Avatar photoBurma, Bombs and Boxes

ISIS has released a long-awaited trio of papers on Burma’s very odd nuclear programs. Burma: A Nuclear Wanabee; Suspicious Links to North Korea; High-Tech Procurements (January 28, 2010) A look at Burmese high tech illicit procurement efforts, the cooperation with North Korea in the areas procurement and development, and imagery analysis of several suspicious facilities. …

Avatar photoSolvency, Show Biz and Security

A cunning rock ‘n roll showman, David Lee Roth, once opined that, “The key to success is sincerity. Once you can fake that, you’ve got it made.” Vice President Richard M. Nixon defended himself when he was struggling to stay on the ticket with Ike by calling attention to his family’s pet dog and his …

Avatar photoTranslating the Okada Letter

Reader Michael Cucek, on his blog Shisaku, offers some commentary on the translation of Japanese Foreign Minister Okada’s letter to SECSTATE Clinton regarding the nuclear umbrella. One key passage involved whether Japanese diplomats did, or did not, tell the Strategic Posture Commission that the Japanese government opposed retirement of the archaic nuclear-armed Tomahawk missile aka …

Avatar photoHow Not To Secure the Internet

Abraham Kaplan wasn’t addressing national security, but what he wrote in 1964 is broadly applicable and still fresh today: I call it the law of the instrument, and it may be formulated as follows: Give a small boy a hammer, and he will find that everything he encounters needs pounding. Transposed to adulthood, that principle …