Nato Contractors Attacking Own Vehicles in Pakistan
October 9th, 2010Via: BBC:
Nato supply convoys travelling through Pakistan to Afghanistan have regularly come under attack in the past, but following Pakistan’s decision to block their route through the Khyber Pass, they now face an even bigger security threat.
Hundreds of tankers and trucks have been left stranded on highways and depots across Pakistan, with little or no security.
Taliban militants have regularly been targeting the convoys, even when they are heavily protected.
But many believe it is not just the militants who pose a security threat to the convoys.
The owners of oil tankers being used to supply fuel to Nato in Afghanistan say some of the attacks on their convoys are suspicious.
They say there is evidence to suggest that bombs have been planted in many of vehicles by the “Nato contractors” – individuals or companies who have been contracted by Nato to supply fuel and goods to forces in Afghanistan.
The contractors subsequently hire the transporters who then carry the goods.
Research Credit: dt
Bank of America Halts Foreclosures in All States
October 8th, 2010See: MERS/MBS/Foreclosure Goes RICO
Via: Bloomberg:
Bank of America Corp., the biggest U.S. lender, will halt foreclosures in all 50 U.S. states to determine whether documents used to seize homes from people had the correct data.
“We will stop foreclosure sales until our assessment has been satisfactorily completed,” the Charlotte, North Carolina- based company said today in a statement. “Our ongoing assessment shows the basis for foreclosure decisions is accurate.”
Bank of America already froze foreclosures this month in the 23 states where courts supervise home seizures. The new policy extends the moratorium to the entire nation. Banks are being pressed by state officials to halt foreclosures amid allegations that employees used unverified or false data to speed the process. Attorneys general in Ohio and Connecticut have said the practices may amount to fraud.
Obama “Town Hall Meeting” Casting Call
October 8th, 2010Via: Backstage:
PRESIDENT OBAMA TOWN HALL, DC MTV, BET, and CMT (prods.) are casting the audience for a town hall meeting with President Obama. Shooting Oct. 14 at 4 p.m. in Washington, DC. Seeking—Audience Members: males and females, 18+. To apply, email townhallaudience@mtvnmix.com and put “Town Hall” in the subject line. To ensure that the audience represents diverse interests and political views, include your name, phone number, hometown, school attending, your job and what issues, if any, you are …[more]
Caught Spying on Student, FBI Demands GPS Tracker Back
October 8th, 2010“Me and my friend went to the mechanic today and we found this on his car.”
Via: Wired:
A California student got a visit from the FBI this week after he found a secret GPS tracking device on his car, and a friend posted photos of it online. The post prompted wide speculation about whether the device was real, whether the young Arab-American was being targeted in a terrorism investigation and what the authorities would do.
It took just 48 hours to find out: The device was real, the student was being secretly tracked and the FBI wanted their expensive device back, the student told Wired.com in an interview Wednesday.
The answer came when half-a-dozen FBI agents and police officers appeared at Yasir Afifi’s apartment complex in Santa Clara, California, on Tuesday demanding he return the device.
Big Picture Gallery: A Flood of Toxic Sludge
October 7th, 2010Via: Boston Globe / Big Picture:
On Monday, October 4th, a large reservoir filled with toxic red sludge in western Hungary ruptured, releasing approximately 700,000 cubic meters (185 million gallons) of stinking caustic mud, which killed many animals, at least four people, and injured over 120 – many with chemical burns. The 12-foot-high flood of sludge inundated several towns, sweeping cars off the road as it flowed into the nearby Marcal River. Emergency workers rushed to pour 1,000 tons of plaster into the Marcal River in an attempt to bind the sludge and keep it from flowing on to the Danube some 45 miles away. The red sludge in the reservoir is a byproduct of refining bauxite into alumina, which took place at an alumina plant run by the Hungarian Alumina Production and Trading Company. A criminal probe has just been opened by Hungarian authorities.
California: State Cancels Access to Welfare Benefits on Cruise Ships and Casinos
October 7th, 2010I should have a California category to complete with Florida.
Via: Los Angeles Times:
California officials are cutting off use of state-issued welfare debit cards at casinos across the country and on cruise ships, in the wake of Times reports that the aid cards have been used to spend or withdraw millions of dollars in benefits at popular vacation spots including the Las Vegas strip and on ships sailing from ports around the world.
More than $69 million meant to help the needy pay their rent and clothe their children was accessed in all 49 other states, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam, according to data obtained by The Times from the California Department of Social Services.
The department instructed the vendor that administers the debit card program to make the changes Monday afternoon, in response to a report in The Times’ Monday edition.
Research Credit: valix
UK Home Prices Plunged Record 3.6% in September
October 7th, 2010Via: Bloomberg:
U.K. house prices plunged in September by the most since at least 1983, adding to evidence that the housing market faces a renewed slump as the government readies the biggest spending cuts since World War II.
The average cost of a home fell 3.6 percent from August to 162,096 pounds ($258,000), Halifax said in an e-mailed statement today. That’s the biggest drop since the mortgage lending division of Lloyds Banking Group Plc began its housing gauge in 1983. Property values were 0.7 percent lower than the same month a year earlier.
Cryptogon Readers Send Contributions in October
October 7th, 2010Thank you.
Pookie $75
areyoutargeted.com $75
AN $25
MW $20
CS £15
9/11: Firemen Explosion Testimony
October 7th, 2010The video below is from the NIST data dump that the International Center for 9/11 Studies obtained through FOIA. The files are now available as a torrent. (Since I’m in New Zealand, there’s no way for me to download an 86GB torrent, but most of you aren’t dealing with small-remote-island Internet issues like me.) There are likely to be more interesting releases soon as people wade through the material.
See: International Center for 9/11 Studies – NIST Cumulus Video Database Released
Via: IC911STUDIES YouTube Channel:
White House Blocked Government Scientists from Warning American Public of the Potential Environmental Disaster Caused by BP Oil Spill
October 7th, 2010See floridaoilspilllaw.com for full time coverage of the ongoing disaster in the region.
Via: Guardian:
The White House blocked government scientists from warning the American public of the potential environmental disaster caused by BP’s broken well in the Gulf of Mexico, a report released by the national commission investigating the oil spill said yesterday.
The report, produced by a panel appointed by Barack Obama to investigate the spill, said that about two weeks after the BP rig exploded scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) asked the White House for permission to release their models showing their worst case scenarios for the spill.
The White House office of management and budget, which is a traditional clearing house for decisions, turned down the request, the report said, quoting interviews with administration officials.
The report, one of four released today by the commission, provides the most compelling evidence to date of direct attempts by the White House to spin the BP oil spill disaster.
The White House disputed the commission’s findings. “Senior government officials were clear with the public what the worst-case flow rate could be,” the acting director of the OMB, Jeffrey Zients and the NOAA adminstrator, Jane Lubchenco, said in a statement.
The commission report does not explore why the White House sought to block the worst-case scenarios for the spill.
The report amplifies scathing criticism last week by the commission’s co-chairs, Bob Graham and William Reilly, of the Obama administration’s handling of the disaster.
It goes on to catalogue other lapses by the administration, including repeated underestimates of the size of the spill, and downplaying the environmental damage after the BP well was capped.
The report found particular fault with the White House energy adviser, Carol Browner, who appeared on television on 4 August and said: “The vast majority of oil was gone.”
It said Browner was overstating the findings of a NOAA analysis of the fate of the oil.
“By initially underestimating the amount of oil flow and then, at the end of the summer, appearing to underestimate the amount of oil remaining in the Gulf, the federal government created the impression that it was either not fully competent to handle the spill or not fully candid with the American people about the scope of the problem,” the report said.
The documents for the first time put the White House at the centre of the long running dispute between the administration and independent scientists about how much oil was discharged into the Gulf, and how much remains in the water.
At first, BP claimed the well was leaking 1,000 barrels a day. By early May, the administration had revised its estimate upwards to 5,000 barrels a day, but based its assessment on the work of a single NOAA scientist using “overly casual” analysis of satellite images of oil on the surface of the ocean.
The administration clung to that estimate – which turned out to be 12 times lower than the actual spill size – despite known inaccuracies in the scientists’ work, the report said.
It went on: “Loss of the public trust during a disaster is not an incidental public relations problem.”
