Two TSA agents were busted Wednesday at Kennedy Airport for stealing $39,000 from a passenger's bag, a law enforcement source said.
The rogue agents, Coumar Persad and Davon Webb, have admitted to other thefts of up to $160,000, the source said.
Persad, who turns 36 today, and Webb, 30, were arrested by Port Authority cops.
They were charged with grand larceny, possession of stolen property and official misconduct.
The investigation started on Jan. 30 -- the day of the $39,000 theft, the source said.
The source said the agents worked in tandem. One would watch for money as the bags were screened, then notify the other about the loot. One would swipe the money once the luggage was placed in a baggage room.
Disgraced Wall Street financier Bernard Madoff said in an interview published online Tuesday that banks and hedge funds were "complicit" in his scheme to fleece victims out of billions of dollars.
Madoff did not name any institutions in his series of interviews with The New York Times but said banks and hedge funds "were complicit in one form or another." He said they failed to scrutinize the discrepancies between his regulatory filings and other information.
"They had to know," he said in his first interviews for publication since his 2008 arrest. "But the attitude was sort of, 'If you're doing something wrong, we don't want to know.'"
S. Paul Forrest Activist Post
In today’s America, we are being inundated with nationalistic propaganda from both the Left and the Right. In the middle of these lines lay our military initiatives overseas and incessant anti-Islamic tones of popular media coverage to justify said initiatives.
With the information highway becoming more and more controlled by legal and political language, one has to consider whether our freedom has become compromised. The answer must certainly lie within one’s personal definition of freedom and whether one believes today’s growing climate of nationalistic paranoia is quashing our freedom...
The Initial findings of the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, Switzerland unexpectedly reveals that the emerging collision particles seem to fly in the same direction which indicates an internal structure or consciousness, which, I would claim, is a Unified Field of love and connectedness whose principle property is the universal urge to unite: Allen L Roland
His very first interview from prison.
The post-war baby boom generation “has done pretty well for itself” and should be prepared to use its property wealth to pay for care in old age, a government adviser has said.
Tim Ross Telegraph
Lord Warner, who is drafting plans to reform the elderly care system, said it would be unfair to expect the working population to foot the bill for looking after their parents’ ageing generation...
AFP WASHINGTON (AFP) - Construction of new homes in the United States grew by nearly 15 percent last month, but remained near levels seen since the sub-prime mortgage meltdown, official data showed Wednesday...
Could the tiny Persian Gulf island state of Bahrain be the next U.S. diplomatic domino to fall in a rapidly changing Middle East?
As riot police in Bahrain attacked hundreds of pro-democracy demonstrators Monday with tear gas, rubber bullets and concussion grenades, U.S. strategic interests in the Gulf appeared poised to receive yet another battering from the revolutionary wave that is sweeping the Arab world.
Just days after the resignation of Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, stripped Washington of its strongest diplomatic partner in the region, pro-democracy demonstrations in Bahrain threaten one of its most crucial military outposts in the centre of an arc of instability that now stretches from North Africa through the Middle East to South Asia.
We have always supported the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction Movement (BDS), especially the right of Israelis to be a part of that movement. As of yesterday, that aspect was rendered illegal by the Knesset. We will continue to support the Boycott despite the new legislation, rendering us illegal as well. Some laws are just made to be boycotted…. this is definitely one of them ;)
Donald Rumsfeld Opens Up About Mistakes in Iraq
Former Secretary of Defense Says "We All Were Responsible" for What Went Wrong With War
I remembered the 'scuttlebutt' during the Iraq war and Afghanistan recounting her interesting habit of attempting to break the monotony over there by 'boinking' several soldiers and other contract employees sometimes in the back of pickup trucks and hummers. This practice was widely known by those who could get her anything she was in need of. (transportation to the front, permission to travel to certain destinations, information she could use, etc.) That's why I said I bet its Lara Logan. It just didn't smell right. (No pun intended) but back to the story.
So let's start out with the term most journalist and editors use until the facts are proven. The Term is 'allegedly' .
"Tonight, two Iranian warships are meant to pass through the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean Sea and reach Syria, something that has not happened in many years," Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said in a Jerusalem speech distributed by his office.
"To my regret, the international community is not showing readiness to deal with the recurring Iranian provocations. The international community must understand that Israel cannot forever ignore these provocations."
Traders are buying CHF on news via the Israeli foreign minister that two Iranian warships are moving through the Suez Canal on their way to Syria. The minister hinted at an Israeli response, according to a Reuters headline.
Israeli's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman says that "Israel cannot ignore these provocations," according to ynetnews.com. Lieberman added that the warships was "a provocation that proves Iran's nerve and self-esteem is growing from day to day."
Human rights groups in Israel will now face scrutiny following the formation of a government-approved parliamentary committee to investigate Israeli organizations which criticize Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Thus, instead of tackling legitimate human rights concerns, Israel seeks to delegitimize those leveling the charges, despite the masses of evidence to support their claims.
Israel is also promoting and consolidating the Zionist narrative in the UK, using intimidation and guilt against those challenging Israel's occupation, human rights abuses and its expansionist aspirations.
Denise Rednour, from Long Beach, Mississippi, has been suffering symptoms of toxic chemical exposure for months.
Across town from convention, police clash with protesters.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Three U.S. marshals were shot while trying to serve a warrant in Elkins this morning. The man who shot them was then killed by law enforcement, according to sources close to the investigation. The marshals and State Police troopers were at the home of Charles Smith at about 8:30 a.m. to serve a warrant on him for failing to appear in court on possession of drugs and firearms charges, according to sources.
When I called Samer Muscati, a Human Rights Watch investigator, in Baghdad on the final day of his fact-finding trip, he was exhausted. Muscati, who is Canadian-born of Iraqi parents, denounced the continued existence of "black site" detention centers where he said torture and sexual brutalization are regular practice and called Camp Justice "a new franchise" for Maliki's elite forces. "We're seeing a pattern of abuse. It shows these forces are working in unison to control different prisons."
Detainees from Camp Honor, the Green Zone prison from which the 280 Camp Justice detainees were transferred, said in interviews this winter with Human Rights Watch that the brutalities had gone unchecked.
Last month, The New York Times ran a story about Stuxnet having been developed by the Americans and the Israelis as a part of a joint project, but it was based on claims by confidential sources. It now seems that the information from these sources was correct.
It is certainly possible that we are entering a period when the already observed rise in real interest rates can derail the stock market rally that has been in force since early March 2009. Later on, however, a slowdown in the economy coupled with fiscal compressions can be expected to push long-term rates down again. Such a roller-coaster path for interest rates is not very helpful.
Optimism is in short supply among U.S. homebuilders, a sign that the depressed housing market will slow the economy's gains this year.
The outlook by builders hasn't improved since the fall, when new-home sales were in the midst of their bleakest year in a half-century.
Less home building means fewer jobs for the economy. Construction work now accounts for about 5 percent of the nation's private employment. But nearly 2 million of the roughly 14 million unemployed Americans previously worked in construction.
Health authorities are pushing for drugs to be added to public water supplies that cause depression and memory loss, as a new study shows that the dangers of statins have been deliberately underplayed by drug companies, in a chilling throwback to how the population in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World were mass medicated with Soma to keep them docile and easy to control.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has expressed support for protesters in Iran, saying they "deserve the same rights as they saw being played out in Egypt".
We’ve been keeping tabs on J&J’s string of recalls, which cost it about $900 million in sales last year. Here’s a running list:
Russia will send new air defense systems, possibly including S-400 rockets, to islands at the center of a territorial dispute with Japan, RIA-Novosti reported Tuesday, citing a General Staff source.
Russia, which occupied the four islands off Japan at the end of World War II, has pressed its claim to the territory with plans to boost investment and its military presence.
The Russian-made S-400 can intercept and destroy airborne targets at a distance of up to 400 kilometers, meaning that they could hit aircraft, cruise missiles or ballistic missiles over Japan, RIA-Novosti said.
Turkey will insist on an apology from Israel for its bloody raid on a Gaza-bound Turkish aid ship as a condition for mending ties, regardless of the findings of a United Nations investigation, a Turkish diplomatic official said.
"We expect the UN investigation to be balanced so we won't get what we want and Israel won't get what it wants, but apology and compensation are a red line for us," the official told a group of reporters in Ankara on condition of anonymity.
Hall’s amendment is among several House GOP efforts to block the Obama administration’s climate change efforts. The underlying spending bill would prohibit funding for EPA’s climate regulations, while several proposed amendments also address global warming.
For instance, Rep. Steve Pearce (R-N.M.) has floated an amendment that would prohibit any federal funding for the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which studies climate science but has come under attack from skeptics.
The Jerusalem municipality plans to construct an Israel Defense Forces army base that will house military colleges on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem, reportedly beyond the pre-1967 war green line. Both the municipality as well as the Ministry of Defense dispute this claim, stating that the base will be built within the green line, however, Haaretz has revealed otherwise and according to the plans created by the architectural firm hired by the municipality, the base will encroach upon disputed territory.
Family members and friends will converge on Oklahoma City for a farewell ceremony for more than 3,200 Oklahoma National Guard members headed for Afghanistan.
Jerusalem - Israel would be prepared to take more risks for peace if the threat from a nuclear Iran was dealt with first, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Tuesday.
'The main problem at present, in the Middle East, in the world, is the problem of Iran,' he said as he met visiting EU Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton in Jerusalem.
First try solve the Iranian problem, then our readiness to take risks and solve the Palestinian problem will be higher,' he said.
Yesterday, thousands called their state AG's as part of a national day of action to demand that AG's do something about rampant fraud in the mortgage system, including fraud involved with the Obama administration's HAMP program. (Some critics contend that HAMP was a failure, by design, meant only to prop up real estate prices and provide another subsidy to the banks.)
Dylan cuts to the core issue of the fraud: the securitization of mortgages, known to be fraudulent, which were then sold on to pension funds and retail investors.
Since the 1979 Iranian revolution and the downfall of the US Puppet Ruler the Shah, Iran has been an Islamic state. In that interval of time, 1979 to the present, Iran has not invaded anyone. Not once. People of all religions live in peace in Iran, even Jews, who find life so comfortable in Iran they refused an offer by the government of Israel to emigrate!
Optional Banner: WRH Exclusive
U.S. Senator John Kerry, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and member of President Barack Obama's Democratic Party, was to meet Pakistani officials on Wednesday to try to resolve the crisis. He told a news conference in Lahore the United States Department of Justice would launch a criminal investigation and that Washington was deeply sorry about the deaths and that its position on the Davis case was not an expression of "any kind of arrogance on our part."
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak says Israeli armed forces may cross into the southern Lebanese territory again and engage in a military confrontation with Hezbollah resistance fighters.
Less than half of the United States' porous southwest border with Mexico is under the operational control of the U.S. Border Patrol, a government watchdog reported on Tuesday.
The study by the Government Accountability Office said that the Border Patrol had achieved "varying levels of operational control" over just 873 miles, or 44 percent, of the nearly 2,000-mile border by the end of last year
The Obama administration recently announced its $3.73 trillion dollar budget plan for the 2012 fiscal year beginning on October 1. The new budget includes a more than $44 billion allocation for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to purchase 275 more naked body scanners to be installed at U.S. airports, despite continued outcry from health experts and the public about the machines' safety hazards, threats to personal privacy, and complete ineffectiveness.
Christopher Leonard AP/Yahoo
ST. LOUIS – Global food prices have hit "dangerous levels" that could contribute to political instability, push millions of people into poverty and raise the cost of groceries, according to a new report from the World Bank...
In a shocking act of mass public deception, Fox News attempted to skew Ron Paul’s 2011 CPAC straw poll win by representing it with footage from the previous year’s CPAC event, at which Mitt Romney supporters had loudly booed the result, another example of the continuing dirty tricks campaign being waged against Paul by the establishment media.
The CIA and Pentagon used "enhanced interrogation techniques"(EIT) on Middle East prisoners knowing they were illegal and considered to be torture by the United Nations, according to an article published in the January issue of the American magazine "Science."
Video - Gore Vidal Narrates - The Decline and Fall of the American Empire
"Our only political party has two right wings, one called Republican, the other Democratic. But Henry Adams figured all that out back in the 1890s. 'We have a single system,' he wrote, and 'in that system the only question is the price at which the proletariat is to be bought and sold, the bread and circuses."
Running time is 2 minutes...
President Barack Obama's budget proposal that would cut $100 billion from Pell Grants and other higher education programs has some local university administrators concerned about how students will pay for their tuition.
The threat of cyber warfare is greatly exaggerated, according to a leading security expert.
Bruce Schneier claims that emotive rhetoric around the term does not match the reality.
He warned that using sensational phrases such as "cyber armageddon" only inflames the situation.
Borders Group Inc., the number-two U.S. bookstore chain, filed for bankruptcy in New York today after management changes, job cuts and debt restructuring failed to make up for sagging book sales in the face of competition from Amazon.com Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
Borders will shut about 30 percent of “underperforming” stores and restructure with $505 million in so-called debtor-in- possession financing from lenders led by GE Capital, according to a statement. The 40-year-old chain listed debt of $1.29 billion and assets of $1.28 billion as of Christmas 2010 in its Chapter 11 petition filed today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. The company plans to restructure and continue to operate.
A leading human rights group said on Tuesday that some people were being held by the armed forces.
"There are hundreds of detained, but information on their numbers is still not complete ... The army was holding detainees," AFP quoted Gamal Eid, a lawyer who heads the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, as saying.
The group says it was still receiving "information relating to the disappearances of many youths and citizens."
Eid urged the military to publish a list of detainees' names and to guarantee their rights.
Reports say at least 500 people were arrested in the recent popular protests that toppled the ruling regime. But an estimated 17,000 political prisoners were already locked up in Egyptian prisons, which are notorious for the use of torture.
This is a really misleading article: A Pakistani official says that a U.S. consulate employee held for the murder of two men is shielded by diplomatic immunity, according to Reuters. Pakistan's former foreign minister said Wednesday that legal advisers told him Davis did not qualify for blanket diplomatic immunity.
American supporters of Israel were delighted to learn that an Israeli company, Magal Security Systems-owned in part by the government of Israel-is in charge of security for the most sensitive nuclear power and weapons storage facilities in the United States.
The largest perimeter security company in the world, Magal started out as a division of Israeli Aircraft Industries (IAI)-which was owned in part by the government of Israel. In recent years, however, Magal evolved into a publicly-traded company, although IAI (and thus the government of Israel) still holds a substantial share in the highly successful firm.
What all of this means is that the government of Israel will actually have control over the security of America's nuclear weapons.
AFP SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Overblown talk of full-on cyber war between nations fueled by recent attacks like the computer worm Stuxnet could hamper Internet security efforts, officials and experts warned Tuesday...
Giordano Bruno Neithercorp Press
This may be a highly distasteful proposition, but just for a moment, I want you to sit back, and imagine that you are a member of the corporate banking elite.
At least one person has been killed in clashes between security forces and protesters, after around 2,000 people attacked government offices in a southern Iraqi province in protest over poor services. Protesters took over a provincial council building in Kut, Wasit province, about 160km southeast of Baghdad on Wednesday, officials said, throwing rocks at the headquarters and setting the governor's house alight.
One person was shot dead after private security guards fired into the crowd, the AFP news agency reported, while Reuters put the death toll at three and said up to 30 had been wounded.
"We have received one dead body and are treating 27 wounded," Majid Mohammed Hassan from Kut hospital's administrative unit, told the agency.
MP3 audio: Wine, women, and song hooked John into a life he came to regret. Corruption, coups and assassinations finally compelled him to blow the whistle on the rapacious way global geopolitics serve the interests of the empire’s big corporations, leaving people and nations in conflict and debt. Going public with the complete ugly story is John’s only life insurance policy, so that he doesn’t end up taken out by the jackals, like some Central American friends of his.
I would like to see Ron Paul elected President, but not because I see him as a political messiah. I would like to see him elected because, in order to get elected, he would have to represent a majority of Americans. He does not represent a majority of Americans. He will not be elected. The voters want more of the same. They will get it.
The Conservative Political Action Conference, also known as CPAC, is an annual convention. Conservative politicians who are thinking of running for the Republican party's presidential candidate show up to rally the conservative troops. Some of them don't show up, knowing they have no chance at winning the straw poll. Sara Palin is one of these annual no-shows. They can then blame their poor showing on the fact that they did not show up.
AFP WASHINGTON (AFP) - Amid anti-government protests in Iran, a group of US lawmakers said late Tuesday they would introduce legislation aimed at tightening economic sanctions on the Islamic republic...
Should the Constitution protect American Muslims? This question was posed by Lt. General William Boykin in an article published recently in which he attacked Islam, saying Sharia provides “no individual freedoms while virtually enslaving those who live under its authority.”
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