T3H Blog

President Barack Obama met with Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama for 10 minutes during the Nuclear Security Summit held in Washington (April 12, 2010). Originally PM Hatoyama had not be on the list of exalted leaders that were to meet with President Obama; however, through diplomatic wrangling PM Hatoyama managed to save face back home with the inconsequential 10 minutes meeting during dinner Monday night marking the opening the summit. Nevertheless, the meeting will likely do very little to improve on his credibility and popularity at home (or anywhere else).

It is nice to see that President Obama can be so magnanimous to a brother politician in desperate need… (I guess he had lots of practice with people like al-Maliki, Karzai, Zardari, and the likes)

PS. I wonder if President Obama quibbled “trust me” to PM Hatoyama to reassure him that thing would be OK?

The Canadian Information Warfare Monitor released two great reports related to cyberspace espionage and crime: Tracking GhostNet: Investigating a Cyber Espionage Network and Shadows in the Cloud: An investigation into cyber espionage 2.0.

The reports document a complex ecosystem of cyber espionage and crime that systematically targets and compromises computer systems around the world (Afghanistan, India, Russia, all the way to Zimbabwe), and organizations (an alphabet soup of acronyms from the U.N. to NATO, and lots of NGOs). The reports point out an ever enlarging ecosystem of crime and espionage taking root in cyberspace. Much of the reports easily point to China – with its stated aim to advance China’s economy via any means – seen as the obvious culprit (currently).

The reports and the recent plethora of exploit revelations indicate that China is well ahead with the deployment of its INFINT, with the likely assistance from its global HUMINT network.

Consequently and in addition to these two reports, with their stated aims of INFINT (Information Intelligence), we need now a report studying the great HUMINT network China deployed worldwide and its connection to their INFINT. For a start, China has citizens in just about every center of higher learning around the world – from the National Technological University of Argentina to the University of Zagreb – not to mention governments, companies, and so on. These post-graduate and graduate students learn the best a country has to offer; and, often contributing to local organizations as interns. However, the end game is to return home with a solid body of knowledge (BoK) readily usable to advance China – nothing wrong with that, especially since they pay full price, often inflated, for the education and the take home BoK.

Premise: How many of these ‘students/interns’ leave little gift in computers (and throughout networks) they have access to during their stay?

What is extremely interesting in both reports is that they reveal the harbinger of things to come. However, in my opinion I think that much of the complaints among the industrialize countries regarding China’s cyberspace activities may be a little sour grape… The “Free World” needs a villain, always – the USSR is dead; long live the PRC!

Note 1: INFINT (Information Intelligence) – information gathering in cyberspace by compromising computer systems – the term is more reflective of the current cyberspace activity than SIGINT (Signal Intelligence) the predominate mean of information gathering in the not so distance past and still going strong with its COMINT (communications intelligence) and ELINT (electronic intelligence) elements in some part of the “physical” world.

Note 2: Currently, there is not a single country among the current 192 United Nations (UN) member states without a Chinese community (excluding diplomats).

Many tribes in Afghanistan are in existence since much before the development of a state and have largely remained outside of any nation building. Afghan borders with neighbouring countries, as those countries’ borders, are artificial delineation made by strangers to the region (mostly by from the British and Russian Empires), incapable to contain these tribes. These tribes have been conducting endemic warfare – living in a state of continual, low-threshold warfare, for nearly two millennia – starting with Alexander the Great in 330 BC.

From the Durrani Empire (1747-1826) on the “Afghanis” have known very little peace from war with the Sikhs (starting in 1760s), the Uzbeks (from 1770s), the British (1839~42, 1878~80, 1919), all the way to the Soviet (1979~88) and now the United States (2001~); and the period between these wars, pretty well for the entire Barakzai dynasty (1826-1973) a civil war or another punctuated Afghanistan’s history.

To add oil to the fire – many of the tribes are not only aligned along ethnicity – Pashtun, Tajik, Farsiwan, Qezelbash, Hazara, Uzbek, Aimaq, Turkmen, Baluch (just to name a few) – but kinship, with its endless clans like feuds. This make-up leads to segregation from valley to valley (regions) complicating ever arriving to a just and equitable peace any time soon within Afghanistan (as a nation). The shared Afghan heritage either based on putative common ancestry, history, kinship, religion, language, shared territory, nationality, physical appearance will continue to be corrupt, always dominated by the strongest man (based on guns or money, or both).

However the obvious seem to be lost on politicians that for the greater majority have never worn a pair of combat boots, had them covered in Afghan dust, had their hands and lips crack by the cold nights, the sweat from exertion make their clothes stick to their body, be perpetually thirsty, hungry, tired, and so on. Therefore, they keep sending cannon fodder to a land where the best resource is opium poppy.

Yes, the country has natural resources such as gold, silver, copper, zinc, and iron ore (Southeast); precious and semi-precious stones (Northeast); and significant petroleum and natural gas reserves (North), along with uranium, coal, chromites, talc, barites, sulphur, lead, and salt – but even these untapped resources are regionally distributed and amount to very little in the daily survival of most Afghanis.

Afghanistan cannot be fenced off and simply ignored or become the subject of endless rhetoric like in Palestine or meaningless resolution like Iraq – thus, it is too soon for any politicians to think that they will find a politically expedient solution to the region based on their schedule. This endeavour has to go all the way to the end. This festering wound has to be bandaged and nursed to health; in end that will take courage that few current politicians have – As Winston Churchill had pondered at the close of World War II, “America, it is a great and strong country, like a workhorse pulling the rest of the world out of despond and despair. But will it stay the course?” I like to add – or simply cut and run before the next election…

Maybe one true leader will have an epiphany and stay the course regardless of what America does – bring a different unifying perspective to this land and safeguard it no matter what – and more importantly give meaning to all the lives of yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

PS. Solutions to the Karzai brothers problem exist, such as accidents, many of them costing less than US$100 (price of 50 cal bullets from stray sniper shots)

Hey dreaming is free, and in colour!

References:

• Afghanistan: Why Karzai Is Pushing Back Against the U.S.
• Afghan woman seeks help when Karzai comes to town
• Editorial: Karzai’s outburst is indeed troubling