May 2009 archive

From RawStory: “Even with President Obama’s looming deadline to close the Guantanamo Bay military prison, and the U.S. Senate’s refusal to supply funding to do so until its prisoners can be transferred anywhere but the United States, somehow money has been approved to upgrade the prison’s access control system and to install new video surveillance cameras.”

According to Government Security News magazine:

When it initially posted its “special notice” of the upcoming security work on May 1, the Gitmo contracting branch indicated it planned to award a sole source, fixed price contract to Norment Security Group, Inc., of Tracy, CA, for its “proprietary electronic access control system,” but a subsequent notice published May 22 appears to open the procurement contract to all qualified security vendors.

Norment performed the original systems integration work on the access control system in Camp Six, under a contract worth about $600,000, when it was built during the Bush administration, Steve Stonehouse, a sales and marketing executive at the company, told GSN on May 26.

“They want to add some cameras, so they can see some areas better,” said Steve Adams, an electronics estimator with Norment.

The Joint Task Force – Guantanamo described the current access control system as including a programmable controller by Omron, of Kyoto, Japan; an Access database from Microsoft; touch screen software from the Wonderware unit of Invensys Group, of London, UK; and other products by Honeywell.

Neither Stonehouse nor Adams could explain why the Guantanamo contracting office would be spending additional money on the access control and video surveillance systems, if the president intends to close the detention facilities during the coming year. They guessed that the upgrades were simply temporary measures that would enhance security on a short-term basis.

The original contract posting is here…

No Wednesday Songs

Huge blast hits central Lahore

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) — A huge explosion reduced at least one building to rubble and sent plumes of thick smoke miles into the sky in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore on Wednesday.

The blast occurred on Mall Road near the city police headquarters and the high court, according to witnesses and GEO-TV, a CNN affiliate.

There were no immediate details on confirmed casualties, though television reports said the blast wounded several people, destroyed dozens of cars and damaged buildings.

Lahore is the same city where gunmen hurled grenades and opened fire on officers at a police training center in March.

The same month, gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying members of the Sri Lankan national cricket team on their way to a stadium for a match. The well-coordinated attack wounded at least eight members of the team and killed a driver and six Pakistani police officers.

North Korea Threatens Armed Strike, End to Armistice

May 27 (Bloomberg) — North Korea threatened military action in response to South Korea joining a program to seize weapons shipments, and said it’s no longer bound by the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War.

South Korea’s actions are tantamount to a “declaration of war,” the official Korean Central News Agency said in a statement today. “If the armistice agreement loses its validity, the Korean peninsula will revert to a state of war.”

The threats are the strongest since North Korea tested a nuclear weapon on May 25th, drawing international condemnation and the prospect of increased sanctions against Kim Jong Il’s reclusive regime. South Korea yesterday joined the U.S.-led initiative to locate and seize shipments of equipment and materials used to make weapons of mass destruction.

North Korea has once again pushed its self into the worlds headlines with the testing of a second nuclear device on Monday morning followed my the test launching of 5 short range missiles.  As is common the guessing game is in full throttle as to what North Korea really wants if anything.

First the nuclear test:  North Korea might be trying to achieve what India and Pakistan did when they first tested nuclear devices in 1998. Recognition by the worlds governments as independent nuclear powers. First India at that time and continuing to this today is a rising world economic power. Pakistan has since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan has been at the forefront in the worlds fight against terrorism. So what can North Korea offer the world? No natural resources, a collapsed economy and little else.

Sanctions: There are sanctions in place voted on by the United Nations plus additional ones from Japan and South Korea that deal with remittances, travel, trade, humanitarian aid and fuel oil deliveries. China the North’s closer ally has worked around or ignored these sanctions out of fear. Fear that if economic aid was cut off North Korea would collapse leading to a mass influx of refugees across the boarder into China which the Chinese government believes would lead to instability which it would be unable to control. South Korea would also suffer from a sudden collapse.

North South relations: Over the previous ten years the governments of Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun worked to engage the North under the Sunshine Policy. With the election of Lee Moon-bak a conservative politician who once worked as an executive for Hyundai all that changed. Believing that North Korea would never adhere to any agreements unless there were consequences for violations. Thus Lee’s government reduced humanitarian aid along with fuel oil shipments causing strained relations which led to the expulsion of South Korean workers from the Kaesong industrial zone after the government accused a worker of spying.

Finally there is the question of succession:  Its believed that last August Kim Jong-il suffered a stroke adding to already existing medical problems. So the question of succession became a hot topic. Who would succeed Kim Jong-il is eldest son who once tried to enter Japan on a fake Jamaican passport for the sole purpose of going to Tokyo Disneyland. Perhaps his 26 year old son Kim Jong-un who was recently given a minor post on North Korea’s Defense Council.

So what is the reason behind North Korea’s testing of a nuclear device your guess is as good as anyone else’s as reading the tea leaves of reclusive North Korea are almost impossible. Many expect North Korea is looking for recognition from the United States giving them, in their minds equal status among the worlds nations.