Friday, Dec 26th
Last update07:57:20 AM GMT
The Department of Transportation is expected later this morning to announce a ban on texting by truck and bus drivers while operating their vehicles.
When the Pentagon's internal think tank decided in 2004 it needed a better understanding of Al Qaeda, it turned to an unlikely source: the terrorism analyst Laurie Mylroie, who was known as the chief purveyor of the discredited idea that Saddam Hussein was behind Sept. 11 and many other attacks carried out by Al Qaeda.
Mylroie was paid roughly $75,000 to produce a 300-page study, "The History of Al Qaida," for the Defense Department think tank, known as the Office of Net Assessment, a DOD spokesman tells us.
A Haaretz probe reveals that while the number of checkpoints with a consistent Israel Defense Forces presence has indeed dropped, the army has been positioning more roadblocks with only sporadic supervision on an operational basis.
This phenomenon is true not only along the Green Line, but also near major cities in the northern West Bank - including Ramallah, Nablus and Tul Karm. Many of the roadblocks that made it impossible for Palestinians to conduct normal lifestyles over the course of the Intifada have indeed been dismantled.
Afghanistan's renewed efforts for reconciliation with the Taliban have the backing of the US and Europe, Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, has said. Karzai's plans, scheduled to be discussed at a conference in London on Thursday, include reintegrating Taliban fighters into society by paying and resettling them if they lay down their weapons.
Karzai said his government had tried many times in the past to find ways of rehabilitating Taliban fighters who were not part of al-Qaeda, but had previously not had the support of its international partners.
For nearly $4.5 million a year, the State Department in June assigned a 16-person security detail to protect six U.S. contractors in Iraq who already had a team of hired guards they didn't really need.
The expensive miscue is one of many described in an audit issued Monday of a $2.5 billion State Department contract with DynCorp International for training Iraq's police force. The department repeatedly failed to oversee the contract properly, according to the audit by the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.
Believers take water from churches on January 19. The Orthodox Church celebrates the baptism of Christ, or Epiphany, when water is believed to become holy and have healing properties. The water sanctified in churches is often stored by believers for long periods.
Many believe any water, even from the taps from the kitchen sink, poured or bottled by Christians on Epiphany becomes holy.
TVNL Comment: How do people believe in this silliness? The water becomes "holy?" Are humans that simple minded as to believe in these fairy tales?
The allegation of the Vatican bank's financial corruption has been made by an Italian magazine that pointed to the financial institute's purported involvement in stealth fiscal transactions —via several accounts —with Italy's UniCredit Bank, Russia Today television network quoted the Panorama magazine as reporting.
“This corruption is continuing on a regular basis in the Vatican,” claimed Janathan Levy, a lawyer familiar with the bank.
In my studies over the past 30 years, I have learned much about you and your actions. I also know you and your colleagues are getting desperate.
Witness the events over the past nine years: false-flag 9/11 attacks; illegal passing of The Patriot Act; establishment of the Department of Homeland Security, a modern-day Gestapo; establishment of the Transportation Security Administration; false-flag attack by the Detroit bomber, which led to the great push of installing of full-body scanners in airports and which will be introduced in all transportation hubs and ports, plus major centers of public foot traffic.
Relevant questions begging for answers include: Who made the decision not to "connect the dots"? Are right-wing elements and holdovers from the previous administration actively conspiring to destabilize the Obama government? Was the attempted bombing a planned provocation meant to incite new conflicts in the Middle East and restrict democratic rights at home?
As with the 9/11 attacks, these questions go unasked by corporate media. Indeed, such lines of inquiry are entirely off the table and are further signs that a cover-up is in full-swing, not a hard-hitting investigation.
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