Ted Koppel States that the U.S. is Unprepared for an Attack on the Power Grid

By Jim Bakker | | Filed in Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Veteran journalist, Ted Koppel, is getting the word out to the American public that the U.S. does not have a plan for a cyberattack against the power grid.

In his latest book “Lights Out,” Koppel writes on what would happen if another country took out the nation’s power grid via hacking, and how it would be difficult for unprepared American residents to survive.

“It’s frightening,” Koppel told CBS News. “I mean, it is frightening enough that my wife and I decided we were going to buy enough freeze-dried food for all of our kids and their kids.”

Koppel went on to say that the former Chief Scientists of the NSA told him that Russia and China were already in the power grid. And soon, Iran and terrorist groups like ISIS may be able to hack their way into the power grid’s system that is connected to the Internet.

“I’m not sure why it hasn’t happened yet,” cyber security consultant Larry Pesce told CBS. “It’s definitely not for lack of capability on various parts, be it us or the enemy. I think it comes down to timing. I think we need to make the right people mad at the right time.”

According to Koppel, he has talked with every former secretary of Homeland Security and they all said the same thing: there is no plan for a cyberattack against the power grid. However, Homeland Security replied to CBS saying that there is a plan, but they did not give details.

A former Defense Department official, Paul Stockton, told CBS that Koppel is wrong. While there is a plan in place, Stockton did admit that there could be improvement in security measures both through the government and the power companies.

“The government is building plans very, very quickly now to help manage the consequences of an attack on the grid,” Stockton said.

Stockton did add that Koppel was smart for stocking up on food and water for him and his family.

Average citizens need to be able to take care of their own families and their own neighborhoods and their own communities, and not assume that Uncle Sam is somehow going to magically bring in the cavalry and rescue them,” he said.

3 Small Earthquakes Hit Central Arizona

By Jim Bakker | | Filed in Uncategorized | Tags: , ,

Central Arizona was rattled Sunday night after experiencing 3 small earthquakes within a 3 hour period.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported that the first earthquake had a 3.2 magnitude and struck just before 9 p.m. local time. At 11:29 p.m., a 4.1-magnitude earthquake struck the same area, and twenty minutes later, a 4.0-magnitude earthquake took place, according to Weather.com. No injuries or damages have been reported.

All three earthquakes were centered around Black Canyon City which is located about 45 miles north of Phoenix, and they ranged between 3-6 miles in depth.

“In general, it’s relatively small,” Zachary Reeves of the USGS said of the magnitude-4.1 peak earthquake Sunday, the largest of the series. “If people are in bed then people may not even be woken up by it.”

Residents in Phoenix did feel tremors from the quake. Geologist Michael Conway, chief of the Geologic Extension Service of the Arizona Geological Survey, told ABC News that central Arizona region has several inactive and active faults that reach throughout the state.

Since the USGS began keeping records of earthquakes, Arizona has seen 11 earthquakes of magnitude 4 or greater, and two of those 11 occurred on Sunday night.

At Least 40 Killed in Syrian Attacks on Rebels While Leaders Talk in Vienna

By Jim Bakker | | Filed in Uncategorized | Tags: , ,

A rebel-held town near Damascus was attacked by missiles and airstrikes sent by Syrian regime forces, resulting in the the deaths of at least 40 people.

In addition to the deaths, at least 200 people have been injured in Friday’s attack, according to the Wall Street Journal. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights stated that government forces fired 12 missiles at the town of Douma, located 10 miles northeast of Damascus.

“Utterly heinous that while world leaders meet for peace in Vienna, attack(s) against civilians continue in Syria,” the Syrian Civil Defence said on Twitter.

Currently the numbers are still being added up as to how many people have been killed and injured due to Friday’s attack. Various news sources are reporting a variety of numbers at this time.

The attack came at the same time as 19 foreign ministers are meeting in Vienna to discuss the Syrian civil war, including the future of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The Associated Press has reported that since the civil war started in March 2011, more than 250,000 people have been killed and up to one third of the population has been displaced.

U.S. Officials: Special Operations Forces to be Sent to Syria

By Jim Bakker | | Filed in Uncategorized | Tags: , , ,

According to U.S. officials, the White House will announce Friday that the Pentagon is sending a small number of special operations forces to Syria to help advise Syrian opposition in the fight against ISIS.

This will be the first time U.S. special operations forces have been on the ground in Syria. NBC News reports that President Obama has ordered around 50 special operations forces to be deployed and work with the rebel group named the Syrian Arab Coalition. The U.S. troops will not be on the frontlines, but instead will be providing assistance, advice, and training. A strategy similar to the one the U.S. is currently using in Iraq.

“We have been focused on intensifying elements of our strategy that have been working, while also moving away from elements of our approach that have proven less effective,” the official explained.

The Obama administration has been continuously criticized on their various strategies to try and combat ISIS. The current airstrikes strategy has yielded mixed results, and recently, the Pentagon decided to abandon a failed program that was training and equipping Syrian rebels.

While the change in strategy has seen a lot of speculation, a source told ABC News that the administration has stated that “we have no intention of engaging in long-term, large-scale combat operations the likes of which we previously saw in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Japan, China, and South Korean Leaders to Revive Dialogue at First Summit in Three Years

By Jim Bakker | | Filed in Uncategorized | Tags: , , , ,

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, and South Korean President Park Geun Hye will meet in Seoul on Sunday for the first summit between the three countries in since 2012.

While past historical issues will most likely be brought up, the leaders hope to move forward in order to boost stability in Northeast Asia and better relations with Tokyo, according to South Korean and Chinese officials. The Washington Post also reports that all three countries are concerned over North Korea and its nuclear capabilities and may discuss the matter at the meeting. However, Sunday’s meeting is said to be a first step toward burying the past.

“None of them wants to be seen stonewalling the cooperation,” said Shin Kawashima, a University of Tokyo professor of international studies. They all have soft spots “so they want to find a comfortable middle ground,” he told Fox News.

And it is a tricky situation for the three Asian powers as Tokyo does not want to discuss history, Beijing, for political reasons, can’t be too friendly with Japan, and Seoul doesn’t want the U.S. to think they are getting too close to China.

Reuters reports that the bad blood between the nations are due to past wartimes when China and South Korea suffered under Japan’s colonial rule and brutal occupation before Japan was defeated in 1945.

State Officials Report: Oregon Teen Girl has Bubonic Plague

By Jim Bakker | | Filed in Uncategorized | Tags: , , ,

Oregon health officials state that a 16-year-old girl in Crook County has been diagnosed with the bubonic plague.

According to USA Today, the teen is currently in an intensive care at a local hospital and her status isn’t known at this time. The Oregon Health Authority believes the girl contracted the disease via flea bite while she was on a hunting trip. So far, no one else in Crook County has been infected with the plague.

“Many people think of the plague as a disease of the past, but it’s still very much present in our environment, particularly among wildlife,” state public health veterinarian Emilio DeBess told KGW. “Fortunately, plague remains a rare disease, but people need to take appropriate precautions with wildlife and their pets to keep it that way.”

Federal and state health officials are working with local authorities to investigate the disease.

The Bubonic plague is the disease heard of during the medieval times that wiped out the majority of the population, however, it is rare today. CBS News reports that there is an average of seven human plague cases a year. In Oregon, there have only been eight human cases since 1995 with no reported deaths.

If caught early enough, the plague can be treated with antibiotics. There is currently no vaccine for the plague.

White House Reports U.S. Jets Intercept Russian Warplanes near Korean Peninsula

By Jim Bakker | | Filed in Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , ,

Four fighter jets were launched by the U.S. Navy to intercept Russian warplanes that were flying one nautical mile away from the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan.

According to White House spokesman Josh Earnest, the USS Ronald Reagan was performing a military exercise with South Korea in the Sea of Japan. Korean jets first intercepted the Russian warplanes. The Navy also stated they tried to communicate with the Russian planes, but never received a response.

Yahoo! News reports that Earnest stated the situation was “not a particularly threatening encounter,” as there was no evidence that the Russian planes posed any threat to the aircraft carrier or the ships that were escorting it.

The situation comes after an agreement was signed between Russia and the United States on October 10 that established protocols for flying over Syria. The agreement was to avoid any crashes between pilots.

Today’s incident isn’t the first time the U.S. and Russia has experienced encounters like this in 2015. A video was released by the Navy in June that showed Russian jets flying near the guided missile destroyer USS Ross. On July 4, Russian fighter jets located off the coasts of Alaska and California were intercepted by the United States, according to CNN.

7th Grade Texas Student Told to Deny God as Part of Classroom Assignment

By Jim Bakker | | Filed in Uncategorized | Tags: , ,

A junior high school in Katy, Texas is under scrutiny after a teacher gave an assignment to her class where they had to deny the existence of God.

Student Jordan Wooley, 12, told ABC News that her reading class was given an assignment to identify statements as fact or opinion. When Jordan marked the statement “There is a God” as both a fact and an opinion, her teacher marked the answer as wrong. According to USA Today Jordan tried to explain to the teacher that it could be either answer, based on a person’s beliefs, but the teacher stated the answer was still wrong and that Jordan had to say God wasn’t real. The assignment was graded so if she did not deny God, she couldn’t pass the assignment.

Jordan then told her mom when she got home.

“In this day in age, I would have never guessed that something like this would happen in a classroom in America,” Chantel Wooley told ABC News.

The Wooleys then visited the school district’s Board of Education meeting to inform them of the situation.

“Today I was given an assignment in school that questioned my faith,” Jordan said at the meeting.

The Katy Independent School District has apologized since the incident and released a statement saying that the exercise was intended to encourage critical thinking, not question any religious beliefs of the students.

“Still this does not excuse the fact that this ungraded activity was ill-conceived and because of that, its intent had been misconstrued,” the district said in its statement.

The teacher in question has not responded to any requests for comments regarding the situation.

Over 300 British Academics Pledge to Boycott Israeli Academic Institutions

By Jim Bakker | | Filed in Uncategorized | Tags: , , ,

As an act of protest over Israel’s actions against the Palestinian people, over 300 professors and lecturers from several academic institutions in England and Wales, including Oxford and Cambridge, have pledged to boycott Israeli academic institutions.

“As scholars associated with British universities, we are deeply disturbed by Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land, the intolerable human rights violations that it inflicts on all sections of the Palestinian people and its apparent determination to resist any feasible settlement,” the academics write in the letter.

While they say they will still work with individual Israeli academics, the pledge states that the academics will not take parts in events organized or funded by them, act as referees for them, or accept invitations to visit their institutions, according the Guardian newspaper.

The letter continues saying that the participants in the pledge are “deeply disturbed by Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land, the intolerable human rights violations that it inflicts on all sections of the Palestinian people, and its apparent determination to resist any feasible settlement.”

The Higher Education Statistics Agency reports that there are 194,245 academic staff employed by higher education in the U.K. That would mean that the amount of protestors is less than a quarter of 1% of the overall number of academic staff in the U.K. This is a “statistically insignificant minority” according to director of the Academic Friends of Israel organization, Ronnie Fraser.

Despite the small numbers of protestors, the British and Israeli governments responded to the boycott. The British ambassador to Israel, David Quarrey, stated that the British government would not allow the boycott to affect the relationship between Israel and Britain as the 60 year partnership makes both countries stronger.

The Israeli embassy in London replied with a published response: “The only path to advancing peace between Israelis and Palestinians passes through the negotiation room. Israel has called time and again for the renewal of talks immediately, without any preconditions. Those who call for a boycott against Israel during a month which saw 45 stabbing attacks – in which more than 100 Israelis were wounded, and 10 were murdered – blatantly ignore the lives of Israelis, and the conditions necessary for peace.”

Relief Efforts Intensified as Death Toll in Afghanistan and Pakistan Continues to Climb

By Jim Bakker | | Filed in Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , ,

Monday’s 7.5-magnitude earthquake that struck Afghanistan and Pakistan and sent tremors into India and Tajikistan has now claimed the lives of over 250 people according to multiple news agencies.

The exact number still isn’t clear as various news agencies report anywhere from 260 to 339 people being killed by the earthquake. The quake also injured 2,000 people, damaged around 6,000 homes, cracked walls to other buildings, and shut down power.

According to the Associated Press, relief organizations have finally reached some of the more remote and impoverished areas that were affected by the earthquake. The United States has also offered supplies and aid that has been stored in warehouses around Afghanistan.

Officials believe that the death toll will continue to rise as there are several remote areas and fallen buildings that have not been reached by rescue efforts.

“We believe the exact numbers are much higher because not all people bring the bodies to the hospitals so there are many that are not being counted. And there are still areas we don’t have access to so we are not aware of the situation there,” Qameruddin Sediqi, an adviser to the public health minister, told Fox News.

Reuters reported that the Taliban has also called its people to help out with the relief efforts and to stay out of the way of aid groups.

“The Islamic Emirate calls on our good-willed countrymen and charitable organizations to not hold back in providing shelter, food and medical supplies to the victims,” the group said in a message of condolence to quake victims, using its formal name.

“And it similarly orders its mujahideen in the affected areas to lend their complete help.”

The quake has also caused landslides. The Pakistan Geological Survey reported to BBC News that landslides disrupted the Karakoram highway between Gilgit and Baltistan.