Author Archives: Kami Klein

Ukrainian Warhead Brought Down Malaysian Airlines Flight 17

The mystery of what brought down Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 that killed 298 people has been solved according to the Dutch Safety Board (DSB). The Boeing 777 was heading from Amsterdam to Malaysia when it was shot down by a Russian developed BUK missile on July 17, 2014, over Ukrainian territory controlled by pro-Russian separatists.

According to the DSB the missile detonated less than a yard away from Flight 17’s cockpit, caused the plane to break up in midair and scatter over a 20-square-mile area over eastern Ukraine.  The Board cannot assign blame for the bombing so who actually fired at the plane has not yet been established.  

The West and Ukraine say Russian-backed rebels brought down the Boeing 777, but Russia blames Ukrainian forces. The safety board’s chairman told the press conference that because of the armed conflict in Ukraine, there would have been “sufficient reason to close the airspace as a precaution” but “the Ukraine authorities failed to do so.”

Tjibbe Joustra, chairman of the Dutch Safety Board, said the explosion killed the plane’s three crew members in the cockpit and that investigators had found “high energy fragments” in their bodies. Whatever happened to the plane happened quickly, leaving the passengers dazed or unconscious. And while it’s not clear if anyone died in mid air, no one could have survived the plane’s impact with the ground, the DSB said.

The disaster and its aftermath — when armed men initially prevented international monitors from reaching the crash site and recovering the scattered bodies — shocked the world.

Violence Escalates; Sweeping Through Israel

At the beginning, the tension in Israel centered at the al-Aqsa the holy site for Palestinians otherwise known as the Temple Mount for the Jewish people in Jerusalem’s Old City.  Palestinians feared that Israel wants to change the status quo there and the violence began with a vengeance.  The cycle now has no answers as to the beginning or end and reports of what is causing the random stabbings and shootings throughout Israel depends on who you are speaking to at the moment.  It has become a never ending cycle.  

Four suspects were shot in three separate attempted stabbing attacks in Jerusalem on Monday, Israeli police said.

Extra police were deployed around the Old City as the latest wave of violence  blankets Israel and the West Bank show no signs of abating.

“To our shock and horror, the cruelty of murderers who attack innocent civilians and children on their way home from school knows no limit, confronting us all with a shocking form of evil,”Jerusalem’s Mayor Nir Barkat said in a statement. “We must act swiftly and decisively.” So far, 23 Palestinians and four Israelis have been killed.

Around 20 Israelis and more than 500 Palestinians have been injured.

A number of rocket attacks have been launched from Gaza in recent weeks amid an escalation in violence against Israeli security forces and civilians in the West Bank and Jerusalem.  

On Sunday, a pregnant Palestinian mother and her 3-year-old daughter were killed when their house in the Gaza Strip collapsed after an Israeli airstrike that allegedly targeted a Hamas weapons site.

El Nino to Bring Blessing but Possible Disaster for the Pacific

The El Nino weather pattern is taking shape and according to scientists there is no way this El Nino is going to fail from giving rain to some areas in California and elsewhere that are desperate for rain.  

“There’s no longer a possibility that El Niño wimps out at this point. It’s too big to fail,” said Bill Patzert, climatologist for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge, Los Angeles Times reported. “And the winter over North America is definitely not going to be normal.”

Rainfall opportunities this week across the Southwest may be the beginning of more substantial drought relief heading into the winter as an El Niño-fueled weather pattern takes shape in the region.

While most are calling this unusual and very strong El Nino an answered prayer there are countries who are suffering already with lack of food and crops dying off.  Papua New Guinea’s drought has already claimed two dozen lives, and the looming El Niño weather pattern could be as severe as in 1997-98, when over 23,000 people died.  

Forecasters say that this El Nino could leave 4 million people in the Pacific without food or drinking water.

“El Niño has the potential to trigger a regional humanitarian emergency and we estimate as many as 4.1 million people are at risk from water shortages, food insecurity and disease across the Pacific,” Sune Gudnitz, head of the Pacific region office of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

Putin Confirms Protecting Assad Regime

It seems now that President Vladimir Putin has confirmed what many have continued to suspect. On state run Russia 24 TV Putin acknowledged that the Russian airstrikes in Syria are meant to bolster President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

“Our task is to stabilize the legitimate government and to create conditions for a political compromise … by military means, of course, The units of international terrorists and their ilk have no desire to negotiate with the Syrian government, who is almost sieged in its own capital.”
Russia has said it’s coordinating with the Syrian regime to target ISIS and other terrorists. Al-Assad has used the term “terrorists” to describe Syrians who seek his ouster.

Until now, Putin and the Russian military have stated numerous times that their main objective in Syria was to fight the Islamic State.

CNN military analyst Lt. Col. Rick Francona said he had no doubt Russia was targeting Syrian rebels rather than ISIS.

“I think it’s very apparent from the target sets that we’re watching. Even the maps that are released from the Russians themselves show where they’re concentrating their airstrikes,” Francona said.

“And if you look at the map where they are hitting, most of them are concentrated in that area between Hama and Aleppo — and that’s where the Syrian rebels have had success over the past two months.”

The bombings are numerous. The Russian Defense Ministry said it has struck 53 alleged Islamic State targets in the past 24 hours, destroying command centers, ammunition and fuel depots as well as training camps.

In the meantime, according to a government official, U.S. forces carried out an airdrop of small arms ammunition on Sunday to Syrian Arabs in northern Syria, a U.S. military official said on Monday.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the airdrop of supplies to the opposition fighters was part of a revamped U.S. strategy announced last week to help rebels in Syria battling Islamic State militants.

“A Different Kind of Bad” 2nd Wave of Flooding to Hit South Carolina Coast

Predictions for more rain in South Carolina are throwing more concerns on an already battered state as the low areas of the coast brace for the water heading their way.

Gov. Nikki Haley said at a news conference that people in flood-prone parts of four counties should “strongly consider evacuating,” including the 10,000 residents of Georgetown.

“If you’re in the area of Georgetown you’re going to see people knocking on your door telling you to get out,” she said.

The Governor is concerned that residents who have already gone through the historic rainfall and have been through hurricanes, will be complacent about this new wave of flooding heading their way.  “This is a different kind of bad.”

Churches have risen to provide essential support for those affected, according to Vocativ, an online publisher that used geo-location technology to assess social media posts from areas hardest hit by the flooding,

NewSpring Church, which has 10 locations throughout the state, has launched a massive effort tagged #FloodSCWithLove to provide aid to families affected by the disaster.

The church has delivered truckloads of supplies, including water, non-perishable food items and blankets, to local shelters.  Other churches have manned together to volunteer and also help distribute these much needed items.  

New Kind of Troubles for Drought Ravaged California

California is sinking because of the four year drought that has farmers digging deeper and deep down in order to find groundwater for their crops, resulting in a higher risk of flooding,

Nearly half of America’s fruits, vegetables and nuts are produced in California. As farmers dig deeper down to find water, the land gradually starts to cave in, an effect scientists refer to as subsidence. Some parts of California are settling lower at a rate of two inches a month

According to Michelle Sneed of the United States Geological Survey, the area being permanently affected by subsidence is enormous, stretching about 1,200 square miles, roughly the size of the state of Rhode Island.Because of this sinking  problem, when rains eventually do come the flooding will destroy the crops while also washing away more of the land.

Sinking land is not the only problem faced by California farmers.

Anger is building in central California at state and federal agencies, who are being blocked by environmentalists from pumping water from rivers onto their arid lands, farmers blame both regulations and the agencies and activists who go to court to enforce them.

“These are communities who rely almost solely upon agricultural production or agri-business activities,” Gayle Holman, spokeswoman for the nation’s largest agricultural water supplier, the Westlands Water District, told FoxNews.com. “If we continue down this path, we will most likely see our food production turn to foreign soil. We could lose the economic engine that agriculture brings to our nation.”

California continues to pray for rain and in the hopes that the forecasted El Nino this winter will offer relief, although many are concerned that too much rain could be just as much of a disaster as this historic drought.  

Guatemalan Mudslide Kills 237; Death Toll Expected to Rise

Recovery after the Guatemalan Mudslide that erased part of  the town of Santa Catarina Pinula last week has uncovered 237 bodies so far from the mountains of mud and debris in the mudslide created from heavy rainfall.

Backhoes continued to remove thousands of tons of dirt from the acres-wide mudflow in the neighborhood of Cambray, on the outskirts of Guatemala City, with very little hope of finding anyone alive.

Officials have reported that many other people are still missing.  

Several hundred people were being housed in shelters run by the local government National Disaster Reduction Commission known as Conred.

The agency has said it issued a number of warnings about the dangers of living on the base of this mountain area. Officials this week declared the area uninhabitable.

Manuel Pocasangre, the communications director for the municipality of Santa Catarina Pinula said state employees in recent years had gone door-to-door to talk to people about the risks of where they lived even in the last year.  

Stating that he had warned Mayor Tono Coro of the municipality of Santa Catarina Pinula that the river was eating away at the base of the steep hill. “What we know is that people were conscious about the risk they were taking,” Pocasangre said Wednesday.  

Maldonado acknowledged there are many neighborhoods like Cambray in and around Guatemala City that are at risk of flooding or mudslides

The country’s prosecutor’s office has announced an investigation of the matter.

Major Oil Find in Israel but Quality and Cost of Extraction Unknown

Israel is surrounded by countries loaded with oil bearing land. To find a sufficient amount of oil could mean a huge boost for her young oil production industry.

A company drilling for oil on the Golan Heights, close to the country’s border with Syria , claims they have found a significant amount of oil reserves. What they found looks to be 10 times larger than the average oil field worldwide.  This could  boost support of domestic demand but the quality, quantity and the cost involved for extraction is not known at this time.

Three drilling sites on the Golan have uncovered what is potentially billions of barrels of oil, enough to fulfill the Israeli market’s 270,000-barrel-per-day consumption for a very long time.

Chief geologist of Afek Oil and Gas, Yuval Bartov, said, “It’s a fantastic feeling. We came here thinking maybe yes or maybe no and now things are really happening!”

Since Israel’s founding, companies have drilled 530 exploratory wells in search for oil, but few of them have turned up commercially viable product, the Times of Israel reported. 

This find, however is already shadowed by the concerns regarding the war in Syria and the cost involved to protect the oil fields, domestic concerns as to the legality of Israel’s right to Golan Heights, as well as an ongoing struggle with environmental groups concerned over the effects the drilling will have on the land and the wildlife found there.  

The main site is close to the small town of Katzrin, which lies northeast of the northern shore of the fabled Sea of Galilee and is home to a wide range of special plants and wild animals, including major nature reserves such as Gamla, home to Israel’s largest population of Griffon vultures.

6,000 Federal Prisoners to be Released; Drug-Related Sentences Reduced

6,000 prisoners will begin to be released on October 30th and that is only the beginning in an attempt to relieve the massive overcrowding in Federal prisons.  This is the largest release of prisoners at one time in an effort to provide relief to drug offenders who received harsh sentences over the past three decades, according to U.S. officials.

The early release was prompted by the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s decision in July 2014 that reduced the punishment for drug offenders and made that decision retroactive.  

Close to 50,000 federal inmates locked up on drug charges will be eligible for reduced sentences. The new sentencing guidelines took effect on Nov. 1, 2014.

Most of the soon to be released prisoners are already in halfway houses and home confinement.  

“The Department of Justice strongly supports sentencing reform for low-level, non-violent drug offenders,” Deputy Attorney General Sally Quillian Yates said in a statement. “The Sentencing Commission’s actions — which create modest reductions for drug offenders — is a step toward these necessary reforms.”

Each case will reviewed by a federal judge in the district in which the inmate’s case was tried in order to determine whether it would be beneficial to public safety to grant the prisoner early release.

According to The Sentencing Commission an additional estimated 8,550 inmates would be eligible for release between this Nov. 1 and Nov. 1, 2016.

FBI Sting Uncovers Russian Smugglers of Nuclear Material

An FBI sting was caught on video in Moldova as Russian linked smugglers attempted to sell nuclear and radioactive materials to undercover agents posing as ISIS operatives.

A Moldovan minister said that the FBI helped Moldovan authorities three times in the last five years to stop potential smuggling of nuclear and radioactive material.
According to an investigation by The Associated Press [AP], one case that was uncovered was an attempt to sell bomb-grade uranium to a real buyer from the Middle East, the first known case of its kind.

A list compiled by the Terrorism Research Initiative details more than 360 smuggling and security “incidents” in the Black Sea region from 1990 to 2011 — by far the most stemming from Russia. This list also goes on to say that from 1993 to 2013, 664 incidents of theft or loss of nuclear or radiological materials were reported. It says it doesn’t know how many times these materials were subsequently sold.

Moldovan police and judicial authorities shared investigative case files with the AP in an effort to spotlight how dangerous the black market has become. They say a breakdown in cooperation between Russia and the West means that it is much harder to know whether smugglers are finding ways to move parts of Russia’s vast store of radioactive materials.