© rkymtnrdr
Fake Bin Laden
Early yesterday morning, a South Carolina Web designer who works at home managed to scoop al-Qaeda by publicly unveiling its new video, a feat she has accomplished numerous times since 2002. Within hours, cable news stations were broadcasting images of Osama bin Laden commemorating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and crediting the 50-year-old woman, who uses the pseudonym Laura Mansfield.
A similar event occurred Friday, when
another group beat al-Qaeda by nearly a full day with the release of the first video images of bin Laden to appear publicly since 2004. That group, the SITE Institute, provided the tape to government agencies and news organizations at a time when many well-known jihadist Web sites had been shut down in a powerful cyberattack by unknown hackers.
Comment: The intent, as always, is to boost the fear factor and to convey the impression that al Qaeda exists as a force at all.
Video: Al Qaeda Doesn't Exist
© Gallo/Getty Images
Guarding against similar attacks could cost tens of billions of dollars.
Almost immediately after it was learned that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian accused of trying to blow up a US airliner using explosives concealed in his underpants, received training in Yemen, US politicians called for Barack Obama, the US president, to expand the 'war on terror' - which remains very much a war despite the administration's official ban of such vocabulary - to that country.
The president obliged, declaring that the US would strike anywhere to prevent another attack.
Such calls were in fact unnecessary, as the US is already involved in Yemen, supervising attacks on militants that have been credited by analysts with helping to further inflame anti-Americanism and support for al-Qaeda in the country.
Indeed, far from heralding a more successful US effort to stamp out Islamist terrorism, the soon to be deepening footprint in Yemen is a sure sign of America's defeat in the war against violent extremism in the Muslim world.
A former US official has said that both the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are extremely paranoid about the Israeli secret service Mossad and Jews, and adds that the charges of espionage against US Defense Department scientist Stewart Nozette reflect this fear and "extreme view".
These fears against Israel, former AIPAC staffer Steve Rosen tells The Jerusalem Post, could harm US-Israel relations.
"One of the things that our case revealed is the very extreme views that are held by some in counter-intelligence agencies of the CIA and FBI about Israel," Rosen said.
"They believe that the Mossad spied on the US on a huge scale and they believe that the Pollard case was the tip of some sort of iceberg," he added.
Mark Doyle
BBC NewsThu, 31 Dec 2009 13:10 UTC
© Getty Images
Alhaji Abdulmutallab warned agencies about his son
One of Nigeria's two main intelligence agencies has blamed the other for failing to share key information two months ago about Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the young man who allegedly went on to try to blow up a plane over the United States with nearly 300 people on board.
If the charge is confirmed, it could highlight disarray within the Nigerian intelligence community which parallels the mistakes President Barack Obama said had been made by US officials.
The reported failure by one part of the Nigerian government to share information with other parts of the administration could also, of course, have had potentially catastrophic consequences - although, in the event, Mr Abdulmutallab allegedly failed to completely detonate explosives on the plane.
If you read any economic, financial, or political analysis for 2010 that doesn't mention the food shortage looming next year, throw it in the trash, as it is worthless. There is overwhelming, undeniable evidence that the world will run out of food next year. When this happens, the resulting triple digit food inflation will lead panicking central banks around the world to dump their foreign reserves to appreciate their currencies and lower the cost of food imports, causing the collapse of the dollar, the treasury market, derivative markets, and the global financial system. The U.S. will experience economic disintegration.
The 2010 Food Crisis Means Financial Armageddon
Over the last two years, the world has faced a series of unprecedented financial crises: the collapse of the housing market, the freezing of the credit markets, the failure of Wall Street brokerage firms (Bear Stearns/Lehman Brothers), the failure of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the failure of AIG, Iceland's economic collapse, the bankruptcy of the major auto manufacturers (General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler), etc... In the face of all these challenges, the demise of the dollar, derivative markets, and the modern international system of credit has been repeatedly forecasted and feared. However, all these doomsday scenarios have so far been proved false, and, despite tremendous chaos and losses, the global financial system has held together.
The 2010 Food Crisis is different. It is THE CRISIS. The one that makes all doomsday scenarios come true. The government bailouts and central bank interventions, which have held the financial world together during the last two years, will be powerless to prevent the 2010 Food Crisis from bringing the global financial system to its knees.
Nick Tattersall
ReutersSun, 27 Dec 2009 12:57 UTC
© Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters
Exterior view of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos.
A Nigerian man who tried to blow up a U.S. passenger jet had lived outside the West African nation for some time and only returned on the eve of the foiled attack, the Nigerian government said on Sunday.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, was charged on Saturday in the United States with trying to blow up Northwest Airlines flight 253 as it approached Detroit from Amsterdam on Christmas Day with almost 300 people on board.
The London-educated Nigerian, son of a respected former banker, started his journey to Detroit in Nigeria's commercial hub of Lagos, where he boarded a KLM flight to Amsterdam before going through transit at Schiphol airport.
"The man in question has been living outside the country for a while. He sneaked into Nigeria on the 24th of December and left the same day," Nigerian Information Minister Dora Akunyili told reporters in the commercial capital Lagos.
Twice I met him, and as many times he delighted me. I can credit Robert Fisk with getting me interested in Lebanon. I have always read his books and articles passionately, and those who know me grew weary of my continuous references to him. But no more. The Fisk I admired is no longer the Fisk that the world knows today. His last article in which he equates Hezbollah, the Lebanese Resistance, with a bunch of anti-Semites is the figurative drop. The reason for this outrageous accusation? Hezbollah's opposition to the teaching of the Anne Frank diary in the schools in the south of Lebanon. Robert Fisk has lived in Lebanon for more than 30 years, and most importantly throughout the savage period of the civil war. It is, nor should it be a secret that Robert Fisk is one of the best western journalists dealing with the Middle East, but that should not impede us from criticizing him on certain critical issues.
Nir Gontage
Ynet NewsWed, 23 Dec 2009 17:33 UTC
Two young Mossad operatives recently hospitalized in psychiatric hospital in center of country. Mossad official assigned to them 24-hours a day to ensure that state secrets not revealed because of their unstable mental state
One of the large mental health hospitals in Israel was recently surprised to receive a young, good-looking patient in a psychotic state who was accompanied by a personal security guard, Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Sunday.
The doctors, who asked why the woman was accompanied by a guard, were shocked to learn that she was a Mossad agent and that the security guard was not assigned to her in order assure her safety or protect her life, but to ensure that she not reveal any state secrets in her shaky mental state.
© Verna Sadock/AP
The Indian press is abuzz with news that Indian Home Ministry officials have said they are investigating whether Pakistani-American terror suspect David Coleman Headley was working as a "double agent."
Indian officials reportedly raised questions about Mr. Headley's links with US intelligence agencies - even as another terror suspect accused of involvement in the 2008 Mumbai attacks was denied bail by a US federal court. These latest and widely-publicized accusations against Headley are expected to put pressure on India's ruling Congress Party, which has emphasized closer ties with the US as part of its foreign policy.
The US has not allowed Indian authorities to interrogate Headley over the Mumbai attacks, much to India's consternation.
© AP Photo / PA
A Roman Catholic bishop in Ireland has resigned after an investigation into child sex abuse by clergymen accused him of ignoring reports of crimes by priests in his diocese, the Vatican said Thursday.
The one-line announcement that Bishop Donal Murray had resigned did not mention the scandal.
But a statement that Murray read to colleagues and curates in the western Irish city of Limerick left no doubt that he was going because of an Irish government investigation's damning findings about his time as an auxiliary bishop in Dublin from 1982 to 1996.
Comment: The intent, as always, is to boost the fear factor and to convey the impression that al Qaeda exists as a force at all.
Video: Al Qaeda Doesn't Exist