Obama Considering Range of Options in Response to China’s Severely Damaging OPM Hack

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By Bill Gertz. President Obama is considering a range of options in addition to economic sanctions in response to the massive theft of data from federal government computer networks, a senior White House security official said Tuesday.

“We’ve got a range of tools and we’ll consider all of them,” said Lisa Monaco, the White House’s homeland security adviser.

Monaco said in a brief interview with the Washington Free Beacon after a speech on cyber threats that the U.S. government is currently investigating the clandestine theft of sensitive information on at least 4 million government workers from computers at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) . . .

Monaco’s comments on possible responses to the cyber attack were the first to indicate that the administration is considering more than economic sanctions in retaliation. Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, suggested Friday that sanctions were among the options.

Monaco did not respond when asked why neither the president nor his advisers have condemned the cyber attack against the Office of Personnel Management, which has been described by U.S. officials as one of the most damaging compromises of sensitive information in recent years. (Read more from “Obama Considering Range of Options in Response to OPM Hack” HERE)

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Chinese Cyber Attacks That Might Be Even Worse Than the OPM Hack

By Robert Knake. February 2013. DHS says that between December 2011 and June 2012, cyber criminals targeted twenty-three gas pipeline companies and stole information that could be used for sabotage purposes. Forensic data suggests the probes originated in China.
Why it’s worse: Espionage is one thing, sabotage is another. This incident crosses into what might be called “preparation of the battlefield”—laying the groundwork for military operations. In this incident, the hackers targeted an entire sector. They weren’t going after business data or stealing designs. The worst you can do with PII? Gain account access. The worst you can do with this info? Blow up pipelines.

March 2015. Canadian researchers say Chinese hackers attacked U.S. hosting site GitHub. GitHub said the attack involved “a wide combination of attack vectors” and used new techniques to involve unsuspecting web users in the flood of traffic to the site. According to the researchers, the attack targeted pages for two GitHub users—GreatFire and the New York Times’ Chinese mirror site—both of which circumvent China’s firewall.
Why it’s worse: This incident gets closer to the line North Korea crossed—interfering with our right to free speech. We haven’t quite articulated a norm in this area, but theInternational Strategy for Cyberspace comes close. In this case, China targeted GitHub because it was hosting pages for organizations that circumvent its Great Firewall. It may be time we put out a Monroe Doctrine for cyberspace, which would, make clear that trying to stifle freedom of speech in this country crosses a red line. We could go further and make it official policy to bring dissidents from other countries under this veil of protection. Taking a page from the Kennedy doctrine, the United States could declare that it will pay any price, bear any burden, host any website and defeat any denial of service attack in the cause of Internet freedom. . .

February 2012. Media reports say that Chinese hackers stole classified information about the technologies onboard F-35 Joint Strike Fighters.
Why it’s worse: Under current norms, military technology is fair game but this one is devastating if true. The hack targeted classified information on one of our most advanced weapons platforms. The info could save the Chinese decades in research and development. Worse, it could be used to find vulnerabilities that could be exploited in combat—think the pilot episode of Battlestar Gallactica. (Read more from this story HERE)

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“Urgent Need”: Pentagon Building Cruise Missile Shield to Defend US Cities From Russia Weapon Advances

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The Pentagon is quietly working to set up an elaborate network of defenses to protect American cities from a barrage of Russian cruise missiles.

The plan calls for buying radars that would enable National Guard F-16 fighter jets to spot and shoot down fast and low-flying missiles. Top generals want to network those radars with sensor-laden aerostat balloons hovering over U.S. cities and with coastal warships equipped with sensors and interceptor missiles of their own.

One of those generals is Adm. William Gortney, who leads U.S. Northern Command, or NORTHCOM, and North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD. Earlier this year, Gortney submitted an “urgent need” request to put those new radars on the F-16s that patrol the airspace around Washington. Such a request allows a project to circumvent the normal procurement process.

While no one will talk openly about the Pentagon’s overall cruise missile defense plans, much of which remains classified, senior military officials have provided clues in speeches, congressional hearings and other public forums over the past year. The statements reveal the Pentagon’s concern about advanced cruise missiles being developed by Russia.

“We’re devoting a good deal of attention to ensuring we’re properly configured against such an attack in the homeland, and we need to continue to do so,” Adm. Sandy Winnefeld, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a May 19 speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, in Washington. (Read more from “Pentagon Building Cruise Missile Shield to Defend US Cities From Russia” HERE)

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Russian Military Developing Anti-Drone ‘Microwave Gun’

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The state-owned Russian defense firm, United Instrument Manufacturing Corp., reported to state-owned news site Sputnik that they’d developed a microwave-based weapon they plan to show off privately at the Russian Defense Ministry’s Army-2015 expo June 16-19 . . .

“The new system is equipped with a high-power relativistic generator and reflector antenna, management and control system, and a transmission system, which is fixed on the chassis of BUK surface-to-air missile systems,” a UIMC spokesman told Sputnik News. “When mounted on a special platform, the ‘microwave gun’ is capable of ensuring perimeter defense at 360 degrees.”

The U.S. has a similar microwave weapon in development, the “Counter-electronics high-powered Microwave Advanced Missile Project” missile targets electronics inside buildings. The CHAMP missile would shut down computers, radio communication and other electronic functions to disable a building’s defenses. (Read more from “Russian Military Developing Anti-Drone ‘Microwave Gun'” HERE)

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Vatican Speaker and California Governor in Push for Massive Depopulation

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The depopulationists are on the move again, pushing hard for the elimination of six billion people on planet Earth in order to bring the planet down to what’s being touted as its “sustainable carrying capacity of one billion people.”

But this time, the depopulation agenda may be codified by the Vatican. Professor John Schellnhuber has been chosen as a speaker for the Vatican’s rolling out of a Papal document on climate change. He’s the professor who previously said the planet is overpopulated by at least six billion people. Now, the Vatican is giving him a platform which many expect will result in an official Church declaration in support of radical depopulation in the name of “climate science.”

“The teaching document, called an encyclical, is scheduled for release on June 18 at Vatican City,” reports Breitbart.com. “Perhaps with the exception of the 1968 encyclical on contraception, no Vatican document has been greeted with such anticipation.”

A new Planetary Court to hold power over all nations… one ring to rule them all

Schellnhuber daydreams about a “Planetary Court” guided by a new “Earth Constitution” which would hold power over every nation and government on the planet. As he explains himself in this document on HumansAndNature.org, he’s a proponent of an all-powerful, climate-focused world government that would rule over the planet… a literal “science dictatorship” based on whatever “science” the climate change proponents can fudge together each year. . .

Interestingly, California Governor Jerry Brown might welcome such a depopulation agenda organized under a new world government. He recently tweeted about California having too many people, saying, “At some point, how many people can we accommodate?” Gov. Brown goes on to say that climate change is the reason the current drought is so much more worse than anything they’ve seen in the past. (Read more from “Vatican Speaker and California Governor in Push for Massive Depopulation” HERE)

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“Situation Critical”: New Data From NASA Shows How the World Is Running out of Water

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The world’s largest underground aquifers – a source of fresh water for hundreds of millions of people — are being depleted at alarming rates, according to new NASA satellite data that provides the most detailed picture yet of vital water reserves hidden under the Earth’s surface.

Twenty-one of the world’s 37 largest aquifers — in locations from India and China to the United States and France — have passed their sustainability tipping points, meaning more water was removed than replaced during the decade-long study period, researchers announced Tuesday. Thirteen aquifers declined at rates that put them into the most troubled category. The researchers said this indicated a long-term problem that’s likely to worsen as reliance on aquifers grows.

Scientists had long suspected that humans were taxing the world’s underground water supply, but the NASA data was the first detailed assessment to demonstrate that major aquifers were indeed struggling to keep pace with demands from agriculture, growing populations, and industries such as mining.

“The situation is quite critical,” said Jay Famiglietti, senior water scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California and principal investigator of the University of California Irvine-led studies.

Underground aquifers supply 35 percent of the water used by humans worldwide. Demand is even greater in times of drought. Rain-starved California is currently tapping aquifers for 60 percent of its water use as its rivers and above-ground reservoirs dry up, a steep increase from the usual 40 percent. Some expect water from aquifers will account for virtually every drop of the state’s fresh water supply by year end. (Read more from “New Data From NASA Shows How the World Is Running out of Water” HERE)

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“Explosive Papal Intervention”: Pope Calls for International Government to Avoid Environmental Cataclysm from Global Warming

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Pope Francis will this week call for changes in lifestyles and energy consumption to avert the “unprecedented destruction of the ecosystem” before the end of this century, according to a leaked draft of a papal encyclical. In a document released by an Italian magazine on Monday, the pontiff will warn that failure to act would have “grave consequences for all of us”.

Francis also called for a new global political authority tasked with “tackling … the reduction of pollution and the development of poor countries and regions”. His appeal echoed that of his predecessor, pope Benedict XVI, who in a 2009 encyclical proposed a kind of super-UN to deal with the world’s economic problems and injustices.

According to the lengthy draft, which was obtained and published by L’Espresso magazine, the Argentinean pope will align himself with the environmental movement and its objectives. While accepting that there may be some natural causes of global warming, the pope will also state that climate change is mostly a man-made problem.

“Humanity is called to take note of the need for changes in lifestyle and changes in methods of production and consumption to combat this warming, or at least the human causes that produce and accentuate it,” he wrote in the draft. “Numerous scientific studies indicate that the greater part of the global warming in recent decades is due to the great concentration of greenhouse gases … given off above all because of human activity.”

The pope will also single out those obstructing solutions. In an apparent reference to climate-change deniers, the draft states: “The attitudes that stand in the way of a solution, even among believers, range from negation of the problem, to indifference, to convenient resignation or blind faith in technical solutions.” (Read more from “”Explosive Papal Intervention”: Pope Calls for International Government to Avoid Environmental Cataclysm from Global Warming” HERE)

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Franklin Graham: Obama Freed Radical Muslim Brotherhood Prisoner in Egypt, Why Not Innocent Christian Pastor Saeed in Iran?

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From Rev. Franklin Graham’s Facebook post:

Mr. President, American pastor Saeed Abedini has been imprisoned in Iran for 2 ½ years, and last week he suffered another severe beating at the hands of inmates. His life is continuously threatened not only because he’s an American, but also because he’s a Christian. This was why he was arrested—and he has been told his only way out is to deny Jesus Christ. New reports stated that the White House worked extensively to have Egyptian-American Mohamed Soltan released from an Egyptian prison last month where he had been sentenced to life for accusations of affiliation with the radical Islamic terrorist group, the Muslim Brotherhood. Soltan worked on your campaign and his father was a prominent member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Mr. President, I hope you’ll do the same to help Saeed Abedini—who is guilty of nothing, was sentenced to 8-years in prison, and whose only affiliation is with the Lord Jesus Christ. Christians, pray with me for Saeed’s protection and for his release.

And from the Christian Post story that Franklin Graham cited:

American pastor Saeed Abedini has reportedly been “viciously beaten” by fellow prisoners in an unprovoked attack in the Iranian prison where he’s being held. The pastor was punched in the face, leaving his eyes beaten black and blue, but prison guards intervened and prevented further injury.

The American Center for Law and Justice, the law group which represents his wife, Naghmeh Abedini, and the couple’s two children in the U.S., said that the prisoners also demolished a small table that the pastor had used to study and read during the beating that he endured last week.

Abedini was allowed to see a prison doctor, who determined that he does not have any broken bones. On Wednesday, he was able to see a family member who came to visit him and see his injuries first hand.

“It is heartbreaking to me and my family that Saeed was again beaten in prison. Saeed’s life is continuously threatened not only because he is an American, but also because he is a convert from Islam to Christianity. It’s time to get Saeed home before it is too late,” Naghmeh Abedini said in response to the news.

Back in May, Abedini marked his 35th birthday in prison, where he has spent over two and a half years for his Christian faith. He was arrested in Iran in 2012 while working on an orphanage for children, and later sentenced to eight years in prison.

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Just When You Thought Obama’s Appeasement of Iran Couldn’t Get Any Worse [+video]

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It’s very simple, if Republicans allow Obama to continue our dangerous alliance with Iran for even one hour after the June 30 deadline, they are just as complicit in the malfeasance. Republicans can take a few days off from rubber-stamping Obama’s agenda and growing government in order to deal with Iran.

On Tuesday, Bloomberg News reported that UN monitors have received no reports from the U.S. or European countries pointing out Iranian violations of sanctions, “even though some have unfolded in plain sight.”

The White House would have you believe that they will not lift sanctions on Iran until they comply with the terms of a potential nuclear agreement. The problem is they have already de facto lifted sanctions, not just through the $700 million per month in unfrozen assets given to Iran for stringing us along in these negotiations, but by turning a blind eye to their violation of travel bans and importing nuclear materials.

For example, nobody bothered to report that General Qassem Suleimani, the head of the terrorist Quds force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, broke his travel ban and has been seen all over the Middle East promoting the Iranian proxies. The U.S. and other governments also turned a blind eye to recent shipments of nuclear missile materials from North Korea to Iran. And when it comes to Iran’s growing piracy of international ships and international waters, the “international community” has pursued a ‘see no evil, hear no evil’ approach.

Moreover, as the Financial Times reports, Iran is already negotiating contracts with OPEC and international oil companies with the full confidence that sanctions will be lifted, irrespective of their behavior or willingness to cooperate with nuclear disarmament.

It gets worse.

Not only has Obama turned a blind eye to existing violations, he is now reneging on his promise to keep the “non-nuclear” sanctions on Iran, even if they strike a deal to curb their nuclear program. In the April 2 factsheet, the White House boasted, “U.S. sanctions on Iran for terrorism, human rights abuses, and ballistic missiles will remain in place under the deal.” The notion that the UN and U.S. could untangle the nuclear sanctions without affecting the rest of the sanctions was always dubious, but now the AP reports that the Obama administration is officially backtracking.

Officials say the administration can meet its obligations because of how it interprets nuclear sanctions.

For example, they say measures designed to stop Iran from acquiring ballistic missiles are nuclear-related because they were imposed to push Iran into the negotiations. Also, they say sanctions that may appear non-nuclear are often undergirded by previous actions conceived as efforts to stop Iran’s nuclear program.

The officials who provided information for this story spoke only on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly on the private discussions.

The AP goes on to explain that this convoluted designation will essentially free 23 of the 24 Iranian banks from all sanctions. So Obama will treat Iran’s ballistic missile program like its nuclear program for purposes of rewarding them with sanctions relief, but not for the purpose of forcing them to abandon it.

Consider this in the context of several other appalling developments:

Last week, the Obama administration shipped another supply of weapons, including AGM-114 Hellfire II missiles, to the Lebanese Army – a force that is completely controlled by Iran’s proxy, Hezbollah.

The White House made sure to publicly celebrate their victory at the Supreme Court this week granting them the continued authority to refuse to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital on passports of those born in the Israeli capital. This was clearly another groveling exercise before the Iranians.

Obama has announced that he is sending 400 additional “advisors” to Iraq in order to train the “Iraqi security forces.” The reality is that these are not advisors to an independent Iraqi force. Instead of directly arming the Kurds, Obama is sending 3,500 of our finest troops into a meat-grinder of an Islamic civil war in order to deliver Iraq into the hands of Iran, which currently controls Baghdad.

What should boil the blood of anyone who loves America most is that Iran and Hezbollah are responsible for more military deaths than any other country or entity in modern history. According to the Jerusalem Center for Public Policy, Iran and Hezbollah were responsible for killing 1,100 U.S. soldiers in Iraq and incapacitating thousands more. And this is all putting aside the vast history of killing American troops, from the Marine barracks in Beirut to the Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia.

This is how we are going to repay Iran for their genocide? Are Republicans, with their endless timidity, prepared to be complicit in this immoral appeasement of Iran?

June 30 will be a time for choosing. (“When You Thought the Appeasement of Iran Couldn’t Get Any Worse…”, originally posted HERE)

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Obama Releases Yemeni Suspects Despite Them Being Classified as ‘High Risk’

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Six detainees have been freed from Guantanamo Bay after 13 years – but Britain’s last inmate remains behind bars.

Shaker Aamer was not among the men released from the controversial military prison, dealing another painful blow to his anguished family in London.

Officials at the US Department of Defence revealed the Yemeni terror suspects had been let out even though they have been classified as ‘high risk’. The captives have been sent to Oman in the Middle East.

They included two men accused of being Osama bin Laden’s bodyguards and an alleged Al Qaeda soldier who fought in a group called the ‘Martyr’s Brigade’.

The US is refusing to say why Mr Aamer, 48, remains languishing in captivity despite President Barack Obama telling David Cameron during top-level talks in January that his release was a ‘priority’. (Read more from “Obama Releases Yemeni Suspects Despite Being Classified as ‘High Risk'” HERE)

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US Airstrike ‘Likely’ Killed Al Qaeda Leader in Libya

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The U.S. military launched an airstrike that targeted and “likely” killed the Al Qaeda leader behind the attack on a gas plant in Algeria in 2013 that killed 35 hostages, including three Americans, a senior defense official told Fox News Sunday.

Libyan government and U.S. officials say warplanes targeted Mokhtar BelMokhtar and several others in the eastern city of Ajdabiya. The U.S. filed terrorism charges against BelMokhtar last year in connection with the Algeria attack. Officials have said they believe he remained a threat to U.S. and Western interests.

The Libyan government in a statement said that the strike came after consultation with the U.S. so that America could take action against a terror leader there.

One government official in Libya said an airstrike in Ajdabiya hit a group believed to be affiliated with Ansar al-Shariah, and that it killed five and injured more. He said the group that was injured got into clashes with the Libyan military that guarded the hospital there, leading to hours of fighting. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters . . .

The charges filed against Belmokhtar by federal law enforcement officials in Manhattan included conspiring to support Al Qaeda and use of a weapon of mass destruction. Additional charges of conspiring to take hostages and discharging a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence carry a maximum penalty of death. (Read more from “US Airstrike ‘Likely’ Killed Al Qaeda Leader in Libya” HERE)

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