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Lebanon: Hezbollah Identifies Undercover CIA Officers

Adam Goldman
The Associated Press
Mon, 12 Dec 2011 00:00 UTC
Hassan Nasrallah
© unknown
Hassan Nasrallah
The militant group Hezbollah has revealed the identities of CIA officers working undercover in Lebanon, a blow to agency operations in the region and the latest salvo in an escalating spy war.

Hezbollah made the names public in a broadcast Friday night on a Lebanese television station, al-Manar. Using animated videos, the station recreated meetings purported to take place between CIA officers and paid informants at Starbucks and Pizza Hut.

The disclosure comes after Hezbollah managed to partially unravel the agency's spy network in Lebanon after running a double agent against the CIA, former and current U.S. intelligence officials said. They requested anonymity to discuss matters of intelligence.

In June, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah bragged that his group had identified at least two spies working for the CIA. It is not clear whether one of those spies was, in fact, the same double agent working for Hezbollah, which is considered a terrorist group by the U.S. Nasrallah has called the U.S. Embassy in Beirut a "den of spies."
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Rocket

The U.S. Just Crashed Another Unmanned Drone - This Time In Seychelles

Robert Johnson
Business Insider
Tue, 13 Dec 2011 10:42 UTC
Image
© Wikimedia Commons
MQ-9 drone
For the second time in as many weeks, the U.S. Air Force lost a unmanned aerial vehicle, blaming mechanical problems once again.

AlertNet reports the MQ-9 drone crashed at Seychelles International Airport on Tuesday and the U.S. Embassy in Mauritius confirmed the news, saying: "A U.S. Air Force remote-piloted MQ-9 crashed at the Seychelles International Airport in Mahe. The MQ-9 was not armed and no injuries were reported."

The MQ-9, generally referred to as the Reaper, is capable of autonomous or controlled flight operations during its "hunter-killer" missions. The large drone flies at high-altitude for extended periods and can be laden with 1,000 pounds of ordnance and stay aloft for more than 14 hours.

Comment: There were also reports back in October of a mysterious virus that had infected America's drone fleet.

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Airplane

Unmanned Drones Are Already Being Used in the U.S.

Ross A. Lincoln
TomsGuide.com
Tue, 13 Dec 2011 10:21 UTC
It's unsurprising, but troubling nonetheless.
Image
© U.S. Air Force

At the end of November, news broke that the FAA was considering troubling changes to current regulations that, if enacted, will permit the use of unmanned drones for nonmilitary purposes. Alas, it appears that the proposed regulatory changes are merely a means of formalizing what is already an ongoing practice. A story in the Sunday, December 11 edition of the Los Angeles Times confirms that Law Enforcement officials are already using drones with support from the U.S. Customs.

The case in question, one of the strangest juxtapositions of modern technology and rustic, ahem, simplicity in recent memory, involves a dispute over the ownership of cattle - yes, moo cows - in Nelson County, North Dakota. Earlier this year, 6 cows from a neighboring property wandered onto the Brossart family farm. The Brossarts refused to return them to their original owners, and local Sheriffs were called in to resolve the mess. On June 23, Sheriff Kelly Janke attempted to serve the Brossarts with a warrant to search the property, only to be chased off at gunpoint. (The Brossarts, according to local Sheriffs, belong to the Sovereign Citizen movement, an extremist right wing movement that rejects the authority of the federal government and the US Constitution.)
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Handcuffs

US: Suspend Habeas Corpus and Enact Martial Law?

Chris Powell
Connecticut Journal Inquirer
Mon, 12 Dec 2011 09:02 UTC
police in riot gear
© n/a
Americans seem ready to forfeit their most basic civil liberty -- actually, all their civil liberties -- without a whimper.

By a vote of 93-7 the Senate this month approved a military appropriations bill empowering the government to designate any U.S. citizen within the country as a terrorist and to have the military hold him indefinitely without trial and without the right to habeas corpus, the right to be brought before a court for a judgment on the legality of one's imprisonment.

In effect the legislation is a declaration of martial law throughout the country.

The bill still has to be reconciled by a conference committee with a different version passed by the House of Representatives. But even Connecticut U.S. Rep. Joseph D. Courtney, a liberal Democrat and a member of the committee, plans to support the martial law provision and expects it to be enacted. Courtney, who used to be a lawyer, cites as consolation the money contained in the bill for Connecticut military contractors, tens of millions of dollars for jet fighter engines manufactured by the Pratt & Whitney division of United Technologies Corp. in East Hartford and for nuclear submarines made by the Electric Boat division of General Dynamics in Groton.
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Light Sabers

UK Police to test laser that 'blinds rioters'

Matthew Holehouse
The Telegraph
Sun, 11 Dec 2011 16:41 UTC
Laser police
© The Telegraph
Police will trial a laser-firing rifle to suppress riots, the Home Office said.
A shoulder-mounted laser that emits a blinding wall of light capable of repelling rioters is to be trialled by police under preparations to prevent a repeat of this summer's looting and arson.

The technology, developed by a former Royal Marine commando, temporarily impairs the vision of anyone who looks towards the source.

It has impressed a division of the Home Office which is testing a new range of devices because of the growing number of violent situations facing the police.

The developer, British-based Photonic Security Systems, hopes to offer the device to shipping companies to deter pirates. Similar devices have been used by ISAF troops in Afghanistan to protect convoys from insurgents.

The laser, resembling a rifle and known as an SMU 100, can dazzle and incapacitate targets up to 500m away with a wall of light up to three metres squared. It costs £25,000 and has an infrared scope to spot looters in poor visibility.

Looking at the intense beam causes a short-lived effect similar to staring at the sun, forcing the target to turn away.
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Attention

Sibel Edmonds: Exclusive- Developing Story: Hundreds of US-NATO Soldiers Arrive & Begin Operations on the Jordan-Syria Border

Sibel Edmonds
Boiling Frogs
Mon, 12 Dec 2011 16:36 UTC
jordan
© unkonwn
According to first-hand accounts and reports provided to Boiling Frogs Post by several sources in Jordan, during the last few hours foreign military groups, estimated at hundreds of individuals, began to spread near the villages of the north-Jordan city of "Al-Mafraq", which is adjacent to the Jordanian and Syrian border.

According to one Jordanian military officer who asked to remain anonymous, hundreds of soldiers who speak languages ​other than Arabic were seen during the past two days in those areas moving back and forth in military vehicles between the King Hussein Air Base of al-Mafraq (10 km from the Syrian border), and the vicinity of Jordanian villages adjacent to the Syrian border, such as village Albaej (5 km from the border), the area around the dam of Sarhan, the villages of Zubaydiah and al-Nahdah adjacent to the Syrian border.

Another report received from our source in Amman identified an additional US-NATO Command Center in "al-Houshah,' a village near Mafraq.
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Vader

You Can Run but You Can't Hide: Xe, Formerly Known As Blackwater, Changes Name To Academi

Nathan Hodge
The Wall Street Journal
Mon, 12 Dec 2011 16:19 UTC
xe
© unknown
Change your name as much as you like, you're still cold blooded killers.
Despite new ownership, a new board and new management, security contractor Xe Services LLC could never shake a troublesome nickname: the company formerly known as Blackwater.

Now, it's the company formerly known as Xe.

On Monday, Virginia-based Xe plans to unveil a new name - Academi - and new logo. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Ted Wright, president and chief executive, said the name change aims to signal a strategy shift by one of the U.S. government's biggest providers of training and security services.

Mr. Wright said Academi will try to be more "boring."

Founded by former Navy SEAL Erik Prince, the original Blackwater cultivated a special-operations mystique. But it was tarnished by a string of high-profile incidents, including a deadly 2007 shootout in Iraq that ultimately led to its reorganization and rebranding as Xe Services. Mr. Prince left the business in 2010, selling his stake to investor group USTC Holdings LLC.

Mr. Wright came on board this summer as part of a continuing corporate reorganization. In recent meetings with clients, he said he explained that the new corporate identity was supposed to stress the company's focus on regulatory compliance and contract management, in addition to its track record of protecting clients. "I tell them, from now on, I'm going to be in the background; I'm going to be boring," he said. "You're not going to see me in headlines."

Comment: Lawsuit now accuses Xe (a.k.a. Blackwater ) contractors of murder, kidnapping
Yemen: The Covert Apparatus of the American Empire
In a Psychopath's words: ''The guys who do this are not money-hungry pigs''

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Bad Guys

Seeds of Destruction: It's Not Just About Food

J Dial
opednews.com
Mon, 12 Dec 2011 15:15 UTC
Image
© mediaroots.org
When I first became aware of the notion of modifying food by inserting foreign genetic material, I inclined in favor of it. After all, changing the genes of a plant to cause it to yield more, resist pests, and altogether serve us better sounded like a pretty good idea. How attractive it must be to farmers that a GM seed should increase yields while providing its own internal pesticide. But at the same time, knowing how often well-intentioned quests to mold nature have gone seriously awry, I was hesitant to form an opinion before obtaining more facts.

Today the US seed industry is dominated by two multinational companies, Monsanto and DuPont. Those who buy GM seeds sign contracts establishing how and when the crop can be grown and excluding the right to save seed for the following year (even though many GM seeds are engineered to produce infertile plants).

These are the arguments often espoused in favor of GM foods:
  1. That both locally and world-wide, hunger will be abated by the higher yields of GM crops;
  2. That fewer pesticides are used on them;
  3. That safety assessments on them have been numerous and fair, and that results have been highly positive; and
  4. That seeds from GM crops will not blow into or otherwise accidentally pollinate, and contaminate, neighboring fields.
Let's briefly examine these points.

Comment: For more information about the GMO Scandal: The Long Term Effects of Genetically Modified Food in Humans read Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation by William Engdahl:
This skillfully researched book focuses on how a small socio-political American elite seeks to establish control over the very basis of human survival: the provision of our daily bread. "Control the food and you control the people."

This is no ordinary book about the perils of GMO. Engdahl takes the reader inside the corridors of power, into the backrooms of the science labs, behind closed doors in the corporate boardrooms.

The author cogently reveals a diabolical World of profit-driven political intrigue, government corruption and coercion, where genetic manipulation and the patenting of life forms are used to gain worldwide control over food production. If the book often reads as a crime story, that should come as no surprise. For that is what it is.

Engdahl's carefully argued critique goes far beyond the familiar controversies surrounding the practice of genetic modification as a scientific technique. The book is an eye-opener, a must-read for all those committed to the causes of social justice and World peace.


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Bizarro Earth

Growing criticism of Congo vote

Saleh Mwanmilongo
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mon, 12 Dec 2011 03:06 UTC
Image
© unknown
The protesters are contesting the victory of Joseph Kabila
The chorus of voices calling into question the results from Congo's recent election is growing louder, and on Monday the country's influential clergy as well as the United Nations joined those that are now casting doubt on the victory of President Joseph Kabila.

Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo, the head of the influential Catholic Church in Congo, broke his silence to voice his concern. The church, which had deployed the largest observation mission, had earlier refused to disclose the results that their observers had tabulated, saying that their role was not political.

"After analyzing the results that were made public by the (election commission) this past Friday, Dec. 9, 2011, we could not help but conclude that the results are not founded on truth or justice," said Monsengwo on Monday.

He said that the church was willing to mediate the dispute between Kabila, who has been in power for 10 years and who was declared the winner of the November election with 49 percent of the vote, and longtime opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi, came in a distant second with 32 percent of the nearly 19 million votes cast.
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Stormtrooper

Newt Gingrich the Galactic Historian

Ray Smock
History News Network
Mon, 12 Dec 2011 15:10 UTC
Image
© N/A
The writer was Historian of the U. S. House of Representatives from 1983 to 1995. He was fired from that job as one of the first acts of Speaker Newt Gingrich when he took power. Speaker Gingrich hired his own historian, a fellow Georgian and member of his cadre who had served as a "down-link hostess" for Gingrich's controversial telecourse "Renewing American Civilization." Gingrich fired her during the first week she was on the job.

Trying to figure out Newt Gingrich has become a cottage industry now that he is running for president. He is a self-confessed revolutionary who wants to fundamentally change America. He is ambitious, power hungry, and ruthlessly focused. He is a natural for Washington, where such attributes are both feared and admired. How did Newt get this way? What makes him tick? Much has been written about him since he sprang into public consciousness in 1994 with his "Contract with America" that was instrumental in upsetting the Democratic Party's 40-year control of the House of Representatives and eventually gained him the Speakership. But little has been written about his big vision as a transformational figure not only for the United States but for the whole planet.

If men are from Mars and women are from Venus, Newt Gingrich is from the planet Trantor, a fictional world created by Isaac Asimov in his classic Foundation series about galactic empire. Newt's master plan for America does not come from a Republican Party playbook. It comes from the science fiction that he read in high school. He is playing out, on a national and global scale, dreams he had as a teenager with his nose buried in pulp fiction.
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