Obama wants to strip funding from veterans" medical choice program - Senate backs bill to address veterans" suicide

President Obama’s 2016 budget blueprint proposes rolling back a program that gives veterans the right to receive faster care outside of the long waitlists at the troubled Veterans Affairs medical system.

Obama signed the Veterans Choice Program into law in August following months of partisan wrangling on Capitol Hill that finally led to a compromise measure to overhaul the agency.

The Veterans Choice Program was a key GOP provision in the deal.

Authored by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the measure provides “choice” cards to veterans that can be used to obtain medical care at designated facilities outside of the VA system.

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Obama wants to strip funding from veterans" medical choice program - Senate backs bill to address veterans" suicide

Federal report says Border Patrol"s drone program doesn"t fly

 ((Photo by Gary Williams/Getty Images))

For nearly a decade, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection has touted its drone program as an “effective technology to further enhance operational capabilities,” but according to the agency’s 2014 end of fiscal year report, the results are anything but impressive, fueling new calls for the program to be grounded.

The program has a fleet of 9 Predator drones and the Department of Homeland Security is planning to spend another $443 million for more aircraft to help secure the Mexican border. But a Jan. 6 report from the agency’s inspector general is advising against the expansion.

“Notwithstanding the significant investment, we see no evidence that the drones contribute to a more secure border, and there is no reason to invest additional taxpayer funds at this time,” said DHS Inspector General John Roth. “Securing our borders is a crucial mission for CBP and DHS. CBP’s drone program has so far fallen far short of being an asset to that effort.”

The IG report, the second audit of the program since 2012, found there is no reliable method of measuring the program’s performance and determined that its impact in stemming illegal
immigration has been minimal.

According to the CBP Fiscal Year Report, the drones flew about 10 percent fewer hours in 2014 than the previous year and 20 percent fewer than in 2013. The missions were credited with contributing to the seizure of just under 1,000 pounds of cocaine in 2014, compared to 2,645 in 2013 and 3,900 in 2012. But apprehensions of illegal immigrants between 2014 and 2013 fell despite the flood of more than 60,000 unaccompanied children coming across the border from Central America.

Combined with the decrease in productivity, the OIG report disclosed the staggering costs to run the program, more than $12,000 per hour when figuring fuel, salaries for operators, equipment and overhead.

Eugene Schied, assistant commissioner of the CBP’s office of administration for CBP, said the IG used flawed methods to draw its conclusions.

“The expectations the OIG focused on were based on the program receiving resources that were not obtained, performance measures that were never employed by CBP, or technological capabilities that have been surpassed,” Scheid said. “This context is critical for presenting an accurate assessment of the CBP UAS program’s current performance and achievements.”

Scheid went on to say in his memo that CBP has no plans to acquire additional UAS beyond the one replacement aircraft, nor does the Office of Air and Marine have a contract or funding in place to expand the program.

He said current funding is being used to expand the program’s infrastructure and increase the utilization of the fleet.

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) called for patience with the UAS program.

“It’s a lot cheaper to use drones than helicopters and they can stay in the air longer,” Hunter said. “It still comes down to having the manpower on the ground to support the drone missions.”

Hunter said CBP needs to figure out what the need and use of the UAS is but marry that strategy with human resources on the ground. He made the correlation to the limitations other forms of border security technology such as sensors has in that unless there are agents who can respond quickly to the location, they do little good.

“Right now, I’m not sure CBP has the manpower to support the drone missions,” Hunter said.

What he did express concern over, also given the rise in unaccompanied children crossing the border this year was that, “CBP isn’t doing themselves any favor by flying less hours.”

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Federal report says Border Patrol"s drone program doesn"t fly

NSA program reportedly helped US finger North Korea for Sony hacking

A program implemented by the National Security Agency to help the U.S. and its allies track the computers and networks used by North Korean hackers was critical in gathering information that led Washington to conclude Pyongyang was behind last year’s cyberattack on Sony Pictures.

The New York Times reported late Sunday that the NSA began placing malware in North Korean systems in 2010. Originally, the purpose of the surveillance was to gain insight into North Korea’s nuclear program, but the focus shifted after a large cyberattack on South Korean banks and media companies in 2013. 

In the case of the Sony Pictures hack, which knocked nearly the entire company’s system offline, investigators believe that the North had stolen the “credentials” of a Sony systems administrator, which enabled them to spend two months familiarizing themselves with Sony’s network and plotting how to destroy files, computers, and systems. The attacks themselves, which Sony first reported to the FBI Nov. 24, are widely considered to be in retaliation for the release of “The Interview,” a comedy that features an assassination attempt against Kim Jong Un. Pyongyang has repeatedly denied any involvement in the Sony hack.

Skeptics have cast doubt on the official story that North Korea was behind the Sony hack, with many suggesting a disgruntled current or former Sony employee was responsible. Earlier this month, FBI director James Comey said U.S. investigators were able to trace emails and Internet posts sent by the Guardians of Peace, the group behind the attack, and link them to North Korea.

Comey said most of the time, the group sent emails threatening Sony employees and made various other statements online using proxy servers to disguise where the messages were coming from. But on occasion, he said, they connected “directly,” enabling investigators to “see that the IP addresses that were being used to post and to send the emails were coming from IPs that were exclusively used by the North Koreans.”

A senior military official told The Times that the evidence against North Korea that was presented to President Barack Obama was so compelling that he “had no doubt” the Communist regime was responsible. The White House has imposed new economic sanctions against North Korea as a response to the cyberattack. 

The Times report quotes a North Korean defector as saying that country’s military first displayed interest in hacking in 1994, when it sent 15 people to a Chinese military academy to learn the practice. Two years later, the Reconnaissance General Bureau, Pyongyang’s primary intelligence service, created Bureau 121, a hacking unit that has a substantial representation in the northeast Chinese city of Shenyang. 

South Korea’s military claims that the North has a staff of 6,000 hackers dedicated to disrupting the South’s military and government. That estimate is more than double an earlier projection made by that country’s Defense Ministry. 

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NSA program reportedly helped US finger North Korea for Sony hacking

IRAN NUKE BLAST Experts: Explosion proves nuclear program still alive

Satellite photos from before and after Sunday’s blast show an explosion that some experts say proves Iran’s nuclear weapons program is real. (IsraelDefense.com)

The massive blast at an Iranian nuclear plant earlier this week remains shrouded in mystery, but it cleared up one thing, according to those who track the Islamic Republic: The nuclear weapons program Tehran has long denied is real.

The massive blast Sunday night rocked buildings more than 10 miles away, and before-and-after satellite images published by the Israel Defense Force showed startling destruction at a facility Iran has repeatedly barred international inspectors from entering.

“[The] images indicate that a complete section of structures was simply eliminated by an unexplained explosion,” IDF analyst Ronen Solomon said. “The explosion wiped several testing units off the face of the earth while inflicting collateral damage on adjacent buildings.”

Iran, which initially denied an explosion took place, was forced a day later to own up to a blast, via the IRNA official Iranian news agency. The report said two people had been killed as a result of a fire at the site. The true casualty figure may never be known.

“The explosion wiped several testing units off the face of the earth while inflicting collateral damage on adjacent buildings.”

- Ronen Solomon, IDF analyst

Israel has long insisted that Iran’s charm offensive, successful in easing western sanctions, is a ruse to buy time while it pursues nuclear weapons.

“Don’t be fooled by Iran’s manipulative charm offensive,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the UN General Assembly in New York on Sept. 29. “It’s designed for one purpose and for one purpose only: to lift the sanctions and remove the obstacles to Iran’s path to the bomb.

“Once Iran produces atomic bombs,” Netanyahu added, “all the charms and all the smiles will suddenly disappear. They’ll just vanish. And it’s then that the ayatollahs will show their true face and unleash their aggressive fanaticism on the entire world.”

As in past cases when things explode or scientists are killed in Iran, speculation centers on Israeli intelligence agencies, who, just as predictably, do not comment. Both misplaced blame and proper credit serve the purpose of burnishing their reputation within enemy and terrorist regimes. There are other possibilities, including that it was an accident or that Iranian dissident groups or western intelligence agencies played a role.

“If someone did succeed in infiltrating the Parchin site with explosives and causing the huge explosion which took place there, we are talking about an exceptional achievement,” regional terror analyst Ronen Bergman suggested in Wednesday’s Ynet.com.

Parchin, a site to which international inspectors have repeatedly been denied access since 2007 – a fact that many opponents of the P5+1 talks have long insisted in itself makes a mockery of the so-called negotiation process – is rumored to be the location of the development of the key warhead components required for making a nuclear bomb.

“Western officials suspect that at the heart of this secret development is the weapon group developing the nuclear lens mechanism,” Bergman said. “It’s a complex system of timers and explosives assembled around the core of the bomb, which explode in a way that “pushes” the enriched uranium sphere inwards and starts the chain reaction needed for an atomic explosion. If the smoking gun for the existence of the weapon group is found, it will serve as decisive evidence that Iran has been lying and that there is no point in negotiating with it.”

The assassination of a series of Iranian nuclear scientists inside Iran in recent years as the result of bombs planted on, or next to their vehicles by mysterious motorcycle-riding hitmen, together with the vicious Stuxnet computer virus that hit Iran’s key Natanz nuclear facility in 2010, has allegedly put the brakes on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear project.

According to Amnesty International, thousands of dissidents languish in Iranian jails, (including a significant number of journalists). Iran is second only to China in the number of executions it carries out each year, often following only a token trial.

 Regime support is also indicated in the September 2013 massacre of at least 52 Iranians in neighbouring Iraq at the Camp Ashraf refugee camp that had been designated a safe haven for Iranian activists, many of whom had opposed the direction of their nation’s nuclear ambitions. U.S. officials were reportedly furious at Iran’s Revolutionary Guard praising the attack, while Foreign Policy magazine reported that, “U.S. intelligence officials believe that Iranian commandos took part [in the attack].”

Paul Alster is an Israel-based journalist. Follow him on Twitter @paul_alster and visit his website: www.paulalster.com.

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IRAN NUKE BLAST Experts: Explosion proves nuclear program still alive