'Innocent mistake': UK’s nuclear weapons web data routed through Ukraine

UK traffic diverted through Ukraine included nuclear weapon maker AWE http://t.co/Df15sVUsDg pic.twitter.com/8BvpsbwR6w
— Dyn Research (@DynResearch) marzo 13, 2015

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Listen to Russian strategic bombers speaking in code over UK airspace

businessinsider

David Cenciotti, The Aviationist

Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters

Russian Tu-95 bombers fly during a joint Kazakh-Russian military exercise at Otar military range, some 150km (93 miles) west of Almaty, October 3, 2008.

On Feb. 18, two Russian Air Force Tu-95MS Bear bombers on a long-range patrol flew close to the UK airspace off Cornwall.

Although the 60-year old 4-engine powered turboprop planes remained in international airspace, they were shadowed by two RAF Typhoons in QRA (Quick Reaction Alert): something that is becoming a sort of routine considered the frequency of such Russian missions over northern Europe.

Noteworthy, as the Bear H aircraft flew close to UK, Tom Hill, a radio enthusiast and reader of The Aviationist, using an HF receiver, recorded the following 6-minute audio.

It’s a coded message believed to be a message passed by the Tu-95 to a female controller on the Russian Air Force Strategic HF Voice net.

Interestingly, according to one of our sources, for the first time in several months, the entire Bear mission on Feb. 18 was supported by a Russian airborne command and control aircraft: the Ilyushin Il-80 (NATO reporting name “Maxdome”).

Read more: http://theaviationist.com/2015/02/20/audio-tu-95-talks-control/#ixzz3SKHZ4mNy

X-37B Marks One Year On Orbit

space.skyrocket.de

spacewar

By Morris Jones* Sydney, Australia (SPX) Dec 03, 2013

On December 11, 2013, the secretive X-37B robot spaceplane celebrates one year in orbit. This controversial spacecraft has been out of the limelight for a long time, attracting almost no media coverage for most of its mission. The third flight of one of the most secretive objects in space has been its most elusive mission to date!
What is this all about? The X-37B is a small vehicle that's roughly the size of a small truck. It has wings, tail fins and a stubby nose. There's no cockpit and no crew on board. The X-37B does have a small payload bay with clamshell doors, similar to its older cousin, the retired NASA Space Shuttle.
X-37B is launched and controlled by the US Air Force. It made its first launch in April 2010 on a mission that was largely cloaked in secrecy. 224 days later, it returned to a flawless runway landing. A second X-37B vehicle was launched in March 2011. It remained in space for 469 days.
The latest X-37B mission uses the same vehicle that was launched in 2010, making this the first time that an X-37B spacecraft has been re-used.
All of the above are known facts. We also know that the X-37B is testing new technologies that could be used in future spacecraft, such as autopilot systems and re-entry tiles. Beyond this, not much is officially revealed. The generally secretive nature of the program has generated a lot of curiosity and some fairly wild conspiracy theories.
X-37B has been accused of being an orbiting space weapon or a space-to-ground bomb. Such theories are most unlikely. There have also been suggestions that the robot shuttle is designed to retrieve or service other satellites. Buzz these theories, too.
This analyst has no inside leaks or friends behind the veil of secrecy that covers the program. However, judging from the context of other US spaceflight projects and the technical limitations of the vehicle, there is a plausible if somewhat mundane explanation for the missions.
The X-37B is probably flying two missions simultaneously. One is the testing of the X-37B itself, which has been generally acknowledged by the US Air Force.
The other concerns some secret payloads contained in the small shuttle-style cargo bay. These are probably parts intended for other satellites that are being tested in open space. They will be returned to Earth for analysis.
This analyst suspects that the most likely client for these parts is the National Reconnaissance Office, which builds and operates spy satellites. The NRO has had a string of bad luck with the performance of its satellites in recent years, and has been launching its own test missions to help develop new (and more reliable) satellites for the future. T
he X-37B offers a unique opportunity to not only launch things into space but get them back intact. Combine the goals of the USAF and the NRO, and there's enough justification for the cost of operating the X-37B program.
So the X-37B sits calmly in orbit, quietly testing its mettle against the harsh environment of space. Amateur satellite watchers who track the spacecraft have sometimes observed orbital changes, but no really strange behaviour. The Air Force says almost nothing. The NRO says nothing at all. And X-37B normally remains out of the news headlines.
When will the latest mission return? The last flight stayed in orbit for well over a year. This analyst expects that the latest mission won't end any time soon. Will it attempt to better the record set by its predecessor? We just don't know.
In the meantime, we can ponder the mysteries of this secret program and wait for it to return to Earth.
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*Dr Morris Jones is an Australian space analyst who has written for spacedaily.com since 1999.

US publishes details of top secret Israeli missile base

Iran gives stealth drone secrets to Russia

WND/ By Reza Kahlili

Russia has helped decode an American stealth drone that was captured by Iran 14 months ago in exchange for its secrets, a source has told WND.

Last week, Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards air and space division, announced the decoding of the drone, while Islamic regime media aired aerial footage below from the drone showing some of its operational capabilities.

“Some (Guards officers) believed that America would send its commando unit to destroy (the drone) while others were of the opinion that the U.S. would not risk having its forces get caught by us, creating a bigger problem for themselves, and that they might just do an air raid to destroy it,” Hajizadeh said. “We gave it a 10 to 15 percent chance on the air raid, and because of that we ordered an alert at all our missile bases to be ready to launch against all U.S. bases (in the region) if they did take any action.”

When the drone was captured, President Obama said, “We’ve asked for it back. We’ll see how the Iranians respond.”

According to Hamidreza Zakeri, a former intelligence officer of the regime who has defected to Europe, Iran and Russia had long been working on trapping a U.S. drone.

A Russian military team from its air and space division had secretly entered Iran days after a strategic agreement between the two countries in 2007 and was stationed at Revolutionary Guard bases to help the Guards with its weapons program and access to modern U.S. technology.

Get the inside story in Reza Kahlili’s “A Time To Betray” and learn how the Islamic regime “bought the bomb” in “Atomic Iran.”

After studying the stealth drone’s travel routes and its surveillance of Iran’s skies, the Russians successfully hacked into the system of one of the RQ170s and forced it to land in Iran Dec. 4, 2011.

With this collaboration, all the information of the stealth drone is now in the hands of the Russians, and much has been given to Iran’s Defense Ministry. Russia in turn provided Iran with the information on its anti-air defense system S300. Russia, because of international sanctions against Iran, could not deliver the actual S300 system.

Other information passed to Iran included technology on the American fighters F35 and X36, which eventually resulted in the Defense Ministry publicly unveiling its new jet fighter, the Qaher 313, with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad boasting of the advanced features of this super stealth fighter.

However, according to the source, the fighter shown by Iranian media was merely a shell model and not operational and that the regime has only tested the smaller size. The project originally was scheduled to be completed in 2016, but due to the sanctions and economic problems, the regime has had problems following through with the timetable.

Russian-Iranian collaboration goes back many years. After the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1990s and the formation of the new republics, oil reserves in the Caspian Sea became an issue among the neighboring countries, resulting in disputes with Iran, which claimed half of the reserves.

Russia worried about the impact of the increased importance of this new market and the possible decrease in value of its Siberian oil fields, where over 40 percent of its income is based on its export of gas and oil. Vladimir Putin made a special trip to Iran in 2007 over the issue.

Because the Caspian-Caucasus region could play a significant role in the world economy and world policy, Putin in his meeting with Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was able to significantly expand Russia’s collaboration with the Islamic regime. He also got an agreement on the division of Caspian oil reserves and a bigger Russian role in transporting the oil out of that area.

The 10-year agreement called for the expansion of commerce between the two countries of up to $200 billion and military and secret projects totaling $350 billion.

It was the first time a Kremlin chief visited Iran since Josef Stalin’s trip in 1943.

Russian collaboration extends to the regime’s missile, nuclear and even bio-weapons programs. Sources in the Islamic regime previously have revealed exclusively to WND the existence of secret bio-weapons site in Iran, where, with the help of Russia, Iran has mastered production of eight microbial agents, arming its missiles with biological warheads, and a nuclear site at which, with Russian help, laser technology is enriching uranium.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/02/iran-gives-stealth-drone-secrets-to-russia/#UyJLOG7EKGeIEv1m.99

The Origins of “Glomar” Declassified

A USGS Satellite photo of the Glomar Explorer in Suisun Bay, CA

UNREDACTED/ By William Burr

On 19 March 1975, the New York Times’ front page included Seymour Hersh’s headline story, “C.I.A. Salvage Ship Brought Up Part of Soviet Sub Lost in 1968, Failed to Raise Atom Missiles.” This was the story of the ship Glomar Explorer, constructed by one of Howard Hughes’ companies under CIA contract, and built to salvage a Soviet submarine three miles in Pacific waters. The National Archives has recently declassified in full, in response to a mandatory declassification review appeal, the record of a White House discussion that same day about Hersh’s story. President Gerald Ford met with White House advisers, Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger, and CIA director William Colby and discussed a response to the disclosure of “Operation Matador,” the code name for the salvaging project. Schlesinger wanted to confirm the story because it was “a major American accomplishment”, a “marvel,” and going public would help it avoid looking like “part of a covert operation.” Unpersuaded, Colby wanted to keep the lid on it. Recalling the May 1960 U-2 affair, when President Eisenhower acknowledged his responsibility which led to the collapse of the Paris summit meeting in May 1960, Colby wanted to take a different tack: “We should not put the Soviet Union under such pressure to respond.” With U.S.-Soviet détente under pressure in the United States, Colby thought it better to avoid new tensions in relations with Moscow.  More >>

Former CIA General Counsel Is in the Crosshairs in Leak Probe

The Department of Justice is investigating the unauthorized disclosure of key details of the CIA’s secret drone program from a February Newsweek story crafted from an interview with John Rizzo, the CIA’s former general counsel.

News of the probe, first reported by the National Journal, was confirmed Thursday to The Daily Beast by two U.S. officials who asked not to be named. These officials say the CIA submitted what is known as a crime report after the publication of the Newsweek story to the Justice Department, noting that classified information was disclosed in the article.

Rizzo, who declined to comment for the story, told Newsweek at the time that the lawyers for the CIA’s counterterrorism center chose human targets that comprised a hit list for the agency’s program that operates the Predator unmanned aerial vehicles in Pakistan. Even though the former CIA director Leon Panetta and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the chair of the Senate Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, have discussed the drone program in public in the past, it is considered a covert-action program and subject to the highest levels of secrecy.More >

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U.S. is “Incapable of Keeping a Secret,” Rumsfeld Concluded in 2005

July 15th, 2011 by Steven Aftergood 
 
In one of his trademark “snowflake” memoranda from 2005 that was made public this week, then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld stated flatly that the government secrecy system was a failure.
“The United States Government is incapable of keeping a secret,” he wrote (pdf) on November 2, 2005.  “If one accepts that, and I do, that means that the U.S. Government will have to craft policies that reflect that reality.”
Unfortunately, he did not elaborate on this terse statement.  The memorandum was not addressed to anyone in particular, and the profound questions it raises were left hanging.  There was no known written response to the memo and, needless to say, there is no evidence of any subsequent shift to a post-secrecy orientation in government policy.
“Not to sound too cynical,” said a former official who served in the Bush Administration, “but I would add to Rumsfeld’s observation that not only is the U.S. incapable of keeping a secret but it is also incapable of fundamentally reforming the way it keeps secrets.  I know from a practical point of view, even after that snowflake, I found DoD to be one of the most recalcitrant organizations with which to deal,” he added (on a not-for-attribution basis).
But a current official disputed the premise of the Rumsfeld memo.  “We are capable of keeping secrets– the issue is how many and how long,” he said.  “The more we seek to protect and the longer we seek to protect it the less likely we will meet with success.  The classification system can’t be effective if we over-burden the system.”
This official said that the new Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta, could still transform the military secrecy system in a meaningful way if he were to treat it as a “mission critical” instrument to be used sparingly and with precision rather than as an inherited bureaucracy that does not have to meet any performance standards at all.
Another current official pondered “What would change if one presumed that the U.S. government cannot keep a secret?  I doubt that many USG officials would say that we should therefore stop trying.  The most likely and positive conclusion might be that we should severely limit the number and kinds of secrets we seek to protect.”
In fact, that seems to be the conclusion that was reached by Secretary Rumsfeld himself in another startling snowflake (pdf) dated August 9, 2005 and addressed to Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence (USD(I)), Stephen Cambone:

Read more...

Secret Space Plane Can’t Hide From Amateur Sleuths

• By Noah Shachtman

The U.S. military likes to be a little sneaky with its robotic space planes. Unlike typical spacecraft, these vehicles can shift their orbits, frustrating the global network of skywatchers who keep track of just about every man-made object rotating the planet.
But the sleuths have their tricks, too. They’ve tracked down the X-37B on its second secret mission. And the information the skywatchers are finding says quite a bit about the classified operations of this mysterious spacecraft.
It took the amateur sleuths nearly a month to hunt down the first X-37B after it launched on its inaugural mission. That’s an eternity in sky-spotting time.