Category Archives: United States

Arts, Government, Politics, Russia, Society, Technology, United States

The terrifying era of internet warfare

CYBER WARS

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America’s CIA says Vladimir Putin was behind Russian hackers’ bid to swing the U.S. presidential election. As the fallout continues, cyber wars are only at the infancy stage of the internet-war era.

SINCE the presidential election result was announced in November, America has become an embittered battlefield. The role of Russia in securing Donald Trump’s victory has caused fierce controversy.

The CIA, America’s intelligence agency, has asserted with “high confidence” that Kremlin-directed hackers were responsible for the revelation through Wikileaks of thousands of Democratic Party emails, derailing the Hillary Clinton campaign wagon just at a crucial moment during the election when Trump was in trouble over his misogynistic attitudes and appalling treatment of women.

In sensational developments last month, intelligence officials said that Russia’s President Putin was personally involved in the hacking campaign.

If that was not enough to spark intense unease in Western capitals, a spokesperson for President Obama launched an extraordinary attack on Mr Trump, saying that it was “obvious” he knew about the Russian interference in the election.

The President-elect dismisses as “ridiculous” the charges that the Russians helped to place him, their avowed friend, in the White House. Few even among his foes suggest that he won solely thanks to the hackers. But the 2016 U.S. election has highlighted the extraordinary influence now wielded by the internet upon every aspect of our world.

The former U.S. Secretary of State, Dr Henry Kissinger, wrote presciently in his 2014 book World Order: ‘Presidential elections are on the verge of turning into media contests between master operators of the internet . . . whose intrusiveness would have been considered only a generation ago the stuff of science fiction.’

What is most chilling, however, is the speed with which cyber conflict is now evolving.

America’s Information Operational Technology Centre was created in 1998 to spy on actual and potential enemies, corrupt their digital networks, and even by controlling their computers. Its early operations were unimpressive. During the 1999 bombing of Kosovo, its geeks made Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic’s telephone ring incessantly, which seems merely to have annoyed him.

Before one anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the Americans took down an Al Qaeda website, blocking the planned release of a propaganda broadcast by Osama bin Laden. Afterwards, however, counter-terrorist officers bitterly protested that all that had been achieved was to alert Al Qaeda to the vulnerability of its communications.

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Britain, Government, Iraq, Islamic State, Politics, Terrorism, United Nations, United States

The West has a responsibility in Iraq

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Mosul: Violence in Iraq continues to escalate.

IRAQ

Intro: Recognising the huge human cost that the war is having on Iraq, we must accept and understand that we have an ongoing responsibility to help bring the bloodshed to an end.

Violence still engulfs Iraq. The United Nations has said that at least 6,878 Iraqi civilians were killed in 2016, a number that is most certain to be on the low side because of the unverifiable number of civilian deaths in war zones. And we do not know the full death toll from the ongoing fighting in that country because the Iraqi government has not published the causality figures for government troops and paramilitary forces fighting in Mosul and elsewhere in northern Iraq. It is a tragic toll.

In December alone, 109 civilians perished and 523 injured in Baghdad. These are largely attributed to Islamic State who have claimed responsibility for a string of bombings. But, as IS get shifted out of Mosul and other areas they have controlled, the bombings will only get worse. Fanatics will carry on the fight on the streets of the country’s cities.

Recognising the huge human cost that the war is having on Iraq, we must accept and understand that we have an ongoing responsibility to help bring the bloodshed to an end. Along with the United States we were at the forefront of the regime change invasion of Iraq that has unleashed such a violent insurrection since. Britain cannot be allowed to wash its hands as if now the mayhem has nothing to do with them. It does.

The conclusions of the Chilcot Inquiry found many failings of the UK but was specifically critical of the way in which the U.S. dismantled the security and intelligence apparatus of Saddam Hussein’s army, as well as describing the whole invasion as a strategic failure. Whilst the immediate violence is largely being perpetrated by IS and its fanatics, the West could have served the Iraqi people much better after getting involved.

It is always difficult to stand back and watch merciless dictators with no compunction committing butchery on their own people, but the long-term costs of not thinking through action from the start is now all too clear. Western intervention and the lack of proper military plans in Iraq – in dealing with all that has happened since that ill-fated invasion of 2003 – explains much of what we are witnessing now. Hideous incompetence.

A lesson we still seem not to have learnt in Syria.

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Britain, Economic, European Union, Government, Politics, Society, Terrorism, United States

2017 will be a year of major challenges

CHALLENGES, RISKS & CHANGE

Intro: There is a sense that the unglamorous hard grind will start to bear down on the detailed practicalities of change during 2017

Following the shocks and political reverberations of 2016 it should come as no surprise that relatively few have jumped forth with confident predictions for the year ahead. Yet apprehension over the future is high as the effects of the past 12 months crystallise in the weeks and months ahead.

Identifying the reasons as to why many are fearful will not be difficult. Nonetheless, buoyant financial markets in both America and the UK over the last few days have seen record highs. Businesses are sensing opportunities under a Trump administration that is pledging a boost to federal government spending on infrastructure as well as a major overhaul to the tax code in the United States. This is likely to lead to tax cuts for households and firms alike. Here in the UK, estimates for third-quarter growth have been revised up to 0.6 per cent on quarter, while household and consumer spending has been boosted by high employment and a relatively modest growth in real incomes. Hitherto, while a notable slowdown is expected over 2017, the dire predictions of economic recession in the wake of the EU referendum vote have proved overly pessimistic and we are starting the New Year from a much firmer base than many had predicted.

But major uncertainty persists over Brexit. The calls by the Scottish Government for Scotland to remain in the Single Market, and the issue as to whether beneficial trading relationships can be established with other EU countries, are clear examples of the muddle and disarray. Whilst lack of detail is frustrating, there is a notable mood across the business world to make the best of our situation and by getting on with the job. The depreciation and fall in the value of sterling offers opportunities for UK firms to boost exports and for many firms in the food and drink sector to build a presence in overseas markets. In Scotland, our tourism and events sector, spanning hotels, hospitality and conference catering, stands to benefit.

There is a sense that the unglamorous hard grind will start to bear down on the detailed practicalities of change during 2017. The focus is likely to be upon legislative changes. However, we also face an elevated degree of geo-political risk. Recent terrorist attacks across Europe and elsewhere are indicative of the challenges facing government and the intelligence agencies.

Barbaric attacks such as those in Istanbul cannot but heighten tensions across Europe. Adding further to security precautions in many European capitals, the woes and fears that governments have across Europe for their people is becoming distinctly palpable.

Fear of further such attacks, including the use by Islamic State of chemical weapons, will undoubtedly increase public anxiety and growing voter mood of unease across Europe. The British Government has already warned that ISIS could unleash such devastating weapons on our streets. Voter discontent is also threatening to bring major election upsets in France, Germany and the Netherlands.

Meanwhile, the ever-belligerent North Korea has taken another step towards long-range nuclear strike capability. The country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, has claimed that the country is now close to testing long-range missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

A febrile 2017 seems likely to pose challenges as big as anything we have faced before.

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