Archive for the 'War' Category
Private Military Contractor High on Opium Killed U.S. Marine?
March 5th, 2010Via: Daily Herald: No American soldier should die the way Josh Birchfield did. There was much more to his “supporting combat operations” death than what the military put out. It was the standard Pentagon release. A soldier is killed. A clerk types in their name. “____________ died while supporting combat operations.” There is no Pentagon […]
DoD Requires Hacker Certification
March 5th, 2010I don’t see this as an ominous development, or, put another way, any more ominous than the baseline level of ominous developments. It’s par for the course. As anyone who has ever been responsible for a network will tell you: You’ll either become like the opponent (on the network), or be owned by him. Or […]
Fallujah Doctors Report Rise in Birth Defects
March 4th, 2010Via: BBC: Doctors in the Iraqi city of Fallujah are reporting a high level of birth defects, with some blaming weapons used by the US after the Iraq invasion. The city witnessed fierce fighting in 2004 as US forces carried out a major offensive against insurgents. Now, the level of heart defects among newborn babies […]
U.S. Navy Conceals Nuclear Weapons Production in California
March 4th, 2010I thought Pantex was the only facility where this type of work was done. If anyone is in a position to call BS on this Indymedia piece, let me know. Via: Indymedia: A U.S. nuclear weapons assembly plant in California is off limits to any kind of photography, information gathering, or reporting. Local residents are […]
Blackwater Created Cutout to Continue Receiving Government Contracts
March 2nd, 2010Via: Guardian: Employees of American defence contractor Blackwater took more than 500 assault rifles that were intended for the Afghan police force and routinely carried weapons without permission, it emerged in a hearing of the Senate armed services committee today. It also emerged that to shed its sullied reputation and win contracting business in Afghanistan, […]
Half the Members of an “Independent Panel” Appointed to Study the Quadrennial Defense Review Have Financial Ties to Defense Contractors
March 1st, 2010Via: USA Today: More than half of the panel members appointed to review the Pentagon’s latest four-year strategy blueprint have financial ties to defense contractors with a stake in the planning process, a USA TODAY analysis shows. Congress created the 20-member panel in 2006 to analyze the Defense Department’s four-year plan, known as the Quadrennial […]
Military Allows Twitter, Other Social Media
February 28th, 2010Military personnel are no different than any other target population that needs to be monitored and tracked. Who knows what will actually be done with the surveillance data that will be collected from this… Via: Reuters: The Pentagon announced on Friday it has authorized the use Twitter, Facebook and other so-called “Web 2.0” sites across […]
Officials Puzzle Over Millions of Dollars Leaving Afghanistan by Plane for Dubai
February 26th, 2010Via: Washington Post: A blizzard of bank notes is flying out of Afghanistan — often in full view of customs officers at the Kabul airport — as part of a cash exodus that is confounding U.S. officials and raising concerns about the money’s origin. The cash, estimated to total well over $1 billion a year, […]
Oil Spill Reaches Italy’s River Po After ‘Sabotage’
February 24th, 2010Via: BBC: An oil spill has reached Italy’s River Po after the suspected sabotage of a former refinery led to large amounts of oil pouring into a tributary. The spill began early on Tuesday when someone broke into the plant near Monza, now an oil depot, and opened the taps, Italian news reports said. They […]
Baby DNA Sent to Military Lab for Potential Use in National Database
February 24th, 2010Via: Statesman: An Austin lawyer threatened to pursue a new federal lawsuit Monday after learning that some newborn blood samples in Texas went to the U.S. military for potential use in a database for law enforcement purposes. The Department of State Health Services never mentioned the database to Jim Harrington, director of the Texas Civil […]
