| Puppet Masters |
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Niall Bradley
Sott.net 2015-12-02 20:20:00
The Pentagon has rejected the Russian Defence Ministry's damning evidence, presented at a press conference today, of Turkish state involvement in oil deals with 'Islamic State' terrorists, with spokesman Colonel Steve Warren stating:
Map, images from Russian military show main routes of ISIS oil smuggling to Turkey https://t.co/3g1MQxzfNF pic.twitter.com/LSlBFUlgqc— RT (@RT_com) December 2, 2015
The Russian MOD presented satellite photos, aerial surveillance videos, and maps demonstrating that the Turkish government - and President Recep Erdogan personally- is receiving hundreds of thousands of barrels of stolen Syrian oil from ISIS terrorists daily. Here's a video of the Russian Ministry of Defence briefing. Note the clip showing ISIS-Turkish oil tankers freely passing through a Turkish border checkpoint:
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Eric Zuesse
Sott.net 2015-12-01 21:29:00
Some of the world's top Al Qaeda operatives were freed from a Lebanese prison on Tuesday December 1st, to rejoin the U.S.-led war against Syria's Bashar al-Assad. America's anti-Assad ally, Qatar, the chief financiers of the Muslim Brotherhood,negotiated with the neutralist Lebanese government, to swap the 26 imprisoned Al Qaeda jihadists for 16 Lebanese soldiers who had been captured by Al Qaeda in Lebanon. Lebanese and Syrian Al Qaeda are called Al Nusra. Al Nusra had captured these soldiers in Lebanon this past summer. Lebanon will get its 16 soldiers back, and Al Qaeda (Al Nusra) will get its 26 fighters back, including the former wife of ISIS's founder, Sheikh Ibrahim Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi. London's Daily Mail headlined about her on 21 February 2015,"Scheming Bride of ISIS they all idolise: Mesmerising tale of wife of terror chief who inspires girls to join bloody ranks." So, she's free again, to rejoin the U.S.-led forces. | |
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Jacob Dreizin
Russian Insider 2015-12-02 19:50:00
Mr. Putin is tackling corruption, whereas his predecessor embodied it. But you wouldn't know it from the Western press I love Russia, but let's not sugarcoat things. After the widespread sociopathy of the 1990s—when people had to break all rules just to feed their families, and it was not unknown even for priests to steal from their flocks—a too-high proportion of the Russian population remains in a state of going through each day with little thought other than how to cheat and defraud its fellow man. Yet it is also a fact that you cannot lock up everyone (Всех не посадишь, as the Russians say) or you would have no country left. The Kremlin's solution has been to make conspicuous examples of some, while creating parallel structures to work around corrupt or incompetent state bodies and officials. Probably the most prominent example of such a structure is the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, commonly known by its Russian initials, SK or SK RF, or less commonly by the acronym, Sledkom. The SK traces its history to 2007—when authority to make criminal charges was taken away from Russia's Prosecutor General—and has existed in its current form since early 2011. Today, the Office of the Prosecutor General is responsible for prosecutions only. It is the SK that investigates crimes and decides whom to bring to trial and on what charges. Since it was brought out from under the Prosecutor General and made into an independent body reporting only to the President, the SK has been at the very center of the Kremlin's anticorruption drive. But why was the authority to indict—representing the most fundamental procedure in the exercise of any state's power—taken away from the Prosecutor General? What's the use in a prosecutor who can't bring charges? To illustrate the answers, we borrow from the renowned Russian opposition figure, Aleksei Naval'nyi (commonly spelled Navalny in the U.S.), and his Foundation for the Fight Against Corruption. | |
Comment: What was done to Russia in the 'lost decade' of the 90's is being slowly but surely undone. To accomplish it means assurance that people no longer "have to break all rules just to feed their families,". Russia is hard at work to ensure its self-sufficiency.
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ITAR-TASS
2015-12-02 20:16:00
Russia's Defense Ministry will unveil data to mass media outlets next week about the weapons and training Syrian gunmen in Turkey, the head of the Russian National Defense Management Center said on Wednesday. "We will provide you with the information on the amount of weapons, components of explosive substances and the training of gunmen on Turkey's territory next week," Mikhail Mizintsev said. According to the official, about 2,000 militants, more than 120 metric tons of ammunition and some 250 vehicles have been redeployed from Turkish territory to Syria over the past week. | |
Comment: Another bomb shell to be released on Turkey.
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FARS News Agency
2015-12-02 10:12:00
Saudi Arabia has used cluster bombs many times before, but this is the first time that it is using it against its own population in a desprate move to stop the huge advances made by the Yemeni forces inside the kingdom in recent days. The Yemeni army and popular forces have frequently crossed the border captured the Saudi military bases and outposts, ruined the military sites and returned home in the last few months and after the Riyadh-led coalition refrained from stopping its air raids on residential areas in Yemen's cities. But, after months of coalition intensified air raids on civilian areas, the Yemeni forces changed strategy and warned that they would start ground assaults on Saudi territories to force Riyadh [to] stop the massacre. The new strategy was put into effect on Sunday, when Yemen's army and popular forces crossed the border and captured several key military bases in three provinces in Southern Saudi Arabia near the border. | |
Comment: Saudi Arabia, will head UN human rights panel
"The 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions prohibits the use, production, transfer, and stockpiling of cluster munitions. It also requires destruction of stockpiles, clearance of areas contaminated by remnants, and victim assistance. More than 115 states have joined the Convention on Cluster Munitions and are working to implement its provisions." -Human Rights Watch | |
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Sott.net
The Russian Defense Ministry has followed through with their promise to release evidence of Turkey's involvement with funding ISIS via the illegal oil trade. Video and graphics below.2015-12-02 19:42:00
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Sputnik
2015-12-02 17:55:00
Moscow is satisfied by Bashar Assad's government and opposition forces a conditional ceasefire agreement under UN aegis in al-Waer, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry. Moscow is satisfied with a ceasefire agreement between the Syrian government and opposition fighters in one of the districts of Homs, Syria's third largest city, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday. Bashar Assad's government and opposition forces have reportedly reached a conditional ceasefire agreement under UN aegis in al-Waer, a Homs city district that has been under government siege since 2012. "Moscow welcomes reports of the [ceasefire] agreement in al-Waer district in Homs," the ministry said in a statement. "We believe that such steps may herald a comprehensive truce in Syria with active role played by the United Nations, as well as promote sustainable peace dialogue between the government and the opposition, including its armed wing that opposes terrorism," the statement said. | |
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Sputnik
2015-12-02 17:53:00
At least 120 natives of Kosovo have returned home during the last few years after taking part in the ongoing hostilities in Syria on the side of Daesh (ISIL), according to local police reports. Milovan Drecun, chairman of the Serbian parliamentary Committee on Kosovo-Metohija, told Sputnik that these former militants may establish ties with local political extremists, thus further exacerbating the current volatile situation in Pristina. He pointed out that ties already exist between the jihadists and certain Albanian organized crime groups, as well as former militants of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) - a terrorist group that was officially disbanded but still exists. "These ties were established back in the 1990s, after Osama bin Laden visited Albania," Drecun said. "In the meantime, radical Islamists strengthened their position in Kosovo, even gaining a certain degree of independence. We know about their contacts with the former commanders of the KLA and Kosovo Protection Corps as well as with members of Drenica Group (Drenicka grupa), a criminal organization run by Hashim Thaci." Drecun added that on numerous occasions, he has warned about the existence of a well-organized, trained and supplied 'base' of radical Islamism, jihadism and terrorism in the Balkans. So far, however, this 'base' was mostly used as a source of recruits for the terrorist groups. "The presence of former Daesh militants in Balkans is a potential security threat and hints at the possibility of terrorist attacks and suicide bombings," Drecun said. | |
Comment: The fertile ground for terrorist organizations in Eastern European countries is the direct result of Western intervention. See also:
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Bobby London
Counter Punch 2015-12-02 18:37:00
I often think about how it must have been for those that resisted in the past, wondering if they also felt as if revolution was at their door. That they were on the peak of something different, closer to the freedom they so desperately wanted. I impatiently wait for liberation, becoming more nihilistic with every co-optation and fizzled-out uprising, dreaming of the day when taking the streets is an every day norm where escalated tactics are more than just a cat and mouse game with cops. For selfish reasons I feel like things are moving too slow, I want this burden of fear to be freed from my soul, and I want it now. As the state continues to build it's arsenal against the resistance and create more authoritarian agencies to stalk us. I wonder how long it is going to take for us to move away from a position of defense towards a more proactive stance against an increasingly more powerful fascistic state. I find myself debating with people often on whether or not what we're living under is even really Fascism, "we still have a free press" they say, "you're not locked up in jail or murdered for your political ideas" they say, "how can this be fascism?" they ask. Now insert some WWI or WWII historical fact here and if one cannot prove that America is doing that exact thing, in this exact way, then we are not of course living under a fascist regime. Despite however the fact that in this country we are more surveilled than the populace in Nazi Germany, that America, after the war, recruited andadopted many of the Nazi's all-star players, many of them top scientists and researchers. And sure, I haven't been imprisoned for the things I write or say - yet, but the state is carefully collecting and storing everything from phone calls to emails for later use. We've already seen cases of people being arrested for their Facebook or Twitter statuses - free speech ain't so free after all. Let's be clear though, the media is owned by a rich minority that is used as a complete propaganda tool for the state. The function of the state at this point is to serve corporate white supremacist interests both here and abroad. To do this they need Fascism and the force of the police state. | |
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Sputnik
2015-12-02 17:50:00
Leila Zerrougui, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, urged the Iraqi government to take robust action to stop the recruitment and use of children by all parties in the current armed conflict and ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice. Close to 1,400 boys and girls were abducted by Islamist militants in Iraq over the past four years, with hundreds more killed and maimed in ongoing hostilities, a UN children's rights envoy said Wednesday. Leila Zerrougui, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, said in a statement that militants from Islamic State (ISIL, or Daesh in the Arab world) - a terror group outlawed in many countries, including Russia - used kidnapped children as soldiers and sex slaves. The UN documented more than 3,000 child casualties between January, 1 2011 and June, 30 2015, the envoy said, adding that attacks by ISIL and al-Qaeda accounted for over a half of those casualties. Since the start of international involvement in Iraq in 2014, the UN began to receive worrisome reports of children being maimed and killed in airstrikes and shelling, Zerrougui's statement continued. | |
Comment: The real numbers are likely much higher than this, and it should disgust and enrage everyone with a conscience that such monsters are being directly and indirectlysupported by Western governments.
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Brandon Turbeville
Activist Post 2015-12-02 17:32:00
Ever since the U.S. bombing campaign over Syria that allegedly targeted ISIS began months ago, many Americans have been increasingly confused by the American impotence against the terrorist organization while the Russians have managed to decimate the jihadists after only a few weeks of steady bombing. Since the United States has demonstrated time and time again its ability to bomb an entire country into the Stone Age, the capabilities of the U.S. Air Force should not be in question. Thus, either ISIS is a congerie of Supermen and special forces fighters (disproven by the effectiveness of Russian bombing) or the ineffectiveness of the US airstrikes are intentional. This American malfeasance, however, is more than mere incompetence or laziness. As I have written on a number of occasions, the American bombing campaign, for what it's worth, has been focused on Syrian civilian and Syrian military infrastructure. | |
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Sputnik
2015-12-02 17:47:00
A special clean-up operation from November 26 to 28 against Boko Haram fighters in the border area with Nigeria neutralized more than 100 jihadists of Boko Haram, according to Cameroon's Defense Minister Joseph Beti Assomo. Cameroon forces have killed over 100 members of the Boko Haram radical Islamist group, while releasing almost 900 hostages, Cameroon's Defense Minister Joseph Beti Assomo said Wednesday. "A special clean-up operation from November 26 to 28 against Boko Haram fighters in the border area with Nigeria neutralized more than 100 jihadists," Assomo said on national radio, according to South Africa's The Citizen newspaper. A number of weapons, munitions and Islamic State (ISIL, or Daesh in Arabic) flags were seized during the operation, the defense minister added. The sweep took place in a few towns along the border with Nigeria. Boko Haram, which operates mainly in northern Nigeria, has also been active in Chad, Niger and northern Cameroon. All of these West African states have waged a counter-terrorist campaign against the group. The extremist group pledged allegiance to ISIL, outlawed in Russia, in March. Nigeria has been identified as a primary location for extremism by the Global Terrorism Index (GTI). Cameroon has been added to GTI's list of countries that experienced at least 500 terror-related deaths in 2015. | |
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Sputnik
2015-12-02 17:43:00
Baghdad will immediately lodge a protest in the UN Security Council if claims that Turkey is involved in oil smuggling with Islamic State terrorists are confirmed, the Iraqi Defense Ministry said Wednesday. "If the Iraqi government receives enough evidence and details, without any hesitation it will file a protest at the UN Security Council and all other relevant international bodies," ministry's spokesman Naseer Nuri told Sputnik in a phone interview. According to him, certain "general information about the smuggling of Iraqi oil by trucks to certain countries, including Turkey" is already available. "This oil is used to fund Daesh", Nuri said. "There is evidence, satellite photos and security services' reports which confirm that Daesh smuggles oil to Turkey," he said. | |
Comment: Considering what evidence has already surfaced about who's buying Daesh's oil and who is funding them in other ways, it's surprising that such a protest hasn't already been filed. Perhaps this is just another step in the road to regime change in Turkey.
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Sputnik
2015-12-02 16:38:00
The success of the Kurds as a fighting force against Daesh worries some regional powers, who remain too divided to reach a political solution to the conflict in Iraq and Syria, warned political analyst Wladimir van Wilgenburg. Some regional players in the Middle East conflict are worried about the influence of the Kurdish militia which has emerged as one of the most successful fighting forces in Iraq and Syria, Kurdish affairs expert Wladimir van Wilgenburg told Sputnik. | |
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Sputnik
2015-12-02 16:19:00
The United States denied evidence of Ankara's involvement in the Islamic State (IS, ISIL or Daesh) oil smuggling operations, a US Defense Department official told Sputnik on Wednesday. "We reject the premise that the Turkish government is in league with Daesh/ISIL to smuggle oil. We have seen no evidence to support such an accusation," the official said. "Moreover, Turkey is taking steps to improve the security of its border with Syria, working with international partners. One goal of this effort is to cut off Daesh smuggling." Comment: It's difficult to see something you refuse to look at. "Seeing no evidence" does not mean that no such evidence exists: Russian Defense Ministry presents evidence of Turkey's role in ISIS' oil trade Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov stated earlier on Wednesday that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his family are involved in the illegal deliveries of oil from the IS, whose activities are prohibited in Russia. | |
Comment: The US probably knows the evidence is clear but desperately wants to keep Turkey in the great game.
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| Society's Child |
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RT
2015-12-02 20:36:00
Police in San Bernardino, California are responding to reports of an active shooter in an office building. There are 20 victims, according to the fire department. The location is around the corner from a Planned Parenthood. The San Bernardino Sheriff's Office is urging the public to avoid the area of Orange Show Road, South Waterman Avenue and Park Center Circle.
SBFD units responding to reports of 20 victim shooting incident in 1300 block of S. Waterman. SBPD is working to clear the scene.— San Bernardino Fire (@SBCityFire) December 2, 2015
The San Bernardino Fire Department has confirmed the presence of an active shooter near Park Center. SWAT teams have been deployed to the scene.
Live feed from the location shows many injured people being helped by emergency services. Along with San Bernardino police officers, the California Highway Patrol, FBI and agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms are on the scene. People are leaving the building where the suspected shooter or shooters are located. Witnesses told police that the shooters were wearing ski masks, KABC reported. | |
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RT
2015-12-02 20:02:00
A Portland student's simple gesture of goodwill is reminding the world that you don't need deep pockets to be able to help people in need. As temperatures drop with each passing winter's day, Gabby Kaper decided to tape heavy jackets to lampposts in downtown Portland for any homeless people feeling the cold. The sight of jackets attached to the street lights caused a mini mystery until good Samaritan Kaper stepped forward.
Someone is hanging coats up around Portland for those who may not have a place to go to get warm. pic.twitter.com/ID4iDEnBCm— Whitneigh Kinne (@WhitKinne) December 1, 2015
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Comment: Good on this young lady for helping to warm society, in more ways than one! An inspiring act of kindness that reminds us that giving is good for the soul!
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Sputnik
2015-12-02 17:58:00
Botswana's government has recently sold the rights to the British Karoo Energy company to frack for shale gas in the Kgalagadi transfrontier park, the Guardian newspaper reported Wednesday. Botswana's government has recently sold the rights to the British Karoo Energy company to frack for shale gas in the Kgalagadi transfrontier park, the Guardian newspaper reported Wednesday. The Kgalagadi park is among Africa's largest conservation areas. | |
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RT
2015-12-02 19:11:00
A Michigan man was arrested and charged with a felony for handing out fliers informing people of their jury nullification rights on the sidewalk in front of a courthouse. Keith Wood, 39, faces a felony charge for obstruction of justice and a misdemeanor for attempting to influence jurors. Wood said he was handing out pamphlets from the Fully Informed Jury Association on November 24, while standing on a sidewalk in front of a Mecosta County courthouse. Obstruction of justice is carries a penalty of five years in prison with up to $10,000 in fines, and attempting to influence jurors is a one-year misdemeanor with fines of up to $1,000. | |
Comment: A similar incident happened to a Denver man: Denver activist charged with multiple felonies for informing jurors of their rights.
For the judge to blatantly charge a man for informing people of their rights is a clear indication that the judge views himself as all powerful and he apparently expects everyone to be obedient authoritarian followers. | |
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Chris Veritas
Activist Post 2015-12-02 18:40:00
In conversations with various people, I have often brought up the fact that the Media seems to have no memory of the past, is entirely uniform when it comes to urging war, and patently ignores a plethora of glaring issues. The issues it does catch sight of, it seems incapable of penetrating, remaining at the surface of things, and therefore keeping discourse at the most superficial level. When questioned about these tendencies of Media, the responses I've received range from "well, that's just the way they maintain ratings", to "but my paper or network has the better ideology". Americans appear satisfied to accept what occurs to them as given, and like Pangloss to reply, indeed, this is "the best of all possible worlds". I beg to differ. Here are a few troubling questions that I feel greatly undermine the idea that Mainstream Media is credible: | |
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Marc Summer
Daily Kos 2015-11-29 18:19:00
Sixty million people died in World War II, but fascism won. It didn't win on the battlefield. It didn't win right away. It won because the same fears, the same greed, the same hatred that fueled its growth in the first part of the twentieth century never went away. The symbols of fascism became anathema, but the causes ... went deep. And gradually, slowly, one step at a time, all those vices became first tolerated, then treated as virtues, and then as the only acceptable view. Godwin's Law—the contention that any argument will eventually come round to warnings about Hitler—is twenty-five years old, but for much longer than that, we've been taught that the use of that... f-word, is not to be taken seriously. Sure, every government program, new or old, is open to accusations of communism and warnings of a slippery slope toward some failed dictatorship. That's expected. But to even acknowledge our long, stumbling lurch to the right; the building force of corporate power; the relentless need for war; a police whose power of enforcement is divorced from law; a preening nationalism that rewards the full rights of citizenship only to those who fit an ever-narrower mold... You can't call it fascism. People will only laugh. | |
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David Edwards
Raw Story 2015-12-01 12:55:00
A family filed a lawsuit this week against a church in Brentwood, Tennessee for allegedly covering up the rape of their 3-year-old child. The lawsuit, which was obtained by WTVF, indicates that the family left their 3-year-old-boy in the care of the church's Children's Ministry on the Sunday of August 24, 2014. When the boy said that he did not want to go back to church the next week, the family discovered that a teenage volunteer had raped the child in one of the church's bathrooms. The family explained in the lawsuit that they confronted church leaders, who initially claimed that the child was lying about the incident. The church later "urged the [family] not to pursue criminal charges against the perpetrator," the lawsuit stated. After the volunteer pled guilty to aggravated sexual assault, the lawsuit said that the church "sought to hide the truth about the perpetrator pedophile and about the rape of [the 3-year-old child] from other families." "We want justice for this family," attorney Kathryn Barnett of Morgan & Morgan told WTVF. "But also we want to make sure that every child at this church and every church is safe." "It's not okay to wait until a child is raped before you start to take youth protection seriously." she added. A Fellowship Baptist Church training video that was created earlier this year explains that the Children's Ministry has a strict bathroom policy. "In all cases, no one should be alone with a child," the video says. "Two adults are required to escort a child to the bathroom." | |
Comment: We hope they get millions from the church. Sadly, for this child, his family and other families yet to be victimized, churches are a place where where predators have easy access to children and most offenses are covered up by the church. The best we can do in this day and age is educate and protect ourselves with knowledge of where and how these sexual predators operate. Listen to or read our interview with Dr. Anna Salter, author of the best-selling book, Predators: Pedophiles, Rapists, and Other Sex Offenders, Who They Are, How They Operate, and How We Can Protect Ourselves and Our Children. And do read the book.
See also: Men Who Hate Women: The Franklin Scandal and the Truth About Our Leaders | |
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Rohan Preston
2 allege they were abused by founder, teacher in '80s Star Tribune 2015-12-01 17:35:00
Alleging sexual abuse in the 1970s and '80s, two former student actors at Children's Theatre Company have filed suit against the Minneapolis theater, co-founder John Clark Donahue and Minneapolis entrepreneur Jason McLean. The civil complaint, filed Monday in Hennepin County District Court, revisits a disturbing chapter of the company's past that sent Donahue to jail after he pleaded guilty in 1984 to sexual misconduct with three teenage boys. | |
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Washington's Blog
2015-12-01 15:37:00
The mainstream press says that the NSA has "ended" its bulk phone records collection program. Does that mean we can all relax ... and forget about mass surveillance? We asked the highest-level NSA whistleblower in history - William Binney - the high-level NSA executive who created the agency's mass surveillance program for digital information, 36-year NSA veteran widely regarded as a "legend" within the agency, who served as the senior technical director within the agency, and managed thousands of NSA employees WASHINGTON'S BLOG: The mainstream U.S. news is saying that the NSA's metadata collection program is over. Can we all relax and enjoy a beer now? Or is the NSA still spying on Americans? | |
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Science Daily
2015-12-01 00:00:00
Between 1999 and 2013 in the United States, between 279 (in 2000) to 507 (in 2012) people were killed each year by legal intervention or law enforcement, other than by legal execution. In 2013, an estimated 11.3 million arrests in the U.S. resulted in approximately 480 deaths from legal intervention. Between 1999 and 2013, there were 5,511 deaths by legal intervention. Researchers from the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at Florida Atlantic University and colleagues conducted analyses of nationwide data on individuals who were killed as a result of legal intervention or law enforcement in the U.S. between 1999 and 2013. Results from this report show:
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Comment: While these statistics are hardly surprising to regular readers of Sott.net, it may be that a scientific study published in the mainstream press is what is needed to get the attention of the masses. However, as the authors 'suggest the need for further research', it is likely that little else will be done (as usual) to stop the progression of the lethal police state.
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RT
2015-12-02 14:22:00
Russia's oil output has continued hovering at post-Soviet record levels in November despite the plunging crude price and the global glut. Production of crude and gas condensate stood at 10.779 million barrels a day (mbd) during the month, according to the Russian Energy Ministry. Output was slightly beneath the record October level of 10.782 mbd. Russian oil and gas output rose by 6.62 million tons from January to November, compared with the same period last year. Crude exports reached 5.32 million bpd last month, which is an 11 percent higher from the previous year but 2.4 percent lower than October. Experts say that the low oil price has no impact on Russia's output. Russian oil companies have increased profits and output since the weaker domestic currency has protected their business. The depreciating ruble cut costs and taxes for the companies that generate earnings in US dollars but pay most of their expenses in rubles. | |
Comment: Those anti-Russian sanctions are apparently working very well; for Russia that is.
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Joshua Krause
The Daily Sheeple 2015-12-01 15:18:00
The fact that France has turned into a police state shouldn't be that surprising to most people. After the terror attack in Paris, their government declared a state of emergency, which may last another three months. As a result, travel has been restricted, there is a heightened police and military presence on the streets, and thousands of raids have been conducted throughout the country in recent weeks. It doesn't take a genius to recognize that as a police state. It's practically a textbook definition. However, there's more to this state of emergency than heightened security. What France is seeing right now is outright tyranny. The Paris attack was the perfect excuse for their government to transform their society into an open air prison, and there's no telling what their country will look like when the dust settles. | |
Comment: Slowly but surely, and country by country, the whole world is marching into a new dark age.
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RT
2015-12-02 14:29:00
In an effort to curb intolerance, the racist Tweets of Brazilian citizens are being printed on massive billboards near their homes. The campaign was launched after a black TV weather presenter was the subject of racist taunts online. The "Virtual Racism, Real Consequences" campaign is organized by civil rights group Criola, which uses geotagging data to determine the location of racist Twitter and Facebook users. Those tweets are then printed on billboards in the offenders' communities. "Those people [who post abuse online] think they can sit in the comfort of their homes and do whatever they want on the Internet. We don't let that happen. They can't hide from us, we will find them," Criola founder Jurema Werneck told the BBC. | |
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Christopher Ingraham
Washington Post 2015-11-23 01:55:00
Here's an interesting factoid about contemporary policing: In 2014, for the first time ever, law enforcement officers took more property from American citizens than burglars did. Martin Armstrong pointed this out at his blog, Armstrong Economics, last week. Officers can take cash and property from people without convicting or even charging them with a crime — yes, really! — through the highly controversial practice known as civil asset forfeiture. Last year, according to the Institute for Justice, the Treasury and Justice departments deposited more than $5 billion into their respective asset forfeiture funds. That same year, the FBI reports that burglary losses topped out at $3.5 billion. | |
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Angelique Chrisafis
The Guardian 2015-12-01 22:26:00
Far-right party poised to win two regions for first time as it reaps electoral advantage from France's fear of Islamists and migrants Looking out across hundreds of flag-waving supporters at a rally in the northern city of Lille, the far-right leader Marine Le Pen told the crowd that the Front National was the only party that could reassure France in this moment of "infinite sadness". The deaths of 130 people in the Paris terrorist attacks were, she claimed, the result of government inaction, lies, and, above all, its "crazy, undiscerning immigration policy". The Socialist president, François Hollande, who had declared war on terrorism, was "a war chief who hasn't even got the measure of the enemy!" she boomed. Only 10 months after the attacks on Charlie Hebdo and a Paris kosher supermarket left 17 dead, the government had failed to protect French people from another attack and was "more than just responsible" she cried. The crowd stamped their feet and roared support, chanting "Hollande resign! Hollande resign!" The political fallout from the Paris terror attacks looks likely to shake France's Socialist government this Sunday when the country votes in the first round of key regional elections. Even though Hollande has seen his popularity rise since the attacks, this has not helped his wider party and its candidates. Instead, it is Le Pen's Front National that stands to make the most gains at the ballot box. | |
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| Secret History |
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Craig Pittman
Tampa Bay Times 2015-11-29 00:57:00
The 2012 emergency call sent archaeologists scrambling. Rising seas were washing away an ancient Indian burial ground near Cedar Key. They had to dig up the remaining graves and collect the bones before the whole thing disappeared into the Gulf of Mexico. But while digging, University of Florida archaeologist Ken Sassaman discovered something that surprised him. The burial ground of some 32 graves was actually a re-burial ground. The skeletons had been buried somewhere else, then moved to this spot. Florida's early inhabitants had done that, Sassaman said, because they were dealing with the same problem that's facing the low-lying Sunshine State now: waves that creep higher and higher, crumbling the coastline and forcing the inhabitants to make tough choices about the future. Their solution was to move everything important to them, including their ancestors, he explained. | |
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Rossella Lorenzi
Discovery News 2015-11-30 17:18:00
An ancient Greek temple was built to face the setting full moon near the winter solstice, according to new research that sheds new light on the orientation of sacred monuments. A new survey of the Valley of the Temples just outside Agrigento, Italy, reveals the 2,500-year-old temples were not deliberately aligned to the rising sun, as generally believed. A variety of factors, not all of them being astronomical, inspired the ancient architects. "Alignment was widely determined by urban layout and morphological aspects of the terrain as well as religious connections," Giulio Magli, professor of archaeoastronomy at Milan's Polytechnic University, told Discovery News. Magli and colleagues Robert Hannah, at the University of Waikato, New Zealand, and Andrea Orlando, at the Catania Astrophysical Observatory, conducted the research with funding from the Ente Parco della Valle dei Templi. Their findings are published on the Cornell University physics Web site, arXiv.org. | |
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Mark Stevenson
Fox News Latino 2015-12-01 23:00:00
A Mexican archaeologist said his team has found a tunnel-like passageway that apparently leads to two sealed chambers, the latest chapter in the search for the as-yet undiscovered tomb of the Aztec rulers of Tenochtitlán. The Aztecs are believed to have cremated their leaders during their 1325-1521 rule, but the final resting place of the cremated remains - the "cremains," as archeologists refer to them - has never been found. Outside experts said Tuesday the find at Mexico City's Templo Mayor ruin complex would be significant. The National Institute of Anthropology and History said Monday that a team led by archaeologist Leonardo López Luján had discovered a 27-foot-long tunnel le |
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