Cities across America are equipping their public transport systems with audio recording devices, potentially storing every word spoken by passengers onboard. Rights activists say the surveillance plan by far exceeds what is necessary for security. - The multimillion dollar upgrade is underway in several US cities, including San Francisco, Eugene, Traverse City, Columbus, Baltimore, Hartford and Athens, reports The Daily, which obtained documents detailing the purchases. The systems would be able to record audio and video from several locations in a bus for simultaneous playback. In Eugene transit officials explicitly demanded microphones capable of distilling clear conversation from the background noise. The recordings would generally be retained for 30 days. One of the systems produced for transport monitoring supports up to 12 high definition cameras, each with a dedicated microphone. The system may potentially have additional capabilities added like timing the recording with GPS data from an onboard navigator, using facial recognition technology to identify people recorded or connecting wirelessly to a central post for real-time monitoring. “This technology is sadly indicative of a trend in increased surveillance by commercial and law enforcement entities, under the guise of improved safety,” Ashkan Soltani, an independent security consultant whom the online newspaper asked to review specifications of equipment marketed for transit agencies, told The Daily.

I do not know where this was produced but it needs to be spread far more than it has thus far. Absolutely brilliant.

Eva Bartlett: The Civilian Toll of Israel’s Bombs
Gilad Atzmon: Watch IDF fleeing soldiers - As we are watching Israel facing its final and terminal phase, the images of Israeli military cowardice are becoming more and more common. [Video]

By funneling nearly $10 billion in revenue into a Bermuda shell company last year, Google dodged about $2 billion in income taxes worldwide, Bloomberg News reports, citing financial records. - The off-shore tax shelter — legal in the United States and elsewhere — cut Google's tax rate nearly in half, Bloomberg says. Bermuda has no corporate income tax. Bloomberg says the amount saved was about 80% of the company's pre-tax profit. In a statement from corporate headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., Google said that claimed it complies with all tax rules. The company also said its European investments help those countries' economies and businesses, and provide thousands of jobs.

CNBC: Google Avoided $2 Billion in Taxes by Stashing Money in Bermuda: Report
Bloomberg: Google Revenues Sheltered in No-Tax Bermuda Soar to $10 Billion

How can the mainstream media claim that the U.S. economy is "improving" when it is painfully obvious to anyone with a brain that the middle class is being absolutely eviscerated? According to numbers that were just released, the number of Americans on food stamps rose by more than 600,000 in a single month to an all-time record high of 47.7 million. Youth unemployment in the U.S. is at a post-World War II high and large companies have announced the elimination of more than 100,000 jobs since Barack Obama won the election. Consumer debt just hit a new record high and the federal government is accumulating debt at a much faster pace than it was at this time last year. So where is the evidence that the economy is getting better?

The number of Americans enrolled in the government’s food stamp program has risen to surpass the previous month’s record. With 607,544 new Americans becoming eligible for food stamps in September, the total has reached yet another all-time record. - The monthly increase in those enrolled in the government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) was the highest since May 2011 and topped off numbers that were already dire. In August 421 thousand more Americans became eligible for food stamps and together with September's numbers more than a million Americans officially became poor. In total, there were more than three times as many new food stamp recipients than new jobs. The increase in food stamp eligible Americans came at a time when a campaigning Obama administration proudly reiterated the Bureau of Labor Statistics' report that private companies hired 201,000 new workers in August and the service sector added 185,000 workers. But at an average cost of $134.29 per month per food stamp recipient, the federal government is increasingly spending more to tackle poverty.

The next generation of military drones, unveiled by a leading US manufacturer, will not just carry a limited supply of rockets – but will likely be fitted with an ultra-light laser, capable of repeatedly destroying objects at the speed of light.

“It would give us an unlimited magazine,” a person close to the High Energy Liquid Laser Area Defense System (HELLADS) program told Time magazine. Over the past four years, the Defense Advance Research Project Agency (DARPA) has given contractor General Atomics over $60 million to develop and then scale HELLADS – a powerful 150 kW ray with a difference. Current lasers of that strength – enough to destroy an incoming rocket or plane – are bulky, which means they can only be placed on stationary defense systems. HELLADS, which DARPA says is in the “final development stage,” is radically lighter. It will weigh only 750 kilograms – less than a very small car. This vastly opens up its potential uses. (Photo: darpa.mil)

The United States is planning a new launch of its tiny[?], pilotless military space plane on Tuesday as part of a futuristic Air Force program that has fueled speculation over its mission. The X-37B, which weighs five tonnes and is 29 feet (8.9 meters) long, can return material to Earth in the way of the retired shuttle Orbiter program but is designed to stay in orbit for much longer at 270 days. The last X-37B returned in June after orbiting for 469 days in a test of endurance.

The avian discovery was made in Kereinek, a town in the Darfur region of western Sudan, Israeli media have reported. - Sudanese officials are said to have concluded that the bird was a secret agent after discovering it was fitted with GPS and solar-powered equipment capable of broadcasting images via satellite, according to Haaretz newspaper, which cited an Egyptian website, El Balad. The vulture also had a tag attached to its leg with "Israel Nature Service" and "Hebrew University, Jerusalem", leading to accusations that it was on an Israeli surveillance mission.

PressTV: Sudan captures vulture with Israeli spying device, Sudanese media say

AP Refuses to Confirm, But Diplomats Suspect Mossad. - A late November Associated Press report by George Jahn revealed a “nuclear graph” allegedly from Iran by way of an IAEA investigation, sparking a flurry of responses centering on the graph’s incorrect math and leading experts to conclude it was an amateurish hoax. But who’s hoax? Western diplomats are pointing the finger squarely at Israel’s Mossad spy agency, saying they believe that the leaks were part of an effort to implicate an assassinated Iranian in a weapons program. The diplomats also say Mossad is increasingly active in Austria, the home of the IAEA, looking to drive support for an Israeli war on Iran. The AP has declined to comment further on where the graph came from, only saying it was an unnamed country who has been critical of Iran’s nuclear program. Israel has refused to comment at all on the matter.

British deputy prime minister says he will block plans to give police and intelligence services powers to monitor all internet use. - Plans to give police and intelligence services the power to monitor all email and internet use in the UK need a "fundamental rethink", Nick Clegg says. The deputy prime minister said he would block the draft Communications Data Bill and push for plans ensuring "the balance between security and liberty". His comments came as a committee of MPs and peers criticised the bill's scope. The Home Office said the new laws were needed "without delay" to stop serious crimes such as terrorism. The Conservative and Liberal Democrat leaderships agree on the need for new measures, but they disagree over their scope. The plans in the draft bill include:

■ Internet service providers having to store for a year all details of online communication in the UK - such as the time, duration, originator and recipient of a communication and the location of the device from which it was made.
■ They would also be having to store for the first time all Britons' web browsing history and details of messages sent on social media, webmail, voice calls over the internet and gaming, in addition to emails and phone calls
■ Police not having to seek permission to access details of these communications, if investigating a crime
■ Police having to get a warrant from the home secretary to be able to see the actual content of any messages
■ Four bodies having access to data: the police, the Serious and Organised Crime Agency, the intelligence agencies and HM Revenue and Customs

Civil liberties campaigners have described the proposals as a "snoopers' charter", but Home Secretary Theresa May insists they are vital for countering paedophiles, extremists and fraudsters.

The United States and Britain have decided to provide "military assistance" to the militants fighting the Syrian government, a report says.

A Monday report by The Independent said the head of the British Armed Forces, General Sir David Richards, held a secret meeting in London a few weeks ago with military officials from France, Turkey, Qatar, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates as well as an American general. Officials from several other British government departments also hosted similar meetings and discussions with their counterparts in ‘allied states’ to review strategies and ways to 'help' the foreign-sponsored militants in crisis-stricken Syria. The meetings were held at the request of British Prime Minister David Cameron, who has recently been calling for further efforts to undermine the [legitimate] government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the report said.

John Glaser: US Defense Contractors Training Syrian Rebels to Handle Chemical Weapons
The Independent: UK military in talks to help Syria rebels
Russia Today: Grisly video shows Syrian rebels forcing child to behead unarmed prisoner
PressTV: Video shows Syria militants get a child to behead prisoner
PressTV: So-called Syrian National Coalition sole representative of opposition: Germany

Thousands of American troops near Syrian shore on USS Eisenhower. - The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, a large US Navy aircraft carrier that holds fighter bomber squadrons and 8,000 men on board, has appeared off Syrian coast yesterday amid arising speculations that the US is ready to attack Syria though there was no official announcement so far. The multipurpose nuclear attack carrier the U.S.S. Dwight D Eisenhower is leading the naval assault group which has arrived in the eastern Mediterranean. It is in close proximity to the coast of Syria. On board the ship are 70 fighter-bombers and a total 8,000 US servicemen. The Dwight D Eisenhower joined the amphibious assault helicopter carrier Iwo Jima, which has been in the area for almost two weeks. In all there are now 17 American warships off the Syrian coast.

Land Destroyer Report: NATO Appears to be Rushing for Syria Conclusion - Video

A teen tweets against her attackers—and upends the courts. - Her ordeal began when two 16-year-old boys stripped off her bra and underwear after she had passed out at a party. The boys took turns pushing their fingers into her vagina, documenting their actions with cellphone photos. When Dietrich pressed charges, the boys pleaded guilty in a deal offered by the prosecutor, but she faced a new and unexpected problem: the judge ordered her not to talk about what had happened to her—an apparent infringement of her right to free speech, according to legal experts and to Dietrich herself. The court was trying to “gag a victim,” says her mother, Sharon Dietrich, to “hide a crime.”

Ellen Brown author of "The Web of Debt: The Shocking Truth About Our Money System and How We Can Break Free" talking about the public banking system and the Bank of North Dakota October 26, 2011 at Kan Hall, University of Washington, Seattle, WA.

Ellen Brown: From North Dakota to Scotland: Exploring the Public Bank Option