MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – October 6, 2012
- Way Up North (1) “Canada is poised to claim ownership of a vast new expanse of undersea territory beyond its Atlantic and Arctic coasts that’s greater in size than Quebec and equal to about 20 per cent of the country’s surface area, Postmedia News has learned. The huge seabed land grab has been in the works since 1994, when federal scientists first conducted a “desktop study” of Canada’s potential territorial expansion under a new UN treaty allowing nations to extend their offshore jurisdictions well past the current 200-nautical-mile (370-km) limit of so-called “Exclusive Economic Zones” in coastal waters. But the UN also set strict criteria for converting underwater tracts of “no man’s land” into a nation’s territorial possessions, including exhaustive geological studies proving these distant stretches of seabed — including potentially massive oil-and-gas deposits — are “natural prolongations” of each applicant country’s continental bedrock. At the time, experts from the Geological Survey of Canada and Canadian Hydrographic Service estimated that as much as 1.75 million square kilometres of seafloor to the east and north of Canada’s 9.9-million-sq.-km. land mass — initially described as an area “equivalent to the size of the three Prairie provinces” — might eventually be claimed under provisions of the new international accord on continental shelf extensions, a component of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, or UNCLOS ….”
- Way Up North (2) “Russia’s most celebrated polar explorer, Artur Chilingarov, wants Russian President Vladimir Putin and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to meet at the North Pole. “I have mentioned this to President Putin and I will mention it again,” the limber, heavily bearded Hero of Russia and Hero of the Soviet Union said during an interview this week in an office crammed with memorabilia from his many expeditions to the two poles. “Let’s do it. It would be a symbol of Russian-Canadian friendship in the north.” Canadians may remember Chilingarov as the explorer who in 2007 planted a titanium replica of the Russian flag at the bottom of the ocean – at the top of the world. It was a dramatic act that caused shock and anger in Ottawa and other northern capitals. Canadian officials such as then-foreign minister Peter MacKay had taken deep offence at his dramatic underwater showmanship in one of two small Mir deep-sea mini-submarines, “This isn’t the 15th century,” MacKay told CTV at the time. “You can’t go around the world and just plant flags and say, ‘We’re claiming this territory.’ ” Told that some Canadians still vilified him, Chilingarov, who is a member of the Russian Federation Council, responded with a profound belly laugh. “I don’t know why Canadians took this so painfully,” he said. “The North Pole is a fixed place and it is for everyone.” ….”
- Way Up North (3) U.S. eyeing the Pacific via Alaska? “At the center of the U.S. contribution to Pacific defense is the ability to provide strategic depth for our allies. Much of this depends on the contribution of Alaska. As retired Lt. Gen. Charles Heflebower, former 7th Air Force Commander, put it in a recent interview: “The ability to surge in force is crucial. When I was there (in South Korea), I calculated that if we could remain viable through the first 20 days of combat, forces could be surged to the area and turn the tide.” In this sense, Alaska is a crucial asset to any American Pacific strategy. People don’t realize how strategic Alaska is until you really look at a map and recognize its central role in terms of getting forces into the region ….”
- Way Up North (4) “Arctic ice has receded more over the past decade than at any other point in history, with summer ice melts making more areas accessible than ever before. The newly-accessible areas of the Arctic hold huge amounts of oil and gas as well as massive stock of high quality gold, diamond, plutonium and other rare earth minerals. A recent CSIS study found that although some Arctic countries (such as Russia) have claimed to support international cooperation in the Arctic, they have bolstered their military presence in the region. Since the region lacks any coherent framework to address international interests and concerns, it remains a potential flash point for all countries bordering the Arctic or with interests there ….”
- Mark Collins on “The Dragon and the Bear, Hacking and Spying“
- Stuart Langridge, R.I.P. “A rare “letter to the editor” in which Chief of Defence Staff Walter Natynczyk apparently predicted the outcome of a military police probe into the suicide of Afghan veteran Stuart Langridge had no affect on investigators, a top military cop insisted Thursday. Maj. Daniel Dandurand, former head of the military’s National Investigation Service (NIS) western region, said Natynczyk is a man of “humility” and if his internal police force showed him evidence that he was wrong, the top soldier would accept it ….”
- “More than a year after a major report called for cutting bureaucratic fat at National Defence headquarters, the military is implementing a key recommendation. The Canadian Forces officially “stood up” Canadian Joint Operations Command (CJOC) on Friday in a colourful ceremony, combining into one what were individual commands for domestic, foreign and support operations. “The three commands required about 580 full-time military staff,” said Lt.-Gen. Stuart Beare, who’ll lead CJOC. “At the end of this transition we’ll be able to conduct the same business with about 450, so we’re saving 25% of our military structure.” The military has not said how much money the move will save taxpayers ….”
- “The Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence, (Friday) expressed his condolences over the passing of Lieutenant-Commander (Retired) William Lore on September 22, in Hong Kong at the age of 103. Mr. Lore was the first Canadian-born Chinese to join the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) and also the first person of Chinese descent to serve in any of the British Commonwealth navies ….” – more on Lore here.
- No word on the obtained report being shared, so no word on what else may be in it. “Canada’s spy agency says the online collective Anonymous isn’t just a thorn in the side of the powerful, but the new model for digital hacktivism. Anonymous has carried out cyber-attacks against governments, corporations and others in the name of free speech, Internet liberties and, more so in the past year, anti-capitalist causes. A newly declassified report from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service says although hacktivism – a blend of hacker smarts and social activism – has existed for years, it is only now that conditions have allowed such groups to bloom. “The global reach of the Internet, the availability of numerous open source/ free attack tools, and the flourishing of social networking venues facilitates the organization and carrying out of cyber-attacks by hacktivist groups,” says the report. “Anonymous is the face of modern hacktivism.” ….”
