White House to put up spikes in long delayed measure to block fence jumpers.

Officials are planning to top the bars of the White House fence with spikes in order to discourage jumpers.

The spikes, described as “pencil protrusions,” are seen as “anti-climb” measures, reports CBS News.

The National Capital Planning Commission must still approve the plan, and is expected to do so at a meeting next month.

White House fence jumpers have been a long-time headache for the Secret Service and other security officials, particularly when one intruder managed to make his way inside the White House itself back in September.

The spikes would be a temporary measure until a new fence is installed down the line.

FBI holds emergency meeting in Mexico to discuss rising ISIS presence along the Mexico USA border.

Responding to Judicial Watch’s report earlier this week of ISIS activity along the Mexican border, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) supervisors called a “special” meeting at the U.S. Consulate in Ciudad Juárez.

A high-level intelligence source, who must remain anonymous for safety reasons, confirmed that the meeting was convened specifically to address a press strategy to deny Judicial Watch’s accurate reporting and identify who is providing information to JW. FBI supervisory personnel met with Mexican Army officers and Mexican Federal Police officials, according to JW’s intelligence source. The FBI liaison officers regularly assigned to Mexico were not present at the meeting and conspicuously absent were representatives from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). It’s not clear why DHS did not participate.

Publicly, U.S. and Mexico have denied that Islamic terrorists are operating in the southern border region, but the rapid deployment of FBI brass in the aftermath of JW’s report seems to indicate otherwise. A Mexican Army field grade officer and a Mexican Federal Police Inspector were among the sources that confirmed to JW that ISIS is operating a camp just a few miles from El Paso, Texas. The base is around eight miles from the U.S. border in an area known as “Anapra” situated just west of Ciudad Juárez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua.

Another ISIS cell to the west of Ciudad Juárez, in Puerto Palomas, targets the New Mexico towns of Columbus and Deming for easy access to the United States, the same knowledgeable sources confirm. During the course of a joint operation last week, Mexican Army and federal law enforcement officials discovered documents in Arabic and Urdu, as well as “plans” of Fort Bliss – the sprawling military installation that houses the US Army’s 1st Armored Division. Muslim prayer rugs were recovered with the documents during the operation.

Dangerous radioactive material stolen in Mexico… Again.

Authorities appealed for help among Mexico’s population on Thursday to locate stolen radioactive material, the latest theft of such dangerous substances in the country.

Iridium

The interior ministry issued an alert in five southern and eastern states late Wednesday, two days after a toolbox-sized container carrying the Iridium-192 source was snatched from a truck in a residential parking lot in Cardenas, Tabasco state.

Luis Felipe Puente, the national civil protection coordinator, urged ordinary Mexicans to be on the lookout and notify the authorities right away if they find the material, which is used for industrial radiography to check welding seams.

Israel is first country out of US to acquire F-35s as counter to Iran nuclear threat.

Two Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters (JSFs) will arrive in Israel in December 2016, making the Israeli Air Force (IAF) the first outside of the United States to receive the combat jet, a senior Lockheed Martin official said Wednesday.

The F-35 fighter jet is designed to counter advanced threats just like the one posed by the Russian-made S-300 surface to air missile system, a senior Lockheed Martin executive who is visiting Israel said on Wednesday.

Israel has ordered 33 additional F-35s and intends to acquire another 17 in the coming years, to form two full squadrons.

According to IHS Jane’s Defense Weekly, IAF sources said that a squadron commander and five pilots from Nevatim Air Base in southern Israel have been selected to become the country’s first F-35 pilots and instructors.

F-35A Lightning II

In an event for reporters at Nevatim, the IAF unveiled a new F-35 demonstrator provided by Lockheed, which IAF officials said will shorten the process of absorbing the new platform.

Egypt and Saudi Arabia to hold large scale military exercises in preperation for ground war in Yemen.

Saudi Arabia and Egypt are considering holding large-scale military exercises after launching airstrikes on Yemeni rebels who have been slapped with a UN arms embargo and sanctions.

In a possible sign the Saudi-led air campaign against the Shiite rebels might expand into a ground operation, Cairo said it and Riyadh were mulling the drills in Saudi Arabia with other Gulf countries participating.

Egyptian military exercise

“It was decided to form a joint military committee to look into a large-scale strategic maneuver on Saudi territory,” Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s office said late Tuesday after he met the Saudi defence minister.

Germany to give Lithuania powerful howitzers to defend against Russian military aggression.

Germany said Wednesday it wants to sell howitzer-type mobile artillery vehicles to Lithuania as the Baltic NATO nation boosts its defenses amid concerns over neighboring Russia.

“It is possible to give those 12 howitzer tanks to Lithuania,” German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen told journalists in Vilnius.

Von Der Leyen did not disclose the price, but said experts would invoke a “solidarity” clause when they finalize the deal next month.

German media reported the hardware was used by Berlin in Afghanistan and is now worth €15 million ($16 million).

A Dutch Panzerhaubitze 2000 fires a round in Afghanistan.

“We are interested in moving fast,” Lithuanian Army Col. Romualdas Petkevicius in charge of weapon procurement told AFP, adding he hoped the hardware would arrive next year.

US government worried that hackers can take over planes through in-flight entertainment systems.

Hackers could exploit inflight entertainment systems to fatally sabotage the cockpit electronics of a new generation of airliners connected to the Internet, a US government report warns.

It comes weeks after a co-pilot crashed his Germanwings A320 into the French Alps killing all 150 on board, prompting talk of airliners one day being 100 percent automated.

Inflight cybersecurity is “an increasingly important issue” that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is just starting to address in earnest, said the audit and investigative arm of the US Congress.

“Modern communications technologies, including IP connectivity, are increasingly used in aircraft systems, creating the possibility that unauthorized individuals might access and compromise aircraft avionics systems,” the Government Accountability Office (GAO) report said.

In the past, the electronics used to control and navigate aircraft — known as avionics — have functioned autonomously, said the GAO.

“However, according to FAA and experts we spoke to, IP networking may allow an attacker to gain remote access to avionics systems and compromise them,” the GAO said.

US military not yet capable of effective cyber war according to military official.

The US military is well equipped to defend the country against cyber attacks but is not yet ready to wage digital warfare, a senior defense official told lawmakers on Tuesday.

The military’s Cyber Command, created in 2009, lacks the means to lead an offensive campaign in a fast-moving digital conflict, said Eric Rosenbach, the Pentagon’s principal adviser on cybersecurity.

Asked by Sen. Bill Nelson if the command lacks the computer network infrastructure to carry out a cyber offensive “effectively,” Rosenbach said: “Yes, they currently do not have a robust capability.”

North Korea gives illegal rocket engines to Iran, Obama covers it up.

US intelligence officials revealed that during the ongoing Iran nuclear negotiations, North Korea has provided several shipments of advanced missile components to the Islamic regime in violation of UN sanctions – and the US hid the violations from the UN.

The officials, who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon on Wednesday on condition of anonymity, said more than two shipments of missile parts since last September have been monitored by the US going from North Korea to Iran.

One official detailed that the components included large diameter engines, which could be used to build a long-range missile system, potentially capable of bearing a nuclear warhead.

Chinese hackers hack in to impenetrable air gapped systems for over 10 years with out getting caught.

A sophisticated hacker group believed to be from China has been mounting a coordinated ‘APT30’ campaign capable of infiltrating air gapped systems, according to researchers at FireEye.
The researchers reported the campaign in a white paper entitled APT30 and the Mechanics of a Long Running Cyber Espionage Operation (PDF), warning that the attacks have successfully infiltrated numerous targets over the past 10 years.
“APT30 predominantly targets entities that may satisfy government intelligence collection requirements. The vast majority of APT30’s victims are in Southeast Asia,” read the paper.
“Much of their social engineering efforts suggests the group is particularly interested in regional political, military and economic issues, disputed territories, and media organisations and journalists who report on topics pertaining to China and the government’s legitimacy.”
The group reportedly infects victims using phishing messages, and deploys a sophisticated set of attack tools and backdoors that have been developed over the past 10 years.