Replies to post #194405 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[F6]

Sheik Khalid Bin Abdel Rehman Al-Hussainan Dead: Al Qaeda Leader Killed By U.S. Drone In Pakistan's Tribal Regions

By RASOOL DAWAR and ISHTIAQ MAHSUD
12/09/12 12:00 PM ET EST

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A U.S. drone strike has killed a senior al-Qaida leader in Pakistan's tribal region near the Afghan border, Pakistani intelligence officials said, in the latest blow to the Islamic militant network.

Sheik Khalid bin Abdel Rehman al-Hussainan, who was also known as Abu Zaid al-Kuwaiti, was killed when missiles slammed into a house Thursday near Mir Ali, one of the main towns in the North Waziristan tribal area, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Al-Kuwaiti appeared in many videos released by al-Qaida's media wing, Al-Sahab, and was presented as a religious scholar for the group.

Earlier this year, he replaced Abu Yahya al-Libi, al-Qaida's second in command, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in North Waziristan in June, the intelligence officials said. Al-Libi was a key religious figure within al-Qaida and also a prominent militant commander.

Al-Kuwaiti appeared to be a less prominent figure and was not part of the U.S. State Department's list of most wanted terrorist suspects, as al-Libi had been.

Covert CIA drone strikes have killed a series of senior al-Qaida and Taliban leaders in Pakistan's tribal region over the past few years. The attacks are controversial because the secret nature of the program makes it difficult to determine how many civilians are being killed.

On Sunday, four drone-launched missiles blew apart a house near Miran Shah, another main town in North Waziristan, killing three suspected militants, intelligence officials said. North Waziristan has become the main hub for al-Qaida and Taliban militants in Pakistan.

Pakistani officials often criticize such strikes as a violation of the country's sovereignty, which has helped make them extremely unpopular in the country. But senior Pakistani officials are known to have cooperated with strikes in the past, and many people believe they still do.

Al-Kuwaiti's wife and daughter were wounded in Thursday's drone attack, according to the intelligence officials. His wife died a day later at a hospital in Miran Shah.

Al-Kuwaiti was buried in Tappi village near Mir Ali on Friday, the officials said.

A Pakistani Taliban commander who frequently visits North Waziristan told the Associated Press by telephone that he met some Arab fighters on Saturday who were "very aggrieved." The Arabs told him they lost a "big leader" in a drone strike, but would not reveal his name or his exact position in al-Qaida.

The Taliban commander spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of revealing his identity to the Pakistani government.

Al-Qaida's central leadership in Pakistan has been dealt a series of sharp blows in the past few years, including the U.S. commando raid that killed Osama bin Laden in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad last year. A significant number of senior al-Qaida leaders have also been killed in U.S. drone attacks in the country.

Many analysts believe the biggest threat now comes from al-Qaida franchises in places like Yemen and Somalia.

Mahsud reported from Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/09/sheik-khalid-bin-abdel-rehman-al-hussainan-dead_n_2267076.html [with comments]

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[F6]

Secret Space Plane Just Launched on a Mystery Mission


The first X-37B returns from its debut mission in December 2010.
Photo: Air Force

By David Axe
12.11.12
Updated 1:12pm

After a delay of nearly two months [ http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/09/space-plane-2/ ] owing to a technical glitch, the Air Force’s secretive X-37B space plane [ http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/04/air-force-launches-first-reusable-unmanned-space-vehicle/ ] blasted off again from Cape Canaveral, Florida, atop an Atlas rocket on Tuesday [ http://www.ulalaunch.com/site/pages/News.shtml#/126 ].

The launch [

LIFTOFF of the United Launch Alliance #AtlasV carrying the OTV-3 mission for @USAirForce #X37B

— ULA (@ulalaunch) December 11, 2012

] starts the third mission in three years for the robotic X-37 fleet, assembled in Boeing’s now-shuttered Building 31 [ http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/11/mega-weapons-lab/ ] in Huntington Beach, California, for an estimated $1 billion apiece. But for all the time spent in orbit by the two school bus-size spacecraft — 693 days in all — it’s no more clear today precisely what the Air Force has been up to with the X-37s.

Officially, the solar- and battery-powered X-37s are strictly experimental craft, meant to “demonstrate technologies for a reliable, reusable, unmanned space test platform” while also “operating experiments which can be returned to, and examined, on Earth,” according to the Air Force [ http://www.af.mil/information/factsheets/factsheet.asp?fsID=16639 ].

“Take a payload up, spend up to 270 days on orbit,” is how Gary Payton, Deputy Undersecretary of the Air Force for Space Programs, explained the X-37's mission. “They’ll run experiments to see if the new technology works, then bring it all back home and inspect it to see what was really going on in space.”

But the Air Force has consistently declined to state exactly what those experiments might be. And in theory the X-37s could also carry spy sensors or gear for hacking enemy satellites. That and the lack of specific information has elicited protests [ http://www.space.com/16283-china-x-37b-space-plane-concerns.html ] from the Chinese government, which has vowed to build a space plane of its own [ http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/06/space-plane-record/ ].

The opacity also makes a mockery of the State Department’s international campaign for greater space transparency. Just last week in Vietnam [ http://www.state.gov/t/avc/rls/201625.htm ], Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control, Verification and Compliance Frank Rose quoted former U.N. head Boutros Boutros-Ghali. “To avoid conflicts based on misperceptions and mistrust, it is imperative that we promote transparency and other confidence-building measures — in armaments, in threatening technologies, in space and elsewhere,” Rose said.

Some observers question the space plane’s official story. “Because it is an Air Force project and details about it are classified, and because it does not have a clear mission compared to simpler systems, this project has generated confusion, speculation and in some cases concern about its purpose,” the Union of Concerned Scientists, a Massachusetts-based think tank, stated in a November fact sheet [ http://www.ucsusa.org/nuclear_weapons_and_global_security/space_weapons/technical_issues/the-x-37b-space-plane.html ].

The concern could be warranted. The X-37B is a scaled-up version of NASA’s X-37A, abandoned by the space agency in 2004. Able to deliver small payloads from its pickup truck bed-size bay, nimbly maneuver across orbits and automatically land like an airplane once its fuel reserves are depleted, the X-37B is essentially a miniature edition of NASA’s Space Shuttle [ http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/07/goodbye-space-shuttle/ ], retired 18 months ago after three decades of service.

But unlike the 120-ton Space Shuttle, the six-ton X-37 is too small to deploy large satellites or support complex space experiments, the kind that might require a human being present.

With no human crew, the X-37B’s design doesn’t really make sense for scientific use, the UCS points out. “The ability to return to Earth carries a high cost,” according to the think tank’s fact sheet. “Many missions in space do not require bringing a spacecraft back to Earth, and the space plane makes no sense for those. And even in cases when return does make sense, a spacecraft can land using a parachute rather than wings and landing gear.”

“While this ‘space plane’ could perform a range of missions, in each case we can identify a better, more efficient, and/or cheaper way of doing each of those tasks,” UCS concluded.

In the absence of a clearer explanation from the Air Force, John Pike from the Virginia-based Globalsecurity.org claimed, half-jokingly, that confusion was the whole point. “It acquired a life of its own [ http://www.militarytimes.com/news/2012/12/gannett-air-force-x37b-mini-shuttle-secrecy-120912/ ],” Pike said of the X-37. “And now to the extent that it might be said to have any larger purpose, it would be to bewilder the Chinese.”

Now, we’re sure that’s not true. But that doesn’t mean we have any idea what the space planes are really for.

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Related

Air Force's Secret Space Plane Prepped for New Launch
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/09/space-plane-2/

Video: Secret Space Plane Shatters Orbital Record as Chinese Rival Looms
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/06/space-plane-record/

Secret Space Plane Finally Lands; Twin Preps for Launch
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/12/secret-space-plane-touches-down-as-twin-readies-for-launch/

Secret U.S. Space Plane May Be Too Mysterious
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/11/secret-spaceplane-eludes-observers-spooks-governments/

Air Force Launches Secretive Space Plane; ‘We Don’t Know When It’s Coming Back’
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/04/air-force-launches-first-reusable-unmanned-space-vehicle/

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Wired.com © 2012 Condé Nast

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/12/space-plane-third-flight/ [with comments]