new technologies, could be directly misapplied with a sufficiently broad scope to affect national or global security. Research that might greatly enhance the harm caused by microbial pathogens has been of special concern1, 2, 3. Until now, these efforts have suffered from a lack of specificity and a paucity of concrete examples of 'dual use research of concern'3. Dual use is defined as research that could be used for good or bad purposes. We are now confronted by a potent, real-world example.
Highly pathogenic avian influenza A/H5N1 infection of humans has been a serious public-health concern since its identification in 1997 in Asia. This virus rarely infects humans, but when it does, it causes severe disease with case fatality rates of 59% (ref. 4). To date, the transmission of influenza A/H5N1 virus from human to human has been rare, and no human pandemic has occurred. If influenza A/H5N1 virus acquired the capacity for human-to-human spread and retained its current virulence, we could face an epidemic of significant proportions. Historically, epidemics or pandemics with high mortalities have been documented when humans interact with new agents for which they have no immunity, such as with Yersinia pestis (plague) in the Middle Ages and the introduction of smallpox and measles into the Americas after the arrival of Europeans.
Recently, several scientific research teams have achieved some success in modifying influenza A/H5N1 viruses such that they are now transmitted efficiently between mammals, in one instance with maintenance of high pathogenicity. This information is very important because, before these experiments were done, it was uncertain whether avian influenza A/H5N1 could ever acquire the capacity for mammal-to-mammal transmission. Now that this information is known, society can take steps globally to prepare for when nature might generate such a virus spontaneously. At the same time, these scientific results also represent a grave concern for global biosecurity, biosafety and public health. Could this knowledge, in the hands of malevolent individuals, organizations or governments, allow construction of a genetically altered influenza virus capable of causing a pandemic with mortality exceeding that of the 'Spanish flu' epidemic of 1918? The research teams that performed this work did so in a well-intended effort to discover evolutionary routes by which avian influenza A/H5N1 viruses might adapt to humans. Such knowledge may be valuable for improving the public-health response to a looming natural threat. And, to their credit and that of the peer reviewers selected by the journals Science and Nature, the journals themselves, as well as the US government, it was recognized before their publication that these experiments had dual use of concern potential.
The US government asked the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB; go.nature.com/oeryit) to assess the dual-use research implications of two as-yet-unpublished manuscripts on the avian influenza A/H5N1 virus, to consider the risks and benefits of communicating the research results and to provide findings and recommendations regarding the responsible communication of this research. In our deliberations, we first assessed the potential risks and consequences of the misuse of the information to cause harm to the public.
Risk assessment of public harm is challenging because it necessitates consideration of the intent and capability of those who wish to do harm, as well as the vulnerability of the public and the status of public-health preparedness for both deliberate and accidental events. We found the potential risk of public harm to be of unusually high magnitude. In formulating our recommendations to the government, scientific journals and to the broader scientific community, we tried to balance the great risks against the benefits that could come from making the details of this research known. Because the NSABB found that there was significant potential for harm in fully publishing these results and that the harm exceeded the benefits of publication, we therefore recommended that the work not be fully communicated in an open forum. The NSABB was unanimous that communication of the results in the two manuscripts it reviewed should be greatly limited in terms of the experimental details and results.
This is an unprecedented recommendation for work in the life sciences and our analysis was conducted with careful consideration both of the potential benefits of publication and of the potential harm that could occur from such a precedent. Our concern is that publishing these experiments in detail would provide information to some person, organization or government that would help them to develop similar mammal-adapted influenza A/H5N1 viruses for harmful purposes. We believe that as scientists and as members of the general public, we have a primary responsibility 'to do no harm' as well as to act prudently and with some humility as we consider the immense power of the life sciences to create microbes with novel and unusually consequential properties. At the same time, we acknowledge that there are clear benefits to be realized for the public good in alerting humanity of this potential threat and in pursuing those aspects of this work that will allow greater preparedness and the potential development of novel strategies leading to future disease control. By recommending that the basic result be communicated without methods or details, we believe that the benefits to society are maximized and the risks minimized. Although scientists pride themselves on the creation of scientific literature that defines careful methodology that would allow other scientists to replicate experiments, we do not believe that widespread dissemination of the methodology in this case is a responsible action.
The life sciences have reached a cross-roads. The direction we choose and the process by which we arrive at this decision must be undertaken as a community and not relegated to small segments of government, the scientific community or society. Physicists faced a similar situation in the 1940s with nuclear weapons research, and it is inevitable that other scientific disciplines will also do so.
Along with our recommendation to restrict communication of these particular scientific results, we discussed the need for a rapid and broad international discussion of dual-use research policy concerning influenza A/H5N1 virus with the goal of developing a consensus on the path forward. There is no doubt that this is a complex endeavour that will require diligent and nuanced consideration. There are many important stakeholders whose opinions need to be heard at this juncture. This must be done quickly and with the full participation of multiple societal components.
We are aware that the continuing circulation of the highly pathogenic avian influenza A/H5N1 virus in Eurasia — where it is constantly found to cause disease in animals of particular regions — constitutes a continuing threat to humankind. A pandemic, or the deliberate release of a transmissible highly pathogenic influenza A/H5N1 virus, would be an unimaginable catastrophe for which the world is currently inadequately prepared. It is urgent to establish how best to facilitate the much-needed research as well as minimize potential dual use.
To facilitate and motivate this process, we also discussed the possibility of the scientific community participating in a self-imposed moratorium on the broad communication of the results of experiments that show greatly enhanced virulence or transmissibility of such potentially dangerous microbes as the influenza A/H5N1 virus. This moratorium would run until consensus is reached on the balance that must be struck between academic freedom and protecting the greater good of humankind from potential danger. With proper diligence and rapid achievement of a consensus on a proper path forward, this could have little detrimental effect on scientific progress but significant effect on diminishing risk.
There are many parallels with the situation in the 1970s and recombinant DNA technologies5, 6, 7. The Asilomar Conference in California in 1975 was a landmark meeting important to the identification, evaluation and mitigation of risks posed by recombinant DNA technologies. In that case, the research community voluntarily imposed a temporary moratorium on the conduct of recombinant DNA research until they could develop guidance for the safe and responsible conduct of such research. We believe that this is another Asilomar-type moment for public-health and infectious-disease research that urgently needs our attention.
References
1. National Research Council Committee on Research Standards and Practices to Prevent the Destructive Application of Biotechnology. Biotechnology Research in an Age of Terrorism (National Academies Press, 2004); available at http://go.nature.com/4vl3ye
2. National Research Council Committee on Advances in Technology and the Prevention of Their Application to Next Generation Biowarfare Threats. Globalization, Biosecurity, and the Future of the Life Sciences (National Academies Press, 2006); available at http://go.nature.com/hktvtc
3. National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity. Strategic Plan for Outreach and Education on Dual Use Research Issues (NSABB, 2008); available at http://go.nature.com/nuriw4
4. World Health Organization. Cumulative Number of Confirmed Human Cases for Avian Influenza A(H5N1) reported to WHO, 2003–2012; available at http://go.nature.com/epb7ts
5. Singer, M. & Soll, D. Science 181, 1114 (1973).
6. Berg, P., Baltimore, D., Brenner, S., Roblin, R. O. & Singer, M. F. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 72, 1981–1984 (1975).
7. Singer, M. & Berg, P. Science 193, 186–188 (1976).
Robert G. Webster of St Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, and James W. Curran of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, contributed significantly to the content of this article.
Comments
1. 2012-01-31 02:14 AM
Harry Milburn said:
We should bear in mind that this is "another weapon", we already have public information on how to make an atomic bomb. Who decides who has access to what. We are descending into medieval mysticism if we are not careful.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/482153a.html#/references
AND:
H5N1: Flu transmission work is urgent
* Yoshihiro Kawaoka
Journal name: Nature
Year published: (2012)
DOI: doi:10.1038/nature10884
Published online 25 January 2012
Yoshihiro Kawaoka explains that research on transmissible avian flu viruses needs to continue if pandemics are to be prevented.
Highly pathogenic avian H5N1 influenza viruses first proved lethal in humans in 1997 in Hong Kong. Since 2003, 578 confirmed infections have resulted in 340 deaths (go.nature.com/epb7ts). Now widespread in parts of southeast Asia and the Middle East, H5N1 viruses have killed or led to the culling of hundreds of millions of birds.
To date, H5N1 viruses have not been transmitted between humans. Some experts have argued that it is impossible. But given the potential consequences of a global outbreak, it is crucial to know whether these viruses can ever become transmissible. Work by my group (accepted by Nature) and an independent study (accepted by Science) led by Ron Fouchier of the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, suggest that H5N1 viruses have the potential to spread between mammals. As the risks of such research and its publication are debated by the community, I argue that we should pursue transmission studies of highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses with urgency.
To determine whether H5N1 viruses could be transmitted between humans, my team generated viruses that combined the H5 haemagglutinin (HA) gene with the remaining genes from a pandemic 2009 H1N1 influenza virus. Avian H5N1 and human pandemic 2009 viruses readily exchange genes in experimental settings, and those from a human virus may facilitate replication in mammals. Indeed, we identified a mutant H5 HA/2009 virus that spread between infected and uninfected ferrets (used as models to study the transmission of influenza in mammals) in separate cages via respiratory droplets in the air. Thus viruses possessing an H5 HA protein can transmit between mammals.
Our results also show that not all transmissible H5 HA-possessing viruses are lethal. In ferrets, our mutant H5 HA/2009 virus was no more pathogenic than the pandemic 2009 virus — it did not kill any of the infected animals. And, importantly, current vaccines and antiviral compounds are effective against it.
![[image]](http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/7956/nature10884i102815048.jpg "[image]")
Source: NIBSC/SPL - H5N1 avian influenza virus particles.
Fouchier and his team also generated a transmissible H5 HA-possessing virus — meaning that two independent studies have demonstrated the potential for transmissibility of H5 HA-possessing viruses between ferrets. Their mutant H5 HA virus, generated in the genetic background of an H5N1 virus, did kill infected ferrets.
Some people have argued that the risks of such studies — misuse and accidental release, for example — outweigh the benefits. I counter that H5N1 viruses circulating in nature already pose a threat, because influenza viruses mutate constantly and can cause pandemics with great losses of life. Within the past century, 'Spanish' influenza, which stemmed from a virus of avian origin, killed between 20 million and 50 million people. Because H5N1 mutations that confer transmissibility in mammals may emerge in nature, I believe that it would be irresponsible not to study the underlying mechanisms.
The new work has implications for pandemic preparedness. There is an urgent need to expand development, production and distribution of vaccines against H5 viruses, and to stockpile antiviral compounds. Both studies identify specific mutations in HA that confer transmissibility in ferrets to H5 HA-possessing viruses. A subset of these mutations has been detected in H5N1 viruses circulating in certain countries. It is therefore imperative that these viruses are monitored closely so that eradication efforts and countermeasures (such as vaccine-strain selection) can be focused on them, should they acquire transmissibility.
Consequently, I believe that the benefits of these studies — the knowledge that H5 HA-possessing viruses pose a risk and the ability to monitor them and develop countermeasures — outweigh the risks. High biosafety and security standards can be met. Our experiments were carried out in a high-containment facility by a small group of highly trained individuals who operate under strict procedures to prevent the accidental release of viruses.
However, the US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) has recommended that details of both studies (including the mutations that confer transmissibility) should be restricted, and released only to select individuals on a 'need-to-know' basis. I acknowledge the advisory role of the NSABB, but I do not concur with its decision.
The primary justification for the NSABB's recommendation is that publication of our data “could enable replication of the experiments by those who would seek to do harm” (go.nature.com/nywkdy). But redacting our papers will not eliminate that possibility — there is already enough information publicly available to allow someone to make a transmissible H5 HA-possessing virus.
The mechanism that the US government proposes for releasing data would also be unwieldy. Thousands of applications to access the research are likely to be filed, and potential background checks would create a huge administrative burden. We cannot afford to lose time if we are to combat emerging pandemic threats. Even if an efficient process can be established, it would be difficult to enforce continued confidentiality in the scientific community.
By contrast, wide data dissemination will attract researchers from other areas to contribute to the field. This is crucial, because new ideas are needed to answer some of the most urgent questions. For example, the specific mutations that we identified suggest that influenza transmission is more complex than anticipated and involves not only the receptor-binding properties of HA, but other biological and physical properties.
The redaction of our manuscript, intended to contain risk, will make it harder for legitimate scientists to get this information while failing to provide a barrier to those who would do harm. To find better solutions to dual-use concerns, the international community should convene to discuss how to minimize risk while supporting scientific discovery. Flu investigators (including me) have agreed to a 60-day moratorium on avian flu transmission research (go.nature.com/ttivj5) because of the current controversy. But our work remains urgent — we cannot give up.
Affiliations
1. Yoshihiro Kawaoka is at the University of Tokyo and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature10884.html
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