Report: Not Enough Inspectors to Check Iran for Nukes [+video]

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SWITZERLAND-IRAN-US-NUCLEARBy Paul Bedard. The Iran nuclear deal being promoted by President Obama comes with an additional hidden tax of $36 million to watch the terror-nation’s nuclear program, according to a bipartisan budget analysis.

At $50 million, that is nearly three times, or 257 percent, more than the $14 million the United Nation’s spends now on Iran nuclear surveillance, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.

What’s more: The International Atomic Energy Agency doesn’t even have enough experienced inspectors and will likely have to call some out of retirement to keep an eagle eye on Tehran, said the report from analyst Jessica Michek.

“To implement the interim agreement, the IAEA reportedly had to bring former inspectors back from retirement — it is unclear where the agency will find the manpower to carry out its increased workload in Iran while maintaining its verification programs around the world. If the IAEA’s expanded workload and additional inspectors increase costs in a manner similar to the interim agreement, implementing the [agreement] may cost $3 million a month in addition to the IAEA’s regular budget, or $36 million more a year,” wrote Michek. (Read more from “Report: Not Enough Inspectors to Check Iran for Nukes” HERE)

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Sen. Blumenthal on Iran Deal: ‘There May Have Been a Better Deal If We Had Different People Doing It’

By Craig Millward. During a meeting with constituents in Cornwall, Conn., last week, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said there were “weaknesses” with the Iran nuclear agreement and added that, “there may have been a better deal if we’d had different people doing it.”

While speaking at an event hosted by the Democratic Coalition of Northwest Connecticut, Blumenthal said, “I have not made a decision about whether I will vote to reject the agreement or not. And I think that there are weaknesses in this agreement. The president has said, he’s right, no agreement is perfect. The Secretary of State has said, negotiations always involve compromise.”

“That’s true,” said Blumenthal. “The question is whether those weaknesses justify voting against the agreement. And the key question is what will happen if Congress rejects, what are the alternatives?”

“What will happen as a practical matter because the question is not whether we would have — you or I — negotiated a better deal,” said Blumenthal.

“There may have been a better deal,” he continued, “if we had different people doing it. But the question is what happens if this agreement is rejected?” (Read more from this story HERE)

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Doomsday Clock for Global Market Crash Strikes One Minute to Midnight as Central Banks Lose Control

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snake-dance-illo_2764022bWhen the banking crisis crippled global markets seven years ago, central bankers stepped in as lenders of last resort. Profligate private-sector loans were moved on to the public-sector balance sheet and vast money-printing gave the global economy room to heal.

Time is now rapidly running out. From China to Brazil, the central banks have lost control and at the same time the global economy is grinding to a halt. It is only a matter of time before stock markets collapse under the weight of their lofty expectations and record valuations.

The FTSE 100 has now erased its gains for the year, but there are signs things could get a whole lot worse . . .

China was the great saviour of the world economy in 2008. The launching of an unprecedented stimulus package sparked an infrastructure investment boom. The voracious demand for commodities to fuel its construction boom dragged along oil- and resource-rich emerging markets.

The Chinese economy has now hit a brick wall. Economic growth has dipped below 7pc for the first time in a quarter of a century, according to official data. That probably means the real economy is far weaker. (Read more from “Doomsday Clock for Global Market Crash Strikes One Minute to Midnight as Central Banks Lose Control” HERE)

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Obama Administration Warns Beijing About Covert Agents Operating in U.S.

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17AGENTS-master675The Obama administration has delivered a warning to Beijing about the presence of Chinese government agents operating secretly in the United States to pressure prominent expatriates — some wanted in China on charges of corruption — to return home immediately, according to American officials.

The American officials said that Chinese law enforcement agents covertly in this country are part of Beijing’s global campaign to hunt down and repatriate Chinese fugitives and, in some cases, recover allegedly ill-gotten gains . . .

The American warning, which was delivered to Chinese officials in recent weeks and demanded a halt to the activities, reflects escalating anger in Washington about intimidation tactics used by the agents. And it comes at a time of growing tension between Washington and Beijing on a number of issues: from the computer theft of millions of government personnel files that American officials suspect was directed by China, to China’s crackdown on civil liberties, to the devaluation of its currency.

Those tensions are expected to complicate the state visit to Washington next month by Xi Jinping, the Chinese president.

The work of the agents is a departure from the routine practice of secret government intelligence gathering that the United States and China have carried out on each other’s soil for decades. The Central Intelligence Agency has a cadre of spies in China, just as China has long deployed its own intelligence operatives into the United States to steal political, economic, military and industrial secrets. (Read more from “Obama Administration Warns Beijing About Covert Agents Operating in U.S.” HERE)

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Leader of Islamic State Used American Hostage as Sex Slave

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downloadThe leader of the Islamic State personally kept a 26-year-old American woman as a hostage and raped her repeatedly, according to U.S. officials and her family.

The family of Kayla Mueller said in an interview Friday that the FBI had informed them that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the emir of the self-proclaimed Islamic State, had sexually abused their daughter, a humanitarian worker.

Mueller’s parents said the FBI first spoke to the family about the sexual assault in late June and provided more details two weeks ago. The bureau pieced together what happened to the American from interviews with other hostages and the captured wife of a senior Islamic State figure . . .

The disclosure that Mueller was raped by Baghdadi adds to the grim evidence that the exploitation and abuse of women has been sanctioned at the highest levels of the Islamic State. The sexual enslavement of even teenage girls is seen as religiously endorsed by the group and regarded as a recruiting tool.

News of Baghdadi’s abuse of Mueller, who was from Prescott, Ariz., was first reported Friday by the Independent, a London newspaper. (Read more from “Leader of Islamic State Used American Hostage as Sex Slave” HERE)

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North Korea threatens imminent strikes against South, warns US

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downloadNorth Korea on Saturday threatened South Korea with “indiscriminate” military strikes unless it halts cross-border propaganda broadcasts, and issued fresh nuclear weapons warnings against the United States.

The threats came amid escalating military tensions on the Korean peninsula following a landmine attack South Korea blamed on the North and ahead of a major South Korea-US joint military exercise condemned by Pyongyang.

They also coincided with celebrations in both Koreas to mark the 70th anniversary of the Korean peninsula’s 1945 liberation from Japanese colonial rule.

Initially there were hopes the anniversary might be an opportunity for some sort of inter-Korean rapprochement, but instead ties have spiralled downwards to the familiar accompaniment of angry rhetoric and mutual recrimination.

After three landmine blasts maimed two South Korean soldiers on border patrol, Seoul this week resumed high-decibel propaganda broadcasts across the heavily-militarised frontier, using batteries of loudspeakers that had lain silent for more than a decade. (Read more from “North Korea Threatens Imminent Strikes Against South, Warns US” HERE)

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Watch: Mysterious Explosion Of Insane Proportions Rocks Major City

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150813085906-tianjin-blast-1-exlarge-169By Randy DeSoto. A massive series of explosions rocked China’s 4th largest city around midnight local time.

According to CNBC, a smaller blast, the equivalent 3 tons of TNT, triggered a larger one equaling approximately 20 tons, shaking the port city of Tianjin.

China’s “Xinhua news agency said a fire started by the explosion was ‘under control’ but said two firefighters were missing. Shockwaves from the blast could apparently be felt several kilometres away from Tianjin,” the BBC reports.

“At the time of the explosion the ground was shaking fiercely, nearby cars and buildings were shaking, a few buildings’ glass all broke and everyone started to run,” Ms. Yang, an eyewitness, told local media.

The blast came with such force that many residents thought they were experiencing an earthquake and fled outside buildings to the streets. (Read more from “Watch: Mysterious Explosion Of Insane Proportions Rocks Major City” HERE)

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Massive Blasts Rock Chinese City

By Steven Jiang, Dana Ford and Jethro Mullen. A series of huge explosions shook the northern Chinese city of Tianjin late Wednesday, killing at least 44 people and injuring hundreds more, according to officials and state media . . .

Liu Yue, a 25-year-old Tianjin resident, said she felt the first blast but didn’t think too much of it.

“The second explosion was so powerful that I felt the entire 16-floor-building was shaking,” said Liu, who lives about 4 kilometers (2½ miles) from the site of the blasts. “I thought it was an earthquake! I was extremely scared. I was afraid my family was in danger.”

The initial explosion erupted at a warehouse for a logistics company in an industrial area of the port city, according to Tianjin police. The company was identified as Tianjin Dongjiang Port Rui Hai International Logistics Co. Ltd.

The state-run news agency Xinhua reported that an explosion tore through a warehouse storing “dangerous and chemical goods” in Binhai, an area of the city by the water. (Read more from “Massive Blasts Rock Chinese City” HERE)

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Iranian Senior Officials Disclose Confidential Details From Nuclear Negotiations

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downloadIranian officials recently began to reveal details from the nuclear negotiations with the U.S. since their early stages. Their statements indicate that the U.S. initiated secret negotiations with Iran not after President Hassan Rohani, of the pragmatic camp, was elected in 2013, but rather in 2011-2012, in the era of radical president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The disclosures also indicate that, already at that time, Iran received from the U.S. administration a letter recognizing its right to enrich uranium on its own soil. Hossein Sheikh Al-Islam, an advisor to the Majlis speaker, specified that the letter had come from John Kerry, then a senator and head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Iranian vice president and top negotiator Ali Akbar Salehi said that Kerry, while still a senator, had been appointed by President Obama to handle the nuclear contacts with Iran.

The following are initial details from these disclosures; a full translation is pending.

Khamenei: Bilateral Talks Began In 2011, Were Based On U.S. Recognition Of Nuclear Iran

In a speech he delivered on June 23, 2015, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said that the American administration had initiated the nuclear talks with Iran during Ahmadinejad’s term in office, based on a U.S. recognition of a nuclear Iran: “The issue of negotiating with the Americans is related to the term of the previous [Ahmadinejad] government, and to the dispatching of a mediator to Tehran to request talks. At the time, a respected regional figure came to me as a mediator [referring to Omani Sultan Qaboos] and explicitly said that U.S. President [Obama] had asked him to come to Tehran and present an American request for negotiations. The Americans told this mediator: ‘We want to solve the nuclear issue and lift sanctions within six months, while recognizing Iran as a nuclear power.’ I told that mediator that I did not trust the Americans and their words, but after he insisted, I agreed to reexamine this topic, and negotiations began” . . .

In an interview with the Tasnim news agency on July 7, 2015, Hossein Sheikh Al-Islam, an advisor to Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani, said that John Kerry had relayed a letter to Tehran recognizing Iran’s enrichment rights: “We came to the [secret] negotiations [with the U.S.] after Kerry wrote a letter and sent it to us via Oman, stating that America officially recognizes Iran’s rights regarding the [nuclear fuel] enrichment cycle. Then there were two meetings in Oman between the [Iranian and U.S.] deputy foreign ministers, and after those, Sultan Qaboos was dispatched by Obama to Khamenei with Kerry’s letter. Khamenei told him: ‘I don’t trust them.’ Sultan Qaboos said: ‘Trust them one more time.’ On this basis the negotiations began, and not on the basis of sanctions, as they [the Americans] claim in their propaganda.” (Read more from “Iranian Senior Officials Disclose Confidential Details From Nuclear Negotiations” HERE)

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An ISIS Thug Was About to Behead a Boy and His Father When an Unseen Force Turned the Tables

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britishsniper-913x512By Randy DeSoto. A British special forces sniper saved the lives of a young boy and his father who were about to be decapitated by ISIS militants.

They were dragged out of the crowd and made to kneel down as a tall, bearded, knife-wielding jihadist emerged and stood over them. Two ISIS fighters toting AK-47s also stood nearby.

“[The ISIS militant] began addressing the crowd and slapping the father and his son around the head and kicking them on to the floor,” a source told the Daily Star.

The SAS unit quickly ruled out a drone strike, concerned that innocent bystanders would be killed. Their sniper was tasked to put his skills to use.

From over a half-mile away, the sharpshooter, using a .50 calibre sniper rifle fitted with a silencer, killed the executioner just in time. (Read more from “An ISIS Thug Was About to Behead a Boy and His Father When an Unseen Force Turned the Tables” HERE)

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British Sniper Saves Boy, Father From Islamic State Beheading With Half-Mile Shot

By Sharona Schwartz. A British special forces sniper saved the lives of a boy and his father who were about to be beheaded by Islamic State jihadists by firing a shot at the head of the executioner from his position more than half a mile away, a British newspaper reported.

According to the Daily Star, a unit of Britain’s special forces Special Air Service carrying out covert patrols on the Syrian-Turkish border was tipped by an Iraqi spy to the execution site where Shiites accused of being “infidels” were going to be beheaded.

An unnamed military source told the newspaper that “there were several decapitated bodies already lying on the ground” in the village where the field trial and punishment were underway.

An SAS ground unit had moved into position just outside the village where the gruesome punishment was being meted out.

“Through binoculars, the soldiers could see that the crowd were terrified and many were in tears,” the source said. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Traders Made Millions on Stocks After Hacking Press Releases

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140513142456-nyse-trading-floor-1024x576A group of stock traders teamed with two Ukrainian-based computer hackers to make $100 million in illegal profits by gaining access to hundreds of press releases of many leading U.S. companies and trading on the stolen news before it became public.

All told 16 individual stock traders, and 14 businesses profited from the illegal trades, according to civil charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission. Nine of those individuals, including the two hackers, also face federal criminal charges. One federal indictment was unsealed in New Jersey and the other in Brooklyn on Tuesday.

The three press release distributors that were hacked were Marketwired, PR Newswire and Business Wire. They are widely used by the nation’s largest corporations to announce earnings reports, mergers and acquisitions, and other news that moves their stock. Business Wire is owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathawa. (BRKA)

The trades were linked to news releases from a wide range of companies including Boeing (BA), Hewlett Packard (HPQ, Tech30), Ford Motor (F), Bank of Amercia (BAC) and Home Depot (HD). The hacking took place between 2010 and 2015, according to authorities.

Authorities said that five of the stock traders facing criminal charges were arrested at their homes in the U.S. on Tuesday morning. Two hackers, and two other traders who face criminal charges are in the Ukraine, although international arrest warrants have been issued for them. Seven other stock traders accused of profiting from the scheme live in Russia and the Ukraine and face only the civil charges at this time. (Read more from “Traders Made Millions on Stocks After Hacking Press Releases” HERE)

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ISIS Invades Afghanistan, Captures Men and Blows Them up to Pieces, in Order to Do This [+video]

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isis-exp-copyBy Walid Shoebat. To ISIS, the way to win is to establish themselves in Afghanistan since in Muslim Prophecy, the battle for Jerusalem stems from Khorasan (Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan …) with Muslims carrying the black flags. This is the spark to all Muslims that they must join the Jihad for Jerusalem.

Yesterday, ISIS did that and has released a new video showing how they exported their terror agenda all the way to Afghanistan as an initiation by ISIS to declare that Afghanistan (Islamic Khorasan) is now in the fold of ISIS. In this video, ten prisoners accused of collaborating with Pakistan’s ISI against ISIS, kneel over explosives, then detonated shattering them into pieces where ISIS tracks the flying fleshly debris on film . . .

[WARNING: extremely graphic content:]

The issue of ISIS showing this footage in Afghanistan is serious to prove that they have control in Taliban infested Afghanistan.

The issue of Afghanistan is the struggle between two Caliphs competing for recognition: Mullah Omar (Mullā Muḥammad ‘Umar Mujáhid is the supreme commander and the spiritual leader of the Taliban) and Caliph Baghdadi of ISIS in Syria and Iraq. (Read more from “ISIS Invades Afghanistan, Takes a Multitude of Men and Blows Them up to Pieces, in Order to Do This” HERE)

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Sickening Video Reveals Isis’s New Method of Execution: Ten Prisoners Made to Kneel Above Bombs That Have Been Buried in the Ground

By Tom Wyke. They have burnt men alive and drowned prisoners in metal cages but now ISIS have released a new video showing off their new horrific method of committing murder.

Filmed in an unknown location in Afghanistan, ISIS militants are shown burying several explosive charges beneath the ground before covering them with earth.

The ten prisoners are blindfolded and led up to where the bombs have been buried before they are forced to their knees. The bloodthirsty jihadis detonate the charges, killing all the prisoners.

All the victims are described as ‘apostates’, according to the ISIS video, which appeared on jihadi social media accounts last night.

It is believed the victims are from the Shinwari tribe and were accused of aiding the Taliban in the Afghan province of Nangarhar, where ISIS was recently expelled. (Read more from this story HERE)

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