Wars and Rumors
Hackers linked to China’s government broke into one of the U.S. government’s most sensitive computer networks, breaching a system used by the White House Military Office for nuclear commands, according to defense and intelligence officials familiar with the incident.
The notorious underwear bomber who tried to bring down a jumbo jet on Christmas Day had a dirty little secret - he'd been wearing the explosive skivvies for weeks.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab wore them for three weeks to be exact, and it may have been the reason why he was unsuccessful in his 2009 terrorist plans aboard a Detroit-bound airliner.
60 percent of the country's 430 prisons or jails are controlled by criminal elements. … escape of 521 inmates over 14 incidents since 2010 - often with the help of corrupt prison officials …
“The two leaders discussed a range of security issues, and the President reaffirmed his and our country’s unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security,” the White House said in a brief summary of the call. “The two leaders underscored that they are in full agreement on the shared goal of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.”
Magarief told Curry that based on the accuracy of the assault, he believes the attackers must have had training and experience using the weapons. "It's a pre-planned act of terrorism," he said, adding that the anti-Islam film had "nothing to do with this attack." Though Magarief believes the attack was the work of Islamist fundamentalists, he dismisses any notion that Libya is in danger of becoming a theocracy.
Police fired tear gas at rioters hurling gasoline bombs and chunks of marble Wednesday during Greece's largest anti-austerity demonstration in six months — part of a 24-hour general strike that was a test for the nearly four-month old coalition government and the new spending cuts it plans to push through. The brief but intense clashes by a couple of hundred rioters participating in the demonstration of more than 60,000 people came a day after anti-austerity protests rocked the Spanish capital, Madrid. Hundreds of Spanish anti-austerity protesters gathered again Wednesday, ending near parliament in Madrid amid a heavy presence of riot police. In Tuesday's protest, police arrested 38 people and 64 were injured.
protesters stepping up anti-austerity demonstrations … The government's drive to rein in regional overspending as part of its austerity measures has prompted a flare-up in independence fervor in Catalonia … Anti-austerity groups planned a fresh demonstration on Wednesday evening in Madrid, a day after police fired rubber bullets at thousands of protesters who tried to form a human chain around the parliament building. Police arrested 35 protesters on Tuesday and 64 police and demonstrators were injured in the clashes.
...commander of a powerful Libyan militia said Monday that looters had stolen “a large number” of shoulder-fired, heat-seeking missiles from the militia’s base when protesters who called for dismantling the country’s militias overran the compound. … used by fighters to “hit airplanes” and known to the U.S. intelligence community as MANPADS (man-portable air-defense systems), were stolen along with 2,000 semiautomatic rifles and ammunition, as the militia withdrew from its base amid a firefight early Saturday. … It was unclear whose hands the weapons had fallen into. … A senior Obama administration official said earlier this month that U.S. intelligence estimates that 100 to 1,000 MANPADS are still unaccounted for in Libya, despite U.S. efforts to destroy them. Intelligence officials believe that some of the MANPADS have been smuggled across Libya’s borders. … Although military aircraft now have countermeasures that have rendered the weapons largely ineffective in conventional battle, MANPADS continue to pose a serious threat to passenger planes. … “In the wrong hands, shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles pose a major threat to passenger air travel, the commercial aviation industry and possibly military aircraft around the world,” Andrew J. Shapiro, an assistant secretary of state who oversees the effort said in a speech this year. “Not only could a successful attack against an aircraft cause a devastating loss of life, but it could also cause significant economic damage.”
[War News Update editor's coldly simple comment: "This is ominous."]
According to reports the Department of Homeland Security is expecting significant push-back in the very near future, which explains why they already have thousands of heavily armored vehicles in DHS 'Police/Rescue' livery, resplendent in either a dashing Gulf War tan or menacing stealth-anthracite
MOSCOW — Seven individuals were reportedly arrested for allegedly trafficking uranium and weapons in a breakaway region of Moldova.
The unnamed group had been detained last week in the separatist enclave of Transnistria, according to Moldova’s interior ministry, Reuters reported.
The group had allegedly been involved in shipments of hand grenades, Kalashnikov assault rifles, rocket propelled grenade launchers, and even containers of uranium-235, which could be used to produce a nuclear bomb. The ministry provided no further details about the uranium shipment or its origin, according to Reuters.
Iran is recruiting a hacker army to target the U.S. power grid, water systems and other vital infrastructure for cyberattack in a future confrontation with the United States, security specialists will warn Congress Thursday. [War News Updates editor comments:] Iran is not the only country preparing for cyberwar against the U.S. .... off hand I can thnk of Russia, China, North Korea, etc...
...A rapidly increasing stream of New Age believers – or esoterics, as locals call them – have descended in their camper van-loads on the usually picturesque and tranquil Pyrenean village of Bugarach. They believe that when apocalypse strikes on 21 December this year, the aliens waiting in their spacecraft inside Pic de Bugarach will save all the humans near by and beam them off to the next age.
As the cataclysmic date – which, according to eschatological beliefs and predicted astrological alignments, concludes a 5,125-year cycle in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar – nears, the goings-on around the peak have become more bizarre and ritualistic....