Kenya: NIS Knew an Attack Would Happen
September 27th, 2013Via: Independent:
Kenya’s National Intelligence Agency (NIS), widely accused by politicians of failing to pick up chatter about the attack, has insisted it did warn the police and officials inside the President’s office before the Westgate siege, but its warnings went unheeded, The Star reported.
According to the same report, a pregnant policewoman avoided Westgate after her brother, who works for Kenyan intelligence, warned her of a terror attack. “She has told police that her brother who is a NIS officer warned her not to visit Westgate that Saturday because she would not be able to run,” a senior officer was quoted as saying.
For the Lulz: LA Officials May Delay School iPad Rollout After Students Effortlessly Bypass Restrictions
September 26th, 2013“Runaway train scenario.”
I love it.
Via: Engadget:
Just a week after it began the first phase of putting iPads in the hands of all 640,000 students in the region, the Los Angeles school district already has a fight on its hands. In a matter of days, 300 children at Theodore Roosevelt High School managed to work around protective measures placed on the Apple tablets, giving them complete access to features — including Facebook, Twitter and other apps — that should otherwise have been blocked.
Students bypassed the security lock on the device by deleting a personal profile preloaded in the settings — a simple trick that has the school district police chief recommending the board limit the $1 billion rollout (including hardware and other related expenses) before it turns into a “runaway train scenario.”
Afghanistan: ‘$37 Million Aviation Facility May Have Been Used to Store Opium’
September 26th, 2013Your what hurts?
Via: Reuters:
The U.S.-led effort to train the Afghan air force faces big challenges ranging from security threats to possible repercussions from a new review of infrastructure and equipment projects, the U.S. general in charge said.
“This is a hard deal. We’re far from 100-percent guaranteed on delivery,” said Air Force Brigadier General John Michel, who leads NATO Air Training Command Afghanistan, which is due to complete its training of the Afghan air force by December 31, 2017 – three years after most U.S. forces leave Afghanistan.
The one-star general cited progress in training and planning for Afghanistan to assume control over the air force but said many factors were outside his control.
Michel spoke to Reuters this week during the annual Air Force Association conference here.
He said the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force was re-examining all infrastructure projects after a report that one $37 million aviation facility may have been used to store opium and other concerns raised by Congress.
Research Credit: almaverdad2
Say Hello to Rick Ross
September 26th, 2013Via: Esquire:
Back in the day, Ross would offer the same deal with crack cocaine — to start you out, he’d give you $100 worth for free and you could sell it for $300. Between 1982 and 1989, federal prosecutors estimated, Ross bought and resold three tons of cocaine. In 1980 dollars, his gross earnings were said to be in excess of $900 million — with a profit of nearly $300 million. Converted roughly to present-day dollars: $2.5 billion and $850 million, respectively. As his distribution empire grew to include forty-two cities, the price he paid per kilo of powder cocaine dropped from as much as $60,000 to as low as $10,000. This was partially due to his exponentially increasing network of distributors, as Crips and Bloods struck out across the country to franchise the trade, spreading their gang culture with it… and partially due to his sweetheart connection with a Nicaraguan national who would later be said to have ties to both the CIA and the contra rebels supported during the 1980s by the Reagan administration. (Later this same connect — Oscar Danilo Blandón — would be hired by the DEA as an informant; it was he who would bring Ross into the deal that led to his life sentence.)
Fueled by the findings of an investigation by San Jose Mercury News reporter Gary Webb in 1996, many would come to believe that the CIA had actually created the crack epidemic in America by allowing (or turning a blind eye to) massive shipments of cocaine into the country, the profits from which went to arming rebels fighting a Latin American regime disfavored by our government. Webb also theorized that much of the contra coke (cultivated in Colombia) ended up in the hands of Freeway Rick Ross.
Webb’s revelations were aggressively attacked by the country’s major newspapers, in reports heavy with unnamed government sources. Webb left the paper in disgrace; he was later found dead with two bullets in his head, an apparent suicide. An earlier inquiry led by then-senator John Kerry supported the substance of Webb’s allegations, as did a 1998 report by the CIA’s inspector general. Even many of those who vilified Webb now acknowledge that much of what he reported was true. A minority of the citizenry still believes there was genocidal intent in the CIA’s actions — that the coke was deliberately funneled toward black ghettos as a way of decimating a troublesome population.
Related:
Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion by Gary Webb
Compromised: Clinton, Bush and the CIA by Terry Reed
How Does Obamacare Affect Americans Living Abroad?
September 26th, 2013*phew* For now, anyway…
However, about 3/4 of Cryptogon readers will be affected by this, so…
Via: Yahoo:
If you’re living outside the US, you don’t have to purchase health insurance by the end of March, 2014, through what will be the newly established health insurance marketplaces in each state. And unlike other citizens residing in the US, you won’t be penalized through a fine for not buying the mandatory insurance. In other words, if you’re an American living abroad throughout 2014, you will be exempt from buying heath insurance and exempt from the penalty for not buying it.
In fact, in order to buy the insurance as an individual, you must be living in the US.
15% in U.S. Shun Internet; Most Intend to Stay Offline
September 26th, 2013Via: AFP:
Despite a seemingly unstoppable move to digital lifestyles, some 15 percent of Americans don’t use the Internet, and most are quite content to remain offline, a survey shows.
The survey released Wednesday found that in addition to the 15 percent of adults who don’t use the Internet on any device, another nine percent say they only go online at their workplace.
The report by the Pew Research Center found a whopping 92 percent of these “offline adults” with no interest in using the Internet or email in the near future.
“A lot of people are surprised to discover that not everyone is online,” said Kathryn Zickuhr, a Pew researcher and author of the report.
“Most offline adults either don’t see the Internet as relevant to them, or feel that it would not be worth the effort. And though many have had some experiences with the Internet in the past, most non-Internet users say they are not interested in going online in the future.”
The survey found 34 percent of the offline Americans said the Internet is not relevant to them, that they are not interested, do not want to use it, or have no need for it.
Another 32 percent in this group said they believe using the Internet is difficult or frustrating to use, or cite issues such as spam, spyware, and hackers.
Pew found 19 percent of non-Internet users cited the expense of owning a computer or online connections, and just seven percent said the Internet was not available to them.
Monsanto Protection Act Left to Expire
September 25th, 2013Via: The Hill:
The Senate bill to keep the government funded will drop a controversial provision that food safety advocates warn lets agricultural giants avoid judicial oversight.
The provision, dubbed the “Monsanto Protection Act,” was extended under the House’s continuing resolution passed last week. Under the Senate bill, it will expire at the end of the month.
Opponents of the measure, which allows biotechnology companies to sell genetically modified seeds even if a court blocks them, cheered the news.
Criminal: How Lockup Quotas and “Low-Crime Taxes” Guarantee Profits for Private Prison Corporations
September 25th, 2013Via: In the Public Interest:
This report discusses the use of prison bed occupancy guarantee clauses in prison privatization contracts and explores how bed occupancy guarantees undermine criminal justice policy and democratic, accountable government. The report sheds light on the for-profit private prison industry’s reliance on high prison populations, and how these occupancy guarantee provisions directly benefit its bottom line. Also discussed are the prevalence of bed guarantee clauses, drawing on set of contracts that ITPI obtained through state open records requests. We also address how occupancy guarantees have harmed states, focusing on the experiences of Arizona, Colorado, and Ohio — three states that have agreed to these provisions to detrimental consequences. Lastly, the report discusses our recommendation that governments can and should reject prison occupancy guarantees.
Israeli Soldiers Throw Sound Grenades at EU Diplomats Bringing Aid to Displaced Palestinian Families
September 25th, 2013Via: Tikkun Daily:
A Palestinian village home to 120 people had its houses, kindergarten and shepherding stables demolished this week by Israeli authorities. This came after the Supreme Court ruled its inhabitants – some of whom have lived on the land for generations – didn’t have proper building permits.
The Palestinian Bedouin village of Khirbet Al-Makhul, located in the occupied territories, is the third such village to be demolished by Israel since August. After it was destroyed on Monday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) attempted to deliver emergency aid to the displaced residents on Tuesday and Wednesday, but were stopped by Israeli soldiers.
When a collection of diplomats from France, Britain, Spain, Ireland, Australia and the European Union’s political office arrived on Friday, they were met with force and sound grenades.
Per Reuters:
A Reuters reporter saw soldiers throw sound grenades at a group of diplomats, aid workers and locals in the occupied West Bank, and yank a French diplomat out of the truck before driving away with its contents.
“They dragged me out of the truck and forced me to the ground with no regard for my diplomatic immunity,” French diplomat Marion Castaing said. “This is how international law is being respected here.”
[…]
“It’s shocking and outrageous. We will report these actions to our governments,” said one EU diplomat, who declined to be named because he did not have authorisation to talk to the media.
“(Our presence here) is a clear matter of international humanitarian law. By the Geneva Convention, an occupying power needs to see to the needs of people under occupation. These people aren’t being protected,” he said.
Unfortunately, the incident is making headlines not because of the village’s destruction, but because Israeli authorities manhandled a collection of European diplomats. However, the real story here is that Israel – even as it begins the resumption of peace talks with the Palestinians – continue to appropriate West Bank lands for settlements and ‘military’ purposes.
The Senate Is Busy Creating a Privileged 1st Amendment Club for ‘Official’ Journalists
September 25th, 2013Via: Alternet:
On September 12, 2013, the U.S. Senate Judiciary committee narrowly defined who the law should consider to be a journalist, by amending the proposed Free Flow of Information Act (“FFIA”). The FFIA is a “shield law” that protects journalists from having to reveal their confidential sources when confronted with court subpoenas. The amendment changed the language of the bill from protecting the activity of journalism to protecting the profession. Journalists are now limited to those employed by, recently employed by, or substantially contributing to media organizations for certain minimum durations.
This maneuver skirts the substantial investigative role served by independent journalists, bloggers, and nontraditional media, who are left unprotected by the statute. It also expressly excludes whistleblower organizations. By not extending protection to a vital segment of investigative newsgatherers, the amended FFIA falls short of providing real benefits. More fundamentally, the distinctions created by the bill reinforce a privileged club for journalists. In essence, the government is licensing the press, and treading down a path that courts have for decades cautioned “present[s] practical and conceptual difficulties of a high order.”
