China’s first unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), known as the Lijian (‘sharp sword’), is designed jointly by the Hongdu Aviation Industry Group and Shenyang Aviation Corporation. The project was launched in 2009 and the drone’s first ground test was conducted on December 13 last year.The Lijian, which makes China the third country to possess stealth drone capabilities, is now ready for flight testing, China Aviation News reported on Friday.The Chinese UAV is designed for use by the PLA Air Force and Navy Air Force for combat missions, China Aviation News reported. It may also be used for tracking and reconnaissance along China’s lengthy and occasionally contentious border.Beijing’s ambitious efforts at developing its drone capabilities have not escaped the attention of Taiwan, which has quarreled with Beijing in the past over questions of sovereignty and national identity.“Taiwan should be concerned about China’s development of large numbers of sophisticated military UAVs,” Ian Easton, a research fellow at the Project 2049 Institute, told the Taipei Times.China’s stealth drone is third such unmanned combat vehicle in existence, after the X-47 designed by the United States, and the nEUROn, a collaborative effort of various EU companies.The nEUROn was launched in 2005 following an order by the French Defense Procurement Agency. The program is a collaborative effort between French, Italian, Swedish, Spanish, Greek and Swiss defense companies.The US Pentagon’s X-47 stealth drone, designed by Northrop Grumman, began as part of DARPA’s J-UCAS program, and is now part of the US Navy’s UCAS-D (Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstration) program. The X-47 is still undergoing flight testing.The unveiling of the prototype places the People’s Republic of China ahead of several nations in the development of stealth drone technology.India, Iran, Israel, Italy, Sweden and Russia also have their own stealth UAV programs. … Read More
‘Prisoner X’ sabotaged spy mission to recover bodies: report
Australian-Israeli Mossad agent Ben Zygier unwittingly sabotaged a top secret spy operation aimed at bringing home the bodies of Israeli soldiers missing in Lebanon, a report said Tuesday. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, which broke the story in February of Zygier’s arrest, detention…
Nigel Farage VS BBC
http://www.youtube.com/v/fMfXnXAllGw?version=3&f=videos&app=youtube_gdata Original article: Nigel Farage VS BBC
Paid Hulu subscriptions doubled to four million this past year
Hulu recently announced they have doubled the number of paid subscribers over the course of the last year despite the fact that founding chief executive Jason Kilar stepped down last month. Reaching four million paid subscribers is a noteworthy milestone even as Hulu’s two major owners, News Corporation and Walt… … Read More
Obama administration equates whistleblowing to spying
When Thomas Drake, then an official at the National Security Agency, realized that the agency’s decision to shut down an internal data analysis program and instead outsource the project to a private contractor provided the government with less effective analysis at much higher cost, he tried to do something about it. Drake’s decision to join three other whistleblowers in asking the agency’s inspector general to investigate ultimately made him the target of a leak investigation that tore his life apart.In 2005, the inspector general of the Department of Defense, of which NSA is a part, confirmed the whistleblowers’ accusations of waste, fraud and security risk.Earlier this year, former NSA Director Michael Hayden even conceded that TrailBlazer, the program for which the NSA paid over $1 billion to the Science Applications International Corporation, had failed. The agency, after killing its own program (called ThinThread) “outsourced how we gathered other people’s communications,” he said in response to a question from investigative journalist Tim Shorrock. “And that was a bridge too far for industry. We tried a moonshot, and it failed.”Continue Reading… … Read More
Whistleblowing now akin to treason
When Thomas Drake, then an official at the National Security Agency, realized that the agency’s decision to shut down an internal data analysis program and instead outsource the project to a private contractor provided the government with less effective analysis at much higher cost, he tried to do something about it. Drake’s decision to join three other whistleblowers in asking the agency’s inspector general to investigate ultimately made him the target of a leak investigation that tore his life apart.In 2005, the inspector general of the Department of Defense, of which NSA is a part, confirmed the whistleblowers’ accusations of waste, fraud and security risk.Earlier this year, former NSA Director Michael Hayden even conceded that TrailBlazer, the program for which the NSA paid over $1 billion to the Science Applications International Corporation, had failed. The agency, after killing its own program (called ThinThread) “outsourced how we gathered other people’s communications,” he said in response to a question from investigative journalist Tim Shorrock. “And that was a bridge too far for industry. We tried a moonshot, and it failed.”Continue Reading… … Read More
ExxonMobil found liable of contaminating New Hampshire
Following three months of testimony, a jury deliberated for only 90 minutes on Tuesday morning before finding ExxonMobil liable in a long-running lawsuit involving contamination caused by the multinational oil and gas corporation.The Associated Press reports that the state is seeking $236 million in damages, but the final damage will be determined by a jury. … Read More
