'We're not leaving,' say U.S. officials in Afghanistan

News Updates from Citizens for Legitimate Government
19 Dec 2011 http://www.legitgov.org
All links are here:http://www.legitgov.org/#breaking_news 

Breaking: North Korean leader Kim Jong-il dead 18 Dec 2011 North Korean leader Kim Jong-il died of a heart attack while on a train trip, state media reported on Monday. A tearful television announcer dressed in black said the 69-year old had died on Saturday of physical and mental over-work on his way to give "field guidance." North Korea's official KCNA news agency said he died at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday (2330 GMT on Friday) after "an advanced acute myocardial infarction, complicated with a serious heart shock."

'We're not leaving,' say U.S. officials in Afghanistan 18 Dec 2011 Top American officials in Afghanistan say the U.S. military intends to maintain a troop presence here beyond a 2014 deadline for Afghan troops to take over. "If you been waiting for us to go, we're not leaving," the top commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Marine Gen. John Allen, said.

US to send combat ships to Asian ports 18 Dec 2011 The United States has put forward plans to station Navy combat ships in Singapore and has also been considering more deployments to the Philippines and Thailand. Asian ports are set to be used more frequently as US officials consider a greater presence in the region. According to Press TV, US Admiral Jonathan Greenert has stated in an academic article that "several" combat ships will be stationed in Singapore, with the US Navy relying more on host-nation ports where ships, aircraft and crews can "refuel, rest, re-supply and repair while deployed."

Israel, US: We will stop Iran 18 Dec 2011 Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak says Tel Aviv and Washington are determined to stop Iran's nuclear program and do not rule out any option to this end. "Our two countries clearly believe that a nuclear Iran is neither conceivable nor acceptable and we are determined to stop Iran," Barak told Israel's public radio on Sunday. He added, "We reiterated the fact that we must not take any option off the table." The remarks come two days after US President Barack Obama once again said that Washington would take "no options off the table" in its effort to halt Iran's nuclear activities.

Iceland recognizes state of Palestine 17 Dec 2011 Iceland has become the first Western European country to formally recognize the Palestinian Territories as an independent state. The announcement was made by Iceland's Foreign Minister, in the presence of his Palestinian counterpart. Ossur Skarphedinsson, Iceland's Foreign Minister said, "This is the day when we formally submit to you our declaration where we say that Iceland recognizes the full sovereignty of the Palestinian people of Palestine on the basis of the borders pre 1967. And Iceland didn't only talk the talk, we walked the walk, we stood by our word, we have supported the Palestinian cause and today will not be the end of that. We will continue to do so."

Army: Manning Kept Copy of His Chatroom Confession 18 Dec 2011 Forensic investigators searching Bradley Manning's computers and removable media found a full log of the online chats Manning conducted with former hacker [dirt-bag] Adrian Lamo in which Manning described his alleged leaking of classified information, a government witness revealed during testimony on Saturday. Investigators also discovered classified information on an SD memory card they found at the Maryland home of Manning’s aunt, Debra Van Alstyne, where he had been living before enlisting in the Army. Additionally, the government was able to recover logs from a Secret-level U.S. intelligence search engine called Intelink, a system that allows government workers to search for classified documents on the SIPRnet. The logs detailed the searches performed from the IP address assigned to Manning's workstation in Iraq.

Forensic Expert: Manning's Computer Had 10K Cables, Downloading Scripts 18 Dec 2011 A government digital forensic expert linked accused Army leaker Bradley Manning to documents published by WikiLeaks with damning evidence Sunday, testifying that he found thousands of U.S. State Department cables on one of Manning's work computers, ranging from unclassified to SECRET cables, among other incriminating documents. Special agent David Shaver, who works for the Army's Computer Crime Investigative Unit, said that on one of two laptops that Manning used he found a folder called "blue," he found a zip file containing 10,000 diplomatic cables in HTML format, and an Excel spreadsheet with three tabs.

Seven judges to hear Julian Assange extradition appeal 16 Dec 2011 A panel of seven supreme court justices will hear Julian Assange's appeal against extradition to Sweden to face accusations of rape and sexual assault. The large number of judges employed reflects "the great public importance of the issue", according to a statement from the UK's highest court. The supreme court said there would be a two-day hearing of the appeal by the Australian-born founder of WikiLeaks beginning on 1 February.