Book: Jimmy Carter targeted by US and foreign assassins

Potential assassins have threatened the life of Jimmy Carter multiple times since he left the White House in 1981, making the one-term Georgian the most threatened former president in history, according to a new book about John F. Kennedy and his assassination 50 years ago.

In "The Kennedy Half Century: The Presidency, Assassination, and Lasting Legacy of John F. Kennedy," Carter told author Larry J. Sabato that he has faced at least three home-grown assassination attempts since returning to Georgia and is constantly warned by the U.S. Secret Service of personal threats during his frequent overseas travel.

"I have had two or three threats to my life after I came home from the White House," Carter said in the highly-anticipated book due out October 22. "When I go on an overseas trip almost invariably, I get a report from the Secret Service that where I'm going is very dangerous," he added in the book provided in advance to Secrets.

Carter also told Sabato: "Sometimes they [Secret Service] ask me not to go, and I go anyway. They and I both just laugh about it. So I have been more concerned about my safety in doing the Carter Center's business overseas than I ever was in the White House." Read more >>

Record 10,978,040 Now on Disability; ‘Disability’ Would Be 8th Most Populous State

The total number of people in the United States now receiving federal disability benefits hit a record 10,978,040 in May, up from 10,962,532 million in April, according to newly released data from the Social Security Administration.

The 10,978,040 disability beneficiaries in the United States now exceed the population of all but seven states. For example, there are more Americans collecting disability today than there are people living in Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, New Jersey or Virginia.

The record 10,978,040 total disability beneficiaries in May, included a record 8,877,921 disabled workers (up from 8,865,586 in April), a record 1,939,687 children of disabled workers (up from 1,936,236 in April), and 160,432 spouses of disabled workers. Read more >>

Clinton In Azerbaijan: Testing Waters For Attack On Iran

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globalresearch
Both U.S. and Israel have long had plans for a military strike on Iran, this is not new. However, now, considering the latest events, a military operation against Iran is quite possible, said Azerbaijani political expert Z. Alizadeh, commenting on a possible U.S.-Israel air strike on Iran, from Azerbaijani and Georgian territory.

"If Azerbaijan and Georgia will allow that the air strike will happen from their territories, then who said Iran will not fire back? So, the question is, do we really need all this? Azerbaijan does not need to get into these issues", said Alizadeh.

Another Azerbaijani political expert Fikrat Sadikhov believes, that Azerbaijan should not join the anti-Iranian coalition.

"I cannot speak for the Georgian side, but as far as Azerbaijan goes, no one would really want Azerbaijani-Iranian relations to get worse. Since the very beginning, Azerbaijan expressed a very solid, neutral position on issues related to this. Baku will not participate in anti-Iranian actions. Iran is a neighboring country to us, besides there are lots of Azerbaijanis living there, so there's no interest for Azerbaijan to act like that", Sadiknov explained.

Russian expert Alexei Vlasov thinks this whole "military operation on Iran" is nothing more, than a rumor.

"I have big doubts that Azerbaijani government, which always thinks first, and acts second, will allow such air strike from its territory. This kind of move goes against the diplomacy of Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev. The upcoming Clinton visit to Baku is a way to get Azerbaijan to answer one question - how would it behave, if a strike on Iran will happen? I think, Ilham Aliyev will find a way to maintain a much needed balance." said Vlasov.

Unemployment Rate Increased in 43 States in December

CalculatedRisk

From the BLS: Regional and State Employment and Unemployment Summary

Regional and state unemployment rates were generally higher in December. Forty-three states and the District of Columbia recorded over-the-month unemployment rate increases, four states registered rate decreases, and three states had no rate change, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the year, jobless rates increased in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
...
Michigan again recorded the highest unemployment rate among the states, 14.6 percent in December. The states with the next highest rates were Nevada, 13.0 percent; Rhode Island, 12.9 percent; and South Carolina, 12.6 percent. North Dakota continued to register the lowest jobless rate, 4.4 percent in December, followed by Nebraska and South Dakota, 4.7 percent each. The rate in South Carolina set a new series high, as did the rates in three other states: Delaware (9.0 percent), Florida (11.8 percent), and North Carolina (11.2 percent). The rate in the District of Columbia also set a new series high (12.1 percent).
emphasis added

Click on graph for larger image in new window.

This graph shows the high and low unemployment rates for each state (and D.C.) since 1976. The red bar is the current unemployment rate (sorted by the current unemployment rate).

Sixteen states and D.C. now have double digit unemployment rates. Indiana, Missouri and Washington are all close.

Five states are at record unemployment rates: South Carolina, Florida, North Carolina, Georgia and Delaware, and several other states are close.

Iranian arms merchant says 'war is coming'

John Shiffman
On a grainy undercover videotape recorded in a hotel room in Tbilisi, Georgia, an Iranian arms merchant chats with two Philadelphia salesmen who have brought samples of their military wares.

The merchant, Amir Hossein Ardebili, who has flown from Tehran to make a deal, patiently answers the Americans' questions. The radar microchips? Needed for antimissile protection. The sophisticated computers? Essential to "launch the F-4" fighter.

All of it, he says flatly, is destined for the Iranian military "because they think the war is coming." Against the United States.

The videotape, recorded in October 2007 by undercover federal agents from Philadelphia, was released yesterday as the case against Ardebili was unsealed in federal court in Wilmington - nearly two years after the Iranian was secretly brought to the United States.

U.S. officials said the case, first reported by The Inquirer on Wednesday, offers a window into Iran's covert effort to obtain U.S. military technology to bolster its armed forces.

"There is no question that there is an orchestrated effort by the government of Iran to acquire weapons in violation of our laws," said John Morton, assistant secretary in the Department of Homeland Security for Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE). "This is serious business, not a flash in the pan. Unfortunately, there's a whole network of these guys out there trying to get weapons and sophisticated technology, and not just for Iran."

ICE undercover agents in Philadelphia and Europe ran the three-year sting, which was kept secret as federal agents used data retrieved from Ardebili's laptop to launch dozens of Iranian arms-sales investigations against U.S. and overseas companies.

The court filings unsealed yesterday, including the videotape, show that Ardebili, a former Iranian government procurement officer, was arrested in Georgia in early October 2007. After legal proceedings in Georgia, Ardebili was secretly extradited to the United States in January 2008 and quietly jailed in Philadelphia. A prominent Wilmington defense lawyer, Edmund D. Lyons, was appointed to represent him.

During a closed hearing in Wilmington in May 2008, Ardebili pleaded guilty to violating the arms embargo, the arms export control laws, conspiracy, and money laundering.

He is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 14 before U.S. District Judge Gregory M. Sleet in Wilmington. According to federal sentencing guidelines, Ardebili could face more than 10 years in prison.

Lyons, his lawyer, has argued in a court filing that Ardebili should be sentenced to time served. He said Ardebili had admitted he broke U.S. law but did so while in Iran, where his actions are not considered a crime.

Lyons also said the Iranian had suffered in U.S. custody because he is housed in a special unit of the Philadelphia Federal Detention Center, where he is confined 23 hours a day. He has lost teeth and suffers from depression, the lawyer said.

Federal officials characterized the case as serious enough to warrant more prison time.

"Ardebili's job was to illegally" acquire military gear "in preparation for war with the United States," said Ed Bradley, the Philadelphia agent in charge of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service.

Ardebili negotiated the purchases of 1,000 state-of-the-art radar shifters, 10 gyro-chip sensors used in advanced aircraft applications, and two digital air computers for an F-4 aircraft, prosecutors said.

In addition, according to a court filing by U.S. Attorney David Weiss and Assistant U.S. Attorney David Hall, Ardebili made "tens of thousands" of requests via e-mail for American-made military hardware, from "aviation to sonar to radar."

The prosecutors said the Iranian arms merchant had acquired roughly $1 million worth of American hardware annually, most of it from U.S. companies.

Ardebili was lured by two ICE undercover operations, one based in the United States and one in Europe, U.S. officials said.

Much of the negotiation was done via e-mail or instant message.

In May 2006, for example, an ICE agent e-mailed Ardebili, writing in broken English to disguise himself: "What you can say can perhaps be good business, but I stress to you what we are do is ILLEGAL in US."

Ardebili replied the next month. To avoid the U.S. embargo law, he suggested that the military parts be shipped to Europe, then forwarded to Iran. "This is long time we are in the business and working in full security system. . . . [No one will] know end user located in Iran."

By 2007, Ardebili was negotiating by e-mail to buy the radar components and night-vision equipment, the U.S. government said. The undercover agents offered to sell more than 1,000 radar microchips for use in Iran through a shipping company in Azerbaijan. After protracted negotiations, Ardebili agreed to make a deposit on the radar components and wired $3,000 to the ICE undercover company's bank in Delaware, which is why the case was prosecuted in Wilmington.

Although Ardebili wanted to meet the salesmen in Dubai, the undercover ICE agent lured him to Georgia.

In one of their last instant-message chats, the ICE agent wrote to the Iranian arms merchant: "Our future is going to be big. I sometimes believe you do not know how big will our deals be."

There is Going to be an Uprising in America

Georgia Congressman Sanford Bishop faces steep opposition to government run heath care and the single payer option. One participant said, "There is going to be an uprising in this country that will make the Boston Tea Party look like a picnic!"

Meltdown: Democratic Congressman David Scott of Georgia Goes Berserk at Town Hall

Scott loses it when one of his constituents asks him a question about ObamaCare.