Pipeline Nation: America’s Broken Industry

A pipeline network more than 2.5 million miles long transports oil and natural gas throughout the United States — but a top official in the federal government's pipeline safety oversight agency admits that the regulatory process is overstretched and "kind of dying." A recent spike in the number of spills illustrates the problem: the Department of Transportation recorded 73 pipeline-related accidents in 2014, an 87 percent increase over 2009. Despite calls for stricter regulations over the last few years, the rules governing the infrastructure have largely remained the same. Critics say that this is because of the oil industry's cozy relationship with regulators, and argue that violations for penalties are too low to compel compliance. VICE News traveled to Glendive, Montana, to visit the site of a pipeline spill that dumped more than 50,000 gallons of oil into the Yellowstone River, to find out why the industry has such weak regulatory oversight. Watch "Cursed by Coal: Mining the Navajo Nation” - http://bit.ly/1Gpy0cS Read “What Is the US Government Doing to Prevent the Next Oil Pipeline Disaster?“ - http://bit.ly/19KYgnM Read "Cleaner Air in China Might Mean More Carbon Dioxide Pollution” - http://bit.ly/1AGcwo7 Subscribe to VICE News here: http://bit.ly/Subscribe-to-VICE-News Check out VICE News for more: http://vicenews.com Follow VICE News here: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vicenews Twitter: https://twitter.com/vicenews Tumblr: http://vicenews.tumblr.com/ Instagram: http://instagram.com/vicenews More videos from the VICE network: https://www.fb.com/vicevideo

John Kiriakou | Child Bride Trafficking, a State Right?

John Kiriakou | Child Bride Trafficking, a State Right?

Trump appointments are feeding at the Taxpayers' Trough is massive numbers as if they're anointed. 
It should not be the responsibility of outside groups to research this level of corruption and abuse. 

Where are the Republicans? Republicans continue to prove themselves incapable of oversight and incapable of governing. 

Trump watches as Steven Mnuchin is sworn in as Treasury Secretary. (photo: Getty Images)

White House Scolds Cabinet Officials After Embarrassing Ethics Reports
Cristina Alesci, CNN
Alesci writes: "The White House held private meetings with four Cabinet-level officials last month to scold them for embarrassing stories about questionable ethical behavior at their respective agencies."
READ MORE 

This should not be a partisan issue if Carl Icahn violated the law, yet Republicans are turning a blind eye to violations of law by Trump cronies.

Carl Icahn. (photo: Getty Images/NYT)

Democrats Turn Up the Heat on Carl Icahn
Stephanie Griffith, ThinkProgress
Griffith writes: "Democrats in Congress are demanding answers from Carl Icahn over his recent sale of steel-related securities just days before President Donald Trump announced hefty new tariffs on steel imports - a well-timed stock dump lawmakers say might have been illegal."
READ MORE

CLICK ON THE LINK ABOVE FOR MORE THOUGHT-PROVOKING ARTICLES

Julian Assange's Health Is Deteriorating

Julian Assange's Health Is Deteriorating

Peaceful Protesting against DIRTY ENERGY! Time to listen

Dirty Energy has a poor record of protecting the environment and lawmakers fail to force them to do so. 

Dirty Energy, although heavily subsidized, doesn't even clean up after itself. 

Bravo to the Native Americans who are peacefully protesting this egregious action....should it be necessary?

Why are Native Americans being treated differently than the ARMED WHITE DOMESTIC TERRORISTS in Oregon? Why are the US Media PROPAGANDA Machines not reporting this?   

It's Live on the HomePage Now: 
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Bill McKibben | After 525 Years, It's Time to Actually Listen to Native Americans 
 
Bill McKibben, Grist 
McKibben writes: "If the Army Corps, or the Obama administration, simply said: 'You know what, you're right. We don't need to build this pipeline.' It would mean that after 525 years, someone had actually paid attention to the good sense that Native Americans have been offering almost from the start." 
READ MORE

he center of the fight for our planet’s future shifts. But this week it’s on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation straddling the border between North Dakota and South Dakota. There, tribal members have been, well, standing like a rock in the way of the planned Dakota Access Pipeline, a huge hose for collecting oil out of the Bakken shale and carrying it off to the Midwest and the Gulf where it can be made into gasoline.

The standoff has been picturesque and dramatic, featuring American Indians on horseback. But mostly it’s been brave and lonely, far from most journalists and up against the same forces that have made life hard for Indigenous Peoples for centuries.

The U.S. Army, for instance. It’s the Army Corps of Engineers that last month granted Energy Transfer Corporation the permit necessary to start construction near the reservation, despite a petition signed by 150,000 people, and carried—on foot—by young people from the reservation all the way to Washington. That would be the same U.S. Army that—well, google “Wounded Knee.” Or “Custer.” “Washita River.” “Pine Ridge.”

That’s not really ancient history, not any of it. It’s the reason that Native Americans live confined to bleak reservations in vast stretches of the country that no one thought were good for much of anything else. But those areas—ironically enough—now turn out to be essential for the production or transportation of the last great stocks of hydrocarbons, the ones whose combustion scientists tell us will take us over the edge of global warming.

And if former generations of the U.S. Army made it possible to grab land from Native people, then this largely civilian era of the Army Corps is making it easy to pollute and spoil what little we left them. As the corporation said over the weekend, it was “constructing this pipeline in accordance with applicable laws, and the local, state and federal permits and approvals we have received.”

But it’s not constructing it in accordance with the laws of physics. July was the hottest month ever recorded on our planet, and likely, say scientists, the hottest month since the beginning of human civilization. And in any event, those “applicable laws, permits, and approvals” are merely the cover for the latest plunder.

A spill from this pipeline would pollute the Missouri River, just as spills in recent years have done irreparable damage to the Kalamazoo and Yellowstone rivers. And that river is both the spiritual and economic lifeblood of the Standing Rock Reservation, one of the poorest census tracts in the entire country.

Forget, for a minute, the threat to the reservation, and forget, for a minute, the endless history of unfairness. Think instead of what it might mean if the Army Corps, or the Obama administration, simply said: “You know what, you’re right. We don’t need to build this pipeline.”

It would mean that after 525 years, someone had actually paid attention to the good sense that Native Americans have been offering almost from the start. It’s not that American Indians are ecological saints—no human beings are. But as the first people who saw what Europeans did to a continent when given essentially free rein, they were the appalled witnesses to everything from the slaughter of the buffalo to the destruction of the great Pacific salmon runs.

And in recent years they have been the vanguard of the movement to slow down climate change. Why did the Keystone XL pipeline not get built? Above all because Indigenous Peoples on both sides of the border took the lead in a battle that stretched over a decade. Why did Canadian leaders fail in their efforts to replace it with the Northern Gateway pipeline? Because tribes and bands across the west of that country made it clear they could not be bought off. Why will the easiest-to-access deep-water port on the Pacific coast not be turned into the country’s biggest new coal export terminal? Because the Lummi Nation at Cherry Point joined with protesters across the region to say no. This same dynamic is at play around the world, where Indigenous Peoples from the Amazon to the coral atolls of the Pacific are doing more than anyone else to slow down the grinding destruction of our earth.

One has the ominous sense of grim history about to be reenacted at Standing Rock. North Dakota authorities—who are in essence a subsidiary of the fossil fuel industry—have insisted that the Sioux are violent, that they have “pipe bombs.” There are rumors about calling in the National Guard. The possibility for renewed tragedy is very real.

But the possibility for a new outcome is there as well. The Army Corps of Engineers might back off. The president might decide, as he did with Keystone, that this pipeline would “exacerbate” climate change and hence should be reviewed more carefully. We might, after five centuries, actually listen to the only people who’ve ever successfully inhabited this continent for the long term.

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/38864-after-525-years-its-time-to-actually-listen-to-native-americans

Playing pass-the-risk in the shale patch

Posted by Bloomberg

Date: October 15, 2015

Work in the Bakken Oil Fields of North Dakota has brought an influx of thousands or workers, making North Dakota the fastest growing state in America.

When Whiting Petroleum needed cash earlier this year as oil prices plummeted, JPMorgan Chase, its lead lender, found investors willing to step in. The bank helped Whiting sell $3.1 billion in stocks and bonds in March. Whiting used almost all the money to repay the $2.9 billion it owed JPMorgan and its 25 other lenders. The proceeds also covered the $45 million in fees Whiting paid to get the deal done, regulatory filings show.

Analysts expect Whiting, one of the largest producers in North Dakota’s Bakken shale basin, to spend almost $1 billion more than it earns from oil and gas this year. The company has sold $300 million in assets, reduced the number of rigs drilling for oil to eight from a high of 24, and announced plans to cut spending by $1 billion next year. Eric Hagen, a Whiting spokesman, says the company has “demonstrated that it is taking appropriate steps to manage within the current oil price environment.” Whiting has said it will be in a position next year to have its capital spending of $1 billion equal its cash flows with an oil price of $50 a barrel.

As for Whiting’s investors, the stock is down 36 percent, as of Oct. 14, since the March issue, and the new bonds are trading at 94¢ on the dollar. More than 73 percent of the stocks and bonds issued this year by oil and gas producers are worth less today than when they were sold, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Banks’ sell-the-risk strategy underpins the shale oil boom. Lenders extended low interest credit to wildcatters desperate for cash, then—perhaps remembering the 1980s oil bust—wheeled the debt off their books by selling new stocks and bonds to investors, earning sizable fees along the way. “Everyone in the chain was making money in the short term,” says Louis Meyer, a special situations analyst at Oscar Gruss & Son. “And no one was thinking long term about what they’re going to do if prices fall.”

North American oil and gas producers have sold $61.5 billion in equity and debt since January, paying more than $700 million in fees, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Half the money was raised to repay loans or restructure debt, the data show. “Being there for our clients in all market environments, particularly the tough ones, is something we feel very strongly about,” says Brian Marchiony, a JPMorgan spokesman. “During challenging periods, companies typically look to strengthen their balance sheets and increase liquidity, and we have helped many do just that.”

Lenders have been setting aside cash to cover potential energy losses. JPMorgan bolstered its reserves by $160 million in the third quarter. Bank of America’s at-risk loans increased 15 percent from a year ago as a result of the deteriorating finances of some of its oil and gas borrowers. Still, the oil bust has left banks relatively unscathed. Asked why lenders weren’t seeing more losses from energy defaults, BofA Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan said in a conference call, “A lot of that risk is distributed out to investors.”

Citigroup, Bank of America, and JPMorgan were among the banks that courted fast-growing shale drillers in the hope that an initial loan would lead to investment banking business. Citigroup’s energy portfolio, including loans and unfunded commitments, swelled to $59.7 billion as of June 30, Bank of America’s to $47.3 billion, and JPMorgan’s to $43.6 billion, according to company filings. “They loan money at cheap rates, and the banks get the fees from the bond and share sales,” says Jason Wangler, an analyst with Wunderlich Securities. “When things are going well, it’s mutually beneficial. Now it’s a different conversation.”

When crude prices plummeted in the early 1980s, hundreds of banks failed across such oil-rich states as Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas. This time around, banks were keen to limit their exposure to a boom-and-bust industry. Every year since 2009, about half the debt and equity sold by North American exploration and production companies was intended, at least in part, to restructure debt or repay loans, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Often the banks selling the securities were the ones getting repaid. “The bankers have gone through this before,” says Oscar Gruss’s Meyer. “They know how it works out in the end, and it’s not pretty. Most of the lenders have been more on top of things this time. They are not going to get caught short in the ways they got caught short before.”

The bottom line: Oil companies have sold $61.5 billion in stocks and bonds since January as oil prices have tumbled.

http://fuelfix.com/blog/2015/10/15/playing-pass-the-risk-in-the-shale-patch/

RSN: Bill McKibben | The Axis of Destruction and Hope

VIDEO ON LINK

Reader Supported News

WE SERIOUSLY NEED TO GET THIS FUNDRAISER MOVING - We are a long way from where we need to be. As always, for every 1 donation we receive 1000 people visit the site. As this stage we have no choice but to focus on finishing the fundraiser. Quite serious now. / Marc Ash, Curator Reader Supported News

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FOCUS: Bill McKibben | The Axis of Destruction and Hope 
 
Bill McKibben, Reader Supported News 
McKibben writes: "In the last week, 18 people and counting, including the tribal chairman, have been arrested trying to block the so-called Dakota Access Pipeline, which would carry half a million barrels a day of crude out of the Bakken to refineries in Illinois." 
READ MORE

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Erin Brockovich: Fuel spill in southeastern Illinois has spread to Ohio River - ABC 36 News

We are allowing Big Corporations and Dirty Energy to destroy our environment, contaminate our drinking water. 

Erin Brockovich

 

A spill in southeastern Illinois involving more than 48,000 gallons of what appears to be diesel fuel has spread to the Ohio River, the Drinking Water supply to hundreds of thousands of people.

Marathon Pipe Line LLC is investigating whether the fuel is from its network and has shut down its Two Rivers pipeline system as a precaution.

The fuel sheen was first spotted Sunday near Mount Carmel, Illinois, along the Wabash River separating Illinois and Indiana.

The pipeline operator says that by Tuesday morning, the sheen had spread more than 100 miles to reach Smithland Lock and Dam on the Ohio River near Paducah, Kentucky.

Fuel spill in southeastern Illinois has 

spread to Ohio River - ABC 36 News

A spill in southeastern Illinois involving more than 48,000 

gallons of what appears to be diesel fuel has spread to the 

Ohio River.

WTVQ.COM

MOUNT CARMEL, Ill. (AP) – A spill in southeastern Illinois involving more than 48,000 gallons of what appears to be diesel fuel has spread to the Ohio River.

Marathon Pipe Line LLC is investigating whether the fuel is from its network and has shut down its Two Rivers pipeline system as a precaution.

The fuel sheen was first spotted Sunday near Mount Carmel, Illinois, along the Wabash River separating Illinois and Indiana.

The pipeline operator says that by Tuesday morning, the sheen had spread more than 100 miles to reach Smithland Lock and Dam on the Ohio River near Paducah, Kentucky.

The company says there has been no impact to drinking water or wildlife so far.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other government agencies are responding to the spill.

http://www.wtvq.com/2016/04/19/fuel-spill-in-southeastern-illinois-has-spread-to-ohio-river/

MoJo: What If Gluten Isn't the Problem?, Trains Hauling Crude Oil Across North America Just Keep Exploding

What If Gluten Isn't the Problem?

Considering that you can now find gluten-free everything, from Bisquick to bagels, it seems remarkable that our national obsession with the wheat protein that gives bread its elasticity is only about a decade old.

Doctors have long known about a relatively rare condition called celiac disease, in which gluten damages the small intestine. But in recent years, best-selling books like Wheat Belly and Grain Brain have popularized the notion that gluten is the hidden culprit behind a host of hard-to-diagnose health problems, from indigestion to fatigue. Once you excise bread and other wheat products from your diet, the books claim, you'll be on the path to everything from top mental performance to a svelte figure.

Yet people have been growing, grinding, leavening, and baking wheat since the dawn of agriculture 10,000 years ago. It remains the globe's most widely planted crop, serving as the main staple for a third of humanity. Is it really conceivable that it could have been slowly killing us all along?

One researcher believes that the true problem with bread isn't wheat—it's how we make it. To find out more about his theory, click here. [READ MORE]

 

 

 

Trains Hauling Crude Oil Across North America Just Keep Exploding

More evacuations, fireballs, and oil spills. [READ MORE]

RSN: Washington State Officials Kept in the Dark About Oil Spill for Over a Month, Fidel Castro | 'I Do Not Trust the Policy of the United States',

It's Live on the HomePage Now:
Reader Supported News

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Fidel Castro | 'I Do Not Trust the Policy of the United States'

Fidel Castro, CounterPunch
"Observe carefully the realities of this well-known, globalized and very poorly shared planet Earth, on which we know every vital resource is distributed in accordance with historical factors: some with much less than they need, others with so much they don't know what to do with it."
READ MORE

Obama's Attorney General Nominee Thinks Pot Is More Dangerous Than Alcohol. She's Wrong.
German Lopez, Vox
Lopez writes: "US attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch on Wednesday said at a congressional hearing that she disagrees with President Barack Obama on his views that marijuana is no more dangerous than alcohol."
READ MORE

Robin Hood in Reverse: State and Local Taxes Take the Most From Those Who Have Least
Noah Gordon, The Atlantic
Gordon writes: "Those who earn the least pay the most in nearly every state across America. Or rather, the poorest citizens pay the highest proportion of their incomes to local and state governments - twice as much in fact, as the top one percent."
READ MORE

Greek PM: We Will No Longer Submit to the EU
Al Jazeera America
Excerpt: "Greece's new leftist prime minister has said that his government's top priorities are negotiating with creditors to resolve the country's debt problems and that it would no longer blindly submit to the EU."
READ MORE

Israel Fires Into Lebanon, Killing UN Soldier
Finland Times
Excerpt: "Israeli forces were attacking southern Lebanon from the sky and ground on Wednesday, amid steep escalation in the volatile border, killing a Spanish UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) soldier, officials and local media said."
READ MORE

Washington State Officials Kept in the Dark About Oil Spill for Over a Month
Curtis Tate, McClatchy DC
Tate writes: "State and federal officials are investigating an oil spill from a railroad tank car at Washington state's largest refinery last November, but key agencies were kept in the dark about it for at least a month."
READ MORE

 

 

 

 

 

RSN: 'Ag-Gag' Proposal Meets Torrent of Opposition in Washington State, US Senate Refuses to Accept Humanity's Role in Global Climate Change, Again, Pipeline Break in Montana: The Yellowstone River Is Something We'll Probably Miss

It's Live on the HomePage Now:
Reader Supported News

NEGLECTING THE FINANCIAL HEALTH OF RSN: I love this project. I love the community that we serve. Many of us have been together for over a decade. When I say that we are not getting a "reasonable" degree of support and that the organization is suffering because of it, take that seriously. These fundraising drives have to be shorter in duration. Two weeks out of every month tied up in fundraising is damaging to everything we want for the project and is counterproductive to the mission. We have to address that. The solution is simple, don't wait so darned long before jumping in. What we are asking you for is $30. in a one time-donation, or $10. on a monthly. That's a fairly low-risk investment in an organization that shows up for work 24x7x365. Please stop what you are doing and help end this fundraising drive TODAY! Our sincere thanks to you. / Marc Ash - Founder, Reader Supported News

Sure, I'll make a donation!

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Andy Borowitz | Joni Ernst Says She Used to Wear Bucket on Head for No Apparent Reason

Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker
Excerpt: "I can't for the life of me tell you why I did that,' she said. 'I just liked the look of it, I guess.'"
READ MORE

Charles Pierce | Pipeline Break in Montana: The Yellowstone River Is Something We'll Probably Miss
Charles Pierce, Esquire
Pierce writes: "This is the second crack that oil has had at fouling this particular river."
READ MORE

Juan Cole | Netanyahu Imported by GOP to Ensure Iran War
Juan Cole, Informed Comment
Cole writes: "Republican House Majority leader John Boehner secretly invited Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to Washington to address Congress and then once it was set up he let Barack Obama know about it."
READ MORE

Pelosi: New Abortion Bill 'Worse' Than Last
Sarah Ferris, The Hill
Ferris writes: "Pelosi said that, unlike the bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks, the new GOP effort to ban federal funding for abortion would affect 'millions of women.'"
READ MORE

Sheldon Silver, Speaker of the New York State Assembly, Arrested on Federal Corruption Charges
William K. Rashbaum, Thomas Kaplan and Marc Santora, The New York Times
Excerpt: "The speaker of the New York State Assembly, Sheldon Silver, was arrested on federal corruption charges on Thursday and accused of using the power of his office for more than a decade to secure millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks and then covering up his schemes, according to court documents."
READ MORE

US Senate Refuses to Accept Humanity's Role in Global Climate Change, Again
Suzanne Goldenberg, Guardian UK
Goldenberg writes: "The Senate voted virtually unanimously that climate change is occurring and not, as some Republicans have said, a hoax - but it defeated two measures attributing its causes to human activity."
READ MORE

'Ag-Gag' Proposal Meets Torrent of Opposition in Washington State
Leah Sottile, Al Jazeera America
Sottile writes: "... Kit Jagoda, a co-founder and the director of River's Wish, a 65-acre rescue center in eastern Washington, says 'ag-gag' legislation introduced earlier this week in the Washington House of Representatives would, if passed, prevent her from saving some animals."
READ MORE

 

 

 

 

 

RSN: Thousands of Montanans Can't Drink or Cook With Tap Water Because of Oil Spill, Paris Mayor: We Intend to Sue Fox News , Roads and Bridges Need $1 Trillion. It Is Time to Rebuild America

It's not Sexy!

But Republicans seem to ignore INFRASTRUCTURE!

How about that Ohio collapse?

It's OK to pretend you want SMALL GOVERNMENT.....does that mean bridges and roads should crumble?


When Willard left Massachusetts, there were massive infrastructure repairs unfunded.

Wonder if Charlie Baker will do the same.

It's Live on the HomePage Now:
Reader Supported News

WE CAN'T DO THIS WITHOUT MINIMAL FUNDING: We are able to produce Reader Supported News day in-day out, week in-week out on a (small) fraction of what commercial news agencies have to work with. After that the few donations that we need - must - be there. We are not getting those right now. We have to turn our full attention to finishing this funding drive at this time. In Earnest, Marc Ash - Founder, Reader Supported News

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Sen. Bernie Sanders | Roads and Bridges Need $1 Trillion. It Is Time to Rebuild America

Bernie Sanders, Cincinnati.com
Sanders writes: "Our infrastructure is collapsing, and the American people know it."
READ MORE

Dan Froomkin | Obama's Cyber Proposals Sound Good, but Erode Information Security
Dan Froomkin, The Intercept
Froomkin writes: "But if you cut through the spin, it turns out that the steps Obama is proposing would likely erode, rather than strengthen, information security for citizens and computer experts trying to protect them."
READ MORE

Kshama Sawant Gives #SocialistResponse to Obama's State of the Union Address
Seattle Socialist Alternative
Excerpt: "Six years ago, Obama was elected on the hope that he would represent the millions, not the millionaires."
READ MORE

Inequality Isn't Inevitable, It's Engineered. That's How the 1 Percent Have Taken Over
Suzanne Moore, The Guardian
Moore writes: "Oxfam executive director, Winnie Byanyima, is arguing that this increasing concentration of wealth since the recession is 'bad for growth and bad for governance.'"
READ MORE

Paris Mayor: We Intend to Sue Fox News
Gregory Wallace and Brian Stelter, CNN
Excerpt: "The warning about a lawsuit came after a series of Fox segments suggested there are parts of Paris and other European cities where Islamic law is practiced and where police are fearful to work."
READ MORE

Thousands of Montanans Can't Drink or Cook With Tap Water Because of Oil Spill
Katie Valentine, ThinkProgress
Valentine writes: "The estimated 50,000 gallons of crude oil that spilled from a pipeline into Montana's Yellowstone River Saturday has forced truckloads of water to be shipped in to one Montana city, after traces of the oil were found in the city's water supplies."
READ MORE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CLG: GCHQ captured emails of journalists from BBC, Reuters, the Guardian, the New York Times and others, Breached pipeline spills up to 50,000 gallons of oil into Yellowstone River

News Updates from CLG
19 January 2015

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

Previous edition: Pentagon to deploy 400 troops to train Syrian 'rebels', which NSAssociate relegated to the spam bin. See: Google Filter Instructions for CLG Newsletter.

GCHQ captured emails of journalists from BBC, Reuters, the Guardian, the New York Times and others --Terrorists, listed immediately above investigative journalists on the document, were given a much higher 'capability' score of four out of five, but a lower 'priority' of two. --Agency includes investigative journalists on 'threat' list | 19 Jan 2015 |GCHQ's bulk surveillance of electronic communications has scooped up emails to and from journalists working for some of the US and UK's largest media organisations, analysis of documents released by whistleblower Edward Snowden reveals. Emails from the BBC, Reuters, the Guardian, the New York Times, Le Monde, the Sun, NBC and the Washington Post were saved by GCHQ and shared on the agency's intranet as part of a test exercise by the signals intelligence agency. The journalists' communications were among 70,000 emails harvested in the space of less than 10 minutes on one day in November 2008 by one of GCHQ's numerous taps on the fibre-optic cables that make up the backbone of the internet.

N.S.A. Tapped Into North Korean Networks Before Sony Attack, Officials Say | 18 Jan 2015 |The trail that led American officials to blame North Korea for the destructive cyberattack on Sony Pictures Entertainment in November winds back to 2010, when the National Security Agency scrambled to break into the computer systems of North Korea. The American spy agency [in violation of international law] drilled into the Chinese networks that connect North Korea to the outside world, picked through connections in Malaysia favored by North Korean hackers and penetrated directly into the North with the help of South Korea and other American allies, according to former United States and foreign officials, computer experts later briefed on the operations and a newly disclosed N.S.A. document.

'CIA killed prisoners, made it look like suicide' - Guantanamo guard | 15 Jan 2015 |A former Guantanamo Bay prison guard and Marine explained in details what makes him believe three problematic detainees were killed at CIA black site in Guantanamo and their death was covered up as a triple suicide. Army Staff Sergeant Joseph Hickman was on duty at the notorious prison camp when the three men died, and insists the official version of events is "impossible," he told Vice News. The three men were Salah Ahmed Al-Salami, 37, from Yemen, Mani Shaman Al-Utaybi, 30, from Saudi Arabia, and Yasser Talal Al-Zahrani, 22, also from Saudi Arabia. None of them had been charged with any crime.

US troops training Syrian 'moderates' could top 1,000 - Pentagon | 17 Jan 2015 | The Pentagon announced that a mission to train the "moderate" Syrian opposition may involve over 1,000 US troops. The first soldiers may flow into the region in a month, while the trained fighters may return to Syria to "fight ISIS" by the end of 2015. The earlier announced number suggested 400 pairs of US boots on the ground in countries neighboring Syria, where the training will take place. However, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters in a press briefing on Friday that the total number "could approach 1,000." "It might even exceed that. I can't rule that out," Kirby added.

Kiev's new offensive in Donbass may lead to irreversible consequences - Moscow | 19 Jan 2015 | Kiev's attempt to solve the Ukrainian crisis with military force is a blunder, which may affect the country's territorial integrity, Russia's foreign deputy minister said. On Sunday, Kiev renewed its assault in southeast Ukraine. "It's the biggest, even strategic mistake of the Ukrainian authorities to bank on a military solution to the crisis in Ukrainian society and to all of southeast Ukraine's problems. This can lead to irreversible consequences for Ukrainian statehood," Grigory Karasin, Russia's deputy foreign minister, was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency.

Donetsk shelled as Kiev 'orders massive fire' on militia-held E. Ukraine | 19 Jan 2015 | Ukrainian troops have launched a massive assault on militia-held areas Sunday morning after an order from Kiev, a presidential aide said. The self-proclaimed Donetsk republic's leader accused Kiev of trying to restart the war. The order to launch the offensive was issued early approximately at 6:00 am, according to Yury Biryukov, an aide to President Petro Poroshenko.

Clashes in Yemen's Capital Turn Deadly | 19 Jan 2015 | (Sana'a) Deadly violence erupted here on Monday as government forces clashed with Houthi militants who are ramping up demands for a greater say in the crafting of a new constitution. The fighting left nine people killed and 67 injured, the country's health ministry said. Unknown gunmen fired on a vehicle carrying Yemeni Prime Minister Khaled Bahah, who escaped unhurt, according to Minister of Information Nadia al Sakkaf.

NORAD conducting exercises this week in Washington D.C. area | 18 Jan 2015 | The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) will conduct a series of training flights over Washington this week in order to test its response capability to possible air threats. NORAD and its geographical component, the Continental United States NORAD Region (CONR), will conduct the regional exercise, called Falcon Virgo, Tuesday night through Friday morning between midnight and 5:30 a.m. each day, CONR said in a press release.

Former FBI Special Agent Says CIA Kept Him From Helping to Stop 9/11 Terror Attacks | 18 Jan 2015 | An FBI special agent who lost his job in 2008 told Newsweek his story about how the 9/11 hijackers slipped through the cracks at the FBI and CIA more than a decade ago. Mark Rossini said the CIA prevented him from going to FBI headquarters with the information that two known terrorists, who later went on to carry out the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, had entered the US. Government reports on 9/11 blame a vague "intelligence failure" for the terrorist attack that killed about 3,000 people in 2001 and provide little clarity on why the CIA didn't communicate crucial information about the hijackers to the FBI.

This is fertile false flag ground: UK and US to Stage Cyber War Games to Test Banks | 16 Jan 2015 | Britain and the US will stage cyber "war games" together to boost both countries' resistance to cyberattacks. During talks in Washington David Cameron and President Barack Obama also agreed to set up of a joint "cyber cell" to defeat execute cyberattacks, the White House said in a statement. The unprecedented amount of intelligence co-operation and information sharing between the two nations topped the agenda of the talks. Plans to force social media companies to share secret information were also expected to be discussed.

US, UK want to tackle 'technical issues' of accessing encrypted private information | 17 Jan 2015 | Western intelligence agencies must be able to intercept any communications in order to thwart potential terror attacks being hatched by extremist groups, and this must be done without violating citizens' rights, US and British leaders said. British authorities don't need "backdoors" into the websites and communication protocols used for online conversations, Cameron added. Instead, he said: "We believe in very clear front doors through legal processes that should help to keep our countries safe."

Charlie Hebdo attack spurs EU anti-terror 'projects' | 19 Jan 2015 | European states have agreed to launch anti-terror "projects" with Muslim-majority nations and improve Arabic skills in response to the Charlie Hebdo attacks in France. EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini made the announcement after talks in Brussels, but gave no details...The EU would step up intelligence-sharing both internally and with countries affected by terrorism, she said, and increase its work to prevent funding for terrorist networks. The European Parliament, she added, would be asked to work on legislation covering the sharing of airline passenger data.

European countries seek sweeping new powers to curb terrorism | 16 Jan 2015 | Belgian leaders on Friday sought sweeping new powers to monitor and punish their citizens for involvement with terrorism, joining France in an effort to rewrite laws just hours after dozens of arrests across Europe offered dramatic evidence of the threats security officials say are facing the continent. Belgian leaders said Friday that they would seek to expand the list of offenses for which they could strip some people of their citizenship. France has fast-tracked the convictions of those accused of hate speech, handing down years-long prison sentences within hours of the initial offense. British Prime Minister David Cameron called for eagle-eyed surveillance of social networks.

Terror cell warning as Europe scrambles to handle threats | 16 Jan 2015 | European counterterrorism agencies scrambled Friday to assess the potential danger of a complex and growing terrorism threat exposed by the arrests of more than a dozen people with suspected links to Islamic extremists. As many as 20 sleeper cells of between 120 and 180 people could be ready to strike in France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, a Western intelligence source told CNN. European Union and Middle East intelligence agencies had identified an "imminent threat" to Belgium, and possibly also to the Netherlands, the source told CNN.

UK and US Announce Joint Anti-Terror Push | 16 Jan 2015 | Britain and the US are to establish a new joint group to counter violent extremism, Barack Obama and David Cameron have announced. Speaking after talks with the President at the White House, the Prime Minister said the US and UK are united in their drive to fight "poisonous and fanatical ideology". The announcement came amid heightened fears of a fresh terror attack in the wake of the Paris attacks which left 17 people dead and the arrest of over two dozen people in anti-terror raids in Belgium, Germany and France. They have also agreed to stage cyber "war games" to boost both countries' resistance to cyber attacks.

At least a dozen people detained in detained in Paris over attacks | 16 Jan 2015 At least a dozen people have been detained in the Paris region overnight in connection with last week's shootings, the city prosecutor's office said Friday. The individuals arrested are suspected of providing logistical support for the attacks. The arrests were made in the Grigny and Fleury-Merogis neighborhoods, and those arrested were in Amedy Coulibaly's entourage, the Paris prosecutor's spokesperson said.

No 'Je suis Charlie' or media coverage at all for psycho Saudi Arabia: US ally Saudi Arabia declares all atheists are terrorists in new law to crack down on political dissidents | 1 Apr 2014 | Saudi Arabia has introduced a series of new laws which define atheists as terrorists, according to a report from Human Rights Watch. In a string of royal decrees and an overarching new piece of legislation to deal with terrorism generally, the Saudi King Abdullah has clamped down on all forms of political dissent and protests that could "harm public order"....To that end, King Abdullah issued Royal Decree 44, which criminalises "participating in hostilities outside the kingdom" with prison sentences of between three and 20 years, Human Rights Watch said.

Secret Service investigate multiple shots fired outside Vice President Joe Biden's Delaware home --Local authorities and Secret Service were unable to catch the suspect | 18 Jan 2015 | Shots rang out Saturday night outside the Delaware home of Vice President Joe Biden. Multiple rounds were fired from a vehicle speeding past the New Castle County residence around 8:25pm, according to the Secret Service. 'This occurred on a public road outside the established security perimeter. The shots were heard by Secret Service personnel posted at the residence and a vehicle was observed by an agent leaving the scene at a high rate of speed,' Secret Service spokesman Robert Hoback told CNN.

Delta flight evacuated at RDU after bomb threat made on Twitter | 17 Jan 2015 | Airport officials say a Delta flight from Atlanta to Raleigh-Durham International Airport was evacuated after landing Saturday afternoon due to a bomb threat made on a social media site. Law enforcement swarmed the Delta plane after it landed at RDU. An airport official says they received a threat on Twitter that there was possibly a bomb on board the plane. "We had to single file go past a dog, they sniffed us," said passenger Chris Hart.

Prominent North Korean Defector Lied About His Story of Captivity, Said to Be 'Still Lying' | 18 Jan 2015 | He was the [CIA] poster boy for human rights atrocities in North Korea; a soft-spoken survivor of the North's cruel gulags who eventually met such dignitaries as John Kerry in his campaign to focus attention on the North’s abuses. Now, that survivor fabulist, Shin Dong-hyuk, is retracting central facts of his widely reported life story, memorialized in a 2012 book, "Escape from Camp 14," by a former Washington Post reporter that has been published in 27 languages. Mr. Shin's latest account has raised its own questions. "He is still lying," said a North Korean defector who said he was in Camp 18 from 1967 to 1988 and would speak to journalists only on condition of anonymity because he still had family members in the North.

Breached pipeline spills up to 50,000 gallons of oil into Yellowstone River | 19 Jan 2015 | A breached oil pipeline in Montana has spilled as many as 50,000 gallons of crude oil in and around the Yellowstone River, according to the state. Bridger Pipeline LLC has yet to determine the cause, but has claimed the public is in no immediate danger. Cleanup crews were at work on Monday to address the mess, which emanated from a break in the Poplar Pipeline system about 9 miles upstream from Glendive in eastern Montana. Bridger Pipeline said the rupture in the 12-inch steel pipe occurred early Saturday and lasted for one hour, dispensing no more than 1,200 barrels, or about 50,000 gallons, of crude oil.

2014 officially the hottest year on record | 16 Jan 2015 | The year 2014 - after shattering temperature records that had stood for hundreds of years across virtually all of Europe, and roasting parts of South America, China and Russia - was the hottest on record, with global temperatures 1.24F (0.69C) higher than the 20th-century average, US government scientists said on Friday. A day after international researchers warned that human activities had pushed the planet to the brink, new evidence of climate change global warming arrived. The world was the hottest it has been since systematic records began in 1880, especially on the oceans, which the agency confirmed were the driver of 2014's temperature rise. The global average temperatures over land and sea surface for the year was 1.24F (0.69C) above the 20th-century average, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) and Nasa reported. [See also: 15 of the hottest spots around the world in 2014.]

Newlywed Dies of Sepsis After Getting Flu, Following Flu Shot Mandated By Wisconsin Hospital | 16 Jan 2015 | A Wisconsin newlywed started to feel sick with the flu on a Monday. By Friday, she was dead, ABC News reported. Katie McQuestion, a 26-year-old radiologist [at St. Catherine's Medical Center in Pleasant Prairie] from Kenosha, Wisconsin, got a flu shot to comply with hospital policy and had no underlying medical conditions, but she caught the flu and developed a serious complication from it: sepsis. She died on Jan. 2.

Romney Signals Interest in 2016 Run for President | 17 Jan 2015 | Mitt Romney made it clear publicly on Friday night what he has spent the last week conveying in private to Republicans across the country: He is considering another presidential campaign. "I'm giving some serious consideration to the future," Mr. Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, told a group of Republicans gathered here for the party's winter meeting. Speaking below deck on the Midway, an aircraft carrier converted to a floating museum in the San Diego harbor, Mr. Romney criticized President Obama and sketched out a three-pronged campaign platform should he seek the presidency for a third time.

Supreme Court to Decide Marriage Rights for Gay Couples Nationwide | 16 Jan 2015 | The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to decide whether all 50 states must allow gay and lesbian couples to marry, positioning it to resolve one of the great civil rights questions in a generation before its current term ends in June. The decision came just months after the justices ducked the issue, refusing in October to hear appeals from rulings allowing same-sex marriage in five states. That decision, which was considered a major surprise, delivered a tacit victory for gay rights, immediately expanding the number of states with same-sex marriage to 24, along with the District of Columbia, up from 19.

Seth Rogen hits out at blockbuster American Sniper likening it to a 'Nazi propaganda film' [It is.] | 19 Jan 2015 |Hollywood star and director Seth Rogen issued a statement about this weekend's blockbuster hit American Sniper, comparing the Clint Eastwood-directed film to Nazi propaganda. 'American Sniper kind of reminds me of the movie that's showing in the third act of Inglorious Basterds,' Rogen tweeted on Sunday. Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds culminates with an assassination attempt on Adolph Hitler at the premiere of a fictional propaganda film called 'Stolz der Nation' which translates to Nation's Pride. One of the characters of the film is a haughty German soldier who plays himself in Nation's Pride, a movie about how he killed 200 Allied soldiers from a clock tower in one battle.

Oscars race row: Rev Al Sharpton calls for emergency Hollywood meeting over 'insulting' absence of black actors among nominees | 16 Jan 2015 | Reverend Al Sharpton has said the Oscar nominations are 'appallingly insulting' and compared Hollywood to the Rocky Mountains, saying the higher you get 'the whiter it gets'. Rev Sharpton has called for an emergency Hollywood meeting to discuss possible action around the Academy Awards, after no black actors or actresses received nominations. He was due to meet allies and colleagues to discuss plans for before or during the February 22 ceremony. [Al Sharpton should win for best actor in an attempt to appear outraged in a television farce. --MDR]

Ice Pelts Northeast Killing at Least Five and Triggering Pileups | 19 Jan 2015 | Icy rain pelted parts of the Northeast on Sunday, triggering dangerous conditions that led to a fatal 60-vehicle pile-up in Pennsylvania, the deaths of six people and the closing of several bridges in the region. At least one person was killed and 30 other people were injured in the pile-up on Interstate 76 in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, state police said. Four more people died in crashes in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Connecticut because of extremely slick roads.

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