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Gear

Best of the Web: Officer Accuses U.S. Military of Vast Afghan Deception

Stephen C. Webster
Raw Story
Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:16 UTC
afgan soldier training
© flickr-isafmedia-61
An internal report on the occupation of Afghanistan, penned by an active-duty military officer and published weeks ago - but not released by the Pentagon - was leaked on Friday by Rolling Stone reporter Michael Hastings, who called the 84-page examination "one of the most significant documents published by an active-duty officer in the past ten years."

The document, written by Lt. Col. Daniel L. Davis, explains there has been a 12-year-long cover-up of the reality on the ground in Afghanistan. Davis was the source of a New York Times feature last Sunday, which cited his report but did not release it.

The Pentagon has since launched an investigation of Davis for possible security violations.

Davis reportedly wrote two versions - one classified and one not - and briefed four members of Congress, both Republican and Democrat. Senior Pentagon officials also have the report, but they've decided not to release it. For that reason, the unclassified report was published by Rolling Stone on Friday afternoon.
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Crusader

Italy: Vatican Besieged by Reports of Money Laundering, Plot to Kill the Pope, at Delicate Time

Nicole Winfield
The Associated Press
Sat, 11 Feb 2012 18:53 UTC
Vatican
© ReutersSt. Peter's Square in the Vatican
Money laundering at the Vatican bank. Corruption in the awarding of Vatican contracts. Even a purported plot to kill Pope Benedict XVI.

The Vatican is being besieged by near-daily leaks of confidential documents and tabloid-style reports of alleged financial mismanagement, political infighting and gossip about who might be the next pope - all coming out at an exceedingly delicate time for the Holy See and Benedict himself.

The frescoed halls of the Apostolic Palace have been buzzing about the leaks, which have emerged as the pontiff prepares for the ceremony next week to crown 22 new cardinals - the princes of the church who will elect his successor.

Such ceremonies always breed unseemly speculation about a future pontiff since they provide a rare chance for cardinals new and old to size one another up. But the Feb. 18 consistory has taken on greater gravitas since the 84-year-old Benedict is showing signs of slowing down.

Conspiracy theorists reading the Italian media of late might also point to another looming date as reason for why the Vatican's dirty laundry is being aired now: In June, a European commission will decide whether the Holy See has abided by tough international anti-money laundering and anti-terror finance laws.

Compliance would mark a key step in the Vatican's goal of joining the so-called "white list" of countries that share financial information - a designation the Vatican hopes will forever dispense with its reputation as a scandal-plagued, secrecy-obsessed tax haven.
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Star of David

An Offer You Can't Refuse - Israel's Latest Veiled Thermo-Nuclear Threat Against a War-Weary West

Mark Glenn
The Ugly Truth
Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:49 UTC
Netanyahu
© n/a
Our armed forces are not the thirteenth strongest in the world, but rather the second or third...We possess several hundred atomic warheads and rockets and can launch them at targets in all directions, perhaps even at Rome. Most European capitals are targets for our air force...We have the capability to take the world down with us, and I can assure you that that will happen before Israel goes under."
- - Martin Van Creveld, a professor of military history at Israel's Hebrew University.

"What would serve the Jew-hating world better as repayment for thousands of years of massacres but a nuclear winter? Or invite all those tut-tutting European statesmen and peace activists to join us in the ovens? For the first time in history a people facing extermination while the world either cackles or looks away have the power to destroy the world. The ultimate justice?"
- - Professor David Perlmutter, writing in the Los Angeles Times, April 7, 2002

Despite the objections many people (rightly) entertain against the manner Italians are unfairly and inaccurately portrayed in gangster films such as The Godfather, nevertheless there are invaluable lessons to be learned from them concerning the inner workings of organized crime interests, and in particular how these interests use coded language when conveying certain ideas.
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Pistol

NATO's Secret War on Syria

Stephen Lendman
Veterans Today
Sat, 11 Feb 2012 17:34 UTC
NATOs secret war
© n/a
In January, Michel Chossudovsky reported British media confirming UK/CIA/MI6 operatives in Syria training anti-Assad Western-backed insurgents. They're also supplying them with arms, ammunition, and equipment.

"These reports confirm unequivocally (they're illegally) interfer(ing) in the affairs of a sovereign state. This is not a popular uprising. The insurrection as well as the killings of civilians were sponsored by the Western powers from the outset."

More on this below. Events replicate the Libya model a year earlier.

In February 2011, US/UK/French special forces and intelligence operatives actively began helping anti-Gaddafi NATO-backed militants. An armed insurgency followed, including bombing weeks later.

A year later, BBC confirmed it, saying:
"....British special forces were deployed on the ground in order to help the UK'S allies - the Libyan 'revolutionaries' often called the National Transitional Council or NTC."
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Bad Guys

Propaganda Alert! FBI warns of threat from anti-government extremists

Patrick Temple-West
Reuters
Sat, 11 Feb 2012 11:19 UTC
Image
© Fox NewsThe FBI warns that exposing violent extremists in government is a threat to continual pathological domination.
Anti-government extremists opposed to taxes and regulations pose a growing threat to local law enforcement officers in the United States, the FBI warned on Monday.

These extremists, sometimes known as "sovereign citizens," believe they can live outside any type of government authority, FBI agents said at a news conference.

The extremists may refuse to pay taxes, defy government environmental regulations and believe the United States went bankrupt by going off the gold standard.

Routine encounters with police can turn violent "at the drop of a hat," said Stuart McArthur, deputy assistant director in the FBI's counterterrorism division.

"We thought it was important to increase the visibility of the threat with state and local law enforcement," he said.

In May 2010, two West Memphis, Arkansas, police officers were shot and killed in an argument that developed after they pulled over a "sovereign citizen" in traffic.

Last year, an extremist in Texas opened fire on a police officer during a traffic stop. The officer was not hit.

Legal convictions of such extremists, mostly for white-collar crimes such as fraud, have increased from 10 in 2009 to 18 each in 2010 and 2011, FBI agents said.
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Stop

Germany Freezes Signing of Disputed Internet Pact


Agence France-Presse
Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00 UTC
Image
© Agence France-Presse/Oliver BergEmployees at work in a cybersecurity centre in Bonn, Germany
Germany on Friday halted the signing of a controversial international accord billed as a way to beat online piracy that has sparked angry protests, saying it needed more time to consider it.

"The signing has not happened, to give us time to carry out further discussions," a foreign ministry spokesman told AFP.

"The federal justice minister in charge of the issue has already signalled her objections this week," added the spokesman.

The ACTA agreement, negotiated between the European Union, Australia, Japan, Canada, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, South Korea, Switzerland, Singapore and the United States, needs all 27 EU countries to ratify the deal.

But countries including Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia have already frozen their ratification process.
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Laptop

US: Hacker Group 'Anonymous' Claims it Broke into Alabama Government Websites, Stole Personal Info


The Washington Post
Fri, 10 Feb 2012 01:21 UTC
Anonymous
© unknown
Computer hackers claiming to be from the loose-knit group known as Anonymous say they have broken into several Alabama law enforcement and government websites and have stolen the personal information for more than 46,000 people.

In an online news release Friday, the group claimed to have taken Social Security numbers, license plate numbers, phone numbers, addresses and criminal records.

Mobile city spokeswoman Barbara Drummond said Utah authorities alerted officials Thursday night that hackers may be targeting the city. She told The Associated Press that the city shut down its computers to avoid the attack and that the hackers did not gain access to Mobile's servers.

However, hackers did breach the website of the city webmaster, and took data from a recent program offering amnesty to people with outstanding warrants for municipal offenses.
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Che Guevara

Egyptians Protest Against a Year of Army Rule

Dina Zayed and Mohamed Abdellah
Reuters
Fri, 10 Feb 2012 03:24 UTC
Image
© Reuters/Mohammed SalemDemonstrators take part in a protest demanding the army to hand power to civilians, at Tahrir square in Cairo February 10, 2012.
Thousands of Egyptians marched to the Defense Ministry Friday to press demands for the generals to hand over power, a day before a strike called by activists to mark the first anniversary of President Hosni Mubarak's fall.

Egypt remains in political turmoil a year after a military council took over from Mubarak, when popular demonstrations forced him to end his 30-year rule.

The Muslim Brotherhood, while not involved in the protests has called for a coalition government to replace the military-appointed one criticized for its handling of soccer violence in Port Said in which at least 74 people were killed.

"The people want the overthrow of the Marshal," activists chanted during the march in Cairo, referring to Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, who heads the army council.

"We are here to tell Tantawi and the military council to hand over power. This is a peaceful march and it will stay so," activist Sara Kamel said. "Since the generals have come to power, they haven't done anything for Egypt and they want to continue Mubarak's legacy."

Army units blocked access to the defense ministry, where the walls on one side of the complex had been repainted to hide graffiti plastered on by activists.
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Pistol

US: NRA Official: Obama Wants to Outlaw Guns in 2nd Term

Sean Lengell
The Washington Times
Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:41 UTC
Wayne LaPierre
© Robert Giroux/Getty ImagesWayne LaPierre
A top official with the National Rifle Association said Friday that President Obama will move to "destroy" gun rights and "erase" the Second Amendment if he is re-elected in November.

While delivering one of the liveliest and best-received speeches at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said the president's low-key approach to gun rights during his first term was "a "conspiracy to ensure re-election by lulling gun owners to sleep."

"All that first term, lip service to gun owners is just part of a massive Obama conspiracy to deceive voters and hide his true intentions to destroy the Second Amendment during his second term," he said.

"We see the president's strategy crystal clear: Get re-elected and, with no more elections to worry about, get busy dismantling and destroying our firearms' freedom, erase the Second Amendment from the Bill of Rights and excise it from the U.S. Constitution."
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Bizarro Earth

Greek Premier Says Default Would Lead to 'Chaos'

Nicholas Paphitis
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00 UTC
Greek Police
© Reuters/Yiorgos KarahalisA petrol bomb explodes near riot police during protests against planned reforms by Greece's coalition government in Athens, February 10, 2012.
Greece's future in the eurozone came under renewed threat Friday as popular protests again turned violent and dissent grew among its lawmakers after European leaders demanded deeper spending cuts.

The country's beleaguered coalition government promised to push through the tough new austerity measures and rescue a crucial €130 billion ($170 billion) bailout deal after six members of the Cabinet resigned.

Prime Minister Lucas Papademos promised to "do everything necessary" to ensure parliament passes the new austerity measures that would slap Greeks with a minimum wage cut during a fifth year of recession. He also promised to replace any other Cabinet members who did not fully back his efforts.

"It is absolutely necessary to complete the effort that began almost two years to consolidate public finances, restore competitiveness and economic recovery," Papademos told an emergency Cabinet meeting.

Draft legislation for the new austerity measures was submitted to parliament after the five-hour meeting ended.
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