The Secret Story Behind Obama’s Assassination of Two Americans in Yemen
April 24th, 2013Via: Democracy Now:
The Obama administration’s assassination of two U.S. citizens in 2011, Anwar al-Awlaki and his 16-year-old Denver-born son Abdulrahman, is a central part of Jeremy Scahill’s new book, “Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield.” The book is based on years of reporting on U.S. secret operations in Yemen, Somalia and Afghanistan. While the Obama administration has defended the killing of Anwar, it has never publicly explained why Abdulrahman was targeted in a separate drone strike two weeks later. Scahill reveals CIA Director John Brennan, Obama’s former senior adviser on counterterrorism and homeland security, suspected that the teenager had been killed “intentionally.” “The idea that you can simply have one branch of government unilaterally and in secret declare that an American citizen should be executed or assassinated without having to present any evidence whatsoever, to me, is a — we should view that with great sobriety about the implications for our country,” says Scahill, national security correspondent for The Nation magazine. Today the U.S. Senate is preparing to hold its first-ever hearing on the Obama administration’s drone and targeted killing program. However, the Obama administration is refusing to send a witness to answer questions about the program’s legality.
Research Credit: ottilie
Chambliss: Law Enforcement Agency May Have Known About Boston Bombing in Advance
April 24th, 2013Shocker.
Via: WSBTV:
Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss told Channel 2 Action News late Tuesday afternoon that a law enforcement agency may have had information in advance of the Boston bombings that wasn’t properly shared.
“There now appears that may have been some evidence that was obtained by one of the law enforcement agencies that did not get shared in a way that it could have been. If that turns out to be the case, then we have to determine whether or not that would have made a difference,” Chambliss said.
Though Chambliss would not get into specifics on the information or whether or not the bombing could have been prevented, he told Channel 2 Action News that they will find out if someone dropped the ball.
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Boston Bombing Suspect Put on Terrorist Watch List at CIA Request
Hackers Compromise AP Twitter Account
April 23rd, 2013Via: AP:
Hackers have compromised the main Twitter account of The Associated Press, sending out an erroneous tweet about an attack at the White House.
The tweet, which said that there had been two explosions at the White House and President Barack Obama was injured, came after hackers made repeated attempts to steal the passwords of AP journalists.
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The tweet put out by hackers briefly sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average sharply lower.
More: We Wanted Flying Cars, Instead We Got 140 Characters Crashing the Markets
After U.S. Troops Leave, Armed Drones Will Patrol Afghanistan’s Opium Poppy Farms Skies
April 23rd, 2013
Via: Wired:
One of the major elements of Afghanistan’s air war will remain after most U.S. troops have headed home, the U.S. military command confirmed today. Armed drones, operated by the U.S., will remain over Afghanistan after 2014.
“I come back to the remotely piloted aircraft,” Air Force Maj. Gen. H.D. Polumbo, the commander of the U.S./NATO air war over Afghanistan, told reporters at the Pentagon today. “They can collect intelligence, but they also are armed. And they’re armed to be able to provide force protection to our coalition forces and then when our coalition ground force commanders, when they deem it appropriate, they can control that air-delivered munition capability from the RPAs to be put in support of the Afghans.”
Canada: Alleged ‘al-Qaeda-supported’ Plot Against Via Train Thwarted
April 23rd, 2013Via: CBC:
Police say they have arrested two men accused of conspiring to carry out an “al-Qaeda supported” attack targeting a Via passenger train in the Greater Toronto Area, following a cross-border investigation that involved Canadian and American law enforcement.
In a press conference that followed a report by CBC’s Greg Weston, police named the two accused as Chiheb Esseghaier, 30, of Montreal, and Raed Jaser, 35, from Toronto. They have been charged with conspiracy to carry out a terrorist attack and “conspiring to murder persons unknown for the benefit of, at the direction of, or in association with a terrorist group.”
Viruses From Sewage Contaminate Deep Well Water
April 23rd, 2013Via: Chemical & Engineering News:
Scientists once thought that pathogens could not reach drinking water wells sunk into deep, protected groundwater aquifers. Nevertheless, over the past decade, researchers have identified diarrhea-causing viruses at a handful of deep bedrock well sites in the U.S. and Europe. Now, researchers in Madison, Wis., report where these pathogenic viruses may have originated. The viruses appear to seep from sewer pipes and then swiftly penetrate drinking water wells (Environ. Sci. Technol., DOI: 10.1021/es400509b).
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency does not regulate the presence of viruses in drinking water, so many public water systems do not routinely test for them. In a 2007 study, a team of researchers, including Mark Borchardt, a microbiologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and Kenneth Bradbury, a hydrogeologist at the University of Wisconsin-Extension, in Madison, investigated the integrity of aquifers confined beneath a thick layer of clay or shale (Environ. Sci. Technol., DOI: 10.1021/es071110+). Groundwater models predicted that surface contaminants would require tens to hundreds of years to reach wells in these aquifers, which typically sit more than 700 feet underground. Even if pathogens did find their way to the groundwater, they should be dead after that amount of time. “But we were shocked to find human-specific viruses—some of which were still infectious—in every well we sampled in Madison,” Bradbury says.
Filmmaker Claims CIA Kept Innocent Man Jailed to Cover Up Drug Trafficking
April 23rd, 2013Via: Wired:
“This is a story about an extreme miscarriage of justice. It involves the CIA, the US Army and a shitload of cocaine.”
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In 1980 the courts alleged that Elaine Tyree’s murder was financially motivated — Tyree, stationed at Fort Devens, had taken out life insurance policies in the months preceding his wife’s death. An affidavit allegedly penned a few months later by Colonel Edward Cutolo — in command at Fort Devens — recounts a far more sinister motive. It details his, Tyree’s, and CIA and Army personnel’s involvement in and knowledge of Special Forces missions enabling the transportation of cocaine from Colombia to Panama’s Albrook Army Airfield to help in the funding of, among other things, Manuel Noriega’s apparent fight against communism. It also recounts details of surveillance at Tyree’s home that would have exonerated the private.
Bloomberg Says Interpretation of Constitution Will ‘Have to Change’ After Boston Bombing
April 23rd, 2013Yeah, the President should have the power to order the assassination of any American without any due process.
Oh…
Via: Politicker:
In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Monday the country’s interpretation of the Constitution will “have to change” to allow for greater security to stave off future attacks.
“The people who are worried about privacy have a legitimate worry,” Mr. Bloomberg said during a press conference in Midtown. “But we live in a complex word where you’re going to have to have a level of security greater than you did back in the olden days, if you will. And our laws and our interpretation of the Constitution, I think, have to change.”
Mr. Bloomberg, who has come under fire for the N.Y.P.D.’s monitoring of Muslim communities and other aggressive tactics, said the rest of the country needs to learn from the attacks.
“Look, we live in a very dangerous world. We know there are people who want to take away our freedoms. New Yorkers probably know that as much if not more than anybody else after the terrible tragedy of 9/11,” he said.
“We have to understand that in the world going forward, we’re going to have more cameras and that kind of stuff. That’s good in some sense, but it’s different from what we are used to,” he said.
Boston: Video Clips of Martial Law
April 22nd, 2013All of this was over one suspect on the loose. What if the body count had been dozens or hundreds with multiple suspects at large? Or, what if the suspect hadn’t been taken into custody as quickly?
Anyway, this was just an appetizer. History is full of examples of what the main course will be like.
Research Credit: RP and conceptualdecay
Merkel: Euro Members Must be Prepared to Cede Sovereignty
April 22nd, 2013Via: Reuters:
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday that euro zone members must be prepared to cede control over certain policy domains to European institutions if the bloc is truly to overcome its debt crisis and win back foreign investors.
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“We seem to find common solutions when we are staring over the abyss,” Merkel said. “But as soon as the pressure eases, people say they want to go their own way.
