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Tuesday, May 27, 2014

China to ditch Top US Consulting Firms over "Espionage", "High Level Hooliganism"

State-owned Chinese companies will cease to work with US consulting companies like McKinsey and Boston Consulting Group over fears they are spying on behalf of the US government.

US consulting companies McKinsey, BCG, Bain & Company, and Strategy&, formerly Booz & Co., will all be snubbed by state-owned Chinese companies, the Financial Times reported, citing sources close to senior Chinese leaders.

“The top leadership has proposed setting up a team of Chinese domestic consultants who are particularly focused on information systems in order to seize back this power from the foreign companies,” a senior policy adviser to the Chinese leadership was quoted by the FT as saying.

“Right now the foreigners use their consulting companies to find out everything they want about our state companies,” the adviser said.

McKinsey is the largest global consulting group operating in China, and about one-third of clients are state-owned enterprises. McKinsey has 650 employees in China.

Last Thursday China announced that all foreign companies would have to undergo a new security test. Any company, product or service that fails will be banned from China. The inspection will be conducted across all sectors - communications, finance, and energy.

China has already banned Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system from government computers, according to Chinese state media agency Xinhua.

“Under President Xi Jinping, technology and implementation will look to be converging, so foreign tech firms should be very worried about their prospects,” Bill Bishop, an independent consultant based in Beijing, told the FT.
Chinese officials have said that government ministries, companies, universities, and telecoms networks are victims of US hacking, and will try to avoid using US technology in order to protect “public interest”.

The dictate follows the US Justice Department’s indictment of five Chinese military officers it suspects of committing cyber crimes against a number of major US companies, including US Steel, Westinghouse and Alcoa. The US accused the army officers of stealing trade secrets and even published their photos.

Beijing responded by calling the US a ‘robber playing cop’, and more recently said the US is a “mincing rascal” and involved in “high-level hooliganism”.

The US-China fallout came after revelations made by NSA contractor Edward Snowden that the US uses economic cyber espionage to spy on international competitors, including China.

The dispute is only the latest setback in relations between the world’s two largest economies. Issues like Ukraine, Syria, and North Korea have been divisive topics between the two superpowers.
(RT)
Pakistan Cyber Force

Friday, May 23, 2014

"Time for Talks is Over!", Gen. Raheel tells Nawaz Sharif

At Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s palatial offices in Islamabad this week, the army chief sat down to deliver the head of government a message he did not want to hear: The time for talks with the troublesome Pakistani Taliban was over.

Sharif came to power a year ago promising to find a peaceful settlement with the Islamist militant group, but as round after round of talks failed, the powerful armed forces favoured a military solution.

Their patience finally ran out and, late on Tuesday afternoon, during a tense meeting, the army effectively declared it would override a crucial plank of the government’s strategy and take matters into its own hands.

“The army chief and other military officers in the room were clear on the military’s policy: the last man, the last bullet,” a government insider with first-hand knowledge of the meeting told a foreign news agency.

Asked to sum up the message General Raheel Sharif wanted to convey at the gathering, he added: “The time for talk is over.”

The next day, Pakistani forces launched rare air strikes against militants holed up in the remote, lawless tribal belt near the Afghan border. It is not clear whether Sharif authorized the operation.

On Thursday, they backed that up with the first major ground offensive against the Taliban there, undermining Sharif’s year-long attempt to end a bloody insurgency across his country through peaceful means.

Disagreement over the militant threat is the latest row to flare up between the government and military, and relations between the two branches of power are at their lowest ebb for years, according to government officials.

The government did say talks with the Taliban would go on.

“We will talk with those who are ready for it and the (military) operation is being launched against those who are not ready to come to the negotiating table,” spokesman Pervez Rashid told local media on Thursday.

But the operations put the military, which has a long record of intervening in civilian rule through plots and coups, firmly back at the centre of Pakistan’s security policy.

The balance of power is shifting at a time when foreign troops are preparing to withdraw from Afghanistan, and arch-rival India has just elected a Hindu nationalist leader promising to be more assertive on the international stage.

“This is the clearest signal yet that the army will dictate its terms now,” a member of Sharif’s cabinet said.

TALIBAN ON THE OFFENSIVE

The Pakistani Taliban, as distinct from the Afghan Taliban which is actively targeting NATO forces in Afghanistan, is believed to be behind attacks on Pakistani soldiers and civilians that have killed thousands in recent years.

The Pakistan army has distinguished between “good” Taliban like the feared Haqqani network – who do not attack Pakistani security forces but fight in Afghanistan – and “bad” Taliban, indigenous Pakistani militants who are seeking to create an Islamic state.

While Pakistan’s military wants to go after the “bad” Taliban, it has, despite pressure from Washington, largely avoided taking on groups who launch attacks against coalition forces in Afghanistan from Pakistan’s North Waziristan region.

Prompting the latest intervention, the Pakistani Taliban have become increasingly bold, striking the army in tribal areas including a recent battle in which an army major died. Earlier this month, nine soldiers were killed in an explosion near the Afghan border.

“We will avenge the blood of every last soldier. Talks or no talks, the army will retaliate,” said one military official, who, like most others interviewed for this article, spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the subject.

The army has ruled Pakistan for more than half of its history. Sharif himself was toppled by the army in 1999 during his previous tenure as prime minister.

But, humiliated after a secret 2011 U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden on Pakistani soil, the army stood back from politics and supported last year’s first democratic transition of power which brought Sharif back to office.

Sharif manoeuvred carefully, hand picking a new army chief and trying to forge a partnership with the military in the early days of his tenure, but the overtures had little lasting impact.

TRADE, DIPLOMACY

There are other signs of civil-military discord.

Sharif came to power promising to rebuild relations with India, but has been under pressure to toughen his stance from hardliners at home, particularly within the army.

The nuclear-armed neighbours have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947, two of them over the still-disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir.

Sharif’s policies towards India have been heavily scrutinized; some in the army justify its hefty budget by pointing to – and, critics say, playing up – the potential threat from India.

And despite signs the military has become more amenable to overtures from its old foe than in the past, a trade deal pushed by the prime minister and aimed at improving ties with India was cancelled at the last minute after pressure from the army, top government officials said.

Sharif now faces a dilemma over whether to accept an invitation by Indian Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi to attend his inauguration next week.

The army is also bitter about the trial of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, who ousted Sharif from power in 1999 and was arrested after he returned to Pakistan to take part in last year’s election.

Ties with Afghanistan have never been easy, but some officials believe the army wants to torpedo the government’s relationship with a future Kabul administration, risking deterioration in regional security as NATO troops prepare to leave this year.

Generals have jealously guarded the right to dictate policy on Afghanistan, seeing friendly guerrilla groups as “assets” to blunt the influence of India there.

TENSIONS COME TO SURFACE

Though simmering under the surface, tensions between the government and the army spilled into the open last month when a popular journalist was shot by unknown gunmen, and his channel, Geo News, blamed the army’s powerful spy agency, the Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

Public criticism of the shadowy ISI is almost unheard of in Pakistan. In a rare public response, the army demanded that Geo News, the country’s most-watched news channel, be shut down.

The government’s media regulator has since resisted the army’s demands to cancel the channel’s license, which the military sees as a direct sign of defiance.

“Everyone was looking out to see how the government would treat the army in this crisis — as a friend or foe?” said a senior military official. “But the government allowed this to become a free-for-all, army-hunting season.”

For Sharif, buckling under military pressure is a major risk. “This is not about one TV channel but about freedom of expression and about living in a democracy,” Rashid said. “We should live and let live.”

But despite putting on a brave front, officials say the government is feeling under siege.

“Never in the last year has the government felt weaker or more vulnerable,” one of Sharif’s key economic advisers said. “Now every time we have to take a major decision, on India, on Afghanistan, we will have to think ‘How will the army react?’”


A serving general said the army chief would always pick the “institution over the constitution if push comes to shove,” adding: “As a society and a state, we have to avoid a context in which the army is pushed to do something it doesn’t want to.”
(Pakistan Today)
Pakistan Cyber Force

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Russia Hits Back: Blocks US GPS, Bans US Use Of Russian Rocket Engines

Russian president Vladimir Putin
Just as Russia had promised, sanctions were not effective and so they went straight to targeted bans. On the heels of The Pentagon admitting that they had "no solution" to replacing Russian rocket engines in the launch systems for US military satellites (as we have covered extensively), Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin this morning announced:
  • *ROGOZIN: RUSSIA TO HALT U.S. GPS BASES IN RUSSIA ON JUNE 1:IFX
  • *RUSSIAN BAN ON ROCKET USE FOR US MILITARY SATELLITE LAUNCHES: IFX
He further added that Russia will not extend its partnership in the International Space Station beyond 2020 (which suggests Russia does not expect a quick resolution to the current tensions).

As RT reports,
Moscow is banning Washington from using Russian-made rocket engines, which the US has used to deliver its military satellites into orbit, said Russia’s Deputy PM, Dmitry Rogozin, who is in charge of space and defense industries.

According to Rogozin, Russia is also halting the operation of all American GPS stations on its territory from June 1.

Russia currently hosts 11 ground-based GPS stations, the Deputy PM said.

The move comes after the US refused to place a signal correction station for Russia’s own space-based satellite navigation system, GLONASS, on American territory, he explained.
This is a major problem for the US military because (as Bloomberg reports),   
 
 
The Pentagon has no “great solution” to reduce its dependence on a Russian-made engine that powers the rocket used to launch U.S. military satellites, the Defense Department’s top weapons buyer said.

“We don’t have a great solution,” Frank Kendall, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, said yesterday after testifying before a Senate committee. “We haven’t made any decisions yet.”

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered the Air Force to review its reliance on the rocket engine after tensions over Russia’s takeover of Ukraine’s Crimea region prompted questions from lawmakers about that long-time supply connection.

United Launch Alliance LLC, a partnership of Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co., uses the Russian-made RD-180 engine on Atlas V rockets.

As Putin warned - apparently correctly...
 
 
“The US is certainly one of the world’s leaders. At some point it seemed that it was the only leader and a uni-polar system was in place. Today it appears that is not the case. Everything in the world is interdependent and once you try to punish someone, in the end you will cut off your nose to spite your face,” he said.
(ZeroHedge)
Pakistan Cyber Force

Monday, May 12, 2014

The Secular Fascists' dilemma of blaming Jinnah and Pakistan for everything

This is a rebuttal to Mahwish Badar’s article appearing in the Express Tribune titled “Jinnah made a mistake and I am ashamed of being Pakistani!”. Although ET publishes a disclaimer at the end of each blog that the views expressed in the article are not newspaper’s policy but it gets difficult to digest realizing the fact that most of the articles have the same tendency of attacking Pakistan’s ideology and its religious base. I wouldn’t have thought of writing this article if Miss Mahwish had the courage to keep her twitter public to get some dose of criticism but I am not surprised as she knew what she would face in the country where her views are rejected by majority and she is justified to write such an article in anger instead of supporting it logically.

She starts with the problems she faces on airports during “hopping” countries without going into details of what caused all this. Did Jinnah cause it or her favorite super power country US by invading foreign lands and expecting the natives to present them flowers. For a single person who was “allegedly” involved in 9/11 they invaded Afghanistan and later Iraq causing the death of millions of human beings as “Collateral Damage”. Those who were trained and treated with utmost respect by White House in 1980s became terrorists overnight.

And then the stereotyping continues as Mahvish goes on to blame dictatorship and later on quotes NY Times article about WHO declaration of polio emergency in Pakistan. Not going into details of who laid the industrial foundation of Pakistan and made institutions like NADRA, HEC, NHA, the polio emergency was never imposed during any dictatorial rule which makes Mahvish’s argument void. And then came the Mullah factor, the same mullah who was supported by the west for their own interest in 1980s. I agree with Mahvish that Pakistan needs to get rid of the Mullah culture but that doesn’t mean giving secular forces the license to operate freely because Jinnah never wanted a theocratic state nor a secular state. I know Mahvish would argue about Jinnah wanting a secular state to which I would recommend her to read the book “Secular Jinnah” written by Salena Karim which is based on evidence, not mere assumptions.

Mahvish is very much worried about the grave situation in Pakistan but still is ashamed of being a Pakistani; both these sentences don’t get along very well. You cannot be worried about something you are ashamed of. When you are worried about a country that is in miseries, you help fix it not that you abandon it and blame the founder for the miseries denying historical facts. The atrocities of Kashmir, Gujrat, Babri Mosque should be enough for a sane person to realize why it was important to have a separate homeland and how wise Jinnah’s decision was in the context.

Attack on Raza Rumi and any other citizen of Pakistan is as much deplorable as raping of thousands of mothers and sisters in Kashmir. The attack on polio workers in Pakistan should be condemned as much as the unmarked graves in Kashmir and mass genocide of Muslim communities in Assam and Gujrat. Mahvish has passed the judgment that any Pakistani that feels proud of being a Pakistani is on the side of murderers and that people supporting a United India like her, despite all the Indian state terrorism for decades, are peaceful citizens.


Mahvish, 180 million Pakistanis are ashamed of people like you who grow up in Pakistan, get a degree, fly abroad and blame the founder instead of returning the favor. The great nations and super powers whom you mentioned in your article didn't become superpower overnight. Their utmost dedication to their country made them great. If you still want to become a Pakistani again, you are most welcome because unlike your ideals, Pakistanis have a big heart.

Written By: Faraan Khan
Faraan tweets at @FaraanKhan (twitter.com/Faraankhan)

Pakistan Cyber Force

Geo's Shame: Mir Shakeel's Mother, Brother File a Fraud Case Against him

After its latest false flag attack on the country's prime intelligence agency, the ISI, Geo has come under heavy fire from all sections of the Pakistani civil society not only on the social media but on-ground as well. What came as a pleaseant surprise was a firm stand against Geo taken by the patriotic elements in the Pakistani Media which have never been this vocal in the past. The blatant attacks based on fabrications and lies against the country's defenders seems to have angered the nation to such an extent that there seems to be no turning back.

There are some startling reports that are circulating within the patriotic circles on the social media that are pointing out at some more disturbing facts against Geo. These might end up increasing the public anger against them even further. There are some reports that Mir Javed ur Rehman, the brother of Mir Shakeel ur Rehman, along with his mother Mrs Mahmooda Khalid are residing in Karachi in the old house of Mir Khalil ur Rehman. Both Brothers (Mir Javed and Mir Shakeel) had 30% shares each with their mother having 40% shares in Jang group. However later, being a dirty player that he is, Mir Shakeel got the shares of his mother transferred to himself through illegal means.

Reports say that Mir Javed has filed a case against Mir Shakeel that he has transferred his mother's share to himself through fraudulent activities and forgery, without the consent of his mother. Report further states that Mir Shakeel's own mother is standing against him with his brother Mir Javed on this case.

Seeing this report, it is no more hard to believe that a person who commits a fraud against his own mother, how can he be sincere to his country or to the nation? This fact is further reinforced by these reports that Jang group owes about Rs. 1 Billion to the National Bank of Pakistan which, upon demand, it has not only arrogantly refused to pay, but also threatened a blackmailing smear media campaign against the National Bank officials. Moreover, Mir Shakeel owns no less than TWO mansions at Emirates Hill, Dubai which are worth no less than Rs. 50 Million each. He not only lives a royal life but also enjoys 2 Rolls Royce cars and a private jet.

Interesting but horrifying to note here is that Jang group has successfully bought off important pawns in major Pakistani institutions who safeguards its illegal activities. Just like PEMRA, Supreme Court, Islamabad High Court and PTA, Mir Shakeel has some notorious FBR officers on his payroll who force FBR to stay mum on the fact that Jang Group is a tax defaulter of no less than Rs. 2.75 Billion. It is also ironic to note that majority of the high rate commercials being telecast on Geo are given to it by none other than the undisputed kings of corruption e.g., Malik Riaz, Mian Mansha and the Punjab Govt itself.

However, the dark age of Media terrorism is about to be over. GEO is continuously losing its rating and the unbelievable has already happened. Dunyia, ARY and Samma have already taken over GEO! Seeing the public sentiments oozing out anger on social media against Geo, it is visible that Jang Group's days of corruption, terror and backstabbing of Pakistani State are numbered.

Pakistan Cyber Force

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Putin Orders Alpha Troops To Ukraine, Declares “Red War” Now In Progress

A foreboding “urgent action bulletin” released by the Federal Security Services (FSB) states that President Putin this morning declared that a “State of Red War” now exists and has ordered an “immediate deployment” of the much feared and highly secretive Spetsgruppa A (Alpha Group) forces into Ukraine to counter the estimated 2,000 Takfiri terrorist fighters being deployed from Syria into Kiev by the Obama regime.

A “State of Red War” declaration means that a conflict within or outside of Russia’s borders endangers a “significant” number of Russian speaking peoples and could possibly soon escalate into a “State of Total War”, the latter which allows for the use of nuclear weapons and a full-scale deployment of military forces.

Alpha Group is a dedicated counter-terrorism unit that belongs to OSNAZ of the FSB, or more specifically the “A” Directorate of the FSB Special Operations Center (TsSN). It is currently believed to consist of 700 persons, 400 assigned to the Moscow Detachment and the remaining 300 located in other cities in Russia.

Alfa Group's primary function is believed to be to carry out urban counter-terrorist missions under the direct sanction and control of the Russian political leadership. However, little is publicly known and other plausible missions would include a variety of paramilitary, policing and/or covert operations.

As we had previously reported too, Alfa Group forces were deployed on 24 February to the Crimea oblast after Putin had warned NATO that Russia would go to war to protect this vital region after the US-backed coup in Ukraine toppled its elected government.

To understand the frightening fierceness of Alpha Group forces one only need remember October 1985 when they were dispatched to Beirut after four Russian diplomats had been taken hostage by militant Sunni Muslims.

By the time Alfa Group was onsite, one of the hostages had already been killed. The perpetrators and their relatives were identified by supporting intelligence operatives, and the latter were taken hostage.

Following the standard policy of “no negotiation”, Alfa Group proceeded to sever some of their hostages' body parts and sent them to the perpetrators with a warning that more would follow if the Russian hostages were not released immediately. The tactic was a success and no other Russian national was taken hostage in the Middle East for the next 20 years.

To the need of Alpha Group forces in the Ukraine battle zone, this report says, was underscored by reports of Takfiri terrorist fighters now being deployed by the Obama regime and their Saudi Arabian allies to terrify and kill Russian speaking peoples.

The grim news of these Takfiri terrorist fighters entering Ukraine has been further verified by the FNA News Service who in their report writes:
“A large number of terrorist Takfiri fighters in Syria, who bear Saudi and Chechnian nationalities and receive financial and military backup from the Saudi intelligence agency, have been transferred to the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, on several planes to help the Ukrainian army in its fight against the pro-Russian population," an Arab security official told FNA on Sunday on the condition of anonymity due to the secrecy of the issue.
“The forces have been immediately dispatched to Kramatorsk city in Eastern Ukraine, and are now fighting beside the Ukrainian army forces against the pro-Russians under the name of militias who support the government," the source added.
The source explained that Saudi Arabia seeks to take revenge from Russia and pro-Russian people in Ukraine due to Moscow's support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the war on rebel groups.
Last Summer, former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Bandar reportedly offered Russian President Putin a deal, saying if Russia abandoned Syria, Saudi Arabia would protect the Sochi Olympics from Islamic terrorists. Putin angrily rebuffed the offer. In January, two terrorist bombings, for which the Saudis were blamed, happened only 400 miles away from the site of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.”
To whom are directing these Takfiri terrorist fighters in Ukraine, this report continues, there is little doubt it is the Obama regimes Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) whose forces have deployed in huge numbers into Kiev, and as we had previously reported, on 4 May, have already incurred casualties.

After the Horror In Odessa last Friday, this report says, these Alpha Group forces are now “urgently needed” in an area where neo-Nazi Ukrainian forces backed by the Obama regime burned alive nearly 50 pro-federalist supporters that these sadistic Kiev activist called “our May barbecue”, and other activists sang the Ukrainian national anthem and hurled a new taunt: “Colorado” for the Colorado  potato beetle, striped red and black like the pro-Russian ribbons. Those outside chanted “burn Colorado, burn,” witnesses said. Swastika-like symbols were spray painted on the building, along with graffiti reading “Galician SS”.

To justify the use of these Takfiri terrorist fighters, this report continues, the Obama regime coup-installed government in Kiev is now calling them “volunteers” and have begun organizing them into “special forces brigades” they are now moving them into Eastern Ukraine to battle the pro-federalists.

But not just to fighting pro-federalist forces are these Takfiri terrorist fighters being tasked, this report warns, but also to targeting innocent civilians, and as we can, in part, read as reported by the RT News Service:
“A 30-year-old civilian woman died after being shot in the head by sniper fire while standing on her balcony in Slavyansk. RT’s Paula Slier visited shocked relatives of the victim, who say a Ukrainian army sniper is responsible, though they don't know why.  Irina, who was head of a department at a technical college in Slavyansk, never took part in any protests or fighting. However, when standing on her balcony and waiting for her husband to come home from a nearby garage, the woman was targeted by an unidentified sniper. Neighbors said they heard a popping sound coming from the trees opposite her window.”
As the Obama regimes hypocrisy over Ukraine is now being called “absolutely stunning”, this report further notes, and with former top US President Ronald Reagan administration official Paul Craig Roberts further warning yesterday that the Obama regime has no intention of allowing the crisis in Ukraine to be resolved, but is, instead, seeking to use it destroy Russia, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s dire warning today of total war is much nearing than many realize.

And as we had reported on 29 April when President Putin ordered an “all out” war against the US-backed petrodollar, his signing into law yesterday a bill to create a national card payment system that will destroy the US-EU banks behind Visa and MasterCard will, undoubtedly, cause the Obama regime to rage even more….and by extension make the Ukrainian Crisis even more bloody.
 Pakistan Cyber Force

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Russian Strategic Bombers Escalate Patrols Near U.S. Borders

It appears Russian military activities are picking up around the world. As AP reports, the commander of U.S. air forces in the Pacific is reporting a significant increase in activities by Russian planes and ships in the region; adding that "there had been long-range Russian air patrols to the coast of California ... and a U.S. F-15 fighter jet intercepted a Russian strategic bomber that had flown to Guam."

As AP reports,
The commander of U.S. air forces in the Pacific is reporting a significant increase in activities by Russian planes and ships in the region. Gen. Herbert Carlisle linked that to the situation in the Ukraine. He said Russia was demonstrating its capabilities and gathering intelligence on U.S. military exercises. Carlisle said there had been long-range Russian air patrols to the coast of California and a circumnavigation of the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam. He said a U.S. F-15 fighter jet intercepted a Russian strategic bomber that had flown to Guam. He also reported a sharp increase in Russian air patrols around Japanese islands and Korea. Carlisle said there was a lot more Russian ship activity too. He was speaking Monday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank.
(ZeroHedge) 
Pakistan Cyber Force