WASHINGTON, Dec 28 (IPS) - U.S. intelligence has concluded that the document published recently by the Times of London, which purportedly describes an Iranian plan to do experiments on what the newspaper described as a "neutron initiator" for an atomic weapon, is a fabrication, according to a former Central Intelligence Agency official.
Philip Giraldi, who was a CIA counterterrorism official from 1976 to 1992, told IPS that intelligence sources say that the United States had nothing to do with forging the document, and that Israel is the primary suspect. The sources do not rule out a British role in the fabrication, however.
The Times of London story published Dec. 14 did not identify the source of the document. But it quoted "an Asian intelligence source" - a term some news media have used for Israeli intelligence officials - as confirming that his government believes Iran was working on a neutron initiator as recently as 2007.
The story of the purported Iranian document prompted a new round of expressions of U.S. and European support for tougher sanctions against Iran and reminders of Israel's threats to attack Iranian nuclear programme targets if diplomacy fails.
Read more: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49833
On Christmas day, the United States was attacked by terrorists. Americans who should've been drinking eggnog spent the day glued to their TV screens, watching 9/11 happen all over again in the form of some lunatic failing to blow his own dick off. The world will never be the same, because 12/25 -- like 9/11 before it -- changed everything. Clearly, the only rational course of action is to re-invade Iraq. That, and have every air passenger drop their pants as they take off their shoes before boarding. Otherwise, the republic will surely crumble.To put things in perspective, whizbang statistician Nate Silver breaks things down. He compares flights that have experienced some sort of terrorist attempt with those that haven't.
"I love you and believe in you. If you want my ear/voice — e-mail." - Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) to billionaire Ponzi swindler Allen Stanford, hours after Stanford was arrested by the feds. After the arrest, Sessions denied that he knew Stanford at all, despite having been photographed with him many times and accepting $44,000 from Stanford for his re-election campaign. Sessions has a 0% rating from the Human Rights Campaign, having voted against every single bit of pro-LGBT legislation ever put before him. He voted for the failed Constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and for banning gay adoptions in DC. But he loves and "believes in" a man who stole $8B. What's going on there? What's with the trips to Antigua?
It's still socialism to Bachmann, however. "Right now, we are looking at reaching down the throat and ripping the guts out of freedom," she said in remarks to a right-wing club in Minnesota this month. "And we may never be able to restore it if we don't man up and take this one on."
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You can play the "Where's Waldo" game and browse an interactive album of animal mimics, too.
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Nature's race against time as climate changes: global temperatures are set to rise faster than the speed at which most animals and plants can move to cooler areas, according to a study estimating the velocity of climate change.- London Independent
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Mr. President, it's time to fire the TSA
Today, DHS's Napolitano's response to the crotchbomber: "We're looking to make sure that this sort of incident cannot recur." But the TSA's response to Abdulmutalib's attempt makes one thing clear: We must stop pretending the TSA is making us safer.
Security expert Bruce Schneier nails the core incompetency: "For years I've been saying 'Only two things have made flying safer [since 9/11]: the reinforcement of cockpit doors, and the fact that passengers know now to resist hijackers.'"
So what has the TSA done in response to the attempted attack? They've told airlines to make passengers stay in their seats during the last hour of flight. They've made it verboten for passengers to hold anything in their laps, again only during the last hour of flight. Perhaps most hilariously telling, they've forbidden pilots from announcing when a plane is flying over certain cities and landmarks.
There is no other way to interpret it: The TSA is saying clearly that they can't prevent terrorists from getting explosives on airplanes, but by god, they'll make sure those planes only explode when the TSA says it's okay.
Keep reading: http://gizmodo.com/5435675/president-obama-its-time-to-fire-the-tsa
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The world's greatest deliberative body
An alleged attempt to blow up a transatlantic flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas would be all-consuming for the administrator of the Transportation Security Administration—if there were one.
Instead, the post remains vacant because Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) has held up President Obama's nominee in an effort to prevent TSA workers from joining a labor union.
[....]
DeMint's objection creates a procedural hurdle that will probably take at least three days of debate and test votes to overcome.
It would be nice if a few Villagers here and there could take a break from bashing Harry Reid for not being Mike Mansfield and focus on crap like this.
And this from Ben Smith:
Republicans have cast votes against the key TSA funding measure that the 2010 appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security contained, which included funding for the TSA, including for explosives detection systems and other aviation security measures. In the June 24 vote in the House, leading Republicans including John Boehner, Pete Hoekstra, Mike Pence and Paul Ryan voted against the bill, amid a procedural dispute over the appropriations process, a Democrat points out. A full 108 Republicans voted against the conference version, including Boehner, Hoekstra, Pence, Michelle Bachmann, Marsha Blackburn, Darrell Issa and Joe Wilson.
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Shorter National Review: A failed terror attack would never happen on Bush's watch
In case you were wondering, the failed bombing of Flight 253 is all Obama's fault.
The effect of firing DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano would be symbolic only. [...] As long as the boss remains invincibly callow toward the threat of terrorism, his underlings are likely to reflect that mindset.
The people now in charge of our government believe Clinton-era counterterrorism was a successful model. They start from the premise that terrorism is a crime problem to be managed, not a war to be won.
Apparently the right "model" is to suffer the most catastrophic attack in our nation's history, followed by the Anthrax and DC Sniper killings, then launch two hugely expensive, bloody and unsuccessful wars.
Doughy Pantload:
Ashcroft's view: organized Islamic terrorists want to kill Americans in a holy war.
Napolitano's view: Islamic terrorist attacks are merely "man caused disasters" by disturbed individuals — who should be assumed to be acting alone as criminals, not terrorists, despite credible evidence — while peaceful "rightwing extremists" should be given extra scrutiny on the assumption they could well be terrorists.
Peaceful rightwing extremists like Tim McVeigh, who was responsible for the bloodiest act of terrorism in US history before Bush and Cheney failed to protect America on 9/11.
More on the crotchbomber from ABC's Jake Tapper.
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Fury as China executes mentally ill alleged British drug smuggler: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/29/akmal-shaikh-execution-china
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Top 20 Funniest Political Moments of 2009: http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/currentevents/tp/funniest-moments-of-2009.htm?nl=1
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Following the money; corrupt bastards edition: http://eb-misfit.blogspot.com/2009/12/following-money-corrupt-bastards.html
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Every Republican in the House and nearly every Republican Senator voted against the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (also known as the stimulus). Although the Congressional Budget Office has credited the stimulus with creating up to 1.6 million jobs, the same GOP politicians who opposed the stimulus have attempted to justify their opposition to the policy by smearing it as a failure. But as ThinkProgress has documented, the same politicians are returning to their districts to take credit for the economic success of the stimulus.
In the past month, several more GOP lawmakers went home to their district to praise and claim credit for successful stimulus programs:
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/12/28/more-stimulus-hypocrisy/
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Birther/dentist/lawyer, Orly Taitz, wants people to "bare" arms and "organise" against the government.
Washed up one hit wonder Ted Nugent, who once threatened to kill Hillary and Obama, says Obama should be jailed.
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Asked if GOP should campaign on repealing health care reform, Mitch McConnell refuses to answer.
Newt Gingrich: Republicans 'will run on an absolute pledge to repeal this bill'
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Orange-headed aliens
Ohioan Boehner wows Florida crowd with tropical tan
Fashion icon John Boehner (or somebody who looks EXACTLY LIKE HIM) was spotted in a regal white-mock-turtleneck-and-khaki-shorts combo at a southwest Florida redneck bar this weekend. Wonkette tipster "Jelly of the Month" sends us this photo of His Nibs, looking "orange as the day he was born."
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Health insurance reform calculator
For those of you who aren't covered by your employer for health insurance, here's a handy tool to figure out what you'd owe under health care reform under the two plans. (Be sure to put in your age in 2014.)
Get more detail about what's really "affordable" from emptywheel here.
I wanted to hit the question of affordability one more time, to show that this isn't a matter of eating home more often, but rather of precisely the debt problems that Nate says reform will prevent.
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"Israel has announced plans for nearly 700 homes in mainly Arab East Jerusalem - despite Palestinian and international demands that it freeze building there. The US and EU criticised the move, which follows plans unveiled last month for 900 homes on occupied land in Gilo, south of Jerusalem. Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967 and later annexed it, in a move not recognised internationally. The Palestinians want to locate their future capital in East Jerusalem. They said the plans showed Israel was "not ready for peace"."
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Gaza freedom marchers blocked in Egypt. One of the hunger strikers is an 85-year-old American and Holocaust survivor. "Protesters trying to march into Gaza a year after an Israeli offensive are on hunger strike after Egypt blocked them from crossing the border. Hundreds of people in Cairo have been prevented from getting close to the border with Gaza. A group who got as far as the Sinai port of El Arish have been detained by the Egyptian police. A separate convoy of vans delivering medical supplies is stuck in the Jordanian port town of Aqaba. At least 38 people of various nationalities were picked up by Egyptian security services in El Arish and held in their hotel rooms, AFP news agency reported."
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But a review of government audits and interviews with experts inside and outside the government also shows that the system has been slow to make even bigger changes because of a balky bureaucracy, fickle politics and, at times, airline industry opposition. It has also squandered tens of millions of dollars on faulty technology, like high-tech "puffer" machines that repeatedly broke down and flunked the most basic test: they failed to detect some explosives.
As a result, the government has delayed putting in place some of the most important recommendations from the Sept. 11 commission report, which examined the missteps that led to attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001.
For example, the government has yet to fully deploy a sophisticated method of matching passenger names with terrorist watch lists. And it has still not finished changes that would make it harder for terrorists to sneak bombs into airplane cargo holds, according to government reports.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/29/us/29screening.html?_r=1&hp
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Call it a Christmas gift for the mortgage giants.
Shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were up big yesterday on the Treasury Department's Christmas Eve announcement that it would issue blank check support to the troubled lenders. Fannie Mae shares were up 21 percent and shares of Freddie Mac rose 27 percent during yesterday's trading. (In early trading this morning, Fannie Mae shares were up 7.87 percent; Freddie Mac shares were up 5 percent.)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/29/fannie-freddie-stock-pric_n_405841.html
What the hell is it going to take to make people mad in this country?
