Israeli firm blasted for letting would-be plane bomber slip through 10 Jan 2010 The Israeli firm ICTS International (not to be confused with ICTS Europe, which is a different company), and two of its subsidiaries are at the crux of an international investigation in recent days, as experts try to pinpoint the reasons for the security failure that enabled Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to board Northwest flight 253 and attempt to set alight explosives hidden in his underwear. A Haaretz investigation has learned that the security officers and their supervisor should have suspected the passenger, even without having early intelligence available to them. 'Uncle Sam is 'marking territory' - like a dog on a lamppost.' Obama's Yemeni odyssey targets China By M K Bhadrakumar 09 Jan 2010 A year ago, Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Saleh made the startling revelation that his country's security forces apprehended a group of Islamists linked to [Wait for it... it's good...] the Israeli intelligence forces. "A terrorist cell was apprehended and will be referred to the courts for its links with the Israeli intelligence services," he promised. Saleh added, "You will hear about the trial proceedings." Nothing was ever heard and the trail went cold. [Well, knock me over with a feather!] ...Is Obama so incredibly forgetful of his own December 1 speech outlining his Afghan strategy that he violated his own canons? Certainly not. Obama is a smart man. The intervention in Yemen will go down as one of the smartest moves that he ever made for perpetuating the US's global hegemony. It is America's answer to China's surge.
'US to double its security funding to Yemen' 10 Jan 2010 The Head of the US Central Command Gen. David Petraeus has declared that Washington is to double its security assistance funding to Yemen, from $70 million to more than $150. However the US has no plans to send ground troops to Yemen, Petraeus told CNN in an interview that will be aired on Sunday... Shia fighters in the north have repeatedly reported that US fighter jets have bombed the northwestern province of Sa'ada.
UK troops 'executed Iraqi grandmother' --Royal Military Police investigate latest allegation of abuse another war crime in Basra 11 Jan 2010 Allegations that a 62-year-old Iraqi grandmother was tortured and executed by British soldiers after her family home was raided three years ago are being investigated by the Royal Military Police. The Army's involvement in the death and abuse of Sabiha Khudur Talib is one of the most serious charges to be made against Britain during its six-year occupation of southern Iraq. UK government ministers are to be given previously unseen police reports from a Basra crime unit which conclude that Mrs Talib's body was dumped on a roadside in a British body bag in November 2006. There was a bullet hole in her abdomen and her face had injuries consistent with torture, police reported.
Alastair Campbell had Iraq dossier changed to fit US claims' --WMD in a year' allegation halved original timescale after compilers told to compare contents with Bush speech 10 Jan 2010 Fresh evidence has emerged that Tony Blair's discredited Iraqi arms dossier was "sexed up" on the instructions of Alastair Campbell, his communications chief, to fit with claims from the US administration that were known to be false. The pre-invasion dossier's worst-case estimate of how long it would take Iraq to acquire a nuclear weapon was shortened in response to a George Bush speech.
'Significant amounts of money were spent on procuring the services of Afghan warlords.' UK 'paid Afghan warlord $2m to find Osama Bin Laden' 09 Jan 2010 The UK paid $2m (£1.3m) for the services of an Afghan warlord in an operation against Osama Bin Laden in 2001, it has been alleged. BBC Two's Conspiracy Files heard claims from a US special forces commander that both the Americans and British paid substantial sums to Afghan warlords... Dalton Fury told the BBC significant amounts of money were spent on procuring the services of Afghan warlords. "General Hazrat Ali was paid $4 million to rent his leadership and his men. Haji Zaman Gamsurek supported by the United Kingdom was paid $2 million," said Mr Fury.
Sunday Mirror journalist killed in Afghan blast 10 Jan 2010 The defence correspondent of the Sunday Mirror newspaper has become the first British journalist to be killed while covering the war in Afghanistan. Rupert Hamer, 39, was accompanying a US Marine Corps patrol when an explosion from a device hidden outside a small village hit the vehicle he was travelling in on Saturday. The photographer Philip Coburn, 43, who had worked with Mr Hamer in several war zones, suffered severe leg injuries in the attack.
Officials: Suspected US Drones Kill 13 In Pakistan 06 Jan 2010 Suspected U.S. drone missile strikes killed 13 people in Pakistan's volatile northwest Wednesday, the latest of five such attacks in the past week targeting an area believed to be a hideout for militants involved in a suicide attack on a CIA base in Afghanistan. Since the attack, suspected U.S. drones have carried out an unusually high number of strikes in North Waziristan, part of a larger trend of President Barack Obama using the aircraft more frequently in Pakistan than had his predecessor.
Al-Qa'ida trains 20 more plane bombers --Other young Muslim men like Abdulmutallab are prepared in Yemen for terror attacks 10 Jan 2010 Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab told US investigators that about 20 other young Muslim men were being coached in Yemen to blow up planes using a technique identical to the one he employed, CBS News has reported, quoting a British intelligence source.
Taliban make 'undetectable' bombs out of wood 10 Jan 2010 Taliban fighters have developed a deadly new generation of their most lethal weapon, the improvised explosive device, or IED, which is almost undetectable because it has no metal or electronic parts, military experts said last week. IEDs have proved the Taliban's most deadly weapon: three out of five coalition troops killed last year in Afghanistan were victims of the bombs.
How this suicide bomber opened a new front in Al-Qaeda's war --New details have emerged of the failures that led to the deaths of seven CIA agents in Afghanistan. 10 Jan 2010 That morning, Wednesday December 30, Humam Khalil Abu Mulal al-Balawi had been picked up at the Ghulam Khan border crossing by an Afghan army commander called Arghawan, who was in charge of security at the Chapman base... As Balawi stepped out of the car, seven CIA officers and a handful of soldiers gathered around. According to the guard, it was then that Balawi detonated his bomb, killing eight and injuring six. Arghawan, still sitting in the driver’s seat, survived the initial blast but a US soldier shot him in the head with his pistol, assuming that he was part of the bomb plot.
CIA Bomber in Video With Taliban Leader --Tape Surfaces Showing Jordanian Who Killed CIA Operatives in Afghanistan Vowing Revenge for Killing of Taliban Figure 09 Jan 2010 A Jordanian doctor-turned-suicide bomber and triple agent who killed 7 CIA agents and a Jordanian intelligence agent in Afghanistan on December 30, appeared in a video broadcast by a Pakistani TV station on Saturday, meeting with Pakistan's main Taliban leader, and provoking widespread reaction over his ties with militants on both sides of the Pak-Afghan border.
'Bush sold Arab states arms in violation of deal with Israel' 09 Jan 2010 The Bush administration violated security related agreements with Israel in which the U.S. promised to preserve the IDF's qualitative edge over Arab armies, according to senior officials in the Obama administration and Israel. Defense Minister Ehud Barak traveled to the U.S. in September for a rushed meeting in which it was agreed that the two allies would discuss how to resolve the problems regarding this issue.
Israeli general Brigadier-General Uzi Eilam denies Iran is nuclear threat 10 Jan 2010 A general who was once in charge of Israel’s nuclear weapons has claimed that Iran is a "very, very, very long way from building a nuclear capability". Brigadier-General Uzi Eilam, 75, a war hero and pillar of the defence establishment, believes it will probably take Iran seven years to make nuclear weapons. The views expressed by the former director-general of Israel’s Atomic Energy Commission contradict the assessment of Israel’s defence establishment and put him at odds with political leaders.
3 Palestinians killed by Israeli airstrike on Gaza 10 Jan 2010 Israeli warplanes have attacked the central Gaza Strip, killing three Palestinians in the area. Palestinian medics said the Israeli airstrike killed the three, AFP reported. Muawiya Hassanein, the head of Gaza emergency services, announced that the bodies of the three were taken to a hospital in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza. He added that the eastern part of Gaza was also attacked by Israeli warplanes.
Israel prevented 17 sight-impaired Gazans from leaving for cornea transplant operations on time; a donation of dozens of corneas went down the drain (Physicians for Human Rights-Israel) 09 Jan 2010 The Israeli authorities at Erez checkpoint this week prevented the exit of 17 sight-impaired patients, suffering from various eye diseases, from the Gaza Strip in order to undergo cornea transplants, a treatment that is not available in the Gaza health system. Because of this delay, the medical window of opportunity to perform the transplants for these patients was closed, because corneas can be transplanted only within the shortest time frame (24-48 hours after they are extracted from the donor's body)... PHR-Israel strongly protests the blatant disregard of the Erez checkpoint authorities for the medical urgency of allowing the exit of patients for cornea transplant operations.
Labour 'resigned to losing general election' 11 Jan 2010 The Labour Party is resigned to an election defeat under the stewardship of Gordon Brown, following last week's shambolic coup attempt and yet more damaging revelations about the Prime Minister's leadership style. Senior Labour sources said the party had no confidence it would emerge victorious from a general election campaign, despite widespread expectation among its ranks that the Conservatives could be beaten with a different leader.
'Disorderly' Va. man taken off plane --Two F-16 fighter jets were scrambled from the North American Aerospace Defense Command headquarters in Colorado Springs. 09 Jan 2010 A 47-year-old Virginia man taken off an airplane Friday in Colorado and held in jail over the weekend is expected to appear in federal court in Denver on Monday and be charged with interfering with a flight crew. Muhammad Abu Tahir, of Glen Allen, was reportedly drinking and acting in an unruly manner aboard an AirTran Airways flight from Atlanta to San Francisco. The pilot chose to divert the aircraft to Colorado Springs, where Tahir was removed before the flight resumed. Two F-16 fighter jets were scrambled from the North American Aerospace Defense Command headquarters in Colorado Springs. They remained above Colorado Springs Airport until local law enforcement authorities arrived, Lt. Commander Gary Ross said yesterday.
Slovaks plant explosives on air traveller 06 Jan 2010 Irish police have released a man held over an explosives find, after Slovak authorities admitted planting them in his luggage as part of a security test. The explosives were among eight contraband items placed with passengers at Bratislava and Poprad-Tatry airports last weekend. The man unwittingly brought the material into Dublin when he returned from his Christmas holidays. He was arrested on Tuesday morning, but has since been released without charge. Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern said he was very concerned that Irish police had not been alerted for three days.
Paris airport to try scanners on US-bound flights 08 Jan 2010 Body scanners will be used on an experimental basis at France's busiest airport later this month for flights headed to the United States, the deputy director of transportation at the General Direction for Civil Aviation said Friday. French President Nicolas Sarkozy had ordered this week a study of the possible use of scanners following the failed effort, allegedly by a Nigerian man, to blow up a Detroit-bound plane on Christmas.
Cancer Risks Debated for Type of X-Ray Scan 09 Jan 2010 The plan for broad use of X-ray body scanners to detect bombs or weapons under airline passengers’ clothes has rekindled a debate about the safety of delivering small doses of radiation to millions of people -- a process some experts say is certain to result in a few additional cancer deaths. The scanning machines, called "backscatter scanners," deliver a dose of ionizing radiation equivalent to 1 percent or less of the radiation in a dental X-ray. But collectively, the radiation doses from the scanners incrementally increase the risk of fatal cancers among the thousands or millions of travelers who will be exposed, some radiation experts believe.
Officials Hid Truth About Immigrant Deaths in Jail 10 Jan 2010 Silence has long shrouded the men and women who die in the nation’s immigration jails. For years, they went uncounted and unnamed in the public record. Even in 2008, when The New York Times obtained and published a federal government list of such deaths, few facts were available about who these people were and how they died. But behind the scenes, it is now clear, the deaths had already generated thousands of pages of government documents, including scathing investigative reports that were kept under wraps, and a trail of confidential memos and BlackBerry messages that show officials working to stymie outside inquiry.
McCain strategist: Palin thought candidacy was mapped by God 11 Jan 2010 Sarah Palin believed that Sen. John McCain chose her to be his running mate in the 2008 presidential race because of "God's plan," according to a top political strategist in the Arizona Republican's campaign. In an interview with the CBS news magazine "60 Minutes," Steve Schmidt described Palin as "very calm -- nonplussed" after McCain met with her at his Arizona ranch just before putting her on the Republican ticket. Schmidt, McCain's chief campaign adviser, said he asked Palin about her serenity in the face of becoming "one of the most famous people in the world." He quoted her as saying, "It's God's plan."
G.O.P. Attacks Reid Over Comments 11 Jan 2010 Republicans on Sunday sought to portray racially insensitive remarks attributed to Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, in a new book as similar to comments made in 2002 by Trent Lott, the Republican leader who was forced to step down. Democrats rejected that comparison and continued to close ranks behind Mr. Reid for comments he made suggesting that Barack Obama could become the first African-American president because he was "light-skinned" and because he did not speak with a "Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one." They said the circumstances surrounding Mr. Reid and Mr. Lott were not parallel. Republicans, however, pressed the issue, with some even calling for Mr. Reid to step down. [Actually, the GOP itself forced loser Lott to step down. They wanted an even bigger Nazi, Bill Frist, in the role as Senate Majority Leader. Anyway, while carrying phony birth certificates, erecting billboards with nooses, toting AK-47s to town hall meetings and all but *praying* for Obama's assassination, the hypocritical sociopaths aka the GOP, actually *criticize* someone for making racist comments. It truly boggles the mind. --LRP]
Hawaii can't afford Congressional election 09 Jan 2010 Cash-strapped Hawaii can't afford to pay for an election to replace a congressman who is planning to step down next month to run for governor, potentially leaving 600,000 urban Honolulu residents without representation in Washington. Budget cuts have left the state Office of Elections with about $5,000 to last until July, with a special election costing nearly $1 million, interim Chief Elections Officer Scott Nago said. Until the state finds money or this fall's regularly scheduled elections occur, one of Hawaii's two seats in the House of Representatives will remain vacant.
Polar bears near shore as ice vanishes --Many scientists blame the warmer temperatures associated with climate change for the disappearance of the sea ice. 08 Jan 2010 A 27-year study of polar bears in the southern Beaufort Sea showed them spending more time on land and open water as ice disappeared, officials said. Between 1979 and 1987, 12 percent of bear sightings were associated with no ice. Between 1997 and 2005, however, 90 percent of bear sightings were associated with no ice, said Karyn Rode, a polar bear biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Anchorage, Alaska. As sea ice disappeared, more bears were seen near shore in the southern Beaufort Sea, Rode said in a recent issue of the journal Arctic.
Previous lead stories: 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]
'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.
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]
