NAO

Special Ops Con, Imaginary Warfare And Non-Existent Enemies (Veterans Today)

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– Special Ops con, imaginary warfare and non-existent enemies (Veterans Today, Sep 7, 2012):

With an election book by a SEAL, real or imaginary, out now, it is time for an honest discussion of “Special Operations” from someone who has actually sat through “mission planning” sessions involving three continents.

Thus far, the quotes I have read, of finding an unidentified old man shot but not dead and then shooting his wounded body repeatedly makes sense.

Any old man would do as lying about who it is can easily be done under cloak of secrecy, like lying about the helicopter crash though photos of the downed “carbon fibre stealth helicopter” were in every paper.

Witness also so crash dead, crew and SEALS. We lied about that too.

Someone may have murdered an old man; we have no idea who neither did they. The whole thing was staged, go somewhere, kill an old man, claim it is Osama bin Laden, move General Petraeus to CIA and he can’t claim he killed bin Laden and run for president.

The whole thing was a political con.

Then, noting from this recent book that SEALS are obsessed with leaking information, we had a record number of SEAL deaths in an air crash in Afghanistan reported soon after, totaling as many dead SEALS as the entire Vietnam War.

Read moreSpecial Ops Con, Imaginary Warfare And Non-Existent Enemies (Veterans Today)

UK Government delayed all reports till yesterday, the day before MPs go on holiday

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… and of course the government delayed reports loaded with bad news. The UK is broke and gets ready to default on its debt.

Happy holidays!

Ministers bury £32bn tax crisis as recess starts

A mountain of bad news was buried by the Government as it rushed out reports and 26 ministerial statements the day before MPs go on holiday. Whitehall sources said that many of the reports were ready to be published weeks ago, and would normally be released in stages, but ministers had insisted they all be delayed till yesterday.

The dangerous state of the public finances was laid bare by the reports, which showed that the Government’s tax take plummeted by £32 billion last year. Figures from HM Revenue & Customs showed income tax, national insurance, VAT, stamp duty and corporation tax fell by £21 billion, while other debts and legal liabilities had cut income by a further £10 billion.

Related article: Flow of tax cash into Treasury drops by £32bn (Telegraph)

The figures were disclosed as the National Audit Office (NAO) refused to sign off six sets of Whitehall accounts because of fraud, error, overpayments and IT problems. The accounts, covering billions of pounds, included the Ministry of Defence, the Treasury, the Revenue, the Department for Work and Pensions, the Home Office and the Equalities and Human Rights Commission. The Government also slipped out reports criticising its training programmes and announced delays in several policy areas.

Philip Hammond, Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said: “It is a disgrace that the Government is apparently trying to sneak out these very important reports at the fag end of the parliamentary session. It gives no time for MPs to hold ministers to account — presumably what Mr Brown intended.”

Read moreUK Government delayed all reports till yesterday, the day before MPs go on holiday

Satellite-Surveillance Program to Begin Despite Privacy Concerns

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WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security will proceed with the first phase of a controversial satellite-surveillance program, even though an independent review found the department hasn’t yet ensured the program will comply with privacy laws.

Congress provided partial funding for the program in a little-debated $634 billion spending measure that will fund the government until early March. For the past year, the Bush administration had been fighting Democratic lawmakers over the spy program, known as the National Applications Office.

Read moreSatellite-Surveillance Program to
Begin Despite Privacy Concerns

Administration Set to Use New Spy Program in U.S.

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The Bush administration said yesterday that it plans to start using the nation’s most advanced spy technology for domestic purposes soon, rebuffing challenges by House Democrats over the idea’s legal authority.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said his department will activate his department’s new domestic satellite surveillance office in stages, starting as soon as possible with traditional scientific and homeland security activities — such as tracking hurricane damage, monitoring climate change and creating terrain maps.

Sophisticated overhead sensor data will be used for law enforcement once privacy and civil rights concerns are resolved, he said. The department has previously said the program will not intercept communications.

Read moreAdministration Set to Use New Spy Program in U.S.

DHS reckons US cops’ access to sat-surveillance is go

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US Homeland Security overlord Michael Chertoff has told reporters that he believes plans for increased use of satellite surveillance by American law-enforcement agencies are ready to move forward. However, Democratic politicians remain unconvinced that adequate privacy and civil liberties safeguards are in place.

“I think the way is now clear to stand NAO up and go warm,” said Chertoff, briefing journalists about the proposed National Applications Office.

NAO would allow US police, immigration, drug-enforcement and other officials to have access to data from various US satellites passing above America. It is understood that the information would be supplied mostly by spacecraft which at the moment are used for meteorological and geological surveying, or other scientific tasks. Satellites of this type can often deliver high-resolution images which would also be useful to law enforcement.

Read moreDHS reckons US cops’ access to sat-surveillance is go