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As Obama Preaches Patience, Mattis Prepares for War With Iran - Daily Beast
Military sources close to the general tell The Beast that Mattis was worried that the president's decision, announced in November, to fully withdraw from Iraq would leave the US military without access to the country's bases and with few options to ...
How Will Smiths Men in Black 3 Almost Became a Disaster Movie - Daily Beast
According to a source close to the production, who requested not to be identified, Smith's notoriously exacting method of working through a screenplay—breaking down a script scene by scene with a laptop computer on set and demanding “last say” on ...
Romney's Shady Connections From Salt Lake Olympics Still Paying Off - Daily Beast
A top Keystone executive who asked not to be identified said that Simmons, who was so involved with Salt Lake's bid effort he trekked to the 1991 IOC selection meeting in Birmingham, England, “stepped up” to do the Kim hiring in part because the ...
Al Qaedas Body Bombs: Al-Asiris Next Threat - Daily Beast
“The idea was to insert the device in the terrorist's love handle,” says the US government source, who declined to be named discussing sensitive intelligence. While it was not clear whether the terror doctors had ever succeeded in implanting explosives ...
Iranian Rapper Shanin Najafi Faces Death Threats for Song Deemed Insult - Daily Beast
“In Iranian society, we are trained to fear God, so speaking directly against religious representations is not totally accepted, even if we lack belief in our hearts,” he said, on condition of anonymity for security concerns.
James Cameron and Investors Seek to Lasso and Mine an Asteroid - Daily Beast
A financial analyst, who did not wish to be identified, says these ventures are going to be mighty pricy. Not only is mining asteroids hard, but mining equipment is heavy. “Launching heavy things in space is the most expensive portion of all missions,” ...
Colombian Cabdriver Recounts Escorts' Reaction to Secret Service Feud - Daily Beast
The staffer at the Caribe, who declined to give his name for fear of reprisal, said that on the morning of April 12 he saw two women in the hall outside the room of some of the American guests. “They were just knocking, there was no violence.
New Account: Zimmerman Told Cops Trayvon's Last Words Were 'Okay, You Got It' - Daily Beast
AP Photo (2) Another neighbor, who asked that her name not be used, said, “George is a good friend of ours, and what they say about it being about black versus white is not what it's about.” She said Zimmerman's parents had insisted Zimmerman had acted ...
Tareq Salahi's $50M Suit Against Michaele, Schon, Journey Thrown Out - Daily Beast
A Virginia winery source who asked not to be identified, citing fears about being pulled into the Salahi feud, confirms Tareq has recently approached former employees with offers of jobs at his new Oasis venture. This person also cast doubt on whether ...
Turkey's Archaeology Blackmail - Daily Beast
“It's hard to see this as anything other than blackmail,” says one Western museum curator, who requested anonymity because she still holds out hope for improved cooperation with Turkey in the future. “To threaten international archeological efforts as ...
Interview With Harold Koh, Obama's Defender of Drone Strikes - Daily Beast
Yet each time he changed his mind, saying that he could not meet with me, as it turned out—presumably because administration officials said no. Koh's friends and colleagues have different theories about why he may have changed his views about targeted ...
Democrats Struggle to Market Obamacare to Skeptical American Public - Daily Beast
A creative director who spoke with me on the condition of anonymity said he is disillusioned with Stern's approach, however. Experienced in both consumer advertising and in the political arena on the Democratic side, he made the overarching observation ...
Current TV Files a Blistering Countersuit Against Fired Anchor Keith Olbermann - Daily Beast
The suit cites an e-mail, previously reported by The Daily Beast, that says the host in a fit of anger threw a glass mug on his set, shattering it, although a source close to Olbermann calls that “a gross overstatement.” If anyone else at Current ...
Officials: Bin Laden Had Pakistani Help—Not Necessarily Musharraf's - Daily Beast
Testimony by the Qaeda leader's youngest widow, Amal Ahmad Abdul Fateh, describing bin Laden's movements in Pakistan before he settled in the walled compound in Abbottabad in mid-2005 is “very plausible,” said one US official, who requested anonymity.
Murdoch Phone-Hacking Scandal Expands From U.K. to Australia - Daily Beast
Though the investigator refused to be identified, Foster said he believes the man's claims to be genuine, because the investigator could recall conversations Foster had had with his mother that were never made public, and because of the investigator's ...
Taliban: Soldier Didn't Act Alone - Daily Beast
“The foreigners and the puppet regime are blind to the truth of what happened here,” said the Taliban official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Relations between the United States and Afghanistan have degenerated recently, prompted by the ...
Israel's Campaign To Halt Organ Trafficking Tourism - Daily Beast
One Israeli woman who went abroad for transplantation, and who asked to remain anonymous, shared her story with The Daily Beast. She had been born with just one kidney, and in 2001, she noticed bubbles in her urine, a sign of kidney failure.
Two Companies Accused Of Fleecing US Troops - Daily Beast
Yet a former BBG Global employee, speaking on the condition of anonymity, sees things differently. “It's pretty simple,” the former employee said. “If someone knows the cost of the call they aren't going to use the service.” us - military - pay - phone ...
Former CIA Officials Say Iran's Clerics Want to Goad Israel Into an Attack - Daily Beast
(He asked that his name not be used because much of his work was classified.) “The guys you are talking about, they are not going to die,” he says. “They are not the ones who are going to get bombed. They can always find another lab technician, ...
'John Carter': Disney's Quarter-Billion-Dollar Movie Fiasco - Daily Beast
“You don't know what it is,” the source said. “The geek generation isn't responding. It's too weird for the family audience. Then it has the Disney brand and PG-13? I'm not sure who it's for.” For all Ross's difficulty with John Carter, most Hollywood ...
Rupert Murdoch Saves The Sun, But Crisis Could Move to America - Daily Beast
“People are saying that it's one way of pushing Murdoch out, of getting rid of Murdoch and his British operation,” says a source close to the family. Others believe that Murdoch is ill at ease with where the internal investigation has led.
Police: 'Sustained Criminality' at Murdoch's 'Sun' - Daily Beast
An anonymous source told Reuters that the investigation is looking into “regular cash payments totaling tens of thousands of pounds a year for several years to public officials, some of whom were effectively on retainers to provide information.
Brown Doesn't Deserve Forgiveness - Daily Beast
A young woman we'll call “Chloe S.” spoke to The Daily Beast on the condition of anonymity. Chloe was assaulted several years ago by her then boyfriend during one of his booze- and Adderall-fueled binges, when she was 18. She's now a seventh-grade ...
Writer Hamza Kashgari Handed Over to Saudis for 'Blasphemous' Tweets - Daily Beast
A friend of Kashgari's, who asked to remain anonymous, was at the airport with Kashgari and witnessed his arrest. “We were just watching him, waiting for him to pass the immigration checkpoint. Once he submitted his passport, they asked him to step ...
Saudi Blogger Hamza Kashgari Detained In Malaysia, Could Face Death Penalty - Daily Beast
A friend of Kashgari's, who asked to remain anonymous, told The Daily Beast on Wednesday that she had accompanied the blogger to the airport and witnessed his arrest. “We were just watching him, waiting for him to pass the immigration checkpoint.