The Lehman Brothers Swindle
March 15th, 2010Defense Department Official Established Network of Private Contractors in Afghanistan and Pakistan to Help Track and Kill Suspected Militants
March 15th, 2010Via: New York Times:
Under the cover of a benign government information-gathering program, a Defense Department official set up a network of private contractors in Afghanistan and Pakistan to help track and kill suspected militants, according to military officials and businessmen in Afghanistan and the United States.
The official, Michael D. Furlong, hired contractors from private security companies that employed former C.I.A. and Special Forces operatives. The contractors, in turn, gathered intelligence on the whereabouts of suspected militants and the location of insurgent camps, and the information was then sent to military units and intelligence officials for possible lethal action in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the officials said.
While it has been widely reported that the C.I.A. and the military are attacking operatives of Al Qaeda and others through unmanned, remote-controlled drone strikes, some American officials say they became troubled that Mr. Furlong seemed to be running an off-the-books spy operation. The officials say they are not sure who condoned and supervised his work.
It is generally considered illegal for the military to hire contractors to act as covert spies. Officials said Mr. Furlong’s secret network might have been improperly financed by diverting money from a program designed to merely gather information about the region.
Yet Another Bubble: Trade sK0oL Loans
March 15th, 2010Via: New York Times:
One fast-growing American industry has become a conspicuous beneficiary of the recession: for-profit colleges and trade schools.
At institutions that train students for careers in areas like health care, computers and food service, enrollments are soaring as people anxious about weak job prospects borrow aggressively to pay tuition that can exceed $30,000 a year.
But the profits have come at substantial taxpayer expense while often delivering dubious benefits to students, according to academics and advocates for greater oversight of financial aid. Critics say many schools exaggerate the value of their degree programs, selling young people on dreams of middle-class wages while setting them up for default on untenable debts, low-wage work and a struggle to avoid poverty. And the schools are harvesting growing federal student aid dollars, including Pell grants awarded to low-income students.
“If these programs keep growing, you’re going to wind up with more and more students who are graduating and can’t find meaningful employment,” said Rafael I. Pardo, a professor at Seattle University School of Law and an expert on educational finance. “They can’t generate income needed to pay back their loans, and they’re going to end up in financial distress.”
For-profit trade schools have long drawn accusations that they overpromise and underdeliver, but the woeful economy has added to the industry’s opportunities along with the risks to students, according to education experts. They say these schools have exploited the recession as a lucrative recruiting device while tapping a larger pool of federal student aid.
U.S. “Bunker-Buster” Bombs On Way To Diego Garcia?
March 15th, 2010Via: Herald Scotland:
Hundreds of powerful US “bunker-buster” bombs are being shipped from California to the British island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean in preparation for a possible attack on Iran.
The Sunday Herald can reveal that the US government signed a contract in January to transport 10 ammunition containers to the island. According to a cargo manifest from the US navy, this included 387 “Blu” bombs used for blasting hardened or underground structures.
Experts say that they are being put in place for an assault on Iran’s controversial nuclear facilities. There has long been speculation that the US military is preparing for such an attack, should diplomacy fail to persuade Iran not to make nuclear weapons.
Although Diego Garcia is part of the British Indian Ocean Territory, it is used by the US as a military base under an agreement made in 1971. The agreement led to 2,000 native islanders being forcibly evicted to the Seychelles and Mauritius.
The Sunday Herald reported in 2007 that stealth bomber hangers on the island were being equipped to take bunker-buster bombs.
Although the story was not confirmed at the time, the new evidence suggests that it was accurate.
Contract details for the shipment to Diego Garcia were posted on an international tenders’ website by the US navy.
A shipping company based in Florida, Superior Maritime Services, will be paid $699,500 to carry many thousands of military items from Concord, California, to Diego Garcia.
Crucially, the cargo includes 195 smart, guided, Blu-110 bombs and 192 massive 2000lb Blu-117 bombs.
“They are gearing up totally for the destruction of Iran,” said Dan Plesch, director of the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy at the University of London, co-author of a recent study on US preparations for an attack on Iran. “US bombers are ready today to destroy 10,000 targets in Iran in a few hours,” he added.
The preparations were being made by the US military, but it would be up to President Obama to make the final decision. He may decide that it would be better for the US to act instead of Israel, Plesch argued.
“The US is not publicising the scale of these preparations to deter Iran, tending to make confrontation more likely,” he added. “The US … is using its forces as part of an overall strategy of shaping Iran’s actions.”
According to Ian Davis, director of the new independent thinktank, Nato Watch, the shipment to Diego Garcia is a major concern. “We would urge the US to clarify its intentions for these weapons, and the Foreign Office to clarify its attitude to the use of Diego Garcia for an attack on Iran,” he said.
For Alan Mackinnon, chair of Scottish CND, the revelation was “extremely worrying”. He stated: “It is clear that the US government continues to beat the drums of war over Iran, most recently in the statements of Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.
“It is depressingly similar to the rhetoric we heard prior to the war in Iraq in 2003.”
The British Ministry of Defence has said in the past that the US government would need permission to use Diego Garcia for offensive action. It has already been used for strikes against Iraq during the 1991 and 2003 Gulf wars.
About 50 British military staff are stationed on the island, with more than 3,200 US personnel. Part of the Chagos Archipelago, it lies about 1,000 miles from the southern coasts of India and Sri Lanka, well placed for missions to Iran.
The US Department of Defence did not respond to a request for a comment.
On the Spot with Kim Jong-il: North Korean Propaganda Photos
March 15th, 2010Via: The Big Picture:
The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), North Korea’s state-run (and only) news agency, sporadically releases photos of reclusive 69-year-old leader Kim Jong-il as he makes “on-the-spot” guidance visits. Kim Jong-il, continuing a practice begun by his father, Kim Il-sung, makes these visits to factories and facilities throughout the country, purportedly to offer his personal guidance. Followed by army officers, security personnel and plant managers – most carrying pencils and notepads to record the guidance of “Dear Leader” – he examines, listens, gives a talk, poses, then moves on, entourage in tow. When viewing the photos below, keep in mind that the KCNA is a state-run operation, most of the photos are undated, no photographers are credited, and independent verification of circumstances is nearly impossible. Collected here are a few recent photos released by the KCNA of Kim Jong-il giving “on-the-spot” field guidance.
U.S. Intelligence Planned to Destroy WikiLeaks
March 15th, 2010Via: Wikileaks:
This document is a classifed (SECRET/NOFORN) 32 page U.S. counterintelligence investigation into WikiLeaks. “The possibility that current employees or moles within DoD or elsewhere in the U.S. government are providing sensitive or classified information to Wikileaks.org cannot be ruled out”. It concocts a plan to fatally marginalize the organization. Since WikiLeaks uses “trust as a center of gravity by protecting the anonymity and identity of the insiders, leakers or whisteblowers”, the report recommends “The identification, exposure, termination of employment, criminal prosecution, legal action against current or former insiders, leakers, or whistlblowers could potentially damage or destroy this center of gravity and deter others considering similar actions from using the Wikileaks.org Web site”. [As two years have passed since the date of the report, with no WikiLeaks' source exposed, it appears that this plan was ineffective]. As an odd justificaton for the plan, the report claims that “Several foreign countries including China, Israel, North Kora, Russia, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe have denounced or blocked access to the Wikileaks.org website”. The report provides further justification by enumerating embarrassing stories broken by WikiLeaks—U.S. equipment expenditure in Iraq, probable U.S. violations of the Cemical Warfare Convention Treaty in Iraq, the battle over the Iraqi town of Fallujah and human rights violations at Guantanmo Bay…
State of Utah Allows Rainwater Collection After Registration and Purchase of Standardized Container
March 15th, 2010Thank you, Master.
Via: AP:
The Utah Legislature has passed a bill that would permit the personal collection of rainwater.
The House unanimously approved the legislation on Wednesday. It has already cleared the Senate.
If signed by the governor the measure would reverse a decades-old prohibition on rainwater harvesting in the state.
Senate Bill 32 would permit the collection of no more than 2,500 gallons in a storage container.
If it becomes law Utahns wouldn’t be able to just put out barrels in the backyard. The proposal requires registering with the state and buying a standardized container.
Sen. Scott Jenkins, a Plain City Republican, is sponsoring the bill.
Mexico: Three People Connected to the U.S. Consulate in Juarez Executed in Front of Their Children
March 15th, 2010All governments routinely run covert operations out of their embassies and consulates. I have no good reason to believe that this incident had anything to do with covert operations, however, multiple articles quote family members and neighbors who don’t know what Lesley A. Enriquez did at the consulate. “Officials” in Washington also don’t know what she did there.
Is there more to this than “senseless violence”?
Via: Los Angeles Times:
Three people connected to the U.S. Consulate in Mexico’s deadliest city, Ciudad Juarez, were shot to death by men who intercepted their cars as they returned from a child’s birthday party, officials said Sunday. Two of the dead, an American couple, were discovered slain in their vehicle, their uninjured baby crying in the back seat. President Obama on Sunday expressed outrage at the drive-by slayings. The three victims were killed in broad daylight Saturday near the city’s border with El Paso.
Ciudad Juarez, a key entry point for drugs into the U.S., has seen a staggering increase in bloodshed as narcotics gangs battle for control of smuggling routes, turf and market share. Mexico’s raging drug war has claimed thousands of lives, including those of some Americans. But this appears to be the first time in recent years that Mexican drug traffickers have attacked U.S. diplomatic personnel and their families.
In response to the escalating violence, the State Department on Sunday told employees they could send family members and other dependents home to the U.S. from six northern Mexican cities where Washington maintains consulates. It also updated its existing travel warnings, cautioning Americans about traveling to or within northern Mexican states and strongly cautioning American youth about spending their spring break in Mexico.
The dead couple were identified by Mexican authorities as Lesley A. Enriquez, 35, an employee of the consulate, and her husband, Arthur H. Redelfs, 34. Redelfs was a detention officer with the El Paso County Jail, a relative told the Associated Press. Neither the relative nor U.S. officials in Washington were able to specify Enriquez’s job at the consulate.
The third person killed was identified as the husband of a Mexican employee of the consulate. He was traveling with two children, both of whom were injured, according to the state prosecutor’s office in Ciudad Juarez.
A security official in Ciudad Juarez said the victims were obviously targeted but that the motive was still under investigation.
Scientists Identify Opium Poppy Genes Responsible for the Production of Codeine and Morphine
March 15th, 2010Via: Independent:
Scientists have identified the genes of the opium poppy responsible for the production of the painkillers codeine and morphine, which could lead to new ways of making the drugs without having to cultivate fields of poppies.
Opium poppies naturally produce morphine and smaller amounts of codeine in their seed pods. They are collected from the opium poppy by scraping the unripe seed capsule and collecting and drying the rubbery sap that is exuded from the scratched surface.
But about 10 times as much opium is made for the illegal heroin trade as for the legitimate manufacture of morphine and codeine. Finding ways of making the painkillers without having to grow the opium poppy could have an impact on attempts to control the heroin trade. The scientists, having isolated two key genes involved in the production of the enzymes in the metabolic pathway leading to the production of codeine and morphine, hope it may soon be possible to produce these complex molecules on an industrial scale using genetically modified microbes, such as yeast or bacteria, which can be grown in giant fermenting vessels.
“Our discovery now makes it possible to use micro-organisms to produce opiate drugs and other important pharmaceuticals,” said Professor Peter Facchini, of the University of Calgary in Canada, who led the study published in Nature Chemical Biology.
Experiment Allows Scientists to Identify Which of Three Seven Second Video Clips Test Subjects Are Thinking About
March 15th, 2010Thought reading machine?
You definitely wouldn’t know it from reading many of the headlines that have been written about this story, but the answer is no, it’s not a thought reading machine. Eleanor Maguire, one of the researchers, said, “We are not at the point of being able to put people in a scanner and read their thoughts.”
On a more mundane level, I haven’t been able to glean from reports if they are able to train their algorithm on one or more subjects and then use it effectively on other subjects. If that’s the case, the news is more interesting than if identifying the stimuli requires the system to be trained on a per individual basis. This article mentions “similarities” between the scans of different participants.
Thankfully, any Legion of Doom thought reading device remains safely in the maybe-in-twenty-years box for now—along with the personal teleporter and the Mr. Fusion.
Although, even after twenty years, I doubt that the Legion of Doom will have a brain scanner that’s more effective at determining what people are thinking than what’s already available by monitoring activity on Google, Facebook and the myriad other online services that have convinced increasing numbers of people to turn their brains inside out in order to think inside the machine… Oh, wait… *chuckle*
Via: Independent:
For the study, 10 volunteers were shown three short film clips, lasting seven seconds each. They showed different actresses performing three tasks – posting a letter, throwing a coffee cup in a bin, and getting on a bike. The volunteers were then placed in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner and asked to recall each clip in turn. This was repeated many times and the scans were analysed to detect patterns in the brain activity associated with each clip. In the final stage of the experiment the volunteers were returned to the scanner and asked to recall the clips at random. The researchers found they were able to tell which clip they were thinking about from the pattern of their brain activity.
Although patterns in individual volunteers’ brains varied from one another, they showed remarkable similarities in the parts of the hippocampus that were active. The findings are published in Current Biology. “We have documented for the first time that traces of individual rich episodic memories are detectable and distinguishable in the hippocampus. Now that we have shown it is possible to directly access information about individual episodic memories in vivo and noninvasively, this offers new opportunities to examine important properties of episodic memory,” the researchers conclude.
