Google, CIA support future-predicting startup website Recorded Future scans social networks, blogs, and websites to find relationships, organizations, actions and incident data related to topics like terrorism

By Homeland1 Staff

BOSTON -- A company that searches publicly available data to predict future events has gained support from Google and an investment firm launched by the CIA.

Recorded Future scans Twitter accounts, blogs, and websites to find relationships, organizations, actions and incident data related to topics like terrorism.

The company's software then charts the data over time to find trending events and predict when they might occur in the future.

One video posted on the company's YouTube channel suggests a potential for predicting terrorism trends and counterterrorism analysis.

In-Q-Tel, launched by the CIA in 1999, and Google Ventures both invested an undisclosed amount of less than $10 million into the company soon after it was founded in 2009, according to Wired.

The CIA has previously stated an interest in mining "open source intelligence" that consists of publicly available data embedded among the vast, daily broadcast media including TV, newspapers, blogs, radio and a large portion of social networks.

Recorded Future features a team of computer scientists, statisticians and linguists with experience in realms like intelligence, accord to the company's website.

Bargain Prices for 'Zionist' Clothes in New Gaza Luxury Mall

by Maayana Miskin
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While Hamas continues to complain that Gaza lacks building materials, a luxury mall in Gaza City held its grand opening over the weekend. Among the goods on sale are Israeli men's clothing, and items from Turkey, France, and the United States.

Photojournalist Tom Gross, who publicized photos from Saturday's event on his website, noted that the opening coincided with a visit to Gaza from European Union foreign policy director Catherine Ashton. "The BBC and other media have featured extensive reports all day long on what they term the dire economic situation in Gaza; why are they not mentioning the new shopping mall that opened there yesterday?" Gross asked.

Pictures of the new mall were featured on the Palestinian Authority Safa website and by the Associated Press.

A variety of stores sell cosmetics, clothing, office supplies, toys, shoes, appliances and more. The mall boasts air conditioning and a delivery service.

Hamas has often accused Israel of creating a "siege" by keeping its border crossings to Gaza closed. According to Hamas, Gaza lacks electricity and building supplies.

Gross, who has previously posted pictures of fancy restaurants, shops filled with goods, and even an Olympic-size swimming pool during the "Israeli siege," pointed out that Gaza enjoys a higher standard of living than Turkey, which recently sent citizens on a flotilla to Gaza in violation of an Israeli naval blockade of Hamas. Noting that life expectancy and literacy rates are higher in Gaza than in Turkey, while infant mortality rates are lower, he asked, "Have they considered that perhaps the humanitarian flotillas ought to be going in the other direction, towards Turkey?"

Despite the bargain prices, Israelis are advised that it is forbidden to enter Gaza.

Egyptian Journalist Describes 'Absolute Prosperity' in Gaza

by Maayana Miskin
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With Hamas telling tales of deprivation and suffering in Gaza, Egyptian journalist Ashraf Abu al-Houl has added his report to others who were surprised to discover a "prosperous" Gaza in which prices are low and luxury businesses are booming. Al-Houl's story of his trip to Gaza and his realization that "in actual terms, Gaza is not under siege" was written up in the Egyptian daily Al-Ahram and translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

"A sense of absolute prosperity prevails, as manifested by the grand resorts along and near Gaza's coast. Further, the site of the merchandise and luxuries filling the Gaza shops amazed me," he reported.

Concerned that his initial impression of prosperity may have been misleading, "I toured the new resorts, most of which are quite grand, as well as the commercial markets, to verify my hypothesis. The resorts and markets have come to symbolize prosperity, and to prove that the siege is formal or political, not economic," Al-Houl said.

Gaza's markets are filled with a "plethora of goods," he wrote. Prices on many items, particularly food, are much lower than they are in Egypt, he said. With goods entering Gaza from both smuggling tunnels to Egypt and humanitarian aid shipments coming in via Israeli crossings, "supply is much greater than demand," he stated.

The evident prosperity is not enjoyed by all, or even most, of Gaza's residents, according to Al-Houl. The problem is the vast differences in the distribution of wealth. The luxury resorts and wide range of consumer goods are enjoyed by "only a few groups," he said, primarily those who own smuggling tunnels to Egypt and those who work for international organizations such as the United Nations' UNRWA and who do not include or aid the rest of the population.

Most of the new resorts "are owned by members, or associates, of Hamas," he reported. "In addition, the Hamas municipalities charge high fees, in Gaza terms, for the use of public beaches," he added.

Al-Houl quoted political activist Mustafa Ibrahim as saying that while Gaza's rich invest in the leisure industry, 80% of residents rely on UNRWA, and unemployment is approximately 45%. "This creates a distorted picture," Ibrahim explained.

For at least a year, the Homeland Security Department detoured hundreds of requests for federal records to senior political advisers for highly unusual scrutiny, probing for information about the requesters and delaying disclosures deemed too politically sensitive, according to nearly 1,000 pages of internal e-mails obtained by The Associated Press.

The department abandoned the practice after AP investigated. Inspectors from the department's Office of Inspector General quietly conducted interviews last week to determine whether political advisers acted improperly.

The Freedom of Information Act, the main tool forcing the government to be more open, is designed to be insulated from political considerations. Anyone who seeks information through the law is supposed to get it unless disclosure would hurt national security, violate personal privacy or expose confidential decision-making in certain areas.

But in July 2009, Homeland Security introduced a directive requiring a wide range of information to be vetted by political appointees for "awareness purposes," no matter who requested it. The government on Wednesday estimated fewer than 500 requests underwent such political scrutiny; the Homeland Security Department received about 103,000 total requests for information last fiscal year.

Career employees were ordered to provide Secretary Janet Napolitano's political staff with information about the people who asked for records -- such as where they lived, whether they were private citizens or reporters -- and about the organizations where they worked.

If a member of Congress sought such documents, employees were told to specify Democrat or Republican.

This, despite President Barack Obama's statement that federal workers should "act promptly and in a spirit of cooperation" under FOIA, and Attorney General Eric Holder's assertion: "Unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles have no place in the new era of open government."

The special reviews at times delayed the release of information to Congress, watchdog groups and the news media for weeks beyond the usual wait, even though the directive specified the reviews should take no more than three days.

The foot-dragging reached a point that officials worried the department would get sued, one e-mail shows.

"We need to make sure that we flip these ASAP so we can eliminate any lag in getting the responses to the requesters," the agency's director of disclosure, Catherine Papoi, wrote to two of Napolitano's staffers. "Under the statute, the requester now has the right to allege constructive denial and take us to court. Please advise soonest."

A department spokesman, Sean Smith, says the mandatory reviews by political appointees never blocked disclosure of records that otherwise would have been released. "No information deemed releasable by the FOIA office or general counsel was withheld, and responsive documents were neither abridged nor edited," said Smith, who was among the political staffers who could review and approve records for release.

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China rushed to keep a growing oil spill from reaching international waters Tuesday, while an environmental group tried to assess if the country's largest reported spill was worse than has been disclosed.

Crude oil started pouring into the Yellow Sea off a busy northeastern port after a pipeline exploded late last week, sparking a massive 15-hour fire. The government says the slick has spread across a 70-square-mile (180-square-kilometer) stretch of ocean.

Images of 100-foot-high (30-meter-high) flames shooting up near part of China's strategic oil reserves drew the immediate attention of President Hu Jintao and other top leaders. Now the challenge is cleaning up the greasy brown plume floating off the shores of Dalian, once named China's most livable city.

The environmental group, Greenpeace China, shot several photographs at the scene Tuesday before their team was forced to leave. They showed oil-slicked rocky beaches, a man covered in thick black sludge up to his cheekbones, and workers carrying a colleague covered in oil away from the scene. His condition was not known.

Activists said it was too early to tell what impact the pollution might have on marine life.

In a stroke of awkward timing, meanwhile, Dalian's International Beach Culture Festival, which draws thousands of tourists every year, started over the weekend, but the state-run Xinhua News Agency said waters around the beach had not been affected by the slick.

East Africa saw the emergence of a new international terrorist group Monday, as Somalia's most dangerous al-Qaida-linked militia claimed responsibility for the twin bombings in Uganda that killed 74 people during the World Cup.

The claim by al-Shabab, whose fighters are trained by militant veterans of the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, resets the security equation in East Africa and has broader implications worldwide. The group in the past has recruited Somali-Americans to carry out suicide bombings in Mogadishu.

Al-Shabab has long threatened to attack outside of Somalia's borders, but the bombings late Sunday are the first time the group has done so.

"We warned Uganda not to deploy troops to Somalia, they ignored us," said Sheik Ali Mohamud Rage, al-Shabab's spokesman. "We warned them to stop massacring our people, and they ignored that. The explosions in Kampala were only a minor message to them. ... We will target them everywhere if Uganda does not withdraw from our land."

Rage said a second country with peacekeeping forces in Mogadishu -- Burundi -- could soon face attacks. Fighting in Mogadishu between militants and Somali troops or African Union peacekeepers frequently kills civilians.New al-Qaida threat: Somali group claims blasts

The Iroquois helped invent lacrosse, but their team might not travel to England for the sport's world championship because of a dispute over the validity of their passports.

The 23 players have passports issued by the Iroquois Confederacy, a group of six Indian nations overseeing land that stretches from upstate New York into Ontario, Canada.

The U.S. government says it will only let players back into the country if they have U.S. passports, a team official said. The British government, meanwhile, won't give the players visas if they cannot guarantee they'll be allowed to go home, the official said.

The Iroquois team members born within U.S. borders have been offered U.S. passports, but the players refuse to carry them, because they see the government-issued documents as an attack on their identity, said Tonya Gonnella Frichner, a member of the Onondaga Nation who works with the team.

"It's about sovereignty, citizenship and self-identification," said Frichner, who also is the North American Regional Representative to the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

The Department of Homeland Security declined to discuss the specifics of the case. Matt Chandler, a Homeland Security spokesman, said his agency was working with other entities, including the Department of State, to resolve the issue. Messages left for State Department officials weren't immediately returned.

A tough-talking, muscular Los Angeles police sergeant steadily rattled off tips to a young Marine riding shotgun as they raced in a patrol car to a drug bust: Be aware of your surroundings. Watch people's body language. Build rapport.

Marine Lt. Andrew Abbott, 23, took it all in as he peered out at the graffiti-covered buildings, knowing that the lessons he learned recently in one of the city's toughest neighborhoods could help him soon in the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan.

"People are the center of gravity and if you do everything you can to protect them, then they'll protect you," he said. "That's something true here and pretty much everywhere."

Abbott was among 70 Camp Pendleton Marines in a training exercise that aims to adapt the investigative techniques the LAPD has used for decades against violent street gangs to take on the Taliban more as a powerful drug-trafficking mob than an insurgency.

The Marines hope that learning to work like a cop on a beat will help them better track the Taliban, build relationships with Afghans leery of foreign troops and make them better teachers as they try to professionalize an Afghan police force beset by corruption.

Oil Exec's Wife Injured By Bomb Left at Front Doorstep
Posted by Jim Hoft on Saturday, July 10, 2010, 12:04 PM

Another peaceful leftist, no doubt...

Shrapnel flew up on the roof of the home. The home is owned by a local oil company executive.

Via Confederate Yankee-
An oil executive's wife was injured by a bomb left at the family's doorstep yesterday.

An international police sting at a Pretoria South Afric petrol station has netted four men involved in the sale of a highly radioactive metal suspected to be destined for use in a dirty bomb.

The high-risk operation by the Hawks' specialised tactical unit was carried out yesterday.

Police recovered some Caesium-137 contained in a protective cover, but admitted they had yet to find a larger device, which was set to be sold on the black market for R45 million.

CCTV footage shows how undercover members of the Hawks' organised crime unit stormed through a Sasol garage, opening fire on the suspects with semi-automatic weapons, sending terrified customers, motorists and petrol attendants fleeing.

While university educated terrorists get a lot of media attention, most ideologically motivated terrorists are poorly educated (many are illiterate). Poverty and illiteracy is a great motivator to do something desperate, in the off chance it might improve your lot. Thus most of the violence in the world occurs in countries with low literacy rates. While the planetary literacy rate is 87 percent, it's only 29 percent in Afghanistan. It's even worse in the Pushtun tribal territories (about 15 percent on the Afghan side, 23 percent on the Pakistan side). The Taliban are a Pushtun movement, and the Islamic radicals are determined to keep literacy low. They also believe in prohibitions on women working outside the home, and the use of entertainment technology (music and videos, in particular, and don't even try to dance). Modern weapons and vehicles are another matter, as long as women are not operating these devices.

This illiteracy is a key factor in keeping radical Islam going in places like Afghanistan and Somalia (24 percent literacy rate). Islamic radicals believe in education, but a special kind of education, which is taught in a madrassa (Islamic school), and stresses memorizing scripture and learning how to hate non-Moslems more effectively.

Over the last few decades, and especially since the end of the Cold War, many Westerners have adopted the anti-Semitic angle in denouncing Israeli attempts to defend itself against Palestinian terrorism. Such self-defense measures are now seriously discussed as "war crimes" in the West. To the Arabs, the very existence of Israel is a "war crime," but the Arabs have been unable to do much beyond fanaticizing about destroying Israel. Now they have many political activists and progressive thinkers in the West fanaticizing along with them. Tangible gains from this ethnic hatred strategy have been scant so far. Many in the West are appalled by it, and the leadership in most Western nations does not buy into it. But much of the popular media does, and incidents of anti-Semitism, including assault and murder, are on the increase in Europe. Arabs see their anti-Semitism strategy as a success, as Arabs tend to take solace in symbolism, given their lack of substantial progress in destroying Israel. So every anti-Semitic attack in Europe is a victory, as is every European politician who denounces Israel for non-existent war crimes, or ignores the very real atrocities that the Arabs commit against each other. To many Arabs, living the fantasy is easier than dealing with reality.

The Palestinians believe that time, and God, are on their side. Meanwhile, they use negotiations to gain whatever small advantages they can. The ultimate goal, as is plainly displayed on official Palestinian web sites and official documents, is the expulsion of all Jews from what the United Nations erroneously calls "Israel."

Hizbullah will likely fire close to 800 rockets into Israel every day during a future war, senior IDF officers said on Wednesday, as the Northern Command declassified for the first time evidence of Hizbullah's growing presence inside close to 160 villages throughout southern Lebanon.

Using the village of el-Khiam - located about 4 km. north of the border - as an example, the IDF showed extensive footage, videos and maps of homes that Hizbullah has taken over and used to store weapons caches and establish command-and-control centers.

The declassified material also revealed the location of improvised explosive devices, some of them weighing up to half a ton, which Hizbullah has positioned, mostly at the entrance to the village.

The IDF recently dispatched a delegation to UN headquarters in New York to present the evidence to diplomats. The evidence was also presented to the new commander of UNIFIL, Maj.-Gen. Alberto Asarta Cuevas of Spain.

The IDF said that Hizbullah today maintains about 20,000 guerrilla fighters throughout southern Lebanon, whose main objective is to prevent an Israeli ground invasion. The fighters are also responsible for operating Hizbullah's extensive missile capability, which would allow them to strike deep within Israel.

Hizbullah has an estimated 40,000 short-, medium- and long-range missiles.

The declassification of the material on Wednesday is a demonstration of the IDF's penetration of Hizbullah and Israeli efforts to collect intelligence on the Iranian-backed Shi'ite terror group.

Hizbullah has split its forces into three divisions. The Southern Division, the IDF said, consists of 5,000 fighters and has approximately 30,000 missiles and rockets and a number of subdivisions. Each subdivision is responsible for approximately 15 villages. Each village contains between 20 and 200 fighters, hundreds of mortar shells, hundreds of short-and medium- range rockets, and a number of command centers.

In the maps unveiled by the IDF, Hizbullah weapons caches are shown approximately 50 meters from schools and hospitals. Storage and command centers are in most cases located inside or adjacent to civilian homes.