Russia delivered to the Obama administration a list of the names of al-Qaida members among the Syrian rebels, who are receiving arms shipments coordinated by the U.S., according to informed Middle Eastern security officials.
With that, Netanyahu told Burkhalter, “there are a number of things we could learn from you, and one of them is the referendum.” Unlike Switzerland, however, Israel would conduct a referendum on just one issue – a potential agreement with the PA that would entail Israel surrendering a portion of Judea and Samaria to a PA state.
The list, the officials added, demonstrates the U.S. is failing to vet the rebels being supported by the West for ties to al-Qaida and other jihad groups.
The information comes amid scores of news media reports that the Obama administration is aiding the rebels, including by coordinating Arab arms shipments.
The arming of Syrian rebels is considered highly controversial. A major issue is the inclusion of jihadists, including al-Qaida, among the ranks of the Free Syrian Army and other Syrian opposition groups.
Just last week, WND broke the story that the U.S. in recent weeks aided in the transfer of shoulder-launched, anti-aircraft missiles, or man-portable air-defense systems, to the Syrian rebels, according to informed Middle Eastern security officials.
The Middle Eastern security officials speaking to WND said the latest U.S.-facilitated weapons transfers signify the most advanced deliveries yet to the Syrian rebels.
A hacker compromised a U.S. Army database that holds sensitive information about vulnerabilities in U.S. dams, according to a news report.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ National Inventory of Dams contains information about 79,000 dams throughout the country and tracks such information as the number of estimated deaths that could occur if a specific dam failed. It’s accessible to government employees who have accounts. Non-government users can query the database but cannot download data from it.
The breach began in January and was only uncovered in early April, according to the Free Beacon, a nonprofit online publication, which first published the news.
Pete Pierce, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers, did not return a call from Wired but confirmed to the Free Beacon that the breach occurred.
“The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is aware that access to the National Inventory of Dams (NID), to include sensitive fields of information not generally available to the public, was given to an unauthorized individual in January 2013 who was subsequently determined to not to have proper level of access for the information,” Pierce said in a statement to the publication. “[U.S. Army Corps of Engineers] immediately revoked this user’s access to the database upon learning that the individual was not, in fact, authorized full access to the NID.”
Public health officials have issued an alert to GPs and health workers asking them to report any signs of influenza in people who have recently travelled from China.
The new strain, which first emerged just over a month ago, has now claimed 24 lives in China and has infected at least 126 people.
Around 11,000 British citizens travel to China each week and around 3,500 Chinese visit this country.
Experts fear that while the disease is currently only being passed from birds to humans, it is changing rapidly and could start passing directly from person to person, raising the risk of a pandemic.
Recent research has shown the virus has already acquired two of five key mutations thought to be necessary for it to become a disease that can circulate in the human population.
At a meeting Thursday with Swiss Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said that if a peace deal was worked out with the Palestinian Authority, Israelis would have a chance to voice their opinions of it in a referendum. “In Hebrew there is a saying, that 'Israel is not Switzerland.'” Netanyahu told his guest. “The point is that we live in very different neighborhoods. Your neighborhood is more calm and less challenging, but I don't know one Israeli who would change his countryfor any other.”
With that, Netanyahu told Burkhalter, “there are a number of things we could learn from you, and one of them is the referendum.” Unlike Switzerland, however, Israel would conduct a referendum on just one issue – a potential agreement with the PA that would entail Israel surrendering a portion of Judea and Samaria to a PA state.
A new $1 million dollar program led by Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw aimed at “violence prevention” is encouraging Floridians to report their neighbors for making hateful comments about the government, a chilling reminder of how dissent is being characterized as an extremist threat.
“Bradshaw plans to use the extra $1 million to launch “prevention intervention” units featuring specially trained deputies, mental health professionals and caseworkers. The teams will respond to citizen phone calls to a 24-hour hotline with a knock on the door and a referral to services, if needed,” reports the Palm Beach Post.
Bradshaw makes it clear that the kind of behavior which could prompt a visit from the authorities includes anti-government political statements that may be deemed a prelude to violent action.
We want people to call us if the guy down the street says he hates the government, hates the mayor and he’s gonna shoot him,” Bradshaw said. “What does it hurt to have somebody knock on a door and ask, ‘Hey, is everything OK?’”
The program will also include “public service announcements to encourage local citizens to report their neighbors,” reports the newspaper.
The program has sparked concerns that the hotline could violate civil liberties or even be exploited to pursue personal vendettas, with Bradshaw acknowledging that, “anyone in a messy divorce or in a dispute with a neighbor could abuse the hotline,” and that it will prompt “frivolous complaints.”
That caveat is all the more chilling given the research of Florida State University’s Robert Gellately into how Germans under Hitler denounced their neighbors and friends not because they genuinely believed them to be a security threat, but because they expected to selfishly benefit from doing so, both financially, socially and psychologically via a pavlovian need to be rewarded by their masters for their obedience.
“How are they possibly going to watch everybody who makes a comment like that? It’s subjective,” said Liz Downey, executive director of the Palm Beach County branch of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. “We don’t want to take away people’s civil liberties just because people aren’t behaving the way we think they should be.”
The program is set to go ahead unless it is vetoed by Governor Rick Scott.
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