Tag Archives: central intelligence agency
Feds tell local SWAT to “stand down” at Navy Yard shooting
One of the first teams of heavily armed police to respond to Monday’s shooting in Washington DC was ordered to stand down by superiors. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/24153252 A tactical response team of the Capitol Police, a force that guards the US Capitol complex, was told to leave the scene by a supervisor instead of aiding municipal officers. […]
FISA court says NSA justified and blames tech companies
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Tuesday offered its most extensive public explanation for why it has allowed the government to keep records of all Americans’ phone calls, releasing a previously classified opinion in which it said the program was constitutional and did not violate Americans’ privacy rights. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/18/us/opinion-by-secret-court-calls-collection-of-phone-data-legal.html?hp In a 29-page opinion that quoted […]
Russia to tie chemical attack to Syrian rebels at UN
Russia will give the Security Council evidence implicating Syrian rebels in a chemical attack on 21 August, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-24140475 Syrian officials supplied the evidence. A UN report released on Monday concluded the nerve agent sarin was used in the attack in Damascus, which the US blames on the Syrian […]
US DOD behind 3D printed live organ development
Miniature human organs developed with a modified 3D printer are being used to test new vaccines in a lab in the US. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24125678 The “body on a chip” project replicates human cells to print structures which mimic the functions of the heart, liver, lung and blood vessels. The organs are then placed on a microchip […]
Brazil looks to separate from NSA spy grid
Brazil is considering ways to make local use of the internet less dependent on US-based services, following leaks about Washington’s cyberspy operations. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24145662 The South American nation has suggested forcing internet firms to open data centres in Brazil, which would be used to store locally generated material. It is also pursuing a plan to build […]
Mysterious circumstances surround Navy Yard shooting
Aaron Alexis, 34, is the alleged lone shooter in the Washington navy yard shooting which happened just after 8am on Monday as many of the 3,000 employees were arriving for work on the base. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/17/washington-naval-yard-shooting-suspect-arrested-guns However, The Washington Post, citing police sources, reported that three shooters, including one in military fatigues, were involved. The attackers […]
UN chemical report inconclusive in assigning blame
A United Nations report’s authors did not assign blame for the attack on the outskirts of Damascus, the details it documented included the large size and particular shape of the munitions and the precise direction from which two of them had been fired. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/17/world/europe/syria-united-nations.html?hpw The main point of the report was to establish whether chemical […]
Saudi Arabia supports Al Qaeda in Syrian destabilization
Saudi Arabia, cooperating with American and British intelligence and other Arab governments, has increased deliveries of weapons to rebels fighting in southern Syria. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/13/world/middleeast/syrian-rebels-say-saudi-arabia-is-stepping-up-weapons-deliveries.html?ref=world Leaders in Saudi Arabia and allies like Qatar chafed as rebel leaders fumed that their larger need — a way to shift the balance in the two-year-old civil war and […]
Elite use destabilization to create artificial oil shortages
Two years after local militias overthrew the Libyan dictator Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, many of those same fighters have brought Libya’s critical oil industry to a halt. Disturbances at several large export terminals and oil fields have throttled Libya’s daily oil production to one-tenth its capacity in recent days, jeopardizing the national economy and tightening world […]
American undercover operative killed by fellow jihadists
An american jihadist, Omar Hammami, known for his rap-infused propaganda videos for the Shabab, a brutal Islamist group in Somalia, was reported killed in an ambush on Thursday morning. If true, his death would bring to a close one of the more unusual chapters in more than two decades of american involvement in the Horn […]
Erdogan shows true globalist colors as US Syria strike fades
On Thursday, Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a strong advocate for military intervention in the Syrian war, reacted angrily to the United States’ decision to delay a military strike there — a decision analysts said had left Mr. Erdogan more politically vulnerable at home. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/13/world/middleeast/for-turkeys-leader-syrias-war-worsens-his-problems-at-home.html?ref=world In a speech to a trade group, […]
Putin tries to warn americans of war pretext pitfalls
The potential strike by the United States against Syria, despite strong opposition from many countries and major political and religious leaders, including the pope, will result in more innocent victims and escalation, potentially spreading the conflict far beyond Syria’s borders. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/12/opinion/putin-plea-for-caution-from-russia-on-syria.html?pagewanted=all A strike would increase violence and unleash a new wave of terrorism. It could […]
US uses border security measures to illegally seize material
Newly released documents reveal how the government uses border crossings to seize and examine travelers’ electronic devices instead of obtaining a search warrant to gain access to the data. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/10/business/the-border-is-a-back-door-for-us-device-searches.html?ref=world The documents detail what until now has been a largely secretive process that enables the government to create a travel alert for a person, who […]
NSA and GCHQ conspire in spying against their citizens
The US National Security Agency (NSA) is reported have cracked the security codes which protect data on iPhones, Blackberries and Android devices. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24009342 German news weekly Der Spiegel says documents suggest the NSA and the British GCHQ made joint efforts to gather intelligence. Teams looked at each phone to crack its privacy codes, Der Spiegel […]
Study shows most americans against war with Syria
A broad majority of Americans, exhausted by nearly a dozen years of war and fearful of tripping into another one, are opposed to a military strike on Syria. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/10/world/middleeast/poll-majority-of-americans-oppose-military-strike.html?ref=world Those findings illustrate the depth of the challenge facing President Obama as he tries to win support for a limited strike from a deeply reluctant […]
Assad warns US aggression will lead to larger conflict
Syrian President Bashar Assad has warned there will be “repercussions” against any U. S. military strike launched in response to a chemical weapons attack in his country. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2013/09/09/us/politics/ap-us-syria-assad-interview.html?hp&_r=0 “You should expect everything,” Assad said in an interview with CBS taped in Damascus. “Not necessarily from the government. It’s not only the government … in this […]
NSA and Big Oil spy on national oil company of Brazil
The National Security Agency spied on Petrobras, Brazil’s giant national oil company, according to a report here on Sunday night by the Globo television network, in the latest revelation of the agency’s surveillance methods that have raised tension between Brazil and the United States. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/09/world/americas/nsa-spied-on-brazilian-oil-company-report-says.html?ref=world The company is controlled by Brazil’s government and ranks among […]
US drone strike kills civilians in Afghanistan
Underscoring the continued threat to civilians in Afghanistan, a drone strike in an eastern province killed up to 16 people, Afghan officials said Sunday. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/09/world/asia/two-deadly-attacks-in-afghanistan.html?ref=world&_r=0 The drone strike occurred Saturday afternoon in the Watapur district of Kunar Province. Afghan officials said the drone was targeting four insurgents who were picked up along the road by […]
Within the decade smart cars will fill driverless roads
Germany’s Daimler AG plans to start selling a self-driving car by 2020 as part of its campaign to regain the top spot among premium carmakers. http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2013/09/08/business/08reuters-autoshow-frankfurt-daimler.html?hp&_r=0 “We want to be the first to launch autonomous functions in production vehicles. You can be sure: we will accomplish that in this decade,” Daimler head of development Thomas […]
Investigation into royal palace break-in uncovers conspiracy
Security is being reviewed at the palace after Monday’s suspected break-in, in which an intruder was able to scale a fence and get inside the palace. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24005811 Police said a man was arrested inside the palace on suspicion of burglary, trespass and criminal damage at about 22:20 BST. He was found “in an area currently […]
Dirty Babylon 