New documents show Federal Judge almost pulled plug on NSA domestic surveillance program

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Newly released documents show that a federal judge who oversaw a secret U.S. spy court almost shut down the government's domestic surveillance program after he "lost confidence" in officials' ability to operate it.

U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton issued a blistering opinion in 2009 after discovering government officials had been accessing domestic phone records for nearly three years without "reasonable, articulate suspicion" that they were connected to terrorism.

Walton ordered the National Security Agency to conduct and "end-to-end" review of its processes and policies while also ordering closer monitoring of its activities.

Later in 2009, a Justice Department lawyer reported that, in some cases, it appeared the NSA was distributing the sensitive phone records by email to as many as 189 analysts, but only 53 were approved by the intelligence court to see them.

Walton's dissatisfaction with the Obama administration's handling of the surveillance program are contained in hundreds of pages of previously classified documents federal officials released Tuesday.

READ THE DECLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS HERE

Breaking: Syria says they will sign agreement banning chemical weapons.

Syria's foreign minister said Tuesday that Damascus is ready to sign an international agreement banning chemical weapons and pledged to open its storage sites and provide full disclosure immediately.

"We fully support Russia's initiative concerning chemical weapons in Syria, and we are ready to cooperate. As a part of the plan, we intend to join the Chemical Weapons Convention," Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said in an interview with Lebanon-based Al-Maydeen TV.

He said Syrian was "ready to fulfill our obligations" under the terms of the treaty, including providing information about Syria's chemical weapons.

"We will open our storage sites, and cease production. We are ready to open these facilities to Russia, other countries and the United Nations," Muallem said in the interview.

He added: "We intend to give up chemical weapons altogether."

READ THE REST OF THE STORY AT USA TODAY

Lockheed teams with Bell to build V-280 Valor tilt-rotor

FORT WORTH — Lockheed Martin will join Bell Helicopter to build a new tilt-rotor aircraft, officials said Monday.

Three of Lockheed Martin’s business units will join Bell in developing the V-280 Valor, a “third-generation” tilt-rotor able to reach altitudes over 6,000 feet, company officials said. The company’s larger V-22 Osprey flies at 5,700 feet and is designed for a different set of missions, Bell officials said.

Lockheed’s part of the deal is to equip the Valor with a mission equipment package, officials said. The package will reflect many of the technological advancements that produced Lockheed Martin’s F-35 joint strike fighter Lightning II, being built at its west side factory.

“We are very excited,” Bell President and CEO John Garrison said in a statement Monday. Lockheed Martin’s “experience and innovation ... will help us provide the highest levels of maturity and technical readiness required for future vertical lift missions.”

Bell’s V-280 Valor is expected to compete for an Army contract in a Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator program. The contract is expected to be awarded this month, according to Bell.

AVX Aircraft Company of Fort Worth is also a contender in the competition, spokesman Mike Cox said Monday.

The Washington D.C.-based Lockheed Martin Mission Systems and Training division will take the lead for Lockheed on the project, with Lockheed Martin Aeronautics in Fort Worth and Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control in Grand Prairie also involved, Lockheed spokeswoman Melissa Hilliard said Monday.

Valor’s “clean sheet design” reduces complexity compared with previous generations of tilt-rotors, with fewer parts, as well as nonrotating, fixed engines, Chris Gehler, Bell’s business development manager for future vertical lift, told the Star-Telegram during the exposition.

Garrison also touted the benefits of the tilt-rotor during the exposition conference.

“The name itself makes an important statement of its own,” Garrison said, “V representing vertical lift, 280 representing its unmatched speed, and Valor as a tribute to the servicemen and women who approach their jobs with valor every day

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/09/09/5147576/bell-to-team-with-lockheed-martin.html#storylink=cpy

Breaking: Bipartisan senators drafting alternative resolution on Syria

NYTIMES: WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of eight senators joined the international diplomatic momentum on Tuesday to avert an American military attack on Syria over its use of chemical munitions in that country’s civil war, responding positively to a Russian proposal aimed at securing and destroying those weapons.

The group of senators, including some of President Obama’s biggest supporters and critics, were drafting an alternative Congressional resolution that would give the United Nations time to take control of the Syrian government’s arsenal of the internationally banned weapons.

If the alternative resolution gained political traction, it could stave off a Congressional vote — and possibly a debilitating defeat for the Obama administration — in the coming days on a more immediate resolution authorizing the use of force, which a majority of Americans appear to oppose. That resolution, approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week, had been losing ground in both parties in recent days. Passage appeared increasingly difficult in the House and possibly the Senate as well.

The alternative resolution is far from complete, but a Senate aide familiar with the talks said the negotiations are being conducted in consultation with the White House. It would require the United Nations Security Council to pass a resolution condemning the use of chemical weapons by the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and would set a deadline for establishing United Nations control of the arsenal. If that deadline is not met, the resolution would authorize the use of military force.

The alternative resolution was likely to be presented to Democratic and Republican senators at meetings later in the day with President Obama, who was still planning to address the nation on Tuesday evening about what he has called the need for military force in response to the use of deadly chemical weapons last month in the Syrian civil war.

The bipartisan group drafting the measure includes Republican Senators John McCain of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, and Democratic Senators Carl Levin of Michigan, Charles E. Schumer of New York and Chris Coons of Delaware. Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, is in consultations.

READ THE REST OF THE STORY AT THE NYTIMES

To avoid war - Syria supports chemical weapons control proposal

CNN) -- The Syrian government supports a proposal to put its chemical weapons under international control as a way to avert a Western military strike, Syria's prime minister said Tuesday.

The Russian plan "aims to stop the Syrian bloodshed and prevent a war," Wael Nader Al-Halqi said, according to Syrian state television.

Earlier, Russia's Interfax news agency quoted Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem as saying the country had accepted the proposal after "a very fruitful round of talks" with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Monday.

While skeptical, U.S. officials said they would work with Russia on the idea. France's foreign minister promised to bring the idea before the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday. And China also said it welcomes and supports the proposal, the Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman said.


Like Russia, China is a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council and has used its veto power to block some resolutions against Syria.

Details of such a transfer have yet to be worked out, such as where the arms would go, who would safeguard them and how the world could be sure Syria had handed over its entire stockpile of chemical weapons. The United States, Britain and other nations suspect the Syrian government of using chemical weapons repeatedly in the two-year-old civil war, including an August 21 incident that U.S. officials say killed more than 1,400 people.

The proposal -- to put the country's chemical weapons sites under international control -- stemmed from off-the-cuff remarks made by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

Asked Monday whether there was anything Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government could do to avoid an attack, Kerry said al-Assad "could turn over every single bit of his chemical weapons to the international community in the next week.

"He isn't about to do it, and it can't be done, obviously," Kerry said.

Russia, Syria's leading ally, quickly urged al-Assad to do just that.

"It's certainly a positive development when the Russians and Syrians both make gestures towards dealing with these chemical weapons," President Barack Obama told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Monday.

But Obama said the threat of American force would remain, "And we don't want just a stalling or delaying tactic to put off the pressure that we have on there right now.

READ THE REST AT CNN HERE.