Comments on reads 11/7 III

US releases hold on $200 million in PA security funds

C'tee chair Ros-Lehtinen releases block on aid after Obama administration convinces her funds to PA support US, Israeli interests.

FP: I warned not to rely on Congress and its promises.

 
'I cannot see Netanyahu anymore, he is a liar'

French website reports French President Sarkozy criticized PM in private conversation with US president; Obama: I have to deal with it all day.
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The following day Sarkozy condemned Iran's nuclear program and said France would not stand idly by 'if Israel's existence were threatened.'

FP: This from a French president? The pot calling the kettle black. If Netanyahu is a liar, what are the Palestinians? You know Israel can rely on both of them when push comes to shove, right? Right.

 
Darpa Begs Hackers: Secure Our Networks, End ‘Season of Darkness’

The Pentagon’s far-out research agency and its brand new military command for cyberspace have a confession to make. They don’t really know how to keep U.S. military networks secure. And they want to know: could you help them out?
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Put in a blunter way, U.S. networks are “as porous as a colander,” Richard Clarke, the former White House counterterrorism chief turned cybersecurity Cassandra, told a packed ballroom.
…left to its own devices, the government’s network defenses will allow crucial data to increasingly sluice through, like water through Clarke’s colander. And it’s not just information leaking out: it’s the danger of a cyberattack crippling U.S. financial systems or the power grid, according to many at the colloquium. ”We believe we need more and better options,” Dugan said.
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… A few have wallet chains, Day-glo sneakers and ponytails. That latter cohort is whom Darpa is really interested in: “visionary hackers,” in the words of Darpa spokesman Eric Mazzacone.
Pentagon agencies have been hiring these security types for years. Dugan is looking for something different. She wants “the efforts of technical experts at unprecedented levels, including at the development of policy and legal frameworks.” In other words, Darpa wants to bring in hackers to help set policy, designing dynamism into the framework, “on timescales that correspond with the dynamic nature of advances in cyberspace.” That would be a big bureaucratic shift.

FP: Hhhhmmmmmmm… (see also next)


Weighing Pentagon Cuts, Panetta Faces Deep Pressures

Among other steps, Mr. Panetta said, Pentagon strategists were looking at additional cuts in the nuclear arsenal, with an eye toward determining how many warheads the military needed to deter attacks.
Mr. Panetta also held out the possibility of cutting the number of American troops based in Europe, with the United States compensating for any withdrawal by helping NATO allies improve their militaries. That effort would free up money so the United States could maintain or increase its forces in Asia, a high priority for the Obama administration, and sustain a presence in the Persian Gulf after the withdrawal from Iraq this year, he said.

FP: Formalizing and signaling decline.