RFID Aboard USAF Aircraft

RFID Aboard USAF Aircraft: "Savi Technology radio frequency identification tag approved aboard U.S. Air Force aircraft that transport Department of Defense supplies."

(Via AviationWeek.com MRO Channel.)

Ransom demand received for missing Russian cargo ship

CNN: A ransom has been demanded for a missing Russian cargo ship which vanished two weeks ago after being involved in a suspected hijacking off the coast of Sweden last month, Finnish police told CNN Saturday.

The last known contact with the Arctic Sea was July 31. Mystery surrounds its movements and the fate of its crew.

Authorities said the ransom demand might be from a second group of hijackers who targeted the ship after it was first allegedly hijacked for 12 hours off the coast of Sweden.

"There has been a demand for ransom and the subject is the shipping company, Solchart Management," Jan Olof Nyholm with the Finnish police told CNN.

An international criminal investigation is under way into the alleged hijacking of the vessel, the Arctic Sea. The last known communication with the vessel was July 31.

The probe, involving Interpol, is being handled by Swedish, Maltese and Finnish authorities in cooperation with authorities from another 20 countries, the Malta Maritime Authority said in a statement Saturday.

Finnish police would not say how much ransom had been demanded, or what else they know about the vessel.

"At this point I can't comment on whether we know the whereabouts of the ship. Our top priority is the threat to life and health, so I can't release any more details," Nyholm said. "The investigation has more details, but I can't say any more."

The Arctic Sea, which sails under a Maltese flag, was carrying a 6,500-ton cargo of timber from Finland to Algeria when it reported trouble on July 24.

Its 15-member crew told authorities that eight to 12 people armed with guns and pistols boarded the vessel about 3 a.m. that day, masked and wearing uniforms with the word "police" written on them, the Malta Maritime Authority said.

"During (the attackers') stay onboard, the members of the crew were allegedly assaulted, tied, gagged, and blindfolded and some of them were seriously injured," the maritime authority said in a written statement.

"All crew members were 'hard' questioned for a considerable amount of time. The questioning was related to drug trafficking. Later all crew members were released from their bindings but were locked within cabins until the alleged police rummaged the vessel thoroughly."

The attackers left after 12 hours on the same black rubber boat on which they had arrived, which bore the word "police," the maritime authority said.

The vessel's radar and satellite systems were off-line for two hours during the reported hijacking, during which it was witnessed performing "extreme maneuvers," said Maria Lonegard, a spokeswoman for the Swedish police.

The Finnish shipping company in charge of the ship reported the case to the Finnish police, who referred it to the Swedish police, the Maltese Maritime Authority said. In the meantime, the ship sailed through the English Channel.

Three days later, on July 31, Swedish police reached the ship by phone and spoke with someone they believed to be the captain, Lonegard said.

The crew provided photos of their injuries and written statements about the alleged hijacking, Swedish police said.

Despite that evidence, however, authorities have been unable to confirm the alleged hijacking. Swedish police say they have spoken to a number of witnesses who saw the ship making strange movements, but no one saw the black rubber boat approaching or leaving the Arctic Sea.

The ship has not been heard from since July 31. It did not arrive in North Africa as scheduled August 4.

Authorities have had no explanation for the ship's disappearance until Saturday, when Swedish police said they believe the Arctic Sea has been hijacked a second time. Track reports of the ship's journey »

"It appears that we are now dealing with two separate incidents -- the alleged hijacking off the Swedish coast and now the alleged hijacking with a demand for ransom," Lonegard told CNN on Saturday.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

Russian ship with mystery cargo goes missing.

Guardian:

Secret cargo theory as hunt for missing vessel Arctic Sea goes on.

A missing ship feared hijacked by pirates in European waters two weeks ago may be carrying a secret cargo, it was claimed today.

The Arctic Sea and its 15-strong Russian crew were last heard from on 29 July, when they radioed British coastguards. A day later their position was tracked to northern France but the vessel has since disappeared, and some experts said it may have been hijacked by pirates in the Baltic Sea. Others have speculated that the 4,000-tonne vessel's disappearance may be linked to a dispute with the owners.

But Mikhail Voitenko, the editor of Russia's Sovfracht maritime bulletin, said the ship, originally thought to be carrying £1m-worth of timber from Finland to Algeria, may have been targeted because it was carrying an unknown cargo.

"The only sensible answer is that the vessel was loaded secretly with something we don't know anything about," he told the Russia Today news channel. "We have to remember that before loading in Finland the vessel stayed for two weeks in a shipyard in Kaliningrad. I'm sure it cannot be drugs or illegal criminal cargo. I think it is something much more expensive and dangerous."

The Arctic Sea made routine radio contact with British coastguards just before entering the strait of Dover from the North Sea at 1.52pm on July 28.

According to Interpol, it had been boarded by up to 10 armed men masquerading as anti-drugs police on July 24. The men were thought to have left the ship in a high-speed inflatable boat 12 hours later.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency called the situation "bizarre" and said the hijackers might have been coercing the ship's crew when they made radio contact.

The Arctic Sea failed to arrive in Bejaia, in northern Algeria, as scheduled on 4 August.

An international search, involving two nuclear submarines and five Russian warships, has been launched. "All ships and vessels of the Russian navy in the Atlantic have been dispatched to search for the missing ship," commander-in-chief Vladimir Vysotsky told Moscow's Itar-Tass news agency.

Mark Dickinson, the general secretary of seafarers' union Nautilus International, criticised authorities for their "relaxed" view of marine hijacking, which he said made shipping "the achilles heel of global security".

"It is alarming that, in the 21st century, a ship can apparently be commandeered by hijackers and sail through the world's busiest waterway with no alarm being raised and no naval vessel going to intercept it," he said.

Nikolay Karpenkov, the director of Solchart Arkhanglesk, the Arctic Sea's operating company, said the suggestion it had a secret cargo was "rubbish". "The craft was checked by customs officers as it left Kaliningrad after a refit and with the timber cargo in Finland and nothing out of the ordinary was found," he said.

3-star: Buzzing is part of Afghan air strategy

3-star: Buzzing is part of Afghan air strategy: "SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. — A new military approach in Afghanistan may mean buzzing rather than bombing the enemy, according to the general taking over the air war there.It’s known as irregular warfare, designed to protect local people and then enlist their help defeating Taliban insurgents, Air Force Lt. Gen. Gilmary Hostage said Thursday.‘The first thing we do is fly over head, and the bad guys know airpower is in place and oftentimes that’s enough. That ends the fight, they vamoose,’ said Hostage, who will direct the air battle over Iraq and Afghanistan. ‘The A-10 has a very distinct sound. The cannon on an A-10 is horrifically capable and our adversaries know it. When they hear the sound of an A-10, they scatter.’Hostage says the Air Force can easily drop bombs with pinpoint accuracy. But in some cases, it may be better to fly over enemy forces with noisy warplanes to get them to disperse first, then try more force if that doesn’t work.Hostage said he supports the new U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who is shifting the philosophy toward irregular warfare.‘The challenge with irregular warfare is to empower and enable the people to the point where they don’t allow the adversary to hide in amongst them,’ Hostage said. ‘It really is a long-term effort.’Hostage said McChrystal has told his forces, ‘If you are in a situation where there’s a civilian at risk, he’d rather have us back away than pressing to engage the enemy and run the risk of damaging or hurting somebody.’The general said the irregular warfare philosophy may sound strange to some, but it gives military commanders more flexibility in fighting a war.‘In a circumstance where I’m only able to blow things up, I’m pretty limited in what I can do,’ Hostage said. ‘If I use graduated measures, then there are many things I can do to affect the situation.’Hostage, 54, took the job of overseeing Air Forces for the U.S. Central Command last week. He was heading Thursday from Shaw Air Force Base in central South Carolina to his new post at al-Udeid Air Base in the Persian Gulf state of Qatar, the headquarters of all U.S. air operations in the Middle East.He is returning to familiar territory, having served as the commander of U.S. forces stationed at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia in 2001 and 2002. Most recently, he was the No. 2 in charge of U.S. Air Forces in the Pacific."

(Via Air Force Times - News.)

FBI: Man threatened military kids online

FBI: Man threatened military kids online: "SAN DIEGO — The FBI arrested a transient man with a laptop and wireless access for allegedly making threats through Craigslist posts that targeted two Coronado, Calif.-elementary schools, including military children, according to court documents.Paul D. Rodgers, 40, is facing charges of communicating threats through several postings he made on the Craigslist social network July 30. Rodgers is being held without bail and is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in San Diego for a preliminary hearing set for Aug. 25.Rodgers ‘initially agreed that he posted all of the comments to Craigslist about hurting kids to help with the tones he hears in his head,’ FBI Special Agent Kristen Robinson wrote in an affidavit filed in court.Navy officials in San Diego in July were alerted to the threats, which the Joint Terrorism Task Force was investigating. On July 31, officials issued a warning of the threats but later downplayed them. Coronado city officials also were alerted to the threats, and one source said authorities had identified the possible suspect and described him as having ‘a history of mental illness.’FBI agents think that Rodgers posted photographs in May of four San Diego-area elementary schools, titling his post as ‘Coronado elementary schools to be destroyed,’ according to the affidavit. When San Diego police questioned Rodgers in June about it, he ‘asked to go to county mental health’ and was evaluated over eight days.A July 30 posting on Craigslist threatened children at two of those schools, and a search of e-mail and IP addresses determined that the posting was done online from a San Diego public library computer. Further searches of similar threats at Craigslist sites in New York, Seattle and San Francisco on Aug. 1 all sourced the postings to the same library.The FBI zoomed in on Rodgers, who lives out of his Ford pickup truck in San Diego’s beach areas. He accesses the Internet from his laptop computer using a free wireless connection.Police detained him Aug. 5.DISCUSS: The Craigslist threat"

(Via Air Force Times - News.)