Russian submarine found in Swedish waters: 'Completely intact' vessel likely from World War I by Douglas Ernst Wednesday July 29th, 2015 at 12:08 PM
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The Swedish military says that Ocean X and Ixplorer teams appear to have found a Russian mini-submarine from World War I in its territorial waters.
Military officials said in a statement that the submarine likely sank in 1916 after colliding with a Swedish submarine.
Video provided by Ocean X shows ...
Iran, France talk of 'new era' in ties after nuclear dealby ALI AKBAR DAREINI and SYLVIE CORBET
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - France sought Wednesday to relaunch diplomatic ties with Iran in the hope of boosting business in the country, following a key nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers reached earlier this month.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius called his one-day visit to Iran "an important trip" ...
Afghan officials and an individual close to the Taliban claim that the group’s spiritual leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, for whom the United States had issued a $10 million bounty, is dead.
According to a report in The Express Tribune Wednesday morning, an anonymous former Afghan Taliban minister claimed that Mullah Omar died of Tuberculosis two years and four months ago and has been buried in Afghanistan, adding that the leader’s corpse was identified by his son.
Afghan officials have also said that the Pakistani government claimed that Mullah Omar died two years ago.
However, the Taliban immediately rejected the reports, a spokesman for the group telling Voice of America that Mullah Omar is “very much alive.” Afghan officials are currently investigating the claims.
Mullah Omar, who has not been seen in public since 2001, during the first months of the United States’ invasion into Afghanistan, has been reported to be dead before.
Thomas Joscelyn, a senior fellowat the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) and an expert on counterterrorism and al Qaeda, expressed doubt in the validity of the reports, listing multiple reasons on Twitterfor which he remains suspicious of the news.
“Keep in mind that the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) has been circulated rumors of Mullah Omar’s supposed death on social media,” he wrote. “ I don’t know this to be the case, but you have to wonder if that is the ultimate source for the latest reports–disinfo spread by ISIS.”
The Taliban is currently pondering a peace deal with the Afghan government.
UPDATE 10:58 A.M.: The spokesman for Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security Abdul Hassib Seddiqi told the Associated PressWednesday that the country’s main intelligency agency has confirmed that Mullah Omar died in a Pakistani hospital in April 2013.
Some of the most powerful labor unions in the country are calling on the White House to approve the repeal of an Obamacare tax on employer-sponsored health plans that could lead to benefit cuts.
Terry O’Sullivan, president of the Laborers’ International Union, on Tuesday afternoon joined labor and business interest groups as part of the Alliance to Fight the 40 aimed at dismantling Obamacare’s so-called Cadillac insurance tax. The “Cadillac” label applied by Obamacare defenders is inaccurate, according to the union bigwig. He referred to the tax as “despicable,” “regressive,” “unwise, unjust, and unfair” during a three-minute opening statement at an Alliance teleconference.
“This is not a tax on high end health plans. This tax will hit … middle and working class families,” he said. “This tax is a kick in the face to every hardworking, blue collar, and middle class family in the country.”
O’Sullivan has been an opponent of certain aspects of Obamacare since it passed. He told the 2013 AFL-CIO convention that “if the Affordable Care Act is not fixed and it destroys the health and welfare funds that we have all fought for and stand for, then I believe it needs to be repealed.” He stuck by that statement on Tuesday.
“Yes, but I think it can be fixed,” he said in response to a Washington Free Beacon inquiry about repealing the massive healthcare overhaul. “We’ve been frustrated by this entire process and its impact on the hardworking Americans that we represent.”
The 40 percent tax rate on health plans that cost $10,200 on individuals and $27,000 for families, was supposed to go into effect in 2013, but a bipartisan group of lawmakers pushed the implementation back to 2018.
There are now two bills in the House to repeal the tax to prevent employers from slashing benefits in order to fall under the threshold.
“Employers … are all restructuring plans, cutting benefits to avoid the tax,” said Rep. Frank Guinta (R., N.H.), sponsor of one of the bills.
He was joined by Rep. Joe Courtney (D., Conn.), who is sponsoring a separate piece of legislation to roll back the mandatory tax.
“2018 is now if you’re negotiating a multi-year labor contract,” Courtney said. “Many supporters of the Affordable Care Act … understand that this is not an integral part of the law.”
Courtney and other Democratic allies in Congress are now petitioning the White House to back the bid for repeal. He said they have met with cabinet-level officials, but have run into roadblocks because many new appointees do not have the same firsthand knowledge as White House officials who presided over the passage and writing of Obamacare when it passed in his first term.
“It was pretty obvious that some of them needed to bone up a little on this issue,” Courtney said.
Donald “D.” Taylor head of the hotel workers union UNITE HERE, said that Congress must act quickly if it is to reverse the trend of slashed benefits.
“This has to be a pretty bad deal if you bring business and labor together in a way that we’re usually at odds,” he said. “A 40 percent tax on a housekeeper is a higher tax than the richest billionaire [pays] on income.”
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Retired Admiral James Stavridis rejected key talking points used by the Obama administration to sell the Iran nuclear deal in an interview Wednesday.
Admiral Stavridis, who served as NATO Supreme Allied Commander and is now Dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, told MSNBC’s Morning Joe the deal may not catch Iranian nuclear cheating if it occurs.
“I think the top [issue] is the verification regime, which is starting to roughly resemble Swiss cheese,” Stavridis said. “You can drive a truck through some of the holes. I am very concerned about that.”
Defenders of the deal, such as Secretary of State John Kerry, have insisted the deal’s verification measures are airtight.
Stavridis expressed concern over Iran’s side deal about inspections with the IAEA, which may allow Iran to take its own environmental samples from suspicious sites.
“We need to have access to it and understand it,” Stavridis said about the side deal. “Reportedly, it puts Iran in the position of actually procuring samples as opposed to having them taken by the IAEA.”
Stavridis said his biggest concern with the deal is its gift of hundreds of billions in economic activityand previously frozen assets to Iran, the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism.
“The biggest problem here is the airdrop of $100 to $150 billion into their economy, which is only $350 billion to begin with,” Stavridis said. “That’s like the U.S. getting a $4 trillion insertion of capital. That’s the teeth of the alligator you just heard about.”
Under the nuclear deal, Iran would gain access to foreign businesses and key financial networks, which will generate the steady revenue necessary to revitalize Iran’s military and allies.
Obama administration officials have said that the deal’s concessions to Iran are tolerable because the only alternative is a ground war.
Stavridis dismissed this rhetoric as a false choice.
“I think the U.S. still can drive some degree of sanctions” without a deal, Stavridis said. “There are cyber options to pursue. There are clandestine options to pursue. There are Special Forces options to pursue. I reject a notion that the choice is simply between this deal and going to war.”
The U.S. public is increasingly wary of the Iran nuclear deal as the congressional review period drags on. A CNN poll released Tuesday found that a majority of Americans want Congress to reject the deal.
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Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard set to be released from prison in Novemberby Ben Jacobs in New York, Peter Beaumont in Jerusalem and agencies
- Former US naval intelligence analyst gave classified information to Israel
- Life sentence in 1987 has been source of tension between US and its ally
Convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard will be released from prison in November, his attorneys said on Tuesday.
“We are grateful and delighted that our client will be released soon,” said a statement from Pollard’s lawyers, Eliot Lauer and Jacques Semmelman.
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Petition to pardon Edward Snowden rejected by Obama administration by Sabrina Siddiqui in Washington
The White House responded to 168,000 signatories with its unwavering position that the NSA whistleblower should return to US to face espionage charges
The White House has rejected a petition to pardon NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, dubbing the former contractor’s revelations about the US government’s surveillance apparatus as “dangerous” and compromising to national security.
Responding to a “We the People” petition, launched after Snowden’s initial leaks were published in the Guardian two years ago, the Obama administration on Tuesday reiterated its belief that he should face criminal charges for his actions.
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Review into incident that led to live anthrax being sent to more than 80 laboratories in seven countries finds ‘systemic’ lack of standards
A US Department of Defense review into the incident that led to live anthrax being sent to more than 80 laboratories in seven countries has found a “systemic … lack of specific standards” in the preparation and transport of weaponized pathogens.
“By any measure, this was a massive institutional failure with a potentially deadly biotoxin,” deputy secretary of defense Bob Work said in a press conference on Thursday.
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The modest expansion of nonlethal military assistance will begin with training this fall for Ukrainian Army personnel in the western part of the country.
Turkey and U.S. Agree on Plan to Clear ISIS From Strip of Syria’s Northby By ANNE BARNARD, MICHAEL R. GORDON and ERIC SCHMITT
American warplanes, Turkish forces and anti-ISIS rebels within Syria would join to clear a section along the border, creating what the Turks call a “safe zone” for refugees.Britain Is Losing Against ISIS Recruitment Tacticsby By KATRIN BENNHOLD
A marketing pitch has swayed hundreds of young British Muslims into believing the Islamic State's utopian vision.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has ramped up tensions with Kurdish militants, saying he cannot continue a two-year-old peace process with them.
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F.B.I. Emphasizes Speed as ISIS Exhorts Individuals to Attackby By MATT APUZZO and MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT
The bureau’s strategy of patiently tracking suspected terror sympathizers has given way to a faster-moving approach amid fears about attacks on U.S. soil.Countering Jamaican Gangs by Glynn Cosker
By Martin Scott Catino, Ph.D.American Military University
The battle to defeat Jamaican gangs is one that demonstrates the complexity of modern warfare, and all its changes: shifting centers of gravity, decentralization of authority, increasing sophistication of weapons and communications, and involvement of international complexities evident in global networks, and complicity of states and non-state actors.
By Brett Daniel Shehadey
Special Correspondent for In Homeland Security
Special Correspondent for In Homeland Security
Two days ago, there was news of a first successful launch of an underwater drone from a submarine dry deck. In Groton, Conn., the attack submarine USS North Dakota returned from a two-month deployment overseas that tested the REMUS 600 in the Mediterranean Sea.
REMUS (Remote, Environment, Monitoring, Unit, System).
By Dr. James Hess
Faculty Director and Associate Professor of Intelligence Studies at American Military University
Faculty Director and Associate Professor of Intelligence Studies at American Military University
In September 1901, President William McKinley was assassinated by Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist terrorist. McKinley’s successor was President Theodore Roosevelt who called for the end of terrorism everywhere.
By Brett Daniel Shehadey
Special Correspondent for In Homeland Security
Special Correspondent for In Homeland Security
Ankara has called for an emergency session with NATO membership under the treaty’s Article 4, fearing territorial integrity, political independence and security threats. The flash point was the recent suicide attack by the Islamic State on July 20 that killed 32 people.
In retaliation, Turkish military forces carried out their first airstrike against the Islamic State in Syria.
WASHINGTON — As Ukraine wars with Russian-backed separatists in its east, it faces an internal battle, between military reformers and who seek to modernize the largely Soviet-era technology and the realities of bureaucracy, pervasive corruption, ar
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Despite Western sanctions, Russian defense firm’s saw surging revenues as exports reached new highs
The hidden costs of owning a vacation home.
Russia aims to boost the strategic positions of its navy on the Black Sea and seek to maintain an Atlantic and Mediterranean presence, according its latest naval doctrine which has been revised over NATO's "inadmissible" expansion.
Swedish wreck divers said Monday they had found the wreck of a Russian mini-submarine in Swedish territorial waters, nine months after a high-profile hunt in Sweden for a mystery submarine.
Sweden said on Tuesday the wreck of a submarine found off its coast appeared to be a Tsarist-era Russian vessel that collided with a Swedish ship about a century ago.
MOSCOW — NATO enlargement into Ukraine and Georgia would have “catastrophic consequences” for Europe, Russia’s envoy to NATO warned Tuesday in a television interview, as relations between Moscow and the West sink to Cold War-era lows.
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In Russia, some Muslims want to create a more positive image of Islam. A fashion designer, a public relations adviser and a composer all work toward the same goal.
Produced by: Natalia V. Osipova
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