FBI

FBI probe of Petraeus' emails purportedly led to discovery of extramarital affair

Published November 10, 2012

The FBI investigation that led to the discovery of CIA Director David Petraeus’ extramarital affair and his resignation Friday started when the agency began monitoring Petraeus’ email, Fox News has learned.

The agency was alerted that biographer Paula Broadwell, with whom Petraeus had the affair, may have had access to his personal email account.

The FBI investigation began when someone reported suspicious emails allegedly sent from Broadwell. The agency then determined that she allegedly had emailed a number of government employees. The FBI was at one point trying to determine whether any of the employees were being stalked, sources told Fox News.

The FBI investigation started with a complaint several months ago about “harassing” e-mails from Broadwell to an unidentified third person, a government official briefed on the case told The New York Times on Saturday.

Federal agents reportedly discovered the exchanges between Broadwell and Petraeus when following up on the complaint,  according to The Times' source, whom the newspaper said spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The person who complained about Broadwell's purported harassing messages was not a family member nor a government official. 

A congressional official who was briefed on the matter Friday said senior intelligence officials had explained that the FBI. investigation “started with two women," the newspaper reported.

Broadwell told Fox News earlier this year when talking about the biography “All In: The Education of General David Petraeus” that she met the retired four-star Army general when she was post-graduate student at Harvard and he came to the university to speak.

They kept in touch via email and went running together when she came to Washington, Broadwell said on Don Imus’ Fox Business show.

“He gave me his card,” said Broadwell, who co-wrote the book. “We kept in touch.”

Broadwell also called Petraeus’ wife of 38 years, Holly Petraeus, “a wonderful military spouse.”

Source said the FBI investigation ended when the agency determined no criminal acts had been committed.

FBI spokesman Paul Bresson has declined to comment on the information that the affair had been discovered in the course of an investigation by the agency.

A senior staffer with the House Intelligence Committee tells Fox News that Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich. has been briefed on the resignation, adding that, "Rogers has serious questions and serious concerns about the resignation and circumstances surrounding it."

Sources sum up the sentiment about the situation as, "What the heck is going on at the agency?"   

These sources tell Fox News that there is serious concern whether the chairman and ranking members of the committee were given appropriate notification by the FBI that Petraeus had surfaced within the scope of an investigation.

Petraeus, who turned 60 on Wednesday, met his wife when he was a cadet at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. She was the daughter of the academy superintendent. They have two children, and their son led an infantry platoon in Afghanistan.

Holly Petraeus also works in the Obama administration, for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 

Petraeus met with President Obama on Thursday before submitting his letter of resignation, which the president accepted.  In a message to staff, Petraeus said he asked "to be allowed" to step down. 

"After being married for over 37 years, I showed extremely poor judgment by engaging in an extramarital affair. Such behavior is unacceptable, both as a husband and as the leader of an organization such as ours," the retired four-star general said. "This afternoon, the President graciously accepted my resignation."

The move comes amid the unfolding controversy surrounding the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya. Scrutiny has fallen on a range of agencies including the CIA, and the director had been set to testify at hearings next week -- he is no longer expected to do so. But Petraeus, in his resignation message, cited strictly "personal reasons" surrounding the affair. 

Obama, in a written statement, said Petraeus provided an "extraordinary service to the United States for decades." 

"By any measure, he was one of the outstanding General officers of his generation, helping our military adapt to new challenges, and leading our men and women in uniform through a remarkable period of service in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he helped our nation put those wars on a path to a responsible end," Obama said. The White House has named Michael Morell, the agency's deputy director, to serve as acting director. 

The decision abruptly ends the public-service career of one of the military's most vaunted leaders. He led the surge in Iraq, and was later tapped to lead U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan -- following two years at the helm of U.S. Central Command. In April 2011, Obama again tapped Petraeus to lead the CIA. 

He leaves just three days after Obama was elected to a second term, and amid a challenging environment for the country's intelligence community -- which is dealing with not just rogue nations like Iran, but a changing landscape elsewhere as a result of the Arab Spring. It has been confirmed that the U.S. compound that was attacked in Libya housed CIA operatives as well as State Department staff. 

The intelligence community subsequently came under scrutiny when some officials suggested the administration initially claimed the attack was "spontaneous" only because of the intelligence assessments at the time. 

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said Friday that Petraeus' resignation "represents the loss of one of our nation's most respected public servants."

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill expressed similar sentiments. 

"General David Petraeus will stand in the ranks of America's greatest military heroes. His inspirational leadership and his genius were directly responsible -- after years of failure -- for the success of the surge in Iraq," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said. "General Petraeus has devoted his life to serving the country he loves, and America is so much the better for it."

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EXCLUSIVE

EXCLUSIVE: Petraeus mistress may have revealed classified information at Denver speech on real reason for Libya attack

By Jennifer Griffin, Adam Housley

Published November 12, 2012

Biographer Paula Broadwell could be facing questions about whether she revealed classified information about the Libya attack that she was privy to due to her relationship with then-CIA Director David Petraeus.

At an Oct. 26 speech at her alma mater, the University of Denver, on the same day that Fox News reported that the rescue team at the CIA annex had been denied help, Broadwell was asked about Petraeus’ handling of the Benghazi situation.

Her response was reported originally by Israel’s Arutz Sheva and Foreign Policy’s Blake Hounshell.

Broadwell quoted the Fox News report when she said: “The facts that came out today were that the ground forces there at the CIA annex, which is different from the consulate, were requesting reinforcements."

Broadwell went on to explain more sensitive details from the Benghazi attacks, particularly concerning what the real cause might have been. 

“Now, I don't know if a lot of you heard this, but the CIA annex had actually, um, had taken a couple of Libyan militia members prisoner and they think that the attack on the consulate was an effort to try to get these prisoners back. So that's still being vetted.”

Click here to watch Broadwell's speech on YouTube. 

In the original Oct. 26 Fox News report, sources at the annex said that the CIA’s Global Response Staff had handed over three Libyan militia members to the Libyan authorities who came to rescue the 30 Americans in the early hours of Sept. 12.

A well-placed Washington source confirms to Fox News that there were Libyan militiamen being held at the CIA annex in Benghazi and that their presence was being looked at as a possible motive for the staged attack on the consulate and annex that night.

According to multiple intelligence sources who have served in Benghazi, there were more than just Libyan militia members who were held and interrogated by CIA contractors at the CIA annex in the days prior to the attack. Other prisoners from additional countries in Africa and the Middle East were brought to this location.

The Libya annex was the largest CIA station in North Africa, and two weeks prior to the attack, the CIA was preparing to shut it down. Most prisoners, according to British and American intelligence sources, had been moved two weeks earlier.

The CIA categorically denied these allegations in response to a query by reporter Eli Lake: “The CIA has not had detention authority since January 2009, when Executive Order 13491 was issued. Any suggestion that the agency is still in the detention business is uninformed and baseless.”

Broadwell’s affair with Petraeus was likely known to Holly Petraeus, according to family friends. The FBI reportedly knew about it months beforehand and White House Counterterrorism adviser John Brennan reportedly was aware that there was a relationship as early as the summer of 2011.

Broadwell, whose affair with Petraeus reportedly ended earlier this year, continued to serve as an informal spokesman for the CIA director. She suggests in her Denver speech that Petraeus knew almost immediately that the attack was a terror attack -- possibly to free militia members.

A few days later, Petraeus testified in a closed session to Congress that the attack was due in large part to an anti-Islam video and a spontaneous uprising, according to reports from the hearing.

Congressional leaders say privately they believe they were lied to by Petraeus when he testified shortly after the attack. Some of these members already considered charging Petraeus with perjury, but said they planned to withhold judgment until he testified this week. After resigning as CIA director, the CIA said Acting Director Mike Morrell would testify in his place.

All of this raises the question: What was the CIA really doing in Benghazi in addition to searching for Qaddafi’s stash of more than 22,000 shoulder-held missiles that could bring down commercial airplanes, and who in the White House knew exactly what the CIA was up to.

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NEWS

Democrats, Republicans seem more ready to compromise on deficit deal

Published November 12, 2012

Democratic and Republican leaders appeared Sunday to draw closer to reaching a compromise on keeping the country from going off the fast-approaching “fiscal cliff” -- with closing tax loopholes for America’s highest earners emerging as the potential middle ground.

Republican Sen. Bob Corker suggested that getting more revenue from the country’s highest-earners should be part of the mix but only by closing loopholes, not increasing taxes, and only if Democrats agree to cut federal spending.

"I am optimistic," Corker said on "Fox News Sunday." "I think there is the basis for the deal.”

The Tennessee senator also said party leaders could find likely compromise on generating revenue but the real challenge will be cutting back on such government programs as Social Security and food stamps, known as entitlements.

Economists and others warn the country could go over the fiscal cliff in January when tax cuts for many Americans expire while nearly $1 trillion in federal cuts begin.

The automatic, across-the-board cuts are the result of Congress and the White House failing to compromise on a more measured way to cut the federal deficit.

Congress is under pressure to reach a deal in its so-called lame duck session because an estimated $600 billion in federal spending cuts and tax increases take effect at the end of December. And President Obama has invited congressional leaders to the White House on Friday to discuss the issue.

The president wants to extend tax cuts for families that make less than $250,000 annually.

New York Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer said Sunday he agrees with House Republicans who steadfastly say more cuts to federal spending are needed. However, he disagreed with the idea that tax cuts result in deficit reductions and increased government revenue.

“It doesn't make sense,” he said on NBC's "Meet the Press. “I call it Rumpelstiltskin, after the gnome who turned straw into gold. It's a fairy tale.”

David Axelrod, a top adviser on Obama’s reelection campaign, said he was encouraged by House Speaker John Boehner signaling willingness last week to close the loopholes to help cut the deficit.

“I think there are a lot of ways to skin this cat, so long as everybody comes with a positive, constructive attitude toward the task,” he said on CBS's "Face the Nation."

A similar plan was suggested by the commission created by Obama and led by Republican Alan Simpson and Democrat Erskine Bowles.

Democrat Kent Conrad, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee also expressed optimism but suggested Congress agree on plan that would at least give lawmakers enough time to reach a more comprehensive deal to overhaul the entitlement program and the tax code.

"You can't settle every detail in these next few weeks,” he said on Fox.  “What you can do is agree on a framework."
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Israeli Air force strikes multiple terror targets in Gaza

Attacks ordered after terrorists fire more than 30 rockets at southern Israel and after an earlier attack injured four soldiers near the border

By AP and TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF November 11, 2012, 4:11 am

 The IDF targeted a weapons manufacturing facility, two weapons storage facilities, and two rocket-launching sites in the northern Gaza Strip early Sunday morning, the IDF Spokesman’s Office reported.
The air strikes came in response to a barrage of rocket fire from Gaza Saturday night, during which southern Israel was bombarded by more than 30 rockets and mortars.The cross-border fire followed an earlier terrorist attack that injured four soldiers, two of them severely.There were no reports of injuries in the rocket fire, although a woman in Ashdod broke her leg running to a safe area as a rocket alarm sounded.
 A car took a direct hit in a town in the Sha’ar Hanegev region adjacent to the Gaza Strip.Schools were ordered closed Sunday in the town of Gan Yavne. Commercial traffic through the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel into Gaza was also canceled.

The mayors of Ashdod and Ashkelon were deliberating early Sunday morning whether or not to open schools.

Rockets fell in the Hof Ashkelon and Eshkol regions, with at least one rocket reported to have landed near a kibbutz. One rocket hit a power line in a town in the Eshkol region, causing local power outages.

Alarms also sounded in the Ashdod and Ashkelon areas. The Iron Dome missile defense system shot down three rockets heading toward residential areas in Ashdod and Ashkelon.
Residents of communities adjacent to the Gaza Strip were told to remain within 15 seconds of sealed rooms or other safe areas.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the IDF had responded severely to the terrorist fire and will consider additional responses in the upcoming
days.“We will not let such border incidents go unanswered,” said Barak.

Earlier Saturday the IDF reported that it targeted and hit a rocket-launching squad in the northern Gaza Strip just after the squad had fired rockets. The spokesperson’s unit did not report on casualties. Palestinian sources said one member of the squad was killed and one was injured; they said the crew were likely from Islamic Jihad.

Palestinian media reported that Islamic Jihad’s military wing, the al-Quds Brigades, claimed responsibility for the majority of the rockets fired at southern Israel, while the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine’s Abu Ali Mustafa Brigade and various other factions claimed responsibility for the remainder.

Hamas said it had ordered its facilities evacuated in anticipation of the air strike.

The dramatic escalation came after an anti-tank missile fired from the Gaza Strip struck and penetrated an Israeli army jeep patrolling some 200 meters inside the Israeli border with Gaza, injuring four soldiers on Saturday evening.

Retaliatory strikes by the IDF against terrorists in the Gaza Strip left four Palestinians killed and roughly 30 wounded.

Ashraf al-Kidra, a Gaza health ministry spokesman, said all four Palestinians killed were civilians between the ages of 16 and 18 and that among the wounded were some children.

In a text message to reporters, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum threatened to respond.

“Targeting civilians is a dangerous escalation that cannot be tolerated. The resistance has the full right to respond to the Israeli crimes,” he said.

The upsurge in rocket attacks followed soon after.

A statement issued by Hamas, which rules Gaza, said all Israeli military targets were “legitimate” objects of attack.

A senior Islamic Jihad official said, following the attack on Gaza, that Gaza terrorist groups “will not give the Zionist enemy calm for free.”

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ASIA

China activist yearns for democracy, not isles

Amid crackdown at home, exile advocates for reform from Japan

By MARI YAMAMOTO

Kyodo

Amid the acrimonious Senkakus rift, calls in China for moderation are being drowned out by the invective Japanese and Chinese hardliners are trading.

Dreaming of democracy: Chinese rights activist Han Guang displays his book "Bomei" ("Exile") in Tokyo on Nov.3. KYODO

Human rights activist Han Guang, one of the few Chinese moderates on the Senkaku Islands issue, said the dispute is the last thing he hoped to see when China is on the verge of a once-in-a-decade leadership change.

"The more the territorial row escalates, the more hard-line China becomes, strengthening dictatorial elements in the Chinese government," he said.

Han, 54, who has also worked since the 1990s to help Chinese former "comfort women" — females who were forced into sexual slavery to serve the Imperial Japanese Army during the war — is a strong advocate for democracy in China.

He returned to Japan in 2008, where he had lived as a graduate student, to advocate for China's democratization from abroad after finding it impossible to openly engage in political activism at home.

Han published the book "Bomei" ("Exile") last year and released the documentary film "Outside the Great Wall" to increase understanding among the global community of persistent human rights abuses in China despite its meteoritic economic rise.

But his efforts have attracted scant attention in Japan, and despite making frequent public speeches, the events rarely draw more than a few dozen people.

Han noted that while a vibrant human rights drive has been launched in the West to help Chinese dissidents such as artist Ai Weiwei and Nobel Peace Prize laureate and rights activist Liu Xiaobo, "Japanese people seem to be the least interested in this issue among the world's major industrialized countries, although some rightist elements in Japan exploit it for China-bashing purposes."

On the Japan-controlled Senkaku islets, called Diaoyu and claimed for decades by Beijing, Han said, "ordinary Chinese are irate because they (repeatedly) see images of atrocities (Japan's army) committed during the war on television and the Internet."

"They still feel wronged because the enormous amount of money Japan paid China as economic aid instead of reparations for the war never reached individual Chinese victims."

He also believes many Chinese protesters used the recent anti-Japan rallies to vent their anger over all manner of economic and social grievances that have little to do with Japan's nationalization of the Senkakus, since they have no recourse to raise these issues.

"Such protestors are no heroes. True heroes are people like those who risked their lives by standing in the way of tanks during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests," Han said.

Nonetheless, he urged the Japanese public to show compassion for Chinese people living under an autocratic government, and is confident bilateral relations will improve if China becomes a democracy.

"Fear of a reign of terror is embedded in (Chinese people's) DNA because countless dissidents have been executed in China for thousands of years," Han said. "Chinese cannot confide their innermost feelings even to their compatriots, so how can they talk frankly with Japanese?

"Repression of free speech in China makes it impossible to forge candid relations between the two peoples. If China is democratized and its leaders govern in a way that reflects the desires of ordinary Chinese, it will become possible to build closer bilateral ties.

"To enable this, it is vital for (Tokyo and Beijing) not to engage in any sovereignty row that, both in Japan and China, plays into the hands of Chinese hardliners seeking to exploit the bad blood between the two countries to consolidate their hold on power, cracking down on internal dissent and resorting to a military buildup."

More defense-related spending simply deprives the poor in both Japan and China of precious funds, he said.

Meanwhile, Han lamented the bilateral relationship's fragile state, which means it remains vulnerable to the slightest provocation by either side.

"I personally think it is better to leave the Senkakus in their natural state, unspoiled by any development work. If both countries renounce ownership of the isles, the gesture would serve as a testament to their goodwill" toward one another, he said.

According to Han, one of the few recent bright spots was a petition drive launched in China in October calling for reconciliation between the two countries, and which resulted in more than 450 Chinese intellectuals signing a joint statement online deploring the anti-Japanese rioting that erupted in September.

While indicating Japan's nationalization of three of the Senkaku islets reflects its lack of contrition over war crimes its forces committed in China, the petitioners admitted many Japanese have apologized for their wartime actions, and have also worked to establish peaceful relations and assist China's economic development.

The petitioners asserted that Japan and China should shelve the territorial dispute for the time being and avoid exacerbating the ruckus by fanning latent nationalistic sentiment. But since many of the most prominent petitioners are blacklisted by Beijing, their opinions will matter little in China, Han conceded.

Han is continuing to push China's democratization and despite fearing reprisals from Chinese authorities, he is determined to continue visiting his homeland once or twice a year to support the aging comfort women.

However, his dream of a democratic China remains distant, given the resounding silence of Chinese dissidents after Beijing's crackdown last year on efforts to prompt a "Jasmine Revolution" akin the uprising that saw democracy introduced in Tunisia.
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To our veterans --thank you for your service

To our veterans --thank you for your service

Thank you for stepping forward when others step back.

Thank you for placing yourself between us and danger.

Thank you for delaying plans for college, marriage, and other opportunities and choosing to serve.

Thank you for braving the unspeakable horrors of war.

Thank you for sacrificing time with your families and missing those significant milestones the rest of us take for granted.

Thank you to your spouses who find themselves living nomadic lives, often far away from the support of loved ones.

Thank you to your children who accept your absence as a way of life and understand they share you with a nation and sometimes the world.

Thank you to your parents who have nothing but prayers to protect you and must now trust you will be safe and that we will offer the best we have to you.

Thank you for continuing to support your country once you leave military service by following new careers and becoming the teachers, clergy, business owners, employees, pilots, civil servants and so much more that we need to be a successful society.

Thank you for involving yourself in your local community, your state, and your country, helping us to solve problems and to create a vision for our future using the skills you learned during your tour of duty.  

Thank you for being a conscience to our nation.

Thank you for serving as a heroic example of who we are and what we can dream to be.

Thank you for your service.

Author’s note:  My friend Kim Adams Lowe inspired this column.  Kim is a Korean War veteran’s daughter, a former Air Force officer and an Air Force spouse.  Over the years of our friendship, I have heard her say, “Thank you for your service,” to airmen serving as color guards, to military men and women traveling on leave, and to a barbershop quartet whose members are retired military. She has even said it to me.  “One year or twenty,” she announces when I comment on her greeting, “they all deserve it.”

She’s right.

The military can be a grand life, but there isn’t a fighter squadron, destroyer, or combat team that doesn’t know what it is like to lose people. Even in peacetime, soldiering is dangerous work and always has been.

Please, let us never forget that freedom comes at a price.

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Chris Matthews on Obama win: 'I'm so glad we had that storm'

Published November 07, 2012

FoxNews.com

To all the millions of victims of Superstorm Sandy, Chris Matthews has a message: "I'm so glad." 

The MSNBC host, on a panel of pro-Obama pundits including Rachel Maddow, ended election coverage overnight by saying he's "glad" the storm hit, suggesting it served a greater good by boosting President Obama to a second term. 

"I'm so glad we had that storm last week," Matthews said, after interjecting to give some final thoughts. Somebody off-screen could be heard saying "ooo" at that remark, but Matthews confidently put his hand up to explain. 

"No, politically I should say -- not in terms of hurting people. The storm brought in possibilities for good politics," he said. 

Click to see the video. 

The death toll from that storm, which cost billions of dollars in damage, is now well over 100. Many in the path of the storm's wrath -- in New Jersey, New York and elsewhere - lost their homes or their cars or were otherwise displaced. The storm wreaked havoc on Election Day, as officials scrambled to faciliate the vote with many precincts facing power outages and fuel shortages. 

Some analysts did say the storm boosted Obama's image by allowing him to show a bipartisan side -- reaching out to Republican Gov. Chris Christie, who publicly thanked Obama for the federal government's support -- and effectively sidelining Mitt Romney for a few days one week before the election. 

Exit polls also showed about four in 10 voters said Obama's response to Sandy was important to their vote, and they backed the president by more than a two-to-one margin. 

Matthews, though, was oddly upbeat in describing the political impact. He made the Sandy comment after ripping Republicans for their "assault" on the president. 

"I am so proud of the country. To re-elect this president and overcoming -- not because of the partisanship or even the policies -- just the fact, here's an African guy,  African-American guy with an unusual background -- part immigrant background, part African-American background -- with all this assault on him from day one. From Mitch McConnell, from the clowns out there that aren't elected, never will be to anything," he said. "And the way he took it, as someone said, with coolness and charm and dignity and just took it and took it and kept moving forward and doing his job. ... A good day for America."
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President Obama, where are the tears for those you lead?

By Alice Stewart

Published November 10, 2012

FoxNews.com

The leader of the free world let his emotions flow this week, crying as he thanked staffers the day after his re-election. The tears of joy were humanizing, but it begs the question: where are the tears of heartache for those who are suffering?

Where are the tears for the 23 million Americans out of work who worry about putting food on the table, the Hurricane Sandy victims who are still without power or without a home, and where were the tears as the four flag-draped coffins returned from Benghazi?  

Our leader is able to witness the country’s worst heartbreak without a tear, yet when he experiences personal victory, he weeps.

We have people crying out for jobs and a better life.  The president’s answer is to redistribute the wealth and provide the poor a subsistence-level income.

We have storm victims wading through sewage on the East Coast to find the smallest possession, and our president dons his Barack O’Bomber jacket for a photo op and jets off to the campaign trail.

We have a terror attack on 9-11 in Benghazi, and our leader hops on a plane to Vegas to fill his campaign coffers.

President Obama appears stoic through America’s worst pain, yet can’t keep his composure when his own job is saved.  That’s enough to make a grown man cry.

Don’t get me wrong, in this day and age of “politics ain’t beanbag,” I find it refreshing to see our elected officials show their softer side.

President George W. Bush cried during a Congressional Medal of Honor ceremony honoring Navy SEAL Petty Officer Michael Monsoor.  

Now Secretary of State Hillary Clinton cried during a 2008 presidential campaign stop in New Hampshire.  Secretary Clinton choked up while commenting that she didn’t want to see the country fall backwards.

And Speaker of the House John Boehner is known for crying at the drop of a hat. Yet the Speaker generally tears up when talking about the American dream.

These leaders mourn for others and the future of our country, not President Obama.  

We have 23 million Americans looking for work, four deaths in a terror attack at the U.S. Consulate in Libya, and a death toll of more than one hundred as a result of Hurricane Sandy; all this and not a visible tear from our president.  Yet, the Commander in Chief keeps his own job and he’s a wailing wall.

While our president gets misty-eyed over his personal milestone, I can assure you there is a trail of tears across this country.  Along the campaign trail from South Carolina to California, I saw tears from selfless Americans who want our country to succeed.

There is the grandmother in North Dakota who choked up as she voiced concerns about the Obama administration’s growing debt and the burden it will place on her children.

I saw the tear-filled face of an influential conservative woman in Iowa concerned about how President Obama’s mandates will infringe on our religious liberties.

And there was the mega-church pastor in Florida, urging his congregation to vote their conservative values.  You couldn’t find a dry eye in the place.  The pastor illustrated his point with the story of NFL Coach Tony Dungy who ministered to a troubled teen while dealing with the loss of his own son.

Dungy talks about that “service above self” concept in his book Mentor Leader.  He writes: “It’s not about me, it’s not about you, it’s about others.”

Mr. President – once you dry your eyes after celebrating your good fortune, open your eyes and take a serious look at the needs of those you lead.  Because it’s not about you, it’s about others.

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NEWS WORLD

At least 12 feared dead after strong earthquake strikes Bur

 November 11, 2012

Associated Press

YANGON, Burma –  A strong earthquake of magnitude-6.8 struck northern Myanmar on Sunday, collapsing a bridge and a gold mine, damaging several old Buddhist pagodas and leaving as many as 12 people feared dead.

A slow release of official information left the actual extent of the damage unclear after Sunday morning's strong quake. Myanmar has a poor official disaster response system, despite having lost upward of 140,000 people to a devastating cyclone in 2008.

Myanmar's second-biggest city of Mandalay reported no casualties or major damage as the nearest major population center to the main quake Mandalay lies about 117 kilometers (72 miles) south of the quake's epicenter near the town of Shwebo.

Smaller towns closer to the main quake's epicenter were worse hit.

The area surrounding the epicenter is underdeveloped, and casualty reports were coming in piecemeal, mostly from local media. The region is a center for mining of minerals and gemstones, and several mines were reported to have collapsed.

The evening news on state television showed Vice President Sai Maul Hkam visiting the town of Thabeikyin, where the report said damage included 102 homes, 21 religious buildings, 48 government offices and four schools. The town, a gold-mining center, is near the quake's epicenter and had casualties of three dead and 35 injured. The report brought total officially confirmed casualties to six killed and 64 injured.

Independently compiled tallies suggested a death toll of about a dozen.

An official from Myanmar's Meteorological Department said the magnitude-6.8 quake struck at 7:42 a.m. local time.

The U.S. Geological Society reported a 5.8-magnitude aftershock later Sunday, but there were no initial reports of new damage or casualties.

State television warned residents that aftershocks usually follow a major earthquake and told people to stay away from high walls, old buildings and structures with cracks in them.

The biggest single death toll was reported by a local administrative officer in Sintku township -- on the Irrawaddy River near the quake's epicenter -- who told The Associated Press that six people had died there and another 11 were injured.

He said some of the dead were miners who were killed when a gold mine collapsed. He spoke on condition of anonymity because local officials are normally not allowed to release information to the media.

Rumors circulated in Yangon of other mine collapses trapping workers, but none of the reports could be confirmed.

According to news reports, several people died when a bridge under construction across the Irrawaddy River collapsed east of Shwebo. The bridge linked the town of Sintku, 65 kilometers (40 miles) north of Mandalay on the east bank of the Irrawaddy, with Kyaukmyaung on the west bank.

The website of Weekly Eleven magazine said four people were killed and 25 injured when the bridge, which was 80 percent finished, fell. The local government announced a toll of two dead and 16 injured. All of the victims appeared to be workers.

However, a Shwebo police officer, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said just one person was confirmed dead from the bridge's collapse, while five were still unaccounted for.

Weekly Eleven also said two monasteries in Kyaukmyaung collapsed, killing two people.

"This is the worst earthquake I felt in my entire life," Soe Soe, a 52-year-old Shwebo resident, told The Associated Press by phone.

She said that the huge concrete gate of a local monastery collapsed and that several sculptures from another pagoda in the town were damaged.

Other damage was reported in Mogok, a major gem-mining area just east of the quake's epicenter. Temples were damaged there, as were some abandoned mines.

"Landslides occurred at some old ruby mines, but there were no casualties because these are old mines," Sein Win, a Mogok resident, said by phone.

State television reported that more than a dozen pagodas and stupas in five townships were damaged, and many of them had their so-called "umbrellas" atop the dome-shaped structures crash down.

The uppermost parts of the domes usually contain encased relics of the Buddha and small Buddha images, and sometimes jewels. Damage to them is taken as an especially bad omen.

Sein Win said police were guarding a damaged stupa in Mogok and its exposed relics.

Many people in Myanmar are superstitious, and it is likely that local soothsayers will point out that the quake occurred on the 11th day of the 11th month.

State television also reported that the tremors shifted the Mingun Bell, which people in Myanmar claim is the world's largest functioning bell, off its base. The nearly 4-meter-high (12-foot-high) bell, which weighs in at 90 metric tons (200,000 pounds), was installed in 1810 and is a popular tourist attraction at a pagoda outside Mandalay.

A resident of Naypyitaw, which is 365 kilometers (225 miles) south of the quake's epicenter, said several windowpanes of the parliament building had broken.

The epicenter is in a region frequently hit by small temblors that usually cause little damage. Myanmar suffered a quake of similar size in March last year near the northeastern border town of Tachileik. Last year's 6.8 magnitude quake killed 74 people and injured 111.

Residents of Mandalay contacted by phone said they were fearful of more aftershocks because the city has modern high-rise buildings that could trap people, unlike the mostly small structures in the areas worst hit on Sunday.

"We are afraid that another earthquake might shake at night," said Thet Su, a journalist in Mandalay. "I told my parents to run out of the house if another earthquake shook."

The quake was felt in Bangkok, the capital of neighboring Thailand.

It comes just a week ahead of a scheduled visit to Myanmar by President Barack Obama. He will be the first U.S. president to visit the one-time pariah nation, which is emerging from decades of military rule.

The disaster is the second to strike the area in three days. On Friday, a tanker train derailed about 128 kilometers (80 miles) north of Shwebo, and at least 25 people were killed when overturned carriages burst into flames as they were trying to skim fuel from them.

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In Syrian spillover, experts see more chaos than chess

The latest cross-border fire in the Golan, and Israel’s response, are a preview of the lawlessness to come and not a calculated move to draw Israel into the conflict

 November 12, 2012, 1:42 am
The spillover of Syrian fire into Israel in recent days is not a clear and immediate threat, experts say, but rather a worrying preview of what is to come in the area — when the Golan Heights joins Sinai and southern Lebanon as yet-another largely lawless swath of land on Israel’s borders.The IDF has been kept on high alert since November 3, when three Syrian tanks entered the demilitarized zone separating the two borders, leading Israel to lodge an official complaint with UN peacekeepers stationed in the DMZ.Days later, a battalion commander’s jeep was hit by a stray bullet from Syrian territory. Several mortar shells have landed inside Israel. All told, Syrian troops, either belonging to the government or the rebels, have recently fired across the long-time-quiet border on five occasions.On Sunday afternoon, Israel responded with an electro-optical guided missile. It was the first ground fire into Syria since 1973.Minister of Strategic Affairs Moshe Yaalon said Sunday evening that Israel fired the warning shot in order to “defend our sovereignty.”The guided Tammuz missile, with a range of over 25 kilometers, was meant to signal to both Syrian troops and rebels that cross-border fire into Israel would not be tolerated. “After several attempts to explain our position with words,” Ya’alon said on Channel 2, “we decided to respond with actions.”Defense Minister Ehud Barak added that “additional shelling into Israel from Syria will elicit a tougher response: exacting a higher price from Syria.”Nonetheless, despite the recent rash of incidents along the border and the ratcheting up of Israeli rhetoric, experts here sounded certain that, rather than a concerted effort by Syrian President Bashar Assad to drag Israel into his internal war and disrupt the rebels’ progress (or at least portray them as aiding Israel), the fire was merely an indication of the decline of Damascus’s control.“When the neighbors fight, they throw plates and sometimes the shards can hit us,” said Mordechai Kedar, a senior lecturer at Bar Ilan University and a former lieutenant colonel in the IDF’s military intelligence branch.Tommy Steiner, a senior research fellow at the Institute for Policy and Strategy at the IDC Herzliya, said the slight leakage of fire across the border was a “reflection of the total disarray” in Syria and that the incidents in the Golan Heights are a preview of “what’s coming soon to a cinema near you.”Steiner projected that the territorial integrity of the entire Fertile Crescent — Syria, Lebanon and Iraq — was in peril and that those three nation states could crumble along sectarian lines. The Golan Heights, he projected, would soon become “a stronghold for jihadists who have come from Iraq to join the festivities.”The Assad regime in Syria has hosted some of Israel’s most nefarious enemies over the years and quite openly supported Hezbollah. But as Syria continues to devolve into civil war, Israel faces a new and perhaps more worrying reality: “We are becoming surrounded by lawless regions,” Steiner said, noting that the Sinai Peninsula and southern Lebanon are not in any meaningful way governed by state actors and that Syria would likely follow suit.Former National Security Adviser Giora Eiland dismissed the cross-border fire as “insignificant” but said that perhaps in the long term, as Assad’s hold on power declines, “he’ll lose control of the area and into that vacuum will come hostile elements.”In the meanwhile, Eiland said, Syria’s actions and Israel’s responses are not going to ignite any sort of military campaign. “There is no danger of a Syrian military move,” he said. “There is a violation of the agreement. But it has no significance. There is no intention of an anti-Israeli move.”
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Aussie mum facing death released from jail

An Australian mother-of-six facing the death penalty over drugs charges has been freed from a Malaysian jail.

Published: Nov. 12, 2012 at 12:19 AM
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Nov. 12 (UPI) -- An Australian mother of six facing the death penalty over drugs charges has been freed from a Malaysian jail.

Emma Louise L'Aiguille, 34, and her Nigerian boyfriend at the time Anthony Esikalam Ndidi were arrested and charged in July with carrying more than 3 pounds of methamphetamine in a car suspected of being theirs.

The smuggling and trafficking of methamphetamines is one of Southeast Asia's greatest illegal drugs challenges, the United Nations said, and it carries a mandatory death sentence in Malaysia.

L'Aiguille, a nurse for the elderly, said she had no knowledge of the drugs and the car wasn't hers.

She was being held in a women's prison but walked from a Kuala Lumpur courtroom after prosecution dropped the charges.

L'Aiguille, from Melbourne but living in Perth when she was arrested, must remain in Malaysia to testify in the court case against Ndidi, a report by the Australian Broadcasting Corp. said.

A smiling L'Aiguille left the courtroom accompanied by her defense lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah and was met by her father.

"I'm not taking anything for granted, life, freedom," she said.

"She is a person who is innocent," said Abdullah. "She had no knowledge that in the car, which she was driving, there were drugs.

Her Australian lawyer, Tania Scivetti, said L'Aiguille will remain in Malaysia to attend Ndidi's hearings, which could take up to six months and is a condition of her release, a report by Radio Australia said.

The pick-me-up stimulant methamphetamines are known as "ice," "the devil's drug," "poor man's cocaine," "chalk," "crank" and "crystal" within the illegal drug trade.

It's appeal to drugs gangs is the ease of production, one reason it is the primary illicit drug threat in Asia, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime told a conference in Phnom Penh in July.

"Methamphetamine is the most widely used amphetamine-type stimulant drug in the region," Beate Hammond, manager of the United Nations' Global Synthetics Monitoring: Analyses, Reporting and Trends Program, told the conference.

Malaysia's police have been cracking down on organized groups, especially from Africa, believed to be involved in the smuggling of methamphetamines into Malaysia and their trafficking.

In September, police arrested three people, one of them a Nigerian, on suspicion of running a major international drugs smuggling ring.

The Nigerian man, 32, was arrested along with his wife, 31, at their bungalow in Lukut, near the capital's seaside resort area of Port Dickson, after a six-month surveillance operation, a report by The Star newspaper said at the time.

The suspect is believed to have arrived in Malaysia less than a year ago, director of Anti-Narcotics Investigations Department Commissioner Datuk Noor Rashid Ibrahim said.

"With his arrest, we hope to find out more about the syndicate's modus operandi and nab more suspects who worked for the syndicate in the days to come," Ibrahim said.

Malaysia, in conjunction with Thailand, also will focus more on women involved in the illegal drugs trade, and not just as drugs mules, a report by the Malaysian national news agency Bernama said.

Police in both countries have been focusing on men and many women traffickers have gone unnoticed.

This has allowed many women to get involved willingly, Ibrahim told the 35th Malaysia-Thailand meeting on Narcotics Law Enforcement Cooperation in George Town last week.

"This is not a new phenomena because many women are involved willingly and not being forced into such activities," he said.

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Which The Richest Country in the World?

Which The Richest Country in the World?






Many actually do not know where is the richest country on the planet earth, some say America, there is also a saying for countries in the Middle East.

No one actually, for example America, the super power that has a level of technological progress can only be rivaled handful of countries, is yet another example of the countries in the Middle East. Average desert-covered country and weather sting contains millions of barrels of oil ready to be processed.

But it was not enough to match this one country. Even the American and Middle Eastern countries and the European Union were not able to emulate. And this is the richest country on the planet that escaped the attention of the citizens of the world. Citizens of this country must be proud if they knew. But unfortunately they are not aware of "standing on the diamond" we just see the country profile.

World's richest country IS INDONESIA.

Wooww ... What happened? Does the author wrong? But the author clearly states that state that as the richest country in the world. But is not the country is in a collapsed condition? Debt soared, poverty, rampant corruption, the moral condition of the nation has declined and other problems that are blanketing the country.

Well let's take apart everything one by one so we can see the real wealth of this country.

1. This country has the largest gold mining gold with world's best quality.

Any content contained in the mine in Freeport? when mine was opened up to the present, mining has mengasilkan 7.3 million ounces of copper and 724.7 million ounces of gold. Who want to help authors to calculate that value are welcome. Do your math and you'll be amazed by the value.

Then who manage this mining? Not the country but America! Percentage is 1% for the landowners and 99% for the U.S. as a country that has the technology to make mining there.

Even when the gold and copper there was thinning under a layer of gold and copper at a depth of 400 meters to be exact discovered mineral deposits that cost 100 times more expensive than gold, yea .. he Uranium!

The raw material for making nuclear fuel was found there. Yet clearly the amount of contained uranium found there, but the latest news circulate according to the obstetrician there enough uranium to make a nuclear power plant with a power that can illuminate the whole earth is only with the content of uranium there.

Freeport much a boon to a handful of officials of this country, the generals and politicians rogue, who can enjoy life with wallowing in wealth by impoverishing the nation.

2. This country has natural gas reserves LARGEST IN THE WORLD! precisely in Natuna.

What is the gas content in the block? Natuna D Alpha gas reserves up to 202 TRILLION cubic feet! and many Blocks as producing mines and oil Cepu etc.. Managed by WHO? EXXON MOBIL! help from the Pertamina.

3. This country has the largest tropical forest in the world.

Tropical forest has an area of ​​39,549,447 hectares, with biodiversity and plasmanutfah comprehensive in the world.

It is located on the island of Sumatra, Kalimantan and Sulawesi. Actually, if this country wants Resurrection will be easy for them. Cutting it all the trees in the forest that then the earth must end.

Because the earth is very dependent once with tropical forests to climate balance because amazon rainforest is not strong enough to balance the earth's climate.

And now they are little by little have been devastated only to a handful of people who have money to estate and golf course. It is very ironic.

4. This country has the largest ocean in the world.

Surrounded by two oceans, the Pacific and Indian Oceans are not surprised to have millions of species of fish that are not owned by other countries.

Because of its rich sea this country to the point that other countries had come to harvest fish in the sea of ​​this country.

5. This country has the fourth largest population in the world.

With a population much should have a lot of smart people who have produced this country, but the government they abandoned them. As human nature is to survive, of course they want respected.

Other roads are out of the country and chose to defend other countries could consider them a decent value.

6. The country has a very fertile soil.

Because it has many active volcanoes in the country makes the land very fertile, especially this country crossed the equator there is lots of sunshine and rain.

When compared with the Middle Eastern countries that have a very rich oil country, of course, much richer. Let us all imagine because the minerals that can not be updated quickly.

And when all the oil they had run out then they would be a poor country because they do not own the land sesubur this country that can be planted any. "Even sticks and stones so the plants."

7. This country has a very exotic scenery and again there was no country like it.

From the mountain top to the bottom of the sea we can meet very beautiful scenery in the country.



Indonesia Still Not Believe When Rich?!

Narrated Tiw, a businessman from Singapore, with stylish accent melayu, English (or Singlish?) Tells appreciation for our nation.

"Your country is so rich!"

Haha (sad laugh). Praises it's common to hear. Since we are still in elementary school, until the present time we see an interview with foreign tourists who vacation in Indonesia and asked for his impression. So are normally, we can only smile, not because of agree, but just for the sake of pleasing the tourists praise.

Uh, but wait. This time, the businessman from Singapore was explained the reason, starting with a statement superpede: "Indonesia does not need the world, but the world need Indonesia!" Why?

"Everything can be found here in Indonesia, you dont need the world!" He repeated.

"Easy, Indonesia is the world's lungs. Cutting forests in Kalimantan alone, the world would end. So, the world is in need of Indonesia! "He replied bluntly. "Singapore is nothing, we can not be rich without Indonesia," he reiterated. "Approximately 500,000 people Indonesia on holiday to Singapore every

months. Well, you can imagine how much money that goes to us? The apartments and condo purchasing any of our latest Indonesian people, no matter the price is exorbitant, sells. Just look at hospital-our hospital, all the people of Indonesia who seek treatment. "He added.

"You know how our government kalapnya when the smoke of forest fires in Indonesia into our territory? Yes totally freaked out. Deeply felt, we are nothing. "He told me in a tone of sadness and pride with Indonesia. "You never know, if the August world rice crisis today, including Singapore and Malaysia? You could easily be in Indonesia rice, "he said at once answered his own question.

Do not stop there, other facts rolling of speech. "Look at the state of you, clean water everywhere. Look at our country, our water must be bought from malaysia. I've been to Borneo, even sand also contains gems that looks Meng-glitter when the sun shines dipajan. Farmers there selling Rp3000/kg to a factory in China. Ironically, the factory sold it back for Rp30.000/kg. I saw it myself, "he said with conviction.

"You realize that the countries of the world are always afraid to embargo on Indonesia? Why, yes, because the guys have everything. They're afraid that if you become independent, why not in the embargo! "He said vehemently. "It should be, it is you yourselves that embargo." He said. Why, how? "Buy everything you need from your own farmers. Buy textile garments from its own factories. No need to import guys! If we can own production! "He gives tips.

Finally, a businessman from Singapore was bermaklumat. "If you can be independent, be self embargo, Indonesia will rules the world." He said softly.

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