Posted By Josh Rogin Tuesday, January 31, 2012 - 11:37 PM Share
Top Obama administration officials briefed eight senior Senate leaders Tuesday on a pending deal to transfer as many as five Taliban prisoners from the U.S. detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to Qatar.
The Cable staked out the classified briefing in the basement of the Capitol building Tuesday afternoon. The eight senators who attended the briefing were Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Senate Intelligence Committee heads Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), Senate Armed Services chiefs Carl Levin (D-MI) and John McCain (R-AZ), and Senate Foreign Relations Committee leaders John Kerry (D-MA) and Richard Lugar (R-IN).
The identities of the administration briefers were not shared, but we were told it was a high-level interagency briefing team.
All of the senators refused to discuss the contents of the briefing as they exited the secure briefing room in the Senate Visitors' Center. But Levin and McCain both discussed the issue in question before entering the briefing, namely the administration's negotiations with the Taliban over transferring the Taliban prisoners into Qatari custody.
Levin told reporters Tuesday that the briefing was "about the ongoing Taliban reconciliation efforts." Levin is open to the idea of transferring Taliban members to Qatar, but said the devil was in the details.
"It depends on what assurances we have from the [Qatari] government that they are not going to be released," Levin said. "But I also think the Afghans have to be very much involved in any discussions and any process. They weren't for a while."
"We're not releasing them. As I understand it they will be imprisoned in Qatar," Levin continued. But can the Qataris be trusted to keep them behind bars? "That's the question," Levin said.
thecable.foreignpolicy.com
Wednesday, February 01, 2012
FAA: Meteor Falls Across Okla. City Night Sky
If You Got Photos, Video Of It, Email U Local
POSTED: 9:03 pm CST February 1, 2012
UPDATED: 9:19 pm CST February 1, 2012
Click Like For Oklahoma News Updates: KOCO Eyewitness News 5 received dozens of calls about the object that fell from the sky at about 8 p.m.On the station's Facebook page, Lisa Warren wrote: "Saw a meteor about 8 p.m. near Southwest 89th and May Avenue. (It) was awesome!! Green and bright white glowing across the sky towards May."Other viewers speculated that perhaps the meteor was a UFO. However, experts confirmed that it was a meteor. In fact, the meteor was seen in Texas and Kansas, too.If you saw it and happened to take a photo or a video of it, email it to us at ulocal@koco.com or post it to our U Local site at http://ulocal.koco.com.
POSTED: 9:03 pm CST February 1, 2012
UPDATED: 9:19 pm CST February 1, 2012
U Local
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Officials with the Federal Aviation Administration confirmed to KOCO Eyewitness News 5 that it was a meteor seen falling across the Oklahoma City night sky Wednesday. Click Like For Oklahoma News Updates: Fireball in Texas sky was meteor, FAA says
WFAA
Posted on February 1, 2012 at 9:04 PM
Updated today at 9:10 PM
WFAA received more than 200 reports Wednesday night from people who said they saw what appeared to be a meteor streaking across the North Texas sky shortly after 8 o'clock.
Many people also said they heard what sounded like a sonic boom (or booms) associated with the fireball, which was apparently witnessed all the way from San Antonio to Oklahoma City.
The Federal Aviation Administration told TV station KWTX in Waco that it was a meteor.
Channel 8's Facebook page was filled with descriptions.
"VERY bright blue across the sky in Benbrook," said Stephanie Clingman Guyer. "It looked so close, long tail — very cool!"
"We saw it in far West McKinney," Kathy Stulting Escobedo wrote. "Seemed very low (I thought it was a low flying plane). Of course, it may have been very high and very large. It was gold with a trail of sparkling, dripping fire. Wasn't moving as fast as most meteors I've seen. It moved from east to west and then seemed to burn out. Shortly after that, we heard a double boom (reminded me of the sonic booms we heard as kids in the 60s). Was pretty incredible!"
In Carrollton, James Gates said he "heard a light boom and my house lightly shook... then I heard dogs barking."
Dawn Caddell Delarosa was out sitting on her porch about 15 miles west of Denton. "It was HUGE. It was very low," she wrote. "It came from the Southwest, went in front of our house. Both my husband and I yelled, 'OMG, it is going to hit that plane?' It looked like it got east of Denton when it exploded/broke apart. We could see all the little 'embers' blasting southeastward. Those poor people in the plane. I bet they thought it was the end of their life."
Story continues at WFAA
British Pair Arrested in United States on Terror Charges Over Tweet Joke
The Intel Hub
January 30, 2012
Tourists Sent Packing Over ‘Threatening’ Tweets
LOS ANGELES
Two British tourists were arrested by the Department of Homeland Security and denied entry to the country after posting two tweets that were apparently considered terrorist threats by overzealous agents who did not posses even rudimentary knowledge of the difference between British and American English.
Leigh Van Bryan and Emily Bunting were detained and kept in a cell, occupied with Mexican drug dealers, for over 12 hours.
The tweets that caused their detention as possible terrorists were so obviously non threatening that the fact that agents tasked with protecting our country would not see this shows just how far down the police state hole America has actually gone.
The Daily Mail and others recently reported on this insane series of events:
“Two British tourists were barred from entering America after joking on Twitter that they were going to ‘destroy America’ and ‘dig up Marilyn Monroe’.
“Leigh Van Bryan, 26, was handcuffed and kept under armed guard in a cell with Mexican drug dealers for 12 hours after landing in Los Angeles with pal Emily Bunting.
“The Department of Homeland Security flagged him as a potential threat when he posted an excited tweet to his pals about his forthcoming trip to Hollywood which read: ‘Free this week, for quick gossip/prep before I go and destroy America’.
“After making their way through passport control at Los Angeles International Airport [LAX] last Monday afternoon the pair were detained by armed guards.
“Despite telling officials the term ‘destroy’ was British slang for ‘party,’ they were held on suspicion of planning to ‘commit crimes’ and had their passports confiscated.
The pair was also questioned over another tweet...continues at theintelhub.com
January 30, 2012
Tourists Sent Packing Over ‘Threatening’ Tweets
LOS ANGELES
Two British tourists were arrested by the Department of Homeland Security and denied entry to the country after posting two tweets that were apparently considered terrorist threats by overzealous agents who did not posses even rudimentary knowledge of the difference between British and American English.
Leigh Van Bryan and Emily Bunting were detained and kept in a cell, occupied with Mexican drug dealers, for over 12 hours.
The tweets that caused their detention as possible terrorists were so obviously non threatening that the fact that agents tasked with protecting our country would not see this shows just how far down the police state hole America has actually gone.
The Daily Mail and others recently reported on this insane series of events:
“Two British tourists were barred from entering America after joking on Twitter that they were going to ‘destroy America’ and ‘dig up Marilyn Monroe’.
“Leigh Van Bryan, 26, was handcuffed and kept under armed guard in a cell with Mexican drug dealers for 12 hours after landing in Los Angeles with pal Emily Bunting.
“The Department of Homeland Security flagged him as a potential threat when he posted an excited tweet to his pals about his forthcoming trip to Hollywood which read: ‘Free this week, for quick gossip/prep before I go and destroy America’.
“After making their way through passport control at Los Angeles International Airport [LAX] last Monday afternoon the pair were detained by armed guards.
“Despite telling officials the term ‘destroy’ was British slang for ‘party,’ they were held on suspicion of planning to ‘commit crimes’ and had their passports confiscated.
The pair was also questioned over another tweet...continues at theintelhub.com
Do You Live Near a Terrorism ‘Hot Spot’ According to This Map?
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 6:20pm by Liz Klimas
Researchers, as part of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) under the Department of Homeland Security, are trying to come up with a way to better predict where and when terrorist attacks would happen on U.S. soil.
To start, the researchers from the University of Maryland and University of Massachusetts-Boston mapped all events considered terrorism since 1970 to 2008 in the United States (below). This established areas they deemed terrorism “hot spots” but also revealed that terrorism is actually “widely dispersed”. So widely dispersed that every state has experienced some act of terrorism in some form, according to the report. The report defines a hot spot as an area where more than the average number of terrorist attacks have taken place — the average for the U.S. is six.
Geographic Concentration of Terrorist Attacks in the U.S., 1970 – 2008 (Image: START) The research found that a third of all terrorist attacks during that time-frame studied took place in five metropolitan cities — Manhattan, New York (343 attacks); Los Angeles County, Calif. (156 attacks); Miami-Dade County, Fla. (103 attacks); San Francisco County, Calif. (99 attacks); and Washington, D.C. (79 attacks).
“Mainly, terror attacks have been a problem in the bigger cities, but rural areas are not exempt,” Gary LaFree, director of START and lead author of the new report, said in the University of Maryland press release.
“The main attacks driving Maricopa into recent hot spot status are the actions of radical environmental groups, especially the Coalition to Save the Preserves. So, despite the clustering of attacks in certain regions, it is also clear that hot spots are dispersed throughout the country and include places as geographically diverse as counties in Arizona, Massachusetts, Nebraska and Texas,” LaFree added.
Geographic Concentration of Fatal Terrorist Attacks in the U.S., 1970 – 2008 (Image: SMART)
Story Continues teotwawki.ws
Researchers, as part of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) under the Department of Homeland Security, are trying to come up with a way to better predict where and when terrorist attacks would happen on U.S. soil.
To start, the researchers from the University of Maryland and University of Massachusetts-Boston mapped all events considered terrorism since 1970 to 2008 in the United States (below). This established areas they deemed terrorism “hot spots” but also revealed that terrorism is actually “widely dispersed”. So widely dispersed that every state has experienced some act of terrorism in some form, according to the report. The report defines a hot spot as an area where more than the average number of terrorist attacks have taken place — the average for the U.S. is six.
Geographic Concentration of Terrorist Attacks in the U.S., 1970 – 2008 (Image: START) “Mainly, terror attacks have been a problem in the bigger cities, but rural areas are not exempt,” Gary LaFree, director of START and lead author of the new report, said in the University of Maryland press release.
“The main attacks driving Maricopa into recent hot spot status are the actions of radical environmental groups, especially the Coalition to Save the Preserves. So, despite the clustering of attacks in certain regions, it is also clear that hot spots are dispersed throughout the country and include places as geographically diverse as counties in Arizona, Massachusetts, Nebraska and Texas,” LaFree added.
Geographic Concentration of Fatal Terrorist Attacks in the U.S., 1970 – 2008 (Image: SMART)Story Continues teotwawki.ws
Bill Gates funds technology to destroy your sperm
By Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
February 1, 2012
Mass vaccination is apparently not the only depopulation strategy being employed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as new research funded by the organization has developed a way to deliberately destroy sperm using ultrasound technology. BBC News reports that the...
Story Continues at: naturalnews.com
February 1, 2012
Mass vaccination is apparently not the only depopulation strategy being employed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as new research funded by the organization has developed a way to deliberately destroy sperm using ultrasound technology. BBC News reports that the...
Story Continues at: naturalnews.com
Virginia Officials Confirm Criminal Election Fraud Investigation of Gingrich Campaign
By Brad Friedman on 1/31/2012 5:35am
Had the same thing been carried out by a worker for the now-defunct ACORN, Republicans --- and even Newt Gingrich --- would have called it massive "voter fraud." But the 1,500 acts of fraud, by Gingrich's own admission, were carried out by a worker hired by his campaign, so it seems the media have barely noticed it.
Nonetheless, The BRAD BLOG has received confirmation from two different state agencies that the 1,500 alleged cases of ballot petition fraud said to have been carried out on behalf of the Gingrich campaign, in their unsuccessful attempt to qualify for the Republican primary ballot in Virginia, are now being carried out by the state Attorney General's office.
In late December, after Gingrich had failed to turn in enough valid signatures to qualify for the Virginia primary ballot, he was caught on video tape telling a supporter in Iowa that the reason for the failure was due to a campaign worker who created 1,500 fraudulent signatures.
"We turned in 11,100 --- we needed 10,000 --- 1,500 of them were by one guy who, frankly, committed fraud," Gingrich is seen and heard saying in video originally aired by CNN.
The former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives downplayed the incident, by explaining to the woman that the entire affair was "just a mistake," after they had "hired somebody who turned in false signatures."
Neither he nor his campaign, however, has made the name of the alleged "one guy" public, to our knowledge, despite the extraordinary number of fraudulent signatures created and turned in by that "one guy" in what an official at the Virginia State Board of Elections (SBE) described to us as "definitely an illegal act."
News of the embarrassing criminal investigation is confirmed today, even as voters go to the polls for Florida's 2012 GOP Primary, where Gingrich is facing off against front-runner Mitt Romney who, ironically --- and uncomfortably enough for Republicans --- may also find himself the subject of a criminal voter fraud investigation in the not-too-distant future...
Gingrich fraud investigation confirmed
Story continues at www.bradblog.com
Had the same thing been carried out by a worker for the now-defunct ACORN, Republicans --- and even Newt Gingrich --- would have called it massive "voter fraud." But the 1,500 acts of fraud, by Gingrich's own admission, were carried out by a worker hired by his campaign, so it seems the media have barely noticed it.
Nonetheless, The BRAD BLOG has received confirmation from two different state agencies that the 1,500 alleged cases of ballot petition fraud said to have been carried out on behalf of the Gingrich campaign, in their unsuccessful attempt to qualify for the Republican primary ballot in Virginia, are now being carried out by the state Attorney General's office.
In late December, after Gingrich had failed to turn in enough valid signatures to qualify for the Virginia primary ballot, he was caught on video tape telling a supporter in Iowa that the reason for the failure was due to a campaign worker who created 1,500 fraudulent signatures.
"We turned in 11,100 --- we needed 10,000 --- 1,500 of them were by one guy who, frankly, committed fraud," Gingrich is seen and heard saying in video originally aired by CNN.
The former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives downplayed the incident, by explaining to the woman that the entire affair was "just a mistake," after they had "hired somebody who turned in false signatures."
Neither he nor his campaign, however, has made the name of the alleged "one guy" public, to our knowledge, despite the extraordinary number of fraudulent signatures created and turned in by that "one guy" in what an official at the Virginia State Board of Elections (SBE) described to us as "definitely an illegal act."
News of the embarrassing criminal investigation is confirmed today, even as voters go to the polls for Florida's 2012 GOP Primary, where Gingrich is facing off against front-runner Mitt Romney who, ironically --- and uncomfortably enough for Republicans --- may also find himself the subject of a criminal voter fraud investigation in the not-too-distant future...
Gingrich fraud investigation confirmed
Story continues at www.bradblog.com
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