1. A Document released by the American Civil Liberties Union:
Warrantless surveillance of telephone calls, text messages and emails has shot up dramatically in recent years and real time monitoring of electronic communications jumped 60 percent from 2009 to 2011
2. Antiwar.com:
National Security Agency whistleblower William Binney said in Mid July that the U.S. government is secretly gathering information “about virtually every U.S. citizen in the country” in “a very dangerous process” that VIOLATES AMERICAN’S PRIVACY.
3. Today, Americans can be subject to search and seizure WITHOUT A WARRANT, detained or imprisoned INDEFINITELY , WITHOUT charge, WITHOUT evidence, WITHOUT a lawyer, WITHOUT a trial, or EVEN tortured or assassinated merely for being accused of being associated with terrorism.
Israeli Official Sources: US sell weapons to Israel
under the deal, Washington will supply Tel Aviv with 6,900 satellite-guided smart bomb.
10,000 mixed bombs, including 3,450 one-tonners, 1,725 bombs each weighing 250 kilograms and two kinds of buster-bunkers —1,725 of GBU-39 and 3,450 of BLU-109 bombs.
(from November 14 to November 21.) Israeli airstrikes, shelling, and artillery fire left more than 160 Palestinians, including many women and children dead and over 1,200 others injured.
Recent intelligence sources have revealed that at least one and perhaps as many as three KC 135 Stratotankers have left the United States, traversing the Pacific Ocean, for use in refueling Israeli attack aircraft on missions against Iran.
Sources indicate that at least one of these aircraft, said to belong to a command of the Arizona Air National Guard stationed at Sky Harbor IAP/ANGB near Phoenix, may be the source of the missing aircraft.
That would indicate, were this the case, that the 197th Air Refueling Command Squadron was involved.
We have direct witness confirmation of one of these aircraft involved in behavior “outside any possible mission parameters.”
There have been serious concerns as to good order and discipline since it was discovered that the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs had been used as a recruiting ground for extremist sects.
In a series of reports by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation headed by Mikey Weinstein, a litany of serious violations including indoctrination in extremist beliefs has become commonplace in the Air Force.
A further indication of a possible threat was referred to by President Barack Obama when, on November 21, 2012, while returning from his Far East trip, a memorandum was issued warning of “Insider Threats” against the “US Government and the nation.”
The memorandum advised close monitoring of military and civilian branches of the government for threats citing both “vast espionage” and use of “violence.”
The KC 135
The aircraft, scheduled to be replaced by 2040, were placed into service beginning in 1957. Their transit range is over 11,000 miles but is only 1500 miles when loaded with 75 tons of “transfer fuel.”
Each aircraft would be capable of refueling at least one squadron of fighter/bomber aircraft, a capability that would make a potential attack on Iran a possibility without violation of airspace of Turkey, Iraq or Saudi Arabia.
Turkey, who has eight of these aircraft, uses the KC 135. France also uses this as their primary air-to-air refueling platform.
No other nations in the region have air-to-air refueling capabilities that could make a mission from Israel to Iran a possibility. There have been no reports that either Turkey or France are missing aircraft of this type or is there “chatter” that participation, as an “actor” in an attack on Iran is considered possible by either of these nations.
Additionally, there is no known or even rumored “classified” agreement for the US to lend such aircraft to Israel for such a purpose, quite the contrary. Such an act would, as indicated by “informed sources,” constitute mutiny and treason.
The F 15 series including the “strike eagle”
Israel’s most advanced aircraft is the US built F 15. There are several variants but the “twin cockpit” F 15E “Strike Eagle” has the greatest range and weapons capacity.
Israel currently operates 25 F 15E Strike Eagles and approximately 40 other variants. The Strike Eagle, when carrying three external fuel tanks, can carry up to 8000 pound of ordnance.
The F 15E has advance countermeasures and is capable of carrying “bunker buster” bombs.
Potential mission
Were Israel to use a “sea route” to attack Iran, using its F 15 aircraft, two refueling would be necessary, even with full external tanks.
Each refueling requires three tons of fuel, 10 total for each aircraft.
A single KC 135 aircraft may well be capable of this mission. Two would be much better. Three would be needed if fighter cover were to be used to suppress air defenses, what is called “Wild Weasel Missions.”
Cover and deception
There has been considerable illusory and deceptive “chatter” that may well be part of a “deception and cover” program intended to disorient Iranian air defenses.
Over the past few months, several types of threats have been revealed which involve Azerbaijan. There have been reports that Israel had stationed attack aircraft at former Soviet airfields in Azerbaijan, aircraft that traveled through Turkey in transit to Azerbaijan during joint training missions while those nations were on publicly friendlier terms.
This mission and scenario, including transit of “bunker buster” bombs through Georgia, was reported in Veterans Today in 2010.
Turkey openly acknowledges that it had allowed Israel to run bombing practice inside Turkish air space because the terrain “matched that of Iran.”
Not long ago, two defecting officers of the Azeri military reported an agreement between Azerbaijan and Israel outlining the exact scenario reported by Veterans Today.
Meetings between the Iranian ambassador in Baku and the President of Azerbaijan drew a strong denial. However, it is also more than rumored that Israeli aircraft inside Azerbaijan had been “discovered” and required to return to Israel.
Last week, the London Times reported that Azerbaijan had agreed to allow Israel to use its bases to operate drones over Iran. The president of Azerbaijan both denied the charge and asked for a retraction from the Times.
However, only two days ago, there were further reports that, in fact, the drones were jointly operated by both Israel and Azerbaijan, and had been in place for some time.
There has yet to be a second denial to this new story that specifically outlines, not only the type of drone, but the vendors for the observation packages used as well, a prominent electronics supplier to the IDF.
Airspace
In addition to the stories about Azerbaijan, there has been considerable “chatter” involving use of Saudi airspace. Recently, Saudi Arabia has been very involved in covert operations against Syria.
Today, it was discovered that Saudi Arabia had sent 200 prisoners sentenced to death to fight in Syria. Though this has not been fully confirmed, documents published today and intelligence from inside Syria supports this supposition.
The problem with a credible deception plan involving Saudi Arabia is that Iran could quickly, not only devastate Saudi Arabia but likely stage a full scale ground invasion that there would be no hope of resisting, even with American assistance.
Saudi Arabia has no credible military forces and any attack would quickly turn into, not only urban warfare but, even more likely, the immediate overthrow of the Saudi government by political groups not necessarily friendly to Iran but extremely hostile to the traditional despotic rule.
There is very little likelihood that American ground forces would be used to defend Saudi Arabia, a slave labor theocracy.
In the event of any threat to Saudi Arabia a popular uprising would begin and the kingdom would crumble in days.
In fact, other nations in the region would likely fall quickly, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan and possibly even the UAE.
Those who have chosen to plan and plot have failed to take into account both the changed political situation in the US and the ongoing reassessment of its role in the region.
Additionally, no effort has been taken, we clearly see, to take into account that the revolution that so many love to watch in Syria would be far more successful against the Persian Gulf States or Saudi Arabia.
Hidden in plain site
If there are unauthorized KC 135 aircraft within range for such a mission as outlined, satellite reconnaissance would require them to be “hidden in plain sight” on a base such as Diego Garcia.
Let us hope that if such an endeavor has been undertaken, the US military is able to take rapid and corrective measures to “mitigate” the threat to regional stability.
Gordon Duff is a Marine Vietnam veteran, a combat infantryman, and Senior Editor at Veterans Today. His career has included extensive experience in international banking along with such diverse areas as consulting on counter insurgency, defense technologies or acting as diplomatic representative for UN humanitarian and economic development efforts. Gordon Duff has traveled to over 80 nations. His articles are published around the world and translated into a number of languages. He is regularly on TV and radio, a popular and sometimes controversial guest.
William Hague, menteri luar negeri Inggri tiba di Bahrain untuk mengikuti Dialog Manma 2012. Hadir pula bersama Hague, Lord Astor, deputi Departemen Pertahanan Inggris di parlemen dan Jend. Sir David Richard, kepala staf gabungan militer Inggris.
Agenda utama Dialog Manama 2012 adalah krisis dan transformasi Suriah. Para peserta mengklaim bahwa mereka dari 28 negara dunia datang ke Bahrain. Selain agenda di atas akan dibahas juga berbagai isu lainnya seperti perang anti terorisme, sektarianisme di kawasan dan keamanan Selat Hormuz. Uniknya, di Dialog Manama ini tidak tercantum agenda pembicaraan mengenai pelanggaran hak dasar dan kebebasan warga Bahrain oleh rezim al-Khalifa.
Pemerintah Barat termasuk Inggris tidak mengakui adanya Musim Semi Arab di Bahrain. Artinya negara Barat mengakui secara resmi tuntutan rakyat Tunisa dan Mesir untuk menggapai kebebasan politik dan keadilan ekonomi, namun mereka menyebut tuntutan serupa oleh rakyat Bahrain sebagai bentuk pemberontakan dan tindakan huru-hara.
Oleh karena itu, Barat menyebut dirinya sebagai pembela kubu oposisi di negara-negara seperti Mesir, Tunisia dan Suriah, namun terkait Bahrain malah menyeru warga untuk bersabar menghadapi rezim Manama. Barat dalam reaksinya terhadap konflik antara pemerintah Suriah dan kubu oposisi berulang kali memprotes Moskow karena Rusia masih tetap saja komitmen terhadap kontrak senjatanya dengan Damaskus.
Di sisi lain, Barat termasuk Inggris tidak menghentikan pengiriman senjata kepada pemerintah Bahrain. Rezim al-Khalifa memanfaatkan senjata kiriman Barat untuk menumpas aksi damai warganya sendiri. Poin penting lainnya, Inggris di bulan Oktober tahun ini menandatangani kesepakatan pertahanan dengan Manama di tengah-tengah aksi demo warga. Hal ini dapat dicermati sebagai dukungan serius London terhadap rezim Manama dan aksi penumpasan terhadap kubu oposisi di negara ini.
Terlepas dari itu semua, di pertemuan tahun ini antara kedua menlu di London, William Hague secara resmi menyatakan dukungan Inggris terhadap rezim al-Khalifa di Bahrain. Mereaksi dukungan ini, Pangeran Mahkota Salman bin Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa Jumat malam (7/12) saat membuka Dialog Manama 2012 di bagian pidatonya khusus memuji Inggris.
Pangeran Salman menandaskan, “Kalian (Inggris) terdepan dari negara Barat dalam mendukung kami.” Ia pun mengucapkan terima kasih kepada London yang telah membantu mereformasi sistem peradilan dan kepolisian Bahrain.
Di sisi lain, sejumlah kubu oposisi Bahrain menyatakan, selain militer Arab Saudi, militer Inggris juga terlibat di operai penumpasan demo warga di Bahrain. Menyaksikan kinerja London ini, hal yang dilupakan di Dialogh Manama adalah tuntutan legal warga Bahrain untuk berpartisipasi lebih adil kubu mayoritas Syiah di pemerintahan yang selama ini dimonopoli oleh kubu minoritas Sunni dan rezim al-Khalifa.
Ketua Biro Politik Gerakan Perlawanan Islam Palestina (Hamas), Khaled Meshaal menandaskan, dengan pengorbanan dan dukungan terhadap muqawama Palestina, rakyat Palestina dengan susah payah berhasil mematahkan agresi brutal Rezim Zionis Israel di perang delapan hari Jalur Gaza.
Meshaal yang berbicara di peringatan ke-20 pembentukan Hamas dan kemenangan perang delapan hari di Jalur Gaza Sabtu (8/12) menegaskan, “Kemenangan di perang Gaza mengawali kemenangan lain muqawama Palestina dalam menghadapi rezim ilegal Israel di Ramallah, Baitul Maqdis dan Haifa.
Ketua Biro Politik Hamas ini juga menjelaskan bahwa para syuhada memainkan peran penting di kemenangan melawan penjajah Israel di perang delapan hari Gaza. “Darah para syuhada harus dihormati sepanjang masa, karena mereka telah mengorbankan jiwanya demi membela bumi Palestina dan karenanya nama mereka akan senantiasa dikenang sejarah serta terus hidup,” kata Meshaal.
Seraya menekankan hak legal para pengungsi Palestina untuk kembali ke tanah air mereka, Meshaal menandaskan, “Saat-saat kembalinya para pengungsi Palestina ke rumahnya telah tiba. Sama seperti kita saat bersatu di medan perang, maka kita juga akan tetap bersatu soal prinsip dasar, tanah Palestina, al-Quds dan hak kembali pengungsi Palestina.”
Meshaal tiba di Jalur Gaza pada hari Jumat (7/12) untuk mengikuti peringatan ke-20 pembentukan Hamas. Saat berkunjung ke rumah Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, pendiri Hamas di kawasan al-Sabrah, Meshaal mengatakan, “Sheikh Yassin adalah simbol dan teladan rekonsiliasi dan persatuan nasional Palestina dalam menghadapi Rezim Zionis.”
Ismail Haniyah, perdana menteri Palestina pilihan rakyat juga menyampaikan pidatonya di peringatan ulang tahun ke-20 kelompok muqawama ini pada hari Sabtu. “Rezim penjajah Israel pasti akan musnah dan rakyat Palestina tidak akan pernah membiarkan tanah air mereka senantiasa dikuasai musuh,” tegas Haniyah.
According to the report, following a rise in the US radar activities in the Astara Rayon region of Azerbaijan as well as the presence of Israeli military advisors in the country, Azerbaijan has been using Orbiter ultra-light drones assembled with the help of Israeli experts to carry out operations along the border with Iran and Karabakh.
According to Iranian military experts, Azerbaijan also uses Hermes-450 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for control and surveillance missions.
Israel has sold 10 Hermes-450 drones, manufactured by Elbit Systems, to Azerbaijan between 2009 and 2012.
The Hermes-450 UAVs are equipped with GPS, which means they can also provide an outside observer with satellite images sent by the drone
In 2009, reports released by certain media regarding an agreement between Israeli President Shimon Peres and his Azeri counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, on the deployment of electronic stations confirmed that Azerbaijan and Israel were cooperating on satellite systems.
According to experts, Israeli satellites are closely cooperating with Azeri drones, though they have a long way to go before reaching the ideal level.
The Hermes-450 UAVs can be equipped with offensive systems such as air-to-air and surface-to-air missiles as well as electronic warfare equipment. However, their limited range of mission, which is up to 200-300 kilometers, has restricted their use for operational and strategic purposes.
Israel and Azerbaijan have signed a USD 1.6 billion deal for selling Heron and Searcher offensive drones to Baku to make up for that limitation.
A Hermes-450 drone
The US has conducted a nuclear test in Nevada to examine the effectiveness of its atomic weapons stockpile amid the growing global urge for nuclear disarmament.
The US Energy Department announced that the Wednesday nuclear test was aimed at providing “crucial information to maintain the safety and effectiveness of the nation’s nuclear weapons.”
The subcritical experiment, known as Pollux, was conducted by the staff from the Nevada National Security Site, Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories.
Subcritical nuclear tests examine the behavior of plutonium when shocked by forces produced by chemical high explosives.
According to UN figures, the US, which is the only country that has ever used atomic bombs against human beings, has conducted 1,032 nuclear tests since 1945.
The Nevada experiment has drawn sharp criticism from the Japanese city of Hiroshima, as the first victim of atomic weapons.
“I wonder why [US] President [Barack] Obama, who said he would seek a nuclear-free world, carried out the test,” Hiroshima mayor Kazumi Matsui told reporters.
“I wish he would take into account the feelings of the people of Hiroshima when making policy decisions,” he added.
Hiroshima was devastated on August 6, 1945 after the US B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on the city, killing an estimated 140,000 people instantly or gradually from radiation sickness and cancers. Three days later, another atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, killing more than 70,000.
The nuclear radiation emitted following the blasts continued to claim thousands of more lives over the past decades.
“It is depressing that the United States cannot understand how atomic bomb survivors feel, despite our repeated protests,” said Secretary General of the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Survivors Council Hirotami Yamada.
The Wednesday experiment “is proof that the United States could use nuclear weapons anytime. Such a country is not qualified to be a world leader,” he noted.
#Japan,#Nagasaki after the 1945 #US #nuclear bombing.
Pentagon spokesman George Little has acknowledged that the unmanned aerial vehicle that Iran captured while it was flying over the Persian Gulf is a US-made ScanEagle.
A commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said on Wednesday that the Islamic Republic fully extracted data from the US spy drone, which was captured by Iranian forces over the Persian Gulf upon its intrusion into Iranian airspace on Tuesday.
“The drone, in addition to gathering military data, used to pursue gathering data in the field of energy, especially the transfer of oil from Iran’s oil terminals,” Head of the IRGC Public Relations Department Brigadier General Ramezan Sharif added.
The Pentagon spokesman is the first US official to admit to the loss of the pilotless aircraft, an issue that other high-ranking officials have shied away from verifying fearing the domestic and international backlash over the case which is not the first of its kind.
Little, however, added that it couldn’t be determined whether the captured drone was operated by the US.
Iran has released footage of the captured drone, which is a long-endurance aircraft manufactured by Insitu, a subsidiary of Boeing.
Following Iran’s announcement about the capture of the spy aircraft, the US Navy said it had not lost any drones, adding that the ScanEagle is an “off the shelf variety” which could have belonged to another country.
Sharif, however, urged the United States to accurately recount its drones, saying Iran will release more information on the aircraft if deemed necessary.
Last year, the Iranian military also grounded a US RQ-170 spy drone while it was flying over the Iranian city of Kashmar, some 140 miles (225 km) from the Afghan border.
Last month, Iran repelled a US drone that had entered the country’s airspace above the territorial waters of the Islamic Republic in the Persian Gulf.
The media reported on Thursday that Darfur authorities found an Israeli Park Services GPS chip attached to the bird.
The vulture was on an espionage mission for the Tel Aviv regime, the media stated, adding that the bird had a leg band with labels that read in Hebrew, “Israel Nature Service” and “Hebrew University, Jerusalem.”
The equipment fastened to the vulture was capable of taking photos and sending them back to Israel.
However, Israel’s National Parks Service has denied the reports and said that both the GPS chip and the device were used by ecologists to track migration.
On October 24, Sudanese Minister of Information Ahmed Bilal Osman said four Israeli warplanes had attacked a weapons production factory in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, killing at least two people.
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir said on October 26 that the “reckless behavior is a manifestation of Israel’s concerns and nervousness about the political and social upheavals in the region and about the progress in Sudan.”
Sudan is not the only state reporting the capture of a bird with Israeli spying equipment attached to it.
In 2011, Saudi media reported that authorities had captured a griffon vulture with Israeli spying equipment attached to one of its legs, and a “Tel Aviv University” label.
A vulture flies away after being freed in the Negev Desert following an Israeli project during which 66 vultures were captured for monitoring, marking and ringing the vulture population in the desert.
Transparency International dalam laporan tahunannya menyebutkan, Arab Saudi dan Kuwait berada di peringkat 66 jadwal kesehatan birokrasi, dan terendah di antara negara-negara Arab lain.
Alalam (6/12) melaporkan, lembaga ini setiap tahun merilis laporan tahunan tentang penyimpangan birokrasi di berbagai negara dan dalam laporan terbarunya disebutkan bahwa korupsi serta penyimpangan birokrasi terus berlanjut di dunia dan bahkan di dua pertiga negara dunia masalah nyaris tidak terkontrol.
Berdasarkan laporan tersebut, Qatar dan Uni Emirat Arab berada di peringkat 27.
Yunani dan Italia menghadapi krisis korupsi dan penyimpangan birokrasi terbesar di Eropa.
Dalam 174 urutan Tranparency International itu, Korea Utara, Somalia dan Afghanistan berada di peringkat terakhir, sementara Denmark, Finlandia dan Selandia Baru berada diperingkat pertama.
Jerman menduduki peringat 13 sementara Perancis berada di urutan 22 transparansi birokrasi.
Transparency International adalah sebuah lembaga independen yang bermarkas di Berlin, Jerman. Dibentuk pada tahun 1993, setiap tahunnya lembaga ini merilis laporan mengenai tingkat tranparansi dan kesehatan brikorasi serta korupsi di berbagai negara.
NO War , NO Genocide , NO Violence 