USAHitman | Conspiracy News |  |
- Sydney gunman identified as Iranian-born Man Haron Monis
- Feds’ fight to withhold CIA torture photos may soon end
- Six killed in Pennsylvania shootings, suspect still at large
- 3 dead, 4 injured after police op in Sydney siege
|
Posted: 15 Dec 2014 04:58 PM PST
 Sheik Man Haron Monis, an Islamic ‘spiritual healer’ who is facing charges of sexual assault and being an accessory to murder, has been identified as the man who has taken civilians hostage in a Sydney café, according to local media citing police sources. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced that the Iranian-born hostage taker was mentally unstable. “He [Man Haron Monis] had a long history of violent crime, infatuation with extremism, and mental instability,” Abbott said. “As the siege unfolded…he sought to cloak his actions with the symbolism of the ISIL death cult.” Abbott said that Australian authorities knew of the suspect’s extremist outlook prior to the hostage siege, from threat letters he sent to Australian soldiers deployed in the Middle East. At the same time, Abbott praised police conduct during the tense hours of the standoff. “There’s no operational reason for that name to be held back by us now,” an anonymous police source told Reuters. The Iranian-born 50-year-old fled to Australia in 1996, but came to prominence after 2007, when he began sending “hate mail” to families of soldiers, who died while fighting in Iraq. Despite claiming to be a peace advocate, and even chaining himself to a courthouse, Monis was sentenced to 300 hours of community service last year. Read More Here The post Sydney gunman identified as Iranian-born Man Haron Monis appeared first on USAHM Conspiracy News.       |
|
Posted: 15 Dec 2014 04:34 PM PST
 While much of the world is still reeling from the disclosures contained in the Senate Intelligence Committee’s torture report released last week, more damning evidence about the treatment of detainees could soon make its away to the surface. According to recent reports, a federal judge in New York City is expected to hear from the United States government’s attorneys this week about why a cache of classified photographs shouldn’t see the light of the day. The images at the center of the argument predate the current White House administration, as does the fight to have them made public. The cache of pictures – taken at CIA-run detention centers opened overseas in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks to hold and interrogate suspects – are believed to be among the worst records in existence concerning post-9/11 operations waged by the CIA when detainees were tortured by American officials through a program that the Senate Intelligence Committee recently concluded to have been largely ineffective. For a decade now, a legal back-and-forth has continued to brew between lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union intent on having the photos released, and government attorneys operating under first President George W. Bush, then President Barack Obama, to keep the images from public eyes. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals said in 2008 that a 21-photo subset of the images should be released, but President Obama argued that doing as much would “further inflame anti-American opinion and…put our troops in greater danger.” Soon after, the Protected National Security Documents Act (PNSDA) was passed, allowing the Pentagon to withhold certain images should a court agree with whatever rationale is argued. Yet “the government failed to show that it had adequate basis for the certification,” Judge Alvin Hellerstein ruled for the Southern District of New York in August, after the administration said the images should be sealed as a matter of national security. In October, the Guardian reported that Judge Hellerstein told US Justice Department attorneys that they had until December 12, last Friday, to “list, photograph by photograph, the government’s rationale for keeping redacted versions of the photos unseen by the public.” According to an article published by the Daily Beast over the weekend, Hellerstein has given the government until December 19, this Friday, “to submit evidence that the secretary of defense has individually certified each photograph to be a danger to national security.” Pending Judge Hellerstein’s impending decision, the potential release of the photos could once again rekindle a storm of anti-American sentiment, as well as expose even further the true nature and scope of the CIA’s torture program so soon after a Senate panel exposed some of that operation’s darkest secrets. According to the Daily Beast, photographs being considered show US soldiers posing with the bodies of dead detainees and live prisoners, in a series of upsetting positions. Many of the images, the website reported, come from the infamous Abu Gharib detention facility, which previously prompted international outrage upon the leaking of pictures photographed within its walls. “These photos we’re told show mistreatment from facilities throughout Afghanistan and Iraq, not just Abu Ghraib, and I think they would once and for all prove that mistreatment at the hands of the military was widespread, not isolated,” Alex Abdo, an ACLU attorney working on the lawsuit, told The National last week. “If we want to ensure that these abuses never reoccur then having some form of accountability is necessary.” In Sunday’s Daily Beast article, Jameel Jaffer, the ACLU attorney who has fought for the photos’ release since 2004, is quoted as saying that he thinks the government lacks good standing to keep the images under seal. Read More Here The post Feds’ fight to withhold CIA torture photos may soon end appeared first on USAHM Conspiracy News.    |
|
Posted: 15 Dec 2014 06:15 AM PST
 Authorities are searching for an Iraq war veteran suspected of killing at least six people at three separate locations in Pennsylvania’s Montgomery County early Monday. The first shooting was reported at 3:55 a.m. Monday in Lower Salford Township, about 45 minutes northwest of Philadelphia. Police found a woman shot to death at the location, WPVI reported. Forensics investigators from Montgomery County could be seen investigating a unit there, and two bullet holes were visible, according to WCAU. Half an hour later, at 4:25 a.m., police were called to a shooting in Lansdale, where they discovered two more people who had been shot and killed. A SWAT team responded to the scene, but drew back after nearly three hours. Police did not release any information about the gunman at that time, the NBC affiliate said. Two more people were discovered shot to death in Souderton on Monday morning. Shortly after 2 p.m. local time, the Morning Call reported that the death toll was at six. Sources told the ABC affiliate that all the victims had been shot at close range. A fourth scene was discovered in Pennsburg, and is believed to be related to the three previous shootings, WPVI reported. Late Monday morning, though, law enforcement officials said details about that scene were scant. Souderton School District facilities were momentarily under a “shelter in place” order, with schools operating on standby with limited visitors allowed in and out, officials told KYW. Police say that two children were taken from Lower Salford during their response, and both have been found safe, according to WPVI. The SWAT team entered the Souderton home where the suspect was believed to be barricaded at 9:45 a.m. Airspace was subsequently closed above the area for the next two hours, WPVI’s Mike Neilon tweeted. Law enforcement has provided few details in the hours since, but a loud explosion was heard at the site just before 12 noon local time, a local ABC News affiliate reported. According to that network, law enforcement officials believe the death toll may rise. At least one person has since been taken from the house on a stretcher, eyewitness reported, and ABC30 said a teenager was among those injured at the Souderton home. Within an hour of the loud noise being heard, however, Chief Tim Dickinson of the Towamencin police department was telling reporters that the suspected shooter had not been inside that residence. Read More Here The post Six killed in Pennsylvania shootings, suspect still at large appeared first on USAHM Conspiracy News.    |
|
Posted: 15 Dec 2014 03:11 AM PST
 Heavily armored police units have stormed Lindt Café and brought an end to a day-long hostage standoff in the heart of Sydney. Police said three people including gunman were killed, four more injured. As a result of the police operation at Sydney’s Lindt Café, the gunman identified as Iranian-born Sheik Man Haron Monis was killed, New South Wales (NSW) police said. Two hostages, a 34-year-old man and a 38-year-old woman, were pronounced dead after being taken to hospital, police added. “Two women have been taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries, while a male police officer suffered a non-life threatening wound to his face from gunshot pellets and was taken to hospital,” the NSW police statement continued. “Another woman has been taken to hospital with a gunshot wound to her shoulder. A 35-year-old woman was taken to hospital as a precaution.” An exchange of gunfire inside the café prompted police to move in, police commissioner for the state of NSW, Andrew Scipione, told reporters. All 17 hostages were accounted for, said Scipione, adding that no explosives were found. Read More Here The post 3 dead, 4 injured after police op in Sydney siege appeared first on USAHM Conspiracy News.   |
