The US Special Operations Command (SOCOM) oversees roughly 70,000 operators, support units, and civilians from each of the military's sister service branches.

America's elite soldiers, work under a shroud of secrecy to carry out high-risk missions with swift precision, laser focus and firm perseverance.

Operators work in up to 80 countries with sometimes less than 48 hours notice to accomplish assignments in counterterrorism, unconventional warfare, capture and assassinations of wanted peoples, and training of foreign forces.

Working with the military's most advanced technology and weapons, the projected FY2015 budget for US Special Ops forces is approximately $9.9 billion. 

The following graphic lists the strengths of each unit and how these elite warriors combine their skills to serve the interests of global security.

SEE ALSO: 18 Things Navy SEALs Never Leave Home Without

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The so-called survivalism movement — made popular by the reality show "Doomsday Preppers"— sounds a little crazy. The idea of preparing for the end of the world might conjure images of wild-eyed people in tin foil hats hiding in bunkers. In reality, normal people of many different backgrounds, races, and income levels spend their days preparing for the worst. 

Shows like "Doomsday Preppers" show off the extremes of the movement, including people building elaborate castles to survive the zombie apocolypse. However, little mention has gone to more average preppers, like New York City firefighter and family man Jason Charles, who heads up the NYC Preppers Network. 

We recently contacted Charles to learn the more sane and mundane truth about the prepper movement. As his two children horsed around his Harlem apartment, Charles explained that prepping is a reasonable reaction to the world today. For him, it's all about protecting his family.

The NYC Preppers Network meets regularly to discuss how to prepare for natural disasters, terrorist attacks, and global catastrophes. They work though various problems specific to New York City residents, such as limited space for storing emergency supplies and the difficulty of evacuating from a high density area like Manhattan. 

Charles started prepping nearly four years ago after reading Newt Gingrich's introduction to the science fiction novel "One Second After." In the introduction, Gingrich wrote about the possibility of a catastrophic electromagnetic pulse attack. Such an attack, he said, would “throw all of our lives back to an existence equal to that of the Middle Ages ... Millions would die in the first week alone.” To hear a public figure like Newt Gingrich seriously lay out what he thought was a plausible scenario convinced Charles that he needed to prepare.

How Natural Disasters Could Break Down Society

When Hurricane Sandy hit New York in 2012, Charles realized he needed to prep for a more immediate threat. While Manhattan emerged primarily unscathed, the devastation wrought across the coast of New Jersey, Staten Island, and Queens struck him. The city was able to recover quickly, but if something more catastrophic hit next time, like Hurricane Katrina in 2005, he wasn't so sure.  

“The breakdown of society doesn’t have to come from a nuclear bomb,” Charles told Business Insider. “It could be something like Hurricane Katrina. People were left on their own for too long. They had to wait for help. The government didn’t come fast enough. I don’t want to wait for help. I can be that help for my family and possibly my neighbors.”

Charles began talking to people on prepper forums who had lived through Hurricane Katrina. Their stories from the storm only strengthened his resolve. 

The most harrowing story he was told came from a prepper, who in the run-up to Katrina, urged his neighbors to buy emergency supplies, food, and water. Few listened and, when New Orleans flooded, they came to him for help.

He gave out supplies initially, but, when the neighbors returned with a crowd, he explained that he needed the rest for his family. The crowd turned antagonistic. The man scared them off with a shotgun, but it wasn't long before they returned throwing bricks through his windows in retaliation. He left soon after with as much of his emergency supplies as he could carry.

The Entitlement Problem, And How To Avoid It

Stories like this, according to Charles, happen often when "sh—t hits the fan." One prepared person warns others in the run-up to a potentially dangerous event and others don’t listen, expecting someone — the government or a friendly neighbor — to provide during a disaster. It’s what Charles calls “the entitlement problem,” a phenomenon talked about ad nauseam on prepper blogs and websites.

Many preppers believe modern society has conditioned people to depend on others (the government, companies, neighbors) to fix their problems, rather than taking the time and effort to care for their own needs. This mentality dominates during disaster scenarios, according to preppers. 

The entitlement problem can make things turn ugly, according to Charles.

“Everyone feels entitled to your stuff. They don’t prepare and they look to the people who did. People in this building know I’m a fireman,” Charles says. “They will come knocking on my door if something happens. They make the correlation.”

To avoid this scenario, he keeps his supplies hidden deep in a closet in his apartment. The closet houses an extensive food supply (ramen, rice, sugar, salt, flour, canned goods, meals-ready-to-eat), water, propane, and first-aid. Charles says he leaves the front of the closet looking messy to fool looters in the event of a breakdown.

Charles teaches fellow preppers in the NYC Preppers Network to, at the bare minimum, carry seven days worth of supplies. To him, doing so carries little risk and, in the off-chance that a disaster or an attack does happen, provides a lot of relief.

"Go big or die," says Charles. "The government says to carry three days of food and water. Don’t stop at what they say. People died during Katrina waiting for help. If all else fails, you will be able to help your neighbor out."

SEE ALSO: Pro-Kremlin Russian Media Says Moscow Has A 'Nuclear Surprise' For NATO

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Although it's changed hands some 61 times during the course of its 3,000-year history, modern-day Jerusalem is hardly the nexus of violence and controversy that it appears to be from the outside.

The city of today is a sometimes contentious fabric of Jews, Christians, and Muslims, although once you're there (as I was last week) these overly-broad categories start to feel like a trivializing over-simplification.

The city's Christian community includes a millennia-old Armenian enclave and a Mormon college that's only 25 years old; its Jews range from the black-clad Hassids of Mea She'arim or Kiryas Belz to the secular intellectuals who teach at the Hebrew University, or the westernized yuppies of who fill the cafes of Katamon and Rehavia.

Most of the city's Muslims, who live in the formerly Jordanian-occupied parts of Jerusalem that Israel took during the 1967 Middle East War, are mostly neither citizens of Israel nor subjects of the West Bank-based Palestinian authority. As scholar Johnathan Schanzer recently noted in Foreign Policy, a wave of protests and violent attacks over Israeli policies in the city have made Jerusalem "the epicenter of Palestinian unrest" for the first time in decades.

The city lives under a tenuous religious, cultural, and political balance that frequently buckles without ever snapping altogether — even if events like last week's deadly attack on a West Jerusalem synagogue have raised the ominous if however distant specter of violent disintegration. But as Yossi Klein Halevi noted in the Wall Street Journal in the wake of the attack, even with the upsurge of violence in the rest of the Middle East over the past few years, "the mixed city of Jerusalem has maintained, almost unnoticed, its civility and common decency."

There's little reason to think that will change. And there's no better place to get a sense of the city's rich history and equally deep complexities than the top of the bell tower of the 19th century Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in middle of the old city's Christian's quarter. It's offers a unique vantage point on Jerusalem's spectacular built environment — and on where the city's fault lines lie.

Here's what the view is like, and what it reveals.

1: The Dome of the Rock is one of early Islam's architectural masterpieces and was built in the late 7th century, not long after the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem.

Jews believe that the rock that the shrine encloses is both the Holy of Holies of the Jerusalem temple and the spot where Abraham nearly sacrificed his son Isaac in chapter 22 of the book of Genesis. For Muslims, the rock is where Mohammed ascended to heaven with the angel Gabriel at his side.

The Dome occupies the site of several earlier buildings: the second and possibly first Jewish temples, a shrine to Jupiter constructed after the Roman destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD.

2: The Al Aqsa Mosque is the third-holiest site in Islam. While it isn't visible in this photo, the Mosque sits directly above the staircase and entranceway to the Second Temple, the remains of which are preserved in a nearby archaeological park. It's also believed to be positioned above an ancient tunnel system connecting the long-destroyed Temple's lower entry to its inner courtyards. 

3: A security lookout standing guard over one of the major streets leading between the fringes of the Jewish and the Christian quarters to ...

4: The Western Wall, the holiest site in Judaism — that Jews are legally and religiously permitted to visit.

The Wall was an outer retaining barrier for the Second Temple built during King Harod's upgrades to the original, more modest structure less than 100 years before its destruction. Parts of Wall actaully extend under the entire western length of the Temple Mount, but the current Western Wall Plaza is built around an area that has been a center of Jewish pilgrimage and prayer for centuries.

There are two reasons Jews are not permitted to pray on the Temple Mount itself. One is religious: under Jewish law, a ritually impure individual cannot set foot in the Temple's Holy of Holies. The other is political: the Temple Mount is under the stewardship of the Jordanian government, which holds the area's Islamic holy sites in a religious trust. Jewish prayer on the Mount would be highly inflammatory to Muslims in Jerusalem and around the world and possibly even threaten Jordan and Israel's 1994 peace treaty.

The Western Wall represents a spiritual and temporal compromise — albeit a spiritually fulfilling one for Jewish visitors from around the world.

5: The East Jerusalem Arab neighborhood of Silwan sits just outside the walls of the Jewish quarter — and on top of the archaeological remains of the original, 10th century BC city of Jerusalem mentioned in the Biblical books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. Attempts to develop the site as a tourist attraction, along with the Jewish acquisition of property around what some believe to be the Biblical "City of David," are a major source of tension in the area.

6: According to Jewish tradition, the Valley of Gehennom, between the Temple Mount and the Mount of Olives, is where the souls of the dead will be resurrected on judgement day. The centuries-old Jewish cemetery blanketing this side of the Mount of Olives proves that Jews have a long-standing desire to have a front seat for the occasion.

1: The Damascus Gate is the most ornate entry point to Jerusalem's Old City. It's also one of the most important places in Arab East Jerusalem, a hub of commerce and a place to catch buses heading into the West Bank. When the Israelis place limits on Muslims access to the holy sites on the Temple Mount, Friday prayers will sometimes take place on the plaza facing the gate.

During the 1948 Middle East War, Jerusalem's entire Old City was left under Jordanian military occupation. The closed border between Jordanian and Israeli controlled sectors of the city ran along a now-active highway just a few hundred yards from the Damascus Gate — at least until the Israelis seized the eastern half of the city during the 1967 war.

2: These high rises are the student dormitories of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel's most prominent center for secular study. The small white dot just to the right is the British military cemetery on Mount Scopus, where thousands of troops killed during the allied World War I campaign against the Ottoman Empire — which included General Edmund Allenby's dramatic march into Jerusalem — are buried.

3: Though only vaguely visible in this photo, the Damascus Gate — the center of Arab East Jerusalem — is across the street from Mea She'arim, the most ultra-orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Jerusalem and possibly the entire world.

1: The Jerusalem Citadel has been the Old City's main point of defense for millennia — the current structure, built by the Ottoman emperor Suleiman the Magnificent, rests on top of walls and building foundations from pre-Roman times. This part of the city's walls were also garrisoned with Jordanian soldiers between 1948 and 1967, a time when the over 2000-year-old barrier marked the boundary point between the Israeli and Arab-controlled halves of the city.

2: West Jerusalem's King David Hotel was the British headquarters during post World War I mandatory period. It was notoriously the target of a bomb attack by Jewish paramilitaries in 1946 that killed 91 people, in the midst of an escalating three-way fight between Palestine's Jews, Arabs, and British mandatory government over the region's future. 

3: This modern skyscraper towers over King George and Ben Yehuda Streets — basically the center of present-day downtown West Jerusalem.

4: This intersection, called Muristan, is at the center of the Old City's Christian Quarter.

5: This tree-lined hill is the site of Yemin Moshe, the oldest Jewish neighborhood outside of the Old City's walls. It's been inhabited since the 1890s.

1: The Church of the Holy Sepulcher is where Jesus was crucified, entombed, and resurrected according to Christian belief. It's the holiest site in the religion, and doesn't occupy the space of any other, earlier shrine. But it's still shared between a half-dozen Christian sects that occupy their own corners of sometimes-labyrinthine complex that dates from Byzantine and Crusader times.

2: This stark modern skyscraper is located in Zion Square — one of West Jerusalem's central points.

1: Like much of the rest of the Jewish Quarter, the Hurva Synagogue was destroyed during the 1948 Middle East war; the Old City was then kept off-limits to Jews during the 19-year-long Jordanian occupation. The synagogue's original structure dates to the 1860s, although the reconstructed building was opened in 2010.

2: The basement of the Wohl Building, which is now a Jewish religious study center, houses the millennia-old ruins of the part of the ancient city of Jerusalem where the Jewish priestly class lived before the Second Temple's destruction in 70 AD.

3: The West Bank barrier is just barely visible in this photo. Constructed by Israel to stanch the wave of suicide bombings that hit Israel during the Second Intifada of the early 2000s and control West Bank Palestinian access to Israel proper, under 10% of the barrier is a concrete wall. It has turned into a potent symbol of Israel's ongoing control over the disputed West Bank — the Palestinian Arab areas that Israel took from a vanquished Jordanian army during the 1967 Middle East War. More optimistically, the barrier, which largely (though not entirely) follows the post-1948 War Israeli-Jordanian disarmament line, could help demarcate a border between Israel and an independent Palestinian state if there's ever a peace agreement.

The wall sections reach up to 24 feet, and are a grim and ever-present reminder of the Israel-Palestinian conflict's endurance.

4: These hills contain the predominantly Arab neighborhoods of Silwan and Abu Tur. These are poorer areas built into steep hillsides and are both physically and infrastructural cut off from more affluent neighborhoods in nearby West Jerusalem.

5: These antennas mark the headquarters of the UN's observer mission in Palestine. With violence on the rise and no resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in site, the mission won't be folding up shop anytime soon.

SEE ALSO: These are America's elite secret warriors

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A stockpile of Soviet documents recently translated for the Wilson Center and dating from the '80s reveal new details about the Soviet Union's fear of possible nuclear conflict during the closing years of the Cold War.

The documents offer insights into Project RYaN, an early-warning system with 300 dedicated KGB employees who monitored the potential for an "imperialist surprise nuclear missile attack" from NATO.

At a major KGB conference in Moscow in 1981, the agency's chairman, Yuri Andropov, unveiled Project RYaN (Raketno-Yadernoe Napadenie, or “nuclear weapon attack") as a necessity in the face of a US rival that the Kremlin believed was "actively preparing for nuclear war."

One translated KGB document lists some of the 292 indicators that might signal an impending attack.

Possible signs of a coming nuclear blitz could be as nuanced as increased production of vaccines and pharmaceuticals beyond "actual needs of the current epidemiological situation," or as seemingly ominous as "significant deviations in travel by diplomats and other privileged persons from NATO states."

Overall, the list of indicators is meant to keep a pulse on "all areas of society, primarily in political decision-making centers, the armed forces, the civil defense, the intelligence services, and the economy."

The documents also reveal cooperation between the Soviet KGB and the Stasi — its notorious Eastern German equivalent — in their efforts to monitor signs of an attack.

Germany didn't contribute to Project RYaN until 1985, but as Nate Jones writes for the Wilson Center, the documents "acknowledge that the Stasi was the KGB’s primary source of foreign intelligence," thanks to its insight into West Germany's tank production and other defense technology, as well as its eye on the heavy US military presence in the western Europe.

A 1986 letter from KGB Chairman Victor Chebrikov to his Stasi counterpart recognizes the "joint efforts on timely recognition of the danger of a sudden attack on the states of the socialist community."

The translated letters are also an interesting glimpse into the now-antiquated niceties of official Soviet communication: they open with salutations like "Dear Comrade Mielke!," and close with florid well-wishing and "communist greetings."

Some letters also betray anxiety that false indicators under Project RYaN might lead the Eastern Bloc to jump the gun and take military action. One document from 1984 states that "constant and ongoing assessments have to be made whether certain developments actually constitute a crisis or not."

The documents give a sense that confidence in the project was shaky at best, and Project RYaN may have generated more fears than assurances — this in the context of a world stage ripe with potential for unintended nuclear conflict. It might have also fed into the Soviet paranoia that resulted in a notorious 1983 war scare and led some in the Soviet hierarchy to wrongly believe that the US was considering a nuclear first-strike against Europe's already-fraying socialist bloc.

SEE ALSO: Russia now has a $12 billion reminder of its money problems

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Police in Jerusalem have been using sophisticated surveillance balloons to monitor protests and violence in the city.  The balloons, manufactured by an Israeli developer and manufacturer of intelligence systems, can stay in the air for up to 72 hours and carry sensitive cameras.

Produced by Devan Joseph. Narrated by Graham Flanagan. Video courtesy of Associated Press.

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If you asked a New Yorker, or anyone from the Northeastern Seaboard for that matter, 150 years ago if they were excited for Thanksgiving you would have received a blank stare.

Instead, that individual would likely be quickly preparing for the major late-November holiday of the time: Evacuation Day. 

Prior to President Lincoln's establishment of Thanksgiving as an annual national holiday — a decision that followed the Union victory at Gettysburg in an attempt to foster national unity — Thanksgiving simply did not exist as a standard celebration.

States and communities within the Northeast celebrated the idea of giving thanks, but it was never a widespread national event linked to a certain day, as it is now.

Instead, November 25th was a day for national celebration for a vastly different reason.

On November 25, 1783 the last British troops withdrew from Manhattan, signaling the end of the Revolutionary War. 

Grant Stoddard, writing for Cafe, recounts the birth of Evacuation Day: 

Washington's triumphal entry into [Manhattan] was delayed as the last Union flags that still flew were torn down. British soldiers went to the pains of flying a Union flag in Battery Park and greasing the flagpole. (The spiteful lubrication was intended to make removing the flag exceptionally difficult and all but ensured that it would still be in view as their ships departed.)

But as soon as British vessels raised sail, patriots did their all to remove it and replace it with the Stars and Stripes. Wooden cleats were quickly cut and nailed into the pole. 

Despite the grease, Continental Army veteran John Van Arsdale managed to clamber up the pole and rip down the flag while the British were still in view of the harbor.

In retaliation, the British fired a single cannon towards crowds lining Staten Island, but the shot fell short. 

The celebration of Evacuation Day continued until the lead-up to World War I, as a secular feast featuring plentiful amounts of food and liquor. The completion of the holiday was a competitive reenactment of clambering up an oiled pole to rip down a British flag. 

As relations with Britain warmed — and perhaps because the US and Britain were such close allies in World War I —  interest in Evacuation Day was quickly subsumed by Thanksgiving. 

But Evacuation Day should at least be brought back into the public conscience. Not because of any lingering ill will towards the British, of course. But rather because it's aa celebration, in properly unique fashion, of a newly established United States.

Along with the celebration of kicking out the British, Evacuation Day also serves as a poignant reminder that Americans died trying to free Manhattan from British rule — a place that's now the site of the US's greatest and most iconic city.

Over 10,000 Revolutionary soldiers and sailors perished aboard British prison ships in Brooklyn's Wallabout Bay (near the present-day Brooklyn Navy Yard) during the seven year British occupation of the city — a total that exceeds the number of soldiers killed in battles throughout the war. 

By celebrating Evacuation Day, the US can help remember these thousands of early American patriots, and commemorate the end of America's founding conflict.

SEE ALSO: The sad truth about what happens to 'pardoned' turkeys

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Shares of Taser International gained more than 6% on Wednesday after the company announced the Winston-Salem police department ordered more than 600 body cameras from the company.

In a release Wednesday, Taser said the Winston-Salem police department would buy 623 AXON body-worn video cameras and that the order was received during the fourth quarter. 

Taser makes body cameras and other safety gear.

The latest order from the Winston-Salem department follows an initial order of 293 cameras made in July.

Back in the summer, shares of Taser rallied after protests in Ferguson, Missouri, first broke out following the shooting death of Michael Brown by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson.

Protests have again broken out in Ferguson and across the country after a grand jury on Monday said it would not indict Wilson for his role in the death of Brown.

In August, some in the market attributed the strength in Taser shares to speculation that more police departments around the country would purchase the company's body cameras for more widespread use among their officers. 

In addition to Wednesday's rally, Taser shares have gained more than 40% in the past month.

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Mapmaking graphic artist Martin Vargic's has made an amazing graphic tracking the size of the world's largest armies at different points in time. 

The graphic gives an understanding of the just how mobilized the human race was during World War II — and shows how the size of the wold's largest armies has shunk over time as interstate warfare becomes less common and technology surpasses sheer manpower in military importance. 

It also gives us a chance to compare the size of some of the largest armies at different points in history with one another: the US had about as many troops in 1950, for instance, as China's Ming Dynasty had in 1400.

One loaded choice Vargic made is splitting the world between East and West. The graphic doesn't depict the world's single biggest army at any given time, but the biggest armies in two halves of a divided and sometimes antagonistic world.

In his research, Vargic drew from Encyclopedia Britannica, British think tank IISS, and Wikipedia. The first project listed on his website is a humorous map showing the Internet's biggest traffic drivers as countries drawn to scale.

Another project of his shows what would be left of the world should sea levels rise by 250 to 300 feet, which the Slovakian artist said is realistic should the polar ice caps melt completely.

SEE ALSO: This mythical map of the Internet is brilliant

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Nuclear talks with Iran were extended for seven months this week amid signs Tehran may be moving closer to making a deal, but the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, hasn't tempered his fiery rhetoric against the US. 

In a stream of messages published on his official English-language Twitter account Thursday, Khamenei criticized America for being "ill-mannered" in the nuclear talks. He also invoked the situation in Ferguson, Missouri as proof of the US government "isn't honest" with its people.

Khamenei's tweets were a summary of remarks he made on Thursday at the 16th summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Tehran where he indicated he was not opposed to continuation of the nuclear talks between Iran and the so-called P5+1 group (the US, Russia, China, Britain, France, and Germany). In that speech, Khamenei, who has authorized every step taken by Iran during the talks, indicated he supported an extension "for the same reasons I wasn't against negotiations."

According to  his tweets, Khamenei then criticized America as "arrogant" and accused US negotiators of being impolite while their Iranian counterparts were "diligent,""serious," and "caring."

Leader in a visit w Basij members talked about #NuclearTalks, #Ferguson& #Israel which is going to be published here. pic.twitter.com/1PDHqBEle2

— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) November 27, 2014

Those who threaten IRI should know that #Iran is invincible thanks to Basiji thinking.US gov is arrogant& rapacious;that's our problem w US.

— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) November 27, 2014

I'm not opposed to extension of #NuclearTalks for the same reason that I was not agnst negotiating. #IranTalksViennapic.twitter.com/a0bs7hpRkh

— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) November 27, 2014

#Iran's nuclear delegation is truly diligent& serious; they do resist agnst being bullied& work hard out of logic& caring. @JZarif@Araghchi

— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) November 27, 2014

US is the most ill-mannered &UK is the most cunning;if talks don't achieve results it's the US that faces loss. #Iranpic.twitter.com/E4LVh5ycrE

— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) November 27, 2014

Khamenei went on to invoke the situation in Ferguson, where there have been violent protests since a police officer shot an unarmed African-American teenager last August. Those demonstrations ramped up again on Monday after prosecutors announced a grand jury decided not to indict the officer. According to Khamenei, Ferguson is proof Americans "do not trust" the US government. He also suggested the US is only engaging in the negotiations to distract from "domestic problems."

We don't seek to gain the confidence of US; we don't need that. We don't trust you; your ppl do not trust you either. #Ferguson

— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) November 27, 2014

US isn't honest w its nation. The recent US election turnout was so low. At events in #Ferguson US is fighting w its ppl. #BlackLivesMatter

— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) November 27, 2014

Khamenei also criticized America's relationship with Israel, which has been a staunch opponent of any nuclear deal with Iran. He said there is a "Zionist network" that controls the "lifeline" of US officials. Khamenei also suggested "blackmail" by this "Zionist network" dictated how American politicians handled the situation in Ferguson.

US says that Israel's security must be protected;know that whether or not a deal is achieved,#Israel will get more insecure on a daily basis

— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) November 27, 2014

US concerns abt #Israel's security aren't genuine either.The goal is their interests by satisfying Zionist network that holds their lifeline

— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) November 27, 2014

#Zionist network blackmail US officials &if they act agnst their will, they're forced to resign,face defamation and death threats. #Ferguson

— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) November 27, 2014

Khamenei referenced letters about the talks the Iranian government received from President Barack Obama. That correspondence reportedly had a positive impact on the talks. Khamenei accused the US of using a "different" tone in the private letters than in public remarks. 

US is irrational.They speak different in their #letters than in public. US wants #IranTalks for its domestic problems pic.twitter.com/nvzXScl1yj

— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) November 27, 2014

Khamenei's tweets concluded with a vow Iran would accept a "fair" nuclear deal, but would not give in to "bullying."

We accept fair &reasonable agreements. Where there's bullying& excessive demands all of #Iran, ppl and officials,will not accept. #IranTalks

— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) November 27, 2014

Analysts have two theories about the inflammatory language Khamenei has used during the nuclear negotiations. While they could indicate Iran will eventually refuse to make a deal, the remarks could also be a sign Khamenei is attempting to build public and official support for an agreement. By publicly attacking the US, Khamenei could be building the impression he did not take a soft stance with Iran's longtime arch enemy while pursuing the negotiations. 

Under the current extension, negotiations will continue until June 30, 2015. During this time, Iran's nuclear program will remain frozen and the current sanctions on the country will not be lifted. 

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Boeing's P-8A Poseidon has been a part of the US Navy for a year this month. The converted airliner brings the latest in anti-submarine capabilities, reaching greater altitude and speed than its predecessor (without the nausea factor for its crew).

At the front of the plane, the P-8A sports an exclusive radar system supplied by Raytheon. In certain detection modes, the 408-pound radar system has a range of 200 nautical miles and provides ultra-high resolution images. A shorter-ranged setting offers enough precision to pick up on "small targets with limited exposure time in high sea states," according to Raytheon's fact sheet on the product.

The P8-A also has a refueling receptacle for missions that go beyond the 20 hours it can fly on a full tank.

The back half is dedicated to the storing and launching of sonar buoys from on high, which allow members of the nine-person crew to measure the sound propagation around these underwater units — just as a submarine or warship typically would. The P-8A can send out more than 100 of these yard-long "sonobuoys" in a single flight.

And in the middle, "any operator can control and monitor any sensor from their station," a Boeing representative wrote in an email to Business Insider. Each of five operator stations is equipped with two 24-inch high resolution displays, which were designed to work seamlessly with Raytheon's radar system.

Unlike some vehicles contracted from private manufacturers, the P-8A's militaristic features "are incorporated in sequence during fabrication and assembly" rather than being tacked on in post-production. It's built from the fuselage of Boeing's 737-800 and the wings of its 737-900.

 The US Navy currently owns 13 units of the P-8A, with plans to eventually expand its stable to 117.

Already the plane has played a role in the South Asian theater, where China's confidence in laying claim to disputed islands and waters meets a US presence meant to strengthen ties with nervous allies.

In August a Chinese fighter jet performed several passes — and even a barrel roll — near and above an American P-8A flying some 135 miles east of Hainan, home to a Chinese submarine base. At the time, China said the pilot had kept a safe distance, while the US described the event as dangerous.

In talks that raised the incident earlier this month, China and the US agreed to new guidelines aimed at avoiding further friction, including notification requirements and rules of behavior for future encounters.    

The P-8A doesn't just make spy flights; in addition to its primary function as an intelligence-gathering asset, it can carry various payloads: cruise missiles, naval mines, and even torpedoes.

Boeing has also created the P-8I, a variant on the Poseidon designed for foreign markets. The Indian Navy has purchased eight of these, the last two of which will be delivered next year, to replace their Russian Tu-142 aircraft.

According to Boeing, the company is fielding interest from other countries as well; Australia has moved to acquire eight of its own.

India's P-8I, per their contract request, is equipped with a Magnetic Anomaly Detector (MAD) eschewed by the plane's parent version.

The tailpiece picks up on variances in the Earth's magnetic field created by large metal objects (like submarines).

India's own group of planes may go towards monitoring the same rival its American cousin does. "Indian strategists speak in alarmist, geopolitical terms about a Chinese footprint in India’s sphere of influence and a possible encirclement," the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute wrote in March. "They call for a speedy and forceful investment in a blue water navy." For that, Boeing's latest surveillance aircraft could make a strong complement.

This post has been updated from an earlier article on the P-8 series, which drew inaccurate information from the Reuters graphic.

SEE ALSO: China doesn't like being buzzed by US spy planes, but we're going to keep doing it anyway

SEE ALSO: Another look at the military base china is building on a disputed reef

SEE ALSO: This massive Navy plane is the most advanced search aircraft in the world

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The Obama administration's current strategy for defeating the Islamic State (aka ISIS, ISIL, or Daesh) is doomed to fail, International Crisis Group Syria analyst Noah Bonsey writes in Foreign Policy.

Bonsey argues that America's Iraq-first outlook is emboldening Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and marginalizing mainstream Syrian rebel factions fighting both ISIS and the regime.

Obama recently said that the US is not actively discussing ways to remove Assad from power. The main US-backed rebel group was recently routed by al-Qaeda's Syria affiliate.

Meanwhile, ISIS is consolidating power in Sunni Arab areas in Iraq and increasingly trying to capture areas in Syria from the mainstream rebels. The US continues to bomb ISIS positions near the Turkish border.

"The crux of the American dilemma in Syria is thus clear: Degrading jihadi groups requires empowering mainstream Sunni alternatives, but doing so may prove impossible unless Damascus (or its backers in Tehran) can be convinced or compelled to dramatically shift strategy," Bonsey writes, noting that Assad facilitated the rise of ISIS.

"For now, the regime treats the Western-, Arab-, and Turkish-backed opposition as the main threat to its dominance in Syria and treats the Islamic State as a secondary concern that the United States is already helping to deal with. Iran has done nothing to suggest that it objects to the regime's strategy; instead, it is enabling it."

Anne Barnard of The New York Times reports there is a broad sense that "President Obama’s policies on Syria and the Islamic State remain contradictory, and the longer the fight goes on without the policies being resolved, the more damage is being done to America’s standing in the region."

The Obama administration has said that empowering Sunni tribes in Iraq and the mostly-Sunni opposition in Syria is crucial to their strategy to degrade and destroy ISIS.

At the same time, as US extended nuclear talks with Iran for another seven months, Tehran continues to back Assad with men, money, and weapons against a Sunni uprising. Iran also directs brutal government-backed Shia militias in Iraq while pushing Baghdad to refrain from arming Sunni tribes.

"Damascus and Tehran appear to believe that achieving regime victory is simply a matter of maintaining the conflict's current trajectory. This view, however, is shortsighted and would yield an unprecedented recruiting bonanza for jihadi groups," Bonsey concludes, adding that the Obama administration must "find ways to change calculations in Damascus and Tehran." 

Check out Bonsey's full argument >

SEE ALSO: Obama's Policy On Assad, In One Word

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SEOUL (Reuters) - In her slim-fitting trouser suits and black-heeled shoes, Kim Yo Jong cuts a contrasting figure to her pudgy older brother, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

On Thursday, state media said the younger Kim, 27, had taken a senior position in the ruling Workers' Party, confirming speculation she had moved closer to the center of power in the secretive state.

Kim Yo-jong, the younger sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has emerged as a key figure http://t.co/c9UDJHe1Tupic.twitter.com/FOpJfbiKHe

— The Korea Times (@koreatimes1) November 28, 2014

It named her as a vice director alongside the head of the Propaganda and Agitation Department, which handles ideological messaging through the media, arts and culture.

Kim Yo Jong's title supports earlier reports from a North Korean defector group which said she may have taken a high-level role when Kim Jong Un recently disappeared from public view for more than a month, prompting speculation about his grip on power.

South Korea's intelligence agency later said Kim, 31, was likely to have had surgery on his left ankle. Kim has since reappeared, walking with a limp.

Kim Yo Jong's power has been likened to that of a prime minister, an unnamed South Korean intelligence source told the Seoul-based JoongAng Ilbo newspaper in April, even before her brother's injury.

"All roads lead to Comrade Yo Jong," the source said.

Kim Yo Jong has featured in state propaganda since her brother took over the nuclear-capable country upon the death of their father, Kim Jong Il, in late 2011.

In 2012, as state TV showed Kim Jong Un arriving at the opening of an amusement park in Pyongyang, Kim Yo Jong ran from one position to another between ranks of applauding party cadres and generals as if she was orchestrating the event for the new North Korean dictator.

Since then, the smartly-dressed Kim, her hair usually pulled back in a ponytail, has made several appearances with her brother, giggling at state concerts, presenting awards to fighter pilots or riding a white horse.

Women in patriarchal North Korea rarely become high-ranking officials or military commanders. They do, however, receive military training.

They are also vital to North Korea's moribund economy. With many men engaged in state-appointed jobs in factories and bureaucratic departments, it is often women who turn to black market trading to earn the income most families need to survive.

But for Kim Yo Jong, it is her family name and proximity to Kim Jong Un that supersedes any cultural norms.

"People who are nominally her superiors most likely defer to her," said Michael Madden, an expert on the North Korean leadership.

A NORTH KOREAN PRINCESS

When Kim Jong Il ruled North Korea, his sister Kim Kyong Hui took a powerful role as a personal assistant with high-ranking military and party jobs.

She has not been seen since her husband, Jang Song Thaek, once regarded as the No.2 leader in Pyongyang, was purged and executed late last year.

Writing in his 2003 memoir about his 13 years as Kim Jong Il's sushi chef, Kenji Fujimoto said the late dictator had a trusting relationship with Ko Yong Hui, his fourth partner, with whom he had three children: Kim Jong Un, Kim Yo Jong, and their elder brother Kim Jong Chol.

"Ko said she had traveled to Disneyland in Europe and Tokyo with her kids," Fujimoto wrote.

Not much is known about the elder Kim, who was once photographed at the Swiss boarding school all three children reportedly attended in a replica of Dennis Rodman's NBA basketball jersey.

Even at dinner, Fujimoto said, Kim Jong Il kept his eldest son at arm's length, preferring to place future leader Kim Jong Un and his sister, beside himself and their mother whom he called 'madam'.

"Kim Jong Il sits in the middle, and to his left, sits his madam," wrote Fujimoto.

"Prince Jong Un sits to the left of the madam, and the princess sits to the right of Kim Jong Il."

(Editing by Dean Yates)

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BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria rejected as "fabricated" U.S. accusations that its forces are targeting civilians with air strikes and said Washington would do better to criticize hardline Islamic State militants who have killed American citizens.

The U.S. State Department said on Wednesday it was "horrified" by Syrian government bombings in Raqqa province which it said had killed "dozens of civilians and demolished residential areas".

"The Syrian Arab Army does not target civilians and will not do so," the state news agency SANA quoted Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi as saying late on Thursday.

He said Washington was getting its information from "terrorist organizations" operating in Syria such as Islamic State and al Qaeda's Nusra Front.

Throughout 2014, Syrian military helicopters have been dropping steel barrels packed with explosives and shrapnel out of the back of helicopters on rebel-held areas of Syria.

Tuesday's government strikes on the northern Raqqa province killed 95 civilians, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Raqqa province is the stronghold of Islamic State, a hardline al Qaeda offshoot which has seized land in Syria and neighboring Iraq.

Both the Syrian air force and U.S.-led forces are bombing Syria in separate air campaigns and both say they are targeting militant groups.

"The U.S. State Department should rather have shown respect for the souls of American victims at the hands of terrorists from the Daesh (Islamic State) organization and not directed fabricated accusations towards the Syrian state which has been facing terrorism for years," Zoubi was quoted by SANA as saying.

Three U.S. civilians - two journalists and an aid worker - have been beheaded by Islamic State.

Zoubi said the U.S. statement on Wednesday had ignored crimes committed by Islamic State, adding that Syria was more committed to its people than countries which send money and weapons to "terrorists" and train them.

The United States has backed anti-government rebels and wants to train and equip some to counter Islamic State. Qatar has been running a camp for rebels, sources say.

The government of President Bashar al-Assad has characterized all opponents of his rule as extremists.

"Everyone has to choose between two options - either you are with terrorism, Daesh, Nusra Front and others or you are countering terrorism," Zoubi said.

The United Nations estimates that some 200,000 people have been killed in Syria's civil war since 2011, though activists say the real figure is much higher.

(Reporting by Sylvia Westall; Editing by Gareth Jones)

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Iran may say repeatedly that its nuclear program is strictly peaceful, but the country is not allowing the world's top nuclear watchdog to confirm that assertion.

"We still cannot give the assurance that all of the activities in Iran are for peaceful purposes," International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Yukiya Amano told CNN this week. 

"We have two problems: one is that Iran is not fully cooperating with the Agency to clarify the information that may have military aspects," Amano continued. "Another problem is that Iran is not allowing us to implement a more powerful verification tool which is called an 'Additional Protocol.'" 

A de-classified 2007 National Intelligence Estimate concluded that Iran suspended its race for a bomb in late 2003. However, it also noted that smaller-scale activity continued and warned that “Iran probably would use covert facilities — rather than its declared nuclear sites — for the production of highly enriched uranium for a weapon.”

Iran denies claims that it ever had a weapons program and says any documents suggesting it did are fabricated. But there's no way for the IAEA to know for sure if Iran keeps stonewalling the agency.

"We ask Iran to fully cooperate with us so that we can provide the assurance that all the activities in Iran is in peaceful purpose," Amano said repeatedly on CNN.

The New York Times refers to Iran's potential nuclear weapons capability as "a delicate question that has been little discussed in public: how to design an agreement to maximize the chances that Western intelligence agencies would catch any effort to develop an atomic bomb at a covert site."

The current deal focuses on how to deal with Iran’s three major “declared” nuclear facilities so that there is sufficient time to notice if Iran attempts to produce enough fuel for a bomb. But the risk of a bomb being built in secret is greater.

"Unstated is the fear of a more problematic issue, referred to as 'sneakout,'" The Times notes. "That describes the risk of a bomb being produced at an undetected facility deep in the Iranian mountains, or built from fuel and components obtained from one of the few trading partners happy to do business with Tehran, like North Korea." 

SEE ALSO: The Depressing Reason Why Iran May Have Rejected A Generous Nuclear Deal

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Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) thinks the White House is pushing increasingly ridiculous legal arguments in the fight against the Islamic State group (also known as ISIS).

In order to justify its airstrikes against the Islamic State jihadists, President Barack Obama's administration has cited authorizations for military force that date back to 2001 and 2002.

Paul, a likely presidential candidate in 2016, called that argument "absurd" four times in a Wednesday interview on Fox News. He noted the Islamic State didn't even exist in its current form at the time of the two authorizations.

"Both of those I'd say would be absurd contentions. Basically, in 2001 we voted for an authorization that said the people who attacked us on 9/11, that we would go after them. Well, this [ISIS] group wasn't in existence then, and this group isn't even allied with Al Qaeda. This group is at odds with Al Qaeda. So I think it's absurd," Paul told host Greta Van Susteren. "It's absurd to try and say a linkage to a war started 15 years ago."

Earlier in the week, Paul unveiled what he views as a solution to the White House's legal problem: a formal declaration of war in Congress. His office said he plans to introduce it in December when the Senate returns to session.

In his Fox News interview, Paul further said when he confronted Secretary of State John Kerry over the US' legal argument for its military strikes against the Islamic State, Kerry gave him another questionable justification: the inherent powers of the presidency defined by Article 2 of the Constitution.

"The president absolutely, clearly, by almost any legal standard that I can imagine, is not violating the Constitution; he's upholding it. Article 2 gives the president the power to do what he's doing," Kerry told Paul in a congressional committee hearing in September. "The president has the right, as the president under Article 2, to defend this nation."

Paul was unimpressed with Kerry's position, which he characterized as giving Obama "unlimited power to go to war."

"He said — which I think is absurd — he said, 'Well if [the 2001 authorization] doesn't do it, then the president has Article 2 authority to do whatever he wants. I disagree with that. And I think most constitutional scholars do. And I think most of the people in the American public do not think the president has unlimited power to go to war," Paul recalled on Fox.

View the Fox News segment below.

SEE ALSO: Rand Paul Releases Declaration of War Against ISIS

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The US and Turkey are headed for a showdown over Syria, as evidence mounts that Ankara is enabling groups that Washington is actively bombing.

Discord between the two allies is now more public than ever following a new report by Dr. Jonathan Schanzer and Merve Tahiroglu of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

"Bordering on Terrorism: Turkey’s Syria Policy and the Rise of the Islamic State" details Turkey's apparent willingness to allow extremists — including militants from the Islamic State (aka IS, ISIS, or ISIL) — and their enablers to thrive on the 565-mile border with Syria in an attempt to secure the downfall of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad.

"The IS crisis has put Turkey and the US on a collision course," the report says. "Turkey refuses to allow the coalition to launch military strikes from its soil. Its military also merely looked on while IS besieged the Kurdish town of Kobani, just across its border. Turkey negotiated directly with IS in the summer of 2013 to release 49 Turks held by the terrorist group. In return, Ankara reportedly secured the release of 180 IS fighters, many of whom returned to the battlefield. 

"Meanwhile, the border continues to serve as a transit point for the illegal sale of oil, the transfer of weapons, and the flow of foreign fighters. Inside Turkey, IS has also established cells for recruiting militants and other logistical operations. All of this has raised questions about Turkey’s value as an American ally, and its place in the NATO alliance."

Schanzer, a former counterterrorism analyst for the US Treasury Department, told Business Insider that Ankara was "like that guy at the casino who keeps doubling down on a bad bet. Each time the policy has failed, Turkey appears to have decided to go back and do it again, but with higher stakes." 

Throughout the Syrian civil war, Turkey's southern border has served as a transit point for cheap oil, weapons, foreign fighters, and pillaged antiquities. As the conflict progressed, the fighters taking advantage of Ankara's lax border policies were more and more radical.

"What began with scattered opposition forces exploiting the border became something that was really focused on the Muslim Brotherhood, which then became something that was utilized by [Salafist rebel group] Ahrar al Sham, which was then utilized by [al-Qaeda affiliate] The Nusra Front, which is now utilized by ISIS," Schanzer told Business Insider.

He added that given various reports of jihadi financiers sitting in hotels on the border between Syria and Turkey, "it is impossible that [Turkey's intelligence agency] MIT is not aware" of what's going on. 

The financiers "are doling out cash to those who come back with videos of attacks, proof of what they've done against the Assad regime or other enemies," said Schanzer, who previously detailed Turkey's terrorism finance problem to Business Insider. Those videos are then used as propaganda to raise more money for funding fighters.

America's Role

The report notes that policy of the administration of US President Barack Obama regarding Syria may have indirectly instigated Turkey's dangerous policy.

After supporting Turkey's cause of ousting Assad, Washington didn't follow up with significant support to the moderate opposition while Assad dropped Scud missiles and barrel bombs on playgrounds and bakeries.

Obama then balked at enforcing his "red line" after Assad's forces killed an estimated 1,400 people in four hours by firing rockets filled with nerve gas on rebel-held territory near the capital.  

"I was in Turkey during the Ghouta attacks, and [Turkish officials] were incredulous," Schanzer said. "They believed that the United States was squarely behind [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan, not only just in terms of steering Syria into soft landing, but also that it would back up its words with deeds and take action in light of an ongoing slaughter.

"So I think in a sense once it became clear that the US was not going to be holding to its word, there was a sense among the Turks that they had to do this themselves."

ISIS And Blowback

"Turkey does not have a conflict with ISIS, doesn't want a conflict with ISIS, and ISIS is benefiting from [Turkey's] border policies," Schanzer said. "Beyond that it gets a lot more fuzzy, but the point is that the Turks are not being forthcoming about this relationship."

He added that despite no evidence that Turkey was actively working with ISIS, "it cannot be denied that Turkey is helping to facilitate the activities of a terrorist organization that has killed Americans and is destabilizing the region."

Furthermore, ISIS is gaining a following in the country. The report cites an email from Turkey-based BuzzFeed reporter Mike Giglio that highlighted his concern about the "level of ISIS support among the 1-million-plus Syrians living in Turkey. I don't see how they can successfully weed out ISIS supporters from among these refugees."

Schanzer said that as the suspected presence of ISIS inside Turkey increased, and with it support inside Turkey for ISIS and other extremist groups, it becomes that much more difficult for Turkey to do anything.

"They've inadvertently created a mechanism that can yield blowback for them that could be extremely painful," Schanzer said. "You have a lot of people now that are invested in the business of extremism in Turkey. If you start to challenge that, it raises significant questions of whether" the militants, their benefactors, and other war profiteers would tolerate the crackdown.

Impossible To Maintain

Tensions between Ankara and Washington won't dissipate "so long as Turkey tries to remain neutral with regard to ISIS while all of these things are happening on its border," according to Schanzer.

Consequently, the report argues, Washington must find a way to work with Turkey. Outgoing Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel described Turkey as "absolutely indispensable" to the ISIS fight. Turkey would need to shut down the border, wrap up known nodes of Nusra and ISIS supporters, remove ISIS recruitment cells, and dismantle ISIS logistical operations inside the country. (Schanzer noted that the US or NATO could assist.)

"A lot of this is going to come down to the will of Ankara right now," Schanzer said, adding that a lack of cooperation could result in Treasury Department sanctions against "individuals who are taking an active role in these illicit pipelines" on the Turkish side of the border.

"After that, I think we do begin to question whether security or intelligence cooperation can continue when there isn't an honest give and take with what's happened," Schanzer added.

The report concludes that Ankara must understand that "while America's Syria policy may have been feckless, its border policy has been reckless." And the repercussions of doubling down even further would jeopardize relations with a crucial ally. 

"No one wants to scuttle this relationship. But I do think that as more and more of this comes to light, it becomes ... essentially impossible to maintain the status quo," Schanzer said. "If we've decided that ISIS is an enemy worth defeating, it becomes impossible to maintain the relationship as it is."

SEE ALSO: Obama's Policy On Assad, In One Word

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An American Airlines airplane from Barcelona was evacuated early Sunday afternoon at New York City's JFK Airport following a bomb threat. 

"We are standing by precautionarily at JFK," an FDNY spokesman told Business Insider shortly before 1 p.m. EST. "We're awaiting information from the Port Authority."

The bomb threat was "telephoned in," a spokesman from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey told The New York Times. One passenger told The Times that the plane had landed early but then taxied away from the terminal. Emergency personnel waited for them and ordered them to go to a grassy area by the runway, according to The Times.

Robert Wolf — the former President and Chief Operating Officer of UBS Investment Bank, as well as Chairman and CEO of UBS's Group Americas division — was apparently on that flight, American Air Flight 67 from Barcelona. He sent out several tweets along with photos. 

Just escorted by police off @AmericanAir flight 67 from Barcelona w rumors of bomb threat pic.twitter.com/J01pOMSEhf

— Robert Wolf (@robertwolf32) November 30, 2014

. @AmericanAir flight 67 - currently all in a holding area outside surround by police & emergency service units pic.twitter.com/44UCux26i6

— Robert Wolf (@robertwolf32) November 30, 2014

Coming off @AmericanAir flight 67 as Bomb Squad directs us pic.twitter.com/8WRGR6rLNZ

— Robert Wolf (@robertwolf32) November 30, 2014

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Drug trafficking, trading nuclear material, contract murders, and international prostitution — that's how the Federal Bureau of Investigation believes Semion Mogilevich, one of its top 10 most wanted fugitives, has spent his time over the last few decades.

Indicted in 2003 for countless fraud charges, Mogilevich now primarily lives in Moscow. His location allows him to maintain close ties to the Bratva, or The Brotherhood, aka the Russian mob.

The 'Boss Of Bosses'

A 5'6" and a portly chain smoker, Mogilevich is known as "boss of bosses" in one of the biggest mafia states in the world.

Born in 1946 in Kiev, Ukraine, Mogilevich once acted as the key money laundering contact for the Solntsevskaya Bratva, a super-gang based in Moscow. He has since held over 100 front companies and bank accounts in 27 different countries, all to keep the cash flowing.

In 1998, the FBI released a report naming Mogilevich as the leader of an organization with about 250 members. Only in operation only four years, the group's main activities included arms dealing, trading nuclear material, prostitution, drug trafficking, oil deals, and money laundering.

Between 1993 and 1998, however, Mogilevich caught the FBI's attention when he allegedly participated in a $150 million scheme to defraud thousands of investors in a Canadian company, YBM Magnex, based just outside Philadelphia, which supposedly made magnets. With his economics degree and clever lies, Mogilevich forged documents for the Securities and Exchange Commission that raised the company's stock price nearly 2,000%.

When asked about YBM by BBC in 2007, Mogilevich replied: "Well if they found old-fashioned hanky panky [i.e., suspicious activity], it's up to them to prove it. Unfortunately, I don't have access to FBI files."

"What makes him so dangerous is that he operates without borders,"said Special Agent Peter Kowenhoven, who has worked on Mogilevich's case since 1997. "Here’s a guy who managed to defraud investors out of $150 million without ever stepping foot in the Philadelphia area."

In 1998, the Village Voice reported on hundreds of previously classified FBI and Israeli intelligence documents. They placed Mogilevich, also known as "Brainy Don," as the leader of the Red Mafia, a notorious Russian mob family infamous for its brutality. Based in Budapest, members held key posts in New York, Pennsylvania, Southern California, and even New Zealand.

"He's the most powerful mobster in the world," Monya Elison, one of Mogilevich's partners in a prostitution ring, told the Voice. He claimed he's Mogilevich's best friend.

Geopolitical Influence

Arguably one of Mogelivich's most concerning characteristics is his influence in Europe's energy sector. With only a $100,000 bounty on his head, he controls extensive natural gas pipelines in Russia and Eastern Europe.

Right now, Russia supplies about 30% of Europe's gas. Ironically, the country's largest pipeline to the rest of Europe shares a name with the mob — Bratstvo.

John Wood, a senior anti-money laundering consultant at IPSA International wrote an entire report on Mogelivich. According to his research, the Ukrainian-born Russian mobster had long planned his stake in Europe's gas.

In 1991, Mogilevich started meddling in the energy sector with Arbat International. For the next five years, the company served as his primary import-export petroleum company. Then, in 2002, an Israeli lawyer named Zeev Gordon, who represented Mogilevich for more than 20 years, created Eural Trans Gas (ETG), the main intermediary between Turkmenistan and Ukraine. Some reports show that Gordon registered the company in Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash's name.

After that, Russia’s energy giant Gazprom and Ukraine's Centragas Holding AG teamed up to establish Swiss-registered RosUkrEnergo (RUE) to replace ETG. Firtash and Gazprom reportedly roughly split the ownership of RUE.

In 2010, however, then prime minister of Ukraine, Yulia Tymoshenko, said she had "documented proof that some powerful criminal structures are behind the RosUkrEnergo (RUE) company,"according to WikiLeaks. Even before, the press had widely speculated about Mogilevich's ties to RUE.

Although Firtash has repeatedly denied having any close relationship with Mogilevich, he has admitted to asking permission from the mobster before conducting business in Ukraine as early as 1986, Reuters recently reported. At the request of the FBI, Firtash was arrested in Austria for suspicion of bribery and creating a criminal organization.

Mogilevich may even have a working relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a published conversation between Leonid Derkach, the former chief of the Ukrainian security service, and former Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma.

"He's [Mogilevich] on good terms with Putin," Derkach reportedly said. "He and Putin have been in contact since Putin was still in Leningrad."

A Free Man

In 2007, Mogelivich told BBC that his business was selling wheat and grain.

In 2008, however, Russian police arrested Mogelivich, using one of his many pseudonyms, Sergei Schneider, in connection with tax evasion for a cosmetics company, Arbat Prestige. Mogilevich ran that company with his partner, Vladimir Nekrosov. Three years later, the charges were dropped.

Considering the US doesn't have an extradition treaty with Russia, as long as Mogilevich stays within Putin's borders, the "boss of bosses" will likely remain a free man. He's believed to have Russian, Israeli, Ukrainian, and Greek passports.

SEE ALSO: Putin Just Tightened His Control Of The East Black Sea

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Oil prices plunged following Thursday's OPEC meeting in which the cartel announced that it would not cut production.

Falling energy prices have put pressure on the budgets of the world's major oil-producing nations like Russia.

However, Russian President Vladimir Putin doesn't seem too worried.

"Winter is coming," he said Friday according Bloomberg News."I am sure the market will come into balance again in the first quarter or toward the middle of next year."

Putin is "sanguine, suggesting falling oil won't force him to meet Western demands that he curb his country's interference in Ukraine,"reports Bloomberg News.

Putin's favorable view of winter isn't too surprising. Traditionally, the colder it gets around the world, the better it gets for the Russian economy as its trading partners import more oil and natural gas.

"It is the power of colder weather that allows Russia, as the key supplier of energy to Europe, to apply leverage. That leverage can take the form of higher prices, restricted volumes, a combination of both, or negotiations that directly or indirectly affect these additional costs," Cumberland Advisors Chair David Kotok wrote earlier.

Russia provides one-third of the natural gas that European countries rely on both for heating their homes and running industries. So if there's no natural gas, that's bad news for Europe's economy.

One country in particular that Russia really benefits from is Ukraine. In 2013, more than half of the natural gas consumed by Ukraine came from Russia.

And with Ukraine's coal mines located exactly where the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict is located, Ukraine will be forced to increasingly rely on Russian gas.

But even if it's an extremely cold winter, the dropping oil prices are still ominous for Russia.

"Russia in particular seems vulnerable" to the huge drop in oil prices, Allan von Mehren, the chief analyst at Danske Bank A/S in Copenhagen, told Bloomberg News. "A big decline in the oil price in 1997-98 was one factor causing pressure that eventually led to Russian default in August 1998."

And on top of that, the country's economy is not in an ideal situation.

Russia is still struggling following the sanctions imposed by the US and the EU. Additionally, Russia's non-gold international reserves have dropped to $370 billion, down from $457 billion in the start of the year.

And earlier Monday, the ruble crashed to an all-time low, down as much as 8% earlier in the day. (It has since slightly rebounded.)

You can read the full Bloomberg story here.

NOW WATCH: You've Been Tying Your Scarf All Wrong — Here Are 3 Ways To Stay Warm

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As the head of the NYC Preppers Network, New York City firefighter Jason Charles spends his spare time thinking about what would happen in the event of a catastrophe, planning for everything from the weather-related, like a hurricane, to the more sinister, like a mass chemical attack.

It isn’t necessarily fun, but Charles believes it's incredibly important to prepare for every contingency possible. This is the type of “game” that all preppers, a subculture made famous by National Geographic’s TV show Doomsday Preppers, take part in. A game of chess, says Charles, where winning or losing means life or death.

Unlike other preppers, many of whom live in less populated areas, Charles has to contend with one major obstacle to surviving any apocalypse: living on the island of Manhattan. 

“The biggest problem is getting off this rock,” Charles told Business Insider from his Harlem apartment. “People in a town or a landlocked city can just walk out. We can’t. And you can’t swim off the island unless you are an Olympic swimmer.”

The predicament has led Charles and his fellow preppers in the NYC Preppers Network to troubleshoot potential ways of getting out of New York City, which Charles feels is paramount to surviving a disaster. Charles laid out his plan for us.

In the event of a catastrophe, Charles' first move is to grab his wife, kids, and dog, as well as their respective “bug-out bags,” a prepping term for a bag loaded with everything needed to survive for a week or more. Charles keeps these bags stocked at all times and in an accessible area in his apartment.

He would move quickly to his truck, which he parks no more than a couple of blocks from his apartment. If the streets are navigable by car, he will take them in it for as long as possible. His assumption is that he will have to leave it at some point and hike possibly tens of miles. 

“If we can take the car even five or ten blocks, we will take it. On a long haul, you want to save as much energy as you can.” In the event that the streets are congested to the point that driving is impossible, Charles will ditch the car and continue on foot. He and his wife each will carry their own bug-out bag, while their two children will sit in their double stroller and hold their own bags. The dog would carry his own bug-out bag strapped to his back.

The family will then make the hike to the West Side of Manhattan with the intention of crossing on foot over the George Washington Bridge or through the Holland or Lincoln Tunnel.

Charles has a solar and handcrank-powered radio to hear any reports over the airwaves. He also has a solar-panel charger for his cell phone, in case cell reception is still active.

If they hear reports that the bridges and tunnels are already closed, they will head to the water. Charles has two heavy-duty rafts in his pack which they will use to cross the Hudson River.

“We have two rafts that attach: one for us and one for our gear. Our goal is to get across the Hudson River at high tide,” explains Charles. 

Once they land across the river, hopefully as north as possible, Charles and his family will continue hiking as far and as fast as they can into a wilderness area, where they can set up a protected camp for the night to rest. In the following days, they will continue hiking north, with the intention of getting as far from population centers as possible. 

While Charles has thought out this plan a hundred different times, he recognizes that in the heat of the moment, it's unlikely anything will go according to plan. 

“There are so many variables to a ‘bug-out’ situation. You expect things to go from A to B, but instead they go A to Z. It’s a crappy game that you have to play. You have to be smart and resourceful,” says Charles.

To test those different variables, Charles and the NYC Preppers will frequently go on bug-out weekends in the wilderness to test their gear and survival skills, as well doing bug-out walks to test evacuation scenarios. It’s during these tests that Charles has realized a few extra wrinkles to his plan:

1. If you are traveling in a large group, break up into groups of three and space out your evacuation by thirty minutes or so. “Having twenty or thirty people traveling clumped together is dangerous. For looters or marauders, it would be like shooting crabs in a barrel,” says Charles. Instead, if one smaller group is attacked, the others a couple miles behind will be able to see it in the distance and react with a plan.

 2. Test your equipment.“People find out all the time that a backpack didn’t hold up, a sleeping bag wasn’t warm enough, or a pack was too heavy. You’ve got to test to get a feel for what you need,” says Charles.

3. Worry about crime.“We have high crime rates in New York. That rate will go up when society breaks down. All the people who thought about doing crime will start doing crime and that’s on top of the criminals already here,” says Charles.

SEE ALSO: Former CIA Director: 'Two Thirds Of The US' Could Die From An Attack On The Country's Power Grid

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