Saturday, June 14, 2014

U.S. Secretly Flying Drones Over Iraq

U.S. Secretly Flying Drones Over Iraq
News Updates from CLG
14 Jun 2014
 
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U.S. Secretly Flying Drones Over Iraq --White House Could Expand Drone Flights 12 Jun 2014 The U.S. since last year has been secretly flying unmanned surveillance aircraft in small numbers over Iraq to collect intelligence on insurgents, according to U.S. officials. Before the Islamist offensive, the program was expanded based on growing U.S. and Iraqi concerns about the expanded military activities of al Qaeda[al-CIAduh]-linked fighters. Officials wouldn't say what types of drones were being used but said the flights were conducted only for surveillance purposes. The program was launched with the consent of the Iraqi regime.
 
Obama 'urgently' considering air assault on targets in Syria and Iraq 13 Jun 2014 The Obama administration is urgently considering an air assault on 'Islamic extremists' that officials told the Guardian could be directed at targets in Syria as well as Iraq. President Obama announced on Friday that in the "days ahead" he will decide on a package of military and diplomatic options to halt the rapid advance of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis)...Obama has ruled out sending US soldiers and marines back to the Iraqi streets they patrolled from 2003 to 2011, but signalled a new, reluctant openness to returning the US to war in Iraq.
 
Iraq asks for US air strikes to bomb militants 12 Jun 2014 Iraqi officials have privately asked US President Barack Obama's administration to weigh potential air strikes targeting militants, a Western official says. The Obama administration is weighing several possibilities to offer military assistance to Baghdad, including drone strikes, the official told AFP on Wednesday on condition of anonymity. Washington is committed to "working with the Iraqi government [US-installed dictatorship] and leaders across Iraq to support a unified approach against ISIL's continued aggression", State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters.
 
Urgent: U.S. Embassy prepares evacuation plans --Mortar rounds and rockets have hit Baghdad International Airport and Mosul's airport has been the target of assault. 12 Jun 2014 The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad is preparing contingency plans to evacuate its staff since ISIL has taken control over large swaths of Iraq, according to a U.S. State Department official. The U.S. official also mentioned that the U.S. Embassy, United Nations and other foreign organizations with a presence in Iraq are "preparing contingency plans to evacuate employees." ISIL has seized control of Mosul, Tikrit and Fallujah and intends to create an Islamic state across the Iraq-Syria border.
 
Russian Bombers Fly Within 50 Miles of California Coast --NORAD scrambles fighter jets 13 Jun 2014 Two Russian Tu-95 Bear bomber planescame within 50 miles of the Northern California coast on Monday, shortly after four of the Russian Tu-95 planes entered the Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) near Alaska. ABC News reports the incident began when four Russian planes entered the ADIZ off Alaska, prompting the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) to send two American F-22 Raptor fighter jets to shadow the Russian bombers. Two of the Russian planes headed back towards their home country, while the remaining two Russian bombers flew south and entered the ADIZ off Northern California.
 
'White phosphorus' reports: Ukraine military 'dropped incendiary bombs' on Slavyansk 12 Jun 2014 Residents of Slavyansk and its suburbs were awoken overnight on Thursday by what they say were incendiary bombs that were dropped on their city by Kiev's military. Witnesses and local media reports suggested that the bombs might be phosphorous. Much of the village of Semyonovka, located in the Slavyansk suburbs, was set ablaze. Local residents told RT that the ground didn't stop burning for some time.
 
270 killed, over 700 injured in Kiev's military op in E. Ukraine - Health Ministry 11 Jun 2014 Since the beginning of April, 270 people have died and 713 others have been injured in Kiev's military crackdown in eastern Ukraine, according to health officials. "225 people have died in Donetsk region, 576 people have asked for treatment for wounds in hospital, currently 150 people are hospitalized. Since the beginning of the standoff 45 people have died in Lugansk region, in all 137 people were injured," the statement on Ukraine’s Ministry of Health website reads.
 
Ukraine crisis raises risk for nuclear reactors 10 Jun 2014 The recent news of a water shortage due to a broken pipeline affecting thousands in strife ravaged Eastern Ukraine spells trouble for the safety of the country's nuclear power plants. That's because the security and reliability of a country's critical infrastructure like its electrical power and water grid is essential to safely run nuclear reactors...The experts did not want to describe possible sabotage or war scenarios on the record, but stressed that they consider this a real danger. "You don't need an army, only 20 to 30 highly trained men," said Hahn. "These things are totally incalculable." That's why NATO sent a small civilian expert team to Ukrainein April to advise officials on improving the safety [Yeah, right!] of nuclear power plants and other critical infrastructure "in the context of possible threats".
 
Nuclear bomb nearly detonated after falling on North Carolina, declassified report says --Just one switch away from nuclear disaster 11 Jun 2014 There are few things in this world that can change the course of history faster than a nuclear bomb exploding...That makes the latest details to emerge about a January 24, 1961, incident involving two nuclear bombs all the more jarring. A B-52 bomber broke up in the sky over North Carolina, and one of the two bombs on board was in the "armed" setting by the time it hit the ground near Goldsboro, North Carolina, according to a newly declassified report published on Monday by the National Security Archive. If the switch had not been damaged by the impact of the crash, the weapon could have detonated, the report said.
 
Radioactive material stolen from lab in Mexico 12 Jun 2014 A device containing radioactive substances [cesium-37 and americium-beryllium] was stolen from a government research facility and authorities are working to track it down, Mexico's No. 2 official said. "We have the report regarding the theft of this material and the alerts and protocol we follow in these cases have already been implemented," Government Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong told reporters after speaking at a conference of state law enforcement chiefs and attorneys general. A group of armed men grabbed the device Sunday night during an assault on a National Construction Laboratory warehouse in Tultitlan, Mexico state.
 
Post-Fukushima radiation levels near US shores continue to increase 11 Jun 2014 Radiation levels in Albacore tuna have tripled post-Fukushima, according to Oregon State University (OSU) researchers. The scientists came to that conclusion after conducting a study on fish caught off the coast of Oregon...However, researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the GEOMAR Research Center for Marine Geosciences say the worst is yet to come and that the most highly radioactive water hasn't reached US shores yet.
 
Freed war prisoner Bergdahl in stable condition at Army medical center in Texas 13 Jun 2014 U.S. Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, who spent five years as a Taliban prisoner of war before being released on May 31, was in stable condition at a military hospital in Texas and has not yet met his parents, military officials said on Friday. Bergdahl, who arrived in the pre-dawn hours of Friday on a military flight from Germany, was in a good enough physical condition to meet with debriefers but has not been informed of the controversy surrounding his capture, the officials said.
 
CIA Disciplines 15 Officers in Harassment Cases 10 Jun 2014 These days, the CIA says it has a zero tolerance policy toward workplace harassment. And an agency document obtained by The Associated Press said 15 CIA employees were disciplined for committing sexual, racial or other types of harassment last year. That included a supervisor who was removed from the job after engaging in "bullying, hostile behavior," and an operative who was sent home from an overseas post for inappropriately touching female colleagues, said the document, an internal message to the agency's workforce.
 
U.S. quietly advising local police not to disclose details on surveillance technology --Federal involvement in local open records proceedings is unusual. 12 Jun 2014 The Obama administration has been quietly advising local police not to disclose details about surveillance technology they are using to sweep up basic cellphone data from entire neighborhoods, The Associated Press has learned. Citing security reasons, the U.S. has intervened in routine state public records cases and criminal trials regarding use of the technology. This has resulted in police departments withholding materials or heavily censoring documents in rare instances when they disclose any about the purchase and use of such powerful surveillance equipment.
 
Despite beefed-up security, school shootings continue 11 Jun 2014 Bulletproof whiteboards, concrete school barriers, video surveillance and armed teachers. Those are just some of the security measures schools have taken since the Dec, 14, 2012, shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., that killed 20 students and six educators. "It's not just Sandy Hook. We experienced this after Columbine and after Virginia Tech. People tend to implement knee-jerk reactions," said Robin Hattersley Gray, executive editor of Campus Safety Magazine.
 
UW-Madison scientist creates deadly new '1918' flu virus in lab --Virus similar to 1918 flu pandemic, which killed 50 million people 11 Jun 2014 Yoshihiro Kawaoka, the UW-Madison scientist whose bird flu research sparked international controversy and a moratorium two years ago, has created another potentially deadly flu virus in his lab at University Research Park. Kawaoka used genes from several bird flu viruses to construct a virus similar to the 1918 pandemic flu virus that killed up to 50 million people worldwide. The researchers identified eight genes nearly identical to the genes that made up the 1918 pandemic flu virus.
 
Eric Cantor to Step Down as House Majority Leader 11 Jun 2014 House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who is not mounting a GOP write-in campaign, will step down as majority leader, sources tell ABC News. Even if the No. 2 House Republican from Virginia were able to pull it off -- a long shot -- he would never be re-elected majority leader after his shocking and historic primary defeat Tuesdaynight. He hopes to serve through July, but a leadership election could happen before that.
 
Judge issues temporary order stopping some new NC protest rules 13 Jun 2014 A Wake County judge has issued a temporary restraining order on some of the new rules governing protests at state legislature. Judge Carl Fox on Fridayheard a lawsuit that the state NAACP filed alleging the rules on actions inside the General Assembly's meeting place are unconstitutional and are an attempt to silence protesters. Attorneys with the NAACP said the rules are vague and overly broad because they give Republican leaders too much discretion and stifle dissent.
 
Complaint against Homeland Security alleges abuse of immigrant children11 Jun 2014 A group of five organizations today filed a complaint to the Department of Homeland Security on behalf of 116 unaccompanied immigrant children who they said experienced abuse and mistreatment while in custody. "We are coming forward now with more than 100 complaints but we believe thousands of children have be subjected to these conditions," said Joseph Anderson, director of litigation with Americans for Immigrant Justice. The complaint comes as the federal government grapples with a surge of children crossing the border illegally without parent or guardians.
The Troubling Case of Chris Hedges - Pulitzer winner. Lefty hero. Plagiarist. --He writes a weekly column published in the widely read progressive website Truthdig and frequently republished on the Truth[sic]out website. 12 Jun 2014 A leading moralist of the left, however, had now been caught plagiarizing at one of the oldest magazines of the left... The plagiarism at Harper’s Magazine was not an isolated incident. Chris Hedges, a former New York Times reporter, has a history of lifting material from other writers that goes back at least to his first book, War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning, published in 2002. He has echoed language from Nation author Naomi Klein. He has lifted lines from radical social critic Neil Postman. He has even purloined lines from Ernest Hemingway.
Government slammed over badger cull as TB rate is lowest for 10 years 12 Jun 2014 The Government faced renewed criticism of its controversial [horrific] badger cull as figures showed new tuberculosis outbreaks in cattle had reached a decade low. New figures showed the monthly incidence rate for bovine TB in England, which measures the proportion of new outbreaks discovered through testing, was around 3.25% in March 2014, the lowest rate since 2004. It follows a similarly low rate in February of 3.5%, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said.
 
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