Accused Anonymous hacker Jeremy Hammond to be arraigned in NYC Posted by Legitgov 14 May 2012 Jeremy Hammond, accused Anonymous hacker, will be arraigned on Monday, May 14, 2012, at 12:00 PM - U.S. Courthouse, 500 Pearl Street in Lower Manhattan Courtroom 12A --Chief Judge Loretta A. Preska, Southern District of New York. The United States of America versus Jeremy Hammond --Jeremy Hammond is a 27-year-old political activist from Chicago, Illinois. He is currently incarcerated at the federal jail in New York City, charged with hacking conspiracies carried out by the LulzSec/AntiSec wing of Anonymous. His four co-defendants, Ryan Ackroyd, Jake Davis, Darren Martyn and Donncha O'Cearrbhail, are awaiting extradition from Britain and Ireland. [Free Jeremy Hammond!]

Terrorism at NATO summit viewed as improbable, not impossible --FBI quietly on alert: 'Chicago has become a more high-profile [false flag] target, we all know that' 11 May 2012 ...Although experts call a coordinated attack on the summit very unlikely, signs of the care being taken to prevent a large-scale incident are there in the transportation plans released to the public in advance of the May 20-21 summit. The airspace over downtown will be closed; Burnham Harbor will be cleared of boats; and strips of the Stevenson Expressway and Lake Shore Drive that run near the summit site of McCormick Place convention center will be shut, helping to ensure vehicles don't get too close.

F-16 jets intercept small plane as Obama leaves Los Angeles --Pilot was detained by police until Secret Service Agents arrived 13 May 2012 Two F-16 fighter jets intercepted a small private plane that violated restricted airspace Friday as President Barack Obama was about to depart from Los Angeles International Airport aboard Air Force One, authorities said. The North American Aerospace Defense Command scrambled the two jets that intercepted the Piper 28 aircraft over northeast Los Angeles at approximately 9:45 a.m. PDT, and followed it until it landed about five minutes later and was met by local law enforcement, NORAD said in a statement.

Metra unveils tough rules for NATO weekend 11 May 2012 Metra Friday announced special security precautions that will be in effect during next weekend's NATO summit. And though most services will operate, there will be sharp and sometimes inconvenient restrictions, particularly on Monday, May 21... Passengers on all lines may be subject to search and/or screening before boarding or while en route, Metra said in a briefing that's still continuing. Riders will be able to carry only one bag, not exceeding 15 inches square and 4 inches deep. Boxes, parcels, luggage, backpacks and bicycles will not be allowed on any train and cannot be stored at Metra stations. Passengers will not be allowed to carry any food or liquids on the trains during the three days, including coffee.

U.S. May Scrap Costly Efforts to Train Iraqi Police --Since 2003, the American government has US taxpayers have spent nearly $8 billion training the Iraqi police. 13 May 2012 In the face of spiraling costs and Iraqi officials who say they never wanted it in the first place, the State Department has slashed - and may jettison entirely by the end of the year - a multibillion-dollar 'police training program' that was to have been the centerpiece of a hugely expanded civilian mission here. The 'training' effort, which began in October and has already cost $500 million, was conceived of as the largest component of a 'mission' billed as the most ambitious American aid effort since the Marshall Plan. [$8 billion spent pretending to train Iraqi police -- aka one big bl*wjob for US mercenaries -- but we can't get single-payer health care. Notice that there were no hypocritical sociopaths whining about the deficit when Bush was exploding it? Start reading.]

Roadside bomb kills 4 policemen in northwestern Afghanistan 12 May 2012 Four policemen have been killed by a roadside bomb in Badghis province, which is located 555 kilometers (344 kilometers) northwest of the Afghan capital Kabul. Provincial governor's spokesman Sharafudin Majedi said that a police pick-up truck hit a roadside bomb planted by militants in the Qadis district of the province on Saturday. "Unfortunately, all four policemen onboard were killed," he added.

Afghan police kill two British soldiers in Helmand 13 May 2012 Members of the Afghan national police force have shot dead two British soldiers in the troubled Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan. On Sunday, the British Ministry of Defense confirmed that the soldiers were killed on Saturday by two Afghan police forces at a military base in the southern city of Lashkar Gah. A statement by the ministry says that one of the soldiers was with the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards, while the second was an airman from the Royal Air Force.

U.S. Military Taught Officers: Use 'Hiroshima' Tactics for 'Total War' on Islam 10 May 2012 The U.S. military taught its future leaders that a "total war" against the world's 1.4 billion Muslims would be necessary to protect America from Islamic terrorists, according to documents obtained by Danger Room. Among the options considered for that conflict: using the lessons of "Hiroshima" to wipe out whole cities at once, targeting the "civilian population wherever necessary." The course, first reported by Danger Room last month and held at the Defense Department's Joint Forces Staff College, has since been canceled by the Pentagon brass. Lt. Col. Matthew A. Dooley's Joint Staff Forces College presentation on 'A Counter-Jihad Op Design Model' calls for violent measures in a war against Islam.

Game Over for the Climate By James Hansen 10 May 2012 Global warming isn't a prediction. It is happening. That is why I was so troubled to read a recent interview with President Obama in Rolling Stone in which he said that Canada would exploit the oil in its vast tar sands reserves "regardless of what we do." If Canada proceeds, and we do nothing, it will be game over for the climate. Canada's tar sands, deposits of sand saturated with bitumen, contain twice the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by global oil use in our entire history. If we were to fully exploit this new oil source, and continue to burn our conventional oil, gas and coal supplies, concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere eventually would reach levels higher than in the Pliocene era, more than 2.5 million years ago, when sea level was at least 50 feet higher than it is now.

Symbolic court finds Bush, Cheney guilty of war crimes [Great! Now lets move the tribunal from symbolic to actual. And, add Obusha -- for killer drone war crimes and for signing NDAA.] 12 May 2012 George W. Bush and several other members of his regime have been found guilty of war crimes by the Kuala Lumpur Foundation to Criminalise War. In a unanimous vote on Saturday the symbolic Malaysian war crimes tribunal, part of an initiative by former Malaysian premier Mahathir Mohamad, found the former US President guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Seven of his former political associates henchmen, including former Vice President [sic] Dick Cheney and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, were also found guilty of war crimes and torture.

Occupy Tents Pitched Outside Bank of England 12 May 2012 Eleven people have been arrested after anti-capitalism protesters from the Occupy movement pitched tents outside the Bank of England. They have been given a deadline to leave the site and are currently considering whether to defy the police orders. The protest by some 300 demonstrators in the City of London with banners saying "Bank of England is the St Paul's of Money" and "A Line of Tents Guards Our Future" started with a rally yards away from the Stock Exchange near St Paul's Cathedral.

US spy agency can keep mum on Google ties: court 11 May 2012 The top-secret US National Security Agency is not required to reveal any deal it may have with Google to help protect against cyber attacks, an appeals court ruled Friday. The US Court of Appeals in Washington upheld a lower court decision that said the NSA need not confirm or deny any relationship with Google, because its governing statutes allow it keep such information secret. The ruling came in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from a public interest group, which said the public has a right to know about any spying on citizens.

30,000 police march through London in protest over cuts 10 May 2012 More than 30,000 officers from all over the country marched through the capital in the only action they are legally entitled to take, in a show of defiance against police reforms and budget cuts. To reflect the number of officer numbers expected to be cut, 16,000 of the marchers wore black baseball caps as they walked from Millbank, past the Home Office to Parliament Square and onto Waterloo Place. The Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers, said the sea of black caps showed the number of officers the public will lose over four years as a result of the cuts.

House Votes to Cut Census Survey Done Since Thomas Jefferson 09 May 2012 The House voted Wednesday to eliminate the detailed surveys of America that have been conducted by the Census Bureau since the nation's earliest days. House Republicans, increasingly suspicious of the census generally, advanced a measure to cut the American Community Survey. It passed 232 to 190. The survey is not part of the constitutionally mandated population count, but some version of it has been done by law as part of the decennial survey since the time of Thomas Jefferson to assess the needs of the nation.

False flag alert: More than 100 homes evacuated as bomb disposal experts carry out four controlled explosions after two terror arrests --Officers found explosives in a garage after searching two homes in the Cheltenham area --Substances found just 1/2 a mile from government spy base GCHQ [Gee, I wonder where the explosives came from?] 12 May 2012 More than 100 homes have been evacuated as bomb disposal experts carried out four controlled explosions yesterday morning. Two men were arrested on terrorism charges following the discovery of suspected explosives in a garage during raids on two properties in Cheltenham, according to police. Officers arrested a 52-year-old man from the Hester's Way area under the Explosive Substances Act.

In film, Walker talks of 'divide and conquer' union strategy 10 May 2012 A filmmaker released a video Thursday that shows Gov. [sociopath] Scott Walker saying he would use "divide and conquer" as a strategy against unions. Walker made the comments to Beloit billionaire Diane Hendricks, who has since given $510,000 to the governor's campaign - making her Walker's single-largest donor and the largest known donor to a candidate in state history. In the video shot on Jan. 18, 2011 - shortly before Walker's controversial budget-repair destruction bill was introduced and spawned mass protests - Hendricks asked the governor whether he could make Wisconsin a "completely red state, and work on these unions, and become a right-to-work" state. Walker replied that his "first step" would be "to divide and conquer" through his budget-adjustment bill, which curtailed most collective bargaining for most public employee unions.

Muslim Americans challenge 'no fly' list in appeals court 11 May 2012 Lawyers for 15 Muslims in the United States placed on a U.S. "no-fly" list barring them from commercial air travel asked a federal appeals court on Friday to reinstate their constitutional challenge of the anti-terrorism measure. The plaintiffs, who are U.S. citizens or permanent legal residents, said they learned of their "no-fly" status when they were blocked from boarding a commercial flight without prior notice, and were later denied any effective means of petitioning the government to be removed from the list. The group originally filed its lawsuit against the U.S. government in June 2010.

Hezbollah says able to strike anywhere in Israel 11 May 2012 The leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah said his militant group was capable of striking any target in neighboring Israel, saying "the days when we fled and they did not are over". "Today we are not only able to hit Tel Aviv as a city but, God willing, we are able to hit specific targets in Tel Aviv and anywhere in occupied Palestine," Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised address. "For every building destroyed in Dahiya, a building will be destroyed in Tel Aviv," he said, referring to Hezbollah's stronghold in a suburb of southern Beirut.

US pledges to go ahead with missile shield plan in Europe 11 May 2012 Objections from Russia notwithstanding, the US has said that it along with NATO would go ahead with a European missile defence programme. The United States and NATO have been wanting to launch a missile shield in Europe by 2020 to counter threats from "rogue" states like Iran. But Russia has been objecting on the grounds that it poses threat to its national security. Moscow wants a written guarantees from NATO that it will not be used against Russia's strategic nuclear deterrent. [But, who is going to counter threats from 'rogue' states such as the US and Israel?]

2,300 birds found dead along Chilean beaches 12 May 2012 Chilean officials are asking fishermen to help save birds caught in nets after thousands of dead fowl appeared along coastal Chile this week. At least 2,300 dead birds were found along beaches between Cartagena and Playa de Santo Domingo, Chile, said Jose Luis Britos, and environment professor and director of the Museum of Natural History of San Antonio, Chile. One hypothesis for the increase this year involves climate... Earlier this week, Peruvian authorities say warm waters off that country's coast are to blame for the deaths of more than 5,000 marine birds.