Archive for the 'Covert Operations' Category
Destroying al Qaeda Is Not an Option (Yet)
November 17th, 2009Via: Foreign Policy: The world would be wise to keep al Qaeda alive, paradoxically enough, for security reasons. Like it or not, keeping a battered al Qaeda intact (if weak) is the world’s best hope of funneling Islamist fanatics into one social network — where they stand the best chance of being spotted, tracked, and […]
U.S. Army Opens New Ground-Vehicle Energy Research Lab in Michigan
November 17th, 2009What does all of this mean for GM? I have no idea. But if something really, really strange happens, it might make much more sense in hindsight. I’m going to quote from Blank Spots on the Map again: The Manhattan Project, a project lasting roughly five years from start to finish, had cost $2.3 billion […]
The Folly of a ‘Drone War’
November 16th, 2009Via: CBS News: What we’re talking about here is the gaze of the gods, updated in corporate labs for the modern American war-fighter — a gaze that can be focused on whatever runs, walks, crawls, or creeps just about anywhere on the planet 24/7, with an instant ability to blow it away.
Cost of Keeping One U.S. Soldier in Afghanistan Per Year: One Million Dollars
November 15th, 2009The U.S. doesn’t have to “win” the war for a handful of diabolical corporations to make a killing. The trick is to keep the war going for as long as possible. And, day after day, the shakedown continues. Bogus contracts, drugs and energy. That’s all, folks. Plus a little change we can believe in. Via: […]
Two Programmers Charged With Helping Madoff Falsify Records
November 15th, 2009Via: New York Times: Two computer programmers who worked for Bernard L. Madoff’s brokerage firm were arrested on Friday and accused of helping him sustain his long-running Ponzi scheme. The two men — Jerome O’Hara of Malverne, N.Y., and George Perez of East Brunswick, N.J. — were also named in a civil case filed on […]
Blackwater Said to Pursue Bribes to Iraqi Officials After Murder of 17 Civilians
November 11th, 2009Via: New York Times: Top executives at Blackwater Worldwide authorized secret payments of about $1 million to Iraqi officials that were intended to silence their criticism and buy their support after a September 2007 episode in which Blackwater security guards fatally shot 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad, according to former company officials. Blackwater approved the […]
TV Footage Shows Afghan Insurgents with U.S. Ammo
November 10th, 2009Via: AP: Television footage broadcast Tuesday showed insurgents handling what appears to be U.S. ammunition in a remote area of eastern Afghanistan that American forces left last month following a deadly firefight that killed eight troops. The U.S. military said the forces that left the area said they removed and accounted for their equipment. Al-Jazeera […]
Hasan Known to U.S. Intelligence Agencies; Congressional Requests for Information Refused
November 10th, 2009Via: ABC News: U.S. intelligence agencies were aware months ago that Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan was attempting to make contact with people associated with al Qaeda, two American officials briefed on classified material in the case told ABC News. According to the officials, the Army was informed of Hasan’s contact, but it is unclear […]
CIA Had People Raped with Broken Bottles, Boiled Alive
November 5th, 2009Via: Raw Story: The CIA relied on intelligence based on torture in prisons in Uzbekistan, a place where widespread torture practices include raping suspects with broken bottles and boiling them alive, says a former British ambassador to the central Asian country. Craig Murray, the rector of the University of Dundee in Scotland and until 2004 […]
Italy Convicts Former CIA Agents in Rendition Trial
November 5th, 2009Via: Reuters: An Italian judge sentenced 23 Americans to up to eight years in prison on Wednesday for the abduction of a Muslim cleric, in a symbolic condemnation of the CIA “rendition” flights used by the former U.S. government. The Americans were all tried in absentia because the United States refused to extradite them. The […]
