Iran Is Complying With Nuclear Deal

Iran Is Complying With Nuclear Deal

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The UN atomic watchdog says Iran is complying with the commitments it made under last year's landmark nuclear deal.

Gunmen Attack Hotel in Somali Capital 

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(MOGADISHU) — Gunmen from the Islamic extremist group al-Shabab forced their way into a hotel in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, a police official said Friday.
A suicide bomber rammed his car into the SYL hotel’s entrance Friday evening and then some gunmen entered the premises after an exchange of gunfire with hotel guards, said Capt. Mohamed Hussein.
There was no immediate information on any casualties. Al-Shabab Islamic extremists claimed responsibility for the attack.
The SYL hotel, which is located across from presidential palace in Mogadishu, is frequented by government officials and business executives.
Despite being pushed out of Somalia’s major cities and towns, al-Shabab continues to launch deadly guerrilla attacks across the Horn of Africa, and even across the border. Al-Shabab has carried out attacks on three of the five countries contributing troops to the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia.
The al-Qaida-linked group has carried out many deadly attacks inside Kenya as well, including one in 2013 on the upscale Westgate Mall in the capital of Nairobi in which 67 people were killed.

In Syria, Airstrikes Continue as Truce Nears

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A provisional cease-fire negotiated by the United States and Russia excluded the Islamic State and the Nusra Front, but it was unclear what other groups would honor it.

LGBT in Russia: Legal Circuses - EurasiaNet

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LGBT in Russia: Legal Circuses
EurasiaNet
On July 24, 2013, less than a month after Vladimir Putin had signed an anti-gay propaganda law, Alexey Davydov, an LGBT activist, was arrested outside of the Russian State Children's Library as he unwrapped a hand-made banner reading “It's normal to be ...

EU pulls plug on kettle rules to stem UK heat

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Plans to ban high-powered appliances shelved until vote

Russia 50% ahead on rearmament target as U.S. shrinks its military to smallest since WWII - Washington Times

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Washington Times

Russia 50% ahead on rearmament target as U.S. shrinks its military to smallest since WWII
Washington Times
FILE - In this Sunday, July 26, 2015 file pool photo, Russian President Vladimir Putin, centre, reviews a Navy parade in Baltisk, western Russia, during celebration for Russian Navy Day. With dozens of Russian combat jets and helicopter gunships lined ...
Pentagon attacks on Russia linked to military budget debate in Congress – MoDRT
Top US commander: Russia wants to 'rewrite' international orderThe Hill
Electronic Warfare: Russian Gains Threaten to 'Disconnect' US ForcesThe National Interest Online (blog)

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Nuke Test: The Missile Is the Message - the Pentagon Hopes

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Like a giant pen stroke in the sky, an unarmed Minuteman 3 nuclear missile roared out of its underground bunker on the California coastline Thursday and soared over the Pacific, inscribing the signature of American power amid growing worry about North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons capable of reaching U.S. soil.   When it comes to deterring an attack by North Korea or other potential adversaries, the missile is the message.   At 11:01 p.m. Pacific Standard Time Thursday, the Minuteman missile, toting a payload of test instruments rather than a nuclear warhead, leaped into the darkness in an explosion of flame. It arced toward its test range in the waters of the Kwajalein Atoll, an island chain about 2,500 miles southwest of Honolulu.   About 30 minutes later the re-entry vehicle that carries the missile's payload reached its target, Col. Craig Ramsey, commander of the 576th Flight Test Squadron, told an assembled group of observers, including Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work and Adm. Cecil Haney, the top nuclear war-fighting commander.   The missile test, dubbed “Glory Trip 218,” was the second this month and the latest in a series designed to confirm the reliability of the Cold War-era missile and all its components. The Minuteman 3, first deployed in 1970, has long exceeded its original 10-year lifespan. It is so old that vital parts are no longer in production.   The Air Force operates 450 Minuteman missiles - 150 at each of three missile fields in Wyoming, Montana and North Dakota. A few times a year, one missile is pulled from its silo and trucked to Vandenberg, minus its nuclear warhead, for a test launch.   Aside from confirming technical soundness, Minuteman test launches are the U.S. military's way of sharpening the message that forms the foundation of U.S. nuclear deterrence theory - that if potential attackers believe U.S. nuclear missiles and bombs are ready for war at all times, then no adversary would dare start a nuclear fight.   The credibility of this message can be damaged by signs of weakness or instability in the nuclear weapons force. In 2013-14 the Associated Press documented morale, training, leadership and equipment problems in the Minuteman force, and in January the Air Force acknowledged to the AP that errors by a maintenance crew damaged an armed Minuteman in May 2014.   Work said in an interview ahead of Thursday's launch that he sees good progress in fixing the problems in the nuclear missile corps. He also said the Vandenberg test launches are critically important.   “It is a signal to anyone who has nuclear weapons that we are prepared to use nuclear weapons in defense of our country, if necessary,” he said, adding later, “We do it to demonstrate that these missiles - even though they're old - they still remain the most effective, or one of the most effective, missiles in the world.”   Air Force officials say the test launches are a morale booster because they give launch crews and others a chance to leave their usual duties and participate in an actual launch. They otherwise do 24-hour shifts, year-round, in underground missile command posts, hoping the call to combat never comes.   Constance Baroudos, a defense analyst at the Lexington Institute think tank, sees great deterrent value in the Minuteman test launches.   “Deterrence basically doesn't work unless the threat is deemed credible,” she said. “So every time we test ICBMs, we demonstrate not only that the weapons work but also that they are ready to be launched. When those tests are conducted, the Russians, the Chinese and other international actors are watching, and they send a message to a potential aggressor that they not do anything they would regret.”   Together, the United States and Russia control the vast majority of the world's nuclear weapons, and both countries regularly conduct ICBM test launches. The Russians generally do them more often, at least in part because they have new missiles in development whereas the Minuteman 3 is the only U.S. ICBM. The U.S. Air Force is planning a new-generation ICBM, but it is not scheduled to begin entering the force until about 2030.   Pavel Podvig, an independent analyst of Russian nuclear forces and publisher of the RussianForces.org blog, said in an interview that Moscow puts less stock in the public messaging aspect of missile test launches than does Washington.   “They (the Russians) do want to make sure the missiles are still functioning,” he said, “But the message is as much for themselves as for the outside world.”   North Korea, on the other hand, aims for maximum political impact when it conducts missile test launches or detonates a nuclear device, as it did January 6. The potential for North Korea to field a nuclear warhead small enough to fit atop an intercontinental missile is among the worries American officials cite as justification for investing tens of billions of dollars in a new fleet of U.S. ICBMs and other types of nuclear weaponry.

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Межсирийское согласие. Надолго ли? 

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From: SvobodaRadio
Duration: 00:00

Совет Безопасности ООН проведет сегодня голосование по проекту резолюции, представленной США и Россией по сирийской проблеме.
В документе содержится требование к конфликтующим сторонам прекратить боевые действия в полночь 27 февраля (один час ночи московского времени). В проекте также подтверждено, что сирийские вооруженные силы и вооруженные отряды оппозиции выразили приверженность договоренностям о перемирии.
В минувшую субботу госсекретарь США Джон Керри заявил, что он и его российский коллега, министр иностранных дел Сергей Лавров достигли предварительного соглашения об условиях прекращения вооруженного противоборства в Сирии.
Ситуацию в Сирии и вокруг Сирии обсудят активист сирийской оппозиции Махмуд Хамза, политологи Алексей Малашенко, Александр Шумилин, журналист Борис Туманов.
Ведущий - Владимир Кара-Мурза - старший.

Самозванец в школе 

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From: golosamerikius
Duration: 00:53

Старшеклассник обычной школы в Пенсильвании арестован. Потому что он незаконно пребывает не только в школе, но и в Соединенных Штатах

Russia to Continue Air Strikes During Syria Cease-fire

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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has announced that the Russian Air Force will continue its counterterrorism air strikes in Syria during the cease-fire, the state-run TASS news agency reported Friday.

New Study Suggests We Are Alone in Universe

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Since the universe is so huge, most astronomers think that there must be a planet, somewhere out there, similar to Earth. But a computer model created at Sweden’s Uppsala University says that our planet may in fact be the only one supporting life. Astrophysicist Erik Zackrisson combined all human knowledge about how the universe was created, from the Big Bang to the present, and fed it to a powerful computer. The machine came up with a concrete number of what we already knew. There are about 700 quintillion planets, or 7 followed by 20 zeros. The unexpected by-product of the calculation was that Earth may be unique, actually an aberration among myriads of dead, uninhabitable worlds. Taking into account all known laws of physics and our knowledge about how planets are formed, it looks like that process is capable of producing only planets that cannot sustain life in any form. Probability suggests that just in our own galaxy, the Milky Way, there must be about 50 billion planets similar to ours. But according to Zackrisson’s model, Earth is a statistical anomaly. Scientists say that even if further research proves this theory wrong, it is true that the planets like ours are rare and very far between. The new study was published online and submitted to The Astrophysical Journal.

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NY Air Guard unit helping stranded South Pole researchers

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A New York-based Air National Guard unit on its annual mission to the South Pole is being called on to assist Australians who got stranded when their research ship ran aground on Antarctica's coast.
     
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UN agency report shows Iran mostly complying with nuke deal

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Iranian nuclear activities that could be turned into making weapons have remained at agreed reduced levels since a deal between Tehran and six world powers was implemented last month, a U.N. agency reported Friday.
     

The Latest: Ford's Facebook page includes photos of weapons

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HESSTON, Kan. (AP) -- The Latest on the attack at a central Kansas factory (all times local):...

Trump Endorsed By Former White House Contender

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New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has endorsed Donald Trump for president - the first major party figure to back the billionaire.

The Latest: New Jersey's Christie endorses Donald Trump

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HOUSTON (AP) -- The Latest on the race for president ahead of Super Tuesday, the biggest single-day delegate haul of the nomination contests (all times local):...

Hezbollah signals no end to Saudi crisis; central bank reassures on currency

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BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hezbollah indicated there would be no apology to Saudi Arabia over Lebanon's decision not to condemn attacks on Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran, signaling no quick end to a crisis seen as a risk to Lebanese economic and political stability.
  

Police: Gunmen attack hotel in Somali capital

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A Somali police official says gunmen have forced their way into a hotel in the Somali capital of Mogadishu.









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In Damascus, a uniquely Syrian version of normalcy prevails

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A uniquely Syrian version of normalcy prevails in the heart of Damascus, where a mix of rural refugees and urbanites conduct their daily business and enjoy the easy cafe culture to the muffled sounds of explosions in the distance.















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Election of Syria, Venezuela to Leadership Posts on UN Committee Sparks Outrage 

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A Jewish human rights group criticized the election of Syria and Venezuela to leadership posts on a United Nations committee focused on human rights, calling it evidence of the “hypocrisy of the U.N. system.”
B’nai B’rith International circulated a press release Friday expressing outrage after Venezuela’s U.N. Ambassador Rafael Darío Ramirez Carreño and Syria’s U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari were named to leadership positions on the U.N. Special Committee on Decolonization.
“B’nai B’rith International is outraged at the election of Syria and Venezuela to key leadership positions on a committee focused on eliminating the ‘subjugation, domination, and exploitation’ of global populations,” the human rights group said.
“The Syrian regime denies the rights of its own people, year after year subjecting them to brutal conditions as it continues to unleash a war against its own population. Human rights violations in Venezuela are well-documented and abhorrent.”
“The election of these two nations, notorious and unrelenting human rights abusers, once again demonstrates the hypocrisy of the U.N. system,” the group said.
Carreño was elected chair of the committee during the opening of its 2016 session on Thursday. The committee also reelected Ja’afari as its rapporteur.
Ban Ki-Moon, the U.N. secretary-general, “commended” the leadership of the committee during the opening of its 2016 session on Thursday.
“I am pleased to send warm greetings to all participants at this session of the Special Committee on Decolonization. I commend the leadership of all those committed to bringing new energy to its work,” the secretary-general said in a statement.
U.N. Watch, a Geneva-based watchdog  monitoring human rights at the United Nations, has alsocriticized the decision to elect Syria and Venezuela to leadership positions on the committee.

SOF vs. Boko Haram; New USAF bomber gets a name; COCOMs will get a rethink; Senators slam Force of the Future ... - Defense One

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Defense One

SOF vs. Boko Haram; New USAF bomber gets a name; COCOMs will get a rethink; Senators slam Force of the Future ...
Defense One
Wisely choosing to move past the unwieldy “LRS-B,” James, speaking at the Air Force Association's annual winter conference in Orlando, Fla., showed a concept image of a flying wing that looks like a mix between the B-2 and the Navy's unmanned X-47 ...

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Treasury Fails To Name Any Cyber Worst Actors For Economic Sanctions - Daily Caller

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Treasury Fails To Name Any Cyber Worst Actors For Economic Sanctions
Daily Caller
A vacuum the size of cyberspace. That unfortunately describes the long awaited but non-existent list of “cyber worst actors” based on President Obama's executive order to impose economic sanctions in response to “malicious” foreign-controlled cyber ...

Another poll shows the American people are siding with the FBI over Apple - BGR

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BGR

Another poll shows the American people are siding with the FBI over Apple
BGR
If you watched the Republican debate last night on CNN, you saw every potential presidential candidate tell Apple to comply with the FBI. It appears that in this instance, most Americans actually agree. According to a new poll from market research firm ...
How techies are losing the Apple-FBI privacy fightInfoWorld

all 15 news articles »

MSF: U.S. payments to victims of Kunduz hospital bombing inadequate 'sorry money' 

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The U.S. military is paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to wounded survivors and relatives of 42 people killed when an American AC-130 gunship attacked a charity hospital in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz, but the charity group Doctors Without Borders says the U.S. "sorry money" is not enough ...
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Feds seize 2.5 tons of marijuana at Nogales crossing point

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NOGALES, Ariz. (AP) - Federal officers found and seized 2½ tons of marijuana in boxes in a tractor-trailer rig being inspected as it entered the United States at a border crossing point in Nogales.
Customs and Border Protection says the marijuana valued at approximately $2.75 million was seized Wednesday.
The ...

A Palestinian striking out with a knife killed by Israeli soldiers

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February 26, 2016, 6:26 PM (IDT)
The attack was thwarted by soldiers at the Beit El checkpoint Friday afternoon. Beit Eil dwellers were advised to stay indoors while the soldiers checked to see whether terrorists had infiltrated the village while their attention was distracted by the knife attack.

No passage for Afghans on Balkan route into West Europe

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Suddenly, Afghans appear to be the new pariahs of Europe. Despite fleeing attacks in their homeland from the Taliban and alleged Islamic State militants, their quest for a safer life is being blocked at border after border in Europe.
     

Is Pension Overhaul A Raw Deal For Career Military? - Forbes

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Forbes

Is Pension Overhaul A Raw Deal For Career Military?
Forbes
Taking a page from the private sector, Congress is cutting the guaranteed defined benefit pension plan for service members–and to make the change more palatable, adding sweeteners: a 1% base pay contribution and up to 4% match in the government ...

Oil prices hit four-week high

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February 26, 2016, 6:31 PM (IDT)
The price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil, the U.S. benchmark, rose 3.2% to $34.13. The price of Brent crude, the global benchmark, rose 3.8% to $36.62. The increases came after a report that US gross domestic product rose by a seasonally adjusted rate of 1% in the fourth quarter of 2015, against expectations of a downward revision to 0.4%.

On Nuclear Weapons, Hill Shows Bipartisan Support

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There does not seem to be much opposition on the Hill to plans to modernize the nuclear triad, at least not yet.
       
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The State Department’s Records and Response Problems Are Not New, They’re Systemic 

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The State Department’s records management, FOIA compliance, and oversight responsiveness have endured withering scrutiny in court and on Capitol Hill since disclosure of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server during her tenure as Secretary of State. Just this week, Judge Emmett Sullivan ordered discovery to proceed in Judicial Watch v. State Department. While the political bullseye on Clinton and court FOIA machinations drive current press coverage, problematic State Department records management and accountability long predate Clinton’s tenure.
From FOIA responses to the preservation of public records, both the agency’s internal oversight mechanisms and congressional committees have expressed their frustration with the State Department’s recordkeeping. These systemic problems have very little to do with Clinton’s email practices, but they add to the atmosphere under scrutiny. Perhaps the heat of the controversy will bring some much needed resources and leadership to the State Department’s accountability culture. 
FOIA Responses
At the beginning of this year, the State Department’s Inspector General issued a report evaluating the agency’s FOIA practices related to the Office of the Secretary. In the context of the 2016 presidential election and lingering Clinton email controversy, the report generated headlines. It criticized the Department’s search protocols, indicating that they “do not consistently meet statutory and regulatory completeness and rarely meet requirements for timeliness.” On timeliness, it noted that some requests took as long as 500 days to process. It provided this table:
Table 1: Processing Time for FOIA Requests Related to Recent Secretaries of State (Requests Completed Within Listed Times Source: OIG analysis of IPS data, as of June 2015.
The IG also criticized the Department for failing to provide sufficient personnel to handle the caseload. Indeed, in the last few years, the number of employees handling Department-wide FOIA requests dropped significantly, while the number of requests received has increased.
Figure 2: IPS Staff Devoted to Processing Department-wide FOIA Requests Source: OIG Analysis of IPS data.
Finally, the report noted that the Department appointed a Transparency Coordinator last September to improve the agency’s FOIA process, but also indicated that there were several issues that required more immediate attention. Thus, the IG made a number of recommendations related to written policies and procedures, internal controls, and performance evaluations designed to strengthen responses. After the report’s release, Department spokesman John Kirby indicated Secretary John Kerry would implement the report’s recommendations.
However, the IG’s report sounded longstanding themes about State Department difficulty managing its FOIA responses. For example, in 2013, the Department boasted that it had “achieved another milestone in fiscal year 2013 by reducing its FOIA request backlog by 16.8% and its FOIA appeal backlog by 22.7%, and by closing its ten oldest requests, consultations, and appeals.” During that year, it received 18,673 requests and processed 21,018. Additionally, the Department made over 2,500 more full or partial releases and processed over 5,700 more cases than the previous fiscal year. But the agency still finished the year with 9,482 pending requests.
Similar critiques date back to the Bush and Reagan eras. For example, in 1989, the GAO found that between 1985 and 1987, the State Department took longer than six months to complete three-fourths of its 7,567 FOIA requests. It found systemic weakness and delays in the management center responsible for sending FOIA requests to the affected Department components for search, forwarding documents for classification review, and preparing responses to the requestors. At the time, State indicated it suffered from an “inability to devote the necessary staff to this activity” and that it only had between three and eight staff members assigned to FOIA response. The GAO also documented some 220 instances in which the Department improperly closed pending FOIA cases.
And that wasn’t the first time similar problems were made public. Two years earlier, in 1987, the GAOreviewed the State Department’s automated FOIA request tracking system and found an overall data entry error rate of 16.2 percent, with approximately 41 percent of the FOIA requests logged containing at least one erroneous data point. Of particular concern, in 13 cases a completion date was entered for a FOIA request that was still open.
Federal Records Preservation
Agencies across the board have generally had difficulty keeping up with the explosion of records generated in the information age. Like most federal agencies, the State Department has struggled for years to meet its obligation to preserve “agency records” as defined by the Federal Records Act.
For example, in 2009, an email platform upgrade empowered employees to designate certain emails as “record emails” for purpose of preservation under the FRA. In March 2015, the IG found that in 2011, State Department employees only created 61,156 record emails out of more than one billion emails sent. The IG also found that some “employees do not create record emails because they do not want to make the email available in searches or fear that this availability would inhibit debate about pending decisions.” Needless to say, that is not the appropriate standard for whether or not a record should be preserved.
Congressional Oversight Responses
Congress has also expressed institutional frustration with State Department’s responsiveness. Take, for example, the 2011 Government Accountability Office study titled “Process to Track Responses to Congressional Correspondence Can Be Improved.” Of note, the mere existence of the report is emblematic of deep frustration in Congress — it required a legislator to commission a review of the Department’s congressional dealings. That suggests a level of frustration that has exceeded the boiling point. Members of Congress are generally loathe to commission a GAO audit of the conduct of their direct agency contacts unless they are extremely frustrated. Second, for this particular report, it was Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), chair of a contracting oversight subcommittee, whose pot boiled over. This was not partisan trench warfare. Rather, it demonstrates sincere institutional concerns.
The GAO found plenty of delay and backlog, noting that the Department met its 21-day response goal in just 2,524 of the 4,804 cases the GAO reviewed — a 53 percent goal-attainment. However, the Department also failed to track 1,544 (32 percent) of the cases at all.
As an executive branch lawyer, I was wary of any congressional interference with how agencies respond to document requests. It generally seems like an encroachment into the “separation” in the separation of powers (as I have written about in the context of Operation Fast and Furious). As a congressional overseer, though, I recall being at my wits’ end with the lack of progress on numerous unobjectionable requests for State Department information. In fact, I recall suggesting to a State Department counterpart that my Chairman was considering commissioning a similar study before this one was issued.
*          *          *
In the Department’s defense, it has to perform critical national security missions all over the globe on a budget that is dwarfed in comparison to the Pentagon’s. An overall austere budget environment is exacerbated in the records-management context by an aversion to appropriating funds for management resources when it comes at the cost of front-facing diplomatic roles. Moreover, the State Department is, by definition, a far-flung operation. It has multiple modes of communication delivery, ranging from email to cables to pouches. Numerous platforms and storage repositories complicate records retention and searches.
Furthermore, the State Department has many legitimate confidentiality interests that need to be considered on a case-by-case basis. Its documents reflect presidential communications, deliberative processes, diplomatic sensitivities, personnel information, third-party privacy interests, trade secrets, open criminal files, intelligence information, and adjudications. Moreover, the National Security Council process means that other agencies, including the White House, will have equities in many Department documents that are the subject of FOIA and congressional requests. They need to have a reasonable opportunity to review such documents prior to release.
In all, however, the State Department comes across in many oversight and accountability community reports as an agency that struggles to get its arms around its documents, internal management controls, and responses. That is consistent with my experience. The State Department needs significant improvement in its records management, public records compliance, and legislative responses. Legislators need to appropriate the funds for adequate personnel and technology, Department leadership needs to make these processes a priority, and Department lawyers need to be more intimately involved in overseeing them. I hope that these structural and cultural changes become the legacy of this election-fueled email controversy.
Read on Just Security »
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White House moves to expand 'sharing intelligence between NSA, FBI and CIA' - International Business Times UK

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International Business Times UK

White House moves to expand 'sharing intelligence between NSA, FBI and CIA'
International Business Times UK
Up until this point, the NSA experts have filtered communications data and surveillance content before it reaches the rest of the government – including agencies such as the FBI and the CIA. Once implemented, the new system would allow analysts at ...

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Top Dems Outraged Over Obama Efforts to Ignore Pro-Israel Provisions 

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Leading Democrats are taking aim at the Obama administration for its opposition to newly passed legislation that aims to bolster the U.S.-Israel economic relationship and combat boycotts of Israel, according to a statement issued this week.
The Obama administration announced that it opposes portions of a bipartisan trade bill that would strengthen economic ties between the U.S. and Israel and force trade partners to sever ties with backers of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, an anti-Israel movement that seeks to economically isolate the Jewish state.
President Barack Obama issued a rare statement opposing the bill’s pro-Israel language this week, claiming that it sought to legitimize Israeli settlements. Obama stated that he would not enforce the pro-Israel provisions as a result of his personal disagreement with the policies.
The statement prompted top Democrats to break with the president.
The fracture between these Democrats and the administration comes amid White House support for efforts to label Jewish-made goods produced in disputed areas of Israel. These efforts have been described as anti-Semitic by Israel’s government.
“While the Obama Administration has reiterated its opposition to boycotts, divestment campaigns, and sanctions targeting the State of Israel, it has mischaracterized the TPA and Customs bill provisions as making a U.S. policy statement about Israeli settlements,” Sens. Harry Reid (D., Nev.), Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.), Ron Wyden (D., Ore.), Ben Cardin (D., Md.), Michael Bennet (D., Colo.), and Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) said in a joint statement released Thursday.
The senators accused the Obama administration of lying about the pro-Israel bill and pushing a false narrative in efforts to oppose it.
“This simply is not the case,” they said. “These provisions are not about Israeli settlements.”
“Rather, consistent with U.S. policy, they are about discouraging politically-motivated commercial actions aimed at delegitimizing Israel and pressuring Israel into unilateral concessions outside the bounds of direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations,” the senators said. “We urge the Administration to implement these provisions as enacted and intended.”
Republicans who cosponsored the bill along with Democratic allies also took aim at the administration.
Rep. Peter Roskam (R., Ill.), who authored the pro-Israel language along with Rep. Juan Vargas (D., Calif.), criticized the administration for not upholding the will of Congress and the American people.
“This law—including the anti-BDS provisions I was proud to author—passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate,” Roskam said in a statement. “Incredibly, President Obama has already announced his intention to prioritize his misguided notions of legacy over the law of the land.”
“We did not provide a statutory menu from which President Obama can pick and choose provisions to enforce,” the lawmaker added. “The president has signed this bill into law—it is now his responsibility to fully and faithfully execute it in its entirety.”
Roskam expressed dismay that “fighting efforts to delegitimize Israel interferes with his diplomacy, but rest assured that I intend to use my authority as chairman of the Ways and Means Subcommittee.”
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“Russia is not an enemy,” said Israel’s Air Defense Commander

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February 26, 2016, 7:20 PM (IDT)
Brig. Gen. Tzvika Haimovich, commander of Israel’s Air Defense Forces, told reporters Thursday that Russian aircraft had violated Israeli air space at least twice in the past half year. But, he added, “The Russians are not an enemy” and the Israeli Air Force “has no intention to create needless friction” with Russian air power plying the skies of neighboring Syria.
Haimovich spoke alongside US Lt. Gen. Timothy Ray, 3rd Air Force commander and the man charged with commanding a US-Israel Joint Task Force for air and missile defense, in a press briefing on the ongoing Juniper Cobra US-Israeli missile defense drill.
DEBKAfile: There were many more Russian air intrusions of Israeli skies over the Golan and the Sea of Galilee than disclosed by the Gen. Haimovich.

Chris Christie Endorses Donald Trump

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New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie announced he was endorsing Donald Trump for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination on Friday.

Al Qaeda in Syria calls for more fighting as deadline nears - Reuters

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Reuters

Al Qaeda in Syria calls for more fighting as deadline nears
Reuters
BEIRUT/MOSCOW Syria's branch of al Qaeda, one of its most powerful Islamist rebel groups, called for an escalation in fighting against the government and its allies, adding to the dangers facing an agreement to halt fighting set to start on Saturday. 
A look at key events in Syria since March 2011San Francisco Chronicle
Al Qaeda's Syria branch rejects plans for a truce, urges rebels to intensify attacksBusiness Insider

Why the most dangerous group in Syria isn't ISISCNN

all 107 news articles »
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Suspicion And Indifference In Moscow One Year After Nemtsov Killing

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One year ago, Boris Nemtsov, an opposition politician and vocal critic of President Vladimir Putin, was shot dead near the Kremlin. Five suspects have been charged in the case, but who ordered the killing remains unknown. RFE/RL's Current Time TV asked Moscow residents to share their thoughts on Nemtsov's assassination.

Russia carries out 'intense' air strikes in Syria just hours before planned ceasefire 

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Moscow strikes seek to help the Assad regime make further gains before the ceasefire takes hold











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Haitian economist nominated as PM under interim government

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The former governor of Haiti’s central bank has been nominated to be the country’s new prime minister in an interim government.









Putin warns of election interference

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President Vladimir Putin warns that Russia's "foes abroad" are preparing to interfere in the country's September general election.

U.S. becoming more careful in YPG ties: Turkey presidential spokesman

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ANKARA (Reuters) - The United States is becoming more careful in its ties with Syrian Kurdish YPG fighters and Ankara has seen some changes in attitude from Washington about the relationship, Turkey's presidential spokesman said on Friday.
  

13 Takeaways from Ilya Yashin’s Kadyrov Report

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