Tag Archives: secretary

Woman sues TSA, DHS heads after agent’s "boob" comment

These measures include various checkpoints, 'behaviour pattern analysis,' racial profiling, and discrimination and humiliating treatment of Arabs and blacks with Muslim names, and biometric identification will be rolled out eventually. Adrienne Durso, a resident of California, was selected for an enhanced pat-down after walking through a metal detector at Albuquerque International Sunport airport, according to a lawsuit. Durso, a recent breast cancer survivor, said the TSA security officer forcefully searched the area of her recent mastectomy, leaving her in pain and on the verge of crying. In November, a TSA agent reportedly forced another breast cancer survivor to show her prosthetic breast. Durso's 17-year-old son stood watching as she experienced the pat down. When her son confronted a security supervisor about the incident, asking why his mother had been selected for a pat-down but not him, the supervisor allegedly replied that the son was not selected because “you don't have boobs.” After her experience, Durso joined three other plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and TSA administrator John Pistole. One of the other plaintiffs allegedly received “an invasive and aggressive pat-down of his genitals, presumably due to the fact” that he has an enlarged testicle from an injury he experienced. The other two plaintiffs, a mother and her daughter, claim that while at a security checkpoint TSA agents pulled aside the 12-year-old girl and subjected her to a body scan without the consent of her legal guardians. *** This is a game, and here's how TSA and the federal government are playing YOU: You are purposely being conditioned to hate these TSA humiliating and invasive security measures that have been implemented to protect you from fake Al Qaeda. The reason being is that DHS and TSA will eventually propose an alternative to having American citizens being scanned by naked body scanners and sexually assaulted by people who were barely able to make it through high school. That alternative will be for the federal government to adopt security measures that are already in place in Tel Aviv's El Al airport. See the post “Israeli airport security asks 'are you a terrorist?'” http://current.com/technology/92863741_israeli-airport-security-asks-are-you-a-t… added by: maasanova

DOE Installs Cool Roof, Saves Taxpayers $2,000 in Energy Costs

Image: Screenshot via DOE Secretary of Energy Steven Chu today announced the completion of a new 25,000-square-foot cool roof on the Department of Energy’s headquarters west building in Washington, DC. The design added no extra cost to the roof replacement project, and is projected to save taxpayers an annual $2,000 in energy costs. … Read the full story on TreeHugger

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DOE Installs Cool Roof, Saves Taxpayers $2,000 in Energy Costs

CNN Breaking News: Richard Holbrooke, U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Has Died

Richard Holbrooke, U.S. Special Rep. for Afghanistan and Pakistan, has died, a senior administration official confirms. Holbrooke dies days after heart surgery From Jill Dougherty and Elise Labott, CNN December 13, 2010 7:47 p.m. EST U.S. diplomat Richard Holbrooke is “a towering figure in American foreign policy,” President Barack Obama says. Washington (CNN) — U.S. diplomat Richard Holbrooke has died, a senior administration official told CNN Monday evening. Holbrooke had undergone surgery in the past three days to repair a tear in his aorta, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Monday. “He had a very serious medical emergency on Friday,” Clinton said at a news conference in Quebec, Canada, with foreign ministers from Canada and Mexico. “He has received excellent care including many hours of surgery in the last three days. He is stable but still in very critical condition.” Earlier, a State Department official said Holbrooke was “absolutely fighting in an unbelievable way.” Holbrooke remains unconscious after an additional procedure to aid circulation following the initial surgery on his aorta, the main artery of the body, the State Department said. At a holiday reception for U.S. diplomats later Monday, President Barack Obama praised Holbrooke as “simply one of the giants of American foreign policy” who has served the nation “with distinction for nearly 50 years,” including his work in negotiating the 1995 Dayton Accords that ended the Bosnian war in the former Yugoslavia. “As anyone who has ever worked with him knows — or had the clear disadvantage of negotiating across the table from him — Richard is relentless,” Obama said. “He never stops. He never quits. Because he's always believed that if we stay focused, if we act on our mutual interests, that progress is possible. Wars can end. Peace can be forged.” Holbrooke in critical condition The president said he and his family were praying for Holbrooke's recovery, “and I know that everyone here joins me when I say that America is more secure — and the world is a safer place — because of” his work. “And he is a tough son of a gun, so we are confident that, as hard as this is, that he is going to be putting up a tremendous fight,” Obama said. Holbrooke, the special U.S. representative on Afghanistan and Pakistan, is getting “fantastic care” at George Washington University Hospital, the State Department official said. It is the same hospital where Ronald Reagan was taken after being shot in 1981. Holbrooke was taken there Friday after feeling ill at the State Department. Clinton expressed appreciation for what she called an outpouring of concern and support from “presidents, prime ministers, foreign ministers” who have called the State Department since news of Holbrooke's illness broke. His surgeon continues to meet with the family to gives frequent updates, and Holbrooke “is receiving great support from a broad and growing community of family and friends,” the State Department official said. “It's remarkable how many messages of support (his wife, Kati Marton) and the family keep receiving from all corners: foreign ministers and ambassadors from around the world, President (Bill) Clinton, senators and congressmen, colleagues from this Af/Pak job, from Vietnam, from the Balkans, from the U.N., from the private sector,” the official said. Clinton and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen have visited the hospital numerous times, according to the State Department source, who said: “They've each come three times, informally chatting with family members, friends and staffers, and really helping to buoy the assembled.” The State Department also said Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari called Holbrooke's wife Sunday morning. Zardari told CNN's Reza Sayah that Holbrooke is a “fighter.” He said he told Holbrooke's wife to be “brave.” “I'm sure he will fight for his life, and he will come out of it,” Zardari said. Asked to reflect on Holbrooke's impact on the Pakistani region, Zardari called him an “extremely hard-working man” who can “get things done which would otherwise take weeks to get through.” http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/12/13/holbrooke.illness/index.html?hpt=T1&iref=BN… added by: EthicalVegan

Condoleezza Rice Schools Katie Couric on Why U.S. Invaded Iraq

On December 3, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gave CBS's Katie Couric a much-needed lesson on why America invaded Iraq. When Couric said to her guest during an “HBO History Makers Series” interview, “Documentaries have been made about how intelligence was incorrectly analyzed and cherry-picked to build an argument for war, and memos from that time do suggest that officials knew there was a small chance of actually finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq,” Rice stopped the host dead in her tracks (video follows with transcript and commentary): read more

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Condoleezza Rice Schools Katie Couric on Why U.S. Invaded Iraq

Elizabeth Edwards Eulogy and Funeral (PHOTOS, VIDEO)

The funeral of Elizabeth Edwards was held on Saturday in Raleigh, N.C. Her daughter eulogized her as did several good friends. PHOTOS, VIDEO) added by: gmc1

11 reasons why the threat from Al Qaeda is not real

“All governments lie.” You can add to that great quote “and all newspapers lie, too.” -American journalist I. F. Stone. Knowing the truth matters in a democracy because without the truth citizens can’t make informed decisions about government policies that impact their lives. It is not possible to consciously answer fundamental societal questions like “should we go to war?” without a firm grasp of all the facts at hand. When independent journalists fail to provide the simple and straightforward facts to the public, they become complicit in government murder and fraud, and deserve even more ridicule than dishonest government officials and government-owned journalists. 11 Reasons Why The Threat From Al-Qaeda is Not Real Al-Qaeda is either one of these things, or it is a combination of them: a) a completely fake threat; the organization does not exist, b) an organization that exists in small numbers but was created by the CIA to serve a corrupt U.S. foreign policy, and remains a U.S. intelligence asset in the manufactured global war on terrorism, or c) a small organization that exists independently of the U.S. government but its strength and influence in the Middle East is exaggerated by radical policymakers and officials in Washington. Out of all three statements the first and second deserve the most serious attention because they are supported by the evidence listed below. #1. Radical American cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki, who was ordered to be assassinated by President Obama, met with top military officials at the Pentagon months after the 9/11 attacks. #2. CIA Director Leon Panetta revealed in June 2010 on ABC’s This Week that there are less than 100 Al-Qaeda members in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region. #3. The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), one of the world’s leading security think tanks, published a report this year which said that the threat of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban is exaggerated by Western policymakers. #4. Former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview to the Los Angeles Times’s Patt Morrison in October 2010 that Al-Qaeda doesn’t exist. #5. The U.S. government created, and funded Islamic fundamentalism in the 1980s to be used to draw the Soviet Union into Afghanistan, and bleed it to death in a costly and unwinnable war. #6. Robin Cook, who served as a British MP for 22 years and as Foreign Secretary from 1997 to 2001, wrote an article for the Guardian in July 2005, a month before his death, called “The struggle against terrorism cannot be won by military means.” #7. A BBC article from July 2004 called “Al-Qaeda’s origins and links” reveals that Osama Bin Laden was a CIA agent in the 1980s. #8. J. Michael Springmann, a 20 year foreign service official, and a former Consulate officer in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, has publicly stated for many years that the CIA brought over Muslim radicals to the United States for secret terrorist training. #9. Germany’s Der Spiegel’s published an article by Siegesmund von Ilsemann called “Arming the Middle East: The Checkered History of American Weapons Deals” in June 2007. The article backed up the reporting done by the BBC, and elsewhere that the United States government “supplied Afghan freedom fighters in the 1980s with money and arms for their struggle against occupying Soviet troops. One of the best customers for the CIA back then was Saudi millionaire Osama Bin Laden.” This account is only half-true. The CIA funded and trained a network of Muslim fighters not to liberate Afghanistan from corrupt Soviet influence, but to create havoc and instigate a Soviet invasion so that it would drain itself of blood and treasure. Once the objective of bringing down the Soviet Union was achieved, the stage was set for the United States and the West to invade Afghanistan and take advantage of the country’s vast resources, from oil to heroin. #10. Selig Harrison, a current member of the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars, a former senior associate of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and an expert on South Asia, said in March 2001 at a conference called “Terrorism and Regional Security: Managing the Challenges in Asia,” that the CIA and Pakistan’s ISI helped create the backward and tyrannical Taliban. #11. The September 11, 2001 attacks, which serve as the basis for America’s wars in the Middle East, were committed by the United States government with assistance from the government of Israel. This is an indisputable fact added by: maasanova

Obama should resign if approved UN spying: WikiLeaks founder

MADRID — President Barack Obama should resign if it can be shown that he approved spying by US diplomatic figures on UN officials, the founder of WikiLeaks said in an interview published Sunday. “The whole chain of command who was aware of this order, and approved it, must resign if the US is to be seen to be a credible nation that obeys the rule of law. The order is so serious it may well have been put to the president for approval,” Julian Assange told Spanish daily El Pais. “Obama must answer what he knew about this illegal order and when. If he refuses to answer or there is evidence he approved of these actions, he must resign,” he added during an Internet chat interview published online. WikiLeaks threw US diplomacy into chaos when it started releasing more than 250,000 classified State Department cables on November 28, creating an international firestorm as American diplomats' private assessments of foreign leaders and politics have been publicly aired. According to one of the documents, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asked for UN personnel's telephones, emails, credit card details and frequent flier numbers. http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5igLhpFXyv-VRG5thAgiJk0OORBNw?… added by: CarlosBobthe3rd

Liang Baohua Biography(梁保华)

Liang Baohua (simplified Chinese: 梁保华; traditional Chinese: 梁保華; born November 1945) is the current CPC Jiangsu Committee Secretary and concurrently the province#39;s governor. [edit] Biography A native of Yichun, Jiangxi, Liang joined the Communist Party of China in November 1965. Prior to 1968 he worked in the communes around Taicang. Since then his entire career has been in Jiangsu. He became the province#39;s governor in December 2002, and succeeded Li Yuanchao as the party chief of the pr

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Liang Baohua Biography(梁保华)

WikiLeaks vs Rumsfeld/O’Reilly – Rap News

Rap News interviews former US Secretary of Offense, Donald Rumsfeld. But what starts out as a conventional Rap News interview soon descends into mayhem as the live feed is hijacked by News World Order, eager to spin the record like a disc jockey on crack. Enter Bill O'Really, the champion of Fair & Balanced journalism, dragging us screaming into the No Spine Zone. added by: Stoneyroad

PostPartisan – Sec. Gates’s blunt message to the Senate and Sen. McCain

My editor popped into my office to ask “What's the headline?” out of the release of the long-awaited report on the repeal of don't ask don't tell. The answer was pretty easy. Defense Secretary Robert Gates wants the Senate to repeal don't ask don't tell before the courts force him to eliminate the policy. He urged that it be done during the lame-duck session and that those standing in the way “are rolling the dice that this policy will not be abruptly overturned by the courts.” Got that, John McCain? added by: mik661