Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Howdy, folks!
Welcome to another exciting day of "Bill with no working home computer!"
O.K. In my defense... I'm still using the same DSL modem I originally was issued upon "upgrading" to DSL back in... oh... late '90's maybe?
No... no router. No... no wi-fi. I am Bill - proud technophobe - and unless absolutely necessary I tend not to "upgrade" until literally forced to.
THEREFORE... as noted yesterday... getting Phil's loaner laptop to actually work is just slightly more complicated than simply plugging in the power cord... and thus... I'm flummoxed.
Folks... I connected what I think is an ethernet cable from the modem to the laptop... and... couldn't connect to anything.
I know... I know... but all is not for naught! I did clean out all the papers and assorted manuals and old floppy disks and such which had been in, under, and piled around the desk upon which my system rests and now when one of my competent friends comes over to "fix" things up for me they'll be able to work!
(Hey... it's progress! Progress in Bill's World...)
Hey... folks... at least I demonstrate a sense of humor and can publicly acknowledge my neurosis where "wires" and such come in. I am a technophobe! I freely admit it!
Anyway... on to newsbiting!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/former-cia-officer-charged-in-leaks/2012/01/23/gIQA3AhTLQ_story.html
The Justice Department on Monday charged a former CIA officer with repeatedly leaking classified information, including the identities of agency operatives involved in the capture and interrogation of alleged terrorists.
The case against John Kiriakou, who also served as a senior Senate aide...
* Hmm... EXACTLY WHO HIRED KIRIAKOU... WHO WAS HIS BOSS...???
After leaving the CIA, Kiriakou worked as an investigator on the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for a year before leaving in 2010.
* MEANING... HE WORKED FOR THE SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE WHEN IT WAS CHAIRED BY AND CONTROLLED BY A DEMOCRAT- RIGHT? (SINCE DEMOCRATS HAVE AFTER ALL CONTROLLED THE SENATE SINCE JANUARY 2007.)
Kiriakou, who was among the first to go public with details about the CIA’s use of waterboarding and other harsh interrogation measures, was charged with disclosing classified information to reporters and lying to the agency about the origin of other sensitive material he published in a book. He faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted.
The case against John Kiriakou...extends the Obama administration’s crackdown on disclosures of national security secrets. Kiriakou, 47, is the sixth target of a leaks-related prosecution since President Obama took office, exceeding the total number of comparable prosecutions under all previous administrations combined, legal experts said.
(*SINCERE AND HEARTFELT CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)
* WHERE AND WHEN OBAMA DESERVES CREDIT... HE'LL ALWAYS GET IT FROM ME.
(*NOD*)
The surge in such prosecutions is seen as a measure of the Obama administration’s determination to root out leaks, but it may also reflect the government’s expanded ability to mine suspects’ e-mail accounts and other digital devices for incriminating evidence.
* MAYBE SO, BUT THE BOTTOM LINE REMAINS THE BOTTOM LINE.
In its criminal filing, the Justice Department obscured many of the details of Kiriakou’s alleged disclosures. But the document suggests that Kiriakou was a source for stories by the New York Times and other news organizations in 2008 and 2009 about some of the agency’s most sensitive operations after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The Justice Department said that the information Kiriakou supplied to journalists also contributed to a subsequent security breach at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, enabling defense attorneys there to obtain photographs of CIA operatives suspected of being involved in harsh interrogations. Some of the pictures were subsequently discovered in the cells of high-value detainees.
Kiriakou, who worked for the CIA from 1990 to 2004, was charged with four counts, including disclosing the identity of an undercover officer and providing classified information to individuals not authorized to receive it.
* Hmm... HIRED DURING THE PAPPY BUSH YEARS, SERVED DURING ALL EIGHT CLINTON YEARS, LEFT PRIOR TO THE END OF DUBYA's FIRST TERM... (*PAUSE*)... WAS HE FORCED OUT? THIS TIME-LINE DESERVES FURTHER EXPLORATION.
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=49036
When President Obama, who is normally a great proponent of “infrastructure” projects, made his bizarre decision to block the Keystone XL pipeline project, I wondered if he might have been induced to create those thousands of American jobs if the oil could be moved by his beloved high-speed rail.
As it turns out, oil is already moved from northern latitudes, such as the booming oil fields of North Dakota, down to the Gulf of Mexico by rail of the old, low-speed variety.
(Fortunately, as Newt Gingrich pointed out during the Monday night Republican debate in Florida, the oil is on private land, so Obama can’t shut production down.)
Shipping the oil with a pipeline would have significantly reduced costs, as an Associated Press report explains: "Shipping crude by pipeline in North Dakota adds up to $1.50 to its cost, compared to $2 or more a barrel for rail shipments, producers say. Oil that would have moved by the Keystone XL is now going to shift to rail transportation."
Those rail shipments are expected to “increase exponentially with increased oil production and the shortage of pipelines,” according to Justin Kringstad, director of the North Dakota Pipeline Authority. That’s going to be quite a windfall for the railroad companies, isn’t it?
* WOW... I WONDER WHO OWNS THE RAILROAD...??? I WONDER WHO STANDS TO PROFIT BY THIS LATEST OBAMA DECISION... (*SMIRK*)
As it happens, 75% of the oil currently shipped by rail out of North Dakota is handled by Burlington Northern Santa Fe LLC… which just happens to be a unit of Warren Buffett’s company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
What a coincidence!
* CRONY CAPITALISM AT ITS FINEST...!!!
For some reason, nobody from BNSF or Berkshire Hathaway would return the AP’s telephone calls, but oilman Harold Hamm told them he was sure this was just a wonderful “lucky break” for Barack Obama’s favorite billionaire, who is “certainly favored by this decision.”
The “tax me more” refrain from liberal billionaires is one of the oldest sucker games in the book. For the well-connected, the money that can be made through government power – whether by influencing corrupt politicians, or merely predicting what they’re going to do - dwarfs whatever income they offer to cough up.
* BUFFETT & OBAMA... MONEY AND POWER BENEFITING MONEY AND POWER.
* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)
http://washingtonexaminer.com/news/world/2012/01/marines-career-threatened-controversial-rules-engagement/2127401
Joshua Waddell, a first lieutenant in the U.S. Marines, [who] had won a Bronze Star during his first tour of duty in Afghanistan and had returned for a second [tour]appeared on his way to a stellar career as an American military officer.
Then he made a decision in combat that military experts say has severely jeopardized his future in the corps.
The facts in Waddell's case are spelled out in Marine Corps documents. But how those facts should be interpreted is a matter of heated dispute.
On Nov. 1, Waddell, a 25-year-old executive officer with 3rd Battallion, 7th Marine Corps Regiment, was monitoring a surveillance camera in Sangin, Afghanistan, when he spotted a man who had been identified as a bomb maker working with area insurgents. Two days earlier, a sergeant from India Company had lost both legs and a hand when a bomb detonated in their area of operation. The man spotted on the camera was believed to be responsible.
After receiving permission from his battalion commanders, Waddell ordered Marine snipers to open fire on the man, and he was hit.
A group of Afghans rushed to the man, put him on a tractor and attempted to flee.
Waddell ordered the snipers to hit the engine block of the tractor, disabling it so the man believed to be a bomb maker would not escape.
The tractor was hit but no civilians were injured.
Then, about three weeks later, the civilians who helped remove the wounded man from the area were found to be teenagers.
As a result, Waddell was demoted from executive officer, and the battalion commander, Lt. Col. Seth Folsom, determined he had violated rules of engagement that governed when Marines could fire, and at whom.
* SOUNDS INSANE, HUH?
* To be continued...
* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)
Lt. Col. Folsom said Wadell "is not recommended for promotion" and "in violation of [combat rules] during an engagement."
The report stated that "noncombatant local nationals" were in the area of direct fire and that "the engagement resulted in a damaged local national vehicle."
(*HEAD READY TO EXPLODE*)
A Marine brigadier general who reviewed the case was sympathetic to Waddell, whom he described as a "superb and heroic combat leader. But the general said the decision on whether Waddell should be promoted was "the commander's prerogative," noting that the battalion commander on the scene had lost "confidence in [Waddell's] abilities."
* ME? FROM WHAT I'M READING IT'S THIS LT. COL. SETH FOLSOM WHO DESERVES TO HAVE HIS CAREER ENDED!
Marine Maj. Shawn Haney, spokesman for Marine Corps Manpower and Reserve Affairs, said Waddell's fitness report will go before a review board at the time of any promotion "and everything is under scrutiny, so Waddell will have a chance to defend himself against the accusations." Still, Haney conceded, Waddell's fitness reports play a "significant role in future promotions."
The upshot is that Waddell's career has been effectively blunted, his chance for promotion blocked.
Waddell is just one of hundreds of cases of troops who have suffered under stringent rules of engagement, said Jeff Addicott, a former senior legal adviser to U.S. Army Special Forces.
"We have hamstrung our military with unrealistic ROEs that do more harm to our soldiers than the enemy, and now a Marine's career is on the line because he disabled a tractor," Addicott said. "In many ways our military is frozen in fear of violating absurd self-imposed rules on the battlefield, How can you tell if it's a teenager or a man, a farmer or an enemy when you're fighting an insurgency?"
* MAKES SENSE TO ME...!!!
A Marine stationed in Afghanistan who does not know Waddell, but who has operated under the same rules, said, "The rules of engagement are meant to placate [President Hamid] Karzai's government at our expense. They say it's about winning the hearts and minds, but it's not working. We're not putting fear into the enemy, only our troops."
Waddell's father, Mark Waddell, who served more than 25 years in the military and retired as a commander of a Navy SEAL team, said his son and other Americans fighting in Afghanistan are being victimized by these rules.
"I feel what's happened to my son is a complete betrayal, and he isn't the only one," said Waddell, of Fort Worth, Texas. "Josh is a hero. We expect them to go out and make instantaneous combat decisions, then we Monday-morning quarterback their decisions. It's an outrage."
* IT SURE SEEMS TO BE ALRIGHT!
Post a Comment