RT, 28 Jan 10: Counterintelligence should remain a key priority for Russia’s Security Service (FSB) because of spies’ interest in state secrets, President Dmitry Medvedev said during a meeting with the agency’s board. “The foreign special services’ interest in our state secrets and newest developments remains high,” Medvedev said. Therefore, the president urged the country’s intelligence to respond promptly “to any attempts to collect classified information”. Criminal cases should be initiated whenever such facts are spotted. For his part, the head of state promised to provide support for the agency and its employees.
The focus of Medvedev’s meeting senior FSB officials on Thursday was, quite obviously, state security. Among major tasks in that respect the president named the necessity to provide the most up-to-date equipment at Russian borders. . . . President Medvedev said he that is satisfied with the FSB’s work in 2009 and the agency managed to accomplish its tasks. Over 80 terrorist attacks were prevented and 500 leaders and members of militant groups were neutralized, thanks to security forces efforts. However, “criminal attacks in Ingushetia, Dagestan and Chechnya show that terrorism is the main threat for society,” he cautioned. Therefore, Medvedev has called on the federal security service to continue “systematic work to neutralize criminal groups, their leaders and people who carry out terrorist attacks.” He added that terrorism had to be fought by the authorities and society together. . . . .
♦ CI CENTRE COURSE: Russia Intelligence Services: Operations & Methodologies
RFE/RL, 28 Jan 10: The son of former Georgian President Zviad Gamsakhurdia has officially been accused of collaborating with Russian intelligence services, RFE/RL’s Georgian Service reports. Tsotne Gamsakhurdia was arrested in October for allegedly shooting and injuring his neighbor, David Bazhelidze. But this week he received documents regarding that case and also was told that he is being charged with cooperating with the Russian secret services.
During mass protests in Tbilisi in November 2007, Tsotne Gamsakhurdia was arrested and accused of working with Russian agents. The charges were later dropped and he was released. Supporters of Zviad Gamsakhurdia and his son are holding protests in front of the U.S., Swiss, and Lithuanian embassies in Tbilisi, demanding that the new charges against Gamsakhurdia be dropped. Tsotne Gamsakhurdia’s lawyers announced that their client believes the charges against him are politically motivated. Zviad Gamsakhurdia became the first democratically elected president of Georgia in 1991. He died under mysterious circumstances on December 31, 1993, at the age of 54 in the Zugdidi region during an unsuccessful attempt to reestablish control over the country.
Reuters, 28 Jan 10: President Dmitry Medvedev urged Russia’s security agency on Thursday to act decisively against a persistent threat from foreign espionage, Russian news agencies reported. A series of spy scandals contributed to an increasing chill in relations with the West under Medvedev’s predecessor Vladimir Putin, a long-time KGB officer.
Putin cast Russia as beset by foreign forces eager to bring it to its knees, and he cracked down on NGOs he accused of serving masters abroad. Medvedev, Putin’s hand-picked successor, has largely steered clear of such rhetoric and has overseen legislation moderately easing controls on NGOs. But the ITAR-TASS agency quoted him as telling top officers of the Federal Security Service (FSB), domestic successor of the Soviet KGB: “The interest of foreign intelligence services in our state secrets and the newest developments by our scientists is not weakening.”. . . . .
Wall Street Journal, 28 Jan 10: Companies that run key public infrastructure assets like electric utilities, oil refineries and banks are regularly victims of the kind of cyber attacks that recently penetrated Google Inc., according to a new report by a former top homeland security official. Cyber attacks are often coupled with extortion demands, according to the report commissioned by the computer antivirus company McAfee, which found that 20% of the 601 companies and government agencies surveyed said they had been a victim of such an attack within the past two years. . . . Among the executives surveyed, 54% said their company had been the subject of infiltration, according to the survey, and two thirds of those companies said the attacks had harmed company operations.
McAfee, Inc. Report Reveals Cyber Coldwar, with Critical Infrastructure Under Constant Cyberattack Causing Widespread Damage (McAfee, 28 Jan 10)
McAfee, Inc. today revealed the staggering cost and impact of cyberattacks on critical infrastructure such as electrical grids, oil and gas production, telecommunications and transportation networks. A survey of 600 IT security executives from critical infrastructure enterprises worldwide showed that more than half (54%) have already suffered large scale attacks or stealthy infiltrations from organized crime gangs, terrorists or nation-states. The average estimated cost of downtime associated with a major incident is $6.3 million per day.
The report “In the Crossfire: Critical Infrastructure in the Age of Cyberwar”, commissioned by McAfee and authored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), also found that the risk of cyberattack is rising. Despite a growing body of legislation and regulation, more than a third of IT executives (37%) said the vulnerability of their sector had increased over the past 12 months and two-fifths expect a major security incident in their sector within the next year. Only 20% think their sector is safe from serious cyberattack over the next five years.
Many of the world’s critical infrastructures were built for reliability and availability, not for security. Traditionally, these organizations have had little to no cyber protection, and have relied on guards, gates and guns. Today however, computer networks are interconnected with corporate IT networks and other infrastructure networks, which are accessible from anywhere in the world. . . .
REPORT: In the Crossfire: Critical Infrastructure in the Age of Cyberwar
By Dr. Tawfik Hamid, CI Centre instructor, Muslim reformer and author of Inside Jihad: Understanding and Confronting Radical Islam
French lawmakers Tuesday recommended a partial ban on any veils that cover the face (the niquab), as well as the burqa — the full-body covering worn by some Muslim women or “total veil.” This ban, recently announced by a French parliamentary commission, would apply in public places such as hospitals and schools, and on public transport. It would also apply to anyone who attempts to receive public services, but it would not apply to people wearing such coverings on the street, the commission said.
French lawmakers believe the burqa is a growing phenomenon beneath which lies a not-so-subtle message of fundamentalism. In addition, the Ipsos poll for Le Point magazine found 57 percent of French people said it should be illegal to appear in public wearing clothes that cover the face. This step, when seen in the context of banning the Mosque minarets in Switzerland last November, is indicative of the beginning of a movement to reject growing signs of Islamist superiority and radicalization in Europe.
It is fundamental to raise the issue that solely focusing on the burqa (Islamic dress that covers the face) may lead to ignoring the hejab (the Islamic head scarf). The latter is a much more powerful tool in promoting Islamism at the societal and community levels than the burqa as it is worn by many more Muslim women (compared to the burqa). The focus on the Burqa without addressing the Hejab can be misleading as it is like a magician that makes you focus on one hand so that you ignore his other hand that will perform the trick.
Experience over the last few decades in many Muslim countries shows that the proliferation of the hejab has been pivotal in spreading Islamism and the desire to implement Shariah law.
Furthermore, this discriminatory dress makes Muslim women feel that they belong to the Muslim Umma rather than to their mother countries or to humanity which adds more salt to the wounds of segregation and divisions among humans. The impact of the hejab on the psyche and mind of Muslim children who grow up in a hejab-dominated society or community and the possible role of this symbolism on their radicalization and its impact on their feelings of alienation in the West must be also addressed and studied.
It is important in this context to mention that the battle against the niquab, burqa, or the hejab must not be seen by Muslims as a war against Islam. Indeed, the words “niquab” and “burqa” are not mentioned in the Quran and the term “hejab” has never been used as a code of dress in the Quran (the word hejab was used in the Quran ONLY to express several meanings, but not a dress code. See Quran 7:46; 17:45; 19:17; 33:53; 38:32; 41:5; 42:51). Furthermore, the Hadith of prophet Muhammad that described how Muslim women should dress after puberty is a weak Hadith as its narration does not follow an unbroken chain of transmission from the time of the prophet. The Hadith is ranked as Hadith “Mursal” which indicates that it is not a Sahih (or accurate) one.
These theological facts may explain to us some of the foundations for the recent and wise decision of Sheikh Al-Azhar (Head of Al-Azhar Mosque and University) in Egypt who decided to ban the niquab or burqa in Al-Azhar University, which is the top Islamic University in the world. It is both ironic and painful to see how the liberal values in France have been used for years to protect a discriminatory dress code such as the hejab that is described in Islamic Law as a dress aimed at making a distinction between free women and slaves. According to Shariah law, only the former are permitted to wear it as they are “precious”!
The burqa battle should not make us ignore the threat of the hejab, which represents — based on the percentage of Muslim women wearing it in France — more threat to the values of liberty in the West than the burqa. The hejab as a widespread phenomenon in many Muslim communities represents a trend toward implementing Shariah laws. This can lead to civil wars in the future if Muslims reached sufficient numbers in the West to demand the implementation of Shariah laws or the use force to achieve an Islamic state in Europe.
Free societies in the West need to protect themselves from this situation by limiting the growth of radical Islam in their societies. For those in the West who are ready to accept Shariah laws under the banner of ‘the will of the majority’, they’d better begin to collect the stones for stoning adulterers/adulteresses in public in Europe and the U.S. — as we already see in Islamic countries and societies that implement these laws!
It is also important to note that several Islamic organizations may be erected to collect money from the whole Muslim world in order to pay for the fines that will be paid by the “Munaquabat” (or Muslim women who wear the Niquab) when they break the law in France and insist on wearing the burqa! The lawmakers in France should be aware of this possibility and take proper decisions to guard against this.
Finally, the decision of France to start a partial ban on the burqa is a good step to protect France from the effects of Islamism; however, it is still not enough to prevent the Islamization of the country. Muslims need to stop fighting for the hejab and the burqa and start fighting radicalism that has spread in many of their own societies and communities all over the world. The hejab must change from a physical cover for the body to be a cover of love that surrounds the hearts of individuals.
