CIA Director William Burns (L) and MI6 Chief Richard Moore (R) said their agencies had “exploited our intelligence channels to push hard for restraint and de-escalation” in the Middle East.
In an opinion piece for the Financial Times (linked below), the two spymasters said a ceasefire in Israel’s Gaza war “could end the suffering and appalling loss of life of Palestinian civilians and bring home the hostages after 11 months of hellish confinement.”
Burns has been heavily involved in efforts to broker an end to the Israeli war, travelling to Egypt in August for high-level talks aimed at bringing about a captive release deal and at least a temporary halt to the conflict.Burns said ending the war would require “some hard choices and some political compromises” from both Israel and Hamas.
The US and the UK are both staunch allies of Israel, though London diverged from Washington by suspending some arms exports to Israel because of the risk they could be used to break international law.
Burns and Moore stressed the strength of the trans-Atlantic relationship in the face of “an unprecedented array of threats,” including an assertive Russia, an ever-more powerful China, and the constant threat from international terrorism.
Nota Bene: When the two heads of Western intelligence make a public joint appeal, we should heed their good counsel. CIA and MI6 have access to a mountain of classified information A-to-Z about all the players and activities in the region derived from signals intercepts, HUMINT sources, satellite imagery, low-level informants, defectors, diplomatic cables, and simple wiretaps. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud Cabinet should heed this joint communique.
Sources:
Organized Crime Increasingly Uses Commercial, Cargo Flights to Move Drugs, Arms, Gold
According to a report by risk intelligence company Osprey Flight Solutions (OFS), transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) have been increasingly using commercial and cargo flights in Latin America to move drugs, arms, and gold. OFS analyzed post-incident alerts between Feb 2021 to Feb 2024 on the seizure of illicit goods with connections to the US, Europe, and Africa.
For example, on 4 Jul Brazil’s Federal Police (PF) arrested a Chinese citizen attempting to board a flight bound for Hong Kong with 17 gold bars in coffee bags. Following his arrest, the PF found that the man was involved in another similar seizure on 8 May with a kg of gold. In 2023, Colombian antinarcotics found 1.5 tons of cocaine inside a shipment of 57 boxes containing vegetables and apples in a cargo aircraft bound for the US.
Data shows that alerts generated at Latin American airports, in warehouses, and aboard aircraft, increased by 147 percent between 2021 and 2023, with the highest numbers in Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia.
Brazil recorded the highest number of seizures: 1,737. The incidents mainly had to do with gold and drug trafficking. According to the PF regarding drug seizures (cocaine, marijuana, skunk, ecstasy, amphetamine, and methamphetamine) at Brazilian airports, the amount jumped from 4.4 tons in 2021 to 9.8 tons in 2023, an increase of more than 120 percent.
Although the increase in alerts coincides with the return to normality of international flights, following the removal of COVID-19 travel restrictions, the data reflects greater international drug flow and demand.
Thiago Moreira de Souza Rodrigues, a security researcher from Fluminense Federal University in Rio de Janeiro says that “Global air traffic has grown a lot in the last three decades. So, surveillance, whether by radiometry, physical surveillance, dogs, in short, specialized personnel, is very complicated, always done by samples. Even if some drug shipments are seized, the volume that passes through is much greater than what is seized in the surveillance networks. In air traffic, although it is smaller and more spread out, shipments are multiplied by the large number of air routes and flows. If you take airports like the world’s major hubs, there are thousands of flights a week.”
TCOs use many methods to smuggle drugs and other illicit goods via air routes. Common tactics include placing goods in hidden compartments built into legal shipments, setting up export companies to conceal illegal shipments, corrupting airport authorities, and using smugglers who transport the goods on their flights.
“Since the golden age when drug trafficking began as a transnational economy, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, commercial air travel has always been used, and basically for the same reason, the link between airport employees on the ground, the logistical maintenance of the airport itself, the airlines, in short, the yield is so high that many people take the risk,” InSight Crime said in a report.
Mexico registered 700 alerts during the period studied, highlighting the flow of synthetic drugs via domestic flights from Culicán and Querétaro to cities on the US-Mexico border, such as Tijuana and Ciudad Juárez. Colombia, which came in third place with 488 alerts, recorded cocaine as the most common substance trafficked via air cargo through Bogotá, San Andrés Island, and on to Belgium, France, the UK, and Australia. Alerts at Colombian airports increased by 275 percent between Feb 2021 to Feb 2024.
According to the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC), only two percent of containers that travel around the world by air, sea, roads, and railways, are adequately inspected to detect contraband.
Sources:
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (unodc.org)
InSight Crime – Investigation and Analysis of Organized Crime
Indonesia Arrests Seven Over Pope Francis ‘Terror Threats’
A security detail of approximately 4,000 personnel, including snipers, soldiers, police and his personal security team of Swiss Guards, protected the Pope before he departed for the rest of his trip in Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and Singapore. Roads around key sites were re-routed or closed.
Indonesia arrested seven people for making online “terror threats” against Pope Francis during his visit to the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country this week. The 87-year-old pontiff made Southeast Asia’s biggest economy the first stop of an arduous Asia-Pacific tour, delivering a message of religious unity to counter extremism and intolerance.
Indonesia’s elite counter-terrorism unit Densus 88 arrested the suspects in Jakarta, West Sumatra, and Bangka. They are accused of posting statements and images online that threatened bomb attacks on the pope’s public meetings in Jakarta.
The first Jesuit pontiff’s schedule had included visits to Southeast Asia’s biggest mosque, Jakarta’s cathedral, the presidential palace, and the national football stadium.
Fortunately, no serious terrorist plots were exposed. Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), an al-Qaida-linked terror group, was rendered ineffective years ago. Ji was responsible for the 2002 bombings on the resort island of Bali that killed 202 people, the deadliest attacks in the country’s history.
In Papua New Guinea, a country that has struggled with tribal conflicts throughout its history, Pope Francis made a heartfelt appeal for peace. Earlier this year, 26 people were killed in a gunfight in Enga Province, a region that has been plagued by violence between tribal groups.
Sources:
Indonesia Arrests Seven Over Pope Francis ‘Terror Threats’ (hngn.com)
Missouri Reports First Confirmed Case of Avian Flu in Human; US Total Now 14
Missouri reported its first confirmed human case of bird flu in a person who reported no exposure to animals. The case brings the national total to 14 so far this year. The latest case in Missouri was in an adult with underlying medical conditions. He was hospitalized on 22 Aug and has since recovered.
“The patient has reported no exposure to animals,” the Missouri health department said. The information is preliminary and would require further investigation by health authorities.
The case of bird flu, also known as H5, was initially detected through the state’s normal influenza surveillance testing program. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also confirmed it to be a human case of the H5 subtype of flu.
Source:
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/missouri-reports-first-human-case-bird-flu-in-state/story?id=113474247
Enlisted US Sailor Detained in Venezuela as Tensions Between the Two Countries Simmer
Undated photo of Venezuelan riot police detaining a protestor. Image: European Pressphoto Agency
An enlisted American sailor was detained by authorities in Venezuela and being held incommunicado. The sailor was “not authorized to travel, on official travel or approved leave” when he was detained. The State Department is working with the Venezuelan authorities to secure the sailor’s release.
The news of the sailor’s detention also comes just days after the Department of Justice announced the seizure of a private jet that was used by Venezuela’s leader, President Nicolás Maduro.
The sailor’s detention, which was first reported by CNN, seems to be the latest in a series of events that has showcased the growing tensions between the US and Venezuela. Those tensions have been building since Venezuela’s 28 July election between Maduro and Edmundo González, which officials from several countries say was stolen by Maduro.
The State Department has long warned US citizens not to travel to Venezuela, citing “a high risk of wrongful detention.”The travel warning also notes that Venezuela’s “security forces have detained US citizens for up to five years” and the US “is not generally notified of the detention of AMCITs in Venezuela or granted access to them.”
The unnamed sailor is just the latest in a string of service members to find themselves in the jail of a hostile nation after failing to heed travel warnings.
In May 2024, SSG Gordon Black was arrested in Russia and has been in prison there ever since. PVT Travis King drew international attention in July 2023 when he left a tour group and dashed across the Demilitarized Zone into North Korea, which detained him for about two months.
Source:
Enlisted US Sailor Detained in Venezuela as Tensions Between the 2 Countries Simmer | Military.com
US Egg Recall: Salmonella Outbreak Linked to Illnesses in Nine States
A salmonella outbreak linked to eggs sold in Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois has resulted in 24 hospitalizations and 65 illnesses in nine states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.
The egg recall reported Friday applies to Milo’s Poultry Farms and Tony’s Fresh Market eggs including those labeled cage-free or organic.
Food recalls have reached a peak the US hasn’t approached since before the COVID-19 pandemic, an April report found. Recalled food products led to 1,100 sickened people and six dead in 2023, per the US Public Interest Research Group Education Fund.
People have been reported sick in California, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin, where most cases have been reported.
Symptoms of salmonella — including diarrhea, fever and stomach cramps — typically begin six hours to six days following infection, and most of those infected recover without treatment within a week. Children younger than five years, adults 65 years and older, and people with weakened immune systems may experience more severe illnesses that require medical treatment or hospitalization.
Sources:
Egg recall: Salmonella outbreak linked to illnesses in 9 states (axios.com)
Despite Warnings, Sarajevo Police Use Controversial Chinese-Made Body Cameras
Sarajevo police officers from the traffic unit wear Hytera body cams at a press event for the launch of the pilot program on 1 July. D/CIA William Burns recently visited Sarajevo and presumably advised his Bosnian counterpart of the perils associated with Chinese technology.
Amid a growing push for transparency, Sarajevo police have chosen to use body cameras from a controversial Chinese company that is under scrutiny in Canada and the EU and blacklisted in the US over national security concerns.
Despite those warnings, which also include charges from the US Justice Department of industrial espionage, the Sarajevo Canton’s Interior Ministry decided to purchase 200 police body cams in 2023 from Hytera, a partially state-owned Chinese manufacturer, for a pilot program launched on 1 July.
This local-level episode comes amid an evolving conversation across Europe over the use of Chinese telecommunications equipment in government programs. While the US has been the strictest — banning surveillance cameras and other equipment made by Chinese giants like Huawei, ZTE, Dahua, and Hikvision — European governments like Britain, Germany, France, and the Baltic states are also updating their procurement systems amid growing probes into security risks caused by Chinese firms.
In Bosnia-Herzegovina and elsewhere across the Balkans, budget-conscious governments have increasingly turned to affordable Chinese equipment with little public debate about the potential security implications.
In the case of the 200,000-euro ($222,000) sale of the police body cams — small video cameras worn by an officer to record arrests and provide evidence from crime scenes — Sarajevo Canton Interior Minister Admir Katica has not said publicly that the equipment is made by Hytera or that the company has been blacklisted in the US and is under increased scrutiny.
Unidentified Chinese military computer installation. Source: “Chinese Hackers Persist in Attacking US Networks” by Bill Gertz, 2 Oct 2012. Chinese intelligence services, including the MSS, have the manpower and computers to conduct massive worldwide surveillance and hack Western networks.
Sources:
Sarajevo Police Use Controversial Chinese-Made Body Cams, Despite Warnings (rferl.org)
https://www.fcc.gov/supplychain/coveredlist
American Warzone: Junior Sailor Fatally Shot in San Diego; Multiple People Shot Near Lexington, KY
18-year-old sailor Albert Lee Soto died Saturday after being shot in San Diego, according to the US Navy and police. He was assigned to the destroyer Pinckney. Police received reports at 12:49 a.m. of shots fired in San Diego’s East Village neighborhood, and a responding officer found Soto suffering from at least one gunshot wound. After CPR was administered at the scene, Soto was transported to a local hospital and died from his wounds shortly after.
Soto was involved in an altercation with a group of men inside a nearby nightclub before the shooting, but detectives have not confirmed whether the two incidents involving the sailor are related. The suspects in Soto’s shooting are described as four Black males wearing dark clothing who were last seen running eastbound on F Street.
Individuals with pertinent information are urged to contact the San Diego Police Department Homicide Unit at (619) 531-2293 or Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477.
To the east, a manhunt is underway for 32-year-old Joseph A. Couch, suspected in shooting at least five people along Interstate 75 in a rural area south of Lexington, KY. All the victims are in stable condition. The Kentucky State Police urged people to stay indoors as the suspect is “armed and dangerous.”
Joseph A. Couch is “armed and dangerous.” (Imagery: NBC News)
State Firearms Data:
Kentucky: 108,833 firearms licenses reported; 54.6% of adults have firearms at home. In average year, 728 people die and 1,036 are wounded by guns in the Bluegrass State.
California: 406,360 firearms licenses reported; an estimated 28.3% of adults have guns in their homes. In an average year, 3,299 people die by guns in the Golden State.
Junior sailor fatally shot in San Diego (militarytimes.com)
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear says a shooting has occurred on Interstate 75 – Washington Times
4. California – Gun map: Ownership by state – statistics and rates (cbsnews.com)
British Four-Year-Old Heroine Uses Amazon Alexa to Save Mom During Epileptic Fit
Lyla Leathem with a trophy and certificate for helping her mother. (LEAH BIGGS VIA SWNS)
When her mother suffered an epileptic seizure on 25 Aug, quick-thinking Lyla Leathem ran upstairs and asked Alexa to call her great-grandmother after she was unable to unlock her mother’s phone. Lyla explained to her great-grandmother that her mother had “a big fit” in the night and bitten her tongue. Lyla’s great-grandmother then rushed over from her home and helped stay-at-home mother Leah Leathem. She was treated at her home and recovered.
Family members had previously shown Lyla how to use Alexa for phone calls as her mom often suffers from nocturnal seizures which can be “life-threatening.” But they had no idea the youngster had listened – until she was called into action.
Proud Leah Leathem with quick-thinking Lyla. (LEAH BIGGS VIA SWNS)
Sources:
4-Year-Old Hero Uses Amazon Alexa To Save Mom During Epileptic Fit – MEA Magazine
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