Posts Tagged ‘leak’
Top CIA spy pulled from Pakistan after terror threats
The CIA has recalled its top spy in Pakistan out of concern for his safety after terrorist threats against him, a U.S. intelligence official said.
The station chief, the highest-ranking U.S. intelligence officer in Pakistan, operates covertly and his identity is considered classified. He had recently been named in a lawsuit filed by a Pakistani man seeking $500 million for the death of his son and brother, who the man alleges were killed in a U.S. drone strike. The spy’s name then appeared in Pakistani media stories about the lawsuit.
The threats “were of such a serious nature that it would be imprudent not to act,” the intelligence official said, describing the decision to pull him from the country…
“Our station chiefs routinely encounter major risk as they work to keep America safe, and they’ve been targeted by terrorists in the past,” CIA spokesman George Little said. “Their security is obviously a top priority for the CIA, especially when there’s an imminent threat.”
The station chief oversees all intelligence operations in Pakistan including managing the drone program, which the U.S. government does not publicly acknowedge, and coordinates with the country’s intelligence office.
Of course, every Pakistan official who has been queried about the leak denies any culpability, any way that bureaucrats under their control may have released the station chief’s name.
Uh-huh.
Toyota recalls 1.5 million cars – mostly in the U.S. and Japan
Yes, I miss my old Toyota Cressida
Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, will call back about 750,000 cars in North America, and 599,000 cars in Japan, mostly models made from 2004 to 2006, the automaker said. About 140,000 cars in the rest of Asia and Australia, and 50,000 cars in Europe, also are being recalled…
The president of the company, Akio Toyoda, subsequently promised to improve quality and customer service, including paying more attention to customer complaints and speeding up recall decisions. In February, the automaker set up a special global committee to oversee quality, led by Mr. Toyoda.
“Every time we announce a recall, that is a step toward increasing quality,” a spokesman for Toyota in Tokyo, Paul Nolasco, said Thursday. The pedal-related recalls had “brought it home to Toyota that we need to refocus on quality,” he said.
Most of vehicles in Thursday’s recall need to be fixed for a problem in the brakes’ master cylinder, Mr. Nolasco said. The cylinder, which contains brake fluid, could leak under certain circumstances, causing a loss in braking power.
Toyota has also found an electrical fault with the fuel pump that could cause the engine to stall, Mr. Nolasco said. That defect was concentrated in models sold in Japan.
The automaker is not aware of any accidents linked to these problems, he said…
Owners will be notified by mailings beginning early next month, and dealers will replace part of the brake’s master cylinder free of charge, Toyota said.
The recall apparently is another reflection of Toyota losing their way, trying to get to GM’s historic size without considering GM’s historic quality problems.
I haven’t researched the fuel pump problems; but, it seems clear the brake cylinder leaking is strictly a beancounter problem. Someone figured out how to save a fraction of a penny on one small part or other – and diminished quality and life of the master cylinder. Typical of the breed. Didn’t used to be typical of Toyota.
Oil now leaking from Gulf disaster piping – UPDATED
Daylife/AP Photo used by permission
Oil appears not to be flowing from a sunken drilling rig and damaged well in the Gulf of Mexico, but hope was dimming as search continued for 11 workers missing in the disaster, said the U.S. Coast Guard.
“As of right now, the spill is not growing,” a U.S. Coast Guard spokeswoman said.
A remotely operated unmanned submarine sent down Thursday to inspect the scene found no oil leaking from the sunken Transocean Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and no oil flowing from the well, reducing the risk of a major spill, a spokeswoman said…
But 11 workers remained missing despite an intensive search and it was feared they were unable to escape the blast.
The Transocean Deepwater Horizon sank Thursday after burning since Tuesday following an explosion while trying to temporarily cap a new well drilled for BP 42 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana.
The blast occurred about 10 p.m. CDT Tuesday as the rig was capping a discovery well pending production, company officials said. Some 115 of the 126 workers on board at the time of the explosion were rescued.
I’m truly glad to see that the blowout protection systems appear to be working.
Obviously not as designed – for that would have prevented the explosion and resulting fire, loss of life and the rig. But, one of the critical portions of such systems is closing the wellhead and preventing an oil spill.
Folks will still need to get down to the bottom and properly cap the well. No doubt the process will include drilling an ancillary well to access the original production holes.
UPDATE: Capping the well acquires a higher priority now that risers and drill pipe from the wellhead are leaking oil at a rate approximated at 1000 barrels a day.
This is a serious rate – and although the blowout protection system did its job, the drill rig components failed as a result of the explosion and mechanical forces exerted on the drilling system.
