Big U.S. Fleet Nears Disputed Islands, But What For?

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It’s probably just a coincidence; no need to worry yet. But the U.S. has quietly assembled a powerful air, land and sea armada not far from where Japan and China are squaring off over disputed islands in the East China Sea.

Two Navy aircraft carrier battle groups and a Marine Corps air-ground task force have begun operating in the Western Pacific, within easy reach of the Senkaku Islands. That’s where Japanese and Chinese patrol boats are engaged in an increasingly tense standoff.

Chinese vessels have repeatedly entered territorial waters around the small islands in recent weeks and Coast Guard vessels from Japan and Taiwan fired water cannons at each other last week. The islands are controlled and administered by Japan, but claimed by both China and Taiwan.

No warships have been directly involved in the confrontations, so far. But China has vowed to continue sending patrol vessels into territorial waters and Japan has assembled scores of Coast Guard vessels to “defend” the islands.

The U.S. hasn’t taken sides in the ownership dispute, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called for “cooler heads” to prevail. Nonetheless, U.S. officials have stated clearly that the Senkakus fall under the U.S.-Japan security treaty, which would require the U.S. to come to Japan’s aid in case of attack.

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Ex-Egyptian MP: By 2013, “Israel will be annihilated”

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An Egyptian political science professor told an Iranian TV station that, with Allah’s help, “Israel will be annihilated” by 2013.

In an interview with Iran’s state-run Arabic news channel Al-Alam last week, Professor Gamal Zahran, head of the political science department at Egypt’s Port Said University and a former Independent MP, said: “Jerusalem is at the heart of the Palestinian cause, and the Palestinian cause is the cause of all Arabs and Muslims. The elimination of the Zionist entity is beyond debate, and the only question has to do with the circumstances.”

Zahran added that “the Arab revolutions, which broke out in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen – as well as in Bahrain and elsewhere – generate the people’s hope that one day, Jerusalem and Palestine will return to them.”

The interviewer interjected: “Why keep it only as a hope? Why not act on it?

Zahran responded that “the revolutions have not reached the throne of power. It is difficult to transform this hope into reality until these revolutions come to the forefront.”

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FBI: Russian Agent Living as Texas Businessman, Sending Advanced Electronics to Russian Military for 10 Years

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A reputed Houston-based agent for the Russian government is accused of leading an operation that clandestinely shipped sensitive cutting-edge microelectronics from the United States to Russia’s military and intelligence agencies.

Alexander Fishenko, who owns Arc Electronics and other companies linked to the charges, was among 11 people accused in an indictment unsealed Wednesday for their alleged roles in a “Russian military procurement network.”

The microelectronics involved are subject to U.S.-government controls, as they could be enlisted for a wide range of military applications, including surveillance, missile guidance and detonation triggers, according to U.S. authorities.

Eight people were arrested in Houston. Three are fugitives believed to be abroad. The ring operated from 2008 until it was derailed by U.S. federal agents making arrests, and searching homes, businesses and bank accounts.

“In this day and time, the ability of foreign countries to illegally acquire sensitive and sophisticated U.S. technology poses a significant threat to both the economic and national security of our nation,” said Stephen L. Morris, head of the FBI’s Houston Division, which led the two-year investigation.

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Al-Qaeda blamed for Europe-wide forest fires

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Al-Qaeda has been blamed for a recent series of forest fires across Europe, as the head of Russia’s Federal Security Service claimed they were set by arsonists as part of the group’s low-cost attack strategy.

Deadly fires have swept through forest land in EU countries such as Portugal and Spain.

“One should note that setting fires to forests in the countries of the European Union is a new tendency in al-Qaeda’s strategy of a ‘thousand cuts’,” Alexander Bortnikov said, according to state news agency RIA Novosti, at a meeting of heads of security agencies.

“This method allows (al-Qaeda) to inflict significant economic and moral damage without serious preliminary preparations, technical equipment or significant expenses.”

In linking al-Qaeda to the deadly wildfires, Mr Bortnikov pointed to calls to launch a “forest jihad” by various extremist websites which he said also publish detailed instructions about how and where to best carry out arson.

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Whistleblowers: Benghazi Consulate Was Attacked 13 Times Before 9/11, Repeatedly Asked for More Security

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Two House Republicans say they have been informed by whistleblowers that the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi was attacked and threatened 13 times before the incident last month that killed four Americans.

Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) sent Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a letter on Tuesday that detailed the whistleblowers’ allegations.

“Based on information provided to the Committee by individuals with direct knowledge of events in Libya, the attack that claimed the ambassador’s life was the latest in a long line of attacks on Western diplomats and officials in Libya in the months leading up to September 11, 2012,” Issa and Chaffetz wrote. “It was clearly never, as Administration officials once insisted, the result of a popular protest.”

The congressmen said the consulate asked for more security to deal with the growing threat but was turned down by the administration.

“In addition, multiple U.S. federal government officials have confirmed to the Committee that, prior to the September 11 attack, the U.S. mission in Libya made repeated requests for increased security in Benghazi. The mission in Libya, however, was denied these resources by officials in Washington.”

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Leaked Emails: US Allowed Sinaloa Cartel to “Smuggle Tons of Drugs into Chicago”

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Leaked emails from the private U.S. security firm Stratfor cite a Mexican diplomat who says the U.S. government works with Mexican cartels to traffic drugs into the United States and has sided with the Sinaloa cartel in an attempt to limit the violence in Mexico.

Many people have doubted the quality of Stratfor’s intelligence, but the information from MX1—a Mexican foreign service officer who doubled as a confidential source for Stratfor—seems to corroborate recent claims about U.S. involvement in the drug war in Mexico.

Most notably, the reports from MX1 line up with assertions by a Sinaloa cartel insider that cartel boss Joaquin Guzman is a U.S. informant, the Sinaloa cartel was “given carte blanche to continue to smuggle tons of illicit drugs into Chicago,” and Operation Fast and Furious was part of an agreement to finance and arm the Sinaloa cartel in exchange for information used to take down rival cartels.

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

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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

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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

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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

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“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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