GlobalSecurity.org In the News

June 2002 News

1. U.S. Bolsters Forces in Qatar Desert by Robert Burns Associated Press June 30, 2002-- Commercial satellite imagery of the base: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/al-udeid-imagery.htm
2. Security analysts dismiss fears of terrorist hackers Electricity, water systems hard to damage online by Bill Wallace San Francisco Chronicle June 30, 2002-- "If you pitch a bad script in Hollywood, the worst that can happen is you get thrown out of the office," John Pike said with a chuckle. "If I were some guy from al Qaeda pitching a (complicated and risky) cyber-terrorism plot to Osama bin Laden, I would be a little nervous about making it out of his office alive."
3. DIRTY BOMB INVESTIGATION TARGETS CENTRAL ASIA AND THE CAUCASUS By Mark Berniker Eurasianet June 29, 2002 - "No one knows how big the problem of clandestine trafficking in radioactive materials is, but enough people have been arrested that, where there's smoke, there must be fire," says John Pike, director of a Virginia information firm called GlobalSecurity.org.
4. Islamic militant Web site bounces around Net, spreading al-Qaida doctrine By DAFNA LINZER The Associated Press June 27, 2002 - "The Internet basically gives them a global communication capability and al-Qaida is global, it represents the globalization of terror," said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a defense and security policy group.
5. 'Secret' government site not so secret after all By Carl Weiser USA Today June 26, 2002 - Military expert John Pike, director of globalsecurity.org, estimates there are between a few dozen and 500 workers there on any given day - and that number has almost certainly increased since Sept. 11, he said.
6. U.S. Tightens Scrutiny of Sea Cargo By GARY FIELDS Wall Street Journal June 25, 2002 John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity .org, an Alexandria, Va.-based think tank that looks at security issues, said the inspection campaign is a step in the right direction, but he believes the magnitude of trying to zero in on a container holding a dangerous weapon from among the millions that come into the U.S. makes it a small step.
7. Bad fuel lines ground shuttle fleet indefinitely BY MARTIN MERZER Miami Herald June 25, 2002 ''They are not supposed to break. It would ruin your whole day,'' said John Pike, director of Globalsecurity.org, a defense and space policy group that monitors NASA operations. ``There would be nothing else on TV for the rest of the week.''
8. KC-130 crash fueling debate over military's procurement priorities James W. Crawley and Jeanette Steele Copley News Service June 24, 2002 - "Flying (in a war) is not perfectable," Pike said. "It's difficult and dangerous. People can be very good at it and still get killed."
9. Grant Aids Prof's Study Of Military By Olivia Winslow Newsday (New York, NY) June 21, 2002 - Such research is important, said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a defense policy research group in Alexandria, Va. "It's important there be a number of independent voices looking at the military because it faces a greater diversity of threats today than it did during the Cold War."
10. Troops Face Long Stay in Afghanistan By SALLY BUZBEE The Associated Press June 20, 2002 - Much of what U.S. troops are doing remains secret, said John Pike, a defense analyst at Globalsecurity.org in Washington. A rash of reports of U.S. special forces raids on suspected al-Qaida, who turned out to be innocent bystanders, has faded somewhat from mid-spring, he said.
11. NSA read warnings for Sept. 11 a day later By Laura Sullivan and Ariel Sabar The Baltimore Sun June 20, 2002 -- Tim Brown, a senior analyst at Globalsecurity.org, a Washington-based police group, suggested that for the agency to try to pinpoint certain vague messages as being particularly significant is "like drinking water through a fire hydrant."
12. Cambone to become DOD director of program analysis and evaluation By Jefferson Morris Aerospace Daily June 20, 2002 - Cambone has been a figure of controversy in the Pentagon, having acted as the "point person" for the most recent quadrennial defense review (QDR), according to GlobalSecurity.org President John Pike.
13. Los nuevos negocios tras la guerra de Bush contra el terrorismo Claudio Mario AliscioniClarín [Buenos Aires] 18 de junio de 2002 - El analista John Pike es contundente al analizar este ángulo de la nueva sociedad. Cuando Clarín le preguntó si había más chances ahora de mayores manejos corruptos, respondió con su lengua filosa: "Algo del dinero será malgastado y otra parte será robada. ¿Cómo podría ser de otra manera?"
14. No rest for the wary Carl Nolte The San Francisco Chronicle June 18, 2002 -- "There is a risk of what I would call the giggle factor, of people laughing at the threats, as they did to the boy who cried 'Wolf! Wolf!' when there was no wolf," said John Pike, executive director of the Washington think tank GlobalSecurity.org. "A threat forecast almost becomes like a weather report. "But the problem is: The threat is real. They are not making it up."
15. Bush Wants to Ban Spy Plane Tech Noah Shachtman Wired News June 17, 2002 -- "These are not James Bond movie villains, imagining the most complex means to an end," said John Pike, director of Globalsecurity.org. "They look for the simplest plan."
16. Homeland Security - Repeating the Past? National Journal June 14, 2002 -- "With each assistant secretary reporting to a separate subcommittee on the Hill, you're going to wind up with the assistant secretaries working for subcommittee chairmen rather than for the Cabinet secretary," said nuclear expert John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org.
17. A day in the life of a Green Beret John Diedrich The Christian Science Monitor June 14, 2002 -- "They were fairly unapologetic that they were trying to eliminate communist insurgency in the south," says Tim Brown, a senior analyst with Globalsecurity.org, a military think tank in Washington D.C.
18. Ordinary Citizens Able to Pick Up US Spy Satellite Pictures NBC Nightly News (6:30 PM ET) June 13, 2002 - Mr. JOHN PIKE (Globalsecurity.org): This is exactly the sort of information that the people you're trying to catch with these cameras are going to use to figure out that you're chasing them.
19. US surveillance plays on satellite TV Will Knight NewScientist.com June 13, 2002 - "Certainly this does pose the risk that somebody monitoring this could basically see what the US military is interested in," says John Pike of the US military think tank Global Security.
20. Washington erwaegt Praeventivschlaege Von Urs Gehriger Tages-Anzeiger June 12, 2002 -- Seit einigen Monaten wird in Washington ueber eine neue Atomstrategie diskutiert. Grundlage fuer die Debatte ist die im Maerz in Auszuegen publik gewordene geheime "Nuclear Posture Review" (NPR) des Pentagon (www.globalsecurity.org).
21. Radar Blimps Proposed To Get Defense System Up, Running TBO.com 12 Jun 2002-- ``The military has a history with airship programs, and the Army has been looking at this for [battlefield] cruise missile defense for the past five to six years,'' said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a nonprofit group in Arlington, Va., that studies defense policy.
22. Pentagon stoppt Truppenaufmarsch für Krieg gegen Irak by Von Hubert Wetzel Financial Times Deutschland 11 Jun 2002-- Trotzdem geben Fachleute keine Entwarnung: Sollte Washington Irak angreifen wollen, könnte der Aufbau der Invasionstruppen "sehr schnell" gehen, so der US-Militärexperte John Pike.
23. Fallout from nuclear war in South Asia seen as unlikely to reach U.S. By Bruce Lieberman Copley News Service 10 Jun 2002-- In contrast, the typical nuclear weapon in the U.S. stockpile today is 10 to 20 times more powerful than the weapons held by India and Pakistan, according to GlobalSecurity.org.
24. Government Announces Thwarting al Qaeda Plan CNN INTERNATIONAL SHOW: INSIGHT 10 Jun 2002-- "If you have somebody in custody now who was out reconnoitering, trying to figure out exactly where you were going to be attacking, that does suggest that he has compatriots, many of whom I assume are unknown to him, who are part of the rest of the plan to actually conduct the attack." John Pike said.
25. Dirty bomb's biggest hazard: panic By Alan Boyle MSNBC.com 10 Jun 2002-- "There are hundreds of thousands of these [radioactive materials], and not all of them are accounted for," said John Pike, a weapons expert at GlobalSecurity.org.
26. Space Imagery Challenged By Concealment, Terrain BY NATHAN HODGE Defense Week 10 Jun 2002-- John Pike, the director of GlobalSecurity.org, said one thing NIMA and other agencies are interested in is things like foliage-penetrating radar, which can pierce jungle cover.
27. Nuke Plan Creates Confusion By John Fleck Albuquerque Journal 08 Jun 2002-- "I think that a good time will be had by all over the next month or so trying to figure out what the president meant," said John Pike, a national security analyst at GlobalSecurity.org, a Washington, D.C., think tank.
28. Elite Panel of Academics Wins Fight to Continue Advising Military By Ron Southwick Chronicle of Higher Education June 7, 2002-- "One of the distinctive attributes of Jason has been the relative independence of its study process," says John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a research group that focuses on military and space policy. "There is a general trend in the Defense Department to reduce the possibility that someone may come up with the wrong answer or produce inconvenient conclusions."
29. Des changements massifs sont en train de s'opérer dans le renseignement Libération June 7, 2002-- "John Pike est le directeur de Globalsecurity.org, un centre de recherche basé à Washington, spécialisé sur les questions de défense et de renseignement."
30. Bomb School By Jon Elliston The Independent Weekly [Durham, NC] June 5, 2002 -- A good portion of that spending will be focused on bulking up the CIA's commando force, says John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a defense and intelligence policy research group in Washington, D.C. "Most of it will have to be going toward counterterrorism, toward the kinds of things they do at Harvey Point more than the kinds of things they do at Camp Perry," where traditional espionage is taught. The CIA, he says, is "hiring a lot of muscle."
31. Taiwanese resolution puts a snag in sub plans - Legislature says 6 boats must be built in Taiwan By David Lerman, Daily Press 5 June 2002-- "A year ago, you might have thought it was a done deal," said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a defense-policy think tank. "Now it doesn't seem to be moving rapidly at all."
32. FBI issues warning about small planes By Liam M. Truchard Springfield News-Leader 04 Jun 2002-- The fear is that terrorists would try to steal a commuter jet from a municipal airport, pack it with explosives and fly it into a power plant or fuel storage facility, said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a Washington-based defense policy group.
33. Political Headlines: Congressional Hearings on Intelligence Failures by John Gibson, Heather Nauert, Catherine Herridge Fox News, The Big Story with John Gibson 04 June 2002-- JOHN PIKE, GLOBALSECURITY.ORG: Well, certainly, we've learned an awful lot within the last month or so that we didn't know publicly eight months ago. In fact, I think the intelligence agencies are learning a lot today that they should have known but didn't know a while back.
34. CIA & FBI in the hot seat By John Diamond USA Today 04 June 2002-- "If you're telling me that CIA and NSA were completely clueless, that even with the benefit of hindsight, they were clueless, that would be the scandal," says John Pike, a national security expert with GlobalSecurity.org, a think tank in Washington.
35. Judging Louis Freeh By Eric Boehlert Salon.com 04 June 2002-- "He's been a major player in counter-terrorism for the better part of the last decade, so Congress will want to hear what he has to say for himself," says John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a defense policy group.
36. Eppur si muove--or maybe not The Economis 1 June 2002-- John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a Washington-based defence consultancy, retorts that America's military establishment views Galileo with something between contempt and outright hostility. "There's no way to accommodate American concerns, except not to build Galileo," he argues.