US Consulate in Libya Bombed Twice in Run-Up to 9/11 Attack, Ambassador Known Target (+video)

Photo Credit: B.R.Q.In the five months leading up to this year’s 9/11 anniversary, there were two bombings on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi and increasing threats to and attacks on the Libyan nationals hired to provide security at the U.S. missions in Tripoli and Benghazi.

Details on these alleged incidents stem in part from the testimony of a handful of whistleblowers who approached the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in the days and weeks following the attack on the Benghazi consulate. The incidents are disclosed in a letter to be sent Tuesday to Hillary Clinton from Rep. Darrell Issa, the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Rep. Jason Chaffetz, the chairman of the oversight committee’s subcommittee that deals with national security.

The State Department did not offer comment on the record last night.

The new information disclosed in the letter obtained by The Daily Beast strongly suggests the U.S. consulate in Benghazi and the late Ambassador Chris Stevens were known by U.S. security personnel to be targets for terrorists. Indeed, the terrorists made their threats openly on Facebook.

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2013 Christmas Comet Could be Most Spectacular in Recorded History, Brighter than Moon

If astronomers’ early predictions hold true, the holidays next year may hold a glowing gift for stargazers—a superbright comet, just discovered streaking near Saturn.

Even with powerful telescopes, comet 2012 S1 (ISON) is now just a faint glow in the constellation Cancer. But the ball of ice and rocks might become visible to the naked eye for a few months in late 2013 and early 2014—perhaps outshining the moon, astronomers say.

The comet is already remarkably bright, given how far it is from the sun, astronomer Raminder Singh Samra said. What’s more, 2012 S1 seems to be following the path of the Great Comet of 1680, considered one of the most spectacular ever seen from Earth.

“If it lives up to expectations, this comet may be one of the brightest in history,” said Samra, of the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre in Vancouver, Canada.

So what makes a comet a showstopper? A lot depends on how much gas and dust is blasted off the central core of ice and rocks. The bigger the resulting cloud and tail, the more reflective the body may be.

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European Study: Most Biofuels More Environmentally Damaging than Gasoline

The controversial debate over the sustainability of biofuels has been reignited by new research from Swiss-based research institute Empa. While the study maintains that biofuels can be sustainable depending on certain conditions and the technology involved, the findings suggest that only a few are more environmentally friendly than gasoline.

The study entitled Harmonisation and extension of the bioenergy inventories and assessment was carried out by the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa) in conjunction with the Institute Agroscope Reckenholz-Tänikon (ART), and the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI). It is an update on a first of its kind report compiled in 2007, made more relevant for the present with new energy plants, manufacturing processes and updated assessment methods. Yet, the researchers arrived at a similar conclusion.

Although biofuels can have a smaller carbon footprint compared with fossil fuels, they produce other types of environmental pollution, including soil acidity and excessive levels of fertilizers finding their way into lakes and rivers.

More alarmingly, biofuels from deforested areas have a bigger greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint than fossil fuels. This is also true of indirect land usage – if existing agricultural land is used for the first time for a biofuel crop, new areas will have to be cleared to make up for displaced food and animal feed crops.

“Most biofuels therefore just deflect the environmental impact: fewer greenhouse gases, thus more growth-related pollution for land used for agriculture,” says Empa researcher Rainer Zah.

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The seeds of Che Guevara Lynch sprout in the country of his death – Bolivia

“To send men to the firing squad, judicial proof is unnecessary…These procedures are an archaic bourgeois detail. This is a revolution! And a revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate. We must create the pedagogy of the The Wall! (El Paredón)” –Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara Lynch

Che Guevara Lynch, whose familiar visage is sported on T shirts and posters is considered by many to be an international terrorist and mass murderer. During his vicious campaigns to impose communism on countries throughout Latin America, Guevara trained and motivated the Castro regime’s firing squads executing thousands of men, women and children.

Not content to spread revolution, murder and mayhem on the American continent, he traveled to Africa where revolution was brewing in the Congo. The Cubans working as surrogates for the USSR, were used to help impose communism and violence on the people of Africa. Guevara lead a small contingent of Cubans in an effort to topple the government, but was unsuccessful in this endeavor…….but it opened the door for larger incursions later, that lead to the deaths of thousands of innocent people in African conflicts.

Guevara left Africa and returned to Latin America, ending up in Bolivia leading terrorist attacks against that government. But after years of escaping the backlash from the violence he inflicted on others, in Bolivia his luck ran out. He was tracked down and eventually captured by brave dedicated soldiers of the Bolivian army. Unfortunately for Che Guevara, the Bolivian army had read his playbook. They showed him the same respect towards human life that he himself showed to so many in the past; he was summarily executed in the jungles of Bolivia.

But the blood spilled that day has sprouted a new brand of repression and communism in the beautiful country of Bolivia. A new repressive/communist narco state is emerging from the mineral rich and simmering social pot in this part of Latin America.

Bolivia is a mid-size state in the middle of Latin America, a rich natural gas country. It was taken over by President Evo Morales in 2006. A former coca-grower, the ultra leftist president of Bolivia, is pro Iran and after 6 years in power is promoting a socialist agenda like that of his friend and close ally Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, including the expropriation of private businesses.

Evo Morales is part of a large ethnic group call aimara. They now rule the country with a critical agenda against q-aras or blancos (white bolivian-spaniards) and quechuas and guaranies.

During the past 6 years of his iron rein, Morales has been able to intimidate, censor, and prosecute any Bolivians who criticize him or thwart his political agenda. His Congress has passed laws expanding the government’s powers to limit free speech and punish its critics, while the Supreme Court, packed with Evo Morales supporters, has explicitly rejected the principle that the judiciary should serve as a check on presidential power.

The Bolivian Evo Morales regime has enacted rules that dramatically reduce the public’s right to obtain information held by the government. The communist administration’s constant attacks on local rights defenders, whom authorities portray as enemies of the people, has helped make them more vulnerable to acts of intimidation by low-level officials and threats and acts of violence by Evo Morales supporters.

The Bolivian regime, called the “pluri-national state of Bolivia” under marxist conception, has sent a clear message to judges, journalists, broadcasters and rights defenders in particular, that the president Evo Morales and his followers are willing and able to punish people who challenge or obstruct their political aims.

Although many Bolivians and Latin American leaders continue to criticize the government, the fear of reprisal has had a chilling effect on the media and undercut the ability of judges to adjudicate politically sensitive cases.

Bolivia has several cases of arbitrary government abuse related to persecution of local governors. These governors of Bolivian states of Tarija, Pando and Cochabamba, are now living in exile in Paraguay and US.

Almost 50 years ago Che Guevara Lynch was killed in Bolivia. But todays Bolivia is in the process of falling under the same sort of repressive regime that he helped instill in Cuba. His violent works seem to have been forgotten by some and are now replaced by a sort of romanticism and mystique….But not in many areas of the world where Guevaras wounds are still remembered freshly and in countries where the repressive regimes of communism are rearing their ugly heads, like Bolivia.

Perhaps The Real Cuba.Com explained it best when they noted the popularity of the Che T shirts and posters proliferating in certain American circles:

“So why do so many well-heeled American liberals still admire this thug? Are the young simply ignorant of his execrable record and drawn to the image of the dashing young rebel? Do older progressives feel guilt for their free market prosperity, and showing solidarity with Che absolves them? Do hippies-turned-yuppies get nostalgic for their youthful protests and rationalize that the symbolism of Che as a “social reformer” eclipses his actual horrific human rights record? And are some American Guevaraistas truly dangerous leftists who seek to emulate their icon and destroy our free, democratic, capitalist society? Ask that guy wearing the Che t-shirt.”

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Eurozone Unemployment Hits Record High While, At the Same Time, One Eurozone Country Has Record Low Unemployment

The eurozone unemployment rate was 11.4% in August, up from 10.2% last year. Data from the EU statistics agency Eurostat estimated that 25.5 million men and women were out of work over the period, 18.2 million of whom were in the eurozone.

Compared with the previous month the number of unemployed people in the EU rose by 49,000 and in the eurozone by 34,000.

The overall unemployment rate in Spain has reached 25.1%, while the latest data from Greece for June shows a figure of 24.4%. The outlook is far more optimistic in Germany, however, where just 5.5% of people are out of work.

The EU announced on Monday that it will reallocate an extra €2.7bn of structural funds to tackle youth unemployment, on top of the €7.3bn already identified.

The reallocation is part of the EU’s “Youth Opportunities Initiative” which saw pilot programmes set up in the eight EU member states with the highest levels of youth joblessness: Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Lithuania, Slovakia, Ireland and Latvia.

US Death Toll Hits 2000 in Afghanistan but LSM Silent

A suicide bomber driving a motorcycle packed with explosives rammed his bike into a patrol of Afghan and international forces on Monday morning in eastern Afghanistan, killing at least 14 people, including three NATO service members and their translator, officials said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the blast, which came a day after the U.S. death toll in the war in Afghanistan reached 2,000 troops and as relations between international forces and their Afghan partners have been pushed to the breaking point by a surge in insider attacks by Afghan allies.

The bomber struck a group of Afghan police and international troops shortly after they got out of their vehicles to walk through a market area in Khost city, the capital of Khost province, said provincial government spokesman Baryalai Wakman.

Six civilians and four police officers were killed in the blast, Wakman said. He said the police officers were part of a specialized quick-reaction force.

Blood could be seen on the market road as Afghan police and soldiers tried to clean up the area after the blast. Slippers and bicycle parts were strewn about.

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Chinese Government Hackers Break into White House Military Office in Charge of Nuclear Football

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.

One official said the cyber breach was one of Beijing’s most brazen cyber attacks against the United States and highlights a failure of the Obama administration to press China on its persistent cyber attacks.

Disclosure of the cyber attack also comes amid heightened tensions in Asia, as the Pentagon moved two U.S. aircraft carrier strike groups and Marine amphibious units near waters by Japan’s Senkaku islands.

China and Japan—the United States’ closest ally in Asia and a defense treaty partner—are locked in a heated maritime dispute over the Senkakus, which China claims as its territory.

U.S. officials familiar with reports of the White House hacking incident said it took place earlier this month and involved unidentified hackers, believed to have used computer servers in China, who accessed the computer network used by the White House Military Office (WHMO), the president’s military office in charge of some of the government’s most sensitive communications, including strategic nuclear commands. The office also arranges presidential communications and travel, and inter-government teleconferences involving senior policy and intelligence officials.

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Texas GOP Congresswoman Blocks Obama’s Effort to Slip Egypt $450 Million

The Obama administration notified Congress on Friday that it would provide Egypt’s new government an emergency cash infusion of $450 million, but the aid immediately encountered resistance from a prominent lawmaker wary of foreign aid and Egypt’s new course under the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The aid is part of the $1 billion in assistance that the Obama administration has pledged to Egypt to bolster its transition to democracy after the overthrow last year of the former president, Hosni Mubarak. Its fate, however, was clouded by concerns over the new government’s policies and, more recently, the protests that damaged the American Embassy in Cairo.

The United States Agency for International Development notified Congress of the cash infusion on Friday morning during the pre-election recess, promptly igniting a smoldering debate over foreign aid and the administration’s handling of crises in the Islamic world.

An influential Republican lawmaker, Representative Kay Granger of Texas, immediately announced that she would use her position as chairwoman of the House appropriations subcommittee overseeing foreign aid to block the distribution of the money. She said the American relationship with Egypt “has never been under more scrutiny” than it is in the wake of the election of President Mohamed Morsi, a former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood.

“I am not convinced of the urgent need for this assistance and I cannot support it at this time,” Ms. Granger said in a statement that her office issued even before the administration announced the package.

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Iran’s Ahmadinejad Seems to Believe Romney Will Lose; Like Putin, Thinks 2nd Obama Term Will Be Good

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said talks over his country’s development of enriched uranium will be more productive after the U.S. election and expressed optimism the two sides will “be able to take some steps forward.”

“We have seen during many years that as we approach the United States presidential election, no important decisions are made,” Ahmadinejad said on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS” program. “Following the election, certainly the atmosphere will be much more stable, and important decisions can be made and announced.”

Ahmadinejad, who is completing his second and last term as president, said meetings over Iran’s nuclear program with the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, plus Germany, will result in “a very important decision” following the U.S. November election. Iran contends its nuclear facilities are for peaceful civilian purposes.

“We have set forth proposals, we are holding dialogue,” he said in the CNN interview, according to a transcript of the program scheduled to air today. “We do hope to be able to take some steps forward.”

U.S. President Barack Obama, in Sept. 25 speech before the General Assembly, said that time “is not unlimited” to reach a diplomatic resolution and vowed that the U.S. “will do what we must to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.”

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Venezuela’s Chavez May Lose Election Next Week

The crowds are bigger, his speeches slicker, and Venezuela’s young opposition leader, Henrique Capriles, is on a roll in a final, frenzied push to end President Hugo Chavez’s socialist rule. With just one week left before the Opec nation’s presidential election, the 40-year-old state governor is whipping up crowds like never before, creeping up in the polls and becoming increasingly aggressive in his attacks on Chavez’s policies.

“We’ve never had a candidate like him,” gushes shopkeeper Andrea Gomez, 42, screaming at Capriles like a teenage fan at a pop concert, as the passing politician blows kisses from an open-top cavalcade on the Caribbean coast north of Caracas.

Capriles has made big inroads among the working class where Chavez has his power-base, but still faces suspicions that he is too much of a rich kid and will end Chavez’s popular welfare programmes.

The 58-year-old incumbent remains a formidable campaigner and has a strong connection with many Venezuelans, especially the poor. Yet while a majority of big pollsters still put Chavez in front, two – Consultores 21 and Varianzas – have Capriles just ahead.

Opposition activists insist the poll numbers are distorted by a “fear factor” – government employees wary of reprisals if they show support for Capriles, for instance – and therefore underestimate their man’s real popularity. Either way, Capriles seems certain to have the best tilt at Chavez that anyone has managed during his 14-year rule.

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