CLG: 'Operation Gotham Shield': US government will 'simulate 10,000-ton nuclear blast over New York and New Jersey' next week

 News Updates from CLG
24 April 2017

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Previous editions: North Korean envoy at UN warns of nuclear war possibility

 

'Operation Gotham Shield': US government will 'simulate 10,000-ton nuclear blast over New York and New Jersey' next week --'Operation Gotham Shield is an 'Improvised Nuclear Detonation Incident' --Exercise is thought to be routine multi-agency and organization disaster drill --Conspiracy Theorists are warning the drill could turn into a real event [as it did on 9/11] | 21 April 2017 | An alert has surfaced on the web describing an exercise called 'Operation Gotham Shield', which will conduct a simulation crisis by detonating a 10,000-ton nuclear bomb over the New York City/New Jersey area next week. Agencies involved in the exercise, which is said to be a routine drill, have noted that it will simulate 'a large scale terrorist attack' - but some believe it may turn into an actual disaster. A post entitled 'Operation Gotham Shield' appeared as a thread in a forum on Thursday by an anonymous users. 'On Tuesday April 25th 2017, at 0800 the Gotham Shield Exercise will take place at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford NJ,' Tyson Mowry, ERHC Helicopter Emergency Response Program (HERP) Coordinator, shared in the announcement.

 

Man guilty of bomb threats against nuclear plant in Florida | 19 April 2017 | A north Florida man has pleaded guilty to sending bomb threats to a nuclear power plant, a school and other government and private facilities. Acting U.S. Attorney W. Stephen Muldrow said in a news release that 25-year-old David Wayne Willmott Jr. pleaded guilty on Tuesday in federal court to three counts of making threats to use an explosive device. Federal prosecutors say Willmott emailed bomb threats in 2014 and 2015 to the nuclear plant as well as two courthouses, two airports and a sheriff's office.

 

WikiLeaks publishes more secret CIA tools after the US threatens criminal charges | 21 April 2017 | WikiLeaks released another trove of information on the Central Intelligence Agency's secrets Friday afternoon, after the Justice Department said it was considering criminal charges against the organization and its founder, Julian Assange. The latest release is a 31-page user guide for a CIA device called "Weeping Angel" that was posted online on Friday, CBS News reported. The tool was able to turn Samsung televisions into surveillance tools -- by way of activating the television's built-in microphone to record audio. The tool was co-developed by the CIA and the UK's MI5 intelligence agency, CNET reported in March.

 

US prepares charges to seek arrest of WikiLeaks' Julian Assange - sources | 20 April 2017 | US authorities have prepared charges to seek the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, US officials familiar with the matter tell CNN. The Justice Department investigation of Assange and WikiLeaks dates to at least 2010, when the site first gained wide attention for posting thousands of files stolen by the former US Army intelligence analyst now known as Chelsea Manning.

 

Macron, Le Pen advance to France runoff | 23 April 2017 | French centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron and right-wing leader Marine Le Pen advanced to the presidential runoff, after major opponents conceded defeat Sunday. For the first time in modern French history, no mainstream party candidate is advancing, upending the country's political system.

 

Risk of 'catastrophic' nuclear accident as world relations worsen, UN warns | 21 April 2017 | There will be "catastrophic" consequences when "luck runs out" on nuclear deterrence, the United Nations (UN) has warned in a major report which highlights the massive risk of an accidental or deliberate use of the world's most deadly weapons. The "poor relations" between nuclear powers has contributed to an atmosphere that "lends itself to the onset of crisis," said the report by the UN Institute for Disarmament Research. The rise in cyber warfare and hacking has left the technical vulnerabilities of nuclear weapons systems exposed to risk from states and terrorist groups, it added.

 

North Korea 'ready to strike' US aircraft carrier Carl Vinson as it heads for Korean peninsula | 24 April 2017 | North Korea has said it is ready to sink a US aircraft carrier to demonstrate its military might, as two Japanese navy ships joined a US carrier group for exercises in the western Pacific. US President Donald Trump ordered the USS Carl Vinson carrier strike group to sail to waters off the Korean peninsula in response to rising tension over the North's nuclear and missile tests, and its threats to attack the United States and its Asian allies. The United States has not specified where the carrier strike group is as it approaches the area.

 

North Korea accuses Australia of 'blindly toeing US line,' threatens nuclear strike | 22 April 2017 | North Korea has warned Australia of a possible nuclear strike if it continues to "blindly and zealously toe the US line." It comes after Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said Pyongyang poses a "serious threat" to peace and stability in the region. "If Australia persists in following the US moves to isolate and stifle the DPRK and remains a shock brigade of the US master, this will be a suicidal act of coming within the range of the nuclear strike of the strategic force of the DPRK," a spokesman for the North Korean Foreign Ministry said, as quoted by the official KCNA news agency.

 

'Ready to fight and win': US marines deployed to Australia amid N. Korean 'nuclear threat' | 18 April 2017 | US Marines have begun to touch down in Darwin, in Australia's tropical north, as the first of some 1,250 "stand ready to fight" against North Korea amid warnings that Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program is a "serious threat" to Canberra. The deployment will see the largest US aircraft contingent to Australia in peacetime history, Reuters reports, adding that the 25-year annual deployment program was launched by former US President Barack Obama back in 2011 as part of America's 'pivot' to Asia. During the six-month deployment, US Marines will conduct exercises with Australian troops and will also visit Chinese forces. [Too bad there's no 'pivot' to America, to fill a pothole or repair a bridge.]

 

US threat of war forces North Korea into siege state mentality | 23 April 2017 | In recent days, the Trump administration has been issuing threats against North Korea, the nuclear-armed pariah state, escalating tensions and creating a potentially catastrophic situation in East Asia...The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has invaded and bombed not a single country. The United States of America, on the other hand, has invaded and bombed dozens of countries - including Syria, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, Grenada, Nicaragua, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and, yes, Korea. The war waged by the US and its allies against North Korea (1950-53) was nothing short of genocidal.

 

Taliban insurgents disguised in army uniforms kill up to 140 Afghan soldiers at a military base --The Taliban fighters talked their way into the base and opened fire on soldiers | 22 April 2017 | As many as 140 Afghan soldiers were killed by Taliban insurgents disguised in army uniforms in what could be the deadliest attack ever on a military base in the country. Officials in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif said the death toll from Friday’s raid was likely to be even higher with many others wounded...The Taliban fighters, driving military vehicles, talked their way into the base and opened fire on soldiers eating in a canteen and leaving a mosque after prayers, according to the officials. The attackers used rocket-propelled grenades and rifles.

 

140 Soldiers Killed in Taliban Attack on Afghan Base, Official Says | 22 April 2017 | A day after a lethal Taliban assault on an army base in northern Afghanistan, an official said on Saturday that at least 140 soldiers had been killed, making it the single deadliest known attack on an Afghan military base in the course of the long war. Citing information from army officials, Ibrahim Khairandish, a member of the provincial council in Balkh Province, said 60 soldiers had also been wounded in the attack. The soldiers, most of them unarmed, were shot while eating lunch or emerging from a Friday Prayer service at the headquarters of the Afghan Army's 209th Corps in Balkh by assailants in military uniforms who entered after another attacker had detonated explosives at a check post.

 

More than 50 feared dead in Taliban attack on Afghan forces base - US military | 21 April 2017 | Dozens have been killed in an ongoing attack on an Afghan military base, a US military official said, adding that the death toll may be over 50, Reuters reports. "We're talking probably more than 50 casualties," said Colonel John Thomas, a spokesman for the U.S. military's Central Command, as quoted by Reuters.

 

Police arrest second man in London terrorism inquiry | 23 April 2017 | A second man has been arrested as part of an investigation in London by counter-terrorism officers. The Metropolitan police's counter-terrorism command detained the 40-year-old man in south-east London on Saturday. He was held on suspicion of "being concerned in funding arrangements for the purposes of terrorism", Scotland Yard said, and was being questioned under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act. Police arrested a 30-year-old man on Wednesday on suspicion of being concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.

 

Revealed: ISIS terrorist who shot dead cop in Paris attack was arrested two months ago for threatening to kill police and served 15 years for trying to murder two officers --Two other police officers were 'seriously injured' and a 'female foreign tourist' was wounded in the incident --A note declaring allegiance to ISIS was discovered on the Champs Elysees and is being investigated by police | 21 April 2017 | French security services are today facing troubling questions as to how they failed to prevent an ISIS gunman from slaughtering one policeman and wounding two other officers in Paris when he was arrested as recently as February. Karim Cheurfi, 39, had served 15 years of a 20-year jail sentence for attempting to kill two officers in 2001, before his release last year. In February, the terrorist tried to obtain weapons and made threats to kill police officers, but was let go in early March due to lack of evidence. On Thursday night, the fanatic was killed by police after he got out of his automobile and opened fire at police who had stopped at a red light on Champs Elysees.

 

Paris gunman who killed police officer known to security forces | 21 April 2017 | A man who killed a police officer on the Champs-Elysees Thursday night was known to French security services and had shot and wounded an officer in the past, a source close to the investigation told CNN. The suspect, who was shot dead by French police, was on the radar of the French domestic security service DGSI, the source said.

 

ISIS claims responsibility for Paris attack that killed 1 police officer and wounded 2 more | 21 April 2017 | ISIS claimed responsibility for an attack on police officers on the Champs-Élysées in Paris Thursday evening that left one officer dead and two others wounded. The terrorist group released a message through its news agency Amaq saying that the attacker was "one of the fighters for the Islamic State." The assailant was killed but has not been publicly identified, a police spokesperson said.

 

Trump calls for reform of temporary worker visa program | 18 April 2017 | U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday said a new executive order will ensure that federal agencies enforce rules to end abuse of a temporary visa program used to bring high-skilled foreign workers to the United States. "Right now H-1B visas are awarded in a totally random lottery and that's wrong. Instead, they should be given to most skilled and highest paid applicants and they should never, ever be used to replace Americans," Trump said during a visit to a tool manufacturing company in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

 

President Trump to sign 'buy American, hire American' executive order, visit Wisconsin tool company | 18 April 2017 | U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday will sign an executive order directing federal agencies to recommend changes to a temporary visa program used to bring workers to the United States to fill high-skilled jobs. Two senior Trump administration officials who briefed reporters at the White House said Trump will also use the "buy American and hire American" order to seek changes in government procurement practices to increase the purchase of American products in federal contracts. Trump is to sign the order when he visits the world headquarters of Snap-On Inc, a tool manufacturer in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

 

Trump launches trade probe targeting foreign steel | 20 April 2017 | President Donald Trump moved on Thursday against China and other exporters of cheap steel into the U.S. market, launching a federal investigation to determine whether foreign-made steel threatens U.S. steelmakers and national security. Winning praise from U.S. companies that are constantly fighting with foreign competitors, Trump invoked a rarely-used trade law that raises the possibility of new tariffs. The action triggered a rally in U.S. steel stocks. At a White House ceremony where he was surrounded by U.S. steel executives, Trump signed a memorandum ordering the U.S. Commerce Department to probe the impact of steel imports on the U.S. defense industrial base.

 

Pence says United States will honor Obama's controversial refugee deal with Australia | 22 April 2017 | U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said on Saturday the United States would honor a controversial refugee deal with Australia, under which the United States would resettle up to 1,250 asylum seekers, a deal President Donald Trump had described as "dumb". Pence told a joint news conference with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull that the deal would be subject to vetting, and that honoring it "doesn't mean that we admire the agreement". "We will honor this agreement out of respect to this enormously important alliance," Pence said at Turnbull's harbor side official residence in Sydney.

 

Trump pressures Democrats on Obamacare to get border wall deal | 23 April 2017 | President Donald Trump put pressure on Democrats on Sunday as U.S. lawmakers worked to avoid a government shutdown, saying Obamacare would die without a cash infusion the White House has offered in exchange for their agreement to fund his border wall. The escalated push to get Trump's priorities, which Democrats reject, into spending legislation could jeopardize prospects for an agreement to keep the government open. If talks fail, the government would shut down on Saturday, Trump's 100th day in office.

 

Washington threatens funding cut to California, other 'sanctuary' areas | 21 April 2017 | The U.S. Department of Justice threatened on Friday to cut off funding to California as well as eight cities and counties across the United States, escalating a Trump administration crackdown on so-called sanctuary cities that do not cooperate with federal immigration authorities. President Donald Trump has vowed to cut off federal funds to dozens of state and local governments that do not fully cooperate with federal immigration agents, arguing that they are putting public safety at risk when they do not hand over illegal immigrants suspected of crime for possible deportation.

 

Fox News to oust O'Reilly | 19 April 2017 | [As CLG News reported on April 7], Fox News has decided to oust top-rated host Bill O'Reilly, New York Magazine reported Wednesday. Top network execs are in talks about how to end their relationship with O'Reilly "without causing collateral damage to the network," the report said, adding that 21st Century Fox's board is set to meet Thursday about it...CNN and The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday evening that O'Reilly and Fox are in exit talks.

 

Bernie Sanders Condemns Threats Against Ann Coulter Speech at Berkeley | 22 April 2017 | Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) criticized the security threats to a speaking event by conservative pundit Ann Coulter at the University of California, Berkeley that prompted the school to postpone the talk. "I don't like this. I don't like it," Sanders told The Huffington Post after speaking at a rally for Omaha mayoral candidate Heath Mello on Thursday night. "Obviously Ann Coulter's outrageous -- to my mind, off the wall. But you know, people have a right to...give a speech, without fear of violence and intimidation...To me, it's a sign of intellectual weakness."

 

Gunman targeting white men kills three in Fresno, California | 18 April 2017 | A gunman who went by the nickname Black Jesus killed three white men in downtown Fresno, California, on Tuesday, and fired at another before he was taken into custody while shouting "Allahu Akhbar," police said. The suspect, 39-year-old Kori Ali Muhammad, was also wanted in connection with the fatal shooting last week of an unarmed security guard at a Motel 6 in Fresno, Police Chief Jerry Dyer told reporters at a press conference. Dyer said Muhammad fired at least 16 rounds from a large-caliber handgun in less than a minute at four downtown Fresno locations at about 10:45 a.m. local time before he was spotted running through the streets by a police officer.

 

Power outage cripples San Francisco for seven hours | 22 April 2017 | A massive power outage threw San Francisco into chaos for most of the work day on Friday, knocking out traffic signals, paralyzing businesses and halting the city's famed cable cars. The power outage, which was triggered by a fire in a PG&E Corp. utility substation, disrupted San Francisco's normally bustling district, home to banks and technology companies. The blackout started just after 9 a.m. (noon ET/1600 GMT) and at one point affected nearly 90,000 customers, according to PG&E. The cause of the fire was a circuit breaker failure at the substation, PG&E spokesman Paul Doherty said.

 

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