Author Archives: Kami Klein

Tensions Rise Between U.S. and China Over South China Sea Disputes

Recently, on a visit to Stanford Center at Peking University in China, U.S. Pacific Command, Adm. Harry Harris Jr. clarified and defended decisions to sail a U.S. naval destroyer near a Chinese occupied island in the disputed water of South China Sea.

Harris, acknowledged the dispute but continued to stress the increasing cooperation between both the U.S. and Chinese militaries, giving the coordinated search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 as an example.

Despite these corporations, the U.S. and many other regional governments continue to express concern over the China’s building of artificial islands and then using those islands as landing strips with placed surveillance

According to Harris, last week’s action by the USS Lassen was designed to show that the United States would not tolerate any interference with freedom of navigation in nearby waters.

$5 trillion in global trade pass every year through the South China Sea. China claims most of it, though Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan have made rival claims.

China protested the Lassen patrol, calling it a “deliberate provocation,” and sent two warships to shadow the U.S. vessel and issue warnings. International law allows warships to transit other countries’ territorial seas under the principle of “innocent passage.”

Despite Beijing’s intense displeasure, the U.S. Government will continue to patrol those areas in the South China Sea. Admiral Harris said in a prepared statement, “These operations serve to protect the rights, freedoms and lawful uses of the sea and airspace guaranteed to all nations under international law.”

Latest Airport Inspections Find Some Security Layers “Simply Missing”

The TSA has been under the microscope for months after a report was leaked showing investigators were able to sneak banned items in airport security past the TSA officials in checkpoints on 96 percent of their attempts.

A federal watchdog told Congress on Tuesday that a recent convert audit of U.S. airports found layers of security were “simply missing.”

A report by the Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security General John Roth shared information regarding the checkpoints that were monitored at eight undisclosed airports in September.The findings were revealed during a House hearing on TSA problems where new Administrator Peter Neffenger also testified on what he’s doing to fix them.

“The results were consistent across every airport. Our testing was designed to test airports across the country in real world conditions. The failures included failures in the technology, failures in TSA procedures, and human errors,” Roth testified.

Congress has expressed great concern on the problems in security at our nation’s airports.

“In looking at the number of times people got through with guns or bombs in these covert testing exercises it really was pathetic. When I say that I mean pitiful,” said Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) “… Just thinking about the breaches there, it’s horrific.”

TSA Administrator Neffenger explained in the hearing that the challenges that have been created by more and more people carrying on their luggage instead of checking them due to large baggage fees make it difficult to try to spot potential security threats.

While many at the hearing wondered if the problems were unfixable, General Roth said new TSA leadership has promptly began addressing some of the issues in the reports and he is optimistic about airport security being improved.

Cyclone Chapala Dumps One Year of Rain Plus on War Torn Yemen

Yemen, a country that gets an average of 4 inches of rain per year has received that and more in just this one day as Cyclone Chapala crashed it’s way onto its coast. Some news reports in Yemen are reporting up to 48 inches of flooding rains. Thousands are fleeing something that they have never seen before!  This tropical storm is the first on record to make landfall in the impoverished Arab country.

The country has been plunged into chaos this year by a conflict between Houthi rebels and forces loyal to deposed President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi. A Saudi-led coalition in March began bombing the Houthis, who are aligned with Iran.

Yemen is already dealing with one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world, according to the United Nations. The widespread fighting has killed thousands of people, many of them civilians, and left millions more desperately short of food, water and medical supplies.

Now the Yemeni people are faced with 85 mph winds, incredible flash flooding, rock and mud slides and very little help.  According to news reports at least 6000 have fled to upper ground to escape the escalating flooding.  

According to news reports, Abdul-Jamil Mohammed, deputy director of the Environmental Protection Authority on the island of Socotra, a Yemeni island where Chapala has already passed reported strong winds, heavy rain and big waves overnight into Monday.

At least three people were killed and over 200 injured.  

Mohammed said the storm damaged some homes and uprooted trees in Hadibo, the capital of Socotra. Contact has been lost with the northeastern part of the island since Sunday night, and floods have covered the roads leading there, he said.

“Our problem is we have no one to help us here,” he said, explaining the island has one hospital and four ambulances. A shortage of fuel has already caused great trouble for the island.

While numerous tropical systems have formed in the Arabian Sea, it is uncommon for a storm the strength of Chapala to occur so far south and west. Chapala was the equivalent of a low-end Category 4 hurricane as it passed by Socotra.

White House Prepares for Solar Flares and Other Space Weather Events

The U.S. Government has released its National Space Weather Strategy showing a multiagency plan that details how the U.S. will prepare for and deal with a massive EMP from Space Weather.  

An EMP or geomagnetic solar storm event has long been talked about in the media but steps are being taken now to show how serious this is to the government.

The six-step plan requires government agencies, schools, the media, the insurance industry, nonprofits, and more to work together.

“This is a real and present danger,” the White House’s assistant director for space weather told the Houston Post.   Back in 1859, a huge solar storm did impact Earth and caused some sparking telegraph lines. If a geomagnetic storm as strong as that one were to strike today it would likely cause $600 billion to $2.6 trillion worth of damage in the United States alone, according to a recent study.

NASA says that we had a scary near miss when we were nearly hit by two plasma clouds in 2012.  “If it had been hit, we would still be picking up the pieces,” one physicist says.

According to news reports, the White House’s new plan calls for the U.S. to get better at predicting space weather, shore up our infrastructure against EMPs and more. These plans, may truly be needed: The Post quotes NASA as stating there’s a 12% chance of a giant solar flare in the next 10 years.

In a  report released by the United Kingdom’s Department of Business Innovation and Skills said that the Earth can indeed experience a massive solar storm, with mankind having only 12 hours to prepare for such a potentially disastrous event.

To read the full plan you can go to: https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/final_nationalspaceweatherstrategy_20151028.pdf

Iran Begins Deactivating Centrifuges But Still Shouting “Death to America”

Iran has begun the process of deactivating and decommissioning the first of thousands of centrifuges.  The centrifuges are used for enriching uranium and this action is in response to Iran’s part of it’s commitment according to the nuclear deal reached with U.S. and other major world powers.  

The head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Ali Akbar Salehi, told Kyodo News agency, during a visit to Japan, that the entire process will “take some time.”  

“We have already started to take our measures vis-a-vis the removal of the centrifuge machines — the extra centrifuge machines,” Ali Akbar Salehi told Japan’s public broadcaster NHK, according to the Reuters news agency.

Iran needs to take most of its centrifuges, spread over two facilities, out of service, reducing their numbers from 19,000 to around 6,000. Also under the agreement Iran has promised to reduce its enrichment capabilities.

According to Reuters, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has stated his approval of the nuclear deal, allowing the work to begin, but the lawmakers said that the pace at which the centrifuges are being decommissioned is in direct violation of the Ayatollah’s directives.  

On Tuesday,  Ayatollah Ali Khamenei spoke to Iranian students in Tehran about mistrust for U.S. policies and the nuclear deal and said that the slogan “Death to America,” was directed at the U.S. government and not its people.  

“Your ‘Death to America’ slogan, and the cries by the Iranian nation, have strong logical support behind them,” he told the students, “Obviously by ‘Death to America’, we don’t mean death to the American people. The American nation is just like the rest of the nations. It … means death to U.S. policies and its arrogance.”

Largest U.S. Banks $120 Billion Shortfall

A regulatory requirement proposed on Friday by the Federal Reserve will force six of the eight globally systemically important U.S. banks to raise an additional $120 billion in order to comply.  

Bank of America, Bank of New York Mellon, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs Group, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, State Street, and Wells Fargo are to follow the requirements aimed at ensuring the banks so they are able to recapitalize without disrupting markets or requiring a government bailout.  

The banks are expected to meet the $120 billion shortfall by issuing debt, a usually more cost-effective way than issuing equity, according to Federal Reserve officials speaking at a background press briefing Friday.

This proposal, along with others has been taken to avoid chaotic bank failures and according to Federal Chair, Janet Yellen, “would substantially reduce the risk to taxpayers and the threat to financial stability stemming from the failure of these firms.”

This requirement is one of a series of rules that have been aimed at reducing risk in the banking system by determining how much debt and equity banks should use to fund themselves.

Flooding Continues in Texas; 6 Dead, at Least 2 Missing

According to the Associated Press, six people have been killed in connection with the flooding in Texas and at least two are missing as severe weather swept across the Gulf Coast.

In the Houston area, some areas received nearly 12 inches of rain since Friday though it had mostly stopped by Saturday afternoon, and starting around 5 a.m. CT Saturday six tornadoes touched down south and east of Houston.

The storms and suspected tornadoes, which forecasters say were caused by an upper-level disturbance from Mexico, socked an already-sodden swath of Texas that was still drying out from the remnants of Hurricane Patricia.

Homes were underwater and power was out on Saturday to over 12,000 people. Several roads have been closed due to floods and damage.

The weather patterns are showing no signs of letting up as a new system is developing today that will be trouble for areas in Texas already saturated by rain.

“Rain and thunderstorms, heavy enough to prompt new flood concerns, will develop across the Plains Thursday and linger into Saturday for parts of the region,” said AccuWeather.com Meteorologist Andy Mussoline.

Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas will experience rain and thunderstorms Thursday, but concern is growing that a front associated with the system may stall out over eastern Texas heading into the weekend.

Turkey’s Election Results Return One Party Government

President Erdogan, campaigned with the slogan “it’s me or chaos”, and not even a part of the ballet but this President has much to gain with the results of the most recent election on November 1st.   The ruling Justice and Development party, or AKP, won more than 49 percent of the vote in the election Sunday, almost double that of the next party. The win restored the party’s single-party majority that it had lost in a June election.

The Islamist-leaning AKP party won 317 of the 550 seats in parliament but was short the seats needed to  call a referendum on changing the constitution and increasing the powers of the president.  Critics of the election feel it is only time before President Erdogan finds away in parliament for his presidential powers to increase.   

The leader of the HDP, Selahattin Demirtas, said: “This wasn’t a fair election. We could not campaign because we had to protect our people from a massacre.”

The HDP had suspended campaigning after the bombing in Ankara.

According to the BBC, European powers especially those in the EU are hoping that with the elections over they can gain cooperation from Turkey in the enormous refugee crisis faced by every European and middle east country.  These European leaders, in private, are highly critical of President Erdogan and his record on protecting human rights and the rule of law but feel that Turkey is pivotal in handling the crisis.  Erdogan is hoping to use this platform in order to gain access to the EU as a member.  

President Erdogan is demanding that the world recognize the results of this election saying, “The whole world must show respect. So far I haven’t seen such a maturity from the world.”

Nigerian Troops Rescue over 300 People from Boko Haram

Nigerian forces have claimed to have rescued 338 people held by Boko Haram Islamists. Those rescued are mainly women and children

“The rescued persons which comprised eight males, 138 females and 192 children, have since been evacuated,” said military spokesman Sani Usman to Reuters, adding that 30 suspected militants had been killed..

It was not made clear if any of the 236 schoolgirls kidnapped last year in northeastern Chibok were among those rescued.

In May, President Muhammadu Buhari, came to power in Nigeria on a pledge to crush Boko Haram. He has given his military commanders until the end of December to defeat the group, whose insurgency has killed at least 17,000 people and forced more than 2.5 million to flee their homes since 2009.

The Boco’s remaining stronghold, the vast Sambisa forest reserve, has become hard to penetrate due to widespread landmines laid by the militant group.
In the last few months the military has ramped up its offensive into the Sambisa and surrounding areas with air strikes and an increase in ground troops.
The freed hostages have been moved to a camp for displaced persons in Mubi in nearby Adamawa state.

TruNews: Islamic Extremists Threaten Civilians and Students in Yemen

TRUNEWS – Islamist extremists have hit the streets in Aden threatening civilians and students.

The militants burst into a university telling students they have until Thursday to segregate men and women into different classrooms. The men also charged into stores demanding female employees to cover up and threatened families on a beach.

The city is at risk of falling to the terror groups, which also includes a dangerous sect of al-Qaeda, the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army, Daesh and ISIS. Houthi rebels were forced out in July, leaving a vacuum in leadership.