Monthly Archives: April 2013
Waterproof snake robots for surveillance
“Snake robots can use their many internal degrees of freedom to thread through tightly packed volumes, accessing locations that people and machinery otherwise cannot use,” http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22340218 The latest in a series of “modular snake robots” have been developed at the Pittsburgh-based research centre over the past decade. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObTR5IRKY8k&feature=share&list=UUZ1JsYlIhkhEpJHFRny4J7w The robots are designed to mirror […]
Vets with PTSD may lose gun rights
After the Newtown, CT massacre and the killing of the former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, the media, President Obama, Senator Feinstein of California and even David Keene, president of the National Rifle Association, have suggested that people with mental illnesses, which could include veterans with combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder, be subject to stricter gun restrictions. […]
Drones in America under guise of drug war
The U.S. Navy on Friday began testing two new aerial tools, borrowed from the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq, that officials say will make it easier to detect, track and videotape drug smugglers in action. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2013/04/27/world/americas/ap-cb-caribbean-drug-drones.html?ref=world One of the devices on display aboard the navy test ship is a type of drone that can be […]
Austerity programs benefit the elite 1%
A recent research paper by the political scientists Benjamin Page, Larry Bartels and Jason Seawright compares the policy preferences of ordinary Americans with those of the very wealthy, and the results are eye-opening.http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/26/opinion/krugman-the-one-percents-solution.html?src=me&ref=general&_r=1& The average American is somewhat worried about budget deficits, which is no surprise given the constant barrage of deficit scare stories in […]
CIA, DHS also aware of Tsarnaev before bombing
One of the Boston bomb suspects was added to a terrorism database 18 months ago at the request of the CIA. Officials said Tamerlan Tsarnaev had been added to the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (Tide) on the request of the CIA. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22289200 The Russian authorities had alerted US counterparts to the activities of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, […]
LA police pay 4 million after shooting innocents
Margie Carranza and her mother Emma Hernandez were delivering newspapers early on 7 February when officers fired about 100 bullets into their car. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22274545 The city of Los Angeles will pay $4.2m (£2.8m) to the two women shot by police. Los Angeles police were looking for fugitive Chris Dorner when they misidentified the vehicle the […]
US agents move to silence suspects parents
US officials have travelled to the Russian republic of Dagestan to quiet the parents of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22277541 The suspects’ parents, Anzor and Zubeidat Tsarnaev, have said they believe they are innocent and were framed by US security forces. The interior minister of Dagestan has denied that the dead suspect became a […]
Man Reddit named as suspect found dead
The body of a man found in a Rhode Island river may be a student mistakenly identified as one of the Boston bombers. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22278224 Sunil Tripathi has been described as the other victim of the bombings after he was wrongly identified a suspect. On Monday social media website Reddit issued a public apology for its coverage […]
FBI explains relationship with bombing suspects
The F.B.I. apparently missed an opportunity to discover that one of the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings may have had become an extremist, saying they had no legal basis to monitor him in the months leading up to the attack. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/23/us/officials-say-they-didnt-have-authority-to-monitor-tamerlan-tsarnaev.html?hp The agency first looked into the suspect, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, in 2011 in response […]
Canada ties terrorism to Iran
Officials said the alleged terrorism plot in Canada had support from al-Qaeda in Iran, although there was no sign of state sponsorship. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22269639 “The conclusions were made based on acts and words which are only appearances,” The accused face charges of conspiracy to carry out an attack and kill people in association with a terrorist […]
Ricin suspect possible patsy
Investigators have not found ricin or ingredients for it in the house or vehicle of a Corinth man accused of mailing poisoned letters to President Obama, a senator and a local judge, an F.B.I. agent testified Monday. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2013/04/23/us/ap-us-suspicious-letters.html?ref=us A search of a computer belonging to the man, Paul K. Curtis, found no evidence that he […]
Stopping killer robots
A pre-emptive ban is needed to halt the production of weapons capable of attacking targets without any human intervention. The UK government has said it has no plans to develop such technology. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22250664 Weapons with a degree of autonomy, including Unmanned Aerial Vehicles – commonly known as drones – are already widely used on the […]
Another terrorist under sway of FBI
Tamerlan Tsarnaev was the fifth man since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to be suspected of committing terrorism while under investigation by the FBI. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/22/us/boston-marathon-bombing-suspects-hoped-to-attack-again.html?ref=us Agents had questioned him a year before he traveled to Chechnya and Dagestan, predominantly Muslim republics in the North Caucasus region of Russia. The bureau sent two counterterrorism agents from […]
Corrupt elite back in control of Paraguay
A Paraguayan tobacco magnate, faced various challenges during his presidential bid. He was pressed to explain why antinarcotics police officers apprehended a plane carrying cocaine and marijuana on his ranch in 2000; why he went to prison in 1989 on currency fraud charges; and why he had never even voted in past general elections. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/22/world/americas/horacio-cartes-wins-paraguays-presidential-election.html?ref=world […]
The FBI and the Boston bombing suspects
The lead bombing suspect,Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed by police Thursday night was interviewed by the F.B.I. in 2011 when a foreign government asked the bureau to determine whether he had extremist ties, according to a senior law enforcement official. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/20/us/details-of-tsarnaev-brothers-boston-suspects-emerge.html?pagewanted=2&ref=us According to the bombers mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, “He (Tamerlan) was ‘controlled’ by the FBI, […]
Italy raids JP Morgan bankster offices
The Italian tax police descended on the Milan offices of the investment bank JPMorgan on Thursday in search of documents related to their investigation of suspected fraud at Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, as a financial scandal widened.http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/19/business/global/italian-tax-police-seize-documents-from-jpmorgan-in-milan.html?ref=world JPMorgan helped Monte dei Paschi finance its €9 billion purchase in 2007 of a rival, Banca […]
US Middle East arms dealing
The Defense Department is expected to finalize a $10 billion arms deal with Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.“not just to boost Israel’s capabilities, but also to boost the capabilities of our Persian Gulf partners” http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/19/world/middleeast/us-selling-arms-to-israel-saudi-arabia-and-emirates.html?hp Under the agreement, each country would be allowed to purchase advanced armaments from American contractors. In the […]
CIA runs parallel security structure
The spokesman for President Hamid Karzai said Thursday that the C.I.A. was responsible for calling in an airstrike on April 7 that left 17 Afghan civilians dead, 12 of them children, and that the secret Afghan militias that the agency controls behaved as if they were “responsible to no one.” http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/19/world/asia/after-airstrike-afghan-points-to-cia-and-secret-militias.html?ref=world “It was a C.I.A. […]
Austerity starving Greek children
In Greece children are picking through school trash cans for food; needy youngsters asking playmates for leftovers; and an 11-year-old boy was bent over with hunger pains. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/18/world/europe/more-children-in-greece-start-to-go-hungry.html?hp&_r=0 “He had eaten almost nothing at home,” The parents, who were ashamed and embarrassed but admitted that they had not been able to find work for months. […]
Dirty Babylon 