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Ex-Mossad chief warns of nuclear terror attack

Nick Tabakoff
news.com.au
Sat, 21 Nov 2009 18:22 EST

One of the world's top spies has warned major world cities are at risk of a fresh September 11-style terrorist attack within the next decade.

And he feared a scenario in which a nuclear device was triggered.

Efraim Halevy, former head of Israel's top-secret national intelligence group Mossad, also warned Western societies like Australia were fighting international terrorism "with one arm tied behind their backs".

Mr Halevy said complacency was not an option, despite some recent setbacks for terror organisations.

"I believe the terrorist threat internationally is still a very omnipresent one," he said.

"Despite setbacks al-Qaeda and its proxies have suffered, especially in the allied operations in Afghanistan and in Pakistan, the threat is very present."

This left open prospects of mass-scale terror.

Telegraph.co.uk
Sat, 21 Nov 2009 18:14 EST

© AP
Jamar Pinkney Snr has been accused of murdering his son who had confessed to sexually abusing his 3-year-old half-sister

A Detroit father has been accused of murdering his son after the 15-year-old boy confessed to sexually abusing his 3-year-old half-sister.

Jamar Pinkney, 37, has been accused of forcing his son, who shares his name, to kneel naked in a vacant lot before shooting the boy with a single bullet in his head on Monday.

Lazette Cherry, the boy's mother, told the Detroit Free Press that Mr Pinkney had rushed to her home in Highland Park, Michigan, after she told him that their son had confessed to having "inappropriate contact" with his young sister at his father's home in east Detroit.

She said when her former partner arrived at her house on Monday, he was wielding a gun.

"I called and told his father this isn't something you sweep under the rug," Miss Cherry told the newspaper.

Mr Pinkney then allegedly marched his son outside, forced him to strip and kneel down. Miss Cherry told how her son begged, "No, Daddy! No!" before his father shot him.

Genetics Anti-Bias Law Takes Effect

Joe Markman
The Seattle Times
Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:10 EST

The first federal anti-discrimination law in nearly 20 years takes effect today, prohibiting employers from hiring, firing or determining promotions based on genetic makeup.

Starting December 7th, group health insurers will not be allowed to consider a person's genetics - such as predisposition for Parkinson's disease - to set insurance rates or deny coverage.

Not since the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 has the federal government implemented such far-reaching workplace protections. Stuart Ishimaru, acting chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, said in a statement that the law reaffirms the idea that people have a right to be judged solely on merit.

"No one should be denied a job or the right to be treated fairly in the workplace based on fears that he or she may develop some condition in the future," he said.

The National Federation of Independent Business, a nonprofit-advocacy group for small businesses, filed concerns about the law in April with the commission.

David Degraw
ampedstatus.com
Sat, 21 Nov 2009 12:08 EST

Are we nearing a tipping point as rapacious elites push a heavily armed populace too far?

Editor's note: The following is an edited excerpt from the Amped Status report, "The Critical Unraveling of U.S. Society."

The economic elite have launched an attack on the U.S. public and society is unraveling at an increased rate. You may have missed it in the mainstream news media, but statistical societal indicators are reading red across the board. Let's look at the top 15 statistics that prove we are under attack.

Greg Miller
Las Angeles Times
Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:24 EST

Dennis Blair moves to assert greater authority over clandestine operations amid mounting tension between the intelligence agencies.

Sensitive CIA operations overseas will face new scrutiny from the nation's intelligence director under a plan approved by the White House and outlined in a memo to the espionage workforce last week.

The move marks an attempt by Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair to assert greater authority over clandestine operations at a time of mounting bureaucratic frictions between the CIA and Blair's office.

Among the activities that could be evaluated are the CIA's campaign of Predator missile strikes against militant targets in Pakistan, as well as secret paramilitary and spying operations in other countries.

In a memo to subordinates Friday, Blair cited new guidance from the White House that his responsibilities "include assessment and evaluation of the effectiveness of sensitive operations." The majority of those, he said, "are conducted by the CIA."

Comment: It's amazing how the mainstream media in the US openly writes about the "clandestine" and "covert" operations of an agency of the US government that is legally limited to being the intelligence arm of the President, not a behemoth war machine that the whole world but America knows is responsible for the heinous crime of making wars.

WCCO/CBS
Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:07 EST

After a man crashed into a Minneapolis building Thursday, he told police he was angry about a "computer type device" that was located inside the building and was sending signals to his head and read his thoughts, according to the complaint.

James Kromer, 36, allegedly crashed his truck into a Physicians & Surgeons Capital Corp. located at 1100 Washington Ave. S. Police said the cost to repair the building exceeds $20,000.

When police arrived on scene, Kromer approached an officer and they asked him if he was responsible. According to the complaint, Kromer answered yes and pointed to where the truck was parked.

Pamela Hess and Anne Gearan
The Associated Press
Sat, 21 Nov 2009 07:52 EST

© AP Photo/Muhammad ud-Deen
Imam Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen. The imam, who communicated with the Fort Hood shooting suspect Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, said he did not pressure Hasan to harm Americans, The Washington Post

The government intercepted at least 18 e-mails between the alleged Fort Hood gunman and a radical Muslim cleric, and a key senator says there could be more communications that might have tipped off law enforcement or military officials.

Federal investigators say they intercepted the messages between the suspect, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, and Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical American-born cleric. They were passed along to two Joint Terrorism Task Force cells led by the FBI, but a senior defense official said no one at the Defense Department knew about the messages until after the shootings. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss intelligence procedures.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said Friday after a briefing from Pentagon and Army officials that his committee will investigate how those and other e-mails involving Hasan were handled and why the U.S. military was not made aware of them before the Nov. 5 shooting.

Levin said his committee is focused on determining whether the Defense Department's representative on the terrorism task force acted appropriately and effectively.

Levin also said he considers Hasan's shooting spree, which killed 13 and wounded more than 30, an act of terrorism.

Matt Apuzzo
The Associated Press
Sat, 21 Nov 2009 07:45 EST

The Justice Department intends to drop manslaughter and weapons charges against one of the Blackwater Worldwide security guards involved in a deadly 2007 Baghdad shooting, prosecutors said in court documents Friday.

The shooting in busy Nisoor Square left 17 Iraqis dead and inflamed anti-American sentiment abroad. It touched off a string of investigations that ultimately led the State Department to cancel the company's lucrative contract to guard diplomats in Iraq.

Iraqis have said they're watching closely to see how the U.S. judicial system handles the five men accused of unleashing an unprovoked attack on civilians with machine guns and grenades.

BBC
Sat, 21 Nov 2009 05:42 EST

A retired US state department official and his wife have admitted spying for Cuba for nearly three decades.

The former official, Walter Kendall Myers, 72, had access to top-secret government information.

Under a plea deal, Mr Myers will spend the rest of his life in jail while wife Gwendolyn, 71, will serve a term of no more than seven-and-a-half years.

She pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of conspiracy to gather and transmit national defence information to Cuba.

The couple also agreed to forfeit $1.7m (£1m) in assets - including a Washington DC apartment and a 37-ft yacht - an amount equal to the total salary he earned from the state department.

Comment: It sounds rather like they took pity on the small island nation being vilified and attacked by their employer, the government. Compare and contrast with that other little nation whose spies operate freely at every level of US government, with never a critical word mentioned about it in the mainstream media:

The Dark Side of the 'Special Relationship': Spy vs. spy, Israel vs. America

Tim Reid
Times Online
Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:50 EST

The abandoned corpses, in white body bags with number tags tied to each toe, lie one above the other on steel racks inside a giant freezer in Detroit's central mortuary, like discarded shoes in the back of a wardrobe.

Some have lain here for years, but in recent months the number of unclaimed bodies has reached a record high. For in this city that once symbolised the American Dream many cannot even afford to bury their dead.

"I have not seen this many unclaimed bodies in 13 years on the job," said Albert Samuels, chief investigator at the mortuary. "It started happening when the economy went south last year. I have never seen this many people struggling to give people their last resting place."

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