Roberto Abraham Scaruffi: No, the terrorists Bush and Cheney, as well as the other ones of the U.S.-British governments, were never tortured!

Saturday 13 December 2014

No, the terrorists Bush and Cheney, as well as the other ones of the U.S.-British governments, were never tortured!

 Daily Headlines
Bush fully Authorised torture programme:

How do governments 'own' the world, and how can citizens own it?
By Sandra Lindberg
Proposal for a Middle-Class Revolution-- Divest
Divestment is not just for universities and banks anymore.
By Eric Zuesse
Corruption Is Now Officially Legal in the U.S., But Must Be Done Right
sure-fire way to wealth in U.S., if you're well-connected
In 2010, a University of Colorado report analyzing charter schools found that "as compared with the public school district in which the charter school resided, the charter schools were substantially more segregated by race, wealth, disabling condition and language."

Americans are an insouciant people. They are simply unaware. Suppose they were aware, suppose that the entire population understood the peril, could anything be done, or have the insouciant Americans fallen under the control of the police state that Washington has created? The American people cannot tell genuine from fake leadership, and the ruling private elites will not permit real leaders to emerge.
HERZOG WON his first success of the current campaign by forming a common list with Tzipi Livni. It is now up to him to keep up the momentum and make alliances with -- possibly -- Lapid, Kahlon and Meretz. If successful in the elections, he must stretch out his hands to the Orthodox and the Arabs.
Two black men, two deaths by choke hold at the hands of white policemen, 27 years apart. Have we learned nothing?
By Bob Burnett
Who Runs the Democratic Party?
It's convenient to blame Democratic leaders for the Party's disastrous 2014 midterm elections. But which leaders? Who runs the Democratic Party?
"Reading is the nourishment that lets you do interesting work," Jennifer Egan once said. This intersection of reading and writing is both a necessary bi-directional life skill for us mere mortals and a secret of iconic writers' success, as bespoken by their personal libraries. The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books asks 125 of modernity's greatest British and American writers--including Norman Mailer, Ann Patchett, Jonathan Franzen, Claire Messud, and Joyce Carol Oates--"to provide a list, ranked, in order, of what [they] consider the ten greatest works of fiction of all time- novels, story collections, plays, or poems."

Does paying an agribusiness corporation $1 million a year from tax funds bother you? How about a dumb-ass statement by a congressman that Obamacare isn't necessary because hospitals kill people?" If so, this satire is for you. (And the facts are accurate, unfortunately)
By Suzana Megles
Our Horses Still Suffer
Even though I can only love horses from afar, they are still often in my mind as I have recalled the many ways we as a nation mistreat them. They are such beautiful vegetarian creatures who have used their strength in so many ways in by gone days to help a young nation get on its feet. But how do we treat them today for their gifts to us so long ago?
This article extends a challenge to local leaders through an upcoming Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) instructed by Otto Scharmer at MIT. Roanoke's U.Lab Hub subsequently invites community members to "learn how to create profound innovation in a time of disruptive change by leading from the emerging future".
Scientists describe the effects of exposure to electromagnetic radiation (EMR) from wireless devices on trees, ants, bee colonies, frogs and birds.
The Cornucopia Institute has filed formal legal complaints against 14 giant certified organic operations for apparent abuses including providing no legitimate grazing, or even access to the outdoors, as required by federal organic regulations.
Did the Berkeley Police follow Mayor Daley's orders?
World Economic power shift Eastward will bring a reconstituted UN that will certainly establish a Nuremberg Principles court to adjudicate the lawsuits for compensation for millions of wrongful deaths, injuries, deformed babies, destruction of property and theft of natural resources filed once the US can no longer intimidate victim nations with crippling sanctions. Lets make this prosecution arrive sooner to spare lives.

"Proud Papas out there can now openly discuss their son or daughter's patriotic duty violating the rectum of one or another evil "terrorist." How many proud parents will now be able to display their child's torture toys on the Christmas mantle, above the brightly brimming stockings?"
Perspective on current events from the standpoint of a white cop's wife.
The article describes with examples the double standard in US society, with those from government totally unaccountable for any crime, even that of murder, while examples are made of the rest of us.
Here it is, folks: my FULL rationale for building a peaceful but aggressive "Pitchforks against Plutocracy" movement--a COMPREHENSIVE quest to win the class war, whose uniqueness lies in pursuing REALISTIC "brainiac" electoral strategies (and protest and civil disobedience at need). A group smart and flexible enough to draw inspiration from BOTH anti-Christian democrat Thomas Paine AND genius Christian democrat Blaise Pascal.
The right's misunderstanding of what the left thinks about "this little torture problem."
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is joining the debate over the Senate's torture report by saying it is difficult to rule out the use of extreme measures to extract information if millions of lives were threatened. Scalia tells a Swiss radio network that American and European liberals who say such tactics may never be used are being self-righteous. Scalia says nothing in the Constitution appears to prohibit harsh treatment of suspected terrorists.
By Meryem Cheybi
Macron can help France avoid 'Lost Decade', says financier Christophe Mazurier
In the final week of November, the economic ministers of the two largest European Union economies, Germany and France, met in Paris to discuss a series of "overhauls and investments" that would ultimately benefit both economies and prevent the Eurozone from suffering a "lost decade" of economic stagnation.
We saw, last night, a complete collusion of the Democratic leadership with bankers and the forces working to totally erode the protections in place protecting elections.

A land-swap of 2,400-acres of Apache ceremonial and ancestral lands isn't a law, it's larceny. But U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.0 and other Arizona legislators are hell-bent for digging copper out of the ground there, stealing this land, and creating an environmental vampire in the process.
By Robert Parry
How "Awesome" Is America?
America has an extraordinary capacity to submerge unpleasant truths about its past and present, from African-American slavery and Native-American genocide to bloodbaths in Vietnam and Iraq. Now faced with clear evidence of torture, one cheerleader simply says the U.S. is "awesome," as Robert Parry reports.
"If developed countries don't put down the resources that the poor countries need to prepare for climate change to protect themselves from the real impacts they are facing already, then you are going to leave poor people around the world facing hunger, facing increasing poverty without being able to cope," says Winnie Byanyima, executive director of Oxfam.

 Latest Articles
The Germans rebuilt Dresden and the Syrians will rebuild Aleppo!
All people of good will who accept their personal duty to join the people of Syria in preserving, protecting and restoring our shared global heritage can take solace from what this observer witnessed an exhilarating demonstration of the sublime capacities of our shared human spirit as we help to salvage our cultural heritage.

 Best News Links from the Web
If anyone in America was unsure what unmitigated greed entails, or to what extent the Koch brothers and Wall Street will go to enrich themselves at the expense of others, two events this week should clarify how they have transcended the normal definition of greed. This abnormal greed goes far beyond a dangerous lust to possess wealth; it derives from a philosophical bent that no-one in America except the wealthy elite should have anything. Now that the Kochs and Wall Street have successfully acquired many state legislatures and the United States Congress, the national campaign they launched last year to impoverish the entire population is nearing fruition as they are a step closer to eliminating public and private sector pensions to enrich the wealthy.

The Powell warned that anti-business attitudes and government regulation threatened to "fatally weaken or destroy" the American free enterprise system, declaring that business must arm itself politically, battle organized labor and consumer activists. In one decade the U.S. Chamber of Commerce doubles its membership and the National Federation of Independent Businesses (small business) grows from 300 to 600,000 members and the number of companies with Washington lobbying offices grows from 175 in 1971 to 2,445. Along with 2,000 different trade associations, businesses had a combined Washington staff of 50,000, plus 9,000 lobbyists and 8,000 public relations specialists. Business lobbyists and advocates now outnumber members of Congress by 130 to 1.
Attorney General Eric Holder has decided against forcing a reporter for the New York Times to reveal the identity of a confidential source, according to a senior Justice Department official. The reporter, James Risen, has been battling for years to stop prosecutors from forcing him to name his source for a book that revealed a CIA effort to sabotage Iran's nuclear weapons program. The government wanted Risen's testimony in the trial of a former CIA official, Jeffrey Sterling, accused of leaking classified information. But now, according to the Justice Department official, Holder has directed that Risen must not be required to reveal "information about the identity of his source."
CIA Director John Brennan gave no ground to his critics during a press conference on Thursday, singing his agency's praises and saying it "did a lot of things right" in its interrogation program. Brennan also left open the possibility that some of the torture tactics currently prohibited by President Obama could return in the future. Some torture critics have said that could happen, because the people responsible for torture have never been held accountable and remain unbowed.
The Greek fiscal crisis erupted five years ago, and its side effects continue to inflict immense damage on Europe and the world. But I'm not talking about the side effects you may have in mind -- spillovers from Greece's Great Depression-level slump, or financial contagion to other debtors. No, the truly disastrous effect of the Greek crisis was the way it distorted economic policy, as supposedly serious people around the world rushed to learn the wrong lessons. Now Greece appears to be in crisis again. Will we learn the right lessons this time?
Before the Ukraine crisis, Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, was Europe's foremost leader, heading its most powerful economy, a voice of moderation, the only European statesman capable of defusing the Ukraine crisis. Unfortunately, Merkel has been a disappointment. Her tepid reaction to widespread US-UK spying in Germany, her double standards in condoning American aggression while condemning Russia's actions in Ukraine, and her readiness to sacrifice Germany's economic interests on the altar of solidarity with the US-NATO alliance have baffled even her admirers. In this video, Sahra Wagenknecht, Deputy Chair of Germany's Left Party, echoes rising German sentiment against Merkel in unusually strong terms, joining a growing list of prominent Germans. A regime change from within Germany might just be the catalyst Europe needs at this point to retrace its steps from Cold War II.
At the White House holiday party for members of Congress on Monday, Bachmann had her final interaction with President Barack Obama as a member of Congress. She used the opportunity to tell the president he must bomb nuclear facilities in Iran. The Iranian government claims the country's nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, but the international community worries that the country is attempting to build a nuclear weapon.
As CIA Director John Brennan addressed her report on the agency's torture practices under the Bush administration Thursday, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) tweeted fiery rebuttals to his claims. Feinstein oversaw the report, which took five years to complete, and which found the gruesomely-detailed acts were ultimately ineffective in procuring actionable intelligence. Brennan argued in a rare speech that the CIA was unprepared for its interrogatory function following 9/11 and improvised its tactics in the wake of the attack. He criticized the report for not including testimony from the officers and agents in charge of the program, and disputed its finding on the inefficacy of the practices.
The federal agency that will play a pivotal role in guiding the sentence of former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell has recommended that the onetime Republican rising star spend at least 10 years and a month in prison and 12 years and 7 months at most. McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, were convicted in September of lending the prestige of his office to Richmond businessman Jonnie R. Williams Sr. in exchange for $177,000 in loans, vacations and luxury goods. McDonnell is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 6. His wife is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 20.
Posted by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi at 19:04