The government continues to struggle to provide veterans with the health care and transition assistance they need.

But an overdue Congress got one right this week in passing the “Honoring America’s Veterans and Caring for Camp Lejeune Families Act,” an expansive veterans benefits bill that impacts a host of programs covering everything from health and homelessness to education and death benefits. President Obama is expected to sign the bill on Monday.

The headline-grabbing heart of the legislation is a provision that guarantees health care for people exposed to contaminated drinking water at Camp Lejeune, N.C. But the measure also provides some key housing benefits that will make it easier for single-parent service members and surviving spouses of deceased military members to become homeowners.

In all, there are more than a half-dozen significant changes on the horizon for the VA's nearly 70-year-old home loan program. Here's a look at who stands to benefit and how. 

Military Widows and Widowers

This bill will extend VA home loan benefits to more surviving spouses. Current VA regulations restrict access to this no-down payment program to spouses of veterans killed in the line of duty or of a service-connected disability. The pool will soon expand to include spouses of veterans whose deaths weren't service-connected but who had spent at least the last 10 years living with a permanent service-connected disability.

Disabled Veterans

Borrowers with service-connected disabilities are exempt from paying the VA Funding Fee, a mandatory fee the agency applies to all purchase and refinance loans in order to keep the program self-funded. But the VA's clogged medical system has made life difficult for service members preparing to leave the military. Many will receive a pre-discharge disability examination and wait months to get an official disability rating.

Veterans who purchase a home while they're waiting are assessed the funding fee, which is typically financed into their mortgage. Under this measure, the VA would waive its funding fee for anyone deemed eligible to receive compensation as a result of a pre-discharge exam.

Single Parents and Married Military Couples

VA loans are for primary residences, not income-producing properties or vacation homes, and that means borrowers have to meet occupancy requirements. Because that can be difficult for deployed soldiers, the VA allows military spouses to fulfill the requirement in a spouse's absence. It's incredibly difficult if not downright impossible for single-parent soldiers and married military couples to meet that burden and purchase a home shortly before or during a deployment.

This legislation will allow a dependent child to satisfy the requirement, leaving only childless parents and couples out of luck.

Veterans in Expensive Areas

Veterans in costly parts of the country lost some purchasing power last fall when the loan limits for government-backed mortgages fell to pre-2008 levels. Those limits allowed qualified borrowers in high-cost counties to secure a loan worth up to $729,750 without putting money down. Congress allowed the increased limits to sunset last fall, and the return to pre-2008 levels put some veterans in a bind, especially those in top-tier real estate markets.

The veterans omnibus bill will bring back those higher loan limits through 2014.

Active Military Members

Adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) have fallen from favor in many circles, but they can make sense in some cases for military members planning to live in one area for a brief time. The VA issues a guaranty on ARMs and hybrid ARMs, but that power was set to expire at year's end. Instead, this bill makes these ARM options a permanent part of the loan program.

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On July 19, 1969, U.S. National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger wrote the following about Israel's nuclear weapons program: "There is circumstantial evidence that some fissionable material available for Israel's weapons development was illegally obtained from the United States by about 1965."

In the new book, Divert!: NUMEC, Zalman Shapiro and the diversion of US weapons grade uranium into the Israeli nuclear weapons program, Grant Smith details the circumstantial evidence through hundreds of declassified documents regarding the illegal diversion of U.S. government-owned highly enriched Uranium-235 (HEU-235) – a key material used to produce nuclear weapons – from the NUMEC nuclear processing plant in Pennsylvania to Israel's secret nuclear weapons program. 

The story revolves around a brilliant nuclear chemist and professed American Zionist named Zalman Mordecai Shapiro.

Shapiro received a PhD in chemistry from John Hopkins University in 1948 and began working on the USS Nautilus, which would become the world's first operational nuclear-power submarine in 1954. The project was planned and supervised by Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, who cited Shapiro as one of the four individuals most responsible for the program's success.

On December 31, 1956, Shapiro incorporated the Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation (NUMEC), a nuclear-materials processing facility that began receiving a steady stream of government contracts to produce fuel for the Navy's growing fleet of nuclear-powered vessels.

The company's start-up capital was organized by David Lowenthal, an American citizen who secretly fought for Israel during its 1948 war for independence alongside who would become the country's first head of intelligence (Meir Amit) and its first prime minister (David Ben-Gurion). According to FBI files, Lowenthal traveled "to Israel on the average of approximately once per month."

Many members of NUMEC's venture capital network and board of directors were dedicated Zionists who, like Shapiro, held leadership positions in the Zionist Organization of America – "an American membership organization founded in 1896 dedicated to the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine," according to Divert!.

Between 1957 and 1967, NUMEC received 22 tons (44,000 lbs) of HEU-235. A 2001 Department of Energy audit revealed that NUMEC lost at least 593 pounds of HEU – about 2.0 percent of what it received – before 1968. 

The losses exceeded the industry average (.2 percent) by several times and still hold the dubious record for the highest losses of bomb-grade material of any plant in the United States.

In June 1966 Shapiro formed a company called the Israel NUMEC Isotopes and Radiation Enterprises Limited (ISORAD) in partnership with the Israeli government. The company was ostensibly created research projects involving exposing agricultural products to radiation to kill microorganisms and extend the shelf life of fruits and vegetables.

Smith notes that Shapiro's business partner, Ernest David Bergmann, chaired the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission – "the primary cover organization for Israel's clandestine nuclear weapons program" – from 1954 to 1966.

About the same time that NUMEC sustained unaccountable losses of HEU-235, the FBI notes, NUMEC was developing and manufacturing food irradiators for Israel. 

According to Smith there is no single smoking gun that Shapiro diverted HEU-235 to Israel – but many smoking shell-casings. They include:

• In 1965 a NUMEC employee walked near the NUMEC loading dock and encountered people he could not identify loading cans about the size of HEU-235 canisters onto a ship that was headed to Israel. The employee detailed the event in 1980 when interviewed by FBI agents. Based on the number of reported canisters, Smith estimates up to 346 lbs of U-235 could have been shipped to Israel in this single incident.

•In 1968 NUMEC invited and received Israel's elite nuclear weapons development officials and its top spy under the cover of being "thermo electric generator specialists." They included Avraham Hermoni (technical director of Israel's nuclear bomb project), Ephraim Biegun (head of the Israeli technical department of Israel's Secret Service from 1960-70) and Rafael Eitan (long-time Mossad and LAKAM operative who later directed spy Jonathan Pollard's spy program against the U.S.).

Smith notes that in 1986 Middle East operative analyst Anthony Cordesman said there "is no conceivable reason for Eitan to have gone [to NUMEC] but for the nuclear material."

• In June 1978 Department of Energy investigators told former Atomic Energy Commissioner (AEC) Glenn T. Seaborg that traces of Portsmouth U-235 – the government-owned material primarily delivered to NUMEC for processing into fuel – had been picked up in Israel.

Seaborg, who frequently defended Shapiro during his time as AEC chief, later refused to be interviewed by FBI investigators.

Smith's analysis concludes that enough U-235 to produce dozens of nuclear weapons was not lost but diverted directly into Israel's as-yet-to-be-officially-acknowledged nuclear weapons program.

In the 1969 memo, Kissinger noted the general intelligence assessment at the time: "Israel has 12 surface-to-surface missiles delivered from France. Israel has set up a production line and plans by the end of 1970 to have a total force of 24 - 30, ten of which are programmed for nuclear warheads. The first domestically produced missile is expected to be completed this summer. Preparation of launch facilities is under way."

SEE ALSO: DER SPIEGEL: Israeli Nukes Are Deployed Underseas On Subs Bought From Germany >

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In the 67 years since the first nuclear weapon was used, there is only one time the so-called nuclear briefcases were broken out and opened up, and on January 25, 1995 they nearly launched Russia's nuclear arsenal at the United States.

When Norwegian Kolbjørn Adolfsen gave the nod to send a Black Brant rocket from the Andøya Rocket Range off the northwest coast of Norway to study the aurora borealis, he wasn't concerned at all.

Sure the Brant is a large, four-stage rocket that would fly to 930 miles above the earth near Russia, but he'd contacted the proper Kremlin authorities and hadn't given the flight a second thought.

What Adolfsen didn't know when he left the rocket base shortly after the missile was launched, is that the Brant's radar signature looks just like a U.S. sub-launched Trident missile.

The radar operators at Russia's Olenegorsk early warning station promptly reported the incoming missile to their superiors, but not a soul on duty within the military had been notified of Adolfsen's plans.

The officers at Olenegork believed it could be the first leg of a U.S. nuclear attack.

Four years after the Berlin Wall came down and Russia was in the throes of change, stable systems had been demolished and replacements had yet to fall into place. One thing that had gotten only more developed since 1991, however, was the Kremlin's mistrust of the United States.

So as the Brant streaked its way near Russian airspace, military officers had to decide if this was an electro-magnetic pulse attack that would disable their radar and allow for a full on American attack, and what they should do about it.

The matter was decided when the Brant separated, dropped one of its engines, and fired up another. The radar signature now looked so much like a multiple re-entry vehicle (MRV), a missile carrying multiple nuclear warheads, that military officers no longer had any doubt.

There were now five minutes during which the missile's trajectory would be un-tracked by Russian radar, and when it could strike Moscow; a slice of time that was devoted to deciding whether to launch a counterattack.

Boris Yeltsin was alerted, and immediately given the Cheget, the "nuclear briefcase" that connects senior officials while they decide whether or not to launch Russia's nuclear weapons. Nuclear submarine commanders were ordered to full battle alert and told to stand by.

Apparently Yeltsin doubted the U.S. would launch a surreptitious attack and within five minutes, Russian radar came back confirming the missile was heading harmlessly out to sea.

Russian citizens didn't find about about the incident for weeks, and of course it's been reported in the U.S. news since. But the event never achieved the renown of the Cuban Missile Crisis, though it seems to have brought us even closer to the brink of nuclear war. 

We thought it an interesting enough story to tell again.

Now: Step aboard the Navy's $2.4 billion Virginia-class nuclear submarine >

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Control of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency has been in the hands of the Army since Reagan proposed the Strategic Defense Initiative in 1983. And while recent events aren't entirely to blame for sending control of the agency to the Navy, they haven't helped.

It started in early July when a Defense Department report surfaced accusing Army Lt. General Patrick O'Reilly of abusing his staff so ferociously that they were afraid to voice even the mildest opinion.

O'Reilly had been in charge of the Missile Defense Agency since 2008, and the report was made public after three complaints were issued against him. Only then did the paperwork fall under the auspices of a Freedom of Information request.

Reuters found that the general's "yelling and screaming" was a factor in many individuals' decisions to leave the agency.

Even then O'Reilly may have escaped real damage, but there followed accusations by Army Secretary John McHugh that the general lied to Congress about the morale of his staff. This sent a new investigation O'Reily's way, one coming straight from the Pentagon's inspector general.

Within days the Missile Defense Agency was warned by the Pentagon that its staff and contractors needed to stop using the MDA's computers for pornography.

From Bloomberg:

“Specifically, there have been instances of employees and contractors accessing websites, or transmitting messages, containing pornographic or sexually explicit images,” James wrote in the July 27 memo obtained by Bloomberg News.

“These actions are not only unprofessional, they reflect time taken away from designated duties, are in clear violation of federal and DoD regulations, consume network resources and can compromise the security of the network though the introduction of malware or malicious code,” he wrote.

Then on August 6, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta announced that Navy Rear Admiral James D. Syring was tapped for promotion to the rank of Vice Admiral and Directorship of the Missile Defense Agency—the first time the agency will not be led by an Army officer in history.

To be fair, the Navy holds 28 ballistic missile Aegis ships that provide a wide area of missile coverage across the globe. Combined with the fact that many ranking military officials believe diversity at the helm of the MDA is long overdue, and perhaps it makes sense for the Navy to assume the lead.

No word yet on O'Reily's fate, but becoming the Army general who lost control of the MDA to the Navy is undoubtedly a career cramping note in his file.

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The very real possibility that defense programs will suffer deep, across the board spending cuts early next year has major defense contractors and their allies making an unusual plea to members of Congress: Put everything on the table to avoid the so-called sequester — including higher taxes.

That might not sound like an extraordinary ask. But it’s typical for incumbent interests to leave all questions of ways and means to Congress. And given the defense industry’s enormous power and historic alignment with the GOP, it could have enough force to finally break the GOP of its anti-tax absolutism.

A House Armed Services Committee hearing two weeks ago first exposed the rift. Under questioning from Rep. Rob Andrews (D-NJ), two major defense contractors acknowledged that the GOP’s refusal to consider higher revenues was not conducive to solving the looming budget crisis.

“I think everything’s gotta be on the table at this point, now,” said a reluctant David Hess, President of Pratt & Whitney — a subsidiary of United Technologies. “This is a personal opinion. I’m not speaking for the employees of United Technologies, or for UTC.”

Robert Stevens, CEO of Lockheed Martin, volunteered agreement.

“I know when we face challenges in our business — and i don’t intend to imply that the challenge we face come close to the magnitude of the challenges you face on this committee or the Congress faces at large, it really makes ours look pale — we try to put into the recipe every possible ingredient that might lend itself to the formation not just of a solution but in a perfect world a flexible array of solutions — comprehensive, integrated, thorough — that allows us the flexibility to run the business,” he said.

It took a year to reach this point, just five months out from the fiscal cliff. But this was the theory of the defense sequester — to force the GOP to recognize that a persistent refusal to ever raise revenue won’t just threaten social programs beloved by liberals, but the defense industrial complex they’ve nurtured for decades.

Trade associations representing defense contractors agree.

“We’re not endorsing any particular bill out there or saying what tax or entitlement should be changed,” said Alexis Allen, spokeswoman for the Aerospace Industries Association, in a Thursday phone interview. “We do think that everything should be on the table at this point. We do need a solution. It’s really quite urgent at this point and we think Congress needs to do what it was elected to do.”

The National Association of Government Contractors shares this view.

“Compromise will be necessary to avoid sequestration,” NAGC’s VP for communications Simon Brody said in a statement to TPM. “Considering whether to increase revenues or make funding cuts will require careful consideration by legislators, but examining all alternatives is certainly preferable to letting sweeping automatic cuts take effect.”

That’s a real break with the prevailing GOP insistence that higher taxes must not be part of any plan to avoid the sequester. And it’s the rift Rep. Andrews was hoping to expose in his line of questioning.

“I was very pleased with that answer,” Andrews told TPM in a hallway interview Thursday. “I think the defense leaders have been really public spirited and open-minded about this, and I think they’re acting very responsibly and I trust and hope that they will speak favorably about a balanced approach that includes revenue and spending cuts that neither side wants but that will avoid the sequester and reduce the deficit.”

Andrew’s said he’s had private discussions with other senior defense executives who shared the same view, but declined to provide further details.

“I do think you’re going to see a coalition of responsible people emerge — unfortunately it’s going to be in the lame duck, not prior — that’s going to support entitlement support that Democrats don’t want, revenue increases that Republicans don’t want, but deficit reduction that everybody wants, without mindless, across the board cuts in programs.”

Early indications support that view. A group of Republicans led by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) have proposed staving off or eliminating the sequester with a package that could include revenue from higher service fees and tax loophole closures, but not from rate increases.

Graham’s leadership isn’t on board at the moment, but they sense the danger.

“We’ve got to come to a resolution on the issue before the lame duck,” said Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) — the minority whip and an ardent anti-tax Republican — at a press conference in late July. “If we do not, the pressure to make a deal in context of raising all the tax rates to prevent the fiscal cliff Jan. 1 will be so great that I’m afraid defense will wind up suffering or we’ll have to end up raising taxes to an extent that harms the economy.”

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Are white supremacists recruiting from within the ranks of the US military?

That question – revived by killings at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin this week – has been the fear of civil rights groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center, who have warned that hate groups encourage their members to join up for training and experience that they can later use to perpetrate crimes in the United States.

A former white supremacist who now trains the US military on how to recognize racism within its ranks, T.J. Leyden says he has been brought to military installations to educate service members who are concerned about troops becoming involved with gangs and neo-Nazi activities. “They want to know how to combat it,” he says, “and what they should be looking for.”

Mr. Leyden says he was encouraged to join the US Marines after becoming a skinhead. “The older guys in the white supremacy world were talking about it all the time,” he said. “They say, ‘This is a great option – you get some training.’ ”

They also recruit from among the US military. “A lot of the major white supremacy groups, they have chapters right outside military installations,” Leyden says. “They want people with military backgrounds.”

There is little known about Page's views on race while he was in the military. An Army spokesperson said that the service is not commenting on the reasons for his dismissal from the service. “At one time he was a sergeant and did leave the service as a specialist,” says Lt. Col. Lisa Garcia. “You can generally presume there was some kind of Article 15 action that reduced him in rank.” An Article 15 is an administrative punishment less severe than a court martial.US military officials have expressed concern in the past about extremism within its ranks.The Army's Criminal Investigation Division conducts a threat assessment of extremist and gang activity among Army personnel. "Every year, they come back with 'minimal activity,' which is inaccurate," Scott Barfield, a former gang investigator for the Department of Defense, told the Southern Poverty Law Center in its 2006 report "A Few Bad Men." "It's not epidemic, but there's plenty of evidence we're talking numbers well into the thousands, just in the Army."

They are prized recruits because they have a number of traits that make them valuable in the eyes of white supremacists, Leyden says. “They follow orders, they know how to take instructions.”

They also have valuable leadership experience. “They are leaders, they think outside the box – they’re doers,” he adds. “You’re getting some of these guys coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan, and they’re combat vets. They know what combat’s like. You get them in and bring them in and that gives your group structure – that’s powerful.”

When he was in the Marines from 1988 to 1990, Leyden says, he recruited roughly half-a-dozen hate-group members. He told his new recruits to keep a low profile. “I’d tell them don’t get tattoos – get your training, then get out.”

He’d also tell them, “If you really don’t like it, then you can get yourself tatted up and discharged. After they got the training, ‘I’d say, then who cares if you get a bad conduct discharge? We’re going to overthrow the US government anyway.’ ”

Leyden didn’t follow his own advice. He got an “SS” tattoo on his neck and later hung a Nazi flag in his room. “The only thing my commander would say was, ‘Hey, can you do me a favor? Can you take that flag down when the CG [commanding general] comes through [for inspection]?”

He said it was not because commanders supported his racist views, but rather because they did not want to be disciplined by their own higher-ups for command failures like having a neo-Nazi in their ranks.

Leyden, who now works with the Simon Wiesenthal Center, says some of his fellow Marines back in his days in the service told him to his face that they thought his extremism was "pretty horrible.”  

Today, he says, he advises commanders to remove skinheads from their ranks immediately. “I tell them, get them out, don’t give them further training,” he says. “Do not give them opportunities to become better at what they do.”

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At a July 20 press conference Aurora police Chief Dan Oates said investigators were confident that James Holmes acted alone in the largest mass shooting in U.S. history by casualties and that authorities were "not looking for any other suspects."

But doubters are citing official evidence to question that Holmes was the only shooter, or a shooter at all.

The argument of the skeptics can be split into three categories: the discovery of Holmes, the real-time testimony on police radio transmissions and the extra evidence at the scene.

The discovery of Holmes

During the press conference, Oates said that Holmes was "apprehended outside his White Hyundai parked in the back of the theater" and that he "surrendered without any significant incident."

According to police audio (at 6:15), an officer found "a suspect in a gas mask" and another officer asked "Is that the dude in the white car you're by?" After a few transmissions, an officer asks (at 6:49) "That white car in the rear of the lot – is that a suspect?" The response is "Yes! We've got rifles, gas mask, he's detained right now, I've got an open door going into the theater."

Skeptics cite this exchange as evidence that Holmes was found in his locked car with a gas mask on and heavily drugged, not outside the car as Oates said. That would have forced first responders to break the passenger side window and get a white stretcher board – one was placed under the car as if it wasn't needed – in preparation to transport him.

The police radio transmissions

We've reported on the eye witness report from Corbin Dates, who said that it looked as if someone in the theater took a phone call by the emergency door and pried it open while "looking for somebody to come his way."

Another witness told a reporter: "From what we saw he wasn't alone ... because the second can of tear gas didn't come from his side."

Skeptics highlight that police radio transmissions seem to corroborate those accounts:

Three minutes after Holmes was supposedly detained in/by his car, an officer says (at 9:58): "One of the shooters might be wearing a white and blue plaid shirt" and the dispatcher responds "Copy, outstanding shooter possibly wearing a white and blue plaid shirt."

An officer says (at 11:43): "The suspect is saying that he's the only one but I'm getting conflicting suspect descriptions from the witnesses out here."

Then, the dispatcher receives several updates (at 24:42) and states: "Copy, all units ... male with a red backpack and another one possibly in black clothing headed toward Alameda" Avenue.

Subsequently an officer gives says (at 25:00): "Suspect is going to be male, unknown race, black camo-type outfit, believed to be wearing a vest, gas mask and multiple long guns." That update is reiterated by another officer at 31:15.

Even after 45 more minutes pass – making it more than an hour after Holmes was detained – the officers still mention other potential shooters:

1:16:16: Officer: "Talking to people making statements, sounds like we have possibly 2 shooters, one that was in Theater 8 seated, another one that came in from the outside into Theater 9. Sounds like it was a coordinated attack."
1:16:55: Dispatch: "Every unit, possible 2nd shooter still at large... Keep the media away from them."
1:31:27: Dispatch: Again, no witness are to be released, even if they've been spoken to."

The extra evidence outside the theater

There has not yet been an official explanation of the orange duffel bag, gas can and ballistic gear found at a different part of the parking lot than the ballistic gear found near Holmes' car.

And although authorities say they found a 100-round, drum-style ammo clip in the rifle used by Holmes, skeptics note that the rifle found outside of the Theater 9 emergency exit appears to have a normal clip.

Another puzzling piece of evidence if Holmes was the only shooter is the second gas mask found at the far end of the parking lot (as shown here by the Washington Post), hundreds of feet from Theater 9's emergency exit and Holmes' car. (Holmes was found wearing a different gas mask.)

On July 20 Oates said police "immediately arrested the suspect at the back of the theater" 90 seconds after the first 911 call was made, which would make it difficult for Holmes to account for all of the items.

All that being said, the Arapahoe County Court judge has granted a request to seal the case against Holmes after the prosecutors argued that disclosing the court records would be "contrary to public interest" and "could jeopardize the ongoing investigation."

So we won't be able to compare the skeptical line of thinking with the search warrants, affidavits, orders, and case file anytime soon.

SEE ALSO: 'Dark Knight' Shooting Suspect Charged With More Than 100 Criminal Counts >

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Kofi Annan has just three weeks left to serve out his time as the UN envoy for Syria. Understandably disappointed at the failure of what others had called "mission impossible" – a description he came to agree with – he lamented two aspects of the crisis: its increasing militarisation and the disunity of the security council. Earlier, in a Guardian interview, he had deplored the "destructive competition" of the five big powers who still sit round the world's "top table" on New York's East river.

It bears repeating that Syria is first of all a human tragedy, with thousands of dead and many thousands more lives ruined in the bloodiest chapter of what in happier or more naive times and circumstances was called the Arab spring. Feelings are running high. For some, however, principled objections to western policy clearly weigh more heavily than the suffering of the Syrian people at the hands of a government that used deadly force from the moment protests erupted in Deraa in March 2011.

It is a moot point whether diplomacy could ever have succeeded in ending the carnage. Syria, it has been wisely observed, is where the Arab uprisings met the cold war and the Sunni-Shia divide. Regional and international rivalries worsened by the Libyan crisis last year, sectarian incitement and a fight to the death for regime survival all make for a toxic mixture.

For most elements of Syria's fractured opposition, Assad's acceptance of Annan's six-point peace plan was only ever a way to buy time, exploit divisions and carry on killing. The regime barely observed a ceasefire that notionally began in April or implemented any of the plan's other five conditions. The armed opposition accepted it but carried on fighting even as mass peaceful protests continued.

Yet the cartoon book claim that "the west" (conspiring with compliant Arabs) has malevolently blocked an agreement that a principled Russia tirelessly supported does not stand up to scrutiny. (Nor does the closely related and deeply patronising notion that Syrians who are prepared to risk all for freedoms others take for granted are mere puppets in the hands of others.)

In June, Annan decided to try to jump-start a political transition. In his draft statement of principles for the Geneva conference on 30 June, the key passage sought the widest possible consensus on forming a unity government in Damascus – a negotiated way out of the escalating confrontation. The language he proposed was deliberately vague and fudged the burning question of whether Assad had to go. It was a model of diplomatic ambiguity that could mean different things to different people but – perhaps – serve as a basis for movement. Russia rejected it. The final Geneva text was even blander, accommodating Moscow's objections to say that a transitional unity government could be formed by "mutual consent". Annan hailed the agreement. But the truth was that it gave Assad and his supporters a veto over their own departure. It was hardly going to convince their opponents that a deal could be done.

Violence on the ground rapidly outstripped this agonisingly convoluted diplomacy. No element in the opposition is currently prepared to even consider Annan's plan, the Geneva principles or a transition that leaves Assad or his closest supporters in place. That is as true of groups such as the National Coordination Bureau and Building the Syrian State, which once advocated talks with the government, and still spurn violence and foreign intervention, as it is of the Muslim Brotherhood or extremist Salafis now fighting alongside the Free Syrian Army.

In mid-July Britain drafted a new UN resolution that repeated the call for a "Syrian-led political process" (language supported by Russia). Nowhere did it advocate "forced regime change" as the blame-the-west brigade falsely claims. It was tabled under chapter 7 of the UN charter to trigger sanctions in the event of noncompliance with Annan's plan – specifically the withdrawal of heavy weapons. It used article 41, which excludes military action. Russia and China vetoed the resolution. The US, Britain and France supported it. Pakistan and South Africa, nonpermanent members of the council, abstained. India, not part of the nefarious "west," was among the 11 others that supported it.

Annan, insist UN diplomats, also wanted a security council resolution – and told Vladimir Putin so – since without it there was no means of applying any pressure to Assad. And lest there be any doubt about where he stood, Annan stated publicly when he announced his resignation that Assad would "sooner or later" have to go. He singled out the Syrian government for blame and castigated Russia, China and Iran for failing to use their influence with Assad.

No one can be sure whether unity at the world's "top table" could have stopped the downward spiral of this terrible crisis. Syria's agony certainly shows no sign of ending any time soon. The blame game may be useless. But it is worth stating for the record who did what and who was largely responsible for the most recent failure of diplomacy by what passes for the international community.

This article originally appeared on guardian.co.uk

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Khalid Shudooh was a football player and honor student who had lived in the U.S. since he was four and his family moved from Jordan.

But when his father fell on tough times and left the country, Khalid lost his visa. He stayed in the U.S., the only country he'd ever known, supporting himself and going to high school.

His freshman year of college, U.S. marshals came to his house and arrested him. He was thrown into prison with drug dealers and thieves.

With his bail set at $250,000 and his family overseas, Khalid didn't have many options.

Khalid Shudooh was born in Jordan. When he was 4, his father accepted a scholarship at the University of Wisconsin, and the entire family moved.

Khalid adapted quickly and pretty soon couldn't even remember his native Arabic. He's seen here in kindergarten.

Khalid said he's felt like an American for as long as he could remember. When he visited Jordan as a kid, he said he felt out-of-place.

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HANOI (Reuters) - The United States and Vietnam on Thursday began cleaning up the toxic chemical defoliant Agent Orange on part of Danang International Airport, marking the first time Washington has been involved in cleaning up Agent Orange in Vietnam.

The U.S. military sprayed up to 12 million gallons of the defoliant onto Vietnam's jungles over a 10-year period during the Vietnam War, and the question of compensation for the subsequent health problems is a major post-war issue.

Respiratory cancer and birth defects amongst both Vietnamese and U.S. veterans have been linked to exposure to Agent Orange.

The U.S. government is providing $41 million to the project which will reduce the contamination level in 73,000 cubic meters of soil by late 2016, the ruling Vietnam Communist Party's mouthpiece Nhan Dan daily said.

The U.S. Agency for International Development has awarded contracts to two U.S. companies to work on the project along with Vietnam defense ministry officials, the U.S. embassy said.

Danang in Vietnam's central region is a popular tourist destination. During the Vietnam War, that ended in 1975, the beach city was used as a recreational spot for U.S. soldiers.

Agent Orange was stored at Danang airbase and sprayed from U.S. warplanes to expose northern communist troops and destroy their supplies in jungles along the border with Laos.

(Reporting by Ho Binh Minh; Editing by Michael Perry)

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We've been seeing reports for weeks of missile sales to the gulf states in recent weeks.

There was a sale of missiles to Qatar, sales of the Terminal High Altitude Air Defense (THAAD) system to the United Arab Emirates, PATRIOT missiles to Kuwait, and continued sales beefing up the Saudi Air Force.

Now, it all comes together. The U.S. is building a "missile shield" around Iran to make any future conflict a low-risk slam-dunk for American forces.  And making a killing in the sale of some very expensive military hardware.

The participating nations are Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia. 

The New York Times reports that the U.S. is bringing together a disparate group of nations, convincing them together to put aside rivalries and unite behind this missile shield. 

While the NATO program to install a missile shield around Europe has been widely publicized, this series of deals has only been outlined really in mandatory government arms sale releases. 

Once completed – and aided by the U.S. Naval presence in the Persian Gulf — The U.S. will have given Iran one more reason to think twice about its success of a military campaign 

Now, check out how Israel would deter an all out missile assault >

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Israel has only a handful of flight paths it can use to bomb Iran's alleged nuclear sites, and one of those is off the table after Saudi Arabia vowed to take down any Israeli jet flying its airspace.

The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reports the message was passed through senior U.S. officials in Jerusalem and came straight from Riyadh.

The paper also reports that Israeli officials firmly believe the threat is part of an American plan to thwart a lone Israeli strike, and the the U.S. could certainly persuade the Saudis to open their airspace if it chose to do so.

Regardless, military experts have been saying for months an Israeli air strike would be a very elaborate affair involving more than 100 planes, from jets to re-fueling tankers, over 1,000 miles to strike eight Iranian targets.

CNN published a map outlining four possible routes Israel would have to use to perform the mission:

• One has Israel flying over the Mediterranean Sea, through Turkish airspace and into Iran
• The second has Israel flying over Jordan, though Iraqi airspace and into Iran (the most direct route)
• The third over Saudi Arabia and into Iran
• And the fourth, and by far the longest, around Saudi Arabia, over the Arabian Sea, and into Iran from the south

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As sanctions bite and the average Iranian citizen has a hard time affording even staple food items like chicken, it makes sense there would be growing frustration with the cause of it all: Tehran's nuclear program.

This graffito was originally posted on the Sepidedam Facebook page, a pro-Mousavi group, and then to Twitter by Golnaz Esfandiari of Radio Free Europe's Iran Blog Persian Letters a few days ago. Clearly it has struck a chord with a lot of people.

It says: "Nuclear energy, at what price?"

From Radio Free Europe:

Parhizi said he believes that the public protest appears to be a sign of growing discontent over the increasingly difficult life ordinary Iranians are facing as the result of sanctions placed on Iran over its sensitive nuclear activities.

Last month, Abdollah Nuri, a former interior minister of Iran and a respected reformist cleric, called on political leaders to hold a referendum on the fate of the country's nuclear program. Nouri said that the "ill-effects, disadvantages, and pressure" that Iran is experiencing over its nuclear activities have passed the acceptable limit.

It's not pretty, or fair, but the sanctions are toughest on the average Iranian trying to make ends meet and take care of a family. The widespread discontent this may cause could be the one thing the U.S. is relying on to bring Iran's nuclear ambitions to a close.

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French newspaper La Tribune reports that an evacuation plan for 200,000 French citizens currently living in Israel has been devised.

French diplomatic sources told the newspaper that the plan was launched due to the rising risk of a conflict with Iran. The aim is to not be caught "off guard" if Israel is attacked by missiles launched by Iranian forces or Hezbollah.

A few dozen Frenchmen and women have been designated as planners for an evacuation, which would use smaller boats to get the citizens to French navy boats docked in Jaffa, near Tel Aviv.

Despite warnings about a conflict from American officials, Israeli officials have made a number of statements about Iran's nuclear program that some believe indicate a military conflict will happen soon. A former Mossad chief, Efraim Halevy, told the New York Times last week, "If I were Iranian, I'd be fearful of the next 12 weeks."

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From the Miami Herald, a defense contractor working at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility has confirmed that the most popular show for detainees is by far the 90's Will Smith vehicle "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air."

It's even beaten out the Harry Potter books as the most popular form of recreational media in the detention facility. 

Inmates, depending on the security level of their imprisonment, are allowed access to books, movies, and television provided they maintain good behavior. 

Cooperative inmates can watch television in groups in a recreational room. 

For whatever reason, the Clinton-era comedic stylings of Will Smith are hot at the moment. Earlier, The Cosby Show had a similar surge as a hit among inmates. 

Now check out pictures inside the new, renovated Guantanamo Bay >

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Hezbollah PM and retired Brig. Gen. Walid Sakariya told Lebanese television this week that the nuclear weapon Iran is allegedly developing is intended to "create a balance of terror with Israel" and "finish off the Zionist enterprise."

A year ago Sakariya foreshadowed the regional implications of the civil war being fought in Syria, saying "If Syria, as a confrontation country, falls, then the American and Zionist enterprise will be victorious. But if Syria is victorious as a confrontation country, Israel will come to an end."

Here he is speaking to MEMRI (the Middle East Media Research Institute) this week:

SEE ALSO: Al-Qaeda Jihadists Are The Best Fighters Among The Syria Rebels >

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The X-47B drone took its first recorded flight in September (video below) and the Navy announced it will be able to refuel itself by 2014. 

Check out the pictures >

The move will allow the X-47B to remain in flight well beyond 3,000 nautical miles, a long time, 10 times the ability of a traditional manned fighter. And it will be doing it with no one at the controls.

Not only will there be no pilot in the cockpit, there won't be one anywhere.

The drone will be programmed to fly autonomously and W.J. Hennigan at The Los Angeles Times points out this ability may be the first in a  whole new era of military action conducted by independently operating machines.

The Navy ordered the X-47B in 2007 and has two in production

The drone will be completely autonomous, launching and landing from carriers, and refueling in mid-flight

The X-47B flies at about .45 mach and has a range of up to 3,000 miles

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All we've been given of Northrop Grumman's X-47B so far are some general specs, a couple of videos and a bunch of pictures. 

But the Navy's new stealth drone is meant to do impressive things, which is why the military is so eager to get it aboard its carriers and deploy it around the globe.

But Grumman released this animated promotional video that gives a better feel for what the next generation drone will be able to accomplish. We see that the drone is capable of aerial refueling, 360 degree rolls, and offensive weapon deployment. 

It cruises at half the speed of sound, has a wingspan of 62 ft, and a range of at least 2,400 miles. But we don't need to explain, the video does it so much better. Enjoy.

Now, check out the next generation of military drones >

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The X-47B, unmanned carrier drone, took its first recorded flight in September (video below) and the Navy just announced it's adding refueling capabilities to the aircraft by 2014.

David Ax, at Wired, reports the move will allow the X-47B to remain in flight well beyond 3,000 nautical miles — 10 times the ability of a traditional manned fighter.

This will also put U.S. aircraft carriers outside the reach of, say, China's 'carrier-killing' ballistic missiles and submarines.

Getting rid of the fighter pilot is a huge boost to efficiency and the Navy will begin carrier trials on the USS George Washington in 2013.

The X-47B's manufacturer, Northrop Grumman also received contracts to modify long-range Global Hawks to serve as refueling tankers. When those aircraft come online, the entire process will be conducted with no pilot at all.

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Considering the obstacles and resistance the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program has encountered it's no wonder Lockheed Martin is eager to display the jet's milestones, and this is a big one.

A Lockheed statement says: "The milestone marks the start of validating the F-35’s capability to employ precision weapons and allow pilots to engage the enemy on the ground and in the air."

And the Navy explains this F-35 variant is the short take-off and vertical landing and that it's releasing an inert 1,000-pound GBU-32 Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) bomb over the Atlantic while traveling at 460 mph at an altitude of 4,200 feet. The video is below the picture.

UPDATE: Here's a video of the whole event:

Now see these awesome pictures of jets breaking the sound barrier >

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