Californian gets 50 months in prison for Chinese ‘technology spy’ work

A sting operation by the US Department of Homeland Security has netted one California woman a 50-month sojourn in prison after she was found guilty of trying to break the US Arms Export Control Act.

The court heard that between March 2011 and June 2013, Wenxia Man, 45, of San Diego, worked with a Chinese national – who she described as a “technology spy” – to obtain classified military hardware and its schematics for export to the Middle Kingdom for a $1m payoff. “I’m innocent,” Man told the judge, The Sun-Sentinel reports. “This is my country, too.”

Man, a computer science graduate, worked with her husband running a mobile phone components business, and investigators were tipped off by a third party that she was looking for classified military hardware. Over a nine-month period, an undercover agent exchanged a series of emails and text messages about her plans, pretending he could source the materials.

http://anticorruptiondigest.com/anti-corruption-news/2016/08/24/californian-gets-50-months-in-prison-for-chinese-technology-spy-work/#axzz4IIH8Fyst

North Korean diplomat who defected in London

A high-ranking North Korean diplomat, who defected with his wife and children in London, and is now in South Korea, is from a privileged family with a long revolutionary pedigree in North Korean politics. South Korea’s Ministry of Unification confirmed on Wednesday that Thae Yong-Ho, the second-in-command at the North Korean embassy in the United Kingdom, had defected with his wife and children and had been given political asylum in South Korea. As intelNews reported earlier this week, Thae, a senior career diplomat believed to be one of North Korea’s foremost experts on Western Europe, had disappeared with his family and was presumed to have defected “to a third country”.

New information has since emerged on Thae and his family, confirming that both he and his wife are members of North Korea’s privileged elite, with decades-old connections to the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea. According to the Seoul-based JoongAng Daily, Thae’s wife, O Hye-Son, is a niece of the late O Peak-Ryong, a decorated communist guerrilla who fought Korea’s Japanese colonialists in the 1930s. O, who died in the 1980s, joined the Korean anti-Japanese struggle alongside Kim Il-Sung, founder of the Workers’ Party of Korea and first leader of North Korea. This means that O Hye-Son is also the cousin of O Peak-Ryong’s son, General O Kum-Chol, who is currently vice chairman of the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army. Thae himself is the son of Thae Pyong-Ryol, a four-star general who also fought against the Japanese in the 1930s, alongside Kim Il-Sung. In the postwar period, General Thae became a senior member of the Workers’ Party of Korea and was appointed to the Party’s powerful Central Committee. He died in 1997.

JoongAng Daily quoted an unnamed “source familiar with the matter” of Thae’s defection, who said that the diplomat’s loyalty to the North Korean leadership had been unquestioned prior to his surprise defection. Most North Korean diplomats are posted at an embassy abroad for a maximum of three years before being moved elsewhere in the world. The fact that Thae had been allowed to remain in the United Kingdom for 10 years shows his privileged status within the Workers’ Party of Korea, said the source. Additionally, the children or most North Korean diplomats are required to return to their native country after completing high school. But this did not seem to apply to Thae, whose three children were living with him in Britain even after graduating from university. This and many other clues reflect Thae’s “impeccable credentials”, said the source, which made him one of the most trusted government officials in the regime’s bureaucratic arsenal.

It is believed that Thae defected because he had been told that his tenure in London was coming to an end after a decade, and he would have to relocate to a less desirable location, or possibly recalled back to Pyongyang. Defections among North Korea’s privileged elite are rare, but have been happening increasingly frequently in the past few years. This makes some observers believe that disillusionment among Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un’ inner circle is growing and that the North Korean regime is becoming weaker.

https://intelnews.org/2016/08/19/01-1961/ 

Lithuania receives surplus vehicles from the Netherlands

Lithuania is touting its bilateral military partnership with the Netherland, which has resulted in the procurement of surplus military vehicles. Over the past six months, Lithuania has received about 200 combat and medium-lift Mercedes-Benz GD vehicles, trucks and other military vehicles from the Netherlands to supplement and update the Baltic country's military fleet.

The vehicles were delivered in several phases and more equipment is scheduled for delivery this year and next under the $7.89 million deal.

"This is the second military equipment procurement contract between Lithuania and the Netherlands," Lithuania's Ministry of National Defense said. "In 2012-2013 the Lithuanian Armed Forces bought vehicles, communications containers and airport service equipment (to replace outdated and not cost-efficient equipment then used in the Lithuanian Armed Forces) from the Netherlands Armed Forces for a good price."

Lithuanian Minister of National Defense Juozas Olekas and Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Lithuania Bert van der Lingen were meeting in the country Thursday to celebrate the successful cooperation between the two countries and future cooperation.

http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Security-Industry/2016/08/18/Lithuania-receives-surplus-vehicles-from-the-Netherlands/4301471499946/

The Assynt Report: Egypt and Islamic State

In the latest Assynt Report, Stirling Assynt examines the rising risk to Egypt posed by Islamic State-affiliated Ansar Jerusalem.
Egypt’s Army said that it killed the leader of Islamic State (IS)-affiliated Ansar Jerusalem (AJ) group and 45 other militants near the capital of the North Sinai Governorate, al-Arish, on 4 August. The group confirmed his death on 18 August.
As this demonstrates, the Government’s security operations in Sinai continue to undermine AJ’s capabilities and significantly constrain its ability to strike at either civilian or military targets, with several attacks on checkpoints in North Sinai failing to cause significant casualties in recent weeks.
However, the authorities’ ongoing efforts to weaken AJ in the Sinai are likely to only diminish the group temporarily. AJ has a long history of operating on the peninsula, and its strong relationships with local tribes will ensure that it remains a dominant presence.
Moreover, security force operations will continue to fuel grievances among local communities in the Sinai, for instance over the lack of economic opportunities, in ways that feed AJ’s insurgency.
For example, residents in the North Sinai cities of Rafah and Sheikh Zuwaid complained on 13 August that up to 80,000 people were “under siege” due to a military blockade which had prevented food and medicine reaching the town for five days.
In addition, the Army is unlikely to be able to maintain its current surge given the Government’s fiscal challenges, and so AJ will rebuild its capabilities once military operations draw down.

The threat of attacks targeting security forces, and to a lesser extent Westerners, will then increase as AJ seeks to demonstrate its continued strength and respond to the offensive against it.

In addition, the death of AJ’s leader raises the possibility of the group seeking to carry out a high profile attack in the coming weeks to take revenge for his death and to demonstrate that the group remains capable.

Stirling Assynt is a global intelligence network headquartered in London and run by a team of professionals with significant government and commercial sector experience.
The Assynt Report offers a predictive, analytical political and security risk briefing service, based on up-to-the-minute monitoring of both open and commercial information sources, including unrivalled reporting on jihadists movements around the world.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/assynt-report-egypt-islamic-state-ashlea-scicluna 

Italy Expels Another Imam to Prevent Radicalization

Italy has expelled a second imam within a week as it seeks to prevent extremist preachers from radicalizing others.

Interior Minister Angelino Alfano announced the expulsion of Khairredine Romdhane Ben Chedli on Thursday. The 35-year-old Tunisian was recently absolved of terrorism-related charges by Italy's highest court but Alfano said his support for jihad rendered him unfit to stay, the ANSA news agency reported.

The Interior Ministry announced Aug. 13 the expulsion of another imam arrested in the same 2013 sweep as Ben Chedli. The two expulsions bring the number of suspected extremists kicked out of Italy in 2016 to 44, with another 110 expelled last year.

Alfano has defended the expulsions but has rejected other measures, such as banning burkinis as some French mayors have done, as overly provocative.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/italy-expels-imam-prevent-radicalization-41495104 

45,000 ISIS fighters killed in two years

The U.S.-led military coalition against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria has killed about 45,000 ISIS fighters in the last two years, its commander said Wednesday.  

Army Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland, commander of the task force overseeing the war, said since he took over last September, about 25,000 ISIS fighters have been killed. 

"When you add that to the 20,000 estimated killed prior to our arrival, that's 45,000 enemies taken off the battlefield," he said during a Pentagon briefing.

The U.S. military has typically declined to give the number of enemy dead, to avoid the Vietnam War practice of using "body counts" as misleading measures of success. 

However, MacFarland, who is wrapping up his 11-month tour in Baghdad, added, "I only tell you this number to provide a sense to the scale of our support and perhaps explain why enemy resistance is beginning to crumble." 

The three-star general said ISIS's frontline fighters are diminishing in quantity as well as quality, and are easier to kill. 

"We don't see them operating nearly as effectively as they have in the past, which makes them even easier targets for us so as a result they're attrition has accelerated here of late," he said.

ISIS has taken a lot of their "administrative folks" and pushed them out to the front lines, he added.   

"So there is a cumulative effect, I think, that is really accelerating in our favor and against the enemy," he said.

MacFarland said he's seen estimates of between 15,000 to 30,000 ISIS fighters remaining, but declined to give a more specific number. 

He also said the coalition has helped Iraqi forces gain back 25,000 square kilometers from ISIS in Iraq and Syria -- nearly half of what ISIS controlled in Iraq and 20 percent of what they controlled in Syria. 

The coalition has also conducted about 50,000 sorties against ISIS in the past year, which include 200 against oil and natural gas activities, more than 640 oil tankers, and other critical gas and oil facilities, he said. 

The strikes have reduced ISIS's oil revenue stream by 50 percent, he said. The coalition has also hit more than 25 bulk cash sites, destroying at least a half billion dollars, he added. The coalition has also taken out leadership, command and control and weapons manufacturing capability, he said. 

He also noted the deaths of three U.S. service members.  

"Sadly, success has not come without cost. We lost three great Americans during our time here; Army Master Sergeant Josh Wheeler, Marine Corps Staff Sergeant Louis Cardin, and a Navy Petty Officer First Class Charles Keating," he said.

Iraqi and Kurdish forces have suffered from hundreds of casualties, too, he said. 

MacFarland said ISIS "is in retreat on all fronts," with the turning point being the recapture of Ramadi from the group in December. 

The coalition is now training Iraqi military and police forces to retake Mosul, and hold it afterwards. The city is Iraq's second largest, with about a million residents, and has been an ISIS stronghold since June 2014. 

MacFarland said the coalition has trained more than 13,500 Iraqi forces, including more than 4,000 army soldiers, 1,500 elite forces, 6,000 Kurdish peshmerga and almost 1,000 federal police and 300 border guards. 

It has also trained about 5,000 local police and enrolled over 20,000 tribal fighters, he added.

MacFarland said he is "100 percent certain" that ISIS will be "eliminated as a governing entity in Iraq and Syria." 

After retaking Mosul, there would be only "scattered pockets" of resistance in Iraq. In Syria, the fight is focused on retaking ISIS's stronghold of Raqqa, he said. 

Coalition-backed Syrian Democratic Forces are close to retaking Manbij, a strategic node where ISIS takes in foreign fighters and facilitates attacks outside of Iraq and Syria, he said. 

However, he noted, "Military success in Iraq and Syria will not necessarily mean the end of Daesh," he said, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS. 

"We can expect the enemy to adapt, to morph into a true insurgent force and terrorist organization capable of horrific attacks like the one here on July 3rd in Baghdad and those others we've seen around the world," he said. 

http://thehill.com/policy/defense/291179-general-isis-fighters-becoming-easier-to-kill

Mississippi woman sentenced over plans to join ISIS

A Mississippi woman who once sought to disguise a planned journey to join the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) as her honeymoon was sentenced by a federal judge Thursday to 12 years in prison on a terrorism charge.
Vicksburg native Jaelyn Young broke down in heavy sobs during her sentencing by U.S. District Judge Sharion Aycock. Young pleaded guilty in March to one count of conspiring to provide material support to a terrorist organization.
Young had faced up to 20 years in prison.
Her parents pleaded for leniency at Thursday's hearing. Young, amid sobs, said she was ashamed of her actions.
Her fiance, Muhammad Dakhlalla, pleaded guilty March 11 to a similar charge and is set to be sentenced Aug. 24. Prosecutors have said Young, who converted to Islam while studying at Mississippi State University, had prodded Dakhlalla into the plan.
The two were arrested in 2015 before boarding a flight from Columbus, Mississippi, with tickets for Istanbul, Turkey.
"I found the contacts, made arrangements, planned the departure," Young had written in a farewell letter to her family. "I am guilty of what you soon will find out."
Young and Dakhlalla were among a number of people arrested around the country for ISIS sympathies. Like many, authorities said, they had developed views supporting ISIS in part by watching online videos and were arrested after social media posts attracted the attention of the FBI.

Muhammad Oda Dakhlalla at left, and Jaelyn Delshaun Young, in undated photos

WJTV

The daughter of a school administrator and a police officer who served in the Navy reserve, Young is a former honor student, cheerleader and homecoming maid at Vicksburg's Warren Central High School.
The two were arrested in August 2015 before they could board the flight from Mississippi with tickets for Istanbul purchased using her mother's credit card without permission, according to court records. Authorities said the couple had contacted undercover federal agents in May, seeking online help in traveling to Syria. Both remained jailed in Oxford since their arrests.
Court papers say Young announced her conversion in March 2015 and began wearing a burqa, a garment worn by some Muslim women to cover their face and body.
"After her conversion, Young distanced herself from family and friends and felt spending time with non-Muslims would be a bad influence," prosecutors wrote.
A court statement said Young increasingly complained about the treatment of Muslims in the United States and United Kingdom. Prosecutors said that, after watching videos included pro-ISIS messages from a British Muslim preacher who faces criminal charges of supporting the group - she began to view the fighters as liberators.
"Young continually asked Dakhlalla when they were going to join (ISIS) and began to express hatred for the U.S. government and to express support for the implementation of Sharia law in the United States," prosecutors wrote.
By May 2015, she had begun seeking advice online on how to travel to Syria, eventually making contact with undercover FBI employees, according to prosecutors.
Young told the undercover FBI employees that she and Dakhlalla would like to be medics treating the wounded. Dakhlalla, in online contacts, said he was good with computers and media and wanted to contribute to ISIS' struggle. Court papers say Dakhlalla said online that he wanted to become a fighter and learn "what it really means to have that heart in battle."
At one point, Young said she planned to camouflage the couple's journey as a honeymoon, but later dropped that idea.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/mississippi-woman-stopped-en-route-to-join-isis-is-sentenced/