The FBI is reporting that several dozen suspected terrorist bombmakers have been allowed to enter the United States under the guise of being war refugees.
The FBI discovered two al-Qaeda terrorists living in Bowling Green, Kentucky in 2009 and the men admitting being part of a group that made improvised explosive devices (IEDs) targeting American troops.
The discovery of the terrorists led the FBI to back through every piece of evidence collected in Iraq connected to IEDs. The specialists looked at over 100,000 IEDs collected in war zones to find fingerprints that could be used to check against databases of refugees.
An ABC news investigation had discovered the two terrorists had slipped through the U.S. refugee screening system even though they had been detained during the war by Iraqi authorities for terrorist related activities.
State and federal officials rushed to say that despite the FBI’s “dozen of counter-terrorism investigations like [Bowling Green]” that most of the refugees from Iraq are peaceful, law abiding residents.
In an attempt to find federal workers who were cheating the government, U.S. agencies ended up examining people who had no direct connection to the U.S. government and had only purchased books on an alert list.
Federal investigators reportedly gathered a list of 4,904 people from the records of two men who were being examined for teaching people how to pass lie detector tests. The officials then gave the list to 30 federal agencies including the IRS, CIA, NSA and Food & Drug Administration. The government hoped to find employees or applicants who tried to use techniques to beat lie detector tests required for security clearances.
McClatchy News Service reports that many of the people investigated by the government agencies after the release of the list had only bought books or DVDs from one of the men being investigated and received no one-on-one training from the suspects.
A source says that federal agencies are under increasing pressure from the White House to find “insider threats” in the wake of the Edward Snowden NSA scandal.
Police in Seattle are claiming to have deactivated a “mesh network” that was installed in the city to allow officers to send large amounts of data between each other while in the field.
The reason? The system also contacts every wireless device in its radius like a cellphone or wireless internet modem allowing police to track civilians without their knowledge.
The network could also collect a series of data from the devices of citizens.
The SPD said they had “no bad intentions” when they installed the network and that they were going to disable the system until a policy was adopted by the city for what they consider proper use for the network.
However, residents told an alternative newspaper that their phones were still showing the internet boxes as connecting to their devices when they were within range of one of the system’s white boxes. Police later admitted the system was still on but not being used by police personnel.
The United States has officially designated the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram as a “foreign terrorist organization” in a step designed to help Nigeria eliminate the group.
The move means that U.S. regulatory agencies can block business and financial transactions with the group. They can also seize assets of the organization that are found in U.S. owned companies or banks.
The state department said in a press statement that this is “only one tool in what must be a comprehensive approach by the Nigerian government to counter these groups.”
The group had not been given the official designation because the U.S. had considered the group only a domestic terror group. The move by the state department comes from the belief that the group has been working on an international agenda since connecting with al-Qaeda.
Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin said in an interview with “The Brody File” that kicking God out of any society would eventually lead to its ruin.
Palin said the war on Christmas was just the tip of the battle because people who are offended by the term Christmas aren’t upset with that word but that Christ is part of the word. They’re really offended by the truth of Jesus Christ.
Palin was speaking about her new book “Good Tidings and Great Joy: Protecting the Heart of Christmas.”
“People who would be offended that we celebrate the Prince of Peace because it is called Christmas, it’s because the name Christ is in the title that they would be offended,” Palin told David Brody. “Any country, any government society that has kicked God out of the public square completely, it leads to ruin. Why would we go down that path when we know what would happen?”
A major California resort town is threatening to enter bankruptcy due to salary and pension costs.
Desert Hot Springs, California, a city of 26,000 east of Los Angeles, could be the third major city to file for bankruptcy after San Bernardino and Stockton.
The city’s problems came to light last week when a new finance director discovered a $3 million shortfall in the city’s $13.5 million budget during a routine record check. The interim director of finance could not explain the reason for the shortfall but said it was likely due to higher than expected pension and salary costs.
If the city ends up filing, it will be the second time since 2001 that the city has filed for bankruptcy proection.
Amy Aguer, the city’s interim director of finance, said that 70 percent of the budget was consumed by police costs between salaries and pension payments.
CNN is reporting that more Americans are spending money to get ready for an uncertain future including stocking up on food, water, tools and skills that would help them survive a massive natural or man-made disaster.
The report also said the people getting involved in the activity are not what most people consider “lone wolves” but rather average American families who have genuine concerns about where the world is headed.
Charlie Hogwood of Personal Readiness Education Programs said that he sees a lot of people concerned about the collapse of the dollar. He also said that a lot of people think the more you have the easier it will be to survive but in reality those who prepare themselves and learn how to live will need less supplies because of their ability to grow food and filter water.
A provider of non-GMO seeds to prepper conventions says most of the attendees are people between 40 and 75 and over 80 percent of them have college degrees. He also said that most true preppers are not gun fanatics and do not buy into the conspiracy theories that most traditional media outlets use to denigrate those who are preparing for the future.
In a day and age where most high school students spend their time focused on getting the latest iPhone or seeking out the latest party, a group of high schoolers in Lancaster, California are spending their time making a difference in the life of an American hero.
Jerral Hancock is an Iraq war veteran who lost an arm and suffered burns all over his paralyzed body after his vehicle in Baghdad hit with an IED on his 21st birthday. A piece of shrapnel lodged in his spine leaving him paralyzed below the waist so he couldn’t escape the burning truck. Hancock was scheduled to leave the service just a few months after his injury.
He had bought a mobile home for his himself, his wife and their two kids after he returned from the war. When he came back, the home was too small for him to take his wheelchair down the hallway. He also spent almost six months trapped at the house when his family’s truck broke down keeping him from being able to attend appointments at the nearest VA facility.
When students in the U.S. History classes of teacher Jamie Goodreau heard about Hancock’s plight, they resolved to make a difference in this American hero’s life. They began to hold fundraisers and charity events to buy land for building a new, wheelchair-accessible home for Hancock and his family.
In six months, the students raised enough to close escrow on a $264,000 piece of property where they will be breaking ground on a house next month.
“We had no doubt it could be done,” senior Joseph Mallyon told Fox News. “Older people, the people who have jobs, who go through life and know the harsh reality of things, those people doubt us. But we just accept it and say ‘watch what we can do!’”
Students who graduated and are attending colleges have continued to raise funds for the home in what they’re calling Operation All The Way Home.
Across the nation, Americans are commemorating Veterans Day with parades, wreath-laying ceremonies, monument dedications and other events.
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NEW YORK: WOMEN IN SERVICE
The U.S. military’s first female four-star general will be a grand marshal at New York City’s Veterans Day Parade.
Gen. Ann E. Dunwoody retired last year after a 37-year Army career.
Source: ABC News – ABC News: Veterans Day: Events and Ceremonies Around Nation
A federal lawsuit filed Friday says that two chaplains were forced out of a training program for Veteran’s Administration chaplains after being told they had to stop quoting the Bible and had to stop mentioning the name of Jesus.
Todd Starnes of Fox News reported that Nancy Dietsch, leader of the San Diego-based VA-DOD Clinical Pastoral Education Center program, openly ridiculed two chaplains. The one-year program trains chaplains to serve veterans at VA hospitals across the U.S.
“No American choosing to serve in the armed forces should be openly ridiculed for his Christian faith,” John Wells, attorney for the two men, told Fox News.
Among the allegations in the report, it says that Dietsch told the chaplains it was against the policy of the VA and her personal policy that chaplains pray in the name of Jesus. Dietsch told the chaplains they could not quote the Bible in any of her classes and yelled at the chaplains any time they made mention of the Bible. She told the Christians if they felt their beliefs were right and others were wrong that they had no place in the CPEC program.