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HOMELAND SECURITY

Four Emerging Technology Areas That Will Help Define Our World In 2019 Chuck Brooks

https://www.forbes.com/sites/cognitiveworld/2018/12/24/four-emerging-technology-areas-that-will-help-define-our-world-in-2019/#18073d7758dd

2018 was surely a transformative year for technological innovation. We saw early development of ambient computing, quantum teleportation, cloaks of invisibility, genomics advancements and even robocops. Granted we’re not flying around in our own cars like the Jetsons did yet, but we’re closer. In 2019 we will continue on the transformation path and expand even more into adopting cutting edge immersive technologies. What’s ahead for the coming year? I envision four emerging technology areas that will significantly impact our lives in 2019.

1. The Internet of Things and Smart Cities

The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to the general idea of devices and equipment that are readable, recognizable, locatable, addressable, and/or controllable via the internet. This includes everything from home appliances, wearable technology and cars. These days, if a device can be turned on, it most likely can be connected to the internet. Because of this, data can be shared quickly across a multitude of objects and devices increasing the rate of communications.

Cisco, who terms the “Internet of Things,” “The Internet of Everything,” predicts that 50 billion devices (including our smartphones, appliances and office equipment) will be wirelessly connected via a network of sensors to the internet by 2020.

The term “Smart City” connotes creating a public/private infrastructure to conduct activities that protect and secure citizens. The concept of Smart Cities integrates communications (5-G), transportation, energy, water resources, waste collections, smart-building technologies, and security technologies and services. They are the cities of the future.

IoT is the cog of Smart Cities that integrates these resources, technologies, services and infrastructure. The research firm Frost & Sullivan estimates the combined global market potential of Smart City segments (transportation, healthcare, building, infrastructure, energy and governance) to be $1.5 Trillion ($20B by 2050 on sensors alone according to Navigant Technology).

Saudi Man in Oklahoma Admits to Attending Al-Qaeda Terror Camp, Visa Fraud By Patrick Poole

https://pjmedia.com/homeland-security/saudi-man-in-oklahoma-admits-to-attending-al-qaeda-terror-camp-visa-fraud/

A Saudi national, who attended an al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan in 2000 and then lied to conceal his activities when applying for a U.S. visa, has admitted to illegally obtaining the visa and lying to the FBI when questioned about it, announced the Justice Department last Friday.

Naif Alfallaj, 35, was arrested in Oklahoma earlier this year after the FBI discovered his fingerprints on documents recovered by U.S. forces in Afghanistan at the notorious Al Farooq terror training camp operated by al-Qaeda.

Alfallaj used his non-immigrant visa to enter the U.S. in 2011, and has been living in Oklahoma ever since. His wife holds an F-1 non-immigrant student visa; Alfallaj applied as a spouse.

According to the criminal complaint filed last February, Alfallaj filled out a five-page Mujahedeen data form when applying to enter the Al Farooq camp in September 2000. Using the kunya “Muthana al-Najdi” on the form, he listed his birthplace as Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and supplied the cell phone number of his father as a point of contact.

He agreed to a two-month training program at the Al Farooq camp for indoctrination into violent jihad and basic military tactics. The camp was known for providing instruction in firearms, explosives, chemical weapons, and other weapons of mass destruction.

Does China’s Nuclear-Capable Hypersonic Missile Threaten U.S. Deterrence? by Debalina Ghoshal

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13443/china-hypersonic-missile

U.S. officials revealed in August that China had test-fired a hypersonic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and of thwarting missile-defense systems. About two months earlier, China tested the advanced DF-41 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). It has a range of 12,000-15,000 km, and is capable of carrying 10 miniaturized nuclear warheads.

China is no doubt assuming that if its ICBMs can reach the United States mainland, they will deter the U.S. from interfering in China’s affairs in the South- and East China Seas.

U.S. officials revealed in August that China had test-fired a hypersonic missile — the Xingkong-2 or Starry Sky-2 — capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and of thwarting missile-defense systems. Although this was the first such test that was openly acknowledged by Beijing, it was, according to the Washington Free Beacon, merely one of many that the U.S. has been monitoring.

About two months earlier, China tested the DF-41 — one of its most advanced intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). It has a range of 12,000-15,000 km, and is capable of carrying 10 miniaturized nuclear warheads, rather than a single large one.

These miniaturized nuclear warheads on a single ballistic missile are referred to as “multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles” (MIRVs). MIRV-ing a missile enables it to counter enemy missile-defense systems. Because the DF-41 uses solid rather than liquid fuel — as does the DF-5 ICBM — it is more mobile and its launching requires less preparation time. Although it can be dispatched from mobile launchers, it can also be launched from silos. Over the years, China has developed dummy silos — to confuse the enemy and force it to have to distinguish between real and fake ones.

The U.S. Military’s Crisis of Imagination America’s longstanding position of dominance has tended to make strategists and citizens complacent. 37 Comments By Douglas J. Feith and Seth Cropsey

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-u-s-militarys-crisis-of-imagination-11545264636

At the heart of national-security strategy is imagination. The strategist’s job is to dream up what enemies someday might do to harm us. But there’s a lot of history supporting the adage that generals forever prepare to fight the last war. After World War I, France fortified itself against a German invasion of the kind it had spent four years stalemating in the trenches. After Sept. 11, 2001, the new Transportation Security Administration focused on airport procedures to prevent a repeat of that attack.

The problem of dangers’ being unimaginable was front and center for the bipartisan National Defense Strategy Commission. Congress created the commission of national-security experts in December 2016. Its report, released last month, conjured up realistic near-term scenarios to show how the U.S., as a result of military deficiencies, might acquiesce to enemy aggression or accept defeat in battle.

Here’s one of the report’s scenarios: “Responding to false reports of atrocities against Russian populations in Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, Russia invades those countries under guise of a ‘peacekeeping’ mission. . . . Russia declares that strikes against Russian forces in those states will be treated as attacks on Russia itself—implying a potential nuclear response. Meanwhile, to keep America off balance . . . Russian submarines attack trans-Atlantic fiber optic cables. Russian hackers shut down power grids and compromise the security of U.S. banks. The Russian military uses advanced anti-satellite capabilities to damage or destroy U.S. military and commercial satellites. Major [American] cities are paralyzed; use of the internet and smart phones is disrupted. Financial markets plummet. . . . The banking system is thrown into chaos. Even as the U.S. military confronts the immense operational challenge of liberating the Baltic states, American society is suffering the devastating impact of modern conflict.”

Unless one is blessed with stupid enemies—and you can’t count on that—the proper assumption is that they are innovating. For World War II, the Nazis invented blitzkrieg, which worked stunningly at the outset and made France’s static fortifications ineffective. Before 1973, intelligence leaders in Jerusalem didn’t imagine that Egypt, without being able to destroy Israel’s army, would launch a surprise attack to seize the Suez Canal. It’s hard to dream up the unprecedented, and even harder to persuade large bureaucracies to heed unfamiliar dangers.

How Historians Will See Canary Mission Years From Now Exposing some of the most venomous hate speech on the internet. Edwin Black

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272274/how-historians-will-see-canary-mission-years-now-edwin-black

On a recent Thursday, at about 8 am, on a desk illuminated by light from a nearby window, a paper cup of steaming coffee laden with cream and sugar was nudged near an open laptop, thus beginning a ten-to-twelve-hour day of mind-numbing monitoring by a Canary Mission [CM] staffer at one of the organization’s several locations. In endless social media searches, refreshes, clicks, video reviews, forwards and saves, the Canary Mission staffer will capture the worst of the openly anti-Semitic and anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions agitation and hate speech erupting all across America’s campuses. Their work also encompasses white nationalism.

BDS advocates often spew some of the most venomous hate speech visible on the Internet, hate speech that Canary Mission captures and re-publishes in personal profiles. For example, the tweet by a Chicago activist with Students for Justice in Palestine who tweeted this joke: “Why did Hitler commit suicide?…….. He saw the gas bill. Pahhahaha.” Or the UCLA protestor whose Twitter account was captured with this remark: “Mmmaaaannnnnnnnnnn what’s with all this peaceful approaches!?? F**k that. I want terrorism and another intifada.” The same UCLA student reportedly added a photo close-up of a gun and bullets.

After the massacre at Pittsburgh, calls went out broadly to monitor, spotlight, and report hate speech, especially since hateful acts of violence are often preceded by hate speech. That is precisely what Canary Mission does. Canary Mission tracks social media and videos, capturing BDS, anti-Zionist, and anti-Semitic expressions, triangulating them into individual profiles that expose and create permanent, highly-visible records of the words and images BDS and SJP leaders actually use. The profiles are almost always incontestable since CM links to actual videos, tweets and other open documentation. Canary Mission’s intent is to shine an indelible light on students, faculty, and others, thus creating a negative incentive or at least a consequence for anti-Israel and anti-Semitic hate speech.

Canary Mission began in 2015 with just 50 profiles. By December 2018, about 2,500 profiles have been listed. CM has received about 80-100 requests for removal. Very few have been made. One staffer explained, “Even small errors are exceptionally rare due to our strict internal protocols. On the handful of occasions that we found an error, we made an immediate correction.”

Iran Threatens U.S. And Its Allies With “Drugs, Refugees, Bombs And Assassination” Congress, meanwhile, remains willfully blind. Michael Cutler

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272287/iran-threatens-us-and-its-allies-drugs-refugees-michael-cutler

On December 9, 2018 The Hill, posted an article, that was short and to the point, “Iran: US sanctions will open doors to ‘drugs, refugees and bombs and assassination’ in west.”

The article focused on the remarks of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani made on December 8, 2018 at what was described as an “Anti-terrorism event” in Tehran. In his remarks Rouhani stated that if nations continued to adhere to the boycott against Iran that was reimposed by President Trump over the bogus Iranian nuclear deal that had been negotiated by the Obama administration, that Iran would not be able to continue its purported efforts to combat drug trafficking.

As reported in The Hill article:

“By making Iran weaker through sanctions, many people will not be safe. Those who do not believe what we say, they had better look at the map,” Rouhani added.

He said Iran spends millions each year against drug trafficking, “the results of which guarantees more health for people from Eastern Europe to Western America and from Northern Africa to Western Asia.”

“I warn all those who boycott, that if our abilities in fighting drugs and terrorism in their origins is undermined, you will not be able to survive the debris of drugs, refugees and bombs and assassination,” he added.

This brings us back to the nexus between U.S. border security and the threats posed to America and Americans by Latin America drug cartels that have been working in close cooperation with Hezbollah and Iranian Qods (Shock Troops) to move huge quantities of narcotics and aliens into the United States. Smuggling drugs and aliens provides huge profits and provides Iran with the opportunity to embed their sleeper agents among those aliens.

Anti-Israel Activist Arrested After Waving Machete Outside LA Synagogue Daniel Greenfield

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/272284/anti-israel-activist-arrested-after-waving-machete-daniel-greenfield

You might think the guy waving a machete outside a Los Angeles synagogue while dressed like a Muslim terrorist is a Muslim terrorist.

But for once, you would be wrong.

He’s not a Muslim terrorist. Just a sympathizer who posts, “Long live Palestine” on Facebook.

A man who was taking selfies with a machete and making menacing gestures in front of a North Hollywood Chabad synagogue on Friday was arrested later that night, according to local media reports.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Inmate Information Center indicates that 49-year-old David Brener was arrested late Friday evening, and released Saturday afternoon on a $10,000 bond.

While Dave looked like he was auditioning for the ISIS calendar, he seems more likely the David Icke/Alice Walker type of bigot. But his obsession with Israel is pretty clear.

What is allegedly Brener’s Facebook page includes “Palestinian” imagery, claims that Israel committed genocide, “Love live Palestine”, praise for the Tamimis, calling Jews, “Zionazis”, and hashtags like, #palestineforever #zionazi #antizionism and #antizionist

Also Holocaust denial.

Most of his social feed seems to be rants about Israel and Jews. So this is none too surprising.

DoD: U.S. ‘Vulnerable to Deadly Missile Attacks’ Due to Ballistic Missile Defense Cyber Weaknesses By Phil Baker

https://pjmedia.com/homeland-security/dod-u-s-vulnerable-to-deadly-missile-attacks-due-to-ballistic-missile-system-cyber-weaknesses/

We’re constantly reading about cybersecurity weaknesses and cyber break-ins at our banks, department stores, and large corporations. The results include disclosure of our credit card numbers, social security numbers, and other personal information. But cybersecurity breakdowns can have much more ominous results, as a Department of Defense report reveals.

Serious cybersecurity flaws have been found in the U.S. ballistic missile defense system (BMDS). These flaws were found to put at risk our ability to defend ourselves if we are attacked by an enemy with an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

In the report filed on December 10 by the inspector general (IG) for the Department of Defense, it was disclosed that a number of security issues were found with the networks that process, store, and transmit both the classified and unclassified technical information related to our ballistic missile defense systems. The issues include access to removable storage media that contains classified information, weak password controls, failures to encrypt technical information transmission, and problems in detecting intrusions — all relating to BMDS.

The report, which is full of redactions, can be viewed here. It reads in part:

We determined that officials from the (redacted) did not consistently implement security controls and processes to protect BMDS technical information. Specifically, (redacted) network administrators and data center managers did not:

require the use of multifactor authentication to access BMDS technical information at the (redacted)

identify and mitigate known network vulnerabilities at three of the five Components visited

lock server racks at the (redacted)

protect and monitor classified data stored on removable media at the (redacted)

encrypt BMDS technical information transmitted between (redacted)

implement intrusion detection capabilities on classified network

require written justification as a condition to obtain and elevate system access for users at the (redacted)

The report notes, “We determined that officials did not consistently implement security controls and processes to protect BMDS technical information and facility security officers did not consistently implement physical security controls to limit unauthorized access to facilities that managed BMDS technical information.” As a result, “The disclosure of technical details could allow U.S. adversaries to circumvent BMDS capabilities, leaving the United States vulnerable to deadly missile attacks,” the report explained. CONTINUE AT SITE

CAIR Sex Predator Changes Name, Heads to Pakistan Parents beware: Ahmad Saleem may be coming to a town near you! Joe Kaufman

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272241/cair-sex-predator-changes-name-heads-pakistan-joe-kaufman

Former CAIR-Florida operative Ahmad Saleem’s two-year prison term stemming from his 2015 Orlando-area arrest, during a child sex sting operation, has expired. In an attempt to put the shame and scandal behind him or a way to further his illicit exploits from a different locale, Saleem looks to be starting anew elsewhere. He has even traveled outside the country, and he has changed his name on social media. Unsuspecting parents, both here and abroad, need to be made aware of his presence.

On the night of May 20, 2015, Ahmad Abrar Saleem was arrested in Clermont, Florida, a short distance from his Orlando home. Saleem was intending to meet the twelve-year-old girl he had been chatting with online, but instead, met Sheriff’s deputies waiting for him and 21 others in a child sex sting operation. He was charged with “use of computer to seduce/solicit/entice a child to commit sex act” and “travel to seduce, solicit, lure a child to commit sex act.” Ironically, the car he was driving, when apprehended, had a specialty license plate which read, “Invest in Children.”

In December 2016, Saleem was sentenced to two years behind bars in state prison.

This could not have come at a worse time for Saleem. His star was quickly on the rise within the radical Muslim community. He had just a couple years earlier served as President of the Muslim Students Association (MSA) at the University of Central Florida (UCF) as well as the MSA National Service Director; he was being invited to speak at different Islamist conferences; and he had recently been named Orlando Regional Coordinator for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

Terrorism Charges: Coming Soon for New Mexico Jihadists? Feds say a superseding indictment is on the way. Matthew Vadum

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272207/terrorism-charges-coming-soon-new-mexico-jihadists-matthew-vadum

The five accused Muslim terrorists arrested at a jihadist training facility in New Mexico this summer will soon be charged with “terrorism and or kidnapping” in addition to the current firearms charges already pending, according to federal prosecutors.

This is the case in which five adults, including Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, were arrested after authorities found 11 hungry, filthy children living in squalid conditions in a terrorist training compound in Amalia, Taos County, a remote part of New Mexico on Aug. 3. The children were reportedly being trained to commit school shootings.

The remains of a three-year-old disabled boy, since identified as Wahhaj’s son, Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj, were discovered on the property which was filled with weapons. Authorities also found a manual explaining how to carry out terrorist attacks and fight hand-to-hand.

According to investigators, Abdul-Ghani died during a ruqyah, which is an Islamic rite of exorcism, in early 2018, after the boy’s father, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj and Leveille refused to give him epilepsy medication, which they claimed caused him to become “possessed.” He reportedly cried and foamed at the mouth during the ritual which was performed for hours each day until he died.