Today's excerpt from "The Interceptors Club & the Secret of the Black Manta.

It was shortly after 2:00 AM when the alarm went off.

Although Ken hadn’t been asleep very long it still took his brain some time to understand what was going on.

Instinctively his hand groped for the snooze button on the alarm clock but even after his fingers found it, the pesky buzzing continued. It took a few seconds longer for Ken to realize it wasn’t his clock that was beeping loudly, but his computer.

As the realization suddenly set in on what the alarm meant Ken bolted upright, fully awake.

Throwing his covers off, Ken jumped up as if he had been lying on a spring and ran over to the computer console.

On the screen a blinking, vibrant word CRITICOM flashed in contrasting red and yellow letters, hurting his still sleepy eyes.

Ken’s adrenaline began to flow.

He had only received one CRITICOM since he had established the INTERCEPTOR encrypted e-mail system 3 years ago.

It contained a news flash alerting Interceptors about the terrible events that took place on 9-11-2001.

The CRITICOM was a call for all Core Interceptors (an organized network of professional and amateur radio communications monitors) to tune in and record any and all communications possibly related to the terrorist attacks on America. Ken recalled it was one of the saddest, maddening and harried days of his life.

Minutes after it was clear America was being attacked, Ken’s phone began ringing off the hook with news reporters' frenzied requests for information. Many national news agencies relied on Ken’s company called “Reliable Source” and knew if anyone had the inside information on the origin of the terrorist attack, he did.

The confusion on the military and aviation radio-bands on that horrible day was beyond frightening.

Every civilian aircraft flying at the time was ordered by the FAA to land immediately, while at the same time the military launched fighters into the sky to seek out, identify and (if ordered to)shoot-down hijacked civilian airliners.

Ken’s heart skipped a beat as he couldn’t help but flash-back to that horrific day and hoped the CRITICOM he had just received wasn’t more of the same.

Ken then set about the task of retrieving the urgent e-mail message but it wasn’t as easy as just clicking the mouse button and opening a file.

The message itself was encrypted to keep unauthorized eyes from reading it.

Per the small chance that someone was reading Ken’s e-mail, such as the FBI (using their Dragonware 2.0 Suite of e-mail analysis programs), upon opening the message all one would see was page after page of seemingly nonsensical random numbers and letters.

To make the message readable required a key, a special computer program that decoded the cipher.

Problem was, the key to the cipher was not kept on this computer. Ken would have to save the message to a flash drive and physically transfer it to another computer, one specifically not connected to the Internet to avoid getting hacked.

Quickly he saved the message to a flash drive, erased it from his e-mail and ejected it from his computer.

Ken then fished for his car keys inside a jacket he had hanging on the back of the bedroom door. Once he found them he quickly wound his way downstairs and eventually to the basement.

As he flicked on the light, he was hit by the familiar musty smell that dwelled in places where sunshine never shines.

In a dark corner of the basement sat an uneven and water stained card table. On it rested an ancient-looking computer, covered by a yellowing plastic dust cover.

At first glance anyone would think this box of stale, outdated microchips was a relic from the 1980s, an early version of a slow-as-snails home PC, a museum piece at best, but hidden inside the well-worn shell was a modern and super-fast number-crunching maniac of a machine.

Ken had built the computer himself, assembling cutting-edge components inside what looked like a garage sale castoff that no one but an antique collector would take a second glance at.

That was exactly what Ken wanted, because inside this machine were contained his precious “Interceptor Files” hidden away from government spies and hackers but always close by and in plain sight, the last place anyone would look. Ken wasn’t up to anything illegal, but the information in his files was sensitive and to be protected, especially from spies working for hostile countries. The only way to be sure it was protected was to isolate it, disguise it and protect the files with advanced encryption.

Ken removed the dust cover, plugged in the machine and booted it up. Amazingly, it only took seconds to come to life.

Ken inserted the flash drive, loaded the message onto the hard drive and dropped it on the Blue-Crypt program and entered his memorized cipher key.

But that wasn’t enough to decipher the file. It required another key, an image stored on another flash drive attached to Ken’s car keys.

He nervously fumbled his keys and inserted the second flash drive into a second USB port, transferred the image of the drive and dropped it on the icon that represented the encrypted message.

“One can’t be too careful.” He said to himself. “You never know who might be intercepting.” He mumbled.

A comical image (a grinning goat wearing braces) flashed on the screen and then disappeared. It was replaced with the now un-encrypted CRITICOM message.



“CRITICOM URGENT ATTENTION: CONVAIR HQ – FROM FREAKS – HAFB”


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Vulcan at Farnborough

Bad news for Holloman F-22s

The Department of the Air Force announced today its actions to consolidate the F-22 fleet. The secretary of the Air Force and the chief of staff of the Air Force determined the most effective basing for the F-22. This requires redistributing aircraft from one F-22 squadron to units at four F-22 bases. A second squadron will be relocated to an existing F-22 base.

The affected bases are:

Holloman Air Force Base, N.M.: Deactivate one squadron of F-22s and disperse that squadron’s aircraft to other F-22 units. Relocate the remaining squadron to Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla.

Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska - receive six additional aircraft

Langley Air Force Base, Va. - receive six additional aircraft

Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. - receive two additional aircraft

Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla. - receive one additional squadron

“This plan maximizes combat aircraft and squadrons available for contingencies,” said Kathleen Ferguson, deputy assistant secretary for installations. “By consolidating aircraft at existing bases, F-22 operational flexibility is enhanced.”

Teams surveyed four F-22 bases, evaluating them for feasibility, timing, cost, and planning purposes to accept additional F-22 aircraft. The secretary of the Air Force and the chief of staff of the Air Force carefully considered the site survey results and military judgment factors in making these basing determinations. These actions will be finalized subject to completion of appropriate environmental analysis.

The F-22 Raptor combines stealth, supercruise, maneuverability, and integrated avionics, coupled with improved supportability, and represents an exponential leap in warfighting capabilities.

For more information contact the Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs Office at 703-695-0640.

Al Qaeda's "Economic blow to the infidels " fail!

(CNN) -- Four days after an al Qaeda-linked group claimed responsibility for targeting an oil tanker, the United Arab Emirates government has acknowledged that it was indeed attacked, state media said Friday.

The government had earlier said the tanker was passing through the Strait of Hormuz when it was exposed to a high wave as a result of an earthquake shock.
However, the state news agency WAM reported, the tanker "was the target of a terrorist attack while passing through international waters near the Strait of Hormuz."
Workers fixed the damage to the vessel and the attack caused no human injuries or oil spills, the agency said.

The militant Islamist group claimed responsibility for the explosion aboard the oil tanker on Monday.

In a statement posted on various websites that regularly carry messages from al Qaeda leaders, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades included a picture of a man they claimed carried out a suicide attack on the tanker on July 28.

The group said the attack was intended to "strike an economic blow to the infidels." It is believed to be behind several attacks in the Middle East, including the October 2004 attack on a hotel and nearby camp sites in Egypt that killed more than three dozen people.
The statement from the Abdullah Azzam Brigades said the attack on the tanker was the "conquest of Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman" -- a reference to the imprisoned blind cleric who inspired the 1993 World Trade Center bombing in New York

New Chinese Aircraft Carrier Killer Could Tip Balance of Power

ABOARD THE USS GEORGE WASHINGTON (AP) — Nothing projects U.S. global air and sea power more vividly than supercarriers. Bristling with fighter jets that can reach deep into even landlocked trouble zones, America's virtually invincible carrier fleet long has enforced its dominance of the high seas.

China soon may put an end to that.

U.S. naval planners are scrambling to deal with what analysts say is a game-changing weapon being developed by China: an unprecedented carrier-killing missile called the Dong Feng 21D that could be launched from land with enough accuracy to penetrate the defenses of even the most advanced moving aircraft carrier at a distance of more than 900 miles.

Analysts say final testing of the missile could come as soon as the end of this year, though questions remain about how fast China will be able to perfect its accuracy to the level needed to threaten a moving carrier at sea.

The weapon, a version of which was displayed last year in a Chinese military parade, could revolutionize China's role in the Pacific balance of power, seriously weakening Washington's ability to intervene in any potential conflict over Taiwan or North Korea. It also could deny U.S. ships safe access to international waters near China's 11,200-mile-long coastline.

While a nuclear bomb theoretically could sink a carrier, assuming its user was willing to raise the stakes to atomic levels, the conventionally-armed Dong Feng 21D's uniqueness is in its ability to hit a powerfully defended moving target with pin-point precision.

Funded by annual double-digit increases in the defense budget for almost every year of the past two decades, the Chinese navy has become Asia's largest and has expanded beyond its traditional mission of retaking Taiwan to push its sphere of influence deeper into the Pacific and protect vital maritime trade routes.

"The Navy has long had to fear carrier-killing capabilities," said Patrick Cronin, senior director of the Asia-Pacific Security Program at the nonpartisan, Washington-based Center for a New American Security. "The emerging Chinese antiship missile capability, and in particular the DF 21D, represents the first post-Cold War capability that is both potentially capable of stopping our naval power projection and deliberately designed for that purpose."

Setting the stage for a possible conflict, Beijing has grown increasingly vocal in its demands for the United States to stay away from the wide swaths of ocean — covering much of the Yellow Sea, East Sea/Sea of Japan and South China Sea — where it claims exclusivity.

It strongly opposed plans to hold U.S.-South Korean war games in the Yellow Sea off the northeastern Chinese coast, saying the participation of the USS George Washington supercarrier, with its 1,092-foot flight deck and 6,250 personnel, would be a provocation because it put Beijing within striking range of U.S. F-18 warplanes.

The carrier instead took part in maneuvers held farther away in the East Sea/Sea of Japan.

U.S. officials deny Chinese pressure kept it away and say they will not be told by Beijing where they can operate.

"We reserve the right to exercise in international waters anywhere in the world," Rear Adm. Daniel Cloyd, who headed the U.S. side of the exercises, said aboard the carrier during the maneuvers, which ended last week.

But the new missile could undermine that policy.

READ THE REST OF THE STORY HERE