Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976?Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. Unless you are in this field of investigative journalism, especially covering extremely sensitive subjects and potentially dangerous subjects as well, you simply cannot understand the complexities and difficulties involved with this work that I face every day.
New York Times reporter James Risen, a two-time Pulitzer Prize
winner, claims the Obama administration is “the greatest enemy of press
freedom that we have encountered in at least a generation.”
Risen won the Pulitzer Prize in 2002 and 2006 for his reporting on national security and terrorism. He has clashed with the Obama administration over his refusal to reveal a confidential source in a matter that reached the Supreme Court in January.
Speaking last week at a New York conference called Sources and Secrets, Risen voiced his concern about the Obama administration’s interaction with journalists, according to a report from Poynter’s Andrew Beaujon:
New York Times reporter James Risen, who is fighting an order
that he testify in the trial of Jeffrey Sterling, a former CIA officer
accused of leaking information to him, opened the conference earlier by
saying the Obama administration is “the greatest enemy of press freedom
that we have encountered in at least a generation.” The administration
wants to “narrow the field of national security reporting,” Risen said,
to “create a path for accepted reporting.” Anyone journalist who exceeds
those parameters, Risen said, “will be punished.”
The administration’s aggressive prosecutions have created “a de facto
Official Secrets Act,” Risen said, and the media has been “too timid”
in responding.
The conference also featured remarks from Jeffrey Toobin, a staff
writer for The New Yorker and senior legal analyst for CNN, and Sen.
Chuck Schumer (D–N.Y.). They were among the speakers who debated a
federal shield law for the press. >>> Check Out: Liberal Professor Slams Obama’s Use of Executive Orders
Risen’s critique of the Obama administration comes just weeks after Sharyl Attkisson left her job at CBS News
following investigative reports on the Obama administration’s handling
of the Fast and Furious gunrunning operation and Benghazi terrorist
attack.
In an interview with talk-radio host Chris Stigall,
Attkisson shared her concerns about coordination between journalists
and government officials, particularly the White House’s pre-screening
of questions from reporters:
I wouldn’t surprised if sometimes there is that level of
cooperation with some questions. If I need something answered from the
White House and they won’t tell me, I’ll call our White House
correspondent. They’re friendlier with the White House Correspondents in
general. So the White House correspondent may ask Jay Carney or one of
his folks about an issue and they will be told “ask that at the briefing
and we’ll answer it.” They want to answer it in front of everybody.
They do know it’s coming and they’ll call on you. There’s that kind of
coordination sometimes.
I wouldn’t be shocked if there’s sometimes more coordination. I don’t
think it’s everybody on every briefing, every day. I’m pretty sure it’s
not. But I think people would be surprised at the level of cooperation
reporters have in general with politicians.
>>> Read More: Sharyl Attkisson Leaves CBS News, Liberal Bias Cited This story was produced by The Foundry’s news team. Nothing here
should be construed as necessarily reflecting the views of The Heritage
Foundation.
The U.S. ambassador to NATO warned after Russia’s invasion of
Georgia six years ago that President Vladimir Putin could encroach on
Ukrainian territory next, according to a 2008 cable published by
Wikileaks.
Putin publicly challenged Ukraine’s claim to Crimea in a speech at
the Russia-NATO summit in April 2008, according to an Aug. 14, 2008 telegram signed by then-U.S. NATO ambassador Kurt Volker.
The Russian leader’s threats took on greater significance after
Russia’s invasion of Georgia in early August 2008, according to the
Volker memo.
“President Putin challenged Ukraine’s territorial integrity
rhetorically at the Bucharest Summit,” the telegram said. “Those words
are now cause for greater concern as we look at Russia’s actions in
Georgia.”
At the summit, Putin suggested that Ukraine “was an artificial
creation sewn together from territory of Poland, the Czech Republic,
Romania, and especially Russia,” according to the memo.
“Crimea was simply given to Ukraine by a decision of the Politburo of
the Soviet Communist Party Central Committee,” Putin reportedly said.
“There haven’t even been any state procedures regarding transfer of the
territory, since we take a very calm and responsible approach to the
problem.”
Putin also issued a veiled threat against Ukraine, which was vying
for NATO membership, suggesting that there would be retribution if it
joined NATO.
“If we add in the NATO question and other problems, the very
existence of the state could find itself under threat,” Putin said,
according to the memo.
The Volker telegram warned that Russian belligerence could increase
if the invasion of Georgia was not met with significant consequences.
“If the Kremlin achieves all of its objectives in Georgia with few
consequences and its international reputation intact—as Germany and
others would have it—this may only embolden Russia to increase its
bullying behavior towards Ukraine and others in the neighborhood.”
Reached for comment on Russia’s invasion of Crimea last month, Volker said it was no surprise.
“We saw six years ago where Russia was headed,” Volker told the Washington Free Beacon.
He said Russia was likely emboldened by the lack of long-term consequences after its invasion of Georgia.
“The ‘reset’ policy was an effort to give relations a fresh start, and [Russia] took advantage of that,” he said.
Volker added that Russian expansionism might not stop at Crimea.
“People should not think that because they’ve annexed Crimea it’s now
over. We need to be doing a lot now to deter further steps from
Russia,” he said.
Volker suggested taking steps through NATO, including moving
additional air defense assets to the Baltic states, selling more
advanced military equipment to Ukraine and imposing an arms embargo on
Russia.
Is this the face of a man who would knowingly skirt campaign finance laws to enrich family members? (via Instagram)
The Federal Election Commission (FEC) has some questions
for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) concerning his
campaign’s purchase of more than $16,000 in “holiday gifts” for donors.
It turns out that the gifts were purchased from a jewelry vendor in
Berkeley, Calif., who just happens to be Reid’s granddaughter, Ryan
Elisabeth Reid, although her full name was not listed on Reid’s campaign
filing with the FEC. Jon Ralston reports:
The gifts, I have learned, were purchased from his
granddaughter, Ryan Elisabeth Reid, who is a jewelry vendor in Berkeley,
CA. The gifts were later passed on to donors and supporters, a Reid
spokeswoman told me.
Reid has previously been asked to explain holiday gifts to his Ritz Carlton doorman by the FEC. But in the letter from the FEC sent last week,
the agency wants to know what payments of $11,370 and $5,416 (UPDATED)
were. “Itemized disbursements must include a brief statement or
description of why each disbursement was made,” the letter said.
Reid’s granddaughter is listed only as “Ryan Elisabeth” on the FEC
report, which is attached here (see page 166). But her full name is Ryan
Elisabeth Reid. …
The FEC wants an answer by April 25. But even if that agency does its
usual dithering and wrist-slapping, many will wonder why Reid needs to
use campaign funds for holiday gifts to give to supporters and donors
and why he enriched his granddaughter in so doing.
In other news, Reid is even less popular than Charles and David Koch, the libertarian philanthropists Reid has described as “un-American.”
UPDATE: In a statement,
Reid said he will reimburse his campaign for price of the gifts: “I
thought it would be nice to give supporters and staff thank-you gifts
that had a personal connection and a Searchlight connection, but I have
decided to reimburse the campaign for the amount of the expenditure.”
The Obama administration’s tacit policy of disengagement in Latin
America has emboldened U.S. adversaries to gain a foothold in the
region, experts said at a congressional hearing on Tuesday.
Rep. Matt Salmon (R., Ariz.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs
subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, said in an opening statement at
the hearing that the administration lacks a “strategic vision” for the region.
“When I mentioned my concerns to Secretary [of State John] Kerry [at a
recent hearing], he pontificated about the environment in the Pacific
Islands and a typhoon in the Philippines—further making my point about
the administration’s lack of strategy for the Western Hemisphere,” he
said.
Salmon added that U.S. officials should push for better environmental
policies in the region, but not to the neglect of commercial and
security interests.
“That’s prudent and smart, but to the scale of priorities—when we’re
looking at people being killed on the streets in Venezuela and arms
smuggled by Cuba into North Korea—on the relative scale of what are our
priorities, are we really focusing our attention on what really
matters?” he said.
U.S. funding for initiatives in Latin America has declined in recent years, particularly for joint security cooperation such as counternarcotics.
Ilan Berman, vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council,
said the “vacuum” in the region is quietly being filled by Russia, Iran,
and China.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu last month announced
the Kremlin’s plans to establish new military bases in eight foreign
countries, including Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua. The sites could be
used to refuel Russian long-range aircraft.
“There is a Russian adage that says that sacred space will not remain
empty for long,” Berman said. “This is very much a throwback to what
the Russians, what the Soviets at the time, used Latin America for.”
Iran’s Islamic government has cultivated both its commercial and
ideological interests in Latin America, signing agreements to mine for
uranium in Bolivia and Ecuador and erecting intelligence bases in
multiple countries. The Iranian regime partially financed the
construction of a “regional defense school” for the Venezuelan-led ALBA
alliance in eastern Bolivia, which reportedly instructs left-wing
paramilitaries similar to the basij militias in Iran and “colectivos”
accused of killing Venezuelan protesters.
China’s outreach has been more economic but also includes arms sales to ALBA
countries and joint military exercises and trainings. A Chinese
businessman with close ties to the country’s communist party has received approval to build a massive $60 billion canal in Nicaragua that could rival the Panama Canal.
Berman criticized Kerry’s declaration last fall to the Organization
of American States (OAS) that the “era of the Monroe Doctrine is over.”
The doctrine, initially crafted as a warning against European
intervention in newly independent Latin American countries, guided more
than 200 years of U.S. policy toward the region.
“By doing that [Kerry] effectively served notice to regional regimes
that they are allowed to curry favor with external actors, and served
notice to external actors that America will no longer compete with those
external actors,” he said.
Other experts at the hearing called on the administration to support sanctions
including U.S. visa bans, asset freezes, and prohibitions on financial
transactions against Venezuelan officials involved in human rights
abuses.
More than 30 people have died in the protests against President Nicolas Maduro’s regime. Opposition leaders such as Maria Corina Machado have either already been jailed or face the threat of imprisonment.
Otto Reich, former special envoy for Western Hemisphere Initiatives
during the George W. Bush administration, said U.S. sanctions should
also extend to wealthy elites with ties to Venezuela’s government.
“There are a lot of private sector people in Venezuela and other
countries in the region that have become billionaires as a result of
these corrupt left wing populists who are in office,” he said.
“They have huge assets in the United States,” he added. “They come and spend the weekends here. I don’t know why we allow that.”
A Russian nuclear-powered attack submarine armed with long-range
cruise missiles operated undetected in the Gulf of Mexico for several
weeks and its travel in strategic U.S. waters was only confirmed after
it left the region, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.
It is only the second time since 2009 that a Russian attack submarine has patrolled so close to U.S. shores.
The stealth underwater incursion in the Gulf took place at the same
time Russian strategic bombers made incursions into restricted U.S.
airspace near Alaska and California in June and July, and highlights a
growing military assertiveness by Moscow.
The submarine patrol also exposed what U.S. officials said were
deficiencies in U.S. anti-submarine warfare capabilities—forces that are
facing cuts under the Obama administration’s plan to reduce defense
spending by $487 billion over the next 10 years.
The Navy is in charge of detecting submarines, especially those that
sail near U.S. nuclear missile submarines, and uses undersea sensors and
satellites to locate and track them.
The fact that the Akula was not detected in the Gulf is cause for concern, U.S. officials said.
The officials who are familiar with reports of the submarine patrol
in the Gulf of Mexico said the vessel was a nuclear-powered Akula-class
attack submarine, one of Russia’s quietest submarines.
A Navy spokeswoman declined to comment.
One official said the Akula operated without being detected for a month.
“The Akula was built for one reason and one reason only: To kill U.S.
Navy ballistic missile submarines and their crews,” said a second U.S.
official.
“It’s a very stealthy boat so it can sneak around and avoid detection
and hope to get past any protective screen a boomer might have in
place,” the official said, referring to the Navy nickname for strategic
missile submarines.
The U.S. Navy operates a strategic nuclear submarine base at Kings
Bay, Georgia. The base is homeport to eight missile-firing submarines,
six of them equipped with nuclear-tipped missiles, and two armed with
conventional warhead missiles.
“Sending a nuclear-propelled submarine into the Gulf of
Mexico-Caribbean region is another manifestation of President Putin
demonstrating that Russia is still a player on the world’s
political-military stage,” said naval analyst and submarine warfare
specialist Norman Polmar.
“Like the recent deployment of a task force led by a nuclear cruiser
into the Caribbean, the Russian Navy provides him with a means of
‘showing the flag’ that is not possible with Russian air and ground
forces,” Polmar said in an email.
The last time an Akula submarine was known to be close to U.S. shores
was 2009, when two Akulas were spotted patrolling off the east coast of
the United States.
Those submarine patrols raised concerns at the time about a new
Russian military assertiveness toward the United States, according to
the New York Times, which first reported the 2009 Akula submarine activity.
The latest submarine incursion in the Gulf further highlights the
failure of the Obama administration’s “reset” policy of conciliatory
actions designed to develop closer ties with Moscow.
Instead of closer ties, Russia under President Vladimir Putin, an
ex-KGB intelligence officer who has said he wants to restore elements of
Russia’s Soviet communist past, has adopted growing hardline policies
against the United States.
Of the submarine activity, Sen. John Cornyn (R., Texas), member of
the Senate Armed Services Committee, said, “It’s a confounding situation
arising from a lack of leadership in our dealings with Moscow. While
the president is touting our supposed ‘reset’ in relations with Russia,
Vladimir Putin is actively working against American interests, whether
it’s in Syria or here in our own backyard.”
The Navy is facing sharp cuts in forces needed to detect and counter such submarine activity.
The Obama administration’s defense budget proposal in February cut
$1.3 billion from Navy shipbuilding projects, which will result in
scrapping plans to build 16 new warships through 2017.
The budget also called for cutting plans to buy 10 advanced P-8 anti-submarine warfare jets needed for submarine detection.
In June, Russian strategic nuclear bombers and support aircraft
conducted a large-scale nuclear bomber exercise in the arctic. The
exercise included simulated strikes on “enemy” strategic sites that
defense officials say likely included notional attacks on U.S. missile
defenses in Alaska.
Under the terms of the 2010 New START arms accord, such exercises
require 14-day advanced notice of strategic bomber drills, and
notification after the drills end. No such notification was given.
A second, alarming air incursion took place July 4 on the West Coast
when a Bear H strategic bomber flew into U.S. airspace near California
and was met by U.S. interceptor jets.
That incursion was said to have been a bomber incursion that has not been seen since before the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
It could not be learned whether the submarine in the Gulf of Mexico was an Akula 1 type submarine or a more advanced Akula 2.
It is also not known why the submarine conducted the operation.
Theories among U.S. analysts include the notion that submarine incursion
was designed to further signal Russian displeasure at U.S. and NATO
plans to deploy missile defenses in Europe.
Russia’s chief of the general staff, Gen. Nikolai Makarov, said in
May that Russian forces would consider preemptive attacks on U.S. and
allied missile defenses in Europe, and claimed the defenses are
destabilizing in a crisis.
Makarov met with Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, in July. Dempsey questioned him about the Russian
strategic bomber flights near U.S. territory.
The voyage of the submarine also could be part of Russian efforts to export the Akula.
Russia delivered one of its Akula-2 submarines to India in 2009. The submarine is distinctive for its large tail fin.
Brazil’s O Estado de Sao Paoli reported Aug. 2 that Russia plans to sell Venezuela up to 11 new submarines, including one Akula.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow’s military is
working to set up naval replenishment facilities in Vietnam and Cuba,
but denied there were plans to base naval forces in those states.
Asked if Russia planned a naval base in Cuba, Lavrov said July 28:
“We are not speaking of any bases. The Russian navy ships serve exercise
cruises and training in the same regions. To harbor, resupply, and
enable the crew to rest are absolutely natural needs. We have spoken of
such opportunities with our Cuban friends.” The comment was posted in
the Russian Foreign Ministry website.
Russian warships and support vessels were sent to Venezuela in 2008
to take part in naval exercises in a show of Russian support for the
leftist regime of Hugo Chavez. The ships also stopped in Cuba.
Russian Deputy Premier Dmitri Rogozin announced in February that
Russia was working on a plan to build 10 new attack submarines and 10
new missile submarines through 2030, along with new aircraft carriers.
Submarine warfare specialists say the Akula remains the core of the Russian attack submarine force.
The submarines can fire both cruise missiles and torpedoes, and are
equipped with the SSN-21 and SSN-27 submarine-launched cruise missiles,
as well as SSN-15 anti-submarine-warfare missiles. The submarines also
can lay mines.
The SSN-21 has a range of up to 1,860 miles.
1 of 4. U.S.
Army Brigadier General Jeffrey Sinclair address the media outside of
the courthouse after sentencing in his court-martial case at Fort Bragg
in Fayetteville, North Carolina March 20, 2014.
(Reuters) - A U.S. Army general who admitted to an adulterous sexual
affair and other improper relationships with junior female officers was
spared jail and dismissal from the service on Thursday, a sentence
critics decried as a failure of military justice. The case that derailed the
27-year Army career of Brigadier General Jeffrey Sinclair ended with a
reprimand and $20,000 in forfeited pay as punishment after a plea deal
in the rare court-martial of a top officer absolved him of sexual
assault charges.
The one-star
general's defense team said they were grateful for the sentence ordered
by the trial judge, Colonel James Pohl. They argued that Sinclair was
unfairly portrayed as a sex offender when he was guilty of far lesser
wrongdoing.
"The system has
worked," a relieved Sinclair, a married father of two sons, said after
court in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. "All I want to do now is hug my
kids and be with my wife."
Advocates
of military justice reform said the case proved the armed forces still
tolerate sexual misconduct in their ranks despite political pressure
from Congress and the president to curb it. They said the lenient
sentence for Sinclair would have a chilling effect on other victims of
abuse.
"He made out like a bandit,"
said Eugene Fidell, a professor of military justice at Yale Law School.
"This is a baffling denouement to a disturbing case."
The
sentencing coincided with another high-profile military trial. A judge
found a Naval Academy football player not guilty on Thursday in the
sexual assault of a female midshipman at an alcohol-fueled off-campus
party in April 2012.
Sinclair, 51,
was a rising star in the Army and a veteran of five combat tours before
criminal charges two years ago saw the former deputy commander of the
82nd Airborne Division stripped of his duties in southern Afghanistan.
A
female captain 17 years his junior said she and the general had a
three-year illicit affair, during which she alleged he had sex with her
in a parking lot in Germany and on a hotel balcony in Arizona,
threatened to kill her if she exposed the relationship, and forced her
to perform oral sex when she tried to break it off.
Rear
Admiral John Kirby, a Defense Department spokesman, declined direct
comment on the specifics of the case, but noted the Pentagon is "always
concerned about victim confidence."
"This
is a serious issue," Kirby told a news briefing. "No one's taken their
eye off of it. So we always have those concerns and we're always trying
to get better at it."
CASE UNRAVELS
Sinclair
admitted to adultery and mistreating the captain but maintained that
the affair was consensual. The case began to unravel over questions
about the woman's credibility, and the defense vowed to further
undermine her at trial, but then the proceedings were halted earlier
this month.
After a finding by
Pohl that politics appeared to have improperly influenced the Army's
decision to reject an earlier plea offer by Sinclair, the general this
week pleaded guilty to numerous offenses in exchange for charges of
coercive sex acts and indecent conduct being dismissed.
The plea bargain removed the threat of possible life in prison.
Instead,
Sinclair faced a maximum of 18 months in jail for inappropriate
relationships with junior female officers, possessing pornography on his
laptop while deployed in Afghanistan, misusing his government credit
card to visit his mistress, using derogatory language to refer to female
officers, and obstructing the military investigation into his conduct.
The
judge handed down the non-jail sentence with no explanation.
Prosecutors, who had asked for Sinclair to be dismissed by the Army and
had said he abused his power and used it to exploit women, had no
comment.
Sinclair's lawyers said
the general planned to submit his retirement paperwork and could still
be demoted by the Army as part of that process. He also will reimburse
the government for about $4,000 in improper credit card expenses.
Critics
said the fact that the general would be allowed to retire on his own
accord rather than getting pushed out showed that an overhaul of the
military justice system was needed.
They
said charging decisions in sexual assault cases should be made by
independent military prosecutors rather than top commanders, a proposal
voted down by the U.S. Senate earlier this month.
The
Senate passed a measure, still subject to House approval, that would
strengthen prosecutors' role in advising commanders on whether to go to
court-martial and eliminate the "good soldier" defense, which allowed
courts to reduce the sentence of offenders with strong military records.
"Today's
sentencing is beyond disappointing, it is a travesty and a serious
misstep for the Army," said retired Navy Rear Admiral Jamie Barnett, a
partner in the Washington, D.C., law firm of Venable LLP who represented
Sinclair's main accuser.
"The slap
on the wrist and 'pat on the back' for being a so-called 'good soldier'
points to the importance of Congressional action," Barnett said.
Sinclair's lead attorney, civilian lawyer Richard Scheff, rebuffed the criticism.
"Critics
of this ruling weren't in court every day, haven't examined the
evidence and have no idea what they're talking about," he said.
(Additional reporting by Phil Stewart in Washington, D.C.; Writing by Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Scott Malone, James Dalgleish, Tom Brown and Gunna Dickson)
Earlier in the week the hypocrisy of the big tech firms
was exposed when the NSA's senior lawyers "busted" their lies by
explaining they knew full-well that they were engaged in the
surveillance-state. Today comes yet more 'elite' hypocrisy as AP reports, Microsoft, which has skewered rival Google for going through customer emails to deliver ads, acknowledged Thursday it had searched emails in a blogger's Hotmail account to track down who was leaking company secrets. Scroogled, indeed.
We do spy and search your data - but only if we really need it... (via AP)
the software company "took extraordinary actions in this case."
In the future, he said, Microsoft would consult an outside attorney who is a former judge to determine if a court order would have allowed such a search.
The case involves former employee Alex Kibkalo, a Russian native who worked for Microsoft as a software architect in Lebanon.
...
Besides the email search, Microsoft also combed through instant messages
the two exchanged that September. Microsoft also examined files in
Kibkalo's cloud storage account, which until last month was called
SkyDrive. Kibkalo is accused of using SkyDrive to share files with the
blogger.
...
"Courts do not issue orders authorizing someone to search themselves," he said. "Even when we have probable cause, it's not feasible to ask a court to order us to search ourselves."
...
Microsoft also has a long-running negative ad campaign called
"Scroogled," in which it slams Google for scanning "every word in every
email" to sell ads, saying that "Google crosses the line."
James G. Neuger, Julianna Goldman and Daria Marchak Bloomberg
March 25, 2014
The world’s top industrial powers threatened further sanctions to
deter Russian President Vladimir Putin from taking over other parts of
Ukraine and suspended Russia from participating in the Group of Eight.
Meeting for the first time since last week’s annexation of Crimea by
Russia, Group of Seven leaders said last night they won’t attend a
planned G-8 meeting which was to have been held in Sochi, site of the
Winter Olympics, and will instead hold their own summit in June in
Brussels.
“While a Russian invasion of eastern Ukraine can by no means be
excluded, Putin must surely calculate that it would be a poor and risky
option,” Roderic Lyne, deputy chairman of Chatham House in London and a
former U.K. ambassador in Moscow, said in a comment on the research
group’s website. “He also knows that it would trigger much deeper
Western sanctions, which would hit his Achilles heel –- Russia’s
declining, unreformed economy.”
Both sides in Ukraine’s crisis spent the day calculating what to do
next, with Russia consolidating its control over Crimea and maintaining
forces along the border with Ukraine in the most serious confrontation
between Moscow and the U.S. and its allies since the demise of the
Soviet Union. The International Monetary Fund is set to make an
announcement tomorrow following talks about a bailout loan for Ukraine,
Finance Minister Oleksandr Shlapak said. Full article here
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Police on
Saturday searched the homes of the pilots who were in control of
Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 shortly before it disappeared more than a
week ago as investigators sharpened their focus on the possibility that
the plane fell victim to foul play.
The plane captain, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, has been a Malaysia
Airlines pilot for more than three decades, logging 18,000 hours in the
air. There was no indication Saturday that he or co-pilot Fariq Abdul
Hamid, 27, had been targeted by investigators.
Graphic
New data have provided an arc of possible locations for Malaysian Flight 370.
Video
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said the
movements of the missing plane were consistent with a deliberate act by
someone who turned the jet back across Malaysia and onwards to the west.
The search came the same day that Malaysian Prime Minister
Najib Razak said the plane’s disappearance was “deliberate” and evidence
emerged that it appeared to have flown for seven hours after its radar
transponder and satellite uplink went dead, apparently turned off by
someone in the cockpit.
“Clearly, the search for MH370 has entered a new phase,” Najib said.
But
there was no explanation of who — crew members, hijackers or terrorists
— might have commandeered the Boeing 777. And while the investigation
tilted toward what one U.S. official called “a criminal event,” there
were cautions that until the plane is found, all possibilities remain on
the table.
In the most comprehensive account to date of the
plane’s fate, Najib said the investigation had “refocused” to look at
the crew and passengers. He said satellite data showed that the plane
could have last made contact anywhere along one of two corridors:
one stretching from northern Thailand toward the
Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan border, the other, more southern corridor
stretching from Indonesia to the remote Indian Ocean.
Najib said
Saturday that the flight was still being contacted by satellites until
8:11 a.m. — 7½ hours after takeoff, and more than 90 minutes after it
was due in Beijing. If the plane was still in the air, it would have
been nearing its fuel limit.
“Due to the type of satellite data,”
Najib said, “we are unable to confirm the precise location of the plane
when it last made contact with the satellite.”
A U.S. official
with knowledge of the investigation said that even after the flow of
data from the plane ended — about the same time the plane’s radar
transponder went dead — the satellite kept trying to contact the plane
and could determine that it still was in flight. Though that contact
effort provided no specific information on position or direction, it did
tell about how far the plane was from the last location when its
digital datalink system was actually sending data up to the satellite.
The
new leads about the plane’s endpoint, although ambiguous, have
drastically changed a search operation involving more than a dozen
nations.
On Sunday, India put its search for the plane on hold at
the request of the government in Kuala Lumpur. India had been searching
around the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and in the Bay of Bengal. Defense
officials said both the searches have been suspended but may resume.
“There
is a very high level coordination meeting take place taking place in
Malaysia, so it is too premature to say that everything has been
stopped. There is a temporary pause in operation waiting the joint
coordination meeting in Malaysia. Beyond this I have no inputs,” said
Capt. D.K. Sharma, Navy spokesman.
Malaysia said Saturday that
efforts would be terminated in the Gulf of Thailand and the South China
Sea, where the plane first disappeared from civilian radar.
The
plane, based on one potential endpoint, could have spent nearly all its
flight time over the Indian Ocean as it headed toward an area west of
Australia. But if the plane traveled in the direction of Kazakhstan or
Turkmenistan, it would present a more perplexing scenario in which the
aircraft would have evaded detection for hours while flying through a
volatile region where airspace is heavily monitored: Burma, Pakistan,
India, Afghanistan and western China are all in the neighborhood of that
path, as is the United States’ Bagram air base in Afghanistan.
Malaysia
has confirmed that a previously unknown radar trail picked up by its
military was indeed MH370. That blip suggests the plane had cut west,
across the Malaysian Peninsula, after severing contact with the ground.
Malaysia received help in analyzing that radar data from the U.S.
National Transportation Safety Board, the Federal Aviation
Administration and Britain’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch.
U.S.
officials have said that the plane, shortly after being diverted,
reached an altitude of 45,000 feet and “jumped around a lot.” But the
airplane otherwise appeared to operate normally. Significantly, the
transponder and a satellite-based communication system did not stop at
the same time, as they would if the plane had exploded, disintegrated or
crashed into the ocean.
Najib said the plane’s Aircraft
Communications Addressing and Reporting System, or ACARS, was disabled
just as MH370 reached the eastern coast of Malaysia. The transponder was
then switched off, Najib said, as the aircraft neared the border
between Malaysian and Vietnamese airspace. Halsey reported from Washington, and Gowen reported from New Delhi.
Liu Liu in Beijing; Tim Craig in Islamabad, Pakistan; Rama Lakshmi in
New Delhi; and Joel Achenbach, Adam Goldman and Sari Horwitz in
Washington contributed to this report.
CEO of Missing Malaysian Airlines finally admits to Dangerous Cargo four days after DENYING it
Malaysian Airlines today confirmed that flight MH370 had been
carrying highly flammable lithium-ion batteries in its cargo hold,
re-igniting speculation that a fire may have caused its disappearance.
The admission by CEO Ahmad Jauhari comes four days after he denied
the aircraft was carrying any dangerous items and nearly two weeks after
the plane went missing. He said the authorities were investigating the
cargo, but did not regard the batteries as hazardous – despite the law
dictating they are classed as such – because they were packaged
according to safety regulations.
The revelation has thrown the spotlight back on the theory that the
Boeing 777 may have been overcome by a fire, rendering the crew and
passengers unconscious after inhaling toxic fumes. Lithium-ion batteries
– which are used in mobile phones and laptops – have been responsible
for a number of fires on planes and have even brought aircraft down in
recent years.
According to US-based Federal Aviation Administration, lithium-ion
batteries carried in the cargo or baggage have been responsible for more
than 140 incidents between March 1991 and February 17 this year, it was
reported by Malaysiakini. In rare cases, aircraft have been destroyed
as a result of fires started from the devices, although they have been
cargo planes in both incidents.
In one case, UPS Airlines Flight 6 crashed while attempting an
emergency landing in September 2010 en route from Dubai to Cologne in
Germany. Flight MH370 disappeared from radar screens two weeks ago on
March 8 after taking off from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing. Continue Reading
King James Bible My
people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected
knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me:
seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy
children.
seems like the whole of the usa is
Sheila Jackson Lee demands something be done when planes go off ‘discerned or destinated…destiny and destination’
On Tuesday, Rush Limbaugh played a clip of Sheila Jackson Lee, the Texas Democrat once dubbed the “Congressional boss from Hell,” rambling about Malaysia Airlines flight 370.
It’s obvious Lee has no clue what she’s talking about.
Here’s the transcript, courtesy of Rush Limbaugh:
“I call upon the aviation industry to stop hiding behind costs and
how much it costs and start ensuring that our pilots and our customers,
our flying public, are safe. Why do we have the capacity, uh, to
dismantle the transponders? Why wasn’t the emergency call already in
place that it automatically signals when a[n] aircraft goes off its, uh,
discerned or destinated — uh, destiny and destination –”
She continued:
“– uh, as relates to, uh, its flight pattern.”
“Why does it have to be done manually?” she asked.
“Oh, my God, folks, are we in so much trouble,” Limbaugh said. “This
is a congressional leader. This whole thing is a satire, is a parody.
‘I call upon the ‘avenation’ industry, to stop hiding behind cost and
how much things cost and start ensuring that our beloved pilots and our
precious customers, our precious flying public are safe! Why can
somebody turn off the transponder?’”
The “discerned destinated destiny,” Limbaugh observed, was Beijing.
This, by the way, is the same woman who recently said the Constitution is 400 years old. No wonder we’re in the shape we’re in…
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