New Evidence of North Korea’s EMP weapon; now developing nuclear “super-EMP bombs”

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Recent satellite navigation jamming by North Korea’s military near the demilitarized zone and a report in a Chinese journal are raising new fears that Pyongyang is developing electromagnetic pulse weapons.

A communist-owned monthly journal in Hong Kong reported last month that the GPS jamming of aircraft navigation systems that was traced to North Korea is part of asymmetric warfare capabilities of the reclusive communist state.

The Bauhinia journal article, by military commentator Li Daguang said the new capabilities threaten South Korea’s information and electronic warfare capabilities.

“North Korea has always planned to develop small-scale nuclear warheads,” the article said. “On this foundation, they could develop electromagnetic pulse (EMP) bombs in order to paralyze the weapons systems of the South Korean military — most of which involve electronic equipment — when necessary.”

In fact, Chinese analysts believe North Korea is working on small nuclear warheads that could produce “super-EMP bombs,” the report said. “Once North Korea achieves the actual war deployment of EMP weapons, the power of its special forces would doubtlessly be redoubled,” the report said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Photo credit: John Pavelka

“Extraordinary reversal of military policy”: Service members permitted to march in uniform in gay pride parade

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In what appears to be an extraordinary reversal of military policy, members of the U.S. armed forces say they have been given permission by their commanding officers to march in a “gay pride” parade Saturday – while wearing their service-issued uniforms.

Meanwhile, one of the top officers who approved the decision has since entered retirement.

The top echelons of the U.S. Air Force approved a request by a senior recruiter based in Arizona to join “a uniformed, active-duty military contingent” in a San Diego homosexual pride event, the San Diego Union Tribune reported.

The decision breaks down generations of tight limits on when and where a service member is allowed to appear in uniform, and appears to stray from the Department of Defense regulations on the use of uniforms, dated 2005 and signed by Defense Undersecretary David S.C. Chu, which says using the U.S. military uniform is prohibited in a number of scenarios.

Those include “in connection with furthering political activities, private employment or commercial interests, when an inference of official sponsorship of the activity or interest may be drawn.”

Read more from this story HERE.

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Consumer Watchdog Fines Alec Baldwin’s Capital One for Deceptive Credit Card Practices

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Capital One, one of the nation’s biggest banks, will reimburse $150 million to more than two million customers for selling them credit card products they could not use or did not want, as the nation’s new consumer watchdog leveled its first enforcement action against the financial industry.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Wednesday hit Capital One with findings that a vendor working for the bank had pressured and deceived card holders into buying products presented as a way to protect them from identity theft and hardships like unemployment or disability.

The regulatory actions, totaling $210 million including fines to authorities, take aim at one of the financial industry’s growing profit centers and increasingly controversial practices. Several other banks, including Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and HSBC, were sued in June by the Hawaii attorney general, accused of improperly selling similar so-called add-on products, which consumer advocates typically regard as costly and ineffective.

“We know these deceptive marketing tactics for credit card add-on products are not unique to a single institution,” said Richard Cordray, the director of the consumer bureau. “We expect announcements about other institutions as our ongoing work continues to unfold.”

Capital One — known for its catchy television ads that ask, “What’s in your wallet?” — did not admit to or deny any of the findings. While it said the wrongdoing had occurred at outside call centers that “did not always adhere to company sales scripts,” the bank’s president for credit cards, Ryan M. Schneider, acknowledged that the company was “accountable for the actions that vendors take on our behalf.”

Read more from this story HERE.

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More vote fraud opportunities: Washington first state to use Facebook for voter registration

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Washington will become the first state to offer voter registration via Facebook with a new application to be launched as soon as next week, according to a state election official.

Once online, the app will be accessible on the secretary of state’s Facebook page, said Shane Hamlin, co-director of elections for the state.

Washington, which has approximately 3.7 million registered voters, conducts elections entirely by mail and enacted online registration in 2008. Since online registration started, Hamlin said close to 500,000 voter registrations or address changes have been processed.

Facebook, Washington state and Microsoft have teamed up to create an app that allows users to register on the social media site through the state’s new “MyVote” app. The effort came about last fall when Microsoft approached Washington state after Facebook contacted the software giant with the idea.

When Facebook users download the application, they will have to agree to allow Facebook to access their information, including name and date of birth, which is pre-filled into the voter registration form.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Sealaska awarded federal grant to rewrite history of 1869 Wrangell conflict

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A largely forgotten piece of Wrangell history may soon come to light, as the Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) has been awarded a grant to research the 1869 Bombardment of Wrangell.

Sealaska Heritage Institute was the recipient of a one-year National Park Service (NPS) Battlefield Preservation Grant to document 1869 Bombardment through oral history work with elders in partnership with the Wrangell Cooperative Association (WCA). This is the first ever Battlefield Preservation Grant awarded to an organization in Alaska to study a U.S. military conflict with a Native American tribe.

The 150-year-old conflict between the U.S. Army and Tlingits of Wrangell was a National news story at the time, but it was not a story that was retold to generations of Wrangellites. According to a report compiled by Vincent Colyer, Secretary to President Ulysses S. Grant, on Christmas night in 1869, just over a year after Alaska became a U.S. Territory, a member of the Stikine tribe bit off the finger of white woman, a stunt that eventually led to the deaths of two Stikine men, a white male killed in retaliation named John Smith, and the military threatening to completely destroy Fort Wrangel until Smith’s murderer was finally hung.

The final report generated through the grant will be given to the WCA and community of Wrangell to allow them to determine what could be done to preserve, market, develop or memorialize the conflict for the community’s advantage. Some Battlefield Grant recipients in years past have gone on to build memorials, or be recognized as a National Historic Site, like Chief Shakes Tribal House.

Zachary Jones, Sealaska Heritage Institute Archivist & Collection Manager and PhD student in Ethnohistory at University of Alaska Fairbanks focusing on Tlingit and Russian relations, will serve as the primary investigator on the Bombardment and believes “past writings do not do the situation justice. Reports out there now largely represent only one side of the story. They didn’t go far enough. One needs to understand Tlingit law, the cultural context and aspects of Federal Indian policy to address the whole situation. I look forward to working with and serving the WCA and community of Wrangell in bringing this complex issue forward.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Gingrich to Romney: You’d better invite Sarah Palin to the Tampa Convention

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Former House Speaker and Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich slammed the Romney campaign Tuesday, saying former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney should extend a speaking invitation to former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

“Governor Palin motivates and arouses an entire base,” Mr. Gingrich said in an interview with conservative radio host Laura Ingraham. “[She] should absolutely have a speaking slot.”

Mr. Gingrich’s comment on the matter comes just days after reports emerged noting that Mr. Romney has yet to invite Ms. Palin to the Republican presidential convention hosted in Tampa, Florida. Mr. Gingrich, who has not been invited to speak at the convention, said that he would be honored to speak at the convention if asked, but the decision is up to Mr. Romney and his team.

Ms. Palin, who responded to reports that the Romney campaign has yet to offer her a speaking invitation, said the circumtances regarding the Romney decision was payback for her outspokenness and criticism of his policy stances.

“What can I say?” Palin told Newsweek when asked about the convention. “I’m sure I’m not the only one accepting consequences for calling out both sides of the aisle for spending too much money, putting us on the road to bankruptcy, and engaging in crony capitalism.”

Read more from this story HERE.

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Video: Democrat Loses it on Tea Partier at Jewish Pro-Obama Event

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Watch a Democrat completely lose his cool with a Tea Partier outside of a pro-Obama event at a Jewish Reform Congregation.  Just minutes earlier, a member of the Jewish Americans for Romney was chased off the property.  [Caution: profane language]

 

Photo credit: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Media ignores yet another press conference with Sheriff of one of largest counties in US

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The lead investigator in Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s probe of Barack Obama’s eligibility for Arizona’s November presidential ballot is convinced he has “indisputable proof” the document presented by the White House as Obama’s birth certificate is fraudulent.

But after presenting his latest evidence at a press conference in Phoenix Tuesday, the gathered media wanted to talk about him, not the evidence.

“Obviously, the information we are bringing forth is becoming very difficult for them to refute,” Mike Zullo told WND in an interview after the event.

“What the media was trying to do was the Saul Alinsky tactic of discrediting the person that is bringing forth the information,” he said, referring to the 1960s Marxist activist whose book “Rules for Radicals” is a manual for left-wing activists.

The first question from the media referred to a short e-book Zullo wrote with WND senior reporter Jerome Corsi, who has assisted the Cold Case Posse in its investigation.

Read more from this story HERE.

Publisher’s note:  After this article was published yesterday, the LA Times put out a story on on the press conference at 11 a.m. this morning.  You can read that column HERE.

Photo credit: mariopiperni

 

NOAA Scientist: Experiment Suggests Worst of Fukushima “still on the way”

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It’s been over a year since natural disaster ravaged a nuclear plant in Fukushima and interrupted the lives of millions of Japanese. Scientists now fear though that contaminated water is on course to America, and it could be more toxic than thought.

Researchers have released the findings of an intense study into the aftermath of last year’s Fukushima nuclear disaster and warn that the United States isn’t exactly spared just yet. In fact, scientists now fear that incredibly contaminated ocean waters could be reaching the West Coast of the US in a matter of only five years, and the toxicity of those waves could eventually be worse than what was seen in Japan.

A team of scientists led by Joke F Lübbecke of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory have published the findings of an experiment recently conducted to measure the impact of last year’s nuclear disaster and the results are eye-opening to say the least. By simulating the spreading of contaminated ocean waters and seeing how currents could carry them across the Pacific from Japan to the US, scientists believe that the worst might be still on the way.

“Within one year it will have spread over the entire western half of the North Pacific and in five years we predict it will reach the US West Coast.” Claus Böning, co-author of the study, tells the website Environmentalresearchweb.

Böning adds that “The levels of radiation that hit the US coast will be small relative to the levels released by Fukushima,” yet fails to exactly stand by that statement in the fullest. “But we cannot estimate accurately what those levels will be because we do not know for certain what was released by Fukushima,” the doctor adds.  In fact, others fear that contaminated ocean waters may collect in packets and produce waves of highly concentrated nuclear toxins that could pose a dangerous toll to Americans.

Read more from this story HERE.

Publisher’s note:  This article was originally published by RT News.  Shortly after posting, Restoring Liberty received a voice mail from Ms. Jana Goldman, a ” NOAA Communication officer.”  Ms. Goldman reported that the scientist involved in the above-referenced study regarding Fukushima was not actually with NOAA at the time the report was prepared.  Rather, she was with a team from Germany, even though she is now employed by NOAA.  Ms. Goldman confirmed this information by email as well.

Photo credit: Ryan Somma

 

Grassley accuses FDA of acting like communist secret police for spying on employees

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Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) accused the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of acting like the East German secret police for closely monitoring the computer activities of some of its employees.

The GOP senator said internal documents on the surveillance program make the FDA “sound more like the East German Stasi than a consumer protection agency in a free country.”

He said the documents refer to employees who leaked information as “collaborators,” congressional staff as “ancillary actors,” and newspaper reporters as “media outlet actors.”

The FDA began using surveillance software in 2010 to monitor the computer activities of five of its scientists that it suspected of leaking damaging confidential information. The software captured screen images, intercepted personal emails, copied documents and even tracked their keystrokes.

The New York Times reported over the weekend that the agency gathered 80,000 pages of documents as part of the program and created a list of 21 employees, congressional officials, academics and journalists it suspected of putting out negative information about the FDA. Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who has examined the agency’s procedures for reviewing medical devices, was listed as No. 14 on the list.

Read more from this story HERE.

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore