"Trump, with the vulgarity of a nouveau riche, a mop of red hair like a philistine, 35-25-35 platinum blondes, chromium-plated palaces, neon-lit casinos and racist rhetoric - disgusts the establishment left and right,
but attracts those people left behind by globalization, who eat eggs and grits for breakfast or in the South maize porridge rather than cappuccino and croissants;
people who dream of a new
pick-up truck rather than a
fashionable iPhone. Trump, by bringing this forgotten social class into play again, has already won.”
"For fascists, it is especially important to have a clear
enemy. This is the case for national as well as religious
fascists, since what fuels
these groups is hatred and fear. When the battlements are clear, they feed on one another; in times of fear,
distinctions most despised
by leaders of these groups and condemned as weaknesses result in an ever-growing number of
people bing swept aside.”
As expected, delegates at the climate summit have reached
a deal. The deal is comprised of pledges to pay developing
nations to 'develop' without
emitting ever-larger amounts of carbon into the atmosphere - starting five years from now! (So today's leaders are boldly handing the financial burden on to their hapless
successors). It also establishes targets for
limiting emissions without a
mechanism to ensure that the parties do as they say. It is, as many have observed, a face- saving deal so delegates can go home and tell the populations of their respective countries that something has been done.
"So far, neither Trump's many easily detectable lies nor his conspicuous behavior seem to have left any impression on voters. ... The same type of enraged German citizen who
cries 'lying press' - in the U.S.
hoots with delight at Trump's political improprieties. After each of Trump's outbursts the mainstream media wonders when, at last, the red line will have been crossed. Now though, a growing number of disillusioned analysts are
concluding that in the U.S.,
red lines may no longer exist.”
--Two suspects were killed after engaging in a shootout with police: one male, one female.
--Both were armed with assault rifles and hand- guns, and were dressed in
dark clothing.
--A 3rd person who was seen leaving the
area of the shootout has been detained. He has not been identified and it is not certain he was directly involved in the attack on the center.
"It took only hours and already
certain circles knew what the forensics investigators and French police were feverishly looking for. 'It has been proven that two of the terrorists were Syrian refugees,' claimed a widely-disseminated Facebook post. Of course at that point NOTHING had been proven. And up to now, a Syrian refugee among the killers has yet to be found. What has, however, are Frenchmen who fought in Syria.”
President Obama, Vladimir Putin, India
Prime Minister Modi and China leader Xi. Unfortunately - we have heard all this before, and if the focus is going to be exclusively about cutting emissions,
which is all the elites wish to do, there is little reason to think a breakthrough will emerge. The truth is that cutting emissions has no hope of delivering
the kind of results that other things like
sequestering carbon in soil can deliver - and without the polarizing debate
over economics. The developing states regard demands by the West that they cut emissions as a cruel joke after Western states straddled the globe by
doing precisely what they want the
developing countries to stop doing.
The Climate wasn't the only thing being discussed in Paris yesterday. The 'war' against 'terrorism' in Syria also seeped
in, with Valdimir Putin Snubbing Turk
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for
refusing to apologize for downing a
Russian figher killing a pilot last week.
It has happened: Turkey has shot
down a Russian fighter. Turkey says the plane had crosses into Syrian air space, and Russia says it didn't - and now NATO might have to involve itself. This is RT's live stream on the event that happened a few hours ago.
"What IS wants is to trigger a civil war. With his famous A Call to a Global Islamic Resistance, Abu Musab al-
Suri wrote 'the spread of indiscriminate attacks will
lead to lynching of Muslims, attacks on mosques and assaults on veiled women creating enclaves of war
which will put Europe to the fire and sword. The attacks yesterday [Nov. 13] fit within this global strategy. ... National unity is the only adequate political response
because what the terrorists
want is to destabilize France.”
— Gilles Kepel, Professor of Contemporary Arab World,
Institute of Political Studies
"Very early Saturday, or extremely late on Friday, I filed a quite futile
complaint with Police for 'attempted murder.' People had tried to kill me. ... They are criminals. They will be punished. They are killers. They are madmen that I don't want to listen to. I want to continue to live in peace with those around me. White, Black, Yellow, Arab, those who pray, those who drink, those who wear a veil and those who dye their hair blue - to be friendly with my neighbors,
have a drink and eat peanuts.”
The hysteria is amazing. Guess what happened today? ISIS has threatened to attack New York and Washington.
Here's more news: it has done so
hundreds if not thousands of times.
Yet suddenly it's as if it has never happened before. The exploitation
of fear on the part of the media
and spy officials is shameless and utterly transparent. That being said, since we're in New York, here's some local coverage of the threat (yawn). If it happens we'll deal. I just wish our spies and public officials would shut up and do their jobs rather than use the event as the pretext for another power grab.
"ISIS is a political-cultural-military
movement that uses terrorism and
war and a radical interpretation
of Islam. Failing to understand this
or being overcome with caution prevents us from making progress against the terrorists: ISIS is a political army of Islamists, so religion not only involved - it is absolutely critical to any analysis.”
"Europe needs to wake up out
of its endless political debates. It needs to act as in a state of war - because at war we are. Whether we like it or not,
Russia is our ally in this matter and further cooperation with Moscow is needed to combat
terrorism. It is in the interests of the West to cooperate with Russia on counterterrorism and restore a vigorous alliance with the United States.”
"With cold determination, a well- coordinated massacre in the heart
of Paris was done to maximize the number of victims. Even at the height of the Algerian Civil War
90 years ago, France had never experienced this level of violence. ... French society must steel itself to yield nothing to the murderers,
exercise vigilance and unflagging
will to confront this horror. ”
The presumed 'mastermind'
of the strikes has been named
- Belgian Ahmed Almuhame - and is on the run; two of the
suspected terrorists were recent refugee-entries to Europe; former CIA director Mike Morell suggested that it's time to work with Assad and Russia and that that the attacks prove law enforcement must
be able to crack all encryption.
It looks like Paris has been hit by a series of terrorist attacks and there is a hostage situation at the
Bataclan concert hall. At least 60
people are reported dead so far. This is the Guardian's Live Blog of Tweets, text and. video on the quickly unfolding situation.
"When the U.S. bombed a hospital
in Kunduz in northern Afghanistan, there was no end to the apologies
and explanations. Things are quite different when compared to the Russians. They, along with the air
forces of dictator Assad, have since
late September bombed many
hospitals in Syria. However, they fail to inform anyone. They explain nothing let alone apologize.”
According to a presentation to
the annual Geological Society of
America meeting, tremors and
the identification of a magma
chamber beneath Mount Saint Helens shows that it may be
about to erupt again. The
eruption 35 years ago was preceded by two-months of earthquakes and steam-venting episodes, caused by an injection of magma at shallow depth below the volcano that created a huge bulge and a fracture system on the mountain's north slope.
The newly-poked hornet's nest of 9-11 continued to sting anyone in its general vicinity today, after George Bush Sr. said 'iron-ass' Dick
Cheney and the 'arrogant' Donald Rumsfeld had damaged his son's
Bush 43's presidency and the people
of the United States in general.
It's time for this week's look at state wrongdoing in the area
of mass spying and other issues. Attacks on civil liberties and privacy by spy agencies eager to frighten the population and justify their absurd budgets has shifted from Washington to that
other supposed bastion of civil rights and freedom - London. A bill designed to completely redraft Britain's spy laws was
just released. Far from limiting
the overreach of GCHQ and other spy agencies, the changes would legalize the bulk collection of data from the entire population and give British spies sweeping new powers; Then the FBI's chief legal counsel says the agency has given up on attempts to forces
U.S. manufacturers to build back- doors into their products; a new
bill proposed by U.S. lawmaker
Jason Chaffetz to halt the massive
violation of privacy represented
by the use of Stingray technology
by many federal, state agencies;
a Bank of America/Merrill Lynch
report on the ramifications of
robotics and AI on UK and U.S.
workers; Connecticut police are
now taking the valuables out of unlocked cars 'to protect you'; a new product that seeks to take up where Google Glass left off; news that the market value of Facebook has overtaken GE; a New Zealand judge has rejected U.S. request that Kim DotCom's defense against extradition be thrown out; and more.
Amazing. After all the damage the
911 response did to Americans and
the world, George Bush Sr. writes
that Rumsfeld and Cheney 'damaged his son.' Trump has managed to pop
the 9-11 pinata, and it's emptying out all over the 2016 campaign.
"Even if all terrorism must be condemned on every occasion, one must be aware that the cruel murders perpetrated by terrorists tend to reflect a revolt against real injustices and genuine harm. ... Such is
true with the Knife Intifada,
which is something the U.S. right and many people in the world fail to recognize. ...
Secretary of State John Kerry mentioned this timidly in his recent speech at Harvard. ... but he forgot to mention that the Obama Administration
shares blame for the collapse of 'two states for two peoples.'”
"Fiodor Lukyanov, chair
of the Kremlin's Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, doesn't expect Syria to ever function within its current,
formal borders like a nation again. According to him, Russia should strive to create an 'Alawite Israel,' a state that is unified ethnically and religiously and which would be able to defend against its neighbors with the help of
Russian troops on its lans.'”
he next Republican presidential debate begins in just over an hour. This is the Guardian's Live Blog of Tweets, Text, Video and Photos that will continue until
the debate is over; and a firm called Squerb is providing a new way to watch and participate in
the debate byvisullay combining
various social media platforms.
"Does Moscow want to
enforce an 'international league' of dictatorships? Perhaps, but the fate of the hugely popular Putin isn't directly tied to Assad's. What Russia wants in Syria is simply to defend its clients, allies and faculties in the region. In brief, in Syria, Russia is defending its national interests for
a modest cost militarily
and financially. Putin is, on
this occasion, less
ideologue
and more a 'Realpolitiker.'”
The Benghazi-e-mail showdown began this morning, and it will go on all day. Three hours of questioning just ended before the Congressional Benghazi
Committee - and there were
fireworks. Three rounds of
questioning remain later today. This is the Guardian's Live Blog throughout the day of text, tweets, video and photos.
"The government claims that based
on data provided by Germany, it isn't
possible to locate people and assist drones in guiding missiles to their targets. Bryant said, however, that a mobile phone number is sufficient to kill a person – and Germany supplies mobile phone numbers. ... The
Bundestag NSA Committee of Inquiry
has been investigating the 'hows' of surveillance conducted by the BND and NSA for nearly two years now. ... With Bryant, Committee members had
to deal with the deadly consequences of this data collection. ... 'German history illustrates the path my country is now taking,' said Bryant.”
This post contains news America's 24-hours a day corporate media failed to report on or reports completely different versions of
events when compared to Russia's.
"[Syria] is a repeat of the same scenario we saw in Georgia in 2008 and Ukraine in 2014. The big words of the West were followed by inaction; Russia occupies strategic areas such as Abkhazia or Crimea, and after
a few months Moscow's ties with Washington and Brussels
return to 'normal.' ... After being so successful three times in a row, won't Vladimir Putin
want to strike again in the next
few years?; and if so, where?; and if intoxicated with success – isn’t he likely to go too far?”
"Terrorist groups use the Internet and the services of GAFA (Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple) as
a field of operation and recruiting
platform. ... It's only consistent to consider the role that these giants of the Web might play in the fight against global terrorism. ... With their advanced technologies, wouldn't GAFA be the best weapon against threats like Daesh [Islamic State]? That would allow them to continue pursuing their mission of transforming the world and of course, secure their position in the cyber security market by
replacing the state army model.”
After spending hundreds of millions
of pounds to make sure Assange
is unable to slip away on what many consider trumped-up raoe charges
and most importantly, after making
a habit of 'sticking it to the man' - London police are throwing in the
towel on its 24-hour-Embassy guard.
"In Germany, Trump's rise is seen mostly as a symptom of a distinctly American disease. In no other democracy in the world, it is said, could voters be so openly motivated by greed, show so little concern for less-privileged fellow citizens and be so politically ignorant. Only in hate-filled, under-educated 'Ami-land' could someone like Trump be successful. ... As tempting as this interpretation may be, it is nonetheless mistaken. Trump is a symptom of a
much deeper – and global – crisis of democracy.”
"According to Joachim Pfeiffer, economic policy spokesman for
the Christian Democrats, all of the protesting against TTIP can
be attributed to online gangs of 'click activists,' which are in no way legitimate. ... To claim,
like Pfeiffer, that resistance is coming from 'misinformed people' makes the economic policy spokesman himself seem under informed. Because in addition to dozens of initiatives, legal and economic experts from Harvard, Yale, Columbia and Berkeley, led by Nobel Prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz,
have been loudly and publicly opposing the agreement and
its privatization of the law.”
"With regard to ending Russia's
isolation - the question is settled. ... After Russian air strikes on
Assad's opponents in Syria, high-
level contacts between Russia n and Western military officials and diplomats have intensified. ... The notion of 'cooperating in Syria in exchange for concessions on Ukraine' is straight out of the Cold War textbook. But with the arrival of Cold War 2.0 so often declared since 2014, has the time come for this type of
geopolitical transaction - and particularly since because of
refugees, Western politicians
are frantically looking for solutions to the Syria crisis?”
As Britain begins a debate on how to regulate surveillance of social media like Facebook and rein in its spies - the BBC conducted its first interview with Edward Snowden. Snowden
outlines how easy it is for the spies
to coopt any smart phone, identify
where you are, listen to everything happening in its vicinity, or coopt the giant routers into and out of Britain operated by U.S. company
Cisco. Snowden hears the charges against him and says confidently - if
given a free trial, he'd be found innocent of all charges. He says that the government has promised 'not to torture me,' but that it refuses to allow his defense to be heard in court, since the Espionage Act would prevent any mention of the illegal programs he exposed.
A surprising development: Hillary Clinton has come
out against the TPP - the
largest trade deal in ever, and one she championed at the State Department. Still, her language wasn't exactly definitive: 'From what I know about it, as of today, I am not in favor
of what I have learned.'
"The main explanation for Putin's support of Assad – for whom he has no particular sense of friendship - is that
he doesn't want see Islamists win in Syria since that would
have an immediate impact in
the North Caucuses. What's
striking is the naivety of the West's positions, which continually conflate moral
choices and those which
should be guided by interests. Should we act, hand on heart, as if we are the only ones with a conscience - and while Saudi Arabia is human rights lawman at the U.N.? This isn't serious. It is time to act in
accord with our own well-
understood national interest.”
In the great debate about why Syrian dictator Bashar
al- Assad sought and was granted significantly more
Russian aid, Der Spiegel has a new wrinkle for most of us: Assad and his people are afraid of their other
key partner - Iran, without
which Assad's regime would have long ago disintegrated. A long-time Russian diplomat says that there is growing
Syrian suspicion about Iran's
goals, 'for which Assad's hold
on power may not matter.'
It's a dark day for anyone who
believes multinational firms
have overweening influence over national lawmakers and the legislation they pass. The Trans Pacific Partnership, the largest trade deal in history, has been finalized in Atlanta, and will now go to those very bought and paid for national lawmakers, which in the case
of the U.S., are nearly certain
to approve it. This is the latest
video on the end of the talks.
In the latest blow to tech firms who cooperated with the NSA's ludicrous mass surveillance, the European
Court of Justice confirmed an opinion issued last month by its advocate general,
striking down what's known
as the 'Safe Harbor' pact between the U.S. and E.U. The decision, a result of a
lawsuit against Facebook, confirms Advocate General Yves Bot's opinion that Facebook and others violated 'Safe Harbor' by sharing E.U. citizen data with the NSA and other spy agencies, which he
accused of 'indiscriminate mass
surveillance.' The results of
the decision will be sweeping.
"Nobody knows what the
ultimate bill might be, once affected vehicles
are modified, lawsuits from customers and shareholders are settled and fines paid. It could be 10 billion, 20 billion or even 30 billion euros,
not to mention the loss of sales as customers take their business elsewhere.”
—REPORTERS Dietmar Hawranek, Christoph Pauly and Barbara Schmid
"Banks, swindlers, FIFA officials: International transgressors get what they have coming from U.S. investigators. ... And now it's Volkswagen - that symbol of German engineering precision.
But, for environmental fraud of all things? ... From a country
no exactly known as a raging climate protector? Therein lays a bitter irony. The U.S. justice
system has long left those who
commit economic crime largely undisturbed - most notably the
masterminds of the financial crisis. ... Bad luck for VW:
U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, in office only since April,
is taking a hard line. According to an internal memo, she wants economic crime investigators to focus more on individual
responsibility. Volkswagen is to be the first example.”
"'Dieselgate,' as it has been immediately and inevitably been dubbed, certified by the American government after months of testing, research, explanations and, finally, confessions, has hit the buying public like the discovery of infidelity by someone near and dear to
it. How many other control
mechanisms in our cars are fiddled with about which we know nothing? What
else have the 'little brains'
in our automobiles been programmed to do? ”
There has been some out of the world news over the past few days that warrants attention,
starting with El Pais' interview with the brilliant, wheel-chair bound Dr. Stephen Hawking,
who had a few things to say
about the relative friendliness of advanced alien species, the imperative of having another planet for humans to populate and the imminent danger of robots that are smarter than we
are. ... And after announcing
that Mars has water, Guardian reports that NASA officials are concerned that searching for life there could contaminate it with human germs. It seems a bit late to worry about that!
After watching our war-loving, memory-deprived, logic-hating
public officials express horror that Russia has taken action in a region of the world the U.S. has meticulously destroyed over the past 20 years, it is time to examine the other side of the narrative. Really - how insane does one have to be to argue that without more American involvement, things will get worse than they are right now?
All day long, our warmongering
news networks (owned by the likes of war-machine builders Westinghouse) have pressed the
alarm button about how terrible
things will be unless we (meaning they) are 'leading.' CNN, MSNBC, FOX et. al, all day long, have interviewed the very people
who have cheerleaded our nation
into one disaster after another.
"This shows how national
politics has been hijacked by Wilders' right-wing populist agenda, and that the centrist parties are using the worst possible tactics to combat Wilders, namely by saying little or nothing about it. ... President Obama, who as a result of the Republicans
blocking the detainees from settling on the U.S. mainland, is forced to travel the world hat-in-hand knocking from door-to-door to see whether someone wants to help him
close Guantanamo. If your main ally asks for a favor in which your enlightened self- interest also coincides with the humanitarian interest, you should be able rise above yourself - and your electoral
fears - and say: we'll help.”
“Everyone knows that Putin is right, that the only way forward in Syria, if not to eternal slaughter, is through
the government of Bashar al-Assad and his Lebanese and Iranian
allies. That is what
pragmatism dictates. ... The result of U.S. and
British grandstanding –
seeing who can be ruder about Assad – is that Putin has gathered ever more cards to his pack.”
As a counterpoint to our corrupt
mainstream media, which, in lieu of what we used to call 'journalism', regurgitates State Dept. press releases and Pentagon talking points as if they reflected reality, this is RT's Russia-centric coverage
of today's events at the opening of the 70th U.N. General Assembly.
"Banks, swindlers, FIFA officials: International transgressors get what they have coming from U.S. investigators. ... And now it's Volkswagen - that symbol of German engineering precision.
But, for environmental fraud of all things? ... From a country
no exactly known as a raging climate protector? Therein lays a bitter irony. The U.S. justice
system has long left those who
commit economic crime largely undisturbed - most notably the
masterminds of the financial crisis. ... Bad luck for VW:
U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, in office only since April,
is taking a hard line. According to an internal memo, she wants economic crime investigators to focus more on individual
responsibility. Volkswagen is to be the first example.”
"'Dieselgate,' as it has been immediately and inevitably been dubbed, certified by the American government after months of testing, research, explanations and, finally, confessions, has hit the buying public like the discovery of infidelity by someone near and dear to
it. How many other control
mechanisms in our cars are fiddled with about which we know nothing? What
else have the 'little brains'
in our automobiles been programmed to do? ”
Does water that may have touched the
lips of the pope have special powers?
Apparently one Congressman thinks so.
Representative Bob Brady snuck over
to the podium to take the pope's glass of water after his speech to a joint
session of the Congress and promptly photographed himself and his wife
drinking part of what was left, the
rest to be sprayed on his grandchildren.
"'Dieselgate,' as it has been immediately and inevitably been dubbed, certified by the American government after months of testing, research, explanations and, finally, confessions, has hit the buying public like the discovery of infidelity by someone near and dear to
it. How many other control
mechanisms in our cars are fiddled with about which we know nothing? What
else have the 'little brains'
in our automobiles been programmed to do? ”
"He's not a very 'manageable' pope. ... It seems that even his entourage jokes with him about death threats. 'Holy Father, haven't they killed you
yet today?', they ask him, overcoming their reverence to express really acute fears. ... Argentine priest Juan Carlos Molina told him, 'Watch out,
they could kill you.' Francis replied: 'That would be the best thing that
could happen to me. They may also kill you.' These weren't words of resignation. He seemed to be saying, simply put, that one must be prepared - even for martyrdom."
Watching Pope Francis in the Pope-Mobile with it's wide open sides cascading down Fifth Ave. in the shadow of Trump Tower is a fun and fascinating thing to see. This is the Vatican's feed
last night of the pontiff's trip
uptown to St. Patrick's Cathedral
and the service the pope held there - which included comments about the incredible trampling episode at the Hajj in Mecca that killed 700 people. The question arisis: if everyone loves Pope Francis for being humble, open, and for eschewing pomp, wealth and circumstance, why isn't everyone tyrying to emulate the man? Will the members of our
corrupted Washington lawmakers pay any heed at all to the words they so wholeheartedly applauded? Will those who favor deporting millions people from this country, which would ential federal police invading private homes across the country and ripping children from their parents' arms, take seriously the idea of 'doing unto others what others would do unto you'? That would be a real miracle warranting something that has never happened before:
canonization of a still-living pope.
It's a catastrophe for German industry - and it's American
agencies which have exposed massive wrongdoing on the part of a foreign organization, in this case Volkswagen. In
laboratory tests, it has been
shown that the firm rigged its diesel-powered cars to make it seem as if there were lower emissions than there actually are in cars they sell to the public - 11 million which are now on the road.
After defiantly refusing to
resign, Volkswagen Chief Martin Winterkorn has finally called it quits, This is a live blog of coverage in tweets,
video and text of the crisis.
Today is the day that the Pope
will make one of the most politically-charged speeches of the year if not the decade, as he addresses both houses of a Republican-led Congress as an advocate of addressing human- induced climate change and
helping the poorest - which is a constituency without the lobbyists necessary to get most American lawmakers out of
their chairs. This is a Guardian live blog of Tweets, photos and text on the day's events.
Here comes Pope Francis - to the dread of those who support the unfettered pursuit of wealth and Congressional Republicans who
oppose any major U.S. effort to address climate change. This is
Guardian's live blog with news, tweets, news columns and video
on the pope's arrival at Edwards Air Force Base in Maryland - any minute now. If you're watching cable TV, Brain Williams is making
his return to NBC after being
disgraced as an exaggerator and prevaricator - and is manning
MSNBC's news desk for the visit..
"Holocaust comparisons are in vogue. One minute The New York Times is reminded of the Holocaust simply because people are fleeing, and the next, because the Czechs are marking the arms of refugees with numbers. Then someone complains that Germany is housing refugees at the Tempelhof Airport building because it was - ouch! - built by Albert Speer (not really, by the way), or in barracks that may or may not have housed men from the SS, who may or may
not have been at Buchenwald.”
"Based on scientific criteria, bully Trump is not a natural leader. How then can we
explain his popularity? In order to understand this, we need to go way back into our evolutionary history as primates. Monkeys live in
groups with a strctly laid out
hierarchical structure in which one dominant male, the alpha, is boss. The alpha- male decides who can eat, who can interact and who is allowed to pick his fleas. Intimidation and bullying is part of his daily repertoire.”
— PROFESSOR OF EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY Dr. Mark van Vugt
This is a photo gallery from Le Figaro that
looks at the women
in Donald Trump's life
over the years - not
the least of which is
Marla Maples - who
brought an end to his
marriage to Ivanka.
"Taking account of the growing problem of refugees in Europe
and the progress and barbarity
of armed groups allied with the
Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, Moscow is boosting its military support for the Assad regime to compel the West to make a
choice: accept the continuation of Assad in power and allow a broad coalition of political and military forces against the IS radicals to coalesce thereby
leaving the leadership problem in Damascus for after victory over the jihadists, or we will
abet the deterioration of the
Middle East situation - with
all of the dire consequences.”
One of the oddest answers of the night was Jeb Bush's in regard to which woman
the candidate would choose to be on the U.S. currency. It seems for Jeb - there
haven't heroines in American
history worth of the honor, so he opted for ... Margaret Thatcher? The Guardian's Adam Gabbatt took notice.
The nexus between the election of Jeremy Corbyn
as UK Labour leader
and the rise of Bernie Sanders in the United States is the subject of this post, a day after an operative of Hillary Clinton suggested that Sanders' support for the Labour leader shows he is out of the U.S. mainstream.
"Two fatal developments are coming together during this election in the United States. The decoupling of the super-rich from the rest of society is an accelerating trend in recent years. And also the consequences of a series of rulings by the Supreme Court in 2010 that enable politicians
to accept unlimited donations. This confluence of events is undermining the development of the world's
oldest and proudest democracy.”
Get Ready for Pope Francis: Arriving on Sept 22 in the U.S., the pontiff gave this wide ranging interview to
EWTN News, Portugal. He discusses the E.U. migration
crisis, suggesting that states with plummeting birth rates should look at the
crisis as a blessing, and
he puts the blame for the
mass migration and the wars that caused it on worship of the 'god of
money.' The interview
was translated by the Catholic News Agency.
The topic is the 2004 media scandal that just might have derailed the 2004 Bush run for the White House, but instead brought down one of the media's last genuine news paragons with ties to
Cronkite and Murrow. The Guardian
and the Hollywood Reporter reviewed the film 'Truth', which recalls the most
paniful period in Dan Rather's career.
The U.S. spy services,
having undermined the unquestioned authority accrued to them after
9-11 by mass spying on innocent Americans and people around the world under the false pretext of 'keeping us safe' and 'preventing terrorist attacks' - are frustrated. It seems that the U.S. Internet giants and the tech industry in general,
after their reputations
were ruined when it was
shown that they helped the agencies spy on their own users, are refusing to cooperate with the
latest hare-brained scheme: undermining encryption standards.
It's not as if we didn't already know,
however, a panel of judges at the
Rome Court of Cassation has posted a 54-page legal 'motivazioni,' which 'provides an official explanation of
what went wrong in the probe into
Amanda Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, who were charged
- and in March acquitted - for the
2007 murder of the UK university student Meredith Kercher.
Words that few expected to emerge from the lips of a network CEO have been uttered by FX boss
John Landgraf, told the U.S. Television Critics Association that there is
'simply too much TV' and that the glut threatens 'some level of crisis' if 'malaise' and 'alienation' set in among viewers. Of course, the issue of TV Networks owned by the largest multinationals in the world feeding the
public propaganda only
to pad their bottom lines never came up.
"The Google search engine – even without the knowledge of its respective administrators – could
have a decisive impact on the next year's U.S. presidential election. … The search engine manipulation effect exists and is 'one of the largest behavioral effects ever
discovered.' ... On Aug. 31, almost one in every seven people on the planet logged onto Facebook. It had to pay nothing for the massive amount of data given over to it, but there is no lack of those wishing to get their hands on it.”
Some unpaid Wikipedia staff have
stuffed their pockets on the side by blackmailing people and businesses
desperate to have a Wikipedia
page posted, updated or simply
maintained, an investigation by The
Independent shows. The scandal at one the world's leading non-profit Internet projects exposes what has been both a strength and an Achilles' heel of Wikipedia - its dedicated global team of volunteer editors.
"Will ET never communicate with us; will there never be a Close Encounter of the Third Kind? 'No,' say Bundestag researchers, who listed in their ten- page report anyone and anything of
importance to substantiate this claim. ... That humanity is and remains the
crown of creation is a view shared by the authors of this report. However, what explains the many witnesses
who swear they have seen UFOs - including military personnel and others who cannot be suspected of being prone to fantastical notions?”
Well - here's something of a
bombshell: A package has
been received by a friend of Vester
Lee Flanagan II - the one-time newsman who shot and killed two of his former colleagues on a live broadcast last week. It now appears that the gunman's angst was focused on a lot more than simply disgruntlement over his treatment at WDBJ. In the package was a suicide note in which Flanagan laments how
age put an end to his 'career''
as a $2000 a night prostitute.
Here it is: hard-hitting, take no prisoners TV host Sarah Palin digs deep into Donald Trump to
expose the truth. Just kidding! No - the Guardian posted this
column on what 'One America
News Network' billed as the 'interview of the year.' What the interview does expose is how candidate Trump reacts while being showered with
the most shameless, gushing praise imaginable by someone
he has suggested would be
part of a Trump cabinet: Is
Palin one of the incorruptible
heavy hitters who Trump says will put America back on top with tough negotiating? ...
"We thought that the Americans would overreact in response to the initial shock. For the U.S., it was a shocking experience to be attacked on their own soil. ... The Americans said at the time that all options were on the table. When I visited Condoleezza Rice in the White House a few days later, I realized that it was more than just a figure of speech.”
— Michael Steiner, Former
Foreign Policy Advisor to Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder
"There is a politics of parallel
reality going on, where reason is an irritation, evidence a distraction, emotional impact
is king and all that counts
is feeling good about it all.”
"Twice in these pages I have foretold the imminent collapse of billionaire
Trump, who in the U.S. presidential campaign is breaking all records of ignorance, insolence and boorishness - yet his poll numbers only get better and better. ... Signs in the heavens
and on the earth suggest that this is
not just a summer fling. And so what
if right-wing America is tempted to
take a ride into the unknown with a guy from their parents' worst
nightmares? I'm ashamed to admit
it, but part of me is counting on it.”
"Is it just a fact of being surrounded
by Americans or are we seeing signs
of a semantic shift? Upon awarding the Legion of Honor to the three Americans and one Briton, Francois
Hollande showed no hesitation about mentioning the battle between 'good' and 'evil' - rhetoric popularized by U.S. President George W. Bush. ... This demonstrates a hardening of
vocabulary that has cropped up since
the [Charlie Hebdo] attack of January.
[Prime Minister] Valls has gone even further, referring in the end of June to the 'war of civilizations,' analogous to a theory popularized by American scholar Samuel Huntington and again - adopted by George W. Bush.”
A disgruntled ex-employee
took his frustrations out on his former colleagues in the
most deadly way possible
today. Two reporters were
shot and killed on air by ex-
reporter Bryce Williams, a 42 year old man who, after
posting video of the attack on Twitter, shot himself
and dies of his wounds in the hospital. In a world full of shocking crimes and acts of murder, the entire world is now fixated on this attack - and renewed and likely fruitless calls for gun control.
This is coverage from Sky
News, the Guardian CBC,
RT, BBC Newnight, BBC,
France24 and Euronews.
The bubble that is China's economy has finally and spectacularly burst,
bringing China's unelected officials face to face with an existential crisis born when former leader Deng Xiaoping first inaugurated China's 'opening up' and declared, contrary to every communist doctrine ever pondered, 'To get rich is glorious!'It would appear that 'communist' China - which, except for the absurd and conflicting statements of Chinese
leaders. hasn't resembled 'communist' in decades - has finally discovered that when markets are unleashed,
ideological, centrally-controlled decision making is a loser. This is
commentary on the crisis from the Telegraph's Ambrose Evans-Pritchard and the Guardian's Larry Elliott.
It appears that a handful of passengers on a train between Amsterdam and Paris took down a man with a machine gun who
had already fired his gun - preventing what may
have been a bloodbath.
Along with a British man, the Americans involved
are reportedly off-duty U.S. servicemen. This is coverage from France24,
Guardian and Russia Today.
A few hours ago, the biggest rally of the 2016 presidential campaign was held in Mobile Alabama with about 20,000
cheering, screaming Trump fans and others from around
the region. Soon after Trump began speaking he was joined onstage by Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, co-author of Trump's immigration plan to deport all undocumented
immigrants. This is Guardian coverage of yesterday's event .
"Trump is the out-sized American version of a populist phenomenon
that can be observed in other Western states,
especially in Western Europe.
... Reflecting nothing but contempt
for the compromise that is the essence of democratic societies ... people who think this way are filled with
anger about that kind political activity - and
full of suspicion with economic, social and
cultural conditions changing so much so
quickly. No wonder immigration is the most
divisive, inflammatory issue on the right. It
should be said, though,
that it also resonates with 'normal' people experiencing a sense of growing insecurity.”
Here's a wierd column that resembles a mirror reflecting a mirror reflecting a mirror:
Britian's Internet watchdog has ordered Google to remove from its search engine not only links to stories involved with the 'right to be forgotten' - but links to stories about
removing links to stories on
the 'right to be forgotten.' The
question arises: will Google also have to remove stories about stories about stories about articles involved with the right to be forgotten? ...
and so on and so forth? Where
will all the 'forgetting' end?
"According to U.S. and German officials,
Markus R. was a 'walk-in agent' who presents himself on his own to a foreign
spy service and dangles secrets. ... The Germans say the CIA should never have
accepted. ... Asked on television how angry she felt on learning about the two cases, Merkel replied: 'It is not about how angry I was. For me it is a sign that
we have fundamentally different notions of the work of the intelligence services. ... We are not living in the Cold War anymore and are exposed to different
threats. We should focus on the essential.”
"There are rules between secret services that we have to respect. Because of the agreement with the Americans and the applicable confidentiality agreements, the selector lists cannot be released without their permission. ... It
is not okay for secret documents to be posted on the Internet, at least if there isn't a suspicion
it relates to illegal activity. Fortunately, the accusation of treason [against journalists] is off the table and I welcome the fact that the related investigation has been brought to an end.”
How is it possible, after all that has happened in the past two years, with all the evidence that the NSA is not only a serial violator of the Constitution, but that it is so clogged up collecting data on the world's innocent people that it repeatedly
fails to prevent terrorists
from committing their crimes - to conclude that the NSA and the Pentagon need yet more power and influence? And how is it possible to believe that by restoring the practice of torture, Americans will
somehow be made 'safer'
- particularly after it has been shown that torture
gleans largely false data from people who will say anything to get the pain to stop? Here are two columns on Jeb's absurd statements - which should permanently
disqualify him from office.
"The GOP debate was a great
feast for bullshit connoisseurs; or perhaps I should call it an unbridled orgy. In the starring role was billionaire Donald Trump, who for the umpteenth
time emphatically proved to be exceptionally rude and simplistic - which hasn't prevented him
from leading in the polls and sustaining that lead for several
weeks (he is now supported by
one in four right voters). This
odd sociological phenomenon
confirms the grim hypothesis
that billions of dollars can turn even the greatest lout into
Prince Charming - in the U.S.”
With sex charges against Julian Assange
expiring due to Statutes of Limitations - and after Britain spent $24 million policing the Ecuadorian Embassy in the
vain hope of snatching and extraditing him to Sweden or America - Assange is expressing exasperation that he has never been allowed to give his side of the story because Swedish prosecutors have refused to interview him at the Embassy. Meanwhile, Britain, tired of spending millions to police Assange and conveniently forgetting that anyone in
fear of political prosecution has a world-
recognized right of asylum, is issuing a
formal protest to Ecuador for harboring
Assange, arguing absurdly that in doing so, Ecuador has 'prevented the proper course of justice.' No word on the 'proper course of justice' in regard to the crimes both Britain and the United States have committed in the realms of mass surveillance, war and torture that WikiLeaks has so sensationally exposed. This is a roundup of news and video on
the latest twists and turns of the story:.
"'The government has bowed to pressure from some European countries and the U.S., which have always rejected French
ties with Russia. France is surrendering not the €1.2 billion the government first
claimed, but €1.5 billion in compensation to French manufacturers. France is the country most impacted by the policy of sanctions against Russia demanded by the European Union. Germany and Britain h ave never paid the price! … The image of our national companies operating in Russia will, as if by bullets, be injured by the
undelivered Mistrals. Our U.S.,
German,
U.K. competitors are already celebrating.”
"The U.S. National Endowment for
Democracy does essentially what
Christian missionaries did, the
difference being that they aren't
demanding the natives change their religion, but instead move
toward 'democracy' (the modern
form of colonization).They seek a change in political affiliation and at the same time a rejection of national tradition. In fact, NED missionaries are essentially turning up at foreign monasteries with a charter to demand that the natives abandon their own charter for a
new one brought by outsiders. ... They win souls and reinforce their influence with dollars. Dollars are handed out under the broad aim
of 'spreading' democracy.”
It's the biggest story in finance: Google has decided to restructure itself from a seacrh company into an investment holding company, aka/ a modern 'tech conglomerate' called Alphabet. What
does it mean; what are the ramifications?
This pod of columns takes a good look.
Much to the disgruntlement of spy
agencies around the world, it now appears Jullian Assange will soon
be free to lead WikiLeaks as it continues its project to expose
government wrongdoing. ... Then the NSA mass surveillance scandal in Germany, which grew into a
scandal involving NSA cooptation of German intelligence, turning it
into what critics consider to be a
treasonous arm of U.S. intelligence, has resulted first in treason charges against reporters who leaked state plans for a new spy agency for monitoring social media, and now a climbdown by the authorities
after a tremendous public outcry.
"'Politainment' definitely has a bright side. The dark side is
Trump. As the voter-audience is now more than ever oriented toward wit and originality, he who offers it will win; and at the moment, no one's wit is quicker or sharper than Trump's. If he stays in the presidential
race he'll drive the Republicans to distraction - and their chances of conquering the White House
will diminish every passing day.”
"Sticking to attitudes of
the two men, which are
often characterized by provocative, offensive language and a refusal to observe political
correctness, there
are indeed similarities.”
"From the start, Turkey has watched passively the expansion of terrorists from ISIS or al-Qaeda in Syria as if it had signed with them an informal non-aggression pact. Now the Turks have permitted the Americans to use their air bases - something Washington has requested, in vain, for years. And on top of that, Turkey has itself attacked ISIS. This is
a 180-degree turn in
Turkish politics. Has he suddenly concluded that jihad constitutes a great threat to his country? The truth is likely different.”
"He moralized, pushed and prodded. He pulled at the heartstrings. He offered food for thought. And he spoke what is never spoken. Obama criticized rulers who shamelessly alter the law and remain in power endlessly. He called on them to give
new blood a chance. 'No one should be president for life," said the man who retires in a year and a half - even though, he said in a bold aside, that he could have been elected again. ... The second point of lasting significance concerns the position of gay people. Obama put the issue on the agenda from a position of great moral strength.
"I thought that staying together was the better thing. I didn't want to make my points very clearly on that, because I felt it wasn’t up to me. ... But I feel the people made
the right decision; I can’t imagine
the'd want to go through that again.”
"Trump raises an interesting question:
is it possible to be a hero if fighting a stupid or unjust war? Apparently the answer is: you can, but only if you fail
to succeed in battle. In Vietnam, John McCain was a victim, so he's glorified.
Chris Kyle, who killed 100 people in
Iraq and for whom Clint Eastwood made a much-talked about film called American Sniper, there are mixed
feelings - even in the United States.”
From Sept. 22-27, Pope Francis will make his first visit to the United States since his surprise
election. Columnist James Politi
describes how Francis' popularity
has diminished since his 'crusade' against climate change and unrestrained global capitalism
began, dropping from 76% in
Feb, 2014 to just 59% today.
"Nevertheless, the long and painful negotiations that concluded earlier this month are likely to change the balance of power in the Middle East - in favor of the Iranian state. While
that is certain, it doesn't necessarily mean that all other parties will lose. ... The Islamic State is the common enemy of the U.S., Iran, Israel and Saudi Arabia. Now they all have a chance to set old animosities aside in the name of fighting jihad. If that were to happen, historians would have to give some credit to the caliphate for promoting world peace. One can always dream.”
"The Foreign Ministry should give NSA Chief
Mike Rogers a tour of the German Embassy rooftop in Washington. There aren't any antennae or microphones on the roof - just solar panels. Perhaps the NSA chief would laugh, 'If you’re going to be naïve, then at least be ecological about it.' But if you ask around, you’ll soon find out that politically, the Germans are not in very bad shape in Washington; in any event, not nearly as bad as the Americans are in Berlin.”
"If Polish authorities agreed to eavesdropping
on Polish citizens by foreign spy services without the consent of a Polish court, it would be something akin to consenting to CIA prisons
in Poland. [When the Polish surveillance law
expires,] if the BND and NSA are already doing this, the Polish services could perhaps count on a gentleman's favor when they lose their right to keep us under surveillance. This is
no less than the outsourcing of surveillance -
and practically free of legal inconveniences.”
After 80 years of squelching mention of these uncomfortable truths, a video has emerged in which a laughing future Queen Elizabeth, her mother, Prince Edward and Princess Margaret are making Nazi salutes. According to the Guardian, 'many have expressed
incredulity that the Sun had published
the actions of a child. But Managing Editor Stig Abell defended publication. 'It is an important and interesting issue,
the extent to which the British royals – notably Edward VIII, in this case - in
the 1930s, were sympathetic toward fascism,' he said.'
Note that this column from the Telegraph was run under the headline: Glyphosate: Scientists
Urge Caution Over Experts' Claims Pesticide is 'Probably'
Carcinogenic'. So ... respected scientists believe Glyphosate is a DNA-destroying caricinogen, but the Telegraph headline
focuses instead on respected scientists it contacted who urge 'caution' about such conclusions.
Hmmm - I guess we know who butters The Telegraph's Glyphosate-grown bread. ...
"The debate that erupted across
the Atlantic after the Supreme
Court's decision is instructive. There is no shortage there of extreme opinions. If we fail to listen intently, it isn't hard to imagine what might soon await us. There are, for instance, calls to legalize unions among more than two people being quite seriously suggested. Once the
traditional meaning of marriage
is rejected, these arguments become difficult to rebuke. If marriage is not exclusively between a man and a woman, then why not triangles, quadrangles and whatever one wishes ... Don't say we didn't
warn you. ... We have.”
"In the case of nuclear weapons the optimal solution would be not to produce or use them in the first place, but fear that the other might violate any deal not to do so push both to violate it. Therefore, one must strike first.
This advice came from the top minds of the 1950s, but luckily Harry Truman wouldn't listen.
In 1984, scholar Robert Axelrod reformulated Game
Theory's fundamentals. ... Under
certain conditions, trust can spring up between rational egotists - even in the absence of a 'sovereign'
obliging them to make a deal. ...
Obama has said the document is based not on trust, but on
rigorous and strict verification . That is without doubt true, but I'll bet that he and his staff, in deciding to sign, gave more than
thought to modern game theory.”
"One could say that the patient work of diplomacy - the avoidance of the use of force, has succeeded. Let this be an example for other conflicts in the world. Furthermore, we might ask ourselves when the other states
who were seated at the negotiating table begin reducing the numbers and role of nuclear weapons in their defense policies. Hopefully, this will be an incentive. ... The only reason for installing a U.S. missile shield in Europe has always been Iran. It would be logical not to continue to install anti-missile systems and to remove the existing ones. That would be a gesture toward Russia.”
War-war, or jaw-jaw?: Le Monde argues
today that talks over the Iranian nuclear program prove again that while 'less
glamorous then a nice remote bombing
campaign', diplomacy, 'that slow and oh-
so-boring practice', has achieved much more at lower cost in blood and treasure
than another war ever could have.
It was another exciting day in space science. The American spacecraft New Horizons has come closer to the former-planet Pluto than any human-made object - and the photos it is taking are incredible. Scientists concluded in 2006 that Pluto, which is smaller than the moon, lacks the necessary gravitational pull on its satellites to be considered a 'planet'.
After an at-times angry debate, Pluto was reclassified as a 'dwarf planet. The new data shows that Pluto is somewhat larger than we thought, so perhaps the debate will erupt again. A proud day for NASA and a brief
restoration of the agency's former glory.
The diplomats of Iran and the P5+1 say that they have finally agreed to a deal that will
slow Iran's nuclear program in exchange for lifting punishing global sanctions. ... This is The Guardian's live blog of text,
photos, video and tweets and updates.
"The LGBT community is a fact, and we
must figure out ways to make life easier
for adults who want to take up - even formally on official documents - the duty of caring for another person. ... Love, in the end, makes miracles. Who can be against that?”
"Berlin's political
players have become accustomed to and come close to shrugging off
the never-ending revelations about the American mania for data-collection and spying. However, the revelations of recent days go far beyond that. If large-scale spying against Der
Spiegel's editorial board did indeed took place, this in itself
would be an unforgivable attack
on press freedom. Some things
are not for sale. Not all things
can or should be sold off at the "spooks' bazaar." Especially not
The Basic Law of Germany.”
"Merkel must show Washington a clear sign of resistance. Germany must free itself from this pact with the NSA. In the future, it must write the rules for
its cooperation with spy agencies itself - which may mean that certain information will no longer be shared.”
"The five deciding justices of the U.S. Supreme Court have millennia of decisive evidence against them. ...
Homosexuality has always existed, like so many other relationships - adultery, friendship, incest, camaraderie - without any civilization considering
it equivalent to family and marriage.
The worse thing, however, is on another level. Above all, the evil of the decision is that it manifests the
profound fragility of the American
Constitution, the basic principles of which should be above cultural fads. When nine votes intend to change the essence of human life, all of civilization is at risk. This is far more grave and dangerous than the direct
effect of the decision, which by the
way, is limited to a shrinking minority.”
A little discussed fact is that the people
of Puerto Rico, America's strange and
beautifulCaribbean island possession,
have mounted a heroic 500-year fight to achieve independence - first from Spain and then from the United States.
In the recent past that fight has taken the form of a series of referendums on whether to declare statehood or become an independent nation - the
results of which always approach 50% for statehood and 50% independence. Today, with Puerto Rico teetering on economic implosion, with it's skilled
labor leaving and its people struggling to survive, Guardian correspondent Alan Yuhas examines the never-ending debate over statehood and sovereignty and whether this might be the moment
in which Puerto Ricans finally decidel.
"The fact that same-sex marriage prevents procreation and hence
is a direct path toward humanty's
extinction is something American
officials either pay no attention or
deliberately embrace since there
are too many of us! It now seems that we should be leaning toward
the latter. Just as they show too little concern for the future, U.S.
leaders are wiping their boots on the once 'sacred' right to 'freedom of speech.' ... The Pentagon has released new rules for military engagement under which American soldiers are henceforth permitted
to open fire on war reporters!”
According to this roundup of the
Greek referendum on paying the nation's debt, Greek voters have voted 'no' in a landslide, meaning that the European Central Bank and senior EU leaders and officials have to decide whether to cut their losses on Greece and let it exit the EU, agree to something similar to what happened after WWI and WWII - forgive much or all of Greece's debt outright, or some combination of the two. ... All in all - these are dark days for
those rooting for the great post-
war experiment of united Europe.
If your national spy agency is
spying on major national media
and your own government at the behest of a foreign power, one might begin to question German sovereignty. The column goes into great detail on German executive branch lies and misstatements that expose BND and chancellory cooptation by the NSA, which is all part of the Obama Administration's war on the press and privacy. If any intelligence issue is capable of shaking the chancellorship of Angela Merkel, this one is it.
Apparently, writes reporter
Jasper Jackson, newspapers are
alarmed that readers are using apps to block ads. Don't their
readers know that is they don't shovel advertising data garbage into their brains, they would not
be able to read our journalism? Why aren't our readers willing
to subject themselves to constant attempts to alter their behavior so we can pay our bills? Oh yes - what a mystery that readers fails to grasp these essential facts!
Puerto Rico is an island in the
Caribbean that became part of
the U.S. after an invasion in 1898 during the Spanish American War.
Like Greece, it has monumental
debt,
now over $73 billion, and
its
governor has declared that
PR cannot
repay it. This is the
Guardian's analysis of
the Puerto
Rico crisis, and then a oundtable
discussion that examines the dire
fiscal situation in Greece and in
Puerto Rico - and how they will impact the eurozone and the U.S.
"In Germany, panels continue
to 'discuss' and committees
continue to bicker while gay and lesbian Germans remain second-class citizens: Despite an overwhelming majority in
polls speaking out for gender equality; despite open lettrse by celebrities; and despite the
common sense for which the
Germans are often so proud.
There is much to gripe about in America - and rightly so. But her astonishing, home-made brand of social progress is certainly no reason to do so.”
"Beyond the scandal that the now-exposed American spying will now trigger, the ease with
which the U.S. appears to be
able to intercept conversations
of top French leaders puts in doubt the counter-intelligence
capabilities of French services.”
— REPORTERS Fabrice Arfi, Jerome Hourdeaux and Julian Assange (WikiLeaks)
"France's return to NATO is the original sin that has put France into this situation of dependency. Revelations of these acts
of U.S. piracy against our institutions are
only a secondary phenomenon.
indignation
expressed is just a facade because no
politician today proposes France withdraw from NATO, nor are they willing to break France's subjection to the United States. They swallow all snakes, tolerate all insults,
and will suffer any pressure not to do so.”
"The U.S. excels at pointing out injustice
in other nations. It even often helps them
cope with shameful pasts. However, the U.S. has been less successful addressing
the dark parts of its own past. ... This includes its treatment of the American Indians, who were brutally repressed or even killed because they were an obstacle to the settlement of the West. They were
betrayed, neglected and disrespected. ... Yet when it comes to the history of dealing with Blacks, who were once snatched from their homes, forced into ship galleys and
kept like animals for centuries - the
Americans seem even more forgetful.”
"When a country like this isn't spared the ravenous NSA's data mania, the intelligence service's actions against Germany should come as no surprise. This shows once again that the political class in Washington continues to lack
a sense of how to treat allies.”
"Although we already knew of the mistrust of the Americans for their
French allies, there is a very big difference between seeking to know the positions of the P5+1 on Iran's nuclear program and tapping into the personal cell phones of Sarkozy or Hollande. If we are to accept that today we are both allies and competitors, it seems there are no holds barred. Allies or not, a relationship of mutual trust or not,
the U.S. gathers tons of data simply because it can afford to. This is a very serious matter for relations
between our two countries.”
"The Americans have E.U. countries on a
short leash, and often without taking any
account of their opinions and interests, impose on them anti-Russian sanctions and attitudes. ... The U.S. is eager for Russia to stop existing … as a country. That is
because we have such great wealth in resources ... and the Americans believe
we dispose of that wealth inappropriately.”
— Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev
We are sorry to have to report that the special interests that
have a chokehold on our nation
look like they'll get their wish, after the Senate passed Fast Track Trade promotion authority. ... If and when the larger bill passes. likely early next week, attention will turn to Europe,
where the TTIP is extremely
unpopular and facing resistence in the European Parliament.
Fresh off publishing the 'Saudi Files', WikiLeaks has again struck at the
well-heeled heart of diplomacy with a French version of the NSA's spying
on Angela Merkel. This time, Wiki-
Leaks has published documents that show the NSA spied extensively on the last three French heads of state, French cabinet ministers and the
French ambassador to the U.S.
"Crimea will not likely return to Ukrainian hands. This means
sanctions imposed in response
to its annexation can't be lifted. One can compare this with the still-existing sanctions the E.U. imposed on China following the heavy-handed crackdown on the Tiananmen Square uprising in 1989. Sanctions bring back neither the dead nor annexed areas, yet they remain eternally
in force and prevent a new start.”
Since the Pope's 'Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home', was leaked, those who side with the pope and those who deny humanity's role in climate change and if there is such a thing - have been going at it hammer and tongs. Below is video coverage
from France 24 and the Euronews, and two of the best columns from the
opposing camp - from UK's Catholic
Herald and from The Telegraph.
S. Carolina Governor Nikki Haley,
notably an American Indian and the
youngest governor in the Union, has announced, after the massacre of Black Church goers by a White supremacist, a legislative effort to finally remove the flag. That also means that it isn't a done deal. Meanwhile, President Obama has utterred the word 'Nigger' during an interview in the wake of the South Carolina Church massacre.
In this hit piece against U.S. firms that have decided to
stop invading the privacy of users in favor of our
discredited spy services NSA
and GCHQ, the newspaper repeatedly calls Edward Snowden a 'traitor' while
parroting unsubstantiated
claims of state agencies. The newspaper apparently thinks that the right to privacy means nothing and that we should all continue to believe the assertions of people and
agencies caught red handed repeatedly
lying to the public.
"It seems that the Roman pontiff
is prepared to contribute to the
achievement of peace in Ukraine
in exchange for Russian assistance resolving the situation in the
Mideast, where radical Islamists are destroying not only their fellow Muslims, but Christians as well. ... There is a well-known historical anecdote. Stalin is said to have inquired as to how many
divisions the pope had. The reply is less well known. The pope supposedly said, 'My division is in Heaven, my son.' Now, in this
difficult time, this 'division'
has become vitally important.”
"For several years now, Putin has been burnishing an image deeply rooted in the days of Tsarist Russia as a defender of Christians in the Middle East. So when it comes to
Middle East issues, papal diplomacy is looking for cooperation with
Russia. An attempt to forge such
an alliance with Putin would be an even greater delusion than believing that gentle persuasion would turn the Kremlin into a
real promoter of Ukraine peace.”
"On the sidelines of the Munich
Security Conference as the end
of last year, FAZ spoke to CEO of Deutsche Telekom Timotheus Hottges and Munich Security Conference Chairman Wolfgang
Ischinger about vulnerabilities in cyber security today, how
increasing global instability threatens personal and corporate data and infrastructure, and how NSA mass surveillance has created a crisis of confidence between
the United States . and Europe and in the Internet in general”
"It's natural that Americans
are shocked. Since they see themselves as a traditional
military power, they just
assume that precisely the same hierarchy of influence would apply in cyberspace. Unfortunately, considering the scale of the potential damage, the attack on the database of the Office of Personnel Management can reasonably be compared to disastrous attack on the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor. At the time, scarcely anyone imagined that the disdained Japanese could pull off such an effective strike.”
"The 21-year-old white man suspected of opening fire and killing nine people
during a prayer service at Bblack church in Charleston, South Carolina, has been
taken into custody after the deadliest
attack on an a place of worship in years.”
The borders are fuzzy and the ice is
melting, making the minerals and the
petroleum locked under the Arctic ice is accessible for the first time. This
Guardian interactive report outlines why hordes of Seattlites have been
interruption-kayaking in Washington's
Pudget Sound: We're on the verge of a genuine 'Cold' War, as the energy
giants and the governments of Arctic nations jockey and probably come to blows over developing the region along some of the world's newest sea lanes, opened up thanks to a heating climate, which is bound to get even
hotter as all that carbon is consumed.
To the delight of the news media, pundits and comedians alike, the GOP presidential field just got bigger - Donald Trump is now in
the race. Here's British reaction to the Republican field's newest entry.
"In a 192-page encyclical on global warming that looks set to define his tenure, the Pope paints an apocalyptic picture in which the world's poorest are the biggest victims of a web of environmental, human, financial and ethical degradation that puts the entire
planet at risk. The Pope lambastes wealthy countries for 'looting' the world and takes aim at bankers and climate skeptics for
accelerating its decline. He warns that the world is facing widespread crop failure, economic ruin, mass migration and the destruction of entire ecosystems.”
"Men in suits, managers and bosses have Jeb autograph his photo. The room is packed. Every seat in the football field-sized room is occupied.
The guests stand two or three rows deep along the walls. At this point, security personnel no longer allow people into the room. More than
2,500 participants are there, among them roughly 250 members of the press. International media like CNBC are on site. ... One would think Jeb Bush was already president - and he
hadn't even announced his candidacy.
He is expected to do so on Monday at a college in Miami, Florida. After his father (no. 41) and his brother (no. 43), he could become the 45th president of the United States.”
"Columbian unionist Gilberto Torres is suing BP in London.
13 years ago paramilitaries kidnapped, tortured and held
him for 42 days. Now, as it is alleged that the British oil firm indirectly financed his torturers, he's suing BP for damages. ... In the same way that Gilberto Torres is suing BP in the hope that the global
public will acknowledge the 42
days of injustice that destroyed his life, the fact that football fans are openly discussing the connection between global oppression and fiscal policy
offers hope - if only for a day”
Today there are new charges in
Britain's Sunday Times that China and
Russia have gotten and decrypted a
'secret cache' of Snowden files and
that 'UK agents had to be withdrawn
from live operations as a consequence.' Here is the original column from The Sunday Times, a write-thru from The
Guardian, and Glenn Greenwald reacts.
"'Do you know how much our state
weighs, with all of its factories, its
machinery and its army, with all of its weapons and fleets?' Stalin asked.
... The chief investigator replied hesitantly, 'No one can say, Joseph Vissarionovich [Stalin]. It is an astronomical figure.' Stalin went on to ask, 'Well, and can one person stand against such an astronomical weight?' After receiving the answer
he expected, 'no,' the leader went on, 'Then don't report back to me again until you have Kamenev's
confession.' Against the face of the astronomical weight of the American state, with its banks, gadgets, armies, weapons and fleets, Blatter could not resist, quickly falling to his knees.”
"he NSA has its 'hands tied' only when it comes to U.S. citizens. Foreigners
can be surveilled without restriction. ... In particular, the NSA can monitor
Brits, who the U.S. Constitution does not protect. On the other hand, GCHQ, British electronic intelligence may, without any limitation, listen, record and spy on Americans. ... Just like Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train when
two men plan a cross-murder, in the
same way fraternal spy agencies may carry out cross-surveillance.”
"The G-10 Commission has issued the government an ultimatum. Either the members of the intelligence oversight committee, which have been holding closed-door meetings, are given access to the list of potentially-illegal NSA selectors [search terms], or they will not authorize additional monitoring
activities by German intelligence. ... The very fact that something involving the G-10 Commission is being publicly
disclosed speaks to great frustration among Commission members. They
clearly feel they've been hoodwinked
by both the Chancellory and the BND.”
U.S.-Based Porn purveyer Pornhub intends to go where no known human
sexual act has occurred
before (so we are told), according to this column
from The Independent. The project, which is
being crowdfunded,
seeks to raise $3.4 million.
Tis' the season to pass draconian spy bills that violate the civil liberties of citizens.
Browbeaten by fear-monger colleagues,
France's La Quadrature reports opponents
of the new spy law relented in the end.
Europe Opponents of the Trans-Atlantic Trade
and Investment Partnership in the European Parliament have succeeded in preventing the measure from coming to a vote due to 'political divisions.' That's good, because otherwise we'll all soon be living in some variation of the 1975 film 'Roller Ball'.
If you've been following the GOP presidential nomination race, you know that yet another Bush looks determined to sit in the Oval Office - one John Ellis 'Jeb' Bush. 'Jeb' as he is commonly reffered to, is making his first trip to Europe as an undeclared candidate. This is video coverage of Jeb's entire speech to
members of Angela Merkel's CDU and the Guardian's write-thru. Jeb emphasized his father's George HW Bush's achievements, without ever mentioning his brother's war-laden
and unpopular two-term presidency.
What kind of a democracy, what kind
of republic, is the United States, when its
its chief executive goes to a secret court
that operates outside the Constitution and
asks it to ignore the decision of a duly- constituted federal court, so that the federal government can continue to
violate the law and the Bill of Rights?
This is so far beyond the pale that the
one can no longer even see the pale.
"Blatter's reputation has been tarnished by those who incorrectly imagine that they have the innate right to rule the world. ... UEFA - therefore indirectly
Europe - with the support of the U.S., wants to impose its will on the nearly 7 billion other human beings that inhabit the earth. ... Why haven't we waited for the conclusions of justice? Justice? Hmm ... what kind of justice is this? American justice, which also appears
to cover the jurisdiction of the Swiss.”
— CONGOLESE DIPLOMATIC CONSULTANT J.J. Arthur Malu-Malu
The G7 Summit is Over, and the two leaders that appear to count the most have offered their summations. As usual, the interesting parts are the
Q&A with the media at the end.
Today is the second and last day of the G7, and to no one's surprise little of consequence has been accomplished. Here are today's notable headlines
from G7 Summit in Germany.
This is our first look at the G7 Summit that just began in the
Bavarian resort of Garmisch- Partenkirchen. The venue is well removed from civilization to prevent any of the protests taking place from fouling the atmosphere so participants can discuss the growing list of vexing problems that the Western powers along with Japan are struggling to address, starting with Putin and the Ukraine crisis, the catastrophe in the Middle East and the threat to the world oil supply, the Greece crisis, immigration,
trade, global pandemics, etc.
In addition to Edward Snowden's first op-ed two years after his saga began, there is a trove of reporting on NSA and FBI wrongdoing and outright incompetence on the part of the Department of Homeland Security, which has failed, as it seems to do a
few times a month, to prevent a data breach of U.S. government computers.
"The FIFA corruption investigation stands out not only as a momentous event for football fans and sport
overall; and comes as a thunderbolt in international relations. A shift has
occurred - though there is no way to
know how significant or durable it is.”
— FORMER LE MONDE MANAGING EDITOR Natalie Nougayred
"The fight against terror is a pretext for rather than an objective of the new surveillance law. Our societies have reached a stage in which
constant, continuous and total surveillance is being imposed as a method of government. We can be certain, however, that as a result of this law, others will be introduced
to reinforce this super-
surveillance that will soon
invade even our thoughts.”
Former FIFA exec Chuck Blazer, who
turned state's evidence and is singing like a canary about corruption at the
heart of the organization, has said in court documents released today that
FIFA executive committee members accepted bribes in exchange for the awarding of a number of World Cups, including South Africa in 2002 and France in 1998. This is the Guardian's
LIVE BLOG of articles, videos, Tweets
from around the world on the news
which is shaking FIFA's foundations.
1982 Boston Marathon champ and coach to some of the world's leading runners, American Alberto Salazar, is accused of doping clients, calling into question the accomplishments of people like British Olympic gold medalist Mo Farah, who trained alongside U.S. record holder Galen Rupp at the Nike Oregon project training facility. Rupp stands accused of
using banned substance under Salazar.
Edward Snowden appeared Tuesday
at an event held by Amnesty Intl. He explained what it feels like to
have triggered one of the great debates of our young century, and
outlined what he thinks will be the ramifications of the reform that has resulted from all the turmoil. He then answered questions from a very supportive audience.
This certainly looks like a victory against the deep state, which remains intent on surveillance-r elated war profiteering. The truth is that we still know very little about other programs that NSA
uses, many which undoutedly
involve collecting data on every one of us. This is the Guardian's write-thru on the death of NSA
administered bulk data collection.
"No, this isn't a joke; we're probably at the beginning of an upheaval the
likes of which we have never seen
before. By all indications,
once
machines replace muscles, they will
then take over the duties of the brain.
Whether it takes 10, 20, or 50 years
is irrelevant in fact. What is much more important is to plan for a time
certain to arrive, because these technical breakthroughs will be accompanied by unparalleled societal and economic upheaval.”
At midnight, global attention
will be drawn to the Senate,
where national security stateVIDO
fear mongers will confront a
handful of Consitutionalists
over the bulk collection of all Americans' phone records in the form of metadata. The
Guardian, which first broke the
Snowden story, has a number of columns on the issue today, and Germany's Deutcshe Welle has posted a column on how U.S. policy went off the rails when the U.S. surveillance state seized unprecedented authority - and money - after
the September 11 attacks.”
"Anyone who doubts lies were told needs to ask
himself two questions in
particular: What led Chancellor Merkel, her
chief of staff and her spokesman Steffen
Seibert to claim there
would be a no-spy deal with the United States? And what led them to say
that the Americans had
themselves proposed one?”
Those who questioned whether Ron Paul helped himself with his
Senate filibuster are taking back
their words, after the Senate failed to pass reforms needed to
extend Section 215, which has allowed for the bulk collection of all phone records by the NSA. Right now, a desperate Mitch McConnell, after failing to achieve a temporary extension, is now asking for an extension until June 6, then June 5, then June 4, then June 3 - with Paul objecting to each. High drama.
In what can only be regarded as a global sports earthquake, senior executives of one of the most corrupt sporting institutions in the world are threatened with jail time and worse - seizure of their assets.
The charges, which are based on an F.B.I. investigation, allege widespread corruption
in FIFA over the past 20 years,
involving bids for World Cups
and marketing and broadcast deals. Telegraph columnist Ben Wright notes with glee that at long last, America's 'global police' will deliver
justice in a way authorities in Europe, Africa or anywhere else has roundly failed to do.
"From Red Square, where
the 70th anniversary
of victory was celebrated, conciliatory words flowed directed at the West. The very next day, however,
Putin accused Poland of
collaborating with Hitler.
— CORRESPONDENTS Waclaw Radziwinowicz, Bartosz T. Wielinski
"In August 2012, the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency had already
predicted the emergence of the
Islamic State, but it wasn't labeled as an absolute enemy. Instead, the report suggests that the terror group could be deployed as a
strategic pawn of the Americans.”
Those who questioned whether Ron Paul helped himself with his
Senate filibuster are taking back
their words, after the Senate failed to pass reforms needed to
extend Section 215, which has allowed for the bulk collection of all phone records by the NSA. Right now, a desperate Mitch McConnell, after failing to achieve a temporary extension, is now asking for an extension until June 6, then June 5, then June 4, then June 3 - with Paul objecting to each. High drama.
"The war on terror generation, for which concepts like 'democracy' and 'human rights' exist mostly as one- liners invented to sell war, is the
result of years of interventions,
bloody wars, Western support for brutal and extremely conservative
regimes and economic exhaustion. The West has proven itself to be an enemy. Radical Islam is putting the enemy in its place - and therein lays its appeal.”
If we are to believe the origins of these documents released by the office of DNI chief James Clapper - a man who has been
exposed as a liar to American people and violator of his oath of office - Osama bin Laden was quite an eclectic reader, family
man and a major porn collector.
"With five days in the legislative calendar remaining before a pivotal aspect of the Patriot Act expires, a new poll shows
general antipathy to mass surveillance, a sense of where the debate over the
NSA's powers stands out of Washington.”
"A handful of the world’s largest banks
will pay a total of $5.7 billion and plead
guilty to criminal antitrust violations in
connection with a worldwide currency
manipulation scheme. Using names like 'The Cartel' and 'The Mafia,' the groups
colluded to make last-minute trades
to nudge rates to profit their banks.”
"Without evidence, 'whistleblower' Edward Snowden is dispensing revelations about the
Dutch Intelligence and Security Service, the AIVD, and journalists are eagerly lapping it
up: Self-hatred, distrust of our institutions is clearly deeply-rooted in our politically-
correct media. Already in 2014 Snowden was making these allegations, even as he sat in the lap of the FSB - the Russian security service. He no longer has access to the NSA,
so he invents everything, yet there are
idiots in the media who believe him.”
"Breaking foreign law on foreign soil - such as telecommunications
laws - can at times be tolerated because there's no way around it. But breaking the law at home,
against your own people, that is
another matter. In democratic
nations, the intelligence services
consider this to be ethically
unacceptable. These are things
that the BND's senior leaders well
know. And Merkel well knows.”
"Without evidence, 'whistleblower' Edward Snowden is dispensing revelations about the
Dutch Intelligence and Security Service, the AIVD, and journalists are eagerly lapping it
up: Self-hatred, distrust of our institutions is clearly deeply-rooted in our politically-
correct media. Already in 2014 Snowden was making these allegations, even as he sat in the lap of the FSB - the Russian security service. He no longer has access to the NSA,
so he invents everything, yet there are
idiots in the media who believe him.”
"The Soviet Union set us free - it defeated Hitler. For this she is owed our eternal gratitude.
That Germany is a free nation today is largely due to the fact that the United States and not the Soviet Union won the Cold War. If things had been the other way around, in Berlin today there would still be
military parades, flag waving and a dictator contradicted
only at one's personal peril.”
"Under the agreement, the Senate will hold a series of votes Thursday on three separate trade measures: two standalone votes on bills that
reflect the Democrats’ priorities,
including one that would address
China currency manipulation, and then another vote on a bill that would give Obama so-called 'fast-track' negotiating authority.”
Will this be the moment that the handful
of special interests that steer U.S. trade policy (essentially the multinationals who
benefit from it most and which write the Congress' legislation) change tack and grasp the fact that the way they negotiate trade deals in their own selfish interests is no longer acceptable? Don't count on it.
"Adelson accused his former CEO Steven Jacobs of 'squealing like a
pig to the government' in taking
his accusations to the American
authorities. If these allegations
are shown to be true, Adelson's
Vegas gambling licences could be in jeopardy because associations
with organized crime could bring
action by the state of Nevada's
gambling authorities, which are always sensitive to Las Vegas'
history with the mafia. That could threaten the huge sums of money
Adelson feeds the Republican party.”
"The White House story might have been written by Lewis
Carroll; Senior lying remains the modus operandi of U.S.
policy, in addition to secret prisons, drone attacks, Special Forces night raids, bypassing
the chain of command, cutting
out those who might say no.”
"The BND affair began as early as 2002. In the year following the 9-11 attacks,
the BND and NSA agreed
to a 'Memorandum of
Understanding.' Germans were expected to support American communications
monitoring: NSA provided the BND with search terms, the so-called selectors, which were used to trawl through data streams. ... In
2005 the Germans made an unpleasant discovery:
The NSA had issued search
terms by which the U.S. wanted to spy on German/ European companies EADS
(now Airbus) & Eurocopter,
as well as French authorities. Apparently, the Chanceller's
Office was not informed.”
"China has been coy about which countries it plans to invite to the parade, but
says it will most likely ask representatives from the Western allies who fought with China during the war. ... President Xi could be
left standing on stage with
very few Western officials.”
Good evening everyone. If you were
waiting to see how the Russians would celebrate the 70th anniversary of Nazi
Germany's defeat, you're in luck. From
its Victory Day studio on Moscow in high
definition, Russia Today captured every
second from Moscow and across Russia.
This is a selected series of videos from Europe and Russia about VE- Day 2015, the 70th anniversary of Germany's WWII surrender. They include historic footage,
drone footage, RT's Crosstalk program and live events. We will begin with the Russians, who
will celebrate the 70th Victory Day tomorrow, and then Germans,
French, British and the Canadians.
"To allow the government to collect phone records only because they may
be relevant to a possible authorized investigation in the future fails even the permissive ‘relevance’ test. ... We agree with appellants that the
government’s case is 'irreconcilable with the statute's plain text.'”
"The federal government has told lies about its own involvement in total surveillance.
... From the moment the NSA revelations began there were signs that a cover-up might be in Merkel's interest. ...
The revelations of Snowden have finally taken a place in the public
mind that they always should have.”
It's been a hard week for the insatiable
data suckers at the NSA. Not only has a federal court ruled its collection of phone and metadata of inncocent Americans illegal, but to add insult to injury, German media reports say that that since the beginning of the week, the German intelligence service or BND stopped monitoring the Internet on behalf of the U.S. agency. According to Deutsche Welle, only 'information
from faxes and phone calls' continues to
be monitored and sent to the NSA.
"While the elder Mrs. Clinton has attempted to play down her own ties to the financial industry in recent weeks, her daughter's image as a working mother in a young family is exactly the sort of thing she will want to emphasise.”
"Prosecutor Harald Range confirmed he
is investigating the chancellery's role in
allegations that the BND helped the NSA focus on European targets, including Airbus and the French presidency.”
"Merkel's reputation as an unassailable chancellor is under threat amid mounting pressure for her to reveal how much
she knew about a German-supported U.S.
spying on European firms and officials.”
"Austria has filed a formal complaint
over suspicions that German and U.S. intelligence agencies have spied on
its authorities and firms, says Austria
Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner.”
"A surveillance law is pointless in terms of stopping terrorism and
the attack in Texas has proven that. ... Even U.S. officials who have studied it have concluded that it has been completely unsuccessful in preventing any
kind of attack. The French Prime
Minister rejects the comparison
with the U.S. Patriot Act because everyone is outraged at what the NSA has been doing.”
— Dave Lindorff, Founder of This Can't Be Happening
"'Brian Rice, who pursued and arrested Gray after the 25-year-old 'caught his
eye' on April 12, was given
administrative suspension after being hospitalized for a mental health evaluation when he warned he was preparing to shoot himself in April 2012.'”
"How is Baltimore different than Ferguson? One answer comes from the symbolic image-of-the- moment which has emerged from the madness that struck this Maryland city: African-American mothers are going out to take back their black hoodie-clad sons. They look menacing, but these mother-tigers, different in their anguish from those in Asia who
push their kids toward scholastic excellence, grab their kids by the scruff of the neck, slapping and shoving them away from looting and burning.”
Financial analyst Max Keiser and
partner Stacy Herbert connect the dots between the criminal activity of the major banks and
the unrest that has taken hold across many parts of the United States in this latest edition of The Keiser Report. Keiser calls what's happening in places like Baltimore 'a genocide to keep the Ponzi scheme' of negative interest rates going.
"The government appears to
have known of widespread U.S. spying, possibly including economic espionage, against European targets and yet it
seems it did nothing to stop it.”
—REPORTERS Nikolaus Blome, Maik Baumgartner, Matthias Gebauer, Hubert Gude, Frank Hornig, Martin Knobbe, Veit Medick, Gordon Repinski, Marcel Rosenbach, Sven Robel, Jorg Schindler, Fidelius Schmid, Holger Stark, and Gerald Traufetter
"aking a stand in Berlin's Alexanderplatz are whistleblowers Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange and Edward Snowden. All three figures are considered heroes on
the left for leaking U.S. spy documents.”
"Communication networks face a potentially disastrous 'capacity
crunch' as demand for online data
outstrips the capacity of optical
fibres that carry Internet signals.”
"Many of the demonstrators are
young people who see very few prospects for themselves. The
middle and poorer classes still suffer - despite, when compared to Europe at least, was a strong economic recovery over recent years. ... The rich get richer and the poor ... poorer. This law applies to U.S. society as a whole
- and for Blacks it's even worse.”
"The first Black U.S. president
has been reluctant to make
defending African-Americans
a priority. Now that at the end
of his second term Obama has
nothing to lose, his call for soul-searchingh is welcome. But the soul searching he is a ppealing for also involves a reexamination of penal policy: there are 2.3 million Americans now held in U.S. prisons, and
a large minority (40 percent) are Black. With astonishing
candor, Bill Clinton recently acknowledged that the policy of radical repression adopted in the 1990s during his two terms in office had 'overshot
the mark.' It is far overdue for some lessons to be drawn.”
"So let's see if I've got this straight. Scottish Nationalists who don't want to be part of Great Britain may play a large part in how Great Britain is governed, even though the point of Scottish Nationalism is not to be governed by Great Britain.”
"The EU's intensifying assault on big American tech groups has
triggered accusations in the U.S.,
including from President Obama,
that this amounts to protectionism.”
"The civil war destroying Syria will not end without the help of Russia, a power that supports and nurtures
the Assad regime. It's there that the
epicenter of an earthquake with
colossal repercussions can be found, such as the growing threat of the Islamic State and the resulting centrifugal movement of people fleeing barbarity and death. ... One
must include Russia, yet the Kremlin's abuses cannot go unanswered.”
"'An expression of regret in the language of diplomacy means a lot,' says Foreign Minister Schetyna. 'In English, "I regret" implies a person has made the decision to repent. That shows courage on the part of the FBI director. 'I am sorry' means "I apologize to someone for something I
did," which suggests a dependence on the person being apologized to. That would be beneath the dignity
of the FBI director and the U.S.'”
"It's a very delicate balancing act, because, while we tried to make sure that they were protected from the cars and the other things that were going on, we also gave those
who wished to destroy the space to do that as well.”
"Angela Merkel’s government knew
of attempts by the U.S. to spy on the
French authorities and European
defence firms as long ago as 2008,
according to the newest claims. ...
Prosecutors are probing allegations
that the BND spy agency acted against
German interests by spying on E.U.
targets on behalf of the U.S. NSA.”
"Politicians of varying persuasions are using strong words to discuss the new NSA surveillance affair
revelations: There has been talk of a 'scandal in a class all its own;' a BND that is no more than a 'branch of the U.S. intelligence services;' and a 'willing tool' of the Americans. ... This raises questions about how effectively overseen the intelligence services are in this country.”
"German politicians express outrage following reports that the BND helped the NSA spy in Europe. The opposition
wants BND President Gerhard
Schindler to offer to resign.”
"This time it isn’t about fighting
terrorism, but classical industrial
espionage. The defensive reaction of the [German] government camp indicate danger ahead: BND Chief Gerhard Schindler say he
belatedly learned about these
operations and political leaders
only much later. This reflects badly on him and plunges the
Chancellor's Office into trouble.”
"An apparatus of secrecy, built over decades and
zealously enforced by Mr.
Obama, is preventing any meaningful open scrutiny of 'signature strikes' -
which permit the CIA to
kill without requiring it
to know who they kill.”
"In 2008, at the latest, it became apparent that NSA selectors were not only limited to terrorist and
weapons smugglers. They also included the European defense company EADS, the helicopter manufacturer Eurocopter and French agencies. But it was only after the revelations made by whistleblower Edward Snowden
that the BND decided to probe
the issue. In October of 2013, an
investigation concluded that at least 2,000 of these selectors
were aimed at West European
or even German interests.”
"From their European or American
headquarters, multinational firms aren't content simply exploiting the competition between workers. They also take advantage of legal
borders to skirt their corporate responsibilities. He who pays issues the orders? Perhaps, but those doing the ordering now wash their hands of the acts committed in their name around the planet. ... We can't simply accept that companies which govern the lives of hundreds of
millions remain above the law.”
The United States made an odd
admission today. On one hand,
it says it accidentally killed an
American and an Italian citizen held hostage by al-Qaeda. On the other, it says it also killed two other Americans it didn't intend to, but is apparently not
ashamed it did so without a fiar
trial - a quaint constitutionally- protected right which, like those guaranteed under the
4th Amendment -
no longer
applies in today's Washington.
"Much of the media won't touch the documents. 'You just have to keep working away and hope that someday you get a critical mass. ... The public
will say, in one way or another, 'Mr. President or Mr. Prime Minister', we want the truth and we want it now because it affects our lives.”
"The so-called Investor-State
Dispute Settlement establishes a de-facto private, parallel and
supranational judicial system,
which is accessible only to
foreign investors - decisions of which could be imposed on national and European courts, including the European Court of Justice! Moreover, the ISDS is marked by the opacity of its procedures and its decisions, high costs (from $5 to $10 million [per case] on average), no possibility of appeal and conflicts of interest: there are about 15 lawyers in the world who act as both 'arbiters' and as
legal counsel for companies, and
who have already participated
in over half of all such disputes.”
"Of the reactions to the Batman vs. Superman trailer release in
the U.S. film press, I read an odd column by Graeme McMillan of the Hollywood Reporter. ... At a certain point, McMillan acknowledges that trailers are no more than 'tricks' to convince viewers that the film comports with their preconceived notions. McMillan defines the ultimate test of a trailer with puerile phrase: To convince the audience that, 'hey, this movie is exactly
what you want to see!' If movies are thought of only in terms of
what 'you want to see,' it suggests
that good taste is on its death bed.”
"Al-Baghdadi has since made a slow recovery. He has not, however, resumed day-to-day control of the organisation ... his wounding led to urgent meetings of ISIS leaders, who initially believed he would die
and planned for a new leader.”
"We could collectively offer to resettle one million Syrians over the next five years. For a country like the UK, this
would probably be around 14,000 per
year for five years. For Canada, less than 9,000 a year for five years – a drop in the bucket. For Australia, it would probably be less than 5,000 per
year for five years. We can manage it.”
— U.N. Special Rapporteur,
Human Rights of Migrants François Crépeau
"Brussels has finally taken a tough line with Google. It is a good thing that it
has, but this is not enough. If it wishes to arm itself to better protect its citizens and businesses in a world that is digitizing at a breakneck pace, the E.U. must adopt the directive on
protecting personal data that was first proposed more than three years ago and which has been endlessly nitpicked by the E.U.'s 28 member states. The
Union must address all matters
which pertain to digital sovereignty.”
"An Iraqi officer planned Islamic State's takeover in Syria. Der Spiegel has been given exclusive access to his papers. They portray
an organization, while seemingly driven by religious fanaticism, is actually coldly calculating."
"They created the myth of nuclear
weapons so they could say that the Islamic Republic is a source of threat. No, the source of threat is America itself, with its unrestrained, destabilizing interventions.”
In seeking to defend itself against EU anti-trust charges that it abuses its dominant position in search to diminish its competition, Google last week cited statistics that it now admits were 'nonsense'. The incorrect statistics had to do with Google News, which it cited in an attempt to diminish charges that the firm monopolized online shopping services.
"In a Washington Post article aimed
at education agents on the
Holocaust,
Mr. Comey wrote: 'In their
minds, the murderers and accomplices of Germany, and Poland, and Hungary, and so many, many other places didn't
do something evil. 'They convinced themselves it was the right thing to
do, the thing they had to do. ... This
sparked a storm of protest in Poland.”
The standoff with Russia over Ukraine has continued even as the controversy over Iran's nuclear program and the emergence of Islamic State have taken its place at the top of the headlines.
That means that our corrupted media have given even less attention to the Russian narrative as it did when the Ukraine crisis was at its height. In our effort to provide coverage of the
U.S. that the CNNs, Foxs, ABCs and NBCs of the world will never carry, here are recent segments from Russia Today and Ruptly. At least in RT's case, we know it's state media, as opposed
to U.S. corporate media - which is comprised of national security state shills that pretend to be independent.
"Google has apologized after citing 'nonsense' figures for the two sites' traffic statistics in a response to
antitrust charges by the European commission against the company.”
"Hollande's bodyguards were
meant to be distracted by two earsplitting explosions staged by two suicide bombers outside the stadium. ... Our analysts attribute the multiple assaults
to a joint effort between al- Qaeda and the Islamic State.”
"UFO researchers have forced NASA to disclose water on Mars, however NASA still says its only in certain areas far away from the rover. This photo is proof that water exists in many places close to the rover.”
"We in Israel can
use a high dose of that 'Trumpiness' in our own political scene. Israelis crave straight talk
and simplified solutions;
are tired of out-of-touch politicians coming up with
incomprehensible plans to
solve the nation's problems; and despise the political tendency to sell out to large
firms and special interests.”
"DEBKAfile's sources report that Russian preparations for military action in Syria are clearly not limited to that country. They are being run by a joint forward command established a few days ago by Russia, Iran, Iraq and Syria in Baghdad. It is designed as the counterpart to the U.S. Central Command established north of
Amman for joint U.S.-Saudi-Qatar
-Israeli-Jordanian-UAE operations in support of Syrian rebel
operations against Assad's reime.”
Since 2005, during the U.S. occupation of Iraq, on behalf of the American people and the English-speaking world, the Worldmeets.US team
has been rendering content
from around the planet about September 11, 2001. For much of the globe, including for a large segment of people in the United States, what happened that day remains in dispute. On the occasion of the 14th anniversary of the attacks, we have gathered
some of the columns we've rendered on the subject over
the ensuing years. We hope you find this multi-national look back both
enlightening and interesting.
"Uri Geller's special skills, asserts a
BBC documentary, were used to aid
Israeli forces in two famed missions:
the 1976 Entebbe hostage rescue and the 1981 bombing of the Iraqi
nuclear facility. Asked to comment, Geller told Haaretz: 'Everything in that BBC expose is absolutely true.
The things I've done for Israel I do
not speak about. I never made
money out of my secret work, and many projects, tasks and missions I was given will probably stay top secret until the day I die.”
Al-Jazeera journalist Mehdi Hasan is back again, this time with a hard-hitting interview
with former DIA Chief Michael
Flynn on the U.S. role in rise
of ISIS. Flynn is shown a DIA document that shows either tacit or formal U.S. support for an 'Islamic Caliphate' to counter Bashar al-Assad. Flynn says 'it wasn't my job' and confirms that the DIA facilitated arms transfers to groups that became part of
ISIS as part of the planning to undermine Assad. Just to be clear: the former head of the
Pentagon's 'CIA' has admitted to funding and arming groups that became ISIS - and that the United States actually facilitated that to happen.
In one of his most interesting
appearances yet, Snowden proves himself as cool as a cucumber when challenged about his host Vladimir Putin, calling him an 'authoritarian'
leader. He answers Trump's allusion that his should be executed, saying 'It's hard to take anything Trump says seriously,' and he explains why Hillary Clinton's e-mail carelessness is intolerable inside government, and that anyone but her would be fired and brought up on federal charges - particularly
considering the way Obama has hounded people, often for all the wrong reasons, under the Espionage Act.
There were some startling
revelations in the Israeli media this weekend. First, a recording of former Defense Minister Ehud Barak was broadcast on Israel's Channel 2 in which he says that between 2010 and 2012, plans to attack Iran's nuclear facilities
were killed by cabinet members
who got 'cold feet.' Then, Israel's Yedioth Ahronot published this report on newly-declassified
documents that reveal how
between 1969 and 1972, the
Nixon Administration sought to
halt - in vain - the fast-expanding Israeli nuclear weapons program.
The lie perpetrated by the national security state about the need to spy
on nearly all of humanity in order to 'prevent terrorist attacks' and 'keep us safe' was proven again yesterday in France, when three Americans took down a machine- gun toting man who was already well known to the intelligence services - and who nevertheless managed to board a train carrying enough firepower to kill dozens if not hundreds of people. And this - months after France passed one of the most draconian and intrusive Patriot Act knock-offs in the world. This is the latest coverage of the
intellgence failure and aftermath.
Continuing his struggle to get the attention of anyone, former cleric
and Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is visiting Israel to defend his ill- considered comments about Obama
'marching Israelis to the ovens' and
lob as much red meat to the Israeli right as he can carry, suggesting in the West Bank settlement of Shiloh that Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank is more a part of Israel
than Manhattan is part of America.
"Western media believe
it's time to punish African
nations for their 'failure' to protect wildlife. ... it must be borne in mind that lions bearing the same Oxford University research collar as the famed Cecil kill many
impoverished villagers.”
"Some say that it's good Turkey is bombing ISIS but that hitting PKK targets is mistaken. The reason the critics offer is that the PKK is fighting ISIS. So we need to ask: Since when is it
OK to use one terrorist group to eliminate another? One need only recall how often certain governments have supported terrorist groups only to see them turn against those very governments. The fact is that one terrorist group cannot be defeated with another.'”
"The fact that the convicted spy's release is happening at such a low moment in U.S.-Israel ties casts a pall over the news in a way that never felt possible for Pollard's dedicated supporters.”
"The Israeli ambassador said that
while Israel's governmen and the White House are deeply at odds over the nuclear deal, Israel has
no doubt that the Obama White House is sincere in its belief that the agreement will make both
Israel and the United States safe.”
"Respected Mr. Huckabee: nobody marches the Jews to ovens anymore. To this end we established the State of Israel and the IDF; and, if need be,
we know how to defend ourselves, by ourselves.' ... Katz agreed that the Iran deal must not allow the 'Iranian terror kingdom' to become a nuclear threshold state, but said that the comments by Huckabee were 'wrong and unnecessary.'”
This is President Obama's address to the African Union, a regional organization comprised of 54 countries. In the speech,
Obama said things about corruption and abuses of power that African despots are not accustomed to hearing - which alone makes it kind of a treat to watch. He chides African leaders for flouting the law and remaining in office even after amassing huge fortunes, saying that 'the law is the law' (starting at 22 minutes), the maltreatment of women and girls across the continent, and the pernicious
dangers endemic corruption represents.
"It's not that Africans hate gays; we just know it isn't normal and try our best to deal with it. Let Obama get that through his head. We will not change our traditions just because he believes in the
White man's tradition that sees
gays as normal. President Obama must leave AFRICA alone.”
"President Obama’s father was famously absent from his life, visiting him only fleetingly
when he was a 10-year-old in junior school. ... But this fact only seems to have deepened the young Obama's curiosity about his father and fed a long search for rootedness which dominated his early years.'”
"When you start treating people differently not because of any harm they are doing to anybody, but because they are different,
that's the path whereby freedom
erodes and bad things happen.”
"Kenya's political heavyweights have deliberately tied U.S. President Barack Obama's visit to same-sex relationships. ... The drive appears primed to
rally the religious base of the ruling coalition by linking
Mr. Obama to Kenya's gays and lesbians - whom conservative
clergy-faithful find anathema.
It is, however, ludicrous, that Nairobi would welcome Obama
and then portray him as the
'sexual transgressor-in-chief.'”
"Obama and his team should refer to the saying, 'When in Rome, do as the
Romans do.' Americans tend to go to Rome and expect Romans to do as Americans do. I urge Obama and his team to try very hard not to do that
here. This I say specifically on issues like homosexuality. ... Kenyans, for example, struggle to understand how
a society can publicly support same-
sex marriage. How does such a
society expect to survive if we all
were to follow such a law?!”
"What is required of the nations
that signed the agreement with Iran is that they see to it that its provisions are very scrupulously, extremely transparently and credibly implemented, taking into account the interests and
security of states neighboring Iran. It must be clear to Tehran in no uncertain terms that any evasiveness or deception will
result in dire consequences, because if nuclear genie is released from its bottle, no one will be able to stop it, as it is the right of every country to protect its security, its stability, and the welfare of its people.”
"Obama has a grandmother, aunts,
uncles, brothers, sisters, cousins,
nieces and nephews in an out-of- post village, thousands of miles away from his seat of power. In
the eyes of the villagers,
barriers of oceans, seas and continents
make these ties no less binding. ... When he was first elected to the White House in 2008, the man missed the homecoming party.
Relatives will find it traumatizing
if Obama didn't go 'home' in the
third year of his second term.”
"'The procession will be carried out
by about 5,000 totally nude men and women to protest Obama's open and aggressive support for homosexuality,' said Republican Liberty Party leader Vincent Kidala. … 'In fact - our party
has a network of hookers in Nairobi, Nakuru and other counties. That is where we shall get these people -
whose number we expect to rise,' he
told The Star. He said the prostitutes agreed to participate free of charge since if homosexuality is legalized
- they will have fewer customers.”
"We may allow ourselves to ask if the accord concluded with Iran is not, in
part, American vengeance for the attacks of September 11, 2001. Saudi involvement was never publicly denounced by American officials, but many bits of information (including testimony from former Senator Bob Graham, who chaired the Senate Intelligence Committee and presided over the Joint Congressional Inquiry
into the 9-11 Attacks, highlight the
role of Saudi officials at the time.”
— Dr. Patrice Gourdin, Professor Emeritus, Ecole de l'air
"If Iran truly wants to become an accepted part of the region, it
should halt its policy of backing
armed militias in at least four countries where it has pursued
this destructive tactic. ... If Iran President Rouhani truly believes that Iran has a shared interest in regional stability, he could start by helping his neighbors become stable - and not destabilize them by financing and arming competitors to those states.”
"Bibi Netanyahu’s attitude on Iran
is tainted with an obsessiveness that
sabotages Israel's interests; now he is waging war on Obama on the latter's home turf,
despite the clear failure
of the tactic before deal was signed.”
"In the coming decade, the deal will reward Iran, the terrorist regime in Tehran, with hundreds of billions of dollars. This cash bonanza will fuel
Iran's terrorism worldwide, its
aggression in the region and efforts to destroy Israel, which are ongoing.”
This is video coverage of the Iran nuclear agreement from broadcasters in the five other countries involved in the talks. The Iran coverage includes reaction from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
“Once the final accord is in the bag, Clinton will have to come out in the open, because she
holds the key to a majority of Senaotrs to blocki it. ... the 44 Democratic senators are wobbling between being loyal to the president and their profound misgivings about the
nuclear deal with Tehran.
"Based on Quranic principles, fighting the arrogance and global imperialism is never- ending, and that today,
America is the epitome of
that arrogance. Therefore,
we must prepare ourselves to continue the battle.”
"
The combined German NSA target lists released by WikiLeaks so far show the NSA explicitly targeted for long-term surveillance 125 phone numbers of top German officials and, according to its own designations,
for political and economic reasons..”
"I've just concluded, since President
Obama endorses same-sex marriage, advocates homosexual people and enjoys an attractive countenance, [that] if it becomes necessary I shall travel to Washington, D.C. to get
down on my knee and seek his hand.
I cannot understand how this people
[the Americans] dare to defy Christ's explicit orders as our Lord when he prohibited mankind from sodomy.”
"
These extremists set up their own operations for acting alone, or in twos or threes at most. They choose their targets according to three yardsticks: 1. The highest number of victims they can kill. 2. The most
gruesome atrocity, climaxing with a
beheading in order to inspire terror.”
The length of a Tweet and the ease of sending one to millions of people in cyberspace makes them inherently dangerous. Judy Shalom Nir Mozes, the wife of Israeli Interior Minister Silvan Shalom, who also happens to
be in charge of strategic dialogue with the United States, is finding that out today, after she Tweeted:
'Do you know what Obama Coffee is? Black and weak.'
"This a country ruled by politicians unable to read or write or even decipher the words of their allies or their enemy's friends. They ignore even a message as clear as
that of the Americans.
Politicians of Iraq: analyze, be patient, and read! Where, when and how will the next setback occur; and what will you do about it?”
"By the end of the year the number of U.S. troops on the ground in Iraq will rise to several thousand. ... The figure of 3,000 American soldiers in Iraq understates the case by far. A much larger pool of combat forces is available close at hand for
deployment into the war on Islamic State.”
"It is. mind-boggling that everyone in authority seems more prepared to dismiss the allegations out of hand instead of taking steps to
ensure there was no wrongdoing. ...
There is certainly circumstantial
evidence to warrant investigation.”
"A FIFA post is the equivalent
of entering 'a land of milk and honey,' to the detriment of the
development of the sport. For all these reasons, football in the Southern Hemisphere has remained under-developed and continues to be vulnerable
to exploitation by the wealthy nations, as comprised under
the umbrella of Europe soccer.”
"There's no other way of finding anonymous
callers responsible for false alarms coming from traceable sources, such as cell phones that can be pinpointed geographically, find out whether they were cranks, pranksters
or terrorists, and punish them accordingly.”
"Finally, an explanation for ISIS'
abominations has come to light thanks to the seizure of a huge
cache of so-called Captagon, an amphetamine-based drug that inhibits any sense of pain, fear
or fatigue. ... So where does this 'Captagon' originate? This is where the more suspicious will
see yet more proof that certain
superpowers and NATO nations were involved in the creation
and expanding reach of Daesh.”
"How American Jack Warner took a $10 million bribe from South Africa in exchange for
his vote is laid bare in the 164-
page FBI indictment following the arrest of FIFA executives
ahead of what will be the corruption trial of the century.”
"The Iraqi army has been virtually wiped out, along with the many billions of dollars the U.S. spent on training and weapons. There is no
longer any military force in Iraq, Sunni or Shia, able to take on ISIS and loosen its grip on the central and western regions. ... The Kurdish peshmerga army, to whom President Barack refused to provide armaments for combating
the Islamists, has run out of steam. The Obama Administration can no longer pretend that the pro-Iranian Shiite militias are the panacea for
ISIS. Like Assad, Tehran has had to regroup.”
"For days now, much of Anbar's population has faced starvation and people in the Ramadi conflict zone have been fleeing in an attempt to cross the Bzeibez Bridge to Baghdad, only to find that Iraqi government forces are forbidding them entry into the
capital. ... Daesh has forbidden
most of the besieged residents in areas under its influence from
leaving for use as human shields.”
The ramifications of yesterday's
total defeat of Iraqi forces and
their retreat from Ramadi, Anbar Province's provincial capital, are just now becoming clear. Israel's Mosad-linked Debka File reports that Ramadi opens the road to Baghdad; The Guardian looks at
Baghdad's plan to send Shiite
militias to Iraq's Sunni heartland.
"For the U.S. to talk about
a lack of global justice is extremely hilarious. ... We would very much like to point out the words of Jesus Christ in defending Mary Magdalene: 'Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.' From a human
rights and moral view, is
America 'without sin'?!”
"Sources report that the rebels are armed as never before with heavy weapons like T-55, T-62, and T-72 tanks, BMP infantry
fighting vehicles, morters and rocket launchers, mortars and
vehicle-mounted heavy anti- aircraft machine guns (12.7 mm, 14.5 mm, and 23 mm). They
command at least four types of antitank weapons, including RPG-7s, RPG-22s, M79s, and an extra-large supply of TOW
missiles - all with night-vision.”
"He [President Rouhani's deputy chief of staff Hamid Aboutalebi] likened the current situation to an acid test for a new policy of gradual engagement,
saying he believes Obama's remarks represent American society in its totality, and not just political parties, the administration or houses of Congress. Therefore, it is his belief that the value of the dialogue between Iran and the America goes far beyond the politicized issue of nuclear talks, and therefore is an
opportunity that shouldn't be missed.”
Here is the fascinating tale of Israeli reporter Orly Azoulay, who gained access to Iran as part of a delegation organized
by The New York Times, and then after her reports were published, the outcry in Iran over whether she was even there and if so, why she was
permitted to enter- even after stating she was Israeli and with an Israeli passport. First, the
Iranian reaction, and then her
report from inside the country.
"Bachmann explained that if Obama and
the U.S. turn their back on Israel, this would bring severe 'curses' upon the United States, similar to those seen in
the end of days. But, Bachmann is not afraid of the end of days, rather she says that 'these are the most exciting days in
history' because nothing is more vital than the return of Jesus Christ. ”
"While the nuclear deal between Iran and the West may lead to an opening up of Iran's economic and political atmosphere, no one should expect a miracle or that all of our problems will vanish. After resolving the nuclear standoff the government will have to turn to other pressing issues, so public expectations must coincide with the government's actual resources - and
not be allowed to go beyond them.”
"Head of the IDF Planning Major General Nimrod Sheffer tells Israel Hayom that 'Israel will do whatever is best for Israel' if it feels Iran threatens its existence,
even if it means defying the U.S.
Any true partner will accept that. ”
"The president of the United States
is lashing out at Israel like Haman lashed out at the Jews ... I'm not
making a political statement. I'm
making a Jewish statement. ... I am being disrespectful because
the president
was disrespectful to my prime minister, to my country,
to my future and the world's future.”
"A plane of the F-15s type was hit
by a technical fault last night over
the Red Sea and the pilots were forced to use their rescue seats. ... Praise be to God, the pilots were rescued in coordination with the American side, and the two pilots are in good health and high spirits. ”
"The underlying regional concerns are not primarily linked to the potential reaching of a final nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic or
easing Western ties with Tehran. ”
"Israel has spent 5 years warning that Iran seeks Shiite domination of the Muslim world, and the Gulf States know by now not to rely on the Obama Administration.”
"The timing of the revelation is highly suspect, given that it came as tensions have spiraled out of control between Prime
Netanyahu and Obama ahead of
Netanyahu's speech to Congress
during which he warned of the
danger of Iran's nuke program.”
"'If he [President Hadi] was a real president, he wouldn't seek the support of foreign forces to crush
his own people. His request for foreign military intervention is a conspiracy against Yemen and proves Hadi is a traitor.' ... 'The
Yemeni people can confront the challenges and defend themselves without the support of any other
country [referring to Iran].'”
—Mohammad Al-Bukhaiti of the Houthi Political Office
"Saudi Arabia launched an air campaign overnight which has
already eliminated several Houthi leaders. ... Yemen air space is currently under the complete control of the Saudi Royal Air Force. a coalition of all GCC countries except Oman is taking part, including Sudan, Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Pakistan [and the United States].”
"Debka File's sources say that the WSJ 'allegation' was to cooincide
with a trip to Paris by Intelligence
Minister Steinitz and National Security Adviser Yossie Cohen to warn France and other European leaders that the nuclear deal will
enable Tehran to preserve its capabilities and remain a threshold nuclear state.”
"The main sticking point is France's insistence that U.N. sanctions stay in
place until the Iranians fully explain evidence of past development work on a nuclear warhead. Iran counters that it could never satisfy the French condition, because they would never
be able to disprove forged evidence
of a weapons program . Gulf sources
disclose that tough French bargaining stems partly from intense ties with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states. ”
"If we recall correctly, these are
the same people who up until yesterday were talking about the imminent collapse of political
institutions in Damascus and the
inevitabity of military pressure, an air war and a no-fly zone to help their 'moderate' terrorists
oust the Syrian government. So
what happened to their plans?'”
"After six years of testy relations, President Barack Obama may have to resign himself to the likelihood that he has not seen the last of
Benjamin Netanyahu. The result that many of Obama's supporters had hoped for - a repudiation by Israeli voters of Netanyahu's hard- line approach - was not to be”
"How can an official like the U.S. Secretary of State says that Bashar al-Assad can be accepted because he needs him in the fight agains the
Islamic State. John Kerry's statement is enough to push millions of people here to support the ISIS. If Kerry's
excuse is that it is necessary
to work with Bashar Assad
because he also despises ISIS, then millions of Syrians will cooperate with ISIS because
they despise Assad as much.'”
"The letter suggests that U.S. lawmakers not only do not understand international law but are not fully cognizant of the nuances of their own Constitution when it comes to presidential powers in the conduct of foreign policy. ... In our view, this letter has no legal value and is for the most part a propaganda ploy.”
"I am afraid of our leadership. I'm afraid of a loss of determination, of a loss of
personal example. I'm afraid of hesitancy and stalemate, and I am afraid above all of the crisis of leadership, a leadership crisis that is the most severe ever here.”
"It is clear that Mr. Obama's posture is aimed at winning public support and countering the propaganda of the Prime Minister (Netanyahu) and other extremist opponents of the
negotiations, using unacceptable,
threatening terms and formulations.”
"Egypt's intiative dramatizes the
spillover of the Islamist State's
threat across the Middle East
and
the fading impetus of the
U.S.-
led coalition to
reverse ISIS gains.”
"Given Israel's small size, it would take no more than a single nuclear bomb to
destroy its heartland and inflict a million
casualties. In one scenerio, after the
bomb is dropped, it would be detonated by a timer, setting off a tsunami. Giant
waves would swamp densely populated
Tel Aviv, an area with 3.7 million people. ”
"The Egyptian air strikes on ISIS hasten the next anticipated war in the region, particularly since they are inextricably linked to
the purchase French Rafale jets.
The deal strengthens relations between Cairo and Paris and restores to France a role it last
played during Mubarak's reign: as a balancing element in the strategic alliance between
Egypt and the United States.
”
"Egypt's intiative dramatizes the
spillover of the Islamist State's
threat across the Middle East
and
the fading impetus of the
U.S.-
led coalition to
reverse ISIS gains.”
"Our experts suspect US agencies 'protest too much' to cover up their real occupation, which is to steer the underworld into their waiting arms. ... Much of the
software originated in American government agencies. It was they who created the algorithms for transferring data and designed
the TOR protocol and Topology.”
"U.S. and Iranian officials have plunged into a last-ditch effort to rescue nuclear talks from falling deep into crisis. Some
Western observers tell DEBKA File's
sources that the talks are beyond saving.”
"How could any responsible Israeli prime minister refuse to speak to Congress on a matter so important to Israel's survival? How could anyone refuse an invite to speak on a matter that could affect our
very existence when it is offered?”
"Are they (the United States) not fighting ISIS? Why can't they come
to Nigeria? ... Look, they are our friends. If Nigeria has a problem,
then I expect the United States to come and assist us.”
"A look at the writings of the ISIS victim shows her
support and assistance to
Palestinian Arab terrorist groups, her acting as a human shield for them,
and active participation in anti-Israel protests. Rachel Corrie did the same.”
"I am going to the United States
not because I seek confrontation
with the President [Obama], but
because it's my obligation to speak up on a matter that affects the very survival of my country.”
"We cannot be [in] alliance with the country [Saudi Arabia] who
support the terrorism , because we are fighting terrorism. ... the source of this Islamic State ideology, and other al-Qaeda
groups are Wahhabis that have been supported by the royal
family that sits in Saudi Arabia.”
"The UAE dropped out over a
month ago, when it emerged after
Jordanian pilot's capture that no
facilities had been put in place to rescue air crews crashed behind enemy lines. ... Riyadh fears that the joint U.S.-Iran war effort
against ISIS is providing a screen
behind which the White House is opening doors for Iran to advance
Tehran's region-wide aspirations.”
"It's time for Bibi to announce the
cancellation of his speech to the U.S. Congress. This speech, which was born as part of his electoral campaign, endangers the security of Israeli citizens and the special relationship between Israel and America. With all due respect to your campaign Bibi, now is the time for you to act like an Israeli patriot and not throw Israel's security under your elections bus.”
"For decades, the West has
seen itself as a victim of terrorism that originates in the Muslim world; now
the Muslim world has begun
to see itself as a victim of terrorism that originates in the West, in addition to its home-grown terrorism. The obvious point to stress
is that both are now targets
and sources of terrorism. Therefore, all must now work together, in honesty
and in earnest, to finish it.”
"The last moments in the life of Moaz al-Kasasbeh are as compelling as they
are telling. A video released shows him standing tall before an army of
masked men. Then, the film shows
him put in a cage, bravely facing his
captors, head held high. Alongside
its allies, Jordan will continue the
war that will ensure that this group
is totally destroyed, its damaging
ideology wiped out and replaced
with he true teachings of Islam.”
First, reports from Germany's Der
Spiegel on NSA malware more
powerful than what it says other
actors use; expressions of regret
from The New York Times' chief that Snowden didn't trust it; and
the slow realization on the part
of supporters of TTIP that public
opposition could defeat it.
Then from Poland's Gazeta Wyborcza, demands for proof that more mass surveillance will prevent terrorist attacks; controversy in Canada about new powers being handed to that nations's NSA equivalent after it was revealed
that it monitors the downlaoads of
people around the world; China's demands that U.S. manufacturers provide that nation's despots with backdoors into their devices and encryption - gee, I wonder where they got that idea?; Verizon's begrudging commitment to allow users to opt out of its 'Supercookie'; Henry Kissinger's exciting day at
the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee; and a lot more.
"The decision to concoct U.S.
trip behind administration's
back pits Prime Minister
Netanyahu against Democrats in both
houses of Congress
and a few Republicans as well, reducing chances of stepping
up sanctions with legislation.”
One is hard pressed to find good footage of Obama's first meeting
with new Saudi ruler King Salmon
- but these clips from Saudi Arabia
broadcaster ShamsPro qualify. Also
included are clips of King Salman
dancing at a feast; Muslim rulers
arriving; and a long clip from last
weeks' funeral of KIng Abdullah.
"A number of Middle East leaders will be following the outcome of this Riyadh summit with bated breath. Many are worried that Obama may persuade the new
monarch to play ball on his Middle East policies, so effecting a radical
reversal of King Abdullah's stance of flat opposition to Obama's tactics.”
“In France and the rest of Europe, latent racism
has been unleashed on Arabs and Muslims - only this time out in the open.
As for us, we now have to bow our heads and accept insults and slaps,
then apologize for crimes
committed by others."
"Israeli officials say the leak is the U.S. administration's revenge over the Republican-controlled Congress' invitation to Netanyahu to speak to a joint session without consulting
the White House beforehand.”
Sharp U.S. intervention was almost certainly behind Israel's embarrassing
'clarification.' The U.S. Administration
feared the Golan strike might bring
a full-scale confrontation. Ongoing nuclear talks would then be abruptly interrupted and possibly break down.
The fiends of the so-called Islamic State
have issued this latest video,
free of any
blood but no less blood curdling. With the petrified hostages on their knees, a British-sounding militant explains that since Japan is contributing $200 million to the coalition against ISIL, Tokyo has to come up with $100 million for each of the men. The militants identify the
hostages as renowned journalist and
documentarian Kenji Goto Jogo, and
Haruna Yukawa, A private contractor.
Knowing that most will read
mainstream media coverage
designed to alarm more than
enlighten, this is a quick look
at this attempt by al-Qaeda
to convince more Muslims to
blow themselves up to help
create a worldwide Wahhabi caliphate [Thanks a lot you
Saudi monarchy nimrods].
"At the moment in France and Europe, 'it is not good to be a Muslim.' It is not good to be Algerian or of Algerian origin.
It is not through stigmatizing
entire populations, emerging political forces and by silencing those who struggle to expose political contradictions that
these issues will be resolved.”
"As a result of political, social and economic oppression and a loss of human identity in Muslim countries, we grabbed
our bags, crossed the border, and as is our custom when we want something, we begged, submitted, and lied to obtain
residency permits. Too bad in
Diaspora countries, some of us
are breaking laws governing every aspect of communal life.”
"Alongside news of the impending changeover, three Saudi officers
including chief of the north border guard General Odah al-Balawi were
killed Monday by IS terrorists. Two
wore bomb belts and were seeking
to infiltrate the kingdom. Armed with intelligence on the general's movements, caught him in ambush. Four attackers were killed in the
ataack, two of them by suicide."
Much of the planet is reacting to news that the United States and
Cuba are moving to restore ties. Cuba, which has been a darling of the left around the world since the Cold War began, and in some ways even more so since it ended, has tremendous emotional support on almost every continent. This
is a sampling of what
broadcasters
in other countries have to say.
"Based on unconfirmed reports, expectations swirl around Arab
capitals that President Obama,
in league with Russia and Iran, had turned his longstanding anti-
Assad policy on its head. He is
said to be willing to accept Bashar Assad's rule and deem the Syrian army the backbone of
the coalition force battling ISIL."
"At neither the state nor street level in the Middle East has the report into
the CIA's detention and
interrogation techniques - 'torture' by any other
name - created a horrified reaction. And this jaded indifference points to an
awareness that the people
who did wrong will never
be punished for their acts."
"All that the CIA has managed to achieve, talking only of the Middle East, is the return of an al-Qaeda hardened by years of trial, the hatching of a Daesh [Islamic State] which we haven't heard the last of, the re-destabilization of Afghanistan - pending the same or even worse for Pakistan - and almost everywhere an anti- Americanism at its zenith now
shining bright with every ray.”
"these were policies clearly orchestrated at the highest
levels and the culprits must be made to face the music.
The culture of Camp X-Ray,
invasion of foreign lands and the deployment of soldiers to fight ill-fated wars is
unworthy of human values and at the same time belies the great values embodied by the American Revolution."
"By assuming command of the local Ansar Beit al-Maqdas terrorist group, which last month pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has moved to add Sinai as a new province
to the caliphate established in parts of Iraq and Syria."
"A decision by the Turkey's government to open its soils to the transport at of Russian
gas will draw strong reactions
both from the E.U. and U.S. Giving Russia the kiss of life
would not be regarded as a well-intentioned move."
"History shows that the Jew and the Persian differ little in their animosity toward Sunnis. The situation for Arabs will inevitably
be more disturbing and very
dangerous. With every day that passes, dependence on weapons
from the West or East will get
increasingly dangerous. It's not
new to say the world respects
only the strong - and the strong
are strong only if they make
their own weapons and generate their own food. The Arabs lack neither their own food nor what it takes make weapons - even those that are nuclear."
"Whether Saja Hamid al-Dulaimi is (or was) married to Baghdadi or not, analysts agreed that her
capture will improve Lebanon's
hand in its effort to secure the release of around 26 hostages
kidnapped by ISIS and al-Nusra.
"An escape plan was in place
for convicted spy-for-Israel Jonathan Pollard . ... but he circumvented it and sought asylum at Israel's embassy in
Washington, his handler said."
"The source identified the wife as Saja Hamid al-Dulaimi, who was one
of the prisoners freed from Syrian jails in exchange for the 13 Maaloula nuns abducted by the al-Nusra Front last December. ... She was taken to
Defense Ministry for interrogation.”
"How distant it seems now, the elation surrounding the election six years ago
of the first Afro-American president of
the United States! It was then reasonable to believe that America had once and
for all exorcised the oldest of its demons
- a racial problem the roots of which date
back to the days of slavery. While many Americans are disappointed, they are
hardly alone. To Arabs, the dream of peace in Palestine announced by a newly- elected Obama on a visit to Cairo was even more marvelous than that of Martin
Luther King. We know the poor results.”
"Israel issued a stark public warning to its allies with a clear argument:
The current proposals guarantee the
perpetuation of a crisis that backs
Israel into a corner; military force
against provides the only logical exit."
"In that country, where entire generations have been brought up on the ideology maintained by Daesh, the ground is fertile.
The discourse Daesh preaches has been constantly taught and hammered in by the official religious establishment. The
'caliphate' is a the fulfillment 'ad absurdio' of this 'education,' which has had extraordinary means at its disposal to extend
and reshape religious life
throughout the Islamic world.”
"CIA puts ISIL's strength at no more than 31,500, but a top Kurdish official reveals that's 'impossible' given realities on ground. ... 'I am talking about
hundreds of thousands because they are able to mobilize Arab young men in the territory
they have taken possession of.'"
"What do three highly symbolic
events in the history of the
Muslim world this century - the attacks of September 11, 2001, the revolts of 2011 (the Arab
Spring) and the offensive by the
Islamic State in Iraq and Syria -
have in common? ... All three were catalysts allowing the genesis and the spread of new conspiracy theories. ... In the Middle East, which is coveted
because of its geographical position, its energy resources
and its hard coexistence with the state of Israel, how do we
separate conspiracy theory and
the simple games of powers?”
"Muslim sailors arrived in America from 1178. Columbus mentioned the existence of a mosque on a hill on the Cuban coast. I would like to talk about it to my Cuban brothers. A mosque would go perfectly on the hill today.'"
"O soldiers of the Islamic State... erupt volcanoes of jihad everywhere. Light the earth with fire against all dictators.
God has ordered us to fight. For that reason the soldiers of the Islamic State are fighting. ... they will never leave
fighting, even if only one soldier is left. They will never leave fighting, because they reject humiliation.”
"Speaking on behalf of the mob,
Youth
Union of Turkey leader Ugur Aytac said the men were 'proud to be detained for this. They [the U.S. soldiers] were afraid. They should be because
we will not give them a rest.'"
"The U.S. gave thousands
of its men and women for freedom, liberty, and the building of a democratic
Iraq. Yet now the Iraqis themselves are obsessed with sectarian, religious and ethno-racist wars. ... The Middle East considers deception to be bravery, losing as victory and the greatest value to humanity their graphic images of beheadings, imprisonment and bloody killing.”
"On 9-11, the United States
absorbed a devastating blow
from the al-Qaeda group,
and American blood was shed
at the hands of terrorists
who had been trained, funded,
armed and mentored by the
United States. ... It seems that
the Americans failed to fully
grasp the lesson of the terror
industry in Afghanistan, and
went right back into the
business in Iraq and Syria."
"There are those who oppose peace, and people need to not allow those who oppose peace to control what is happening
in the region. ... It is the
peacemakers that need to control it, and they need to take steps to begin to
move in a new direction.”
"Both U.S. parties need Iran for the 2016 presidential election, especially the Republicans, who are trying to create a change
in foreign policy. Therefore, both parties will want s nuclear deal and strategic cooperation
with Iran, notably to fight ISIL.'"
"U.S. President Barack Obama will host bicameral, bipartisan leaders from Congress on Friday at the White House to discuss a way forward with divided government.”
"Only a Republican-controlled Congress can stop U.S. president from allowing Iran to become
first Islamist jihadist state in
possession of a nuclear weapon.”
"The chiefs and elders said it is absolutely wrong and under Liberian culture,
abominable, for a body to
be burned. The traditional leaders have therefore called on the government
to quickly halt the practice.'"
"Barack Obama, who has committed not to send GI's to the banks of the Euphrates River, but who hasn't breathed a word about an eventual 'civilian' presence - is gambling on it.”
"Why haven't we heard that
popular formations - Salam, Ashura, Akidah, Kataeb and Asaeb [Shiite militias] have surrounded the jihadis of
ISIL the way we heard that Daesh had surrounded army
units committing massacres
at Camp Speicher, Mosul, Jarf Al Sakhr, Diala, Anbar, etc.? ... Perhaps the sense of conviction of leaders of these popular militias - the ones Maliki put in charge of the lives of our troops -
lack the commitment shown
by Saddam's Baathist leaders?”
Once again, the propaganda people of the Islamic State have put war reporter and hostage John Cantlie to use, in order to tell the world
that the town of Kobani in
Syria, the scene of fighting between Kurdish fighters
and the terrorists, not to mention US-led coalition air
strikes, is now almost totally
in the hands of the terrorists.
"There is a crisis with the Americans and it needs to be addressed as a crisis. We mustn't pretend there isn't a
crisis. Our ties with
the U.S. are vital and
everything that can
be done must be
done to end this crisis.”
"Now we are in the fourth
day and Kobane hasn't fallen. Now it is understood that
what's been done is wrong. Some of those weapons are now in ISIL hands. To whom
are you offering support?
There may be more rational, results-oriented ways, not
for the sake of appearances."
"The most ironic thing is to read Tony Blair preach the
confrontation against Islamist extremism and call for the eradication of Daesh when he, with his boss George W.
Bush, spawned the group.”
"There is a reason why the detail- oriented Pentagon accountants
are so careful about calculating the astronomical costs of the illegal air wars in Iraq and Syria: Saudi Arabia is footing the bill.
So not surprisingly, the political class in Washington is in no hurry to wrap up its 'ineffective air
campaign' against proxy forces
designed by the White House."
"One speaker described the war against Daesh as being between the camp of Ali [Shiites] and the camp of Muawiyah [Sunnis] - may Allah bless them both. ... In giving the atmosphere a sectarian dimension and seeking to stoke the passions of followers, this speaker
forgot or pretended to forget that a broad international coalition led by the 'Great Satan' is
also fighting Daesh. What camp would he place the coalition - with whose
descendants does it belong?!”
"Today, sadly, we hear voices
from Anbar who abandoned all their values, honor and manliness. They have openly declared their desire to have
U.S. troops help rid them of Daesh. They forget that Daesh is a puppet of the U.S. and Israel - which know Daesh and
manipulate it. Taking shelter
behind foreigner is shameful and will not be expunged for years or decades. Taking cover behind a foreigner will offer Daesh the chance to stay
and grow even stronger.”
"Each country in the coalition is fighting its own war. As is the case with France and its penny-
pinching air strikes, it is clear
that the militaries involved in
the operation are constrained: they are economizing on bombs
and their stockpile of missiles is
limited. As for the Arab states, which for the most part were involved in establishing and
equipping the Islamic State, the
nature of their contribution
remains almost a total mystery."
A 'We Love Lebanon with Amal and George' campaign
was begun by civil society
groups ties to the March 14th Alliance. Supporters of the March 8th Movement responded with their own campaign: 'Be Beautiful and Get Married.' Rapidly, the social networks were on fire. Disputes blew up.
Accusations were traded.
'Friends' were 'unfriended.'
The government met again, and after heated debate,
decreed it would continue
in session. ... By the end of
the afternoon, two lawyers and three actors had been kidnapped. … Then the electricity was cut.”
"Turkey denied on Monday having granted the United States access to its Incirlik air base to be used for attacking Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants in Syria."
" It is of great importance for Turkey to take steps to correct the misperceptions that have spread from its own region to Europe and from NATO to the U.N. This can only be done by recalibrating its position vis-a- vis Syria and the fight against
the brutality of Islamic State.”
"As for al-Assad, it's true that his regime is evil and deserves all sorts of condemnation, but Ankara has to realize that ISIL is now an independent threat, with its own mania and blood lust. Therefore, the we-will- not-fight-ISIL-unless-al-Assad- is-also-fought mantra should be set aside, and ISIL must be confronted as a threat of its
own, not as a mere 'symptom'
of the Bashar al-Assad disease.”
"According to this strategy, U.S.-led
coalition would hit the bases in Syria, while the newly emerged force will
structure the country. This newer power should consist of only Syrians from all fractions of the country, as
is with the Syrian National Coalition.”
"Can the death in a U.S. hospital of Ebola-infected Eric Duncan teach us
anything? ... We think it surely can. The first lesson to learn is that none of us should take Ebola for granted. It can be, and it often indeed is, a
death sentence, although as we've seen in the case of many survivors, it doesn't have to be. Then there is
a lesson we Liberians have a hard
time learning: The Americans, like
most other peoples, know how to look after one another. Do we in Liberia? NO! We prefer looking
after others rather than our own. See how two Lebanese rapists who viciously assaulted Liberian women were freed by Liberian courts. ... What is the lesson there?"
"We continue to commit moral sin and ethical transgression against the poor and weak. ... We ignore their needs and demands, we reward their abusers, turn a blind eye to the theft and abuse that
deprive them of essential social services
including health care, yet we are anxious to punish them, even before we gather all the facts. This must stop!"
—
Former Public Works Minister and Human Rights Attorney Samuel Kofi Woods
"Transparency is all well and good, except precisely in time of war - and we have never seen a power parade its own shortcomings so stupidly. ... The virtuous Obama, with the concern he has for the lives of his Marines, would be well- inspired to follow the advice of the exceptionally devious Richard Nixon: never tell the enemy what you will do, or what you won't ...”
"The powerful explosion blew out the windows of
buildings up to seven mile
away, and eyewitnesses could observe the blast
from a distance. Parchin is
a base where Israel and the IAEA suspect the Islamic Republic is attempting to
develop a nuclear device.
"These operations and many
others undertaken by IDF
units and the State of Israel's security forces, contribute greatly to the security of the citizens of Israel. ... This is the place to acknowledge and thank the handful of people who do so much to safeguard our security."
—
ADMIRAL Eli Marom,
Commander of the Israeli Navy 2007-2011
"Duncan's failure to level with the screening team at Roberts International Airport is the most unfortunate thing about this episode. ... He must have suspected or known
that he had come into
contact with a possible Ebola victim. While
pregnant women do
often omit, it doesn't
tend to takes their lives.”
William Kern speaks to
Best Selling author,
Trump confidant
and legendary political operative Roger Stone about the wild and
woolly GOP presidential race, Mr. Trump's controversial assertions that he would ban
all Muslims from entering the U.S., and his new book The Clintons' War on Women.
Stone is adamant that Trump is dominating the race precisely because of mainstream
outrage over his positions and that the storm over Muslims will only make him stronger. Mr. Stone and William Kern then discussed The Clintons' War on Women and
the patterns of criminality it illustrates.
William Kern spoke to Todd Shea, who was in New York to perform music on 9-11, but ended up
watching the fall of the World Trade Towers from a rooftop in Queens and immediately driving his band van to Ground Zero to supply first responders. It was a fateful moment that propelled Todd's life onto a completely new and unexpected trajectory: from an ambitious up-and-comer in the music industry to the founder of Comprehensive Disaster Response Services saving lives across the world. For the better part of a decade, Todd has lived full time in Pakistan, and he warns not to play into the hands of Islamic State by alienating America’s moderate Muslim population, who he says come here to escape the kind of madness represented by ISIS.
William Kern and Dr. Hall Gardner, Professor and Chair of International and Comparative Politics at The
American University in Paris discuss
the attack in San Bernadino, the fact that the United States and other
states use terrorists or 'partisans' as elements of their foreign policies and the genesis of U.S. funding of these groups. In regard to questions about how the perpetrators of the San Bernardino attacks amassed such an arsenal of weaponry, Dr. Gardner agrees with those who contend that such weapons should not be covered
under the U.S. Second Amendment.
Given that there appears to have been yet another large- scale terrorist attack, World Meets America Report host William Kern demonstrates
that Washington lawmakers have funded and nurtured
terrorist groups to act as an extension of U.S. foreign policy, only to pontificate to other nations about how evil they are. In order to break
this addictive habit, Kern
suggests an approach first
used by Alcoholics Anonymous.
What is being billed as the most important summit – perhaps in
world history – is underway in
Paris. Can we any confidence
that this time, a deal will really have an impact on the problem
– excess carbon on the earth's
atmosphere? Worldmeets.US Managing Editor William Kern
examines the major issues and warns that unless the obsession
with emissions cuts is replaced
with sequestering carbon in soil, this summit is destined to fail as
spectacularly as the past twenty.
In 1958, Edward R. Murrow
resigned from CBS News
over what he called undue
influence of advertising on
news coverage. In 1961,
President Eisenhower, upon leaving office, warned about the danger of the military
industrial complex. They were
both right and we now live
with the legacy of ignoring their prescient warnings.
William Kern talks to futurist and
super-soil advocate Seth Itzkan on a groundbreaking way to reduce atmospheric carbon that should
displace emmissions cutting as the primary preoccupation of policy makers, thereby taking much of the oxygen out of one of America's most vexing political debates. Known as carbon sequestration in soil, widespread adoption would
expand economic opportunities worldwide and reverse another of the planet's most difficult problems:
the relentlessness of desertification.
Dr, Hall Gardner and host Will
Kern discuss the attacks in and
around Paris, the mood of Paris,
bogus claims by the intelligence services that they need more money and authority to surveil
innocent people and undermine encryption. Dr. Gardner warns of states using acts of terrorism to justify 'acts of repression', and he said the United States
and other states continue to
sponsor terror groups because there is no agreement about
how to define 'terrorism'. Dr. Gardner also says that in terms of terrorism, we may be about to face a conflict on a scale comparable to a World War.
The World Meets America Report spoke to one of Europe's most well-known and incisive voices on foreign policy and the West Pierre Rousselin. He criticized President
George W. Bush for being too politically correct and confusing
the public by calling for a 'war on
terrorism' rather than a war on 'Islamic Terror,' and he criticized President Obama for the same reason – the fact that he will not
name the enemy – 'Islamic terror.'
Claims by the intelligence services
that if only they had more powers, backdoors to encryption and even
more spying on innocent people, they could have prevented the Paris attacks - have been exposed as false again by the Intercpt today
in a series of columns showing a) the intelligence services already knew about the perpetrators, so
warrantless surveillance is not an issue here b) that all signs so far point to the use of unencrypted communications on the part of the
Paris terrorists and c) collecting data on innocent people across the
world is actually preventing the NSA from identifying terrorist activity.
“His hateful discourse appeals
to the bassist passions such as
political intolerance, machismo, xenophobia and religious
dogmatism. All of these are a reminder of past campaigns that
have been directed at other ethnic groups which resulted in the deaths of millions of people. In fact, physical attacks against Hispanics and calls to forbid the
Spanish in public have begun.”
You wouldn't know it from the corporate media, but one of the most momentous meetings
in recent Asian history is about
to happen. The Presidents of China and Taiwan, states in one state of war or another since the pro-U.S. Kuomintang lost China's civil war and fled to Taiwan after WWII - will meet
for lunch in Singapore Saturday. The U.S. State Department - without reference to human rights or freedom - would like nothing more than to see the two sides make peace and unify, thereby making the Taiwan Relations Act, under which the United States is bound to come to Taiwan's defense in case attack
- null and void. Here's a roundup of reporting and comment on the history-making meeting between Ma and Xi - the first summit between leaders of the two states in 66 years.
“In Mexico we all have someone in our families who has been or is a migrant in the United States - and they are not rapists, nor are they drug traffickers. Their only crime is to have aspirations for progress. ... Yet as we have lashed out against Trump, Mexico has displaced the United States as the leading deporter of migrants in the world. ... Refugees and refuge: the aggravating fact is that we do the former better than anyone in the world; and on the latter we have abdicated our responsibility like never before.”
For a glimpse of our immediate elctoral future, look north. Out of nowhere, Canada has elected someone no pollster or pundit believed would win. Canadians, with the largest voter turnout in over a decade, just ejected
its most conservative leader
in a generation and elected the
48-year-old son of the Kennedy-
esque Pierre Trudeau. On issues like the Trans Pacific Partnership
and surveillance, consequences could be dramatic. Who is Justin
Trudeau ? Here's a sampling
from Canadian and British media.
Demonstrating once again the ever-living outrage of Okinawa's people at
the presence of American forces, equipment and material in their midst,
Governor Takeshi Onaga has followed through with his promise to block
the relocation of a huge U.S. Marine Corps Air Station from Futemna to a new one in Henoko - which is to be located on 'reclaimed land' - i.e.: an extension of the island into surrounding waters. According to The Diplomat - while the action might delay the plan, which has been in the works for
over 20 years, it is unlikely to prevent it.
"There's an urban legend going round: Hillary Clinton asked
some of her [Latino] backers a couple of years ago: Why don't Mexican-Americans get along with Mexicans in Mexico? … And the answer to Hillary Clinton's question? Well, her backers replied with another question: Why should we -- Mexican-
Americans -- worry about the
undocumented Mexicans, when economic and political elites in Mexico aren't interested in the fate of their poor countrymen
in their country or the U.S.?”
Venezuela's state-run TeleSur, citing multiple Twitter posts and sources on the Web, reports that El Chapo, the notorious Mexican mafia kingpin who recently escaped from a maximum security
prison, has put a contract
out on Trump over the billionaire's controversial statements about Mexicans.
“Few would have imagined
Trump's rebound in the polls after his rude declarations against migrants, women and gays. Reality put the lie to those who doubted him. ... The conclusion to draw is rather clear: in the nation which pretends to shelter
every person regardless of race, creed or color, at least declaratively, there are many who don't share those ideals. ... From deep in the catacombs where they have lived for the past 70 years, beings have emerged who refuse to acknowledge the social changes that have occurred during that time.”
"
This attack, which violated International Humanitarian Law, should be investigated, and those who authorized
the air strikes brought to justice. … If these officials
are permitted to act with
impunity, then there is a good chance that ostensibly peaceful people who support the government will turn to
violence and back the Taliban. Government leaders must put an end to the legacy of public suspicion of the government. No one should be above the
law or allowed to hit civilians.”
"Kunduz is crying. Helmand is burning. Nangarhar is bleeding. Paktia, Paktika and Ghazni are moaning. Yet what is the government doing about it? How long will it play the role of silent onlooker? This time it's a city. Is the government thinking about what will
come next? Will it be a province? ... After this catastrophic security failure, will our leaders [Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah] remain at loggerheads over appointing a defense minister? The problem of Afghanistan is that now there is no opposition party to press for reform.
While a handful of powerful people from time to time give vent to their displeasure - that doesn’t suffice.
There must be a powerful party
to remind the state of its mistakes.”
“One shouldn't forget the fact that governments set an example for their societies and that the U.S. has always taught its people
that destruction and armed violence can resolve anything - even if Washington's attacks on other countries have failed to achieve their objectives and have complicated problems they were meant to resolve, as has occurred in the Middle East, where its devastating incursions into Afghanistan and Iraq created an atmosphere that fostered the expansion of al-Qaeda, and subsequently, the emergence of Islamic State.”
It's more than high time for our latest edition of Spooks, Liars and Surveillance - a subject as difficult to keep up with as any on earth. This post includes links from the Webmaster at Full-Spectrum-Dominance.com - a site we encourage you to examine frequently. In this post you will find the latest news on Edward Snowden, NSA spying in German Spies who spy for the NSA, the new and horrifying 'Yelp for People' app, the latest on the battle over encryption; the illegal use of NSA mass surveillance to investigate ordinary crime, and the latest follies of the Pentagon and the
largest banks in the world.
Here are some other notable speeches yesterday at the opening of the U.N. General Assembly, from China's XI Jinping, Cuba dictator Raul Castro, Iran President Hassan Rouhani, French President Francios Hollande and Egypt Dictator Abdel Fattah Al Sisi
Starting things off at the Opening of the U.N. Genral Assembly this year
was Pope Francis Friday, and today,
President Barack Obama defending his absurd policy on Syria and the Middle East apparently designed to keep the planet in a state of war
ad-infinitum, and Russian President
Vladimir Putin on why toppling
Bashar al-Assad - particularly now
- would be a major catastrophe.
"The current critical period of transition in international relations is replete with dangers, albeit with unique opportunities. Any miscalculation of one's position, and of course, of others, will bear historic damages; a mistake by one actor will have
harmful impact on all others. Vulnerability
is a global and indivisible phenomenon.”
What a difference a day makes. People Francis isn't the only VIP here for a state visit. Xi Xinping, leader of neither-communist
nor capitalist but an autocratic
China, just arrived for his own
grand welcome. There are some
other parallels between Francis and Xi - for example, both are political leaders in addition to
being religious ones - and we refer here to Beijing's absurd assertion that China's atheist leaders are best suited to
decide which body the Dalai
Lama will choose to incarnate
in next. Here is a selection of
collumns and video on the trip..
Yesterday during his first day in the United States, Pope Francis canonized Father Junípero Serra (1713–1784), a
Franciscan who founded 22 Spanish missions in California from San Diego to San Francisco. That's all well and good, but as far as Native Americans are concerned, in the process Serra
committed untold atrocities against native peoples, acts described at the time as 'saving' souls. This is a series of columns from Indian Country Today, a
publication serving Native Americans and sovereign Indian nations in the U.S.
“With Donald Trump, the U.S. is regressing. ... This regression of
the Republican Party, if imposed
as presidential policy, is likely to translate into a foreign policy mistake that backfires inwardly by fomenting hatred against Latinos and their contribution to
U.S. society. Like an infectious disease, the Trump thesis against migrants has found an echo in people like Sarah Palin - self-
described future secretary of
energy - should Tump win.”
"The China-U.S. cyber security issue is mostly hype. Up until
now, the U.S. has
presented no evidence of commercial
spying by China's government. One confirmed instance of
widespread state espionage, however, is provided by the U.S. PRISM program, to which leaders of American allies like Germany's Angela Merkel and Japan's Shinzo Abe fell victim. When one compares bugging a head of state or a company
CEO, which is more damaging? The answer is clear to anyone.”
“Born of a dangerous combination of ignorance and intolerance, he seeks to recover the greatness of the United States with public policy worthy of the Middle Ages. ...
Trump has awoken the racism that
has always been latent in the U.S.,
so he may keep gaining popularity. For this reason, great attention
must be paid to this polarization. ... U.S. society should take care not to fall back into the extremist racial positions that caused such damage just a few decades ago and must demonstrate to the world the legitimacy of the universal values
that created global coexistence.”
“With singular irreverence, lack of political tact and a good dose of histrionics, Trump is accomplishing what other conservative politicians, due to either prudence or strategy, have not dared to do: he has broken the silence of a broad sector who never felt secure enough to openly express their rejection of equality and civil rights. This is the silent minority Trump has awakened - not exactly
for the sake of coexistence.”
"The victims are fleeing truly terrible situations: war, violence and savagery. Paradoxically, the vast majority come from countries where both the United
States and European Union sought to artificially sow democracy. In Iraq,
Afghanistan, North Africa, and in Syria, the shortsightedness and naivete of
the Europeans and their American allies have contributed to the disaster of the hundreds of thousands now attempting to escape. The least they
can do is face their own responsibility.”
“We'll need to muster
our finest engineering minds, cartographers and fencing contractors. The Rockies and Great Lakes pose a logistical
challenge. And Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, P.E.I., Nunavut and the Northwest Territories - the unfortunate, borderless five – will of course have to be compensated.”
"Our new U.S. ambassador suggested not reacting to
the language of Trump, 'because it would grant him a level of recognition he lacks, since only one in 15 people in the U.S. follow him.' He claimed that abuse of our migrants by U.S. authorities is a myth, and downplayed the negative image of Mexico projected
by the recent corruption scandals because, 'the Americans are accustomed to dealing with African countries which are equally or more corrupt than ours.'
With his appointment, President Pena Nieto has displayed his contempt for
the most important
relationship we have.”
"One of our readers ingeniously re-baptized
the racist madman who
sows hatred from the ashes reviving White supremacism North of
the Rio Bravo. Dump's campaign is itself one GIGANTIC exercise in anti-Americanism: it represents everything that the United States does not want to be in the eyes of the world. It appeals to the lowest,
basest, most obsolete human instincts: to their fears, their ignorance, their xenophobia, and generates suspicion, division and hatred.”
“The rise of the Donald Trumps
in the U.S. and Jeremy Corbyn
in Britian is no laughing matter.
For their ascent represents the
failure and not the rejuvenation of existing politics. ... and they call into question our way of thinking about Western political parties as the linkage between
the public and state institutions.”
"Significantly, the same weapons complex that drives the battle against real and fictional national security threats abroad
opposes restrictions on the possession of guns by civilians at home. Over- coming this double standard is necessary if this worrying cycle of domestic violence,
which disrupts tranquility in a country held out as a model of civility to the
rest of the world, is to be eventually reversed.”
“Psychological war against the DPRK is an open act of war. ... In this regard,
the Korea People's Army General Staff, on August 20, delivered an ultimatum to the puppet south Korea Defense Ministry that strong military action would immediately be launched unless anti-DPRK broadcasting halts and all psychological war equipment is removed within 48 hours.”
"It was Fidel who pulled the U.S. flag down in front of its embassy in Havana, and it is a victory that the regime he embodied survived 54 years
of confrontation and efforts
to destabilize. But his victory, with the return of that flag to its mast, appears so fallen,
so fragile, one feels moved
to pity. If I were the Cuban
propaganda chief, I'd keep
Fidel in hiding to maintain his image as it was 40 years
ago - with thick black beard,
and victor of Sierra Maestra
- not the stubble of ancient grey we saw last week.”
“The Mexican side found it hard to believe that with the level of espionage and
infiltration that U.S. spies manage on the Mexican cartels, that they couldn't have know El Chapo was planning to escape.”
"The angry reactions to Trump
have made no more of a dent
in the man than those that came after his insults of Mexicans or his comments about John McCain and U.S. POWs. Not only has he not moderated his positions, let
alone apologize - he continues to assume the language of a high school bully proud of his bullying. That's Trump: he goes through life insulting, offending and
bullying. And when someone answers back, he reiterates and reinforces his original offense, depicting himself as a victim of the establishment.”
"His aggressive rhetoric has already involve direct threats
against our sovereignty, which involve, without a doubt, his promise to build a border wall between our countries and force Mexico to pay for it. On the other, the long-cherished desire for a solution to the immigration status of millions
of Mexicans and their families
who reside in the United States
will vanish with the arrival in
office of a man like Trump.”
Newly-leaked NSA cables demonstrate U.S. spying on Japanese executive and trade officials, although notably not,
we are told, Prime Minister Abe's private communications. That said, the
first leaked cable suggests otherwise; German reporters who leaked news about a new spy agency will not be prosecuted for treason; Laura Poitros Sues U.S. for harrassment; Iranians fabricate WikiLeaks document to smear
U.N. rights rapporteur Ahmed Shaheed.
"In 2003, Hillary was a senator
voting in favor of the invasion. Recently she said at a campaign rally: 'My support for the Iraq War was a mistake. It's as simple as that.' ... At an event in Reno, Nevada, a student told Jeb Bush: 'Your brother created ISIS.' ... George W. Bush was a leader with questionable knowledge who wanted to destroy, after centuries of history, the very birth passage of the West and
the U.S. itself. He attempted to close a circle with the ultimate act of brutality in the very cradle of Western history and culture.”
“If so many people knew of the impending start of extradition proceedings, it's possible that among the Mexicans outside the narrow ruling circle who were aware, there were
those who disagreed with
extradition to stop him
from telling - or inventing - stories involving senior Mexican figures. If the latter exist, they would
fear the consequences of his extradition and would do anything to prevent it. The best way of doing so was ... the escape of El Chapo.”
"By generalizing about Mexicans, the underlying racist undertones of his position were thankfully exposed. It became clear what for many years, conservative politicians have tried to conceal. Trump thought he was attacking those who have always been vulnerable, those who remain
in the shadows - and that his
bravado was politically correct.
But he was wrong. He attacke d an entire community that has finally begun to come forward and defend themselves and denounce these covert racists.”
This is one of the staunchest defenses
a president has taken on a public policy in years. After a six minute comment, President Obama took questions from reporters for an hour until literally, no one in the room had more to ask him.
One question from reporter Major
Garret, formerly of FOX news, now at CBS, in which he appeared to impune Obama's integrity by suggesting that he
was 'celebrating the deal' as American prisoners languished in Iranian prisons was a particularly memorable exchange.”
“Brazilian Internet Steering Committee Executive Secretary Hartmut Glaser told reporters that the United States, partly due to pressure stemming from the NSA scandal, agreed to relinquish its two- decade-long control of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers (ICANN), the organization that administers fundamental technical issues linked to the Internet, such as the distribution of domains. ... According to Glaser, the problem is that today, the United States has the technical capacity to shut down the Internet in any country.”
—INTERVIEW with Hartmut Glaser, executive director of the Latin American and Caribbean Internet Addresses Registry
"The reality is that Ms. Universe is a pillar of Mr. Trump's financial
empire that boosts his image and alliances. That is why it would be best for Paulina Vega to reject workplace discrimination and
give up her pageant crown.”
“'El Chapo', godfather of Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel and one of the most murderous drug kingpins on the
planet, escaped one of Mexico's
'maximum security' prisons - for the third time - and after Mexico refused to extradite him to the United States. Here is the latest
write-thru on his escape, and
content Worldmeets.US has
translated over recent years on
'El Chapo's' bloody career and the
results of his arrests and escapes.
"Either openly or in whispers, every one of them has conducted himself in accord with such thinking. James Monroe established his doctrine
defining Latin America as the U.S. 'backyard.' From the 18th century to Obama today, every president has treated Latin America as if it were.
Fearing the spread of freedom, Washington backed French planters in Haiti with arms and money against a revolt by Black slaves. Lincoln wanted, but could not arrange, to rid the country of emancipated slaves by sending them to colonize Central America. Obama continues to use its Guantanamo base in Cuba as an illegal dumping ground for holding prisoners
without trial. As far as Donald Trump's proposed wall, this idea was lifted largely from President Bush (the son).”
Japanese football fans are licking their wounds after the United States dominated the U.S-Japan Women's World Cup final with a
5-2 victory. This is some of
today's Japanese media coverage.
"Donald Trump and Dylann Roof are neither crazy nor marginalized. On the contrary, their vile discourse and despicable actions are a natural expression of the deeply-ingrained
racism that characterizes the White ideology in our northern neighbor.
The decline of the imperial U.S. is generating increasingly desperate and violent reactions among those who once controlled the world's destiny. Unless we act quickly to prevent it, Mexico will be sucked
into one of history's sewers due to
a new wave of hate and violence.”
"Stadiums aren't bubbles within a city. Nothing that happens on the inside is disconnected from the logic that leads and guides the lives of people on the outside. The person that sits there and yells
that such-and-such player is a fag, that the opponent is a faggot, and who abhors being called a faggot himself, is not likely a guy who will defend LGTB rights and think about the violence to which minorities are subjected when he leaves.”
— Founders of Gay Rights in Football Group Bambi Tricolor
"Mexico's complaint about the 2014
U.S. Human Rights Report is a typical
kind of insolent remark made during a quarrel between cheerful buddies
who could not care less about what happens to the victims.”
In a sign of her economic weakness at home, Brazil President Dilma Rousseff,
during her first U.S. visit since nixing a state visit in 2013 over NSA political and industrial espionage against her personally and Brazilians in general, made the astonishing statement today that 'things have changed'. Inexplicably,
as we're in the midst of another scandal
over NSA spying on the French, Rousseff
recounted Obama 'promised her' that such things would no longer occur! This
highlights again that outrage expressed by world leaders is for public conumption only - and that mass surveillance of all people is widely excepted among global
political elites. For her sake, one hopes
Brazilians are fools she takes them for.
"In Japan, only a few local governments have begun such discussions. In an age
that accepts many ways of
living, Japan should open
a discussion like this at the national government level, since local governments are limited in what they can do.”
"Trump's hopes for the Republican
nomination have neither rhyme nor reason. ...
Unfortunately for him, he is now despised not only in the political sphere, but by migrants, a sector likely to be definitive for the outcome of the upcoming election.”
The Supreme Court has ruled, once and for all, that people who find those of the same
sex more appealing than the opposite sex can marry anytime they like - and wherever they like. People on the right, so assertive
about individual rights and keeping the state out of our lives, are largely embracing the
change. People who oppose gay marriage for religious reasons are in the vast minority - which is clear to be seen. Here is some
initial English-language international reaction.
"Not only are you named after a duck, not only do you have the ugliest toupee of any well- known person - but now you have given us your candidacy
for the U.S. presidency - an idea so ridiculous that you've managed to make us one with the gringos in crying out in unison: 'Never!' ... But let's not be complacent. To friends who read this column: Please don't vote for this impossible clown and choose someone serious for the presidency!”
"A mere police operation, even of a large scale as is the case now with the FBI against FIFA, will not suffice to alter the course of world sport.
None of this will transform members
of sports organizations into vestals. ... The arrogance of international sports bodies always prevails and
survives. They are organized,
powerful and influential groups.”
"The U.S. is a structurally violent state in which the use of force as a means of resolving differences serves as an example to every citizen. No country in history has been responsible for as many aggressions, direct or indirect,
against other nations: armed invasions,
bombings, occupations, sponsorship of terrorist acts, sabotage, blockades,
destabilization, assassinations, and kidnappings and are just some of the methods the United States has used to
impose its interests on dozens of states
in Africa, Asia, Europe and Americas,
including several times, Mexico.”
"'A Sunday Times article stating
that British spies were 'betrayed'
to Russia and China intelligence
services as a result of Snowden's mass-surveillance revelations to
the press is 'utter nonsense,' says
the whistleblower's attorney.”
"If there is such a thing as Bush family fatigue among American voters, Jeb Bush is about to test it. He is the third Bush family politician to reach for the White
House. Together, they share a hunger for the family business –
politics. But when it comes to personality, politics, governing and their place in the family, there are real differences.”
"'The dynastic political lineage is more Nehru than Kennedy. A third Bush presidency in America remains very much in play with former Florida governor Jeb Bush making a
formal announcement Monday
he's entering the 2016 race.”
Newspapers and outlets around
the world are reporting the Hillary
Clinton will seek the Democratic nomination to be president of the United States! No - you aren't having a flashback. For some reason, the former first lady has been permitted a second campaign launch. WHatever it was, we have news broadcasts from around the world, followed by some original, non-wire service
global newspaper coverage.
"'I don't think that [Russia] really plans
to occupy the Baltics - because it would
be dangerous,' says ex-Russian nuclear
scientist Dr. Igor Sutyagin. But he says
it is in the Kremlin's interest to play a dangerous game of bluff and come as
close as it dares, because it may be
the key to the unravelling of NATO.”
With the help of fear mongering and the determination of the intelligence services to protect their budgets and expand their authority, the Canadian Senate
has passed bill C-51, a law that, like legislation passed by the U.S. Congress in 2002, undermines
civil liberties and an independent
press based on the descredited argument that doing so will 'keep
people safe' from a threat that was generated by these very same intelligence services. Hmmm ...
Glenn Greenwald appeared on Australia's ABC Lateline program to discuss chanes in U.S. surveillance laws and surveillance in Australia, where he said politicians are some of the most shameless fearmongers
in the world. Then, Edward Snowden
analyzed the country's new metadata law, which he called 'dangerous and radical'.
All one can say about this column is: read it and weep, and think of what it says about the pretensions of our government and the corrupted mainstream media - which still,
weeks after a declassified DIA document proved beyond doubt that the Islamic State
was created with help and encouragement from the United States government, hasn't uttered a word, broadcast a segment, or demonstrated any interest whatsoever in exposing one of the greatest frauds and
greatest hypocrisies ever perpetrated.
"Why did the U.S. arrest a
Uruguayan in Switzerland
for recieving bribes from
Brazil over a football match
in Chile? How can American law reach so far beyond its
borders and prosecute
foreigners, who are seem
to be perpetrating foreign crimes, on foreign victims,
and all on foreign soil?”
"Heads of state and government
are expected to be seen reveling in the lancing of a festering boil such as corruption in football. ...
Unlike other leaders, however, Putin prefers to use the FIFA as
an event in his war on the U.S.
and of Russia's new nationalism.”
"While Blatter has seen off mutinies by discontented FIFA members, he could not hold off U.S. and Swiss investigators. ... Their inquiries into bribes and the award of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups led to him walking the plank, with some reports claiming that Blatter himself is
now under investigatation by the FBI.”
"Japan has achieved democracy
and wealth under a Constitution
drafted by American occupation
forces. But if he were sincere as a politician, he should have immediately protested to the U.S. that the American forces imposed the Constitution on Japan and should have declared that Japan would quickly write
a constitution on its own -
because Abe once called the
Japan Constitution 'disgraceful.'”
"It is somewhat surprising that the official account about the boots on
the ground that killed Abu Sayyaf
hasn't attracted more scepticism - although questions have been
raised about his significance in the
Islamic State hierarchy. ... There's no reason to expect, though, that we will be any the wiser four years hence. What’s shocking, though, is that so many of us no
longer flinch when U.S. pursues
to the end quarries that it helps to create. No jury, no trial, just a
[robotically imposed] execution.”
"Francis is preparing to stick his sanctified nose into yet another hornet's nest: global
warming. With his charisma and strong vision of how to utilize the media, the pope
will bring to the forefront discussion on humanity's
responsibility for environmental degradation.”
"Actor Johnny Depp, and specifically his Yorkshire terriers named Pistol
and Boo, are the latest people caught up the Abbott government's hand- handed public relations. Hot on the
heels of government criticism of mom's who it charges 'double dip' into subsidies for parents to give them more time at home with their babies, Depp is being accused of failing to declare his dogs before arriving in the country to film the latest episode
of 'Pirates of the Caribbean.' Aussie newspapers Sydney Morning Herald reports that Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce's threat that if Pistol and Boo don't 'bugger off' in the next 50 hours, they would be euthanized, has won the Australian government the
ire of the world's dog and Depp lovers.”
"The issue of insecurity and violence
in some [Mexican] states, have unfortunately provided material for kneejerk U.S. abuse of travel
warnings. As a matter of equivalence, 'the government of Mexico should warn its citizens not to travel to Ferguson, Cleveland or Baltimore, where excessive use of force by
police has left 3 Afr0-Americans dead.”
"The 27 million Soviets who died in the Great Patriotic War also made it possible for humanity to retain the right to think and be socialists,
communistst and Marxist-
Leninists and to leave
the dark ages far behind.”
"Green security and intelligence
spokesman Kennedy Graham said
GCSB conducts the same method of spying 'that has now been found to be illegal in the United States.'”
It may be the mistake of the century: The NSA's undermining of encryption
and its building of 'backdoors' into the
products of U.S. companies has been
catastrophic for the U.S. Web giants,
which will soon be excluded from the
China market unless they provide the same to Beijing. Meanwhile, Japan Prime Minister Abe just addressed Congress to 'apologize to the souls' of America's war dead, enraging China and Korea by not apologizing for the 'comfort women,' and talk up the the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which now excludes China - America's second largest trade partner. How does any of this make sense? We get answers with China Money Report's Dan Collins and Webmaster of Full-Spectrum- Dominance.com Xander Dal Riata.
"My dear friends, on behalf of
Jaoan and the Japanese people, I offer
with profound respect my eternal condolences to the
souls of all Americans that were
lost in the Second World War.”
"Kim cancelled plans to attend Russian commemorations of the end of World War II, a Kremlin spokesman said. Kim had been expected to attend a military parade in Moscow marking the 70th anniversary of WWII. It would have been
the Kim Jong Un's first trip
abroad since coming to power.”
"During his speech to a joint session of the U.S. Congress, Prime Minister Abe paid consideration to American wariness over his perceptions of history and expressed feelings of 'deep remorse' over World War II, emphasizing his country's path as a
peaceful nation in the postwar era.'”
"History is harsh. What is done cannot
be undone. My dear friends, on behalf of Japan and the Japanese people, I
offer with profound respect eternal
condolences to the souls of all of the American people that were lost
during the Second World War.'”
These are the better videos on the Nepal earthquake collected over the
past 24 hours. There is remarkable footage from people on the scene
and segments from broadcasters like BBC, Euronews, NewsX India, NTV India, ASP News India, and Kantipur
TV Nepal, Soztv Turkey, RT of Russia.
"U.S. government agencies like
the ATF and DEA have shown
no compunction about breaking
national laws, smuggling arms to criminal groups involved in the drugs trade, laundering
their cash and even attending
parties paid for by drug cartels, all of which has been made clear
by investigations conducted in
our neighbor to the north.”
"He regularly follows the Jihadi
publications and global media resources to judge his victories and likewise other issues against the foreign invaders. In this way, he remains in touch with the day to day happenings of his country as well as the outside world.”
"Ms Bishop wrapped up the first
visit to Tehran by an Australian
minister in more than a decade
Sunday by declaring confidence
that a nuclear deal was within
reach. ... And she said countries
such as Israel ,which has been
sharply critical of the nuclear
talks. should now be satisfied.”
"Studied today, the two debaters seem to be articulating the future of American rhetoric. In their scornful comments you can see the beginning of the unbridgeable
chasm that now separates left
and right in the United States.”
"A National Security Agency document,
among other material from Snowden, states that the GCSB 'continues to be
especially helpful in its ability to give
NSA ready access to areas and states
that are difficult for the U.S. to access.' ... In essence, our relationship with
China is of use to the U.S. and allows New Zealand to operate as a Trojan
Horse - or even Trojan Kiwi - for
NSA intelligence gathering efforts.”
"If relations between the countries continue to progress, there are two ghosts that seem destined to their
graves, even if we continue to hear their echoes: anti-imperialism and anti-communism. The far-right Tea Party in the United States and the champions of 21st century socialism will beat these ghosts as long as the racket brings them political gain.”
"The contacts at the highest level will
bring an end to the Island as a ghost comprised of a few facts and lots of mythology. ... My first trip to Cuba was in 1977 when Brazilians were prohibited from traveling to the island. ... It was clear to me that there was a profound mutual ignorance between
Cuba and the outside world which has
served the mutual phantasmagoria. ...
America will make a similar discovery.”
"China's government has given the
U.S. a priority list of China officials suspected of corruption and who are believed to have fled there. ... Chinese officials say more than 150 'economic fugitives' including
corrupt state officials, are in U.S.”
"The common denominator in all of
these cases, beyond the defenseless
condition of the victims, is a clearly racist and classist application of the
use of force and a propensity to protect the perpetrators of murder.
... The human rights crisis on U.S.
undermines all of its remaining moral authority or humanitarian pretensions.”
In a wide-ranging press conference
at the end of the 7th Summit of the
Americas, President Obama talks of
the ramifications of the U.S.-Cuba rapprochement, the Iranian nuclear
deal and why the Supreme Leader's Tweets have little bearing on the actual words of any agreement. While he refused to say whether he
backed a Hillary Clinton presidential
run, he praised her accomplishments
and the support she has shown him during his terms in office. The event
begins at 37 minutes, and a question
and answer session at 47 minutes.
Major steps toward normalcy and civilized relations between the United States and Cuba at the 7th
Americas Summit in Panama is being closely watched around the world. Here is a sampling of news segments on yesterday's handshake and today's initial meeting of the two heads of state from broacasters around the world, starting with President Obama's speech yesterday
in which he said a few things
critics will call 'apologizing for America'.
"Now that our country is for
a second time to host an event
bringing together heads of
state and governments of the
Americas, it is striking that just
as it was in 1956, democratic
values and human rights will be
discussed only rhetorically. No
one will dare point an accusing
finger at Venezuela and/or
Cuba, which are countries
that flout such concerns.”
Venezuelan President Maduro visited the site of the biggest battle of the 1989 U.S.
invasion of Panama, where he called on the U.S. to pay reparations to the families
of the dead and apologize for the invasion.
"We are sickened that someone like Felix Rodriguez Mendigutia could come to Panama to meet with traitors who inexplicably
have been allowed to take part in the Civil Society Forum and share their opinions on the future of our homeland.”
—– Ricardo Guardia Lugo, President of the Cuba-based Continental Organization of Latin American Students
"President Obama's visit to Jamaica provides a unique opportunity to plea for the exoneration of Marcus Garvey, Jamaica's
first national hero.
... The case against him was the culmination of a series of efforts to criminalize and deport Garvey
from
the U.S. There are many reasons to think the trial was unfair.”
"The U.S. is looking for partners, not mendicants or dependents. Don't bring a begging bowl into the meeting in
Kingston. Instead of asking for handouts
or debt cancellation, it would be better
to focus on drawing private investment.
Seeking aid to deal with climate change may be a priority for small-island states, but one is much more likely to elicit U.S.
interest by raising transnational crime.'”
"When the U.S. attempted to protect the existing financial status quo by boycotting the AIIB, it highlighted the bank's political implications. The result is that Washington
overestimated its own appeal and has lost
influence for its dealing with the issue.”
"Kiriakou expressed disgust with his country's role in sending the engineer to be tortured in his native Syria, and with its continuing failure to issue an apology like Canada has. ... 'I can
tell you a lot of CIA people objected to this.'”
"While the world focuses on dangers that a nuclear-armed Iran could bring in the Middle East, a potentially more
dangerous and unstable proliferation is occurring in the Indian Ocean. ...
Observers have long seen the nuclear rivalry between Pakistan and India as
the most unstable, and
South Asia as the most likely location of nuclear conflict.”
Over the past few days a debate has broken out over whether Andreas Lubitz, the Germanwings pilot who
crashed his own aircraft killing all
aboard, A) is a terrorist, and B) was
a Muslim convert who committed
murder over his religious convictions.
Is the mainstream media avoiding the
word 'terrorist' for this German man
and trying to prevent the fact of his religious conversion from emerging?
"Obama has Caracas in his sites
for supporting jihadist networks, which include giving Venezuelan
passports to terrorists and bank
accounts for use of this network
of corruption. To be an enabler
of Maduro is to be complicit in political repression, corruption,
and indirectly, assisting in jihadi
terrorism; nothing more orless.”
"For Berlin, a government depicted as a global benchmark of legality, it is imperative to as quickly as possible lay
out the facts of this presumed blackmail by a regime that has attacked not only
the necessity of private communications by the ruling class, but the privacy of millions of people and the security of
the country.”
"The draft anti-terror law would require Western firms - technology companies, financial institutions and manufacturers, to give Beijing access to sensitive data.
For tech firms, that means encryption keys and the installation of 'backdoors'. ... The Foreign Ministry said that the third
round of discussion on the law 'is yet
to come', which seems to contradict the statement that it has been 'suspended.”
"The group, represented by historian Ikuhiko Hata, said the number of women cited in the book - 200,000 - is too large. ... Hata, a professor emeritus at Nihon University
and a noted expert on Japan's military history, estimates the number at about 20,000.”
"New Zealanders can learn for
the first time of people their government has targeted as part of its role in the Five Eyes surveillance alliance with
U.S., Britain, Canada, Australia.”
"Adopting sanctions, as President
Obama has done, fails to resolve
the problem. The problem (which sanctioning doesn't address) is all- too-easy to articulate but very difficult to resolve: ensuring that legislative elections scheduled for this year are in fact fair and free. ... It is reasonable to assume that the Venezuelan government go to the devil to avoid a defeat that looks absolutely inevitable.'”
"Demonstrably terrorists, conspirators
and interventionists, barring them was long overdue. Obligatory. Had to be
done. The measure is reciprocal and proportional. Well thought out and justified. This will prevent them - those imperialistic cowboys and torturers - from repeatedly hanging around those fabulous regions where, apart from fishing for peacock bass, they used to buy - at a fair price and in abundance, for personal consumption and a bit to spare - all kinds of products
made with socialist love which, as we stated earlier, is scarce in 'Gringoland.'”
"President Maduro took the chance
to thank the Union of South American
Nations for its support, and criticized the opposition's reaction by saying: 'They began shouting, shrieking and
protesting to [UNASUR Chief] Ernesto Samper as if he had held a crucifix up
to a vampire.' ... Foreign Minister
Rodriguez reiterated that 'the foreign policy of the United States is militarist
and imperialistic' and she rejected the
'constant U.S. meddling in Venezuela.'”
"In seeking to distance himself from the controversy over
Hillary Clinton's e-mails, Obama
made a startling admission. In an appearance with TV Host Jimmy Kimmel, The president said that he isn't permitted the
use of mobile phones 'with recorders in them. So a lot of the new fangled stuff, for
security reasons, I don't get.'”
"Scientific reports funded by the CIA like
those on Climate Intervention by the U.S.
National Academy of Sciences are a
sneaky attempt to legitimize technologies that if presented as weapons of war
would be wholly rejected by the world.”
"The shunning of U.S. customers is part of the spreading fallout from
the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, which came into force this year.
The law is part of a concerted U.S. effort to crack down on overseas tax evasion by identifying all
offshore U.S. account holders.”
"The most disgruntled of these potential adventure tourists are six unfortunates who have been strictly banned. Bush wanted to go to the Military Museum to pay tribute to his most formidable adversary. He wanted to go to the mausoleum where, rather than sulfur and formaldehyde he would smell scented lilies left by faithful believers. Cheney, the infirm, had prepared a list of the medicines he would buy in our well-stocked pharmacies. Tenet, the former CIA director, was dying of curiosity to meet all the local agents he never paid a dime. ... What cruelty not to permit them to come, President Maduro! Think again!”
"Foreign Secretary Meade, who heads a chancellery that was once a bastion for
defending Mexico against interventionism, knows that ICE, the DEA, the CIA, the Pentagon, the FBI, ATF
and other agencies have for years been operating covertly and armed in our
country. The language
of the Security and Prosperity Partnership has permeated the vocabulary of those who should be defending our national sovereignty.”
"The Key Resolve Military exercise
is ruining inter-Korean relations. ... I'm not ashamed. I used this knife
to peel a fruit. Only in this way will
Americans come to their senses. ”
"The GCSB directs its spying against a surprising array of New Zealand's friends, trading partners and close Pacific neighbors. These countries'
communications are given directly to the NSA and other Five Eyes agencies with little New Zealand oversight or decision-making as a
part of U.S. global surveillance.”
"People all enjoy freedom, but freedom and order are
inextricably linked and can't be separated. Order is the guarantee of freedom. If
we part with order, than
freedom does not exist.
The more we move in the direction of freedom, the more we need order. Find a place without order, and
it will surely lack freedom. ”
"There is media revelation that certain country embedded spying software in the computer system of other country's SIM card maker for surveillance activities. This is
only one of the recently disclosed
cases. All nations are paying close
attention and taking measures to safeguard their own information
security. This is beyond reproach.”
— China Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying
"As plausible as Netanyahu's
address was, it was hollow at the core. ... Netanyahu is effectively pushing for 'regime change' in Tehran, not a nuclear deal. ... His theatrics notwithstanding,
Obama is right. negotiations
are a far better bet.”
"TransCanada may soon decide that it has no choice but to serve notice of its intent to launch a multibillion-
dollar NAFTA claim against the U.S. for seeing its project frustrated
without a fair hearing. The firm has already invested more than $2.3 billion in the project.”
"The Chinese side's stance is that Kim Jong-un should visit China first before making a visit to Russia. ... but that it
is not nervous ... even if Kim Jong-un visits Russia first.”
"An important element of the
coup actions are the shortages created by big businesses that
hoard or smuggle subsidized basic basket of staple goods to Colombia, which they buy with
dollars sold at low prices by the Venezuelan government. ... With its embassies in Caracas and Bogota, the U.S. is actively
involved planning these actions.”
"The program to protect state
servers from hackers, criminals
and enemy states raises questions
about the breadth of collection, the length of retention and how the information could be shared
with police and intelligence partners in other countries.”
—
REPORTERS Dave Seglins,
Amber Hildebrandt, Mike Pereira
"It's worth recalling that with
one such order, Lincoln freed the Negroes in 1863. ... There is no question that the most conservative Republicans will continue to further their careers by standing against the undocumented. The certainty, however, is that such careers
fly in the face of the future.”
"In addition to being involved in universal thoughts as a humanist
and rationalist, Avijit fought and
advocated for bringing those who
perpetrated crimes against our
people and nation to justice. ... Alas, a person of such sagacious human values had to fall prey to the ferocity of creatures who
identify themselves as human!”
"Ask an American what he thinks of
the French: They are arrogant they'll
say, stuck in the past, a culture that
thinks it superior, lazy, defenders of privilege, lazy, hostage to an economic
model whose wreck is evident, and a
curse in the United StatesL: 'socialists.'
Now, ask any French what he thinks of Americans: A smug, unrefined people who don't understand life's pleasures, don't know how to eat or drink, only think about money, weapons and power, have delusions of grandeur and disrespect the privacy of others - a superficial people and in France an
expletive: 'uncouth.' Yet there is
much more to it than that.”
"Islamist zealots have been threatening
Avijit, a bioengineer and a naturalized U.S. citizen, for his active campaign
against Islamist radicals. Avijit has been
a regular bdnews24 columnist and the
founder of popular blog Mukto-mona.”
"Does Putin want to be part of a 'Greater Europe' in which case the role of Mother Russia would naturally diminish, or does he
prefer to recreate 'Novorossiya' or New Russia, which was the
designation of the Russian Empire between 1764 and 1873? A great
deal of the answer will be shown
by Putin's behavior with Ukraine.”
"Now, when China is dealing resolutely with corruption,
they still spew calumnies. This exposes their true faces, as determined at any time to set
China up as the enemy. These eminent Westerners not only oppose China's anti-corruption drive but maliciously spread rumors with a mind to doing harm, labeling it in all sorts of prejudicial ways. ”
This is an event that demonstrates in the
most poignant fashion the importance of
Edward Snowden, the exposure of mass
state surveillance and the professionalism
of iconic media reporter David Carr. With the mainstream media falling over itself in praise of Carr, who died in the New York Times newsroom last week, almost no attention has been paid to the last
man he interviewed - Edward Snowden. The interview, which is one of the most interesting Snowden talks because of David Carr's self-confidence and command of the proceedings, is about an hour long. ... Despite the fact that Carr looks gaunt, his irrepressible personality is clear to see, and it is notable that he heaps praise on the trio for exposing what he calls our 'turn key' police state.
"Some of the implants burrow so deep into the computer systems, Kaspersky said, that they infect the
'firmware,' embedded software that preps a computer's hardware before the operating system starts. It is beyond the reach of existing
anti-virus products and security
controls/ Kaspersky says this makes it virtually impossible to wipe out.”
"The contrast of plans for the future drawn up by the governments of Barack Obama and Dilma Rousseff is
shocking. This may all just be talk,
as Elio Gaspari would say, but talk to talk, Obama’s is more seductive, is it not? At least it creates hope for better days on the horizon.”
"Unless Germany and the U.S.
stand firm and ratchet up
more than rhetorical pressure,
the Russian putsch against the Ukraine will continue. ... We may well soon find ourselves on the brink of a major global conflagration. Western resolve is spasmodic when it needs to be coherent and constant.”
— By Former Ambassador Derek Burney, Carleton University Professor Dr. Fen Osler Hampson
"We are no longer willing to sit down with mad dogs who keep howling that they are going to use the method of [regime]
change to topple our socialist system. We are ready to wage
any kind of war, conventional or nuclear. ... If the American imperialists make the slightest move against our dignity, our independence and our right to survival, the U.S. mainland will suffer a terrifying catastrophe.”
"Some people misinterpreted and attacked Minister Yuan's remarks, which have been met with strong
criticism on the Internet. Western political values don't correspond to China's political reality. In the event that there is a large-scale penetration of such values, they
will inevitably erode our political
foundations and result in severe
instability in its political system.
We need to face it: propaganda
and ideological work is done for
the sake of positive effect, but is prone to being depicted as negative, and if handled badly could 'blacken' the image of the party and country.”
It seems that the NSA's fellow data-
sucking prevaricators in Canada are
monitoring your downloads under
what it calls the 'Levitation Program',
just to make sure you'r not planning a terrorist attack. Never mind that
there is no earthly reason to think you are. Of course, that no longer has any relevance to our power-
drunk intelligence services.
Three ex-secretaries of state
testified before Chairman John McCain's Senate Arms Services Committee yesterday, and it is an interesting hearing for a number of reasons, not least of
which is that Code Pink made the latest attempt to arrest Henry Kissinger for war crimes. ... Beyond Code Pinks's notable
interruptions, these poobahs of U.S. foreign policy opine on most of the major issues of the day. Everything from whether it would be wise to arm Ukraine, interestingly from Shultz, the absurdity of calling the fight against Muslim fundamentalists a 'war on terror' - which he calls merly a tactic - when the real problem is the growing number of actors challenging the nation-state system. Also discussed is the growing danger associated with climate change, which everyone but the most addle-minded agrees is a major national security challenge.
Not a single senator disagreed.
“I do not trust the policy of the United States, nor have I exchanged a single word with them, though this in no way signifies rejection of a peaceful solution to conflicts
or the threat of war. It is the
duty of all to defend peace."
"The current regional atmosphere can hardly be more disadvantageous for him.
Unrelenting pressure from its archenemy
the U.S. is likely to be most unbearable
for the Kim regime and its inexperienced dictator. ... For Kim and his coterie, what is clear is the need to improve relations
with its two nearest neighbors, China and South Korea, to ease the U.S. pressure and
effectively play the Russia diplomatic card.”
As Joe Biden might say, Obama's visit to India was a 'Big Fu#@in' Deal.' If the logjam in the civil nuclear deal is now broken; and if the U.S. and India have opened
a new chapter in military ties, it will amount to a geostrategic
earthquake for China, Pakistan. This is a video diary of Obama's
trip using only Indian media,
including news segments, major press conferences; roundtable discussions with Indian analysts, journalists and talking heads.
This is a live English-language video feed breathlessly covering every step, every gesture and every word uttered during President Obama's
visit to the country; with Indian
reporters, commentators and guests.
"They also asked local police to actively crack down on the
sales of illegal DVDs. In some
nations, North Korea diplomats are making door-to-door visits
to retrieve copies of the film from black market stores.”
“The government believes a video of two Japanese hostages released on the Web by the extremist group Islamic State may have been doctored due to such questionable elements like
differing shadows on the people.”
"Before the spying episode, Brazil- U.S. relations had never been better.
For Dilma, the significance of Cuba
normalization goes well beyond U.S.- Cuba relations. In her view, a new dynamism - more productive and constructive than the eternal criticism of Washington over its attitude toward Cuba - will infuse multilateral meetings in Latin America. It will therefore set a tone that in 2015 will mark relations with the United States.”
Here's a press conference with a lot of implications for the battle over
surveillance and terrorism, for talks with Iran, and, oddly enough, for
the politics of Great Britain, where elections have been called for May.
“China says U.S. is closing 15
European bases for Asia Pivot;
China deployed 'militia patrols'
after North Korea deserter ran Amok; China spy chief detained in corruption probe.”
“Western comics and literary works
do indeed create friction and a sense
of harm in the Islamic world. Even if
the West thinks it correct to uphold
press freedom, respect for feelings
of others should not be ignored. If the
West considers globalization to be synonymous with an absolute expansion of and victory for its own values, then it can expect endless conflict."
“His works mocked George W.
Bush for the Iraq War, Sarkozy for his attacks on immigrants, and a decade of French leaders for their pomposity and folly. ... On Wednesday morning, Riss,
now Charlie Hebdo’s managing editor, lay injured among the bodies of a dozen of his colleagues and protectors."
From Paris we are joined by Sandrine
Ageorges-
Skinner,
a leading advocate for the abolition
of the death penalty on the terrorist
murders at the offices of French
satirical magazine Charlie
Hebdo. We
spoje to her about what the atmosphere is
like and what her
contacts are saying
about the deaths
of some of France's
most daring artists.
“The problem is that the new sanctions may be motivated by American discomfort with sudden signs of movement in inter-Korean relations. ... The sanctions suggest that the U.S. is not happy to see Pyongyang hold independent talks with neighboring countries, since that could blur the focus on the North's nuclear weapons
and strategic missile programs."
“Starting Friday, investigators will be dispatched to markets
and inspections at the border will be strengthened. ... Some inspectors who maintain cozy relationships with smugglers
warned them they can bring in anything but the American film."
The details of what's going on with
the Sony hacking are getting harder to follow. We had the 'Guardians of Peace' claiming responsibility for the hack, we had the FBI say they were either working for or on behalf of North Korea, and we had plenty of experts say there is 'no way' North Korea is responsible. Here is a hacker-related program called DramaAlert hosted by a man
called named DJ Keemstar talking to members of another group of hackers called "the Lizard Squad' who claim to be responsible for yesterday's massive release of Sony data - 13,000 Passwords and Credit Cards of Playstation, Xbox and Amazon Users - and a member of Anonymous. ... On top of all that, DJ Keemstar interviews none
other than Mega's Kim Dotcom.
“
"Americans always think that because they are permitted to ridicule their own leaders, they are welcome to do the same to the leaders of others. That argument is a lame one and its logic doesn't hold."
“The United States gains from the removal of a permanent hindrance to its relations with all other Latin American states - even those with absolutely no sympathy for the Castro
regime. ... All had already
decided that Cuba would have
to participate in the Seventh Summit of the Americas in May,
which set up a Sophie's choice for Obama: either give up attendance at an event created by the U.S. in the first place - or the meeting would fail. Not anymore. The summit will be a celebration of a reunited American family."
“I explained that we wanted to act in a responsible fashion and that the film was designed to entertain and not to make a political statement. ... I also said that we did not want to be provocative for its own sake and we were concerned for the safety of Americans and American and North Korean relations."
“The film was conceived and
produced based on 'guidelines'
provided by U.S. authorities, which contend that movies like this damage the dignity of the DPRK supreme leadership, and that inciting terrorism against it would be an effective way of making 'propaganda against north Korea.'"
“The big question is whether
President Aquino is prepared
to play hardball. Termination
would put an end to Filipino
humiliation at having a foreign power, claiming to be a friend
and ally, mock its legal process
by refusing to surrender U.S.
Marine Cpl. Scott Pemberton, accused of murdering a Filipino,
to the proper legal authorities."
“The way out that Obama has now given the Cuban regime allows us to envision the Cuban Revolution's final chapter. The restoration of
diplomatic ties between the two
countries will bring a commercial, financial, political and ideological opening, and eventually the repeal of laws that have suffocated the island, giving way to a new stage
when the Castro brothers can at last retire and live out the rest of their days in Cuba. The Eden of
the Caribbean has already begun to dance and celebrate with more enthusiasm than when they won the most gold medals at the 1991 Pan-American Games."
“The impact of renewed U.S.-Cuba ties is significant
for Latin America. It lessens
support for aspects of Brazil
foreign policy and that of its Bolivarian allies that are, for example, focused on ideas stemming from the Cold War such as the North- South confrontation, anti- Americanism and Third
World-ism. ... But it's still early to say for certain, as the U.S. imagines, that the diplomatic opening will result in more freedom and a more dignified life
for the Cuban population."
Dec. 1, 00:06:01
