What Adam Curry is reading

ALERT: False Flag Commeth? Boeing E4B "DoomsDay Plane" spotted Flying Low & BETWEEN SkyScrapers in Austin,TX! | Peace . Gold . Liberty
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  Archived Version
  Thu, 04 Jul 2013 01:52
  Video Updated:
  http://youtu.be/61jNce2rkcc
  Listen to InfoWars LIVE, Now:
  http://www.infowars.com/listenhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_E-4#Specifications_.28E...
  David Knight is sitting in for Alex Jones today. AJ was supposed to be having a family day; took his son fishing. While out getting lures at a local shop, he spots the "Doomsday Plane" flying over Austin's tallest building, really, really low. He's calling in from the road; on live as of 10:26am PST.
  There are many witnesses to this; it maybe streaming over Austin's local TV networks.
  http://www.kvue.com/http://www.kxan.com/
  Anyone from the area?
  Will update as video becomes available.
  This is PURE PsyOps: they're letting you know they own the skies.
  AJ also reports seeing military helicopters.
  They're frontloading the image of E4B flying on 9/11/2001 over NYC skies, just to remind you: they're re-invoking the same image and terrorizing the public to get the sentiment going, again...
  stay tuned.
  ABC 'News' PsyOp Conditioning PRE-9/11 on June 7, 2001:
  http://youtu.be/FJF3Og9cCp8
  E4B on 9/11/2001:
  http://youtu.be/UgF9Fd4UyMY
  ===================================================================
  UPDATE 1: Quick article blurb from IFW
  Breaking News: Alex Jones Reports Possible Aircraft Psyop in Austin
  Infowars.comJuly 3, 2013
  While driving down the road, Alex Jones reported a large, low level aircraft, possibly a Boeing E-4B, flying at the level of the tallest buildings in downtown Austin. This is reminiscent of the Air Force One ''photo op'' incident that scared Manhattans in 2009.
  More details will be made available soon.
  This article was posted: Wednesday, July 3, 2013 at 12:34 pm
  UPDATE 2: Just a reminder, it happened before...with Air Force One, WITHOUT the POTUS in it.
  Air Force One Photo Op Triggers Panic in Manhattan
  By MARK CRUDELE, RICHARD ESPOSITO and LISA STARKApril 27, 2009
  New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is "furious" over a Department of Defense low-altitude flyover of NYC in the area around Ground Zero this morning, calling it "ill-conceived" and a "waste of taxpayers' money."
  A photo shoot involving a 747 used as Air Force One and one fighter jet flying at low altitude led to hundreds of frightened calls from residents and workers in Lower Manhattan this morning, triggering memories of 9-11 as many evacuated their offices. The president was not aboard.
  At a White House press briefing Monday afternoon, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs dodged questions about the flyover, even referring the media to the White House (that he represents).
  UPDATE 3: Eyewitness commentary and more Videos
  Witness Describes Doomsday Jet Buzzing Austin
  http://youtu.be/Jb49SozVNmM
  TheAlexJonesChannelPublished on Jul 3, 2013
  This was off the chart I saw this and could not believe my eyes. The giant jet came within 200 yards of hitting buildings. Somebody's got to have shot video of this , please send to Tips@infowars.com
  Doomsday Plane is AirForce Confirmed
  http://youtu.be/PEop2UnEC7wTheAlexJonesChannelPublished on Jul 3, 2013
  A listener sent in two passes of the plane flying low to the ground over Hwy 183.
  Mysterious Low Flying Plane Buzzes Austin
  Incident evokes memories of 2009 panic in New York
  Paul Joseph WatsonInfowars.comJuly 3, 2013
  A mysterious aircraft flew dangerously low over Austin today, evoking memories of how New Yorkers were terrified by a similar incident three years ago.
  Austin radio host Alex Jones reported seeing the plane flying at the level of the city's highest skyscrapers, coming dangerously close to hitting them. The aircraft made several passes before leaving for another area of the city.
  The footage above shows the plane filmed at a different location flying at a higher altitude.
  Jones compared the incident to when the government flew a Boeing 747 over New York City in 2009 as part of a photo-op, evoking memories of 9/11 and sending thousands of people into a ''total panic''.
Disable Severe Weather and Presidential Alerts on Verizon Galaxy S III '' xda-developers
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  Archived Version
  Thu, 04 Jul 2013 01:48
  Got yourself a Galaxy S III on Verizon and getting annoyed by all those presidential alerts and those about severe weather? No one really wants to wake up at 4 in the morning because of a potential flood 50 miles away. Fortunately, you can now disable all of these.
  The severe weather alerts can be disabled from the options provided in the stock ROM itself, as pointed out by XDA Forum Member Inous in this forum thread. Just open the stock Messaging app and from its menu, select 'Emergency Alerts'. Once there, just uncheck all the alerts that you don't want, and you're done.
  Unfortunately, there is no built-in option to disable the presidential alerts, as they are buried in the settings file for the messaging app. However, you can just disable the stock Messaging app as you would disable any other stock application (Settings -> Applications -> All -> Messaging, and tapping 'Disable'). However, if you do this, you should consider loading another texting app such as Handcent or Go SMS to replace the missing functionality.
  If you would rather stick with your stock messaging app and still disable the presidential alerts, you can do that'--as long as your phone is rooted. The method of doing so was shared with us thanks to XDA Forum Member blazera in this thread.
  ___________________[Join us August 9-11, 2013 in beautiful Miami, FL for XDA:DevCon. Read here to find out more.]Google+
Body of Mark Udall's Brother Found In Wyoming | The World's Greatest Deliberative Body
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  Archived Version
  Thu, 04 Jul 2013 01:45
  By Meredith ShinerPosted at 8:58 p.m. on July 3, 2013
  The body of James ''Randy'' Udall, brother of Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., was found in Wyoming Wednesday, ending a six-day search mission by local authorities.
  Randy Udall had been hiking the Wind River Range, which he had traversed several times before, when he did not report back home as expected last week. Udall, an environmentalist, was the son of the late longtime Arizona Rep. Morris Udall and cousin of Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M.
  On Wednesday evening, the Udall family issued a statement confirming Randy's death and thanking the local authorities who had combed a hundreds-of-miles-wide area to find him.
  ''It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved Randy. Randy's body was discovered today by the heroic search and rescue team that worked for days to locate him in a remote area of the Wind River Range of Wyoming,'' the statement read. ''Our family is extremely grateful to Sublette County Sheriff Dave Lankford, his staff, Tip Top Search and Rescue, the United States Forest Service, Wyoming Air National Guard, and all others involved for their tireless efforts over the past several days. Although an autopsy is forthcoming, it appears he died of natural causes.
  ''Randy left this earth doing what he loved most: hiking in his most favorite mountain range in the world. He appeared to be on the obscure, off-trail route that he had proposed to his family. The entire Udall family is touched beyond words by the tremendous outpouring of support from people around the country. Randy's passing is a reminder to all of us to live every day to its fullest, just as he did.''
  Udall was 61 years old.
Mark Udall: I tried to expose NSA program
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  Archived Version
  Thu, 04 Jul 2013 01:45
  Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) says he ''did everything short of leaking classified information'' to bring attention to the National Security Administration's seizure of Americans' phone records.
  ''I did everything in my power to bring attention'' to the program, he told the Denver Post.
  Udall alluded to the program's existence earlier this year as Congress debated reauthorizing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) on the Senate floor, tying up a vote on reauthorizing the law for several days. During the debate, Feinstein and Chambliss, among others, angrily defended the program, saying it would be necessary to continue effective counterterrorism operations.
  In a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder last year, Udall and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said, ''We believe most Americans would be stunned to learn the details of .'‰.'‰. these secret court opinions. As we see it, there is now a significant gap between what most Americans think the law allows and what the government secretly claims the law allows.
  In an interview with the Plum Line, Udall's cousin, Sen. Tom Udall, Democrat of New Mexico, said it was hard to even have a public evaluation or debate over the surveillance because we know so little about it. But he called the blanket order ''deeply disturbing.''
Mastercard and Visa Start Banning VPN Providers | TorrentFreak
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  Archived Version
  Thu, 04 Jul 2013 01:43
  Mastercard and Visa Start Banning VPN Providers | TorrentFreakThe place where breaking news, BitTorrent and copyright collideMastercard and Visa Start Banning VPN ProvidersErnestoJuly 3, 2013vpnPrintFollowing the introduction of restrictions against file-sharing services, Mastercard and Visa have now started to take action against VPN providers. This week, Swedish payment provider Payson cut access to anonymizing services after being ordered to do so by the credit card companies. VPN provider iPredator is one of the affected customers and founder Peter Sunde says that they are considering legal action to get the service unblocked.
  Payment providers are increasingly taking action against sites and services that are linked to copyright infringement.
  There's an unwritten rule that Mastercard and Visa don't accept file-hosting sites that have an affiliate program and PayPal has thrown out nearly all cyberlockers in recent months.
  It now turns out that these policies have carried over to VPN providers and other anonymizing services. Before the weekend customers of the popular Swedish payment service provider Payson received an email stating that VPN services are no longer allowed to accept Visa and Mastercard payments due to a recent policy change.
  ''Payson has restrictions against anonymization (including VPN services). As a result Payson can unfortunately no longer give your customers the option to finance payments via their cards (VISA or MasterCard),'' the email states, adding that they still accept bank transfers as deposits.
  The new policy went into effect on Monday, leaving customers with a two-day window to find a solution.
  While the email remains vague about why this drastic decision was taken, in a telephone call Payson confirmed that it was complying with an urgent requirement from Visa and Mastercard to stop accepting payments for VPN services.
  One of these customers is the iPredator VPN, launched by Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde and friends. Sunde tells TorrentFreak that he is baffled by the decision, which he believes may be an effort to prevent the public from covering their tracks online and preventing government spying.
  ''It means that US companies are forcing non-American companies not to allow people to protest their privacy and be anonymous, and thus the NSA can spy even more. It's just INSANE,'' Sunde says.
  Sunde explains that iPredator will always have plenty of other payment options, but sees it as an outrage that Mastercard and Visa have apparently decided to ban a perfectly legal technology.
  ''For iPredator there are always other payment methods, like Bitcoin, but it's insane to censor a totally legit system that is there to avoid censorship and surveillance,'' Sunde says.
  Despite these alternatives, Sunde is not going to stand idly by. He informs TorrentFreak that Ipredator considering taking legal action, citing the Wikileaks win against the credit card companies as a favorable precedent.
  Ipredator is far from the only VPN provider that is affected by the policy change. Anonine, Mullvad, VPNTunnel, Privatvpn and several others are also using Payson's services.
  At this point it's unclear why the two companies are taking a stand against anonymizing services. It seems likely that an industry or authority has been pushing for the policy change behind the scenes. However, with privacy high on the agenda with the PRISM scandal, the move comes at an odd time.
  TorrentFreak has reached out to Mastercard and Visa but we have yet to hear back from the companies. We are not aware of any other payment service providers who have taken action against VPN providers, so the scope of the actions are unknown at this point.
  Payment providers are increasingly taking action against sites and services that are linked to copyright infringement. There's an unwritten rule that Mastercard and Visa don't accept file-hosting sites that have...
  Related PostsPrevious PostNewsBitsEven more news...
  MostDiscussedBelow are TorrentFreak's most discussed articles of the past month. Join the discussion if you like.
  CopyQuoteLeft Quote''The Pirate Bay has been one of the most important movements in Sweden for freedom of speech, working against corruption and censorship.
  Peter SundeLeft QuotePopularArticlesA selection of some TorrentFreak's classics dug up from our archives.
  Follow us online:Design by RyanDownie
  Copy CC and Privacy
  Mastercard and Visa Start Banning VPN Providers | TorrentFreakThe place where breaking news, BitTorrent and copyright collideMastercard and Visa Start Banning VPN ProvidersErnestoJuly 3, 2013vpnPrintFollowing the introduction of restrictions against file-sharing services, Mastercard and Visa have now started to take action against VPN providers. This week, Swedish payment provider Payson cut access to anonymizing services after being ordered to do so by the credit card companies. VPN provider iPredator is one of the affected customers and founder Peter Sunde says that they are considering legal action to get the service unblocked.
  Payment providers are increasingly taking action against sites and services that are linked to copyright infringement.
  There's an unwritten rule that Mastercard and Visa don't accept file-hosting sites that have an affiliate program and PayPal has thrown out nearly all cyberlockers in recent months.
  It now turns out that these policies have carried over to VPN providers and other anonymizing services. Before the weekend customers of the popular Swedish payment service provider Payson received an email stating that VPN services are no longer allowed to accept Visa and Mastercard payments due to a recent policy change.
  ''Payson has restrictions against anonymization (including VPN services). As a result Payson can unfortunately no longer give your customers the option to finance payments via their cards (VISA or MasterCard),'' the email states, adding that they still accept bank transfers as deposits.
  The new policy went into effect on Monday, leaving customers with a two-day window to find a solution.
  While the email remains vague about why this drastic decision was taken, in a telephone call Payson confirmed that it was complying with an urgent requirement from Visa and Mastercard to stop accepting payments for VPN services.
  One of these customers is the iPredator VPN, launched by Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde and friends. Sunde tells TorrentFreak that he is baffled by the decision, which he believes may be an effort to prevent the public from covering their tracks online and preventing government spying.
  ''It means that US companies are forcing non-American companies not to allow people to protest their privacy and be anonymous, and thus the NSA can spy even more. It's just INSANE,'' Sunde says.
  Sunde explains that iPredator will always have plenty of other payment options, but sees it as an outrage that Mastercard and Visa have apparently decided to ban a perfectly legal technology.
  ''For iPredator there are always other payment methods, like Bitcoin, but it's insane to censor a totally legit system that is there to avoid censorship and surveillance,'' Sunde says.
  Despite these alternatives, Sunde is not going to stand idly by. He informs TorrentFreak that Ipredator considering taking legal action, citing the Wikileaks win against the credit card companies as a favorable precedent.
  Ipredator is far from the only VPN provider that is affected by the policy change. Anonine, Mullvad, VPNTunnel, Privatvpn and several others are also using Payson's services.
  At this point it's unclear why the two companies are taking a stand against anonymizing services. It seems likely that an industry or authority has been pushing for the policy change behind the scenes. However, with privacy high on the agenda with the PRISM scandal, the move comes at an odd time.
  TorrentFreak has reached out to Mastercard and Visa but we have yet to hear back from the companies. We are not aware of any other payment service providers who have taken action against VPN providers, so the scope of the actions are unknown at this point.
  Payment providers are increasingly taking action against sites and services that are linked to copyright infringement. There's an unwritten rule that Mastercard and Visa don't accept file-hosting sites that have...
  Related PostsPrevious PostNewsBitsEven more news...
  MostDiscussedBelow are TorrentFreak's most discussed articles of the past month. Join the discussion if you like.
  CopyQuoteLeft Quote''The Pirate Bay has been one of the most important movements in Sweden for freedom of speech, working against corruption and censorship.
  Peter SundeLeft QuotePopularArticlesA selection of some TorrentFreak's classics dug up from our archives.
  Follow us online:Design by RyanDownie
  Copy CC and Privacy
"You Are A Modern Paul Revere Summoning The American People To Confront Growing Danger Of Tyranny!
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  Archived Version
  Source: Uploads by MOXNEWSd0tC0M
  Wed, 03 Jul 2013 23:59
Bolivia complains to UN after Evo Morales' plane 'kidnapped'
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  Archived Version
  Source: The Guardian World News
  Wed, 03 Jul 2013 23:58
  Bolivia's president Evo Morales at Schwechat airport, near Vienna, where his plane was diverted. Photograph: Helmut Fohringer /AFP
  Bolivia filed a complaint at the United Nations on Wednesday over what it called the kidnapping of its president, Evo Morales, whose plane was diverted to Vienna amid suspicions that it was carrying the surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden.
  The country's ambassador to the UN, Sacha Llorenti, said the enforced rerouting to Austria was an act of aggression and a violation of international law. The US admitted that it had been in contact with other nations over potential flights by Snowden.
  "We will demand appropriate explanations from those countries that submitted to North American imperialism and briefly put President Morales in such a helpless situation," Llorenti told the state radio Patria Nueva. Bolivia's vice-president, Alvaro Garc­a Linera, said Morales was "kidnapped by imperialism".
  South American nations accused the United States of being behind the extraordinary manoeuvring, furious at what they regarded as the humiliation of Morales. In Washington, the state department would not comment on the Morales flight but conceded that it discussed the issue of flights by Snowden with other nations.
  "We have been in contact with a range of countries that had a chance of having Snowden land or travel through their country but I am not going to outline what those countries were or when this [contact] happened," said spokeswoman Jan Psaki.
  The diplomatic crisis may have been set off by a remark by Morales during a television interview in Russia, where he had been attending an energy conference. Morales said that he sympathised with Snowden, who is believed to be holed up in the transit area of Sheremetyevo airport, and hinted that Bolivia might accept an asylum petition. "If there were a request, of course we would be willing to debate and consider the idea," Morales told RT Actualidad, the Spanish-language service of the Russian broadcaster RT.
  Later that day, soon after Morales was bound for La Paz, Spain, Italy, France and Portugal refused to allow the presidential jet to fly through their airspace over suspicions that Snowden was on board, according to the Bolivian government's account.
  The Bolivian foreign minister, David Choquehuanca, said France and Portugal were the first to cancel air permits. "They say it was due to technical issues, but after getting explanations from some authorities we found that there appeared to be some unfounded suspicions that Mr Snowden was on the plane. We don't know who invented this lie. We want to denounce to the international community this injustice with the plane of Evo Morales," Choquehuanca said.
  Diverted from their planned route, pilots feared they would not be able to complete their journey. The plane was eventually cleared to land in Vienna, where Morales was forced to spend 13 hours in humiliating limbo while officials worked to resolve the dispute.
  It later took off after Austrian officials said Snowden was not on board. But it was unclear whether any officials in Vienna had searched the plane. Austria's deputy chancellor, Michael Spindelegger, said Morales "agreed to a voluntary inspection". But the Bolivian defence minister, Ruben Saavedra, later said Morales had refused entry to the inspectors, and that they had only got as far as the door of the aircraft.
  In Bolivia, the treatment of the president stirred up patriotic and anti-imperialist sentiment. Several labour and indigenous organisations planned a welcome rally for the president on his arrival in La Paz on Wednesday evening.
  The Argentinian president, Cristina Fernndez de Kirchner, attacked the "vestiges of colonialism" in a speech in Buenos Aires. "We believe this constitutes not only the humiliation of a sister nation but of all South America," she said. An emergency meeting of the Union of South American Nations was expected to be convened on Thursday.
  It was widely assumed in South America that Washington was responsible for the presidential plane being refused air permissions. Earlier in the week, the state department said it hoped Snowden would be returned to the US to face charges of espionage and theft after a string of other countries said they would not accept his applications for asylum.
  Speaking before the developments in Vienna, the state department rejected claims made by Snowden on Monday that the US had bullied other potential hosts, such as Ecuador, into withdrawing their offer of asylum. The US says it has only impressed upon possible host countries the seriousness of the crimes with which Snowden had been charged.
Harry Reid To Colleagues: John Kerry ''Has No Friends'''...
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  Archived Version
  Source: Weasel Zippers
  Wed, 03 Jul 2013 23:56
  Weird, Kerry seems like a down to Earth kind of guy.
  Via WaPo:
  . . . Here's a sampling of how they came out: In ''This Town,'' we're told that Chris Matthews and Matt Lauer have both joked that David Gregory would rub out a few colleagues to advance his career. That Bill and Hillary Clinton are convinced Tim Russert disliked them, and that they're not wrong. That Luke Russert won't shake Arianna Huffington's hand. That Richard Holbrooke once reprimanded an aide to Axelrod while they were side by side at White House urinal. That Harry Reid has ''observed privately to colleagues'' that John Kerry has no friends. That Bay Buchanan suffered the ultimate spin room indignity last year following the GOP's South Carolina primary debate, when the only reporter interested in hearing her stump for Romney was a member of the Icelandic press. That West Wing types suspected Valerie Jarrett had ''earpiece envy'' after Axelrod got Secret Service protection, and so arranged the same for herself. And that when a national-security official suggested that President Obama shouldn't skip the 2011 White House Correspondents' Dinner on the weekend of the Osama Bin Laden raid because the press might get suspicious, Hillary Clinton looked up and issued her verdict: ''[Expletive] the White House Correspondents' Dinner.''
What's Next For Portugal?
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  Archived Version
  Source: Zero Hedge
  Wed, 03 Jul 2013 23:54
  Things must be getting serious in Portugal, they just announced a short-selling ban on select banking stocks - how long before capital controls?
  A couple of months ago we asked, 'Who's next in line in the eurozone crisis?'. Our top pick was Portugal for a number of political and economic reasons, it now seems that prediction is coming to pass.
  Summary: The Portuguese government is on the rocks. The junior coalition partner the People's Party (CDS-PP) will hold a meeting this afternoon to determine whether to support the government, if it withdraws support in parliament, elections seem inevitable, although they could be delayed for some months. Such a move would seriously hamper Portugal's economic reform programme, which is already off track. Portugal has only met its deficit targets due to one-off measures while competitiveness adjustments have slowed and contingent liabilities remain a hidden risk. With the country on the cusp of an unsustainable debt burden any delays would likely be the final straw which pushes Portugal into needing some form of further assistance.
  Portuguese coalition government fighting to survive
  The coalition government in Portugal may well break up. Its position has been eroded by a series of unexpected resignations:
  Finance Minister Vitor Gaspar '' He resigned on Monday citing the protests against austerity and the decisions by the Portuguese Constitutional Court to overturn some of the government's reforms. Said he felt his credibility was undermined by Portugal missing numerous reform targets.[1]
  Foreign Minister Paulo Portas (also Head of the junior coalition partner the CDS-PP) '' resigned yesterday following the resignation of Gaspar. His resignation has been rejected by Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho, who is fighting to keep the coalition together. The two remaining CDS-PP ministers have suggested they will also resign in the near future, which would bring an end to the coalition.[2]
  The coalition government (Social Democrat and the People's Party) currently controls 132 seats out of 230 in the Portuguese Parliament. Without the CDS-PP this would drop by 24 to 108, meaning Passos Coelho's Social Democratic Party would no longer command a majority.
  What happens next?The leadership of the CDS-PP meets this afternoon to decide the next moves. The Portuguese media expects all ministers and undersecretaries from the party to resign immediately after the meeting.[3] Meanwhile, Portuguese President An­bal Cavaco Silva is due to hold talks with Passos Coelho and all the political parties holding seats in parliament tomorrow.
  The key aspect is not whether CDS-PP ministers pull out of government, but whether the party withdraws its support in parliament.
  CDS-PP pulls out of government, but maintains its support in parliament. Passos Coelho's government can stay in office with the same majority, after a cabinet reshuffle. However, this would be a tenuous arrangement given the significant austerity which still needs to be implemented. It is of course possible that Portas's move was a tactical one, looking to secure more influence as his electoral support falls ahead of this weekend's party conference.[4]
  CDS-PP withdraws its support in parliament. The government would lose its majority. Passos Coelho could then decide to either go ahead with a minority government or step down. It is not entirely unusual for Portugal to have minority governments. The government led by former Socialist Prime Minister Jos(C) Socrates after the 2009 elections was a minority government, for instance '' but was forced to an early resignation after parliament rejected an austerity package in March 2011. Another Socialist Prime Minister, Ant"nio Guterres, uniquely managed to lead a minority government through an entire four-year parliamentary term between 1995 and 1999. That said, the situation is much tougher now given the crisis, and keeping a stable minority government will be a very difficult proposition.
  What does it take for the government to fall?
  Prime Minister Passos Coelho chooses to resign. He said yesterday he does not want to, but could be forced to quit at some point if he loses his majority in parliament.
  A no-confidence motion is adopted by the parliament. The key would again be how CDS-PP votes. If the party abstained, Passos Coelho's party would have enough votes to win. Interestingly, opposition parties in Portugal can only submit one no-confidence motion per parliamentary year. The new parliamentary year starts on 15 September. The Socialist Party, the Communist Party and the Left Bloc have already submitted a joint motion earlier this year, but the Greens have not. This government has already survived four no-confidence votes since it took office in 2011, five may be a step too far.
  Passos Coelho requests a vote of confidence and loses it. The Prime Minister could decide to test his majority. However, he would have no chance of winning the vote if CDS-PP votes against him.
  What happens after the government falls?The Portuguese President An­bal Cavaco Silva holds talks with the political parties holding seats in parliament. After that, he can either try to appoint a new Prime Minister or dissolve parliament and call new elections. Under Portuguese law, new elections must take place at least 55 days after parliament is dissolved. In the meantime, Passos Coelho's government would stay on as caretaker.
  Who would win if elections were held?The Socialist party has opened a large lead by all accounts, up to 12% in some polls. However, it still looks short of the majority needed to govern alone '' in the previous elections the Social Democratic Party secured 38% of the vote but only 108 seats (although as noted above a minority government is difficult but not impossible). However, despite initially supporting the reform programme the Socialist Party has become increasingly vocal against austerity and it is unclear if they would stick to the reform programme, if they came into power.[5] This would throw up serious problems, breaking the fragile cash-for-reform bargain which has been in place over the past few years in Portugal and in the eurozone more widely.
  What is the most likely outcome?Ultimately, it depends on today's meeting of the CDS-PP and whether it decides to continue supporting the government. At the moment this seems unlikely, suggesting new elections could be on the way at some point (although Passos Coelho could drag this out by trying to run a minority government).
  The Portuguese economy cannot afford further delays
  Under the optimistic scenario forecast by the EU/IMF/ECB Troika, Portuguese debt is still expected to peak at 124% of GDP in 2014. Any delays will likely see this rise quickly, especially with growth already underperforming.
  Portuguese ten year borrowing costs have already shot up a staggering 1.5% since Gaspar's resignation, reaching close to 8%. This highlights the fragility of the economic situation. Only a month ago, there was widespread talk of Portugal returning to the markets ahead of schedule '' now it is difficult to see how it will exit its bailout programme in spring 2014 without any further assistance (the ECB's bond buying programme, the OMT, still remains the most likely candidate).
  Deficit reduction already off-trackOver the past two years, the government has been reliant on one-off measures to meet its deficit targets.[6] In 2011 these amounted to almost 3% of GDP (allowing the deficit to fall from 7.4% to 4.4% of GDP). In 2012, they amounted to 1.7% of GDP (pulling the deficit down from 6.4% to 4.7%).[7] In the first quarter of 2013, this has already increased to 7.1% of GDP (although the deficit for the first quarter alone reached 10.6%).[8]
  This year's deficit target has already been revised upwards to 5.5% of GDP, but even that looks a stretch from the current position. Further delays would make it very difficult to reach.
  Export-led growth shows positive signs but may not be enoughAlthough exports have picked up in recent years, they still represent too small a share to offset the falls in other drivers of GDP (and therefore economic growth). As Graph 1 below shows, domestic demand has collapsed, while government spending and investment have also been falling. Exports may be growing, but they are unlikely to grow quickly enough to offset this collapse, or far enough to restore the decline in GDP seen in recent times.
  Gaps in competitiveness between Portugal and Germany increasing againAs we noted in our previous briefing (and as Graph 2 above shows),[9] the adjustment to unit labour costs has been thrown significantly off track by the Portuguese Constitutional Court ruling (which overturned some cuts to public sector spending), the increasing protests against austerity and the lack of buy-in from the private sector. This may eventually harm the export led growth mentioned above.
  Contingent liabilities are significantIn many countries, the long-term burden of contingent liabilities such as pensions and healthcare are well known but in Portugal there are more immediate problems. The contingent liabilities of State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) total 9% of GDP but are excluded from government debt levels despite these companies coming under serious pressure. Many have significant debt overhangs and could be forced to turn to the government for assistance if financing conditions worsen once again. Total contingent liabilities could run as high as 15% of GDP according to the IMF. Furthermore, the stock of government arrears is around 2.6% of GDP ('‚¬4.3bn) and is owed to domestic firms meaning it remains a drag on growth.
  Easing the reform programme is an option but may help littlePortugal has already seen its targets eased as well as the maturities of its loans extended and the interest rates reduced. There may still be scope to do this further, but not much. It is unlikely the eurozone would agree to such a move until a stable government is once again in control. Furthermore, with maturities and rates already extended and cut almost as far as is feasible further action seems unlikely. Delaying targets may give more room to breathe but Portuguese debt continues to look unsustainable.
  So will Portugal need further financial assistance?Any delays would likely be tantamount to pushing Portugal towards further assistance, be it OMT or some form of debt restructuring, and consigning the country to another few years of tough austerity '' which would be both politically and legally difficult to implement. As we previously noted, further assistance always seemed possible '' Portugal will now have to work very hard to avoid needing it.
  For more information please contact the office on 0044 (0)207 197 2333, Raoul Ruparel on 0044 (0)757 696 5823 or Vincenzo Scarpetta on 0044 (0)796 924 0642.
  [1] We covered the resignation and the reasons behind it in more detail on our blog, see: http://www.openeuropeblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/portugals-finance-minister-resigns-bolt.html[2]Pºblico, 'Ministros e secretrios de Estado do CDS preparam cartas de demiss£o', 2 July 2013 http://www.publico.pt/politica/noticia/ministros-e-secretarios-de-estado-do-cds-preparam-cartas-de-demissao-1599053[3]RTP, 'Governantes do CDS v£o apresentar demiss£o', 3 July 2013 http://www.rtp.pt/noticias/index.php?article=663706&tm=9&layout=123&visual=61[4] Cited by FT Alphaville, 'Portuguese turmoil', 3 July 2013: http://ftalphaville.ft.com/2013/07/03/1554872/portuguese-turmoil/[5] Cited by Reuters, http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/01/us-portugal-minister-idUSBRE9200VZ20130301[6] For a more detailed discussion on this see the Open Europe blog: http://openeuropeblog.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/securing-portugals-deficit.html[7] Figures are taken from the IMF's Seventh Review of the Portuguese economic adjustment programme published in June.[8] Portuguese Statistics office, first quarter 2013 press release on government lending: http://www.ine.pt/xportal/xmain?xpid=INE&xpgid=ine_destaques&DESTAQUESdest_boui=152049611&DESTAQUESmodo=2[9] Open Europe, 'Who is next in line in the eurozone crisis? Portugal and Slovenia are the prime candidates', 11 April 2013: http://www.openeurope.org.uk/Content/Documents/Pdfs/2013Whosnextinline.pdf. In graph 2 the dotted line shows the desired path of adjustment needed to close the competitiveness gap to a sustainable level.
What REALLY Caused the Coup Against the Egyptian President
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  Source: Zero Hedge
  Wed, 03 Jul 2013 23:53
  The protests in Egypt against president Mohammed Morsi were '' according to the BBC '' the largest in history.
  The Egyptian military threw Morsi out in a coup today.
  Why?
  Irish Times reports:
  Army concern about the way President Mohamed Morsi was governing Egypt reached tipping point when the head of state attended a rally packed with hardline fellow Islamists calling for holy war in Syria, military sources have said.
  ***
  Mr Morsi himself called for foreign intervention in Syria against Mr Assad, leading to a veiled rebuke from the army, which issued an apparently bland but sharp-edged statement the next day stressing that its only role was guarding Egypt's borders.
  ***
  ''The armed forces were very alarmed by the Syrian conference at a time the state was going through a major political crisis,'' said one officer, whose comments reflected remarks made privately by other army staff. He was speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to talk to the media.
  ***
  For the army, the Syria rally had crossed ''a national security red line'' by encouraging Egyptians to fight abroad, risking creating a new generation of jihadists, said Yasser El-Shimy, analyst with the International Crisis Group.
  At the heart of the military's concern is the history of militant Islam in Egypt, homeland of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri. The military source condemned recent remarks made by ''retired terrorists'' allied to Mr Morsi, who has deepened his ties with the once-armed group al-Gamaa al-Islamiya.
  Obama had recently sent American troops to prop up Mursi, and the protesters were furious at the U.S. for backing Islamic radicals.
  (The U.S. backed Egypt's previous dictator, as well).
  Support of Western intervention in Syria was also one of the main causes of the recent enormous protests in Turkey '... which came close to toppling the Turkish leadership.
  Indeed, the American government has been providing arms, money and logistical support to Al Qaeda in Syria, Libya, Mali, Bosnia and other countries '' and related Muslim terrorists in Chechnya, Iran, and many other countries. So moderate Arabs all over the Middle East and North Africa are becoming furious at U.S. interventionist policies.
  Note: The coup is a set-back for the U.S., because Egypt - unlike Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Iran - isn't on the 20-year-old list of countries targeted for regime change.
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Adly Mansour - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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  Wed, 03 Jul 2013 23:50
  Adly Mansour (Arabic: Ø¹Ø¯ÙÙŠ Ù…Ù†ØµÙØ±'Ž; born 23 December 1945[1]) is the head of the Supreme Constitutional Court[2] and the de-facto interim President of Egypt. He was declared president following the mass protests-fueled 2013 Egyptian coup d'(C)tat, in an announcement made by the military and several secular and religious figures (including Grand Imam of Al Azhar Dr Ahmed El Tayyib, PopeTawadros and Mohammed El Baradei) that the then president Mohammed Morsi had been unseated from office.[3][4][5] Mohammed Morsi refuses to accept this announcement.[citation needed]
  Early life and education[edit]Adly Mansour graduated from Cairo University Law School in 1967, earned a postgraduate degree in law in 1969 and a postgraduate degree in management science in 1970 from Cairo University.[1] He later attended France's ‰cole nationale d'administration, graduating in 1977.
  Term on Supreme Constitutional Court[edit]Mansour was appointed to the Supreme Constitutional Court in 1992.[6] He later served as the deputy chief justice of Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court until 1 July 2013, when he became president of the HCC following his appointment to the position by President Morsi on 19 May.[7]
  Acting President of Egypt[edit]On 3 July 2013, Mansour was named interim President of Egypt following the ousting of Mohammed Morsi during the 2013 coup d'(C)tat. His appointment was announced on television by the minister of defense Abdul Fatah Khalil Al-Sisi.[8]
  References[edit]PersondataNameMansour, AdlyAlternative namesShort descriptionEgyptian Interim PresidentDate of birth23 December 1945Place of birthDate of deathPlace of death
Egypt's interim ruler to be sworn in on Thursday
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  Source: Reuters: World News
  Wed, 03 Jul 2013 23:49
  CAIRO | Wed Jul 3, 2013 6:49pm EDT
  CAIRO (Reuters) - The head of Egypt's supreme constitutional court, Adli Mansour, will be sworn in as interim head of state on Thursday after the armed forces overthrew elected President Mohamed Mursi on Wednesday for failing to listen to mass protests' demands to share power.
  The army detailed a roadmap for a return to democratic rule, including the appointment of the interim ruler.
  Judge Adli Mansour was born on December 23, 1945 and graduated from Cairo University with a B.A. in law in 1967, before gaining a masters' degree in the same field there in 1969.
  He was hired in the state's administrative court in 1970 and stayed there until he became the vice chairman of the court in 1992 before moving to the supreme constitutional court where he served as its first deputy. He was hired as the head of the constitutional court on July 1 by a decree from a top judiciary council that was approved by Mursi.
Obama's Releases First Public Statement On Egypt
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  Source: Zero Hedge
  Wed, 03 Jul 2013 23:46
  From President Obama:
  As I have said since the Egyptian revolution, the United States supports a set of core principles, including opposition to violence, protection of universal human rights, and reform that meets the legitimate aspirations of the people. The United States does not support particular individuals or political parties, but we are committed to the democratic process and respect for the rule of law. Since the current unrest in Egypt began, we have called on all parties to work together to address the legitimate grievances of the Egyptian people, in accordance with the democratic process, and without recourse to violence or the use of force.
  The United States is monitoring the very fluid situation in Egypt, and we believe that ultimately the future of Egypt can only be determined by the Egyptian people. Nevertheless, we are deeply concerned by the decision of the Egyptian Armed Forces to remove President Morsy and suspend the Egyptian constitution. I now call on the Egyptian military to move quickly and responsibly to return full authority back to a democratically elected civilian government as soon as possible through an inclusive and transparent process, and to avoid any arbitrary arrests of President Morsy and his supporters. Given today's developments, I have also directed the relevant departments and agencies to review the implications under U.S. law for our assistance to the government of Egypt.
  The United States continues to believe firmly that the best foundation for lasting stability in Egypt is a democratic political order with participation from all sides and all political parties '' secular and religious, civilian and military. During this uncertain period, we expect the military to ensure that the rights of all Egyptian men and women are protected, including the right to peaceful assembly, due process, and free and fair trials in civilian courts. Moreover, the goal of any political process should be a government that respects the rights of all people, majority and minority; that institutionalizes the checks and balances upon which democracy depends; and that places the interests of the people above party or faction. The voices of all those who have protested peacefully must be heard '' including those who welcomed today's developments, and those who have supported President Morsy. In the interim, I urge all sides to avoid violence and come together to ensure the lasting restoration of Egypt's democracy.
  No transition to democracy comes without difficulty, but in the end it must stay true to the will of the people. An honest, capable and representative government is what ordinary Egyptians seek and what they deserve. The longstanding partnership between the United States and Egypt is based on shared interests and values, and we will continue to work with the Egyptian people to ensure that Egypt's transition to democracy succeeds.
  * * *
  Obama, in Situation Room, meets with national security team to discuss situation in Egypt, via NB
  * * *
  Meanwhile, in simpler days:
  Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived in Egypt on Saturday for meetings with its newly elected Islamist president and the chief of its still-dominant military council, declaring that the United States ''supports the full transition to civilian rule with all that entails.''
  But after weeks of internal debate across the Obama administration over how to respond to the ongoing struggle between the president and the generals, Mrs. Clinton touched on it only lightly, saying she looked forward to working ''to support the military's return to a purely national security role.''
  State Department officials said the meeting itself sent a historic message. Seated in an ornate room in the presidential palace, Mrs. Clinton smiled for cameras and traded pleasantries with President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist jailed more than once by the American-backed autocracy overthrown 18 months ago. She became the highest ranking United States official to meet Mr. Morsi since he was sworn in two weeks ago as Egypt's first democratically elected president.
  * * *
  The generals, who seized power last year after the ouster of the strongman Hosni Mubarak, have repeatedly rebuffed American pressure. The new president, Mr. Morsi, and the other leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood still harbor deep doubts about Washington's agenda and have repeatedly surprised American officials in Washington with the accelerating pace of their moves to take power.
  Implausibly, some of the Brotherhood's secular opponents have even accused the United States of conspiring with the Islamists to push them to power. By nightfall Saturday, hundreds of protesters had gathered outside Mrs. Clinton's hotel to protest against the claimed conspiracy. Using a transliteration of the Arabic word for the Brotherhood, one sign read: ''If you like the Ikhwan, take them with you!''
  ''In some ways, all the talk in Washington about what to do in Egypt is incredibly inefficient,'' said Peter Mandaville, a political scientist at George Mason University who until recently advised the State Department on Islamist politics in the region. ''At a time of virtually zero U.S. influence, we don't need to waste so much time figuring out how to try to get the Egyptian people to like us.''
  The Muslim Brotherhood and President Morsi, meanwhile, remain deeply wary of Washington's goals even after a year of mutual outreach, diplomats say, while Brotherhood leaders appear still convinced American policy makers see Egypt exclusively through the prism of Israel's security.
  * * *
  ''Every bone in the body of the U.S. foreign policy establishment is going to feel more comfortable with the idea that there is still a strong military looking over these guys,'' said Mr. Mandaville, the former State Department adviser, ''and looking out for U.S. interests in Egypt and the region.''
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UK: Muslims with Taliban and al-Qaeda flags demonstrate at Sri Lanka and Burma Embassies in London
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  Wed, 03 Jul 2013 23:15
  This is the type of Muslims (in the pictures below) that the UK needs to simply pack up and ship out of the country and ban any further entry or access into the country. It's not more difficult than that to stop evil spreading in the UK or the rest of Europe at this point before it becomes unmanageable. But they refuse to do it.Muslims protest in London outside the Sri Lanka and Burma Embassies against ''genocide'' of Bangladeshi Muslims in Burma, without any admission who started the conflict in the first place. Note the Talbian and al Qaeda flags they use.They have no remorse or admission that Muslims were raping, pillaging and murdering Burmese Buddhists and this conflict has been ongoing for many decades after Muslim violence became a standard feature in the country. They have no protest against Muslim genocide of other people both in Burma and in their own country, Bangladesh where Muslims are committing genocide against Christians, Hindus, and Buddhists. The persecution of non-Muslims is so bad, Bangladesh managed to get on the UNHR list for human rights violations.To view the different Islamic flags flouting around amongst the followers of the Religion of Peace, see this link from a company calling itself Trident Military (P.O. Box 427) in Ambridge Pennsylvania that sells forged police and military uniforms, accessories, supplies and nazi and terrorism flags and memorabilia.Which flag belongs to whom?
  The flag of the Khilafa (Caliphate) terrorist movement, that seeks to spread all over the world and reestablish the Caliphate.
  (Above) Taliban flags used in Afghanistan. Black Islamic writing on white.Islamic text reads ''I bear witness that there is no deity other than Allah and that Muhammad is his servant and Messenger''. The white flag is referred to as al-liwa', and is also sometimes referred to as the flag of the Caliphate. [keep an eye out for that one across Europe right now]
  (Above) Al-Qaeda Flags used all across the Middle East. The black flag is referred to as al-raya.The black flag is a symbol for death, for jihad.
  (Above) Islamic terrorist flags used in Chechinya
  (Above) The green flag of terrorist organization Hamas (created by the Muslim Brotherhood, whoalso created the initial al Qaeda '' not to be confused with the national Saudi flag with the sword).The green color may also indicate Saudi and Lebanon support and funding of Hamas since the national flag of these countries is green. In addition, most ''palestinians'' come from Saudi Arabia and Egypt, and not from Palestine. They never lost any land to ''Jewish occupation''. That's mere militant propaganda churned out endlessly.
  (Abive) The flag belonging to the terrorist organization Hezbolla.
  (Above) Iraqi and Iranian al Qaeda flag.
  (Above) Iranian of the Mahdi Army (Caliphate)
  (Above) The Syrian arm of al Qaeda's flag (or as Obama and the EU likes to call them, ''rebels'' and ''freedom fighters'')
  (Above) Another al Qaeda flag found amongst the Syrian ''freedom fighters''
  (Above) al Qaeda's new logo with the sun symbolizing the the growth, spread and dominion of the extremist arm around the world.
  (Above) Flag of The Islamic State of Iraq found in a Sunni village in Diyala province. The Islamic State of Iraq is an al Qaeda front group masquerading as a ''shadow government''.
  (Above) Flag of Somali terrorists
  .
  Muslims with Taliban and al-Qaeda flags demonstrate at Sri Lanka and Burma Embassies in London.
  [Note the al-Qaeda slogan and headbands on the women]
  LONDON, 5 April 2013. Muslim demonstration against Burmese and Sri Lankan aggression took place at Hyde Park Gardens (Sri Lanka Embassy) and Charles Street (Burmese Embassy) .Women, men and children were present at both protests holding placard against Burmese and Sri Lankan agression. [Note the Taliban flag with their slogan from the Quran printed in black on the white flag]
  LONDON, 5 April 2013. Muslim demonstration against Burmese and Sri Lankan aggression took place at Hyde Park Gardens (Sri Lanka Embassy) and Charles Street (Burmese Embassy) after. Protesters were chanting slogans and holding banners.
  Members of the EDL showed up at both protests chanting slogans against the muslim groups. The muslim group speaks out against Burmese and Sri Lankan ''aggression''.
  A man speaks out against Burmese and Sri Lankan agression at Hyde Park Gardens in front of the Sri Lanka Embassy and in Charles Street at the Burmese Embassy.
  Salafi dressed Muslims protest ''genocide'' against Bangladeshi Muslims in Burma, without any admission who started the conflict in the first place. They have no protest against Muslim genocide of other people both in Burma and in their own country, Bangladesh where Muslims are committing genocide against Christians, Hindus, and Buddhists. The persecution of non-Muslims is so bad, Bangladesh managed to get on the UNHR list for human rights violations.
  .
  (below) EDL protesters counter protests the Muslim's protest:
  Members of the EDL showed up at both protests chanting slogans against the muslim groups. The muslim group speaks out against Burmese and Sri Lankan ''aggression''.
  LONDON, 5 April 2013. Muslim demonstration against Burmese and Sri Lankan aggression took place at Hyde Park Gardens (Sri Lanka Embassy) and Charles Street (Burmese Embassy). Members of the EDL showed up at both protests chanting slogans against them
  LONDON, 5 April 2013. Muslim demonstration against Burmese and Sri Lankan aggression took place at Hyde Park Gardens (Sri Lanka Embassy) and Charles Street (Burmese Embassy). Members of the EDL showed up at both protests chanting slogans against them
Profile: Mohamed ElBaradei - Al Jazeera English
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  Wed, 03 Jul 2013 22:54
  Profile: Mohamed ElBaradei
  Last updated: 9 hours ago
  Ex-IAEA chief and Nobel laureate has reemerged as a key mediator in an uprising against yet another Egyptian president.Mohamed ElBaradei, a former head of the UN nuclear watchdog and a Nobel peace laureate, is reemerging as a crucial actor in the Egyptian uprising against the ruling government.
  Two years ago he was tasked by several opposition movements including the now-ruling Muslim Brotherhood to negotiate with the Hosni Mubarak government. But now he stands opposed to President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, saying Morsi has "failed" in leading the nation towards a proper democratic path after the 2011 uprising.
  On June 29, the 71-year-old ElBaradei released a video message saying, "The current revolution has erupted so that each one of us lives as human and be treated like human".
  The founder of the opposition Dostour Party also called on all Egyptians to participate in nationwide protests to oust Morsi to pave way for early presidential elections. "We allowed Morsi to drive, but he doesn't know how to drive," he said. "The country is decaying and is falling. This is not Egypt and this is not the revolution."
  Mediator
  ElBaradei already enjoys the strong backing of the June 30 Front, an amalgam of several groups opposing Morsi who believe ElBaradei is "the voice of their demands".
  On July 2, the Front - created by the Tamarod ("Rebel") campaign for the purpose of organising mass protests - tasked ElBaradei to speak with the Brotherhood on its behalf. The Front's statement said he was chosen to avoid any fragmentation among the opposition. ElBaradei left Egypt 30 years ago to work for the United Nations. He returned to Cairo in 2010 after resigning from the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA), receiving an exuberant welcome from supporters who hoped he would stir up Egyptian politics by running for president. Days after retiring from the IAEA, ElBaradei said a decision on entering the 2011 presidential race would depend on guarantees of a fair election.
  ElBaradei is widely respected in Egypt and has received the country's highest honour, the Nile Shas, in 2006.
  He was born on June 17, 1942, in Cairo, where his attorney father headed the bar association, a position that sometimes put him at odds with then president Gamal Abdel Nasser. Following in his father's footsteps, ElBaradei earned his law degree at the University of Cairo in 1962.
  "My father taught me that you have to stand by your principles. He was president of the bar association and was preaching civil liberties and human rights during some of the most repressive years of the Nasser era. I think that's a lesson I remember from him... That you stand up for what you believe in," ElBaradei has said.
  Two years after obtaining his law degree, ElBaradei joined the diplomatic service, and was assigned to the Egyptian missions to Geneva and New York, where he earned a doctorate in international law and later taught. He has written that his New York years were among the most formative, helping him to broaden his world view.
  Camp David negotiator
  As special assistant to the Egyptian foreign minister, ElBaradei served on the negotiating team at the historic Camp David peace talks that led to Egypt's peace treaty and diplomatic relations with Israel.
  He began his UN career in 1980, and was sent to Iraq in the wake of the 1991 Gulf war to dismantle Saddam's nuclear programme.
  In 1997, he was chosen as head of the IAEA, a role that made him an international household name and led to confrontations with Washington, first over Iraq and later over Iran. When the US claimed that Iraq was buying uranium in Africa, ElBaradei dismissed the evidence before the UN Security Council as fake.
  Though he angered Washington by challenging claims that Saddam Hussein was hiding a secret nuclear programme, he was proved right when no nuclear weapons were found after the 2003 US invasion.
  In 2005, ElBaradei and the IAEA were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts "to prevent nuclear energy for being used for military purposes and to ensure that nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is used in the safest possible way".
  He is married to Aida Elkachef, a kindergarten teacher, and has two children, Laila and Mostafa.
top brass ready to defend the people
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  Wed, 03 Jul 2013 22:52
  Egyptian military chief who issued ultimatum to Mohamed Morsi has history of Islamist sympathy, so motives are questioned
  General Abdel Fattah el-Sissi. Photograph: Khaled Elfiqi/EPA
  General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, architect of the military intervention in Egypt's worsening political crisis, was little known outside the army when he was appointed Mohamed Morsi's defence minister last August '-- part of the Islamist leader's deft consolidation of power.
  Sisi, a career soldier, was head of military intelligence and the youngest member of the 19-strong Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. But despite coming from the heart of the security establishment he had a reputation for being sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood '-- the reason, many Egyptians assumed, Morsi chose him for the job. Sisi is said to be a religious man, and his wife, unusually, wears the full niqab (face veil.)
  Mohamed Beltagy, a senior Brotherhood figure, has described receiving a "brotherly" warning from the intelligence chief about an impending attack by regime thugs on demonstrators in Tahrir Square in what became known as the "battle of the camel" '-- one of the brutally defining moments of the revolution that overthrew Hosni Mubarak, in February 2011.
  But Sisi also attracted criticism for appearing to defend the behaviour of the armed forces in detaining and beating women protestors who were subjected to strip searches and "virginity tests" and threatened with prostitution charges.
  Sisi, born in 1954, was a relative youngster in a military dominated by elderly officers with extensive privileges and a traditional view of their place in Egyptian political life. Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who he replaced, was in his late 70s. Sisi, promoted two ranks, reportedly shook like a leaf when Morsi told him to "behave like a man" and take the job, while Tantawi waited in the next room.
  Eyebrows were raised when Sisi decided to allow Islamists to enter the Egyptian military's officer training academy '-- when it had always insisted before that cadets were unimpeachably apolitical. Opposition suppprters point out that as army intelligence chief, Sisi was privy to classified information about the Muslim Brotherhood and more radical Islamist groups, as well as links with Hamas.
  Just days before Sisi was appointed, jihadis in Sinai attacked Egyptian border guards, killing 16 and humiliating the armed forces '-- underlining the dangerous gaps in security in the messy post-Mubarak transition.
  Sisi, an infantry officer, was trained at the UK Joint Command and Staff College and did a masters degree at the US army's War College in Pennsylvania.
  He is said to have "experienced firsthand the aggravation of officers who watched huge amounts of money squandered on projects that lined the pockets of the high command but left the soldiers unable to fight effectively."
  He is also described as enjoying close relations with the US military as well as Saudi Arabia, where he served as a military attache. Inside the army, some critics reportedly believe he has been too soft on the Brotherhood.
  Last December, the new Egyptian consititution gave the military greater autonomy than it had ever enjoyed before but relations with the Brotherhood worsened as public disenchantment with Morsi grew and the army polished its own PR. Sisi warned of intervention a week before the 30 Juneprotests. Now he is at the centre of a high stakes struggle for the future of Egypt.
Fight to save famous 'Band of Brothers' parachute regiment who landed behind enemy lines in World War Two and inspired HBO series from sweeping military cuts
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  Wed, 03 Jul 2013 22:33
  By Associated Press
  PUBLISHED: 20:05 EST, 28 June 2013 | UPDATED: 20:07 EST, 28 June 2013
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  The 101st Airborne Division is trying to save its illustrious 506th Infantry Regiment, whose origins date to World War II's fabled 'Band of Brothers,' from deactivation under the Army's massive restructuring.
  The Army announced this week that at least 12 combat brigades nationwide are to be eliminated by 2017 under sweeping military reductions, among them the 4th Brigade Combat Team at Fort Campbell, Ky.
  The long-term reorganization seeks to reduce the Army's size from a high of about 570,000 members at the peak of the Iraq war to 490,000 to shrink spending and reflect the country's current military needs as wars in Iraq and Afghanistan end.
  History at risk? The flag of Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, who were made famous as the 'Band of Brothers' in World War II, inside the museum at Fort Campbell, Ky
  Tribute: The exploits of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment inspired Band Of Brothers, the 2001 TV series produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks
  The brigade traces its lineage to the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, created in 1942, at Camp Toccoa, Ga.
  The 506th was among several parachute regiments created to sneak behind enemy lines in the war.
  Nicknamed 'Currahee,' which is a Native American Cherokee term for 'stands alone,' the regiment parachuted into Normandy during the D-Day invasion in 1944 and then later parachuted into Holland.
  The regiment raced to liberate Europe amid bouts of fierce fighting in Bastogne, Belgium and then overran Hitler's famed 'Eagle's Nest' in Germany.
  The regiment wasn't associated with the 'Band of Brothers' nickname until the book by historian Stephen Ambrose came out in 1992, reigniting interest in the regiment among the public.
  The subsequent HBO miniseries produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks about the men of Easy Company won national acclaim, and followed the soldiers from paratrooper training through D-Day and the end of the war.
  Fighting forces: American parachutists land between Nice and Marseille, in southern France, in August 1944
  Battle: Brig. Gen. Mark Stammer, acting senior commander of the 101st Airborne Division, said the division wants to preserve the regiment's two battalions, along with its flags and its historical legacy
  Brig. Gen. Mark Stammer, acting senior commander of the 101st Airborne Division, said the division wants to preserve the regiment's two battalions, along with its flags and its historical legacy.
  He said during a news conference Thursday at the post on the Tennessee-Kentucky state line that the regiment's battalions should be transferred to two of the division's three remaining infantry brigades.
  The Army's restructuring plan also calls for adding an additional battalion, which is between 600-800 soldiers, to its remaining infantry and armor brigades.
  Adding the battalion was a recommendation from commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan who said it would beef up the fighting capabilities of the brigades when they go to war.
  If Washington's defense and budget planners approve of such a plan, he said 'the 506th will live, but it will just live in another brigade combat team.'
  Following World War II, the regiment was deactivated and reactivated a number of times in its history and moved to other locations as the Army reorganized in the post-war era.
  The 506th deployed to the Vietnam War for four years, winning a presidential unit citation for their actions in the A Shau Valley.
  The regiment's soldiers served in Iraq for a 2004-2005 stint before the regiment returned to Iraq from late 2005 through 2007 in Baghdad as the new 4th Brigade Combat Team under the 101st Airborne Division. The 4th Brigade is currently on its third deployment to Afghanistan.
  'History, heritage and values... those things provide the glue that holds the unit together. You can imagine how powerful it is to say, 'I am member of the Band of Brothers,'' said John O'Brien, the installation historian at Fort Campbell
  Brave: American troops of the 17th Airborne Division and British troops of the 6th Guards armored Brigade, after linking up in the vicinity of the Lippe River where they scored a series of rapid victories, reached Munster on April 2 1945
  John O'Brien, the installation historian at Fort Campbell, said the regimental flag with its battle streamers carries the history of the unit, marking the battles and campaigns from World War II to recent times.
  If the 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment were moved to a new unit, that regimental flag would continue to fly, he said.
  'History, heritage and values... those things provide the glue that holds the unit together,' O'Brien said. 'You can imagine how powerful it is to say, 'I am member of the Band of Brothers.''
  Jim Martin served in the G Company of the original 506th regiment. At 92, he just returned from a trip to Europe to visit locations, including the coast of France, where he and fellow soldiers fought.
  Martin, who lives near Dayton, Ohio, said the Army command needs to exercise care when it makes changes to special units such as the 506th.
  'If you disband them, you're not going to get them back very easily.'
  He said the regiment's original commander, Col. Robert Sink, wanted his soldiers to stay together from their initial basic training through paratrooper training and on into combat to build trust among the soldiers.
  Although he admits he's not one for emotion, he worried that splitting up the regiment's battalions would be disruptive for the soldiers.
  Popular: Band Of Brothers won national acclaim, and followed the soldiers of the Easy Company from paratrooper training through D-Day and the end of the war
  'The problem with doing that is you lose the unit cohesiveness,' he said. 'Anytime you move around or change, you lose that.'
  Sink's daughter Robin Sink McClelland has a mailing list of about 400 veterans and their families to share information about the regiment and its history.
  'Everybody feels proud to be a member of the Currahee nation, so anything they can do to keep that going would be good,' she said.
  Joe Alexander, 67, of Lenoir City, Tenn., who was a second lieutenant in the regiment during the Vietnam War, said while he understands that the Army needs to cut down its size, he was hoping they would be spared when the Army spread the brigade cuts throughout the country.
  'We are competitive and we all want our regiments to be saved,' he said. 'But it does seem like they could have picked another one that had less of a history.'
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Reprieve
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  Wed, 03 Jul 2013 22:06
  Clive Stafford Smith is the founder and Director of Reprieve.
  Clive oversees Reprieve's casework programme, as well as the direct representation of prisoners in Guantnamo Bay and on death row as a Louisiana licensed attorney at law.
  After graduating from Columbia Law School in New York, Clive spent nine years as a lawyer with the Southern Center for Human Rights working on death penalty cases and other civil rights issues. In 1993, Clive moved to New Orleans and launched the Louisiana Crisis Assistance Center, a non-profit law office specialising in representation of poor people in death penalty cases.
  In total, Clive has represented over 300 prisoners facing the death penalty in the southern United States. While he only took on the cases of those who could not afford a lawyer '' he has never been paid by a client '' and always the most despised, he prevented in the death penalty in all but six cases (a 98% ''victory'' rate). Few lawyers ever take a case to the US Supreme Court '' Clive has taken five, and all of the prisoners prevailed.
  In 2001, when the US military base at Guantnamo Bay was pressed into service to hold prisoners beyond the reach of the courts, Clive joined two other lawyers to sue for access to the prisoners there. He believed that the camp was an affront to the democracy and the rule of law: his ultimate goal was to close Guantnamo and restore to the US and its allies their legitimacy as champions of human rights. During those early days, Clive received death threats and was labelled a ''traitor'' for defending ''terrorists''; it was three years before the Supreme Court allowed lawyers into the prison camp.
  Meanwhile, Clive travelled the Middle East to find the families of the 'disappeared' prisoners, undeterred by the interventions by unhappy US allies - including the Jordanian secret police, who took him into custody in 2004.
  To date, Clive has helped secure the release of 65 prisoners from Guantnamo Bay (including every British prisoner) and still acts for 15 more. This is a phenomenal number '' far more than any other lawyer or law firm - and demonstrates Clive's peerless ability in his field. More recently, Clive has turned a strategic eye to the other secret detention sites, including Bagram in Afghanistan and the British island of Diego Garcia.
  Clive has received a great many awards and honours. In 2000 he was awarded an OBE for 'humanitarian services'. He was a Soros Senior Fellow, Rowntree Visionary (2005) and Echoing Green Fellow (2005). In addition, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from The Lawyer Magazine (2003) and The Law Society,the Benjamin Smith Award from the ACLU of Louisiana (2003), the Gandhi Peace Award (2004), a Lannan Foundation Cultural Freedom Award (2008), International Freedom of the Press Award (2009), Unione Nazionale Cronisti Italiani (for the defence of Sami el Haj) and the International Bar Association's Human Rights Award (2010).
  Alongside these, Clive was ranked 6th on the 2009 list of Britain's Most Powerful Lawyers (The Times, July 2009) and ranked 3rd on 2009 ''High Profile'' British lawyer list (The Lawyer, September 2009).
  Email: clive@reprieve.org.ukTwitter: @CliveSSmith
  Meet with Clive Stafford Smith through our videos:
  "Why I defend people who are guilty" / "The worst 15 minutes of your life" / "When I am certain my client is innocent"
Clive Stafford Smith - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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  Clive Adrian Stafford SmithOBE (born 9 July 1959) is a British[1] attorney who specialises in the areas of civil rights and the death penalty in the United States of America. He has represented some of the detainees held since 2002 at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp as enemy combatants.
  In August 2004, Stafford Smith returned from the US to live in the United Kingdom. He is the Legal Director of the UK branch of the human rights not-for-profit Reprieve. In 2005 he received the Gandhi International Peace Award.
  Background[edit]Born in Cambridge and educated at Radley College, he declined a place at the University of Cambridge to study as a Morehead Scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He studied journalism. He next attended and graduated from Columbia University's Law School in New York City.[2] He is admitted to practice in the state of Louisiana and in Washington, D.C.
  Early law career[edit]Stafford Smith worked for the Southern Prisoners' Defense Committee, based in Atlanta, now known as the Southern Center for Human Rights, and on other campaigns to help convicted defendants sentenced to capital punishment.[2] He first came to British public attention when he appeared in Fourteen Days in May, a 1987 BBC documentary showing the last fortnight in the life of Edward Earl Johnson before he was executed in the gas chamber in Mississippi State Penitentiary.[3] Stafford Smith had acted as Johnson's attorney and was seen desperately trying to halt the execution of the death sentence. In a follow-up documentary, Stafford Smith conducted his own investigation of the murder for which Johnson was executed.[3]
  In 1993, he helped set up a new justice center for prisoner advocacy in New Orleans; formerly the Louisiana Crisis Assistance Center, it is now known as the Louisiana Capital Assistance Center.[2] In 2002, he became a founding Board Member of the Gulf Region Advocacy Center, a non-profit law office in Houston, Texas, designed to bring the methods developed by Stafford Smith at LCAC to the "capital of capital punishment". He was awarded an OBE for his contributions to the law and human rights.
  Guantnamo detainees[edit]Since returning to the UK, Stafford Smith has worked as the legal director of Reprieve, a British non-profit that is opposed to the death penalty.[2] During his career he has lost six death penalty cases.[citation needed]
  From 2002 Stafford Smith has volunteered his services to detainees held as enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay; he has assisted in filing habeas corpus petitions and lawsuits on behalf of 128 detainees. His clients have included Shaker Aamer, Jamil al Banna, Sami Al Hajj, Sami Al Laithi, Abdul Salam Gaithan Mureef Al Shehry, Moazzam Begg, Omar Deghayes, Jamal Kiyemba, Binyam Mohammed and Hisham Sliti. In a BBC interview, when asked why he was representing detainees, he answered that "liberty is eroded at the margins".[citation needed]
  It was during this period, in December 2004, that Stafford Smith prepared a 50-page brief for the defense of Saddam Hussein, arguing that Saddam should be tried in the U.S. under U.S. criminal law.[4]
  On 29 August 2005, Stafford Smith addressed attendees at the Greenbelt festival, a major UK Christian festival, telling them about the second hunger strike at Guantanamo. Stafford Smith warned that prisoners were likely to die soon. Due to restrictions imposed by the United States Department of Defense (DOD), lawyers' notes must be filed with an intelligence clearing house in Virginia, before release. Conversations with clients are considered classified, and cannot be discussed until they have been cleared. Smith had to wait until 27 August 2005 to publicly reveal that the hunger strikes had been started again on 5 August 2005. Two of his clients, Binyam "Benjamin" Mohammed and Hisham Sliti, participated in the hunger strikes. In an interview broadcast on the BBC television evening news on 9 September 2005, Stafford Smith said that one of the reasons for the second hunger strike was to protest the continuing imprisonment of children (juveniles under the age of 18) in Guantanamo Bay.[5]
  Stafford Smith contributed to The Guardian with an article on the significance of the U.S. Supreme Court's 29 June 2006 ruling in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, which found the Combatant Status Review Tribunals and military commissions unconstitutional, as the executive branch did not have the authority to set up a justice system outside the existing civil and military systems.[6] Stafford Smith thought that George W. Bush should have been secretly relieved that the more conservative members of the Supreme Court, who supported the administration's appeal against the lower court's ruling, were in the minority. He wrote:
  "In the end, I suspect there was a collective sigh of relief from the White House that the lunatic fringe did not prevail. The Bush administration has finally recognized that it must close Guantnamo but '-- for all that Bush bangs on about the importance of personal responsibility '-- it wanted someone else to take the blame."[6]
  Stafford Smith wrote a memoir about his experiences at Guantanamo, Bad Men: Guantnamo Bay and the Secret Prisons (2007), which was shortlisted for the 2008 Orwell Prize for political writing.[7]
  Interviewed by Jon Snow of Channel 4 News on 26 March 2009, Stafford Smith said he would be astounded if 10 Downing Street did not know that his client Binyam Mohamed, a former Guantnamo Bay detainee, had been tortured during detention. He added: "I would go one step further: the torture decisions were being made in the White House, by the National Security Council, Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice." He asserted that although the British had not carried out the torture, they were complicit in it. Stafford Smith concluded that, in trying to keep the torture allegations secret, the US authorities were "confusing national security with national embarrassment".[8]
  In July 2010, Stafford Smith accused former Foreign Secretary David Miliband of "fighting tooth and nail" to prevent the release of vital documents during the Binyam Mohamed case.[9]
  As of July 2011, Stafford Smith has secured the release of 65 prisoners from Guantnamo, including Moazzam Begg, a British citizen and the founder of Cageprisoners, to aid the reintegration of detainees into society. Stafford Smith was representing 15 additional detainees.[2]
  Publications[edit]Injustice: Life and Death in the Courtrooms of America (Harvill Secker, 2012) EAN: 9781846556258Bad Men: Guantnamo Bay and the Secret Prisons (Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 2007) Details his work for detainees in Guantanamo Bay, and criticizes advocates of torture.The Eight O'Clock Ferry to the Windward Side: Fighting the Lawless World of Guantanamo Bay (Nation Books, 2007) ISBN 1-56858-374-5Welcome To Hell: Letters and Writings from Death Row, edited by Helen Prejean, Clive Stafford Smith, and Jan Arriens (Northeastern; 2nd edition, 2004) ISBN 1-55553-636-0References[edit]External links[edit]Reprieve UK - Stafford Smith is Legal DirectorBrief biographical summary, BBC websiteThe Great DefenderBBC News, 11 March 2002"Do Non-Americans Have Human Rights?", an interview in Mother Jones (magazine), February 23, 2005Vikram Dodd (August 10, 2007). "Clive is used to the US way, where people play things to the media. Maybe with Guantnamo that's what you need". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 2007-08-11. "Clive Stafford Smith: US Holding 27,000 in Secret Overseas Prisons". Democracy Now! 19 May 2008Clive Stafford Smith, "Contributions", New StatesmanPersondataNameStafford Smith, CliveAlternative namesStafford Smith, Clive AdrianShort descriptionLawyerDate of birth9 July 1959Place of birthCambridge, UKDate of deathPlace of death
Protecting human rights in Pakistan | Rights Advocacy
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  25 September 2012
  Just published:Living under Drones, a research report bythe International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic of Stanford Law School (Stanford Clinic) and the Global Justice Clinic at New York University School of Law (NYU Clinic). Based on nine months of research, it challenges the
  Some key points:
  Civilians are being "terrorised" 24 hours a day by CIA drone attacks.The number of high-level militants killed as a percentage of total casualties is extremely low '' estimated at just 2%.The traumatic effects of the strikes go far beyond fatalities, psychologically battering a population which lives under the daily threat of annihilation from the air, and ruining the local economy.The US has not explained under what law it carries out these drone attacks.The report calls for an reevaluation of the drone policy, given the harmful impacts to Pakistani civilians and to the US interests.
  The report in the press:
  BBC:Drones in Pakistan traumatise civilians, US report says
  The Independent:Outrage at CIA's deadly 'double tap' drone attacks
  The Guardian:Drone attacks in Pakistan are counterproductive, says report
  Huffington Post:Pakistan Drone Study Finds 'Damaging And Counterproductive' Consequences From U.S. Policy
  The News:Drone attacks harming US interests: American report
  SPIEGEL Online:Studie von US -Juristen: Obamas Drohnenkrieg schuert Terrorgefahr
  The Foundation for Fundamental Rights is an organization working towards the advancement, protection and enforcement of fundamental human rights in Pakistan.
Abortion pill RU486 among new drugs to be listed on PBS | World news | guardian.co.uk
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  The minister for health, Tanya Plibersek. The Global Mail. Photograph: Mike Bowers
  Federal health minister Tanya Plibersek says drugs to treat skin cancer, as well as the controversial abortion pill RU486, will be listed on the pharmaceutical benefits scheme (PBS).
  Plibersek said the taxpayer-funded PBS would also include a drug to treat prostate cancer and a new generation oral anticoagulant medicine for the prevention of strokes.
  Speaking only briefly on the abortion medication, Plibersek said Australian women have had limited access to the drugs mifepristone and misoprostol, which are used in combination to terminate a pregnancy of up to seven weeks gestation.
  "By offering this different option at a very difficult time in a woman's life, I hope that we are giving more choice in what are often extraordinarily difficult circumstances," the minister said at Cancer Australia in Sydney on Sunday.
  She added that scores of millions of women in more than 40 countries have had access to the abortion drugs for several years.
  The expansion of access to medical terminations would prove "particularly important" to women living in rural and regional Australia, who have had to travel long distances and be away from family and friends to undergo surgery, Plibersek said.
  Cancer drugs due for inclusion on the PBS from August offer new hope for patients who previously could not afford the costly treatments, Plibersek said.
  Skin cancer drug ipilimumab costs $110,000 a year for private patients but with a PBS listing comes within the reach of more than 100,000 people.
  Late-stage prostate cancer drug abiraterone and breast cancer medication vinorelbine are also additions to the PBS, in a move that will cost taxpayers $430 million over the next four years.
  "The exciting thing about these new treatments is that they will extend the life of patients with melanoma, with prostrate cancer, with breast cancer," Plibersek said.
  "If we didn't subsidise these medicines through the PBS they would be out of the reach of most Australians."
  The government will also put up $450 million over the coming four years for the PBS inclusion of anti-stroke medication rivaroxaban."It's a drug that will be used by patients who have been on warfarin in the past," Plibersek said.
Consider 'The Source': Crisis Pregnancy Center Transforms Into Women's Health Program Provider: If Planned Parenthood's out, are CPCs in? - News Blog - The Austin Chronicle
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  If Planned Parenthood is pushed out of the Women's Health Program, will transformed CPCs be ushered in?
  Photo by Jana Birchum
  As the state rolls out its revised Texas Women's Health Program, a central question remains: how to find enough providers to serve the nearly 111,000 women currently enrolled in the program. The current numbers suggest real trouble '' but if one Houston-based crisis pregnancy center and Gov. Rick Perry have their way, providers will be made available.
  Indeed, being a part of the WHP is a goal for Cynthia Wenz, CEO of The Source for Women in Houston, a CPC that's in the midst of transforming itself into a women's health center. It's a transformation that Gov. Perry supports. "The Source for Women clinics, in fact, will be a part of Texas' own Women's Health Program, and Planned Parenthood will not be," Perry said in a speech delivered to supporters of The Source at a ribbon-cutting ceremony this week in Houston. Whether The Source will also help to transform the provider base for the Texas WHP remains to be seen.
  At issue in part is the state's banning of Planned Parenthood clinics from the program. Although the PP clinics in the WHP do not provide abortions, the state considers them "affiliates" of those non-WHP PP clinics that do provide abortion care. When the federal government, which originally provided 90% of the WHP funding, concluded that excluding PP clinics would violate federal law, Perry decided that the state would remake the WHP as a state-run program, keep the ban on PP, and find a way to come up with the $30-plus million in funding previously provided by the feds.
  To be eligible for the WHP, a woman cannot be pregnant, and in 2010, PP clinics provided care to nearly 50% of all WHP clients.
  According to new analysis done by the Center for Public Policy Priorities, that remained true in state fiscal year 2011, when PP clinics accounted for 47% of all WHP claims coming from providers that are required each year to certify their eligibility to provide WHP services (hospitals and labs aren't required to do this). Even more troubling is that it isn't just PP clinics that will be leaving the WHP. This year providers were asked to certify eligibility for the program by May 1 '' including confirming that they are not affiliated with an abortion provider. In addition to the 28 PP clinics that did not recertify this spring, 71 other providers '' including federally qualified health centers, physicians, and family planning clinics '' also failed to recertify for the program, according to the CPPP analysis. All together, those 99 providers handled roughly 61% of all WHP claims filed in 2011.
  More globally, although 1,928 providers recertified for the program this spring, just 515 actually provided services in 2011, accounting for the remaining 39% of paid claims. (The 1,928 excludes labs and hospitals, neither of which are required to certify.)
  If the current proposed rules for the WHP are accepted by the state, providers and advocates for the program fear that number could shrink even more, thanks to the inclusion of a "gag rule" that would forbid doctors from any discussion of abortion with their patients. As written, the rule would even forbid doctors from providing information about abortion to their clients who are not enrolled in the WHP. It is a proposed rule that lawmakers, policy analysts, advocates, and doctors alike have told the state health agencies is a major problem because it conflicts directly with medical ethics.
  If doctors are forced to choose between adherence to fundamental medical ethics and participation in the WHP, a program that provides basic reproductive health and family-planning care to low-income women, the WHP stands to lose. "We strongly oppose any interference into a physician's ability to use his or her medical judgment as to the information that is in the best interest of his or her patient," Texas Medical Association President Michael Speer and Texas District of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Chair Lisa Hollier wrote in comments to the Department of State Health Services on behalf of their organizations and the Texas Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the Texas Academy of Family Physicians, and the Texas Pediatric Society, which together represent more than 47,000 doctors and medical students. "Because of the proposed rules, we are very concerned about the future viability of this important program. If adopted as proposed, the rules will undoubtedly dramatically decrease the number of physicians willing to participate in the [Texas WHP].''
  How the doctors' response '' and the new numbers '' might affect the proposed gag rule remains uncertain. "We're looking at potential changes to address those concerns," Health and Human Services Commission spokeswoman Stephanie Goodman wrote in an email. "We hope to have any revisions ready by early October." Even if the gag rule is eliminated, will there be enough providers willing to agree to the state's terms? Indeed, it appears there may be a major new player '' at least in Houston.
  Meet the new The Source for Women, a longtime CPC that is in the midst of remaking itself into a "pregnancy medical clinic," that proposes to be a federal Medicaid-eligible provider and will step into the Texas WHP to provide well-woman checks and other reproductive health services.
  The Source CEO Wenz is a former accountant, event planner, and general manager in television post-production. On the phone from Houston, her excitement about the new direction for The Source is palpable. Moving into reproductive health care makes good business sense, she said. When Planned Parenthood moved into its large new digs in Houston, she said, The Source had a choice: stick with the old-model CPC, an entity often criticized for providing questionable counseling advice without providing any medical services, or become a direct player in women's health care. The choice, she said, was obvious. "Let's just talk business," she said, and forget about politics and abortion. If she were the head of Blockbuster, she said, and Netflix arrived on the scene, the question would be, "how do we make our business model sustainable?"
  According to Wenz, The Source for Women will now have nurse practitioners on staff, and will provide pap smears, sexually-transmitted disease testing and treatment (treatment for STDs is not currently part of the WHP, but Wenz said The Source will treat those diseases). Exactly what types of birth control will be provided, she said, has not yet been decided. "Our goal,'' she said, ''is to serve our demographic," low-income women, and that demographic needs birth control. However, The Source will not provide anything it considers an abortifacient '' including emergency contraception. According to unspecified ''medical standards,'' Wenz said, that's what EC is '' although there is plenty of scientific dispute with that position.
  What about birth control pills? That hasn't yet been decided. Wenz said only that The Source is "absolutely addressing the birth control issue," and that its board is in the process of determining the parameters of its "prescriptive authority."
  And can The Source meet with HHSC approval? A provider would not be required to provide an entire list of services just to be eligible for Texas WHP funding, HHSC's Goodman wrote in an email. (And, under the current rules, emergency contraception is not covered by WHP, which is a program designed to provide basic preventative health services, as a means of preventing unwanted pregnancy.) However '' and it's a major condition '' all providers must be enrolled in the federal Medicaid program. Wenz said The Source is in the middle of doing just that. In fact, she said The Source has been moving toward becoming an eligible provider since she took the helm in 2009.
  While The Source may be devising a new mission, it isn't abandoning its heritage. The list of services the group provides may have expanded '' its website earlier this week included a note that it does not provide "reproductive health care services," "birth control," "pap smears," or "mammograms" '' The Source intends to continue drawing dollars from the state as a participant in the Alternatives to Abortion program.
  That program, created by budget rider in 2005, moved money from the traditional family-planning budget to fund CPCs in order to "promote childbirth." Initially funded with a $5 million biennial allocation, lawmakers in each subsequent session have increased the A2A budget, even as it has drastically cut funding for women's health care. In fiscal year 2011, The Source received just under $85,000 in state A2A funds, to provide "counseling" and various classes, including on childbirth and pregnancy. For the first quarter of FY 2012, the group billed for nearly $29,000 in A2A funds. The Source will continue to be a part of that program, said Wenz. The A2A makes up just a small portion of their funding, provided by "six revenue streams," she said. "It is a small percentage [of funding], but you bet, [I'll take] every revenue stream I can."
  Among those supporting The Source's makeover is Perry, who on Tuesday spoke at the group's ribbon-cutting ceremony. "Here in Texas, we've worked hard to strengthen our abortion laws, empower families, and protect our children's future," reads the text of Perry's speech. "We've banned the use of your tax dollars for abortion procedures in Texas, and expanded that ban to include those affiliated with abortion providers in the case of our Women's Health Program," he continued. "We've stood strong '... and proclaimed the truth that protecting the rights of abortion providers and protecting women's health are not the same thing. The Source for Women clinics, in fact, will be a part of Texas' own Women's Health Program, and Planned Parenthood will not be."
abortion procedure codes
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perry letter
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  Wed, 03 Jul 2013 19:39
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Executive Order 13535-- Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's Consistency with Longstanding Restrictions on the Use of Federal Funds for Abortion | The White House
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  The White House
  Office of the Press Secretary
  For Immediate Release
  March 24, 2010
  EXECUTIVE ORDER
  ENSURING ENFORCEMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF ABORTION RESTRICTIONS IN THE PATIENT PROTECTION AND AFFORDABLE CARE ACT
  By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" (Public Law 111-148), I hereby order as follows:
  Section. 1. Policy. Following the recent enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the "Act"), it is necessary to establish an adequate enforcement mechanism to ensure that Federal funds are not used for abortion services (except in cases of rape or incest, or when the life of the woman would be endangered), consistent with a longstanding Federal statutory restriction that is commonly known as the Hyde Amendment. The purpose of this order is to establish a comprehensive, Government-wide set of policies and procedures to achieve this goal and to make certain that all relevant actors -- Federal officials, State officials (including insurance regulators) and health care providers -- are aware of their responsibilities, new and old.
  The Act maintains current Hyde Amendment restrictions governing abortion policy and extends those restrictions to the newly created health insurance exchanges. Under the Act, longstanding Federal laws to protect conscience (such as the Church Amendment, 42 U.S.C. 300a-7, and the Weldon Amendment, section 508(d)(1) of Public Law 111-8) remain intact and new protections prohibit discrimination against health care facilities and health care providers because of an unwillingness to provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortions.
  Numerous executive agencies have a role in ensuring that these restrictions are enforced, including the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and the Office of Personnel Management.
  Sec. 2. Strict Compliance with Prohibitions on Abortion Funding in Health Insurance Exchanges. The Act specifically prohibits the use of tax credits and cost-sharing reduction payments to pay for abortion services (except in cases of rape or incest, or when the life of the woman would be endangered) in the health insurance exchanges that will be operational in 2014. The Act also imposes strict payment and accounting requirements to ensure that Federal funds are not used for abortion services in exchange plans (except in cases of rape or incest, or when the life of the woman would be endangered) and requires State health insurance commissioners to ensure that exchange plan funds are segregated by insurance companies in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, OMB funds management circulars, and accounting guidance provided by the Government Accountability Office.
  I hereby direct the Director of the OMB and the Secretary of HHS to develop, within 180 days of the date of this order, a model set of segregation guidelines for State health insurance commissioners to use when determining whether exchange plans are complying with the Act's segregation requirements, established in section 1303 of the Act, for enrollees receiving Federal financial assistance. The guidelines shall also offer technical information that States should follow to conduct independent regular audits of insurance companies that participate in the health insurance exchanges. In developing these model guidelines, the Director of the OMB and the Secretary of HHS shall consult with executive agencies and offices that have relevant expertise in accounting principles, including, but not limited to, the Department of the Treasury, and with the Government Accountability Office. Upon completion of those model guidelines, the Secretary of HHS should promptly initiate a rulemaking to issue regulations, which will have the force of law, to interpret the Act's segregation requirements, and shall provide guidance to State health insurance commissioners on how to comply with the model guidelines.
  Sec. 3. Community Health Center Program. The Act establishes a new Community Health Center (CHC) Fund within HHS, which provides additional Federal funds for the community health center program. Existing law prohibits these centers from using Federal funds to provide abortion services (except in cases of rape or incest, or when the life of the woman would be endangered), as a result of both the Hyde Amendment and longstanding regulations containing the Hyde language. Under the Act, the Hyde language shall apply to the authorization and appropriations of funds for Community Health Centers under section 10503 and all other relevant provisions. I hereby direct the Secretary of HHS to ensure that program administrators and recipients of Federal funds are aware of and comply with the limitations on abortion services imposed on CHCs by existing law. Such actions should include, but are not limited to, updating Grant Policy Statements that accompany CHC grants and issuing new interpretive rules.
  Sec. 4. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect: (i) authority granted by law or Presidential directive to an agency, or the head thereof; or (ii) functions of the Director of the OMB relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
  (b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.
  (c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees or agents, or any other person.
  BARACK OBAMA
  THE WHITE HOUSE,March 24, 2010.
Harris v. McRae - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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  Harris v. McRaeSupreme Court of the United StatesArgued April 21, 1980Decided June 30, 1980Full case nameHarris, Secretary of Health and Human Services v. Cora McRae, et al.Citations448 U.S.297 (more)100 S. Ct. 2671; 65 L. Ed. 2d 784; 1980 U.S. LEXIS 145
  Prior historyMcRae v. Califano, 491 F. Supp. 630 (E.D.N.Y. 1980)Subsequent historyPetition for rehearing denied September 17, 1981HoldingStates that participated in Medicaid were not required to fund medically necessary abortions for which federal reimbursement was unavailable as a result of the Hyde Amendment. The funding restrictions of the Hyde Amendment did not violate either the Fifth Amendment or the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.Court membershipCase opinionsMajorityStewart, joined by Burger, White, Powell, RehnquistConcurrenceWhiteDissentBrennan, joined by Marshall, BlackmunDissentMarshallDissentBlackmunDissentStevensHarris v. McRae, 448 U.S. 297 (1980),[1] was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that States that participated in Medicaid were not required to fund medically necessary abortions for which federal reimbursement was unavailable as a result of the Hyde Amendment, which restricted the use of federal funds for abortion. The Court also held that the funding restrictions of the Hyde Amendment did not violate either the Fifth Amendment or the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
  Background[edit]In 1965 Congress amended Title XIX of the Social Security Act to create the Medicaid program. Medicaid is a voluntary program which provides federal funds to those states that choose to provide reimbursement for certain medical expenses for the indigent.[2]
  In September, 1976, Congress began, either by amendment to the annual appropriations bill for the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare or by joint resolution, to ban the use of federal funds to reimburse the cost of abortions under Medicaid.[3] Initially, the only exception was where the life of the mother would be endangered if the fetus were carried to term. These restrictions became known as the Hyde Amendment, named for the measure's original sponsor, Illinois Congressman Henry Hyde. The language of the 1980 Hyde Amendment provided,
  ''[None] of the funds provided by this joint resolution shall be used to perform abortions except where the life of the mother would be endangered if the fetus were carried to term; or except for such medical procedures necessary for the victims of rape or incest when such rape or incest has been reported promptly to a law enforcement agency or public health service.[4]''In 1976, following passage of the original Hyde Amendment, an action was brought in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York seeking to enjoin enforcement of the Amendment's restrictions.[5] Plaintiffs were Cora McRae, a New York Medicaid recipient then in the first trimester of a pregnancy that she wished to abort, the New York City Health and Hospitals Corp., which operated hospitals providing abortion services, officers of the Women's Division of the Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church, and the Women's Division itself.[6] McRae sought to bring the action as a class action, on behalf of other similarly situated women.[6] The district court granted the class certification motion, and also permitted Senators James Buckley and Jesse Helms and Congressman Hyde to intervene as defendants.[6]
  The district court granted the injunction on January 15, 1980, finding that the Hyde Amendments violated the Fifth Amendment's Due Process clause and the First Amendment's Establishment clause.[7]
  Supreme Court decision[edit]Justice Stewart delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Chief Justice Burger, Justice White, Justice Powell, and Justice Rehnquist joined. Justice White wrote an opinion concurring the judgment. Justice Brennan wrote a dissent, in which Justice Marshall and Justice Blackmun joined. Justice Marshall and Justice Blackmun also authored separate dissents, as did Justice Stevens.
  The Court held that states participating in the Medicaid program were not obligated to fund medically necessary abortions under Title XIX. The Court found that a woman's freedom of choice did not carry with it "a constitutional entitlement to the financial resources to avail herself of the full range of protected choices." The Court ruled that because the Equal Protection Clause was not a source of substantive rights and because poverty did not qualify as a "suspect classification," the Hyde Amendment did not violate the Fifth Amendment. Finally, the Court held that the coincidence of the funding restrictions of the statute with tenets of the Roman Catholic Church did not constitute an establishment of religion.
  See also[edit]References[edit]^448 U.S. 297 Full text of the opinion courtesy of Findlaw.com.^448 U.S. at 301^448 U.S. at 302^Pub. L. 96-123, § 109, 93 Stat. 926^McRae v. Mathews, 421 F. Supp. 533 (E.D.N.Y. 1976)^ abc448 U.S. at 303^McRae v. Califano, 491 F. Supp. 630
DOMA, the Hyde Amendment, and the Missouri Compromise: Windsor as the Reversal of Harris v. McRae and Renewal of Dred-Scott Federalism | Online Library of Law and Liberty
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  Jun 30, 2013by David Upham/
  Filed Under: DOMA, Dred Scott, Due Process, Federalism, Harris v. McRae, Hyde Amendment, Windsor v. United States
  Some conservative commentators have decried the Windsor case as the new Roe v. Wade. As to legal doctrine, however, the case looks more like a reversal of Harris v. McRae, the Supreme Court decision (barely) upholding the constitutionality of the Hyde Amendment. Further, the case looks like a vindication of the concurring federalist arguments once offered by Justices Catron and Campbell in Dred Scott.
  Both Harris and Windsor involved a constitutional challenge, under the Fifth Amendment, to a federal law that affected a due-process right the Court had recently created: the right to abortion, created in Roe v. Wade, and the right to consensual acts of ''intimacy,'' created in Lawrence v. Texas. Both of those cases were the alleged progeny of the prior due-process cases supporting certain unenumerated, non-economic rights: from Meyer v. Nebraska to Pierce v. Society of Sisters to Griswold v. Connecticut.
  In both cases, the federal law involved not criminal prohibition but the distribution of federal benefits in a selective manner that arguably disfavored the exercise of these rights. Moreover, in both cases, the laws were proposed by Republicans, many of whom denied there was any such ''right,'' for such rights were actually wrongs. In both cases, then, there was some moral disapprobation involved (though probably far more in the case of the Hyde Amendment, for inflammatory words like ''murder'' were used). In both cases, conversely, the laws were signed by Democratic presidents who affirmed the existence of the alleged constitutional rights, but who believed the federal government did not need to subsidize these rights equally with alternatives.
  Both cases involved, in turn, a disagreement as to the meaning of central terms. Opponents of the Hyde Amendment argued that abortion was a ''medical'' procedure, like any other, and opponents of DOMA argued that a committed, formal same-sex union was a ''marriage'' like any other. Understandably, opponents of both statutes concluded that the laws arbitrarily discriminated between different medical procedures or marriages, and consequently discriminated unconstitutionally against persons who wanted or needed to fully enjoy the disfavored medical procedure or marriage.
  In response, proponents of both the Hyde Amendment and DOMA tended to reply on alternative definitions of ''medicine'' and ''marriage'' that were both traditional and teleological. ''Medicine'' seemed to involve not just the physician's skill but also the purpose of health. Therefore, abortion was not medicine, insofar as abortion neither cured nor treated any known illness, and had a 100% mortality rate. Marriage likewise involved not just an agreement, but an agreement for the purpose of reproducing and educating offspring. Same-sex relationships, then, could not be marriages; indeed, the custodial rights arising from such ''marriages'' would make it less likely that children would be raised by their natural parents.
  Both cases were decided by a sharply divided, 5-4 Court. And in both cases, the usual swing justice wrote the opinion. In Harris it was Powell; in Windsor it was Kennedy''who had replaced Powell in 1987.
  But in sharp contrast, Powell had not been the author of Roe, while Kennedy was the author of Lawrence. (Blackmun, the author of Roe, was in dissent in Harris). Powell voted to restrain Roe, while Kennedy voted to expand Lawrence.
  Furthermore, in Windsor, the swing justice-author had, as a helpmate to his due-process claim, a peculiar federalism argument last heard (to my knowledge) in Dred Scott: the United States is required to adopt the definition of a right (like ''property'' or ''marriage'') whenever one of the states has adopted that definition. In their concurring opinions, Justices Campbell and Catron had argued that Congress was bound to respect and protect as ''property'' whatever any state law had designated as such. One state's definition of ''property'' must be ''property'' in the common national territories.[1] Similarly, in Windsor, one state's ''marriage'' must be ''marriage'' in the common national scheme of taxation and expenditure.
  But when Harris was decided, federalism had been on an indefinite sabbatical since 1937.
  Windsor thus represents for Lawrence what the dissent in Harris would have been for Roe. And it represents a revival of the federalism championed in Dred Scott. Going forward, then, it is reasonable to conclude that the progeny of Windsor will include not only challenges to state DOMAs, but also challenges to Harris, based on the renewed argument the abortion is a ''medical procedure,'' and that the federal governments must treat all such medical procedures equally, much as that government must now treat all ''marriages'' equally, and once had to treat all ''property'' equally.
  [1] Scott v. Sandford, 60 US 393, 517 (1857) (Campbell, J., concurring) (''The question then arises, whether Congress, which can exercise no jurisdiction over the relations of master and slave within the limits of the Union, and is bound to recognise and respect the rights and relations that validly exist under the Constitutions and laws of the States, can deny the exercise of those rights, and prohibit the continuance of those relations, within the Territories'.... And, in my opinion, that clause confers no power upon Congress to dissolve the relations of the master and slave on the domain of the United States, either within or without any of the States'') (emphasis added). Id. at 527 (Catron, J., concurring) (''If the slaveholder is prohibited from going to the Territory with his slaves, who are parts of his family in name and in fact, it will follow that men owning lawful property in their own States, carrying with them the equality of their State to enjoy the common property, may be told, you cannot come here with your slaves, and he will be held out at the border. By this subterfuge, owners of slave property, to the amount of thousand of millions, might be almost as effectually excluded from removing into the Territory of Louisiana north of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes, as if the law declared that owners of slaves, as a class, should be excluded, even if their slaves were left behind.'')
Long-awaited GMD Missile Intercept Test Scheduled for Friday
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: Global Security Newswire Daily News
  Wed, 03 Jul 2013 18:56
  A long awaited, critical test of the primary U.S. defense interceptor against long-range ballistic missile attacks is scheduled for Friday, the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency announced.
  The trial flight of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense element will involve a Ground-Based Interceptor equipped with the first-generation exoatmospheric kill vehicle. A second-generation EKV component was used in two unsuccessful GBI tests in 2010. The GBI missile will be fired from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California against a ballistic missile target launched from the Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.
  A successful January flight test of the GBI missile with a modified EKV component set the stage for Friday's tests, giving the Pentagon enough confidence that technical problems with the troublesome "hit-to-kill" warhead had been fixed.
  As a result of the two failed intercept trials in 2010, "this test is the most significant demonstration of the Ground-Based Interceptors and its fire-control system in the history of the program," Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance Chairman Riki Ellison was quoted by Bloomberg as saying.
  U.S. military chiefs "responsible for the defense of the United States will base their confidence [in the GBI system] on the result of this test," he said.
  An intercept trial that would utilize the second-generation EKV component is slated for later in 2013. If that test fulfills its parameters, it would set the stage for the augmentation around 2017 of the GMD system with 14 new GBI missiles. There are presently 30 silo-based interceptors tipped with the older-generation EKV warhead fielded in Alaska and California.
U.S. Postal Service Logging All Mail for Law Enforcement - NYTimes.com
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Wed, 03 Jul 2013 16:21
  WASHINGTON '-- Leslie James Pickering noticed something odd in his mail last September: A handwritten card, apparently delivered by mistake, with instructions for postal workers to pay special attention to the letters and packages sent to his home.
  ''Show all mail to supv'' '-- supervisor '-- ''for copying prior to going out on the street,'' read the card. It included Mr. Pickering's name, address and the type of mail that needed to be monitored. The word ''confidential'' was highlighted in green.
  ''It was a bit of a shock to see it,'' said Mr. Pickering, who owns a small bookstore in Buffalo. More than a decade ago, he was a spokesman for the Earth Liberation Front, a radical environmental group labeled eco-terrorists by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Postal officials subsequently confirmed they were indeed tracking Mr. Pickering's mail but told him nothing else.
  As the world focuses on the high-tech spying of the National Security Agency, the misplaced card offers a rare glimpse inside the seemingly low-tech but prevalent snooping of the United States Postal Service.
  Mr. Pickering was targeted by a longtime surveillance system called mail covers, but that is only a forerunner of a vastly more expansive effort, the Mail Isolation Control and Tracking program, in which Postal Service computers photograph the exterior of every piece of paper mail that is processed in the United States '-- about 160 billion pieces last year. It is not known how long the government saves the images.
  Together, the two programs show that snail mail is subject to the same kind of scrutiny that the National Security Agency has given to telephone calls and e-mail.
  The mail covers program, used to monitor Mr. Pickering, is more than a century old but is still considered a powerful tool. At the request of law enforcement officials, postal workers record information from the outside of letters and parcels before they are delivered. (Actually opening the mail requires a warrant.) The information is sent to whatever law enforcement agency asked for it. Tens of thousands of pieces of mail each year undergo this scrutiny.
  The Mail Isolation Control and Tracking program was created after the anthrax attacks in late 2001 that killed five people, including two postal workers. Highly secret, it seeped into public view last month when the F.B.I. cited it in its investigation of ricin-laced letters sent to President Obama and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. It enables the Postal Service to retroactively track mail correspondence at the request of law enforcement. No one disputes that it is sweeping.
  ''In the past, mail covers were used when you had a reason to suspect someone of a crime,'' said Mark D. Rasch, the former director of the Justice Department's computer crime unit, who worked on several fraud cases using mail covers. ''Now it seems to be 'Let's record everyone's mail so in the future we might go back and see who you were communicating with.' Essentially you've added mail covers on millions of Americans.''
  Bruce Schneier, a computer security expert and an author, said whether it was a postal worker taking down information or a computer taking images, the program was still an invasion of privacy.
  ''Basically they are doing the same thing as the other programs, collecting the information on the outside of your mail, the metadata, if you will, of names, addresses, return addresses and postmark locations, which gives the government a pretty good map of your contacts, even if they aren't reading the contents,'' he said.
  But law enforcement officials said mail covers and the automatic mail tracking program are invaluable, even in an era of smartphones and e-mail.
  In a criminal complaint filed June 7 in Federal District Court in Eastern Texas, the F. B. Isaid a postal investigator tracing the ricin letters was able to narrow the search to Shannon Guess Richardson, an actress in New Boston, Tex., by examining information from the front and back images of 60 pieces of mail scanned immediately before and after the tainted letters sent to Mr. Obama and Mr. Bloomberg showing return addresses near her home. Ms. Richardson had originally accused her husband of mailing the letters, but investigators determined that he was at work during the time they were mailed.
  In 2007, the F.B.I., the Internal Revenue Service and the local police in Charlotte, N.C., used information gleaned from the mail cover program to arrest Sallie Wamsley-Saxon and her husband, Donald, charging both with running a prostitution ring that took in $3 million over six years. Prosecutors said it was one of the largest and most successful such operations in the country. Investigators also used mail covers to help track banking activity and other businesses the couple operated under different names.
  Other agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services, have used mail covers to track drug smugglers and Medicare fraud.
  ''It's a treasure trove of information,'' said James J. Wedick, a former F.B.I. agent who spent 34 years at the agency and who said he used mail covers in a number of investigations, including one that led to the prosecution of several elected officials in California on corruption charges. ''Looking at just the outside of letters and other mail, I can see who you bank with, who you communicate with '-- all kinds of useful information that gives investigators leads that they can then follow up on with a subpoena.''
  But, he said: ''It can be easily abused because it's so easy to use and you don't have to go through a judge to get the information. You just fill out a form.''
  For mail cover requests, law enforcement agencies simply submit a letter to the Postal Service, which can grant or deny a request without judicial review. Law enforcement officials say the Postal Service rarely denies a request. In other government surveillance program, such as wiretaps, a federal judge must sign off on the requests.
  The mail cover surveillance requests are granted for about 30 days, and can be extended for up to 120 days. There are two kinds of mail covers: those related to criminal activity and those requested to protect national security. The criminal activity requests average 15,000 to 20,000 per year, said law enforcement officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are prohibited by law from discussing the requests. The number of requests for antiterrorism mail covers has not been made public.
  Law enforcement officials need warrants to open the mail, although President George W. Bush asserted in a signing statement in 2007 that the federal government had the authority to open mail without warrants in emergencies or foreign intelligence cases.
  Court challenges to mail covers have generally failed because judges have ruled that there is no reasonable expectation of privacy for information contained on the outside of a letter. Officials in both the George W. Bush and Obama administrations, in fact, have used the mail-cover court rulings to justify the N.S.A.'s surveillance programs, saying the electronic monitoring amounts to the same thing as a mail cover. Congress briefly conducted hearings on mail cover programs in 1976, but has not revisited the issue.
  The program has led to sporadic reports of abuse. In May 2012, Mary Rose Wilcox, a Maricopa County supervisor, was awarded nearly $1 million by a federal judge after winning a lawsuit against Sheriff Joe Arpaio, known for his immigration raids in Arizona, who, among other things, obtained mail covers from the Postal Service to track her mail. The judge called the investigation into Ms. Wilcox politically motivated because she had been a frequent critic of Mr. Arpaio, objecting to what she considered the targeting of Hispanics in his immigration sweeps. The case is being appealed.
  In the mid-1970s the Church Committee, a Senate panel that documented C.I.A. abuses, faulted a program created in the 1950s in New York that used mail covers to trace and sometimes open mail going to the Soviet Union from the United States.
  A suit brought in 1973 by a high school student in New Jersey, whose letter to the Socialist Workers Party was traced by the F.B.I. as part of an investigation into the group, led to a rebuke from a federal judge.
  Postal officials refused to discuss either mail covers or the Mail Isolation Control and Tracking program.
  Mr. Pickering says he suspects that the F. B. Irequested the mail cover to monitor his mail because a former associate said the bureau had called with questions about him. Last month, he filed a lawsuit against the Postal Service, the F.B.I. and other agencies, saying they were improperly withholding information.
  A spokeswoman for the F. B. Iin Buffalo declined to comment.
  Mr. Pickering said that although he was arrested two dozen times for acts of civil disobedience and convicted of a handful of misdemeanors, he was never involved in the arson attacks the Earth Liberation Front carried out. He said he became tired of focusing only on environmental activism and moved back to Buffalo to finish college, open his bookstore, Burning Books, and start a family.
  ''I'm no terrorist,'' he said. ''I'm an activist.''
  Mr. Pickering has written books sympathetic to the liberation front, but he said his political views and past association should not make him the target of a federal investigation. ''I'm just a guy who runs a bookstore and has a wife and a kid,'' he said.
  Post-Transplant and Off Drugs, H.I.V. Patients Are Apparently Virus-Free
National Intelligence Director Apologizes for Lying to Congress
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: Dprogram.net
  Wed, 03 Jul 2013 15:27
  July 3rd, 2013
  (USNewsWorldReport) '' The director of National Intelligence apologized in June to the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee for lying during a hearing, according to a letter published on the DNI website on Tuesday.
  Director James Clapper appeared before the committee in March, where Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., asked him specifically if NSA spies on millions of Americans. Clapper answered, ''No.''
  Since then, Edward Snowden reportedly leaked government documents that unveiled a secretive government program that did precisely what Wyden suggested in collecting meta data for cell phone and internet records of hundreds of millions of Americans.
  Clapper says the intricacy of Wyden's question '' asking for a clarification of ''hundreds of millions of dossiers on people'' '' combined with a need to preserve classified information prompted him to give the wrong answer.
  ''My response was clearly erroneous '' for which I apologize,'' he wrote in the letter to committee chair Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. ''While my staff acknowledged the error to Sen. Wyden's staff soon after the hearing, I can now openly correct it because the existence of the metadata collection program has been declassified.''
  Full article here
  Tags: lying to congress, national intelligence directorThis entry was posted on Wednesday, July 3rd, 2013 at 8:25 am and is filed under Dictatorship, Education/Mind Control, Fascism, Martial Law/Police State, NWO, Politics/Corrupt. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
Your Perceived Emotional State Is What Determines How You Feel Pain
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: Dprogram.net
  Wed, 03 Jul 2013 15:25
  (PreventDisease) '' Brain imaging technology is allowing us to see the potential for the mind to influence our physiology, and how this influence should not be underestimated in determining how we feel pain.
  A recent report published in the European Heart Journal showed that our perception of stress may be the most significant indicator of the disease.
  Scientists are now suggesting that our perception and the complex emotional state of the brain may in fact bias how we process and thus experience this highly protective sensation. What's more is that this may explain how there is such variation in our pain thresholds and how some individuals can be susceptible to conditions of chronic, prolonged pain.
  Our ability to detect pain acts as an alarm system, protecting and guarding our bodies against potentially damaging aspects of our environment. This imperative awareness is mediated by 'nociceptive' nerve fibres that innervate our skin and organs, and feed into the pain processing pathways of the central nervous system. These fibres feed via the spinal cord to the brain stem, to the pain generating centres of the brain, most commonly the somatosensory cortex.
  The complexity of the relationship between peripheral pain input, the actual painful experience, and subsequent report of the sensation makes documenting pain in clinical research particularly problematic. Over the past decade, scientists have been addressing the inherent flaws that exist in pain research, and how this limits our understanding and progress in anaesthetic therapeutics. Experimental neuroimaging is emerging as a highly efficient method in mainstream pain research to accurately identify the key areas of the brain responsible for mediating these protective and highly important sensations. By allowing access to the brain activity where these sensations originate, experimental brain imaging allows for a more accurate and objective measure of the pain experience.
  The multidimensionality of pain may be explained by the variety of sensory and cognitive aspects that may 'tune' our individual pain thresholds. In anaesthetic research, much emphasis is now being placed on the emotional factors and thought processes that impact how we experience pain. Consider first the manner in which we can allocate our attention to different aspects of our environment. Our ability to focus on relevant events and attenuate our responses to irrelevant events is an integral component of higher cognitive functioning. So much so, that these attentional influences may have an impending impact on the intensity of our peripheral sensations. In 2003, researchers tested the power of distraction by presenting a series of unpleasant odours to subjects whilst they were subjected to thermal pain. They found, like many other psychophysical studies, that when the subject's attention was focused on the pain, they described the sensation as more intense and unpleasant.
  Then consider, how our subjective experience of pain could be impacted by our expectations and that these expectations of pain can be attributed in part to individual trait differences: fear and anxiety may play a prominent role in the activation of pain pathways. Our cognitive predictions can be impacted by false and unequivocal beliefs stemming from inaccurate memories or inappropriate anxiety that distorts our interaction with the situation in the future. In a neuroimaging investigation in 2006, researchers identified that those individuals that were more anxious about pain (as determined by the Fear of Pain Questionnaire) showed a heightened response in brain areas that encode the emotional aspects of pain, showing their anticipatory fear could actually physically heighten their sensitivity to the painful sensation.
  To the 'normal person', pain is a mostly acute and infrequent sensation such as a headache, bruise, or the occasional back twinge. For some people however, pain can persist for months at a time, and is often completely unexplainable. Chronic pain states include migraines, neuropathic pain and arthritis. Chronic pain is one of the largest medical health problems in the developed world because it cannot often be efficiently managed or treated. This is however, not for a lack of trying. Currently, there is little research that focuses on understanding the biology of chronic pain, but the development of neuroimaging techniques may be opening the first window of insight into the neurological framework for such conditions.
  The problem with chronic pain states are that 'secondary pain' often develop as a consequence of the negative impact of unsuccessful treatments. Prolonged worry and emotional turmoil about chronic pain diagnosis leads to the secondary development of mood disorders and depression. The majority of this area of research has identified that a positive mood has a significant pain-attenuating effect and negative mood increases sensitivity to experimentally induced pain. Furthermore, population-based longitudinal investigations have observed that depressed individuals are at an increased risk of developing chronic pain conditions, than those without mood disorders. This evidence establishes a role for emotion-based tuning of pain modulatory systems and provides a basis for novel strategies in chronic pain management by addressing the negative lifestyle impacts associated with such conditions.
  It is a common fallacy that placebo effects lack credibility or significance in modern healthcare systems. In fact, since the post-World War II introduction of placebo effects into mainstream medicine, scientists have used the impact of placebos in controlled drug trials to gather information on the qualitative nature of pain. A placebo describes an ineffectual treatment (often in the form of a sugar pill) that is intended to deceive the recipient to believe they are taking a pharmacotherapy to treat their condition. Placebo research has implicated prefrontal pathways in the brain as a source of cognitive pain modulation, because studies have consistently observed that activation of this area correlates with 'emotional detachment' from the pain, and thus a higher ability to cope with it. With its extensive connections to the emotion and pain processing centres, this area acts as a powerful modulator in expectation and reappraisal of the placebo effect, by dampening fear by suppressing amygdala (the emotion centre) activation. Remarkably, other personality traits like dispositional optimism can seriously enhance placebo analgesia. This research reinforces the importance of positive expectations about the efficiency of a drug and may provide an explanation for why many analgesic treatments in chronic pain are unsuccessful at a population level.
  ''To consider only the sensory features of pain, and ignore its motivational and affective properties, is to look at only part of the problem, not even the most important part at that'' are words from the pain researchers R. Melzack and K.L. Casey who even 50 years ago, placed emphasis on the multidimensionality of pain perception. The rapid development of neuroimaging techniques means the next 20 years are predicted to be particularly prosperous for identifying new targets in surgical and pharmacological pain relief tools. In the mean time, it seems a 'mind over matter' attitude could be more beneficial than we would ever have expected.
  Source: preventdisease.com
  Tags: emotional state, how you feel painThis entry was posted on Wednesday, July 3rd, 2013 at 8:13 am and is filed under Education/Mind Control, Science/Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
''AMERICA'' The Land Of Lucifer; The Real Story Behind The Name
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: Dprogram.net
  Wed, 03 Jul 2013 15:21
  (BeforeItsNews) '' When I was in school, American History usually began with Christopher Columbus. Later I began to wonder just who the people were who lived here when Columbus ''discovered'' America. There were, what appeared to be, Masonic Lodges set up by the indigenous people. Who were the Aztecs, Incas, Olmecs etc. Then there is the curious mystery of European, Egyptian, and other artifacts that have been found. We are not being told the whole truth.
  AMERICA, we were told, was named in honor of Amerigo Vespucci, although his authentic Christian name was Alberigo Vespucci. Guyanan novelist Jan Carew argues that Vespucci changed his Christian name after his voyages to the Americas, This would mean ''Amerigo'' came from ''America'' and not the other way around.
  America's Birth Certificate: The name
  America (applied to present-day Brazil)
  appeared for the first time on Martin
  Waldseem¼ller's 1507 world map.
  ''Carew is resurrecting the ideas of Jules Marcou, a prominent French geologist who while studying North America argued, as did other 19th-century writers, that the name America was brought back to Europe from the New World; and that Vespucci had changed his name to reflect the name of his discovery. Specifically, Marcou introduced the name of an Indian tribe and of a district in Nicaragua called Amerrique, and asserted that this district '-- rich in gold '-- had been visited by both Columbus and Vespucci, who then made this name known in Europe (see Marcou's map). For both explorers the words Amerrique and gold became synonymous. Subsequently, according to Marcou's account, Vespucci changed his Christian name from Alberico to Amerigo. Carew cites Marcou to back his claim that ''in the archives of Toledo, a letter from Vespucci to the Cardinal dated December 9, 1508, is signed Amerrigo with the double 'r' as in the Indian Amerrique '... and between 1508 and 1512, the year in which Vespucci died, at least two other signatures with the Christian name Amerrigo were recorded.'' (See Marcou's 1875 article in the Atlantic Monthly and his more elaborate work published subsequently in the Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution [1890].)''
  If America is not named after Vespucci, then where did the name come from? Marcou, who quotes Le Plongeon, (an imaginative anthropologist) studying the Mayan culture in Yucatan : ''The name AMERICA or AMERRIQUE in the Mayan language means, a country of perpetually strong wind, or the Land of the Wind, and sometimes the suffix '-ique' and '-ika' can mean not only wind or air but also a spirit that breathes, life itself.
  Who exactly is the '' Spirit of the Air'' that they worshipped? According to the Popol Vuh, the sacred, indigenous Maya narrative of creation, he was the great ''feathered serpent'' creator deity known as Q'uq'umatz; a god considered by scholars to be roughly equivalent to the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl and the Yucatec Mayan Kukulkan.
  America came from Amaruca.Manly P. Hall gives more insight in The Secret Teachings of All Ages: ''These Children of the Sun adore the Plum¨d Serpent, who is the messenger of the Sun. He was the God Quetzalcoatl in Mexico, Gucumatz in Quich(C); and in Peru he was called Amaru. From the latter name comes our word America. Amaruca is, literally translated, 'Land of the Plum¨d Serpent.' The priests of this [flying dragon], from their chief center in the Cordilleras, once ruled both Americas. All the Red men who have remained true to the ancient religion are still under their sway. One of their strong centres was in Guatemala, and of their Order was the author of the book called Popol Vuh. In the Quich(C) tongue Gucumatz is the exact equivalent of Quetzalcoatl in the Nahuatl language; quetzal, the bird of Paradise; coatl, serpent'--'the Serpent veiled in plumes of the paradise-bird'!''
  This is why Masonic Lodges were already here.
  Since these ancient serpent legends include the Mesoamerican feathered serpent gods and can be looked upon as a historical testament of that Angel thrown down by God, ''then perhaps The Land of the Plum¨d Serpent may also be known as the Land of Lucifer,'' concludes Ken Hudnall in The Occult Connection II: The Hidden Race.
  ''America'' Means The Land Of LuciferSources
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  Source: Before Its News
Chinese premier calls for closer cooperation with Uganda
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: Global Times
  Wed, 03 Jul 2013 15:14
  Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said Wednesday that China is willing to work with Uganda to strengthen friendly cooperation between the two countries.Li, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made the remarks during a meeting with Uganda's Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi at the Great Hall of the People in downtown Beijing.
  Li said China and Uganda enjoy a traditional friendship and sound development in bilateral relations.
  He noted that Chinese President Xi Jinping and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni reached new agreements regarding developing bilateral ties during the fifth summit of the BRICS, which groups Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
  China is willing to work with Uganda to advance bilateral relations as well as party-to-party ties, strengthen cooperation in various fields including infrastructure construction, energy and agriculture, develop new fields for cooperation, and bring benefits to the two peoples, he said.
  He pointed out that strengthening unity and cooperation with African countries is an important foundation for China's foreign policy and a long-term and resolute strategic choice of China's.
  China will support African countries to enhance their capacity to achieve development themselves, make efforts to convince the international community to further invest in, and pay more attention to, Africa, and make joint efforts to promote peace, development and prosperity in Africa.
  Mbabazi, also secretary general of Uganda's ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM), congratulated China on its great achievements and voiced hopes of strengthening the partnership with China, enhancing party-to-party communication, expanding pragmatic cooperation in all fields and making greater progress in bilateral ties.
  Wang Jiarui, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and head of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, also attended the meeting.
The New Normal: Congress proposes to threaten impeachment if Obama goes to war in Syria
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: Dr. Jones reports
  Wed, 03 Jul 2013 15:12
  WASHINGTON, D.C. '' Yesterday, Congressman Walter B. Jones (NC-3) introduced a resolution to prohibit the use of war power against Syria without congressional authorization. H. Con. Res 40 emphasizes that declaring and appropriating funds for war is a power of the legislative '' not executive '' branch. Should the president choose to implement military force against Syria without congressional approval, that decision would constitute an impeachable offense under Article 2, Section 4 of the Constitution.
  ''We cannot continue to spend American money and risk American lives overseas without a vote of approval from Congress,'' said Jones. ''For too long, the legislature's responsibility to authorize military force has been overlooked. It is time that we uphold the Constitution, which makes it clear in Article 1, Section 8 that Congress alone holds the power to declare war. A breach of that principle by the president would unquestionably be considered an impeachable offense.''
  See the full text of the resolution at the link below.
EU Enlargement '' Balkans
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: the President's Videos
  Wed, 03 Jul 2013 15:05
  Video interview with the President of the EU Council on his thoughts about enlargement after Croatia joined the Union and both Serbia and Kosovo took important steps forward on their respective European paths. It was filmed in the Balkans on June 30 and July 1, 2013.Download in broadcast quality
Player information swiped in hack of Ubisoft system
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories
  Wed, 03 Jul 2013 08:26
  Player information swiped in hack of Ubisoft systemJavascript is currently disabled in your web browser. For full site functionality, it is necessary to enable Javascript. In order to enable it, please see these instructions.30 minutes agoVideogame titan Ubisoft on Tuesday warned that hackers swiped names, email addresses and other information about users of its online gaming community.
  Videogame titan Ubisoft on Tuesday warned that hackers swiped names, email addresses and other information about users of its online gaming community.
  "We recently found that one of our websites was exploited to gain unauthorized access to some of our online systems," the France-based company said in a message to members of its Uplay service.
  "We learned that data had been illegally accessed from our account database, including user names, email addresses and encrypted passwords."
  Ubisoft said that it sealed the breach to its system and that no credit card or other payment information was stolen because there was none kept in the computer system.
  Ubisoft urged players to change their passwords.
  "This is pretty serious," a Uplay member wrote in an online forum beneath the blog post about the cyber strike. "Thanks for being up front about it."
  Hit Ubisoft franchises include 'Assassin's Creed' and military espionage games inspired by spy novel author Tom Clancy.
  Ubisoft did not disclose how many accounts were involved.
  "Ubisoft's security teams are exploring all available means to expand and strengthen our security measures in order to better protect our customers," the company said in an online question-and-answer forum.
  "Unfortunately, no company or organization is completely immune to these kinds of criminal attacks."
  Explore further:Ubisoft sells rivals' games in online shop
  (C) 2013 AFP
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  Cane toads 'wiping out' mini crocodiles Down UnderAustralia's noxious cane toad is wiping out populations of a unique miniature crocodile, researchers warned Wednesday, with fears the warty, toxic creature could extinguish the rare reptile.
  Affordable, scalable process of carbon nanotube-based catalyst outperforming platinum for electric-automobilesKorean researchers from Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), S. Korea, developed a novel bio-inspired composite electrocatalyst outperforming platinum.
  Progestin Tx reasonably effective for early endometrial cancer(HealthDay)'--Conservative management with oral progestin can be a reasonable treatment option for many patients with stage 1A endometrial cancer, according to research published in the July issue of Obstetrics & ...
  US delays health care law mandate until 2015President Barack Obama's administration announced Tuesday it will not enforce part of the federal health care law until 2015, delaying penalties on employers who do not provide health insurance for workers.
  Single men, smokers at higher risk for oral human papillomavirus infection, study shows(Medical Xpress)'--Smokers and single men are more likely to acquire cancer-causing oral human papillomavirus (HPV), according to new results from the HPV Infection in Men (HIM) Study. Researchers from Moffitt Cancer Center, ...
  (C) Phys.org' 2003-2013
  Player information swiped in hack of Ubisoft systemJavascript is currently disabled in your web browser. For full site functionality, it is necessary to enable Javascript. In order to enable it, please see these instructions.30 minutes agoVideogame titan Ubisoft on Tuesday warned that hackers swiped names, email addresses and other information about users of its online gaming community.
  Videogame titan Ubisoft on Tuesday warned that hackers swiped names, email addresses and other information about users of its online gaming community.
  "We recently found that one of our websites was exploited to gain unauthorized access to some of our online systems," the France-based company said in a message to members of its Uplay service.
  "We learned that data had been illegally accessed from our account database, including user names, email addresses and encrypted passwords."
  Ubisoft said that it sealed the breach to its system and that no credit card or other payment information was stolen because there was none kept in the computer system.
  Ubisoft urged players to change their passwords.
  "This is pretty serious," a Uplay member wrote in an online forum beneath the blog post about the cyber strike. "Thanks for being up front about it."
  Hit Ubisoft franchises include 'Assassin's Creed' and military espionage games inspired by spy novel author Tom Clancy.
  Ubisoft did not disclose how many accounts were involved.
  "Ubisoft's security teams are exploring all available means to expand and strengthen our security measures in order to better protect our customers," the company said in an online question-and-answer forum.
  "Unfortunately, no company or organization is completely immune to these kinds of criminal attacks."
  Explore further:Ubisoft sells rivals' games in online shop
  (C) 2013 AFP
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Bolivian president's jet rerouted amid suspicions Edward Snowden on board
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: The Guardian World News
  Wed, 03 Jul 2013 07:20
  Bolivia reacted with fury after a plane carrying the country's president home from Russia was diverted to Vienna amid suspicions that it was carrying the surveillance whistleblower, Edward Snowden.
  France and Portugal were accused of withdrawing permission for the plane, carrying the president, Evo Morales, from energy talks in Moscow, to pass through their airspace.
  Officials in both Austria and Bolivia said Snowden was not on the plane. The Bolivian foreign minister, David Choquehuanca, said: "We don't know who invented this lie. We want to denounce to the international community this injustice with the plane of President Evo Morales."
  In a midnight press conference, Bolivian vice-president Alvaro Garcia said Italy and Spain were also denying the plane permission to fly through their airspace. He described Morales as being "kidnapped by imperialism" in Europe.
  "The ambassador for Spain in Austria has just informed us that there is no authorisation to fly over Spanish territory and that at 9am Wednesday they would be in contact with us again," defence minister Ruben Saavedra said.The Spanish government had made "revision of the presidential plane" a condition of granting it passage, he said.
  Choquehuanca earlier told reporters Portugal and France had abruptly cancelled air permits. "They say it was due to technical issues, but after getting explanations from some authorities we found that there appeared to be some unfounded suspicions that Mr Snowden was on the plane."
  Choquehuanca said in a statement that after France and Portugal cancelled authorisation for the flight, Spain's government allowed the plane to be refuelled in its territory. From there the plane flew on to Vienna. He said the decision by France and Portugal "put at risk the life of the president".
  Saavedra, who was on the flight, said: "This is a hostile act by the United States State Department which has used various European governments."
  Later he said France and Portugal had reconsidered and had agreed to allow Morales' plane to overfly, but Italy and Spain were still refusing.
  "Two countries have changed their positions, first France and now Portugal," Saavedra said. "We will patiently seek to resolve the negative position taken by Italy and Spain, according to international norms."
  Morales was in Vienna airport early on Wednesday discussing with the plane's crew how to reschedule the plane's return to Bolivia, Saavedra said.
  Defence minister Ruben Saavedra speaks to journalists in Vienna, with president Evo Morales in the background. Photograph: Helmut Fohringer/EPAOfficials at the White House were not immediately able to comment on whether it had put pressure on western European allies to refuse to allow the plane to enter their airspace.
  Officials at Portugal's foreign ministry and National Civil Aviation Authority could not be reached for comment. French government officials reached overnight said they could not confirm whether Morales' plane was denied permission to fly over France.
  The precautions may have been prompted by a desire among governments in Paris and Lisbon to avoid entanglement in the affair '' especially with public opinion in Europe running strongly against revelations of US spying.
  Morales had earlier used a television interview in Moscow to hint strongly that Bolivia would look favourably on an asylum request from Snowden.
  As other options began to fade for Snowden, trapped in the transit zone of a Moscow airport, Morales said his country was keen to "shield the denounced".
  Speaking in Moscow, Morales said Bolivia had not received a formal application for asylum from Snowden yet, but hinted it would consider any request favourably.
  "If there were a request, of course we would be willing to debate and consider the idea," Morales told RT Actualidad, the Spanish-language service of Russian broadcaster RT.
  "I know that the empires have an espionage network and are against the so-called developing countries. And in particular, against those which are rich in natural resources," he added.
  His comments were echoed by favourable noises from Venezuela, another possible exit route for the former NSA contractor. President Nicols Maduro said Caracas was also ready to consider Snowden's asylum should he ask for it.
  Maduro said Snowden should be given a "humanitarian medal" for revealing details of NSA surveillance programmes on US and foreign citizens. "He did not kill anyone and did not plant a bomb," Maduro told Russia's Interfax news agency. "What he did was tell a great truth in an effort to prevent wars. He deserves protection under international and humanitarian law."
  Snowden's father, meanwhile, stepped up the rhetoric in favour of his son's actions on Tuesday, publishing an open letter that compared him to colonial independence fighter Paul Revere. The letter was signed by Lon Snowden and his lawyer, Bruce Fein, who also reported receiving a phone call from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Fein told the Associated Press that Assange, in the phone call on Saturday, delivered what he said was a message from Snowden to his father, asking him to keep quiet.
  In the open letter, Lon Snowden wrote in glowing terms about his son.
  "You have forced onto the national agenda the question of whether the American people prefer the right to be left alone from government snooping absent probable cause to believe crime is afoot to vassalage," he wrote. "You are a modern day Paul Revere: summoning the American people to confront the growing danger of tyranny and one branch government."
  In Washington, the US state department said it was "hopeful" Snowden would be returned to the US to face charges of espionage and theft after a string of other countries said they would not accept Snowden's petition for asylum.
  Speaking before the developments in Vienna, state department spokeswoman Jen Psaki rejected claims made by Snowden on Monday the US had bullied other potential hosts such as Ecuador into withdrawing their offer of asylum. "I am not sure what the basis for those claims are," she said.
  The US insists it has simply impressed upon possible host countries the seriousness of the crimes that Snowden has been charged with.
  Psaki also defended a decision to suspend his passport, an act which has left Snowden unable to the leave the airport transit zone and which he described as "using national identity as a weapon". The state department says such a response is normal when a US citizen attempts to flee arrest in this way.
Our Mission | Ex-vegans
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Wed, 03 Jul 2013 07:09
  Our Mission.
  If you're no longer vegan, you're going on the list.The spirits of the billions murdered have risen to deliver: The Vegan Sellout List '' an online directory of those who have regressed from moral consistency to moral depravity.
  The Vegan Sellout List is our answer to the epidemic of vegan sellouts '' those who are aware of the suffering caused by meat, dairy, egg, fur, and leather production, yet choose to look away while the animals suffer.
  Selling out veganism is a trend on the upswing, bringing with it swarms of haughty, nose-turning carnists uttering nonsensical buzzwords re: veganism being ''privileged'', or ''trendy'', critiquing themselves into ethical degeneracy and paleo-terrorism.
  To those who have regressed from veganism, yet display symptoms of a soul not fully blackened to it's core, we ask you to remind yourself why you were what you were:
  Meet Your Meat
  And if that fails to stir your conscience, we ask that you go here and follow the directions closely.
  What is this?The Vegan Sellout List is 100% user-submitted. Click the ''Submit'' tab, enter all known information for an ex-vegan, and submit the entry. We will review and post all entries deemed to have merit.
  The guidelines.Please don't double post names. If you don't know if a name is listed already, look it up. Please do not post names that fall under the following categories:
  Was never veganPretended to be vegan''Was vegan for 3 days then sold out.''SOMEONE WHO IS STILL VEGAN.If the person has a vegan/activist project they can be identified with (band, book, activist history, etc), or other notable associations, please mention.
  If the person was a vocal vegan who has moved post-selling out, please list the location the person was commonly acknowledged to be vegan in.
  Please only enter relevant material in the description box. Focus on FACTS, not opinions or rumors.
  If you have questions, or noticed a mistake with your post, please submit feedback to the list.
VIDEO-Activist Post: Is Egypt Having the Biggest Protest in Human History?
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  Archived Version
  Wed, 03 Jul 2013 07:01
  YoutubeAssociated Press Footage
Zimmerman's Fate and Looming Race Riots | FrontPage Magazine
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Wed, 03 Jul 2013 06:19
  To order David Horowitz & John Perazzo's pamphlet, ''Black Skin Privilege,'' click here.
  The murder case against George Zimmerman is rapidly unraveling, due in large part to the compelling testimony of key witnesses. Ordinarily, there is nothing unusual about compelling testimony changing the course of a trial, but in this case it is witnesses presented by the prosecution that are bolstering the case for the defendant. Thus, with each passing day it is becoming more apparent that the real reason for bringing this case to trial was to assuage the media-driven concerns of the racial grievance industry, led by chief arsonists Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson. Shamefully aiding and abetting them is the racially polarized Justice Department led by Attorney General Eric Holder.
  We begin with the witnesses. Billed as the state's ''star witness,'' 19-year-old Rachel Jeantel, the last person to talk to Trayvon Martin before his death, proved to be a major embarrassment. If there is a racial element to this case, other than the prosecution's unsubstantiated accusation that Zimmerman ''profiled'' Martin, Jeantel introduced it during her testimony. She revealed that Trayvon Martin had referred to Zimmerman as a ''creepy-ass cracker,'' even as she subsequently denied it was a racial term. Another compelling part of her testimony was in regard to a letter she had supposedly written to Martin's mother describing the chain of events that led to Trayvon's death. During questioning by defense attorney Don West, Jeantel was forced to admit that, despite signing it, she was incapable of reading the cursive script in which it was written.
  West further grilled Jeantel about her inconsistent statements to police, and the discrepancies in her testimony. Jeantel blamed them on questions posed by law enforcement officials, and the lengths of the interviews. As to the omission of details, she claimed she was trying to spare the Martin family from enduring additional grief. In the end, Jeantel admitted she didn't know who threw the first punch, and that she lied under oath. The former admission makes it virtually impossible for the prosecution to prove that Zimmerman didn't fire in self-defense. The latter admission challenges Jeantel's entire credibility.
  Yet it was testimony from John Good, who witnessed the fight between Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman, that provided the most damaging, and perhaps fatal blow to the state's case. Good testified that he saw Trayvon Martin on top of George Zimmerman, raining punches down on him Mixed Martial Arts style. Good further testified that the scream he heard must have come from Zimmerman, because he was on the bottom, and Martin was facing away from Good.
  On Monday, detective Doris Singleton, who questioned Zimmerman the night of the shooting, became the latest prosecution witness to undermine the state's case. She testified that Zimmerman asked her about the crucifix she wore on her neck, and buried his head in his hands after learning that Martin had died. During the exchange Singleton testified that Zimmerman said it was ''always wrong to kill.'' ''I said to him, 'If what you're telling me is true then I don't think that's what God meant, you couldn't save your own life,''' she said. Singleton further testified that Zimmerman was shocked when he learned that Martin was dead.
  Audiotape of Singleton's interview with Zimmerman was played in court. He explained he had joined the neighborhood watch after his home had been broken into. As to the fatal encounter with Martin, Zimmerman said Martin ''jumped out'' at him from the bushes and said, ''What the f'-- is your problem, homey?'' Zimmerman claimed he didn't have a problem, and said Martin responded by saying, ''Now you have a problem,'' and punched him in the nose. When Zimmerman fell, Martin allegedly got on top of him, throwing punches. ''He put his hands on my nose and said, 'You're going to die tonight,''' said Zimmerman on the tape. Zimmerman then stated that Martin saw his (Zimmerman's) gun and started to reach for it, which is when Zimmerman drew it and shot the teenager.
  Hirotaka Nakasone, an FBI audio voice analyst, further discredited the state's case, saying he was unable to determine which to the two men was captured screaming on audio.
  The state's best witness was former lead investigator for the Sanford Police, Christopher Serino, who testified that Zimmerman's injuries were ''lacking'' in terms of his story. He was further concerned that Zimmerman didn't identify himself to Martin. Yet under cross-examination by defense attorney Mark O'Mara regarding Serino's suggestion to Zimmerman that there might be a videotape of the incident, Serino admitted Zimmerman was buoyed by the possibility. ''I believe his words were, 'thank god. I was hoping somebody would have videotaped it,'' said Serino. O'Mara then asked Serino what that response indicated to him. ''Either he was telling the truth or he was a complete pathological liar,'' the detective responded. The defense then asked Serino if pathological liar was removed from the equation, did he believe Zimmerman was being truthful. ''Yes,'' he testified.
  Additional witnesses presented by the prosecution have, to date, corroborated Zimmerman's version of the events in question, save one: Selma Mora testified last Thursday that Zimmerman was on top of Martin in the moments before a gunshot ended the fight, telling the court that a man wearing ''patterns between black and red'' was on top, meaning Zimmerman. ''One of them was on the ground, and the other one was on top in position like a rider,'' the Spanish-speaking Mora testified through a translator. Yet unlike Good, Mora did not see the fight prior to the gunshot.
  Again, these are witnesses for the prosecution, whose job is to prove that Zimmerman is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Yet it is more complicated than that. Because the state filed second degree murder charges against Zimmerman (as opposed to manslaughter, where they might have argued he acted without just cause), Florida law requires them to prove Zimmerman ''acted according to a 'depraved mind' without regard for human life.''
  So why did the state pursue that charge? Because Trayvon Martin became a cause c(C)l¨bre for race-hatred promoters like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, who called for marches and boycotts against the city of Sanford. Their efforts were aided and abetted by corrupt media, which bent over backwards to insert race into the equation. Those efforts included the New York Times referring to Zimmerman as a ''white Hispanic,'' NBC purposefully editing an audiotape of his 911 call to make Zimmerman appear racist, CNN claiming Zimmerman used the word ''coon'' when he actually said ''cold,'' and innumerable news outlets publishing a picture of Martin at age 13, despite the fact that he was 17 and over six feet tall at the time of the incident.
  If a report by ''sundance'' at conservativetreehouse.com is accurate, the media's effort to paint Zimmerman as racist was part of a well-coordinated publicity campaign undertaken by Martin family attorneys Benjamin Crump and Natalie Jackson, in conjunction with publicist Ryan Julison, who was instrumental in providing publicity for the Pigford Farmer's lawsuit and settlement. ''Within the prior networking connections to this lawsuit, and within the media consulting/advocacy, is where the outline of the Congressional Black Caucus and substantive race-dependent civil rights leaders such as Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and the NAACP's Ben Jealous are connected to Ryan Julison through Benjamin Crump and Natalie Jackson and the Pigford II Lawyer, Greg Francis,'' he writes, further noting that their efforts were all about creating a ''systematic campaign of optical control.''
  Andrew McCarthy reveals the consequences of such a campaign with respect to the DOJ, citing the initiation of a ''federal civil rights prosecution that induced state officials in Florida to reconsider the initial decision not to charge Zimmerman.'' ''It's easy for a corrupt process to produce criminal charges,'' writes McCarthy.
  ''It is quite something else to prove them. To try to fill the gaping intent hole in its case, the Zimmerman prosecution has transferred the hobgoblin of racism from the headlines into the courtroom. Indeed, it did not even wait for the trial to do that; the prosecutor injected racism directly into the charging documents.''
  The Florida prosecutor did that by inserting the term ''profiling'' into the document which, McCarthy notes, was an effort ''to imply, in the absence of any evidence, that Zimmerman is a bigot who assumed Martin was up to no good just because he was black.''
  Yet it is PJMedia's J. Christian Adams, a former attorney at the Justice Department, who reveals a disturbing reality regarding why the DOJ forced Florida's hand. ''Right now, hanging on the door of a federal employee's office in the Department of Justice (DOJ) Voting Section is a sign expressing racial solidarity with Trayvon Martin,'' Adams writes. He further notes that even as the DOJ abetted the mob demanding racial justice in Florida, it did absolutely nothing about New Black Panther leader Mikhail Muhammad, who put a $10,000 bounty on Zimmerman's head and called for the mobilization of 10,000 black men to capture him.
  In terms of making the case a national sensation, all of these efforts have been enormously successful, even as they remain mind-numbingly irresponsible '-- as well as substantially dangerous. If numerous comments posted on Twitter are any indication, the failure to convict Zimmerman of murder will precipitate large-scale rioting around the nation. In that regard, former Chicago police officer Paul Huebl adds fuel to an already burning fire. ''With today's social media I fully expect organized race rioting to begin in every major city to dwarf the Rodney King and the Martin Luther King riots of past decades,'' he writes.
  ''If you live in a large city be prepared to evacuate or put up a fight to win. You will need firearms, fire suppression equipment along with lots of food and water. Police resources will be slow and outgunned everywhere.''
  Philadelphia Tribune columnist Charles D. Ellison takes it one step further, insisting that the ''pervasive cynicism currently surrounding the trial could be validated by an acquittal''and there is the risk of a flashpoint as intense as the aftermath of that fateful Los Angeles police brutality verdict in 1992.''
  The message here is clear: either Zimmerman is found guilty, irrespective of the evidence, or the country will burn.
  Barring a bombshell turn of events, the state will have a difficult, if not impossible, task proving that Zimmerman acted according to a depraved mind without regard for human life. The six female jurors and four alternates hearing the case have been sequestered and will remain so for the duration of the trial. Thus, it remains impossible to know if they are aware of the extra-judicial firestorm this case is engendering, and whether that firestorm will have any effect on their verdict.
  Obviously, there is one man who could go a long way toward defusing this entire scenario should he choose to do so. President Barack Obama could rise above the fray and explain to every American that our system of justice means nothing if the threat of violence can corrupt the verdict of a murder trial. The President could make it clear that violent outbursts of any kind are absolutely unacceptable and attempt to defuse an already tense environment. He won't, however, because race riots are good for the Democratic Party. They fire up the base. It's what the whole show was for.
  Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: Click here.
Drone Attack Kills 17 in Pakistan's Waziristan Region - NYTimes.com
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Wed, 03 Jul 2013 06:09
  PESHAWAR, Pakistan '-- A U.S. drone strike killed at least 17 people in Pakistan's restive border region early on Wednesday, Pakistani security officials said, in the biggest such attack this year, and the second since Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif took office.
  Most of those killed were fighters for the Haqqani network, according to three Taliban commanders and security officials.
  Two missiles hit a house near the main market in Miranshah, the provincial capital of the tribal region of North Waziristan. The region is considered a Taliban stronghold.
  Many were wounded in the attack, local tribesman Kaleemullah Dawar said, but rescuers delayed for fear of falling victim to a second attack, a common tactic with drone strikes.
  "It was not possible for the people to start rescue work for some time, as the drones were still flying over the area," Dawar said.
  Sharif, who won elections in May, has called for an immediate end to U.S. drone strikes on the grounds that they are a breach of Pakistan's sovereignty. The U.S. says it is attacking militants in areas the Pakistani army cannot reach.
  A drone strike in May killed the Pakistani Taliban's second-in-command and six others.
  (Writing by Syed Hassan; Editing by Katharine Houreld and Clarence Fernandez)
China to join Russia for largest naval drills with foreign partner
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  Archived Version
  Source: WTF RLY REPORT
  Wed, 03 Jul 2013 06:05
  Guardianby Associated Press
  A People's Liberation Army sailor. The Chinese and Russian militaries have begun taking part in joint exercises in the past decade. Photograph: Jerome Favre/EPA
  China will join Russia later this week for its largest-ever naval drills with a foreign partner, underlining deepening ties between the former cold war rivals along with Beijing's desire for closer links with regional militaries.
  China has long been a key customer for Russian military hardware, but only in the last decade have their militaries begun taking part in joint exercises.
  China's defence ministry said on Tuesday that its navy would send four destroyers, two guided missile frigates and a support ship for the exercises, which start on Friday in the Sea of Japan and run until 12 July.
  The ships departed on Monday from the port of Qingdao, where China's Northern Fleet is based, and headed for the rallying point in Peter the Great Bay near Vladivostok.
  ''This marks our navy's single biggest deployment of military force in a China-foreign joint exercise,'' the ministry said.
  Read More
International Scientists Collaborate to Push HPV Scare and Gardasil Vaccines
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  Archived Version
  Source: WTF RLY REPORT
  Wed, 03 Jul 2013 06:05
  Occupy Corporatismby Susanne Posel
  Researchers at the Oregon State University (OSU) have been i nvolved in an international initiative to develop a screening tool to diagnose cervical cancer which is assumed to be caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV).
  Andrey Morgun, an associate professor in OSU's College of Pharmacy, asserts: ''You don't have cervical cancer if there is no HPV infection. Basically it is known that the virus is necessary for cervical cancer.''
  Morgun supports preventative measures with vaccinations regarding HPV to control exposure to the virus.
  The type of HPV Morgun is focused on affects the 10% of women who develop HPV and have chronic infections attributed to the virus.
  Morgun states that when HPV remains in the body as a virus only, an antiviral vaccine could eliminate its effects. However if the HPV integrates, the original virus is mutated into facilitating malignant cell growth which leads to tumors that become invasive cancers.
  Young men are being targeted for HPV as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says is correlated with the development of genital warts; as well as cancer of the throat, tonsils, base of the tongue, anus and penis.
  Actor Michael Douglas caused a stir by claiming that his ''particular cancer is caused by HPV, which actually comes about from cunnilingus. I did worry if the stress caused by my son's incarceration didn't help trigger it. But yeah, it's a sexually transmitted disease that causes cancer.''
  Very quickly, representatives for Douglas stated publically that: ''Michael Douglas did not say cunnilingus was the cause of his cancer. It was discussed that oral sex is a suspected cause of certain oral cancers as doctor's in the article point out but he did not say it was the specific cause of his personal cancer.''
  The 2012 Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer , published and supported by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) claims that based on data provided in 2009, there have been 13,000 new cases of HPV with 10,500 being men.
  Gardasil, the vaccination being given to both young men and women to prevent HPV, is manufactured by Merck Pharmaceuticals.
  Information in the insert for Gardasil states that the vaccine has not been tested for carcinogenicity. In this instance, there is no evidentiary reason for Gardasil to be used to combat HPV or as a preventative for reproductive cancers.
  According to Dr. Charlotte Haug on the validity of Gardasil: ''There is another serious question that may be answered sooner: what effect will the vaccine have on the other cancer-causing strains of HPV? Nature never leaves a void, so if HPV-16 and HPV-18 are suppressed by an effective vaccine, other strains of the virus will take their place. The question is, will these strains cause cervical cancer?''
  Haug continues: ''Results from clinical trials are not encouraging. Vaccinated women show an increased number of precancerous lesions caused by strains of HPV other than HPV-16 and HPV-18. The results are not statistically significant, but if the trend is real '' and further clinical trials should tell us in a few years '' there is reason for serious concern.''
  The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) agreed to approve Gardasil in the US under the condition that all-inclusive research were conducted before it would be placed on a children's scheduled vaccination program.
  The contract between the FDA and Merck states: ''You have committed to conduct a study in collaboration with the Norwegian Government, if GARDASIL is approved in the European Union and the Government of Norway incorporates HPV vaccination into its national guidelines, to assess the impact of HPV vaccination on the following in Norway '... to assess whether administration of GARDASIL will result in replacement of these diseases due to vaccine HPV types with diseases due to non-vaccine HPV types.''
  In studies there has been a palatiable increase in those who are exposed to tHPV who have also received the Gardasil vaccine to develop cancer.
  It was found that in ''peer-reviewed analysis and studies many of them on the FDA, NCI and CDC web sites point out the dangers of many of the vaccine ingredients including the potential for the HPV vaccines to increase the risk for pre-cancerous lesions if adolescents have been previously exposed to the human papillomavirus and then get vaccinated: 44.6% increase post Gardasil.''
  Most shocking is that in a test taken from 13 samples of Gardasil, it was discovered that ''all the samples contained recombinant (genetically modified) HPV DNA which was firmly attached to the aluminum adjuvant.''
  This recombinant HPV DNA is considered bio-hazardous with effects unknown to the medical community.
  It was stated : ''Based on medical literature and some of the FDA/Merck's own publications, adventitious (coming from an outside source) DNA in an injectable protein-based vaccine may increase the risk of autoimmune disorders and gene mutation which may lead to malignancies.''
  Via Occupy Corporatism
VIDEO-CNN exclusive: George W. Bush on AIDS Mandela, Snowden and his legacy - CNN.com
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  Wed, 03 Jul 2013 05:58
  STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  The former president tells CNN that Snowden has hurt U.S. securityHe refrains from criticizing Obama, who he says has a "hard job"Nelson Mandela's legacy "will last for a long time," Bush saysHe says he bears no grudge against Mandela for Iraq criticism(CNN) -- Former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, are in Africa this week, where they renovated a cancer screening clinic in Zambia and commemorated the victims of the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombing in Tanzania.
  The clinic, which is designed help women fight cervical cancer, builds on the former president's work fighting AIDS on the continent. While he was in office, Bush set up a plan that dramatically reduced the number of AIDS deaths in Africa.
  "I'm really proud of the American people for their generosity," he told CNN in an exclusive interview. "I wish Americans knew how many lives were saved. Someday, they will."
  Bush also told CNN why he respects Nelson Mandela, what he thinks about Edward Snowden and President Barack Obama, and how he's not going to be around when his legacy is finally decided.
  Bushes renovate Zambian clinic
  Bushes renovate Zambian clinic
  Bushes renovate Zambian clinic
  Bushes renovate Zambian clinic
  Bushes renovate Zambian clinic
  Bushes renovate Zambian clinic
  Bushes renovate Zambian clinic
  Bushes renovate Zambian clinic
  HIDE CAPTION
  ' On Snowden: "I think he damaged the security of the country."
  ' On Mandela: "His legacy will last for a long time."
  ' On Obama: "It's a hard job. He's got plenty on his agenda."
  Bush talked about Snowden, the computer contractor who leaked details about secret U.S. surveillance programs, to CNN's Robyn Curnow in Zambia on Sunday.
  He said he believes the Obama administration "will deal" with the fallout from the controversy unleashed by Snowden, who is now thought to be holed up in the transit area of a Moscow airport after fleeing there from Hong Kong.
  Snowden's disclosures about the programs carried out by the National Security Agency have shaken the U.S. intelligence community and put the Obama administration on the defensive over accusations of government overreach into citizens' privacy.
  But Bush refrained from criticizing the current president.
  "I don't think it does any good," he said. "It's a hard job. He's got plenty on his agenda. It's difficult. A former president doesn't need to make it any harder. Other presidents have taken different decisions; that's mine."
  The White House has defended the surveillance programs as necessary tools to defuse terrorist threats. Obama has said he welcomes a debate over how to strike a balance between security and privacy.
  "I think there needs to be a balance, and as the president explained, there is a proper balance," Bush said.
  I made decisions that were the right decisions. History will ultimately judge.George W. Bush
  Asked about an NSA program that tracks people's Internet activity, Bush said, "I put that program in place to protect the country. One of the certainties was that civil liberties were guaranteed."
  Snowden has said he leaked information to journalists about the surveillance programs in the hope of ending what he called an excessively intrusive system.
  The Bushes were at a renovated health clinic in Livingstone, Zambia, scheduled to open Monday as a cervical cancer screening and treatment center. They hope this will save the lives of thousands of women.
  In his comments, George Bush touched on the subject of Mandela, who is on life support in a South African hospital.
  "Sometimes, there are leaders who come and go. His legacy will last for a long time," he said of the ailing anti-apartheid icon.
  Reminded by Curnow that Mandela had criticized him publicly about the war in Iraq, Bush said he didn't bear a grudge.
  "He wasn't the only guy," he said. "It's OK. I made decisions that were the right decisions. History will ultimately judge. I never held someone's opinion against him; I didn't look at him differently because he didn't agree with me on an issue."
  Bush also initially said he wasn't bothered about his ratings in opinion polls, even if some of them now put him at a similar level to Obama.
  "The only time I really cared was on Election Day," he said.
  Then, drawing laughter from his wife, he checked himself and said, "You know, I guess it's nice. I mean, let me rephrase that: Thank you for bringing it up."
  In any case, the former president said he doesn't expect a fair assessment of his legacy in his lifetime.
  "I won't be around, because it will take a while for the objective historians to show up," he said. "So I'm pretty comfortable with it, I did what I did; I know the spirit in which I did it."
  OPINION: George W. Bush's legacy is on the mend
  Political Ticker Blog - Poll: You're starting to remember Bush fondly
  Bush 43: 'History will ultimately judge ... I'm a content man'
  Watch Erin Burnett weekdays 7pm ET. For the latest from Erin Burnett click here.
Nigel Farage: There is a Gathering Electoral Storm July 2013
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Snowden-Assange Cognitive Infiltration Psyop Falters amid Skepticism from Putin, Maduro; Contorted Attempts to Deny Kerry's Failed June 12 White House Palace Coup to Bomb Syria
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  Webster G. Tarpley Ph.D.The Webster Tarpley Program '' UnboundRadio.comJuly 2, 2013
  Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
  [download audio]
USDA to Boost Rural Electric Grid Efficiency and Reliability in 8 States
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  This is an excerpt from EERE Network News, a weekly electronic newsletter.
  May 22, 2013The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on April 29 announced funding for four rural electric projects in eight states'--Colorado, Georgia, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, and Wyoming. The announcement touts more than $126 million in loans to upgrade rural electric infrastructure, including more than $20 million in Smart Grid funding, used to increase access to information to better manage electricity use. Since 2011, USDA has supported Smart Grid investments totaling nearly $500 million.
  One of the rural electric cooperatives that will receive funding is Colorado's Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, Inc., which serves 44 consumer-owned distribution cooperatives in Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, and Wyoming. It is receiving a $73 million loan to upgrade generation and transmission facilities, improve 50 miles of transmission lines, and build a substation. The loan amount includes more than $18 million for Smart Grid projects. See the USDA press release.
  Article source: http://www.eere.energy.gov/news/news_detail.cfm/news_id=19310
  Tags: alternative energy, alternative fuel, atlanta, energy, fuel, gas, power, renewable energy, solar, solar energy, wind, wind power
Monsanto Acquires Rights to the Sun | HASTAC
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  BREAKING NEWS:
  MONSANTO ACQUIRES RIGHTS TO THE SUN
  CREVE COEUR, MISSOURI, June 30 '-- in a ground-breaking move, Monsanto, a multi-national biotechnology corporation, acquired rights to the sun in a 5-4 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. The decision, led by Clarence Thomas, was hailed by Monsanto President and CEO Hugh Grant as ''good news for food producers, food consumers, and the future of humanity.''
  Monsanto is known worldwide for its Roundup brand, an herbicide that works in conjunction with genetically engineered seeds.
  The decision allows solar energy used by Monsanto-crop farmland '-- including solar panels, wind turbines and the like '-- to be taxed at a rate of 10% per kilowatt hour. Approved in an unprecedented three months, the law will go into effect January 1, 2013. Companies, organizations and individuals currently using Roundup products will receive one free year of sunlight before the 10% tithe is active.
  According to the new regulation, any action to ''store, reuse or redirect'' sunlight will be a prosecutable offense unless authorized by Monsanto. Failure to comply with the law may result in a visit by Monsanto's secretive ''Watt'' Police. Monsanto typically uses lawsuits or the threat of lawsuits to bring compliance. ''We feed the world,'' Grant says, ''anyone caught stealing sunlight from us is stealing food from the mouths of millions.''
  Sunlight, which most life on earth relies on, provides warmth, photosynthesis for plant life, and is used widely on beaches.
  Opponents such as Greenpeace and ''Sunshine for All,'' a crowdsourced Facebook movement, vow to fight the ruling. ''First they patent life, then they insert genes into our food supply, now they're hijacking the sun. Monsanto seeks world domination and the Supreme Court is enabling them. Shame on you, Supreme Court,'' says Greenpeace International Executive Director Kumi Naidoo.
  Darryl Benjamindarryl@kafkaturtle.com
MEMC Electronic Materials - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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  MEMC Electronic Materials changed its name to SunEdison on May 30, 2013 to reflect the company's focus on solar energy.[2] The company is a United States manufacturer of silicon wafers for the semiconductor industry as well as solar wafers and Silvantis(R) Solar PV Modules. Originally established in 1959 as the Monsanto Electronic Materials Company, a business unit of Monsanto Company, the company is based in St. Peters, Missouri. The company solar energy headquarters is located in Belmont, California with offices throughout the world.
  Ahmad Chatila is the current President and Chief Executive Officer of MEMC. Mr. Chatila was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of MEMC on March 2, 2009.[3]
  History[edit]Foundation[edit]Monsanto Electronic Materials Company (MEMC) was established on August 6, 1959, as part of the U.S.-based multinational corporation Monsanto. In the same year MEMC started the production of 19-mm silicon wafers in St. Charles County, Missouri. As one of the first corporations to produce semiconductor wafers, MEMC is considered a pioneer in this field, its innovations becoming industry standard for years. MEMC used the Czochralski process, developed Chemical Mechanical Polishing (CMP) and started production of 1,5-inch-wafers. In 1966 MEMC installed the first reactors for production of EPI-wafers and develops zero-dislocation-crystal-growing.
  Expansion[edit]During the 1970s, MEMC opened a production plant in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Step by step, diameters of wafers were increased to 5 inches. In 1981 MEMC constructed a production and R&D-facility in Japan, specifically in Utsunomiya, as the first non-Japanese corporation. Three years later, the production of 200 mm wafers was started by MEMC on economic scale, with the corporation taking on a pioneering role again.[4]
  Change of ownership[edit]High price pressure from Japanese competition led to an ever increasing pressure on MEMC during the 1980s. Despite increasing revenues MEMC had to account for losses for several years, leading to the decision of Monsanto to sell the company. In 1989 MEMC was bought by Dynamite Nobel Silicons (DNS), a subsidy of the German H¼ls AG, which itself is part of the German VEBA AG. DNS already operated silicon wafer plants in Meran and Novara, Italy and integrated them within the new MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc. H¼ls supported the new subsidy with 50 million USD, mainly used for research and development. MEMC started the production of granular polysilicon in 1991 and as the first company produces 300 mm wafers on a commercial scale in 1991. Four years later MEMC acquired production capacities for granular polysilicon in Pasadena, Texas.
  Trading of MEMCs stock at the New York Stock Exchange started after an initial public offering in 1995. VEBA converted part of its stock into 440 million USD, but retained the majority voting rights in the corporation. The cyclical downturn in the semiconductor business hit MEMC hard. In 1998 the company reported a loss of 316 million USD with revenues of 759 million USD. A significant improvement in turnover and earnings figures was achieved in the following years.
  In June 2000 VEBA AG, still holding 72% of MEMC, was merged with VIAG to form the new E.ON AG. E.ON wanted to focus on its core businesses and assigns Merrill Lynch to sell MEMC. Merrill was unable to find a buyer until MEMC announced that it was on the verge of illiquidity in the middle of the year. Finally E.ON is able to agree on a deal with the private-equity-company Texas Pacific Group (TPG). MEMC was sold for a symbolic dollar and 150 million USD in credit lines.[5][6][7]
  By restructuring the debt of MEMC TPG was able to raise its share on the company. TPG conducts cost-cutting measures and cut the number of employees from 7,000 to 4,000. In addition it convinced customers that MEMC will stay in business. The market share of MEMC rises again and by 2002 MEMC reported positive earning figures.
  After a significant improvement of key figures, in 2005 TPG reduced its share on MEMC to 34% through a secondary offering. The revenue of this transaction is more than 750 million USD, none of them going to the coffers of MEMC.[8]
  Solar market entry[edit]With the boom of the photovoltaic industry MEMC was able to agree on several long-term contracts for delivery of solar wafers. Starting in 2006 a volume of several billion USD is contracted, e.g. with Suntech Power,[9][10] Tainergy Tech,[11]Gintech Energy[12] or Conergy.
  Based on high spot prices these contracts not only guaranteed high delivery volumes at fixed prices, but MEMC was also able to collect significant prepayments. Already in the middle of 2008 the significant drop in prices for solar wafers led to disputes over those long term agreements. MEMC had to cut the deal with Conergy with a volume of 8 billion USD in half. Despite that, Conergy applied to the courts to declare the contract invalid and void. Only in 2010 did both companies agree to renegotiate the deal out of court. MEMC had to agree on a reduction of the sales volume to less than one billion USD as the original contractual conditions would place Conergy in an economic position it could not survive.[13][14]
  Recent developments[edit]In 2009 MEMC and Q-Cells'--specialized on construction and operation of photovoltaic plants'--found a joint venture to erect a photovoltaic plant with 50 MWp in StraŸkirchen, Bavaria. Both partners invested 100 million USD each, in return for a 50% ownership on the project. As planned, the plant was sold to an alternative energy fund of Nordcapital after operations started at the beginning of 2010.[15][16]
  At the end of 2009 MEMC bought SunEdison, a North-American company planning large-scale photovoltaic projects, and financing, constructing and operating them. SunEdison is the largest operator of solar power plants in North America. The company was taken over for 200 million USD, 70 per cent thereof paid in shares of MEMC, 30% in cash. An additional 90 million USD was to be paid depending on target achievement in 2010.[17][18]
  MEMC acquired the California-based solar tech company Solaicx mid-2010. By paying 76 million USD, MEMC got access to the continuous crystal pulling technology of Solaicx, which enabled the production of cheap mono-crystalline solar wafers.[19]
  In February 2011 Samsung Fine Chemicals and MEMC announced a 50/50-Joint Venture to build a polysilicon production plant in Ulsan, South-Korea. The plant will have an initial capacity of 10,000 tons per annum.[20]
  December 2011 MEMC announced restructuring measures to react on a cyclical downturn in its semiconductor business and a slump in the whole supply chain of photovoltaic modules. A headcount reduction of 1,300 employees (18% of the workforce) and a reduction of capacity for polysilicon and solar wafers was announced. Restructuring charges of 1 billion USD, 180 million USD thereof cash costs was announced.[21]
  Business segments[edit]Since the acquisition of SunEdison MEMC has had three reporting segments.
  Solar Materials: MEMC produces Polysilicon in purities usable in the solar and semiconductor industry in Pasadena, (Texas)) and Merano, (Italy). Production capacities equal 10,000 tons per annum, an expansion to 12,500 by the end of 2011 was announced. The material is mainly used for their own following production steps, sales to the spot market occurred between 2006 and 2009. Apart from opportunistic sales of silanes the segment sells mainly solar wafers. As their own productions capacities of 600 MW were not sufficient, MEMC also had tolling partners to produce these wafers.SunEdison offers customers access to solar power without financing the individual projects generating the power. SunEdison collects capital from investors and uses it to construct photovoltaic plants (installing MEMC Solar Wafers in some cases). The plants are operated by SunEdison after construction. Investors receive a cash flow from sold solar power, including subsidies from governmental organizations. The solar power is sold to commercial, government, and utility customers.Production facilities[edit]LocationProductsOwnershipChonan, Koreapolished wafers80% MEMC, 20% SamsungHsinchu, Taiwanpolished and epitaxial wafersMEMCKuala Lumpur, Malaysiapolished wafersMEMCMeran, Italymono-crystals, polysiliconMEMCNovara, Italypolished and epitaxial wafersMEMCPasadena, Texas, USAgranular polysilicon, monosilanes, SiF4 gasesMEMCSt. Peters, Missouri, USA100''300 mm wafersMEMCUtsunomiya, Japan125''300 mm wafersMEMCReferences[edit]External links[edit]
Shooter (film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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  Shooter is a 2007 American conspiracythriller film directed by Antoine Fuqua based on the novel Point of Impact by Stephen Hunter. The film concerns a former U.S. MarineScout Sniper, Bob Lee Swagger (Mark Wahlberg), who is framed for murder by a rogue secret private military company unit. It was released in cinemas on March 23, 2007.
  Bob Lee Swagger (Mark Wahlberg) is a U.S. Marine Gunnery Sergeant who served as a Force Recon Scout Sniper. He reluctantly leaves a self-imposed exile from his isolated mountain home in the Wind River Range at the request of Colonel Isaac Johnson (Danny Glover). Johnson appeals to Swagger's expertise and patriotism to help track down an assassin who plans on shooting the president from a great distance with a high-powered rifle. Johnson gives him a list of three cities where the President is scheduled to visit so Swagger can determine if an attempt could be made at any of them.
  Swagger assesses each of the locations and determines that a site in Philadelphia would be most conducive to a long-range assassination attempt. He passes this information to Johnson, who purportedly arranges for a response. This turns out to be a set-up; while Swagger is working with Johnson's agents '-- including local police officer Timmons '-- to find the rumored assassin, the Ethiopian archbishop is instead assassinated while standing next to the president. Swagger is shot by officer Timmons, but manages to escape. The agents tell the police and public that Swagger is the shooter, and stage a massive manhunt for the injured sniper. However, Swagger has a stroke of luck'--he meets a rookie FBI special agent, Nick Memphis (Michael Pe±a), disarms him, and steals his car.
  Swagger uses the first aid supplies in the car to treat his wounds and escapes by driving into the Delaware River while being chased. He then takes refuge with Sarah Fenn (Kate Mara), widow of Swagger's late spotter and close friend Donnie Fenn, killed years before in a mission in Africa that Swagger himself barely survived. She saves his life by cleaning and stitching Swagger's gunshot wounds, and he later convinces her to help him contact Memphis with information on the conspiracy. Memphis is blamed for allowing Swagger's escape and is informed that he will face disciplinary review. Memphis argues that given Swagger's training and experience, it is surprising that the president survived and the archbishop standing several feet away was killed. He independently learns that Swagger may have been framed for the assassination by finding several inconsistencies in the evidence and witness statements provided to the FBI by an unnamed private agency. His suspicions rise further when the officer that shot Swagger was murdered hours later the same day, having it staged as a simple mugging.
  When the rogue agents realize their secret is compromised, they kidnap Memphis and attempt to stage his suicide. Swagger tails the agents and kills Memphis' captors. Swagger and Memphis then join forces and visit a firearms expert (Levon Helm) in Athens, Tennessee, who provides valuable information on the FBI's ballistics report and a short list of people capable of taking a shot from a distance of one mile or more. Armed with this information, Swagger and Memphis plot to capture the person who they think is the real assassin, an ex-sniper allied with Colonel Johnson. Once they find him in Lynchburg, Virginia, he commits suicide after revealing that the archbishop was actually the real target and he was murdered to prevent his speaking out against U.S. involvement in the massacre of an Eritrean village. The massacre was carried out on behalf of a consortium of American corporate oil interests headed by corrupt Senator Charles Meachum (Ned Beatty). Swagger learns that the mission in which Fenn was killed was also a part of the massacre, as they were tasked to cover the withdrawal of the contractors assigned to the job. Swagger records the ex''sniper's confession of his involvement in the African massacre. Then, with Memphis' assistance, Swagger escapes from an ambush by killing 24 mercenaries.
  Meanwhile, other rogue mercenaries, led by Johnson's psychotic right-hand man Jack Payne (Elias Koteas), have kidnapped Sarah to lure Swagger out of hiding. With his new evidence and cat and mouse strategy, Swagger and Memphis are able to rescue her when Colonel Johnson and Senator Meachum arrange a meeting to exchange their hostage for the evidence of their wrongdoing. After killing Payne and several enemy snipers in an isolated mountain range and rescuing Sarah, Swagger and Memphis surrender to the FBI.
  Later, Swagger (in a prison jumpsuit) is brought before the attorney general and the FBI director in a closed-door meeting in Washington. The Colonel, Memphis, and Sarah are also present. Swagger quickly clears his name by loading a rifle round supplied by Memphis into his rifle that was supposedly used in the killing. He aims the rifle at Memphis and then the Colonel, and pulls the trigger'--which fails to fire the round. Swagger explains that every time he leaves his house, he removes the firing pins from all his guns, replacing them with slightly shorter ones, thus rendering them unable to fire until he returns. Although Swagger is exonerated, Colonel Johnson cannot be charged with a crime as the Eritrean massacre is outside American legal jurisdiction and he walks free. The attorney general approaches Swagger and states that he (the attorney general) must abide by the law. He also laments to Swagger, saying "It's not the Wild West anymore, you can't just clean up the streets with a gun, even though sometimes, that's exactly what's needed." Swagger remembers his words.
  Afterwards, Johnson and the Senator Meachum plan their next move while at the Senator's vacation house'--only to be interrupted by an attack by Swagger. He kills both conspirators, one of the Colonel's aides, and two bodyguards, then breaks open a gas valve before leaving. The fire in the fireplace ignites the gas, blowing up the house.
  The final scene shows Swagger getting into a car with Sarah and driving away.
  Production[edit]Locations[edit]The film was shot mainly in British Columbia, Canada, in places such as New Westminster, Kamloops, Mission, Ashcroft and Cache Creek.[2] The assassination scenes were filmed in Philadelphia. The crowd scenes with the President and the Archbishop were filmed in Independence National Historical Park in front of Independence Hall. The sniper location was created using the exteriors of the church steeple at the junction of New Street and North 4th Street. These were then combined with an elevated view from another building to create a fictional vista of the park. Swagger's escape was filmed in New Westminster along the Fraser River. The car chase that ends when it plunged into the river was filmed down 6th Street and off the Westminster Quay. The following scene of Swagger being towed by a tugboat was also filmed on the Fraser River near Pattullo Bridge.
  Sniper weapons and tactics[edit]Shooter depicts a number of sniper tactics, thanks to the guidance of former U.S. Marine scout sniper Patrick Garrity, who trained Mark Wahlberg for the film. Garrity taught Wahlberg to shoot both left and right-handed (the actor is left-handed), as he had to switch shooting posture throughout the movie, due to Swagger's sustained injuries. He was also trained to adjust a weapon's scope, judge effects of wind on a shot, do rapid bolt manipulation and develop special breathing skills. His training included extreme distance shooting (up to 1,100 yards), and the use of camouflage ghillie suits. Fuqua appointed Garrity as the film's military technical advisor.[3]
  In the special features of the DVD, Garrity is interviewed pointing out that the shot fired in the assassination would not have hit the archbishop straight on, as in the film. When a round is fired it will fall from 30''40 feet depending on the distance of the shot. To compensate, the round is fired at an arc calibrated by how far the round is going to fall, the distance of the shot, temperature, humidity, wind and the curvature of the earth. In his interview Garrity said "At 1,800 yards, because of the hydrostatic shock that follows a large caliber, high velocity round such as the .408 Chey Tac (which is used in the shot), the target would literally be peeled apart and limbs would be flying 200 feet away". The exit wound on the archbishop's head would have been too extreme to show in movie theaters. Instead, the movie depicts a much less graphic representation of the assassination.
  Throughout the film, Swagger uses an array of sniper weapons, among which are the USMCM40A3,[4] the CheyTac Intervention,[5] and the Barrett M82 sniper rifles. Donnie Fenn used an M4A1 with a Cobray 37mm Launcher (commonly used by TV and movie armorers as a stand-in for the M203 grenade launcher) and M68 Close Combat Optic in the African opening sequences. A pair of Remington 700Ps were bought by Swagger and Memphis while on the run. Other weapons used by Swagger include a Beretta M9 and a commandeered M4A1 with an Aimpoint Sight, in the fight against the 24 mercenaries and a Colt M1911-A1 and a suppressed M4A1 in the final scene. Fenn's old .22 rifle that Swagger used on the lake scene is a Cooey model 60.
  Also appearing in the film is a Precision Remotes Telepresent Rapid-Aiming Platform (TRAP), a remotely-operated weapon platform that accepts a standard rifle. Precision Remotes' website[6] appears in the film, and the company is credited in the closing credits.
  The score to the film was composed by Mark Mancina, who recorded the music at the Todd-AO Scoring Stage in Studio City, Los Angeles, using a 77''piece orchestra conducted by Don Harper.[7][8] A score soundtrack was released by Lakeshore Records on March 27, 2007. The song "Nasty Letter" by Otis Taylor plays over the end of the film and credits.
  Reception[edit] Critical response to the film was mixed. Rotten Tomatoes reports a 48% approval rating based on 142 reviews; and an 82% based on 120,688 audience reviews.[9]Metacritic assigns the film a weighted average score of 53 out of 100, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[10]Empire magazine had a verdict of 'The sequel-ready Swagger challenges Bourne's supremacy with an impressive shoot-'em-up, work-it-out action drama.'[11]
  Some film critics, both liberal and conservative, saw the film as left-leaning in its politics, arguing that the main villain (Senator Meachum) was a clear analogy for Dick Cheney.[12][13][14]
  Home media[edit] The DVD was released on June 26, 2007, reaching the top of the sales charts.[15]
  See also[edit]References[edit]^"Shooter (2007)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved 2011-11-25.^"Stories and Legends about Kamloops, British Columbia". AdventureKamloops.ca. Retrieved 2011-09-17.^"Shooter (2007) - Wahlberg Goes To Sniper School: About Training As A Shooter". VisualHollywood.com. Retrieved 2011-11-25. ^Rogers, Troy. "Patrick Garrity, Shooter Interview". UGO.com. Retrieved 2009-07-17. ^Winkelspecht, Dean (2007-07-31). "Blu-ray review of 'Shooter'". DVDTown.com. Retrieved 2009-07-17. ^"Precision Remotes, Inc". PrecisionRemotes.com. Retrieved 2011-11-25. ^Goldwasser, Dan (2007-03-15). "Mark Mancina scores 'Shooter'". ScoringSessions.com. Retrieved 2008-02-29. ^"Scoring Session Photo Gallery". Retrieved 2011-11-25.^"Shooter". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixter. Retrieved 2010-03-10. ^"Shooter Reviews, Ratings, Credits". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 2010-03-10. ^Horkins, Tony. "Shooter". Empire. Retrieved 2012-09-18. ^Denby, David (2007-04-02). "Men Gone Wild: 'Shooter' and '300'". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2011-11-25. ^Zengotita, Thomas de (2007-04-09). "Must See Movie: 'Shooter'". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2011-11-25. ^Russell, Jamie (2007-04-13). "Shooter (2007)". BBC.co.uk. ^Telsch, Rafe (2007-07-05). "DVD Sales: Shooter Knocks Out Competition". CinemaBlend.com. Retrieved 2009-07-17. External links[edit]
Continuing to Implement the ACA in a Careful, Thoughtful Manner
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  Wed, 03 Jul 2013 05:32
  By: Mark J. Mazur
  '‹Over the pastseveral months, the Administration has been engaging in a dialogue withbusinesses - many of which already provide health coverage for their workers - aboutthe new employer and insurer reporting requirements under the Affordable CareAct (ACA). We have heard concerns aboutthe complexity of the requirements and the need for more time to implement themeffectively. We recognize that the vastmajority of businesses that will need to do this reporting already providehealth insurance to their workers, and we want to make sure it is easy forothers to do so. We have listened toyour feedback. And we are takingaction. TheAdministration is announcing that it will provide an additional year before theACA mandatory employer and insurer reporting requirements begin. This is designed to meet two goals. First, it will allow us to consider ways tosimplify the new reporting requirements consistent with the law. Second, it will provide time to adapt healthcoverage and reporting systems while employers are moving toward making healthcoverage affordable and accessible for their employees. Within the next week, we will publish formalguidance describing this transition. Justlike the Administration's effort to turn the initial 21-page application forhealth insurance into a three-page application, we are working hard to adaptand to be flexible about reporting requirements as we implement the law.
  Here is someadditional detail. The ACA includesinformation reporting (under section 6055) by insurers, self-insuringemployers, and other parties that provide health coverage. It also requires information reporting (undersection 6056) by certain employers with respect to the health coverage offeredto their full-time employees. We expectto publish proposed rules implementing these provisions this summer, after adialogue with stakeholders - including those responsible employers that alreadyprovide their full-time work force with coverage far exceeding the minimumemployer shared responsibility requirements - in an effort to minimize thereporting, consistent with effective implementation of the law.
  Once theserules have been issued, the Administration will work with employers, insurers,and other reporting entities to strongly encourage them to voluntarilyimplement this information reporting in 2014, in preparation for the fullapplication of the provisions in 2015. Real-world testing of reporting systems in 2014 will contribute to asmoother transition to full implementation in 2015.
  We recognizethat this transition relief will make it impractical to determine whichemployers owe shared responsibility payments (under section 4980H) for2014. Accordingly, we are extending thistransition relief to the employer shared responsibility payments. These payments will not apply for 2014. Any employer shared responsibility paymentswill not apply until 2015.
  During this 2014transition period, we strongly encourage employers to maintain or expand healthcoverage. Also, our actions today do notaffect employees' access to the premium tax credits available under the ACA(nor any other provision of the ACA).'‹
  Mark J. Mazur is the Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy at the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
  '‹'‹
White House Announces It Will Delay Implementation of This Important Obamacare Provision | TheBlaze.com
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  Archived Version
  Wed, 03 Jul 2013 05:31
  The White House will delay the implementation of the so-called ''employer mandate'' until at least 2015, well after the 2014 midterm elections, the Treasury Department announced Tuesday.
  President Barack Obama's landmark health care law includes a provision that would require employers with a staff greater than 50 to provide their employees with health insurance.
  However, with today's announcement, businesses don't need to worry about being fined or penalized until after the midterm elections.
  ''The Administration is announcing that it will provide an additional year before the ACA mandatory employer and insurer reporting requirements begin,'' the Treasury announcement reads.
  Delaying the employer mandate, the announcement explains, will supposedly serve two goals.
  ''First, it will allow us to consider ways to simplify the new reporting requirements consistent with the law,'' Treasury explains.
  ''Second, it will provide time to adapt health coverage and reporting systems while employers are moving toward making health coverage affordable and accessible for their employees,'' it adds.
  Treasury promises that it will publish ''formal guidance'' next week explaining its plan for the transition.
  ''Over the past several months, the Administration has been engaging in a dialogue with businesses '-- many of which already provide health coverage for their workers '-- about the new employer and insurer reporting requirements under the Affordable Care Act (ACA),'' the press release reads.
  ''We have heard concerns about the complexity of the requirements and the need for more time to implement them effectively. We recognize that the vast majority of businesses that will need to do this reporting already provide health insurance to their workers, and we want to make sure it is easy for others to do so.
  ''We have listened to your feedback. And we are taking action,'' it adds.
  The infamous ''individual mandate,'' the portion of the bill that requires Americans sign on to government health care or face a fine, still stands.
  ''
  Follow Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) on Twitter
  Featured image Getty Images. This post has been updated.
Doug Ross @ Journal: 15 Photos From the Tahrir Square Protests You'll Never See In Legacy Media. #Egypt #Morsi #Obama
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  Archived Version
  Wed, 03 Jul 2013 05:26
  Curiously, a massive wave of anti-Obama sentiment in Egypt has been utterly ignored by vintage media, even though the protests may be the largest in all of human history.Consider the dichotomy: Obama 2011: Mubarak Must Go; Obama Today: 'It's not our job to choose who Egypt's leaders are'.Hat tips: Dancing Czars and BadBlue News.
Smearing Glenn Greenwald: The Gregorian Connection by Justin Raimondo -- Antiwar.com
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  Wed, 03 Jul 2013 05:20
  The campaign to demonize Edward Snowden, whose revelations about the National Security Agency's ubiquitous and ongoing spying on the American public has the Obama regimein furious disrray, has taken on a new dimension '' now they're going after Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian reporter and columnist Snowden chose to tell his story. Glenn has already preempted some of this in his Guardian column, but there is sure to be more. What's interesting about this effort is that it tells us far more about the smear-merchants '' and who they serve '' than it does about Greenwald.
  There were a few preliminary fusillades coming from liberal bloggers when the NSA spying story broke '' lame attempts to debunk Greenwald's reporting, and vague insinuations directed at his objectivity as a reporter. However, as the Obama administration and its apologists flailed about, while Snowden '' and Greenwald's reporting '' ran rings around them, the nasty stuff started. David Gregory, echoing Rep. Peter King (R-IRA), wondered aloud on national television why Greenwald shouldn't be jailed forthwith '' but that was just the beginning. A few days later, the dirt really started to fly with an article in the New York Daily News detailing Greenwald's various personal, legal, and financial troubles, and I quote:
  "The reporter who broke the story about the National Security Agency's secret surveillance programs has a little secret of his own.
  "Before he was a reporter and commentator for The Guardian newspaper, Glenn Greenwald was a lawyer '-- and had a part-time job in the porn business."
  Glenn '' a porn star? Well, uh, no, not exactly, or even remotely. But that's the Daily News for you, a tabloid modeled on those British rags with screaming headlines over photos of scantily clad "celebrities." After that lascivious opening '' like a whore beckoning at the reader from a dark corner with promises of unimaginable carnal delights '' the letdown is dizzying.
  It turns out the "part time job in the porn business" was a business relationship with a friend and a third party producer involving video distribution rights. Yawn. And it's downhill from there: Greenwald owes back taxes, Greenwald has been involved in some lawsuits (he's a lawyer!), and '' last, and certainly least '' one of those lawsuits involved a dispute with the Manhattan co-op he was living in involving the size of his dog, deemed "too large" for the co-op board. To Guantanamo with him!
  None of this is too interesting, except for its value as an object of near-universal derision: last [Wednesday] night and well into Thursday, Twitter users were riffing on a new hashtag, #ggscandals, mercilessly mocking the smear-mongers' sheer lameness.
  Far more interesting than the content of this misfired dirtball is the dirtbag who wrote it, one Dareh Gregorian. Aside from being a low-level gossip-monger for the low-rent NYDN, he also happens to be the son of Vartan Gregorian, head of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, one of the major dispensers of corporate cash to various philanthropies and nonprofit outfits throughout the country.
  The connection matters because it was Dareh's dad who lobbed $49.2 million in Barack Obama's direction when the community organizer and future President headed up the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC). Gregorian, as the Annenberg Foundation's representative in the matter, was instrumental in securing the funding for a group led by Bill Ayers and Mike Klonsky, two sixties-era former radicals turned education reformers. Gregorian chose the Ayers-Klonsky-Obama proposal over competing bids from Mayor Daley, the Chicago Public School system, and the teacher's union. Obama, CAC's founding president, resigned in 1999 to run for Senate. When Obama took office, Vartan Gregorian was appointed to the President's Commission on White House Fellowships, which "mentors" up-and-comers deemed worthy by the Regime.
  I wonder who was mentoring young Dareh as he wrote up the contents of his Greenwald dossier '' the source of which is not too hard to imagine. Because this isn't the first time Greenwald has been the subject of a smear campaign: the last one involved a shady outfit known as "HBGary Federal," which did a deal with Bank of America to go after WikiLeaks and its supporters, including especially Greenwald. The banksters were mad about the WikiLeaks document dump that exposed BofA's corporate malfeasance. Vartan Gregorian has had a very close relationship with BofA at least since his stint as President of the New York Public Library: Here he is appearing at BoA's "Courage in Journalism" awards presentation.
  Yes, that's right: Courage in journalism '' don't these people just take the cake?
  If there was such a thing as the Corruption in Journalism awards, Gregorian's son '' whose scummy career as a "reporter" is here succinctly summarized by the noted blogger Billmon '' is surely first in line for the honor. C'mon, Dareh, didn't Daddy put you up to it?
  Indeed, there's some evidence the father is a dominating influence in the son's life. In one of those horribly self-regarding New Yawkerish Observer profiles, the kind that make you wish the isle of Manhattan would sink into the Atlantic (and take Brooklyn with it), we learn the trials and tribulations of being a Gregorian. The piece, describing the "Countdown to Bliss" preceding Gregorian's wedding, cites his wife-to-be, Politico columnist Maggie Haberman, daughter of New York Times columnist Clyde Haberman:
  "'We're both very proud of our fathers,' Ms. Haberman said over one of the two cell phones she owns. 'But I've spent a lifetime being known as Clyde's daughter, and Dareh has always been known as Vartan's son, so it's sort of nice that we can both understand how that is.'"
  Yes, the progeny of the privileged surely do have a hard time of it: it's sheer hell being at the intersection of money, media, and politics '' because, after all, certain things are expected of you. One of them is sliming the family's political enemies, especially one who is causing them as much trouble as Greenwald. As the Snowden affair began to badly embarrass the Obama administration in front of the whole world, exposing its hypocrisy and holding up its darkest secrets to the light of day, the Gregorian clan struck back: no doubt the dossier compiled by HBGary Federal was readily available from Daddy's friends at BofA, and Dareh did the dirty deed.
  That it wound up backfiring isn't really the point. What's important to understand is the utter scumminess of these Regimists, who will stop at nothing to divert attention away from the NSA spying story, and discourage any other whistle-blowers from stepping forward. They are out to destroy Greenwald, and, if they can't arrest him and lock him up for a good long time, they'll probably settle for sliming him just the way they did Julian Assange.
  This kind of sleaziness is routine for these people, but it gets darker. Apparently Snowden's encrypted files '' apparently given to Greenwald and six other people in case something unpleasant should happen to Snowden '' were supposed to have been sent by Greenwald to his partner, but he wound up not doing that. As Greenwald related to the Daily Beast:
  "Two days later his laptop was stolen from our house and nothing else was taken. Nothing like that has happened before. I am not saying it's connected to this, but obviously the possibility exists."
  It looks like this developing scandal may resemble Watergate in more ways than one, not only in its impact on the current regime but also right down to the nasty little details.
  The NSA Prism program, and the phone dragnet, are supposed to focus only on communications between an American and an individual overseas '' that's the "anti-terrorist" mask this universal surveillance program wears in order to justify its existence to the public. Greenwald, however, is an American living overseas, who by necessity communicates with people inside the US and all over the world. Which means the authorities have the technical "right" to not only vacuum up his every email and Skype session, but to examine it with a fine-tooth comb, teasing it out for anything remotely incriminating '' and, given what we are discovering, who knows how far back their library of intercepts goes?
  That library, which Snowden tells us is readily available to the NSA, has on its virtual shelves ready-made dossiers on this administration's political enemies. Does anybody really think they are above using it? This massive database is a police state's dream, because it makes outright repression unnecessary, for the most part: the mere knowledge that the government has a massive database detailing the private lives of countless Americans is enough to frighten many would-be government critics into silence.
  Luckily for us, journalists of Greenwald's caliber are unlikely to be intimidated: indeed, such tactics are going to have the exact opposite effect on them. Few, however, have Greenwald's resolve, and this is especially true when it comes to "mainstream" American journalists, who see themselves as the fourth branch of government rather than its natural adversary. David Gregory epitomizes their stenographic approach to reporting, but he is far from alone: the media was deep in Obama's pocket before he even took office, and that's where they've stayed. We'll get nothing in the way of investigative reporting on the NSA story from that crowd: the job is now left to the Guardian, and other overseas outlets, as well as a few American sources such as McClatchy news service and the alternative media. The mainstream media is this administration's journalistic Praetorian Guard '' an obstacle to getting out the story rather than a conduit for the truth.
  This is what it is like to live in a police state '' secretly compiled dossiers, "leaks," scurrilous hit pieces in regime-friendly media, and the ever-present threat of blackmail to deter dissenters. They want us to get used to it, but, as Snowden put it: "I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded. That is not something I am willing to support or live under."
  The Regimists have been dealt a tremendous blow by the Snowden-Greenwald revelations, but they have more than enough resources to fight back. By sliming '' and trying to destroy '' anyone who stands up to them, they hope they can cow the rest of the population into passive compliance. As they erect the "architecture of oppression" all around us, however, a few well-placed bombs '' of a strictly journalistic nature, mind you '' have the power to bring the whole structure down. Such saboteurs are to be applauded, and defended.
  NOTES IN THE MARGIN
  You can check out my Twitter feed by going here. But please note that my tweets are sometimes deliberately provocative, often made in jest, and largely consist of me thinking out loud.
  I've written a couple of books, which you might want to peruse. Here is the link for buying the second edition of my 1993 book, Reclaiming the American Right: The Lost Legacy of the Conservative Movement, with an Introduction by Prof. George W. Carey, a Foreword by Patrick J. Buchanan, and critical essays by Scott Richert and David Gordon (ISI Books, 2008).
  You can buy An Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard (Prometheus Books, 2000), my biography of the great libertarian thinker, here.
  Read more by Justin Raimondo
Identifying homegrown violent extremists
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  Archived Version
  Wed, 03 Jul 2013 05:15
  The recent arrest of two ''homegrown'' extremists highlights one of the biggest terrorist threats that we face today. From a security perspective, the challenge is in identifying those who have radicalized to the point of taking violent action. The Conference Board of Canada's research into radicalization indicates that one of the best ways for identifying and preventing violent extremism is for us to build resilient communities.
  Canada has been very fortunate to have avoided any significant terrorist event since the bombing of Air India Flight 182 in 1985. However, we have recently seen a spate of terrorism-related incidents involving Canada.
  This past January, two Canadians were involved in taking hostages at a gas plant in Algeria. This eventually resulted in 37 hostages being killed along with many of the terrorists, including both Canadians. There are also allegations that other suspects who have lived in Canada may have been involved in this incident.
  Months later, there was the April arrest of two individuals who were accused of plotting to carry out a terrorist attack against a Via passenger train.
  The pair arrested in British Columbia are Canadian born and bred. From the information we have received so far from the RCMP, these individuals were self-radicalized, domestically. Domestic radicalization to violence describes individuals within Canada who adopt extreme views and beliefs without targeted attempts from persons based outside of Canada to influence the individual's radicalization process.
  The Toronto 18 case is another example of domestic radicalization.
  Many attempts have been made to differentiate between the large number of individuals who are exposed to the conditions for radicalization to violence from the minority who actually progress to committing acts of terrorism.
  Despite this, those who radicalize to violence do not necessarily stand out from the general population. Evidence also shows that terrorists are not, as a general rule, psychologically abnormal or mentally ill.
  The trend of homegrown radicalization has seen the self-organization of violent groups who radicalize in a largely bottom-up manner. These groups and individuals are increasingly making connections through local social networks, families, and communities and may not have direct links to violent extremist organizations abroad. They have undergone the radicalization process despite having been born in Canada or having lived in Canada for some time. Most can appear to have successfully integrated into Canadian society.
  It is not enough to counter violent extremists abroad and prevent them from entering Canada. Prevention efforts have to be made within Canada to reduce the risk of radicalization to violence that could lead to terrorist attacks being planned and supported in Canada, or even carried out here.
  One of the key elements for doing this would be for us to build resilient communities that are resistant to extremist messaging and have the capacity to counter radicalization to violence if it appears. A key benefit of building these resilient communities is that they are well-positioned to notice radicalization at its earliest stages: Friends and neighbours will be the first to see changes in behaviour and be able to respond. If they cannot counter the narrative, they always have the option of reporting the issue.
  In many ways, we have been very lucky in being able to disrupt some of these plots and prevent an incident from occurring on Canadian soil. It is a testament to a combination of the good work done by the authorities, as well as the support of the Canadian public in countering violent extremism.
  It is difficult to identify homegrown violent extremists. Resilient communities can do a lot to assist the authorities in identifying these individuals and keeping Canada safe from the threat of terrorism.
  Dr. Satyamoorthy Kabilan is Director, National Security and Strategic Foresight, at The Conference Board of Canada. He previously worked for the U.K. government on counter-terrorism issues.
Draft:The Most Wanted Leaks of 2009-sort - Wikileaks
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  Archived Version
  Wed, 03 Jul 2013 05:13
  From WikileaksSomewhat sorted entries of the most-wanted list. Work in progress, TODO: Add brief, entity and date for each entry.
  [edit]AustriaAustrian e-Voting system used in students elections.E-Mail traffic between Josef Pr¶ll and Christian Konrad.Date: ???Brief: E-Mail traffic between minister of finance Josef Pr¶ll and Christian Konrad, who is advocate general of Raiffeisen bank.Entity: Josef Pr¶ll (josef.proell@bmf.gv.at)Entity: Christian KonradE-Mail traffic of Anton Mahdalik with Michael H¤upl and/or Michael LudwigDate: ???Brief: E-Mail traffic of FP– delegate Anton Mahdalik with viennese mayor Michael H¤upl and/or deputy mayor Michael Ludwig containing threats when renting municipal ground to the viennese trailor park ("Wagenplatz Wien").Entity: Anton Mahdalik (toni.mahdalik@fpoe.at)Entity: Michael H¤upl (michael.haeupl@wien.gv.at)[edit]AustraliaACMA URL blacklistDate: 19 March 2009 and laterBrief: Versions of the ACMA URL blacklist newer than 19 March 2009. WikiLeaks previously released three versions of the list, two of which included WikiLeaks or its subpages.Entity: Australian Communications and Media AuthorityCensorship technology in AustraliaDate: 2009Entity: Australian Communications and Media AuthorityEntity: Enex TestlabsEntity: Watchdog NZEntity: [www.iwf.org.uk Internet Watch Foundation]Entity: Exetel ISPBrief: Full details of filtering hardware/software vendors participating in government-sponsored ISP-level censorship technology trials, including (but not limited to):Any and all communications between filter vendors and government departments prior to, during, and after the trialsAny and all transactions, contracts, and other financial arrangements involving filter vendorsDetails:URL blacklist(s) used during above trials. Alleged (by government) to be ACMA URL blacklist.Full statistical breakdown of results of above trials (in the event that Enex Testlabs do not make them publicly available).URL blacklist as used by Watchdog NZ during private censorship technology trial by ISP Exetel in May 2009. Alleged (by Watchdog) to have been IWF list (see United Kingdom).Full statistical breakdown of results of Watchdog/Exetel's censorship technology trial - Exetel's official response seems lacking.Annual NSW Police testBrief: Written exam NSW police officers must take annually before they can be issued with Tasers.Entity: NSW Police[edit]BahrainDocuments regarding changes to country's demography.Brief: Documents disclosing the number of citizenships that have been granted in the last few years, in an effort to change the country's demography. See Political naturalisation[1].Golden Shield ProjectBrief: A list of URLs and keywords censored filtered by the Golden Shield Project (Great Firewall of China). WikiLeaks has previously released related information, for example, watch lists, policies and several thousand URLs for CCTV and Baidu, but not for general http filtering.Entity: Ministry of public securityGenocide Olympics campaignDate: 28th March 2007Brief: Policy options on Darfur formulated in response to the so-called Genocide Olympics campaign led by American actress, Mia Farrow, and notes of meetings in 2007 between Stephen Spielberg and Chinese Foreign Ministry officials prior to Spielberg's resignation as Artistic Director of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.[edit]ColombiaSurveillance of citizens and organisationsBrief: The DAS (Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad) is reported to have surveilled a wide array of public officials, private citizens, and organizations. Documents wanted: contracts to supply software for internet surveillance to Colombian policy agencies and details of the software supplied.Entity: DAS[edit]FinlandTiitisen ListaBrief: The so called Tiitisen Lista, the list of 18 persons claimed to have been in active contact with East German security services (Stasi). The list was received from the West German intelligence services (BND) in 1990 and since classified by the order of President Koivisto as adviced by the head of the Finnish Security Police (Suojelupoliisi), Seppo Tiitinen. It is rumoured that several current or former top Finnish politicians appear on the list.Entity: StasiEntity: KoivistoEntity: Suojelupoliisi[edit]FranceNicholas Sarkozy' health reportBrief: The Monthly Health Report of President Nicolas Sarkozy, as promised by himself during the last presidential elections.[edit]GermanyCensorship in GermanyDetails:The censorship filter list for the proposed national, mandatory censorship system. The list will be compiled by German federal criminal police BKA and distributed to internet service providers.The contents of the contract between the BKA and some ISPs that has already been signed, but is kept secret due to "public safety" and copyright concerns (see http://blog.fefe.de/?ts=b4fa8af8).The List of Media Harmful to Young People (the censorship system already in place). The "virtual media" part of this list is distributed to search engine providers and is illegal to publish. It probably could be reverse engineered using the differences between google.com and google.de search results. Also, if you want to know if a specific medium is on the list, you can send an enquiry to liste@bundespruefstelle.de ("Bundespr¼fstelle" is the agency responsible for keeping the list).Entity: Bundespr¼fstelleEntity: BKAPolitician's Stasi filesThe Stasi files of Federal Chancellor Angela Dorothea Merkel (maiden name Kasner) and other leading politicians, which are known to exist, but withheld from publicOperation GladioBrief: The Stasi files relating to operation Gladio / stay behind organisations in relation to right-wing terrorism in Germany, as per a parliamentary request by the Green party.Atlas Der WutBrief: The so called "Atlas der Wut", a document about the risk of riots in different german regions. The list is said to be updated regulary and was first written in 2005.The list of NPD party members[edit]GreeceThe Athens Affair
  Brief: Documents related to the Athens phone tapping affair that have yet to be released (including those from countries other than Greece) Context[edit]GuatemalaPlan Victoria 82, Plan Sofia and Plan Fermeza 83Brief: All documents on Plan Victoria 82, Plan Sofia and Plan Firmeza 83.Detail:Within the process of trying to bring military personal involved in human rights violations and massacres that happen during the civil war in Guatemala to justice, the military have been required to declassify many war documents. In a case, that went all the way to the Supreme Court of Guatemala, the Court dictated a sentence that confirmed the obligation of the Ministry of Defense of Guatemala to hand over the official documentation of four specific military operations: Campana Sofia 82, Victoria 82, Firmeza 83 and Operacion Ixil. The Supreme Court sentence indicated that the archives had to be declassified.These military operations were carried out in the 80s. According to the CEH, Historical Clarification Commission of Guatemala final report contained in "Guatemala: Memory of Silence", these military operations resulted in massacres and severe human rights violations.The Minister of Defense Abraham Valenzuela only delivered partial information about plans Victoria 82 and Firmeza 83, two of the four requested plans. He indicated that he had no knowledge of the other two plans before he became Minister of Defense and that he ignores where the documentation could be. He stated that he could not deliver the complete plans "Victoria 82" y "Firmeza 83" because certain information was considered state secret and a concern of national security."Plan Sofia", a derivative of "Plan Victoria 82", was of special concern to human rights activists; this plan was conceived in July 1982, four months after General Efrain Rios Montt came into power.The CEH archivesBrief: Final report of United Nations' Historical Clarification Commission (CEH) into the killing of 200,000 Mayan people and the involvement of the US government and American corporations. The report official sources (military interviews, campaign plans, etc) are kept secret by the UN in NYC.Detail:The United Nations' Historical Clarification Commission (CEH) for Guatemala issued a report where the US government and several American corporations were accused of complicity in the genocide of nearly 200,000 Mayan people during Guatemala?s bloody 36-year civil war. The final 3,600-page CEH report clearly places the blame for most of the 200,000 deaths on the "racist" policy of the Guatemalan government and holds the country?s military and paramilitary forces responsible for the actual killings, tortures and disappearances.However, it accuses the US of directly and indirectly supporting a "fratricidal confrontation" by providing sustained training, arms and financial aidThe report is based on the testimony of 9,200 people from all sides of the conflict and other documents*, classified and Secret, protected in the UN headquarters in NYC. The CEH investigated 42,000 human rights violations, 29,000 of which resulted in deaths or disappearances and therefore, the documents under UN custody are fundamental for the prosecution of those responsible of the crimes.Goldcorp affairBrief: * Documents on Canadian corporation named Goldcorp with a mining operation in Guatemala, especially information on where the Gold they extract is processed and who is buying the gold (we think it might be a Swiss company).Detail: A Canadian corporation named Goldcorp has a mining operation in Guatemala with poor environmental conditions and harming health of many workers and a community as a whole. Where the Gold they extract is processed? Who is buying the gold (we think it might be a Swiss company)?Italian censorship listBrief: The full Italian censorship, of which Wikileaks currently only has a subset.Reports on high level corruption in Kibaki governmentBrief: The international investigative firm Kroll associates produced at least four reports on high level Kenyan corruption after first term of the Kibaki government. A draft version of one of the reports The looting of Kenya, was previously published by WikiLeaks. The reports were given to selected members of President Kibaki's cabinet at the time and are likely still held by http://www.kroll.com.uk/, notably lead investigator Andrew Marshall.Entity: President KibakiEntity: KrollArrangements with the Sudanese governmentBrief: Documents indicating arrangements with the Sudanese government to grant land in Darfur to Arab settlers from Libya (Civilians and adminisrators on the gruond in Darfur indicate this has been taking place).[edit]MadagascarBoth sides of the political conflict in Madagascar are crying fouls about the deals made by their counterparts with foreign entities. The release of the official documents with respect to contract negotiations about:
  Oil exploitation in the region of Bemolanga ( South of Madagascar) by Total & othersan obvious one but the proposed final contract before rejection of the land deal with Daewoo Logistics.The recent agreement with Saudi investment group on staple products and proposed $2 billion USD investment.The revised mining exploitation agreement with Sheritt in Ambatovy and Rio Tinto in Fort-Dauphin.Least but not last, the complete list of current political prisoners and the charges against them.Arrangements with the Sudanese governmentBrief: Documents indicating arrangements with the Sudanese government to grant land in Darfur to Arab settlers from Mali (Civilians and adminisrators on the gruond in Darfur indicate this has been taking place).[edit]M(C)xicoAgreements between USA and Peter HerlihyBrief: Zapotec indigenous people demand transparency from U.S. Scholar and full disclosure of all the agreements between U.S. Government and their agencies and U.S. geography scholar Peter Herlihy, especially confidential agreements with Foreign Military Studies Office. Prof. Herlihy failed to mention that he received funding from the Foreign Military Studies Office of the U.S. Armed Forces on the research of "M(C)xico Ind­gena" project. Mexico Indigena Project forms part of the Bowman Expeditions, a more extensive geographic research project backed and financed by the FMSO, among other institutions. The FMSO inputs information into a global database that forms an integral part of the Human Terrain System (HTS), a United States Army counterinsurgency strategy designed by Foreign Military Studies Office and applied within indigenous communities, among others.Entity: FMSOEntity: Peter HerlihyRuta Maya 2002 Isuzu ChallengeBrief: Documents to unveil the real purpose of "Ruta Maya 2002 Isuzu Challenge". The convoy was commanded by Ben Nun Avihu, Israeli militar and Moshe Savir, geography expert and around 50 tourists in 40 Isuzu Jeep. Some communities linked the incursion with biopiracy. The terrain they explored is controled by the EZLN.Entity: Ben Nun AvihuEntity: Moshe SavirEntity: EZLNCorruption around FOBAPROABrief: Documents related with the fraud and corruption around FOBAPROA (Fondo Bancario de Protecci"n al Ahorro).Entity: FOBAPROA 12Financial operations before crisisDocuments of financial operations just before the financial crisis of 1994 (some say the government knew before that the crisis was coming and took advantage of the information protecting their interests).World Bank creditBrief: Documents related with the World Bank credit and application of the budget to combat swine flu.Entity: World BankRenault programBrief: Documents related with the technology currently used in cellphones in Mexico to implement the RENAUT program Information about the security technology used to protect data collected from users.Plan MeridaBrief: Documents related to the transparency of Plan MeridaArrangements with the Sudanese governmentBrief: Documents indicating arrangements with the Sudanese government to grant land in Darfur to Arab settlers from Niger (Civilians and adminisrators on the gruond in Darfur indicate this has been taking place).[edit]NorwayCourt case between Lyse Tele and SimonsenBrief: The secret verdict in the court case between the ISP Lyse Tele and the law firm Simonsen, decided the 5th of May 2009, where Simonsen demanded Lyse Tele disclose the identity information of a file sharer suspected of uploading a copy of the movie Max Manus to the file-sharing community.Entity: Lyse TeleEntity: Simonsen[edit]Puerto RicoFBI surveillance of Puerto Rico citizensBrief: The FBI has not yet finished declassifying all the secret files related to surveillance of Puerto Rican individuals and organizations from the 1930-70's http://www.pr-secretfiles.net/index.html (not to mention, large sections of the files are blacked out by the FBI). In addition, there are thousands of secret files produced by Puerto Rican police that were only briefly made available to individuals themselves, and have now been closed off to the public. These documents provide evidence of quite a significant spying and intimidation operation by the United States and local police against leftists and independence movement leaders.Entity: FBI[edit]RwandaFinancial aid for Laurant NkundaBrief: Documentation of financial assistance given by the Rwandan government to General Laurant Nkunda for operations in the DRC.Entity: Laurent Nkunda[edit]RussiaVRYAN crisis documentationBrief: Documents related to the VRYAN crisis, especially political documents, analyses of intelligence, and specific steps taken. Information on the mindset of the Politburo, as well as intelligence services, and what exactly they feared, and how credible they believed their fear to be.Maps for Kremlin and military hideoutsBrief: Maps, floor plans, and blueprints of Mount Yamantaw and Kosvinsky Mountain.Technology analysisBrief: Technical plans, manuals, and blueprints for the SS-27 Sickle B (Topol-M), along with the Bulava.Brief: Documents relating to nuclear warplans of the Soviet Union and Russia.Brief: Documents relating to orbital weapons systems, and whether the Soviets ever deployed them (or still deploy them) such as orbital HANE devices.Brief: A list and description of the various agents prepared by the various Soviet and Russian bioweapons programs. Indications of whether they developed recombinant DNA based agents, and what those are specifically. Weaponization of agents, including re-entry vehicle mounting. Doctrine for use, including deniable use. Vaccines and treatments for affected personnel.[edit]SloveniaTaped conversations between Slovenian opposition leader and Croatian PMBrief: Taped conversations between Slovenian opposition leader Janez Jansa and Croatian prime minister Ivo Sanader, recorded by Slovenian intelligence service SOVA.Date: Summer 2004Entity: Janez JansaEntity: Ivo SanaderEntity: SOVAMali caseBrief: Documents indicating arrangements with the Sudanese government to grant land in Darfur to Arab settlers from Mali (Civilians and adminisrators on the gruond in Darfur indicate this has been taking place).Libya caseBrief: Documents indicating arrangements with the Sudanese government to grant land in Darfur to Arab settlers from Libya (Civilians and adminisrators on the gruond in Darfur indicate this has been taking place).Niger caseBrief: Documents indicating arrangements with the Sudanese government to grant land in Darfur to Arab settlers from Niger (Civilians and adminisrators on the gruond in Darfur indicate this has been taking place).Assasination of Mehdi Ben BarkaBrief: All the documents related to the assasination, in 1965, of Mehdi Ben Barka still held in France, USA, Israel and Morocco. In 1976, thanks to the Freedom of information Act, the US governement recognized that the CIA had about 1800 classified documents about his assassination. Theses documents are still classified.[edit]Switzerland[edit]SwazilandExpense accounts of King Mswati, the Queen Mother and the King's wives.Memos from Ministry of Defense or PoliceBrief: Intelligence memos from the Ministry of Defence or Police about the pro-democracy organization, PUDEMO.Entity: PudemoEntity: Ministry of Defense[edit]Trinidad and TobagoCommission of Enquiry reportsBrief: The Report on the Commission of Enquiry into the construction of the new Piarco Airport. This identified corrupt practices in the spending of public funds. The Commission's report was delivered in August 2003. Nearly 6 years later, its findings have not been made public.Brief: Report of the findings of the current Commission of Enquiry into the local construction sectorEntity: Commission EnquiryEntity: Piarco airportCaroni Bridge collapseBrief: The Report on the Caroni Bridge Collapse. A man was killed when a bridge collapsed a few years ago; again the public has not been made aware of the report's findings.Date: 2nd August 2008Waterfront Development ProjectBrief: A copy of the contract for the billion-dollar Waterfront Development Project.Entity: ?udecott?Scholarships sponsored by Ministry of CultureBrief: List of recipients and amounts of scholarships sponsored by Ministry of Culture for study abroad.Entity: Ministry of CultureDetail:As far as Trinidad and Tobago goes, our government tends to pay lip service to the principles of transparency and accountability. For instance, there is a Freedom of Information Act which, by law, allows the public to seek information from government departments. But quite often, when such attempts are made by the citizenry, the government bars full disclosure. Depending on how important a piece of information is to Joe Public, he may actually have to turn to the courts to "force" the government to reveal facts that should be disclosed voluntarily. Following are a few examples of documents that should be made public, but have not been:The Report on the Commission of Enquiry into the construction of the new Piarco Airport This identified corrupt practices in the spending of public funds. The Commission's report was delivered in August 2003. Nearly 6 years later, its findings have not been made public.The Report on the Caroni Bridge Collapse. A man was killed when a bridge collapsed a few years ago; again the public has not been made aware of the report's findings.The Opposition recently brought up in Parliament the issue of taxpayers' money being used to pay attorneys by state. Although the public has a right to know how much of its funds were used in paying said attorneys, the Attorney General refused to disclose the sums, saying it would be an invasion of the lawyers' privacy.The same goes for a recent request in Parliament, whereby *the Minister of Planning and Development was asked to produce a copy of the contract for the billion-dollar Waterfront Development Project*. The Minister's response was that she could not produce said contract for public discussion because there was a confidentiality clause contained therein (for a project being built with public funds).The Ministry of Culture recently awarded scholarships for students to study abroad - when asked in Parliament to disclose the list of recipients and the dollar value of the scholarships, the response was that this was private information.[edit]UgandaUgandan profit-sharing agreements with oil companies in south-western UgandaBrief: The government of Uganda has recently signed a number of profit-sharing agreements with several oil companies that are conducting explorations in southwestern Uganda. Releasing these documents would be a major step in increased transparency with respect to the country's emerging oil industry.[edit]United KingdomCensorship in UKBrief: List of current and expired D-NoticesEntity: dnoticeBrief: secret gag orders, injunctions and legal threats sent to UK newspapersEntity: legal contact addresses at the Guardian, Daily Mail, Times, Independent, Evening Standard, etc.Brief: Censorship list for the United Kingdom's "voluntary" filter system. Known to be held by The Internet Watch Foundation. Companies and their subsidiaries which are currently being supplied with the IWF list. Most ISP's in the UK have a copy of the IP's on the list.Entity: The Internet Watch FoundationRoger Hollis surveillanceBrief: UK Government documentation into the investigation of Roger Hollis, head of MI5 between 1956 and 1965, including the report by Lord Trend, into the serious but apparently unproven allegations of being a Russian Spy.Entity: MI5Wythenshawe intelligence centreBrief: Documents detailing the information stored and collected by the Wythenshawe intelligence centre. [2]Police surveillance on climate change protestorsBrief: A copy of the police intelligence handed to E.ON about climate change protestors. [3]Entity: E.ONAllan Cappelow murderBrief: Documents revealing why the trial of Wang Yam, who was convicted of killing Allan Chappelow, was held in camera, the first UK murder trial ever heard behind closed doors without access by press or public[4]Nationalisation of Northern Rock and Bradford & BringleyBrief: The proper reasons for nationalisation of Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley, and the subsequent sale of the latter's savings buisiness to Santander.Brief: Records of events during the twelve months leading up to the nationalisation of Bradford & Bingley.Brief: Information regarding the valuation process to determine compensation for fromer shareholders of Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley, that is, the information the independent valuer uses to determine the final value of the comapanies.Entity: B&BEntity: Northern RockHBOS takeoverBrief: Copies of government minutes of meetings between Gordon Brown and/or Alistair Darling and representatives of Lloyds Bank relating to the proposed takeover of HBOS.Investigation into Daveport LyonsBrief: Documents from Solicitors Regulation Authority's investigation into Davenport Lyons threatening letters related to filesharing.[edit]United NationsSecurity Council and DarfurBrief: Requests to the Security Council in 2003 that the Security Council look at what was happening in Darfur, and any notes of discussions leading to the decision not to look at the situation.Date: 2003Entity: UN Security Council[edit]United StatesImportant bulk databases
  IntellipediaBrief: Classified intelligence community site as of 11/1/2008, including article history.opensource.govBrief: The complete CIA Open Source Center analytical database. The database is extensive, unclassified, non-public, but relatively accessible to certain outsiders after jumping through hoops. Despite its name, you need to be government official to gain access to it.Entity: opensource.govFederal politics
  The missing five million White House emails--possibly no longer in existence.Chenney and Rumsfeld ArchivesThe White House visitor's listMinutes or notes for VP Cheney's Energy Conference.The 1141 pages of ACTA background documents not released to the EFF by the US Trade Representative (see [5])A list of all Whitehouse and senior federal government employees holding dual citizenship and the countries they represent.Military and Intelligence
  The SIOPOPLAN/CONPLAN 8022, 2003 revision.OPLAN/CONPLAN 8044, 2007 revision.CIA detainee interrogation videos. While the CIA claims to have destroyed 92 of the videos, others are known to remain.The US "Black Budget", from inception to present, with line items, hopefully annotated and explained.Detainee abuse photos withheld by the Obama administration.Wiretapping program led by NSABrief: Correspondence between the National Security Agency and American telecom companies such as AT&T, Verizon, and Qwest, regarding the warrantless wiretapping program. Correspondence involving telecoms who cooperated with the NSA (e.g. AT&T) may give different information than telecoms who refused (e.g. Qwest), but both types would better shed light on the NSA's program. The existence of this correspondence is well documented in the media, for example that Qwest's lawyers refused to cooperate because the FISA Court had not signed off on it.Entity: NSAEntity: QwestEntity: AT&TEntity: VerizonUnredacted copy of Dept of Justice's Office of Inspector General's "A Review of the FBI' s Actions Connection With Allegations Raised By Contract Linguist Sibel Edmonds" July 1, 2004 (redacted version here http://www.wbez.org/FILES/sibel.pdf )Camp Delta (Guantanamo) Standard Operating Procedure 2005-2009.Iraq US Army Rules of Engagement 2007-2009 (SECRET).Unredacted Inquiry into the Treatment of Detainees in US Custody, 20 Nov 2008.Memorandum between the CIA and the Department of State detailing any constraints on Darfur policy caused by actual or anticipated Sudanese government cooperation on counter-terrorism, including CIA request to USUN that Salah Gosh be removed from the UN Panel of Experts list of those recommended for sanction. See: http://www.sudantribune.com/article.php3?id_article=10205Department of State and CIA contributions to the Obama Administration's 2009 Sudan Policy Review, in particular with respect to: a) Whether to support the ICC arrest warrant against Sudanese President Bashir; b) whether to take a confrontational or an appeasement approach to the Sudanese government on the issue of Darfur.Camp Delta (Guantanamo) Standard Operating Procedure 2005-2009.Camp Delta (Guantanamo) Interrogation Standard Operating Procedure 2003-2009.Correspondence between the National Security Agency and American telecom companies such as AT&T, Verizon, and Qwest, regarding the warrantless wiretapping program. Correspondence involving telecoms who cooperated with the NSA (e.g. AT&T) may give different information than telecoms who refused (e.g. Qwest), but both types would better shed light on the NSA's program. The existence of this correspondence is well documented in the media, for example that Qwest's lawyers refused to cooperate because the FISA Court had not signed off on it.Iraq and Afhanistan US Army Rules of Engagement 2007-2009 (SECRET).CIA/DIA/NGA/NSA analyses of the VRYAN crisis of 1983.Technical specifications of the KH-11 and follow-on satellites with similar capabilities.The contents of the Football, and how they changed over the years during the different Administrations.What Pollard stole and gave to the Mossad, the full text.US psychological profiles and political analyses of Soviet leaders.Documents relating to orbital weapons systems, and whether the US ever deployed them (or still deploy them) such as orbital HANE devices.Information about the PAN satellite and the agency responsible for it http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0905/26milspace/Commander Directed Report of Investigation Concerning an Unauthorized Transfer of Nuclear Warheads Between Minot AFB, North Dakota and Barksdale AFB, Louisiana - 30 August 2007 (S//FRD//MR)Investigation into the Shipment of Sensitive Missile Components to Taiwan (ADM Donald Report) - 22 May 2008 (S//FRD//NOFORN)Air Force Comprehensive Assessment of Nuclear Sustainment (CANS) - July 2008 (S//FRD//NOFORN)General Order Number One issued by commanders in Iraq and AfghanistanReports about Colombian 'falsos positives'Unredacted copy of Dept of Justice's Office of Inspector General's "A Review of the FBI' s Actions Connection With Allegations Raised By Contract Linguist Sibel Edmonds" July 1, 2004 (redacted version here http://www.wbez.org/FILES/sibel.pdf )All secret annexes for, attachments to, unredacted versions of, and documents implicitly or explicitly referenced in the following documents, which may be partially available in unclassified form:National Security Presidential Directive 51, "National Continuity Policy", May 9, 2007, also known as Homeland Security Presidential Directive 20Federal Preparedness Circular 65, "Federal Executive Branch Continuity of Operations (COOP)", July 26, 1999Federal Response Plan [FEMA 9230.1-PL], April 1999Presidential Decision Directive 67, "Enduring Constitutional Government and Continuity of Government Operations", October 21, 1998Presidential Decision Directive 63, "Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP)", May 22, 1998Presidential Decision Directive 62, "Protection Against Unconventional Threats to the Homeland and Americans Overseas", May 22, 1998FPC 65 Federal Response Planning Guidance 01-94, "Continuity of Operations (COOP)", December 4, 1994PDD 67 National Security Directive 69, "Enduring Constitutional Government", June 2, 1992FPC 65 Federal Preparedness Circular 61, "Emergency Succession to Key Positions of the Federal Departments and Agencies", August 2, 1991Federal Preparedness Circular 62, "Delegation of Authorities for Emergency Situations", August 1, 1991Federal Preparedness Circular 60, "Continuity of the Executive Branch of the Federal Government at the Headquarters Level During National Security Emergencies", November 20,1990National Security Directive 37, "Enduring Constitutional Government", April 18, 1990Executive Order 12656, "Assignment of Emergency Preparedness Responsibilities", November 18, 1988Executive Order 12472, "Assignment of National Security and Emergency Preparedness Telecommunications Functions", April 3, 1984NSD 69 NSDD 55, "Enduring National Leadership" September 14, 1982Executive Order 12148, "Federal Emergency Management", July 20, 1979A list of the actual facilities in the Federal Relocation Arc, as of the present time, along with their locations.Blueprints, maps, and floor plans of MWEOC.Blueprints, maps, and floor plans of Site R (Raven Rock).Blueprints and floor plans of all unmentioned facilities in the Federal Relocation Arc, including historical ones.Banking
  The complete list of identities of the 52,000 wealthy American clients suspected of hiding $15 billion at UBS to avoid taxes, including the names of any elected or appointed government or former government officials.The complete details of Goldman, Sachs & Co.'s counterparty exposure to AIG prior to the Federal bailout of AIG in September, 2008.Environment
  Monsanto's internal evaluations of GMO products including safety and pollen drift.Media
  The Editorial Guidelines for Fox NewsEmails relating to suppressed GQ Magazine article on Putin's rise by Scott Anderson mentioned at [6]Religion
  Mormons Church recordsWith recent leak of 1999/2006 Church Handbook of Instructions, pertinent documents and covertly photographed artifacts in the vault at Church Office building or subsidy in Salt Lake City, Utah which expose and negate Mormon Church's claim of divinity and its monopoly on "truth." I.e. the concealed remnants of diaries and letters written by former early Mormon apostle William McLellin [7]. McLellin diary and documents was the main point of interest for convicted double murderer/bomber Mark Hofmann's planned forgery attempt to deceive Mormon leaders to obtain in fraud by deception monetary reward to suppress truth of early Mormon history unfavorable to current Mormon religion. For more info, [8].Documents of Mormon Church's billion-dollar investment in City Creek Mall and Condominium in SLC, which may put Mormon Church's IRS tax-exempt status in jeopardy if there is verification of the allegation the Church used tithe and offering monetary contributions by the members to fund the project under the umbrella of tax-exempted religious freedom.Mormon Church leadership's involvement in politics, such as correspondence to ecclesiastical subordinates (bishopric) on policy and attitude towards same-sex civil rights & other sensitive issues relevant and concerning to the leaders. As well as recorded correspondences between Mormon members of Utah legislation and Church leaders on sensitive political issuItalic textes for legislation purposes which may contravene the separation of church and state.Uncovered film or audio recording featuring the play with the actor portraying Protestant minister encouraged by Satan/Lucifer (portrayed by actor) to spread false doctrines to attack all religions outside of Mormon religion as "abominable" which was exhibited for qualified "temple recommend" audiences in all of the existing temples prior to removal in 1990 (almost like leaked Scientology orientation video) [9].Unearthed secret audio or video recording inside Mormon temple with the temple members swearing "blood oath" before removal in 1990. [10]Documented Church leaders' and lay clergy's cover-up of physical/sexual abuse and rape of minors by missionaries and members without reporting to law enforcement in some cases [11].Older editions of Church Handbooks of Instructions from the first edition up [12] for comparison to recent leaked 1968 (truncated), 1999 and 2006 editions.[edit]VaticanVatican's documents on nazi Germany[edit]International organizationsAlliance BaseBrief: Documents regarding the founding and operation of Alliance Base.
Motorola Is Listening - Projects - Beneath the Waves
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Wed, 03 Jul 2013 05:00
  Home > Projects > Motorola Is Listening
  Motorola Is Listening
  article by Ben Lincoln
  In June of 2013, I made an interesting discovery about the Android phone (a Motorola Droid X2) which I was using at the time: it was silently sending a considerable amount of sensitive information to Motorola, and to compound the problem, a great deal of it was over an unencrypted HTTP channel.
  If you're in a hurry, you can skip straight to the Analysis - email, ActiveSync, and social networking section - that's where the most sensitive information (e.g. email/social network account passwords) is discussed.
  Update 2 (2013-07-02 @ 08:03) - potential device security concern
  I realized this morning that there may be a more significant problem. See Potential (untested) device security concern, below.
  Update 1 (2013-07-02 @ 05:30) - Android, the Droid X2, and Blur
  This article has gotten a lot more attention than I expected.
  A clarification I'd like to make (because there seems to be a lot of confusion about this) is that the Droid X2 does not use Motorola's "Blur"/"MotoBlur" user interface. That's one of the reasons I picked that model specifically back in 2011 - it seemed to be running something very close to the stock version of Android.
  The email client, web browser, text-messaging app, and so on look like the ones that were included on the G1 I had previously, which is about as close to "stock Android" as you can get with a carrier-installed OS. Based on my research, it seems that they've all been modified to silently send data to and/or through the Blur web-service back-end, but there's no indication to the user that this is the case unless they do the sort of network capture that I did. There is no prompt to create or use a Blur user ID - the phone uses a randomly-generated Blur account for all of the behind-the-scenes activity described below.
  I would be very interested in trying this same test with more recent Motorola phones, because there's definitely the perception out there that Blur has been phased out, and I think it's much more likely that it's just the UI on their phones that's been changed, as opposed to removing the underlying Blur functionality.
  If you're still unsure why I think this is a problem, ask yourself this: if you bought a desktop PC running Windows, then discovered two years later that the hardware manufacturer had installed modified versions of standard Windows software like Outlook Express and Internet Explorer which - without any indication to the user - sent your passwords to, and routed other traffic through servers owned by the PC manufacturer instead of connecting directly to the actual websites and mail servers, would you be OK with it? If not, then why are you when it's a phone instead of a desktop PC?
  Technical notes
  The screenshots and other data in this article are more heavily-redacted than I would prefer in the interest of full disclosure and supporting evidence. There are several reasons for this:
  There is a considerable amount of binary, hex-encoded, and base64-encoded data mixed in with the traffic. As I have not performed a full reverse-engineering of the data, it's hard for me to know if any of these values are actually sensitive at this time, or in the future when someone more thoroughly decodes the protocol.My employer reminds its employees that publicly identifying themselves as employees of that organization conveys certain responsibilities upon them. I do not speak for my employer, so all information that would indicate who that employer is has been removed.I would rather not expose my personal information more than Motorola has already.Discovery
  I was using my personal phone at work to do some testing related to Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync. In order to monitor the traffic, I had configured my phone to proxy all HTTP and HTTPS traffic through Burp Suite Professional - an intercepting proxy that we use for penetration testing - so that I could easily view the contents of the ActiveSync communication.
  Looking through the proxy history, I saw frequent HTTP connections to ws-cloud112-blur.svcmot.com mixed in with the expected ActiveSync connections.
  ActiveSync Configuration Information ActiveSync configuration information being sent to Motorola's Blur service.
  As of 22 June, 2013, svcmot.com is a domain owned by Motorola, or more specifically:
  Motorola Trademark Holdings, LLC
  600 North US Highway 45 Attn: Law Department
  Libertyville IL 60048
  US
  internic@motorola.com +1.8475765000 Fax: +1.8475234348
  I was quickly able to determine that the connections to Motorola were triggered every time I updated the ActiveSync configuration on my phone, and that the unencrypted HTTP traffic contained the following data:
  The DNS name of the ActiveSync server (only sent when the configuration is first created).The domain name and user ID I specified for authentication.The full email address of the account.The name of the connection.As I looked through more of the proxy history, I could see less-frequent connections in which larger chunks of data were sent - for example, a list of all the application shortcuts and widgets on my phone's home screen(s).
  Analysis - email, ActiveSync, and social networking
  I decided to try setting up each of the other account types that the system would allow me to, and find out what was captured.
  Facebook and Twitter
  For both of these services, the email address and password for the account are sent to Motorola. Both services support a mechanism (oAuth) explicitly intended to make this unnecessary, but Motorola does not use that more-secure mechanism. The password is only sent over HTTPS, so at least it can't be easily intercepted by most third parties.
  Most subsequent connectivity to both services (other than downloading images) is proxied through Motorola's system on the internet using unencrypted HTTP, so Motorola and anyone running a network capture can easily see who your friends/contacts are (including your friends' email addresses), what posts you're reading and writing, and so on. They'll also get a list of which images you're viewing, even though the actual image download comes directly from the source.
  Facebook and Twitter data sent to Motorola's Blur service You know your software is trustworthy and has nothing to hide when it has a function called "silent signon".
  Photobucket and Picasa
  For both services, email address and password are sent to Motorola over HTTPS.
  For Photobucket, username and image URLs are sent over unencrypted HTTP.
  For Picasa, email address, display name, friend information, and image URLs are sent over unencrypted HTTP.
  During my testing of Photobucket, the photo was uploaded through Motorola's system (over HTTPS). I was not able to successfully upload a photo to Picasa, although it appeared that the same would have been true for that service.
  Photobucket and Picasa data sent to Motorola's Blur service
  Photo uploads (to Facebook, Photobucket, etc.)
  When uploading images, the uploaded image passes through Motorola's Blur servers, and at least some of the time is uploaded with its EXIF data intact. EXIF data is where things like GPS coordinates are stored.
  The full path of the original image on the device is also sent to Motorola. For example, /mnt/sdcard/dcim/Camera/2013-06-20_09-00-00_000.jpg. Android devices name phone-camera images using the time they were taken with millisecond resolution, which can almost certainly be used as a unique device identifier for your phone (how many other people were taking a picture at exactly that millisecond?), assuming you leave the original photo on your phone.
  Data sent to Motorola's Blur service when uploading photos
  Youtube
  Email address and password are sent to Motorola over HTTPS.
  Email address is also sent to Motorola over unencrypted HTTP, along with some other data that I haven't deciphered.
  I didn't have time to create and upload a video, so I'm not sure what else might be sent.
  Youtube data sent to Motorola's Blur service
  Exchange ActiveSync
  Domain name, username, email address, and name of the connection are sent over unencrypted HTTP. When a new connection is created, the Exchange ActiveSync server's DNS name is also sent.
  Exchange ActiveSync data sent to Motorola's Blur service
  IMAP/POP3 email
  Email address, inbound/outbound server names, and the name of the connection are sent over unencrypted HTTP. There is a lot of other encoded/encrypted data included which I haven't deciphered.
  IMAP account data sent to Motorola's Blur service One of the few screenshots I can leave some of the important details visible in - in this case, because the account in question is already on every spam list in the world.
  Yahoo Mail
  Email address is sent over unencrypted HTTP. This type of account seems to be handled in at least sort of the correct way by Motorola's software, in that a request is made for an access token, and as far as I can tell, the actual account password is never sent to Motorola.
  Photobucket and Picasa data sent to Motorola's Blur service
  Flickr
  Similar to the Yahoo Mail results, but actually one step better - an explicit Flickr prompt appears indicating what permissions Motorola's system is asking for on behalf of the user.
  Flickr The Flickr integration behaves the way every other part of Motorola's Blur service should.
  GMail/Google
  Interestingly, no data seemed to be sent to Motorola about this type of account. Unfortunately, if anyone adds a Youtube or Picasa account, they've sent their GMail/Google+ credentials to Motorola anyway.
  Also interestingly, while testing Picasa and/or Youtube integration, Motorola's methods of authenticating actually tripped Google's suspicious activity alarm. Looking up the source IP in ARIN confirmed the connection was coming from Motorola.
  Google: on guard against suspicious vendors
  Firefox sync
  No data seems to pass through Motorola's servers.
  News / RSS
  RSS feeds that are subscribed to using the built-in News application are proxied through Motorola's servers over unencrypted HTTP.
  Photobucket and Picasa data sent to Motorola's Blur service
  Other data
  Every few minutes, my phone sends Motorola a detailed description of my home screen/workspace configuration - all of the shortcuts and widgets I have on it.
  Home screen configuration and other data sent to Motorola's Blur service "Universal account IDs"? Is that why I only see some data sent the very first time I configure a particular account on my phone?
  Analysis - "check-in" data
  As I was looking through the data I've already mentioned, I noticed chunks of "check-in" data which was a binary upload, and I thought I'd see if it was in some sort of standard compressed format. As it turns out, it is - the 0x1F8B highlighted below is the header for a block of gzip-compressed data.
  GZip compressed-data header embedded in check-in data
  What is contained in this data are essentially debug-level log entries from the device. The battery drain and bandwidth use from having the phone set up like this must be unbelievable.
  Most of the data that's uploaded is harmless or low-risk on its own - use statistics, and so on. However, this is another mechanism by which Motorola's servers are collecting information like account names/email addresses, and the sheer volume and variety of other data makes me concerned that Motorola's staff apparently care so much about how I'm using my phone. If this were a corporate-owned device, I would expect the owning corporation to have this level of system data collection enabled, but it concerns me that it's being silently collected from my personal device, and that there is no way to disable it.
  Information that is definitely being collected
  The IMEI and IMSI of the phone. These are referred to as MEID and MIN in the phone's UI and on the label in the battery compartment, but IMEI and IMSI in the logs. I believe these two values are all that's needed to clone a phone, if someone were to intercept the traffic.The phone number of the phone, and carrier information (e.g. Verizon).The barcode from inside the battery compartment.Applications included with the device as well as installed by the user.Statistics about how those applications are used (e.g. how much data each one has sent and received).Phone call and text message statistics. For example, how many calls have been received or missed.Bluetooth device pairing and unpairing, including detailed information about those devices.Email addresses/usernames for accounts configured on the device.Contact statistics (e.g. how many contacts are synced from Google, how many Facebook users are friends of the account I've configured on the device).Device-level event logs (these are sent to Google as well by a Google-developed checkin mechanism).Debugging/troubleshooting information about most activities the phone engages in.Signal strengths statistics and data use for each type of radio included in the device. For example, bytes sent/received via 3G versus wifi.Stack memory and register dumps related to applications which have crashed.For Exchange ActiveSync setup, the server name and email address, as well as the details of the security policy enforced by that EAS server.
  Information that may be being collected
  The terms-of-use/privacy policy for the Blur service (whether you know you're using it or not) explicitly specify that location information (e.g. GPS coordinates) may be collected (see Speaking of that privacy policy..., below). I have not seen this in the data I've intercepted. This may be due to it being represented in a non-obvious format, or it may only be collected under certain conditions, or it may only be collected by newer devices than my 2-year-old Droid X2.
  While I have no conclusive evidence, I did notice while adding and removing accounts from my phone that the account ID number for a newly-added account is always higher than that for any accounts that existed previously on the device, even if those accounts have been deleted. This implies to me that Motorola's Blur service may be storing information about the accounts I've "deleted" even though they're no longer visible to me. This seems even more likely given the references in the communication to "universalAccountIds" and "knownAccountIds" referenced by GUID/UUID-like values.
  Check-in data being sent to MotorolaThe "sync app ID" information will become more important in the section about XMPP. The system panic messge has all of the regular boot information as well as the reason for the OS auto-reboot (in my case, apparently there is a problem with the modem).
  Analysis - Jabber / XMPP stream communication
  In some of the check-in logs, I saw entries that read e.g.:
  XMPPConnection: Preparing to connect user XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX to service: jabber-cloud112-blur.svcmot.com on host: jabber-cloud112-blur.svcmot.com and port: 5222
  XMPPConnectionManager I:onConfigurationUpdate: entered
  XMPPConnectionManager I:onConfigurationUpdate: exiting
  WSBase I:mother told us it's okay to retry the waiting requests: 0
  NormalAsyncConnection I:Connected local addr: 192.168.253.10/192.168.253.10:60737 to remote addr: jabber-cloud112-blur.svcmot.com/69.10.176.46:5222
  TLSStateManager I:org.apache.harmony.nio.internal.SocketChannelImpl@XXXXXXXX: Wrote out 212 bytes of data with 0 bytes remaining.
  TLSStateManager I:org.apache.harmony.nio.internal.SocketChannelImpl@XXXXXXXX: Read 202 bytes into buffer
  TLSStateManager I:org.apache.harmony.nio.internal.SocketChannelImpl@XXXXXXXX: Read 262 bytes into buffer
  TLSStateManager I:org.apache.harmony.nio.internal.SocketChannelImpl@XXXXXXXX: Wrote out 78 bytes of data with 0 bytes remaining.
  TLSStateManager I:org.apache.harmony.nio.internal.SocketChannelImpl@XXXXXXXX: Read 1448 bytes into buffer
  TLSStateManager I:org.apache.harmony.nio.internal.SocketChannelImpl@XXXXXXXX: Read 2896 bytes into buffer
  XMPPConnection I:Finished connecting user XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX to service: jabber-cloud112-blur.svcmot.com on host: jabber-cloud112-blur.svcmot.com and port: 5222
  By running a network capture, I was able to confirm that my phone was regularly attempting this type of connection. However, it was encrypted using TLS, so I couldn't see the content of the communication at first.
  The existence of this mechanism made me extremely curious. Why did Motorola need yet another communication channel for my phone to talk to them over? Why were they using a protocol intended for instant messaging/chat? The whole thing sounded very much like a botnet (which often use IRC in this way) to me.
  Intercepting these communications ended up being much more work than I expected. XMPP is an XML-based protocol, and cannot be proxied by an HTTP/HTTPS proxy, so using Burp Suite or ZAP was out. My first thought was to use Mallory, an intercepting transparent proxy that I learned about in the outstanding SANS SEC 642 class back in the March of 2013. Mallory is a relatively new tool, and is somewhat finnicky to get set up, but I learned a lot doing so. Unfortunately, XMPP is not a protocol that Mallory can intercept as of this writing.
  The VM that I built to run Mallory on still proved useful in this case, as I was eventually able to hack together a custom XMPP man-in-the-middle exploit and view the contents of the traffic. If you'd like to know more about the details, they're in the Steps to reproduce - XMPP communication channel section further down this page.
  This channel is at least part of the Motorola Blur command-and-control mechanism. I haven't seen enough distinct traffic pass through it to have a good idea of the full extent of its capabilities, but I know that:
  The XMPP/Jabber protocol is re-purposed for command-and-control use. For example, certain types of message are sent using the field normally used for "presence" status in IM.The values exchanged in the presence fields appear to be very short (five-character) base64-encoded binary data, followed by a dash, and then a sequence number. For example, 4eTO3-52, Ugs6j-10, or t2bcA-0. The base64 value appears to be selected at boot. The sequence number is incremented differently based on criteria I don't understand (yet), but the most common step I've seen is +4.As long as the channel is open, the phone will check in with Motorola every nine minutes.At least one type of Motorola-to-phone command exists: a trigger to update software by ID number.At least three such ID numbers exist: 31, 40, and 70 (see the table below). Each of these trigger an HTTP post request to the blur-services-1.0/ws/sync API method seen in the previous section, and the same IDs are logged in the check-in data.The stream token and username passed to the service are the "blurid" value (represented as a decimal number) which shows up in various places in the other traffic between the phone and Motorola.2BlurSettingsSyncHandlerUnknownJSONNo5BlurSetupSyncHandlerUnverified - called when a new type of sync needs to be added?gpbYes10BlurContactsSyncHandlerSyncs contact information (e.g. Google account contacts)gpbNo20SNMailSyncHandlerUnverified - probably syncs private messages from social networking sitesgpbNo31StatusSyncHandlerSyncs current status/most-recent-post information from social networking sitesgpbYes40BlurSNFriendsSyncHandlerSyncs friend information from social networking sitesgpbYes50NewsRetrievalServiceSyncs news feeds set up in the built-in Motorola appgpbYes60AdminFlunkySyncHandlerUnverified - sounds like some sort of remote-support functionalitygpbNo70FeedReceiverServiceUnknowngpbYes80SNCommentsSyncHandlerSyncs status/comment information from social networking sitesgpbYesThe "gpb" data format is how that type of binary encoding is referred to internally by the client logs. I believe it is similar (possibly identical) to Google's "protocol buffer" system.
  Here is an example session, including the SYNC APP command being sent by the server. Traffic from the client is represented in red. Traffic from the server is coloured blue.
  [Communication after this point takes place over the encrypted channel which the client and server have negotiated.]
  45036001055212771-d052e26d5bbb5b4adce7965e3e248a331765623714BlurDevice
  {"Sync":{"APP":[{"d":"sync_app_id: 31\n","q":0}]}}
  XMPP communication channelA few examples of the sync operations triggered by the XMPP communication channel.
  While I have seen very little sensitive data being sent as a result of this mechanism, Motorola's privacy policy/terms-of-service related to this system makes me more concerned. There is literally no reason I can think of that I would want my phone to check in with Motorola every nine minutes to see if Motorola has any new instructions for it to execute. Is there some sort of remote-control capability intended for use by support staff? I know there is a device-location and remote wipe function, because those are advertised as features of Blur (apparently even if you didn't explicitly sign up for Blur).
  Speaking of that privacy policy...
  I honestly can't remember if I explicitly agreed to any sort of EULA when I originally set up my phone. There are numerous "terms of service" and "privacy policy" documents on the Motorola website which all seem designed to look superficially identical, but this one in particular (the one for the actual "Motorola Mobile Services" system (AKA "Blur")) has a lot of content I really don't like, and which is not present in the other, similar documents on their site that are much easier to find. For example, it specifically mentions capturing social networking credentials, as well as uploading GPS coordinates from customers' phones to Motorola.
  It is specific to "Motorola Mobile Services", and I know I didn't explicitly sign up for that type of account (which is probably why my phone is using a randomly-generated username and password to connect). I also know that even if I was presented with a lengthy statement which included statements about storing social media credentials, that happened when I originally bought the phone (about two years ago). Should I not have been at least reminded of this when I went to add a social networking account for the first time? Or at a bare minimum, should my phone not let me view any document I allegedly agreed to? The only reason I know of that particular TOS is because I found it referenced in a Motorola forum discussion about privacy concerns.
  In any case, here are some interesting excerpts from that document (as of 22 June, 2013). All bold emphasis is mine. I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
  Using the MOTOROLA MOBILE SERVICES software and services (MOTOROLA MOBILE SERVICES) constitutes your acceptance of the terms of the Agreement without modification. If you do not accept the terms of the Agreement, then you may not use MOTOROLA MOBILE SERVICES.
  Motorola collects and uses certain information about you and your mobile device ... (1) your device's unique serial number ... (5) when your device experiences a software crash ... (1) use of hardware functions like the accelerometer, GPS, wireless antennas, and touchscreen; (2) wireless carrier and network information; (3) use of accessories like headsets and docks; (4) data usage ... Personal Information such as: (1) your email and social network account credentials; (2) user settings and preferences; (3) your email and social network contacts; (4) your mobile phone number; and (5) the performance of applications installed on your device. ... MOTOROLA MOBILE SERVICES will never collect the specific content of your communications or copies of your files.
  The document makes a promise that the content of communications are not collected, but I have screenshots and raw data that show Facebook and Twitter messages as well as photos passing through their servers.
  The agreement specifies "when your device experiences a software crash", not "memory dumps taken at the time of a software crash", which are what is actually collected.
  Motorola takes privacy protection seriously.
  MOTOROLA MOBILE SERVICES only collects personal information, social network profile data, and information about websites you visit if you create a MotoCast ID, use the preinstalled web browser and/or MOTOROLA MOBILE SERVICES applications and widgets like Messaging, Gallery, Music Player, Social Networking and Social Status. If you use non-Motorola applications for email, social networking, sharing content with your friends, and web browsing, then MOTOROLA MOBILE SERVICES will not collect this information. Even if you decline to use the preinstalled browser or the MOTOROLA MOBILE SERVICES applications and widgets, your device will continue to collect information about the performance of your mobile device and how you use your mobile device unless you choose to opt out.
  In non-Motorola builds of Android, most/all of those components are still present, but none of them send data to Motorola. Some people might think it was extremely deceptive to add data collection to those components but not make user-visible changes to them that mentioned this. Oh, and of course the OS is still collecting massive amounts of data even if you don't use the modified basic Android functionality.
  MOTOROLA MOBILE SERVICES only collects and uses information about the location of your mobile device if you have enabled one or more location-based services, such as your device's GPS antenna, Google Location Services, or a carrier-provided location service. If you turn these features off in your mobile device's settings, MOTOROLA MOBILE SERVICES will not record the location of your mobile device.
  So what you're saying is that all I have to do to prevent Motorola from tracking my physical location is disable core functionality on my device and leave it off permanently? Awesome! Thanks so much!
  The security of your information is important to Motorola.
  When MOTOROLA MOBILE SERVICES transmits information from your mobile device to Motorola, MOTOROLA MOBILE SERVICES encrypts the transmission of that information using secure socket layer technology (SSL).
  Except when it doesn't, which is most of the time.
  However, no data stored on a mobile device or transmitted over a wireless or interactive network can ever be 100 percent secure, and many of the communications you make using MOTOROLA MOBILE SERVICES will be accessible to third parties. You should therefore be cautious when submitting any personally identifiable information using MOTOROLA MOBILE SERVICES, and you understand that you are using MOTOROLA MOBILE SERVICES at your own risk.
  As a global company, Motorola has international sites and users all over the world. The personal information you provide may be transmitted, used, stored, and otherwise processed outside of the country where you submitted that information, including jurisdictions that may not have data privacy laws that provide equivalent protection to such laws in your home country.
  You may not ... interfere with anyone's ... enjoyment of the Services
  Uh oh.
  That document does mention that anyone who wants to opt-out can email privacy@motorola.com. If you have any luck with that, please let me know.
  Why this is a problem
  While I'm sure there are a few people out there who don't mind a major multinational corporation collecting this sort of detailed tracking information related to where their phone has been and how it's been used, I believe most people would at least like to be asked about participating in this type of activity, and be given an option to turn it off.
  I can think of many ways that Motorola, unethical employees of Motorola, or unauthorized third parties could misuse this enormous treasure trove of information. But the biggest question on my mind is this: now that it is known that Motorola is collecting this data, can it be subpoenaed in criminal or civil cases against owners of Motorola phones? That seems like an enormous can of worms, even in comparison to the possibilities for identity theft that Motorola's system provides for.
  How secure is Motorola's Blur web service against attack? I'd be really interested to test this myself, but made no attempt to do so because I don't have permission and Motorola doesn't appear to have a "white hat"/"bug bounty" programme. It would be a tempting target for technically-skilled criminals, due to the large volume of Facebook, Twitter, and Google usernames and passwords stored in it.
  The fact that the phone actively polls Motorola for new instructions to execute and then follows those instructions without informing its owner opens all of these phones up to automated takeover by anyone who can obtain a signing SSL certificate issued by one of the authorities in the trusted CA store on those phones. Some people may consider this far-fetched, but consider that certificates of that type have been mistakenly issued in the past, and the root certificate for at least one of the CA's responsible for that type of mistake (TURKTRUST) were installed on my phone at the factory.
  Potential (untested) device security concern
  I didn't make the connection until two days after posting the original version of this article, but I believe there is an even-more-significant problem with the way my device is behaving:
  As discussed above, although the command-and-control and some of the device-to-Motorola communication take place over encrypted channels, most of the communication (at least in terms of number of connections to Motorola) is over unencrypted HTTP. That communication is triggered by commands sent over the (encrypted) XMPP channel.
  Let me say that again, in a slightly different way:
  Commands are being received over a trusted, encrypted channel, but those commands order the device to perform actions across an untrusted, unencrypted channel.
  Theoretically, this should mean that it's possible to interfere with the unencrypted channel without having to compromise the encrypted channel at all. The only reason I can think of that this wouldn't work would be if Motorola's developers had used some sort of signing mechanism for the unencrypted HTTP traffic.
  If no such additional protection exists, then it should be possible to set up a transparent proxy which forwards on SSL communication to Motorola without attempting to intercept it, while modifying or replacing the contents of the unencrypted HTTP communication. At a minimum (again, assuming there is no additional protection of the HTTP data) this should allow things like RSS feed and social media content to be changed before it reaches the user's phone.
  If all of this actually works (and this is a big "if"), and such a transparent proxy is combined with e.g. Jasager, then an attacker could set up the Jasager wireless AP in a public place and simply wait for owners of Motorola devices to pass through the area. Anyone whose device received a sync command (over the encrypted XMPP channel) of the type that allowed the (currently theoretical) attack would have their device (or at least data on that device) automatically compromised.
  My guess is that someone is already working on this (e.g. for causing grief for attendees at DefCon or Black Hat), but I thought I'd mention it in case no one else had made the same connection yet.
  Again, this is entirely theoretical at this point. If I can find conclusive evidence either way, I'll make another update to this article.
  Is there anything good to be found here?
  Motorola does appear to be using reasonably-strong authentication for the oAuth login to their system - the username seems to be a combination of the IMEI and a random number (16 digits long, in the case of my phone's username), and the password is a 160-bit value represented as a hex string. This would be essentially impossible to attack via brute-force if the value really is random. Due to its length, I'm concerned it's a hash of a fixed attribute of the phone, but that's just a hunch. The non-oAuth components (e.g. XMPP) use the Blur ID as the username, and that is all over the place, e.g. in virtually every URL (HTTP and HTTPS) that the client accesses on the Blur servers.
  When uploading images to social networking sites, the Motorola software on the phone sometimes strips the EXIF tags (including geolocation tags) before uploading the image to Motorola. So at least they can't always use that as another method for determining your location.
  Finally, both the XMPP and HTTPS client components of the software do validate that the certificates used for encrypted communication were issued by authorities the phone is configured to trust. If the certificate presented to either component is not trusted, then no encrypted channel is established, and data which would be sent over it is queued until a trusted connection can be made. If someone wants to perform a man-in-the-middle attack, they're going to need to get their root CA cert loaded on the target phones, or obtain a signing cert issued by a trusted authority (e.g. TURKTRUST).
  At least their software checks SSL cert validity
  Has anyone else discovered this?
  In January of 2012, a participant in a Motorola pre-release test discovered that Motorola was performing device-tracking after a Motorola support representative mentioned that the tester had reset his phone "21 times", and a forum moderator directed him to the special, hard-to-find Motorola privacy policy discussed above.
  To my knowledge, this article is the first disclosure of anything like the full extent of the data Motorola collects.
  What I am going to do as a result of this discovery
  As of 23 June 2013, I've removed my ActiveSync configuration from the phone, because I can't guarantee that proprietary corporate information isn't being funneled through Motorola's servers. I know that some information (like the name of our ActiveSync server, our domain name, and a few examples of our account-naming conventions) is, but I don't have time to exhaustively test to see what else is being sent their way, or to do that every time the phone updates its configuration.I've also deleted the IMAP configuration that connected to my personal email, and have installed K-9 Mail as a temporary workaround.I'm going to figure out how to root this phone and install a "clean" version of Android. That will mean I can't use ActiveSync (my employer doesn't allow rooted phones to connect), which means a major reason I use my phone will disappear, but better that than risk sending their data to Motorola.I'll assume that other manufacturers and carriers have their own equivalent of this - recall the Carrier IQ revelation from 2011.Which other models of Motorola device do this?
  Right now, I have only tested my Droid X2. If you have a Motorola device and are technically-inclined, the steps to reproduce my testing are in the section below. If you get results either way and would like me to include them here, please get in touch with me using the Contact form. Please include the model of your device, the results of your testing, and your name/nickname/handle/URL/etc. if you'd like to be identified.
  Steps to reproduce - HTTP/HTTPS data capture
  There are a number of approaches that can be used to reproduce the results in this article. This is the method that I used. Of course, the same testing can be performed in order to validate that non-Motorola devices are or are not behaving this way.
  Important: I strongly recommend that you do not modify in any way the data your phone sends to Motorola. I also strongly recommend that you do not actively probe, scan, or test in any way the Blur web service. The instructions on this page are intended to provide a means of passively observing the traffic to Motorola in order to understand what your phone may be doing without your knowledge or consent.
  Connect a wireless access point to a PC which has at least two NICs.Use Windows Internet Connection Sharing to give internet access to the wireless AP and its clients.Set up an intercepting proxy on the PC. I used Burp Suite Professional for the first part of my testing, then switched to OWASP ZAP (which is free) for the rest, since I used a personal system for that phase. Make sure the proxy is accessible on at least one non-loopback address so that other devices can proxy through it.Configure a Motorola Android device to connect to the wireless AP, and to use the intercepting proxy for their web traffic (in the properties for that wireless connection).Install the root signing certificate for the intercepting proxy on the Motorola Android device. This allows the intercepting proxy to view HTTPS traffic as well as unencrypted HTTP.Power the Motorola Android device off, then back on. This seems to be necessary to cause all applications to recognize the new trusted certificate, and will also let you intercept the oAuth negotiation with Motorola./li>Configure and use anything in the Account section of the device.Use the built-in Social Networking application.Take a picture and use the Share function to upload it to one or more photo-sharing services.Leave the device on for long enough that it sends other system data to Motorola automatically.Steps to reproduce - check-in data decompression
  If you'd like to decompress one of these gzipped data packages, there are also a number of approaches available, but this is the one I used:
  Export the raw (binary) request from your intercepting proxy's proxy history. In ZAP, right-click on the history entry and choose Save Raw -> Request -> Body. In Burp Suite, right-click on the history entry and choose Save Item, then uncheck the Base64-encode requests and responses box before saving. Note: you cannot use the bulk export feature of either tool for this step to work - both of them have a quirk in which exporting individual requests preserves binary data, but exporting in bulk corrupts binary data by converting a number of values to 0x3F (maybe it's some Java library that does that when exporting as ASCII?).Open the exported data in a hex editor (I use WinHex). Remove everything up to the first 0x1F8B in the file. See example screenshot below.Save the modified version (I added a .gz extension for clarity). See example screenshot below.Decompress the resulting file using e.g. the Linux gzip -d command, or e.g. 7-zip.Open the decompressed file in a text editor that correctly interprets Unix-style line breaks (I used Notepad++, partly because it shows unprintable characters in a useful way, and there is some binary data mixed in with the text in these files).Examine the data your phone is sending to Motorola.Manually removing extra data so the file will be recognized as gzipped
  Steps to reproduce - XMPP communication channel
  This section requires more technical skill and time to replicate than the other two. Right now, it assumes that you have access to a Linux system that is set up with two network interfaces and which can be easily configured to forward all network traffic from the first interface to the second using iptables. If you have a system that is set up to run Mallory successfully already (even though you won't be using Mallory itself here), that would be ideal. I am preparing a detailed ground-up build document and will release that shortly.
  In the meantime, assuming you have such a system and some experience using this sort of thing, download XMPPPeek and you should have the tool you need.
  Generate an SSL server certificate and private key (in PEM format) with the common name of *.svcmot.com. I made all of the elements of my forged cert match the real one as closely as possible, but I don't know how important this is other than the common name.Load the CA cert you signed the *.svcmot.com cert with onto your Motorola Android device. Again, I used a CA cert that matched the human-readable elements of the one used by the real server, but I don't know how important that is in this specific case.You may need to explicitly install the forged *.svcmot.com cert onto your Motorola Android device as well.Run the shell script from the XMPPPeek page to cause all traffic from the internal interface to be forwarded to the external interface, with the exception of traffic with a destination port of 5222, which should be routed to the port that XMPPPeek will be listening on.Start XMPPPeek and wait for your phone to connect.I used a VirtualBox VM with a virtual NIC which was connected for internet access, and a USB NIC which I connected to an old wireless access point. So my phone connected to that AP, which connected through the man-in-the-middle system, which connected to the actual internet connection. I configured the phone to also proxy web traffic through OWASP ZAP so that I could match up the XMPP traffic with its HTTP and HTTPS counterparts.
  Related Articles:XMPPPeek
Nonprofit Report for CENTER FOR INQUIRY INC
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  Basic Organization InformationCENTER FOR INQUIRY INC
  Physical Address:Amherst, NY 14228 EIN:16-1553469Web URL:www.centerforinquiry.net NTEE Category:T Philanthropy, Voluntarism, and Grantmaking T20 (Private Grantmaking Foundations) Year Founded:1998 Ruling Year:1998 Sign in or create an account to see this organization's full address, contact information, and more!
  Mission StatementTO SPONSOR PRO GRAMS AND ACTIVITIES THAT ADVANCE HUMANISM AND SKEPTICISM AND TO SUPPORT THE ACTIVITIES AND PURPOSES OF THE CENTER FOR INQUIRY DEVELOPMENT FUND, COUNCIL FOR SECULAR HUMANISM, INC AND COMMITTEE FOR SKEPTICAL INQUIRY, INC
  Expert AssessmentThere are no Expert Reviews for this organization. Learn more about TakeAction@GuideStar.Impact Summary from the NonprofitThis organization has not provided an impact summary.
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Stephan Lewandowsky - The Mind of the Conspiracy Theorist | Point of Inquiry
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  Wed, 03 Jul 2013 04:41
  June 3, 2013Host: Chris Mooney
  From 9-11, to the death of Osama bin Laden, to the Boston Bombings, there's been a consistently bizarre and troubling reaction by some members of the public.
  We're referring to the people'--a minority, to be sure, but a surprisingly large one'--who always seem to think there's some kind of cover up. The U.S. government, they feel, was really behind the attacks on, uh, itself. And as for Bin Laden'--well, he isn't really dead.
  These people are called conspiracy theorists, and, their particular form of irrationality is uniquely befuddling. It has been often denounced, but rarely understood. That's too bad, because conspiratorial thinking clearly plays an important role in science denial, on matters ranging from the connection between HIV and AIDS, to the safety of vaccines, to global warming.
  Fortunately, conspiracy mongers are now becoming the subject of research and study'--and our latest guest is helping to lead this inquiry.
  His name is Stephan Lewandowsky, and he's a professor at the school of psychology at the University of Western Australia, and at the University of Bristol in the UK. And he's the author of a recent study with the delicious title "NASA Faked the Moon Landings, Therefore (Climate) Science is a Hoax: An Anatomy of the Motivated Rejection of Science (PDF)"'--which drew some small amount of attention, especially when it was followed by a second study of the conspiracy theorists who rejected the first study for, yes, conspiratorial reasons.
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Snowden: An exercise in disinformation '' Kent Freedom Movement
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  Archived Version
  Wed, 03 Jul 2013 02:19
  Stuart J. Hooper21st Century Wire
  Over the past week, many have embraced Edward Snowden as a 'hero', including a vast majority of people who purport to be in the 'alternative media' '' all of whom would usually question what the mainstream news corporations present to them.
  Numerous questions and concerns have been raised, albeit by a vocal minority, about the reality of what Snowden represents. Those who would usually be the ones to join this vocal minority in search for real answers, namely the aforementioned majority of alternative media personalities, appear to have been duped into jumping onto the latest staged bandwagon hero, along with large numbers of a na¯ve general public.
  Edward Snowden's leaks and scandals can be explained as a highly sophisticated, disinformation project of the highest order. Disinformation being defined as false information deliberately, and covertly, spread in order to influence public opinion (Merriam-Webster, 2013).
  Historian Dr. Webster Tarpley (2013) has already noted that in 1620 a Venetian intelligence official recommended 'saying something good about a person or institution while pretending to say something bad'. Tarpley provides the example of 'criticizing a bloody dictator for beating his dog '' the real dimensions of his crimes are thus totally underplayed'. So, we should be against the bloody dictator beating his dog, but ought to be more concerned with the more substantial crimes the 'bloody dictator' is known for. The scandals provided by Snowden are of an equivalent standard to the example of the dictator beating a dog. While we should be against unwarranted spying, this new scandal looks to distract us from the greater, and significantly more important, context of global affairs that are currently focused on Syria.
  Snowden can be described here as an actor in a 'limited hangout' operation. Limited hangouts are described as when an intelligence agency resorts 'to admitting, sometimes even volunteering, some of the truth while still managing to withhold the key and damaging facts in the case' (Marchetti, 1978). This coincides with the first of Tarpley's (2013) three conceptual identifiers for a limited hangout operation '' the revelation of little information that is actually new. Simply put, Snowden has told us that the NSA is spying on emails and telephone calls (Drury and Robinson, 2013), along with revelations that international super powers spy on one another (Chen, 2013). While this may be shocking to some, these revelations can hardly be detailed as 'new' or 'ground-breaking'. Snowden has simply provided a name, PRISM, for what has already been understood to be going on for some time. This is somewhat similar to how Julian Assange of Wikileaks rose to fame after providing the graphic video for an already acknowledged incident. These new slivers of information can, however, be particularly impactful as Marchetti (1978) notes, 'the public is usually so intrigued by the new information that it never thinks to pursue the matter further'. Not pursuing Snowden further may have disastrous consequences for world peace and security.
  For the press, it all makes perfect sense on the surface, and the surface is where the press operates. A deeper look, however, reveals the full picture'...
  The second conceptual identifier Tarpley (2013) provides for recognising a limited hangout operation is that the actors involved, Snowden and Assange for example, will become 'instant media darlings'. A na¯ve view would suggest that this occurs due to the magnitude of information the person is presenting. Reality would show that when providing a critique of controversial issues that truly matter to the 'Wall Street centered US ruling class' (Tarpley, 2013), such a 9/11, that these critics are slandered, attacked and denigrated. It is also interesting to note that these limited hangout actors have themselves participated in the attacking of 9/11 truth activists. Assange has provided the most scolding attack stating 'I'm constantly annoyed that people are distracted by false conspiracies such as 9/11' (Bell, 2010). Glenn Greenwald, who brought Snowden forward, is not interested in veering from the official 9/11 story and instead focuses on 'blowback' being the cause of terrorism (Greenwald, 2013). Norman Solomon, a former U.S. State Department asset who is now supporting Snowden, 'was notorious ten years ago as a determined enemy of 9/11 truth' (Tarpley, 2013). The magnitude of the 9/11 issue is reflected in the authoritative status of those who question the official story such as: Andreas von B¼low, the former secretary of state for the German Federal Ministry of Defence, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the former president of Iran. It must be asked why these 'whistle-blowers' seem so vehemently opposed to the issue of questioning the biggest elephant in the room per say '' 9/11, and why they never have any new information to reveal regarding the event. They all appear to agree with the establishment, that they proclaim to be fighting against, on what is arguable the most important and controversial event in recent history; which provides much cause for concern.
  These concerns are somewhat amplified when the characteristics of Snowden are looked at in detail. Naomi Wolf (2013) has stated that during his interview he looked like 'someone who had learned his talking points' and his message promoted fears that an oppressive government would want to instil in other would-be whistle-blowers; such as the idea that you will lose everything by standing up against it, in effect, demonstrating the omnipotent capacity of said government. Doubts have also been raised about whether Snowden had the ability to wiretap the president and shut down the NSA in a few hours, as he has claimed (Rappoport, 2013). These claims might be attributed to Snowden's apparent narcissistic tendencies, most evident in modelling photographs and an online biography of his that have now been published (Reilly, 2013). Snowden is known to have enlisted in the U.S. Army in May 2004 where he wanted to fight for freedom in a Special Forces unit. Tarpley (2013) states that this 'shift from militarist to civil libertarian remains unexplained and highly suspicious', a conclusion that is substantiated by the other added character concerns.
  One can also judge a man by the company he keeps and in Snowden's case that means Wikileaks (Shane and Savage, 2013). Before shooting into mainstream fame, Wikileaks received an endorsement from Cass Sunstein suggesting that 'they have immense potential' (Sunstein, 2007). This should be of immediate concern to anyone looking for legitimacy in leaked information, as Sunstein is the author of a 2008 paper where he advocated the 'main policy idea' and 'promising tactic' of using 'cognitive infiltration' to disrupt and break up 'ideological and epistemological complexes' that investigate and promote anti-government conspiracy theories. He notes that 'direct government rebuttals'...will prove ineffective' and therefore external government 'allies' will need to be used (Sunstein, 2008). Assange appears to fit perfectly into the role of an external government 'ally'. His attack on 9/11 conspiracy theories, as documented earlier, appears to be an example of Sunstein's 'cognitive infiltration' tactic in action as the information he 'leaks' looks to distract from greater areas of inquiry. Now that the organization is said to be working with Snowden, more questions of his legitimacy are inevitably raised. It's also worth noting that the founder of Cryptome and mentor of Assange, John Young, denounced Wikileaks in 2007 as a CIA front (Tarpley, 2013).
  Tarpley's third and final identifier for a limited hangout operation is when they are used to prepare large covert operations, which in the case of Snowden would be to advance an attack on Syria. This is evident from a number of key points. The first being that Snowden's initial revelations came on the same day that Qusayr, a crucial rebel stronghold, fell to the Syrian army; enraging British and French imperialist warmongers. Here we must remember the critical contextual point that Obama has refrained from an all out attack on Syria; something that those in London and Paris have been pushing for heavily over the past few months. Snowden's revelations triggered what Tarpley (2013) described as 'a firestorm of criticism' specifically aimed at Obama. The LondonGuardian does not only publish the new 'scandal' that caused this uproar, but they also like to point out how it is causing damage to Obama by putting his approval rating at 'its lowest point since last November's election' and has caused a 'collapse in trust' (Enten, 2013). Attacking Obama pushes him to a point where he must conform to the will of the establishment, to attack Syria outright, or be ousted.
  For further evidence of The Guardian's push for war in Syria, we can find an article titled 'A Political Ploy: The Guardian Editors Swallow US Claims On Syrian WMD' (Edwards, 2013). It documents the stunning comments from Guardian editors including: 'that use (of Chemical Weapons) is an outrage and is against international agreements. It adds to the charge sheet against the Assad regime'. The article's author states that these are 'among the most shocking comments we have ever seen in the Guardian', that they 'endorse the latest claims on Syria' and that 'the Guardian editors are on-message, on-side and boosting war propaganda'. We can now understand why The Guardian would use Snowden to attack Obama as a means to fulfil the agenda, which they support, of a more open war against Syria.
  IMAGE: The international press campaign against the Assad regime is currently in its second year.
  It is possible to provide a real world example for another limited hangout operation that has prepared similar attacks by looking to none other than Wikileaks. As an organisation, they have never destroyed the career of a British, American or Israeli politician, but instead a laundry list of people that 'bears a striking resemblance to the CIA enemies' list' (Tarpley, 2013). Their attack against Assad of Syria, through a somewhat pathetic email-sex scandal (Taher and Slater, 2012), should make it immediately clear whose interests they represent: the same ones who also control the direction of The Guardian. With both The Guardian and Wikileaks supporting Snowden, we can almost be certain of whose interests he too represents: those who are aiming for war. Therefore, the armies of dupes currently attacking Obama for what Snowden has revealed, many of who should know better, are in actual fact facilitating the establishment's agenda for a wider war in Syria by weakening the anti-open war president.
  While this is in no way seeks to aggrandise or apologise for Obama, the fact that he has not initiated a wider war in Syria must be recognised as a positive policy direction. We can see a similar direction during the attack on Libya where Obama officials refused to call the attack a 'war', they instead insisted on calling it 'kinetic military action' (York, 2011). To add to this anti-open war course, Obama's actions against Iran do not include bombing runs and tactical nuclear strikes, but instead, methods of economic warfare that look to make Iran's currency, the Rial, useless (Klimasinska and Katz, 2013). Articles are now emerging stating that 'Obama needs to act now on Syria' from those who clearly understand what Snowden represents: the manufactured opportunity to fulfil the agenda of war with Syria. They state that 'lives have been lost, and battlefield gains the insurgents enjoyed six months ago have been squandered' thanks to Obama not acting sooner (Doran and O'Hanlon, 2013). Are we really going to allow this new limited hangout operation to bring us into another war?
  It is disappointing that so many are unable to understand the complexities of the disinformation, and limited hangout capacity, that Snowden symbolizes. But what is more worrying is the fact that many should simply know better when it comes to such matters. What is particularly interesting is how it was broadcast that Ed Snowden had been a supporter of, and donor to, libertarian Ron Paul's 2012 presidential campaign. The use of the name 'Ron Paul' appears to be an indispensable tool for ensnaring the support of the libertarian audience, an audience that is substantial in both physical size and influence particularly in the alternative media. Do libertarians have an almost childlike trust in anyone who supports Ron Paul? Would they allow this to blind themselves from the reality of a situation? It appears so, and also that the cunning minds behind the Snowden limited hangout are well aware of this. To what degree could this phenomenon be truly exploited? This is surely the question on the minds of those with nefarious intentions for future disinformation and limited hangout campaigns.
  While we must be against warrantless spying, we must recognise the wider global context in which such scandals are presented to us. Remember the analogy of the brutal dictator beating the dog. This new limited hangout operation must be exposed as such in order to alleviate pressure on Obama, who is evidently attempting to maintain his Peace-Prize-Winner image. Hopefully, that can reverse the current trend of forcing both him, and the world, into yet another unnecessary conflict. Snowden is, at best, a fool who was deceived into his current position. At worst, he may be said to be a double agent who is fully aware of the wider consequences of his 'leaks'. Interestingly enough, Snowden recently came out and stated that Britain's 'GCHQ (the NSA of the UK) is worse than the US' (McDermott, 2013). Is this an attempt to shake the claims that Snowden is in fact a British sponsored limited hangout agent? Possibly. It would appear, therefore, as if we are on the right track. Following this line of enquiry may not only pull us away from war, but also remove many people from a state of what can currently only be termed as terminal na¯vet(C) or gullibility.
  Author Stuart J Hooper can be followed here'...
  http://twitter.com/StuartJHooper
  http://youtube.com/StuartJHooper
  References
  Bell, M. (2010) 'Wanted by the CIA: Julian Assange '' Wikileaks founder' in Belfast Telegraph:http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/features/wanted-by-the-cia-julian-assange-wikileaks-founder-28548843.html
  Chen, T. (2013) 'Snowden Alleges U.S. Hacking in China' in The Wall Street Journal:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324577904578562483284884530.html
  Doran, M. and O'Hanlon, M. (2013) 'Obama needs to act now on Syria: Column' in USA Today:http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/06/23/michael-doran-and-michael-ohanlon-on-syria-column/2450419/
  Drury, I. and Robinson, M. (2013) 'US senators demand 'traitor' NSA whistleblower be extradited from Hong Kong to face trial in America after he reveals why he exposed online spy scandal' in Daily Mail Online:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2338534/Edward-Snowden-speaks-NSA-contractor-leaked-details-surveillance-scheme-reveals-himself.html
  Edwards, D. (2013) 'A Political Ploy'? The Guardian Editors Swallow US Claims On Syrian WMD' in Global Research:http://www.globalresearch.ca/a-political-ploy-the-guardian-editors-swallow-us-claims-on-syrian-wmd/5339614
  Enten, H. J. (2013) 'Obama's approval takes a hit over NSA leaks' in The Guardian:http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/19/obama-approval-hit-nsa-leaks
  Greenwald, G. (2013) 'Andrew Sullivan, terrorism, and the art of distortion' in The Guardian:http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/25/andrew-sullivan-distortion-terrorism-woolwich
  Klimasinska, K. and Katz, I. (2013) 'Useless Rial Is U.S. Goal in New Iran Sanctions, Treasury Says' in Bloomberg:http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-06/useless-rial-is-u-s-goal-in-new-iran-sanctions-treasury-says.html
  Marchetti, V. (1978) The Spotlight
  McDermott, K. (2013) ''GCHQ is worse than US', says whistleblower Edward Snowden as he claims British spies are collecting huge amounts of data from internet and phone calls' in Daily Mail Online:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2346310/GCHQ-worse-US-says-whistleblower-Edward-Snowden-claims-British-spies-collecting-huge-amounts-data-internet-phone-calls.html
  Merriam-Webster (2013) 'Disinformation' in Merriam-Webster:http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disinformation
  Rappoport, J. (2013) 'NSA scandal: the deepest secret of the Ed Snowden operation' in Jon Rappoport's Blog:http://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2013/06/18/nsa-scandal-the-deepest-secret-of-the-ed-snowden-operation/
  Reilly, J. (2013) 'Whistleblower Edward Snowden smuggled out secrets with an everyday thumb drive banned from NSA offices' in Daily Mail Online:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2341451/Whistleblower-Edward-Snowden-smuggled-secrets-everyday-thumb-drive-banned-NSA-offices.html
  Shane, S. and Savage, C. (2013) 'WikiLeaks Says It Is Working to Negotiate Asylum in Iceland for Snowden' in The New York Times:http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/20/world/europe/wikileaks-says-it-is-working-to-negotiate-asylum-in-iceland-for-snowden.html?_r=2&
  Sunstein, C. (2007) 'A Brave New Wikiworld' in Washington Post:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/23/AR2007022301596.html
  Sunstein, C and Vermeule, A. (2008) 'Conspiracy Theories' in Harvard University Law School'¨Public Law & Legal Theory Research Paper Series
  Taher, A. and Slater, R. (2012) 'Assad's mystery woman who 'loves him' is getting PhD from top UK university thanks to Syrian despot's sponsorship, leaked emails reveal' in Daily Mail Online:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2170368/Wikileaks-Emails-reveal-Assad-mystery-woman-UK-university.html
  Tarpley, W. G. (2013) 'How to identify CIA limited hangout op?' in Press TV:http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/06/18/309609/how-to-identify-cia-limited-hangout-op/
  Wolf, N. (2013) 'My Creeping Concern that the NSA Leaker Edward Snowden is not who he Purports to be'...' in Global Research:http://www.globalresearch.ca/my-creeping-concern-that-the-nsa-leaker-edward-snowden-is-not-who-he-purports-to-be/5339161
  York, B. (2011) 'White House: Libya Fight is Not War, It's Kinetic Military Action' in Fox News:http://nation.foxnews.com/libya-war/2011/03/23/white-house-libya-fight-not-war-its-kinetic-military-action
  Source
  21stcenturywire.com/2013/06/25/snowden-an-exercise-in-disinformation/http://21stcenturywire.com/2013/06/25/snowden-an-exercise-in-disinformation/
McCain, Rubio, Feinstein, Gillibrand and Rand Paul have received no money from lobbyists so far in 2013. Interesting.
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: OpenSecrets Blog
  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 22:59
  When most people think of lobbyists at work, they picture a fancy dinner with a member of Congress to discuss legislative priorities. The lavish meals are mostly a thing of the past, thanks to tighter ethics rules. But lobbyists have other ways to exert their influence: Campaign contributions are almost always welcomed by lawmakers.
  An OpenSecrets.org analysis has crunched the available data from the 2014 election cycle to glean contributions from registered lobbyists active this year. The top 50 recipients included 26 Democrats and 24 Republicans.
  It seems that Democrats, led by high donation totals to Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Max Baucus (D-Mont.), have won the early battle. The 26 liberals surveyed have so far benefited from a total of nearly $1.1 million this year, while their conservative counterparts have racked up $705,388 from lobbyists over the same period.
  It comes as no surprise that Markey is the No. 1 recipient, given his recent special election campaign. The House member-turned-senator brought in $183,340 from lobbyists, according to available data -- nearly $60,000 more than any other recipient. Individuals and PACs associated with law and lobbying have long been good to Markey; the sector has combined to add more than $640,000 to his campaign coffers since 2009.
  While Markey's road to the top spot is easily explained, there are other factors at play in Baucus' placement as runner-up. His office has an extensive history of both feeding and favoring the "revolving door" -- dozens of Baucus staffers have left his office to become lobbyists (and vice-versa). Baucus has even been called "K Street's Favorite Democrat."
  It doesn't hurt, of course, that Baucus is chairman of the muscular Senate Finance Committee, which holds tax-writing power. Baucus and ranking member Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) have recently proposed rewriting the federal tax code from scratch in an effort to eliminate certain tax breaks and loopholes.
  The Montana senator will undoubtedly be bombarded by pressure from the tax lobby in the upcoming months, some members of which are already among his top donors. In the 2014 cycle, individuals and PACs associated with the lobbying firm Akin, Gump (which often lobbies on taxes) combined to give Baucus $33,250, making the firm his third highest donor.
  Lobbyists, in fact, have been Baucus' second-highest donor industry ever since his last election in 2008, giving him more than $340,000 -- and about $125,000 of that total came earlier this year. That was before the senator's late April announcement that he will not run for re-election next year, a fact that will likely put a serious damper on his contributions from all sources.
  Overall, contributions from members of the lobbying industry have steadily increased over the past two decades, exceeding $40 million in the 2012 cycle despite the fact that President Obama refused checks from lobbyists for his presidential campaigns. Democrats have generally received the majority of funds, but Republicans nevertheless have been able to claim the advantage several times in recent years.
  Top 10 Recipients of Contributions from Lobbyists in 2013
  The top Republican cash-getter is House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), whose 2013 total from lobbyists has nearly reached $68,000. Boehner's national influence helped make the industry his 12th largest supplier of cash in 2012.
  Lobbyists appear to be among the early supporters of Senate candidates seeking reelection in 2014, particularly in the potential battlegrounds of Arkansas and Kentucky. Lobbyists have hopped on board to support the influential incumbent Sens. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) and Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the Senate majority leader. The two rank third and fourth on the contributions list, with Pryor at $85,100 and McConnell only $400 behind him. Following them up are Sens. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) and Kay Hagan (D-N.C.), both up for reelection next year as well.
  Lawmakers on key committees get more attention from lobbyists. For instance, the banking industry often targets members of the House Financial Services Committee -- and where big money goes, lobbyists follow. Indeed, Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), who chairs the committee, has garnered $46,700 from lobbyists so far this year to make him the second highest House member on the list, behind Boehner. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a member of the Senate Finance, Budget, and Judiciary Committees, brought in $51,700 as the 11th highest overall recipient.
  The analysis also accounted for individuals who have received no money from lobbyists so far this year -- including Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and 110 other lawmakers. Some of them -- Sens. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) -- have announced their retirements.
  As expected, members of the Senate amassed the majority of large contributions. Ten of the top 11 recipients hail from the smaller chamber, with the sole exception being Boehner.
  Senior Researcher Doug Weber contributed to this story.
CBS execs meet with transgender activists to promote positive TV portrayals.
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: WT news feed
  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 22:57
  HOLLYWOOD, July 1, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) '' Unhappy with ''problematic'' portrayals of transgender characters on fictional CBS television shows, homosexual activist group GLAAD recently descended on the network's headquarters to air their complaints in a meeting attended by CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler and at least a dozen senior executives.
  The meeting was led by Nick Adams, who was born female but is living as a man, and currently serves as GLAAD's Associate Director of Communications.
  In Adams' view, getting positive TV coverage for transgender people is critical because ''the vast majority of Americans have no personal connection to someone who is transgender, so they rely solely on the media for information.''
  Adams gave a presentation on transgenderism to the CBS brass, then played clips from recent CBS programming that GLAAD believes promote an ''anti-trans'' bias.
  GLAAD suggested ways that network execs could alter storylines in the future to be more affirming of the transgender lifestyle.
  ''GLAAD is hopeful that this meeting will encourage more inclusive, sophisticated, and realistic portrayals of trans people on CBS, and we're committed to working with the network to ensure that happens,'' said Matt Kane, GLAAD's Associate Director of Entertainment Media.
  The GLAAD activists were upset with the network in part because of a February 11 episode of CBS sitcom Mike and Molly, in which the main character mocked a friend for his past habit of finding sex partners on the street:
  Carl: It's been a long time since I've trolled for bus pass a--.
  Mike: (Laughing) Not since the shemale incident of '08. You spent the whole night crying and gargling!
  Carl: Learned a lot of lessons that night.
  At the time, GLAAD blogger Matt Kane described the exchange as ''an offensive scene predicated on the hateful notion that transgender people are inherently disgusting.''
  Kane also complained that the fact that it was a main character making the joke gave ''the anti-transgender sentiment'...an added layer of validity.''
  Click "like" if you want to defend true marriage.
  GLAAD also complained about a December episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, in which a cross-dressing man in a sparkly dress was arrested and taken to a police station for questioning. When an officer checked his driver's license and read his name as ''Josh McClure,'' the man became angry and insisted his name was ''Joslyn,'' then claimed he was pregnant.
  An officer asked him if he'd been drinking, provoking a violent response. It took multiple officers to restrain him; most of these called him ''Joslyn,'' but one called him ''Sir.''
  Later, McClure had a psychotic break, claimed the baby was coming, and stabbed himself in the stomach with a pair of scissors repeatedly, killing himself.
  Afterward, a detective reported, ''Hospital said our pregnant transvestite was D.O.A.''
  In an op-ed criticizing the show, Adams objected to the use of the word 'transvestite,' calling it ''disrespectful and inaccurate, since the simple fact that she referred to herself as Joslyn suggested she lived as a woman.''
  Adams also complained that the doctors in the autopsy scene refer to McClure as a ''male Caucasian'' and use male pronouns to describe him. ''Male pronouns are used no less than 11 times during a short 1 minute, 13 second scene,'' wrote Adams. ''The characters also refer to her as 'delusional,' and it is unclear whether they mean that she was delusional for thinking she was a woman or for thinking she was pregnant. Or both.''
  At the GLAAD/CBS meeting, Adams presented a number of suggestions to improve the public's view of transgender people, such as expanding the role of ''Ms. Hudson,'' a transgender character played by Candis Cayne on Elementary, as well as seeking out transgender contestants for popular reality game shows like Survivor, The Amazing Race, and Big Brother.
Text of letter to Edward Snowden from his father and father's attorney
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: Hacker News
  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 22:56
  Here is the text of the open letter Lon Snowden, along with his attorney, Bruce Fein, wrote to NSA leaker Edward Snowden. The letter was provided to The Associated Press.
  July 2, 2013
  Edward Joseph Snowden
  Moscow
  Dear Edward:
  I, Bruce Fein, am writing this letter in collaboration with your father in response to the Statement you issued yesterday in Moscow.
  Thomas Paine, the voice of the American Revolution, trumpeted that a patriot saves his country from his government.
  What you have done and are doing has awakened congressional oversight of the intelligence community from deep slumber; and, has already provoked the introduction of remedial legislation in Congress to curtail spying abuses under section 215 of the Patriot Act and section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. You have forced onto the national agenda the question of whether the American people prefer the right to be left alone from government snooping absent probable cause to believe crime is afoot to vassalage in hopes of a risk-free existence. You are a modern day Paul Revere summoning the American people to confront the growing danger of tyranny and one branch government.
  In contrast to your actions, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper responded last March as follows to an unambiguous question raised by Senator Ron Wyden:
  ''Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?'' Clapper testified, ''No sir, it does not.'' Wyden asked for clarification, and Clapper hedged: ''Not wittingly. There are cases where they could inadvertently, perhaps, collect, but not wittingly.''
  Director Clapper later defended his stupendous mendacity to the Senator as the least untruthful answer possible. President Obama has not publicly rebuked the Director for frustrating the right of the people to know what their government is doing and to force changes if necessary through peaceful democratic processes. That is the meaning of government by the consent of the governed. ''We the people'' are sovereign under the U.S. Constitution, and government officials are entrusted with stewardship (not destruction) of our liberties.
  We leave it to the American people to decide whether you or Director Clapper is the superior patriot.
  The history of civilization is a history of brave men and women refusing to bow to government wrongdoing or injustice, and exalting knowledge, virtue, wisdom, and selflessness over creature comforts as the North Star of life. We believe your actions fall within that honorable tradition, a conviction we believe is shared by many.
  As regards your reduction to de facto statelessness occasioned by the Executive Branch to penalize your alleged violations of the Espionage Act, the United States Supreme Court lectured in Trop v. Dulles (1958): ''The civilized nations of the world are in virtual unanimity that statelessness is not to be imposed as punishment for crime.''
  We think you would agree that the final end of the state is to make men and women free to develop their faculties, not to seek planetary domination through force, violence or spying. All Americans should have a fair opportunity to pursue their ambitions. Politics should not be a football game with winners and losers featuring juvenile taunts over fumbles or missteps.
  Irrespective of life's vicissitudes, we will be unflagging in efforts to educate the American people about the impending ruination of the Constitution and the rule of law unless they abandon their complacency or indifference. Your actions are making our challenge easier.
  We encourage you to engage us in regular exchanges of ideas or thoughts about approaches to curing or mitigating the hugely suboptimal political culture of the United States. Nothing less is required to pay homage to Valley Forge, Cemetery Ridge, Omaha Beach, and other places of great sacrifice.
  Very truly yours,
  Bruce Fein
  Counsel for Lon Snowden
  Lon Snowden
  Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Bulgarian protests continue, is the world watching?
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: WT news feed
  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 22:55
  For more than two and a half weeks now Bulgarians have been taking to the streets, demanding their newly appointed socialist government step down.
  The protests were originally sparked by the controversial appointment of businessman and MP Delyan Peevski as the new head of the State Agency for National Security. Public anger eventually led to his removal but the demonstrations have continued, with the people demanding reforms that will bring greater transparency to Bulgarian public life, which they claim is fraught with corruption.
  Bulgarians argue it is these dubious links between parliament and businessmen that deter foreign investment, and thus deprive the country of higher living standards.
  The people of Bulgaria have been taking to the streets daily, in numbers that they believe have been grossly under-reported by their government and the world's media. The government, which has been in power for just over three weeks, only holds half of the seats in parliament and relies on the support of a nationalist party to stay in office.
  These photos and videos, taken over the last few days, suggest that the movement shows no signs easing.
  Frustration is growing among many people in Bulgaria. They are angry at their government and they are angry at the world's media, who they believe are ignoring the message of the people. Some are saying that the media are not as interested in their peaceful protests, in comparison to those going on in Egypt and Turkey.
  Using the hashtag #Ð--Ð�Ð'Ðwithme people have been taking to social media to voice their anger.
  Some photos of the recent demonstrations sent to Euronews from our viewers.
  More about:Bulgaria, Bulgarian politics, ProtestCopyright (C) 2013 euronews
VIDEO: Farage facing Van Rompuy (Corrected link)
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: tsik2234 news feed
  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 22:54
Is Homeland Security Set to Arm TSA Agents?
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: Dprogram.net
  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 22:30
  DHS wants firing range within 20 miles of LaGuardia Airport
  (PaulWatson) '' The Transportation Security Administration's plan to hire the use of a firing range within a 20 mile radius of LaGuardia Airport in order to train TSA workers has prompted concerns that the federal agency is planning to arm its agents as part of a massive expansion.
  A solicitation posted to the FedBizOpps website yesterday details Homeland Security's ''requirement for a firearms range to conduct mandatory quarterly qualifications and other firearms training.''
  ''The range shall be within a 20 mile radius of the New York LaGuardia Airport. Furthermore, the range must be in a location that can be accessed by vehicle from the New York LaGuardia Airport without crossing a bridge and/or incurring a toll,'' states the solicitation.
  The proposed indoor range must have 10-15 firing points and be available for block booking over time periods of 5-8 hours. It must also include, ''a separate entrance/exit which will permit DHS personnel to enter/exit to the aforementioned 15 point area without interacting with the general public.''
  DHS personnel will use the facility for 25 days out of every quarter and almost half a million rounds will be fired per year. A separate briefing rooms for students is also requested. Range rules must ''allow shooters to draw and fire from the holster and from concealment'' as well as permitting ''tactical move and shoot drills''.
  The deal to hire a facility is scheduled to be in place by September 1, 2013.
  A Government Security News report confirms that the fring range will be used by the TSA to train ''its employees and DHS personnel''.
  Why would the TSA want to train its employees to use firearms at a facility close to a major airport when currently TSA agents working inside US airports are not armed?
  Federal air marshals acting under the jurisdiction of the TSA are currently armed, but the scope of the firearms range the TSA is seeking to acquire clearly suggests it will be used on a much more widespread basis than simply for training air marshals.
  The notion that the Department of Homeland Security is looking to arm TSA workers in the near future would also partly provide an answer as to why the federal agency has been acquiring bullets in such huge numbers over the course of the last 14 months.
  An even more disturbing scenario would see armed TSA agents patrolling transport hubs in the US or even the streets of major cities, as Jesse Jackson called for earlier this year.
  This would represent a massive expansion of the Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) program, where teams of armed TSA officers patrol railroad stations, bus stations, ferries, car tunnels, ports, subways, truck weigh stations, rest areas, and special events.
  VIPR teams currently conduct around 8,000 operations a year. As well as providing security at transport hubs, VIPR teams are now being used to keep tabs on fans at sporting events.
  Some people may question the sanity of arming TSA agents given that a significant number of them have proven to be prone to criminal behaviorand ego-driven outbursts. The TSA has also repeatedly hired people with criminal records to work in security.
  The federal agency launched another controversial policy over the weekend when it announced a new pilot program under which sniffer dogs would be used to screen passengers.
  Source: Infowars
RSS apps face glitches post-Google
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  Archived Version
  Source: BBC News - Technology
  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 21:24
  2 July 2013Last updated at15:14 ETBy Leo KelionTechnology reporterFormer users of the Google Reader RSS news feed service are facing glitches on some of the alternatives hoping to take advantage of its demise.
  Feedly's mobile apps are showing some people an error message saying it is "over capacity".
  A number of its desktop users have also complained the feeds they subscribe to appear to have been deleted.
  Meanwhile, Flipboard is showing some a "no content" alert, having previously promised to safeguard their accounts.
  Google shut down its RSS (Really Simple Syndication) product just after 8am BST.
  When it first announced the move three months ago the firm said it wanted to give users "sufficient time to find an alternative feed-reading solution".
  It continues to offer its Takeout tool which exports users' lists of RSS feed subscriptions as an OPML file so that the information can be imported into other products.
  The facility will stay online until 15 July after which time the data will be deleted.
  Missing feedsAlthough the error message brought up by Feedly's iOS and Android apps indicates the service is struggling with demand, the firm said the problem was in fact caused by a login bug.
  Feedly says Google began sending it data in the HTML computer language rather than in Javascript last night and the change had caused it problems.
  It said it had since released an updated app that fixed the problem for Android devices and that a new version for iPhones should become available over the next few days.
  The firm also confirmed it was also looking into a separate problem affecting some people who had migrated their data from Google and were now trying to use the service on desktop computers but found that their subscription lists appeared to be empty.
  "We're 100% committed to fixing the problems," Feedly's chief executive Edwin Khodabakchian told the BBC.
  He added that while his product did not currently import OPML files, it would soon gain the functionality meaning users experiencing the problem could export the data from Google and reload it en masse into Feedly at some point over the coming days.
  The California-based firm reported it had 12 million users at the end of May, three times the number it did before news of the Google Reader shutdown.
  'Not ready'Flipboard has indicated that its problems will be even shorter-lived.
  The app - which collects stories from a range of social media and websites in addition to RSS feeds - had previously promised its members: "Your Google Reader subscriptions will be safe on Flipboard".
  However, shortly after Google's switch-off matters appeared to go awry with some users told there were "no new items" to download and others that there was no content at all to view in the Google Reader section of its product.
  A statement on its site now says: "Your Google Reader feeds and folders are safe. Our system just needs some time for the all content for all feeds to populate. Thanks for your patience."
  The firm said it expected to have completed the transition by the end of day.
  Reeder - a popular RSS tool for Apple products - is also facing a bumpy crossover.
  The product's Swiss developer Silvio Rizzi has released a new app for iPhones which can make use of RSS feeds gathered from a variety of sources.
  However, he was unable to update his iPad and Mac apps in time and has temporarily pulled them from Apple's online stores.
  "It's not that I don't want to update these apps, I'm just not ready yet." he tweeted.
  He acknowledged that he might lose customers as a result but added: "I prefer this to releasing something half baked."
  Another newly launched service Digg Reader does not appear to be suffering problems.
  However, the New York-based team behind the service - which only became available to the public three days ago - acknowledged they still needed to add "key features" including the ability to mark an item as being "unread" and an option to display only unread items.
  Social networksGoogle Reader had been the most popular tool of its kind to allow users to keep across the latest stories posted by their favourite websites without having to visit each one.
  However, the rise of Twitter and other social media networks meant many people had turned to them as an alternative way to keep up to date.
  Google already runs its own Google+ network and in April paid an estimated $30m (£18m) for Wavii - a product which creates a customised news feed made up of stories taken from websites, tweets and blogs.
  Other free-to-use RSS tools include Digg Reader, Newsblur, AOL Reader and Net Vibes.
Prosecutors consider trial for ex-Vatican bank managers: sources
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  Archived Version
  Source: Reuters: World News
  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 21:23
  By Paolo Biondi
  ROME | Tue Jul 2, 2013 3:17pm EDT
  ROME (Reuters) - Rome prosecutors are considering requesting that two directors of the Vatican bank who resigned on Monday be sent to trial on suspicion of authorizing illegal financial transactions, judicial sources said on Tuesday.
  The Vatican bank's director general, Paolo Cipriani, and its deputy director, Massimo Tulli, left after the arrest of a senior cleric who is accused of plotting to smuggle 20 million euros ($26 million) into Italy from Switzerland.
  A spokesman from the Vatican bank, known formally as the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), declined to comment. Reuters was unable to reach the two men concerned.
  Neither has been accused of wrongdoing although police wiretap transcripts contained in magistrates' evidence showed contacts between Tulli and Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, the senior cleric who was arrested last week.
  The resignation of the two managers added to the problems surrounding the IOR, which has been a byword for opaque and secretive dealings for decades and whose future has been in question since the appointment of Pope Francis in March.
  The Scarano arrest came soon after Francis's appointment of a special committee of inquiry to get to grips with the problems at the bank and recommend changes.
  Scarano is accused along with a secret service agent and a financial broker of conspiring to smuggle millions of euros for a family of shipbuilders in his home town of Salerno, near Naples in southern Italy.
  Scarano's lawyer has said that rich friends donated money to the cleric so he could build a home for the terminally ill.
  Although no evidence has emerged that could link the IOR directly to the charges facing Scarano, the bank is already caught up in an investigation into suspected money laundering which eventually led investigators to him.
  The judicial sources said the prosecutors were preparing to conclude their money laundering investigation and are expected to drop inquiries connected to Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, the former head of the IOR, who was dismissed last year.
  In 2010, officials froze 23 million euros of the bank's funds in Italian banks as part of the money laundering investigation.
  Pope Francis, who has shunned many of the normal trappings of his office and called for a return to simplicity and humility in the Church, has laid great emphasis on cleaning up the IOR.
  (Writing by James Mackenzie; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
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President plugs electricity generating soccer ball in Tanzania
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  Archived Version
  Source: Twitchy » US Politics
  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 21:22
  Don't forget to thank President Obama for his contribution as well. His brief playtime today with a Soccket ball '-- a soccer ball that converts kinetic energy into electricity '-- didn't generate much power, but it did serve to underscore the president's plan to invest $7 billion in energy access programs across Africa. It also produced a couple of photos of the president with a ball on his head, as well as several tweets lauding the idea.
  President Obama declared the Soccket ball ''pretty cool,'' adding, ''You can imagine this in villages all across the country.'' Here's a shot from Uncharted Play showing the LED lamp in action.
  As cool as the idea is, someone had to be a spoil sport. Before spending the whole $7 billion on soccer balls, hopefully President Obama will look into the dissenting view. As a piece in Foreign Policy notes, while the Soccket costs $99, ''you can get a solar-powered lamp for $10. It isn't clear why anyone would pay 10 times that for a light whose power source you have to kick around for half an hour to get less illumination.''
Long-term cannabis use may blunt the brain's motivation system.
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  Archived Version
  Source: WT news feed
  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 21:21
  Long-term cannabis users tend to produce less dopamine, a chemical in the brain linked to motivation, a study has found.
  Researchers found that dopamine levels in a part of the brain called the striatum were lower in people who smoke more cannabis and those who began taking the drug at a younger age.
  They suggest this finding could explain why some cannabis users appear to lack motivation to work or pursue their normal interests.
  The study, by scientists at Imperial College London, UCL and King's College London, was funded by the Medical Research Council and published in the journal Biological Psychiatry.
  The researchers used PET brain imaging to look at dopamine production in the striatum of 19 regular cannabis users and 19 non-users of matching age and sex.
  The cannabis users in the study had all experienced psychotic-like symptoms while smoking the drug, such as experiencing strange sensations or having bizarre thoughts like feeling as though they are being threatened by an unknown force.
  The researchers expected that dopamine production might be higher in this group, since increased dopamine production has been linked with psychosis. Instead, they found the opposite effect.
  The cannabis users in the study had their first experience with the drug between the ages of 12 and 18. There was a trend for lower dopamine levels in those who started earlier, and also in those who smoke more cannabis. The researchers say these findings suggest that cannabis use may be the cause of the difference in dopamine levels.
  The results weren't what we expected, but they tie in with previous research on addiction.'' Dr Michael Bloomfield
  Institute of Clinical Sciences
  The lowest dopamine levels were seen in users who meet diagnostic criteria for cannabis abuse or dependence, raising the possibility that this measure could provide a marker of addiction severity.
  Previous research has shown that cannabis users have a higher risk of mental illnesses that involve repeated episodes of psychosis, such as schizophrenia.
  ''It has been assumed that cannabis increases the risk of schizophrenia by inducing the same effects on the dopamine system that we see in schizophrenia, but this hasn't been studied in active cannabis users until now,'' said Dr Michael Bloomfield, from the Institute of Clinical Sciences at Imperial, who led the study.
  ''The results weren't what we expected, but they tie in with previous research on addiction, which has found that substance abusers '' people who are dependent on cocaine or amphetamine, for example '' have altered dopamine systems.
  ''Although we only looked at cannabis users who have had psychotic-like experiences while using the drug, we think the findings would apply to cannabis users in general, since we didn't see a stronger effect in the subjects who have more psychotic-like symptoms. This needs to be tested though.
  ''It could also explain the 'amotivational syndrome' which has been described in cannabis users, but whether such a syndrome exists is controversial.''
  Other studies have looked at dopamine release in former cannabis users and not seen differences with people who haven't taken cannabis, suggesting that the effects seen in this study are likely to be reversible.
  ReferenceM Bloomfield et al 'Dopaminergic Function in Cannabis Users and Its Relationship to Cannabis-Induced Psychotic Symptoms' Biological Psychiatry, Available online 29 June 2013 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2013.05.027
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Pro-US hacker 'The Jester' takes aim at nations helping Snowden.
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  Source: WT news feed
  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 21:21
  The self-described patriot hacker known as ''The Jester'' says he'll carry out cyber attacks on countries considering granting asylum to Edward Snowden.
  Beginning early Monday, The Jester hacked into several government websites in Ecuador as reports circulated that Snowden, who divulged secrets on the National Security Agency's spying programs, could be headed there. With Venezuela emerging as a possible landing spot for Snowden, The Jester told FoxNews.com he could turn his attention to that South American country.
  ''These are enemies and that's how I will be treating them, and anyone who facilitates them,'' The Jester told FoxNews.com in an online interview.
  ''These are enemies and I that's how I will be treating them, and anyone who facilitates them."
  - "The Jester," self-described "hacker for good"
  The Jester launched denial of service attacks on a website hosting Ecuador's tourism ministry and on another that hosts the country's stock market home page. While in communication with FoxNews.com, he appeared to be taking the sites on and offline. When Ecuador abruptly reversed its stance and said it would not harbor Snowden, The Jester told FoxNews.com he would restore the sites. Within minutes, they were back online.
  The Jester's real identity is not known, but he has hacked into various jihadist websites, taking down Internet forums where terrorists and wannabes gather online. He calls himself a ''hacker for good,'' and he told FoxNews.com that he sees people like Snowden and Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks mastermind who has also disseminated government secrets, as similarly dangerous to U.S. interests.
  ''As jihadis groom Muslims online to commit acts against us, so [Julian Assange] grooms government personnel like [Army private and accused leaker Bradley] Manning and Snowden to do his dirty work,'' the Jester told FoxNews.com.
  Snowden is believed to be hiding in a Moscow airport and has applied to at least 21 countries for asylum. With Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in Moscow, there is speculation Snowden could fly back to Carracas with him.
  The Jester's computer is on display in exhibit at the International Spy Museum in Washington. The museum's website describes him as a force against leakers and terrorists:
  ''The mysterious real-life hacktivist known only as Th3J35T3R (THE JESTER) shuts down websites he opposes,'' the website states. ''Once he has successfully disabled targets such as Wikileaks or radical Islamist sites, he triumphantly tweets 'TANGO DOWN.'''
  The latest hack attacks by The Jester are not his first targeting Wikileaks or its associates. In 2010, he knocked Wikileaks' servers offline when it was dumping State Department cables.
  Neither the NSA nor the State Department responded to FoxNews.com's requests for comment.
What's George W. Bush up to in Africa?
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  Archived Version
  Source: WT news feed
  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 21:20
  This doesn't happen every day: A president and a former president find themselves in Africa - and Tanzania - at the same time for completely different reasons.
  President Obama is taking a seven-day trip to the continent, with Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania on the itinerary.
  Former President George W. Bush, working with his eponymous institute, visited Zambia over the weekend and will attend a wreath-laying ceremony at the U.S. embassy in Tanzania with Mr. Obama on Tuesday.
  14 Photos
  The Bushes in AfricaMr. Bush and his wife, Laura, are in Africa promoting their initiative, Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon, which focuses on fighting cancer around the world. On Tuesday, the Bushes will host an "African First Ladies Summit" in Tanzania, which first lady Michelle Obama will take part in. The summit, per the Bush Institute, will focus on the role African first ladies "play in promoting women's education, health and economic empowerment."
  Mr. Obama's deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said Sunday, "The presence of the Bushes is something that marks I think the bipartisan support for Africa that exists in the United States, and it's a very welcome symbol that they can be there at the same time.
  "We think it sends a very positive message that both political parties in the United States share a commitment to this continent."
  Over the weekend in Zambia, the Bushes toured a farm funded in part by USAID in Nsongwe and then took part in the renovation of a cervical cancer clinic in Livingstone.
  Laura Bush called the farm, which produces enough crops to feed its village and sell the excess for extra income, a ""wonderful example of how women ... can bring money in for their families," according to the Dallas Morning News.
  "It's really important, worldwide, that women have a chance to contribute to their economy," she added.
  In Livingstone, the Bushes helped with painting the clinic, which opened Monday to offer cervical cancer screenings for the area's women.
  Meanwhile, even though the former president is in Africa for volunteer work, politics is never far away.
  In an interview with CNN, Mr. Bush said NSA leader Edward Snowden "damaged the country."
  "I think he damaged the security of the country," he said.
  "I put the program in place to protect the country and one of the certainties is civil liberties were guaranteed."
  He added that there "needs to be a balance" between security and privacy and that Mr. Obama has stated "there is a proper balance."
Michelle Obama Calls on Youth to Be 'Citizens of the World'. (video)
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  Archived Version
  Source: WT news feed
  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 21:20
  President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama wave as they depart Waterkloof Air Base for a flight to Cape Town on Sunday, June 30, 2013, in Centurion, South Africa. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
  (CNSNews.com) '' First lady Michelle Obama called for young people in both South Africa and the United States to be ''citizens of the world'' through the use of social media.
  ''For you guys to begin to talk to each other and realize that you have so much in common whether you are in Soweto or Houston or anywhere in the world there is so much we can do together,'' the first lady said. ''And I want you all to start thinking about being citizens of the world, and in order to do, that you've got to start reaching out, and this is just the beginning.''
  Michelle Obama made the remarks during a Google+ Hangout on education at Sci-Bono Discovery Center in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Saturday. The event included students in South Africa and students watching remotely from the United States in New York, Houston, Kansas City and Los Angeles.
  ''You all as young people inspire me, not just because I'm first lady, but I'm a mom, and I know that kids are our future,'' Mrs. Obama told the young crowd.
  ''One of the things that are so important that I want to have happen or begin to happen here is that young people will begin to talk to each other and share with each other and start inspiring one another across the globe. That is the beauty of technology. That's what we should be using Twitter and all that stuff for,'' she said.
  Later, the first lady opined on the White House blog about the Google+ Hangout meeting.
  ''That is the power of technology: to make the distance of an ocean disappear with the touch of a button, connecting us across continents so that we can listen to each other, learn from each other, and see how much we all have in common,'' Obama wrote.
  ''That is so important, because I want young people like you to think of yourselves as citizens of the world. So I hope you'll use technologies like Google+ Hangouts, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and others to continue this conversation and keep on learning from '' and being inspired by '' kids all across the globe,'' she added.
'I hope your daughter's raped': TX pro-lifers threatened by pro-choice activists
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  Archived Version
  Source: TheBlaze.com - Blog
  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 21:19
  Tension are high in Austin, Texas, this week as the state legislature returns to debate the issue of abortion. The heated debate on such a divided issue has brought out the worst in some pro-choice advocates, who some state representatives claim have made threats against them, their staffs and their families.
  NRO's Betsy Woodruff writes:
  State representative Jonathan Stickland tells NRO that being vocally pro-life has made him a target for abuse and threats from some of the pro-choice protesters in Austin. '...
  ''My favorite one was probably this female who said that she couldn't wait to see Representative Stickland so that she could pummel my face in,'' he tells me.
  He brought some male supporters into the office during the day of the filibuster because he didn't want the women who work there to be alone.
  ''We brought in extra people to make sure the office was going to be safe,'' he says. [...]
  State senator Donna Campbell, who issued the third point of order against Davis's filibuster (which ended it), has also been the target of extensive verbal abuse from pro-choice protesters, according to her spokesman Jon Oliver.
  They've received Facebook messages and e-mails saying, ''I hope you're raped'' and ''I hope your daughter's raped,'' Oliver tells me.
  ''Lots of language '-- 'You're an effin' blank,' 'You are a traitor to women' '-- those kind of things,'' Oliver says. ''I wouldn't say anything's necessarily a direct threat, but they're the kind of e-mails that make you a little nervous, especially when you start talking about family members: 'I hope your family members are raped.'''
  ''
  Related: Yesterday's feel-good story of the day
Egypt army outlines post-Morsi plan
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  Archived Version
  Source: BBC News - Home
  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 21:19
  2 July 2013Last updated at17:02 ETPlease turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.
  President Morsi has criticised an army ultimatum
  The Egyptian military has leaked details of its draft "roadmap" for the country's future, which includes new presidential elections.
  According to details given to the BBC, the plan would see the suspension of the new constitution and the dissolution of parliament.
  Clashes in Cairo between opponents and supporters of President Morsi killed seven people on Tuesday, officials say.
  The army warned on Monday that it would step in unless a solution was found.
  Mr Morsi rejected the ultimatum - which gave him 48 hours to find agreement with the opposition, and which expires around 16:30 (15:30 BST) on Wednesday - and called on the army to withdraw it.
  The president would not be dictated to, he tweeted on Tuesday night, adding that he rejected any deviation from constitutional legitimacy.
  It is clear he expects the military to depose him in the coming hours, says the BBC's Aleem Maqbool in the capital, where the mood is rapidly deteriorating.
  Clashes spreadingDeadly clashes broke out between pro- and anti-Morsi activists at several points in the city, with the health ministry reporting casualties at hospitals in the north, south and centre of the capital.
  More clashes have been reported across Egypt as leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood - the Islamist party to which Mr Morsi belongs - urged their supporters on to the streets, adds our correspondent.
  The president earlier met the head of the armed forces, Gen Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, for a second consecutive day on Tuesday. They did not give any details of the talks, which also included Prime Minister Hisham Qandil.
  Military sources told the BBC the president's position was becoming "weaker" with every passing minute and suggested that under the draft plan, he could be replaced by a council of cross-party civilians and technocrats ahead of new elections.
  Thousands of protesters gathered in Tahrir Square in central Cairo on Tuesday afternoon to demand Mr Morsi step down.
  Waving flags, the crowds chanted slogans including: "The people have brought down the regime." When several military helicopters flew ahead, they erupted in cheers.
  But demonstrations that had been jubilant when the army's ultimatum was interpreted as a coup-in-the-making turned increasingly confrontational later in the day.
  Mr Morsi was put under further pressure by the resignation of six ministers from his government on Monday, including Foreign Minister Kamel Amr.
  On Tuesday, the spokesmen for the presidency and the cabinet were also reported to have quit.
  The UN high commissioner for human rights called on the president to engage in a "serious national dialogue" to end the political crisis, and said nothing should be done to undermine the democratic process.
  On Sunday, millions of flag-waving supporters of Tamarod (Rebel) - the opposition movement behind the protests - had rallied nationwide, urging the president to step down.
  Eight people died as activists stormed and ransacked the Muslim Brotherhood's Cairo headquarters on Monday.
  Mr Morsi became Egypt's first Islamist president on 30 June 2012, after winning an election considered free and fair following the 2011 revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak.
  Send your pictures and videos to yourpics@bbc.co.uk or text them to 61124 (UK) or +44 7624 800 100 (International). If you have a large file you canupload here.
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Obama on European Spying: 'That's How Intelligence Services Operate'. (video)
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: WT news feed
  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 21:18
  President Barack Obama, left and first lady Michelle right, wave as they board their flight on Air (AP Photo)
  (CNSNews.com) '' President Barack Obama's response to a question about spying on European Union member largely boiled down to stating every other country does it, but he said there are few secrets between the United States and European allies.
  ''I guarantee you that in European capitals, there are people who are interested in '' if not what I had for breakfast '' at least what my talking points might be should I end up meeting with their leaders. That's how intelligence services operate,'' Obama said Monday during a joint press conference with Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete at the State House in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.
  He later added, ''Ultimately, we work so closely together, there's almost no information that's not shared between our various countries.''
  The German weekly Der Spiegel reported Sunday that the European Union was a target of the National Security Agency's spying program, with bugs hidden in EU offices in Brussels. The EU has demanded that the United States explain the report.
  French President Francois Hollande said the alleged spying could hinder U.S. relations with France.
  During Monday's press conference, a reporter asked Obama if the U.S. is spying on European allies.
  Obama did not directly answer, but said his ''team,'' presumably his national security team, is looking into the matter and will notify European allies of the finding.
  The information came from Edward Snowden, the fugitive NSA leaker.
  ''With respect to the latest article, that in part, I gather is prompted by Mr. Snowden's leaks, we're still evaluating the article because the problem is that these things come out in dribs and drabs. We don't know necessarily what programs they're referring to,'' Obama said.
  ''We don't know how they're sourced, and so what I've said is to my team, 'Take a look at this article. Figure out what they may or may not be talking about, and then what we'll do is we'll communicate to our allies appropriately,''' he added.
  Obama further commented that the nature of intelligence gathering is looking beyond open source information.
  ''We should stipulate that every intelligence service, not just ours, but every European intelligence service, every Asian intelligence service, wherever there's an intelligence service, here's one thing they're going to be doing,'' Obama said.
  ''They're going to be trying to understand the world better and what's going on in world capitals around the world from sources that aren't available through the New York Times or NBC News, that they're seeking additional insight beyond what's available to open sources. If that weren't the case, then there'd be no use for an intelligence service,'' he added.
  The president continued that European countries are likely looking at the United States and 'That's how intelligence services operate.' But, he said he will call if he wants to know what their leaders are thinking.
  ''I'm the end user of this kind of intelligence,'' Obama said. ''If I want to know what Chancellor Merkel is thinking, I will call Chancellor Merkel. If I want to know what know what President Hollande is thinking on a particular issue, I'll call President Hollande. If I want to know what David Cameron is thinking, I call David Cameron. Ultimately, we work so closely together, that there's almost no information that's not shared between our various countries.''
VIDEO-Conan's hit men mock Google's algorithmic certainty - CNET Mobile
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  Archived Version
  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 21:17
  Team Coco decides it's time to expose Google's claims that it can predict a movie's success.
  Blockbuster or bust?
  (Credit: Team Coco/YouTube screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)The lovely thing about Google is its certainty.
  At least, I think I'm sure about that.
  Google's algorithms exist to take the weight from our minds and direct us to where we should be going and what we should be doing. It's a wonderful relief.
  Recently, Google declared it could out-Kreskin the critics and the Hollywood marketing men, by predicting, with 94 percent accuracy, which movies would succeed.
  It was easy, Google huffed haughtily. All it had to do was look at search patterns.
  Conan O'Brien and his team are a touch skeptical of this claim. So they created what they regard as a truer picture of Google's crystal movie ball.
  "Are any stars trekked, warred, or danced with?" says a genial quasi-Googlie, attempting to explain some of the criteria the company's algorithm uses.
  More Technically IncorrectThere are other mathematical considerations, such as: "What is lowest common Wayans brother?"
  One crucial predictor -- a very wise one, it seems to me -- is whether Tim Allen is in the film.
  Team Coco has found a very poetic name for this Google algorithm. It's called Google Blockbuster.
  In movies, the word "blockbuster" signifies uncontrollable success. Well, at least it did until the blue-and-yellow Blockbuster next to your Chick-Fil-A came along, and then limped along.
  Of course, there's a twist to Team Coco's version of Google Blockbuster, which I won't spoil.
  I know that many are still wondering, though, whether Google used its own predictive skills as it was considering the prospects of "The Internship."
  I fear this may not have been the case. Perhaps there was overconfidence present, as Google's executives viewed the screening.
  Sadly, this movie, with the company as its true star, was described by the Guardian only a few days ago as "a $60m pr blowjob for Google that thankfully flopped."
Glenn Greenwald: New Bombshell Coming
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  Archived Version
  Source: EconomicPolicyJournal.com
  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 21:15
Nigel Farage: There is a Gathering Electoral Storm...(video)
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  Archived Version
  Source: WT news feed
  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 21:14
The first ladies club: Obama and Bush share stage in Africa
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  Archived Version
  Source: The Guardian World News
  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 21:13
  Michelle Obama and Laura Bush share a joke at the African First Ladies Summit. Photograph: Gary Cameron/Reuters
  Their husbands could hardly be described as political soulmates, but when Michelle Obama and Laura Bush shared a platform in Tanzania on Tuesday, they proved quite a double act.
  Speaking at an African first ladies summit, the pair reflected on how the media sometimes prefer to focus on style rather than substance. "People are sort of sorting through our shoes and our hair, whether we cut it or not..." Obama started. "Whether we have bangs," Bush interjected to laughter, alluding to coverage of the cuurent first lady's change of hairstyle.
  "But," Obama resumed, "we take our bangs and we stand in front of important things that the world needs to see. And eventually people stop looking at the bangs and they start looking at what we're standing in front of."
  "We hope," Bush joked. The event, organised in Tanzania by the George W Bush Institute, coincided with the last day of Barack and Michelle Obama's three-country tour of Africa. The participants included first ladies from across the continent as well as Cherie Blair.
  Laura Bush said: "We all know what it is like to have your husband be president... we first ladies have a lot of things we can talk about together, that no one else really will understand.
  "Ways to protect our children, how to make life easier when your husband is being criticised, or whatever, you know what the issues of today are."
  Bush emphasised the importance of education for girls and women, enabling them to protect themselves and their families and to participate in environmental leadership.
  George Bush was also in the country. Initially there had been no plans for him to meet his successor but this was hastily amended, prompting Michelle Obama to joke to Laura Bush: "They're learning from us."
  It is believed to be the first time two US presidents have been in an African country at the same time. Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser, said this sent "a very positive message that both political parties in the United States share a commitment to this continent".
  Barack Obama praised George Bush for helping save millions of lives by funding Aids treatment. Obama has since cut funding but insisted the decrease has not damaged the programme because costs have been saved that make it "more efficient".
  Obama promoted what he called a "new model" for Africa based not just on aid and assistance but trade. "Ultimately, the goal here is for Africa to build Africa for Africans," he said. "And our job is to be a partner in that process."
  Around Dar es Salaam, business, restaurants and pubs closed while people crammed high buildings to get a glimpse of America's first black president.
  The two presidents observed a moment of silence together at a monument to victims of the 1998 US embassy bombing masterminded by Osama bin Laden. Obama and Bush bowed their heads as a marine placed a wreath of red, white and blue flowers in front of the large stone memorial in the grounds of the new embassy. They shook hands with survivors of the attack and relatives of those killed.
Documents Show Dead Al-Qaeda Leader Anwar Al-Awlaki Paid Thousands For Hookers While In America'...
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: Weasel Zippers
  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 21:12
  This was around the time the Pentagon invited him to speak claiming he was a ''moderate'' Muslim cleric.
  Via Fox News:
  On the eve of an infamous presentation Anwar al-Awlaki gave at the Pentagon in 2002, the Al Qaeda operative was busy preparing '-- with a prostitute he paid $400 for at a Washington hotel.
  It was one of more than a half-dozen liaisons Awlaki had with prostitutes between late 2001 and early 2002, while he was under FBI surveillance, according to documents obtained by Judicial Watch and reviewed exclusively by Fox News.
  The documents shed new light on the double life the American-born Awlaki was leading, while living in the Washington area and working as an imam at a mosque in Falls Church, Va.
  In the years before he became publicly associated with Al Qaeda and was targeted for death by the U.S. government, Awlaki was by turns welcomed and investigated by different arms of the government '-- not just over his radical ties, but his predilection for prostitutes.
  Yet there is no indication he was ever brought up on charges, leading Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton to question why the cleric seemed to have a ''protected status.''
  One document obtained by Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group, was a June 2002 memo from FBI Assistant Director Pasquale D'Amuro detailing Awlaki's encounters with prostitutes in the D.C. area. The memo appeared to propose charges against him, claiming he spent $2,320 on seven different occasions between Nov. 5, 2001, and Feb. 4, 2002.
  It described in detail an interview with the ''escort'' who saw him on Feb. 4, the day before he was scheduled to have lunch at the Pentagon as an invited guest. [...]
  He paid $400 for sex, the memo said. He was described by the escort as ''very polite.'' Awlaki, who has a record with prostitutes '-- he was booked in San Diego on charges of soliciting prostitutes in the late '90s '-- also told the escort that he likes to use escort services when he travels to Florida, according to the memo.
  The memo described in graphic detail the services rendered for Awlaki during that period. One prostitute described a December 2001 encounter where Awlaki paid $300, in order to watch ''as she engaged in erotic behavior and stimulated herself.''
Cable News Ratings for Monday, July 1, 2013
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: TVbytheNumbers
  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 21:11
  Live + Same Day Cable News Daily Ratings for July 1, 2013
  P2+ (000s)25-54 (000s)35-64 (000s)Total DayFNC 1,128 219 446CNN 491 181 230MSNBC 395 118 178CNBC 155 46 85FBN 51 10 28HLN 498 199 278PrimetimeP2+ (000s)25-54 (000s)35-64 (000s)FNC 1,870 263 607CNN 696 254 372MSNBC 735 202 344CNBC 232 99 131FBN 49 7 19HLN 733 314 414NetMorning programs (6-9 AM)P2+ (000s)25-54 (000s)35-64 (000s)FNCFOX & Friends 1,077 256 476CNNNew Day 243 100 125MSNBCMorning Joe 376 123 167CNBCSquawk Box 120 30 70HLNMorning Express w/ Meade 264 139 192Net5PMP2+ (000s)25-54 (000s)35-64 (000s)FNCFIVE, THE 2,139 358 829CNNSituation Room 700 228 267MSNBCMARTIN BASHIR 617 179 284CNBCFAST MONEY 186 28 83HLNEVENING EXPRESS 548 208 291Net6PMP2+ (000s)25-54 (000s)35-64 (000s)FNCSPECIAL RPT W/BRET BAIER 1,829 267 610CNNSituation Room 534 158 206MSNBCPOLITICS NATION 639 174 263CNBCMad Money 172 42 78HLNEVENING EXPRESS 663 292 369Net7PMP2+ (000s)25-54 (000s)35-64 (000s)FNCThe Fox Report W/S.SMITH 1,540 229 528CNNN WORD 612 218 290MSNBCHARDBALL WITH C. MATTHEWS 686 152 267CNBCKudlow Report 117 14 34HLNJANE VELEZ-MITCHELL 832 364 491Net8PMP2+ (000s)25-54 (000s)35-64 (000s)FNCTHE OREILLY FACTOR 2,574 328 803CNNAnderson Cooper 360 624 204 312MSNBCALL IN W/ CHRIS HAYES 632 146 276CNBCCAR CHASERS, THE 113 37 54HLNNancy Grace 754 330 472Net9PMP2+ (000s)25-54 (000s)35-64 (000s)FNCHannity 1,572 211 504CNNPIERS MORGAN LIVE 698 223 364MSNBCRachel Maddow Show 869 246 414CNBCFILTHY RICH 267 120 150HLNDr. Drew ON CALL 757 330 424Net10PMP2+ (000s)25-54 (000s)35-64 (000s)FNCON THE RECORD W/GRETA 1,456 250 514CNNAnderson Cooper 360 765 335 440MSNBCLast Word W/ L. ODONNELL 704 215 343CNBCAMERICAN GREED 316 140 188HLNHLN AFTER DARK 687 281 347Net11PMP2+ (000s)25-54 (000s)35-64 (000s)FNCTHE OREILLY FACTOR 1,190 297 506CNNAnderson Cooper 360 463 231 243MSNBCALL IN W/ CHRIS HAYES 410 145 192CNBCMad Money 113 60 78HLNNancy Grace 559 237 286-For other days cable news ratings click here.
  P2+ = viewers over the age of 2
  (25-54) = Adults 25-54 viewing
  (35-64) = Adults 35-64 viewing
  Prime Time = 8-11pm
  LIVE+SD: The number that watched a program either while it was broadcast OR watched via DVR on the same day [through 3AM the next day] the program was broadcast. For more information see Numbers 101.
  Scratch = when a show's audience fails to meet minimum Nielsen reporting levels. For more information go here.
  Nielsen Cable Network Coverage Estimates (as of July, 2012)
  CNN/HLN: 99.727 million HHs
  CNBC: 97.497 million HHs
  FNC: 97.981 million HHs
  MSNBC: 95.526 million HHs
  Fox Business: 68.407 million HHs
  Nielsen TV Ratings Data: (C)2013 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.
VIDEO-CNN's Don Lemon defends 'cracker' v. 'n-word' question | TheBlaze.com
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 21:09
  A host of news outlets have mocked a Monday night special on CNN, ''The N-Word,'' particularly for the program raising the question as to whether the word ''cracker'' is more offensive than the n-word.
  Meredith called it ''a dumb question.''
  New York magazine wrote about it under the headline ''CNN Is Seriously Wondering Whether 'Cracker' Is Worse Than the N-Word.''
  ''You'd think the fact that they used one word and censored the otther might've been a big clue'' to the answer, wrote the media blog FishbowlDC.
  Don Lemon, who hosted the program, defended the question in an interview with Salon'...
  From the interview:
  I'm not trying to rank ["cracker" as a racial slur]. I went up with a number of different words on cue cards. Among them were ''cracker,'' ''n-word,'' ''nigga,'' ''nigger,'' ''honky,'' ''spic.'' The one that offended people the most was the word ''nigger.'' It wasn't a ranking we came up with. I just wanted to see if people were offended '-- Rachel Jeantel said [in her testimony] that she didnt think the word ''cracker'' was racist or a racial term. And [on-air] people laughed [when they heard "cracker"] '-- ''What is this, the 1970s?'' It was as though we'd said ''Jive turkey.'' People didn't look at that word as offensive. They didn't think it was right to use it. The general consensus is there's not the same power behind that word. '...
  I think it's incumbent upon anyone who has a platform to do what we did last night. I'm very proud that [CNN head] Jeff Zucker thought of me. I don't see this kind of programming on any other network. I don't see any other network taking a chance. Otherwise, it sort of sadly gets lost. It won't come up again until the next tragedy happens. We should be doing what we did, regardless of whether or not we got it perfect.
  CNN aired ''The N-Word'' as a news hook to the George Zimmerman trial, in which a black 19-year-old female witness was asked whether she considered the word ''cracker'' to be a racial term. She said no.
  @eScarry
How angry are the Europeans really, over the US spying on them?
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: euronews
  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 21:08
  Spying on friends'... it could be the title of a work of fiction, but it's just what Europeans have been up in arms about; according to arch whistle-blower Edward Snowden that the American espionage programme Prism included them.
  Demanding explanations, some outraged voices have even suggested Europe think twice about future trade agreements with the US.
  Britain's Guardian newspaper, and then Germany's Die Spiegel, said European delegations have been spied on in Washington, in Brussels and at the United Nations.
  But both Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman and the European Commission President have kept on speaking in the conditional, saying we have to see if it is true.
  The Commission's Jose Manuel Barroso said: ''If this is proven, it would be very disturbing and raise serious and very important concerns. This is why as soon as media reports were released we immediately requested a full and immediate clarification of the matter from the US.''
  French President Fran§ois Hollande said: ''We can't accept this kind of behaviour between partners and allies. What are the consequences? First of all, it must stop as soon as possible '' I was going to say immediately. Next, negotiations or transactions in all areas can only be entered into after we have guarantees.''
  Brussels-Washington relations, then, have chilled. But quite a few sources have said the Europeans aren't really that upset, and are taking the whole thing with a pinch of salt. This French former intelligence officer suggested that getting all worked up might be childish.
  Claude Moniquet said: ''To be surprised today could be a little bit naive. It could be hypocritical. I'm quite sure that some European countries '' certainly Germany and France '' spy on the United States when they can.''
  President Obama, for his part, doesn't seem to be taking the whole anger thing very seriously '' not among those who've been spied on at home or abroad. He hasn't denied it, saying, 'Of course it's true!'
  Obama said: ''Every European intelligence service, every Asian intelligence service, wherever there's an intelligence service, here's one thing they're going to be doing: they're going to be trying to understand the world better, and what's going on in capitals around the world. If that weren't the case, then there would be no need for an intelligence service. I guarantee you that in European capitals there are people who are interested in'... if not what I had for breakfast, then what my talking points might be should I end up meeting with their leaders.''
  That suggests a new era of transparent espionage.
  More about:American politics, Espionage, EuropeCopyright (C) 2013 euronews
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The First Whinger Strikes Again
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: JustOneMinute
  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 21:03
  Michelle Obama shows her solidarity with Incarceration Nation by explaining that being in the White House is like being in prison. A "really nice prison". With nice jailhouse rock. Oh, well - eventually Michelle will be set free and forced to accept multi-million dollar book deals during her parole period. I do hope the poor dear can hold up 'til then. Not to mention the rest of us, and I note that these guys were off by three years.
  As to actual people in actual prisons, well, fortunately Michelle's comment was not made by a white Republican or it is all we would hear about and the sidewalks would be unsafe, etc.
EU enlargement, my impressions
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  Archived Version
  Source: Uploads by HermanVanRompuy
  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 21:03
Op-Ed by Vice President Joe Biden in The Financial Times: Let Croatia lead the Balkans into the EU
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: White House.gov Press Office Feed
  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 21:02
  The White House
  Office of the Vice President
  For Immediate Release
  July 02, 2013
  The following op-ed by Vice President Joe Biden appeared today in print in The Financial Times.
  Let Croatia lead the Balkans into the EUEvery country that binds itself to the union advances the cause of peaceBy Vice President Joe Biden
  James Joyce wrote that ''history is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake''. Twenty years ago, Croatians lived that nightmare, imprisoned by regional hatreds and ravaged by war. Yesterday their country became the 28th member of the EU. Croatia has not merely awakened from its tortured history '' it has realised the dream of a Euro-Atlantic future.
  Croatia's success was far from inevitable. In fact, it is a testament to the courage of its citizens and leaders who overcame the temptations of ultranationalism and resentment. Letting go of the past is a daily struggle. And, day by day, Croatians kept faith with an ambitious vision and built the democratic institutions that opened the doors to Nato and now the EU.
  This achievement belongs to the Croatian people. But it is also speaks to the transformative power of the European project guiding countries toward the rule of law, open markets, prosperity and peace.
  Croatia is further along that journey than some may think. It has been a Nato ally since 2009 and a contributor to security around the world, including Afghanistan. Once other countries sent peacekeepers to Croatia; now Croatia contributes to peacekeeping missions in Kosovo, Haiti and the Western Sahara.
  Croatia's accession to the EU also raises the stakes for neighbours who face a risk of being left behind. Over time, the borders of the EU should unite the countries of southeastern Europe rather than divide them. We hope that one day its citizens will benefit from the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership we are negotiating with the EU.
  But first, Croatia's neighbours must make difficult choices that will pave their own paths into Europe.
  It is in the interest of the US, Croatia and the rest of Europe that they succeed. History has no greater monument to the idea that countries need not repeat the conflicts of the past than the EU '' and no greater mechanism than integration to ensure they don't. Every country that binds itself to the EU's rules and institutions brings us closer to the goal of a Europe whole, free and at peace. Even during difficult economic times, a unified Europe is preferable to the threats of division and instability. That is why Croatia is working to bring the very people it fought less than a generation ago into the European fold.
  In recent months, I have met several leaders from the western Balkans. I am confident that, if they make the right choices, every one of Croatia's neighbours can get there.
  Serbia and Kosovo have been locked in a deep and bitter struggle '' until now. Through dialogue, co-operation and painful compromise, prime ministers Ivica Dacic and Hashim Thaci have reached a historic agreement to normalise relations. The next steps will not be easy, but these leaders have given their citizens an unprecedented opportunity to build a future defined by respect for rights, shared prosperity and peaceful coexistence.
  Montenegro and Albania, too, have hard work left to do, but they are making progress toward European integration, tackling economic and political reforms, fighting corruption and strengthening the rule of law. Montenegro is also on the path to join Albania inside Nato. Macedonia must stay the course of reform, address its interethnic tensions and, with Greece, summon the courage to find a mutually acceptable solution on its name. Unfortunately, there are still some who cling to ethnic grievances, personal rivalries and a zero-sum approach to politics that holds back progress. Four years ago, in Sarajevo, I stood in parliament to tell politicians and officials that the door was open for Bosnia-Herzegovina to become an integral part of Europe, and the US wanted to help them get there. That requires agreement to eliminate constitutional provisions that discriminate against minorities and the decision to register defence properties as state property. Neither has happened, and the people of Bosnia deserve better.
  No country can completely leave behind its history or forget its tragedies. And nor should they. But countries can choose to put their futures first and act for the well- being of generations to come. That is what Croatia has done. And the result is that dreams that seemed inconceivable 20 years ago today are wonderfully, irreversibly real.
  That is both a cause for celebration and a reminder of what is possible. We congratulate Croatia and recommit ourselves to the larger goal of welcoming the entire Balkans into a Europe that is whole, free and at peace.
Remarks by President Obama at Ubungo Symbion Power Plant
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: White House.gov Press Office Feed
  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 21:02
  The White House
  Office of the Press Secretary
  For Immediate Release
  July 02, 2013
  Ubungo Plaza, Symbion Power PlantDar es Salaam, Tanzania
  10:58 A.M. EAT PRESIDENT OBAMA: Good morning, everybody. Please have a seat. It is wonderful to be here with President Kikwete. I want to thank everybody from Ubungo Power Plant for this visit. We are here today to focus on one of the biggest hurdles to Africa's economic development -- the fact that nearly 70 percent of Africans lack access to electricity.
  And that's why in my speech in Cape Town I announced a major new initiative -- Power Africa -- to double access to electricity here in Africa. Now, the first step that we're going to take is to try to bring electricity to 20 million homes and businesses. And this plant represents the kind of public-private partnership that we want to replicate all across the continent. This facility was idle. But the Tanzanian government, under President Kikwete's leadership, committed to making reforms in the energy sector. With support from the Millennium Challenge grant, General Electric, and Symbion, they got it up and running again. More Tanzanians got electricity. So Power Africa embraces this model. Public and private resources will be matched with projects led by African countries that are taking the lead on reform. In this case, African governments commit to energy reforms. And the U.S. is committing some $7 billion in support, and private sector companies have already committed more than $9 billion. And this is just the beginning -- because we look forward to even more companies joining this effort. So this is a win-win. It's a win for Africans -- families get to electrify their homes; businesses can run their plants; investors can say if we locate in an African country, that they're going to be able to power up in a reliable way. All this will make economies grow. It's a win for the United States because the investments made here, including in cleaner energy, means more exports for the U.S. and more jobs in the U.S. And, obviously, a growing market in Africa will mean more opportunities for all countries. And this reflects -- is representative of my new approach when it comes to development. I believe that the purpose of development should be to build capacity and to help other countries actually to stand on their own feet -- whether it's in agriculture, in health systems, in electricity. Instead of perpetual aid, development has to fuel investment and economic growth so that assistance is no longer necessary, or some of the more successful countries in Africa can start being donors instead of recipients of assistance. But development isn't just about the big projects. Sometimes simple ideas can bring about transformational change. Some of you saw the Soccket -- the soccer ball that we were kicking around that generates electricity as it's kicked. I don't want to get too technical, but I thought it was pretty cool. And this is developed by two young women from the U.S., so Soccket turns one of the most popular games in Africa into a source of electricity and progress. And you can imagine this in villages all across the continent. So that's just the example of the kind of creativity that is possible if we've got the public sector and the private sector, and the not-for-profit sectors all working together. Now, in order for this to work, then we all have to feel a sense of urgency. One of the things, Mr. President, that I learned around the business roundtable is if we are going to electrify Africa, we've got to do it with more speed. We can't have projects that take, seven, eight, nine years to be approved and to get online. If we're going to make this happen, we've got to cut through the red tape, and that can only happen with leadership like the leadership that President Kikwete has shown. We've got to be able to say, when the environmental studies are done, when the planning is done, when the paperwork is done, we can move this approval process, clear the red tape, make sure that the regulatory structure is in place, and get these things up and running in a timely way -- because it's hard to attract private-sector business if they feel as if their money is going to be tied up forever in uncertainty. So we want to focus on speed, but we also want to do it right. And the United States intends to be a strong partner in this process.
  This is my last stop on my trip. We're going to be heading home right after this. And as I think about the week that we've spent here, I think about the farmers in Senegal who are harnessing new technologies and, as a consequence, increasing yields; women who started off with one hectare now having sixteen, and doubling or tripling their income, and buying a tractor for the first time and suddenly they're employing people, and the entire community is benefiting. I think about amazing young Africans that I saw at the town hall meeting down in Soweto, and their eagerness to promote trade and not just to seek aid, to be entrepreneurs and starts businesses, and just hoping that the governments will support them and that the efforts will be made to increase transparency and accountability, and to eliminate corruption. I think about the visit here to Tanzania -- the incredible progress that's been made in reducing malaria and HIV and tuberculosis; the progress that's been made in terms of education and agricultural improvements; and progress that's being made as represented by this power plant. And I think of all these things, and I see leaders like President Kikwete who are making every effort to do the right thing, and I'm inspired. Because I'm absolutely convinced that, with the right approach, Africa and its people can unleash a new era of prosperity. And that's what Power Africa is all about. That's what Feed the Future is all about. That's what all our efforts are going to be about -- is making sure that Africans have the tools to create a better life for their people, and that the United States is a partner in that process. It's going to be good for Africa, it's going to be good for the United States, and it's going to be good for the world. So thank you very much, everyone. And most of all, thank you, President Kikwete, for your wonderful hospitality. Thank you. (Applause.)
  END11:06 A.M. EAT
Larry Klayman's wiretapping lawsuit: Verizon, NSA, Obama, Holder | Washington Times Communities
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 20:49
  WEST PALM BEACH, FL, June 14, 2013 '--An attorney representing Verizon customers filed a class action suit this week in Washington, DC federal court against Verizon Communications, the United States Federal Government and several government officials over collection of cell phone records by the National Security Agency (NSA).
  Larry Klayman of Freedom Watch, Inc. and Charles and Mary Ann Strange allege that the telephone surveillance violates the "reasonable expectation of privacy, free speech and association, right to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures, and due process rights."
  The suit, Klayman, et al. v. Barrack Hussein Obama II, et al., Case No. 13-cv-00851, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, was filed last Friday and became a class action suit on Monday. It seeks to represent a class of American citizens in the United States and overseas who are either current or previous Verizon customers, including, but not limited to customers between April 25, 2013 and July 19, 2013. The suit believes there are more than 100 million people in the class.
  According to the suit, the actions by the NSA, under the watch of the Obama administration, constituted an ''outrageous breach of privacy,'' and challenges the legality of the NSA program.
  The named defendants in the lawsuit are President Obama, US Attorney General Eric Holder, the director of the NSA, the NSA, the CEO of Verizon, the US Department of Justice, and Judge Roger Vinson of the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
  The suit includes Judge Vinson because he signed the order by the government which directed Verizon to turn over all phone records ''on an ongoing daily basis."
  The class is seeking a cease-and-desist order to stop the surveillance, expungement of all phone records already collected, and more disclosure about the secret surveillance programs. It also wants authorities to investigate Judge Vinson for misconduct.
  The suit is also seeking more than $3 billion in damages and attorney fees. Plaintiffs are represented by Larry Klayman of Freedom Watch Inc.
  Larry Klayman is an activist lawyer who founded the watchdog group Judicial Watch in 1994. He is also the author of two books, Fatal Neglect and Whores: Why and How I Came to Fight the Establishment.
  According to its website, Judicial Watch Inc. is ''a conservative, non-partisan educational foundation, promotes transparency, accountability and integrity in government, politics and the law. Through its educational endeavors, Judicial Watch advocates high standards of ethics and morality in our nation's public life and seeks to ensure that political and judicial officials do not abuse the powers entrusted to them by the American people. Judicial Watch fulfills its educational mission through litigation, investigations, and public outreach.''
  The web site also notes the motto of Judicial Watch is ''Because no one is above the law.''
  The organization received public recognition after it filed numerous lawsuits against President Clinton and his administration. Liberal critics of the organization claimed that funding for Judicial Watch from conservative billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife, heir to the Mellon fortune and owner of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, demonstrated that the litigation was part of an anti-Democratic partisan agenda.
  Klayman founded Freedom Watch after an unsuccessful bid for the Florida Republican Senate nomination in 2004.
  According to the Freedom Watch web site, that organization, '''...is the only political advocacy group that speaks through actions, rather than just words. We are dedicated to not only preserving freedom, but redefining its meaning, from protecting our rights to privacy, free speech, civil liberties, and freedom from foreign oil and crooked business, labor and government officials, to protecting our national sovereignty against the incompetent, terrorist state-controlled United Nations, and reestablishing the rule of law in what has become a very corrupt American legal system, where justice is only as good as your lawyer and judge'--most of whom are compromised ethically and otherwise.''
  The site openly takes aim at the Obama administration, saying, ''Our greatest challenge'--as we face a deep economic crisis, a government that spends our tax dollars like a drunken sailor, and a new Obama-Clinton regime that is using the economic crisis as an excuse to turn our nation into a socialist Euro-style welfare state'--is to remain constant to the principles of our Founding Fathers, not only Adams, but Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and others who put their lives on the line for our freedom.''
  Charles and Mary Ann Strange are the parents of Navy SEAL Michael Strange who was killed on-duty in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan in 2011.
  The tenth motion of the complaint states:
  Plaintiffs Charles and Mary Ann Strange are the parents of Michael Strange, a member of Navy SEAL Team VI who was killed when the helicopter he was in was attacked and shot down by terrorist Taliban jihadists in Afghanistan on August 6, 2011. On information and belief, Defendants have accessed Plaintiffs Charles and Mary Ann Strange's phone records particularly since these Plaintiffs have been vocal about their criticism of President Obama as commander-in-chief, his administration, and the U.S. military regarding the circumstances surrounding the shoot down of their son's helicopter in Afghanistan, which resulted in the death of their son and other Navy Seal Team VI members and special operation forces. Plaintiffs Charles and Mary Ann Strange have substantial connections with Washington, D.C., as they hold press conferences in Washington, D.C. and lobby in Washington, D.C. as an advocate for their son and to obtain justice for him, as well as to change the policies and orders of President Obama and the U.S. military's acts and practices, which contributed to their son's death.
  Verizon spokesman Raymond McConville, who said he was speaking only for Verizon, said in an email that the "case is without merit."
  The Justice Department declined to comment on the suit.
  While this is the first class action lawsuit related to the wire tapping and data collection revelations of the last few weeks, it is almost certainly not the last.
  Read the entire lawsuit here.
  This article is the copyrighted property of the writer and Communities @ WashingtonTimes.com. Written permission must be obtained before reprint in online or print media. REPRINTING TWTC CONTENT WITHOUT PERMISSION AND/OR PAYMENT IS THEFT AND PUNISHABLE BY LAW.
  Contributors are responsible for this content, which is not edited by The Washington Times.
VIDE-AUDIO-A New 'Smart Rifle' Decides When To Shoot And Rarely Misses : All Tech Considered : NPR
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 20:37
  A TrackingPoint rifle features a high-tech scope that includes a laser rangefinder and a Wi-Fi server.
  Courtesy of TrackingPointA TrackingPoint rifle features a high-tech scope that includes a laser rangefinder and a Wi-Fi server.
  Courtesy of TrackingPointA new rifle goes on sale on Wednesday, and it's not like any other. It uses lasers and computers to make shooters very accurate. A startup gun company in Texas developed the rifle, which is so effective that some in the shooting community say it should not be sold to the public.
  It's called the TrackingPoint rifle. On a firing range just outside Austin in the city of Liberty Hill, a novice shooter holds one and takes aim at a target 500 yards away. Normally it takes years of practice to hit something at that distance. But this shooter nails it on the first try.
  The rifle's scope features a sophisticated color graphics display. The shooter locks a laser on the target by pushing a small button by the trigger. It's like a video game. But here's where it's different: You pull the trigger but the gun decides when to shoot. It fires only when the weapon has been pointed in exactly the right place, taking into account dozens of variables, including wind, shake and distance to the target.
  The rifle has a built-in laser range finder, a ballistics computer and a Wi-Fi transmitter to stream live video and audio to a nearby iPad. Every shot is recorded so it can be replayed, or posted to YouTube or Facebook.
  "Think of it like a smart rifle. You have a smart car; you got a smartphone; well, now we have a smart rifle," says company President Jason Schauble. He says the TrackingPoint system was built for hunters and target shooters, especially a younger generation that embraces social media.
  "They like to post videos; they like to be in constant communication with groups or networks," Schauble says. "This kind of technology, in addition to making shooting more fun for them, also allows shooting to be something that they can share with others."
  A team of 70 people spent three years creating the technology. Schauble says there's nothing else like it, even in the military. For civilians, TrackingPoint sells its high-end, long-range guns directly. With price tags of up to $22,000, they're not cheap.
  The TrackingPoint rifle's display as seen through the scope.
  Courtesy of TrackingPointThe TrackingPoint rifle's display as seen through the scope.
  Courtesy of TrackingPointOne hunter who doesn't want one is Chris Wilbratte. He says the TrackingPoint system undermines what he calls hunting's "fair chase."
  "It's the traditional shooting fish in a barrel or the sitting duck. I mean, there's no skill in it, right? It's just you point, you let the weapon system do its thing and you pull the trigger and now you've killed a deer. There's no skill," Wilbratte says.
  This new rifle is being released as the gun control debate continues to simmer in Washington.
  Chris Frandsen, a West Point graduate who fought in Vietnam, doesn't believe the TrackingPoint technology should be allowed in the civilian world. The gun makes it too easy for a criminal or a terrorist to shoot people from a distance without being detected, he says.
  "Where we have mental health issues, where we have children that are disassociated from society early on, when we have terrorists who have political cards to play, we have to restrict weapons that make them more efficient in terrorizing the population," Frandsen says.
  Schauble says because the company sells directly '-- instead of going through gun dealers '-- it knows who its customers are and will vet them. And he says there's a key feature that prevents anyone other than the registered owner from utilizing the gun's capabilities.
  "It has a password protection on the scope. When a user stores it, he can password protect the scope that takes the advanced functionality out. So the gun will still operate as a firearm itself, but you cannot do the tag/track/exact, the long range, the technology-driven precision-guided firearm piece without entering that pass code," he says.
  Schauble says demand has been "overwhelming." TrackingPoint now has a waiting list. Others are interested, too: Rifle maker Remington Arms wants to use the technology in rifles it wants to sell for around $5,000.
Google's Chrome finally embraces Do Not Track, but with a warning | ZDNet
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  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 20:34
  Summary: DNT was already supported by browsers from Microsoft, Mozilla and Apple, and now it's a feature of Chrome as well. But people turning on the feature in Google's browser are warned that many websites will still collect their data to serve ads.
  Google has become the last major browser vendor to embrace the Do Not Track standard, with the release of Chrome 23 on Tuesday.
  Do Not Track (DNT) is an option in browsers and other internet-connected systems that lets users tell websites they don't want to be tracked as they surf the web. It is already found in Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and iOS 6, but Google '-- a company for whom web tracking is a core business '-- had until this week been the big holdout.
  The new version of Chrome was revealed on Tuesday in a blog post from Google engineer Ami Fischman, who warned that, when it comes to DNT, results may vary.
  "The effectiveness of such requests is dependent on how websites and services respond, so Google is working with others on a common way to respond to these requests in the future," she wrote.
  Indeed, the meaning of DNT is the subject of intense debate across much of the tech industry. Although the type of tracking it is intended to block is generally the handiwork of marketing and advertising firms, those self-same companies have been trying to argue that DNT should ignore their tracking systems.
  Last month, EU digital commissioner Neelie Kroes expressed frustration at what she called "the watering down of the standard". She said DNT had to "build on the principle of informed consent, giving people control over their information".
  Chrome updatesAs for Google, those enabling DNT in Chrome now will see a warning message that states: "Many websites will still collect and use your browsing data '-- for example to improve security, to provide content, services, ads and recommendations on their websites and to generate reporting statistics."
  DNT was not the only new feature in Chrome 23, as the update also makes it far easier to view and control a specific website's permissions. Where users previously had to turn to settings pages if they wanted to know what a webpage was trying to do with geolocation, camera access and pop-ups, this information is now viewable simply by clicking on the page or lock icon next to the URL.
  Fischman's blog post also praised Chrome's use of GPU acceleration for video. GPUs are less power-hungry than CPUs, and the engineer noted that laptop charges in Google's tests "lasted 25 percent longer when GPU-accelerated video decoding was enabled".
How a Pasta Chain Called Noodles & Co. Punked Wall Street - The Daily Beast
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  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 20:25
  The hottest initial public offering this year wasn't a Silicon Valley tech firm, or a Chinese shale oil play, or a biotechnology start-up out of India. No. It was a low-end pasta joint based in Denver that went public on Friday.
  Noodles & Company stocks soared to near $40 a share by Monday morning. (Noodles & Company)
  Noodles & Co. staged its IPO on a sleepy, muggy, low-volume trading day. But the shares, initially priced at $18 per share, went banoodles when trading started. They opened at about $35 and closed at $36.75, up 104 percent. After digesting the news over the weekend, traders pushed shares up further on Monday; it closed at $38.47. This was the sort of IPO that Facebook expected (but didn't produce) last year. And in 2013, you'd think that only a paradigm-changing, social-search, cloud-based gaming app would be able to take the market by storm.
  If you were a Wall Street banker, you wouldn't think that a place that bills itself as ''Your World Kitchen,'' where most dishes cost about $8, and that has an outpost in Manhattan, Kansas (but none in the real Manhattan), would be a smashing success. And indeed, the company's origins, combined with Wall Street's geographic and food snobbery, led the underwriters, led by Morgan Stanley and UBS, to misjudge Noodles & Co.'s value.
  In theory, underwriters test the waters. Before an offering, they go around and talk to investors, and gauge how much they'd be willing to pay, based on their assessment of the quality of the company and the sexiness of its story. The idea is to price the shares at a level where first-day buyers see a nice 5 or 10 percent pop. That's their reward for jumping in early and establishing a market for the shares. But if the shares double at the opening trade, the underwriters screwed up. They helped the company sell shares to the public at $18 a piece when it turns out the public was more than willing to pay $36. Noodles & Co. raised nearly $97 million by selling 5.357 million shares to the public at $18 each; they could have raised nearly $200 million by selling a stake of the same size.
  Like the rest of us coastal dwellers, Wall Streeters are food snobs.
  Plainly, Wall Street blew it. The shares soared not because there is some bubble raging in restaurant stocks, or because noodles are a hot new concept. Rather, they soared because traders outside the bubble of Wall Street and the institutional investors they deal with had a different view of Noodles & Co. And when you take a step back, it seems as if Noodles & Co. was actually set up to punk Wall Street.
  Neither Noodles nor Morgan Stanley wanted to comment on the offering. On Friday, Noodles CEO Keith Reddy told Bloomberg: ''We've been delivering some of the best results in the restaurant industry in the last five years, and the market understands that and respects that.''
  Yet, like the rest of us coastal dwellers, Wall Streeters are food snobs. We know that hot food trends come from New York, and Brooklyn, and from Southern and Northern California, and from Spain and Asia. Not from the heartland.
  Noodles & Co. was founded in 1995. It is based in Denver (which most East Coasters know as the place you have to fly to before you switch planes for Aspen or Vail), and really has no presence on the coasts. Like the U.S. economy as a whole in the post-recession years, it has grown from the inside out. Go to the store locator on the company's website, and you'll quickly discover that Noodles & Co. is big in the Plains and in Big Ten country. There are 50 in Colorado, 9 in Iowa, 33 in Minnesota, 15 in Michigan, 36(!) in Wisconsin. There are only 7 in California.
  Ordinarily I'd be happy to try a casual dining chain for a reporting assignment. But there are none within striking range. In Connecticut, there's one lonely outlet'--in West Hartford, not in Fairfield County. There's one in East Brunswick, New Jersey, and none in New York. (One is coming soon to the Westbury Plaza in Garden City on Long Island.) In other words, there are as many Noodles & Co.'s in North Dakota as there are in the heavily populated tristate area. The coming-soon list is heavy on college towns: Ann Arbor, Michigan; Lincoln, Nebraska; in Richmond near Virginia Commonwealth University. An email sent to Daily Beast colleagues on both coasts in search of anyone who had ever eaten in one was met with deafening silence. I'm guessing an internal e-mail sent by the Wall Street underwriting team would have produced a similar result. Very few Wall Streeters have a personal experience with the chain.
  Reading between the lines of the menu and the offering, it's easy to conclude that Noodles & Co. dishes up mid-priced, middlebrow food for mid-America. And in an age of ever-increasing authenticity and greater detail'--there's now a Cambodian sandwich joint in New York's Chelsea Market, and taco truck connoisseurs debate the merits of the different regions from which the vendors hail'--Noodles & Co. offers a sort of everywhere-and-nowhere combination. The menu has Pad Thai, Spaghetti & Meatballs, Wisconsin Macaroni & Cheese, Steak Stroganoff, and Indonesian Peanut Sauce. The offerings aren't exactly low cal'-- large portions pack up to 700 and 800 calories. And for those who find all those noodle and vegetable dishes too exotic, there's comfort fare like a Wisconsin Cheese Steak and a BBQ Pork Sandwich.
  Food snobs cotton to restaurants that challenge their sensibilities, with molecular gastronomy, exotic ingredients, and tyrannical chefs who demand you eat whatever they put on your plate. By contrast, Noodles & Co. exudes a sort of Midwestern nice sensibility. ''We have purposefully chosen a range of healthy-to-indulgent dishes to satisfy carnivores and vegetarians,'' its prospectus notes. ''We believe our variety ensures that even the pickiest of eaters can find something to crave, which eliminates the "veto vote" and encourages people with different tastes to enjoy a meal together.''
  But here's the thing. While Wall Streeters might not want to have a closing dinner at Noodles & Co., it does possess many of the attributes investors look for in a solid investment. There's veteran management: Chief Executive Officer Kevin Reddy, who has run the company since April 2006, is a former chief operating officer of Chipotle, another Colorado-based fast-casual chain that exploded. Unlike social media companies, Noodles & Co. has a profitable, simple business model'--it sells dishes for more than it costs to buy the ingredients, labor, and overhead. (It owns most of the restaurants but also franchises some.) And it has shown impressive growth.
  As of April 30, there were 339 Noodles & Co. restaurants, 288 owned by the company and 51 owned by franchisees, in 25 states and D.C. Between 2008 and 2012, years in which topline growth was hard to come by for consumer-facing companies, Noodles & Co. saw revenue practically double, from $170 million to $300 million, while operating income rose eight-fold, from $2 million to $16 million. In 2012, it opened 45 new outlets and it expects that 50 new Noodles & Co. restaurants will open this year. And the restaurants that are open are reporting healthy same-store growth: 4.8 percent in 2011, and 5.4 percent in 2012.
  Noodles & Co. provides a great example of a company that has prospered in the recession and in the slow-growth aftermath by providing solid value, focusing on operations, and offering greater choice in areas that have traditionally been food deserts. There are no small plates or beggar's purses filled with sea-urchin foam here. Just noodles.
  And ultimately that may be what really confounded the Wall Street bankers. Noodles & Co.'s menu is almost entirely based on carbohydrates. And everybody knows that Masters of the Universe won't go near a bowl of carb-laden pasta'-- unless they're loading up for a triathlon.
Mongolian neo-Nazis rebrand themselves as environmentalists
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  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 20:23
  Tsagaan Khass, or White Swastika, whose leader has expressed reverence for Hitler, now says its main goal is to save nature
  Members of the Mongolian neo-Nazi group Tsagaan Khass stand near a quarry, where they questioned a worker. Photograph: Carlos Barria/Reuters
  A Mongolian neo-Nazi group has rebranded itself as an environmentalist organisation fighting pollution by foreign-owned mines, seeking legitimacy as it sends swastika-wearing members to check mining permits.
  Tsagaan Khass, or White Swastika, has only 100 or so members but it is one of several groups '' others have names including Dayar Mongol (Whole Mongolia), Gal Undesten (Fire Nation) and Khukh Mongol (Blue Mongolia) '' that are linking nationalism and resources as foreign firms seek to exploit the mineral wealth of the vast country, landlocked between Russia and China.
  Based in an office behind a lingerie store in the Mongolian capital, the shaven-headed, jackbooted Tsagaan Khass stormtroopers launch raids on mining projects, demanding paperwork or soil samples to be studied for contaminants.
  "Before, we used to work in a harsh way, like breaking down doors," the group's leader, Ariunbold Altankhuum, 40, told Reuters. "But now, we have changed and we use other approaches, like demonstrations."On a patrol to a quarry two hours' drive from the capital, members wore black, SS-style Nazi uniforms complete with lightning flashes and replica Iron Crosses.
  They questioned a mine worker about paperwork, opting to return in a week's time, when the owner had returned.
  "Today our main goal is to save nature. We are doing things to protect the environment," Altankhuum said. "The development of mining is growing and has become an issue."
  The group, founded in the 1990s, says it wants to halt pollution in the former Soviet satellite as foreign companies dig for gold, copper, coal and iron ore using cheap labour from China and nearby south-east Asia. But a lot of the pollution is caused by local, illegal miners working individually.
  "We used to talk about fighting with foreigners, but some time ago we realised that is not efficient, so our purpose changed from fighting foreigners in the streets to fighting the mining companies," Altankhuum said.
  Mongolians fear foreign workers are taking up scarce jobs in an economy where nearly 30% of the population lives below the poverty line, according to the Asia Development Bank.
  "Mining is important because it's 90% of our economy," said the political commentator Dambadarjaa Jargalsaikhan. "But the unequal channelling of this revenue, the inequality in this country, that's the major issue."
  Not helping the Tsagaan Khass environmental credentials among mainstream observers '' apart from the uniforms '' is Altankhuum's reverence for Adolf Hitler.
  "The reason we chose this way is because what is happening here in Mongolia is like 1939, and Hitler's movement transformed his country into a powerful country," he said.
  Because of comments such as that, some observers dismiss groups such as his as self-serving and irrelevant.
  "Mongolia's neo-Nazis have been receiving too much attention from global media, and they've obviously been enjoying it," said Tal Liron, a PhD candidate at the University of Chicago who specialises in national identity. "They do not, however, represent Mongolians as a whole, any more than neo-Nazis in Britain represent the Brits.
  "...Mongolians are cosmopolitan, savvy and perfectly capable of adapting many foreign ideologies and fashions to their context. For example, they have since 1990 thoroughly and vibrantly embraced representative democracy, just as they embraced socialism before 1990. I think that's the real story here: Mongolians are not and perhaps never were a remote, isolated people; and they're also quite capable of understanding irony, especially in regards to their contemporary condition."
  Resource nationalism has been a major election issue in Mongolia, where the largest foreign investment is the Oyu Tolgoi project, which is 66% owned by global miner Rio Tinto and the rest by the government.
  Oyu Tolgoi is expected to boost Mongolia's economy by about a third by 2020. Annual output in its first decade is expected to average 330,000 tonnes of copper and 495,000 ounces of gold.
  But Rio has said since February it will not begin exports from the mine until it resolves disputes with Mongolia over royalties, costs, management fees and project financing.
  "They are saying they have signed contracts on it and are giving some percentage of that to the people," Dorjgotov Purev-Ish, a 39-year-old manual labourer, told Reuters, describing government assurances of the advantages to flow from Oyu Tolgoi.
  "But our family hasn't received any benefit."
  The president, Tsakhia Elbegdorj, who wants more controls on foreign mining investment, won a second term last week despite concerns over the faltering economy and the growing role of foreign firms.
  Colonel Tumenjargal Sainjargal of the national police department said the rightwing phenomenon began 15 years ago, when young people grew angry at the appearance of foreign languages on signs and made threats against business owners.
  "They said it was too much, that it looked like a Chinatown," Sainjargal said.
  "There are complaints that some foreign-invested companies hire Mongolian employees and cheat them, use violence, overwork them, or refuse to pay money owed to them. Afterwards, some of these Mongolians call the nationalist groups. There have been a few incidents with nationalists coming to companies for violent reasons to resolve the conflicts in their own way."
  It seems unlikely Tsagaan Khass's new green thinking will be enough to repair its reputation after accusations of violence, such as shaving the heads of women it claimed were prostitutes serving foreign customers.
  "We didn't shave the heads of the women, we just cut their hair," said Altankhuum. "But today we are changing. That was crude. That time has passed."
10News - Man faces 13 years in prison, $13K in fines for writing on city sidewalks with chalk - 10News.com - News
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  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 20:19
  SAN DIEGO - The case against a North Park man who wrote anti-big bank messages on city sidewalks with chalk will go to trial, a judge decided Tuesday.
  Jeff Olson is charged with 13 counts of vandalism and is facing 13 years in jail, as well as $13,000 in restitution fees.
  Olson calls the charges heavy-handed and describes what he did as free speech.
  "I was encouraging folks to close their accounts at big Wall Street banks to transfer their money local nonprofit, community credit unions," said Olson.
  Surveillance pictures showed him writing on the sidewalks of banks using children's chalk to promote anti-big bank websites. Olson told 10News he did this more than a dozen times at three different locations in Hillcrest and North Park.
  "Free speech is protected; just because you don't like what it says doesn't mean that you can't do it," he said. "If I had drawn a little girl's hopscotch squares on the street, we wouldn't be here today."
  However, the San Diego City Attorney's Office said Olson broke the law and considered his writings to be vandalism.
  According to Olson, one of the banks -- Bank of America -- said it cost them $6,000 to clean up the chalk writing.
  Jury selection for this case begins Tuesday afternoon.
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Regional and State Employment and Unemployment Summary
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  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 16:59
  For release 10:00 a.m. (EDT) Friday, June 21, 2013 USDL-13-1180Technical information: Employment: (202) 691-6559 * sminfo@bls.gov * www.bls.gov/sae Unemployment: (202) 691-6392 * lausinfo@bls.gov * www.bls.gov/lauMedia contact: (202) 691-5902 * PressOffice@bls.gov REGIONAL AND STATE EMPLOYMENT AND UNEMPLOYMENT -- MAY 2013Regional and state unemployment rates were little changed in May. Twenty-five states hadunemployment rate decreases, 17 states had increases, and 8 states and the District ofColumbia had no change, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Forty-onestates and the District of Columbia had unemployment rate decreases from a year earlier,four states had increases, and five states had no change. The national jobless rate wasessentially unchanged from April at 7.6 percent but was 0.6 percentage point lower thanin May 2012.In May 2013, nonfarm payroll employment increased in 33 states and the District of Columbiaand decreased in 17 states. The largest over-the-month increases in employment occurredin Ohio (+32,100), Texas (+19,500), and Michigan (+18,100). The largest over-the-monthdecrease in employment occurred in Pennsylvania (-9,200), followed by South Carolina(-7,700) and Florida (-6,200). Nebraska, Ohio, and South Dakota had the largest over-the-month percentage increases in employment (+0.6 percent each). Alaska (-1.3 percent) andVermont (-0.7 percent) had the largest over-the-month percentage declines in employment.Over the year, nonfarm employment increased in 48 states and the District of Columbiaand decreased in 2 states. The largest over-the-year percentage increases occurred inNorth Dakota (+3.2 percent) and Texas (+3.0 percent). The two over-the-year percentagedecreases in employment occurred in Alaska (-1.3 percent) and Wyoming (-0.6 percent).Regional Unemployment (Seasonally Adjusted)In May, the West continued to have the highest regional unemployment rate, 7.8 percent,while the Midwest and South had the lowest rates, 7.2 percent each. Over the month, theWest had the only statistically significant unemployment rate change (-0.2 percentagepoint). Significant over-the-year rate changes occurred in three regions: the West(-1.6 percentage points), Northeast (-0.7 point), and South (-0.6 point). (See table 1.) Among the nine geographic divisions, the Pacific continued to have the highest joblessrate, 8.2 percent in May. The West North Central again had the lowest rate, 5.4 percent.The Pacific had the only statistically significant over-the-month unemployment rate change (-0.3 percentage point). Four divisions had significant rate changes from a yearearlier: the Pacific (-1.8 percentage points), Mountain (-1.0 point), South Atlantic(-0.9 point), and Middle Atlantic (-0.8 point).State Unemployment (Seasonally Adjusted)Nevada had the highest unemployment rate among the states in May, 9.5 percent. The nexthighest rates were in Illinois and Mississippi, 9.1 percent each. North Dakota again hadthe lowest jobless rate, 3.2 percent. In total, 21 states had jobless rates significantlylower than the U.S. figure of 7.6 percent, 8 states and the District of Columbia hadmeasurably higher rates, and 21 states had rates that were not appreciably different fromthat of the nation. (See tables A and 3.)Six states had statistically significant over-the-month unemployment rate changes in May,of which four were declines and two were increases. The significant decreases occurredin California and West Virginia (-0.4 percentage point each) and Hawaii and New York(-0.2 point each). The increases were in Tennessee (+0.3 percentage point) and Kansas(+0.1 point). The remaining 44 states and the District of Columbia had jobless ratesthat were not measurably different from those of a month earlier, though some had changesthat were at least as large numerically as the significant changes.Fifteen states had statistically significant unemployment rate changes from May 2012,all of which were declines. The largest of these occurred in California (-2.1 percentagepoints) and Nevada (-2.0 points). (See table B.)Nonfarm Payroll Employment (Seasonally Adjusted)In May 2013, 11 states had statistically significant over-the-month changes in employment,7 of which were increases. The largest statistically significant job gains occurred inOhio (+32,100), Michigan (+18,100), and New Jersey (+14,300). The largest statisticallysignificant job decreases occurred in South Carolina (-7,700), Arkansas (-5,900), andAlaska (-4,200). (See table C.)Over the year, 31 states had statistically significant changes in employment, all ofwhich were positive. The largest over-the-year job increase occurred in Texas (+324,700),followed by California (+252,100) and Florida (+122,500). (See table D.)_____________The Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment news release for May is scheduled to bereleased on Tuesday, July 2, 2013, at 10:00 a.m. (EDT). The Regional and State Employmentand Unemployment news release for June is scheduled to be released on Friday, July 19, 2013,at 10:00 a.m. (EDT). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | Current Employment Statistics (CES) Data Corrections | | | |This news release contains corrections to previously released employment data in tables 5| |and 6. A complete listing of corrections in this news release and in the CES (state and | |area) database can be found at www.bls.gov/bls/errata/sae_errata.htm. | | | -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Table A. States with unemployment rates significantly differentfrom that of the U.S., May 2013, seasonally adjusted-------------------------------------------------------------- State | Rate(p)--------------------------------------------------------------United States (1) ...................| 7.6 | Alaska ..............................| 5.9California ..........................| 8.6District of Columbia ................| 8.5Georgia .............................| 8.3Hawaii ..............................| 4.7Idaho ...............................| 6.2Illinois ............................| 9.1Iowa ................................| 4.6Kansas ..............................| 5.7Maine ...............................| 6.8 | Maryland ............................| 6.7Massachusetts .......................| 6.6Minnesota ...........................| 5.3Mississippi .........................| 9.1Montana .............................| 5.4Nebraska ............................| 3.8Nevada ..............................| 9.5New Hampshire .......................| 5.3New Jersey ..........................| 8.6North Carolina ......................| 8.8 | North Dakota ........................| 3.2Oklahoma ............................| 5.0Rhode Island ........................| 8.9South Dakota ........................| 4.0Texas ...............................| 6.5Utah ................................| 4.6Vermont .............................| 4.1Virginia ............................| 5.3West Virginia .......................| 6.2Wyoming .............................| 4.6-------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Data are not preliminary. p = preliminary.Table B. States with statistically significant unemployment rate changesfrom May 2012 to May 2013, seasonally adjusted------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Rate | |-----------|-----------| Over-the-year State | May | May | change(p) | 2012 | 2013(p) | -------------------------------------------------------------------------Alaska .........................| 7.1 | 5.9 | -1.2California .....................| 10.7 | 8.6 | -2.1Colorado .......................| 8.2 | 6.9 | -1.3Florida ........................| 8.8 | 7.1 | -1.7Georgia ........................| 9.1 | 8.3 | -.8Hawaii .........................| 6.1 | 4.7 | -1.4Idaho ..........................| 7.3 | 6.2 | -1.1Nevada .........................| 11.5 | 9.5 | -2.0New Jersey .....................| 9.5 | 8.6 | -.9New York .......................| 8.6 | 7.6 | -1.0 | | | Rhode Island ...................| 10.6 | 8.9 | -1.7South Carolina .................| 9.3 | 8.0 | -1.3Utah ...........................| 5.8 | 4.6 | -1.2Vermont ........................| 5.0 | 4.1 | -.9Washington .....................| 8.4 | 6.8 | -1.6------------------------------------------------------------------------- p = preliminary.Table C. States with statistically significant employment changes fromApril 2013 to May 2013, seasonally adjusted-------------------------------------------------------------------------- | April | May | Over-the-month State | 2013 | 2013(p) | change(p)--------------------------------------------------------------------------Alaska .......................| 335,300 | 331,100 | -4,200Arkansas .....................| 1,189,000 | 1,183,100 | -5,900Kansas .......................| 1,365,500 | 1,370,300 | 4,800Michigan .....................| 4,055,100 | 4,073,200 | 18,100Nebraska .....................| 962,300 | 968,200 | 5,900New Jersey ...................| 3,947,900 | 3,962,200 | 14,300Ohio .........................| 5,181,800 | 5,213,900 | 32,100South Carolina ...............| 1,881,800 | 1,874,100 | -7,700South Dakota .................| 417,800 | 420,200 | 2,400Vermont ......................| 307,100 | 305,100 | -2,000Wisconsin ....................| 2,783,900 | 2,794,300 | 10,400-------------------------------------------------------------------------- p = preliminary.Table D. States with statistically significant employment changes fromMay 2012 to May 2013, seasonally adjusted-------------------------------------------------------------------------- | May | May | Over-the-year State | 2012 | 2013(p) | change(p)--------------------------------------------------------------------------Arizona ......................| 2,448,900 | 2,498,800 | 49,900California ...................| 14,360,400 | 14,612,500 | 252,100Colorado .....................| 2,301,200 | 2,353,600 | 52,400Delaware .....................| 418,300 | 425,100 | 6,800Florida ......................| 7,388,700 | 7,511,200 | 122,500Georgia ......................| 3,947,600 | 4,016,600 | 69,000Idaho ........................| 620,900 | 637,400 | 16,500Illinois .....................| 5,732,100 | 5,781,200 | 49,100Indiana ......................| 2,895,600 | 2,937,000 | 41,400Iowa .........................| 1,505,700 | 1,523,900 | 18,200 | | | Louisiana ....................| 1,928,100 | 1,950,300 | 22,200Maryland .....................| 2,573,200 | 2,608,800 | 35,600Massachusetts ................| 3,264,000 | 3,313,600 | 49,600Michigan .....................| 4,025,800 | 4,073,200 | 47,400Minnesota ....................| 2,724,400 | 2,770,200 | 45,800Mississippi ..................| 1,101,600 | 1,121,800 | 20,200Missouri .....................| 2,662,700 | 2,693,200 | 30,500Montana ......................| 440,700 | 447,200 | 6,500Nevada .......................| 1,139,800 | 1,158,800 | 19,000New Hampshire ................| 631,700 | 641,500 | 9,800 | | | New Jersey ...................| 3,887,600 | 3,962,200 | 74,600New York .....................| 8,801,700 | 8,897,100 | 95,400North Carolina ...............| 3,985,600 | 4,041,900 | 56,300North Dakota .................| 427,800 | 441,300 | 13,500Oregon .......................| 1,637,900 | 1,663,600 | 25,700South Dakota .................| 414,200 | 420,200 | 6,000Tennessee ....................| 2,714,200 | 2,766,700 | 52,500Texas ........................| 10,836,600 | 11,161,300 | 324,700Utah .........................| 1,249,500 | 1,283,600 | 34,100Virginia .....................| 3,717,700 | 3,765,900 | 48,200Washington ...................| 2,866,300 | 2,919,200 | 52,900-------------------------------------------------------------------------- p = preliminary.
Criteria en toetsing - Het Vinkje
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  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 16:32
  Is het jou ook opgevallen? In supermarkten, (bedrijfs)kantines, restaurants en andere verkooppunten vind je steeds meer ½n makkelijker producten met het Vinkje. Niet ieder product kan echter zomaar het Vinkje op de verpakking dragen: er gelden strikte criteria.
  Goede samenstellingDe Wetenschappelijke Commissie heeft per productgroep bepaald wat een goede samenstelling is. Zout, suiker en verzadigd vet zijn eigenlijk altijd belangrijk, al verschilt per productgroep hoeveel van iedere stof is toegestaan. Bij margarine wordt bijvoorbeeld goed gelet op verzadigd vet, terwijl bij soep het zoutgehalte onder het vergrootglas ligt. Daarnaast gelden voor sommige groepen extra aandachtspunten. Bij snacks tellen bijvoorbeeld ook de calorie½n mee en bij brood letten we eveneens op vezels.
  ProductgroepenVoor een indeling in productgroepen is doelbewust gekozen, omdat het zo een stuk eenvoudiger is om producten met elkaar te vergelijken. De groepen zijn nauwkeurig vastgesteld door rekening te houden met het eetmoment en de samenstelling. Zo wordt spinazie met andere groenten als courgette en bloemkool vergeleken, maar niet met een boterham. Voorbeelden van productgroepen zijn ½zuivelproducten½, ½onbewerkt vlees½, ½groenten en fruit½ en ½snacks½.
  CheckenVoordat een deelnemend bedrijf bijvoorbeeld een yoghurt, mueslireep of maaltijd met het Vinkje op de markt mag brengen, voert het onafhankelijke instituut SGS een controle uit. SGS checkt of een product Vinkje-proof is ½n gaat na of een bedrijf het Vinkje zelf mag toewijzen. Ook voor versbereide gerechten in de catering en foodservice zijn strenge eisen opgesteld. Als een product eenmaal in het assortiment is opgenomen, houden we uiteraard een oogje in het zeil. Wij onderzoeken steekproefsgewijs of producten voldoen aan de criteria.
  DownloadsCriteria (PDF)
Welcome to FRIEND MOVEMENT
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  Friend Movement Benefit ConcertLeAnn Rimes headlines an evening celebrating music and friendship in the first ever Friend Movement Benefit concert.TICKETS ON SALE NOW, act fast before they're gone! Read More
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White House Schedule - July 2, 2013 | The White House
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  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 14:06
  On Tuesday morning, the President will meet and greet with Embassy personnel at the U.S Embassy in Tanzania. This event will be closed press. The President will then participate in a wreath-laying ceremony at the 1998 Embassy Bombing Memorial. There will be travel pool coverage of this event. Later that morning, the President will witness a ''Soccket'' Ball demonstration at the Ubungo Plaza - Symbion Power Plant. Following the demonstration, the President will tour the plant and deliver remarks. There will be expanded pool coverage of both events. In the afternoon, the President and the First Family will depart Tanzania en route Washington, DC. The departure from Julius Nyerere Airport and the arrival on the South Lawn are open press.
  The Vice President and Dr. Jill Biden will be in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. There are no public events scheduled.
GENERAL ELECTRIC-Remarks by President Obama at Ubungo Symbion Power Plant | The White House
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  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 14:06
  The White House
  Office of the Press Secretary
  For Immediate Release
  July 02, 2013
  Ubungo Plaza, Symbion Power PlantDar es Salaam, Tanzania
  10:58 A.M. EAT PRESIDENT OBAMA: Good morning, everybody. Please have a seat. It is wonderful to be here with President Kikwete. I want to thank everybody from Ubungo Power Plant for this visit. We are here today to focus on one of the biggest hurdles to Africa's economic development -- the fact that nearly 70 percent of Africans lack access to electricity.
  And that's why in my speech in Cape Town I announced a major new initiative -- Power Africa -- to double access to electricity here in Africa. Now, the first step that we're going to take is to try to bring electricity to 20 million homes and businesses. And this plant represents the kind of public-private partnership that we want to replicate all across the continent. This facility was idle. But the Tanzanian government, under President Kikwete's leadership, committed to making reforms in the energy sector. With support from the Millennium Challenge grant, General Electric, and Symbion, they got it up and running again. More Tanzanians got electricity. So Power Africa embraces this model. Public and private resources will be matched with projects led by African countries that are taking the lead on reform. In this case, African governments commit to energy reforms. And the U.S. is committing some $7 billion in support, and private sector companies have already committed more than $9 billion. And this is just the beginning -- because we look forward to even more companies joining this effort. So this is a win-win. It's a win for Africans -- families get to electrify their homes; businesses can run their plants; investors can say if we locate in an African country, that they're going to be able to power up in a reliable way. All this will make economies grow. It's a win for the United States because the investments made here, including in cleaner energy, means more exports for the U.S. and more jobs in the U.S. And, obviously, a growing market in Africa will mean more opportunities for all countries. And this reflects -- is representative of my new approach when it comes to development. I believe that the purpose of development should be to build capacity and to help other countries actually to stand on their own feet -- whether it's in agriculture, in health systems, in electricity. Instead of perpetual aid, development has to fuel investment and economic growth so that assistance is no longer necessary, or some of the more successful countries in Africa can start being donors instead of recipients of assistance. But development isn't just about the big projects. Sometimes simple ideas can bring about transformational change. Some of you saw the Soccket -- the soccer ball that we were kicking around that generates electricity as it's kicked. I don't want to get too technical, but I thought it was pretty cool. And this is developed by two young women from the U.S., so Soccket turns one of the most popular games in Africa into a source of electricity and progress. And you can imagine this in villages all across the continent. So that's just the example of the kind of creativity that is possible if we've got the public sector and the private sector, and the not-for-profit sectors all working together. Now, in order for this to work, then we all have to feel a sense of urgency. One of the things, Mr. President, that I learned around the business roundtable is if we are going to electrify Africa, we've got to do it with more speed. We can't have projects that take, seven, eight, nine years to be approved and to get online. If we're going to make this happen, we've got to cut through the red tape, and that can only happen with leadership like the leadership that President Kikwete has shown. We've got to be able to say, when the environmental studies are done, when the planning is done, when the paperwork is done, we can move this approval process, clear the red tape, make sure that the regulatory structure is in place, and get these things up and running in a timely way -- because it's hard to attract private-sector business if they feel as if their money is going to be tied up forever in uncertainty. So we want to focus on speed, but we also want to do it right. And the United States intends to be a strong partner in this process.
  This is my last stop on my trip. We're going to be heading home right after this. And as I think about the week that we've spent here, I think about the farmers in Senegal who are harnessing new technologies and, as a consequence, increasing yields; women who started off with one hectare now having sixteen, and doubling or tripling their income, and buying a tractor for the first time and suddenly they're employing people, and the entire community is benefiting. I think about amazing young Africans that I saw at the town hall meeting down in Soweto, and their eagerness to promote trade and not just to seek aid, to be entrepreneurs and starts businesses, and just hoping that the governments will support them and that the efforts will be made to increase transparency and accountability, and to eliminate corruption. I think about the visit here to Tanzania -- the incredible progress that's been made in reducing malaria and HIV and tuberculosis; the progress that's been made in terms of education and agricultural improvements; and progress that's being made as represented by this power plant. And I think of all these things, and I see leaders like President Kikwete who are making every effort to do the right thing, and I'm inspired. Because I'm absolutely convinced that, with the right approach, Africa and its people can unleash a new era of prosperity. And that's what Power Africa is all about. That's what Feed the Future is all about. That's what all our efforts are going to be about -- is making sure that Africans have the tools to create a better life for their people, and that the United States is a partner in that process. It's going to be good for Africa, it's going to be good for the United States, and it's going to be good for the world. So thank you very much, everyone. And most of all, thank you, President Kikwete, for your wonderful hospitality. Thank you. (Applause.)
  END11:06 A.M. EAT
Contracts and Grants | Millennium Challenge Corporation
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  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 14:05
  Procurements at FedBizOppsThe Millennium Challenge Corporation headquarters awards contracts to complete its mission of helping the world's poorest countries reduce poverty through economic growth. These contracts provide opportunities to work directly with MCC and are governed by the Federal Acquisition Regulations.
  Visit FedBizOpps website
  MCC's contracts, grants, and procurements are listed on the Federal Business Opportunities (FedBizOpps) web site.
  Business ForecastPublic Law 100-656, Section 501, requires that Federal agencies make available their Business Forecast to the Small Business Administration and to interested businesses. This forecast is for informational and marketing purposes only and does not constitute a specific offer or commitment by the MCC to fund in whole or in part any agency requirements referenced herein. It should be noted that the mission of MCC is to reduce poverty in foreign countries through economic growth. Therefore, the majority of MCC contract requirements are for services and goods to support numerous activities in low income, foreign countries. MCC does have a few, domestic, contracted base operation requirements.
  This forecast includes anticipated contract actions that exceed the simplified acquisition threshold of $100,000. This listing is not all inclusive. It does not include anticipated actions that will be satisfied through calls or task orders against MCC contract vehicles.
  Procurement PrinciplesOpen, fair and competitive procedures used in a transparent manner to solicit, award and administer contracts to procure goods, works and services.Solicitations for goods, works and services shall be based upon a clear and accurate description of the goods, works or services to be acquired.Contracts shall be awarded only to responsible suppliers and contractors that have the capability and willingness to perform the contracts in accordance with the terms and conditions of the applicable contracts and on a cost effective and timely basis.No more than a commercially, reasonable price (as determined, for example, by a comparison of price quotations and market prices) shall be paid to procure goods, works and non-consulting servicesSmall ProcurementsMCC has no small procurements posted at this time.
Breaking Open the Black Box: Increasing Aid Transparency and Accountability in Haiti | Reports
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  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 13:58
  Breaking Open the Black Box: Increasing Aid Transparency and Accountability in HaitiApril 2013, Jake Johnston and Alexander Main
  The U.S. government pledged $1.15 billion for relief and reconstruction projects in Haiti. Key U.S. actors, like the State Department's Cheryl Mills, acknowledged a ''unique opportunity to 'build back better''' and ''an obligation to ensure that aid is actually effective.'' Over three years have passed since Haiti's earthquake and, despite USAID's stated commitment to greater transparency and accountability, the question ''where has the money gone?'' echoes throughout the country. It remains unclear how exactly the billions of dollars that the U.S. has spent on assistance to Haiti have been used and whether this funding has had a sustainable impact. With few exceptions, Haitians and U.S. taxpayers are unable to verify how U.S. aid funds are being used on the ground in Haiti. USAID and its implementing partners have generally failed to make public the basic data identifying where funds go and how they are spent.
  In the following paper we take a look at the effectiveness of U.S. assistance to Haiti: what we know about how it is being administered, to what extent U.S. assistance in Haiti is adhering to the USAID Forward reform agenda and what steps can be taken to ensure more effective and transparent delivery of aid to Haiti.
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Report Critical of USAID in Haiti: No ''Detailed Information on Funding and Sector Activities'' | Global Research
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  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 13:57
  In 2010, just months after Haiti was struck by a devastating earthquake, the United States passed legislation allocating $651 million to USAID to support relief and reconstruction efforts. Three years later, just 31 percent of these funds have been spent as delays mount and goals are scaled back, according to anew Government Accountability Office (GAO) report [PDF] released yesterday. The report also criticizes USAID for a lack of transparency, especially in its reporting to Congress.
  ''This report shows a significant and sobering disconnect between what was originally promised for the Haitian people, and what it appears USAID is now prepared to deliver. The Haitian people, as well as the US taxpayer, deserve better answers about our assistance than we have received to date,'' according to Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
  The GAO found that inaccurate cost estimates and delays led to an increase in the amount dedicated to providing shelter from $59 million to $97 million while at the same time ''decreased the projected number of houses to be built by over 80 percent, from 15,000 to 2,649.'' Originally estimated to cost less than $10,000 for a completed house, actual costs have been greater than $33,000. USAID has awarded over $46 million to contractors for housing. Meanwhile, some 300,000 people remain in camps over three years after the earthquake. Overall, the humanitarian community has constructed just 7,000 new homes, about 40 percent of what is currently planned.
  Further, the GAO report is critical of U.S. investments supporting the Caracol Industrial Park. Randal C. Archibold of the New York Times reports:
  A big portion of Agency for International Development money, $170.3 million, went toward a power plant and port for an industrial park in northern Haiti that was the centerpiece of United States reconstruction efforts and had been heavily promoted by the State Department and former President Bill Clinton.
  But the project had mixed results. Although the aid agency completed the power plant under budget, the port, crucial to the industrial park's long-term success, is two years behind schedule ''due in part to a lack of U.S.A.I.D. expertise in port planning in Haiti,'' the report said, and is now vulnerable to cost overruns.
  The GAO also found that a lack of oversight of USAID operations in Haiti and that congressionally mandated reports ''did not include'' ''detailed information on funding and sector activities'' as required and that despite a significant amount of funds left to be disbursed, the reporting requirement has now ended. ''Congress lacks information on the amounts of funds obligated and disbursed and program by program progress of U.S. reconstruction activities,'' concludes the report.
  The findings echo those made by CEPR in a report released in April, ''Breaking Open the Black Box: Increasing Aid Transparency and Accountability in Haiti'' and should lead to increased support for the Assessing Progress in Haiti Act that is currently making its way through the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The bill (H. R. 1749), which requires detailed reporting on amounts obligated and spent by USAID, including use of contractors and subcontractors, was introduced by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) and has 29 cosponsors in the House. While all the cosponsors are currently Democrats, the GAO report was requested by former Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) and the former ranking Democrat on the Committee, Howard Berman,. Yesterday, Ros Lehtinen, along with the current chairman of the Committee, Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), and the current ranking Democrat, Eliot Engel (D-NY) released a joint statement registering concern about the GAO's findings and calling for hearings on the issue, suggesting bipartisan support for greater transparency around U.S. assistance programs in Haiti.
Careers At NSA: Where Intelligence Goes To Work
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  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 13:54
Bush & Cheney Knew About 9/11 Months Before It Happened Says Whistleblower Charged Under Patriot Act
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  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 13:52
Statement from Edward Snowden in Moscow
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  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 13:46
  (on 2013-07-01)
  One week ago I left Hong Kong after it became clear that my freedom and safety were under threat for revealing the truth. My continued liberty has been owed to the efforts of friends new and old, family, and others who I have never met and probably never will. I trusted them with my life and they returned that trust with a faith in me for which I will always be thankful.
  On Thursday, President Obama declared before the world that he would not permit any diplomatic "wheeling and dealing" over my case. Yet now it is being reported that after promising not to do so, the President ordered his Vice President to pressure the leaders of nations from which I have requested protection to deny my asylum petitions.
  This kind of deception from a world leader is not justice, and neither is the extralegal penalty of exile. These are the old, bad tools of political aggression. Their purpose is to frighten, not me, but those who would come after me.
  For decades the United States of America has been one of the strongest defenders of the human right to seek asylum. Sadly, this right, laid out and voted for by the U.S. in Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is now being rejected by the current government of my country. The Obama administration has now adopted the strategy of using citizenship as a weapon. Although I am convicted of nothing, it has unilaterally revoked my passport, leaving me a stateless person. Without any judicial order, the administration now seeks to stop me exercising a basic right. A right that belongs to everybody. The right to seek asylum.
  In the end the Obama administration is not afraid of whistleblowers like me, Bradley Manning or Thomas Drake. We are stateless, imprisoned, or powerless. No, the Obama administration is afraid of you. It is afraid of an informed, angry public demanding the constitutional government it was promised '-- and it should be.
  I am unbowed in my convictions and impressed at the efforts taken by so many.
  Edward Joseph Snowden
  Monday 1st July 2013
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Article 14 ihrc
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  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 13:45
  Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
  This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
Edward Snowden breaks silence to threaten new U.S. leaks
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  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 13:41
  Edward Snowden breaks silence to threaten new U.S. leaksTop News
  Edward Snowden breaks silence to threaten new U.S. leaks
  Mon, Jul 01 18:22 PM EDT
  LONDON (Reuters) - Former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden has broken his silence for the first time since he fled to Moscow eight days ago to say he remains free to make new disclosures about U.S. spying activity.
  In a letter to Ecuador, Snowden said the United States was illegally persecuting him for revealing its electronic surveillance program, PRISM. He also thanked Ecuador for helping him get to Russia and for examining his asylum request.
  "I remain free and able to publish information that serves the public interest," Snowden said in an undated Spanish-language letter sent to President Rafael Correa of Ecuador, seen by Reuters.
  "No matter how many more days my life contains, I remain dedicated to the fight for justice in this unequal world. If any of those days ahead realize a contribution to the common good, the world will have the principles of Ecuador to thank," part of the text read, according to a translation.
  Snowden, who is believed to be holed up in the transit area of a Moscow airport, complained that the United States was illegally pursuing him for an act he said was in the public interest.
  "While the public has cried out support of my shining a light on this secret system of injustice, the Government of the United States of America responded with an extrajudicial man-hunt costing me my family, my freedom to travel, and my right to live peacefully without fear of illegal aggression," he wrote.
  (Reporting By Andrew Osborn; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
  Edward Snowden breaks silence to threaten new U.S. leaksTop News
  Edward Snowden breaks silence to threaten new U.S. leaks
  Mon, Jul 01 18:22 PM EDT
  LONDON (Reuters) - Former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden has broken his silence for the first time since he fled to Moscow eight days ago to say he remains free to make new disclosures about U.S. spying activity.
  In a letter to Ecuador, Snowden said the United States was illegally persecuting him for revealing its electronic surveillance program, PRISM. He also thanked Ecuador for helping him get to Russia and for examining his asylum request.
  "I remain free and able to publish information that serves the public interest," Snowden said in an undated Spanish-language letter sent to President Rafael Correa of Ecuador, seen by Reuters.
  "No matter how many more days my life contains, I remain dedicated to the fight for justice in this unequal world. If any of those days ahead realize a contribution to the common good, the world will have the principles of Ecuador to thank," part of the text read, according to a translation.
  Snowden, who is believed to be holed up in the transit area of a Moscow airport, complained that the United States was illegally pursuing him for an act he said was in the public interest.
  "While the public has cried out support of my shining a light on this secret system of injustice, the Government of the United States of America responded with an extrajudicial man-hunt costing me my family, my freedom to travel, and my right to live peacefully without fear of illegal aggression," he wrote.
  (Reporting By Andrew Osborn; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
Snowden Withdraws Russia Asylum Request, As Nine Countries Deny Application
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  Source: Zero Hedge
  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 13:36
  Things are turning from bad to worse for the real-life version of The Terminal's Edward Snowden, who a day after applying to 21 countries for political asylum has been flooded with rejection letters near and far, even as he was forced to cancel his application to his current host nation, Russia, after being told he would have to stop leaking secrets as a condition to stay. More from the FT: "The 30-year-old fugitive's options narrowed further on Tuesday when China reacted coolly to the idea of him moving there, Poland rejected an application and other European nations said asylum requests had to be made in the country."
  Of the 21 applicants listed yesterday, so far 9 countries have rejected his asylum status application. These include:
  AustriaBrazilEcuadorFinlandIndiaIrelandNorwayPolandSpainAnd with Russia now out of the running too, 10 out of 21 on the original list are out. The bulk of these countries rejected the application on a technicality, claiming that the applicant must be on their soil before he or she can be granted asylum status.
  The countries still remaining on the eligible list include:
  BoliviaChinaCubaFranceGermanyIcelandItalythe NetherlandsNicaraguaSwitzerlandVenezuelaOf the above 11 Venezuela appears to be his best bet: ''[Snowden] deserves the world's protection. He has not asked us for it yet. When he does we will give our answer,'' Venezuela's new president Mduro told Reuters during a visit to Moscow. ''We think this young person has done something very important for humanity, has done a favour to humanity, has spoken great truths to deconstruct a world that'‰.'‰.'‰.'‰is controlled by an imperialist American elite.'' Maduro added that his government had yet to receive a request, despite it being on the WikiLeaks list, but that he sympathised with the man wanted by Washington on spying charges.
  What is shocking is how quickly Snowden's original destination, Ecuador, flipped a U-turn on his request. One wonders just what revealing pictures of Maduro the NSA must have in its Utah facility.
  On Monday, Ecuador which appeared to be Mr Snowden's destination when he left Hong Kong 10 days ago, on Monday said it was no longer considering his request. ''It was a mistake on our part'' to have helped him travel to Russia,'' President Rafael Correa said in an interview with the Guardian newspaper.
  As for Russia:
  Dmitry Peskov, President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, told reporters on Tuesday that Mr Snowden ''has abandoned this idea and his request for permission to stay in Russia''.
  Mr Peskov said Russia had no plans to kick Mr Snowden out of Sheremetyevo airport where has been since June 23. ''The extradition of Snowden to such a country as the United States, which applies the death penalty, is impossible,'' he said.
  However, he suggested that Moscow was not anxious for Mr Snowden to stay, echoing comments on Monday by Mr Putin. ''Hypothetically, Snowden could stay in Russia but on one condition '' he must abandon his intentions to engage in any form of anti-American activity that could be damaging for the United States,'' Mr Peskov said.
  Finally, as for China:
  The Chinese government dodged questions about Mr Snowden's application on Tuesday. ''I have seen related reports, but I don't have any information on the issue,'' said Hua Chunying, foreign ministry spokeswoman.
  Mo Shaoping, a lawyer for Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, said he was not aware of asylum cases in China. ''As far as I know, China doesn't have laws in this area,'' he said.
  One wonders is Snowden's fate to return to the US, and face a lifetime in prison, if and when all of his purported future homelands give up on him?
  Average:Your rating: NoneAverage: 5(2 votes)
Dwave2
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  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 13:19
  D-Wave TwoTM Quantum Computer Selected for New Quantum Artificial Intelligence Initiative, System to be Installed at NASA's Ames Research Center, and Operational in Q3
  Burnaby, BC - Palo Alto, CA - May 16, 2013 - D-Wave Systems Inc., the world's first commercial quantum computing company, today announced that its new 512-qubit quantum computer, the D-Wave Two, will be installed at the new Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab, a collaboration among NASA, Google and the Universities Space Research Association (USRA). The purpose of this effort is to use quantum computing to advance machine learning in order to solve some of the most challenging computer science problems. Installation has already begun at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, and the system is expected to be available to researchers during Q3.
  Researchers at Google, NASA and USRA expect to use the D-Wave system to develop applications for a broad range of complex problems such as machine learning, web search, speech recognition, planning and scheduling, search for exoplanets, and support operations in mission control centers. Via USRA (www.usra.edu/quantum) the system will also be available to the broader U.S. academic community.
  "D-Wave has made significant strides in the technology, application and now commercialization of quantum computing," said said Steve Conway, IDC research vice president for high performance computing. "The order for a D-Wave Two system for the initiative launched by NASA, Google and USRA attests to the revolutionary potential of this fundamentally different approach to computing for both industry and government. HPC buyers and users are looking for ways to speed up their applications beyond what contemporary technologies can deliver. IDC believes organizations that depend on leading-edge technology would do well to begin exploring the possibilities for quantum computing."
  As part of the selection process, Google, NASA and USRA created a series of benchmark and acceptance tests that the new D-Wave 512-qubit system was required to pass before the installation at NASA Ames could proceed. In all cases, the D-Wave Two system met or exceeded the required performance specifications, in some cases by a large margin.
  "We are extremely pleased to make this announcement," stated Vern Brownell, CEO of D-Wave. "Three world class organizations and their research teams will use the D-Wave Two to develop real world applications and to support research from leading academic institutions. This joint effort shows that quantum computing has expanded beyond the theoretical realm and into the worlds of business and technology."
  About D-Wave Systems Inc.
  Founded in 1999, D-Wave's mission is to integrate new discoveries in physics and computer science into breakthrough approaches to computation. The company's flagship product, the 512-qubit D-Wave TwoTM computer, is built around a novel type of superconducting processor that uses quantum mechanics to massively accelerate computation. The NASA/Google/USRA installation marks a significant broadening of D-Wave's customer base, and comes on the heels of Lockheed-Martin's purchase of an upgrade of their 128-qubit D-Wave OneTM system to a 512-qubit D-Wave Two earlier in this year. With headquarters near Vancouver, Canada, the D-Wave U.S. offices are located in Palo Alto, California. D-Wave has a blue-chip investor base including Bezos Expeditions, Business Development Bank of Canada, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Goldman Sachs, Growthworks, Harris & Harris Group, In-Q-Tel, International Investment and Underwriting, and Kensington Partners Limited. For more information, visit: www.dwavesys.com or learn more at www.youtube.com/user/dwavesystems.
  This press release may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements.
  Quantum Computing Firm D-Wave Systems Launches U.S. Business; Industry Veteran Bo Ewald Will Lead U.S. Business and Global Customer Operations
  May 2, 2013
  Burnaby, BC - Milpitas, CA - May 2, 2013 - D-Wave Systems Inc., the world's first commercial quantum computing company, today announced the formal launch of its U.S. business. Industry expert and supercomputing veteran,Robert "Bo" Ewald will lead the U.S. business as President and will head up global customer operations as the company's Chief Revenue Officer. New offices and R&D facilities have opened in Palo Alto, California and others are expected in the near future.
  "Bo Ewald joining us is huge validation of our business," said Vern Brownell, CEO of D-Wave Systems Inc. "Bo is a legendary figure in the supercomputing industry. His knowledge and influence reach a wide array of sectors, where he has delivered state-of-the-art high performance solutions for research, defense and intelligence, energy, manufacturing, financial services and genomics. Throughout Bo's career he has been dedicated to helping organizations solve their most difficult challenges, which perfectly matches the mission of D-Wave. Today we launch our formal presence in the U.S. and will start to expand our business globally. It is gratifying to have Bo at the helm."
  "I've been in pioneering technology organizations for a long time with companies that did things that had never been done before and that allowed their customers to do the same," said Ewald. "The quantum computers being developed by D-Wave and the applications that will be used by our customers will be an even more revolutionary step than I've seen in the industry. People will be able to solve problems that they can only dream about today, on systems that are turning science fiction into science fact."
  Ewald joins an executive team that recently added another Silicon Valley corporate trailblazer, Steve Cakebread, as D-Wave's CFO and Chief Administrative Officer. Prior to joining D-Wave Cakebread had been the CFO of Pandora, and previously held the positions of President and CFO of Salesforce.com. Cakebread and Ewald worked together previously at Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI).
  Ewald brings a long history with other pioneering technology organizations to D-Wave. He was at visualization and HPC leader SGI twice, most recently as CEO, and had a number of roles at supercomputing leader Cray Research including President, COO and CTO. Ewald has led several start-up companies as CEO/Chairman including Linux Networx, e-Stamp, and most recently Perceptive Pixel. He started his career at the Los Alamos National Laboratory working on computer graphics and high performance computing and ran the Computing Division at the laboratory for several years. He has served on the Boards of Directors of several public and private companies and has participated on many industry and government panels and committees, including being appointed by the White House to the President's Information Technology Advisory Council.
  ###
  About D-Wave Systems Inc.
  Founded in 1999, D-Wave's mission is to integrate new discoveries in physics and computer science into breakthrough new approaches to computation. The company's flagship product, the D-Wave OneTM, is built around a novel type of superconducting processor that uses quantum mechanics to massively accelerate computation. In 2010 Lockheed Martin purchased serial number 1, completing the historic world's first sale of a commercial quantum computer. With headquarters near Vancouver, Canada, its U.S. offices, as well as its superconducting chip foundry, are located in Silicon Valley. D-Wave has a blue-chip investor base including Business Development Bank of Canada, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Goldman Sachs, Growthworks, Harris & Harris Group, International Investment and Underwriting, Kensington Partners Limited. Gartner Group analysts named D-Wave 2012 Cool Vendor in High-Performance Computing and Extreme-Low-Energy Servers.
  For more information, visit: www.dwavesys.com
  Media contact: Janice Odell - 415.738.2165 - jan@fordodell.com
  This press release may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements.
  D-Wave Systems, Inc., the World's First Commercial Quantum Computing Company, Secures $30 Million in a New Equity Round From Investors Including Bezos Expeditions and In-Q-Tel
  Accelerates Company's Commercial Operations, Customer Solutions Capabilities
  October 4th, 2012
  Burnaby, BC - Milpitas, CA - October 4, 2012 - D-Wave Systems, Inc. today announced that it has closed a $30 million round of equity funding. Bezos Expeditions and In-Q-Tel (IQT) have joined the investment round. Bezos Expeditions is the personal investment company of Jeff Bezos. IQT is the strategic investment firm that delivers innovative technology solutions in support of the missions of the U.S. Intelligence Community.
  "We are pleased to have such highly regarded investors in our company," stated Vern Brownell, CEO of D-Wave. "Jeff Bezos and In-Q-Tel are well-known visionaries. Both understand the implications of quantum computing as a world changing force, and these investments affirm their belief in D-Wave's unique approach to quantum computing. We want to thank our current investors for their abiding support. With these funds, we are accelerating our trajectory, putting this technology and its applications into the hands of users."
  Bezos Expeditions and IQT join current D-Wave investors, including Business Development Bank of Canada, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Goldman Sachs, Growthworks, Harris & Harris Group, International Investment and Underwriting, and Kensington Partners Limited.
  D-Wave will use the new funding to augment its commercial operations and further increase its capabilities to provide solutions to its customers. This added capital allows D-Wave to pursue its growth strategy with the intention of making a difference to their customers' mission objectives. Those objectives are central to D-Wave technological innovation and quantum computing applications development. "Our Intelligence Community customers have many complex problems that tax classical computing architecture," stated Robert Ames, Vice President in charge of Information and Communication Technologies at IQT, "We believe our customers can benefit from the promise of quantum computing, and this investment in D-Wave is a first step in that direction."
  ###
  About D-Wave Systems Inc.
  Founded in 1999, D-Wave's mission is to integrate new discoveries in physics and computer science into breakthrough new approaches to computation. The company's flagship product, the D-Wave OneTM, is built around a novel type of superconducting processor that uses quantum mechanics to massively accelerate computation. In 2010 Lockheed Martin purchased serial number 1, completing the historic world's first sale of a commercial quantum computer. With headquarters near Vancouver, Canada, its U.S. offices, as well as its superconducting chip foundry, are located in Silicon Valley. D-Wave has a blue-chip investor base including Business Development Bank of Canada, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Goldman Sachs, Growthworks, Harris & Harris Group, International Investment and Underwriting, Kensington Partners Limited. Gartner Group analysts named D-Wave 2012 Cool Vendor in High-Performance Computing and Extreme-Low-Energy Servers.
  For more information, visit: www.dwavesys.com
  Media contact: Janice Odell - 415.738.2165 - jan@fordodell.com
  This press release may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements.
  Harvard Researchers Use D-Wave Quantum Computer to Fold Proteins
  Paper published in Nature Scientific Reports shows that optimization problems in biophysics can be solved with a quantum computer
  August 14th, 2012
  Burnaby, BC - Milpitas, CA - August 14, 2012 - In a paper published yesterday in Nature Scientific Reports, http://www.nature.com/srep/index.html, a team of Harvard University researchers, led by Professor Alan Aspuru-Guzik, presented results of the largest protein folding problem solved to date using a quantum computer. The researchers ran instances of a lattice protein folding model, known as the Miyazawa-Jernigan model, on a D-Wave OneTM quantum computer.
  "It's gratifying to see that our machine can be used to serve the scientific community in this way," stated Dr. Geordie Rose, D-Wave CTO and Founder.
  "The D-Wave computer found the ground-state conformation of six-amino acid lattice protein models. This is the first time a quantum device has been used to tackle optimization problems related to the natural sciences," said Professor Aln Aspuru-Guzik from the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University.
  Proteins contribute to virtually every process that occurs within a cell. The shape of a protein is closely related to its function. Understanding the shape of a protein helps researchers understand how it behaves, accelerating advances in many different areas of life sciences, including drug and vaccine design.
  A cornerstone of computational biophysics, lattice protein folding models provide useful insight into the energy landscapes of real proteins. Understanding these landscapes, and how real proteins fold into the shapes that help give them their function, is an extremely difficult problem for today's computers to solve.
  Dr. Alejandro Perdomo-Ortiz, the lead author of the paper, stated that: "Knowing that we can use real quantum computers to solve hard problems in biology is an exciting and important result. The techniques developed in this report can also be used to tackle other biophysical problems such as molecular recognition, protein design, and sequence alignment."
  ###
  About D-Wave Systems Inc.
  Founded in 1999, D-Wave's mission is to integrate new discoveries in physics and computer science into breakthrough new approaches to computation. The company's flagship product, the D-Wave OnTM, is built around a novel type of superconducting processor that uses quantum mechanics to massively accelerate computation. In 2010 Lockheed Martin purchased serial number 1, completing the historic world's first sale of a commercial quantum computer. With headquarters near Vancouver, Canada, its U.S. offices, as well as its superconducting chip foundry, are located in Silicon Valley. D Wave has a blue-chip investor base including Business Development Bank of Canada, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Goldman Sachs, Growthworks, Harris & Harris Group, International Investment and Underwriting, Kensington Partners Limited. Gartner Group analysts named D-Wave 2012 Cool Vendor in High-Performance Computing and Extreme-Low-Energy Servers.
  For more information, visit: www.dwavesys.com
  Media contact: Janice Odell - 415.738.2165 - jan@fordodell.com
  This press release may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements.
  Quantum Computing Pioneer D-Wave Inks Deal with Cloud Platform Leader PiCloud
  June 28th, 2012
  San Francisco, CA - June 28, 2012 - PiCloud, the leader in providing easy access to conventional computing power on the cloud, and D Wave Systems Inc., the leader in commercial quantum computing technology, have announced a formal development partnership. Projects are underway to integrate the two companies' technologies.
  "PiCloud is a cloud computing platform dedicated to giving every developer, scientist, and engineer in the world a supercomputer at their fingertips," stated PiCloud co-Founder Ken Elkabany.
  The partnership will align the two companies' development goals. D-Wave's development library will be integrated with PiCloud's cloud platform to give developers easy remote access to both quantum and conventional computing power from within the same framework. With the thousands of cores that can be leveraged on-demand with PiCloud, developers will be able to access a new type of supercomputing / quantum computing hybrid capability from anywhere with Internet access.
  "Because of the exotic nature of our technology, it was designed from the ground up to be used remotely. This remote access model works beautifully with PiCloud's cloud computing platform. As a developer, you can send parts of your code to the conventional cloud, and parts to D-Wave quantum computers, and the result is a tool that provides access to a new type of high performance computer that has never existed before," said D-Wave Founder and CTO Dr. Geordie Rose.
  "D-Wave was a natural fit for PiCloud," said Elkabany, "as we operate in some of the same market spaces, such as financial modeling, defense systems, biological modeling and image analysis. We share the same vision of making all of the world?s compute capability - be it conventional or quantum - easily accessible."
  D-Wave's quantum computing technology is designed to excel at machine learning and optimization problems. These types of problems naturally arise in "Big Data" applications where enormous amounts of data must be handled and processed. The classical computing power that PiCloud provides allows aspects of handling Big Data to be done using conventional cloud techniques, while specialized, highly complex tasks can be run on D-Wave hardware.
  "One very interesting application of such hybrid systems is in large-scale machine learning, where data volumes are vast, and the learning process requires solution of large numbers of combinatorial optimization problems," said Dr. Suzanne Gildert, Applications Strategist for D-Wave. "This allows all of the best practices currently used for handling and processing large data volumes to continue to be used, but now with a specialized hardware system designed to solve the hard combinatorial nuggets that conventional computers can't deal with."
  ###
  About D-Wave Systems Inc.
  D-Wave is working to radically change what it is possible to do with computers. Founded in 1999, D-Wave's mission is to integrate new discoveries in physics and computer science into breakthrough new approaches to computation. The company's flagship product, the D-Wave One, is built around a novel type of superconducting processor that uses quantum mechanics to massively accelerate computation. In 2010 Lockheed Martin purchased serial number 1, completing the historic world's first sale of a quantum computer. With headquarters near Vancouver, Canada, its U.S. offices, as well as its superconducting chip foundry, are located in Silicon Valley. D Wave has a blue-chip investor base including Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Harris & Harris Group, Goldman Sachs, International Investment and Underwriting, Growthworks, Kensington Partners Limited, and Business Development Bank of Canada. In 2011, the company created a dedicated applications team to put quantum computers to work solving industry-scale machine learning and optimization problems. Gartner Group analysts named D-Wave 2012 Cool Vendor in High-Performance Computing and Extreme-Low-Energy Servers.
  For more information, visit: www.dwavesys.comMedia contact: Janice Odell - 415. 738.2165 - jan@fordodell.com
  About PiCloud, Inc.
  PiCloud's mission is to democratize computing power around the globe. Founded in 2009, and based in San Francisco, CA, PiCloud has processed over 100 million units of computation for thousands of customers worldwide. PiCloud is backed by an exceptional list of investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and Greylock Partners. PiCloud has been named by Gartner as a Cool Vendor in Application Platforms as a Service.
  For more information, visit: www.picloud.comMedia contact: PR@picloud.com
  Colin P. Williams, Noted Quantum Computing Expert, Author, Scientist and Lecturer Joins D-Wave Systems Inc.
  June 14th, 2012
  Burnaby, BC - Milpitas, CA - June 14, 2012 - D-Wave Systems Inc., the world's first commercial quantum computing company, today announced that quantum computing expert Dr. Colin P. Williams has accepted a role with the company. Serving in a variety of capacities, his title will be Director, Business Development and Strategic Partnerships.
  Dr. Williams authored Explorations in Quantum Computing in 1999, one of the first textbooks on the subject. "I first learned what quantum computers were from that book," said Dr. Geordie Rose, co-founder and CTO of D-Wave. "Colin got me hooked on the idea that building these machines was a social imperative - it was important and needed to be done."
  Prior to joining D-Wave, Dr. Williams was Senior Research Scientist (SRS) and Program Manager for Advanced Computing Paradigms at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. Earlier as an Acting Associate Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University, he taught courses on Quantum Computing and Quantum Communications, and computer-based mathematics.
  Eric Ladizinsky, D-Wave co-founder and Chief Scientist, shared his own, separate connection: "In 2003, I was invited to talk at Stanford about the current state of quantum computing research. Colin knew about D-Wave and introduced me to Geordie. Without Colin, that connection might never have been made, and quantum computing would still be at the level of a handful of qubits without any idea how to scale them up to useful sizes."
  Dr. Williams served as research assistant to Professor Stephen Hawking at Cambridge University. He earned his PhD in artificial intelligence from Edinburgh University, Scotland, in 1989. He holds a bachelor's degree in mathematical physics from Nottingham University and a master's degree in atmospheric physics and dynamics from London University/Imperial College of Science and Technology. His primary research interests have been quantum computing, computational phase transitions, and artificial intelligence.
  "This position is one I accepted after a great deal of consideration," stated Dr. Williams. "The path that D-Wave chose to build quantum computers is unconventional and brilliant. I am convinced that it is the correct approach - and the method to bring this work into the field. Customer use and developer programming are taking place now. This is far ahead of where we would be had the founders taken another path."
  In addition to Explorations in Quantum Computing, Dr. Williams has several published works that include, Ultimate Zero and One: Computing at the Quantum Frontier; Mathematica: A Practical Approach (second edition); CalcLabs with Mathematica; as well as dozens of scientific papers. He was guest editor for a special issue of Artificial Intelligence Journal on the topic of computational phase transitions.
  About D-Wave Systems Inc.
  D-Wave was founded in 1999. With headquarters near Vancouver, Canada, its U.S. offices, as well as its superconducting chip foundry, are located in Silicon Valley. D-Wave has a blue-chip investor base including, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Harris & Harris Group, Goldman Sachs, International Investment and Underwriting, Growthworks, Kensington Partners Limited, and Business Development Bank of Canada. The company currently owns 82 granted U.S. patents and more than 100 pending patent applications worldwide. The company's scientific and engineering workforce includes 27 PhDs and 13 MScs. In 2011, the company created a dedicated applications team to put quantum computers to work solving industry-scale machine learning and optimization problems. Gartner Group analysts named D-Wave 2012 Cool Vendor in High-Performance Computing and Extreme-Low-Energy Servers.
  For more information, visit: www.dwavesys.com
  Media contact: Janice Odell, 415-738-2165, jan@fordodell.com
  This press release may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements.
  Featured article in WIRED: First Quantum Cloud
  February 22nd, 2012
  Please see this link for more infomation: D-Wave Defies World of Critics With 'First Quantum Cloud'
  Feature article in the Financial Post
  November 21st, 2011
  Please see this link for more infomation: D-Wave's Geordie Rose named Canadian Innovator of the Year
  D-Wave featured in the Wall Street Journal
  October 31st, 2011
  Please see this link for more information: A Quantum Leap for a Big, Cold Computer
  USC To Establish First Operational Quantum Computing System at an Academic Institution
  October 28th, 2011
  With the construction of a new quantum computing center at its Information Sciences Institute campus in Marina del Rey, USC charts a new course into the future of computing.
  WHAT: USC; Lockheed Martin, Inc.; and D-Wave Systems, Inc. will officially unveil the first commercial and operational quantum computer academic center at USC Viterbi School of Engineering's Information Sciences Institute.
  WHO: Dr. Ray Johnson, CTO, Lockheed Martin Dr. Daniel Lidar, Director, USC-Lockheed Martin Quantum Computing CenterDr. Geordie Rose, Founder and CTO, D-WaveVern Brownell, President and CEO, D-Wave
  WHEN: Friday, October 28, at 10:00 A.M.
  WHERE: USC Viterbi School of Engineering,Information Sciences Institute4676 Admiralty Way, Suite 11th FloorMarina del Rey, CA 90292Validated parking provided, entry off Admiralty Way
  ABOUT: Continuing its rich history with pioneering advances in high-performance computing and the Internet, USC is now exploring the promising future of quantum computing. Invoking superconducting technology, USC has constructed a high-fidelity computing center to house D-Wave's revolutionary quantum computing chip, recently purchased by Lockheed Martin and provided to USC for its applicability to information technology. USC and Lockheed Martin will work synergistically to explore the potential of the chip, which is at the cutting edge of technological advances.
  The D-Wave chip has 128 quantum bits (or 'qubits') which have the capability of encoding the two digits of one and zero at the same time - as opposed to traditional bits, which distinctly encode either a one or a zero. This property, called 'superposition', will allow quantum computing systems to perform complicated calculations exponentially faster than traditional computers. With the construction of the multi-million dollar quantum computing center, USC now has the infrastructure in place to support future generations of quantum computer chips, positioning the school and its partners at the forefront of quantum computing research.
  "The USC Lockheed Martin Quantum Computing Center will open new windows into the fascinating world of quantum computing," said USC Viterbi Dean Yannis C. Yortsos. "It will help advance our understanding of the potential of this new technology and provide a new paradigm in the quest for faster and more secure computing."
  CONTACT:Katie Dunhamknd@usc.edu(213) 821-5555
  About the Viterbi School of Engineering: Engineering Studies began at the University of Southern California in 1905. Nearly a century later, the Viterbi School of Engineering received a naming gift in 2004 from alumnus Andrew J. Viterbi, inventor of the Viterbi algorithm now key to cell phone technology and numerous data applications. Consistently ranked among the top graduate programs in the world, the school enrolls more than 2,100 undergraduate students and 4,200 graduate students, taught by 168 tenured and tenure-track faculty, with 50 endowed chairs and professorships. For more information, please visit http://viterbi.usc.edu
  D-Wave Systems sells its first Quantum Computing System to Lockheed Martin Corporation
  May 25th, 2011
  VANCOUVER, BC, MAY 25, 2011 - Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE: LMT) has entered into an agreement to purchase a quantum computing system from D-Wave Systems Inc.
  Lockheed Martin and D-Wave will collaborate to realize the benefits of a computing platform based upon a quantum annealing processor, as applied to some of Lockheed Martin's most challenging computation problems. The multi-year contract includes a system, maintenance and associated professional services.
  D-Wave develops computing systems that leverage the physics of quantum mechanics in order to address problems that are hard for traditional methods to solve in a cost-effective amount of time. Examples of such problems include software verification and validation, financial risk analysis, affinity mapping and sentiment analysis, object recognition in images, medical imaging classification, compressed sensing and bioinformatics. D-Wave develops an architecture that is optimized for working with such problems.
  "D-Wave is thrilled to establish a strategic relationship with Lockheed Martin Corporation," said Vern Brownell, D-Wave's President and Chief Executive Officer. "Our combined strength will provide capacity for innovation needed to tackle important unresolved computational problems of today and tomorrow. Our relationship will allow us to significantly advance the potential of quantum computing."
  D-Wave was featured May 11, 2011 in the prestigious British scientific journal Nature, where its research on quantum annealing was published.
  Lockheed Martin is a global security company with headquarters in Bethesda, Md.
  D-Wave's mission is to build quantum computing systems that help solve humanity's most challenging problems. It strives to use the deepest insights of physics and computer science to design new types of computers capable of taking on the world's hardest and most important challenges.
  Working with Fortune 500 companies, governments and academia, D-Wave helps to craft solutions to problems where data volume and complexity are overwhelming. Applying D-Wave's unique quantum computing technology, the company aims to dramatically improve results through better understanding and insights.
  Vancouver, Canada-based D-Wave Systems reports on quantum processor in Nature Magazine
  May 12th, 2011
  VANCOUVER, B.C., CANADA - Scientists at D-Wave Systems Inc. of Vancouver have reported the results of experiments designed to test the role quantum mechanics plays in how a new type of processor solves problems, in an article published in the May 12 edition of the prestigious British scientific journal, Nature.
  Fabricated using standard integrated circuit processes, the processors tested contained 128 superconducting flux qubits and 24,000 devices known as Josephson junctions, making them among the most complex superconducting circuits ever built. Designed to solve optimization and sampling problems, the processors have been successfully used in a variety of tasks including financial risk analysis, bioinformatics, affinity mapping and sentiment analysis, object recognition in images, medical imaging classification and compressed sensing.
  "We've known for some time that these processors are extremely effective at solving the problems they were designed to solve, but this is the first time we've been able to open up the black box and show how they are harnessing quantum mechanics in solving those problems," said Dr. Geordie Rose, D-Wave's Chief Technology Officer.
  The scientists focused on a block of circuitry, known as a unit cell, within a processor. The unit cell, one of 16 on the chip studied, comprised eight superconducting flux qubits and 1,500 Josephson junctions. The researchers took a series of 'snapshots' of the behaviour of the unit cell as it underwent a computation, and showed that by using the high degree of control built into the integrated circuit, quantum effects could be precisely controlled as desired by a programmer in order to accelerate computation.
  Dr. Mark Johnson, the lead scientist on the project, said: "We're very excited to see the remarkable agreement between what quantum mechanics predicts, and what we see in these circuits."
  About D-Wave:
  D-Wave's mission is to build quantum computing systems that help solve humanity's most challenging problems. We strive to use the deepest insights of physics and computer science to design new types of computers capable of taking on the world's hardest and most important challenges.
  Working with Fortune 500 companies, governments and academia, D-Wave helps to craft solutions to problems where data volume and complexity are overwhelming. Applying D-Wave's unique quantum computing technology, we aim to dramatically improve our customers' results through better understanding and insights.
  2011 Technology Impact Award Finalists Announced - BC Companies Making Their Mark on the World
  May 2nd, 2011
  VANCOUVER, B.C., CANADA - Today the BC Technology Industry Association (BCTIA) announced the finalists for the 2011 Technology Impact Awards (TIAs). Under the awards theme of 'BC's Mark on the World', the 2011 finalists reaffirm British Columbia's status as a global leaders in clean energy and innovative software solutions, including mobile computing.
  "This year we find ourselves celebrating companies who have made substantial gains in technology and market development during one of the most trying business environments in the past 70 years," observed Pascal Spothelfer, President and CEO of the BCTIA. "This year's finalists demonstrate the breadth and depth of the engineering talent found in British Columbia and our ability to attract some of the best and brightest in the world", Spothelfer added. "They have continued the trend of BC companies creating solutions that are benefiting people and companies around the world."
  The finalists represent a broad range of technologies including enterprise, mobile and social media software; power electronics, imaging and microprocessor hardware, including quantum processing; and unique lighting and hybrid Stirling/Thermoacoustic devices. Their solutions can be found in a number of environments including healthcare, retail, financial services, research labs, telecommunications, green building and power utilities.
  The Technology Impact Awards are broken into three groups: Technology Awards, Company Awards, and Personal Recognition Awards. D-Wave was amongst the chosen finalists in the "Excellence in Product Innovation" category.
  BCTIA awards page
Quantum Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (QuAIL)
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 13:16
  The NAS facility hosts the Quantum Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, a collaboration among NASA, Google, and Universities Space Research Association (USRA) to explore the potential for quantum computers to tackle optimization problems that are difficult or impossible for traditional supercomputers to handle.
  The laboratory will house a 512-qubit D-Wave Two quantum computer, which is being installed at the NAS facility on the NASA Ames campus. The facility has been extensively retrofitted to provide isolation from noise and vibration, as well as the infrastructure required to cool the system to its near-absolute-zero operating temperature. The installation team will put the system through a series of rigorous calibration and acceptance tests, and is planned to be operational in early fall 2013.
  After the D-Wave Two is operational, NASA researchers will use it to investigate areas where quantum algorithms might someday dramatically improve the agency's ability to solve difficult optimization problems in aeronautics, Earth and space sciences, and space exploration. Applications relevant to NASA include machine learning, pattern recognition, mission planning and scheduling, distributed navigation and coordination, and system diagnostics and anomaly detection.
  05.23.13 '' The physical assembly of the computer is nearly complete, and work on the cryogenics system has begun.
  05.17.13 '' Final preparations of the NAS facility for the quantum computer were completed this week, and the installation team began unpacking a dozen shipping crates that hold the system components.
Russ on NPR
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  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 06:19
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Oklahoma jobless rate inches up to 5 percent | NewsOK.com
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Tue, 02 Jul 2013 05:48
  BY JAY F. MARKS jmarks@opubco.com
  For the first time in nearly a year, Oklahoma's jobless rate increased in May.
  Oklahoma's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 5 percent last month, up 0.1 percentage points.
  It was the first time the state reported an increase in its jobless rate since July 2012, according to the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission, but the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate still dropped slightly over the same point last year.
  Lynn Gray, the commission's chief economist, said the numbers are a sign that Oklahoma's ongoing job growth is slowing.
  ''It's not a great report,'' Gray said, but there are positives. ''Over the year, we're still adding jobs. Unemployment is still quite low.''
  Oklahoma remains well below the U.S. unemployment rate, which rose 0.1 percentage points in May to 7.6 percent.
  Thirty-three states saw unemployment rates fall last month, while Oklahoma was among 17 to post an increase. Eight others were unchanged.
  33 states add jobs
  Hiring has been steady nationwide, leading to a better job market in many areas of the country. Employers added jobs in 33 states last month. The biggest gains were in Ohio, Texas and Michigan.
  Oklahoma's leisure and hospitality sector showed the strongest growth in May, adding 3,400 jobs and accounting for almost all of Oklahoma's job growth. The trade, transportation and utilities sector lost 3,000 jobs during the month.
VIDEO-National Security Agency PRISM Surveillance Program - C-SPAN Video Library
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  Mon, 01 Jul 2013 19:49
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  Panelists talked about PRISM, the National Security Agency's (NSA) program for electronic surveillance and data collection within the U.S., and the impact of leaks by former CIA consultant Edward .. Read MorePanelists talked about PRISM, the National Security Agency's (NSA) program for electronic surveillance and data collection within the U.S., and the impact of leaks by former CIA consultant Edward Snowden.'‚''A Discussion of Data Surveillance, PRISM, Snowden and the NSA'' was part of the series of CSIS-Schieffer School Dialogues, monthly discussions held at CSIS and hosted by Bob Schieffer on public policy and the media.'‚The series is a partnership between CSIS and The Schieffer School of Journalism at TCU in Fort Worth, Texas, made possible with support by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation.
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Germans Loved Obama. Now We Don't Trust Him. - NYTimes.com
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Mon, 01 Jul 2013 19:46
  BERLIN '-- IN May 2010, I received a brown envelope. In it was a CD with an encrypted file containing six months of my life. Six months of metadata, stored by my cellphone provider, T-Mobile. This list of metadata contained 35,830 records. That's 35,830 times my phone company knew if, where and when I was surfing the Web, calling or texting.
  The truth is that phone companies have this data on every customer. I got mine because, in 2009, I filed a suit against T-Mobile for the release of all the data on me that had been gathered and stored. The reason this information had been preserved for six months was because of Germany's implementation of a 2006 European Union directive.
  All of this data had to be kept so that law enforcement agencies could gain access to it. That meant that the metadata of 80 million Germans was being stored, without any concrete suspicions and without cause.
  This ''preventive measure'' was met with huge opposition in Germany. Lawyers, journalists, doctors, unions and civil liberties activists started to protest. In 2008, almost 35,000 people signed on to a constitutional challenge to the law. In Berlin, tens of thousands of people took to the streets to protest data retention. In the end, the Constitutional Court ruled that the implementation of the European Union directive was, in fact, unconstitutional.
  In Germany, whenever the government begins to infringe on individual freedom, society stands up. Given our history, we Germans are not willing to trade in our liberty for potentially better security. Germans have experienced firsthand what happens when the government knows too much about someone. In the past 80 years, Germans have felt the betrayal of neighbors who informed for the Gestapo and the fear that best friends might be potential informants for the Stasi. Homes were tapped. Millions were monitored.
  Although these two dictatorships, Nazi and Communist, are gone and we now live in a unified and stable democracy, we have not forgotten what happens when secret police or intelligence agencies disregard privacy. It is an integral part of our history and gives young and old alike a critical perspective on state surveillance systems.
  When Wolfgang Sch¤uble, the interior minister from 2005 to 2009, pushed for the implementation of the data-retention law, Germans remembered the Stasi's blatant disregard for privacy, as portrayed in the 2006 film ''The Lives of Others.'' They recalled their visits to the Hohensch¶nhausen district of Berlin, the site of the former Stasi detention center.
  They were reminded of the stories of their grandparents, about the fear-mongering agents in the Gestapo. This is why Mr. Sch¤uble's portrait was often tagged provocatively with the phrase ''Stasi 2.0.''
  Lots of young Germans have a commitment not only to fight against fascism but also to stand up for their own individual freedom. Germans of all ages want to live freely without having to worry about being monitored by private companies or the government, especially in the digital sphere.
  That was my motivation for publishing the metadata I received from T-Mobile. Together with Zeit Online, the online edition of the weekly German newspaper Die Zeit, I published an infographic of six months of my life for all to see. With these 35,830 pieces of data, you can follow my travels across Germany, you can see when I went to sleep and woke up, a trail further enriched with public information from my social networking sites: six months of my life viewable for everybody to see what exactly is possible with ''just metadata.''
  Three weeks ago, when the news broke about the National Security Agency's collection of metadata in the United States, I knew exactly what it meant. My records revealed the movements of a single individual; now imagine if you had access to millions of similar data sets. You could easily draw maps, tracing communication and movement. You could see which individuals, families or groups were communicating with one another. You could identify any social group and determine its major actors.
  All of this is possible without knowing the specific content of a conversation, just technical information '-- the sender and recipient, the time and duration of the call and the geolocation data.
  With Edward J. Snowden's important revelations fresh in our minds, Germans were eager to hear President Obama's recent speech in Berlin. But the Barack Obama who spoke in front of the Brandenburg Gate to a few thousand people on June 19 looked a lot different from the one who spoke in front of the Siegess¤ule in July 2008 in front of more than 200,000 people, who had gathered in the heart of Berlin to listen to Mr. Obama, then running for president. His political agenda as a candidate was a breath of fresh air compared with that of George W. Bush. Mr. Obama aimed to close the Guantnamo Bay detention camp, end mass surveillance in the so-called war on terror and defend individual freedom.
  But the senator who promised to shut Guantnamo is now a second-term president who is still fighting for its closure. And the events of the past few weeks concerning the collection of metadata and private e-mail and social-media content have made many Germans further question Mr. Obama's proclaimed commitment to the individual freedoms we hold dear.
  DURING Mr. Obama's presidency, no American political debate has received as much attention in Germany as the N.S.A. Prism program. People are beginning to second-guess the belief that digital communication stays private. It changes both our perception of communication and our trust in Mr. Obama.
  Even as a Green Party politician, I wasn't impressed with Mr. Obama's focus on fighting global warming. While his renewed enthusiasm is appreciated, it served as a distraction from the criticism he is currently facing for allowing invasive state surveillance. He cannot simply change the subject.
  His speech caused many Germans to question whether Americans actually share our understanding of the right balance between liberty and security. In the past, we celebrated the fact that both countries valued this balance, and there was huge solidarity with America after 9/11.
  But the policy decisions of the Bush administration after the attacks '-- from waterboarding to Guantnamo '-- appalled Germans. We were shocked to see this mutual understanding disappear. Now we are not sure where Mr. Obama stands.
  When courts and judges negotiate secretly, when direct data transfers occur without limits, when huge data storage rather than targeted pursuit of individuals becomes the norm, all sense of proportionality and accountability is lost.
  While our respective security services still need to collaborate on both sides of the Atlantic to pursue and prevent organized crime and terrorism, it must be done in a way that strengthens civil liberties and does not reduce them. Although we would like to believe in the Mr. Obama we once knew, the trust and credibility he enjoyed in Germany have been undermined. The challenge we face is to once again find shared values, so that trust between our countries is restored.
  Perhaps instead of including a quote from James Madison in his speech, arguing that ''No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare,'' Mr. Obama should have been reminded of the quote from another founding father, Benjamin Franklin, when he said, ''They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.''
  Malte Spitz is a member of the German Green Party's executive committee and a candidate for the Bundestag in the September national election.
Israel Hayom | 'Even if you give up all the land, it won't solve the problems in the Mideast'
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  Mon, 01 Jul 2013 19:46
  There is something dignified in the quiet, determined manner of Ayaan Hirsi Ali as she rises from the audience and walks towards the podium to deliver her lecture. Ayaan Hirsi Ali's intricate history starts in Somalia, where she was born to a Muslim family. At the age of five she underwent female genital mutilation. By her teens she was a devout Muslim. In her early twenties, upon learning of plans for an undesirable arranged marriage, she made her way to Holland, where she applied for asylum. Hirsi Ali studied at Leiden University and began publishing critical articles about Islam, the condition of the Muslim woman, and so forth.
  She wrote the script for the Dutch movie "Submission" for director Theo van Gogh, who was subsequently murdered by a Muslim assassin. Hirsi Ali joined the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy and in 2003 was elected to the Dutch parliament. A few years later she moved to the United States, where she became a researcher at the American Enterprise Institute. She published some books; notably, an autobiography titled "Infidel" that became an international bestseller. Already in 2005, Time magazine named Hirsi Ali among the 100 most influential people in the world. The internet abounds with information about her, with articles and videos of her lectures.
  She is doubly courageous: in her stand against Islam, leading to threats on her life, and vis a vis the Western liberal elite, which disapproves of criticism of multiculturalism and the blindness afflicting Western society in grasping the strategic threat to its existence as a free society.
  Ayaan Hirsi Ali was visiting Israel for the recent Presidential Conference in Jerusalem.
  Israel Hayom: In your lectures you made numerous references to the situation in the Middle East. You claim that people in the West do not understand that what is taking place in the Middle East is not a dialogue.
  Ayaan Hirsi Ali: More than one issue is at stake here. Regarding the Israeli-Palestinian context, the main problem is that you may speak of a peace process, but what you get is a process, not peace. And why is this process so prolonged? Because for the Israelis this issue is a territorial problem. For the Palestinian negotiators, on the other hand, it is not a territorial problem but a religious and ethnic one, It is not only about Palestinians but about all Arabs. Most of all, it is a religious problem.
  From the perspective of the Arab leaders, reaching a two-state solution is to betray God, the Koran, the hadith and the tradition of Islam.
  Israel Hayom: Even though they are portrayed as secular?
  Ayaan Hirsi Ali: The presumption that the Palestinian negotiators are secular is not supported by facts. Were they secular, there would already be a settled territorial agreement of some kind. But there is no agreement as of today, because on one side it has become religious jihad of all or nothing, while on the other side it is still a territorial issue. Of course I know that there are Israelis who also perceive this as a religious problem; but their numbers pale in comparison to the Muslim side. Reaching a settlement that brings about two states is a religious betrayal -- not only for the leadership but for most Muslims today. The West does not understand this.
  Israel Hayom: Why? After the many years you have lived in the West, how can you explain this?
  The conception of religion in the West in the 20th and 21st century differs from that of Middle Eastern Muslims. The West successfully separated religion and politics, but even in places in the West where there is no distinct separation, still the concept of God and religion, even in the 13th or 15th century, differs to the current reality in the Middle East.
  Islam is an Orthopraxy, Islam has a goal. So if you are a true Muslim, you must fight for that goal. You can achieve a temporary peace or truce, but it is not ultimate, not everlasting. It is not just about the territory. Because the territory does not belong to the people; it belongs to God. So for a Palestinian leader -- even if he is secular, even an atheist -- to leave the negotiating room with the announcement of a two-state solution would mean that he would be killed the minute he walks out.
  Israel Hayom: Many wise people come here advising us Israelis to act rationally. Do you think this dispute has anything to do with rationalism?
  Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Europeans and Americans -- and I do not refer merely to the leadership, but to people in general -- when they have a problem, they think there must be some kind of compromise on the table. What they cannot accept is that one party would say "the only rational outcome is our complete victory." If you put aside the Israeli-Palestinian situation, you see components of this culture in the events in Syria, in Lebanon. You've seen it with Mubarak. There is a winner and there is a loser. But there cannot be two winners.
  Israel Hayom: So the proposal of compromise stems from naivety?
  Ayaan Hirsi Ali: You can give it any label you like. I have listened to someone like Tony Blair, I was in two or three conferences where he spoke, and he is not na¯ve anymore, he is not the same man he was ten years ago in regards to this conflict. More and more leaders see that this conflict is not going to be resolved Western-style, namely that all conflicts are resolvable and no-one leaves the table empty-handed.
  In a culture dictated by honor and shame - in addition to the religious issue - defeat of any kind, accepting a compromise, is to leave the room empty-handed. Compromise is loss in this culture. It is very hard to explain this to contemporary Westerners.
  Israel Hayom: Many liberals around the world, who support the compromise solution, also tend to blame Israel.
  Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Many liberals perceive Israel to be one of their kind; another liberal, white, rational state, etc. Therefore they expect you to approach matters the way they would. But then they approach the subject in the context of the U.S. or Europe, or some other Western system, where there is rule of law, arbiters, an ability to go to court in case of disagreement. There is a district court, a court of appeals, a supreme court, and once the judges have spoken their decision is final. You lose face, but you have to accept defeat.
  What these liberals do not understand is that we are speaking of a fundamentally different context, where such a judicial infrastructure does not exist, and those who aspire for it are a persecuted minority.
  And yet I am optimistic, after the Arab Spring. I see people, albeit few in number and very disorganized, but who do want that infrastructure where religion is put aside and where compromise becomes central. They just don't know how to go about it. They lack the resources and the institutions to make that happen. But it is possible.
  Israel Hayom: Your views are not prevalent within the liberal media or liberal intellectual elite. Have you encountered difficulties in delivering such ideas?
  Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Among Western liberal elites there are those who have actual experience and those who have not. Those who have actual experience with any aspect of Islamic culture or religion, who have really given it their all to achieve some kind of compromise, come out -- after years of endless abortive attempts -- with a completely different perspective. Them I do not need to persuade.
  I mentioned earlier Tony Blair, the most-renowned liberal to change his perspective. He once believed that the ability to always find a compromise for whoever was in the negotiations room was an art. He no longer thinks this way. As we are dealing with a wholly different phenomenon, we need voices like his to educate liberal Westerners on why this is different.
  I think that whoever acts on the presumption that we are all the same and that we are able to solve this -- is uninterested, indifferent, and inexperienced.
  Israel Hayom: There is also a certain measure of idealism...
  Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Idealism is a good thing. But when idealism encounters reality, you must not try to manipulate it to fit your utopia. You have to take in the reality. 93,000 people have died in Syria because the fighting forces could not, cannot, and will not compromise. This toll is higher than all the fatalities on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict!
  So, to go on and on about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in my view is to take a tranquilizer or smoke pot. You do it just to feel better. You cannot face reality, so you just keep on harping about something that can make you feel better. One can also mention the number of people who died in Libya because Kaddafi and the opposition would not find the way to the negotiating table. This phenomenon is repeated throughout the region, not only today but throughout history. Reaching compromise is to lose face.
  Israel Hayom: So do you think that talk about negotiations brought up by the Arab counterparts is a game, with no real intentions behind it? We know that right after the Oslo accords, Arafat spoke in a mosque in South Africa, comparing the Oslo accords to the hudaiba treaty by Muhammad with his enemies. In Israel, there were those who accepted this, as they said that Arafat had to resort to speaking two different languages, one for his people and one for us.
  Ayaan Hirsi Ali: I hear this argument constantly, also in relation to the Turkey's Erdogan and in regards to the Saudis. Do you know what is wrong with this argument? If you want peace and not merely a process, you must make peace with the people. The negotiators themselves are of no importance. They are a few individuals who may tomorrow be out of power or dead. You have to have peace with the people you are in conflict with, and as long as they do not want to hear a different tune, you will not have peace. Until the people at large are ready for that compromise, there is no compromise.
  This is true of the domestic politics of any nation or the external politics with foreign nations, for whom the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is seen symbolically as the biggest icon of all foreign affairs relations with the Arab Islamic world.
  There has to be a change of attitude and a change in attitude within the culture and of culture, and I hope that we can see this.
  I believe that true emancipation cannot exist without the freedom of the individual, without the individual's space and voice. The fact that individualism is not given a chance in the Arab Muslim world is related to belonging and the collective. If you want to belong and be part of the collective you have to be a winner. If you are not, then you are a source of shame.
  So you have to ask yourself why the Syrian regime and its likes are incapable of putting an end to the bloodshed after killing ten, or 1,000, or 10,000 people. Why not? It is not caused by Israel, the Americans or any outsiders; it is part of the culture. And for the culture to grow out of such phenomena, change has to come from within.
  Israel Hayom: If so, do negotiations have any meaning when we talk about peace while the Palestinian Authority use anti-Israeli school books, which do not even mention Israel by name in their geographical maps?
  Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Not now. Not as long as a majority of the people do not want peace. An Arab leader who genuinely wants peace has to convince the Arab people first, must get their endorsement and then go and get peace. That is why the first thing that needs to be worked out is not so much the relationship with Israel but changing the culture, Islamic and Arab. This process does not depend on you, though you can help it, facilitate it, be a catalyst; but it does not depend on you, on America or the rest of the world.
  Israel Hayom: In reference to Samuel Huntington's "Clash of Civilizations" theory, is there any sense that Europe is awakening to the threat it faces? We have a feeling that Israel is a scapegoat of sorts for the rest of the world. Do you not think that Europe is overcome by a quiet conquest of the Muslims there?
  Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Yes, but it is no longer quiet, ever since 9/11 and the terrorist plots. Because the countries of Europe and the U.S. are democracies, their citizens enjoy freedom of speech. The more we listen, the more discernible is the extreme cultural divergence between the civilizations, as Huntington claims. One must first face it before blaming Israel or scapegoating others, otherwise things will not change. And the Europeans are waking up to this.
  I visited Israel for the first time in 1998 or 1999, and saw people in uniform with guns in buses, in the market, on the streets. My European friend who came with me found this so strange. You would never find this in Holland. Now all airports in Europe and the U.S. have security men, all wielding machine guns, just like I saw in Israel at the time. After the Boston marathon bombings, I think that on the Fourth of July this year there will be more security than spectators.
  So, as these liberal Western democracies are beginning to face the same challenges as Israel, or at least a tiny fraction of them -- you see attitudes changing.
  Israel Hayom: Do you perceive attitudes changing towards Israel? An understanding of Israel?
  Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Well, some people get hardened. I do not understand Stephen Hawking's refusal to come to Israel. There is a boycott on Israel by the intellectuals. Yet, the people in Boston are the most liberal in the United States, maybe short of San Francisco, and they were really quite happy with people in uniform patrolling the streets, which compromises their civil liberties. But people would rather face reality than lose limbs.
  Israel Hayom: What would you like to say to the readers of Israel Hayom?
  Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Exactly what I say in my lectures. You have to be a realist and acknowledge that Israel is not the problem, though neither is it the solution. I also speak of the signs of hope, of [Muslim] women who aspire to improve their lives, of homosexuals, of religious minorities. If anyone in Israel, including ordinary people, wants to be an activist, they need to forge relationships with those individuals in the Middle East who have developed something closer to what the Israelis want.
  Israel Hayom: And you think that it will be a huge mistake to give away territory before a cultural change occurs?
  Ayaan Hirsi Ali: I will just say that Israel is not the problem nor is it the solution. Even if you give up all the land, it will not solve any of the problems in the Middle East. It will not obliterate despotism, it will not liberate women, it will not help religious minorities. It won't bring peace to anyone. Even if Israel does not give up an inch of land -- the result will be the same.
  If you want a process, continue the way you are. If you want real, lasting peace, then things have to change first within the Arab Muslim individual, family, school, streets, education, and politics. It is not an Israeli problem.
  You must learn to take advantage of opportunities. Due to technology, things can develop quickly. Look at the Iranians; what took the Iranians thirty years could take the Egyptians five or ten.
  Israel Hayom: To become secular?
  Ayaan Hirsi Ali: No, just for the majority of the people to stand up to Shariah. This is what I want to say about Muslims in general: Muslims want Shariah until they have it...
  For cultural change to transpire we need one hundred years and more to pass.
  You can pick any number you want. I am speaking of a lengthy, bloody period. But it is going to change.
Croatia Joins Greece, Italy to Push for Europe-Caspian Gas Link - Bloomberg
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  Mon, 01 Jul 2013 19:00
  By Jasmina KuzmanovicJune 11, 2013 7:42 AM EDTCroatia has joined Greece, Albania, and Italy in pushing for the Trans-Adriatic pipeline, which would bring natural gas to Europe from the Caspian region through Turkey.
  Representatives from the four nations as well as Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina will meet in Dubrovnik, Croatia, tomorrow to give ''strong and clear political support for the pipeline and underline its commercial advantages,'' Croatian Deputy Foreign Minister Josko Klisovic said.
  The project, known as TAP, is competing with the Nabucco pipeline plan supported by Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary, to ship Azeri natural gas to Europe. Shah Deniz, a gas deposit group led by BP Plc (BP/), is expected by July to choose between the two projects to transport 10 billion cubic meters of gas annually to the European Union. The group's partners also include Statoil ASA (STL), Total SA (FP) and State Oil Company of Azerbaijan, or Socar.
  ''Our message to Shah Deniz is that TAP is less costly as it's shorter, and that all the governments involved support it,'' Klisovic said in an interview in his office in Zagreb today. ''This includes Italy, which is one of the biggest gas consumers in Europe.''
  EU nations want to curb their reliance on gas deliveries from Russia through Ukraine after disruption in recent years over price disputes. TAP's 800-kilometer (500-mile) route would go through Turkey through Greece, and Albania to Italy, while the 1,300-kilometer Nabucco would traverse Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary.
  Gas ConsumptionGas consumption in the former Yugoslav region and Albania will double by 2020 to 11 billion cubic meters of gas a year, according to an October 2011 study by state-owned pipeline operator Plinacro d.o.o.
  Croatia, which needs about 1 billion cubic meters of gas a year, wants to meet the increased demand by diversifying its supplies.
  From the Albanian town of Fier, an interconnector would lead toward Montenegro and further on to Croatia, joining the existing pipeline at Split and ending at the island of Krk in the northern Adriatic, where Croatia plans to build a liquefied natural-gas terminal, Klisovic said. An off-shoot pipeline to Hungary is also planned, he said.
  ''Croatia supports the TAP project as it gives us the possibility to diversify our gas supply,'' Klisovic said. Diversification plans ''probably'' include a connector to the South Stream gas pipeline project, whose main stakeholder is Russia's Gazprom OAO (GAZP), as well as the building of an LNG terminal on Krk, he said.
  Terminal StudiesPre-feasibility and environment studies for the terminal, estimated at 700 million euros ($929 million) are completed, and the government will proceed with seeking strategic partners in the fall, Klisovic said.
  The OMV AG-led Nabucco pipeline project said it can offer bigger markets and greater potential for exports should it win the right to ship natural gas from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field to Europe over a rival proposal, Christian Dolezal, communications chief of Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH, said in March.
  Azerbaijan said in February it favors TAP. Nabucco offered in January a 50 percent equity option in the pipeline to the Shah Deniz group.
  To contact the reporter on this story: Jasmina Kuzmanovic at jkuzmanovic@bloomberg.net
  To contact the editor responsible for this story: James M. Gomez at jagomez@bloomberg.net
Trans-Adriatic pipeline receives support from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece, Italy and Montenegro
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  Mon, 01 Jul 2013 19:00
  The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of six countries '' Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece, Italy and Montenegro '' met in Dubrovnik, Croatia, on 12th June to demonstrate their support for the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) and for the Ionian Adriatic Pipeline (IAP).On the occasion of this High Level meeting which included representatives from Azerbaijan, the European Commission and TAP, Michael Hoffmann, External Affairs Director of TAP, said:''We are pleased and grateful to receive strong and continuous political support for our pipeline. The Dubrovnik meeting is a testament to our project's advanced status and unmatched benefits. TAP is the most strategic solution for supplying gas to South Eastern Europe: it will contribute to boosting energy security in the region and enhance economic development. With the Shah Deniz consortium decision on the Southern Gas Corridor expected by the end of the month, we remain confident that TAP is the best solution to transport Caspian gas to Europe: the shortest, most technically feasible and, above all, the only project ready for implementation.''The Dubrovnik meeting follows the signature of a Memorandum of Understanding in support of the TAP and IAP pipelines by Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Montenegro in May 2013 as well as a declaration of support by the Adriatic Ionian Initiative Council.Earlier this year in April, TAP's host countries (Italy, Greece and Albania) held the first Trilateral Cooperation Committee Meeting in Rome, where they expressed their commitment to the realisation of the project as per the Intergovernmental Agreement signed in February. TAP
Russia to build pipeline with Croatia - UPI.com
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  Mon, 01 Jul 2013 18:59
  Published: Jan. 18, 2013 at 12:27 PM
  MOSCOW, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- Gazprom and Croatia's Plinacro have agreed to build a natural gas pipeline to ship Gazprom gas to European markets.
  On Friday. Gazprom and Plinacro signed an agreement in the Croatian capital Zagreb to build a $79.9 million, 62 mile long extension to Gazprom's South Stream gas pipeline.
  Both Gazprom and Plinacro are state-owned companies.
  The project provides for creating a joint venture to contribute to the construction of South Stream's extension for delivering Russian natural gas to Croatia by 2016.
  The pipeline's annual capacity is for 2.7 billion cubic meters of gas, Golos Rossii news agency reported on Friday.
  As part of the agreement Gazprom will also construct a power plant in Croatia to maintain its domestic market for the fuel. The pipeline is tentatively scheduled to come online by December 2016.
  Gazprom Deputy Chief Executive Officer Aleksandr Medvedev told reporters in Zagreb, "We intend not only to supply gas, but also to develop the gas market, and one of the ways is to build gas-powered electric plants,"
  Gazprom, the world's biggest gas producer, and partners Eni SpA (ENI), Wintershall AG and Electricite de France SA, started work in Dec. 2012 on the South Stream natural gas pipeline, transiting from the Russian Federation under the Black Sea to eastern and southern Europe customers. If all goes well, South Stream will begin delivering Russian gas to its eastern and southern Europe customers by December 2015 and reach an annual capacity of 63 billion cubic meters four years later.
  Since the collapse of the USSR in December 1991, Gazprom has been involved in seemingly interminable wrangles with former Soviet republics Belarus and Ukraine over transit fees and domestic delivery costs, and the South Stream natural gas pipeline and its northern equivalent North Stream, as both designed to ensure reliable deliveries of Gazprom natural gas to its European markets, the company's most reliable and profitable customers.
  Gazprom intends to add both more natural gas pipelines and as well as power stations in Europe to keep its market share there even as slowing economic growth since the global recession began in late 2008 diminishes European demand as competition for customers increases. Gazprom continues to rely on increasing its network of pipelines providing fuel to European markets even as global output of liquefied natural gas expands. A possible future competitor is the U.S., where soaring production of natural gas from hydraulic fracturing comes to dominate the American market, leading energy companies to consider investing in liquefied natural gas facilities to begin exports, with Europe eyed as a potential market.
  Sweetening the deal for Croatia, Gazprom's intention to build a power station in Croatia will probably be Osijek, in the east of the country, according to Medvedev, a 500-megawatt plant in constructed in cooperation with local utility Hrvatska Elektropriveda DD,
Croatia pipeline woe
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  Mon, 01 Jul 2013 18:58
  ZAGREB: Croatian President Ivo Josipovic yesterday voiced regret that Gazprom's South Stream pipeline, an investment worth several hundred million euros, would not pass through his country but Hungary instead.
  ''It is bad news,'' Josipovic told HRT national television. He blamed Croatia's lack of ''energy policy'' and failure to ''plan for the future'' on energy issues.
  ''I hope that it will push us to start thinking strategically,'' Josipovic added. Josipovic also said that the decision not to include Croatia in the South Stream pipeline could possibly be traced back to Zagreb's mistrust of Russian investors in the past.
  AFP
Croatia's first morning in EU -
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  Mon, 01 Jul 2013 18:57
  A tourist from Poland dies in TrogirA tourist from Poland has died in Trogir, southern Croatia.
  Dance and Non-Verbal Theatre Festival to take place in IstriaThe Dance and Non-Verbal Theatre Festival is to take place in Svetivincenat on the western Croatian peninsula of Istria from 19 to 22 July.
  For Croatia EU was a peace project, president Josipovic saysThe Croatian president Ivo Josipovic has told Al Jazeera that the European Union entry was a peace project for Croatia.
  Tottenham agreed top Croatian football talentsThe sale of Croatian football talents continues.
  Croatia's first morning in EUCroatia woke up as a member of the European Union for the first time this morning.
  British band The Others to get another 'royal welcome' in Rab after King EdwardThe London based band The Others are heading to Croatia for a series of gigs to welcome Croatia as the 28th member of the European Union.
  Painting with wine in Dvor restaurant for expats in SplitExpats living in the area of Split, Croatia, will meet up next Tuesday, 2 July, to celebrate the country's entering the European Union.
  Croatia is set to continue good relations with ChinaCroatia will be focusing on maintaining good relations with China when the country joins European Union on July 1.
  Croat actors applying to take part in unusual German feature film projectThe German production company World Cast Movie have launched an unusual feature film project that might also interest people in Croatia.
  Mirko Oremus back in IsraelThe Croatian footballer Mirko Oremus has returned to Israel.
Why Are So Many College Graduates Driving Taxis? - Bloomberg
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  Mon, 01 Jul 2013 17:56
  Photographer: Ben Baker/Bloomberg
  It's a parent's nightmare: shelling out big money for college, then seeing the graduate unable to land a job that requires high-level skills. This situation may be growing more common, unfortunately, because the demand for cognitive skills associated with higher education, after rising sharply until 2000, has since been in decline.
  So concludes new research by economists Paul Beaudry and David Green of the University of British Columbia and Benjamin Sand of York University in Toronto. This reversal in demand has caused high-skilled workers to accept lower-level jobs, pushing lower-skilled people even further down the occupational ladder or out of work altogether. If the researchers are right (which is not yet clear), the consequences are huge and troubling -- and not just for college grads and their parents.
  Let's start with some basic facts. There have always been some graduates who wind up in jobs that don't require a college degree. But the share seems to be growing. In 1970, only 1 in 100 taxi drivers and chauffeurs in the U.S. had a college degree, according to an analysis of labor statistics by Ohio University's Richard Vedder, Christopher Denhart and Jonathan Robe. Today, 15 of 100 do.
  It's hard to believe this is because the skill required to drive a taxi has risen substantially since 1970. If anything, GPS technology may have had the opposite effect. (Acquiring ''the knowledge'' of London streets, as taxi drivers there are required to do, is cognitively challenging, but it may no longer be necessary.)
  Educated FirefightersSimilarly, in 1970, only about 2 percent of firefighters had a college degree, compared with more than 15 percent now, Vedder and his colleagues found. And, according to research by economists Paul Harrington and Andrew Sum of Northeastern University, about 1 in 4 bartenders has some sort of degree.
  Beaudry and his colleagues say that such change has been driven by a decline in the demand for highly skilled work -- the opposite of the conventional wisdom about such demand. The employment rate in ''cognitive'' occupations -- managerial, professional and technical jobs -- increased markedly from 1980 to 2000, their research found, but it has since stagnated, even as the supply of skilled workers has continued to grow.
  What has changed? One possibility, as I've previously written, is that the effects of a globalizing workforce are creeping up the income scale. Many jobs that once required cognitive skill can be automated. Anything that can be digitized can be done either by computer or by workers abroad. While the ''winner take all'' phenomenon may still mean extremely high returns for workers at the very top, that may be relevant for a shrinking share of college graduates.
  Whatever the explanation, the Beaudry team argues that an excess of skilled workers has led them into the ''routine'' job market -- such as sales and clerical jobs -- reducing wages there and pushing less skilled workers into ''manual'' jobs in construction, farming and so on.
  What's puzzling here is that it seems inconsistent with evidence that the wage premium enjoyed by college graduates has persisted. For example, a recent paper by Philip Oreopoulos and Uros Petronijevic of the University of Toronto (yes, Canadian economists seem to dominate this aspect of the U.S. labor market) found that the earnings premium for college graduates has risen substantially over the past several decades and that investment in college ''appears to pay off for both the average and marginal student.''
  The still-strong earnings premium strongly suggests that the demand for skill has not collapsed. After all, if cognitive skills became less valuable in the labor market, wouldn't one expect wages to fall more for college graduates than for others?
  Falling WagesNot necessarily, Beaudry and his colleagues argue. They find that while wages for jobs requiring cognitive skills have declined, the shift of high-skilled workers into those jobs has depressed wages for manual workers even more.
  That's a provocative argument. Still, it may be that the Beaudry team's results are sensitive to the way they define ''cognitive'' jobs and ''manual'' ones. Also, it's not entirely clear how much the recent recession has influenced their results.
  In any case, the findings will do little to calm the nerves of graduates who are anxious to find jobs.
  The cold comfort I can offer is this: Going to college may still be worthwhile -- if not to be sure of qualifying for skilled jobs, then at least to avoid the even worse prospects of those who don't get a degree.
  (Peter Orszag is vice chairman of corporate and investment banking and chairman of the financial strategy and solutions group at Citigroup Inc. and a former director of the Office of Management and Budget in the Obama administration.)
  To contact the writer of this article: Peter Orszag at orszagbloomberg@gmail.com
  To contact the editor responsible for this article: Mary Duenwald at mduenwald@bloomberg.net
CNNMoney | Business, financial and personal finance news.
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  Mon, 01 Jul 2013 17:52
  WASHINGTON (CNNMoney)
  But hope isn't lost yet. Lawmakers are working hard behind the scenes trying to strike a deal to save the 7 million college students who are slated to take the subsidized federal Stafford loans this year.
  Senate Democratic leaders are throwing their weight behind a bill that would extend the 3.4% rates for another year, just as Congress did last year.
  House Republicans have said they'd prefer a longer term solution, like the one they passed back in April to keep rates low for now but rise along with market rates in the future.
  Students are being told to prepare for the worst and hope for the best.
  "We're advising our schools to tell students that their subsidized Stafford interest rates are going to be 6.8% on July 1," said Justin Draeger, president of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.
  Students with loans at stake have been watching the debate on Capitol Hill with worry and apprehension.
  Related: How I found a job after graduation
  "I find it really frustrating that nothing is even being brought up, since Congress is now in recess," said Rachel McGovern, who will be a senior at University of Florida this fall and will be taking out $5,500 in subsidized federal loans. "It feels like they're just ignoring student needs right now."
  The higher rates that go into effect on July 1 only apply to new loans, such as McGovern's. These loans are generally awarded to only about a third of undergraduate students in financial need. Only Congress can change the rates and any tweak to the law is expected to be retroactive July 1.
  But there was no clear message if any deal would be reached before the end of summer, when the number of students taking out loans will ramp up ahead of the school year.
  Generally, lawmakers in both parties in Congress and the White House agree that something should be done, but they don't agree on what.
  "Students across this country would rather have no deal than a bad deal," said Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat, at a press conference last week on student loans.
  Related: I will graduate with $100,000 in student loans
  The Republican-controlled House passed a bill to stop rates from doubling now, but would allow them to rise later. Senate Democrats don't like it. President Obama vowed to veto it, calling it the "wrong approach." However, Obama has a plan that's very similar to the House plan.
  Senate Democratic leaders want to extend the low rates for a year or two, and give Congress time to come up with a longer term solution as a part of the normal budget process.
  Meanwhile, a group of two Senate Democrats and two Republicans struck a deal that also resembles the House plan.
  Undergraduates, who take out unsubsidized student loans from the government, are already paying the higher 6.8% rate since 2007.
  Related: Class of 2013 grads average $35,200 in total debt
  Some Washington leaders want to revamp the student loan program and peg rates to economic conditions. The President and House Republicans, for instance, have proposed ways of tying student loan rates to 10-year Treasury notes.
  However, the two sides disagree on the details, such as how to cap rates in a way that will ensure students don't get hosed if interest rates skyrocket. They also disagree on ways to let students "lock in" their rates from year to year.
  Outsized student debt has become a pressing issue, with many young graduates deep in debt and without jobs. It is second only to mortgages as the largest debt that consumers carry. In 2011, students on average owed nearly $27,000 in loans.
  First Published: June 30, 2013: 12:43 PM ET
UPDATE 1-Obama has short list of potential Bernanke successors -source
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Mon, 01 Jul 2013 17:52
  UPDATE 1-Obama has short list of potential Bernanke successors -sourceTop News
  UPDATE 1-Obama has short list of potential Bernanke successors -source
  Thu, Jun 27 23:20 PM EDT
  * Source says Treasury Secretary Lew leading search
  * Bernanke silent; Yellen seen as likely replacement
  * Transition could come at delicate juncture for Fed policy
  By Steve Holland
  WASHINGTON, June 27 (Reuters) - The White House has assembled a short list of candidates to succeed Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, a source familiar with the process said on Thursday, and U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew is running the search.
  Bernanke is expected to leave when his second term as head of the central bank ends on Jan. 31, after an eventful eight years in helping the U.S. economy recover from the worst recession since the Great Depression.
  President Barack Obama hinted in a television interview this month that Bernanke would step down, comparing him to longtime FBI Director Robert Mueller, who agreed to stay two years longer in the job than he had planned, and is now to leave.
  Lew has assembled a short list with help from several senior White House officials, the source said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
  There was no information on who is on the list, although Fed Vice Chair Janet Yellen, former Obama adviser Lawrence Summers and former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner are considered to be likely leading choices.
  "We decline to comment on speculation on any personnel matters until the president has made his decisions and is ready to announce them," said Amy Brundage, a White House spokeswoman.
  "The president believes that Chairman Bernanke is a vital and excellent partner in promoting our economic recovery and he continues to serve admirably and with distinction during this important time for our country," she said.
  BERNANKE SILENT; YELLEN SEEN IN THE LEAD
  Bernanke has yet to say whether he would like to serve another four years at the helm of the central bank, but has done little to dampen speculation he is ready to leave.
  The likely succession could come at a delicate juncture for U.S. monetary policy.
  Bernanke said last week that the central bank expected to lighten up later this year on the amount of money it is pumping into the economy each month through a bond-buying program.
  He said the Fed would likely draw that program to a full close around the middle of next year, when policymakers at the central bank expect the jobless rate will have fallen to around 7 percent from its current 7.6 percent.
  Those comments spurred a big selloff in stock markets around the globe and sent the yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note soaring. It reached a 22-month high of 2.67 percent on Monday.
  Fed officials have mounted a concerted effort to convince markets they overreacted to the chairman's remarks, and they have underscored the central bank's commitment to keep overnight interest rate near zero until unemployment drops to at least 6.5 percent. Stock markets have since stabilized and bond yields have fallen back.
  The market volatility, however, underscored the tricky task the Fed faces in stepping away from the controversial and unprecedented easing of monetary policy Bernanke led.
  To combat the deep recession and heal the scars from the financial crisis that followed the bursting of the U.S. housing bubble, the Fed pressed overnight rates to near zero, where they have been since December 2008. It also more than tripled its balance sheet to $3.4 trillion through a series of bond purchases.
  The next chairman of the central bank will likely face the task of unwinding that monetary largesse.
  In a Reuters poll of economists earlier this month, the vast majority said Obama was likely to tap Yellen to take over.
  Yellen, who has served as Fed vice chair since October 2010, is considered a forceful advocate of aggressive action to lift unemployment. If nominated and confirmed by the Senate, she would be the first woman to lead the central bank.
  UPDATE 1-Obama has short list of potential Bernanke successors -sourceTop News
  UPDATE 1-Obama has short list of potential Bernanke successors -source
  Thu, Jun 27 23:20 PM EDT
  * Source says Treasury Secretary Lew leading search
  * Bernanke silent; Yellen seen as likely replacement
  * Transition could come at delicate juncture for Fed policy
  By Steve Holland
  WASHINGTON, June 27 (Reuters) - The White House has assembled a short list of candidates to succeed Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, a source familiar with the process said on Thursday, and U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew is running the search.
  Bernanke is expected to leave when his second term as head of the central bank ends on Jan. 31, after an eventful eight years in helping the U.S. economy recover from the worst recession since the Great Depression.
  President Barack Obama hinted in a television interview this month that Bernanke would step down, comparing him to longtime FBI Director Robert Mueller, who agreed to stay two years longer in the job than he had planned, and is now to leave.
  Lew has assembled a short list with help from several senior White House officials, the source said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
  There was no information on who is on the list, although Fed Vice Chair Janet Yellen, former Obama adviser Lawrence Summers and former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner are considered to be likely leading choices.
  "We decline to comment on speculation on any personnel matters until the president has made his decisions and is ready to announce them," said Amy Brundage, a White House spokeswoman.
  "The president believes that Chairman Bernanke is a vital and excellent partner in promoting our economic recovery and he continues to serve admirably and with distinction during this important time for our country," she said.
  BERNANKE SILENT; YELLEN SEEN IN THE LEAD
  Bernanke has yet to say whether he would like to serve another four years at the helm of the central bank, but has done little to dampen speculation he is ready to leave.
  The likely succession could come at a delicate juncture for U.S. monetary policy.
  Bernanke said last week that the central bank expected to lighten up later this year on the amount of money it is pumping into the economy each month through a bond-buying program.
  He said the Fed would likely draw that program to a full close around the middle of next year, when policymakers at the central bank expect the jobless rate will have fallen to around 7 percent from its current 7.6 percent.
  Those comments spurred a big selloff in stock markets around the globe and sent the yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note soaring. It reached a 22-month high of 2.67 percent on Monday.
  Fed officials have mounted a concerted effort to convince markets they overreacted to the chairman's remarks, and they have underscored the central bank's commitment to keep overnight interest rate near zero until unemployment drops to at least 6.5 percent. Stock markets have since stabilized and bond yields have fallen back.
  The market volatility, however, underscored the tricky task the Fed faces in stepping away from the controversial and unprecedented easing of monetary policy Bernanke led.
  To combat the deep recession and heal the scars from the financial crisis that followed the bursting of the U.S. housing bubble, the Fed pressed overnight rates to near zero, where they have been since December 2008. It also more than tripled its balance sheet to $3.4 trillion through a series of bond purchases.
  The next chairman of the central bank will likely face the task of unwinding that monetary largesse.
  In a Reuters poll of economists earlier this month, the vast majority said Obama was likely to tap Yellen to take over.
  Yellen, who has served as Fed vice chair since October 2010, is considered a forceful advocate of aggressive action to lift unemployment. If nominated and confirmed by the Senate, she would be the first woman to lead the central bank.
John D Wilson obituary
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: Culture | guardian.co.uk
  Mon, 01 Jul 2013 17:29
  John David Wilson's title sequence for the film GreaseThe pioneering animator John David Wilson, who has died aged 93, launched his studio, Fine Arts Films, in 1955 and found success with his first short subject, an adaptation of a Japanese folk tale, Tara the Stonecutter, which was screened in America with Teinosuke Kinugasa's Oscar-winning samurai drama Jigokumon (Gate of Hell, 1953). Next came Petroushka (1956), for which Igor Stravinsky (despite negative feelings towards animation following Disney's Fantasia) was persuaded by Wilson to prepare a shortened score for the film and conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the soundtrack. Petroushka won several festival awards and was the first animated film to be accepted by the Venice film festival.
  Wilson's diverse productions ranged from innovative TV commercials for Instant Butter-Nut Coffee, made with the actor and humorist Stan Freberg, to a groundbreaking 15-minute film, Journey to the Stars, for the United States Science exhibit at the 1962 Seattle World's Fair. The film was projected on a hemispherical 360-degree, 75ft screen and was shown more than 6,000 times before a total audience of 4.5 million people.
  In 1963, while working for Hanna-Barbera on The Flintstones, Wilson was commissioned by Billy Wilder to create an animated trailer for his Jack Lemmon-Shirley MacLaine film, Irma La Douce, hoping the cartoon would help sell the potentially risqu(C) story of the prostitutes of the Rue Casanova. The result was so successful that Wilder commented that he might just as well have dumped the film and simply played the trailer.
  John D Wilson, left, with Igor Stravinsky working on PetroushkaWilson later created the animated title sequence of Grease (1978) featuring witty caricatures of John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John (the latter as a pastiche of Disney's Snow White and Cinderella). It set the style for the film with a running graphic history of 50s pop culture.
  He was born in Wimbledon, south-west London, the second of three children of Frederick Wilson, a civil servant working for the India Office, and his wife, Esther Hunt. John was educated at Watford grammar school, where he was taught art by Sir Robin Darwin, later the rector of the Royal College of Art. Wilson pursued his art studies at Harrow School of Art and for a year at the Royal College, leaving aged 18 to take up a job as a commercial artist for Willings Press Service.
  Joining the Territorial Army, he had his first cartoon published in the TA magazine and at the outbreak of the second world war was called up and sent to fight in the African campaign with the London Rifle Brigade. Wilson was driving a jeep that took a direct hit from a German bomber and he lost his left leg. Hospitalised in Cairo he demonstrated a singular determination that marked out his later life, mastering crutches within nine days and drawing caricatures for fellow patients. A Christmas card designed for the hospital found its way to a printer in Durban where, following his discharge from the army, he was offered a job as a designer. After working on some controversial anti-apartheid publications, he was eventually required to leave South Africa and, returning to London, found employment with an art agency before joining the art department at Pinewood Studios, where he worked on The Thief of Bagdad (1940) and David Lean's Great Expectations (1946).
  In 1946, while at Pinewood, Wilson saw a recruiting flyer for Gaumont British Animation, an initiative created by J Arthur Rank to provide employment opportunities for ex-servicemen and women by establishing an animation studio in Britain with the aim of challenging the supremacy of Disney. GB Animation was based at Moor Hall, Cookham, Berkshire. The unit was run by David Hand, the animator of dozens of Disney short cartoons and supervising director of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Bambi (1942).
  John D Wilson's designs for PetroushkaHand was accompanied by a small team of former Disney animators and writers and, under their tutelage, Wilson honed his talents as an animator on the studio's Musical Paintbox films, devoted to different regions of Britain, and the Animaland series featuring such characters as the squirrels Ginger Nutt and Hazel Nutt. The financial returns on these impeccably crafted short cartoons were meagre and the initiative failed to break the US market or rival the popularity of the Disney characters.
  When, in 1950, GB Animation closed, Wilson headed for Los Angeles and, with recommendations from Hand and his colleagues, was soon working at the Disney studio on Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy cartoons and the features Peter Pan (1953) and Lady and the Tramp (1955). For the latter, he assisted the leading animator, Les Clark with the film's famous spaghetti-eating sequence. The pasta, Wilson said, was a challenge: though long and thin, it needed to be given weight to look convincing.
  Working with another Disney veteran, Ward Kimball, Wilson contributed to two "specials": the Academy Award-winning Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom (1953) and, the following year, the Oscar-nominated Pigs is Pigs. These films employed the more economic and highly stylised approach to animation established by United Productions of America (UPA), founded by disenchanted Disney animators following the damaging studio strike of 1941. Wilson also worked for UPA on their Mister Magoo series and the acclaimed animated shorts Rooty Toot Toot and The Tell-Tale Heart, and UPA's freer, more contemporary, style informed much of Wilson's later work.
  After launching his own productions with Fine Arts Films, Wilson contributed in the mid-60s to Exploring, NBC's award-winning educational TV show for children, and he created animated titles and weekly music videos (a decade before MTV) for the 70s CBS series The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour. Among the animated songs, later collected as The Fantastic All-Electric Music Movie, was Joni Mitchell's rendition of Both Sides Now, illustrated by the revolutionary use of computer animation.
  Mehitabel by John D Wilson In 1971 Wilson directed the animated musical feature Shinbone Alley, based on Don Marquis's stories about a poetic cockroach, archy, who writes by jumping on the keys of a typewriter (but always in lower-case because he can't manage the shift key) and mehitabel, his feline muse. The film featured the voices of Eddie Bracken and Carol Channing. Despite stunning designs, acknowledging the art of George Herriman, archy's original illustrator, the film suffered from a mismatch of adult-themed material and the juvenile style of character animation.
  Wilson was also responsible for a half-hour Disneyesque film, Stanley, the Ugly Duckling (1982); worked on many animated series including Madeline; and provided concept art for FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1988). A fine artist of note, he exhibited at the Royal Academy, the Royal Institute of Oil Painters and the Royal Watercolour Society.
  In 1987 Wilson married the former actor, singer and dancer Fabian Craig; she later ran a gallery showcasing his animated art. He returned to Britain to live in the Cotswolds and, later, Lytham St Annes in Lancashire. His last ambitious project was a planned animated film of Peer Gynt that, due to his failing health, was never realised beyond storyboard sketches and designs.
  Wilson's first two marriages, to Annabel and Angele, ended in divorce. He is survived by Fabian; six children, David, Debbie, Michael, Victoria, Peter and Andrew, from his first marriage; and his sister, Ann.
  ' John David Wilson, animator, born 7 August 1919; died 20 June 2013
CIA DECIDED TO DUMP MORSI
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: aangirfan
  Mon, 01 Jul 2013 17:25
  Cairo on a busy day.In Egypt, on 1 July 2013, the Army said it would step in if the politicians didn't settle the crisis within two days."If the demands of the people are not realised within the defined period, it will be incumbent upon (the armed forces) ... to announce a road map for the future."Army boss Abdel Fattah al-Sisi says that the people have expressed their will with unprecedented clarity in the mass demonstrations and wasting more time will only increase the danger of division and violence.
  The army says it will oversee any road map"with the participation of all factions and national parties, including young people", but it will not get directly involved in politics or government."
  ' Up to five ministers have resigned from Morsi's government.' The Health Ministry says 16 people have been killed.' The Muslim Brotherhood HQ has been ransacked as the police stood by.The CIA operative,Gamal Abdel NasserThe CIA put the following people into power and then apparently fell out with them: Nasser, the Shah, the Ayatollahs, Saddam Hussein, Gaddafi, Morsi...Anti-Morsi
  In November 2012, The Financial Times wrote about Morsi.
  The Financial Times, linked to the Rothschilds, considers that Morsi's new constitution "protects the army's sprawling economic empire from civil oversight...
  "The Brotherhood intends to hold mass rallies across Egypt.
  "This is the sort of stand-off that could entice the army - sidelined only months ago - back into the public arena."Morsi's over-reach - FT.com
  "He is now being ridiculed as a fool on social networking sites..."He has questioned whether Sunni extremists were responsible for the 9/11 attacks, suggesting to interlocutors that an explosion had taken place inside the twin towers.
  Morsi has squandered Egypt's goodwill - FT.com
  "His image... has now taken a pounding, perhaps irreparably so."
  Will Morsi be dumped by the West?
  aangirfan: KISSINGER WANTS MOSLEM COUNTRIES SPLIT UPEgyptians want Mubarak back; Arabs rejecting Yinon - Aangirfan
Does Your Blood Type Determine Your Optimal Diet? | Mark's Daily Apple
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Mon, 01 Jul 2013 16:12
  I get a lot of emails about the ''Eat Right For Your Type'' diet, also known as the blood type diet, which asserts that specific optimal diets exist for each blood type. In this post, I'll take a look at whether there's anything to this idea, and whether you should change the way you're eating based on whether you're Type O, A, B or AB.
  The proposed diets all tend to be pretty decent, whole foods-based ways of eating, and they're all better than the standard American diet of industrial processed junk, but differences do exist. Here's the basic breakdown of all four blood type diets:
  Type O (PDF): The ''original'' blood type and the oldest one, proponents claim it evolved among hunter-gatherers in response to their (Primal) diet of animals and plants. People with this blood type do best on meat, fish, and certain fruits and vegetables while limiting starches and omitting grains (especially wheat), beans, legumes, and dairy. It's pretty much a strict paleo approach.
  Type A (PDF): The agricultural blood type, proponents claim it arose after the advent of agriculture. People with this blood type do best on vegetables, fruits, grains, beans, legumes, and limited fish. They should avoid meat, wheat, and dairy. It's basically a vegetarian diet.
  Type B (PDF): The ''nomad'' type, proponents claim it arose amongst pastoralists raising animals for meat and milk. People with this blood type do best with lamb, mutton, rabbit, and most other meats (except for chicken and pork), dairy, beans, and vegetables. They should avoid wheat, olives, tomatoes, and corn.
  Type AB (PDF): The ''generalist'' blood type. People with this blood type can eat many meats, some seafood, dairy, beans, grains, and fruit, but they should limit kidney beans, lima beans, seeds, corn, beef, chicken, and buckwheat.
  I see a few things wrong with their reasoning:
  First, they've got the anthropology all mixed up. Type O blood isn't the oldest blood type, nor was it formed by human dietary patterns. The most recent research has found that Types A, B, and O arose almost 20 million years ago in a far-off ancestor common to humans and other primates '' long before humans hunted, gathered, farmed, domesticated animals, or even existed. In fact, if anything, it's type A blood that's the oldest.
  Second, if type A blood arose in response to agriculture, why would the Australian aboriginal diet of meat, marrow, and foraged plant foods, or the Sami diet of reindeer blood, meat, and milk and fatty fish both give rise to a preponderance of type A blood carriers? Type A is supposed to be founded on agriculture '' grains, beans, with very little animal products. If a high-animal foods diet selects against type A blood, why does it flourish in these populations?
  Third, the justification given for eliminating certain foods from these diets is that the lectins found in them trigger agglutination (clumping) of the red blood cells when consumed by someone with the wrong blood type. So, lectins found in olives are supposed to cause agglutination in Type As, lectins found in grains are supposed to cause agglutination in Type Os, and so on. Proponents claim that specific lectins are selective in their tendency to agglutinate '' they interact differently with the various blood types. This supposed selective agglutination is the proximate arbiter of whether a food belongs in a particular blood type's ideal diet or not, but it doesn't even exist. The actual research suggests that lectin agglutination is non-selective with regard to blood type. If a particular lectin agglutinates, it generally agglutinates across all blood types. If a lectin is harmful to one blood type, it's harmful to all.
  That said, the blood type diet folks do highlight an interesting observation: the individual blood types are often associated with different rates of certain diseases.
  Type Os have a curious relationship to certain infectious diseases. While those with type O blood are more resistant to contracting cholera infections, if they actually get infected, they're more likely to have an extremely severe reaction. It protects you until you get cholera, after which it leaves you extremely vulnerable. The extreme virulence of cholera to this blood type may even explain the relative paucity of type Os in areas where cholera is common.
  Type Os also are far more susceptible to ulcer, now known to be caused by infections from H. pylori bacteria. This is likely explained by the greater preponderance of ''H. pylori receptors'' in the guts of type O individuals.
  Against other diseases, however, type O seems to be somewhat protective:
  When compared to other blood types, type O is associated with lower rates of heart disease. The studies (comprising roughly 90,000 people) determined that 6.27% of the cardiovascular disease cases could be attributed to having a non-type O blood type.
  Upon reviewing twelve separate studies, researchers determined that type O blood confers protection against pancreatic cancer. Type B was most strongly associated with pancreatic cancer, followed by types AB and A, respectively. Despite the results, ''the mechanism by which these SNPs influence risk is unknown.'' It could be that ''these SNPs may act as markers of allelic variants in nearby genes, and the ABO antigens may not be directly involved in'' the development of pancreatic cancer at all. Then, once a person has pancreatic cancer, type O confers a significant survival benefit over the other blood types. This may be explained by the observation in animal studies that the immune systems of types A and B seem to have a harder time at ''noticing'' and ''destroying'' cancer cells.
  Type Os are also less likely to get gastric cancer, despite their increased susceptibility to H. pylori infections (usually a risk factor for gastric cancer).
  These connections are worth looking into and deserve further study, certainly, but they have nothing to say about what diets work best with each blood type.
  Obviously, I agree that certain kinds of dietary lectins are problematic, especially if they make it past the gut and into the blood stream. They're a big reason why I avoid most grains, beans, and legumes '' not only do they contain large numbers of lectins, but the lectins they have tend to be particularly proficient at disrupting and navigating the gut barrier. And yes, some people seem more sensitive to dietary lectins than others, but I see no evidence that a person's lectin sensitivity '' and thus ideal dietary composition '' is determined by their blood type. It's an attractive idea, the notion that we can determine someone's optimal diet and offer them perfect health and protection from disease simply by checking their blood type. It's just not a realistic one, according to the available evidence.
  In the end '' and this might be the most important part of this whole thing '' the blood type diet ''works'' because it eliminates processed food regardless of blood type, removes wheat from the diets of people with blood types A, B, and O (which takes care of the vast majority of the population of the world), and recommends that most people (type O is the most common blood type) eat a diet based on meat and plants with little to no grains, beans, sugar,and legumes. I'm honestly not all surprised that so many people get great results.
  What about you? Have you tried the blood type diet? Do you know anyone who's tried it and had success '' or failure? If so, what type were they?
  Thanks for reading, folks!
EU: Banks colluded over derivatives
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: BBC News - Europe
  Mon, 01 Jul 2013 16:04
  1 July 2013Last updated at09:48 ETThe world's biggest investment banks colluded to stop competition in a profitable derivatives business according to EU authorities.
  Between 2006 and 2009 Deutsche Borse and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange tried to enter the credit derivatives business, but were denied licences to offer trading in the products.
  EU competition officials say that big banks were behind that refusal.
  If the exchanges had been successful, banks may have lost out on business.
  The report focuses on one particular financial product, the credit default swap (CDS), which is dominated by "over-the-counter" trading - trading provided directly by the big banks, instead of via a financial exchange.
  CDS are used by companies and investors to protect themselves against potential losses from a debt going bad, or to speculate on the probability of a company or government going bust.
  They were much talked about during the European debt crisis when bailouts caused steep losses for holders of Greek debt.
  They were also accused of helping to propagate the 2008 financial crisis, particular when the large insurance company AIG, a major writer of CDS contracts, almost went bust.
  Following the financial crisis, regulators in the US and Europe have been seeking to move trading of derivatives onto exchanges in order to reduce the risk of counterparties failing to pay out, and to increase transparency.
  UnacceptableIn its preliminary conclusion the European Commission named 13 of the world's biggest investment banks including, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank and Barclays.
  It has also named the industry association for derivatives itself, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (Isda), which comprises all of the major banks, as well as financial data firm Markit.
  Isda sets the legal standards for CDS, and determines when contracts should pay out and by how much.
  "It would be unacceptable if banks collectively blocked exchanges, to protect their revenues from over-the-counter trading of credit derivatives," EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said.
  The banks can now examine the findings and prepare a response.
  If the authorities are not persuaded by their defence, the Commission can impose a fine of 10% of the company's annual turnover.
Mother Of Jailed League Of Legends Player Exclusive Interview
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Mon, 01 Jul 2013 15:02
  Yesterday we posted an article about Justin Carter who was, after playing a game of League of Legends, jailed for comments made on his personal Facebook page.
  Your comments and our interest in the story led to us reach out to Justin's mother, Jennifer Carter, who was kind enough to sit down with FreetoPlay TV's very own Michael Byrne and talk to us about Justin's imprisonment in an exclusive interview.
  If you missed that story, you may want to check out our ''League of Legends Jailed'' story first but Jennifer provides us a recap of the events leading up to Justin's hearing this Monday in our interview.
  Magicman: We ran a brief story yesterday, because of the link to League of Legends which is pretty prominent with our audience, and the feedback was overwhelmingly, 'Yes he said something in poor taste, but this is ridiculous.'' For us to get the facts straight, can you take us through what has gone on so far with Justin?
  Jennifer Carter: February 13th was when he was playing League of Legends and I'm not sure and no one seems to be sure why it spilled over into Facebook, but it did. There were a few people involved in this argument and there was some post made on the site while they were playing and so when he was on Facebook the person whose Facebook page it was said 'Well you're f****d in the head and crazy.' And Justin, if you knew my son, is incredibly sarcastic.
  ''The only evidence we have from the DA's Office is a screen capture of his (Facebook) statement and the previous statement.''
  He has a very sarcastic, dark sense of humor and he unfortunately said the equivalent of 'Oh yeah I'm so messed in the head I'm going to go kill a kindergarten and eat their hearts.' Immediately after his statement he posted 'lol' and 'j/k' and the argument continued from there, but the only evidence we have from the DA's office is a screen capture of his statement and the previous statement. Just Justin's and the previous statement.
  MM: That's all Justin's attorney has been presented with by the DA is a screen capture of a couple of Facebook messages?
  JC: Yes. The next day, February 14th, he (Justin) went to work. He's 18. He has his own apartment, well he lived in an apartment with a roommate and he had a job in San Antonio, and the Sheriffs came to his job and arrested him. Then he was transported from San Antonio to Austin because the woman in Canada found his father's address where he used to live which is 100 yards from an elementary school. At that point, he sat in jail and bond set at $250,000. His father and I don't have that kind of money. We thought honestly that yeah that was a pretty bad thing that he said and we can see why they would be concerned after the shooting in Newtown happened a couple months before. So ya everyone was on edge. There have been other teenagers arrested for comments made in Facebook and things of that nature. We thought that once the police talked to him, which we thought would be that day, they would understand it was a stupid comment that he made a dumb joke and once they searched his home they would see there were no weapons and he wasn't a threat. Basically nothing happened until March 13th. He sat in jail from February 14th until March 13 without being questioned by the police. No one was questioned by the police. They went to his father's house a week after he was arrested and asked did Justin live here which his father said no, and they asked if he had any guns or permits for guns which Justin's father said no and that was it. Then he sat in jail.
  MM: No explanation why they had him cooling his heels in jail for a month?
  JC: None. On March 13th he was questioned by the detectives and he thought best thing for him to do would be to tell the truth. He told them that yes he made the statement and it was a joke and I feel terrible. It was taken badly and I'm sorry for scaring people I didn't mean to. I didn't think people would see it or that anyone would be afraid of it. He told them that he did not live in Austin that he lived in New Braunfels and that was it. They questioned him and got his information and then a week after he was questioned they searched his home in New Braunfels and the only thing they found was his computer. He doesn't have any guns. They confiscated his computer and the only thing that happened after that they transferred him from Austin to New Braunfels and raised his bond to half a million dollars. We don't know why.
  MM: No explanation on that either? (The increase in bail amount.)
  JC: No, and this was after they searched his home and found no weapons, and we assume they looked us up and saw we had no weapons. They basically had done all the investigating and the judge raised the bond to half a million dollars which of course we really couldn't afford to get him out and he's been in jail ever since.
  Justin has languished in jail for the three and a half months since his transfer to New Braunfels, celebrating his 19th birthday behind bars. There is a hearing set for Monday July 1st to determine if Justin's case will proceed to trial and under what charges. Jennifer Carter was trying to stay upbeat during the interview, but after the recap, began to get very emotional when we asked how Justin is doing. Words cannot convey the heartbreak a mother in this situation must be enduring.
  To make matters worse, Justin has had to be transferred to multiple facilities while awaiting his hearing due to his being assaulted multiple times. Jennifer then told us tearfully that Justin was placed in solitary confinement for his own protection two weeks ago, and is under suicide watch.
  MM: How is Justin holding up? I know it's a mess for you and Justin's father trying to figure out the legal side but where is his mind?
  JC: Well you know at first he was sure that as soon as he spoke to the police he would get out and he was a little naive in that way. His father and I both counseled him NOT to talk to the police without his attorney present and he said 'No I'm just going to tell the truth' and that's what he did. After they transferred him to New Braunfels and raised his bond he became very depressed and he (sobbing) this is kind of the hard part to talk about. It's incredibly hard to talk to your child on the phone and hear them think they are never going to see the sun again and have them try and bargain with you that they will never play a video game again if they can just be free.'I promise I will never go on Facebook again or go near a computer again if I can just be free. I'm sorry.' So he's feeling pretty helpless, and when the DA for New Braunfels said the only plea bargain they would be willing to go with was 8 years in prison he got very depressed.
  ''They keep switching him from unit to unit and apparently after the last time he was assaulted the guards were concerned that he would try and kill himself.''
  MM: So they want to offer 8 years in prison in return for an admission for something hes already admitted he did?
  JC: Basically yes. So they don't have to take it to trial and forget that it happened and that he exists. Yeah he became very hopeless and depressed. He's had a pretty rough time in jail. He's never been in any kind of trouble before and hes not really familiar with the criminal world. Yeah so he's been transferred quite a few times after being assaulted in jail. They keep switching him from unit to unit and apparently after the last time he was assaulted the guards were concerned that he would try and kill himself and they placed him in solitary for his own protection. So now he's in solitary confinement.
  MM: How long has he been in solitary?
  JC: Two weeks now I think. At first he was not liking it but now he thinks at least he's safe and no one can hurt him.
  MM: Now what is next in the legal proceedings? As far as hearings?
  JC: He has a hearing on Monday July 1st. It's a pretrial hearing where his attorney is going to ask for his bond to be reduced and again try to plea bargain with the DA's office and see if they are willing to go lower then they are offering. On our side we are hoping they will just release him. That would be the dream scenario, but you know we would like them to drop it to a misdemeanor charge so that he doesn't have felony terrorism on his background check for the rest of his life. Maybe he can do community service and talk to other teenagers and warn them to think about what they say before they say it online. There is one part (of myself) that just wants to get him out, but then there's another part (of myself) that is just so angry that this is even happening and that we are supposed to have freedom of speech in this country and even if we don't like them (comments) we are supposed to be able to say them without fear.
  MM: I certainly thank you Jennifer for spending a few minutes with me here and wish Justin and your family the best in this situation. How can our readers and viewers help? They have the link to the change.org petition so I would assume that's a good place to start, but is there anything else they can do?
  JC: Honestly this whole thing has kind of taken us by surprise. (With) the internet attention we went from 300 signatures to having 16000 in a couple of days. We are not really prepared to do anything. We have been discussing setting up a legal fund so we could get him a lawyer instead of a court appointed attorney so at this point all we can really ask is that people sign the petition and send us their best wishes.
  At this point, all Justin and his family can do is wait for the hearing on Monday and hope that the charges are dropped to a misdemeanor charge instead of the felony terrorism charge that the Attorney General has Justin being held under currently. Jennifer is baffled by this charge from the Attorney General because, as she understands it, under U.S. Law for someone to be held under terrorism charges, the Government must be able to prove that the accused is showing imminent threat and Intent, which so far all they have is a Facebook post to try and prove both.
  When asked how did she thinks this whole situation was possible, Jennifer responded that she thought it was due to the extreme reaction to the recent string of violent shootings and the culture of fear that has been built up in the media. She understands that the comment was very bad, but so far the treatment of her son far exceeds any punishment he should receive for the comment.
  Words cannot begin to express how I feel after hearing this interview. I cannot even begin to imagine what Justin and his family have been going through over the past couple months. I graduated high school right before the Columbine shootings and I graduated college right before the Virginia Tech shootings. I have 4 nieces and nephews in elementary school and the Newton shooting was very scary. The recent rash of shootings impacts everyone and it is something that is relatively new to our generation. The fear is understandable, but the reaction is not.
  Justin's comments were undoubtedly in very poor taste, but so is the treatment he has received so far. Just listening to Justin's mothers talk about the lack of communication from the authorities, and the attempts to force Justin into a plea bargain that will take away a huge chunk of his life is chilling.
  We'll certainly keep you updated on Justin's legal battle and will let you know if any crowd funding is set up for his legal expense.
  After reading the interview, have your opinions changed any on this matter?
U.S. on alert for possible fireworks bombs - UPI.com
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Mon, 01 Jul 2013 02:58
  WASHINGTON, June 29 (UPI) -- Security officials said U.S. police should be on the alert for bombs made from July Fourth fireworks during the upcoming holiday week.
  ABC News said the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI sent out a nationwide notice to law enforcement agencies reminding officers and agents a lot of fireworks are sold in July, and some could end up in the wrong hands.
  "Recent incidents in the Homeland demonstrate that consumer fireworks -- widely used during the upcoming celebrations -- can be misused by criminals and violent extremists to construct improvised explosive devices," the notice said.
  ABC said such notices are routine but the use of homemade bombs in an attack at the Boston Marathon in April may have added new urgency to the potential threat.
  The FBI noted the accused Marathon bombers had allegedly considered carrying out their attack in Boston on July Fourth, in an area where a large number of people were present. The suspects allegedly obtained the gunpowder used in the bombs from a legal fireworks retailer in New Hampshire.