This and That...

[Warph]

NSA Creating Huge Facial Recognition Database, Taking Millions Of Images Off The Internet

Hey NSA, I'll make it easy, here's my picture:

You can find me in my usual place on the Golf Course.

Via Daily Mail:
The NSA is building a comprehensive facial recognition database through the intercepting of millions of photographs posted online everyday, according to a report from the New York Times published Saturday.

According to the report, which cites top-secret documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, the NSA intercepts 'millions of images per day', which translates into approximately 55,000 'facial recognition quality images.' According to a 2011 document cited in the report, this is regarded by the agency as 'tremendous untapped potential'.

The report also says that the implementation of a facial recognition program has accelerated under the Obama administration, after two thwarted terrorist attacks, the first attempted in 2009 by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian, when he attempted to trigger a bomb hidden in his underwear while flying to Detroit on Christmas in 2009. The second was in May 2010, when Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistani-American, attempted a car bombing in Times Square.

[Warph]

Idiot Hagel On Prisoner Swap With The Taliban: "We Didn't Negotiate With Terrorists"

(Except that is exactly what you did, you dumb son-of-a-bitch)

Via RCP:

HAGEL: "First of all, we didn't negotiate with terrorists. As I said and explained before, Sergeant Bergdahl is a prisoner of war. That's a normal process in getting your prisoners back, that's first. Second, we are dealing with terrorism and hostage taking all the time everywhere. I think America's record is pretty clear on going after terrorists, especially those who take hostages, and I don't think what we did in getting our prisoner of war released in any way would somehow encourage terrorists to take our American service men prisoner or hostage."

[Warph]

Obama Golfs With Wall Street Democratic Megadonor

(ObuttHead golfing with rich people?  But... but I thought rich people, like the Kochs, are bad?  What about income inequality?  Jeez... I'm so confused!)

Via WH Dossier:

President Obama today is playing golf with Wall Street banker Robert Wolf, a megadonor to Obama and other Democrats who is also reportedly a personal friend of the president's.

The two are playing at Fort Belvoir along with White House aides Joe Paulsen and Marvin Nicholson, two of Obama's usual partners.

It's a beautiful and breezy 74 degrees here in the Washington area.

It's Obama 17th time playing this year and the 174th trip to the greens since his presidency began.

[Warph]

White House Acknowledges They Broke The Law In Release Of Gitmo Terrorists, But Claim "Exigent Circumstances"

(It was reported yesterday on the breaking of the law. Today WH admits it, and claim 'exigent circumstances'.  Obama even has the temerity to say even though he signed the law, he has the right to ignore the notice part)

Via The Blaze:
In response, the White House says that officials considered what they called "unique and exigent circumstances" and decided to go ahead with the transfer despite the legal requirement.

Lawmakers weren't notified of the Guantanamo detainees' transfer until after it occurred, according to the Washington Post.

More from the Post:

A senior administration official, agreeing to speak on the condition of anonymity to explain the timing of the congressional notification, acknowledged that the law was not followed. When he signed the law last year, Obama issued a signing statement contending that the notification requirement was an unconstitutional infringement on his powers as commander in chief and that he therefore could override it.

"Due to a near-term opportunity to save Sergeant Bergdahl's life, we moved as quickly as possible," the official said, the Post noted. "The administration determined that given these unique and exigent circumstances, such a transfer should go forward notwithstanding the notice requirement."

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said that the detainees transferred from Guantanamo to Qatar, where they are to stay for at least a year, the Post added, "are hardened terrorists who have the blood of Americans and countless Afghans on their hands. I am eager to learn what precise steps are being taken to ensure that these vicious and violent Taliban extremists never return to the fight against the United States and our partners or engage in any activities that can threaten the prospects for peace and security in Afghanistan."

[Warph]

Football Legend Lou Holtz: Obama Doesn't Like Football Because You Have To Be Responsible, You Are Held Accountable

(Lou nails it in a wide-ranging criticism of Barack Obama):

Wolverine @Nickarama1
Follow Lou Holtz: Obama Doesn't Like Football Because You Have To Be Responsible, Held Accountable... | http://nation.foxnews.com/2014/05/31/lou-holtz-obama-doesn%E2%80%99t-football-because-you-have-be-responsible-held-accountable ...4:30 PM - 31 May 2014
Lou Holtz: Obama Doesn't Like Football Because You Have To Be...
Legendary football coach sounds off on the president's prorities

Fox Nation @foxnation
22 Retweets 5 favorites Reply

[Warph]

Scientists Admit Polar Bear Numbers Were Made Up To 'Satisfy Public Demand'

(Just in time for Obama's pivot from using the polar bear myth)

Via The DC
This may come as a shocker to some, but scientists are not always right — especially when under intense public pressure for answers.

Researchers with the IUCN Polar Bear Specialist Group (PBSG) recently admitted to experienced zoologist and polar bear specialist Susan Crockford that the estimate given for the total number of polar bars in the Arctic was "simply a qualified guess given to satisfy public demand."

Crockford has been critical of official polar bear population estimates because they fail to include five large subpopulations of polar bears. Due to the uncertainty of the populations in these areas, PBSG did not include them in their official estimate — but the polar bear group did include other subpopulation estimates.

PBSG has for years said that global polar bear populations were between 20,000 and 25,000, but these estimates are likely much lower than how many polar bears are actually living in the world.

"Based on previous PBSG estimates and other research reports, it appears there are probably at least another 6,000 or so bears living in these regions and perhaps as many as 9,000 (or more) that are not included in any PBSG 'global population estimate,'" Crockford wrote on her blog.

"These are guesses, to be sure, but they at least give a potential size," Crockford added.

PBSG disclosed this information to Crockford ahead of the release of their Circumpolar Polar Bear Action Plan in which they intend to put a footnote explaining why their global population estimate is flawed.

"As part of past status reports, the PBSG has traditionally estimated a range for the total number of polar bears in the circumpolar Arctic," PBSG says in its proposed footnote. "Since 2005, this range has been 20-25,000. It is important to realize that this range never has been an estimate of total abundance in a scientific sense, but simply a qualified guess given to satisfy public demand."

"It is also important to note that even though we have scientifically valid estimates for a majority of the subpopulations, some are dated," PBSG continues. "Furthermore, there are no abundance estimates for the Arctic Basin, East Greenland, and the Russian subpopulations."

"Consequently, there is either no, or only rudimentary, knowledge to support guesses about the possible abundance of polar bears in approximately half the areas they occupy," says PBSG. "Thus, the range given for total global population should be viewed with great caution as it cannot be used to assess population trend over the long term."

PBSG's admission also comes after academics and government regulators have touted their polar bear population estimates to show that polar bear numbers have grown since the 1960s. PBSG estimates have also been used to show that polar bear populations have stabilized over the last 30 years.

Polar bear populations became the centerpiece of the effort to fight global warming due to claims that melting polar ice caps would cause the bears to become endangered in the near future. Years ago, some scientists predicted the Arctic would be virtually ice free by now.

Polar bears became the first species listed under the Endangered Species Act because they could potentially be harmed by global warming. But some recent studies have found that some polar bear subpopulations have actually flourished in recent years.

"So, the global estimates were... 'simply a qualified guess given to satisfy public demand' and according to this statement, were never meant to be considered scientific estimates, despite what they were called, the scientific group that issued them, and how they were used," Crockford said.

"All this glosses over what I think is a critical point: none of these 'global population estimates' (from 2001 onward) came anywhere close to being estimates of the actual world population size of polar bears (regardless of how scientifically inaccurate they might have been) — rather, they were estimates of only the subpopulations that Arctic biologists have tried to count," she added.

[Warph]

Growing Concern That Obuma Intends To Empty Gitmo By Releasing Prisoners On His Own

(Obuma didn't tell Congress about the Bergdahl trade beforehand, because he knew some members opposed making a deal which had been on the table for years.  The regime had previously assured everyone that no deal would go through without Congress being informed beforehand.  So that was obviously another lie.  At what point does Congress take back their their Constitutional obligation, which Obuma is eviscerating, right and left?

Part of the deal on the table had also been giving the Taliban a million dollars.  Did Obuma give them the money too?

Chuck Hagel has also said that he is "under pressure" from within the Obuma regime to "act on all transfers". The Secretary of Defense is answerable to the President. So there's your answer as to "who" he is under pressure from.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/30/us/hagel-sets-his-own-timetable-on-deciding-guantanamo-transfers.html?smid=tw-share )

via Daily Beast:
President Obama released five Taliban leaders from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility on Saturday without consulting Congress and without strict assurances that the militants won't somehow return to the fight. Republicans on Capitol Hill worry that the swap of these Taliban leaders for American hostage Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is a prelude to a bigger move—the emptying out of Guantanamo entirely.

In his 2014 State of the Union address, Obama promised to shutter the prison built on Cuban soil by the end of the year. Obama now has seven months to fulfill his latest promise to shut down Guantanamo—or come as close to it as he can. During that time, Congress will be unable to prevent the release of the 149 prisoners still there.

"This whole deal may have been a test to see how far the administration can actually push it, and if Congress doesn't fight back they will feel more empowered to move forward with additional transfers," said one senior GOP senate aide close to the issue. "They've lined up all the dominoes to be able to move a lot more detainees out of Guantanamo and this could be just the beginning."

[Warph]

How Obuma Convinced His Spies to Support the Taliban Prisoner Release

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/02/how-obama-convinced-his-spies-to-support-the-taliban-prisoner-release.html#

The Pentagon and the nation's top intelligence official opposed releasing the Gitmo Five in 2012. This time around the White House got the answer it wanted when the Taliban was ready to deal.Leaders of the U.S. intelligence community and military were opposed to freeing five senior Taliban commanders in exchange for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl when the White House first began exploring the prisoner swap in 2011 and 2012.

The U.S. military wanted to bring Bergdahl home, but releasing Mullah Mohammad Fazl, Mullah Norullah Noori, Abdul Haq Wasiq, Khairullah Khairkhwa, and Mohammed Nabi Omari was seen as too dangerous at the time.

James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, according to three U.S. intelligence officials, flat out rejected the release of the five detainees, saying there was too high a risk these Taliban commanders would return to the battlefield and orchestrate attacks against Americans.

Clapper was not alone. Leon Panetta, who was then the Secretary of Defense, declined to certify that the United States could mitigate the risk to national interests of releasing the Taliban commanders.

A lot has changed since 2012. To start, President Obama won reelection. Panetta is gone, and in his place is Chuck Hagel, a Republican former senator who has been much more in sync with Obama's views on the war on terror than his predecessors.

But current U.S. intelligence and defense officials who spoke to The Daily Beast on Monday say the process for exchanging Taliban for Bergdahl this time was rushed and closely held, in some instances leaving little room for any push back against a policy clearly favored by the White House.

"This was an example of forcing the consensus," one U.S. military official said. "The White House knew the answer they wanted and they ended up getting it."

The White House did not even consult or inform Congress until after the prisoner release had begun. Dianne Feinstein, the Democratic chairwoman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence told The Daily Beast, "Should we have gotten advance warning? I actually think so." She added, "We had participated in a number of briefings some time ago [on a possible future deal] and there was considerable concern."

At the end of the day, both Hagel and Clapper supported Obama's decision. Hagel was willing to make the certification that the risk to U.S. interests posed by releasing the "Gitmo Five" was mitigated in part by the assurances of the Qatari government.

"Like others, DNI Clapper had concerns about these individuals," said Clapper spokesman Shawn Turner. "However the agreement that was reached and circumstances under which these individuals will be monitored was sufficient enough to convince the DNI the risks had been mitigated."

But the process for getting there was rushed, according to U.S. intelligence officials. This time around there was no formal intelligence assessment for example of the risks posed by releasing the Taliban commanders. While some intelligence analysts looked at the issue, no community-wide intelligence assessment was produced, according to these officials.

U.S. officials say that this time around there were three factors that swayed Clapper to support the deal. To start, the guarantee from the Kingdom of Qatar to monitor the detainees for a year under a loose form of house arrest. When the deal was first explored in 2011 and 2012, there was no such offer from a third party.

One senior U.S. intelligence official said the Qatar arrangement would allow the detainees to receive international visitors but would not allow them to travel for a year. "This is not a situation like returning detainees to Yemen, where there was a risk of a breakout," one former senior Obama counterterrorism official said. "I expect the Qataris would keep them under house arrest but certainly communications with the Taliban are quite possible. After the first year there are no controls and they still will pose a danger to U.S. interests in Afghanistan."

Another factor that changed Clapper's view on the trade was that the five Taliban officials no longer had access to the same network of fighters that they would have, had they been released several years ago. "A lot of their networks are decimated at this point," one U.S. intelligence official said.

Finally, by the time the detainees will be allowed to leave Qatar, U.S. troops will be in the process of the final withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Anand Gopal, a fellow at the New America Foundation, and the author of No Good Men Among the Living, a history of the Afghan conflict, agreed. "I am a little surprised they did not think the networks were decimated in 2012," he said. "The Taliban may be hoping these guys are going to rejoin the fight, but this is mainly a huge propaganda win."

Indeed, even Mullah Omar, the one eyed leader of the Afghan Taliban that escaped the U.S. military in the first months of the 2001 invasion said the prisoner swap brought his organization "closer to the harbor of victory."

[Warph]

Afghan Taliban Say they Won Big with Bergdahl Swap

"A crisis in leadership had the Taliban demoralized and divided. The release of five of their top men from Guantanamo may have solved that problem."

KARACHI, Pakistan — It's party time for the Afghan Taliban. After the release of five senior figures from Guantanamo in exchange for wayward U.S. Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, Afghan insurgent leader Mullah Omar sent an optimistic but cautious statement from the shadows where he's hiding. The Taliban are now "closer to the harbor of victory," he proclaimed in measured rhetoric. But his fighters on the front line plainly are ecstatic.

Mullah Salem Khan, a Taliban commander in embattled Helmand province, tells The Daily Beast over the telephone that when he heard the news, he pointed his Kalashnikov in the air and emptied 15 rounds toward the skies. "Allah Akbar!" he cried. "God is Great!"

One of those freed, in particular, Mullah Mohammad Fazil, is looked to as a great field commander at a time when those have been in short supply. He is a former deputy defense minister and was in charge of all Taliban troops in northern Afghanistan when the United States launched its invasion in late 2001. He also had a reputation for cruelty in a particularly cruel conflict. But Fazil's release is "the best news I have heard in at least 12 years," says Khan. "His return is like pouring 10,000 Taliban fighters into the battle on the side of jihad. Now the Taliban have the right lion to lead them in the final moment before victory in Afghanistan."

Khan told The Daily Beast that even when Mullah Fazil (sometimes written Fazl) was in Guantanamo his colleagues and fighters use his old letterhead and official stamp to inspire groups of Taliban in Helmand, Kandahar and Urozghan: "While Mullah Fazil was in the Guantanamo cages we kept his name living, and under the banner of 'Mazloom Mahaz'"—one of Fazil's noms de guerre—"more than 20 fronts were and are active in jihad in three provinces."

"Mullah Fazil was a military tycoon and very close to Mullah Omar," says Khan. "His freedom will definitely inspire the whole Taliban moment."

The Obama administration arranged, as part of the prisoner swap, for the five released to remain in Qatar for at least a year, rather than being returned to Afghanistan.

Khan says that's not a problem for the Taliban, who have an informal diplomatic mission in Doha, Qatar, where the deal for the prisoner release was arranged.

Fazil "is a free man," says Khan. "He can contact any one in the front line, in a council meeting, wherever."

"Knowing Mullah Fazil as well as I do, I can tell you he is a man for fighting, not a man sitting under an air conditioner in Qatar," says Khan. "He will definitely get in touch with the Taliban."

An Afghan Taliban commander in Kandahar, Mullah Yasan Akhond, says that Fazil and fellow detainee Mullah Norullah Noori, the former Taliban governor of Balkh province, were top military man who had thousands of Taliban under their command. He expects they will take on significant responsibility in the future planning of the Taliban jihad, even from Qatar.

"Regardless of where they are, the liberation of Mullah Fazil and Mullah Norullah will give new spine to the Taliban so they can make war more aggressively," says Akhond.

The New York Times has identified Taliban founding member Khirullah Said Wali Kharikhwa as "the most important figure" among those released, and adds hopefully that he is seen by some in the Karzai government in Kabul as a "possible interlocutor for future talks." But another Taliban official interviewed by The Daily Beast says that of the five released, only Norullah and Fazil have real power and influence. 

Their liberation is especially welcome by the fighters on the battlefield at this moment because morale was suffering from a lack of major military leaders. Fazil is seen by several Taliban officials as a kind of troubleshooter. "The Taliban suffered a lot and had internal issues," said one, "but the return of these top men will help them to resolve all existing problems."

An ex-Taliban minister who does not want to be named says the Taliban have been searching for a strong figure, and at this crucial time Mullah Fazil could be the right man: "He was a respected name in the past, and his long stay in Guantanamo made him more mature and respectful with other Taliban."

The ex-minister says Taliban leaders were under pressure from combat forces to explain why they were sitting with the United States in Qatar "while on the ground we are fighting against United States."

"This is like shooting two birds with a single arrow," he said. "It is a political and military win for the Taliban."

A major split emerged in recent months between Mullah Abdul Qayam Zakir, the reputed Taliban number two, and the collective leadership.  "Mullah Zakir  was under Mullah Fazil [in the past] and with the return of Fazil his issues are almost resolved," says Mullah Salem Khan.

As for the supposed guarantee that the five Guantanamo inmates will not rejoin the Taliban, that's taken as a joke. "As soon as they arrived in Qatar they rejoined the Taliban," says Khan. "We don't care about U.S. conditions and obstacles."

"There are dozens of ways to lead the Taliban, even from overseas," says a former official in Taliban intelligence. "In fact, after 9/11, some 95 percent of the leadership are not actually on the ground in Afghanistan." The official said, "Skype, phones, the Internet, although made by the West, can easily bridge the communication gap," allowing the reorganization of Taliban military momentum: "Officially their bodies would be in Qatar, but thoughts and wisdom of jihad would be with us."

American and other Western officials see some benefit in the process that led to the exchange, since the negotiations pulled together some disparate factions among the forces fighting the Kabul government and may eventually open the way for further peace talks.

According to the same ex-minister, the Haqqani Network, which operates separately but answers to Mullah Omar, was holding Bergdahl. The Americans tried reaching out to it directly through some tribesman, but were referred back to the overall shura leadership in Quetta, Pakistan, and the envoys in Doha, Qatar.

Efforts by Washington to foster relatively wide-ranging discussions with the Taliban delegates in Qatar fell apart last year, but the Bergdahl negotiations continued. According to Taliban sources, the recent negotiations hinged on the question of how long the five released prisoners would have to stay in Qatar. Originally the Americans demanded they remain there forever. That time frame was whittled down to one year.

"Strengthening   the Qatar office is good news for the political process and talks with Taliban," said a western diplomat in Islamabad. "Let's be positive at this stage." He suggested the return of the "five guys to Qatar" is "like moving the whole Quetta shura to Qatar."

The chief of the Taliban negotiating team in Doha, Mullah Naik Muhammad, told the Taliban website nuns.asia that Qatar can play a positive role in the Afghan conflict: "We don't have any areas of truce between the Taliban and the United States, but an area in the Ali Sher district of Khost province was declared a safe area for a day so the U.S. helicopter could land and pick up the U.S. soldier from the house of a local tribal elder," Naik Muhammad told nuns.asia.

As much as Washington would like to put a positive spin on the prisoner swap—while moving ahead with the withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan—an Afghan army colonel, who asked not to be named, said the deal was a slap on the face of Afghan government.  It is "like freeing hungry wolves and will bite hundreds of Afghans."

While it is true that Afghan President Hamid Karzai has freed Taliban prisoners in the past, none have been as senior as these. "If we released all the rest of the Taliban who are in Afghan jails it would not have as much weight for the Taliban as these five who were released by the United Staes," said the colonel.

[Warph]

Swap To Free Alan Gross Depends On Obuma, "Cuban Five" Spy Says

(If Obuma doesn't free the five, then he hates Hispanics)

Via Fox News Latino
The release of U.S. government contractor Alan Gross from a Cuban prison depends solely on the "political will" of President Barack Obama, a Havana spy who spent more than 15 years behind bars in the United States said here Monday.

To support that assertion, Fernando Gonzalez cited Obama's decision to trade five senior Taliban members being held at Guantanamo for U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the only American POW in Afghanistan.

Gonzalez, one of five Cuban spies convicted by a Miami jury in 2001, was released from prison in late November and promptly deported.

Three of the "Cuban Five" remain jailed in the United States and Havana has suggested an exchange of its spies for Gross, who is serving a 15-year sentence in Cuba on a conviction for subversion.

"It's obvious that the only thing needed is the political will on the part of the U.S. government to bring to fruition that exchange," Gonzalez told a press conference on Monday.

The swap of five Taliban leaders for Bergdahl "is evidence that the only thing lacking is the political will of Obama to resolve this situation," Gonzalez said.

The cases of Gross and the Cuban Five, in recent years, have become points of friction within the already-tense relations between the United States and Cuba, countries that have not had diplomatic relations for more than five decades.

Gross, now 64, traveled to Cuba on behalf of a Maryland company that won a contract from the U.S. Agency for International Development to expand Internet access and the flow of information on the Communist-ruled island.