Month: December 2014

The US must not miss the opening right before us for agreements with Iran that would bring economic benefits to both nations. Such a partnership seems possible because the nuclear negotiations have been extended, and Iran is in compliance with dramatic demands for intrusive inspections by beefed up U.N. inspection teams.

The greatest benefit so far to the U.S. and Iran is that negotiations have forestalled military action advocated by hawks, which could have sparked a regional war. The US has far more to gain with Iran as an ally than an adversary.

Iran’s population of 60 million people is a huge untapped market that is not yet open to US businesses, although European industries are moving in to establish trade. America’s ranchers and farmers would benefit from trade with Iran, because that country will buy meat and wheat, as well as other products common in our society.

Continue reading “Benefits of a US-Iran Partnership”

The nuclear age gave way to a fascination in the 1950’s with space aliens, leading to the creation of Project BLUE BOOK by the Air Force to track the soaring number of UFO sightings being reported nationwide.

The CIA is now admitting that they were actually to blame for the vast majority of such sightings, confirming in a report on the U-2 spy planes that test flights over the US coincided with the mania.

The report explained that the U-2 planes flew much higher than conventional aircraft of the time, and indeed higher than most believed was theoretically possible.

“During the daylight hours, the silver bodies of the high-flying U-2s could catch the sun and cause reflections or glints that could be seen at lower altitudes and even on the ground,” the report explained, adding that the silver bodies of the planes appeared “fiery” when they caught the sun.

The phenomenon was so common that Project BLUE BOOK regularly checked with the CIA on UFO sightings, finding the bulk of them to be explainable by the U-2 flights. Into thje 1960s, when the CIA began the OXCART program to find the successor to the U-2, a similar flurry of sightings happened. The programs were secret, however, so the Air Force could not tell reportees of their findings.

Sen. Mark Udall has called for the full release of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on torture. However, as a still-sitting member of Congress, he has a constitutional protection to read most of the still-secret report on the Senate floor – and a group of intelligence veterans urges him to do just that

MEMORANDUM FOR: Senator Mark Udall
FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)
SUBJECT: Stopping Torture

We, the undersigned are veteran intelligence officers with a combined total of over 300 years of experience in intelligence work. We send you this open letter at what seems to be the last minute simply because we had been hoping we would not have to.

You seem on the verge of leaving the Senate without letting your fellow Americans know all they need to know about CIA torture. In the eight weeks since you lost your Senate seat you gave off signs that, during your last days in office, you would provide us with a fuller account of this sordid chapter in our country’s history, exercising your right to immunity under the “Speech or Debate” clause in Article 1 of the Constitution.

Your rhetoric against torture and in defense of the Constitution has been strong, but we now sense a white flag beneath it. We fear you intend to silently steal away, and thus deny the American people their last best chance to learn what they need to know about the record of CIA torture.

Continue reading “Mark Udall Urged To Disclose Full Torture Report”

In a weekend interview with the Magyar Hirlap, Hungarian Parliament Speaker Laszlo Kover, a top figure of the ruling Fidesz Party, has accused the United States of plotting to create a new Liberal party to replace the defunct SZDSZ and try to force the next Hungarian coalition government to exclude the nationalist Jobbik party.

Kover’s allegations come in the wake of Sen. John McCain (R – AZ) accusing Fidesz leader and Hungarian Premier Victor Orban of being “anti-democratic” and claiming Hungary was about to install a “neo-fascist dictator” who would be “in bed with Vladimir Putin.” Kover had complained loudly about McCain’s allegations.

Fidesz and the Christian Democrats presently hold a two-thirds majority in Hungary’s parliament, and both are strongly conservative. The main minority bloc is dominated by Socialists and Social Democrats, while the nationalist Jobbik Party is an increasingly popular third bloc.

Kover’s theory is that the US is so desperate to see Jobbik excluded from a coalition in the event of a close election, they want to create replacement for the Liberal Democrat SZDSZ party, the traditional king-maker in such elections, to try to undercut them.

It’s also not hard to see why Kover would oppose this move, should the US engage in it, as the nationalists would almost certainly back a conservative government over a socialist one, whereas the SZDSZ had most recently, in 2006, been a part of the Socialist coalition.

It’s unclear, of course, whether the US really cares enough about rigging Hungary’s political system to go to all this trouble. That a top ruling party official thinks it is not only possible but likely, however, suggests they are taking the matter seriously.

Every year, NORAD makes a big deal out of its “Santa tracking” mission on Christmas, one of the few non-warlike things they do any given year.

This year, not so much.

Along with tracking Santa this year, NORAD is also saying they’re establishing some sort of “anti-Grinch Firewall” to stop foreign Grinches militarily.

Absent in this is that, canonically, the Grinch became a good guy by the end of the show, so unless the cartoon is taken as some sort of prophecy of future activities, the Grinch is already a good guy, and foreign or otherwise, not someone the US military needs to be gearing up against.

The NORAD site doesn’t have a Grinch section, thankfully, so they don’t appear to be spending any money cracking down on him. Still, the fact that they felt the need to mention hostile action at all during Christmas this time is, puzzling to say the least.

Having gotten a ton of publicity for the upcoming movie “The Interview” by claiming they were never going to release it, Sony has now announced that they will be releasing the movie on time on Christmas Day.

The movie was previously pulled after hackers threatened to “9/11” every movie theater that showed it, and several theater chains pulled out. North Korea has denied involvement with the hack, and says they would not attack innocent movie-goers.

President Obama had been critical of Sony for not releasing the movie, a comedy about assassinating North Korean ruler Kim Jong-un. It is still unclear how many theaters will show the movie on time, though the hype surrounding it over the past weeks will likely attract considerable interest.

The hackers who were threatening Sony over the release have also, curiously, clammed up about the matter lately, and with North Korea publicly insisting they have nothing to do with them, their credibility is likely weakened.