cryptogon.com

In what could be the start of an increased role in Britain for the Geneva-based charity best known for its work in disaster zones, its volunteers will be mobilised to go into supermarkets across the country at the end of November and ask shoppers to donate dry goods. The British Red Cross will then help FareShare, a charity working with the Trussell Trust and Tesco, distribute the packets and tins to food banks nationwide.

Both the U.S. Army and the U.S. Marines have tested prototypes of weaponized robots on the battlefield. However, armed robots are not currently in the Army’s inventory of weapons.

Army leaders got a look at what technology is available for the battlefield during a robotic live-fire demonstration at Fort Benning, Ga., this week.

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“We were hoping to see how they remotely control lethal weapons,” said Lt. Col. Willie Smith, chief of Unmanned Ground Vehicles at Fort Benning. “We were pleased with what we saw here. The technology is getting to be where it needs to be. It’s a start.”

Come tomorrow, thousands of parts of military aircraft, such as propeller blades, brake pads and tires will be able to be sent to almost any country in the world, with minimal oversight – even to some countries subject to U.N. arms embargos. U.S. companies will also face fewer checks than in the past when selling some military aircraft to dozens of countries.

Critics, including some who’ve worked on enforcing arms export laws, say the changes could undermine efforts to prevent arms smuggling to Iran and others.

Brake pads may sound innocuous, but “the Iranians are constantly looking for spare parts for old U.S. jets,” said Steven Pelak, who recently left the Department of Justice after six years overseeing investigations and prosecutions of export violations.

“It’s going to be easier for these military items to flow, harder to get a heads-up on their movements, and, in theory, easier for a smuggling ring to move weapons,” said William Hartung, author of a recent report on the topic for the Center for International Policy.

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Under the new system, whole categories of equipment encompassing tens of thousands of items will move to the Commerce Department, where they will be under more “flexible” controls. Final rules have been issued for six of 19 categories of equipment and more will roll out in the coming months. Some military equipment, such as fighter jets, drones, and other systems and parts, will stay under the State Department’s tighter oversight.

Commerce will do interagency human rights reviews before allowing exports, but only as a matter of policy, whereas in the State Department it is required by law.

The switch from State to Commerce represents a big win for defense manufacturers, who have long lobbied in favor of relaxing U.S. export rules, which they say put a damper on international trade. Among the companies that recently lobbied on the issue: Lockheed, which manufactures C-130 transport planes, Textron, which makes Kiowa Warrior helicopters, and Honeywell, which outfits military choppers.

But Vladimir G. Naperkovsky is not one of them. He watched with a cold, blue-eyed stare as the train passed the town where he was born, with its pitted roads and crumbling buildings. At 52, having shut down his small computer repair business, Mr. Naperkovsky is leaving for another region in Russia, hoping it is not too late to start a new life in a more prosperous place. The reasons are many, but his view boils down to this: “Gradually,” he said, explaining his view of Lyuban, “everything is rotting.”

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As the state’s hand recedes from the hinterlands, people are struggling with choices that belong to past centuries: to heat their homes with a wood stove, which must be fed by hand every three hours, or burn diesel fuel, which costs half a month’s salary? When the road has so deteriorated that ambulances cannot reach their home, is it safe to stay? When their home can’t be sold, can they leave?

Clad in rubber slippers, his forearms sprinkled with tattoos, Mr. Naperkovsky is the kind of plain-spoken man’s man whom Russians would call a “muzhik.” He had something he wanted to pass on to Mr. Putin, who has led Russia during 13 years of political stability and economic expansion.

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The cipher order on the vast majority of Android devices was defined by Sun in 2002 and taken over into the Android project in 2010 as an attempt to improve compatibility. RC4 is considered problematic since 2001 (remember WEP?), MD5 was broken in 2009.

The chaos that followed ultimately required intervention from local police, and left behind numerous carts filled to overflowing, apparently abandoned when the glitch-spurred shopping frenzy ended.

Springhill Police Chief Will Lynd confirms they were called in to help the employees at Walmart because there were so many people clearing off the shelves. He says Walmart was so packed, “It was worse than any black Friday” that he’s ever seen.

Lynd explained the cards weren’t showing limits and they called corporate Walmart, whose spokesman said to let the people use the cards anyway. From 7 to 9 p.m., people were loading up their carts, but when the cards began showing limits again around 9, one woman was detained because she rang up a bill of $700.00 and only had .49 on her card. She was held by police until corporate Walmart said they wouldn’t press charges if she left the food.

Lynd says at 9 p.m., when the cards came back online and it was announced over the loud speaker, people just left their carts full of food in the aisles and left.

The collection program, which has not been disclosed before, intercepts e-mail address books and “buddy lists” from instant messaging services as they move across global data links. Online services often transmit those contacts when a user logs on, composes a message, or synchronizes a computer or mobile device with information stored on remote servers.

In a report published by The Lancet at the weekend, the team provide scientific details to media statements made in 2012 that they had found polonium on Arafat’s belongings.

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“Several samples containing body fluid stains (blood and urine) contained higher unexplained polonium 210 activities than the reference samples,” says the case report.

“These findings support the possibility of Arafat’s poisoning with polonium 210.”

The polonium samples were measured at “several mBq,” or millibecquerels, a unit of radioactivity.

“Our intelligence agencies were working under the cover of DFS. And as I said it before, unfortunately, DFS agents at that time were also in charge of protecting the drug lords and their monies,” said Berrellez.

“In (Camarena’s) interrogation room, I was told by Mexican authorities, that CIA operatives were in there. Actually conducting the interrogation. Actually taping Kiki.”

Eventually, the prosecution did obtain tapes of Camarena’s torture and murder.

“The CIA was the source. They gave them to us,” said Berrellez. “Obviously, they were there. Or at least some of their contract workers were there.”

On Thursday night, a CIA Spokesman told Fox News that “it’s ridiculous to suggest that the CIA had anything to do with the murder of a U.S. federal agent or the escape of his killer.”

Berrellez says two informants from the Mexican state police, who witnessed Camarena’s torture, independently and positively identified a photo of one man, a Cuban, who worked as a CIA operative who helped run guns and drugs for the Contras.

Tosh Plumlee claims he was hired to fly covert missions on behalf of U.S. intelligence. He says he flew C-130s in and out of Quintero’s ranch and airports throughout Central America in the 1980s.

“The United States government played both ends against the middle. We were running guns. We were running drugs. We were using the drug money to finance the gun running operation,” says Plumlee, who now works in Colorado.

Plumlee flew for SETCO, which according to a CIA Inspector General’s report delivered “military supplies to Contra forces inside Nicaragua.”

In 1998, CIA Inspector General Fred Hitz told Congress he “found no evidence…of any conspiracy by CIA or its employees to bring drugs into the United States. However, it worked with a variety of …assets (and) pilots who ferried supplies to the Contras, who were alleged to have engaged in drug trafficking activity.”

Hitz said the “CIA had an operational interest” in the Contras. And while aware the rebels were trading “arms-for-drugs” the CIA “did nothing to stop it.”

Plumlee puts it more directly.

“You want me to say this on camera? Alright. Those entities were cut outs financed and operated by the Central Intelligence Agency,” he said. “Our operations were sanctioned by the federal government, controlled out of the Pentagon. The CIA acted in some cases as our logistical support team.”

In the past the CIA has insisted, it was not involved supplying or helping the Contras.

However, all three men, say it was an American pilot – who worked for the CIA as well as the Contras and drug cartels – who flew Quintero to freedom from Guadalajara.

“You have the CIA employees,which are your badge, carrying CIA personnel and then you have all of these subcontract employees that work with these intelligence agencies,” Berrellez explains. “Some of them are pilots, some of them run boats, but they are contract employees. Now, the pilot that flew Caro Quintero to Costa Rica was a contract employee.”

“Absolutely,” agreed Jordan. “That’s a fact.”

“That’s absolutely right,” added Plumlee.

Plumlee says the pilot now lives in New Mexico and regrets that flight.

Quintero’s escape was short-lived. After significant pressure from the Reagan administration, including shutting down the border, in April 1985 the Mexicans nabbed Quintero in Costa Rica and brought him back to stand trial.