The Price of Assassination - Opinionator Blog I wouldn’t have believed you if you’d told me 20 years ago that America would someday be routinely firing missiles into countries it’s not at war with. For that matter, I wouldn’t have believed you if you’d told me a few months ago that America would soon be plotting the assassination of an American citizen who lives abroad. Shows you how much I know. President Obama, who during his first year in office oversaw more drone strikes in Pakistan than occurred during the entire Bush presidency, last week surpassed his predecessor in a second respect: he authorized the assassination of an American — Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical Imam who after 9/11 moved from Virginia to Yemen, a base from which he inspires such people as the Fort Hood shooter and the would-be underwear bomber. I’m not qualified to answer these questions, and, besides, it doesn’t really matter what the correct answers are. Of course the usual caveat applies: It’s hard to disentangle cause and effect.
Booby-trapping PDF files: A new how-to High performance access to file storage Updated A security researcher has demonstrated a mechanism that exploits PDF files without taking advantage of any particular vulnerabilities. Didier Stevens' proof of concept exploit relies on running an executable embedded in a PDF file - something that ought to be blocked - by launching a command that ultimately runs an executable. In the case of Adobe Reader, such attempted launches generate a pop-up dialog box asking users if they want to proceed. However, this is not necessarily a major hurdle because Stevens was also able to manipulate the text displayed by the pop-up in a way that might easily fool most users. "With Adobe Reader, the only thing preventing execution is a warning," Stevens explains. "I shared my PoC with Adobe’s PSIRT. "Foxit Reader is probably worse than Adobe Reader, because no warning gets displayed to prevent the launch action," Stevens explains.
Print - Hypersonic Cruise Missile: America's New Global Strike W A tip sets the plan in motion--a whispered warning of a North Korean nuclear launch, or of a shipment of biotoxins bound for a Hezbollah stronghold in Lebanon. Word races through the American intelligence network until it reaches U.S. Strategic Command headquarters, the Pentagon and, eventually, the White House. In the Pacific, a nuclear-powered Ohio class submarine surfaces, ready for the president's command to launch. When the order comes, the sub shoots a 65-ton Trident II ballistic missile into the sky. Within 2 minutes, the missile is traveling at more than 20,000 ft. per second. If Pentagon strategists get their way, there will be no place on the planet to hide from such an assault. The question is whether such an attack can be deployed without triggering World War III: Those tungsten-armed Tridents look, and fly, exactly like the deadliest weapons in the American nuclear arsenal. Sneak Attack First, there's the matter of intelligence. Congress is decidedly less blasé.
Géopolitique Les négociations avec l'Iran sur le dossier nucléaire approchent de leur dénouement. A quelques jours de la date butoir du 24 novembre, les spéculations vont bon train. Parviendra-t-on à régler les questions en suspens ? En l'absence d'un accord final, les tractations seront-elles à nouveau prolongées ? Quelles que soient les critiques que l'on peut porter aux négociations en cours, notamment sur le fait qu'elles ne concernent que le nucléaire, et pas le comportement déstabilisateur de l'Iran dans la région, leur conclusion, dans un sens ou dans l'autre, sera un événement d'une portée historique. En cas d'accord, l'équilibre stratégique de la région sera bouleversé. Un an après le début des pourparlers, six mois après une première extension, et dans le contexte d'une déstabilisation croissante du Moyen Orient, les deux parties ont intérêt à trouver un accord. Tout accord implique des concessions de part et d'autre. En dernière analyse, la décision sera politique.
Sahel Intelligence, l'information stratégique sur le Sahel ELP Defens(c)e Blog