According to the summary, the bill sets out a comprehensive policy for the detention, interrogation and trial of suspected enemy belligerents who are believed to have engaged in hostilities against the United States by requiring these individuals to be held in military custody, interrogated for their intelligence value and not provided with a Miranda warning.

(There is no distinction between U.S. persons–visa holders or citizens–and non-U.S. persons.)

It would require these “belligerents” to be coded as “high-value detainee[s]” to be held in military custody and interrogated for their intelligence value by a High-Value Detainee Interrogation Team established by the president. (The H.I.G., of course, was established to bring a sophisticated interrogation capacity to the federal justice system.)

Any suspected unprivileged enemy belligerents considered a “high-value detainee” shall not be provided with a Miranda warning.

The bill asks the President to determine criteria for designating an individual as a “high-value detainee” if he/she: (1) poses a threat of an attack on civilians or civilian facilities within the U.S. or U.S. facilities abroad; (2) poses a threat to U.S. military personnel or U.S. military facilities; (3) potential intelligence value; (4) is a member of al Qaeda or a terrorist group affiliated with al Qaeda or (5) such other matters as the President considers appropriate. The President must submit the regulations and guidance to the appropriate committees of Congress no later than 60 days after enactment.

To the extent possible, the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Team must make a preliminary determination whether the detainee is an unprivileged enemy belligerent within 48 hours of taking detainee into custody.

The High-Value Detainee Interrogation Team must submit its determination to the Secretary of Defense and the Attorney General after consultation with the Director of National Intelligence, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. The Secretary of Defense and the Attorney General make a final determination and report the determination to the President and the appropriate committees of Congress. In the case of any disagreement between the Secretary of Defense and the Attorney General, the President will make the determination.

Note that the president himself doesn’t get to make the call.

Read Full Article Here: cryptogon.com » The Enemy Belligerent, Interrogation, Detention, and Prosecution Act of 2010.

The farm manager shows us millions of tomatoes, peppers and other vegetables being grown in 500m rows in computer controlled conditions. Spanish engineers are building the steel structure, Dutch technology minimises water use from two bore-holes and 1,000 women pick and pack 50 tonnes of food a day. Within 24 hours, it has been driven 200 miles to Addis Ababa and flown 1,000 miles to the shops and restaurants of Dubai, Jeddah and elsewhere in the Middle East.

Ethiopia is one of the hungriest countries in the world with more than 13 million people needing food aid, but paradoxically the government is offering at least 3m hectares of its most fertile land to rich countries and some of the world’s most wealthy individuals to export food for their own populations.

The 1,000 hectares of land which contain the Awassa greenhouses are leased for 99 years to a Saudi billionaire businessman, Ethiopian-born Sheikh Mohammed al-Amoudi, one of the 50 richest men in the world. His Saudi Star company plans to spend up to $2bn acquiring and developing 500,000 hectares of land in Ethiopia in the next few years. So far, it has bought four farms and is already growing wheat, rice, vegetables and flowers for the Saudi market. It expects eventually to employ more than 10,000 people.

But Ethiopia is only one of 20 or more African countries where land is being bought or leased for intensive agriculture on an immense scale in what may be the greatest change of ownership since the colonial era.

An Observer investigation estimates that up to 50m hectares of land – an area more than double the size of the UK – has been acquired in the last few years or is in the process of being negotiated by governments and wealthy investors working with state subsidies. The data used was collected by Grain, the International Institute for Environment and Development, the International Land Coalition, ActionAid and other non-governmental groups.

The land rush, which is still accelerating, has been triggered by the worldwide food shortages which followed the sharp oil price rises in 2008, growing water shortages and the European Union’s insistence that 10% of all transport fuel must come from plant-based biofuels by 2015.

In many areas the deals have led to evictions, civil unrest and complaints of “land grabbing”.

Read Full Article Here: How food and water are driving a 21st-century African land grab | Environment | The Observer.

“I will vote no simply because I disagree very strongly with us… having to shoulder this burden” from the 2008 collapse of the online Icesave bank, Ingimar Gudmundsson, a 57-year-old truck driver, told AFP.

The issue is whether Iceland should honour an agreement to repay Britain and the Netherlands 3.9 billion euros (5.3 billion dollars).

This would be to compensate them for money they paid to 340,000 of their citizens hit by the collapse of Icesave in 2008. Events leading to Iceland bank payout referendum

Observers say an Icelandic refusal to repay the money could block the remaining half of a 2.1-billion dollar International Monetary Fund rescue package, as well as its European Union and euro currency membership talks.

It could also push Iceland’s credit rating over the cliff and destabilise the leftwing government, which negotiated the agreement in the first place.

According to the latest opinion poll, three quarters of voters will reject the agreement, which was passed by parliament in late December.

It went to a referendum after President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson refused to sign it into law because of public opposition.

Hundreds of people came out to demonstrate in front of parliament Saturday, demanding the government do more to improve conditions in Iceland, which has seen a hike in unemployment and home repossessions since its once-booming economy crumbled in October 2008.

Banging on pots and pans, the protesters brandished banners exclaiming “Icesave, no, no, no!” and calling for an end to the Icelandic government’s “financial casino”.

According to Magnus Arni Skulason, a founder of the Indefence movement opposed to the deal, the agreement being voted on was “obtained through coercion, with threats from both the British and the Dutch against Iceland”.

Echoing the frustration felt by many Icelanders, he told AFP that the demanded 5.5-percent interest rate was particularly unacceptable.

“You’re basically sending the bill to tax payers for the failure of a private bank,” he said.

Spessi, a 54-year-old photographer, said he was infuriated that he and other tax payers were being asked to foot the Icesave bill.

“I’ve lost my house and it’s still up to me to pay for this!” he told AFP as he left a voting booth in the Reykjavik city hall.

And for many Icelanders, handing what they consider an exorbitant price to London is especially infuriating.

Many here are still fuming over the so-called “cod wars” with London in the 1970s over fishing rights, and over Britain’s decision in 2008 to use an anti-terrorism law to freeze British savers’ assets in the stricken Icelandic bank Landsbanki.

“I’m not against paying people their money back, but I’m against (British Prime Minister) Gordon Brown getting his money back,” Thorstenn Pall Leifsson, a 43-year-old unemployed construction worker, told AFP.

“This (Icesave deal) is so excessive. I don’t want us to pay more than what we’re legally obliged to pay,” he added.

Despite the strong emotions surrounding the issue, the all-but guaranteed outcome of Saturday’s referendum meant voter turnout would likely be lower than in last year’s general election, when some 85 percent of the country’s 230,000 eligible voters cast a ballot.

At 1500 GMT, only 26 percent of voters had turned out in Reykjavik, compared to 36 percent at the same time in the general elections, according to the electoral commission.

Turnout elsewhere stood at about 30 percent, which was also some 10 percentage points lower than in last year’s election.

Reykjavik had been negotiating with London and The Hague for weeks to avert the vote, but the talks ended Friday without a new agreement on the table.

Iceland’s leaders said they would resume talks after Saturday’s referendum.

Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir insisted Friday that since a better deal was likely the referendum was “meaningless”, saying she saw no reason to go to the ballot box.

President Grimsson however defended his decision to put the issue to a referendum, telling AFP he felt “the referendum already has had a very positive effect. It has moved the British and the Dutch towards a fairer deal”.

The first referendum results were expected to start coming in shortly after polls close at 2200 GMT, with final results later in the night.

Read Full Article Here: Bank payback plan faces failure as Iceland votes – Yahoo! News.

The IMF won’t give the people of Iceland 1 billion dollars in aid unless they repay a PRIVATE banks failure costing 5.3 billion dollars at 5.5 percent interest.  Boy that sure seems like a no brainer to me. I think U.S. bank bailouts need to be approved by the American voters!

The office of Sheriff Larry Deen of Bossier Parish, near Shreveport in the northwest part of the state, last month selected for the program 200 local residents — mostly ex-law-enforcement personnel — and began training them in “defensive techniques in the event of a struggle,” reports the Shreveport Times. The plan calls for the new recruits to be sent to protect food from grocery stores, gas from gas stations, and other crucial local resources, should the situation demand it.

A press release from Deen’s office announcing the program declared that “recent terror threats” had made clear that “homegrown terrorists are in our midst.” It continued: “With the easy accessibility of the internet, it is quite possible that these local and international terrorists can form a national or multiple location attack on our nation at any given moment.”

“The buck stops with Larry Deen,” the sheriff, who didn’t immediately respond to our interview request, told the Times. “I am the chief law enforcement officer in this parish, and it is incumbent upon me protect all of the people in it.”

Read Full Article Here: ‘Operation Exodus’: Louisiana Sheriff Taps Locals For Emergency Security Plan | TPMMuckraker.

Golden Horde?

Read Full Article Here: bison survival blog: sleeping with whores.

These and hundreds of other survivors of Chiles’ devastating earthquake have organized neighborhood watch groups, arming themselves and barricading streets to protect their damaged homes from looters. The groups have stepped in as police were overwhelmed by looting and soldiers were slow to restore order after an earthquake and tsunami.

“We take care of ourselves here,” said 51-year-old Maria Cortes. She stood watch in Poblacion Libertad — “Freedom Community” — a gritty collection of small duplexes along an industrial road in the port town of Talcahuano. About 2,000 people live here around a common area three football fields long.

Read Full Article Here: Chileans arm selves against looters – Chile earthquake- msnbc.com.

No, you shouldn’t feel bad about it, and you shouldn’t feel guilty. The lenders would do the same to you—in a heartbeat. You need to put yourself and your family’s finances first.

How widespread is this? More than 11 million families are in “negative equity”—that is, they owe more on their home than it is worth—according to a report out this week by FirstAmerican Core Logic, a real-estate data firm. That’s a quarter of all families with mortgages. And for more than five million of those borrowers, the crisis is extreme: They are more than 25% underwater—the equivalent of having a $100,000 loan on a property now worth just $75,000 or less. That’s true for a fifth of mortgage holders in California, nearly a third in Florida and an incredible 50% in Nevada.

Are you in this situation? Are you still battling to pay the bills each month, even when it may make little financial sense to do so?

It’s time for some tough talk.

Stop trying to chase your lost equity. That money is gone. Don’t think like the gambler who blows more and more cash trying to win back his losses. That’s how a lot of people turn a small loss into a big one.

And do the math. Even if you hope the real estate market is near the bottom—it’s possible, but by no means certain—it may still take years to see any meaningful recovery. If you are 25% underwater, your home will have to rise by 33% just to get you back to even.

Is that likely? And over what time period? Even if home prices rose by 5% a year from here, that would still take six years. And during that time you could instead be building fresh savings elsewhere.

If you are reluctant to give up on “your” home, realize that it isn’t “yours.” If you are in negative equity, it’s the bank’s home. You’re just renting it. And right now you may be paying way above market rates. You need to be ruthless about your cash flow.

Are you worried about the legal consequences of walking away? Certainly, you should check with a lawyer before doing anything, but the consequences will probably be more limited than you think.

In “non-recourse” states, the mortgage lender may have no right to come after you for any shortfall. They may have no option but to take the home, sell it and eat the loss. According to a survey last year by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, such states include negative-equity hot spots California and Arizona. Even in “recourse” states, lenders may have limited ability to come after you. Often they’d have to jump a lot of legal hurdles, and it’s just not worth it for them. They’re swamped with cases anyway.

“In my experience, right now they’re not really going after anyone,” says Richard Nemeth, a bankruptcy attorney in Cleveland. “They just don’t have the resources.”

If you’ve taken smart steps to protect your money, you may be safer still. For example, money held in a 401(k), Individual Retirement Account or pension plan is sheltered from creditors.

Sure, a strategic foreclosure may hurt your credit score. But if you’re in financial difficulties, it’s probably already suffered. And your credit score is not the only thing in life that matters.

Still, when it comes to the idea of walking away from debts, many people are held back by a sense of morality. They feel it’s wrong to abandon their obligations. They don’t want to be a deadbeat.

Your instincts, while honorable, are leading you astray.

Read Full Article Here: ROI: When It’s OK to Walk Away From Your Home – WSJ.com.

“The timing of the meeting, the way it was undertaken and the ensuing press conference that was held at its conclusion, all point to a strategic coalition being reinforced. This is the build-up of a new front that will spearhead the confrontation with the US-Israeli alliance and whichever Arab countries that may, expressly or implicitly, be affiliated with it.”

The Iranian president said he expects war to break out somewhere between spring and summer of this year. Meanwhile, the Hizbollah chief vowed to strike the Israeli capital, its airports and power stations if Israel dared to attack Beirut’s critical infrastructure.

“Indeed, we are being exposed to a new discourse here, an unprecedented sense of self-confidence and an unheard-of preparedness for retaliation.”

For its part, the Syrian leadership appears to have made up its mind to close off the US administration’s “trite and cheap” flirtation with Damascus and opted for bolstering its tactical partnership with Tehran.

Read Full Article Here: That was a war council in Damascus – The National Newspaper.

“The radical right caught fire last year, as broad-based populist anger at political, demographic and economic changes in America ignited an explosion of new extremist groups and activism across the nation,” says the report written by Mark Potok.

The number of active Patriot groups grew from 149 to 512 during the course of the year, a 244-percent increase, the report states. Militias — which the SPLC describes as “the paramilitary arm of the Patriot movement” — grew from 42 to 127 over the same period, a three-fold increase.

“We are in the midst of one of the most significant right-wing populist rebellions in United States history,” the report quotes Chip Berlet, “a veteran analyst of the American radical right.”

“We see around us a series of overlapping social and political movements populated by people [who are] angry, resentful, and full of anxiety. They are raging against the machinery of the federal bureaucracy and liberal government programs and policies including health care, reform of immigration and labor laws, abortion, and gay marriage.”

Read Full Article Here: Number of US extremist groups ‘exploded’ in 2009: report | Raw Story.

Developed by Bourne Energy of Mailbu, California, the Backpack Power Plant can create clean, quiet power from any stream deeper than 4 feet.

The company showed off its more-rugged, militarized version of the Backpack Power Plant at the Cleantech Forum in San Francisco last week. Bourne Energy CEO Chris Catlin estimates the system will cost $3,000 after it goes into production.

“The BPP-2, which operates silently with no heat or exhaust emissions, is 40 percent less visible during operation and can also be bottom mounted to be totally invisible,” the company maintains.

Off-grid solar cells are also quiet, but they don’t make much power relative to the mini-turbine. For example, one commercially available foldable solar panel measures about 12 square feet and produces 62 watts of peak power. You’d need 60 square feet of panels to get the same peak power as the BPP-2, and the panels would only generate electricity while the sun was shining.

To install the civilian BPP, you would dig two trenches on opposite sides of a river and insert a lightweight anchor into each. Then, you’d run a synthetic rope between the anchors and the BPP. Catlin said his company designed the system to work like the high-tension mooring systems that hold up floating oil rigs.

The military version of the BPP has been designed to work with a variety of flow rates. The civilian version was designed to function best in streams moving at 2.3 meters (7.5 feet) per second.

The civilian market for a $3,000 mini hydro system might not be huge in the industrialized world, but Catlin hopes the plant will find willing customers in developing nations and the military.

“This can bring a cheap, highly portable energy technology to remote areas and remote villages,” Catlin told Wired.com.

Bourne is currently looking for $4 million in venture capital to take the BPP from prototype to production.

Read Full Article Here: Backpack Hydroelectric Plant Gives You 500 Watts on the Move | Wired Science | Wired.com.