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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
4/24/2015 10:38:42 AM

US drone war under scrutiny after botched strike

AFP

File picture shows supporters of Defense of Pakistan Council (DPC), a coalition of religious and political parties, during a protest in Peshawar against US drone strikes in the Pakistani tribal region (AFP Photo/A. Majeed)


President Barack Obama's admission that a US drone strike accidentally took the lives of two hostages has raised fresh questions about the limits and the risks of the country's "targeted killing" campaign.

Since taking office in 2009, Obama has relied heavily on drone raids to hunt down Al-Qaeda leaders and other Islamist extremists from Pakistan's tribal areas to Somalia and Yemen.

But the botched strike revealed that the US had no idea an American aid worker, Warren Weinstein, and an Italian humanitarian, Giovanni Lo Porto, were in the same compound as Al-Qaeda militants when the drone raid was launched in January.

The White House also admitted that US intelligence was flawed for another drone strike at about the same time, which killed two US citizens who were Al-Qaeda operatives but who Washington did not know were present.

"I think this is going to push the debate about the effectiveness of drones," said Seth Jones, a former adviser to US special forces and a fellow at the RAND Corporation.

Human rights groups and some lawmakers have long questioned the legality and the morality of the drone air war, citing estimates of thousands of civilian casualties caused by the strikes. Military experts have cast doubt on the ultimate effect of the raids on extremist groups.

"It just adds to the concerns about the use of drone strikes," Jones told AFP. "There has been no major terrorist organization in the world that has been defeated by drones."

The White House promised the mistake would be thoroughly investigated but insisted that the drone program was crucial and carried out under new rules set out two years ago by Obama. The US president has portrayed the new protocols as a way to impose boundaries on the covert assassination campaign.

- 'Near certainty' -

The January strike that ended tragically was in keeping with the new rules, which require officials to have "near certainty" that Al-Qaeda militants are present and that civilians will not be endangered, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters.

The "near certainty assessment" that no civilians would be harmed turned out to be incorrect, he said, leading to "this tragic, unintended consequence."

Before the strike, there were "hundreds of hours of surveillance" carried out on the Qaeda compound, Earnest said. This included "near continuous surveillance in the days leading up to the operation."

US lawmakers said Congress will need to take a closer look at how the strike went wrong but most defended the tactic as a successful way of taking out terror suspects.

"I blame the Al Qaeda terrorist organization for their deaths, not the American government," said Senator Lindsey Graham.

The Republican senator said he felt "terrible" for the hostages killed "but we’re at war and we've got to keep prosecuting this war."

He added: "The drone program has been a good tactical weapon in the war on terror and I am all for keeping it."

Senator Dianne Feinstein called for more transparency, saying the administration should issue an annual report on the number of militants and civilians killed in the drone operations.

- Unnamed targets -

Micah Zenko, a vocal critic of the drone campaign, said the White House had violated its own guidelines in the strike that killed the hostages, accusing it of "anthropomorphizing" a compound as an Al-Qaeda leader.

Zenko, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the incident "raises questions about the alleged principle of 'near certainty' that applies to drone strikes."

Both Obama and his predecessor, George W. Bush, have approved drone strikes against "unnamed" individuals suspected of being a member of terror groups.

The practice of so-called "signature strikes," directed against groups of terror suspects instead of a particular leader, should be called into account, Zenko said.

The number of drone strikes has declined dramatically in Pakistan after a peak of 117 in 2010, according to the Long War Journal and other groups that track the attacks. There have been five strikes in Pakistan so far this year, the journal says.

Intelligence experts say hundreds of drone strikes have not defeated or seriously reduced the size of Al-Qaeda. But the Obama administration has promoted the tactic as a superior strategy to the large ground wars in Iraq and Afghanistan pursued during Bush's presidency.

"Nearly 14 years after 9/11, it’s not apparent that either of these two models -- the Bush approach or the Obama approach – has done a sufficient job in combating terrorist networks and shaping the landscape in a way that degrades and ultimately defeats these groups," said Brian Katulis of the Center for American Progress.


Drone war under scrutiny after botched strike


The accidential killing of two hostages in a U.S. airstrike is raising fresh questions about America's drone program.
Flawed intel

"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?
4/24/2015 10:57:11 AM

‘We don’t need missiles’: Houthis threaten to attack Saudi Arabia if bombing continues

Published time: April 24, 2015 03:23

Followers of the Houthi group demonstrate against the Saudi-led air strikes in Sanaa April 22, 2015. (Reuters/Khaled Abdullah)

Yemen’s Shiite Houthi rebels have threatened to launch an attack on Saudi Arabia if the bombings in Yemen do not stop. The Zaidi group has sent the warning to Riyadh and demanded that UN-brokered political dialogue be resumed in Yemen.

The Houthis “will carry out a military attack on Saudi Arabia, if the airstrikes on Yemen don’t come to an end,” Mohammed Bahiti, member of the Ansar Allah movement, told TV channel Al Mayadeen.

Bahiti stressed that the Houthi rebels “do not require missiles” to carry forward with their promise, referring to Yemeni military depots destroyed in the airstrikes. He also rejected claims that Operation Decisive Storm, led by Saudi Arabia, was able to successfully destroy the Houthi rebels’ military capabilities.

According to Bahiti, Houthis are ready to resume UN-sponsored talks from “the point they were at before Saudi aggression.” The previous round of talks ended in January.

At the same time, he warned that the ousted Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi can never come back to power, adding that rebels view him as a “traitor.”

“The Yemeni people will not honor Mansur Hadi and allow him to return to power,” Bahiti said.

The statement came against a backdrop of intensified anti-Houthi coalition bombing, with reports on Twitter suggesting more rebel-controlled military installations have been targeted and destroyed.

صورة لقصف طيران التحالف على تجمعات الحوثيين وقوات صالح في مديرتي دار سعد وخور مكسر بمحافظة عدن جنوب .


On Tuesday, the Saudi-led military coalition announced that it has completed Operation Decisive Storm against the Houthi rebels, adding that the campaign is now switching into a new phase codenamed ‘Restoring Hope’, which will focus on anti-terrorism, security and finding a political solution to the crisis.

Images of smoke columns after targeted by air strikes Airport a short while ago.


However, less than 24 hours later, airstrikes resumed. Fighting continued into Thursday, as the Shiite rebels pushed on with their offensive in the south and the Saudi Arabia-led coalition proceeded to intensify airstrikes, hitting several cities, including Aden, Houdida, Taiz, Dhale and Ibb, according to AP.


Saudi Arabia and its allies have been engaged in a campaign of airstrikes and a naval blockade of Yemen, targeting the Shiite rebels. This was in response to the Houthis seizing control of the capital Sanaa, advancing on the major port city of Aden, and forcing Hadi to flee to Saudi Arabia.


Since the campaign began on March 26, there have been over 4,000 airstrikes that killed nearly 1,100 people and displaced 150,000 others, according to UN resident coordinator in Yemen Paolo Lembo.

"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?
4/24/2015 1:36:43 PM

Chilean volcano puts on a show in time-lapse video





The Calbuco volcano in southern Chile erupted twice on Wednesday for the first time in 42 years. Ash and smoke were sent about 6 miles into the air


About 4,000 people were evacuated from their homes in the areas surrounding the volcano, which is located about 600 miles south of Santiago, the Chilean capital. Chile is home to more than 90 active volcanoes, and Calbuco is one of the largest, measuring about 6,500 feet tall.

A time-lapse video of the remarkable scene was uploaded to YouTube by Rodrigo Barrera, and has been viewed more than a million times so far. In the video, ash billows out of the volcano, and even a few bolts of lightning can be seen in the red, smoke-filled sky.




In its first eruption in 42 years, the Calbuco volcano in Chile explodes twice, forcing thousands to evacuate.
Sky covered in smoke, ash



"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?
4/24/2015 1:48:29 PM

Seismic shift: Oklahoma’s earthquakes triggered by wastewater disposal wells

Geologists, industry reps and regulators sound off on scientific data

Yahoo News

Drilling rigs dot the landscape in northern Oklahoma on Nov.17, 2013. (Les Stone/Corbis)


The onslaught of seismic activity in Oklahoma in recent years has captured the attention of the nation.

State scientists say they have uncovered the root cause of the majority of the state’s earthquakes: the oil and gas industry’s disposal of billions of barrels of water underground.

Now, as the public absorbs this information, Oklahoma’s regulatory bodies are keeping a watchful eye on these disposal wells and planning their next moves.

Link between earthquakes and industry

On Tuesday, the Oklahoma Geological Survey (OGS) issued its most strongly worded statement yetlinking the oil and gas industry to the state’s earthquakes.

State geologist Richard D. Andrews and state seismologist Austin Holland say the spike in earthquakes — particularly in central and north-central areas of the state — is “very unlikely to represent a naturally occurring process.”

“The primary suspected source of triggered seismicity is not from hydraulic fracturing but from the injection/disposal of water associated with oil and gas production,” the report from the Oklahoma Geological Survey (OGS) reads.

The seismicity rate in Oklahoma is about 600 times greater than it was before 2008, around the time dewatering started in the state.

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Oklahoma Geological Survey seismologist, Austin Holland, installs a seismometer in southwest Oklahoma City, Okla., on January 26, 2015. (Linda Davidso...

Oklahoma Geological Survey seismologist, Austin Holland, installs a seismometer in southwest Oklahoma City, Okla., …

Just last year, 585 magnitude 3+ earthquakes hit Oklahoma — compared with 109 in 2013.

“The rates have increased phenomenally since just a few years ago,” Andrews said in an interview with Yahoo News. “We feel we had to make a statement.”

For the dewatering process, extremely salty water, which coexists with oil and gas below the Earth’s surface, is separated from those substances after extraction. Then barrels of wastewater are deposited into wells far deeper than their point of origin.

Some of this wastewater is a byproduct of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking: a process in which high-pressure liquids are blasted beneath the ground to fracture rock, releasing natural gas. But fracking only accounts for a small percentage of the water deposited in these wells.

How this happens

The majority of the state’s wastewater is deposited in the Arbuckle formations, which are underground reservoirs of dolomite, limestone and other rocks.

Parts of the Arbuckle are highly fractured with expansive systems of cavities and caverns that the energy sector found perfect for dumping wastewater.

“It is known to have bulk porosity, voids in the rocks that can hold fluids,” Andrews said. “They don’t need to inject the water under any other pressure. They just funnel it in. It will take as much water as you can put into it.”

Much of the wastewater, with much higher salinity levels than ocean water, travels many miles away from its injection site and seeps into the underlying crystalline basement; such permeability makes it difficult to link a specific well with seismic activity.

It can take anywhere from weeks to more than a year of this water pouring in before it triggers naturally occurring stresses in the Earth — causing earthquakes.

“There are faults pretty much all across the country. It doesn’t take much change to the system to cause those faults to slip. Those wells are providing the little bits of change needed,” Briana Mordick, a staff scientist for the Natural Resources Defense Council, told Yahoo News.

Most of the earthquakes have occurred within the crystalline basement, on faults within Oklahoma’s tectonic stress regime, according to the OGS.

“Water and fault zones are a formula for seismicity,” Andrews said. “We do have the science to back it up.”

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Maintenance workers inspect the damage to one of the spires on Benedictine Hall at St. Gregory's University in Shawnee, Okla. on , Nov. 6, 2011. Two e...

Maintenance workers inspect the damage to one of the spires on Benedictine Hall at St. Gregory's University in …

Restrictions on oil and gas companies

The Oil and Gas Conservation Division of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC) is the governing body that regulates the state’s oil and gas companies.

Matt Skinner, a spokesman for the division, says the group’s number one mandate is water protection and that given the current state of affairs its top concern is seismicity.

“The thing we face as an agency under Oklahoma law is that we have to be able to show that what we’re doing in not arbitrary or capricious and is not considered a taking of private property,” Skinner told Yahoo News.

Private property laws are exceptionally strong in the state; natural gas and oil are often privately owned.

In response to OGS’s findings, the commission has already started requiring seismicity reviews for all proposed disposal wells and limiting how many wells can get permits for a particular area.

They also started to run a “traffic light” system: A “red light” indicates that well operators cannot reingest wastewater because it would go directly into a fault, whereas a “yellow light” indicates that there are enough concerns with the location that the well operator must agree to particularly strict terms that are subject to change.

The OCC started working on seismicity in 2010 as more of an “academic interest” and eventually teamed up with the OGS after learning about its ongoing research; urgency rose concurrently with earthquakes.

“Oklahoma has had seismic events. It’s a seismically active state, but nothing like we are seeing now,” Skinner said.

Due to the aforementioned property laws, the OCC had been dealing with culpable parties with a well-by-well approach — tracking pollution back to its source and holding the operator accountable. With the seismic upswing, this approach became untenable.

On April 18, the commission issued new directives for 347 of the roughly 900 Arbuckle disposal wells in Oklahoma. Each operator was required to show that it did not go too deep.

In response, roughly 25 disposal wells have ceased operations — at least temporarily.

“We quite frankly thought we would have a court challenge to that directive,” Skinner said. “Anyone who is ignoring a division directive does so at their peril. They would have their day in court, but if they lose, the penalty may even be higher.”

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Oklahoma Geological Survey seismologist Amberlee Darold wires a solar power panel to a seismograph in southwest Oklahoma City, Okla., on January 26, 2...

Oklahoma Geological Survey seismologist Amberlee Darold wires a solar power panel to a seismograph in southwest …

Industry response

The Oklahoma Oil and Gas Association issued a statement saying additional research is needed to determine how the wells can be operated without causing more earthquakes.

“There may be a link between earthquakes and disposal wells, but we — industry, regulators, researchers, lawmakers or state residents — still don’t know enough about how wastewater injection impacts Oklahoma’s underground faults,” Chad Warmington, the trade association’s president, said in the statement.

Warmington argued that a moratorium on disposal wells is not feasible.

The Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association shared a statement regarding the OGS findings when contacted by Yahoo News for comment.

Kim Hatfield, chairman of the association’s regulatory committee, said the board will continue to work with the Governor’s Coordinating Council on Seismic Activity, the OCC and the OGS to understand the “possible relationship” between the oil and natural gas industry and earthquakes.

“The OIPA has led cooperative efforts between Oklahoma oil and natural gas companies and the state’s researchers and regulators studying Oklahoma’s increased seismic activity, and we are confident that the cooperation between public and private entities will offer a rational and reasonable response to seismic activity concerns,” he said in the statement.

Hatfield, who also founded the corporation and serves as chairman of its board of directors, went on to say that the state’s oil and natural gas producers have a proven history of developing the state’s resources “in a safe and effective manner.”

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In this Friday, July 20, 2012 photo, pipe for a pipeline is readied for installation near a drilling rig, near Calumet, Okla. (Sue Ogrocki/AP Photo)

In this Friday, July 20, 2012 photo, pipe for a pipeline is readied for installation near a drilling rig, near …

The two big oil and gas trade groups — to their credit — have told their members to cooperate with the directives, according to Skinner.

Trade associations by definition advocate on behalf of their industries’ interests, so these sorts of responses are to be expected.

But for many critics, they only exacerbate the problem and widen the knowledge gap between the scientific community and the general public à la climate change or evolutionary biology.

“Putting it all together in one place draws a line in the sand,” Skinner said of the OGS statement. “A lot of the debate that still lingers is over with.”

Environmentalist response

Briana Mordick said the scientific community has known for decades that injecting or moving fluids underground can trigger earthquakes.

The geologist still wants regulators to place more restrictions on the gas and oil industry, but she was glad to see OGS use such strong language.

“After sort of dragging their feet for quite some time, they took a good and important step forward, showing there is a clear link between these injection wells and the earthquakes. So I’d say it’s a welcome development,” she said to Yahoo News.

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Oklahoma earthquake map. (USGS)

Oklahoma earthquake map. (USGS)

Mordick used to work in the oil and gas industry as a petroleum geologist but left to focus on mitigating its environmental impact.

She criticized the trade groups’ responses to the OGS findings, that experts “still don’t know enough,” as a misleading justification for inaction.

“There’s certainly more science to do and information to gather, but there’s enough right now that we can act,” she said. “The science is clear enough right now that there is a clear reason to act right now. Sure, there’s definitely going to be more to learn, but we don’t need to wait.”

Jesse Coleman, a researcher at Green Peace, agrees that the appeal for more research before decisive action has run its course.

“I don’t know how many more studies would be enough to convince the oil and gas industry that their practices are dangerous,” he said to Yahoo News. “Nobody really knows what to do with the now-contaminated water.”

Throughout the country, he said, the industry has tried to dump the wastewater in rivers or spread it on roads, causing serious contamination issues.

Coleman said that burying the water is clearly not a sustainable solution.

“If an industry cannot be responsible for cleaning up the pollution it creates, it shouldn’t be allowed to use public resources as their dumping ground,” he said.

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In this Friday, July 20, 2012 photo, Workers are pictured on a drilling rig near Calumet, Okla., on July 20, 2012. (Sue Ogrocki/AP Photo)

In this Friday, July 20, 2012 photo, Workers are pictured on a drilling rig near Calumet, Okla., on July 20, 2012. …

Broader implications

Disposal wells are potentially a problem wherever they are located, but different states need to allocate their resources to address their unique circumstances and concerns.

Differences in geology and the prevalence of certain practices dictate where state environmentalists and regulators focus their energies. For instance, Ohio has closed down multiple disposal wells, but the state’s primary concern is fracking.

The Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, an organization of state regulatory bodies, is dedicated to maximizing oil and natural gas resources while protecting the health of the nation and the environment.

Gerry Baker, associate executive director of the commission, said its 30 members states, which represent 99 percent of the nation’s oil and gas production, have teamed up with the Groundwater Protection Council to form the States First Coalition.

Together, they want to give states the tools to develop regulations that deal with issues — such as wastewater disposal wells — as they see fit.

“There is very different geology across the country, and there are all kinds of factors in play,” Baker said to Yahoo News. “We don’t pretend to believe that there is a one-size-fits-all approach.”

"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?
4/24/2015 4:15:23 PM

Killing of U.S. al Qaeda media frontman seen as big blow for militants

Reuters


American al Qaeda member Adam Gadahn is shown in this image captured from an undated video courtesy of Intelcenter. REUTERS/INTELCENTER/ SOCIAL MEDIA/ AS-SAHAB MEDIA RELEASED BY INTELCENTER/Handout via Reuters

By Robert Birsel

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The killing of an American who directed al Qaeda's media campaign from his Pakistani hideout is likely to be a big blow for the militants, especially as they wage a propaganda war with Islamic State.

American al Qaeda member Adam Gadahn, who faced treason charges in the United States, was killed early this year in a strike on an al Qaeda camp in Pakistan, near the Afghan border, U.S. officials said on Thursday.

"He was highly important. He was the man on their media front line," said Ahmed Rashid, a Pakistani author and expert on the Taliban and al Qaeda.

"Given the success of ISIS in media and social media, he would have been much needed, especially in communicating with English-speaking audiences and on web sites and so on," he said, referring to Islamic State.

Gadahn, for whom the United States had offered a reward of $1 million, was believed to be in his late 30s. Born in Oregon, he grew up in California, converted to Islam at 17 and became a spokesman and translator for al Qaeda.

When the United States accused him of treason in 2006, he became the first person to face such charges since the World War Two era, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

Gadahn has been involved with al Qaeda's as-Sahab media wing and had appeared in its videos wearing robes and a turban and warning the United States it would face attacks if it did not heed al Qaeda demands.

"He was the main man in charge of the al Qaeda narrative, so his death will have an impact on the propaganda machine," said Amir Rana, author of a book on militant groups in Pakistan.

REFUSED TO LEAVE

U.S. officials said Gadahn was killed five days after a U.S. drone strike in January targeting an al Qaeda compound in Pakistan inadvertently killed an American and an Italian who had been held hostage for years by the group.

Gadahn was in another al Qaeda camp, they said.

A Pakistani Taliban militant said Gadahn's comrades had urged him to leave the area because of the danger of U.S. drone strikes.

"When most senior Arab commanders were killed and others left for their native countries, some people advised him to shift to a safer place but he refused," said the militant, who declined to be identified.

He said he did not know why Gadahn refused to go.

Gadahn, born in a Jewish-Christian family, grew up on a goat ranch outside Los Angeles, and moved to Pakistan after his conversion. He was previously known as Adam Pearlman.

As one of a small nucleus of senior al Qaeda figures left in the region, Gadahn was likely to have been involved in setting up the group's South Asian wing, which analysts saw as a rebranding effort in the face of Islamic State competition.

"Al Qaeda has been seen to be losing out to the IS over the last year or so, so they need new ideas to at least keep step," said Imtiaz Gul of the Center for Research and Security Studies.

"Presumably, Gadahn was part of these efforts."

(Additional reporting by Jibran Ahmed; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)


Killing of U.S. al Qaida media frontman a big blow


Adam Gadahn, who faced treason charges in the U.S., was "highly important" to the organization.
'Main man in charge'

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