Saturday 14 February 2015

USAHitman | Conspiracy News

Pennsylvania’s governor suspends the death penalty

Posted: 13 Feb 2015 05:10 PM PST

Pennsylvania’s Democratic Governor Tom Wolf said he will offer the state’s 186 death row inmates temporary reprieves from each scheduled execution, calling the system “error prone, expensive and anything but useful.”
The newly elected governor, who campaigned against the death penalty, said the moratorium will remain in effect until he has reviewed a task force report on capital punishment. The task force review has been ongoing over the past four years, examining a number of questions surrounding the death penalty – including how it is carried, out, whether it’s constitutional and if it reduces crime. In 2012, the task force called on former Republican Gov. Tom Corbett to suspend executions.
“Today’s action comes after significant consideration and reflection,” said Gov. Wolf in a memorandum announcing the policy. “This decision is based on a flawed system that has been proven to be an endless cycle of court proceedings as well as ineffective, unjust, and expensive.”
Wolf said he is not sympathetic for the guilty inmates of death row, but noted that the state has only executed three people since it reintroduced capital punishment almost 40 years ago. Even those three cases only went forward because the inmates requested an end to their appeals process.

Previous governors, meanwhile, have signed 434 death warrants, and all but the previously mentioned three were stayed by a court. One inmate has been scheduled six times for execution before the process was cancelled by federal and state interventions. Two inmates have been on death row for three decades.
The governor’s decision also puts off the execution of Terrance Williams, who was convicted of killing two men, which was scheduled for March 4, 2015. Williams admitted killing them while in his teens but now says both men had been sexually abusing him.
“If we are to continue to administer the death penalty, we must take further steps to ensure that defendants have appropriate counsel at every stage of their prosecution, that the sentence is applied fairly and proportionally, and that we eliminate the risk of executing an innocent,” Wolf said.
The governor’s office also released two statements supporting his decision, including one from former US Court of Appeals judge and prosecutor Timothy K. Lewis.
“At a minimum, we must take a step back to examine the effectiveness of a system fraught with racial disparity, constant reversals, and the infinite warehousing of prisoners who await a punishment that hasn’t been imposed in our State in 15 years,” said Lewis.
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ISIS launches suicide attacks at Iraqi base housing US Marines

Posted: 13 Feb 2015 04:04 PM PST

The Islamic State carried out a coordinated suicide bomber attack against the air base in western Iraq housing 320 US Marines. The Pentagon confirmed the extremist group has taken control of al-Baghdadi, which is just eight kilometers away from the base.
The Friday attack was conducted by approximately 25 Islamic State fighters, the Pentagon told Reuters, and several suicide bombers were involved. Some of them were reportedly able to detonate their vests, though the exact number is unclear. Some of the militants were able to sneak into the base wearing Iraqi uniforms, and they were killed by Iraqi troops when fighting broke out.
There are approximately 320 Marines at the base training Iraqi security forces, though the Pentagon said Marines were not involved in the fighting. No US or Iraqi casualties have been reported.
Al-Baghdadi, located in Iraq’s Anbar province, had been under siege by radical Sunni Islamist militants for months and much of the Anbar province was captured by the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) during its rapid advance into northern and western Iraq last summer.
Militants attacked al-Baghdadi from two directions and then advanced into the town on Thursday, according to intelligence sources and Iraqi army officials, Reuters reported. The death toll from the fighting has not been revealed.
Officials also said that a group of ISIS militants tried to break into the heavily guarded Ain al-Asad air base on Thursday but were repelled by the Iraqi army, which was backed by coalition fighter planes.
Eight militants were killed in the attack on the base, US and Iraqi officials said.
Elisa Smith, a US Navy commander and Pentagon spokeswoman, also confirmed that there had been heavy fighting in al-Baghdadi and added that there had been “ineffective indirect fire in the vicinity of the base.”
“We continue to support efforts by Iraqi Security Forces, working in conjunction with tribal fighters, directed against ISIL in the province,” the spokeswoman told Fox News Thursday.
Elsewhere in the campaign, the US-led coalition continues to launch airstrikes against ISIS, with outraged Jordan now taking on a greater role after one of its pilots was burned to death by militants, who then posted a video of his execution online.
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Indian govt ‘extremely disturbed’ about Alabama police assault of Indian national

Posted: 13 Feb 2015 04:03 PM PST

The Indian government has strongly condemned how Alabama police treated one of its citizens visiting the US after he was slammed to the ground, leaving him partially paralyzed. The officer was arrested and may lose his job, while the FBI is investigating.
The altercation occurred last Friday when Sureshbhai Patel, a 57-year-old Indian citizen from the small town of Pij, was approached by an officer of the Madison Police Department while outside his own son’s home in an affluent, up-and-coming community in northern Alabama.
Police say they were responding to calls concerning a suspicious person in the neighborhood when they confronted Patel and learned he did not speak English. Patel’s son said that his father told the officers, “No English. Indian. Walking,” then pointed to the family home he had been staying in for less than two weeks.
The officers then attempted to search Patel, according to the police. But when the man allegedly put his hands in his pockets and pulled away, one of the cops forced him to the ground, causing him a severe neck injury.
Patel was not arrested, but had to be brought to a nearby hospital because he was unable to move his legs and had limited motion in his arms. Doctors were able to restore some mobility after they performed cervical fusion surgery last Saturday.
We take the incident involving an Indian national very seriously. We want to make it abundantly clear that we are extremely worried about what has happened to Mr. Sureshbhai Patel, an Indian national,” India’s external affairs ministry spokesman, Syed Akbaruddin, said during a briefing Thursday.
“We are extremely disturbed; this is a matter of concern for us; and India and the US ‒ as open, pluralist societies ‒ need to address these issues and find ways in a mature manner so that these are aberrations, and are not the norm,” he continued.
The Indian government has been in contact with the American mission in New Delhi, and plans to speak with US officials in Washington, DC and authorities in Alabama, Akbaruddin said.
On Thursday, Madison Police Chief Larry Muncey announced that the offending officer, Eric Parker, has been charged with third-degree assault. Parker turned himself in on the charge, WHNT reported.
“I sincerely apologize to Mr. Patel, Mr. Patel’s family and our community. We strive to exceed expectations,” Muncey said at a press conference. He also said that he has proposed Officer Parker be terminated.
The federal government began an investigation into the incident shortly after it occurred on February 6, an FBI spokesperson said. It is being treated as a civil rights violation, and the findings will be turned over to the Justice Department to review, the Washington Post reported.
In the meantime, Patel, who suffered injuries including partial paralysis of his legs, filed a federal lawsuit claiming his civil rights were violated. The lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount of money, the Associated Press reported.
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US helped Israel with H-bomb – 1980s report declassified

Posted: 13 Feb 2015 04:01 PM PST

Conceding to a federal lawsuit, the US government agreed to release a 1987 Defense Department report detailing US assistance to Israel in its development of a hydrogen bomb, which skirted international standards.
The 386-page report, “Critical Technology Assessment in Israel and NATO Nations,” likens top Israeli nuclear facilities to the Los Alamos and Oak Ridge National Laboratories that were key in the development of US nuclear weaponry.
Israelis are “developing the kind of codes which will enable them to make hydrogen bombs. That is, codes which detail fission and fusion processes on a microscopic and macroscopic level,” said the report, the release of which comes before Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s March 3 speech in front of the US Congress in which he will oppose any deal that allows Iran’s legal nuclear program to persist.
“I am struck by the degree of cooperation on specialized war making devices between Israel and the US,” Roger Mattson, a formerly of the Atomic Energy Commission’s technical staff, said of the report, according to Courthouse News.
The report’s release earlier this week was initiated by a Freedom of Information Act request made three years ago by Grant Smith, director of the Washington think tank Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy. Smith filed a lawsuit in September in order to compel the Pentagon to substantially address the request.
“It’s our basic position that in 1987 the Department of Defense discovered that Israel had a nuclear weapons program, detailed it and then has covered it up for 25 years in violation of the Symington and Glenn amendments, costing taxpayers $86 billion,” Smith said during a hearing in late 2014 before Judge Tanya Chutkan in US District Court for the District of Columbia.
Smith described in his federal court complaint how those federal laws were violated by the US in the midst of Israel’s budding nuclear program.
“The Symington Amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 prohibits most U.S. foreign aid to any country found trafficking in nuclear enrichment equipment or technology outside international safeguards,” Smith wrote.
“The Glenn Amendment of 1977 calls for an end to U.S. foreign aid to countries that import nuclear reprocessing technology.”
In November, Judge Chutkan asked government lawyers resistant to the report’s release why it had taken years for the government to prepare the report for public consumption.
“I’d like to know what is taking so long for a 386-page document. The document was located some time ago,” Chutkan said, according to Courthouse News Service.
“I’ve reviewed my share of documents in my career. It should not take that long to review that document and decide what needs to be redacted.”

The government’s representatives in the case — Special Assistant US Attorney Laura Jennings and Defense Department counsel Mark Herrington — initially said confidentiality agreements required a “line by line” review of the Defense Department’s report. They later shifted, arguing that its release is optional and not mandatory, as “diplomatic relations dictate that DoD seeks Israel’s review.”
Smith and the US agreed that the government would redact sections of the report on NATO countries, though the passages on Israel remain intact.
“The capability of SOREQ [Soreq Nuclear Research Center] to support SDIO [Strategic Defense Initiative Organization, or “Star Wars”] and nuclear technologies is almost an exact parallel of the capability currently existing at our National Laboratories,” said the report, written by the Institute for Defense Analysis for the Department of Defense.
“SOREQ and Dimona/Beer Sheva facilities are the equivalent of our Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore and Oak Ridge National Laboratories…[and have]the technology base required for nuclear weapons design and fabrication.”
The report’s authors Edwin Townsley and Clarence Robinson found that Israel to had Category 1 capability regarding its anti-tactical ballistic missile and “Star Wars” weapons programs.
“As far as nuclear technology is concerned the Israelis are roughly where the U.S. [w]as in the fission weapon field in about 1955 to 1960,” the report said. “It should be noted that the Israelis are developing the kind of codes which will enable them to make hydrogen bombs.”
In a statement on the report’s release, Smith said Thursday, “Informal and Freedom of Information Act release of such information is rare. Under two known gag orders — punishable by imprisonment — U.S. security-cleared government agency employees and contractors may not disclose that Israel has a nuclear weapons program.”
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Over 190 pilot whales stranded on NZ beach, dozens die

Posted: 13 Feb 2015 04:00 PM PST

One hundred and ninety-eight pilot whales have been stranded on a 6-kilometer beach in New Zealand, and their only hope is a rescue effort with the rising tide, local conservation officials reported.
Farewell Spit of the Golden Bay, on New Zealand’s South Island, is a renowned trap for marine mammals, with at least eight strandings in the past decade, and over 50 whales found there near their death bed on Friday, while nearly 200 got trapped in shallow water, Radio New Zealand reported.
“Re-floating stranded whales is a difficult and potentially dangerous job, so it’s important we have the right people on the ground tonight trying to get these whales back to safety,” the Department of Conservation’s (DoC) manager Andrew Lamason said in a statement. “Community group Project Jonah has 140 volunteers in the Golden Bay area who are trained to do this and we’re working alongside them.”
The help from general public could be needed Saturday, to help keep the whales cool and wet while waiting for the next tide to ease the rescue efforts by the team of staff and volunteers.
“They’re in reasonable condition most of them, their skin is looking pretty good, and there’s not that many have died, relatively,” DoC spokesperson Mike Ogle said, as cited by local media.
Pilot whales, the most common species of whale in New Zealand waters, though inhabiting oceans almost worldwide, reach up to six meters in length. They are highly social creatures, and are also among the most frequently found stranded in groups.
Several hypotheses exist to explain such stranding in groups. Some scientists dwell on geomagnetic anomalies leading to navigation faults, while others believe that the whales may follow sick or young members of the group.
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Short daytime nap compensates for poor night’s rest, study says

Posted: 12 Feb 2015 04:11 PM PST

A half-hour daytime nap can mitigate the hormonal impact of two hours’ sleep at night not only making a person refreshed, but strengthening the immune system and relieving stress, new research says.
“Our data suggests a 30-minute nap can reverse the hormonal impact of a night of poor sleep,” Brice Faraut, of Paris Descartes University, one of the research’s authors, said in a statement. “This is the first study that found napping could restore biomarkers of neuroendocrine and immune health to normal levels. Napping may offer a way to counter the damaging effects of sleep restriction by helping the immune and neuroendocrine systems to recover.”
The study was published in the Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. According to the separate National Health Interview Survey, nearly three in 10 adults sleep an average six or less hours a night.
The scientists carried out experiments with a group of 11 healthy men, all between 25 and 32 years old, who underwent two sessions of three days sleep testing. In one of the sessions they had only two hours to sleep at night, while during another session they were permitted to have a couple of 30 minutes naps during the day.
All the participants had slept eight hours before the experiment and the time for sleep was not limited on the last day.
The analyses of urine and saliva of those who slept two hours only showed a high level of a hormone involved in stress reactions –norepinephrine – which increases blood pressure and blood sugar and a low level of antiviral protein – interleukin-6. In case when short naps were allowed, the levels of both norepinephrine and interleukin-6 were normal.
“The findings support the development of practical strategies for addressing chronically sleep-deprived populations, such as night and shift workers,” Faraut said.
Sleep deprivation is now widely recognized as a serious problem. It can cause problems for workers’ productivity, and also provoke dangerous situations in spheres demanding closer attention, for instance in transportation. Moreover, it aggravates chronic illnesses including obesity, hypertension and diabetes and even depression.
Last year, similar research showed napping was beneficial for memory retention. Schoolchildren who napped after learning retained more of what they had learned up to five days later, compared to those who did not sleep during the day.
“The results suggest that sleep can be used to enhance the duration of memory contents learned in school,” the authors wrote in their study.
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