At least 12 killed in shooting rampage at Washington Navy Yard, chief says

Fort Worth Police Dept.

Aaron Alexis

By Jim Miklaszewski, Pete Williams, Richard Esposito and Erin McClam, NBC News

A former naval petty officer packing an assault rifle and two other guns sprayed an office building with bullets at the Washington Navy Yard on Monday, killing 12 people in a rampage that paralyzed part of the nation’s capital, authorities said. It was the deadliest mass shooting in the United States since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School last year.

Authorities said that the gunman, a civilian contractor identified as Aaron Alexis, 34, was killed after exchanging fire with officers who stormed the headquarters of the Naval Sea Systems Command in a massive law enforcement response.

Mayor Vincent Gray said there was no information on a motive. Authorities said Alexis might have used someone else’s identification to get into the office building. At least four people were wounded, but some reports placed the number as high as 16.

“There is no question he would have kept shooting,” Washington Police Chief Cathy Lanier said.

Keep reading on usnews >>

Souped-up soldiers like Elysium are coming

nbcnews

Bill Briggs NBC News contributor

TriStar Pictures

In "Elysium, Matt Damon's character sports a black-metal exoskeleton plugged into his mind and spine, boosting his strength and allowing him to download others' thoughts. That technology may only exist on the Silver Screen, but the military is working on real, high-tech upgrades to improve the safety and abilities of troops.

Hollywood’s summer of the super soldier — featuring tech-bedecked troops like Matt Damon in the No. 1 movie “Elysium” — offers a flicker of futuristic battle gear as the real U.S. military explores innovations from exoskeletons to advanced armor to outfit the next-gen combat fighter.

At the laboratories of Special Operations Command (SOCOM) in Tampa, Fla., one project is dubbed TALOS — tactical assault light operator suit — and the blueprint involves blending an array of emerging technologies into a single, gizmo-rich, body-shielding uniform.

“How do we take the best of what’s out there — being academia, large industry, small industry or just three guys with a bright idea — and focus that energy toward the (special) operator to give him better protection and better capability?” said Jim Geurts, who oversees science and tech development, procurement and production for Special Operations. The command includes elite forces like Army Rangers and Navy SEALS.

“Certainly that involves body armor. But it also involves: How do I get them better situational awareness? How do I get them better communication? How do I allow them to move better without getting hurt?” Geurts said. “How do we continue to focus technology innovation and the good-old-American-monster-garage kinds of things to continue to help the operator?”

In July, SOCOM held a unique trade show in Tampa that mixed private scientists who are ramping up designs on exoskeletons (high-powered, wearable machines) or who are bolstering display technologies or creating tomorrow’s armor. The goal was to assemble the masterminds in the same room, Geurts said.

U.S. Special Operations Command

At Special Operations Command, military innovators are working to develop exoskeletons that someday may help troops in combat.

“There’s not a place right now where all of them get together with a (special) operator and say, ‘OK, can I put this radio on your exoskeleton, and how much power does it need?’” Geurts said. “Everybody brought their LEGO building blocks and we could see all the types of LEGO building blocks, and we could start to think about how we put those blocks together to build something to give the operators capability that they don’t have now." 

The public can glimpse the creative thinking behind such revolutionary gadgetry in pop films like “Elysium,” in which Matt Damon’s character sports a black-metal exoskeleton plugged into his mind and spine, boosting his strength allowing him to download others’ thoughts. In another summer movie, “Pacific Rim,” pairs of soldiers mutually operate giant exoskeletons to combat sea monsters.

Do these sci-fi films marry today’s silver-screen fantasy with any tiny germ of tomorrow’s battlefield reality?

“Maybe conceptually,” Geurts said. “Certainly, the idea of having mobility with protection with the ability to understand the environment around you and communicate to others around you — those facets are all important.”

Similar techno advances are in play across other branches as military commanders collaborate with top science minds to push the bounds of soldier suits.

Norman Wagner, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of Delaware, has worked with the U.S. Army Research Laboratory in Maryland to co-invent a liquid armor called Shear Thickening Fluid. His material could coat Kevlar vests and Kevlar helmets, transforming them into something better: When a bullet or bomb fragment strikes the service member, miniscule particles in the liquid ceramic instantly reorganize themselves and harden to block the projectile.

“The idea is, you want a body armor that’s flexible so you can wear it,” Wagner said. “But at the point of impact, the fluid acts more like a solid in protecting the person behind it.”

Wagner has another project in the works that similarly seems tailor-made for military use: He, a University of Delaware colleague and a student are investigating a chemical-polymer technology that allows material to self mend. 

"If you get a cut or a puncture, the material would heal itself the same way that biological systems respond to skin wounds,” Wagner said.

While Wagner said the price for his Shear Thickening Fluid is relatively low and on par with “commercial costs,” this is the age of federal sequestration. At Special Operations Command, the innovators are taking lean times to heart.

“The challenge is two-fold: one, the collection of items called TALOS and, two, reinventing the next-generation business-acquisition model that let’s us quickly and cheaply attract those technologies to help the guys,” Geurts said.

Special Ops wants to tap the best ideas and the newest technologies — where ever they may be — allowing the command to collaborate with “non-traditional suppliers.” That is far different from picking a large contractor and paying big bucks to complete a project.

Military leaders acknowledge they have learned hard lessons in bolstering body protection and other battlefield gear for troops during 12 years of war, leading to better equipment already in place. But as the next phase of upgrades rolls from concept to the laboratory to the production line, they will be quickly installed in the field. The re-outfitting of troops in soldier suits 2.0 is not a distant theory, Geurts said. 

"We're creating the environment where we can continue to improve and improve and improve," he said. "And if I can do something in two weeks that helps the guys, then that’s two weeks better than what I can give them today."

Report: 3D-Printed Rifle Successfully Fires 14 Rounds

breitbart

By AWR Hawkins 

A Canadian rifle maker has successfully fired a 3D-printed rifle, based on firearms designer Cody Wilson's work on a homemade handgun crafted from thermoplastics.

Mashable.com reports that "Matthew" has successfully fired 14 rounds from a .22 rifle created from a 3D printer.

The rifle represents Matthew's second prototype and is called Grizzly 2.0. The barrel of the first prototype cracked after firing just one round, so he adjusted the barrel's thickness and fired 14 rounds from the next model before experiencing any problems.

The Grizzly 2.0 is a single shot rifle. The user reloads it after each shot by taking off the barrel, clearing it of the spent shell casing, and loading another round.  

The Grizzly 2.0's creator has uploaded video of a purportedly successful firing test.

Cody Wilson's Defense Distributed, an organization dedicated to creating designs for 3D "wiki weapons," revealed a single-shot pistol created with a 3D printer in May of 2013. The "Liberator" personal firearm made headlines when Wilson successfully tested it, and days later the Department of Defense demanded he pull the gun's design from his website. Defense Distributed claims to have plans for the next step in 3D firearm creation: "the lower receiver of an AR-15... rifle."

ThreeD Ukulele 

’Secret’ CIA museum features Osama bin Laden’s AK-47

investigations

Slideshow:

John Makely / NBC News

Not open to the public but displayed inside CIA headquarters are artifacts from decades of intelligence gathering, including drones disguised as insects, a pigeon camera and Osama bin Laden's AK-47.

Launch slideshow

By Richard Engel and Robert Windrem
NBC News

The “coolest museum you’ll never see” has a new piece de resistance – the gun found next to the body of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan when Navy SEALs killed him in a midnight raid.

The AK-47 is a recent addition to a collection that’s among the toughest tickets in the country for museumgoers. Tucked into various hallways at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., the museum displays the gadgets, artifacts and trophies of 70 years of spycraft, from World War II through the War on Terror.  Closed to the public, it had only been visited by employees and invited guests until NBC News recently became the first news organization allowed to bring in video cameras.

The Russian-made assault rifle, identified on a simple brass plaque as “Osama bin Laden’s AK-47,” shares a glass case with an al Qaeda training manual found in Afghanistan soon after 9/11.

Watch Richard Engel's report Wednesday on "NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams."

"This is the rifle that was recovered from the third floor of the Abbottabad compound by the assault team," said curator Toni Hiley. "Because of its proximity to (bin Laden) there on the third floor in the compound, our analyst determined it to be his.  It's a Russian AK with counterfeit Chinese markings."

Neither Hiley nor the agency will say how the AK-47 got to the museum, other than that the agency director at the time of the operation, Leon Panetta, "asked that it come into the museum collection," said Hiley. But one source told NBC News that it came from the "dark side" of the agency, the operations staff that worked with the SEALs on the May 2011 raid.

The agency also will not comment on the specifics of how the weapon was recovered or whether it was loaded when retrieved.

Tony Hiley, Director of the CIA Museum, shows NBC's Richard Engel what she considers one of the most unique pieces in the museum, the A-12 Oxcart plane, which was designed to be the successor to the U-2 spy plane. 

"I wasn't there," said Hiley. "So I can't confirm or deny exactly where the weapon was.  I just know that I have it in my museum and I'm happy to have it."

In the movie "Zero Dark Thirty," which was written in consultation with military and intelligence sources, a member of the assault team is shown grabbing the weapon from a shelf above bin Laden's bed in his third-floor bedroom moments after the al Qaeda leader’s death. 

Hiley said the weapon is in good working condition, but that the origin of the Chinese markings is a mystery. She said it’s not the weapon seen at Osama’s side in many propaganda videos.

The CIA’s private museum, which was started in the early 1990s, fills three corridors in two buildings at the CIA campus just outside Washington. Agency officials call it “the coolest museum you’ll never see.”

John Makely /NBCNews.com

CIA museum curator Toni Hiley holds an "insectothopter" created by the CIA's Office of Research and Development during the 1970s and intended to gather intelligence unobtrusively. Designed to look like a dragonfly, the insectothopter's tiny gas-powered engine moved its wings up and down. While flight tests were impressive, it proved difficult to control when any wind was present.

The museum traces the agency’s history, including its origin as the Office of Special Services (OSS), which aided resistance fighters and ran spy networks during World War II, and its years of clandestine operations during the Cold War. Artifacts include the shrapnel that struck a spy plane over North Vietnam, a silver dollar that holds microfilm and an underwater spy drone made to look like a catfish. The museum previously displayed many of the phony Hollywood accoutrements – a movie script, stationery, and company briefcase -- that a team of agents posing as filmmakers used in an audacious operation that rescued six Americans from Iran in 1979. The mission became the basis of the recent Academy Award-winning movie “Argo.”

Bin Laden’s gun is part of a new trove of artifacts, the spoils of the War on Terror. "I think for our people it's an acknowledgment that the hard work over that 10 years and partnership with other members of the intelligence community and partnership with the military was a success,” said Hiley. “This puts the punctuation point on 10 years of this agency and our intelligence community partners looking for bin Laden."

In addition to bin Laden’s gun, there's a brick from his compound in Abbottabad; a scale-model of the compound; a section of a wall that was part of the life-size mock-up of the compound used by the SEALs to train for the raid; and several al Qaeda training manuals found in Afghanistan, including a partially burned guide to firing surface-to-air missiles.

There’s also a chest filled with football-sized chunks of blue and white lapis lazuli stones, one of a dozen chests of the rare stones seized by the CIA in Afghanistan. Hiley referred to the trunks as "al Qaeda's ATM." Al Qaeda used the raw lapis lazuli, which goes for $200 to $1,200 a kilogram, to circumvent banks and pay its fighters.

The scale-model of the compound is identical to one the raid’s planners viewed in Director Panetta's office and the White House Situation Room. (The original is at the Pentagon.)

"It's as accurate as those hundreds of pieces of intelligence would permit," said Hiley, when asked if the spare tires in the yard matched intelligence reports. "Not only are they looking at that intelligence, they're going to the analysts and asking them, 'Was the wire this far apart?' So they're trying to get absolutely every single bit of truth into this model because they know the model will be used."

Nearby is a piece of the wall, topped with barbed wire, from a full-scale mock-up that the CIA constructed for SEAL training at a facility in Harvey Point, N.C. The life-size mock-up was destroyed not long after the May 2011 raid, but before it disappeared, an internet sleuth found satellite images.

NBC News

NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel interviews CIA museum curator Toni Hiley at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va.

As Hiley explained, the SEAL team planned its raid using the scale model, and then practiced the raid on the life-size mock-up. "I think we received the best feedback we ever could have hoped to when they all returned safely,” said Hiley. “They said, ‘We felt like we'd been there before.’”

“That's why these pieces are important. That's why they're in this museum."

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Related story

Behind the scenes at the CIA museum

Some images from the collection are viewable online via the agency’s website, so while the museum is off-limits to the public most of its contents are not unknown. There is, of course, another secret museum behind the not-so-secret” museum, a “classified collection” kept in a secret warehouse, from which curators will sometimes pull new items to display.

Asked if this classified collection was more like a police evidence locker or the basement of the Smithsonian, Hiley said it was like neither.

"Oh," she said, "it's much cooler than that."

Coming on Thursday: Among CIA museum's prizes, an American love letter on Hitler's stationery.

For Those Who Believe a Word Castro Says

capitolhillcubans

Read below and we have this sugary treat is for you.

From Reuters:

North Korean ship was carrying sugar donation, Cuba told Panama

When a North Korean ship carrying Cuban arms was seized last week in Panama on suspicion of smuggling drugs, Cuba first said it was loaded with sugar for the people of North Korea, according to a Panamanian official familiar with the matter.

Cuban officials were quick to request the ship be released, pledging there were no drugs on board, and made no mention of the weapons which two days later were found hidden in the hold under 220,000 sacks of brown sugar, the official told Reuters.

"They said it was all a big misunderstanding," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Cuba declined to comment on the official's account.

Cuba-Russia's "Obsolete" Weapons Sales to Syria

capitolhillcubans

Great point by The New Yorker's Jon Lee Anderson:

Diplomats have long employed disingenuous turns of phrase to avoid conceding inconvenient and sometimes self-evident truths that could compromise or embarrass their nations. While artfulness is preferred, bald-faced lying is also part of the protocol. When the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, says, for instance, as he has been wont to over the past year, that Russian arms shipments to Syria’s Assad régime are not offensive in nature and mere obligatory fulfillments of old standing orders—made long before the country’s civil war—he is, most likely, lying.

It is difficult to know, as yet, just why Cuba would have wished to secretly load two MiG-21 fighter jets, fifteen MiG engines, and two anti-aircraft missile systems of Soviet vintage onto a North Korean cargo ship, the Chong Chon Gang, which then concealed that cargo underneath ten thousand tons of Cuban brown sugar. But the explanation that Cuba’s foreign ministry quickly offered on Tuesday, a day after the ship’s dramatic seizure by suspicious Panamanian authorities at the Atlantic entrance to the Panama Canal, was somewhere between decidedly strange and scarcely believable. The cargo was indeed Cuba’s, said the foreign-ministry communique, consisting of “obsolete defensive weapons” which was being sent to North Korea for “repair.” If the Chong Chon Gang’s mission was as prosaic as that, then it’s captain certainly overreacted when, as the Panamanians boarded his vessel, he attempted to commit suicide by cutting his own throat, while his crewmen mounted a resistance against their captors.

Check out the language used by Lavrov at the time.  

Sound familiar?

From AFP:

Russia's foreign minister said Friday he did not understand the international uproar created by Moscow's continuing weapons cooperation with regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

"I do not understand why the media is trying to create a sensation out of this," said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. "We have not hidden that we supply weapons to Syria under signed contracts, without violating any international agreements, or our own legislation."

Lavrov said during a joint press appearance in Sochi with visiting UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that Russia only supplied defence weapons that could not alter the outcome of the 26-month conflict between Assad's forces and the opposition.

"We are first and foremost supplying defence weapons related to air defence," Lavrov said in televised comments.

"This does not in any way alter the balance of forces in this region or give any advantage in the fight against the opposition," he stressed.

How Do "Obsolete" Weapons Further "Defensive Capacity"?

capitolhillcubans

That's the inherent contradiction the Castro regime has stumbled itself into in its statement regarding Cuban weapons shipments to North Korea.

It took the Castro regime well over 12 hours to respond to the capture of a North Korean ship -- full of Cuban weapons hidden under 10,000 tons of sugar -- by the Panamanian authorities.

In its statement, the Castro regime admits to violating U.N. sanctions with over 240 metric tons of weaponry.

Its spin (and bollocks), after getting caught with its hands in the cookie jar, is that these were "obsolete defensive weapons."

However, it then proceeds to state that they are "need[ed] to maintain our defensive capacity."

Begs the contradiction -- how do "obsolete" weapons further the Castro regime's "defensive capacity"?

Aren't they obsolete?

Despite the contradiction, this line is also being regurgitated by some Cuba "experts" and the Castro regime's advocates abroad, who had been promising that the Castro regime is not hostile and worthy of the U.S.'s embrace -- seeing their credibility even further damaged.

Meanwhile, it took the Kim regime in North Korea nearly 24 hours to respond (as it needed plenty of time to consult with its Cuban brethren).

And predictably, it had the exact same line as the Castro regime and its "experts" abroad: "This cargo is nothing but ageing weapons which are to be sent back to Cuba after overhauling them."

The fact remains that these weapons are hostile and have the ability to cause great harm (just ask the Assad regime in Syria).  

Thus, the reason why the shipment of such weapons are illegal.

(UPDATE: Panama has charged the 35 North Korean crew members of endangering public security by illegally transporting war material.)

¿Segunda parte de la Crisis de los Misiles en Cuba? No exactamente

CNN

Por Nick Thompson

El extraño caso de la incautación y revisión de una embarcación que se dirigía a Corea del Norte seguidas de una violenta lucha en el Canal de Panamá suena como una escena eliminada de la Guerra Fría.

Pero los funcionarios, temerosos de algún tipo de Crisis de Misiles Cubanos moderna, se sintieron aliviados al descubrir que lo que Cuba describe como una variedad de antiguas armas soviéticas descubiertas a bordo del barco y escondidas entre 225,000 sacos de azúcar morena era más apropiado para un museo de la Guerra Fría que para utilizarse como armas en el siglo XXI.

La embarcación, que todavía está registran funcionarios panameños, contenía 240 toneladas de armas de defensa de fabricación rusa, incluyendo dos sistemas de misiles antiaéreos, nueve misiles en partes y dos jets MIG-21, de acuerdo con funcionarios cubanos. Panamá no ha ofrecido detalles de lo incautado.

Cuba dijo que las armas, que se encontraban en ruta a Corea del Norte para ser reparadas están “obsoletas”. Los expertos que identificaron reliquias del comienzo de la Guerra Fría como el sistema de defensa aérea soviético SA-2 aseguran que Cuba no está muy lejos de la verdad.

“Estamos hablando de objetos realmente viejos, la tecnología fue diseñada en las décadas de los 40 y de los 50", dijo James O’Halloran, editor de Jane’s Land Based Air Defence y Jane’s Strategic Weapon System.

El SA-2, que consiste de un solo misil guiado por radar montado en un lanzamisiles, se desarrolló años antes de la Crisis de Misiles Cubanos en 1960 y fue utilizado por el Viet Cong durante la guerra de Vietnam.

“Hoy no hay razón para que un piloto occidental sea blanco de un SA-2, si te golpea uno, has hecho algo realmente tonto, o tienes muy mala suerte", según O´Halloran.

La dificultad para armarse

Pero Corea del Norte y Cuba, aliados comunistas aislados y socios comerciales desde la Guerra Fría, no son países modernos, y después de años de sanciones y embargos hay muy pocos lugares a su disposición para obtener armas, de acuerdo con los expertos.

“Si compras un nuevo sistema de armamento, también tienes que comprar el equipo y la capacitación, que puede llevar un año o más", dijo Mike Elleman, autoridad del Regional Security Cooperation en el IISS. “Y los cubanos no tienen dinero", añadió.

Aun si Cuba tuviera dinero, países como Rusia serían renuentes a venderle al régimen de Castro sistemas avanzados de armamento por miedo a enfurecer a los estadounidenses. E incluso si Cuba obtuviera armas nuevas, Elleman dice que Estados Unidos las eliminaría de inmediato.

La solución para países como Cuba es buscar reparar sistemas como el SA-2, que dejó de estar en servicio hace décadas, y el jet MiG2, que se fabricó por última vez en 1985 y que ahora sólo lo mantienen países aliados de Rusia para obtener refacciones, de acuerdo con O’Halloran de Jane’s.

Viejas sanciones

Las autoridades panameñas continúan revisando el Chong Chon Gang, y han solicitado a Estados Unidos y a Gran Bretaña que envíen equipos para ayudarles a identificar las armas, y han invitado a una comisión especial de las Naciones Unidas para determinar si el cargamento viola la prohibición del organismo sobre armas a Corea del Norte.

Los expertos no esperan que el episodio tenga un efecto diplomático significativo en cualquiera de los dos países: “Corea del Norte ya tiene infinidad de sanciones”, dijo Elleman, y las relaciones de Cuba con Estados Unidos se están descongelando después de años de tensión.

“Hay un buen número de personas que creen que las sanciones contra Cuba son obsoletas, y que sólo es cuestión de tiempo que se levanten. No creo que esto cambie esa situación”, dijo Elleman a CNN.

El efecto más duradero de la redada a este barco podrían ser las 10,000 toneladas de azúcar morena que se econtraron a bordo del barco. La tripulación intentó sabotear el Chong Chon Gang cortando los cables de sus grúas de carga lo que ocasionó que las autoridades panameñas tuvieron que retirar a mano 255,000 sacos de azúcar.

Los expertos creen que el azúcar podría ser el pago de Cuba a Corea del Norte (que carece de fondos) a cambio de la reparación de las armas. “Se podría tratar de mucho ruido y pocas nueces, excepto por la revelación al mundo de la mala situación en la que se encuentran Cuba y Corea del Norte en la actualidad: intercambiar materiales del comienzo de la Guerra Fría por azúcar dice mucho”, Dijo Elleman.

Martinelli, la tirania no las declaro, pero las escondio

El Comunicador Hispano

Por Andrés Pascual

Hace más de 30 años que la colaboración de Nixon primero, Ford después y Carter como cerrador, le abrieron las puertas de la región al comunismo castrista.

El 99 % de los “mandatarios” de Latinoamérica de entonces (descontando a los “dictadores” que no soportaron que los americanos hicieran todo lo posible por derrocarlos, como Somoza, Baby Doc y Strossner o a quienes ayudaron a derrocar a Allende, la Junta Militar Chilena; otros, experimentos “democráticos” de la “izquierda socialista” que afilaban las uñas por el banquete por venir) se han comportado tan buenos con esos delincuentes que destruyeron a Cuba que, más que pena, en mi caso, lo que siento es el odio eterno y profundo sin posibilidades de “cambio”.

La política de concesiones al tirano trajo como consecuencia la América de hoy, sumida en el semi-esclavismo ideológico por voto democrático y en el neo absoluto por imposición de la política de robo y pillaje oficialista encubierta en “nacionalización”.

Una América, a fin de cuentas, como la soñó el KOMINTERN que envió a La Habana a Fabio Grobart a mediados de los 20’s, que se acabó tanto para su  soberanía individual como Cuba y, por lo que se ve, por la peligrosa corriente de decadencia socio-política de aceptación viciosa y auto-destructiva universal, hasta los propios Estados Unidos.

Desde 1970, cuando Chile “rompió el bloqueo” colectivo de las relaciones con la dictadura con la llegada al poder del comunista Allende, han existido un par de razones para que el castrismo siempre agarre el sartén por el mango: el miedo al inicio del foco guerrillero de los países hispanos o, si existía, a su fortalecimiento con todo el apoyo material y logístico soviético-búlgaro-castrista, más la sugerencia velada de Estados Unidos a que se tomaran pasos ¿positivos? para atraer a su vecino o hijo natural descarriado a su entorno natural, sin entrar en justificaciones ni tomando en cuenta que los comunistas no tienen entorno ni son hijos naturales, sino monstruos para quienes el mundo es su espiral enfermiza en intención de engullirse todo lo que puedan, desde América hasta África.

Una vez que Nixon creó la llamada POLÍTICA DE PRAGMATISMO REALISTA para aplicárselo solo a Cuba y Ford y Carter le dieron un acelerón de primera a partir de la Conferencia de Cancilleres de México de 1975, que resultó en “discusiones” bilaterales de buena voluntad entre el State Dept y el propio Carlos Rafael Rodríguez, todo ha marchado viento en popa en cuanto al objetivo americano con respecto a la dictadura castrista.

Lo de Ronald Reagan dio asco cuando le envió unas comitiva de civiles y militares a nadar a Cayo Coco, acompañados del propio Caníbal de Birán, para proponerle el cambio de armamento, el abandono de la Unión Soviética como aliado y a vivir sin problemas por siempre jamás el diablo en su madriguera; lo que no estuvo en agenda en aquellas “productivas y reveladoras conversaciones” fue la salida de los contingentes mercenarios castro-comunistas de África, con lo que se confirmó el rumor, revelado después, de que, además, las tropas de ocupación castro-soviéticas cumplían la tarea de cuidar los pozos petroleros de los socios de Castro bajo contrato, demócratas multi-millonarios del petróleo como el clan Rockefeller.

El error que le evitó parcialmente al Gran Comunicador su estigmatización como el Gran Traidor, fue que se les olvidó Radio Martí, descuido que enfureció al tirano, que lo consideró un paso desleal en la intención inminente de abrir “un nuevo mundo de felicidad hipotecada de relaciones de total mutuo beneficio”.

Castro respondió abandonando el nuevo guión que casi cambia todo para América Latina y hubiera dejado a Cuba en igual o peor situación que como estaba: propiedad del capital americano con la tiranía como capataz, todos igual de esclavos en la plantación o cimarrones nadie sabría dónde.

El Presidente panameño Ricardo Martinelli informó que las fuerzas de Seguridad del Canal (recuerde que Estados Unidos fue sustituido por China y, por lo menos yo, no sé si ha cambiado este panorama con relación al manejo de la vía interoceánica) había retenido un barco coreano proveniente de Cuba con material bélico.

La penetración castrista en el Itsmo da asco, intervienen en todo dentro del pequeño país, al que usan lo mismo para traficar armas que guerrilleros que como punto especial de lavado de dinero. Una gran parte del trabajo sucio de la tiranía se prepara en Panamá.

 A veces hay que regresar a décadas anteriores de la política de la 2da mitad del siglo pasado, esta vez, mediante la intención de incluir a Martinelli en el saco de aquellos “buenos tan buenos que comían mierda con respecto a Castro”, que creyeron algunos (otros lo vivían como militantes y lo desarrollaron como actividades de sus agendas rojas) en la política sugerida por Washington para resolverle de una vez el problema al tirano, consistente en hacerlo pasar como “la hija que se fue de puta, pero, a pesar de todo, hija es…” (palabras de Camilo José Cela en La Habana a finales de los 60’s, que molestaron muchísimo al “Sargento Tamal” y a la jauría seudo-intelectual sovietizada de entonces que mandaba la llamada Casa de las Américas), porque no es posible que este mandatario haya informado solo que “se retuvo un barco cubano rumbo a Corea del Norte que llevaba o traficaba armas”, sin explicar también que “escondidas entre sacos de azúcar”, y sin agregar que, sospechosamente, como política ordenada para solucionar debilidades ante entrevistadores especiales de inteligencia, el intento de suicidio de su capitán. Que hubiera sido lo mejor para desarmar la explicación fraudulenta tanto de Cuba como de Corea de “son obsoletas y tenían como objetivo repararse…” en un país proscrito de todas las leyes internacionales sobre compromisos de la agenda nuclear y las violaciones de Derechos Humanos.

Por cierto, una congresista demócrata vio el asunto como “un intento de La Habana para exportar al país sud-asiático su molde comunista, explotador y criminal”, con lo que puso en entredicho su capacidad para representar a un pueblo amenazado como el estadounidense, que lo está, nadie lo dude, por fuerzas enormes en lo doméstico y revanchistas de alto voltaje en lo exterior, desde semejante puesto de la alta política del país.

Este tipo de comegofio nativo, más la mala idea y el odio al blanco y a la nación que practican Obama y toda su Corte faraónica, acaban de regalarle a Raúl Castro la continuación de las conversaciones sobre temas de Inmigración por el gesto favorable y positivo de traficar materiales peligrosos para la guerra rumbo a Corea por el Canal de Panamá.

Si este “caretú” que se gasta Estados Unidos como “emperador” se tomara el trabajo de decir algo al respecto, que nadie dude que en menos de 15 días habilitará 25 nuevos decretos de beneficio a la tiranía.

Esa es su forma de tratar con esos bandidos como el buen bandido que también es, sin tener en cuenta que “la sangre de Trayvon Martin todavía está fresca y caliente” para la Media comunista que lo mantiene ahí.

Cuba gestionó encubrir escándalo de contrabando de armamento

martinoticias

Rolando Cartaya

En la tarde del martes, el Gobierno de Cuba hizo como quien presenta su renuncia antes de que lo boten. Ante el hallazgo por parte de las autoridades panameñas de lo que la consultoría de defensa IHS Jane’s identificó como un sistema de control de fuego antiaéreo por radar RSN-75 ‘Fan Song’ , La Habana hizo público el inventario completo del armamento oculto a bordo del buque norcoreano “Chong Chon Gang”, bajo la carga declarada de “Azúcar crudo cubano”.

“240 toneladas métricas de armamento defensivo obsoleto —dos complejos coheteriles antiaéreos Volga y Pechora, nueve cohetes en partes y piezas, dos aviones Mig-21 Bis y 15 motores de este tipo de avión”, enumeró impasible el MINREX. Después aseguró que “La República de Cuba reitera su firme e irrevocable compromiso con la paz, el desarme, incluido el desarme nuclear, y el respeto al Derecho Internacional”.

Pero al gobierno cubano podría no haberle quedado más remedio que hacer algún acopio de franqueza, después de que fracasara una gestión urgente por debajo de la mesa para encubrir el escándalo .

El ministro de Seguridad Pública de Panamá, José Raúl Mulino, se quejó este miércoles en declaraciones a la radioemisora local Noticias AM , de la poca transparencia del gobierno cubano, al recordar que el pasado sábado el vicecanciller de Cuba le pidió a las autoridades panameñas que liberaran el barco, aunque sin revelarles el contenido ilegal de la carga.

El titular dijo que el comunicado del MINREX le había permitido entender la reticencia del capitán del buque a cooperar y los variados intentos de amotinamiento de la tripulación desde el pasado miércoles, cuando la nave fue interceptada por orden de la Fiscalía de Drogas.

Mulino, un abogado especializado en derecho marítimo, señaló que lo que no está consignado en un conocimiento de embarque a través de los documentos apropiados, se considera contrabando o materia ilícita. “Además, el hecho de que yo declare que una mercancía esté dañada u obsoleta no implica que no la tenga que declarar en un conocimiento de embarque”.Lo único que declaró el Chong Chon Gang como carga a bordo fueron los 220 mil quintales de azúcar cubano.

El ministro panameño anticipó que después de terminar el registro de la bodega donde se encontraron los primeros equipos militares seguirán con las otras.

Indicó asimismo que técnicos y especialistas que llegarían a Panamá en el transcurso de esta semana deberán juzgar si el embarque clandestino de armamento violó resoluciones del Consejo de Seguridad de Naciones Unidas, en cuyo caso el asunto podría salir de la jurisdicción panameña y adscribirse a la de la ONU.

Ministro panameño José Raúl Mulino sobre falta de transparencia de Cuba

URGENCIA SURCOREANA

El gobierno de Corea del Sur, país que vive bajo permanente amenaza de sus vecinos del norte, fue de los primeros en reaccionar a la noticia, pidiendo al Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU que intervenga "con rapidez" en caso de que se confirme que el barco interceptado en Panamá procedente de Cuba transportaba misiles a Corea del Norte.

En un comunicado, el Ministerio de Exteriores de Seúl dijo que espera "que los procedimientos necesarios en el comité de sanciones del Consejo de Seguridad se apliquen con rapidez" en caso de que la carga interceptada por las autoridades panameñas viole las resoluciones de este organismo de la ONU., .

Las resoluciones del Consejo de Seguridad, que castigan los recientes ensayos nucleares y de misiles de Corea del Norte, prohíben expresamente al país implicarse en actividades relacionadas con el comercio de armas.

LAS BARDAS DE TU VECINO

El ministro de Seguridad de Costa Rica, Mario Zamora, manifestó mientras tanto que el hallazgo de presuntos lanza misiles en un barco de bandera norcoreana en Panamá, es una situación que preocupa a Centroamérica.

"Es altamente preocupante porque el escenario de este tipo de armamento pasando por nuestros territorios entraña riesgos de enormes proporciones", declaró Zamora a los periodistas tras ser preguntado sobre el tema.

El funcionario recordó que Centroamérica tiene suscritos mecanismos que prohíben el paso por la región de armas de destrucción masiva, por lo que consideró que "el paso de esta nave con misiles por Panamá es una afrenta".

"La lectura que hacemos es que estamos no solo frente a las amenazas clásicas provenientes del crimen organizado, si no que también tenemos en este escenario amenazas no convencionales transitando por nuestros territorios", expresó.

OJO CON CUBA

Por su parte Hugh Griffiths, experto en tráfico de armas del Centro de Investigación de la Paz de Estocolmo, manifestó a la agencia APHugh Griffiths, experto en tráfico de armas del Centro de Investigación de la Paz con sede en Estocolmo dijo a la la agencia AP que después de este incidente habría que enfocarse nuevamente en los vínculos entre Corea del Norte y Cuba.

Griffiths recordó que su institución le informó este año a la ONU que había descubierto pruebas de un vuelo desde Cuba a Corea del Norte que viajó a través de África central [lejos de las rutas aéreas internacionales].

"Dada la historia de Corea del Norte, la cooperación militar cubana y ahora esta última captura, ese vuelo cobra nueva relevancia", dijo el experto.

El Chon Chong Gang tiene un historial de detenciones bajo sospecha de tráfico de drogas y municiones, agregó.

SIN RASTRO

Otro grupo especializado, Lloyd’s List Intelligence señaló que en un tramo de su travesía hacia La Habana el  Chong Chon Gang desapareció del seguimiento satelital.

La agencia Reuters reporta, citando a Lloyds, que  la motonave fue rastreada cuando salía de Vostochnyy, Rusia, el 12 de abril

     
Después fue registrada en Balboa, en el lado del Pacífico del Canal de Panamá, el 31 de mayo; cruzó el canal al día siguiente con destino declarado La Habana, Cuba; y entonces desapareció del sistema de rastreo para reaparecer en Manzanillo, Panamá, el 11 de julio, según datos obtenidos por IHS Maritime. IHS dijo que había indicaciones de que había cambiado su carga en algún momento,

Según Lloyd’s, la desaparición del rastreo vía satélite indica que la tripulación pudo haber desconectado un dispositivo que transmite automáticamente la ubicación de la nave después que entró en el Caribe.

EN LA PRENSA

El servicio de noticias Bloomberg dice en un comentario que Raúl Castro tendrá que dar algunas explicaciones, y si se determina que la carga encubierta violó las sanciones de la ONU, sería un feo recordatorio del verdadero rostro de la dirigencia cubana y sus alianzas con los peores malhechores del mundo.

Bloomberg toma nota de que, hace apenas dos semanas, el jefe del Estado Mayor del ejército de Corea del Norte visitó La Habana. “Lo más probable es que no estuviera allí por los habanos”, apunta.

“A los  cubanos como mínimo se les debe  restregar en las narices este asunto en Naciones Unidas”, recomienda el comentario. En cuanto a la administración Obama “haría bien en exigir el fin de este tipo de transacciones como condición inamovible para cualquier mejora en las relaciones [bilaterales]”.

Por su parte el Wall Street Journal publica un artículo de un experto en asuntos coreanos de la Universidad de Leeds en Gran Bretaña, quien recuerda que el jefe del ejército de Corea del Norte, Kim Kyok Sik, dijo durante su reciente visita a La Habana que Cuba y su país estaban "en la misma trinchera."

Según el académico  Aidan Foster-Carter,el decomiso en Panamá, de armas cubanas ocultas bajo sacos de azúcar en un carguero norcoreano, parece confirmar esa imagen: los dos últimos regímenes comunistas de línea dura, luchando hombro con hombro, en la misma trinchera, contra las mareas de la globalización y la democracia.

Senators call on Obama to act over Cuban arms shipment to North Korea

worldnews

Arnulfo Franco / AP

Investigators look inside a recently opened container holding military equipment aboard the North Korean-flagged freighter Chong Chon Gang in Colon City, Panama, Wednesday.

By Ian Johnston, Staff Writer, NBC News

Leading Republican and Democrat senators called on President Barack Obama to act over a Cuban shipment of weapons and equipment to North Korea, as talks got under way about migration between the U.S. and Cuba.
A North Korean ship was stopped by Panama as it headed home with a cargo of rockets, missile parts and two Cold War-era fighter jets hidden among sacks of brown sugar.
United Nations sanctions ban the export of most military equipment to North Korea, though Havana said it was sending “obsolete” hardware to be repaired and then returned to Cuba.
Sen. Robert Menendez, the Democrat who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement that the shipment was “a grave violation of international treaties.”
“Weapons transfers from one communist regime to another hidden under sacks of sugar are not accidental occurrences, and reinforces the necessity that Cuba remain on the State Department’s list of countries that sponsor state terrorism,” he said.

A ship stocked with weapons and missiles was intercepted near the Panama Canal traveling from Cuba to North Korea.

“In addition to possible violations of Panamanian law, the shipment almost certainly violated United Nations Security Council sanctions on shipments of weapons to North Korea and as such, I call on the Obama administration to submit this case to the U.N. Security Council for review,” he added.
Sen. Marco Rubio, who gave the Republican response to Obama’s State of the Union address this year and is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry that the discovery of the shipment should “finally prompt the administration to re-calibrate its misguided and naïve Cuba policy.”
He said the U.S. should “immediately reverse its January 2011 decision easing restrictions on people-to-people travel and remittances sent to Cuba; as well as immediately halt granting visas to Cuban government officials.”
Rubio said Cuba’s actions were a “flagrant violation” of U.N. sanctions and “the latest reminder of the true nature of the Cuban regime.”
“I urge the Administration to take meaningful action to send a clear message that Cuban collusion with North Korea to undermine the international nonproliferation system carries heavy consequences,” he said.
Like Menendez, he also said the U.S. should raise the matter at the U.N. Security Council.
Both Rubio and Menendez are Cuban-Americans known as tough critics of Cuba's communist government.
Their comments, on Wednesday, came as Cuba’s delegation to Washington issued a statement saying talks with their U.S. counterparts took place in a “climate of respect.”
“A review was made of the evolution of the migration accords in force between the two countries and the main results of the individual and joint actions undertaken by the Parties to cope with illegal migration and alien smuggling,” the Cuban statement said.
It said also Cuba had ratified protocols to prevent people trafficking and smuggling of migrants.
U.S. officials said that they had used the meeting to again press Cuba to release jailed American contractor Alan Gross.
Gross is serving a 15-year sentence for installing Internet networks for Cuban Jews as part of a U.S. program that Cuba considers subversive.
Gross' arrest in late 2009 and sentencing in March 2011 halted a brief thaw in U.S.-Cuba relations after Obama took office in January 2009.
U.S. officials have said they plan to raise the issue of the weapons shipment to Cuba soon.
Meanwhile, international vessel tracking monitor IHS Fairplay said that it had established that five North Korean cargo ships had made similar journeys since 2010, including the O Un Chong Nyon Ho, which docked in Havana, Cuba, in May last year.

Mira como los cogieron transportando cohetes y aviones de guerra sin declarar

Raul con el general Kim Kyok a principios de mes en La Habana

el asunto no reside en que las armas sean 'defensivas y obsoletas' y fueran enviadas para su reparacion al unico lugar donde la anacronica tecnologia aun existe como afirman en la declaracion, sino que las mismas estaban convenientemente escondidas y no fueron declaradas a las autoridades del canal de panama como establecen los convenios internacionales. pero, y desde cuando los emperadores de castrolandia ha rendido cuenta de los movimientos y trafico de armas que llega incluso al empleo de valijas diplomaticas?

------------------ 

@EstrellaOnline 

Las dudas sobre el barco Chong Chon Gan con bandera norcoreana retenido la noche de este lunes en el puerto de Manzanillo en Colón, con supuesto cargamento bélico y que venía de Cuba, dispara también la interrogante sobre el vínculo entre las dos naciones comunistas.

Lo que no se sabe y lo que el gobierno panameño no ha dicho nada es saber el trasfondo de este barco que transportaba 220 mil quintales de azúcar.

¿Cuáles son las principales negociaciones bilaterales entre ambas naciones?

A inicios de este mes, una delegación militar norcoreana, encabezada por el general de Ejército Kim Kyok Sik, jefe del Estado Mayor General del Ejército Popular de Corea Democrática, realizó una visita a Cuba, reseñó el diario cubano Granma.

La prensa oficial cubana no precisó los temas tratados en los encuentros sostenidos por militares de ambos países; sin embargo, destacó que el general Kyok Sik, durante sus visitas, estuvo acompañado por el general de Cuerpo de Ejército Álvaro López Miera, “Héroe de la República de Cuba”, miembro del Buró Político del Partido Comunista, viceministro primero de las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias y jefe del Estado Mayor General.

En tanto, el sitio digital Cubainformación extrajo que la nación caribeña está vinculada con Corea del Norte en la defensa del socialismo frente a las agresiones del imperialismo estadounidense.

En 2009 ambos países firmaron varios convenios de cooperación en los sectores de la educación, petróleo, agricultura y comercio.

Cuba y la República Popular Democrática de Corea establecieron relaciones diplomáticas desde el 29 de agosto de 1960.

Declaración del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba >>

North Korean ship carrying hidden ’missile equipment’ detained after leaving Cuba

Ricardo Martinelli        ✔ @rmartinelli

Panamá capturo barco de bandera Norcoreana proveniente de cuba con cargamento bélico no declarado pic.twitter.com/MdWGfbXvVJ

 worldnews

By Ian Johnston and F. Brinley Bruton, NBC News

A North Korean ship carrying what is believed to be “sophisticated missile equipment” hidden in sugar containers was stopped while returning home from Cuba, Panama’s president said late Monday.

Speaking to Radio Panama, President Ricardo Martinelli said the captain of the ship tried to kill himself after officials began searching the consignment of sugar.

The vessel, which Martinelli did not name, was heading for the Panama Canal when it was stopped. It was then taken the port of Manzanillo to be searched.

“We suspected that it was carrying drugs and we brought it to port and we started verifying everything that was on the ship,” he said. “We started disembarking the sugar and found some containers that we believe are carrying sophisticated missile equipment."

Martinelli said that the ship was being held while a “more thorough investigation” was carried out.

He added that officials had taken photographs of the arms – one of which he posted on Twitter – “so that the world knows that you can’t transfer non-declared, war-like material through the Panama Canal.” 

“The Panama Canal is a canal of peace not of war,” he told the radio station.

Panamanian authorities have detained some 35 crew members, Reuters reported.

The vessel “aroused suspicion by the violent reaction of the captain and the crew from Friday afternoon,” Panama's Security Minister Jose Raul Mulino told the radio station, according to AFP.

And Javier Caraballo, an anti-drugs enforcement official, said: "Until now we have not found drugs in the boat, we found military equipment."

A spokeswoman for the Panama Canal told Reuters she did not have any more information and referred questions to the attorney general.  The attorney general's office did not immediately return requests for comment.

In April, Admiral Sam Locklear told Congress that the U.S. was capable of intercepting a missile launched by North Korea.

This came after months of heightened tensions due to missile and nuclear bomb tests by the North, during which it threatened to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike against U.S. and South Korean targets.

In October, 2012, North Korea claimed that the U.S. mainland was “within the scope” of its missiles.

There are fears Pyongyang is trying to build a missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead to the U.S.

Reuters contributed to this report.

U.S. Has Given Afghan Army More than $1 Billion in Ammo

breitbart

www.aco.nato.int

By AWR Hawkins 

A new oversight report from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction shows that the U.S. government has provided the Afghanistan National Army (ANA) over $1 billion worth of U.S. taxpayer funded ammunition.

The actual number is $1.03 billion; this cost is in addition to the $288 million in ammunition that the U.S. has also provided to the Afghan National Police (ANP).

In addition to bullets for both the ANA and the ANP, the U.S. has spent $3.4 billion for "equipment and transportation" for the ANP alone. Of this, $366,079,788 was used for weapon purchases, while over $2.6 billion was used for transportation purchases.

U.S. taxpayers have funded nearly $900 million worth of weapons purchases for the ANA as well.

Army Drone Like A Bird Attacked By Hawk

Business Insider
Brian Jones 

Researchers at the University of Maryland, funded by the U.S. Army, may have just taken drone warfare to the next level.

The Robo-Raven is a robotic bird, with wings that can flap independently of one another. This technology makes the aircraft appear like a live bird.

In fact, a YouTube video from the University of Maryland Robotics Department shows the Robo-Raven in flight, a flight so lifelike that the machine gets attacked by a hawk at 1:49 in the video.

“Our goal is to create a robotic bird that can do things that have never been done before,” Dr. S.K. Gupta, a professor at UMD’s Robotics Department, says in the video.

The tactical potential is outstanding. In Iraq and Afghanistan, insurgents have been known to bury weapons or disperse when they see or hear surveillance drones doing low passes. With the technology harnessed by the Robo-Raven, a surveillance drone could hover overhead and no one would have any idea.

Check out the Robo-Raven in action:

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/army-drone-like-a-bird-attacked-by-hawk-2013-6#ixzz2VqfxYN3p

US publishes details of top secret Israeli missile base

Russia Wants Steven Seagal as Face of Weapon Industry

breitbart

www.washingtonpost.com

(AP) MOSCOW--Russia is looking at Steven Seagal to be the face of its weapons industry as it guns for first place on the world arms market.

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said the action movie star may head up an international marketing campaign to promote the Degtarev arms plant, Russian news agencies reported. He accompanied Seagal on a visit there Tuesday.

"You're ready to fight American (manufacturers) with your teeth and your intellect, and if Americans are prepared to promote and support you, that says we're learning new ways to work on corporate warfare markets," Rogozin said.

Russian officials are big fans of Seagal, who met President Vladimir Putin in March and claimed to have set up a meeting with Rogozin for a Congressional delegation last week. 

War Games: Futuristic search and rescue vehicle

Bolivia compra aviones con donación venezolana

ELTIEMPO.COM

Evo Morales y Nicolás Maduro, en un reciente 
encuentro en La Paz. Foto: Efe

Bolivia tiene una deuda comercial con Venezuela por un poco más de 145 millones de dólares.

El presidente de Bolivia, Evo Morales, reveló  que su país compró nueve aviones de entrenamiento militar con fondos del programa ‘Bolivia cambia, Evo cumple’, que en el período 2006-2011 recibió donaciones de dinero de Venezuela.

En su discurso, Morales se refirió al asunto en un acto del Colegio Militar de Aviación de la ciudad de Santa Cruz (este), en medio de una polémica entre su gobierno y la oposición sobre el uso dado a los fondos de ese programa gubernamental en Bolivia.

Relató que en 2006, cuando llegó a la presidencia, encontró una Fuerza Aérea Boliviana (FAB) con “oficiales desmoralizados” y a sus familiares solicitando a gritos en los actos públicos que se compren los aviones de entrenamiento. “Para información de nuestro comandante, de nuestro oficial de la Fuerza Aérea Venezolana, y (con) parte del programa ‘Bolivia cambia’, compramos nueve aviones de entrenamiento. Muchas gracias hermano general, muchas gracias al pueblo venezolano”, sostuvo Morales, sin detallar la identidad de ese oficial.

Morales pidió en el acto, al que asistió dicho militar venezolano, “un aplauso como justo homenaje a esta cooperación incondicional, que lamentablemente algunos opositores, algunos políticos empresarios cuestionan”.

El mandatario no precisó si hubo fondos venezolanos usados de forma directa en la compra de las naves, aunque el plan ‘Bolivia cambia, Evo cumple’ recibió donaciones de ese país hasta 2011.

Morales se refirió al tema en medio de una polémica que hay en Bolivia sobre el uso otorgado a ese programa, tras la publicación de un estudio hecho por el opositor y empresario Samuel Doria Medina, que habló de una supuesta falta de transparencia en el plan.

El Gobierno ha rechazado las denuncias de Doria Medina y ha defendido que el plan se enfocó en obras para combatir la pobreza. Según el estudio de Doria Medina, en ese programa se gastó en seis años una suma de 438,7 millones de dólares, mientras que el gobierno, según el matutino La Razón, ha emitido informes en el sentido de que en el período 2007-2012 se gastaron 402 millones de dólares.

El gobierno boliviano también ha insistido estos días en aclarar que se trataron de donaciones y no de créditos de Venezuela, por lo que no hay deuda acumulada por los fondos del citado programa.

El único contrato de préstamo contraído con Venezuela data de 2008 y fue de 300 millones de dólares para la construcción de una carretera, pero de los que el Gobierno venezolano solo desembolsó 20 millones invertidos en el comienzo de las obras.

Aparte, Bolivia tiene una deuda comercial con Venezuela por la compra de gasóleo por un poco más de 145 millones de dólares.

La Paz
Efe

Obama reframes counterterrorism policy with new rules on drones

nbcpolitics

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

By Tom Curry, National Affairs Writer, NBC News

In a major address Thursday President Barack Obama sought to reframe the nation’s counterterrorism strategy, saying, “Our systematic effort to dismantle terrorist organizations must continue. But this war, like all wars, must end. That's what history advises. That's what our democracy demands.”

He said in a speech at the National Defense University in Washington, “We must define our effort not as a boundless 'global war on terror' - but rather as a series of persistent, targeted efforts to dismantle specific networks of violent extremists that threaten America."

In an attempt to define a new post-Sept. 11 era, Obama outlined new guidelines for the use of drones to kill terrorists overseas and pledged a

President Barack Obama discusses civilian casualties resulting from U.S. drone strikes while speaking Thursday at the National Defense University

renewed effort to close the military detention center in Guantanamo Bay.  In the speech, Obama argued that, “In the years to come, not every collection of thugs that labels themselves al Qaeda will pose a credible threat to the United States.” He warned that “unless we discipline our thinking and our actions, we may be drawn into more wars we don't need to fight.”

With efforts under way in Congress to redefine the 2001 authorization to use military force (AUMF) against al Qaida, Obama said he would work with Congress “in efforts to refine, and ultimately repeal, the AUMF's mandate. And I will not sign laws designed to expand this mandate further.”

Toward the end of Obama’s address as he discussed the Guantanamo detainees, he was repeatedly interrupted by heckling from Medea Benjamin, founder of the antiwar Code Pink, whose members have frequently been arrested for disrupting hearings on Capitol Hill – but Obama patiently said that Benjamin’s concerns are “something to be passionate about.”

“We must define the nature and scope of this struggle, or else it will define us, mindful of James Madison's warning that ‘No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.’ Neither I, nor any president, can promise the total defeat of terror,” he declared. 

As part of his redefinition of counterterrorism, the president announced several initiatives:

• Setting narrower parameters for the use of remotely piloted aircraft, or drones, to kill terrorists overseas and to limit collateral casualties;
• Renewing efforts to persuade Congress to agree to close the Guantanamo detention site in Cuba where 110 terrorist suspects are being held;
• Appointing a new envoy at the State Department and an official at the Defense Department who will attempt to negotiate transfers of Guantanamo detainees to other countries. 
• Lifting the moratorium he imposed in 2010 on transferring some detainees at Guantanamo to Yemen. Obama imposed that moratorium after it was revealed that Detroit “underwear bomber” Umar Farouq Abdulmuttalab was trained in Yemen.

Obama argued that when compared to the Sept. 11, 2001 attackers, “the threat today is more diffuse, with Al Qaeda's affiliates in the

Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP

President Barack Obama talks about national security, Thursday, May 23, 2013, at the National Defense University at Fort McNair in Washington.

Arabian Peninsula – AQAP – the most active in plotting against our homeland. While none of AQAP's efforts approach the scale of 9/11 they have continued to plot acts of terror, like the attempt to blow up an airplane on Christmas Day in 2009.”

So he said, “As we shape our response, we have to recognize that the scale of this threat closely resembles the types of attacks we faced before 9/11.”

He said that the current threat is often from “deranged or alienated individuals – often U.S. citizens or legal residents – (who) can do enormous damage, particularly when inspired by larger notions of violent jihad. That pull towards extremism appears to have led to the shooting at Fort Hood, and the bombing of the Boston Marathon.”

In discussing his drone strategy he indicated his remorse over the innocent people who had been killed: “it is a hard fact that U.S. strikes have resulted in civilian casualties, a risk that exists in all wars. For the families of those civilians, no words or legal construct can justify their loss. For me, and those in my chain of command, these deaths will haunt us as long as we live, just as we are haunted by the civilian casualties that have occurred through conventional fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.”

There remains considerable doubt about Obama’s ability to persuade a majority in Congress to change the current law on releasing detainees held there.

The defense spending bill which Obama signed into law last year prohibits any transfers to the United States of any detainee at Guantanamo who was held there on or before Jan. 20, 2009, the day Obama became president.

And the law sets a very high legal bar for Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to transfer a detainee to his country of origin, or to any other foreign country.

Hagel would need to certify to Congress that the detainee will not be transferred to a country that is a designated state sponsor of terrorism. The country must have agreed to take steps to ensure that the detainee cannot take action to threaten the United States, U.S. citizens, or its allies in the future.

The law allows Hagel to use waivers in some cases to transfer detainees.

Speaking a day before Obama’s speech, Ben Wittes, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and co-founder of the Lawfare blog which covers detainee news, said, “I don’t see any significant change in congressional sentiment right now” on closing the Guantanamo site.

“He’s got a lot of domestic pressure from his base to be seen to be doing something and he’s also got a hunger strike there (at Guantanamo) — and I think there’s a lot of genuine sentiment in the administration that they want to do something (about Guantanamo) so they’re committed to another push and trying again – but the question of what they actually could get done is a difficult question. There’s very limited latitude.”