The media wants us in a permanent state of panic

A man in an unmarked Russian military uniform stands guard at Simferopol International Airport
in Ukraine's Crimea area. (Sean Gallup / Getty Images / February 27, 2014)

The Ukraine - "Ask me if I care."

By Gary;

And mostly I don't care.

The TV-radio talking heads and many politicians are beating the drum of "fear" about the Ukraine telling you that you MUST CARE.  But why?

The talking heads need your ratings to line their pockets with cold hard cash.  They use yellow journalism to create an "evil" foreign boogie man.  That is a long tradition in the media.

Politicians also love the foreign boogie man.  To distract the people at home from unemployment and poverty, the politicians scream "look over there" at the ____________ fill in the blank evil nation of the month.  Having an evil foreign enemy also works in increasing military spending.

Russia is the current boogie man of the month.

The drums of hate started with the Olympics when you had all the media acting as one unit to attack everything Russian.  But somehow the Olympics were successful.

Now we have the Ukrainian revolution and Russia re-involving itself in the area.  We see the media/political class is going ape shit.  Even the Drudge Report joined in the frenzy with a massive headline that a single Russian ship had docked in Cuba.  (Like that has never happened before.)

Russians - Oh the Horror!!!!  Film at eleven.

The double-tongues fail to remind you that Comrade Obama just sent two American warships to sail off the Russian Black Sea coast and dock in Turkey.  It is OK for the U.S. to send ships to Russia but bad for Russia to send a ship to Cuba.  I smell bullshit. 

BOTTOM LINE  -  Russia has ruled the Ukraine for centuries.  It is their back yard, not ours.  If the Ukrainian speaking peoples want to be independent it is fine with me.  But if the Russian speaking peoples of that nation want to re-join Russia then why not?

Just beware of the media-government complex trying to manipulate you for their own ends.

Mystery military vehicles spotted in Crimea, Ukraine

Seven armoured personnel carriers (APCs) were seen on Thursday in Ukraine's

southern region of Crimea, according to a local Ukrainian reporter.

How about a vote?
Prior to 1990 the Ukraine never existed as an independent nation.  The region has been ruled by assorted invading Eurasian tribes, Muslim Tatars, the Muslim Ottoman Turks, Poland, Russia and more.  Personally I will sleep soundly no matter which flag flies over the Crimea.
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The borders of the current "nation" of the Ukraine are an accident of history that no one should get worked up about.  Russia has ruled the area for centuries.  Why not let the Russian speaking regions of the Ukraine vote to re-join Russia if they wish? 

Russians in the Ukraine
People wave Russian flags as they protest in the center of the southern Ukrainian city of Sevastopol, the main base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, on February 23, 2014. Some 10,000 pro-Russians were part of the protest.

Syrian rebels get anti-aircraft missiles from Islamist Saudi Arabia

What could possibly go wrong?

• Comrade Obama is backing Islamist Saudi Arabia's arming of the Syrian Islamist rebels who are trying to overthrow the pro-Iran but secular pro-Russian Syrian government that protects the local Christians from Islamists.
• Fuck it, I mean who wouldn't want to get involved?

Frustrated by the deadlock of the second round of Geneva 2 talks, Saudi Arabia has reportedly offered to supply the rebels with anti-aircraft missiles. Meanwhile Russia has accused the US of once again hijacking peace talks and pushing for regime change.

According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, Russian-made antitank guided missiles and Chinese man-portable air-defense systems are up for grabs, already waiting in warehouses in Jordan and Turkey.

An Arab diplomat and several opposition figures with knowledge of the Saudi efforts have told WSJ that these supplies are likely to tip the battlefield scales, as the rebels will become capable of taking on the government’s air power and destroying heavy armored vehicles reports RT News. 

“New stuff is arriving imminently,” a Western diplomat with knowledge of the planned weapons deliveries told the American publication.
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Leaders of the Syrian opposition said they don't yet know the total amount of military aid that will be shipped. The new weapons are expected to reach southern Syria from Jordan while the opposition in the north will get arms from Turkey, the Western diplomat said.

Raising fears that civilian aircraft may eventually become targets, last June several media outlets suggested that Saudi Arabia had already begun supplying anti-aircraft launchers and missiles to militants in Syria. But so far Saudi Arabia, as well as the US, has been officially opposed to arming the rebels with big guns and antiaircraft missiles as they could fall into extremist hands.

Mercenaries on US payroll?

The Wall Street Journal also reports that their rebel sources claimed the US government is paying their salaries to fight the Assad forces. The Southern Front brigades allegedly received $3 million in cash in salaries during the two meetings in Jordan, one held on January 30 and the other late last year.

Meanwhile, congressional aides told the WSJ about scheduled meetings with Syrian opposition leaders next week. The Syrian delegation will allegedly seek extra armaments in order to battle al-Qaeda and al-Nusra elements.

“We're trying to assure the international community that they can support moderates without the threat of arms falling into the hands of al-Qaeda,” said Oubai Shahbandar, a senior adviser to the Syrian opposition. Saudi Arabia and US have so far refused to comment.

China Targets U.S. Aircraft Carriers

An Aircraft Carrier Killer

• China has developed missiles that travel at 10 times the speed of sound and can sink an American carrier.
• While back here in the USA the idiots in Congress and the Pentagon squander billions in tax money on ancient World War II era aircraft carrier technology that would stay afloat for maybe 10 minutes in a real war. 

(Infowars News)  -  China’s new hypersonic missile vehicle is primarily designed to target U.S. aircraft carriers, military expert Chen Hu told the state-run China Central Television (CCTV) in yet another admission of Beijing’s increasingly hostile geopolitical posturing.

The WU-14, a hypersonic glide vehicle which can penetrate missile defense systems by traveling at up to ten times the speed of sound, underwent its first test flight earlier this month.

 

Despite assurances by China’s defense ministry that the new vehicle was not aimed at any particular country, Chinese military expert Chen Hu told state media that the system, “can surely be used against US carriers in any region around the globe” and that it was “designed to strike large military targets including US aircraft carriers.”

 

 

 

"You sunk my battleship."
“The People’s Liberation Army has successfully sunk a US aircraft carrier, according to a satellite photo provided by Google Earth,” reports the Want China Times,” adding that, “A satellite image reveals two large craters on a 200-meter-long white platform in the Gobi desert used to simulate the flight deck of an aircraft carrier.

 

Noting that the development of the vehicle was necessary in order to maintain the balance of power in East Asia, Chen said that its purpose is to prevent the United States from using its hypersonic weapons against China, adding that the Cold War-era doctrine of “mutually assured destruction” is guiding policy both in Washington and Beijing.

 

Last year, China reportedly sunk a mock U.S. aircraft carrier utilizing the DF-21D anti-ship missile, dubbed the “carrier killer,” during a wargame which took place in the Gobi Desert.

 

Bellicose rhetoric directed at the United States by China has intensified in recent months in light of heightened tensions over the disputed Senkaku Islands.

 

Last month, Beijing bragged that its first aircraft carrier combat task force, led by the inaugural Liaoning warship, matched anything the United States had to offer.

 

A lengthy editorial which appeared in Chinese state media last month explained how the Chinese military’s current reformation process was part of a move by President Xi Jinping to prepare the People’s Liberation Army for war in response to US aggression in the Asia Pacific, developments which have prompted “major changes” in China’s national security situation.

 

Beijing has also pontificated about China’s ability to attack US military bases in the Western Pacific, as well as releasing a map showing the locations of major U.S. cities and how they would be impacted by a nuclear strike launched from the PLA’s strategic submarine force.

 

See more photos at Tiexue.net

The Aircraft Carrier USS St. Lo
Sunk by Japanese kamikaze aircraft on 25 October 1944 in the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
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A total of 57 ships were sunk by Japanese kamikazes including 3 aircraft carriers and 14 destroyers.  Some 368 other ships were damaged.  About 4,900 sailors were killed and over 4,800 wounded.
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Call me crazy, but if an aircraft carrier can be sunk by a "primitive" propeller driven fighter plane one has to ask how long these ultra-expensive ships will remain afloat in an age of modern missile technology or jet fighters piloted by Muslim suicide bombers.
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Here is a radical thought.  Build air bases on land.

Kamikaze Attacks

USS Gerald Ford - $13 Billion in Scrap Metal
.Congress spends insane amounts of money to fund boondoggle spending projects like the USS Gerald Ford.  The price tag for the USS Gerald Ford is now at $13 billion, it is 22% over budget with three more years to go before it is finished.  The fact of the matter is modern technology can sink it in minutes.
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To compare, the navy of India just took delivery of  INS Vikramaditya aircraft carrier for a cost of $2.35 billion.

Also see our articles - USS Gerald Ford - $13 Billion in Scrap Metal
and
$8.5 trillion spent by Pentagon with no audit

‘Black Hawk Down’ - US military is back in Somalia

We Are Back in Somalia Again

Have the generals and politicians learned their

lesson in tactics and strategy?

The US military has sent a small number of “uniformed trainers and advisers” to volatile nation of Somalia for the first time since 1993, when two US helicopters were shot down and 18 Americans were killed during the “Black Hawk Down” mission.

A small cell of less than two-dozen US military personnel has been stationed in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, since last fall in an effort to advise and coordinate with African troops fighting Al-Shabab, an Islamic militia with ties to Al-Qaeda, three US military officials told The Washington Post.

Last summer and fall, US military officials indicated the Pentagon will become more involved in Somalia. The Pentagon’s top policy official in Africa, Amanda Dory, told Congress in October the US military would “increase our presence in Mogadishu in tandem with the State Department” but did not elaborate reports RT News.

Three anonymous US military officials told The Post US Africa Command sent a small amount of advisers to Mogadishu in the fall to coordinate the cell with Somali security forces and a regional coalition of African troops.

The Pentagon declined to comment on the plans.

The clandestine deployment ends two decades of America’s unofficial policy that prohibited any long-term US military presence on the ground in Somalia despite the country being considered a failed state and teeming with pirate and militant Islamic organizations.

The Central Intelligence Agency has also operated a base in Somalia for some time, financing Somali forces fighting Al-Shabab and other entities. Journalist Jeremy Scahill has documented the CIA’s secretive movements in Somalia.

In 2011, he revealed the existence of the CIA’s counterterrorism center at the Mogadishu airport. He also reported on a secret prison in the US-funded Somali National Security Agency, which according to his sources, was used by the US to interrogate prisoners.

In recent years, the US has spent over US $500 million to train and arm an African Union security force of over 18,000 soldiers amid ongoing chaos and famine in Somalia. Most of the forces are trained outside Somalia by US contractors and uniformed military advisers. The US has also spent around $170 million to boost the often-ineffective Somali national army.

The African Union forces control most of Mogadishu, though Al-Shabab still holds most of the country. Al-Shabab has led insurgent efforts in Somalia, against the country’s Western-backed leaders, in recent years. It announced a merger with Al-Qaeda two years ago, though how much of a threat they pose to the US is disputed by American analysts.

Black Hawk Down (2001) - Official Trailer [HD]

One of the Greatest War Movies
No movie can ever recreate the horrors faced by men in combat.  But it is fair to say that the great Ridley Scott's movie Black Hawk Down comes damn close.  But the question of the day is, did anyone in the Pentagon watch this film before invading Iraq and Afghanistan?  I doubt it.
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Some of Ridley Scott's best films are Alien (1979), the sci-fi classic Blade Runner (1982), Thelma & Louise (1991), best picture Oscar-winner Gladiator (2000), Black Hawk Down (2001), Matchstick Men (2003), Kingdom of Heaven (2005), American Gangster (2007), Robin Hood (2010), and Prometheus (2012).

Are US Generals Able to Read?
This is one of the great unanswered questions of our time.  For sure we know that our generals and politicians do not read military histories of the Revolutionary War. 
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Those dirty backwoods farmers of our Revolution were the terrorists of their day tarring and feathering Royal officials, burning homes and crops of Loyalists and shooting British soldiers in the back from cover.  If IEDs had been invented you know the Brits would have slaughtered while marching on every American road.
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I know this.  You know this.  But our "best and brightest" from West Point appear to be clueless about the incredible military power of guerrilla tactics and people's wars. 
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Our generals forgot, if they ever knew, about the guerrilla warfare horrors of the Apache Wars (1849 to 1924) and the Philippine War (1899 to 1913) as well as our failures in Vietnam, Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan.  Now we are dipping our toes back in Somalia.

Kerry - Return 80,000 Palestinian refugees to Israel

Is This Any of Our Business?

• I am not an isolationist, but I really don't give a damn who "controls" any town in Palestine or Israel.  I am a Hell of a lot more interested in border security in California and Texas than in the West Bank.  Maybe we should be tending to our own affairs rather than sticking our noses into other people's affairs.

Secretary of State John Kerry proposed to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas the return of 80,000 Palestinian refugees to Israel, a well-informed Palestinian official said on Monday.

Kerry's proposal on the return of Palestinian refugees was part of his ideas presented to the Palestinian side to reach a framework peace agreement, Xinhua quoted a senior official of the Palestinian government as saying.
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Kerry, who is visiting the region, had held talks Friday and Saturday with Abbas in Ramallah reports Zee News of India.
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 "Kerry's proposal on the return of refugees is the same proposal offered by former US president Bill Clinton during Camp David peace talks held in the United States in 2000," said the official.

He added that during their meetings, Abbas wants to increase the number of Palestinian refugees returning to Israel to 200,000, and the demand is still under discussion with Kerry.

As for the issue of Jerusalem, the official said, "Kerry's recent ideas focus on handing over parts of Jerusalem to the Palestinian National Authority and that Jordan will have the jurisdiction on holy sites and places in the city."

However, Israel still refuses to recognize east Jerusalem as the capital of the future Palestinian state, and insists that Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the state of Israel, according to the official.

On the other hand, the Palestinian side opposes the proposal of recognising Israel as a Jewish state, the official said, adding that "gaps are still wide concerning the permanent status issues of the refugees, Jerusalem, borders, settlements and the Jewish state."

Jerusalem - The Center of World Hate
Over thousands of years the city of Jerusalem as been the focal point of world hate and death rather than peace and love.  Nothing has changed.  Personally I enjoyed Saladin (above) in the movie Kingdom of Heaven.  A lot of folks might agree.
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Saladin:   Will you yield the city?
Balian of Ibelin:   Before I lose it, I will burn it to the ground. Your holy places - ours. Every last thing in Jerusalem that drives men mad.
Saladin:   I wonder if it would not be better if you did.

Congress looks at importing Syrians into the US

"We Want to Live in Boston"

Our brain-dead dear "leaders" are now looking for ways to
import Muslim Syrians.  What could possibly go wrong?

A Senate hearing on Tuesday revealed growing bipartisan support for allowing more Syrian refugees into the U.S.

Lawmakers on the Judiciary human-rights panel pressed the Obama administration to relax standards that reject applicants who have supported armed factions, even ones the U.S. government itself supports. Members of both parties also urged passage of provisions of the stalled immigration reform bill that could help Syrians reports The Hill.

“I don't see a comprehensive immigration bill passing anytime soon, so when it comes to changes in our laws, extensions, if you need something beyond the ability that you have [now], please let us know,”  Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told State and Homeland Security officials. “Because I think a lot of us may have different views about immigration but may be willing to accommodate some legal changes that would help expedite this process.”

Those provisions include removing the one-year filing deadline for asylum seekers, along with other changes to refugee program.

The hearing comes amid rising criticism that the U.S. isn't doing enough after allowing only 90 Syrians to resettle in the United States over the past three years, out of more than 2 million refugees who have been straining the resources of neighboring countries such as Lebanon and Jordan. The administration says it has done its part by offering $1.4 billion in humanitarian aid — more than any other country.

Panel chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) told the panelists that the U.S. “also should accept more vulnerable Syrian refugees who have no way of getting to the United States.”

“One issue that needs to be addressed is the overly broad prohibition in our immigration law that excludes any refugee who has provided any kind of support to any armed rebel group, even a group supported by the United States,” he said. “This would prevent a Syrian who gave a cigarette or a sandwich to a Free Syrian Army solider from receiving refugee status, despite the fact that the United States is providing assistance to the FSA.”

How about Syrian Christians?
Sorry, but screw the Muslims.  Let the Muslim nations take care of their own people.  But the US should warmly welcome Syrian Christians into the US who have been the targets of Islamic terrorism.

French telecom group to sue the NSA over hacking

Vive la France

• The French are going to sue the NSA about spying on them.  I can't get too worked up.  Spying on foreigners, not Americans, is what the NSA was supposed to be doing in the first place.

The real question of the day, "Is the NSA spying worthless?" 

The fact of the matter is the "intelligence" groups of America are next to worthless.  From 9/11 to the Boston Bombings to Benghazi to the new suicide bombings at the Russian city of Volgograd we have been caught with our pants down over and over. 

The NSA etc claims successes against terrorism . . . but, and there is always a but . . . those successes are classified and we are not allowed to know about them.  The government wouldn't lie would they?

We spend most of our time spying on the American people and our allies rather that Muslim murderers.

France’s largest telecom group, Orange, has threatened to sue the NSA over hacking the underwater cable that it jointly owns with 15 other companies, French media reported in the wake of the latest Snowden revelation.

In response to the recent report published by Germany’s Der Spiegel, Orange said it was not aware of any intrusion or unlawful actions of this kind.

"We will take legal action in the next few days because we want to know more about the eventuality that Orange data may have been intercepted," an Orange spokeswoman said as cited by Reuters. She added that Orange had had no role whatsoever in the spying reports RT News.

Orange has reiterated that the privacy of correspondence and negotiations can be broken only by special court order, and that the conditions and reasons for such action should be clearly defined in French law, the statement said, according to L’Express.

"Piracy to intercept data is not possible directly through the system of Orange, and such intrusion has not been previously reported," the company said in a statement, as quoted by Le Figaro.
The company now plans to take action in civil court.

On Sunday, Der Spiegel revealed that US intelligence was spying on the SEA-ME-WE-4 cable system that connects Europe with North Africa and the Gulf states and continues through Pakistan and India to Malaysia and Thailand.

According to the report, the Office of Tailored Access Operations (TAO) “successfully collected network management information for the SEA-Me-We Undersea Cable Systems (SMW-4)” on February 13, 2013.

As a result, the NSA was able to “gain access to the consortium's management website and collected Layer 2 network information that shows the circuit mapping for significant portions of the network.”

The document, leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, said that TAO hacked an internal website of the operator consortium and copied documents stored there pertaining to technical infrastructure.

“More operations are planned in the future to collect more information about this and other cable systems,” the leaked document said, according to Der Spiegel.

Safe from Terror?
Instead of spying on terrorists we hear about the NSA spying on the German Chancellor's cell phone or the emails of the President of Brazil and that nation's oil company.
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See our article Obama spies on the terrorist hotbed of Brazil

Obama's NSA spying sends American jobs to Sweden

Saab JAS 39 Gripen

Obama The Job Killer

• Brazil gives Sweden's Saab a $4.5 Billion fighter jet contract.  Boeing is cut out in retaliation for Obama's NSA spying on Brazil.
• “The NSA problem ruined it for the Americans,” a Brazilian government source told Reuters.
• NSA spying in Brazil had nothing to do with terrorism, but was all about Brazilian plans for oil production. 

Brazil has rejected a contract for Boeing’s F/A-18 fighter jets in favor of the Swedish Saab’s JAS 39 Gripens. The unexpected move to reject the US bid comes amid the global scandal over the NSA’s involvement in economic espionage activities.

The announcement for the purchase of 36 fighters was made Wednesday by Brazilian Defense Minister Celso Amorim and Air Force Commander Junti Saito.

Shares in Sweden's Saab jumped almost 30% after it won a $4.5 Billion (£2.7bn) deal to supply the 36 fighter jets to Brazil.

The deal is one of the most valuable ones in emerging markets and Saab had faced competition from rivals Boeing and Dassault Aviation.

Many had expected Boeing or Dassault to emerge as the winner reports BBC News.

The BBC's Gary Duffy in Sao Paulo says Boeing's cause was not helped by a recent row between the US and Brazil over spying allegations.

Obama's NSA was spying on the
President of Brazil and the state
oil company Petrobras.

The US National Security Agency (NSA) has been accused of intercepting emails and messages from President Dilma Rousseff, her aides and state oil company, Petrobras.

David Fleischer, a political scientist at the University of Brasilia, said that Ms Rousseff "had been favouring the Boeing plane and a lot of people thought she would announce her decision during her state visit to Washington".

"Boeing was very close but then the NSA booted them out of the air," he said.

The spying allegations were made by Rio-based journalist Glenn Greenwald, who obtained secret files from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

Just before her address at the UN summit, Rousseff canceled a state visit to Washington, scheduled to take place in October, because of indignation over spying revelations. Rousseff has stated she wants an apology from US President Barack Obama reports RT News.

Snowden has promised to aid Brazil in a probe into the NSA’s spying program in the country.

“A lot of Brazilian senators have asked me to collaborate with their investigations into suspected crimes against Brazilian citizens,” said Snowden, in an open letter published by Brazilian paper Folha de S.Paulo. Snowden hinted in the letter that he may ask Brazil for asylum.

“The American government will continue to limit my ability to speak out until a country grants me permanent political asylum,” wrote Snowden.

The whistleblower is currently under temporary asylum in Russia. Brazil plans to host a global summit on internet governance in April 2014.

Brazil resident Glenn Greenwald, the former Guardian journalist renowned for publishing Snowden’s leaks, criticized on Wednesday European Union governments’ muted response to the revelations about the NSA’s mass surveillance apparatus.  He also contradicted Washington’s claim that no economic espionage is involved amid NSA spying.

“What a lot of this spying is about has nothing to do with terrorism and national security. That is the pretext. It is about diplomatic manipulation and economic advantage.”

Obama - Sending jobs to Sweden.

Syrian Islamists seize Obama-backed rebel bases

Shock!

Obama discovers the "crazy" Islamists are taking

over from "moderate" Islamists.

(Reuters News)  -  Syrian rebels from an Islamist alliance formed last month have occupied bases and warehouses belonging to a Western-backed rebel group on the Turkish border, rebels and activists said on Saturday.

Fighters from the Islamic Front, a union of six major rebel groups, took control of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) bases at the Bab al-Hawa crossing on the northwestern border with Turkey late on Friday night, the opposition sources said.

Louay Meqdad, an FSA spokesman, said the Islamic Front fighters had entered the bases after saying they wanted to help to secure them. They then asked officers and employees to leave and replaced an FSA flag with one of their own, he said.

"We believe that those brigades are our brothers, that they know that we are not the enemy," Meqdad said.

Infighting among Syria's rebel groups has undermined their fight against President Bashar al-Assad in the 2-1/2-year-old civil war and made Western governments hesitant to back them.

The rise of hardline Islamist groups among the rebels, including some linked to al Qaeda, has also unsettled powers such as the United States, who fear that if the militants came to power, they would eventually turn their weapons on Western targets.

On Tuesday the Islamic Front said it had withdrawn from the military command of the FSA, notionally charged with coordinating the war, and criticized its leadership.

While the Islamic Front does not include either of Syria's two al Qaeda-affiliated units - the Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) - it does include radical Islamists who have coordinated with them.

 

And the Beheadings Begin

(Reuters) – Armed with machine guns, black-clad al Qaeda fighters drove their pick-ups calmly into the northern Syrian town and took over its imposing agriculture ministry building.

They beheaded a sniper from a rival rebel unit, displayed his head in the main square and put roadblocks on major routes.

Not a shot was fired in the takeover, in which informants, including a preacher from a local mosque, played key roles.

The scene in Termanin, recounted by an activist who witnessed it last week, is being repeated in towns along the border with Turkey and at road junctions further inside Syria that have fallen out of President Bashar al-Assad’s control.

Whether through weakness or a desire to focus on Assad, rebel units are making way for the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), an al Qaeda affiliate led by foreigners hardened by guerrilla warfare in Iraq, Chechnya and Libya.

Lessons From Libya

Asked about the group's goals, an ISIL commander in the town of Armanaz in northern Syria who had fought in Libya said it is fighting for "the downfall of the tyrant Bashar" but also seeking to impose Islamic law.

Learning lessons from the 2011 war in Libya, he said ISIL was more determined to hold on to territory under its control.

"Our mistake as mujahideen is that we were preoccupied with fighting Gaddafi and did not pay enough attention to how to hold on territory," said the commander, who goes by the nickname al-Jazaeri, or the Algerian.

Now the NSA is spying on Internet gamers without a warrant

The South Park episode "Make Love, Not Warcraft"

"You can just hang around outside in the sun all day,

tossing a ball around, or you can sit at your

computer and do something that matters!"

Eric Cartman

Fucking Moron Alert  -  Big Brother's thirst for spying on you 24 hours a day without a search warrant knows no end.  Now the fucking morons at the NSA are paying Federal Agents to play Internet games like "World of Warcraft" in a never ending hunt for bad guys.

Keep in mind this "hunt" for terrorists is as phony as a $3 bill.  Almost no one is in jail from this spying and even when the Russians warned us about the Boston Bombers we did nothing.  This 1984 Bullshit is not about terrorism.  The government is frightened to death of their own people turning against them.

American and British intelligence has been spying on gamers across the world, media outlets reported Monday, saying that the world's most powerful espionage agencies packed virtual universes full of undercover agents and surreptitiously monitored traffic across online fantasy games such as "World of Warcraft."


Stories carried Monday in The New York Times, the Guardian, and ProPublica said U.S. and U.K. spies have spent years trawling online games for terrorists or informants.

The stories, based on documents leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, offer an unusual take on America's world-spanning surveillance campaign, suggesting that even the fantasy worlds popular with children, teens, and escapists of all ages aren't beyond the attention of the NSA and its British counterpart, GCHQ reports Breitbart.

Virtual universes like World of Warcraft can be massively popular, drawing in millions of players who log months' worth of real world time competing with other players for online glory, virtual treasure, and magical loot. At its height, World of Warcraft boasted some 12 million paying subscribers, more than the population of Greece. Other virtual worlds, like Linden Labs' "Second Life" or the various games hosted by Microsoft's Xbox _ home to the popular science fiction-themed shoot-em-up "Halo" _ host millions more.

The hand wringing spy agencies have long worried that such games serve as a good cover for terrorists or other evildoers who could use in-game messaging systems to swap information. In one of the documents cited Monday by media outlets, the NSA warned that the games could give intelligence targets a place to "hide in plain sight."

The 82-page-document, published on The New York Times' website, also noted that opponents could use video games to recruit other users or carry out virtual weapons training _ pointing to the Sept. 11, 2001 hijackers as examples of terrorists who had used flight simulation software to hone their skills.

South Park WoW Trailer  

"I am the mightiest dwarf in all of Azeroth!"
Eric Cartman

 

Kyle: "Wow, look at all these people playing right now."
". 
Cartman: "Yeah, it's bullcrap. I'll bet half of these people are Koreans."

Did the NSA hire a Communist Spy?

Moron Alert!

An advisor to dipshit NSA Director James Clapper

was on the payroll of a company run by

the Chinese Communist Party.

(Associated Press)  -  A longtime advisor to the US Director of National Intelligence has resigned after the government learned he has worked since 2010 as a paid "consultant" for Huawei Technologies Ltd., the Chinese technology company the US has condemned as an espionage threat, The Associated Press has learned.

Theodore H. Moran, a respected expert on China's international investment and professor at Georgetown University, had served since 2007 as adviser to the intelligence director's advisory panel on foreign investment in the United States. Moran also was an adviser to the National Intelligence Council, a group of 18 senior analysts and policy experts who provide U.S. spy agencies with judgments on important international issues.

Moran, who had a security clearance granting him access to sensitive materials, was forced to withdraw from those roles after Rep. Frank Wolf  complained in September to the intelligence director, James Clapper, that Moran's work on an international advisory council for Huawei "compromises his ability to advise your office."

"It is inconceivable how someone serving on Huawei's board would also be allowed to advise the intelligence community on foreign investments in the US," Wolf wrote.

A Communist Spy?
This undated handout photo provided by the The Peterson Institute for
International Economics shows Theodore H. Moran. Moran, a longtime adviser
to the US Director of National Intelligence has resigned.
(Associate Press)

Moran, who earlier had declined to discuss the matter, said in a statement Friday to the AP, "I was totally transparent." He said he told the National Intelligence Council in 2010 about his membership on Huawei's advisory panel.

"I complied with all conflict of interest reports and procedures of the National Intelligence Council," Moran said.

A spokesman for Clapper's office confirmed Friday that Moran was no longer associated with the intelligence council "effective September 2013" but declined to answer further questions, citing the U.S. Privacy Act. Moran declined to discuss the matter with the AP.

His resignation also was confirmed by Wolf and two federal officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case publicly.

"If he wants to make a lot of money advising Huawei, that's his prerogative," Wolf told the AP. "But he shouldn't be on a critical advisory board that provides intelligence advice on foreign investments in our country."

The case highlights the ongoing fractious relationship between the US government and Huawei, China's leading developer of telephone and Internet infrastructure, which has been condemned in the US as a potential national security threat. Huawei has aggressively disputed this, and its chief executive, Ren Zhengfei, has said the company has decided to abandon the U.S. market.

"We have the best "friends" in the American
government that money can buy."

In a policy paper distributed by Huawei, Moran wrote in May that, "targeting one or two companies on the basis of their national origins does nothing for US security in a world of global supply chains." Moran criticised what he described as "a policy of discrimination and distortion that discourages valuable inward investment from overseas, while providing a precedent for highly damaging copycat practices in other countries."

The House Intelligence Committee last year said Huawei and another firm, ZTE, posed a threat that could enable Chinese intelligence services to tamper with American communications networks. The committee said it could not prove wrongdoing but recommended that the companies be barred from doing business in the country.

"To the extent these companies are influenced by the state or provide Chinese intelligence services access to telecommunication networks, the opportunity exists for further economic and foreign espionage by a foreign nation-state already known to be a major perpetrator of cyber espionage," the committee wrote in its report.

Huawei's vice president for external affairs, William Plummer, declined to discuss Moran's resignation, but he said the controversy amounted to a "political game that's holding Huawei hostage to somehow gain leverage with the Chinese government. Huawei is no threat to U.S. networks and data."


"It's Bush's Fault."
No, it's both your faults.  This Moran
character worked for the NSA
under both Bush & Obama.

Plummer said Moran and other advisers discuss trade, policy and commerce with Huawei's executives.

Earlier this year, as a condition of allowing SoftBank Corp. to buy Sprint for $20.1 billion, the Obama administration forced the companies to promise not to use Huawei equipment and seek approval for future vendors.

In 2007, Huawei joined with Bain Capital, the private equity firm founded by Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, to buy 3Com Corp., an American computer equipment firm. Romney had left the firm by then. The bid collapsed amid national security concerns cited by Congress and the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, an inter-agency panel that scrutinizes financial moves by foreign firms inside the U.S.

Last month, two Senate committee chairmen asked Clapper about the potential national security threat posed by Huawei's growing partnership with South Korean telecom firms.

The intelligence director's office would not describe Moran's duties for its panel on foreign investment or the National Intelligence Council. It was not immediately clear whether Moran's previous work was being reviewed for possible bias or if the government was investigating whether other intelligence advisers also may have been paid by foreign companies. It also did not explain why Moran was forced to step down now, three years since he had been hired by Huawei and after he had disclosed his affiliation as early as 2011 in biographical material published as part of his participation in a conference in Vienna.

Wolf, in a letter to the intelligence director, asked for a list of other members and advisers to the National Intelligence Council and a copy of its conflict-of-interest policy but he never received the information.
AP

WARNING!
The Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, has ties to China’s military and poses a risk to national security with its deal to supply components to a supercomputer lab that is a defense contractor.
.
The founder of Huawei is Ren Zhengfei.  He is a former major of the People's Liberation Army in 1982. He joined the Communist Party of China in 1978. As a representative of private entrepreneurs, he was elected member of the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.   His ties with the Chinese military and Communist Party are being cited as a security concern in not allowing Huawei to expand in India.  While in Great Britain the Intelligence and Security Committee has recommended the removal of Huawei's equipment due to spying fears.  (Wikipedia.org)
.
THE FEDERALIST printed this story about Huawei back in October, 2011.
For more see:  Chinese telecom firm tied to spy ministry

We love to hire Americans as "consultants".

Libyan Parliament Votes To Install Sharia Law

Welcome to NATO-liberated Libya

It's a battle between the "moderate" Islamists 

and "ultra" Islamists.

Obama's unconstitutional war in Libya is turning out just great.

Libya’s national assembly voted on Wednesday to make Islamic law, or sharia, the source of all legislation, in an apparent bid by moderate Islamists to outflank ultra-conservative Islamist militants who have been gaining influence.

Two years after the NATO-backed uprising that ousted Muammar Gaddafi, Libya is still in messy transition, with no new constitution, a temporary government and nascent security forces struggling to contain militias and former rebels reports Reuters News.

The immediate impact of the statement was not clear in the already overwhelmingly Muslim country, though it could affect criminal and financial legislation.

“The legislative system does not contain many laws that contradict Islamic law so it is easy to say sharia would be the sole source of legislation,” said Ibrahim al-Gharyani of the National Forces Alliance party.

Blast from the past Cartoons