Via NYTimes.com (Dec 29, 2010) -
The elderly rice farmer was leading three outsiders into an illegal quarry to show them the gangster-run mine that has poisoned his village’s fields and streams.
Suddenly, a blue Hyundai sport utility vehicle sped up to them in a cloud of red dust. A Toyota pickup pulled up behind, its windows tinted too dark to see how many people might be inside.
“Shove off!” the Hyundai driver screamed at the old man and his visitors, who included an American reporter. “We’re going to carve all of you up, slaughter all of you and burn your car!”
The stooped farmer, Song Zuokai, 81, grunted and began shuffling out of the quarry with his jittery guests.
Such threats are all too common in this region of southern China, long plagued by gangsters who illegally mine some of the world’s most sought-after industrial metals. The gangs reap profits that can rival drug money, while leaving pollution and violence in their wake.
What is new are efforts by China’s national and provincial governments to crack down on the illegal mines, to which local authorities have long turned a blind eye. The efforts coincide with a decision by Beijing to reduce legal exports as well, including an announcement by China’s commerce ministry on Tuesday that export quotas for all rare earth metals will be 35 percent lower in the early months of next year than in the first half of this year.
Rogue operations in southern China produce an estimated half of the world’s supply of heavy rare earths, which are the most valuable kinds of rare earth metals. Heavy rare earths are increasingly vital to the global manufacture of a range of high-technology products — including iPhones, BlackBerrys, flat-panel televisions, lasers, hybrid cars and wind-power turbines, as well as a lot of military hardware.
China mines 99 percent of the global supply of heavy rare earths, with legal, state-owned mines mainly accounting for the rest of China’s output. That means the Chinese government’s only effective competitors in producing these valuable commodities are the crime rings within the country’s borders.
And so Beijing, intent on maintaining its global chokehold on all rare earths, has begun an energetic campaign to crush the crime syndicates that dominate the open-pit mines in this part of Guangdong Province, home to most of southern China’s mining areas for heavy rare earths.
Whatever dent the crackdown may make in pollution and violence, industry executives say the effort is already putting additional crimps in global supplies of rare earths — whose exports Beijing has jealously controlled and whose prices have soared in response to rising industrial demand and a dearth of supply alternatives to China.
“We do believe that this source of supply is diminishing, and there is some evidence leakage over the border into Vietnam is diminishing,” said Judith Chegwidden, a managing director specializing in rare earths at Roskill Consulting Group in London.
Prices have soared for rare earth elements mined almost exclusively here in the red clay hills of southern China: dysprosium, terbium and europium.
According to a new United States Energy Department report, the most important of these for clean energy is dysprosium. Its price is now $132 a pound, compared with $6.50 a pound in 2003.
[...]
In the last few months, the government has deployed helicopter patrols to spot illegal mines. Teams of dozens of police officers have conducted raids into the hills of northern Guangdong and arrested at least 100 owners and managers of rare earth mines and refineries, said a Chinese mining expert who insisted on anonymity because of the issue’s political risks. Government workers equipped with blowtorches have accompanied the police to cut apart illegal mining equipment and either seize it or distribute it to peasants for sale as scrap.
Chinese officials declined requests for comment.
The gangs have terrorized villagers who dare to complain about the many tons of sulfuric acid and other chemicals being dumped into streambeds during the processing of ore. Illegal rare earth mining and chemical runoff have poisoned thousands of acres of prime farmland, according to the government of Guangdong Province, and have been blamed for many illnesses.
[...]
For manufacturers dependent on rare earths, any moral or ethical implications of the crackdown on illegal mines may be too diffuse to identify. It is typically impossible to trace rare earths back to the mine where they were originally produced, industry executives say, because even legal mines frequently trade raw material with illegal ones, depending on whether the legitimate operators have met their production quotas.
The picture is further blurred by various middlemen who buy rare earth products from legal and illegal refineries alike and mix them before reselling.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
China and Rare Earth Metals: the good, the bad and the not as ugly as it seems
http://blogs.cfr.org/asia/2010/10/23/china-and-rare-earth-metals/
Getting the facts straight never hurts, and every once in a while it really matters. The current brouhaha over China’s decision to cut its exports of rare earths falls in the latter category. So here is my best effort to get at the facts.
[...]
Several other countries, such as the United States, Australia, and Mongolia also possess rare earths. It will take time to gear up their largely dormant rare earth industries again, but it will happen. In the meantime, stockpiles and high prices will be in everyone’s future.
The other piece of good news—when Chinese companies have come calling to buy-up rare earth reserves abroad, others have generally been smart enough to say “no.” Just a bit over a year ago, Australia barred the China Non-ferrous Metal Mining group from taking a majority stake in rare-earth producer Lynas Corp.
[...]
There may well be more challenges to come. In China, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has proposed a five-year plan that includes a total ban on the export of five of the metals and a significant drop in the export of a number of others, such as neodymium.
Resource-scarce Japan, who might be thought of as the little piggy who built the brick house, is making deals for other sources of rare earths and trying to develop alternatives for them. It’s clear that a whole new generation of non-rare earth high-tech products will have to come on line; the United States and everyone else should follow Japan’s lead now.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Sudan Under Anti-war Satellite Surveillance
Via CNET -
The Satellite Sentinel Project, launched today, will be monitoring Sudan from above and sharing information with the world in near real-time in an effort to deter violence.
The oil-rich southern region of Sudan is poised to hold a referendum on January 9 that could decide whether Sudan remains one country, or becomes politically divided into north and south entities. Many expect that there will be violence leading up to the vote, as well as after it, and that the Sudan could once again descend into chaos as it did during its 20-year war in which an estimated 2 million people were killed as of 2005.
The Satellite Sentinel Project aims to deter that violence--or at the very least act as a recorder of war crimes should they occur--by pointing cameras aboard commercial satellites at the region starting today. Through satellite imagery analysis and crowd-sourced mapping, which can be viewed via programs using Google Maps and Google Earth, the eyes of anyone with an Internet connection will be able to watch what is happening in the border region of northern and southern Sudan in the coming weeks.
The project is being conducted through a partnership with the Operational Satellite Applications Program (Unosat) from the the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (Unitar), Harvard University's Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, Google, Internet software company Trellon, and the Enough Project anti-genocide organization.
It's being funded by the aptly named Not On Our Watch, a humanitarian advocacy organization whose founding members include actors George Clooney, Don Cheadle, Matt Damon, and Brad Pitt; film producer Jerry Weintraub; and human rights lawyer and former State Department aide David Pressman.
[...]
Commercial satellites have been tapped to collect visual data of the region and have the ability to capture incidents like village burnings or razings, large movements of people, and bombings. Each organization involved has a specific role in how that data is used in the coming months, according to the Satellite Sentinel Project.
A team of Unosat employees expert in satellite analysis will examine the images from offices in Geneva, Switzerland, in conjunction with Google and Trellon employees, according to Unitar.
[...]
Google and Trellon have collaborated on analysis and Internet tools to make the collected satellite information also available to the public. Meanwhile, workers from the Enough Project and the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative will contribute field reports from the ground in the Sudan.
[...]
Not On Our Watch, for its part, has provided enough funding to run the program for at least six months and is acting as a media conduit to shed light on the issue and encourage political action to deter the violence.
In addition to the images and mapping, the Satellite Sentinel also has a blog about the situation in the Sudan and is posting the field reports from workers in organizations like the Enough Project.
The Satellite Sentinel Project, launched today, will be monitoring Sudan from above and sharing information with the world in near real-time in an effort to deter violence.
The oil-rich southern region of Sudan is poised to hold a referendum on January 9 that could decide whether Sudan remains one country, or becomes politically divided into north and south entities. Many expect that there will be violence leading up to the vote, as well as after it, and that the Sudan could once again descend into chaos as it did during its 20-year war in which an estimated 2 million people were killed as of 2005.
The Satellite Sentinel Project aims to deter that violence--or at the very least act as a recorder of war crimes should they occur--by pointing cameras aboard commercial satellites at the region starting today. Through satellite imagery analysis and crowd-sourced mapping, which can be viewed via programs using Google Maps and Google Earth, the eyes of anyone with an Internet connection will be able to watch what is happening in the border region of northern and southern Sudan in the coming weeks.
The project is being conducted through a partnership with the Operational Satellite Applications Program (Unosat) from the the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (Unitar), Harvard University's Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, Google, Internet software company Trellon, and the Enough Project anti-genocide organization.
It's being funded by the aptly named Not On Our Watch, a humanitarian advocacy organization whose founding members include actors George Clooney, Don Cheadle, Matt Damon, and Brad Pitt; film producer Jerry Weintraub; and human rights lawyer and former State Department aide David Pressman.
[...]
Commercial satellites have been tapped to collect visual data of the region and have the ability to capture incidents like village burnings or razings, large movements of people, and bombings. Each organization involved has a specific role in how that data is used in the coming months, according to the Satellite Sentinel Project.
A team of Unosat employees expert in satellite analysis will examine the images from offices in Geneva, Switzerland, in conjunction with Google and Trellon employees, according to Unitar.
[...]
Google and Trellon have collaborated on analysis and Internet tools to make the collected satellite information also available to the public. Meanwhile, workers from the Enough Project and the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative will contribute field reports from the ground in the Sudan.
[...]
Not On Our Watch, for its part, has provided enough funding to run the program for at least six months and is acting as a media conduit to shed light on the issue and encourage political action to deter the violence.
In addition to the images and mapping, the Satellite Sentinel also has a blog about the situation in the Sudan and is posting the field reports from workers in organizations like the Enough Project.
Danish Security Foils 'Imminent' Terror Attack
Via VOA News -
Denmark's intelligence service says it has arrested four people plotting what it called an "imminent" terrorist attack against the Jyllands-Posten newspaper, which printed controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
The head of the agency, Jakob Scharf, described some of the suspects as "militant Islamists." He said the group had been planning to enter the newspaper's building and kill as many people as possible.
Danish officials said the four arrested were a 44-year-old Tunisian, a 29-year-old born in Lebanon, an Iraqi asylum-seeker and a fourth whose origin was not yet clear. Three of them are residents of neighboring Sweden.
Police in Sweden arrested a fifth man, a Swedish citizen of Tunisian origin believed to be linked to the plot.
Danish and Swedish security officials said Wednesday they had worked in close cooperation to foil the terror plot.
Jyllands-Posten published cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad several years ago -- sparking protests by Muslim communities around the world. There have been several attempted attacks against the newspaper and the cartoonist since then.
Swedish police said Wednesday's arrests did not appear to be related to the December 11 bombing in central Stockholm, when a Swedish man of Iraqi origin killed himself and wounded two others.
Denmark's intelligence service says it has arrested four people plotting what it called an "imminent" terrorist attack against the Jyllands-Posten newspaper, which printed controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
The head of the agency, Jakob Scharf, described some of the suspects as "militant Islamists." He said the group had been planning to enter the newspaper's building and kill as many people as possible.
Danish officials said the four arrested were a 44-year-old Tunisian, a 29-year-old born in Lebanon, an Iraqi asylum-seeker and a fourth whose origin was not yet clear. Three of them are residents of neighboring Sweden.
Police in Sweden arrested a fifth man, a Swedish citizen of Tunisian origin believed to be linked to the plot.
Danish and Swedish security officials said Wednesday they had worked in close cooperation to foil the terror plot.
Jyllands-Posten published cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad several years ago -- sparking protests by Muslim communities around the world. There have been several attempted attacks against the newspaper and the cartoonist since then.
Swedish police said Wednesday's arrests did not appear to be related to the December 11 bombing in central Stockholm, when a Swedish man of Iraqi origin killed himself and wounded two others.
Monday, December 27, 2010
Al-Shabab Threatens to Attack United States
Via Aljazeera.net (English) -
The leader of Somalia's main armed group al-Shabab has threatened to attack the United States if Barack Obama, the US president, does not embrace Islam.
The group has not launched an attack outside Africa but western intelligence agencies have long been concerned about the group targetting young Somali-Americans for recruitment.
"We tell the American President Barack Obama to embrace Islam before we come to his country," Fuad Mohamed "Shongole" Qalaf, one of the rebel leaders, said in a radio broadcast on Monday.
The message was recorded in the town of Afgoye, near the Somali capital of Mogadishu during a meeting of Qalaf and Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, the former leader of the Islamic Party, another armed group.
The two movements had clashed several times previously but announced a merger last week.
The leader of Somalia's main armed group al-Shabab has threatened to attack the United States if Barack Obama, the US president, does not embrace Islam.
The group has not launched an attack outside Africa but western intelligence agencies have long been concerned about the group targetting young Somali-Americans for recruitment.
"We tell the American President Barack Obama to embrace Islam before we come to his country," Fuad Mohamed "Shongole" Qalaf, one of the rebel leaders, said in a radio broadcast on Monday.
The message was recorded in the town of Afgoye, near the Somali capital of Mogadishu during a meeting of Qalaf and Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, the former leader of the Islamic Party, another armed group.
The two movements had clashed several times previously but announced a merger last week.
Microsoft Windows Fax Cover Page Editor Buffer Overflow Vulnerability
http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2010/3327
A vulnerability has been identified in Microsoft Windows, which could be exploited by attackers to execute arbitrary code. This issue is caused by a buffer overflow error in the Fax Cover Page Editor (fxscover.exe) utility when processing a cover file ".cov" containing malformed data, which could be exploited by attackers to crash an affected application or compromise a vulnerable system by tricking a user into opening a malicious cover file via a vulnerable application.
The Fax Cover Page Editor (fxscover.exe) utility is installed with the "Fax Services" on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 (disabled by default) and is available via the "Windows Fax and Scan" program on Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, and Windows 7 (enabled by default).
VUPEN has confirmed this vulnerability with Microsoft Windows XP SP3, Windows Server 2003 SP2, Windows Vista SP2, and Windows 7 Ultimate.
A vulnerability has been identified in Microsoft Windows, which could be exploited by attackers to execute arbitrary code. This issue is caused by a buffer overflow error in the Fax Cover Page Editor (fxscover.exe) utility when processing a cover file ".cov" containing malformed data, which could be exploited by attackers to crash an affected application or compromise a vulnerable system by tricking a user into opening a malicious cover file via a vulnerable application.
The Fax Cover Page Editor (fxscover.exe) utility is installed with the "Fax Services" on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 (disabled by default) and is available via the "Windows Fax and Scan" program on Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, and Windows 7 (enabled by default).
VUPEN has confirmed this vulnerability with Microsoft Windows XP SP3, Windows Server 2003 SP2, Windows Vista SP2, and Windows 7 Ultimate.
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Carders.cc, Backtrack-linux.org and Exploit-db.org Hacked
Via Krebs on Secuirty -
Carders.cc, a German security forum that specializes in trading stolen credit cards and other purloined data, has been hacked by security vigilantes for the second time this year. Also waking up to “you’ve been owned” calling cards this Christmas are exploit database exploit-db.org and backtrack-linux.org, the home of Backtrack, an open source “live CD” distribution of Linux.
The hacks were detailed in the second edition of “Owned and Exposed,” an ezine whose first edition in May included the internal database and thousands of stolen credit card numbers and passwords from Carders.cc. The Christmas version of the ezine doesn’t feature credit card numbers, but it does list the user names and hashed passwords of the carders.cc forum administrators. The carders.cc forum itself appears to be down at the moment.
Mati Aharoni, the main administrator for both exploit-db.org and backtrack-linux.org, confirmed that the hacks against his sites were legitimate. Shortly after my e-mail, Aharoni replied with a link to a short statement, noting that a hacking team called inj3ct0r initially took credit for the attack, only to find itself also targeted and shamed in this edition of Owned and Exposed.
“The irony of posting your zine in our papers section is not lost on us,” Aharoni wrote.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Issue #2 - Owned and Exposed
http://nopaste.me/paste/4d15e1a4c4943.html
Carders.cc, a German security forum that specializes in trading stolen credit cards and other purloined data, has been hacked by security vigilantes for the second time this year. Also waking up to “you’ve been owned” calling cards this Christmas are exploit database exploit-db.org and backtrack-linux.org, the home of Backtrack, an open source “live CD” distribution of Linux.
The hacks were detailed in the second edition of “Owned and Exposed,” an ezine whose first edition in May included the internal database and thousands of stolen credit card numbers and passwords from Carders.cc. The Christmas version of the ezine doesn’t feature credit card numbers, but it does list the user names and hashed passwords of the carders.cc forum administrators. The carders.cc forum itself appears to be down at the moment.
Mati Aharoni, the main administrator for both exploit-db.org and backtrack-linux.org, confirmed that the hacks against his sites were legitimate. Shortly after my e-mail, Aharoni replied with a link to a short statement, noting that a hacking team called inj3ct0r initially took credit for the attack, only to find itself also targeted and shamed in this edition of Owned and Exposed.
“There’s nothing like having your butt kicked Christmas morning, which is exactly what happened to us today. We were owned and exposed, in true fashion,” Aharoni wrote. “Initially, the inj3ct0r team took ‘creds’ for the hack, which quickly proved false as the original ezine showed up – and now inj3ct0r (their new site) is no longer online. As a wise Chinese man once said: ‘do not anger one who has shell on your server’. The zine also mentioned other sites, as well as the ettercap project being backdoored.”To his credit, Aharoni posted a link to the 2nd edition of Owned and Exposed.
“The irony of posting your zine in our papers section is not lost on us,” Aharoni wrote.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Issue #2 - Owned and Exposed
http://nopaste.me/paste/4d15e1a4c4943.html
Photo of the Day - Christmas Skyline of Hong Kong
Christmas Skyline of Hong Kong
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This photo was taken by Mark Heng on December 12, 2010 using a Canon Digital IXUS 75.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/markhsx/5270043353/lightbox/
Friday, December 24, 2010
United States & United Nations Designate Al-Quso Terrorist
Via VOA News -
The United States and the United Nations have listed Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula fugitive Fahd al-Quso as a Specially Designated Terrorist. These actions will help stem the flow of finances to and inhibit the travel of this dangerous operative.
"The designation of Fahd al-Quso highlights U.S. action against the threat posed to the United States by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula," said U.S. Ambassador for Counterterrorism Daniel Benjamin. The "joint designation by the United States and the United Nations alerts the public that Fahd al-Quso is actively engaged in terrorism. These actions," said Ambassador Benjamin, "expose and isolate individuals like al-Quso and result in denial of access to the global financial system."
Prior to the formation of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, al-Quso was associated with al-Qaida elements in Yemen and involved in the 2002 USS Cole bombing in the Port of Aden, which killed seventeen sailors. He was jailed in Yemen in 2002 for his part in the attack. Following al-Quso's release from prison in 2007, he joined al-Qaida in Yemen. In November 2009, al-Quso was added to the list of the FBI's most wanted terrorists. Al-Quso is connected to other designated AQAP senior leaders, including Anwar al-Awlaqi, Nasir al-Wahishi, and Said Ali al-Shiri, and acts as a cell leader in Yemen. In May 2010, al-Quso appeared in an al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula video in which he threatened to attack the U.S. homeland, as well as U.S. embassies and naval vessels abroad.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
US State Dept Statement (Dec 7, 2010)
http://www.nefafoundation.org/newsite/file/State_AlQusoDesignation.pdf
The United States and the United Nations have listed Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula fugitive Fahd al-Quso as a Specially Designated Terrorist. These actions will help stem the flow of finances to and inhibit the travel of this dangerous operative.
"The designation of Fahd al-Quso highlights U.S. action against the threat posed to the United States by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula," said U.S. Ambassador for Counterterrorism Daniel Benjamin. The "joint designation by the United States and the United Nations alerts the public that Fahd al-Quso is actively engaged in terrorism. These actions," said Ambassador Benjamin, "expose and isolate individuals like al-Quso and result in denial of access to the global financial system."
Prior to the formation of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, al-Quso was associated with al-Qaida elements in Yemen and involved in the 2002 USS Cole bombing in the Port of Aden, which killed seventeen sailors. He was jailed in Yemen in 2002 for his part in the attack. Following al-Quso's release from prison in 2007, he joined al-Qaida in Yemen. In November 2009, al-Quso was added to the list of the FBI's most wanted terrorists. Al-Quso is connected to other designated AQAP senior leaders, including Anwar al-Awlaqi, Nasir al-Wahishi, and Said Ali al-Shiri, and acts as a cell leader in Yemen. In May 2010, al-Quso appeared in an al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula video in which he threatened to attack the U.S. homeland, as well as U.S. embassies and naval vessels abroad.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
US State Dept Statement (Dec 7, 2010)
http://www.nefafoundation.org/newsite/file/State_AlQusoDesignation.pdf
Today the Secretary of State announced the designation of al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) operative Fahd alQuso as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under Executive Order 13224, which targets terrorists and those providing support to terrorists or acts of terrorism. Al-Quso was also added to the United Nations (UN) 1267 Sanctions Committee’s Consolidated List of individuals associated with al Qa’ida and the Taliban. These actions will help stem the flow of finances to, and inhibit the travel of, this dangerous operative.
Pakistan: Al-Qaeda and the Taliban Distribute USB Thumb Drives to Teach Bombmaking
Via Central Asia Online -
Al-Qaeda and the Taliban are disseminating guidelines for making bombs and thwarting explosive detection equipment to supporters and potential recruits, sources have told Central Asia Online.
Instead of relying on email, websites or brochures, terrorists are now using Universal Serial Bus (USB) memory sticks to share information with youngsters at risk of joining the militancy, a student of Dawood Engineering College said, requesting anonymity.
“Recently, the Taliban activists have distributed several USBs of al-Qaeda in Karachi to train the youngsters to make explosive devices,” he said. In the USBs, one of which Central Asia Online received, al-Qaeda included the November 2010 edition of its magazine that promotes extremism; techniques for turning common electronic devices into bombs; and ways to smuggle such items past airport security.
Al-Qaeda has vowed to share its technical expertise with followers abroad so they could make bombs in their own countries.
“Al-Qaeda and the Taliban’s move to penetrate our young generation seemed a new strategy of the enemies of Pakistan, Islam and humanity,” Sindh Police Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Chief Choudhry Aslam told Central Asia Online. “We are not aware of this new move of the terrorists.”
Police will investigate the matter and take action against terrorists who are influencing young Pakistanis into defaming Pakistan as militants, he added.
The CID has been on the forefront of work to destroy the network of al-Qaeda and Taliban in Karachi in recent months, he said. The police will continue to act firmly against terrorists, he vowed.
Al-Qaeda and the Taliban are disseminating guidelines for making bombs and thwarting explosive detection equipment to supporters and potential recruits, sources have told Central Asia Online.
Instead of relying on email, websites or brochures, terrorists are now using Universal Serial Bus (USB) memory sticks to share information with youngsters at risk of joining the militancy, a student of Dawood Engineering College said, requesting anonymity.
“Recently, the Taliban activists have distributed several USBs of al-Qaeda in Karachi to train the youngsters to make explosive devices,” he said. In the USBs, one of which Central Asia Online received, al-Qaeda included the November 2010 edition of its magazine that promotes extremism; techniques for turning common electronic devices into bombs; and ways to smuggle such items past airport security.
Al-Qaeda has vowed to share its technical expertise with followers abroad so they could make bombs in their own countries.
“Al-Qaeda and the Taliban’s move to penetrate our young generation seemed a new strategy of the enemies of Pakistan, Islam and humanity,” Sindh Police Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Chief Choudhry Aslam told Central Asia Online. “We are not aware of this new move of the terrorists.”
Police will investigate the matter and take action against terrorists who are influencing young Pakistanis into defaming Pakistan as militants, he added.
The CID has been on the forefront of work to destroy the network of al-Qaeda and Taliban in Karachi in recent months, he said. The police will continue to act firmly against terrorists, he vowed.
Hizbul Islam Joins Shabaab in Somalia
Via The Long War Journal -
Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, the leader of Hizbul Islam, has merged his forces with Shabaab, al Qaeda's affiliate in Somalia, after suffering a string of military defeats at the hands of the rival Islamist terror group.
Aweys, who is also linked to al Qaeda, joined Shabaab today and turned over Hizbul Islam's bases in Mogadishu and areas south of the capital, Mareeg Online reported. It is unclear if Aweys will take a senior leadership position in Shabaab's increasingly foreign-dominated leadership cadre.
Shabaab's takeover of Hizbul Islam will allow the terror group to put aside the intra-Islamist fighting, and will free up fighters and resources to battle the weak Somali government and African Union forces struggling to retake control of Mogadishu.
Since it was formed in January 2009, Hizbul Islam has been fighting a losing battle against Shabaab, its Islamist rival in Somalia. Throughout 2009, relations between Shabaab and Hizbul Islam worsened after the groups began to battle in Kismayo over control of the southern port city. In February 2010, the Ras Kamboni Brigade, once a Hizbul Islam faction, broke ties with Hizbul Islam and merged with Shabaab. Hizbul Islam has been losing ground to Shabaab in central and southern Somalia ever since the Ras Kamboni Brigade defected.
[...]
While many counterterrorism analysts and African experts consider Hizbul Islam a domestic, nationalist insurgency with no links to foreign terror groups, its top leader has close ties to al Qaeda. Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys is wanted by the US for his links to al Qaeda. He is also on the United Nations' terrorist sanctions list, again for his ties to al Qaeda.
[...]
ther Hizbul Islam leaders have expressed their support for al Qaeda. In April 2010, Moallim Hashi Mohamed Farah, then the top leader for Hizbul Islam in Banadir province, welcomed Osama bin Laden and other foreign fighters to visit Somalia and fight alongside his forces.
Shabaab and Hizbul Islam sought to merge forces during the summer of 2009, and have been in constant talks since then. But local disputes between factions of the two terror groups prevented the merger from taking place.
Hizbul Islam was created in January 2009 with the merger of four separate Islamist groups: Aweys' Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia-Eritrea, a wing of the Islamic Courts Union; the Ras Kamboni Brigade; Jabhatul Islamiya (the Islamic Front); and Anole.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
STRATFOR Dispatch: Al Shabaab's Increasing Power
http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/20101222-dispatch-al-shabaabs-increasing-power
Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, the leader of Hizbul Islam, has merged his forces with Shabaab, al Qaeda's affiliate in Somalia, after suffering a string of military defeats at the hands of the rival Islamist terror group.
Aweys, who is also linked to al Qaeda, joined Shabaab today and turned over Hizbul Islam's bases in Mogadishu and areas south of the capital, Mareeg Online reported. It is unclear if Aweys will take a senior leadership position in Shabaab's increasingly foreign-dominated leadership cadre.
Shabaab's takeover of Hizbul Islam will allow the terror group to put aside the intra-Islamist fighting, and will free up fighters and resources to battle the weak Somali government and African Union forces struggling to retake control of Mogadishu.
Since it was formed in January 2009, Hizbul Islam has been fighting a losing battle against Shabaab, its Islamist rival in Somalia. Throughout 2009, relations between Shabaab and Hizbul Islam worsened after the groups began to battle in Kismayo over control of the southern port city. In February 2010, the Ras Kamboni Brigade, once a Hizbul Islam faction, broke ties with Hizbul Islam and merged with Shabaab. Hizbul Islam has been losing ground to Shabaab in central and southern Somalia ever since the Ras Kamboni Brigade defected.
[...]
While many counterterrorism analysts and African experts consider Hizbul Islam a domestic, nationalist insurgency with no links to foreign terror groups, its top leader has close ties to al Qaeda. Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys is wanted by the US for his links to al Qaeda. He is also on the United Nations' terrorist sanctions list, again for his ties to al Qaeda.
[...]
ther Hizbul Islam leaders have expressed their support for al Qaeda. In April 2010, Moallim Hashi Mohamed Farah, then the top leader for Hizbul Islam in Banadir province, welcomed Osama bin Laden and other foreign fighters to visit Somalia and fight alongside his forces.
Shabaab and Hizbul Islam sought to merge forces during the summer of 2009, and have been in constant talks since then. But local disputes between factions of the two terror groups prevented the merger from taking place.
Hizbul Islam was created in January 2009 with the merger of four separate Islamist groups: Aweys' Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia-Eritrea, a wing of the Islamic Courts Union; the Ras Kamboni Brigade; Jabhatul Islamiya (the Islamic Front); and Anole.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
STRATFOR Dispatch: Al Shabaab's Increasing Power
http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/20101222-dispatch-al-shabaabs-increasing-power
The three main factions of jihadists, or Islamists, in Somalia: there is the dominant faction of al Shabaab that is globalist and jihadist in its aim led by an individual known as Godane Abu Zubayr. The second faction of al Shabaab is the nationalist wing of al Shabaab, led by a commander known as Muktar Robow, also known as Abu Mansur. Now this Hizbul Islam faction is led by an old-time warlord and Somali nationalist leader whose name is Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys. Now the Godane wing of al Shabaab essentially issued a threat to Aweys’ group of Hizbul Islam basically saying “join us or die,” and after a series of clashes over the last couple of weeks, Aweys’ group basically conceded. Now this significance is less in the number of troops that the Awey’s faction of Hizbul Islam brings to al Shabaab, but the significance is rather of the Godane-led dominant faction of al Shabaab, eliminating internal dissents which ultimately would lead to its defeat if it festered. While these internal tensions are never going to be fully eliminated, Godane must fight these. He has no choice but to eliminate internal tensions that are on the radar of his enemies, such as the Somali government and its backers.
Preliminary Approval Given to New START by Russia Parliament
Via LA Times -
After just a few hours of debate, the lower house of Russia's parliament on Friday gave overwhelming preliminary approval to the New START arms treaty with the United States. The vote set the stage for its likely easy approval in the new year.
Lawmakers in the State Duma voted 350-59 to approve the treaty on its first reading. Two more votes in the lower house, on the second and third readings, and balloting in the upper house were put off until January.
However, experts said legislators of both houses are expected to fall in line with the Kremlin, which has given strong support to a treaty designed to sharply reduce the number of nuclear warheads and launchers in Russia and the United States.
"Today's ratification in the State Duma marks the completion of a most important achievement in the entire history of the U.S.-Russian recent reset in the relations," said Andrei Kortunov, president of the New Eurasia Foundation, a Moscow-based think tank. "This success is hard to overestimate from the point of view of the real disarmament process, and today we can say that the skeptics of the reset were proved wrong."
After just a few hours of debate, the lower house of Russia's parliament on Friday gave overwhelming preliminary approval to the New START arms treaty with the United States. The vote set the stage for its likely easy approval in the new year.
Lawmakers in the State Duma voted 350-59 to approve the treaty on its first reading. Two more votes in the lower house, on the second and third readings, and balloting in the upper house were put off until January.
However, experts said legislators of both houses are expected to fall in line with the Kremlin, which has given strong support to a treaty designed to sharply reduce the number of nuclear warheads and launchers in Russia and the United States.
"Today's ratification in the State Duma marks the completion of a most important achievement in the entire history of the U.S.-Russian recent reset in the relations," said Andrei Kortunov, president of the New Eurasia Foundation, a Moscow-based think tank. "This success is hard to overestimate from the point of view of the real disarmament process, and today we can say that the skeptics of the reset were proved wrong."
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Burma Bombshell
Via Council on Foreign Relations (CRF) -
Many minor Wikileaks scoops have attracted media notice—like the fact that Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi apparently always travels with a buxom Ukrainian “nurse”—but one frightening disclosure in particular has not received nearly enough attention. In several cables written from the U.S. embassy in Rangoon, the largest city (and former capital) of Burma, diplomats provided information about the Burmese junta's potential cooperation with North Korea, including details of what may be nascent nuclear and missile programs.
In one cable, from back in 2004, American officials reported that sources told them North Korean workers potentially were helping the junta build a ballistic missile program at one secret military site inside Burma. In another cable, a source told U.S. officials of reports that Burma is importing significant quantities of ore, possibly in order to be refined into uranium. In still another cable, sources reported on more details of covert military co-operation between Burma and North Korea, including on potential nuclear production.
[...]
Why won't foreign governments consider the possibility? Denying that Burma could be trying to construct a nuclear or missile program fits into a larger pattern of mistaken thinking about the junta—a pattern that involves seeing the regime as crazy, unpredictable, or even stupid. This attitude is evident in much of the media coverage of the country, which focuses on the junta's superstitions—it has used astrologers to help it pick propitious dates—or other bizarre tendencies. In conversations with officials from another, wealthier Asian nation last year, I was repeatedly told how hard it was to deal with the junta because its leaders have little education. Former Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew has been blunter, telling American diplomats, in one conversation captured in a Wikileaks-released cable, that the junta is “dense.”
To be sure, building a nuclear program is a serious undertaking—witness the trouble Iran is having—and the impoverished and relatively isolated Burmese junta would face an uphill climb. What's more, to produce a nuclear program, Burma would likely have to alienate its major patron, China, which certainly has no interest in having another nuclear state right on its border. And, even if the junta is importing workers and knowledge from North Korea, that doesn't absolutely mean it will, or can, build nukes or missiles.
[...]
There could be another explanation for U.S. denial of Burma's nuclear ambitions: Burma expert Bertil Lintner has suggested in the Asia Times that some lower-ranking U.S. officials may be trying to play down evidence of a nuclear program so as not to threaten the Obama administration's new policy of engagement with the junta. But even if this were the reason—in whole or in part—for Washington's quiet approach, it would still be yet another example of U.S. naivete when it comes to Burma. After all, engagement doesn't seem to be working: Another Wikileaks-released cable reveals that U.S. officials have suggested junta leader Than Shwe might be willing to make compromises in order to gain closer relations with the United States—compromises that we have yet to see.
In the end, neither the hope of engagement nor a faith in the regime's essential incompetence seem like good reasons to play down the nuclear issue. To be fair, the Obama administration doesn't lack for major headaches around the world. But it might be time to add this one to the list.
Many minor Wikileaks scoops have attracted media notice—like the fact that Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi apparently always travels with a buxom Ukrainian “nurse”—but one frightening disclosure in particular has not received nearly enough attention. In several cables written from the U.S. embassy in Rangoon, the largest city (and former capital) of Burma, diplomats provided information about the Burmese junta's potential cooperation with North Korea, including details of what may be nascent nuclear and missile programs.
In one cable, from back in 2004, American officials reported that sources told them North Korean workers potentially were helping the junta build a ballistic missile program at one secret military site inside Burma. In another cable, a source told U.S. officials of reports that Burma is importing significant quantities of ore, possibly in order to be refined into uranium. In still another cable, sources reported on more details of covert military co-operation between Burma and North Korea, including on potential nuclear production.
[...]
Why won't foreign governments consider the possibility? Denying that Burma could be trying to construct a nuclear or missile program fits into a larger pattern of mistaken thinking about the junta—a pattern that involves seeing the regime as crazy, unpredictable, or even stupid. This attitude is evident in much of the media coverage of the country, which focuses on the junta's superstitions—it has used astrologers to help it pick propitious dates—or other bizarre tendencies. In conversations with officials from another, wealthier Asian nation last year, I was repeatedly told how hard it was to deal with the junta because its leaders have little education. Former Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew has been blunter, telling American diplomats, in one conversation captured in a Wikileaks-released cable, that the junta is “dense.”
To be sure, building a nuclear program is a serious undertaking—witness the trouble Iran is having—and the impoverished and relatively isolated Burmese junta would face an uphill climb. What's more, to produce a nuclear program, Burma would likely have to alienate its major patron, China, which certainly has no interest in having another nuclear state right on its border. And, even if the junta is importing workers and knowledge from North Korea, that doesn't absolutely mean it will, or can, build nukes or missiles.
[...]
There could be another explanation for U.S. denial of Burma's nuclear ambitions: Burma expert Bertil Lintner has suggested in the Asia Times that some lower-ranking U.S. officials may be trying to play down evidence of a nuclear program so as not to threaten the Obama administration's new policy of engagement with the junta. But even if this were the reason—in whole or in part—for Washington's quiet approach, it would still be yet another example of U.S. naivete when it comes to Burma. After all, engagement doesn't seem to be working: Another Wikileaks-released cable reveals that U.S. officials have suggested junta leader Than Shwe might be willing to make compromises in order to gain closer relations with the United States—compromises that we have yet to see.
In the end, neither the hope of engagement nor a faith in the regime's essential incompetence seem like good reasons to play down the nuclear issue. To be fair, the Obama administration doesn't lack for major headaches around the world. But it might be time to add this one to the list.
Indian Police Issue Terror Alert in Mumbai
Via CNN -
Police issued an alert Thursday in Mumbai, saying four members of a militant group had entered the Indian city and were suspected of plotting violence on the Christmas and New Year's holidays.
Himanshu Roy, Mumbai's joint commissioner of police, said the suspected terrorists belong to Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, the Pakistan-based group that was blamed for a violent siege on Mumbai in November 2008.
The four men were identified as Abdul Kareem Moosa, Noor Abu Ilahi, Walid Jinnah and Mahfooz Alam, each between 20 and 30 years old. At a news conference, Roy released a sketch of Jinnah.
Roy said the four recently "sneaked into the city to carry out extremely dangerous activity."
He had no information on their nationalities.
Lashkar-e-Tayyiba is on the U.S. State Department's list of terrorist organizations, and last month the U.S. Treasury said it is prohibiting Americans from "engaging in any transactions" with that group.
The Treasury cited Azam Cheema, who helped train operatives for the 2008 Mumbai attacks and was the "mastermind" behind Mumbai train bombings carried out by Lashkar-e-Tayyiba in 2006.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wikipedia: Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lashkar-e-Taiba
Lashkar-e-Taiba had links to Jama'at-ud-Da'wah (JuD), however Jama'at-ud-Da'wah publicly retracted any association with them after the United States Department of State declared Lashkar-e-Taiba to be a terrorist organization.
Police issued an alert Thursday in Mumbai, saying four members of a militant group had entered the Indian city and were suspected of plotting violence on the Christmas and New Year's holidays.
Himanshu Roy, Mumbai's joint commissioner of police, said the suspected terrorists belong to Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, the Pakistan-based group that was blamed for a violent siege on Mumbai in November 2008.
The four men were identified as Abdul Kareem Moosa, Noor Abu Ilahi, Walid Jinnah and Mahfooz Alam, each between 20 and 30 years old. At a news conference, Roy released a sketch of Jinnah.
Roy said the four recently "sneaked into the city to carry out extremely dangerous activity."
He had no information on their nationalities.
Lashkar-e-Tayyiba is on the U.S. State Department's list of terrorist organizations, and last month the U.S. Treasury said it is prohibiting Americans from "engaging in any transactions" with that group.
The Treasury cited Azam Cheema, who helped train operatives for the 2008 Mumbai attacks and was the "mastermind" behind Mumbai train bombings carried out by Lashkar-e-Tayyiba in 2006.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wikipedia: Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lashkar-e-Taiba
Lashkar-e-Taiba had links to Jama'at-ud-Da'wah (JuD), however Jama'at-ud-Da'wah publicly retracted any association with them after the United States Department of State declared Lashkar-e-Taiba to be a terrorist organization.
What’s Inside the New Nuke Arms Treaty
Via Wired.com (Danger Room) -
Back from the brink of annihilation, the Obama administration’s treaty with Russia on reducing nuclear weapons is looking like it’ll pass the Senate after all, possibly as early as Wednesday. The only thing that everyone’s overlooked in the past several months’ political theater over the treaty is what it actually does — and doesn’t do. So we’re here to help.
The headlines first: New START caps strategic nuclear warheads at 1,550 on each side. (According to the nuke wonks at the Ploughshares Fund, the Russians have 2,600 strategic nuclear weapons and the United States has just under 2,000.) The intercontinental ballistic missiles, subs and bombers that deliver them have to be capped at 800 deployed and non-deployed launchers.
By most arms-control experts’ accounts, these are pretty modest cuts, still allowing each side to incinerate the Earth several times over.
Additionally, every year, each side will conduct 18 on-site inspections at places where those warheads and delivery vehicles are stored. That’s 10 annual inspections fewer than under the old treaty, but more data is extracted from each inspection. The 1991 predecessor treaty only allowed inspectors to count launchers and approximate the number of warheads they contained, for instance, but the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty requires the United States and Russia to individually catalog each weapon with its distinct warhead payload.
[...]
Here’s one aspect of the missile-counting that pertains to the treaty’s key sticking point from Senate Republicans: missile defense. “A missile of a type developed and tested solely to intercept and counter objects not located on the surface of the Earth shall not be considered a ballistic missile to which the provisions of this Treaty apply,” the treaty reads. And that leads to what the treaty doesn’t do.
The treaty doesn’t limit missile defense. The closest it comes is to bar each side from converting its intercontinental and sub-launched ballistic-missile launchers into delivery mechanisms for anti-ballistic-missile interceptors.
Lt. Gen. Patrick O’Reilly, the director of the Missile Defense Agency, testified to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in June that there aren’t any plans anyway to convert ICBM launchers for missile defense and that repurposing sub launchers for missile defense “would be very expensive and impractical.” In other words, he said, “the new START treaty does not constrain our plans to execute the U.S. missile defense program,” and its new provisions for counting missiles and expanded telemetry data-sharing “reduces constraints on the development of the missile defense program.”
What it also doesn’t do: Reduce any of the forward-deployed, short-range nuclear weapons each side possesses.
WikiLeaks revealed that the United States still has tactical nuclear weapons in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Turkey. U.S. spies believe that Russians have moved their own tactical nuclear weapons closer to their western borders, scaring some of the eastern-European NATO members. (Although Poland’s foreign minister urged the Senate to ratify the new START last month.)
But Danger Room pal Jeffrey Lewis summed up the problem with using the no-tactical-nuke-reductions in the treaty as an argument against ratification: “Do you know why the New START treaty doesn’t deal with tactical nuclear weapons? Because it starts with a f’cking S, that’s why.” In other words, if anyone wants a follow-on treaty for limiting tactical nuclear weapons, that’s got to wait for another treaty. And the only way to get the Russians to agree to another treaty is to ratify this one.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/23/russia-medvedev-nuclear-arms-treaty
Back from the brink of annihilation, the Obama administration’s treaty with Russia on reducing nuclear weapons is looking like it’ll pass the Senate after all, possibly as early as Wednesday. The only thing that everyone’s overlooked in the past several months’ political theater over the treaty is what it actually does — and doesn’t do. So we’re here to help.
The headlines first: New START caps strategic nuclear warheads at 1,550 on each side. (According to the nuke wonks at the Ploughshares Fund, the Russians have 2,600 strategic nuclear weapons and the United States has just under 2,000.) The intercontinental ballistic missiles, subs and bombers that deliver them have to be capped at 800 deployed and non-deployed launchers.
By most arms-control experts’ accounts, these are pretty modest cuts, still allowing each side to incinerate the Earth several times over.
Additionally, every year, each side will conduct 18 on-site inspections at places where those warheads and delivery vehicles are stored. That’s 10 annual inspections fewer than under the old treaty, but more data is extracted from each inspection. The 1991 predecessor treaty only allowed inspectors to count launchers and approximate the number of warheads they contained, for instance, but the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty requires the United States and Russia to individually catalog each weapon with its distinct warhead payload.
[...]
Here’s one aspect of the missile-counting that pertains to the treaty’s key sticking point from Senate Republicans: missile defense. “A missile of a type developed and tested solely to intercept and counter objects not located on the surface of the Earth shall not be considered a ballistic missile to which the provisions of this Treaty apply,” the treaty reads. And that leads to what the treaty doesn’t do.
The treaty doesn’t limit missile defense. The closest it comes is to bar each side from converting its intercontinental and sub-launched ballistic-missile launchers into delivery mechanisms for anti-ballistic-missile interceptors.
Lt. Gen. Patrick O’Reilly, the director of the Missile Defense Agency, testified to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in June that there aren’t any plans anyway to convert ICBM launchers for missile defense and that repurposing sub launchers for missile defense “would be very expensive and impractical.” In other words, he said, “the new START treaty does not constrain our plans to execute the U.S. missile defense program,” and its new provisions for counting missiles and expanded telemetry data-sharing “reduces constraints on the development of the missile defense program.”
What it also doesn’t do: Reduce any of the forward-deployed, short-range nuclear weapons each side possesses.
WikiLeaks revealed that the United States still has tactical nuclear weapons in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Turkey. U.S. spies believe that Russians have moved their own tactical nuclear weapons closer to their western borders, scaring some of the eastern-European NATO members. (Although Poland’s foreign minister urged the Senate to ratify the new START last month.)
But Danger Room pal Jeffrey Lewis summed up the problem with using the no-tactical-nuke-reductions in the treaty as an argument against ratification: “Do you know why the New START treaty doesn’t deal with tactical nuclear weapons? Because it starts with a f’cking S, that’s why.” In other words, if anyone wants a follow-on treaty for limiting tactical nuclear weapons, that’s got to wait for another treaty. And the only way to get the Russians to agree to another treaty is to ratify this one.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/23/russia-medvedev-nuclear-arms-treaty
MPs in Russia could approve a new strategic arms reduction treaty with the US as early as tomorrow after President Dmitry Medvedev welcomed the pact.
The country's overwhelmingly pro-Kremlin parliament is likely to push the agreement through swiftly, despite doubts over Washington's desire to station a missile defence shield in Europe.
Medvedev's office said today he was "pleased to learn that the United States Senate has ratified the Start Treaty and expressed hope that the State Duma and the Federation Council [lower and upper houses of parliament] will be ready to consider this issue shortly and to ratify the document".
Microsoft Warns On New Browser Vulnerability
Via Threatpost.com -
Microsoft on Wednesday issued a security advisory to users of its Internet Explorer Web browser about a newly disclosed vulnerability that could be exploited and used to run malicious code on vulnerable Windows systems.
The Redmond, Washington company said it is investigating new, public reports of a vulnerability in all supported versions of IE. The company said it is working on a patch and cooperating with anti malware vendors in its Microsoft Active Protections Program (MAPP) and Microsoft Security Response Alliance to help expedite the distribution of protections against exploits using the hole. However, the company cautioned that the newly discovered vulnerability is not serious enough to warrant an out of cycle patch.
As reported by Threatpost, the new vulnerability was first disclosed by the IT security firm Vupen on December 9 and affects most versions of Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser. If exploited, the hole could allow remote attackers to circumvent defensive features in fully patched WIndows 7 and Windows Vista machines, and attack Microsoft's latest version of Internet Explorer, IE8 to run malicious code on vulnerable systems.
[...]
In its advisory, Microsoft said that existing features like IE Protected Mode and the default Enhanced Security Configuration for newer versions of IE on Windows Server 2003 and 2008 would mitigate the impact of the vulnerability by reducing the privileges that attackers have on Windows systems should they successfully compromise IE.
However, a version of a public exploit has already been added to the Metasploit Framework, a free testing tool. That, when combined with other attack techniques, could allow attackers to circumvent more recent Microsoft protections such as Data Execution Protection (DEP) and Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR), which are specifically designed to thwart malicious code.
In a separate post, Fermin J. Serna, a Security Software Engineer at Microsoft explained how those technologies might be circumented and suggested a workaround to prevent them from being defeated in an attack using the new IE hole.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Internet Explorer CSS Recursive Import Use After Free
http://www.metasploit.com/modules/exploit/windows/browser/ms11_xxx_ie_css_import
Microsoft - SRD
New Internet Explorer vulnerability affecting all versions of IE
http://blogs.technet.com/b/srd/archive/2010/12/22/new-internet-explorer-vulnerability-affecting-all-versions-of-ie.aspx
Microsoft on Wednesday issued a security advisory to users of its Internet Explorer Web browser about a newly disclosed vulnerability that could be exploited and used to run malicious code on vulnerable Windows systems.
The Redmond, Washington company said it is investigating new, public reports of a vulnerability in all supported versions of IE. The company said it is working on a patch and cooperating with anti malware vendors in its Microsoft Active Protections Program (MAPP) and Microsoft Security Response Alliance to help expedite the distribution of protections against exploits using the hole. However, the company cautioned that the newly discovered vulnerability is not serious enough to warrant an out of cycle patch.
As reported by Threatpost, the new vulnerability was first disclosed by the IT security firm Vupen on December 9 and affects most versions of Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser. If exploited, the hole could allow remote attackers to circumvent defensive features in fully patched WIndows 7 and Windows Vista machines, and attack Microsoft's latest version of Internet Explorer, IE8 to run malicious code on vulnerable systems.
[...]
In its advisory, Microsoft said that existing features like IE Protected Mode and the default Enhanced Security Configuration for newer versions of IE on Windows Server 2003 and 2008 would mitigate the impact of the vulnerability by reducing the privileges that attackers have on Windows systems should they successfully compromise IE.
However, a version of a public exploit has already been added to the Metasploit Framework, a free testing tool. That, when combined with other attack techniques, could allow attackers to circumvent more recent Microsoft protections such as Data Execution Protection (DEP) and Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR), which are specifically designed to thwart malicious code.
In a separate post, Fermin J. Serna, a Security Software Engineer at Microsoft explained how those technologies might be circumented and suggested a workaround to prevent them from being defeated in an attack using the new IE hole.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Internet Explorer CSS Recursive Import Use After Free
http://www.metasploit.com/modules/exploit/windows/browser/ms11_xxx_ie_css_import
Microsoft - SRD
New Internet Explorer vulnerability affecting all versions of IE
http://blogs.technet.com/b/srd/archive/2010/12/22/new-internet-explorer-vulnerability-affecting-all-versions-of-ie.aspx
Today we released Security Advisory 2488013 to notify customers of a new publicly-disclosed vulnerability in Internet Explorer (IE). This vulnerability affects all versions of IE. Exploiting this vulnerability could lead to unauthorized remote code execution inside the iexplore.exe process.
Recommendation: Use Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET) to dynamically rebase all loaded DLLs (aka Mandatory ASLR)
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Assessing an IIS FTP 7.5 Unauthenticated Denial of Service Vulnerability
Via Microsoft SRD -
There has been some discussion around a publicly posted PoC code that exploits a vulnerability in IIS FTP 7.5, which ships with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Our engineering team is looking into the situation and has made a few preliminary observations that might clear up some confusion. We’ve observed three notable characteristics.
First, this is a Denial of Service vulnerability and remote code execution is unlikely. The vulnerability occurs when the FTP server attempts to encode Telnet IAC (Interpret As Command) character in the FTP response. The IAC character, which is represented as decimal 255 (Hex FF) in the response, needs to be encoded by the addition of another decimal 255 character in the FTP response where we find the presence of the IAC character. Due to an error in this processing, it is possible to get into a state where an attacker could overwrite a portion of the response with a string of 0xFFs even past the end of the heap buffer, resulting in a heap buffer overrun.
In that situation, the only data that a malicious client controls in this overrun is the number of bytes by which the buffer is overrun. It cannot control the data that is overwritten -- the data will always be the IAC character 0xFF. Also, the malicious client does not control the addresses where data is overridden, and the data is always overridden in a sequential manner. The FTP service 7.5 is also protected by Data Execution Prevention (DEP). The combination of these characteristics makes it difficult to successfully execute a heap spray or partial function pointer override attack. Because of the nature of the overrun, the probable result will only be a denial of service and not code execution.
Our second discovery is that this vulnerability only affects IIS FTP Service and leaves the IIS Web Services completely unaffected. Hence a Denial of Service on the FTP service will not affect any of the web services hosted by IIS but only the FTP service.
Third and finally, the IIS FTP Service is not installed by default, and even after installation, it is not enabled by default.
[...]
We’ll continue to investigate this issue and, if necessary, we‘ll take appropriate action to help protect customers. This may include providing a security update through the monthly release process or additional guidance to help customers protect themselves.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vulnerability Note VU#842372
Microsoft IIS FTP server memory corruption vulnerability
http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/842372
Windows 7 IIS7.5 FTPSVC UNAUTH'D Remote DoS PoC
http://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/15803/
There has been some discussion around a publicly posted PoC code that exploits a vulnerability in IIS FTP 7.5, which ships with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Our engineering team is looking into the situation and has made a few preliminary observations that might clear up some confusion. We’ve observed three notable characteristics.
First, this is a Denial of Service vulnerability and remote code execution is unlikely. The vulnerability occurs when the FTP server attempts to encode Telnet IAC (Interpret As Command) character in the FTP response. The IAC character, which is represented as decimal 255 (Hex FF) in the response, needs to be encoded by the addition of another decimal 255 character in the FTP response where we find the presence of the IAC character. Due to an error in this processing, it is possible to get into a state where an attacker could overwrite a portion of the response with a string of 0xFFs even past the end of the heap buffer, resulting in a heap buffer overrun.
In that situation, the only data that a malicious client controls in this overrun is the number of bytes by which the buffer is overrun. It cannot control the data that is overwritten -- the data will always be the IAC character 0xFF. Also, the malicious client does not control the addresses where data is overridden, and the data is always overridden in a sequential manner. The FTP service 7.5 is also protected by Data Execution Prevention (DEP). The combination of these characteristics makes it difficult to successfully execute a heap spray or partial function pointer override attack. Because of the nature of the overrun, the probable result will only be a denial of service and not code execution.
Our second discovery is that this vulnerability only affects IIS FTP Service and leaves the IIS Web Services completely unaffected. Hence a Denial of Service on the FTP service will not affect any of the web services hosted by IIS but only the FTP service.
Third and finally, the IIS FTP Service is not installed by default, and even after installation, it is not enabled by default.
[...]
We’ll continue to investigate this issue and, if necessary, we‘ll take appropriate action to help protect customers. This may include providing a security update through the monthly release process or additional guidance to help customers protect themselves.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vulnerability Note VU#842372
Microsoft IIS FTP server memory corruption vulnerability
http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/842372
Windows 7 IIS7.5 FTPSVC UNAUTH'D Remote DoS PoC
http://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/15803/
STRATFOR: Organized Crime vs. Terrorism
http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/20101221-dispatch-organized-crime-vs-terrorism
Analyst Reva Bhalla uses the Mexican drug cartel war to examine the differences between an organized criminal group and a terrorist organization.
"Mexican lawmakers recently passed legislation defining punishment for acts of terrorism. The most interesting aspect of this law is what was encompassed in that definition of terrorism, which could apply to cartel-related activities. This could be an emerging tactic by the Mexican government to politically characterize cartel-related activities as terrorism and use that as a way to undermine popular support for organized criminal activity in Mexico."
Analyst Reva Bhalla uses the Mexican drug cartel war to examine the differences between an organized criminal group and a terrorist organization.
"Mexican lawmakers recently passed legislation defining punishment for acts of terrorism. The most interesting aspect of this law is what was encompassed in that definition of terrorism, which could apply to cartel-related activities. This could be an emerging tactic by the Mexican government to politically characterize cartel-related activities as terrorism and use that as a way to undermine popular support for organized criminal activity in Mexico."
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
New URL Shortener Hijacks Browsers for DDoS
Via Softpedia.com -
In order to outline the dangers of implicitly trusting shortened URLs, a student has launched a service which generates links that take users to their destination, but also hijack their browsers for DDoS.
Called d0z.me, the service is the creation of Ben Schmidt (@supernothing307), a computer science major at University of Tulsa, who describes himself as a security enthusiast.
The URL shortener was inspired by the recent distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks launched by Anonymous and in particular the Web version of the group's Low Orbit Ion Canon (LOIC) tool.
This recently created JavaScript-based LOIC allows people to voluntarily join a DDoS effort by visiting a Web page instead of installing an application on their computers.
The tool works by modifying an image tag's src attribute in order to force the browser to continuously send HTTP requests to the targeted server.
[...]
D0z.me was released as a proof-of-concept and works by loading the destination page in an transparent iframe. The source code is freely available under GPL.
To use the service, attackers must specify the destination link and the URL to be targeted. The title of the page can also be configured. The resulting short URL can then be spread on social media websites in order to attract as many visitors as possible.
People who click on the link will have no indication that something is wrong, except for the url in the address bar, which doesn't change from d0z.me.
Meanwhile, in the background, their computer will send hundreds of requests per minute to the target URL. The more time spent on the legit destination page, the more effective the attack is.
"My implementation of this attack is, at best, a hack job, but was merely meant to illustrate how easy it is to actually implement, how simple it is to launch a DDoS simply by getting people to follow a link, and how seriously our reliance on URL shorteners can affect security," Schmidt concludes.
In order to outline the dangers of implicitly trusting shortened URLs, a student has launched a service which generates links that take users to their destination, but also hijack their browsers for DDoS.
Called d0z.me, the service is the creation of Ben Schmidt (@supernothing307), a computer science major at University of Tulsa, who describes himself as a security enthusiast.
The URL shortener was inspired by the recent distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks launched by Anonymous and in particular the Web version of the group's Low Orbit Ion Canon (LOIC) tool.
This recently created JavaScript-based LOIC allows people to voluntarily join a DDoS effort by visiting a Web page instead of installing an application on their computers.
The tool works by modifying an image tag's src attribute in order to force the browser to continuously send HTTP requests to the targeted server.
[...]
D0z.me was released as a proof-of-concept and works by loading the destination page in an transparent iframe. The source code is freely available under GPL.
To use the service, attackers must specify the destination link and the URL to be targeted. The title of the page can also be configured. The resulting short URL can then be spread on social media websites in order to attract as many visitors as possible.
People who click on the link will have no indication that something is wrong, except for the url in the address bar, which doesn't change from d0z.me.
Meanwhile, in the background, their computer will send hundreds of requests per minute to the target URL. The more time spent on the legit destination page, the more effective the attack is.
"My implementation of this attack is, at best, a hack job, but was merely meant to illustrate how easy it is to actually implement, how simple it is to launch a DDoS simply by getting people to follow a link, and how seriously our reliance on URL shorteners can affect security," Schmidt concludes.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Mexico and the Cartel Wars in 2010
Via STARTFOR (Security Weekly) -
In our 2010 annual report on Mexico’s drug cartels, we assess the most significant developments of the past year and provide an updated description of the dynamics among the country’s powerful drug-trafficking organizations, along with an account of the government’s effort to combat the cartels and a forecast of the battle in 2011. The annual cartel report is a product of the coverage STRATFOR maintains on a weekly basis through our Mexico Security Memo as well as other analyses we produce throughout the year. In response to customer requests for more and deeper coverage of Mexico, STRATFOR will also introduce a new product in 2011 designed to provide an enhanced level of reporting and analysis.
In 2010, the cartel wars in Mexico have produced unprecedented levels of violence throughout the country. No longer concentrated in just a few states, the violence has spread all across the northern tier of border states and along much of both the east and west coasts of Mexico. This year’s drug-related homicides have surpassed 11,000, an increase of more than 4,400 deaths from 2009 and more than double the death toll in 2008.
[...]
After being named the most violent organized-crime group in Mexico by former Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora in 2009, LFM [La Familia Michoacana] has been largely a background player in 2010 and was active on two main fronts: the offensive against Los Zetas as part of the New Federation in northeastern Mexico and the fight against elements of the CPS [Cartel Pacifico Sur] and Los Zetas in southern Michoacan and Guerrero states, particularly around the resort area of Acapulco.
[...]
On the business-operations side, Sinaloa has made inroads in other regions and other continents. As noted above, the organization also has reportedly made progress in extending its control over the lucrative Tijuana smuggling corridor and is making significant progress in asserting control over the Juarez corridor.
[...]
Additionally, STRATFOR sources continue to report a sustained effort by the Sinaloa Federation to expand its logistical network farther into Europe and its influence deeper into Central America and South America.
[...]
The successes that the Calderon administration has scored against some major cartel figures such as La Barbie and El Nacho in 2010 have helped foster some public confidence in the war against the cartels, but disruptions to the balance of power among the cartels have added to the violence, which is clearly evidenced by the steep climb in the death toll. As long as the cartel landscape remains fluid, with the balance of power between the cartels and the government in a constant state of flux, the violence is unlikely to end or even recede.
In our 2010 annual report on Mexico’s drug cartels, we assess the most significant developments of the past year and provide an updated description of the dynamics among the country’s powerful drug-trafficking organizations, along with an account of the government’s effort to combat the cartels and a forecast of the battle in 2011. The annual cartel report is a product of the coverage STRATFOR maintains on a weekly basis through our Mexico Security Memo as well as other analyses we produce throughout the year. In response to customer requests for more and deeper coverage of Mexico, STRATFOR will also introduce a new product in 2011 designed to provide an enhanced level of reporting and analysis.
In 2010, the cartel wars in Mexico have produced unprecedented levels of violence throughout the country. No longer concentrated in just a few states, the violence has spread all across the northern tier of border states and along much of both the east and west coasts of Mexico. This year’s drug-related homicides have surpassed 11,000, an increase of more than 4,400 deaths from 2009 and more than double the death toll in 2008.
[...]
After being named the most violent organized-crime group in Mexico by former Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora in 2009, LFM [La Familia Michoacana] has been largely a background player in 2010 and was active on two main fronts: the offensive against Los Zetas as part of the New Federation in northeastern Mexico and the fight against elements of the CPS [Cartel Pacifico Sur] and Los Zetas in southern Michoacan and Guerrero states, particularly around the resort area of Acapulco.
[...]
On the business-operations side, Sinaloa has made inroads in other regions and other continents. As noted above, the organization also has reportedly made progress in extending its control over the lucrative Tijuana smuggling corridor and is making significant progress in asserting control over the Juarez corridor.
[...]
Additionally, STRATFOR sources continue to report a sustained effort by the Sinaloa Federation to expand its logistical network farther into Europe and its influence deeper into Central America and South America.
[...]
The successes that the Calderon administration has scored against some major cartel figures such as La Barbie and El Nacho in 2010 have helped foster some public confidence in the war against the cartels, but disruptions to the balance of power among the cartels have added to the violence, which is clearly evidenced by the steep climb in the death toll. As long as the cartel landscape remains fluid, with the balance of power between the cartels and the government in a constant state of flux, the violence is unlikely to end or even recede.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Reconnaissance Drone Crash in El Paso Under Investigation
Via CNN -
Federal authorities were investigating Friday the circumstances of a drone that crashed in El Paso, Texas, this week, which U.S. officials said originated in Mexico.
But Rocio Torres, a spokeswoman for the Mexican attorney general's office, disputed that the drone belonged to that country.
"We have no information with respect to the plane that you're referring to that was found in Texas and said to be Mexican," Torres said, adding that she consulted with other Mexican government officials.
But U.S. National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Keith Holloway said he believed that the drone "was owned by the government of Mexico, and I think they were the operators."
"There was a drone that crashed on Tuesday, and we are collecting data," Holloway said. "We are not sending anyone down to the scene. We are collecting information to see what occurred."
The crash of an unmanned aerial vehicle from Mexico would be a first on U.S. soil, said U.S. Customs and Border Protection Special Operations Supervisor Ramiro Cordero.
Holloway said the craft was an Orbiter Mini UAV designed by Aeronautics Defense Systems, whose website describes it as "a compact and lightweight system designed for use in military and homeland security operations" and "the ultimate solution for over-the-hill reconnaissance missions, low-intensity conflicts and urban warfare operations."
[...]
Unmanned drones are routinely used by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to look for illegal immigration on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Cordero said a resident called his agency Tuesday evening "about something in front of his property."
The agency picked up the device and consulted with officials in the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Consulate in Juarez, Mexico. "We determined it was the property of the Mexican government," Cordero said.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
According to an update on CNN....
Federal authorities were investigating Friday the circumstances of a drone that crashed in El Paso, Texas, this week, which U.S. officials said originated in Mexico.
But Rocio Torres, a spokeswoman for the Mexican attorney general's office, disputed that the drone belonged to that country.
"We have no information with respect to the plane that you're referring to that was found in Texas and said to be Mexican," Torres said, adding that she consulted with other Mexican government officials.
But U.S. National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Keith Holloway said he believed that the drone "was owned by the government of Mexico, and I think they were the operators."
"There was a drone that crashed on Tuesday, and we are collecting data," Holloway said. "We are not sending anyone down to the scene. We are collecting information to see what occurred."
The crash of an unmanned aerial vehicle from Mexico would be a first on U.S. soil, said U.S. Customs and Border Protection Special Operations Supervisor Ramiro Cordero.
Holloway said the craft was an Orbiter Mini UAV designed by Aeronautics Defense Systems, whose website describes it as "a compact and lightweight system designed for use in military and homeland security operations" and "the ultimate solution for over-the-hill reconnaissance missions, low-intensity conflicts and urban warfare operations."
[...]
Unmanned drones are routinely used by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to look for illegal immigration on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Cordero said a resident called his agency Tuesday evening "about something in front of his property."
The agency picked up the device and consulted with officials in the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Consulate in Juarez, Mexico. "We determined it was the property of the Mexican government," Cordero said.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
According to an update on CNN....
Mexican Attorney General spokeswoman Rocio Torres denied her country's involvement with the drone Friday, but later in the day, another Mexican official said the drone was being operated by the Ministry of Public Security and was following a target at the time of the mechanical malfunction.
The Mexican official did not know the nature of the surveillance but said "we know they were following a target." He did not know how the malfunction affected that operation, if at all.
Ricardo Alday, a spokesman for the Mexican Embassy in the United States, also said the drone belonged to Mexico and was part of an operation in coordination with the U.S. government.
"It was flying on the Mexican side of the border when it had a mechanical malfunction," Alday said. "It is my understanding both Mexican and U.S. authorities were fully cognizant of what was going on in the area."
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