DEFENSE TECH ON AIR

For the first time in its 60-year history, the University of California's $2.2 billion contract with the government to run Los Alamos National Laboratory will be put up for competitive bid.

Tomorrow's Wired News will have my take on this development. But before then, you can hear me blab about Los Alamos on Los Angeles' KNX radio tonight. Thursday morning, I'll be a guest on Future Tense, a National Public Radio/Public Radio International show.

For past Defense Tech coverage of the series of scandals at the world's most important nuclear lab, click here.

COPS STILL DON'T HAVE GOOD TERROR "WATCH LISTS"

The 9/11 hijackers were allowed to get into the country, and get on planes, because various federal agencies didn't share their watch lists -- their registers of terrorist suspects.

But 20 months after the 9/11 attacks, ABC News reports, "the U.S. government still lacks a consolidated terrorism watch list that is easily accessible to all law enforcement.

Nine different federal agencies run at least 12 different watch lists, and frustrated local police fear the same sort of information breakdown could happen again.

"I truly believe that we are not getting the information that's needed to protect our community members," said Michael Chitwood, the police chief in Portland, Maine, one of the nation's busiest seaports and the place where Mohamed Atta and another 9/11 hijacker boarded a plane to attack the World Trade Center.

"It's outrageous. It does not make any sense."

U.S. TROOPS FIRE ON IRAQI PROTESTERS -- IS THIS THE ONLY WAY?

U.S. troops have once again fired on protesters in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, the Associated Press reports. In less than 48 hours, at least 15 Iraqi civilians have been killed.

Is this the only way to do crowd control? A recent Tech Central Station article of mine looks at high-tech police aids that might help save lives.

PORN SAVES FILE-SHARING NETS

It has nothing to do with military technology. But my latest Wired News article does deal with two of the day's most weighty issues: online music and porn.

By most accounts, Apple's new iTunes music download service is pretty cool -- the first legitimate alternative to the song swapping on Kazaa, Morpheus and other file-trading services.

But Apple's move won't slow down the manic expansion of these trading networks. Why not?

Here's a one-word answer: porn.

Kazaa and company are increasingly trafficking in dirty video clips. And until Apple starts offering up Christy Canyon downloads, the swapping services can sleep easy.

E.P.A. CONCENTRATING ON TERROR

You'd think that the Environmental Protection Agency's investigators would concentrate on crimes against Mother Nature. But you'd be wrong.

Since 9/11, the 220 sleuths in the Agency's criminal division have focused on counter-terror efforts, the New York Times reports, and shied away from environmental inquiries.

"They have dropped the `E' in the E.P.A. and have become just a protection agency," one government watchdog told the paper.

According to the Times, "annual criminal referrals made by the environmental agency to the Justice Department had dropped about 30 percent, from 481 in 2000 to 341 in 2002."

THOUSANDS OF LOS ALAMOS COMPUTERS M.I.A.

Los Alamos National Laboratory hasn't kept track of thousands of its computers -- including ones containing classified information. The lab's own guards stole four of the machines. And employees didn't have to pay the government back when their laptops suddenly went missing.

Those are just a few of the conclusions of a disturbing report from the Department of Energy's Inspector General, who has been examining how the world's best-known nuclear lab handles its inventory of laptop and desktop PCs. The University of California operates Los Alamos on the Energy Department's behalf.

As Defense Tech readers know, Los Alamos has been involved for months in a series of scandals involving nod-off management and droopy-eyed security. This latest report offers more evidence for just how narcoleptic lab officials have been.

Many laptop computers that couldn't be found were simply "written-off," without a formal inquiry. One was used for classified work, without proper approval. And 762 computers bought with government credit cards didn't receive "property numbers," which are required to track all "sensitive items" at the lab.

To Project on Government Oversight's Peter Stockton, a longtime lab critic, this report gives further evidence that "these characters running the lab are out of control."

Stockton's watchdog group today sent a letter to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, asking him to put the $2 billion-per-year Los Alamos up for bid now, instead of waiting until 2005, when the agreement runs out.

On Thursday, the House Energy Committee will hold the last of three hearings into the lab's management. Witnesses will include Energy Department Inspector General Gregory Friedman and University of California president Richard Atkinson.

ANTHRAX SUSPECTED IN EGYPTIAN SAILOR'S DEATH

An Egyptian sailor has died in northern Brazil -- and anthrax is suspected in his death.

Details are sketchy in this case. But according to wire reports, the man, Ibrahim Saved Soliman Ibrahim, had traveled from Cairo to the Amazon state of Para about two and a half weeks ago. There he was to meet a ship, destined for a smelter on the Saguenay River in Quebec. But before he could get on board, Ibrahim died in his hotel room, after vomiting, internal bleeding and multiple organ failure.

A spokesman for Brazilian police said that anthrax was responsible for the death. Ibrahim was given a suitcase in Cairo by an unidentified person and was due to deliver it to somebody in Canada, according to the spokesman. But he fell ill after opening the case.

Canadian authorities now have the ship in quarantine, 1,000 meters off the Nova Scotian port of Halifax. But they're not convinced that anthrax is to blame for the sailor's death.

"I can assure you we've discovered no threat to Canada, criminally or terrorism-wise," a Canadian inspector in Halifax told Canada Press. "Right now it's just a story."

Health Canada officials are expecting definitive test results on samples taken from the ship "early this week."

For background information on anthrax, click here.

THERE'S MORE: Now Brazilian health officials are saying that whatever killed the sailor, "it is not anthrax."

SUPERFAST MISSILE FOR FUTURE SADDAMS

If the reports are right, two U.S. strikes during Gulf War II missed Saddam by minutes.

So it's no wonder that AFP is reporting a new Pentagon push for a faster version of the Tomahawk missile -- one that can go as much as 12 times the speed of sound.

The Defense Department is asking for an extra $150 million in research funds for this so-called "Fasthawk."

Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Michael Wynne told a Senate subcommittee recently that "we believe that demonstrations of Mach 12 by 2012 are within reach."

MORE CONFUSION OVER IRAQ CHEMICALS

It's happening again. A chemical cache first touted as possible "smoking gun" evidence for Saddam's WMD programs is now being called into question.

"Initial tests indicated the presence of the deadly nerve agent cyclosarin and an unspecified blister agent in a stash of 55-gallon drums, about 130 miles north of Baghdad," says CNN.

But a later test on the material turned out negative. Now, the chemicals are being flown back to the U.S. for definitive exams.

Why the conflicting answers? A recent Tech Central Station story of mine has the answers.

NIXING NUKES IN NAM: A LOOK BACK

The Bush Administration is beginning to build a new arsenal of "tactical" nuclear weapons -- small Bombs, used in discreet areas, like underground biochem labs. So it's helpful to look at another time when such weapons were also being considered. This month's Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has such a view.

As the Vietnam War escalated in spring 1966, a high-ranking Pentagon official with access to President Lyndon Johnson was heard by scientist Freeman Dyson to say, "It might be a good idea to toss in a nuke from time to time, just to keep the other side guessing."

So Dyson and a handful of other scientists conducted a study to see just how effective tactical nukes would be. Their conclusion:

It would take 3,000 tactical nuclear weapons (TNW) per year to interdict supply routes like the Ho Chi Minh trail. More problematically, U.S. forces might become vulnerable to a Soviet-orchestrated counterattack; and the first use of tactical nuclear weapons against guerrillas might set a precedent that would lead to use of similar weapons by guerrillas against U.S. targets.

Read the rest of the story here. (There's also a funny wrap-up of reactions to my February excursion to Los Alamos. I'll link to the article once it comes on-line.)

THERE'S MORE: One Defense Tech reader isn't buying the study. "If there was one thing the Johnson Administration was good at, it was throwing out wild numbers to justify a point of view," he writes. "Dyson's numbers are inflated."

BRITS WILL GET DEPLETED URANIUM TESTS

Depleted uranium has become a staple of the Western arsenal. Twice as dense as lead, "DU" is prized for its armor-piercing capabilities. The U.S. military used 320 tons of DU rounds in Gulf War I. In the second Iraqi conflict, M1 tanks, Bradley Fighting Vehicles, and A-10 planes all fired "DU" projectiles.

But there have long been concerns about health risks from DU, which is made from uranium after it's been processed for fuel or weapons. DU has been linked to a variety of ailments, from so-called "Gulf War Syndrome" to increased cancer risk. Nothing's been categorically proven.

But 45,000 British soldiers returning from Iraq will now be offered tests to see if there is DU in their bodies, the BBC reports.

The U.S. Defense Department has not announced a similar program.

THERE'S MORE: DU isn't what's behind Gulf War illnesses, the Pentagon says; pesticides are. According to the Associated Press, a Defense Department "report released Thursday said it is likely that at least 41,000 service members may have been overexposed to combinations of pest strips, sprayed pesticides and fly baits during the 1991 war."

ROBOTS WILL SWARM

Some day, drones won't just take orders. They'll decide do things on their own.

Military scientists have long theorized that for unmanned vehicles to reach this potential, the robots will have to be equipped with a kind of insect-like swarming intelligence.

Now, in what appears to be the largest test so far of this idea, 120 military robots will be equipped with swarm intelligence software, New Scientist reports. The program will help the machines through basic tasks of navigation and reconnaissance -- simple stuff, really. But it could be a step on the road to something much bigger.

NORTH KOREA: WE HAVE THE BOMB

After months of verbal cat-and-mouse, North Korea finally admitted today that it has nuclear weapons, CNN reports.

The statement came during bi-lateral negotiations between American and North Korean diplomats.

According to CNN, "a source said Gen. Li Gun, North Korea's representative to the talks in Beijing, China, told U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly, 'blatantly and boldly that the country has nuclear weapons and then asked, 'Now what are you going to do about it?'"

Pyongyang has said before that it was taking steps towards making Bombs. But this is the first official word that the Kim Il Jung government has the weapons in hand.

The assertion by the North Koreans put an early end to the talks, which were supposed to continue for another day. Colin Powell said the United States would not be intimidated by "bellicose statements" from Pyongyang.

(via Global Security Newswire)

U.S. TO BUILD "BUNKER-BUSTER" NUKES

The San Jose Mercury News is reporting a "significant shift in America's nuclear strategy": "The Bush administration intends to produce -- not just research -- a thermonuclear bunker-busting bomb to destroy hardened, deeply buried targets, the Pentagon has acknowledged for the first time."

Yesterday, I reported on the opening phases of a new U.S. effort to build up its nuclear arsenal. Here's where that effort is heading:

The weapon -- known as the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator -- would be a full-power hydrogen bomb that would throw up enormous clouds of radioactive dust while wreaking large-scale damage and death if used in an urban area. It would be thousands of times more powerful than the conventional "bunker busters'' dropped on Baghdad in an attempt to kill former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

Federal officials signed documents in Washington this week to launch a preliminary design contest between Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico...

Fred Celec, the deputy assistant to the secretary of defense for nuclear matters, made clear that the administration wants the weapon and is moving forward.

If a hydrogen bomb can be successfully designed to survive a crash through hard rock or concrete and still explode, "It will ultimately get fielded,'' Celec said in an interview with the Mercury News. The United States has worked on nuclear earth penetrators for decades, and scientists involved in the project say they expect to succeed.

The project is integral to the administration's push to move away from Cold War "city scraping'' ballistic missile warheads to battlefield "tactical'' weapons.

SATELLITES: KEY TO VICTORY?

Since the fall of Baghdad, just about every media outlet has anointed a technology as the decisive factor that "won the war." The Los Angeles Times takes its turn today, nominating military satellites as the gee-whiz key to victory.

"Though overshadowed by headline-grabbing pilotless drones and 21,000-pound MOAB bunker-buster bombs, the quick, quiet, almost mundane flow of electronic information -- whether from polar orbiting weather satellites 23,000 miles above Earth or school bus-sized KH or 'keyhole class' spy satellites keen enough to read large newspaper headlines from space -- proved one of the U.S. military's most powerful weapons (in Gulf War II)," the paper says.

"If you ask what was the difference between Iraq's army and America's army, the big difference was satellites," John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, told the Times.

Allen Thomson, a retired intelligence analyst now living in Texas, said the most important satellite assets in this war were "the unglamorous ones" that supported communications, navigation and meteorology. These include the military's star performer: the Air Force Space Command's behemoth "Milstar" satellites, 10,000-pound switchboards in space that provide secure voice and data communication around the world. The number of satellites of all types used in the war is estimated to be nearly 100.

While allied forces were flush with data coming in day and night, Iraqi officers appeared to be operating with very little good information, experts said. At times, the Iraqi leadership was sending orders to units that no longer existed.

"Our side knew where all of our forces were at any given moment and the other side did not," said Steven Aftergood, a senior research analyst with the Federation of American Scientists. "It sounds simple, but it's actually a significant technological achievement."

In January, I wrote about the military's growing dependence on satellites for Wired News. That reliance will only increase, as the Pentagon continues to add to its satellite array. The military recently launched three birds in about a month, from March through early April.

THERE'S MORE: Aviation Week has its own ideas about what brought down Saddam.

According to the magazine, "The star of the war... was a 'ruthless, staring constellation looking at Baghdad' made up of UAVs, U-2s and other intelligence gathering aircraft that blanketed Iraq for weeks before the actual fighting started."

The relentless attacks before the war's official start on Iraqi anti-aircraft systems didn't hurt, either. A month of strikes -- more than 4,000 sorties -- left Iraq's air defense radars "silent for the most part."

"We spent a lot of time taking out SAMs and radars and breaking open fiber-optic vaults, trying to make [Iraqi] command and control more difficult and visible to us so we could hear what they were saying and suck up the information that we needed," said a senior Air Force official. That effort resulted in the tip-off about Saddam Hussein's whereabouts that launched the conflict with a raid on Iraq's senior leadership. "Within 4 hr., we had four bombs down in the bunker," he said.

SLATE: JUNK THE APACHE

The Pentagon should junk the Army's main attack helicopter, Slate says.

Apache Longbows were the centerpiece of the only "disastrous operation of Gulf War II" -- the March 24th attack on Republican Guard divisions near Karbala. The copters were routed that day, driven back by small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades.

According to Slate, it's yet another example of the Apache being "too dangerous to the pilots who fly it and not dangerous enough to the enemy it's designed to attack."

THERE'S MORE: Over on the JO Forum listserv, Bob Krumm writes that Slate is making "a 'no-brainer' assertion. After the first mission where 30 Apaches were 'shot up' rarely did Apaches operate forward of friendly troops 'without the escort of fixed-wing aircraft flying far overhead.' If the first mission was indeed conducted without the escort of fixed-wing aircraft, well we now know what the problem was. Apaches are not designed to go forward without backup."

EMBATTLED LAB UNVEILS NEW NUKES

The United States' arsenal of 10,000 nuclear weapons isn't enough. The country needs more bombs, and the place to make them is the scandal-plagued, security-challenged Los Alamos National Laboratory.

That seems to be the meaning behind yesterday's announcement by Los Alamos officials that the lab has constructed, for the first time in a long while, a plutonium pit -- the deadly heart of a nuclear warhead -- that's bomb-ready.

It's been 14 years since the last one was completed. The United States hasn't had the ability to make the pits since the FBI stopped production at the Energy Department's Rocky Flats plant for environmental violations in 1989.

It's the opening trickle in what is scheduled to eventually become a torrent of new nuclear cores. For the next four years, Los Alamos will make about a half-dozen pits per year. After that, capacity will ramp up to 10 pits per year -- and then to as many as 500 new pits annually, as the new U.S. Modern Pit Facility comes online in 2018.

According to the Bush administration's central plan for atomic weapons, the Nuclear Posture Review, making additional nuclear cores is key to keeping America's potential adversaries cowed.

The ability to "upgrade existing weapon systems, surge production of weapons or develop and field entirely new systems … (will) discourage other countries from competing militarily with the United States," the review says.

In other words, the mere threat of blowing up opposing countries a thousand times over isn't enough. America must have the option to make more nuclear weapons -- and faster -- than any other nation on earth.

My Wired News story has more.

"NON-LETHAL" MINES: HOW SAFE?

The taser has been used by police forces for years to incapacitate rowdy suspects. Now, a company is trying to turn the tool into a kind of non-lethal landmine, New Scientist reports.

The mines -- called "Taser Area Denial Devices" -- shoot their victims with a pair of darts, connected to lightweight metal cables, which deliver a 50,000-volt charge.

Supposedly, the system won't hurt -- or even permanently injure -- anyone. But some analysts aren't so sure.

"If you're pregnant, a child or old, the effects of 50,000 volts are potentially lethal," said Landmine Action's Richard Lloyd.

A few government agencies have expressed some interest in the system, its makers say. But there are currently no buyers for the mines.

DRONES MAY GET BORDER PATROL DUTY

American drones have been snooping on friends and foes in Afghanistan and Iraq. They may soon be keeping tabs on the Mexican border, if certain congressmen have their way.

"High tech, including drones, is precisely where we should be going," Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ) told the Arizona Republic.

After testing drones in south Texas during the late 1990s, Border Patrol officials decided against using them. But Asa Hutchinson, the nation's top border security official in Homeland Security, told Congress last month, "I think that we have to revisit some of this technology since September 11th and see if it has greater application."

Mario Villareal, a spokesman for the Bureau of Customs and Border, said Border Patrol agents are using drones for specific investigations along the northern and southwestern borders.

Last summer, agents teamed up with the Drug Enforcement Administration and local law enforcement agencies in Idaho to break up a drug-smuggling ring that involved undocumented immigrants crossing the border from Canada. A drone operated by the U.S. Marine Corps was used to do surveillance work.

(via UV Online)

AID WORKERS GET TECH BOOST

New technologies gave soldiers and journalists a big boost in Iraq. Now, some of these gadgets are helping relief workers, too.

The Washington Post reports, "Refugee organizations now track displaced people with advanced databases, physicians use fast-acting 'dipsticks' to test for deadly illnesses, and throughout the humanitarian ranks, workers use satellite phones and other modern communication technologies to pinpoint relief shipments with life-saving speed and accuracy."

In a separate story, the Post notes that detailed, satellite-drawn maps, prepared in part by the Defense Department's National Imagery and Mapping Agency are helping aid workers navigate through battle-scarred Iraq.

MORE SECURITY SHENANIGANS AT LOS ALAMOS

A former security specialist at Los Alamos National Laboratory claims managers of the world's most important nuclear research facility "purposely thwarted an e-mail monitoring program designed to prevent security leaks," Government Executive reports.

In January 2001, the Energy Department launched a pilot version of its Electronic Mail Analysis Capability (EMAC) program as part of larger effort to beef up counterintelligence measures.

Under pressure from the University of California, which manages the lab for the Energy Department, "some managers at Los Alamos attempted to delay and eventually stop the EMAC project," according to the article.

In an April 4th letter to Los Alamos interim director George Nanos, former Office of Internal Security employee Jack Harris "claimed that he was told by a manager to do 'whatever [he] could to delay and defer the implementation of this program.'"

The manager allegedly told him that the University of California did not want the Energy Department analyzing e-mails. The university was worried that scientists at Los Alamos would object to the practice and would “revolt,” causing a “greater problem than the possible loss of data.”

Concerns about scientists' sensitivities have undermined several security measures at the troubled lab. As previously noted, many guards at Los Alamos patrol the grounds without their guns. That's because some scientists viewed the armed patrols as a kind of "occupying army" at the lab, a member of the security team told Defense Tech.

NEW TOOL FOR MISSILE DEFENSE: BLIMPS

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency wants to use blimps to track incoming rockets. And the agency has tapped three defense contractors to begin drawing up plans for the zeppelins, according to Global Security Newswire.

For the next four months, the companies will work on basic concepts for a solar-powered airship that can fly at 65,000 feet. A winner in the sweepstakes will be declared by 2004. And a prototype for this "High Altitude Airship Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration" is scheduled for 2006.

IRAQ DESTROYED CHEM WEAPONS ON WAR'S EVE, SCIENTIST SAYS

Why haven't U.S. forces found Iraqi banned weapons? Because Saddam's government destroyed them, only days before the war began, according to New York Times' Judith Miller.

A scientist "who claims to have worked in Iraq's chemical weapons program for more than a decade has told an American military team" all this, Miller says. As proof, the man showed soliders barrels filled with "pre-cursors" to chemical weapons.

The scientist alleges that "Iraq had secretly sent unconventional weapons and technology to Syria, starting in the mid-1990's, and that more recently Iraq was cooperating with Al Qaeda."

Explosive stuff. But there are some odd things about Miller's story, as Slate's Eric Umansky notes:

As part of the deal to report on the chemical-hunting unit, Miller agreed to submit a draft of her article "for a check by military officials." Miller says the officials, trying to protect the unnamed scientist from retribution from Saddam leftovers, requested that the names of the actual chemicals uncovered be stricken from the piece. The NYT agreed. That may have been the right move, but it's potentially an important omission: Aren't pre-cursors to some chemical weapons also the basic ingredients for things that have commercial applications? Also, while most of the article forwards some officers' contentions that they've found a smoking gun, the last paragraph quotes the division commander on the scene saying, "work must still be done to validate the information."

PATRIOT-PLANE POSTMORTEM

During Gulf War II, the Iraqis acknowledged coalition dominance of the skies, and put almost no planes in the air.

So why were Patriot missiles shooting at allied planes during the conflict?

It's one of several questions being asked about the Patriot system in the Iraq fight postmortem.

"We ruled the skies in Iraq, so almost by definition any aircraft up there was either ours or British," Philip Coyle, a former Pentagon testing director, tells the Los Angeles Times.

But, apparently, the system has trouble telling the difference between friendly aircraft and enemy missiles. The Patriots destroyed two coalition planes -- a British Tornado GR4 and a U.S. Navy F/A-18C Hornet -- and locked radar on a third, an F-16.

As noted a month ago, the new "PAC-3" Patriot system only destroyed its target twice in seven tries during operational testing. The missiles seemed to have a better hit rate against Iraqi rockets during Gulf War II.

WANNA POLICE IRAQ?

Officers, deputies: looking for a change of scenery?

Well, how 'bout a new job in beautiful downtown Baghdad?

DynCorp Aerospace Operations (UK) Ltd, on behalf of the U.S. State Department, "is seeking individuals with appropriate experience and expertise to participate in an international effort to re-establish police, justice and prison functions in post-conflict Iraq," announces a new website.

To get these plum assignments, you've got to have ten years of experience, "excellent health," and the "ability to operate a standard transmission vehicle."

(via Guardroom)

THE TIMES GOES GOOEY OVER DRONES

Tomorrow's New York Times Magazine has a long story on drones, focusing in on the UCAV (unmanned combat aerial vehicle).

It's a schizophrenic piece, at times cold-eyed about the robots' limitations ("a MIG-29 would use them for target practice"), and at others filled with the gee-whiz boosterism you would have expected from an Internet-bubble edition of Fast Company:

If the UCAV program succeeds, it could lead us to a distant point on the horizon where no Americans in uniform will ever again fight on the battlefield -- automated submarines launching cruise missiles, divisions of unmanned ground vehicles racing toward enemy capitals... Everything they see and do will be displayed and controlled from plasma screens at headquarters.

Maybe a couple of PR people at Boeing, the UCAV's maker, believe this. But each and every one of Defense Tech's sources foresees a much different future for drones. Robots won't replace people on the battlefield. They'll fight with human soldiers, side-by-side.

A better read in the same issue is Peter Maass' blood-flecked take on the battles of the Third Battalion, Fourth Marines:

As the war in Iraq is debated and turned into history, the emphasis will be on the role of technology -- precision bombing, cruise missiles, decapitation strikes. That was what was new. But there was another side to the war, and it was the one that most of the fighting men and women in Iraq experienced, even if it wasn't what Americans watching at home saw: raw military might, humans killing humans.

PREDATOR WAR ROLE REVEALED

So what did those Predator drones really do in Gulf War II? The New York Times has some answers:

About 15 Predators are operating in Iraq — roughly a third of the Air Force's total fleet — and they have flown more than 100 missions in the war...

With its ability to loiter continuously for 24 hours or more at 15,000 feet above the battlefield, Predators have sent live video to AC-130 gunships, spotted targets like surface-to-surface missiles for A-10 and Tornado ground-attack planes, and flown reconnaissance missions...

Predators have flown surveillance on every major mission of the war, from the two airstrikes against Saddam Hussein to the rescue of Pfc. Jessica D. Lynch, beaming back live color video images (black-and-white at night) so precisely with a 1,500-millimeter zoom lens that analysts can discern uniformed soldiers from civilians from more than three miles away...

At least three Predators have been lost in the war, including two older ones that were stripped of their sensors and sent up as cannon fodder to reveal Iraqi gun emplacements. Both survived their missions and were deliberately flown into lakes, away from civilians, when their fuel ran out.

THE NEXT NET WAR

As noted before, Gulf War II was the most fully-realized example so far of "network-centric warfare" -- the concept of connecting every fighter to a battlefield Internet.

What are the next steps for net war? Wired News has some ideas, including the Forester Project, an attempt to use slow-moving rotocraft and low-frequency radar to spot everything that goes on in a jungle. The images would then be sent back to HQ, and assembled into 3D, holographic images.

While you're at Wired News, check out my report from the New York Auto Show. The stock market may be stuck in the sewer, but you'd never know it by visiting the super-luxury cars on display there.

SONY WON'T "SHOCK AND AWE"

After leading a charge of fifteen companies trying to trademark the phrase "shock and awe," Sony said Wednesday that it won't use the term to market a videogame. Reuters reports that Sony's application to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has been withdrawn.

1982 SECURITY LEVELS FOR NUKE SITES?

The Energy Department is strongly considering a return to 1982 security levels for nuclear weapons sites with hundreds of tons of weapons-grade plutonium and uranium, according to an internal e-mail obtained by the watchdog group Project On Government Oversight.

The group says in a statement, "Although those (1982) security levels are slightly higher than current standards, they are far below those required to meet threat assumptions by intelligence agencies developed since the September 11th terrorist attacks."

The weapons sites covered by the memo include the troubled Sandia, Los Alamos, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories. We've seen in the recent past how security has been handled at these facilities.

Click here to read the memo for yourself.

BODY ARMOR KEPT IRAQ CASUALTIES LOW

Why were there so few American casualties in Iraq? Body armor is a major reason, the Associated Press reports.

‘‘Hands down, body armor is much more effective at saving lives than
any medicine we’ve brought to the battlefield,’’ Col. Clifford
Cloonan, a doctor at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, told the AP.

"Military scientists (worked) to lighten the body armor after soldiers who removed 8- to 12-pound protective chest plates were wounded or killed in the 1990s," the wire service says. "The new plates, inserted in armor worn like a vest, weigh about 4 pounds each."

Jim Mackiewicz, a Marine Corps leader at the Army’s Natick
Laboratory in Massachusetts, said, "A lot of guys are getting hit and don’t even know it."

ROAD RACE PITS FAST AND FLIRTY

This doesn't have a thing to do with national security. But it's a fun read...

From the outside, it looks like another '70s muscle car. On the inside, it's a gearhead fantasy come true.

Every chunk of this 1972 Ford Torino's innards has been swapped for fresh parts. An extra gas tank has been fused onto its body. Controllers for laser jammers, radar detectors, GPS sensors and video cameras now occupy areas once reserved for 8-track players and beige-tinted shades.

The vehicle has been hauled 2,700 miles on a tractor-trailer, from Gibsonville, North Carolina, to San Francisco. And on Wednesday, it'll begin a five-day, helter-skelter dash to reach Miami before hundreds of other cars cross a transcontinental finish line.

The Torino is taking part in the Gumball 3000 rally, a rolling party and road race that brings together millionaire dilettantes, minor luminaries, speed freaks, celebrity-seekers and former centerfolds. Not to mention overgrown kids with a fetish for wheels, like 37-year-old Kevin Mikelonis, who's spent $20,000 to customize his '72 Ford hot rod.

Go to my Wired News story for more on the Gumball 3000.

NUKE MATERIAL FOUND IN IRAQ - BUT NO "SMOKING GUN"

"An American team hunting for unconventional Iraqi weapons at an ammunition plant near Karbala have discovered some radioactive material in a maintenance building," the New York Times reports.

But they didn't find a nuclear "smoking gun."

"A specialized nuclear detection team (came) to the site today and removed seven canisters of cesium, a radioactive metal, from the huge maintenance warehouse. Although analysts have not yet determined their specific purpose, the experts said the cesium was probably intended to calibrate machinery in one of the many buildings under construction here."

EVERY SOLDIER SINCE '92 IN DNA LIBRARY

"Inside a two-story freezer in a nondescript Maryland warehouse are DNA samples from nearly every person who has served in the U.S. military since 1992 - 4 million men and women," the Associated Press reports.

The samples play a key role in one of the military's grimmest tasks: identifying the bodies of fallen soldiers...

The repository, overseen by the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, was created after the first Gulf War. The military used DNA testing selectively during the war, but didn't decide until later to make it a routine part of the identification process.

Now, matching remains to DNA contained in smears of blood on index cards has become the military's gold standard for casualty identification.

NEW SCRUTINY FOR PAST ACTS OF SUSPECTED SPY

Now that former Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory security director William Cleveland, Jr. has been linked to suspected Chinese double-agent Katrina Leung, a lot of his actions that once looked like ordinary bureaucratic cover-your-ass moves are starting to smell suspicious.

For example, Mark Danielson, a former Livermore SWAT team member, found an employee trying to bring a camera, and tape recorder, and a laptop with classified information into the facility in 1998. That's strictly against lab rules. But Danielson was ordered to give the goods back, and let the person -- a Chinese national -- go.

When he complained about the incident to the Department of Energy -- the agency ultimately responsible for Livermore -- officials there said they had never heard of it. There was no record of the interaction at all.

But Danielson had filled out such a form himself, and held on to a copy (I've just had a .pdf version e-mailed to me).

Who could have made such a document disappear? And why would anyone do such a thing? Well, William Cleveland, Jr. was in charge of such investigations at the time.

SLIPPERY SOLUTION TO CROWD CONTROL

There's a mountainous policing job ahead in Iraq for the U.S. military. A few projects in the Pentagon's research pipeline could have helped in that effort -- but they're not quite ready for keeping order on the streets of Baghdad.

The mobility denial system (MDS) is a slippery gel that makes it pretty much impossible for vehicles or people to move on concrete, asphalt, or wood without falling down. MDS could have been most useful in, say, keeping a crowd of looters from making too much mischief in Basra.

But Defense Department researchers are having a tough time getting the system small enough for a single person to carry. It should be ready within a year, promises Captain Sean Turner, spokesman for the Pentagon's Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate in Quantico, VA.

The slippery stuff replaces a sticky foam that glues rabble-rousers in place (great pic here). The foam looked promising at first, but wound up with major problems of its own. First, the foam tended to clog up in the tubes that were supposed to shoot it out. Second, it took too long to harden, so people could escape before they were slimed to the ground.

Third -- and most importantly -- if the sticky foam got in someone's face, and it wasn't wiped off in time, it could suffocate the person. Try explaining that to Al Jazeera.

More to come…

IRAQI MOBILE CHEM-BIO LABS FOUND

U.S. soldiers have discovered what they believe to be mobile chemical and biological laboratories near Karbala, Gannett News Service reports.

"Troops with the 101st Airborne Division have unearthed 11 steel shipping containers, filled with sophisticated lab equipment, that were buried on the grounds of a chemical plant here," the service says.

The containers included about $1 million worth of equipment, including a centrifugal pump and a spectrometer -- used to analyze chemical compounds.

As always, take these chemical finds with a grain or two of salt -- many that have looked nefarious at first have later turned out to be harmless.

(via Command Post)

3,000 POSSIBLE WMD SITES IN IRAQ

If there are any banned weapons still in Iraq -- and that's a big if -- finding them isn't going to be easy. Scattered throughout the country are 3,000 sites where weapons of mass destruction might be, Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of U.S. forces in the Gulf, said. And American troops are only checking 10-15 of those locations per day.

Before the war, some analysts predicted that Hans Blix-style inspections would have to resume once the conflict ended. Those forecasts are now looking increasingly prescient.

But these examinations could once again be a prologue to battle. President Bush yesterday said "there are chemical weapons in Syria," shipped from Iraq.

When asked if that meant the U.S. would be invading Syria next, he replied, "First things first. We're here in Iraq now."

TIKRIT CENTER FALLS

The center of Tikrit -- Saddam's Hussein's hometown, and final shard of his broken regime -- has been captured by U.S. Marines.

Several thousand troops, accompanied by more than 300 armored vehicles were "spared the last burst of resistance they expected," according to the New York Times.

After being pounded by AH-1 Cobra helicopters and F/A-18 Hornet warplanes, the Washington Post reports, most of the town's defenders fled before the American ground forces arrived.

FIRST TESTS FOR "TIA"

Total Information Awareness, the Pentagon uber-database program, has undergone its first tests, Information Week reports.

Lt. Col. Doug Dyer, a program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), told a privacy conference that the recent test examined records of over-the-counter drug purchases, "which could indicate planning of a bioterrorist attack."

According to the magazine, the initial experiment also considered "relationships between purchases of certain chemicals, whether the buyer or a family member was involved in an activity such as farming that could explain a benign reason for the purchase, and where the purchase was made."

NUKE LAB CAUGHT IN SPY SCANDAL

The U.S.' national laboratories are where much of the country's most important military research goes down. Each one is a treasure trove of America's most precious secrets -- including nuclear weapon designs.

And now, for the third time in six months, the security at one of these labs has been violated. William Cleveland Jr., head of security at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, resigned yesterday after nearly ten years on the job.

The Washington Post reports that Cleveland has been linked to an "emerging Chinese spy scandal."

The former FBI agent had an off-again, on-again sexual relationship with Los Angeles socialite Katrina Leung, who's accused of passing classified information to the Chinese government. She's now in prison, being held without bond.

FIRMS SCRAMBLE TO TRADEMARK "SHOCK AND AWE"

One day after the start of Gulf War II, Sony rushed to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in an attempt to register the phrase "Shock and Awe."

The electronics giant is planning to use the term as the title to a new, combat-themed video game.

Sony is one of 15 businesses that are trying to own "Shock and Awe." A Texas pesticide company, an Ohio fireworks firm, a California t-shirt designer, and a New York maker of beer mugs and decorative plates all have filed applications.

The worst may be a Mansfield, Texas man who wants to control the "Shock and Awe" term, whether it's used to name "inflatable bath toys," "aftermarket automobile products," "alcoholic beverages," "smoking jackets," or "television programming."

Anybody else disgusted by this?

THERE'S MORE: Xeni Jardin notes that the "Shock and Awe" Internet domain has been taken, too.

SOLDIERS "DRUNK" WITH FATIGUE

"The stress of combat and lack of sleep affect soldiers so badly that after a week they perform worse than if they were drunk," reports New Scientist.

The U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine followed around special forces taking part in grueling combat exercises.

The Navy SEALs, who slept for just one of their 73 hours of duty, fared the worse, with young recruits displaying slower reaction times, reduced vigilance and problems remembering key details. In one quick-decision test, the average number of errors jumped from one or two to over 15.

SINGAPORE USES WEBCAMS TO ENFORCE SARS QUARANTINE

"Singapore took drastic measures on Thursday to enforce quarantine orders on hundreds of people suspected of exposure to SARS, including mounting webcams in homes and threatening to use electronic wrist bands," according to Reuters.

Nine of the 490 people ordered to stay home have broken the quarantine, despite a fine of over $5,000. More than 2,800 people have been infected with SARS, and just over 100 people worldwide have died.

(via /.)

"MASSIVE" BOMB NOW IN GULF -- WHY?

Saddam's government has been driven out of Baghdad. Kurdish rebels have the Iraqis on the run in the north. So why has the U.S. military picked this moment to unveil "the mother of all bombs?"

The 21,000-pound Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) is the biggest conventional weapon in the American arsenal, igniting fuel in the air and creating a fearsome firestorm. CNN reveals that the bomb has been moved into the Persian Gulf region.

When it was tested in Florida last month, it was designed to "rattle Iraqi troops and pressure them into surrendering or not even fighting," CNN says.

"Now that Iraqi troops have surrendered in large numbers, it was unclear what the possible targets might be."

FUEL CELL SUB DEBUTS

On Monday, the first fuel cell-powered submarine made its maiden voyage from the German port of Kiel into the Baltic Sea, the Associated Press reports.

According to StrategyPage, the German U-31 sub combines hydrogen and oxygen supplies in nine PEM (polymer electrolyte membrane) fuel cells. Each of these produces up to 50 KW of electricity. Water is the only waste product.

"This type of power plant generates no heat or noise and is probably the most difficult to detect sub in the world," the site says. "The 1500 ton boat... can travel silently underwater for 15-20 days. Currently, only nuclear subs can stay under that long."

Naval historian Norman Friedman isn't impressed, however.

"In (the) sub that the Germans have, the fuel cell is used for loitering for significant periods at very low speed," Friedman told New Technology Week. "It's not used for main power. You still have to use your diesel (engines)... If you have to move several thousand miles, you're going to do it on diesels."

The U-31 also has a diesel engine, though, and travel underwater at speeds up to 36 kilometers per hour on this power. This 212A-class sub holds a crew of 27.

DUMB PLAN TO SELL "IQ" DOMAIN

The war isn't over yet. But British geeks are already hatching a cockeyed plan to auction off Iraqi Internet domains -- and give the proceeds to the rebuilding effort.

Brian McWilliams reports for Wired News that this "Committee for Information Technology Reconstruction in Iraq" thinks it can raise up to $10 million by selling ".iq" domains, because the "country-code suffix connotes high intelligence... For example, members of Mensa International could snap up addresses ending in @high.iq"

Does this strike anyone else as being incredibly stupid?

BIG GUNS, NOT HIGH TECH, BEHIND BAGHDAD COLLAPSE

The technologies behind U.S. troops' victories in the open expanses of the Mesopotamian deserts aren't what's triggering the fall of Saddam's rule in the alleys and shadows of Baghdad.

GPS-guided bombs, advanced radios and spy drones all become less reliable as sand gives way to concrete and steel. Instead, the American military has leaned on the cunning of its junior officers and the overwhelming firepower of its heavy armor in its battle for the Iraqi capital.

This is proving to be a powerful combination for U.S. forces, as recent events have shown. But it's most definitely a shift from the war's first phase.

Jim Lewis, an analyst with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said, "Urban combat means training becomes important, and technology becomes secondary."

My Wired News story has more.

SADDAM'S HOLD ON BAGHDAD OVER, U.S. SAYS

"Saddam Hussein's rule over (Baghdad) has ended, U.S. commanders declared Wednesday, and jubilant crowds swarmed into the streets here, dancing, looting, cheering U.S. convoys and defacing images of the Iraqi leader," the Associated Press reports.

"The capital city is now one of those areas that has been added to the list of where the regime does not have control," said Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks at U.S. Central Command in Qatar.

The locus of battle immediately shifted to Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, where coalition aircraft have been bombing Republican Guard divisions in advance of a ground assault.

CHEMICAL "SMOKING GUNS" FLAME OUT -- WHY?

It's a scene being replayed all over Iraq. American soldiers stumble upon a mysterious liquid or powder. The material is tested - and it's shown to be a nerve agent, or mustard gas. Embedded reporters and military flacks rush to tell the world that, at last, they've found the "smoking gun" that proves Saddam had banned weapons all along.

And then, a few hours later, further analysis shows that the whole thing was just a false alarm. The sample has to be sent to a lab, where a third and final determination can be made about whether or not the material is toxic.

What's going on here? Why do these "false positives" - as they're called in weapons inspectorese - keep popping up? Why are these tests so consistently inconsistent?

Check out my Tech Central Station story for answers.

THERE'S MORE: "Nerve agents like VX and sarin gas are scary terrorist threats, but a top federal official is more worried about chemicals that travel the nation's highways every day," the Associated Press says. "For instance, toxic industrial chemicals such as chlorine, phosgene and hydrogen cyanide are readily available. These are among the earliest chemical weapons and were used by troops in World War I. Today, they are commonly used in commercial manufacturing, and experts believe they could easily be used for terrorism. "

COP TROLLS L.A.P.D. COMPUTERS FOR CELEB INFO

"A Los Angeles police officer used department computers to access confidential law enforcement records of celebrities and sold the information to tabloids," the Associated Press reports. "Between 1994 and 2000 (Officer Kelly) Chrisman accessed computer files on such celebrities as Sharon Stone, Sean Penn, Meg Ryan, Kobe Bryant, O.J. Simpson, Larry King, Drew Barrymore, Cindy Crawford, and Halle Berry, according to internal Police Department documents."

Chrisman's lawyer, former Simpson prosecutor Christopher Darden, said that the 13-year veteran never sold the information to anyone.

(via Politech)

ARMY FOXES HUNT FOR CHEMICALS

When U.S. soldiers found drums of suspected chemical weapons yesterday at a warehouse in Albu Muhawish, Iraq, two Army Fox mobile laboratories were quickly brought in.

The Philly Inquirer takes a look at the three-man, 20-ton vehicles, each equppied with more than a million dollars worth of chemical testing gear inside.

My question is: with all that equipment, why are the Foxes coming up with so many "false positives" -- reports that banned weapons are present, only to be later disproved?

According to the Telegraph, U.S. Central Command is receiving an average of three reports a day of suspected weapons of mass destruction. None has so far held up.

NEW PAY PLAN FOR DEFENSE LABS

Defense Department labs have had a tough time holding on to scientists and engineers. And a big reason why is the stilted civil service hiring and promotion system, which turns recruiting new employees, and paying top performers, into near-Herculean feats.

All of this may change soon, Government Executive reports. The Defense Department has proposed eliminating the leaden "General Schedule" personnel plan, and replacing it with something a bit more sensible; merit pay, for example, instead of compensation based on rigid seniority levels.

Not surprisingly, public employee union officials are already voicing their displeasure. Jacqueline Simon, with the American Federation of Government Employees, says she's "wary about pay-for-performance."