payperpost

https://app.payperpost.com/images/logo.png?1338401075

Friday, September 30, 2011

American- Born AL Qaeda Leader Dead:

Killing Americans: On uncharted ground in attack




WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama steered the nation's war machine into uncharted territory Friday when a U.S. drone attacked a convoy in Yemen and killed two American citizens who had become central figures in al-Qaida.
It was believed to be the first instance in which a U.S. citizen was tracked and executed based on secret intelligence and the president's say-so. And it raised major questions about the limitations of presidential power.
Anwar al-Awlaki, the target of the U.S. drone attack, was one of the best-known al-Qaida figures after Osama bin Laden. American intelligence officials had linked him to two nearly catastrophic attacks on U.S.-bound planes, an airliner on Christmas 2009 and cargo planes last year. The second American killed in the drone attack, Samir Kahn, was the editor of Inspire, a slick online magazine aimed at al-Qaida sympathizers in the West.
Late Friday, two U.S. officials said intelligence indicated that the top al-Qaida bomb-maker in Yemen also died in the strike. Ibrahim al-Asiri is the bomb-maker linked to the bomb hidden in the underwear of a Nigerian man accused of trying to blow up a plane over Detroit on Christmas Day 2009.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because al-Asiri's death has not officially been confirmed.
Authorities also believe he built the bombs that al-Qaida slipped into printers and shipped to the U.S. last year in a nearly catastrophic attack.
Christopher Boucek, a scholar who studies Yemen and al-Qaida, said al-Asiri was so important to the organization that his death would "overshadow" the news of al-Awlaki and Khan.
In announcing al-Awlaki's death, Obama said, "Al-Qaida and its affiliates will find no safe haven anywhere in the world."
"Working with Yemen and our other allies and partners, we will be determined, we will be deliberate, we will be relentless, we will be resolute in our commitment to destroy terrorist networks that aim to kill Americansm" he said.
Republicans and Democrats alike applauded the decision to launch the fatal assault on the convoy in Yemen.

SORRY THE VIDEO THAT CAME WITH THIS STORY IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE!!!

"It's something we had to do," said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. "The president is showing leadership. The president is showing guts."
"It's legal," said Maryland Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. "It's legitimate and we're taking out someone who has attempted to attack us on numerous occasions. And he was on that list."
That list is the roster of people the White House has authorized the CIA and Pentagon to kill or capture as terrorists. The evidence against them almost always is classified. Targets never know for sure they are on the list, though some surely wouldn't be surprised.
The list has included dozens of names, from little-known mid-level figures in the wilds of Pakistan to bin Laden, who was killed in his compound in a comfortable Pakistani suburb.
Before al-Awlaki, no American had been on the list.
But the legal process that led to his death was set in motion a decade ago. On Sept. 17, 2001, President George W. Bush signed a presidential order authorizing the CIA to hunt down terrorists worldwide. The authority was rooted in his power as commander in chief, leading a nation at war with al-Qaida.
The order made no distinction between foreigners and U.S. citizens. If they posed a "continuing and imminent threat" to the United States, they were eligible to be killed, former intelligence officials said.
The order was reviewed by top lawyers at the White House, CIA and Justice Department. With the ruins of the World Trade Center still smoking, there was little discussion about whether U.S. citizens should have more protection, the officials recalled, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter. The feeling was that the government needed — and had — broad authority to find and kill terrorists who were trying to strike the U.S.
The CIA first faced the issue in November 2002, when it launched a Predator drone attack in Yemen. An American terror suspect who had fled there, Kamal Derwish, was killed by Hellfire missiles launched on his caravan.
The Bush administration said Derwish wasn't the target. The attack was intended for Yemeni al-Qaida leader Abu Ali al-Harithi. But officials said even then that, if it ever came to it, they had the authority to kill an American.
"I can assure you that no constitutional questions are raised here. There are authorities that the president can give to officials," Condoleezza Rice, Bush's national security adviser, said. "He's well within the balance of accepted practice and the letter of his constitutional authority."
Al-Awlaki had not then emerged as a leading al-Qaida figure. Before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the New Mexico-born cleric had been a preacher at the northern Virginia mosque attended briefly by two hijackers. He was interviewed but never charged by the FBI.
But at the CIA, the officers in charge of finding targets knew it was only a matter of time before they would set the Predator drone's high-definition sights on an American.
"We knew at some point there would have to be a straight call made on this," one former senior intelligence official said.
It was Obama who ultimately made that call.
After the failed Christmas bombing, the Nigerian suspect told the FBI that he had met with al-Awlaki and said he was instrumental in the plot. Al-Awlaki had also called for attacks on Americans and had attended meetings with senior al-Qaida leaders in Yemen. Al-Awlaki had gone from an inspirational figure to an operational leader, officials said.
In April 2010, the White House added al-Awlaki's name to the kill-or-capture list. Senior administration officials said they reviewed the Bush administration's executive order and discussed the ramifications of putting an American on the list but said it was a short conversation. They concluded that the president had the authority, both under the congressional declaration of war against al-Qaida and international law.
"Anwar al-Awlaki is acting as a regional commander for al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters in August 2010.
What if the U.S. was wrong, Gibbs was asked, what recourse does a citizen have to save himself? The CIA had misidentified and imprisoned the wrong person before. Gibbs sidestepped the question.
The U.S. has been inconsistent in how it describes al-Awlaki. The Treasury Department called him a leader of al-Qaida in Yemen. FBI Director Robert Mueller called him the leader. On Friday, Obama called him "the leader of external operations," the first time he has been described that way.
When word leaked out that al-Awlaki's name was on the list, his family rushed to court to try to stop the government from killing him, saying he had to be afforded the constitutional right to due process.
The idea of killing an American citizen provided critics with fodder for all sorts of comparisons showing the peculiarities of national security law and policy. The government could not listen to al-Awlaki's phone calls without a judge's approval, for instance, but could kill him on the president's say-so. The Obama administration opposed imprisoning terrorist suspects without due process but supported killing them without due process.
"If the Constitution means anything, it surely means that the president does not have unreviewable authority to summarily execute any American whom he concludes is an enemy of the state," ACLU lawyer Ben Wizner said Friday.
U.S. District Judge John Bates refused to intervene in al-Awlaki's case.
"This court recognizes the somewhat unsettling nature of its conclusion — that there are circumstances in which the executive's unilateral decision to kill a U.S. citizen overseas is 'constitutionally committed to the political branches' and judicially unreviewable," Bates wrote. "But this case squarely presents such a circumstance."
Like Derwish years ago, Khan, a North Carolina native, was called collateral damage in the drone attack, not the target.
Al-Awlaki may have been the perfect test case for the government. His sermons in English are posted all over the Internet and his name has been associated with several attempted terrorist attacks. In the intelligence community, many regarded him as a bigger threat than bin Laden because of his ability to inspire Westerners and his focus on attacking the U.S.
But in taking this step, the Obama administration raised questions about whom else the president has the authority to kill. In principle, such an attack could probably not happen inside the United States because the CIA is forbidden from operating here and the military is limited in what operations it can carry out domestically. But civil rights groups have questioned whether the government has opened the door to that possibility.
At the White House, spokesman Jay Carney refused to even acknowledge the government's direct role in killing al-Awlaki. He repeatedly ducked questions about the extent of Obama's authority and said only that al-Awlaki had been an operational leader for al-Qaida.
"Is there going to be any evidence presented?" Carney was asked.
"You know, I don't have anything for you on that," he responded.
King, the Republican lawmaker, said it was necessary that the president to have the authority to act against those at war with the U.S. And it was no secret to the public, he said, that al-Awlaki was at war. But he acknowledged that it set a precedent that could make people uncomfortable.
"There could be a situation where nobody knows the evidence, where you're relying on the government to say what its intelligence is," King said. "With al-Awlaki, it was clear-cut. He made it a clear call."
___
Associated Press writers Kimberly Dozier and Adam Goldman in Washington and Brian Witte in Annapolis, Md., contributed to this report.
Follow Matt Apuzzo at http://twitter.com/mattapuzzo

With al-Awlaki dead, al-Qaida lacks Western voice


With al-Awlaki dead, al-Qaida lacks Western voice


The killings of U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and another American al-Qaida propagandist in a U.S. airstrike Friday wipe out the decisive factor that made the terrorist group's Yemen branch the most dangerous threat to the United States: its reach into the West.

US strike kills American al-Qaida cleric in Yemen:


US strike kills American al-Qaida cleric in Yemen


In a significant new blow to al-Qaida, U.S. airstrikes in Yemen on Friday killed Anwar al-Awlaki, an American militant cleric who became a prominent figure in the terror network's most dangerous branch, using his fluent English and Internet savvy to draw recruits for attacks in the United States.

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Iranian Navy May Threaten U.S. East Coast:

Iranian Navy May Threaten U.S. East Coast;


  • tweet1


  • Share3


  • Email


  • Print


  • The U.S. Navy has a new threat coming its way, and this time it will be right off the U.S. Atlantic coast.

    The head of the Iranian Navy, Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari, told the official news agency IRNA that Iran expects to deploy ships off the coast of the U.S. Sayyari did not specify what type or how many ships, nor did he suggest when such a deployment would occur, but the Iranian navy only recently sent ships through the Suez Canal for the first time. They are believed to have extremely limited blue water capabilities.
    The U.S. Navy consists of 281 warships of various sizes -- the largest blue water military force in the world -- and does not include substantial Coast Guard assets that protect the U.S. coastline or any ships that are used for coastal defense only. In other words, Iranian naval forces have little capability to directly threaten the U.S. now or in the foreseeable future. Rightfully, the U.S. had no immediate comment about the threat.
    By contrast, the Iranian navy is basically a coastal defense force, with an marine force that GlobalSecurity describes as "outdated and in need of substantial modernization" and little ability to support an extended deployment across the Atlantic Ocean. They have no refueling capabilities. No foreign bases. No treaties that grant naval port calls in a foreign harbor.
    While no specific numbers are available on Iranian ship composition or numbers, they are not believed possess any significant number of ocean capable ships -- let alone anything that could pose a threat to U.S. cities from the sea. Sayyari's threat is more baseless propaganda from the Islamic Republic and gains nothing in the global community.
    It is precisely this type of posturing that keeps Iran and the U.S. from ever beginning to normalize diplomatic relations. These military threats, along with the constant U.S. bashing by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in public speeches and international forums only widens the gulf of political differences between the long-term adversaries.
    There have been no formal diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Iran since the 1979 overthrow of the Shah of Iran's government and the seizing of the American embassy in Tehran. That's a long time to hold a grudge on both sides. Despite a long war, the U.S. and Vietnam were able to re-establish diplomatic relations and have since become strong trading partners. That will not happen with Iran until the threats stop.

    Could model airplanes become a terrorist weapon?:

    Could model airplanes become a terrorist weapon?

    BOSTON (AP) — Model airplanes are suddenly on the public's radar as potential terrorist weapons. A 26-year-old man from a Boston suburb was arrested Wednesday and accused of plotting to attack the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol with remote-controlled model planes packed with explosives.
    These are not balsa-wood-and-rubber-band toys investigators are talking about. The FBI said Rezwan Ferdaus hoped to use military-jet replicas, 5 to 7 1/2 feet long, guided by GPS devices and capable of speeds over 100 mph.
    Federal officials have long been aware of the possibility someone might try to use such planes as weapons, but there are no restrictions on their purchase — Ferdaus is said to have bought his over the Internet.
    Counterterrorism experts and model-aircraft hobbyists said it would be nearly impossible to inflict large-scale damage of the sort Ferdaus allegedly envisioned using model planes. The aircraft are too small, can't carry enough explosives and are too tricky to fly, they said.
    "The idea of pushing a button and this thing diving into the Pentagon is kind of a joke, actually," said Greg Hahn, technical director of the Academy of Model Aeronautics.
    Rick Nelson, a former Navy helicopter pilot who is now a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Ferdaus would have had to hit a window or other vulnerable area to maximize damage, and that would have taken precision flying.
    "Flying a remote-controlled plane isn't as easy as it actually looks, and then to put an explosive on it and have that explosive detonate at the time and place that you want it add to the difficulty of actually doing it," he said.
    Ferdaus, a Muslim American from Ashland, was arrested after federal agents posing as al-Qaida members delivered what he believed was 24 pounds of C-4 explosive, authorities said. He was charged with attempting to damage or destroy a federal building with explosives. A federal affidavit claims he began planning "jihad" against the U.S. in early 2010 after becoming convinced through jihadi websites and videos that America was evil.
    Ferdaus had a physics degree from Northeastern University and enjoyed "taking stuff apart" and "learning on my own," according to court papers.
    The model planes Ferdaus eyed were the F-4 Phantom and the F-86 Sabre, small-scale versions of military jets, investigators said. The F-4 is the more expensive of the two, at up to $20,000, Hahn said. The F-86, one of which Ferdaus actually obtained, costs $6,000 to $10,000 new.
    Ferdaus' plan, as alleged in court papers, was to launch three such planes from a park near the Pentagon and Capitol and use GPS to direct them toward the buildings, where they would detonate on impact and blow the Capitol dome to "smithereens." He planned to pack five pounds of plastic explosives on each plane, according to prosecutors.
    James Crippin, an explosives and anti-terrorism expert, said that much C-4 could do serious damage — a half-pound will obliterate a car. But he said getting a stable explosive like C-4 to blow up at the right time would have been hugely difficult.
    And there were slim prospects of causing any serious damage to buildings like the Pentagon and Capitol, which are undoubtedly hardened to withstand explosions, according to Crippin, director of the Western Forensic Law Enforcement Training Center.
    "Basically, I think he's suffering from delusions of grandeur," he said.
    Hahn said the heavier of the two models Ferdaus was allegedly planning to use could carry a maximum of two pounds of plastic explosive before malfunctioning. That's not including the weight of any GPS system, he added.
    "It's almost impossible for him to get this done," he said.
    Remote-controlled aircraft have been considered by terrorists before. In 2008, Christopher Paul of Worthington, Ohio, a Columbus suburb, pleaded guilty to plotting terrorist attacks in the U.S. and Europe using explosive devices. Prosecutors said he researched remote-controlled boats and a remote-controlled 5-foot-long helicopter.
    And after Sept. 11, federal agents asked the Academy of Model Aeronautics' 143,000 members to watch for any fellow enthusiasts who might be buying planes with bad intentions.
    Well before the Massachusetts arrest, police in Montgomery County, Md., put out a terrorist warning to hobby shops to be aware of customers "who don't appear to be hobbyists" buying model airplanes with cash and asking how they can be modified to carry a device.
    The Federal Aviation Administration is devising new rules for model airplanes and other unmanned aircraft, but the restrictions are aimed primarily at preventing collisions. Under current FAA rules, such planes are generally limited to flying below 400 feet and away from airports and air traffic.
    Massachusetts prosecutor Gerry Leone, who handled the prosecution of would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid, said terrorists are always building bombs out of common, legitimate items, and imposing restrictions on buying model aircraft would not make sense simply because of this one case.
    But he said law enforcement might want be more vigilant about such purchases.
    Similarly, Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said recent advances in model airplane technology could make them more attractive to terrorists. But he said the answer is better intelligence, not trying to regulate hobbyists and their toys.
    "Kids have them, people fly them, groups are organized just to engage in this type of pastime activity," the congressman said. "It would be almost impossible to regulate the little engines and things, propellers."
    ___
    Associated Press writers Denise Lavoie in Boston and Chris Hawley in New York and AP broadcast correspondent Sagar Meghani in Washington contributed to this report.

    Frank and Louie, the cat with two faces

    In this Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2011 photo, a cat with two faces, named Frank and Louie, one name for each face, is held by the cats owner, who identified herself only as Marty, at their home in Worcestenext


    Facebook TV Show Stars You & Your Friends:

    Facebook TV Show Stars You & Your Friends:
      Warner Bros. will launch an experimental live-action show next month that will run exclusively on Facebook and incorporate information from your profile to put you and your friends into select scenes.
      The show, called Aim High, is story of a young man who is a high school student by day and a government operative by night. McG, of Charlie's Angels fame, will direct the series, which makes its debut on October 18 on Facebook and Cambio.com.
      Claiming to be the first-ever "social series" by a Hollywood studio, Aim High will employ Facebook technology so that your photos, friends and other information in your profile shows up in the background scenes. It's a feature that has been used by Mentos, and True Blood, among others. For example, in some scenes, your photo might appear in a student body election poster and your name might be scrawled in graffiti on the bathroom wall. Viewers can also share comments and tweets about the show.
      While more networks are trying their hand at so-called transmedia storytelling, using Facebook as a test bed for new properties may be smart. But incorporating profile data could distract from the action more than it adds to it.
      Would you watch a show on Facebook? Does the profile info angle interest you? Let us know in the comments.
      This story originally published on Mashable here.

      Wednesday, September 28, 2011

      Guard describes scene in room where Jackson found:P


      Guard describes scene in room where Jackson found


      The last days of Michael Jackson's life were filled with the adulation of fans, a rehearsal performance onlookers described as amazing and intense preparations for his big comeback in London.

      Do You Suffer From The Disease, NoAssatoll,Now There Is Help:


      Extreme Plastic Surgery: 'I Want Pippa's Butt'

      5 hrs ago
      ABC News 5:56 | 300 views
      Andrea Canning follows a woman through ordeal of getting a "Pippa

      Cantaloupe outbreak is deadliest in a decade:

      4 Americans get pot from US government:

       4 Americans get pot from US government;

      EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — Sometime after midnight on a moonlit rural Oregon highway, a state trooper checking a car he had just pulled over found less than an ounce of pot on one passenger: A chatty 72-year-old woman blind in one eye.
      She insisted the weed was legal and was approved by the U.S. government.
      The trooper and his supervisor were doubtful. But after a series of calls to the U.S. Attorney's Office, the Drug Enforcement Agency and her physician, the troopers handed her back the card — and her pot.
      For the past three decades, Uncle Sam has been providing a handful of patients with some of the highest grade marijuana around. The program grew out of a 1976 court settlement that created the country's first legal pot smoker.
      Advocates for legalizing marijuana or treating it as a medicine say the program is a glaring contradiction in the nation's 40-year war on drugs — maintaining the federal ban on pot while at the same time supplying it.
      Government officials say there is no contradiction. The program is no longer accepting new patients, and public health authorities have concluded that there was no scientific value to it, Steven Gust of the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse told The Associated Press.
      At one point, 14 people were getting government pot. Now, there are four left.
      The government has only continued to supply the marijuana "for compassionate reasons," Gust said.
      One of the recipients is Elvy Musikka, the chatty Oregon woman. A vocal marijuana advocate, Musikka relies on the pot to keep her glaucoma under control. She entered the program in 1988, and said that her experience with marijuana is proof that it works as a medicine.
      They "won't acknowledge the fact that I do not have even one aspirin in this house," she said, leaning back on her couch, glass bong cradled in her hand. "I have no pain."
      Marijuana is getting a look from states around the country considering calls to repeal decades-old marijuana prohibition laws. There are 16 states that have medical marijuana programs. In the three West Coast states, advocates are readying tax-and-sell or other legalization programs.
      Marijuana was legal for much of U.S. history and was recognized as a medicine in 1850. Opposition to it began to gather and, by 1936, 48 states had passed laws regulating pot, fearing it could lead to addiction.
      Anti-marijuana literature and films, like the infamous "Reefer Madness," helped fan those fears. Eventually, pot was classified among the most harmful of drugs, meaning it had no usefulness and a high potential for addiction.
      In 1976, a federal judge ruled that the Food and Drug Administration must provide Robert Randall of Washington, D.C. with marijuana because of his glaucoma — no other drug could effectively combat his condition. Randall became the nation's first legal pot smoker since the drug's prohibition.
      Eventually, the government created its program as part of a compromise over Randall's care in 1978, long before a single state passed a medical marijuana law. What followed were a series of petitions from people like Musikka to join the program.
      President George H.W. Bush's administration, getting tough on crime and drugs, stopped accepting new patients in 1992. Many of the patients who had qualified had AIDS, and they were dying.
      The AP asked the agency that administers the program, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, for documents showing how much marijuana has been sent to patients since the first patient in 1976.
      The agency supplied full data for 2005-2011, which showed that during that period the federal government distributed more than 100 pounds of high-grade marijuana to patients.
      Agency officials said records related to the program before 2005 had been destroyed, but were able to provide scattered records for a couple of years in the early 2000s.
      The four patients remaining in the program estimate they have received a total of 584 pounds from the federal government over the years. On the street, that would be worth more than $500,000.
      All of the marijuana comes from the University of Mississippi, where it is grown, harvested and stored.
      Dr. Mahmoud ElSohly, who directs the operation, said the marijuana was a small part of the crop the university has been growing since 1968 for all cannabis research in the U.S. Among the studies are the pharmaceutical uses for synthetic mimics of pot's psychoactive ingredient, THC.
      ElSohly said the four patients are getting pot with about 3 percent THC. He said 3 percent is about the range patients have preferred in blind tests.
      The marijuana is then sent from Mississippi to a tightly controlled North Carolina lab, where they are rolled into cigarettes. And every month, steel tins with white labels are sent to Florida and Iowa. Packed inside each is a half-pound of marijuana rolled into 300 perfectly-wrapped joints.
      With Musikka living in Oregon, she is entitled to more legal pot than anyone in the nation because she's also enrolled in the state's medical marijuana program. Neither Iowa nor Florida has approved marijuana as a medicine, so the federal pot is the only legal access to the drug for the other three patients.
      The three other people in the program range in ages and doses of marijuana provided to them, but all consider themselves an endangered species that, once extinct, can be brushed aside by a federal government that pretends they don't exist.
      All four have become crusaders for the marijuana-legalization movement. They're rock stars at pro-marijuana conferences, sought-after speakers and recognizable celebrities in the movement.
      Irv Rosenfeld, a financial adviser in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., has been in the program since November 1982. His condition produces painful bone tumors, but he said marijuana has replaced prescription painkillers.
      Rosenfeld likes to tell this story: In the mid-1980s, the federal government asked his doctor for an update on how Rosenfeld was doing. It was an update the doctor didn't believe the government was truly interested in. He had earlier tried to get a copy of the previous update, and was told the government couldn't find it, Rosenfeld said.
      So instead of filling out the form, the doctor responded with a simple sentence written in large, red letters: "It's working."

      5 severed heads found in Mexico resort of Acapulco

      5 severed heads found in Mexico resort of Acapulco:

      ACAPULCO, Mexico (AP) — Mexican police have found five severed heads in front of a primary school in the Pacific coast resort of Acapulco.
      It's unclear whether the gruesome discovery is related to extortion threats that led about 140 elementary schools in the city to close temporarily earlier this month after teachers and parents decided it wasn't safe enough to start classes.
      State police say the five heads were found early Tuesday in a sack, along with a handwritten message threatening three alleged drug traffickers.
      The heads all appear to be of men. But some of the five headless bodies found elsewhere in the city a day earlier were too badly burned to immediately determine their gender.

      Ex-NBA player Crittenton released from jail on murder charge:

       Ex-NBA player Crittenton released from jail on murder charge
    • Former Los Angeles Lakers guard Javaris Crittenton appears in Los Angeles Superior …


    • ATLANTA (Reuters) - Former professional basketball player Javaris Crittenton, accused of killing a young mother of four in a drive-by shooting in Georgia, was released from jail on a $230,000 bond early on Wednesday, authorities said.

      Crittenton, 23, left jail at 12:15 a.m. local time, said Tracy Flanagan, spokeswoman for the Fulton County Sheriff's Office.

      A judge on Tuesday ordered Crittenton to wear an ankle monitor while awaiting trial on a murder charge, as well as requiring him to surrender his passport and firearms license and avoid contact with any witnesses in the case.

      Crittenton was arrested at a Southern California airport last month as he prepared to check in for a flight to Atlanta to turn himself in to authorities.

      He is accused of the August 19 slaying of 22-year-old Julian Jones, who witnesses said was gunned down in Atlanta with an assault rifle by someone driving a dark-colored sport utility vehicle, according to the FBI.

      Atlanta police have said they do not believe Jones was Crittenton's intended victim but would not elaborate on the case.

      Crittenton was drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers in 2007 and played two seasons in the National Basketball Association, ending his career with the Washington Wizards after a stint in Memphis, according to the league website. He played college basketball at Georgia Tech in Atlanta.

      In January 2010, the NBA suspended Crittenton and Wizards teammate Gilbert Arenas without pay for the rest of the season for bringing guns into the locker room after a dispute over a poker game on a flight home from a game.

      Crittenton pleaded guilty to a criminal charge and received one year of probation over that incident.

      (Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Jerry Norton)

    • Amazon unveils Kindle Fire tablet:

        Come one Come all, now is the time to get that Kindle Reader you always wanted.
      Amazon has unveiled the lowest sale on Kindle Readers ever, if you always wanted one, but the prise
      was a little to high, now is the time to get one or two. It will make a great gift for that special loved one. Click the picture to go to My Amazon Store NOW to get in on this amazing sale today, Hurry!!!
      before the sale is over, remember  Christmas is coming up quickly, make it a special Christmas for
      your Loved One with a Kindle Reader!!!

      To Show And Tell, Or Not To Show And Tell;Osama bin Laden Death Photo's

      US tells court bin Laden photos must stay secret:
      WASHINGTON (AP) — Public disclosure of graphic photos and video taken of Osama bin Laden after he was killed in May by U.S. commandos would damage national security and lead to attacks on American property and personnel, the Obama administration contends in a court documents.
      In a response late Monday to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group seeking the imagery, Justice Department attorneys said the CIA has located 52 photographs and video recordings. But they argued the images of the deceased bin Laden are classified and are being withheld from the public to avoid inciting violence against Americans overseas and compromising secret systems and techniques used by the CIA and the military.
      The Justice Department has asked the court to dismiss Judicial Watch's lawsuit because the records the group wants are "wholly exempt from disclosure," according to the filing.
      Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, accused the Obama administration of making a "political decision" to keep the bin Laden imagery secret. "We shouldn't throw out our transparency laws because complying with them might offend terrorists," Fitton said in a statement. "The historical record of Osama bin Laden's death should be released to the American people as the law requires."
      The Associated Press has filed Freedom of Information Act requests to review a range of materials, such as contingency plans for bin Laden's capture, reports on the performance of equipment during the May 1 assault on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and copies of DNA tests confirming the al-Qaida leader's identity. The AP also has asked for video and photographs taken from the mission, including photos made of bin Laden after he was killed.
      The Obama administration refused AP's request to quickly consider its request for the records. AP appealed the decision, arguing that unnecessary bureaucratic delays harm the public interest and allow anonymous U.S. officials to selectively leak details of the mission. Without expedited processing, requests for sensitive materials can be delayed for months and even years. The AP submitted its request to the Pentagon less than one day after bin Laden's death.
      In a declaration included in the documents, John Bennett, director of the CIA's National Clandestine Service, said many of the photos and video recordings are "quite graphic, as they depict the fatal bullet wound to (bin Laden) and other similarly gruesome images of his corpse." Images were taken of bin Laden's body at the Abbottabad compound, where he was killed by a Navy SEAL team, and during his burial at sea from the USS Carl Vinson, Bennett said.
      "The public release of the responsive records would provide terrorist groups and other entities hostile to the United States with information to create propaganda which, in turn, could be used to recruit, raise funds, inflame tensions, or rally support for causes and actions that reasonably could be expected to result in exceptionally grave damage to both the national defense and foreign relations of the United States," Bennett wrote.
      Navy Adm. William McRaven, the top officer at U.S. Special Operations Command, said in a separate declaration that releasing the imagery could put the special operations team that carried out the assault on bin Laden's compound at risk by making them "more readily identifiable in the future." Before his current assignment, McRaven led the Joint Special Operations Command, the organization in charge of the military specialized counterterrorism units.

      Tuesday, September 27, 2011

      Obama proposes letting the jobless sue for discrimination:

      Obama proposes letting the jobless sue for discrimination:

      Job fair attendees look over a recruiting table. AP Photo/Nick Ut
      Advocates for the unemployed have cheered a push by the Obama administration to ban discrimination against the jobless. But business groups and their allies are calling the effort unnecessary and counterproductive.
      The job creation bill that President Obama sent to Congress earlier this month includes a provision that would allow unsuccessful job applicants to sue if they think a company of 15 more employees denied them a job because they were unemployed.
      The provision would ban employment ads that explicitly declare the unemployed ineligible, with phrases like "Jobless need not apply." As The Lookout has reported, such ads appear to have proliferated in recent years, prompting an inquiry by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
      Democratic lawmakers in both the House and the Senate have introduced similar measures. Obama said recently that discrimination against the unemployed makes "absolutely no sense," especially because many people find themselves out of work through no fault of their own.
      Advocates for employers oppose the proposed ban. "We do not see a need for it," Michael Eastman of the Chamber of Commerce told the New York Times.
      Lawrence Lorber, a labor law specialist who represents employers, told the paper the president's proposal "opens another avenue of employment litigation and nuisance lawsuits."
      Louie Gohmert, a Republican representative from Texas, went further. He told the Times that the proposal would send the following message: "If you're unemployed and you go to apply for a job, and you're not hired for that job, see a lawyer. You may be able to file a claim because you got discriminated against because you were unemployed."
      The current downturn is characterized by a relatively low rate of layoffs, but still high unemployment. Many of the jobless have been out of work for an extended period. Around 14 million Americans are officially unemployed, of whom more than 6 million are considered "long-term unemployed," because they've been out of work for six months or more. The average duration of joblessness is currently 40 weeks, the highest in more than 60 years.
      There is evidence that when people are out of work for an extended period, their skills atrophy and it becomes increasingly difficult for them to find new work.
      Earlier this year, New Jersey passed a bill banning ads that tell the jobless not to apply. But it did not go as far as Obama's proposal, because it didn't explicitly allow workers to sue if they thought they were denied a job because they were unemployed.

      Saturday, September 24, 2011

      OUTCH, OUTCH, OUTCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      Calif. woman pleads not guilty in penis slicing:

      WESTMINSTER, Calif. (AP) — A California woman has pleaded not guilty to cutting off her estranged husband's penis and running it through a garbage disposal.
      Catherine Kieu entered the plea in Orange County Superior Court Friday to charges of torture and aggravated mayhem with sentencing enhancements for great bodily injury and use of a knife.
      If convicted of all counts, she could face life in prison without parole. She's being held on $1 million bail.
      Authorities say Kieu spiked her 60-year-old husband's tofu dinner on July 11, then tied his hands and feet to the bed after he went to lie down. Authorities say Kieu cut off his penis as he woke.
      Kieu's husband had filed for divorce in May after 16 months of marriage. And again, O U T C H !!!!!!!!

      Friday, September 23, 2011

      The 13 Most Embarrassing Arrests in NFL History:

      The 13 Most Embarrassing Arrests in NFL History

      By (Featured Columnist) on July 18, 2011

      139k reads
      24
      Use your ← → (arrow) keys to browse more stories
      Previous
      1 of 14
      Next
      Bigshaun_display_image
      When an NFL player gets arrested, it is guaranteed to make headlines across the nation. When that athlete has gotten arrested for something embarrassing, it will forever be remembered.
      As someone who has never shot myself in the leg or attempted to urinate in the middle of a dance floor, I can honestly say I have no idea what the following players were thinking. In fact, upon further review, I am fairly confident that they weren't thinking.
      Some say that you need to be extremely intelligent to play in the NFL. I have proof that isn't always the case (no pun intended).
      Here are the 13 most embarrassing arrests in NFL history.
      Begin Slideshow