News Updates from CLG
22 July 2015
22 July 2015
http://www.legitgov.org/
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$500M US Program Has Only Trained 60 Syrians to Fight ISIS | 07 July 2015 | Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Tuesday that only 60 so-called "moderate" Syrian rebels were currently being trained by the U.S. in the 500 million program that had been slated to put 3,000 fighters into the field against [sic] ISIS [I-CIA-SIS] by the end of this year. Carter told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he regretted disclosing that the number was so low but "I wanted to tell the truth. The number 60, as you all recognize, is not an impressive number." The 500 million Syrian training program authorized by Congress was intended to train and equip up to 5,400 fighters annually, with about 3,000 projected to be ready by the end of this year.
Luton man charged over plot to attack US forces in UK then join ISIS in Syria | 21 July 2015 | A delivery driver appeared in court yesterday charged with planning to kill American airmen at British bases in a Lee Rigby-style terror attack. Junead Khan, 24, allegedly planned to run over US personnel in his car before killing them with a knife or blowing himself up. Khan is also accused of planning to travel to Syria to join Islamic State with his uncle Shazib Khan, 22. Junead Khan is accused of checking out the RAF bases at Mildenhall and Lakenheath in Suffolk and Feltwell in Norfolk in the weeks before his arrest.
UK parents to get power to cancel children's passports over Isis fears | 20 July 2015 | Parents worried that their children may be about to travel to Syria or Iraq to join Islamic State (Isis) will be able to apply for their child's passport to be cancelled, David Cameron has announced in a speech setting out his five-year counter-extremism strategy. Cameron said that parents would in effect have the right to cancel the passports of their children under 16 to prevent them from travelling to war zones. He said one of his aims in the counter-extremism strategy due to be published in the autumn would be to "put out of action the key extremist influencers who are careful to operate inside the law but who clearly detest British society and seek to groom young people".
Military Site Shootings Crystallize FBI Terrorism Concerns | 18 July 2015 | The deadly shootings at military sites in Tennessee illustrate the threat that FBI officials have warned about: violence directed against a vulnerable government target by a lone gunman with apparent terrorist aspirations. The FBI has not detailed a motive, but Thursday's attacks that killed four Marines and one sailor are under investigation as a potential act of terrorism, with authorities combing through the gunman's past to look for travel, contacts and online writings. The rampage unfolded as the federal government has raised alarms about the online spread of terrorist propaganda, including repeated exhortations by groups such as the Islamic State for sympathizers to target police officers and military installations.
FBI checking gunman's phone, computer, trips for ISIL connection | 20 July 2015 | The FBI is examining Mohammod Youssuf Abdulazeez's cellphone and computer to determine whether the 24-year-old who killed four Marines and a Navy petty officer in Tennessee on Thursday was involved with the Islamic State terrorist group, the chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security said Sunday.
Chattanooga shooter worked at Cleveland area nuclear power plant in 2013 | 18 July 2015 The man who [allegedly] killed four U.S. Marines and wounded three others at two military facilities in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on Thursday had attempted to gain access to a nuclear reactor in 2013. Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez almost had access to the inner workings of a nuclear power plant in the Cleveland suburbs, but he was ultimately never retained for a permanent position after training. Employees at the Perry Nuclear Power Plant on the shores of Lake Erie recognized Abdulazeez's photo on the news after details of the shooting emerged, and informed local television station WKYC NBC 3 on Friday.
Fifth service member dies after Chattanooga shooting | 18 July 2015 | U.S. Navy Petty Officer Randall Smith, wounded in a shooting rampage in Tennessee, died early Saturday, according to a family member. He is the fifth American service member killed in the attack. Darlene Proxmire, Smith's step-grandmother, said the logistics specialist was shot in the attack at the Navy Operational Support Center in Chattanooga. It was one of two military sites in the city that were targeted by a gunman Thursday.
NSA Helped CIA Outmanoeuvre Europe on Torture | 20 July 2015 | Today, Monday 20 July at 1800 CEST, WikiLeaks publishes evidence of National Security Agency (NSA) spying on German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier along with a list of 20 target selectors for the Foreign Ministry. The list indicates that NSA spying on the Foreign Ministry extends back to the pre-9/11 era, including numbers for offices in Bonn and targeting Joschka Fischer, Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister from 1998 to 2005. Julian Assange, WikiLeaks Editor-in-Chief, said: "Today's publication indicates that the NSA has been used to help the CIA kidnap and torture with impunity. For years the CIA was systematically abducting and torturing people, with the tacit complicity of European governments."
Europe backs Iran nuclear deal in signal to U.S. Congress | 20 July 2015 | The European Union approved the Iran nuclear deal with world powers on Monday, a first step toward lifting Europe's economic sanctions against Tehran that the bloc hopes will send a signal that the U.S. Congress will follow. In a message mainly aimed at skeptical voices in the U.S. Congress and strong resistance from Israel, [Who cares?] EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels stressed that there was no better option available. "It is a balanced deal that means Iran won't get an atomic bomb," said French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius. "It is a major political deal."
As American Infrastructure Crumbles, Israel Signals May Ask for More US Military Aid Over Iran Deal | 18 July 2015 | Israel signalled on Friday that it would ask the United States for increased military aid to 'counter any threats' that may arise as result of the international agreement on Iran's nuclear programme. Israel [insanely] gets 3 billion in annual military aid from Washington under a package due to expire in 2017 and has in recent years secured hundreds of millions of dollars in additional U.S. funding for missile defence. Israel and the United States had been in talks on future grants but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suspended them in the run-up to Tuesday's agreement which curtailed Iran's nuclear projects, which he condemned as insufficient.
NSA document: Israeli special forces assassinated top Syrian military official | 17 July 2015 | Evidence has emerged from leaked US signals intelligence intercepts that Israeli special forces were responsible for assassinating a senior Syrian military official who was a close adviser to President Bashar al-Assad. Brig Gen Mahmoud Suleiman was shot dead on a beach near the northern Syrian port of Tartus in August 2008. The Guardian reported at the time that the seaside murder was perpetrated by a sniper firing from a yacht moored offshore. Israel has never commented publicly on suspicions that it was involved. But newly revealed secret US intelligence documents state as a fact that Israeli special forces killed the general.
US delivers 100 more Humvees to Ukraine | 19 July 2015 | US Ambassador to Ukraine Jeffrey Pyatt announced on Twitter that 100 US-made unarmored Humvees were delivered to Odessa by ship in the morning of July 18. The delivery was part of the well-known March 10, 2015, additional military aid package to Ukraine, which so far includes 30 armored and 200 unarmored Humvees. The 30 armored Humvees of the old M1114 variant with the early FRAG supplemental armor suite and MCTAGS protected machine-gun mounts were delivered to [the Nazi regime in] Kiev by three C-5M flights in late March--early April 2015.
Cuba and US formally restore diplomatic relations | 20 July 2015 | Cuba and the US have formally restored diplomatic relations after an agreement struck last year putting aside decades of hostility came into force. Just after midnight on Monday, the diplomatic missions of each country became full embassies. US Secretary of State John Kerry is due to hold talks with his Cuban counterpart Bruno Rodriguez later in the day in Washington.
Suicide Bomb Attack in Suruc, 50 Dead, 100 Injured | 19 July 2015 | A blast has occurred at the Amara Culture Center in Suruc district of Urfa, across the border from Kobane, where members of the Socialist Youth Associations Federation (SGDF), coming from various cities have been staying before their planned cross into Kobane to help reconstruction work today.
Aurora shooting verdict: James Holmes found guilty in theater massacre | 16 July 2015 | James Holmes was today found guilty of the first-degree murder of 12 people during a midnight screening of the Batman film The Dark Knight Rises in 2012. The guilty ruling means that the trial now enters the sentencing phase, where jurors will decide Holmes's fate. Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty, which has only been carried out once in Colorado in the past 38 years. The verdict came down nearly three years to the day after the massacre in the movie theater took place.
Facebook must hand over New York users' info to prosecutors, court rules | 21 July 2015 | Facebook [FaCIAbook] Inc cannot challenge search warrants New York prosecutors used to get information from its site on hundreds of users suspected of Social Security fraud, a state appeals court said on Tuesday, in a decision likely making it harder for New Yorkers to keep their digital lives private. The warrants, which applied to 381 users' photos, private messages and other account information, could only be challenged by individual defendants after prosecutors gathered evidence, the Manhattan-based court unanimously ruled.
12 planes hit by blinding lasers in N.J. among dozens targeted in U.S. in one night | 16 July 2015 | A military aircraft and 11 commercial airliners in New Jersey were among dozens of flights throughout the country hit by lasers Wednesday night, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The pilots of three planes within 20 miles of Newark Liberty International Airport and five planes, which were all four miles south of the Outerbridge Crossing, reported that lasers were pointed at their aircraft, according to a statement issued by FAA spokesman Jim Peters. All of those planes were at an altitude of 3,000 feet.
Radioactive water from Fukushima plant again escapes; TEPCO says it cannot stop spill anytime soon--Radioactive rainwater spilled into sea from same channel in February | 16 July 2015 | The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has found that radioactive water has overflowed from a drainage channel, spilling into the sea. This is due to heavy rain. [!] Workers at the complex discovered the leak at around 8:40 AM on Thursday. The operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company, said rainwater samples taken from the channel about 2 hours later contained 830 becquerels per liter of radioactive cesium. The water also had 1,100 becquerels of beta-ray emitting radioactive substances.
Mutant daisies photographed near Fukushima site go viral | 21 July 2015 | A photo of 'mutant daisies' spotted near Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant four years after its meltdown[s] has gone viral online. The image was snapped by Twitter user san_kaido in Nasushiobara City, which lies about 100 kilometres from Fukushima. When translated, san_kaido's tweet says the daisies have been exposed to radiation from Fukushima since March 2011, according to The Weather Channel. "The atmospheric dose is 0.5 μSv/h at 1m above the ground," the tweet says, referencing the radiation dose per hour present at the site where the photo was taken.
Barack Obama becomes first president to visit US prison --Barack Obama says that the US criminal justice system needs to distinguish between young people who make mistakes and those who are truly dangerous [Right, so spring Chelsea Manning, Jeremy Hammond, Barrett Brown, etc. - and ensure that Julian Assange and Edward Snowden are free!] | 16 July 2015 | Barack Obama became the first sitting US president to visit a federal prison on Thursday, amid a push to reform America's overcrowded and expensive correctional system. Obama toured the "B" block of El Reno Federal Correctional Institution in Oklahoma, where he met six inmates convicted of drug offenses. Nearly a quarter of the world's prison population is concentrated in American jails. However, the United States accounts for less than five percent of the world's population. Obama wants to cut the number of people incarcerated, curb use of solitary confinement and end mandatory minimum sentences.
Doctors suddenly going the way of J.P. Morgan's bankers: 5th holistic doctor (age 33) dies in Florida making 5 dead and 5 more missing | 14 July 2015 | [Timeline of all 10 deaths and disappearances at bottom of article] ...Dr. Baron Holt DC was coincidentally found the very same day that Dr. Bruce Hedendal DC (doctor of chiropractic) was found slumped over in his car. Dr. Hedendal was also on the East Coast of Florida and also a DC. Like Holt, Dr. Hedendal was also extremely fit. Dr. Hedendal had been doing an athletic event earlier in the day, before he was found in his car. [Holistic medicine: What a dangerous profession!]
House Republicans Fast-Track Bill to Prevent States from Labeling GMO Foods | 16 July 2015 | Republicans [corpora-terrorist trolls] in the U.S. House have swiftly moved to adopt legislation that would prohibit states from adopting laws requiring labels on food containing genetically modified organisms (GMO). The House Committee on Agriculture Agribusiness this week approved HR 1599, which would create a voluntary federal labeling standard while also preventing states from forcing companies to put GMO labels on their foods. The bill, which cleared the committee without debate, is now headed to the House floor. Critics have called HR 1599 the "Mother of All Monsanto Protection Acts" after the company that has long opposed GMO labels, as well as the DARK (Deny Americans the Right to Know) Act.
White House distances itself from Glass-Steagall push [Of course it does.] | 17 July 2015 | The [TPP-pimping] White House wants to keep its distance from a liberal push to re-implement legislation that would break up big banks. Progressives like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) are calling for a reimplementation of Glass-Steagall, which would require big banks to divide commercial and investment banking. Earlier this month, Warren brought back legislation that would re-implement the law.
John Kasich announces 2016 presidential bid | 21 July 2015 | Ohio Gov. John Kasich officially became the 16 Republican to enter the 2016 presidential race Tuesday as he announced his candidacy in his home state. "I am here to ask you for your prayers, for your support for your efforts because I have decided to run for president of the United States," Kasich told the audience, speaking at his alma mater, Ohio State University. Kasich delivered his announcement speech -- a mix of stories from his life and proclamations about fixing the country -- without a teleprompter or prepared remarks on a stage in the middle of the crowd.
Christie 10th as Trump leads Republican 2016 field in 3rd straight poll | 21 July 2015 | Donald Trump received the most support among Republican presidential candidate in an ABC News/Washington Post poll released Monday, the third consecutive survey showing the controversial and outspoken businessman in the lead. The ABC-Post poll put Trump at 24 percent among registered voters who lean Republican -- six times his support in a May survey -- and 11 points ahead of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker with 13 percent. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was in third place with 12 percent. Gov. Chris Christie was in 10th place [LOL!] with 3 percent, half his May total of 6 percent.
Recall the Recall Truth: Scott Walker's Stolen Elections | 12 July 2015 | Last week, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker released a video called, Recall the Recall. It presents Walker as an all-powerful [2016 GOP presidential] candidate with impeccable credentials, because he has "won" 3 elections in four years...But what Scott Walker absolutely does not want you to remember is that the vote totals from his 2012 recall (and 2014 re-election) appear to be fraudulent, violating the most basic principles of math: The Law of Large Numbers... Read a transcript of the video, Recall the Recall Truth: Walker's Stolen Elections, here.
Thomas Roberts Becomes First Openly Gay Evening News Anchor on Network TV | 19 July 2015 | Thomas Roberts anchored NBC's "Nightly News" on Saturday [and Sunday], a huge milestone for both the 42-year-old journalist's career and gay rights history. Until the broadcast, an openly gay person had never anchored the nightly news on network TV. Roberts told The Advocate that it was a "huge honor" to fill the role. During the week, Roberts hosts "MSNBC Live With Thomas Roberts."
Bland's Death Being Treated Like Murder Investigation | 20 July 2015 | The probe into Sandra Bland's hanging death inside a Texas jail -- which a medical examiner ruled a suicide last week -- now includes the possibility of murder. "This is being treated like a murder investigation," Elton Mathis, Waller County's district attorney, said at a press conference Monday. Mathis said he made the determination after talking to Bland's family and to those who saw her last, including the bail bondsman, who was among the last to hear from her alive.
E.L. Doctorow, Author of Historical Fiction, Dies at 84 | 21 July 2015 | E.L. Doctorow, a leading figure in contemporary American letters whose popular, critically admired and award-winning novels -- including "Ragtime," "Billy Bathgate" and "The March" -- situated fictional characters in recognizable historical contexts, among identifiable historical figures and often within unconventional narrative forms, died on Tuesday in Manhattan. He was 84 and had homes in Manhattan and Sag Harbor, N.Y.
Earth's Most Famous Climate Scientist Issues Bombshell Sea Level Warning | 20 July 2015 | In what may prove to be a turning point for political action on climate change global warming, a breathtaking new study casts extreme doubt about the near-term stability of global sea levels. The study--written by James Hansen, NASA’s former lead climate scientist, and 16 co-authors, many of whom are considered among the top in their fields--concludes that glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica will melt 10 times faster than previous consensus estimates, resulting in sea level rise of at least 10 feet in as little as 50 years. The study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, brings new importance to a feedback loop in the ocean near Antarctica that results in cooler freshwater from melting glaciers forcing warmer, saltier water underneath the ice sheets, speeding up the melting rate. Hansen, who isknown for being alarmist and also right, acknowledges that his study implies change far beyond previous consensus estimates.
Polar bear metabolism cannot cope with ice loss --The Arctic mammals may not survive the ongoing loss of their hunting grounds. | 16 July 2015 | Polar bears' metabolism does not slow very much during the summer months when sea ice melts and food becomes scarce, according to a study published today (16 July) in Science. With the Arctic warming faster than the global average, the finding does not bode well for the bears (Ursus maritimus), who use the ice as a hunting ground. The Arctic ice is melting earlier each summer and freezing later each winter, limiting the animals' chances to catch seals. With no way to save energy, polar bears are unlikely to survive the continued sea-ice loss caused by rising temperatures, says Merav Ben-David, a wildlife ecologist at the University of Wyoming in Laramie and a co-author of the study.
Snow falls on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, as temperatures hit record levels | 18 July 2015 | Snow fell on Mauna Kea Friday even as temperatures rose to record levels and muggy weather continued at lower elevations Friday. Web camera images showed snow on the ground at the Mauna Kea summit, 13,796 feet above sea level, Friday morning following overnight storms on the Big Island. High temperature records have been set or tied 20 times so far in July. High temperatures are expected to be near record levels again Friday.
Cajon Pass: Fire jumps to 3,500 acres, cars and homes destroyed, evacuations ordered | 17 July 2015 | (CA) A brush fire that started near Interstate 15 in the Cajon Pass north of Highway 138 ripped through cars trapped on the freeway and destroyed at least five homes Friday afternoon. As of 6 p.m. the fire was reported at 3,500 acres and is currently being dispatched as a "mass casualty" incident. That means paramedics and firefighters responded to the scene prepared to deal with "possible multiple civilian burn victims." The freeway is expected to be impacted for possibly the entire night, snarling weekend traffic for motorists headed to and from Las Vegas.
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