a Q $$$

More Evidence of the Criminal-Terrorist Nexus

By Douglas Farah

Those who are skeptical of the growing ties between drug trafficking organizations and terrorist groups-which I think will be the real war we will be fighting for many years, given the resources obtainable by drug trafficking organizations-should read the latest UN Office of Drugs and Crime report.

Among the many interesting findings is that the two areas of greatest increase in illicit production of drugs in the world are in the hands of designated terrorist groups: the Taliban in Afghanistan and the FARC in Colombia.

A third party involved in the expansion of drug production is Burma, a rogue criminal state. This bodes ill for the rest of the world.

As Antonio Maria Costa, director of the agency, told the AP:

"The explosion of narcotics in those areas is explained by their presence (the terrorist groups) and the protection they offer," Costa told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday.

"I believe that slowly these people, although politically motivated at the beginning, are becoming a kind of organized crime," he said. "Money tends to stick to fingers, and a big lump of money becomes very problematic."

The numbers should alarm policy makers and the intelligence and law enforcement communities. My full blog is here.

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What do they spend the money on?

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Al-Qaeda's Growing Online Offensive

Posted by Soulskill on Sunday June 29, @09:54AM
from the propaganda-made-easier dept.

andy1307 brings us a story from the Washington Post about al-Qaeda's technological capabilities and the methods they use to protect themselves and their networks from opposing military forces. Quoting: "U.S. and European intelligence officials attribute the al-Qaeda propaganda boom in part to the network's ability to establish a secure base in the ungoverned tribal areas of western Pakistan. Analysts said that as-Sahab (AQ's propaganda network) is outfitted with some of the best technology available. Editors and producers use ultralight Sony Vaio laptops and top-end video cameras. Files are protected using PGP, or Pretty Good Privacy, a virtually unbreakable form of encryption software that is also used by intelligence agencies around the world. [Al-Fajr, a propaganda distribution network] is heavily decentralized, with its webmasters generally unaware of one another's true identities for security reasons, intelligence analysts said. It also has separate 'brigades' devoted to hacking, multimedia, cybersecurity and distribution."

SOURCE:
http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/06/29/1244235

g
al Qaeda hacking their own, for $$$

How to win the Info WAR

How to break the DRUGS/ TERROR connection.

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CIA, NSA, DIA and ISI and Special forces in Paki

Three top US agencies involved in Waziristan operations: New Yorker

* Report says Abu Laith al-Libi was one of most prominent victims of programme

By Khalid Hasan

WASHINGTON: Three of the top United States clandestine agencies, along with US Special Forces and Pakistani intelligence outfits, are targeting the Taliban leadership in Waziristan, according to a report published here.

The exclusive report in the New Yorker by Seymour Hersch says that the programme is being executed by professionals from the National Security Agency, the CIA and the Defence Intelligence Agency, who are "right in there with the Special Forces and Pakistani intelligence, and they're dealing with serious bad guys". A source told the American investigative reporter: "We have to be really careful in calling in the missiles. We have to hit certain houses at certain times. The people on the ground are watching through binoculars a few hundred yards away and calling specific locations, in latitude and longitude. We keep the Predator loitering until the targets go into a house, and we have to make sure our guys are far enough away so they don't get hit."

Prominent victim: One of the most prominent victims of the programme, a former official said, was Abu Laith al-Libi, a senior Taliban commander who was killed on January 31, reportedly in a missile strike that also killed 11 other people. The Washington Post reported on March 26 on the increasing number of successful strikes against Taliban and other insurgent units in Pakistan's Tribal Areas. A follow-up article noted that, in response, the Taliban had killed "dozens of people" suspected of providing information to the US and its allies on the whereabouts of Taliban leaders. Many of the victims were thought to be American spies, and their executions — a beheading, in one case — were videotaped and distributed by DVD as a warning to others.

Another ex-US intelligence official, commenting on the US attempting something similar in Iran, warned, "It's one thing to engage in selective strikes and assassinations in Waziristan and another in Iran. The White House believes that one size fits all, but the legal issues surrounding extrajudicial killings in Waziristan are less of a problem because Al Qaeda and the Taliban cross the border into Afghanistan and back again, often with US and NATO forces in hot pursuit. The situation is not nearly as clear in the Iranian case. All the considerations — judicial, strategic, and political — are different in Iran."

SOURCE:


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Begining of the End

Gerald


.

Smuggling Network Had Blueprint for Advanced Nuclear Weapon

FOX NEWS
Sunday, June 15, 2008
A draft report released by a former U.N. weapons inspector found that the international smuggling ring that supplied nuclear designs to Iran, Libya, and North Korea also obtained the blueprints for an advanced nuclear warhead, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

David Albright, a well-known nuclear weapons expert, said that designs for a nuclear device small enough to fit on a ballistic missile were found on computers belonging to the now-defunct smuggling ring of rouge Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.

Khan — who remains under house arrest in Pakistan for selling nuclear technologies — supplied secret nuclear blueprints to Libya, North Korea and Iran, according the Post. The U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has been conducting an on-going investigation into what other secrets may have sold by A.Q. Khan.

Albright's report said what is troubling about these electronic blueprints — discovered in 2006 on the computer of a Swiss businessman — is that it shows the existence of another, more sophisticated design than the one sold to Libya — better suited the missile capabilities of countries such as Iran.

Swiss authorities, under the direction of the IAEA reportedly destroyed the computer contents, said the Post.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,367196,00.html

http://snipurl.com/2ipkp

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CREDIT CARD CO. :CRIMINALS helping terrorism

Image by guano via Flickr

The Washington Post says federal regulators plan to announce new rules for the credit card industry.

FED REGULATORS ARE IN CREDIT CARD INDUSTRY'S POCKET.

THEY ARE TRYING TO USE BAND AIDS TO FIX ECONOMIC BEHEADINGS.

THE CREDIT CARD INDUSTRY IS A THREAT TO THE GWOT,

ID THEFT IS EPIDEMIC AND THE CREDIT CARD COMPANYS ARE MAKING MONEY OFF

THE CRIME, CHARGES, FEES, INTEREST , AND CHARGES.

THE CREDIT CARD COMPANIES HAVE INCORPORATED IN STATES WITH OUT ANY CONSUMER FRAUD LAWS.

AND TERRORIST ARE FINANCING THE WAR WITH ID THEFT PROCEEDS.

AND THEMSELVES ARE ENGAGING IN CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE WITH USURY CREDIT CARD CHARGES, SOME AS HIGH AS 97%.

THE CREDIT CARD COMPANYS ARE THE NEW MAFIA. g

"The proposed regulations, which could be finalized by year's end, would label as "unfair or deceptive" practices that consumers have long complained about," the paper says. "That includes charging interest on debt that has been repaid and assessing late fees when consumers are not given a reasonable amount of time to make a payment. When different interest rates apply to different balances on one card, companies would be prohibited from applying a payment first to the balance with the lowest rate."

MORE:

Feds seek to curb 'unfair, deceptive' charges for credit cards, overdrafts

Federal regulators are moving ahead with new rules to stop "unfair and deceptive" practices involving credit cards and bank overdraft fees.

The Federal Reserve approved the changes today, a day after the Office of Thrift Supervision and the National Credit Union Administration signed off. As USA TODAY's Kathy Chu explains, the proposal would:

• Bar issuers from raising interest rates on existing debt, except under certain conditions, such as when a promotional rate expires or when a borrower pays 30 days or more late.
• Prohibit issuers from calculating one month of finance charges based on two months' worth of activity, a punitive practice called double-cycle billing.
• Require card issuers to apply monthly payments that exceed the required minimum at least partly to higher-rate card debt. Borrowers often face varying interest rates on credit card debt, for cash advances, balances transferred and purchases.
• Prevent financial institutions from charging checking-account customers a fee for paying an overdraft — unless the customer has had the chance to opt out of this payment.

Read the announcement and the full proposal (pdf) issued yesterday by the Office of Thrift Supervision.

The public will have 75 days to comment, and the regulators expect the rule to be final by the end of the year.

No immediate comment from the American Bankers Association, though ferocious opposition is likely to come.

Here's more from the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Washington Post, CNNMoney and the Associated Press.

Keep reading for more specifics.

Read more...

Posted by Michael Winter at 07:17 PM/ET, May 02, 2008 in Money | Permalink | Comments (0)
BUT ALOW 97% INTEREST CHARGES, REGULATORS ARE SHILLS FOR THE American Bankers Association,

g

Internet Anthropologist/ Washington Post

We are in the






I don't know if that's good or Bad, lol, we will take it.
Thanks everyone.
2 nd out of 161.

Gerald
We have links on CNN