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Posted on 04/05/2008 8:51:57 PM PDT by Flavius
China has taken a significant step in meeting Pakistan’s military needs with the completion of a militarily important naval frigate as part of an $800 million deal, which analysts say will further deepen Islamabad’s reliance on Beijing as a key supplier of military hardware.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
The ChiComs and Muslims would make a frightening alliance.
You would think that Pakistan had enough of China by now after the whole ‘Tiger Song’ bru ha ha.
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=37173
Army weighs using RFID network partially owned by Chinese firm
By Bob Brewin bbrewin@govexec.com June 12, 2007
The Army is considering using a radio frequency identification network in Pakistan that is partly owned by a Chinese company to track shipments to American forces in Afghanistan, according to internal briefing materials obtained by Government Executive.
The Defense Department has used RFID tags with a range of 300 feet to track movements of containers and pallets to U.S. forces operating in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as other forces globally.
The tags contain a computer chip that stores information about the cargo and an antenna that beams the information to RFID tag readers. From there, the information is passed to the Global Transportation Network operated by the U.S. Transportation Command. That network rides on the Defense’s internal Non-Classified Internet Protocol Router Network.
Authorized users of the Global Transportation Network can “see” in real time the arrival and departure of container shipments. The overall system consists of 2,700 tag sites which read more than 134,000 tags a week, according to the briefing, issued by the Army Program Manager for Joint-Automatic Identification Technology.
But according to that briefing, Defense lacks the ability to read tags on shipments sent through Pakistani ports for onward movement by truck to Afghanistan “due to inability to obtain country clearance to install DoD fixed RFID infrastructure.”
The program manager’s briefing said the Army intended to resolve that problem by using a commercial RFID infrastructure installed in Pakistan by a firm called Savi Networks. That company is a joint venture between Savi Technology, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin, and Hutchinson Port Holdings, a subsidiary of Hutchison Whampoa Limited of Hong Kong, controlled by Chinese billionaire Li Ka Shing. Savi Technology owns 51 per cent of Savi Networks and Hutchinson 49 per cent, according to a 2005 press release announcing the partnership.
The Program Manager for Joint-Automatic Identification Technology briefing, done for the Navy this May, said it intended to modify its contract with Savi Technology to use the Savi Networks RFID infrastructure in Pakistan starting last Thursday.
But in response to a query from Government Executive, Air Force Maj. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, said Defense “is still assessing whether to utilize a commercial solution for Pakistan ... in accordance with DoD information assurance policy.” Ownership of commercial infrastructure is a factor that needs to be carefully considered during the risk assessment process, Ryder said.
Mark Nelson, a spokesman for Savi Technology, said Defense should not have any concerns about the security or integrity of data riding over the Pakistan infrastructure, since Hutchinson is only a passive investor in Savi Networks.
But Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, a Washington-based foundation, charged that Hutchinson is “a front for the Chinese government,” citing a Central Intelligence Agency analysis from 1998 concluding that Li Ka Shing “is directly connected to Beijing and is willing to use his business influence to further the aims of the Chinese government.”
Last month Defense issued its annual report on Chinese military capabilities to Congress, which included sections on increased use of information warfare. Philip Coyle, senior adviser for the Center for Defense Information, a Washington-based think tank focused on defense and security issues, said that if the Pentagon is “going to keep making China out to be an enemy, DoD should have security concerns about a Chinese-owned company running a U.S. Army information network.”
The Center for Public Integrity estimated last month that the United States has provided the government of Pakistan with $5 billion in funding since 2001. Coyle said considering that level of funding, “it does seem odd that Pakistan won’t allow a DoD network infrastructure, especially when what it is being used for is to track U.S. Army supplies.”
And don’t feel left out all! Our FBI signed on with Lockheed and Savi Tech to bring us the RFID chipping!
http://blog.barofintegrity.us/2008/02/13/fbi-announces-contract-award-for-next-generation-identification-system.aspx#comment-948083
FBI Announces Contract Award for Next Generation Identification System
Savi Technology, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin, and Hutchinson Port Holdings, a subsidiary of Hutchison Whampoa Limited of Hong Kong, controlled by Chinese billionaire Li Ka Shing. Savi Technology owns 51 percent of Savi Networks and Hutchinson 49 percent.
Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, a Washington-based foundation, charged that Hutchinson is “a front for the Chinese government,” citing a Central Intelligence Agency analysis from 1998 concluding that Li Ka Shing “is directly connected to Beijing and is willing to use his business influence to further the aims of the Chinese government.”
Last month Defense issued its annual report on Chinese military capabilities to Congress, which included sections on increased use of information warfare. Philip Coyle, senior adviser for the Center for Defense Information, a Washington-based think tank focused on defense and security issues, said that if the Pentagon is “going to keep making China out to be an enemy, DoD should have security concerns about a Chinese-owned company running a U.S. Army information network.”
http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/pdfs/070523-China-Military-Power-final.pdf
I thought they already had one since the Chinese have been supplying them with fiber optics and satellite technology.
deja vu
ping
thanks, bfl
The ChiComs and the Pakis are about as scary as the Dominion and the Breen (cheesy DS9 reference thrown in)...
> I thought they already had one since the Chinese have been supplying them with fiber optics and satellite technology.
The scary bit comes when they start doing that for Al Qaeda and the Taliban not just Pakistan, along with some of their weaponry — the Chinese stuff isn’t too bad you know.
You’ll really know when to worry when the occasional ChiCom turns up dead in Basra after a firefight. That will be the beginning of a very scary time. And when the Chinese find an ideological reason to adopt homicide bombing as a legitimate tactic (they have an endless supply of bombers) then the West is in serious trouble.
A Sino-Islamofascist alliance is a marriage made in hell.
> The ChiComs and the Pakis are about as scary as the Dominion and the Breen (cheesy DS9 reference thrown in)...
I take it you aren’t at all concerned about the ChiComs? Wow.
I take it you don’t watch Star Trek much. Yes I’m damn scared of the ChiComs.. They are, in many ways, a far greater threat than Islamofascism.
Muslims have traditionally hated the communists...the mujahideen in Afghanistan, for example, and former king Faisal of Saudi Arabia was a staunch anti-commie. The fact that they’re considering strengthening ties with China may indicate desperation on Islamofascism’s part because they know they’re getting their a$$es kicked by us and the coalition.
They did. China supplied Saddam with fiber optics. NATO dubbed it Tiger Song. AND, China just helped Iran join the Space Club.
Homicide bombings is more scary than body brokering, huh? Thanks for that clue.
> I take it you don’t watch Star Trek much. Yes I’m damn scared of the ChiComs.. They are, in many ways, a far greater threat than Islamofascism.
No, sorry — never really been into Star Trek, so I might have misunderstood your post. The ChiComs are a very scary bunch indeed. I would hate to see them latch up with the Islamofascists (stranger things have happened, like Nazism and Socialism having their temporary truce) and we in the West should be wary of that possibility.
It was, after all, the Arabs who postulated that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
> Homicide bombings is more scary than body brokering, huh? Thanks for that clue.
Just about anything the ChiComs are capable of is scary.
>>>Just about anything the ChiComs are capable of is scary.
Big bump
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