From Land Destroyer Report.
UN Syria Report Co-Authored by Director of US Corporate Think-Tank
by Tony Cartalucci
November 30, 2011
Blatant lies told by alleged "human rights activists" led to ignominious NATO-sanctioned brutality and ultimately brought BP, Shell, Total-sponsored Petroleum Institute representative, Abdurrahim el-Keib, into power in Libya. Now, these same corporate-financier interests, through their same networks of propaganda, duplicity and deception, are laying the ground work for a repeat performance in Syria...
Read more...
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Clinton tells developing world to be wary of donors
Talk about the pot calling the kettle black...
From Reuters
(Reuters) - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged developing nations on Wednesday to be "smart shoppers" on foreign aid, warning that powerful emerging economies such as China may be more interested in exploiting natural resources than promoting real development.
Read more...
Should probably be read in conjunction with articles like these:
American Companies Exploit The Congo.
The Big Oil Grab In Libya
From Reuters
(Reuters) - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged developing nations on Wednesday to be "smart shoppers" on foreign aid, warning that powerful emerging economies such as China may be more interested in exploiting natural resources than promoting real development.
Read more...
Should probably be read in conjunction with articles like these:
American Companies Exploit The Congo.
The Big Oil Grab In Libya
Monday, November 28, 2011
New questions raised over Dominique-Strauss Kahn case
It's getting pretty obvious that Strauss Kahn was set up, most likely by Sarkozy. Not that such a thing should surprise anyone.
From The Guardian.
New questions have been raised about the events in the New York hotel room where the former International Monetary Fund head and French politician Dominique Strauss-Kahn was alleged to have sexually assaulted a hotel maid.
The case against Strauss-Kahn was eventually dramatically dropped by a Manhattan court, but the scandal forced him to resign his IMF post and destroyed his chances of becoming the leading leftwing candidate to challenge Nicolas Sarkozy for the French presidency.
An exhaustively researched article in the New York Review of Books, published by veteran American investigative journalist Edward Jay Epstein, has cast fresh doubt on exactly what happened in the Sofitel hotel room on 14 May between Strauss-Kahn and his accuser, Guinean-born maid Nafissatou Diallo.
In passages sure to delight Strauss-Kahn supporters and conspiracy theorists, Epstein's lengthy article studied hotel door key and phone records and traced links to Strauss-Kahn's potential political rivals, appearing to suggest the possibility that he had been set up.
Read more...
From The Guardian.
New questions have been raised about the events in the New York hotel room where the former International Monetary Fund head and French politician Dominique Strauss-Kahn was alleged to have sexually assaulted a hotel maid.
The case against Strauss-Kahn was eventually dramatically dropped by a Manhattan court, but the scandal forced him to resign his IMF post and destroyed his chances of becoming the leading leftwing candidate to challenge Nicolas Sarkozy for the French presidency.
An exhaustively researched article in the New York Review of Books, published by veteran American investigative journalist Edward Jay Epstein, has cast fresh doubt on exactly what happened in the Sofitel hotel room on 14 May between Strauss-Kahn and his accuser, Guinean-born maid Nafissatou Diallo.
In passages sure to delight Strauss-Kahn supporters and conspiracy theorists, Epstein's lengthy article studied hotel door key and phone records and traced links to Strauss-Kahn's potential political rivals, appearing to suggest the possibility that he had been set up.
Read more...
Congress to Vote Next Week on EXPLICITLY Creating a Police State
From Washington's Blog.
The Senate is going to vote on whether Congress will give this president—and every future president — the power to order the military to pick up and imprison without charge or trial civilians anywhere in the world.
***
The power is so broad that even U.S. citizens could be swept up by the military and the military could be used far from any battlefield, even within the United States itself...
Anyone who … speaks out against the government’s policies could be declared an “unlawful enemy combatant” and imprisoned indefinitely. That includes American citizens.
Obama has refused to reverse these practices.
And see also here...where you can write an email to your senators quickly and easily on the ACLU website.
From ACLU
The U.S. Senate is considering the unthinkable: changing detention laws to imprison people — including Americans living in the United States itself — indefinitely and without charge.
The Defense Authorization bill — a "must-pass" piece of legislation — is headed to the Senate floor with troubling provisions that would give the President — and all future presidents — the authority to indefinitely imprison people, without charge or trial, both abroad and inside the United States.
The Senate is going to vote on whether Congress will give this president—and every future president — the power to order the military to pick up and imprison without charge or trial civilians anywhere in the world.
***
The power is so broad that even U.S. citizens could be swept up by the military and the military could be used far from any battlefield, even within the United States itself...
Anyone who … speaks out against the government’s policies could be declared an “unlawful enemy combatant” and imprisoned indefinitely. That includes American citizens.
Obama has refused to reverse these practices.
And see also here...where you can write an email to your senators quickly and easily on the ACLU website.
From ACLU
The U.S. Senate is considering the unthinkable: changing detention laws to imprison people — including Americans living in the United States itself — indefinitely and without charge.
The Defense Authorization bill — a "must-pass" piece of legislation — is headed to the Senate floor with troubling provisions that would give the President — and all future presidents — the authority to indefinitely imprison people, without charge or trial, both abroad and inside the United States.
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Thursday, November 24, 2011
7,000 held in Libya's new reign of fear and torture
And introducing, from the people who brought you the wars of Iraq, and Afghanistan, what all the experts have been waiting for, the one and only...Liberated Libya!
From The Daily Mail.
Thousands of people including women and children are being held illegally and tortured by rebels who helped oust Colonel Gaddafi, according to a UN report.
Around 7,000, many of them foreigners, are behind bars in private prisons and makeshift detention centres, beyond the control of the new Libyan government and without access to any legal redress.
The report by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will be embarrassing for Britain and other governments which supported the overthrow of the Gaddafi regime despite concerns about who would take power in their place.
Many of the detainees are sub-Saharan Africans whom their captors accuse of being Gaddafi mercenaries, based in some cases purely on the fact that they have darker skin. The women and children are being held with them, under the control of male-only guards.
‘Some detainees have reportedly been subjected to torture or ill treatment,’ the UN said.
Read more...
From The Daily Mail.
Thousands of people including women and children are being held illegally and tortured by rebels who helped oust Colonel Gaddafi, according to a UN report.
Around 7,000, many of them foreigners, are behind bars in private prisons and makeshift detention centres, beyond the control of the new Libyan government and without access to any legal redress.
The report by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will be embarrassing for Britain and other governments which supported the overthrow of the Gaddafi regime despite concerns about who would take power in their place.
Many of the detainees are sub-Saharan Africans whom their captors accuse of being Gaddafi mercenaries, based in some cases purely on the fact that they have darker skin. The women and children are being held with them, under the control of male-only guards.
‘Some detainees have reportedly been subjected to torture or ill treatment,’ the UN said.
Read more...
And Here Is Your Thanksgiving...
From Zerohedge
Earlier today, we presented the latest developments in the escalating possibility of an imminent air (and potentially land) campaign targeting Syria by the "western world", a move that would infuriate not only Iran, but also Russia and China, both of which have made it clear they would not sit idly by and let such an "aggression" stand. Now it is Russia's turn to retaliate. Cutting straight to the chase - in a nationally televized appearance by Russian president Dmitry Medvedev: in response to what the Russian believes is an active incursion and a potential act of eventual aggression on behalf of NATO countries in Eastern Europe (and hence the US), he he said the following (7 minutes in): "First, I am instructing the Defense Ministry to immediately put the missile attack early warning radar station in Kaliningrad on combat alert. Second, protective cover of Russia's strategic nuclear weapons, will be reinforced as a priority measure under the programme to develop out air and space defenses. Third, the new strategic ballistic missiles commissioned by the Strategic Missile Forces and the Navy will be equipped with advanced missile defense penetration systems and new highly-effective warheads. Fourth, I have instructed the Armed Forces to draw up measures for disabling missile defense system data and guidance systems if need be... Fifth, if the above measures prove insufficient, the Russian Federation will deploy modern offensive weapon systems in the west and south of the country, ensuring our ability to take out any part of the US missile defense system, in Europe. One step in this process will be to deploy Iskander missiles in Kaliningrad Region. Other measures to counter the European missile defense system will be drawn up and implemented as necessary. Furthermore, if the situation continues to develop not in Russia's favor we reserve the right to discontinue further disarmament and arms control measures. Besides, given the intrinsic link between strategic offensive and defensive arms, conditions for our withdrawal from the New START Treaty could also arise." That said, he concludes that Russia is still open to dialog. However, if Obama merely intends to bomb any nation at will, we are very much concerned that everything Medvedev has just threatened will be enacted. And exponentially more so when Putin comes back in charge. One thing is certain - Russia is not North Korea, and taking this speech for more empty jawboning is probably not the wisest option.
One comment on this Zerohedge article nicely sums it up:
This is all part of a greater game: America and the West are locked in a proxy war with the Eurasian autocracies (Pakistan, Russia, Iran, China — for short, the PRICs) for both Eurasia’s huge resources and manpower, and global military and financial supremacy. American policy is to retain the petrodollar-standard, and continue enjoying the free lunch such a system yields.
Russia and China don't want to fight a physical war. They want to fight (and win) the ongoing trade war, and degrade America's superpower status slowly and surely. And in that regard they are winning. That's why a military-industrial complex patsy like Romney is so dangerous. Plutocrats want their free lunches.
Read more and watch video...
Earlier today, we presented the latest developments in the escalating possibility of an imminent air (and potentially land) campaign targeting Syria by the "western world", a move that would infuriate not only Iran, but also Russia and China, both of which have made it clear they would not sit idly by and let such an "aggression" stand. Now it is Russia's turn to retaliate. Cutting straight to the chase - in a nationally televized appearance by Russian president Dmitry Medvedev: in response to what the Russian believes is an active incursion and a potential act of eventual aggression on behalf of NATO countries in Eastern Europe (and hence the US), he he said the following (7 minutes in): "First, I am instructing the Defense Ministry to immediately put the missile attack early warning radar station in Kaliningrad on combat alert. Second, protective cover of Russia's strategic nuclear weapons, will be reinforced as a priority measure under the programme to develop out air and space defenses. Third, the new strategic ballistic missiles commissioned by the Strategic Missile Forces and the Navy will be equipped with advanced missile defense penetration systems and new highly-effective warheads. Fourth, I have instructed the Armed Forces to draw up measures for disabling missile defense system data and guidance systems if need be... Fifth, if the above measures prove insufficient, the Russian Federation will deploy modern offensive weapon systems in the west and south of the country, ensuring our ability to take out any part of the US missile defense system, in Europe. One step in this process will be to deploy Iskander missiles in Kaliningrad Region. Other measures to counter the European missile defense system will be drawn up and implemented as necessary. Furthermore, if the situation continues to develop not in Russia's favor we reserve the right to discontinue further disarmament and arms control measures. Besides, given the intrinsic link between strategic offensive and defensive arms, conditions for our withdrawal from the New START Treaty could also arise." That said, he concludes that Russia is still open to dialog. However, if Obama merely intends to bomb any nation at will, we are very much concerned that everything Medvedev has just threatened will be enacted. And exponentially more so when Putin comes back in charge. One thing is certain - Russia is not North Korea, and taking this speech for more empty jawboning is probably not the wisest option.
One comment on this Zerohedge article nicely sums it up:
This is all part of a greater game: America and the West are locked in a proxy war with the Eurasian autocracies (Pakistan, Russia, Iran, China — for short, the PRICs) for both Eurasia’s huge resources and manpower, and global military and financial supremacy. American policy is to retain the petrodollar-standard, and continue enjoying the free lunch such a system yields.
Russia and China don't want to fight a physical war. They want to fight (and win) the ongoing trade war, and degrade America's superpower status slowly and surely. And in that regard they are winning. That's why a military-industrial complex patsy like Romney is so dangerous. Plutocrats want their free lunches.
Read more and watch video...
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Monday, November 21, 2011
New York Cops Arrest “Osama Hussein” in Bomb Plot
Hey Bloomberg want to buy the Brooklyn Bridge? I'll sell it to you for a dollar.
From Infowars.
Now that Mayor Bloomberg and the New York cops have uprooted OWS, it’s time for some real action – tracking down would-be lone wolf terrorist synthesizers.
Read more...
From Infowars.
Now that Mayor Bloomberg and the New York cops have uprooted OWS, it’s time for some real action – tracking down would-be lone wolf terrorist synthesizers.
Read more...
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Sectarian Strife in City Bodes Ill for All of Syria
Bill Keller is no longer editor of The New York Times. The articles are improving there now.
From The New York Times.
BEIRUT, Lebanon — A harrowing sectarian war has spread across the Syrian city of Homs this month, with supporters and opponents of the government blamed for beheadings, rival gangs carrying out tit-for-tat kidnappings, minorities fleeing for their native villages, and taxi drivers too fearful of drive-by shootings to ply the streets.
From The New York Times.
BEIRUT, Lebanon — A harrowing sectarian war has spread across the Syrian city of Homs this month, with supporters and opponents of the government blamed for beheadings, rival gangs carrying out tit-for-tat kidnappings, minorities fleeing for their native villages, and taxi drivers too fearful of drive-by shootings to ply the streets.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Occupy Oakland: Iraq war veteran Kayvan Sabehgi beaten by police - video
Meanwhile Peace Laureate Obama, Hilary and their think-tank friends are trying to figure out how to overthrow Syria and Iran, they claim in order to 'help the peaceful protestors' over there. The hypocrisy is reaching absurd levels.
Friday, November 18, 2011
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Obama Prosecuting Fewer Financial Crimes Than Under Reagan or Either Bush
From Washington's Blog.
Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush, and Clinton Each Prosecuted Financial Crime More Aggressively than Obama
Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush, and Clinton Each Prosecuted Financial Crime More Aggressively than Obama
IISS: Syria's Opposition Is Armed
From Land Destroyer Report
Placard-Waving Protesters are actually Machine Gun-Wielding Terrorists.
by Tony Cartalucci
November 15, 2011 - The "Free Syria Army" is literally an army of militant extremists, many drawn not from Syria's military ranks, but from the Muslim Brotherhood, carrying heavy weapons back and forth over the Turkish and Lebanese borders, funded, supported, and armed by the United States, Israel, and Turkey. The latest evidence confirming this comes in the form of a report out of the International Institute for Strategic Studies where Senior Fellow for Regional Security at IISS-Middle East Emile Hokayem openly admits Syria's opposition is armed and prepared to drag Syria's violence into even bloodier depths.
This report comes in sharp contrast to the propaganda fed via the corporate-media and the West's foreign ministers on a daily basis, where the violence is portrayed as one-sided, with Syria's President Bashar al-Assad "gunning down" throngs of peaceful, placard waving protesters.
Read more...
Placard-Waving Protesters are actually Machine Gun-Wielding Terrorists.
by Tony Cartalucci
November 15, 2011 - The "Free Syria Army" is literally an army of militant extremists, many drawn not from Syria's military ranks, but from the Muslim Brotherhood, carrying heavy weapons back and forth over the Turkish and Lebanese borders, funded, supported, and armed by the United States, Israel, and Turkey. The latest evidence confirming this comes in the form of a report out of the International Institute for Strategic Studies where Senior Fellow for Regional Security at IISS-Middle East Emile Hokayem openly admits Syria's opposition is armed and prepared to drag Syria's violence into even bloodier depths.
This report comes in sharp contrast to the propaganda fed via the corporate-media and the West's foreign ministers on a daily basis, where the violence is portrayed as one-sided, with Syria's President Bashar al-Assad "gunning down" throngs of peaceful, placard waving protesters.
Read more...
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Homeland Security Coordinated 18-City Police Crackdown on Occupy Protest
Not mentioned however is that the crackdown was worldwide from most reports I've heard and not just national. The issue here, is that though we may be removing through military force one dictator here and one dictator there, there is a danger that in the end we will be left with one giant, militarized police/surveillance/economic empire against which there are little if any democratic forces left to keep it in check and maintain individual rights, or economic freedom against the power of the international corporations, banks and the centralized power of their international government. In the end I believe the project will fail, but that doesn't mean it isn't underway.
From Washington's Blog.
Remember when people were freaking out over the Patriot Act and Homeland Security and all this other conveniently ready-to-go post-9/11 police state stuff, because it would obviously be just a matter of time before the whole apparatus was turned against non-Muslim Americans when they started getting complain-y about the social injustice and economic injustice and income inequality and endless recession and permanent unemployment? That day is now, and has been for some time. But it’s also now confirmed that it’s now, as some Justice Department official screwed up and admitted that the Department of Homeland Security coordinated the riot-cop raids on a dozen major #Occupy Wall Street demonstration camps nationwide yesterday and today...
...Over the past ten days, more than a dozen cities have moved to evict “Occupy” protesters from city parks and other public spaces. As was the case in last night’s move in New York City, each of the police actions shares a number of characteristics. And according to one Justice official, each of those actions was coordinated with help from Homeland Security, the FBI and other federal police agencies.
From Washington's Blog.
Remember when people were freaking out over the Patriot Act and Homeland Security and all this other conveniently ready-to-go post-9/11 police state stuff, because it would obviously be just a matter of time before the whole apparatus was turned against non-Muslim Americans when they started getting complain-y about the social injustice and economic injustice and income inequality and endless recession and permanent unemployment? That day is now, and has been for some time. But it’s also now confirmed that it’s now, as some Justice Department official screwed up and admitted that the Department of Homeland Security coordinated the riot-cop raids on a dozen major #Occupy Wall Street demonstration camps nationwide yesterday and today...
...Over the past ten days, more than a dozen cities have moved to evict “Occupy” protesters from city parks and other public spaces. As was the case in last night’s move in New York City, each of the police actions shares a number of characteristics. And according to one Justice official, each of those actions was coordinated with help from Homeland Security, the FBI and other federal police agencies.
Monday, November 14, 2011
Do the bomb Iran shuffle
From Asia Times.
THE ROVING EYE
Do the bomb Iran shuffle
By Pepe Escobar
Get ready for a flurry of fuzzy satellite ''intelligence'' of generic warehouses all across Iran frantically described as segments of a nuclear bomb assembly line (Remember a famous ''secret nuclear facility'' in Syria not long ago? It was a textile factory.)
Get ready for a flurry of crude diagrams depicting suspect devices, or the containers that hide them, all capable of reaching Europe in 45 minutes.
Get ready for a flurry of ''experts'' on Fox, CNN and the BBC endlessly dissecting all this extended black ops dressed up as ''evidence''. For instance, former UN weapons inspector David Albright, now at the Institute for Science and International
Security (ISIS), has already pulled his return of the living dead stunt, displaying his ''bomb Iran'' credentials complete with diagrams and satellite intel.
Forget Iraq - it's sooo 2003. Hit the new groove; hyping overdrive for the war on Iran.
First of all, ditch common sense.
If Iran were developing a nuclear weapon, it would be diverting uranium for it. The report released by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) this week - as politicized as it may be - flatly denies it.
If Iran were developing a nuclear weapon, UN inspectors working for the IAEA would have been thrown out of the country.
Iraq did not have a nuclear weapons program in 2002. And yet it was shocked and awed. The same rationale applies to Iran.
What Tehran may have conducted - if the compromised intel used in the IAEA report is to be believed - is a bunch of experiments and computer simulations. Everybody does it - for instance countries which have renounced the bomb, such as Brazil and South Africa.
What the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) - in charge of the civilian nuclear program - certainly wants is a deterrent.
That is, the possibility of building up a nuclear bomb in case they face an unequivocally established threat of regime change, provoked, most likely, by a US attack and invasion.
Read more...
THE ROVING EYE
Do the bomb Iran shuffle
By Pepe Escobar
Get ready for a flurry of fuzzy satellite ''intelligence'' of generic warehouses all across Iran frantically described as segments of a nuclear bomb assembly line (Remember a famous ''secret nuclear facility'' in Syria not long ago? It was a textile factory.)
Get ready for a flurry of crude diagrams depicting suspect devices, or the containers that hide them, all capable of reaching Europe in 45 minutes.
Get ready for a flurry of ''experts'' on Fox, CNN and the BBC endlessly dissecting all this extended black ops dressed up as ''evidence''. For instance, former UN weapons inspector David Albright, now at the Institute for Science and International
Security (ISIS), has already pulled his return of the living dead stunt, displaying his ''bomb Iran'' credentials complete with diagrams and satellite intel.
Forget Iraq - it's sooo 2003. Hit the new groove; hyping overdrive for the war on Iran.
First of all, ditch common sense.
If Iran were developing a nuclear weapon, it would be diverting uranium for it. The report released by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) this week - as politicized as it may be - flatly denies it.
If Iran were developing a nuclear weapon, UN inspectors working for the IAEA would have been thrown out of the country.
Iraq did not have a nuclear weapons program in 2002. And yet it was shocked and awed. The same rationale applies to Iran.
What Tehran may have conducted - if the compromised intel used in the IAEA report is to be believed - is a bunch of experiments and computer simulations. Everybody does it - for instance countries which have renounced the bomb, such as Brazil and South Africa.
What the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) - in charge of the civilian nuclear program - certainly wants is a deterrent.
That is, the possibility of building up a nuclear bomb in case they face an unequivocally established threat of regime change, provoked, most likely, by a US attack and invasion.
Read more...
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Libya Says Oil Output Can Reach 800,000 Barrels by End 2011
From Bloomberg
Nov. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Libya, the holder of Africa’s biggest oil reserves, will produce as much as 800,000 barrels of crude a day by the end of this year, the chairman of state-run National Oil Corp. said.
Libya’s oil industry will recover more quickly than the International Energy Agency predicted after suffering disruptions this year amid fighting that engulfed the country, Nuri Berruien said today in an interview in Doha, Qatar. The nation currently pumps 600,000 barrels a day, he said, adding in comments to reporters that authorities will not award licenses to energy companies during its political transition after the death of Muammar Qaddafi.
Nov. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Libya, the holder of Africa’s biggest oil reserves, will produce as much as 800,000 barrels of crude a day by the end of this year, the chairman of state-run National Oil Corp. said.
Libya’s oil industry will recover more quickly than the International Energy Agency predicted after suffering disruptions this year amid fighting that engulfed the country, Nuri Berruien said today in an interview in Doha, Qatar. The nation currently pumps 600,000 barrels a day, he said, adding in comments to reporters that authorities will not award licenses to energy companies during its political transition after the death of Muammar Qaddafi.
How the War on Terror Militarized the Police
From Reader Supported News.
Over the past 10 years, law enforcement officials have begun to look and act more and more like soldiers. Here's why we should be alarmed."
At around 9:00 a.m. on May 5, 2011, officers with the Pima County, Arizona, Sheriff's Department's Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team surrounded the home of 26-year-old José Guerena, a former US Marine and veteran of two tours of duty in Iraq, to serve a search warrant for narcotics. As the officers approached, Guerena lay sleeping in his bedroom after working the graveyard shift at a local mine. When his wife Vanessa woke him up, screaming that she had seen a man outside the window pointing a gun at her, Guerena grabbed his AR-15 rifle, instructed Vanessa to hide in the closet with their four-year-old son, and left the bedroom to investigate.
Within moments, and without Guerena firing a shot - or even switching his rifle off of "safety" - he lay dying, his body riddled with 60 bullets. A subsequent investigation revealed that the initial shot that prompted the SWAT team barrage came from a SWAT team gun, not Guerena's. Guerena, reports later revealed, had no criminal record, and no narcotics were found at his home.
Sadly, the Guerenas are not alone; in recent years we have witnessed a proliferation in incidents of excessive, military-style force by police SWAT teams, which often make national headlines due to their sheer brutality. Why has it become routine for police departments to deploy black-garbed, body-armored SWAT teams for routine domestic police work? The answer to this question requires a closer examination of post-9/11 US foreign policy and the War on Terror...
Read more...
Over the past 10 years, law enforcement officials have begun to look and act more and more like soldiers. Here's why we should be alarmed."
At around 9:00 a.m. on May 5, 2011, officers with the Pima County, Arizona, Sheriff's Department's Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team surrounded the home of 26-year-old José Guerena, a former US Marine and veteran of two tours of duty in Iraq, to serve a search warrant for narcotics. As the officers approached, Guerena lay sleeping in his bedroom after working the graveyard shift at a local mine. When his wife Vanessa woke him up, screaming that she had seen a man outside the window pointing a gun at her, Guerena grabbed his AR-15 rifle, instructed Vanessa to hide in the closet with their four-year-old son, and left the bedroom to investigate.
Within moments, and without Guerena firing a shot - or even switching his rifle off of "safety" - he lay dying, his body riddled with 60 bullets. A subsequent investigation revealed that the initial shot that prompted the SWAT team barrage came from a SWAT team gun, not Guerena's. Guerena, reports later revealed, had no criminal record, and no narcotics were found at his home.
Sadly, the Guerenas are not alone; in recent years we have witnessed a proliferation in incidents of excessive, military-style force by police SWAT teams, which often make national headlines due to their sheer brutality. Why has it become routine for police departments to deploy black-garbed, body-armored SWAT teams for routine domestic police work? The answer to this question requires a closer examination of post-9/11 US foreign policy and the War on Terror...
Read more...
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Big Banks Plead with Customers Not to Move Their Money
From Washington's Blog
At Wells Fargo, my sister walked up to the teller and politely asked to close her account. The teller said, “No problem.” She pulled up her account and saw the balance and told her that due to the amount she had to speak with the branch manager. The branch manager came out. He was probably 30 years old and was very arrogant. He asked my sister why she wanted to close her account and my sister told him she thought Wells Fargo was part of the problem with the economy. He went thru some talking points about why she shouldn’t move her money, but my sister didn’t back down. When he asked her where she was going she told him that she would be banking at the North Carolina State Employees Credit Union. She isn’t a state employee, but anyone can join if you are related to a state employee. It turns out her husband is. Anyway, the bankster told her “You’ll be back. Credit unions can’t provide the services you need.” We’ll see about that. She withdrew over $200k from Wells Fargo.
And another bank employer told someone else who wanted to move out of the big banks that management is concerned:
She shared that management is nervous, they are seeing money leaking out of the bank and realize that they have made mistakes…. They are also aware of the growing momentum behind the November 5th move your money movement.
Local Governments, Churches, Community Groups, Prominent Business Men And Others Are All Divesting From Big, Corrupt Banks
At least 650,000 consumers have already joined credit unions since Sept. 29 … to a nationwide survey of credit unions by the Credit Union National Association. That amounts to $4.5 billion in new savings accounts, CUNA said.
At Wells Fargo, my sister walked up to the teller and politely asked to close her account. The teller said, “No problem.” She pulled up her account and saw the balance and told her that due to the amount she had to speak with the branch manager. The branch manager came out. He was probably 30 years old and was very arrogant. He asked my sister why she wanted to close her account and my sister told him she thought Wells Fargo was part of the problem with the economy. He went thru some talking points about why she shouldn’t move her money, but my sister didn’t back down. When he asked her where she was going she told him that she would be banking at the North Carolina State Employees Credit Union. She isn’t a state employee, but anyone can join if you are related to a state employee. It turns out her husband is. Anyway, the bankster told her “You’ll be back. Credit unions can’t provide the services you need.” We’ll see about that. She withdrew over $200k from Wells Fargo.
And another bank employer told someone else who wanted to move out of the big banks that management is concerned:
She shared that management is nervous, they are seeing money leaking out of the bank and realize that they have made mistakes…. They are also aware of the growing momentum behind the November 5th move your money movement.
Local Governments, Churches, Community Groups, Prominent Business Men And Others Are All Divesting From Big, Corrupt Banks
At least 650,000 consumers have already joined credit unions since Sept. 29 … to a nationwide survey of credit unions by the Credit Union National Association. That amounts to $4.5 billion in new savings accounts, CUNA said.
Oil Executive: Military-Style 'Psy Ops' Experience Applied
From CNBC
It was a gathering of professionals to discuss “media and stakeholder relations” in the hydraulic fracturing industry — companies using the often-controversial oil and gas extraction technique known as “fracking.”
But things took an unexpected twist.
CNBC has obtained audiotapes of the event, on which one presenter can be heard recommending that his colleagues download a copy of the Army and Marine Corps counterinsurgency manual.
That’s because, he said, the opposition facing the industry is an “insurgency.”
Another told attendees that his company has several former military psychological operations, or “psy ops” specialists on staff, applying their skills in Pennsylvania.
Go hear to read more and hear audio clips.
It was a gathering of professionals to discuss “media and stakeholder relations” in the hydraulic fracturing industry — companies using the often-controversial oil and gas extraction technique known as “fracking.”
But things took an unexpected twist.
CNBC has obtained audiotapes of the event, on which one presenter can be heard recommending that his colleagues download a copy of the Army and Marine Corps counterinsurgency manual.
That’s because, he said, the opposition facing the industry is an “insurgency.”
Another told attendees that his company has several former military psychological operations, or “psy ops” specialists on staff, applying their skills in Pennsylvania.
Go hear to read more and hear audio clips.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Power comes from barrel of a gun in post-Gaddafi Libya
From The Independent.
Abdul Mojan's moment of realisation came when the people he thought were the good guys threw him into the boot of their car, slammed it shut and drove off with him a prisoner inside.
When they finally stopped and hauled him out, he asked: "What are you doing? I'm a revolutionary just like you. I've never supported Gaddafi."
But the former rebels did not care. They had taken a liking to the new office block in western Tripoli that Mr Mojan managed and they wanted the keys and ownership documents.
"We have sacrificed for this revolution and you haven't, and now we will take what we want," he was told by a cocky 18-year-old. "You can have the building back when the revolution is over."
A week later Mr Mojan was still incredulous as he recounted his tale, admitting that he felt lucky to escape without a beating, although there was nothing he could do about the 5,000 dinar (€2,960) they stole from his car.
Many of Tripoli's residents have had a similar moment of grim awakening in recent weeks. Their liberators, still swaggering around the city in Che Guevara-style berets and armed to the teeth, have not gone back to their home towns as they promised. Nor have they handed in the guns they used to topple Gaddafi.
"When they said 'Libya free', they meant the cars, the refrigerators and the flat-screen television sets," runs one joke in Tripoli's cafes. There are also stories of gunmen taking expensive cars at checkpoints, giving receipts and saying they will be returned after the revolution.
More alarming than the looting have been the armed clashes between militias.
There have been three big fights in the capital alone in the past week; shoot-outs at a hospital, Martyr's Square and the military airport, which have left several dead and dozens wounded.
Then there are the detentions. With the fighting over, the revolutionaries have kept busy, rounding up hundreds of suspected Gaddafi supporters in a widescale witch-hunt, often on the basis of little more than rumour and accusation.
Monday, November 7, 2011
Less healthcare, but Greece is still buying guns
From The Independent.
As Greece is forced by European leaders to abandon a referendum to allow the people the chance to vote on its latest bailout conditions, the country is preparing for yet another dose of austerity.
The conditions of the next €130bn rescue package will be severe, yet there is an elephant in the room: the extent to which the German but also the French military industries rely on Greece.
The small, crisis-hit nation, whose prime minister, George Papandreou, narrowly survived a vote of confidence on Friday, buys more German weapons than any other country. Some Greeks want to know why it is that France and Germany are demanding cuts in pensions, salaries and public services, but the buying of arms is allowed to continue unabated.
Yanis Varoufakis, professor of economics at Athens University, says: "When Greek hospitals are running out of bandages, the only bit of the budget not being attacked by the EU and IMF is military expenditure."
As Greece is forced by European leaders to abandon a referendum to allow the people the chance to vote on its latest bailout conditions, the country is preparing for yet another dose of austerity.
The conditions of the next €130bn rescue package will be severe, yet there is an elephant in the room: the extent to which the German but also the French military industries rely on Greece.
The small, crisis-hit nation, whose prime minister, George Papandreou, narrowly survived a vote of confidence on Friday, buys more German weapons than any other country. Some Greeks want to know why it is that France and Germany are demanding cuts in pensions, salaries and public services, but the buying of arms is allowed to continue unabated.
Yanis Varoufakis, professor of economics at Athens University, says: "When Greek hospitals are running out of bandages, the only bit of the budget not being attacked by the EU and IMF is military expenditure."
Shot by police with rubber bullet at Occupy Oakland
The friendly face of America. As I've said before, forget about Gaza, that's now where you live.
From Max Keiser. "Sell America short… Make big bucks as this turd gets flushed."
Couldn't have said it better myself.
From Max Keiser. "Sell America short… Make big bucks as this turd gets flushed."
Couldn't have said it better myself.
Pro-Israeli Lobby Group Made BBC, Sky News ‘Change Narrative’ On Stories
From Prison Planet.
Ahead of a widely-expected Israeli-led attack on Iran, Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre, an elitist pro-Israeli lobbying firm, has been caught “briefing” the British mainstream media on how to present news items relating to Israel, bragging in a leaked email of how BBC and Sky News editors “changed their narrative” on stories after meeting with BICOM representatives.
Ahead of a widely-expected Israeli-led attack on Iran, Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre, an elitist pro-Israeli lobbying firm, has been caught “briefing” the British mainstream media on how to present news items relating to Israel, bragging in a leaked email of how BBC and Sky News editors “changed their narrative” on stories after meeting with BICOM representatives.
Aussie soldiers shot by Afghan officer
From Yahoo
Three Australian diggers have been killed in Afghanistan by a local soldier who opened fire while they were on parade.
Three Australian diggers have been killed in Afghanistan by a local soldier who opened fire while they were on parade.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Hey Obama, Why Is Al-Qaeda's Flag Flying Over Libya?
From Kushmonster.
The colossal atrocities taking place in Libya and across North Africa and the Middle East are notable not only for their brutal, insensible and blind cruelty, but for the transparent and bold nature of the escalating plans for the Brave New World Order of the Anglo European supernumeraries of these esoteric cabals. The present convulsions of the world economic and political order as it descends into a predesigned chaos is proceeding without any significant opposition as the streets of world capitals descend into a desired anarchic mobocracy in prelude to the establishment of martial law.
More Drone Death Strikes on Civilians From CIA/Peace Laureate Obama
From The Nation
WANA (Online) – A Pakistani teenager, who recently joined a protest rally against US drone strikes, was killed in an attack by the CIA-operated spy planes in North Waziristan tribal region, a campaigner against the missile strikes said on Tuesday.
Sixteen-year-old Muhammad Tariq of North Waziristan had joined hundreds of tribesmen in the rally against drone strikes in the Pakistani capital on Friday. The protesters had called for an immediate end to the strikes, saying they killed many civilians, reported Rediff.com.
Tariq was killed with his cousin Waheed, 12, in a US drone strike on Monday night near Mirali, a key town in the restive North Waziristan tribal agency, said Karim Khan, who is leading a campaign against the missile attacks.
Khan, who belongs to Mirali, had lost his son in a drone attack last year.
He filed a case against the former CIA station chief and several top US officials in a police station in Islamabad for what he said was the murder of innocent tribesmen in drone strikes.
At least four people were killed in Monday night’s drone strike on a house and a vehicle, according to local media reports.
It was the fourth strike in Waziristan in five days.
On Sunday, US spy planes fired missiles at a house in North Waziristan and killed at least six people.
WANA (Online) – A Pakistani teenager, who recently joined a protest rally against US drone strikes, was killed in an attack by the CIA-operated spy planes in North Waziristan tribal region, a campaigner against the missile strikes said on Tuesday.
Sixteen-year-old Muhammad Tariq of North Waziristan had joined hundreds of tribesmen in the rally against drone strikes in the Pakistani capital on Friday. The protesters had called for an immediate end to the strikes, saying they killed many civilians, reported Rediff.com.
Tariq was killed with his cousin Waheed, 12, in a US drone strike on Monday night near Mirali, a key town in the restive North Waziristan tribal agency, said Karim Khan, who is leading a campaign against the missile attacks.
Khan, who belongs to Mirali, had lost his son in a drone attack last year.
He filed a case against the former CIA station chief and several top US officials in a police station in Islamabad for what he said was the murder of innocent tribesmen in drone strikes.
At least four people were killed in Monday night’s drone strike on a house and a vehicle, according to local media reports.
It was the fourth strike in Waziristan in five days.
On Sunday, US spy planes fired missiles at a house in North Waziristan and killed at least six people.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Greece? No, Oakland California.
Greece? No. Oakland California. Greece and Gaza, far far away are coming to you with some birthday kisses...as the world banking dictatorship closes ranks against all democracies and peoples of the world...
Go to this link to watch the video of social unrest in California, USA.
Go to this link to watch the video of social unrest in California, USA.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
U.S. Pulls All Funding for UNESCO After Sweeping Vote to Support Palestinian Membership
The bully strikes again.
From Democracy Now.
In an emotional—and largely symbolic—move, the United Nations cultural organization known as UNESCO overwhelmingly voted to grant membership to the Palestinians, despite opposition from the United States and Israel. Now the United States says it will cancel a $60 million payment due in November to the U.N. body. Membership dues paid by the U.S. account for about a fifth of UNESCO’s annual budget. The U.S. is also threatening to veto any Palestinian effort to be recognized by the U.N. Security Council as an independent state. "By going to UNESCO, this was a way both of gauging where the public opinion is among the various governments and, more importantly, symbolically for the world, showing that this is a moment of recognition that the 20-year-old U.S.-controlled so-called 'peace process' simply hasn’t worked," said Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies.
From Democracy Now.
In an emotional—and largely symbolic—move, the United Nations cultural organization known as UNESCO overwhelmingly voted to grant membership to the Palestinians, despite opposition from the United States and Israel. Now the United States says it will cancel a $60 million payment due in November to the U.N. body. Membership dues paid by the U.S. account for about a fifth of UNESCO’s annual budget. The U.S. is also threatening to veto any Palestinian effort to be recognized by the U.N. Security Council as an independent state. "By going to UNESCO, this was a way both of gauging where the public opinion is among the various governments and, more importantly, symbolically for the world, showing that this is a moment of recognition that the 20-year-old U.S.-controlled so-called 'peace process' simply hasn’t worked," said Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies.
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