Syria And Iran To Purchase Missiles From North Korea
Iran and Syria wasted no time in the wake of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s death, already contacting the team of Kim’s youngest son, Kim Jong-un, regarding the sale of large quantities of North Korean missiles, according to a senior Israeli security official, who spoke to this column.
The official said the sale of North Korean missiles to Damascus and Tehran is supported by North Korea’s major trade partners, Russia and China.
The official said the Iranians and Syrians already have “excellent” relations with Jong-un, the expected successor to his late father’s rule.
Upon Kim’s death, North Korean state-run television urged the country to rally behind Jong-un.
The Israeli security official said Iran and Syria expect the sale of large quantities of missiles could help to tip the equilibrium of military power in their favor.
Iranian Spy May Have Helped Down U.S. Drone: Woolsey
The theory that an Iranian mole working inside the American military helped down a highly classified U.S. spy drone is a possibility, former CIA director James Woolsey said in a radio interview.
Although labeling such a scenario “unlikely,” Woolsey said an Iranian spy in the U.S. military or intelligence apparatus is “not something that you can completely discount.”
“An insider can do a lot of damage,” Woolsey continued. “You think about this when you are designing these systems and try to make it difficult, very difficult, for an insider to do anything catastrophic.
“But you can never discount that possibility when we have evidence of a senior CIA officer, Aldrich Ames, and a senior FBI agent, (James) Hansen, working for the Russians year after year after year as they did,” he said. “You have to believe that it’s at least possible that people in other parts of the government have done the same.”
Woolsey was speaking in an interview on “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio” on New York’s WABC Radio.
Companies Tied To Obama Adviser Receive Millions In Stimulus Money
An adviser to Barack Obama who played a key role in developing the energy provisions of the so-called stimulus bill has served on the boards of several companies that recently received government funds, including hundreds of millions in stimulus money.
T.J. Glauthier served on Obama’s 2008 White House Transition Team. He is widely credited with helping to craft the energy provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, also known as the stimulus.
In addition to serving on the boards of major energy companies, Glauthier previously held two presidential appointments during the Clinton administration.
He was the Energy Department’s deputy secretary and chief operating officer, the second-highest ranking official. Earlier, he served in the White House for five years as the associate director for natural resources, energy and science in the Office of Management and Budget.
Glauthier is tied to several energy companies that benefited from the stimulus bill he helped to craft.
One such company investigated by this reporter is GridPoint, Inc., where he was appointed to the board in March 2008. GridPoint provides utilities with software solutions for electrical grid management and electric power demand and supply balancing.
The stimulus provides $4.5 billion for so-called smart grid projects. GridPoint has benefited from scores of smart grid deals funded by the stimulus bill. The company partnered with the Electric Transportation Engineering Corporation (eTec), Nissan, the Idaho National Laboratory and others in a project to deploy electric vehicles and their charging infrastructure in five states. The Energy Department had awarded eTec almost $100 million in stimulus funds to support the project.
GridPoint’s role in the eTec project was to supply smart charging and data logging capability to utilities located in strategic markets of eTec’s program in Arizona, California, Oregon, Tennessee and Washington.
GridPoint also benefited from stimulus funds when it recently provided home energy management solutions for a KCP&L’s Green Impact Zone SmartGrid Demonstration in Kansas City, Mo. The project was the recipient of stimulus funding.
Additionally, GridPoint helped the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, or SMUD, manage power from its customers’ rooftop solar panels.
The Arlington, Va.-based company had landed a contract to help the Sacramento, Calif.-based municipal utility manage renewable power integration, energy storage and home energy management systems. SMUD had won $127.5 million in stimulus funds from the Department of Energy to carry out the project, which also includes deploying 600,000 smart meters in its service territory.
Also, in early 2009, the Energy Department awarded Argonne National Laboratory nearly $2.7 million in stimulus funding for three solar-energy related research projects. In addition, Argonne reportedly shared another $5 million in stimulus funding for projects with GridPoint and other companies and the University of Illinois Sustainable Technology Center.
Besides benefiting from stimulus grants, GridPoint last year won a $28 million contract with the United States Postal Service to install energy management systems in selected post office locations across the U.S.