Tepco Reports Another Radioactive Water Leak at Fukushima Plant --'The site had plastic pipes to transfer radioactive water.' --Tepco has about 100,000 tons of highly radioactive water accumulated in basements at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear station. 05 Apr 2012 Tokyo Electric Power Co. said as much as 12 tons of radioactive water leaked from a pipe at its crippled Fukushima nuclear station, the second such incident in 11 days at the same pipeline, raising further doubts about the stability of the plant. Part of the water may have poured into the sea through a drainage ditch, Osamu Yokokura, a spokesman for the utility, said by phone. "There will be similar leaks until Tepco improves equipment," said Kazuhiko Kudo, a research professor of nuclear engineering at Kyushu University, who visited the plant twice last year as a member of a panel under the Nuclear and Industry Safety Agency.
GOP/Obusha doling out billions in corporate welfare while the sociopaths quietly push to eliminate Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid: Nuclear centrifuge project to move ahead 30 Mar 2012 A giant nuclear centrifuge project in southern Ohio will move forward despite a setback in Congress this week, uranium enrichment company USEC said Friday. Congress's failure to act on a long-term transportation bill means that a $106 million research and development grant for the American Centrifuge Project remains in limbo. The grant is a stopgap measure while the company seeks $2 billion in Department of Energy loan guarantees to expand the [insane] project. President Obama supported the project when he campaigned in southern Ohio in 2008 and has included an additional $150 million in research funding in his 2013 budget.
TVA ups Watts Bar reactor cost to $4.5 bln, online 2015 --Reactor cost up from $2.5 billion estimate 05 Apr 2012 U.S. government-owned Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) said on Thursday it now sees the new reactor at the Watts Bar 2 nuclear power plant in Tennessee online between September and December 2015 at a higher estimated cost of $4 billion to $4.5 billion. In February, TVA said the 1,180-megawatt Watts Bar 2 project was running over budget and behind schedule. Watts Bar is one of five new reactors the industry expects to complete by 2020 as part of a slow-moving [disastrous] nuclear renaissance in the United States.
Israel seeks multi-year US missile defense aid --Defense official says Israel looking for multi-year budget program which will not require annual administration approval 04 Apr 2012 Israel is in talks with the US about increasing its financial aid for Israeli missile defense programs and establishing a multi-year budget program which will not require annual administration approval. Israel receives an estimated $3 billion annually from the US under a 10-year memorandum of understanding signed in 2007. Last month, the Pentagon said it would request additional funds for Israel's Iron Dome budget. The US previously approved a $205 million infusion for Iron Dome systems, though it is unclear whether that amount would be matched in the new budget cycle. [Too bad we can't get single-payer health care in the US - or even get a bridge repaired - because taxpayers instead have to fund Israel's 'defense.' --LRP
CIA Committed 'War Crimes,' Bush Official Says 04 Apr 2012 A top adviser to former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned the Bush administration that its use of "cruel, inhuman or degrading" interrogation techniques like waterboarding were "a felony war crime." Also, newly obtained documents reveal that State Department counselor Philip Zelikow told the Bush team in 2006 that using the controversial interrogation techniques were "prohibited" under U.S. law - "even if there is a compelling state interest asserted to justify them." Zelikow argued that the Geneva conventions applied to al-Qaida - a position neither the Justice Department nor the White House shared at the time. That made waterboarding and the like a violation of the War Crimes statute and a "felony," Zelikow tells Danger Room. Asked explicitly if he believed the use of those interrogation techniques were a war crime, Zelikow replied, "Yes."
Death penalty 'trial' of 5 9/11 suspects to resume at Guantánamo 05 Apr 2012 The Pentagon on Wednesday cleared the way for a death-penalty 'trial' against five Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, captives charged with planning the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks [inside job]. Retired Navy Vice Adm. Bruce MacDonald, who is in charge of military tribunals, signed off on the capital trial against suspected mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, 46, and four accused co-conspirators. The men will jointly face charges of terrorism, hijacking aircraft, conspiracy and murder in violation of the law of war, among other charges, in the system set up by President [sic] George W. Bush within months of the attack, and then modified by President Obama in 2009.
In rare interview, terrorism suspect wanted in US since 2004 urges Britain to put him on trial 04 Apr 2012 terrorism suspect wanted in the United States and held for almost eight years in a U.K. jail as he awaits extradition urged authorities Thursday to put him on trial in Britain - speaking publicly after the BBC won a legal battle to interview him in prison. Babar Ahmad told the broadcaster that he had suffered a "nightmare fighting extradition for the past eight years," and insisted that he has never been properly questioned about the offenses he is alleged to have committed. Ahmad, 38, has been detained in Britain since 2004 on a U.S. warrant and is accused of running websites used to raise money for terrorists, and of supplying terrorists with gas masks and night vision goggles. He has not faced charges in Britain, but has been held without trial for the longest period of any British citizen detained since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks the United States.
Darwin welcomes first tranche of US marines --The number of US troops rotating through Darwin during the dry season will increase in coming years, to reach 2500 by 2017. 04 Apr 2012 Australia's defence minister has dismissed suggestions the nation is acting as America's "deputy sheriff", after welcoming hundreds of US marines to Darwin. On Wednesday about 200 US marines who arrived in Darwin were officially welcomed by Defence Minister Stephen Smith. Australia was described as America's deputy sheriff by a commentator in 2004 to describe the close relationship between the John Howard-led government and the US.
Gunmen attack western Afghanistan base killing 10 06 Apr 2012 Kabul Gunmen attacked an outpost of a government-sponsored militia and killed 10 members of the security force in western Afghanistan, officials said Thursday. The Taliban are targeting Afghan and Nato security forces as they fight to assert their power and undermine US efforts to try to build the Afghan military. In other violence, a suicide bomber struck a bazaar in a north-eastern district yesterday, killing two people and wounding 16 others.
Eight Afghan local police forces killed in Farah province 05 Apr 2012 At least eight Afghan policemen have been killed in an attack carried out by Taliban militants in Afghanistan's western Farah province, Press TV reports. Local officials say the militants attacked a police outpost in Khaki Safed district late on Wednesday. Mohammad Younes Rasouli, the deputy governor of Farah, told Press TV that "about 50 Taliban militants opened fire on a security checkpoint, killed the soldiers and took their car and weapons."
US announces $10 million reward for Pakistani militant 03 Apr 2012 The United States has placed a $10 million bounty on Haafiz Saeed, the founder of militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba that India blames for the horrendous 2008 [US-staged] terror attack in Mumbai. The reward for capturing Saeed, who now runs a charity organization Jamaat-ud-Dawa in Pakistan, was announced by US Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman in the Indian capital Monday. The reward was later posted on the website of the US government's Rewards for Justice [sic].
AP: Complaint says KBR knew of Iraq toxin 04 Apr 2012 A military contractor knew an Iraqi water treatment plant's lax environmental standards let a toxic chemical contaminate the area, but never disclosed it to Oregon National Guard soldiers who were sickened, the soldiers said in a complaint filed Wednesday. The complaint in U.S. District Court in Oregon alleges Kellogg, Brown and Root knew about the presence of sodium dichromate at the Qarmat Ali water treatment plant months before the date they originally gave in testimony and depositions. Sodium dichromate is an anticorrosive compound that can cause skin and breathing problems and cancer.
Delta flight attendant removed from plane at Buffalo airport --Flight delayed three hours; TSA officer at security checkpoint observed irregular behavior 04 Apr 2012 A Delta Airlines flight attendant at Buffalo Niagara International Airport was not allowed to fly this morning after he was spotted acting in a manner that a security officer deemed unfit for flight, according to authorities. A TSA officer at a security checkpoint noticed the male flight attendant's irregular behavior and alerted Delta Airline personnel, Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said.
ACLU: Most police track phones' locations without warrants 03 Apr 2012 Don't want the police or your local government to know where you are? Then put your cell phone in airplane mode or turn it off. New evidence from the American Civil Liberties Union shows that phone location tracking has also become a surprisingly common tool of law-enforcement investigations -- with, but often without, a warrant. The ACLU recently obtained records from over 200 police departments and other law enforcement agencies around the U.S. They found that "virtually all" of these agencies track the location of cell phones with data supplied by wireless carriers.
Anonymous hacker denies being FBI snitch --Pastebin post allegedly written by pro-Occupy suspect also claims poor treatment by agents 05 Apr 2012 Federal agents have arrested a Texas man believed to be involved in the CabinCr3w hacking group, an Anonymous-like collective that gained infamy for attacking the website of the Texas Department of Public Safety and for its online attacks in support of the Occupy protesters. Higinio Ochoa, 30, of Galveston, was arrested by the FBI on March 20 and charged with unauthorized access to a protected computer. The March 15 criminal complaint alleges that Ochoa, who went by the Twitter handle @Anonw0rmer, took part in hacking the websites of the Alabama and Texas departments of public safety in February. Despite the bust, Ochoa denied actually helping the FBI, according to a Pastebin post he allegedly wrote.
CFTC orders JPMorgan to pay $20 million in Lehman case 04 Apr 2012 The Commodity Futures Trading Commission said on Wednesday that JPMorgan Chase & Co will pay $20 million to settle charges that it unlawfully handled customer segregated funds at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc... In the Lehman case, the CFTC said that for about 22 months, ending with Lehman's bankruptcy in September 2008, JPMorgan had improperly extended intra-day credit to Lehman Brothers based in part on customers' segregated funds Lehman had deposited at the bank. JPMorgan also violated rules by refusing to release customers' segregated funds for nearly two weeks after the bankruptcy, the CFTC said.
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