The horrendous attacks on Paris have an eerie resemblance to the events of Sept. 11, 2001, in that they seem to have caught everyone off guard.
Until perhaps Friday, the main perception among Western intelligence agencies and Washington policymakers has been that Islamic State poses “no immediate threat” to the United States or the West.
“Unlike Al Qaeda, ISIS is more interested in establishing a Caliphate and not so interested in attacking the West,” a retired CIA officer explained during a closed meeting at one of Washington’s think tanks. He was echoing a common sentiment, and insisted that “Al Qaeda remains the main threat.” Even U.S. President Barack Obama recently said with confidence that Islamic State was being “contained.”
Paris attacks: The West’s fatal misunderstanding of Islamic State
Hacker group Anonymous declares war on Islamic State
The hacker organization Anonymous on Monday declared itself at war with the Islamic State over attacks in Paris that killed at least 129 people.
In an unverified video posted on YouTube, an Anonymous spokesman, speaking French and wearing the group's signature Guy Fawkes mask, threatened IS -- also identified as Daesh, ISIS and ISIL.
Risk for child abuse increases after return from Army deployment
Children of U.S. Army soldiers may be at greater risk for abuse during the six months after a parent returns from deployment, and the risk increases for the children of soldiers deployed more than once, according to a new study.
The study was funded by the Defense Health Program to assess the abuse risk in Army families in order to develop support programs to prevent or deal with child maltreatment issues.
French high-speed train derailment due to 'excessive speed,' 10 dead
At least 10 people died and dozens were injured in the high-speed train derailment in Eckwersheim, France, that occurred during a test run on Saturday.The Train à Grande Vitesse, France's high-speed train service, locomotive derailed, caught fire and partly plunged into a canal due to "excessive speed," according to officials. Eckwersheim is near the eastern French city of Strasbourg, bordering Germany.
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Fracking Goes on Trial for Human Rights Violations
As convoys of heavy trucks carry fracking equipment into new oil fields in neighborhoods and wildlands around the world, an alliance of human rights organizations is making plans to put the entire practice of hydraulic fracturing on trial. The court is the Permanent People's Tribunal, a descendant of the Vietnam War-era International War Crimes Tribunal. The Peoples' Tribunal is a branch of no government on Earth. It has no power of enforcement. It has no army, no prison, no sheriff.
So what's the point?
The point is that it matters to tell the truth in a public place. It matters to affirm universal standards of right and wrong, to clearly say, "There are things that ethical people do not do to one another and to the Earth."
This is How AK-47s Get to Paris
France outlaws most gun ownership and it’s almost impossible to legally acquire a high-powered rifle such as an AK-47, so where did the weapons in the Nov. 13 terror attack—not to mention the bloody January assault by Islamic terrorists on the Paris office of Charlie Hebdo magazine and the 2012 shootings by a militant in Toulouse—come from?
The answer: Eastern Europe, most likely, where the trafficking of deadly small arms is big, shady business. And where local authorities find it difficult to intervene.
The oldest ever stars are hiding in the center of our galaxy
They might not look like much, but these blurry flickers of light - right there in the middle - are the oldest stars ever to be observed by the human eye.
Discovered by a team of astronomers at the Australian National University (ANU), these ancient stars were born when our Universe was a youthful 300 million years old.
"These pristine stars are among the oldest surviving stars in the Universe, and certainly the oldest stars we have ever seen," said Louise Howes, lead author of the study published in the latest issue of Nature.
Utah judge reverses his ruling on lesbian parents
A Utah judge has reversed his decision to move a baby from its lesbian foster parents and place it with a heterosexual couple.
Judge Scott Johansen had said it was for the eight-month-old girl's "well-being" that she be with heterosexual parents.
Officials from the Utah Division of Child and Family Services had said they would fight Mr Johansen's ruling. His prior decision spurred criticism across the country.
The child could have been taken from its parents, April Hoagland and Beckie Pierce, within a week.
How the Bush administration ignored this warning from the CIA months before 9/11
Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” The CIA’s famous Presidential Daily Brief, presented to George W. Bush on August 6, 2001, has always been Exhibit A in the case that his administration shrugged off warnings of an Al Qaeda attack. But months earlier, starting in the spring of 2001, the CIA repeatedly and urgently began to warn the White House that an attack was coming.
By May of 2001, says Cofer Black, then chief of the CIA’s counterterrorism center, “it was very evident that we were going to be struck, we were gonna be struck hard and lots of Americans were going to die.” “There were real plots being manifested,” Cofer’s former boss, George Tenet, told me in his first interview in eight years. “The world felt like it was on the edge of eruption. In this time period of June and July, the threat continues to rise.
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