Obama Rejects All Afghan War Options
More Troops? Barack is takin' this shit into his own hands!
Straight from Fox News: “President Barack Obama does not plan to accept any of the Afghanistan war options presented by his national security team, pushing instead for revisions to clarify how and when U.S. troops would turn over responsibility to the Afghan government, a senior administration official said Wednesday.
That stance comes in the midst of forceful reservations about a possible troop buildup from the U.S. ambassador in Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry, according to a second top administration official.
In strongly worded classified cables to Washington, Eikenberry said he had misgivings about sending in new troops while there are still so many questions about the leadership of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
Obama is still close to announcing his revamped war strategy — most likely shortly after he returns from a trip to Asia that ends on Nov. 19.
But the president raised questions at a war council meeting Wednesday that could alter the dynamic of both how many additional troops are sent to Afghanistan and what the timeline would be for their presence in the war zone, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss Obama’s thinking.
Military officials said Obama has asked for a rewrite before and resisted what one official called a one-way highway toward war commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s recommendations for more troops. The sense that he was being rushed and railroaded has stiffened Obama’s resolve to seek information and options beyond military planning, officials said, though a substantial troop increase is still likely.
The president was considering options that include adding 30,000 or more U.S. forces to take on the Taliban in key areas of Afghanistan and to buy time for the Afghan government’s small and ill-equipped fighting forces to take over. The other three options on the table Wednesday were ranges of troop increases, from a relatively small addition of forces to the roughly 40,000 that the top U.S. general in Afghanistan prefers, according to military and other officials.
The key sticking points appear to be timelines and mounting questions about the credibility of the Afghan government.
Administration officials said Wednesday that Obama wants to make it clear that the U.S. commitment in Afghanistan is not open-ended. The war is now in its ninth year and is claiming U.S. lives at a record pace as military leaders say the Taliban has the upper hand in many parts of the country.
Eikenberry, the top U.S. envoy to Kabul, is a prominent voice among those advising Obama, and his sharp dissent is sure to affect the equation. He retired from the Army this year to become one of the few generals in American history to switch directly from soldier to diplomat, and he himself is a recent, former commander of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
Eikenberry’s cables raise deep concern about the viability of the Karzai government, according to a senior U.S. official familiar with them who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the classified documents. Other administration officials raised the same misgivings in describing Obama’s hesitancy to accept any of the options before him in their current form.
The options presented to Obama by his war council will now be amended.
Military officials say one approach is a compromise battle plan that would add 30,000 or more U.S. forces atop a record 68,000 in the country now. They described it as “half and half,” meaning half fighting and half training and holding ground so the Afghans can regroup.
The White House says Obama has not made a final choice, though military and other officials have said he appears near to approving a slightly smaller increase than McChrystal wants at the outset.
Among the options for Obama would be ways to phase in additional troops, perhaps eventually equaling McChrystal’s full request, based on security or other conditions in Afghanistan and in response to pending decisions on troops levels by some U.S. allies fighting in Afghanistan.
The White House has chafed under criticism from Republicans and some outside critics that Obama is dragging his feet to make a decision.
Obama’s top military advisers have said they are comfortable with the pace of the process, and senior military officials have pointed out that the president still has time since no additional forces could begin flowing into Afghanistan until early next year.
Under the scenario featuring about 30,000 more troops, that number most likely would be assembled from three Army brigades and a Marine Corps contingent, plus a new headquarters operation that would be staffed by 7,000 or more troops, a senior military official said. There would be a heavy emphasis on the training of Afghan forces, and the reinforcements Obama sends could include thousands of U.S. military trainers.
Another official stressed that Obama is considering a range of possibilities for the military expansion and that his eventual decision will cover changes in U.S. approach beyond the addition of troops. The stepped-up training and partnership operation with Afghan forces would be part of that effort, the official said, although expansion of a better-trained Afghan force long has been part of the U.S objective and the key to an eventual U.S. and allied exit from the country.
With the Taliban-led insurgency expanding in size and ability, U.S. military strategy already has shifted to focus on heading off the fighters and protecting Afghan civilians. The evolving U.S. policy, already remapped early in Obama’s tenure, increasingly acknowledges that the insurgency can be blunted but not defeated outright by force.”
D.C. Sniper Muhammad Executed in Virginia
Official Seal of Awesomeness
Straight from Fox News: “John Allen Muhammad, the mastermind behind the sniper attacks that left 10 dead, was executed as relatives of the victims watched, reliving the killing spree that terrorized the Washington, D.C., area for three weeks in October 2002.
The 48-year-old Muhammad looked calm and stoic, but was twitching and blinking, tapping his left foot as the injections began and refusing to utter any final words.
Victims’ families sat behind glass while watching, separated from the rest of the 27 witnesses, who were quiet, looking straight forward, intent on what was happening.
“He died very peacefully, much more than most of his victims,” said Prince William County prosecutor Paul Ebert, who witnessed Muhammad die by injection at 9:11 p.m. Tuesday at Greensville Correctional Center, south of Richmond.
Muhammad was executed for killing Dean Harold Meyers, who was shot in the head at a Manassas gas station during the three-week spree across Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.
The shootings terrorized the Washington region, as victim after victim was shot down while doing everyday chores: shopping, pumping gas, mowing the lawn. One child was shot while walking into his middle school.
People stayed indoors. Those who had to go outside weaved as they walked or bobbed their heads to make themselves a less easy target.
The terror ended on Oct. 24, 2002, when police captured Muhammad and his teenage accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, while they slept at a Maryland rest stop in a car they had outfitted for a shooter to perch in its trunk without being detected.
Malvo, who was 17 when carrying out the attacks, was sentenced to life in prison without parole for killing Linda Franklin, a 47-year-old FBI analyst who was shot as she and her husband loaded supplies at a Home Depot in Falls Church, Virginia.
The men also were suspected of fatal shootings in other states, including Louisiana, Alabama and Arizona.
Nelson Rivera, whose wife, Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera, was gunned down as she vacuumed her van at a Maryland gas station, said that when he watched Muhammad’s chest moving for the last time, he was glad.
“I feel better. I think I can breathe better,” he said. “I’m glad he’s gone because he’s not going to hurt anyone else.”
Unfortunately he wasn't forced to ride the lightning in Old Sparky instead of lethal injection...
Muhammad never testified or explained why he directed the shootings, and his secrets died with him.
Meyers’ brother, Bob Meyers, said watching the execution was sobering and “surreal.”
“I would have liked him at some point in the process to take responsibility, to show remorse,” Meyers said. “We didn’t get any of that tonight.”
J. Wyndal Gordon, one of Muhammad’s attorneys, described his client in his final hours as fearless and still insisting he was innocent.
“He will die with dignity — dignity to the point of defiance,” Gordon said.
The U.S. Supreme Court turned down Muhammad’s final appeal Monday, and Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine denied clemency Tuesday.
Muhammad’s attorneys had asked Kaine to commute his sentence to life in prison because they said Muhammad had brain damage and neurological problems, as well as psychotic and delusional behavior, exacerbated by the Gulf War Syndrome he suffered as a sergeant in the first Iraq war.
“I think crimes that are this horrible, you just can’t understand them, you can’t explain them,” said Kaine, a Democrat known for carefully considering death penalty cases. “They completely dwarf your ability to look into the life of a person who would do something like this and understand why.”
A small group of death penalty opponents gathered on a grassy area near the prison and had a sign reading, “We remember the victims, but not with more killing.”
Muhammad was born John Allen Williams and changed his name after converting to Islam. He had been in and out of the military since he graduated from high school in Louisiana and entered the National Guard. He joined the Army in 1985.
He did not take special sniper training but earned an expert rating in the M-16 rifle — the military cousin of the .223-caliber Bushmaster rifle used in the D.C. shootings.
The motive for the attacks remains murky. Malvo said Muhammad wanted to extort $10 million from the government to set up a camp in Canada where homeless children would be trained as terrorists.
Muhammad’s ex-wife said she believes the killings were a smoke screen for his plan to kill her and regain custody of their three children.
Sonia Hollingsworth-Wills, the mother of Conrad Johnson, the last man slain that October, sat in the back seat of a car outside the prison before the execution, which she chose not to witness. But she said she wanted to be there and was counting the minutes until Muhammad’s death.
“It was the most horrifying day of my life,” she said. “I’ll never get complete closure but at least I can put this behind me.”"
Navies of 2 Koreas exchange fire near border
South Korean Navy patrol boats
Straight from Yahoo News: “SEOUL, South Korea – A badly damaged North Korean patrol ship retreated in flames Tuesday after a skirmish with a South Korean naval vessel along their disputed western coast, South Korean officials said.
The first naval clash between the two sides in seven years broke out just a week before President Barack Obama is due to visit Seoul, raising suspicions the North’s communist regime is trying to rachet up tensions to gain a negotiating advantage.
There were no South Korean casualties, the country’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. South Korea’s YTN television reported that one North Korean officer was killed and three other sailors were wounded, citing an unidentified government source. The JCS said it could not confirm the YTN report.
Each side blamed the other for violating the sea border.
The exchange of fire occurred as U.S. officials said Obama has decided to send a special envoy to Pyongyang for rare direct talks on the communist country’s nuclear weapons program. No date has been set, but the talks would be the first one-on-one negotiations since Obama took office in January.
“It was an intentional provocation by North Korea to draw attention ahead of Obama’s trip,” said Shin Yul, a political science professor at Seoul’s Myongji University.
He also said the North was sending a message to Obama that it wants to replace the armistice agreement that ended the Korean War in 1953 with a permanent peace treaty while keeping its nuclear weapons.
Washington has consistently said that Pyongyang must abandon its nuclear arsenal for any peace treaty to be concluded. North Korea has conducted two underground nuclear tests since 2006 and is believed to have enough weaponized plutonium for half a dozen atomic weapons.
“We are sternly protesting to North Korea and urging it to prevent the recurrence of similar incidents,” South Korean Rear Adm. Lee Ki-sik told reporters in Seoul.
North Korea’s military issued a statement blaming South Korea for the “grave armed provocation,” saying its ships had crossed into North Korean territory.
The North claimed that a group of South Korean warships opened fire but fled after the North Korean patrol boat dealt “a prompt retaliatory blow.” The statement, carried on the official Korean Central News Agency, said the South should apologize.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who convened an emergency security meeting, ordered the South’s defense minister to strengthen military readiness.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that a North Korean patrol boat crossed the disputed western sea border about 11:27 a.m. (0227 GMT), drawing warning shots from a South Korean navy vessel. The North Korean boat then opened fire and the South’s ship returned fire before the North’s vessel sailed back toward its waters, the statement said.
The clash occurred near the South Korean-held island of Daecheong, about 120 nautical miles (220 kilometers) off the port city of Incheon, west of Seoul, the statement said.
The North Korean ship was seriously damaged in the skirmish, a Joint Chiefs of Staff officer said on condition of anonymity, citing department policy. Prime Minister Chung Un-chan told lawmakers the ship was on fire when it fled north.
Lee, the rear admiral, said the shooting lasted for about two minutes, during which the North Korean ship fired about 50 rounds at the South Korean vessel, about two miles (3.2 kilometers) away. He said the South Korean ship was lightly damaged.
He said several Chinese fishing boats were operating in the area at the time of clash, but they were undamaged. Chung, the prime minister, described the clash as “accidental,” telling lawmakers that two North Korean ships had crossed into South Korean waters in an attempt to clamp down on Chinese fishing.
Lee, however, said the South Korean military was investigating if the North’s alleged violation was deliberate.
The Koreas regularly accuse each other of straying into their respective territories. South Korea’s military said that North Korean ships have already violated the sea border 22 times this year.
The two sides fought deadly skirmishes along the western sea border in 1999 and 2002.
No South Koreans were killed in 1999, but six South Korean sailors died in 2002, according to the South Korean navy. It said exact North Korean causalities remain unclear.
Baek Seung-joo, a North Korea expert at Seoul’s state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, said Tuesday’s clash would not have a big impact on inter-Korean relations.
He said the Koreas held a landmark summit in 2000 and the North sent a cheering squad to the South for the Asian Games in 2002. Both events took place after the separate clashes in 1999 and 2002.
Baek, like fellow analyst Shin, said that North Korea caused the incident but that Pyongyang appears to want to create tensions and use them for domestic political consumption.
The two Koreas have yet to agree on their sea border more than 50 years after the end of their 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in an armistice and not a peace treaty. Instead, they rely on a line that the then-commander of U.N. forces, which fought for the South, drew unilaterally at the end of the conflict.
North Korea last month accused South Korean warships of broaching its territory in waters off the west coast and warned of a clash in the zone, which is a rich crab fishing area.
The latest conflict comes after North Korea has reached out to Seoul and Washington following months of tension over its nuclear and missile programs.
North Korea launched a long-range rocket in April and carried out its second underground nuclear test in May. But it subsequently released South Korean and U.S. detainees, agreed to resume joint projects with South Korea and offered direct talks with Washington.
Two administration officials said Monday in Washington that Obama has decided, after months of deliberation, to send a special envoy to Pyongyang for direct talks on nuclear issues.
Obama will send envoy Stephen Bosworth, although no date for his trip has been set, the officials said. The officials discussed the matter on condition of anonymity because the decision has not been publicly announced.
Hundreds of thousands of combat-ready troops on both sides face across the 155-mile-long (248-kilometers-long) land border that is also strewn with land mines and tank traps and laced with barbed wire. About 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea to deter a potential North Korean aggression.”
Health Care Reform Assumes Millions Would Pay Fine Rather Than Get Coverage
Obama wants you to be healthy!
Straight from Fox News: “The health care reform bill awaiting debate in the House assumes millions of workers and employers would rather pay $167 billion in fines than purchase or provide adequate coverage, according to a recent analysis, raising questions about whether the plan does enough to make insurance affordable.
Though the bill is estimated to expand coverage from the current 83 percent to 96 percent of legal U.S. residents, the windfall of projected penalty payments also exposes a potential contradiction in reform. A significant part of the plan to expand coverage relies financially on fines from the uninsured.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated in its study last week that the House bill would bring in $167 billion over 10 years — $33 billion from fines paid by individuals who decline to buy insurance, and the rest from employers who don’t offer insurance to workers or contribute enough toward premiums.
Ernest Istook, a former Republican congressman from Oklahoma who is now a fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, calculated that anywhere between 8 million and 14 million people would end up paying the fines.
This raises a few problems, he said. First, if those millions somehow get covered and don’t pay the fine, then the health program is faced with a budget hole.
Second, he said, it speaks to a flaw with the insurance packages that are being offered. “If you say people would rather pay $167 billion in penalties rather than buy insurance under your new plan, what’s wrong with your new plan?” he asked.
The answer, Istook said: “It’s expensive.”
The House plan would create a government-run insurance program intended to help extend coverage. But the plan would allow the government to negotiate rates with providers rather than set artificially low Medicare-style rates — as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other liberal Democrats were hoping to do.
While the negotiated rate structure somewhat assuages the concerns of moderate Democrats and others who projected that a system based on Medicare rates would create an irresistibly cheap public plan that would draw millions away from private coverage and hurt doctors, it also does much less to address cost concerns.
In fact, the CBO report said such a public plan “would typically have premiums that are somewhat higher than the average premiums” for private plans in the newly created insurance marketplace. This is partly because the public plan would likely attract less healthy, and more expensive, enrollees.
In addition, many analysts and lawmakers have warned that private premiums will go up as well as a result of new requirements.
Though the government is offering a bevy of subsidies to make coverage more affordable under the plan, it apparently would not be enough to lure everyone into the system.
Suggestions for reducing the number of people who are insurance-averse are wide-ranging.
Some don’t want any fines, emphasizing incentives over penalties. But political momentum in Washington has long since shifted in favor of a requirement to get coverage. President Obama, who opposed such a mandate during the presidential campaign, reversed and supported it during his September address on health care reform to Congress.
Others, especially the health insurance industry, want the fines to be increased.
“If you don’t get everybody in, the market reforms don’t work and premiums skyrocket for everybody,” said Robert Zirkelbach, spokesman with America’s Health Insurance Plans, which opposes the House Democratic plan.
Zirkelbach warned that those who choose to pay the penalty will just wait until they get sick to get covered, driving up premiums across the board. “More needs to be done to make coverage affordable.”
Zirkelbach dismissed the claim that less penalty revenue would leave the federal government with a budget hole. He said getting more people covered would help bring down health care costs overall and balance out in the end for the government’s books.
He doubted, though, that the government plan would have higher premiums. He said the so called public-option would ultimately negotiate rates down to Medicare levels.
Third Way, a think tank that describes itself as part of the “moderate wing of the progressive movement,” also released a study saying the mandate cannot be weakened. But it said several changes can be made to expand coverage. The group suggested, among other things, allowing young people to pay lower premiums and allowing people to meet the coverage requirement with even leaner insurance plans.
Democrats are standing by the mandate provisions, though, arguing that some relatively small group of uninsured people is inevitable.
“There’s just going to be some people who choose rather to pay (the fine) than to pay for health care,” said Stephanie Lundberg, spokeswoman for House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md. “There’s going to be some people that just philosophically don’t want to buy health care.”
She said individual responsibility has to be a part of the plan, but that 96 percent coverage is still pretty admirable.
“It expands coverage substantially,” Lundberg said.”
Report: Iran Tested Advanced Nuclear Warhead
Iranian sword stabs Star of David and US flag
Straight from Fox News: “The U.N. nuclear watchdog has asked Tehran to explain evidence suggesting that Iranian scientists have experimented with an advanced secret nuclear warhead design, according to a report published Friday.
Citing what it calls “previously unpublished documentation” from an International Atomic Energy Agency compiled report, Britain’s The Guardian newspaper said Iranian scientists may have tested high-explosive components of a “two-point implosion” device.
The report said that even the existence of two-point implosion nuclear warhead technology is officially secret in both the U.S. and Britain. The technology allows for the production of smaller and simpler warheads, making it easier to put a warhead on a missile, the newspaper said.
The IAEA said in September it has no proof Iran has or once had a covert atomic bomb program.
The U.N. watchdog’s statements followed reports from the Associated Press quoting what it called a classified IAEA document saying agency experts agreed Iran now had the means to build atomic bombs and was heading towards developing a missile system able to carry a nuclear warhead.
Extracts of the report have been published before, but it was not known the document included information on such a sophisticated warhead, the newspaper said.
A nuclear site, which Iran revealed in September three years after diplomats said Western spies first discovered it, added to fears of secret Iranian efforts to develop nuclear bombs. Iran claims it is enriching uranium only for peaceful electricity use.
The Vienna-based IAEA, Iran’s Foreign Ministry and the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran were unavailable for comment when contacted by Reuters.”
A US army major of Palestinian origin carried out Fort Hood shooting rampage
Malik Nadal Hasan
Straight from Yahoo News: “FORT HOOD, Texas – The base commander at Fort Hood says soldiers who witnessed a shooting rampage that left 13 people dead reported that the gunman shouted “Allahu Akbar!” before opening fire at the Texas post.
Lt. Gen. Robert Cone told NBC’s “Today” show on Friday that suspected shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, made the comment, which is Arabic for “God is great!” before the rampage Thursday that also left 30 people wounded.
Military officials say they are still piecing together what may have pushed Hasan, an Army psychiatrist trained to help soldiers in distress, to turn on his comrades.
Cone says Hasan was not known to be a threat or risk.
Hasan was shot four times during the rampage. Cone says he is hospitalized in stable condition and that military officials will interrogate him as soon as possible.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.
FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) — Military officials were starting Friday to piece together what may have pushed an Army psychiatrist trained to help soldiers in distress to turn on his comrades in a shooting rampage that killed 13 people and wounded 30 in Texas.
The suspected shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, was on a ventilator and unconscious in a hospital after being shot four times during the shootings at the Army’s sprawling Fort Hood, post officials said. In the early chaos after the shootings, authorities believed they had killed him, only to discover later that he had survived.
In Washington, a senior U.S. official said authorities at Fort Hood initially thought one of the victims who had been shot and killed was the shooter. The mistake resulted in a delay of several hours in identifying Hasan as the alleged assailant.
Authorities have not ruled out that Hasan was acting on behalf of some unidentified radical group, the official said. He would not say whether any evidence had come to light to support that theory.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss matters that were under investigation.
Officials are not ruling out the possibility that some of the casualties may have been victims of “friendly fire,” that in the mayhem and confusion at the shooting scene some of the responding military officials may have shot some of the victims.
The gunfire broke out around 1:30 p.m. at the Soldier Readiness Center, where soldiers who are about to be deployed or who are returning undergo medical screening. Nearby, some soldiers were readying to head into a graduation ceremony for troops and families who had recently earned degrees.
Pastor Greg Schannep had just parked his car along the side of the theater and was about to head into the ceremony when a man in uniform approached him.
“Sir, they are opening fire over there!” the man told him. At first, he thought it was a training exercise — then heard three volleys and saw people running. As the man who warned him about the shots ran away, he could see the man’s back was bloodied from a wound.
Schannep said police and medical and other emergency personnel were on the scene in an instant, telling people to get inside the theater. The post went into lockdown while a search began for a suspect and emergency workers began trying to treat the wounded. Some soldiers rushed to treat their injured colleagues by ripping their uniforms into makeshift bandages to treat their wounds.
Fort Hood Lt. Gen. Bob Cone praised the soldiers for their quick reaction.
“God bless these soldiers,” Cone said. “As horrible as this was it could have been worse.”
Video from the scene showed police patrolling the area with handguns and rifles, ducking behind buildings for cover. Sirens could be heard wailing while a woman’s voice on a public-address system urged people to take cover. Schools on the base went into lockdown, and family members trying to find out what was happening inside found cell phone lines jammed or busy.
“I was confused and just shocked,” said Spc. Jerry Richard, 27, who works at the center but was not on duty during the shooting. “Overseas you are ready for it. But here you can’t even defend yourself.”
The wounded were dispersed among hospitals in central Texas, Cone said. Their identities and the identities of the dead were not immediately released.
The bodies of the victims would be taken to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware for autopsies and forensic tests, said a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss matters that were under investigation.
There will also be a ceremony at the air base to honor the dead.
Jamie and Scotty Casteel stood outside the emergency room at the hospital in Temple waiting for news of their son-in-law Matthew Cooke, who was among the injured.
“He’s been shot in the abdomen and that’s all we know,” Jamie Casteel told The Associated Press. She said Cook, from New York state, had been home from Iraq for about a year.
Amber Bahr, 19, was shot in the stomach but was in stable condition, said her mother, Lisa Pfund of Random Lake, Wis.
“We know nothing, just that she was shot in the belly,” Pfund said. She couldn’t provide more details and only spoke with emergency personnel.
Ashley Saucedo told WOOD-TV in Michigan that her husband was shot in the arm, but she couldn’t discuss specifics. Saucedo said she and the couple’s two children weren’t permitted to leave their home at Fort Hood during the shootings.
The motive for the shooting wasn’t clear, but Hasan was apparently set to deploy soon, and had expressed some anger about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said generals at Fort Hood told her that Hasan was about to deploy overseas. Retired Col. Terry Lee, who said he had worked with Hasan, told Fox News he was being sent to Afghanistan.
Lee said Hasan had hoped Obama would pull troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq and got into frequent arguments with others in the military who supported the wars.
For six years before reporting for duty at Fort Hood, in July, the 39-year-old Army major worked at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center pursuing a career in psychiatry, as an intern, a resident and, last year, a fellow in disaster and preventive psychiatry. He received his medical degree from the military’s Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md., in 2001.
But his record wasn’t sterling. At Walter Reed, he received a poor performance evaluation, according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly. And while he was an intern, Hasan had some “difficulties” that required counseling and extra supervision, said Dr. Thomas Grieger, who was the training director at the time.
At least six months ago, Hasan came to the attention of law enforcement officials because of Internet postings about suicide bombings and other threats, including posts that equated suicide bombers to soldiers who throw themselves on a grenade to save the lives of their comrades.
Investigators had not determined for certain whether Hasan was the author of the posting, and a formal investigation had not been opened before the shooting, said law enforcement officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the case.
The FBI, local police and other agencies searched Hasan’s apartment Thursday night after evacuating the complex in Killeen, said city spokeswoman Hilary Shine. She referred questions about what was found to the FBI. The FBI in Dallas referred questions to a spokesman who was not immediately available early Friday morning.”
Straight from the Debka File: “A US army major turns out to have acted solo in a shooting spree which left 12 US soldiers and a police officer dead and 31 injured at US Army Fort Hood base in Texas Thursday, Nov. 5. He was identified as Army Major Malik Nadal Hasan, first said to have been killed in the return fire, but later found wounded but alive. He is now in stable condition under military guard. Two other suspects of the shooting were cleared and released.
Major Hasan, age 39, is a military psychiatrist born in Virginia to Palestinian parents who immigrated to the US from Jordan. Until recently, he was posted at Walter Reid Hospital, Washington D.C.
Hasan embarked on his murderous shooting spree shortly after being informed he was to be deployed in Iraq.
Retired Army Col. Terry Lee, who said he worked with the major, told reporters that Hasan had hoped President Barack Obama would pull the army out of Afghanistan and Iraq. Lee said he often got into arguments with soldiers who supported the wars and had tried hard to get his pending deployment cancelled.
According to unnamed law enforcement officials, the major came to their attention six months ago on suspicion of posting Internet messages equating suicide bombers with soldiers who throw themselves on a grenade to save the lives of their comrades. No formal investigation had been opened before the shooting.
In a brief message, US president Barack Obama called on Americans to pray for the wounded men. He said it was hard enough for “our soldiers to die in action in Afghanistan and Iraq, but horrifying for them to come under fire at an army base on American soil.”"
Codenamed Yellow Jacket, This Unmanned Helicopter Sniffs Out Roadside Bombs
The Yellow Jacket
Straight from Gizmodo: “Roadside bombs are a a source of fear for both soldiers as well as their worried families at home. Thankfully the Pentagon is working on projects such as Yellow Jacket, unmanned helicopters which detect electromagnetic emissions from potential IEDs.
As many IEDs, improvised explosive devices, are set off using a wireless signal, these drones will be able to survey areas for the electromagnetic emissions associated with receivers and provide an early warning to soldiers. No matter how silly the codename, this is one important project and I hope that it gets put into use as soon as possible.”
Hamas successfully tests new Iran-made Silkworm that can reach Tel Aviv
Silkworm Missile
Straight from the Debka File: “Israel’s military intelligence chief Brig. Amos Yadlin revealed Tuesday, Nov. 3, that the Palestinian Hamas had successfully tested a new 60-km range Iranian shore-to-sea missile firing it west from the Gaza coast. When fired north overland the missile could reach Tel Aviv.
Brig. Yadlin’s report to the Knesset foreign affairs and security committee confirmed DEBKAfile’s Oct. 25 disclosure of intensive Iranian efforts to arm Hizballan and Hamas with extended-range missiles and rockets capable of reaching Israel’s strategic heartland. He revealed that Iranian arms were reaching Hizballah and Hamas through Syria and, for the first, time via Turkey.
The intelligence chief did not specify the source of the missiles delivered to Hamas or disclose who their instructors were. DEBKAfile’s military sources report that the Hizballah on orders from Tehran apparently took charge of smuggling the new missiles to their Palestinian allies and its officers instructed them in their use.
Our military sources identify the new missile in Hamas’ arsenal as a C-802 of the Silkworm series (of Chinese origin), of the type Hizballah fired to cripple the Israeli missile ship Hanit on July 15 2006 during the second Lebanon war.
Tehran has since showered thousands of these missiles on Hizballah. They are positioned along the Lebanese Mediterranean in closer formation than almost any coastal defense array in the world.
Hamas’ successful test indicates that Iran is intent on building up its Palestinian proxy’s capability for breaking the Israeli Mediterranean naval blockade on the Gaza Strip and restricting the freedom of Israeli warships cruising opposite its southern shores.
Silkworms deployed in the Gaza Strip are a menace to Israel’s southern naval bases, especially in Ashdod port. They are also precise enough to target land-based strategic facilities like power stations and fuel depots. In 1987, Tehran used an earlier version of the Silkworm to strike Kuwait’s oil installations.
On Oct. 25, DEBKAfile also reported that the al Qods external terror branch of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards was in the throes of a major effort to smuggle Fajr-5 surface rockets into the Gaza Strip. These rockets whose range is 75 km can also reach Tel Aviv and its southern satellite cities from Gaza. Our military sources report that the huge missiles are transported by sea to Hamas training camps in Sudan in 8-10 segments, smuggled from there north to the Egyptian shores of the Suez Canal, then offloaded in Sinai for covert transportation to the Gaza Strip.
On Oct. 31, our military sources revealed that North Korea had sold Iran and Syria EM52 midget submarines designed to drop small commando raider units on targeted shores and sow mines in enemy harbors.
Tehran is thus immersed in an operation for turning the Mediterranean into another hostile front against Israel in the event of a regional war.
While aware of the Iranian marine noose closing in on Israel, the government led by prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and defense minister Ehud Barak do not seem to be doing much in the way of preventive action.”
Ares 1-X Rocket Lifts Off
Ares 1-X Rocket Lifts Off (click for high-res)
Straight from Astronomy Picture of the Day: “Explanation: Last week, NASA test fired a new rocket. The Ares 1-X was the first non-shuttle rocket launched from Kennedy Space Center since the Saturn launched humans to Earth orbit and the Moon in the 1960s and 1970s. NASA is testing Ares as a prelude to replacing the aging space shuttle fleet. The tremendous thrust of the Ares 1-X can bring the massive rocket from a standing start to a vertical speed of over 100 kilometers per hour in under eight seconds. The test rocket launched last week was longer than a football field and covered with over 700 sensors to record data that will enable engineers to refine details of future Ares rockets. Pictured above, the Ares 1-X blasts into space while the top part of the rocket becomes engulfed in a shock collar of water droplets likely created by the sudden drop of air pressure.”
A Mars Rover Named “Curiosity”
NASA's Curiosity Rover
Straight from NASA: “If you found your grandmother’s diary, tattered and dust covered, up in the attic, would you read it? Of course you would. Granny was a pistol! Brush off the dust, open up the little book, and foray into her lively and interesting past.
Dust cloaks some fascinating tales in other places, too. NASA scientists will soon brush the dust off some Martian rocks that are practically bursting their seams to give their lively account of the red planet’s past. The Mars Science Lab — aptly named “Curiosity” — is heading up there in 2011 to read the diary of Mars.
The small, car-sized rover will ramble about on the rocky surface, gizmos at full tilt, not only brushing dust off rocks but also vaporizing them with a laser beam, gathering samples to analyze on the spot, taking high resolution photographs, and more.
“Curiosity will be prospecting for organic molecules, the chemical building blocks of life,” says Joy Crisp of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “We want to find out whether Mars’ environment was, or still is, capable of harboring life.”
“To answer the question ‘Is there life on Mars?’ the most reasonable and productive approach is to look for organic compounds, which could be from life past or present, or from meteorites,” explains Michael Meyer of NASA headquarters. “If you find anything, you know you’re in a region that could preserve evidence of life, if there was any. We have maps from our orbiters, but we don’t know which of the promising looking regions actually contains anything, much less the mother lode.”
“The rock record is of particular interest,” says Crisp. “It has a record from billions of years ago and can answer questions like ‘Where and for how long might Mars have been habitable?’ ‘Was it cold or warm there in the past?’ ‘Was the water there acidic or salty?’”
Curiosity will be the first red planet rover since Spirit and Opportunity. Though it would be hard to match the twins’ toughness, Curiosity will have a much greater range, more instruments, and a bigger, stronger robotic arm. It will be nuclear powered instead of solar, so there will be no worries about dust on solar panels causing energy supplies to plummet. It will have much more power, more consistently.
“Curiosity will even land in a new fashion,” says Crisp. “Spirit and Opportunity were sitting on top of a lander that hit on the surface and bounced, protected by airbags, before coming to rest and opening up. They then had to drive off the top of the lander. A descent stage called Sky Crane will gently lower Curiosity (no airbags needed) via cables, which will be cut once the rover’s wheels set down.
Meyer adds, “The most important difference is that Spirit and Opportunity aren’t analytical labs – they are more for observing. This newest rover will be performing a more comprehensive study of the Martian environment.”
Remote sensing instruments located on Curiosity’s mast will scout around for promising targets and perform some long-distance analysis before the vehicle moves in for a closer look.
“Curiosity will have a laser on its mast that can take aim at a rock and vaporize a small spot on it,” says Crisp. “This produces a plasma cloud that tells us about that rock’s chemistry. We’ll look at the light reflected off the cloud to characterize rocks and soils from up to 9 meters away. We’ll be able to classify minerals, ices, and organic molecules without having to drive as much.”
The mast also sports a high-resolution camera called, naturally, Mastcam. It will observe, photograph, and videotape geological structures and features, like craters, gullies, and dunes.
The rover’s robotic arm wields its own unique instruments. APXS, the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer, will measure the abundance of chemical elements in the dust, soils, rocks, and processed samples. MAHLI, the Mars Hand Lens Imager, will return color images like those of typical digital cameras and act like a geologist’s magnifying lens. Its images can be used to examine the structure and texture of rocks, dust, and frost at the micrometer to centimeter scale.
One laboratory instrument inside the rover’s body will explore the red planet by “sniffing” the air, bird-dog style. SAM, short for Sample Analysis at Mars, has vents that open to the atmosphere to determine where to take samples, for example if it detects methane in the area.
“That’s important because methane can be released by microbes,” explains Crisp, “or by liquid water reacting with rock at depths under the surface. Water ‘down under’ could be a niche for subterranean life. SAM can also be used to sniff the gases released after baking a rock or soil sample in its oven.”
In addition, Curiosity will carry instruments for observing Martian weather and measuring cosmic radiation bombarding the planet’s surface.
“This rover is intrinsically spectacular in terms of what the mission will do,” says Meyer. “It’s a keystone for the future. It sets the stage for understanding whether organics are preserved on Mars and will tell us what we need to use to find out.”
Now – where’s that diary?”
“We tax everything that moves and doesn’t move”
Hillary Hungers!
Straight from the Daily Times: “The leadership of Al Qaeda is in Pakistan, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Thursday.
“I find it hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where they are and couldn’t get them if they really wanted to,” she added.
“Maybe that’s the case; maybe they’re not gettable. I don’t know… As far as we know, they are in Pakistan,” Clinton told senior Pakistani newspaper editors in Lahore, AFP reported. “The percentage of taxes on GDP (in Pakistan) is among the lowest in the world… We (the United States) tax everything that moves and doesn’t move, and that’s not what we see in Pakistan,” she said.
“You do have 180 million people. Your population is projected to be about 300 million. And I don’t know what you’re going to do with that kind of challenge, unless you start planning right now,” she said.
“If we are going to have a mature partnership where we work together” then “there are issues that not just the United States but others have with your government and with your military security establishment”.
Separately, Clinton also met army chief General Ashfaq Kayani and exchanged views on a host of security-related issues.”
Tax refugees staging escape from New York
Straight from the New York Post: “New Yorkers are fleeing the state and city in alarming numbers — and costing a fortune in lost tax dollars, a new study shows.
More than 1.5 million state residents left for other parts of the United States from 2000 to 2008, according to the report from the Empire Center for New York State Policy. It was the biggest out-of-state migration in the country.
The vast majority of the migrants, 1.1 million, were former residents of New York City — meaning one out of seven city taxpayers moved out.
“The Empire State is being drained of an invaluable resource — people,” the report said.
What’s worse is that the families fleeing New York are being replaced by lower-income newcomers, who consequently pay less in taxes.
Overall, the ex-New Yorkers earn about 13 percent more than those who moved into the state, the study found.
And it should be no surprise that the city — and Manhattan in particular — suffered the biggest loss in terms of taxable income.
The average Manhattan taxpayer who left the state earned $93,264 a year. The average newcomer to Manhattan earned only $72,726.
That’s a difference of $20,538, the highest for any county in the state. Staten Island was second, with a $20,066 difference.
It all adds up to staggering loss in taxable income. During 2006-2007, the “migration flow” out of New York to other states amounted to a loss of $4.3 billion.
The study used annual US Census reports, which showed which states had increased population, combined with Internal Revenue Service data, which show which states, cities and counties had lost people.
While New York City and the state were the losers, the Sunshine and Garden States were winners. more than 250,000 New Yorkers who lived in and around the city fled to Florida. Another 172,000 city taxpayers ended up in New Jersey.
Why all the moving vans?
The center, part of the conservative Manhattan Institute, blames the state’s high cost of living and high taxes.
The study also revealed surprising details about how city residents moved from borough to borough.
Manhattan lost 64,480 taxpayers, and more than half — 34,383 — went to The Bronx.
Brooklyn lost 68,951 taxpayers — including 43,688 who went to Staten Island.
The study also had some good news. The peak loss of New Yorkers was in 2005, when nearly 250,000 residents left the state. But last year, only 126,000 left, the lowest figure over the eight-year period.”
60 Minutes Puts Forth Laughable, Factually Incorrect MPAA Propaganda On Movie Piracy
The MPAA Sucks
Straight from Tech Dirt: “31 years ago, in 1978, the television program 60 Minutes put on an episode about the awful threat of “video piracy” to the movie industry. Featuring the MPAA’s Jack Valenti, the episode focused on how the VCR was going to destroy the movie business because anyone could copy and watch a movie in the privacy of their own home. Of course, in retrospect, that episode is hilariously wrong. You would think that, given how wrong they got it thirty years ago on this particular subject, 60 Minutes would be a bit more careful taking on the same subject again.
No such luck.
CBS’s 60 Minutes has made itself out to be more of a laughingstock than usual when it comes to “investigative reporting,” putting on an episode about “video piracy” that is basically 100% MPAA propaganda, without any fact checking or any attempt to challenge the (all MPAA connected) speakers, or to include anyone (anyone!) who would present a counterpoint. The episode is funny in that it contradicts itself at times (with no one noticing it) and gets important (and easily checked) facts wrong. And, of course, it basically mimics that old episode that history has shown to have been totally (laughably) false.
The report opens with the claim that counterfeit movies is where organized crime is making its money these days. Fascinating. Except they don’t show any proof whatsoever that organized crime has anything to do with movie piracy at all. They just claim it, talk about Mexican gangs, and then assume it must be true. But, of course, most of the report actually focuses on the internet and file sharing of movies — which completely goes against the claim that organized crime is “making its money” off of video piracy. After all, reports have shown that online file sharing has actually been putting DVD counterfeiters out of business. You would think that the “journalists” at 60 Minutes might have noticed this contradiction.
A big chunk of the episode is taken up by director Steven Soderbergh, who has come out in the past touting the MPAA’s line before, so it’s no surprise that he does so again. He claims that “piracy is costing Hollywood $6 billion a year at the box office.” Does he mention that Hollywood has been making more and more and more at the box office every year the past few years? Oops. No. Did the reporters at 60 Minutes look into this fact and bring it up? Of course not. The entire story appears to be an MPAA press release, so you don’t want to cloud it with pesky facts that prove they don’t know what they’re talking about.
Next up, Soderbergh claims that fewer movies are getting made thanks to movie piracy. Uh huh. Another checkable fact. Another one wrong. It was recently summarized, according to the movie industry’s own numbers:
2004 Total Movies Released: 567 Total Combined Gross: $9,327,315,935
2005 Total Movies Released: 594 Total Combined Gross: $8,825,324,278
2006 Total Movies Released: 808 Total Combined Gross: $9,225,689,414
2007 Total Movies Released: 1022 Total Combined Gross: $9,665,661,126
2008 Total Movies Released: 1037 Total Combined Gross: $9,705,677,862
2009 Total Movies Released: 1177 Total Combined Gross: $7,596,626,766
(2009 figures incomplete, total movies scheduled to be released, gross to date)
So, actually, more than double the number of movies are being made today than just five years ago. Hmm. That’s the sort of thing that a real journalist at a show like 60 Minutes might bring up to a biased director like Steven Soderberg, right? Nope.
The article mentions how to go to the movies these days, some people have to go through “airport-like security. Their bags are searched for cameras and they have to check their cell phones.” Does it point out that this might be a pretty serious reason why people might not want to go to the movies? A reason why people might actually give less money to the industry? Nope. Why bother with details like that?
And then, 60 Minutes brings on our favorite industry spokesperson: Rick Cotton, NBC Universal’s general counsel, the guy who warned that movie piracy put corn farmers at risk because people watching pirated movies eat less popcorn (never mind the fact that the corn industry is thriving, that people watching pirated movies still eat popcorn, and “popcorn” represents an infinitesimal part of the market…). Cotton was also the guy who thought it was a good idea to push people who wanted to watch the Olympics to pirate it rather than watch the crappy official online channel. Cotton is asked how many movies are released in the US:
“Ballpark, 400 to 500 movies are released in the United States.”
Except, as we noted above, he’s off by about 600 or 700 movies. Again, this is the sort of “fact” that a reporter, such as those employed by CBS and working on a television program like 60 Minutes might be expected to check, right? I would guess that most viewers of 60 Minutes expect the show’s reporters and legions of other employees to do such basic fact checking. So, given that 1177 movies are going to be released in 2009, doesn’t it make sense to, say, push back on Cotton’s bogus number? Apparently not.
Random aside: I wonder how much money CBS makes from the big studios buying movie ads? That can’t be important here, can it?
Most of the rest of the program is Soderbergh making a bunch of totally unsubstantiated statements, such as saying that no one would make The Matrix today. Why? No explanation. It’s just that Sodergbergh says.
And, of course, beyond failing to fact check the most basic facts, no one at 60 Minutes thought to talk to anyone outside of the studio system to see if it made sense. It didn’t talk to any one of the growing number of people who are making movies and embracing file sharing to help get those movies seen. It didn’t talk to moviemakers who are embracing new business models. It didn’t talk to copyright experts and consumer advocates who have shown how ridiculous the MPAA’s claims are. In other words, it presented an MPAA press release as if it were news. Thirty years after it did the same exact thing and got the entire story wrong. It didn’t even go back and note that earlier episode. It just repeated it with modern stand-ins.”
No Hand-Held Devices In Ontario Cars
GPS Kitteh
Straight from Slashdot: “To cut down on accidents caused by drivers who aren’t paying attention, in Ontario it is now a ticketable offense to text, email, or navigate with your GPS while driving. But it seems to me that they have thrown the baby out with the bathwater, because it is now also a $500 fine to change your radio station, change songs on your MP3 player, or even drink your morning coffee. It can also be enforced to the point where changing the climate controls on your dash can get you fined because it requires you to take your hands off the wheel. Though this was a good idea, it seems to have been taken a little too far.”
Trojan Kill Switches In Military Technology
Straight from the Slashdot: “The New York Times reports in this week’s Science section that hardware and software trojan kill switches in military devices are an increasing concern, and may have already been used. ‘A 2007 Israeli Air Force attack on a suspected, partly-constructed Syrian nuclear reactor led to speculation about why the Syrian air defense system did not respond to the Israeli aircraft. Accounts of the event initially indicated that sophisticated jamming technology was used to blind the radars. Last December, however, a report in an American technical publication, IEEE Spectrum, cited a European industry source in raising the possibility that the Israelis might have used a built-in kill switch to shut down the radars. Separately, an American semiconductor industry executive said in an interview that he had direct knowledge of the operation and that the technology for disabling the radars was supplied by Americans to the Israeli electronic intelligence agency, Unit 8200.’”
Al Franken Against A Health Industry Hack
I’m not a Stewart Smalley fan in the least, but I must admit, this is pretty good stuff…
Carbon Dioxide irrelevant in climate debate says MIT Scientist
I invented Global Warming!
Straight from the Examiner: “In a study sure to ruffle the feathers of the Global Warming cabal, Professor Richard Lindzen of MIT has published a paper which proves that IPCC models are overstating by 6 times, the relevance of CO2 in Earth’s Atmosphere. Dr. Lindzen has found that heat is radiated out in to space at a far higher rate than any modeling system to date can account for.
The pdf file located at the link above from the Science and Public Policy Institute has absolutely, convincingly, and irrefutably proven the theory of Anthropogenic Global Warming to be completely false.
Professor Richard Lindzen of MIT’s peer reviewed work states “we now know that the effect of CO2 on temperature is small, we know why it is small, and we know that it is having very little effect on the climate.””
CDC Estimated H1N1 Swine Flu Numbers – Data Bogus?
This H1N1 Swine Flu shit is getting out of control!
