WASHINGTON - The Pentagon said Tuesday it had halted sales of spare parts from its recently retired F-14 fighter jet fleet, even as lawmakers pledged tougher oversight of the military's surplus sales to stop buyers for Iran and other countries from acquiring gear.
Sales of F-14 parts were suspended last Friday pending a comprehensive review, said Defense Logistics Agency spokesman Jack Hooper said. "It was the prudent thing to do," he said.
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Venezuela Plans to Obtain Air Defense Missiles Systems, General Says
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela plans to obtain air defense missiles to guard strategic sites such as oil refineries and major bridges against any air strike, a top military adviser to President Hugo Chavez said Tuesday. Gen. Alberto Muller said Venezuela is looking to buy surface-to-air missile systems from Russia or another country to defend refineries, hydroelectric dams and "other strategic points in the country."
"They are for air defense," Muller told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "They are not for attacking anybody... We are not the United States of America. We don't have imperialist ambitions."
Chavez, a close ally of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, has repeatedly warned against a possible U.S. invasion, and his government is bolstering military defenses in Venezuela, one of the world's largest oil exporters. American officials insist they have no such military plans, but Chavez insists Venezuelans must be ready just in case.
Russia's Interfax-Military News Agency reported Tuesday that between 10 and 12 Tor-M1 missile systems could be supplied to the South American country. The ITAR-Tass news agency said that report was denied by Venezuela's Defense Ministry, but Muller said there are indeed plans to purchase missiles, though he did not say what type.
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WASHINGTON, Jan. 30 2007 -- U.S. Cyber-security specialists have been examining an encryption software package released earlier this month by the Global Islamic Media Front, a Web forum for supporters of Islamic terrorists.
The software package, dubbed "Mujahedin Secrets" by its authors, is an executable file that can be installed on removable media, like a thumb drive, and used on computers in libraries other public places to encrypt e-mail or other files being sent over the Internet, according to iDefense, an Internet security consultancy which is analyzing the program.
"The program's 'portability' as an application (not requiring installation on a personal computer) will become an increasingly desirable feature, especially considering the high use of Internet cafés worldwide by pro-terrorist Islamic extremists," said iDefense Middle East analyst Andretta Summerville.
"Mujahedin Secrets," which can be downloaded for free, offers "the five best encryption algorithms, with symmetrical encryption keys (256 bit), asymmetrical encryption keys (2048 bit) and data compression," according to a translation of a Global Islamic Media Front's announcement about the software on Jan. 1, provided by Middle East Media Research Institute.
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Russians used dead spy's photo as a target
Tue. Jan. 30 2007
MOSCOW -- The head of a center that trains security personnel and held a competition for Russian special forces confirmed Tuesday that it has used shooting targets showing the photo of a former agent who was fatally poisoned in London last year.
However, Sergei Lysyuk, head of the Vityaz Center, said he had been unaware that the photo target showed the poisoned ex-agent, Alexander Litvinenko. "The fact that it was Litvinenko, we only found out later from the press," Lysyuk told The Associated Press. "We did not shoot at Litvinenko, we shot at a target."
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U.S. trains Tajik forces in anti-terrorism
DUSHANBE, Tajikistan, Jan. 30. 2007 -- The United States military is assisting with anti-terrorism training near the capital of Tajikistan, the Tajik national security body said. RIA Novosti, quoting the body, reported American troops were in a joint training course at the Fakhrabad military training center near Dushanbe. The course began Jan 28 an ends March 9.
Tajik border guards and Special Forces units are being shown tactics in anti-terrorism and techniques to defend themselves against attacks by illegal armed groups. This is the first joint military training that U.S. and Tajik forces have conducted.
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