“We should meet today. It’ll be impossible to do it tomorrow, we can meet only today,” Fogle told the ‘recruitee’ FSB officer minutes before the arranged meeting in Moscow’s Vorontsovsky park.The FSB recorded two phone calls of the alleged spy, with the first one being of particular interest to the counterintelligence agency. In it, the alleged CIA spy promises a million dollar reward in return for the officer’s services.“You can earn up to 1 million dollars per year and I’ll give 100 thousand up front – but only if we meet right now. Yes or No?” the US diplomat can be heard saying on the tape.According to the FSB, the conversation was recorded close to midnight Moscow time, as Fogle was walking towards the park through the city’s southern dormitory district.The agents had reportedly been given orders not to arrest Fogle until he met with ‘the subject’ at the agreed spot. Right before the arrest, he allegedly made another call, describing the place the FSB officer should be waiting.“There’s got to be a staircase in front of you, at the park entrance. Wait, I can see you, I’ll be right there,” the diplomat says on the recording of the brief second call.‘The subject’ that Fogle was allegedly meeting to recruit, took a direct role in the suspected spy’s arrest, the FSB later said. … Read More
Cleveland police face scrutiny following three Ohio women’s rescue
The three women who were found living captive in a west side residential neighborhood, Amanda Berry, Michelle Knight and Gina DeJesus, were held for about a decade by the suspect, Ariel Castro, 52, evidently with the assistance of his brothers, Pedro Castro, 54, and Onil Castro, 50.Since the three were freed by neighbors who contacted police and broke down the home’s front door, more individuals are coming forward with stories of odd events, and phone calls to police that failed to lead them to the trio’s location.Rescued with the three women on Monday was a 6-year-old girl, who police have said is Berry’s daughter. In a disturbing development, authorities believe she would have been conceived and born during Berry’s captivity.Israel Lugo, a neighbor, tells Reuters that she had called the police in November of 2011 after his sister saw a girl at the house holding a baby and crying for help. And yet, according to Lugo, police officers came and banged on the door several times but left after no one answered.Another local resident, Anthony Westry, has stated that a little girl could often be seen peering looking out of the attic window of Ariel Castro’s home.”She was always looking out the window,” Westry told Reuters. Castro, a local bus driver, would take her to the park to play very early in the morning, “not around the time you would take kids to play,” he added.Perhaps even more surprising is that Children and Family Services authorities with the city were at the Castro residence in January of 2004 following a report of a child having been left on a school bus.According to Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, members of the agency “knocked on the door but were unsuccessful in connection with making any contact with anyone inside that home.” According to police, Ariel Castro was extensively interviewed during an investigation into that incident, though no criminal intent was determined.Other details slowly being revealed include one neighbor who claims he saw a naked woman crawling on her hands and knees in the backyard a few years ago. According to CBS News, another neighbor had heard pounding on the home’s doors, and noticed plastic bags placed over the windows.Whether local police were guilty of any negligence remains to be seen, as the FBI continues to investigate the Castro house, and authorities continue to collect details regarding the case. Neighbors also wonder whether there was more they could have done, in light of what turned out to be critical clues to the three women’s captivity.Neighbor Joe Popow told Reuters that he found it chilling to have known Ariel Castro.”After all this has happened, I think, Oh my God, what did I miss? This person came to my house,” he said. … Read More
Florida man dials 911 demanding ‘Kool-Aid, burgers and weed’
Police in St. Petersburg, Florida arrested arrested a man for making nuisance 911 calls on Sunday. According to the Associated Press, 34-year-old Jarvis Sutton dialed 911 about 80 times on Sunday. A St. Petersburg Police spokesperson told the AP that Sutton wanted “Kool-Aid, burgers and weed…
“Duck Dynasty” is a great sitcom
A&E’s reality TV show “Duck Dynasty” is one of the ratings monsters of cable, which means it is one of the ratings monsters of television. Airing Wednesdays at 10, “Duck Dynasty” focuses on the hijinks of the Robertson clan, men who worship at the sartorial alter of ZZ Top and have made a fortune selling duck calls from the wilds of Louisiana. Its third season premiere in February attracted more than 12 million viewers, which would be a great number for any network show and is double and triple the size audience NBC gets for its Thursday sitcoms. It’s the sort of up-is-down piece of ratings data that makes one worry for the future of network TV until one watches “Duck Dynasty” and realizes nothing mysterious or strange is going on: “Duck Dynasty” is just a great sitcom in reality TV trappings.Continue Reading… … Read More
FTC doles out $50,000 to winners of Robocall Challenge
The Federal Trade Commission recently wrapped up a contest designed to find an effective solution to combat robocalls – spammy automated phone calls that deliver a pre-recorded message to unlucky recipients. The annoying messages account for roughly 200,000 complaints each month – enough for the FTC to cough up a… … Read More
MobileBurn asks: who wants to make phone calls on a 7-inch tablet?
Smartphone screen sizes have reached ridiculous levels since the so-called “phablet” era began, but few sights are as bizarre as the idea of making phone calls on a tablet. That doesn't mean that making phone calls on an Asus FonePad or Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 are as crazy as you… … Read More
Swedes’ ire at out-of-hours tv-fee collectors
Swedes have been left seething following the tactics of the Swedish TV-licence fee collectors, who are making telephone calls at “uncomfortable” hours in an effort to round up those not paying the annual television fee. … Read More
