Transparency International has published its 2014 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), which ranked 175 countries and territories based on how corrupt their administrative and political institutions are perceived to be on a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).

Compiled from a combination of surveys and assessments of "the abuse of entrusted power for private gain," the CPI is the most widely used indicator of corruption worldwide.

Here are the 17 most corrupt countries, according to the index:

The lowest ranked countries are perceived as "plagued by poor governance, and untrustworthy and badly functioning public institutions like police or media."

The four least corrupt countries are Denmark (92), New Zealand (91), Finland (89), and Sweden (87), while the US came in 17th — along with Barbados, Hong Kong, and Ireland — with a rating of 74.

Top performers are found to have "high levels of press freedom, open budget processes, and strong accountability mechanisms."

More than two-thirds of the 175 countries in the 2014 index score below 50. 

The average country score this year is 43/100. Seychelles, Malta, Latvia, and South Korea are listed at 43.

Ukraine, which is fighting a Russian-backed separatist rebellion, came in 142nd with a score of 26. Russia's score is 27.

Reuters notes that the ratings of Turkey and China have fallen steeply since last year. Turkey dropped five points to 45 after a corruption scandal rocked the ruling AKP party last December. China's rating fell by four points to 36, even amid an anti-corruption drive that has purged dozens of officials.

And here's an interactive version of the map:

NOW WATCH — Watch This Mesmerizing Time-Lapse Of All The Flights Across The North Atlantic In 24 Hours

SEE ALSO: The 4 Least Corrupt Countries In The World

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Denmark, New Zealand, Finland, and Sweden are the four least corrupt countries in the world, according to Transparency International's 2014 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI).

The US is listed as the 17th-least-corrupt place, tied with Barbados, Hong Kong, and Ireland.

Somalia, North Korea, Sudan, and Afghanistan are the most corrupt.

The CPI ranks countries and territories based on how corrupt their administrative and political institutions are perceived to be on a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).

Denmark scored 92, New Zealand 91, Finland 89, and Sweden 87. 

Top performers are found to "have high levels of press freedom, open budget processes, and strong accountability mechanisms," according to the report.

Over the past 20 years, New Zealand has developed into a free market economy in which welfare is provided mostly on the basis of need.

The other three countries follow the general Nordic welfare model, which supports a "universalist" welfare state aimed at enhancing individual autonomy and promoting social mobility by maximizing labor force participation, promoting gender equality, providing extensive benefits, and redistributing wealth.

Denmark goes as far as involving the private sector in welfare services and providing choice for users.

Here are the top 16:

Here is a look at the world overview:

NOW WATCH — Watch This Mesmerizing Time-Lapse Of All The Flights Across The North Atlantic In 24 Hours

SEE ALSO: The 17 Most Corrupt Countries In The World

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During its rapid expansion throughout Iraq and Syria, ISIS has pushed its gains to within 20 miles of the Iranian border. 

These gains have unnerved Tehran and has reportedly led to a number of purported airstrikes against ISIS by the Iranian Air Force. So far, the airstrikes carried out by the Iranian have focused in the ethnically and religiously mixed Iraqi province of Diyala, which butts up against Iran. 

"Iran regards the area as a buffer zone and does not tolerate any military threats within that buffer zone," Hamid Reza Taraghi, a conservative Iranian politician, told the LA Times in Tehran. Iraqi officials had  asked Iran "to be quiet about" it's involvement. 

Most recently, an Iranian F-4 Phantom was caught on camera by Al Jazeera carrying out a bombing run in the end of November in the towns of Jalawla and Sadiya, although the footage has since been taken down. The two towns are each less than twenty miles from the Iranian border. 

The Iranian airstrikes have provided air support to Iraqi and Kurdish fighters, alongside Iranian-led Shiite militiamen, in chasing ISIS  out from the two towns. Kurdish officials have stated that there was no US air support during the offensive against the Jalawla and Sadiya. The US says it refuses to directly coordinate military campaigns with Iran, although that's easier said than done.

"Although it is theoretically possible for Iranian planes to fly inside Iraq without any coordination with other air forces operating in the same airspace, it would be suicidal," Aviation expert David Cenciottitold Business Insider."For proper deconfliction of tactical assets, prior coordination and air space management and control are required. There are several aircraft performing Airspace Control and Airborne Early Warning over Syria and Iraq: no plane could fly undetected in the area." 

An unnamed US defense official told the Huffington Post that the US was at least aware of the Iranian Air Force carrying out air strikes against ISIS in eastern Iraq. 

"We are aware of that. I wouldn't say we're necessarily concerned with it — we kind of have our eyes on it," the official said. The official noted that the Iranian strikes occurred close to the Iran-Iraq border, away from where the US coalition has normally carried out airstrikes.

Despite Taraghi's insistence that Iran carried out attacks in Diyala against ISIS, other Iranian officials have denied any military involvement. 

"Iran has never been involved in any air strikes against Daesh (Islamic State) targets in Iraq. Any cooperation in such strikes with America is also out of question for Iran," a senior official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Iraqi officials, meanwhile, note that they will take any help they can get.

"The U.S. is always our first choice" for military assistance, but "if we need to seek help elsewhere, we will," one Iraqi official told the LA Times.

SEE ALSO: The US is now in an 'awkward' position over Syria and Iraq

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There are already upwards of 70 million AK-47s in circulation worldwide.

But amid domestic unrest, global criticism of Moscow, and EU and US sanctions, the state-owned Russian company responsible for the gun's production is trying to rebrand itself.

In Moscow on Tuesday, the Siberian company behind the rifle unveiled new slogans ("Protecting Peace" was one of them) and a red-and-black logo shaped like the letter "K."

The new logo appeared on the gun's ammo magazine, and Sergei Chemezov, head of a state company with a controlling stake in Kalashnikov, said he hoped the brand would reach Apple's level of worldwide recognition.

The AK-47 was designed in 1947 (hence the call number), but really took off in the late '50s when the USSR allowed its various satellite states and other friendly countries to produce their own.

As recently as 2012, Venezuela's late President Hugo Chávez said his country had begun production of AK-103s, another assault rifle in the Kalashnikov family.

Deadly, inexpensive, and widely available to both formal militaries and nonstate groups, the AK-47 is an icon of contemporary warfare. One of Saddam Hussein's sons had his plated in gold. It adorns the flag of Mozambique — and that of the Lebanese Shi'ite militia group Hezbollah. The AK-47 is the weapon of choice for terrorist groups like the Afghan Taliban and Somalia's al-Shabaab. Even so, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev once called Kalashnikov "a national brand which evokes pride in each citizen."

More recently, the company has been hit by US and EU sanctions over the Russian government's role in the ongoing crisis in Ukraine. Those sanctions blocked the delivery of up to 200,000 units to the US and Canada, and mothballed an ad campaign featuring actor and gun advocate Steven Seagal.

The rebranded Kalashnikov wants to use the company's iconic status to dull the effect of the sanctions and even move beyond the firearms market — it will expand its offerings to include accessories and a clothing line. Company CEO Alexei Krivoruchko also told Russian news agencies it aimed to double production and quadruple sales by the end of the decade. The company sold 140,000 units this year, twice as many as in 2013, reports stated.

Mikhail Kalashnikov, the gun's creator, died last year at the age of 94. Visiting Germany in 2002, he revealed mixed feelings about his legacy.

"I'm proud of my invention, but I'm sad that it is used by terrorists," he said. "I would prefer to have invented a machine that people could use and that would help farmers with their work — for example a lawnmower."

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Controversy is flaring up over North Korea's human-rights record.

Late last month, the UN General Assembly recommended that the Security Council refer the Kim Jong Un regime to the International Criminal Court over a 372-page UN document released earlier this year detailing the Hermit Kingdom's human-rights abuses.

This sets up a potential showdown at the Security Council, which has the power to actually put North Korea's system of internal oppression on the ICC's agenda — something that China and Russia, veto-wielding council members with plenty of human-rights issues of their own, will undoubtedly try to prevent.

North Korea claims that the UN's findings are a "fabrication."

But the UN controversy is just a reminder that the regime's brutal system of political and economic repression is all too real.

In reality, North Korea operates a growing network of prison camps containing up to 200,000 prisoners living in unfathomable conditions. 

Information about the camps is limited to reports from the few successful escapees, notably Shin Dong-hyuk, who told "60 Minutes" about spending 23 years behind the wire in December 2012.

Although there are no pictures from inside the camps, satellite images plus a set of illustrations supposedly drawn by a defector (the source of these images is unconfirmed) give a hint of the terror inside.

Warning: Some images are disturbing.

Paul Szoldra originally contributed to this report.

There are over 24 million people living inside North Korea.

But there are between 150,000 and 200,000 who have 'disappeared.' They live in brutal concentration camps throughout the country.

Source: Committee for Human Rights in North Korea

Former prisoners say conditions are so bad that 20-25% of the population dies every year.

Source: Committee for Human Rights in North Korea

The size and scope of the recent hack of Sony Pictures is unprecedented for a major US company.

Hackers shut down Sony's systems and then released an estimated 11 terabytes of data. 

Stolen information was sent to reporters and is available to download online.

It's not clear who is responsible for the attack.

Here are some of the most eye-opening things we've learned so far:

• Sony thinks it was North Korea, Re/code reports. The new Seth Rogen and James Franco film "The Interview," a comedy about two men sent on a mission to assassinate North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, is believed to be why the hack took place, since North Korea previously sought Sony to stop the release of that film. Rogen had no comment when asked about the incident by Business Insider.

Re/code reported last week that Sony is investigating whether hackers operating on behalf of North Korea were behind the attack. North Korean officials previously stated their opposition to the movie. 

• Experts say the hack is "the first major attack on a US company to use a highly destructive class of malicious software that is designed to make computer networks unable to operate,"Reuters reports.

• Employees had to forgo their electronics entirely and do their work using pen, paper, and fax machines after the hack, according to The Los Angeles Times.

• Salary information for employees was among the information released in the hack. People noticed that Hannah Minghella, who serves as co-president of production at Sony's Columbia Pictures division, makes $800,000 less per year than her male counterpart, Columbia Pictures co-president of production Michael De Luca. The hackers also released "detailed salary information for more than 30,000 employees of Deloitte, the New York-based auditing and professional services firm,"Fusion reports.

• The hack didn't just encompass corporate information either — employee documents containing passwords, credit-card numbers, medical histories, and, in one case, a woman's breastfeeding diet were also stolen.

• A spreadsheet with a list of fired and laid-off employees was also included in the hack, according to Fusion. The sheet listed the reason for termination and the cost to terminate the employees.

• Movies that have not been released in theaters yet were leaked, including the "Annie" remake, which Sony is counting on to be a big holiday blockbuster. The other movies leaked so far are "Fury,""Still Alice,""Mr. Turner," and "To Write Love On Her Arms."

• A script from the creator of "Breaking Bad" for a pilot show was also leaked.

• Disciplinary files detail the romantic relationship one manager had with a subordinate, according to BuzzFeed. This includes the business-travel history of the manager and employee.

Sony Pictures Entertainment is one of Hollywood's biggest studios.

The hackers say they haven't yet released all of the documents and information they stole from Sony, claiming more is coming soon.

NOW WATCH: Don't Be Afraid To Cancel Cable — Here's How To Get All The Programs You Love

SEE ALSO: LEAKED: Hacked Sony Docs Reveal Top 17 Executives' Multimillion-Dollar Salaries

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In late November Iran carried out a series of airstrikes close to its border with Iraq against ISIS. Although the airstrikes are already notable for signaling possible military coordination between Iran and the US, they become even more notable in light of Iran's choice of aircraft.

Iran provided air support to the Iraqi military and the Kurdish Peshmerga with its ageing fleet of F-4 Phantoms. The Phantom, which first flew in 1958, was originally used by the US Navy as an interceptor, used to track down and destroy enemy aircraft. However, the plane was adopted by the Air Force and Marines for every conceivable combat and training role and was exported to 11 other nations. 

Under the Shah's reign, Iran was actually one of the US's most reliable allies in the Middle East before the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Iran bought 225 F-4 Phantoms in the 1970s. And although the majority of these once state-of-the-art planes have become inoperable due to age and damage sustained during the 1980s Iran-Iraq War, Tehran still manages to keep several dozen of the planes operational. 

The maintenance of the fighters has been a challenge due to ongoing sanctions against Tehran. Spare parts for the Phantoms had to either be smuggled into Iran, cannibalized from other fighters, or replaced with a parts reverse-engineered by the Iranians themselves. This has led to a steady degradation in the number and quality of aircraft that Iran can field while at least allowing them to keep a number of US-built fighter jets on hand.

Against an enemy like ISIS, even four-and-half-decade-old F-4 Phantoms are more than capable. Since ISIS lacks any semblance of a capable air defenses, older planes like the Phantom can be used to great effect as long as Iran has access to solid on-the-ground intelligence.

The Phantom still can carry a punch as a bomber as well. The plane can carry up to 18,650 pounds of weapons including general-purpose bombs, cluster bombs, guided bombs, and air-to-ground missiles. 

Iran is still looking for a domestically produced alternative to their aging American aircraft. Although they're of lower quality than what's produced in the US and Europe, sanctions have forced the Iranians to develop a domestic defense industry capable of bu idling battleships, drones, ballistic missiles, and submarines— something that no other country in the region can boast.

They want to do the same with fighter aircraft: the Saeqeh, basically a reverse-engineered F-5, may have entered operational service in September of 2010, although it's unknown how many have actually been built.

Even with a domestically built fighter plane, Iran is still sending the F-4 into combat. And it's not alone in continuing to use the Phantom. Turkey still maintains its fleet of F-4s, and Germany only just retired their Phantom fleet in 2013. But the aircraft last saw action with the US military during Operation Desert Storm, over 20 years ago.

SEE ALSO: Here's the 'buffer zone' where the US says Iran is bombing ISIS

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It's been an eventful year, and we've seen many striking photos from all over the world. They spark a range of emotions, from sorrow to joy, outrage to hope. 

But we often never learn the full story behind a photo, all the factors at work that put a brave photographer in the middle of the action to get the shot.

A number of noted Reuters photographers have come together to do just that: Tell the story of how they got some of 2014's most amazing photographs. Their stories will surprise you.

Pro-European integration protesters take cover from water sprayed from a fire engine at the site of clashes with riot police in Kiev, January 23, 2014.

"Everyday protestors moved up to the barricades, made from burnt buses and cars, to clash with the police. It was winter, cold, and police used water hoses to turn the streets in front of the barricades to ice. The protestors kept moving up to the police positions to throw Molotov cocktails and the police kept driving them back with rubber bullets and water hoses.

This was happening for many days. Molotov cocktails were everywhere - in the air, being thrown at the police and behind barricades ready to be used. The flag of Ukraine was seen everywhere, and one song was sang many times a day - the Ukraine anthem. To shoot pictures every day in a bulletproof vest and helmet, while walking among the piles of burnt tires and avoiding rubber bullets was a challenge. I was surprised by the strong desire of the protestors to change something in their life, how they helped each other - many people, including the very old, brought warm clothes and hot food to them." - Vasily Fedosenko

Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters

People hang out in a Publix grocery store after being stranded due to a snow storm in Atlanta, Georgia, January 29, 2014.

"Atlanta is usually known for its mild winters but when an ice storm began hitting the Metro area directly, traffic reached nightmarish proportions and vehicles became stranded for long hours. I began my day on another assignment 100 miles north of Atlanta but immediately headed back when I saw the snowfall. Having grown up there, I know the back roads well, which helped as I hit traffic in the northern suburbs. I began taking pictures and transmitting what I could on the drive, arriving into the city at sunrise.

My sister said a friend of hers was stuck at a Publix grocery store that stayed opened all night to shelter and feed people. Ironically, I had slid into a bush nearby so after extracting my car, I went to the store to take pictures. The scene was surreal; scattered people slept soundly on the floor or tried to stay awake. Several of the pictures were widely published and friends called me from all over to ask about them. In total I spent over 30 hours in my car before I made it home." - Tami Chappell

Men rest after salvaging metal on the 30th floor of the "Tower of David" skyscraper in Caracas in this photo taken on February 3, 2014.

"The building was intended to be a shining new financial center but was abandoned around 1994 after the death of its developer and the collapse of the financial sector. Squatters invaded the huge concrete skeleton in 2007 and now about 3,000 people call the tower their home. The first time I tried to get access to the tower wasn't really a success. I was told, not in the friendliest of terms, that I should leave while I still could. The residents of the tower, and particularly those in charge of managing it, were (and still are) very sensitive to media. Publications frequently feature headlines such as: 'Tower of terror,' 'The shanty skyscraper,' it has even been featured in an episode of the TV series 'Homeland' as a kidnappers' den.

My intention wasn't to follow on from these headlines. I wanted above all to create a portrait of the lives of the thousands of people who call this place home, and who face struggles and risks every day. I wanted to document without judging. That is what I told the squatters' board of administrators, who made me explain my intentions in producing this story. I felt the strong sense of community here from the first time I ascended the tower." - Jorge Silva

South Korea is hoping to spread some Christmas cheer to North Korea this year with the construction of a 30-foot-tall Christmas tree alongside its border with the north, according to the Associated Press.

North Korea bans public religious practice, but a South Korean Christian group has been given the greenlight from the government to illuminate a tree on an overlook less than two miles from the border.

The height of the tree, coupled with the elevation from the hill, should enable North Koreans living in border towns to see the display. 

The new tree is a replacement for a previous 65-foot-tall tower that was first set up in 1971 and had been modified to resemble a Christmas tree. The tower was visible over the border by North Koreans, leading the North to declare the tower a "provocative display of psychological warfare." 

The previous tree was taken down earlier this year among threats from Kim Jong Un to shell the tower, according to Rick Noack of The Washington Post. 

Noack: 

To counter the holiday symbol, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's regime threatened to fire shells at the tower. Earlier this year, South Korea's military took the structure down, arguing that it was no longer safe.

However, South Korea has seemingly back-peddled on its concerns that the tree may inspire a conflict with the north. 

"We accepted the request ... to guarantee free religious activities," Kim Min-seok, South Korea's defense ministry spokesman, said on Tuesday. 

South Korea has a long history of engaging North Korea in propoganda wars. South Korean groups routinely fly propaganda balloons over North Korean territory. On occasion, these balloons are also filled with Biblical verses. 

North Korea has also banned South Korean Choco Pies, a cookie-like treat, over fears that the junk food may undermine the revolutionary ideology of the North Korean masses. 

The decision to build the Christmas tree comes amid constant hostility between the two nations. South Korea, supported by China, has expressed concern over North Korea's drive to continue its nuclear weapons program. The countries also exchanged gunfire across the border twice in October. 

SEE ALSO: North Korea is in the process of developing a fleet of nuclear missile-capable submarines

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A cybersecurity expert says it is highly unlikely that North Korea was responsible for the unprecedented cyberattack on Sony late last month.

David Kennedy, founder of the security consulting firm TrustedSec LLC, thinks the hack was too sophisticated to have been carried out by the China-backed nation.

"North Korea is definitely stepping up its offensive capability," Kennedy told Business Insider. "But it is still very shut off and secretive, so it struggles with getting the technology it needs to launch major cyberattacks."

The massive cyberattack on Sony Pictures was "the first major attack on a US company to use a highly destructive class of malicious software that is designed to make computer networks unable to operate," Reuters reported.

Kennedy also doubts that China, a nation with notoriously sophisticated hacking technology, helped North Korea launch the attack. 

"I don't think the attack was backed by China," Kennedy said. "The two nations don't share a lot of cyber capabilities."

Sony is expected to name North Korea as the official source of the hack, but a North Korean diplomat in New York has denied that his country played any role in the cyberattack. 

Kennedy noted that if North Korea were responsible, it would most likely be eager to brag about taking down a US company. 

"North Korea is typically pretty quick to take the credit for these kinds of things," he said.

That said, the code used to infiltrate Sony reportedly looks like malicious software that targeted South Korea last year. 

Regardless of who was responsible, the attack represents a "watershed moment" in the escalation of cyberwarfare tactics, Dave Aitel, a cybersecurity expert at the security consulting firm Immunity Inc., told Business Insider. 

"It’s not entirely clear this was North Korea," Aitel said. "But if it was, to me it signifies a new boldness in the way nation-state actors are willing to encounter the US in cyberspace."

SEE ALSO: Scary Timeline Shows How Much More Sophisticated Hackers Have Become

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Starting on Nov. 24, Sony Pictures Entertainment was the victim of what Reuters characterized as the most devastating hack ever committed against a major US company. 

Hackers managed to shut down Sony's systems and stole a possible 11 terabytes of data from the company. The stolen data included multiple movies, some of which have yet to be released in theaters, along with private salary and medical information for employees. 

According to experts, the hack is "the first major attack on a US company to use a highly destructive class of malicious software that is designed to make computer networks unable to operate," Reuters reported.

Although the scope of the attack is unprecedented, the US is routinely hammered by hackers from around the world.

US-based computer security firm Norse has released a real-time animated map that illustrates ongoing cyberattacks around the world. In the span of just 45 minutes this past July, servers based in the US were the target of 5,840 cyberattacks. 

Within that span of time, the US suffered from 27 times more cyberattacks than Thailand, the second most targeted country. Thailand was the target of 220 cyber attacks during these 45 minutes. 

The Norse map does not represent all hacking attempts in the world. Instead, according to Smithsonian Magazine, the map relies on a Norse honeypot network — a network purposefully designed to detect hacking — to provide a representative snapshot of global hacking attempts. 

In actuality, there are orders of magnitude more hacking attempts on any given day than recorded by Norse. For instance, there are an estimated 20 million attacks per day against locations within Utah. There are 10 million daily hacking attempts against the Pentagon alone.

China is responsible for the vast majority of these attacks. Within the 45-minute span, China accounted for 2,513 attacks. The US accounted for the second highest number of attacks, with 1,550 attacks originating within America. However, a number of American attacks targeted computers elsewhere in the United States. 

It is likely that these intra-US attacks are the result of "zombie computers"— computers that have been compromised by a hacker and carry out attacks at the hacker's discretion. 

Chinese cyberattacks are highly damaging to both the US economy and national security. China is currently developing a new plane that is modeled after stolen plans for the U.S.' F-35 fifth-generation plane. 

Aside from China, Iran and Russia have become major hacker threats to the US. Iranian hackers have infiltrated more than 50 entities across 16 countries. A Tehran-based group was also behind a 2013 cyber attack against a US Navy network. 

In November, the State Department had to shut down its email network after hackers thought to have ties with Russia compromised the unclassified email system. Classified emails were not affected by the breach. 

Sony believes that the hack was the work of North Korea, whose government strongly objects to an upcoming film the company is releasing depicting an assassination plot against North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

The hack may be unique in its severity, and could even signal a troubling improvment in North Korea's cyber-offensive. capabilities. But as this map shows, outside attempts on US computer systems happen on almost a second-by-second basis.

SEE ALSO: The dizzying complexity of cyber warfare in one chart

SEE ALSO: 9 crazy details about the unprecedented Sony hack

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New York City firefighter Jason Charles is a "prepper," someone who spends large amounts of time preparing and planning to survive an eventual apocalypse.

When Charles isn't on camping trips to test his gear or conducting meetings with other NYC Preppers to work on survival skills, he's building out his "bug-out bag," a portable kit filled with everything one might need to survive in the event of an evacuation. 

The Department of Homeland Security currently recommends that all Americans keep a bug-out bag with everything they need to survive for three days. While few citizens heed this advice, these bags are every preppers' first line of defense. Charles goes a few steps further, though.

He's developed a complete kit so that he, his wife, two kids, and dog could survive for an entire week with nothing else but its contents. In addition, the bags have supplies to get them started on a new life, in the event that it becomes too dangerous to return home.

We asked Charles to show us what's inside his bug-out bag.

Charles' "bug-out bag" weighs approximately 50 pounds and includes a four-person tent, an emergency blanket, water bottle, and number of other necessities. 

While his kit includes multiple water bottles, it also holds emergency drinking water packages (left, top), meant to be used as a last resort. On the right is a handmade first-aid kid. Below is a waterproof emergency candle kit, which can burn for 50 hours continuously. On the bottom left is a 10-gallon folding bucket, perfect for carrying and purifying water.

Aside from water, food is the most important thing Charles carries. He says each bug-out bag should carry at least a week's worth of food per person, most of which comes in the form of Mountain House freeze-dried meals. All you do is add hot water.

Charles also has numerous First Strike Ration MREs (meals, ready-to-eat), developed by the United States Army Soldier Systems Center. The meals are designed to be eaten during the first 72 hours of conflict and are said to enhance physical and mental performance. They require almost no preparation.

Though some preppers opt to carry around "firestarter" logs for fires, Charles prefers to use simple sawdust and lint. By practicing with the bare minimum, he believes he is preparing himself for when he doesn't have all his supplies. Charles frequently goes on "bug-out" weekends to test his survival skills, by building a campsite with other preppers and practicing starting fires, setting up lookout points, and foraging edible plants and insects.

It used to take Charles more than five minutes to get a fire going. Now, he can do it in under a minute.

Charles considers this Firebox folding stove a luxury. It's useful for cooking, but is extremely heavy.

Charles always carries particle masks for everyone in his family. While they don't protect against radiation, his hope is that they would help the family breathe through heavy ash or dust in the air after an explosion, as well as help protect against contagious diseases.

Charles says its important to think about how one would survive for an extended period after the initial catastrophic event. He keeps a portable saw in his bag, which would be invaluable when cutting wood for fires or for building materials.

He brings a hatchet for similar reasons. In addition, the hatchet can serve as a weapon if need be. Because of New York's strict gun laws, Charles does not own a firearm. Instead, he carries the hatchet and a machete.

This Scorpion Radio by Aton is a solar-powered outdoor radio and flashlight that can also charge your smartphone. If there is no sun, you can also charge it by cranking its attached arm.

Charles says the Nomad 13 solar panel by Goal Zero is one of the most useful things he carries that most people might forget. "We're all so dependent on our devices and our phones now," says Charles.

Charlie the dog gets his own bug-out bag. It's filled with his food, treats, and medications. 

Charles keeps all his extra supplies in a closet filled with food, water, medications, and extra tools. If he is able to take his truck during an evacuation situation, he plans to load the majority of the closet's contents in the truck with him.

SEE ALSO: Why This NYC Firefighter Is Prepping For The End Of Civilization

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Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed a sense of optimism in his national address today, despite the country's economic struggles brought about by Western sanctions and falling oil prices. 

Produced by Alex Kuzoian. Video courtesy of Associated Press.

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The intrigue surrounding Sept. 11, 2012, in Benghazi is not going away.

CNN's Jake Tapper reports that two CIA contractors present at the Benghazi attacks have called a recent House Intelligence Committee report on the subject "full of inaccuracies." 

John Tiegen and Kris Paronto, two contractors who were eyewitnesses to the attack, have issued a statement detailing 13 inaccuracies they say are in the House's report. 

According to Paronto, one of the most serious issues related to the attack was the delay between the State Department building being attacked by a Libyan mob and the response from CIA personnel tasked with providing additional security.

The CIA contractors assert that the delay, which according to Paronto lasted at least 27 minutes — despite the CIA annex being located only 1.2 miles away — "was a severe military tactical mistake made by leadership figures who had little to no military training or experience in combat operations, and the delay cost the lives of Ambassador Stevens and Sean Smith due to them dying from smoke inhalation—something that takes time.”

This delay, according to the contractors, was the result of the CIA chief of base mishandling the situation and hindering the rescue attempts. 

According to the House report, no security officer was ever given an order to stand down or told to not prepare to aid in the rescue effort. 

However, CIA contractors have called that "grossly inaccurate." Paronto said during his hearing that he was delayed and told to wait to provide security for the State Department building twice. During that time, he heard Tiegen be told to "stand down."

Furthermore, the CIA contractors told CNN that the CIA staff had known for approximately two weeks prior to the attack that a possible incident was likely. The contractors noted that after having received a be-on-the-lookout report, "the operators moved their body armor, long guns, ammunition, night-vision goggles, and other tactical gear into their bedrooms, so they could more quickly ‘jock up,’ as they called preparing for battle."

Tiegen and Paronto have written a book, "13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi," concerning their accounts of the Benghazi incident.

Interestingly, Drew Griffin and Kathleen Johnston of CNN reported in August 2013 that the CIA "is going to great lengths to make sure whatever it was doing, remains a secret."

Tapper notes that the House Intelligence Committee report asserts that the “CIA did not intimidate or prevent any officer from speaking to Congress or otherwise telling his story.”

Nevertheless, these two CIA contractors are clearly determined to give what in their view is the real story:

“We have continually attempted to take the ‘high road’ and not delve into the political weeds, until we were once again called liars by the same government we had sworn to protect,” Tiegen and Paronto stated to CNN. “We never did what we did that night into the following morning to support agendas, political parties or presidencies. We did what we did that night to save the lives of fellow Americans and defend American soil. We disobeyed orders and went to help the DS agents and our friends because they were under attack by terrorists and were on the brink of death. Now it’s our turn once again to set the record straight, show integrity and tell the truth. It’s a pity though that the truth is something that’s not very popular in today’s society.”

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The hack on Sony Pictures Entertainment is one of the most debilitating ever targeted at US corporate servers.

The Nov 24th incident didn't just result in the theft of proprietary data, including unreleased films and employee information.

It is reportedly the first to use "a highly destructive class of malicious software that is designed to make computer networks unable to operate" into a company's computer system in the United States, according to Reuters.

North Korea has emerged as a leading suspect in the hack. Pyongyang had already vowed "merciless" retaliation over "The Interview," a Sony release in which James Franco and Seth Rogan play talk show hosts that the CIA enlists for an assassination plot against North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un. And it has greatly developed its cyber-offensive capabilities over the past decade. An unnamed security source told Reuters that North Korea is currently the "principal suspect."

If the Hermit Kingdom really is involved, it would make the Sony incident a potential turning point in the history of cyber-warfare.

For the past several years, states have started to compromise the computer systems of rival governments and private companies to further political or strategic aims: think China's infiltration of computers at the New York Times in response to a series of Pulitzer Prize-winning reports in 2012 on the private wealth of the country's top leadership, or Russia's "cyber-invasion" of Estonia in 2007.

But according to Dave Aitel, a former NSA research scientist and CEO of the cyber-security firm Immunity, the severity of the Sony attack, along with its nakedly political motives, would put the incident in its own unique category assuming it was North Korea's handiwork.

"If it was North Korea, these attacks against Sony would indicate that foreign powers are going beyond the traditional information-stealing attacks to enforcing their own law against American companies via what we would consider cyber terrorism," Aitel told Business Insider by email. "It would be a watershed moment in how the world handles cyber policy and reaction."

Aitel says the hacks are potentially  "a ‘near red-line moment’" since they represent the kind of incident that would almost require a US policy response assuming a rival state was behind it. As Aitel says, "This is the first demonstration of what the military would call Destructive Computer Network Attack (CNA) against a US Corporation on US soil ... a broad escalation in cyberwarfare tactics" that would demand some kind of American response.

It would also signal an increased willingness for North Korea to deploy its developing cyber-offensive capabilities against American targets.

An August 2014 report from Hewitt Packard Security Research explained Pyongyang's longstanding policy of attempting ot integrate cyber attacks into its doctrine of "asymmetrical warfare"— namely, North Korea's attempts at closing the defense gap with its more conventionally capable enemies, like South Korea and the United States, in whatever ways it can.

"Cyber warfare allows North Korea to leverage the Internet’s inherent flaws for offensive purposes while maintaining its defenses, primarily via air-gapping its most critical networks from the outside world," the report explains.

To that end, North Korea established a group of hackers within its military special forces architecture, called Unit 121, that is trained in a hotel in eastern China. Early results were alarming: as early as 2004, North Korea "reportedly gained access to 33 of 80 South Korean military wireless communication networks;" in 2006, "an attack on the US State Department originating in the East Asia-Pacific region coincided with U.S.-North Korea negotiations over the regime’s nuclear missile testing."

There's evidence that North Korea was attempting ambitious attacks on private sector entities as well. According to the HP report, in February of 2013, a private security firm called Solutionary recorded 11,000 "touches," or electronic attempts to steal deal, on "a single financial institution," all originating from North Korean IP addresses. Solutionary noted that North Korean IPs only attempted 200 touches a month at a time, suggesting this rapid uptick was part of a concerted attack on the institution, which goes unnamed in HP's report.

North Korea has been developing its hacking capabilities from the safety of a web infrastructure that's largely cut off from the rest of the world. And it might feel like it can afford to gamble a bit, given successful nuclear tests and rocket launches in the last couple of years. The international community responded with trade sanctions and a policy of diplomatic isolation — but not the point where the regime's control over the country has ever been all that seriously in question.

It would be unsurprising if North Korea believed it could get away with something of the Sony hack's magnitude. The question now is how the US might respond if Pyongyang's responsibility is more conclusively proven.

Michael B. Kelley contributed to this report.

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Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) have reportedly resorted to outrageous tactics to arrest people for gun crimes. 

In a recent segment of public radio program "This American Life," Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporters John Diedrich and Raquel Rutledge spoke about their investigation into a Milwaukee ATF sting they say horribly wrong.

That operation, called "Operation Fearless," set up fake storefronts for felons to sell their guns that allegedly used questionable tactics like paying huge sums for guns. The Sentinel reporters say they uncovered similar problems in ATF stings nationwide, including in Albuquerque, Atlanta, Milwaukee, Pensacola, Portland, and Wichita. Ultimately, the ATF's methods prompted a Congressional investigation earlier this year.

To be fair, the ATF said in a statement that its Milwaukee sting was a "short-term operation" that ended more than two years ago. "Since that time, based on our own lessons learned, input from our law enforcement partners,  oversight entities and others," the statement continued, "ATF has made many substantial improvements and strengthened accountability for local operations."

Still, the findings from the Sentinel reporters are alarming. Here are the five most outrageous tactics the ATF used in Milwaukee and other cities, according to their report.

1. Set up a fake business to buy guns and drugs from unwitting individuals. 

Fearless Distributing, a store set up by ATF agents in Milwaukee, sold clothing and drug paraphernalia, but "its real goal was to actually buy guns and drugs," Rutledge told host Ira Glass. The idea behind this was to get guns and drugs off the street and to catch people selling them illegally in the process.

Agents reportedly lured in sellers by distributing flyers with the store's logo — a skull with angel wings made from assault rifles and knives — and the words "Buy, Sell, Trade."

In the infamous "Fast and Furious" operation run out of Arizona from 2006-2011, ATF agents allowed sales of weapons in the hopes of tracking the guns to Mexican drug cartel leaders and arresting them. The agents soon lost track of the weapons and many of them showed up at crime scenes in Mexico. 

2. Paid an insane amount of money for a weapon. 

The ATF paid extremely high prices for weapons, according to the Sentinel reporters. "There was one gun that they paid $2,100 for, and just the day before the individual had bought it for $700 at a store," Diedrich said.

People began stealing weapons just to sell them back to the ATF for those high prices, according to the reporters. "Neighbors we talked to around River West said they also saw an uptick in burglaries in their neighborhood," Rutledge said. Fearless Distributing itself was robbed of $39,000 in merchandise, according to the Sentinel reporters, and three guns were stolen from an agent's car while he was parked at a coffee shop —  including a fully automatic rifle. 

The ATF store in Pensacola was reportedly robbed just like the Milwaukee store was, twice.

3. Set up its fake business near schools and churches. 

The ATF operated one sting within 1,000 feet of a school in Lakeland, Florida, according to the Sentinel.

"This particular location was chosen based upon an assessment of the buildings in the area located on a major thoroughfare, in a high-crime area," ATF spokeswoman Ginger Colbrun told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in August of this year.

For his part, Diedrich speculates that setting up stings near protected places is a tactic used by the ATF to enhance criminal charges. "Selling guns or drugs within 1,000 feet of a school, a church, or other protected place is an enhanced penalty," he told Glass. "It's also eligible for federal prosecution." 

4. It has hired people at its fake stores who are developmentally disabled or mentally impaired.

Diedrich and Rutledge found this happens in several cities, including Wichita, Milwaukee, and Portland. They tell the story of Tony Bruner, a 20-year-old in Wichita who was hired by the ATF to work at "Bandit Trading," cleaning the store and stocking shelves. "He [Bruner] trusted them. And they would buy him McDonald's and tell him he was doing a great job," Rutledge said. 

An ATF sting in Portland, Oregon also hired mentally disabled individuals to promote their operations, according to the Associated Press. 

The ATF sent us a statement that denies targeting disabled people.

"ATF does not target specific people based on their IQ or other mental health status," the statement said. "We target violent criminals who violate the law and the criminal organizations that are responsible for violence in local communities."

5. It has convinced people to openly advertise the ATF's gun- and drug-buying operations.

Diedrich says agents at Fearless Distributor hired another man who had been brain damaged as a baby, Chauncey Wright, to hand out flyers and let people know that the store was buying guns. When the sting was over, Chauncey was charged with eight federal gun and drug counts and spent nine months in jail. After his release, he was given four years probation and spent a further six months on house arrest. 

One agent convinced two teenagers to have the name of their fake store, Squid's, tattooed to their necks so they'd be like a walking advertisement for the store, according to the Sentinel reporters. The tattoo came complete with a picture of a squid smoking a joint. 

Here is a full statement from the ATF in response to the "This American Life" report:

"ATF's mission is to protect communities from violence. We do this by using all investigative tools and techniques available to us to prevent and respond to violent crime. One  tool that ATF and many other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies use to prevent and respond to violence is undercover operations. 

Working closely with our federal, state and local law enforcement partners, ATF has successfully used various tools, such as storefront operations to identify and arrest violent street gang members, convicted felons and other violent individuals and groups who use firearms to commit crime in our communities. As with all law enforcement operations, the safety of our agents, the community and suspects is paramount.

To achieve this, we work closely with our law enforcement partners to conduct crime assessments that determine the high-crime locations and target the source, thus producing results that significantly impact violent crime. 

The Milwaukee operation was a short-term operation that ended more than 2 years ago. Since that time, based on our own lessons learned, input from our law enforcement partners, oversight entities and others, A TF has made many substantial improvements and strengthened accountability for local operations. These include strengthened policy and procedures, revised undercover operations policies, heightened risk management under our monitored case program and the creation of best practices training materials and procedures to be used in planning these types of investigations, incorporating relevant laws and ATF orders. 

ATF does not target specific people based on their IQ or other mental health status. We target violent criminals who violate the law and the criminal organizations that are responsible for violence in local communities. A TF will continue to work with organizations such as the National Association on the Mentally Ill (NAMI) and others to ensure we have the best information and training available as we encounter individuals in the community who may be mentally disabled or impaired. "

SEE ALSO: One Of The Suspected Killers In The Botched 'Fast And Furious' Operation Is Being Extradited To The US

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Ashton Carter, the former theoretical physicist who was briefly second-in-command at the Pentagon under Chuck Hagel, will be President Barack Obama's nominee to succeed Hagel as secretary of defense, Bloomberg TV reports.

"Barring any last-minute complications, Ash Carter will be President Barack Obama's choice as the new Secretary of Defense," several US administration officials reportedly told CNN last week.

The selection comes after numerous front-runners for the job took themselves out of consideration, including former Pentagon policy head Michele Flournoy and Senator Jack Reed (D-Rhode Island).

Carter was "responsible for the day-to-day management" of the Defense Department's 2.2 million employees during his 10 months as deputy secretary of defense under Hagel, but he resigned in October 2013 — possibly because of his discomfort with being passed over for the Pentagon's top job at the beginning of Obama's second term.

During the first Obama administration, Carter spent two years as "the Pentagon's technology and weapons-buying chief,"according to Fox News. Carter was influential in reorganizing US Cyber Command during his time at the Pentagon, and he helped to push cybersecurity as a priority for national security.

Carter has largely served in behind-the-scenes-type roles as the Pentagon, including as a high-ranking international security policy official at the Defense Department under President Bill Clinton. Although likely a somewhat unknown figure outside of political circles, Carter is widely considered to be qualified for the job and has the approval of at least one Republican vocal on national security issues: On Nov. 24, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) called Carter as well as Reed and Flournoy "solid choices for [an] important position."

Hagel was reportedly forced to resign on Nov. 24 over disagreements with the White House regarding its handing of the US-led campaign against the Islamic State militant group, along with more general policy disagreements over the US approach to the conflicts in Iraq and Syria.

"We have no presidential personnel announcements at this time, and not going to speculate on any before the president announces it," White House deputy press secretary Eric Schultz told Business Insider.

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As the US provides air cover for Iranian-backed militias fighting ISIS (aka the Islamic State, ISIL, and/or Daesh) in Iraq, the longest continuously serving American official in the country has strong opinions about who is in control.

Ali Khedery, who served as a special assistant to five US ambassadors and a senior adviser to three heads of US Central Command between 2003 and 2009, told The New York Times: “For the Iranians, really, the gloves are off.”

He highlighted the role of Qassem Suleimani, the head of the Qods Force, the foreign arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps. Qods is directing sectarian militias in both Iraq and Syria. At the same time, Suleimani is nurturing the guerilla proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis rebel group in Yemen — in other words, he is controlling powerful Shia proxies all across the Middle East.

“Suleimani is the leader of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen,” Khedery said. “Iraq is not sovereign. It is led by Suleimani, and his boss, [Iranian Supreme Leader] Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei."

For the Americans, any campaign against ISIS means US planes and combat advisors working in parallel with Iranian planes and Shia militias who have US blood on their hands.

"In Iraq, a degree of coordination between the American military and Iran’s is imperative but also awkward," The Times notes, "making it appear that the United States is working in tandem with its adversary."

The Obama administration, while denying any coordination, does not seem to mind Iran's empowerment as the two countries negotiate a potential nuclear deal that Obama hopes will rebalance the region for the better.

The consequences of the Iran-backed agenda are becoming increasingly clear, however, as the regime of Bashar Assad continues to rain barrel bombs on civilians, Al Qaeda's Syria affiliate routs US-backed rebels, Tehran sends more fighters to bolster Assad, Iraqi Shia militias torch Sunni villages in Iraq, and ISIS runs a self-declared caliphate across both Iraq and Syria.

In August, Khedery told Reza Akhlaghi of the Foreign Policy Association that these circumstances will only breed more sectarian violence.

"So what will happen is that the spiral of sectarian warfare will increase more and more, radicalizing the Sunni populations more and more and eventually spilling over into countries across the region almost all of which have mixed Shia-Sunni populations," the former adviser said.

Khedery has been very critical of the Obama administration's handling of Iraq.

The thrust of his critique involves Obama's decision to back former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, an Iran-backed Shia, in December 201o while also betraying promises made to the Sunni tribal leaders who had previously fought with American troops against ISIS predecessor Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI).

America's continued support of Maliki made it so that "Iraq’s path toward civil war was really inevitable," Khedery said in August, explaining that Maliki steered Baghdad "toward a very pro-Iranian and sectarian agenda, which inevitably disillusioned and disenfranchised Sunni Arabs for a second time."

Meanwhile, the US turned away from Iraq after Washington went along with the plan created by Suleimani, effectively handing off the country to Iran as a way to remove US troops and still stabilize the country.

"Maliki’s misrule in Iraq and Assad’s misrule in Syria, and their cooperation along with the Iranians and Hezbollah to wage a campaign of genocide, led to a region-wide sectarian war while the United States under President Obama stood back and watched and did nothing as the violence spiraled further and further out of control," Khedery argued in August.

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Ashton Carter will be Barack Obama's nominee for Defense Secretary, the president announced at a White House ceremony this morning.

Carter, a high-ranking and widely respected Pentagon policymaker under both Obama and Clinton, was Chuck Hagel's second-in-command in the Defense Department during his first ten months as Defense Secretary.

Hagel was reportedly dismissed from his position as Pentagon chief because of disagreements with the White House over Obama's policies in Iraq and particularly Syria, where Hagel advocated a more confrontational stance towards the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

Hagel was pointedly absent from Obama's press conference announcing Carter's nomination.

Carter is a former theoretical physicist who was in charge of day-to-day operations at the Pentagon under Hagel and was formerly the Department's head of weapons and technology acquisition. He is "considered one of the country’s top administrators and students of military technology"according to the Washington Post's Dan Lamothe.

Obama cited Carter's "record of service that has spanned more than 30 years, and said that he is "rightly regarded as one our nation's foremost national security leaders."

He also emphasized Carter's "unique blend of strategic perspective and technical know-how."

"He's also a physicist, which means he's one of hte few people who understands how many of our defense systems work," Obama said. Obama also emphasized Carter's role in discontinuing out of date weapons systems and finding ways to cut unnecessary weight from the defense budget.

During his most recent stint at the Pentagon, Carter was involved in reorganizing US Cyber Command and shifting US national security priorities towards the cyber realm. He's also been a forceful advocate for opening the defense procurement process to smaller US tech companies. Carter has a background in more traditional global security and strategic issues as well: Lamothe notes that Carter was once best known in Washington for his "leading role in the Pentagon’s Cooperative Threat Reduction program, which dismantled 8,000 Soviet nuclear weapons."

Carter's nomination comes just weeks before the end of Operation Enduring Freedom, the US's 13-year-old mission in Afghanistan, and three months into Operation Inherent Resolve, the US-led campaign against ISIS in Iraq and Syria. Coming in on the heels of Hagel's chaotic time in the Pentagon's top chair, he faces a raft of challenges during Obama's final 18 months in office.

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Ashton Carter, President Barack Obama's nominee to succeed Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense, is largely known as a behind-the-scenes player, a thinker and manager rather than a public agitator. This low profile is arguably one of Carter's top selling points.

After Hagel's troubled reign at the Pentagon, which ended in a highly public falling out with the White House over policy in the Middle East and accusations of laziness and dysfunction, it's prudent for the president to want a respected yet comparatively obscure figure like Carter to take over.

But that doesn't mean that Carter is totally surprise-free. As Time's Mark Thompson pointed out in April of 2013, Carter and a co-author argued for bombing North Korea in the summer of 2006 to prevent an upcoming ballistic missile test.

"'Surgical strike'" is a much-abused term," Carter and former Clinton official William J. Perry argued. "But destroying a test missile as it is being readied for launch qualifies for this category because only one US cruise missile or precision bomb with an ordinary high-explosive warhead could easily puncture and ignite the multistory test booster."

The target would be the Taepodong 2 missile, which had the potential (albeit long-term) to deliver a nuclear warhead to US holdings in the Pacific, including Hawaii. Luckily, the multi-stage missile tumbled to earth within a minute of a test pointedly carried out on July 4th, 2006.

But in the Time piece, Carter and Perry emphasized that North Korea could extract valuable information even from a failed test. And the US had the military means of preventing North Korea from even attempting to develop weapons capable of hitting American territory without incurring a substantial loss of life in the process: "As with space-shuttle launches from Cape Canaveral, all personnel would normally be a safe distance away from the rocket at the time, so there should be no collateral damage," they reassure their readers.

There are two assumptions underlying this line of analysis. One is that a belligerent and unpredictable North Korea would use long-range missiles as strategic leverage over the US and its allies in the event of a violent crisis in the Korean Peninsula. If pushed far enough, North Korea could attack Guam or Hawaii in attempt to demoralize the US or, conversely, bait it deeper into conflict.

The other assumption is that North Korea wouldn't attack the South if it were subject to the kind of US strike that Carter and Perry envisioned. Given the very limited scope of the attack they recommend, along with Pyongyang's perennial concerns over regime stability and probable desire not to trigger a regional war while on the brink of a nuclear weapons capability, this seems like a sound assumption.

So would an attack actually have been advisable?

A single US strike might have frozen North Korean missile development while proving the US was capable of backing its security interests in the region with force — something that could even have convinced North Korea to back down from the nuclear threshold.

Pyongyang would hold three nuclear tests after its Taepodong 2 adventure including its first-ever test in October of 2006. The commander of US forces in South Korea recently said he believed Iran was aiding North Korea's nuclear program, raising the possibility that the Tehran regime has access to vital information from these tests; meanwhile, external trade with North Korea has actually dramatically increased in the years since the first nuclear test was held, perhaps proving that the reality of a nuclear deterrent has forced the world to accept the regime's long-term survival. Carter and Perry's proposed attack might have changed the trajectory of the Korean Peninsula, or even prevented the troubling present-day state of play.

Conversely, it might have eroded elite confidence in the Kim regime, leading to internal unrest in North Korea or otherwise triggering a cascade of uncontrollable or unpredictable events.

A nearly decade-old article written when Carter was out of government and teaching at Harvard University probably doesn't offer much insight into how he would lead the Pentagon.

But the Time article still shows the probable future secretary of defense grappling with an issue that just about no one's been able to solve, a national security puzzle that's flummoxed nearly two decades' worth of Democratic and Republican presidents.

The solution he reached was signifcantly different than what most policymakers were recommending at hte time — and might have been the right move anyway.

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