Osama bin Laden typically wore a cowboy hat while tending his garden. Its broad brim obscured his features from the view of pesky eyes or satellite cameras that might blow his cover while he was hiding out in Pakistan, according to a report first published widely in Pakistani media. The 337-page leaked report details the domestic life of one of the world’s most wanted men in his final days of life. It also bashes Pakistani authorities for failing to keep the al Qaeda leader out of the country
Author: mediahitman
The nuclear power plant chief who led the life-risking battle to stabilize the cripple Fukushima reactors when they were spiraling into meltdowns two years ago has died of esophageal cancer. He was 58. Masao Yoshida died Tuesday in a Tokyo hospital, Tokyo Electric Power Co. spokesman Yoshimi Hitosugi said. TEPCO officials said his illness was not related to radiation exposure.
Today’s Wall Street Journal reports another infuriating example of universities betraying their key role in the dissemination of knowledge and becoming just another greedy content provider. (The converse of this, I guess…) Apparently some universities now cut deals with publishers to sponsor “custom” versions of textbooks and then require their students to purchase those special editions. I certainly don’t see anything wrong with teachers assembling custom coursepacks of materials for their classes (sometimes it can even save students’ money if it replaces a costly textbook).
By Shereen Dindar For the first time in history Mexico has surpassed the United States in becoming the world’s most obese nation, says a new United Nations report. Nearly a third (32.8 per cent) of Mexican adults aged 20 and older are considered obese, which narrowly surpasses the 31.8 per cent of obese American adults.
By Ryan Gallagher Drones in the United States are currently only authorized to be used for surveillance purposes. But that hasn’t stopped the Department of Homeland Security from considering weaponizing its unmanned aircraft so they can “immobilize” targets in border areas. Newly released documents, dated 2010, show that the DHS’s Customs and Border Protection arm has weighed the possibility of adding “non-lethal weapons” to its Predator unmanned aircraft, which are currently used predominantly to monitor border zones in Arizona and Texas. The documents, obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation
Deals brokered between federal agents and foreign corporations have allowed the United States government to easily intercept and interpret a vast swath of communication data sent around the world, new documents reveal. In a National Security Agency slideshow obtained by The Washington Post and attributed to NSA leaker Edward Snowden, the US government encouraged analysts to tap into an array of underwater, fiber-optic cables that serve as conduits for around 99 percent of the world’s Internet and phone traffic.
The Dallas law office representing a State Department whistleblower was broken into and robbed during the first weekend of July. Three computers were stolen and the firm’s file cabinets had been searched, but valuables were left untouched. “It’s a crazy, strange and suspicious situation,” attorney Cary Schulman of the Schulman & Mathias law office told Foreign Policy Magazine’s The Cable.
The nation’s top special operations commander ordered military files about the Navy SEAL raid on Osama bin Laden’s hideout to be purged from Defense Department computers and sent to the CIA, where they could be more easily shielded from ever being made public. The secret move, described briefly in a draft report by the Pentagon’s inspector general, set off no alarms within the Obama administration even though it appears to have sidestepped federal rules and perhaps also the Freedom of Information Act.
Police in Washington, DC currently have hundreds of surveillance cameras deployed across the nation’s capital, but law enforcement is looking to get real time access in order to put the entire city on constant watch. The District of Columbia’s vast surveillance system currently allows officers of the law to look at recorded footage from over 150 speed cameras, 50 red light lenses and more than 120 other closed-circuit television cams, with feeds relatively easy for the Metropolitan Police Department to both request and receive.
By Jane Slaughter Many people know NAFTA has cost U.S. workers 700,000 jobs. But how many know another effect was to drive Mexican small farmers out of business? In the brave new world of free trade, Costco makes tortilla chips and salsa in the U.S. and trucks them to its stores in Mexico. Congress will soon debate whether to “fast-track” a trade deal that would make job-killers like NAFTA look puny. The Trans-Pacific Partnership would give corporations the right to sue national governments if they passed any law, regulation, or court ruling interfering with a corporation’s “expected future profits.”
A Louisiana man died after contracting flesh-eating bacteria while fishing in the Gulf of Mexico. The Town Talk reports the bacteria known as Vibria vulnificus – which is found in warm seawater – killed the 83-year-old man after his open wound got infected when water splashed on him during a fishing trip.
The Internal Revenue Service mistakenly exposed as many as 2,319 Social Security numbers by posting them on the Internet, which a California-based archivist discovered last week. The IRS has already come under scrutiny for targeting conservative political groups more frequently for audits and wasting millions of dollars on luxury hotels, alcohol, parody videos and tickets to sports games. The latest allegations against the IRS serve as further embarrassment to an agency that has been under fire for months.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has confirmed that his country received an official request for asylum from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden on Monday. This comes after Nicaragua received his asylum application at its Moscow embassy. “We received a letter requesting asylum” from Snowden, revealed Maduro, during a press conference prior to a meeting with Panama’s president, Ricardo Martinelli. The fugitive “will need to decide when he will fly here,” added the Venezuelan head of state.
An insurance company currently providing coverage for the vast majority of Kansas school districts is refusing to renew coverage for schools permitting teachers and custodians to carry concealed firearms. The EMC Insurance Cos., which presently insures 85 to 90 per cent of Kansas school districts, along with the smaller Continental Western Group, has found that a new state law allowing holders of concealed carry permits to bring concealed weapons into public buildings, conflicts with standing policy that only qualified personnel be armed on school premises.
It’s just sad how easily he got people to sign without questioning anything. It’s really unbelievable!
Egypt is to vote on a new parliament in six months, after amendments to the constitution are approved in a referendum. This is outlined in interim leader Adly Mansour’s new decree. The decree has allowed a four-and-a-half month period for any amendments to the former constitution, which was suspended after the overthrow of the country’s former president, Mohammed Morsi, amid mass protests.
US fugitive Edward Snowden has accused Germany and the US of partnering in spy intelligence operations, revealing that cooperation between the countries is closer than German indignation would indicate, Der Spiegel magazine reported. “They are in bed with the Germans, just like with most other Western states,” the German magazine quotes Snowden as saying, adding that the NSA’s has a Foreign Affairs Directorate which is responsible for cooperation with other countries.
Prison doctors in California sterilized nearly 150 female inmates during the course of four years without ever obtaining proper approval from the state, a new investigation reveals. According to The Center for Investigative Reporting, at least 148 women at a pair of state penitentiaries received tubal litigations during the period of 2006 through 2010, yet officials in charge of authorizing those surgeries neglected to sign off in approval.