China Doesn't Care if Its 'Digitalized' Military Cyberwar Drill Scares You

China Doesn't Care if Its 'Digitalized' Military Cyberwar Drill Scares You

In the face of fears from President Obama to the Pentagon and across the globe about the increasing military might behind Chinese hacking, China's state news agency announced Wednesday that the nation's People's Liberation Army "will conduct an exercise next month to test new types of combat forces including units using digital technology amid efforts to adjust to informationalized war." You know, right after Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping are meeting about the state of, among other things, a cyberwar going on underneath their noses.

RELATED: China Is Winning the Cyber War Because They Hacked U.S. Plans for Real War

The new report from Xinhua news agency adds that the drill, taking place on a large military training field and not some underground hack-a-thon bunker, "will be the first time a PLA exercise has focused on combat forces including digitalized units, special operations forces, army aviation and electronic counter forces." The terms "digitalized unit" and "electronic counter forces" don't make it at all clear what China's military has planned, but then again, no country is ever going to reveal its full cyberwarfare capabilities in detail — and it's not like it's the first time the Chinese have tested the military reaches of their digital warfare capabilities. Indeed, the U.S. was game to play along on more than one occasion. Last year it was reported that the U.S. and China had secretly engaged in at least two cyber war games in 2011, "designed to help prevent a sudden military escalation between the two superpowers if either felt they were being targeted," as ZDNet's Emil Potralinski reported. "In the first, both sides had to describe what they would do if they were attacked by a sophisticated computer virus, such as Stuxnet. In the second, they had to describe their reaction if the attack was known to have been launched from the other side." The first went better than the second, apparently, but neither appears to have taken place on a training base in Mongolia, as this new test will be when it's conducted by two army corps and eight military academies in "late June." Obama and Xi are set to meet at an estate in California on June 7-8. Cybersecurity is on the list of talking points, the White House confirmed Tuesday as National Security Advisor Tom Donilon visited Beijing ahead of the summit. Defense Secretary's Chuck Hagel is visiting Southeast Asia this week, and it's on his agenda, too.

RELATED: China Says U.S. Is on Offense in Hacking Attacks on Defense Ministry

News of China's "digitalized" drill comes on the heels of Tuesday's big Washington Post scoop thatChinese hackers had stolen designs for nearly 40 of the U.S.'s most valuable weapons programs and 30 defense technologies — a move that could "weaken the U.S. military advantage in a future conflict." That article followed a Pentagon report earlier this month claiming that the Chinese government was directly connected to attacks on U.S. computer systems, which followed the cybersecurity firm Mandiant's report in February alleging that the PLA was connected to a number of cyberattacks on U.S. companies and infrastructure, and a 2012 assertion from national security veteran Richard Clarke that China has hacked every major U.S. company. Now, it appears, the secret training is out in the open.

Interior Alaska town floods; residents evacuated

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) — The National Guard has helped evacuate residents from a small community in Alaska's interior where a river ice jam caused major flooding, washing out roads and submerging homes and other buildings.

State officials estimate several hundred people have left the town ofGalena, which remained mostly underwater Tuesday with theYukon River ice jam firmly in place, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported.

National Weather Service meteorologist Christopher Cox said 90 percent of the community's roads were flooded, and many buildings had 7 feet of water in them. Some of the people who were displaced said they escaped in rafts battered by ice chunks and floating debris.

After rising floodwaters breached a wall protecting the Galena airport, the National Guard flew in to evacuate any remainingresidents who wanted to leave the community of nearly 500, the Anchorage Daily News reported.

Evacuee Shane Edwin stepped off a flight to Fairbanks on Tuesday afternoon and described the scene he left behind as "a whole bunch of chaos."

"The roads are all gone," he said. "The houses are flipped over. It's just trashed. I couldn't grab anything, not even my ID. The water came so fast."

State emergency management spokesman Jeremy Zidek told The Associated Press water went over low areas of the dike at about 12:30 p.m. Tuesday. The water level fell after that, but he said there was still the threat of the water topping the dike again. He said that's why the state was took the step of bringing in military aircraft to aid in the evacuations of anyone else who wanted to leave.

Evacuations have been running for several days, with many residents flying to Fairbanks 270 miles to the east. Gov. Sean Parnell's office said in a release that the sewer and water systems at the Galena shelter failed, forcing additional evacuations.

Parnell's office put the number of evacuations at 300, as of noon Tuesday. Zidek said that number was fluid. He could not say how many people remained.

Parnell surveyed the flooding Tuesday afternoon with Maj. Gen. Thomas Katkus, commissioner of the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. Department personnel have been aiding the Tanana Chiefs Conference in evacuations, Parnell's office said.

The flooding in Galena should clear when the ice jam breaks. But the forecaster, Cox, said it's unclear when that will occur.

Parnell said the flooding is expected to worsen before the waters begin to recede.

U.S. calls on Hezbollah to pull fighters out of Syria

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department called on Lebanon's Hezbollah militia on Wednesday to withdraw its fighters from Syria immediately, saying their involvement on the side ofPresident Bashar al-Assad signaled a dangerous broadening of the war.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki condemned the declaration last weekend by the leader of the Lebanese guerrilla movement, Hasran Nasrallah. He confirmed his combatants were in Syria and vowed they would stay in the war "to the end of the road."

"This is an unacceptable and extremely dangerous escalation. We demand that Hezbollah withdraw its fighters from Syria immediately," Psaki said at a daily news briefing.

Violence from the Syrian conflict, which began as a peaceful protest movement but descended into civil war, has increasingly spilled over into Lebanon, particularly in the northern city of Tripoli. nL5N0EA0VP

Hezbollah's participation in a battle at the town of Qusair on the Syrian-Lebanese border risks dragging Lebanon into a conflict that has increasingly become overshadowed by Sunni-Shi'ite sectarian violence.

Nasrallah said Saturday that Syria and Lebanon were facing a threat from radical Sunni Islamists, which he argued was a plot devised by the United States and its allies to serve Israel's interests in the region. Hezbollah is a Shi'ite Muslim group.

Psaki also condemned the killing of three Lebanese soldiers at an army checkpoint in the eastern Bekaa Valley on Tuesday. The gunmen fled toward the Syrian border, but it was not clear who carried out the attack.

"We remain deeply concerned about reports of multiple cross-border security incidents in recent days," she said.

Asked what the United States would do if Hezbollah did not withdraw, Psaki said Washington was pursuing diplomatic solutions but was also "continuing to increase and escalate our aid and support for the (Syrian) opposition."

She said Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman and Acting Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs, Beth Jones, would travel to Geneva in the coming week to meet Russian and U.N. diplomats and work on bringing together an international conference on Syria.

President Barack Obama has repeatedly shied from U.S. involvement in the conflict, which has claimed 80,000 lives, although he has kept all options on the table.

FBI Agent Took Gifts and Cash, Ex-Mobster Informant Alleges

The FBI has opened an investigation into accusations that one of its agents took lavish gifts and cash from an informant who has been indicted in the murder of a popular Atlanta rapper known as Lil Phat.

The informant, Russian ex-mobster Mani Chulpayev, has told investigators for the Department of Justice's Office of Inspector General that he was asked for and gave the FBI agent gifts of cash, jewelry, watches, expensive sports shoes, basketball game tickets, hotel rooms and the use of luxury cars, according to his lawyer, George Plumides.

"The agent obstructed a murder investigation," Plumides told ABC News in an interview to broadcast Thursday on ABC News' "World News with Diane Sawyer" and "Nightline".

INTERACTIVE: The 'Untouchable' FBI Informant

"That's my opinion and it is Mani's as well," said the suspect's lawyer, claiming the FBI agent's efforts to get local police and detectives to leave Chulpayev alone actually complicated his client's case and led to the murder charges against him.

"Well, it's nice to have an FBI agent that is looking over your shoulder, I guess. But I think he was ill served. He didn't get a bargain," Plumides said.

The FBI confirmed to ABC News that the DOJ's Inspector General and the FBI's own Inspection Division are both looking into the allegations against the agent, Dante Jackson.

"We take the allegations very seriously," an FBI spokesperson said. "The policy on this could not be more clear."

Phone messages and a letter sent by ABC News to Jackson at the FBI office in Atlanta seeking comment were not answered.

The murder case grows out of the 2012 death of Melvin Vernell III, 19, a popular rap artist in Atlanta who used the name Lil Phat.

Prosecutors in Fulton County, Ga. allege that Chulpayev, who says he has worked with the FBI since the 1990s, helped arrange the murder in league with four other men. A grand jury indictment charges them with murder, felony murder, street gang criminal activity and weapons counts.

Prosecutors said Lil Phat was involved with Chulpayev and the other suspects in a dispute over "drugs and other 'business' dealings."

Chulpayev's lawyer said his client will enter a plea of not guilty and has an alibi for the night Lil Phat was murdered outside an Atlanta hospital where Lil Phat was waiting for his fiancee to give birth to their child.

It was the alleged role of Chulpayev in the murder that led to the significant FBI investigation of one of its own agents.

As an apparent informant for the FBI for almost a decade, Chulpayev has twice been able to avoid long prison terms of possible deportation.

Even before the murder charge, an ABC News investigation found that someone in the FBI attempted to divert law enforcement attention from allegations that Chulpayev was selling stolen luxury cars to unsuspecting victims.

One of the victims, Travis Jones of Atlanta, said when he reported to local police that Chulpayev had sold him a stolen car, he was told by a detective that Chulpayev was protected by the FBI.

"He's just untouchable," Jones told ABC News.

When a reporter from ABC News' Atlanta affiliate WSB-TV confronted Chulpayev earlier this year, he said he received a phone call from the FBI office in Atlanta asking why he was interested in Chulpayev.

"I've been doing this 32 years, it's never happened before," WSB-TV reporter Jim Strickland told ABC News. "I tells me that Mani was interwoven with the FBI in Atlanta deeply enough that he can make one phone call and they're instantly calling me to find out exactly what the story is."

In an interview with ABC News, Chulpayev confirmed that agent Jackson had served as his handler.

Chulpayev's lawyer, Plumides, said the agent asked for the gifts and $3,500 in cash at the very time Chulpayev was under investigation for the murder.

But he said the agent told his client the requests were for "lawful law enforcement purposes."

Tune in tonight to "World News With Diane Sawyer" and "Nightline" for ABC News' full investigation into The Murder, The Mobster and the FBI.

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Cuban blogger returns home to unknown future

Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez returns to unknown future after months long world tour

Associated Press -

HAVANA (AP) -- One of Cuba's most famous names is returning from a prolonged global tour on Thursday, but don't expect well-wishers, flowers or marching bands.

Most islanders won't even know about it.

When Yoani Sanchez touches down on a flight from Madrid on Thursday, she will step into an unknown future that could bring the dissident blogger more influence — or significantly more trouble — on this Communist-led island that has never looked kindly on dissent.

"It is too early to know what it will bring, what impact it will have," Sanchez's husband and fellow dissident, Reinaldo Escobar, told The Associated Press of his wife's highly-publicized travels. "What awaits her is a lot of work, a lot of responsibility and the possibility to realize her dreams."

In several tweets early Wednesday, Sanchez said she was returning to Cuba after a "never-ending trip" and that she was "happy, exhausted and full of ideas."

For those wondering why she would go back to an island that considers her a public enemy, Sanchez answered: "Because I am stubborn ... for me, life is nowhere but in Cuba."

Communist authorities allowed Sanchez and several lesser-known opposition figures to travel as part of landmark migration reforms that took effect in January, eliminating exit visa requirements for all Cubans.

She has taken advantage of the newfound freedom by visiting more than a dozen countries since her trip began Feb. 17, touring the White House, giving speeches before European and Latin American parliamentarians and exchanging ideas with luminaries as diverse as Polish politician Lech Walesa and Cuban-American musician Emilio Estefan.

Sanchez, who has won fame with searing social commentary in her Generation Y blog and in a steady stream of tweets, has said she wants to start an independent online newspaper upon her return.

That could put the 37-year-old on a collision course with the government of President Raul Castro. The island has never shied away from international opprobrium when it felt its security was at risk.

In 2003, Fidel Castro jailed 75 intellectuals, activists and social commentators in a notorious crackdown on dissent. But Raul, who took office in 2006, has freed them amid a slate of social and economic reforms.

Cuba considers all dissidents to be stooges paid by Washington and Miami to stir up trouble. It had no comment on Sanchez's imminent return.

Observers were divided on how Cuba would react, though they agreed the government would probably not come down too hard because Sanchez, like other dissidents, has a very small following on the island.

"International prominence offers her opportunities for future trips and protection against possible arrest," said Arturo Lopez-Levy, a Cuban analyst and lecturer at the University of Denver. "But none of that strengthens her capacity for internal organizing, which is still meager."

Dissidents complain the government controls all media, effectively shutting them out of public discourse, and say those who openly support them are harassed and ostracized. But it is also true that after more than half a century of one-party rule, many Cubans express cynicism about getting involved in political matters, and don't see the dissidents as a viable answer to their daily problems.

Of 20 Havana residents polled informally by The Associated Press this week, only seven said they had heard of Sanchez, and several of those weren't sure exactly who she was. Just three said they knew about her international trip.

"It's the first time I ever heard that name," said Irene Solis, 23.

"Who?" asked Rosa Suarez, 34.

Sanchez's obscurity back home is a far cry from the star treatment she got on the trip, her first off the island after years of being refused an exit visa.

Over three-plus months, Sanchez visited Brazil, Peru, Mexico, Spain, Italy, the Czech Republic, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, Norway, Holland and the United States, where she met with senior members of President Barack Obama's staff.

She spoke to international human rights leaders, gave speeches at U.S. universities and toured the New York offices of Google and Twitter. In Miami, she received hearty ovations from Cuban exiles and marveled at encountering a "Cuba outside Cuba."

She strolled the sun-kissed beaches of Rio de Janeiro, tweeted a photo of a Picasso masterpiece at New York's Museum of Modern Art and stood at the site of the long-fallen Berlin Wall.

She also met with editors at media outlets from NPR and the New York Times to Spain's El Pais, and told a regional journalism conference in Mexico that Cuban bloggers walk "a red line between liberty and jail" — comments that surely upset authorities.

Ted Henken, a Cuba expert who helped organize part of Sanchez's tour, said she had gained more than 100,000 Twitter followers since she left, bringing her total above half a million.

It will be a strange homecoming when Sanchez steps back into the simple apartment she shares with Escobar and their son.

But Sanchez's return also presents challenges for the government, since its treatment of her is sure to receive close scrutiny from journalists, foreign governments and human rights organizations.

"She's the tip of the iceberg of an emergent civil society," said Henken, though he also predicted Sanchez's fame would immunize her somewhat from arrest or detention.

Carlos Saladrigas, co-chairman of the U.S.-based Cuba Study Group, which advocates closer ties between America and Cuba, said Sanchez's trip marked a seminal moment for dissidency on the island — but that the government could also gain from showing a new tolerance for criticism.

"There is no return from this," he said. "They knew that dissidents would say overseas what they say in Cuba. They took that risk."

Added Henken: "It does give (the government) a quiver in their arsenal to say that this is change, and change is real: 'We have allowed this to happen, and we have taken the consequences.'"

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Andrea Rodriguez and Anne-Marie Garcia in Havana, and Christine Armario in Miami contributed to this report.

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