U.S. looks to replace human surveillance with computers

Computer software programmed to detect and report illicit behavior could eventually replace the fallible humans who monitor surveillance cameras.

The U.S. government has funded the development of so-called automatic video surveillance technology by a pair of Carnegie Mellon University researchers who disclosed details about their work this week -- including that it has an ultimate goal of predicting what people will do in the future.

"The main applications are in video surveillance, both civil and military," Alessandro Oltramari, a postdoctoral researcher at Carnegie Mellon who has a Ph.D. from Italy's University of Trento, told CNET yesterday.

Oltramari and fellow researcher Christian Lebiere say automatic video surveillance can monitor camera feeds for suspicious activities like someone at an airport or bus station abandoning a bag for more than a few minutes. "In this specific case, the goal for our system would have been to detect the anomalous behavior," Oltramari says.

Think of it as a much, much smarter version of a red light camera: the unblinking eye of computer software that monitors dozens or even thousands of security camera feeds could catch illicit activities that human operators -- who are expensive and can be distracted or sleepy -- would miss. It could also, depending on how it's implemented, raise similar privacy and civil liberty concerns.

A paper (PDF) the researchers presented this week at the Semantic Technology for Intelligence, Defense, and Security conference outside of Washington, D.C. -- today's sessions are reserved only for attendees with top secret clearances -- says their system aims "to approximate human visual intelligence in making effective and consistent detections."

Their Army-funded research, Oltramari and Lebiere claim, can go further than merely recognizing whether any illicit activities are currently taking place. It will, they say, be capable of "eventually predicting" what's going to happen next.

This approach relies heavily on advances by machine vision researchers, who have made remarkable strides in last few decades in recognizing stationary and moving objects and their properties. It's the same vein of work that led to Google's self-driving cars, face recognition software used on Facebook and Picasa, and consumer electronics like Microsoft's Kinect.

When it works well, machine vision can detect objects and people -- call them nouns -- that are on the other side of the camera's lens.

But to figure out what these nouns are doing, or are allowed to do, you need the computer science equivalent of verbs. And that's where Oltramari and Lebiere have built on the work of other Carnegie Mellon researchers to create what they call a "cognitive engine" that can understand the rules by which nouns and verbs are allowed to interact.

Their cognitive engine incorporates research, called activity forecasting, conducted by a team led by postdoctoral fellow Kris Kitani, which tries to understand what humans will do by calculating which physical trajectories are most likely. They say their software "models the effect of the physical environment on the choice of human actions."

Both projects are components of Carnegie Mellon's Mind's Eye architecture, a DARPA-created project that aims to develop smart cameras for machine-based visual intelligence.

Predicts Oltramari: "This work should support human operators and automatize video-surveillance, both in military and civil applications."




CNET

Iran says has images of restricted Israeli areas

Iran holds pictures of Israeli bases and other restricted areas obtained from a drone launched into Israeli airspace earlier this month, an Iranian lawmaker was quoted as saying on Monday.

Earlier this month, Israel shot down a drone after it flew 25 miles (55 km) into the Jewish state. Lebanese militant group Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the aircraft, saying its parts had been manufactured in Iran and assembled in Lebanon.

The drone transmitted pictures of Israel's "sensitive bases" before it was shot down, said Esmail Kowsari, chair of parliament's defense committee, according to Iran's Mehr news agency. He was speaking to Iran's Arabic-language Al-Alam, Mehr reported on Monday.

"These aircraft transmit their pictures online, and right now we possess pictures of restricted areas," Kowsari was quoted as saying.

Israeli air space is closely monitored by the military and, except for commercial air corridors, is restricted, with special attention paid to numerous military and security installations.

Israeli threats to bomb Iranian nuclear sites if diplomacy and sanctions fail to stop Tehran's nuclear program are a flashpoint for tensions in the Middle East. The West suspects the program is designed to develop a nuclear weapons capability, something Tehran steadfastly denies.

Iran's military regularly announces defense and engineering developments though some analysts are skeptical of the reliability of such reports.

On Sunday Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi said the downed drone did not represent Iran's latest know-how in drone technology, according to Mehr.

In April, Iran announced it had started to build a copy of a US surveillance drone, the RQ-170 Sentinel, captured last year after it came down near the Afghan border.

Ynet

Is the end coming?

With all the hype in the air over the Mayan 2012 dooms day calendar, Reuters today posted a global poll of 16,262 “earthly inhabitants” from many countries and asked the question, "Whether they think it will come to an end through the hands of God, or a natural disaster or a political event, whatever the reason, one in seven thinks the end of the world is coming,"

What they found was that the OVERWHELMING majority DID NOT believe that we are at the time of the end! That statistic absolutely amazes me and reveals to me how true the words of Jesus was about the Last Days (Matt. 24:33, 25:13, 1 Thess. 5:1-4, 2 Peter 3:10, Rev. 3:3, 16:15)! This poll brings to light and adds to the overwhelming validity of Holy Scripture. Jesus himself gave many great warnings to this reality of our day and stated for all, "Behold, I come as a thief in the night" (Rev. 16:15)!

This poll brings to light and adds to the overwhelming validity of Holy Scripture. Jesus himself gave many great warnings to this reality of our day and stated for all, "Behold, I come as a thief in the night"!

 

People who live outside the reality of biblical truth are generally superstitious about and dreadfully fearful of the King of Fears (i.e., Death – Heb. 2:14-15). Deep in their heart of hearts the world fully KNOWS that they WILL give a full account to Almighty God in the Day of Judgment no matter what race, gender, color, people, society, culture, back ground, political or religious ideology, social status, nation and tongue they come from (Ez. 18:20, Acts. 10:34, Col. 3:25, Rev. 20:11-15). Almighty God’s word clearly testifies and states that the very imprint or “TM” of the Creator is placed in their hearts testifying to ALL that they ARE Almighty God’s creation and will give a full and final account to Him in that Day (Ezek.18:4, Rom. 1:18-32, Rev. 20:11-15).

The world’s subjective global optimistic thinking, which leaves out and abandons ETERNITY’S REALITY, is that “time” will go on FOREVER and this world will never cease (2 Peter 3:2-9, Rev, 18:7). The world’s global inhabitants - because they are unregenerate, rebellious toward RIGHTEOUSNESS, spiritually dead, more than willing to live in full unbelief, dominated by a fallen nature and under the fallen spiritual despot of the world (i.e., Lucifer) are oblivious that the Day of the Lord is at hand (Rom. 1:18-32, Rom 3, 2 Cor. 4:3-4, Eph. 2;2-3, 6:12)! The world - in their lawless spiritually drunken estate are consciously oblivious to the reality that they are marching and heading to the final showdown with their Creator at the Battle of Armageddon (Psalm 2, 2 Thess. 2:8-12, Rev. 16:13-16,17:2, 19:11-21).

The world - in their lawless spiritually drunken estate are consciously oblivious to the reality that they are marching and heading to the final showdown with their Creator at the Battle of Armageddon.

 

My dear friends, just look outside the window from even an objective worldly perspective and what do you see? The world today is on the very brink of global disaster! With all of the technological advances of our day and of the last 100 years we have accelerated human lawlessness and depravity at an EXPONENTIAL rate, transforming the global social and cultural landscapes and climates not in centuries but in brief years! Every facet of this existence today is accelerating so rapidly that peoples, nations and tongues are being swept away and deceived before they can analyze the very world in which they live in. Global fiscal desolation is at our very door along with the destructive threats of global nuclear war. Global plagues, godlessness, crudity, violence, lawlessness, sexual addiction, drug and alcohol addiction, genocide, oppression, tyranny, individualisms’ massive global division etc… DOMINATE our fallen world much like the days of Noah (Gen. 6, Matt 24:37). These poisonous and destructive fruits are the results of the godless outworking of UNRIGHTEOUSNESS and LAWLESSNESS (Gal. 5: 19-21, 6:7). Yet today the world with great zeal protects, defends, guards and will decimate any who seek to challenge their lawless deeds (John 15:18, 17:14, 1 John 3:13). This world fully embraces and condones all of these destructive actions in its never ending quest to rid the world of rightness and light in their delusional quest for “world peace” (John 3:19-21). The world’s inhabitants of today are putting all their expectations in this delusional utopian basket with no bottom in it with the goal that one day mankind will enter in to a golden age of peace and harmony (Isa. 48:22, 57:21). Oh fools! No wonder the Bible states so clearly that all are sold under sin and unbelief and they have been and are presently deceived by the god and tyrant of this world, the fallen arch angel Lucifer (i.e., Satan) Rom 3, Eph. 6:12.

With all of the technological advances of our day and of the last 100 years we have accelerated human lawlessness and depravity at an EXPONENTIAL rate, transforming the global social and cultural landscapes and climates not in centuries but in brief years!

 

For the 15% who DO believe that we are in the Last Days, many of these objective worldly thinkers KNOW NOT Christ, Almighty God’s saving solution for their souls, the countless passages referring to the Day of the Lord, Christ’s return to earth and reject the Bible’s Divine authority (2 Tim. 3:7). These can sense that there is great global trouble ahead but cannot and tragically refuse to truly want to know why it is coming about. It has been my own personal experience that the majority of men would rather believe the Mayan’s who were a bunch of blood thirsty, superstitious, barbaric savages who were also astrological geniuses’ than Almighty God the Creator of the GLORIOUS Heavens and earth! No matter how you cut the vegetarian pizza on this poll you will find that UNBELIEF is KING and the common denominator among the world's inhabitants in which the very thief of the night will enter in (Matt. 24:33, 25:13, 1 Thess. 5:1-4, 2 Peter 3:10, Rev. 3:3, 16:15).

We are in the Last Days my friends, believe it or not and it will come as a thief to this godless, Christ rejecting, lawless the world. It will be after the Rapture of the Church (i.e., Christ’s called out assemble) that the world will maybe start to pay attention for UNBELIEF IS UNBELIEF IS UNBELIEF, remember Pharaoh’s heart? But it will not be until the HORRIFIC and CATASTROPHIC ride of the Four Horsemen and the following GREAT earthquake and wonders in the heavens that the world will now personally know that they are truly in the GREAT and DREADFUL DAY of THE LORD (Rev. 6). The seal judgments of Almighty God and the Lamb will finally be the horrific and sober wake up call to a godless world that Almighty God will not overlook godless rebellion and the mindset of UNRIGHTEOUSNESS in His holy presence.

But it will not be until the HORRIFIC and CATASTROPHIC ride of the Four Horsemen and the following GREAT earthquake and wonders in the heavens that the world will now personally know that they are truly in the GREAT and DREADFUL DAY of THE LORD!
 

Even to the end of this horrific seven year period called “the Day of the Lord or the 7 year tribulation” mankind will continue to war against Almighty God and not heed His warnings (2 Thess. 2: 8-12, Rev. 9:20-21, 16:21). They will choose to remain willfully ignorant and rebellious all the way to Armageddon. They in their subjective rage will be clueless that Christ will return from Heaven’s glory (Zech. 14:1-4, Rev. 19:11-21). Christ’s second coming to earth to destroy the remaining armies of the anti Christ and establish His EVERLASTING reign of RIGHTEOUSNESS will come as a thief in the night to a godless and rebellious world and will also be so even unto those Jews and gentiles who have come to a saving knowledge of the Lamb (Matt. 25:31-46, Rev. 7:13-17). So EXPONENTIALLY TURBULENT, so EXPONENTIALLY HORRIFIC will this time be that all SENSE of time will be absorbed into the vacuum of this CATASTROPHIC period. The simple counting of the seven years from the signing of the covenant to the return of Christ from Heaven’s glory will be lost in a world EXPONENTIALLY spiraling out of control (Isa. 24:5-6, Rev. 6-19). The Bible is very clear on this REALITY that Christ’s return to earth WILL be as a THIEF IN THE NIGHT (Rev. 16:15)!

So EXPONENTIALLY TURBULENT, so EXPONENTIALLY HORRIFIC will this time be that all SENSE of time will be absorbed into the vacuum of this CATASTROPHIC period.

 

It is not God’s Son's desire that He should come as a thief in the night but that all would hear His voice today and believe(John 3:16-17)! His Word today is everywhere. God has made it plentiful! It is in every tongue and language and the Internet has provided global access to the simple message of salvation! My friend, EVERYONE is without excuse (Acts 17:30-31, Rom 1:18-20). Before the arrival of the dreadful Day of the Lord Almighty God has given abundant, ample warning to ALL to be saved and be delivered, not just from the coming Day of the Lord, but from ETERNAL damnation (John 3:36, Rev. 20:11-15). Beloved, NOW is the time, NOW is the day of salvation. Will you hear the Holy Spirit and the bride’s voice (Rev. 22:17)? May it be so my dear friend! Placeyour trust in Jesus Christ, who is your Lamb and propitiation for your transgressions TO ANSWER Almighty God’s RIGHTEOUSNESS(Rom. 10:4, 1 John 2:2).

The Kingdom of God is at hand!!

DJP I.F.

The Ignorant fishermen Blog

Iran develops Ababil-T a 2,000-km range stealth attack drone

Defense Minister Gen. Ahmad Vahidi warned Sunday, Oct. 28, in Tehran: “The drone was definitely not the latest Iranian technology.”DEBKAfile: He was talking about the drone which Iran and Hizballah sent over Israeli airspace on Oct. 6 and stressing that it was not the last word in their UAV armory - or even the last to invade Israel’s skies.

According to our military sources, in mid-September, Tehran secretly shipped to Lebanon a batch of dismantled Ababil-T UAVs although the Iranians could not be sure that Israel would not discover their location and its air force bomb them before they were launched. The Syrian war is also making it hard to maintain permanent Iranian launching teams in Lebanon.

However, Iran is making great strides in producing drones with more capabilities and longer ranges. During the 2006 Lebanon War, Hizballah launched an earlier model of the Ababil to bomb Tel Aviv. It was shot down by the Israeli Air Force. Since then, the Iranians have produced the more advanced Ababil-T for short and medium range attack and Ababils-B and –S.
Our military sources identify Ababil-T as Iran’s most advanced drone in operational service. It has electronic warfare, military intelligence-gathering and online transmission capabilities suited to conditions of front-line battle. It is designed to disable enemy electronic systems in combat, especially those of the United States and Israel.

Ababil means “swallow,” after the story in the Koran of an enemy sending a herd of elephants to attack the Qaaba in Mecca and the swallows released by Allah for defeating them.

Its prototype had a maximum flying range of 150 kilometers, an altitude 4.2 kilometers and it could stay aloft for 10 hours at a stretch. Iranian engineers have rapidly improved its velocity and range. But until recently, they were not known to have figured out how to produce a drone able to cover the distance to Israel in direct flight without a staging-post in Lebanon. They dared not let their prize Ababil-T cut through Iraq or Turkey because it risked interception by the American or NATO forces stationed in those countries.

This obstacle appears to have been overcome by the last upgraded Ababil, according to Gen. Vahidi.
Indeed, a week before he spoke, on Oct. 17, Manouchehr Manteqi, head of Iran’s aerospace industry, announced that Tehran now had drones capable of flying a distance of 2,000 kilometers – and therefore reaching Israel.
Iran plans to store a supply of those advanced models to Lebanon for the use of Hizballah – and not only against Israel but to extend its range against a whole array of Tehran’s enemies – before flying them back to home base in Iran.

Iranian sources claim that the latest drone was tested in combat conditions In November 2011. A UAV was sent secretly over US Fifth Fleet vessels in the Persian Gulf, collected data and gained valuable experience for its further development.

They have now advanced to the planning stages of a spy drone with stealth qualities and a large UAV bomber, cannibalizing technology pirated from the American RQ-170 Sentinel drone they downed on Dec. 4, 2011, buying it from Russia and China and stealing it from the West.
Most of their UAV development program budget is being spent on upgrading their drones’ navigation, transmission and cyber warfare systems.
The great progress Iran has made in the past five years in all these fields has been helped along by Iranian students returning home from studies at MIT and other universities in the United States, Britain and Germany. They are offered attractive salaries to work hard on the goals set before them.

DEBKAfile

COULD SANDY BE A SIGN FROM GOD?

America’s eastern seaboard is in a state of emergency, stocking up on food and battening down the hatches as it anticipates a ferocious weather event some insurance companies would refer to as “an act of God.”

But could the “Frankenstorm” – the feared combined forces of a wintery land storm with Hurricane Sandy – actually be a message from the Almighty?

Journalist and White House correspondent William Koenig explained to WND that some of the United States’ most catastrophic storms and events have correlated closely with the nation’s God-defying attempts to divide the land of Israel.

“When we put pressure on Israel to divide their land, we have enormous, record-setting events, often within 24 hours,” Koenig told WND. “Hurricane Katrina, 9/11 – we have experienced over 90 record-setting, all-time events as we have acted against Israel. And the greater the pressure on Israel to ‘cooperate,’ the greater the catastrophe.”

Some of Koenig’s examples are startling.

“Hurricane Sandy is expected to come ashore in the Northeast on the 21st anniversary of the ‘Perfect Storm,’” Koenig related. “That record-setting storm devastated the New England coast as President George H.W. Bush co-sponsored the Madrid Conference from Oct. 30 to Nov. 1, 1991.”

At the Conference, Bush broke from President Reagan’s more pro-Israel policies in the attempt to forge an Arab-Israeli “peace” plan that included recognizing a Palestinian “right” to biblically Jewish lands. But while Bush was in Spain advocating a division of Israel, the “Perfect Storm” – so named for the ferociously destructive way in which a cold nor’easter combined with Hurricane Grace – was lashing the U.S. seaboard at home.

“The Perfect Storm sent 30-foot ocean waves into Bush’s Kennebunkport home as he was calling on Israel to give up the West Bank (Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem),” Koenig told WND. “The Madrid ‘land for peace’ Conference began the Israeli-Palestinian peace process that Mitt Romney advocated in the debates, even as yet another ‘perfect storm’ is brewing offshore.”

The original Perfect Storm formed on Oct. 28, 1991, and dissipated on Nov. 4 – correlating almost perfectly with dates of the Madrid Conference. The storm was blamed for 13 deaths and over $200 million in damages, including those to Bush’s vacation home.

Similarly, Hurricane Katrina, the deadliest and costliest hurricane in U.S. history, hit Aug. 29, 2005; the storm began the day President George W. Bush congratulated Israel for evacuating Gaza and called on the Israelis and Palestinians to move onto his two-state plan.

Koenig also pointed to the 1938 “Long Island Express,” the most powerful, deadliest and costliest hurricane in recent New England history, a storm that killed more than 600 people and resulted in property damage that in today’s dollars approaches nearly $5 billion.

“Leading up to the 1938 event, there was tremendous persecution of the Jewish people, a build-up to the Holocaust,” Koenig related. ” According to author John McTernan, the eye of the hurricane came directly over Camp Siegfried and Adolf Hitler street in Long Island. The powerful storm occurred 38 days after Camp Siegfried was the center of the largest Nazi rally outside of Germany.”

And as WND reported earlier this year, Koenig drew similar parallels with Hurricane Isaac and the 2012 Republican National Convention. The day Isaac formed as a tropical storm in August, the Republican platform committee voted to add a “two-state” position pertaining to Israel for formal convention approval.

“This is the second straight Republican convention postponed due to a major hurricane,” Koenig pointed out at the time. “And this is the third straight Republican convention that became secondary news due to a hurricane. Bush was pressuring Israel during the times of the 2004 and 2008 conventions [as well].”

Koenig links the disruption of three previous conventions to Republican pressure and support of dividing the land of Israel to pave the way for the creation of a Palestinian state.

In fact, in his book “Eye to Eye: Facing the Consequences of Dividing Israel,” Koenig points out that nine of the 10 costliest insurance events in U.S. history followed dramatic calls by U.S. officials for Israel to make land concessions in bids for peace with its neighbors. He points out with startling detail how six of the seven costliest hurricanes in U.S. history followed such events. He points out how three of the four largest tornado outbreaks in U.S. history also followed such developments.

Now Hurricane Sandy is poised off America’s Atlantic coast and threatens to become one of the worst storms in decades. The hurricane has been dubbed “Frankenstorm” by some outlets because it’s expected to reach the coast close to Halloween and forecast models show – like the Perfect Storm of 1991 – the tropical cyclone could combine with winter weather to morph into a so-called “super storm.”

Reuters reports governors in states along the U.S. East Coast have declared emergencies, with officials urging residents to stock up on food, water and batteries, and the U.S. Navy has ordered all ships in the Norfolk, Va., area, out to sea to ride out the approaching storm.

“We’re expecting a large, large storm,” Louis Uccellini, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Center for Environmental Prediction, told Reuters. “The circulation of this storm as it approaches the coast could cover about the eastern third of the United States.”

The pre-Halloween hurricane is already affecting the presidential race, too, prompting both Mitt Romney and Vice President Joe Biden to cancel scheduled appearances in Virginia Beach. And with early voting already underway in some states, the storm could even affect vote totals.

But how does “Frankenstorm” tie into America’s stance on Israel?

“Both political parties have now accepted, specifically, a two-state solution to peace in the Mideast, dividing Israel’s land between Israel and a Palestinian state,” Koenig told WND. “And now this hurricane story is going to disrupt political campaigning and possibly affect voter turnout for both parties.

“There has been a lot of behind-the-scenes pressure on Israel by the Obama administration, to not act on Iran prior to the election,” Koenig continued, “but the most succinct correlation is that both parties have officially endorsed the two-state solution.”

Koenig also pointed to Romney’s statements at the last presidential debate, when the Republican declared, “Are Israel and the Palestinians closer to reaching a peace agreement? No, they haven’t had talks in two years. We have not seen the progress we need to have.”

Koenig, however, warned that making “progress” on the land-for-peace talks, which would see Israel surrender land to a Palestinian state, is exactly what could be prompting these catastrophic weather “acts of God.”

“From a biblical perspective, the land isn’t to be divided, parceled out or negotiated away … period,” Koenig said. “That’s the land God gave to Israel.

“People say they want peace,” he continued, “but it all comes down to this: No earthly leader has the right to partition Israel, because that was God’s gift to Abraham and his descendants.”

At the time of Hurricane Isaac, WND editor and CEO Joseph Farah wrote a commentarysuggesting natural disasters are more often than the world realizes – or admits – messages from God.

“He’s trying to get your attention. Are you paying heed? What will it take? Will your world have to be turned upside down before you recognize what’s happening? Would even that be enough?” Farah asked.

“I don’t know what to expect from this hurricane on its way toward the East Coast. It could be devastating for some or nothing at all,” he continued. “Nevertheless, it’s always a good time to get right with God.”

WND

Obama Signs New Executive Order Expanding Homeland Security

On Oct. 26, President Obama signed a new Executive Order which expands the role and scope of Homeland Security in states and areas across the country. This order, which establishes a new Security Partnership Council, will have far reaching effects in the overall mission of Homeland Security, and for state and local areas that interact with the Federal agency.

Economically, the Establishing the White House Homeland Security Partnership Council Executive Order will increase funding and resources to state and local governments to fulfill Homeland Security programs and doctrines, as well as increase Federal oversight in the implementation of directives tied to the agencies mission.

The purpose of this order is to maximize the Federal Government’s ability to develop local partnerships in the United States to support homeland security priorities. Partnerships are collaborative working relationships in which the goals, structure, and roles and responsibilities of the relationships are mutually determined.

There is established a White House Homeland Security Partnership Council (Council) to foster local partnerships — between the Federal Government and the private sector, nongovernmental organizations, foundations, community-based organizations, and State, local, tribal, and territorial government and law enforcement — to address homeland security challenges.

Sec. 3. Mission and Function of the Council and Steering Committee

(ii) promote homeland security priorities and opportunities for collaboration between Federal Government field offices and State, local, tribal, and territorial stakeholders;

(iii) advise and confer with State, local, tribal, and territorial stakeholders and agencies interested in expanding or building local homeland security partnerships; –Whitehouse.gov

The White House Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
October 26, 2012

Executive Order — Establishing the White House Homeland Security Partnership Council
EXECUTIVE ORDER
- – - – - – -
ESTABLISHING THE WHITE HOUSE
HOMELAND SECURITY PARTNERSHIP COUNCIL
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in order to advance the Federal Government’s use of local partnerships to address homeland security challenges, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. Policy. The purpose of this order is to maximize the Federal Government’s ability to develop local partnerships in the United States to support homeland security priorities. Partnerships are collaborative working relationships in which the goals, structure, and roles and responsibilities of the relationships are mutually determined. Collaboration enables the Federal Government and its partners to use resources more efficiently, build on one another’s expertise, drive innovation, engage in collective action, broaden investments to achieve shared goals, and improve performance. Partnerships enhance our ability to address homeland security priorities, from responding to natural disasters to preventing terrorism, by utilizing diverse perspectives, skills, tools, and resources.

The National Security Strategy emphasizes the importance of partnerships, underscoring that to keep our Nation safe “we must tap the ingenuity outside government through strategic partnerships with the private sector, nongovernmental organizations, foundations, and community-based organizations. Such partnerships are critical to U.S. success at home and abroad, and we will support them through enhanced opportunities for engagement, coordination, transparency, and information sharing.” This approach recognizes that, given the complexities and range of challenges, we must institutionalize an all-of-Nation effort to address the evolving threats to the United States.

Sec. 2. White House Homeland Security Partnership Council and Steering Committee.

(a) White House Homeland Security Partnership Council. There is established a White House Homeland Security Partnership Council (Council) to foster local partnerships — between the Federal Government and the private sector, nongovernmental organizations, foundations, community-based organizations, and State, local, tribal, and territorial government and law enforcement — to address homeland security challenges. The Council shall be chaired by the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism (Chair), or a designee from the National Security Staff.

(b) Council Membership.

(i) Pursuant to the nomination process established in subsection (b)(ii) of this section, the Council shall be composed of Federal officials who are from field offices of the executive departments, agencies, and bureaus (agencies) that are members of the Steering Committee established in subsection (c) of this section, and who have demonstrated an ability to develop, sustain, and institutionalize local partnerships to address policy priorities.

(ii) The nomination process and selection criteria for members of the Council shall be established by the Steering Committee. Based on those criteria, agency heads may select and present to the Steering Committee their nominee or nominees to represent them on the Council. The Steering Committee shall consider all of the nominees and decide by consensus which of the nominees shall participate on the Council. Each member agency on the Steering Committee, with the exception of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, may have at least one representative on the Council.

(c) Steering Committee. There is also established a Steering Committee, chaired by the Chair of the Council, to provide guidance to the Council and perform other functions as set forth in this order. The Steering Committee shall include a representative at the Deputy agency head level, or that representative’s designee, from the following agencies:

(i) Department of State;

(ii) Department of the Treasury;

(iii) Department of Defense;

(iv) Department of Justice;

(v) Department of the Interior;

(vi) Department of Agriculture;

(vii) Department of Commerce;

(viii) Department of Labor;

(ix) Department of Health and Human Services;

(x) Department of Housing and Urban Development;

(xi) Department of Transportation;

(xii) Department of Energy;

(xiii) Department of Education;

(xiv) Department of Veterans Affairs;

(xv) Department of Homeland Security;

(xvi) Office of the Director of National Intelligence;

(xvii) Environmental Protection Agency;

(xviii) Small Business Administration; and

(xix) Federal Bureau of Investigation.

At the invitation of the Chair, representatives of agencies not listed in subsection (c) of this section or other executive branch entities may attend and participate in Steering Committee meetings as appropriate.

(d) Administration. The Chair or a designee shall convene meetings of the Council and Steering Committee, determine their agendas, and coordinate their work. The Council may establish subgroups consisting exclusively of Council members or their designees, as appropriate.

Sec. 3. Mission and Function of the Council and Steering Committee. (a) The Council shall, consistent with guidance from the Steering Committee:

(i) advise the Chair and Steering Committee members on priorities, challenges, and opportunities for local partnerships to support homeland security priorities, as well as regularly report to the Steering Committee on the Council’s efforts;

(ii) promote homeland security priorities and opportunities for collaboration between Federal Government field offices and State, local, tribal, and territorial stakeholders;

(iii) advise and confer with State, local, tribal, and territorial stakeholders and agencies interested in expanding or building local homeland security partnerships;

(iv) raise awareness of local partnership best practices that can support homeland security priorities;

(v) as appropriate, conduct outreach to representatives of the private sector, nongovernmental organizations, foundations, community-based organizations, and State, local, tribal, and territorial government and law enforcement entities with relevant expertise for local homeland security partnerships, and collaborate with other Federal Government bodies; and

(vi) convene an annual meeting to exchange key findings, progress, and best practices.

(b) The Steering Committee shall:

(i) determine the scope of issue areas the Council will address and its operating protocols, in consultation with the Office of Management and Budget;

(ii) establish the nomination process and selection criteria for members of the Council as set forth in section 2(b)(ii) of this order;

(iii) provide guidance to the Council on the activities set forth in subsection (a) of this section; and

(iv) within 1 year of the selection of the Council members, and annually thereafter, provide a report on the work of the Council to the President through the Chair.

Sec. 4. General Provisions. (a) The heads of agencies participating in the Steering Committee shall assist and provide information to the Council, consistent with applicable law, as may be necessary to implement this order. Each agency shall bear its own expense for participating in the Council.

(b) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department, agency, or the head thereof;

(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals; or

(iii) the functions of the Overseas Security Advisory Council.

(c) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and appropriate protections for privacy and civil liberties, and subject to the availability of appropriations.

(d) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

BARACK OBAMA

THE WHITE HOUSE,
October 26, 2012.

Before it´s News

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Hong Kong gets involved in currency wars

Special Administrative Region of China, Hong Kong, is now involved in the currency wars that take place around the world. Last week, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) conducted currency interventions, having sold its own currency in the amount of 603 million U.S. dollars in just one hour to stabilize the exchange rate of the Hong Kong currency against the U.S. dollar.

The measure was taken after the exchange rate of the Hong Kong dollar against the U.S. dollar fell below $7.75 per U.S. dollar, dropping to the level of 7.7367 during the trading session.

Currency wars were widely discussed last year, when central banks of several countries at once started taking active measures to prevent the growth of the rate of their currencies to maintain the competitiveness of their economies. Last year, the Swiss National Bank began to carry out foreign exchange interventions to prevent the strengthening of the franc. Japan's Ministry of Finance has had to sell the yen massively several times over the past couple of years.

Experts believe that the export-oriented South Korean economy takes similar measures towards its currency - the won. This is the first currency intervention of the HKMA since December 2009,Bloomberg said. During that time, the department would frequently interfere in the course of trade, adjusting the rate of its currency to avoid excessive strengthening.

The Hong Kong dollar is actively bought and sold only in Asia. One may say that this currency does not pose much interest to speculators. This currency is not traded freely. The rate of the currency is monitored by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority that defines the policy as the regime of consistent exchange rate. The Hong Kong dollar is tied to the U.S. counterpart, and there is a very narrow range for fluctuations. Since 1983, the Hong Kong dollar has had a strong U.S. dollar peg at the rate of 7.8 Chinese currency units per one American dollar.

In 2005, the currency range was set on the level from 7.85 Hong Kong dollars to the maximum rate of 7.75 per one U.S. dollar. A drop below this mark on October 19 this year, made the HKMA throw own currency on the market worth $600 million USD to restore the limits of the claimed rate corridor. The reason for such a sharp strengthening of the Hong Kong dollar was the complicated situation in the euro zone, as well as injections of liquidity on the part of central banks of the world.

Thus, on September 13th, the U.S. Federal Reserve announced the third phase of quantitative easing, i.e. the stimulation of the U.S. economy through additional emission. The FR announced that it would buy mortgage bonds in the amount of $40 billion every month. In September, the European Central Bank also announced a program to buy up the government debts of troubled countries. The Bank of Japan increased its program of buying assets by $126 billion.

These measures boost the devaluation of the above-mentioned currencies, which led to the growth of the rate cost of the Hong Kong dollar. As a matter of fact, it was the dollar devaluation that triggered it all.

"No matter what kind of European currency we take - the yen, the yuan, the Swiss franc and even the Israeli shekel with the Czech crown, we will see the dollar decline in any of these currency pairs during the recent years. The devaluation of the basic reserve currency of the world is seen best in the situation with precious metals - gold, for example, which, still serves as a settlement asset on the interbank market. Starting with September 2008, the dollar has lost 115 percent vs. gold! The growth of such currencies as the Hong Kong dollar, the Australian and Canadian dollar to the U.S. dollar is not so significant," leading analyst of Kalita-Finance Alexey Vyazovsky said.

In addition, on October 18th, the Chinese yuan rose to the highest level in 19 years and reached 6.2446 yuan per U.S. dollar. The very next day, the Hong Kong dollar surged, which may indicate investors' increasing interest in the Chinese economy on the whole.

Judging by the fact that the Chinese economy has stabilized, investors are hopeful that it will recover. The funds from Europe and the U.S. flock to Hong Kong to buy the stocks associated with China, Bloomberg said.

Pravda

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