Edward Snowden: From GED To NSA? Edward Snowden's decision to leak top-secret National Security Agency documents has raised questions about the extent of the government's surveillance capabilities. But it has also led to questions about how someone with Snowden's experience and background -- he is just 29 years old -- ended up with seemingly easy access to the nation's most sensitive secrets. "How could a guy who was at Booz Allen for three months have Top Secret compartmented clearance? " Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), a members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said to reporters in Washington on Monday, according to Bloomberg. "There are a lot of questions about whether these were in his purview or part of an effort on his part to accumulate as much as he could to release it. " So far, most of what we know about Snowden's career comes from what he has told The Guardian.
Booz Allen Hamilton has confirmed that Snowden worked at the firm for the last few months, with a base salary of $122,000. Sen. Is it Possible Christopher Dorner Got Away? On March 3rd, we published an article that discussed some of the more popular conspiracy theories surrounding the Christopher Dorner case. This week, we are going to take a more in-depth look at one of those theories in particular; the theory that Dorner was able to escape the fiery cabin and elude officers.
Even though this scenario seems to be very unlikely, many of the believers contend that the evidence available (or lack thereof) all point to the highly trained Christopher Dorner making a clean getaway. So, should we believe the LAPD and the media when they state that Christopher Dorner died in that cabin in the San Bernardino Mountains or are the conspiracy theorists right when they say that Dorner did not die, he escaped?
The official story of the Christopher Dorner case is that he died in the cabin during the shootout between himself and authorities. One such claim is that Dorner’s remains were identified through dental records. Justice Dept. document justifies killing Americans overseas if they pose ‘imminent threat’ The United States can lawfully kill a U.S. citizen overseas if it determines the target is a “senior, operational leader” of al-Qaeda or an associated group and poses an imminent threat to the United States, according to a Justice Department document published late Monday by NBC News.
The document defines “imminent threat” expansively, saying it does not have to be based on intelligence about a specific attack since such actions are being “continually” planned by al-Qaeda. “In this context,” it says, “imminence must incorporate considerations of the relevant window of opportunity” as well as possible collateral damage to civilians. It says that such determinations can be made by an “informed, high-level official of the U.S. government.” The memo was written months prior to a September 2011 drone strike in Yemen that killed Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.
-born Muslim cleric accused of helping al-Qaeda’s Yemeni affiliate plan attacks against the United States. Obama Drone Strikes - Secrets and World Ties: Obama's Killer Contradiction. In the August issue, Tom Junod examines an entirely new application of power on the part of the president — the targeted killing of individuals deemed to be threats to the country. So far, thousands have been killed, most prominent among them Osama bin Laden and Anwar al-Awlaki.
The decisions to target are made and the lethal missions are carried out without any public accountability, even when those targeted are Americans and even when, on one occasion, one of those Americans was a teenager. Over the course of this week, Junod considers five of the larger implications of his story on The Politics Blog. —Eds. I received a phone call on Tuesday from a person with intimate knowledge of the executive counter-terrorism policies of the Obama administration. "You know, most of the people reading this piece are saying that you think that this policy is a bad thing," he said. He was calling, he said, to "help you think through some of the issues you raised. " It might sound trivial, he said. Gamma rays hint at dark matter. Using a new statistical technique to analyse publicly available data from NASA's Fermi Space Telescope, an astrophysicist in Germany says he may have spotted a tell-tale sign of exotic particles annihilating within the Milky Way.
If proved to be real, this "gamma-ray line" would, he claims, be a "smoking-gun signature" of dark matter. There is a wide body of indirect observational evidence that an invisible substance accounts for some 80% of the matter in the universe. Although physicists can measure the effects that this dark matter has on the visible universe, they have very little understanding of what this mysterious stuff actually is.
As well as looking for direct evidence of dark matter by detecting it – or even producing it – here on Earth, researchers are also scouring the skies for signs of the particles that dark matter might produce when self-annihilating. In contrast, say astrophysicists, a gamma-ray line would leave little room for alternative explanations. Overseas Civilian Contractors. Watch As Darpa's Fire Suppression Wand Magically Extinguishes These Flames. DARPA Eyes Mobile Apps To Fly Drones - Government - Mobile & Wireless. The agency seeks smartphone app developers to add advanced capabilities to sensors for military aircraft and vehicles. The Department of Defense (DOD) is looking to mobile application development to improve its development of sensors for drones and other military surveillance, reconnaissance, and intelligence vehicles.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the DOD's research arm, is seeking smartphone app developers for its Adaptable Sensor System (ADAPT) program, according to a statement. The program uses a commercial development model to facilitate rapid delivery and configuration of sensor systems, which typically take three to eight years to develop, the agency said.
DARPA wants to tap innovations in mobile app development to add advanced capabilities to sensors. Researchers already have proven they can fly a miniature UAV with a smartphone app. [DARPA considers everything that might improve defense--including YouTube. More Insights. Drone Aircraft Move Closer to Flying in U.S. Civilian Airspace. Drone aircraft moved closer to taking flight in U.S. civilian airspace as regulators issued a call for advice on establishing test sites. The Federal Aviation Administration said it wants drone makers and the public to comment on where to locate proving grounds and their management, according to a filing yesterday in the U.S. Federal Register’s Public Inspection Desk. “Unmanned aircraft can help us meet a number of challenges, from spotting wildfires to assessing natural disasters,” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement. “These test sites will help us ensure that our high safety standards are maintained as the use of these aircraft becomes more widespread.”
Drones have been used to kill terrorists and assist U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and manufacturers have pushed the government to allow greater domestic use for law enforcement and businesses. Similar language was contained in a law passed last month authorizing spending at the FAA. Drones could be tested near border. Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION By: Brian Bennett Posted: 03/10/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: WASHINGTON -- The American government has taken the first step toward allowing drones to fly alongside passenger airplanes in the U.S., possibly near the Canadian border south of Winnipeg.
As required by a law signed by U.S. In a notice to be published Friday, the FAA is seeking advice on how to select six places around the country that will be used for testing how to safely fly drones in the same area as traditional planes. Possible testing sites include airspace along the Canadian border near the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks and airspace near New Mexico State University among other areas already used for testing drones. The University of North Dakota was the first school to offer a four-year degree in piloting unmanned aircraft and is close to Grand Forks Air Force Base that is home to Air Force Global Hawk and Predator drones, as well as two Predators flown by U.S.
DARPA aims to cut weapons development time by 80% - Washington Business Journal. Zap your brain into the zone: Fast track to pure focus - life - 06 February 2012. I'm close to tears behind my thin cover of sandbags as 20 screaming, masked men run towards me at full speed, strapped into suicide bomb vests and clutching rifles. For every one I manage to shoot dead, three new assailants pop up from nowhere. I'm clearly not shooting fast enough, and panic and incompetence are making me continually jam my rifle. My salvation lies in the fact that my attackers are only a video, projected on screens to the front and sides. It's the very simulation that trains US troops to take their first steps with a rifle, and everything about it has been engineered to feel like an overpowering assault.
Then they put the electrodes on me. I am in a lab in Carlsbad, California, in pursuit of an ... DARPA's Newest Workhorse. UAV madness as Darpa’s UAVForge competition intensifies. UAV’s are everywhere these days. It seems I can’t even walk out of my house without running into a quad-rotor of some sort. Even local law enforcement agencies are getting into the act with their recent acquisition of military surplus. For those of you who love them, Darpa (Defense Research Products Agency) has teamed up with SSC Atlantic (Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center) to give us average ‘Joes’ the opportunity to design the next generation of Unmanned Ariel Vehicles. Called "UAVForge," (started at the end of 2011) contest is heating up in competition with both the crazy and conventional designs. The collaboration uses ‘crowd-sourcing’ as well as a virtual environment and a fictional scenario that participants use to design their UAV’s.
You can design by yourself, with a team or you may join an existing team but the contest states that participants have until Feb. 23 2012 to do so. ● Milestone 2: Proof of flight. Concept UAV from the competition (via DARPA) Cabe. US' 'Black budget' revealed! $51 Billion spent on covert projects. Washington: That the US spends billions of dollars on its military is no secret. But how much is being spend on which project, well, that's a closely guarded secret, something that the Pentagon calls "classified programs".
These 'programs' are secrets, guarded through the use of obscure code words, but now details have emerged of how much money is being spent on the U.S. government’s most secret military projects. According to wired.com this year alone, the US military’s black budget appears to be a little over $51 billion, down from the $56 billion which held steady for the last two years, not including inflation. But considering the state of the US economy, that cut does not come as a surprise. Projects with code names like the Navy’s “RETRACT JUNIPER” and “LINK PLUMERIA” are simple enough to find in the research development, testing and evaluation budget (.pdf). These projects are also where to go when searching for what’s getting cut. There’s also a slight problem. Global suicide 2020: We can’t feed 10 billion - Paul B. Farrell. By Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (MarketWatch) — Welcome, you’re now on the new “Innovation Saves the World” team.
We’re working together, searching for positive solutions. In fact, let’s also assume the best solution will be awarded $10 million, call it the “10X-Prize,” to finance and build a new company on our proposed solution and achieve our goals. Hope for the orphans of Myanmar Orphans in Shan State on the Thai-Myanmar border hope for a better future amid Myanmar's recent democratic reforms. So if you’re with us, imagine this is as deadly urgent as if NASA predicted a huge asteroid will hit Earth by 2020, destroying billions. Our team is tasked to solve this problem: “How to feed the 7 billion people already on Earth today plus another 3 billion by 2050?” World’s biggest survival task is food: Earth cannot feed 10 billion First, a crucial research paper from a leading consultant, Jeremy Grantham, whose firm manages $100 billion.
Get it? Expanded Role Proposed for Elite Military Forces. Navy SEAL Commander Advised to ‘Get the Hell Out of the Media’ Feb 7, 2012 3:42pm Charles Dharapak/AP Photo A retired general today assailed the commander of the Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama bin Laden for drawing too much media attention to operations that he argued should be kept under wraps. Special Operations Commander Adm. Bill McRaven was confronted by retired Lt.
Gen. “Since the time when your wonderful team went and drug bin Laden out and got rid of him, and more recently when you went down and rescued the group in Somalia, or wherever the hell they were, they’ve been splashing all of this all over the media,” Vaught, 85, said. “Now back when my special operators extracted Saddam [Hussein] from the hole, we didn’t say one damn word about it,” he continued. “Now I’m going to tell you, one of these days, if you keep publishing how you do this, the other guy’s going to be there ready for you, and you’re going to fly in and he’s going to shoot down every damn helicopter and kill every one of your SEALs. In this photo provided by the U.S. SOCOM makes a power grab. The Way Forward: McRaven's Request for More US SOCOM Agility.
Fighting an enemy that has no rules, no borders and a radical point of view is a tough thing to do these days. It reminds me of how we fought and won our independence from the British. We were significantly outnumbered, out funded, and somehow made it happen. This lesson on warfare without rules should not be lost in the US. In my opinion, if we expect to have an impact on radical ideology in the world, we need to start winning some hearts and minds (Three Cups of Tea anyone?). Killing bad guys deals with the symptoms, not prevention or the root cause. The ugly truth is that there are bad people in this world who object to our free way of life.
Meanwhile, radicals roam the globe with a closed play book, and no rules. We need to work smarter, not harder, and nobody knows this saying better than my former teammate, McRaven. “The military’s regional combatant commanders have feared a decrease of their authority”-NY Times Brandon. US secret armies gear up for global war. 14 February 2012 The “tide of war is receding” is a phrase President Barack Obama has employed ad nauseam—once in his State of the Union address, twice in the course of remarks last month at the unveiling of the Pentagon's new military strategy document, once again during his speech at the United Nations, also in his announcement of troop withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan, and in a Veteran's Day address.
The constant repetition of this hackneyed metaphor is aimed at obscuring the obvious—that US militarism has escalated dramatically under the Democratic president and its tide threatens to engulf the entire planet. Among the latest indications is a behind-the-scenes campaign by the chief of the US military's Special Operations Command (SOCOM) for greater autonomy in dispatching elite killer squads to every corner of the globe. Adm. SOCOM's personnel has doubled since 2001 to its current headcount of 66,000, while its budget has risen from $4.2 billion to $10.5 billion. Bill Van Auken. Commander of the United States Special Operations Command: Who Is William McRaven? Pentagon outsources 'War on Drugs' to Academi (formerly known as Blackwater) ~ Terminal X. Pentagon outsources War on Drugs to Blackwater.
K Street headhunters enamored with upcoming class of retiring lawmakers.
Time to end the war on drugs.