The Iraq war was mounted on flawed intelligence, was executed with “wholly inadequate” planning, and ended “a long way from success,” according to a damning report released Wednesday by the head of Britain’s Iraq War inquiry.
Retired civil servant John Chilcot, who oversaw the seven-year inquiry, said “the U.K. chose to join the invasion of Iraq before the peaceful options for disarmament had been exhausted. Military action at that time was not a last resort.”
Scathing report in Britain slams Tony Blair over Iraq War
Chemists unveil cheaper, more efficient carbon capture technology
A team of scientists in England have found a better way to capture carbon from power plant emissions.
The key to their new and improved technique is patented carbon-derived biomass material called Starbons. Starbons, which was pioneered a decade ago by scientists at the University of York, is made using biomass waste like food peelings and seaweed. Its key attribute is its porosity. Lots of tiny holes allow Starbons to capture lots of CO2.
High Levels of Toxins Found in Bodies of People Living Near Fracking Sites
Many of the toxic chemicals escaping from fracking and natural gas processing sites and storage facilities may be present in much higher concentrations in the bodies of people living or working near such sites, new research has shown.
In a first-of-its-kind study combining air-monitoring methods with new biomonitoring techniques, researchers detected volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released from natural gas operations in Pavillion, Wyoming in the bodies of nearby residents at levels that were as much as 10 times that of the national averages.
File 17 is glimpse into still-secret 28 pages about 9/11
Amid the clamor a year ago to release 28 still-secret pages of a congressional inquiry into the Sept. 11 attacks, the government quietly declassified a little-known report listing more than three dozen people who piqued the interest of investigators probing possible Saudi connections to the hijackers.
The document, known as "File 17," offers clues to what might be in the missing pages of the bipartisan report about 9/11.
'Serial' podcast's Adnan Syed gets new trial in murder case
Adnan Syed, the convicted killer featured in the hit podcast Serial, was granted a new trial Thursday in the 1999 slaying of his former girlfriend.
Baltimore City Circuit Judge Martin Welch vacated Syed's conviction, saying his original attorney "fell below the standard of reasonable professional judgment." Syed's current attorney Justin Brown posted the news in all-caps on Twitter: "WE WON A NEW TRIAL FOR ADNAN SYED!!! #FreeAdnan"
CIA knew it had the wrong man, but kept him anyway
By January of 2004, when German citizen Khaleed al Masri arrived at the Central Intelligence Agency’s secret prison in Afghanistan, agency officials were pretty sure he wasn’t a terrorist. They also knew he didn’t know any terrorists, or much about anything in the world of international terror.
In short, they suspected they’d nabbed the wrong man.
Still, the agency continued to imprison and interrogate him, according to a recently released internal CIA report on Masri’s arrest. The report claims that Masri suffered no physical abuse during his wrongful imprisonment, though it acknowledges that for months he was kept in a “small cell with some clothing, bedding and a bucket for his waste.” Masri says he was tortured, specifically that a medical examination against his will constituted sodomy.
TVNL Comment: If nothing else, the CIA has been consistent in its criminality.
Pentagon lifts ban on transgender troops
Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced Thursday that the military will no longer discriminate against transgender troops, knocking down one of the last barriers to service based on sex.
The move, nearly a year in the making, came despite last-minute concerns were raised by top brass about how to deal with the medical, housing and uniform issues for troops who are transitioning to the other sex.
NASA reveals solar system Internet for interplanetary communication
A new system deployed by NASA is expected to help the development of an interplanatery space communications system that functions much like the Internet does on Earth.
NASA installed software on the International Space Station to make communication faster and easier, and it is expected to lead to an Internet system that may cover the entire solar system in the future, the agency announced.
Dems release parallel Benghazi report ahead of GOP
Democrats on the House Select Committee on Benghazi released their rebuttal to the Republican-led committee’s argument on Monday, before the GOP leaders published their own report.
The 339-page Democratic report aims to refute allegations expected to be made by Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) in what they have long claimed is a partisan witch hunt.
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