Christopher Stevens

Stephen: We all know how questionable the events, intel, explanation and cause of the Benghazi attack that saw US Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens lose his life were and have been since. But the truth will always come to light – even if it takes some time, as this story shows. Thanks to Lance.

From The Lead with Jake Tapper, CNN – August 1, 2013

http://tinyurl.com/kkxhutk

CNN has uncovered exclusive new information about what is allegedly happening at the CIA, in the wake of the deadly Benghazi terror attack.

Four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, were killed in the assault by armed militants last September 11 in eastern Libya.

Sources now tell CNN dozens of people working for the CIA were on the ground that night, and that the agency is going to great lengths to make sure whatever it was doing, remains a secret.

CNN has learned the CIA is involved in what one source calls an unprecedented attempt to keep the spy agency’s Benghazi secrets from ever leaking out.

Since January, some CIA operatives involved in the agency’s missions in Libya, have been subjected to frequent, even monthly polygraph examinations, according to a source with deep inside knowledge of the agency’s workings.

The goal of the questioning, according to sources, is to find out if anyone is talking to the media or Congress.

It is being described as pure intimidation, with the threat that any unauthorized CIA employee who leaks information could face the end of his or her career.

In exclusive communications obtained by CNN, one insider writes, “You don’t jeopardize yourself, you jeopardize your family as well.”

Another says, “You have no idea the amount of pressure being brought to bear on anyone with knowledge of this operation.”

“Agency employees typically are polygraphed every three to four years. Never more than that,” said former CIA operative and CNN analyst Robert Baer.

In other words, the rate of the kind of polygraphs alleged by sources is rare.

“If somebody is being polygraphed every month, or every two months it’s called an issue polygraph, and that means that the polygraph division suspects something, or they’re looking for something, or they’re on a fishing expedition. But it’s absolutely not routine at all to be polygraphed monthly, or bi-monthly,” said Baer.

CIA spokesman Dean Boyd asserted in a statement that the agency has been open with Congress.

“The CIA has worked closely with its oversight committees to provide them with an extraordinary amount of information related to the attack on U.S. facilities in Benghazi,” the statement said.

“CIA employees are always free to speak to Congress if they want,” the statement continued. “The CIA enabled all officers involved in Benghazi the opportunity to meet with Congress. We are not aware of any CIA employee who has experienced retaliation, including any non-routine security procedures, or who has been prevented from sharing a concern with Congress about the Benghazi incident.”

Among the many secrets still yet to be told about the Benghazi mission, is just how many Americans were there the night of the attack.

A source now tells CNN that number was 35, with as many as seven wounded, some seriously.

While it is still not known how many of them were CIA, a source tells CNN that 21 Americans were working in the building known as the annex, believed to be run by the agency.

The lack of information and pressure to silence CIA operatives is disturbing to U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf, whose district includes CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

“I think it is a form of a cover-up, and I think it’s an attempt to push it under the rug, and I think the American people are feeling the same way,” said the Republican.

“We should have the people who were on the scene come in, testify under oath, do it publicly, and lay it out. And there really isn’t any national security issue involved with regards to that,” he said.

Wolf has repeatedly gone to the House floor, asking for a select committee to be set-up, a Watergate-style probe involving several intelligence committee investigators assigned to get to the bottom of the failures that took place in Benghazi, and find out just what the State Department and CIA were doing there.

More than 150 fellow Republican members of Congress have signed his request, and just this week eight Republicans sent a letter to the new head of the FBI, James Comey, asking that he brief Congress within 30 days.

In the aftermath of the attack, Wolf said he was contacted by people closely tied with CIA operatives and contractors who wanted to talk.

Then suddenly, there was silence.

“Initially they were not afraid to come forward. They wanted the opportunity, and they wanted to be subpoenaed, because if you’re subpoenaed, it sort of protects you, you’re forced to come before Congress. Now that’s all changed,” said Wolf.

Lawmakers also want to about know the weapons in Libya, and what happened to them.

Speculation on Capitol Hill has included the possibility the U.S. agencies operating in Benghazi were secretly helping to move surface-to-air missiles out of Libya, through Turkey, and into the hands of Syrian rebels.

It is clear that two U.S. agencies were operating in Benghazi, one was the State Department, and the other was the CIA.

The State Department told CNN in an e-mail that it was only helping the new Libyan government destroy weapons deemed “damaged, aged or too unsafe retain,” and that it was not involved in any transfer of weapons to other countries.

But the State Department also clearly told CNN, they “can’t speak for any other agencies.”

The CIA would not comment on whether it was involved in the transfer of any weapons.

The NSA paid £15.5m towards redevelopments at GCHQ’s site in Bude, north Cornwall, which intercepts communications from the transatlantic cables that carry internet traffic. Photograph: Kieran Doherty/Reuters

Stephen: When people say to me “oh but nothing’s changed’, I say: “look, you might not want to keep reading about them, but look at all these truths that keep coming and coming – almost daily now”. THIS is exactly what we’ve been hoping, praying and waiting for and it’s important that we recognise this. And remember, this stuff is just the tiny tip of the iceberg.

Exclusive: NSA Pays £100m in Secret Funding for GCHQ

By Nick Hopkins and Julian Borger, The Guardian – August 1, 2013

http://tinyurl.com/lmeo6op

• Secret payments revealed in leaks by Edward Snowden
• GCHQ expected to ‘pull its weight’ for Americans
• Weaker regulation of British spies ‘a selling point’ for NSA

The US government has paid at least £100m to the UK spy agency GCHQ over the last three years to secure access to and influence over Britain’s intelligence gathering programmes.

The top secret payments are set out in documents which make clear that the Americans expect a return on the investment, and that GCHQ has to work hard to meet their demands. “GCHQ must pull its weight and be seen to pull its weight,” a GCHQ strategy briefing said.

The funding underlines the closeness of the relationship between GCHQ and its US equivalent, the National Security Agency. But it will raise fears about the hold Washington has over the UK’s biggest and most important intelligence agency, and whether Britain’s dependency on the NSA has become too great.

In one revealing document from 2010, GCHQ acknowledged that the US had “raised a number of issues with regards to meeting NSA’s minimum expectations”. It said GCHQ “still remains short of the full NSA ask”.

Ministers have denied that GCHQ does the NSA’s “dirty work”, but in the documents GCHQ describes Britain’s surveillance laws and regulatory regime as a “selling point” for the Americans.

The papers are the latest to emerge from the cache leaked by the American whistleblower Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who has railed at the reach of the US and UK intelligence agencies.

Snowden warned about the relationship between the NSA and GCHQ, saying the organisations have been jointly responsible for developing techniques that allow the mass harvesting and analysis of internet traffic. “It’s not just a US problem,” he said. “They are worse than the US.”

As well as the payments, the documents seen by the Guardian reveal:

• GCHQ is pouring money into efforts to gather personal information from mobile phones and apps, and has said it wants to be able to “exploit any phone, anywhere, any time”.

• Some GCHQ staff working on one sensitive programme expressed concern about “the morality and ethics of their operational work, particularly given the level of deception involved”.

• The amount of personal data available to GCHQ from internet and mobile traffic has increased by 7,000% in the past five years – but 60% of all Britain’s refined intelligence still appears to come from the NSA.

• GCHQ blames China and Russia for the vast majority of cyber-attacks against the UK and is now working with the NSA to provide the British and US militaries with a cyberwarfare capability.

The details of the NSA payments, and the influence the US has over Britain, are set out in GCHQ’s annual “investment portfolios”. The papers show that the NSA gave GCHQ £22.9m in 2009. The following year the NSA’s contribution increased to £39.9m, which included £4m to support GCHQ’s work for Nato forces in Afghanistan, and £17.2m for the agency’s Mastering the Internet project, which gathers and stores vast amounts of “raw” information ready for analysis.

The NSA also paid £15.5m towards redevelopments at GCHQ’s sister site in Bude, north Cornwall, which intercepts communications from the transatlantic cables that carry internet traffic. “Securing external NSA funding for Bude has protected (GCHQ’s core) budget,” the paper said.

In 2011/12 the NSA paid another £34.7m to GCHQ.

The papers show the NSA pays half the costs of one of the UK’s main eavesdropping capabilities in Cyprus. In turn, GCHQ has to take the American view into account when deciding what to prioritise.

A document setting out GCHQ’s spending plans for 2010/11 stated: “The portfolio will spend money supplied by the NSA and UK government departments against agreed requirements.”

Other documents say the agency must ensure there has been “an appropriate level of contribution … from the NSA perspective”.

The leaked papers reveal that the UK’s biggest fear is that “US perceptions of the … partnership diminish, leading to loss of access, and/or reduction in investment … to the UK”.

When GCHQ does supply the US with valuable intelligence, the agency boasts about it. In one review, GCHQ boasted that it had supplied “unique contributions” to the NSA during its investigation of the American citizen responsible for an attempted car bomb attack in Times Square, New York City, in 2010.

No other detail is provided – but it raises the possibility that GCHQ might have been spying on an American living in the US. The NSA is prohibited from doing this by US law.

Asked about the payments, a Cabinet Office spokesman said: “In a 60-year alliance it is entirely unsurprising that there are joint projects in which resources and expertise are pooled, but the benefits flow in both directions.”

A senior security source in Whitehall added: “The fact is there is a close intelligence relationship between the UK and US and a number of other countries including Australia and Canada. There’s no automaticity, not everything is shared. A sentient human being takes decisions.”

Although the sums represent only a small percentage of the agencies’ budgets, the money has been an important source of income for GCHQ. The cash came during a period of cost-cutting at the agency that led to staff numbers being slashed from 6,485 in 2009 to 6,132 last year.

GCHQ seems desperate to please its American benefactor and the NSA does not hold back when it fails to get what it wants. On one project, GCHQ feared if it failed to deliver it would “diminish NSA’s confidence in GCHQ’s ability to meet minimum NSA requirements”. Another document warned: “The NSA ask is not static and retaining ‘equability’ will remain a challenge for the near future.”

In November 2011, a senior GCHQ manager working in Cyprus bemoaned the lack of staff devoted to one eavesdropping programme, saying: “This is not sustainable if numbers reduce further and reflects badly on our commitments to the NSA.”

The overriding necessity to keep on the right side of the US was revealed in a UK government paper that set out the views of GCHQ in the wake of the 2010 strategic defence and security review. The document was called: “GCHQ’s international alliances and partnerships: helping to maintain Britain’s standing and influence in the world.” It said: “Our key partnership is with the US. We need to keep this relationship healthy. The relationship remains strong but is not sentimental. GCHQ must pull its weight and be seen to pull its weight.”

Astonishingly, the document admitted that 60% of the UK’s high-value intelligence “is based on either NSA end-product or derived from NSA collection”. End product means official reports that are distillations of the best raw intelligence.

Another pitch to keep the US happy involves reminding Washington that the UK is less regulated than the US. The British agency described this as one of its key “selling points”. This was made explicit two years ago when GCHQ set out its priorities for the coming years.

“We both accept and accommodate NSA’s different way of working,” the document said. “We are less constrained by NSA’s concerns about compliance.”

GCHQ said that by 2013 it hoped to have “exploited to the full our unique selling points of geography, partnerships [and] the UK’s legal regime”.

However, there are indications from within GCHQ that senior staff are not at ease with the rate and pace of change. The head of one of its programmes warned the agency was now receiving so much new intelligence that its “mission management … is no longer fit for purpose”.

In June, the government announced that the “single intelligence account” fund that pays for GCHQ, MI5 and MI6 would be increased by 3.4% in 2015/16. This comes after three years in which the SIA has been cut from £1.92bn to £1.88bn. The agencies have also been told to make £220m savings on existing programmes.

The parliamentary intelligence and security committee (ISC) has questioned whether the agencies were making the claimed savings and said their budgets should be more rigorously scrutinised to ensure efficiencies were “independently verifiable and/or sustainable”.

The Snowden documents show GCHQ has become increasingly reliant on money from “external” sources. In 2006 it received the vast majority of its funding directly from Whitehall, with only £14m from “external” funding. In 2010 that rose to £118m and by 2011/12 it had reached £151m. Most of this comes from the Home Office.

Video: What Questions are Raised by the Latest NSA Revelations?

The Guardian’s Nick Hopkins outlines the questions raised by the latest revelations from US National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden.

How much money has the NSA paid to Britain’s secret services? What does the NSA get in return? What are the NSA’s demands? And is Britain’s national security compromised?

You’ll need to head here to see Nick’s video:http://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2013/aug/01/questions-nsa-revelations-video

Has the Bible’s Garden of Eden Been Found — and Restored?

Billy Hallowell 20 hours agoNature & EnvironmentIraq

Has the Bible's Garden of Eden been found -- and restored? This question can't be answered definitely, but it's certainly worth exploring, especially in light of the ongoing news surrounding the first Iraqi national park.

The world's most well-known garden is described in the Old Testament as a place of perfection -- one in which God is said to have placed Adam and Eve. For those who believe in its literal existence, Eden has been a focus of debate, particularly surrounding where it was located.

Now, despite ongoing violence in the region, NewScientist is reporting that the "'Garden of Eden' has been saved." The country's Council of Ministers recently approved its first national park, restoring Mesopotamian marshes in Iraqi's southern region.

The name of the new park, according to Nature of Iraq, the group that advocated for its creation, is the Central Marshes of Iraq. NewScientist continues:

This vast wetland of reed beds and waterways, home of the Ma'dan Marsh Arabs, is widely held to be the home of the Biblical story of the Garden of Eden, the paradise where Adam and Eve were created and from which they were subsequently expelled.

After the Gulf war in 1991, Iraq's president, Saddam Hussain, used dykes, sluices and diversions to cut off the country's two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates. This drained 93 per cent of the marshes, largely obliterating the largest wetland ecosystem in the Middle East

Earlier this year, The New York Times, too, reported that Bible scholars consider this land to be where the Garden of Eden once stood.

garden of eden

Photo credit: ShutterStock.com

Certainly, no one can be sure the area really is the Biblical home of Adam and Eve, but there is one profound fact worth noting. Despite the marsh's disappearance for years, all 278 species that were recorded on the land survived, finding the few spots that had water and sustaining themselves there.

Miracle or simply nature's resiliency at work (or both)? You decide.

Not all of the land came back to vibrancy, though, as surrounding nations like Syria, Iran and Turkey are still restricting water from the Tigris and Euphrates, NewScientist reports.

"With this action, Iraq has acted to preserve the cradle of civilization," said Azzam Alwash, founder and President of the Board of Directors of Nature Iraq. "It is now the duty of the world to help Iraq maintain these wetlands for the future generations by helping Iraq, Turkey, Syria and Iran to reach an equitable agreement on the sharing of the waters in the basin of the Tigris and Euphrates."

Nature Iraq also said that international agreement over water supplies will be essential to ensuring that the marsh comes fully back to life. And the hope is that, one day, tourism will help fuel the money needed to sustain it.

garden of eden

Photo credit: ShutterStock.com

Genesis 2:8-9 gives an account of what the Garden of Eden was like. It was supposedly a picture of perfection, as it had all that mankind would need to survive.

"Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed," the Bible reads. "Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground -- trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil."

Photo Credit: ShutterStock.com

(H/T: Big Think)

Formerly Homeless Man Invents Portable Shelters to Help Others

Gary Pickering and one of the "survival pods" he created. Photo: KSLA formerly homeless Utah man has used his insight to create and build “survival pods,” or mini-shelters, to be doled out to people who currently have nowhere to live.

More on Shine: SoulCycle for the Homeless? One Dude's Creative Use for Citi Bikes

“I believe a person needs the dignity of something they can call their own, even if it’s only this,” Gary Pickering, a retired auto-body-shop owner in Pleasant Grove, told TV news station KSL Tuesday.

Pickering, 73, was technically homeless for three years following a divorce in the late 1980s, when he lived in his shop.

More on Yahoo!: Is That Story You're Seeing of the 'Homeless' Pastor on Facebook Real?

“I lost my home after I signed everything over to my wife and seven children,” he told Yahoo! Shine. “But I had a roof over my head.” Because his shop was in an industrial area, he got to know many of the homeless men who lived in broken-down cars or in other corners of the area, eventually housing four in his van during a particularly harsh winter. He learned what it was like to not have a place to live, through the men he met, who explained that they didn’t go to shelters because of reasons ranging from “They steal my shoes” to “They won’t let me bring my dog.”

The lessons stuck with Pickering, who in 2009, long after he’d gotten back on his feet, saw a homeless man while driving through the nearby town of Provo. He went home and constructed a 2-foot-wide, 6-foot-long “cocoon,” mainly out of plywood. "But when I went to the find the man to give it to him, I couldn’t find him again," he recalled.

The pod's cozy interior. Photo: KSLPickering became passionate about coming up with the perfect temporary shelter. And after years of trial and error, he believes he’s finally perfected the “survival pod”: a 4-foot-wide, 8-foot-long micro house constructed from sheets of pressed wood, a wooden frame and a roof made of soft corrugated plastic called Coroplast.

There’s room enough inside for a sleeping bag, a kerosene lamp (there are vents in the structure), several small items, and even a specially designed portable toilet. Plus, the pods can be hooked up to electricity, like a trailer, if parked on already wired property with the permission of a homeowner.

Pickering has constructed five of the pods, personally funding them at a cost of about $500 apiece, he said.

“I didn’t do this as a business, I don’t want a business. I want to inspire other people,” Pickering told KSL, explaining to Yahoo! Shine that he’s created how-to DVDs and photos to show folks with the money and the desire to build the structures for people who need them. Then, homeless people could either pay for them slowly, “so they can have some pride in it, and say ‘It’s mine,’” or make a formal lending agreement.

Gary Pickering. Photo: FacebookThe pods are built on wheels, like trailers, to get around zoning codes for buildings, Pickering added, so they could be placed in empty warehouses, hangars or on a piece of ground just outside of a city.

Since the story of his invention aired on KSL, he said he’s already had an inquiry from a man who would like to buy a pod “for emergencies.”

But mainly, they are meant to be temporary shelters for those in immediate, short-term crises. Considering the fact that 63 percent of Utah’s homeless population is without a home only temporarily, according to a 2012 report, the pods could really have an impact on the community.

“People can find jobs, of course they’ll move on and get their nice house back and have their cars and everything,” he said. “But till that time, this will help them.”

(Continued from Part 1.)

Ashtar first mentioned the subject of an event expected in September 2013 through Philipp in February 2013, at almost the exact time I had my discussion with AAM. He referred to a column that appeared in Denise LeFay’s writings.

“Please (and this is very important) let us look upon what has led to the change of the Divine Plan. It is actually not a change but a fulfillment of a request. And who has sent out this request? Who has sent out this plea to our Creator to have more time to allow more fellow human brothers and sisters to jump on board the ship called Ascension. Yes, you and only you! Let us explain.

“You sent out the plea for prolongation of the Ascension process (which contains, as you all know, the Disclosure process). Your plea was astonishing and the Creator and all of us are so very proud of you. It has proved how far you have come on your journey, that you would put the well-being of the collective over the individual’s goal. And this goal, of course, was to get over the Ascension finish line as quickly as possible.

“The Creator has answered your plea and put in place a nine-month grace period which Denise Le Fay has talked about. And thanks to you all, we now have many more visitors in the skies to help coordinate your ascension process (big smile). It is getting quite crowded around your planet!” (1)

He tells us that the grace period will end in September 2013.

“This grace period until September 2013 was not easy to provide you with. Please don’t forget that although you put your focus on your Ascension and that of Gaia, the last which has already taken place, this whole picture is much more complex and broader than you think.

“Now you are in this transition period, which is very short even in your terms, and we recommend that you use this short time very wisely. We will elaborate more upon this in a later channeling, since our channel is getting tired.” (2)

Ashtar returned to the subject on July 31, 2013. But on this occasion he doesn’t speak of what is to happen at the end of the trimester (i.e., in September) as crossing the Ascension finish line but as “a big step forward.” He says:

“The veil at the end of this trimester will not suddenly lift – your return back home to full consciousness is a process. But there shall come a point in your journey where you will take a big step forward to enable you to build upon this step, to integrate all that you have achieved so far in every cell of your Being, and to allow you to go ahead with your journey back home to where you belong.

“And the moment for you to take this step is just around the corner. You will make great progress and be pleasantly surprised with your achievements.” (3)

Ashtar suggested that the galactics may use the uplift gotten from the financial transformations to disclose their presence.

“We have previously informed you that the prerequisite for our widespread appearance on your world would especially be the transformation of your financial systems. Furthermore, we have told you that the uplift experienced as a result of these transformations would increasingly enhance your ability to absorb the news about your Star Family. We will use this uplift to introduce ourselves to you, our brothers and sisters incarnated on the surface of dear Gaia.” (4)

The next conversation about the subject happened when I asked White Cloud, through Blossom Goodchild, to comment on Ashtar’s claims. Like many sources, he began by declining to give dates.

Steve Beckow: Ashtar said that he believes that the final stage could be in September. Archangel Michael has said, no, it’s probably more likely between February 2014 to February 2015. But then there are other channels — I won’t mention their names — but they are saying just what you’re saying, that it’s quite close.

First of all, can you give us, not a date, but a kind of an approximation of just how close we are? And then I have a couple of other questions as well.

White Cloud: I would say to you — and if you were to see your Blossom at this time, all the time you have been speaking I have a huge grin on her face, because there is this… the word I am giving is ‘desperation’ for people upon the planet that are so eager for things to really begin to transpire, if you like. But I would say to you, because Blossom knows this, and many know, that we do not give of dates anymore.

SB: Yes.

WC: Because it is too… when it cannot work in the way we had, perhaps, planned, et cetera, it is too detrimental, in the long term. (5)

He suggested to us that the more we live in joy, the more quickly we bring the events we wish to us.

White Cloud: What I would say to all about this is, if you are to live your life in the way that is desired — and that is by living every moment that you can in joy — working with that, concentrating only that, focusing only on the joy of your life, then it is that you are raising the vibration.

And the more the vibration is raised, the more quickly these things shall come about, that you are desiring. (6)

He then turned his attention to what he calls “the Event,” which will see “a showering of love … upon your planet.”

White Cloud: I spoke yesterday as well of ‘the Event’ that many speak of; and many thought it was to be after December last year. But I am saying to you, this Event has not gone away. This Event will be taking place.

“And it is a showering of love that will descend, if you like, upon your planet in a way that has not been done before. But that Event can take place, for simple terms, depending upon the happiness of those souls on Earth. …

“I would say the Event that is coming, yes, that is joyful, it is indescribably joyful. (7)

The Event will affect all life on Earth.

White Cloud: This Event will affect everything, but regarding souls on Earth, for instance, and, well, I would say everything else as well, it is depending on the vibration that that living aspect of something resonates upon. …

This Event will bring about an energy…. You know that an energy came in on December 21st of last year, and it is affecting many. But nonetheless that energy is there in a more subtle sense to each soul. Whereas this will be, I would simply say, far less subtle. (8)

I commented that I wondered whether this Event was to be just an early Ascension wave or the Event and White Cloud did not specify a step process but turned to a different subject.

SB: I guess what I was wanting to clarify was whether this Event that you’re talking about was what Archangel Michael has talked about as early waves, or whether this is the Event. And you have answered that. You have said that it is “the Event”. (9)

Does silence betoken consent?

Tomorrow we’ll look at what Jesus and Saul have said through John Smallman about this transformative shift on the planet.

(Continued in Part 3. You’re welcome to read ahead.)

Footnotes

(1) “Ashtar Speaks through Philipp,” February 27, 2013, athttp://goldenageofgaia.com/2013/03/ashtar-speaks-feb-27-2013/.

(2) Loc. cit.

(3) “Ashtar: Update on your Current Timeline,” channeled by Phillip July 31, 2013 athttp://goldenageofgaia.com/2013/08/ashtar-via-philipp-update-on-your-current-timeline.

(4) Loc. cit.

(5) “White Cloud: A Showering of Love Upon Your Planet is Close,” July 31, 2013, athttp://goldenageofgaia.com/2013/07/white-cloud-a-showering-of-love-upon-your-planet-is-close/.

(6) Loc. cit.

(7) Loc. cit.

(8) Loc. cit.

(9) Loc. cit.