Month: October 2014

RT

Tuesday this week commemorates 13 years since the start of the Afghan War — America’s longest running campaign of its kind — yet an end to the operation is hardly on the horizon.

Under the terms of the Bilateral Security Agreement, the pact signed last week by representatives for both the United States and Afghanistan, the US will significantly reduce the number of soldiers involved in its post-9/11 Operation Enduring Freedom at the end of this year. Troop numbers will shrink to 10,000, signaling indeed a major step towards ending the war in Afghanistan — a campaign promise made by US President Barack Obama during the lead-up to his re-election in 2012. With this week’s anniversary, however, the costs incurred already appear more evident than ever, and the length of the operation may be endless.    Continue reading “Longest in US history: Afghan War turns 13, US military deaths grow 4-fold under Obama”

RT

​Former CIA Director Leon Panetta says that he was cursed at by President Barack Obama’s former chief of staff after he agreed to cooperate with the Senate’s investigation into his agency’s torture tactics in the wake of 9/11.

In passages taken from his new book and published online by the Intercept, Panetta explains the event that triggered the outburst, which flowed from the former chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, a man notorious for his profanity-laced tirades.   Continue reading “‘Who the f**k authorized this?’ Obama’s chief of staff cursed Panetta over CIA torture probe”

RT

Connecticut’s governor declared a public health emergency in the Nutmeg State. The precautionary order, signed by Gov. Dannel Malloy, allows public health officials to coordinate a targeted quarantine in case Ebola arrives in the state.

The Democratic governor’s order ‒ which is not in reaction to any specific case of the virus ‒ gives Department of Public Health Commissioner Jewel Mullen the power to quarantine any person or group who may be exposed to or infected with Ebola.   Continue reading “Connecticut declares preemptive Ebola health emergency, allows quarantines”

Mail.com

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) — An air tanker fighting a wildfire on the edge of Yosemite National Park in Northern California smashed into a steep canyon wall Tuesday, killing the pilot who was believed to be the only person aboard, officials said.

Rescue crews hiking through extremely rugged terrain found the wreckage and confirmed the pilot’s death several hours after the plane crashed, said Alyssa Smith, spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.    Continue reading “California pilot dies in crash fighting wildfire”

Mail.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — Timothy Geithner, a key player in the U.S. government’s 2008 bailout of American International Group Inc., is due back in court Wednesday in a trial of a lawsuit filed by the insurance giant’s former CEO over the handling of the rescue.

On Tuesday, Geithner affirmed his belief that the bailout was needed to avert disaster for the financial system. Geithner was president of the New York Federal Reserve at the time of the rescue and later Treasury secretary.   Continue reading “Geithner grilled in court over AIG bailout”

Mail.com

MURSITPINAR, Turkey (AP) — Several Syrian human rights groups called on the world to save the embattled Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani from falling into the hands of the Islamic State group as new U.S.-led airstrikes targeted the extremists near the town Wednesday.

The strikes are part of a wave of U.S.-led coalition bombing this week that aims to prevent Islamic State fighters from capturing the town. An activist group said the strikes killed at least 45 militants since late Monday, forcing them to withdraw from parts of Kobani.   Continue reading “Syrian rights groups call on world to save Kobani”

BATR – by James Hall

The cozy relationship between financial institutions and their respective regulators has long been known. Concern from reformers and activists comes from all stripes of ideological perspectives. With the attention that Carmen Segarra, the whistleblower of Wall Street, has gained, the noise from the banking establishment pushes back. Here comes the expected spin from the Fed, The New York Fed Slams Tape-Recording Whistleblower, Says She Was Fired After Just 7 Months Over Performance. Read their Statement Regarding New York Fed Supervision. So what is this controversy all about?

How dare a mere low level regulator document the goings on within the financial establishment, Inside the New York Fed: Secret Recordings and a Culture Clash, writes.   Continue reading “Financial Regulators Bend Rules for Banksters”

Charleston Voice

George Soros is one of the most powerful men on earth. A New York hedge fund manager, he has amassed a personal fortune estimated at about $13 billion (as of 2009). His company, Soros Fund Management, controls at least another $25 billion in investor assets. Since 1979, Soros’s foundation network — whose flagship is the Open Society Institute (OSI) — has dispensed more than $5 billion to a multitude of organizations whose objectives are consistent with those of Soros.

With assets of $1.93 billion as of 2008, OSI alone donates scores of millions of dollars annually to these various groups. Following is a sampling of the major agendas advanced by groups that Soros and OSI support financially. Listed under each category heading are a few OSI donees fitting that description. Organizations that accuse America of violating the civil rights and liberties of many of its residents:     Continue reading “Guide to the George Soros Network”

Examiner – by Anthony Martin

Within the last two weeks several tips came into the Examiner indicating pending dangers to certain groups of citizens. These tips led to a source who, speaking on condition of anonymity, alleges that just after the election a major initiative will be launched against citizens whose values are diametrically opposite to that of Barack Obama and the current Washington elitist leadership in Congress. According to the source, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will greatly intensify its attacks on freedom oriented citizens.   Continue reading “DHS to intensify attacks on freedom oriented citizens”

Legal Insurrection – by Amy Miller

As if Dallas weren’t enough of a circus already, Reverend Jesse Jackson has announced that he will be working with community leaders in Dallas to make sure that Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan receives “the best humanitarian relief” available.

(Because round the clock care and rare experimental drug therapy isn’t enough, I guess.)   Continue reading “The Inevitable: Jesse Jackson Makes Ebola Scare About Jesse Jackson”

CNS News – by Susan Jones

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), an early and vocal advocate of U.S. intervention in Syria, is warning of “mass slaughter” in Kobani, a Syrian town on the border with Turkey where fighting raged on Monday.

Islamic State fighters are battling Kurdish defenders for control of Kobani. “And if it falls, there is going to be a mass slaughter,” McCain told Fox News’s Neil Cavuto on Monday. And there will be no better indication of the ineffectiveness and fecklessness of this air campaign we’re now seeing, where you warn the enemy weeks ahead of time.   Continue reading “McCain: ISIS Advance Shows ‘Ineffectiveness and Fecklessness’ of Air Strikes”

IHS Jane’s 360 – by Mike Yeo

Japan’s Ministry of Defense has released a photo of a new type of Chinese intelligence-gathering aircraft that its fighters intercepted in international airspace over the East China Sea on 3 October.

Known as the GX-8 (GaoXin, literally High New, the name assigned to China’s Y-8/Y-9 special missions aircraft), the aircraft is based on the Shaanxi Y-9 transport.   Continue reading “Japan intercepts new Chinese GX-8 ELINT aircraft”

Next Big Future – by Brian Wang

Scientists from MIT say they’ve figured out the underlying physics of a new type of energy generation which could one day make it possible to generate electricity directly from liquid fuels using a process called a Thermopower Wave.

There’s no heavy pollution, no noisy engine, and intermediary energy state, although the technology is still very much in the experimental stage.   Continue reading “Thermowave power using graphene or carbon nanotubes could enable pulsed power from liquid fuel without emissions”

New York Daily News – by TINA MOORE, BILL HUTCHINSON

The family of a Staten Island man who died in an apparent police chokehold put the city on notice Tuesday that they intend to file a $75 million wrongful-death lawsuit.

Eric Garner’s widow, Esaw Snipes, their six children and his mother, Gwen Carr, informed city Controller Scott Stringer of the pending lawsuit, revealing they will name the city, the NYPD and eight cops as defendants.   Continue reading “Family of Eric Garner plan to sue NYPD and the city for $75 million”

The Watchers – by Adonai

A very strong and shallow earthquake measuring M6.6 (CENC) on the Richter scale struck Chinese province of Yunnan on October 7, 2014, at 13:49 UTC (21:49 local time). CENC reported very shallow depth of 5 km. USGS is reporting M6.0 at depth of 10 km.

Epicenter was in a remote, mostly rural mountainous part of Yunnan, located 18 km (11 miles) WSW of Weiyuan, 158 km (98 miles) N of Jinghong, 218 km (135 miles) SW of Longquan and 231 km (144 miles) WSW of Yuxi, China.   Continue reading “Very strong and extremely dangerous M6.6 earthquake struck Yunnan, China”