Computer hard drive sold on eBay 'had details of top secret U.S. missile defence system' 07th May 2009
Highly sensitive details of a US military missile air defence system were found on a second-hand hard drive bought on eBay. The test launch procedures were found on a hard disk for the THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defence) ground to air missile defence system, used to shoot down Scud missiles in Iraq.
The disk also contained security policies, blueprints of facilities and personal information on employees including social security numbers, belonging to technology company Lockheed Martin - who designed and built the system. British researchers found the data while studying more than 300 hard disks bought at computer auctions, computer fairs and eBay.
Excerpted
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1178239/Computer-hard-drive-sold-eBay-details-secret-U-S-missile-defence-system.html
Pakistan: Military intensifies fighting in Swat as hundreds flee8 May 2009
Mingora - Pakistani jets bombed suspected militant positions in the northwest Swat valley on Friday as hundreds of thousands of people continued to flee the area. The government claimed at least 140 militants had been killed in in the past 24 hours in Swat and threatened to step up its military offensive.
Addressing a media conference late Friday, army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said security forces would remain in the valley until the government had re-established control. "The army is now engaged in a full-scale operation to eliminate miscreants," Athar Abbas said. "They are on the run and trying to block the exodus of civilians from the area." While it was impossible to confirm the death toll independently, Pakistani security forces were conducting ongoing operations across three districts — Swat, Buner and Lower Dir — in northwest Pakistan .
The United Nations has warned that the Swat offensive is causing a humanitarian crisis with up to 300,000 already displaced or about to flee the fighting. As jets and helicopters pounded targets in the valley, the UN said it was threatening to become one of the world's biggest displacement crises. Security forces carried out a massive air operation and sent fresh troops into Swat after prime minister Yousaf Raza Gillani announced that ‘decisive steps would be taken’ to address the growing militancy.
Excerpted
http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=3.0.3293988162
I didn't know where to post this, but such a great story and I miss President Bush...........
By Bill Minutaglio | NEWSWEEK
Published May 16, 2009
From the magazine issue dated May 25, 2009
Patrick Bibb, a 19-year-old from Dallas, glanced at his cell phone. He was in the middle of his economics class at Texas Christian University on a February morning. His caller ID read withheld. He decided not to answer. When class ended, he checked his messages and found that George W. Bush had been trying to reach him.
The sophomore listened to the voice mail. He heard the former president of the United States thank him at least four times. Bush was happy that the teenager had been selling welcome home george & laura signs for $20 to people all over Bush's neighborhood in Texas. “I hope this message is sufficient” to show appreciation, Bibb heard Bush say. Bibb dutifully listened, hung up and went to his other classes.
Bibb, a budding entrepreneur, had decided to make and sell the signs after he learned that the former president would be moving close to his parents’ house. The placards went up all around the exclusive Preston Hollow neighborhood in North Dallas, which is studded with homes worth $5 million to $20 million. Bibb used some of the profits to pay his tuition and decided to donate the rest to a nearby elementary school.
He settled into accounting class. His phone rang again. Bibb decided to pick up. “Excuse me, I need to go to talk to the president,” Bibb wisecracked to a pal as he left the room. It was Bush again.
He began thanking Bibb, repeatedly, for making the signs. Bibb listened patiently. He didn't mean to be rude, but he finally said: “I'm really sorry, Mr. President. I'm in the middle of class.” He needed to get off the phone. Bush replied: “No problem, that's where you're supposed to be.”
Weeks later, the undergraduate was still wondering about his chat with the man who, only a short time ago, was arguably the most powerful man on the planet. “I had just wanted him to know that people still cared about him, despite the public-opinion polls,” says Bibb.
Bibb’s not the only one. Molly Vilbig, who lives nearby, believes Bush had gotten word that her grandson had once tried, at the tender age of 6, to donate $1 to the first Bush for President campaign. That's why, Vilbig suspects, the ex-president called and invited the 14-year-old to come over. Under the watchful eye of Secret Service agents, the boy walked to Bush's home. The two settled into chairs in the backyard. “Ask me anything you want,” Bush said to the boy, according to the grandmother.
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