Category Archives: The Denise Simon Experience

Pay Attention to this Pope, Unknowns

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WSJ: HOLGUÍN, Cuba— Pope Francis commiserated with Cuba’s Catholics on Monday about the difficulty of religious life in a communist country but stopped short of any direct criticism of its leaders.

“I know the efforts and the sacrifices being made by the church in Cuba to bring Christ’s word and presence to all, even in the most remote areas,” the pope said, as he celebrated Mass as the first pontiff to visit the central Cuban city of Holguín.

The pope’s relatively mild public complaint came during a trip that has been marked by his cautious stance toward the island’s government.

The previous day in Havana, Pope Francis met Cuban President Raúl Castro and his predecessor and brother Fidel Castro, shortly after dissidents said they had been detained to prevent them from attending a papal Mass.
Other groups of dissidents were also detained on Sunday, including a group that had been invited by the Vatican’s diplomatic mission to greet the pope behind closed doors. The meeting never took place.

Asked on Monday whether Pope Francis knew about a reported 50 arrests of dissidents, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said, “I don’t have any information about this.”

Before the visit, the pope came under criticism for his decision to meet with both Raúl and Fidel Castro, but not to meet with any dissidents.

Neither day’s homily contained any strong political statements, though on Monday the pope told a congregation of thousands in Holguín’s Revolution Square that faith in Jesus “pushes us to look beyond, not to be satisfied with the politically correct.”

Cuba is no longer an officially atheistic state, but the Catholic Church and other religious groups here continue to operate under many of the restrictions imposed by the communist government in the years after the 1959 revolution.

Visits by then- Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, in 1998 and 2012, respectively, led to government concessions including visas for foreign missionaries and the establishment of Christmas and Good Friday as national holidays.

The Catholic Church in Cuba is still generally unable to run schools, build new houses of worship or maintain older ones, and its social-service activity remains limited by a virtual monopoly of the state.

In a speech to President Castro and other dignitaries during an arrival ceremony at Havana’s international airport Saturday, Pope Francis said the Catholic Church in Cuba should have the “freedom, the means and the space needed” to evangelize and provide charitable service to the island’s people.

While the church has publicly pressed its own case in Cuba, it has so far been silent on the lack of political rights and freedoms on the island.

The church has occasionally worked quietly to ease the plight of dissidents. In 2010 and 2011, Havana’s Cardinal Jaime Ortega arranged for the release of more than 100 political prisoners, most of whom then left the country.

The Vatican has said the pope would likely address concerns over religious liberty or the civil rights of dissidents not in public remarks, but rather in private meetings with Mr. Castro and other officials.

Holguín, a city of 1.65 million in the center of the country, is usually overshadowed by Havana and Santiago, the other two cities the pope was scheduled to visit during this trip. The Vatican said the pope added the seven-hour stop there because it had been neglected by John Paul and Benedict when they visited the country.

Small clusters of people greeted the pope’s motorcade on its way in from the airport, and he covered last two miles in an open-sided popemobile. The sweltering heat seemed to take a toll on the 78-year-old pope, who looked and sounded especially fatigued as he celebrated Mass.

The pope was scheduled to fly shortly before 5 p.m. to Santiago, where he was to meet Cuba’s Catholic bishops and pay homage to the country’s patroness, the Virgin of Charity of El Cobre. After less than a day there, he will fly to Washington, the first of three stops on a U.S. tour that ends Sunday in Philadelphia.

*** What you may not know:

WASHINGTON, McClatchy

Pope Francis arrives in Washington Tuesday to start his first visit to the United States. Here are 10 things you may not know about the religious leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics.

He is fluent in four languages, but English isn’t one of them.

The Argentine pope is fluent in his native Spanish, Italian, German and Latin, the official language of the Vatican. He also has addressed crowds in clear but heavily accented English, French, Portuguese and Ukrainian. In a nod to the growing importance of the U.S. Hispanic population, the pope will celebrate at least one Mass in Spanish during his visit, at the canonization ceremony of California missionary Junípero Serra. He will read his address to Congress in English.

He has a rather unusual resume for a supreme pontiff.

Back when he was still Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the future pope moonlighted as a Buenos Aires bar bouncer and a janitor sweeping floors before joining the Jesuit Order in 1958. As a teenager, Bergoglio got his secondary school diploma as a chemical technician and worked at a food laboratory running tests on nutrients.

He’s a big fan of tango, soccer and “Lord of the Rings.”

Pope Francis has an “intense fondness” for tango dancing and the traditional music of Argentina and Uruguay known as milonga. In 2014, over 3,000 dancers from all over Italy celebrated his birthday by dancing tango in Saint Peter’s Square. A lifelong fan of the Argentine soccer team San Lorenzo, he is number 88,235 on the club’s member list. In 2013 he celebrated the team’s victory by hoisting the trophy over Saint Peter’s Square for the crowd to see. The pope is also a “Lord of the Rings” aficionado. In a 2008 sermon he used the Tolkien characters Frodo and Bilbo as inspiring examples of hope conquering doubt.

Pope Francis has never been to the United States.

Up to now, he has made a point of prioritizing the margins of society over developed countries in the Western world.

For his first official papal trip outside Rome he went to a Sicilian island to meet migrants who had survived the dangerous ocean crossing from Africa. In his two years as pope he has traveled to Israel, Jordan, the Palestine territories, the Philippines, South Korea and Sri Lanka in addition to several South American countries.

The designated ‘popemobile’ for the U.S. visit is a Jeep Wrangler.

The Holy Father will be shuttled around the streets of Washington, New York and Philadelphia in a Jeep Wrangler that is already in the hands of the Secret Service, according to the Vatican.

A similar car with open sides and a glass-front roof was used for the pope’s visit to Ecuador in July. This layout will give the surrounding crowds a clear view of the pontiff, unlike the closed and bulletproof “popemobiles” of his predecessors.

The pope’s aircraft is nicknamed ‘Shepherd One.’

Typically the pope flies in an ordinary chartered jet operated by Italy’s national carrier, Alitalia. Although the pope owns no special airplane, Americans nicknamed the chartered papal flight “Shepherd One” when Pope Benedict XVI visited the U.S. in 2008.

According to traditional protocol, when a pope travels abroad he flies out on the Alitalia chartered jet and returns to Rome on a flag carrier of the visited nation, although this depends on where he goes.

The 266th pope likes being out on the streets.

Pope Francis is famously unpretentious. A few examples: He was spotted popping out of the Vatican in his Ford Focus to buy new glasses at an optician’s shop in Rome. During his recent visit to Bolivia, he stopped at a Burger King to change his clothing before saying Mass. He’s the first pope to wander down into the cafeteria to eat lunch with Vatican employees. He’s also the first pope to carry his own luggage onto the plane.

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Pope Francis has prioritized climate change and environmental issues.

He criticized those who deny the human connection to climate change in a strongly worded 184-page encyclical, “Laudato Si,” issued in June. He wrote that the modern “use and throwaway” culture and the “disordered desire to consume more than what is really necessary” is to blame for global warming.

“Never have we so hurt and mistreated our common home as we have in the last 200 years,” he wrote. The encyclical was sharply criticized by many as inappropriate meddling by a religious institution in a political issue. He is expected to address climate change during his U.S. visit.

The pope (no longer) wears Prada.

While predecessor Benedict XVI was known for wearing the customary bright red shoes rumored to be designed by Italian fashion house Prada, Francis prefers to stick to the same simple black leather shoes from his days as archbishop of Buenos Aires.

He also prefers humbler papal garments, doing away with the velvet capes, fur trim, elaborate crucifixes and gold rings of the office.

He is the first pope from the developing world.

The Buenos Aires native of Italian ancestry is the first pontiff to come from the developing world, the first pope from the Americas, and the first non-European pope since Syrian Gregory III in 741. He is also the first Jesuit pope.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article35740713.html#emlnl=Morning_Newsletter#storylink=cpy

Putin’s Military Countless Moves/Top Threat

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Russia has started flying surveillance missions with drone aircraft in Syria, two U.S. officials said on Monday, in what appeared to be Moscow’s first military air operations in Syria since staging a rapid buildup at an airfield there.

The U.S. officials, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, could not say how many drone aircraft were involved in the surveillance missions. The Pentagon declined to comment.

***

NYPost: After weeks of dancing around the issue, the Obama administration has expressed concern about “heightened military activity” by Russia in Syria.

But what if we are facing something more than “heightened military activity?” What if Moscow is preparing to give Syria the full Putin treatment?

For years, Russia has been helping Syrian despot Bashar al-Assad cling to a diminishing power structure in a shrinking territorial base without trying to impose an overall strategy.
Now, however, there are signs that Russia isn’t content to just support Assad. It wants to control Syria.

***

Russia is calling for “concrete action” after a shell landed on its embassy compound in the Syrian capital, Damascus.

The Foreign Ministry said on September 21 that the mortar attack was launched in the morning of September 20 by forces battling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

It said the shelling did not cause damage.

The militants have “outside sponsors” who are responsible for influencing their actions, the ministry said.

“We are expecting a clear-cut position on this act of terror from all members of the international community,” it added. “What is needed is not just words but concrete action too.”

The statement comes amid Western concerns over Russia’s military buildup in Syria.

Moscow says its aim is to help Syria, a longtime ally, fight the Islamic State extremist group.

***

A nuclear-armed U.S. ballistic missile submarine arrived in Scotland this week amid growing tensions with Moscow over Ukraine and Russia’s strategic arms buildup.

The submarine, the USS Wyoming, arrived at the British naval base at Faslane, Scotland, Wednesday morning for what the U.S. Strategic Command said is a routine visit.

However, ballistic missile submarine movements and port visits normally are not announced by the Navy or the Strategic Command, an indication the Wyoming’s port call is intended as strategic messaging to Moscow.

The submarine visit “demonstrates the closeness of the U.S./U.K. defense relationship and our commitment to the collective security of all NATO member states,” Stratcom said in a brief statement.

The submarine deployment followed an earlier unannounced visit by a British missile submarine to Kings Bay, Ga., the homeport of the Wyoming.

***

Russia and Iran have stepped up coordination inside Syria as they move to safeguard President Bashar al-Assad’s control over his coastal stronghold, according to officials in the U.S. and Middle East, creating a new complication for Washington’s diplomatic goals.

Senior Russian and Iranian diplomats, generals and strategists have held a string of high-level talks in Moscow in recent months to discuss Mr. Assad’s defense and the Kremlin’s military buildup in Syria, according to these officials.

***

The Russian president announced today he has agreed a Government proposal to sign a deal for the military airbase and ordered defence and foreign ministry officials to start talks with Belarus –  although the plan is not expected to face major obstacles.

His announcement comes at a time of tension with the West over Russian involvement in Ukraine and Syria and may also signal the Kremlin’s interest in keeping unpredictable Belarus within its geopolitical orbit.

The idea for an airbase in the ex-Soviet republic was revealed by Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu in 2013 and follows a 2009 agreement where Russia and Belarus agreed to defend their common external frontier and airspace.

Russian defence officials said the base would be used to station Su-27 fighters.

Russia already has some fighter aircraft in Belarus but this would be the first full-scale base in the country since Soviet times.

The world’s biggest country has scaled back its military presence abroad, closing bases in distant Cold War allies such as Cuba and Vietnam.

However, a naval base at Tartus in war-torn Syria has recently become the focus of world attention as Russia has boosted its troop presence there in a move seen as bolstering its diplomatic influence in the region.

In summary from 2014 and later Congressional testimony:

Pentagon Fears It’s Not Ready for a War With Putin

The U.S. military has run the numbers on a sustained fight with Moscow, and they do not look good for the American side.
A series of classified exercises over the summer has raised concerns inside the Defense Department that its forces are not prepared for a sustained military campaign against Russia, two defense officials told The Daily Beast.Many within the military believe that 15 years of counter-terrorism warfare has left the ground troops ill prepared to maintain logistics or troop levels should Russia make an advance on NATO allies, the officials said.

Among the challenges the exercises revealed were that the number of precision-guided munitions available across the force were short of the war plans and it would be difficult to sustain a large troop presence. Full article here.

March 2015: WASHINGTON —The nominee to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Thursday that Russia poses the greatest national security threat to the United States and that it would be a “reasonable” military decision to supply lethal arms to Ukrainians fighting against rebels backed by Moscow.

“Russia presents the greatest threat to our national security. … If you look at their behavior, it’s nothing short of alarming,” Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford said during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee
Relations between Russia and the West have sunk to post-Cold War lows after Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and its support for a pro-Russian insurgency in eastern Ukraine. The United States has responded with sanctions but so far has refrained from providing lethal arms to the Ukrainian forces.

Asked if the U.S. should provide lethal arms to Ukraine, Dunford said that from a military standpoint, it would be a “reasonable” response.

“Frankly, without that kind of support, they are not going to be able to defend themselves against Russian aggression,” Dunford said.

That comment was welcomed by Sen. John McCain, chairman of the chairman.

“In Europe, Vladimir Putin’s Russia continues its onslaught in Ukraine,” said McCain, R-Ariz. “But even as Russian troops and equipment execute this neo-imperial campaign to undermine Ukraine’s government and independence, the United States has refused Ukraine the weapons it needs and deserves for its defense.” More detail here.

Purple Shovel, a Shipping or Weapons Company? Both

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Purple Shovel has been around for a long while attempting contracts with the Coast Guard, the Navy and more recently with U.S. SOCOM.

See page 5 of this weapons and industry trade show for AFRICOM dated January 2014.

A marketing brochure: Providing global transportation and logistics services to the U.S. Government and select private sector clients

As you read through this summary and investigative piece by BuzzFeed, there are some familiar sounding State Department models being used reminiscent of Benghazi and Hillary buying weapons for the Transnational Fighters in Libya. One should also keep in mind that the State Department vets and approves contractors and forces them on the military. Hat-tip to BuzzFeed.

A multimillion-dollar deal with a minuscule arms dealer led to the death of a US citizen, delays in arming Syrian rebels, and the purchase of weapons from a pro-Russia dictatorship — all for a pile of defective 30-year-old weapons.

At the heart of the high-stakes U.S. program to train and equip Syrian rebels to fight ISIS is a multimillion-dollar arms deal that the Pentagon farmed out to a tiny, little-known private company called Purple Shovel LLC. A BuzzFeed News investigation, based on inside documents and confidential sources familiar with the Syria operation, has found:

▸ Purple Shovel, through the subcontractors it selected and oversaw, tried to sell the U.S. thousands of Russian-style rocket-propelled grenades that were considered unreliable because they were manufactured three decades ago, before Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in the Soviet Union.

▸ The U.S. government rejected them, and that delayed the effort to stand up the Syrian rebel force.

▸ An American contractor, 41-year-old Francis Norwillo, was killed in a weapons explosion in Bulgaria while training with such outdated grenades.

▸ The U.S. violated its own policy and gave Purple Shovel approval to acquire millions of dollars’ worth of high-tech missiles for the rebels from Belarus, a dictatorship that is under sanctions by the European Union. Belarus, which has supplied weapons to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and is accused of human rights violations, is normally off-limits to U.S. arms dealers. But the U.S. military and State Department agreed to make an exception, allowing 700 powerful anti-tank missiles to be purchased, with U.S. taxpayer funds, for the rebels.

A Pentagon spokesperson defended its Train and Equip program in a statement to BuzzFeed News, saying, “We remain committed to expanding the New Syrian Forces and will continue to support those who we have trained.” She said the arms “delivery issues” identified in this story did not “prevent” training, though she said she would “not comment on delivery schedules.” A U.S. Special Operations Command spokesperson, Lt. Cmdr. Matthew Allen, acknowledged that the U.S. had acquired missiles from Belarus for the program.

A lawyer for Purple Shovel wrote that many of BuzzFeed News’ findings are incorrect. She declined to provide details because she said the firm is barred by federal law from discussing its Defense Department contracts. Purple Shovel’s CEO and founder, Benjamin Worrell, said in a brief telephone conversation, “I have absolutely no comment for you. I’m sorry.”

Purple Shovel’s arms contract is at the core of one of America’s top international priorities: thwarting ISIS, the extremist group that has seized large regions of Syria and Iraq, beheaded many of its captives, and helped fuel the ongoing exodus of refugees from Syria. Last year, President Barack Obama gave a primetime televised speech from the White House, calling on Congress to approve his $500 million program to train and equip moderate Syrian rebels. The program was to recruit moderate Syrians, vet them to ensure they weren’t infiltrators sent by ISIS or other groups, train them overtly using the U.S. military, and arm them. In December, Congress appropriated the funds.

Yet this July, eight months later, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter testified that only 60 Syrians had been trained. Later, in a devastating blow, the Syrian commander trained by the Americans was captured along with some of his soldiers by Islamist rebels from the Jabhat al-Nusra group. And this week, the commander of Central Command, General Lloyd Austin, testified that only four or five of the U.S.-trained rebels were actually deployed and fighting ISIS.

While those fiascoes are known, the problems with Purple Shovel’s multimillion-dollar arms contract have not been reported until now, and they show that troubles with the high-profile effort run deeper than previously realized.

They also illuminate the murky world of arms-dealing contractors behind many of America’s efforts to prop up friendly fighting forces. The United States government is one of the biggest buyers of AK-47s and other Russian-designed weapons, pouring them into Iraq, Afghanistan, and other war-torn countries. The U.S. provides foreign weapons to groups it trains because fighters sometimes prefer them, because they can conceal U.S. links to an operation, and because they are inexpensive. As BuzzFeed News has reported, the Pentagon and the CIA sometimes use small, untested arms dealers to purchase the weapons.

A Tiny Firm Wins Big Contracts

Incorporated in Delaware in 2010, Purple Shovel was founded by Benjamin Worrell, who worked in Army counterintelligence from 1993 to 2001, according to military records. His company is designated as a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned small business. His last assignment was with the 902nd Military Intelligence Group out of Fort Meade, Maryland. Military websites say the unit runs “full spectrum counterintelligence activities,” which include “detecting, identifying, neutralizing and exploiting foreign intelligence services, international terrorist threats and insider threats.”

From 2005 onward, according to his LinkedIn page, Worrell worked for the U.S. government and a series of contracting companies. He and his wife filed for personal bankruptcy in 2008, the year the financial crisis was cratering the economy. He reached an agreement with the bankruptcy court to discharge the debt, and federal court records show that his bankruptcy case was closed in July 2012. A Purple Shovel attorney, Margaret Carland, emailed that the bankruptcy was associated with medical costs and “is a private matter of no public news consideration.”

Purple Shovel’s big break came in December 2014, when it won two contracts totaling more than $50 million for the Syria program from the Special Operations Command, or SOCOM, which coordinates the activities of America’s most elite military units.

When Purple Shovel was awarded those crucial contracts, according to a federal procurement database, the company had just six employees and annual revenue of less than $2 million.

One contract, for $23.5 million, was not for guns, but rather for training and equipment. Over time, the contract came to include things like “Arabic keyboards,” and swelled to $31 million. Purple Shovel, records show, got this contract as a “sole source” award, meaning there was no competitive bidding — no other companies were able to try to get the work at a cheaper rate. Federal law typically discourages no-bid contracts, and the Pentagon declined to say why one was given in this case, though a federal procurement data system reported that it was because there was “only one source.” Still, according to a performance review Purple Shovel shared with BuzzFeed News, the government gave the company a glowing review of its work on this contract, which was completed at the end of July, calling the work “exceptional.”

The other big SOCOM contract was for approximately $26.7 million and was for “Foreign Weapons and Ammunition,” according to the description. In this case, federal records say Purple Shovel won the contract in a competitive bid against two other companies. This contract eventually worked its way up to $28.3 million.

The equipment Purple Shovel and its subcontractors were supposed to buy for the Syrian rebels, according to documents and sources familiar with the procurement operation in Bulgaria, included 12,640 armor-piercing rocket-propelled grenades, of a type called the PG-7VM, along with hundreds of shoulder-mounted launchers. Then there were 6,240 even longer-range anti-tank grenades called PG-9Vs, which are fired from launchers called SPG-9s. (Insiders pronounce it “spig-nines.”)

According to four sources with knowledge of the procurement, there was a huge problem with the effort to get the grenades. Purple Shovel’s subcontractors managed to find rocket-propelled grenades made by a Bulgarian company, but they’d been manufactured in 1984 and sitting in warehouses longer than many soldiers had been alive. “1984 is way past its shelf life,” one arms expert told BuzzFeed News, “unless it’s been refurbished.” But sources say these grenades had not been refurbished. The problem is that components can degrade, making the weapons either unstable, so they can blow up in a soldier’s hand­, or inert, so that soldiers can’t fire the weapons, leaving them vulnerable in battle.

Three of those sources said that SOCOM turned down batches of the grenades that were supposed to be given to the rebels, because they were too old and unreliable. They say that slowed down the operation for the Syrian rebel effort.

SOCOM and the Pentagon didn’t dispute that they rejected substandard equipment, but Cmdr. Elissa J. Smith, a Pentagon spokesperson, emailed BuzzFeed News, “I can tell you that the delivery issues did not prevent training from occurring.”

Meanwhile, Bulgarian arms dealers with knowledge of the deal told BuzzFeed News they are being asked to find newly manufactured rocket-propelled grenades for SOCOM to fill the gap in the Syria program. New weapons are hard to procure, Bulgarian arms industry executives said, because due to the wars around the world, production for Russian-designed grenades and other weapons in Bulgaria and other Eastern European countries has reached capacity. The production lines are full.

Death Of A Contractor

On June 6, the news broke in Bulgaria of a mysterious explosion near the village of Anevo, at a rented arms range just a few miles from a medieval mountain fortress. One American contractor was killed and two were injured. Two Bulgarians were also injured.

Soon afterward, the U.S. Embassy in the Bulgarian capital Sofia released a statement revealing the name of the Purple Shovel and its connection to the Syria operation.

The defense contractors involved in this incident are employees of the company Purple Shovel, which has been awarded a contract by U.S. Special Operations Command, at the request of U.S. Central Command, to support the Combined Joint Interagency Task Force-Syria (CJIATF-S). CJIATF-S is the organization tasked to administer the Coalition Syria Train and Equip program.

BuzzFeed News has learned that the man who lost his life was Francis Norwillo, a 41-year-old Navy veteran who was an expert armorer. Sources close to his family say that after leaving the Navy, where he had worked with Navy SEALs, Norwillo joined the ranks of the private military-contracting world.

This spring, he was based in Texas and looking for work. Sources say he was hired by SkyBridge Tactical, a subcontractor to Purple Shovel. His job, according to friends and family members who asked that they not be named, was training. They say he told them he would be in Bulgaria for a week and a half. There, sources say, Norwillo was supposed to receive training meant to familiarize him with the rocket-propelled grenades so that he would be prepared to train American soldiers who would, in turn, train the Syrian rebels.

He was killed, according to five sources and Bulgarian news accounts, when he fired a grenade that was old, manufactured in 1984.

The family was told little about the cause of the accident. “All we know is a weapon went off and he got blown up,” said Joe Norwillo, his father, in a phone interview from Texas. The Bulgarian government is conducting a probe, and the prosecutor’s office there told BuzzFeed News that it will be completed in December.

In her statement to BuzzFeed News, Purple Shovel’s lawyer wrote: “Mr. Norwillo’s death was a tragic accident. All of the questions you ask here must be asked of the US Government or the subcontractor who oversaw his actions.”

The SOCOM spokesperson, in an email, wrote that “we have not yet received an official report from the host government, which means we can’t know with certainty what occurred at the time of the incident.” Contradicting the U.S. Embassy statement, he added, “To the best of our knowledge, he was not supporting our contract when the incident took place.”

U.S. authorities said there is no American investigation into Norwillo’s death at this point.

SkyBridge Tactical, the subcontractor that employed Norwillo, declined to comment. The president, Stephen Rumbley, said that Norwillo’s family had been upset by BuzzFeed News’ calls: “If you hadn’t talked to the family to upset them I would talk to you. Write your blog. Do your thing. I’m not going to talk to you.”

Other companies were involved as subcontractors, according to sources and documents. Regulus Global, headquartered in Virginia, was Purple Shovel’s primary procurement subcontractor. It, in turn, arranged to buy the grenades from a Bulgarian firm, Algans Ltd.

In a brief interview, Regulus Global’s president, Lee Tolleson, said, “What we are doing for SOCOM is very good and very needed.” He declined further comment. Algans could not be reached for comment, and the firm did not respond to an email with detailed questions.

U.S. Buys Weapons From A Dictator

In addition to the rocket-propelled grenades, Purple Shovel was also contracted to acquire 700 Russian-designed Konkurs missiles for the Syria mission. Those are anti-tank weapons, which are guided in flight by an attached wire, and they can hit and destroy a target at up to two and a half miles away. In theory, they could be used to blast the heavy armor that ISIS had acquired by conquering U.S.-equipped units of the Iraqi army that fled. Or they could hit the heavily armored construction vehicles that ISIS jerry-rigs to bust through fortified lines.

But there was a problem: finding them on the worldwide arms market. Bulgaria, the source for most of the weapons for the Syria operation, didn’t have any. Ukraine is known to have some stored away but won’t sell because it is in a shooting war with Russian-backed rebels.

A country that has plenty is Belarus. But that country, often called “Europe’s last dictatorship,” is usually considered off-limits for arms dealers who work with the United States. President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has ruled with an iron fist for 21 years, and he has been accused of repeatedly stealing elections and of “disappearing” political opponents. This year, a United Nations special rapporteur found that “the situation of human rights in Belarus has not improved, and that widespread disrespect for human rights, in particular civil and political rights, continues.”

Ironically, along with Russia, Iran, and North Korea, Belarus was historically a major seller of arms to the Assad regime from 2006 to 2010, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which tracks arms sales.

Belarus is on a special “International Traffic in Arms Regulations” list published by the U.S. State Department, of countries with bans or special restrictions. The State Department has to license almost every deal involving US companies, and arms dealers say they are almost always prohibited from buying weapons from Belarus, because it is on that list.

Still, Purple Shovel and its subcontractors turned to Belarus for the Konkurs missiles, according to five sources and SOCOM itself. Formally, the missiles would be acquired by Purple Shovel for SOCOM from a company in Bulgaria — but that company would get them from Belarus. Asked if it knew that the 700 Konkurs missiles specifically came from Belarus, the SOCOM spokesperson answered, “Yes. USSOCOM is required to know all sources of equipment procured for use.” SOCOM and the Office of the Secretary of Defense would not provide further comment on the issue. The U.S. State Department, which licenses private arms deals, also signed off on the transaction, sources say. The State Department declined to comment.

An official at the Military Industrial Committee of the Republic of Belarus, which coordinates military exports, told BuzzFeed News to send questions by email, but a subsequent email received no response.

At the Purple Shovel headquarters in at an office park in Sterling, Virginia, there’s a Purple Shovel logo on the mirrored front door. It shows a globe, a shovel formed from the letter “P,” and the words “Around the world, Around the clock.” Earlier this month, no one responded to repeated knocks on the door.

View this image ›

Aram Roston/BuzzFeed News

Check out more articles on BuzzFeed.com!

Aram Roston is an investigative reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in Washington, D.C. His secure PGP fingerprint is D861 374F D725 4F61 39C0 08F1 4575 134B 09D9 B28D
Contact Aram Roston at [email protected].

 

 

 

Obama Admin Rewards China in Spite of Hacking

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Primer:

Every president stays at the Waldorf Astoria in New York especially during a United Nations General Assembly. Yet, since China bought the iconic hotel, the White House has expressed real concerns over intelligence conflicts, spying and hacking, hence Obama will not use the Waldorf hotel during his stay.

The Crime, Chinese Hacking

Report: Chinese Hackers Used OPM Data To Steal US Military Intel; ‘Significant Risk To US Military’

EXCLUSIVE TO FORBES: Screen shot of directory of data stolen by Iron Tiger from U.S. Defense Contractor Source: Trend Micro

Chinese hackers used data stolen from April’s OPM breach in recent thefts of terabytes of sensitive data from U.S. defense contractors, according to Trend Micro’s Vice President of Cybersecurity Thomas Kellerman. As previously reported, Trend Micro published a report on Thursday entitled Operation Iron Tiger, detailing these extensive confirmed breaches by Chinese cyber spies.

In followup to yesterday’s article on this report, I interviewed Kellerman and had further discussions last night with Dr. Ziv Chang, Sr. Director, Cyber Safety Solutions, Core Technology at Trend Micro and lead author on the report. No contact has been made with Trend representatives since last night. Kellerman stated during that interview that he believes OPM data was used in formulating the attacks discussed in the Iron Tiger Report.

OPM data was used in formulating attacks on U.S. military interests

Kellerman said he believes that data stolen from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management in the April 2015 breach of the OPM systems has been and is being used by Chinese cyber spies, named by Trend Micro as “Iron Tiger.” He said that the OPM data enabled Iron Tiger to precisely target U.S. military contractor victims as well as to know the types of information each victim would hold, determine the best methods to use to attack them and to execute attacks.

Theft of highly-sensitive, mission critical data 

When asked to characterize the types of data that Iron Tiger targeted on contractor systems Chang commented that the following types of data were targeted and exfiltrated:

  • Base Operations Support
  • Engineering, Procurement & Construction
  • Information Technology & Systems Engineering
  • Intelligence Analytics & Training
  • Language & Cultural Analysis
  • Operations and Maintenance
  • Security Assessment & Training

 

Stolen data presents a significant and serious risk to US military interests

Both Kellerman and Chang confirmed when asked that the data stolen by Iron Tiger presented a significant and serious risk to U.S. military interests and operations. Kellerman said that appropriate representatives within the US government had been notified and provided a copy of the report as well as all relevant details not included in the report such as victim (target) names and data stolen, two days before Trend Micro made the report public on its site. The latest data hacks by Iron Tiber on U.S. military interests were observed was August 21, 2015.

Kellerman stated that he believes the attacks are ongoing but may be slowed in response to global discussions about possible sanctions for breaches on civilian entites. Trend Micro is continuing to monitor the group and will report to victims and authorities as appropriate, Kellerman said. Much more here.

The Reward for China

A computer rendering of the XpressWest train.

China, U.S. Reach Agreement on High-Speed Rail Before Xi Visit

Bloomberg: A China Railway Group-led consortium andXpressWest Enterprises LLC will form a joint venture to build a high-speed railway linking Las Vegas and Los Angeles, the first Chinese-made bullet-train project in the U.S.

Construction of the 370-kilometer (230-mile) Southwest Rail Network will begin as soon as next September, according to a statement from Shu Guozeng, an official with the Communist Party’s leading group on financial and economic affairs. The project comes after four years of negotiations and will be supported by $100 million in initial capital. The statement didn’t specify the project’s expected cost or completion date.

The agreement, signed days before PresidentXi Jinping’s state visit to the U.S., is a milestone in China’s efforts to market its high-speed rail technology in advanced economies. The country has beenpushing the technology primarily in emerging markets — often with a sales pitch from PremierLi Keqiang– as a means to project political influence. A $567 million contract last October to supply trains forBoston’s subway system was China’s first rail-related deal in the U.S.

The agreement also represents an important victory in China’s high-speed rail rivalry withJapan, as the two countries havecompeted for train contracts throughout Asia. The parent company ofJR Central, Japan’s largest bullet-train maker, hadexpressed interest in the Los Angeles-Las Vegas line several years ago, and China and Japan are both expected tobid to supply train cars for a proposed high-speed rail line in California’s Central Valley.

“This is the first high-speed railway project where China and the U.S. will have systematic cooperation,” Yang Zhongmin, a deputy chief engineer with China Railway Group, said after a news conference in Beijing. “It shows the advancement of China-made high-speed railways.”

The Los Angeles-Las Vegas project will create new technology, manufacturing and construction jobs in the region, Shu’s statement said.

Through July, China had built more than 17,000 kilometers (10,565 miles) of domestic high-speed rail lines, according to the officialXinhua News Agency.

Apart from the railway project, China National Machinery Industry Corp. andGeneral Electric Co. signed a memo of understanding to invest $327 million to develop 60 wind power stations in Kenya, Shu said at the Beijing news conference.

During Xi’svisit starting next week, China and the U.S. are expected to reach agreements on trade, energy, climate, finance, aviation, defense and infrastructure construction, China Foreign MinisterWang Yi said Wednesday. Xi is due to visitBoeing Co.’s factory in Everett, Washington as China makes a push to build its own passenger planes.

“Economic and trade cooperation will be a major topic for president Xi’s visit to the U.S.,” Shu said in Beijing. “China and the U.S. share common interests and have solid foundation for cooperation.”

Impeach John Kerry, Approving Iran’s Missiles

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Iran Expected To Use Missile Saturation

WASHINGTON [MENL] — The United States expects Iran to employ massive salvos of missiles and rockets in attacks around the Middle East.

Leading U.S. analysts, including former senior officials, agreed that Teheran has been hampered by its failure to amass an arsenal of guided ballistic missiles. They said Iran was expected to overcome this through the use of massive salvos against both military and civilian targets.

“Iran’s ballistic missile forces are currently limited by their poor accuracy, but Iran is making strides to overcome this limitation in two key ways,” the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance said. “Iran’s growing production of missiles suggests that Iran will use mass attacks and saturation to overcome missile defenses and make up for limited accuracy.”

 

Iranian Ballistic Missile Tests Not a Nuke Deal Violation

Iran’s Rouhani: Iran ‘not committed to the restrictions on its missile program’  

WFB: Iran is permitted to test-fire ballistic missiles under the parameters of the recently inked nuclear accord, according to private disclosures made by Secretary of State John Kerry to a leading U.S. senator, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.

Nothing in the nuclear deal prevents Iran from testing a “conventional ballistic missile,” which could be used to carry a nuclear weapon, according to series of written answers provided by Kerry to Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.).

The Obama administration’s failure to rein in Iran’s ballistic missile program has emerged as a key criticism among critics of the deal. They argue that during the 15-year duration of the agreement, Iran will be given the opportunity to perfect its ballistic missile program, which could put it much closer to an operable nuclear weapon.

“It would not be a violation of the JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action] if Iran tested a conventional ballistic missile,” Kerry informed Rubio, according to a copy of the 86-page document obtained by the Free Beacon.

“The issue of ballistic missiles is addressed by the provisions of the new United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR), which do not constitute provisions of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA),” Kerry writes, explaining that the nuclear accord does not cover such matters.

“Since the Security Council has called upon Iran not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology, any such activity would be inconsistent with the UNSCR and a serious matter for the Security Council to review,” Kerry adds.

However, Rubio and others are concerned the U.N. resolutions are not actually mandatory, meaning that Iran can decide on its own whether it wants to uphold the resolutions.

“According to the new U.N. Security Council Resolution, the prohibition on Iran carrying out ballistic missile work is not mandatory, but rather the text simply ‘calls’ on Iran not to conduct such activity for eight years,” Rubio informs Kerry. “Is that the case? What are the penalties if Iran ignores this international ‘call’?”

Kerry appears to admit this is the case but claims the U.N. resolutions will “not let Iran’s ballistic missile program off the hook.”

Kerry does not elaborate on what penalties, if any, would be issued on Iran should it move forward with a ballistic missile test, saying only that “if Iran were to undertake them it would be inconsistent with the UNSCR and a serious matter for the Security Council to review.”

 

One senior foreign policy adviser involved in the fight over the nuclear deal called Kerry’s response “terrifying.”

“The administration is admitting that it changed the old binding language against ballistic missile development to a weak non-binding ‘call’ on Iran,” said the source, who was not authorized to speak on record. “So now the Iranians are going to be working on ballistic missiles that can hit the United States, and they won’t suffer any automatic penalties.”

“Instead, the administration says our response will be to have U.N. countries like Russia and China ‘review’ Iran’s work, which is insane—those are the countries that will be selling Iran the technology in the first place,” the source said.

Kerry’s acknowledgment that Iran is spared from restrictions on testing ballistic missiles appears consistent with rhetoric from senior Iranian leaders.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in recent weeks that the Islamic Republic will not abide by any restrictions imposed by the international community.

Iran is “not committed to the restrictions on its missile program,” Rouhani said, adding that a violation of international restrictions would not impact the nuclear accord.

“We have formally announced that we are not committed to these provisions [related to missiles] mentioned in [the] U.N. resolution,” Rouhani was quoted as saying in an Aug. 29 Persian-language speech broadcast on Iran’s state-controlled television networks.

The nuclear deal states that a violation of U.N. bans on Iran’s missile program would not constitute a violation of the JCPOA.

Within the deal, “we have explained that a violation of the U.N. resolution does not mean violation of the JCPOA,” according to Rouhani, who also said Iran’s missile stockpiles have grown under his tenure as president.

If this is not enough, how about the fact that Iran works with North Korea on joint nuclear programs that include enrichment? Well, North Korea has a ‘hot-cell’ unit that is fully operational where atomic weapons operations are based.

Read on here if you can endure more terrifying news.

North Korea's Nodong missiles

North Korea ‘hot cell’ unit could mean better, larger nuclear bombs: U.S. experts

‘Hot cell’ facility
ISIS also raised a red flag over what appeared to be a new “hot cell” facility under construction at Yongbyon, that could be dedicated to separating isotopes from irradiated material produced in the reactor.

“The signatures visible through an historical analysis of satellite imagery are consistent with an isotope separation facility, including tritium separation,” the think-tank said.

Tritium is a key component in the design of more sophisticated thermonuclear weapons with far greater yields than those made only of plutonium and uranium.

North Korea has carried out three nuclear tests — in 2006, 2009 and 2013.

The first two were plutonium devices, while the third was believed — though not confirmed — to have used uranium as its fissile material.

“Whether North Korea can make nuclear weapons using tritium is unknown although we believe that it remains a technical problem North Korea still needs to solve,” ISIS said. Read more here.