Submitted by James Bovard via The Mises Institute,
When it comes to mindless excess in the war on terror, it is difficult to compete with the 70+ fusion centers bankrolled by the Department of Homeland Security. They began to be set up around the nation shortly after 9/11 as federal-state-local partnerships to better track terrorist threats. But the centers have been a world-class boondoggle from the start.
In what will be the biggest victory in the brief history of Ken Moelis' relatively new New York-based independent investment bank, Moelis & Co., moments ago the FT has reported that Moelis has won the advisory mandate for the planned IPO of Saudi Aramco.
Germany’s version of the CIA, the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), has announced that Russia is not trying to influence the outcome of the German elections. Intelligence agencies in Germany say they have found no clear evidence of a Russian disinformation campaign against the government, despite claims by mainstream media that the Kremlin seek to harm western democracy.
The mayor of Ankara warned on Tuesday that hostile outside forces were planning to orchestrate a manmade earthquake in Turkey, capable of wreaking huge damage across the country. Melih Gokcek, who has been mayor since 1994, made the claims via Twitter on Tuesday, hinting that sophisticated weather warfare technology would be used to trigger a manmade earthquake which would damage Turkey’s economy.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered an urgent inspection of Russia’s aerospace forces in readiness for a potential war with NATO. Putin’s unannounced inspection on Tuesday comes after Moscow announced that it would be ramping up efforts to counter provocative NATO drills in the Black Sea. Ibtimes.com reports: “In accordance with the decision by the Armed Forces Supreme Commander, a snap check of the Aerospace Forces began to evaluate readiness of the control agencies and troops to carry out combat training tasks,” Shoigu said at a meeting, according to Russian news Agency TASS.