http://www.janes.comA special collection of articles covering Terrorism and Insurgency.en-gbCopyright: (C) Jane's Information Group. All rights reserved.http://www8.janes.com/public/images/janes_rss.gifhttp://www.janes.comVisit http://www.janes.comhttp://www8.janes.com/JDIC/JMSA/documentView.do?docId=/content1/janesdata/mags/jir/history/jir2009/jir10782.htm@current&Prod_Name=JIRIts candid leader, Alain Winants, tells Jane's the nature of the service's role and how he hopes to increase it. Alain Winants, a former criminal lawyer who worked extensively on Belgian prosecutions of war crimes in Rwanda, is the outspoken administrator-general of the small Belgian Security Service (known as the VSSE under its Dutch and French acronyms Veiligheid van de Staat and Sûreté de l'Etat). To counter this "priority for the service", the VSSE has arrived at a working estimate of the... - 2009/11/20 00:00:00http://www8.janes.com/JDIC/JMSA/documentView.do?docId=/content1/janesdata/mags/jdw/history/jdw2009/jdw41507.htm@current&Prod_Name=JDWThe German government has extended the mandates of the Bundeswehr (German armed forces) in deployments abroad including Afghanistan and Lebanon, but not its participation in the deployment of NATO Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft over Afghanistan. German participation in NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan has been extended for a further year at its existing ceiling of 4,500 troops. German Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg hopes ... - 2009/11/20 00:00:00http://www8.janes.com/JDIC/JMSA/documentView.do?docId=/content1/janesdata/mags/jdw/history/jdw2009/jdw41508.htm@current&Prod_Name=JDWAccording to officials from the Pakistan Air Force (PAF), up to 250 examples of the JF-17 (also known as the FC-1 or 'Thunder') will be inducted into the air force in the next six to eight years, giving the aircraft a key position as the main second-line fighter to replace older Chinese F-7 fighters and A-5 ground attack aircraft. The JF-17, the unveiling of which was scheduled to take place at the PAF-run Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) north of Islamabad, joins the eight JF-17s built in... - 2009/11/20 00:00:00http://www8.janes.com/JDIC/JMSA/documentView.do?docId=/content1/janesdata/mags/jdw/history/jdw2009/jdw41485.htm@current&Prod_Name=JDWDefence Minister Carme Chacón told a 17 November meeting of her counterparts in Brussels that Spain would lead any operation to support security sector reform in Somalia as a cornerstone of its obligations as holder of the rotating EU presidency from January 2010. EU security and defence policy chief Javier Solana told reporters that any EU mission in Somalia would be co-ordinated with other international actors, including the United States, and would have to complement existing African Union... - 2009/11/20 00:00:00http://www8.janes.com/JDIC/JMSA/documentView.do?docId=/content1/janesdata/mags/jdw/history/jdw2009/jdw41490.htm@current&Prod_Name=JDWThe US Air Force (USAF) and Boeing have partnered to test a new mobile, ground-based solid-state laser that can shoot down small unmanned aircraft. Boeing declined to elaborate on the range of the MATRIX laser, except to say that it provided acquisition, pointing and tracking at "long ranges using relatively low laser power," according to Gary Fitzmire, vice-president and programme director of Boeing Missile Defense Systems' Directed Energy Systems unit. Other systems tested at China Lake ... - 2009/11/19 00:00:00http://www8.janes.com/JDIC/JMSA/documentView.do?docId=/content1/janesdata/mags/jiwk/history/jiwk2009/jiwk20787.htm@current&Prod_Name=JIWKThe Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) held discussions on planned counter-terrorism exercises on 18 November, although Uzbekistan's absence points to the limitations on regional security structures. The meeting of representatives from SCO member counties (China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) and observer countries was held in the Kazakh city of Almaty. The declining participation in Peace Mission exercises highlights the continuing problems in creating ... - 2009/11/19 00:00:00http://www8.janes.com/JDIC/JMSA/documentView.do?docId=/content1/janesdata/mags/jdw/history/jdw2009/jdw41498.htm@current&Prod_Name=JDWThe failure to cultivate alliances with moderate militias and to capitalise on growing ruptures in the alliance-of-convenience between extremist Islamist insurgent groups has prevented Somalia's security forces from making any noticeable strides in securing control of the country, analysts and diplomats have told Jane's . The constraints imposed on the 5,300 Ugandan and Burundian soldiers in the African Union peacekeeping force African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) have also contrived to ... - 2009/11/19 00:00:00http://www8.janes.com/JDIC/JMSA/documentView.do?docId=/content1/janesdata/mags/jiwk/history/jiwk2009/jiwk20775.htm@current&Prod_Name=JIWKOn 17 November, a bomb blast in Quetta, capital of the Pakistani province of Balochistan, killed one person and injured several others, including Nizam Durrani, Quetta's deputy inspector general. However, a range of actors operate in the provincial capital, including Taliban insurgents, Baloch separatists, criminal groups and members of other Pakistani militant organisations. The Taliban leadership, unofficially known as the Quetta Shura Taliban (QST), which is based in the provincial capital... - 2009/11/17 00:00:00http://www8.janes.com/JDIC/JMSA/documentView.do?docId=/content1/janesdata/mags/jiwk/history/jiwk2009/jiwk20740.htm@current&Prod_Name=JIWKCrime figures released on 28 October in Canada have highlighted the problem of gang-related crime in Vancouver in the run-up to the Winter Olympics, to be held in the city in February 2010. Van Loan has called Vancouver "the gang crime capital of Canada". Despite gang-related crime in Vancouver being less of a direct security threat to the Winter Olympics than a terrorist incident or an organised protest, it nevertheless poses a problem for Canadian security services. - 2009/11/16 00:00:00http://www8.janes.com/JDIC/JMSA/documentView.do?docId=/content1/janesdata/mags/jiwk/history/jiwk2009/jiwk20763.htm@current&Prod_Name=JIWKOn 12 November, Hanna Nasser, director of the independent Palestinian Election Commission, recommended postponing presidential and parliamentary polls scheduled for January 2010. Hamas opposed his decision to call elections in January, saying that as his term of office expired in January 2009, he had no legitimacy to call the election. Its refusal in part pushed Abbas to call the January election and, while it may revel in this apparent rebuke to Abbas by the electoral commission, Hamas' ... - 2009/11/16 00:00:00http://www8.janes.com/JDIC/JMSA/documentView.do?docId=/content1/janesdata/mags/jiwk/history/jiwk2009/jiwk20761.htm@current&Prod_Name=JIWKAfter calling for his country to "prepare for war" with Colombia, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez on 13 November claimed that Colombia and the US had a "diabolical" plan to invade Venezuela. In mid-October, 11 Colombians were kidnapped and killed in the Venezuelan border state of Táchira; in late October, Caracas claimed it had arrested four Colombian spies; on 2 November, two Venezuelan national guards were killed by gunmen near the border; and on 13 November, Colombian authorities detained... - 2009/11/16 00:00:00