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     . Overnight saw one of the closest intelligence-sharing partnerships tested as never before in the fight against global terrorism, as Prime Minister Theresa May confronted President Donald Trump over U.S. media leaks from the Manchester bombing probe. As Bloomberg reports, police investigating the suicide bombing that killed 22 people at a pop concert in the city in northern England have suspended sharing information with the U.S., according to a report by the security correspondent of the BBC. “I will make clear to President Trump that the information shared between our law-enforcement agencies must remain secure,”...

Abstract The Victorian era was marked by an explosion of innovation and genius, per capita rates of which appear to have declined subsequently. The presence of dysgenic fertility for IQ amongst Western nations, starting in the 19th century, suggests that these trends might be related to declining IQ. This is because high-IQ people are more productive and more creative. We tested the hypothesis that the Victorians were cleverer than modern populations, using high-quality instruments, namely measures of simple visual reaction time in a meta-analytic study. Simple reaction time measures correlate substantially with measures of general intelligence (g) and are considered...

Israel will provide Russia with intelligence information about opposition sites in Syria to facilitate Moscow’s military operations, Channel 2TV has reported. The Israeli network said that a senior delegation of Russian army officials will arrive in Israel on Tuesday to coordinate the military cooperation. The delegation will be led by First Deputy Chief of General Staff General Nikolai Bogdanovsky, who will meet his Israeli counterpart, Major-General Yair Golan as well as senior officials in Israeli military intelligence, the air force and the Mossad. Channel 2 noted that the visit follows the meeting between Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russian...

Pamela EngelSeptember 11, 2015The scandal surrounding US intelligence reports on ISIS just hit President Barack Obama's inner circle. James Clapper, America's top spy, is reportedly in "frequent and unusual contact" with the military officer who is suspected of allowing US reports on ISIS to be altered to fit the administration's official line, Spencer Ackerman at The Guardian reports. "In communications, Clapper, who is far more senior than Grove, is said to tell Grove how the war looks from his vantage point, and question Grove about Central Command’s assessments," Ackerman writes. "Such a situation could place inherent pressure on a subordinate,...

The point of mentioning all of this is not to say that those without college degrees cannot be successful. Clearly Walker’s experience has been the exact opposite. Rather, this information simply highlights why some Americans might be surprised when they come across his education experience coupled with the success he has obtained.Over the past month or so, several media outlets have made a big deal about the fact that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s education does not include a bachelor’s degree, and have speculated on how this could affect a potential 2016 presidential run. Some have taken to the media to...

10) In six short years as president, Obama has taken the Democratic Party from the One to done. While it’s way too early to write off the party even for 2014, the wounds created by supporting this colossal bozo will be even longer to heal than the wounds inflicted by Jimmy Carter. Obama said way more then he knows when he admitted that the problem is he’s president not emperor. 9) Remember when the Fawning News Media said that comedians would have a tough time making fun of Obama because he was so serious, so perfect, so black? Well the...

The Senate’s inquiry into the Christmas Day attempted terrorist attack, did not bear much fruit for anyone looking for answers. Even more disturbing is the fact that the hearings offered no level of comfort that after a year on the job (more for some), our top terror officials are still in the dark.

One of the most dangerous affronts to world peace came in late 2007, when the US intelligence report claiming that Iran stopped its nuke program in 2003. Pundits from all over yelled and screamed that it was a politically based interpretation of the facts and/or major blunder. Even our allies were angry, Britain said we were duped: The phone in the Iranian Nuclear Plant rang, "Hey Achmeed" said the voice on one end, " I just want you to know we are shutting down the Nuclear Weapons program." "Yes Ibrihem," said the other voice, "I know, and if the phone...

How low will they go?? As low as laser blinding Greek Police: "A riot policeman is aimed at with a laser light pointer during riots outside the Athens Polytechnic. Small bands of Greek rioters hurling firebombs attacked an environment ministry building, shops and banks in Athens on Saturday during an eighth day of protests following the killing of a teenager by police." And that's not all: "A warning from Serb intelligence about the mobilization of an extremist Islamic organization in Greece has put the Greek authorities on high alert. Several days ago, Serb intelligence briefed a Serb parliamentary Committee that...

CIA gets the go-ahead to take on Hizbollah By Toby Harnden, US Editor Last Updated: 1:47am GMT 10/01/2007 The Central Intelligence Agency has been authorised to take covert action against Hizbollah as part of a secret plan by President George W. Bush to help the Lebanese government prevent the spread of Iranian influence. Senators and congressmen have been briefed on the classified "non-lethal presidential finding" that allows the CIA to provide financial and logistical support to the prime minister, Fouad Siniora. The finding was signed by Mr Bush before Christmas after discussions between his aides and Saudi Arabian officials. Details...

Travelers returning from abroad aren't the only people who will need to be carrying passports beginning January eighth. Deep-sea fishermen who go more than 60 miles into the Gulf of Mexico will need them, too. Postal Service employee James Coleman says that last month, he issued about 40 passports a day. The previous month, he had issued 40 passports over the whole month. It's all part of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004. Colemany says the biggest hitch has been people who don't realize they need a birth certificate with an official government stamp. All members of...

Spy chiefs fear that it is a case of "when, not if" Islamist terrorists launch a "dirty bomb" attack against London or another western capital, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt. Security sources have disclosed that the belief amongst most intelligence agencies is that a chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) attack, using a so-called dirty bomb, is now inevitable. The warning comes three weeks after 250 police officers stormed the home of two Muslim brothers in Forest Gate, east London, in the mistaken belief that they were attempting to develop a chemical bomb. It follows growing concern among members of...

George Bush lied about weapons of mass destruction. I quote, “We have known for years that Saddam Hussein is seeking and developing WMD’s. Iraq’s search for WMD’s has proven impossible to deter and we should assume it will continue as long as Saddam is in power. He has systematically violated, over the course of the past 11 years, every significant UN resolution that demanded he disarm and destroy his chemical and biological weapons, and any nuclear capacity. The last UN weapons inspectors left Iraq in October of 1998. We are confident that Saddam Hussein retains some stockpiles of chemical and...

The Report They Forgot The Fitzgerald probe reminds us: Whatever happened to Pat Roberts' Phase II intelligence report? By Laura Rozen Issue Date: 11.23.05 Print Friendly | Email Article In February 2004, the Senate Select Intelligence Committee (SSCI) announced that it had unanimously agreed to expand its investigation of prewar Iraq intelligence from focus on intelligence community blunders and into the more controversial area of “whether intelligence was exaggerated or misused” by U.S. government officials. The committee’s ranking Democrat, Jay Rockefeller, struck the agreement with Chairman Pat Roberts -- provided, Roberts insisted, that the probe into policy-makers’ activities wait until...

Urban Legends and Folklore IQ and Voter Preference in 2004 Presidential Election Netlore Archive: In which the results of the 2004 U.S. presidential election are correlated with purported average IQ of voters in each state Description: Net hoax Circulating since: Nov. 2004 (this version) Status: False Analysis: See below IQ and Voter Preference State Average IQ 2004 1 Connecticut 113 Kerry 2 Massachusetts 111 Kerry 3 New Jersey 111 Kerry 4 New York 109 Kerry 5 Rhode Island 107 Kerry 6 Hawaii 106 Kerry 7 Maryland 105 Kerry 8 New Hampshire 105 Kerry 9 Illinois 104 Kerry 10 Delaware 103...

The House kills an intel plan that would have made fighting terror harder.

Scheuer's May paper lists 10 occasions between 1996 and 2001 on which "the decisions of senior intelligence community bureaucrats -- not legal 'walls,' organizational structures or inadequate budgets -- were at the core of our failure."

John Kerry’s intelligence-committee service isn’t something to brag about. Not long after the vaunted 9/11 Commission released its final report on July 22, Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry fully endorsed its findings and began deriding President Bush for not doing the same. Since then, the exigencies of governing have forced Bush to wrestle with the complexities of intelligence reform — which, the commissioners themselves have conceded, are extensive. Kerry, meanwhile, has gotten a free ride. That ought to stop now. If, as Kerry the candidate claims, the commission got it right, that is a devastating indictment of Kerry the senator...

IT was in the parking lot of Cramer's Home Center in Pocono Summit, Pa., less than seven miles from a NASCAR track, in a pivotal battleground state, on the back of a battered work van, that we saw the first one "Somewhere in Texas," the bumper sticker said, "A Village Is Missing Its Idiot." The next showed up at the Home Depot on the back of an equally battered pickup driven by a tough-looking kid dressed for construction work. It said: "Bush," and then, "Like a Rock Only Dumber." These are signs of the fierce conviction of some voters —...

<p>LONDON. — Richard Clarke, former White House counterterrorism czar for Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, testifies today before the commission investigating the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the United States. He is well-qualified to do so because few individuals over the last decade, inside or outside government, better understood the Islamic extremism threat in all its dimensions. But rather than deliver a factual recounting and analysis of intelligence failures and politically charged antiterrorism policies that plagued his years as coordinator for counterterrorism operations, he has chosen to characterize the Bush White House as indifferent to the threat posed by Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network prior to the September 11 attacks without consideration for the failures on his watch during the Clinton years. This is inaccurate and adds nothing to our understanding of how distant terrorists could plan and carry out such daring and effective attacks. Mr. Clarke's premise that Bush national security officials neither understood nor cared to know anything about al Qaeda is simply untrue. I know because on multiple occasions from June until late August 2001, I personally briefed Stephen J. Hadley, deputy national security adviser to President Bush, and members of his South Asia, Near East and East Africa staff at the National Security Council on precisely what had gone wrong during the Clinton years to unearth the extent of the dangers posed by al Qaeda. Some of the briefings were in the presence of former members of the Clinton administration's national security team to ensure complete transparency. Far from being disinterested, the Bush White House was eager to avoid making the same mistakes of the previous administration and wanted creative new inputs for how to combat al Qaeda's growing threat. Mr. Clarke's role figured in two key areas of the debriefings — Sudan's offer to share terrorism data on al Qaeda and bin Laden in 1997, and a serious effort by senior members of the Abu Dhabi royal family to gain bin Laden's extradition from Afghanistan in early 2000. • Fall 1997: Sudan's offer is accepted by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, then rejected by Mr. Clarke and Clinton National Security Adviser Samuel "Sandy" Berger. Sudan's president, Omar Hasan El Bashir, made an unconditional offer of counterterrorism assistance to the vice chairman of the September 11 Commission, then Rep. Lee Hamilton, Indiana Democrat, through my hands on April 19, 1997. Five months later on Sept. 28, 1997, after an exhaustive interagency review at the entrenched bureaucracy level of the U.S. government, Mrs. Albright announced the U.S. would send a high-level diplomatic team back to Khartoum to pressure its Islamic government to stop harboring Arab terrorists and to review Sudan data on terrorist groups operating from there. As the re-engagement policy took shape, Susan E. Rice, incoming assistant secretary of state for East Africa, went to Mr. Clarke, made her anti-Sudan case and asked him to jointly approach Mr. Berger about the wisdom of Mrs. Albright's decision. Together, they recommended its reversal.The decision was overturned on Oct. 1, 1997. Without Mr. Clarke's consent, Mr. Berger is unlikely to have gone along with such an early confrontation with the first woman to hold the highest post at Foggy Bottom. U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by al Qaeda 10 months later. Files with detailed data on three of the embassy bombers were among the casualties of Mr. Clarke's decision to recommend missile attacks on an empty Khartoum pharmaceutical plant rather than get Sudan's data out almost a year earlier to begin unraveling al Qaeda's network. To this day, neither Mr. Berger nor Mr. Clarke has explained to the American people why a deliberative decision of the U.S. government, made by interagency review, was overturned in such cavalier fashion by a small clique of Clinton advisers in the face of Sudan's unconditional April 1997 offer to cooperate on terrorism issues. If he was interested in facts, why did Mr. Clarke spurn the recommendations of his own intelligence and foreign policy institutions that the Sudanese offer be explored? Why did he not act on the Sudanese intelligence chief's direct approach to the FBI, of which he was aware, in early 1998 just prior to the final planning stages of the embassy bombings? • Spring 2000: Abu Dhabi's offer to get bin Laden out of Afghanistan falls flat. In late 1999, after a barrage of threats from al Qaeda's senior leadership against the Abu Dhabi royal family, a senior family member approached the Taliban foreign minister and Mullah Omar to discuss mechanisms for getting bin Laden out of Afghanistan. Mr. Clarke, who enjoyed close relations with the Abu Dhabi family, was brought into the loop early to prevent separation between Washington and Abu Dhabi on such a sensitive matter. While Mr. Clarke was skeptical of the idea at first, he played ball long enough to understand the real intentions of the Taliban regime. Smart enough, except when the deal got real. As the strategy started taking shape in earnest — a personal request from President Clinton to Sheikh Zayed, Abu Dhabi's ruler, seeking help to get bin Laden coupled with a $5 billion pan-Arab Afghan Development Fund that would be offered in return for bin Laden taking residence under house arrest in Abu Dhabi, with the possibility of extraditing him later to the United States — Mr. Clarke again scuttled the deal by opting instead for the militaristic solution. He pushed for armed CIA predator drones to hunt bin Laden in the remote mountains of northeastern Afghanistan. Abu Dhabi was left with a black eye. The Taliban became even more aggressive in allowing al Qaeda to plan and carry out terrorist operations from Afghan soil. Another chance to capture the world's most notorious terrorist had been lost. Mr. Clarke's selective memory serves no interest but his own agenda. He personifies the politicizing of intelligence by pointing fingers during the political high season for failures that not only occurred on his watch but also were due partly to his grand vision he would one day personally authorize a drone operation to kill bin Laden. Mr. Clarke, as he testifies today, should remember he served at the pleasure of the American people. He was appointed to defend us against the very terrorists he repeatedly assessed inaccurately. A grateful nation recognizes the difficulty of his task but we ask that he stick to facts rather than inject vitriol and untruths into a debate that must yield answers to help protect our children in the future.</p>