Archive for November, 2013
How One Inspector General Is Fighting Fraud and Waste in Afghanistan
November 23rd, 2013Via: The Week: After 12 years of war, you would think the war planners and defense contractors have the situation in Afghanistan well in hand. And they do, if the goal is wasteful spending on such a colossal scale that it makes Healthcare.gov look like Amazon.com. The magnitude of the ongoing fiscal irresponsibility in Afghanistan […]
This Massive Robot Could Soon Join Marines on the Battlefield
November 23rd, 2013Via: Defense One: The future doesn’t always arrive with a gasp and a boom like Skynet inTerminator. No, sometimes it’s more like Office Space. At least that’s the idea I get watching this video of the Marines’ testing the Legged Squad Support System. DARPA built the LS3 to act as an autonomous pack horse that […]
Britain: Prisons Privatisation Cancelled Amid Serco Probe
November 22nd, 2013Via: BBC: Plans to privatise three prisons have been cancelled because of an ongoing investigation into the leading bidder. The justice secretary said the prison service would remain in charge at Hatfield, Lindholme and Moorland, all in South Yorkshire, while allegations against Serco remained outstanding. The contractor is accused of over-charging the government for electronically […]
North Texas Drivers Stopped at Roadblock Asked for Saliva, Blood
November 22nd, 2013The first post on Cryptogon about Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation was back in 2007. Via: NBCDFW: Some drivers along a busy Fort Worth street on Friday were stopped at a police roadblock and directed into a parking lot, where they were asked by federal contractors for samples of their breath, saliva and even […]
Air Force Seeks Laser Weapons for Next Generation Fighters
November 21st, 2013Via: U.S. Naval Institute: The U.S. Air Force has released a new request for a high-powered laser weapon that could be mounted on a next-generation air dominance fighter in the post-2030 era.
How Somebody Forced the World’s Internet Traffic Through Belarus and Iceland
November 21st, 2013Via: AllThingsD: The attack — and Renesys maintains that it was an attack — targeted large Internet carriers in every major city in the U.S. and numerous major cities in Europe and around the world. The first incident took place during most of the month of February, when Internet traffic was silently redirected through an […]
US and UK Struck Secret Deal to Allow NSA to ‘Unmask’ Britons’ Personal Data
November 21st, 2013Via: Guardian: The phone, internet and email records of UK citizens not suspected of any wrongdoing have been analysed and stored by America’s National Security Agency under a secret deal that was approved by British intelligence officials, according to documents from the whistleblower Edward Snowden. In the first explicit confirmation that UK citizens have been […]
Britain Operated Death Squad in Belfast in 1972
November 20th, 2013Via: BBC: Soldiers from an undercover unit used by the British army in Northern Ireland killed unarmed civilians, former members have told BBC One’s Panorama. Speaking publicly for the first time, the ex-members of the Military Reaction Force (MRF), which was disbanded in 1973, said they had been tasked with “hunting down” IRA members in […]
Manned Fly-By Mission to Mars in 2017?
November 20th, 2013Via: Washington Post: Billionaire Dennis Tito, tired of being told that we can’t send humans to Mars just yet, on Wednesday revealed his scheme for launching two astronauts to the red planet as early as December 2017. Dubbed “Inspiration Mars,” the fly-by mission would exploit a rare alignment of Earth and Mars that minimizes the […]
#Let’s Cook: Feds Stop North Korean Meth ‘Floodgate’ Into New York
November 20th, 2013Via: New York Observer: Is Walter White working out of North Korea? According to federal authorities, five men were arrested in New York this week for attempting to bring over 200 pounds of methamphetamine from the dictatorial regime into the Empire State. (Mirroring the quality of “Blue Magic” meth produced in Breaking Bad, the illegal […]
