Obama May Lose In His Home

Obama May Lose In His Home

President Barack Obama could lose his home state of Illinois in November, a new poll shows.

Quas molestias excepturi
WorldFloat Networking Site Takes Social Media

WorldFloat Networking Site

Worldfloat.com, a new social networking site, is enabling users to move around a virtual world where they can hang out with friends.

Impedit quo minus id
Uganda Stuns World On Final Day Of Olympics

Uganda Stuns World On Final Day Of Olympics

The 23-year-old burst past Abel Kirui and Wilson Kipsang around the 38km mark to leave his two rivals trailing and claim only Uganda’s second-ever Olympic gold in Athletics.

Voluptates repudiandae kon
Federal Court in Texas Orders

Federal Court in Texas Orders

Washington, DC – The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced that it obtained an order of permanent injunction against defendants Robert Mihailovich, Sr. (Mihailovich, Sr.) of Rockwall

Mauris euismod rhoncus tortor

University employee uses work issued credit card to buy sex toys and other items worth $ 80,000


Unknown | 23:22 |


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A woman was sentenced to two years in prison for spending nearly $ 80,000 to buy sex toys, clothes, undergarments, jewelry and electronics with a work-issued credit card.

The woman, Cynthia Low, 47, a former employee of Oklahoma State University pleaded guilty for embezzlement charges and was ordered to pay $ 84,000 as restitution. She was also placed under two year’s probations after she completes her prison sentence.
She resigned for her job in 2010. But was arrested following March on embezzlement charges after a tip from a fellow employee.
The card was given to her to make purchases for the chemistry department of the university.
The scandal came to light when auditors found most of the credit card receipts were either altered or forged.
Just before she began using the work-issued credit card, she and her husband have filed for bankruptcy, claiming more than $ 150,000 in debt.
Source: Daily Mail

Polygamist Warren Jeff custom built bed to rape hundreds of children


Unknown | 11:50 |

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Convicted polygamist Warren Jeff ordered carpenters to custom-build a bed with hardwood and padded sides to molest hundreds of children in his Texas ranch, details have been outlines in a diary referred as priest records.

The maids were asked to place a plastic sheet over the bed sheet to protect the sheets being tainted, a startling report published on Friday revealed.
On Wednesday prosecutors read out excerpts from thousands of pages of the diary as Texas state officials were making attempt to seize the 1, 700 acre ranch which is owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
The diary has also revealed that Jeff gave detailed instructions to his followers how they were to build a secret enclave in West of Texas because it is god’s will. The investigators found the ‘rape-bed” inside the multimillion limestone temple. The rape bed was disguised as an altar.
Rape Bed-Pic AP
The jurors wept openly when the contents of the diary revealed how the children were restrained and molested by Jeff. The state of Texas has spent nearly $ 5 million to prosecute the molester who is behind the bars for the past six years on charges of molesting two under-aged children.
In 2008 police officials freed 438 children who were found inside the ranch.
According to media reports the diary offers day-to-day activities between 2002 and 2006. The events and details were meticulously penned in the event if the followers of the church are forced-driven from their base in Utah.
According to Jeffs’ writings, it was the Lord who sent him to the ranch in Eldorado.
‘Three times the Lord sent me here, not knowing where I was going, but naming the place,’ he wrote. ‘The second time, we drove right to this place and didn’t realize it was for sale, as the Lord said, “Go to Sonora and then Eldorado”. Sonora is south of here.
‘We need to keep this particular property so private and sacred and secret that not even the faithful who are driven will know of this place, because this is where the sacred records are.’
He would refer to the site as ‘R17′ because of its location 17 hours away from FLDS communities on the border between Utah and Arizona, known as Short Creek.
The attorney general’s office argued that the documents prove Jeffs deliberately chose the remote location to shield widespread child sexual abuse and money laundering from the scrutiny of law enforcement authorities.

Mug Shot during the arrest
More than a year after his conviction of child sex abuse, it appears that little has changed in the remote compound in Colorado City as Jeffs continues to decide where people live, whom they marry and even what they eat and how they dress.
Children of cult members receive little more than a grade school education where science and history are ignored in favor of religious studies with an emphasis on Jeffs’ proverbs, and where every school book must be personally approved by the leader.
One proverb reads: ‘When you disobey there must and will always be a punishment.’
Children in the local schoolhouse are also taught that Jeffs was the president of the United States and that God led Neil Armstrong away from the moon during the Apollo 11.
When questioned by an ABC reporter about their general level of knowledge, a trio of girls who escaped the cult several months earlier along with their mother said that they had never heard of Ronald Reagan, Santa Claus or AIDS.

‘The Lord teaches us that if we can dress properly, it is easier to see each other as a whole person inside and out.’
Women must never cut their hair because it is believed that they will need it to wash men’s feet in heaven.
They all live in polygamous marriages where each man has at least three sister wives.
The FLDS organization is protected by Utah’s homeschooling law, which means that state officials have no say about the content of the curriculum taught on the grounds of the secured compound.
In August 2011, Jeffs, 56, was found guilty of molesting two girls ages 12 and 15 whom he took as brides in ‘spiritual marriages’.
Eleven other FLDS men were charged with crimes including sexual assault and bigamy. So far, all seven, who have been prosecuted, have been convicted – receiving prison sentences of between six and 75 years.
Read More: Daily Mail

Eva Longoria titivate GQ Mexico edition


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Bradley Manning turned bedsheet into noose


Unknown | 10:59 |


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Agence France Presse
Fort Meade, Maryland: The army private accused of the biggest leak of official secrets in US history admitted on Friday he had turned a prison bed sheet into a makeshift noose he could have used to kill himself.

Bradley Manning, 24, has been in military custody since his arrest in Iraq more than two years ago on accusations that he leaked hundreds of thousands of confidential documents to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks.

He faces life imprisonment if he is convicted of the most serious charge that he “aided the enemy,” but his defense team argues that the case should be thrown out because of Manning’s unduly harsh treatment in jail.
The soldier, who broke his silence in the case on Thursday by testifying at a pre-trial hearing near the US capital, was being cross-examined by military prosecutors.
“Yes, sir,” Manning said, after Major Ashden Fein showed him the sheet, which had been rolled up into a ligature with several knots tied along it. Both men referred to the bed sheet as a noose.
The soldier was considered a suicide risk when the bedding was taken from the cell where he was initially held at a US garrison in Kuwait. He was later transferred to Quantico brig in Virginia.
Manning’s defense team maintains that he was kept isolated and under suicide watch despite objections from psychiatrists at Quantico and is demanding that the case be dismissed because of the alleged mistreatment.
The former army intelligence analyst, who was arrested near Baghdad in May 2010, repeatedly asked to be taken off the stringent suicide watch regime, but the request was refused despite the advice of military doctors.
On Thursday, Manning said that before his transfer to Quantico, guards in Kuwait repeatedly searched his cell and scattered his possessions, but a day later he told Fein that his initial treatment had been “very professional.”
Fein also asked the soldier about his cell at Quantico, which consisted of three walls, a toilet, a sink and a row of bars.
Seated in a black, swivel chair in the courtroom, Manning appeared calm and relaxed as he conceded that the cell received natural light from a row of windows further down the hall and was the same as that of other detainees.
He also recounted some of the requests he made of military authorities, through the submission of paper chits, while held in custody.
Among them was a chit asking his aunt to send him a copy of “The Good Soldiers,” a novel about the horror of modern combat written by Washington Post reporter David Finkel, and copies of the Scientific American journal.
Manning is accused of passing a mass of Iraq and Afghanistan war logs plus confidential diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks, which published them, causing deep embarrassment in Washington and enraging US allies around the world.
He will appear in courts again in February.

Seismological reading points to possible volcano eruption in Yellow Stone


Unknown | 09:59 |

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Speculations are rife that there would be a massive volcano eruption in Yellowstone on December 3rd, according a report published on Thursday.

Readings of the Norris Junction Yellowstone seismology graphs are currently off the charts. Suddenly at 6pm Mountain time on November 28th, seismological readings spiked, as shown on 2nd graph below. Is the Yellowstone mega-volcano reacting to the approaching cosmic alignment that is about to occur on December 3rd, 2012? According to Discover Magazine’s Bad Astronomy, Mercury, Venus and Saturn will indeed fall into alignment over the Giza pyramids on December 3, 2012.

What kind of effect will that alignment have upon our planet Earth? Could Yellowstone’s  awakening be just another one of the many earth changes that are now happening across the planet, including an uptick in seismic activity in the area surrounding the Long Valley Caldera in Long Ridge, California? Whether the earth changes have anything to do with a rumored approaching ‘Planet X’ is beyond me. NASA once again has warned us that we have nothing to worry about. Then again, it sure seems like a lot of strange things are happening with our planet lately. Maybe the Mayans were right after all? December 21st, 2012 is only weeks away… This first graph is for today; 2nd graph down shows the sudden spike at 6pm Wednesday. The video at the bottom shares an MSNBC news report informing us that Yellowstone may indeed have a very short fuse; Yellowstone erupts on average once every 600,000 years, it’s been 640,000 since it last erupted.

Lindsay Lohan’s nightclub brawl accuser has a dark-side


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The woman who claimed that she was clocked on her face by Lindsay Lohan at a posh nightclub in New York in the early hours of Thursday may have a credible issue.

Tiffany Mitchell was a fortune teller in Palm Beach, Florida moved to Manhattan six months ago after enriching herself through misinformation. She operated in the city of Palm Beach under the name of Ava’s Psychic visions, reports Gossip Extra.
In 2010 a downtown developer filed a lawsuit against her when she stopped paying rent for her palm reading business. She owed the developer Alfred Marulli an estimated $ 113,000 but the case was settled for $ 12,000.
In 2007 she was ticketed for a traffic offense but she was unable to pay the fine of $ 100.
Empty Facebook page
When she and her husband Wayne Stevens moved to Manhattan, the people whom she dealt with called her all sorts of name. A woman wrote “This skank is a fraud and a fake. DO NOT go to her. She deserves to die a horrible, painful, bloody death. F*CK this fake skank,” an Internet user named Mury Amen, posted on a business-rating website in 2009.
Another writer named Vaishali, from Lake Worth, added this comment:
“She needs to be investigated for fraud. She asked me $190 to cleanse my aura after reading me and my husband for $50. We believed her and gave her $190 to cleanse our aura and put the protective shield around our aura!!!

“For next couple of weeks, she acted so busy and told us that her brother is sick and at the hospital. Then she said the negativity in our aura is so intense that she is not able to pull the negativity out, and there are two people who don’t want us (me and my hubby) together.

“After hearing this I was terrified and continued calling her every single day to get an update on her work, also if she could find out about those two people!!! . . . She started acting kind a bossy and demanded me to see her. When we went to her office, she said the work that she is doing for us is far more important than money and our aura cleansing would cost more and she asked $2500 to remove intense negativity!!!
“Later, we had our aura photo taken with kirlian photography and it revealed that I and my hubby have normal aura like everyone else!!! There isn’t any kind of negativity there!! I feel so fortunate that we walked away when she asked $2500! I feel so sorry for those innocent people who might have been deceived by her and would have lost more money!!! I am so going to report her so she doesn’t play with innocent mind ever again!!”.

Whistle-blower Jill Kelley loses another status symbol


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Last week the South Koreans took away the honorary consul general title they gave Jill Kelley and next week the Florida Department of Motor Vehicles will take away her license plate.
Kelly shot into the lime light after she blew the lid off the military mistress scandal between four star general David Petraeus and het biographer Paula Broadwell.
The department of state has informed Florida DMV that Kelley no longer qualifies for honorary consul license plate. A spokesman for the DMV has stated that they received a word from the state department and a letter would be sent Kelley to take off the license plate.
Kelley and her husband threw lavish lawn parties for top military men at their $ 1.5 million water-front home, which is in the process of being foreclosed by the bank.
Kelley was instrumental of ending Petreaus career prematurely when she complained to an “insider” at the FBI that she has been receiving threatening emails from Broadwell, the jealous mistress of General Petreaus.

Motorists stranded in flood waters ticketed for unauthorized parking in Britain


Unknown | 11:45 |

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Traffic wardens in a British city ticketed motorists for “unauthorized parking”, who were left stranded in flood waters.

Now the residents of Tewesbury, Gloucestershire wants the traffic wardens kicked out of their jobs
The residents were forced to abandon their vehicles after a deluge of water flooded the streets following torrential rains which swept the western region of Britain.
The uncompassionate wardens issued $ 75 tickets to motorists after their vehicles were deemed to have parked illegally-despite the fact the floods left them stranded in the middle of the city streets.
One town Centre trader, who did not want to be identified, said he had received tickets two days running and a colleague had received three.
He admitted parking on the pavement, but said it was because other parking areas were flooded.
He added that he had deliberately left his car so it was not blocking the way for other motorists or pedestrians.
He said: “I’m going to appeal against my tickets. Even a bit of common sense would have been nice.
“There’s nowhere to park and yet the traffic warden told me she was not allowed to use discretion or common sense.”
Aggrieved motorists cannot understand why the rules have not been temporarily suspended after flood levels hit the highest they have been since 2007.
Mike Sztymiak, a town, borough and county councilor also reinforced the call to relax the normal parking rules during the floods.
He said: “If we don’t, we’re putting profit before the people. These are emergency times. Many of the roads have been flooded. Where are they going to park?”
But Tewkesbury Borough Council rejected the call and stated that other parking had been made available for those affected.
Mella McMahon, the council’s director of development, said: “The recent flooding is causing parking difficulties for some residents and businesses so we have been in touch with our permit holders to let them know they can park in any available car park if their usual one is affected by the floods.
“As always, we must ensure that we act in the best interest of everyone and, given the reduced available parking as a result of the flooding, it is important that this it is carefully managed to ensure ongoing availability for residents, businesses and visitors.”

Two faces of Egyptian President


Unknown | 10:06 |

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Morsi makes the time magazine cover.
But Egyptians were quick to parody the cover. Pic Angryarab.net

Lindsay Lohan in trouble again with cops


Unknown | 09:15 |

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Liz and Dick star Lindsay Lohan seriously should contemplate of seeking behavioral therapy for her antics. She was busted on Thursday morning for a nightclub scuffle this morning, desk-ticketed and released.

The TMZ reported that she punched a woman at the New York City Hotspot club avenue at 4.00am. The victim was later identified as Tiffany Eve Mitchell, a woman from Florida. Apparently Lohan clocked in the jaw over a minor accident.
Apparently Lohan hit her when Mitchell from West Palm Beach, Fla accidentally bumped to Lohan.
Lohan has been charged with third-degree assault.

The best seat on a passenger plane is: 6A


Unknown | 08:39 |

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The best seat on a passenger flight is 6A, a survey has found.

The poll of over 1,000 airline passengers questioned respondents on their seat preferences, including which section and whether they chose window, middle or aisle seats.
The poll also delved deeper to find out if choices were influenced by lucky numbers as well as odd or even row numbers.
Combining these responses, flight search engine ‘Skyscanner’ found that the most sought after seat on a standard aircraft is seat 6A.
The survey supports previous studies which have found that the front six rows of the plane are the most popular, taking 45 per cent of the votes, and booking seats in this section on certain aircraft is actually eight pounds instead of the standard three pounds charged to pre-book seats in any other section.
More surprising is the number of passengers who prefer the window seat almost 60 per cent – compared to just 40 per cent who opt for the aisle, with less than 1 per cent choosing the middle seat.
“There is always a great rush to get on board and get that favored seat and I think it is really interesting that there are so many differing opinions on this.
“I just hope that the low cost carriers don’t find out that there is such demand for seat 6A and start charging a premium for it,” Skyscanner’s travel editor, Sam Baldwin, said.
The survey also found that the seat no-one wanted was 31E, a middle seat towards the back of the aircraft.
Other seats that ranked high in the survey were middle seats over the wings as passengers say they’re less likely to feel turbulence there.
 Source: NDTV

Feds authorized U.S embassy in Yemen to revoke Anwar-al-Aulaqi’s passport six months before assassination-report


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The order to assassinate U.S born terrorist Anwar-al-Aulaqi by an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle was reportedly authorized by President Obama, a judicial watch claimed on Wednesday.
Aulaqi and his henchmen
In addition the FBI ordered Aulaqi to be released when he was detained at the New York’s JFK airport on October 10, 2002 for passport fraud, a felony punishable by up to 19 years in federal prison, the judicial watch said.

The judicial watch in a report titled “former Muslim cleric in custody multiple times and released prior to assassination” published this reports on its website on Wednesday. Below is the full text of the report.
Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it has received documents from the U.S. State Department pertaining to the targeting and assassination of U.S. born terrorist Anwar al-Aulaqi by a U.S. drone in Yemen on September 30, 2011. In 2010, President Obama reportedly authorized the assassination of al-Aulaqi, the first American citizen added to the government’s “capture or kill” list, describing the radical Muslim cleric as “chief of external operations for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).”

The Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice (DOJ) had previously determined that the targeting and killing of U.S. citizens overseas was legal under domestic and international law.

The heavily redacted documents received in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by Judicial Watch on September 30, 2011, confirm the killing of al-Aulaqi and show that the known terrorist had been in custody. The following are highlights from the records:

The U.S. Embassy in Sanaa, Yemen, was asked on March 24, 2011, to issue a communication to al-Aulaqi, requesting him to “appear in person” to pick up an important letter at the post. The letter issued by the embassy, which included a partial address for al-Aulaqi, was a revocation of his passport: “The Department?s [sic] action is based upon a determination by the Secretary that Mr. al-Aulaqi [sic] activities abroad are causing and/or likely to cause serious damage to the national security or the foreign policy of the United States.” The embassy was instructed not to inform al-Aulaqi when he came to the embassy that the “important letter” was a passport revocation.

The documents include two “Privacy Act Release Forms” issued by the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa, Yemen, signed by al-Aulaqi. One was dated November 14, 2006, and the other July 2, 2007 –which indicates that he was held for at least eight months. (Press reports had indicated that al-Aulaqi’s arrest was in relation to an al-Qaeda plot to kidnap a U.S. government official.) The documents do not indicate how long al-Aulaqi was detained or why he was released.

A September 30, 2011, email from Stephanie A. Bruce, Consular Section Chief at the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa to Elizabeth L. Perry, Team Lead for CA/OCS/ACS/NESCA at the State Department, included the following statement: “Elizabeth, I wanted to let you know that the Yemeni Defense Ministry reported that AMCIT Anwar al-AwLaki [sic] was killed in Yemen today.” Except for the added observation, “The statement is being cited in international and regional press reports,” the rest of the email is redacted.

Documents from a related FOIA request that was submitted on October 26, 2011, include records concerning the death of Abdulrahman al-Aulaqi, Anwar al-Aulaqi’s son, who was killed on October 14, 2011. Abdulrahman al-Aulaqi’s death certificate was recorded on November 14, 2011. He is noted on the death certificate as being the 16-year-old son of Anwar al-Aulaqi. The documents also include a “Report of Death of American Citizen Abroad” dated December 20, 2011. The cause of Abdulrahman al-Aulaqi’s death on the form is “unknown.” Press reports indicate Abdulrahman al-Aulaqi was born in Denver, Colorado, was killed by a U.S. drone strike two weeks after his father was killed.

In addition to the arrest noted by the documents in 2006 and 2007, Anwar al-Aulaqi was detained at New York’s JFK airport on October 10, 2002, under a warrant for passport fraud, a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison. However, the FBI ordered al-Aulaqi’s release, even though the arrest warrant was still active at the time of his detention as reported by the Fox News Channel’s Catherine Herridge. Once released al-Aulaqi then took a flight to Washington, DC, and eventually returned to Yemen.

Since September 2009, according to the James Baker III Institute for Public Policy, 26 terrorism cases have been tied to al-Aulaqi, including an association with blind sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, currently in prison for his role in the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center. Anwar al-Aulaqi was also known to have been in email contact (19 email exchanges) with Major Nidal Hasan, who was charged with 13 murders in the Fort Hood massacre on November 5, 2009, and allegedly had contacts with at least three of the terrorists who carried out the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States.

“These documents provide further evidence that the federal government, under both the Bush and Obama administrations, has been operating a ‘catch and release’ program for terrorists,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The idea of inviting al-Aulaqi – a known terrorist – to our embassy in Yemen in order to revoke his passport is beyond belief.
Source: Judicial Watch
 

Glenn Beck becomes urine salesman for Obama


Unknown | 10:40 |

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The god-fearing insipid conservative radio show host Glenn Beck seems to have ran-out of options of earning a decent living. He is selling his master-class creation: President Obama’s figurine in a glass jar apparently mixed with urine for $ 25,000-Obama in Pee Pee.

Although Beck claimed that it was his urine, a TV network reported that actually it was home-brewed low-quality beer.
Beck’s new innovation follows a Boston based artist’s controversial painting of president Obama being crucified.
On Tuesday Beck praised the artist for his creation, but said he didn’t like the painting because it depicted president as Jesus subtext.
“Art is in the eye of the beholder, and this guy has a right to do this. I think it’s offensive. I don’t think it’s close to reality, but whatever floats your boat. I support his right to do exactly that. I agree with him that people who are upset should not trump his right to be able to do it and be able to hang it wherever he wants — as long as it’s wanted there,” Beck said.
The Pee Pee will go on sale right in time for Christmas.

300 teachers in “teacher’s jail” for misconduct in Los Angeles County


Unknown | 09:50 |

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The Los Angeles Unified School District has established an unofficial “teacher’s jail” for teachers accused of misconduct and it’s costing the district a ton of money, claims the teacher’s union.

The LAUSD early this year was marred with sex abuse scandals. A teacher at an elementary school was arrested for molesting 23 children. His crimes came to light after incriminating photographs with children blindfolded surfaced. In another incident just outside of Los Angeles another elementary teacher was arrested for same offense.
The wave of crimes committed by the teachers prompted the district officials to introduce a zero-tolerance policy and according to new ordinance if any teacher is accused of misconduct, he or she could be removed from classroom and sent to teacher’s jail straight until investigations are completed.
According to newspaper reports an estimated 300 teachers are languishing in teacher’s jail and investigations could take as long as six months to one year.
But the Union bosses are furious over teacher’s jail. They are calling it “waste of money”. But they have failed to recommend any alternative plans for the teachers accused of misconduct.
They even have gone one step further by labeling it as “witch hunt”.
“What the LAUSD is doing is that they are using this process to get rid of the teachers they don’t like”, the bosses say.
According to them a teacher who was found guilty of tapping a student on the stomach was kept at teacher’s jail for 10 weeks.
But the LAUSD officials say their priority to create a safe environment for the students.
Source: KTLA

U.S had plans to atom-bomb the moon in 1950s


Unknown | 08:54 |

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In a bizarre a twist of tales on Wednesday a British newspaper reported that the United States government had plans to blast the moon with nuclear bomb during the period of cold war.

The London Telegraph said that operation labeled as “A study of Lunar Research Flights-project A 119” was planned by military chiefs at the height of the race for space in the 50s and to show of power over now collapsed Soviet Union.
According to reports, the U.S was planning of using an atom bomb instead of a Hydrogen bomb because of the weight. The rocket carrying the bomb was to be launched from an undisclosed location and to detonate it at a close proximity range of the moon.
But the military chiefs abandoned the plans because they feared if the mission failed the people on earth would be seriously affected. Physicist Leonard Reiffel, who was involved in the project, has told the newspaper that the bombing project to give the U.S morale boost because the Russians successfully launched Sputnik in 1957. Reiffel later served as deputy director of NASA.
A young astronomer Carl Sagan was assigned to research the behavior of gas and other materials generated by the blast. The scientists involved in the project had also raised fears of contaminating the moon with radioactive material.
The U.S Air Force declined to comment, the newspaper said.

Drive-in sex boxes to be introduced in Switzerland next year


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The Swiss government in an attempt to discourage curbside prostitution on the streets of Zurich has planned to introduce drive- in “sex boxes” next year. But the government has failed to disclose whether take-outs are permissible.

A customer could drive-in have a quick “session” in one of the sex boxes and drive off.
City council on Monday approved the installation of the boxes, meant to be places where prostitutes can take customers and conduct their business discreetly, in the Alststetten area.
The boxes, which are used in various German cities, are covered, garage-like structures wide enough for a car to be parked.
Approved by city voters in March after discussions for a couple of years, plans call for them to be operational in August, with construction starting in May at a cost of around 2.4 million francs.
At the same time the city will be closing off to the sex trade areas, such as the Sihiquai, where open prostitution has become a social problem, often involving crime, violence and disruption for residents.
The city is providing social and health care services and maintaining a road barrier on the Zahringerstrasse as part of its package of measures to control the sex trade.

Prostitution is legal in Switzerland but managing red light districts has proved to be a challenge in Zurich and other cities.
The country’s largest city is introducing licensing requirements in January for street prostitutes and for those plying their trade in “salons”.
Source: The Local.

Twelve Libyan men face executions for being gay


Unknown | 16:05 |


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Twelve gay Libyan men are facing mutilation to their genitals and execution after being caught by radical Muslim militants for having a private party.
This post has been deleted on Facebook

The men were, apparently, having a private party in Ain Zara, a suburb of Tripoli, the country’s capital, when the militia captured them, late on Thursday night (22 November).
The group boasted by posting the pictures of the men on Facebook, describing them as the ‘third sex’ (a term used in the Arab Gulf area to denote ‘queers’) including one of the men who had a henna ‘tattoo’ on his back.
One of the pictures was accompanied by the Quranic call ‘there is no power but the power of Allah!’
At the time of writing, the picture of the men received 121 likes, 118 shares, and mainly violent comments such as ‘flog them hard!’, ‘let them see bullets!’, ‘free Libya! [ie from gays]’, ‘ride them like camels’ and so on.
Human Rights Watch Libya left a comment saying the organization hopes the men will not be treated inhumanely and called upon the militia to hand the men to the civil authorities (the comment received no likes).
The militia Facebook page entitled as the ‘special deterrence unit’ boasted that the men were captured doing the ‘practices of the people of Lot’ (ie gay sex) and that they are to be mutilated and executed.
The militia also claim they have now become a legal part of the Libyan Ministry of Interior.
The group states its mission is to remove ‘corruption’, ‘vice’, alcoholic drinks and now gays from the streets of Libya.
Human Rights Watch Libya identified the group as the Al-Nawasi militia, who are considered to be extreme Salafists.
The militia has been previously been reported as being responsible for attacks against Sufi (moderate form of Islam) shrines and followers.
Gay Star News has, so far, not been able to independently verify the reports.
Speaking with Gay Star News, a Libyan LGBT activist nicknamed Khaleed stated: ‘We never had any gay nightclubs in Libya, so it is not uncommon for Libyans – straight, bisexual and gay men to party in a private space, drink, dance, have fun and sometimes even have sex.
‘That fact that they were captured by this extreme Salafist militia is very worrying.
‘The situation for LGBT people after the revolution generally improved, people can meet each other more easily than under the Qadaffi [Gadaffi] regime, although, of course we still have to be very discreet and careful.
‘Many of us fear that some of the militias [there are over 250 of them in the country], which are extreme Islamists who are very well armed and financed, will focus on the LGBT community and hunt us down.
‘The police is largely absent or powerless so Libyan civil society has a real problem; the militias often take the law onto their own hands.
‘That the Al Nawasi militia claims they are now part of the Ministry of Interior is very worrying; this move should be unacceptable to the public and to civil society groups.’
Source: Gay Star News

The naked truth: AIDS activists arrested for disrobing at House Speaker’s office


Unknown | 12:13 |

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Three naked AIDS activists have learned the truth: never to take off their clothes in public.

The trio was arrested when they disrobed to protest against the spending cuts in HIV programs in the lobby of House Speaker John Boehner’s office on Tuesday.
The three women with words “Aids cut kills” on their backs had their arms linked with four other men before being taken into custody by police. According to news reports they chanted “people with AIDS under attack, what do,we do? Fight back”
On Thursday, Secretary Clinton is expected to announce a blueprint to end AIDS. The mandatory budget cuts will make this goal nearly impossible, resulting in at least 620,000 otherwise preventable deaths from HIV. The naked protest was timed to coincide with the World AIDS Day march of hundreds of AIDS activists marching from the Democratic National Committee to the offices of Congressional leaders to demand a stop to the sequestration budget cuts that will push the world backwards in the fight against AIDS. In May of 2011, the U.S. funded study, HPTN 052, proved that the AIDS pandemic could be stopped and we could see an AIDS free world in a generation if a small number of people were put on treatment around the world.
“The naked truth is that if President Obama and Congressional leaders like Speaker Boehner allow these budget cuts to lifesaving programs, global health programs will lose $689 million, while domestic AIDS programs will lose $538 million.”, said Eustacia Smith from ACT UP New York.

“Boehner and others in Congress think that they can gut lifesaving programs without any consequences. We are here to bare witness and expose the effect on their constituents.” said, Michael Tikili from QUEEROCRACY.
Source: The New Civil Rights Movement

Russia sent 200 tons of cash to Syria despite sanctions


Unknown | 11:22 |

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Despite the United States and European Union’s economy sanctions against Syria is in place, the Russian government has sent plane load of cash to the country’s president Bashar-al-Assad, a report published here said.]
The Syrian plane mentioned in the flight manifests obtained by ProPublica. (Flickr user Jerome_K)
The report published in ProPublica said that Russian government sent 200 tons of Bank notes to Syria after the Austrian bank which printed the bank notes halted operations under pressure from the European Union.
The report authored by Dafna Linzer, Michael Grabell and Jeff Larson said that the shipments occurred during a period of escalating violence in a conflict that has left tens of thousands of people dead since March 2011.
This past summer, as the Syrian economy began to unravel and the military pressed hard against an armed rebellion, a Syrian government plane ferried what flight records describe as more than 200 tons of “bank notes” from Moscow.
The records of over flight requests were obtained by ProPublica. The flights occurred during a period of escalating violence in a conflict that has left tens of thousands of people dead since fighting broke out in March 2011.
The regime of Bashar al-Assad is increasingly in need of cash to stay afloat and continue financing the military’s efforts to crush the uprising. U.S. and European sanctions, including a ban on minting Syrian currency, have damaged the country’s economy. As a result, Syria lost access to an Austrian bank that had printed its bank notes.
“Having currency that you can put into circulation is certainly something that is important in terms of running an economy and more so in an economy that is become more cash-based as things deteriorate,” said Daniel Glaser, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes.  “It is certainly something the Syrian government wants to do, to pay soldiers or pay anybody anything.”
According to the flight records, eight round-trip flights between Damascus International Airport and Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport each carried 30 tons of bank notes back to Syria. There are records relating to the flights in Arabic and English as well as copies of over-flight requests sent to Iran, which are in Farsi.
Syrian and Russian officials did not respond to ProPublica’s questions about the authenticity and accuracy of the flight records. It is not possible to know whether the logs accurately described the cargo or what else might have been on board the flights. Nor do the logs specify the type of currency.
But ProPublica confirmed nearly all of the flights took place through international plane-tracking services, photos by aviation enthusiasts, and air traffic control recordings.
Each time the manifest listed “Bank Notes” as its cargo, the plane traveled a circuitous route. Instead of flying directly over Turkish airspace, as civilian planes have, the Ilyushin-76 cargo plane, operated by the Syrian Air Force, avoided Turkey and flew over Iraq, Iran, and Azerbaijan.
Tensions have been rising between Syria and Turkey since the spring. Last month, Turkey forced down a Syrian passenger plane traveling from Moscow. Turkey suspected the flight of carrying military cargo but officials have not said what, if anything, was confiscated.
If the flight manifests are accurate, a total of 240 tons of bank notes moved from Moscow to Damascus over a 10-week period beginning July 9th and ending on September 15th.
U.S. officials interviewed said evidence of monetary assistance, like military cooperation, point to a pattern of Russian support for Assad that extends from concrete aid to protecting Syria from U.N. sanctions.
In September, 2011, six months into the violence, the European Union imposed sanctions that prohibited its members from minting or supplying new Syrian coinage or banknotes. In a statement, the EU said the sanctions aimed “to obstruct those who are leading the crackdown in Syria and to restrict the funding being used to perpetrate violence against the Syrian people.” At the time, Syria’s currency was being minted by Oesterreichische Banknoten- und Sicherheitsdruck GmbH, a subsidiary of Austria’s Central Bank.
President Obama has issued five Executive Orders that prevent members of the Assad regime from entering the United States and accessing the U.S. financial system.
“Increasingly, it is more difficult to finance the war machine and the cost of the war is becoming more expensive for the Assad regime,” said one U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “Targeted sanctions on those leading the violence are working and start to bite into their pocket books.”
Russia appears to be helping Syria blunt the impact of the sanctions.
This past June, Reuters reported that Russia had begun printing new Syrian pounds and that an initial shipment of bank notes had already arrived.  The report was denied by the Syrian Central Bank, which claimed the only new money in circulation were bills that had replaced damaged or worn bank notes. Such a swap, the bank contended, would have no effect on the economy.
On August 3rd, the official Syrian news agency SANA, reporting from a news conference in Moscow with Syrian and Russian economic officials, quoted Syrian officials acknowledging that Russia is printing money. Qadr Jamil, Syria’s deputy prime minister for Economic Affairs, was quoted by SANA as calling the deal with Russia a “triumph,” over sanctions.
Syrian Finance Minister Mohammad al-Jleilati said that Russia was providing both replacement notes and additional currency to, as SANA put it, “reflect the country’s changing GDP.”
Al-Jleilati said the money would have no effect on inflation. Printing new notes beyond simply replacing old ones could undermine Syria’s already battered currency.
At the time of the meeting, at least 30 tons of currency had already been delivered, according to the flight records, and another 210 tons would be delivered in subsequent flights.
In its regional economic outlook released earlier this month, the International Monetary Fund noted that Syria’s currency has lost 44 percent of its value since March 2011, trading for about 70 pounds to the dollar compared with about 47 pounds when the conflict began.
Ibrahim Saif, a political economist based in Jordan and a resident scholar at the Carnegie Middle East Center said 30 tons of bank notes twice a week is a significant amount for a country like Syria.
“I truly believe it’s not only that they’re exchanging old money for new notes. They are printing money because they need new notes,” Saif said.
“Most of the government revenue that comes from taxes, in terms of other services, it’s almost now dried up,” noted Saif. Yet, “they continue to pay salaries. They have not shown any signs of weakness in fulfilling their domestic obligations. The only way they can do this is to get some sort of cash in the market.”
Before the unrest broke out, Syria had about $17 billion in foreign currency reserves. Saif said he and other economists in the region estimate they now have about $6-8 billion in reserves, dwindling about $500 million a month for salaries and supplies to keep the government running.
In Moscow, the Syrian finance minister had said that his country required additional foreign currency reserves, which Russia may provide in the form of loans.
“It’s possible the Syrians are acquiring foreign currency reserves, either Euros or US dollars, which they would need to conduct any serious commerce,” said Juan Zarate, who served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes during the Bush administration.
Zarate noted that other countries, when faced with economic sanctions, have leaned on allies for foreign currency reserves. China supplied North Korea with such funds in the past and Venezuela agreed to sell reserves to Iran.
Syria’s currency is still traded on open markets, but there is limited on-the-ground information about the economy, including inflation.
Officials at the IMF “have not been able to get direct information about Syria for at least a year,” Masood Ahmed, director of the group’s Middle East and Central Asia department, told reporters at a conference in Tokyo last month.
Glaser, at Treasury, declined to put a figure on Syria’s current reserves but said the Syrian economy is suffering in part from a lack of tourism and a ban on oil sales, both of which provided Damascus with foreign currency. “There is significant inflation in the country. It can be caused by adding new currency or not having foreign reserves to prop up the existing currency.”
Quinn Norton contributed to this story.

Cartoon posted by Israeli embassy on You Tube sparks controversy


Unknown | 09:43 |

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A video posted on You Tube, the video sharing site purportedly by Israeli embassy in Washington depicting Palestinian President driving a passenger bus has ignited anger among the Palestinian hard-liners.

The title of the video says “Israeli embassy posts cartoon of Mahmoud Abbas en-route to U.N”. The President will be arriving on Thursday to New York to seek approval to upgrade Palestinian authority status-to non-member observer.

The video shows that Abbas encountering some blockades on his way to U.N headquarters. The animation video is to prove that Abbas is a road-block for peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
At one point the video shows that Abbas entering a T-junction and with one sign showing directions to U.N and another “road to peace”.
Earlier this month Israeli foreign ministry hinted of rocking Abbas’s boat if U.N approves Palestinian non-observer status.
However the right side of the video shows, Al Arabiya-A Saudi Arabia based newspaper.

Mexican beauty queen killed during running gun battles between drug traffickers and soldiers


Unknown | 22:59 |


Teenager shot-dead by Florida gun-collector over loud music


Unknown | 22:35 |

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A Chief Executive Officer of a software development company shot and killed a teenager at a gas station because the teenager and his friends were playing loud music in their SUV.

Michael Dunn of Dunn and Dunn Systems in Florida shot dead 17 year-old Jordan Davis at a gas station parking lot after both got into heated argument over loud music.
According to media reports Davis along with three friends had pulled into the parking lot blasting loud music and Dunn driving a sedan has asked them to turn it down. But when the teens refused Dunn has allegedly pulled out a gun and fired several shots hitting Davis who was later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.
Dunn was arrested at his home in satellite beach on Saturday.

Dunn is gun collector. Back in 2007 he was involved in a heated arguments with FBI agents when a planer piloted by him strayed into restricted air space of the Kennedy Space center.
That brought out federal investigators and bomb sniffing dogs, who thought the wayward plane might be flown by a terrorist. Dunn escaped charges.
At his first court appearance on Monday a lawyer representing Dunn said that his client acted in self defense.His company Dunn and Dunn systems run from a dingy office has come under severe criticism for shabby treatment of its customers.
Dunn and Dunn systems produces a software to be used with Point of Sales Systems. POS.

Nearly 16,000 violent crimes committed every day in U.S-report


Unknown | 14:52 |

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An estimated 15,890 violent crimes are committed every day in the United States, a report has revealed.

Last year, 15,890 Americans became victims of violent crime each day. The rate of violent victimization increased 17% in urban areas from 2010 to 2011. According to Justice Department statistics, aggravated and simple assault accounted for the entire rise in total violence. There was also an 11% jump in property crimes during the same period.
Writing at The Crime Report, Mai Fernandez, the executive director of The National Center for Victims of Crime, suggests that the new Criminal Victimization 2011 report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics represents “a wakeup call” for policymakers.
It’s also time for the government to devote more resources to helping crime victims, Fernandez argues.

“Although our nation spends hundreds of billions of dollars on our legal, criminal justice, and corrections systems, only a fraction (less than one-half of one percent) of that amount is spent on crime victim compensation, victim assistance, and federal technical assistance programs,” she wrote.
“As a result, victims are left to absorb most of the financial impact of crime themselves.”
Source:  All Gov

Scandal involving U.S Army Generals-


Unknown | 14:32 |

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In a damning report published, a new organization named Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) said retired three and four star generals took up lucrative defense contractors positions with five major defense contracting companies which have firm commitment from Department of Defense to spend nearly $ 100 billion-that is about the same amount spent on entire 2011 federal education budget.
Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jet
In the article titled “The Real Scandal Involving Generals” written by Melanie Sloan and Robert Greenwald said that retired generals and admirals cash in on their years of military experience by taking lucrative jobs with the defense industry.
The report said that the government is committed of spending $ 100 billion with five major companies, which is about the same amount spent on the entire federal education budget for 2011.
The full text of the article is re-produced here….
What do Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Dynamics, Raytheon, and Northrop Grumman have in common? Each of these corporations is one of the top five largest defense contractors in the nation. In 2011 alone, the Department of Defense committed to spending nearly $100 billion with just these five companies. To put that in perspective, that is about the same amount spent on the entire federal education budget for 2011.

But these defense contractors have one other interesting statistic in common: Between 2009 and 2011, at least nine of the top-level generals and admirals who retired took positions with these five companies. In fact, 70 percent of the 108 three-and-four star generals and admirals who retired during this time period took jobs with defense contractors or consultants. These startling statistics are just some of the insights revealed in a new report and accompanying short film released yesterday by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and Brave New Foundation. Entitled Strategic Maneuvers, the report reveals the extent of the Pentagon’s revolving door phenomenon, in which retired high-ranking generals and admirals cash in on their years of military experience by taking lucrative jobs with the defense industry.

The term “revolving door” refers to persons with government experience moving to jobs in the private sector, and vice versa. But how do these retirees bring value to their new employers? While much is unknown about the behind-the-scenes workings at these private companies, it appears retired generals utilize their relationships, networks, and insider knowledge to help these companies win lucrative defense contracts, which may or may not be the best use of our taxpayer dollars.

With the possibility of massive cuts to the military’s budget, defense contractors and consultants are scrambling to position themselves on the winning side. In the calculus of procuring remunerative contracts, retired generals and admirals are a valuable commodity. In fact, there is at least one consulting firm, Burdeshaw Associates, which allows any businesses in need to rent-a-general who can help secure contracts. The recent numbers show the continuation of an unsettling trend first identified in a 2010 Boston Globe investigation that revealed the number of retired three-and-four star generals and admirals moving into defense industry jobs rose from less than 50 percent between 1994 and 1998 to a stratospheric 80 percent between 2004 and 2008.

Three-and-four star generals and admirals certainly earn their stars and stripes from their dedicated service in the U.S. military, but some are now moving through the revolving door to cash in on their years of experience and connections. For example, by retiring from government service and sitting on the board of just one company, a former top military commander can earn more than his yearly government salary for attending just a few meetings. Potential earnings increase when these officials take on greater roles with these companies. In at least a few cases, these retirees have continued to advise the Department of Defense while also collecting a paycheck from the defense industry.
If there is one thing Americans can agree on, it is that those who have served in the military and protected our country deserve our praise, thanks and recognition. Still, how can we be sure the Department of Defense is receiving unbiased counsel from retired officials whose livelihoods now depends on maximizing profits for their new employers? In addition, how can we trust our current military leaders to give unbiased assessments about our national security needs when golden parachute job opportunities in the private sector are part of the equation?

While the retired generals and admirals moving into the private sector in general do not appear to be breaking any rules, their path does raise important questions about the intersection of national security and the interests of defense companies that stand to make billions of dollars. With defense contractors vying for the experience and contacts only retired top military officials can provide, these retired generals and admirals have seen their potential earnings skyrocket.

The revolving door is unlikely to stop spinning anytime soon unless we pressure our lawmakers to pass new laws to manage these retirees’ potential conflicts of interest. Our current national debate about spending cuts to the defense budget will have ramifications for future generations. But, thanks in part to the role of esteemed former military leaders pushing to retain contracts of their defense industry employers, some of the programs saved may not be those best serving the public interest.

Jill Kelley fired by Korean government-No longer Honorary Consul General


Unknown | 13:14 |

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Jill Kelley, the woman in the center of the military mistress scandal between General David Petraeus and his biographer Paula Broadwell was relieved of her duties as “honorary consul of South Korea”, by visiting Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Kyou-Hyun on Monday.

According to Korean media Kelley used the symbolic title for her personal gains.
Kelley also tried to claim diplomatic protection for the title offered by the Koreans.

Knock-off websites knocked-down in International Cyber Monday operations


Unknown | 12:58 |


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While online shoppers took advantage of “Cyber Monday” deals, the immigration and customs enforcement officials and their European counterparts were fishing for websites involved in shady-dealings.

The feds on Monday seized 132 domain names in suspected of selling counterfeit products worldwide, the ICE said in a statement posted on its website. Below is the full text of the news release.

WASHINGTON – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), law enforcement agencies from Belgium, Denmark, France, Romania and the United Kingdom, and the European Police Office (Europol) seized 132 domain names today that were illegally selling counterfeit merchandise online to unsuspecting consumers.

The 132 domain names seized are part of Project Cyber Monday 3 and Project Transatlantic. These websites were set up to dupe consumers into unknowingly buying counterfeit goods as part of the holiday shopping season. The operation was coordinated by the ICE HSI-led National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center) in Washington, D.C.

This is the third year that the IPR Center has targeted websites selling counterfeit products online in conjunction with Cyber Monday. An iteration of Operation In Our Sites (IOS), Cyber Monday 3 seized 101 websites and yielded one arrest. Additionally, recognizing the global nature of Internet crime, this year the IPR Center partnered with Europol, who, through its member countries, executed coordinated seizures of foreign-based top-level domains such as .eu, .be, .dk, .fr, .ro and .uk. This effort is titled Project Transatlantic and resulted in 31 domain name seizures.

“This operation is a great example of the tremendous cooperation between ICE and our international partners at the IPR Center,” said ICE Director John Morton. “Our partnerships enable us to go after criminals who are duping unsuspecting shoppers all over the world.  This is not an American problem, it is a global one and it is a fight we must win.”

The IPR Center and Europol received leads from various trademark holders regarding the infringing websites. Those leads were disseminated to eight investigating HSI field offices in Baltimore, Buffalo, Denver, El Paso, Newark, San Antonio, San Diego and Ventura (Calif.) and to the investigating Europol member countries including Belgium, Denmark, France, Romania and the United Kingdom.

“Europol became a member of the IPR Center this year and I am glad to be able to announce these operational successes,” said Rob Wainwright, Director of Europol. “IPR theft is not a harmless and victimless crime. It can cause serious health and safety risks and it undermines our economy.”


The domain names seized are now in the custody of the governments involved in these operations. Visitors typing those domain names into their Web browsers will now find a banner that notifies them of the seizure and educates them about the federal crime of willful copyright infringement.

In addition to the domain name seizures, officials identified PayPal accounts utilized by the infringing websites. Proceeds received through the identified PayPal accounts, in excess of $175,000, are currently being targeted for seizure by the investigating HSI field offices.

“We couldn’t be more pleased with the opportunity to work closely with HSI to shut down criminals targeting our customers and our brand just as the holiday season takes off,” said Tod Cohen, vice president and deputy general counsel of Government Relations for eBay Inc. “PayPal and eBay Inc. pride ourselves in going above and beyond in the fight against the illegal online trafficking of counterfeit goods by partnering with law enforcement and rights owners globally, and we hope that this is fair warning to criminals that the Internet is not a safe place to try and sell fake goods.”

During this operation, federal law enforcement officers made undercover purchases of a host of products; including professional sports jerseys, DVD sets, and a variety of clothing, jewelry and luxury goods from online retailers who were suspected of selling counterfeit products. If the copyright holders confirmed that the purchased products were counterfeit or otherwise illegal, seizure orders for the domain names of the websites that sold these goods were obtained from federal magistrate judges.

IOS is a sustained law enforcement initiative that began more than two years ago to protect consumers by targeting the sale of counterfeit merchandise on the Internet. The 101 domain names seized under Project Cyber Monday 3 bring the total number of IOS domain names seized to 1,630 since the operation began in June 2010. Since that time, the seizure banner has received more than 110 million individual views.

Of the 1,529 previous domain names seized, 684 have now been forfeited to the U.S. government. The federal forfeiture process affords individuals who have an interest in seized domain names a period of time after a “Notice of Seizure” to file a petition with a federal court and additional time after a “Notice of Forfeiture” to contest the forfeiture. If no petitions or claims are filed, the domain names become the property of the U.S. government. Additionally, a public service announcement, launched in April 2011, is linked from the seizure banner on each of the 684 forfeited websites.

The banner and video educate the public about the criminal consequences of trafficking in counterfeit goods and the economic impact that crime has on the U.S. and global economies.