Free Republic

Lawyer: Fake Utah drilling bids were 'sabotage'Posted: Wednesday, March 2, 2011 12:00 am SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Tim DeChristopher, ex-wilderness guide, looked like trouble. He stood out among the bidders at an oil-and-gas lease auction. He didn't bring with him any experts, diagrams or maps. Dressed shabbily, all he had was a backpack. As his fellow environmentalists protested outside, he began bidding. When it was all over, he owed $1.7 million on more than a dozen leases near Utah's Arches and Canyonlands national parks. He had no way of paying, no doubt that he would get in trouble and...

There's been virtually no reliable information coming out of Tripoli, but a source close to the Gaddafi regime I did manage to get hold of told me the already terrible situation in Libya will get much worse. Among other things, Gaddafi has ordered security services to start sabotaging oil facilities. They will start by blowing up several oil pipelines, cutting off flow to Mediterranean ports. The sabotage, according to the insider, is meant to serve as a message to Libya's rebellious tribes: It's either me or chaos. Two weeks ago this same man had told me the uprisings in Tunisia...

One of us had to do this, right? Here are, in order, Putative President Obama's State of the Union Address, Rep. Paul Ryan's (WI) official GOP response, and that of Rep. Michele Bachmann (MN) for the Tea Party (Express). I meant for my comments to be very sparing, but succeeded in making them very atypical. As you know, these speeches are about what politicians sort of think they can get away with, before the public, the media, and even the twittering tongues and tingling legs of the pundits. In other words, they are conventional and sanitized, to say the...

Mayor Bloomberg will order a probe into allegations that Sanitation Department told drivers to snarl the cleanup effort to protest budget cuts, saying this morning it "would be an outrage" if workers intentionally did not clear streets.

A train carrying birthday presents for Kim Jong-un, chosen successor to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, was derailed, a radio station that broadcasts into North Korea said yesterday. “A cargo train that left Sinuiju for Pyongyang on Dec. 11 was derailed somewhere between Yomju Station and Tongnim Station,” a source within North Korea’s National Security Agency was quoted as saying by Open Radio for North Korea. Sinuiju, a port city on the Chinese border, and Yomju and Tongnim are in North Pyongan Province, northwest of the North Korean capital city of Pyongyang. “That incident put the North’s National Security Agency...

12/27/10 SEOUL -- A train packed with birthday gifts for North Korea's leader-in-waiting Kim Jong-un derailed this month in a possible act of sabotage, a Seoul-based radio station which broadcasts across the border reported on Monday. Open Radio for North Korea, a non-profit station which often cites sources in the reclusive, impoverished North, said the train laden with gifts including televisions and watches came off the rails on Dec. 11 near North Korea's border with China. "The security service has been in an emergency situation because a train departing Sinuiju and headed for Pyongyang derailed on Dec. 11," the radio...

As much as a million gallons of sewage has poured into Marin County's Corte Madera Creek this week - including sludge from a pipe that ruptured Wednesday - following a series of mishaps that officials believe could be sabotage. The raw sewage bubbled out of a badly clogged pipeline in Kentfield Friday. Then, about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, a large pipe apparently burst underneath a berm used by locals as a jogging trail next to the creek, about three-quarters of a mile west of Sir Francis Drake Boulevard. An undetermined amount of effluent spewed out of the ruptured pipe, said Brett...

Controversy occurs in the military when civilian officials attempt to impose questionable policies and practices on the armed forces in pursuit of misplaced priorities. Such policies, designed to put egalitarian goals to the ultimate test, frequently conflict with classic elements of military culture. Because the armed forces differ from the civilian world in many respects, an inherent tension exists between sociological goals and the needs of the military. Unit cohesion, for example, is essential for a strong military force. Cohesion is more than being liked by others; it is a willingness to die for someone else. Horizontal cohesion within a...

A top-secret Iranian military installation was struck by a triple blast Tues. Oct. 12 the day before Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Lebanon. debkafile's military and intelligence sources report the site held most of the Shehab-3 medium-range missile launchers Iran had stocked for striking US forces in Iraq and Israel in the event of war - some set to deliver triple warheads (tri-conic nosecones). The 18 soldiers officially reported killed in the blasts and 14 injured belonged to the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) main missile arm, the Al-Hadid Brigades.

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran acknowledged Saturday that some personnel at the country's nuclear facilities were lured by promises of money to pass secrets to the West but insisted increased security and worker privileges have put a stop to the spying. The stunning admission by Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi provides the clearest government confirmation that Iran has been fighting espionage at its nuclear facilities. In recent weeks, Iran has announced the arrest of several nuclear spies and battled a computer worm that it says is part of a covert Western plot to derail its nuclear program. And in July, a...

The Stuxnet worm has taken the computer security world by storm, inspiring talk of a top secret, government-sponsored cyberwar, and of a software program laden with obscure biblical references that call to mind not computer code, but "The Da Vinci Code." Stuxnet, which first made headlines in July, (CNET FAQ here) is believed to be the first known malware that targets the controls at industrial facilities such as power plants. At the time of its discovery, the assumption was that espionage lay behind the effort, but subsequent analysis by Symantec uncovered the ability of the malware to control plant operations...

(Sept. 30) -- The intrigue surrounding the mysterious, highly sophisticated computer worm Stuxnet got a little more Dan Brownish today with the revelation that there may be hidden messages embedded in the malware's code. The New York Times reported this morning that one of the files in the worm was called "Myrtus," which may be a reference to the Old Testament Book of Esther, in which Jews thwart a Persian plot against them. Along with mysterious Myrtus were two numbers that might be additional clues to who is behind the worm. Or, as the Times points out, they could mean...

Stuxnet is believed to be the most destructive virus ever devised for attacking major industrial complexes, reactors and infrastructure... and it's hitting Tehran HARD The Islamic Republic of Iran looks to be in the midst of a major ongoing cyber attack upon it's most vital computer systems by the unprecedentedly menacing Stuxnet virus... including nuclear reactors and other sensitive facilities: ____________________________________________ Mahmoud Alyaee, secretary-general of Iran's industrial computer servers, including its nuclear facilities control systems, confirmed Saturday, Sept. 25, that 30,000 computers belonging to classified industrial units had been infected and disabled by the malicious Stuxnet virus. This followed DEBKAfile's...

WWL-TV in New Orleans has confirmed the Coast Guard is responding to a rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. Dozens are reported injured. According to the Coast Guard, it happened 80 miles south of Grand Isle. Rescue choppers from New Orleans and Houston are responding. The injured will be taken to hospitals in various coastal areas from Houston to the Louisiana/Mississippi border area.

The online version the New York Post editorial in today's issue harshly criticizing WikiLeaks for publishing stolen classified Pentagon Afghan war documents without redacting them to prevent Afghans from facing retribution from the Taliban has been hacked.Attempts to access the editorial directly through NYPost.com and through Google result in being directed to Pages.US.comWikiLeaks and its founder, reputed computer hacker Julian Assange, have come under criticism from allies Reporters Without Borders and Amnesty International for outing Afghans without regard to their safety.This week, Assange called Afghans aiding the U.S. in the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban "genuinely traitorous." That...

Live from the Oval Office! It's Barack Obama and the State of the Sham Wow, Gulf Oil Spill edition!Starring TOTUS as Barack Obama! Featuring: Robert Gibbs in a special YouTube after the speech infomercial.

BP America President and Chairman Lamar McKay: “BP supports an economy-wide price for carbon based on fair and equitable application across all sectors and believes that market based solutions, like a cap and trade or linked-fee, are the best solutions to manage GHG emissions.” (Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on Energy and Environment, U.S. House Of Representatives, Hearing, 6/15/10) Shell President Marvin E. Odum: “That is why Shell supports legislating a solution to energy and climate issues as a means to create a secure U.S. energy future, reduce dependence on foreign oil and decrease greenhouse gas emissions. This requires...

President Barack Obama has not ruled out sabotage in the near-panic on Wall Street Thursday afternoon. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Obama's economic team was jolted by the news and met with Obama shortly after the market plunged. The president announced Friday morning that a full review is being conducted, and Gibbs said Obama is waiting to hear the results of a review before ruling out what might have caused it, including the possibility of sabotage. “I wouldn’t rule anything in or rule anything out,” Gibbs told reporters in his West Wing office Friday. “I think that’s, appropriately,...

The Obama administration has revealed - for the first time ever - the size of the U.S. nuclear arsenal in detail. This information was a closely guarded secret for more than 60 years. By unloading such sensitive information, President Obama is responsible for deliberately exposing a chink in America's defensive armor. The Land of the Free is less secure for it. On orders from the White House, the Pentagon on Monday released the exact number of nuclear warheads as the 189-nation nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty review conference got under way in New York. The U.S. nuclear stockpile now stands at 5,113...

VENICE, La. -- No remedy in sight, President Barack Obama on Sunday warned of a "massive and potentially unprecedented environmental disaster" as a badly damaged oil well a mile deep in the Gulf of Mexico spewed a widening and deadly slick toward delicate wetlands and wildlife. He said it could take many days to stop. Obama rushed to southern Louisiana to inspect forces arrayed against the oil gusher as Cabinet members said the situation was grave and insisted the administration was doing everything it could. Mindful of the political damage suffered by President George W. Bush for a slow response...