Archive for September 2011

CIA, Pentagon fight to keep Osama bin Laden death photos secret

Josh Gerstein
Politico
September 27, 2011

Photos and videos of Al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden after he was killed in May in a U.S. military/Central Intelligence Agency raid in Pakistan should not be released publicly because they would reveal military and intelligence secrets and could lead to violence against U.S. personnel, the Obama administration argued in papers filed in federal court in Washington late Monday night.

The new filings from the Justice Department provide scant details about the imagery, but CIA National Clandestine Service Director John Bennett wrote that the CIA has “52 unique….photographs and/or videorecordings” depicting bin Laden during or after the May operation. Bennett did not break down the tally further, but said all the imagery is classified “TOP SECRET,” meaning that disclosure of the material could lead to “exceptionally grave damage” to U.S. national security.

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Josh Gerstein

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The ‘Fake’ Cities of Syria’s Unrest

Nate Berg
The Atlatnic
September 27, 2011

It’s been reported briefly by a number of news outlets that a documentary/news show in Syria recently suggested the unrest currently taking place there is not really happening. Instead, they allege it’s actually being staged in cinematic replicas of Syrian cities for the Al Jazeera news organization.

That’s right: fake cities, built in Qatar by Al Jazeera, occupied by hordes of actors, under the direction of filmmakers to create a false impression of what’s happening on the ground in Syria. Or at least that’s the spin.

Or perhaps more accurately, propaganda. As this post from The New York Times mentions, the station that ran the allegations on September 9 is closely tied to the ruling regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

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Nate Berg

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Border bill would expand Homeland Security powers

That question is driving a heated debate over a controversial bill to give the Department of Homeland Security sweeping authority over federal lands within 100 miles of the U. S. border.

The proposed National Security and Federal Lands Protection Act would let the agency waive 36 federal environmental protection laws in the name of better border patrols on public lands.

Supporters say it would help U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents secure the nation’s borders. Opponents say it would give Homeland Security unchecked authority to disregard major environmental laws covering wilderness areas, national parks and wildlife refuges.

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USA Today

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Revitalizing the Border Governor’s Conference

Shannon K. O’Neil
Council on Foreign Relations
September 27, 2011

RELATED: Click here to view an interesting photo of then-governors Arnold Schwarzenegger, ‘Big Sis’ Napolitano and Rick Perry posing with Mexican counterparts in sunglasses and leather jackets, imitating the Terminator film Arnold starred in.

This week the Mexican state of Baja California will host the two day Border Governor’s Conference. Started nearly two decades ago, the annual meeting brings together governors from all four U.S. and six Mexican border states to discuss the issues directly affecting their states and citizens. At its height in the early 2000s, the governors and their ministers met not just with each other but also with representatives from Commerce, Homeland Security, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and other departments and agencies to influence border-centered debates in both Washington, DC and Mexico City.

A d v e r t i s e m e n t

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Smugglers hand off drugs through new border fence

AP
September 27, 2011

A new type of border fence is apparently forcing drug smugglers to change the way they move their cargo from Mexico to the U.S.

The Nogales International reports that law enforcement officers in Arizona recently noticed that some bundles of marijuana they seized were oddly shaped.

Lt. Gerry Castillo of the Santa Cruz County Metro Task Force says investigators first thought the 48 pounds of marijuana wrapped in thin tubular packages had been prepared for easy transport through a tunnel. But the bundles weren’t dirty.

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AP

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