‘Super intelligent’ 400 CCTV cameras scheme for Glasgow

Plans are being drawn up to install more than 400 "super intelligent" CCTV cameras in Glasgow which could be used in terrorism and suicide prevention.

The cameras would be able to raise the alarm when they detected bags being left unattended or when someone climbed up on to a bridge parapet.

The project is one of several Glasgow City Council is looking at funding with a £24m UK government grant.

It secured the cash to make it one of Britain's first "smart cities".

The grant was offered by the Technology Strategy Board (TSB), a body set up by the UK government in 2007 to stimulate technology-enabled innovation.Cities blueprint

Its Future Cities Demonstrator, as the prize is known, is intended to act as a blueprint for other cities.

This flagship programme may be in its infancy but, once complete, we hope it will provide a blueprint for other cities to follow”Cllr Gordon MathesonGlasgow City Council leader

On Monday, Glasgow City Council said it was now beginning to put in place the framework to bring its wider vision to life.

The programme includes the creation of a new technology operations hub in the east end headquarters of Glasgow Community and Safety Services (GCSS).

More than 400 new "super intelligent public space CCTV cameras" will replace the existing network.

Their operators will be based in the new hub alongside specialists from TRAFFCOM - the team in charge of the city's traffic lights and traffic cameras, who currently work from separate bases.

Glasgow City Council hopes to buy cameras which could automatically detect unusual activity, such as unattended bags or people on bridge parapets, before alerting the emergency services.

Other ideas for development include using mobile phone technology to allow residents to find the quietest route into the city centre or the hospital Accident and Emergency unit with the shortest waiting time.

City council leader Gordon Matheson said: "Winning this funding was a major coup for Glasgow. Now we're putting the teams and infrastructure in place to realise the potential of a hugely ambitious and far-reaching programme which will permeate all sectors of city life.

"This flagship programme may be in its infancy but, once complete, we hope it will provide a blueprint for other cities to follow."

BBC

Military Religious Freedom Foundation: "we face gangs of fundamentalist Christian monsters who terrorize their fellow Americans"

“Today, we face incredibly well-funded gangs of fundamentalist Christian monsters who terrorize their fellow Americans by forcing their weaponized and twisted version of Christianity upon their helpless subordinates in our nation’s armed forces.”

Those words were recently written by Mikey Weinstein, founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), in a column he wrote for the Huffington Post. Weinstein will be a consultant to the Pentagon to develop new policies on religious tolerance, including a policy for court-martialing military chaplains who share the Christian Gospel during spiritual counseling of American troops.

Weinstein decries what he calls the “virulent religious oppression” perpetrated by conservative Christians, whom he refers to as “monstrosities” and “pitiable unconstitutional carpetbaggers,” comparing them to “bigots” in the Deep South during the civil rights era.

He cites Dr. James Dobson—the famous Christian founder of Focus on the Family—as “illustrating the extremist, militant nature of these virulently homophobic organizations’ rhetorically-charged propaganda.” Regarding those who teach orthodox Christian beliefs from the Bible, Weinstein concludes, “Let’s call these ignoble actions what they are: the senseless and cowardly squallings of human monsters.”

Weinstein then endorses the ultra-left Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), who publishes a list of “hate groups.” Alongside truly deplorable organizations like the KKK, the SPLC’s list includes a host of traditional Christian organizations (for their support of traditional marriage) and Tea Party organizations (for supporting limited government). Weinstein says SPLC correctly labels them all as “hate groups.”

Floyd Lee Corkins—the first person ever convicted of domestic terrorism in federal court under the laws of Washington, D.C.—told the FBI that he chose his intended shooting spree targets from the SPLC website's map. Corkins was arrested at the offices of the Family Research Council (FRC) after shooting a security guard in August 2012. His court documents state that Corkins intended to kill as many people as possible.

Weinstein also supports Lt. Col. Jack Rich, the Army officer who wrote to subordinate officers that soldiers who hold traditional Christian beliefs agreeing with organizations on SPLC’s “hate group” list are incompatible with “Army values" and should be carefully watched and excluded from military service.

According to Weinstein, “We should as a nation effusively applaud Lt. Col. Rich.” He adds that the nation should “venture further” than Rich’s recommendations, saying, “We MUST vigorously support the continuing efforts to expose pathologically anti-gay, Islamaphobic, and rabidly intolerant agitators for what they are: die-hard enemies of the United States Constitution. Monsters, one and all. To do anything less would be to roll out a red carpet to those who would usher in a blood-drenched, draconian era of persecutions, nationalistic militarism, and superstitious theocracy.”

Many media outlets are silent on this disturbing new alliance between fanatical secularists and leaders in the Pentagon appointed by President Barack Obama and Secretary Chuck Hagel, under which the U.S. military would officially consult with someone with such foaming-at-the-mouth passionate hostility toward traditional Christians, including Evangelicals and devout Catholics. The military—America’s most heroic and noble institution—includes countless people of faith, and this represents a radical departure from the U.S. military’s warm embrace of people of faith in its ranks.

Yet the little coverage this story is getting is positive, such as this Washington Postcolumn that somehow manages not to carry any of these frightening quotes from Weinstein and instead actually endorses the Pentagon’s meeting with him. Sally Quinn’sPost column also approvingly quotes MRFF Advisory Board member Larry Wilkerson as saying, “Sexual assault and proselytizing, according to Wilkerson, ‘are absolutely destructive of the bonds that keep soldiers together.’”

Did you get that? They say having someone share the Christian gospel with you is akin to being raped. Weinstein makes sure there are no doubts, being quoted by the Post as adding, “This is a national security threat. What is happening [aside from sexual assault] is spiritual rape. And what the Pentagon needs is to understand is that it is sedition and treason. It should be punished.”

Another MRFF Advisory Board member, Ambassador Joe Wilson (the far-left husband of CIA employee Valerie Plame from the Iraq War’s yellow-cake uranium scandal a decade ago), said a military chaplain “is to minister to spiritual needs. You don’t proselytize. It’s a workplace violation.”

In other words, it should be the official policy of the United States to decree what a human being’s spiritual needs are, and punish for violations a military officer who is an ordained clergyman who attempts to share his own personal faith with another service member when discussing religious matters. You cannot imagine such a thing ever happening under any previous president.

Weinstein goes on:


If these fundamentalist Christian monsters of human degradation … and tyranny cannot broker or barter your acceptance of their putrid theology, then they crave for your universal silence in the face of their rapacious reign of theocratic terror. Indeed, they ceaselessly lust, ache, and pine for you to do absolutely nothing to thwart their oppression. Comply, my friends, and you become as monstrously savage as are they. I beg you, do not feed these hideous monsters with your stoic lethargy, callousness and neutrality. Do not lubricate the path of their racism, bigotry, and prejudice. Doing so directly threatens the national security of our beautiful nation.

God help us now when someone with such visceral hatred of conservative Christians—literally tens of millions of Americans—who says sharing this gospel is “spiritual rape” is helping develop policies for how to deal with Christians in the military.

Weinstein says those guilty of this “treason” must be “punished.” Under federal law, the penalty for treason is death. And the Obama administration is sitting down to talk with this man to craft new policies for “religious tolerance” in our military.

Breitbart

Surprise Israeli military drill on Syrian, Lebanese borders with Reservists including

Israel’s armed forces launched a snap division-scale drill along the full length of the Syrian and Lebanese borders Tuesday, April 30, with call-up orders for thousands of reservists, debkafile’s military sources report.

It was taken into account that the unannounced exercise would send military tensions shooting up on the volatile Israeli, Jordanian, Syrian and Lebanese borders. Moscow, Tehran, Damascus and Hizballah headquarters would assume that Israel is massing troops in advance of US military intervention in Syria.
Its timing is also connected to the speech Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah is scheduled to deliver Tuesday night in case he announces military steps against Israel.

Our Washington sources report that President Barack Obama is poised for a momentous decision on whether to pursue military action against Syrian military targets, including Bashar Assad’s chemical weapons facilities.
These appear to be his three primary options:

1. An American aerial bombardment of the Syrian military bases and facilities which are the mainstay which keep Bashar Assad in power;

2. A missile strike on his chemical weapons from the sea and from ground bases in Europe and the Middle East;

3. The deployment of 20,000 American troops to the Jordanian-Syrian frontier.

Alternatively, Obama may choose to combine elements of all three options and activate them simultaneously.

The surprise Israeli military exercise and concentration of reserve units along the borders of Syria and Lebanon place the IDF including its air and naval branches on the ready for a role in a potential American military operation against Syria.
The Israeli military also stands prepared to repel possible reprisals by Iran, Syria or Hizballah against US, Jordanian or Israeli troops.




DEBKAfile

Israel's 5th Dolphin submarine unveiled in Germany

Israel and Germany unveiled the fifth Dolphin-class submarine constructed for the Israel Navy at a ceremony at the German port of Kiel on Monday.

The submarine – called the INS Rahav – is the most expensive defense platform ever purchased by Israel. The vessel is set to undertake several long-range classified missions that are critical for Israel’s security.

The submarine is viewed by the navy as an important “force multiplier” that will enable Israel to cope with threats in the increasingly unstable Middle East region.

According to foreign reports, the navy’s Dolphins also provide Israel with nuclear second-strike capabilities, as they can travel far from Israel’s territorial waters and are reportedly able to carry long-range cruise missiles tipped with nuclear warheads.

Some defense analysts consider the submarines to be a crucial aspect of Israeli nuclear deterrence vis-à-vis Iran.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu welcomed the announcement, calling the submarines “a strong, strategic tool for the IDF.”

“The State of Israel,” said the prime minister, “is ready to act anytime, anywhere – on land, sea and air – in order to ensure the security of Israel’s citizens.”

Among their many capabilities, submarines can launch conventional missile attacks on near and distant targets, fire torpedoes at various naval vessels and engage in intelligence-gathering.

The latest Dolphin-class subs can remain submerged longer than their predecessors.

The INS Rahav, together with the INS Tanin – the fourth Dolphin sub, delivered to Israel in 2012 – and the sixth sub, which is still being built, will cost a total of some 1.4 billion Euro ($1.8 billion). The German government is reportedly covering a third of the cost.

Monday’s ceremony was attended by Israel Navy Adm. Ram Rothberg, Defense Ministry director-general Cmdr. (res.) Udi Shani and senior German officials.

The ceremony follows many years of development, and the submarine is expected to arrive at an Israeli port over the coming year. It must undergo further work before it can become operational, said the navy.

“The INS Rahav is one of the most advanced submarines in the world,” said the Defense Ministry in a statement on Monday.

“It is a versatile platform which can adapt to many and varied missions. The fleet of submarines forms a long arm for the [Israel] Navy, the IDF, and the State of Israel,” the ministry said.
Jerusalem Post

Free Syrian Army says Israeli jets hit chemical site

DAMASCUS, Syria, April 28 (UPI) -- The Free Syrian Army says Israeli air force jets flew over President Bashar Assad's palace and bombed a chemical weapons site near Damascus, Maariv reported.

The report said Israeli jets entered Syrian airspace close to 6 a.m Saturday and flew over Assad's palace in Damascus and other security facilities before striking a chemical weapons compound near the city.

The Hebrew language daily said a Syrian army air defense battery positioned in the city fired at the Israeli jets, but the aircraft left Syrian airspace unscathed. FSA rebels posted a video showing smoke rising from the headquarters for chemical weapons.

There were no reports of the extent of damage or casualties.

Neither Damascus nor Jerusalem responded to the report.

In January, foreign media reported Israeli jets bombed a weapons convoy parked outside a military research institute near Damascus allegedly en route to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights said it documented 88 deaths due to violence across Syria Sunday, including 12 children, eight women, five torture victims and 35 armed rebels.

The organization said 23 of the deaths occurred in Aleppo, 16 in and around Damascus, 13 in Idlib, 12 in Hama, 10 in Homs and nine in Daraa.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2013/04/28/FSA-says-Israeli-jets-hit-chemical-site/UPI-90151367153367/#ixzz2RxJ5W0wk

The Fed. Is Preparing U.S. Dollar Devaluation Scheme.

Slow "growth",GDP makeover, Keynesians demand more debt and inflation