The Ruthless Truth blog

 

Who Wants this American Dead?

by Jeff Gates / May 18th, 2010 (1)

Why kill Anwar al-Awlaki, an American who inspired the Times Square Fizzler and advised the Crotch Bomb Sizzler?

This Islamic preacher is “out there.” No doubt about it. So is Christian preacher John Hagee.

Hagee promises his flock a Rapture that will beam them up to Heaven. But not just yet. First God’s Chosen People must recover Jerusalem.

Remind me: isn’t the status of Jerusalem THE most contentious and volatile issue in the entire Middle East?

Hagee is much loved by the Likud Party wingnuts that have never shown any desire for peace with an indigenous population that has been ethnically cleansed, imprisoned and …

(Full article …)

Musings on Democracy

by Maryam Sakeenah / May 18th, 2010 (1)

Writing of Mr. Jamshed Dasti, the infamous Pakistani former minister found to be in possession of a fake graduation degree, recently re-elected to the assembly in a popular vote, is one of those moments in my erratic writing career when I feel utterly tongue-tied, run out of vocabulary.

Jamshed Dasti may be just another ‘poor player strutting his hour upon the stage’, but he is certainly not an anomaly. He typifies a kind. He and the many others of his ilk who occupy the seats of power are mere symptoms of a deeply flawed, perverted, politically immature and democratically stunted order. …

(Full article …)

Planet Chomsky Vs. Dershowitz’s Orbit

by Gilad Atzmon / May 18th, 2010 (3)

The Israeli Interior Ministry on Sunday denied entry to Jewish American linguist Prof. Noam Chomsky turning him back from the Allenby Bridge border crossing in the Jordan Valley. Seemingly, the moral ash cloud that is pouring out of the morbid Jewish ghetto known as Israel is not going to clear. It is there to stay.

On the face of it, Chomsky’s border incident shouldn’t take us by surprise. Israel is the Jewish state and as such it operates as a synagogue of great magnitude. The synagogue is an exclusive entity, it only allows in those who fit. …

(Full article …)

Yemen’s Sorrowful Options: “Revolt, Migrate, or Die”

by Ramzy Baroud / May 18th, 2010 (0)

When the Soviets concluded their pull out from Afghanistan in February 1989, the United States government abruptly lost interest in the country. A devastated economic infrastructure, entrenched poverty, deep-rooted factionalism and lack of international aid caused the country to descend into complete chaos. Internal violence also worsened, but it was no longer an American concern. All that mattered was that the Cold War rival had been defeated. Mission accomplished.

Afghanistan remains the starkest illustration of how poor countries are used, then betrayed when their usefulness runs out. But Afghanistan is not an exception; US relations with many other countries, including Pakistan, …

(Full article …)

Kagan in Context: Shafting Progressive Values

by Norman Solomon / May 18th, 2010 (3)

If President Obama has his way, Elena Kagan will replace John Paul Stevens — and the Supreme Court will move rightward. The nomination is very disturbing, especially because its part of a pattern.

The White House is in the grip of conventional centrist wisdom. Grim results stretch from Afghanistan to the Gulf of Mexico to communities across the USA.

“It turns out, by the way, that oil rigs today generally don’t cause spills,” President Obama said in support of offshore oil drilling, less than three weeks before the April 20 blowout in the Gulf. “They are technologically …

(Full article …)

Washington-Industry Complicity in the Gulf Disaster

by Stephen Lendman / May 18th, 2010 (2)

It’s common practice in America. A government-Wall Street cabal caused the financial crisis and subsequent fallout. Now debated financial reform is a stealth scheme to let bankers self-regulate. Rogue Democrats rammed through health reform to ration care and enrich corporate providers. Defense, technology, and related firms profit hugely from permanent wars, and a regulatory-free Washington — energy industry alliance lies at the root of the Gulf disaster, by far America’s greatest ever environmental calamity, worsening daily with no fail-safe, or perhaps any, way to stop it.

It’s too big even for the major media to ignore; to wit, on May 15, …

(Full article …)

Overcoming Free Market Apathy

by Alexia Eastwood / May 18th, 2010 (5)

Building alternatives to the dominant market economy is a project that begins in the imagination. A two step programme to overcome the mental straitjacket of the free market model is an instructive starting point for building an economy that provides for the needs of people whilst operating within ecological limits.

The first step is to overcome the naturalised appearance of the self regulating market system, and to challenge the underlying assumptions upon which it is based; the second is to recognise that there are other forms of economy in existence both throughout history and in the current age. Our current market …

(Full article …)

Margaret Atwood Cashes In

by Jennifer Matsui / May 17th, 2010 (8)

Novelist Margaret Atwood’s decision to travel to Tel Aviv to share a literary prize worth a million dollars has ignited a controversy in which the septuagenarian author and vice-president of the literary human rights organization PEN International has come under fire by Palestinian rights activists. Ms Atwood’s acceptance of the Dan David Prize, whose previous laureates include Al Gore and Tony Blair, is viewed by Ms Atwood’s critics as a betrayal to the ideals she supposedly represents, and an unwitting endorsement of Israel’s race exclusive policies.

The Canadian author’s insistence that refusing the blood-spattered trophy would be tantamount to “censorship” rings …

(Full article …)

Socialism, Now More Than Ever?

by Ron Jacobs / May 17th, 2010 (27)

I just finished watching a television ad for somebody running for a congressional seat in South Carolina. The man was either a Republican, Tea Partier or both. The bulk of the ad’s thirty seconds was an attack on “socialized medicine” coming from Washington, DC. Now, of course most of us understand that the health care reform known as Obamacare is anything but socialized medicine. Yet, there is a sizable minority of US residents who honestly believe it is. This misunderstanding of what socialism actually is can be attributed to a few things, foremost among them …

(Full article …)

Obama’s Slippery Slope: Ginning-Up the “Terror” Threat, Shredding the Constitution

by Tom Burghardt / May 17th, 2010 (1)

When Faisal Shahzad, a naturalized American citizen and 30-year-old son of a retired senior Pakistani Air Force officer was arrested in the failed plot to detonate a car-bomb in Times Square May 1, U.S. counterterrorism officials and their stenographers in the corporate media proclaimed a “connection” between Shahzad and the far-right jihadi outfit, the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

Never mind that such “evidence” relies on the thinnest of reeds: that Shahzad had recently traveled to Pakistan, was allegedly in “contact” with the TTP and had even received “training” from a sectarian, clan- and tribal-based organization wary of outsiders who nevertheless, allegedly “approved” …

(Full article …)

Too Big to Exist (TBE): Big Oil

by Michael Collins / May 17th, 2010 (10)

There is no viable solution in sight for the out-of-control oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico.  The stunning failure of British Petroleum (BP) raises the question — are these oil giants too big to exist?  Are they too dangerous to function in our presence?  BP has four permanent deep water  structures and 28 boreholes operating at a water depth of greater than 5000 feet in the Gulf of Mexico.  What’s next?

British Petroleum (BP) had the resources to drill the well but lacked the planning and ability to deal with its failure.  The oil giant’s …

(Full article …)

Arabs Shut out of Israeli Public Sector

by Jonathan Cook / May 17th, 2010 (1)

Unemployed computer engineer, Morad Lashin, would like to work in Israel’s Electricity Company, a large state utility, but admitted his chances of being recruited are slim.

The reasons were set out in graphic form this month when a parliamentary committee revealed that only 1.3 per cent of the company’s 12,000 workers are Arab, despite the Arab minority constituting nearly 20 per cent of the population.

The committee’s report presents a picture of massive under-representation of Arab citizens across most of the public sector, including in government companies and ministries, where the percentage of Arab staff typically falls below two per cent of …

(Full article …)

Obama’s Latest Monsanto Pick, Elena Kagan

Mark of the Beast

by Rady Ananda / May 17th, 2010 (0)

First, we spit out our coffee over President Obama’s appointments of former Monsanto goon Michael Taylor as Food Safety [sic] Czar and ‘biotech governor of the year’ Tom Vilsack as Secretary of Agriculture. Then we choked on our grits when he made Monsanto lobbyist, Islam Siddiqui, the US Ag Trade Representative. Now, the real food movement has completely lost its appetite with Obama’s nomination of Monsanto defender, Elena Kagan, to the US Supreme Court.

In December 2009, in her capacity as Solicitor General, Kagan intervened in the first case on which SCOTUS will rule involving genetically modified …

(Full article …)

Capitalism Is the Cause of Climate Illness!

Global Movement Begins the Cure!

by Ron Ridenour / May 15th, 2010 (10)

Presenting the People’s Agreement — “mother earth does not belong to us, we belong to it” — worldwide was the first act of the Global People’s Movement for Mother Earth. This was carried out in May by Bolivia’s President Evo Morales and representative activists from five continents.

Representing 35,000 people from 147 countries, they presented the conclusions of 17 workshops — held April 19-21 at the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth (WPCCC) — to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, to the Non-Alignment Movement (now 130 Third World countries) plus China (the world’s second greatest …

(Full article …)

The American Art of War

Reviews of Boggs, Rogers, Atwood

by Eric Walberg / May 15th, 2010 (9)

Carl Boggs, The Crimes of Empire: Rogue Superpower and World Domination
Paul Rogers, Losing Control: Global Security in the 21st century
Paul Atwood, War and Empire: The American Way of Life (Pluto Press 2010)

Three new publications from the leading radical British press are the tip of a growing iceberg of passionate pleas for sanity in international affairs. Most of us prefer to stick our heads in the sand as the world goes to hell in a hand-basket, but there are works that can fascinate and uplift, perhaps even inspire us to do something before it is too late.

If what you need …

(Full article …)

Dissident Voice

 

FROM JEROME CORSI’S RED ALERT

Ticking time bomb! $600 trillion in derivatives at risk

Is the next financial bubble beginning to burst?

---

Posted: May 17, 2010
12:34 pm Eastern
© 2010 WorldNetDaily

Editor’s Note: The following report is excerpted from Jerome Corsi’s Red Alert, the premium online newsletter published by the current No. 1 best-selling author, WND staff writer and columnist. Red Alert subscriptions are $99 a year or $9.95 per month for credit card users. Annual subscribers will receive a free autographed copy of "The Late Great USA," a book about the careful deceptions of a powerful elite who want to undermine our nation’s sovereignty.

With all the focus on Greece and the European Union debt crisis, little attention has been given to what is most likely an even bigger time bomb – the emerging $600 trillion bubble in derivatives that will mostly likely burst as the debt crisis deepens, Jerome Corsi’s Red Alert reports.

"Nor is it clear that President Obama, who took huge campaign contributions in 2008 from Wall Street, will be able to bring derivatives under federal regulations this year, even if the White House manages to get financial industry reform measures through Congress," Corsi wrote.

(Story continues below)

As interest rates begin to rise worldwide, Red Alert predicts losses in derivatives may end up bankrupting a wide range of institutions, including but not limited to municipalities and state governments around the globe, major insurance companies, top investment houses and commercial banks, as well as universities of all types, even those with the largest endowments.

"Defaults now beginning to occur in a number of European cities prefigure what may end up being the largest financial bubble in history ever to burst – a bubble that today amounts to more than $600 trillion," Corsi wrote.

The Bank of International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, now estimates that derivatives, the complex bets financial institutions and sophisticated institutional investors make with one another on everything from commodities options to credit swaps, topped $604 trillion worldwide – or $0.68 quadrillion – at the end of June 2009.

• A quadrillion is the number 1 followed by 15 zeroes, as in: 1,000,000,000,000,000.

• To visualize a quadrillion, multiply 1 trillion by 1,000.

To illustrate the relative magnitude of derivative contracts globally, the CIA Factbook estimates the 2009 Gross Domestic Product, or GDP, of the world was just under $60 trillion.

Corsi explained, "In other words, derivative contracts have now reach a level 10 times world GDP, an amount so incomprehensibly great that even a 10 percent default in derivatives would equal world GDP."

To learn more about derivatives and how the $600 trillion bubble may bust as the debt crisis deepens, read Jerome Corsi’s Red Alert, the premium, online intelligence news source by the WND staff writer, columnist and author of the New York Times No. 1 best-seller, "The Obama Nation."

Red Alert’s author, whose books "The Obama Nation" and "Unfit for Command" have topped the New York Times best-sellers list, received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in political science in 1972. For nearly 25 years, beginning in 1981, he worked with banks throughout the U.S. and around the world to develop financial services marketing companies to assist banks in establishing broker/dealers and insurance subsidiaries to provide financial planning products and services to their retail customers. In this career, Corsi developed three different third-party financial services marketing firms that reached gross sales levels of $1 billion in annuities and equal volume in mutual funds. In 1999, he began developing Internet-based financial marketing firms, also adapted to work in conjunction with banks.

In his 25-year financial services career, Corsi has been a noted financial services speaker and writer, publishing three books and numerous articles in professional financial services journals and magazines.

For full immediate access to Jerome Corsi’s Red Alert, subscribe now.

Subscribe to Jerome Corsi’s new weekly economic newsletter, Red Alert, for one year and, for a limited time get "The Late Great USA" free. (This offer applies only to annual subscriptions for $99.)

Ticking time bomb! $600 trillion in derivatives at risk

Andy Quesnelle, Pennsylvania Tenth Amendment Center

On May 1, 2010, President Obama delivered the commencement speech to the Class of 2010 at my alma mater, the University of Michigan.  In the address, the President noted Thomas Jefferson’s statement that “with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times,” and extrapolated it into a defense of robust government activity and intervention in almost every area of our lives:

our government must keep pace with the times.  When America expanded from a few colonies to an entire continent, and we needed a way to reach the Pacific, our government helped build the railroads.  When we transitioned from an economy based on farms to one based on factories, and workers needed new skills and training, our nation set up a system of public high schools.  When the markets crashed during the Depression and people lost their life savings, our government put in place a set of rules and safeguards to make sure that such a crisis never happened again, and then put a safety net in place to make sure that our elders would never be impoverished the way they had been.  And because our markets and financial systems have evolved since then, we’re now putting in place new rules and safeguards to protect the American people.

The President, in other words, used Thomas Jefferson as a springboard to advocate for government power.  I suspect that there is little in the world more full of irony than a defense of big government using the mantle of Jefferson.  What would Jefferson have thought about the federal government building the railroads, regulating public education, dominating the financial system, and involving itself in health care?

First, let us address the quote that the President used as the commencement of his ideas: “with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times.”  The quote is taken from a July 12, 1810 letter from Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval and is inscribed on the Jefferson Memorial. 

But what was Jefferson actually saying?  This was not, as President Obama claimed, a statement in defense of activist government.  Rather, it is a statement evidencing one of Jefferson’s lesser-known and more radical ideas – the concept of “generational tyranny.”  Jefferson believed that, just as one nation has no right to impose law or regulation on another, so one generation has no right to impose law on generations to follow:

That our Creator made the earth for the use of the living and not of the dead; that those who exist not can have no use nor right in it, no authority or power over it; that one generation of men cannot foreclose or burthen its use to another, which comes to it in its own right and by the same divine beneficence; that a preceding generation cannot bind a succeeding one by its laws or contracts; these deriving their obligation from the will of the existing majority, and that majority being removed by death, another comes in its place with a will equally free to make its own laws and contracts; these are axioms so self-evident that no explanation can make them plainer; for he is not to be reasoned with who says that non-existence can control existence, or that nothing can move something.

Letter to Thomas Earle, 1823.  Far from Jefferson’s comment about institutions keeping pace with the times reflecting faith in big government as the President stated, it actually reflects just the opposite.  Jefferson, for example, would not have believed that the Depression-era financial regulations could justifiably be imposed on the current generation.  He would have been opposed to any federal regulatory structure that persisted over generations as the outdated vestiges of long gone majorities which have no place in today’s society.

President Obama then went on to express exasperation at those who believe “that all of government is inherently bad.”  Based on this comment, Jefferson must provoke much exasperation from the President.  Jefferson valued resistance to government authority above almost all else.  In a 1787 letter to Abigail Adams, he remarked “The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive.  It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all.  I like a little rebellion now and then.  It is like a storm in the atmosphere.” 

In fact, Jefferson thought that anti-government rebellion should be contemplated as often as once every twenty years: “God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion [as the American Revolution].”  Letter to William S. Smith, 1787.  Rebellion is described by Jefferson as “medicine necessary for the sound health of government.”  And almost everyone is aware of one of Jefferson’s most famous quotes:

What signify a few lives lost in a Century or Two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.

Let’s call a spade a spade: Jefferson was radically anti-government.

Jefferson’s anti-government ideas had one primary focal point: the federal government. If Jefferson were alive today, he would certainly be a regular contributor to the Tenth Amendment Center, for he considered the Tenth Amendment to be the focus and the foundation of the entire Constitutional structure. In opposing Alexander Hamilton’s plan to establish a National Bank in 1791, Jefferson noted:

I consider the foundation of the [Federal] Constitution as laid on this ground: That “all powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States or to the people.” [10th Amendment]  To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specifically drawn around the powers of Congress is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible of any definition.

Virginia’s American Revolution

This, then, is not a man who would appreciate seeing his words twisted into a method of supporting a federal government which “built the railroads,” “set up a system of public high schools,” put in place “a set of rules and safeguards” to regulate the financial system and put the “safety net” of social security in place.  Jefferson would have reviled these intrusions as more than a mere “single step” beyond the boundaries “specifically drawn around the powers of Congress.”  And he would also have noted that such intrusions are nothing that a rebellion every couple of decades couldn’t fix.

Thomas Jefferson is an American hero who spoke truth to power and was unafraid to say exactly what he thought, no matter how radical or crazy his ideas seemed.  His legacy should never be used – especially by the President of the United States – to support the principles of government intrusion and activism that he so deeply abhorred.

Jefferson “swor[e] upon the altar of God, eternal hostility to every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”  It is unfortunate that many Americans are not so hostile.  If they were, “liberty” today might mean more than a word on a coin.

Andy Quesnelle spent most of his early childhood in Cincinnati, Ohio and moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1992. He has lived in Pittsburgh ever since, except for the 7-year period during which he was in college and law school. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 2003 with a B.A. in History and Political Science. His primary areas of concentration were Colonial American History, 20th Century U.S. History, and American politics and government. He received his J.D. from Villanova University School of Law in 2006. Since then, he has practiced as a labor and employment attorney, representing management and employers, in Pittsburgh. He has always been a very strong advocate of states’ rights and decentralized government. He believes that Thomas Jefferson was absolutely right — government power is not to be trusted, and the more centralized government power becomes, the less it is to be trusted.

Author’s Update, May 15, 2010:

In my most recent article, “Hijacking Thomas Jefferson,” I explained why President Obama’s invocation of Thomas Jefferson to support government intrusion and intervention is unsupportable. My intention was to illustrate Jefferson’s thinking on these issues, which was the most radical of the Founders and was obviously colored by his unique experiences and the time in which he lived. I do not think that Jefferson’s literal views as to resistance to government are well-suited to our experiences and the time in which we live.

Thus, at the end of my article, I stated that if more Americans were “hostile” to “tyranny,” liberty might mean more than a word on a coin. The hostility to which I refer should be understood in the context of our times, not Jefferson’s. What I mean by this is that Americans should express their hostility to big government through persuasion, argument and the ballot box, not through literal armed rebellion as Jefferson spoke of. Indeed, one of the cornerstones of our country is that we all have the right and the means to use persuasion and argument to facilitate the victory of our points of view. This is what it means to be American.

Jefferson was, as I said, an American hero. He was an American hero because he helped establish liberty for all of us using means appropriate for his circumstances and times. American heroes today are those who use means appropriate for our times — argument, persuasion, campaigning and election — to advance their ideas.

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Hijacking Thomas Jefferson

13. May, 2010 Comments (9)

President Obama used Thomas Jefferson as a springboard to advocate for government power. There is little in the world more full of irony than a defense of big government using the mantle of Jefferson.

Read more

Founding Principles, History

thomas jefferson, tyranny

Civil Liberties in Obama’s America

12. May, 2010 Comments (7)

When a left-liberal friend expresses disappointment with Obama’s war on the Bill of Rights, just note that it was inevitable. This is a party that is hostile to private property, the anchor of all individual liberties and rights, and enamored of the managerial central state, the greatest modern enemy of all liberties.

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Government, Liberty

Civil Liberties, obama

The FDA vs Raw Milk and the Constitution

11. May, 2010 Comments (25)

There is no power granted to the federal government to ban the sales of raw milk. I’ve read the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and I never saw it mentioned in there. The very idea, by the way, would have seemed bizarre (and downright stupid) by our nation’s founders, many of whom actually operated farms and drank raw milk themselves.

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Health Care, food

commerce-clause, FDA, Raw Milk

The Consent of the Governed

10. May, 2010 Comments (13)

Like the People, the States have the power and the responsibility to refuse to consent to Unconstitutional laws.  We must all make sure that our own State officials are aware of this responsibility.

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Founding Principles, Government

Liberty, We the People

Endless Power and the Death of Freedom

07. May, 2010 Comments (13)

The word “commerce” has wrongly been interpreted by the Supreme Court to cover every person that moves.

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Enumerated Powers, Health Care

commerce-clause, power

Beware: Confederate, Confederate, Confederate!!

05. May, 2010 Comments (12)

Tom Woods responds to the pro-regime Lou Dubose in support of nullification, and his new book…Nullification!

Read more

History, War

Nullification, The Opposition

Immigration, Foreign Affairs and the Constitution

03. May, 2010 Comments (69)

Many “progressive” opponents of the Arizona immigration law are arguing that the law is unconstitutional because foreign affairs is exclusively the province of the federal government.

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Constitution, Foreign Policy

Arizona Sovereignty, immigration

How to Resist Federal Tyranny in the 21st Century

03. May, 2010 Comments (4)

Regimists try to demonize the idea of nullification, as they attempt to demonize all ideas that undermine centralized power, but that is not scaring libertarians, Tea Party people, and other dissidents. Lew Rockwell interviews Tom Woods…

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State Sovereignty, State Sovereignty Movement, Uncategorized

Nullification, tyranny

Beware the Stealth RINOS!

02. May, 2010 Comments (27)

We voters have been suckers for too long. Federal politicians of today are, for the most part, intelligent, but disingenuous. They are great at dishing out rhetoric and spin, and they are most acutely skilled at avoiding substance as much as possible. It is marketing over substance.

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Congress, Government

Jim DeMint, politicians, Republicans

When Commerce is not Commerce

29. Apr, 2010 Comments (6)

James Madison: “In the compound republic of America, the power surrendered by the people is first divided between two distinct governments, and then the portion allotted to each subdivided among distinct and separate departments. Hence a double security arises to the rights of the people. The different governments will control each other, at the same time that each will be controlled by itself.”

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Constitution, Enumerated Powers, Judiciary

commerce-clause, Regulation

Love of Liberty vs Love of Government

28. Apr, 2010 Comments (8)

Today’s brand of patriotism (at least as expressed by many) is totally foreign to the fundamental principles of liberty upon which America was built. Its focus is government, not liberty.

Read more

 

U.S. Still Using Illegal Private Spy Ring in Afghanistan and Pakistan

May 15, 2010 by legitgov

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U.S. Still Using Illegal Private Spy Ring in Afghanistan and Pakistan –One company employs a CIA operative made famous for his role in the Iran-Contra scandal 15 May 2010 Top military officials have continued to rely on a secret network of private spies who operate deep inside Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to American officials and businessmen, despite concerns among some in the military about the legality of the operation. The American military is largely prohibited from operating inside Pakistan. And under Pentagon rules, the army is not allowed to hire contractors for spying. The web of private businesses working under the Lockheed Martin contract include Strategic Influence Alternatives, American International Security Corporation and International Media Ventures, a communications company based in St. Petersburg, Fla., with Czech ownership. One of the companies employs a network of Americans, Afghans and Pakistanis run by Duane Clarridge, a C.I.A. veteran who became famous for his role in the Iran-Contra scandal. [Well, it makes sense for US mercenaries to  hire Iran-Conrtra CIA operatives, since the same dirtbags are still engaged in supplying terrorists (Blackwater) with arms and running the Afghan opium routes. --LRP]

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Proposal Would Extend Pre-hearing Detention, Withhold Miranda Warnings in Terror Cases

May 15, 2010 by legitgov

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It’s the Obusha ‘Friday Night Extra-constitutional Bad News Dump’ — so big, the dumping actually crossed into Saturday morning! Proposal Would Extend Pre-hearing Detention, Withhold Miranda Warnings in Terror Cases 14 Mar 2010 President Obama’s legal advisers are considering asking Congress to allow the government to detain terrorism suspects longer after their arrests before presenting them to a judge for an initial hearing, according to administration officials familiar with the discussions. If approved, the idea to delay hearings would be attached to broader legislation to allow interrogators to withhold Miranda warnings from terrorism suspects for lengthy periods, as Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. proposed last week. It is not clear how long of a delay the administration is considering seeking…  Anthony Romero, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, assailed the Obama administration for considering such ideas. He noted that the administration of President [sic] George W. Bush, which was heavily criticized by civil-liberties groups, never proposed such modifications to criminal procedures.

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Terror airline escorted into Canada

May 16, 2010 by legitgov

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Terror airline escorted into Canada 16 May 2010 Canadian fighter jets have escorted a Cathay Pacific airliner into Vancouver airport, after threats of a bomb on board. An alert of a bomb threat was received by Canadian officials while the plane was still in flight from Hong Kong. The Vancouver-bound flight landed safely and was towed to a secure part of the airport, where it was scanned for explosives.

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Greece to probe U.S. banks’ role in crisis: PM

May 16, 2010 by legitgov

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Greece to probe U.S. banks’ role in crisis: PM 16 May 2010 Greece may investigate U.S. investment banks and their role in the run-up to the Greek debt crisis which has shaken faith in euro zone economies, Prime Minister George Papandreou said in comments broadcast on Sunday. Wall Street and major banks around the world are attracting scrutiny from regulators who are looking at transactions that occurred in the run-up to the subprime mortgage meltdown and financial crisis. U.S. prosecutors are already conducting a broad criminal investigation of six major Wall Street banks to determine if they misled investors.

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Thailand toughens stand against spiraling protests

May 16, 2010 by legitgov

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Thailand toughens stand against spiraling protests 16 May 2010 Thailand took a tough stand against anti-government protesters on Sunday, rejecting demands for U.N.-supervised talks and calling on their leaders to surrender on the fourth day of deadly clashes with troops. The government doused hopes of a compromise [?] to end fighting that has killed at least 31 people, all civilians, and wounded 230, transforming one of Asia’s most dynamic cities into a battleground and raising the risk of a broader conflict.

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10 killed in Iraq stadium bombing

May 16, 2010 by legitgov

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10 killed in Iraq stadium bombing 15 May 2010 A suicide bomb attack at a football stadium in Iraq has killed 10 people and injured a further 120, according to police officials. Thousands of spectators were sitting in the stadium to watch the football match in the northern town of Tal Afar, a predominantly Shia Turkmen town to the west of Mosul. A militant group called Islamic State of Iraq [aka terrorist mercenary group called Blackwater] had earlier issued a warning to Shias in Iraq of coming "dark days soaked with blood".

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Latest suspect in Dubai hit identified

May 16, 2010 by legitgov

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Latest suspect in Dubai hit identified 16 May 2010 Dubai police say a man of Scottish nationality is the latest to be identified as a suspect behind the assassination of a senior Hamas leader in the emirate. The police said the 62-year-old Scotsman is currently in hiding in Western Europe, the Israeli newspaper Haa’retz reported citing Army Radio. Authorities in Dubai have so far identified 32 suspects in the January killing of former Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, in a Dubai hotel, which was caught on CCTV cameras.

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Japanese form human chain at US base

May 16, 2010 by legitgov

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Japanese form human chain at US base 16 May 2010 Thousands of people have formed a human chain around the Futenma airbase on the island of Okinawa to protest the US military presence in Japan. Some 17,000 protesters called on Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on Sunday to move the controversial facility out of Okinawa, Kyodo news agency reported. The rally comes just days ahead of a visit to Japan by US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton.

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Gulf Oil ‘SPILL’ – What A Lie

May 16, 2010 by legitgov

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‘Currently, the oil gusher in the Gulf produces an Exxon Valdez disaster about every four days.’ Gulf Oil ‘SPILL’ – What A Lie By J. Speer-Williams 14 May 2010 Spill? The corporate media continues to call the volcano of continuous gushing oil, in the Gulf, a spill. How insulting. A volcano that shoots out a million gallons of crude oil a week is hardly a spill. The common definition of a spill is the liquid that fell out of a container, a one time occurrence, not a massive flow that has no known end. An oil tanker can spill oil; but not Mother Earth… The definition of "gush" is to flow forth suddenly and violently. What we are faced with in the Gulf of Mexico is a continuous and monster gusher of crude oil that has no known termination point.

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Ten-mile oil plume found beneath Gulf of Mexico surface

May 16, 2010 by legitgov

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Ten-mile oil plume found beneath Gulf of Mexico surface –Researchers report three or four large plumes of sub-surface spilled oil, at least one of which is 10 miles long and a mile wide 16 May 2010 Scientists have found huge plumes of oil beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, as BP hit a problem in its latest effort to slow down the leak from a broken undersea pipe. At least 790,000 litres of oil has gushed into the Gulf since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on 20 April and sank two days later. Eleven people were killed in the blast.

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Inside the Secret Interrogation Facility at Bagram

May 16, 2010 by legitgov

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Inside the Secret Interrogation Facility at Bagram By Marc Ambinder 14 May 2010 The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) runs a classified interrogation facility for high-value detainees inside Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan, defense and administration officials said, and prisoners there are sometimes subject to tougher interrogation methods than those used elsewhere. Both the New York Times and the BBC reported that prisoners who passed through the facility reported abuse, like beatings and sexual humiliation, to the Red Cross, which is not allowed access.

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Canadian commander accused of murders and sex attacks

May 16, 2010 by legitgov

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Canadian commander accused of murders and sex attacks –One of Canada’s most senior military figures has been accused of being a sexual predator responsible for up to ten murders. 14 May 2010 In a case that has shocked and transfixed the nation, British-born Colonel Russell Williams has been charged with two killings but police think they may be more. Detectives are re-examining up to eight unsolved murders and dozens of sex crimes across Canada stretching back three decades. Col Williams, 47, was the commander in charge of Canadian Forces Base Trenton, near Toronto, which is the country’s largest military airbase and provides support for its operations in Afghanistan and Haiti. [Sounds like Blackwater CEO material.]

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Oil spill: BP accused of using Gulf of Mexico as ‘toxic testing-ground’

May 16, 2010 by legitgov

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Oil spill: BP accused of using Gulf of Mexico as ‘toxic testing-ground’ –Louisiana officials have accused BP of turning the Gulf of Mexico into a toxic testing-ground after winning permission for experimental chemical methods of fighting the oil slick. 15 May 2010 State officials are angry that federal regulators gave the company permission to try out new chemical techniques to break up and hold back the growing tide of oil. Despite registering concerns about the potential implications for the environment, marine life and human health, Governor Bobby Jindal’s administration was cut out of deliberations over the use of dispersants that break up the oil, as the Environmental Protection Agency granted BP permission to release large quantities underwater.

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Barack Obama sends nuclear experts to tackle BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil leak

May 16, 2010 by legitgov

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Barack Obama sends nuclear experts to tackle BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil leak 14 May 2010 The US has sent a team of nuclear physicists to help BP plug the "catastrophic" flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico from its leaking Deepwater Horizon well, as the Obama administration becomes frustrated with the oil giant’s inability to control the situation. The five-man team — which includes a man who helped develop the first hydrogen bomb in the 1950s — is the brainchild of Steven Chu, President Obama’s Energy Secretary. He has charged the men with finding solutions to stop the flow of oil.

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Hersh: US executes Afghan prisoners

May 15, 2010 by legitgov

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Hersh: US executes Afghan prisoners 15 May 2010 As the Afghan occupation continues to prove troublesome for the Obama administration, a report says US-led troops torture and execute prisoners in the country. Seymour Hersh, an investigative journalist with the New Yorker, made the revelation during the Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Geneva.
"I’ll tell you right now, one of the great tragedies of my country is that Mr. Obama is looking the other way, because equally horrible things are happening to prisoners, to those we capture in Afghanistan," Hersh said.

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US drone attack kills 13 in Pakistan

May 15, 2010 by legitgov

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US drone attack kills 13 in Pakistan 15 May 2010 Fresh US drone strikes have left at least 13 people dead and several others wounded in the troubled northwestern Pakistan, intelligence officials say. The attack targeted the Tira valley of Khyber tribal district on Saturday. Officials and local residents said two drones fired six missiles into three compounds in the region. The death toll is expected to rise as some of the injured are said to be in critical condition.

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US oil spill spreads to new coasts

May 15, 2010 by legitgov

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US oil spill spreads to new coasts 15 May 2010 The oil spill gushing in the Gulf of Mexico has reached new locations, as renewed efforts to contain or even slow the giant leak failed to yield results again. The US Coast Guard announced on Saturday that the oil leaking from a rig in the Gulf of Mexico has spread to two new locations — Whiskey Island, Louisiana, and Long Beach, Mississippi, AFP reported.

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Fighter jets escort plane over ‘potential threat’

May 15, 2010 by legitgov

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Fighter jets escort plane over ‘potential threat’ 15 May 2010 Two CF-18 Hornets were scrambled from a Canadian military base Saturday to escort a Cathay Pacific Airways flight into Vancouver’s airport, according to an official with the North American Aerospace Defense Command. The action was taken in response to a "potential threat" to the flight, Maj. Holly Apostoliuk of NORAD told CNN. The plane was escorted to the airport and directed to a restricted area.

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Suggestion for Prepandemic Vaccine Ignites Debate

May 15, 2010 by legitgov

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Suggestion for Prepandemic Vaccine Ignites Debate 14 May 2010 An influenza specialist who previously led the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) flu program and now works for Novartis, has recommended that developing a prepandemic vaccination to get a grip on foment the next flu endemic, a thought that other experts are welcoming with concern or cynicism. Dr. Klaus Stohr, ex-Director of the WHO’s Global Influenza Programme, suggests developing a vaccine including a "cocktail" of flu strains considered apt to cause the next epidemic, together with an adjuvant (immune-system stimulant). [We'll take your shot after you take ours.]

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NY Judge: Torture no grounds to dismiss indictment

May 15, 2010 by legitgov

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NY Judge: Torture no grounds to dismiss indictment 11 May 2010 A Guantanamo Bay detainee prisoner brought to the United States for trial on charges he helped the bombing of two U.S. embassies in Africa while he was an aide to Osama bin Laden cannot use allegations of torture by the CIA to dismiss the indictment, a judge said Monday. U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan made the ruling in Manhattan after months of consideration of documents, much of their contents redacted, that were submitted by attorneys for Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani and the government.

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Lisa Murkowski Received $400,000 from Oil and Gas in 8 Years

May 14, 2010 by legitgov

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Lisa Murkowski Received $400,000 from Oil and Gas in 8 Years 14 May 2010 On Thursday, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) blocked a bill that would have raised oil companies’ "responsibility cap" — the maximum amount in damages companies must pay for their accidents — from $75 million to $10 billion. On Friday, Murkowski’s office was rebutting critics who were asking whether her opposition to the measure had anything to do with the fact she is a major supporter of offshore drilling who has received $426,989 in campaign donations from the oil and gas industry over her eight-year Senate career. Murkowski is the top Republican on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

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Murkowski blocks oil liability bill

May 14, 2010 by legitgov

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Murkowski blocks oil liability bill 13 May 2010 Alaska’s senior senator blocked legislation Thursday that would have dramatically increased liability caps on oil companies, in the wake of one of the industry’s biggest disasters. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) objected to a voice vote request by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) on the bill, which would have spiked the maximum liability for oil companies after an oil spill from $75 million to $10 billion.

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U.S. Said to Allow Drilling Without Needed Permits

May 14, 2010 by legitgov

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U.S. Said to Allow Drilling Without Needed Permits 13 May 2010 The federal Minerals Management Service gave permission to BP and dozens of other oil companies to drill in the Gulf of Mexico without first getting required permits from another agency that assesses threats to endangered species — and despite strong warnings from that agency about the impact the drilling was likely to have on the gulf. Those approvals, federal records show, include one for the well drilled by the Deepwater Horizon rig, which exploded on April 20, killing 11 workers and resulting in thousands of barrels of oil spilling into the gulf each day.

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‘Obama funding Israel for new war’

May 14, 2010 by legitgov

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‘Obama funding Israel for new war’ 14 May 2010 US President Barak Obama has asked Congress to pay $205 million for Israel’s latest missile system, called the ‘Iron dome’. Tel Aviv completed tests in January on its short-range anti-missile system which is designed to intercept short-range rockets and artillery shells. President Obama argues that Israel must have such a system.

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Bomb attacks at Iraqi stadium kill 25

May 14, 2010 by legitgov

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Bomb attacks at Iraqi stadium kill 25 14 May 2010 Two consecutive explosions during a football match at a crowded stadium in the northern Iraq kill 25 people and wound some 100 others. The blasts occurred in the town of Tal Afar, west of the violence-hit city of Mosul on Friday, AFP reported. Witnesses said some 250 people were attending the event, with no security personnel guarding the stadium.

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General sees no winner in Afghan war

May 14, 2010 by legitgov

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General sees no winner in Afghan war [That's code for 'the war has been lost, but we don't want to leave so we can still fund Blackwater and DynCorp.'] 14 May 2010 The top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, says neither coalition forces nor the Taliban are winning the war in the country. "I’d be prepared to say nobody is winning at this point," General McChrystal said in an interview with PBS radio in Washington on Thursday. In a blunt assessment of the war, General McChrystal admitted that after last year, the militants were ahead in the nine-year war.

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3 NATO soldiers fall in Afghanistan

May 14, 2010 by legitgov

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3 NATO soldiers fall in Afghanistan 14 May 2010  The war in Afghanistan has claimed the lives of three foreign soldiers amid an upsurge in attacks against the US-led troops in the country. NATO said in a statement on Friday that troops were killed in separate attacks over the past 24 hours. A Canadian trooper died in a blast while on a foot patrol in the southern province of Kandahar.

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US let BP drill in Gulf without permits

May 14, 2010 by legitgov

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US let BP drill in Gulf without permits 14 May 2010 New information on the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has come to light indicating that the US government allowed BP to drill in the area without proper permits. Federal records show that the Minerals Management Service (MMS) gave BP the green light for drilling, in violation of the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. According to the Center for Biological Diversity, which filed a complaint Friday to sue the MMS over its non-compliance with the laws, the Department of the Interior also has approved over 300 drilling operations, three large lease sales, and over 100 seismic surveys without the required permits.

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Obama wants $80 bln to upgrade nuclear arms complex

May 14, 2010 by legitgov

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Obama wants $80 bln to upgrade nuclear arms complex 13 May 2010 U.S. President Barack Obama sent a landmark arms-reduction treaty with Russia to the Senate on Thursday for ratification and called for $80 billion in nuclear funding, which could help win opposition support. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the funds, which would be spent over a decade, were needed to "rebuild and sustain America’s aging nuclear stockpile."

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Palin Warns "Mama Grizzlies" Will Take Back Country

May 14, 2010 by legitgov

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Palin Warns "Mama Grizzlies" Will Take Back Country [That's right. They can start by devouring Sarah Palin, the polar bear- and wolf-killing terrorist.] 14 May 2010 Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin says "mama grizzles" will punish Washington in November’s midterm elections. [Mama polar bears - and their cubs - need to learn to *shoot first.*]

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