Former Israeli Intel Operatives Run Security at Brussels Airport
March 23rd, 2016But wait, there’s more.
Via: sott.net:
The aviation and general security services firm ICTS handles security operations at Brussels airport, the scene of a bomb attack yesterday morning.
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This will not, however, be the first time that ICTS has come under scrutiny for possible security lapses leading to a ‘Muslim terror attack’.
As the provider of security services to Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport and United Airlines and US Airways, the firm’s security system was criticized for somehow allowing erstwhile ‘underwear bomber’, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, to “slip through” and board Northwest Airlines Flight 253 to Detroit with explosive materials on Christmas day 2009.
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But ICTS’ security faux pas’ don’t end there. In December 2001, they somehow managed to let deranged shoe bomber Richard Reid, onto his Miami-bound flight in Paris, and this was after ICTS had cleared Reid through security at Amsterdam airport on a flight to Tel Aviv in July 2001 for what was apparently an all-expenses paid week-long trip to the Israeli city.
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ICTS also somehow missed several of the alleged 9/11 hijackers who allegedly flew out of Boston’s Logan airport on September 11th 2001. ICTS also handled security for London’s bus network during the July 7, 2005, ‘suicide’ bomb attacks. In fact, two of its subsidiaries, ICTS UK and ICTS Europe Systems, are based at Tavistock House, Tavistock Square in London, scene of the London Stagecoach bus bombing that day.
That’s quite a record, all in all.
‘Mason’ Present at Brussels, Paris and Boston Terror Attacks
March 23rd, 2016Don’t look at me. I just work here.
Via: Metro:
A teenager who survived the Brussels airport attack was a block away from the Boston Marathon finish line at the time of the bombing and was in Paris on November 13 last year.
Mason Wells, 19, was hit by shrapnel when the bombs, which were hidden in suitcases, detonated. He ruptured his Achilles tendon and suffered second- and third-degree burns on his face and hands.
Remarkably, Mason, a Mormon missionary, also survived the Boston Marathon bombing on April 15, 2013, and the Paris attacks last November.
Power Out
March 23rd, 2016A storm has taken out our power again. The thing hasn’t even really hit us yet.
Might not be any updates for a while.
Via: NZ Herald:
Severe weather is expected for some parts of the country this evening, with possibilities of surface flooding.
A strong northeasterly flow is reaching Auckland, Waikato, Coromandel, Wanganui and northern Manawatu overnight tonight.
A MetService warning for severe gales was in place, with gusts of up to 120km/h expected in exposed areas, MetService meteorologist Lisa Murray said.
“This is quite a significant event,” she said.Gusts in Cape Reinga has already reached 102km/h, and it was expected to intensify later this evening.
It would move down the country, reaching areas at different times this evening.
Severe gusts in Auckland would peak later today but would ease on Thursday.
Occasional showers would turn to rain this evening and would become heavy overnight, Ms Murray said.
There was also a thunderstorm watch in place for Northland, Auckland, Great Barrier Island and Taranaki.
Rain of 150mm combined, across the Northland region was expected over an 18-hour period, Ms Murray said.
Company Seeks to Test Self-Driving Delivery Robots in DC
March 22nd, 2016Via: Fox 5 DC:
You could soon be sharing the sidewalk with robots in D.C. A test project will be presented to District leaders to allow delivery robots to operate on city sidewalks.
These robots could be delivering your takeout meal or maybe some fresh groceries. The company that created them say they are safe, smart and conserve energy.
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Two co-founders of Skype have created the company Starship Technologies to create these self-delivery robots that is designed to roll down the sidewalk and navigate stop signs and red lights. It even has advanced technology so it doesn’t hit pedestrians.
“It has nine cameras, an obstacle detection system,” said Alexander Shakeshaft. “For example, if a pedestrian was to walk in front of it, the robot would stop.”
Brussels: Double Terror Attacks Kill Dozens
March 22nd, 2016Via: Reuters:
Thirty-four people were killed in attacks on Brussels airport and a rush-hour metro train in the Belgian capital on Tuesday, according to public broadcaster VRT, triggering security alerts across Europe and bringing some cross-border traffic to a halt.
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Via: Reuters:
Two explosions tore through Brussels airport on Tuesday morning killing 13 people in what Belgian public broadcaster VRT called a suicide attack, and a further blast struck a metro station in the capital shortly afterwards.
The Belga agency said shots were fired and there were shouts in Arabic shortly before two blasts rang out at the airport. Pictures on social media showed smoke rising from the terminal building through shattered windows and passengers running away down a slipway, some still hauling their bags.
All public transport in Brussels was shut down, as it was in London during 2005 militant attacks on the underground that killed 52. The Belgian Crisis Centre, clearly wary of a further incident, appealed to the population: “Stay where you are”.
U.S. Marine Base in Northern Iraq
March 22nd, 2016Via: New York Times:
The Pentagon acknowledged on Monday that it had established a small base in northern Iraq staffed solely by American Marines, a disclosure that followed an Islamic State rocket attack over the weekend that killed one Marine and wounded several others.
The White House has contended that the military is not conducting a ground combat mission in Iraq. But the new outpost has long-range artillery that can help Iraqi forces as they try to reclaim land from the Islamic State.
Chicago: 82-Year-Old Woman Hospitalized After Police Raid Wrong Home
March 21st, 2016Via: ABC:
A police raid sent an 82-year-old woman to the hospital, and her family says police were at the wrong address.
Chicago police maintain officers did not target the wrong house and that they had reason to search the property for drugs. But that great grandmother in Roseland said she lives alone and that search turned up nothing.
The encounter left her front door badly-damaged and the locks busted, but Elizabeth Harrison says what’s most broken is her trust.
“I always tell my young people, ‘Respect the law,'” Harrison said. “But to have them come in and do what they did to me, something is wrong. Really wrong.
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“They were there with the guns drawn: “Put your hands up! Put your hands up! Put your hands up!” Harrison said.
Harrison said police showed her this search warrant with her address listed. But when she told the officers her home was no drug house – that she was a widow and lived alone – she said no one believed her.
“They wanted me to produce this young man that they were looking for. And they would not take no for an answer that I didn’t know him,” she said.
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Harrison says police searched her home and eventually left, but not before one final head-scratcher.
The man police were seeking – whose name appears in the warrant – showed up to talk to officers.
“You all came to the wrong house. I live at 126, and this is 136,” Channell said, quoting the man.
Harper’s Magazine, Where ‘Legalize It All’ Means More Taxes and State Control of Drugs
March 21st, 2016In the piece below, there’s no mention of the fact that the CIA has been in the narcotics trafficking business for decades, which is an interesting tidbit to leave out of an article about disastrous drug policies.
With that elephant in the room, let’s all gasp in shock with the author about the Nixon administration screwing over hippies and black people. In 2016, that’s a startling revelation. Right?
Disclosure: Before the Internet, I used to subscribe to Harper’s, but I soon came to realize that the content was intended for a certain mental demographic to which I didn’t belong.
Do you own a recumbent bicycle?
Do you have tenure?
Despite bleeding from your ass after decades of thinking that the Democrats have your best interests in mind, are you voting for Hillary in 2016? *Not a Trump endorsement*
If you answered yes to any or all of the above questions, you might like Harper’s.
With that out of the way and knowing what we know about government involvement in narcotics trafficking, I found it hilarious that the author of this piece goes on to call for, “A government monopoly on distribution,” to drug consumers.
*chortle*
You’re in luck, Mr. Baum, because the government is already operating a global wholesale narcotics distribution network…which is pretty reliable, except when it isn’t.
Via: Harper’s:
I started to ask Ehrlichman a series of earnest, wonky questions that he impatiently waved away. “You want to know what this was really all about?” he asked with the bluntness of a man who, after public disgrace and a stretch in federal prison, had little left to protect. “The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”
I must have looked shocked.
The Veneer of Justice in a Kingdom of Crime
March 20th, 2016Via: BestEvidence:
The criminal global banking cartel has effected a coup d’etat in the U.S. This is why the same criminal financial elite that saw 1000 of its members go to prison 20 years ago (after the S&L crisis) is now above the law.
To date, the question of why the U.S. Department of Justice has failed to prosecute even one too-big-to-fail bank for the pervasive criminal frauds that drove the multi-trillion-dollar economic meltdown of 2008 has been answered pretty much with shrugs.
By far the most insightful answer was provided by Martin Smith’s breathtaking Untouchables episode, which PBS Frontline aired in January 2013. See http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/fil…
But even Smith’s answer—that the DOJ never truly investigated Wall Street crime due largely to the so-called collateral consequences doctrine—really explains how rather than why prosecutions have been scuttled.
In an effort to pick up where the Untouchables left off in early 2013, BestEvidence presents “The Veneer of Justice in a Kingdom of Crime.” In addition to analyzing events that have occurred since the Untouchables aired (including events caused by the Untouchables), and in an attempt to answer some of the deeply troubling issues raised by Martin Smith, “Veneer” examines certain implications the DOJ’s pronouncements, since late 2012, that the rule of law is effectively dead (having been supplanted by the management of oversized global banks).
“Who Can Stop Trump? Republicans May Have Little Choice But To Vote Clinton”
March 20th, 2016Imagine my shock.
Via: Guardian:
Just a few steps from the White House, the latest secret gathering of Republicans seeking an answer to the question of who can still stop Donald Trump reached a demoralising answer for their party on Thursday night: Hillary Clinton.
A bleak mood has swept over the Grand Old Party in the past 24 hours as the multiple implications of Trump’s latest victory in primary elections on Tuesday have slowly sunk in.
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Many establishment figures have reluctantly begun to concede that it is a non-starter to entertain the idea of bringing in an entirely new alternative candidate at a contested party convention in July.
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How one of the world’s largest exercises in democracy can leave Americans facing two of the least popular candidates in a generation may seem strange, but the realistic alternatives for Republicans look less attractive still.
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Instead the many mainstream Republicans who are appalled at Trump’s antics are now realising they could have little alternative but to vote for Hillary Clinton or not vote at all.
