USAHitman | Conspiracy News |  |
- Long-time House stenographer rants about Freemasons/Praise to be God, sent for mental exam
- France upholds €600,000 fraud fine against Church of Scientology
- Over 90% of people in Europes cities breathe dangerous air
- Bomb here, please: US troops may start using Android app to order airstrikes
- 2003-2011: Half million Iraqis died in war, occupation
- Russian couple gets 4yr suspended sentence for sharing movies via tracker
- Dutch diplomat attacked in Moscow amid rising tensions
- German filmmaker imprisoned for exposing dire Qatar World Cup worker conditions
|
Posted: 17 Oct 2013 06:05 PM PDT
 House stenographer Dianne Reidy stunned congressional members late Wednesday evening at the tail end of the government shutdown vote when she wound her way to the podium, ranting about God, Free Masons and the inability of the nation to serve two masters.“Praise be to God,” Ms. Reidy said. “He will not be mocked. He will not be mocked. Don’t touch me. He will not be mocked.” Ms. Reidy’s Facebook page contained multiple religious postings, including one reference to “God’s Paratroopers.” Fox News said Ms. Reidy is well-liked on Capitol Hill — hardly the radical partisan type — and her interruption caused several members to express concern for her mental health. The cable network also reported that Ms. Reidy was sent for a mental evaluation shortly after the incident. Among her statements, as captured on audio: “The greatest deception here is this is not one nation under God. It never was. Had it been, it would not have been. No. It would not have been. The Constitution would not have been written by Free Masons. They go against God. You cannot serve two masters. You cannot serve two masters. Praise be to God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Praise forever.” Others on the video tape can be heard in the background urging her to be quiet. Read More Here |
|
Posted: 17 Oct 2013 05:00 PM PDT
 A French appeals court has refused to overturn a 2009 conviction for organized fraud against the Church of Scientology. The organization had claimed the original verdict violated its right to freedom of religion.The judge also upheld rulings pronounced against six individual members of the church, including Alain Rosenberg, its head in France. The Church of Scientology, which has engaged in several legal battles with France’s strict anti-cult legislation, has vowed to further challenge the ruling of the country’s highest court of appeal “at the international level,” which leaves it with the recourse of taking its case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. The 2009 ruling levied a fine of €600,000 on the California-headquartered organization and €30,000 on Rosenberg. The church was accused of preying on vulnerable people to gain new members and membership dues in the late 1990s, including forcing people to pay for “exclusive” scriptures and electrometers that “measured” mental energy. The Church of Scientology has called the ruling “an affront to justice and religious liberty,” and a show of “anti-religious extremism,” calling the proceedings “a heresy trial.” “The Court failed to address the fundamental violations of the human rights of each of the defendants that infected every level of this case,” it said in a written statement. But several public groups, including the head of the parliamentary group on cults, Georges Fenech, have welcomed the judge’s decision. “Far from being a violation of freedom of religion, as this American organization contends, this decision lifts the veil on their illegal and highly detrimental practices,” Fenech said. The Church of Scientology, founded by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard in 1953, espouses the fundamental belief that human beings are inhabited by immortal spirits that have lived thousands of previous lives in other worlds. It claims to have over 10 million members worldwide, including actors Tom Cruise and John Travolta, and maintains a tightly-guarded campus in California, to which only a select few members are admitted. The Church of Scientology claims 45,000 members in France, where it operates a bookshop and a Celebrity Center. Source |
|
Posted: 16 Oct 2013 05:01 PM PDT
 More than 90 percent of people living in European cities breathe dangerous air, according to a report by Europe’s environmental regulator. It causes 430,000 shortened lives every year and costs EU governments tens of billions in hospital admissions. The report by the European Environment Agency (EEA) reveals that despite a steady decline over the past ten years in the most harmful air pollutants such as carbon monoxide and lead, there is still significant air pollution caused by road transport, industry, power plants, and farming. Air pollution is leading to acid rain, a loss of biodiversity, reduction of visibility, and damage to buildings and materials, according to the report. The publication also exposes the difference between World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations and legal EU limits, particularly with regard to particulate matter (PM), a pollutant made up of tiny particulates of dirt and soot from burning fossil fuels and low-level ozone – a dangerous gas formed when sunlight reacts with some pollutants. Particulate matter measuring less than 10 microns (PM10), or 10 millionths of a meter, can lodge in the airways and cause respiratory problems. The authors of the study found that PM and ground-level ozone are a major source of breathing problems and cardiovascular disease, and directly decrease life expectancy. Eastern European countries such as Bulgaria, Poland, and Slovakia – where some Soviet-era heavy industry remains – were found to be the most exposed to PM pollution, mainly from coal and wood burning. “Particulate matter remains a serious threat to health, because no threshold for PM has been identified below which no damage to health is observed. In Western, Central and Eastern Europe it was 430,000 premature deaths,” the study found. While the WHO predicts that up to 98 percent of Europe’s urban population may be exposed to dangerous levels of air pollution, the EU, in stark contrast, says that only up to 33 percent are exposed, according to data published in the study. “European citizens often breathe air that does not meet the European standards,” said the EEA. Read More Here |
|
Posted: 16 Oct 2013 05:01 PM PDT
 A US lab is working on an Android application which would enable troops to call in airstrikes and control drones via a smartphone. Dubbed the Android Terminal Assault Kit (ATAK), the map-based prototype app is said to be designed to “save lives.”With all the cutting-edge standalone technologies developed for the US military sector, one would hardly guess that the American SpecOp units are using small laptops for positioning targets and ordering air support on the ground. More shocking still was the feedback that the developers of these laptops got from the troops: many would prefer to leave them at the base and use older hand-held GPS devices, as the little push-button tools were clumsy, emitted too much light at night, and once in a while crashed with Windows “Blue Screen of Death.” This, as well as troops’ safety concerns, made Draper Laboratory of Cambridge, Massachusetts, begin work on a fundamentally different device for special operations, according to Emily Vincent of the lab’s TacDroid project. What the lab came up with after close cooperation with the Air Force Research Laboratory and troops training on the ground was…an Android app. Speaking in a YouTube video presentation of the ATAK, Vincent said that a tablet turned out to be exactly what soldiers working under extreme pressure and possibly engaged in enemy fire needed in the field. “It’s one thing for a user behind a desk in a climate-controlled office to toggle back and forth between 10 windows, deal with system crashes, and wait 60 seconds for booting up. It’s another thing to deal with those issues while someone is shooting at you or if you’re jumping out of a plane. That’s where ATAK comes in,” said Laura Major, who leads Draper’s human-centered engineering work. What the app itself has to offer is an intuitive map-centered interface with a handy radial menu, which lets the units place their marks of hostile or friendly targets without even looking at the screen. The interface also throws away the heavy usage of forms and typing, Vincent added, presenting the so-called “visual nine-line.” Now the operator calling for a targeted air strike would have to fill in just nine figures for the pilot. These would cross-check the location of the friendly units to avoid friendly fire. Therefore, the prototype device, which has already been tested by a limited number of troops, “will hopefully save some lives,” Vincent said. According to Draper Lab, the ATAK could also be used for other purposes, such as navigation, de-conflicting airspace, making paratrooper landings safer, and controlling fleets of unmanned aerial vehicles. It remained unclear, though, how the developers are going to solve the issue surrounding the notorious battery consumption of the Android platform. Read More Here |
|
Posted: 16 Oct 2013 05:00 PM PDT
 Almost half a million deaths in Iraq between 2003 and 2011 were caused by war and occupation, according to new research. The figure is around four times bigger than most previous estimates.An estimated 460,000 deaths in Iraq from March 2003 to mid-2011 were caused by violence during the war with the US and the subsequent occupation by coalition forces, according to a statistical research published in PLOS (Public Library of Science) Medicine journal, an open access source. Of those excess deaths, 35 percent are attributed to coalition forces, 32 percent to sectarian militias and 11 percent to criminals. The survey further details that the majority of violent deaths – 63 percent – were the result of gunfire and 12 percent from bombings. The authors of the report claim their “findings provide the most up-to-date estimates of the death toll of the Iraq war and subsequent conflict,” as they carefully studied previous surveys on the issue and took into account the criticism which they inspired. A group of interviewers collected data on deaths of family members from 2,000 randomly-selected households in 100 geographical clusters, situated in Iraq’s 18 governorates. The researchers then extrapolated the figures they received to the overall population of Iraq, an estimated 32 million, to come up with their estimate of Iraq’s national death toll. The authors of the research argue they used more sophisticated methods than scholars who did their surveys earlier, but were still aware of the fact that any such estimates were “associated with substantial uncertainties.” “One of the problems clearly is that we’re asking people to remember a very long period of time,” lead author, Amy Hagopian, an associate professor of global health at the University of Washington, told Los Angeles Times. “There can be a lot of forgetting, and that forgetting will be in favor of a lower count.” A fresh analysis of the deaths in the Iraqi war has a strong anti-war message, the authors of the study believe. Read More Here |
|
Posted: 16 Oct 2013 05:00 PM PDT
 A Moscow court has handed down a four year suspended sentence to a married couple for sharing about 30 films and cartoons on a torrent tracker. The case sets a precedent in Russia, sparking fears that torrent users could now be prosecuted as pirates.Andrey Lopukhov and his wife Nadezhda were found guilty on Wednesday of the charges of copyright infringement “by a group of individuals working in collusion” for illegally distributing the movies online from April 2007 to September 2008, Russian media reported. The investigation stated that the couple was behind sharing the videos on the interfilm.ru and puzkarapuz.ru websites, collaborating with a German-based pirate named Sergey. As of Wednesday, the second site appears to be running with shared content only partly blocked, while the first one’s domain has been taken over and is no longer relevant. The prosecution demanded that the Lopukhovs were sentenced to three years in jail, while claiming the two also made money from sharing the movies. The damages of copyright holders for the distribution of more than 30 releases listed in the case have been estimated at a staggering 38 billion rubles (about $1.177 billion). The affected motion picture companies represented by the Russian Anti-Piracy Organization (RAPO) reportedly asked for a suspended sentence. Both defendants in the case denied the charges, branding the case against them a show trial to intimidate torrent users in Russia and to appease motion picture majors both at home and abroad. While admitting they were moderators of the two sites, as cited by their lawyer, they rejected the allegation of working in collusion for profiting from the pirated videos. The sites did profit from ad banners and from donations for raising the download rating of users (as in the case of interfilm.ru), but all downloads were free, according to the witnesses. Both the Lopukhovs and some of the witnesses said during the hearings they were put under pressure by the investigators. The Pirate Party of Russia and other Internet activists have campaigned for the charges against the Lopukhovs to be dropped. Some believed the case to be political and even connected to the American trade lobbies, quoting the 2012 report of the Office of the US Trade Representative that said “the United States recognizes progress in connection with criminal proceedings against interfilm.ru, an infringing website in Russia.” Andrey Lopukhov also asked Russian Internet users to sign a petition for legalizing torrents. The petition was addressed to President Putin and has been signed by more than 36,500 people. The sentence in the controversial case has become the first of its kind in Russia. According to lawyer Sarkis Darbinyan, who represented the Lopukhovs in court, it sets a dangerous precedent of “equating the placement of torrent files or links to the file sharing services to direct piracy and copyright infringement.” Read More Here |
|
Posted: 15 Oct 2013 05:00 PM PDT
 The Russian Ambassador to the Netherlands has been summoned to account for an attack on a Dutch diplomat in Moscow. The incident follows an official apology from the Dutch government for the illegal arrest of a Russian diplomat in The Hague a week ago. Roman Kolodkin, Russian Ambassador to the Netherlands, is to account for an attack on a member of the Dutch diplomatic staff in Moscow on Tuesday evening. Two unknown assailants disguised as electricians forced their way into to a Dutch diplomat’s flat in Moscow, tied the man up and beat him, according to police reports. The intruders a heart and wrote ‘LGBT’ underneath it at the scene of the crime, Russian media outlet Life News reported, showing photographs of the victim’s flat. Russian media reported that the victim of the attack was Deputy Ambassador Onno Elderenbosch. The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement, saying that the diplomat had sustained “light injuries,” but is now in good health. They refrained from releasing the identity of the member of the diplomatic mission in Moscow. Frans Timmermans, Dutch Ambassador to the Russian Federation, called for Russia to guarantee the safety of diplomatic workers, while Prime Minister Mark Rutte called the incident “very serious” and said the Netherlands was “deeply concerned.” There have also been calls by Dutch politicians to call off events related to the year of Russian culture in the Netherlands. In response to the reports, the Russian Foreign Ministry said they regretted the attack had occurred and stressed law enforcement was doing everything within their power to bring those responsible to justice. The incident comes a week after the arrest of Russian diplomat Dmitry Borodin in The Hague caused outrage. According to a testimony by Borodin, Dutch officers broke into his home, assaulted him and took him to a nearby police station where he was kept under arrest for a number of hours. Dutch police said they were responding to a call from Borodin’s neighbors about the mistreatment of the Russian diplomat’s children. Borodin stated these allegations were false. Following the incident, Frans Timmerman issued a formal apology, acknowledging that Borodin’s detention amounted to a violation of the Vienna Convention as the police had ignored the minister-counselor’s diplomatic immunity. “The minister personally expressed his apologies to our ambassador in the Netherlands, and said that he would hand the results of the police investigation over to the Russian side,” said Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Aleksandr Lukashevich. The Dutch Foreign Ministry said that the detention of the Russian diplomat had nothing to do with recent tensions between the two countries over the continued detention of Greenpeace activists who staged a protest at a Russian oil rig off Russia’s Arctic coast. Source |
|
Posted: 15 Oct 2013 05:00 PM PDT
 Toiling in terrible conditions, no salaries for months, passports confiscated by employers – that’s the horrendous reality for migrant workers helping with preparations for the World Cup 2022 in Qatar, as revealed by German filmmaker, Peter Giesel.He and his cameraman were detained and imprisoned after they tried to investigate the story. The two went to Qatar following the publication of a report in the Guardian, claiming that workers are enduring appalling labor abuses. Giesel said that they were arrested in their hotel rooms on October 3 and taken to police headquarters. There, all their equipment was impounded, and police then took the filmmakers to the State Security prison in the suburbs of Doha. RT exclusively interviewed filmmaker Peter Giesel to find out about their experiences, and what they witnessed while covering the issue in Doha. “We were there, in those separate cells, in [sic] the total of 21 hours. We were treated quite well, we got good food, to be honest, but the bad thing about those 21 hours was that we weren’t allowed a single phone call: not to our embassy, not to our families, no one was there to tell us what the charge was really, so we were kind of desperate in there, not having any contact with the outside world,” Giesel stressed. Prior to their confinement, he and his cameraman met with migrant workers who told them about their plight. One of the men interviewed worked for 12 years as an accommodation specialist, but, as Giesel indicated to RT, “ironically, his accommodation itself doesn’t even have a fan.” The man hasn’t been getting his salary and bonuses for a number of years, and his main difficulty is to fight a case against his boss and his firm: the employer took his passport from him, and the 35-year-old worker hasn’t made the money necessary to return home, “the devilish circle”, as Peter Giesel put it to RT. Another group of guys – there were four of them – weren’t paid for seven months in a row and were trying to file a case when Giesel met them. As the filmmaker explained, one of the main issues surrounding migrant workers is that they are employed under the so-called kafala system, which is “a law basically stating that every migrant worker that comes into Qatar has to find his own personal sponsor meaning his boss, the firm or corporation he’s working for.” “And that sponsor has to take care of him legally and medically, but obviously, most of the sponsors take their passports away from the migrant workers. That puts maybe tens of thousands of them in a miserable situation. They can’t make any money to go home, so they’re trapped down there.” Moreover, migrant employees can’t rely on outside forces such as their countries’ embassies, according to Giesel. “I had a chance to sneak into the Nepalese embassy and do my recordings down there. It seems to be some kind of chaos: the bureaucracy not only in the embassies, but also in the Qatari system might be too overwhelming for those 1.4 million migrant workers to be treated fairly,” he told RT. Read More Here |
