A new CBS News poll found 62% of Americans are unhappy about the war, up from 49% in May. Only 23% say they are willing to have troops remain in Afghanistan for one or two more years, and 54% think leaders should start a countdown for withdrawing U.S. soldiers. Forty-four percent disapprove of President Barack Obama’s handling of the war, while 43% approve it.
contractors vie for plum work, hacking for US from nytimes: The government’s urgent push into cyberwarfare has set off a rush among the biggest military companies for billions of dollars in new defense contracts. The exotic nature of the work, coupled with the deep recession, is enabling the companies to attract top young talent that once would have gone to Silicon Valley. And the race to develop weapons that defend against, or initiate, computer attacks has given rise to thousands of “hacker soldiers” within the Pentagon who can blend the new capabilities into the nation’s war planning. Nearly all of the largest military companies — including Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon — have major cyber contracts with the military and intelligence agencies. The companies have been moving quickly to lock up the relatively small number of experts with the training and creativity to block the attacks and design countermeasures. They have been buying smaller firms, financing academic research and running advertisements for “cyberninjas” at a time when other industries are shedding workers. The changes are manifesting themselves in highly classified laboratories, where computer geeks in their 20s like to joke that they are hackers with security clearances.
cybersecurity framework for total govt regulation & control from paul joseph watson & kurt nimmo: The Obama administration’s new Cybersecurity system will only make the Internet more vulnerable to attack, while creating the framework for a massively upgraded government surveillance grid that will control and regulate every aspect of our daily lives through the implementation of “smart” technology. Obama’s announcement of the new cybersecurity grid dovetails with a recently introduced Senate bill, the Cybersecurity Act of 2009, that would hand the president the power to shut down the entire Internet in the event of a “cybersecurity” crisis. The bill’s draft states that “the president may order a cybersecurity emergency and order the limitation or shutdown of Internet traffic” and would give the government ongoing access to “all relevant data concerning (critical infrastructure) networks without regard to any provision of law, regulation, rule, or policy restricting such access,” reports Raw Story. The legislation would allow the government to tap into any digital aspect of every citizen’s information without a warrant. Banking, business and medical records would be wide open to inspection, as well as personal instant message and e mail communications. This is President Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program on steroids, yet the reaction from the liberal left has been muted to say the least. Furthermore, the reasoning behind the proposal is a farce, since cybersecurity will make the Internet even more vulnerable to attack. According to Jennifer Granick, director of civil liberties at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the program would “basically establish a path for the bad guys to skip down.” One of the bill’s authors, Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, admitted that the bill was about more than just military or intelligence concerns. “It is a lot more than that. It suddenly gets into the realm of traffic lights and rail networks and water and electricity,” said Rockefeller.
dhs proposes US gun laws to fight mexican drug cartel violence from kurt nimmo: Roger Rufe, Homeland Security’s head of operations, wants to further erode the Second Amendment. Rufe told lawmakers more restrictive gun control and law enforcement may be needed in the Southwest United States in response to the drug war in Mexico, according to the Associated Press. Rufe also said protecting border may require “deploying military personnel and equipment to the region if other agencies are overwhelmed.” He did not specify what circumstances would trigger a call for troops. “We would take all resources short of DoD and National Guard troops before we reach that tipping point,” Rufe told lawmakers on a House homeland security subcommittee. “We very much do not want to militarize our border.” Democrats joined the chorus rallying against the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
police trained that informed americans are domestic terrorists from truthnews: A secret report distributed by the Missouri Information Analysis Center lists Ron Paul supporters, libertarians, people who display bumper stickers, people who own gold, or even people who fly a U.S. flag and equates them with radical race hate groups and terrorists. This is merely the latest example in an alarming trend which confirms that law enforcement across the country is being trained that American citizens are a dangerous enemy.
how to: survive the apocalypse (think diy knives & solar stills) from danger room: Best-selling author Neil Strauss helped Jenna Jameson show us How to Make Love Like a Porn Star. Then he taught us the finer points of attracting mates in The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists. Now, Strauss has new knowledge to drop. In his just-published book,Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life, he schools us on what to do, if everything suddenly goes to hell. Strauss has spent the last several years training to become a full-fledged survivalist - learning how to live off the land with D.I.Y. weapons, homemade solar stills, debris huts, and hot-wired cars. He talks to Danger Room about how he got his new skills. And in an exclusive video, Strauss shows what to do, if you really need a knife - and all you have is a cigarette.
obama's hypocrisy for raytheon: #2 at dod worked for military-industrial complex from youtube: Obama has already U-turned on a new policy of not allowing lobbyists in his administration to work with issues they have lobbied on in the past. However, just two days after stating his policy, he is already made an exception to his own rule by allowing William Lynn, a defense lobbyist for Raytheon to become the deputy defense secretary.
video: and you thought bush was bad from sociostudent: I don't see what's so hard to understand about this: Obama is just a front-man for the New World Order, the "brand name" of tyranny for the next 4 to 8 years. He's not the Christ OR the Anti-Christ: He's just an empty suit full of empty promises.
al-zawahiri calls obama 'a house negro' from washington post: Soon after the November election, al-Qaeda's No. 2 leader took stock of America's new president-elect and dismissed him with an insulting epithet. "A house Negro," Ayman al-Zawahiri said. That was just a warm-up. In the weeks since, the terrorist group has unleashed a stream of verbal tirades against Barack Obama, each more venomous than the last. Obama has been called a "hypocrite," a "killer" of innocents, an "enemy of Muslims." He was even blamed for the Israeli military assault on Gaza, which began and ended before he took office. "He kills your brothers and sisters in Gaza mercilessly and without affection," an al-Qaeda spokesman declared in a grainy Internet video this month. The torrent of hateful words is part of what terrorism experts now believe is a deliberate, even desperate, propaganda campaign against a president who appears to have gotten under al-Qaeda's skin. The departure of George W. Bush deprived al-Qaeda of a polarizing American leader who reliably drove recruits and donations to the terrorist group.
obama claims to seek space weapon ban from reuters: President Barack Obama's pledge to seek a worldwide ban on weapons in space marks a dramatic shift in U.S. policy while posing the tricky issue of defining whether a satellite can be a weapon. Moments after Obama's inauguration last week, the White House website was updated to include policy statements on a range of issues, including a pledge to restore U.S. leadership on space issues and seek a worldwide ban on weapons that interfere with military and commercial satellites. It also promised to look at threats to U.S. satellites, contingency plans to keep information flowing from them, and what steps are needed to protect spacecraft against attack. The issue is being closely watched by Lockheed Martin Corp, Boeing Co, Northrop Grumman Corp, the biggest U.S. defense contractors, and other companies involved in military and civilian space contracts. Watchdog groups and even some defense officials welcomed the statement, which echoed Obama's campaign promises, but said it would take time to hammer out a comprehensive new strategy. Enacting a global ban on space weapons could prove even harder.
US will default in '09 from greg nixon: Some of the articles below are a few weeks old but still timely. I agree with the conclusion of Jesse's Cafe that the United States will have to default on its debt. I see this possibly before the summer of '09. How this will play out is of the utmost concern. I will continue to watch for signs of the U.S. military releasing a virus to start a flu pandemic. Martial law and quarantines may be the only way for the the elites to manage the financial crisis...
washington's $5t tab from forbes: Fighting the financial crisis has put the U.S. on the hook for some $5 trillion a report says. So far. For all the fury over Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's $700 billion emergency economic relief fund, it seems downright puny when compared to the running total of the government's response to the credit crisis. According to CreditSights, a research firm in New York and London, the U.S. government has put itself on the hook for some $5 trillion, so far, in an attempt to arrest a collapse of the financial system.
failure of auto industry could set off catastrophe from ap: Advocates for the nation's automakers are warning that the collapse of the Big Three - or even just General Motors - could set off a catastrophic chain reaction in the economy, eliminating up to 3 million jobs and depriving governments of more than $150 billion in tax revenue.
in a pandemic, who gets to live? from abc: As if wars and economic crises and natural disasters weren't enough, here's a challenge for some future president that few people even want to think about: Some day, perhaps soon, a president will have to decide whose lives are the most important to save, and whose lives are "nonessential." This isn't going to be a doomsday story, because most people will survive the next influenza pandemic, which some public health experts believe is past due. It's not a question of "if," it's a question of "when," and one study from Harvard University estimates that the pandemic will kill somewhere between 51 million and 81 million people, mostly in developing countries. Hundreds of organizations and institutions around the world are developing plans for dealing with the expected pandemic, and one challenging theme is begging for more public discussion. Some people will be more important than others in fighting the disease as it spreads quickly around the planet, and many more will be left to pretty much fend for themselves.
inside the ring: missile defense working from bill gertz: Air Force Lt. Gen. Henry A. Obering, outgoing director of the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency, said on Wednesday that U.S. missile defenses are working and he hopes President-elect Barack Obama will continue the multibillion-dollar programs once he is briefed on them. Asked if current U.S. ground-based and sea-based systems are "workable," Gen. Obering said: "Absolutely... Not only are they workable, they've been proven in combat" in the Middle East, he said in a farewell interview with Defense reporters... A spokesman for Mr. Obama, Denis McDonough, said Saturday that Mr. Obama discussed missile defense with Polish President Lech Kaczynski but that the president-elect made "no commitment" to the interceptor base. Mr. Obama "supports deploying a missile defense system when the technology is proved to be workable," Mr. McDonough said.
raytheon unveils 300th surveillance tower from boston business journal: Raytheon has reached an important milestone in its production of its persistent surveillance towers. The Rapid Aerostat Initial Deploymentsystem provides surveillance support for use in both war and peacetime. Now the US army has three hundred of them. The Waltham, Mass.-based defense contractor said the towers support intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions. They are used by the US military in Afghanistan and Iraq and are also used for domestic border surveillance — both in the United States and U.S. ally nations. The towers use infrared sensors on an elevated stationary platform. Raytheon officials say the towers perform a crucial function in protecting American soldiers.
russia rejects US missile proposals from reuters: The Kremlin on Wednesday rejected U.S. proposals aimed at easing concerns over a missile defense system in Europe and said it would try again to resolve the row once Barack Obama is in the White House. Russia says the planned U.S. system will threaten its national security and that the administration of George W. Bush, which leaves office in January, has failed to allay its concerns. "Russia is ready to cooperate with the United States on European security but considers the proposals that were sent are insufficient," Itar-Tass news agency quoted an unidentified Kremlin source as saying.
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from aclu.org: President Obama today issued an executive order that permits ongoing indefinite detention of Guantánamo detainees while establishing a periodic administrative review process for them. The administration also announced it will lift the ban on bringing new military commissions charges against detainees that don’t already have ongoing cases in the substandard system. The American Civil Liberties Union has long called for Guantánamo to be shut down and opposes the indefinite detention of prisoners there, some of whom have been imprisoned by the U.S. without charge or trial for nine years. The ACLU has also long called for an end to the illegitimate military commissions and for the government to prosecute terrorism suspects in the federal criminal courts.
