News of the Force - Sunday, November 15, 2009 (Page 1)

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                                            Sunday, November 15, 2009

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In Asia, Obama pushing arms control pact with Russians

    A major pact is within reach, and President Obama aims to nudge forward an arms-control deal in talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

 

Iran policing Internet in new attack on opposition

    Iran has deployed a special police unit to sweep Web sites for political material and prosecute those deemed to be spreading lies, Iranian media reported yesterday, in a step clearly aimed at choking off the embattled opposition's last real means of keeping its campaign alive.

    Meanwhile, an Iranian court yesterday sentenced a student who took part in protests following Iran's disputed presidential election this year to eight years in prison, a Web site reported.

 

Britain investigating new Iraq abuse claims

    Iraqi civilians who were detained by British troops during the U.S.-led war have leveled some 33 allegations of rape and abuse against male and female soldiers, Britain's Ministry of Defense said yesterday.

 

Chinese officials warned: No bars, no mistresses

    Chinese officials are being told to dump their mistresses, avoid hostess bars and shun extravagances as part of the Communist party's efforts to clamp down on the corruption that is threatening its rule and sullying its reputation.

 

 

 

Poll: Canada's governing Conservatives hold solid lead

    Canada's ruling Conservatives retain a strong lead over their opponents, making it unlikely their minority government will face an election soon, according to a poll published yesterday.

 

Suicide attack kills 11 at northwestern Pakistan checkpoint

    A suicide car bomber attacked a police checkpoint in northwest Pakistan yesterday, killing 11 people, including four children, the latest in a wave of militant attacks that have claimed more than 300 lives in the past month.

 

Today in the Department of Defense

    

    Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates and Deputy Secretary of Defense William J. Lynn have no public or media events on their schedules.

    A National Capital Region fly-over of FEDEX Field for a Washington Redskins football game begins at 12:59 p.m., EST, with one C-130.

 

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Fury as Sept. 11 mastermind sent for trial in New York City

    U.S. prosecutors have been accused of risking the safety of the American people by opting to hold the trial of the self- proclaimed 9/11 mastermind in New York City.

    In a move both politically and legally risky, the Obama administration plans to put on trial the professed mastermind of the Sept. 11 terror attacks and four alleged accomplices in a lower Manhattan courthouse.

    House Republican Leader John Boehner (Ohio) says the Obama administration is putting “liberal special interests before the safety and security of the American people” in deciding to bring the 9/11 mastermind to the United States for trial in federal civilian court.

 

Ohio executions back on with one-drug method

    Ohio's death chamber is set to resume executions next month using a single drug that has been used in the U.S. to euthanize pets - but never to put condemned prisoners to death.

 

Obama: Those responsible for Ft. Hood shootings failing to be held accountable

    President Obama said yesterday he would hold to account those who missed warning signs that could have prevented a shooting rampage on a Texas army base earlier this month that killed 13 people.

 

Fire at South Korea shooting range kills 10

    Fire raced through a South Korean indoor shooting range yesterday, killing at least 10 people, including seven Japanese visitors and their Korean guide, local media reported.

 

'Pacific President' Obama vows U.S. leadership in Asia

    Billing himself America's first "Pacific president", Barack Obama yesterday said the United States did not seek to "contain" China, and promised an engaged U.S. role in charting Asia's future.

 

 

ISF uncover weapons caches, arrest 14 including warranted AQI terrorists
    

    The Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) arrested two warranted terrorists and 12 suspects during four joint security operations targeting al-Qaida in Iraq members responsible for making improvised explosive devices and coordinating IED attacks throughout the country. 
    In a rural area located approximately 11 km west of Mosul, ISF and U.S. advisors searched two buildings for an alleged AQI-sponsored IED cell leader. While searching the area, ISF uncovered an assault rifle and grenades, which were safely destroyed by explosive ordnance disposal members. Based on preliminary questioning and evidence found at the scene, ISF arrested one suspected AQI associate. The warranted individual was not
apprehended during the operation. 
    During a second joint security operation conducted approximately 37 km southwest of Kirkuk, the 3rd Emergency Services Unit and U.S. advisors arrested an individual suspected of providing logistical support to the Kirkuk-based vehicle-borne IED network. The security team searched several buildings for the warranted individual who was identified and arrested along with two additional suspects found in the building. 
    During a third operation conducted near Bayji, located approximately 103 km southwest of Kirkuk, Iraqi police and U.S. advisors searched several buildings for a warranted AQI leader suspected of acquiring explosives used for attacks against security forces in Iraq. Iraqi police searched multiple buildings in the area, and based on preliminary questioning, identified and arrested the warranted individual. While searching the building where the suspect was found, the security team uncovered a significant weapons cache containing advanced IED
components determined to be more sophisticated than those found during past investigations. The security team uncovered mechanisms that affix armor-piercing magnetic IEDs to vehicles making them unable to be removed unless the IEDs are detonated. The team also uncovered RKG-3 rockets, explosively formed penetrators, fully assembled IEDs, a mine and wire used to make pressure-activated IEDs. 
    Information provided by the warranted suspect led the security team to a second location nearby. Iraqi police searched the area, and questioned several individuals; six were identified and arrested based on information gathered at the scene. 
    During the fourth operation conducted in Duwayarh, located approximately 212 km northwest of Baghdad, ISF and U.S. advisors searched for a warranted AQI member suspected of transporting explosives and planning attacks in the region. The security team searched a building and investigated the area for signs of suspicious activity. Based on evidence found at the scene, Iraqi police identified and arrested the warranted AQI member and two alleged associates found on the premises.

 

Biological and chemical threats may go undetected at U.S. seaports, report says

    

    U.S. seaports could be vulnerable to terrorists smuggling chemical and biological weapons into the country, according to a report issued by the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security.

    The report says that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is not fully prepared at this time to detect chemical and biological weapons being transported into the country by cargo ships.

 

Former lawmaker gets 13 years for bribery

    Former Democratic U.S. Representative William Jefferson, who hid $90,000 in cash in his freezer, has been sentenced to 13 years in prison for bribery, racketeering and money laundering.

 

Ohio U.S. attorney says shift some attention from terror

    Eight years after the 9/11 attacks, the time has come to shift crime-fighting resources to other areas while keeping terrorism as a top priority, a new Ohio federal prosecutor has said.

 

Balloon boy's parents face sentencing in December

    The parents of a Colorado boy whose apparent brush with death in a helium balloon transfixed millions have pleaded guilty to staging a publicity-seeking hoax, and will be sentenced next month.

 

Tilton ousted from Civil Air Patrol's Board of Governors

    Reports that CAP Col. John E. Tilton has been removed from his position on the Civil Air Patrol (CAP)'s Board of Governors (BoG), where he was serving as vice chairman, appear to be true.

    NOTF was able to confirm this only through second and third-hand sources, but several of them. CAP’s National Executive Council (NEC) apparently voted to remove Tilton in a closed door session at an NEC's meeting earlier this month.

    Our sources disagree with reports from Ray Hayden, on CAP Insights, that Tilton was removed for daring to raise questions about what he perceived to be a conflict of interest surrounding an investment decision the CAP made. Our sources say that Tilton was removed for being consistently oppositional to CAP Maj. Gen. Amy S. Courter's leadership, and, in particular, for upholding any moves made by disgraced former CAP national commander Tony Pineda, though Pineda was removed from office and stripped of his rank and his membership two years ago, in October 2007.

    Most recently, Tilton opposed the vote to do away with the "Banana Republic/Danny Kaye" uniform with full banana leaf clusters Pineda designed.

    Only one member of the CAP's BoG voted against removing Pineda. That vote was Tilton’s, though apparently the vote of Gen. Rick Bowling, the recently termed-out chairman of the CAP's BoG, was a near thing. Bowling and Pineda go way back, as NOTF has reported, and rose together out of the CAP's Southeast Region. 

    Tilton is a former CAP Alabama Wing commander who was made Southeast Region commander by Pineda, then became the CAP's national safety officer and then was made a member of the CAP's BoG just before Pineda was removed from office.

    Our sources say that Tilton is also suspected of being a major leak from BoG meetings to Ray Hayden, an independent blogger whose revelation that he cheated by taking U.S. Air Force Air Command and  Staff College exams on behalf of Pineda and two of his cronies ultimately brought Pineda down. The other suspect for the leaks is CAP Vice Commander Brig. Gen. Reggie Chitwood, also a late Pineda appointee. It will be interesting to see if the leaks to Hayden continue.

    The removal of Tilton is only the latest in a series of events that have caused NOTF to believe there is a power struggle going on in the CAP. The struggle appears to be between an old, entrenched cabal of long-term and corrupt senior officers, many coming up from its Southeast Region, and gathering around Bowling and Pineda, and the new leadership under Maj. Gen. Amy Courter.

    There is something odd about this anti-Courter camp’s persistent attempts to hang onto power and their increasingly more obvious and distorted attempts to undermine Gen. Courter’s leadership. NOTF wonders about the motivation and suspects some self-interested plans for a CAP future with this cabal on the throne.

    More than suspicions we don’t have, but if you do, our number is 813-837-6550, and the e-mail address is newsoft...@aol.com .

    Meanwhile, this has the smell of an unfolding story with yet more to be learned.

 

Palin's media strategy is to 'go rogue'

    With a popular Facebook page and a book that was a bestseller long before her book tour, Sarah Palin proves that she has no need for the mainstream media she hates so much.

 

Missouri soldier faces trial for sex offenses

    Arraignment was held for Friday for a soldier accused of sexually assaulting three girls. 
    Thirty-nine-year-old Colby Sanders of Ozark, Mo., faces two felony child molestation counts and one felony count each of statutory sodomy, statutory rape, forcible rape and forcible sodomy.

    Christian County assistant prosecutor Janette Bleu said Sanders was stationed in South Korea with the U.S. Army when charges were filed against him in July. He wasn't scheduled to return to Ozark until December. But after Bleu contacted the U.S. Army, Sanders was sent to California, and then to Christian County, in September. 
    He waived his preliminary hearing this past week. Court records allege that the sexual offenses occurred at his Ozark home in November and December 2008. The alleged victims ranged in age from 9 to 17.

 

AmeriCorps IG shredded documents at request of agency spokeswoman

    The acting inspector general of AmeriCorps said he shredded White House documents at the request of an agency press spokeswoman. The documents pertained to the controversial firing of the previous inspector general, who was ousted after investigating a political ally of President Obama.

 

Liberal media 'whitewashed' evils of Communism, new report says

    Twenty years ago last week, the Berlin Wall fell, opening a door to freedom for millions of East Germans who had lived under communism for nearly 50 years. But as a new report documents, much of the major U.S. media coverage of the Berlin Wall, and the subsequent downfall of Soviet Communism, failed to accurately report the brutal nature of communism and often tipped in favor of the oppressors.

 

Obama urges Congress to put off Ft. Hood probe

    President Obama yesterday urged Congress to hold off on any investigation of the Fort Hood rampage until federal law enforcement and military authorities have completed their probes into the shootings at the Texas Army post, which left 13 people dead.

 

 

NASA clears 'Atlantis' for lift-off tomorrow

    

    NASA has cleared space shuttle Atlantis for lift-off tomorrow on a trip to stock up the International Space Station with several years’ worth of spare parts. 
    Mission managers gave the go-ahead yesterday as forecasters put the odds of good launch weather at 90 percent, about as good as it gets. 
    Atlantis will deliver nearly 30,000 pounds of pumps, storage tanks, gyroscopes and other spare parts, along with six astronauts who will unload everything.

The goal is to take up as many large parts as possible, to keep the space station running for five to 10 years after the shuttle program ends next fall. Some of the pieces are too big to fit in any other spacecraft.

    With the flight lasting 11 days and including three space-walks, it might appear as though NASA is slacking off given the mega-missions of the past year or so, said Mike Moses, chairman of the mission management team. He told reporters, however, that those two-week flights with four or five space-walks were "unbelievably challenging, and it is certainly not the norm."

    A stockpiling mission like this one does not require lots of space-walking work, Moses said. The astronauts, in fact, will use some of their time outside to get ready for the next shuttle flight in February, when a new window-domed room is taken up.

    Only six shuttle missions remain, including this one. 
    Atlantis will bring back astronaut Nicole Stott, who has been living on the space station since the end of August. Also returning on the shuttle will be a broken piece of the station’s water-recycling unit. The part that converts the astronauts’ urine into drinking water has failed; engineers want it back so they can fix it and send it back up on the next shuttle flight. The inability to recycle urine will not interfere with the shuttle’s visit, Moses said. 
    Lift-off remains scheduled for 2:28 p.m., EST, tomorrow, even though an unmanned rocket did not take off yesterday morning with a communication satellite, as planned. That's because the Atlas rocket has a technical problem that cannot be fixed quickly. A launch attempt today would have delayed the shuttle flight by one day.

 

Minnesota's Civil Air Patrol searches for missing plane

    

    The Minnesota Wing of the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) is currently coordinating the search mission for a missing single-engine aircraft.
    According to CAP 1st Lt. George Supan, the public information officer for the CAP's Anonka squadron, the mission base for the search operation was located yesterrday at the Anoka County-Blaine Airport.

    The CAP has several aircraft from Minnesota and North Dakota, along with ground teams, searching for the missing aircraft, which has a yellow and black paint scheme.
    The missing plane left Airlake Airport, near Lakeville and Farmington, Minn., and was headed for Hallock, Minn., when it was reported missing Friday night, Lt. Supan said. The Civil Air Patrol was alerted yesterday morning, Lt. Supan said, and CAP ground teams were dispatched to search the route looking for the aircraft.  The search for the missing plane was continuing yesterday afternoon. 
    The current area of search is between the cities of Wadena and Hallock, Lt. Supan reported. If anyone in the area between Staples and Hallock has seen anything they should contact their local sheriff’s office, he said.
    CAP aircraft and ground team members from 23 state squadrons are visiting the Blaine-Anoka County Airport this weekend for search and rescue training. Lt. Supan said the search for the missing plane was not part of the training, which started at 7 a.m., yesterday.

    The Minnesota Wing of the CAP  will relocate its mission base to Brainerd "very early" this morning to continue the aircraft search, Lt. Supan said late yesterday afternoon.
    The CAP is the uniformed, unpaid all-volunteer civilian Auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force. It has more than 1,200 members in Minnesota.

 

U.S. Army renews pilot continuation pay program

    

    The Aviation Continuation Pay program has been renewed for fiscal 2010, with bonuses of $12,000 and $25,000 annually for experienced regular Army warrant officer pilots who extend their careers.

    Some senior special operations pilots can get as much as $150,000 for signing up for six years.

    The bonuses are not available to branch commissioned officers, members of the Active Guard and Reserve (AGR), or mobilized National Guard and Army Reserve officers. The target population includes pilots who have completed their initial six-year service obligation and have fewer than 25 years of aviation service.

    Applicants must hold skill qualification identifier “I” (tactical operations aviator) or be assigned to the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment.

    The retention incentives are in addition to Aviation Career Incentive Pay, which ranges from $125 to $840 per month, depending on years of aviation service.

    The bonuses are tax-free if an officer’s service extension agreement is signed in a combat zone.

    Service extension contracts must be signed before Oct. 1, 2010, for an officer to qualify for a bonus. All applicants must be drawing regular flight pay and be medically fit for aviation service.

 

Marine Corps' suicide rate nears record level

    The suicide rate in the U.S. Marine Corps is nearing an all-time record, but still remains below the per-person rates in the U.S. Army and the civilian population.

 

Illinois prison eyed for Guantanamo inmates

    The Obama administration may buy a near-empty prison in rural northwestern Illinois to house detainees from Guantanamo Bay along with federal inmates, a White House official said yesterday. 
    The maximum-security Thomson Correctional Facility, about 150 miles west of Chicago, was one of several evaluated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and emerged as a leading option to house the detainees, the official said on condition of anonymity because a decision has not been made.

    President Obama wants detainees from the controversial military-run detention center in Cuba to be transferred to U.S. soil so they can be prosecuted for their suspected crimes. It is unclear how many Guantanamo detainees - alleged terrorism suspects, many held without charges since the beginning of the war in Afghanistan - might be transferred to Illinois, or when. Obama initially planned to close the Guantanamo Bay prison by Jan. 22, but the administration is no longer expected to meet that deadline. 
    Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn has been hinting at a possible new use for Thomson, and he issued a statement saying he would hold a news conference today to outline those plans. 
    Thomson was built by the state in 2001 with 1,600 cells, but budget problems prevented it from fully opening, and it now houses about 200 minimum-security inmates. 
    If the Federal Bureau of Prisons buys the facility, it would be run primarily as a federal prison, but a portion would be leased to the Defense Department to house a limited number of Guantanamo detainees, the White House official said. Perimeter security at the site would be increased to surpass that at the nation’s only Supermax prison, in Florence, Colo., the official said. 
    Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the House’s second-highest-ranking Democrat, said in a statement yesterday he would support the plan. He said the prison would house fewer than 100 Guantanamo detainees and would have a "significant positive impact on the local economy" by generating more than 3,000 jobs. 
    Thomson Village President Jerry Hebeler said the move would generate desperately needed revenue for the town of about 500 residents, near the Mississippi River. "It's been sitting there for eight to nine years and our town is like a ghost town," Hebeler said of the prison, adding that a tavern recently closed and a planned housing development fell through. "Everybody moved or got different jobs," he said. 
    Some lawmakers opposed the idea of terrorism suspects being brought to Illinois. 
    U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, a Northbrook Republican running for Obama’s old Senate seat, circulated a letter among elected officials asking them to write to Obama opposing the plan, saying bringing Guantanamo prisoners to the state would make it a target for terrorist attacks. 
    Illinois Rep. Jan Schakowsky, a Democrat, said Kirk was "pandering to irrational fears" and that closing the Guantanamo Bay facility would strengthen national security because al-Qaida used it as a recruiting tool. 
    Thomson is not the only U.S. town that had hoped to lure Guantanamo detainees. Officials in Marion, Illinois, Hardin, Montana, and Florence, Colo., also have said they would welcome the jobs that would be generated.

 

Three Americans killed in Afghanistan

    

    Three Americans, including two from the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), have been killed in Afghanistan, the NATO-led force said yesterday.

 

Air Force says base contributed $231 million to town's economy

    

    The U.S. Air Force says Westover Air Reserve Base, in Chicopee, Mass., has pumped about $231 million into the area's economy in the past year.

 

New Hampshire CAP cadet gets lifesaving award

    

Cadet Airman Allen Ellis poses with his father and mother, Robb and Kristen Ellis, and his brothers, after receiving the Civil Air Patrol's Lifesaving Award (Courtesy photo)

 

    Cadet Airman Allen Ellis was presented the Civil Air Patrol (CAP)'s Lifesaving Award for helping to save the life of his 3-year-old brother while on a camping trip last summer.

    The Lifesaving Award is one of the highest awards a Civil Air Patrol member can earn.

    The cadet, son of Robb E. and Kristen Ellis, of Danvers, N.H., had just a few weeks earlier attended the New Hampshire Wing's Cadet Summer Encampment, where he had learned many first aid skills. Little did he know that he would need to put what he had learned into practice so soon.

    Cadet Ellis' mother, who was carrying a pot of boiling water, told Allen's younger brother to stay where he was while she carried the boiling pot into the camper. However, he did not, and instead ran after his mother and caused her to spill the hot liquid on him. Allen immediately realized the seriousness of the situation and told his mother to take off his brother’s clothes and pour cool water on him, while having someone call 911.

    The youngster was taken to a nearby hospital and later to the Shriner’s Children's Hospital, as he had sustained second degree burns over 10 percent of his body.

    Due to the quick actions of Cadet Ellis, his little brother has fully recovered.

    Cadet Ellis is a freshman at St. John's Prep, in Danvers.

 

Syria turns down direct talks with Israel

    Syrian President Assad claims he's ready for peace, just not ready to sit at same table as the Israelis.

 

Secure Communities database nets arrests of 22,000 illegal aliens

    

    More than 22,000 illegal immigrants with criminal charges or convictions have been arrested in Texas through a 1-year-old program that links FBI and federal immigration databases, Homeland Security officials say.

    Carrollton, Farmers Branch, Irving, Mesquite and Dallas and Denton counties are among the jurisdictions using Secure Communities processes, the feds said.

    Janet Napolitano, the Homeland Security secretary, said the entire Southwest border now uses the Secure Communities program. But its national scope is limited to 95 jurisdictions across 11 states. "By 2013, assuming Congress continues to fund our effort, Secure Communities plans to be available to every law enforcement agency in the country," Napolitano said.

    In Dallas, Nuria Prendes, ICE's head of detention and removal, said the costs for counties and cities to use the program was minimal and accuracy in catching dangerous criminals was enhanced. With other ICE programs, the agency checks on persons after they receive a call from the law enforcement agency because they believe someone may be in the country illegally. "This doesn't depend on them calling us," Prendes said. "With Secure Communities, we get a hit back or we don't. It is biometric, and fingerprints don't lie." Without checking fingerprints through two databases, those held could lie about having U.S. citizenship and avoid removal from the country, Prendes said.

    Nationally, fingerprints of about 991,000 persons were checked through the Secure Communities initiative. Of that amount, about 12 percent were immigrants who'd been identified by federal authorities as foreign-born. Of that 12 percent, 119,000 persons, about 9 percent, were identified with the most serious level of offenses. Of the 12 percent, about 5,900 people were U.S. citizens, which raises questions about database flaws.

    But Carl Rusnok, an ICE spokesman, said he believed the U.S. citizens were naturalized U.S. citizens and that is why they were found in the DHS database. To get identified in the Homeland Security database, one must have had an "encounter" with immigration officials, including obtaining a visa and moving toward legalization, ICE officials said.

 

Israel dedicates monument to Sept. 11 victims

    

    The memorial in Jerusalem is one of only a few outside the U.S. to include the names of all 2,980 victims.

 

Vermont auditor charged with DUI

    Vermont State Auditor Thomas Salmon has been charged with drunken driving after being pulled over for a traffic infraction, police said yesterday.

    Salmon, 46, of St. Johnsbury, blew .086 on a breath test - just over the .08 minimum - after a Vermont State Police trooper stopped him for failing to use a turn signal late Friday in Montpelier and he admitted having had several drinks. Salmon, who had been drinking red wine at a party, was cited and has a Dec. 3 court date.

    "I made a mistake," he said yesterday. "I screwed up. I'm going to face the consequences, take my medicine, and I'll move forward."

    Salmon, the son of former Gov. Thomas P. Salmon, was elected to the $95,000-a-year post as auditor of accounts in 2006 and re-elected last year, even though he was serving with the U.S. Navy Reserve in Iraq at the time.

    Two months ago, he switched his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican, saying the GOP was more committed to addressing the fiscal realities facing Vermont than were Democrats.

    He was stopped about 10:30 p.m., EDT, Friday while driving a 2008 Honda Civic. "In speaking with Salmon it was determined that he had been drinking, and Salmon admitted to having a few drinks over the course of the evening," Trooper Brandon Doll said in his report.

    He was taken into custody and issued a citation to appear in court.

    Yesterday, he went into his office and notified staff members about the incident before making a scheduled appearance at the Vermont Republican Party's annual meeting in Montpelier, where he also acknowledged the arrest. "I'm feeling supported, and I am grateful for my support. I'm apologetic to my supporters, and to Vermonters who look to me as a statewide official. What I say to the young kids and the people across this great state is that I made a mistake and I'm going to own it 100 percent and I'm going to deal with it," he said.

 

Today in History

    On Nov. 15, 1969, a quarter of a million protesters staged a peaceful demonstration in Washington, D.C., against the Vietnam War.

    For more of Today in History, visit us at http://newsoftheforce.org .

 

UFO video and photo from China amazes researchers

    UFO activity in China shows no sign of abating. In the last month alone, hundreds of incidents involving unidentified flying objects have been reported to that nation’s news outlets and UFO reporting agencies. All of this has led some Chinese UFO researchers to assume that extraterrestrial visitors must have big plans for their country.Washington, D.C., against the Vietnam War.

 

 

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