Free Republic

Al Gore has told the U.N. climate conference that new data suggests the Arctic polar ice cap may disappear in the summertime as soon as five to seven years from now. Clicking through a slide show Monday in a packed side event, the former U.S. vice-president joined the foreign ministers of Norway and Denmark in presenting two new reports on melting Arctic ice. The Arctic Ocean sea ice has shrunk dramatically, to record low levels, the past several summers. Scientists blame global warming, which has raised temperatures twice as fast in the far north as elsewhere. Gore said polar scientists...

A major maritime industry association on Monday backed plans for a global surcharge on carbon emissions from shipping to help fund the sector’s shift toward climate-friendly fuels. The International Chamber of Shipping said it’s proposing to the United Nations that all vessels trading globally above a certain size should pay a set amount per metric ton of carbon dioxide they emit. Environmental groups welcomed the proposal to the the International Maritime Organization, a U.N. body, but cautioned that it doesn’t specify what carbon price would be supported by the group, which represents commercial shipowners and operators covering over 80% of...

Acting ICE Director Matthew Albence who is a Jersey guy, was in New York City on Friday to address the issue of Sanctuary State and City policies. As we know, New York and New Jersey have similar policies, which prevent local law enforcement from working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials and are directly leading to violent criminals being released into our communities. The numbers in New York City are staggering. According to Albence, ICE issued 7,526 lawful detainers to apprehend criminal aliens with only TEN being honored by city officials. He attacked the policies directly pointing out the false...

Several weeks before he massacred 49 at an Orlando gay nightclub, Muslim terrorist Omar Seddique Mateen transferred over his interest in his Florida home to his older sister and Afghan brother-in-law, property records show — an indication the family possibly had some knowledge of his martyrdom plans. Authorities say the fatally shot Mateen clearly was prepared to die in a gun battle with police during the June 12 attack, the deadliest act of terrorism on U.S. soil since 9/11. On April 5, Mateen “quit-claimed” the deed on his Port St. Lucie, Fla., house, signing it over to his sister, Sabrina...

Internet-connected industrial devices could be accessible to anyone, with no password, thanks to a coding error by a gateway manufacturer. Taiwanese firm Advantech patched the firmware in some of its serial-to-IP gateway devices in October to remove a hard-coded SSH (Secure Shell) key that would have allowed unauthorized access by remote attackers. But it overlooked an even bigger problem: Any password will unlock the gateways, which are used to connect legacy serial devices to TCP/IP and cellular networks in industrial environments around the world. Researchers from security firm Rapid7 discovered the vulnerability in the revised firmware, version 1.98, released for...

CERT Training Session 4 This session was a practical test in which the CERT Volunteers were called to the location of a simulated disaster. In contrast to previous sessions, the practical test was held outdoors in the downtown parking lot of a metropolitan convention facility. Groups from a number of different cities participated in the event as well as teams sponsored by the national FEMA organization. The event was organized by professional staff of the participating cities. The organizers had decades-long experience with Fire and Rescue operations. There were approximately 50 CERT volunteers plus 50 role-player “disaster victim” volunteers attending...

CERT Training Session 3 As before, this session was held in a city facility and lasted for most of the day. This session went over “Unit 3” and “Unit 4” of the training materials – “Disaster Medical Operations”. The instructors reviewed information from the previous session on Triage procedures and basic First Aid. “Triage is not treatment. It is sorting”. This point was emphasized by the instructors. In a mass-casualty event the first thing the responders want to do is identify victims who are uninjured, or do not need immediate medical attention, and get them away from the incident site...

CERT Training Session 2 As before, this session was held in a city facility and lasted for most of the day. Almost all of the previous attendees from session 1 returned for session 2. There were a small number of new students as well. The morning portion went over Government responses to terrorist incidents; “Unit 8” of the training documents. This material comes straight from FEMA, and is mainly concerned with Chemical, Radiological, Biological, and Nuclear attacks. The FEMA managers seem to be obsessed with such possibilities. This is rather curious, since even the training materials mention that 80% of...

CERT Training, Session 1 A posting on another blog suggested that “preppers” should learn about the Incident Command System used by FEMA and that this might best be done by taking some of the courses offered by that agency. See your tax dollars at work, so to speak. A CERT course was available and scheduled nearby. I decided to attend. “CERT” stands for “Community Emergency Response Teams”. This program is sponsored on a national level by FEMA and is based on volunteer organizations first created about thirty years ago by the Los Angles Fire Department. CERT makes explicit use of...

Nearly four years since Stuxnet broke onto the scene, F-Secure has discovered another series of attacks against industrial control systems -- this time aiming at mostly European organizations. The attackers' ultimate motives are unclear. Researchers suspect they are simply gathering intelligence in preparation for a more serious attack. The attackers are infecting SCADA and ICS systems with the HAVEX remote access tool (mostly used for information gathering), using a unique infection vector. Once HAVEX is installed, it calls back to its command-and-control servers -- which are mostly unrelated third-party websites and blogs that the attackers have compromised -- and receives...

All EMS Wear Bulletproof Vests Due To Increased Crime In Area BELLPORT, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) – A Long Island volunteer emergency medical service worker was injured after the ambulance he was riding in was shot at. As WCBSs Sophia Hall reported, a bullet went through the back window of the South Country Ambulance as volunteers were responding to a call in Bellport Tuesday night. Broken glass sprayed through the back of the ambulance, officials said.

IPT News June 9, 2010 SNIPPET: "The Turkish-based charity that helped drive last week's deadly confrontation with Israeli commandos has deep ties to Hamas and other terrorist groups. The Hamas ties are not in question. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and IHH officials simply do not acknowledge that Hamas is a terrorist group." SNIPPET: "U.S. officials have expressed concern over the fact that "IHH representatives have met with senior Hamas officials in Turkey, Syria, and Gaza over the past three years," but IHH is not a designated terrorist organization in the United States. It's fair to ask, why not?"...

With anthracite coal mining at its peak, one man’s concern over the safety of miners blossomed into a school that would educate millions worldwide. Thomas J. Foster came to Scranton in 1888. Prior to that, he served as publisher of the Mining Herald, a journal based in Shenandoah, from 1870 to 1880. Frequent mining accidents in that community took the lives of some of his closest friends. Mr. Foster saw what he believed to be the primary cause of these disasters: mine foremen lacked knowledge of the science of mining and the fundamental principles of the machinery they were required...

Does America need a terrorist financier to secure its “freedom”? Sami al-Arian thinks so. His National Coalition to Protect Political Freedom poses as a watchdog for the Constitution, but he has focused his lobbying efforts on repealing anti-terrorist legislation. While Sami al-Arian himself has been arrested for being a prime financier for Palestinian Islamic Jihad (and likely one of its three founders), his political movement continues to threaten homeland security. Al-Arian founded the National Coalition to Protect Political Freedom (NCPPF) in 1997 as a reaction to the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1996. The coalition’s stated goal “is to help change the...

INCIDENT MANAGEMENT SITUATION REPORTSunDAY, MARCH 19, 2006 – 0800 MSTNATIONAL PREPAREDNESS LEVEL 2   CURRENT SITUATION: Initial attack activity was light nationally with 110 new fires reported. Three new large fires were reported in the Southern Area. Twelve large fires were contained, nine in the Southern Area, two in the Eastern Area and one in the Rocky Mountain Area. Very high to extreme fire indices were reported in Arizona, Kansas, Missouri, Florida and Virginia. SOUTHERN AREA INCIDENTS/LARGE FIRES:WEST TEXAS IA, Texas Forest Service. A Texas State Type 2 Incident Management Team (Stanford) is in place in Granbury, TX. The Team is assisting...

(CNSNews.com) - Iraqi intelligence documents, confiscated by U.S. forces and obtained by CNSNews.com, show numerous efforts by Saddam Hussein's regime to work with some of the world's most notorious terror organizations, including al Qaeda, to target Americans. They demonstrate that Saddam's government possessed mustard gas and anthrax, both considered weapons of mass destruction, in the summer of 2000, during the period in which United Nations weapons inspectors were not present in Iraq. And the papers show that Iraq trained dozens of terrorists inside its borders. One of the Iraqi memos contains an order from Saddam for his intelligence service to...

Saudi Officials Try To Shut Down Oregon Charity Group Owns Property In Ashland ASHLAND, Ore. -- The Saudi Arabian government is trying to shut down an Islamic charity with ties to Oregon and to terrorism. Al-Haramain runs a branch in Ashland and owns a house and acreage (pictured) in the Southern Oregon town. The FBI shut down the Ashland branch and seized evidence several months ago. The Oregon foundation is accused of laundering money from overseas and channeling it to terrorist groups. Al-Haramain still owns the Ashland property but cannot use it until the investigation is complete. The organization's president...