And Now a Word from the Netroots: Will the Real Barack Obama Please... Sit Down? --The Rec Report By Michael Rectenwald, Ph.D. 09 Jan 2010 As the betrayals by President Barack Obama and the Democrats mount, the Obamapologetics grow more desperate and contradictory by the day... Obama was brought in for one reason and one reason only - to put a better, even subaltern face on imperialism, martial adventurism, and the economic decline of the vast majority. He was brought in for his astounding rhetorical ability - to package war escalation and economic rollbacks and to sell them as peace and reforms. He was brought in so that the Republican boosters could call him a socialist and thereby provide right cover for his government as it handed over the federal treasury in bailouts and war bucks.
Xe, a Blackwater You Can Believe In: Xe Services Aiming for Afghan Police Training Deal --Xe (formerly Blackwater) aims to be part of Obama's Afghanistan strategy 10 Jan 2010 Blackwater Worldwide's legal woes haven't dimmed the company's prospects in Afghanistan, where it's a contender to be a key part of President Barack Obama's strategy for stabilizing destroying the country. Now called Xe Services, the company is in the running for a Pentagon contract potentially worth $1 billion to train Afghanistan's troubled national police force. The expanded role would seem an unlikely one for Xe because Democrats have held such a negative opinion of the company following the Iraqi deaths, which are still reverberating in Baghdad and Washington. During the presidential campaign, then-Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, now Obama's secretary of state, backed legislation to ban Blackwater and other private security contractors from Iraq. [Obama keeps faith with these mass-murderers, rapists and child-molesters? Xe, a Blackwater you can believe in! --MDR]
Warlord calls the shots over Afghanistan military transport --The warlord usually receives around US$2500 for each truck that passes. 08 Jan 2010 An Afghan warlord has told Radio Netherlands that he is receiving money to protect convoys of army vehicles. The warlord, Mathiullah Khan, has confirmed he charges for the transportation of water, food and fuel from Kandahar to the Dutch bases at Camp Holland or Tarin Kowt in the neighbouring province to the north.
'In terms of security we have failed.' Karzai: I don't need foreign forces in Afghanistan 08 Jan 2010 Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai says he does not need anymore 'the favor' of the US-led foreign forces in his war-weary country. "If these forces are coming only to chase the Taliban at the cost of Afghan civilians, of course that's not going to produce any good consequences for us," Karzai said in an interview with al-Jazeera on Friday... The president's remarks come after thousands of Afghan people took to the streets to protest the rising civilian death toll by the US-led forces in the country.
U.S. has no plans to send troops to Yemen says Mullen [Right, he'll just send Blackwater terrorists.] 09 Jan 2010 Yemen has posed a concern as a potential terrorist safe haven for some time, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff said at the Naval War College, in Newport, Rhode Island, Friday. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen said the U.S. military has no plan to conduct combat operations in Yemen, nor does the Yemeni government want U.S. combat forces in the country.
Defiant Yemen tells US soldiers to keep out --The country refuses to become the latest hub of America's war on of terror 08 Jan 2010 Yemen insisted yesterday that it could handle its own mounting security challenges without any direct foreign intervention, pointedly warning Washington to learn the lessons from Iraq and Afghanistan. While welcoming US intelligence and technological co-operation, the Deputy Prime Minister for Defence and Security, Rashad al-Alimi, told a crowded news conference in the capital, Sana'a, that the government did not want foreign troops on its soil.
Iraq confiscates arms in private security crackdown 09 Jan 2010 Security forces confiscated hundreds of rifles, thousands of rounds of ammunition and other military gear in a crackdown on mercenaries in Iraq, officials said on Saturday. Police raided three locations in Baghdad on Friday, a week after Iraqi authorities were incensed by a U.S. judge's decision to throw out charges against five Blackwater Worldwide security guards terrorists accused of killing over a dozen Iraqi civilians in 2007. Officials said they are targeting private security companies that are no longer legally licensed to operate in Iraq. "All those companies with their work permits expired are not allowed to move one meter inside Baghdad, or own one piece of weaponry," Baghdad security spokesman Qassim al-Moussawi said.
Day ends in 'y,' so Obusha is poised to open new war front: US preparing military for possible Iran conflict 09 Jan 2010 The US does not want to see confrontation with Iran but is still preparing its military for that possibility, America's top uniformed officer said Thursday. "We've looked to do all we can to ensure that conflict doesn't break out there, while at the same time preparing forces, as we do for many contingencies that we understand might occur," Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during an appearance at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
U.S. Moves to Support Iran Opposition 09 Jan 2010 The Obama administration is increasingly questioning the long-term stability of Tehran's government and moving to find ways to support Iran's [US-funded] opposition "Green Movement," said senior U.S. officials. The White House is crafting new financial sanctions specifically designed to punish the Iranian entities and individuals most directly involved in the crackdown on Iran's dissident forces, said the U.S. officials, rather than just those involved in Iran's nuclear program.
Day ends in 'y,' so Obusha is poised to open new war front: Chavez says Venezuela jets intercepted U.S. plane 09 Jan 2010 President Hugo Chavez said he ordered two F-16 jets to intercept a U.S. military plane that twice entered Venezuelan skies on Friday, but Washington said none of its planes flew over the South American country's airspace. Brandishing a photo of the plane, which he described as a P-3, Chavez said the overflight was the latest violation of Venezuelan airspace by the U.S. military from its bases on the Netherlands' Caribbean islands and from neighboring Colombia. "They are provoking us ... these are warplanes," he said. Chavez said the F-16s escorted the U.S. plane away after two incursions lasting 15 and 19 minutes each.
Pakistan says US drone attacks must end 09 Jan 2010 Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Friday reiterated his country's concerns over the US drone strikes in talks with a delegation of visiting US senators. The US delegation is led by Senator John McCain (R-Insane), the former presidential candidate. Gilani said his government was "disappointment over the continuing drone attacks" and criticized Washington for not sharing pilotless drone technology with Islamabad, Pakistan's official APP news agency reported Saturday.
U.S. Insists Pakistan Ease Limits On Staffers 08 Jan 2010 The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad demanded that Pakistan stop detaining American diplomats at police checkpoints on the country's roads -- an unusual public complaint intended, in part, to counter rumors of U.S. plots against Pakistan. U.S. officials privately say the traffic stops, which they describe as harassment, are part of a broader campaign aimed at limiting America's diplomatic [sic] presence in Pakistan. The officials say they believe the campaign is being driven by elements in the military and the Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency.
Angry Cuba demands removal from U.S. terrorism list 08 Jan 2010 Cuba angrily rejected on Friday U.S. accusations that it supports terrorist groups and demanded its removal from a U.S. list of "state sponsors of terrorism." Cuba demanded its "immediate exclusion" from the U.S. terrorism list, calling it an "unjust, arbitrary and politically motivated designation that contradicts the exemplary conduct of our country in confronting terrorism." It accused the United States of harboring "hundreds of criminals, murderers and terrorists" it said had acted against the Cuban government since Fidel Castro took power in a 1959 revolution. [Harboring and HIRING. And, it's likely thousands. --LRP]
Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York City, omits 9/11 while bashing Obama on terror 08 Jan 2010 Rudy Giuliani has been teased for only having three words in his vocabulary - a noun, a verb and 9/11 - but Friday "America's Mayor" seemed to forget about 9/11. The embarrassing flub came as Giuliani hit the morning news shows to suggest that President Obama needs to take more cues from ex-President [sic] George W. Bush when it comes to fighting terror. "One of the right things [Bush] did was treat this as a war on terror," Giuliani told "Good Morning America" host George Stephanopoulos. Then Giuliani proclaimed, in words he would soon regret, "We had no domestic attacks under Bush. We've had one under Obama," referring to November's shootings at Fort Hood by a radical Army psychiatrist. [Oops! Unindicted senile 9/11 co-conspirator, Rudy Giuliani, 'forgets' his complicity in the murder of 3,000 US citizens under Bush so that he, Lucky Larry 'Maybe the smartest thing to do is pull it.' Silverstein and the rest of Bush's merry cabal of sociopaths, could make billion$ on their phony 'war on terror.' --LRP]
Video allegedly shows CIA bomber saying he spilled U.S. secrets --A Pakistani TV station airs footage purportedly showing the suicide bomber of a CIA outpost telling a Taliban leader that he shared U.S. and Jordanian intelligence secrets with fellow militants. 09 Jan 2010 A Pakistani television station aired a video today allegedly showing the suicide bomber of a CIA outpost in Afghanistan telling the Pakistani Taliban leader that he'd shared U.S. and Jordanian intelligence secrets with fellow militants. He also urged militants to hit other U.S. targets in retaliation for the killing of the leader's predecessor last year in a U.S. missile strike. Although its veracity could not be immediately determined, the footage is a powerful recruiting tool and its content potentially embarrassing to the U.S. spy agency.
CIA agents killed to avenge death of Taliban leader 09 Jan 2010 A newly released video shows a man said to be the suicide bomber who killed seven CIA agents in Afghanistan vowing to avenge the death of former Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud. The video, aired Saturday by a Pakistani broadcaster (AAJ) and an Arabic news channel, Al-Jazeera, shows a man identified as Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi wearing traditional Afghan clothing sitting next to new Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud.
Restroom alert! 2 F-16s launched to catch up with AirTran Airways Flight 39 --Unruly passengers cause 2 flights to change course 09 Jan 2010 Disruptive passengers caused two commercial airplanes to be diverted Friday, with military jets scrambling to escort a San Francisco-bound flight into a Colorado airport, authorities said... Two F-16s were launched at 11:44 a.m. to catch up with AirTran Airways Flight 39 from Atlanta to San Francisco after a report that an intoxicated passenger had locked himself in a bathroom, the Colorado-based North American Aerospace Defense Command said. The jets arrived over Colorado Springs Airport as the captain - who AirTran said had decided to divert the plane - landed there around noon, NORAD spokeswoman Stacey Knott said.
Three men arrested over Heathrow plane bomb threat --Armed police board Dubai-bound Emirates flight after 'verbal threat' made to air crew 09 Jan 2010 Three men have been arrested on suspicion of making a bomb threat on a plane as it readied for take-off at Heathrow airport. Armed counter-terrorist officers [!] boarded the Dubai-bound Emirates flight last night after a "verbal threat" was made to air crew at 9.15pm. The Metropolitan police said the three men were in custody.
Man removed from plane after security alert at Heathrow 08 Jan 2010 An aircraft passenger was removed from a plane by counter-terrorism officers after uttering a hoax threat as it readied for take-off, it was reported tonight. The unnamed white man was on an Emirates flight to Dubai taxiing at Heathrow when he made the comments, which were overheard by a fellow traveller.
Abdulmutallab Pleads Not Guilty in Plane Attack Plot 08 Jan 2010 Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the man accused of trying to destroy a Northwest Airlines plane carrying 290 people on Christmas Day, pleaded not guilty to U.S. criminal charges. The 23-year-old Nigerian entered his plea today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Randon in Detroit. As the flight approached the city’s airport, Abdulmutallab ignited his pants leg and a wall of the plane while trying to detonate a mixture of explosives he smuggled aboard, according to prosecutors.
Zazi associate charged in New York bomb plot 09 Jan 2010 A former high class classmate of a man accused of plotting an al Qaeda-inspired bomb attack in New York pleaded not guilty on Saturday to charges of murder conspiracy and receiving training by a terrorist organization. Adis Medunjanin, 25, a U.S. citizen of Bosnian origin, was arrested on Friday after a car chase that ended in a collision on a New York City bridge. At a Saturday arraignment, Medunjanin was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country, Pakistan, and one count of getting military-style training from al Qaeda [al-CIAduh].
FBI arrests 2 more in NYC terrorism investigation 08 Jan 2010 Two men were arrested Friday in the investigation of a suspected bomb plot targeting New York City, a case that has already led to charges against a Denver airport shuttle driver they attended high school with. The arrests in New York of Adis Medunjanin and Zarein Ahmedzay were part of "an ongoing investigation" by the Joint Terrorism Task Force, according to FBI agent Richard Kolko, who declined to comment further.
Man Arrested Newark Security Breach 10 Jan 2010 The man who is believed to have slipped into a secured area of Newark Liberty International Airport and to have caused a six-hour shutdown of a major terminal on Sunday has been arrested, Port Authority officials said on Friday night. The man, Haisong Jiang, 28, was taken into custody at 7:30 p.m. at his home in Piscataway, N.J., according a statement from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The agency said he would be charged with defiant trespass.
Obama: Our security failed and the buck stops with me 08 Jan 2010 President Obama said last night that ultimately it was his responsibility to keep Americans safe from terrorists as he announced a major shake-up of US security in the wake of the Christmas Day airline bomb plot. "The buck stops with me," Mr Obama declared during a long statement at the White House, in which he decried the security failures that allowed a Nigerian man with known links to extremists, and with plastic explosives sewn into his underwear, to board a US-bound flight.
Canada ordered airline scanners months ago --Scanner technology was in the works well before events in recent weeks 06 Jan 2010 Transport Minister John Baird told CTV's Canada AM on Wednesday morning that Canada chose to pursue the high-tech scanner technology months ago, putting an order in to manufacturers "before the United States were in the queue...and before some of the countries in Europe." He said the scanner technology was in the works well before the events in recent weeks, leaving Canadian authorities well-informed about the practical concerns of implementing them at nationwide airports. "This is something we've been working on for about 15 months," said Baird.
Flying has become a nightmare thanks to the CIA, not al-Qaeda [Well, a lot us assert that they're *one and the same.*] By Con Coughlin 08 Jan 2010 Since September 11, Western democracies have conceded much in terms of privacy and civil liberties in order to assist the intelligence-gathering operation against Islamist extremists. We have granted the police and other security agencies greater surveillance powers, and have amended the criminal justice system to take account of this existential threat to our freedom. But as the war on Islamist terror enters its ninth year, we find that, despite the billions of dollars that the Americans have invested in giving their intelligence-gathering capability a serious upgrade, the approach to tackling the threat remains as naive today as it was on the morning that three hijacked aircraft caused the worst terrorist atrocity in American history.
Truckloads of Unused Swine Flu Vaccines --People were unsure of pumping a quickly developed vaccine into their bodies. 08 Jan 2010 After months of fear, media coverage and government warnings there wasn't as much demand for the swine flu vaccine in New York state as expected. Truckloads of swine flu vaccines are being returned by counties that say the expected demand for the shots never happened.
Millions of doses of swine flu vaccine to be off-loaded 08 Jan 2010 What do you do with vaccine that no-one needs [or wants]? That is the question currently puzzling the Department of Health. Back in May the government signed contracts with two suppliers - GSK and Baxter - to supply 90 million doses of H1N1 pandemic vaccine. The Department of Health has revealed that it has a break clause in its contract with Baxter which had been asked to supply 30 million doses, but it appears there is no get-out clause in the deal with GSK, set to provide 60 million doses. [See: Baxter working on vaccine to stop swine flu, though admitted sending live pandemic flu viruses to subcontractor 26 Apr 2009.]
CAMC set to fire employees who do not get flu vaccine by end of Friday --Charleston Area Medical Center employees who do not get the seasonal flu vaccine by the end of the day Friday are going to lose their jobs. 06 Jan 2010 (WV) Charleston Area Medical Center employees who do not get the seasonal flu vaccine by the end of the day Friday are going to lose their jobs. "The vaccine is a condition of employment" and people who do not get the vaccine will be fired, CAMC spokesman Dale Witte said. Anyone who is not vaccinated by the end of the day Friday will not be allowed to work, Witte said... "Then it will be termination." A CAMC employee e-mailed the Gazette to say, "it looks like the decision to let 80 employees go because they refuse to take the vaccine is actually going to take place."
CLG Exclusive: Source: Ford Paying Tea Partiers to Protest Detroit Auto Show By Lori Price, www.legitgov.org 07 Jan 2010 The Ford Motor Co. is paying Tea Partiers to protest against the Detroit car manufacturers at the 2010 Detroit Auto Show, Citizens For Legitimate Government has learned. Ford is paying the Tea Party protesters in order to increase their market share through brand loyalty. [Update: Ford Motor Company and PR firm Burson Marstellar have been visiting the CLG, reading this story, etc.]
'The actual unemployment rate is higher than shown by the official numbers.' Shrinking U.S. Labor Force Keeps Unemployment Rate From Rising 09 Jan 2010 An exodus of discouraged workers from the job market kept the U.S. unemployment rate from climbing above 10 percent in December, economists said. Had the labor force not decreased by 661,000 last month, the jobless rate would have been 10.4 percent, according to economists including David Rosenberg at Gluskin Sheff & Associates in Toronto and Harm Bandholz at UniCredit Research in New York.
Three top Wall Street banks to award $49.5 billion in year-end bonuses By Barry Grey 05 Jan 2010 The US media has been virtually silent on the colossal year-end bonuses for 2009 that will shortly be handed out by major American banks and financial firms... A brief article published on the inside pages of the business section of the January 1 New York Times ("With Bigger Bonuses, An Upside for Banks") notes in passing that the three top Wall Street banks will pay out an estimated $49.5 billion in cash bonuses and stock awards.
Police: Ex-Bush lawyer tried to kill wife by beating her with flashlight 08 Jan 2010 An attorney who worked in both Bush administrations was charged Thursday with trying to kill his wife by beating her with a flashlight and choking her two days after she delivered divorce papers. John Michael Farren, 57, was arraigned on charges of strangulation and attempted murder and ordered held on $2 million bail. His wife, Mary Farren, was beaten so severely Wednesday night at their New Canaan home that she was at points knocked unconscious and lost vision, police said.
After review, scientists urge end to mountaintop mining 07 Jan 2010 The consequences of this mining in eastern Kentucky, West Virginia and southwestern Virginia are "pervasive and irreversible," the article finds. Companies are required by law to take steps to reduce the damages, but their efforts don't compensate for lost streams nor do they prevent lasting water pollution, it says. The article is a summary of recent scientific studies of the consequences of blasting the tops off mountains to obtain coal and dumping the excess rock into streams in valleys.
800 more elderly Scots could die in Big Freeze 09 Jan 2010 As the country battles with the most extreme conditions for almost 50 years, the sub-zero temperatures are expected to increase the normal winter death toll significantly. Between December and March last year, there were 3,510 "excess deaths" in Scotland, but this winter that figure is set to jump significantly, mostly among the over-75s. Age Concern and Help the Aged in Scotland expressed great concern about the prediction. Spokesman Douglas McLellan said: "The figures are very alarming. Cold weather should not result in this number of deaths."
Previous lead stories: US forges alliance with Saddam Hussein officers to fight 'al-Qaeda' --American counter-terrorism specialists and Saddam Hussein's former intelligence officers have forged an unlikely alliance in Yemen to tackle al-Qaeda. 06 Jan 2010 The two sides were enemies on the battlefield just seven years ago but have been brought together by the failings of Yemen's security and intelligence apparatus, according to diplomatic and military sources in the country. Although mutual suspicions linger, the collaboration is said to have achieved some intelligence breakthroughs and helped instil greater efficiency and professionalism within the most elite Yemeni counterterrorism outfit.
Gitmo Confession Tainted by Torture, Judge Says 07 Jan 2010 A federal judge in Washington, D.C., ordered the release of a Yemeni detainee, saying the government's case to keep him at Guantanamo relies too heavily on confessions tainted by torture. U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina ruled that Saeed Mohammed Saleh Hatim's confession that he was part of al-Qaida [al-CIAduh] in Afghanistan was unreliable, because it was allegedly obtained under torture in Afghanistan. Hatim was captured in Pakistan in November 2001 and was held for six months in Kandahar, Afghanistan, where he was allegedly beaten and threatened with rape.
Ex-Blackwater mercenaries charged with murder 07 Jan 2010 Two former mercenaries of the notorious US security firm Blackwater (now known as Xe Services LLC) have been charged with the 2009 murder of two Afghan civilians in Kabul, the Justice Department says. Justin Cannon, 27, of Corpus Christi, Texas, and Christopher Drotleff, 29, of Virginia Beach, Virginia, have been charged with second-degree murder after opening fire on the two civilians.
