Shortfall in California’s Budget Swells to $16 Billion
May 13th, 2012Via: New York Times:
The state budget shortfall in California has increased dramatically in the last six months, forcing state officials to assemble a series of new spending cuts that are likely to mean further reductions to schools, health care and other social programs already battered by nearly five years of budget retrenchment, state officials announced on Saturday.
Gov. Jerry Brown, disclosing the development in a video posted on YouTube, said that California’s shortfall was now projected to be $16 billion, up from $9.2 billion in January. Mr. Brown said that he would propose a revised budget on Monday to deal with it.
Italy: Senior Executive of Nuclear Engineering Group Ansaldo Nucleare Shot in Genoa
May 13th, 2012Via: BBC:
An Italian anarchist group has said it carried out an attack last Monday on a senior executive of nuclear engineering group Ansaldo Nucleare.
Roberto Adinolfi, 53, was shot in the leg by a gunman on a motorbike in the northern Italian city of Genoa.
He has undergone surgery and colleagues have said his condition is not serious.
The “Olga Cell” of the FAI (Informal Anarchist Federation), made the claim by a letter sent to the Italian daily Corriere della Sera.
The letter says that the attack “was carried out to punish one of the many sorcerers of the atomic industry”.
Strong presence
The Ansaldo group is part of aerospace and defence giant Finmeccanica.
Four of its managers were targets of attacks in the 1970s and ’80s by the far-left Red Brigades movement.
British Military to Have Sonic Weapon at Olympics
May 13th, 2012Via: Reuters:
Britain’s military will be armed with a sonic device that can be used as a high-volume loudspeaker or a non-lethal weapon to disperse crowds at this summer’s Olympic Games in London, the defence ministry said on Friday.
The equipment, which can project a piercing sound over hundreds of metres causing physical pain, has been used during protests at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh in 2009 and against pirates operating off the Somali coast.
The Ministry of Defence said it expected to use it primarily in loudspeaker mode to communicate with boats it wants to stop on the River Thames.
And Now… ‘MI5 Feared British Police Attended Terrorist Camps’
May 13th, 2012Via: Telegraph:
MI5 warned Scotland Yard that policemen in its ranks were suspected of attending terrorist training camps, it can be disclosed.
The policemen lost their jobs when their security clearance was revoked by senior officers after checks were carried out because of fears of “sleepers” in the ranks.
Germany: Man Dies from Poison Umbrella Stab
May 13th, 2012The name of the victim hasn’t been released.
Via: The Local – Germany:
A German man has died after being stabbed in the backside by a stranger wielding a poison umbrella which injected him with mercury, fatally poisoning him.
Police have admitted they have been left at a loss by the attack, which took place nearly a year ago, when the 40-year-old man was attacked by the mysterious stranger in Hannover.
The case mirrors the murder of Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov who was killed with a poisoned umbrella in London in 1978 at the height of the Cold War.
A post-mortem and toxicological examination being carried out on the German man are expected to point to mercury poisoning as the cause of death, Der Spiegel news magazine said on Friday.
The man was diagnosed with mercury poisoning a few weeks after the attack, and fell into a coma.
He had said he was attacked by a slim stranger who had a sticking plaster on his face.
After months in a coma, the victim had seemed to be improving, a spokeswoman for the state prosecutor said. He had been in a rehabilitation centre, but this Wednesday he suddenly died.
The prosecutor are now searching for the mysterious assailant, investigating a possible charge of grievous bodily harm resulting in death.
Texas Legislature: Video of Vote Fraud
May 13th, 2012Via: KEYE Austin Repost on YouTube:
Radio Interview: Arnie Gundersen on KGO – Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4
May 13th, 2012Reposted on YouTube:
U.S. Military Taught Officers: Use ‘Hiroshima’ Tactics for ‘Total War’ on Islam
May 13th, 2012Via: Wired:
The U.S. military taught its future leaders that a “total war” against the world’s 1.4 billion Muslims would be necessary to protect America from Islamic terrorists, according to documents obtained by Danger Room. Among the options considered for that conflict: using the lessons of “Hiroshima” to wipe out whole cities at once, targeting the “civilian population wherever necessary.”
The course, first reported by Danger Room last month and held at the Defense Department’s Joint Forces Staff College, has since been canceled by the Pentagon brass. It’s only now, however, that the details of the class have come to light. Danger Room received hundreds of pages of course material and reference documents from a source familiar with the contents of the class.
Research Credit: emulsified
NSA Not Required to Reveal Any Dealings with Google
May 12th, 2012Via: AFP:
The top-secret US National Security Agency is not required to reveal any deal it may have with Google to help protect against cyber attacks, an appeals court ruled Friday.
The US Court of Appeals in Washington upheld a lower court decision that said the NSA need not confirm or deny any relationship with Google, because its governing statutes allow it keep such information secret.
The ruling came in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from a public interest group, which said the public has a right to know about any spying on citizens.
The appeals court agreed that the NSA can reject the request, and does not even have to confirm whether it has any arrangement with the Internet giant.
“Any information pertaining to the relationship between Google and NSA would reveal protected information about NSA’s implementation of its information assurance mission,” Judge Janice Rogers Brown wrote in the appeals opinion.
The non-profit Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) filed a formal request to make public documents related to the dealings, and said much of the information had already been in news media.
The request stemmed from a January 2010 cyber attack on Google that primarily targeted the Gmail email accounts of Chinese human rights activists.
According to the Google blog, the Internet group’s chief legal officer David Drummond stated that the firm was notifying other companies that may have been targeted and was also working with the relevant US authorities.
The Wall Street Journal and Washington Post reported that Google had contacted the NSA immediately following the attack.
According to news reports, the NSA agreed to help Google analyze the attacks in a bid to better protect the California-based search company and its users from future intrusions.
Chinese Physicists Teleport Photons Over 100 Kilometers
May 12th, 2012Via: MIT Technology Review:
So these guys clearly have their eye on the possibility of satellite-based quantum cryptography which would provide ultra secure communications around the world. That’s in stark contrast to the few kilometres that are possible with commercial quantum cryptography gear.
Of course, data rates are likely to be slow and the rapidly emerging technology of quantum repeaters will extend the reach of ground-based quantum cryptography so that it could reach around the world, in principle at least.
But a perfect, satellite-based security system might be a useful piece of kit to have on the roof of an embassy or distributed among the armed forces.
Something for western security experts to think about.
