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Wednesday, December 24, 2008
FBI diverts anti-terror agents to Bernard Madoff $50 billion swindle
Inauguration Day Crowd Estimate Cut by Half
Obama Administration wants Bush war team to stick around for smooth transition
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates, who has been named to the same Cabinet post by the incoming President-elect Barack Obama's Administration, has asked experienced members of the Bush war team to stick around to smooth the transition process in the Pentagon.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has asked most Bush Administration political appointees except those targeted for dismissal to stay on in the Pentagon until replaced by the Obama Administration in the coming months, The Washington Times reported.
"I have received authorization from the president-elect's transition team to extend a number of Department of Defense political appointees an invitation to voluntarily remain in their current positions until replaced," Gates said.
The chance to stay is "available to all willing political appointees with the exception of those who are contacted individually and told otherwise," he stated in an e-mail on December 19.
Notification of those who must depart was to be done before the close of business Monday. The identity of the dismissed officials could not be learned, the paper said.
The policy affects some 250 political appointees in the department. Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England and Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Eric Edelman have already announced that they plan to depart by January 20.
Two senior officials expected to stay are John Young, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, and James R. Clapper, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence.
About 40 positions in the Pentagon require Senate confirmation, including the undersecretaries and assistant secretaries and some deputies. The rest do not require a formal presidential nomination and Senate approval and can be made by the defense secretary, The Washington Times reported.
Geoff Morrell, Pentagon press secretary, confirmed that Gates wants to retain most political appointees. He said the policy of keeping so many holdover officials is unusual for a transition from a Republican to Democratic administration. (ANI)
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Altruism Comes with Penalty – When Good Turns Into Evil
There is such an increase of interfaith dialogue in our community lately, that it raises some concerns. While it is important to keep the doors open for dialogue, it is imperative to know who you are dialoguing with. Freedom of religion in the United States allows Islamists to encourage interfaith dialogue but in their countries there is no such freedom. Many Muslim leaders project peace and love, but beneath that is an agenda of ingratiating themselves to the American community to obtain acceptance and support for their mission.
Is the U.S. Government Getting Sucked Into Shariah-Compliant Finance?
The insurance giant AIG has lately become the poster child for corporate risk-taking, mismanagement and greed. Its unimaginably large losses, rooted in insurance it extended to financial companies engaged in subprime mortgage-backed transactions, have destroyed both AIG's corporate reputation and balance sheet.
KSM ‘Mystifies’ GITMO General
Fox News ran a story on December 16, 2008 about Guantanamo Bay that featured an interview with Army Brig. Gen. Gregory Zanetti, the deputy commander of Joint Task Force Guantanamo since February 2008. Gen. Zanetti, a West Point graduate who holds advanced degrees from Boston University and a master’s degree in strategic studies from the Army War College, is a professional money management expert in civilian life. So, while it is understandable that many things about this National Guard general’s first overseas deployment might have been new and different to him, the ideology of the prison’s high profile Muslim inmates should not have been one of them. And yet, for this highly educated, superb professional soldier, the reality that al Qaeda’s top commanders are in fact devout Muslims seems to have left him completely perplexed. That this level of our national leadership in the War Against Islamic Jihad does not yet grasp the fundamental nature of the enemy threat deployed against us is, in its way, even more terrifying than what that enemy wants to do to us.
A text message will be sent to 20,000 families living near a nuclear facility in the event of a radioactive disaster or emergency.
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A text message will be sent to 20,000 families living near a nuclear facility in the event of a radioactive disaster or emergency.....
Bioterrorism Threat Reappears
It's been a while since we have heard much about it, but, bioterrorism has once aging reared it ugly head. On December 3rd the Commission on Prevention of WMD Proliferation and Terrorism released its report: World at Risk. While the report deals a lot with the threat of a nuclear attack it also presents the conclusions of the expert panel on the threat of a bioterrorism attack on U.S. soil. The major conclusion of the study is that the World faces the likelihood of a bioterrorist attack sometime between now and the year 2013. It is quite likely that such an attack would occur somewhere in this country or at a U.S. facility in some other country.
The recent episode of letters sent thru the mail with white powder in them reaffirmed how easy such an attack might be carried out. While these envelopes were a hoax the episode in 2001 where envelopes laced with anthrax were sent to various Congressman and news commentators demonstrates that a biological agent can be transmitted in a relatively unsophisticated manner.
We think of biological warfare as something that the military carries out with organisms genetically groomed to do a specific, deadly job. These organisms are combined with a very sophisticated system for delivery a process called weaponization. Indeed, the U.S. Military, and the militaries of many countries, have had programs to develop biological weapons. The U.S. Military presumably abandoned it program in 1969 because these weapons were too hard to handle and deliver safely. However, for a terrorist group like Al-Qaeda or others personal safety is not necessarily a major issue.
Anthrax:
The U.S. Government has focused a great deal of time and money on developing a defense system against an attack using the bacteria, Bacillus anthracis. Training programs for medical personnel and first responders have stressed how to recognize and treat anthrax infections. The Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) of Drugs (mainly Cipro) and other medical supplies for an anthrax attack is maintained at the CDC in Atlanta, GA. It is set up to be able to deliver drugs and supplies to any state in the country within 12 hours of an attack. The problem with this program is that an attack might not come from anthrax but from any one of a number of other organisms listed on the CDC's rostrum of Potential Bioterrorism organisms. These include organisms producing diseases like Plague, Tularemia, hemorrhagic fever, Brucellosis, Psittacosis and others. The bacteria and viruses causing these diseases vary widely in species and properties.
But What If It's Not Anthrax?
With so much emphasis placed on anthrax it is not unlikely that a terrorism group would choose to develop one of these other agents to use in an attack. The problem with any biological attack is that unlike a suicide bomber or car bomb the effects of the attack will not be apparent for some period of time after the initial events. This period called the incubation period can be as short as 24 hours or as long as a week to 10 days depending on the organism and the route of exposure. The most likely route of exposure would be by inhalation of an aerosol of the organism.
So unless there is an eye witness to someone releasing a biological agent the results would not become evident until large numbers of people begin showing up at hospital ERs or walk-in clinics exhibiting the signs of some unusual infection. One positive result of the Development of the Office of Homeland Security is an initiative that has lead to better reporting between hospitals of the occurrence of unusual cases. This will lead to a quicker realization that something unusual has occurred. For many of the potential biological agents the initial symptoms are hard to distinguish from other more common conditions like the flu. This can add one or more days until a definite diagnosis of and agent infection might occur. The exceptions are diseases like those caused by RNA viruses like the viral hemorrhagic fever (VHF) viruses. In these cases the patient often shows sign of bleeding under the skin or from body orifices at very early stages.
Home Grown Bugs
It is widely believed that production of biological agents requires very sophisticated equipment and expertise to develop. While this is true if you want to develop military grade, weaponized material it is not quite so true if you simply want to develop some material that can be delivered to and kill a large number of people. Terrorist would rarely be too concerned about the purity of a culture used for a biological attack if they were to initiate one. After all, the suicide bomber rarely dress up in their best Sunday suit and tie (or more likely Thobe or Jibab) and goes out to bomb a market.
Any facility that has the means to grow a bacterial organism could be capable of growing a biological agent. This could include an abandoned bakery, a brewery including a small micro-brewery, pharmaceutical or biotechnology company, and many food processing plants. You simply need a means to culture a large quantity of the organism in some type of metal chamber that can be kept relatively sterile while the temperature and aeration process can be controlled. Once the large volume of culture is grown you simply need a way to concentrate it and then a delivery system that will produce an aerosol.
Delivering the Goods
A crude aerosol spray could be delivered into the air conditioning system of an office building or a large shopping mall or even released at some sporting or entertainment event where a large group of people are assembled. Once infected these individual would not show symptoms until the incubation period was complete. In the mean time they would have left the site of exposure and traveled to their homes in different parts of the city or different surrounding town. There if the biological agent was capable of being transmitted to others they might spread the disease to other members of their family, friends or even people at a drug store or local super market.
Mass Panic
When it is realized that a biological attack has taken place either by official announcement or more likely by a leak to the press it is likely that there will be a wide spread panic on the part of the public. While police will have to work with other responders to ensure any potential attack site is secure law enforcements biggest problem will be with crowd control. As news account of the attack spread across the city potentially thousands of people will descend on hospitals all believing they have been exposed. As they try to get medical help and antibiotics the hospitals and clinics will be overwhelmed. Fights will break out in crowds and pharmacies and even veterinary hospitals will be broken into as people attempt to get antibiotics.
For the first several days it may not be possible to determine who is actually infected and who is not. Everyone will believe that they have been exposed and this can lead to mass hysteria. In the 1995 Sarin chemical agent attack on a Tokyo subway over five thousand people descended on medical facilities claiming to have been exposed. In reality, only twelve people died and about five hundred suffered some non-lasting affects from the attack. Keeping order in a mass situation like this will be a daunting task for law enforcement officers.
US cybersecurity defences fail to thwart mock cyberattack
Five found guilty of plotting to kill Fort Dix soldiers
Survey: Workers facing layoffs could be security threat
Bomb case highlights FBI with new priorities
ALBANY — Before 9/11, information that young men were making large homemade firecrackers might have resulted in a knock on their door and a clunk on the head from a town cop telling them to cut it out.
But since Sept. 11, 2001, things have changed drastically, and a refocused FBI was never more evident than in a recent counterterrorism case that ensnared three Capital Region men on charges of making and trafficking in "destructive devices."
The investigation broke open on Dec. 5 when the men were arrested in a federal anti-terrorism task force raid of several homes in Watervliet and Troy. Police seized mail-order chemicals and materials used to make explosives, cannon fuses, rifles, BBs, a computer and a small amount of marijuana.
News coverage trumpeted the arrests, and at least one local television station reported the suspects had been charged with "terrorist acts," which was false.
The three-month investigation was headed by the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force in Albany. Its intensive probe of the bomb-making tip appeared to cut no corners, using several agents for surveillance, telephone wiretaps and a carefully planned strategy to see how far the group would go.
Still, there are no terrorism allegations and no proof the suspects — Aaron A. Scorsone, Jonathan D. Plunkett and Scott A. Monroe, all in their 20s — intended to harm anyone, destroy property or attack the government.
For its part, the FBI contends it may be criticized for proactive investigations that involve informants nudging suspects to engage in crimes, but agents would be faulted if they ignored a lead and someone ended up dead or injured or the participants were later tied to terrorist acts.
"It is the FBI's obligation to investigate any potential act of terrorism in a timely fashion. Whether it is al-Qaeda or individuals with potential domestic terrorism intentions, the citizens of our country demand that the FBI dedicate the appropriate resources to address terrorism matters," Special Agent Paul Holstein, chief division counsel in the FBI's Albany office, said in a prepared statement. "In this particular investigation, the NYPD Intelligence Division obtained information from a cooperating witness that individuals were looking to sell bombs in exchange for money. ... This was a proactive investigation in which the threat was neutralized before an incident could occur."
Before their arrests, Plunkett had two misdemeanor convictions for driving while ability impaired while Monroe and Scorsone had clean criminal histories, records show.
According to a federal complaint, Monroe told investigators that last summer he lost his job and "to ease his boredom" he began exploring how to make home-made explosive devices.
"Monroe downloaded bomb recipes from the Internet and ordered the bomb-making chemicals," the complaint states. He sold some of the devices to his buddies, they occasionally smoked pot, and they liked to shoot rifles, according to federal prosecutors.
There are no indications the men were on a path to become the next Timothy McVeigh, a ringleader in the Oklahoma City bombing. Their attorneys cast them as having a fascination with guns — legal rifles — and as young men who simply liked to build large firecrackers and blow them up in fields.
The FBI turned its attention to the group in September on a tip from a New York Police Department, which had an informant, it turned out, who was a former schoolmate of Plunkett's at Hudson Valley Community College and who knew the men allegedly were willing to make and sell explosive devices.
The devices, according to defense attorneys in the case, were a little larger than an M-80, a powerful firecracker that has been sold in the United States for decades, even if illegally.
Over the past several months, the informant began buying explosives from the group for $10 each, records show. It's unclear whether the suspects knew what the informant would do with the devices. But the sting grew more serious in October when records show the informant asked Plunkett if they could add "fragmentation" to the devices.
Plunkett apparently had never done that before, but he went to a local pharmacy and purchased glue that he used to stick BBs on the devices, which have fuses and cardboard exteriors. The addition of the fragments elevated the seriousness of the charges under federal law. Now, rather than the worst-case prospect of under two years behind bars, the three men could face more than eight years in prison if convicted on the top counts of manufacturing and trafficking destructive devices.
Another idea by the FBI also added fuel to the case when, on Dec. 4, the day before the arrests, the informant met Scorsone in a K-mart parking lot in Latham and allegedly gave him an AR-15 assault rifle in exchange for 50 explosive devices. Scorsone, a gun enthusiast, was "very excited" by the prospect of obtaining the gun, according to the complaint.
At a recent detention hearing, when a judge released the men on bond, their attorneys seized on the actions of the government informant, suggesting that the bombs became more dangerous and an illegal machine gun was made part of the deals largely because of the FBI's actions.
In court two weeks ago, Scorsone's attorney, Gene V. Primomo, questioned whether the three-month investigation was worth the result.
"I think it's prudent police work to utilize confidential informants ... in an attempt to catch sharks," Primomo told U.S. Magistrate Judge David R. Homer on Dec. 9. "What we have, your honor, are minnows. These devices are homemade fireworks."
Monday, December 22, 2008
Where'd the bailout money go? Shhhh, it's a secret
By MATT APUZZO
WASHINGTON — It's something any bank would demand to know before handing out a loan: Where's the money going?But after receiving billions in aid from U.S. taxpayers, the nation's largest banks say they can't track exactly how they're spending the money or they simply refuse to discuss it.
"We've lent some of it. We've not lent some of it. We've not given any accounting of, 'Here's how we're doing it,'" said Thomas Kelly, a spokesman for JPMorgan Chase, which received $25 billion in emergency bailout money. "We have not disclosed that to the public. We're declining to."
The Associated Press contacted 21 banks that received at least $1 billion in government money and asked four questions: How much has been spent? What was it spent on? How much is being held in savings, and what's the plan for the rest?
None of the banks provided specific answers.....
The U.S. may need a new crystal ball
Through the miracle of email I know I have at least one regular reader outside my immediate family. I therefore dedicate this column to Dr David Green, who suggested that I discuss "Global Trends 2025", a 120-page opus just released by the US National Intelligence Council (the text is free at http://www. dni. gov/nic/NIC-2025-project.html). As the title suggests, the report sets out to describe the global trends that will shape the world in 2025.
The NIC was created to coordinate and, where possible, popularise the work of the 16 official members of the "US Intelligence Community". Hollywood notwithstanding, this does not mean that 13 other agencies - the really secret ones, unlike CIA, DIA, and NSA are tunnelling under the Acropolis to upload mind-control software into key Greek politicians and their spiritual advisers. Instead, the majority of intelligence community employees belong to overt outfits like the Treasury Department and Coast Guard, with jobs depressingly like my current one. They surf the internet, read newspapers, have coffee with each other, sneak off to the gym, and then write articles that will one day, if they are lucky, be honoured by an email from Dr Green.
In his email to me, Dr Green summarised the NIC study well enough that I don't need to.
"It paints an emergent global canvas uncannily like the decline of the British empire, eg decreasing American leverage in world politics, a paradigm economic shift from West to East, increased local nationalist disputes and a decline in the power of the dollar. It envisages a multipolar world by 2025 with increasing conflicts over water, oil, food etc."
Of course, what Dr Green was too polite to say was that this is not a description of what the world will look like in 2025; it is a description of the world looked like a few months ago, precisely when the NIC undertook its latest crash program of dining out with eminent international pundits. Pundits figured out centuries ago that the safest way to maintain a reputation for punditry is to predict the present rather than the future. And since, as Voltaire's Dr Pangloss (or maybe it was Leibniz) pointed out, we live in the best of all possible worlds, it would be impious to foresee a different world in any case.
Anti-Americanism will fade of its own accord, the NIC opines, collateral damage from America's shrinking power. Yes, but in that case so what? America needs global popularity only if it wants to be a global player. Terrorism will also subside, the NIC tentatively suggests, unless it doesn't. Unfortunately, when it comes to terrorism the NIC has a short, America-centred memory. It sees terrorism as a Middle Eastern phenomenon, the product of religious fanaticism and lack of democracy. If the NIC understood that terrorism is a tactic routinely used by the weaker side in power struggles, it would take a less languid stance towards the intensifying competition for resources within states already on the verge of failure.
If the weakness of the NIC is its parochialism, its strength is the leisure, money, and prestige to cozy up to actual scientists in possession of actual data. I was hoping, therefore, to learn what the US government really thinks will happen to global sea levels, at least a consensus guesstimate. But Vice President Cheney's icy claw apparently still loiters perilously close to Washington's collective windpipe. On global climate change, therefore, the NIC offered an uncontroversial Hollywood scenario, a freak hurricane putting Wall Street under water. This will happen some day, but worse things will have happened first.
What good are pundits if they have only weasel words for the impact of migration patterns that are already undermining European and American commitments to democratic values? How many millions of people will be put on the march by climate change is a question with deadly-serious implications for the future of democracy. Nor does the NIC seriously address the question of who will run out of irrigation water when. If an enlightened democracy like Greece cannot impose groundwater conservation on a few thousand cotton and citrus farmers, we can extrapolate the certainty of civil war and humanitarian catastrophe due to groundwater depletion in parts of Africa and Asia.
When a pundit washes his hands of catastrophe by saying the world will be multipolar, it is time to change the channel on your crystal ball. Even in the darkest days of the Cold War, "bipolarity" was a psychiatric disorder, not a description of the international scene. Viewed in enough detail to be meaningful, the world has never been anything but multipolar. At the height of US "unipolarity" in 2002, a dozen tribal chieftains, militant mullahs, Pakistani intel officers, or narco-traffickers still possessed the same capability as the US government to project power (eg, fifteen armed men or $20,000) into a given Afghan village. Adding Chinese or Indians to the mix, an important but also obvious NIC prediction for 2025, only reinforces the common-sense message that what proved impossible for a rich and self-confident superpower may also be difficult for a Iraq-scalded and indebted one. So we must build international institutions sturdy enough to cope with the huge, complex emergencies that will be taking place simultaneously in many parts of the globe.
The main point of making dire predictions is to change our behaviour enough to make our predictions turn out wrong. The NIC staff timidly invites the next US president to take measures to change the future, but is not brave enough to suggest how. Perhaps this fuzzy, harmless report will help President-elect Obama forgive the NIC's 2002 National Intelligence Estimate on Iraqi "weapons of mass destruction." But unless the experts go out on a limb by suggesting pragmatic solutions to a few of the perfectly predictable demographic/envi- ronmental, economic/political crises looming before our noses, new secretary of state Hillary Clinton will end up stuck in a present no less ugly for the remarkable ability of US-sponsored pundits to "predict" it accurately.
Terrorism spurs interest in Israeli tech
The Defense Ministry and Israeli security companies have received a growing number of requests for homeland security technology since the terror attacks in Mumbai last month, top defense officials said Thursday, leading to speculation that Israeli defense exports will increase dramatically in 2009."With more than 200 tall buildings in Atlanta, we need to consider revolutionary rescue and evacuation solutions, like Escape Rescue System," he said.
Since the attack, which killed over 170 people, including a number of Israelis, India and other countries have turned to Israeli defense industries and consultants.
One example was a visit to Israel last week by a high-level delegation from the US state of Georgia to view a new evacuation platform that could be used to rescue hostages in an attack like that in Mumbai.
Designated by the US Department of Homeland Security as a Qualified Anti-terrorism Technology, the external evacuation platform, manufactured by Escape Rescue Systems, provides fight and flight capabilities for emergencies in high-rise buildings.
In a full five-cabin configuration, the system can deliver up to 25 SWAT personnel and rescue 150 people every eight minutes, according to the company.
"The tragic events in Mumbai and the changed skyline of New York are reminders of the pride we have in our cities and of the necessity to prepare for another 9/11, a fire or a terrorist hostage-taking situation," said John Oxendine, insurance and safety fire commissioner of Georgia.
India has reportedly decided to purchase four Israeli EL/M-2083 aerostat radar systems to help defend the country against a 9/11-type attack.
According to reports in the Indian press, the radar, manufactured by Elta Systems of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), would be deployed in strategic areas to provide early warning against incoming enemy aircraft and missiles.
The phased-array aerostat system is a simpler version of the Green Pine radar, made by IAI and used by the Arrow missile defense system. It is mounted on tethered blimps, which enables it to detect intrusions earlier than ground-based systems.
Defense officials have said that the Mumbai attacks raised awareness around the world for the need to obtain advanced surveillance equipment and counter-terrorism capabilities. They added that it was possible that arms sales in 2009 would surpass the $4.1 billion in sales in 2008.
"Countries are more aware of their vulnerabilities," one official said. "There is more interest today in Israeli products since we have loads of experience in combating terrorism."
Officials said that India was specifically interested in procuring basic weaponry that could be used in counter-terror operations. It has already purchased Tavor assault rifles made by Israel Weapon Industries as well as night-vision goggles made by Israel Military Industries.
"They are interested in getting more basic supplies for operations such as the one launched against [the] Mumbai attackers," the official said.
US report urges better foodborne disease monitoring
By Jane Byrne
A new US report concludes that major gaps remain in many critical areas of preparedness for health emergencies, including foodborne disease reporting.Trust for America's Health (TFAH) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) have released the sixth annual Ready or Not? Protecting the Public’s Health from Diseases, Disasters, and Bioterrorism report.
This edition of the report found that 20 states did not meet or exceed the national US average rate for being able to identify the pathogens responsible for foodborne disease outbreaks in their states, and it references some of the more serious 2008 US health emergencies including the Salmonella outbreak in jalapeno and Serrano peppers that sickened 1,442 people in 43 states and the largest beef recall in US history in February.
"Monitoring the public’s food supply is a real world example of public health preparedness as it requires the same skills and technologies needed to detect and mitigate bioterrorism and infectious disease outbreaks,” states the report.
Foodborne disease reporting
According to the Ready or Not? report, between 2004 and 2006, the last year for which US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data was available at the time of publication, state public health departments reported a total of 3,548 foodborne disease outbreaks that sickened 74,077 individuals.
“Of the 3,548 reported outbreaks, state public health departments were only able to confirm the etiology, or causative pathogen, in 1,552 cases, or 44 per cent of outbreaks,” said the authors.
Identifying foodborne disease outbreaks requires regular submission of clinical isolates and specimens to state public health labs, continued the report.
The publication states that, in the opinion of the US Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL), hospital and clinical laboratories are sometimes reluctant to send isolates of foodborne pathogens to a state public health laboratory due to cost and time issues.
“Failure by these nongovernmental laboratories to submit isolates, specimens and samples could delay timely identification of an outbreak, prolonging exposure to the contaminated product and leading to increased incidence of disease,” claims the APHL.
State and local level invovlement
The authors of the Ready or Not? report argue that while much of the food safety debate has been over the reforms needed at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), the focus should also be on coordination and collaboration with food safety regulators and health officials at the state and local level.
In order to strengthen the roles of state and local agencies, in both their community-based food safety efforts and as integral parts of the nation’s food safety system, the report draws attention to the planned series of RWJF funded meetings among state and local officials, their federal counterparts, and food industry and consumer groups.
Participants at these meetings, according to the report, will focus on:
- Formulating and expressing a modern vision of the role of state and local government in an integrated, prevention-oriented food safety system;
- Identifying gaps or constraints in current law, policy and practice at the federal, state and local levels that inhibit fulfilment of that vision;
- Recommending changes in law, policy, and practice that are needed to enhance the effectiveness of state and local agencies in addressing food safety problems at the local, state, and national level;
- Identifying specific opportunities to improve collaboration among state, local, and federal agencies; and
- Describing current funding patterns and resource needs at the state and local level.
The project will disseminate a report in 2009, according to the Ready or Not? authors.
Latest news in Quality & Safety
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Kenyan government imposes gag order on Obama family
The Kenyan government has barred unapproved contacts between the media and President-elect Barack Obama's extended family.
Family members will be required to receive permission from the government before making any public statements about their famous relative, according to the Nairobi Star.
"We are doing this because we want to ensure better flow of information," Athman Said, an under-secretary in the Ministry of Heritage, told the Obama family in Kogelo.
"The government has decided that you should inform its officers who will be based here if you want to address the media."
Journalists wishing to speak with the family must first be approved by the government ....This is not the first attempt to block press interest in President-elect Obama's African connections.
Prior to the U.S. election, WND senior staff reporter Jerome R. Corsi was detained in Kenya while investigating Obama's close ties to the nation's prime minister, Raila Odinga.
The Kenyan official who reportedly orchestrated the detention was Odinga himself, according to WND sources inside Kenya.
Corsi, whose recent book, "The Obama Nation," raised questions about the Democrat when he was a candidate for president, had scheduled a news conference in Nairobi to discuss his discoveries during his visit this fall.
However, he was detained by immigration officials and held without food for much of a day until he was escorted onto his already-booked flight leaving Kenya with the sendoff, "See you in hell."
Corsi had earlier seen the flow of information stymied by the Obama campaign itself:
"I was able to interview Obama's uncle, Sayid Obama, the brother of Obama's father, when I was doing the research for 'The Obama Nation,'" Corsi said. "But Auma Obama, Obama's half-sister, declined an interview by telephone, telling me that the Obama campaign had advised the Obama family not to speak with me, either from the United States by phone, or in person in Kenya."....
Under-secretary Said, who informed the Obamas they were muzzled, announced the Obama Cultural Home project, which will include a museum, a gallery and a leadership center in the family's town of Kogelo. A video featuring Mama Sarah Obama, the president-elect's step-grandmother, will relate the Obamas' family history. Said added that the Ministry of Heritage is negotiating with the U.S. government to display Obama's publications. ....
New York Office Building used by Iranian regime, seized by Feds
By Walid Phares
The US Government seized control last Wednesday of a New York City office building partially owned by a company with ties to the Iranian government. The Treasury and Justice Departments move is aimed to end a flow of cash used to help Iran's program of nuclear weapons. The seizure is raising troubling questions.
The tower, situated on New York's Fifth Avenue, was built by an Iranian non-profit group in the 1970s. Federal officials say that the ownership of the building has evolved in an attempt to hide the stake held by an Iranian state-owned bank. The US alleges that Assa Corporation, which owns the building, is a front for Bank Melli, which facilitates the funding of nuclear materials for the Iranian regime. US authorities say that Bank Melli is involved in the Assa Corp. management of the Fifth Avenue facility. According to reports, rental income was sent back to Iran. But the designation does not interfere with the business and other activities of the tenants of 650 Fifth Avenue. In 2007, the Bush Administration froze Bank Melli's assets in the United States. The FBI seized two Assa's bank accounts holding $3.1 million.
According to Government sources Bank Melli handles funds for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (Pasdaran) and its Qods Forces, which in turn fund Hezbollah, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad as well as some activities of the Taliban in Afghanistan.
This move raised several national security questions in the media and within the counter terrorism community:
1) Can the ownership of a building in Manhattan by entities controlled by the Iranian regime lead to a potential use of the facility by Terrorists or - in more dramatic circumstances- to sneak a dirty bomb or a nuke?
2) Should we be surprised that the Iranian intelligence and agencies operate such a facility in New York or in other cities in the US?
In an interview with Fox News I made the several of the following points:
a. We shouldn't be surprised at all that the Iranian regime is trying to have access to such assets. Their strategy is to have as many of these assets in the U.S. The chain begins in Tehran where the tasked agencies try to build a map of similar locations in America for future potential operations.
b. The goal for such locations is multiple. The Terrorist component could include hideouts for operatives (as in Mumbai) or worse, a location to deploy dirty bombs or more.
c. The United States and other democracies have an open space for trade. Hence Iranian funded networks can own, co-own or manage these assets. These locations can be used by other elements than those who manages the locations.
d. Even though these types of assets can be used in the future, we need to keep in mind that its took some time for the preparation for 9/11 or Mumbai. Hence if the Iranian regime is indeed managing these assets now, it would be to have it handy when and if it needs to use them in the future.
e. The New York Law Enforcement agencies and authorities are among the best in the nation and worldwide. They do have an understanding of the enemy's strategies. Hence they are on top of it in as much as possible. But there is no fully secure system against Terrorism.
Following is my interview on Fox News on December 20, 2008
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4038519135502808740&hl=en
December 21, 2008Islam Waging Financial Jihad?
By Dale Hurd
CBNNews.com - U.S. dependence on oil has led to an unprecedented transfer of wealth to the Muslim nations of the Middle East. And now it seems they are using that money to advance an Islamic agenda.
It's called Sharia-compliant finance. Sharia is best known in the West for the punishments it requires, including stoning for adultery, amputation for theft and death to those who leave Islam. Sharia finance claims to not allow profit from interest or risk, or from prohibited items such as pork or alcohol.
It would be one thing if Sharia finance was just another way for Muslims to invest their money, but critics of Sharia-compliant finance say it's a whole lot more than that.
"Sharia finance is a piece of what I call the stealth jihad," Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy said. He is one of the chief critics of Sharia Finance in Washington.
"It espouses, it embraces and it is designed to help advance a program, Sharia, that is seditious; that requires the destruction of our constitutional government," he added, calling it treason.
"It's about what its proponents have called financial jihad or jihad with money," he said.
Sharia Gains U.S. Support
Washington not only allows Sharia finance, the U.S. Treasury promotes it. Last month the Treasury Department sponsored a seminar called Islamic Finance 101.
Many banks, brokerages and insurers are also trying to lure money from the Middle East by offering Sharia-compliant products. That includes AIG, which went belly up and was taken over by U.S. government to the tune of $150 billion. That takeover means the U.S. government and taxpayers now have a stake in Sharia finance.
The Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes was created for Sharia-compliant portfolios. It's advised by leading Muslim scholars.
Earlier this year, one of those advisors, Sheikh Taqi Usmani, was quietly removed from his position, after it was learned that he thought Muslims should engage in aggressive military jihad "to establish the supremacy of Islam" worldwide.
Muslims Thriving Off U.S. Recession
The recent market meltdown in the West has the Muslim world believing that now is their time.
"The collapse of the capitalist system based on usury and paper…is proof that it is in crisis and shows that the Islamic economic philosophy is holding up," leading Islamic scholar Dr. Yusef Al-Qaradawi said.
"All riches are ours," he added. "The Islamic nation has all or nearly all the oil and we have an economic philosophy that no one else has."
Al-Qaradaw urges Muslims to "profit from the crisis to bring about the triumph of the (Islamic) nation, which holds the spiritual and material resources for victory."
Marshall Sana, Islamic expert at the Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity, a part of Barnabas Fund, added that "at the conclusion of the recent hajj in Mecca the Grand Mufti talked about the failure of capitalism. That we've seen the end of communism and we're seeing the failure of capitalism. The answer is Islamic finance. He said Sharia finance."
Sana says Sharia finance is actually a distortion of Korannic teachings, and was traditionally understood to prohibit usury rather than interest. He says it was not widely practiced by Muslims until recent decades, and believes it is being promoted now as a financial weapon against the West.
"It's war footing," he said. "And it's setting up not only a separatism and a segregation, but it's attaching it to Sharia law, which we all know is a supremacist ideology."
"It has inequality built into it, between woman and men and Muslims and non-Muslims," he added. "If you look at the literature and you look at the internal dialogue, the end is supremacy. The end is controlling institutions. It's setting up an Islamic economy and an Islamic economy is to be the world economy. "
Calls Against Sharia
A lawsuit was filed Dec. 15 in federal court against the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve board for supporting Sharia in violation of the First Amendment. The suit also seeks to stop any bailout money from going to AIG.
Gaffney is outraged that the government and Wall Street are welcoming Sharia finance.
"Today it's happening at the Treasury Department under the Bush administration, to say nothing of what will happen under the Obama administration-- actively promoting the activity," he said. "It's madness. It's reckless. I think if most Americans knew what was going on here, if they knew what was at stake, would be horrified."
Announcing The Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor Project (JTTM)
from MEMRI
Beginning today, MEMRI's Islamist Websites Monitor Project website will operate under its new format, and will have a new name - The Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). You will be able to register as a member and will have access to materials from this project.
The following is a description of this new MEMRI project:
MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM) scrutinizes Islamist terrorism worldwide, with a special focus on the Arab world, Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. By monitoring strategic, tactical, ideological, military, and conventional and non-conventional threats to public safety and security, both imminent and potential - and to crucial interests and assets of states targeted by terrorism, MEMRI's JTTM enables those under threat to effectively address and confront these threats.
The JTTM focuses on threats posed by independent terror organizations as well as by state-sponsored terrorism.
JTTM translations and analysis feature material from sources monitored around the clock, include
• Online media: The 100 most important Islamist sites and blogs.
- Printed media: From all Arab countries, as well as Arabic-language London dailies and magazines and Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, and Turkey.
- Visual media: TV channels from the Arab world and Iran as well as jihadist videos posted online from all over the world.
- Audio media: Cassettes and radio broadcasts from various Arab countries as well as from Pakistan and Afghanistan.
• The JTTM Website will include the following sections:
- Alert Planning & Training (APT)
- Global Jihad News (GJN)
- Jihadi Texts (JT)
- In-Depth Threat Analysis (IDA)
- Global Jihad - Opposition & Dissent (GJ-O&D)
• JTTM content focuses on the following:
- Threats to Western strategic and economic interests:
- Oil facilities and transportation, such as sea ports and the Strait of Hormuz
- Civil infrastructure, such as water systems, power grids, gas pipelines
Electronic jihad, such as attacks on databases, banking systems, and online retailers
• Threats to Western military forces worldwide:
- Instructional videos on attacking U.S. MPVs and other military vehicles, and on
preparing IEDs - Instructions for using technologies such as Google Earth and WikiMapia to assess
vulnerabilities of U.S. military bases - Threats against U.S.civilian administration and Western companies and organizations
and their employees in the Middle East - Development of jihadists' military and technological capabilities:
- Manuals on manufacturing and using explosives, as well as household chemicals, poisons, booby-traps, light weaponry, etc.
- Texts and videos for training terrorists to plan and carry out attacks
- Guides for manufacturing WMDs
• New ideological trends and major ideological debates within the jihadist camp:
- Changes in fundamental traditional notions, such as religious legitimacy and legitimate leadership
- The ongoing debate over the religious boundaries of permissible jihad against infidels,
including the killing of civilians and the use of WMDs, as well as online crime such as credit card information theft - Oppositions and conflicts within the jihad camp
- Renunciation of jihad by major Islamist groups and prominent jihad leaders
• The global jihad network:
- Information about existing and new jihad organizations
- Emerging alliances among various jihad groups
- Collaboration between combatant and non-combatant jihadists such as those engaging
in media jihad - State-planned and state-sponsored terrorism, such as Iranian suicide units and suicide boats in the Persian Gulf
• News from the various jihad fronts
Steps to Register:
To register for MEMRI's JTTM Project, go to the Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM) site and click "Subscription" at the top of the page.
Please allow approximately five business days for us to process your application; at that time you will be sent a secure link to use to make your membership payment.
During our initial launch phase, there may be a slight delay due to the volume of applications and due to the holiday season. Once payment is received, your account will be activated and you will have full access to the site.
Contact Information:
For more information about MEMRI's JTTM Project, write to JTTM@MEMRI.ORG ; for information about subscribing, write to JTTMSUBS@MEMRI.ORG.
