Israel Considers Pre-Emptive Attack On Iran

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to rally support in his cabinet for an attack on Iran, according to government sources.

The country's defense minister Ehud Barak and the foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman are said to be among those backing a pre-emptive strike to neutralize Iran's nuclear ambitions.

But a narrow majority of ministers currently oppose the move, which could trigger a wave of regional retaliation.

The debate over possible Israeli military action has reached fever pitch in recent days with newspaper leader columns discussing the benefits and dangers of hitting Iran.

Mr Lieberman responded to the reports of a push to gain cabinet approval by saying that "Iran poses the most dangerous threat to world order."

But he said Israel's military options should not be a matter for public discussion.

The reactor at the Russian-built Bushehr nuclear power plant where Iran has began to unload fuel for the nuclear power plant

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is due to report on the state of Iran’s nuclear capabilities on November 8, and that assessment is likely to influence Israel’s decision.

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NWO revises its strategy for ending the Afghan war

WASH POST

The Obama administration has launched a revised strategy for Afghanistan that officials hope will lead to substantive negotiations with insurgents and regional support for a political end to the war.

The strategy is an attempt to fold disparate policy elements into a comprehensive package as the administration tries to fashion an exit that will not leave Afghanistan open to civil war or the reestablishment of terrorist bases.

Elements of the strategy already underway include escalation of military pressure on the Haqqani network of insurgents in eastern Afghanistan — along with an open door for the network, and other Taliban groups, to hold direct talks with the United States.

Pakistan, where the groups are based, has been offered a principal role in the negotiations in exchange for curtailing its support for them and helping bring them to the table, where the Afghan government will also have a seat.

Until recently, the administration insisted that substantive talks must be between the Afghans and the insurgents, with U.S. facilitation and Pakistani support. The new strategy, officials said, recognizes that talks are more likely to succeed with the direct participation of the four parties with the biggest stake in the outcome.

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Your credit may take a hit from unpaid traffic and parking tickets

WASH POST

Could the District use an additional $355 million? Would another $680 million help out cash-strapped New York City? How about $58 million more for Milwaukee, or $30 million for Detroit?

Those cities would reap millions if they could collect on unpaid traffic and parking tickets, according to information compiled by AAA. But in an era when speed cameras, red light cameras and high-tech parking meters have created multimillion-dollar municipal revenue streams, record numbers of tickets are going unpaid.

Now your credit score might take the hit if you’re one of the millions of scofflaws who thought you could shred that ticket summons with impunity.

Chevy Chase Village, whose speed cameras have generated thousands of tickets, is among the local jurisdictions that are turning over unpaid tickets to collection agencies. If those debt collectors get the stiff arm from motorists, the credit score that people rely on to get mortgages and car loans gets dinged.

“They can have a serious impact on your credit,” said Barry Paperno, spokesman for the credit service company Fair Isaac Corp., commonly called FICO.

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Sheriff: Fast and Furious Bigger Scandal Than Watergate

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu joined over two dozen Republican lawmakers in calling on Attorney General Eric Holder’s to resign over Operation Fast and Furious, the gunrunning program that saw the ATF deliver some 2,000 guns directly into the hands of Mexican drug gangs, labeling the scandal worse than the Watergate cover-up that brought down the Nixon White House.

Noting that two of the guns involved in the program were found at the scene where U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was shot to death, Babeu warned that if Holder attempted to stay in power, he could bring down the entire Obama administration.

“I thought it was a telling sign when President Obama embraced him and gave him the Al Capone hug and the Scarface whisper in the ear that I support you. He did this publicly. I thought, `Wow, this is his last hours here, that he’s on his way out,” Babeu told KTAR News.

Holder is set to testify once more on the subject in front of a Democratic-led Senate committee on November 8.

By no means for the first time, if Eric Holder repeats his dubious contention that Fast and Furious only came to his attention when it became public knowledge, he will be knowingly committing perjury.

The head of the Justice Department’s criminal division, Lanny A. Breuer, Holder’s subordinate who first learned of Fast and Furious in April 2010, sent Holder briefings concerning Fast and Furious in July 2010, almost a year before Holder told a Judiciary Committee hearing, “I’m not sure of the exact date, but I probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks.”

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Boston? Hot particles found at 2 out of 3 US monitoring stations — “There will be an increase in cancers, especially on the West Coast” says nuke expert

Scientist Marco Kaltofen Presents Data Confirming Hot Particles from Fairewinds Associates on Vimeo.

Regulators Investigating MF Global for Missing Money

Federal regulators have discovered that hundreds of millions of dollars in customer money has gone missing from MF Global in recent days, prompting an investigation into the brokerage firm, which is run by Jon S. Corzine, the former New Jersey governor, several people briefed on the matter said on Monday.

The recognition that money was missing scuttled at the 11th hour an agreement to sell a major part of MF Global to a rival brokerage firm. MF Global had staked its survival on completing the deal. Instead, the New York-based firm filed for bankruptcy on Monday.

Regulators are examining whether MF Global diverted some customer funds to support its own trades as the firm teetered on the brink of collapse.

The discovery that money could not be located might simply reflect sloppy internal controls at MF Global. It is still unclear where the money went. At first, as much as $950 million was believed to be missing, but as the firm sorted through its bankruptcy, that figure fell to less than $700 million by late Monday, the people briefed on the matter said. Additional funds are expected to trickle in over the coming days.

But the investigation, which is in its earliest stages, may uncover something more intentional and troubling.

In any case, what led to the unaccounted-for cash could violate a tenet of Wall Street regulation: Customers’ funds must be kept separate from company money. One of the basic duties of any brokerage firm is to keep track of customer accounts on a daily basis.

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Watchdog Finds S.E.C. Erred in Destroying Records

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The Securities and Exchange Commission’s internal watchdog has found that regulators should not have destroyed records related to closed preliminary probes, but that the practice did not appear to hamper any investigations.

The report Tuesday by the S.E.C. inspector general, David Kotz, comes in response to a complaint his office received from Darcy Flynn, an agency staff member turned whistleblower who claimed that the S.E.C.’s enforcement division wrongfully destroyed preliminary investigative records over the course of two decades.

Mr. Kotz’s report found that while the S.E.C. should not have destroyed the records in question, there was no evidence of any “improper motive” behind the policy and no investigations were harmed by it.

Ron Paul 2012: Imagine for a moment

Super Committee Going After Your Social Security? That Was the Point

It was clear from the inception of the deficit reduction Super Committee that it was designed for the purpose of cutting entitlements, especially Social Security benefits. The Super Committee proposal was given the same protection from a filibuster as debate on a reconciliation bill, but the Super Committee proposal is not subject to the same Byrd Rule (PDF) that prevents the Senate from using reconciliation to fast track Social Security cuts. The procedural rules governing the Super Committee couldn’t have been more purposely designed to make cutting Social Security as easy as procedurally possible.

So the latest report confirming that the members of the Super Committee are actively trying to cut your Social Security benefits isn’t surprising. From Politico:

As a critical deadline for the supercommittee nears, Social Security appears to be on the negotiating table.

In private conversations, and now in public, the idea of changing the social program as part of a deficit-reduction deal is gaining some traction — a move that has been politically unthinkable for years.

[...]

This is on top of proposals inside the panel. Last week saw a slew of plans put forth by Democrats and Republicans on the supercommittee. Democrats unveiled a plan that would cut the deficit by roughly $3 trillion, which was declared not “serious” by Republicans because of $1.3 trillion in new tax-based revenue — their plan did include changes to Social Security. Republicans rolled out a $2.2 trillion plan, which generates $640 billion in nontax revenue. Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) have discussed a $1.2 trillion plan, and changes to Social Security alongside it could show they are reaching for a broader scope.

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Rogue U.S. army unit leader saw Afghans as ‘savages’

JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Washington — The ringleader of a rogue US army unit accused of killing Afghan civilians for sport treated the locals like “savages,” a court martial heard Monday.

The so-called “kill team” led by Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs was “out of control,” prosecutors added as grisly photos of soldiers posing with a corpse were shown in court.

Gibbs faces life in prison if convicted on charges including three counts of premeditated murder, in a scandal that has threatened Abu Ghraib-style embarrassment for the US military.

Gibbs, the fourth member of the rogue unit to face court martial, is accused of staging killings between January and May 2010 to make them look like legitimate combat casualties.

Jeremy Morlock, described as Gibbs’ “right hand man,” said his 26-year-old former boss had frequent conversations about “drop weapons,” or weapons found on the battlefield which could be planted on a body.

“He had a general disdain for Afghans, and called them savages,” Morlock — who agreed to testify against Gibbs as part of a deal in which he pled guilty in March — told the court martial, expected to last a week.

Morlock told how Gibbs took over the platoon, stationed in volatile Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan, in November 2009, after its previous leader suffered serious injuries in a roadside bomb attack.

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Iran demands apology from US over Saudi ambassador 'assassination plot'

Iran has raised the stakes in its row with the US over the alleged plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to Washington by demanding an official apology from the Obama administration over the claim that Tehran was responsible.

The Swiss embassy in Tehran, which hosts the US interests section in the Islamic republic, passed a letter from the Iranian government to US officials on Friday outlining Iran's formal complaint over accusations that military factions inside the regime were directly linked to the alleged plot.

"In a recent letter to the US government, Iran has insisted that American authorities must publicly apologise to the Iranian government and its citizens for the false accusations they publicised against Tehran in violation of international norms and regulations," Iran's state-run Press TV reported.

US officials claimed to have uncovered an Iranian plot to assassinate Adel al-Jubeir in a sting operation involving the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The US said Iran was attempting to hire a member of a Mexican drug cartel to carry out the killing but failed because the gang member was actually a US informant.

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The Man Nobody Knew (CIA Documentary 2011) - Official Trailer [HD]

Greece throws euro bailout into fresh crisis

The Greek prime minister, George Papandreou, stunned Europe's leaders on Monday after he proposed that his country should hold a referendum on the landmark European debt deal reached last week.

A Greek vote against the deal could scupper weeks of negotiations over how to rescue the country's economy and prevent a debt crisis to match the Lehman Brothers crash of three years ago.

Stock markets, which have rallied in recent weeks after a sustainable deal looked more likely, reacted immediately to the news with a sell-off of shares. In New York, the Dow Jones index of leading companies fell sharply as Papandreou's plan was revealed. The euro fell 2% against the dollar and the US Volatility index – the so-called "index of fear" – climbed 22%, its biggest one-day rise since mid-August.

Papandreou gave no date or other details of the proposed referendum, though the interior minister, Haris Kastinidis, said it would most likely be in January.

Last week, under intense pressure from global leaders fearful of the repercussions of Europe's mounting debt crisis, eurozone members agreed to cut Athens's debts by 50% and provide €130bn (£112bn) in additional rescue loans to supplement a bailout fund put together with the International Monetary Fund last year.

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100,000 Rally Against Pakistan's US Alliance

A popular but largely powerless politician for years, former cricket star and Tehreek-e Insaf leader Imran Khan has parlayed his long-standing opposition to US drone strikes into a massive rally today on the streets of Lahore, where some 100,000 demonstrators marched to condemn the current US alliance and the Zardari government.

“Our leaders owned this war on terror for the sake of dollars,” Khan declared, “let me curse you. You sold out the blood of innocent people.” The ruling Pakistani Peoples Party (PPP) condemned Khan, saying it made “no sense” to call for public protests and civil disobedience when the country’s “democratic institutions are functioning independently.”

Khan’s call appears to have found some new currency with the Pakistani public, however, and that is something new for his party, whose platform centers around tackling corruption and reducing the power the nation’s security forces have over ordinary citizens.

Khan concedes that in many ways the rally is an effort to build up his party, saying that given the backroom deals and powerful dynasties inherent in the Pakistani political system the Tehreek-e Insaf was “never going to win the traditional way.”

But with US missiles falling on Pakistani soil on almost a daily basis, the Tehreek-e Insaf has a built-in issue that resonates across much of the nation, and while both the ruling Zardari government and the major opposition faction of Nawaz Sharif have given lip-service to calling for an end to US drone strikes, neither seems to be willing to force the issue with the Obama Administration, unsurprising since Pakistan’s current economic system depends largely on foreign aid.

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Bill Black: What I'd Demand of the Fed

Lies Behind Lies Behind the "Humanitarian War" in Libya

Occupy protesters clash with police in Denver and Portland

Violent clashes between Occupy protesters and police broke out in Denver, Colorado, and Portland, Oregon, over the weekend.

Police arrested 20 people and fired pepper spray and pepper balls as they moved to tear down tents set up by Occupy Denver demonstrators on Saturday. Amid angry scenes, two protesters were held on felony charges after police said an officer was knocked off his motorcycle and other officers were kicked.

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Two Controversies Threaten to Derail Obama’s Re-Election Bid

With the controversies over Solyndra and Fast and Furious showing no signs of going away anytime soon, President Obama faces an uphill battle of staying focused on winning re-election next November.

The White House announced Friday that it has ordered a review of the Energy Department’s loan guarantee program as multiple investigations swirl over Solyndra, the California-based solar company that went bankrupt after receiving a $528 million federal loan.

And at least eight Republican lawmakers are calling on Attorney General Eric Holder to resign over the botched federal gun-trafficking program known as Fast and Furious.

The developments come as Obama tries to convince voters that his top priority is turning the economy around and that he deserves a second term despite his low approval ratings.

Obama’s $447 jobs bill failed to advance in the Senate and now he is trying to get Congress to pass the package piece by piece. But the first piece, a $35 billion bill to help local governments keep teachers on the job and pay the salaries of police and firefighters, has stalled in the Senate.

Obama has begun bypassing Congress and taking steps on his own through executive actions that he says will encourage economic growth. On Friday, he directed government agencies to shorten the time it takes for federal research to turn into commercial products in the marketplace. The goal is to help startup companies and small businesses create jobs and expand their operations more quickly.

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Google Censors War Crimes Video

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Obama to Leno: Libya a recipe for success