Pentagon calls for ‘Office of Strategic Deception’

By Sahil Kapur Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 -- 9:47 am WASHINGTON -- Remember the Pentagon Office of Special Plans that helped collect dubious intelligence that led to the war in Iraq? Or the program where the Pentagon secretly briefed military analysts to promote the Iraq war? Meet the would-be Office of Strategic Deception. In a little-noticed report earlier this month, the Defense Department's powerful Defense Science Board recommended creation of an entity designed solely for "strategic deception" against US adversaries. "Specifically," the report reads (pdf), "we recommend that the Secretary [of Defense] task both the Under Secretaries of Defense for Policy and Intelligence, and the ...

We Are Change Spreads the Truth on New York Subways

America’s Impending Master Class Dictatorship

Published on 01-23-2010 By Stewart Dougherty FOREWORD: At certain times, focusing on the big picture is important not just for investment success, but for personal welfare, and even survival. We believe such times are here. It is estimated that 98% of Americans have never held a gold coin in their hands. Yet 100% of Americans regularly handle Federal Reserve Notes. From a contrarian standpoint, the financial message from those two statistics is clear. Even so, gold is much more than money or an investment medium; it stands for liberty and throughout history has facilitated escape and ensured freedom. Never having touched a gold ...

US to Pay Taliban Fighters to ‘Lay Down Their Arms’

Karzai to pay Taliban to lay down their arms 22 Jan 2010 Afghan President Hamid Karzai unveiled an ambitious Western-funded plan Friday to offer money and jobs to tempt Taliban fighters to lay down their arms in an effort to quell a crippling insurgency. His ...

Dangerous Crossroads: U.S. Moves Missiles And Troops To Russian Border

Published on 01-23-2010 By Rick Rozoff - BLN Contributing Writer 2010 is proceeding in a manner more befitting the third month of the year, named after the Roman god of war, than the first whose name is derived from a pacific deity. On January 13 the Associated Press reported that the White House will submit its Quadrennial Defense Review to Congress on February 1 and request a record-high $708 billion for the Pentagon. That figure is the highest in absolute and in inflation-adjusted, constant (for any year) dollars since 1946, the year after the Second World War ended. Adding non-Pentagon defense-related spending, the total ...

Live pigs blasted in terror attack experiments

LIVE pigs are being blown up with explosives at Porton Down, the government’s secret military research laboratory, to simulate the effect of terrorist attacks on civilian targets. In a series of tests at the biological and chemical research centre in Wiltshire, 18 large pigs were wrapped in protective blankets before bombs were detonated a few feet away. The scientists allowed the pigs to bleed until almost a third of their blood was gone to see how long they could be kept alive. MPs and animal welfare groups have questioned the use of live animals in the explosions, even though the pigs were ...

China accuses US of online warfare in Iran

Tania Branigan in Beijing and agencies guardian.co.uk, Sunday 24 January 2010 15.49 GMT Article history A protest over the Iranian election in Washington last June. Photograph: Molly Riley/Reuters The United States used "online warfare" to stir up unrest in Iran after last year's elections, the Chinese Communist party newspaper claimed today, hitting back at Hillary Clinton's speech last week about internet freedom. An editorial in the People's Daily accused the US of launching a "hacker brigade" and said it had used social media such as Twitter to spread rumours and create ...

CCTV in the sky: police plan to use military-style spy drones Arms manufacturer BAE Systems developing national strategy with consortium of government agencies

The Guardian, Saturday 23 January 2010 Police in the UK are planning to use unmanned spy drones, controversially deployed in Afghanistan, for the ­"routine" monitoring of antisocial motorists, ­protesters, agricultural thieves and fly-tippers, in a significant expansion of covert state surveillance. The arms manufacturer BAE Systems, which produces a range of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for war zones, is adapting the military-style planes for a consortium of government agencies led by Kent police. Documents from the South Coast Partnership, a Home Office-backed project in which Kent police and others are developing a national drone plan with ...

Watchdog groups warn: ‘Corporate globalization’ of US elections is upon us

By Stephen C. Webster Saturday, January 23rd, 2010 -- 3:42 pm The Supreme Court may have ruled in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission days ago, but the decision's shockwaves are still rippling across American democracy. Key among them is a concern first raised by Justice John Paul Stevens, who wrote in his dissent that the court, by removing all prohibitions against corporate or union money in U.S. elections, "would appear to afford the same protection to multinational corporations controlled by foreigners as to individual Americans." "I guess this would be the corporate globalization of the U.S. electoral system," a blogger for watchdog group ...

Bin Laden reportedly claims responsibility for Christmas bomb scare (If you believe this your an IDIOT)

By Agence France-Presse Sunday, January 24th, 2010 -- 8:31 pm Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden claimed responsibility for the botched Christmas Day bombing of a US airliner and vowed further strikes on American targets, according an audio message broadcast on Sunday. The brief statement carried by Al-Jazeera satellite television warned Washington that the attack was meant as a similar message to that of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US by 19 Al-Qaeda militants who hijacked airliners and crashed them into buildings. Bin Laden praised as a "hero" Nigerian national Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab who allegedly tried to detonate explosives on a Northwest Airlines ...

Obama confident of repeat Fed term for Bernanke

Embattled Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will garner enough votes to win US Senate confirmation for a second term despite opposition from key Democrats, President Barack Obama's top adviser predicted Sunday. "The president is very confident that the chairman will be confirmed," said adviser David Axelrod, who praised Bernanke's handling of the recent global economic meltdown. "Chairman Bernanke offered very strong and steady leadership during this crisis, without which we... may have slipped into the abyss. And we are still in a fragile state, although the economy is growing," Axelrod told CNN's "State of the Union" television program. Several US senators have vowed ...

Blair to Face Inquiry Into Iraq War

By CASSELL BRYAN-LOW LONDON—Tony Blair will undergo a public grilling this week over the U.K.'s role in the Iraq war, raising questions about the former prime minister's legacy and his value to the Labour Party he once led as it prepares for a tough election battle. In a much-anticipated appearance on Jan. 29 before a five-member panel investigating the war, Mr. Blair is expected to face questions about the legitimacy—and even legality—of the U.K.'s involvement in Iraq. He will be confronted about whether he committed to overthrow Saddam Hussein long before the immediate run-up to the war, and quizzed about criticisms of ...

ACLU slams Senators: The Constitution is not ‘optional’

By Stephen C. Webster Sunday, January 24th, 2010 -- 10:29 pm Four U.S. Senators are pursuing legislation they believe would fix the "mistake" President Obama made with the man who allegedly failed to blow up a Christmas Day flight into Detroit. That "mistake" was treating him like a serious criminal, tossing him in jail and planning a trial. Nevertheless, Senators Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), Susan Collins (R-ME), Robert Bennett (R-UT) and John Ensign (R-NV) are pushing legislation that would require civilian authorities to consult with intelligence leaders when taking an accused terrorist into custody. "[This] legislation would not deprive the President of any investigative tool," Sen. ...

Details of Iraq whistleblower’s Dr. David Kelly’s “alleged suicide” to be sealed 70 years

By Stephen C. Webster Sunday, January 24th, 2010 -- 6:19 pm By 2080, anyone with a direct interest in learning how Dr. David Kelly died, will themselves be dead. That's how an Oxford coroner reacted to a recent ruling ordering the details of the former United Nations weapons inspector's death locked away for 70 years, according to a Mail Online report. Kelly's story, however, was gravely important in 2003, just before he was found dead in the woods behind his home in Oxfordshire, U.K. As the BBC revealed in the wake of his passing, he had been the key source behind a story claiming ...

5 Americans from Washington D.C. in Pakistan to face terror charges

D.C.-area men are set to appear before anti-terror court on Monday The Associated Press updated 11:21 a.m. ET, Thurs., Dec . 31, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistani police said Thursday they plan to ask a court to charge five Americans arrested in early December with terrorism, and will seek life sentences against them. The young Muslim men, who are from the Washington D.C. area, were captured in the eastern Pakistan city of Sargodha in a case that has spurred fears that Westerners are traveling to Pakistan to join militant groups. Tahir Gujar, a senior police investigator in Sargodha, said police had almost concluded their investigation and ...

150 more full-body scanners to go in U.S. airports

CNN December 31, 2009 1:05 p.m. EST // Forty body scanners are currently in use at 19 U.S. airports STORY HIGHLIGHTS Forty body scanners are currently in use at 19 U.S. airports The TSA has purchased an additional 150 machines Currently use of the technology is optional, according to TSA's Web site // RELATED TOPICS // Transportation Security Administration // Air Travel Washington (CNN) -- One hundred and fifty new full-body scanning machines are set to be placed in airports across the United States as federal authorities work to close security loopholes exposed by the attempted Christmas Day bombing of a ...

America’s Artificial Rift: The Two Party System

Anthony Gucciardi Infowars.com December 28, 2009 On any given day you can find a news story that focuses on the conflict between democrats and republicans, or Group A and Group B. These groups could be anything, but as long as they are toted as being the opposite of each other, they will clash. When one party supports a bill, the other tends to oppose it. This holds true for both sides, creating a never-ceasing battle over political parties, as opposed to policy. The change in each party’s fundamental policies has been warped into an infinitesimally minute amount of distinction from one another. When one ...

FBI: Man Flew Into LaGuardia With Firecracker Taken in to Custody

Passenger Taken Into Custody After Device Found Wedged Between Seats On Piedmont Airlines Flight Into LaGuardia NEW YORK (CBS) ? Click to enlarge 1 of 1 A passenger who flew into LaGuardia Airport on Sunday night was questioned by FBI agents after allegedly boarding the flight with an explosive device in his possession, CBS 2 has learned. (File)Mario Tama/Getty Images Close A passenger who flew into LaGuardia Airport on Sunday night was questioned by FBI agents after allegedly boarding the flight with an explosive device in his possession, CBS 2 has learned. (File) // A passenger who flew into LaGuardia Airport on ...

Flight 253 passenger: Sharp-dressed man aided terror suspect Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab onto plane without passport

By Sheena Harrison | MLive.com December 26, 2009, 2:22PM Kurt HaskellKurt Haskell's boarding pass for NWA Flight 253 Update: Dutch police investigating report of accomplice in Northwest Flight 235 terror plot A Michigan man who was aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 says he witnessed Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab trying to board the plane in Amsterdam without a passport. Kurt Haskell of Newport, Mich., who posted an earlier comment about his experience, talked exclusively with MLive.com and confirmed he was on the flight by sending a picture of his boarding pass. He and his wife, Lori, were returning from a safari in Uganda when they boarded ...

Leaked: Homeland Security’s Post Underwear Bomb Airplane Rules

Gizmodo December 28, 2009 Editor’s note: The new rules do not apply to the elite and their nomenklatura. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY Transportation Security Administration Aviation Security Directive Subject: Security Directive Number: SD 1544-09-06 Date: December 25, 2009 EXPIRATION: 0200Z on December 30, 2009 This Security Directive (SD) must be implemented immediately. The measures contained in this SD are in addition to all other SDs currently in effect for your operations. INFORMATION: On December 25, 2009, a terrorist attack was attempted against a flight traveling to the United States. TSA has identified security measures to be implemented by airports, aircraft operators, and foreign air carriers to mitigate potential threats ...