Chinese Moon Display Contains Image of Europe Being Nuked

*Source: InfoWars

Startling detail a sign of Beijing’s plan to militarize space?

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
December 18, 2013

A display to promote China’s Jade Rabbit Moon rover includes a background photograph of a mushroom cloud over Europe, a startling detail which some have interpreted as an indication that Beijing’s space program is a cover for the militarization of space.

The image, which was used as a backdrop at an exhibit for China’s recently deployed Yutu Rover, clearly shows a nuclear explosion occurring over eastern Europe, with some speculating that the location eerily matches that of the planned U.S. missile defense system in Romania.

The photograph was not designed deliberately for the moon rover display, it is taken from a stock image. This fact has been cited by those who claim that the selection of the image was a mere oversight on behalf of Chinese officials.

However, the title of the stock image, Nuclear Explosion on Earth from Space, has prompted more cynical observers to suggest otherwise.

“There are undoubtedly those who will interpret the choice of image as a deliberate gesture,” writes Robert Gonzales. “China – having been denied membership in the multinational partnership that operates the International Space Station – has managed to forge an increasingly impressive space program largely on its own (NASA, for instance, is banned by Congress from any contact, collaborations or partnerships with China, primarily due to concerns about technology transfer), a fact that has made for some disquieting observations about China’s rise to ascendancy.”

In addition, the author of the original image has accused the Chinese government of stealing his work and giving him no credit.

“Many thanks to the Chinese government (More precisely, The Chinese International Industry Fair) for stealing & printing my work, with no credit, permission or a damn note!” the artist stated on his website, adding, “I hope your Jade Rabbit falls into a ditch on the moon and is unable to recover, you communist bastards.”

As we previously highlighted, Chinese state media itself has bragged that the moon landing program is merely the first step towards a “Death Star” moon base from which the PLA could launch missiles against any target on Earth.

The fact that top Chinese generals have been known to occasionally threaten the west with nuclear strikes also plays into the concerns.

Last month, Chinese state-run media released a map showing the locations of major U.S. cities and how they would be impacted by a nuclear attack launched from the PLA’s strategic submarine force.

With tensions running high over the disputed Senkaku Islands, observers have warned of the threat of a new cold war and an escalating Asian arms race in the aftermath of China declaring an “air defense zone” and suggesting that it would intercept planes entering the region, a threat quickly put to the test when the United States flew two B-2 Bombers over the zone without incident.

In retaliation against what Beijing sees as the United States’ increasingly aggressive presence in the East China sea, China also sent a surveillance ship into Hawaiian waters back in October, a move analysts described as unprecedented.

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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a host for Infowars Nightly News.

Facebook Terminates Face Recognition Tool in Europe, While Depleting Privacy in the US

*Source: RT

 

US social media giant Facebook is deleting facial recognition data collected from European users and plans to terminate the feature there soon. Meanwhile, the software is gaining traction in the US, attracting apps that now recognize faces in public.
­When users “tag” a friend in a photo uploaded to Facebook, the service stores and remembers facial features that identify that unique individual. Facebook is then able to suggest “tags” on newly uploaded photos to match pictures with names.
Since 2011, the Ireland-based Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) has led an investigation into Facebook to see if the social media giant complied with European privacy laws. The DPC initially responded to complaints by a user group in Austria. Facebook’s European headquarters are located in Ireland, making the DPC the ideal leader in the investigation. The commissioner recommended Facebook implement a number of changes throughout the European Union, including suspending its facial recognition tool.
The DPC said the social media company has so far made most of the improvements it requested, providing greater transparency for users in how their data is handled, control over settings, more clarity on the retention periods for deleting data and greater ease for users to access their personal data.
Facebook has now also agreed to switch off its facial recognition tool, which many say is a threat to individual privacy.
“This is a big deal,” University of California law professor told the New York Times. “The development of these tools in the private sector directly affects civil liberties. The ultimate application is going to be – can we apply these patterns in video surveillance to automatically identify people for security purposes and maybe for marketing purposes as well?”
Facebook said in a statement that it will do what it must to be in agreement with European data protection laws, but the company plans to bring facial recognition software back to the European market once it figures out how to make it comply with European privacy laws.
“It’s worth us reiterating that once we have an agreed on approach on the best way to notify and educate users with the DPC, we hope to bring back this useful tool,” a Facebook spokesperson told Tech Crunch.
About 25 percent of Facebook users are European and one third of the company’s advertising revenue comes from Europe, making it a crucial market for the company.
Ireland’s privacy regulator Billy Hawkers said in a press release that Facebook was “sending a  clear signal of its wish to demonstrate its commitment to best practices in data protection compliance.”
On Oct. 15, the tool will be switched off for users in Europe. It is already unavailable to new users on the continent.
But so far, the company has not made any promises about switching off the facial recognition tool in the US. At a hearing in July, Sen. Al Franken called Facebook the “world’s largest privately held database of face print – without the explicit consent of its users.”
Facebook enabled the facial recognition feature in June 2011 without announcing the change and opting in all users.
“I believe that we have a fundamental right to privacy, and that means people should have the ability to choose whether or not they’ll be enrolled in a commercial facial recognition database,” Franken said. “I encourage Facebook to provide the same privacy protections to its American users as it does its foreign ones.”
But rather than protecting privacy for Americans, Facebook may allow more features that collect data from Americans.
An Atlanta company, Redpepper, is currently developing an application that would build on the facial recognition software and allow Facebook users to be identified by cameras installed in stores and restaurants. Users with the application can then be tracked in the “real world,” a blog post by the company said.
“They are pushing the edges of what privacy rules may allow, just as an aggressive driver might with parking rules,” Brian Wieser, an analyst at the Pivotal Research Group, told the Times. “You don’t know you’ve broken a law until someone says you’ve broken a law.”

Armada of International Naval Power Massing in the Gulf as Israel Prepares an Iran Strike

*Source: The Telegraph

An armada of US and British naval power is massing in the Persian Gulf in the belief that Israel is considering a pre-emptive strike against Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons programme.

Cruisers, aircraft carriers and minesweepers from 25 nations are converging on the strategically important Strait of Hormuz in an unprecedented show of force as Israel and Iran move towards the brink of war.

Western leaders are convinced that Iran will retaliate to any attack by attempting to mine or blockade the shipping lane through which passes around 18 million barrels of oil every day, approximately 35 per cent of the world’s oil traded by sea.

A blockade would have a catastrophic effect on the fragile economies of Britain, Europe the United States and Japan, all of which rely heavily on oil and gas supplies from the Gulf.

The Strait of Hormuz is one of the world’s most congested international waterways. It is only 21 miles wide at its narrowest point and is bordered by the Iranian coast to the north and the Oman to the south.

In preparation for any pre-emptive or retaliatory action by Iran, warships from more than 25 countries, including the United States, Britain, France, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, will today begin an annual 12-day exercise.

The war games are the largest ever undertaken in the region.

They will practise tactics in how to breach an Iranian blockade of the strait and the force will also undertake counter-mining drills.

The multi-national naval force in the Gulf includes three US Nimitz class carrier groups, each of which has more aircraft than the entire complement of the Iranian air force.

The carriers are supported by at least 12 battleships, including ballistic missile cruisers, frigates, destroyers and assault ships carrying thousand of US Marines and special forces.

The British component consists of four British minesweepers and the Royal Fleet Auxiliary Cardigan Bay, a logistics vessel. HMS Diamond, a brand-new £1billion Type 45 destroyer, one of the most powerful ships in the British fleet, will also be operating in the region.

In addition, commanders will also simulate destroying Iranian combat jets, ships and coastal missile batteries.

In the event of war, the main threat to the multi-national force will come from the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps navy, which is expected to adopt an “access-denial” strategy in the wake of an attack, by directly targeting US warships, attacking merchant shipping and mining vital maritime chokepoints in the Persian Gulf.

Defence sources say that although Iran’s capability may not be technologically sophisticated, it could deliver a series of lethal blows against British and US ships using mini-subs, fast attack boats, mines and shore-based anti-ship missile batteries.

Next month, Iran will stage massive military manoeuvres of its own, to show that it is prepared to defend its nuclear installations against the threat of aerial bombardment.

The exercise is being showcased as the biggest air defence war game in the Islamic Republic’s history, and will be its most visible response yet to the prospect of an Israeli military strike.

Using surface-to-air missiles, unmanned drones and state-of-the-art radar, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and air force will combine to test the defences of 3,600 sensitive locations throughout the country, including oil refineries and uranium enrichment facilities.

Brigadier General Farzad Esmaili, commander of the Khatam al-Anbiya air defence base, told a conference this month that the manoeuvres would “identify vulnerabilities, try out new tactics and practise old ones”.

At the same time as the Western manoeuvres in the Gulf, the British Response Task Forces Group — which includes the carrier HMS Illustrious, equipped with Apache attack helicopters, along with the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle - will be conducting a naval exercise in the eastern Mediterranean. The task force could easily be diverted to the Gulf region via the Suez Canal within a week of being ordered to do so.

The main naval exercise comes as President Barack Obama is scheduled to meet Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, today to discuss the Iranian crisis.

Many within the Obama administration believe that Israel will launch a pre-emptive strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities before the US presidential elections, an act which would signal the failure of one of Washington’s key foreign policy objectives.

Both Downing Street and Washington hope that the show of force will demonstrate to Iran that Nato and the West will not allow President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian leader, to develop a nuclear armoury or close Hormuz.

Sir John Sawers, the head of MI6, the Secret Intelligence Service, reportedly met the Israeli prime minister and Ehud Barak, his defence secretary, two weeks ago in an attempt to avert military action against Iran.

But just last week Mr Netanyahu signalled that time for a negotiated settlement was running out when he said: “The world tells Israel 'Wait, there’s still time.’ And I say, 'Wait for what? Wait until when?’

“Those in the international community who refuse to put red lines before Iran don’t have a moral right to place a red light before Israel.”

The crisis hinges on Iran’s nuclear enrichment programme, which Israel believes is designed to build an atomic weapon. Tehran has long argued that the programme is for civil use only and says it has no plans to an build a nuclear bomb, but that claim has been disputed by the West, with even the head of MI6 stating that the Islamic Republic is on course to develop atomic weapons by 2014.

The Strait of Hormuz has long been disputed territory, with the Iranians claiming control of the region and the entire Persian Gulf.

Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps recently boasted that “any plots of enemies” would be foiled and a heavy price exacted, adding: “We determine the rules of military conflict in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.”

But Leon Panetta, the US defence secretary, warned that Iranian attempts to exercise control over the Strait of Hormuz could be met with force.

He said: “The Iranians need to understand that the United States and the international community are going to hold them directly responsible for any disruption of shipping in that region — by Iran or, for that matter, by its surrogates.”

Mr Panetta said that the United States was “fully prepared for all contingencies” and added: “We’ve invested in capabilities to ensure that the Iranian attempt to close down shipping in the Gulf is something that we are going to be able to defeat if they make that decision.”

That announcement was supported by Philip Hammond, the Defence Secretary, who added: “We are determined to work as part of the international community effort to ensure freedom of passage in the international waters of the Strait of Hormuz.”

One defence source told The Sunday Telegraph last night: “If it came to war, there would be carnage. The Iranian casualties would be huge but they would be able to inflict severe blows against the US and British.

“The Iranian Republican Guard are well versed in asymmetrical warfare and would use swarm attacks to sink or seriously damage ships. This is a conflict nobody wants, but the rhetoric from Israel is unrelenting.”

Medvedev Threatens To Target U.S. Missile Shield In Europe If No Deal Is Reached.

*Source: The Washington Post

MOSCOW — President Dmitry Medvedev said Wednesday that Russia will target the American missile defense system in Europe with its own missiles if Moscow cannot reach an agreement with Washington and NATO on how the system will be built and operated.

Medvedev said time hasn’t run out for an agreement, but he accused the United States of failing to take into account Russian concerns.

His declaration, in a televised address, comes a year after he met with the heads of NATO states in Lisbon and said Russia was willing to consider joining in on missile defense, if it could be included as an equal partner.

The American missile defense plan, which dates to the Reagan administration, was revamped two years ago into a proposed system of interceptors based on land and at sea around Europe. The Obama administration argues that this system is designed to protect against Iranian missiles, and it wants Russia’s participation. But defense officials in Moscow — which was, after all, the original target during the Cold War — argue that the missiles could easily be turned against Russia.

Medvedev’s denunciation of the West’s good faith also comes just 11 days before parliamentary elections here, and follows a string of remarks by Russian officials about the threat of NATO expansion, which is not likely to happen anytime soon.

Medvedev is stepping aside as president so that the current prime minister, Vladimir Putin, can take his place. Medvedev will be leading the United Russia party in the December parliamentary elections, and Putin says he will appoint him prime minister. Medvedev has always portrayed himself as the more Western-oriented of the two. But, with elections approaching, he has talked recently about the need to significantly increase defense spending here — over the objections of some of his key advisers.

Elections in Russia, as in other countries, tend to bring out the sabre-rattling side of politicians. But Medvedev announced his policy a day after the United States disclosed that it will no longer be sharing information with Russia as called for by the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty. That is a largely symbolic move — Russia has not abided by the treaty for the past four years — but it demonstrates a distinct cooling in relations between Moscow and Washington.

The Obama administration has also been paying considerably more attention to human rights, the political opposition and threats to a free Internet in Russia.

Medvedev said he has ordered the installation of an early warning radar system in Kaliningrad, Russia’s westernmost enclave. Missiles in what were described as the southern and western parts of Russia are to be equipped with what he called advanced counter-missile systems.

He said Russia could not participate in the missile defense system as it is designed. “We won’t agree to take part in a program that may weaken our potential of deterrence in a relatively short time — five or six or eight years,” he said.