Nearly $6 Billion Belonging To Dead Libyan Dictator Gaddafi Has Gone Missing
October 31st, 2018Via: ZeroHedge:
Nearly nine months after Politico first reported that interest payments stemming from nearly $70 billion in frozen assets formerly belonging to the regime of deceased Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi had been paid to opaque accounts belonging to the Libyan Investment Authority, UN investigators are finally looking into where the money went. At last count, RT reported that interest payments generated by the assets had reached $5.7 billion. According to public broadcaster RTBF, which cited anonymous sources familiar with the money flows, the money may have gone to accounts controlled by Libyan militia groups that have been accused of human rights abuses.
U.S. Intel Budget Soars Under Trump
October 31st, 2018Draining the swamp?
Via: AFP:
US spending on intelligence has soared under President Donald Trump, figures released on Tuesday showed, as the government stepped up cyber warfare activities and boosted spying on North Korea, China and Russia.
Spending on civilian and military intelligence jumped by 11.6 percent to $81.5 billion in fiscal 2018, which ended on September 30, according to the Department of Defense and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Spending for the National Intelligence Program, which spans some 16 agencies including the Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, some defense operations and reconnaissance from space, rose to $59.4 billion from $54.6 billion in fiscal 2017.
The Military Intelligence Budget came in at $22.1 billion, up from $18.4 billion in fiscal 2017.
The Trump administration has sharply increased both military and intelligence outlays, spending more on personnel, equipment and operations.
Under Trump, the CIA has resumed paramilitary actions like drone strikes in conflict zones, and also expanded investments into human intelligence.
More Robots to Hit the Aisles at Schnucks Grocery Stores in St. Louis Area
October 30th, 2018Via: St. Louis Post Dispatch:
In at least 15 Schnuck Markets stores, the future is now.
Aisle-scanning retail inventory robots, known as Tally, will soon be wheeling around in a growing number of locations as the St. Louis area’s leading grocer expands its partnership with San Francisco firm Simbe Robotics.
The robot, which moves around on a Roomba-looking base, uses cameras and sensors to perform inventory checks and alert employees when an item needs restocking or if price tags don’t match advertisements.
Waymo Autonomous Cars Coming to California
October 30th, 2018Via: Wired:
The driverless cars cometh. Waymo just became the first company allowed to test fully self-driving cars—the kind with no carbon-based beings behind the wheel—in the state of California.
The outfit that started life as Google’s self-driving car project has been running driver-free cars in Arizona for almost a year, where the state testing rules are far more lax than in California, and where it plans to launch a commercial robo-taxi service by the end of the year. But securing the right to do the same in its home state is still a milestone, and evidence it can win over even comparatively wary regulators to the way of the robot.
To begin, the truly driverless cars will test only at up to 65 mph in the southern Bay Area, in Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, and Palo Alto. (Waymo and its parent company Alphabet are headquartered in Mountain View.) The company said it will inform local governments before expanding its tests any further. And though Waymo has clearly stated its intention to run its own driverless taxi service, the company’s first driver-free passengers will only be employees. Waymo did not say when it will open its cars to the wider California public.
U.S. to Deploy Over 5,200 Troops to Mexico Border
October 29th, 2018Via: Reuters:
The U.S. military will deploy over 5,200 troops, including armed soldiers, to bolster President Donald Trump’s efforts to secure the border with Mexico as a caravan of migrants treks toward the frontier, a senior U.S. general said on Monday.
General Terrence O’Shaughnessy, the head of U.S. Northern Command, said 800 U.S. troops were already en route to the Texas border and 5,200 would be headed to the southwest region by week’s end, far higher than the 800 to 1,000 initially forecast.
January 2018: Pittsburgh and Allegheny County Police and FBI Held Active Shooter Drill at Jewish Community Center (Blocks Away from Tree of Life Synagogue), Right Around the Time Bowers Joined Gab
October 28th, 2018January 2018: Active-Shooter Drill Planned at Squirrel Hill Community Center
Via: WPXI:
Updated: Jan 25, 2018 – 6:50 PM
Local and federal law enforcement will conduct an active-shooter drill Thursday night at a Pittsburgh community center.
Pittsburgh and Allegheny County police, as well as FBI personnel, will stage the scene at the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill from 8 p.m. to midnight.
“These exercises help the community, first responders and other officials know what to expect and how to react to a major situation,” said Pittsburgh Public Safety Director Wendell Hissrich. “The exercise also provides an opportunity to enhance the emergency plan as needed.”
The public will see a large law enforcement presence at the center near the intersection of Forbes and Murray avenues. During the drill, Darlington Road will be closed from St. Edmund’s Way to Murray.
The drill will include apprehending a shooter, evacuations and treating victims on the scene. At least 50 volunteers from Squirrel Hill and the Jewish Community Center staff will participate in the exercise.
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Robert Bowers: Pittsburgh Shooting Suspect Was Avid Poster of Anti-Semitic Content on Gab
Via: CBS:
Screenshots from Bowers’ Gabe profile are still archived. Bowers joined Gab in January 2018, according to his profile, which said at the top of the page: “jews are the children of satan.”
More: @Roosh
Claim: Khashoggi Was Going to Expose Saudi Use of Chemical Weapons in Yemen
October 28th, 2018Via: Express:
Last night a close friend of Mr Khashoggi revealed that he was about to obtain “documentary evidence” proving clams that Saudi Arabia had used chemical weapons in its proxy war in Yemen.
“I met him a week before his death. He was unhappy and he was worried,“ said the middle eastern academic, who did not wish to be named.
“When I asked him why he was worried, he didn’t really want to reply, but eventually he told me he was getting proof that Saudi Arabia had used chemical weapons. He said he hoped he be getting documentary evidence.
“All I can tell you is that the next thing I heard, he was missing.”
Department of Homeland Security Ran Safety Drills at Tree of Life Synagogue
October 27th, 2018What was Bowers’ work history? I can only find one reference to him working as a truck driver, “Bowers told Mr. Hall’s fiance that he worked as a trucker.”
Via: Heavy:
The synagogue’s former president Michael Eisenberg said that while he was president, he had the Department of Homeland Security come to Tree of Life. Eisenberg told the Post Gazette the agency ran safety drills. Eisenberg added, “We had to step it up as far as security, although there had been no threats. The building isn’t designed for today as far as security purposes.” Eisenberg went on to tell CBS Pittsburgh that a maintenance worker who escaped was able to do so because of the DHS’ work. Eisenberg said, “He was able to get out of the building… because the exit doors were working well. I just can’t tell you how thankful I am just to do that one task that Homeland Security told us to do.”
Rise of the Machines: Automation Reshapes Job Market
October 27th, 2018Via: Daily Republic:
Looking at a map of California on a projector screen, Johannes Moenius, an economics professor at the University of Redlands, hovered his mouse over the Inland Empire, which glowed with a splotch of red pixels.
The colored dots signified how susceptible an area would be to job losses caused by automation. And the alarm-bell red that covered Riverside, San Bernardino and Ontario signaled high risk — roughly 63 percent of tasks performed by workers in the area could be automated in the future.
To Moenius, the rise of robots in warehouses, factories and fast-food restaurants presents danger for places like the Inland Empire, where most residents work in logistics and the service industry and just 21 percent of adults have four-year degrees. As technology transforms the nature of work in California, how do people most at risk find their way to new jobs?
“We’re facing a major challenge,” Moenius said. “If we don’t do anything, then it will turn into an apocalypse.”
TSA Announces “Biometrics Vision for All Commercial Aviation Travelers”
October 27th, 2018Via: Papers, Please:
Today the US Transportation Security Administration released a detailed TSA Biometric Roadmap for Aviation Security & the Passenger Experience, making explicit the goal of requiring mug shots (to be used for automated facial recognition and image-based surveillance and control) as a condition of all domestic or international air travel.
…
It’s a terrifyingly totalitarian vision of pervasive surveillance of air travelers at, quite literally and deliberately, every step of their journey, enabled by automated facial recognition and by the seamless collaboration of airlines and airport operators that will help the government surveil their customers in exchange for free use of facial images for their own business purposes and profits.
The closest contemporary counterpart to what the TSA envisions for the USA is the pervasive surveillance and control of travelers in China through automated facial recognition by the Public Security Bureau.
