Domestic NYPost: NYPD’s Secret X-Ray Vans. Police Commissioner Bill Bratton won’t let the NYCLU — or anyone else — bully him for details on the NYPD’s super-secret X-ray vans. The top cop was asked Tuesday about the counter-terror vehicles, called Z Backscatter Vans, in light of the NYCLU’s request to file an amicus brief arguing that the NYPD should have to release records about the X-ray vans. DigitalTrends: Anti-Drone Guns Disable UAVs. While some homeowners are turning to shotguns to deal with unwanted drones, federal agencies and law enforcement lack the necessary technology to deal with this increasing menace. However, thanks to Battelle Innovations and its new DroneDefender, law enforcement now has an anti-drone system designed to disable a drone without blasting it out the sky. Security / Defense TI: Drone Papers. Drones are a tool, not a policy. The policy is assassination. While every president since Gerald Ford has upheld an executive order banning assassinations by U.S. personnel, Congress has avoided legislating the issue or even defining the word “assassination.” This has allowed proponents of the drone wars to rebrand assassinations with more palatable characterizations, such as the term du jour, “targeted killings.” TelegraphUK: US Navy Returns to Celestial Navigation. But now the US navy is reinstating classes on celestial navigation for all new recruits, teaching the use of sextants – instruments made of mirrors used to calculate angles and plot directions – because of rising concerns that computers used to chart courses could be hacked or malfunction. WaPo: China’s Space Weapons Program. A forthcoming report by the congressional U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission provides new details of China’s space-weapons programs, dubbed counterspace arms, that are aimed at destroying or jamming U.S. satellites and limiting American combat operations around the world. Eurasia D1: Pentagon Re-Writing Russia Strategy in Europe. The Pentagon is rethinking everything from training to nuclear deterrence in the wake of unexpected Russian military deployments in eastern Ukraine and Syria – and in anticipation of more to come. FoxNews: Obama To Keep Troops In Afghanistan. President Obama announced Thursday he will keep 5,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan beyond 2016, in a stark reversal from earlier pledges to end the war on his watch. Bloomberg: Cyberspace Becomes Second Front of Russian Conflict. Russian computer attacks have become more brazen and more destructive as the country grows increasingly at odds with the U.S. and European nations over military goals first in Ukraine and now Syria. Middle East VICE: Thousands of Iranian Troops In Syria. Iran has sent thousands of troops into Syria in recent days to bolster the planned ground offensive in Aleppo. FoxNews: Cuban General, Troops in Syria, Too. Cuban military operatives reportedly have been spotted in Syria, where sources believe they are advising President Bashar al-Assad’s soldiers and may be preparing to man Russian-made tanks to aid Damascus in fighting rebel forces backed by the U.S. Continue reading...
