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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
7/13/2013 10:41:18 AM

U.S. built $34 million command headquarters in Afghanistan that may never be used


The empty $34M command and control center in southern Afghanistan (Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction)


The U.S. military has reportedly spent $34 million to build a new complex in Afghanistan – but is unlikely to ever actually use the facility.

Voice of America reports that the unused site came to the attention of a congressional oversight committee that reviews projects in Afghanistan.

"I don't know if [Secretary Chuck Hagel] will provide a formal response. I do not have one at this stage," said Defense Department spokesman George Little when asked about the project. "I think it is going to take us a little bit of time to review the findings and to coordinate with the SIGAR."

SIGAR stands for the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, which described the base as a "potentially troubling example of waste."

Special Inspector General John Sopko told Congress that some U.S. commanders opposed the 20,000-square-foot installation’s construction in 2010. But a year later, a British firm was nonetheless hired to build it. Originally, it was planned to serve as a regional command headquarters in the country’s southern region. Technically, it was designed to house 1,500 staff. But now, commanders say it’s unlikely to ever be occupied by military personnel.

Sopko said that as U.S. forces begin to leave the country, they will be left with two options: destroy the facility or hand it over to Afghan officials.

And as of today, at least one person who spent time at the facility thinks demolishing it makes more sense.

"Helmand province and [the Afghan capital] Kabul may as well be two different countries in a lot of practical ways," Marine Corps Times writer Dan Lamothe told VOA. "The government is so far removed from the everyday lives of the people in Helmand that I do not see how Kabul would keep track of something like that."

Lamothe says the project reminds him of another recent failed venture in the country during which a police station was built with a new septic system. However, the toilets eventually had to be shut down because no one knew how to operate the system.

The revelation of the unused base was followed by another example of potential waste in the country revealed by SIGAR on Thursday. It also was announced that an $11 million solid-waste trash compactor has gone largely unused, with most trash simply being burned in outdoor piles. SIGAR said that not only is the equipment being left unused but that U.S. military officials are putting their health at risk by standing in the vicinity of the burning trash piles.

Inside a recently built but unused $34M military base (SIGAR)


"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
7/13/2013 4:05:50 PM

IRS Scandal: This Democratic Report is Escalating the Feud


The Internal Revenue Service is suffering
increased scrutiny more than a month after reports broke that it was targeting tea party groups during the 2012 election cycle that were applying for tax-exempt status. Inspector General J. Russell George’s report on the matter sees the validity of the government organization questioned.

News broke earlier this year that the IRS was unfairly targeting groups with names containing the phrases “tea party” or “patriot.” Groups applying for 501(4) status cannot have politics as their primary activity, something that creates ambiguity and uncertainty in evaluating potential requests for tax exemption.

The IRS was also found shortly after to have engaged in rampant spending on conferences, including training videos and presidential suites for employees in attendance. The news resulted in a turbulent time for the tax collection agency, which saw a change of leadership and scrutiny of high-ranking officials.

The targeting of conservative groups was first thought to have been started by low-level officials in a Cincinnati office, though, over time, members of Congress also began to question IRS leadership.

The IRS is having the damage assessed by Congressional Democrats. Five thousand, five hundred emails show an unclear picture of discriminatory behavior, with Democrats claiming that confusion and unclear operating procedures induced the targeting. An IRS inspector general report previously released as a part of the investigation into IRS practices found that tea party groups had in fact been targeted, though it was less clear what happened to progressive groups.

Documents released by Democrats on Friday paint an ambiguous picture, as they explored the contents of the report and emails, finding such things as a “Be on the Lookout” list that showed several Occupy Wall Street groups were being monitored, bolstering claims that it was in fact progressives that were being maltreated. However, the report also found that progressive groups were viewed as a “historical” issue, while tea party groups were viewed as an “emerging issue.”

Here’s how the major U.S. indexes traded on Friday:


"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
7/13/2013 4:35:22 PM

Are we making ourselves miserable trying to live longer?

Those last years may not be pleasurable ones.
The Week

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
7/13/2013 4:42:44 PM

There's Growing Evidence Of A Vast Conspiracy To Undermine Former Egypt President Morsi


















REUTERS/Suhaib Salem


In many ways Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi made his own end, but in a lot of others, everyone from young rebels to police to the military to even the people running the oil supply conspired to degrade and ultimately overthrow Morsi.

The latest evidence is the sudden end to Egypt's crippling energy shortages, as reported by Ben Hubbard and David D. Kirkpatrick in the New York Times:

The Muslim Brotherhood and Mr. Morsi’s supporters say the sudden turnaround proves that their opponents conspired to make Mr. Morsi fail. Not only did police officers seem to disappear, but the state agencies responsible for providing electricity and ensuring gas supplies failed so fundamentally that gas lines and rolling blackouts fed widespread anger and frustration.

“This was preparing for the coup,” said Naser el-Farash, who served as the spokesman for the Ministry of Supply and Internal Trade under Mr. Morsi. “Different circles in the state, from the storage facilities to the cars that transport petrol products to the gas stations, all participated in creating the crisis.”

Granted, other reporting from Al Arabiya makes clear that the energy crisis isn't exactly over.

Nonetheless, it seems apparent that organized groups put a stranglehold on an already ailing system. That organization was staggeringly deep and detailed.

An article from Mike Giglio of the Daily Beast today details to what lengths the youth rebel group called Tamarod and the Army collaborated in the time leading up to the coup:

In the days and weeks before the protests, Waleed al-Masry, a central organizer, was in regular contact with a group of retired military officers. These retired officers, Masry says, promised to protect the protesters who turned out on June 30. They said they were reaching out on behalf of the Army’s current commanders. “We didn’t ask them for help. They just offered it,” Masry says. “And we welcomed that.”

Masry and the rebels not only gained the cooperation of the army, but also of the policeand the recently snubbed judicial system.

“The country’s institutions—the police, the Army, the judges—were clear from their messages in the media that they were in favor of getting rid of [Morsi]," Moheb Doss, one of Tamarod’s co-founders and main organizers, told The Beast. Then they received “individual communications between Tamarod people and state institutions.”

Finally there was the funding, both internally and externally.

The Times details how former judge Tahani el-Gebali, former adviser Shawki al-Sayed, and Naguib Sawiris, a billionaire and an outspoken foe of the Brotherhood, all pitched in cash and organizing efforts to wear at the base of the Morsi regime.

And just this week, an Al Jazeera exclusive from exposed how Washingtonhad funneled money to secular opposition groups in Egypt:

Documents obtained by the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley show the US channeled funding ... [that] ... vigorously supported activists and politicians who have fomented unrest in Egypt, after autocratic president Hosni Mubarak was ousted in a popular uprising in February 2011.

Seems like a well-organized effort to sabotage Morsi, no?

Except that Morsi's moves to consolidate power and install Sharia Law began almost as soon as he took office. His concerns, it seemed, focused more on telling women how to talk to their husbands than with rebuilding Egypt.

Those actions predate the actions of the young Tamarod agents who took to the streets, some for 16 hours a day, collecting signatures for the ouster of Morsi.

In that way, Morsi made his own end. Now he has no choice but to own it, conspiracy or not.


"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
7/13/2013 5:02:36 PM

Cleveland man faces 648 more charges in abduction of women

Reuters

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Ariel Castro, 52, sits with his head down between his attorneys Jaye Schlachet (R) and Craig Weintraub (L) during his pre-trial hearing on charges including rape, kidnapping and murder in Cleveland, Ohio June 19, 2013. REUTERS/Aaron Josefczyk

By Kim Palmer

CLEVELAND (Reuters) - Former Cleveland school bus driver Ariel Castro faces 977 criminal charges stemming from the abduction and decade-long imprisonment of three women who were freed two months ago, as 648 new charges were added on Friday, prosecutors said.

A grand jury's indictment spans from August 2002, when Castro was accused of abducting the first of the women, through May of this year when the women and a 6-year-old girl fathered during her mother's captivity escaped his Cleveland home.

"Today's indictment moves us closer to resolution of this gruesome case," Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty said in a statement.

Fired last fall from his job as a Cleveland school bus driver, Castro stands accused of kidnapping the three women between 2002 and 2004 and brutalizing them while holding them captive in his house over the next 10 years.

Castro, who turned 53 on Wednesday in jail, was indicted in June on 329 charges involving the first 4-1/2 years of the women's captivity. They and the girl were freed from his house on May 6.

Gina DeJesus, 23, Michelle Knight, 32, and Amanda Berry, 27, had been missing for around a decade. Officials said they were kept bound for periods of time in chains or rope and that they endured starvation, beatings and sexual assaults. ž

DNA evidence later confirmed Castro was the father of the girl, who was born to Berry. At a court appearance in early July, Castro asked to be allowed jail visits from his daughter. A judge rejected the request immediately as "not appropriate."

Three of the new charges involve endangering a child and a another was a felony kidnapping for the 6 years since the girl's birth.

Berry, DeJesus and Knight spoke publicly for the first time since they were freed in videotaped statements released on Tuesday that thanked people for their emotional and financial support.

'THROUGH HELL AND BACK'

"I may have been through hell and back, but I'm strong enough to walk through hell with a smile on my face, and with my head held high, and my feet firmly on the ground," said Knight, who Castro is accused of beating to induce miscarriages.

A representative for the women said they would not comment on the new indictment.

In a statement, Castro's attorney, Craig Weintraub, said the additional charges had been expected.

"It is our hope that we can continue to work toward a resolution of this matter so that the women do not have to endure any additional trauma," he said.

Castro faces aggravated murder charges under a fetal homicide law for allegedly forcing Knight to miscarry. According to the indictment, Knight was pregnant at least three times from September 2002 to December 2003.

Aggravated murder charges qualify the case for the death penalty, but the prosecutor's office has not yet decided whether to seek that punishment.

The indictment also includes 512 counts of kidnapping, 446 counts of rape, seven counts of gross sexual imposition, six counts of felony assault, and one count of possessing tools such as a Ruger handgun.

The latest indictment adds rape, kidnapping and felonious assault charges for every month the women were in captivity and included specific dates throughout their captivity.

Castro will be arraigned July 17 on the new indictment before Common Pleas Court Judge Michael Russo. He is being held on an $8 million bond. Trial is scheduled to begin on August 5.

(Editing by Richard Chang)


"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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