Posted on  Nov.13, 2018  in  Intelligence ,  International ,  Israel ,  Missile Defense ,  Nuclear ,  Nuclear Weapons ,  Space by  Matt Korda Amid a busy few weeks of nuclear-related news, an Israeli researcher made a very surprising OSINT discovery that flew somewhat under the radar. As explained in a  Medium  article, Israeli GIS analyst Harel Dan noticed that when he accidentally adjusted the noise levels of the imagery produced from the SENTINEL-1 satellite constellation, a bunch of colored Xs suddenly appeared all over the globe. SENTINEL-1’s C-band  Synthetic Aperture Radar  (SAR) operates at a centre frequency of 5.405 GHz, which conveniently sits within the range of the  military frequency  used for land, airborne, and naval radar systems (5.250-5.850 GHz)—including the AN/MPQ-53/65 phased array radars that form the backbone of a Patriot battery’s command and control system. Therefore, Harel correctly hypothesized that some of the Xs that appeared in the SENTINEL-1 imag

Source: fas.org Blurring of satellite images by Russian mapping service Yandex maps reveals ‘secret’ military facilities,  Matt Korda a Research Associate for the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, discovered . According to Korda, Google Earth also occasionally applies the blurring at the request of governments, who would wish to keep their facilities secret. “France, for example, has asked Google to obscure all imagery of its prisons after a French gangster successfully conducted a Hollywood-inspired jailbreak involving drones, smoke bombs, and a stolen helicopter(!)—and Google has  agreed  to comply by the end of 2018.” Yandex maps is Russia’s leading mapping service, and it evidently also agreed to selectively blur out specific sites; however, it has done that only for Israel and Turkey. The areas range from large complexes, like airfields and arms and munition warehouses, to small inconspicuous buildings in city blocks. According to

Members of Kosovo Security Force. IMAGE: Visar Kryeziu/Associated Press UPDATE:  The Russian Foreign Ministry released a statement commeting on the sitaution. The Russian side described the decision to form the Kosovo Army as an apparent violation of the UN Security Council resolution 1244 and said that this move leads to a further escalation in the Balkans. The foreign ministry also slammed the behavior of some NATO, US and EU politicians, who’d claimed that the creation of the Kosovo Army is not changing the core of the Kosovo Security Force. The minsitry pointed out that in fact the move will boost the number of Kosovo fighters by two times, lead to the creation of reserves and change the essence of the force. The Russian side noted that the US and NATO are acctively training Kosovo fighters and supplying them with weapons and equipment. Kosovo “Prime Minister” Ramush Haradinaj, who has repeatedly threatened region with the resumption of hostilities, was described as an ex