CLG: Mining company buys armed drones for 'riot control', Panel questions Social Security field office closings, et al

News Updates from CLG
19 Jun 2014

http://www.legitgov.org/
All links are here:http://www.legitgov.org/#breaking_news

Previous edition: Obama to Congress: I don't need new permission on Iraq (Google subscribers: Google Filter Instructions for CLG Newsletter.)

Note: The previous CLG Newsletter was sent twice by the Mailman email system. My apologies for the double; I hope it doesn't happen with this edition.

Breaking: Obama: US Will Send up to 300 Military Advisers to Iraq, Set up Joint Operation Centers --Green Berets, Army Rangers, Navy SEALs may go to Iraq 19 Jun 2014 President Barack Obama said Thursday he was sending up to 300 military advisers to Iraq, but added that America was not returning to a combat role in the country. Up to 100 U.S. special forces -- probably Green Berets, Army Rangers and Navy SEALs -- would go to Iraq to advise its military and collect intelligence under a Pentagon plan offered to President Barack Obama, according to several U.S. officials. (Wires)

150 Australians fighting in Syria, Iraq - official 18 Jun 2014 Around 150 Australians have fought with radical militants in Syria and Iraq, raising government fears of a terrorist threat to Australia if the fighters return home, the foreign minister said on Thursday. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said she had cancelled a number of passports on the advice of security agencies in a bid to reduce the security threat to Australia. She did not say whether the passports were canceled to prevent Australians leaving or returning. "Our best estimate is that there about 150 Australians...who have been or are still fighting with opposition [terrorist] groups in Syria and beyond," Bishop told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

Taliban hits NATO fuel trucks in Afghanistan East --37 NATO trucks destroyed in explosions 19 Jun 2014 Taliban militants have targeted NATO fuel trucks in Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar Province near the border with Pakistan, officials say. Idris Momand, a spokesperson for the local border police, said the bombing attacks near the Torkham border crossing took place at 4:30 am local time on Thursday. Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, the spokesman for the provincial governor, said 37 NATO trucks were destroyed in explosions set off during the ensuing gunbattle between militants and police guards in the troubled eastern province.

Germany is NSA's primary host of surveillance architecture in Europe - report 18 Jun 2014 The US National Security Agency has turned Germany into its most important base for surveillance operations in Europe, developing an "intimate relationship" over the past 13 years, Der Spiegel revealed. The NSA has not only been spying on German citizens, but the country has also become home to the agency's key data collection centers in Europe, German magazine Der Spiegel revealed on its website Wednesday in an article based on the analysis of documents leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden and information from other sources.

New NSA Revelations: Inside Snowden's Germany File --NSA Sites in Germany 18 Jun 2014 ...But until now, almost nobody in Wiesbaden knew that Building 4009 of the "Storage Station" houses one of the NSA's most important European data collection centers. Its official name is the European Technical Center (ETC), and, as documents from the archive of whistleblower Edward Snowden show, it has been expanded in recent years. Soon the NSA will have an even more powerful and modern facility at their disposal: Just five kilometers away, in the Clay Kaserne, a US military complex located in the Erbenheim district of Wiesbaden, the "Consolidated Intelligence Center" is under construction. It will house data-monitoring specialists from Mainz-Kastel.

Central Stockholm cordoned off after man with 'explosives' enters building 19 Jun 2014 Two central areas in the Swedish capital are in lockdown after a man walked into an office building in Gamla Stan claiming he has a bomb strapped to his body. The man walked into the building offices of human rights group and the ruling Moderate Party at 2.20pm (12.20 GMT) local time claiming to have an explosive device strapped to his body, the police said. "The man has expressed his dissatisfaction with parties in the parliament," the city police wrote in a statement as cited by local media.

Mining company buys armed drones for 'riot control' --An African mining company has ordered more than two dozen drones capable of shooting pepper spray, plastic bullets and lasers. 19 Jun 2014 An African mining company has ordered more than two dozen drones capable of shooting pepper spray, plastic ammunition and blinding lasers. The supplier, South African-based Desert Wolf, describes the 'Skunk' as a "riot control copter" -- but there are concerns it breaks international treaties on the use of torture, lasers and even the Geneva Convention. The Skunk can carry a payload of up to 45kg. It has four high-pressure paintball guns on board that can shoot plastic bullets and up to 4000 balls of pepper spray. It can shoot 80 rounds a second. [People have the right -- indeed, obligation -- to shoot down corpora-terrorists' 'riot control' drones.]

Panel questions Social Security field office closings 19 Jun 2014 The Social Security Administration has cut thousands of field workers and reduced hours and services at hundreds of satellite offices over the past four years at a time when baby boomers are starting to hit retirement age, a new Senate report concludes. Most troubling, the agency hasn't fully analyzed the impact of such reductions or followed its own protocol in many cases, according to the Senate Special Committee on Aging, which issued the study and held a hearing on it Wednesday. "I think it's a legitimate question: Is this a death by a thousand cuts?" said Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Orlando, who chairs the panel. "An agency known for its great service could be undercutting its mission. Most of this has been done with very little consultation of the Congress...and most of this has been done without consultation with the impacted communities."

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