-Caveat Lector-
from:
http://www.aci.net/kalliste/
<A HREF="http://www.aci.net/kalliste/">The Home Page of J. Orlin Grabbe</A>
-----
India's Missiles
India, Defying China and the U.S., Test-Fires New Missile
Agni II Ballistic Missile Has Range of 1250 Miles
INDIA successfully test-fired Agni II, a locally developed intermediate
range ballistic missile (IRBM) to a distance of 1,250 miles off its
eastern coast yesterday.
It did so despite pressure from the United States and China to abandon
the project and prevent a missile race in the region. Pramod Mahajan,
the information minister said: "It was a perfect textbook fashion
launch."
A warning had been issued to prevent planes and ships from straying near
the trajectory of the 23-yard-long Agni (Fire) II. The extended range
missile weighs 19 tons and uses a mixture of liquid and solid fuel. It
is also capable of carrying a 1,000-ton conventional or nuclear warhead.
George Fernandes, the defence minister, and Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, his
scientific adviser and the architect of India's advanced missile
programme, were at the test-firing range on Wheelers Island in Orissa
state.
Neighbouring Pakistan, with whom India has fought three wars since
independence 52 years ago, was informed of the test under an agreement
signed last month. Its government has criticised Delhi for upping the
security ante in South Asia. Sartaj Aziz, Pakistani foreign minister
said: "Since they [India] have gone ahead and tested the missile we
would probably have to respond, but we will make a decision in a day or
two."
Officials in Delhi said Agni II was a "contentious issue" in the nuclear
talks with America after India's nuclear tests last May and a source of
tension with China. An analyst with the Institute for Defence Studies
and Analyses at Delhi said: "The stakes for India will rise now that
India has gone ahead and test-fired Agni II."
The missile test comes at a difficult time for the Hindu nationalist-led
coalition government. One of its principal allies has threatened to
withdraw support later this week, forcing it out of power. But the
government denied the test had anything to do with its internal crisis.
The Agni has two variants - one with a 950-mile range that was
successfully tested in 1994, declared a "technology demonstrator" and
shelved under pressure from Western countries eager to prevent a missile
race in Asia, and the second, with a 1,250-1,600 mile range test-fired
yesterday. Defence planners said Agni II armed with a nuclear warhead
would be India's deterrent against China, with whom it has an unresolved
territorial dispute over which the two fought a war in 1962.
In a nationwide television broadcast, Atal Behari Vajpayee, the Prime
Minister, said India could not depend on anyone for its national
security and had to develop its own capability. He reiterated India's
stand on its no first use of nuclear weapons and said it wanted peace
and harmony in the region. He has already stated that fear of China's
nuclear and missile capability and mistrust between the two had prompted
India to become a nuclear weapon state by carrying out multiple tests
last May.
The London Telegraph, April 12, 1999
Internet Commerce
Banks Form Group to Guarantee Online Trading
Identrus
International banks are preparing to offer financial guarantees for
companies trading over the internet, in an initiative that should
encourage large-scale electronic commerce.
A group of banks including ABN Amro of the Netherlands, Barclays Bank in
the UK, Deutsche Bank in Germany and Chase Manhattan and Citibank in the
US has formed a joint venture, Identrus, to complete the project.
The group, based in New York, is in negotiations to add Canadian
Imperial Bank of Commerce and Sanwa Bank of Japan, giving it a broader
geographical spread.
Identrus would provide a business with an assurance about the identities
of companies it planned to trade with over the internet.
This could be backed up by a financial guarantee from one of Identrus's
members.
Visa, the international card payments group, has found that even though
internet transactions account for less than 1 per cent of its EU
turnover, they give rise to 47 per cent of its disputes and frauds.
Business-to-business e-commerce is set to grow from about $15bn a year
to $1,300bn in the US alone by 2003, according to forecasts from
Forrester Research, the technology research group.
But Guy Tallent, president and chief executive of Identrus, said
businesses needed to know they could rely on their trading partners
before e-commerce could fulfil these hopes. "Unless you have an
electronic identity and the ability to trust the holder and signer of
that identity, e-commerce can't take place," he said.
Identrus depends on tested international contract law and therefore
hopes to avoid some of the legal uncertainties that have plagued
internet business. Tests are now starting between member banks with the
aim of being fully operational by January 1.
Identrus, which is also backed by Bank of America, Bankers Trust and
Hypo Vereinsbank, was initially formed by CertCo, a technology company
specialising in electronic security.
However, CertCo has now dropped out of the joint venture and will become
a technology supplier competing on equal terms with other companies.
John Herron, CertCo's chief executive, said: "We believe that the
long-term success of Identrus depends on having a platform open to a
wide range of leading technology providers."
Analysts said the Identrus venture had the potential to allow the
internet to be used for much larger transactions, but remained cautious
about how soon its effects would be felt. "Considering the scale of the
enterprise they are undertaking, it's going to be still some time before
we can assess the impact," said Scott Smith of Current Analysis, a
Virginia-based research company.
The Financial Times, April 12, 1999
CIA
Ex-CIA Director Mishandled Secret Information, Newsweek Says
DOJ, CIA Probe Security Breaches
NEW YORK, April 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Former CIA director John Deutch has
been investigated for repeatedly mishandling classified information,
Newsweek reports in the current issue. According to Justice sources,
Deutch routinely took work home, removing highly sensitive intelligence
materials from CIA headquarters and accessing them on his unsecured
personal computer -- even though he had a secure CIA computer at home.
The Justice Department and the CIA began investigating Deutch after he
stepped down as CIA chief in December 1996, after agency technicians
went to his home to remove secure computer equipment that allowed him to
view highly classified material he would no longer be authorized to see,
reports Washington Correspondent Daniel Klaidman in the April 19, 1999
issue (on newsstands Monday, April 12). To their astonishment, the
technicians discovered 31 secret files on his personal computer. The
documents included intelligence on the 1996 terrorist attack on Khobar
Towers in Saudi Arabia, reports on Iraq -- even a memo Deutch had
written to President Clinton. Investigators say the computer was
potentially vulnerable to hackers.
The Justice Department, which investigated the case for more than a
year, decided not to press criminal charges, and has referred the matter
back to the CIA. Officials close to the case say that the CIA's
inspector general is preparing a ``scathing'' report about Deutch's
alleged security breaches, and the agency is considering whether to
revoke his security clearances. Deutch declined to comment and his
lawyers did not return phone calls. While some officials attribute the
carelessness to arrogance, others liken it to absent- mindedness. One
source close to the investigation says, ``It's one thing to be sloppy.
This was reckless.'' Ironically, the inquiry languished until last
month, when Energy Secretary Bill Richardson tapped Deutch to sort out
allegations that China had penetrated the nation's top secret nuclear
labs, Klaidman reports. A few days after the appointment, Deutch
withdrew from the job, citing ``other commitments.''
But the CIA itself has come under suspicion in the China spying case. In
a related story, Klaidman and Investigative Correspondent Mark Hosenball
report that law enforcement and intelligence agencies are trying to put
aside turf squabbles and work together on the stolen technology issue.
They are planning to assemble a task force -- code-named ``Golden
Tiger'' -- to crack down on the growing number of such unsolved cases.
Investigators are still trying to determine if Beijing illegally
obtained U.S. satellite technology from Hughes Aerospace and Loral Space
& Communications, two American manufacturers that sold commercial
satellites to Beijing. Newsweek has learned that investigators want to
know if CIA case officers who routinely debriefed Hughes corporation e
xecutives about their dealings with China withheld knowledge regarding
information transfers about the satellites to protect the spy agency's
rapport with the company.
PR Newswire, April 11, 1999
-----
Aloha, He'Ping,
Om, Shalom, Salaam.
Em Hotep, Peace Be,
Omnia Bona Bonis,
All My Relations.
Adieu, Adios, Aloha.
Amen.
Roads End
Kris
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