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All posts for the month February, 2012
There is no man feared more by International Jewry than Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
And while the Zionist West and its lackeys at the Saudi-led Gulf Cooperation Council would have us believe that armed jihadists in Syria who are murdering innocent native civilians are “lovers of democracy,” Putin remains unshaken in his defense of International law.
Last November, Putin sent a signal to the Zionist lapdogs by dispatching the Russian Patriarch on a religious mission to Syria where he met with both the Syrian Antiochian Patriarch and Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad.
The message was clear:
Putin—who recently announced that in the tradition of the Tsars his foreign policy will include protecting Orthodox Christians abroad—left no doubt that any attempt to oust Assad, who is protecting ALL minorities in Syria, will be opposed.
Putin outlined his anti-Zionist stand last week when he assembled both Orthodox Christian and moderate Islamic clergy for a clear and certain News Release that he will not countenance any foreign military intervention in Syria. Continue Reading
By Stephen Lendman
Money power runs America. So do lobbies representing all corporate and other interests.
The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) represents dozens of influential companies.
They include Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Bell Hellicopter Textron, Sikorsky Aircraft, Goodrich, General Dynamics, Honeywell, Booz Allen Hamilton, Hill & Knowlton, and many more promoting unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) drone technology.
Against targeted countries, it’s America’s newest sport. From distant command centers, operators kill by remote control. They use computer keyboards and multiple monitors. UAVs stand ready round-the-clock for missions.
Predator drones perform sanitized killing on the cheap compared to manned aircraft. Independent experts believe militants are hit about 2% of the time. All others are noncombatants, despite official disclaimers.
In 1995, Predator drones were used for the first time in Bosnia. In 2001, the Global Hawk drone was used in Afghanistan. Throughout the Afghan and Iraq wars, the Pentagon used various type drones for combat and spying missions.
In Libya, Obama authorized Predator drones. They operated throughout the war. They’re also used in Yemen, Somalia, and wherever Washington designates targets to kill. Continue Reading
Nicholas West
Activist Post
It’s bad enough that drones have been welcomed by Congress into American skies, as well as already being used around the planet to conduct surveillance and bomb select countries from remote locations.
The latest proposed addition to the drone spy program is even creepier: disposable computers with software programs funded by DARPA to be dropped as self-destructing “bombs.”
Now, not only will drones surveil and hack from above, but they will drop a payload to interface with hidden computers on the ground, completely integrating a full-spectrum data transmission and control grid.
The name of the project, as well as its announcement at a hacker convention called ShmooCon, had this non-techie convinced that it had to be satire or a hoax, but the project has also been noted by Forbes and Wired, which only serves to illustrate how far off into our dystopian technocratic police state we have wandered. It seems that we are being acclimated to how funny and cool our futuristic spy toys have become. This fun has culminated in the planned dropping of F-BOMBS (Falling or Ballistically-launched Object that Makes Backdoors) to combat “Bad Men With Guns.”
The F-BOMB introduces the idea of disposable surveillance as a guard against forensic evaluation and the ability to track the source of the drop. Creator, Brendan O’Connor, has received DARPA funding to implement a software package into his nearly non-traceable surveillance hardware as cheaply as possible with easy-to-obtain components. Continue Reading
“The cold snap in Europe, which began in late January, has killed hundreds and brought deep snow where it hasn’t been seen in decades,” says this article in theSeattle Times.
This should be front page news. Instead, the article doesn’t appear until page eight. And the title, “At least 3 killed in avalanche in Kosovo,” belies the seriousness of the situation. (The print version carries a different headline: “Cold snap, snow lock down Europe.”)
How about a headline that tells it like it is?
140,000 trapped by snow – Death toll rises past 550.
That headline would give readers a glimpse of what’s really happening in Europe, where snow drifts reaching above the rooftops have kept tens of thousands of villagers prisoners in their own homes.
Now, I’ll admit that once you get past the ho-hum headline and down to the third paragraph, the Seattle Times article gets to the harsh truth.
You learn that in Montenegro, “the heaviest snow in 63 years sealed off hundreds of villages, shut down roads and railways and closed the main airport.” And you learn that “It was the biggest snowfall in the capital since 1949.”
You also learn that “boat traffic on the frozen Danube river — one of Europe’s key waterways — has been unable to move for the longest time in recent memory.” (Italics added.)
The rest of the article is quite informative, and I appreciate that.
But it’s that “cold snap” thing that bugs me. Continue Reading
A driver in diabetic shock was kicked in the head several times in a shocking display of police brutality that won him $158,000 in a lawsuit.
Adam Greene, of Las Vegas, was pulled over at about 4am on October 29, 2010 after a Nevada State Trooper spotted him weaving in traffic.
Mr Greene claimed he was driving that way because he had fallen into diabetic shock.
The dashcam video shows a Nevada state trooper approaching Mr Greene’s car with his gun drawn, saying: ‘Don’t move! Hey driver, do not move! Hands up!’
As five cops restrain the man on the ground, a Henderson police officer walks into the shot and kicks Mr Greene in the head five times.
‘Stop resisting, mother f*****,’ one officer says.
As he is struck, Mr Greene can be heard moaning in agony as the other officers struggle to cuff him.
Officers later searched Mr Greene and found a vial of insulin in his pocket.
The discovery prompts one of the officers to radio in to his dispatcher: ‘He’s a diabetic. He’s probably in shock, semiconscious.’
Later, one of the police officers discovers the dash cam on the highway patrol cruiser, and is heard mentioning it to a colleague.
‘It’s on camera,’ he says.
The other replies: ‘They don’t know you. I wouldn’t worry about it.’ Continue Reading
By JILL REILLY
A Hasidic Jewish teenager pleaded guilty to assault, for setting a neighbour on fire because he wasn’t praying with the rest of the community.
Shaul Spitzer, 18, of New Square, New York, had been accused of severely burning Aron Rottenberg, 43, with a firebomb outside Mr Rottenberg’s home in New Square, an insular Hasidic village of 7,000.
He pleaded guilty to assault in a New York court and faces up to 10 years in prison, although Judge William Kelly said he would likely receive a 5-year sentence.
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Shaul Spitzer, 18, of New Square, New York, had been accused of severely burning neighbor Aron Rottenberg, 43, with a firebomb outside Rottenberg’s home in New Square
Mr Rottenberg alleged that Twersky was angered because Rottenberg had stopped praying at his synagogue, disobeying a prayer order by the Grand Rebbe of the Hasidic enclave about 35 miles north of New York City.
More…
The Associated Press
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — A U.S. teenager who confessed to strangling, cutting and stabbing a 9-year-old neighbour because she wanted to know how it felt to kill someone was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
Alyssa Bustamante, 18, had pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the October 2009 slaying of Elizabeth Olten in their small Missouri town. In her diary, she described the experience as “pretty enjoyable.”
Bustamante had been charged with first-degree murder. By pleading guilty to the lesser charges, she avoided a trial and the possibility of spending her life in an adult prison with no chance of release.
Bustamante was 15 when she confessed to strangling Elizabeth, repeatedly stabbing her in the chest and slicing the girl’s throat. She led police to the shallow grave where she had concealed Elizabeth’s body under a blanket of leaves in the woods.
With her hands shackled to her waist and her feet shackled together, Bustamante rose and faced Elizabeth’s mother before she was sentenced. She struggled to compose herself.
“I know words can never be enough and they can never adequately describe how horribly I feel for all of this,” she said. “If I could give my life to get her back. I would. I’m sorry.”
The teenager’s defence attorneys had argued that Bustamante’s use of the antidepressant Prozac had made her more prone to violence. They said she had suffered from depression for years and once attempted suicide by overdosing on painkillers. Continue Reading
Source: ACLU
Congress is poised to give final passage to legislation that would give a big boost to domestic unmanned aerial surveillance — aka “drones.”
As we explained in our recent report, drone technology is advancing by leaps and bounds, and there is a lot of pent-up demand for them within the law enforcement community. But, domestic deployment of unmanned aircraft for surveillance purposes has largely been blocked so far by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which is rightly concerned about the safety effects of filling our skies with flying robots (which crash significantly more often than manned aircraft).
As we also explained in our report, the FAA is under pressure to loosen the reins and permit broader deployment of drones by government agencies.
One result of that pressure is this legislation (H.R. 658 — see conference report for more details), which authorizes appropriations for the FAA through fiscal 2014. Unfortunately, nothing in the bill would address the very serious privacy issues raised by drone aircraft. This bill would push the nation willy-nilly toward an era of aerial surveillance without any steps to protect the traditional privacy that Americans have always enjoyed and expected.
Congress — and to the extent possible, the FAA — need to impose some rules (such as those we proposed in our report) to protect Americans’ privacy from the inevitable invasions that this technology will otherwise lead to. We don’t want to wonder, every time we step out our front door, whether some eye in the sky is watching our every move.
On Friday, the House gave final passage to the legislation. House approval came on a quitepartisan vote, with most Republicans in favor and most Democrats opposing. The Senate is scheduled to take up the bill later today. Continue Reading
Anthony Gucciardi
NaturalSociety
Vermont has taken the initiative against Monsanto and other biotechnology corporations in launching new legislation that would require the labeling of products containing genetically modified ingredients. The bill, known as the ‘VT Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act’, was introduced to the Vermont House of Representatives by Representative Kate Webb of Shelburne on February 1st, 2012. The bill would require the labeling of not only products filled entirely with GMOs, but also for those partially created using GM ingredients.
Perhaps most monumental is the fact that the legislation would prohibit GMO food manufacturers from using promotional labels like “natural,” “naturally made,” “naturally grown,” “all natural,” or any words of similar import. The bill, which can be read for free online, would require strict and clear labeling on GMO-containing food items. The wording states that in the case of a raw agricultural commodity, the label ‘genetically modified’ would be clearly visible. As for processed food products, the words ‘partially produced with genetic engineering’ or ‘may be partially produced with genetic engineering’ would appear prominently on the front or back of the package.
Referred to the House Committee on Agriculture , testimony is to begin on the topic later this month.
The introduction of the legislation highlights the growing grassroots opposition against Monsanto and GMOs alike. In addition, the legislation would end phony ‘all natural’ product claims when in actuality they contain very unnatural genetically modified organisms. Just recently one consumer took legal action against major snack-maker Frito-Lay, claiming that the labeling of GMO-filled snack products as ‘all natural’ is deceptive and misleading. Continue Reading
By Stephen Lendman
ACTA’s worse than SOPA and PIPA. Net Neutrality and free expression are threatened. In October 2007, negotiations began secretly.
At issue is establishing a new intellectual property enforcement treaty – the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). If adopted, fundamental freedoms will be lost. Privatized online censorship will rule. Internet actors will be copyright enforcers. Offenders will face harsh criminal sanctions.
Transparency’s entirely absent. So is major media coverage explaining an issue demanding headlines.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) says we’ve all got a “right to be furious about ACTA.” Killing it’s essential.
“If there’s one thing….wrong with (how) government(s now function), ACTA is it,” says EFF. Washington and other dominant countries drafted it. Others are pressured to comply per America’s annual Special 301 process.
At issue is establishing new Internet rules, “bypass(ing) checks and balances of existing international IP norm-setting bodies, without any meaningful input from national parliaments, policymakers, or their citizens.”
Moreover, the agreement creates a czar-like global “ACTA Committee.” Unelected bureaucrats will oversee supranational interpretation and implementation. Arbitrary top-down rule will be imposed. In the process, democratic freedoms will be lost. Continue Reading
