Project Mindwake

New fighter jet training stalls, grounding pilots

2012-02-28T07:05:00.000Z

The best fighter pilots from the Air Force, Marines and Navy arrived in the Florida Panhandle last year to learn to fly the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the most expensive, most advanced weapons program in U.S. history. They are still waiting.

Gen. Joseph Dunford, assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, speaks during a rollout ceremony at Eglin Air Force Base for the F-35B as Robert Stevens, left, chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin, listens

Concerns about the stealth jets' safety, cost overruns and questions about the entire program's feasibility have delayed the training and left about 35 pilots mostly outside the cockpit. The most the pilots do with the nine F-35s at Eglin Air Force Base is occasionally taxi them and fire up the engines. Otherwise their training is limited to three F-35 flight simulators, classroom work and flights in older-model jets. Only a handful of test pilots get to fly the F-35s.

"The most-frustrated pilot is one who isn't flying at all," said Marine Col. Arthur Tomassetti, vice commander of the fighter wing and a former test pilot for the F-35 prototype.

* * * * *Built by Lockheed Martin under a 2001 contract, the F-35 is supposed to replace Cold War-era aircraft such as the Air Force's F-16 fighter and the Navy's and Marines' F/A-18 Hornet. It also would be sold to many NATO countries and other U.S. allies.

Costing between $65 million and $100 million each, depending on the version, the F-35 is described as a generational leap from older fighter jets. A single-seat aircraft, it can fly at about 1,050 mph and, officials say, fight both air-to-air and air-to-ground significantly better than its predecessors.

One version can land on an aircraft carrier and another can hover, landing on and taking off from a helicopter carrier. It carries more fuel and more ordnance internally than older fighter jets, allowing it to maintain stealth, and has the latest onboard computer systems, allowing the pilot to control the plane and communicate with other aircraft and interact with ground commanders like never before.

* * * * *"From a flying perspective, what we call the stick and rudder is the same for any platform, but when you integrate the sensors, the pilot has the capability to make much better decisions and be much more precise," said Air Force Col Andrew Toth, the training wing's commander.

And because it is to be used by all three branches of the U.S. military that fly fighter jets and by U.S. allies, training and maintenance could be handled jointly.

But just as the program appeared to be taking off, it was grounded over a variety of concerns. They range from improperly installed parachutes under the pilots' ejector seats to worries at the Pentagon that there has not been enough testing of the jets and ongoing concerns by some in Congress that the entire F-35 program is too expensive. Its projected cost has jumped from $233 billion to an estimated $385 billion, including development. Forty-three F-35s have been built, and another 2,443 have been ordered by the Pentagon.

Questions about funding, slow production of the aircraft and uncertainty about overall strategy have contributed to inefficiencies in money and manpower, said Baker Spring, a defense analyst with the Washington-based Heritage Foundation.

Spring said the complicated way the Pentagon budgeting process worked has trickled down to the pilots at the school.

"You have people out there twiddling their thumbs waiting for planes. This contributes to the high unit costs," Spring said.

All of this has left the first batch of would-be F-35 pilots in training limbo. This is supposed to be the first time fighter pilots from all three branches train together, and they are looking forward to both the competition and learning from each other.

"All of the pilots here are incredibly talented, hand-picked, board-selected, they are the best of the best and the opportunity to come here and fly the F-35 as a Marine operator is truly the career opportunity of a lifetime," Marine Lt. Col. Jim Wellons said at ceremony for the jet at Eglin last year.

* * * * *When the Pentagon decides to allow the Eglin planes to fly is anyone's guess, said J.R. McDonald, Lockheed's Eglin-based vice president of corporate domestic business development.

Source:http://www2.tbo.com/news/breaking-news/2012/feb/28/memeto2-new-fighter-jet-training-stalls-grounding--ar-363516/

DM Stresses Iran, Lebanon's Common Emphasis on Preparedness against Israeli Threats

2012-02-27T15:08:00.000Z

Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi said that Tehran and Beirut both stress the necessity for maintaining preparedness against the threat of the Zionist regime.

Speaking to reporters about a meeting with his Lebanese counterpart Fayez Ghosn here in Tehran on Sunday, Vahidi said that the threat of the Zionist regime was among the issues discussed at the meeting.

"We shared a common view about maintaining preparedness against the threats posed by this usurper regime," Vahidi noted.

He further voiced Iran's readiness help to the reinvigoration of the Lebanese Army, and noted, "Strengthening the Lebanese Army is a serious issue for us since we believe that Lebanon is one of two important countries in the conflict against the Zionist regime and due to the very same reason, there should exist a powerful army in Lebanon the same way that there is a powerful resistance in that country."

Vahidi underlined that a strong army and a power resistance in Lebanon "guarantee materialization of the basic goals of that country, that is the security of Lebanon and confrontation against the Zionist regime's aggressions".

In 2010, Vahidi had also underlined Tehran's preparedness to equip the Lebanese Army with the necessary military tools and weapons.

"If they (Lebanese) demand, the Islamic Republic of Iran is ready to provide the country with their needed arms for defending Lebanon's borders," Vahidi said in an interview with the Arabic Language Al Alam network at the time.

"The Army of Lebanon is our friend and is in a region that is under the Zionist regime's pressure and threat," Vahidi noted.

Also, Iranian Ambassador to Beirut Qazanfar Roknabadi said in 2010 that Tehran is prepared to arm the Lebanese Army, and added, "If Lebanon officially calls for Iran's help to equip its army, Iran will feel honored to help Lebanon's army."

The remarks by the Iranian officials came after Lebanese President Michel Suleiman officially asked Iran to equip and modernize the Lebanese Army.

Meantime, Secretary-General of Hezbollah Seyed Hassan Nasrallah in 2010 welcomed the Lebanese government's decision to ask for Tehran's cooperation in equipping the country's Army.

Nasrallah urged the Lebanese Cabinet to ask Iran and Arab states to provide equipment for Lebanon's army, stressing that "Hezbollah will work hard through its friendship with Iran to equip the Lebanese Army."

Source:http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=9010176344

CNN: Taliban Poisoning NATO Food "?"

2012-02-27T14:34:00.000Z

Fresh evidence of CIA civilian deaths in Pakistan revealed

2012-02-27T14:16:00.000Z

In a study of ten major drone strikes in Pakistan since 2010, global news agency Associated Press deployed a field reporter to Waziristan and questioned more than 80 local people about ten CIA attacks. The results generally confirm the accuracy of original credible media reports – and in two cases identify previously unrecorded civilian deaths.

In a further case, in which an anonymous US official had previously attacked the Bureau’s findings of six civilian deaths in a 2011 strike, AP’s report has confirmed the Bureau’s work.

Anglo-American legal charity Reprieve has also filed a case with the United Nations Human Rights Council, based on sworn affidavits by 18 family members of civilians killed in CIA attacks – many of them children. Reprieve is calling on the UNHRC ‘to condemn the attacks as illegal human rights violations.’

New casualties
The Associated Press investigation, authored by the agency’s Islamabad chief Sebastian Abbot, represents one of the largest field studies yet into casualties of CIA drone strikes.

AP’s field reporter interviewed more than 80 local civilians in Waziristan in connection with 10 major CIA strikes since 2010. It found that of 194 people killed in the strikes, 138 were confirmed as militants:

The remaining 56 were either civilians or tribal police, and 38 of them were killed in a single attack on March 17, 2011. Excluding that strike, which inflicted one of the worst civilian death tolls since the drone program started in Pakistan, nearly 90 percent of the people killed were militants, villagers said.

In two of the ten cases AP has turned up previously-unreported civilian casualties.

On August 14 2010 AP found that seven civilians died - including a ten year old child – alongside seven Pakistan Taliban. The deaths occurred during Ramadan prayers. Until now it had not been known that civilians had died in the attack. US officials told AP that its own assessments indicated all those killed were militants.

On April 22 2011, AP confirms that three children and two women were among 25 dead in an attack on a guest house where militants were staying. Three named eyewitnesses in the village of Spinwan confirmed that the civilians had died – two had attended their funerals.

Bureau findings confirmed
The AP investigation has also independently confirmed that six civilians died alongside ten Taliban in an attack on a roadside restaurant on May 6 2011.

Last year the Bureau’s field researchers in Waziristan identified by name six civilians killed in the attack by the CIA. An anonymous US official used the New York Times to mock the Bureau at the time: ‘The claim that a restaurant was struck is ludicrous.’

Now AP’s investigation endorses the Bureau’s findings, stating: ‘Missiles hit a vehicle parked near a restaurant in Dotoi village, killing 16 people, including 10 Taliban militants and six tribesmen.’

United Nations
In the second new report confirming civilian casualties in US drone strikes, Reprieve has filed a major case with the United Nations Human Rights Council.

The study details a dozen drone strikes in Pakistan during President Obama’s time in office. Each is supported by witness affidavits, mostly from family members of civilians killed.

For example on Valentine’s Day 2009, just weeks after Obama came to office, a CIA drone attack struck a village in North Waziristan. Between 26 and 35 people died in the attack, nine of them civilians. One of those killed was an eight year old boy, Noor Syed. The complaint to the UNHRC draws on evidence from Noor’s father:

Maezol Khan is a resident of Makeen in South Waziristan, Pakistan. In the early morning of February 14, 2009, he and his son were sleeping in the courtyard of their home when a missile from a drone struck a nearby car. As a result of the explosion, a missile part flew into the courtyard, killing Maezol’s eight-year-old son. In addition, there were approximately 30 people killed or injured in the attack.

Noor Syed Aged 8 (Photo: Noor Behram)

Another complaint reports that four civilians died on June 15 2011 when a CIA missile hit their car in Miranshah, North Waziristan.

Far from being Taliban, the men were a pharmacist and his assistant; a student; and an employee of the local water authority.

That attack so enraged local opinion that at the mens’ funeral their coffins were used to block the main highway in a spontaneous protest at CIA attacks.

Clive Stafford Smith, Reprieve’s director, said that the CIA was ‘creating desolation and calling it peace.’

The UN must put a stop to it before any more children are killed. Not only is it causing untold suffering to the people of North West Pakistan – it is also the most effective recruiting sergeant yet for the very ‘militants’ the US claims to be targeting.

Pakistan barrister Mirza Shahzad Akbar runs the Foundation for Fundamental Rights, and prepared the UNHCR submission. He told the Bureau:

‘The US needs to address the question of a large number civilian victims, and also has to respect the well established international laws and norm. The UN is the best forum to discuss drones-related humanitarian issue as well as its far reaching impact on world politics.’

SOURCE: http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2012/02/27/fresh-evidence-of-cia-civilian-deaths-in-pakistan-revealed/

Councillors apologise after giving primary kids leaflet about child pornography

2012-02-27T12:13:00.001Z

COUNCILLORS have apologised after sending primary pupils home with a leaflet about child pornography.

Children as young as five were given the flyer about an event discussing“sexualised behaviour” and “coming of age in a porn culture” to take home.
Parents last night said they were angry that the leaflet was handed directly to young pupils in the classroom.
One mum said: “I couldn’t believe it. My daughter showed this thing to me and I wasliterally speechless. She is onlysix and read it. She wanted to know what sexualised behaviour was and what porn culture was. What are yousupposed to say about that?”
Ironically, the leaflet –inviting parents to aconference on thedangers of the interneton Thursday – is titledGetting It Right In Perth And Kinross.
Speakers described as “experts in their field” have been lined up to give a series of talks during atwo-hour presentation at Perth’s Playhouse cinema.
The mum-of-two, 36, said: “Getting it right in Perth and Kinross? They couldn’t have got it more wrong.
“Whoever thought the leaflets should be handed to young kids should be ashamed of themselves.”
Perth and Kinross Council said: “It is important that we do not shy away from working together to tackle these issues.
“We would like to apologise if any offence has been caused by any aspects of the leaflet.”

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2012/02/26/councillors-apologise-after-giving-primary-kids-leaflet-about-child-pornography-86908-23765189/

Moral perils on the way, the "super mind controlled soldier" of the future

2012-02-24T22:57:00.000Z

A SUPER soldier with enhanced mental alertness targets weapons systems using his mind. A riot cop whose physical courage has been determined by a brain scan fires incapacitating chemicals into a crowd of protesters.

These may sound like scenarios from the latest hit video game, but according to a report by the Royal Society, Britain's national academy of science, rapid advances in neuroscience could make them a realistic vision of the future of warfare and law enforcement. The report - titled Brain Waves Module 3: Neuroscience, Conflict and Security - concludes neuroscience could be used to boost the performance of soldiers and policemen, choose the most suitable individuals for particular tasks and enable soldiers to control weapons through a direct mind-machine interface, as well as creating a new generation of chemical weapons.

Don't believe it? US researchers have already used transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a weak electrical current passed through the skull, to help solders spot targets more effectively.

Biochemical pharmacologist Rod Flower, chairman of the report's working group, admits most such technology is in its infancy, but says "all leaps forward start out this way. You have a groundswell of ideas and suddenly you get a step change."

Yes and no, says Robert Sparrow, a philosopher with Melbourne's Monash University. "Given how primitive treatments for mental illness remain, the idea that we're going to be able to control complex machinery through brain-machine interfaces any time soon strikes me as very optimistic indeed."

Still, Sparrow says if such advances are made they would throw up a tangled web of ethical and legal issues such as so-called dual use. A case in point is tDCS. It may produce important new therapies for dementia and mental illness, as well as military applications. As the Royal Society report notes, scientists must be made aware early in their careers that purely medical research may not stay that way.

Sydney-based Wendy Rogers agrees: "I think there are good reasons for scientists in general to be exposed to both historical examples and discussion of the ethical dilemmas that can arise from the uses of any new technologies," says the Macquarie University bioethicist. "Not with the aim of stifling research, but (so) that scientists will recognise social and moral responsibilities as well as scientific ones."

But dual use is a numbingly complex issue. Should researchers shy away from medically important research if it has an obvious illegitimate application? What is and isn't legitimate anyway? And isn't it true that much research could be put to dubious use if it got into the wrong hands?

Blaming scientists for harmful use of their work is akin to blaming knife manufacturers for an upturn in muggings, says philosopher and neurolaw expert Nicole Vincent, also at Macquarie."(But) this does not absolve scientists of responsibility to not work on projects which they know, or have reasonable grounds to suspect, will yield morally or legally objectionable uses."

Clearly, morality is in the mind of the beholder. Still, there's little argument that it's unacceptable to redirect expertise and resources from medical research to military neuroscience.

FULL ARTICLE:http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/health-science/moral-perils-on-the-way-to-the-future/story-e6frg8y6-1226279875647

40+ Michigan State University Students Walk Out On Visiting Israeli Soldiers

2012-02-24T22:41:00.001Z

On Tuesday, February 21st, 2012, two IDF soldiers came to Michigan State University to spew pro-Israel propaganda and speak about their 'experiences'. They were co-sponsored by MSU ROTC, MSU Stand With Us and the MSU Hillel.

Students Allied for Freedom and Equality (SAFE) found out on Sunday night, less than 48 hours before the proposed event to take place on Tuesday. Faced with less than two days to decide a reaction and possible means, SAFE had to think and act quick. Looking to the SAFE at University of Michigan, and SJP's around the country for various protests and reactions to this type of propaganda, MSU SAFE decided to attempt a walkout. With only three people attending a preliminary meeting, and only with fifteen confirmed in attendance, SAFE was unsure of the effects of a walkout with such low attendance.

However, as SAFE organizers waited nervously at the meeting location on Tuesday, dozens of people showed up. Dispersing finally to the location of the event, more SAFE supporters and members showed up - over 40 people. The hall originally only featured a few rows, but after SAFE filled those rows, ROTC brought out more chairs for the intended audience. Hence, the ROTC cadets sitting in the back of the room.

After sitting through enough propaganda, SAFE 'walked out'.

After the walk out, ROTC requested that we return to explain our actions. SAFE declined to strengthen the message and reinforce the symbolism of being 'silenced'.

A quote from the video:
"This is for everyone we have on our shirts, this is for everyone in Palestine, this is for everyone in the world. This is for you, this is for me. This is for every one who can't use their voice...today we got to show them we are with them and we support them, and sometimes thats the most important thing, to just show them we support them." --Dena Elian, MSU SAFE President.

State News Coverage:
http://statenews.com/index.php/article/2012/02/student_group_protests_war_wit... [very, very poorly written article -- comments reflect this]
http://www.statenews.com/index.php/article/2012/02/dont_ignore_israels_wrongd... [an opinion column by a participator in the walkout with SAFE]

For more information on SAFE, like Students Allied for Freedom and Equality (SAFE) - MSU' on Facebook or follow @MSU_SAFE on Twitter!

The Pirate Bay will evade its ‘enemies’

2012-02-23T06:32:00.000Z

File-sharing site The Pirate Bay has said that it will adapt rather than die if blocked in the UK. The High Court ruled that the site facilitates copyright infringement and will decide in June whether ISPs must block UK customers from accessing the site.

In response, The Pirate Bay said it would use other methods for distributing content which would make it harder for its “enemies” to track. “The 29th February is the last day we offer torrents in its current form. Then it will be all magnets, which works pretty much the same,” it said on its Facebook page. “Please understand that it’s a necessary move in the saga known as The Pirate Bay. Not having torrents will be a bit cheaper for us but it will also make it hard for our common enemies to stop us.”

US Embassy In Afghanistan Attacked After US Troops Burn Copies Of Koran

2012-02-22T16:18:00.000Z

Did Saudi prince buy Fox’s silence?

2012-02-22T16:12:00.000Z

Have you heard about the 23-year-old Saudi journalist who tweeted an imaginary conversation with Muhammad?

It went something like this: He loved Muhammad, he hated Muhammad, he couldn't understand Muhammad, he wasn't going to pray for Muhammad. If this isn't exactly a disquisition on faith and doubt a la "The Brothers Karamazov," remember, we're just talking Twitter.

The journalist received so many mostly white-hot angry tweets from co-religionists condemning his Islamic law-breaking "blasphemy" (30,000 in 24 hours!) that he apologized and fled the country. He hoped to seek asylum in New Zealand but was captured in Malaysia by Saudi agents who returned him to "the Kingdom." There, according to Shariah (Islamic law), he now faces the death penalty for "blasphemy."

If you haven't heard of this young man, whose name is Hamza Kashgari, it could be because you're watching too much Fox News. As of this writing, almost a week after the Kashgari story broke, I haven't found a single story about it at the Fox News website. (You try: www.foxnews.com.) Meanwhile, CBS, NBC, ABC, MSNBC and CNN have all reported the Kashgari story, clueing in their viewers on how far totalitarian Islam, Saudi style, will go to exert its control over the human spirit. But not Fox.

Say - you don't suppose the fact that Prince Alwaleed bin Talal owns the second-largest block of stock (7 percent) in News Corp., Fox News' parent company, not to mention a new $300 million stake in Twitter (almost 4 percent), has anything to do with Fox's silence on this Saudi black eye of a story? After all, it was Saudi dictator King Abdullah - Alwaleed's uncle - whom press accounts credit with ordering the tweeting journalist's hot pursuit and imprisonment. And it is Saudi Arabia's adherence to Islamic limits on free speech that is driving Kashgari's ordeal.

Maybe it has become institutional Fox thinking to let such news slide for fear of offending the Saudi prince - or for fear of risking the kind of exposure that might remind viewers of Fox's connections to Saudi regime interests via Alwaleed.

As I've argued in the past, it is these connections that make it incumbent upon News Corp. to register as a foreign agent. (So, too, should universities that accept Saudi and other Islamic millions to open departments of Islamic studies.) Fox's silence on this bell-ringer of a story reinforces the sneaking suspicion that, conscious or not, there may be an Alwaleed effect on Fox coverage which, in a conflict of interest, actually serves the House of Saud before Fox viewers.

Prediction: I don't believe Hamza Kashgari will be executed or even face hard time for his Twitter "blasphemy." Despite widespread enthusiasm for his demise among his fellow Saudis - at last count, a Facebook page titled "The Saudi People Demand Hamza Kashgari's Execution" had a whopping 23,000 members - I'm guessing Kashgari's already publicized repentance will be accepted by Saudi poobahs. The crisis will likely end in a gesture of royal magnanimousness. The new "moderation" of the Kingdom - see, they don't kill you for tweeting! - will become the story of the day, maybe even "fair and balanced" enough for Fox News to cover it.

That would make it a win-win situation, at least when it comes to Islamic law enforcement: Saudi Arabia gets international "modernization" brownie points, and no one dares break Shariah inside the country anyway, particularly given the bloodthirsty scorn of the Saudi public. (Remember that Facebook community of execution-for-"blasphemy" enthusiasts.) No "blasphemy," no "defamation," no problem.

This same issue is part of a much larger story, a terrifying point of parley between the Islamic world, as represented by the Saudi-based Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), and the Free World, as led, still, by the USA. Why terrifying? Any accommodation of Islamic so-called blasphemy law is an unconstitutional erosion of American free speech.

I'm mortified to report that the USA, as represented by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is working itself into sync with the Saudi, OIC and, apparently, Fox position that silence on Islam is golden. Last summer, Clinton, while meeting with the OIC in Turkey (where they throw journalists who cross the state in jail) to discuss "defamation" of Islam, promoted a de facto censorship of Islam's critics by calling for "some old-fashioned techniques of peer pressure and shaming, so that people don't feel that they have the support to do what we abhor."

Funny, but I don't think Fox covered the secretary of state's menacing comments about free speech. Not even a tweet's worth.

Diana West is an author and blogs at dianawest.net. She can be contacted via dianawest@verizon.net.

How to Beat Facial-Recognition Software

2012-02-22T15:48:00.000Z

Over the last decade, computers have become better at seeing faces. Software can tell if a camera has a face in its frame of vision, and law enforcement has been testing facial-recognition programs that can supposedly pick out suspects in a crowd.

That's prompted an arms race between the people who build facial-recognition systems — and those seeking ways to defeat them.

A model wearing Adam Harvey's 'dazzle' makeup in a way that fools facial-recognition software.
CREDIT: Courtesy Adam Harvey/ahprojects.com/DIS Magazine

View full size image

Facial-recognition software is becoming a bigger issue for privacy advocates as well. Surveillance cameras are already ubiquitous in the U.K., are showing up in more places in the U.S. and may increasingly be connected to facial-recognition systems.

"I went to a Kinko's a while ago," said Alex Kilpatrick, chief technology officer and co-founder of Tactical Information Systems, a company in Austin, Texas, that sells facial-recognition software to law enforcement and the military. "I saw three cameras just while I was standing in line.

You see them in all kinds of places now."The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has said it is deeply concerned with the way facial-recognition systems are used. Police use such systems to flag criminals in public places, the ACLU says, but it argues that the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) use of the technology in Boston's Logan Airport and in T.F. Green Airport near Providence, R.I., doesn't seem to have helped catch any criminals or terrorists.

full length article and source:

http://www.technewsdaily.com/3684-beat-facial-recognition-software.html

India: Government security agencies may soon open your email long before you do.

2012-02-21T14:56:00.001Z

New Delhi: Internet content providers Yahoo, Gmail and others would be asked to route all emails accessed in India through the country even if the mail account is registered outside the country.

The move comes in the wake of instances where security agencies could not have a real-time access to some emails as they were registered outside the country but were opened in India.

During a recent high-level meeting held in the office of Union Home Secretary RK Singh, the Department of Information Technology (DIT) was asked to take up the matter at the earliest with the content providers.

During the meeting, director general from CERT-in informed that content provider Yahoo automatically locates all email accounts registered in India to the server in India, minutes of the meeting said.

However, Yahoo accounts registered outside India and subsequently accessed from India are routed through servers outside India, it said.

"It was decided to advice Yahoo, Gmail etc that all emails accessed from India should be routed through servers in India," it said, adding that the DIT would take up the matter with the content providers.

The need for this was felt after security agencies failed to access accounts of suspected terrorists of Indian Mujahideen during the surveillance period as the same had been opened in a European country.

When the content provider was approached, the sleuths were told that in order to see the mails, which had been accessed from India, a request to a European nation where the server was based, was required, official sources said.

Source:http://ibnlive.in.com/news/government-to-ask-google-yahoo-to-route-emails-through-servers-in-india/232396-11.html

FBI Tries To Coax Muslim Into Bombing US Capitol (LOVE THIS WOMAN!)

2012-02-21T13:32:00.000Z

BBC censors the word 'Palestine'

2012-02-19T10:15:00.000Z

Woman in vegetative state after being tasered by trooper

2012-02-19T10:13:00.001Z

When the Taser's prongs hit her back, Danielle Maudsley spun backward and smacked her head on the pavement.

A nearby dashcam recorded the fall, even capturing the sound of her head cracking on the asphalt.

Maudsley, 20, clutched her head and struggled to rise. "I can't get up," she moaned, her final words.

Then she went still.

She has been in a vegetative state ever since. Doctors have told her family she likely will never wake up.

This week, two state agencies cleared Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Daniel Cole of any wrongdoing in the September incident, which occurred as Maudsley tried to escape from an FHP station in Pinellas Park.

But several experts and researchers who reviewed reports and video of the incident said the case raises questions.

They are troubled that Cole tasered Maudsley, a suspect in two hit-and-run crashes who had drugs in her system, while she was handcuffed. They also noted that Cole was just steps behind Maudsley when he fired the Taser.

"It just doesn't make any sense," said Greg Connor, a professor at the University of Illinois Police Training Institute who specializes in use of force. "I don't see where it's going to be that hard to apprehend her."

Cole, who at 267 pounds weighed about three times as much as Maudsley, told investigators he used his Taser because he was concerned one or both of them would be injured if he tackled her. He worried she was headed toward heavy traffic on U.S. 19.

The scrutiny of the Maudsley case comes amid calls from some national groups for police agencies to take a closer look at how and when they use Tasers.

The human rights organization Amnesty International called this week for stricter limits on Taser use after an intoxicated Georgia man died hours after police shot him with one. The group believes there should be a national policy on Taser use.

Florida has had 65 Taser-related deaths since 2001, the second highest total behind California, which had 92.

Amnesty also noted policies regarding the devices vary widely. Some agencies caution heavily about their use, while others consider them a compliance device on the same level as pepper spray.

"Some departments use it the first thing, some departments use it only for the highest level of resistance," said Gene Paoline, associate professor of criminology at the University of Central Florida, who has studied injuries from Tasers. "Unfortunately there's not a standard use of force policy for anything less than deadly force. There's not a national standard for when you should use a Taser and when you should not use it."

FHP policy allows troopers to use Tasers when it "reasonably appears necessary to control non-compliant individuals who have escalated their level of resistance from passive physical resistance to active physical resistance (i.e.: bracing, tensing, pushing, or pulling)."

The policy goes on to say it must be apparent the detained person has the ability to physically threaten others or is trying to flee or escape. It also notes that Tasers shouldn't be used on someone who is handcuffed, but says there still could be times when even that is justifiable.

"The Florida Department of Law Enforcement conducted an independent review," Sgt. Steve Gaskins, a spokesman, said Friday. "FDLE's investigation found the trooper's actions were legal and within the scope of his duties."

Gaskins said the agency will not comment further because of possible legal action.

Maudsley's mother has hired lawyer Kevin Hayslett and intends to sue the FHP. Hayslett said Maudsley lives in an intensive care facility. She is fed by a tube, can't control bodily functions and has no voluntary movement. He compared her condition to Terri Schiavo, the Pinellas woman whose end-of-life case cause a nationwide stir several years ago.

Cole, the trooper, has been with FHP since 1998. He was the Pinellas Trooper of the Year in 2000. He had fired his Taser only once before — in 2009, when he used it on a suicidal man on the Sunshine Skyway bridge. The man fell to the roadway and was okay.

Investigators looking into the Maudsley case asked Cole if he would have done anything differently. He said he wouldn't have.

But experts said Cole made a series of mistakes that led to Maudsley getting away from him.

Nationally known use-of-force expert Dave Klinger, a retired Los Angeles police officer and professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, reviewed the dashcam video Friday and noted Maudsley was handcuffed in the front, which he called an "inappropriate" police tactic.

Other experts agreed, and said handcuffing in the front makes it easier for someone to escape or grab an officer's weapon.

According to the state report, Cole had the handcuffed Maudsley sit in a conference room at the FHP station while he completed paperwork in the same room. She was not handcuffed to any stationary object.

"If you have somebody in custody, you don't put them in a situation where they can escape," Klinger said. "Why in the world was she in a position to run?"

Then there's the question of whether Cole should have tasered a suspect who was simply running away and not violently resisting.

Lorie Frindell, associate criminology professor at the University of South Florida, once worked for the Washington, D.C.-based Police Executive Research Forum, which concluded that fleeing shouldn't be the sole justification for Taser use and that the officer should consider the severity of the offense, the suspect's threat level and the risk of serious injury to the suspect.

In this case, Maudsley was facing nonviolent offenses.

Other experts said it's difficult to dissect decisions officers must make in a matter of seconds.

Greg Meyer, a former captain with the Los Angeles Police Department and a use-of-force expert, has had more than 30 years of experience with electronic control devices.

He said they are becoming prolific in police agencies because they are effective and actually reduce injuries to officers and suspects. He said a national policy on Taser use is unrealistic.

"It's been a very outstanding tool when it's used properly," Meyer said. "This type of an injury from falling down from a Taser is extremely unusual."

Times researcher Natalie Watson contributed to this report. Reach Kameel Stanley at kstanley@tampabay.com or (727) 893-8643.

The incident

In September, a handcuffed Danielle Maudsley bolted out of a Florida Highway Patrol substation after she had been arrested in a hit-and-run case. Trooper Daniel Cole chased her, pulled out his Taser and fired its electric probes. Maudsley smacked her head on the asphalt parking lot and went unconscious.

The investigations

The Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement cleared Cole of wrongdoing. In an interview with investigators, Cole said he was concerned about Maudsley running toward U.S. 19 and about risking injury if he tried to tackle her.

09/19/2011 11:45:50

11:45:50

11:45:52

[Last modified: Feb 17, 2012 11:20 PM]

Copyright 2012 Tampa Bay Times

"If the US does not attack Iran ...then Israel will, I assure you" Former Israeli Ambassador

2012-02-18T13:33:00.000Z

ALL EYES On Washington County Maine Today!

2012-02-18T13:23:00.000Z

Silence surrounds the killing of Indian fishermen by Italian ship

2012-02-18T13:03:00.001Z

Terming as “unfortunate” the killing of two Indian fishermen by gun shots from an Italian ship, Shipping Minister G K Vasan today said appropriate punishment should be given to the guilty.

“It is a very unfortunate incident. Italian arm guards fired (at) Indian fishermen. This is not acceptable,” Vasan told reporters here, when asked to comment on the incident near Kerala.

Union Minister for Shipping, GK Vasan. Image courtesy PIB

Observing that Director General, Shipping, has ordered an enquiry into the incident, he said it was internationally well-known that when there is a piracy attack, certain protocol should be followed. “It was not followed here.Enquiry will reveal (what happened). Appropriate punishment should be given (to those guilty) as per the law of the land,” he said.

Vasan said there was a suspicion as to why the Italian ship did not report the incident on time. “I am sure proceedings will take place. There is no pressure from Italy. Our fishermen lives are very important”.

Two Indian fishermen, Ajesh Binki (25) and Jalastein (45), were killed on February 15 off the Kollam coast near Kerala when armed guards of Italian ship ‘Enrica Lexie’ fired at their boat.

The preliminary assessment of the marine authorities is that the armed guards aboard the ship might have fired at the fishing boat mistaking it for a vessel belonging to pirates. When asked about several states opposing the proposed
National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC), Vasan said, “It is necessary to put an end to terrorism in the country. Both the Centre and State should cooperate on this”.

Even Kerala Chief Minister Oomen Chandy took a strong stand on the incident and said, “The killing of fishermen is a cruel incident. We will not let it pass till justice is done. We will not allow the culprits to escape from legal proceedings.”

Chief Ministers of non-Congress and BJP-ruled states and even Congress ally Trinamool Congrees had yesterday raised a banner of revolt against the Centre’s proposal to set up an apex counter-terror organisation, saying it struck at the roots of federalism and usurps states’ powers.

Meanwhile, the Italian ship’s crew has refused to be questioned and say they will co-operate only after discussing the matter with their diplomats. The crew is awaiting the arrival of a high-level team of diplomats from Italy to meet officials in Delhi and then advise them on the next step.

Earlier in the day, sources told CNBC-TV18 that the Prime Minister will be consulted as this was a diplomatic matter. PMO sources confirmed that by Saturday there will be some movement on the matter.

Watch video:Sources say the advice of the MEA will also be sought over the killing of Indian fishermen by the Enrica Lexie crew.

Source:http://www.firstpost.com/india/italian-ship-firing-unacceptable-vasan-217695.html

Mystery surrounds alleged Bali bomber on trial in Indonesia

2012-02-18T12:44:00.000Z

He’s known to investigators as the “Demolition Man,” a mysterious figure who appeared in court in Indonesia this week to face prosecution in connection with a deadly Bali bombing that took place nearly a decade ago.

For many, the coming terrorism trial of Muslim militant Umar Patek brings back a whiff of the fear that pervaded the globe after the September 11, 2001, US terror attacks.

Barely a year after the attacks, officials said, Patek allegedly built a collection of bombs, some of which killed 202 people in a Bali nightclub and focused authorities’ attention on an al-Qaeda-linked network that set its sights on causing mayhem in Southeast Asia.

Three other suspects in the attack have already been convicted and executed as Indonesian authorities try to quash the leadership of the regional terror group, known as Jemaah Islamiyah.

Patek was captured last year in Abbottabad, the same Pakistani town where Osama bin Laden was hiding, officials say. His arrest ended a nine-year flight from prosecution that authorities say took him to the Philippines and Pakistan as he sought to mastermind other attacks. He was captured with a $1-million bounty on his head.

The 45-year-old suspect and his activities over the years have been shrouded in mystery. For investigators, the main question remains: What he was doing in Abbottabad?

Indonesian authorities have speculated that the slightly built Patek had sought to meet with bin Laden. Patek denies that claim, insisting he was en route to Afghanistan, and US officials say they believe his stay in the small Pakistani town was coincidence.

His appearance last Monday in a district courtroom in Jakarta was pure theater. Tightly guarded, Patek smiled when he entered the courtroom and even tried to shake hands with prosecutors.

Wearing a white robe and a white cap, he ignored questions shouted by journalists and sat quietly as the indictment was read out by prosecutors.

“His involvement in the Bali bombing...[was] not as big as is being described,” Patek’s chief lawyer, Ashluddin Hatjani, told reporters afterward. “We will challenge that in a defense plea next week.”

Patek, whose real name is Hisyam bin Alizein, faces death by firing squad if convicted of charges that include premeditated murder, hiding information about terrorism, illegal possession of explosives and conspiracy to commit terrorism.

“Umar Patek is really dangerous.... He has caused the death of many people,” lead prosecutor Bambang Suharijadi told the court before the trial was adjourned until next week.

Authorities say Patek and his co-conspirators hid a 1,540-pound bomb in four filing cabinets before loading it in a Mitsubishi L300 van along with a TNT vest bomb. The van was detonated outside two nightclubs along Bali’s popular Kuta tourist beach.

Source:http://businessmirror.com.ph/home/global-eye/23400-mystery-surrounds-alleged-bali-bomber-on-trial-in-indonesia

Pollution in Lebanon is rife

2012-02-18T12:09:00.000Z

Pollution in Lebanon is rife and obvious, from its sea to it rivers and quarries, and this despite the dozens of organizations, NGOs, and committees in the country that purport to protect the environment for current and future generations of Lebanese.
Over the years these entities have failed to make any significant impact on the wellbeing of the environment.
They remain silent until a catastrophe strikes, and then the country is suddenly inundated with statements, condemnations, vows and plans, but nothing on the ground.
The contamination this week that turned Beirut’s river red is just the latest example. Already, the Litani River in the south is contaminated to such a degree that the vegetables that grow around it are liable to cause all kinds of diseases because of the chemicals deposited in the river by farmers, olive tree mills and factories.
The Bekaa’s Qaraoun Lake is another disaster, with animal carcasses mysteriously appearing in its environs.
Meanwhile, the unregulated quarries across Lebanon eat into the country’s natural resources.
In the poorer areas, where the state is absent, ancient trees are chopped down in order to sustain people.

The waterway of Nahr Beirut turned red after a sewage pipe expelled an unidentifiable stream of effluvium into it, Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2012. (The Daily Star/Mohammad Azakir)

These issues flare up in the public conscience at certain times, only to die down again.

A big noise is made, probes are promised but no action is ever taken.
In the 1960s, 33 percent of the country was green. That figure is now less than 12 percent. If these levels of environmental destruction continue, before long the country will be turned to desert.
Yet the Environment Ministry is treated as a luxury, with a budget barely enough to sustain the wages of the few who work there, and some insignificant expenses.
The ministry’s ability to protect the environment, to educate people and to crack down on those who do not abide by its laws, is therefore minimal.
Every minister who tries – and some have put sincere effort into their work – has found that this environmental destruction is protected by parties and politicians.
Therefore any effort to curb environmental violations is met with opposition from whichever politician or party holds a vested interest.
Statements, investigations and promises to prosecute are merely an exercise in semantics. The Lebanese have learned that measures are cosmetic, having never seen the conclusion of an investigation, nor the conviction, let alone the public naming of a perpetrator.
This country needs a state of environmental emergency, with tough laws so the ministry is treated as one of its vital institutions, with the clout to put an end to the violations of nature and rehabilitate its green spaces.
Otherwise our children will wake up immersed in disease, surrounded by deserts, polluted waters and poisoned food.

source:http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Opinion/Editorial/2012/Feb-18/163732-green-conscience.ashx#ixzz1mjaTirNf

Trillions In Fake Bonds Held In CHICAGO FED Crates?

2012-02-17T16:10:00.001Z

While there is precious little in terms of detail coming out of the latest and literally greatest "fake" bond story in history, the BBC has been kind enough to release the pictures of the boxes that the supposedly fake bonds were contained in. While we reserve judgment on the authenticity of the bonds, what we wonder is whether the boxes were also fake. Because while we can understand why someone would counterfeit Treasury itself, what we don't get is why someone would go the extra effort to also create a "fake" compartment in which to store it. In this case a compartment that is property of the "CHICAGO FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM." Perhaps Fed uberdove and Chicago Fed President Charles Evans will be kind enough to explain why Versailles Treaty Chicago Fed crates are floating around in Europe (and filled with $6 trillion in supposedly fake bearer bonds nonetheless)?

BBC VIDEO

source:http://www.zerohedge.com/news/why-were-trillions-fake-bonds-held-chicago-fed-crates

Michael Rivero Returning to RBN

2012-02-17T14:58:00.000Z

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT.
Starting Monday, February 20th, the Michael Rivero radio show returns to Republic Broadcasting, Monday through Friday, from 1PM to 3PM Central Time.

Mike Rivero was named The Anti-Neocon of the month August 2007 by anti-neocons.com for his years of work exposing zionist infiltrations and israeli lies and deceptions on his website WRH (www.whatreallyhappened.com)

His WRH website is among the top ten ranked daily political news sites on the Internet. Rivero is highly critical of the governments of Israel and the infiltration of United States policy by Dual Citizen . Rivero often says on his radio show that "America needs politicians that put America first, second, and third." He is also notable as the host of a radio show.

Israeli troops re-arrest Palestinian woman prisoner

2012-02-17T07:40:00.000Z

Palestinian Territories — Israeli troops on Thursday re-arrested a Palestinian woman who was one of hundreds of prisoners released in October under a swap deal with Israel, the military said.

Haneh Shalabi was arrested in Burqin village near the northern West Bank town of Jenin, on suspicion that she "posed a threat to the area" an army spoksman told AFP.

She was "a global jihad-affiliated operative " he said, adding that she "violently attacked the soldiers who arrested her."

He did not elaborate on Shalabi's alleged affiliations.

On Tuesday, troops in the southern city of Hebron re-arrested another Palestinian, a member of the Islamist Hamas movement, who was also released under the swap agreement.

Under terms of the October swap deal, Israel freed more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in a two-stage release in exchange for captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit who was snatched by Gaza-based militants in June 2006.

If Silver Goes Down All Hell Will Break Loose In The Physical Market: Silver Investment Update

2012-02-17T06:40:00.000Z

There simply isn't enough physical silver to deal with the demand of a fiat currency crisis. As the paper silver market pushes prices down, all hell will break loose in the physical market.

http://www.FutureMoneyTrends.com

‘Doomsday Preppie’ the new buzzword?

2012-02-16T16:30:00.000Z

Police, SWAT nab ‘doomsday preppie’

The world seemed to stand still for a few moments.

Every available Worthington police officer and the Columbus SWAT team surrounded the house at 661 Farrington Drive, and Thomas Worthington High School, just a block away, was under lockdown.

The only person who seemed unaware of the noontime drama Feb. 10 was 31-year-old Ryan Velie.

After receiving a call from Worthington Police Chief James Mosic, Velie exited the front door of the house and looked surprised. Yes, he had an arsenal set up inside, but he had no idea that someone had alerted the authorities.

Police took Velie into custody, turning him over to Netcare, a mental-health facility in Columbus. According to police, he later was taken to a state mental-health facility, where he remained on Feb. 14.

Worthington Police Lt. Mike Dougherty said Velie is a “doomsday preppie,” which is someone who stockpiles weapons, food, batteries and other necessities.

“They are stocking up for the ‘big one,’” Dougherty said.

Among Velie’s stash were eight to 10 guns, ranging from revolvers to rifles to an AK-4, which had a 40-round-capacity magazine that was locked and loaded, Dougherty said.

With that much ammunition, the gun is considered a machine gun and possession is considered a felony, he said.

The guns and ammunition were found in Velie’s bedroom and in the basement. Police also found stockpiles of batteries and several “go-bags” ready to put into use if needed.

Velie lives in the house with his mother, Sandy.

On the day of the incident, she reportedly became concerned because her son was wearing a gun in his waistband. She called Netcare to ask for help. He allegedly told Netcare workers that if anyone were to come to the house, he would shoot.

At 11:20 a.m., Netcare notified police, who went to the house, forced Sandy Velie to come out and called SWAT, which immediately set up around the perimeter.

The schools were notified, and Thomas Worthington, Evening Street Elementary, Linworth AP and Kilbourne Middle School went into lockdown mode.

“This was not going to turn out well if he decided to open up on everyone,” Dougherty said.

Everyone was glad when Velie came out peacefully.

“He didn’t know we were there,” Dougherty said.

Police confiscated all of the guns and ammunition, along with materials for making pipe bombs. Dougherty said he hopes Velie never gets them back.

“If he’s got mental issues, that will keep him from getting the guns again, legally,” he said. “But we all know how easy guns are to get.”

Velie grew up on Farrington Drive with his parents and two brothers. All three boys went to Thomas Worthington High School.

His father, Garwin P. “Butch” Velie, died May 17, 2010. He was well-known in the community, having run for the Worthington Board of Education when the boys were young.

Police said Sandy Velie was concerned about Ryan’s guns and bought a gun case and locked them up. He had been working to pry the case open since summer, police said.

Velie will be charged with at least one felony after he is released from the mental-health facility, Dougherty said.

Source:http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/worthington/news/2012/02/14/police-swat-nab-doomsday-preppie.html

Sh#t Zionists Say [OFFICIAL VIDEO]

2012-02-16T15:39:00.000Z

We asked some people "Say something a Zionist has said to you"....

existenceisresistance.org

What Is Yellowcake, Anyway?

2012-02-16T14:58:00.000Z

With all the "unbiased media" flap of Iran announcing they are producing "yellowcake"
I thought an "equally unbiased" explanation of were it comes from?, and what it ACTUALLY IS?, might be helpful to anyone (like myself) that were relatively ignorant of it's "less than dubious" origins.

By Brendan Koerner|Posted Friday, July 18, 2003, at 5:05 PM ET

Yellowcake is milled uranium oxide, known to chemists as U₃O₈. When uranium ore comes out of the mine, it actually contains fairly little of the precious radioactive element. Though some mines in Canada, the world's leading uranium producer, are now yielding ore that contains 20 percent uranium, lower purity levels are more typical. Ore that contains less than 1 percent uranium is not unusual.
The milling process gets rid of the useless minerals that dominate the ore. First, raw ore is passed through a series of industrial-sized crushers and grinders. The resulting "pulped" ore is then bathed in sulphuric acid, a process which leaches out the uranium. After some drying and filtering, the end product is yellowcake: a coarse, oxidized powder that is often yellow in color but can also have a red or gray tint, depending on the number and type of impurities that may remain. Ideally, a drum of yellowcake should wind up looking something like this.
Yellowcake is a first step toward enriched uranium, but it's a long way from being weapons-grade. The powder must still be converted into uranium hexafluoride before it can be enriched, the process that makes the sort of uranium used by nuclear power plants and bomb-makers alike. Because UF₆ can be easily turned into a gas, it is ideal for enrichment, which must be done in a gaseous state.
Despite all the hubbub over Saddam Hussein's efforts to buy yellowcake, the stuff is by no means a rare commodity. Worldwide production is currently around 64,000 tons per year, and that's sure to rise as Central Asian nations like Kazakhstan begin to expand their uranium-mining industries. (By comparison, about 45,000 tons of tungsten, vital to the steel industry, is produced annually.) The competition has depressed yellowcake prices just a tad in recent months; a pound now costs about $10.90, down a dime from what it was trading for this spring.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2003/07/what_is_yellowcake_anyway.html

Russian official confirms sub "was" armed during blaze

2012-02-16T14:06:00.000Z

Amongst still unanswered questions regarding the ‘Yekaterinberg' come reports of several possible new near disasters.

Yekaterinburg on fire
Photo: Anonymous commenter

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin has indirectly confessed the Delta-class submarine involved in the fire did have weapons on board, news agency ITAR-TASS reports.

He told reporters, “It was a gross violation of existing regulations for the repairs of nuclear submarines specifically with armaments onboard.”

It is still not clear whether Russian media reports confirm whether these weapons were both torpedoes as well as possible nuclear missiles it is not clear whether this is the case.

“Even though it looks almost 100 percent certain now that conventional weapons were aboard, they could still have posed a great danger because of the vessel’s two nuclear reactors,” Igor Kudrik, Bellona’s advisor on nuclear safety in Russia told Aftenposten.

The submarine was in dry dock awaiting repairs, and all weapons should have been removed from the submarine whilst there.

Organisation Bellona fears that the weapons were left on board to allow the submarine to return to duty as soon as possible.

Leader Frederic Hauge is concerned the fire could have had extreme and wide-spread consequences for both Russia and Norway.

Had there been a danger of nuclear explosion Russia should have evacuated huge portions of the Kola Peninsula, which would have affected huddreds of thousands – Russia ignored this,” Bellona reports him as alleging.

“We're talking about a very serious incident only 200 kilometers from the Norwegian border. At worst, it could have meant radioactive emissions reaching Norway in two hours.”

Mr Hauge has now demanded both countries’ authorities act following the organisation’s examination of documentation relating to the fire.

“We think there are so many serious issues that we are now asking Norwegian authorities require an official response from Russia as to whether there really were nuclear weapons on board. This statement by Rogozin makes clear that [international] notification procedures did not work.

source:http://theforeigner.no/pages/news/russian-official-confirms-weapons-during-sub-blaze/

Government will ‘entertain amendments’ to online surveillance bill

2012-02-16T13:25:00.001Z

New Brunswick Conservative MP John Williamson, the former director of communications to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, said he shares the concerns of Canadians across the country, who are worried about the bill as it currently stands.

“I have concerns about the way the bill is drafted,” Williamson told reporters Wednesday on Parliament Hill.

“It’s too intrusive as it currently stands and does need to be looked at. There’s a lot of concern, I think, across the country,” he said. “It’ll go to committee and we haven’t had a frank discussion on it yet in caucus, so that will come.”

Facing questions Wednesday from interim NDP leader Nycole Turmel about “giving themselves the right to snoop in everybody’s computer,” Harper wouldn’t commit to tabling amendments to the bill but hinted the government is open to amendments.

National Post

CLICK TO ENLARGE.

“We’ve been very clear. We’re working with provinces and with police to attack problems of online pornography, child pornography, but of course we will ensure that Parliament fully studies this bill and that private life is also protected in this regard,” Harper said during question period.

“We want to fix our laws while striking the right balance when it comes to privacy. We will send this legislation directly to committee for a full and wide ranging examination of the best way to do what is right for our children,” added Public Safety Minister Vic Toews in a more tempered response to questions from the opposition.

When pressed further by the Liberals during Question Period, Toews said that: “we will entertain amendments.”

When Toews tabled the bill Tuesday, it was called the Lawful Access Act, but that version was quickly withdrawn and replaced with the Protecting Children from Internet Predators Act.

The name change followed a remark made Monday by Toews, who said a critic of the bill “can either stand with us or with the child pornographers.”

On Wednesday, the NDP’s digital affairs critic Charlie Angus picked up on the name change to accuse Toews of “hiding behind children” and “using child victims as political cover so that minister can treat average Canadians like criminals. Why this abuse of public trust and why this abuse of our child victims?” Angus said in the House of Commons.

Following question period, Calgary Tory member of Parliament Rob Anders, who represents one of the most conservative ridings in the country, said his office has already been hearing from constituents concerned about the bill, and he expects changes are coming to it.

“I imagine there’s probably going to be amendments to it,” Anders said. “I think there’s probably ways to set it up so that you could allow for immediacy in the case of child pornography but still have a way of seeking some warrants. I think that’s probably the way to go.”

Ontario Conservative MP David Tilson said “there’s no question it’s a privacy issue,” and that he still has a number of concerns about the bill that he wants addressed.

‘It’s time Canadians come to grips with the unfortunate truth that the federal government simply isn’t interested in demonstrating any sort of thoughtful leadership when it comes to the pressing digital issues of our day’
Comment from Financial Post‘s Matt Hartley

“I want to be satisfied that if the police are eavesdropping on people that they have permission from the courts. If they don’t have that, well, then I’ll be concerned. So I want to hear more about it first,” Tilson told reporters.

The legislation will require telecommunications companies to hand over personal information of customers, called basic subscriber information, to police without a court order.

In addition to name, address, phone number, email address and name of service provider identifier, the bill will require companies to hand over the Internet protocol address. The opposition parties and Canada’s privacy commissioners say this will allow police to build a detailed profile of people, including law-abiding citizens, using their digital footprint — without any judicial oversight.

The proposed bill will also require Internet service providers and cellphone companies to install equipment for real-time surveillance and will create new police powers designed to access the surveillance data. This means police can order a telecom company to preserve data for a specified period, but must first obtain a warrant to read the actual content.

Canada’s privacy commissioners pleaded unsuccessfully to the government last year to drop the warrantless access to basic subscriber info from the legislation.

Ann Cavoukian, Ontario’s privacy commissioner, is now wading into the name change.

“They’re calling the bill ‘Protecting Children from Internet Predators Act.’ Give me a break. The warrantless access does not just apply to cases of child pornography or child predators. It can apply to something that’s not even a criminal activity. It’s ridiculous to go to these lengths. And why are they doing it? They’re doing it because they want to instil fear on the part of the public and say, ‘Well, if you don’t give us this bill, then all child pornographers, those predators, that’s going to be on your head.’ And that’s what they want the public to fear,” Cavoukian told Postmedia News.

Source:http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/02/15/protecting-children-from-internet-predators-act-vic-toews/

It's only a "Medical Myth", Airport scanners are completely safe....honest.

2012-02-16T08:16:00.001Z

Some people believe that they are invasive and a health risk. But are body scanners at security checkpoints dangerous to people?

News 2 medical team asks a Medical University of South Carolina doctor about the effects of the small doses of X-ray radiation emitted by the airport scanning machines. Dr. Walter Huda says air travelers going through whole-body scanners don't need to worry about radiation from the devices.

Source:http://www2.counton2.com/lifestyles/2012/feb/13/medical-mythairport-scanners-give-lot-radiation-ar-3225897/

Oh reeeeally?

Abducted Iranian engineers in Syria have not been freed, as reported

2012-02-16T07:26:00.000Z

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast. (AFP/Behrouz Mehri)

TEHRAN: Seven Iranian engineers kidnapped near Syria's embattled city of Homs in late December have not been released as previously reported, and remain captives, the Iranian foreign ministry said on Thursday.
"We hope to witness the freedom of the Iranian engineers and the rest of pilgrims soon," ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast was quoted as saying by the Fars news agency.
A week ago, the foreign ministry announced that the seven, working on an electricity plant near Homs, had been released by their abductors.
It said the kidnapped men worked for Iran Power Plant Projects Management Company, or Mapna, which is the Iranian energy ministry's biggest contractor.
A previously unknown group calling itself the "Movement Against the Expansion of Shiism in Syria" claimed responsibility for their abduction in a statement received by AFP in Nicosia at the beginning of January.
The rebel Free Syrian Army later said it was holding five Iranian Revolutionary Guards abducted in Homs. It was not clear if those five referred to part of the group of seven, or were separate.
Another, distinct group of 11 Iranian pilgrims also remain captives in Syria. A different group of 11 Iranian pilgrims was released last week into Turkey.
Syria, Iran's principal ally in the Middle East, is roiled by an 11 month uprising that has seen more than 6,000 people killed, according to human rights groups.

Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2012/Feb-16/163462-abducted-iranian-engineers-in-syria-not-yet-freed-ministry.ashx#ixzz1mWl7ihCu
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)

Driver protests radar van with "middle finger"

2012-02-15T16:21:00.000Z

DENVER -- A Denver man's drive-by protest against a photo radar camera is getting him some serious attention after his picture was taken while he was "flipping off" the camera.

Daniel, who didn't reveal his last name, says he is fed up with photo radar vans so he intentionally sped past a van in late January on East 1st Avenue and University to make a point.

"I actually generally drive the speed limit," Daniel told FOX31 Denver. "I saw the van and figured this was my chance to register a protest and decided to flip it off."

Daniel received a ticket in the mail shortly after the traffic offense. His picture and the symbol of his protest were prominently displayed on the citation.

"I was actually hoping it'd be cleaner," he says. "It's a little too blurry for me."

Daniel, who calls himself an "accidental activist," says forcing a photo to be taken shows "how pointless these cameras are."

The 31-year-old Denver resident says the city shouldn't plan on getting any money from him for the ticket, "because tickets that are sent via standard first-class mail are not enforceable. The city would have to serve me for it to be binding."

Instead, Daniels prefers to "thumb his nose" at the process.

"Democracy is a messy process. Sometimes you have to engage in a little civil disobedience," Daniel says. "You have to be a little vulgar to get your point across, to get your message out there."

The Wi-Fi-Enabled, Bomb-Proof Litter Bin For London 2012

2012-02-15T08:17:00.000Z

It’s not just a place to throw your rubbish. New trash cans being installed for the London Olympics can’t be blown up, separate recycling, and also display helpful tourist info. That’s service.

There hasn’t been a lot of innovation in the world of public trash bins in the past few decades. With a few exceptions, the trash bin is still, as Kaveh Mamari says, little more than “a box with a hole."

But Mamari’s company, Renew, may change that. Renew recently installed 25 high-tech sidewalk pods in London’s financial district. The hope is that they’ll not only reduce litter and increase recycling, but also provide important public safety benefits.

Each of Renew’s bins has slots for paper recycling, but that’s just the beginning. They have two large LCD screens and are Wi-Fi enabled. That means they can display a wide range of real-time information, like public transportation schedules and updates, the number of bikes available at nearby bikeshare stations, headlines and financial news, and of course, ads.

The Renew bins are also incredibly strong. They underwent testing in the New Mexico desert to make sure they could withstand bomb blasts. That’s important in a city where trash cans have been used to hide bombs in the past. And in the event of a terrorist attack, natural disaster, or other major public safety threat, the LCD screens can be used as a sort of emergency broadcast system. If phone networks go down, as they did after the 7/7 bombings, these pods could provide up-to-date information to the public. There are also hints that the units may eventually communicate directly with mobile devices or serve as Wi-Fi hotspots themselves.

London has already signed a 21-year contract with Renew and plans to install a total of 100 of these bins in the city before the 2012 Olympics.

The total cost for development, manufacturing, and installation? A staggering £29,900 per bin--and that doesn’t include maintenance. That’s a lot of money to spend on recycling receptacles, but perhaps it’s a fair price for a robust public information network and citywide Wi-Fi.
OriginalSource:http://www.fastcoexist.com/1679281/the-wi-fi-enabled-bomb-proof-trash-can-of-the-future

9/11 widow sues therapist, says she was ritualistically brainwashed

2012-02-15T07:35:00.000Z

A 9/11 widow from New Jersey is suing her former grief counselor, alleging that the therapist brainwashed her, diagnosed her as being a “witchy queen” and ruined her self-confidence while charging her hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Richard Avery Aranow

Laura Weinberg of Washington Township said in her lawsuit, filed in Hackensack, that she sought counseling from Deborah Mandell of Passaic after her husband, Richard Aronow, was killed in the World Trade Center attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

She said she also sought help for her autistic son, who was 5 years old at the time.

What she received, however, was more grief in the form of “bizarre, ritualistic and cult-like” treatment methods, according to the lawsuit.

Mandell told Weinberg that she was “sending negative energy toward her son,” whom the therapist called a “waif,” and instructed Weinberg to recite a prayer every few minutes for “exorcizing demons,” Weinberg said in her lawsuit.

One treatment method involved a self-described shaman who engaged in ritualistic “house clearings,” the lawsuit said.

“It was explained to plaintiff by Dr. Mandell that burping was a way of getting rid of demons,” the lawsuit reads. “Dr. Mandell began burping constantly in sessions, and the shaman and the shaman’s partner all told plaintiff at times that they were burping out demons that had entered them.”

Another treatment method involved Mandell sprinkling salt all over the room and over the head of Weinberg’s son to make the boy “see the demons that were within him,” the lawsuit alleges.

“Deborah Mandell exceeded all boundaries of normal decency in a civilized society by injecting herself inappropriately into Laura Weinberg’s life,” said Weinberg’s attorney, Daniel Hoberman.

Mandell’s listed phone number, which was busy on Thursday, was disconnected on Friday.

A woman who picked up the phone at another number listed under Mandell’s address hung up when asked if she was Mandell. Messages left at that number later Friday and Monday were not returned, and no one answered the door Monday at Mandell’s home office in Passaic.

Weinberg said she joined a support group for families of 9/11 victims in late 2001 and attended sessions that were co-moderated by Mandell.

She said that she began seeing Mandell for individual sessions in 2004, and that at one point she told Mandell that she had received a settlement from the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund.

She continued to see Mandell for the next six years, and by summer 2010, she was paying for up to 15 hours of sessions a week for herself and her son, she said.

Weinberg said Mandell became more abusive through the years, threatening to have Weinberg kept in a psychiatric hospital if she did not stop sending “negative energy” toward her son.

She also threatened to report Weinberg to the state Division of Youth and Family Services unless she followed Mandell’s instructions and continued to pay for the therapy sessions.

That threat materialized in August 2010, when a DYFS officer showed up at Weinberg’s home to investigate Weinberg’s treatment of her son, Hoberman said.

“Weinberg then met with the investigator and realized how inappropriate the therapy had been,” Hoberman said. Weinberg later sought advice from attorneys and other professionals, Hoberman said.

Weinberg remained Mandell’s client for six years because she was “brainwashed,” Hoberman said. “She was in a state of mind where she didn’t believe in her ability to fight back,” Hoberman
The lawsuit demands an unstated amount in compensatory and punitive damages.

Mandell has no disciplinary record with the state Board of Psychological Examiners, which licenses and regulates psychologists, spokesman Jeff Lamm said.
Lamm said the agency does not comment on pending complaints against therapists and would not confirm or deny if any complaints have been filed against Mandell.
There are no records in the state’s civil-lawsuit database of prior filings against Mandell.

Source:http://www.bostonherald.com/news/national/northeast/view/20120214911_widow_sues_therapist_says_she_was_brainwashed/srvc=home&position=recent

illegal Mercury laced Yoko cream products still available on Amazon.

2012-02-14T16:07:00.006Z

The Malaysian Health Ministry has advised the public against using the Jole et Beaute Daily Protecting Cream and several face cream under the brand name "Yoko" as they were found to contain mercury.

The ministry's senior director of pharmaceutical service, Datuk Eisah A. Rahman, said the affected Yoko cream are Yoko Whitening Cream Ginseng & Pearls, Yoko Whitening Cream With SPF-15, Yoko Yogurt Milk Whitening Cream, Yoko Beauteen Sunflower Whitening Cream, Yoko Freckle Cream, Yoko Whitening Cream and Yoko Whitening Extract.

She said usage of the product could be hazardous effect due to the mercury content.

"Continuous exposure to the mercury can cause damage to the brain, nerve system and kidney. It can also cause rashes, irritation and other changes to the skin," she said in a statement issued here Tuesday.

Eisah advised those who still have the supply of the products to cease distributing, selling and using them immediately.

Amazon .uk website.

She said traders found in possession of the products could be charged under the Control of Drugs and Cosmetic Regulations 1984.

For further enquiries, the public can contact the National Pharmaceutical Control Bureau at 03-7883 5532/5534/8495 or e-mail to kosmetik.

Original story Source:http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/2/14/nation/20120214190651&sec=natio

The photo's are from: http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Ddrugstore&field-keywords=yoko&x=0&y=0.

Foreign Ministry Vehemently Denounces Israeli Likud Officials' Calls for Storming al-Aqsa Mosque

2012-02-14T07:02:00.000Z

DAMASCUS, (SANA)- The Foreign and Expatriates Ministry vehemently denounced reports by news agencies on statements made by officials from the Israeli Likud Party in which they called for storming al-Aqsa Mosque in the occupied Palestinian territories on Sunday.

"The ministry considers such declaration as a very serious development and comes in the framework of the systematic provocation to attack a Mosque that enjoys a religious status and a referential value among all the Muslims in the world," said a press statement issued by the Ministry's official spokesman.

The Ministry called on the international community to assume its responsibilities towards this serious development.

The statement, which SANA got a copy of, said that the city of Jerusalem is still under the Israeli occupation and that it is the responsibility of the Israeli occupation authorities to protect the properties and sanctities that are under occupation.

"Israel will bear the consequences and implications of this uncalculated venture," added the statement, saying that the holy al-Aqsa Mosque is "much more than a card to be used up in the elections of an entity that has been evading the requirements of the just and comprehensive peace."

The statement considered the Israeli calls to storm al-Aqsa Mosque as "a direct threat and disregard for the feelings of the Arabs and the Muslims everywhere."

Source:http://www.sana.sy/eng/21/2012/02/13/399994.htm

TEPCO provided radiation map to U.S. before Japanese public

2012-02-13T15:17:00.000Z

TEPCO provided radiation map to U.S. before Japanese public

The government's new radiation contamination map site is seen in this screen capture taken on Oct. 18. (Mainichi)

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Tokyo Electric Power Co. provided a contamination survey map of its crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant to the U.S. nuclear regulator nearly a month before its official disclosure to the public in Japan in late April last year, company officials said.

The revelation follows a series of revelations that the government data from the System for Prediction of Environmental Emergency Dose Information and the Japan Meteorological Agency's data on the projected radiation spread were provided to the United States and other international institutes before disclosure of the information in Japan.

TEPCO started making the map which described the amount of radiation at up to 150 spots around the buildings in the power plant site on March 22 and provided it the same day to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission at the request of its staff members dispatched to Japan after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami triggered the nuclear crisis, the officials said.

TEPCO officials and NRC staffers continued to share updated versions of the map almost every day via e-mail, they said.

This satellite file image taken on March 14, 2011, and provided by DigitalGlobe shows the damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear facility in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan. (AP Photo/DigitalGlobe)

TEPCO only started providing the data to Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency on March 23. It waited until April 24 to make the map public, only after the media reported details of the map a day before.

An official at TEPCO's public relations department said the company had provided data on the radiation amount at the Fukushima No. 1 complex at press conferences even before the official disclosure of the map, adding the utility "received advice" from the NRC.

(Mainichi Japan) February 12, 2012

Mystery Surrounds Air Force's Secretive X-37B Space Plane Landing Plan

2012-02-11T16:42:00.000Z

The United States Air Force's secretive X-37B space plane has been circling Earth for more than 10 months, and there's no telling when it might come down.

As of Friday (Jan. 20), the mysterious robotic X-37B spacecraft has been aloft for 321 days, significantly outlasting its stated mission design lifetime of 270 days. But it may stay up for even longer yet, experts say, particularly if the military views this space mission — the second ever for the hush-hush vehicle — as something of an endurance test.

"Because it is an experimental vehicle, they kind of want to see what its limits are," said Brian Weeden, a technical adviser with the Secure World Foundation and a former orbital analyst with the Air Force.

A long mystery mission The Air Force launched the X-37B in March 2011, sending the reusable space plane design on its second space mission. The X-37B now zipping around our planet is known as Orbital Test Vehicle-2, or OTV-2.

Another X-37B vehicle, the OTV-1, launched in April 2010 and landed in December of that year, staying on orbit for 225 days — well under the unmanned spacecraft's supposed 270-day limit. But OTV-2 has already exceeded that limit by more than seven weeks, and the calendar keeps turning over. [ Photos of the 2nd Secret X-37B Mission ]

Racking up a lot of time in space might be a key part of the current mission, according to Weeden.

"I think they didn't want to push it, just because it was the first of its kind," he told SPACE.com, referring to OTV-1's flight. "But I think that they are looking to push the second one."

Statements from Air Force officials appear to support Weeden's supposition.

"This successful flight is important in the progression of the X-37B program, moving us forward in our effort to prove the utility and cost-effectiveness of an unmanned, long-duration, reusable spacecraft," Air Force Lt. Col. Tom McIntyre, the X-37 systems program director, told SPACE.com in late November, when OTV-2 hit the 270-day milestone.

"We look forward to trying to expand the platform's envelope by extending the mission further," McIntyre added.

Testing new technologies? The X-37B looks a lot like NASA's now-retired space shuttle, only much smaller. The unmanned vehicle is about 29 feet long by 15 feet wide (8.8 by 4.5 meters), with a payload bay the size of a pickup truck bed. For comparison, two entire X-37Bs could fit inside the payload bay of a space shuttle.

Just what the X-37B does for so long while circling our planet remains a mystery, because the space plane's payloads and missions are classified.

Partly as a result of the secrecy, some concern has been raised — particularly by Russia and China — that the X-37B might be a space weapon of some sort. But the Air Force has repeatedly denied that charge, claiming that the vehicle's chief task is testing out new technologies for future satellites.

That's likely to be the case, said Weeden, who published a report in 2010 that investigated the X-37B and its likely missions.

The Air Force doesn’t disclose the X-37B's orbital parameters, but amateur observers have tracked the movements of both OTV-1 and OTV-2. They've found that OTV-2 is not looping around Earth in a polar orbit, which enables a good look at every spot on the globe.

Rather, the spacecraft is flying repeatedly over the stretch of Earth from 43 degrees north latitude to 43 degrees south latitude. Weeden thinks the space plane may be observing the Middle East and Afghanistan with some brand-new spy gear, perhaps instruments optimized to observe in wavelengths beyond the visible-light spectrum.

Earlier this month, an article in Spaceflight Magazine, a British publication, speculated that OTV-2 might bespying on Tiangong 1, China's recently launched prototype space module. But the orbits of the two robotic vehicles are quite different, making this scenario highly unlikely, Weeden and other experts have stressed.

You can follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter:@michaeldwall. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter@Spacedotcomand onFacebook.

Anonymous vows ‘crusade’ against Israel

2012-02-11T16:12:00.000Z

Online collective Anonymous has pledged a “crusade” against Israel. Claiming the country is committing “crimes against humanity” and gearing for “nuclear holocaust”, the group promised a campaign against the Israeli government.

In their statement issued early on Friday, Anonymous accused Israeli leaders of creating false democracy, serving the interests of a “select few” while “trampling the liberties of the masses.” The group said that Israel manipulates public opinion with a combination of “media deception” and “political bribery”.

Addressing the Israeli leaders, Anonymous stated that their “Zionist bigotry” is to blame for killings and displacements, adding that “as the world weeps” they are planning their “next attack”. The group pledged not to allow the attack to happen.

"You label all who refuse to comply with your superstitious demands as anti-Semitic and have taken steps to ensure a nuclear holocaust,” said the Anonymous. “We will not allow you to attack a sovereign country based upon a campaign of lies.The group promised a three-step campaign against the current government of the country. These will include “systematically” removing it from the internet and turning Israel into a free state, the third step remaining undisclosed.

However, in announcing the news, Israeli daily Haaretz comforted its readers by saying that the group is far from putting all of its threats into reality. The group previously threatened to attack the Knesset’s website but failed to fulfill the promise.

Still, in one of the recent developments Anonymous did crash the CIA website, which remained down hours after the attack. The group said it did this for “lulz”, meaning “for laughs”.

Source:http://rt.com/news/anonymous-crusade-israel-iran-081/

7/7: Institutional Denial

2012-02-11T15:53:00.001Z

Tony Farrell, a former Principal Intelligence Analyst at South Yorkshire Police talks about his dismissal from the force, his ongoing employment tribunal case and his analysis of 9/11 and the 7/7 London bombings.

Tony also provides a powerful warning to law enforcement officers in the UK regarding the encroaching police state; and he believes that officers need to honour their own mantra, 'justice with courage'.

Tony argues there should be 'no sacred cows' and that no part of the government or intelligence services should be off limits to police investigation and subsequent accountability.

New Supercontinent in Earth's Future

2012-02-11T09:03:00.000Z

Get ready for Amasia, the new supercontinent a team of Yale geologists suggests may form between 50 million and 200 million years from now as current continents shift.

In the model proposed by the Yale researchers, a newly formed mountain range will stitch North America and Asia together in the space currently occupied by the Arctic Ocean.

The Earth's next supercontinent will form as North and South America fuse together and head for an eventual collision with Europe and Asia, U.S. scientists say.

Researchers at Yale University in New Haven, Conn., have proposed a theory that both the present-day Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea will disappear in 100 million years as the new supercontinent, dubbed Amasia, comes together as present-day continents move north.

"After those water bodies close, we're on our way to the next supercontinent," study co-author Ross N. Mitchell said in a Yale release Wednesday. "You'd have the Americas meeting Eurasia practically at the North Pole."

The most recent supercontinent, Pangea, formed about 300 million years ago with Africa at its center , then began breaking apart into the seven continents of today with the birth of the Atlantic Ocean about 100 million years later.

In the model proposed by the Yale researchers, a newly formed mountain range will stitch North America and Asia together in the space currently occupied by the Arctic Ocean.

"Such speculations far into the future cannot be tested by waiting around 100 million years, of course," study co-author David A.D. Evans said, "but we can use the patterns gleaned from ancient supercontinents to think deeply about humanity's current existence in time and space within the grand tectonic dance of the Earth."

U.S. Navy to test 32 megajoule EM Railgun in the coming weeks

2012-02-11T08:57:00.000Z

The United States Navy will receive the industry's first 32 megajoule EM Railgun prototype and begin testing in the coming weeks.

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) announced today that they will begin testing an advancedElectromagnetic Railgun (EMR) within the next few weeks. The development and testing of this advanced EMR is the result of a $21 million contract awarded to BAE Systems by the Office of Naval Research roughly two years ago. For those that may not know, the ONR is the office within the United States Department of the Navy that facilitates all science and technology programs for the U.S Navy and Marine Corps through various institutions, such as universities and government laboratories.

While most munitions both heavy and small depend on chemical propellants (like gunpowder), the EM Railgun launcher (as you may have guessed from its name) utilizes magnetic energy instead. The EM Railgun propels a conductive projectile along metal rails using a magnetic field powered by electricity. The magnetic field produced by the high electric currents thrusts a sliding metal conductor between two rails to launch a projectile at velocities of 4,500 to 5,600 mph. By contrast, the average velocity of a chemical propelled weapon is limited to about 2,700 give or take.

So what does that mean? Well, this increased velocity should allow for the Navy to reach targets of up to 50 to 100 nautical miles away or, if your inner sea-dog is a little rusty, about 57 to 115 miles out. Navy planners hope to eventually increase that range even further to distances up to 220 nautical miles (253 miles).

According to ONR, this increase velocity and extended range will give sailors multi-mission capability, and allow them to conduct precise naval surface fire support. In addition, ONR states that the EM Railgun may provide effective ballistic missile defense.

BAE Systems EM Railgun was delivered to the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Dahlgren on January 30, 2012 and features a 32-megajoule payload. To add some perspective, one megajoule of energy is equivalent to a one ton car traveling at 100 miles per hour.

Source:http://www.digitaltrends.com/international/u-s-navy-to-test-32-megajoule-em-railgun-in-the-coming-weeks/

Amputation Cases Among Troops Hit Post-9/11 High in 2011

2012-02-11T08:49:00.000Z

More U.S. troops lost limbs in 2011 than in any previous year of fighting since the 9/11 attacks, recently published Pentagon data show.

The grisly toll, 240 cases of deployed troops with at least one arm or leg amputated, appears to mainly reflect the ongoing troop surge in Afghanistan, along with an increased emphasis on foot patrols in areas where insurgents are active.

Amputation cases were up from 196 in 2010 and exceeded the previous high of 205 during the 2007 Iraq surge, according to figures published this month by the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center. The Marine Corps was hit hardest by far, with 129 Marines suffering amputations in 2011. The Army, which has more troops in the country, had 100 amputation cases. Six sailors and five airmen also lost limbs.

But there’s a flip side to the grim statistics, officials say. The rising numbers are also believed to reflect recent advances in battlefield first aid, medical treatment and protective gear that make the current conflict “the most survivable war in the history of combat,” according to Adm. William Gortney, director of the Pentagon’s Joint Staff, speaking Jan. 31 at the Military Health System Conference in Washington.

In previous wars, or even several years earlier in the current one, some of the amputation cases would likely have been battlefield fatalities, said Col. Jonathan Jaffin, chief of the Army Surgeon General’s Dismounted Complex Blast Injury Task Force. From 2010 to 2011, though amputations increased, total U.S. troop deaths in from combat fell to 368 from 437, according to the Defense Manpower Data Center.

“These are grievous injuries, yes, but when you see them back here with their families having survived, these guys are all grateful to be alive,” Jaffin said.

The task force also found an increase in severe injuries in recent years. It sounds bad, Jaffin said, but actually means that troops are surviving worse injuries than before. Better and more widely distributed protective gear, including groin-protecting armor that many troops began receiving in 2011, are helping stop injuries to vital organs that previously could have proved fatal, Jaffin said.

Source:http://www.military.com/news/article/amputation-cases-among-troops-hit-post-9-11-high-in-2011.html

UPDATE: Israel training Iranian terror group to kill Iran's nuclear scientists, U.S. officials tell NBC News

2012-02-10T16:25:00.001Z

Israel teams with terror group to kill Iran's nuclear scientists, U.S. officials tell NBC News

Thu Feb 9, 2012 6:16 AM EST

Mehdi Marizad / Fars via AP file

A car that was bombed by two assailants on a motorcycle in Tehran on Jan. 11, killing Iranian nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahamdi Roshan, is removed by a mobile crane. The photo was distributed by the semi-official Iranian photo agency Fars.

By Richard Engel and Robert Windrem
NBC News

Updated: 11:14 a.m. ET -- Deadly attacks on Iranian nuclear scientists are being carried out by an Iranian dissident group that is financed, trained and armed by Israel’s secret service, U.S. officials tell NBC News, confirming charges leveled by Iran’s leaders.

ROCK CENTER EXCLUSIVE

The group, the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, has long been designated as a terrorist group by the United States, accused of killing American servicemen and contractors in the 1970s and supporting the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran before breaking with the Iranian mullahs in 1980.

The attacks, which have killed five Iranian nuclear scientists since 2007 and may have destroyed a missile research and development site, have been carried out in dramatic fashion, with motorcycle-borne assailants often attaching small magnetic bombs to the exterior of the victims’ cars.

U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Obama administration is aware of the assassination campaign but has no direct involvement.

The Iranians have no doubt who is responsible – Israel and the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, known by various acronyms, including MEK, MKO and PMI.

Mohammad Javad Larijani, a senior aide to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, describes what Iranian leaders believe is a close relationship between Israel's secret service, the Mossad, and the People's Mujahedin of Iran, or MEK, which is considered a terrorist organization by the United States.

“The relation is very intricate and close,” said Mohammad Javad Larijani, a senior aide to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, speaking of the MEK and Israel. “They (Israelis) are paying … the Mujahedin. Some of their (MEK) agents … (are) providing Israel with information. And they recruit and also manage logistical support.”

Moreover, he said, the Mossad, the Israeli secret service, is training MEK members in Israel on the use of motorcycles and small bombs. In one case, he said, Mossad agents built a replica of the home of an Iranian nuclear scientist so that the assassins could familiarize themselves with the layout prior to the attack.

Much of what the Iranian government knows of the attacks and the links between Israel and MEK comes from interrogation of an assassin who failed to carry out an attack in late 2010 and the materials found on him, Larijani said. (Click here to see a video report of the interrogation shown on Iranian televsion.)

The U.S.-educated Larijani, whose two younger brothers run the legislative and judicial branches of the Iranian government, said the Israelis’ rationale is simple. “Israel does not have direct access to our society. Mujahedin, being Iranian and being part of Iranian society, they have … a good number of … places to get into the touch with people. So I think they are working hand-to-hand very close. And we do have very concrete documents.”

NBC's Robert Windrem discusses the allegations that Israel's secret service is teaming up with an Iranian dissident terrorist group to kill Iran's nuclear scientists.

Two senior U.S. officials confirmed for NBC News the MEK’s role in the assassinations, with one senior official saying, “All your inclinations are correct.” A third official would not confirm or deny the relationship, saying only, “It hasn’t been clearly confirmed yet.” All the officials denied any U.S. involvement in the assassinations.

As it has in the past, Israel’s Foreign Ministry declined comment. Said a spokesman, "As long as we can't see all the evidence being claimed by NBC, the Foreign Ministry won't react to every gossip and report being published worldwide."

For its part, the MEK pointed to a statement calling the allegations “absolutely false.”

Ali Safavi, a long-time representative of the MEK, underscored the denial after publication of this article,

"There has never been and there is no MEK member in Israel, period," he said. "The MEK has categorically denied any involvement. The idea that Israel is training MEK members on its soil borders on perversity. It is absolutely and completely false."

The sophistication of the attacks supports the Iranian claims that an experienced intelligence service is involved, experts say.

In the most recent attack, on Jan. 11, 2012, Mostafa Ahamdi Roshan died in a blast in Tehran moments after two assailants on a motorcycle placed a small magnetic bomb on his vehicle. Roshan was a deputy director at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility and was reportedly involved in procurement for the nuclear program, which Iran insists is not a weapons program.

Previous attacks include the assassination of Massoud Ali-Mohammadi, killed by a bomb outside his Tehran home in January 2010, and an explosion in November of that year that took the life of Majid Shahriari and wounded Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, who is now the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization.

In the case of Roshan, the bomb appears to have been a shaped charge that directed all the explosive power inside the vehicle, killing him and his bodyguard driver but leaving nearby traffic unaffected.

Although Roshan was directly involved in the nuclear program, working at the huge centrifuge facility between Tehran and Qom, Iran’s religious center, at least one other scientist who was killed wasn’t linked to the Iranian nuclear program, according to Larijani.

Speaking of bombing victim Ali-Mohammadi, whom he described as a friend, Larijani told NBC News, “In fact this guy who was assassinated was not involved in the nitty-gritty of the situation. He was a scientist, a physicist, working on the theoretically parts of nuclear energy, which you can teach it in every university. You can find it in every text.”

“This is an Israeli plot. A dirty plot,” Larijani added angrily. He also claimed the assassinations are not having an effect on the program and have only made scientists more resolute in carrying out their mission.

Not so, said Ronen Bergman, an Israeli commentator and author of “Israel’s Secret War with Iran” and an upcoming book tentatively titled, “Mossad and the Art of Assassination.”

Israel has long used assassination against its enemies, "hoping that by taking out individuals, they can alter, change the course of history," says Ronen Bergman, an Israeli commentator and author of "Israel's Secret War with Iran" and an upcoming book tentatively titled "Mossad and the Art of Assassination."

Bergman said the attacks have three purposes, the most obvious being the removal of high-ranking scientists and their knowledge. The others: forcing Iran to increase security for its scientists and facilities and to spur “white defections.”

He explained the latter this way: “Scientists leaving the project, afraid that they are going to be next on the assassination list, and say, ‘We don't want this. Indeed, we get good money, we are promoted, we are honored by everybody, but we might get killed. It isn't worth it. Maybe we should go back to teach … in a university.’”

There are unconfirmed reports in the Israeli press and elsewhere that Israel and the MEK were involved in a Nov. 12 explosion that destroyed the Iranian missile research and development site at Bin Kaneh, 30 miles outside Tehran. Among those killed was Maj. Gen. Hassan Moghaddam, director of missile development for the Revolutionary Guard, and a dozen other researchers. So important was Moghaddam that Ayatollah Khamenei attended his funeral.

Unlike the assassinations, Iran claims the missile site explosion was an accident; the MEK, meanwhile, trumpeted it but denied any involvement.

Indeed, there may be other covert operations carried out either by Israel acting alone or in concert with others, according to Bergman.

“Two labs caught fire,” said Bergman, enumerating the attacks. “Scientists got blown up or disappeared. A missile base and the R&D base of the Revolutionary Guard exploded some time ago, with the director of the R&D division of the Revolutionary Guard being killed along with … his soldiers.”

Bergman added, “So, a long series of … something that was termed by an Israeli (Cabinet) minister … as ‘mysterious mishaps’ happening and rehappening to the project. Then the Iranians claim, ‘This is Israeli Mossad trying to sabotage our attempts to be a nuclear superpower.’”

Dr. Uzi Rabi, director of the Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University, said the supposed accidents could all be part of “psychological warfare” conducted against Iran. “It seems logical. It makes sense,” he said of possible MEK involvement, “and it’s been done before.”

Rabi, who regularly briefs Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, on Iran also said the ultimate goal of the range of covert operations being carried out by Israel is “to damage the politics of survivability … to send a message that could strike fear into the rulers of Iran.”

For the United States, the alleged role of the MEK is particularly troublesome. In 1997, the State Department designated it a terrorist group, justifying it with an unclassified 40-page summary of the organization’s activities going back more than 25 years. The paper, sent to Congress in 1998, was written by Wendy Sherman, now undersecretary of state for political affairs and then an aide to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

The report, which was obtained by NBC News, was unsparing in its assessment. “The Mujahedin (MEK) collaborated with Ayatollah Khomeini to overthrow the former shah of Iran,” it said. “As part of that struggle, they assassinated at least six American citizens, supported the takeover of the U.S. embassy, and opposed the release of the American hostages.” In each case, the paper noted, “Bombs were the Mujahedin's weapon of choice, which they frequently employed against American targets.”

“In the post-revolutionary political chaos, however, the Mujahedin lost political power to Iran's Islamic clergy. They then applied their dedication to armed struggle and the use of propaganda against the new Iranian government, launching a violent and polemical cycle of attack and reprisal."

Sean Gallup / Getty Images file

Maryam Rajavi, president of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, greets several hundred Iranian expatriates who had gathered to welcome her at Tegel Airport in Berlin, Germany, on March 22, 2010.

U.S. officials have said publicly that the information contained in the report was limited to unclassified material, but that it also drew on classified material in making its determination to add the MEK to the U.S. list of terrorist organizations.

The MEK and its sister organizations have since the beginning been run by Massoud and Maryam Rajavi, a husband-wife team who have maintained tight control despite assassination threats and internal dissent. Massoud Rajavi, 63, founded the MEK, but since the U.S. invasion of Iraq has taken a backseat to his wife.

The State Department report describes the Rajavis as “fundamentally undemocratic” and “not a viable alternative to the current government of Iran.”

NBC News correspondent Tom Aspell visits an MEK base in Iraq in this Nightly News piece that aired on May 26, 1991.

One reason for that is the MEK’s close relationship with Saddam Hussein, as demonstrated by this 1986 video showing the late Iraqi dictator meeting with Massoud Rajavi. Saddam recruited the MEK in much the same way the Israelis allegedly have, using them to fight Iranian forces during the Iran-Iraq War, a role they took on proudly. So proudly, they invited NBC News to one of their military camps outside Baghdad in 1991.

“The National Liberation Army (MLA), the military wing of the Mujahedin, conducted raids into Iran during the latter years of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War,” according to the State Department report. The NLA's last major offensive reportedly was conducted against Iraqi Kurds in 1991, when it joined Saddam Hussein's brutal repression of the Kurdish rebellion. In addition to occasional acts of sabotage, the Mujahedin are responsible for violent attacks in Iran that victimize civilians.”

“Internally, the Mujahedin run their organization autocratically, suppressing dissent and eschewing tolerance of differing viewpoints,” it said. “Rajavi, who heads the Mojahedin’s political and military wings, has fostered a cult of personality around himself.”

The U.S. suspicion of the MEK doesn’t end there. Law enforcement officials have told NBC News that in 1994, the MEK made a pact with terrorist Ramzi Yousef a year after he masterminded the first attack on the World Trade Center in New York City. According to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, Yousef built an 11-pound bomb that MEK agents placed inside one of Shia Islam’s greatest shrines in Mashad, Iran, on June 20, 1994. At least 26 people, mostly women and children, were killed and 200 wounded in the attack.

That connection between Yousef, nephew of 9-11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, and the MEK was first reported in a book, “The New Jackals,” by Simon Reeve. NBC News confirmed that Yousef told U.S. law enforcement that he had worked with the MEK on the bombing.

In recent years, the MEK has said it has renounced violence, but Iranian officials say that is not true, that killings of Iranians continue. Still, through some deft lobbying, the group has been able to get the United Kingdom and the European Union to remove it from their lists of terrorist groups.

The alleged involvement of the MEK in the assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists provides the U.S. with a cloak of deniability regarding the clandestine killings. Because the U.S. has designated the MEK as a terrorist organization, neither military nor intelligence units of the U.S. government, can work with them. “We cannot deal with them, “ said one senior U.S. official. “We would not deal with them because of the designation.”

Iranian officials initially accused the Israelis and MEK of being behind the attacks, but they have since added the CIA to the list. Three days after the Jan. 11, 2012, bombing in Tehran that killed Roshan, the state news agency IRNA reported that Iran’s Foreign Ministry had sent a diplomatic letter to the U.S. claiming to have “evidence and reliable information” that the CIA provided “guidance, support and planning” to assassins directly involved in the attack.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton immediately denied any connection to the killings. “I want to categorically deny any United States involvement in any kind of act of violence inside Iran,” Clinton told reporters on the day of the attack.

But at least two GOP presidential candidates have no problem with the targeting of nuclear scientists. In a November debate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich endorsed “taking out their scientists,” and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum called it, ”a wonderful thing.”

The MEK’s opposition to the Iranian government also has recently earned it both plaudits and support from an odd mix of political bedfellows.

A group of former Cabinet-level officials have joined together to support the MEK’s removal from the official U.S. Foreign Terrorist Organization list, even taking out a full-page ad last year in the New York Times calling for the removal of the MEK from the U.S. terrorist list. Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton; former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, former FBI Director Louis Freeh and former Rep. Patrick Kennedy were among those whose signatures were on the ad.

“There’s an extraordinary group of bipartisan or even apolitical leaders, military leaders, diplomats, the United States … the United Kingdom, the European Union, even a U.S. District Court in Washington, said that this group that was put on the foreign terrorist organization watch list in 1997 doesn’t deserve to be there,” Ridge said in November on “The Andrea Mitchell Show” on MSNBC TV.

U.S. politicians also have been pushing the U.S. government to protect the 3,400 MEK members and their families at Camp Ashraf in Iraq, about 35 miles north of Baghdad. With the departure of U.S. troops, the MEK feared that Iraqi forces, with encouragement from Iran, would attack the camp, leading to a bloodbath. At the last minute, however, agreement was brokered with the United Nations that would permit the MEK members’ departure for resettlement in unspecified democratic countries. As of this week, there’s been little movement on the planned resettlement.

Jassim Mohammed / AP file

Iranian fighters with the National Liberation Army, the military wing of the MEK, clean armored personnel carriers in 1997 after a field exercise near Camp Ashraf in Iraq.

The Iranians see what’s happening as terrorism and hypocrisy by the United States. They have forwarded documents and other evidence to the United Nations – and directly to the United States, they say.

“I think this is very cynical plan. This is unacceptable,” said Larijani. “This is a bad trend in the world. Unprecedented. We should kill scientists … to block a scientific program? I mean this is disaster!”

Daniel Byman, a professor in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and also a senior fellow with the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, said that if the accounts of the Israeli-MEK assassinations are accurate, the operation borders on terrorism.

“In theory, states cannot be terrorist, but if they hire locals to do assassinations, that would be state sponsorship,” said Byman, author of the recent book, “A High Price: The Triumphs and Failures of Israeli Counterterrorism.” “You could argue that they took action not to terrorize the public, the purpose of terrorism, but only the nuclear community. An argument could also be made that degrading the program means that you don’t have to take military action and thus, this is a lower level of violence and that really these are military targets, where normally terrorist targets are civilians.”

But ultimately, Byman said, there is a “spectrum of responsibility” and that Israel is ultimately responsible.

Ronen Bergman, while not speaking on behalf of the Israeli government, suggests that there is a justification, citing an oft-repeated but disputed quote in which Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s said that Israel should be wiped off the face of the earth.

“Meir Degan, the chief of Mossad, when he was in office, hung a photograph behind him, behind the chair of the chief of Mossad,” notes the Israeli commentator. “And in that photograph you see -- an ultra-orthodox Jew -- long beard, standing on his knees with his-- hands up in the air, and two Gestapo soldiers standing -- beside him with guns pointed at him. One of -- one of them is smiling.

“And Degan used to say to his people and the people coming to visit him from CIA, NSA, et cetera, ‘Look at this guy in the picture. This is my grandfather just seconds before he was killed by the SS,’” Bergman said. “’… We are here to prevent this from happening again.’"

US admits Israel is arming and training Iranian terrorist groups

2012-02-10T08:38:00.000Z

Deadly attacks on Iranian nuclear scientists are being carried out by an Iranian dissident group that is financed, trained and armed by Israel's secret service, U.S. officials tell NBC News, confirming charges leveled by Iran's leaders.
The group, the People's Mujahedin of Iran, has long been designated as a terrorist group by the United States, accused of killing American servicemen and contractors in the 1970s and supporting the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran before breaking with the Iranian mullahs in 1980.

The attacks, which have killed five Iranian nuclear scientists since 2007 and may have destroyed a missile research and development site, have been carried out in dramatic fashion, with motorcycle-borne assailants often attaching small magnetic bombs to the exterior of the victims' cars.

U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Obama administration is aware of the assassination campaign but has no direct involvement.

Marine scout snipers used Nazi SS logo

2012-02-10T08:12:00.001Z

Marine Corps scout snipers used the logo of the notorious Nazi SS organization while in Afghanistan in 2010, the service acknowledged Thursday.

The logo appeared on a flag in a photograph of the platoon taken in September 2010 in Sangin district, a hotly contested area in Helmand province. The Marines were with Charlie Company, 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, out of Camp Pendleton, Calif., and are shown sitting in combat gear with the U.S. flag and a blue flag with the stylized “SS” logo hanging behind them.

The logo also appears on a 7.62mm M40 sniper rifle carried by a Marine in another photograph distributed Thursday by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. Information embedded electronically with the image shows that it was released by the Marine Corps in 2004 and taken at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms, Calif.

The two Marines in it were with the scout sniper platoon with 1st Battalion, 7th Marines.

Combined, the two photographs suggest that the practice has been carried out for years.

The logo’s use is an apparent nod to “scout sniper,” a position exclusive to the Corps. The Army has scouts and snipers, but considers the positions to be separate.

“We don’t have all the information, but we know enough to know the Marine Corps needs to open a full investigation,” said Mikey Weinstein, the foundation’s president. “If these guys just get a non-judicial punishment, it’s absolutely absurd.”

The SS, or Schutzstaffel, was a paramilitary organization under the Nazi Party. It committed a variety of war crimes, and was outlawed by Germany after World War II.

The inspector general at I Marine Expeditionary Force at Pendleton was made aware of the “SS” flag photograph in November, said Capt. Gregory Wolf, a spokesman at Marine Corps headquarters. The Marines involved were ordered to stop using the logo.

Marine officials at the Pentagon declined to comment on whether the Marines faced any discipline, saying the issue was handled on the unit level at Pendleton.

A Marine official, speaking on background due to the sensitivity of the issue, said the Corps’ leadership was not aware of the SS logo’s use until it came to their attention late last year.

“We don’t believe these Marine Corps snipers had a historical appreciation for what this symbol meant,” the official said. “As soon as leadership was made aware of it, they took action at the unit level and then passed that information throughout the sniper community and to those snipers serving in Afghanistan.”

That seems possible, said Allen Falk, national commander of the Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America.

“We believe that these young men likely did not understand the significance of this symbol, and we call on the Marine Corps to increase education on American history,” he said. “This issue goes beyond one of racism or anti-Semitism.

Our fellow Americans fought and died to stop the Nazis, and it is shameful for any member of the military to display the symbols of Nazi Germany.”

The Corps has addressed the use of the SS logo before, however. A PowerPoint presentation posted on a Marine Corps website said it should not be used in any tattoos. The logo was used by German special police during World War II and is still used by neo-Nazis and graffiti to characterize anti-Semitism, white supremacy and facism, according to the presentation.

The MRFF said Thursday in a letter sent to Commandant Gen. Jim Amos, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and other top Pentagon officials that it was contacted by 45 active-duty Marines concerned about the photographs.

“The implication of these photographs, if true, should be readily apparent,” the letter said. “If the use of the Nazi insignia has been, in any way, condoned or tolerated by the Marine Corp.[sic], the implications are abhorrent to everything for which our country is fighting and the constitutional principles for which it stands.”

Source:http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2012/02/marine-scout-snipers-nazi-ss-logo-020912/

I don't buy for one minute that they :

"Did not understand the significance of this symbol"

these are soldiers....my 12 year old nephew knows the history of that symbol, this is what's known as "caught red handed"

Israel's New Upgraded Missile to "Generate Maritime Supremacy"

2012-02-09T16:20:00.000Z

The upgraded ‘Barak' missile recently implemented in the Israeli Navy will allow for better operational responses and ultimate defense

14:49 GMT, February 9, 2012 Upgraded defensive capabilities were recently incorporated to Israeli Navy forces including the new and improved "Barak" surface-to-air missiles used to protect vessels. The Naval corps is working to declare the improved missiles operational as soon as possible with trial both at sea and in the air.

"Upgrading the missile will provide an improved operational response, so we want it equipped on our vessels as quickly as possible. The Israeli Navy intends to produce a superior maritime force, and prevent any harm to our forces. These fleets will not only guard the coast, but rather defend the entire country," said a senior naval source.

Another recent development deals with the issue of balancing energy resources and the economic waters of the State of Israel. The Navy is attempting to harness to its advantage the economic security presented by resources such as gas, oil and minerals located near Israel's coast.

The navy and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) at large are doing all they can to execute the government's decision on this matter.

Source: http://www.defpro.com/news/details/32209/?SID=0ea857895508d06d27ae6e7c28e6175e

Israel...if you have to fire a couple of "Barak's"....try Obama, and Ehud.

News media manipulation exposed by Telegraph journalist's Twitter rant

2012-02-09T08:46:00.000Z

Reporter's Twitter rant to 2 million readers: Boss screwed me over story

Source:http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard

11 Oct 2011

The number one unwritten rule of the office is: if you feel like screaming at your boss, take a deep breath and walk away.

But freelance journalist Rob Crilly broadcast his distress to millions when he complained about his line manager on Twitter.

The Cambridge-educated journalist, who is based in Pakistan and writes for the Daily Telegraph, was livid at the rewording of an article he wrote on theLibyan civil war. He then tweeted his anger, saying: "Hate being a freelancer when you've just got to suck it up."

However, his incendiary comments were not just transmitted to his 7,800 Twitter followers - they were also published on the Telegraph website which is read by more than two million people every day. The newspaper uses automatic feeds of reporters' tweets as content for its online publication.

Last night, readers of the website could see Crilly's comments next to his piece titled: "Libya: rebel fighters push on as battle for Sirte looms."

Initially, he complained directly to Daily Telegraph editor Tony Gallagher about his foreign news chief. He tweeted: "Neville Dean has twisted my copy beyond all recognition."

Crilly added: "I've just told the editor about his foreign news editor and how he screwed me on a story. Think I'll be sacked." Crilly, 38, then told his followers: "I said NTC (National Transitional Council) hadn't decided policy. Neville Dean rewrote that new Libyan govt had refused to work with western gov."

Becoming increasingly agitated, the foreign correspondent, who is an expert on Darfur, appeared to lose all semblance of control and tweeted: "Neville Dean is a c***."

In another Twitter gaffe, Chris Huhne revealed himself as the source behind a story that undermined Home Secretary Theresa May. He accidentally published a private message using the micro-blogging website.

The Telegraph had not commented by the time the Standard went to press.

Crying wolf, foreign agendas and Israel's role in destabilising Syria

2012-02-09T08:27:00.000Z

Israel's track record of fostering regional unrest is an old story. It's now a well-worn observation that the US invasion and occupation of Iraq - which dismayed the whole world and shattered US credibility in foreign affairs - was a splendid success from the perspective of its pro-Israel architects. Their core goal in promoting the war was to eliminate Iraq as a military threat to Israel and this miracle has been neatly accomplished. Oh, sure, Iraqi society is now a bomb-cratered version of its former self, but that too is a friendly outcome - insurance against a strong Iraqi state ever rising again.

It's been a dismally predictable, transparent and nasty lie by regimes under assault in the Arab Spring that the mass uprisings are being whipped up by foreign agitators - usually meaning Israel and the United States, maybe France, Europe generally, now sometimes Turkey or, heaven forfend, Al Jazeera journalists. Only the most gullible swallow these claims: their principal effect is to make the claimants look like buffoons.

Still, a government's crying wolf doesn't mean a wolf isn't around somewhere. It's equally gullible to assume that foreign agendas have no role in Syria, for example.

The flood of western money, supplies, intelligence agents, satellite and drone monitoring and promises of every kind has been lavish everywhere in the Arab Spring. They have been serving outside interests in the time-honoured way of all revolutions: identifying new clients for backroom deals, playing on big-man ambitions, fostering cupidity where it was only a seed, manipulating jealousies and fears, playing off old internecine vendettas and, the new favourite, heating up sectarian bigotry. If these machinations are more low-profile in Syria, this doesn't mean they aren't operating.

Since the end of the Cold War, Western interests have focused almost exclusively on stability, that pillar of pax economicus beloved by investment bankers, primary-product extractors and tourism developers everywhere - with one exception: the Middle East. The hypocrisy of Western democracy promotion in the Middle East has been described too much to need further mention here, but it does bear pointing out that instability is preferred by at least one key player: Israel. The interests driving this foreign involvement haven't changed in decades: the geopolitics of oil and, as a related but also self-standing issue, Israel.

These are constants, and don't tell us much. Less obvious is the exact strategy serving these goals, particularly the subtext of ostentatious calls for "democracy". Democracy became a foreign policy goal for Western powers during the Cold War when inept dictator allies kept triggering revolutions against themselves and toppling. The real goal of "democracy" was stability: instability served only where a great power wanted to pick a fight over influence.

Israel's track record of fostering regional unrest is an old story. It's now a well-worn observation that the US invasion and occupation of Iraq - which dismayed the whole world and shattered US credibility in foreign affairs - was a splendid success from the perspective of its pro-Israel architects. Their core goal in promoting the war was to eliminate Iraq as a military threat to Israel and this miracle has been neatly accomplished. Oh, sure, Iraqi society is now a bomb-cratered version of its former self, but that too is a friendly outcome - insurance against a strong Iraqi state ever rising again.

full article:

http://www.islam21c.com/politics/4345-crying-wolf-foreign-agendas-and-israels-role-in-destabilising-syria

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Crying wolf, foreign agendas and Israel's role in destabilising Syria