Do Cyberattacks on Iran Make Us Vulnerable?

It is now clear that the United States was involved in cyberattacks that damaged Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities. But such actions may open the door to bolder attacks against the United States. A leading Russian cybersecurity expert, who discovered another virus afflicting computers in Iran, has called for an international treaty banning cyberweapons. By pursuing cyberattacks against foreign nations, is the United States protecting itself or risking far greater danger?

Elite Military Forces Are Denied in Bid for Expansion

In late April, the military’s Special Operations Command presented the State Department and Congress with an urgent request for new authority to train and equip security forces in places like Yemen and Kenya.

The request, which included seeking approval to train foreign internal security forces that had been off-limits to the American military, was the latest effort by the command’s top officer, Adm. William H. McRaven, to make it easier for his elite forces to respond faster to emerging threats and better enable allies to counter the same dangers.

Given the command’s influence in shaping American strategy toward extremism, the proposal seemed to have momentum. President Obama and his Pentagon’s leadership are tapping Special Operations troops more to hunt militants and train foreign security forces in Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. And Admiral McRaven is a White House favorite, especially after he oversaw the Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

But in a rare rebuke to the admiral and his command, powerful House and Senate officials as well as the State Department, and ultimately the deputy cabinet-level aides who met at the White House on the issue on May 7, rejected the changes. They sent the admiral and his lawyers back to the drawing board with orders to use security assistance programs already in place, particularly one created last year by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the defense secretary at the time, Robert M. Gates, for just these types of issues.

“Right now, anything Socom wants they pretty much get — they’re hot,” said one senior Congressional aide involved in the deliberations, using the command’s nickname. “But this was a nonstarter. They were overly zealous.”

Delta Force: Army’s ‘quiet professionals’

As Navy SEALs bask in the limelight for daring missions, some in the Army are wondering whether the other half of the nation’s counter-terrorism covert warriors — Delta Force — is being upstaged and left in the shadows.

Adm. William H. McRaven, a SEAL who commanded the Joint Special Operations Command when SEAL Team 6 killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan last year, favors his guys over Delta, some say.

“All I’ve heard and observed is that he is obviously pro-SEAL and that explains why Delta has been sidelined,” said a retired ArmyGreen Beret who still conducts special operations as a government contractor.

A spokesman for U.S. Special Operations Command, where Adm. McRaven is now the top officer and the second SEAL in a row to lead the force, declined to comment. “There are some units we do not discuss,” he said.

SEAL Team 6 has won heaps of public praise since dispatching the world’s most wanted terrorist in May 2011. Months later, real SEALs starred in an action movie, “Act of Valor.” Later this year, Hollywood will release another SEAL-related film on the hunt for bin Laden.

'No alternative' but boost China military ties: US

There is "no other alternative" for the United States and China but to boost military-to-military relations to manage disputes, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Saturday.

A robust security dialogue between the two powers is key to the prosperity of the Asia-Pacific region, Panetta told delegates to the Shangri-La Dialogue, a security conference held in Singapore annually.

"Our relationship with China -- we approach it in a very clear-eyed way. We are not naive about the relationship and neither is China," he said in response to a question after a speech.

"We both understand the differences we have, we both understand the conflicts we have but we also both understand that there really is no other alternative but for both of us to engage and to improve our communications and to improve our military-to-military relationship."

Alliances challenged as US, China compete in Asia

Washington's planned strategic shift to Asia will challenge existing alliances as nations try to balance strong economic ties to China with defence links to Washington, a conference heard Sunday.

Many Asian countries have major business relations with China but are also defence allies of the United States.

"The political, economic and cultural ramifications of a newly-empowered Asia are bound to impact existing security and economic relationships," Singapore Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen said at the Shangri-La Dialogue, a conference on security issues.

Space Realities Require New Way of Thinking

Contested, Congested and Competitive:
US Space Security Posture and Military Space Forces

Outer space has become the new strategic high ground. Whether commercial or military, space assets are vital to everything from weather forecasting to communications to strategic and tactical reconnaissance. Western nations must be concerned as rival (and sometimes overtly hostile) actors increase their own space presence. No nation is more dependent on space for its national security and economic welfare than the technology-oriented, globally active USA. This issue of HRISQ focuses on US space security policy and space strategy, and examine the armed forces components dedicated to space operations.
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The U.S. has fine-tuned its methods to promote responsible use of space and strengthen international partnerships, Ambassador Gregory L. Schulte, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for space policy, said during the 2012 Women in Aerospace Conference.

In his keynote address at the conference, Schulte outlined the plan to protect U.S. advantages and sustainability in space as directed by the National Security Strategy for Space issued by Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta and national intelligence officials.

"Space is no longer a pristine environment," Schulte said. "We have to think differently about how we cooperate with others in space."

Schulte explained that burgeoning interest in space by a number of nations is both an asset and a liability.

"Allied capabilities can augment ours, add resilience and increase our ability to operate in a contested space environment when adversaries may be trying to take away our space capabilities," he said.

"As there are more and more actors in space, it becomes more important that we bring a certain amount of order to that domain, that we encourage countries to act responsibly."

As such, Schulte said, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and U.S. Strategic Command, based at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., have weighed in this year to take deliberate steps in negotiating space situational awareness agreements with countries across the globe.

The discussions have united "European Union and other space-faring countries to develop an international voluntary code of conduct meant to encourage countries to act responsibly and call out those who act irresponsibly," Schulte said.

The norms, Schulte asserts, aim to help U.S. and coalition countries share information on an emergency basis, encourage best practices to buffer the uptick of mishaps and control the creation of additional debris in space.

"[Stratcom] tracks over 20,000 pieces of debris - and that's just what they can see," Schulte said. "NASA estimates there are probably hundreds of thousands of pieces of debris up there."

Harnessing international partnerships also includes a plan to expand the Joint Space Operations Center at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., into a coalition asset by integrating Canada's first operational military space-based telescope system, Sapphire.

A larger constellation of satellites supplied by international partner nations provides greater coverage and bandwidth, Schulte said, and also creates an international space alliance that can act as a deterrent to threats against the U.S. and its allies.

Israel fitting nuclear arms on German-supplied subs

Israel is arming submarines supplied and largely financed by Germany with nuclear-tipped cruise missiles, influential German news weekly Der Spiegel reports in its issue to be published on Monday.

The magazine said in a cover story that Berlin had until now denied any knowledge that German submarines were being used as part of an Israeli atomic arsenal.

But former high-ranking officials of the German defence ministry told Der Spiegel that the government always assumed Israel was putting nuclear warheads on the Dolphin-class vessels.

The article, based on a months-long probe, cited files from the foreign ministry in Berlin indicating the West German state was aware of the practice as early as 1961.