Geopolitical – Week of 11.17.13

Fuel Rod Removal: Fukushima’s Most Dangerous Operation Yields First Successes
RT | 21 November 2013
Workers at the Fukushima nuclear power plant have successfully removed the first nuclear fuel rods…

US Congress Concerned Over China Shadow Banking
NHK World | 20 November 2013
A US Congressional report is calling for action to curb dubious financial practices connected with shadow banking in China…

Wikipedia Names Texas PR Firm Over False Manipulation of Site Entries
The Independent | 20 November 2013
Wikipedia has named and shamed a Texas-based public relations company…

U.N. Anti-Spying Resolution Weakened in Bid to Gain U.S., British Support
Reuters | 21 November 2013
A draft U.N. resolution that some diplomats said suggested spying in foreign countries could be a human rights violation…

Senate Banking Approves Janet Yellen Nomination
Politico | 21 November 2013
The Senate Banking Committee on Thursday voted to approve the nomination of Janet Yellen…

Senate Adopts New Rules on Filibusters
The Wall Street Journal | 21 November 2013
A bitterly divided Senate voted Thursday to ease the confirmation process…

Barry Seal, the CIA camp in Lacombe, & the JFK Assassination
Madcow Reporting News | 20 November 2013
It was in the sun-drenched Albuquerque study of one of America’s most prominent historians…

Netanyahu to Putin: Resolve Iran Like You Did Syria
RT | 20 November 2013
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has suggested Iran’s nuclear issue should be resolved with the same approach as Russia offered for Syria…

Secret U.S. Court Approved Wider NSA Spying Even After Finding Excesses
Reuters | 19 November 2013
A secret U.S. intelligence court let the National Security Agency collect an expanded amount of data about Americans’ email even after finding that the agency systematically exceeded the limits of a smaller program…

Israel, Gulf in ‘Strange Alliance’ Against Iran
Associated Press | 20 November 2013
When U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry made another stop in the Middle East this month, he received an expected earful over Washington’s outreach to Iran…

A Look at Iran Nuclear Sites From Mine to Reactor
Associated Press | 20 November 2013
Nuclear talks resume Wednesday between Iran and world powers after the last round stalled over issues that include Iran’s planned heavy water reactor and the levels of uranium enrichment…

Afghan-U.S. Security Pact in Limbo on Eve of Crucial Debate
Reuters | 20 November 2013
The United States and Afghanistan scrambled to try to finalize a crucial security pact on Wednesday…

Soundwave-Borne Viruses ‘Can Stop Fleets’
RT | 20 November 2013
Air gap jumping malware may undermine one of the pillars of America’s military might…

Tepco Transferred 22 New Fuel Assemblies to On-Premises Transportation Container
Fukushima Diary | 19 November 2013
Tepco started fuel removal of reactor 4 pool on 11/18/2013…

Investor Suits Challenged as Court Takes Halliburton Case
Bloomberg | 15 November 2013
The U.S. Supreme Court accepted a case with the potential to transform securities litigation…

Special Report: The Pentagon’s Doctored Ledgers Conceal Epic Waste
Reuters | 18 November 2013
Linda Woodford spent the last 15 years of her career inserting phony numbers in the U.S. Department of Defense’s accounts…

The Contractor Spies: Hackers for Hire and a Shadow Army
Süddeutsche Zeitung International | 17 November 2013
A hacker-for-hire costs the U.S. government $117.99 per hour…

Iran Unveils What It Says Is Its Biggest Drone
USA Today | 18 November 2013
Iran unveiled a new aircraft Monday that it says is the biggest drone yet to be developed in the Islamic Republic, capable of staying aloft for up to 30 hours…

Iranian Dissidents say Iran Has Built Secret New Nuclear Site
Reuters | 18 November 2013
An exiled Iranian opposition group said on Monday it had information about an underground nuclear site being built in Iran and that this was among a number of secret venues for an atomic bomb program…

Coming Soon: A Japanese DARPA, Call It DARPA-SAN…
Giza Death Star | 17 November 2013
Ms. P.H. sent this to me, and I find it interesting on a number of levels…

Remove TEPCO Before Removing Fuel
Fairewinds | 14 November 2013
Fairewinds has fielded a number of questions regarding the removal of the fuel rods from the spent fuel pool in Unit 4 at Fukushima Daiichi…

Bloomberg News Suspends Reporter Whose Article on China Was Not Published
The New York Times | 17 November 2013
A reporter for Bloomberg News who worked on an unpublished article about China, which employees for the company said had been killed for political reasons by top Bloomberg editors, was suspended last week by managers…

Tepco Successfully Removes First Nuclear Fuel Rods at Fukushima
Bloomberg | 18 November 2013
Tokyo Electric Power Co. successfully removed the first nuclear fuel rods today from a cooling pool at the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant…

Australia’s Spy Agencies Targeted Indonesian President’s Mobile Phone
The Guardian | 17 November 2013
Secret documents revealed by Edward Snowden show Australia tried to monitor the mobile calls of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his wife…

NSA Grapples with Huge Increase in Records Requests
USA Today | 18 November 2013
Fueled by the Edward Snowden scandal, more Americans than ever are asking the National Security Agency if their personal life is being spied on…

13-Year Saga Comes To An End
The Hindu | 16 November 2013
The induction brings the curtains down on a 13-year saga of carrier reconstruction marred by recurrent time slippages…