"Man found guilty of 2013 killing inside victim’s Milton home" by J.D. Capelouto Globe Correspondent March 22, 2016
A Roxbury man was found guilty of first-degree murder on Tuesday in the killing of a Milton man three years ago.
On April 14, 2013, Nathaniel Brown, 32, chased Jordan Baskin, 22, into his Milton home before stabbing him 11 times, prosecutors said.
Baskin’s father was home and heard the commotion, Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey’s office said in a statement.
“When he went downstairs to investigate, he found his dying son and spoke with him before he was overcome by his injuries,” the statement said.
Police arrested Brown, who is also known as “Nasty,” in September 2013.
Investigators “spent five months piecing together fingerprint, forensic, and other evidence before Brown was indicted,” Morrissey said in the statement. “We are pleased and relieved that the jury got it, and got it right — particularly for Jordan’s family, who have endured so much.”
During the trial, the jury heard audio from a device that was in the kitchen at the time of Baskin’s death, according to prosecutors.
Brown’s sentencing is scheduled for Wednesday at 9 a.m.
I checked it and you will never guess what I found.
"A baby sitter at the push of a button? Yes, and a ride for your kids, too" by Janelle Nanos Globe Staff March 27, 2016
A crop of savvy businesses, taking a page from the success of Uber and the shopping service Instacart, have begun targeting families with on-demand services to help ease the challenges of managing kids, with a few taps of a smartphone. Parents can now book a baby sitter, hail a ride for their child, or have someone fetch a gallon of milk in just a few hours — or less. And don't worry; the FBI will break into the f***er if something happens.
It’s like Mary Poppins, digitized.
In Boston, parents can arrange a sitter in seconds using Chime, a new app launched by SitterCity, the child-care job board. Or they can coordinate an evening out with Date Night, Care.com’s new sitter-finding service, which integrates with Fandango for movie tickets and OpenTable for restaurant reservations. Think I'll Chime out.
To give parents peace of mind about entrusting their children to a stranger, the companies promise extensive background checks and heavy vetting, lessons learned in part from past problems and ongoing questions about the safety of on-demand services. Okay, honey, lets dump the kids and get to the dinner and a show.
The ride-hailing apps Shuddle and HopSkipDrive promise to do their own prescreening as they transport children on the West Coast. And in Massachusetts, the startup Zemcar has just launched a family-friendly ride service for parents overwhelmed with the pick-up and drop-off routine. Even established assistance services like TaskRabbit are getting in on the game, having recently launched a real-time booking component that allows parents like Worobey to get what they need in as little as 90 minutes.
Some of these companies are startups, while others are established players looking to reinvent themselves to better respond to the needs of families. What families, because I don't know of anyone who can do or afford all this. Who i$ thi$ paper being written for anyway?
“The evolution is really apparent,” said Tanner Hackett, cofounder of Button, a New York startup that works with companies to build on-demand apps. The first generation of service companies, like Uber, originally launched with a fleet of private black cars, were “cool, sexy, and convenience-oriented,” but not necessarily for the mass market, he said. Dozens more followed, offering amenities like instant meal deliveries and parking, but have had less success finding a broad set of customers. So now businesses are pushing services they hope will appeal to larger demographics — like parents. Odd seeing as we are in the sixth year of economic recovery that is going pretty well with relatively calm seas ahead (or so I'm told in the Globe bu$ine$$ $ection).
For many families, the apps are an extension of the need-it-now sensibility they have come to depend on in the marketplace.
Yes, instant gratification is guaranteed by the market! Man, if you are looking for instant gratification raising a kid.... gonna be a long first 20 years.
“When we became parents, we immediately signed up for Amazon Prime and Instacart, which have been lifesavers,” said Drew Volpe, an engineer and venture capitalist who lives in downtown Boston with his wife and 20-month-old daughter. The toilet must have have given him a false sense of security.
Volpe had used SitterCity to find a nanny, so he was intrigued when he heard about the company’s testing of Chime in Boston last fall, offering same-day sitter bookings on nights and weekends. Parents plug in the time they need and receive the profiles of three available baby sitters nearby. They can read reviews and watch videos of the sitters, then reserve one in seconds. It's a burgeoning industry.
In developing the same-day Chime service, Chicago-based SitterCity recruited sitters like Manisha Bicchieri. The North End resident, 24, has a day job but squeezes in a few hours of sitting each week through the app. Since parents have to submit requests by 3:30 p.m for a day-of booking, it allows her the flexibility to know whether she’s working that night or can head out with friends. Chime charges Boston parents $16 per hour and takes a 10 percent surcharge in exchange for a promise of thorough background checks. Bicchieri makes $600 a month through the app. Pretty good.
Uber has spawned HopSkipDrive and Shuddle, two California startups that have raised millions in venture funding for their family-centric ride-hailing apps. It also inspired Bedford’s Bilal Wahid, who recently launched Zemcar, a company that pitches itself as your “family’s trusted driver” and offers rides to kids ages 8 and up.
“We consider this as a premium, safer alternative to Uber,” Wahid said, and he has been hiring nannies, teachers, and stay-at-home moms who might be ferrying kids, anyway. Parents can watch a live stream of their children’s trip from the dashboard camera, and if they like the driver, they can add him or her to a “circle of trust” that is shared with friends when they use the app. Rides generally cost about 10 percent more than Uber’s. Gives new meaning to riding shotgun. Now if the parent has time to watch a live stream.... wouldn't they have time to do the driving?
“It’s hard as a single mom,” said Jessie Cabel, who is raising two daughters in Bedford. Cabel started using the service when it was launched earlier this year and found it so useful that she also signed on as a driver. It's about to get even harder! At least you won't have to worry about kidnappings.
Some may contend that these companies offer solutions to crises of our own making — parents are working more than they have at any point in history, and their propensity to overschedule children’s afterschool activities can easily be seen as problem of the privileged. Interesting, because we were promised years ago that technology and the globalization model would have us work less with more time for leisure. Of course, who knew they meant throwing millions into a permanent state of unemployment
But others argue these one-click wonders offer parents a valuable solution for the problem they’re constantly seeking to solve: How do I find more time? I got bad news for you. There are only 24 hours in a day, no more, no less. You won't be finding any more time. Now how do you use your time, that's a different question.
[They] are the “Whole Foods demographic. Dual-income parents who value their time more than their money,” said Anand Iyer, cofounder of Trusted, an on-demand baby-sitting service in San Francisco, because trust is always an issue when children are involved.... This article isn't directed at me, and I know who I don't trust to help raise our children.
FOUR OAKS, N.C. — A woman preparing a send-off for a relative entering the military was killed when she crossed a railroad track on a path used by locals between houses in a small North Carolina town, authorities said.
Before she was killed Saturday afternoon, the woman had been helping to tie balloons for the party. A young man related to the woman was going into the military, so the family was having a party for him, Four Oaks Mayor Linwood Parker said. He said the woman was walking between houses along a path that crossed the railroad but wasn’t considered a marked crossing. “The houses, some of them were built prior to automobiles, and they had a path across the track,” he said.
A level of comfort and familiarity around the tracks appears to predate the founding of the town, which now has about 2,000 people. The town’s website says it developed around the tracks and owes its name to the railroad....
"Ga. governor says he’ll veto bill that favors gay marriage foes.... Hundreds of businesses and sports organizations, including Coca-Cola and the NFL, had warned Governor Nathan Deal,explicitly or implicitly, that a decision to support the bill could jeopardize economic opportunities in Georgia. The NFL said it would be a factor in choosing whether Atlanta hosts the 2019 or 2020 Super Bowl. The Walt Disney Co., Marvel Studios, and Salesforce.com also threatened to take their business elsewhere if the measure became law. Deal’s decision left the bill’s supporters dismayed, but not necessarily surprised." Neither am I, and it was a "deal" he couldn't refuse. They used to call that extortion. You know, drawing out that which you do not want to give.
The RSPCA traced the owners through the cat’s microchip. I'm not saying its a bad idea, but....
In western Pennsylvania earlier this month, two dead venomous snakes were found in a package in a post office, federal authorities said." Always gotta top 'em, doncha?
"23 animals found on farm amid mud, garbage, feces" by J.D. Capelouto Globe Correspondent March 24, 2016
Inspectors in Rochester found more than 20 animals living on a farm Tuesday in pens filled with mud, garbage, and feces, a discovery that led to criminal charges against the owner of the property, police said.
Daniel Pacheco, who owns the animals, was charged with 21 counts of animal cruelty at his arraignment at Wareham District Court on Wednesday. He was released on his own personal recognizance and is scheduled to reappear in court on May 20.
The animals, which included dogs, pigs, cows, goats, and rabbits, were malnourished and lacked adequate shelter, according to a statement from Rochester police.
Police uncovered the alleged cruelty because of a state-required inspection by Rochester animal control at the Walnut Plain Road farm Tuesday afternoon.
The statement from police painted a particularly grim picture of the conditions facing the pigs on the farm. “The pigs were being fed [commingled] garbage which did not appear to have been cooked first as required by state law,” officials said.
One baby cow was found dead at the scene, and a veterinarian found that another calf was in grave condition. It's skull was smashed.
“The vet determined that the animals were all suffering from neglect and were in various degrees of suffering,” the statement said.
Officers also observed “numerous violations of health and building codes” at the farm, police said.
Pacheco arrived at the farm during the investigation. He was arrested and surrendered all of his animals. Each count of animal cruelty carries a maximum sentence of seven years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
"Inside the race to diagnose cancer from a simple blood draw" by Megan Scudellari, March 21, 2016
BOSTON — It’s a medical puzzle that has snagged the attention — and the money — of Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and venture capitalists across the nation: Is it possible to diagnose cancer from a simple blood draw?
Surgical biopsies are the norm, but they’re invasive, expensive, and carry the risk of infection. So investors have poured hundreds of millions into the goal of developing “liquid biopsies” diagnosing incipient cancer from a vial of blood drawn from a patient who looks and feels perfectly healthy.
Some 38 companies in the US alone are working on liquid biopsies. Most are trying to analyze blood for fragments of DNA shed by dying tumor cells. Gates and Bezos recently teamed up with Illumina, a leading DNA sequencing company, to launch yet another liquid biopsy startup — this one ambitiously called Grail. The Illumina(ti) looking for the (Holy) Grail, huh?
“It is the one area of oncology you see featured at every single conference,” said Dr. Jorge Villacian, chief medical officer at Janssen Diagnostics, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, which has the sole FDA-approved liquid biopsy on the market. “There’s a great deal of enthusiasm.”
If liquid biopsies work as hoped, the market in the US alone is projected at $29 billion, according to a 2015 report from investment bank Piper Jaffray. It truly is a blood $port.
Meanwhile, in a lab overlooking Boston Harbor, an unlikely duo is taking a different path....
--more--" Sometimes I think the cancers are caused on purpo$e and treated rather than cured. Sure $eems that way sometimes when I read my pre$$. I suppose life is a gamble at best:
"Casino’s online slots may mislead by being easier to win" by Sean P. Murphy Globe Staff March 23, 2016
PLAINVILLE — With just a few clicks or swipes, a digital slot machine pops onto the screen, bringing all its clamorous, garish allure as it simulates a jackpot win.
It’s almost as if you’re at the casino, instead of playing online on your phone or laptop, and that’s pretty much the point. Think of it as a dry run — designed to lure more customers to Plainridge Park Casino to play for real money.
The online game, which Plainridge recently unveiled, is troubling to critics of problem gambling. The game has a major difference with the slot machines: Players who spin the wheels on the online game are far more likely to win — and win big — than they will if they go to the slots parlor and wager real money.
That could give players a false sense of confidence when they play at the casino, where slot machines are programmed to take in more than they pay out, gambling specialists say.
The games are purely for fun, with no chance to win or lose money. Players can win credits, which mimic the thrill of a cash win and unlock new levels of the game, but cannot redeem them at the Plainville casino.
Instead, the games are designed to introduce players to the excitement of gambling and whet their appetites for the chance — however slim — at real winnings.
“It’s marketing and advertising to get people to come to your casinos,” said Jason Elison, who works for a Las Vegas-based game testing laboratory that state regulators, including the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, use to ensure that slot machines are compliant.... Who cares if they are “misleading to expand [their] customer base?”
I was told the slopes were sparse this year because of the ungodly record heat. It's a new low even for them, and I'm really losing it when it comes to the hot air. Sorry.
"Weymouth man charged with embezzling from niece, nephew" by Andy Rosen Globe Staff March 28, 2016
DEDHAM -- A former Weymouth Bank executive pleaded not guilty Monday to allegations he stole more than $268,000 from the accounts of a niece and nephew who were in his care after the death of his sister and brother-in-law.
William R. Hartnett of Weymouth is accused of taking the money for illicit use as he struggled with drugs.
Hartnett, who worked as vice president of retail investments and business development officer at Weymouth Bank, was released on personal recognizance as he awaits trial....
Shawn Helton 21st Century Wire Though many are still reeling in the wake of the Brussels tragedy – there are key questions surrounding this latest act of terror that should be examined.
Brussels went into full lockdown mode following an apparent double
terror attack that occurred at the Brussels airport and Maelbeek metro
station earlier this week, not far from the European Union’s
headquarters in the downtown city center.
As previously reported here at 21WIRE,
the U.S. embassy declared a security emergency following the Brussels
terror attacks, instructing all American citizens to “shelter in place,”
in what is now said to be an attack carried out by ISIS – orsowe’vebeentold…
‘BRUSSELS BOMBERS’ – Khalid el-Bakraoui and his brother Ibrahim el-Bakraoui (Photo link thedailystar) MeettheCast
In early reports, the apparent ISIS-linked bombers, revealed to be
brothers, allegedly blew themselves up in a double-suicide bomb attack
in Brussels, Belgium’s capital city, at the main airport and a busy
metro station downtown.
However, according to Belgian officials the two brothers were originally stated to have been at the airport together but both “were actually at two different locations and that one huge bomb left by a third terrorist failed to detonate at the airport.”
Brussels issued a notice for an individual seen pushing luggage
through the airport, along with the two other suspects now said to be
dead. All three were allegedly seen on CCTV footage at the airport, in a
highly coordinated attack that the terror linked media organization
Amaq agency says was an ISIS attack.
The identity of two terror suspects in connection with the Brussels attack were uncovered by DNA records according to Belgium officials, while a third suspect named Najim Laachraoui,
(alleged bomb-maker in the Paris attacks last November) was presumed to
be on the loose, also died as a result of his part in the airport
attack, with authorities describing his relationship with the Paris
attackers: “Laachraoui’s DNA was found on a suicide belt at the
Bataclan music venue that was targeted by the terrorists along with an
explosive device at the Stade du France. His DNA was also recovered at several safe houses in Belgium used by the cell. Laachraoui also used the false name Soufiane Kayal and
was with suspected Paris attacker Salah Abdeslam in Hungary in Sept.
2015.”
This report added confusion to the already winding Brussels narrative, as it was initially reported Laachraoui was seen fleeing the airport,
“One of the other men, seen wearing a hat, and believed to be Najim
Laachraoui, was pushing a cart with a 35-pound bomb that failed to go
off. He was seen leaving the airport and is being sought.”
Also according to reports this
week, the Maelbeek metro station explosion took place near some very
important government buildings, including the EU’s main buildings, the
European Parliament and the US embassy in Brussels – all of which, make
the attack appear even more suspicious in nature, given the amount of
security in the area on a daily basis.
We’re told that the attack at Maelbeek metro, was less than two miles away from the US embassy, as both European Commission Headquarters and the Council of the European Union were around a 1,000 feet from the popular exit, Rue de la Loi. Additionally, the European Parliamentwas just under 2,000 feet from the bombed station.
According to US officials, the Brussel’s attacks displays some of the similar hallmarks reported during the Boston bombing, and London’s 7/7 bombing: “Belgian police were trying to locate a second man seen
at the location of the subway bombing. The man was seen buying tickets
in the subway with the confirmed suicide bomber, Khalid El Bakraoui, and
both men had identical backpacks.” “Belgian prosecutors have said at least four people were
involved in Tuesday’s attacks on the Brussels airport and a subway
train, including El Bakraoui and his brother Ibrahim.” ‘PLANTED EXPLOSIVES?’ – Blown-out windows mirror each other after an apparent suicide-bombing at Brussels airport. (Photo link qz)
According to the Associated Press,
hundreds of civilians have been injured at both the
Brussel-Zaventem airport and Maelbeek metro station, along with nearly
three dozen killed: “A Belgian security official says the death toll has risen to 34 in attacks on the Brussels airport and a subway station. The official did not specify how many people were killed
and wounded at each site. The official spoke on condition of anonymity
because precise numbers were expected to be announced early Wednesday. Earlier, the government had reported 20 dead at the
Maelbeek metro station, in the heart of the European Union’s capital,
and 11 dead at the airport, and scores of injured.”
According to reports, there was a ‘twin blast’ in Brussels airport and one explosion at the metro station, downgraded to 31 killed in total as of March 24th. Below we’ll examine the shocking situation in Brussels, its links
to other attacks, some of the major questions surrounding this case and
lay out some of the existing evidence we know to date… ‘TERROR TV REDUX’ – The alleged Brussels bombers caught on CCTV, shades of London 7/7 (Photo link youtube) Hebdo, Paris and Brussels
Though the Brussels attack appears somewhat different than the Hebdo
shootings and Paris attacks of 2015, there are overlapping narratives to
consider that tie all three events together.
Perhaps most notably, we saw a similar radicalized brother
theme during and after the Charlie Hebdo magazine shooting from January
of 2015, as a jihadist duo allegedly carried out a major shooting attack
in downtown Paris, only to be killed later in a six-hour standoff by
police some 50 miles away from Paris.
Soon after, it was then discovered that the Paris shooters also had a
third accomplice following the heavily dramatized magazine shooting
attack/siege. In fact, if you remember, it didn’t take long for
investigators and media implicate the ‘Kouachi brothers’ (CherifKouachiandSaid Kouachi) as
being the two masked individuals seen fleeing the Charlie Hebdo
offices, as Said’s identification had been ‘discovered’ laying on the
seat of the apparent get-away vehicle, left perfectly intact near the
Paris shooting as if by magic.
It was then revealed, coincidentally or not, that there were major terror links discovered following the theatrical Paris shootings at the Charlie Hebdo magazine headquarters,
as media outlets declared that Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)
had taken responsibility for the attacks – as well as helped to
finance the apparent perpetrators, the Kouachi brothers.
Then by a twist of fate, there was an allegedly ISIS-inspired attack carried out by the Kouachi brothers accomplice Amedy Coulibaly,who had released audio recordings and terror declarations via YouTube,
professing his allegiance to ISIS, while he was supposedly working side
by side with the Kouachi brothers, who claimed they were “financed by
AQAP”, to carry out their part in the attack.
To many analysts, this was an obvious attempt to shore up some of the
loose ends within the Paris attack/siege narrative, while also
performing the function to set-up Yemen as a central focus for the West’s next destabilization campaign – which is exactly what happened in the US sanctioned/Saudi-led airstrikes a year ago.
If the Hebdo/Paris attacks were to be accepted at face value – it would mark a clear connection between AQAP and ISIS. It was no surprise then that this is exactly the narrative we saw formed over a year ago in Yemen.
Then after all of the high-flying media confusion, we learned that
authorities already knew the identities of the Kouachi brothers for at
least ten years, as at least one brother was placed on a “no fly
list” and both had been under police surveillance since Said Kouachi
allegedly trained with AQAP in 2011. Looking at the clues in Paris, leads directly to Brussels…
Following the first orchestrated Paris attack in January of 2015,
Belgium was already in the periphery concerning terror networks, as a
weapons supply cache was causally revealed by the Wall Street Journal, as well as a dark underground network of apparent militants: “An official with the Belgian federal prosecutor’s
office said that a man presented himself to the police in Charleroi, a
city in southern Belgium, saying he bought a car from Mr. Coulibaly’s
wife, Hayat Boumeddiene, who is now believed to be living in Islamic
State-controlled territory in Syria. Ms. Boumeddiene left France for Turkey a few days before the Paris attacks occurred.” “The police then searched the man’s home and discovered
evidence that he was involved in weapons trafficking, the official said.
A judge ordered the arrest of the man, who wasn’t identified. But
officials say it is unclear whether Mr. Coulibaly bought any weapons
from the man.”
Said and Cherif Kouachi named in the Charlie Hebdo attack, purchased AK-47 assault rifles and rocket launchers “for less than €5,000 near Gare du Midi, one of the main Brussels railway stations, located in a gritty area of the city.”
Following the second round of Paris attacks, French authorities
launched a massive manhunt for “possible” eighth suspect in the
terrorist attacks that killed 129 people and wounded more than 350
others.
‘TERRORIST OR INFORMANT? – Salah Abdeslam, the purported mastermind behind November’s Paris attacks in 2015.(Photo link twitter) Paris Mastermind or Petty Drug Dealer?
Belgium authorities had been routinely running anti-terror raids since the Charlie Hebdo
attacks and double siege that followed back in January of 2015. In
fact, Brussels renewed its raids in the aftermath of the Paris attacks
from November of last year, while looking for the “most wanted man” in
Europe, Paris attacks suspect, Salah Abdeslam.
The Brussels attacks came just days after investigators apprehended
Abdeslam, who had been hiding out inside a suburb very familiar to
authorities in Brussels.
According to reports, for over four months,
Belgium officials had apparently sought Abdeslam, suspecting he was
located in a Brussels suburb not far from where he grew up in Molenbeek,
and according to reports, “They rounded up his friends and fellow drug dealers and thieves, and interrogated members of his family.”
In December of 2015, Belgium officials had believed they had
pinpointed the area where Abdeslam had been holed up – but due to a law prohibiting nighttime raids (between 9pm – 5am) the so-called Paris attacks ‘mastermind’ alluded apprehension.
This begs the question: How did Abdeslam, become mastermind of the
Paris attacks, as his pedigree by all accounts, appears to be one linked
to a life of petty thievery and drug deals?
While this kind of story makes for an intriguing Hollywood drama, complete with all the cat and mouse hijinks,
it’s more likely that Belgium officials were monitoring Abdeslam’s
every move for some time over the last year and had already been seeking
to change the security protocols about nighttime raids for sometime.
According to VICE, it turns out police had been monitoring
their prime suspect in the Paris attacks, after gathering intel from
Abdeslam’s brother Brahim Abdeslam’s funeral, who, we’re told, had also
participated in the attacks.
Interestingly, Abdeslam’s brother’s funeral was some five months
after the Paris attacks, and that authorities became suspicious of
Abdeslam’s apartment as they were already watching it because “a large number of pizzas were delivered there,” according to both VICE and Politico. Problem, Reaction, Solution, Again…
All across Europe ‘terror’ threat levels have been raised for maximum
impact, with fear induced talking points led by US and UK leadership
promising to put an end to this latest set of terror attacks coming out
of Brussels.
While many political leaders and media operatives continue to bang the drums of security over so-called terror ‘sleeper cells’ hiding
in a nation near you – none of them will acknowledge the historical
fact that they themselves have also helped to harbor, grow, foment and
radicalize individuals through counter-terrorism operations for decades.
Allied nations of course will bring up the fact that Western
intelligence regularly uses double agents and informants under the
banner of security to obfuscate the true intentions of such programs.
The Media is already preempting the next shockwave of terror, even
though every security agency across Europe is on high alert. Take a look
at the CBS passage below that sets the stage – they way big media wants
you to see it: “While investigators believe the deadly Brussels attacks
were accelerated by Friday’s arrest of the chief suspect in November’s
Paris attacks, Salah Abdeslam, U.S. investigators are working under the
assumption that it’s possible other similar plots may have been rushed
into motion as well, CBS News homeland security correspondent Jeff
Pegues reports.”
Adding even more confusion in the aftermath of the Brussels attacks,
we see another passage from the same CBS report that quotes FBI Director
James Comey, stating that the attack images will ‘dissuade’ some individuals from joining ISIS, while explaining that there could be copycat attacks inspired by the events this week: “During a press conference, Lynch and FBI Director James
Comey acknowledged a concern that the attacks would inspire copycats,
Reid reports. However Comey said he believes the pictures of the carnage
may dissuade some people from joining ISIS because the pictures show
the group isn’t actually building a caliphate, but instead killing
innocent people.”
According to officials, the Paris attacks were plotted in Brussels and as Mashable tells us, “In
the fall, the neighborhood (Molenbeek) first became the focus of
attention after it was revealed that the brothers Salah and Ibrahim
Abdeslam, at the center of the Paris attack investigation, lived in the
neighborhood.
Continuing, Mashable presents the backdrop that allegedly
allowed terror to thrive in an area known for drugs and arms
trafficking, according to Belgium’s Deputy Prime Minister Jan Gambon: “Belgian Deputy Prime Minister Jan Jambon acknowledged in
November that the the illegal economy of guns, drugs and petty crime in
the neighborhood had been used to fund extremist activities. Despite
plans to “clean up” the neighborhood, radical networks had been allowed
to thrive in Molenbeek and elsewhere in the city, he admitted.”
This presents the biggest question so far in this article: If we are
to accept that authorities were monitoring Molenbeek and Abdeslam at
least since the November Paris attacks, how is it that they sat on his
arrest for five months, days before the double attack in Brussels
knowing the danger that was out there?
Additionally, from the beginning, officials presented that the
Brussels attacks were a response to Abdeslam’s arrest, when the timing
of the attacks could have also been attributed to a deliberate lapse in
security, allowing attackers months of planning, uninterrupted by
authorities – even when they had prior knowledge of those allegedly
involved. Then we hit pay dirt…
In an article published at Haaretz entitled, “EXCLUSIVE: Belgian Intelligence Had Precise Warning That Airport Targeted for Bombing,” we see that Belgium authorities did in fact have prior warning of the airport and subway attack: The Belgian security services, as well as other Western
intelligence agencies, had advance and precise intelligence warnings
regarding the terrorist attacks in Belgium on Tuesday, Haaretz has
learned. “The security services knew, with a high degree of
certainty, that attacks were planned in the very near future for the
airport and, apparently, for the subway as well. Despite the advance warning, the intelligence and
security preparedness in Brussels, where most of the European Union
agencies are located, was limited in its scope and insufficient for the
severity and immediacy of the alert.”
Aanirfan reports that the police had questioned the Brussels bombers just a week before the airport and subway attack: “Khalid and Brahim El Bakraoui were again arrested just a few days before the 22 March 2016 attack, according to the Center for Security Policy.“ ‘CREATING A SCENE?’ – A fellow passenger at Brussels Airport,
causally walks next to a man in pain on the ground after an explosion.
(Photo link to johnsoncitypress) CCTV Footage Faked, Prior Knowledge and Security Changes
On March 23rd, an article written by Professor Michel Chossudovsky entitled, “Media Manipulation: More Fake Video Reports of the Brussels Terror Attacks,” we see how major media has pushed the Brussels attack narrative at the expense of the public: “One of the first videos published by Belgium’s
mainstream media, was, according to reports, from the CC security
surveillance cameras at Brussels airport. The video report was released
at 9.07am, one hour after the first bomb attack at the airport. The video was fake. What Derniere Heure and La Libre
published was footage from a January 2011 terror attack at Moscow
International airport. Journalists and media editors are fully aware that
surveillance videos at an airport are under the jurisdiction of the
airport’s security authorities. They are not normally released
immediately after a terror attack. There was no way the media could have got hold of the
surveillance videos in the immediate wake of the attacks. Moreover,
following the attack, the airport was closed down. In another words, the airport surveillance video would
not have been available to the media less than one hour after the terror
event.”
Chossudovsky, then explains how the media manipulation didn’t end there: “The terror attack in the afternoon of March 22 at
Brussels Maelbeek Metro station was reported by mainstream media
including CNN. In these reports, video footage from a 2011 terror attack
in Minsk, Belarus was used by network TV and online media to describe
what was happening in the metro station at the time of the attacks.”
On one hand, authorities and their media counterparts want you to
believe the terror attacks of today are some kind of unforeseen black swan event but
the reality is, these incidents prove time and again examples of
pre-planning and foreknowledge before an incident occurs.
Today the UK’s Telegraph reports, that the Bakraoui brothers named in the Brussels twin terror attacks, were already known to US officials before the Paris attacks, as both had been placed on a watch list: “Brahim El Bakraoui, one of the Brussels suicide bombers,
was on a US counterterrorism watch list before the November attacks in
Paris and his brother Khalid was put on the list shortly afterward,
sources familiar with the matter said, Reuters writes. Reuters previously reported that both brothers had been
known to U.S. authorities before the March 18 arrest of Salah Abdeslam, a
French national who prosecutors say had a key role in the Paris
attacks.”
Many critics of today’s terror events, often cite the uncanny timing
of security measures around the time of these incidents. The Brussels
attack, appears to be no different, as the EU has been seeking a
controversial ‘passenger name record system’ since at least the Paris
attacks. The proposal has been met with much opposition, as some law
makers are concerned about public privacy.
Earlier this week according to the EUObserver (hat-tip Ger Anono), “EU
interior ministers are expected to hold an emergency meeting in the
wake of Tuesday’s attacks in Brussels, as European authorities try –
again – to find ways to address the terrorism threat.
With the use of existing databases, ministers will discuss “the launch of a new EU-wide air passenger name record (PNR) system.”
The PNR was something we at 21WIRE had brought up after the first wave of Paris attacks.
This year, the nature of encryption has reached critical mass,
as between the very public court battle with Apple and the FBI – as the
security agency is seeking a more direct route into personal devices
moving into the future. Survivors of Multiple Terror Events
Perhaps the most bizarre and extremely questionable story to come out since the Brussels attacks, were the reports of Mason Wells, a Mormon missionary, who allegedly survived three separate terror attacks since 2013 – Boston, Paris and Brussels.
Back in 2013, just after the Boston marathon bombing, the Washington Post ran an article including some interesting statistics about terror directly from the National Counterterrorism Center, which stated that: “In the last five years, the odds of an American being killed in a terrorist attack have been about 1 in 20 million (that’s including both domestic attacks and overseas attacks).” Here’s the Mason Wells story, as reported by ABC news…
Just another coincidence? At those odds, it’s a near impossibility, and more likely we are looking at a role player of sorts. Terror Drills & Operation Gladio
As 21WIRE has noted many time before, we’ve seen evidence of
multi-agency drills or security exercises prior to other alleged
attacks and shootings – was this the case in Brussels?
In October of 2015, SputnikNews reported massive NATO drills in Belgium and other member countries: “On October 21, the largest NATO military exercises in 13
years moved into an active phase testing threat response. The drills
involve over 36,000 troops from 30 NATO and partner countries.” “The first phase of the Trident Juncture drills began
October 3, running for two weeks in Canada, Norway, Germany, Belgium and
the Netherlands. The second part is taking place in southern Europe –
Spain, Italy, and Portugal – as well as in the Mediterranean Sea and the
Atlantic Ocean.”
Similarly, in February, The Daily Mail published an article reporting “Europe’s largest-ever disaster response training exercise”: “Police, firefighters and
paramedics will this week work side-by-side with more than 70 partner
agencies including local councils, utility companies and specialist
search and rescue teams to respond to the disaster during the four-day
drill. Disaster
victim identification teams from all UK police regions are also working
alongside other forensic specialists in a mortuary on site. Teams will also be working
alongside firefighters from Italy, Hungary and Cyprus who will also be
mobilised to the incident on Wednesday. Although this scenario is not a
terrorist attack, we will be practising procedures and systems that are
common to any emergency that results in a large number of fatalities
and injuries.”
‘CRISIS ACTORS’ – Two actors with fake gory wounds seen here
laughing in between playing their part in the exercise. (Photo link livestream)
That’s not all. Back in 2013, “a
full-scale emergency drill at Brussels Airport to test and evaluate the
preparedness of our airport emergency services in the event of an
incident.”
Here’s a YouTube video depicting the Brussels Airport drill in April of 2013, and then again in April of 2015…
.
In December of 2015, in a 21WIRE article entitled “GLADIO GOES GLOBAL: Gangs and Counter Gangs in Europe, Northern Ireland, Iraq and now in Syria,” we see a dark alliance of security and terror across Europe: “In addition to the French, Belgium and Italian branches
of Operation GLADIO, there is also the rarely mentioned British
contingent – GLADIO’s key component, which seems to be international in
scope – bringing GLADIO into a global context.”
In a 2007 article by Nafeez Ahmed, entitled “The Strategy of Tension,” we discover the existence of many stay-behind operations under the Gladio umbrella: “The existence of this secret operation exploded into
public controversy when in August 1990 upon the admissions in parliament
by Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti,
the existence of ‘Gladio’ was exposed as a secret sub-section of
Italian military-intelligence services, responsible for domestic
bombings blamed on Italian Communists.”
To provide a background on the existence of state-sponsored terror using proxy agents, here’s a link to a recent 21WIRE post
concerning a BBC documentary entitled “Operation Gladio.”It describes
how a secret army operated by the CIA and MI6 via NATO was used to
carryout worldwide political objectives through a “strategy of tension.” What will be next for Brussels and other NATO countries moving ahead? READ MORE BRUSSELS ATTACKS NEWS AT:21st Century Wire Brussels Attacks Files
“We need to try to understand the extraordinary evolution
this phenomenon has gone through that…when it first started it was, the
deaths were real but the story was bogus and in around about 2012 we
had this amazing transformation whereby actors could apparently do it
without needing real–you know- you’ve got ketchup all over the place
instead of real blood and that was a real change I think.” -Dr. Nick
Kollerstrom on the Kevin Barrett radio show, January 2016.
Cribgeworthy shot of faux bomb victim in Brussels. Logically fake victims can mean only one thing-no real attack has happened.
A drill of a subway bombing took place three weeks before the 3/22 Brussels attacks. Drill casualties have better wounds! (Source)
This classic shot sums up the farcical
nature of what we are currently expected to believe. Fake wounded victim
writhes randomly and laughably as people walk past ignoring the
ridiculous spectacle. This is definitely not the aftermath of an attack. On a satanic holiday a grand deception.
Since the year 2012 almost all of the
supposed terror attacks in Western nations are confirmed and proven hoax
events. This is the new model. The early indications are that the
Brussels attacks were of the same genre. Fiction. Joining the entire
wave of Euroterror that has taken place over the past 14 months at Charlie Hebdo and the Kosher Delicatessen, in Copenhagen, in Paris on Black Friday and in the genuinely hilarious French train psyop.
Gladio was the cold war synthetic terror/ strategy of tension, Gladio B as coined by Sibel Edmonds was similar to the original but with Muslims replacing communists as the enemy.
Gladio C is very similar to Gladio B but
instead of false flag terror attacks such as 911, Bali and London 7/7
the events are entirely staged. These are drills that are enacted,
filmed and sold to the public as authentic terror attacks.
Whether or not it is tactically
intelligent to make the hoax argument when people are likely to be more
receptive to a false flag narrative is a completely separate issue. The
false flag attack narrative is no longer the truth when it comes to
modern psyops and those who cling to the false flag narrative and
pretend that these events are real, are not telling the truth.
It can be rather tricky positively
proving that these events were feigned, faux and fraudulent and from a
tactical point of view it may well be unwise to attempt to convince
everyday people of this as the truth is so far beyond the reality they
occupy that this hypothesis may only alienate them and cause them to see
you as insane.
Nonetheless, the truth does matter; it
is important even when to all intents and purposes the event might as
well have taken place. The response to these things is such that it
might as well have happened. Those who have swallowed the “terror”
narrative and felt the real emotions that this narrative caused them to
feel will never believe the whole thing was a fraud, but none of this
changes the fact that this is the case.
It is astonishing the way so many
intelligent people will respond like automatons whenever something like
this happens. The whole political/media gang play their roles mindlessly
like wind up robots with their pathetic attempts to blame their
political opponents for the faux tragedy.
Everything that people are saying about this event, that is predicated upon the authenticity of the attack is nonsense.
ISIS Claims attacks were revenge for Belgium’s mighty 6 plane anti ISIS campaign that ended last July!
One of the more amusing things about the
Brussles attack was the attempt to create a motive where none exists.
Thus when “ISIS” made their claim of responsibility via a social media
account that could be run by absolutely anyone,the group tried to say
that the attack was in revenge for Belgium’s participation in fighting
the “brothers” in Iraq as part of the “International Coalition”.
There are two funny things there, one
being that Belgium ceased its involvement in Iraq last July having
stationed six F16 jets in Jordan for less than a year, the other being
that even when they were purportedly coalition members they did
absolutely nothing, like most of the members of the US led coalition who
generally make one or two attacks for PR purposes and then disappear
into oblivion.
The British and French campaigns are
perfect cases in point, a big political noise followed by one or two
“pageant” attacks and then nothing.
2009 photo of the section of Zavantem airport where the incident of March 22nd took place.
Brussels
Given that the attack took place only
days ago the evidence is still to be developed but it can be stated with
confidence that the Brussels airport attack was not an authentic event
based upon the footage that has been released.
There are several videos that purport to
show the immediate aftermath of the Brussels attack. There are two
major anomalies in these videos that immediately strike the critical
viewer. There are no bodies inside the terminal that has supposedly just
been attacked, nor any wounded. Some people, appear to be wounded as
you watch the start of the video but as you watch they get up and walk
away, dazed at worst.
Mayhem in Brussels airport: Immediate aftermath of Zaventem bombings
The absence of wounded and dead people
at the scene of the event is a core problem. When you add to that the
many videos of the outside of the building at approximately the same
time that also show no people with any significant wounds, it becomes
pretty clear what has happened, although the authors of the Brussels
psyop deserve a lot of credit for the innovation of apparently bombing
the empty building before moving in the cast to conduct the psyop.
This is a clunky hypothesis but does
seem to be the best explanation for the fact that the building has been
damaged yet there are no victims of any veracity to be seen. Fake Wounded People Mean the Event Cannot Possibly be an authentic attack
A tremendous effort has been made with the
Brussels operation, and in the days since the event a massive amount of
evidence of an “ISIS terror attack” in Brussels has been amassed by the
establishment media in an attemtp to sear the Brussels narrative into
the mind of the credulous audience. Some of it is superficially
convincing such as the much used photo below, but even here critical
scrutiny makes it clear that these are fake victims. We are told that
the lady in the yellow top and black bra had her clothes blown off by
the force of the blast yet she has not suffered any cuts, abrasions or
other injuries to these areas. This is not credible and neither is the
woman with the paint blood n her hands blithely talking on the phone
beside her. Look at the woman on the phone’s face. Does she look like
someone who has recently been witness even to a traumatic incident? Or
does she appear to be having another mundane run of the mill day?
Survivors of the airport attack in the aftermath.
Has this woman been even in the same city as an actual terror attack? Of course not.
Here is an empty stretcher, with a little blood smeared for verisimilitude. A tactical that was also used in Sydney.
Here
we have the same steetcher, the empty stretcher PIXELATED to avoid the
poor viewer being upset by the fact that they are looking at an empty
stretcher with some blood spattered upon it. This hilarious, dirty
little tactic was very prominent with the Charlie Hebdo hoax when people
were told they could not look at the fake shooting of the policeman in
the street because it was too graphic. It actually showed the entire
event was a fraud 100%. A pixelated empty stretcher is a strong marker
of a faux event.
Empty stretcher with a portion of fake blood at the Sydney siege, December 2014.
Trouser bombs strike again
A classic reprise of the trouser bomb first experienced in Boston in Brussels.
Props
mismatch idicates the truth. The clothes are shredded by shrapnel that
failed to break the skin. This is impossible. This is costume shredding.
Conclusion
It is too early to state definitively
that what happened in a Brussels was a completely fake event but it is
obvious that it was and the evidence and the lack of evidence over
succeeding months will make this claim a hard provable fact in my
opinion, just as it is today hard proven that Boston and Sandy Hook were
faux events like all of the other major incidents in Western nations in
recent years with the apparent exception of the plane incidents such as
German Wings 9525 and MH17 where genuine mass death appears to have
occurred. Outside the West the violence is very real with very
occasional theatrics thrown in at the behest of the BBC or CNN.
Right-wing soccer hooligan protesters were chanting Nazi slogans! AP, NYT, WaPo, Bloomberg, really isn't any difference. All $pringing from the $ame $ources.
"Mariah Carey canceled an Easter Sunday concert in Brussels over security concerns in the wake of Tuesday’s terrorist attacks. A message posted to fans on Carey’s Twitter account on Friday stated that the show was being canceled over security concerns. The message said Carey had been advised to cancel the show to protect the safety of her crew and fans. No promise of a rescheduled show was included."
Was sold out, too. You know where all this is headed, right?
"US summit to examine nuclear risks posed by Islamic State" by Greg Jaffe Washington Post March 26, 2016 The French are already preparing for it -- to ‘‘guarantee security’’ as we move forward, of course.
WASHINGTON — President Obama plans to convene a special session next week on global efforts to defeat the Islamic State as part of a major nuclear summit that he is leading in Washington, senior administration officials said.
Obama’s decision to add a session on the Islamic State to a summit that is focused on securing nuclear materials is a sign of the deep concern in the White House and worldwide after attacks in Paris, San Bernardino, Calif., and Brussels.
Those strikes have exposed major shortcomings in the police and intelligence forces of many of America’s closest allies and raised new concerns about the nearly 6,000 ‘‘foreign fighters’’ from the West who are believed to have traveled to Iraq and Syria.
The White House said it will also be holding additional counterterrorism-focused meetings with world leaders. The steps contributed to fresh alarm that the Islamic State is seeking to attack or sabotage nuclear facilities or obtain radioactive material in a country with an already troubled history of security lapses at its atomic sites and weak counterterrorist agencies.
Next week’s Nuclear Security Summit is also expected to focus on the Islamic State’s ambitions to obtain a weapon of mass destruction. There is little indication that the Islamic State has access to the radioactive material needed to make a ‘‘dirty bomb.’’
Syria and Iraq are free of highly enriched uranium and plutonium, officials said. But the Islamic State has used crude chemical weapons, employing mustard gas and chlorine, in both Iraq and Syria. The terrorist group’s control over large areas of Iraq and Syria could give it access to experts and facilities that, over time, could allow it to develop more sophisticated and deadly chemical weapons. Just ignore the defeats and losses -- unless we are being back-footed.
Thes summit, which will bring as many as 50 world leaders to Washington, offers a rare forum for Obama to talk with his counterparts around the globe about the threat posed by the terrorist group.
Planning for an extra session began in January after the Paris and San Bernardino attacks, senior administration officials said.
‘‘This has been something we’ve been working on for quite a while,’’ one of the officials said. Tuesday’s attacks in Brussels only added to the urgency of the effort. OMG!
All 50 nations represented at the nuclear summit have been sources of fighters for the Islamic State in Iraq, in Syria, or elsewhere in the Middle East, the administration official said.
The nuclear summit — the fourth led by Obama since 2010 — has focused in previous years on securing vulnerable nuclear materials, breaking up black markets and intercepting illicitly trafficked materials. In addition to those topics, Obama and the world leaders will discuss ways to slow the flow of foreign fighters and money to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
Breakdowns in intelligence-sharing between nations are also likely to be a major subject of discussion.
After the Paris attacks, the Obama administration sent ‘‘foreign fighters surge teams’’ to Belgium and another European country to help local authorities improve intelligence-sharing among intelligence and law enforcement officials as well as across international borders. The teams also brought new technology to aid in the tracking of those fighters and organizational lessons that the United States learned in the nearly 15 years following the 9/11 attacks. In Belgium, the foreign fighter teams’ efforts weren’t enough to stop Tuesday’s attacks. Still, a senior administration official said there is a ‘‘huge appetite’’ among European allies for help with the threat posed by foreign fighters. The summit could provide an opening to expand the teams and send them to other countries that are struggling to deal with the problem posed by foreign fighters.
What, the ones pouring in with all Obama's war refugees?
--more--" We have long sounded the warning of a false-flag mushroom cloud being raised here, and the were that to occur the narrative from the Jewi$h War Pre$$ would be Iran gave a bomb they never had to U.S-created and supported ISIS in Syria. Oh, btw, when you weren't looking Obama sent more troops to Iraq! One even got killed! I suppose I would feel better if America's nuclear watchdog wasn't on stand down:
"Fourteen at nuclear base probed for illegal drug activity" by Robert Burns Associated Press March 18, 2016
WASHINGTON — Fourteen members of an Air Force unit responsible for guarding nuclear missiles in Wyoming, Colorado and Nebraska are under investigation for possible illegal drug activity, including cases involving cocaine use, defense officials said Friday. Probably just trying to stay awake through the night.
The probe is a fresh blow to a nuclear missile corps that has been under intense scrutiny in recent years for a string of lapses in training and personal conduct, first revealed by The Associated Press. The Air Force has said repeatedly over the past year that it is making significant changes aimed at lifting morale and improving performance.
The investigation at F.E. Warren Air Force Base, home of the 90th Missile Wing, near Cheyenne, Wyoming, was announced by Gen. Robin Rand, the four-star commander of Air Force Global Strike Command. The command is responsible for the entire fleet of 450 Minuteman 3 nuclear missiles that stand in underground launch silos, one third of them operated by the 90th Missile Wing. The missile force is on alert 24 hours a day, year-round, requiring strict adherence to performance standards by the men and women who operate, maintain and protect them.
Rand, speaking by telephone from his headquarters at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, said the 14 airmen under investigation range in rank from Airman 1st Class to Senior Airman and are members of the security group at F.E. Warren that is responsible for securing the missile fields and convoys that move nuclear weapons.
Rand said the 14 are accused of off-duty drug ‘‘activity,’’ which he refused to further define. He said the allegations were ‘‘credible.’’
‘‘This is very important to me that we get to the bottom of this,’’ Rand said, adding that he is confident the vast majority of airmen in the nuclear missile corps comply with Air Force standards of personal conduct. ‘‘We have a special trust with our nation, with our public, with the mission that we do in Air Force Global Strike Command.’’
The security unit at F.E. Warren, known as the 90th Security Forces Group, includes about 1,300 airmen, Rand said, of which nearly 1,000 are junior enlisted members of ranks similar to the 14 under investigation. They are commanded by Col. Christopher L. Corley.
The investigation was started after a member of the security forces alerted his superiors of his suspicion of drug activity by another airman, Rand said, adding that the commander of the 90th Missile Wing, Col. Stephen Kravitsky, informed him Tuesday that an investigation was underway. It’s not clear when it began.
Rand said the 14 have been removed from duty while the Air Force Office of Special Investigations looks into the case. He declined to provide further details, including what drugs are allegedly involved, citing an active investigation. Two other defense officials said the drugs included cocaine; a third said the allegations include the possession, use or distribution of illegal drugs. The officials discussed details they were not authorized to release publicly and so spoke on condition of anonymity. The allegations do not involve officers who control the Minuteman missiles, officials said. Security forces at nuclear missile bases are entrusted to patrol the missile fields and respond to any security emergencies. Just last month, Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work visited F.E. Warren and observed a demonstration by security forces of the techniques and equipment they would use to recapture a Minuteman 3 missile silo that had been taken over by intruders. Two years ago, while then-Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was visiting F.E. Warren, officials disclosed that a number of launch officers, known as missileers, were under investigation for drug use. That led to the discovery that dozens of missileers had been cheating on their proficiency tests at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana, which also operates Minuteman 3 missiles. The 2014 drug investigations led to the dismissal from the Air Force last year of three missileers at Malmstrom who pleaded guilty to illegal use, possession or distribution of ecstasy. Shortly after he learned of those drug allegations Hagel ordered a broad investigation of problems inside the Air Force nuclear missile corps, which had been extensively documented by The Associated Press starting in May 2013. At the time, he said, ‘‘Personnel failures within this force threaten to jeopardize the trust the American people have placed in us to keep our nuclear weapons safe and secure.’’ The Hagel-ordered review led to numerous changes, including providing billions more in resources to the nuclear missile corps and elevating the rank of the commander of Global Strike Command, which is responsible for the Minuteman 3 force, from three-star to four-star. Rand is the first four-star to hold the job.
--more--" The consensus narrative among the alternative media is that the drug charges are simply a cover for purging and removing sleeper cell patriots in the military that take their oath to defend against all enemies, foreign and domestic, seriously.
"Japanese police early Monday arrested a 23-year-old man who had been sought since a teenage girl said she escaped his apartment after being held captive for nearly two years. The girl’s disappearance from her hometown in Saitama, near Tokyo, when she was just 13, was major news in Japan at the time. Police said the girl escaped from suspect Kabu Terauchi’s apartment while he was shopping in Akihabara, a district known for technology and comic book geeks. Have you ever seen the lengths to which they will go to look freaky?
The girl was seen wearing a sweat suit and sandals in the cold weather when she called home from a pay phone at a train station in downtown Tokyo. Her mother reported the call to the police, who raided Terauchi’s apartment. Investigators captured Terauchi in the early hours of Monday near a forest west of Tokyo. They said he was bleeding from the neck from a minor self-inflicted injury as a result of a failed suicide attempt. Police plan to charge him with kidnapping. Terauchi attended a university during the years he allegedly had the girl in captivity. He graduated this month and even had a job offer.... They used technology to track him down (more on that later).
"Port of Boston security gets big helping scan" by Hiawatha Bray Globe Staff February 03, 2016
Amidst the tens of thousands of spectators at a NASCAR race in New Hampshire last summer, someone or something was radioactive. And a team of emergency workers at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon knew just where to find him.
Each of them carried a new kind of radiation monitor, developed by Passport Systems Inc. of Billerica. The SmartShield G300 is about the size of a pack of cigarettes, and like other such monitors, it can quickly detect radiation that might be emitted by a “dirty bomb,” or worse, a nuclear weapon.
What SmartShield found that day at the Loudon track wasn’t dangerous. The system was able to pinpoint the source of the radiation in the crowd; it was a spectator wearing a radioactive implant used in treating cancer. But the Central New Hampshire Hazardous Materials Team, which was using the race to give SmartShield a trial run, was impressed enough with the results to buy five of the units, at about $8,000 each. The team expects to deploy them at events that draw larger crowds.
“It’s the next level of detection and tracking for radiological sources,” said Bill Weinhold, chief of the hazardous materials team. “It helps make a venue or special event safer.”
Since it was founded in 2002 by Robert Ledoux, a former associate professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Passport has spent $85 million in federal grants and private investments to develop new ways to spot atomic hazards. SmartShield is the company’s first product to go to market.
The G300 is used in conjunction with smartphones. When a detector picks up a potential threat, it sends a wireless warning to the cellphones of other G300 operators, as well as to a central command post. The GPS location chip in smartphones then helps operators pinpoint the source of the radiation.
Passport has a big brother version of the system that will soon be up and running in the Port of Boston , a $16 million scanner for inspecting incoming shipping containers. The SmartScan 3D system is being erected inside a car-wash-sized building at the port’s Conley Container Terminal. It uses a giant X-ray machine and a radiation detector to spot nuclear threats and less perilous contraband like illegal drugs, and is expected to go into service this spring. I wonder how the CIA is going to get around that (or will they just be waved through?)
“Boston will be the safest port in the world,” said Passport cofounder and MIT professor William Bertozzi. So which American port is going to be blown sky-high this year? My guess would be San Francisco. You kill two birds with one stone there. You shut up all the lefty radicals and there are no more worries about having to repair the Golden Gate bridge.
A number of companies already make high-energy X-ray machines for scanning shipping containers. One of the industry leaders, American Science and Engineering Inc., is down the road from Passport in Billerica.
Passport says its new approach can identify contraband that other systems may miss. The X-ray scanner generates three-dimensional images of suspicious materials based upon an object’s atomic number, a measure of density used by physicists. Still wondering how those steel towers fell at free-fall speed into their own footprints due to jet fuel fires. One on 'em wasn't even hit by a plane.
The primary X-ray scanner can indicate the presence of contraband, from drugs to nuclear material. But it often can’t decisively identify a substance. For instance, said Ledoux, cocaine and salt can be hard to tell apart. UH-OH!!
So Passport uses a technique pioneered by Bertozzi, called nuclear resonance fluorescence, to re-scan areas of a container that seem especially suspicious. The X-rays cause materials to emit gamma radiation at specific energy levels that correspond to the materials’ atomic structure. This stuff going to give workers nearby cancer like at the airport?
The detector measures this radiation to determine what the stuff is made of. The process is too slow to use on an entire container. But scanning a small area takes only a minute or so.
“Cocaine has a certain signature,” said Ledoux. “Explosives does. Water. Salt. Vodka.” And, of course, uranium. So SmartScan 3D can target not just terrorist threats, but contraband as well. In a country that bans alcohol, such as Saudi Arabia, it could distinguish between Coca-Cola and Johnny Walker Red. Or it could spot an attempt to smuggle untaxed tobacco, a crime that costs the British government about $3 billion a year. Hey, that's for the prince!
The versatility of SmartScan 3D makes it an easier sell to foreign nations, said Ledoux. And that’s just what the US government wants — for cargo to be scanned for threats over there, before it gets here. That's why I don't want it.
Already, US Customs and Border Protection screens about 80 percent of all US-bound containers at their ports of origin, the agency said. Getting SmartScan 3D installed around the world could make those inspections more thorough. But nothing is foolproof, right?
The first of the new machines is going in at the Port of Boston, as part of a major expansion tied to the opening this year of a new, larger Panama Canal.
“We believe this technology will be more effective and more efficient,” said port director Lisa Wieland. Boston handled the equivalent of 237,000 20-foot containers last year, and that throughput will rise 3 to 4 percent annually in coming years, as the new canal will let bigger ships reach Boston. Believe it will be? Just have faith?
Still, it’s best to spot a nuclear weapon well before it gets to a city. And Passport said it is developing a solution for that — a roadside machine that detects nuclear material in a fast-moving car as it zooms past, shoots a photo of its license plate, and notifies authorities. The company said it has built a prototype and will deliver a test unit to the Department of Homeland Security sometime this fall.
"Blink, a DIY security system for the home, may be the future" by Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff 12/24/2015
There’s not a lot at my home worth stealing, but I’d still advise against trying. I’ve got a new home security system from a business that just might become Massachusetts’ next big consumer electronics company. I can't even sell my worthless shit. Have to pay others to take it.
Boston’s already a big player in home security, thanks to the local hero SimpliSafe Corp. At prices of $230 and up, SimpliSafe offers an array of motion sensors, entry detectors, smoke alarms, and other lifesaving gadgets, all of it simple enough for do-it-yourself installation. My stuff might be worth a little more than that.
But SimpliSafe lacks a video surveillance option, so it can’t record images of an intruder or let you see an image of the kitchen to ensure that you turned the oven off. Recently, chief executive Chad Laurans told me that the company is planning to add a video camera soon.
They’d better get a move on. Here comes Blink, an impressive new video security system from an unlikely source: a microchip maker in Andover. I just did. And again. Then again. And again! I never realized (blink) how much I (blink) blinked my eyes (blink, blink) before I started (blink) thinking about it (blink). Here's winking (blink) at you, readers.
Immedia Semiconductor Inc. was founded in 2008 to design video-processing chips for other companies’ consumer products. Then it created something special: a high-definition video chip that can run off a couple of standard AA batteries. With it, a company could build dirt-cheap wireless security cameras that could work for months or years without recharging.
But Immedia executives knew it might take a couple of years to persuade a major manufacturer to make such cameras. “The cycle time to get from innovation to end product is very long,” said Don Shulsinger, vice president of sales and marketing.
So Immedia decided to go it alone. In June 2014, the company logged on to the Kickstarter crowdfunding service in search of investors, a money-saving ploy that also could reveal whether anyone would buy such a device. When nearly 6,900 investors ponied up a million dollars in a couple of months, Immedia had its answer. No one wanting to kick$tart me.
Fifteen months later, Immedia has shipped Blink devices to its early investors, and to me. I’ve got one glued to the front door and another propped on a living-room shelf, silently and subtly watching everything.
It sells for $140, and when home security is this cheap and simple, why take chances?
I think he got it wrong, but he seems to flip-flop a lot (isn't Tor a trap?) so the walking back isn't a surprise. Globe will get it right:
"Apple vs. FBI is not a free speech matter" March 27, 2016
Apple may have won widespread public sympathy in its showdown with the FBI, but some of its less publicized decisions in the case should raise alarms. As part of its legal campaign to resist an order to break into a terrorist’s iPhone, the company is quietly pushing a pro-corporate interpretation of the First Amendment that could do real damage to the government’s ability to regulate commerce and protect consumers. Says the bastion of corporate liberali$m and defender of civil rights.
A bit of background as the FBI explores a possible workaround that might allow investigators to enter the phone without Apple’s help:
Virtually any regulation of any company would seem to be in peril if
Apple defeats the government on the basis of its First Amendment claim.
And if those floodgates open, not all the corporations that benefit will
have Apple’s benign goals. What happens when, say, Exxon decides it
doesn’t want to write the computer code needed to comply with some
future emissions-tracking law?
Unfortunately, that’s not such a far-fetched outcome. Ron Fein, the Newton-based legal director for
Free Speech for People,
points out that the Clean Water Act requires polluters to “install,
use, and maintain” monitoring equipment and use the data to “make
reports” about what they find. That process would almost inevitably
require those companies to use software to implement an environmental
policy with which they might disagree, and then to publish reports whose
underlying premises they may reject. If courts let them characterize
the software and reports as speech entitled to constitutional
protection, does that mean they get to ignore the law?
The privacy advocates who have rushed to Apple’s side in the San
Bernardino case ought to be careful about what they’re endorsing. Apple
has some good reasons to resist the government’s demands. But what it
does not have — and what it would a bad precedent to recognize — is any
corporate First Amendment claim. Respect for real free speech demands
that its defenders call out those who would distort the First Amendment
into a shield against reasonable commercial regulation.... Looks who is talking about distortions!
"The FBI hacked into an iPhone, without Apple’s help" by Katie Benner and Eric Lichtblau New York Times March 28, 2016
SAN FRANCISCO — The Justice Department said Monday that it had unlocked an iPhone without help from Apple, allowing the agency to withdraw its legal effort to compel the tech company to assist in a mass-shooting investigation. They broke into it! Isn't that a crime? Breaking and entering?
The decision to drop the case — which involved demanding Apple’s help to open an iPhone used by Syed Rizwan Farook, a gunman in the December shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., that killed 14 people — ends a legal standoff between the government and the world’s most valuable public company. The case had become increasingly contentious as Apple refused to help authorities, inciting a debate about whether privacy or security were more important.
Yet law enforcement’s ability to unlock an iPhone through an alternative method raises new uncertainties, including questions about the strength of security in Apple devices. Actually, it kind of answered them.
The development also creates potential for new conflicts between the government and Apple about the method used to open the device and whether that technique will be disclosed. Lawyers for Apple have previously said the company would want to know the procedure used to crack open the smartphone, yet the government may classify the method.... Conflict resolved!
So what happens when they ask for your DNA (now we know what is behind the TV advertisements and such) to complete the profile? NEXT DAY UPDATES: "Belgium's justice minister pleaded Tuesday for critics of Belgium's intelligence failures to focus on the hunt. Go chase the goose! "The enemy is in Syria," Justice Minister Koen Geens said as authorities in Belgium and the neighboring Netherlands faced fresh questions Tuesday about how much they knew in advance of the March 22 bombings. Dutch Justice Minister Ard van der Steur said Tuesday that his country's security services received a note from the FBI on March 16. Belgian authorities said Tuesday they were not informed of its existence and had no idea. This is reeking to high heaven! Belgium has voiced determination to toughen its security powers. On Tuesday, a parliamentary committee approved anti-terror proposals to give police round-the-clock powers for house searches, to improve the Belgian data base on extremists, and to increase phone-tapping powers. Brussels Mayor Yvan Mayeur, who faces criticism for his own actions before and after the suicide bombings, said Belgian authorities must learn painful lessons and improve their ability to combat Islamic militancy. Learned it a long time ago, Gladio!! "There'sno such thing as 'normal' anymore," he said during a visit to Paris." WTF is he doing there? And what is this about something happening at the airport in Cyprus? Also see:
Images of Belgian premier’s office found on laptop linked to Brussels attacks They found the laptop in a trash can, can you believe it, and "on Wednesday, the Dutch minister of security and justice, Ard van der Steur, said that the intelligence division of the New York Police Department had warned the Dutch government, via the embassy in Washington, on March 16 that the el-Bakraoui brothers had links to terrorism. Van der Steur had said that the warning had come from the FBI, but it was not clear how the police in New York had become aware of the el-Bakraoui brothers, or why they had relayed the information to the Dutch authorities." Are all terrorism victims equal? Not in the media
