Putin warns of worsening Syria conflict

By Anna Smolchenko / AFP

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Friday of an "extremely dangerous" situation in Syria and emerging signs of a civil war but rejected a military intervention as he met with European leaders.

Amid mounting pressure for Moscow to drop its resistance to tougher UN action on Syria, Putin met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and had arrived in Paris for talks with newly elected French President Francois Hollande.

In Berlin, Putin appeared to strike a more conciliatory tone, warning of the escalating danger from the Syrian conflict and refraining from openly backing President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

"Today we are seeing emerging elements of civil war," Putin said after arriving in Berlin from Belarus. "It is extremely dangerous."

But he also continued to defy calls for tougher UN action to stop the violence, warning at a joint press conference with Merkel: "You cannot do anything by force and expect an immediate effect."

And he hit back at suggestions Moscow was supplying weapons for use in the internal conflict, after the United States condemned Russian arms deliveries to Syria as "reprehensible".

"As far as arms supplies are concerned, Russia does not supply the weapons that could be used in a civil conflict," Putin told reporters, as he continued his first foreign tour since returning to the Kremlin.

Putin's brief trips to Berlin and Paris came amid mounting outrage in the West against Assad's regime after a massacre of 108 people, including women and children, in the town of Houla last week.

UN rights chief Navi Pillay said the massacre could be a crime against humanity.

In Moscow the foreign ministry blamed the Houla massacre on foreign assistance to Syrian rebels, including arms deliveries and mercenary training.

"The tragedy in Houla showed what can be the outcome of financial aid and smuggling of modern weapons to rebels, recruitment of foreign mercenaries and flirting with various sorts of extremists," the ministry said in a statement.

Putin said Russia, Germany and their partners would do their utmost to stop the violence from escalating and help UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, who has brokered a peace plan for Syria, achieve "positive results".

"We both made clear that we are pushing for a political solution, that the Annan plan can be a starting point but that everything must be done in the United Nations Security Council to implement this plan," Merkel said.

Putin said Moscow was not taking sides in the deadly strife rocking Syria, where the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says 13,000 people have been killed since Assad's regime launched a brutal crackdown on the opposition in March last year.

"There is a need to find a convergence of these interests and have them sit down at a negotiating table. That's the direction we are going to work in."

Merkel earlier greeted Putin with military honours as demonstrators waving Syrian flags shouted and whistled outside.

Putin was to hold a one-on-one meeting and dinner with Hollande, who has refused to rule out foreign military intervention as long as it is carried out with UN backing, followed by a press conference.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague also said Syria was on the verge of a civil war and risked collapsing into sectarian strife after meeting members of the Syrian opposition based in Istanbul.

Germany, France, Britain, the United States and other Western nations expelled Syrian diplomats in protest at the slaughter in Houla.

Syria allies China and Russia, which have both blocked previous attempts at the UN Security Council to condemn Damascus, joined other council members on Sunday in backing a statement condemning the Houla killings.

But US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday warned that Russia's policy of propping up the Assad regime could contribute to a civil war and even lead to a wider proxy war because of Iran's support for Damascus.

And she claimed Friday that Russia had continued to supply arms to the Assad regime, raising "serious concerns" in the United States.

"We know there has been a very consistent arms trade, even during the past year, coming from Russia to Syria. We also believe the continuous supply of arms from Russia has strengthened the Assad regime," Clinton told a news conference in Oslo.

Amnesty International demanded that Putin immediately stop Russian weapons deliveries to Syria, while Human Rights Watch called on Putin to make human rights a priority at home and abroad.

‘Cop of the future’ technologies being developed in Israel

‘First responders’ dealing with emergencies – and especially police and homeland security officers – are about to move into the 21st century and beyond, using tools being developed by Israeli researchers at Motorola Solutuons

Once public safety officials such as police, emergency medical technicians, and firefighters had two things they could rely on in the field – their intuition, and the radio they used to contact headquarters. Once in awhile an emergency vehicle would come equipped with a video camera, but that was used mostly to record incidents for evidence purposes, or to ensure that public safety workers (and the authorities that employed them) were “covered” in the case of a lawsuit, complaint, etc.

LMR (land-mobile radio), as that communications technology is known, is fine as far as it goes – which in today’s world is not too far, according to Paul Steinberg, vice president and chief technology officer of Motorola Solutions. “Today, users have the ability to send images, video, social media messages, and much more. Now every civilian with a smartphone is a source of information for public safety workers.”

Implementation of those technologies for use by the professionals has been much slower, though, and Motorola Solutions, said Steinberg, intends to change that.

Steinberg was speaking in Israel at a recent event sponsored by Motorola Solutions on the technological future of homeland security. While the event was aimed at “first responders” of all types, “homeland security” is, of course, the domain of police and other security agencies, and the presentation was clearly geared to law enforcement and homeland security teams, both of which were well represented in the audience of about 1,000.

And police certainly have something to look forward to. From mere voice communications with base, cops and security personnel of the future will have access to the most up to date technologies in their equipment. Sensors, video cameras built into sunglasses, GPS and dead reckoning technology, wifi and 4G+ communication systems, extra bandwidth reserved specifically for law enforcement and homeland security, augmented reality– all this will become standard equipment in a short time.

In a typical scenario, an officer will pull over an individual for a traffic infraction and beam an image of the vehicle’s license plate or registration using a camera built into his sunglasses back to headquarters, where it will be looked up (the camera, of course, allows for a 360 degree view, giving officers “eyes in the back of their heads”). If the driver has any outstanding infractions, the officer will let him or her know, and with a mini-printer in the officer’s vehicle, a ticket will be printed out on the spot.

If the individual is wanted for other, more serious things, headquarters will let the officer know as well, and will also automatically alert other police in the area to arrive for backup. Using augmented reality software, a video image of the suspect is analyzed, and if s/he begins to make any suspicious moves, the officer will be alerted in advance. If the suspect tries to escape, the officer will be able to track him or her with his video camera, with location chips in the equipment letting headquarters, and backup, know the officer’s location at all times.

The same technologies will be included in vehicles, said Steinberg. “The driver’s seat will have a lot more tools, with voice activated controls to bring up video recording, tracking, augmented reality, location services, and even an on the road workstation. We call it the integrated cockpit.” The hardware to run this system will be built into the vehicle, with much of it deployed in the trunk. In addition, much work is being done to improve networks, and the recent allocation of cellular network bandwidth in the U.S. specifically to public safety needs will enable officers to use the technologies being developed much more efficiently.

While all these technologies exist and are used every day, few have been used in law enforcement and homeland security, Steinberg said, partially because arranging all the necessary tools in a package that is easy, convenient, and reliable has been a challenge, and the company has developed a number of solutions to enable officers to get the tool they need when they need it. “The more tools, the more effort we have to put in to use them. Individuals can manage, but for a cop or a fireman in the field, accessing these tools has to be second nature.” Part of the development of these systems involves enhancing voice command technology, letting officers activate the tool they need while keeping their hands free.

Much of the work Motorola Solutions is doing in this area is being conducted at the company’s large research and development center in Airport City. On display at the show were a number of devices and systems that Motorola plans to sell in the new future, much of them based on made in Israel technology – with some, such as the company’s LEX 700 Mission Critical Handheld fully developed here.

“As we develop and build systems we will be rolling them out here in Israel, where they will be tweaked and then implemented elsewhere,” said Steinberg. “Israel is the example for others when it comes to homeland security.” Israel has the trained personnel and the unfortunate experience of having to deal with homeland security issues in a much more intensive way than any other country, he added, and the confluence of trained personnel and experience in dealing with security issues makes Israel the best place to develop homeland security technologies.

And for those who think that his description of the “cop of the future” sounds a bit 1984-ish, Steinberg reminds us that law enforcement and homeland security officers are really only playing catch-up. “The bad guys already have, and use, these tools,” he said. “We have to make sure the good guys get them, so they can get ahead and stay there, in order to ensure the safety of the public.”

The FED is talking about more quantitative easing

By Bob Chapman

Well, we had an $868 billion stimulus package. The Federal Reserve then created enough money and credit to bring that package assistance up to somewhere between $2.3 and $2.5 trillion. For that, we had approximately 16 months of attempted recovery. During that period of time, five quarters averaged growth between 3% and 3.25%. I feel that was a very, very high price to pay for a relatively sideways movement in the economy. Now we're back to square one. The recovery is not continuing. The Federal Reserve is talking about more quantitative easing. They're talking about buying back the toxic securities they bought from banks at a price they won't disclose. That move essentially cleared up the banks' books but at the same time encumbered the Fed's books, which they're now going to unburden by selling the bonds back to the same people they bought them from. Now, we don't know what the loss factor is because they won't tell us, so we have to ballpark it. Out of this money that's coming and going they have to come up with a figure somewhere in the vicinity of $1.2 trillion. That's what they're going to use for this quantitative easing.

Powerful ‘Flame’ cyberweapon tied to popular Angry Birds game

By Catherine Herridge

The most sophisticated and powerful cyberweapon uncovered to date was written in the LUA computer language, cyber security experts tell Fox News -- the same one used to make the incredibly popular Angry Birds game.

LUA is favored by game programmers because it’s easy to use and easy to embed.  Flame is described as enormously powerful and large, containing some 250,000 lines of code, making it far larger than other such cyberweapons. Yet it was built with gamer code, said Cedric Leighton, a retired Air Force Intelligence officer who now consults in the national security arena.

“The people who developed the malware … found an ingenious way to use a code not part and parcel of a hacker’s normal arsenal, and that made it harder to detect,” he told Fox News.

But this new weapon is twenty times the size of earlier cyberbombs and far more powerful, making it practically an army on its own, said Roel Schouwenberg, a senior security researcher with Kaspersky Labs.

“Flame is a cyberespionage operation,” he told FoxNews.com.

The reconnaissance virus variously called “Worm.Win32.Flame” or simply “Flame” resembles some of its predecessors, notably DUQU. DUQU was like a computer advance team for the Stuxnet virus that ravaged the Iranian nuclear program at Natanz in 2009. Flame is likewise a form of spyware that enters a computer system, though exactly how is unclear.

“A thumb drive is one way of introducing Flame,” Leighton told Fox News. “But once you know the email address or computer IP address … they can introduce Flame remotely.”

Cyber experts tell Fox News that once in a computer network, Flame is powerful enough to initiate webcams, microphones, and Bluetooth connections in order to extract contact lists, record conversations and more.

It was likely built by the same nation-state responsible for the Stuxnet virus that targeted Iran’s nuclear power plant. One of the leading candidates, is Israel, because Flame has been found in Saudi Arabia, Palestinian territories, Syria, Iran and Hungary.

Israeli Vice Premier Moshe Ya'alon on Tuesday hinted to a local radio station that his country was indeed responsible for it.

"Whoever sees the Iranian threat as a serious threat would be likely to take different steps, including these, in order to hurt them," Ya’alon said.

The spyware has been seen in Israel as well – something that could be a red herring, Leighton said.

Flame came to light when the U.N. International Telecommunications Union (which oversees cyberactivities for the body) received reports of unusual activity.  A Russian security firm first identified it, noting that the virus has apparently existed in these networks for several years undetected.

The U.N. body is expected to release a warning Wednesday that Flame is a significant threat.

Will Bilderberg elect the next US president?

Around 150 of the world’s elite will meet outside of Washington, DC this week at the annual Bilderberg Conference, and although the agenda isn’t advertised to the public, some sources are already speaking out about what this year might bring.

Officially, the details of each Bilderberg Conference aren’t anything its members will go on the record to reveal. According to spectators that have kept a close eye on the event’s happenings each year, however, the annual conference has a reputation for being a kingmaker — and an elusive and exclusive one at that.

Speaking to RT earlier this month, radio host Alex Jones shared his expectations for the coming conference. According to the journalist, “Should the elite get behind Mitt Romney or Barack Obama?” is a question that he expects to be brought up for discussion. “Both men are bought and paid for by the same financial interests, and so the discussion will be which candidate can basically con the American people to lay down the tyranny for another four years.”

But does the biggest election of 2012 really rely that much on a mysterious meeting? Many people will tell you yes, and they are often willing to provide evidence to explain. Before becoming household names, politicians such as former presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton both attended Bilderberg conferences in the years before being elected to the Oval Office. Tony Blair was on hand at the 1993 gala before becoming prime minister of England in 1997, and the 2008 conference is believed to be the catalyst for that year’s US presidential election: rumors suggest that attendees settling on backing Barack Obama for the Democratic Party nomination at that year’s event, only for contender Hillary Clinton to bow out two days later.

“For an entire day, the media in Virginia and in DC saying, ‘Where’s Obama? Where’s Obama?’ And we were there saying he’s inside, the secret service is there,” Alex Jones recalls of the 2004 conference to RT.

As with 2004, this year's Bilderberg Conference will be held at the Chantilly, Virginia Westfield Marriott, and employees there are already privy to the fact that Jones will be ready to scrutinize every action he can witness from the grounds: on Tuesday, his reservation at the establishment was revoked and he was informed that he banned from the hotel; hours later, Jones’ Prison Planet website revealed that “all guests had been kicked out of the hotel, and offered one night’s accommodation at the Residence Inn in Chantilly (also Marriott owned).”

“Policy is being set there and this is one of the most elite meetings out there,” Jones told RT. That, many fear, is precisely why those close to the conference don’t want outsiders to have an inside scoop.

This year Jones expects details of the US presidential election to obviously be discussed, but perhaps the agenda item most interesting to many involves only one side of the race: rumors are quickly evolving about who and how the GOP will go about selecting a vice presidential nominee to run alongside their candidate of choice, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. Al Kamen, a writer at the Washington Post, recently compared a recent speech from Senator Marco Rubio with one given at the 2004 Bilderberg Conference by John Edwards — which some say was instrumental in securing the VP nod back in 2004. The rumors of  Bilderberg being a launching pad for a Rubio run under Romney at this week’s conference has since been spun by reporters at Politico, Salon and elsewhere.