Gen. John Allen, in a July 2012 photo. Photo by Reuters Gen. John Allen Appointed U.S. Security Envoy In Peace Process — Haaretz Former commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan to formulate U.S. security policy in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Gen. John Allen has been appointed special U.S. envoy on security issues in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. He will not mediate between the parties; his work will almost exclusively involve contacts with Israel. Allen will deal with the U.S. position on Israeli security needs and the security arrangements that would accompany the establishment of a future Palestinian state. Senior U.S. and Israeli officials note that while U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel made the appointment it was coordinated with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who is leading the effort to restart Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Read more …. My Comment: I have read this story twice …. and I still do not know/understand what he will be doing. Officially …. they are saying that he will deal with the U.S. position on Israeli security needs and the security arrangements that would accompany the establishment of a future Palestinian state …. OK …. ignoring the fact that the probability of a Palestinian state being established in the next few years is next to zero …. one has to ask the question …. what is he really going to do. What’s my take …. he needed a job and there were none available …. so they made one up for him. It is moments like this that I like to quote the great American General Douglas MacArthur …. ” old soldiers never die; they just fade away .” It is time for Gen. John Allen to fade away. Mind you …. if all-out war breaks out in the Middle East between Israel/Syria/Iran/etc.. …. General Allen may find himself in the center of it all very quickly …. and quoting General Patton …. Better to fight for something than live for nothing .

People walk past ‘Unit 61398′, a secretive Chinese military unit, in the outskirts of Shanghai, Feb. 19, 2013. The unit is believed to be behind a series of hacking attacks, a U.S. computer security company said, prompting a strong denial by China and accusations that it was in fact the victim of U.S. hacking.( Carlos Barria/Reuters ) Should The U.S. Allow Companies To ‘Hack Back’ Against Foreign Cyber Spies? — Max Fisher, Washington Post Foreign hackers do remarkable damage by breaking into American companies, stealing intellectual property worth enormous amounts of money, swiping proprietary secrets for military technology or other uses and, in the case of some recent Chinese attacks, even exposing U.S. counterintelligence efforts. The Obama administration has made clear that it takes the threat seriously and is escalating efforts to stop it. One suggestion increasingly floated in the private sector is to allow companies to “hack back.” Current U.S. law makes it illegal for private firms to launch retaliatory cyberattacks, and the issue is highly controversial. But it’s entering the mainstream. A new report, from a private commission on intellectual property theft chaired by former U.S. ambassador to China Jon Huntsman and former director of national intelligence Dennis Blair, raised the possibility of changing the law to allow for hacking back. While it stopped short of directly advocating such attacks, it did call for a milder, legal form of hacking back and said the United States should consider changing the law if other measures fail. Read more …. My Comment: I can understand why U.S. law that does not permit cyber retaliation was implemented years ago …. but not in today’s world. The sad fact is that in today’s world foreign companies and governments are now boasting of their cyber warfare capabilities …. and with the exception of the West and a few other states …. everyone is now getting into “this game”. This Globe and Mail post is revealing on how much this “hacking culture” is now becoming a permanent feature of the internet …. especially in places like China. To stop this trend all governments will need to get involved …. but until those who are permitting this cyber warfare are not “punished” …. expect this trend to not only continue, but to get worse.

Smiling German ldr. Adolf Hitler(R) shaking hands w. Spanish leader Generalissimo Francisco Franco(2L) during Hitler’s only official meeeting w. Franco. Location: Hendaye, France. Date taken: October 23, 1940. Life Images MI6 Spent £200m Bribing Spaniards In Second World War — The Guardian Newly released documents reveal secret services paid out fortune in bid to stop Franco joining war on Hitler’s side MI6 spent the present-day equivalent of more than $200m bribing senior Spanish military officers, ship owners and other agents to keep Spain out of the second world war, files released today disclose. More and more money was delivered, mainly via a Swiss bank account in New York, as Sir Samuel Hoare, Britain’s ambassador in Madrid, warned London that unless it was paid, there was a real and immediate danger of Spain abandoning its neutrality and of Franco joining forces with Nazi Germany. In June 1940, Hoare was demanding an initial $1m. “I personally urge authority be granted without delay, and that if you have doubts, the prime minister be consulted,” he told the Foreign Office in London. “Yes indeed,” Churchill initialled on a copy of Hoare’s deciphered telegram in red ink. Read more …. My Comment : Money well spent …. invading Spain would have cost far more.

Obama Speech Suggests Possible Expansion Of Drone Killings — Mcclathcy News WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Thursday defended his administration’s use of drone strikes to kill terrorists as effective, lawful and “heavily constrained,” but he also appeared to be laying groundwork for an expansion of the controversial targeted killings. In remarks at the National Defense University in Washington, Obama cast the use of such operations as a necessary part of an overall national defense strategy, even as he acknowledged targeted killings risk “creating new enemies” and could “lead a president and his team to view drone strikes as a cure-all for terrorism.” He said the U.S. is at a crossroads of national security issues with a diffuse array of terrorist threats that require a recasting of a war on terror. Read more …. My Comment: Nope …. I do not see an expansion happening. He wants to limit drone strikes …. and he was blunt about it in his speech.

Right now, hundreds of Hezbollah members are fighting rebels in Syria alongside the Syrian regime .