U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE KERRY MAKES REMARKS WITH CANADIAN FOREIGN MINISTER BAIRD

FROM:  U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE

Remarks With Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird After Their Meeting
Remarks

John Kerry
Secretary of State

Treaty Room

Washington, DC

February 8, 2013

SECRETARY KERRY: Good afternoon, everybody. It’s my great, great pleasure to welcome Foreign Minister John Baird here to the State Department. He was one of the first calls that I made after I officially came into the building and started and was sworn in, and he is my first guest as Foreign Minister. So I hope everybody does understand that this is meant to underscore the extraordinary strength of the relationship that we have, and we are very, very grateful for it.
We dove right into the toughest issues. We began with hockey. (Laughter.) He knows – the Ambassador knows that I grew up playing a little bit. And since I’m a Bruins fan, we’ve clashed in many ways. But he, from Ottawa, is a fan of the Senators. And I want you all to know it’s the first time I’ve ever heard anybody talk well of senators. (Laughter.) So I’m grateful for it.

Today was the first of what I know will be many very productive sessions. And the reason for that is that Canada and the United States share the same values. We have a history and a heritage of our people that is unbelievably connected. We have the same entrepreneurial spirit. We have the same core beliefs that everybody ought to be able to find their place in life to do better.

We also share something else that’s pretty important: a trillion dollars of bilateral trade relationship. And that is hugely important to both of our countries, to our economies, and to our citizens. Canada is one of the largest, most comprehensive investment relationships that we have in the world. It supports millions of jobs here in the United States. And today the Foreign Minister and I agreed to try to discuss ways that we can grow that and even make it stronger. And there are ways to do that.
Our border with Canada, happily, is not a barrier. It’s really a 5,000 mile-long connection between us and it is a central part of the daily pulse of our relationship. So today we talked about progress beyond our border. We talked – an initiative which Prime Minister Harper and President Obama announced last year. And we are improving our cooperation now in keeping our nations secure against threats without unnecessary burdens at the border. To the degree we can facilitate, we want to do that.

We also talked about our dynamic energy relationship. Canada is the largest foreign energy supplier for the United States of America. And many people in America are not aware of that. They always think of the Mideast or some other part of the world. But Canada is our largest energy supplier. And our shared networks of electrical grids keep energy flowing both ways across the border. As we move forward to meet the needs of a secure clean energy future on this shared continent, we are going to continue to build on our foundation of cooperation.

Our neighbor to the north is also one of our most able global partners. On issue after issue, whether it’s been cooperation with NATO to promote security, stability around the world, or our shared efforts to mitigate climate change through international climate negotiations, the Major Economies Forum, the Climate and Clean Air Coalition, or our joint work to advance human rights through the OSCE and the Organization of American States, in every one of these efforts Canada and the United States are united for progress.

We also discussed our common efforts on Iran. The P-5+1 partners are unified in our approach. And we are committed – I emphasize we are committed – to preventing Iran from securing a nuclear weapon. And we will continue our dual-track policy of both pressure and engagement. I want to underscore to Iran: The window for diplomacy is still open. And we have agreed to meet Iran again in two weeks in Kazakhstan. We’ve made our position clear. The choice is really ultimately up to Iran. The international community is ready to respond if Iran comes prepared to talk real substance and to address the concerns, which could not be more clear, about their nuclear program. If they don’t, then they will choose to leave themselves more isolated. That’s the choice.

I’d like to thank the Foreign Minister for Canada’s leadership on all of the global challenges that we face together. In conflict zones like Syria and Mali, Canada has stepped up and Canada is helping our humanitarian response. In our own hemisphere, Canada is a strong advocate for strengthening democracy and the rule of law throughout Central America, throughout the Caribbean. And I really look forward to working with the Minister as a partner on regional issues that affect the Americas, including later this year when we will meet with the Foreign Minister of Mexico to decide ways as to how all of North America, which we talked about, can actually work more effectively together.
So through all of the issues on a crowded agenda, I’m pleased to be able to say that Canada and the United States stand shoulder to shoulder and work together as partners, as allies, and as trusted friends. And I look forward to our cooperation. Mr. Baird, thank you for making me your first visit today. I appreciate it. And I look forward to discovering innovative new ways in which we can do even more and do better.
Thank you.

FOREIGN MINISTER BAIRD: Thank you. Well, thank you very much, Mr. Secretary. It’s a great privilege and a great honor to be your first foreign minister to visit you here at the State Department. Thank you for the priority and the confidence that you’ve placed in the relationship with Canada. That is something that is tremendously important.

The United States has been a phenomenal friend and ally to Canada, and under the Obama Administration and under Prime Minister Stephen Harper, I think the two leaders and the two governments have accomplished a great deal. Obviously for us, the number-one priority continues to be job creation and economic growth, and I appreciate having the opportunity to talk about a wide range of issues that we seek to tackle to help encourage job creation and economic growth on both sides of the border. The Detroit River International Crossing is an important priority for Canada, and we’ve been very pleased with the cooperation we’ve received here in Washington and in Lansing, Michigan, and we look forward to getting this huge job creation initiative moving forward in the months and years ahead.

Particularly, we talked – had a good discussion, an exchange on energy policy. Obviously the Keystone XL Pipeline is a huge priority for our government and for the Canadian economy, and I appreciated the dialogue we had on what we can do to tackle environmental challenges together. President Obama and Prime Minister Harper both assumed a 17 percent reduction in GHG emissions as part of the Copenhagen Accord, and that continues to be a real priority with Canada, with our plan to phase out coal-fired electricity generation, and to harmonize vehicle and light trucks emissions, which has seen great, great, great results in recent years.

I appreciated the opportunity to discuss other issues involving security. I think I share, Canada shares the huge concern with respect to the potential of a nuclear Iran. We believe that beyond Iran’s support, material support for terrorism, beyond their abysmal and deteriorating human rights record, the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran is the biggest threat to international peace and security. And I want to say how much I appreciated your strong comments on this and your leadership. I share the view that a diplomatic solution is possible. We strongly support the P-5+1 initiative. We strongly support having and maintaining and increasing tough sanctions against the Iranian regime. We want them to change course and rejoin the international community. That is a significant priority.

Obviously we had a good discussion as well with respect to the situation in Syria, and I think the concern of all of civilized humanity of the terrible horrors going on that Assad is waging against his own people, and the huge challenge and problem of chemical weapons.

I appreciate the chance to talk about human rights and our strong commitment to working to support and defend freedom around the world. The fight against international terrorism is the great struggle of our generation, and we are strong and solid partners with the United States.
(In French.)

Thank you again for your time and for your leadership.

SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you, sir. Thank you very much.

FOREIGN MINISTER BAIRD: Thank you.

MS. NULAND: We’ll take two questions today, one from each side, and by one from each side I mean one.
We’ll start with CNN, Elise Labott, please.

QUESTION: Thank you. Welcome, Mr. Secretary.

SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you, Elise.

QUESTION: The vast majority of top national security officials in the previous Administration, including your predecessor, Secretary Clinton, supported arming the Syrian rebels. Were you briefed about this plan when you were in the Senate, and what do you think of the plan? Do you think it’s time to start arming the rebels?

And I’m wondering what you think of these – you mentioned Iran – these mixed messages coming from Iran. The Foreign Minister, even the President, have said that they’d be open to talks with Iran. The Foreign Minister had some very nice comments to say about you. But the Supreme Leader has said that direct talks are not possible. Do you think that there are prospects for a deal, and do you have a plan to move this forward? Thank you.

SECRETARY KERRY: Well, let me see, that was three questions if I counted correctly. (Laughter.)

FOREIGN MINISTER BAIRD: One plus one does not equal two. (Laughter.)

SECRETARY KERRY: But well done. I’m impressed. (Laughter.)
QUESTION: A lot of practice.


SECRETARY KERRY: I beg your pardon?

QUESTION: A lot of practice.


SECRETARY KERRY: Well, I get it. I’m impressed. I’m taking stock every day. (Laughter.) Next time you’ll have to ask her to ask a half a question or a quarter. (Laughter.) I’ll fill in the blanks.
MS. NULAND: (Inaudible)

SECRETARY KERRY: Anyway, let me answer that.
First of all, on the first part of your question, let me just say I don’t know what the discussions were in the White House and who said what, and I’m not going to go backwards. This is a new Administration now, the President’s second term. I’m a new Secretary of State and we’re going forwards from this point.

My sense right now is that everybody in the Administration and people in other parts of the world are deeply distressed by the continued violence in Syria. There is too much killing, there’s too much violence, and we obviously want to try to find a way forward. There are serious questions about al-Nusrah and AQI, al-Qaida from Iraq coming in, and other violent groups on the ground. It is a very complicated and very dangerous situation, and everybody understands it is a place that has chemical weapons, and we are deeply concerned about that.

So I’d just say to you that we’re evaluating. We are evaluating now. We’re taking a look at what steps if any – diplomatic – particularly might be able to be taken in an effort to try to reduce that violence and deal with the situation. And when we are prepared, Elise, I’d tell you, we – you’ll be the first to know, I’m sure. We’ll let you know. We’re going to evaluate this as we go forward. But I know the Prime – the Foreign Minister and I talked about this at length – at length – and we both share a deep concern about what is happening there. And I’m going to focus on it quite considerably.
QUESTION: On Iran, sir?

SECRETARY KERRY: Oh, on Iran. On Iran, we’re deeply concerned about the arms that were on the dhow that went into Yemen. I think the Yemenis need to speak to that first before we do.
But I want to emphasize, the announcement the Iranians themselves have made in a letter to the IAEA in which they have announced a different kind of centrifuge is concerning. It’s disturbing. And so my plea to the Iranians is to – or my statement – is a clear statement: We are prepared to let diplomacy be the victor in this confrontation over their nuclear program. The President has made it clear that Iran – he’s prepared to talk about a peaceful nuclear program. Iran has a choice. They have to prove to the world that it is peaceful, and we are prepared to sit reasonably and negotiate how they can do that and how we can all be satisfied with respect to the United Nations requirements in the effort to do that. Or they can choose to be more isolated, as I said earlier. It’s really their choice, not ours, as to which way they want to go.

And the Administration, the President, has made it clear that his preference is to have a diplomatic solution. But if he cannot get there, he is prepared to do whatever is necessary to make certain that Iran does not have a nuclear weapon.

MS. NULAND: Next question, from Lee-Anne Goodman, please, from Canadian Press.

QUESTION: Hi there. Congratulations, Secretary Kerry.

SECRETARY KERRY: Hello. Thank you very much.

QUESTION: And welcome, Minister Baird. One half question: Keystone. (Laughter.) President Obama has made a point in his inaugural address of emphasizing the need to confront climate change. Does that bode badly for Keystone? And a quick one about any concerns about allegations that Canadians have been involved in the last couple of recent terrorist attacks. And (In French.)

SECRETARY KERRY: Not today. I’ve got to refresh myself on that. (Laughter.) But with respect to the Keystone, Secretary Clinton has put in place a very open and transparent process which I am committed to seeing through. I can guarantee you that it will be fair and transparent, accountable, and we hope that we will be able to be in a position to make an announcement in the near-term. I don’t want to pin down precisely when, but I assure you, in the near-term.
I’m not going to go into the merits of it here today. I pay great respect, as I did in my comments earlier, to the important energy relationship with Canada, and the importance of the overall
relationship. But we have a legitimate process that is underway, and I intend to honor that.

FOREIGN MINISTER BAIRD: We had a good discussion with respect to Keystone. We appreciated the Secretary’s comments at his confirmation hearings. We spoke about making a decision based on science and based on facts. Obviously, when it comes to the environment, I think we have likeminded objectives. Prime Minister Harper and President Obama have both set a 17 percent reduction in GHG emissions. We’ve worked very well together on reducing vehicle emissions for cars, for light trucks. Canada is aggressively moving forward on our plan to ban and phase out dirty coal-fired electricity generation, and we’ll continue to focus on that. I think we all share the need for a growing economy, to create jobs. We share the desire on energy security in North America, and we also share the objective of protecting our environment for future generations and those will be areas where we’re going to continue to work together.
(In French.)

MS. NULAND: Thank you all very much.

SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you all. Thank you very, very much. We appreciate it.

 

VIDEO OF MASSIVE EAST COAST STORM FORMING

FROM:  NASAPowerful Winter Storm in the Making

A massive winter storm is coming together as two low pressure systems are merging over the U.S. East Coast. An animation of satellite imagery from NOAA's GOES-13 satellite from Feb. 6 to Feb. 8 shows the two systems headed for a collision off the mid-Atlantic Coast. Credit-NASA GOES Project

DVIDS - Video - Armed Forces Farewell Ceremony

DVIDS - Video - Armed Forces Farewell Ceremony

West Wing Week: 02/08/13 or "What's Up, Camera Man" | The White House

West Wing Week: 02/08/13 or "What's Up, Camera Man" | The White House

NEWS FROM AFGHANISTAN FOR FEBRUARY 8, 2013

U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Korzatkowski, foreground, briefs Provincial Reconstruction Team Farah troops on the mission plan before the arrival of U.S. Ambassador Hugo Llorens on Forward Operating Base Farah in Farah City, Afghanistan, Feb. 5, 2013. Korzatkowski, executive officer, is assigned to Provincial Reconstruction Team Farah. The mission was part of a two-day visit by U.S. Ambassador Hugo Llorens, assistant chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, to meet with provincial Afghan officials, engage with the team's civil-military leaders and meet soldiers and sailors assigned to the team. U.S. Navy photo by Lt. j.g. Matthew Stroup

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Combined Force Arrests Explosives Expert in Takhar Province
From an International Security Assistance Force Joint Command News Release
KABUL, Afghanistan, Feb. 8, 2013 - An Afghan and coalition security force arrested an Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan leader during an operation in the Yangi Qal'ah district of Afghanistan's Takhar province today, military officials reported.

The arrested insurgent leader was an explosives expert assisting with the planning of an impending high profile attack, officials said. He also coordinated the construction and movement of improvised explosive devices in the province.

During the operation, the security force also detained one suspected insurgent, officials said.

In other Afghanistan operations today:

-- A combined force in Kandahar province's Panjwai district detained three insurgents while searching for a Taliban leader responsible for organizing IED operations against Afghan and coalition forces.

-- In Logar province's Baraki Barak district, a combined force detained five insurgents while searching for a Taliban leader who oversees insurgent fighters and attacks Afghan and coalition patrols.

Yesterday in Kunduz province's Chahar district, a precision strike killed Hamid Gul, a Taliban leader who conducted attacks against Afghan government officials and Afghan and coalition forces. He oversaw 25 insurgent fighters responsible for IED operations in the district.

Not-so-healthy America

Not-so-healthy America

ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE BURKE SAYS CLEAN ENERGY IS NATIONAL SECURITY INTEREST

Photo:  Wind Turbines.  Credit:  Wikimedia Commons.

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Clean Energy Tied to National Security, Official Says
By Claudette Roulo
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Feb. 7, 2013 - The changing U.S. and international energy pictures have a profound effect on security, a senior Pentagon official said here yesterday.

Sharon E. Burke, the assistant secretary of defense for Operational Energy Plans and Programs, told industry partners and congressional leaders at the American Council on Renewable Energy's National Renewable Energy Policy Forum that the motivation for seeking out clean energy sources is strongly rooted in national security interests.

The International Energy Agency's world energy outlook, released in November, is "the shot heard 'round the world," Burke said. According to the report, she said, the world will need $37 trillion dollars in new investment in the energy supply system from now to 2035.

Even as mature economies increase their energy efficiency, switch fuels and reduce their petroleum demand, the thirst for oil among the world's economies -- particularly developing economies -- will continue to grow apace, Burke said.

"China will account for something like 50 percent of that [growth]," she told the audience. "When you add in India and the Middle East, you're talking about 60 percent."

The United States is affecting the most change on the world energy picture, she said. The IEA estimates that by 2020, the United States is going to outstrip Saudi Arabia as an oil producer. Another report predicts that the U.S. will succeed Russia as a natural gas producer, she added.

This means the possibility exists that North America could be energy self-sufficient by 2035, Burke said. "Even as everyone else in the world has growing demand and contracting supply, we're bucking the trend," she said.

This possibility has generated a lot of justifiable excitement, and for a variety of reasons, Burke said. There are positive consequences for the U.S. economy, for jobs and for the manufacturing sector, she said. But the Defense Department is most interested in the second-order geostrategic effects, Burke noted.

A danger in all this enthusiasm, she said, is that it overlooks the fact that the United States will still be part of a highly volatile global energy market, "and the world's supply and demand trends are going to continue to shape our own prosperity here at home."

The energy security variables have implications that aren't yet understood, Burke said. For example, she asked, what will happen if Saudi Arabia -- already the largest single consumer of petroleum in the Middle East -- becomes a net importer?

Iran is suspected to have been behind two attacks on Saudi Aramco: a cyberattack in 2012 that damaged 85 percent of the company's computers, and a two-vehicle suicide-bomb attack in 2006, Burke said. Both attacks failed to disable oil and gas production, but they were clearly intended to do so, she added.

Last month, Iran conducted naval exercises in the Strait of Hormuz, which it has repeatedly threatened to close, she said.

"I know a lot of people who think those are empty threats, because such a closure would certainly hurt the Iranian people most of all, but this is 20 percent of the global oil market," Burke said. "It would cripple the global economy, so certainly at DOD we take those threats seriously."

Territorial disputes pose a different kind of threat, she said. Tensions flared recently between China and Japan over the Senkaku Islands, due in part to the expected presence of oil there, Burke said. In the Arctic, global climate change has made more oil and gas accessible, driving bordering nations to stake claims on formerly ice-bound geologic provinces.

The Defense Department has a history of looking at how the effects of climate change -- droughts, floods, population migration, sea level rise and shifts in arable land -- are an accelerant to instability, she said. In May, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta called climate change a threat to national security, Burke added.

The need for clean energy and energy efficiency has an enduring security angle, she said, adding that it's the only way to break out of the paradigm of foreign energy dependence and its associated instability.

The Defense Department's changing mission also has energy security implications, Burke said. In January 2012, Panetta and President Barack Obama released new strategic guidance that called for a rebalance of focus to the Asia-Pacific region.

Considering that the Defense Department already is the single largest consumer of fuel in the country, if not the world, she said, it's "sobering" to think about what the rebalance means for fuel consumption. Last year, the department used 4.3 billion gallons of petroleum, and spent about $20 billion on fuel, Burke said.

Beyond the rebalance and the long supply lines that it implies, the strategy articulates a changing security environment, Burke said, including rising powers, weapons of mass destruction, anti-access/area-denial and violent extremism. "We are organizing to meet these challenges," she said, but the ability to do so hinges on maintaining energy security.

Everything from cyber to special operations to large-scale humanitarian assistance efforts requires a lot of energy, Burke noted.

"Consider this ability to disperse, to maneuver, to operate over long distances in remote locations, and to be aware that people are going to try to interdict your movements, try to prevent you," she said. "That's a fuel challenge, and it's a fuel logistics challenge, and we have to get our arms around it."

The department has to apply the lessons it learned over the past decade of war, Burke said. An average of 45 million gallons of fuel is consumed each month in Afghanistan, she said.

"Delivering all that fuel takes a toll on a lot of different things," Burke said. "It takes a toll on helicopters, aircraft [and] trucks that are moving the fuel, and that's a bill that's going to come due, because we need all those things for other missions in the future, and their life has been shortened."

The Army and Marine Corps have documented thousands of casualties related to fuel movements in Afghanistan and Iraq, Burke said. U.S. forces can protect those lines, she added, but the cost in people and resources is higher than it needs to be.

Maintaining a military that's ready for missions everywhere means it's vital to use energy better and use better energy, Burke said, noting that the Defense Department is looking at a variety of energy efficiencies and renewable energy sources for military systems.

The conflicts of the last decade have made it clear that individuals are themselves a military system, Burke said. "Because they carry so much electronic gear now, it gives them great capabilities, ... but it all requires power. It requires batteries," she explained.

According to one Army estimate, soldiers walking a three-day foot patrol in Afghanistan may be carrying anywhere from 10 to 18 pounds of batteries, Burke told the audience. "We want to look at how we can power that particular system -- the human system -- better," she said.

Other systems that require large amounts of energy are combat outposts and forward operating bases, Burke said. These bases serve as hubs for troops when they operate -- they project power from there, fight from there, live there, get intelligence from there and communicate from there. These activities are all powered by diesel generators, she said.

Fuel for those generators is delivered by truck convoys, helicopters, airdrops and even by donkey, Burke said. "Whatever it takes to get it there," she said.

"The next system ... is what I would call 'big movers,'" she said. "The individual on the base may be very critical to the operation, but the big volume is in ships and vehicles and aircraft. They go through an enormous amount of fuel." They also provide the U.S. military with one of its biggest advantages -- the ability to move people and things anywhere at any time, Burke said.

The final system, "game-changers," is a bit different from the others, she said.

"For example," Burke said, "we're seeing a lot of unmanned systems come into the force in all domains -- underwater, on the ground, in the air -- and those radically change how much energy you consume and they also give you a lot of flexibility for the kind of energy you consume."

For each of those systems, the department is investing in new, more efficient technologies, she said, including the technology of efficiency itself.

"I recognize efficiency isn't a technology, it's a suite of technologies, but for us, it's an extremely important investment, Burke said.

For example, she said, power management and distribution for forward operating bases is critical to reducing fuel use, but generators at those bases are often oversized and underloaded. The department is working to use generators more efficiently, including by stringing together several to create a microgrid, Burke said.

Those oversized generators burn a lot of fuel heating and cooling non-insulated structures, she said, so the department is looking at more efficient tents and other shelters.

"Heating and air conditioning is one of the biggest power users on the battlefield," she added. "We've put a lot of money into research and development lately for how to get more innovative in heating and cooling for these environments."

A second technology area of interest is energy storage, Burke said. "We're interested in a whole range of battery technologies," she said, "from Nano batteries for sensing, to more efficient lightweight batteries, to power equipment for the troops to large scale energy storage."

Solar energy is being put to some promising uses, Burke said. At the troop level, she said, flexible solar rechargers are already out on the battlefield.

"We're also interested in ruggedized solar that can generate power at forward bases ... [and] we've tested unmanned aerial systems using solar [power]," Burke said. In one such test, she said, the aircraft was aloft for two straight weeks without refueling.

Other technological developments the department is looking into, Burke said, include waste-to-energy and fuel cells for troops on the move and for unmanned systems.

The department is investing in alternative energy technologies because it makes strategic sense, Burke said.

"These are technologies that we think are going to help the troops do their missions better," she said. "At the end of the day, in some respects we're technology agnostic. This is not an exhaustive list. We want anything that's going to help our troops meet the mission and to do their jobs better."

Asteroide visita a Terra (Near Earth Asteroid Is Comming)

Asteroide visita a Terra

A STUDY OF ASTEROID 1999 RQ36

FROM: NASA
OSIRIS-REx Targets Near-Earth Asteroid
NASA is sending the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft to asteroid 1999 RQ36 to better understand the evolution of its orbit and to retrieve a pristine sample for study on Earth. Credit-NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

MARYLAND HOSPITAL AGREES TO PAY $4.9 MILLION TO SETTLE FALSE CLAIMS ACT ALLEGATIONS



Credit:  U.S. Navy

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Maryland’s St. Joseph’s Medical Center Agrees to Pay $4.9 Million for Medically Unnecessary Hospital Admissions

St. Joseph’s Medical Center, a hospital located in Towson, Md., has reached a settlement with the United States to pay $4.9 million in connection with its submission of false claims to Medicare, Medicaid and other federal healthcare programs, the Justice Department announced today.

This settlement resolves the hospital’s civil liability to the United States under the False Claims Act for the hospital’s disclosure that from 2007-2009 it engaged in a practice of admitting patients to the hospital unnecessarily. In particular, the hospital disclosed that it admitted patients for short stays – typically one or two days – that were not warranted by the patient’s medical condition, and thereby generated a larger reimbursement than was proper for each patient. Of the $4.9 million to be paid by St. Joseph’s, $4.6 million will go the United States, and $152,406 will go to the state of Maryland, which is also a party to the agreement.

"The improper admission of patients for the purpose of obtaining increased reimbursement is a significant drain on the resources of federal and state healthcare programs," said Stuart F. Delery, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. "This recovery reflects the Department’s continuing efforts to safeguard federal funds."

This resolution is part of the government's emphasis on combating health care fraud and another step for the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT) initiative, which was announced by Attorney General Eric Holder and Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services in May 2009. The partnership between the two departments has focused efforts to reduce and prevent Medicare and Medicaid financial fraud through enhanced cooperation. One of the most powerful tools in that effort is the False Claims Act, which the Justice Department has used to recover more than $10.2 billion since January 2009 in cases involving fraud against federal health care programs. The Justice Department’s total recoveries in False Claims Act cases since January 2009 are over $14 billion.

Mr. Delery thanked the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General; the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland; and the Justice Department’s Commercial Litigation Branch, for their resolution of this matter.

FBI SEEKS HELP FINDING MURDERER OF U.S. EMBASSAY EMPLOYEE

http://www.fbi.gov/news/podcasts/wanted/seeking-information-about-murder-of-u.s.-embassy-employee.mp3/view?utm_campaign=email-Immediate&utm_medium=email&utm_source=wanted-by-the-fbi-podcast&utm_content=176130

Le premier étage de Vega VV02 installé au port spatial de l’Europe

Le premier étage de Vega VV02 installé au port spatial de l’Europe

RBS ORDERED TO PAY $325 MILLION TO SETTLE ATTEMPTED INTEREST RATE MANIPULATION

FROM:  U.S. COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING COMMISSION

CFTC Orders The Royal Bank of Scotland plc and RBS Securities Japan Limited to Pay $325 Million Penalty to Settle Charges of Manipulation, Attempted Manipulation, and False Reporting of Yen and Swiss Franc LIBOR

With this Order, the CFTC has now imposed penalties of more than $1.2 billion on banks for manipulative conduct with respect to LIBOR and other benchmark interest rates

Washington, DC – The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced an Order against The Royal Bank of Scotland plc and RBS Securities Japan Limited (collectively, RBS or the Bank), bringing and settling charges of successful manipulation, attempted manipulation, and false reporting relating to LIBOR for Yen and Swiss Franc, which are benchmark interest rates critical to financial markets and the public. The Order requires RBS to pay a $325 million civil monetary penalty, cease and desist from further violations as charged, and take specified steps to ensure the integrity and reliability of LIBOR and other benchmark interest rate submissions, including improving related internal controls.

"The integrity of LIBOR depends on truthful information provided by a select group of some of the world’s most important banks. The public is deprived of an honest benchmark interest rate when a group of traders sits around a desk for years falsely spinning their bank’s LIBOR submissions, trying to manufacture winning trades. That’s what happened at RBS," said David Meister, the CFTC’s Director of Enforcement.

The Order finds that:

• As recently as 2010 and dating back to at least mid-2006, RBS made hundreds of attempts to manipulate Yen and Swiss Franc LIBOR, and made false LIBOR submissions to benefit its derivatives and money market trading positions; RBS succeeded at times in manipulating Yen and Swiss Franc LIBOR;

• At times, RBS aided and abetted other panel banks’ attempts to manipulate those same rates;

• The misconduct involved more than a dozen RBS derivatives and money market traders, one manager, and multiple offices around the world, including London, Singapore, and Tokyo; and

• The unlawful conduct continued even after RBS traders learned that a LIBOR investigation had been commenced by the CFTC.

With this Order, the CFTC has now imposed penalties of more than $1.2 billion on banks for manipulative conduct with respect to LIBOR submissions and other benchmark interest rates, and has required each bank to comply with undertakings specifying the factors upon which submissions should be made, including making the determination of submissions transactions focused, and requiring implementation of internal controls and policies needed to ensure the integrity and reliability of submissions. With the undertakings, each bank represents that its benchmark interest rate submissions "shall be based on a rigorous and honest assessment of information, and shall not be influenced by internal or external conflicts of interest, or other factors or information extraneous to any rules applicable to the setting of a [b]enchmark [i]nterest [r]ate," according to the Order.

According to the CFTC’s Order against RBS, the various ways in which RBS conducted its manipulative scheme all followed a similar pattern. The profitability of RBS’s Yen and Swiss Franc derivatives positions, such as interest rate swaps, depended on Yen and Swiss Franc LIBOR, as did certain of RBS’s money market positions. RBS traders would ask their colleagues to make false LIBOR submissions that were beneficial to RBS’s trading positions. The traders’ requests were either for falsely high submissions or falsely low ones, whatever was needed to turn a profit. The submitters often accommodated those requests by making false submissions. Some of these submitters were even traders themselves, and skewed their LIBOR submissions to drive the profitability of their own money market and derivatives trading positions.

RBS created an environment for a number of years that eased the path to manipulation by placing derivatives traders and submitters together on the same desk, heightening the conflict of interest between the profit motives of the traders and the responsibility of submitters to make honest submissions. When derivatives traders and submitters eventually were separated (for business, not compliance reasons), the misconduct continued through Bloomberg chats and an internal instant messaging system.

According to the Order, RBS derivatives traders also unlawfully worked in concert with a trader from a UBS AG subsidiary (UBS), another LIBOR panel bank, in attempts to manipulate Yen LIBOR, and with a trader at another panel bank in attempts to manipulate Swiss Franc LIBOR. RBS also aided and abetted UBS’s attempts to manipulate Yen LIBOR by executing wash trades (trades that result in financial nullities) to generate extra brokerage commissions to compensate two interdealer brokers for assisting UBS in its unlawful manipulative conduct. On at least one occasion, RBS also requested the assistance of an interdealer broker to influence the submissions of multiple panel banks in an attempt to manipulate Yen LIBOR.

The Order finds that RBS attempted to manipulate Yen and Swiss Franc LIBOR even after questions arose in the media in 2007 and 2008 about the integrity of banks’ LIBOR submissions, LIBOR reviews and guidance by the British Banker’s Association in 2008 and 2009, and the CFTC’s request in April 2010 that RBS conduct an internal investigation relating to its U.S. Dollar LIBOR practices. In fact, certain RBS employees involved in the misconduct were aware of the LIBOR investigation, yet continued their manipulative conduct and tried to conceal the conduct by minimizing their use of written messages to conduct the scheme.

The Order further finds that RBS’s traders were able to carry out their many attempts to manipulate Yen and Swiss Franc LIBOR for years because RBS lacked internal controls, procedures and policies concerning its LIBOR submission processes, and failed to adequately supervise its trading desks and traders. RBS did not institute any meaningful controls, procedures or policies concerning LIBOR submissions until on or about June 2011. During this time, RBS was experiencing significant growth on its Yen and Swiss Franc trading desks, generating revenues for RBS that were multiplying over the years.

The CFTC Order also recognizes the cooperation of RBS with the Division of Enforcement in its investigation.

In related actions by the U.S. Department of Justice, RBS Securities Japan Limited agreed to plead guilty to a criminal charge of wire fraud, The Royal Bank of Scotland plc entered into a deferred prosecution agreement whereby it would continue to cooperate with the U.S. Department of Justice in exchange for the deferral of criminal wire fraud and antitrust charges, and RBS collectively accepted a penalty of $150 million. In addition, the United Kingdom Financial Services Authority (FSA) issued a Final Notice regarding its enforcement action against The Royal Bank of Scotland plc and imposed a penalty of £87.5 million, the equivalent of approximately $137 million.

The CFTC thanks and acknowledges the valuable assistance of the FSA, the U.S. Department of Justice, the Washington Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the Financial Services Agency of the Government of Japan, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, and the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong.

CFTC Division of Enforcement staff members responsible for this case are Jonathan K. Huth, Aimée Latimer-Zayets, Brian G. Mulherin, Maura M. Viehmeyer, Rishi K. Gupta, Timothy M. Kirby, Terry Mayo, Elizabeth Padgett, Anne M. Termine, Philip P. Tumminio, Jason T. Wright, Gretchen L. Lowe, and Vincent A. McGonagle. CFTC Staff from the Division of Market Oversight and Office of the Chief Economist also assisted with the investigation of this matter.

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT FOR WEEK ENDING FEBRUARY 2, 2013

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending February 2, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 366,000, a decrease of 5,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 371,000. The 4-week moving average was 350,500, a decrease of 2,250 from the previous week's revised average of 352,750.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.5 percent for the week ending January 26, unchanged from the prior week's unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending January 26 was 3,224,000, an increase of 8,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 3,216,000. The 4-week moving average was 3,211,000, an increase of 13,750 from the preceding week's revised average of 3,197,250.
UNADJUSTED DATA
The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 386,176 in the week ending February 2, an increase of 16,696 from the previous week. There were 401,365 initial claims in the comparable week in 2012.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.9 percent during the week ending January 26, unchanged from the prior week's revised rate. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 3,720,496, an increase of 41,570 from the preceding week's revised level of 3,678,926. A year earlier, the rate was 3.2 percent and the volume was 4,097,013.

The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending January 19 was 5,590,480, a decrease of 326,513 from the previous week. There were 7,663,608 persons claiming benefits in all programs in the comparable week in 2012.

Extended Benfits were not available in any state during the week ending January 19.

Initial claims for UI benefits filed by former Federal civilian employees totaled 1,370 in the week ending January 26, a decrease of 508 from the prior week. There were 2,256 initial claims filed by newly discharged veterans, a decrease of 484 from the preceding week.

There were 22,389 former Federal civilian employees claiming UI benefits for the week ending January 19, a decrease of 511 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 39,808, a decrease of 286 from the prior week.

States reported 1,826,098 persons claiming EUC (Emergency Unemployment Compensation) benefits for the week ending January 19, a decrease of 288,471 from the prior week. There were 2,985,907 persons claiming EUC in the comparable week in 2012. EUC weekly claims include first, second, third, and fourth tier activity.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending January 19 were in Alaska (6.6), Montana (4.4), Puerto Rico (4.4), Pennsylvania (4.2), New Jersey (4.1), Wisconsin (4.1), Connecticut (4.0), Idaho (4.0), Oregon (3.8), and Rhode Island (3.8).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending January 19 were in North Carolina (+2,030), Oregon (+491), Virginia (+461), and Vermont (+62), while the largest decreases were in California (-20,414), Texas
(-5,082), Illinois (-4,865), Florida (-3,570), and Michigan (-2,795).

RECENT U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE PHOTOS

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
A Marine Corps M1A1 Abrams tank provides suppressive fire against simulated insurgents during day 18 of the Integrated Training Exercise 13-1 on Twentynine Palms Marine Corps Base, Calif., Jan. 22, 2013. Marines take the training before deploying. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Stephany Richards 　

U.S. troops and employees of the Farah Directorate of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock board a CH-47 Chinook helicopter after a meeting in Lash-e Juwayn in Afghanistan's Farah province, Jan. 24, 2013. U.S. Navy photo by Chief Petty Officer Josh Ives

PENGUINS COPE WITH THE NEW WORLD CLIMATE ORDER

Photo: Adelie Penguins. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

FROM: NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Adélie Penguins Cope With Climate Change
February 6, 2013

For decades, David Ainley, a National Science Foundation-funded researcher with the ecological consulting firm H.T. Harvey and Associates, has studied Adélie penguins in Antarctica. Ainley says the birds appear to be coping in different ways in response to climate change, but there is one question that begs an answer: What are their overall chances of survival?

In 2009, Ainley, a long-term polar researcher, received a five-year NSF grant to conduct research on how penguin populations cope with climate change and on how individual birds cope. He especially wanted to know why some penguins succeed in coping with climate change while others do not, and what qualities successful birds have.

NSF manages the U.S. Antarctic Program, through which it coordinates all U.S. research on the southernmost continent.

The Adélie is unique because researchers understand how the penguin relates to its land and ocean habitats in the current climate. Using data from the historical record and relating it to present day changes, scientists are able to predict how climate change will affect the penguins, principally through changes in sea ice. Also, researchers say paying close attention to successfully breeding penguins offers clues as to how penguins as a whole will cope in the future.

Every November David Ainley and his colleagues travel to the Antarctic for months to study Adélie penguins at Cape Royds and Cape Crozier. Ainley has been in the field doing this since 1996.

"We find these birds and use GPS and nest tags to note where they are, with the idea that we'll be coming back repeatedly during the season to keep track of their success or failures.

"In this particular project, which has gone on for 17 seasons now, we are up to 17-year-old penguins. So we are getting some idea of the mechanisms of their population regulation, like how breeding success and mortality affect their population growth rates, and how this changes with age and experience," says Ainley.

Each year, the Adélie penguins of Ross Island return from wintering at sea on ice floes to large bird colonies where they build nests and breed. The transition from ice floes to bird colonies is always a risky undertaking because of the harsh environment and predators.

Success during this transition for especially young penguins depends entirely upon the cooperation of both parents, for feeding and foraging. Adélie penguins must travel repeatedly from the colonies into the adjacent ocean to find food, which can be tricky and dangerous.

The yin and yang of sea ice

Adélie penguins are sea ice obligate birds, which means they exist only where there is sea ice, just as many song birds exist only where there are trees.

Icebergs, glaciers, ice sheets and ice shelves all originate on land, whereas the sea ice upon which Adélies depend is frozen ocean water. Sea ice forms, grows and melts in the ocean depending on the season.

Except when the wind blows sea ice away, these Antarctic seas are covered by ice floes--pack ice--and it is in these ice-covered waters that Adélie penguins find the fish and krill that they eat.

However, in certain instances, there can be too much ice. Penguins are really great at swimming but are slow at walking. Areas of open water allow the penguins to be more efficient at foraging and bringing back food to their chicks. For their size, Adélies can dive deeper and can hold their breath longer to reach farther under ice floes, than can penguin species that avoid sea ice.

Not surprisingly, then, the Adélie colonies are highly sensitive to minor changes in the amount of sea ice, which itself is responsive to changing climate.

"When the cover on the ocean reaches around 70 percent ice and there's only 30 percent water, conditions become more difficult for Adélies," says Ainley. "Above that point penguins begin to have problems with access to the sea and spend too much time walking. Around 20 percent ice cover is ideal for them."

In 2001 a huge iceberg, designated B15, broke from the Ross Ice Shelf and grounded against Ross Island. It hampered the summer disintegration of sea ice cover. This prevented Adélie penguins from reaching prey and ultimately from producing offspring. The penguin colony at Cape Royds also suffered significant losses.

"Because of the 50 miles of sea ice, the penguins had to walk across to get to open water. The young adults, returning to look for territories, after a short way decided that the walk wasn't worth the effort and began to visit colonies, such as at Cape Bird, closer to seas only partially covered by ice," said Ainley. "Adults who had nested at Royds before undertook the entire trip initially, but then deserted. After failing to breed for a couple of seasons even these adults began to look for nesting territories elsewhere."

The researchers were able to learn this about the penguins because each year at each of Ross Island's three penguin colonies the researchers band a large number of chicks just before they make their first trip to the sea.

Ainley and his colleagues place on the birds metal rings imprinted with numbers to identify individual penguins. Bands are placed around the penguins' flippers near their "arm pits." The researchers band 400 chicks each year at the small Royds colony and 1,000 at the other, larger colonies.

The bands can be read using binoculars from 20 feet away. Once banded, the penguin will never again need to be caught and handled. Much of the researchers' time is spent hiking and looking for these birds at all the Ross Island colonies.

Prior to the B15 Iceberg there were about 4,000 pairs of Adélie penguins at Cape Royds. By 2005, the last year the iceberg blocked access to the ocean, the population had decreased to 2,000 pairs, roughly equivalent to the numbers that were there in 1909-11, when British explorer Ernest Shackleton stayed at Cape Royds.

"These penguins ignored the rule of thumb that scientists believed for decades--that penguins are faithful to their colony of birth--and they began to emigrate to other colonies, not just as young recruits, but birds that bred previously in their respective colonies. This totally tore up the book on how penguins should relate to their chosen habitat," says Ainley.

Super penguins

Currently, Ainley and his fellow researchers are trying to determine why some penguins, year after year, are more successful than others. They discovered that only 20 percent of individuals are successful breeders for consecutive years. They dubbed this group of penguins "super breeders" and believe that these penguins will hold clues as to how the species will adapt to a changing ocean.

"We've been studying the foraging behavior of these super breeders, comparing it to other penguins, and we found that the super breeders are kind of the Michael Phelps of the penguin world. Their foraging trips are shorter, because they dive deeper, dive more rapidly with shorter rest periods at the surface, and ultimately bring back more food to their chicks," Ainley said.

Ainley was able to learn this about penguins because he had marked all the penguins in one group of nests at each colony using microchips injected under their skin. The chips are called "passively integrated transponders", or PIT tags.

In going from their nests to the sea and back again, the tagged penguins must walk through a hoop-shaped antenna, which reads the chip's electronic numbers--almost like "bar codes" on items at supermarkets. As they pass through the hoop, the penguins also cross an electronic scale that assesses their weight. The information is sent to a computer to be stored.

By knowing when penguin parents come and go from their nests, how much they weighed when they went to sea, and how much they weigh upon their return, researchers are able to determine the amount of food each penguin caught over what time period. In addition, using tape, Ainley applies small instruments to the back of penguins that record their diving behavior, and with the help of a satellite connection, pinpoints where they went to find food.

The ocean-going skills of the penguins are important when it comes to finding prey, and finding it quickly. The fish and krill that Adélie penguins pursue are often in just one school of fish, which they keep revisiting. If the penguins wait too long to catch their breath before diving again, their meal may have swum away or competitors may have eaten it. Then they must search for another school, which takes time and energy. If Adélie penguins are to be successful, efficient swimming and foraging skills are essential.

Ainley and colleagues hope to determine how age, experience and physiology affect the skill set of penguins in their pursuit of prey. Also, Ainley wants to know if experience or inheritance has critical bearing on breeding success for these penguin athletes. The next steps in his research relate to a penguin's breath-holding capabilities.

"We are interested in the capability of their blood to hold oxygen. So we are collecting a little bit of blood from a penguin after it goes on a foraging trip to look at its red blood cell count and hemoglobin levels, as measures of oxygen-storing capabilities," he says.

Ainley hopes that by investigating the foraging capabilities of super breeders, people can understand the much larger picture of how Adélie penguins will cope with climate change.

Ultimately, the amount of sea ice will dictate how the penguins respond. If the sea ice goes away entirely, the penguins will disappear, but more subtle changes before then will be important. With the unstable environment in which they live, Adélie penguins are being tested.

Attracting future scientists

In addition to studying penguins, David Ainley and educator Jean Pennycook run an online outreach program called Penguin Science in hopes of attracting future scientists into the field.

"I'm trying to encourage kids and students to stay in the sciences, technology, engineering and math fields, so they can have jobs like this. My job is very interesting and scientific work is fun; it takes you to extraordinary places around the world," says Pennycook.

Pennycook draws teachers and students from many countries into her living classroom in Antarctica. She chats with students over Skype from her tent about what it is like to be a researcher in the Antarctic, gives them a tour, and answers questions about wildlife.

Pennycook started a penguin postcard project in which students draw a picture of penguins on a self addressed postcard about penguins and give it to her so that they can receive their postcard with an Antarctic postmark. In addition, teachers and students can design a flag that will be flown in front of the PenguinCam that daily takes pictures of the Cape Royds penguin colony. Students can also follow the lives of eight penguin families while they raise their chicks.

"It's very exciting when I get notes from students who say they want to go to Antarctica when they grow up, and of course I work a lot with little kids that are 7 or 8 years old. Sometimes I get a letter from them saying 'I want to work with penguins' or 'I want to go to Antarctica' or maybe they want to work with seals or on the volcano, or they want to go on the boat. That's a big one, they want to be on the boat," says Pennycook.

Apart from engaging young students, Pennycook has had former students down in Antarctica. She used to run an intern program where students had a work-study experience at a research station. For Pennycook, she knows she's reaching students when they follow in her footsteps.

"It makes me proud, it makes me smile that the information I brought back to my students, just showing them this place, showing them how something they can do widens their horizons... I'm hoping to open doors and inspire them to do something fun with their lives," says Pennycook.

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION UPDATE FOR FEBRUARY 7, 2013

FROM: NASA

 

WISE IMAGE OF ORION NEBULA

FROM: NASA

The Orion nebula is featured in this sweeping image from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. The constellation of Orion is prominent in the evening sky throughout the world from about December through April of each year. The nebula (also catalogued as Messier 42) is located in the sword of Orion, hanging from his famous belt of three stars. The star cluster embedded in the nebula is visible to the unaided human eye as a single star, with some fuzziness apparent to the most keen-eyed observers. Because of its prominence, cultures all around the world have given special significance to Orion. The Maya of Mesoamerica envision the lower portion of Orion, his belt and feet (the stars Saiph and Rigel), as being the hearthstones of creation, similar to the triangular three-stone hearth that is at the center of all traditional Maya homes. The Orion nebula, lying at the center of the triangle, is interpreted by the Maya as the cosmic fire of creation surrounded by smoke.

This metaphor of a cosmic fire of creation is apt. The Orion nebula is an enormous cloud of dust and gas where vast numbers of new stars are being forged. It is one of the closest sites of star formation to Earth and therefore provides astronomers with the best view of stellar birth in action. Many other telescopes have been used to study the nebula in detail, finding wonders such as planet-forming disks forming around newly forming stars. WISE was an all-sky survey giving it the ability to see these sites of star formation in a larger context. This view spans more than six times the width of the full moon, covering a region nearly 100 light-years across. In it, we see the Orion nebula surrounded by large amounts of interstellar dust, colored green.

Astronomers now realize that the Orion nebula is part of the larger Orion molecular cloud complex, which also includes the Flame nebula. This complex in our Milky Way galaxy is actively making new stars. It is filled with dust warmed by the light of the new stars within, making the dust glow in infrared light.

Color in this image represents specific infrared wavelengths. Blue represents light emitted at 3.4-micron wavelengths and cyan (blue-green) represents 4.6 microns, both of which come mainly from hot stars. Relatively cooler objects, such as the dust of the nebulae, appear green and red. Green represents 12-micron light and red represents 22-micron light. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA

YEMENI NATIONAL DIALOGUE BEGINS MARCH 18, 2013

Map:  Yeman.  Credit:  CIA World Factbook.

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Yemen's National Dialogue
Press Statement
Victoria Nuland
Department Spokesperson, Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
February 7, 2013

The United States welcomes the announcement that the Yemeni National Dialogue will begin on March 18. This is a positive development, and we commend the leadership of President Hadi and the Preparatory Committee in working with all parties in Yemen to bring about this key element of Yemen’s political transition. The Dialogue’s launch will mark another significant step in implementing the political transition initiative brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council and in laying the groundwork for national elections in February 2014.

We urge President Hadi and all Yemeni parties to move expeditiously toward an inclusive, transparent, and constructive Dialogue. Full participation by all segments of Yemeni society – including Southerners, Houthis, women, civil society organizations, youth, rural populations, and others – is essential to address issues fundamental to Yemen’s future.

U.S. State Department Daily Press Briefing - February 7, 2013

Daily Press Briefing - February 7, 2013

RECENT U.S. MARINE CORPS PHOTOS

FROM: U.S. MARINE CORPSMarines provide supportive fire with the AT-4 shoulder-fired rocket launcher as part of movement-to-contact training during Exercise Iron Fist 2013 at aboard Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, Calif., Jan. 31, 2013. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Lonzo-Grei Thornton

　
Marines shoot shoulder-launched multipurpose assault weapons during Exercise Iron Fist 2013 at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, Calif., Jan. 31, 2013. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Demetrius Morgan

President Obama Speaks at the National Prayer Breakfast | The White House

President Obama Speaks at the National Prayer Breakfast | The White House

JUSTICE CHARGES FIVE CORPORATIONS WITH IMPORTING AND SELLING HAZARDOUS TOYS

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Five Individuals and Five Corporations Charged in New York for Importing and Selling Hazardous and Counterfeit Toys

Five individuals and five corporations have been charged in an indictment unsealed today in Brooklyn, N.Y., for allegedly importing hazardous and counterfeit toys from China for sale in the United States, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Loretta E. Lynch; Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in New York James T. Hayes Jr.; Robert E. Perez, New York Field Operations Director of Customs and Border Protection (CBP); Chairman Inez Tenenbaum of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC); and Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly of the New York City Police Department (NYPD).

The 24-count indictment charges Chenglan Hu, 51, Hua Fei Zhang, 52, and Xiu Lan Zhang, 60, all Chinese nationals and residents of Queens, N.Y., and Guan Jun Zhang, 29, and Jun Wu Zhang, 28, both naturalized citizens and Queens residents, along with their closely held companies Family Product USA Inc., H.M. Import USA Corp., ZCY Trading Corp., Zone Import Corp. and ZY Wholesale Inc., with importing and trafficking hazardous toys in violation of the Consumer Product Safety Act (CPSA) and toys bearing copyright-infringing images and counterfeit trademarks, smuggling, money laundering and structuring.

"The defendants are accused of importing and selling toys that posed significant health hazards to children or were the product of blatant intellectual property theft," said Assistant Attorney General Breuer. "They allegedly retooled their operations many times in order to avoid detection, and despite repeated citations by the authorities, they continued to peddle counterfeit toys featuring Dora the Explorer, SpongeBob SquarePants and other popular children’s characters. Today’s actions reflect a Justice Department focused on ensuring that consumers receive safe and legitimate goods."

"For years, the defendants sought to enrich themselves by importing and selling dangerous and counterfeit children’s toys without regard for the law or the health of our children," said U.S. Attorney Lynch. "Profits from the counterfeit items, as well as toys riddled with lead and choking hazards, went to provide the defendants with luxury cars. We stand committed to protecting the residents of our communities from those who would engage in such conduct."

The five individual defendants were arrested this morning, and a federal task force comprising HSI agents, other federal agents and NYPD officers, aided by CBP officers and CPSC investigators, executed four search warrants and nine seizure warrants. The agents, officers and investigators searched the defendants’ warehouse, two residences and an email account. In addition, three luxury vehicles, including a Porsche and Lexus, three personal bank accounts and three corporate accounts were seized. The agents also filed lis pendens on two of the defendants’ properties in Queens, N.Y. The defendants’ initial appearances are scheduled this afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Ramon E. Reyes Jr. in the Eastern District of New York.

The indictment charges that from July 2005 through January 2013 the individual defendants used their companies, the corporate defendants, to import toys from China that they sold, both wholesale and retail, from a storefront and warehouse in Ridgewood, N.Y., and other locations in Brooklyn and Queens.

According to the indictment, the defendants’ companies had children’s toys seized by CBP from shipping containers entering the United States from China on 33 separate occasions. Seventeen of the 33 seizures were of violative toys – toys prohibited from import into and distribution in the United States, under laws and regulations enforced by the CPSC, because of excessive lead content, excessive phthalate levels, small parts that presented choking, aspiration or ingestion hazards, and easily accessible battery compartments. Sixteen of the 33 seizures were of toys bearing copyright-infringing images and counterfeit trademarks, including knockoff versions of toys featuring a wide variety of popular children’s characters, such as Winnie the Pooh, Dora the Explorer, SpongeBob SquarePants, Betty Boop, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers, Spiderman, Tweety, Mickey Mouse, Pokémon, as well as those from movies, such as the "Cars," "Toy Story" and "High School Musical."

The indictment charges that following each of the 33 seizures, the violator toy company was served written notice by CBP detailing the reason for the seizure, and a representative of the company signed a release form acknowledging the seizure and abandoning the seized goods. Additionally, the violator company and its principal were served written notice by CPSC of the specific safety violations of the toys, and each time a representative of the company signed a release form acknowledging the seizure and abandoning the seized goods.

Due to the number and volume of the seizures, the individual defendants allegedly shifted their use of the companies and alternated formal roles, in order to continue importing and distributing violative and infringing toys. Each time the number of seizures accumulated for one company, the individual defendants allegedly formed a new toy company to continue importing the violative and infringing toys.

"The people and companies involved in this illegal trade not only allegedly infringed on intellectual property rights, they placed the lives of innocent children in danger," said HSI Special Agent in Charge Hayes. "They allegedly sold toys with high lead content and cheap knock offs with substandard parts that break easily and pose a choking hazard. HSI is firm on using its unique customs expertise and law enforcement partnerships to put an end to the importation and sale of dangerous goods."

"Customs and Border Protection is on the forefront of intercepting unsafe, counterfeit products," said CBP New York Field Operations Director Perez. "We are proud to have done our part preventing these dangerous toys from getting in the hands of our children."

"Today’s action highlights the unprecedented level of cooperation and coordination among federal regulatory and law enforcement partners to keep U.S. consumers safe," said CPSC Chairman Tenenbaum. "The United States has some of the strongest toy standards and lowest lead limits in the world, and CPSC is committed to enforcing these child safety requirements at the ports and in the marketplace."

"When it comes to trademark infringement, don’t mess with Mickey or other American icons," said NYPD Commissioner Kelly.

In the indictment, the government is seeking forfeiture of the seized vehicles and bank accounts and the restrained properties, in addition to a money judgment to be determined at trial.

The charges and allegations contained in the indictment are merely accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Evan Williams of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Claire Kedeshian and William Campos of the Eastern District of New York. This case was jointly investigated by the HSI Intellectual Property Rights Group and the NYPD, through its participation in the New York Border Enforcement Security Taskforce, with the assistance of CPSC and CBP.

The enforcement action announced today is one of many efforts being undertaken by the Department of Justice Task Force on Intellectual Property (IP Task Force). Attorney General Eric Holder created the IP Task Force to combat the growing number of domestic and international intellectual property crimes, protect the health and safety of American consumers, and safeguard the nation’s economic security against those who seek to profit illegally from American creativity, innovation, and hard work. The IP Task Force seeks to strengthen intellectual property rights protection through heightened criminal and civil enforcement, greater coordination among federal, state, and local law enforcement partners, and increased focus on international enforcement efforts, including reinforcing relationships with key foreign partners and U.S. industry leaders.

Uno sconosciuto nella notte: asteroide passa vicino alla Terra

Uno sconosciuto nella notte: asteroide passa vicino alla Terra

PRIMARY CARE WORKFORCE EXPANDING

Examination Room.   Credit:  U.S. DOD.

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
National Health Service Corps expands the primary care workforce
Physicians to practice in communities that need them most

The National Health Service Corps awarded more than $10 million in funding for loan repayment to 87 medical students in 29 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, who will serve as primary care doctors and help strengthen the health care workforce, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced today.

Made possible by the Affordable Care Act, the National Health Service Corps’ Students to Service Loan Repayment Program provides financial support to fourth year primary care medical students in exchange for their service in the communities that need them most.

"This new National Health Service Corps initiative is an innovative approach to encouraging more medical students to work in primary care, and to bring more primary care doctors to communities," Secretary Sebelius said. "This is an important part of the administration’s commitment to building the future health care workforce."

The Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) Students to Service pilot program provides loan repayment assistance of up to $120,000 to medical students in MD and DO programs in their last year of education in return for their commitment to practice in the communities that need them most upon completion of their primary care residency.

"The average medical school debt is often more than $200,000," said HRSA Administrator Mary K. Wakefield, Ph.D., R.N. "The Students to Service program help relieve a tremendous debt burden, allowing them to follow their passion for primary care." These newest NHSC providers must provide three years of full-time service or six years of half-time service in designated rural and urban areas.

As a result of historic investments in the Affordable Care Act and the Recovery Act, the numbers of National Health Service Corps clinicians are at all-time highs. The number of providers serving in the Corps has nearly tripled since 2008. Today nearly 10,000 National Health Service Corps providers are providing primary care to approximately 10.4 million people at nearly 14,000 health care sites in urban, rural, and frontier areas.

Statement on the Attacks on the US Facilities in Benghazi, Libya before the Senate Armed Services Committee

Statement on the Attacks on the US Facilities in Benghazi, Libya before the Senate Armed Services Committee

USS COLE BOMBER SUSPECT HEARINGS DELAYED

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Mental Health Test Delays Cole Bombing Suspect Hearings
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service


FORT MEADE, Md., Feb. 7, 2013 - Pretrial hearings for the suspected USS Cole bomber are on hold until mid-April as doctors assess his mental competency and the military commission determines how that will affect future proceedings.

The latest round of hearings for Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri kicked off Jan. 4 at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and had been scheduled to conclude today.

However, that schedule got derailed after the prosecution requested a mental-health assessment, challenging the defense claim that Nashiri suffers from long-term post-traumatic stress allegedly caused by enhanced interrogation techniques the CIA used on him before he was transferred to Guantanamo Bay.

Members of the defense questioned what such an assessment would provide, telling the commission judge, Army Col. James L. Pohl, they lack faith in any medical practitioner the convening authority might appoint to conduct it. Pohl authorized the exam, but granted the defense's request that Dr. Vincent Iacopino, a member of the Physicians for Human Rights organization with expertise in torture, be called on to provide advice on how to conduct it without "doing harm."

Iacopino testified via teleconference Feb. 5, explaining special requirements for mental health exams on torture victims. He acknowledged that he has neither met nor examined Nashiri.

Dr. Sondra Crosby, who reportedly has examined hundreds of torture victims as director of medical care at the Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights, is expected to conduct the exam.

Pohl told the court Feb. 4 that he would not take up other legal and administrative issues surrounding the case until after the mental-health assessment is complete. He recessed the court following Iacopino's testimony, and proceedings are expected to continue in mid-April.

Nashiri is the alleged mastermind behind the attack off the Yemeni coast that killed 17 sailors. He is charged with perfidy, murder in violation of the law of war, attempted murder in violation of the law of war, terrorism, conspiracy, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, attacking civilians, attacking civilian objects and hazarding a vessel.

The charges arise out of an attempted attack on the USS The Sullivans in January 2000, the actual attack on the USS Cole in October 2000, and an attack on the motor vessel Limburg -- a civilian oil tanker -- in October 2002.

Nashiri is a Saudi-born member of al-Qaida. U.S. officials allege he was under the personal supervision of Osama bin Laden, and that bin Laden personally approved the attacks on the U.S. Navy ships.

SEQUESTRATION WILL CUT B-52 FLYING HOURS BY 10%



A B-52 Stratofortress flies April 20, 2011, during an eight-hour sortie to practice bomb-dropping sequences and aerial refueling. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Andy M. Kin)

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Air Force Nuclear Force Anticipates Budget Constraints
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Feb. 6, 2013 - The Air Force Global Strike Command predicts budget cuts triggered by sequestration will reduce B-52 flying hours by 10 percent and lead to a 20 percent reduction in overall flying hours should the law kick in on March 1, Air Force Lt. Gen. James M. Kowalski said.

Kowalski, the commander of Air Force Global Strike Command, spoke to reporters at the Defense Writers Group here today.

The command handles two parts of the nation's nuclear triad: manned bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The general said he's satisfied with readiness in the command today, but the fiscal problems confronting the military in the months and years ahead would, at best, cause readiness to level off or decline.

"As we look downstream at the continuing impacts of both the continuing resolution and sequestration, it's pretty clear there's going to be some degradation there," he said.

The biggest and most disturbing impact for the command is on flying hours, Kowalski said.

"We are looking at up to a 20-percent reduction in flying hours," he said.

One defense is to keep the sortie count high, Kowalski said, because the importance of flying hours is not just the time in the air for aircrews. Sorties exercise the entire process, he said, generating aircraft, fueling aircraft, arming bombs, recovering the aircraft, the maintenance of the aircraft and so on.

"All of that is exercised because that's what we pick up and deploy to a forward operating base," Kowalski said. "What we want to do is maintain the sortie count to maintain readiness across all of those."

The general said he's carefully keeping an eye on personnel issues in the command as well. There is an issue with airmen in the missile fields, he said, noting this is remote duty and there are concerns about the suicide rate among these personnel.

Reenlistment has not been a problem within Global Strike Command to date, Kowalski said. Part of the willingness to reenlist may be tied to the state of the economy, he said, and part of it is because the young airmen believe in the mission.

"All of those folks are going to continue to do a great job, but they need to know what to do and they need to know that what they are doing is important," Kowalski said. "We have been very active in reminding them of the job's importance."

The force structure may change in the command, the general said, but it doesn't change the basic mission for the command.

"This is one of the most important missions in the military -- to make sure that the nuclear inventory remains safe, secure and effective," Kowalski said.

EPA REQUIRES GOLD MINERS IN NEVADA TO CORRECTLY REPORT TOXIC CHEMICAL RELEASES

Photo:  Nevada Landscape.  Credit:  Wikimedia Commons.

FROM: U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
EPA Requires Nevada Gold Mining Companies to Correct Reporting Violations

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) settled with three gold mining companies, all subsidiaries of Barrick Gold Corporation, for failing to correctly report toxic chemical releases and waste management activities as required by the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA).

"The Toxic Release Inventory program is a vital tool for tracking toxic releases across the country, providing transparency about chemicals in communities," said Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. "The program is undermined if companies do not report or misreport the use or release of chemicals at their facilities."

The companies, Barrick Cortez, Inc., Barrick Gold US, Inc. and Homestake Mining Company, agreed to pay a total of $278,000 in penalties and spend an additional $340,000 to conduct an environmentally beneficial project.

The violations involved incorrect reporting under the federal Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) at the Cortez Gold Mine near Crescent Valley, the Ruby Hill Gold Mine near Eureka, and the Bald Mountain Gold Mine near the Ruby Lake National Wildlife Refuge, all in Nevada.

After EPA inspectors analyzed the mines’ records they found that the facilities failed to submit timely, complete and correct Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) reports in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008, for toxic chemicals. These chemicals include cyanide compounds used to extract gold from the ore mined at the facilities, and lead and mercury compounds produced during the extraction process. Under the settlement, the Barrick gold companies will audit and correct their TRI reports for 2005 through 2011 to comply with EPCRA. There is no evidence to suggest that the violations posed any immediate danger to workers at the facilities or local communities.

The agreement requires a $340,000 supplemental environmental project at the Cortez mine to identify the metal compounds formed in its oxide mill process. The gold companies will also perform audits at other Barrick facilities in the U.S. (in Nevada and Montana), correct reporting violations, if any, and pay a $10,000 penalty per violation, not to exceed $250,000.

Under EPCRA, facilities that manufacture, process, or use toxic chemicals over certain quantities must file annual reports estimating the amounts released to the environment, treated or recycled on-site, or transferred off-site for waste management. These reports are submitted to EPA and the State or Tribe with jurisdiction over the facility. EPA compiles this information into a national TRI database and makes it available to the public.

Metal ore mining accounts for 98 percent of total TRI releases reported to EPA in Nevada. This investigation and enforcement are part of an ongoing national effort that began in 2008 to ensure that gold mining facilities are in compliance, and that the public has accurate and complete information about the facilities in their community. Barrick gold mining facilities in the U.S. produced approximately 3.38 million ounces (105.6 tons) of gold in 2011, and the Cortez Gold Mine is the second largest gold mine in the world.

RECENT U.S. NAVY PHOTOS

FROM: U.S. NAVY
The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Gridley (DDG 101) returns to homeport at San Diego after a six-month independent deployment to the U.S. 7th and 5th Fleet areas of responsibility. Gridley conducted eight successful Strait of Hormuz transits, escorting high value units in and out of the Arabian Gulf and conducted six high-visibility operations in the East and South China Seas to maintain U.S. maritime presence and improve regional stability. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Rosalie Garcia (Released) 130205-N-DH124-020

Sailors man the forecastle during a sea and anchor detail aboard the San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock USS Mesa Verde (LPD 19) as the ship departs Norfolk. Mesa Verde is on its way to New Orleans. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Stuart Phillips (Released) 130204-N-NL541-080

 

Leon Panetta At Georgetown University

Georgetown University