Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Tuesday 1 July 2014

The European Union Times


Posted: 29 Jun 2014 04:47 AM PDT
This handout photo provided June 3, 2014 by NASA/JPL/Caltech shows the Low Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) in the Missile Assembly Building at the US Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kaua‘i, Hawaii.
The US space agency has conducted a launch test on a saucer-shaped flying object to see whether it can land the vehicle properly in circumstances simulating landing conditions on Mars.
On Saturday, NASA flew the vehicle into the Earth’s atmosphere, using a balloon the size of a football stadium. The balloon released the saucer at a height of 120,000 feet.
The vehicle then started its rocket engine to reach an altitude of 180,000 feet (54,900 meters).
The saucer then detached the engine and started undergoing the next stage, namely having an inflatable device, meant to slow down its dive, deployed around it.
As the saucer plunged towards Earth, NASA began its second test, deploying a giant parachute 36 meters in diameter.
The parachute, however, failed to fully inflate and the saucer plunged into the water.
The parachute “does not look like it deployed that well,” said Dan Coatta, one of the mission specialists. “It deployed, but it did not fully inflate.”
He, however, said, “What we saw is a very good test.” “This is an opportunity to look at the data and learn what happen and apply that for the next test,” he said.
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Posted: 29 Jun 2014 04:35 AM PDT

Over 1,000 protesters led by the Ukrainian army’s Donbass Battalion fighters gathered for a rally in central Kiev on Sunday. The demonstrators are demanding that President Petro Poroshenko end the ceasefire and impose martial law.
The Sunday rally was organized by Donbass Battalion Commander Semyon Semenchenko, who told the pro-Kiev protesters on his Facebook page to gather near the presidential administration building. Some Azov Battalion fighters also reportedly took part in the demonstration.
A Donbass Battalion representative read out a petition to President Poroshenko on behalf of Ukrainians, with a demand to “stop the truce, impose a martial law in the country, provide the military with necessary armaments and measures to destroy terrorists and request the EU and the USA to impose a third round of sanctions against Russia.”
Following the demonstration, the protesters marched to the infamous Maidan (Independence Square), the traditional place for political rallies and the symbolic location of the recent armed coup against President Yanukovich’s government.
The protesters held a “people’s assembly,” during which they warned Poroshenko that “this Sunday campaign may be the last peaceful one,” Itar-Tass reported.
The demonstrators called on the newly-elected president to “listen to the real holder of power, the Ukrainian people.”
They added that if the president didn’t “hear [their] demands,” they would “consider him a traitor of the country” and “he will share the same fate as [ousted President Viktor] Yanukovich.”
Talking to the gathered demonstrators, Semenchenko said that the Ukrainian military units fighting in the east are in a dire situation, as the money allocated by the government does not reach the army.
“The Finance Ministry still allocates money to support businesses that are in separatists’ control,” he said, referring to anti-government protesters in the eastern part of the country. “There are many traitors in governmental agencies.”
“Europe won’t help us,” he shouted to the crowd. “We should establish order ourselves. We can stop the aggressors’ invasion.”
A protest for peace
At the same time, in the eastern part of the country, residents of the city of Lugansk gathered to rally for peace, urging the Kiev authorities to “stop military actions and the crackdown” against Ukrainian civilians.
Authorities of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic made speeches in front of several hundred people.
Last week, Poroshenko presented a peace plan for the resolution of the conflict which outlined 15 steps – including a unilateral ceasefire on the part of Kiev’s military, which launched a punitive operation in the country’s southeast from June 20 to June 27.
On Monday, Donetsk self-defense forces joined the ceasefire, and on Friday the truce was expended until June 30 at 10 p.m. local time (18:00 GMT). Poroshenko declared that after the ceasefire ends, those militiamen who failed to lay down their weapons in eastern Ukraine “will be destroyed.”
The Ukrainian army is set for “tough actions” after the end of the truce, Ukraine’s Interior Minister Arsen Avakov reiterated on Friday.
However, there have been a number of reports concerning breaches of ceasefire from both sides. In the latest incidents, Ukrainian forces shelled residential parts of Slavyansk for nearly an hour on Sunday, killing up to five people, the press service of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic said, as cited by Itar-Tass. In another incident, shells were launched over the Russia-Ukraine border into Russia on Saturday, with one severely damaging a border crossing checkpoint in Rostov region.
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Posted: 29 Jun 2014 04:07 AM PDT

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has hinted that the Tel Aviv regime is ready to expand its military operations in the besieged Gaza Strip.
The Israeli premier said on Sunday that Tel Aviv was prepared to widen its operations in the besieged enclave.
Netanyahu says the almost-nightly strikes on Gaza could be expanded if need be.
The remarks come as Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has called for the reoccupation of Gaza as Israeli military forces are gearing up for a possible all-out war on the impoverished territory.
Israeli warplanes have already conducted a dozen airstrikes in central and southern Gaza since Saturday, injuring a number of Palestinians.
Israelis claim their attacks are in retaliation for rockets fired from Gaza. However, the Palestinians lack any drones, warplanes or even sophisticated missile systems to attack Israelis.
Israel has also accused Palestinian resistance movement Hamas of being behind the disappearance of the Israeli settlers. However, the movement has denied any involvement.
Israel occasionally launches limited cross-border raids into the Gaza Strip on security pretexts, often razing land near the border in the so-called buffer zone it maintains on the Gaza side of the border.
In 2008-2009, more than 1330 Palestinians, the natives of the land were killed during Israel’s Operation Cast Lead, while thousands of others, many of them women and children, remained hospitalized.
In November 2012, Israel launched the so-called Operation Pillar of Defense I against Gaza. Over 160 Palestinians, including women and children, were killed and about 1,200 others were injured and more than 1,500 targets were hit across the Palestinian enclave during the eight-day war.
Gaza has been blockaded since June 2007, which is a situation that has caused a decline in the standard of living, unprecedented levels of unemployment, and unrelenting poverty.
The apartheid regime of Israel denies about 1.7 million people in Gaza their basic rights, such as freedom of movement, jobs that pay proper wages, and adequate healthcare and education.
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Posted: 29 Jun 2014 04:03 AM PDT
Militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) standing next to captured vehicles left behind by Iraqi security forces at an unknown location in the Salaheddin province.
ISIS jihadists have declared the captured territories from Iraq’s Diyala province to Syria’s Aleppo a new Islamic State – a ‘caliphate.’ They removed ‘Iraq and the Levant’ from their name and urged other radical Sunni groups to pledge their allegiance.
ISIS announced that it should now be called ‘The Islamic State’ and declared its chief, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as “the caliph” of the new state and “leader for Muslims everywhere,” the radical Sunni militant group said in an audio recording distributed online on Sunday.
This is the first time since the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1923 that a Caliph, which means a political successor to Prophet Muhammad, has been declared. The decision was made following the group’s Shura Council meeting on Sunday, according to ISIS spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani.
The new Islamic State has marked its borders, spanning the territory captured by the group in a bloody rampage, from Iraq’s volatile Diyala province to Syria’s war-torn Aleppo.
The jihadist group has also claimed that they are now a legitimate state.
The Islamic State has called on Al-Qaeda and other radical Sunni militants in the region to immediately pledge their allegiance, ushering in “a new era of international jihad.”
“The Shura [Council] of the Islamic State met and discussed this issue… The Islamic State decided to establish an Islamic caliphate and to designate a caliph for the state of the Muslims,” said group spokesman Adnani.
He described the establishment of the caliphate as “the dream in all the Muslims” and “the hope of all jihadists.”
The militant group, notorious for its brutal violence, separated from Al-Qaeda in early 2014. It has seized major areas of western and northern Iraq in recent weeks, committing mass murders of opposing Shia Muslims in the region.
ISIS previously made statements vowing to siege the Iraqi capital Baghdad and to march and capture the holy Shia sites of Najaf and Karbala.
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Posted: 24 Jun 2014 05:34 AM PDT

Researchers have identified that periodic fasting could reduce cholesterol levels in people with the amount of glucose higher than normal.
Scientists at the Intermountain Heart Institute in Murray, United States, found a biological process in the body that is able to convert bad cholesterol in fat cells to energy.
The identified process help combating diabetes risk factors in prediabetic people, reported at the 2014 American Diabetes Association Scientific Sessions in San Francisco on June 14.
Researchers monitored the participants who were prediabetics, including men and women between the ages of 30 and 69 with a least three metabolic risk factors.
Prediabetes means the amount of glucose in the blood is higher than normal but not high enough to be called diabetes.
The study shows that after 10 to 12 hours of time fasting, the body starts seeking to get energy from other sources to sustain itself.
In seeking process the body pulls LDL (bad) cholesterol from the fat cells and uses it as energy.
While the fat cells are major contributor to insulin resistance, which can lead to diabetes, fasting through eliminating and breaking down fat cells can minimize insulin resistance.
“Fasting has the potential to become an important diabetes intervention,” says the study leader Benjamin Horne, PhD, director of cardiovascular and genetic epidemiology at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute.
“Prior studies also showed decades of routine fasting were associated with a lower risk of diabetes and coronary artery disease. The issue led us to think that fasting is most impactful for reducing the risk of diabetes and related metabolic problems,” Dr. Horne explained.
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Posted: 24 Jun 2014 05:27 AM PDT

In recent weeks tens of thousands of illegal immigrants have flooded the southern border of the United States.
So much so that border patrol agents are overwhelmed to the point where security along the Rio Grande river has become virtually non-existent. Instead of making arrests, detaining and deporting those who cross into America illegally, many immigration agents are reportedly mixing baby food and changing diapers for children left displaced by parents who’ve abandoned them in the hopes their kids would find greener pastures in the U.S.
The inaction on the part of the Federal government has left many bewildered. Some insiders at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have even gone so far as to suggest that the entire situation has been orchestrated by the Obama administration in an effort to increase their voter base ahead of the upcoming national elections this year and in 2016. That allegation may have seemed ridiculous to supporters of amnesty legislation and immigration reform, who argue that allowing immigrants into America is a humanitarian issue.
But a new legislative proposal from Democratic Senator Guestavo Rivera of New York may have just proven that opponents of lax border policies have a legitimate concern as it relates to diluting the Conservative and Libertarian voter block, as well as the burden of more government spending to accommodate the influx of people requiring assistance.
If passed, the new law would give illegal immigrants the right to not only vote in local and state elections, but they’d also enjoy many of the taxpayer-funded benefits available to American citizens.
In terms of the broad benefits available to non-citizens, this bill is the first of its kind in America.
The main objective of the New York Is Home Act, according to Rivera, is to integrate illegal immigrants, who are estranged from participation in civic, economic and political life.
The legislation not only gives illegal immigrants the right to vote, but establishes a kind of second-tiered citizenship on a state level, in which illegal immigrants can apply for tuition assistance, health insurance and driver’s and professional licenses, among other benefits.
“It’s mind-boggling,” says Michael Olivas, a professor at the University of Houston Law Center who specializes in immigration law, according to Businessweek. “I don’t believe there’s ever been a serious attempt to codify so many benefits and opportunities.”
The chances of such a law passing in the first go-around are pretty slim and even Rivera says that it’s only a first step. But the move reveals the end-game for Democrats who will no doubt push for similar legislation on a Federal level and throughout State Capitols across the country. Amid heavy criticism of President Obama’s foreign policy, continued degradation of the national economy, and the continued failure of promises to improve equality among the working class, the Democrats are quickly running out of options and run a serious risk of losing political control on every level of government.
They’ve come to the realization that their only option at this point is to offset the losses in their voter base. And what better way to do that then to open the borders to hundreds of thousands of new voters to whom they can pander with free food, health care, and even voting rights?
While Homeland Security and domestic intelligence agencies monitor the activities of American citizens and militarize local police forces under the pretext of safety, we now have a pretty good idea as to why our southern border has been left completely unprotected.
“In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt
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Posted: 24 Jun 2014 05:16 AM PDT

The Russian Defense Ministry has decided not to pull back troops from the border with Ukraine. The army group in Rostov and Belgorod regions has been strengthened again.
At the same time, despite the unilateral cessation of hostilities in the east of the country, announced by President Peter Poroshenko, the quantity of Ukrainian military equipment in the areas of clashes with militias will be increased.
“The situation is tense: Russian embassies in Ukrainian cities are attacked, President Poroshenko does not keep his promises on ceasefire provocations, the Ukrainian military arrange provocations on the border – all this forced us to reconsider the decision to pull back military units to places of their permanent deployment,” a source at the General Staff of the Russian Federation told RBC.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu acknowledged the moves to strengthen the army group near the Ukrainian border. At a closed meeting of the State Duma, Shoigu said that Russia would hold military drills in the area due to the activation of NATO forces in the region. According to a deputy, who attended the closed meeting of the Duma, Shoigu said that it was technically possible to establish a no-fly zone in the south-east of Ukraine. However, the defense minister of Russia added: “politically, you know, it is not possible.”
The chairman of the Duma Defense Committee, Vladimir Komoyedov, also expressed doubts that the regular Russian army could enter the territory of Ukraine, RBC reports.
Meanwhile, Russian defense officials currently consider a plan to build sanitary cordons in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, said RBC with reference to Anatoly Dergilev, an official at the central apparatus of the Ministry of Defense, a colonel in reserve. According to him, “the point of the plan is not about direct armed confrontation with the Ukrainian army, but in the provision of security to civilians by setting an ultimatum of non-use of weapons to the opposing party.” Top officials of the Russian Defense Ministry said that they were ready to provide such corridors in the Donbass within 24 hours after an adequate order, Col. Dergilev said.
Ukrainian President Poroshenko has not fulfilled his promise to cease fire and build humanitarian corridors for civilians. The Ukrainian army continues to bomb settlements in Donetsk and Lugansk regions, killing civilians every day.
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Posted: 24 Jun 2014 04:10 AM PDT

Customs and Border Protection agents are quitting the agency in protest of the practice of releasing minors from detention known to be gang members, a South Texas news outlet reports.
Regardless of whether the minors are inked with gang-affiliated tattoos, and regardless of whether they admit to agents that they are actual gang members, so long as they have no US criminal record, CBP agents are being forced to release them onto the streets of America, a Border Patrol union representative says.
“They are confirmed either by tattoos or by self admission,” the vice president of the National Border Patrol Council Local 3307 in the Rio Grande Valley, Chris Cabrera, told KRGV. “But since they have no criminal record in the United States, and they happen to be minors, they’re reunited with their family in the U.S.”
Many of the gang members, as Infowars exposed, are also being fed, housed and provided bus tickets and vouchers to other parts of the country by the very same agency.
Cabrera says the practice of releasing gang members, in addition to being unable to adequately deal with the overwhelming flood of immigrants crossing into the Rio Grande Valley, is testing the morale of agents, many of whom are “already looking for other jobs,” according to KRGV.
“We all know that if you arrest and release, then the arrest is meaningless,” Cabrera said, echoing sentiments expressed by an ICE agent earlier in the week to Infowars.
“We can put as many people as we want on the border, but if we’re gonna catch them, hook them up and then release them, then what good is it gonna do?” the ICE agent, whose name was withheld to protect his identity, told us.
Some of the minors tell agents they’re fleeing their home countries to escape the out-of-control violence there. Cabrera notes it is difficult to discern whether the minors are truthful, but says he believes many of them have been coached.
“You ask them their name and where they’re from, they say that there is violence in my home country and they’ll kill me if you return me,” Cabrera stated. “I do believe there is violence in their home country, but I also believe that a lot of them have been coached.”
Cabrera also admits that a number of gang members have been released in South Texas. “We’ve seen a few. Not too many, but we’ve seen a few in the Rio Grande Valley,” he says.
Previously, Cabrera had told the National Review agents were encountering Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) members, a violent gang spanning from Central America up through Canada, whose initiation rituals include committing violent acts against innocents, including rape and even murder.
As we reported last week, agents are perturbed that the Obama administration is, in effect, granting “de facto amnesty,” with one agent writing to Infowars, stating that many of those escaping detention “are convicted felons, aliens from special interest countries, and other high risk individuals.”
“The President and the Secretary of Homeland Security will ignore this issue as long as possible in order to let as many illegal aliens gain entry into the United States,” the agent wrote in a letter to us.
Other former Border Patrol agents have also accused the Obama administration of deliberately aiding the invasion of illegal immigrants.
“This is not a humanitarian crisis. It is a predictable, orchestrated and contrived assault on the compassionate side of Americans by her political leaders that knowingly puts minor illegal alien children at risk for purely political purposes,” the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officerssaid in a statement earlier this month.
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Posted: 24 Jun 2014 04:04 AM PDT

An Indian scientist living in Mexico has received the World Food Prize for outstanding contribution to wheat crop’s resistance to various diseases.
Indian-born Sanjaya Rajaram was awarded with the accolade for his effective cross-breeding of different wheat, which has resulted in the crop’s resistance against disease as well as its ability to grow in different climates and environments.
He is credited with developing 480 wheat varieties that have been released in 51 countries on six continents.
According to the prize, which is worth USD 250,000, the varieties he developed have led to a 200 million ton increase in wheat production worldwide, which increases the availability of food to millions of people.
“It’s a great honor,” Rajaram said. “I’m a very humble person but very honored the World Food Prize committee has recognized me for the work I have done.”
“Future crop production is bound to decline unless we fully factor in the issues related to climate change, soil fertility and water deficits, and utilize advanced genetics in the next 20 to 30 years,” he said.
“His breakthrough breeding technologies have had a far-reaching and significant impact in providing more food around the globe and alleviating world hunger,” Kenneth Quinn, the head of World Food Prize, said in a statement.
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Posted: 23 Jun 2014 03:48 PM PDT

Greenpeace has denied a NATO claim that Russia is secretly working with EU environmental groups to oppose fracking. NATO secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen has alleged Russia is trying to promote dependence on its gas exports through sabotage.
Rasmussen told reporters Thursday that Russian intelligence agencies were secretly funding and collaborating with European environmental groups to prevent shale gas exploitation through a process known as fracking.
“I have met allies who can report that Russia, as part of their sophisticated information and disinformation operations, engaged actively with so-called non-governmental organizations, environmental organizations working against shale gas, to maintain European dependence on imported Russian gas,” he told an audience at Chatham House, the international affairs think-tank.
However, Rasmussen refrained from giving any further evidence to back up his assertions.
Greenpeace derided the idea that the Russian government is masterminding public opposition to fracking as ridiculous.
“The idea we’re puppets of Putin is so preposterous that you have to wonder what they’re smoking over at NATO HQ,” a Greenpeace spokesman said, responding to NATO’s claims. “Mr Rasmussen should spend less time dreaming up conspiracy theories and more time on the facts.”
In addition, a representative from the environmental group Rising Tide, Tony Cottee, told The Independent that Rasmussen had no idea what is happening on the ground.
“It shows how ludicrously out of touch these people are. He clearly doesn’t know the type of person that has been turning up to demonstrate,” he said.
The practice of fracking entails blasting water and chemicals at high pressure into fissures in rocks thousands of meters underground to extract hidden deposits of gas and oil. There has been significant public opposition to fracking because of the environmental side-effects it has caused in the past. Scientists say that the practice can cause water contamination as well as small earthquakes.
In the UK, the government has championed fracking as a way of driving down rising utility bills and creating jobs. The British Geographical Survey has estimated there could be 1,300 trillion cubic feet of gas contained in shale rocks in the North of England, while it estimates the South could hold between 2.2 billion and 8.6 billion barrels of shale oil.
Nevertheless, the exploitation of fracking reserves has prompted strong opposition from residents who will be affected by the process. The government triggered a sharp reaction from ‘fracktivists’ when it announced plans earlier this year to change trespassing laws to allow fracking on private land.
In response, Greenpeace activists blocked access to Prime Minister David Cameron’s home in the Cotswolds, erecting a metal fence and putting up a sign that read: “We apologise for any inconvenience we may cause while we frack under your home.”
The activists also tried to deliver a novelty check for 50 pounds ($84) – the amount ministers have said will be compensated to individual homeowners if fracking is conducted under their property.
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Posted: 23 Jun 2014 03:32 PM PDT
Communists equipped with red hammer and sickle flags rallied through Madrid
Anti-monarchy communist protesters have taken to the streets of the Spanish capital after new King Felipe VI was proclaimed monarch.
Thousands of communist Spaniards hit the streets of Madrid on Thursday to show their dissatisfaction with the monarchy system in their country.
The protesters slammed the current political system in Spain for what they describe as its failure to represent the real will of the people.
The angry communist demonstrators also criticized the royal family for its lavish lifestyle.
The rally came after Felipe VI was sworn in as Spain’s new King in the early hours of Thursday morning.
Spain has been the scene of anti-monarchy protests in recent weeks. Thousands of communist protesters gathered in the streets of Madrid on June 8 and urged the abolition of monarchy and of democracy.
According to a survey conducted earlier this month, the majority of the Spanish people are in favor of a referendum on the future of monarchy in their country.
The image of the country’s royal family has been tarnished by a series of corruption scandals. Spain is also currently dealing with its worst economic crisis in recent history.
As the new King, Felipe has to restore the monarchy’s image after his father, Juan Carlos, fell out of public opinion in 2012 as he took a secret luxury elephant-hunting trip to Botswana at the time one in four Spanish workers was jobless and the government was teetering on the brink of default.
Also Juan Carlos’ daughter, Princess Cristina, and her husband, Inaki Urdangarin, are under investigation in a fraud case for the embezzlement of public funds.
A 25-percent unemployment rate and the independence seeking of the country’s Catalonia region are the main challenges for the new king.
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Posted: 23 Jun 2014 03:07 PM PDT

U.S. military advisor in Vietnam, ca. 1967-75. Several hundred advisors sent to Vietnam in 1955 eventually resulted in 500,000 U.S. troops, more than a million dead Indochinese and 55,000 dead U.S. soldiers. Photo: U.S. Department of Defense.
Senate Democrats are standing behind Obama and his “limited plan to reengage in Iraq” in a declared effort to prevent the country from falling to ISIS fanatics trained by the U.S. government.
Officials told Politico targeted military strikes against ISIS in Syria are also “on the table.”
Democrats consider the former al-Qaeda affiliate a threat to U.S. national security. “We have to think about our national security interests first and foremost and from my perspective ISIS is a national security threat,” said New Jersey Democrat Sen. Bob Menendez, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.
“I support President Obama’s decision to deploy a very limited number of advisers to Iraq for a non-combat training mission. This decision gives America the flexibility to take precise action against threats to our national security and keeps Iraqi authorities accountable for maintaining the security of their own country,” said Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Reid made his comment after Obama said “we will be prepared to take targeted and precise military action, if and when we determine that the situation on the ground requires it.”
On Tuesday, Democrats argued Obama does not need congressional approval to launch attacks in Iraq and Syria. Maryland House Democrat Majority Whip Steny Hoyer mentioned a 2002 law authorizing then President Bush’s use of military force in Iraq.
“Under the existing authorization for the use of force, I think they have that [power],” said Hoyer.
Other Democrats were more reluctant. “I certainly believe that the president always has to get congressional approval,” said Sen. Tim Kaine, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee. “If there’s an emergency, you may need to come back and get a congressional ratification. That’s the way the process is supposed to work.”
“If he’s asking for any sustained authorization, he’s got to go Congress. I think the Iraq AUMF is functionally obsolete,” added Connecticut Democrat Senator Chris Murphy.
Since the end of the Second World War the United States has deployed thousands of military advisers around the world. The Pentagon sent advisory personnel to Vietnam, Central America, Korea, Haiti, Bosnia, Afghanistan and other countries.
Between 1955 and 1960, the U.S. between 750 and 1,500 military advisors assisting the Diem government in South Vietnam. In 1961, the Kennedy administration increased this number to 3,200 advisors. Following the Gulf of Tonkin false flag in 1964 and an overwhelmingly passed joint House and Senate resolution, the Johnson administration began a full-scale war in Vietnam. In 1965 there was 200,000 troops in Vietnam and by 1968 more than 500,000 were committed.
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Posted: 23 Jun 2014 02:52 PM PDT
Representatives voted 293 to 121 to ban the NSA from performing warrantless searches of data collected under foreign surveillance program.
The US House of Representative on Thursday night endorsed a move to ban a major provision of the National Security Agency.
Representatives voted 293 to 121 to ban the NSA from performing warrantless searches of data collected under foreign surveillance program, The Guardian reported.
The so-called “backdoor search” provision was revealed in August by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
The House’s move came as an amendment added by Zoe Lofgren, Democrat of California, and Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky, to the annual defense appropriations bill, considered a must-pass piece of legislation to fund the US military.
Representatives also banned the NSA’s ability to secretly insert backdoor access to user data through hardware or communications services.
Democrats Ron Wyden and Mark Udall are seeking to reinstate the ban in the Senate version currently under judiciary committee consideration, the report said.
NSA officials it was critical for them to search for Americans’ data through its massive collections of email, phone, text and other communications content to discover “terrorists.”
Civil libertarians argue that the NSA spying efforts to gather data on Americans were illegal.
“The mere fact that the government’s ‘targets’ are foreigners outside the United States cannot render constitutional a program that is designed to allow the government to mine millions of Americans’ international communications for foreign intelligence information,” ACLU deputy legal director Jameel Jaffer told the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board in March.
That board is preparing to issue a report into the government’s backdoor searches on July 2.
A survey earlier in the month showed that most Americans believe Snowden did the right thing in exposing the spy agency’s espionage programs to the world.
Nearly a year after Snowden first leaked classified documents on the NSA’s spying activities, 55 percent of the respondents in the survey, conducted by research firm YouGov, said he was right to expose PRISM, an NSA surveillance program for tracking the use of US-based Internet servers by all people around the world.
Snowden’s revelations have helped start an international debate on the NSA’s spying and surveillance programs.
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Posted: 23 Jun 2014 02:35 PM PDT

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is hoping to recruit Muslims from across the globe with the aid of YouTube appeals from English-speaking jihadists. UK, Australian nationals are among the ISIS militants calling to support the insurgency in Iraq.
Titled “There Is No Life Without Jihad,” the new propaganda clip uploaded to YouTube by ISIS’s AlHayat Media Center allegedly shows a line-up of militants who came to Syria and later to Iraq from all over the world.
“We have brothers from Bangladesh, from Iraq, from Cambodia, Australia and the UK,” says a militant called Abu Muthanna al-Yemeni, who himself comes from Britain, according to a video caption.
The man attempts to persuade other Muslims to “answer the call of Allah and his messenger when he calls you to what gives you life” and join the jihad – apparently interpreting the term as armed insurgency aimed at creating an Islamic state based on Sharia law.
The militant cites the Prophet Mohammed saying that “the land of Sham [Syria] is the best of lands,” and that, according to him, explains why so many “muhajedeen” are fighting for control of the region. Referring to ISIS, he says: “I don’t know anybody else that has as many muhajedeen as we do.”
“Look at the soldiers, we understand no borders… We have participated in battles in Sham, and we will go to Iraq in a few days, and we will fight there, Allah permitting, and come back, and we will even go to Jordan and Lebanon with no problems,” the ISIS militant says.

Another English-speaker, identified as Abu Bara’ al-Hindi from Britain, claims that by reading the Koran everyone could understand the nature of jihad just the way he did, calling the insurgency Allah’s “test to see how much you’re willing to sacrifice…the fat job you’ve got, the big car you’ve got and the family you have… for the sake of Allah.”
He also explains his other motives for joining the ruthless terror group.
“You know, my brothers living in the West, I know how you feel when I used to live there, in the heart you feel depressed,” the bearded “British national” says, claiming that the “cure for the depression” is militant jihad. He said that back in the UK, he felt like he had “no honor.”
The video also shows a militant called Abu Yahya ash Shami, allegedly from Australia. The caption says that he has already “received shahadah” – that is, was killed – fighting in Al-Khayr.

Another Australian jihadist, Abu Nour al-Iraqi, calls on Americans, Australians and Europeans to join the fighting in Syria and Iraq, saying that the reasons for that are “plenty,” with key one being the creation of a religious state ISIS wants to establish in the region.
ISIS, also known as ISIL, which rose to power in the wake of the US-led 2003 invasion of Iraq, has become known for fighting alongside the West-backed rebels in Syria and for its gruesome atrocities that even the international terror group Al-Qaeda now holds too radical.
In its latest major offensive in Iraq, ISIS has captured several large northern and central cities and increased its presence in the Iraqi provinces, closing in on the capital, Baghdad. The seizing of Iraqi territories has taken place extremely rapidly, aided by support from locals who hate the post-invasion government and by the low morale and poor coordination in the US-equipped Iraqi army.
ISIS includes thousands of foreign fighters and has been attracting many jihadist volunteers from Europe and North Africa, Western intelligence agencies reported, according to Reuters. It is also believed to have major foreign sponsors, including some from the Gulf countries and Indonesia, and has even issued a glossy PR report claiming to be showing statistics of various types of attacks for its “stakeholders.”
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Posted by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi at 08:17