Iran has claimed it has “captured” an unmanned US drone over Gulf waters after it entered Iranian airspace.
“The unmanned US drone patrolling Persian Gulf waters, performing reconnaissance and gathering intel, was captured as soon as it entered Iranian airspace,” the Revolutionary Guards said in a statement on Tuesday.
Telegraph has the full article
Nov. 29 – The US Navy’s first sea-based, unmanned attack aircraft is being prepared for its maiden test flight from an aircraft carrier. The Northrop Grumman X-47 B arrived for duty aboard the USS Harry Truman on Monday (November 26) with the Navy expected to begin the first ever sea tests of a pilotless drone next month. Rob Muir has more.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reiterated a strong warning Monday to the Syrian government not to use its chemical weapons, but she would not comment on reports that there were indications of recent activity at sites believed to house those weapons, nor would she give any hints as to what action the U.S. might take if that “red line” was crossed.
Clinton discussed the nearly two-year crisis in Syria during a brief visit to the Czech capital of Prague, and specifically the threat of the isolated nation’s chemical weapons. The Syrian government has denied even possessing chemical or biological weapons, but is believed to have significant stockpiles. The possibility that the Assad regime could use the weapons, or lose control of them, has been a cause of serious concern for the U.S. and other nations since Syria’s Arab Spring uprising descended into civil war.
CBS News has the full article
A diagram has been uncovered which shows that Iranian scientists are calculating the ”nuclear explosive yield” of a major nuclear weapon. The weapon would yield 50 kilotons at full force.
Diagrams of Iran’s work were passed to the International Atomic Energy Agency last year and are now being confirmed and reported by an anonymous source with inter-agency knowledge.
For an idea of what a 50 kiloton weapon would do, think back to World War II Japan. On August 6, 1945, the U.S. dropped a 15 kiloton weapon named Little Boy on Hiroshima. It killed approximately 66,000 people instantly, yet Japan would not surrender. Therefore, three days later, the U.S. dropped a second 15-to-20 kiloton weapon named Fat Man on Nagasaki. It killed approximately 39,000 instantly and ushered in the war’s end.
Now think of this: right now, Iranian scientists appear to be investigating the possibilities of constructing a nuclear weapon that is more powerful than both of these bombs combined.
This is a copy of the full article provided by the Conservatives at Breitbart
(Reuters) - Iran criticized the United States on Monday for announcing that talks on banning atomic arms in the Middle East would not take place as planned this year, accusing it of causing a “serious setback” to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
The U.S. State Department said on Friday that the mid-December conference on creating a zone free of weapons of mass destruction would not occur and did not make clear when, or whether, it would take place.
Iran, which is accused by the West of developing a nuclear weapons capability, said this month it would participate in the meeting that had been due to take place in Helsinki, Finland.
Asked about the U.S. announcement, Iranian nuclear envoy Ali Asghar Soltanieh told state broadcaster Press TV from Vienna:
“It is a serious setback to the NPT and this is a clear sign that the U.S. is not committed to the obligation of a world free of nuclear weapons.”
Even if the talks eventually occur, Western diplomats and experts expect little progress any time soon due to the deep-rooted animosities in the region, notably the Arab-Israeli conflict and Israeli concerns about Iran’s nuclear program.
Washington feared the conference could be used as a forum to criticize its ally Israel – widely believed to be the volatile region’s only nuclear-armed state – a concern only likely to have increased after eight days of fierce Israeli-Palestinian fighting that ended with a ceasefire last week.
Israel, which says say Tehran is the Middle East’s main proliferation threat, had not said whether it would attend.
Iran and Arab states often say Israel’s presumed nuclear arsenal poses a threat to Middle East peace and security.
Reuters has the full article
JERUSALEM – Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Monday abruptly announced he was quitting politics, shaking up the country’s political system just weeks ahead of general elections.
Barak, a decorated former general and one-time prime minister, said he would stay on in his current post until a new government is formed following the Jan. 22 balloting.
“I didn’t make this decision without hesitating, but I made it wholeheartedly,” he told a hastily arranged news conference, saying he had been wrestling with the decision for weeks.
Barak’s resignation could mean the departure of the most moderating influence on hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is expected to retain his job after the election. Barak, who heads a small centrist faction in parliament, had often served as Netanyahu’s unofficial envoy to Washington in order to smooth over differences with the Obama White House.
Barak, 70, made the surprise announcement even after polls showed his breakaway Independence Party gaining momentum after Israel’s recent military offensive in the Gaza Strip.
“I feel I have exhausted my political activity, which had never been an object of desire for me. There are many ways for me to serve the country, not just through politics,” he said, adding his decision was spurred in part by his desire to spend more time with his family.
Barak and Netanyahu, who enjoyed a close working relationship for most of the past four years, reportedly have fallen out over whether to defer to the U.S. on any attack against Iranian nuclear facilities.
Barak’s detractors in Netanyahu’s Likud Party wanted him replaced.
Barak evaded repeated questions about whether he might agree to serve as a Cabinet minister in an upcoming government, leaving open the possibility that he might still retain an impact on Israeli politics. While most Cabinet ministers also hold parliamentary seats, small numbers have been appointed as “professional” ministers without winning election.
This is a copy of the full article provided by Fox News
COLUMBIA, S.C. — A single malicious email sent to workers at the South Carolina Department of Revenue last August enabled an international hacker to crack into state computers and gain access to 3.8 million tax returns, including Social Security numbers and bank account information, in what experts say is the biggest cyber-attack ever against a state government, according to details in a report released Tuesday.
“We were a cocktail for an attack,” Gov. Nikki Haley said, referring to the necessary ingredients for cyberassault, as she released a report by a computer security firm Mandiant, which was commissioned to investigate the data breach. At the same time, Haley accepted the resignation of her Department of Revenue director, Jim Etter, and acknowledged that state officials “could have done more” to protect the personal data of state residents.
NBC News has the full article
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Even as Israel fends off relentless rocket attacks from Gaza, government and private websites are under siege from hackers, who have mounted 44 million cyberattacks in less than a week, the government said.
The international hacker collective Anonymous, which has broken into websites of international banks, governments and even the CIA, said it mounted #OpIsrael to protest Israel’s “Operation Pillar of Defense” against rocket attacks launched from the Gaza Strip.
“The reasons for Anonymous intervention through #OpIsrael should be abundantly clear: What is happening in Palestine is oppression,” Anonymous declared. They have no navy, no army, or air force. There is no war in Gaza.”
Only one of the millions of hacking attempts on Israeli government websites was successful, Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz told The Jerusalem Post
. But the sheer volume of tries demonstrates the stress being put on the country’s web infrastructure. Steinitz did not name the site that was hacked, but said it was back up within minutes.
Sites related to the Defense Ministry, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Foreign Ministry have been targeted, as well as sites of local government and private businesses. Most sites that were successfully attacked were simply taken down, though many were left displaying pro-Palestinian images and messages. The Finance Ministry told the paper that there are typically a few hundred hacking attempts on Israeli sites per day.
“The ministry’s computer division will continue to block the millions of cyberattacks,” Steinitz said. “We are enjoying the fruits of our investment in recent years in developing computerized defense systems.”
Fox News has the full article
As Israel and Gaza traded fire with one another on Thursday, a growing war online has taken shape between the two sides, catching the attention of the world in the process. The conflict has not gone unnoticed by Anonymous, which has since launched an offensive of its own in support of Gaza.
The infamous hacker collective published a press release Thursday, issuing a warning to Israel.
To the IDF and government of Israel we issue you this warning only once. Do NOT shut down the Internet into the “Occupied Territories”, and cease and desist from your terror upon the innocent people of Palestine or you will know the full and unbridled wrath of Anonymous. And like all the other evil governments that have faced our rage, you will NOT survive it unscathed.
A video narrating the contents of that press release was also posted to YouTube and disseminated across various websites and prominent Anonymous social media accounts.
The online war between the Israel Defense Forces and Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigadeaccounts on Twitter has been one of historical development. Numerous reports have commented that never before has the world seen such a public and brutal social media campaign between opposing forces in real time.
The conflict sparked Anonymous to launch #OpIsrael, a campaign primarily focused on ensuring that citizens of Gaza maintain alternate methods of accessing the internet in the event such access is intentionally shut down, as occurred in Egypt and other countries during the Arab Spring. However, there have been widespread reports of power outages in and around Gaza due to rocket fire and shelling from both sides.
The hacker collective also began a series of website defacements and distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against various targets. Anonymous claims it successfully knocked offline the website for the International Security Academy, which was still down at the time of this writing. It also claims that it defaced another such target, which it called a “top Israeli security and surveillance website;” however, according to a search on the Internet Archive, that website does not appear to have been updated since 2010.
Breitbart has the full article, including the transcript of the Anonymous video
Iran is ready to double the output at its underground uranium enrichment facility, the UN nuclear watchdog says.
A leaked report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said there were 2,784 centrifuges at Fordo, and that Iran could soon double the number operating from 700 to 1,400.
The development is likely to fuel Western suspicions that Iran is seeking to develop nuclear weapons.
The government in Tehran insists the nuclear programme is entirely peaceful.
Talks this year about the uranium enrichment programme between Iran and the so-called P5+1 – the US, UK, France, China, Russia and Germany – have made little progress.
Bushehr fuel ‘removed’
Iran’s progress at Fordo was disclosed in a leaked report based on the findings of the IAEA’s inspectors, who visit the facility regularly.
While the uranium enrichment plant is not yet fully operational – with only about 700 of the 3,000 centrifuges the facility is designed in use – experts say it could be within months.
The IAEA report said four new cascades of 174 centrifuges each “having been subjected to vacuum testing, were ready for feeding” with uranium hexafluoride (UF6) gas.
Once the new cascades were in operation, monthly production of 20%-enriched (medium-enriched) uranium would be about 25kg (55lb) per month, compared with 15kg at present, one official said.
The facility at Fordo, which is buried deep under a mountain inside a military base near the holy city of Qom, is designed to contain 16 cascades producing medium-enriched uranium, which experts say could be enriched to about 90%, or weapons-grade, in a relatively short time.
The IAEA also revealed in its report that Iran had produced about 233kg (512lb) of higher-grade enriched uranium since 2010, an increase of 43kg since August.
Earlier this year, the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI) used 96kg of its supply of 20%-enriched uranium for conversion into fuel for its medical research reactor in Tehran. Experts say it would be difficult to turn the fuel into weapons-grade uranium.
Nuclear fuel had also been removed from the core of the nuclear reactor at Bushehr without a reason being given by Iran, the IAEA added.
The report also said that “extensive activities” at the Parchin military site had seriously undermined an investigation into indications that experiments related to nuclear weapons might have been carried out there. Iran is suspected of attempting to removing evidence.
Iran has denied that there are any nuclear-related activities at Parchin.
The IAEA’s report concluded that the agency was “unable… to conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities”.
This is a copy of the full article provided by BBC
