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Bad Guys

Flashback Israeli officer killed in Cameroon


Press TV
Tue, 23 Nov 2010 00:00 UTC
Helicopter
© Press TV

An Israeli military officer, who was an advisor to Cameroon's president, has been killed in a helicopter crash in the central African country.

Retired Colonel Avi Sivan's chopper went down near Cameroon's capital city of Yaounde on Monday, Israeli daily Ha'aretz reported.

Sivan was responsible for training a presidential guard brigade unit in Cameroon.

There have been no comments on the cause of the incident.
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Eye 1

New York Times says UK tried to get it to hand over Snowden documents

Ed Pilkington
Guardian
Sun, 13 Oct 2013 17:05 UTC
Image
© Evan Agostini/Associated PressJill Abramson: 'Prior restraint is pretty much unthinkable to me in this country.'
Jill Abramson says she was approached by UK embassy officials after announcing collaboration with Guardian over NSA files

The editor of the New York Times, Jill Abramson, has confirmed that senior British officials attempted to persuade her to hand over secret documents leaked by the former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

Giving the newspaper's first official comments on the incident, Abramson said that she was approached by the UK embassy in Washington after it was announced that the New York Times was collaborating with the Guardian to explore some of the files disclosed by Snowden. Among the files are several relating to the activities of GCHQ, the agency responsible for signals interception in the UK.

"They were hopeful that we would relinquish any material that we might be reporting on, relating to Edward Snowden. Needless to say I considered what they told me, and said no," Abramson told the Guardian in an interview to mark the International Herald Tribune's relaunch as the International New York Times.

The incident shows the lengths to which the UK government has gone to try to discourage press coverage of the Snowden leaks. In July, the government threatened to take legal action against the Guardian that could have prevented publication, culminating in the destruction of computer hard drives containing some of Snowden's files.
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Display

Xerox: Access to food stamp system is restored in the 17 states that were affected by outage


Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
Tue, 15 Oct 2013 17:01 UTC
Image
© AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli
People in Ohio, Michigan and 15 other states found themselves temporarily unable to use their food stamp debit-style cards on Saturday, after a routine test of backup systems by vendor Xerox Corp. resulted in a system failure. Xerox announced late in the evening that access has been restored for users in the 17 states affected by the outage, hours after the first problems were reported.

"Restarting the EBT system required time to ensure service was back at full functionality," spokeswoman Jennifer Wasmer said in an email. An emergency voucher process was available in some of the areas while the problems were occurring, she said.

U.S. Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Courtney Rowe underscored that the outage was not related to the government shutdown.

Earlier Saturday shoppers left carts of groceries behind at a packed Market Basket grocery store in Biddeford, Maine, because they couldn't get their benefits, said shopper Barbara Colman, of Saco, Maine. The manager put up a sign saying the EBT system was not in use. Colman, who receives the benefits, called an 800 telephone line for the program and it said the system was down due to maintenance, she said.

"That's a problem. There are a lot of families who are not going to be able to feed children because the system is being maintenanced," Colman said. She planned to reach out to local officials. "You don't want children going hungry tonight because of stupidity," she said.
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TV

Computer glitch blamed for nationwide EBT system shutdown on Saturday


CBS Boston
Tue, 15 Oct 2013 16:57 UTC
Image
People in Ohio, Michigan and 15 other states found themselves unable to use their food stamp debit-style cards on Saturday, after a routine test of backup systems by vendor Xerox Corp. resulted in a system failure.

At about 9 a.m. Saturday, reports from across the country began pouring in that customers' EBT cards were not working in stores.

At 2 p.m., an EBT customer service representative told CBS Boston that the system was currently down for a computer system upgrade.

Xerox spokeswoman Jennifer Wasmer released further details later in the afternoon in an emailed statement.

"While the electronic benefits system is now up and running, beneficiaries in the 17 affected states continue to experience connectivity issues to access their benefits. Technical staff is addressing the issue and expect the system to be restored soon," Wasmer said. "Beneficiaries requiring access to their benefits can work with their local retailers who can activate an emergency voucher system where available. We appreciate our clients' patience while we work through this outage as quickly as possible."
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Dollars

Despite government shutdown, Bidens on Vacation at Camp David

Daniel Halper
The Weekly Standard
Sun, 13 Oct 2013 16:42 UTC
Joe biden
© n/aJoe Biden on vacation
Despite the government shutdown, Vice President Joe Biden is vacationing at Camp David this long weekend. He's joined at the Maryland retreat by his family, including his wife (Jill Biden), children, and grandchildren.

The vice president is also there with "essential" government workers, who must work despite the government shutdown. That includes his Secret Service detail, as well as the Secret Service details assigned to the rest of his family, and other support staff. They are protecting the Bidens as they vacation -- but aren't getting paid because of the federal shutdown.

The vice president's public schedule simply reads:
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Wall Street

Best of the Web: Max Keiser on the truth about U.S. government shutdown: America is one giant hedge fund


RT.com
Tue, 15 Oct 2013 16:37 UTC
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Washington's struggle to govern itself has already cost the American economy hundreds of millions of dollars on the first day of the government shutdown. And things are likely to get even more expensive, with neither Republican nor Democrat lawmakers willing to back down from their stance on Barack Obama's signature health care bill.

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Propaganda

IMF Propaganda: U.S. Risks Joining 1933 Germany in Pantheon of Deadbeat Defaults

John Glover
Bloomberg
Mon, 14 Oct 2013 16:37 UTC
rainy 13th day
© Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty ImagesOn a rainy 13th day of a government shutdown with a possible debt default looming, the Senate comes into session but the House is closed, on Capitol Hill on October 13, 2013.
Reneging on its debt obligations would make the U.S. the first major Western government to default since Nazi Germany 80 years ago.

Germany unilaterally ceased payments on long-term borrowings on May 6, 1933, three months after Adolf Hitler was installed as Chancellor. The default helped cement Hitler's power base following years of political instability as the Weimar Republic struggled with its crushing debts.

"These are generally catastrophic economic events," said Professor Eugene N. White, an economics historian at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. "There is no happy ending."
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USA

Best of the Web: Exceptionalism: A film that studies the origins of American exceptionalism


RT
Mon, 14 Oct 2013 15:38 UTC
Image
What is American exceptionalism? Where does the US's world monopoly on democracy come from? How does the US give itself license to do as it pleases?

"Exceptionalism" is a film by RT correspondent Anissa Naouai.

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Green Light

Best of the Web: The birth of the 'de-Americanized' world

Pepe Escobar
Asia Times Online
Tue, 15 Oct 2013 10:32 UTC
de-americanized world
© Unknown
This is it. China has had enough. The (diplomatic) gloves are off. It's time to build a "de-Americanized" world. It's time for a "new international reserve currency" to replace the US dollar.

It's all here, in a Xinhua editorial, straight from the dragon's mouth. And the year is only 2013. Fasten your seat belts - and that applies especially to the Washington elites. It's gonna be a bumpy ride.

Long gone are the Deng Xiaoping days of "keeping a low profile". The Xinhua editorial summarizes the straw that broke the dragon's back - the current US shutdown. After the Wall Street-provoked financial crisis, after the war on Iraq, a "befuddled world", and not only China, wants change.

This paragraph couldn't be more graphic:
Instead of honoring its duties as a responsible leading power, a self-serving Washington has abused its superpower status and introduced even more chaos into the world by shifting financial risks overseas, instigating regional tensions amid territorial disputes, and fighting unwarranted wars under the cover of outright lies.
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Stock Down

Losing faith: Global financiers look to de-Americanize


RT
Tue, 15 Oct 2013 03:10 UTC
US dollar printing press
© Mark Wilson/Getty Images/AFP
A US debt default could hit on Thursday, and world leaders are second guessing the dominant role America plays in finance. Regardless of the final decision in Washington, confidence and credibility in the US has already eroded.

In an editorial published by the Chinese state-owned press agency Xinhua, a columnist says the US economy has 'failed' and put many countries who hold state assets in dollars at risk.

"To that end, several corner stones should be laid to underpin a de-Americanized world," the editorial read.

Last week China, the biggest US creditor, started to make preparations for a technical default on loans. The European Central Bank and the People's Bank of China (PBC) have agreed to start supplying each other with their currencies, avoiding the dollar as an intermediary currency. The currency swap agreement will last for three years and provide a maximum of 350 billion yuan ($56 billion) to the ECB and 45 billion euro ($60.8 billion) to the PBC.

In a further sign of growing distrust, China introduced a so-called "haircut", or a discount, on the value of US Treasuries held as collateral against futures trades.

Developing and developed nations are equally concerned, and institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have issued several warnings.
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