Murder suspect Christopher Dorner, a fired LAPD officer and a military veteran, has been officially declared a "domestic terrorist" for his alleged crimes. The terrorist label was announced during a press conference held on 2/10/2013 and was used again in a department memo issued to LAPD officers.
"This is an act of domestic terrorism," said Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said in a press conference, "We will not tolerate this reign of terror that has robbed us of the peace of mind that residents of southern California deserve."
Puppet Masters
Sayonara, I'm outta here!
The widely expected abdication comes at a time of debate over the future of the largely ceremonial Dutch monarchy, but also as calm has descended upon the Netherlands after a decade of turmoil that saw Beatrix act as the glue that held together an increasingly divided society.
"Responsibility for our country must now lie in the hands of a new generation," Beatrix, one of Europe's longest-serving monarchs, said in the simple, televised speech announcing her abdication.
Comment: As a member of the Bilderberg Group and an honorary member of the Club of Rome, we can't help but wonder if there are undisclosed reasons why Beatrix chose to resign now. With the Pope also resigning and billionaires cashing in on their enormous corporate stocks, maybe there is something big afoot...
© Shutterstock | tankist276
That timeline, of course, assumes things don't take any crazy twists or turns.
Enter a press conference today in Albany, where seven groups, including Public Citizen, Food and Water Watch, Frack Action, United for Action, Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy, and Capital District Against Fracking, called for an Albany County District Attorney General investigation of the Cuomo Administration.
They are asking "whether Lawrence Schwartz, Secretary to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, has a conflict of interest between his stock investments and his involvement in the state's decision on whether to allow high-volume hydraulic fracturing for shale gas."
Tanks, one by one, moving along a main road in China's coastal Fujian province. Driving up speculations that the Chinese military may be warming up for war.
Local residents took these pictures between February 3 to February 6. At times, the line of tanks and artillery blocked traffic for several miles.
And it wasn't just in Fujian province. These military vehicles were spotted further up the coast, in neighboring Zhejiang province. According to dissident website, molihua.org, these tanks in Hubei province are being transported from a military base to the coast.
© Reuters / Jonathan Ernst
From deadly drones to secret interrogations to withholding evidence in terror lawsuits, Obama's Democratic White House has followed the path of his predecessor, Republican President George W. Bush. The U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, remains open, despite Obama's pledge to close it, and his administration has pursued leaks of classified information to reporters even more aggressively than Bush's.
"They have maintained momentum in a lot of important areas that we were focused on, and they've continued to build in those areas," said Ken Wainstein, the White House homeland security adviser and a top Justice Department lawyer under Bush. "You can see an appreciation for the severity of the threat, the need to stand up to it, and the need to go on offense at times."
John Brennan's confirmation hearing this week to be CIA director showed just how much Washington - and especially Democrats - has come to accept the same counterterrorism policies that drew such furor in the first years after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
© Reuters/Kevin Lamarque
Waterboarding is a method of torture in which a restrained individual's face is covered by a water-soaked cloth. Further water is then poured over it, forcing the individual to experience a sensation of 'dry drowning.'
Rizzo, a Central Investigation Agency's lawyer who retired in 2009, has declared that Brennan knew of the 'enhanced interrogation techniques' the CIA used, but voiced no moral objections whatsoever, despite a sort of friendship between the two and Rizzo's office being just "15 feet away." The lawyer also heard no objections from the FBI, or elsewhere.
"I just never heard from him directly or ever heard that he had expressed any concerns to colleagues," Rizzo said. "I've talked to other agency veterans. Because to tell you the truth, it did mean something to me."
© Reuters/Jeff Haynes
Butcher Brett Marley dumps in a mixed variety of meats to make fresh ground beef at Casey's Market in Western Springs, Illinois, April 25, 2012.
Butcher Brett Marley dumps in a mixed variety of meats to make fresh ground beef at Casey's Market in Western Springs, Illinois, April 25, 2012.
"The United States is very disappointed that Russia has taken action to suspend all imports of US meat, which is produced to the highest safety standards in the world," US Trade Representative Ron Kirk and US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a joint statement.
© ABC TV
Ben Zygier, thought to be Prisoner X
Ben Zygier, thought to be Prisoner X
Investigations by the ABC's Foreign Correspondent program have revealed Ben Zygier, who used the name Ben Alon in Israel, was found hanged in a high-security cell at a prison near Tel Aviv in late 2010.
His body was flown to Melbourne for burial a week later.
The death goes part of the way to explain the existence in Israel of a so-called Prisoner X, widely speculated in local and international media as an inmate whose presence has been acknowledged by neither the jail system nor the government.
Pope Benedict has shocked a billion Roman Catholics around the world, and his closest advisers, by announcing that he will resign at the end of this month.
Within hours of Pope Benedict announcing his resignation, lightning struck St Peter's Basilica.
The Pope, who is 85 years old, has been the head of the Church since 2005.
"I think it's a good program and I don't disagree with the basic policy that the Obama administration is pursuing now in those regards," he told CBS host Charlie Rose in an interview that aired on Tuesday.
But Rose wondered if there should be some "checks and balances" by another branch of government on the president's ability to "take out" American citizens overseas.
Comment: And so it begins. Designating Dorner a 'domestic terrorist' places the case squarely within the jurisdiction of the NDAA, specifically the part about arresting and assassinating US citizens without Due Process. If Americans don't get smart to what's going on here - en masse - it's game over.