TresSugar

Front Page: Secret Order Let US Attack al Qaeda Anywhere

CitizenSugar — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 08:00:00 -0800

A classified US order from 2004 authorized the US military to attack al Qaeda anywhere in the world. The order has allowed the US to secretly attack militants in Syria, Pakistan, and other places. - New York Times
President-elect Barack Obama will meet President Bush in the Oval Office today, to begin the transition of power. The two are expected to discuss the economy, the war in Iraq, and national security. Laura Bush will give Michelle Obama a tour of the White House. - CNN
Three bombs that exploded moments apart in Baghdad, Iraq yesterday left at least 28 people dead. Two of the explosions were car bombs and the third was a suicide bomber who blew himself up in the crowd trying to rescue people. - BBC News
An argument over Sunday's Alabama-LSU overtime football game ended with an Alabama couple shot to death. - Alabama Press-Register
A backlash against California's Proposition 8 has erupted. This weekend, same-sex marriage supporters protested the new law outside churches around the state, including a Mormon tabernacle. - San Francisco Chronicle

CIA Director Hayden Says Biggest Threat is a Nuclear Al-Qaeda

CitizenSugar — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 08:00:24 -0700

Sometimes a news story doesn't allow for any ducking and covering, and this is one of those: the possibility of al-Qaeda acquiring nuclear weapons. While nuclear weapons in countries like Iran and North Korea are worrisome, CIA Director Michael Hayden said yesterday that the agency's top nuclear threat is al-Qaeda.

Hayden said, "There is no greater national security threat facing the United States than al-Qaida and its associates." The concern of course, is that al-Qaeda is more likely to use them. Talking about North Korea's off-again on-again nuclear relationship and Iran's complicated situation, Hayden said with them, "The question is not of capability, but intent."

The intent of course is clear with al-Qaeda. Hayden says, "Bin Laden has said repeatedly that he considers acquisition of nuclear weapons a religious duty. And we know that al-Qaida remains determined to attack our country in ways that inflict maximum death and destruction." It's believed that Osama bin Laden is no longer overseeing the day-to-day operations of al-Qaeda. Hayden added that the best thing the next president could do to help the CIA wrestle with these problems is to step aside and allow the agency to work.

To see the complicated state of Iran's program, read more.

Current intelligence still maintains that Iran's nuclear program is at the "keeping its options open" stage and hasn't stepped up efforts to design weapons. Hayden's remarks however, came the same day that the IAEA presented intelligence pointing to plans Iran has to redesign a missile to contain a nuclear payload.

Do you think al-Qaeda has the means necessary to acquire nuclear weapons - or is this just a hypothetical doomsday scenario?

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Front Page: Julia Child Was a Spy, Inflation Hits Major High, Lebanon Bombing Kills 15

CitizenSugar — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 06:55:03 -0700

Julia Child Was a Spy:
Newly released files show that famous chef Julia Child was a World War-II era spy. The CIA declassified 35,000 top-secret personnel files that detailed the huge spy network run by the OSS, which later became the CIA. Former OSS agents are pleased with the release of the information, a list which includes other notables like Ernest Hemingway's and Teddy Roosevelt's sons.

Inflation Hits Major High:
Consumer prices rose at twice the rate expected to post the fastest rate of growth in 17 years. Costlier energy and food made the Consumer Price Index balloon. Food alone is six percent more expensive than a year ago.

Lebanon Bombing Kills 15:
A briefcase bomb detonated in a bus packed with Lebanese soldiers on their way to work, killing 15 and wounding more than 40 people. The bombing distracted from the news from Damascus that Syria and Lebanon were to establish diplomatic relations for the first time since both won their independence from France in the 1940s. The bombing is the deadliest attack in Lebanon in more than three years.

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Learning Annex: Communist Chinese Torture Taught at Gitmo

LibertySugar — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:00:00 -0700

Does an interrogation class covering "coercive management techniques" like sleep deprivation, prolonged constraint, and exposure sound like something that would be conducted in modern America, or 1950s communist China? The answer is both!

During the Korean War, the US Air Force studied Chinese "torture" tactics used to obtain often false confessions from captured Americans. Recently, CIA and Guantanamo interrogators have become students of the tactics, according to the New York Times. Specifically, an entire interrogation class taught at Gitmo in December 2002 focused on the coercive techniques. To find out how the teachers explain the purpose of the class, read more.

Documents released include statements by trainers explaining that the class was used to present “the theory and application of the physical pressures utilized during our training.” The theories included information like "filthy, infested surroundings . . . reduces prisoner to ‘animal level’ concern." Since 2005, Congress has outlawed the use of coercion in the military. But under President's Bush approval the CIA still can use secret methods, explains the article.

I am confused why the US has taught Chinese tactics outlined in the 1950s' report titled "Communist Attempts to Elicit False Confessions From Air Force Prisoners of War." Do you think this class means American officials have forgotten the lessons of history?

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Google to Help the CIA Spy

LibertySugar — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 15:00:58 -0700

Google is helping the CIA get its blog on. The internet search engine giant will supply the technology for a Wikipedia-style intelligence site: Intellipedia.

Agents will post information about targets on a secure internal forum where they can read, edit, and tag their own content, as well as the content of other spies. There will be three levels of access: top secret, secret and sensitive, and sensitive but unclassified.

This is just one of the many lucrative contracts secured by Google's "Federal Government Sales Team." It is reassuring that the government is willing to look to the private sector for innovative national security technology.

But, does it make you at all nervous that Google, a company with unimaginable access to information about private citizens, is getting nice and cozy with the federal government?

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Headline: CIA Director Says Waterboarding Was Necessary

LibertySugar — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 11:00:01 -0800

CIA Director Michael Hayden told Congress that waterboarding was necessary, but probably not legal under the current statute, on Thursday. Hayden confirmed that the technique of simulated drowning is not currently part of the CIA's interrogation program, but was used five years ago on three top al-Qaeda suspects.

On the same day, US Attorney General Michael Mukasey told lawmakers he would not open a criminal investigation into the CIA's use of waterboarding. He maintained that because the Justice Department authorized the program, it cannot prosecute someone who followed that advice.

The US continues to face international ridicule for not rejecting waterboarding, the technique that entails strapping a suspect down and pouring water over his cloth-covered face to create the sensation of drowning. Just Wednesday, the United Nations' torture investigator harshly criticized the White House for defending waterboarding, calling it absolutely unacceptable under international human rights law.

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Obama Won't Charge CIA Employees For Torture - Good Call?

TresSugar — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 08:00:00 -0700

Individual CIA employees who carried out waterboarding (aka simulated drowning) will not be prosecuted for torture. The Obama administration announced the decision yesterday, while also releasing four "torture" memos from top legal officials in the Bush administration.

Many people are upset by President Obama's decision. Since waterboarding is widely considered to be torture, they think the perpetrators should be brought to justice. By releasing the memos, Obama hopes to at least get the facts out there, so the same thing will not happen again. He said: "This is a time for reflection not retribution."

Would you like to see the individuals who actually tortured suspects put in jail, or did Obama make the right call?

Source

Rent-a-Friend Business Booming in Japan

TresSugar — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 01:00:00 -0700

One of my favorite episodes of How I Met Your Mother involves Barney and his hired "family." The eternal playboy (played by Neil Patrick Harris) wants his mother to think he has settled down, so he pays actors to play his wife and son, concocts an elaborate backstory with details including his son's "catch phrase," and plays along for years every time he visits his mother with his fake family in tow.

Well apparently, Japan has turned this sitcom plot into a reality. Japanese rent-a-friend companies allow people to pay for pretend friends, relatives, work colleagues, or even best men! Sometimes single mothers hire fake husbands so kids stop bullying their children at school for having absent fathers!

Just like Barney's family, the "agents" are trained to know an extensive backstory. If rentees give any hint that they're aren't really the people they're pretending to be, it could mess up the clients' lives. Creepy! Apparently the need to look like everything is perfect in your life is so important in Japan that some people are willing to rent these actor-CIA-agent hybrids for about $250 per appearance.

While it might be tempting to hire a stand-in boyfriend for awkward situations, like when you're the only single girl invited to a dinner party filled with couples, this still seems strange to me. What do you think?

Photo courtesy of CBS

Front Page: Murder Suspect Ryan Jenkins Found Dead in Motel

TresSugar — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 06:00:34 -0700

Fugitive murder suspect and former reality contestant Ryan Jenkins was found dead in a motel in Canada in an apparent suicide. Jenkins was accused of killing his ex-wife. - AP
Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are considering promoting routine circumcision for all US-born boys as a method of HIV prevention. - New York Times
Greek firefighters are trying to control fires on two fronts, both approaching Athens. - Bloomberg
The US Justice Department has recommended reopening investigations into prisoner abuse allegations, potentially exposing CIA agents to prosecution. - Reuters

Front Page: Journalist Robert Novak Dies at 78

TresSugar — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 08:00:26 -0700

Robert Novak, the columnist and TV commentator who famously outed CIA operative Valerie Plame, died yesterday at age 78. - LA Times
The White House may use an obscure budget maneuver to pass healthcare bill without Republican backing. - CNN
A series of blasts in Baghdad killed at least 75 people and injured hundreds. - AP
Hurricane Bill became a category 4 storm but will likely veer away from the East Coast. - Miami Herald
A bikini-clad Britney Spears appeared on Letterman last night to read the top 10 reasons she'd make a good president. - MTV