Somalia (Country threat level - 5)

November 19, 2008 by Tim McDowell.

Somali pirates operating off the Horn of Africa reportedly seized three more commercial vessels on 19 November 2008. A Thai fishing boat was the first reported hijacking, with at least 16 crewmembers being held hostage on the ship. Another vessel flying under a Hong Kong flag was seized in the same area. Maritime news sources stated that the ship is owned by an Iranian firm and is carrying a cargo of wheat. Suspected Somali pirates also boarded a Greek bulk carrier with between 20-25 crewmembers. All three ships were hijacked in the Gulf of Aden.

The wave of hijackings follows the seizure of a Saudi oil tanker over the weekend that marked an escalation in the widespread piracy off the coast of east Africa. In response to the incidents, European Union and NATO military vessels have been patrolling the waters near the port of Eyl in the Puntland region of Somalia. Eyl is a base of operations for pirates, and maritime officials believe that up to 200 hostages are being held in the pirate haven.

In a related development, Indian authorities announced on 18 November that one of their naval warships sank a boat carrying pirates in the Gulf of Aden. The armed frigate opened fire on the small ship after the pirates attempted to launch an attack. The Indian navy dispatched warships and helicopters to the Gulf of Aden earlier this month to assist in the fight against piracy.

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Va. Scientist Pleads Guilty to Selling Rocket Technology to China

November 18, 2008 by Tim McDowell.

NORFOLK, Va.–A Virginia scientist pleaded guilty Monday to selling rocket technology to China and bribing Chinese officials to secure a lucrative contract for his high-tech company.

Quan-Sheng Shu, 68, pleaded guilty to two counts of violating the federal Arms Control Act and one count of bribery at a hearing in U.S. District Court in Norfolk.

Shu is president of AMAC International Inc. of Newport News. He is a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Shanghai.
Prosecutors said Shu, an expert in cryogenics, sold technology to China for the development of hydrogen-propelled rockets.

The Chinese government is developing a space launch facility in the southern island province of Hainan that will house liquid-propelled launch vehicles designed to send space stations and satellites into orbit. The project is overseen by an arm of the People’s Liberation Army.

The U.S. maintains an arms embargo on China. The State Department determined that Shu’s attempts to sell information on liquid hydrogen tanks and cyrogenics equipment for the fueling system of a foreign launch facility constituted an illegal transaction.

Prosecutors also said Shu had directed employees to falsify information to circumvent U.S. laws.

Shu also was charged with bribing Chinese officials to award a $4 million hydrogen liquefier contract to a French company acting as an AMAC intermediary.

Shu received more than $386,000 in commissions for securing the contract, authorities said. He already had agreed to forfeit that money. His company also has offices in Beijing.

Shu faces up to 10 years on each arms count and five years for the bribery charge and fines of up to $2.5 million. Sentencing is scheduled for April 6. He will remain free on $100,000 bond.

The scientist and his wife refused to comment as they left the courtroom. As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors agreed not to prosecute his wife for the role she allegedly played in the scheme.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Alan M. Salsbury said Shu’s conviction was the result of an ongoing FBI investigation, but he declined further comment after the hearing.

Federal authorities in recent years have prosecuted more than a dozen cases of either traditional spying or economic espionage related to China. U.S. officials have warned in the past year of increasing espionage efforts by Beijing.

http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/markets/va-scientist-pleads-guilty-selling-rocket-technology-china/

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Requirements for Private Aircraft Arriving and Departing the U.S. Fact Sheet

November 17, 2008 by Tim McDowell.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has enacted new rules changing the procedure for private aircraft to provide advance notice of their intended arrival or departure, and submit manifests of the persons on board. Private aircraft are defined as any aircraft, other than government or military, which are not engaged in carrying passengers or cargo for compensation. The new process is similar to the one currently in use by commercial aircraft and will standardize advance notice procedures for all CBP airports of entry.

 http://www.dhs.gov/xnews/releases/pr_1226943980107.shtm

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Iraq (Country threat level - 5):

November 17, 2008 by Tim McDowell.

The Iraqi Cabinet voted on 16 November 2008 on a pending agreement to lay the legal framework for the presence of U.S. forces in Iraq past 2008. The Cabinet approved the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), which establishes 31 December 2011 as the final date for U.S. forces to leave Iraq. Approximately 150,000 U.S. forces remain in Iraq at present, and under the agreement (which will take effect upon the expiration of a U.N. mandate on 31 December 2008) troops will be required to leave the streets of Iraqi cities by June 2009; Iraqi officials will also gain a significant amount of authority of U.S. troops and their movements. Negotiations over the agreement have been ongoing between U.S. and Iraqi officials since March 2008; the pact will now go to the Iraqi Parliament for approval. A vote has been scheduled for 24 November, and although many Iraqi groups support the pact, some are against it; at least one large Sunni group wants it to be put to a referendum, and Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr opposes it.

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United States (Country threat level - 3)

November 17, 2008 by Tim McDowell.

Wildfires have caused significant disruptions throughout southern California since 13 November 2008. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared states of emergency in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Riverside and Orange Counties. Firefighters have not been able to fully contain fires in the towns of Anaheim, Corona, Yorba Linda and Brea. Approximately 50,000 people in the region have evacuated in recent days, though authorities lifted mandatory evacuation orders for approximately 25,000 people. The region’s Santa Ana winds weakened on 16 November, allowing authorities to launch an aerial firefighting effort that made some progress. The situation has resulted in a thick cloud of smoke over Los Angeles that has reduced visibility and air quality. Traffic has been disrupted on most highways at various points, though most freeways reopened late on 16 November. Metrolink train services between Los Angeles and Orange County have resumed.

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DHS Announces Security Standards for Freight and Passenger Rail Systems

November 13, 2008 by Tim McDowell.

Release Date: November 13, 2008

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
Contact: 202-282-8010

Fact Sheet: DHS Announces Security Standards
for Freight and Passenger Rail Systems
Rail Transportation Security Final Rule (PDF, 204 pages - 801 KB)

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced today regulations aimed at strengthening the security of the nation’s freight and passenger rail systems and reducing the risk associated with the transportation of security-sensitive materials.

“By striking a sensible balance of security guidelines with certain regulatory requirements, we’re enabling the rail and chemical industries to be stronger partners,” said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. “The results are sound security measures without excessively burdening owners and operators.”

The Rail Security final rule will require freight and passenger rail carriers to designate rail security coordinators and report significant security concerns to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). The rule also will codify TSA’s broad inspection authority. For freight rail, the rule will ensure the positive handoff of security-sensitive materials as well as establish security protocols for custody transfers of security-sensitive material rail cars between receivers of these materials that are located in high threat urban areas, shippers of these materials, and rail carriers.

 

http://www.dhs.gov/xnews/releases/pr_1226590026515.shtm

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Pakistan (Country threat level - 5):

November 13, 2008 by Tim McDowell.

On 13 November 2008 a group of gunmen abducted an Iranian diplomat in the city of Peshawar in northwestern Pakistan. Authorities stated that the suspected militants stopped the diplomat’s vehicle in the Hayatabad neighborhood and killed his bodyguard before quickly leaving the scene. Police investigators cordoned off the area and shut down surrounding streets in an attempt to track down the perpetrators. Representatives of the Iranian Consulate confirmed that the attack occurred and stated that no group has claimed responsibility. The abduction came one day after a U.S. humanitarian aid worker was shot and killed in Peshawar.

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The State of the Campaign

November 3, 2008 by Tim McDowell.

To:	Interested Parties

If your television is tuned to cable news as frequently as ours are here at campaign headquarters, you have seen the pundits say John McCain and his campaign are done. And, if you’ve followed this race since the beginning, this is clearly a song you’ve heard before. I wanted to take some time today to give you some insight on the state of the race as we see it.

An AP poll released this morning revealed a very telling fact: ONE out of every SEVEN voters is undecided. That means, if 130 million voters turn out on Tuesday, 18.5 million of them have yet to make up their mind. With that many votes on the table and the tremendous movement we’ve seen in this race, I believe we are in a very competitive campaign.

Here’s why:

All the major polls have shown a tightening in the race and a significant narrowing of the numbers. In John McCain’s typical pattern, he is closing strong and surprising the pundits. We believe this race is winnable, and if the trajectory continues, we will surpass the 270 Electoral votes needed on Election Night.

• National Polls: Major polls last week showed John McCain trailing by double-digit margins - but by the middle of this week, we were within the margin of error on four national tracking surveys. In fact, the Gallup national tracking survey showed the race in a virtual tie 2 days this week.
• State Polls:

  Iowa - Our numbers in Iowa have seen a tremendous surge in the past 10 days. We took Obama’s lead from the double digits to a very close race. That is why you see Barack Obama visiting the state in the final days, trying to stem his losses. It is too little, too late. Like many other Midwestern states, Iowa is moving swiftly into McCain’s column.

  The Southwest - It is no secret that Republican candidates in the Southwest have to focus on winning over enough Latino and Hispanic voters in Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado to carry them to victory. John McCain has overcome challenges Republicans face, and has made up tremendous ground in these states with these voters. For these voters, the choice has become clear, and you have seen a big change in the numbers. John McCain is now winning enough voters to perform within the margin of error - putting these states within reach.

  Colorado - Barack Obama tried to outspend our campaign in Colorado during the early weeks of October and finish off our candidate in Colorado. However, after our visit early this week, we saw a tremendous rebound in our poll position, and Colorado is back on the map.

  Ohio and Pennsylvania - Everyone knows that vote rich Ohio and Pennsylvania will be key battlegrounds for this election. Between the two: 41 electoral votes and no candidate has gotten to the White House without Ohio. Senator McCain and Governor Palin have been campaigning non-stop in these key battleground states and tonight Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has pumped up our campaign at a rally in Columbus. Our position in these states is strong and undecided voters continue to have a very favorable impression of our candidate.

Obama campaign faces tremendous structural challenges in the final days of this campaign

• Obama has a challenge hitting 50%: Barack Obama has not reached the 50% threshold in almost any the battleground state. He consistently is performing in the 45-48% range. When we look closely at the primary votes, we see a history of a candidate whose Election Day performance is often at or behind his final polling numbers. If this is true, our surge will leave Obama with even or under 50% of the vote on Election Day.
• Early Vote: The Obama campaign has promised that their early vote and absentee efforts will change the composition of the electorate. They have sold the press on a story that first time voters will turn out in droves this election cycle. Again, the facts undermine their argument. In our analysis of early voting and absentee votes to date: The composition of the electorate has not changed significantly and most folks who have voted early are high propensity voters who would have voted regardless of the high interest in this campaign.
• Expanding the Field: Obama is running out of states if you follow out a traditional model. Today, he expanded his buy into North Dakota, Georgia and Arizona in an attempt to widen the playing field and find his 270 Electoral Votes. This is a very tall order and trying to expand into new states in the final hours shows he doesn’t have the votes to win.

The Final Barnstorm

• On Monday, we will have a 14 state rally with our candidates crisscrossing the country trying to turn out our voters and sway the final undecided voters. Governor Palin will hit Ohio, Missouri, Iowa, Colorado, Nevada and Alaska in the final day of campaigning, while Senator McCain will travel from Tampa, Florida, to Virginia, then Pennsylvania, Indiana, New Mexico, Nevada and finish the night in Prescott, Arizona. The enthusiasm and excitement we generate on Monday will be the electricity that powers our “Get Out the Vote” efforts on Tuesday.

On the Ground

• Our field organization has tremendous energy and is out-performing the Bush campaign at the same time in 2004. This week our field organization crossed a huge threshold and began reaching more than one million voters per day, and by week’s end will have contacted more than 5 million voters. Our phone centers are full and our rate of voter contact is significantly out-pacing the Bush campaign in 2004. We have the resources to do the voter contact necessary to support the surge we are seeing in our polling with old fashioned grassroots outreach.

On the Airwaves

• In the final days of the campaign, our television presence will be bigger and broader than the Obama campaign’s presence. The full Republican effort - the RNC’s Independent Expenditure and the McCain campaign will out-buy Barack Obama and the Democrats by just about 10 million dollars.

In short: the McCain campaign is surging in the final 72 hours. Our grassroots campaign is vibrant and communicating to voters in a very powerful way. Our television presence is strong. And, we have a secret ingredient - A candidate who will never quit and who will never stop fighting for you and for your families.

In these final hours, Senator McCain and Governor Palin are counting on you - they are counting on you to knock on doors, to make turnout calls, to contact your friends and neighbors. Get our voters to the polls and help John McCain fight for your and for our country. This is our last mission on behalf of John McCain and I have no doubt I can count on your effort and energy to carry us across the line to victory.

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Twas The Night Before The Elections

October 31, 2008 by Tim McDowell.

    
         ’Twas the night before elections 
          And all through the town
          Tempers were flaring
          Emotions all up and down!
 
          I, in my bathrobe
          With a cat in my lap
          Had cut off the TV ~
          Tired of political crap.
 
          When all of a sudden
          There arose such a noise
          I peered out my window ~ 
          Saw Obama and  boys.
 
          They had come for my wallet,
          They wanted my pay
          To give to the others                         
          who had not worked a day.
 
          He snatched up my money
          And quick as a wink
          Jumped back on his bandwagon
          As I gagged from the stink.
 
          He then rallied his henchmen
          Who were pulling his cart,
          I could tell they were out
          To tear my country apart!
 
          ” On Fannie, on Freddie,
          On Biden and Ayers!
          On Acorn, On Pelosi”
          He screamed at the pairs!
 
          They took off for his cause
          And as he flew out of sight
          I heard him laugh at the nation
          Who wouldn’t stand up and fight!
 
          So I leave you to think
          On this one final note-
          IF YOU DONT WANT SOCIALISM
          GET OUT AND VOTE!!!!

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Obama Refuses to Answer Birth Certificate Lawsuit

October 28, 2008 by Tim McDowell.

A Pennsylvania lawsuit alleging that Barack Obama is not a “natural-born citizen” of the United States took an unusual twist this week, after a federally mandated deadline requiring Obama’s lawyers to produce a “vault” copy of his birth certificate expired with no response from Obama or his lawyers.

The lawsuit, filed by former Pennsylvania Deputy Attorney General Philip J. Berg — a self-avowed supporter of Hillary Clinton — alleges that Barack Obama was born in Kenya and is thus “ineligible” to run for president of the United States. It demands that Obama’s lawyers produce a copy of his original birth certificate to prove that he is a natural-born U.S. citizen.

Berg’s suit and allegations have set off a wave of Internet buzz and rumors, though Obama could easily have put the matter to rest by providing the federal court with the basic documentation proving he is eligible to take the oath of a president. But Obama has apparently decided to deny the court and the public that documentation.

The Constitution provides that any U.S. citizen is eligible to become president if the person is 35 years of age or older and is a natural-born citizen; that is, born in the territorial United States.

By failing to respond to the Request for Admissions and Request for the Production of Documents within 30 days, Obama has “admitted” that he was born in Kenya, Berg stated this week in new court filings.

Berg released a long list of “admissions” he submitted to Obama’s lawyers on Sept. 15, and asked that they produce documents relating to Obama’s place of birth and citizenship.

Instead of responding, lawyers for Obama and the DNC asked the court to dismiss the case. But Judge R. Barclay Surrick of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania has issued no ruling in the case that would have given Obama’s lawyers more time.

“There are lots of legal ways to stonewall,” a well-placed Republican attorney told Newsmax, who was not authorized to comment officially on the case. “But failing to respond is not one of them.”

“The first thing they teach you in law school,” he added, “is don’t put a complaint like this in a drawer. That’s how a nuisance case can become a problem.”

The 30-day deadline for defendants to comply with a discovery request is set forth in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedures.

“It all comes down to the fact that there’s nothing from the other side,” Berg said after he filed a motion on Thursday for summary judgment.

“The admissions are there. By not filing the answers or objections, the defense has admitted everything. [Obama] admits he was born in Kenya. He admits he was adopted in Indonesia. He admits that the documentation posted online is a phony. And he admits that he is constitutionally ineligible to serve as president of the United States.”

In a contentious case, lawyers on both sides will haggle over the production of documents, and will frequently go beyond the deadlines, several lawyers told Newsmax.

“The rules are more often complied with in the breech rather than the observance,” a senior trial attorney who has close ties to the Democrat Party, but is not involved in the current case, told Newsmax.

“Lawyers frequently do not return telephone calls or meet discovery deadlines because of sheer inadvertence. Therefore, we do not consider a failure to respond as a ‘violation,’” he said.

Allegations surrounding Obama’s place of birth have been swirling for months. Earlier this year, the Obama campaign sought to put down the rumors by making available a computer-generated Certification of Live Birth, issued in 2007 by the State of Hawaii. [See the Certification of Live Birth — Click Here.]

Respected conservative blogger Ed Morrissey called the Berg lawsuit a “conspiracy theory” that had been put to rest by the Obama campaign over the summer but ”has arisen like a zombie yet again to suck the credibility out of the conservative blogosphere.”

However, the 2007 document produced by the Obama campaign omits key information that normally appears on birth certificates in the United States, including the name of the hospital where he was born, the size and weight of the baby, and sometimes the name of the doctor who delivered him.

In addition, the critics of the 2007 document note that Obama’s father is described as “African,” a term used today. The formal language in official documents at the time — 1961 — would have identified his race as “Negro” or “Colored.”

The Web site snarkybytes.com has produced a vault copy of a Hawaii Certificate of Live Birth from 1963, issued by the Hawaii Department of Health. [See the vault copy — Click Here.]

In addition to naming the hospital and more details about the baby, the 1963 vault copy also includes the “usual residence of the mother,” and the “usual occupation” of the father. None of this information appears on the 2007 Live Birth certificate produced by the Obama campaign.

Berg has been a perennial political candidate in Pennsylvania, having run in Democrat primaries for attorney general, lieutenant governor, governor, and other offices without success. He served as deputy attorney general of the State of Pennsylvania from 1972-1980.

His credibility was tarnished by work he did for the far-left “9/11 for the Truth” campaign, which alleged in a federal lawsuit that the collapse of the twin towers in New York was caused by “controlled demolition” ordered by the president of the United States.

Nevertheless, in recent weeks, lawsuits have been filed in seven additional states demanding that Barack Obama produce an original vault copy of his birth certificate, to dispel the rumors that he is not a natural-born United States citizen.

The latest suits have been filed in state and federal courts in Hawaii, Washington, California, Florida, Georgia, New York, and Connecticut to compel Obama to release his birth records.

Lawsuits in Washington and Georgia are seeking state superior courts to force the states’ secretary of state, as the chief state elections officer, to require Obama to produce original birth records from Hawaii, or else decertify him as a candidate for the presidency.

Ironically, Obama mentions his birth certificate in passing on Page 26 of his 1995 memoir, “Dreams of My Father.” “I discovered this article, folded away among my birth certificate and old vaccination forms, when I was in high school,” he wrote.

Lawyers for Obama and the DNC did not return calls for comment on the current status of the case, or explain why the Obama campaign did not simply put to rest the whole controversy by releasing the birth certificate that Obama apparently cherished as a teenager.

In the past, questions about Sen. John McCain’s legal status have arisen. McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone at a U.S. Army hospital. McCain had legal experts vet his constitutional qualifications, and he also disclosed a copy of his birth certificate.

© 2008 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

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