Corruption among U.S. border and customs agents. Train Gate, U.S.-Mexico Border Tijuana.

The drug cartels in Mexico have used cash and sexual “favors” as ways to bribe U.S. border and customs agents, an inspector general investigation has found.

The corrupted agents allow/protect/escort contraband (allegedly drugs), traffickers or illegal immigrants through inspection lanes, and other crossing points. The bribed agents also -allegedly- leak sensitive information, said Charles Edwards, acting inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security.

Testifying before a Senate subcommittee, Edwards cited the Zetas drug cartel as one of the leaders “involved increasingly in systematic corruption” of U.S. agents. READ MORE HERE.

Irans-President-Mahmoud-Ahmadinejad-meets-Venezuelas-President-Hugo-Chavez-in-Tehran.

U.S. President Barack Obama hit Venezuela and its state-oil company PDVSA with sanctions for sending Iran two tankers of oil in defiance of U.S. sanctions against Iran.

There is a risk of escalation of the conflict between U.S. and Chavez.

If Chavez decides to keep sending the occasional oil tanker to Iran, or PDVSA carries out a plan to invest in an Iranian natural gas project, Obama could come under pressure to take substantive action, possibly excluding PDVSA from the U.S. financial system which would affect debt, or in the worst-case scenario, limiting imports from Venezuela.

Meanwhile, Chavez is due to reveal what action, if any, Venezuela will take in retaliation possibly…READ MORE HERE

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez – according to Die Welt and “World Online”-  has with Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad on 19 October 2010 closed a secret agreement on strategic cooperation, which provides for the construction of an Iranian-Venezuelan military base on Venezuelan soil.

The missile base will be placed in Peninsula de Paraguana, Venezuela, near the colombian border. The missiles could reach the U.S.(Credit Infographic die Welt Online)

Part of this agreement was the development of a medium-range missile base. This missile system is beginning to take concrete form, such as “World Online ” and the german newspaper Die welt is now informing.

Both countries have now agreed on a location of the base and have entered the planning phase.

The missile base is to be built on the Peninsula de Paraguaná, about 120 kilometers from the Colombian border. A small group of leading engineers from the  construction company Khatam al-Anbia (owned by the Iranian Revolutionary Huard) has visited the site already.

The secret visit took place in early February, and the leader of the iranian delegation was the commander of the Air Force of the Revolutionary Guards, Amir al-Hadschisadeh. He approved the site, together with the Venezuelan partners.

The Iranians will develop an infrastructure to protect the missile base against air strikes. Also planned is the establishment of a command and control station, the construction of residential areas, watchtowers and bunkers, in which warheads, rocket fuel and other things can be stored. Along with their Venezuelan partnersthey planned to build about 20 meters deep missile silos.

Iranian experts deliver plans for joint missile base

Such missile silos are not easy to design. they must take into consideration the rocket exhaust and the fuel supply.

In addition to precautionary measures against possible air attacks. The designs for the missile tubes will be developed according to experts from the chemical plant department of the Sharif University, Tehran.

By request of the building contractor Khatam al-Anbia, the iranian scientists already made ​​proposals on how the plant could be constructed to allow such discharges of toxic gases. These are special precautions needed for keeping the location of the facility in secret, such us no fireplaces or large ventilation shafts to be built.

According to information of “World Online”, the Iranian delegation had during their visit to Venezuela enough cash in their luggage to cover for the initial funding for the project. Western security circles informed that the funds origin is iranian oil money.

According to the secret agreement between the two countries venezuela assured Iran that they will attack Iran´s enemies from the joint missile base. Iran is trying to so build a strategic threat to the U.S. , similar to the Soviet Union was doing in the early 60′s in Cuba.

The base and the common medium-range missile that will be developed with Iranian know-how, it will allow Venezuela on the other hand, to threaten neighbors like Colombia.

Unit 8200 (the SIGINT unit of the Israeli Intelligence Corps) base on Mount Avital, Golan Heights

The Army has a project of $ 1,3 billion dollars in order to equip the brazilian military with better intelligence systems and preventing and combating terrorism in the country. The aim is to ensure that the military be prepared to act in the safety of World Cup 2014 and 2016 Olympics, to be held in Brazil.

The plan, called “Strong Arm Brigade”,  estimates that the acquisition of new equipment is needed because “currently, the rate of obsolescence of communications (Army) exceeds 92%, ” and that has “affected the capacity for coordination and control even simple use of troops for emergencies. ”

According to General Antonio Santos Guerra Neto, commander of the Electronic Warfare Center of the Army, the plan wants to let the military “be able to contribute to public safety with information and deterrence” and should be finalized and presented to President Rousseff in 2012.

“The security at the World Cup is shared with the police and the Army will have its share, mainly to ensure the logistics of the event and the rapid dissemination of data on suspected or potential targets with the Federal Police and other law enforcement agencies. We will have games in 12 brazilian cities, teams around the world are here and there will be heads of state, so we need to assute protection to all of them. As the army is present throughout the country, we can help a lot, “said the general.

“We’re still at the stage of seeking the needs and contacting companies to acquire the equipment and technology needed. Large companies such as Odebrecht, Embraer Defense,  Avibrás and Camargo Correa has expressed interest in participating, “said the official.

The Ministry of Defense MoD said it is unaware of the Army project and that will be discussed further in the future as will the involvement of the military with the games. According to the folder, the planning of the Cup is currently being administered by the Ministry of Justice.

Attack prevention

Among the points contained in the plan are to monitor the country’s airspace and investments in anti-aircraft artillery (with the purchase of new weapons and radars, capable of shooting down misiles or planes), signals intel equipment to track suspects by radio and telephone and also purchase equipment for detection and destruction of nuclear bombs, as well as chemical and/or bacteriological.

“We also want to buy non-lethal weapons so the troops can be prepared to act in controlling civil disturbances (as protests). Not to give combat power, but for prevention and cooperation. “says Santos Guerra.

The bill also provides for an increased number of troops in some cities, particularly Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, “where the number should double, “said the general.

There will also purchase equipment for civil defense actions and disasters that may eventually occur in the country, such as floods and droughts. “Increasingly, we are called to act in these moments of tragedy, “added the commander.

The “Strong Arm Brigade” is still in the first round of preparation, in which a company was hired to advise the Army to prepare a basic design to define what are the technologies, weapons and equipment that should be acquired. Then there the Army will be in contact with companies interested in sales, budget approval by the government and the opening of bids or contracts.

Also, investments will be made in police from all states and trainings abroad. Since early 2011, Minister José Eduardo Cardoso is visiting governors and mayors of the capitals of the country seeking to improve the exchange of information among public safety agencies.

An Iron Dome unit near Ashkelon. Part of the funding for the batteries $205 million is supposed to come from the United States but this is far from enough.

An israeli army  missile defense batteries system called Iron Dome -placed in the south of Israel -  successfully intercepted nine Grad, Katiushka and Kassam missiles from Gaza over the weekend. “This is a historic achievement and the first time in the world that a short-range rocket was shot down in this way,” one defense official said.

However, the system is under development and it is difficult to say if the batteries could intercept a saturation missile  bombing like the more than 120 rockets that were fired on Israel’s southern cities and villages surrounding the Gaza Strip over the weekend.

The Israeli Army said it planned to keep the Iron Dome in its current positions but would move the batteries to other cities within range of  Hamas rocket fire over the coming weeks. Israel plans to increase the number of operational batteries to six.

The Defense Ministry recently completed negotiations with Iron Dome manufacturer Rafael Advanced Defense Systems about the upcoming deal.

This is the first time Israel’s air defense has coped with the challenge of high-trajectory weapons. The doctrine of active defense did not become a reality easily – for years, defense officials debated fiercely whether such a system was even necessary. Senior officers in the Israel Defense Forces, including in the air force, argued that this was an inappropriate deviation from the traditional emphasis on attack.

The Second Lebanon War and its unfortunate ramifications led then-Defense Minister Amir Peretz to order the development of technology that would counter short-range high-trajectory weapons. His successor, Ehud Barak, later contributed to the project the idea of layers – prompting the development of the Arrow system for long-range rockets, Magic Wand for the middle range and Iron Dome for the short range.

However, the new system is expensive due to a rising demand in many cities and small towns around the israeli borders. The U.S. already will partially finance this development with a military assistance of $205 million.

While the actual operational costs of Iron Dome remain classified, numbers released suggest each interception costs about $40,000. According to that math, the weekend’s eight successful interception cost the IDF some $320,000. Such costs are relatively low for a missile defense system, but is still significantly high compared to the costs of Qassam and Grad rockets, which range from a few hundred dollars, to a few thousand dollars.

In this sense the isreali military said that the “Iron Dome” will eventually pay for itself. The military hope that the new anti missile system will propel future sales and export to friendly countriees like Singapor, balancing the operational costs of having it in Israel.

About Rafael.-

• In the sea and on the shore arena
• In land and urban arenas
• Airborne/Space reconnaissance and support

Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, is pictured in his arrest record photo on Friday in Portland Oregon. Credit to Getty Images.

PORTLAND, Ore. — A Somali-born teenager who thought he was detonating a car bomb at a packed Christmas tree-lighting ceremony downtown here was arrested by the authorities on Friday night after federal agents said that they had spent nearly six months setting up a sting operation.

The bomb, which was in a van parked off Pioneer Courthouse Square, was a fake — planted by F.B.I. agents as part of the elaborate sting — but “the threat was very real,” Arthur Balizan, the F.B.I.’s special agent in charge in Oregon, said in a statement released by the Department of Justice. An estimated 10,000 people were at the ceremony on Friday night, the Portland police said.

Mr. Balizan identified the suspect as Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, a naturalized United States citizen. He graduated from Westview High School in Beaverton, Ore., a Portland suburb, and had been taking classes at Oregon State in Corvallis until Oct. 6, the university said Saturday.

Mr. Mohamud was charged with trying to use a weapon of mass destruction. “Our investigation shows that Mohamud was absolutely committed to carrying out an attack on a very grand scale,” Mr. Balizan said.

“At the same time, I want to reassure the people of this community that, at every turn, we denied him the ability to actually carry out the attack,” he added.

The terrorism attempt was the latest is a string of plots since last year involving Americans or immigrants who had become radicalized, often through exposure to extremist Web sites. In May, a Pakistani-born American was arrested in the plotting of a car bomb attack in Times Square, and later pleaded guilty.

But in contrast to that plan, which the authorities learned about only at the last minute, the F.B.I. had been…READ MORE HERE.

(FILES) An FBI file handout image received on May 26, 2004 shows Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, an Al-Qaeda suspect from Tanzania. The New York judge in the first civilian trial for a former prisoner from Guantanamo Bay on November 17, 2010 answered jurors' request for guidance on a key legal definition.The jury had requested help on Tuesday as they grappled with four weeks' worth of testimony in the terrorism trial of Ahmed Ghailani, a 36-year-old Tanzanian man accused of participating in the 1998 bombings of two US embassies in Africa. AFP PHOTO/FILES/FBI/HO ++RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS++ (Photo credit should read HO/AFP/Getty Images)

What was a very bad day for Ahmed Ghailani, now a convicted felon likely to spend many years in a supermax prison, was also, because of the super-charged politics surrounding Guantanamo Bay, a pretty bad day for the Obama administration.

To be sure, the 36-year-old Tanzanian was convicted Wednesday of one count of conspiracy in federal court in New York. In addition, Ghailani could well serve life in prison for his role in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa by al-Qaeda. And it’s at least debatable whether the outcome would have been different in a military commission in Guantanamo, Cuba.

But the political reality is that the prospect of a tough sentence for conspiracy to destroy U.S. property by fire or explosives was largely swallowed up by a stunning verdict in which Ghailani was acquitted of 284 counts, including all 224 murder counts.

Across the administration, from the White House to the Justice Department, and among some human rights advocates, there was private dismay that…READ MORE HERE

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From my seat in the second row early Wednesday evening, I glanced at some of the plainclothes U.S. Marshals guarding the scene. Would this al Qaeda operative be allowed to leave?

My illusion vanished after the judge’s clerk prompted the foreman to deliver the verdict for the fourth count: conspiracy to destroy American property.

“Guilty,” the foreman said. It was the last time we would hear that word.

Ghailani did not walk out of the courtroom, and the Obama Administration did not face the awkward prospect of continuing to detain Ghailani as a so-called “enemy combatant” in the war on terror.

There are two ways to look at the verdict, which has reignited a debate over civilian trials versus military commissions for terrorism suspects.

On the one hand, the conviction guarantees a READ MORE HERE

DoD" s Frank Mora

Venezuela and Bolivia, which recently announced that they will build nuclear power plants using russian assistance, will not achieve the capacity to produce nuclear weapons, said today the U.S. DoD Defense Undersecretary for Latin America, Frank Mora.

“I do not think they have the intention (Bolivia and Venezuela) to acquire the capability to produce nuclear weapons,” Mora said during a debate on security in the region , held at a university in Washington.

“No,” Mora said the question of whether it considered a threat to U.S. security the announcements of Caracas and La Paz that will install nuclear power plants.

“In this region all countries have been very clear about the rules, treaties, that this is a region without nuclear capability to produce nuclear weapons, is well institutionalized, there are very specific rules,” said Mora.

As noted by President Barack Obama, every country in the region “has the sovereign right to create alternative energy, but also must abide by international treaties” that establish very clearly what is the procedure for monitoring the security ” of the  plant, he said.

Both Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Bolivia’s Evo Morales stated that their nuclear plants, which agreed to build with Russia and Iran, respectively, will be used only for peaceful purposes.

Mora agreed with that assessment.

Leo Mascheroni and his wife Marjorie pose in their Los Alamos home Photo: AP

Pedro Leonardo Mascheroni, 75, is said to have claimed that he could help Venezuela achieve a nuclear bomb within 10 years.

As we know, President Obama’s released last May his National Security Strategy. He then stated that the American people “face no greater threat or more urgent danger than a terrorist attack with a nuclear weapon. And international peace and security is threatened by proliferation that could lead to a nuclear exchange.”

Amid continuing concerns over the threat of terrorists attempting to deploy weapons of mass destruction in random attacks the U.S. Domestic Nuclear Detection Office took further steps Tuesday to advance research into WMD detection.

Scientists’ teams that develop new technologies will be in the forefront of the effort funded by DNDO planners at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. All new contracts announced Tuesday focus on detecting shielded nuclear materials.

OSI Systems, Inc., a vertically integrated provider of specialized electronics for critical applications in the security and healthcare industries, said the new contacts were part of the Multiple Exploratory Research Program run by the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office.

Rapiscan Systems, OSI’s security division, is the direct beneficiary of the contracts. The work involves transformational research and development initiatives.

The company said DNDO wants “to enlist thought leaders to advance the country’s nuclear materials detection capabilities.”

With its team of scientists and engineers, Rapiscan has secured contracts that are incrementally funded for a total obligated value of $2 million with additional options for a total value of up to $12 million.

While all the contracts are specific about finding new ways of detecting shielded nuclear material, the company has been charged with developing a liquefied noble gas detector in collaboration with Yale University, a threshold activation detector, a human portable system and an aircraft inspection solution.

Rapiscan Systems President Ajay Mehra said the contracts were designed to enhance detection capabilities throughout the U.S. security networks. READ MORE HERE