The CIA’s mission, officials said, has been defined by the White House’s desire to seek a political settlement, a scenario that relies on an eventual stalemate among the warring factions rather than a clear victor. As a result, officials said, limits on the agency’s authorities enable it to provide enough support to help ensure that politically moderate, U.S.-supported militias don’t lose but not enough for them to win…..
Nuclear Engineer: Japan’s PM “Lying to the Japanese People” About Safety of Fukushima
Nuclear Engineer: Japan’s PM “Lying to the Japanese People” About Safety of Fukushima.
Arnie Gundersen has over 40-years of nuclear power engineering experience. He attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) where he earned his Bachelor Degree cum laude while also becoming the recipient of a prestigious Atomic Energy Commission Fellowship for his Master Degree in nuclear engineering. Arnie holds a nuclear safety patent, was a licensed reactor operator, and is a former nuclear industry senior vice president. During his nuclear power industry career, Arnie also managed and coordinated projects at 70-nuclear power plants in the US.
Transcript
JESSICA DESVARIEUX, TRNN PRODUCER: Welcome to The Real News Network. I’m Jessica Desvarieux in Baltimore.
On the heels of Tokyo winning the bid for the 2020 Olympic Games, Japan’s prime minister visited the Fukushima site for the first time since the nuclear disaster in March 2011.
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SHINZŌ ABE, JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER (VOICEOVER TRANSL.): I have visited Fukushima because I also told the world earlier in Buenos Aires that there will be no health concerns and that there is nothing to worry about.
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DESVARIEUX: Now joining us to discuss the unfolding of the events at Fukushima is Arnie Gunderson. He has over 40 years of nuclear power engineering experience. And Arnie holds a nuclear safety patent. He was a licensed reactor operator and is a former nuclear industry senior vice president…..
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- Former US nuclear safety chief says Japan acted too slowly on Fukushima water leaks (japandailypress.com)
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Our Oil Problems are Not Over! | Our Finite World
Our Oil Problems are Not Over! | Our Finite World. (FULL ARTICLE)
If a person reads US newspapers, it is easy to get the impression that all of the world’s oil problems are over. But this is not really the case.
An Overlooked Part of the Problem: High Oil Prices
A major piece of the world’s oil problem is high price. Prices continue to be far above historic levels, now in 2013.
Figure 1. World oil price (Brent equivalent) in 2011$, based on BP 2013 Statistical Review of World Energy data.
High oil prices disrupt economies around the world because when oil prices rise, the wages of the vast majority of workers do not rise to compensate. Workers find that they need to adjust their spending patterns because the higher price of oil leads to higher prices for many things, including the cost of commuting, the cost of food, and the cost of buying goods that have been shipped long distance.
When workers adjust their spending patterns, discretionary spending is cut. This leads to patterns we associate with recession, or perhaps just slow growth. Unemployment rises, and there is less demand for new homes and cars…..
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When Ephemeralization is Hard to Tell from Catabolic Collapse
When Ephemeralization is Hard to Tell from Catabolic Collapse. (FULL ARTICLE)
My main problem with the Jared Diamond/John Michael Greer/Jim Kunstler theory of “catabolic collapse” is that it ignores one of the most central distinguishing characteristics of our technology: ephemerality.
Thanks to technological change, over the past few decades the capital-intensiveness of emerging successor infrastructures has been collapsing faster than the existing infrastructure itself. The classic example, from Buckminster Fuller, is replacing a transoceanic cable system emdodying God only knows how many thousand tons of metal with a few dozen communications satellites weighing a few tons each.
It’s quite true that the mass-production industrial civilization that peaked in the 20th century is falling into ruin, failing to invest in upkeep at sustainable levels, and generally eating its seed corn — just as happened with Rome. The difference is, the Interstate Highway System, the civil aviation infrastructure, and the old electrical grid aren’t something to mourn. They’re something that would decay anyway, because they’re increasingly irrelevant to the kinds of production technology and economic organization the emerging successor society will be based on…..
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Video shows Egypt generals plotting media gag – Middle East – Al Jazeera English
Video shows Egypt generals plotting media gag – Middle East – Al Jazeera English. (FULL ARTICLE)
A new video has emerged which appears to show Egypt’s military generals deciding how to deal with the country’s media.
The footage, released by activists on Wednesday, shows army chief General Abdel Fatah el-Sisi addressing senior officers of the army in the months before Mohamed Morsi was ousted from power.
Once a minister of defence in Morsi’s government, Sisi played a leading role in the July 2013 military coup against the Muslim Brotherhood-backed president.
The new recording starts with an officer urging Sisi to find a way to frighten journalists from criticising the army.
| “It takes a long time before you’re able to affect and control the media. We are working on this and we are achieving more positive results but we are yet to achieve what we want.”Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Egypt’s army chief |
“We must re-establish red lines for the media. We need to find a new way of neutralising them, the media in Egypt is controlled by 20 or 25 people,” the officer is heard saying in the footage.
“We should engage with these people directly and individually either terrorise them or win them over,“ he adds.
Sisi then interrupts the officer and says: “I know how to win them over, but tell me how do you suggest I terrorise them?”…
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CIA ramping up covert training program for moderate Syrian rebels – The Washington Post
CIA ramping up covert training program for moderate Syrian rebels – The Washington Post. (FULL ARTICLE)
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- CIA Helping Syrian Rebels with Arms Delivery, Including Machine Guns (theepochtimes.com)
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Chief DHS Privacy Officer: Government Called Privacy Office “Terrorists” | Zero Hedge
Chief DHS Privacy Officer: Government Called Privacy Office “Terrorists” | Zero Hedge. (FULL ARTICLE)
Wall Street Journal reporter Jennifer Valentino tweets:
Former DHS Privacy Officer Mary Ellen Callahan: DHS Privacy Office was accused monthly of being “terrorists” by DHS, IC
“DHS” stands for the Department of Homeland Security; “IC” stands for the intelligence community.
This is not an isolated or melodramatic statement. Rather, it is how the homeland security and intelligence communities look at privacy.
For example, former NSA and CIA boss Michael Haydencompared privacy advocates to terrorists:
“If and when our government grabs Edward Snowden, and brings him back here to the United States for trial, what does this group do?” said retired air force general Michael Hayden, who from 1999 to 2009 ran the NSA and then the CIA, referring to “nihilists, anarchists, activists, Lulzsec, Anonymous, twentysomethings who haven’t talked to the opposite sex in five or six years”…..
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- Speaking of releasing government documents… (terrortrials.blogspot.com)
- Who Wants to Be NSA’s First Civil Liberties and Privacy Officer? (animalnewyork.com)
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Bankers Warn Obama, Don’t Mess With The Debt Ceiling (Again) | Zero Hedge
Bankers Warn Obama, Don’t Mess With The Debt Ceiling (Again) | Zero Hedge. (FULL ARTICLE)
15 Bankers just paid a visit to the White House, listened to President Obama, and explained what a total disaster it would be if the US debt-ceiling is breached and Treasuries technically default. While the politicians exclaimed how bad a government shutdown would be, the banks have turned the panic dial to 11 as Goldman’s Lloyd Blankfein noted, bankers are “in a position to really know early what the consequences are,” and it would be catastrophic. The irony that the firm which the government is trying to fine $20 billion for selling fraudulent debt and giving bad advice is now providing the same government with advice on its own bad debt, is not lost on us as Dimon was among the visitors but it is Blankfein’s warning, echoing Obama, that will get the headlines, “they shouldn’t use the threat of causing the U.S. to fail on its obligation to repay debt as a cudgel.”…..
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- Krauthammer’s Take: Real Threat to Obama Lies With Debt Ceiling (nationalreview.com)
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Russian Embassy In Libya Attacked | Zero Hedge
Russian Embassy In Libya Attacked | Zero Hedge.
First it was the Americans. Now it is the Russians’ turn. Al Arabiya reports (and Itar-Tass confirms) that “Gunmen attacked the Russian embassy in the Libyan capital Tripoli on Wednesday, Al Arabiya correspondent reported. The sound of gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades could be heard around the embassy, the correspondent added. No further details were immediately available.” According to unverified reports on Twitter, the embassy had been evacuated before the attack (the Russian NSA appears to be more efficient than its US equivalent).
The Russian embassy in Tripoli:
The Russian embassy in Tripoli, Libya, has come under fire and there were attempts to get into Russia’s diplomatic compound, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement….
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- Russian Embassy in Libya comes under fire, attack repelled (news.yahoo.com)
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Iran’s Cyber Warfare Commander Assassinated | Zero Hedge
Iran’s Cyber Warfare Commander Assassinated | Zero Hedge.
Mere days after the US and Iran showed very tentative signs of some diplomatic progress being possible (and hours afterNetanyahu’s “Rouhani’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing” comments), The Telegraph reports that Mojtaba Ahmadi, who served as commander of the Cyber War Headquarters for Iran, was found dead (with two bullets to the heart) in a wooded area north-west of Tehran. This follows the assassination of five Iranian nuclear scientists and the country’s ballistic missile program head since 2007 – all blamed on Israel’s Mossad. An eyewitness said two people on a motorbike had been involved and “the extent of the injuries indicated he had been assassinated from close range.” Western officials (the ‘essential’ ones) said the information was still being assessed.
Mojtaba Ahmadi, who served as commander of the Cyber War Headquarters, was found dead in a wooded area near the town of Karaj, north-west of the capital, Tehran…
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Olduvaiblog: Musings on the coming collapse 