Jane's Intelligence Review - Impartial intelligence in an uncertain world

Impartial intelligence in an uncertain world

Cover Story

Breaching protocol - the threat of cyberespionage

In January 2010 Google Inc., the world's largest internet search engine provider, caused a major international incident.

11-Feb-2010

*Faction fluctuation - The shifting allegiances within Hizbul Islam
The Shabab, Somalia's leading militant Islamist group, declared on 1 February that it had been joined by Muaskar Raas Kaambooni (also Muaskar Ras Kamboni), a...
11-Mar-2010

*Rocket fuel - Israel tries to protect its energy infrastructure
The location of natural resources is no respecter of national boundaries or ongoing conflict. Recent Israeli natural gas discoveries have been located much closer to...
11-Mar-2010

*Causing affront - Ethiopian insurgent group strengthens position
Founded more than 25 years ago, the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) is now playing an increasingly important role in the Horn of Africa's complex...
11-Mar-2010

*Into the shade - China's overseas naval operations
China is currently maintaining a naval presence in the Gulf of Aden, the first time it has mounted an active operation so far afield since...
10-Mar-2010

*Launch sight - Iranian rocket capabilities advance
Iran appears to be making steady advances in its missile capabilities, having recently debuted its largest rocket to date. At the Aerospace Technology Day Ceremony...
11-Mar-2010

*Welcome to the jungle - Mexican drug cartels move into Colombia
A series of arrests in February highlighted the growing links between Colombian and Mexican drug cartels. Marking the culmination of the two-year Operation Fronteras (Borders),...
08-Mar-2010

*Civil action - General Ben Dolorfino, WESTMINCOM
The killing of Albader Parad, a leader of the Philippine Islamist militant Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), in late February underlined the ongoing efforts of...
25-Feb-2010

*Hunger pains - The challenge of rising food costs
In the first half of 2008 global food prices soared, with the resulting shortages sparking violent protests in countries as diverse as Egypt, the Philippines...
23-Feb-2010

ETA shifting to Portugal, claims Spain
Separatist group Basque Homeland and Freedom (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna: ETA) is seeking to transfer its logistics set-up to Portugal, according to comments by Spanish ...
12-Feb-2010

*Reports claim drone strike killed TTP leader
On 9 February, Pakistan's Dawn newspaper reported the Taliban in Orakzai tribal agency had confirmed the death of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) leader Hakimullah Mehsud. ...
12-Feb-2010

US bolsters its Persian Gulf defences
The US is to deploy defensive missile systems to its allies in the Persian Gulf to guard against rising tension with Iran, according to ...
12-Feb-2010

Niger Delta MEND militants make threats of fresh attacks
Remnant militants from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) who remained outside a 2009 government amnesty called off their indefinite ...
12-Feb-2010

Embattled government indefinitely delays Haiti elections
On 27 January, Haitian President René Préval announced the indefinite postponement of legislative elections due on 28 February, as a result of the devastation ...
12-Feb-2010

Forces for courses - US troops tailor their tactics in Afghanistan
The decision by United States President Barack Obama in November 2009 to send 34,000 extra troops to Afghanistan has raised questions about how best to...
11-Feb-2010

*Peace pipe - Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline remains in doubt
Dubbed the 'peace pipeline' for its potential to bridge the borders of formerly warring states, the IPI pipeline has been in and out of the...
11-Feb-2010

*Breaching protocol - the threat of cyberespionage
In January 2010 Google Inc., the world's largest internet search engine provider, caused a major international incident. David Drummond, Google's senior vice-president for corporate development,...
11-Feb-2010

*Reach for the stars - China develops its military space technology
At the beginning of 2010, China once again demonstrated its space-based ambitions. On 11 January, China's state-run Xinhua news agency announced that it had successfully...
11-Feb-2010

*Mind the gap - US intelligence reacts to Detroit bomb plot
US President Barack Obama's holiday in Hawaii was rudely interrupted on 25 December 2009 when news broke that a young Nigerian man had tried to...
11-Feb-2010

*Language barrier - Belgium faces a fragmented future
Belgium has always been a fragile construct, divided along linguistic and territorial lines. However, growing calls for greater devolution for the country's regions are increasingly...
10-Feb-2010

*Tax evasion - Dealing with the Shabab's funding
Most of southern Somalia is now under the control of militant Islamist groups, leading to growing international concern that the country is becoming a jihadist...
09-Feb-2010

*State of the union - India's demand for Telangana
The Indian government's surprise announcement in December 2009 that it would create a new state of Telangana by dividing the existing state of Andhra Pradesh...
05-Feb-2010

*Pyramid scheme - Egypt's ballistic missile test and launch facility
Relatively little is known about Egypt's ballistic missile programme. Yet, as one of the first developing countries to pursue a serious interest in such weapons,...
04-Feb-2010

*Poll position - Raymond Odierno, Commanding General, US Forces - Iraq
With Iraq's parliamentary elections due to be held on 7 March, General Raymond Odierno, commanding general, United States Forces - Iraq, told Jane's that...
02-Feb-2010

*Sect in the city - Criminal group seeks to expand in Kenya
The Mungiki is a largely clandestine, cult-like organisation. It emerged in the late 1980s as a mass youth movement designed to protect and promote the...
02-Feb-2010

*Marriage of convenience - Colombian insurgents agree alliance
The old adage that 'my enemy's enemy is my friend' appears to have been taken to heart in Colombia, where the country's two largest left-wing...
28-Jan-2010

*Eastern empire - Criminals infiltrate Russia's Far East
The very characteristics that make Russia such a congenial breeding ground for its own criminals - including high levels of official corruption, weak judicial institutions,...
22-Jan-2010

Mexico murders presage more violence
On 9 January, Mexico recorded its single deadliest drug-related murder toll since President Felipe Calderón launched an all-out offensive on cartels in 2006, suggesting 2010...
15-Jan-2010

Israel plans new Egyptian border fence
On 10 January, the Israeli government approved plans to build two new sections of security fence along Israel's border with Egypt to curb illegal immigration...
15-Jan-2010

Key militant commander killed in Russian North Caucasus
Four suspected militants, including a key commander, were killed in a shootout with police officers in the southern Russian republic of Dagestan on 31 December...
15-Jan-2010

*Bulgarian police make murder case arrests
Bulgarian prosecutors on 7 January charged a suspected organised crime boss in connection with the murder two days earlier of a radio host and writer....
15-Jan-2010

*Attack highlights Angola's Cabinda conflict
Angola has captured two suspects in an 8 January attack on the Togolese football team in Cabinda, in which the team's assistant coach and media...
15-Jan-2010

*Violence in Sri Lanka highlights poll rivalry
On 12 January, unidentified gunmen killed one person after firing at a bus carrying supporters of opposition presidential candidate and former chief of defence staff...
15-Jan-2010

*Regional restraint - The uses of nuclear weapons-free zones
Combined with treaties prohibiting the placement of nuclear weapons in outer space and the Antarctic, much of the world is now covered by one of ...
14-Jan-2010

*Fragile web - John Michael McConnell, former US director of national intelligence
The failed attempt to bomb an aircraft bound for Detroit on 25 December 2009 has focused US and media attention on shortcomings within the United...
14-Jan-2010

*Return to arms - Hizbullah and Israel's preparations for war
On 3 November 2009, Israeli navy commandos intercepted 500 tonnes of weapons unknowingly being ferried from Egypt to Syria by the cargo ship Francop ....
14-Jan-2010

intelligence review

Breaching protocol - the threat of cyberespionage