Friday, January 18, 2013
Obama has U.S. on 'road to bankruptcy'
President Obama wants a clean hike in the debt ceiling and insists he is doing substantial work to reduce our debt and deficits. But both of those ideas are pure fantasy, according to one of the top Republicans on the House Budget Committee.
Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., is vice chairman of the House Budget Committee and a member of the House Ways and Means Committee. He told WND while Obama is correct that a debt-ceiling hike is in response to existing expenses, there’s no reason our massive deficits have to continue.
“Just because there are programs that continue spending under current law forever and ever, that doesn’t mean they have to continue forever and ever,” Price said. “In fact, if we stay on the current course, they will go bankrupt. Medicare is on the road to bankruptcy under this president. Medicaid is on the road to bankruptcy under this president. Social Security is on the road to bankruptcy under this president. So we absolutely must reform these programs so we save them and strengthen them and secure them for those who need them in our society and for this generation and for future generations.”
Price also categorically rejects Obama’s assertion that his administration has taken great strides in cutting spending over the past four years.
“All you’ve got to do is look at the numbers and appreciate that that is not the case,” Price said. “This is an administration that has been in charge when we’ve had the largest increase in absolute debt to our nation in a four-year period of time ever, $4 trillion-plus deficits for each of the four years that he’s been in office. And his budget continues that process.”
“There are wonderful, positive solutions. That’s what we’ll be putting forward in our budget,” he said. “That’s what we’ll be embracing. We hope that the president and his people recognize there are positive reforms that need to be put into place to get this economy rolling again.”
According to Price, there are all sorts of accounting gimmicks involved in Obama’s claims of responsible spending.
“Some of it is reductions in the slope of growth. Some of it is actually fictitious or double counting,” said Price. “For example, the Budget Control Act of 2011 had $1.2 trillion in spending reductions through the sequester. He wants to count that $1.2 trillion again. That’s not the way this works.”
On Monday, President Obama asserted that Social Security payments and veterans benefits would not be sent out if Congress fails to lift the debt ceiling. Price said that is also patently false.
“We won’t allow that to happen, but we also believe there is an appropriate prioritization of spending in this country that ought to occur,” added Price, who says the House GOP will pass a prioritization plan should the debt ceiling not be raised. He said military pay, avoiding default by paying interest on the debt and benefits for seniors will be at the top of that list.
Price also echoed other GOP lawmakers in saying there is much greater resolve among Republicans to demand real reforms and spending cuts for any hike in the debt ceiling.
Obama has also once again failed to present his proposed budget to Congress by the deadline required by law. Price says this is no small detail.
“The law requires that the Congress pass a budget by April 15. In order for that to happen, the law also requires that the president submit his budget by a date certain at the end of January,” said Price.
“In this case, the president is not going to meet that deadline once again. Now the reason that’s important is that the Congress doesn’t work their budget off the assumptions that the president uses.
We move through the Congressional Budget Office, and it takes time. So the further the president backs that up, the more difficult it is for Congress to meet it’s budgetary deadline, understanding that we are very hopeful that the Senate will actually adopt a budget this year, which they haven’t done for the past four years.”
“On the House side, we’ve adopted a budget the last two years that has gotten on a path to balance and actually paying off the debt,” Price said. “We will do that again. We challenge our Senate colleagues to do the same.”
Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., is vice chairman of the House Budget Committee and a member of the House Ways and Means Committee. He told WND while Obama is correct that a debt-ceiling hike is in response to existing expenses, there’s no reason our massive deficits have to continue.
“Just because there are programs that continue spending under current law forever and ever, that doesn’t mean they have to continue forever and ever,” Price said. “In fact, if we stay on the current course, they will go bankrupt. Medicare is on the road to bankruptcy under this president. Medicaid is on the road to bankruptcy under this president. Social Security is on the road to bankruptcy under this president. So we absolutely must reform these programs so we save them and strengthen them and secure them for those who need them in our society and for this generation and for future generations.”
Price also categorically rejects Obama’s assertion that his administration has taken great strides in cutting spending over the past four years.
“All you’ve got to do is look at the numbers and appreciate that that is not the case,” Price said. “This is an administration that has been in charge when we’ve had the largest increase in absolute debt to our nation in a four-year period of time ever, $4 trillion-plus deficits for each of the four years that he’s been in office. And his budget continues that process.”
“There are wonderful, positive solutions. That’s what we’ll be putting forward in our budget,” he said. “That’s what we’ll be embracing. We hope that the president and his people recognize there are positive reforms that need to be put into place to get this economy rolling again.”
According to Price, there are all sorts of accounting gimmicks involved in Obama’s claims of responsible spending.
“Some of it is reductions in the slope of growth. Some of it is actually fictitious or double counting,” said Price. “For example, the Budget Control Act of 2011 had $1.2 trillion in spending reductions through the sequester. He wants to count that $1.2 trillion again. That’s not the way this works.”
On Monday, President Obama asserted that Social Security payments and veterans benefits would not be sent out if Congress fails to lift the debt ceiling. Price said that is also patently false.
“We won’t allow that to happen, but we also believe there is an appropriate prioritization of spending in this country that ought to occur,” added Price, who says the House GOP will pass a prioritization plan should the debt ceiling not be raised. He said military pay, avoiding default by paying interest on the debt and benefits for seniors will be at the top of that list.
Price also echoed other GOP lawmakers in saying there is much greater resolve among Republicans to demand real reforms and spending cuts for any hike in the debt ceiling.
Obama has also once again failed to present his proposed budget to Congress by the deadline required by law. Price says this is no small detail.
“The law requires that the Congress pass a budget by April 15. In order for that to happen, the law also requires that the president submit his budget by a date certain at the end of January,” said Price.
“In this case, the president is not going to meet that deadline once again. Now the reason that’s important is that the Congress doesn’t work their budget off the assumptions that the president uses.
We move through the Congressional Budget Office, and it takes time. So the further the president backs that up, the more difficult it is for Congress to meet it’s budgetary deadline, understanding that we are very hopeful that the Senate will actually adopt a budget this year, which they haven’t done for the past four years.”
“On the House side, we’ve adopted a budget the last two years that has gotten on a path to balance and actually paying off the debt,” Price said. “We will do that again. We challenge our Senate colleagues to do the same.”
Guys, there is too much going on with the DNA stuff...What are they up to? Web Hunt for DNA Sequences Leaves Privacy Compromised
The researcher did not reveal the names of the people he found, but the exercise, published Thursday in the journal Science, illustrates the difficulty of protecting the privacy of volunteers involved in medical research when the genetic information they provide needs to be public so scientists can use it.
Other reports have identified people whose genetic data was online, but none had done so using such limited information: the long strings of DNA letters, an age and, because the study focused on only American subjects, a state.
“I’ve been worried about this for a long time,” said Barbara Koenig, a researcher at the University of California in San Francisco who studies issues involving genetic data. “We always should be operating on the assumption that this is possible.”
The data are from an international study, the 1000 Genomes Project, that is collecting genetic information from people around the world and posting it online so researchers can use it freely. It also includes the ages of participants and the regions where they live. That information, a genealogy Web site and Google searches were sufficient to find complete family trees. While the methods for extracting relevant genetic data from the raw genetic sequence files were specialized enough to be beyond the scope of most laypeople, no one expected it to be so easy to zoom in on individuals.
“We are in what I call an awareness moment,” said Eric D. Green, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health.
There is no easy answer about what to do to protect the privacy of study subjects. Subjects might be made more aware that they could be identified by their DNA sequences. More data could be locked behind security walls, or severe penalties could be instituted for those who invade the privacy of subjects.
“We don’t have any claim to have the answer,” Dr. Green said. And opinions about just what should be done vary greatly among experts.
But after seeing how easy it was to find the individuals and their extended families, the N.I.H. removed people’s ages from the public database, making it more difficult to identify them.
But Dr. Jeffrey R. Botkin, associate vice president for research integrity at the University of Utah, which collected the genetic information of some research participants whose identities were breached, cautioned about overreacting. Genetic data from hundreds of thousands of people have been freely available online, he said, yet there has not been a single report of someone being illicitly identified. He added that “it is hard to imagine what would motivate anyone to undertake this sort of privacy attack in the real world.” But he said he had serious concerns about publishing a formula to breach subjects’ privacy. By publishing, he said, the investigators “exacerbate the very risks they are concerned about.”
The project was the inspiration of Yaniv Erlich, a human genetics researcher at the Whitehead Institute, which is affiliated with M.I.T. He stresses that he is a strong advocate of data sharing and that he would hate to see genomic data locked up. But when his lab developed a new technique, he realized he had the tools to probe a DNA database. And he could not resist trying.
The tool allowed him to quickly find a type of DNA pattern that looks like stutters among billions of chemical letters in human DNA. Those little stutters — short tandem repeats — are inherited.
Genealogy Web sites use repeats on the Y chromosome, the one unique to men, to identify men by their surnames, an indicator of ancestry. Any man can submit the short tandem repeats on his Y chromosome and find the surname of men with the same DNA pattern. The sites enable men to find their ancestors and relatives.
So, Dr. Erlich asked, could he take a man’s entire DNA sequence, pick out the short tandem repeats on his Y chromosome, search a genealogy site, discover the man’s surname and then fully identify the man?
He tested it with the genome of Craig Venter, a DNA sequencing pioneer who posted his own DNA sequence on the Web. He knew Dr. Venter’s age and the state where he lives. Bingo: two men popped up in the database. One was Craig Venter.
“Out of 300 million people in the United States, we got it down to two people,” Dr. Erlich said.
He and his colleagues calculated they would be able to identify, from just their DNA sequences, the last names of approximately 12 percent of middle class and wealthier white men — the population that tends to submit DNA data to recreational sites like the genealogical ones. Then by combining the men’s last names with their ages and the states where they lived, the researchers should be able to narrow their search to just a few likely individuals.
Now for the big test. On the Web and publicly available are DNA sequences from subjects in the 1000 Genomes Project. People’s ages were included and all the Americans lived in Utah, so the researchers knew their state.
Dr. Erlich began with one man from the database. He got the Y chromosome’s short tandem repeats and then went to genealogy databases and searched for men with those same repeats. He got surnames of the paternal and maternal grandfather. Then he did a Google search for those people and found an obituary. That gave him the family tree.
“Now I knew the whole family,” Dr. Erlich said. And it was so simple, so fast.
“I said, ‘Come on, that can’t be true.’” So he probed and searched and checked again and again.
“Oh my God, we really did this,” Dr. Erlich said. “I had to digest it. We had so much information.”
He and his colleagues went on to get detailed family trees for other subjects and then visited Dr. Green and his colleagues at the N.I.H. to tell them what they had done.
They were referred to Amy L. McGuire, a lawyer and ethicist at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. She, like others, called for more public discussion of the situation.
“To have the illusion you can fully protect privacy or make data anonymous is no longer a sustainable position,” Dr. McGuire said.
When the subjects in the 1000 Genomes Project agreed to participate and provide DNA, they signed a form saying that the researchers could not guarantee their privacy. But, at the time, it seemed like so much boilerplate. The risk, Dr. Green said, seemed “remote.”
“I don’t know that anyone anticipated that someone would go and actually figure out who some of those people were,” Dr. McGuire said.
In the name of the "CHILDREN" Cuomo (NY Governor) banned guns but you can murder children as long as they are inside the womb! Cuomo to make NYC world's 3rd-trimester-abortion capital!
(National Catholic Register) New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is flexing his political muscle to give abortion advocates their biggest state victory in 40 years since Roe v. Wade: a sweeping expansion of abortion law that, if enforced, would put Catholic hospitals and many state-funded ministries out of business.
Cuomo’s approval ratings have topped 70% for six straight months, and, with just two years in office, he has already pushed through controversial same-sex “marriage” legislation and the most restrictive gun-control law in the nation.
Cuomo, who is Catholic, now is setting his sights on succeeding where governors for the past six years have failed: passing the proposed Reproductive Health Care Act.
Cuomo’s approval ratings have topped 70% for six straight months, and, with just two years in office, he has already pushed through controversial same-sex “marriage” legislation and the most restrictive gun-control law in the nation.
Cuomo, who is Catholic, now is setting his sights on succeeding where governors for the past six years have failed: passing the proposed Reproductive Health Care Act.
Future for U.S.? 13% see dictator
One in seven Americans believes that the nation eventually will be ruled by a dictator, and another one in five says it eventually will break up into several sovereign regions, according to a new poll reflecting the dark shadow the country is facing.
Others believe a new “democracy” will arise from the ashes of the current republican form of government.
The results are from a telephone poll conducted for WND by the public-opinion research and media consulting company Wenzel Strategies. It was taken Jan. 9-12 and carries a margin of error of plus or minus 3.22 percentage points.
Asked to speculate on what would happen to the U.S. after a hypothetical failure of the current government, a plurality said they think some new sort of democracy would emerge.
Another 20 percent said they think the existing states would form into several different countries, based either on region or philosophical commonalities.
Just 13 percent said they think a dictator would rise to control.
But Fritz Wenzel, president of the polling organization, pointed out that than a third of the respondents said they were unsure what might happen, “an indication that this type of question is beyond what they conceive could ever happen.”
Those who identified themselves as “very liberal,” whose philosophies align most closely with those who now control Washington, were much more optimistic than the average. In that group, only 15 percent said it was likely that the nation would collapse during the next 10 years.
On the other end of the scale, 50 percent of those who are “very conservative” expressed that opinion.
On the fundamental question of expectations for a national implosion, more than 40 percent of the “liberals” said a new democracy would emerge. But only 21 percent of the “very conservative” agreed.
A full 42 percent of the respondents said they expect the nation to collapse in their lifetimes, based on the federal debt and “bloated” and “dysfunctional bureaucracy” that runs Washington.
Only 31 percent thought that very unlikely.
Thirty-eight percent said they expect a collapse within the next 20 years, and 27 percent believe it will happen during the next decade.
“No government lasts forever, and this survey shows that 42 percent believe it is likely the federal government is so badly in debt and is so dysfunctional and is so threatened by foreign enemies that it will collapse sometime during their lifetime,” Wenzel said.
“Just 51 percent said such a thing is unlikely during their lifetime, a remarkably low percentage given that we are talking about the collapse of the longest-running democratic republic in the history of the world. The guess among respondents appears to be that the collapse will occur in about 20 years, as 41 percent said as much. Just 27 percent said they think the country will collapse in the next 10 years.”
He found it “remarkable” that one in four Americans thinks the country is in its last decade of existence.
In related results, Wenzel earlier revealed that the seeds of tyranny already are present in America, with a heavily armed law enforcement presence and a population holding a disbelief that their government could do anything that would make them want to revolt.
Who Says You Can Kill Americans, Mr. President?
PRESIDENT OBAMA has refused to tell Congress or the American people why he believes the Constitution gives, or fails to deny, him the authority to secretly target and kill American citizens who he suspects are involved in terrorist activities overseas. So far he has killed three that we know of.
Presidents had never before, to our knowledge, targeted specific Americans for military strikes. There are no court decisions that tell us if he is acting lawfully. Mr. Obama tells us not to worry, though, because his lawyers say it is fine, because experts guide the decisions and because his advisers have set up a careful process to help him decide whom he should kill.
He must think we should be relieved.
The three Americans known to have been killed, in two drone strikes in Yemen in the fall of 2011, are Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical Muslim cleric who was born in New Mexico; Samir Khan, a naturalized American citizen who had lived in New York and North Carolina, and was killed alongside Mr. Awlaki; and, in a strike two weeks later, Mr. Awlaki’s 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, who was born in Colorado.
Most of us think these people were probably terrorists anyway. So the president’s reassurances have been enough to keep criticism at an acceptable level for the White House. Democrats in Congress and in the press have only gingerly questioned the claims by a Democratic president that he is right about the law and careful when he orders drone attacks on our citizens. And Republicans, who favor aggressive national security powers for the executive branch, look forward to the day when one of their own can wield them again.
But a few of our representatives have spoken up — sort of. Several months ago, Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont and chairman of the Judiciary Committee, began limply requesting the Department of Justice memorandums that justify the targeted killing program. At a committee hearing, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., reminded of the request, demurred and shared a rueful chuckle with the senator. Mr. Leahy did not want to be rude, it seems — though some of us remember him being harder on former President George W. Bush’s attorney general, Alberto R. Gonzales, in 2005.
So, even though Congress has the absolute power under the Constitution to receive these documents, the Democratic-controlled Senate has not fought this president to get them. If the senators did, and the president held fast to his refusal, they could go to court and demand them, and I believe they would win. Perhaps even better, they could skip getting the legal memos and go right to the meat of the matter — using oversight and perhaps legislating to control the president’s killing powers. That isn’t happening either.
Thank goodness we have another branch of government to step into the fray. It is the job of the federal courts to interpret the Constitution and laws, and thus to define the boundaries of the powers of the branches of government, including their own.
In reining in the branches, the courts have been toughest on themselves, however. A long line of Supreme Court cases require that judges wait for cases to come to them. They can take cases only from plaintiffs who have a personal stake in the outcome; they cannot decide political questions; they cannot rule on an issue not squarely before them.
Because of these and other limitations, no case has made it far enough in federal court for a judge to rule on the merits of the basic constitutional questions at stake here. A pending case filed in July by the families of the three dead Americans does raise Fourth and Fifth Amendment challenges to the president’s killings of their relatives. We will see if the judge agrees to consider the constitutional questions or dismisses the case, citing limitations on his own power.
In another case, decided two weeks ago, a federal judge in Manhattan, Colleen McMahon, ruled, grudgingly, that the American Civil Liberties Union and two New York Times reporters could not get access, under the Freedom of Information Act, to classified legal memorandums that were relied on to justify the targeted killing program. In her opinion, she expressed serious reservations about the president’s interpretation of the constitutional questions. But the merits of the program were not before her, just access to the Justice Department memos, so her opinion was, in effect, nothing but an interesting read.
So at the moment, the legislature and the courts are flummoxed by, or don’t care about, how or whether to take on this aggressive program. But Mr. Obama, a former constitutional law professor, should know, of all people, what needs to be done. He was highly critical when Mr. Bush applied new constitutional theories to justify warrantless wiretapping and “enhanced interrogation.” In his 2008 campaign, Mr. Obama demanded transparency, and after taking office, he released legal memos that the Bush administration had kept secret. Once the self-serving constitutional analysis that the Bush team had used was revealed, legal scholars from across the spectrum studied and denounced it.
While Mr. Obama has criticized his predecessor, he has also worried about his successors. Last fall, when the election’s outcome was still in doubt, Mr. Obama talked about drone strikes in general and said Congress and the courts should in some manner “rein in” presidents by putting a “legal architecture in place.” His comments seemed to reflect concern that future presidents should perhaps not wield alone such awesome and unchecked power over life and death — of anyone, not just Americans. Oddly, under current law, Congress and the courts are involved when presidents eavesdrop on Americans, detain them or harshly interrogate them — but not when they kill them.
It is not just the most recent president, this one and the next whom we need to worry about when it comes to improper exercise of power. It is every president. Mr. Obama should declassify and release, to Congress, the press and the public, documents that set forth the detailed constitutional and statutory analysis he relies on for targeting and killing American citizens.
Perhaps Mr. Obama still believes that, in a democracy, the people have a right to know the legal theories upon which the president executes his great powers. Certainly, we can hope so. After all, his interpretation might be wrong.
JORDAN NEWS: Islamists, Pro-Reform Movements demonstrate in Amman, blasting elections
Protesters crowded at the Jabal Hussein vital intersection, Firas Circle, and extended towards Interior Ministry Circle.
The area was cleared of traffic since early Friday morning, in preparation for the demonstration that included a Friday prayer sermon delivered by Jordan Muslim Brotherhood comptroller Hammam Saeed.
The Public Security Department (PSD) has made a comprehensive plan to deal with the major demonstration planned to be staged by the Islamist and pro-reform movements in Amman on Friday, less than a week before the scheduled upcoming parliamentary elections.
PSD spokesperson Lt. Col. Mohammad Khatib said that security forces will take measures to facilitate traffic during the protest, scheduled to be held following Friday mid-day prayer at Firas Circle in Jabal Hussein, nearby the Interior Ministry Circle.
Police blocked all entrances into the vital intersection starting at 7 AM.
The Muslim Brotherhood and its political arm, the Islamic Action Front (IAF), in addition to various youth and popular pro-reform movements called for a major demonstration under the banner of "Popular Legitimacy" to call for tangible reform measures and combatting corruption, while holding steadfast to their decision to boycott the upcoming parliamentary elections, slated to be held on Wednesday, January 23, 2013.
Dark uncertainty over more than 50 Algerian gas field hostages
Algeria said Friday morning that the hostage operation was still ongoing at
the Amenas gas field and the site was not secure. There is anger in Western
capitals over the failure of the hostages’ governments - British, Norwegian,
Japanese, American and French – to release casualty figures of the foreigners
seized Wednesday morning by North African al Qaeda (AQIM) raiders. They demanded
that France end its military intervention in Mali. One local source refers to
30 deaths. Still missing are 7 Americans, 10 British, 17 Japanese and 14
Norwegians. They could be dead, injured or hiding. This is more than the total
of 41 foreign nationals originally reported and adds confusion to the hostage
situation. The Algerians now say Thursday night their military operation ended
at the accommodation block where a number of terrorists were "neutralized" but
there are still terrorists in other parts of the site and soldiers are hunting
them down. BP which operated the field is withdrawing foreign staff from other
energy fields in Algeria.
The Great Awakening: ten volcanoes awaken in one week
January 18, 2013 – GEOLOGY – With Kamchatka currently being one of the most volcanically active places on the planet, here is a summary of the current volcanic activity in the past week in the region by the Kamchatkan Volcanic Eruption Response Team. Lava dome growth and effusion of a viscous lava flow continue at Shiveluch volcano, accompanied by moderate fumarolic activity and incandescence. Satellite imagery showed a thermal anomaly over the volcano all week. Eruption’s at four cinder cones producing fluid lava flows on the S part of the fissure on the flank of Tolbachik continues. A large thermal anomaly on the N part of the fissure was detected on satellite imagery. Gas and ash plumes from Tolbachik rose to heights of 4 KM a.s.l. A lava flow continues to extrude on the east flank of Kizimen volcano, accompanied by incandescence, hot avalanches and strong gas and steam activity. Two new lava flows were detected on the SE flank of the volcano by satellite data. A thermal anomaly was also observed. Possible ash eruptions from Karymsky volcano were detected in the past week with ash plumes possible rising to a height of 2.5 KM a.s.l. A thermal anomaly was detected at the volcano on the 11 and 14 January. Strombolian activity continues at Kliuchevskoi volcano. This was accompanied by gas and steam activity from the summit and incandescence. Thermal anomalies were detected on 11 and 13 Janaury. Here is a summary of volcanic activity in the past week in the Kuril Islands by the Sakhalin Volcanic Eruption Response Team. Gas and steam activity were noted from Chirpoi volcano on January 9 and 11. Chirpoi last erupted in 1982. A thermal anomaly and strong gas and steam activity were noted from Medvezhia volcano on January 11. Medvezhia’s last eruption was 1999. The caldera floor contains several lava domes, cinder cones and associated lava fields, and a small lake. The westernmost of the post-caldera cones, Menshoi Brat, is a large lava dome with flank scoria cones, one of which has produced a series of young (probably a few centuries old) lava flows up to 4.5 km long that reached Lake. –Volcano Discovery
On the precipice of a shift: Geologically speaking, we may be on the verge of witnessing something unprecedented in recorded history, as more aggressive change progresses within the interior of our planet. From January 6 to 13, in a span of only seven days, no less than 10 volcanoes were stirred into activity. Six volcanoes in Kamchatka, along, are reporting activity. At the planet struggles to equilibrate its thermal cycle, more and more of the planet’s systems that utilize thermal energy will be thrown into disorder: tectonic plates movements, sea-floor spreading rifts, sesimic events, climate, volcanic systems, and ocean circulation patterns. Change has come to planet Earth, and the effects will only become more pronounced and extreme over time. –The Extinction Protocol
UN launches new attempt to control the Internet
Following a meeting of ITU members last year, participants involved in the United Nation’s telecom group announced that they hoped to re-write a multilateral communications treaty, in turn causing a whole new set of international laws to structure the way the Internet works.
Although the United States and dozens of other countries have refused to sign the proposal, the ITU is nevertheless powering through with plans to put new rules and regulations on the world’s Internet, including implement sweeping deep-packet inspection powers and other efforts that could censor the Web. With the US contributing the lion’s share of the organizations funding, advocates for an open Internet are asking for all that to change.
According to the just-launched website defundtheitu.org, the UN group currently spends around $180 million annually to advocate for that revamped treaty. But while the United States opposes the very actions the ITU seeks, they at the same time contribute a massive amount of the group’s resources.
“The ten most oppressive countries in the Open Net Initiative's ranking of online freedom all sided against the Internet, and none of them are giving the ITU as much as the US is,” the site claims. In fact, insists the site, the US government gave nearly $11 million to the ITU in 2010 — almost 8 percent of its total budget — all the while opposing the group’s attempt at creating a bill that some say would change the Web as we know it.
“It’ll be the biggest power grab in the UN’s history, as well as a perversion of its power,” blogger Arthur Herman wrote for Fox News last month.
Dr. Hamadoun I. Toure, the general secretary of the ITU, has said his group has no interest in threatening free speech and instead insists a new treaty is a “chance to chart a globally-agreed roadmap to connect the unconnected, while ensuring there is investment to create the infrastructure needed for the exponential growth in voice, video and data traffic.” US lawmakers say the ITU would do so much more, though — censor the Web, in fact — which caused the US House of Representatives to unanimously agree to reject the proposal.
“The unanimous vote is meant to send a signal – as a show of strength – to other countries meeting at the telecommunications summit that both the White House and its lawmakers oppose any role the U.N. might take in Internet governance or regulation,” ZDNet reported in December.
With the ITU still bankrolled by millions of dollars from around the world, though, their plans for an international Internet treaty is still a possibility. While the US formally opposes their plan, they continue to fund the group regardless. On the just-launched petition, some aim to change that.
“This petition seeks to cut this self-defeating expenditure from the State Department’s budget, allocating the savings to constructive work supporting a free and open Internet. By reducing the budget the ITU uses to oppose us both government and private sector will realize indirect savings in time and money as a result of having to spend less to defend ourselves and the Internet against the ITU’s attacks,” the website says. “This is merely the logical follow-through to the Senate and House resolutions condemning the ITU’s attack against the Internet and directing the State Department to combat it.Paying for both sides of a conflict is unsustainable and illogical, and should simply be corrected.”
On WhiteHouse.gov, a separate petition by the same people behind the ‘Defund the ITU’ website has been created imploring US President Barack Obama to immediately reduce his government’s funding of the group by half. So far it has accumulated only 338 signatures.
The ITU is expected to next meet in February 2013.
I love our Governor! Statement by Gov. Perry on President Obama’s Executive Actions
Gov. Rick Perry released the following statement regarding President Obama's executive actions:"The Vice President's committee was appointed in response to the tragedy at Newtown, but very few of his recommendations have anything to do with what happened there.
"Guns require a finger to pull the trigger. The sad young man who did that in Newtown was clearly haunted by demons and no gun law could have saved the children in Sandy Hook Elementary from his terror.
"There is evil prowling in the world - it shows up in our movies, video games and online fascinations, and finds its way into vulnerable hearts and minds. As a free people, let us choose what kind of people we will be. Laws, the only redoubt of secularism, will not suffice. Let us all return to our places of worship and pray for help. Above all, let us pray for our children.
"In fact, the piling on by the political left, and their cohorts in the media, to use the massacre of little children to advance a pre-existing political agenda that would not have saved those children, disgusts me, personally. The second amendment to the Constitution is a basic right of free people and cannot be nor will it be abridged by the executive power of this or any other president."
"Guns require a finger to pull the trigger. The sad young man who did that in Newtown was clearly haunted by demons and no gun law could have saved the children in Sandy Hook Elementary from his terror.
"There is evil prowling in the world - it shows up in our movies, video games and online fascinations, and finds its way into vulnerable hearts and minds. As a free people, let us choose what kind of people we will be. Laws, the only redoubt of secularism, will not suffice. Let us all return to our places of worship and pray for help. Above all, let us pray for our children.
"In fact, the piling on by the political left, and their cohorts in the media, to use the massacre of little children to advance a pre-existing political agenda that would not have saved those children, disgusts me, personally. The second amendment to the Constitution is a basic right of free people and cannot be nor will it be abridged by the executive power of this or any other president."
US ex-commander: We can't stop Iran's nuclear program
Admiral William Fallon, former head of U.S. Central Command, warns that an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities would take weeks, and would only set Tehran back a few years • IAEA inspectors in talks with Iran for second day over disputed nuclear program.
A former U.S. military commander warned on Wednesday that
a U.S. military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities would take weeks to
execute, and would likely only delay Iran's development of nuclear weapons by a
few years rather than preventing Tehran from obtaining nuclear capability,
Agence France-Presse has reported.
Admiral William Fallon, the former head of the U.S.
Central Command (which covers the Middle East) said that Iran was a big concern
for the U.S. and for Israel, but voiced hope that the nuclear issue could be
resolved through diplomatic efforts.
"If the U.S. were to put a full-fledged strike campaign in
there, that would probably take several weeks, it could put this program back
for several years," AFP quoted Fallon as saying at the American Security
Project.
Iran's suspected nuclear facilities are not a "pinpoint
target," but are instead dispersed and largely underground, he said.
"The bottom line is, it's not going to be a one-time shot.
It's not going to be like '81 or even 2007," Fallon said, referring to reported
Israeli strikes on an Iraqi nuclear reactor and Syrian nuclear facility
respectively. According to Fallon, bombing Iran's current facilities would take
weeks.
Meanwhile, senior U.N. nuclear inspectors continued talks
with Iran for a second day on Thursday, hoping to reach a long-sought agreement
to unblock an investigation into suspected weapons research in the Islamic
state.
It was not clear whether the extension of the meeting in
Tehran meant that headway had been made toward nailing down a framework deal
giving the U.N. nuclear watchdog access to sites, officials and documents for
its long-stalled inquiry.
The International Atomic Energy Agency's first priority
was to visit the Parchin military base southeast of Tehran, where it suspected
explosives tests relevant for production of nuclear weapons that may have taken
place, perhaps a decade ago, accusations that Tehran has denied.
Iran has denied Western accusations that it is seeking to
develop a weapons capability, saying its nuclear program is aimed only at power
generation.
The Vienna-based IAEA and Iran separately announced the
continuation of their discussions that began on Wednesday. They gave no
details.
The IAEA, whose mission is to prevent the spread of
nuclear weapons, has been trying for a year to negotiate a so-called structured
approach with Tehran on how to conduct the investigation.
"The continuation of the discussions ... has been planned
for Thursday," the official IRNA news agency quoted a statement issued by Iran's
supreme national security council as saying.
The Iranian report added, without giving details: "The
IAEA negotiating team which arrived in Tehran on Tuesday night, held several
rounds (of talks) with the Iranian team today."
In Vienna, IAEA spokeswoman Gill Tudor said: "The talks
will continue on Thursday."
World powers were monitoring the IAEA-Iran talks for any
signs as to whether Tehran, facing intensifying sanctions pressure, may be
prepared to finally start tackling mounting international concerns about its
nuclear activity.
The six powers — the United States, France, Germany,
China, Russia and Britain — and Iran may resume their separate negotiations
later in January to try to reach a broader diplomatic settlement. They last met
in June.
After their previous meeting, in mid-December, both Iran
and the IAEA said progress was made and the U.N. agency said it expected to
finalize the deal in this week's talks. But Western diplomats later said some
key sticking points remained.
Western diplomats have said that Iran has worked for the
past year to remove any incriminating evidence from Parchin, but IAEA chief
Yukiya Amano said late last year a visit would still be useful.
Before leaving Vienna, IAEA Deputy Director General Herman
Nackaerts said his team was ready to visit Parchin immediately if access were
granted.
Tehran said a framework accord with the IAEA should be
reached before any visit to Parchin is allowed. It said the site is a
conventional military facility and has dismissed accusations of ongoing
"sanitization" there.
Western diplomats voiced skepticism in the run-up to
Wednesday's talks that a breakthrough was in the offing. Even if there were a
deal, they said, it would be unclear how it would be implemented in
practice.
But analysts and diplomats still saw a window of
opportunity for world powers to make a renewed diplomatic push to find an
overall negotiated solution to the dispute after U.S. President Barack Obama won
re-election in November.
Revolutionary Cyber-Guard? Iran boosts Web-warfare capabilities after centrifuge virus attack
The 2010 cyber-attack on an Iranian uranium enrichment facility, which destroyed more than 1,000 centrifuges, has sparked a buildup of Tehran’s hacking capabilities, a US cyberwarfare commander said. Tehran may soon be a formidable foe in cyberspace.
While no government has officially claimed responsibility for the Stuxnet virus that targeted Iran’s Natanz facility, the US and Israel are widely believed to be behind the attack. The sophisticated cyberweapon infected industrial computers and interfered with centrifuge operations, causing damage to the equipment.
"It's clear that the Natanz situation generated a reaction by them. They are going to be a force to be reckoned with, with the potential capabilities that they will develop over the years and the potential threat that will represent to the United States," General William Shelton told journalists. Shelton heads the US Air Force’s Space Command, and also oversees the Air Force's cyber operations.General Shelton declined to elaborate on Iran’s offensive hacking capabilities, or the damage that Tehran could inflict on US computer networks. Earlier, a newsletter from the Department of Homeland Security’s cyber unit warned that critical US infrastructure is becoming increasingly vulnerable to hacker attacks.
Tehran has denied several accusations it was involved hacking operations; the latest such incident was a hacking attack on nine US banks and financial institutions last week, which cost the firms millions of dollars.
A hacker group claimed responsibility for the denial-of-service onslaught against the financial websites, saying it was retaliation for an amateur video deemed offensive to Islam’s Prophet Muhammad. But US media cited a number of officials and experts who said that Washington is certain Tehran was behind the attack. Tehran denied any involvement, saying in a statement that it “denounces such methods, which are a violation of the sovereignty of nations.”
Another alleged Iranian cyberwarfare operation was last year’s attack on Saudi oil giant Aramco. A virus uploaded to the state-owned firm’s computer networks damaged files on some 30,000 computers. At the time, US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta called the incident “a significant escalation of the cyber threat,” and warned that a “cyber Pearl Harbor” could soon hit America.
Iran has recently grappled with a number of cyber-attacks. In December 2012, Tehran complained that a number of hacking attacks aimed at disrupting the networks of Iranian industrial facilities – including a power plant – took place over the course of several months.
Iran is currently under crippling financial sanctions championed by the US that have significantly cut its oil revenues and damaged its economy. Washington and its allies have stepped up pressure on Tehran in a bid to halt its uranium enrichment program, and have accused Iran of trying to build a nuclear weapon.
The Islamic Republic has for years denied allegations it is weaponizing its nuclear industry, arguing that its enrichment capabilities are needed to produce fuel for nuclear power plants and radioactive isotopes for medical applications.
Something is getting ready to go down folks!
Bundesbank announced plans to withdraw its entire 374-ton store of gold bullion from the Bank of France in Paris, and 300 tons of the 1,500 tons currently held by the New York Federal Reserve.
The German government refrained from commenting on the reports ahead of its presentation of a new plan for the management of its gold reserves on Wednesday. Germany boasts the world’s second-largest bullion reserves at 270,000 gold bars ($177.5 billion), second only to the US.Germany’s gold stockpile was relocated abroad during the Cold War amid fears of a possible Soviet invasion. There is no reason now to maintain overseas stockpiles, Bundesbank said – from now on, the bank will only keep small amounts of gold abroad for trading purposes.
About 30 percent of Germany’s gold reserves are currently being held in the country at the facilities of Frankfurt-based Bundesbank.
"Now, the political security situation has changed because the East-West conflict is over. Considerations to store the gold as far west and as far from the Iron Curtain as possible had to be reconsidered," Bundesbank board member Carl-Ludwig Thiele told reporters on Wednesday. He added that gold was an important resource “to create confidence in the currency and in the economic power of our country."
The move follows a damning report by the German Court of Auditors criticizing the management of Bundesbank’s foreign bullion stockpiles. Auditors said that the stores “had never been verified physically,” and were not under proper control.
Bundesbank was taken aback by the criticism, stressing there was no need for speculation on Germany’s overseas holdings and that "there is no doubt about the integrity of the foreign storage sites." The central bank is widely regarded as one of the most trustworthy institutions in German society.
Veteran gold dealer Jim Sinclair said that Bundesbank’s strategy marked a change in trends in the global gold market, heralding a move away from paper administration of funds.
Malian army gains ground in conflict as UN warns of mass refugee exodus
"We have wrested total control of Konna after inflicting heavy losses on the enemy," the Malian army said in a brief statement. Regional security agencies confirmed the claims.
The international community fears that if the rebels reach the capital Bamako they will form "a terrorist safe haven in the heart of Africa.”
A hundred Togolese and Nigerian soldiers arrived in Mali late on Thursday to reinforce the 1,400 French soldiers already deployed in the country.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has pledged 3,000 troops to the conflict, but the initial date for their deployment was September of this year. As a result, many of the nine regional allies have said they cannot send immediate help.
French President Francois Hollande has repeatedly promised that the French presence in Mali will be short-lived, and will end when the Islamist rebels have been eradicated. However, concerns have been raised that France will be there for the long haul, given that the rebels were well-armed and better-prepared than originally believed.
The UN refugee agency warned on Friday that if the conflict becomes drawn-out, as many as 700,000 people could end up fleeing the area.
"We believe there could be in the near future an additional 300,000 displaced inside Mali and up to 400,000 additional displaced [refugees] in neighboring countries," UN refugee agency spokesperson Melissa Fleming said at a news briefing.
Around 147,000 Malians have sought refuge in neighboring countries since Islamist militants seized control of the north of the country nine months ago. The UN estimates that since France began its aerial bombardment last Friday, more than 2,700 people have fled the region.
France architect of conflict that could ‘burn Africa’
President Hollande has claimed that France’s intervention in Mali is justified because of the hostage crisis in Algeria propagated by Malian rebels."What's happening in Algeria provides further evidence that my decision to intervene in Mali was justified," the French President told business leaders in Paris.
Peace activist Reiner Braun painted a different picture when he told RT “the French government is responsible for the crisis.”
“There is no argument for sending these troops to Mali, you cannot solve the problems of Mali with military intervention,” Braun said.
He stressed that France’s move was “immoral,” and will result in a similar situation to Afghanistan that will kill hundreds of thousands and “burn Africa.”
Nigerian soldiers arrive at the airport in Bamako on January 17, 2013.(AFP Photo / Issouf Sanogo)
Togolese Army soldiers stand in preparation to leave for deployment to Mali from Togo's capital Lome January 17, 2013.
(Reuters / Stringer)
Nigerian soldiers prepare to load weapons stored in boxes into a military plane before leaving for Mali, at the airport in Nigeria's northern state of Kaduna January 17, 2013.(Reuters / Afolabi Sotunde)
Algeria siege: Hostage situation ongoing, dozens of captives and militants dead
The militants who seized an Algerian gas plant, taking scores of hostages, have demanded the release of terrorists, one of whom was involved in the 9/11 attacks. At least 30 hostages, including several foreigners, have died in rescue attempts.
The Al-Qaeda-linked military group that claimed responsibility for the kidnappings said it will carry out more attacks, Mauritania's ANI news agency reported.
The Mulathameen group warned people to stay away from“the installations of foreign companies as we will strike where it is least expected,”
ANI quoted the group as saying. The group reportedly pre-planned the attack on the plant for two months.
Conflicting reports have emerged regarding the rescue operation and its final death toll. Out of the 30 hostages killed, there were at least two Brits, one French national and two Japanese nationals, Reuters reported.
The hostage situation has given rise to a number of conflicting figures. Algerian news outlet APS says that nearly 650 hostages have been freed, among them 573 Algerians and over half of the 132 foreigners being held. This leaves about 60 foreign citizens still being held by the militants.
Earlier, a Mulathameen spokesperson claimed that 34 hostages and 15 kidnappers had been killed after the rescue operation began.
UK’s Prime Minister David Cameron said that the militants still posed a “threat” in one part of the gas complex, and that the operation was “ongoing.”
On Friday, the gas complex was surrounded by Algerian forces, with some hostages still being detained inside.
London said that its priority is the safety of the hostages, which is why it has withheld some information on the incident so as not to further endanger their lives.
Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide has also confirmed to BBC that the operation is ongoing, saying that the entire plant has not yet been retaken by Algerian forces. Information on the operation continues to change by the hour, Eide said.
Early Wednesday, militants commanded by Malian terrorist Mokhtar Belmokhtar attacked the In Aminas gas installation in southeastern Algeria near the Libyan border. The facility is run by BP, Norwegia’s Statoil and the Algerian company Sonatrech.
Several dozen heavily armed militants first raided two buses carrying plant workers, and then descended on the gas facility. The attackers claimed to have taken at least 41 foreign hostages from at least 10 countries.
The group said it conducted the raid in retaliation for France’s engagement in the Mali crisis. Mulathameen Commander Oumar Ould Hamaha told AP that they were “globalizing the conflict” in revenge for the attack on Mali.
The militants demanded safe passage out of the facility and the release of hundreds of Islamist prisoners in return for the release of the hostages.
An undated handout picture released by the BP petroleum company on January 16, 2013.(AFP Photo / BP Petroleum Company)
Prime Minister Cameron said that he had only been informed as the operation was underway: “We were very disappointed that we were not informed in advance.” A senior US official also told AFP that they “were not aware of the raid in advance.”
Foreign governments voiced anger and concern over Algeria’s actions when they attacked the gas complex with military units supported by helicopters, leaving the fate of those captured unknown.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe slammed the raid as an act that “threatened the lives of the hostages.”
Western governments sought clarification from Algeria, as they felt left out of the operation since the Algerian government kept tight control over any details, leading to varying casualty figures.
The US offered to participate in the rescue by sending an unmanned surveillance drone to the site, but it was only able to observe what was happening. Other offers of aid were also reportedly rejected by the Algerian government.
On Thursday night, there were fewer than 30 British citizens believed to be “at risk” in Algeria. That number has been “quite significantly” reduced, Prime Minister Cameron told Parliament on Friday. As many as 20 Brits may still be unaccounted for, according to media reports.
A US plane landed at In Amenas airport, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the gas plant, to evacuate Americans who were held hostage during the crisis, a local source told Reuters.
Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal told his Norwegian counterpart that the authorities “had no choice but to go in” due to the militants’ stubbornness and their alleged attempt to flee the facility with the hostages.
In Aminas is located in one of the most remote regions in the world, some 18 hours by car from the capital Algiers, in the middle of the Sahara desert.
“An important number of hostages were freed and an important number of terrorists eliminated and we regret the few dead and wounded,” Algerian Communication Minister Mohand Said Oubelaid told reporters.
As many as 600 Algerians, along with four foreign hostages – two Scots, a Kenyan and a French national – managed to flee during Thursday’s raid, state news agency APS reported.
Algerian helicopters were firing “at anything that moved,” a British security source told CBS. At least one of the cars in the Algerian raid convoy was reportedly blown up by a suicide bomb.
A local man who managed to escape told Reuters that the military had inside knowledge of the plant.
ANI quoted the group as saying. The group reportedly pre-planned the attack on the plant for two months.
Conflicting reports have emerged regarding the rescue operation and its final death toll. Out of the 30 hostages killed, there were at least two Brits, one French national and two Japanese nationals, Reuters reported.
The hostage situation has given rise to a number of conflicting figures. Algerian news outlet APS says that nearly 650 hostages have been freed, among them 573 Algerians and over half of the 132 foreigners being held. This leaves about 60 foreign citizens still being held by the militants.
Earlier, a Mulathameen spokesperson claimed that 34 hostages and 15 kidnappers had been killed after the rescue operation began.
UK’s Prime Minister David Cameron said that the militants still posed a “threat” in one part of the gas complex, and that the operation was “ongoing.”
On Friday, the gas complex was surrounded by Algerian forces, with some hostages still being detained inside.
London said that its priority is the safety of the hostages, which is why it has withheld some information on the incident so as not to further endanger their lives.
Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide has also confirmed to BBC that the operation is ongoing, saying that the entire plant has not yet been retaken by Algerian forces. Information on the operation continues to change by the hour, Eide said.
Early Wednesday, militants commanded by Malian terrorist Mokhtar Belmokhtar attacked the In Aminas gas installation in southeastern Algeria near the Libyan border. The facility is run by BP, Norwegia’s Statoil and the Algerian company Sonatrech.
Several dozen heavily armed militants first raided two buses carrying plant workers, and then descended on the gas facility. The attackers claimed to have taken at least 41 foreign hostages from at least 10 countries.
The group said it conducted the raid in retaliation for France’s engagement in the Mali crisis. Mulathameen Commander Oumar Ould Hamaha told AP that they were “globalizing the conflict” in revenge for the attack on Mali.
The militants demanded safe passage out of the facility and the release of hundreds of Islamist prisoners in return for the release of the hostages.
An undated handout picture released by the BP petroleum company on January 16, 2013.(AFP Photo / BP Petroleum Company)
Algeria under fire for proceeding with rescue op on their own
When Algerian forces launched the rescue operation early Thursday, they did not consult other governments involved, including the UK, France, US, and Japan, prompting sharp criticism of the move.Prime Minister Cameron said that he had only been informed as the operation was underway: “We were very disappointed that we were not informed in advance.” A senior US official also told AFP that they “were not aware of the raid in advance.”
Foreign governments voiced anger and concern over Algeria’s actions when they attacked the gas complex with military units supported by helicopters, leaving the fate of those captured unknown.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe slammed the raid as an act that “threatened the lives of the hostages.”
Western governments sought clarification from Algeria, as they felt left out of the operation since the Algerian government kept tight control over any details, leading to varying casualty figures.
The US offered to participate in the rescue by sending an unmanned surveillance drone to the site, but it was only able to observe what was happening. Other offers of aid were also reportedly rejected by the Algerian government.
On Thursday night, there were fewer than 30 British citizens believed to be “at risk” in Algeria. That number has been “quite significantly” reduced, Prime Minister Cameron told Parliament on Friday. As many as 20 Brits may still be unaccounted for, according to media reports.
A US plane landed at In Amenas airport, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the gas plant, to evacuate Americans who were held hostage during the crisis, a local source told Reuters.
Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal told his Norwegian counterpart that the authorities “had no choice but to go in” due to the militants’ stubbornness and their alleged attempt to flee the facility with the hostages.
In Aminas is located in one of the most remote regions in the world, some 18 hours by car from the capital Algiers, in the middle of the Sahara desert.
“An important number of hostages were freed and an important number of terrorists eliminated and we regret the few dead and wounded,” Algerian Communication Minister Mohand Said Oubelaid told reporters.
As many as 600 Algerians, along with four foreign hostages – two Scots, a Kenyan and a French national – managed to flee during Thursday’s raid, state news agency APS reported.
Algerian helicopters were firing “at anything that moved,” a British security source told CBS. At least one of the cars in the Algerian raid convoy was reportedly blown up by a suicide bomb.
A local man who managed to escape told Reuters that the military had inside knowledge of the plant.
Rocket hits Aleppo residential area, multiple casualties reported
The number of casualties was not immediately known, though the TV report showed crowds of people pulling bloodied bodies from the rubble, Reuters said.
A video broadcast on Syrian state TV showed the collapsed floors of the targeted building in a government-controlled area of the city, AP reported.
While state-run news agency SANA generally blames such violence on ‘terrorists,’ a word used by the regime to describe rebel forces, anti-Assad activist groups along with Local Coordination Committees of Syria accused the government of launching the attack.
The latest news from Aleppo coincides with reports from activists in another Syrian city, where an explosion near Al-Husain mosque in Deraa,
south of Damascus, reportedly caused several deaths and injuries.
The situation in Aleppo has deteriorated in the past few days. On January 15, two rocket explosions hit the University of Aleppo, killing at least 87 people and injuring 160.
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