U.S. Sells $1.9 Billion Worth of Bombs, Missiles, and 'Smart Bomb' Kits to Israel

America Sells Israel 32,100 High-Tech Bombs and Missiles. 3 Guesses Why...

Geopolitics aside, from an investor's perspective, the great thing about a bomb is that once you drop it... you need to buy another bomb! 

May 31, 2015

Motley Fool - What if they held a war and everybody (in the Middle East) came? Lately, that seems to be what we're seeing happen in the Middle East.

They've got Houthis running amok in Yemen, with Saudi fighter jets screaming overhead, and Iranian warships trying desperately to get into the mix. Freedom fighters battling Bashar in Syria, and fighting ISIS, besides. More ISIS in Iraq. And even more ISIS in Libya. Al-Qaeda, meanwhile, is... everywhere.
And into this mess steps Israel.

Dangerous times call for dangerous bombs

Two weeks ago, in a startling development, most remarkable for the matter-of-fact way in which it was reported, the Israeli government asked the U.S. Congress to approve the sale to it of $1.9 billion worth of bombs, missiles, and "smart bomb" kits for guiding all of the above to their intended targets. Word of the request was delivered to Congress through the intermediary of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency as a notification -- and almost immediately approved.

In total, the Israeli shopping list includes more than 32,000 pieces of military equipment, including:

Pilots Spot Drone Near La Guardia; Lasers Target Planes Near JFK

Pilots spot drone near LGA, lasers target planes near JFK

May 29, 2015

WABC - The FAA says the crew of a Delta Shuttle from Washington spotted a drone while on descent into La Guardia this morning.

Shuttle America Flight 2708 from Reagan National to LaGuardia landed without incident.

Officials say the crew reported that the unmanned aircraft was operating in the vicinity of Prospect Park in Brooklyn at an altitude of about 2,700 feet. The FAA is investigating.

It is at least the third time this month that a drone has been spotted near La Guardia.

The incident came hours after five commercial planes leaving Kennedy airport were targeted by a laser.

The planes were at a flying altitude of 8,000 feet about 4 miles northwest of Farmingdale, N.Y., Thursday night.

American 185, Shuttle America 4213, Delta 2292 and Delta 2634 were all hit by lasers between 9:30 and 10 p.m. No injuries were reported.

In addition, Sun Country Airlines Flight 249 reported that around 11:30 p.m. a green laser illuminated the aircraft when it was 14 miles southwest of John F. Kennedy International Airport.

The Federal Aviation Administration notified the New York State Park Police and New Jersey State Police, and officials searched Bethpage State Park.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said during an afternoon news conference that the green laser pointers are "a repeated danger."

"The government should use its authorities to do what I asked months ago - ban these green lasers," he said. "In the last year, there were 40 lasers shined into planes at LaGuardia Airport...19 laser strikes at JFK....and 28 laser strikes at Newark. The majority of those laser strikes were by green lasers."

Schumer says the FDA has power to ban the lasers, not the FAA, because of how the government is structured.

No arrests have been made in the Friday incidents.

Iran Warns Israel of Hezbollah Rockets If Attacked

Iran warns Israel of Hezbollah rockets if attacked

May 22, 2015

AFP - A senior Iranian military official warned on Thursday that any Israeli attack would unleash a firestorm of missiles on its cities fired by the Islamic republic's Hezbollah allies in Lebanon.

The Shiite militia has more than 80,000 rockets ready to fire at Tel Aviv and Haifa, said General Yahya Rahim Safavi, military adviser to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

"Iran, with the help of Hezbollah and its friends, is capable of destroying Tel Aviv and Haifa in case of military aggression on the part of the Zionists," he said, quoted on state television.

"I don't think the Zionists would be so unintelligent as to create a military problem with Iran," the general said. "They know the strength of Iran and Hezbollah."

Last week, a senior Israeli military intelligence official warned of a heightened threat of conflict over the next two years as a result of "escalation" in the region.

In a briefing to foreign journalists at the defence ministry in Tel Aviv, the official referred specifically to Hezbollah, with whom Israel fought a month-long war in 2006, and to Iran's arming of the group.

"The Iranian threat is a tangible threat to Israel," said the official, whose country has not ruled out the use of military force to block any attempt by Tehran to produce a nuclear bomb.

Israel has opposed the efforts of world powers to strike a deal with Iran curbing its nuclear programme in return for an easing of economic sanctions, saying that Tehran cannot be trusted.

Iran has long asserted that its nuclear programme is for peaceful energy purposes, and that international concern about it seeking a nuclear bomb is misplaced.

Iran Complains to the U.N. That Israel Wants to Nuke It

Iran complains to the U.N. that Israel wants to nuke it

May 21, 2015

Washington Post - Iran's envoy to the United Nations sent a letter to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, as well as the Security Council, protesting recent remarks made by Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, who invoked the United States' dropping of atomic bombs on Japan during World War II when responding to a question of how to deal with Iran at a conference in Tel Aviv this month.

The Iranian letter, according to the semiofficial Fars news agency, said Yaalon's comments showed "the [Israeli] regime's aggressive nature" and was an indication of Israel's own extensive, covert nuclear arsenal, whose existence remains an open secret.

Here's an excerpt of what the Israeli defense minister said May 5 when asked about "dealing with a threat like Iran," as reported by Lobe Log, a blog that focuses on U.S.-Iran matters:

I can imagine some other steps that should be taken. Of course, we should be sure that we can look at the mirror after the decision or the operation. Of course, we should be sure it is a military necessity. We should consider cost and benefit, of course. But, at the end, we might take certain steps.

I do remember the story of President Truman was asked, How do [you] feel after deciding to launch the nuclear bombs [at] Nagasaki and Hiroshima, causing at the end the fatalities of 200,000 casualties? And he said, When I heard from my officers that the alternative is a long war with Japan, with potential fatalities of a couple of millions, I saw it was a moral decision.

We are not there yet. But that [is] what I’m talking about. Certain steps in cases in which we feel like we don’t have the answer by surgical operations or something like that.

Tehran's reaction perhaps willfully misinterpreted Yaalon's couched response as a statement of Israeli national policy. Here's more from the letter delivered by Gholam Ali Khoshrou, Iran's U.N. ambassador:

Israel's New Deputy Foreign Minister Says: "This Land Is Ours. All Of It Is Ours"

In “the case for Israel is rooted in more than security” (Opinion, June 7), Jeff Jacoby seems to be arguing that those individuals, organizations, and nations that are critical of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank might, or even would, change their tune if only the message that “Jews have a God-given right to the land of Israel” were sounded forcefully, regularly, and unabashedly. Evidently Jacoby, joined by some, but certainly not all, Christian evangelicals, believes that Jews have a claim to the land grounded in “biblical legitimacy,” which, once trumpeted, should prove persuasive to those who condemn Israel’s continued settlement expansion in areas east of its 1967 borders. Given centuries of oppression culminating in the Holocaust, and historical connections lasting for millennia, Israel today is cherished as a homeland for Jews around the world. But in the 21st century, it can’t expect to rest its claim on biblical entitlement. That just won’t fly in Europe, on US college campuses, or frankly, most anywhere else. Rather than invoking scripture, Israel’s supporters would serve the country they love far better by opening their hearts and minds to the reality that Palestinians have claims of their own, are not going away, and deserve a state too. - Letter from Michael Felsen and Jamaica Plain, Boston Globe, June 14, 2015

Senior Israeli diplomat: 'This land is ours'

May 21, 2015

AP - Israel's new deputy foreign minister on Thursday delivered a defiant message to the international community, saying that Israel owes no apologies for its policies in the Holy Land and citing religious texts to back her belief that it belongs to the Jewish people.

The speech by Tzipi Hotovely illustrated the influence of hardliners in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's new government, and the challenges he will face as he tries to persuade the world that he is serious about pursuing peace with the Palestinians.

Hotovely, 36, is among a generation of young hard-liners in Netanyahu's Likud Party who support West Bank settlement construction and oppose ceding captured land to the Palestinians. Since Netanyahu has a slim one-seat majority in parliament, these lawmakers could complicate any attempt to revive peace talks.

With Netanyahu also serving as the acting foreign minister, Hotovely is currently the country's top full-time diplomat.

In an inaugural address to Israeli diplomats, Hotovely said Israel has tried too hard to appease the world and must stand up for itself.

"We need to return to the basic truth of our rights to this country," she said. "This land is ours. All of it is ours. We did not come here to apologize for that."

Hotovely, an Orthodox Jew, laced her speech with biblical commentaries in which God promised the Land of Israel to the Jews. Speaking later in English, she signaled that she would try to rally global recognition for West Bank settlements, which are widely opposed.

"We expect as a matter of principle of the international community to recognize Israel's right to build homes for Jews in their homeland, everywhere," she said.

Iran and N. Korea 'Collaborate' on Nuclear Arms

Iran, N. Korea 'collaborate' on nuclear arms: Iranian opposition

May 29, 2015

AP - An exiled Iranian opposition group accused Tehran Thursday of a "vast collaboration" with North Korea in developing nuclear arms, alleging that experts from both countries made regular intelligence-sharing visits.

"The Iranian regime continues to collaborate with North Korea on nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles," the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) said in a report citing sources close to the Iranian government.

North Korean experts spent a week in the Iranian capital in April this year, the report said, staying at a site close to the country's defence ministry.

It was the third such visit by a North Korean nuclear delegation in 2015 alone, according to the report.

Senior Iranian scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was meanwhile in North Korea when it held a third nuclear test in February 2013, the NCRI said, and Iranian experts went to the country on a regular basis.

Impoverished but nuclear-armed North Korea is heavily sanctioned following a series of nuclear and missile tests staged in violation of UN resolutions.

Tehran has always denied seeking to develop nuclear arms, saying its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes only.

But the opposition group said Iran had "no intention" of renouncing what it said was an active strategy to acquire a nuclear bomb.

Israel Will Bomb Iran, the Question is When; Iran and Its Allies Will Retaliate, Which Will Lead to Armageddon

It’s time to give Israel the means to take out Iranian nukes

May 17, 2015

NY Post - The negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program have engendered furious debate in Washington and in capitals across the world. But there are steps outside of the nuclear talks that President Obama can take to help ensure that the United States and its allies are stronger and more secure the day after a deal than they were the day before. One such step would be to provide Israel with GBU-57 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs (known as the Massive Ordnance Penetrators, or MOPs) and the means to carry them, in a quantity sufficient to destroy Iran’s most deeply buried nuclear sites.

At present, Israel possesses US-supplied 5,000-pound bunker-buster bombs. But experts doubt these bombs could seriously impede Iran’s nuclear development. On the other hand, there is little doubt that MOPs, which Israel lacks, are capable of destroying Iran’s nuclear sites.

As Michael Makovsky and Lt. Gen. David Deptula noted in a 2014 Wall Street Journal op-ed, the Defense Department has MOPs to spare, aircraft in storage that could carry the MOP payload and legal authority to transfer such arms to the Israelis.

A longstanding component of America’s Iran policy has been a credible military threat to ensure that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon. Many contend that the credibility of this threat has waned, and that Iran is now more assured than ever that it will not be attacked. Providing Israel with a stronger capability to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities would help deter Iran from ever trying to break any agreement it may sign.

Transferring MOPs to Israel would also help assuage the concerns of Congress and our Middle East allies, who are wary of the emerging deal. President Obama will need to take measures to strengthen the security of our allies and ensure Congress that he is negotiating from a position of strength. Transferring MOPs to Israel would help the president achieve these objectives.

Because the MOPs are outside the scope of the negotiations, Iran is in no position to object to transferring them to the Israelis. Iran continues to expand Hezbollah’s arsenal, placing all of Israel’s population centers within range of Hezbollah rockets. Iran supports the Assad regime in Syria and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. It supports the Houthi rebels in Yemen, who have violently overthrown a democratically elected government. It propagates violence and terrorism throughout the Middle East.

We are now in a period when more must be done for Israel to retain its Qualitative Military Edge (or “QME”), a legally binding American commitment to ensure that Israel can overcome any combination of credible conventional military threats against it. Last month, Russia lifted a ban on the sale of missiles to Iran and decided to deliver to Iran a sophisticated air-defense system. The United States needs to ensure that Israel’s conventional military capabilities become stronger relative to those of Iran, not weaker.

Additionally, the issue of QME relates to the American desire to boost the military capabilities of its Gulf allies; in order to do this while not violating QME law, the president may need to proportionally strengthen Israel. This in part explains why the administration recently announced that it would provide Israel with new F-35 fighter jets, and it further underscores the need for Israel to obtain MOPs.

Some may argue that regional instability and sensitive negotiations make this the wrong time to introduce new weapons into the Middle East. But those of us who trust in Israel and in the US-Israel alliance know that the MOPs would not create further instability. Israel already has significant offensive military capabilities, and it has always used them responsibly.

The Average U.S. Household Income Versus the Average Federal Employee's Salary

House and Senate members should only receive the median U.S. annual salary so that they are a more equal representation of The People Of The United States. Same for all government officials. Mayors should receive the city median income. State reps, as well as governors, the state median. There are others as well. I think this would really fix at least a couple of the problems our government has. - Josh J, March 11, 2015

How much do Americans earn? What is the average US income and other income figures

By mybudget360

Breaking down US household income (this is combined household, not individual income) by category presents a clearer picture:


Source:  US Census

20.8 percent of US households make $100,000 or more. Only 4.3 percent make more than $200,000 and roughly 2 percent make more than $250,000.  Given all the ads you see on network TV you would think that every other US household was pulling in $200,000 a year given the kind of products that are pushed.  Of course most of the goods bought in the last decade were financed with massive debt and not actual saved wealth.

Where did income grow?

US income growth has been absent for most households.  In fact, over the last four decades most of the real income growth has occurred for the top 10 percent of US households:



`The typical family barely saw any real income growth and that is why many feel a true pinch to their wallet.  Yet household incomes for earners in the top 10 percent saw real sizeable growth over the last four decades.

In comparison, the average individual income for federal employees as of September 2012 was nearly $78,500. In a household with two wage earners working for the federal government, the average household income would be $157,000, $106,500 more than the average U.S. household income. The Office of Personnel Management reported that as of September 2012, the average salary for a full-time, permanent, non-seasonal position was $78,467. The comparable figure for December 2010 was $76,701. The median salary — the point at which half are above and half are below — is now $74,714, up from $69,550 in 2010. Local and State government wages are comparable to federal wages in many areas through the United States. In others words, some government employees are retiring as millionaires after 20 years (law enforcement and firefighters) or 30 years of service.

U.S. Military Lost Nuclear Weapons Seven Times: Four Times They Were Never Found

7 times the military lost nukes (and 4 times they were never found)

May 12, 2015

We Are The Mighty - The military makes a big deal out of when a rifle goes missing, not to mention when a nuke disappears. In spite of the fact the program is designed to be “zero defect,” here are 7 examples of doomsday devices wandering off (including a few where they never came back):

1. 1956: B-47 disappears with two nuclear capsules

U.S. Air Force

The first story on the list is also one of the most mysterious since no signs of the wreckage, weapons, or crew have ever been found. A B-47 Stratojet with two nuclear weapons took off from MacDill Air Force Base, Florida on March 10, 1956 headed to Morocco. It was scheduled for two midair refuelings but failed to appear for the second. An international search team found nothing. The U.S. military eventually called off the search.

Politically Active China has Become the Third-Largest Source of Foreign Direct Investment Worldwide and is Destined to Interfere in the Conflict Between Israel and Palestine

Will China Interfere in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict?

May 6, 2015

Middle East Institute - In June 1954, the leaders of China, India, and Burma (now Myanmar) issued a joint statement affirming the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence―mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression, non-interference in each other's internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence―as the basis for conducting international relations.[1] Since then, China has adhered strictly to the principle of non-interference in other countries’ domestic turmoil, as displayed prominently over the past several years in Beijing’s response to the Syrian civil war.

However, this is not true in the shuttle diplomacy China is practicing with respect to the conflicts in Sudan and South Sudan. There, Chinese state-owned enterprises (mainly the China National Petroleum Company) have invested heavily in the oil fields of Sudan for decades, and in the oil infrastructure of South Sudan since its independence in 2011. China’s “crossing the water by feeling the stones”[2] style of changing its non-interference policy is happening not just in Sudan but also in many other parts of Africa and, on a smaller scale, in other parts of the world.

China’s rationale could not be simpler: protect investments. Indeed, in all of the places where China has decided to “interfere,” significant Chinese economic interests are exposed to potential harm if local conflicts or political turmoil are allowed to fester. In 2009, China surpassed the United States as Africa’s largest trading partner, and China has become the third-largest source of foreign direct investment (FDI) worldwide. Chinese political activism has clearly increased—if thus far only selectively and incrementally—alongside its booming international trade.

According to this logic, therefore, China is destined to interfere in the conflict between Israel and Palestine. After all, China has acquired, either in full or in part, multiple Israeli companies of significant size. Both Chinese and Israeli companies are benefiting from partnering with each other in the high-tech startup field, with venture capital and private equity deals encompassing Beijing’s Zhongguancun—popularly referred to as “China’s Silicon Valley”—and Israel’s Silicon Wadi.

Germanwings Co-pilot Copycat Suicide and Mass Murder?

On November 29, 2013, 16 months before the Germanwings crash, Mozambique Airlines Flight TM470 went down in a remote area of Namibia while operating a scheduled passenger service from Maputo, Mozambique, to Luanda, Angola. The E-190 jet, manufactured by Brazil’s Embraer SA, was just one year old. Weather in the area, other than heavy rain, was not dangerous. Results of the investigation ruled out any mechanical problem or problem with the airworthiness of the aircraft as cause of the major accident.

According to a summary by Aviation Safety Network of the preliminary investigation results, the crash of Mozambique Airlines Flight TM470 that killed all 33 people on board was quite possibly intentional. Investigators believe it may have been pilot suicide. Like the Germanwings crash in the French Alps on March 24, 2015, one of the two crew members left the cockpit to use the toilet and was locked out by the other upon returning. On Mozambique Airlines Flight TM470f  the co-pilot left the cabin and the captain locked him out, a reversal of the situation on the Germanwings flight. It isn’t officially known whether the captain of Mozambique Airlines Flight TM470 had shown signs of mental issues; unverified rumors suggest he may have had marital problems, and that a son had died.

Regarding Mozambique Airlines Flight TM470, João Abreu, head of the Institute of Civil Aviation of Mozambique, said:

• The aircraft dove toward the ground at 6,000 feet a minute. 
• Data from the cockpit voice recorder indicates that minutes before the crash, the co-pilot left the cockpit for the bathroom and returned to find the door shut. 
• The flight data recorder, or black box, indicates that the captain manually changed on the autopilot the flight altitude from 38,000 feet to below ground level. 
• He also retarded the engine throttles to idle and manually selected the maximum operating speed -- a contradictory action that makes little sense. 
• The voice recorder shows that someone, likely the first officer, pounded on the cockpit door before the crash. 
• There was no mayday call from the experienced captain.

All the actions of the captain are eerily similar to those of the first officer, Andreas Lubitz, of the Germanwings flight on March 24, 2015, as are the results. Lubitz also manually changed n the autopilot the altitude from 38,000: he set it to 100 feet, an altitude well below the highest terrain in the area, and he accelerated as the plane descended toward the French Alps.

On December 21, 2013 Mozambique's Civil Aviation Authority reported in a press conference that:

• The cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder revealed that the captain was alone on the flight deck,
• Banging on the flight deck door could be heard on the cockpit voice recorder.  
• The autoflight systems (autothrottle and autopilot) were engaged: There were sounds and clicks consistent with a person knowledgeable of the aircraft systems commanding the engines to idle thrust and selecting the autoflight systems into a descent at 6000 feet per minute.
• Numerous warnings and alerts were not responded to.

The above description is eerily similar to the Germanwings flight on March 24, 2015, as are the following details about Mozambique Airlines Flight TM470 on November 29, 2013.

Namibia's Directorate of Aircraft Accident Investigations (DAAI) released an interim report reporting that the aircraft was enroute at FL380 shortly after the mandatory reporting point EXEDU, when the aircraft began a rapid descent. The Investigation re-iterated the preliminary report of 2013 that:

1. The autopilot's target altitude was selected down in three different steps (first FL380 to 4,288 feet, then 1,888 feet and final 592 feet) to below ground elevation,
2. The autothrust system's target airspeed was adjusted several times to remain close to Mmo/Vmo,
3. There were overspeed warnings several times during the descent,
4. The cabin air conditioning system number 2 was manually deactivated,
5. The speed brakes were manually deployed (and remained in that position until end of flight data recordings),
6. The vertical speed reached a maximum rate of descent of 10,560 feet per minute

And the report stated: "During all this actions there was audible low and high chimes as well as repeated banging an indication for call to enter the cockpit." During the last 2500 feet AGL the EGPWS issued several caution and warnings including "Terrain, Pull Up!".

According to radar data, the aircraft was lost from radar when it descended through 6600 feet MSL, by that time it had travelled 87.4km/47.2nm in 6 minutes 43 seconds since the aircraft left FL380.

The Investigation reported that there had been no distress call by the crew nor had there been a signal from the Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) after impact with the ground at 3,390 feet MSL.

The captain (49, ATPL, 9,053 hour total, 2,520 hours on type) was pilot flying at the time the aircraft left FL380, the first officer (24, CPL, 1,183 hours total, no hours on type provided except 101 hours on type in the last 90 days) had left the cockpit prior to the aircraft leaving FL380.

The data were successfully downloaded off both flight data and cockpit voice recorder.

On January 8, 2014, the Aviation Herald received the preliminary report from Namibia's Investigator in Charge under the condition to not publish the two-page report signed on December 18, 2013. The preliminary report states the aircraft carried 28 passengers and 6 crew and was enroute at FL380 in contact with Gaborone Area Air Traffic Control. Radar data show that after passing the mandatory reporting point EXEDU (position S18.9333 E22.4666, 55.7nm south of crash site) in Gaborone FIR the aircraft "commenced a sudden descent" from FL380. Radar and voice contact was lost.

The report states (begin of quote):

    1. the aircraft was operating at normal conditions and no mechanical faults were detected.

    2. Minutes before the crash the F/O (first officer) left the cockpit for the lavatory and only the captain remained on the Flight Deck.

    3. The altitude was manually selected three times from 38000 feet to the final 592 feet (below ground elevation).

    4. Auto throttle was manually reengaged and throttle level automatically retarded and set to idle.

    5. The Airspeed was manually selected several times until the end of the recording, which remained close to Vmo (maximum operating speed limit).

    6. The speed brake handle parameter indicates it was commanded to open the spoiler panels and remained in this position until the end of the recording. This was manually commanded as the parameter monitors the handle position.

    7. During all these actions there was audible low and high chimes as well as repeated banging an indication for call to enter the cockpit.

    Conclusion:

    All action observed from the recorders requires knowledge of the aircraft's automatic flight systems as the entire descent was performed with the autopilot engaged. This displays a clear intent. The reason for all these actions is unknown and the investigation is still ongoing.

    End of quote.

Information from the second black box found in the wreckage of the Germanwings flight that crashed in the French Alps confirms the co-pilot acted deliberately and even accelerated as the doomed plane descended, investigators said on April 3, 2015.A first reading shows that the pilot in the cockpit used the automatic pilot to descend the plane towards an altitude of 100 feet (30 metres), then, several times during the descent, the pilot changed the automatic pilot settings to increase the aircraft's speed.The owner of Germanwings, Luftansia, said the co-pilot had told the airline in 2009 about his depression after interrupting his flight training. Doctors had recently found no sign that he intended to hurt himself or others, but he was receiving treatment from neurologists and psychiatrists who had signed him off sick from work a number of times, including on the day of the crash. Police found torn-up sick notes during a search of his apartment after the crash. [Source]

The Germanwings airbus that crashed in the French Alps on March 24, 2015 was within close proximity of two other crashed, one in 1953 and the other in 1966. On September 1, 1953, Air France Flight 178 operating the Paris-Nice portion of a passenger flight to Saigon crashed into Mount Cemet, France, with the loss of all 42 lives on board. On January 24, 1966, Air India Flight 101 crashed at almost the same location as the Air India 1953 crash, with the loss of 117 crew and passengers.

The $450 an Hour Terror Industry Expert at Boston Marathon Bombing Trial Doesn’t Speak Arabic

The prosecution in the Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's trial called as an expert witness, Matthew Levitt. On cross examination, he replied "Yes" to the question, "Is you main focus on Middle East?" When Tsarnaev's attorney pointed out that the main language is Arabic, which Levitt doesn't speak, he replied, "Correct." When Tsarnaev's attorney pointed out that Levitt wasn't an an expert on Islam, he replied:  "Correct...I don't consider myself an expert in religion or Islam in particular."

In direct contrast, on May 5, 2015, the defense called as a witness Michael Reynolds, a Princeton University associate professor who specializes in Russian studies, the Middle East, and Near-Eastern studies, with a particular interest in the Caucuses (the area from which the Tsarnaev brothers, who are of Chechen descent, immigrated and where the majority of their family currently lives). Reynolds said he has his PhD, speaks Russian, has studied Arabic, and knows a lot about Islam. This was his first time as a witness.

The $450 an Hour Terror Industry Echo Chamber

March 24, 2015

emptywheel - Matthew Levitt, a prominent figure in the Terror Industry, has been testifying in the Dzhokhar Tsarnaev trial. He’s one of a number of noted figures who gets presented as experts at trials who doesn’t speak Arabic, who hasn’t bothered to learn Arabic over the course of years of this work.

Yesterday, Levitt spent several hours explaining how the explanation Dzhokhar wrote on a boat in Watertown had to have come from Anwar al-Awlaki’s propaganda.

Just before Levitt testified yesterday, he RTed an article describing him as the expert that would testify at Dzhokhar’s trial. As soon as he got done, he RTed several more articles about his own testimony, describing himself as an “expert” “decoding” the boat. And then, for good measure, he RTed a livetweet from his own testimony.

Today, on cross, it became clear the Awlaki propaganda on Dzhokhar’s computer was all Levitt got from prosectors. He didn’t know how long it had been on Dzhokhar’s computer. Nor did he know what else Dzhokhar has read. He also doesn’t know much about Chechnya, except in the context of Jihad. And though Levitt testified yesterday that there always must be a “radicalizer,” he did not know, nor was he asked, to identify the “radicalizer” in Dzhokhar’s life.

Levitt also did not, apparently, recognize some of what Dzhokhar had written as the boat as having come from the Quran.

He did, however, reveal that he gets paid $450 an hour to do this work.

When called on his RTing of his own testimony by the defense, Levitt admitted he “should have been wiser” about having done so.

I wonder, though, if Levitt was worried that the mystique of his expertise might not hold up if he didn’t constantly reinforce it with his own echo chamber?

Glenn Greenwald on How to Be a Terror "Expert": Ignore Facts, Blame Muslims, Trumpet U.S. Propaganda (Video)

January 13, 2015

Democracy Now - Who are the so-called terrorism experts? In the wake of the Paris attacks, the corporate media has once again flooded its news programs with pundits claiming authority on terrorism, foreign policy and world events. We discuss the growing and questionable field of "terrorism experts" with three guests: Glenn Greenwald, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and co-founder of The Intercept; Lisa Stampnitzky, social studies lecturer at Harvard University and author of "Disciplining Terror: How Experts Invented 'Terrorism'"; and Luc Mathieu, foreign affairs reporter for the French newspaper Libération.

Transcript (video at link above):

What U.S. "Interests" in the Middle East are the U.S. Military Protecting?

A good question about American interests in the Middle East but what is the answer?

October 13, 2012

Alan Hart - In an article for TomDispatch, Peter Van Buren (a U.S. Foreign Service Officer for many years) posed what he described as Six Critical Foreign Policy Questions That Won’t Be Raised in Presidential Debates. Question three was under the headline – What do we want from the Middle East?

The preamble to the specific question was this:

“Is it all about oil? Israel? Old-fashioned hegemony and containment? What is our goal in fighting an intensifying proxy war with Iran, newly expanded into cyberspace? Are we worried about a nuclear Iran, or just worried about a new nuclear club member in general? Will we continue the nineteenth century game of supporting thug dictators who support our policies in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Libya (until overwhelmed by events on the ground), and opposing the same actions by other thugs who disagree with us like Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and Syria’s Bashar al-Assad? That kind of policy thinking did not work out too well in the long run in Central and South America, and history suggests that we should make up our mind on what America’s goals in the Middle East might actually be. No cheating now – having no policy is a policy of its own.”

Then the specific question:

“Candidates, can you define America’s predominant interest in the Middle East and sketch out a series of at least semi-sensical actions in support of it?”

In my view, the honest answer (which won’t come from the lips of President Obama or Mitt Romney) is something like the following.

The U.S. has always had two predominant interests in the Middle East.

The first was guaranteeing the flow of oil at the lowest possible price even when that meant supporting corrupt and repressive Arab regimes which would do America’s bidding. (Saudi Arabia’s King Faisal, in my view, the first and the last truly great Arab leader of modern times, was assassinated because he was no longer willing to be an American puppet, a fact he demonstrated by, among other things, defying Henry Kissinger with his support for Arafat and the PLO.)

The second was to do with the fact that the Military Industrial Complex, in all of its manifestations, is the biggest single creator of jobs and wealth in America. It not only needed wars to guarantee the flow of tax dollars into its coffers, it also needed very wealthy Arab client states to buy its products. (In 2011, U.S. weapons sales reached a record high of $66 billion. America's largest customer was Saudi Arabia, which purchased more than $33 billion worth of weapons from the U.S., including dozens of F-15 fighter jets and missiles. The Obama administration proudly said that this deal alone would be a major stimulus to the U.S. economy and generate 75,000 new jobs. The United Arab Emirates and Oman also spent billions on buying American weapons.)

In the last decade or two of the 20^th century the U.S. has had a third predominant interest in the Middle East — It was having in power Arab regimes which were prepared to spend big amounts of the wealth of their countries on keeping the American economy going, and quite possibly preventing it from collapsing, by buying American debt. This purchase of U.S. debt instruments (paper promises) enabled Americans to go on living beyond their means and helped to create a national debt which is now approaching $17 trillion. (The other two major purchasers of American debt were Japan and China.)

In South Korea's "Smart City" of Songdo, Children are Tracked by Microchip and the Government Monitors CCTV Cameras Located Throughout the City

At Songdo’s U-Life Center, a wall of screens streams real-time footage from the CCTV cameras located throughout Songdo, so that "government officials can monitor traffic and spot crime."  (Ross Arbes)

Songdo, South Korea: City of the Future?

Gale International, holds a majority stake of 61%, Posco 30%, and the remaining 9% is owned by Morgan Stanley Real Estate. The plan was designed by the New York office of Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF). Infrastructure development, labor, and funding are also being provided by the city of Incheon.

 September 27, 2014

The Atlantic - Some of the developers of Songdo (which means “island of pine trees”) call it “The City of the Future.” Others have dubbed it “The World’s Smartest City” and “Korea’s High-Tech Utopia.” What, if anything, might such a city have in store for a tourist?

By the time we touched down at Incheon Airport in May, we knew Songdo’s short history. In 2000, it was still a marshy stretch of tidal flats in the Yellow Sea, home to a scattering of fishermen. Three years later, the Korean government filled it with 500 million tons of sand in an effort to build a business district near the international airport. (Seoul, the capital, is more than an hour away from the Incheon airport by bus; Songdo, an “aerotropolis” that boasts of being a short flight from one-third of the world’s population, is a mere 15-minute drive.) In addition to luring foreign business, the government hoped to create a sustainable city that demonstrated Korea’s technological prowess. Eleven years, $35 billion, and a few economic downturns later, Songdo has completed some 60 percent of its planned infrastructure and buildings, developers say, and reached a population of about 70,000—a third of the number expected by 2018, when the city will be “done.”

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Forget the National Guard, Send in Parents to Quell Violent Outbreaks of Teenagers at Protests

Baltimore teenager smacked by 'hero mom' says he's learned his less

May 1, 2015

Yahoo News - The Baltimore teenager who was smacked by his angry mother during Monday's riots — a moment seen in a video that quickly went viral — says he learned a lesson from his public shaming.

In a pair of interviews, Michael Singleton described the confrontation.

"I was just like, 'Oh, man. What is my mother doing down here? Why would she be down here?'" Singleton told CNN's Anderson Cooper. "But when I heard, 'Put that brick down,' I was like, 'Oh, that's my mother.'"

On Tuesday, Toya Graham, the 42-year-old single mother of six, told CBS News that she didn't want to see her only son become "a Freddie Gray," the 25-year-old who died in police custody earlier this month.

"I felt as though my friends were down there," the 16-year-old said of his decision to join the rioters. "A couple of my friends had been beaten by the police, killed by the police. So I felt as though I needed to go down there, show my respect."

"I was so angry with him that he had made a decision to do some harm to the police officers," Graham told Cooper. "I just lost it at that point."

Or, as Singleton put it,

"It was just World War III from right there."