Inside Romania’s Secret CIA Prison
December 8th, 2011Via: AP:
In northern Bucharest, in a busy residential neighborhood minutes from the heart of the capital city, is a secret the Romanian government has long tried to protect.
For years, the CIA used a government building — codenamed “Bright Light” — as a makeshift prison for its most valuable detainees. There it held al-Qaida operatives Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, and others in a basement prison before they were ultimately transferred to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2006, according to former U.S. intelligence officials familiar with the location and inner workings of the prison.
Japan Expands Rice Ban
December 8th, 2011Via: Bloomberg:
Japan will extend a ban on rice shipments from a third city in Fukushima prefecture after local authorities found more tainted grain, deepening food-safety concerns nine months after a nuclear disaster.
The ban will likely cover the Shibukawa area of Nihonmatsu City, about 55 kilometers (34 miles) from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, as rice samples from the area contained 780 becquerels per kilogram of radioactive cesium, said Shinji Uchida at the grain division of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. The maximum allowed by the government for human consumption is 500 becquerels.
The discovery came after authorities increased rice testing for cesium after tainted supplies were found in Fukushima City and Date City. Some of the contaminated grain was sold to local buyers after Fukushima Governor Yuhei Sato said in October that rice produced in the prefecture was safe to eat.
Australian Journalist Wins Prestigious Award for Exposing Flu Vaccine Scandal
December 8th, 2011Via: The Refusers:
Natasha Bita, a journalist for The Australian has just won a Walkley Award (the Australian equivalent of a Pulitzer Prize) for an in-depth article series on the CSL Afluria flu vaccine, a shot that caused convulsions in one percent of Australian infants who received it.
To put this vaccine scandal in perspective, the CDC states that ‘seizures can occur after vaccination,’ 33% of infants who have a first seizure will have more seizures and 10% of infants who have one seizure can develop epilepsy. According to the Merck Manual (the largest-selling medical textbook), seizures are a symptom of encephalitis, which the Merck Manual defines as a vaccine adverse reaction. Vaccine-induced encephalitis can leave a spectrum of permanent brain damage in its wake – post-encephalitic syndrome (aka epilepsy and autism). In other words, kids that have convulsions from Afluria can have lifelong neurological disabilities.
Incredibly, the defective CSL flu vaccine Afluria is still on the market in the US: FDA-approved and CDC-recommended. The only concession US vaccine authorities have made to this Afluria scandal is to raise the recommended age for this vaccine, but even that feeble response is colored by a direction to give Afluria to young kids anyway if no other flu vaccine is available.
This vaccinate-at-any-cost mentality displays the utter depravity of US vaccine authorities. They really don’t care about vaccine adverse reactions or the victims of defective vaccines. When vaccine regulators are so transparently irresponsible, it is up to individuals and families to defend their own health by rejecting the gung-ho vaccine recommendations of the CDC, FDA and medical profession.
This award is a smack in the face to asleep-at-the-wheel US journalists, who are being instructed by the National Press Foundation (at the behest of Seth Mnookin, Gates’ GAVI vaccine alliance and minions of Paul Offit) to censor all negative reports on vaccine issues and stick to big pharma’s and the CDC’s party line.
Rod Blagojevich Sentenced To 14 Years In Prison
December 8th, 2011Heaps of scorn and a long prison sentence can be meted out to this Blagojevich scumbag, but U.S. Presidents who have used the military as an international terrorist organization (and other culpable regime members) go on book tours and are paid large fees to speak at events.
Via: CBS:
Ousted Gov. Rod Blagojevich was sentenced to 14 years in prison on Wednesday, after apologizing for making “terrible mistakes,” capping a nearly three-year saga for Illinois.
The sentence is the longest ever handed down to a convicted Illinois governor and one of the longest for any political corruption case in state history.
“His abuse of the office of governor is more damaging than the abuse of any other office in the United States except president,” U.S. District Judge James Zagel said in announcing Blagojevich’s sentence for 18 corruption charges, including his attempt to sell or trade an appointment to the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President Barack Obama.
“When a state senator takes a bribe, that’s one person out of 59. … You are not to be compared with those who hold lesser positions in government. You, as a governor are seen to control all of them, though I concede in practice you don’t,” Zagel added. “When it is the governor who goes bad, the fabric of Illinois is torn and disfigured and not easily or quickly repaired.”
Deutsche Bank CEO Target of Suspected Letter Bomb
December 8th, 2011I don’t know how, or even if, this fits in at all, but remember this little tidbit from my 2006 piece about the Wall Street Chop Shop:
I handled some issues for the secondary marketing department, even, would you believe, for the person who pulled the trigger on these paper dumps at the end of the month.
“Who buys this stuff?” I asked.
“Oh lots and lots of people. Well, banks and insurance companies mostly. [Large European Bank name deleted] buys a lot of it.”
I wonder if [Large European Bank name deleted] knew what I knew or cared about how those loans were generated. (Of course, they knew and didn’t care. They’ll sell this toilet paper debt to some other sucker down the line.)
Ok, [Large European Bank name deleted] was Deutsche Bank.
I’m not sure if we know how many hot potatoes they got stuck with when the shit hit the fan. I just think it’s an interesting coincidence that the CEO of the bank that was buying a lot of the toxic waste that the “Chop Shop” was generating just happened to receive a letter bomb.
Maybe Deutsche Bank sold some of those hot, steaming “Chop Shop” securities to another party who wasn’t too pleased with the result. In, Unloading Toxic Waste Mortgage Backed Securities: “We Americans Were Very Clever,” I wrote:
At some point, this thing is going to start looking less like a financial crisis and more like a mob war.
Questions, questions…
Via: CNBC:
The New York Police Department alerted Wall Street after confirmation that a letter bomb was sent to the CEO of Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt, Germany.
“NYPD learned that a letter bomb was detected by x-ray equipment in the bank’s mail room this morning, 1 p.m. Frankfurt time. We stepped up security at Deutsche Bank offices in New York and reminded — out of an abundance of caution — our 10,000 private security “Shield” members to follow guidelines for the detection and handling of suspicious packages and letters,” said Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne, NYPD.
German police are investigating the suspicious envelope, addressed to chief executive Josef Ackermann at Deutsche Bank, Germany’s largest bank.
“The explosive device in Frankfurt contained shrapnel. It did not detonate,” confirmed Commissioner Browne.
In New York, a spokesman from the bank confirmed the news: “Today Deutsche Bank received a suspect package addressed to Dr. Ackermann. The relevant unit of the bank informed the police in Frankfurt. The police have undertaken an investigation.”
Frankfurt police spokesman Alexander Kiessling said: “There was a piece of mail that arrived at Deutsche Bank that was noticed. It was noticed because it seemed unusual.”
Ackermann is the face of capitalism in Germany and is one of the few senior managers in the country who is always surrounded by bodyguards.
He is due to retire in May next year after more than 10 years at the helm of the bank.
A U.S. law enforcement official told Reuters that the package carried a return address from the European Central Bank, which is also located in Germany’s financial centre.
Banking sources said the bank had stepped up security measures around the world.
ATF Wanted to Use “Fast and Furious” to Justify More Gun Control Legislation
December 8th, 2011This is absolutely incredible.
Via: CBS:
Documents obtained by CBS News show that the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) discussed using their covert operation “Fast and Furious” to argue for controversial new rules about gun sales.
In Fast and Furious, ATF secretly encouraged gun dealers to sell to suspected traffickers for Mexican drug cartels to go after the “big fish.” But ATF whistleblowers told CBS News and Congress it was a dangerous practice called “gunwalking,” and it put thousands of weapons on the street. Many were used in violent crimes in Mexico. Two were found at the murder scene of a U.S. Border Patrol agent.
ATF officials didn’t intend to publicly disclose their own role in letting Mexican cartels obtain the weapons, but emails show they discussed using the sales, including sales encouraged by ATF, to justify a new gun regulation called “Demand Letter 3”. That would require some U.S. gun shops to report the sale of multiple rifles or “long guns.” Demand Letter 3 was so named because it would be the third ATF program demanding gun dealers report tracing information.
On July 14, 2010 after ATF headquarters in Washington D.C. received an update on Fast and Furious, ATF Field Ops Assistant Director Mark Chait emailed Bill Newell, ATF’s Phoenix Special Agent in Charge of Fast and Furious:
“Bill – can you see if these guns were all purchased from the same (licensed gun dealer) and at one time. We are looking at anecdotal cases to support a demand letter on long gun multiple sales. Thanks.”
Afghani$cam: $400-a-Gallon Gasoline
December 7th, 2011Via: Wall Street Journal:
Parachuting a barrel of fuel to a remote Afghan base takes sharp flying skills, steady nerves and flawless timing.
It also costs a lot of money—up to $400 a gallon, by military estimates.
But the Pentagon is stuck with the expense for the foreseeable future, especially given the recent deterioration in U.S.-Pakistani relations.
“We’re going to burn a lot of gas to drop a lot of gas,” said Capt. Zack Albaugh, a California Air National Guard pilot deployed with the 774th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron. He spoke just before a recent mission to supply a remote base near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, scene of cross-border rocket attacks that have heightened regional tensions this fall.
Class of Homebuyers Claims BofA Found a New Dirty Trick
December 7th, 2011This one will take your breath away.
Via: Courthouse New Service:
Bank of America found a new way to illegally extract money from customers, according to a federal class action: deduct taxes and insurance from mortgage payments, even though the homebuyers make those payments themselves, then call the mortgage in default for the unauthorized deductions, and charge late fees and penalties.
Lead plaintiffs Rick and Susan Dolfo say that’s what Bank of America did to them.
“This is yet another tale of Bank of America cheating its customers,” the complaint states. “In 2005, plaintiffs obtained a residential mortgage loan. Bank of America subsequently bought the servicing rights to the loan. From the time the loan was issued, plaintiffs complied with their obligations under the loan agreement. They made their monthly payments, maintained the required homeowner’s insurance coverage and timely paid their property taxes. Nonetheless, in December 2009, plaintiffs noticed on their monthly mortgage statement that Bank of America paid their property taxes and homeowner’s insurance without the plaintiffs’ knowledge or consent, and even though plaintiffs also paid them. To fund the impound account, and without informing the plaintiffs, Bank of America took money from plaintiffs’ monthly mortgage payment, not leaving enough to cover plaintiffs’ monthly mortgage payment, throwing plaintiffs into default. Once in default, Bank of America, as the loan servicer, was ale to charge additional fees and penalties. Bank of America also falsely reported to credit agencies that plaintiffs were in default on their mortgage.”
U.S. Air Force Funds SETI, Will Investigate Using Radio Telescope Array to Detect and Track Orbiting Space Objects
December 7th, 2011Via: SETI Institute:
The Allen Telescope Array (ATA) is once again searching planetary systems for signals that would be evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence. Among its first targets are some of the exoplanet candidates recently discovered by NASA’s Kepler space telescope.
“This is a superb opportunity for SETI observations,” said Jill Tarter, the Director of the Center for SETI Research at the SETI Institute. “For the first time, we can point our telescopes at stars, and know that those stars actually host planetary systems – including at least one that begins to approximate an Earth analog in the habitable zone around its host star. That’s the type of world that might be home to a civilization capable of building radio transmitters.”
The ATA had been placed in hibernation mode last April as the result of the withdrawal of the SETI Institute’s former partner, U.C. Berkeley, due to budgetary shortfalls.
…
The restart of SETI work at the ATA has been made possible thanks to the interest and generosity of the public who supported SETI research via the www.SETIStars.org web site. Additional funds necessary for observatory re-activation and operations are being provided by the United States Air Force as part of a formal assessment of the instrument’s utility for Space Situational Awareness (see www.seti.org/afspc for more information).
Harnessing Desert Sun to Power Europe
December 7th, 2011Is it just a coincidence that several of the countries that will be supplying Europe with power derived from the sun are experiencing regime change and riots?
Via: BBC:
It is a beguiling idea – harvest sunshine, and a little wind, from the empty deserts of North Africa and the Middle East, and use it to produce clean power for the region and for Europe.
Desertec, a group based in Germany with heavyweight commercial backers including Siemens and Deutsche Bank, says the scheme would also bring the regions around the Mediterranean closer together, while providing jobs and stability for the countries in the south.
It has chosen Morocco, which is embarking on its own ambitious solar programme, for its first “reference” project – a plant meant to show that its grand vision is feasible.
Desertec expects to see the first electricity flowing through undersea cables from Morocco to Spain as early as 2014.
