acclaimed director's films explored social issues from cbsnews: Acclaimed filmmaker Sidney Lumet, who died today at the age of 86, left a legacy of classic films, many of which dealt with crime and justice - "12 Angry Men," "The Anderson Tapes," "Serpico," "Dog Day Afternoon," "Murder on the Orient Express," "Night Falls on Manhattan," to name just a few.
Peter Finch earned an Oscar for his performance as Howard Beale, the news anchor knocked off the air for mental instability, only to be returned in front of the cameras as a ratings driver in the guise of a "mad prophet of the airwaves." His message: don't believe what you see and hear on TV. The audience eats it up.
In the clip below, Beale - who has been wandering the streets in the rain - arrives at the studio to deliver not the news but a challenge to his audience, and to society in general, to reject feeling powerless against the political and media forces of the world.
from washington post: President Obama’s decision to launch his 2012 reelection campaign Monday is about much more than money. It is an acknowledgment by the president’s team that the grass-roots army that helped propel Obama to the White House needs repair and rejuvenation.
That corps of volunteers defined the character and personality of Obama’s first run for the White House. It was in many ways an organic movement, which sprang to life in 2007 and gathered momentum through the course of the campaign. Since then it has atrophied.
Obama advisers know his reelection will depend on many things, some of which are out of their control. What they also know is that a victory will rely in part on their ability to reenergize those volunteers, to stitch together the unusual coalition of African Americans, Latinos, young people, women and college-educated white voters who backed Obama in 2008. That is within their control.
The desire to start raising money early should not be underestimated. Obama was extraordinarily successful raising money in small donations in 2008. His haul from the Internet — hundreds of millions of dollars — underscored the bottom-up nature of his candidacy.
The lefty counterpoint to the righty Glenn Beck hijacked Tea Party types. The lefties may be a little more fun but no less propagandizing. It's breaking us down into two groups that oppose each other as if that's all there is.
But most of us don't actually fit into this false duplicity. We're the ones who don't like Stewart and Obama, Beck and Palin. Using conventional terms we as individuals are a mix of conservative, liberal, moderate, radical or what ever you want to call it. Sort of 'mongrels' that don't fit what the media wants us to be.
A real rally for America would be anti-war, anti-imperialism and most definitely anti-criminal government and anti-wall street/banker syndicate. Basically it would be looking for the truth wherever it leads us. We haven't seen much of that in these controlled for TV gatherings.
Rallies have always been used to manipulate the masses. The crowd cheers "hooray for us" and goes home satiated. A lot of good people want to be involved, a lot of good people fall for the deceptions.
what obama won't say from juan cole: Fellow Americans, and Iraqis who are watching this speech, I have come here this evening not to declare a victory or to mourn a defeat on the battlefield, but to apologize from the bottom of my heart for a series of illegal actions and grossly incompetent policies pursued by the government of the United States of America, in defiance of domestic US law, international treaty obligations, and both American and Iraqi public opinion... We cannot undo what has been done. We cannot pretend that the United States did not violate the United Nations charter and the Geneva Conventions. But we can make amends. We can seek redemption as a nation. And our salvation lies in forswearing permanent war, aggressive war, undeclared war, and police actions as a way of life.
...now more than ever, as we see another big attack on 9/11 truth, it's important to remember that obama's war of terror is still based on the previous puppet administration's lies about 9/11...
accused 9/11 mastermind, ksm: 'i make up stories' from ap: Accused al Qaeda mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed complained that interrogators tortured lies out of him, though he proudly took credit for more than two dozen other terror plots, according to newly released sections of government transcripts. "I make up stories," Mohammed said at one point in his 2007 hearing at Guantánamo Bay. In broken English, he described an interrogation in which he was asked the location of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. "Where is he? I don't know," Mohammed said. "Then he torture me. Then I said, 'Yes, he is in this area or this is al Qaeda which I don't know him.' I said no, they torture me." Yet at the same military tribunal hearing, Mohammed ticked off a list of 29 terror plots in which he took part.
author: fitzgerald libel threat aimed at censoring key 9/11 tale from raw story: Peter Lance should be thanking Patrick Fitzgerald right now, even as the attorney’s checks are being signed. If it were not for the U.S. Attorney who famously prosecuted I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the former Vice President’s Chief of Staff, the re-release of Lance’s stunning tale of mishandled espionage leading up to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, might be overlooked. The former ABC News investigative reporter’s book Triple Cross hit relatively few shelves in 2006 as a hardcover and left retail quietly, almost completely ignored. Now, with its paperback release looming, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald is threatening to sue over material which he calls “defamatory” and “easily proven to be objectively false,” some of which touches on little known information relating to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Because of the threat, the reissue of Triple Cross received attention from The Washington Post, Huffington Post, The Wall Street Journal and the Associated Press, among others. “That’s the lesson of censorship,” chided Lance, speaking to RAW STORY.
faulty equipment stops deutsche bank work again from tribeca trib: For the second time in a week, faulty equipment has led to the shutdown of decontamination work on the former Deutsche Bank tower, near the World Trade Center site. Responding to reports of smoke outside the building late Tuesday morning, June 9, firefighters discovered a malfunction in part of the building’s negative air pressure machinery, which produces a hermetic seal on the toxic portions of the tower. Crews were told to quit working on the building, and did not return to work until the following morning. The smoke was the result of a piece of overheated equipment outside the building, according to Mike Murphy, spokesman for the tower’s owners, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. “Right now we’re trying to figure out exactly why that equipment wasn’t working properly,” Murphy said.
9/11 commission & more: additions to 9/11 timeline as of june 16 from history commons: Some of the recently added entries go into more detail about the 9/11 Commission, which discovered the FAA was withholding documents from it in September 2003 and issued its first subpoena for them a month later. Soon after, the commission also subpoenaed the Pentagon, despite a last-ditch bid to avert it by the commission’s Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton, a good friend of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. In addition, Commissioner John Lehman repeatedly told the White House of Saudi links to the 9/11 plotters, but the administration was uninterested.
On the day of 9/11, fighters launched from Langley Air Force Base were given the wrong coordinates for Washington at about 9:40 a.m., Otis Air Force Base was ordered to launch all fighters at about 10:20 a.m., and a security officer became trapped in WTC 7 around 10:00 a.m.
...and again, we see the return of homegrown terror. remember: when the fake conservatives are in 'power', the enemy is abroad - when the phony left is in favor, the enemy is within...
Law enforcement officials said von Brunn, a white supremacist, was under investigation in the shooting and that his car was found near the museum and tested for explosives. The weapon was a .22-caliber rifle, they added. They spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to discuss the investigation just beginning.
Museum officials identified the dead guard as Stephen T. Johns, a six-year veteran of the facility. In an e-mail, director Sara Bloomfield said he "died heroically in the line of duty."
In 1983, he was convicted of attempting to kidnap members of the Federal Reserve Board and served more than six years in prison. He was arrested two years earlier outside the room where the board was meeting, carrying a revolver, knife and sawed-off shotgun. At the time, police said von Brunn wanted to take the members hostage because of high interest rates and the nation's economic difficulties.
...continuing the conflation of the hate-filled fringe with those of us who love peace, truth, liberty & question 9/11...
beck’s outrageous lie: racist von brunn is 'hero of 9/11 truthers' from kurt nimmo: There should be absolutely no doubt Glenn Beck is a government disinfo operative tasked with taking down the 9/11 truth and patriot movements. In fact, Fox News — as a primary fount of Operation Mockingbird — is tasked with attacking not only the 9/11 truth movement but the pro-liberty and Constitution movements as well.
and now, as if in response to my rant, an update: american al-CIAda member acknowledges jewish ancestry from cnn: In a new anti-Israel, anti-U.S. video, an American al Qaeda member makes reference to his Jewish ancestry for the first time in an official al Qaeda message. In the video, Adam Yahiye Gadahn (Pearlman), also known as Azzam the American, discusses his roots as he castigates U.S. policies and deplores Israel's offensive in Gaza that started in late December 2008 and continued into January. "Let me here tell you something about myself and my biography, in which there is a benefit and a lesson," Gadahn says, as he elicits support from his fellow Muslims for "our weapons, funds and Jihad against the Jews and their allies everywhere... Your speaker has Jews in his ancestry, the last of whom was his grandfather," he says. Growing up in rural California, Gadahn embraced Islam in the mid-1990s, moved to Pakistan and has appeared in al Qaeda videos before.
737 US military bases = global empire from global research: With more than 2,500,000 U.S. personnel serving across the planet and military bases spread across each continent, it's time to face up to the fact that our American democracy has spawned a global empire.
marines embedded at los angeles county coroner's office from latimes: Marine Corps Reserve Lance Cpl. Matthew Barlow rides along with Los Angeles County coroner's personnel to retrieve the body of a homeless man found in Hazard Park in Boyle Heights. He is among 14 Marines who were embedded at the coroner's office for three weeks to learn how to collect bodies and personal belongings and identify the dead. The troops are in a special unit that soon will deploy to Iraq, where they will receive the bodies of fallen troops and prepare them for the flight home to the United States.
guardsmen train for urban conflict from nevada daily mail: More than 200 soldiers from the newly formed 1st Battalion, 138th Infantry Regiment of the Missouri Army National Guard came to Camp Clark from across the state on Saturday, March 14, to take part in training in several different combat scenarios. This is the first time Missouri has had an infantry unit in more than 35 years. The new unit, headquartered in Kansas City, has companies and detachments across the state and will have more than 800 soldiers when it reaches full strength, according to a Missouri Army National Guard press release.
britain trains civilian anti-terror force from presstv: Britain has launched a clandestine alliance that recruits citizens and trains them to act as undercover agents against terror suspects. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the initiative is vital for safety in the UK. According to him, tens of thousands of civilians have already been trained for the purpose. Brown said Sunday that the individuals range "from security guards to store managers" who know how to "deal with an incident and know what to watch for as people go about their daily business in crowded places such as stations, airports, shopping centers and sports grounds." British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said the strategy, called Contest Two, would be more open than past counter-terrorism efforts.
dozens in cps have criminal records from sacbee: Drug possession, domestic violence, repeatedly driving drunk, assault with a deadly weapon – any one of these charges or convictions could lead child protective services workers to remove children from a home or force a parent into counseling. But all of those crimes and many others appear in the backgrounds of employees of Sacramento County's Child Protective Services, a Bee investigation has found. A review of the agency's 969 workers employed as of Oct. 1 found that at least 68 individuals – 7 percent of the work force – have criminal records in Sacramento County alone. The number is likely to be even higher because some names were too common to retrieve all criminal complaints linked to them, and records in other counties were not searched.
giant shipment of weapons seized at airport from local12: Customs and Border Protection now say a paperwork error may be partly to blame for guns it confiscated at the international airport. The weapons were seized on Monday. Officers say the shipment was listed as "toys" from Turkey. It contained sixty 12-gauge shotguns and 177 pistols. Federal agents say they tested a shotgun and it fired live ammo. The pistols are designed for theatrical use. No charges have been filed, because the investigation is on-going.
despite protests, dekalb goes with marines school from ajc: DeKalb County school officials are forging ahead with plans to open a first-of-its-kind military-style public high school, despite a growing campaign by activists upset at the involvement of the U.S. Marines. “It’s the worst thing that’s ever happened in Georgia education,” said Michael Burke, a DeKalb resident and spokesman for the Georgia Veterans Alliance, a group that aligns itself with the work of the Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition, among others. “The whole thing is just a ploy” to help the Marines recruit, Burke said. “We expect to fight it tooth and nail.” That response irritated DeKalb school system officials. They said it stereotypes the proposed Marine school and students who may be interested in it. The protests — mounted largely through e-mails and letters — have not deterred them, they said.
church document encourages congregation to obey government from paul joseph watson: A shocking document has come to light from a church in Ohio which educates its congregation that Barack Obama’s presidency is appointed by God and that Obama himself is “God’s minister,” in another perversion of Romans 13, the bible verse cited as an excuse for Christians not to oppose tyranny. Ohio District Superintendent Rev. John Wooton was responsible for distributing the pamphlet, which was handed out at the Assembly of God church in Ohio, according to a reader who forwarded the document to us. Click here for the PDF file [84kb PDF]. “This was handed out at the Assembly of God church that my fiance and I used to attend. We immediately stopped attending after getting this flier about 'submitting to Obama and the government'... The pastor even brought children to the front of the church, encouraging them to submit to teachers, firemen, and the police. It was insane.”
military may patrol bar zone in canadian city from paul joseph watson: Authorities in Barrie, Ontario are considering a proposal to allow troops to patrol bar areas on weekends in a supposed attempt to prevent rowdiness, another example of the militarization of law enforcement and the public being conditioned to accept martial law. “City police and Camp Borden officers are discussing using joint street patrols to help keep the peace in Barrie’s busy entertainment district on peak weekends,” reports the Toronto Star, as part of a move to “cement the base’s partnership with Barrie police” (police and military merging into one enforcement unit). “Teaming up with military police to patrol the bar zone is a concept 'we wouldn’t have any real problems with,' Barrie chief Wayne Frechette said in an interview. 'Would extra bodies help us? Sure.'”
change for the worse: a banana republic by 2012? from paul craig roerts: President Obama has presented the most irresponsible budget in US history. His fiscal year 2010 budget projects federal spending of $3.5 trillion and a federal deficit of $1.75 trillion. In other words, 50 percent of the government’s budget consists of red ink... The US might not even make it to 2012 before it is a banana republic.
from fox: "And there will be a realignment and there is a struggle going on with us who believe that we should have national sovereignty, we should be out of the U.N., out of the World Bank, out of the IMF, in no world government. But that is the movement that we're going in, that's the direction we're going in. But others are planning to go one step further. They weren't satisfied with the Bretton Woods; they weren't satisfied with the dollar standard. Now, they want to probably modify the special drawing rights of the IMF which they tried and then failed, but they want to control capital and they want to control the natural resources of the world. So — and they're not — they're not nationalistic at all. They believe in world government."
eu agency supports wiretapping skype conversations from eu observer: EU's judicial cooperation agency Eurojust will take the lead in finding ways to help police and prosecutors across Europe to wiretap computer-to-computer phone conversations enabled by programs such as Skype. "We will sit together with all member states to see how this can be done technically and legally," Joannes Thuy, Eurojust spokesman told this website. Mr Thuy stressed that the wiretapping would not affect "normal users", but would have to be carried out only as part of a criminal investigation.
chicago mayor vows surveillance cameras on every street corner from chicago sun-times: Mayor Daley has argued that security and terrorism won’t be an issue if his Olympic dreams come true because, by 2016, there will be a surveillance camera on every street corner in Chicago. But even before that blanket coverage begins, the "Big Brother" network is being put to better use... In 2004, City Hall used a $5.1 million federal homeland security grant to install 250 cameras at locations thought to be at high risk of a terrorist attack and link them and 2,000 existing city cameras to the 911 center. Chicago then launched "Operation Virtual Shield," by linking 1,000 miles of fiber cable to a unified "homeland security grid" — complete with hundreds of additional cameras and sensors to monitor the city’s water supply and detect chemical and biological weapons. On Thursday, Orozco refused to say how many cameras are currently linked to the 911 center. But, he reiterated Daley’s earlier promise. “We’re going to grow the system until we eventually cover one end of the city to the other,” he said.
vampire cops to draw blood at dui checkpoints in florida from wpbf: Drunken drivers beware: If you drink and drive, especially during the last weekend of February, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office and other area law enforcement will be out for blood. PBSO deputies plan to set up driving under the influence checkpoints. If they suspect a driver is under the influence, they'll offer an on-the-spot Breathalyzer. If drivers refuse, deputies will ask to draw blood from their arms. "I think that's really personal and I think that if you deny a Breathalyzer and you say that you don't want that, I think that's outrageous if they take blood without your consent," driver Courtney Liddle said. Attorney David Olson said that "would only be lawful if a warrant is issued by a judge." That's just what deputies plan to do. They'll actually drive to a judge's home for a signature and return to the checkpoint. Olson said drawing blood from drivers is usually done in extreme cases like homicides and fatal collisions. Olson said he's not sure a judge would actually sign a warrant.
fearing 'cyber katrina,' obama candidate for cyber czar urges a 'fema for the internet' from businessweek: For all the fears of sophisticated digital intrusions preoccupying many computer security professionals, President Obama’s leading candidates for “cyber czar” also are focusing on an all-too-human vulnerability: The nation’s inability to respond to a full-fledged Internet-borne crisis for lack of a central cyber commander. Former White House cybersecurity official Paul B. Kurtz, in his first public remarks since becoming an advisor to President Obama’s transition team following the election, describes his biggest worry: A “cyber Katrina” in which fragmented bureaucracies and companies fail to share critical information and coordinate responses to cyber intruders attempting to disrupt power grids, financial markets, or any number of now-plausible scenarios involving a Web shutdown. One recent fear is the cascading effects of even a partial Internet blackout that could add to economic anxieties. There’s such electronic insecurity afoot, some are even beginning to suggest building an entirely new global computer infrastructure. “The bottom line is, is there a FEMA for the Internet? I don’t think there is,” Kurtz told an audience of security professionals at a Feb. 18 Black Hat security conference in Virginia. Kurtz’ solution: A trio of key agencies - the Defense Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Federal Communications Commission - but overseen by a new national cybersecurity center.
faa breach heightens cybersecurity concerns from fcw: The Federal Aviation Administration was doing such a good job at protecting data in its computer systems that the Office of Management and Budget chose it in January to be one of four agencies to guide other federal agencies in their cybersecurity efforts. Just a month later, FAA officials had to admit that hackers breached one of the agency’s servers, stealing 48 files. Two of the files contained information on 45,000 current and former FAA employees, including sensitive information that could potentially make them vulnerable to identity theft. The security breach, although significant and potentially far reaching, is not necessarily a reflection on FAA’s security measures. Rather, it demonstrates the problems of securing federal computer systems and difficulty in evading every potential attack.
iowa national guard rolls back arcadia invasion from kurt nimmo: According to Drew Zahn, writing for WorldNetDaily, the Iowa National Guard has “scaled back” its “training exercise” planned for April in Arcadia, Iowa, population 443. Military spokesman Lt. Col. Greg Hapgood, told Zahn and WND that the operation has now been “scaled back” and no longer involves an “invasion” of Arcadia. “And while Hapgood confirmed the Guard had been inundated with objections from citizens concerned about soldiers patrolling the streets of an American town, he said most came from people out of state and unfamiliar with the operation. Iowans, he explained, typically cooperate with the Guard. The change in plans was based on troop evaluation, he said, not public outcry.”
video: glenn beck again predicting doomsday & revolution from raw replay: President Obama has been criticized for warning of economic “catastrophe” but Glenn Beck’s prediction is far more dire. Beck says the military is preparing for a revolution. This video is from Fox’s Fox & Friends, broadcast Feb. 20, 2009.
beverly eckert: 'my silence cannot be bought' widow from 9/11 attacks among new york crash victims from dpa: A woman who had lost her husband in the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on the World Trade Center was among those killed in the late Thursday air crash in New York state, her sister said early Friday. "We know that she was on that plane," Sue Bourque was quoted by the Buffalo News as saying about her sister Beverly Eckert, who had been waiting at Buffalo airport to pick her sister up when the Continental Airlines plane crashed some 10 kilometres away. "And now she is with him," she added, referring to her sister's husband who was among the some 3,000 killed in the twin airplane attacks on the WTC towers. Eckert was co-chairwoman of Voices of Sept. 11, a group pushing for a formal commission to investigate intelligence failures before the terror attacks and for a proper memorial to the victims.
update: US plane was on autopilot in icy crash that killed 50 from dpa: Amidst recovery efforts for the remains of 50 victims of an icy New York airplane crash, investigators Sunday said the aircraft was on autopilot, a violation of suggested guidelines when icing on the wings is a danger but in keeping with legal requirements. Steve Chealander, spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) described in broadcast remarks the sickening pitch and roll of Continental Express flight 3407 in its last 26 seconds before it crashed into a house outside Buffalo, New York, on Thursday night, killing all 48 passengers and crew and one person in the house. The information was gleaned from the flight data recorder recovered from the wreckage... "The flight manual for the Dash 8-Q400 craft advises that the auto- pilot be disengaged during 'severe icing conditions," Chealander said. "What we've seen thus far (has not indicated) it was severe icing."
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emp dominoes: first throes of soft war* 
from cbsnews: Acclaimed filmmaker Sidney Lumet, who died today at the age of 86, left a legacy of classic films, many of which dealt with crime and justice - "12 Angry Men," "The Anderson Tapes," "Serpico," "Dog Day Afternoon," "Murder on the Orient Express," "Night Falls on Manhattan," to name just a few.
from washington post: President Obama’s decision to launch his 2012 reelection campaign Monday is about much more than money. It is an acknowledgment by the president’s team that the grass-roots army that helped propel Obama to the White House needs repair and rejuvenation.
from kenny's sideshow: I finally saw the 1988 movie "They Live" today and realized what Peter Chamberlin is saying with his blog title 'There Are No Sunglasses'. I also saw a little of the Stewart and Colbert sanity/fear rally and you don't need the sunglasses to see through it.
from juan cole: Fellow Americans, and Iraqis who are watching this speech, I have come here this evening not to declare a victory or to mourn a defeat on the battlefield, but to apologize from the bottom of my heart for a series of illegal actions and grossly incompetent policies pursued by the government of the United States of America, in defiance of domestic US law, international treaty obligations, and both American and Iraqi public opinion... We cannot undo what has been done. We cannot pretend that the United States did not violate the United Nations charter and the Geneva Conventions. But we can make amends. We can seek redemption as a nation. And our salvation lies in forswearing permanent war, aggressive war, undeclared war, and police actions as a way of life.
1,000 architects & engineers call for new 9/11 investigation* 
gore’s dual role: advocate & investor*
from latimes: Van Jones, the onetime Marxist whose controversial statements about Republicans and 9/11 have made him a distracting lightning rod as Barack Obama's environmental czar in recent days, resigned tonight. Now, the Sunday morning political talk shows (guest listings here) will have something really hot to talk about. On Wednesday, as The Ticket reported here, Jones was forced to apologize when a video surfaced of his February remarks in Berkeley, of all places, using a reference to a lower anatomical orifice to describe Republicans. The next day Jones again had to apologize for having his signature on a petition to then N.Y. Attorney General Eliot Spitzer seeking an investigation into the 9/11 attacks as possibly an inside job planned by then-Pres. George W. Bush to soften opposition to a war in Iraq.
from ap: Accused al Qaeda mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed complained that interrogators tortured lies out of him, though he proudly took credit for more than two dozen other terror plots, according to newly released sections of government transcripts. "I make up stories," Mohammed said at one point in his 2007 hearing at Guantánamo Bay. In broken English, he described an interrogation in which he was asked the location of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. "Where is he? I don't know," Mohammed said. "Then he torture me. Then I said, 'Yes, he is in this area or this is al Qaeda which I don't know him.' I said no, they torture me." Yet at the same military tribunal hearing, Mohammed ticked off a list of 29 terror plots in which he took part.
from raw story: Peter Lance should be thanking Patrick Fitzgerald right now, even as the attorney’s checks are being signed. If it were not for the U.S. Attorney who famously prosecuted I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the former Vice President’s Chief of Staff, the re-release of Lance’s stunning tale of mishandled espionage leading up to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, might be overlooked. The former ABC News investigative reporter’s book Triple Cross hit relatively few shelves in 2006 as a hardcover and left retail quietly, almost completely ignored. Now, with its paperback release looming, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald is threatening to sue over material which he calls “defamatory” and “easily proven to be objectively false,” some of which touches on little known information relating to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Because of the threat, the reissue of Triple Cross received attention from The Washington Post, Huffington Post, The Wall Street Journal and the Associated Press, among others. “That’s the lesson of censorship,” chided Lance, speaking to RAW STORY.
from ap: An 88-year-old gunman with a violent and virulently anti-Semitic past opened fire with a rifle inside the crowded U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on Wednesday, fatally wounding a security guard before being shot himself by other officers, authorities said.
Law enforcement officials said von Brunn, a white supremacist, was under investigation in the shooting and that his car was found near the museum and tested for explosives. The weapon was a .22-caliber rifle, they added. They spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to discuss the investigation just beginning.
from cnn: In a new anti-Israel, anti-U.S. video, an American al Qaeda member makes reference to his Jewish ancestry for the first time in an official al Qaeda message. In the video, Adam Yahiye Gadahn (Pearlman), also known as Azzam the American, discusses his roots as he castigates U.S. policies and deplores Israel's offensive in Gaza that started in late December 2008 and continued into January. "Let me here tell you something about myself and my biography, in which there is a benefit and a lesson," Gadahn says, as he elicits support from his fellow Muslims for "our weapons, funds and Jihad against the Jews and their allies everywhere... Your speaker has Jews in his ancestry, the last of whom was his grandfather," he says. Growing up in rural California, Gadahn embraced Islam in the mid-1990s, moved to Pakistan and has appeared in al Qaeda videos before.
from latimes: Marine Corps Reserve Lance Cpl. Matthew Barlow rides along with Los Angeles County coroner's personnel to retrieve the body of a homeless man found in Hazard Park in Boyle Heights. He is among 14 Marines who were embedded at the coroner's office for three weeks to learn how to collect bodies and personal belongings and identify the dead. The troops are in a special unit that soon will deploy to Iraq, where they will receive the bodies of fallen troops and prepare them for the flight home to the United States.
from nevada daily mail: More than 200 soldiers from the newly formed 1st Battalion, 138th Infantry Regiment of the Missouri Army National Guard came to Camp Clark from across the state on Saturday, March 14, to take part in training in several different combat scenarios. This is the first time Missouri has had an infantry unit in more than 35 years. The new unit, headquartered in Kansas City, has companies and detachments across the state and will have more than 800 soldiers when it reaches full strength, according to a Missouri Army National Guard press release.
from local12: Customs and Border Protection now say a paperwork error may be partly to blame for guns it confiscated at the international airport. The weapons were seized on Monday. Officers say the shipment was listed as "toys" from Turkey. It contained sixty 12-gauge shotguns and 177 pistols. Federal agents say they tested a shotgun and it fired live ammo. The pistols are designed for theatrical use. No charges have been filed, because the investigation is on-going.
from xinhua: Canadian fighter jets intercepted a Russian bomber near its airspace in the Arctic three days before U.S. President Barack Obama visited Ottawa... Defense Minister Peter MacKay said the bomber never entered Canadian airspace. "Canadian pilots sent a strong signal they should back off and stay out of our airspace," MacKay said at a press conference with the chief of the defense staff and the commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command.
from paul joseph watson: Authorities in Barrie, Ontario are considering a proposal to allow troops to patrol bar areas on weekends in a supposed attempt to prevent rowdiness, another example of the militarization of law enforcement and the public being conditioned to accept martial law. “City police and Camp Borden officers are discussing using joint street patrols to help keep the peace in Barrie’s busy entertainment district on peak weekends,” reports the Toronto Star, as part of a move to “cement the base’s partnership with Barrie police” (police and military merging into one enforcement unit). “Teaming up with military police to patrol the bar zone is a concept 'we wouldn’t have any real problems with,' Barrie chief Wayne Frechette said in an interview. 'Would extra bodies help us? Sure.'”
from eu observer: EU's judicial cooperation agency Eurojust will take the lead in finding ways to help police and prosecutors across Europe to wiretap computer-to-computer phone conversations enabled by programs such as Skype. "We will sit together with all member states to see how this can be done technically and legally," Joannes Thuy, Eurojust spokesman told this website. Mr Thuy stressed that the wiretapping would not affect "normal users", but would have to be carried out only as part of a criminal investigation.
from businessweek: For all the fears of sophisticated digital intrusions preoccupying many computer security professionals, President Obama’s leading candidates for “cyber czar” also are focusing on an all-too-human vulnerability: The nation’s inability to respond to a full-fledged Internet-borne crisis for lack of a central cyber commander. Former White House cybersecurity official Paul B. Kurtz, in his first public remarks since becoming an advisor to President Obama’s transition team following the election, describes his biggest worry: A “cyber Katrina” in which fragmented bureaucracies and companies fail to share critical information and coordinate responses to cyber intruders attempting to disrupt power grids, financial markets, or any number of now-plausible scenarios involving a Web shutdown. One recent fear is the cascading effects of even a partial Internet blackout that could add to economic anxieties. There’s such electronic insecurity afoot, some are even beginning to suggest building an entirely new global computer infrastructure. “The bottom line is, is there a FEMA for the Internet? I don’t think there is,” Kurtz told an audience of security professionals at a Feb. 18 Black Hat security conference in Virginia. Kurtz’ solution: A trio of key agencies - the Defense Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Federal Communications Commission - but overseen by a new national cybersecurity center.
widow from 9/11 attacks among new york crash victims