Recently we at BI Military and Defense received an email with an unclassified document detailing the growing threat of improvised bombs in Afghanistan — the same day, this video came out of Marines in an ambush as they were detonating IED's along a main supply route.

Before you watch, there's a few words you should know:

• BIP — Blown In Place — When Marines find a bomb, and use another bomb to get rid of it.
• Reduce — Reduction of an IED means that Marines have rendered it no longer a threat.
• Command Det — A command detonation means the bomb was wired, and the wire runs hundred of feet to a remote viewing location, where the enemy will hide, often using just a 9-Volt battery to trigger the bomb.

I talked to the producer of the video, Cpl. Micheal Lopez, a combat correspondent attached to operating units in Helmand, and he said that the unit in the video planned to spend two days clearing a main supply route, but ended up spending six.

The days they didn't spend in the nearest patrol base, they spent in their trucks, rotating watch behind loaded weapons.

Lopez said at one point, when they located an Improvised Explosive Device, the Taliban chose right then to mount an ambush.

NOW SEE: This Is What Happens When 'Red Air' Strands Marines In Taliban Territory >

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Vice President Joe Biden really got rolling when tonight's debate turned to the Obama administration's policies toward Israel and Iran.

Responding to Ryan's claim that President Barack Obama opted to appear on The View rather than meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York, Biden started to get heated. 

"Now with regard to Bibi, he's been my friend for 39 years!" Biden told Ryan. "The President has met with Bibi a dozen times. He's spoken with Bibi Netanyahu as much as he's spoken to anybody!" 

The whole exchange was pretty priceless. Watch the clip below: 

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Specialist Devin Hagar had been in Afghanistan only long enough to go out on his first patrol when his platoon came under heavy fire and his squad took evasive measures.

India's Jagran Post reports Hagar's squad leader started to guide his men across a river, when Hagar was directly targeted by a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG).

"I turned and put one foot up on the riverbank and that's when I saw the back-blast of the RPG and the guy's silhouette and a silver thing with a red tip coming at me," Hagar says.

"I just looked at it and thought, 'What's that?' Then it hit me in the leg. I looked down and just thought, 'Awesome, my leg is still here'. It was like a big dude hitting you in the leg with a baseball bat. It was a pretty good thump."

One of the soldier's nearby saw the RPG bounce off Hagar's leg and explode in the dirt, while the struck specialist made his way to cover.

Using his rifle as a crutch he made it to a helicopter Medevac with another guy who'd been shot and spent a few days in the hospital where the wound bruised and scarred, but that was it.

"It was pretty surreal, like it wasn't happening," he says. "I couldn't stop smiling, I was laughing the whole time, thinking 'That was awesome'. I'm just glad I wasn't blown into a hundred pieces."

Now: Check out the SEAL app that the government hates >

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Whether you've heard about it or not, sequestration is a big deal to a lot of people and is directly tied to the economy.

When the subcommittee failed to agree on $1.2 trillion in budget cuts last November, it agreed that much of the cuts would come from defense.

Those cuts are slated to arrive Jan 1, 2013.

No other solutions have been offered, and the Pentagon looks to face drastic cuts in the New Year.

Whether sequestration falls remains to be seen, but these are the 25 largest defense companies in America that may feel those cuts the most.

The data is by SIPRI based on numbers from 2010 and rank in terms of sales.

#25 CACI International

Arms sales: $2.3 billion

Total profit: $107 million

Employees: 13,100 people

While CACI International doesn't make weapons, they supply the U.S. Army with an information lifeline.

The TROJAN satellite communication systems provide the Army with a global network of shared mission-critical intelligence.

Source: SIPRI

#24 Goodrich

Arms sales: $2.2 billion

Total profit: $579 million

Employees: 16,300 people

Goodrich is yet another company to get a piece of the F-35 Lightning II cake. They work on the fighter aircraft's landing system. 

The U.S. Air Force trusts Goodrich with making their ejection seat of choice, the ACES II. It is most widely used ejection seat today and is credited with saving more than 600 lives.

#23 DynCorp International

Arms sales: $2.4 billion

Total profit: $9 million

Employees: 23,000 people

DynCorp International provides logistical support to the U.S. government defense programs. 

In Afghanistan, they are engaged in removing and destroying landmines and light weapons.

They are also involved with supporting air operations and have big contracts with the Department of Defense to maintain rotary and fixed-wing aircraft for all U.S. military branches.  

Source: SIPRI

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A Canadian naval intelligence officer has pleaded guilty to spying for Russia over four-and-a-half years, Steven Chase and Jane Taber of The Globe and Mail report.

Sub-Lieutenant Jeffrey Delisle, 41, pleaded guilty to criminal charges of  “communicating with a foreign entity” and "breach of trust" for funneling top military secrets from his post at the ultra-secure Trinity naval intelligence center in Halifax to Russia for about $3,000 a month.

A prosecutor at the bail hearings cited intelligence sources who feared the scandal could throw Canada’s relations with allied intelligence organizations“back to the Stone Age.”

Delisle also had access to reports on organized crime, political players and senior defense officials as well as personal information regarding members of the intelligence community. But what international officials are most outraged about is perhaps Deslisle's compromising of a system called the "Stone Ghost".

The Stone Ghost links intelligence networks between the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada — the "Five Eyes". 

So while Delisle searched Canadian databases for the term “Russia" he was not only scouring Canadian intelligence but that of the Five Eyes aas well. Once he located what he was looking for, the Canadian officer sent the information to a USB memory stick before dropping it into the body of an email and saving it to the draft folder.

His Russian handler would then log into the same account, take the information and save a draft message in response.

In mid-2007 the Canadian Forces member walked into the Russian embassy in Ottawa as his decade-long marriage was unraveling and offered his services for “ideological reasons,” The Globe and Mail reports.

Russia and Delisle even set up an escape plan: he could walk into a Russian embassy and inform them he was “Alex Campbell." The Russians would then ask him “Did I meet you at a junk show in Austria?” And he would reply: “No, it was in Ottawa.”

SEE ALSO: Russian 'Spies' Arrested Over $50 Million Military Electronics Smuggling Network >

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The United States faces a growing threat of a "cyber-Pearl Harbor" and has drafted new rules for the military that would enable it to move aggressively against digital attacks, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said.

The amended rules of engagement underline the need to defend Defense Department computer networks, "but also to be prepared to defend the nation and our national interests against an attack in or through cyberspace," he said.

Citing a mounting cyber danger that could cripple the country's vital infrastructure, Panetta told an audience in New York: "We won't succeed in preventing a cyber attack through improved defenses alone."

"If we detect an imminent threat of attack that will cause significant physical destruction or kill American citizens, we need to have the option to take action to defend the nation when directed by the president," he said.

"For these kinds of scenarios, the department has developed the capability to conduct effective operations to counter threats to our national interests."

Although he avoided the word "offensive" to describe operations or capabilities, Panetta's speech clearly implied that the military would be empowered to take the initiative in the cyber realm.

Officials offered no further details, but as former CIA director, Panetta reportedly helped oversee an unprecedented cyber sabotage campaign that targeted Iran's uranium enrichment program.

President Barack Obama's administration has not publicly acknowledged the operation, dubbed "Olympic Games," which was detailed in a book by New York Times reporter David Sanger, based on interviews with officials.

"All of those who want to do us harm must know that the Department of Defense will take all action necessary to defend the nation," a senior defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told reporters.

Panetta warned of a "significant escalation of the cyber threat," with foreign actors targeting "critical infrastructure networks," including systems that operate chemical, electricity and water plants, as well as transport.

He laid out dire scenarios in which hostile states or groups could seize control of vital networks.

The result could be "'cyber-Pearl Harbor': an attack that would cause physical destruction and loss of life, paralyze and shock the nation, and create a profound new sense of vulnerability," he said.

"An aggressor nation or extremist group could gain control of critical switches and derail passenger trains, or trains loaded with lethal chemicals.

"They could contaminate the water supply in major cities, or shut down the power grid across large parts of the country," he said.

Panetta used the speech to press for passage of stalled cyber security legislation, arguing that major firms would not share information with the US government to thwart digital threats without legal protections.

"Companies should be able to share specific threat information with the government without the prospect of lawsuits hanging over their head," said Panetta, adding that the administration would safeguard civil liberties.

With a proposed budget of $3.4 billion, the US military's newly created Cyber Command is increasingly able to trace the origin of digital assaults, he said.

The new capability will serve as a deterrent to any potential cyber adversary, as the Pentagon will be able to track down the authors of an attack and "hold them accountable," he added.

The Defense Department has the job of safeguarding military computer networks and supporting efforts by the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI to protect civil networks.

Speaking to an audience of business executives, Panetta cited an alarming "Shamoon" virus that recently hit networks at Saudi Arabia's state oil company Aramco, disabling more than 300,000 computers.

He called the sophisticated virus "the most destructive attack that the private sector has seen to date."

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The United States faces a growing threat of a "cyber-Pearl Harbor" and has drafted new rules for the military that would enable it to move aggressively against digital attacks, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said.

The amended rules of engagement underline the need to defend Defense Department computer networks, "but also to be prepared to defend the nation and our national interests against an attack in or through cyberspace," he said.

Citing a mounting cyber danger that could cripple the country's vital infrastructure, Panetta told an audience in New York: "We won't succeed in preventing a cyber attack through improved defenses alone."

"If we detect an imminent threat of attack that will cause significant physical destruction or kill American citizens, we need to have the option to take action to defend the nation when directed by the president," he said.

"For these kinds of scenarios, the department has developed the capability to conduct effective operations to counter threats to our national interests."

Although he avoided the word "offensive" to describe operations or capabilities, Panetta's speech clearly implied that the military would be empowered to take the initiative in the cyber realm.

Officials offered no further details, but as former CIA director, Panetta reportedly helped oversee an unprecedented cyber sabotage campaign that targeted Iran's uranium enrichment program.

President Barack Obama's administration has not publicly acknowledged the operation, dubbed "Olympic Games," which was detailed in a book by New York Times reporter David Sanger, based on interviews with officials.

"All of those who want to do us harm must know that the Department of Defense will take all action necessary to defend the nation," a senior defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told reporters.

Panetta warned of a "significant escalation of the cyber threat," with foreign actors targeting "critical infrastructure networks," including systems that operate chemical, electricity and water plants, as well as transport.

He laid out dire scenarios in which hostile states or groups could seize control of vital networks.

The result could be "'cyber-Pearl Harbor': an attack that would cause physical destruction and loss of life, paralyze and shock the nation, and create a profound new sense of vulnerability," he said.

"An aggressor nation or extremist group could gain control of critical switches and derail passenger trains, or trains loaded with lethal chemicals.

"They could contaminate the water supply in major cities, or shut down the power grid across large parts of the country," he said.

Panetta used the speech to press for passage of stalled cyber security legislation, arguing that major firms would not share information with the US government to thwart digital threats without legal protections.

"Companies should be able to share specific threat information with the government without the prospect of lawsuits hanging over their head," said Panetta, adding that the administration would safeguard civil liberties.

With a proposed budget of $3.4 billion, the US military's newly created Cyber Command is increasingly able to trace the origin of digital assaults, he said.

The new capability will serve as a deterrent to any potential cyber adversary, as the Pentagon will be able to track down the authors of an attack and "hold them accountable," he added.

The Defense Department has the job of safeguarding military computer networks and supporting efforts by the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI to protect civil networks.

Speaking to an audience of business executives, Panetta cited an alarming "Shamoon" virus that recently hit networks at Saudi Arabia's state oil company Aramco, disabling more than 300,000 computers.

He called the sophisticated virus "the most destructive attack that the private sector has seen to date."

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Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese militia, boasted yesterday it had infiltrated Israeli airspace with a drone, flying it near to a nuclear installation before it was shot down.

Only hours after Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said he would retaliate against future incursions Hizbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said: "This is not the first time and will not be the last. We can reach any place we want."

Israeli Air force jets shot down the unarmed drone over southern Israel's Negev desert near the country's nuclear plant at Dimona after it entered the country's airspace from the Mediterranean Sea last week.

Officials said the incursion was launched from outside Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories and pointed the figure at Iran as the supplier of the equipment.

The Israeli prime minister directly pointed the finger at Hizbollah and said Israel would respond to any further threats.

"We are acting with determination to protect our borders," he said. "As we prevented last weekend an attempt by Hizbollah. We shall continue to act aggressively against all threats."

Last night in a televised address Sheik Nasrallah said the drone had flown sensitive sites.

"A sophisticated reconnaissance aircraft was sent from Lebanese territory ... and traveled hundreds of kilometers (miles) over the sea before crossing enemy lines and into occupied Palestine," he said.

"Possession of such an aerial capacity is a first in the history of any resistance movement in Lebanon and the region."

Hizbollah has celebrated the drone maneuver and Israel's failure to shoot the drone down until it was deep inside its territory. A report of the website of al Manar, its television station, said: "Enemy in state of fear from unmanned aircraft."

Israel Army radio and the top-selling Yediot Aharonot daily said the air force had only managed to shoot down the drone on the second attempt.

Both reports said that the first missile fired by the F-16 jet missed the drone which was eventually brought by a Panther missile, the military's most advanced air-to-air projectile.

*The remains of an Israeli soldier who went missing in northern Israel in 2005 have been found not far from where he was last seen. Private Majdi Halabi's remains were discovered in woods about two miles from the Galilee town where he was sighted on May 24, 2005.

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RUSSEIFEH, Jordan (AP) — From the edge of a steep mountain overlooking a desert compound built into an old rock quarry, machine gunfire echoes just outside hangars where U.S. special operations forces are training Jordanian commandos.

The Americans, who arrived in the kingdom a few weeks ago at the request of the Jordanians, are helping them develop techniques to protect civilians in case of a chemical attack from neighboring Syria, according to Jordanian officials.

On the Syrian border farther north, British military officers recently assessed the dangers of rockets constantly falling on the kingdom and ways to shield the Jordanian population and Syrian refugees as President Bashar Assad widens his military offensive against rebel enclaves in the vicinity, according to Jordan-based Western diplomats.

Jordan's King Abdullah II has repeatedly discussed plans for reinforcing security along the Syrian border and expressed concern over Syria's chemical stockpiles in meetings with visiting Western allies, according to the two diplomats, who monitor Syria from their base.

They said it is believed that Abdullah has also been shopping around for an anti-missile defense system to shield his densely populated capital, Amman — home to nearly half of Jordan's population.

There is also talk of contingency plans for a quick pre-emptive strike if Assad loses control over his stock of chemical weapons in the civil war. The fear is that those weapons might otherwise fall into the hands of al-Qaida or Lebanon's Islamic militant group Hezbollah.

"There are dangers involved, and we have to ensure the safety of our country and the well-being of our citizens," a senior government official said in the first public Jordanian confirmation of the presence of foreign military personnel here. "We are benefiting from the experience of our allies as we prepare for the worst scenarios."

The presence of some 150 Americans at the King Abdullah II Special Operations Training Center northeast of the capital is a clear message to Assad that Jordan's longtime Western allies stand ready to defend the country if it is dragged into the 19-month Syria conflict.

Assad's regime, which is believed to have one of the world's largest chemical weapons programs, has said it might use them against external threats but not against Syrians.

But the Jordanians worry that Assad may use his chemical weapons against his neighbors, or his countrymen, if he felt that his days in power were numbered.

In May, the U.S. held joint exercises with Jordan, nicknamed the "Eager Lion," which focused on the ways to deal with a chemical weapons attack.

On Wednesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said at a NATO conference of defense ministers in Brussels that the U.S. has been working with Jordan to monitor chemical and biological weapons sites in Syria and was helping Jordan deal with refugees pouring over the border.

Although the senior government official insisted that the Americans were "advisers, not troops," two senior U.S. defense officials said most were Army special operations forces. The U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly about the mission.

The troops are operating out of a military center near Amman and have moved back and forth to the Syrian border. Their work involves gathering intelligence and planning joint Jordanian-U.S. military maneuvers, one U.S. official said.

The revelation of U.S. military personnel so close to the Syrian conflict suggests an escalation in the American involvement, even as the Obama administration pushes back on any suggestion of a direct intervention in Syria.

The Jordanian official insisted that the kingdom was "capable of shielding itself from Syrian attack," but London-based Mideast analyst Rosemary Hollis disagreed.

"For Jordan, the more unstable Syria becomes, the deeper the crisis proceeds, the more likely Jordan will suffer from all kinds of spillover, but they are incapable of doing anything to intervene to try to turn the conflict in one direction rather than another unless they have the ballast, cover and involvement of serious international forces, which is the Americans," Hollis said.

She also saw the American military presence as a step toward possible future military operations to secure Syria's chemical stockpiles.

Torbjorn Soltvedt, a senior analyst with the Britain-based Maplecroft risk analysis group, said he saw the current situation as a "monitoring and training stage."

"Given the degree to which Syria's chemical weapons stockpiles have been dispersed across the country, an operation to secure them would be extensive and require significant numbers of troops," he said. "The Pentagon has estimated that an operation to secure Syria's chemical weapons stockpiles could require as much as 75,000 troops given the presence of several chemical agent manufacturing plants and many more storage sites throughout the country."

Panetta said that while the U.S. believes the weapons are still secure, intelligence suggests the regime might have moved some to protect them.

Steven Bucci, an expert in chemical weapons at the Heritage Foundation, has told Congress there might be as many as 50 chemical weapons sites in Syria. He said in an interview Wednesday that Syria's stockpile is potentially "like a gift from God" for militants since they don't have the know-how to assemble such weapons, while some of Syria's chemical agents are believed to have already been fitted into missile warheads.

At the desert facility, stretching 25 kilometers (16 miles) on the edge of this predominantly Palestinian suburb, Jordanian soldiers guard the walled compound, where Iraqi and Libyan special forces once received training. They refused to allow reporters in.

Jordanian officials were eager to downplay the U.S. role, concerned about the possibility of raising tensions with Syria and giving the kingdom's largely conservative population the impression that they were allowing foreigners to use Jordan as a potential launching pad for a pre-emptive attack against another Arab country.

The senior government official and two others who discussed the American military role all spoke on condition of anonymity, citing possible diplomatic sensitivities with Syria. Assad is thought to have sleeper cells scattered across the kingdom and plotting attacks on Syrian opposition and Jordanian figures.

Information Minister Sameeh Maaytah, the only official who spoke on the record, said the U.S. presence was part of "routine training exercises."

"Jordan and U.S. forces exchange visits regularly, and the presence of tens of their forces here is part of efforts to expand cooperation, exchange capabilities and protect regional stability," he said in an interview. He declined to elaborate or comment on any link to the Syrian crisis.

Amman has long had bumpy relations with Damascus because of its alliance with the United States — Jordan's largest donor of economic and military aid — and its 1994 peace treaty with Israel.

Jordan would like to see the Syrian regime toppled because of growing concern that Assad's key ally, Iran, is trying to spark Shiite uprisings in Arab countries ruled by members of the rival Sunni sect. Assad's ruling Alawite minority is an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

Abdullah was the first Arab leader to warn in 2004 of the sweep of Iran's "Shiite crescent," stretching from Lebanon through Syria and Iraq.

Jordanian officials have advocated a buffer zone inside the Syrian border to protect civilians fleeing bombardment. There is mounting speculation that Jordan would dispatch highly skilled special forces to secure such a zone when Assad's regime falls to prevent chaos on its border.

In the past six weeks, more than 20 Syrian rockets have fallen on Jordanian villages near the border. At least two people were wounded, including a 4-year-old Jordanian girl.

The two Western diplomats said the Britons, about a half-dozen officers specialized in intelligence gathering and special operations techniques, visited Jordan a few times over the past three months. The diplomats insisted on anonymity, saying that public comment may hamper their information gathering on Syria.

The Jordanian army already has an extensive presence on the border and has been assisting waves of Syrian refugees, who are straining the country's meager resources, mainly health care, water and utilities.

Jordan hosts some 200,000 Syrian refugees, more than any other neighboring country. Some come under constant firing from their army as they cross into the kingdom. Jordanian border guards have been wounded and a 6-year-old Syrian boy was killed in July.

Jordanian men also are moving the other way across the border, joining what intelligence officials have estimated to be about 2,000 foreigners fighting alongside Syrian rebels trying to topple Assad.

___

Associated Press writer Dale Gavlak in Amman, Jordan, contributed to this report.

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Blown-up buildings, deserted streets and corpses of regime soldiers bear testimony to a fierce 48-hour battle before the town of Maaret al-Numan fell to Syrian rebels.

The capture of Maaret al-Numan on Wednesday was a major breakthrough for the rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad's forces, especially after they cut off the highway linking Damascus with the northern city of Aleppo.

Rebels say the fight to capture Maaret al-Numan began on Monday afternoon when the local military council attacked eight army checkpoints in the eastern part of this strategic town, which in normal times has a population of around 125,000.

Within 48 hours the rebels captured the checkpoints located at crossroads of the town, including a former prison and cultural centre, said Firaz Abdel Hadi, a rebel media official.

Sixteen rebels were killed by a landmine when they entered the cultural centre after it had been abandoned by members of the regime's military intelligence when it came under attack.

In the basement lay the bodies of around 65 prisoners who the rebels say were executed by their captors minutes before fleeing.

Most of the victims are suspected to have been supporters of the anti-regime uprising or soldiers suspected of trying to defect, said a survivor who was miraculously saved after two bodies fell on him.

The walls of the building are riddled with bullets and stained with blood -- witness to the massacre as soldiers fled. Thirty soldiers managed to escape wearing civilian clothes as the rebels advanced.

"Two RPGs were enough to send 50 soldiers fleeing," boasted Abdel Hadi, laughing.

By Wednesday all loyalist positions in the town finally fell to rebels as Assad's troops took refuge in two military camps on the outskirts of Maaret al-Numan, at Wadi Daif and Hamdiyeh.

For the regime, the imperative was not to control the whole town, since its western sector had already been in rebel hands for the past two months, but to defend the highway from Aleppo to Damascus.

Syria's army uses the highway to send reinforcements to the commercial capital in northern Syria.

On Thursday, rebels had control of nearly five kilometres (three miles) of the four-lane highway.

Fighting continued further east around Wadi Daif and Hamdiyeh which rebels had surrounded, blocking columns of regime tanks sent as reinforcements from Damascus to Idlib and Aleppo provinces.

Syrian troops tried during the night to retake Maaret al-Numan but failed, rebel commander Akram Sale told AFP, adding that four rebels were killed overnight.

On Tuesday, a bomb dropped by a MiG fell just metres away from the famous museum Alma Arra, damaging part of its mosaic collections and pottery, some dating back to 3,000 BC.

The museum which was previously occupied by regime troops is renowned for its mosaic collections, said to be the largest in the Middle East.

The rebels said that almost 300 people were killed in the three days of fighting in Maaret al-Numan, including 55 civilians, 46 rebel fighters and 190 Syrian army soldiers.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — A former U.S. government official says American authorities firmly believe that Iranian hackers, likely supported by the Tehran government, were responsible for recent cyberattacks against oil and gas companies in the Persian Gulf and that they appeared to be in retaliation for the latest round of U.S. sanctions against the country.

The former official spoke to The Associated Press shortly before Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, in a speech to business leaders in New York City Thursday night, became the first U.S. official to publicly acknowledge the computer-based assaults. He called them probably the most destructive cyberattacks the private sector has seen to date.

And while Panetta did not directly link Iran to the Gulf attacks, he made it clear that the U.S. has developed advanced techniques to identify cyberattackers and is prepared to take action against them.

A U.S. official said the Obama administration knows who launched the cyberattacks against the Gulf companies and that it was a government entity.

U.S. agencies have been assisting in the Gulf investigation and concluded that the level of resources needed to conduct the attack showed there was some degree of involvement by a nation state, said the former official. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is classified as secret.

"Potential aggressors should be aware that the United States has the capacity to locate them and hold them accountable for their actions that may try to harm America," Panetta said in a speech to the Business Executives for National Security. He later noted that Iran has "undertaken a concerted effort to use cyberspace to its advantage."

While Panetta chose his words carefully, one cybersecurity expert said the Pentagon chief's message to Iran in the speech was evident.

"It's not something where people are throwing down the gauntlet, but I think Panetta comes pretty close to sending a clear warning (to Iran): We know who it was, maybe you want to think twice before you do it again," said cybersecurity expert James Lewis, who is with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "I think the Iranians will put two and two together and realize he's sending them a message."

He said Panetta's remarks were an important step by the U.S. because the Iranian cyberthreat "is a new dimension in 30 years of intermittent conflict with Iran for which we are ill-prepared. It's really important to put them on notice."

The cyberattacks hit Saudi Arabian state oil company Aramco and Qatari natural gas producer RasGas using a virus, known as Shamoon, which can spread through networked computers and ultimately wipes out files by overwriting them.

Senior defense officials said the information was declassified so that Panetta could make the public remarks. The officials added that the Pentagon is particularly concerned about the growing Iranian cyber capabilities, as well as the often discussed threats from China and Russia. The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the cyberthreats publicly.

In his speech, Panetta said the Shamoon virus replaced crucial system files at Aramco with the image of a burning U.S. flag, and also overwrote all data on the machine, rendering more than 30,000 computers useless and forcing them to be replaced. He said the Qatar attack was similar.

Panetta offered no new details on the Pentagon's growing cyber capabilities or the military rules of engagement the department is developing to guide its use of computer-based attacks when the U.S. is threatened.

He said the department is investing more than $3 billion a year in cybersecurity to beef up its ability to defend against and counter cyberthreats, including investment in U.S. Cyber Command. And the Pentagon is honing its policies so that any actions comply with the law of armed conflict.

"Our mission is to defend the nation. We defend. We deter. And if called upon, we take decisive action to protect our citizens," he said.

He added, however, that the department will not monitor American citizen's personal computers, or provide for the day-to-day security of private or commercial networks.

Panetta used the Persian Gulf attacks in his remarks as a warning to business community that it must embrace stalled legislation that would encourage companies to meet certain cybersecurity standards. And he is endorsing a planned move by President Barack Obama to use his executive powers to put some of those programs, including voluntary standards, in place until Congress is able to act.

"These attacks mark a significant escalation of the cyber threat," Panetta said. "And they have renewed concerns about still more destructive scenarios that could unfold."

U.S. authorities have repeatedly warned that foreign Internet hackers are probing U.S. critical infrastructure networks, including those that control utility plants, transportation systems and financial networks.

"We know of specific instances where intruders have successfully gained access to these control systems," Panetta told the business group. "We also know that they are seeking to create advanced tools to attack these systems and cause panic and destruction, and even the loss of life."

Business leaders, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, were opposed to the legislations, arguing it would expand the federal government's regulatory authority companies already struggling in the tough economy. The bill also encourages more information sharing between the government and private companies.

Panetta pressed the group to support the stronger cybersecurity measures, warning that failure to do so could have catastrophic consequences.

"Before September 11, 2001 the warning signs were there. We weren't organized. We weren't ready. And we suffered terribly for that lack of attention," said Panetta. "We cannot let that happen again. This is a pre-9/11 moment."

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Several thousand people marched in Mali's capital Bamako on Thursday to call for armed intervention by a West African regional force to help wrest back the vast north of the country from armed Islamist groups.

The demonstrators carried banners and placards supporting the Malian army, Prime Minister Cheick Modibo Diarra and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which is preparing to send troops if it gets the backing of the United Nations and Western countries.

The rally in the city centre came as France and its United Nations partners pressed ECOWAS and the African Union to come up within 30 days with proposals to reconquer Mali's north, an area the size of Texas or France.

Additionally, according to European Union sources and a document obtained by AFP on Thursday, the EU is working on plans to help Mali's army, including the dispatch of 150 trainers.

"We have an ungoverned space under the control of terrorists, with narco-trafficking and smuggling of all kinds," an EU official said. "A credible threat of force -- that is what is lacking."

At the Bamako rally, protesters urged Captain Amadou Haya Sanogo and other troops to the front lines. Sanogo led the March 22 coup that toppled president Amadou Toumani Toure and caused chaos, opening the way for the Islamists, including Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), who are applying hardline Islamic sharia law in northern cities under their control.

Sanogo ceded power in April, but remains influential in Bamako, where his men are accused of many human rights abuses.

"The place of the soldiers is at the front, all the military must go there," one demonstrator said.

Another said, "I back the Malian army, the arrival of ECOWAS troops, I want intervention."

Many marchers emphasised the secular nature of the sub-Saharan country, criticising Islamists for their radical stance and for punishments they have meted out to civilians, such as death by stoning for an unwed couple and amputations for theft.

Other slogans and banners targeted Tuareg rebels of the separatist National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad (MNLA), which launched an offensive in the north in January.

At first allied to the Islamists, the MNLA was swiftly overpowered and sidelined by them.

Some banners said there should be "No independence, no self-determination" for the Tuaregs, after the MNLA initially proclaimed independence in northern Mali before the Islamists took over. Demonstrators stressed the unity of the country.

"If nothing is done in coming days, the existence of our country will be in danger," said a statement by march organisers.

"To fail to help Mali will be a serious error on the part of the African and international community in the face of history ... a crime of non-assistance to a people in danger," the text added.

A draft resolution proposed by France aims to bring about "detailed recommendations" and an "operational concept" ahead of any military operation in a sensitive part of Africa, amid fears that Mali could become a base for AQIM and traffickers of various kinds.

French President Francois Hollande said Thursday that diplomatic solutions had come up short, a day after UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon urged for dialogue.

"Dialogue with whom? With AQIM? Can you imagine there ever being any conversations that would be useful?" Hollande said in televised comments.

As France calls for military intervention to return the north to government control, EU nations are considering proposals that include sending scores of military trainers to whip the Malian military into offensive mode.

Bamako has officially called on the United Nations to hand down a mandate for an international force in Mali.

Canada's Foreign Minister John Baird meanwhile told reporters in Paris that he was worried Mali could go the way of Afghanistan.

"Terrorism is the great struggle of our generation," Baird said after meeting his French counterpart Laurent Fabius.

"We must not allow the same problems that the world allowed to happen in Afghanistan to show their face in the Saharan region and Mali," he said.

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Syrian government

Russia has retained its historical role as the key weapons supplier to Bashar al-Assad's regime over the past 18 months. It is believed to have sent at least three shipments of heavy ammunition to the jointly run port of Tartous in northern Syria. Other Russian supplies are thought to have been flown in.

In late September, Russian envoys around the world were summoned to Moscow for an annual gathering. One ambassador present said the unexpected presence of Soviet hardliners, including Yevgeny Primakok, meant no imminent change in Russia's support, or let-up in weapons supplies.

Moscow has refurbished Syrian attack helicopters, but has been unable to deliver some of them after interference from western Europe.

Iran is widely thought to have sent at least two shipments of weapons and sent several flights carrying arms into Damascus airport. Iran's neighbour, Iraq, a foe of the Assad family until six months before the uprising, is understood to be supplying oil to keep the Syrian military moving, but not weapons.

Secular, or moderate, groups

Saudi Arabia was initially enthusiastic about supplying the so-called moderates, but has backed away partly as a result of US pressure, which stems from the increasingly splintered nature of the uprising, and because of its own disenchantment with the Syrian National Council, which is perceived to have done little with the largesse thrown its way earlier this year.

The moderates received two large cross-border supplies of weapons in May and June, but have had to scrimp and save ever since. They received a shipment of ammunition in mid-September and are believed to have been given more in recent days. Turkish intelligence still prefers to deal with the moderates.

Syrian Islamist groups

The prime beneficiaries of cash and weapons from Qatar are increasingly the best armed and most organised of the myriad opposition units trying to oust the Assad regime. But they are increasingly at loggerheads with other elements of the opposition, especially those who brand themselves as moderate or secular nationalists.

The Farouq Brigade, a fighting force that emerged from Homs, is the best armed in the country, thanks in part to the supply of weapons it has received through Lebanese MP Orkab Sakr, who is aligned to Lebanese opposition leader, Saad Hariri, and worked on behalf of the Saudis until recently.

The Liwa al-Tawheed Brigade, one of the first into Aleppo city in late July, has also received Saudi help, but has recently looked more towards Qatar.

Syria's Muslim Brotherhood movement is also backing several Islamist groups.

Foreign jihadists

With the exception of those arriving from Iraq, the foreigners are almost all turning up without weapons or ammunition. Many of those who have travelled to Syria since July have extensive experience from fighting US and government forces during the Iraq insurgency.

They are increasingly being deployed to frontline areas in Aleppo and linking up with hardline elements among the Syrian Islamists. There is evidence of some of the new arrivals joining forces with the main Salafist jihadist group, Jabhat al-Nusraf. There is speculation that the time for the foreigners to start conducting their own operations is near.

Military Council

The group of senior military defectors who have largely remained in exile in Turkey has received little in the way of weapons from any foreign patron. They have, however, been the main contact point for western intelligence agencies, including the CIA and Turkish intelligence, who have supplied communications equipment and tactical advice.

They have received cash from Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which they are then allocating to regional councils to buy weapons from arms traders.

The council is struggling to establish a chain of command and control within the Free Syrian Army, which is heavily fragmented and unable to function as a standing military in all but a few areas. As a result, council leaders have crossed into northern Syria to establish bases. They have no shortage of funds, but resentment over the limited role they have played so far means they are struggling to win the respect of the units and villages they are visiting.

SEE ALSO: Islamic Jihadists Are Now The Most Organized Force Of The Syrian Opposition >

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Mexican cartels are pumping exceptionally cheap, high quality methamphetamine into the United States, Jim Salter of The Associated Press reports. 

Cartel meth—which is 90 percent pure—now accounts for as much as 80 percent of the meth sold in the U.S., according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

And from 2007 to 2011 the purity skyrocketed while the price tumbled from $290 per pure gram to less than $90, a combination that hooks people on the fast, intense and long-lasting high.

The meth is being made on an industrial scale in sophisticated factories using formulas developed by professional chemists and then smuggled into the U.S., where it flows through the same pipeline as cartels use to funnel marijuana and cocaine—meaning that increasingly large quantities are turning up in key American cities such as Denver, Dallas and Chicago.

Jack Riley, the agent in charge of the the DEA's Chicago office, told The AP that the DEA is worried that the city's 180,000 street gang members will begin meth trafficking and cause the rising murder rate to go even higher.

Salter notes that cocaine remains cartels' most profitable drug—the RAND Corp. estimates the annual street value of coke to be about $30 billion, heroin about $20 billion and meth about $5 billion—but while Colombian-made cocaine gets progressively more expensive and less concentrated, tons of potent cartel meth is being made in Mexico.

A huge implication of all of this is that the 'war on drugs' has gotten even more insidious, especially if the U.S. government is colluding with cartels to bring drugs into America.

SEE ALSO: Mexican Diplomat Says America Pretty Much Invited The Sinaloa Drug Cartel Across The Border >

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Exoskeletons with hydraulic arms and piston powered legs are nothing terribly new — Raytheon's got a new version it showed off this summer.

But this Warrior Web program proposed by DARPA is a first.

The Web is actually a suit that'll be worn under a servicemember's uniform intended to provide a host of physiological benefits.

The $2.6 million contract went to the Wyss Institute at Harvard and they hope to create something like a wetsuit that will not only protect injury prone areas, reinforce joints, assist in carrying 100 pound loads and reduce injuries. It will log all that data and refer it back to command.

It will also offer internal prompts to the wearer, likely letting him know, for example, when a joint is bent poorly and to modify the angle.

Hopefully the suit will reduce injuries, fatigue and allow troops to better spend their energy on staying alive.

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White House photographer Pete Souza posts this picture of President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton greeting the remains of the four Americans — including U.S. Amb. Christopher Stephens — who died in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. 

Both Obama and Clinton have come under fire for their response to those attacks, as details emerge suggesting that the administration failed to respond to a growing terrorist threat in Libya, and declined requests for additional security to protect U.S. personnel there. 

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LONDON (Reuters) - Iran's vital seaborne trade is buckling under the weight of Western sanctions, deepening hardship for a population deprived of basic imports and heaping intense pressure on Tehran over its nuclear program.

Many of Iran's imports, including food and consumer goods, arrive on container, bulker and other ships, but the number of vessels calling at its ports has dived by more than half this year as the United States and European Union tighten the screws.

Analysts doubt the Iranian economy is near collapse, even though its rial currency has plunged in the last few weeks, but they say some shortages and rising prices of imported goods could provoke public unrest directed at Tehran's leadership.

A growing number of Western companies, especially those in shipping and related businesses, are pulling out of trade with Iran due to the complexities of deals and tougher banking restrictions as the sanctions take hold - and out of fear of losing business elsewhere.

"Iran's commercial shipping sector has suffered a significant hit," said Anthony Skinner of risk analysts Maplecroft.

"Although U.S. and EU sanctions do not target food shipments, importers struggle to acquire letters of credit and transfer funds. I expect current sanctions and the further tightening EU sanctions to sour the appetite of the international commercial shipping sector further."

The United States and the EU have led the sanctions push, hoping to force Iran to halt its nuclear program which they suspect is aimed at making weapons. Tehran says the work is peaceful, but the trade measures are hurting shipping badly.

Data from maritime intelligence publisher IHS Fairplay showed the overall number of vessels calling at Iranian ports in the year to early October was 980. That figure for more than three quarters of this year compares with 2,740 ships for the whole of 2011 and 3,407 for 2010.

Of that total, the number of visits by container ships - which carry consumer goods ranging from foodstuffs and household items to clothing and toys - was 86 so far this year, compared with 273 for the whole of 2011 and 378 in 2010.

The world's top container firm Maersk Line said this week it had stopped port calls to Iran, citing the risk of damaging trade opportunities especially in the United States.

"Lower shipping volumes may also mean that importing vital commodities will be increasingly hard, leading to possible riots over inflation," said Alan Fraser, Middle East analyst with security firm AKE.

Only eight refrigerated cargo vessels carrying fresh produce including bananas called at Iranian ports so far this year, down from 16 in 2011 and 36 in 2010, the IHS Fairplay data showed. Even fishing trawlers unloading their catch have slumped to five from 14 last year and 20 in 2010.

Starved of dollars as the sanctions curb oil exports, Iran bought large amounts of grain earlier this year using other currencies. Nevertheless dry bulk ships, which can carry cereals and commodities such as coal and iron ore, have also made fewer port calls with 100 arrivals so far compared with 352 in 2011 and 406 in 2010.

"You start to see Iran reaching a balance of payment crisis particularly on the imports side when a plummeting currency, which makes imports exceedingly expensive, is compounded by external sanctions," said Mark Dubowitz with the Washington-based Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

"The combination of these factors is making it difficult for Iran to buy what it needs from abroad and pay for these goods and services," said Dubowitz, who has advised U.S. President Barack Obama's administration and U.S. lawmakers on sanctions.

"ALMOST A BLACK HOLE"

Official Iranian data is not readily available and officials in the country could not be reached for comment. Iran's fleet has taken steps to camouflage its sea trade to discourage foreign attention.

"Iran is almost a black hole these days and it's hard to find even reliable schedules for their main container liner," a European ship industry official said. "They are doing everything they can to remain invisible, including changing the names of their ships to discourage people from tracking them."

In just 10 days up to last week, the rial plunged about 35 percent in the free market to a record low against the dollar, a consequence of Iran's declining oil income.

Mohammad Hussein Dajmar, managing director of the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL), said this week that the central bank had blocked $50 million of the company's assets - reflecting the acute shortage of U.S. currency.

This is restricting the supply of foreign currency, which Iran's top commercial cargo shipper needs to pay bills outside the country and keep operating.

"Unfortunately this step by the Central Bank presents many problems for the company," he was quoted as saying by the Iranian Students' News Agency. "The Central Bank is holding this amount as foreign currency and is only ready to return the rial equivalent of it to us," he said.

On top of this, the central bank would pay the rials at the official rate of 12,260 to the dollar, far from the open market rate of more than 30,000.

IRISL, which has been on a Western blacklist of sanctioned entities for a number of years, denies any wrongdoing and has struggled with the tougher conditions.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Iranian officials this week to stop bickering over the economic problems. These have fed criticism of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad by political enemies eager to pin the blame on his administration.

"Sanctions are a long way from causing economic collapse," AKE's Fraser said. "However, its (Tehran's) options are narrowing and internal criticism is likely to produce growing splits within the different political camps. The Ahmadinejad camp looks like it could be the most likely casualty of these."

Iran can also bring in goods overland but business intelligence firm Business Monitor International (BMI) has forecast imports still falling 10 percent this year.

It also estimates a 5 percent drop in 2013 for a country with a growing population, compared with a 1.2 percent rise estimated for last year. BMI forecast Iran's economy will contract 1.2 percent and 0.3 percent in 2012 and 2013 respectively versus estimated growth in real terms of 0.7 percent in 2011.

"As a result of EU and U.S. sanctions on the oil sector, export growth will fall dramatically and this will be felt at the country's ports," said BMI shipping analyst Daniel Richards.

"In addition, tighter sanctions on the financial industry will deter investment and private consumption will stay subdued, due in large part to high inflation, which will curb imports of containerized goods into the country."

MORE PAIN AHEAD

Iran has faced an exodus of international companies providing marine-related services including certification of its fleet, which is vital for securing insurance and ports access. Earlier this year, sanctions pressure also led to the near collapse of an Iranian-led shipping venture with an Indian firm.

Another package of proposed sanctions by the United States and EU aims to tighten the economic noose on Tehran yet further.

"There is strong momentum now to target non-humanitarian commercial imports to Iran in order to put significant pressure on its balance of payments and bring the economic cripple date closer," Dubowitz said.

(Additional reporting by Yeganeh Torbati and Marcus George in Dubai and Gus Trompiz in Paris; Editing by Veronica Brown and David Stamp)

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As President John F. Kennedy tried to pull the world back from the brink of nuclear apocalypse during the Cuban Missile Crisis, he received an urgent communique from the American embassy in London.

"Some half-dozen anonymous telephone calls stating bombs were placed in [the] embassy have been received in [the] course [of the] past two days and nights," wrote Ambassador David Bruce, in a secret cable sent at the height of the crisis fifty years ago this month, blaming British Left-wing activists.

As hundreds of anti-American protesters clashed with Metropolitan police in riot gear outside his door on Grosvenor Square, Mr Bruce assured Washington that his volume of hate mail had finally "tapered off". Still, he added, "about 200 letters and/or petitions have been received today".

His telegram was disclosed on Thursday among 2,700 pages of previously unreleased files from the personal papers of Robert F. Kennedy, the president's brother and attorney general.

The documents shed new light on how the Kennedy brothers and their closest advisers averted catastrophe in October 1962 after US spy planes discovered the USSR was secretly constructing nuclear missile bases on Cuba, its ally in the Caribbean since Fidel Castro's revolution.

One memo by Dean Rusk, Mr Kennedy's defence secretary, details plans for a strike by the US air force on Cuban missile sites if negotiations should fail.

Britain was to be one of six allies told about the attack in advance, he wrote, but "notice should be given no more than two hours before the strike".

"The United States should not indicate any fear on its own part, but should indicate a readiness to take account of the desires of its allies in this grave situation," wrote Mr Rusk.

The archives contain exhaustive minutes, transcripts and handwritten notes from the series of high-tension meetings held at the White House during the notorious "13 Days" described in Robert Kennedy's memoir of the same name.

But they also contain dozens of memos sent back to Washington from America's ambassadors around the world, on how the crisis was playing out on their patches. Mr Bruce, who served as the Ambassador to the Court of St James's between 1961 and 1969, took the temperature in Westminster's corridors of power.

While they could depend on the Atlanticism of Harold Macmillan's Conservative government, the Kennedys were anxious about the Labour opposition, led by Hugh Gaitskell, which had many proud Socialist MPs.

With the crisis raging, Mr Bruce reported to Washington on October 26 that they had even lost the support of Denis Healey, a leading pro-American voice in the Labour party and later Chancellor and Defence Secretary, who had given a speech denouncing the US handling of the crisis.

"He appears to have lost control of himself," Mr Bruce wrote. While most Britons were sympathetic, "Communists, CND supporters, pacifists and disturbed centrists have violently dissented," he said.

Lord Healey yesterday rejected the Ambassador's assessment. "I made myself very unpopular with the Americans because I opposed the official line," he told The Daily Telegraph. "I thought they were making a ghastly error and searching for a premise to invade Cuba".

Mr Bruce was secretly briefed on internal party wranglings by George Brown, Labour's deputy leader and head of its Right wing. "Brown insists the US must stand firm, 'not give a bloody inch'," he wrote.

Kennedy had been warned of a potential rupture in transatlantic relations a year earlier by Arthur Schlesinger, his roving envoy and later a leading historian, after the disastrous US-led invasion of Cuba's Bay of Pigs in 1961, when more than 100 CIA-trained Cuban forces were killed.

After touring London meeting MPs and editors on Fleet Street, Mr Schlesinger reported being told that "Kennedy has lost his magic" and had "wiped away" the good will produced by his election.

Richard Crossman, Labour's chairman, told him that if the Bay of Pigs had happened under Dwight Eisenhower, Kennedy's Republican predecessor, crowds would have flocked to Trafalgar Square and Secretary of State John Dulles "would have been burned in effigy".

"You've got away with it this time," said Mr Crossman. "But one more mistake like this and you will really be through".

On the other hand, Lord Lambton, a Tory MP and "advocate of fighting everywhere", told Mr Schlesinger to report back to Kennedy that he should have gone further and sent in the Marines.

Michael Dobbs, a historian who worked with the US National Archives on the project, said that they detailed "the most dangerous moments the world has ever faced, either before or since – the closest we came to nuclear destruction".

The archives publish in full the string of letters exchanged between President Kennedy and Nikita Kruschchev, the Soviet premier, which in the end led to a near-miraculous aversion of hostilities.

Kennedy received a rambling letter from Kruschchev on October 26 promising the missile sites would be removed if the US promised not to invade Cuba. Yet before he could reply, he received another on October 27 stating that the terms were now for the US to dismantle its own missiles in Turkey.

The president famously chose to ignore the second letter and respond to the first, accepting the deal. Kruschchev announced the following day that he would dismantle the missile installations and return them to the USSR.

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In April, Tuareg rebels and radical Islamists forced government troops out of the northern region of Mali.

The rebels declared independence from Mali and named Africa's newest country Azawad while the jihadists said they were "against independence" because it was "not in the name of Islam."

The al-Qaeda-backed group, Ansar Dine, has won out and are now implementing sharia law (a strict form of Islamic law), leading to public executions, amputations and floggings.

In July they stoned an unmarried couple to death for having children out of wedlock.

CNN reports that they are now compiling a list of unmarried mothers in northern Mali.

BBC reports that they are amassing money from ransoms and drug trafficking and buying children for $600 each to use as soldiers.

In August Islamist commissioner Aliou Toure said that they "don't have to answer to anyone over the application of sharia" because it's "the form of Islam practiced for thousands of years."

But Al Jazeera reports that they'll probably have to answer to a U.N.-mandated international military force, based on a pending resolution sponsored by France and backed by the U.S.

[UPDATE 3:50 p.m.] The Associated Press reports that "the U.N. security council has unanimously approved a plan to back an African-led military force to help the Malian army oust Islamic militants."

SEE ALSO: Three Prostitutes Were Involved In That Fatal US Army Car Crash In Mali >

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Lately, there's been a lot of talk about OpSec (Operational Security) violations, intelligence leaks, and questionable behavior on behalf of American armed forces, and even the U.S. president.

At such a high level, Top Secret covert ops should remain secret. Or should they?

Tier 1 operators: the highest level secret operators, SEALs and Army Special Forces (Delta or Combined Arms Groups), are given this designation primarily for their access to equipment and capabilities — air strikes, High Altitude, Low Opening (HALO) drops, and really cool guns.

In the end, at the heart of the battle, it boils down to men on the ground, "putting metal into meat" as one colonel once told me — basic infantry tactics don't change, the operator just gets better and better at executing.

Check out this video from the upcoming Warfighter game, the development of which Matt Bissonnette's (the infamous SEAL who was in on the bin Laden raid) company advised.

So were you up to snuff?

This next video is another example of why I think fellas like Bissonnette should keep writing books, keep making movies, and keep advising on video games.

If anything, they act as a deterrent to America's enemies — a psychological operation.

And why be worried about OpSec, Marines dropped leaflets over Fallujah three days prior to storming the city.

If you're this good, it doesn't matter if they know you're coming.

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